Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Irish Crisis (Author: Charles Edward Trevelyan)
p.1
The time has not yet arrived at which any
man can with confidence say, that he fully
appreciates the nature and the bearings of
that great event which will long be inseparably associated with the year just departed. Yet we think that we may render
some service to the public by attempting
thus early to review, with the calm temper
of a future generation, the history of the
great Irish famine of 18471. Unless we
are much deceived, posterity will trace up
to that famine the commencement of a
salutary revolution in the habits of a nation
long singularly unfortunate, and will acknowledge that on this, as on many other
occasions, Supreme Wisdom has educed
permanent good out of transient evil.
p.2
If, a few months ago, an enlightened man
had been asked what he thought the most
discouraging circumstance in the state of
Ireland, we do not imagine that he would
have pitched upon Absenteeism, or Protestant bigotry, or Roman Catholic bigotry, or
Orangeism, or Ribbandism, or the Repeal
cry, or even the system of threatening
notices and midday assassinations. These
things, he would have said, are evils; but
some of them are curable; and others are
merely symptomatic. They do not make
the case desperate. But what hope is there
for a nation which lives on potatoes?
The consequences of depending upon the
potato as the principal article of popular
food, had long been foreseen by thinking
persons; and the following observations
extracted from a paper on the native country of the wild potato2, published in the
Transactions of the Horticultural Society of
London for the year 1822, are a fair specimen of the opinions which prevailed on the
subject previously to the great failure of
1845.
‘The increased growth of the potato, not
p.3
only in these kingdoms, but almost in every civilised part of the globe, has so added to its importance, that any information respecting it has become valuable. With the exception of wheat
and rice, it is now certainly the vegetable most
employed as the food of man; and it is probable
that the period is at no great distance, when its
extensive use will even place it before those
which have hitherto been considered the chief
staples of life. The effect of the unlimited
extent to which its cultivation may be carried,
on the human race, must be a subject of deep
interest to the political economist. The extension of population will be as unbounded as the
production of food, which is capable of being
produced in very small space, and with great
facility; and the increased number of inhabitants
of the earth will necessarily induce changes, not
only in the political systems, but in all the artificial relations of civilised life. How far such
changes may conduce to or increase the happiness
of mankind, is very problematical, more especially when it is considered, that since the potato,
when in cultivation, is very liable to injury from
casualties of season, and that it is not at present
known how to keep it in store for use beyond a
few months, a general failure of the year's crop,
whenever it shall have become the chief or sole
support of a country, must inevitably lead to all
the misery of famine, more dreadful in proportion
to the numbers exposed to its ravages.’
p.4
The important influence which has been
exercised by this root over the destinies of
the human race, arises from the fact that it
yields an unusually abundant produce as
compared with the extent of ground cultivated, and with the labour, capital, and skill
bestowed upon its cultivation. The same
land, which when laid down to corn, will
maintain a given number of persons, will
support three times that number when used
for raising potatoes. ‘A family in the West
of Ireland, once located on from one to three
or four acres of land, was provided for; a
cabin could be raised in a few days without
the expense of a sixpence; the potatoes, at
the cost of a very little labour, supplied
them with a sufficiency of food, with which,
from habit, they were perfectly content; and
a pig, or with some, a cow, or donkey, or
pony, and occasional labour at a very low
rate of wages, gave them what was necessary
to pay a rent, and for such clothing and
other articles as were absolutely necessary,
and which, with a great proportion, were on
the lowest scale of human existence. The
foundation of the whole, however, was the
possession of the bit of land; it was the
one, and the only one thing absolutely necessary; the rent consequently was high, and
p.5
generally well paid, being the first demand
on all money received, in order to secure
that essential tenure; and only what remained became applicable to other objects. Although of the lowest grade, it was an easy
mode of subsistence, and led to the encouragement of early marriages, large families,
and a rapidly-increasing population, and at
the same time afforded the proprietor very
good return of profit for his land.’3
The relations of employer and employed,
which knit together the framework of society, and establish a mutual dependence and
good-will, have no existence in the potato
system. The Irish small holder lives in a
state of isolation, the type of which is to be
sought for in the islands of the South Sea,
rather than in the great civilized communities of the ancient world. A fortnight for
planting, a week or ten days for digging, and
another fortnight for turf-cutting, suffice for
his subsistence; and during the rest of the
year, he is at leisure to follow his own inclinations, without even the safeguard of those
intellectual tastes and legitimate objects of
ambition which only imperfectly obviate the
evils of leisure in the higher ranks of society.
