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that a legal evacuation of the holding was not necessary to entitle a pauper to relief, so that he, bona fide, intended to give it up. I have shown your statement to Sir W. Somerville, who will make inquiry as to the facts. But this I feel quite certain of, that the act imperatively enjoins on the guardians to relieve all cases of real necessity, whether infirm or able-bodied. If the work-house is full, the responsibility of ordering the out-door relief of the able-bodied, rests with the Commissioners, they being informed of the want of room, &c., by the guardians or some third party. When that order is issued, the guardians, relieving officer, &c., are as much responsible for the due relief of the able-bodied as of the infirm poor. Of course they always must exercise a discretion in every case, as to whether it is, or is not, one of real destitution. But that discretion they exercise under the heavy responsibility of the duty imposed on them to relieve all who are really destitute, and the liability, as I stated in my first letter to indictment for misdemeanor, should it be clearly shown that in any case they neglected that duty and refused relief to the really destitute.

I am no lawyer, but having taken part in the wording of the clauses with the view to securing a full right to every class of the destitute poor to relief, and having been satisfied by every accessible authority at the time, that this great object was effectually attained, I am very unwilling to believe that there can be any doubt on the matter; especially as the wording of the act appears to me fully as stringent and compulsory as those of our English laws, under which overseers have been indicted and punished as misdemeanants for neglecting to relieve

the poor, and also of the Scotch law recently enacted, under which the courts have determined that an indictment for culpable homicide will lie against a Poor-law officer for refusing relief, and thereby giving occasion to the death of the party.

I can have no objection to your circulating my letter in print, if you think it worth while. But I fear it was hastily and carelessly written, and must trust to your correction any inaccuracies of expression. The proposal to appropriate the waste lands of Ireland to the productive employment of the able-bodied poor, was made by me in June, 1846, in the shape of a bill which I got leave to introduce. I had reason to hope that the present government would take up the measure themselves; but their hearts failed them. Had it been at that time adopted, I believe much money and lives would have been saved last year, and many thousand happy farmers might have been located on the reclaimed lands already actively cultivating their own land. I believe some 200,000 might have been thus provided for. I am still pushing this measure on the government, but as yet they hold back. Lord John Russell promised to undertake it last year, but was induced to drop it by representations from the landlords, I believe, who do not like to part with an acre. I will take the liberty of sending you a couple of pamphlets, recently printed by me on this subject.

I remain, my Lord, your very obedient servant,

G. POULETT SCROPE. P. S. I cannot account for my first letter being opened, but imagine it must have been accidental.

Very Rev. Dr. Maginn, Lord Bishop of Derry, &c.

LONDON, (13 Belgrave Square,) May 3, 1848. My Lord, I send you the correspondence given to me by Sir William Somerville, who on hearing from me the case of the poor woman in question, as related to me by your Lordship, thought it right to institute an inquiry, as I believe is uniformly done where a verdict of death from want of nourishment, or something to that effect, is recorded by a coroner's jury, and reported to the Board of Commissioners, or P. L. Inspector. I think the statement, on the whole, satisfactory, and leading to the conclusion, that if this is one of the worst cases that have occurred in your Lordship's neighborhood, there is no great reason to complain of the officials neglecting the poor under their charge. The only awkward part of the story to me, is the admission of the relieving officer that 9d. per week was his usual pay to adults; by which I understand those really destitute, who had no power, or friends capable of assisting them, nor even perhaps house-room. Should this be the case, there must be great suffering endured by them.

Pray believe that I shall feel honored by any communications on the subject of the state of the poor that you make to me, and will do my best to turn them to good account.

I beg to remain, my Lord,

Your very obedient servant,

G. POULETT SCROPE.

Right Reverned Dr. Maginn, Lord Bishop of Derry.

BENEVOLENCE OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE DURING THE IRISH FAMINE.

BUNCRANA, June 19, 1848. Gentlemen,-I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 13th inst., and to state for your satisfaction, that the duty you would impose upon us we have anticipated, and, I fondly hope, faithfully discharged. Six months ago we and clergy, in conference assembled, conveyed by an anonymous resolution through the public papers, the warmest expression of our gratitude to all our benefactors, who practically sympathized with our people in their unparalleled destitution. We did not of course forget the benevolent, beneficent and humane among the English people, though we had reason to know that the greater part of their contributions was unblushingly misapplied to any and every purpose but the alleviation of the misery of our suffering poor. To the government we did not express our gratitude for the vote of money which they had made out of the common treasury towards our relief, and which was principally squandered, in the way of patronage, on heartless officials who had no sympathy for or with our starving people. I do believe that many members of the Whig government intended well, as I know there are among them some excellent men, such as Lord Morpeth, and others whom I need not name. They, however, confided the carrying out of their good intentions to faithless hands, who abused the trust reposed in them, and did anything but save our people from destruction. Our then skeleton peasantry were forced, in their rags,

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amidst the frosts and snows of winter, to work, and starve, and die, not being able to earn more than 5d. day, while thousands of pounds were lavished upon engineers, inspectors, check clerks, &c. The result of this mode of proceeding in the cure from which I am writing to you was, that out of a population of ten thousand Catholics, eighteen hundred at least perished through cold and hunger, or pestilence, their natural consequence. For this state of things I don't think we have had any reason to thank the government, especially as we are impressed with the conviction that it was their duty to have taken good care, at every risk and every expense to the commonwealth, to save the lives of Her Majesty's subjects, at least such was the opinion of an exceedingly wise man among the ancients-Aristotle. He was a Pagan, and I am sorry to have to introduce him as a teacher of humanity, and its duties to Christian rulers. "Quam multæ autem sint res sine quibus, civitas, esse nequeat videndum est. Primum igitur victus seu alimentum suppetere debet; deinde artes; tertio loco arma; deinde aliqua pecuniæ vis et copia."-De Republica, Lib. vii., Cap. 8. I have no hesitation in admitting that the benevolence of many in England had a most salutary effect, in obliterating from the minds of our people the wrongs of centuries, and making them forget and forgive the past; but it would be uncandid in me to conceal from you, that the conduct of the organs of the British public, the odious calumnies. they heaped upon the people and their clergy, the want of sympathy with our people generally during the present year, in which their distress has been, in most places,

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