The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1833-05-07 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

IRISH POOR LAWS. Mr. RICHARDS, on rising to submit the motion of which he had given notice respecting a provision for the poor of Ireland, could not help feeling under considerable embarrassment from the notion he entertained of its importance. The subject was a difficult—an important one, and all who had witnessed or heard of the dreadful scenes of bloodshed, violence, and murder, which rendered property and life insecure in Ireland, must at least admit the necessity of an inquiry for the purpose of ascertaining whether the establishment of a provision for the poor of Ireland would not have a tendency to ameliorate the unfortunate condition of that country. They had the evidence of their own committee to show that famine and destitution were the almost invariable visitants of the Irish poor, and that such was their destitution, owing to the want of employment and a means of existence, they perished annually in thousands. The hon. gentleman concluded with moving "That it is the opinion of this house that the establishment of a provision for the poor of Ireland, on the principle of the act 43d of Elizabeth, with such alterations and improvements as time and circumstances may require, is expedient and necessary to the interests of the Unifed kingdom." Mr. J. GRATTAN seconded the resolution. He had ever held, that till the poor of Ireland were secured against famine and its consequences, it was vain to-expect tranquillity in Ireland, and every day's experience was a too painful corroboration of his opinion. He would confidently rest his case on this single principle—that a man uncertain of his daily bread—a starving man —was necessarily a savage, that is, incapable of that prospective and temperate course of conduct which was the essential condition of peace and prosperity. If they wished to retain Ireland as an essential and profitable portion of the empire, they must induce the Irish people to respect the laws, and to induce them to respect the laws they must feel them to be protective, conciliatory, just, and impartial. The hon. member concluded by expressing a hope that the reformed House of Commons would adopt a measure which would make them live in the grateful recollection of the people of Ireland. Lord ALTHORP said that the proposition which had been submitted to the house was one of the greatest possible importance, and therefore required the gravest consideration, and he certainty thought that, considering the evils which it was acknowledged (lid exist in the system of poor laws established in this country, it would have been advisable not to have proposed a resolution declaring that poor laws ought to be introduced into Ireland, without explaining in what way those evils were to be avoided in the latter country. He was not going to offer any direct opposition to the motion of the hon. member, but he wished to caution the house not to allow themselves to be carried away with this idea—that because distress existed in Ireland, it followed as a matter of course that the introduction of the poor laws into that country would remove it. All that he wished was that the house should not run hand over head in support of the hon. member's motion, without ascertaining what effect would result from the introduction of poor laws, what probability there was of avoiding the abuses which were connected with the system existing in England, and above all, without ascertaining (and this was a material point, although it had been entirely passed over by the hon. member) whether there were not at present existing in Ireland charitable institutions for the relief of distress, the scope of whose usefulness might be considerably extended. All these were points which ought to be inquired into. It would also be necessary to inquire whether the condition of the poor in Ireland differed from that of the poor in England, and if so, whether the difference was disadvantageous to the former; and then again arose the question, would this