Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Miseries and Beauties of Ireland (Author: Jonathan Binns)
chapter 3
Examination at Philipstown — Want of employment — Idleness of the people — Bedding — "Handy-Down" — Conacre — Deficient payment of rents — Average size of farms — A question as to emigration — General remarks on the state of Ireland, as respects the population and employment — Tenant-right — Non-resident landlords — Agriculture — Wealth of the beggars — The cabin of Barney Mangin — Reckless despair of a farmer — Michael Madden's plot of cultivated bog land — George Rait's farm, and system of agriculture — Remarks on the people near Philipstown — Cruelties connected with the taking of farms — The people of Tipperary — White Boys — Oak Boys — Blackfeet, Whitefeet, Terry Alts, &c., &c.
Our examination began in the Court-house on the 16th of November. Here, as in the other baronies we found a superabundant population — for the most part, as a matter of course, unemployed, and the wages earned by those who were sometimes fortunate enough to get work, varying from 3d. to 7d. a day, sometimes with, and sometimes without, diet. Between potato time and harvest the distress is general, and very great; and in consequence of
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it, fevers are prevalent. Many of the witnesses expressed a willingness to work, and declared that it was not the amount of wages they cared so much about, but employment. The children are never employed till fourteen or fifteen years of age, and then victuals is all they get for their labour.
Milk is a luxury here. Sergeant Malone informed us, that many a man who sends his milk to the town, eats his potatoes without any; and he knew one man who had only three pints of milk in the year. The distress is considerably greater than it used to be, and was stated by more than one of the witnesses to be the chief cause of crime and mischief. The jail allowance is 9lbs. of potatoes, one pint of milk, and one pint of buttermilk per day. Young men of from sixteen to thirty years of age (called almost invariably "boys") earn from thirty to forty shillings a year as farmers' servants; and these, though half naked and half starved, are far better off than the mere labourers, who are often in debt, to the amount of nine or ten pounds. Some of the labourers are,
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however, naturally idle and averse to work. "If it were advertised," said the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, "that a cricket was to walk across the street, crowds would collect to see it."
The poor people are sadly off for bedding; they can scarcely, in fact, be in a worse condition. A family of six or seven have usually nothing but a blanket and a half to cover them; straw, for the most part, composes their bed — sometimes the bare floor. The clothes which they wear in the day serve them for the night also, for they have no change.
The dress of the labourers is what is called a "Handy Down, or outside shade," which costs 5s., or a soldier's old coat turned. To clothe a labourer in frieze, would cost twenty or thirty shillings a year; some of them possess a frieze coat for Sundays, but the generality (to use the words of a witness) "have not a stitch but what they have on their bones."
Conacre prevails to a considerable extent about Philipstown. Manured land is charged £5 per acre, and, when seeded, £8, and will produce ten
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or twelve barrels (of 24 stones) per rood. The high price of conacre is accounted for by the great numbers of applicants for it, and the reason that some small farmers let it, is, that they have not capital enough to sow the whole of their farms. They are in fact so poor, that there is not half a year's rent in the hands of any one of them in the barony. Good wheat was selling for 15s. a barrel (of 20 stones) — from five to seven barrels being the produce of an acre; — yet in the event of a farm becoming vacant, great numbers, who had proved themselves unable to make their own succeed, would bid for it, and lives probably be lost in consequence. The successful competitor knows, that though he lives on "lumpers" alone, he is sure of having a home; hence the opposition to a new comer. A witness told us that he knew a person who had got a guinea for shooting one of these unfortunate tenants.
Rents are seldom paid up — a portion generally remaining due. In bad years, no remission of rent is conceded; and when good years come, all is swallowed up, and the accumulation of capital
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is accordingly prevented. These nominal arrears were stated by a witness named Odlum, a gentleman of considerable property and experience, to present a formidable obstacle to industry — to be, in fact, "a chain round the farmer's neck." It seemed to be a general opinion, that if the tenant were relieved from tithe or cess in form, the landlord would add the amount to the rent. The cess is about one-seventh of the rent, the tithe 1s. 4d. the acre. The former is laid without reference to the quality of the land, and at an inconvenient season.
The farms average from fifteen to thirty acres; some are as small as three. A farm of 100 acres, managed by ten farmers, or, in other words, divided into as many farms, would produce more, it was stated, than if in the hands of one man.
