very cruel privations. But it is obvious that these cannot be immediately included among the residents of a place which they have merely visited in quest of employment, and their destitution only demonstrates the extreme redundance of population in the districts from which they have migrated. It would serve no useful purpose to attempt to estimate the numerical amount of the excessive population of England. Nothing more than conjecture is possible on such a point; and, even if certainty could be attained, the idea conveyed to the mind of the intensity of the evil would not be so clear as that which may be formed from an examination of its effects upon the condition of the people. It must be observed, however, that in countries in which there is a legal provision for the relief of the destitute, the social condition of the labouring class cannot always be inferred with perfect accuracy merely from the average rate of a labourer's earnings, for this rate may then be prevented from falling so low as it would otherwise be reduced by competition. A labourer, who, in default of every other resource, is secure of a comfortable subsistence from the poor's rate, may venture to refuse to work for wages which he does not consider adequate, and the earnings of all those who work may be tolerably high, while a considerable number of able-bodied men are out of employment, and supported by public charity. It is evident that these men should be added to whatever might be supposed on other grounds to be the excess of population, and it is of importance therefore that their number should be ascertained. The whole number of paupers, in-door and out-door, relieved in 585 Unions in England and Wales, in the year ending with Lady-day, 1844, was, of indoor, 195,220; and of out-door, 1,054,462: altogether, 1,249,682; of whom, 431,484 were what are called "able-bodied" adults of both sexes, and one half of this last number, or 215,742, may be presumed to have been male adults. But we should form a very exaggerated notion of the extent of pauperism, if we supposed that these numbers were constantly in the receipt of relief. The whole amount expended upon paupers, during the year, was 4,370,1717.; from which, about 938,4671. must be deducted for the expenses of establishments, salaries, &c.; leaving 3,431,7047. for the purchase of food and clothing.* The average cost of these articles for an inmate of a workhouse is about 2s. 6d. a week, or 6l. 10s. a year; so that 3,431,7047. sterling would suffice for the constant maintenance, during a year, of only 527,954; of whom, according to the proportions stated above, considerably less than one-fifth, or about ninety thousand, might be adult males. When it is considered that the workhouse test is applied to only a small portion of the whole number of applicants for relief, and that other paupers are permitted to remain in their own homes without being subjected to any peculiarly distasteful con * App. B. to Eleventh Annual Report of Poor Law Commissioners. ditions, it may be inferred pretty confidently that few abstained from demanding parochial assistance who stood very urgently in need of it, and that the amount of relief administered yearly corresponds pretty closely with the amount of absolute destitution. If this destitution, and the other symptoms of a redundant population in England, are less extensive than previously to inquiry might have been supposed, there is so far reason for congratulation, but none for apathy, or continued neglect of a disease which is wholly incompatible with national prosperity. It is only in the early stages that overpopulation can be treated with very sanguine hopes of success. After it has been suffered to make much progress, it is, if not incurable, yet, of all political disorders, the one most difficult of cure. There is none, either, which, in circumstances favourable to its growth, advances with such rapid strides towards a crisis. Little more than one generation has been required to make Ireland what she is; and as short a period might probably, in similar circumstances, suffice to convert England into an Ireland of human misery and degradation. 70 CHAPTER III. EVIDENCES OF OVER-POPULATION IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. - Small Amount of official Pauperism in Scotland. Thriving Condition of the Peasantry of the Lowlands. - Destitution and Distress in the Highlands in Sutherland on the Western Coast --in the Hebrides. - Munificence of the late Duchess of Sutherland and others. — General Neglect of their Tenantry by Highland Proprietors. Privations of Highland Immigrants in Glasgow. - General Condition of the labouring Classes in Scotch Towns. - Partial Character of Over-population in Scotland. - Ireland. Importance of the Information obtained at the last Census. — Striking Contrast in the Distribution of the Population in Great Britain and in Ireland. Notoriety of the Misery of the latter Island. Description of it by Irish Railway Commissioners. Comparative Prosperity of Ulster. - Insufficiency of Employment in that Province. Wretchedness of Donegal. Little Demand for Labour in Leinster. Desperate Expedients for a Livelihood resorted to by the People.Particulars of the Sufferings endured by them. Similar Particulars respecting Munster. - Unparalleled Misery of Connaught. Condition of Labourers in Irish Towns.— Small Alleviation of Irish Misery effected by the Establishment of a Poor Law. IF the published returns of what has been called official pauperism furnished any clue to the general condition of the Scottish people, the inference thence deducible would not be unpleasing. In the years 1835, 1836, and 1837, the average annual number of paupers in Scotland, permanently or occasionally assisted by the parish authorities, was 79,429, or about 34 per cent. of the whole population, and the average sum annually expended on their relief was only 155,1217., which, at the rate of 2s. 6d. weekly per head, would suffice for the constant maintenance of only 23,864 persons, or less than one per cent. of the population.* In England the paupers annually relieved are, on an average, rather more than 9 per cent. of the population, and the sum annually expended upon their subsistence would suffice for the constant maintenance of nearly 4 per cent. of the population. But if even in England, where every native who really requires parish relief is able to obtain it on application, there is yet a considerable amount of unrelieved distress, still more it may be thought must this be the case in the northern part of the island, where relief cannot be legally demanded, except by the aged and impotent, and where it is rarely extended to the able-bodied, except in sickness. Even for the former class, the provision made is almost every where inadequate, and in many places only nominal. The law, or at any rate the practice in Scotland, does not require parishes to be assessed for the support of their poor, but only authorises an assessment when sufficient funds are not forthcoming from other sources, the collections made in the churches being chiefly depended upon. Up to the middle of the last century, these and other voluntary contributions were found sufficient for the Rep. of Committee of General Assembly on Management of Poor in Scotland. |