§ MR. REYNOLDSwished to put a question to the right hon. Baronet the Chief Secretary for Ireland relative to the number of inmates in the Ennis workhouse, and the number of deaths that had occurred there. He begged to state, in the first place, that from information he had received, the sewerage and cesspool of this workhouse were in the worst possible condition. The questions he had to ask were, whether the right hon. Baronet was aware that the number of inmates in the Ennis workhouse during the week ending the 3rd of May was 915? whether he knew that the deaths during that week amounted to 63? and whether the house was so overcrowded that several applicants were refused admission? The medical officer represented the sanitary condition of the workhouse as being most offensive; that meat was withheld from the children and from some adults, and that these were the chief reasons of the great mortality that had prevailed in the workhouse.
§ SIR WILLIAM SOMERVILLEsaid, the hon. Gentleman had asked him several questions, of which he had given him no notice. The question which stood on the paper was—whether he (Sir William Somerville) was aware that the number of inmates in the Ennis union workhouse, during the week ending the 3rd instant, was 915; that the deaths during that week amounted to 63; and that the workhouse was so overcrowded that several applicants were refused admission. The number of deaths in that week was correctly stated by the hon. Gentleman; but he had made a very great mistake in the number of in- 1166 mates, which, instead of being 915 on the week ending 3rd of May, was no less than 4,782. The latest report that he had received stated an excess of 123 in the number of inmates in the Ennis union workhouse. The guardians had done everything in their power to secure additional accommodation, and admission had been refused to some applicants on account of want of room. At the same time, the relieving officers had been reminded of the responsibility they were under to afford relief out of the workhouse in cases of sudden and urgent necessity.
§ MR. REYNOLDSbegged to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he was aware that the figure 915, as quoted by him (Mr. Reynolds), were taken from the Clare Journal, of which Mr. J. R. Knox (a guardian of the union) was the proprietor?
§ SIR WILLIAM SOMERVILLEsaid, he knew nothing of what was stated in the Clare Journal, or any other newspaper. He grounded the statements he had made on the official returns which he had received.