Above : Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister At The Time

While in England a form of Poor Law had existed since shortly after the Reformation, there was, properly speaking, none in Ireland up to the fourth decade of the nineteenth century. The Houses of Industry, which had been built in a few places, were intended partially as a kind of adult reformatories for idle vicious persons of both sexes, and partially as shelters for the old and infirm. There were also, in or near the larger towns, hospitals, alms-houses, lunatic asylums, orphanages, etc. All these, except the Houses of Industry, were maintained almost wholly by the donations and subscriptions of private individuals or of corporate bodies. For the relief of adults, whose only claim on benevolence was their destitution, no provision was ordinarily made.

Nearly everywhere beggars swarmed. Many were certainly worthless and idle, but others, probably the majority, had been reduced to poverty by misfortune, or, having been born in it, had had no opportunity to improve their condition. The agricultural laborers was often obliged, during the time of year when work was slack, to shut up his cabin and tramp the roads with his family, striving to support himself and them on the alms of the charitable. As his average weekly wage did not, at the best of times, except during harvest, much exceed. it may well be imagined that no saving for the months of enforced idleness was possible. the number of the poor was so great that to support them would ruin those now better off. The chief features of the scheme on which the finally decided were as follows :

1. A tax should be levied in each parish to support the sick and aged poor, and the proceeds administered by a voluntary committee.
2. There should be a special tax on absentee landlords.
3. Government should assist emigration.
4. Public works such as the reclaiming of bogs, the making of roads, and so forth, should be started on a large scale.
5. A Board of Improvements should be appointed to decide on and direct such works, and to give grants in aid of fisheries, agriculture, etc.

The plan thus sketched was not without its defects. It would, however, if well and honestly administered, have secured the double advantage of relieving the actually existing poor, and, by increasing the prosperity and productivity of the country, have diminished the amount of poverty which would have to be coped with in the next generation. These blessings, however, were not in store for Ireland.