In judging the Irish peasantry, we should try to estimate the effects of such a system on any people for more than a century.  It will account for the farmer’s habit of concealing his prosperity, and keeping up the appearance of poverty, even if he had not reason for it in the felonious spirit of appropriation still subsisting under legal sanction.  We are too apt to place to the account of race or religion the results of malignant or blundering legislation.  We are not without examples of such results in England itself.

In the winter of 1831-2, a very startling state of things was presented.  In a period of great general prosperity, that portion of England in which the poor laws had their most extensive operation, and in which by much the largest expenditure of poor-rates had been made, was the scene of daily riot and nightly incendiarism.  There were ninety-three parishes in four counties, of which the population was 113,147, and the poor-law expenditure 81,978 l., or 14 s. 5 d. per head; and there were eighty parishes in three other counties, the population of which was 105,728, and the poor-law expenditure 30,820 l., or 5 s. 9 d. a head.  In the counties in which the poor-law expenditure was large, the industry and skill of the labourers were passing away, the connection between the master and servant had become precarious, the unmarried were defrauded of their fair earnings, and riots and incendiarism prevailed.  In the counties where the expenditure was comparatively small, there was scarcely any instance of disorder; mutual attachment existed between the workman and his employer; the intelligence, skill, and good conduct of the labourers were unimpaired, or increased.  This striking social contrast was only a specimen of what prevailed throughout large districts, and generally throughout the south and north of England, and it proved that, either through the inherent vice of the system, or gross mal-administration in the southern counties, the poor-law had the most demoralising effect upon the working classes, while it was rapidly eating up the capital upon which the employment of labour depended.  This fact was placed beyond question by a commission of enquiry, which was composed of individuals distinguished by their interest in the subject, and their intimate knowledge of its principles and details.  Its labours were continued incessantly for two years.  Witnesses most competent to give information were summoned from different parts of the country.  The commissioners had before them documentary evidence of every kind calculated to throw light on the subject.  They personally visited localities, and examined the actual operation of the system on the spot; and when they could not go themselves, they called to their aid assistant commissioners, some of whom extended their enquiries into Scotland, Guernsey, France, and Flanders; while they also collected a vast mass of interesting evidence from our ambassadors and diplomatic agents