Report of the Poor law commissioners to the most noble the Marquis of Normanby, Her Majesty's principal secretary of state for the Home department, on the continuance of the Poor law commission, and on some further amendments of the laws relating to the relief of the poor. With appendices.
- Board of guardians
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Poor law commissioners to the most noble the Marquis of Normanby, Her Majesty's principal secretary of state for the Home department, on the continuance of the Poor law commission, and on some further amendments of the laws relating to the relief of the poor. With appendices. Source: Wellcome Collection.
317/324 page 303
![mere correspondence alone. There is a class of officers called Sur- veyois General, precisely the same as your Assistant Commissioners. It was determined that a strict survey should take place every year, by one ot those officers, of every port in Great Britain and Ireland, and for this purpose each officer had a certain number of ports assigned to him in each year. The first who came to the port of Milford, in the year IS] 5, was more than two months constantly employed; to the second the difficulty was very much diminished; and to the third still more so. Some additional ports were then added to each officer; but thoroughly to remove abuses was not the work of a few years only. It took 11 or 12 years to establish a system of order, discipline, method, and economy. At length it has been effected; the saving has been enormous in time, in labour, and in money. The whole revenue in Ireland is collected for less than the collection of the port of Dublin cost, and the last Surveyor General, Mr. Dowding, who was at this port, instead of taking two months, made a correct inspection of the office in three hours, and in three hours more inspected the out-door department. I merely state the facts without thinking it necessary to go into all the details ; the facts alone are sufficient to establish what, in' my mind, appears a close analogy to the Poor Law system, which many people think will by and by work well by itself. I conscientiously believe it never will, and that the attempt to make it do so will be productive of the worst consequences. I record my opinions with a hearty wish that you may never have occasion to regret a departure from the principles upon which they are founded. Believe me, &c. II. Leach, Chairman of Haverfordwest Union. R. D. Neave, Esq., Assistant Poor Law Commissioner.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29291148_0317.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