p.6
The excessive competition for land maintained rents at a level which left the Irish
peasant the bare means of subsistence; and
poverty, discontent, and idleness, acting on
his excitable nature, produced that state of
popular feeling which furnishes the material
for every description of illegal association
and misdirected political agitation. That
agrarian code which is at perpetual war with
the laws of God and man, is more especially
the offspring of this state of society, the
primary object being to secure the possession of the plots of land, which, in the
absence of wages, are the sole means of subsistence.
There is a gradation even in potatoes.
Those generally used by the people of Ireland were of the coarsest and most prolific
kind, called ‘Lumpers,’ or ‘Horse Potatoes,’ from their size, and they were, for the
most part, cultivated, not in furrows, but in
the slovenly mode popularly known as ‘lazy
beds;’ so that the principle of seeking the
cheapest description of food at the smallest
expense of labour, was maintained in all its
force. To the universal dependence on the
potato, and to the absence of farmers of a
superior class, it was owing that agriculture
of every description was carried on in a negligent,
p.7
imperfect manner4. The domestic
habits arising out of this mode of subsistence were of the lowest and most degrading
kind. The pigs and poultry, which share
the food of the peasants family, became, in
course, inmates of the cabin also. The habit
of exclusively living on this root produced
an entire ignorance of every other food and
of the means of preparing it; and there is
p.8
scarcely a woman of the peasant class in the
West of Ireland, whose culinary art exceeds
the boiling of a potato. Bread is scarcely
ever seen, and an oven is unknown.
The first step to improvement was wanting to this state of things. The people
had no incitement to be industrious to procure comforts which were utterly beyond
their reach, and which many of them perhaps had never seen. Their ordinary food
being of the cheapest and commonest description, and having no value in the market,
it gave them no command of butcher's meat,
manufactures, colonial produce, or any other
article of comfort or enjoyment. To those
who subsist chiefly on corn, other articles of
equal value are available, which can be substituted for it at their discretion; or if they
please, they can, by the adoption of a less
expensive diet, accumulate a small capital by
which their future condition may be improved and secured; but the only hope for
those who lived upon potatoes was in some
great intervention of Providence to bring
back the potato to its original use and intention as an adjunct, and not as a principal
article of national food; and by compelling
the people of Ireland to recur to other more
nutritious means of aliment, to restore the
p.9
energy and the vast industrial capabilities of
that country.
A population, whose ordinary food is wheat and beef, and whose ordinary drink
is porter and ale, can retrench in periods
of scarcity, and resort to cheaper kinds of
food, such as barley, oats, rice, and potatoes.
But those who are habitually and entirely
fed on potatoes, live upon the extreme
verge of human subsistence, and when they
are deprived of their accustomed food, there
is nothing cheaper to which they can resort.
They have already reached the lowest point
in the descending scale, and there is nothing
beyond but starvation or beggary. Several
circumstances aggravate the hazard of this
position. The produce of the potato is
more precarious than that of wheat or any
other grain. Besides many other proofs of
the uncertainty of this crop, there is no
instance on record of any such failure of the
crops of corn, as occurred in the case of
potatoes in 1821, 1845, 1846, and 1847;
showing that this root can no longer be
depended upon as a staple article of human
food. The potato cannot be stored so that
the scarcity of one year may be alleviated
by bringing forward the reserves of former
years, as is always done in corn-feeding
p.10
countries. Every year is thus left to provide subsistence for itself. When the crop
is luxuriant, the surplus must be given to
the pigs; and when it is deficient, famine
and disease necessarily prevail. Lastly, the
bulk of potatoes is such, that they can with
difficulty be conveyed from place to place
to supply local deficiencies, and it has often
happened that severe scarcity has prevailed
in districts within fifty miles of which potatoes were to be had in abundance. If a
man use two pounds of meal a-day (which
is twice the amount of the ration found to
be sufficient during the late relief operations), a hundredweight of meal will last
him for fifty-six days; whereas a hundredweight of potatoes will not last more than
eight days; and when it was proposed to
provide seed-potatoes for those who had lost
their stock in the failure of 1845-6, the plan
was found impracticable, because nearly a
ton an acre would have been required for
the purpose.
