one class from a number of neighbouring workhouses, and the closing of
all workhouses as such. The sick should be sent to existing Poor Law or
County Hospitals, strengthened by the addition of Cottage Hospitals in
certain districts. Children should be boarded out. The bulk of the
remaining inmates, classified with regard to their defects and
infirmities, should be segregated according to counties or other
suitable areas. On the treatment of able-bodied paupers there are
different opinions. It is suggested by the Philanthropic Reform
Association, which includes some of the most earnest and disinterested
philanthropists in Ireland, that the well-conducted of this class should
be placed in labour colonies, and the ill-conducted in detention
colonies--both classes of institutions to be maintained and controlled
by the State, and not by the County authorities.

The areas and resources of the existing Unions are in most cases too
limited, and the numbers of necessitous persons too small, to warrant
the present Boards of Guardians in erecting as many types of
institutions as there are classes of inmates. The break-up of the
workhouse system involves, of necessity, the establishment of larger
areas of administration. It is clear that the County must be substituted
for the Union in any radical scheme of reform. On this point the Royal
Commissioners and the Viceregal Commissioners are agreed. County rating
must take the place of Union rating, since the inmates of the different
institutions would be drawn from all parts of each County or County
Borough. Substantial economies in administration might be expected from
this plan. Hospitals should be brought into a County Hospital System,
with the County Infirmary as the central institution, and nurses should
be trained there for the County District Hospitals (now Workhouse
Infirmaries).

About such a general scheme of decentralised reform there is little or
no disagreement. There is, however, a good deal of disagreement
concerning the control of the new institutions. The Viceregal Commission
advocates the retention by the Poor Law Guardians of many of their
existing functions. It suggests, for instance, that County Hospitals
should be managed by a Committee consisting of all members of the
present District Hospital Committees, strengthened by nine members
appointed by the County Council; and that the Chairman of the Board of
Guardians should be the Chairman of the District Hospital C