CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



From 1847 to 1850 inclusive, the emigration from 

 Ireland amounted to 833,692 nearly all to 

 America. In 1841, the population of Ireland 

 amounted to 8,175,124; in 1851, it had sunk 

 to 6,522,385 shewing a positive decrease of 



1,652,739- 



As may be well supposed, a period of such 

 severe distress proved a hard trial of the country's 

 resources. The imperial government saw early 

 the approach of famine, and took energetic 

 measures to meet it. They imported maize and 

 other grain largely. They organised a system of 

 public works for the employment of the destitute 

 on a national scale ; one half the cost being 

 chargeable to local sources, the other half being 

 charged to the national exchequer ; and on this 

 system about a million of money was spent in 



1846, and about ^5,000,000 in 1847. In July 



1847, the system reached its height 3,020,712 ' 

 persons in that month having received separate 

 rations, of whom more than two-thirds were \ 

 adults. So free-handed a disbursement of funds 

 was itself found to be attended with mischief: 

 being distributed in return for labour at public 

 works, no one felt deterred from applying through 

 motives of honest independence ; and half the 

 cost being charged to the national exchequer, the 

 local administrators had no urgent motive to 

 economise The system, therefore, was put an 

 end to in 1847 ; and in lieu of it, the poor-law 

 unions for a time gave outdoor relief. In 1848, , 

 under a recurrence of famine, and an attack of 

 cholera, the poor-rates rose to 1,627,700 ; in 

 1850, .2,177,651 was disbursed for relief of the ' 

 poor. Many unions were quite unable to meet j 

 the demands upon them ; and the funds required 

 in these were raised from the other unions by a 

 rate-in-aid. 



The present system of poor-relief in Ireland is 

 gradually being assimilated to those in force in 

 England and Scotland, especially in the matter 

 of outdoor relief. In 1873, the total number of 

 paupers in Ireland was 319,242, being an increase 

 of 22,986 on the preceding year. Of these, 249,133 

 were in receipt of indoor relief; 69,507 in receipt 

 of outdoor relief; and 602 were in blind and 

 other asylums. In 1857, the total number of out- 

 door paupers on the last Saturday in February 

 was 1096; at the same period in 1874 it was 

 30,649. This increase is due to the decrease of in- 

 door relief, the daily average of recipients of which 

 having fallen from 53,017 in 1867-8, to 46,573 in i 

 1873-4. The total cost of poor- relief in 1873 j 

 was 790,560, being an increase of 61,229 on 

 the amount of the previous year. The number 

 of persons assisted by boards of guardians to 

 emigrate from 1849 to ^74 was 30,167 ; the 

 amount so expended being ,129,421, 8s. 8d. In 

 explanation of the fact, that while in England 

 outdoor relief is continuously declining, in Ireland 

 it is the reverse, it is officially explained that, in 

 England the popular or prevailing opinion is that 

 outdoor relief has been for a long time past in 

 excess of what it ought to be, and active exertions 

 have been made by both the central and the 

 local poor-law authorities to reduce its extent ; 

 while in Ireland the popular opinion is, that there 

 has been too little outdoor relief in comparison 

 with the indoor, and it is to the operation of this 

 feeling at boards of guardians that the continuous 

 increase is due. 



508 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Poor-laws are, after all, only an expedient for 

 meeting an evil partly inherent in human nature, 

 and partly the consequence of its erroneous moral 

 and political condition. Were all born equally 

 sound, and were all so instructed and so placed 

 socially that each man realised a reasonable sum 

 for his labour, and was disposed to make a 

 proper use of his gains, there would be no need 

 for poor-laws. Such conditions not existing, this 

 expedient is unavoidably called into use, and we 

 must not be surprised that, as one designed to 

 meet great evils, its own operation is attended 

 by less ones. By far the worst effect of poor- 

 laws is the moral degradation which they produce 

 in those for whose benefit they are established. 

 The man who has to ask for public relief to his 

 necessities, loses from that moment the self- 

 respect on which much of his virtue depends. A 

 fatal lesson is taught him that his wants may 

 be supplied without his own exertions and the 

 motive to an independent and industrious course 

 of life is greatly shaken, perhaps destroyed. This 

 is itself an evil of such serious magnitude, that 

 it forms with many an insuperable objection to 

 all regular provision for paupers. Unquestion- 

 ably, nothing but a consideration of the horrible 

 inhumanity, and the extreme dangers to the 

 common weal which are inseparable from the 

 neglect or repulse of pauper claims, could excuse 

 the deterioration which we unavoidably effect in 

 a man's nature by giving him that for which he 

 has not laboured. 



Another great evil of poor-laws is, that they 

 fake away part of the fruits of industry from 

 those who have legitimately acquired them, and 

 bestow them upon the idle. Industry is by this 

 means discouraged, and sloth and improvidence 

 are, in a proportionate degree, fostered. In 

 England, the abstraction of more than eight 

 millions annually from the gains of the indus- 

 trious must operate very seriously in retarding 

 the progress of the country. It is, however, a 

 tax unavoidable in present circumstances, if we 

 would escape more serious evils. 



LIFE-ASSURANCE. 



Life-assurance, in its ordinary character, is a 

 means of securing, by a present payment in full, 

 or by an annual payment, a sum to be realised 

 after the decease of the party. It is obvious that, 

 to many persons, the having this in their power is 

 of great importance. To none is it so important 

 as to individuals in the middle walks of life, who, 

 for the present, are perhaps able to maintain their 

 families in comfort, but being unable to accumulate 

 a large surplus capital, cannot be sure that, in the 

 event of their death, those dependent on them 

 will not be thrown into poverty. To such persons, 

 life-assurance presents itself as a ready and con- 

 venient means of providing for those in whom 

 they are interested. 



The principle on which life-assurance mainly 

 rests is one which it has been reserved for modern 

 times to discover namely, that while the duration 

 of the life of a single person is of all things the 

 most uncertain, it is possible to ascertain, with 

 tolerable accuracy, how many of a multitude of 





