DESERTED CHILDREN (IRELAND).
RETURN (in part) to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons.
dated 21 February 1859 ;—-for, *
COPY "of all Correspondence that has passed between Boards of Guardians in Lreland and the Poor Law Commissioners, since the 1st day of January 1858, on the subject of the Religious Registration of Deserted Children ; and of all Opinions given by Her Majesty's Law Advisers on the subject."
Poor Law Commission, Dublin,!
B.
BANKS, 28 Febiaary 1859.
J
Chief Clerk.
LEGAL OPINIONS.
(No.
10,841, d—41.)
No.
1.—Case
laid before the Right Honourable F.
Blackburne,
Attorney-General.
Poor Law Commission Office, Dublin, Sir, 3 January 1842.
I am directed by the Poor Law Commissioners to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the clerk of the Celbridge Union, as to the religion in which deserted children should be instructed; and with reference thereto the Com¬ missioners desire to state that the case arises under the 49th section of the Irish Poor Relief Act (of which a copy is enclosed), ar,d that it must be considered a case in which the religion of the child's parents or guardians, or sponsors, cannot be ascertained, and in which the guardians know of no one competent to object to the child's being educated in the workhouse in any religious creed.
The Commissioners request your opinion, whether the guardians are under any legal obligations to cause the child to be educated in the religious creed of any particular denomination, and in which way the Commissioners ought to direct or advise Boards of Guardians in similar cases.
I have, &c.
(signed) Arthur Moore, The Right Hon.
Francis Blackburne, Chief Clerk.
Attorney-General, &c.
&c.
&c.
Letter referred to in No.
1.
Gentlemen, Celbridge, 25 November 1841.
I am directed by the Board of Guardians of Celbridge Union to inform you that a deserted child, aged two years, having been received into the workhouse on Wednesday, 10th day of November, 1841, and the Board of Guardians having no evidence before them to satisfy them as to the religion of the parents, and there being no provision in the Poor Relief Act relating to such cases, in regard to the religion of a child, it was resolved that the Commissioners be requested to take the opinion of the law officers of the Crown on the above case, for the guidance of this Board, as many cases of a similar nature are likely to occur.
I have, &c, The Poor Law Commissioners, (signed) Henry Holbrook,
Dublin.
Clerk of the Union.
151-