The potato does not, in fact, last even a
single year. The old crop becomes unfit for
use in July, and the new crop, as raised by
the inferior husbandry of the poor, does not
come into consumption until September.
Hence, July and August are called the
p.11
‘meal months,’ from the necessity the
people are under of living upon meal at
that period. This is always a season of
great distress and trial for the poorer peasants; and in the districts in which the
potato system has been carried to the
greatest extent, as, for instance, in the
barony of Erris in the county of Mayo,
there has been an annual dearth in the summer months for many years past. Every
now and then a ‘meal year’ occurs, and
then masses of the population become a
prey to famine and fever, except so far as
they may be relieved by charity.
In 1739 an early and severe frost destroyed the potatoes in the ground, and the
helplessness and despair of the people
having led to a great falling off of tillage
in 1740, the calamity was prolonged to the
ensuing year, 1741, which was long known
as the bliadhain an air, or year of slaughter.
The ordinary burial-grounds were not large
enough to contain those who died by the
roadside, or who were taken from the deserted cabins. The ‘bloody flux’ and
‘malignant fever,’ having begun among
the poor, spread to the rich, and numerous
individuals occupying prominent positions
in society, including one of the judges (Mr.
p.12
Baron Wainwright), and the Mayor of
Limerick (Joseph Roche, Esq.), and many
others of the corporation, fell victims. Measures were adopted at Dublin on the principle of the English Poor Law, some of
the most essential provisions of which appear to have been well understood in the
great towns of Ireland in that day; and
it was ‘hoped, since such provision is made
for the poor, the inhabitants of the city will
discourage all vagrant beggars, and give
their assistance that they may be sent to
Bridewell to hard labour, and thereby free
themselves from a set of idlers who are a
scandal and a reproach to the nation.’ Soup-kitchens and other modes of relief were established in different parts of the country,
in which Primate Boulter and the Society of
Friends took the lead; and numerous cargoes of corn were procured on mercantile account from the North American Colonies,
the arrival of which was looked for with great
anxiety. In only one point is there any decided difference between what then took place
in Ireland and the painful events which have
just occurred, after the lapse of upwards of a
century. The famine of 1741 was not regarded
with any active interest either in England or
in any foreign country, and the subject is
p.13
scarcely alluded to in the literature of the
day. No measures were adopted either by the
Executive or the Legislature for the purpose
of relieving the distress caused by this famine.
There is no mention of grants or loans; but
an Act was passed by the Irish Parliament
in 1741 (15 Geo. II, cap. 8), ‘For the more
effectual securing the payment of Rents, and
preventing frauds by Tenants’.5
The failure of 1822, in the provinces of
Munster and Connaught, was owing to a
continued and excessive humidity, which
caused the potatoes to rot after they had been
stored in the pits, so that the deficiency
of food was not discovered till late in the
season. On the 7th May, 1822, a public
meeting was held in London which was
attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the most eminent persons of the day,
when a committee of no less than 109 of
the nobility and gentry was formed, and a
subscription was entered into, amounting,
with the aid of a king's letter, to 311,081 l.
5s. 7d. of which 44,177 l. 9s. was raised in
Ireland. Many excellent principles were
p.14
laid down for the distribution of this large
sum; and after reserving what was required
for immediate relief, the balance, amounting
to 87,667 l., was granted to various societies
which had been established for the future and
permanent benefit of the Irish peasantry.6 A committee also sat at the Mansion House
at Dublin, which collected 31,260 l. from
various quarters, independently of the grants
it received from the London Committee.
Central Committees were established in each
county town in the distressed districts, and
Sub-Committees in each parish. The western portion of Ireland was also divided into
three districts, to each of which a civil engineer was appointed for the purpose of
employing the destitute in making roads,
and the following sums were voted by Parliament for carrying on these and other
Public Works set on foot with the same
object of relieving the distress7:
p.15
On 24 June, 1822, £100,000,
‘for the employment of the poor in Ireland, and
other purposes relating thereto as the exigency of
affairs may require.’
