HC Deb 27 May 1850 vol 111 cc389-90
MR. G. H. MOORE

said, he rose for the purpose of putting a question to the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland, of which he had already given notice. On the 6th of April, four pauper children applied for and obtained admission into the Newry workhouse. When asked by the board what religion they professed, they replied that they were Roman Catholics. But it was almost impossible to believe that, after that plain avowal, the board put the religion of those children to the vote, and decided that they were Presbyterians—and that they should be treated as Presbyterians in the workhouse. One of these children, whose conscience the guardians thus cruelly ignored, was sixteen years old, according to her own statement: the guardians, he believed, had decided her to be fourteen. She was at all events arrived at the age of discretion. She might be hanged or transported if she had committed a crime at that age; and if the law hold a person of that age to; be responsible for his acts, it must be taken for granted that she had some notion of religious matters. A few days after the extraordinary decision of the board, she brought a charge against the matron of the workhouse, for dragging her, against her earnest entreaties and protests, into a Presbyterian place of worship. The case was inquired into before the board of guardians, and they decided that they had already voted that the girl was a Presbyterian, and that the matron was perfectly justified in dragging her to a Presbyterian I place of worship. As these proceedings on the part of the board appeared to be of a most extraordinary character, he should wish to be informed whether the right hon. Gentleman had inquired into the matter?

SIR W. SOMERVILLE

had made some inquiry into the matter, and the only information of an official character which had reached him was an extract from the proceedings of the board of guardians containing a resolution to the effect that, in their opinion, the charge brought against the matron was wholly unsubstantiated. But he was quite aware that that did not meet the charge against the board of guardians themselves, and he had already written for further information.