The rent of good arable land is 25s. the acre: the thin land fetches from ten to fifteen shillings; and bog, when improved, from fourteen to fifteen. Previous to the last year, great numbers emigrated, many taking with them their families; yet, in King's county alone, according to Mr. Odlum,
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who is well acquainted with it, there is as much bog land as would maintain a million of men; and by devoting three or four acres to a labourer, thus supplying him with a home, and providing a stimulus to industry, the surplus population would be diminished, without recourse being had to so summary a measure as emigration. Indeed, it may reasonably be asked what right we have to send multitudes from their native land, when so many thousands and tens of thousands of acres of reclaimable bog exist — not only capable of cultivation, but capable of repaying it, labour being the only capital required. It is absolute folly not to keep them in the country; and the money that would be spent in carrying them out of it, might be well applied in assisting them to prosecute their improvements.
According to the reports of the Commissioners, there are no fewer than 585,000 labourers in Ireland, who are out of work thirty weeks in the year, and in a state of utter destitution. The bogs and reclaimable land are computed at five millions of acres; therefore, as stated above, three
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or four acres might be allotted to each labourer, still leaving a surplus of waste unoccupied land. If a little capital could be advanced (far less in amount than the expense of taking them to America) for supplying them with seed or lime, the labourers would eagerly provide the labour, and pay a high rate of interest for the capital so advanced. But supposing — for it may be thus objected — that the proposed system has a tendency to increase the population in a greater ratio than under the present state of things (a supposition, by the way, which neither history nor facts warrant), there would still remain a considerable extent of unappropriated land; in addition to which, the land now under cultivation, if cultivated to advantage, would bear double the number of labourers that are at present engaged upon it. In the meantime, who can say what demand may not arise for labour in manufactures, mines, and other sources now unknown; sources from which capital is withheld, only because of the distracted state of the country, arising almost exclusively out of the want of employment. If the labourers
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were properly and systematically employed, they would, instead of confining themselves to the bare necessaries of life, require conveniences which are at present beyond their reach; their sons, accordingly, would become tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, machine-makers, shopkeepers — and, in course of time, manufacturers, merchants, &c. Employment being general, the cause of agitation — at least one of the main causes — would be removed, and capital would find a safe investment in every branch of industry. To effect this desirable result, education is lending its powerful aid. To say nothing of the cruelty of obliging emigration, it is, if not a foolish, certainly a very unnecessary alternative, admitting the accuracy of the statements of experienced men in all the baronies examined, that more produce is raised on small farms than on large ones, that more rent is paid, and that the sum spent in assisting a man to emigrate would set him up in a small farm, and fit him to become a producer and contributor to the wealth of Ireland.
The object of manufactures of all kinds is to
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produce as much as possible at the least expense; and with the above facts before me, I am unable to see how the country can be benefitted by the practice, now unfortunately too generally adopted, of consolidating small farms. If the small farmers (who are far more tractable than the same class in England) were instructed in agriculture, and a trifling assistance afforded them, the natural consequence of their increased knowledge and capital would be the enlargement of their farms. This would gradually create a demand for the five millions of acres of waste land, and probably for a reduction of some of the extravagantly large farms. To those commencing, small portions of bog and mountain should be allotted — for the purpose not only of stimulating their exertions, but of giving them an interest in maintaining the peace and order of their country. Employment would thus be afforded to their wives and families, an employment infinitely more lucrative and respectable than that of begging; and one of the greatest of Irish nuisances would accordingly be abated. Small farmers, I am persuaded, would augment the
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capital and riches of Ireland; they would certainly contribute to the employment and independence of her people. The more a country advances in knowledge and civilization, the greater is invariably the number of those whom it is capable of maintaining; and all who wish well to their fellow beings, will promote to the utmost of their power the diffusion of education, by which alone, under the blessing of Providence, these vast advantages can be secured.