On 23 July, 1822, £200,000;
‘to enable His Majesty to take such measures as
the exigency of affairs may require.’
And on the 24 June, 1823, £15,000 was
voted,
‘to facilitate emigration from the south of Ireland to the Cape of Good Hope.’
In 1831 another failure of the potato
crop occurred in the counties of Galway,
Mayo, and Donegal, upon which, another
meeting was held in the City of London,
and one committee was established at the
Mansion House, and another at the West
End. Great exertions were made to raise
subscriptions; a bazaar was held at the
p.16
Hanover Square Rooms by many of the
ladies of the nobility, presided over by the
Queen in person; and there was a ball at
Drury Lane Theatre, which was honoured
by the presence of the King and Queen.
The whole amount collected was 74,410 l.;
and besides this 40,000 l. was granted by
Parliament, part of which was expended on
relief works, and part in the actual distribution of food. Besides these London Committees, two other Committees were formed
at Dublin, through one of which (the Mansion House Committee)8 8,569l. was collected,
p.17
and through the other (the Sackville Street Committee) 21,526 l.
In each of the years 1835, 1836, and
1837, the potato crop failed in one or other
of the districts in the West of Ireland, and
sums amounting in the aggregate to 7572 l.
were expended from Civil Contingencies in
relieving the distress thereby occasioned, to
which was added the sum of 4,306 l. remaining from the English and Irish subscriptions
of 1831.
In 1839 another failure occurred; and in
all the Western and Midland Counties, the
average price of potatoes in July and August
was 7d. a stone, and of oatmeal 18s. or 19s.
a cwt.; the former double, and the latter
one-third more than the usual price at that
time of the year. On this occasion Captain
Chads, R.N. was deputed by the Government
p.18
to assist the landlords in employing
the destitute in constructing roads and other
useful public works; and it appears from a
report addressed by him to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, dated the 22nd of August,
1839, that 5,441 l. was expended in this way,
of which 1840 l. was contributed by the Government, besides 1478 l. disbursed through
other channels. Towards the conclusion of
his report Captain Chads made the following
remarks: — ‘A recurrence of these seasons
of distress, which have been almost periodical hitherto, must, I fear, be necessarily
expected, so long as the present condition
of the poor continues, and whilst they subsist on that species of food, which in a year
of plenty cannot be stored up for the next,
which may be one of scarcity. A very great
alleviation, however, of this evil is most confidently expected from the Poor Law now
being established. I have conversed on this
subject with persons of every class of society,
from one end of the country to the other,
and it is universally regarded as the promise
of a great blessing: — to the poor by inducing more provident and industrious habits;
and by making it the interest of the landlords to give them employment; and to all other classes, comfort and contentment, from
p.19
the knowledge that the really distressed are
provided for, and that the country is generally improving by the extension of employment.’
After this, urgent representations of distress were made in each year to the Irish
Government and to the Poor Law Commissioners, until the summer of 1842, which
was more than usually wet and unfavourable
to vegetation, and it therefore again became
necessary to have recourse to extensive
measures of relief. On this occasion 3,44* l.
was distributed in aid of local subscriptions,
in 121 separate districts; the aggregate
sums raised in each case being expended,
partly in public works on Captain Chads'
plan, and partly in giving gratuitous relief.9
Besides the grants above enumerated,
made for the immediate relief of the Irish
poor, when failures of the potato crop caused
unusual distress, large sums of money have
been advanced or granted from the Imperial
p.20
Treasury from time to time since the Union,
for various purposes supposed to be conducive to the tranquillity and improvement
of the country, and to the removal of the
causes of permanent distress, as will be seen
from the following specimens taken principally from a return to an order of the House
of Commons of the 12th February, 1847,
made on the motion of Mr. John O'Connell.10
- Works for Special Purposes under the Act 57
Geo. III., cap. 34 ... 496,000
- Do. for the Employment and Relief of the Poor, under the 1 & 2 Wm. IV., cap. 33, and previous Acts ... 1,339,146
- Grants in aid of Public Works under various
Acts of Parliament ... 125,000
- Advanced by the London Loan Commissioners for sundry Works between 1826 and 1833 ... 322,500
- Do. do. for Poor-Law Union Workhouses ... 1,145,800
- Kingstown Harbour ... 1,124,580
- Improvement of the River Shannon ... 533,359
- Wide Street Commissioners, Dublin ... 267,778
- Improving Post Roads ... 515,541
- Gaols and Bridewells ... 713,005
- Asylums for Lunatic Poor ... 710,850
- Valuation of Lands and Tenements ... 172,774
- Royal Dublin Society ... 285,438
- Farming Society, Dublin ... 87,132
- Linen Board, Dublin ... 537,656
- Tithe (Relief of Clergy who did not receive Tithes of 1831) 50,916
- Tithe Relief (Million Act) ... 918,863
- Tithe Relief Commissioners (establishing
Composition for Tithes) ... 279,217
p.21
- Relief of Trade 178,070
- Boards and Officers of Health (Cholera) ... 196,575
- Police Purposes (Proclaimed Districts) ... 4,093,871
- Police Purposes (Constabulary Police) ... 1,748,712
Other causes concurred with the natural
tendency of every people to have recourse
to the cheapest description of food, in
encouraging the growth of a large population
depending for its subsistence on the potato.
