Select Committee on the State of the Poor: third report

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IV. 

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 

8 June 7 July l 830. 

Marfw, 8" die Jwm'i, 1830. 
THOMAS SPRING RICE, ESQUIRE, 

IN THE CHAIR. 

George Ewsor, Esq. 
called in; and Examined. 
4959. 
WHERE do you reside ?—In 
the county of Armagh. 
George .E»sor, 
4960. 
Have you resided long in that county ?—About 
26 years. 
\, 

**' 4961. 
Have you turned your attention to the condition of the poor in that 8 June, country ?• 
—Necessarily I must. 
183c-4962. 
Do you give employment, as a country gentleman, to persons?—Yes 
j I farm about 100 acres of land. 
4963. 
What may be the rate of wages you pay ?—I 
pay thirteen pence per day. 
4964. 
Do you consider the rate of wages to have fallen in that country, or to be stationary, or on the increase ?—I 
think it is stationary; I give more than the generality of people ; the usual price is 1 ?., 
some pay lorf. 
but I think 1 5. 
is the usual price. 
4965. 
Do you think that the rate of wages has fallen in proportion to the altered value of agricultural produce since the war ?—No, 
I do not perceive that. 
4966. 
Then is it your opinion that the present rate of wages will command a greater proportion of the comforts and necessaries of life than the rate of wages receivable during the war?—As 
the necessary of life in the country is for the most part potatoes, and as they have remained at nearly the same price, I do not perceive any considerable difference between the two periods in respect to wages and necessaries. 
4967. 
Then you do not consider that as far as regards the money rate of wages or the command which those wages give over the food of the people, that the con-dition of the poor has varied very much ?-
-No. 
4968. 
Have the habits of the poorer classes changed in any respect?—I 
cannot say that they have. 
What is called the Zrßcfe, that is the linen manufacture, has declined. 
4969. 
What have been the causes of that ?—I 
cannot say ; I should suppose hom its being spread to the south is one cause; formerly it was confined to the north, l believe, but it has been spread over a great extent of country, and the north has been acting against the south, and the south against the north. 
4970. 
Do you think that the application of machinery to the manufacture of flax in Scotland and in Yorkshire has had a tendency to alter the condition of the Spinners and the weavers in the north of Ireland ?—Certainly, 
with regard to the Spinners ; it has reduced spinning by hand almost to nothing; a woman could not make more than aida day in my neighbourhood. 
665. 
4-3 S 4971.