18 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 



ment to that portion of the evidence collected by the As- 

 sistant Commissioners to which it relates. 



III. The reasons for not yet being able to obey Your 

 Majesty's command to report to you, " Whether any and 

 " what further remedial measures appear to be requisite 

 " to ameliorate the condition of the Irish poor, or any 

 " portion of them/' are perhaps sufficiently given in the 

 fact, that we have not yet completed the second branch of 

 our Inquiry, namely, that which relates to the " causes of 

 destitution." We feel, however, at liberty to make a more 

 extended explanation, and we think such due to ourselves. 

 We should be little worthy of the high trust reposed in 

 us, did we content ourselves with deciding upon the ex- 

 tent and nature of distress, or upon the means of only 

 present alleviation. We consider it fell to our duty to 

 endeavour, if possible, to investigate the causes of the 

 destitution which we discover, and to ascertain why classes 

 of Your Majesty's subjects are from time to time falling 

 into a state of wretchedness ; why the labouring popula- 

 tion do not provide against those events which seem in- 

 evitable ; why the able-bodied labourer does not provide 

 against the sickness of himself or that of the various mem- 

 bers of his family ; against the temporary absence of em- 

 ployment ; against the certain infirmity of age ; or against 

 the destitution of his widow and his children, in the con- 

 tingent event of his own premature decease ; whether 

 these omissions arise from any peculiar improvidence in 

 his habits, or from the insufficiency of employment, or 

 from the low rate of his wages. It would not even be 

 sufficient did we answer, that the limited amount of em- 

 ployment and the rate of his wages will not permit him. 

 It is our duty to carry the investigation further, and at 