Ireland was essentially a grazing country
until the artificial enhancement of prices
caused by the Acts of the Irish Parliament
passed in 1783 and 1784, for granting a
bounty on the exportation, and restricting
the importation of corn, occasioned an immediate and extraordinary increase of cultivation; and as, owing to the general want
of capital, it was impossible to find tenants
for large tillage farms, the stimulus intended
to act exclusively on agriculture, had a still
more powerful effect in causing the subdivision of farms. The new occupiers also,
being, for the most part, exceedingly poor,
instead of paying their labourers in money,
allowed them the use of small pieces of
ground whereon they might erect cabins
and raise potatoes, and their labour was set
off, at so much a-day, against the annual
rent. The plan of dividing and subdividing
for the purpose of making freeholders, was
p.22
carried to a great extent after 1792, when
the elective franchise was restored to the
Roman Catholics; and although the practice
was far from being general, yet in some
parts of the country, where particular families made it their object to contest or secure
the county, it was carried to a very pernicious extent. Another powerful cause is
that the emoluments of the Roman Catholic
priesthood, including the bishops, depend
not only on the extent of the population, but
also on its continual increase; and if the
parish priests object to emigration and the
consolidation of small holdings, and look
with favour on early marriages, it is only
what any other body of men, in their circumstances, would equally do. Lastly, the
small holding and potato system offered the
inducement of large rents, obtained at the
smallest possible amount of cost and trouble.
The embarrassed and improvident landlord,
and the leaseholder whose only object it was
to make the most of his short tenure,
equally found their account in this state of
things, and the result in both cases was,
that the farms were covered with hovels and
miserable cottiers, in order, through them,
to create profit-rents. When the failure of
the potato forced all the ‘squatters’ and
p.23
‘mock tenants’ into notice, the owner of
many a neglected estate was surprised by the
apparition of hundreds of miserable beings,
who had grown up on his property without
his knowledge, and now claimed the means
of support at his hands. The subsistence
of the tenant was at the minimum; the rent
was at the maximum; and the interval between the ignorant excitable peasantry and
the proprietor in chief, was filled only by the
middleman, whose business it was to exact
rents and not to employ labourers. The
base and the capital of the column were
there, but the shaft was almost entirely
wanting.
The extent to which the welfare of the
agricultural population, and through them
of the rest of the community, is affected
by the conditions upon which landed property is held, has become fearfully apparent
during the present social crisis. The dependence for good and evil of workman on
master manufacturer, of subject on Government, of child on father, is less absolute than that of the Irish peasant upon
the lord of the soil from which he derives
his subsistence. This is a subject to which,
if we would save ourselves and our country,
it behoves us to give our most earnest and
p.24
careful attention at the present time. We
cannot give landed proprietors the will and
disposition (where it is wanting) to fulfil
the important part they have to perform
in the scheme of society, but we have it in
our power to strike off the fetters which at
present impede every step of their progress
in the performance of the duty they owe
to themselves and to those dependent on
them.
