LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE POOR-LAWS IN IRELAND.
11HERE can be no question as to the extent and sincerity of the fear with which Loyalists in the South and West of Ireland are awaiting the next experi- ments of which they are to be the subjects. It will be of little use, at this time of day, to tell them that the leaders of opinion in England are in favour of further grants of local self-government, and think these will brighten the future of Ireland. False predictions and delusive hopes have so largely accompanied the last twenty years of Irish legisla- tion, that loyal Irishmen may be pardoned for setting " authority " aside, and making their own forecast by the help of their sharp experience in the past, and practical personal knowledge of the present state of affairs in the country. When the Irish Church was disestablished, we Jo not remember to have heard much from the statesmen or political prophets of what time has now shown to be the real .results of that measure. Great political results—which have not been fulfilled—were largely foretold, but no one pre- dicted the most striking and important results of Disestab- lishment,—namely, the life and strength it has infused into Irish Protestantism. Instead of lapsing into decay or _prostration, the Irish Church has entered on a period of real activity,—churches have been enlarged, rebuilt, and :restored ; there is unity of aim and work between clergy . and laity, and an increase of the Protestant community. ' The work of the Church since 1870, during a time of much -social trouble, is in itself a great witness to the capacity and worth of the despised " loyal minority." Again, when the tribunals for fixing fair rents were established, the -landlords, of course, made an outcry against the reduction --of their incomes, but were told by those in authority to balance some loss of rents against the increased security of their payment. What a mockery this plea has turned out need not be stated. Years of worry and disturbance, crime and outrage, have brought the deepest anxiety to owners of property, and to all persons engaged in business. The strain and weariness of /the land agitation to owners of small properties, has been -too little realised in England. Large proprietors have suffered also, but not to the same extent ; where the margin was greater, the curtailment of income was, of course, less acutely felt. But in the case of small owners and mortgagees, the position was very different. Many of the latter were women; whom the unpunctuality of pay- ment, or actual loss of their incomes, reduced to a very pitiable condition of uncertainty or want. Add to this the difficulties of educating children, providing for the wants of aged or poor relatives, the mental worry and distress incident to a warfare against the ordinary laws of humanity and honesty, such as has been waged in Ireland, —all these things combined have created a time of anxiety and suffering only to be looked back upon by those who have passed through it with indignation and pain. The conduct of the Nationalists during this long period, the weapons they chose, and the way they used them, will not be quickly forgotten by their opponents. But these unscrupulous methods have in a way recoiled on the heads of their employers. Murders and outrages, and the tyranny of the League, the power of which rested -on boycotting alone, and could not have lasted a month 'without its abominable coercion,—these evil things have seared the consciences and corrupted the lives of the lower orders of the Irish people. After so much trouble -and change, the loyal minority, though inured to unrest -and insecurity, might perhaps have hoped that the great Empire to which their allegiance had never wavered, would have given them some breathing-time, and a con- tinuance of institutions with which they at least had never quarrelled, and under which they had been able to live and thrive. But after the Land Bills had broken down the landed interest, there followed the Home-rule proposals to overshadow the lives of all classes of loyal subjects in Ireland with the supreme fear of the loss of their British citizenship. In one way this fear has worked good. It included in a common danger every class in the loyal North, and also the Loyalists in the South, not the land- owners only, but persons of the professional and mercantile and industrial callings, awakening a resistance that has saved the Union.
A new phase is now at hand. The exigencies of party, the theories of statesmen, and the legitimate aspirations of Ulster are bringing local self-government for Ireland into the near future, and every part of the country where the Nationalists predominate is threatened with fresh trouble and weariness. Ulster, which has improved the talents confided to it, will deservedly obtain extended oppor- tunities. But it will be nothing short of a miracle if disaster in other parts of Ireland does not ensue from pouring ten talents more into hands that have been unable to turn one to advantage. It will tax all the ingenuity of statesmen to devise safeguards enough to secure the loyal minority against oppression and wrong, but it is not easy to determine of what nature the safe- guards should be. There is at least this to be said,—there need be no fear of severe precautionary restrictions, because the more stringent provisions will be a dead- letter, if injustice and incapacity do not provoke their use. Misgovernment and State corruption have always been hateful and unendurable to Englishmen, who will do well to insist that their loyal fellow-subjects in Ireland, just as sensitive to such wrongs, are not handed over to the tender mercies of men who have served their apprenticeship to Parnellite methods. The use made by the Nationalists, hitherto, of local government powers is instructive if dis- couraging. Nothing has been too petty or mean to be done where a political opponent could be spited, and nobody has been too humble to escape a persecuting inter- ference. The Boards of Guardians, with their large powers, have become a by-word in the land, and their misdoings are notorious beyond denial. The Dublin Corporation, with its increases of salaries, jobbery of posts, and corrup- tion as to contracts, is a standing example of the bad uses to which local powers have been turned. Nor is Cork far behind the Metropolis. When the late Mayor was prose- cuted for assaulting a policeman, a cheque for £3110s. was passed by the Council to pay a fee to counsel to defend him. A week or two ago, .2l5 was passed for the Mayor to visit Mr. Parnell in London. Payments are constantly made to the Fenian hands in the city, and posters relating to Mr. O'Brien and his small-clothes had to be paid for out of the city rates. The Auditor's Report of the Fermoy Town Accounts lately issued, is a very striking document, and shows how much jobbery and corruption exist in the small towns also, and what close supervision is needed over the public bodies that control them.
