326 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. 



school-houses, the choosing and paying of masters, 

 much more will persons be found in the same parts of 

 the country capable of managing funds for the relief 

 of the poor obtained among their neighbours, aided in 

 a certain proportion by a Central Board. A compul- 

 sory rate for the relief of the poor is necessarily thrown 

 into the management of the gentry of the country. 

 In many districts there are no resident gentry, nor 

 any persons that could be prudently selected to 

 manage a compulsory assessment for the relief of 

 cases of destitution where the objects cannot be very 

 accurately denned, nor effectual guards provided 

 against abuse ; whereas, by the proposed system, that 

 class of the community who now chiefly support their 

 own poor, namely the small farmers, would be allowed 

 an influential share in the management of their own 

 voluntary contributions, and the aid received from a 

 public fund would only give sufficient influence to the 

 Central Board to assist in directing them, and to check 

 any occasional misapplication that might be made of 

 the united fund. It seems indeed preposterous to 

 reject the plan of affording public aid to voluntary 

 funds on the presumption of a total want of public 

 spirit and benevolence on the part of the gentry of 

 Ireland, and yet to calculate on a yet greater amount 

 of public spirit in the same persons for the admini- 

 stration of a compulsory system of relief. It is to be 

 hoped that gradually, if not immediately, a class of 

 persons may be raised up for administering relief to 

 the poor analogous to the Elders in Scotland, whose 

 labours have been so highly beneficial in that depart- 

 ment of public duty. 