One half of the surface of Ireland is said
to be let off in perpetuity leases, with derivative and subderivative interests in an
endless chain, so as to obtain profit-rents
at each stage; and these leases are often
open to the additional objection that they
are unnecessarily burthensome or uncertain
from the particular mode in which they are
made; such as ‘leases for lives renewable
for ever by the insertion of other lives when
the first-named are dead,’ ‘for three lives
or thirty-one years,’ and ‘for three lives
and thirty-one years.’ Many proposals
have at different times been made for the
redemption of these various interests; but
an arbitrary interference with the rights of
property is to be avoided, and our object
should rather be to give every prudent
facility for the voluntary transfer of land
p.25
and of the various interests connected with
it, which must lead, by a safe but certain
gradation, to that degree of improvement of
the existing tenures which is necessary for
the encouragement of agriculture. In the
flourishing islands of Guernsey arid Jersey,
corn-rents of fixed amount are charged upon
the same farm one after another, like the
coats of an onion; but the lowest holder,
who is the party really interested in the
improvement of the property, has every
requisite security that he will enjoy the
whole profit of any outlay he may make,
and the most essential part of the benefit
of ownership is thus obtained. In Mayo
and other western counties the old barbarous Irish tenure called Rundale (Scotch runrigg), still prevails, which stops short of
the institution of individual property, and
by making the industrious and thriving responsible for the short-comings of the idle
and improvident, effectually destroys the
spring of all improvement. The cessation
of this antiquated system is an indispensable
preliminary to any progress being made in
the localities where it exists; but this improvement may be effected by the landlords
without any change in the law.
The master evil of the agricultural system
p.26
of Ireland, however, is the law of Entail,
and the Incumbrances which seldom fail
to accumulate upon entailed estates. ‘Proprietors of estates,’ observes the author of
an excellent pamphlet which has recently
appeared on this subject11, ‘are too often
but mere nominal owners, without influence
or power over the persons holding under
them. Their real condition is often pitiable,
nor is it possible, in the great majority of
cases, to retrieve the estates. The burthen
of debt, or the evils of improvident leases,
are fastened upon the land in such a manner
as to convert the owner into a mere annuitant, often glad to obtain from a good
estate a scanty annuity (after payment of
the incumbrances thereon and the public
p.27
burthens) for his own subsistence. Proprietor and tenant are equally powerless for
good; and the whole kingdom suffers from
the disorders which have resulted from this
state of real property in Ireland.’ And the
author of another valuable publication on
the same subject12 observes as follows: ‘The
evils resulting from settlements and entails
may be regarded as arising from insecurity
or uncertainty of tenure; because the possessor of the property is not in reality the
owner; he cannot deal with it as an owner;
he is merely a trustee for others; he has
no interest in its future thorough permanent
improvement, except so far as he may wish
p.28
to benefit his successors; he can never reap
the benefit himself; he cannot sell; he
cannot dispose of a part, even though the
alienation of a part might greatly enhance
the value of the remainder; he holds it
during his lifetime, as his predecessor held
it, unaltered, unimproved, to transmit it to
his heir clogged with the same restrictions
alike injurious to him and to his country.
This is the case of an unembarrassed landlord.13 But let us suppose, as is unfortunately
p.29
too often the case, that he has received the estate incumbered under a settlement, with a jointure to the widow of the
late possessor, and a provision for daughters
and younger sons. In what difficulties is
he at once involved! this owner for life of
a large tract of country with a long rent-roll,
but in fact a small property! He cannot
maintain his position in society without
spending more than his income; debts accumulate; he mortgages his estate, and insures his life for the security of the mortgagee. Of course he cannot afford to lay
out anything on improvements; on the contrary, though perhaps naturally kind-hearted
and just, his necessities force him to resort
to every means of increasing his present
rental. He looks for the utmost amount;
he lets to the highest bidder, without regard to character or means of payment. If
his tenants are without leases, he raises their
rents. If leases fall in, he cannot afford to
give the preference to the last occupier.
Perhaps, with all his exertions, he is unable
p.30
to pay the interest or put off his creditors.
