Infirmaries } Dispensaries } £109,054 Fever hospitals } Lunatic asylums 26,247 Houses of industry 32,967 Foundling hospitals 36,628 —-—-— £204,896 Of this sum upwards of 50,000_l._ appears to have been furnished by parliamentary grants, the remainder being derived from grand-jury presentments, voluntary contributions, and other local sources. The commissioners think that some provision ought to be made for poor persons discharged from hospitals in a state of convalescence, and also for persons suffering from chronic and incurable disease, neither being proper objects of ordinary hospital treatment. They are likewise of opinion that a public provision should be made for the deaf dumb and blind poor, such persons being, they consider, peculiarly deserving of assistance. The impatience of the public was not likely to be satisfied by the appearance of this second Report, which contained no recommendations, and added nothing to what was previously known of the condition of the Irish poor. For a series of years inquiry after inquiry had been instituted by commissions and committees into that condition, with a view to devise means for its amelioration; but without leading to any satisfactory result. And now, after two years and a half had been spent in prosecuting like inquiries, and this moreover by men specially selected for the task, and standing deservedly high in public estimation for talent and acquirements, people began to fear that the result would be again the same, and that time labour and money would have been expended in vain. It was known, or at least generally surmised, that differences of opinion existed among the commissioners, as to the nature of the recommendations which should be made by them conjointly; some being in favour of the imposition of a general rate for the relief of the poor, and others advocating a system of voluntary contributions for that purpose. The latter pointed to Scotland as an example to be followed, and the former to England. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the question should occupy a good deal of public attention, and that those who possessed, or were supposed to possess information on the subject, should be induced or invited to express their opinions with regard to it. Pamphlets were written, and speeches made, contrasting the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the compulsory and the voluntary systems of relief, as well generally, as with reference to the case of Ireland; and the entire subject became a matter of very general discussion, of which the proceedings under the amended Poor Law in England naturally formed a part, and thus gave additional interest to the question.