20 REMARKS OF G.
C.
LEWIS, ESQ.,
Boards of Guaidians.
Officers of health.
Difficulty as to parishes in Ireland.
Rates.
Settlement.
England."
As the Commission here referred to has existed for several years in England, and as its inquiries have not yet been completed, it may be presumed that this subject alone would, if properly attended to, occupy a large part of the Com¬ missioners' time.
By s.
32, the Commissioners are enabled to exercise a control over voluntary charitable associations.
The plan contained in the Report with respect to these voluntary associations is very obscurely indicated; but as it is not likely that any such associations will be formed, this recommendation cannot be expected to add much to the burdens imposed on the Commissioners.
Lastly, I may mention, that by s.
25 it is recommended that "
a loan fund "be established in each district, and that it be administered according to such regula¬ tions as the Commissioners shall approve."
The Report omits to specify out of what fund the capital to be thus advanced in loans is to be provided; and there¬ fore it may be expected that this branch of the Commissioners' duties would also prove a sinecure.
The Boards of Guardians are to be elected by the rate-payers; rate-payers being <e all proprietors of houses or lands within the district, and all lessees and occupiers theieof" (s.
1?).
These Boards of Guardians, if established all over Ireland, would become most important and useful municipal bodies; and would produce the good effect of making the gentlemen and the better class of farmers act together.
In this manner they would operate more widely in diffusing habits of business, and in training the people to self-government, than even the municipal bodies in towns under an improved system.
The duties of the Officers of Health (viz.
apprehending vagrants, and passing paupers to the coast) are not aptly described by their name.
The Commissioners seem indeed to have adopted this name from a forgotten and inoperative Act for the prevention of contagious disease.
There seems to be no sufficient reason for not avowing the truth, that these officers are in fact for the relief of the poor: nor does any advantage seem to be derived from following the provisions of the Act referred to.
The Report does not state whether the relief-districts arc to be composed of parishes, or whether the Guardians are to be elected by parishes (s.
17, 18); but the Officers of Health are, in conformity with the Act from which their name is borrowed, to be elected by parishes (s.
26).
It may be here remarked that, in the event of a Poor Law being introduced into Ireland, a practical difficulty will arise from the ambiguity of the term " parish."
A parish in Ireland is sometimes an ecclesiastical parish, according to the division of the Established Church.
It is according to these parishes that the Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruc¬ tion is made; and it may be remarked that these divisions are sometimes so small, and several have in so many cases been united time out of mind in one benefice, that not only their boundaries but even their names are often quite forgotten on the spot.
Again, it is sometimes a civil parish, as laid down in the books of the baronial collectors.
These parishes, in some dioceses, differ altogether from the ecclesiastical parishes: it is according to these that the population census is made, and they are best known on the spot."
Besides these two legal divisions theie are the Roman Catholic parishes, which differ entirely from both; and the Unions are also sometimes called and considered single parishes, the parts which compose them being forgotten.
The only well-ascertained territorial divisions in Ireland are baronies and townlands.
The Commissioners propose two kinds of rates, viz.,
national and local.
Tlie rates are to be charged exclusively on the land (s.
30).
The recommendation to make mortgagees pay a portion of the rate would not produce the desired effect of relieving the mortgagers, as the former would require a higher rate of interest, or would call in their money (s.
30).
Half of the expense of emigration is proposed to be borne by the general funds of the empire, a quarter by the national rate, and a quarter by the owners of the lands from which the emigrants remove (s.
21).
The Commissioners are wholly silent on the subject of settlement.
They recom¬ mend, indeed, that poor persons desirous to emigrate shall apply for tickets to the Officers of Health of their parish; but they do not state what constitutes a parish¬ ioner ; in other words, what gives a settlement in a parish (s.
26).
Suggestions of a
plan.
Having now examined in detail the plan of an Irish Poor Law proposed in the
Commissioners' Report, and stated the principal objections to which it seems to me