Two or three pounds per acre is the usual price paid for tenant-right in this barony: and it is common to give seven or eight pounds for a small quantity of land, for the convenience of a home. Scarcely a landlord or agent is resident here; and it was the opinion of those who were competent to form a correct judgment on the subject, that tenants of absentee landlords are considerably worse off than those living under landlords who are resident. The lower orders in particular feel the benefit of resident landlords; and the farmers complain, not only that in the absence of both principal and agent, they receive no thanks for
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any improvements they make, but that they are deprived of the advantages to be derived from example and advice. "The landlord and tenant," said Mr. Odlum, whom I have had occasion to mention before, "should be like father and son; the tenant ought to be hung who would not take his landlord on his back, and carry him through."
The land is principally in tillage, is greatly impoverished, and is much more frequently ploughed than formerly. On the borders of Croghan Hill, oats are sown for five or six years in succession; Mr. Morgan and Mr. Scully, two landlords in the neighbourhood, have adopted rape and turnips. The small farmers have often from one to six well-bred sheep, whose wool supplies them with their frieze clothes. The women spin it, and get it woven. The home-made costs 1s. per yard, but when they buy it manufactured they are imposed upon. The wool is worth £1. per stone; that of hoggets, or sheep first shorn, is worth 23s. per stone; the weight of the fleece is from 5 to 6 lbs. From the wetness of the ground, the sheep are subject to the rot. The breed of cattle has improved
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of late. A witness of the name of O'Connor has known from £20 to £30 given for superior cows; farmers' cows usually sell at from five to £12. They give ten or twelve quarts of milk a day, after calving; and, if well kept, a hundred pounds of butter in the season.
The beggars in this district are very numerous; they sometimes pass through Philipstown, to the number of three or four hundred a day, are often tipsy, and circulate stories of malicious tendency. They shut up their houses, gamble at cockfights, and occasionally amass, by one means or another, considerable wealth. Mr. Odlum, for instance, knew a beggar who gave his daughter £100. Numbers of the labourers would have no objection to go to a workhouse, but, generally speaking, they would prefer rambling about the country — they get more money by this means than they would in a workhouse, and are of course more at liberty to indulge the propensities which a want of education, idleness, and bad habits, have engendered.
In walking over the bog, we came to a cabin
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occupied by Barney Mangin, the walls of which were cut out of the solid moss. The roof slopes from the front towards the back, which is level with the surface of the moss, as shewn in the end-view annexed. Barney was a miserable, half-starved creature, and lived with his wife and two children in this cabin, paying for it, however, no rent. Window or chimney it had none, and the smoke found its way out at the door, and through the imperfect roof, which consisted of sods and turf. Mangin paid, last year, 20s. for one cwt. of meal on trust, when the market price was only twelve shillings. We visited also Patrick Innis, who has a farm of 40 acres, on an island on the bog, at a rent of 15s. per acre. The soil is six or seven inches deep, on a substratum of stiff clay. He digs in the wheat — that is, he sows it on the surface, and afterwards digs out the furrows to cover it, and has a better crop than if it were harrowed in. The produce is from four to five barrels of wheat, and five barrels of oats per acre. His plough was a very clumsy implement, with a patched wooden mould-board. Innis keeps
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five cows; but knows nothing of green crops. He told us that he should be very glad to learn, but had nobody to put him in the way. How valuable to this man, and to thousands such, might one of Blacker's pamphlets on small farms prove! His mother, his wife, and thirteen children, live under his humble roof, and his boys work the farm, and assist in getting turf, of which he sends seven or eight boat-loads in the season to Dublin, by the Grand Canal, which passes close to his farm. The boat-loads are worth seven or £8 each. Tithe he has not paid for the last three years; indeed he declared that he durst not pay it, even if he wished, as his property would be burnt, in the event of his doing so.
About a mile to the south of Philipstown we visited a poor farmer who was employed in winnowing his barley in the wind. Though in rags, he had evidently seen better days. He told us that he had no money, nor indeed had any of the farmers; that the landlords would be obliged to come and manage their farms and hold the plough themselves, as the tenants would soon be destroyed;
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and that when he had got home at night, after working hard all day, the only food that awaited his return was a dry potato, or perhaps a herring. He asked us if the looks of the farmers were not sufficient to prove how they lived; and indeed, the blue colour of his countenance, and the attenuated frame of this poor creature, abundantly attested the accuracy of what he was saying. Casting a pitiful look at his rags, he exclaimed, "If I had known what I would have come to, I would have thanked any body to have shot me through the head when I was young." He complained bitterly, among other things, of the unfeeling and arbitrary conduct of the tithe proctors. Far from being an uncommon case of distress, this, I am sorry to say, is but a single instance of general destitution. Some of the wretched sufferers bear their hard destiny with great fortitude;— this man's rankled at his heart. Though disposed to labour, and adapted to enterprise, he has no kind landlord to instruct and encourage him; and, hopeless of any remedy for his acute afflictions, he sees nothing
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before him but certain destruction, and accordingly gives himself up to bitter despair. Can it be wondered at that men, thus ignorant, degraded, oppressed, and reckless, occasionally disregard the authority of the law, and commit outrages which subject them to its severe inflictions? The wonder would be if they did not. The government of a country is greatly responsible for the crimes of the people.
