SECT. XVI.] RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY. 277 



tributions, which are administered by officers known to 

 the law and responsible to it. 



We have shown by our Second Report that the institu- 

 tions existing in Ireland for the relief of the poor are 

 Houses of Industry, Infirmaries, Fever Hospitals, Lunatic 

 Asylums, and Dispensaries ; that the establishment of 

 these, except as to Lunatic Asylums, is not compulsory, 

 but dependent upon private subscriptions, or the will of 

 Grand Juries ; that there are but nine Houses of Industry 

 in the whole country ; that while the provision made for 

 the sick poor in some places is extensive, it is in other 

 places utterly inadequate ; and that there is no general pro- 

 vision made for the aged, the impotent, or the destitute. 



Much is certainly given in Ireland in private charity, 

 but it is not given upon any organized system of relief; 

 and the abundant alms which are bestowed, in particular by 

 the poorer classes, unfortunately tend, as we have already 

 observed, to encourage mendicancy with its attendant evils. 



Upon the best consideration which we have been able 

 to give to the whole subject, we think that a legal provi- 

 sion should be made, and rates levied as hereinafter men- 

 tioned, for the relief and support of incurable as well as 

 curable lunatics, of idiots, epileptic persons, cripples, deaf 

 and dumb, and blind poor, and all who labour under per- 

 manent bodily infirmities, such relief and support to be 

 afforded within the walls of public institutions ; also for 

 the relief of the sick poor in hospitals, infirmaries, and 

 convalescent establishments, or by extern attendance and 

 a supply of food as well as medicine, where the persons to 

 be relieved are not in a state to be removed from home ; 

 also for the purpose of emigration, for the support of peni- 

 tentiaries to which vagrants may be sent, and for the 



