ime busied with the
consideration of a system of poor-laws in Ireland, and in the last
session a report containing the result of their inquiries was laid
before parliament. This report, however, was not satisfactory to
government. They thought it desirable that some inquiry should be made
as to how far it might be practicable to introduce into Ireland a system
of relief based upon the principles of the new English poor-law. For
this purpose, Mr. Nicholls, one of the commissioners, was sent to
Ireland to prosecute the matter by personal investigation. The report
of Mr. Nicholls was very able, and on it government grounded the measure
which they intended to bring forward on the subject. This measure was
introduced in the commons by Lord John Russell on the 13th of February.
In introducing it, his lordship called the attention of the house to
that part of the king's speech at the opening of the session, in which
the establishment of some legal provision for the poor was recommended.
At the same time he laid on the table of the house a copy of Mr.
Nicholl's report upon the subject. In his speech, his lordship first
dwelt upon the benefits derivable to a country from a well-administered
system of poor-laws; upon its tendency to preserve peace, prevent
vagrancy, diminish crime, and establish harmony among all classes of
society. Having dwelt on this subject at length, Lord John Russell
then stated the leading provisions of the bill as recommended by the
commissioner. With respect to the expense of the system, he said, it
had been calculated that the whole average charge for each person in the
English workhouses, including lodging, fuel, clothing, and diet, was one
shilling and sixpence per week. If, therefore, we take one hundred union
houses, each containing eight hundred inmates, and suppose them all
fully occupied, the annual expense for the whole would be L312,000.

In order to understand the nature of the bill brought in by Lord John
Russell, however, it is necessary to give a brief extract of the
report made by Mr. Nicholls. He stated that he found the people almost
universally favourable to the introduction of a poor-law. But with
respect to the question of how far the introduction of the English
poor-law was practicable in Ireland, two difficulties suggested
themselves--first, whether the workhouse system could be relied on as
a test of destitution in Ireland; and secondly, whether the means and
machinery existed ther