On crossing the bog, we had an opportunity of experiencing the truth of some of the observations in a preceding page. Our attention was attracted by a beautiful green patch in the midst of the brown heather; and, on inquiring, we found it to be a little piece of the waste land which had been cultivated by the industry of Michael Madden. At first, he manured it for potatoes, and had a good crop; he then sowed oats and grass seeds, and had an excellent crop of oats and of hay the following year. Madden said he had derived great advantage from the grass it afterwards produced, in the feeding of his goats. This was done without any outlay of the owner's, and thousands might be
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made happy in the same way, if the land-owners would permit the poor famishing wretches to cultivate and improve their bogs, with the locked-up capital-labour. The bright green verdure of this little plot of ground, won from the desert by the exertions of one poor man, was a beautiful sight, and gave rise to gratifying reflections.
We visited the farm of George Rait, which is a large one, a few miles from Philipstown, and belongs to the Hon. William Barrock. Rait and his brother, who also occupies a considerable extent of land, came from Scotland about twenty years ago, and have devoted their time and attention, during the interval, to the prosecution of agriculture, on a system greatly superior to that which generally prevails. The farm contains 1100 acres of good loamy soil, workable in all seasons, with almost a certainty of at least an average crop. The rent is 25s., with a charge for tithe of 1s. 6d., and cess 1s. 66. per acre. The following rotation is adopted — viz., 1st, oats from grass; 2nd, barley, without manure; 3rd, turnips or potatoes, manured; 4th, wheat, sown with equal quantities
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of red and white clover, and Pacey's perennial rye-grass. The land is allowed to remain in grass for three years, and the rye-grass to stand for seed; the seed being of more value than the hay. The grass is thrashed, and the seed put up in the middle of a stack well thatched; here. it remains till spring. It is then well dressed, and sold to English seedsmen. The hay, or rather stalks, after the seed is thrashed out, serves for horses and bullocks, and is given along with turnips. The clover seed is sown by a machine which distributes it with much greater equality than it can be done by the hand, and is one of the greatest improvements in agriculture; being simple and cheap, it is within the reach of the small farmer. It consists of a long box with divisions, in which turns a cylinder, having small spoons upon it, the size of which can be adapted, on different cylinders, to the kind of seed and the quantity to be sown. The seed is dropped on an inclined board, nearly reaching to the ground; this board scatters the seed evenly, which is protected from the effect of the wind behind, by a sheet.
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This plan of sowing small seeds (so common in Norfolk and some other English counties) I had frequently recommended in Ireland, but had never found it practised, except upon this farm.
George Rait's breeding stock, though not very good, was much superior to Irish stock generally. Many sheep and bullocks were fed on turnips; the feeding cattle were eating turnips, and were allowed to have as many as they pleased. As soon as the potatoes are forked out, and the land harrowed, the cylinder roller is passed over it; this leaves hollows for the wheat, answering the purpose of a drill, and at the same time giving solidity. The wooden Scotch plough, with iron mould board, was used here, but iron ploughs were about to be substituted. The farm servants are allowed a certain quantity of meal and milk, and a room and fire to cook them by. The cost of their victuals was calculated at £10; they have also their lodging provided, and receive £7 in money; the whole cost of each man is therefore £17 a year. Mr. Rait has generally several agricultural pupils, who pay him handsome premiums.
