SECT. III.] RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY. 227 



SECTION III. 



IT may be considered, however, that the objections appli- 

 cable to a provision for enforcing in-door work would not 

 be applicable to one for enforcing out-door employment ; 

 but considering the number cf persons for whom work must 

 be found, and the experience had in England of the con- 

 sequences to which any plan of out-door compulsory em- 

 ployment inevitably leads, it appears to us that any at- 

 tempt to introduce it into Ireland must lead to the most 

 pernicious results. 



If the farmers were compelled to take more men than 

 they chose or thought they wanted, they would of course 

 reduce the wages of all to a minimum. If, on the other 

 hand, magistrates or other local authorities were empowered 

 to frame a scale of wages or allowances, so as to secure to 

 each labourer a certain sum by the week, we do not think 

 they could, with safety to their persons and property, fix a 

 less sum than would be equal to the highest rate of wages 

 pre-existing in the district for which they were required to 

 act ; nor would anything less enable the labourer to sup- 

 port himself and his family upon such food, with such 

 clothing, and in such dwellings, as any person undertaking 

 to provide permanently for human beings in a civilized 

 country could say they ought to be satisfied with. It 

 would therefore, we think, be necessary to fix different 

 scales of wages or allowances, which would average for 

 the whole of Ireland about 4s. 6d. a week. This would be 

 to double the present earnings of the body of labourers, 



Q2 