Proceedings are commenced against him,
and the estate passes during his lifetime
under the care of the worst possible landlord, a Receiver under the Court of Chancery.’14.
p.31
The remedy for this state of things is
simply the sale of the encumbered estate, or
of a sufficient portion of it to enable the
owner to discharge his encumbrances and
to place him in a position to do his duty
towards the remainder. This is the master-key to unlock the field of industry in
Ireland. The seller, in all such cases,
is incapable of making a proper use of
the land. The purchaser, on the other
hand, may safely be assumed to be an
improver. It is a natural feeling in which
almost all men indulge, and purchases of
land are seldom made without a distinct
view to further profitable investments in
improvements. ‘To give every prudent
facility for the transfer by sale of real
property from man to man, by the adoption of a simple, cheap, and secure system
of transfer, in lieu of the present barbarous, unsafe, and expensive system, so that
real property could be bought and sold in
Ireland with as much freedom and security
as other property,’15 is, therefore, the object
p.32
at which we ought to aim, and especially
to encourage the investment of small capitals in the land, it being through the
instrumentality of small capitalists chiefly
that the country can be civilized and improved. ‘The purchasers would give extensive and permanent employment to numbers of people around them in carrying
out that natural desire of man, the improvement of newly-acquired landed property; they would promote industry everywhere; they would greatly increase the value
of land generally. By their number, all
property in land would be rendered secure
against revolutionary violence. The habits
and example of men who had made money
by industry, and who might invest their
savings in land, would place the social system of Ireland on a solid basis. The best
of the Protestants and Roman Catholics,
those who had been careful and industrious,
would be purchasers of land, and all would
have a common interest in peace and order.
That surplus population beyond the means
of present employment, which now oppresses and embarrasses the country, might
gradually be absorbed, and become a source
of wealth and strength. Towns would everywhere improve, and new ones might arise
p.33
by the extension of the railway system,
spreading industry and civilization among
men now sunk in indolence and almost
barbarism.’16
All the parties concerned in these transfers
would be benefited by them. Lands are comparatively valueless to those who have no
capital to improve them, and they are often
justly felt to be a burthen and a disgrace,
because they entail duties which the nominal
owners have no means of performing. The
effect on the character and prospects of the
whole body of landed proprietors would be
as described in the following passage from
the author to whom we are already so much
indebted: ‘When men, however young, act
under responsibility, they usually proceed
with caution; if others will think and act
for them, and provide for their wants, and
secure them from poverty and danger, their
own prudential faculties may become dormant; and a man or any class of men so
protected, are likely to exhibit deficiency in
the qualities of prudence and good management of their affairs. But owners of land
would not evince any such deficiency, if once
p.34
they felt that they would be ruined, and their
families also, if they were not governed by
the same rules of prudence which other men
must observe, and which necessarily enter
into the proper management of all other descriptions of property. The present difficulties of sale of land, and the consequent
protection afforded to entailed properties,
are the chief reasons why so many persons
of the class of proprietors are in difficulties.
With more liberty, there would be more
prudence and more attention to estates on
the part of owners, from which they and the
country would be great gainers.’17
The manner in which the interests of the
public at large are affected, is correctly described in the following passage from the
other pamphlet: ‘If these premises be correct; if employment with regular wages must
be found for the peasantry: if capital be necessary, and the parties holding the land do
not possess sufficient for this purpose; it
follows, either that Government must continue to supply the capital required, not
merely by a loan on an emergency, but as
part of its regular system of action; or else
p.35
that the land must pass into the hands of
those who do possess the means of employing the people — of men who will carry on
agriculture as a business, and will bring to
their occupation the capital, the habits of
business, and the energy and intelligence
which have raised the commerce and manufactures of this nation to their present preeminence.’18
Her Majesty's Government being deeply
impressed with the importance of these
views, introduced a bill into Parliament in
the session of 1847, the object of which was
to enable the owners of encumbered estates
in Ireland to sell the whole or a portion of
them, after the circumstances of each estate
had been investigated by a Master in Chancery with a view to secure the due liquidation of every claim upon it. The sale was
not to take place without the consent of the
first incumbrancer, unless the Court of Chancery should consider the produce sufficient
to pay the principal and all arrears of interest, or unless the owner or some subsequent incumbrancer should undertake to
pay to the first incumbrancer any deficiency
p.36
which might exist, and give such security
for the performance of his undertaking as
the court might direct. This bill passed the
House of Lords, but was withdrawn in the
Commons, owing to the opposition of some
of the Irish proprietors, and to objections
entertained by the great Insurance Companies, who are the principal lenders on Irish
mortgages, to having their investments disturbed. The failure of the bill was a national
misfortune which cannot be too soon remedied.
