Produced by KD Weeks, Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. The original footnotes were sequenced using the alphabet, cycling repeatedly from a to z. They have been resequenced numerically for uniqueness. The notes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. Paragraph descriptors (marginal notes) appear either before the paragraph which they introduce, or in-line for those in mid-paragraph, and are enclosed here in square brackets. A HISTORY OF THE IRISH POOR LAW, IN CONNEXION WITH THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. BY SIR GEORGE NICHOLLS, K.C.B., LATE POOR LAW COMMISSIONER, AND SECRETARY TO THE POOR LAW BOARD. ------------------ “Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.”—SYDNEY SMITH ------------------ LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. KNIGHT & Co., 90, FLEET STREET. 1856. ---------------------------------------------------------------- LONDON · PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. DEDICATION. To the Ex-officio and Elected Members of the Boards of Guardians in Ireland, in the hope that it may be of use to them in the performance of their important Duties, this History of the Irish Poor Law is dedicated, By their faithful servant, THE AUTHOR. _November 1856._ PREFACE. ------------------