§ MR. REYNOLDS, in moving that the returns relating to the Kilrush and Ennistymon Unions, ordered on the 11th of April last, be made forthwith, complained of the unnecessary delay that had taken place. He had been informed that the returns wore long since sent to the Poor Law Commissioners in Dublin, who had sent them back for correction. The poor-law authorities in Ireland were afraid to lay on the table an accurate account of the brutal treatment which the poor had received in the workhouses there. They shrank from the duty which Parliament had imposed upon them. When he talked of the brutal treatment which the people received in these workhouses, he ventured to assert that no parallel could be found of such a wholesale slaughter of the people for want of the common necessaries of life in the whole civilised world. The ease of Jane Wilbred had excited a feeling of indignation in the breast of every honest person in the United Kingdom; but the treatment of the Irish paupers threw altogether into the shade the sufferings of Jane Wilbred. He could not bring on the Motion for Inquiry into the mortality that had occurred without these returns f and, in the name of humanity and common charity, he asked was it right to let these returns to be withheld till the Session was too far advanced for any inquiry to be moved? While the people wore slaughtered wholesale, he was prevented bringing their case under the notice of the House. As the right hon. Baronet (Sir W. Somerville) was absent, perhaps the Chief Commissioner of Poor Laws for England would lend him his aid and assistance in getting the returns.
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, said, that the right hon. Baronet (Sir W. Somerville) was prevented by indisposition from being in his place; but, on the last occasion, when the hon. Member for the city of Dublin had brought the subject before the House, the right hon. Baronet the Se- 558 cretary for Ireland had given, as he (Sir Grey) thought, sufficient reason for the delay that had occurred in presenting the returns, and had shown clearly it had been impossible to have them ready at that time. His right hon. Friend was, he was sure, as anxious as the hon. Member himself that the returns should be presented. He might state that the Lord Lieutenant had suggested to the Poor Law Commissioners for Ireland, that there should be a special medical inquiry into the causes of the mortality that had occurred in these workhouses.