Third Annual Report of Poor-Law Commissioners—Further Amendment Act—Fourth Annual Report—New unions and electoral divisions—Consolidated Debts Act—Rates in aid—Fifth Annual Report—Annuities under Consolidated Debts Act—Treasury minute—Act to amend Acts relating to payment of advances—Medical charities—Medical Charities Act—First Report of Medical Charity Commissioners—Census of 1851—Retrospection—Sixth Annual Report—Rate of wages—Expenditure, and numbers relieved—Changes in Poor-Law executive—New order of accounts—Author’s letter to Lord John Russell, 1853—Present state and future prospects of Ireland 364 INDEX 405 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HISTORY OF THE IRISH POOR LAW, IN CONNEXION WITH THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. ------------------------------------ CHAPTER I. State of Ireland before the conquest—Its subjection by Henry II.—Spenser’s account of the state of the country—Plantation of Ulster—Progress of population—Legislation previous to the accession of Anne—Dublin and Cork Workhouse Acts—Hiring and wages—Apprenticeship—Provision for foundling and deserted children—Licensed beggars—Arthur Young’s account of the state of Ireland. After Strongbow’s expedition to Ireland in the year 1170, which was followed by that of Henry the Second and the general submission of the chieftains of the several clans in 1172, the history of Ireland becomes closely connected with and may be said to form a portion of that of England. The accounts we have of the state of the country anterior to Strongbow’s invasion are vague and uncertain, although there are grounds for believing that some degree of civilization had prevailed, and that intercourse with the East had been to some extent maintained, at a very early period. It has been said that “The Gauls or Celtes from the north-west parts of Britain, and certain tribes from the north-west parts of Spain peopled Ireland, either originally or by subduing the Phœnician colonies which had been established there;” and that the Irish, and their kinsmen the Highlanders of Scotland, are supposed to be “the remains of a people who in ancient times had occupied not only Britain, but a considerable part of Gaul and Spain.”[1] The Irish were no doubt commonly known by the name of Scots, and the proximity of the two countries, irrespective of all other considerations, renders the identity of origin highly probable. ----- [1]