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He informed us that when the Board of Agriculture existed in Ireland, and allowed £4000 a year for premiums, the gentlemen got them all, and the establishment was abandoned in consequence. Several small farmers in the immediate vicinity of George Rait's residence, have evidently profited by his example; but the fact of his improved plans of agriculture having been practised, for a period of twenty years, with but little effect, except within a circuit of three or four miles, affords a lamentable proof of the difficulty of disseminating information on this very interesting and certainly most important subject. In this instance, however, it may be in some degree accounted for by Mr. Rait's farm being so much superior to the generality, as to induce a supposition that it requires a different management from that adopted on the smaller farms.
Before leaving Philipstown let me once more advert to the condition of the people in its neighbourhood. They would work, as I have stated before, for fourpence or sixpence a day, or even less, if they could get it. Their food is of the
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poorest description (the coarse potatoes called lumpers) and obtained in quantities barely sufficient to keep the machine of life in languid motion. To use their own words, uttered with great pathos and feeling, — "We are only just kept breathing," — "Our eyes are only just kept open." I have witnessed scenes that would awaken commiseration in the coldest and the hardest heart, and some of these I have endeavoured to describe, faithfully, without the slightest shadow of exaggeration. I have seen young and helpless children, almost naked and without food, exposed to the cruel influences of the weather, in huts which should have afforded them protection; and I have seen old people, afflicted severely by asthmas and rheumatic attacks, lying in hovels without either window or chimney, with nothing for their bed but the bare damp floor, or a thin layer of straw. Can it, I again ask, can it surprise us, when people, habituated to such appalling wretchedness, and instigated by mingled feelings of revenge and despair, commit crimes, at the bare relation of which human nature shudders?
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The Irish are a patient, as well as an oppressed people, or they would not have submitted so long to the hardships they endure.
King's county has been the scene of many cruelties. A man taking a farm, from which another has been ejected, will probably find his horses without ears, or otherwise maimed, and his cattle houghed, that is, the sinews of the hinder legs cut. A grave dug near his house, with a note in it, is considered a friendly mode of warning him of his danger. If these do not produce the desired effect, they set fire to his house, or shoot him; and cruelty has been carried to such excess, that whilst the house was burning, the inhabitants have been kept in by monsters armed with pitchforks.
The inhabitants of the adjoining county of Tipperary have been considered the most ferocious, but there was no disturbance at the time I visited it; indeed, I considered myself as safe in any part of the country as in England. It is only under an impression of a sense of deep injury that the people seek revenge.
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The White Boys had their origin in Tipperary, and combined in consequence of some inclosures of commons. They then attacked the tithe proctors, and gained such strength as to presume to redress grievances of every description. Arthur Young informs us that they were not heard of till 1760, and that no foreign interposition could be blamed for the formation of the association. He states that one of the usual barbarities was, taking people out of their beds, carrying them, in winter, naked on horseback, and burying them up to the chin in a hole filled with briars, not forgetting to cut off one of their ears. The evil existed eight or ten years. The Oak Boys, and Heart of Steel Boys, are said to have had their origin also in the rise of rents, and in the inequality and oppressiveness of the county-cesses.
According to the information of Sergeant Malone, the several designations of Terry Alts, Blackfeet, Whitefeet, Cummins and Daraghs, have arisen out of trifling circumstances attending the first formation of these bodies. "Terry
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Alt" was an old soldier, whose name was made use of, without his authority, in some threatening notices. Blackfeet and Whitefeet are said to have originated in a dispute between the owners of two horses — one of which had white, the other black feet. Each collected his own friends, who at length expanded into two political parties. They have private symbols, and their committees are sworn to secrecy. Both concur in their opposition to law and tithe; but, disagreeing on some matters not generally known, variance continues to be perpetuated between them. These parties have faction-fights at fairs; and young men, such as respectable farmers, are their secret leaders. The Cummins and Daraghs, two families on the border of King's county and Tipperary, quarrelled, and each collected a party, which was in the habit of disturbing every market and fair. They too have secret symbols. Most of the nightly depredations and murders proceeded from these parties. The quarrels are chiefly confined to Catholics — religious differences having nothing whatever to do with them. Taking a district of twenty miles
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round Philipstown, not more than eight or nine Protestants have been murdered in affrays connected with religion, during the last fourteen years — and no Catholics have been murdered by Protestants. The proportion of the former to the latter is about twenty to one. The Protestants, being few in number, are obliging and quiet.
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