224 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



SECTION II. 



A POOR-LAW UNSUITED TO IRELAND. 



IT has been suggested to us to recommend a Poor Law 

 for Ireland similar to that of England, but we are of opi- 

 nion that the provision to be made for the poor in Ireland 

 must vary essentially from that made in England. The 

 circumstances of the two countries differ widely ; and 

 legislation, we submit, should have reference to circum- 

 stances as well as to principles. 



The law of England requires that work and support 

 shall be found for all able-bodied persons who may from 

 time to time be out of employment. According, however, 

 to the regulations now in progress under the Poor Law 

 Amendment Act, that work and support will in future be 

 provided for them only through a workhouse, and it ap- 

 pears from the Report of the Poor Law Qommissioners of 

 England for the last year that into a workhouse the able- 

 bodied who are married those of the class who stand most 

 in need of relief in general will not go. 



In Ireland the difficulty is, not to make the able-bodied 

 look for employment, but to find it profitably for the many 

 who seek it. There are in Ireland a greater number of 

 labourers absolutely than in the whole of Great Britain, 

 more than double the number relatively to cultivated land, 

 and more than four times the number relatively to pro- 

 duce. 



If, therefore, workhouses were determined upon for 

 Ireland as an actual means of relief, they must be esta- 