It is certainly very difficult to see where the hope that these methods will be abandoned comes in. Certainly there is nothing in the home experience of the most sanguine to warrant it. Nor can America, be cited in support of such a supposition. Between Clan-na-Gaels and Irish jobbery in American cities, there is not a very cheerful state of affairs " beyond the Atlantic foam." But as the days have come when legislation can be carried in the teeth of the teachings of history, and without any probability, based on every-day experience, of successful working, it is most important that those in charge of such legislation should hedge it about with all the safeguards possible. They cannot pretend to be ignorant of this necessity in the case of Ireland, though politicians have a wonderful power of not seeing what is inconvenient. Now is the time, while the local government proposals are taking shape, for these matters to be most carefully weighed in every particular. After the long and tedious process of legislative incubation, the proud producer of a Bill does not like to see the little bantling mobbed and pecked to death. The framers of the new Irish Bills must be prepared for a fierce and almost desperate criticism of their provisions by the loyal minority in the South of Ireland. To the landlord, the land-purchase scheme gives a loophole of escape. For the other and far more numerous classes of Loyalists, no such chance will offer, and any one acquainted with Ireland knows no more is said than the truth when it is stated that their condition in the South has been pitiable of late. Many could only pursue their callings by an outward conformity to the League, ar at best by a complete effacement of themselves politically. Those who resisted fared like the Youghal traders. It ought to be shame to Englishmen to think of such things.
Among the points that will most require to be safe- guarded in the extension of local government, is the election of the executive bodies, and the protection of the voters from undue influence and intimidation Many plans can be suggested, and possibly some combination of them may be found best. How necessary it is to protect voters from undue influences, every one possessing local knowledge of Ireland realises. The Irish go from slavery to slavery, and escape from one yoke only to pass under another ; and they are always at the mercy of the League, or agitator of the day. Priestly pressure, too, is a very grave and real obstacle to the formation of that healthy independence of individual character which alone makes representative institutions to work well. The ballot is not the perfect safe- guard in Ireland it is elsewhere, and is especially weak against this form of intimidation. The " illiterate voter " should be either disqualified, or protected from becoming the perquisite of the Roman Catholic priest, as he is at present. It is certain that many Parliamentary voters are now coerced into declaring themselves illiterate, that the priest may know how they side. Still, all elections, including those to Boards of Guardians, should be by ballot. Voting- papers are easily spoilt intentionally, or tampered with in various ways, and the system opens too many facilities for intimidation and improper influence. The nomination of ex-ojficio members of the County Boards might be useful ; but the appointment of some controlling bodies, analogous to the present Local Government Board, but stronger in their formation, would probably offer the best security against the grossest forms of corruption and incapacity. What the state of affairs undef Nationalist management would have been but for the " disallowing " powers of the Local Government Board, may more easily be imagined than described. During the past year, this authority found- it necessary to dissolve four Boards of Guardians for gross mismanagement, appointing paid Guardians in their places with the best results. This, however, only touches cases of extreme scandal. The average Boards of Guardians with working Nationalist majorities can manage with a very little adroitness to get through a great deal of petty persecution and jobbery by the means at their dis- posal as acceptors of contracts, builders of labourers' cottages, and by their powers as sanitary authorities, &c. But rather slow and timid as the action of the Local Government Board has been, it has sufficed to put a stop to some of the most outrageous freaks of the Boards of Guardians. It is possible that the principles of minority representation, which seem certainly more required in Ireland than elsewhere, might fitly obtain a trial there. It is always difficult to get a new principle applied to old institutions, but there is no valid reason for not giving them their place when new institutions are being created.
