358 POOR LAWS lOU IRELAND. 



suffering from want, but the most depraved will admit that, in all 

 such cases, there is a still small voice within which admonishes them 

 they are doing wrong. 



Ihe law of England concurs in this matter with Scripture, reason, 

 and humanity. For the English poor it has made ample provision. 

 The 43rd of Elizabeth puts it out of the power of the niggard and 

 hard-hearted to escape from contributing their share to the support of 

 the poor. Blackstone, our most celebrated commentator on the laws 

 of England, thus speaks of the statute in question: — " The law not 

 only regards life and member, and protects every man in the enjoy- 

 ment of them, but also furnishes him with every thing necessary for 

 their support. For there is no man so indigent or wretched, but he 

 may demand a supply sufficient for all the necessaries of life from the 

 opulent part of the community." The poor are accordingly pro- 

 vided for in England. 



And can there, we beg to ask, be any thing more manifestly 

 wrong — any thing more inconsistent on the part of our Legislature, 

 than that while a legal provision is thus made for the poor of England 

 the poor of Ireland should be suffered to languish or die of want? 

 Is not Ireland an integral part of the empire, and ought she not, as 

 such, to share equally with England in the benefit of the laws ? If 

 she be not allowed thus to enjoy the advantages of laws so far as re- 

 lates to the conveniences and comforts of life, let her at least, in the 

 name of all that is srood, have the benefit of Engrlish laws as regrards 

 the necessities of life. If, indeed, either country were to be more fa- 

 voured than another in this respect, Ireland is, beyond all controversy, 

 that country which ought to be so favoured, — inasmuch as her poor 

 have always been more numerous, in proportion to the population, and 

 the wantsof these poor more urgent than those of thepoorof England. 



The late Mr. Cobbett and the late Dr. Doyle were decidedly of 

 opinion thatno new law is necessary to give Ireland the benefitof a le- 

 gal provision for her poor, and that the blame does not lie with the law, 

 but the executive, that she has not had Poor Laws for centuries past. 

 These able writers maintain, that the 43rd of Elizabeth was ori- 

 ginally meant to extend to Ireland, and every other place of the em- 

 pire where the poor suffered from want. We are of the same opinion. 



But if the manifest will and command of the Supreme Being, that a 

 legal provision be made for the poor, — if the reasonableness and the 

 humanity of the thing, — if all thf*se, accompanied as they are by the 

 obvious intentions of the law that such provisionshouldbemade, — will 

 not, as they have no', before, prove sufficient to cause the introduction 

 of poor laws intolreland, then let us press on Parliament the necessity 

 of the thing on the ground of sound policy. England and Scotland 

 have of late years been literally inundated with Irish paupers ; and 

 the number of these ragged, half-starved emigrants, so far from 

 diminishing, is every year becoming much greater. The baneful 

 consequences of this large importation of Irish are beginning to be 

 seriously felt by our British labourers. If they continue to pour in 

 on us much longer, our lower classes will bear a humiliating analogy 

 to those of the sister island. This is no gratuitous a-sumption ; no 

 rashly adopted opinion ; it is the result of much careful thought on 



