What is inside?

Republished here as a downloadable digital file is the 11th Annual Report of the Commissioners for Administering the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland with Appendices, 1858, as it was presented to both Houses of Parliament. As one might expect from Victorian Official Publications, the Annual Reports are replete with statistical information presented in both printed and tabular formats. Each Annual Report is introduced by the Commissioners breviate of the Annual Report in question and are addressed to His Excellency, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. These invariably include tables of the total number of individuals who received indoor and outdoor relief in each of the twelve months over the previous year, tables of morbidity and sickness of inmates, expenditure and wages. The majority of the Annual Reports, however, are made-up of the numerous appendices that are contained within each; these are divided into two main categories: Appendix A 'Circulars of Instruction Issued by the Commissioners and Correspondence to and from the Commissioners' and Appendix B 'Tables. The Annual Report for 1858 witnessed a huge increase in the amount of information presented by the Commissioners and this Annual report contains more than 260 pages. The Majority of this Report is taken up by incoming and outgoing Letters and Instructions, Minutes, etc., from the Board of Guardians of many of the country's Poor Law Unions to the Commissioners regarding the instigation of the 'Removal of Poor People from England and Scotland to Ireland' and includes some 266 items of communication on this subject. Most take the form of depositions taken by the Boards of Guardians concerning individuals of Irish origin wishing to return to Ireland. Most of the cases involved paupers who on their return would require the assistance of the Union from which they originated. These are a must for any social or local historian providing as they do a multitude of statistical detail on the administration of the Poor Laws and the poor themselves, a great deal of which is presented in the form of correspondence and personal testimony.

• Parliamentary Reports / Papers

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