If it be contended that these restrictions or safeguards would be needless in Ulster, or distasteful to the feelings of the people of that province, it may be pointed out—and Ulster is generous enough to be trusted to allow the force of the plea—that some provisions may fitly be admitted into the Bill which would be a dead-letter as far as the North is concerned. It is mainly for the sake of the North that institutions are being established in four provinces which are, in truth, only suited. to and certain to work well in one province. But concurrently with new legislation, the existing local government in Ireland should be inquired into and reformed. The Poor-Laws need reform the most, for the abuses in that system are the most crying. The condition of the country has largely altered within the last few years ;—pauperism has declined, and the poor-rates ought to have done the same, instead of which we have now, with a decreasing population, an increasing yearly Poor-Law expenditure. In 1881, the census fixed the population of Ireland. at 5,174,836 inhabitants. In 1878, the population was estimated at 5,282,246, with a Poor-Law expendi- ture for the year of £1,251,617. In 1888, ten years later, with an estimated population (calculated with careful reference to emigration and other statistics) of 4,777,545, the expenditure has risen to £1,458,383, being also an increase of £119,679 over the total of the previous year, 1887. A writer to the Irish Times not long ago called attention to some reforms needed both for the sake of economy and humanity. The letter may be quoted with advantage in this connection. " The poor-houses now contain nearly 45,000 inmates, or 285 to each poor-house. Thev were originally constructed for 150,000 people, or 900 toeach house." The same letter points out that there are now 17,000 persons in the workhouses suffering from various forms of disease, mental and physical :— " The classification of poor-house inmates would, in the cause of charity and benevolence, tend greatly to humanity, morality, utility, and economy. The present system of having the classes of so-called harmless lunatics, idiots, and epileptic subjects mixed with the other inmates of the poor-houses—viz., with the healthy, the old, the infirm, the young, and the women— is attended with great inconvenience, and does not pro- mote good discipline, morality, or the ultimate recovery of such patients. The above; though styled harmless,' are, as a rule, noisy, filthy in their habits, and frequently most foul in language. Statistics unfortunately prove an increase of 16 per cent.. of lunatics within the last ten years. If this class was treated by itself, under proper supervision and control, it would unques- tionably tend to the ultimate recovery of a large per-tentage, who, mixed with others, and subject to much annoyance and contempt, frequently become dangerous, and are then moved to the dis- trict asylum, and maintained there at greatly increased expense to the country. In each county one wing of an empty poor-house would contain all the respectable old people of both sexes—who naturally feel a repugnance to enter a mixed house—where they could end their days in peace and comparative comfort, and would hence greatly diminish the demand for out-door relief. The 8,400 healthy children under 15 years of age scattered through the 161 poor-houses, if assembled together in one wing of an empty house in each county, under proper supervision and tuition, could readily be taught, beside their general education, the rudi- ments of farming and gardening, and the elements of the trades of tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, sewing, knitting, dressmaking,. &c. This would afford unquestionably a very great benefit to the rising generation, and give a great stimulus towards technical education, which is so much needed in Ireland. This arrange- ment would also remove illegitimate children from their own locality. The expense of removal would be trifling. Two-thirds of the existing workhouses would fully meet the requirements of the whole country. The judicious amalgamation of poor-houses. would greatly decrease the enormous expense of so many staff establishments and salaried officers, and lead eventually to much. economy, less jobbing, and much smaller poor-rates."
These excellent and practical suggestions deserve close and patient attention. It is not pleasant to live with a fool ; but that is a trifle compared with the enforced com- panionship of " harmless lunatics, idiots, and other epileptic patients." It is very hard that the closing years of life of the unfortunate poor should be embittered by- such companionship. Threadbare arguments are used to stifle any efforts to improve the state of the aged poor in workhouses, and it is said that if the paupers are made so comfortable, they will be better off than the poor outside. Any one acquainted with the interior of an Irish work- house and its life, will know that many comforts and improvements may be added before there would be any danger of making its gilded captivity a rival to the in- dependence of the poorest of homes. Also, if the poor- houses in Ireland were fewer and further apart, some check might possibly be put upon the excursions of tramps and beggars who wander about to fairs, weddings, and "wakes."" The workhouses are now their conveniently placed hotels and houses of call, and any check to the increasing class of tramps would be hailed as a blessing by all respectable people. No measures of Local Government will be at all satis- factory or complete that do not contain effective and simple penal clauses punishing alike intimidation of voters and malpractices on the part of elected individuals and bodies, as surely and effectually as bribery was dealt with in England by Sir Henry James's very successful measure. Intimidation is as gross a violation of electoral purity as bribery, and ought to be punished as severely. Finally, with regard to Local Government, we can only argue safely from the past and present to the future.. Every elective institution in Parnellite Ireland is now used for the political coercion of the loyal minority. There is not a tittle of evidence to sustain the theory that fresh powers will not be employed for the same purpose ; and: there is every reason to believe that for years to come all popular institutions will be made to serve as leverage for the Nationalist agitators. On the provisions of the coming Bill, consequently, hang the interests and independence of every loyal man in Ireland outside Ulster.
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