The Government, however, did what was
in its power. A system has existed in Ireland since the time of Queen Anne for the
registration of all deeds affecting landed property; and of late years a similar registration
has been established of all judgments relating
to that description of property. The attention of the Lord Lieutenant has been called
to the practicability of diminishing the delay
and expense attending transfers of landed
property, by the adoption of two simple
practical measures, viz., that when searches
have been made in the office of the Registrar of Deeds, copies should be recorded in
the office, as well as given to the parties on
whose behalf they are made; and that when
p.37
judgments, &c., recorded in the office of the
Registrar of Judgments have been satisfied,
notice should be immediately sent to the
Registrar, in order that such satisfaction
may be recorded in the books of his office.19
The consequence of the neglect of the first
of these obvious precautions was, that, after
expensive searches had been made in the
Registry Office, the same searches often had
to be made again and again, at the same
expense, at the instance of other parties,
however limited the transactions might be
for the security of which these inquiries into
past transfers and incumbrances were made;
and the consequence of the neglect of the
other precaution was, that if, after a search
had been made through the records deposited in the office of the Registrar of Judgments, to ascertain whether any judgment
had been passed against the estate, it appeared that any such judgment had been
given, another search had to be made in the
courts of law, involving fresh loss of time
and fresh expense, to ascertain whether it
had been satisfied.20
p.38
But it is time that we should resume our
narrative.
The potato disease, which had manifested
itself in North America in 184421, first appeared in these islands late in the autumn of 1845. The early crop of potatoes, which
is generally about one-sixth of the whole,
and is dug in September and October, escaped; but the late, or what is commonly
called the ‘people's crop’ and is taken up
in December and January, was tainted after
it arrived at an advanced stage of maturity.
When the disease had once commenced, it
made steady progress, and it was often found,
on opening the pits, that the potatoes had
become a mass of rottenness. Nevertheless,
this year the attack was partial; and although
few parts of the country entirely escaped, and
the destruction of human food was, on the
whole, very great, a considerable portion of
p.39
the crop, which had been a more than usually
large one, was saved. The wheat crop was
a full average; oats and barley were abundant; and of turnips, carrots, and green
crops, including a plentiful hay harvest,
there was a more than sufficient supply.
On the Continent, the rye crops failed partially, and the potato disease was very destructive in Holland, Belgium, France, and the west of Germany.
In the following year (1846) the blight
in the potatoes took place earlier, and was
of a much more sweeping and decisive
kind. ‘On the 27th of last month (July),
I passed,’ Father Mathew writes in a letter published in the Parliamentary Papers,
‘from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed
plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an
abundant harvest. Returning on the 3rd
instant (August), I beheld with sorrow one
wide waste of putrefying vegetation. In
many places the wretched people were seated
on the fences of their decaying gardens,
wringing their hands, and wailing bitterly
the destruction that had left them foodless.’
The first symptom of the disease was a little
brown spot on the leaf, and these spots gradually increased in number and size, until
p.40
the foliage withered and the stem became
brittle, and snapped off immediately when
touched. In less than a week the whole
process was accomplished.22 The fields assumed a blackened appearance, as if they
had been burnt up, and the growth of the
potatoes was arrested when they were not
larger than a marble or a pigeon's egg. No
potatoes were pitted this year. In many
districts where they had been most abundant, full-grown wholesome potatoes were
p.41
not to be procured; and even in London
and other large towns, they were sold at
fancy prices, and were consumed as a luxury
by the wealthy, rice and other substitutes
being had recourse to by the body of the
people. The crop of wheat this year was
barely an average one, while barley and oats,
and particularly the former, were decidedly
deficient. On the Continent, the rye and
potato crops again failed, and prices rose
early in the season above those ruling in
England, which caused the shipments from
the Black Sea, Turkey and Egypt, to be
sent to France, Italy, and Belgium; and it
was not till late in the season, that our
prices rose to a point which turned the
current of supplies towards England and
Ireland. The Indian corn crop in the United
States this year was very abundant, and it
became a resource of the utmost value to
this country.
In the third year (1847) the disease had
nearly exhausted itself. It appeared in
different parts of the country, but the plants
generally exerted fresh vigour and outgrew
it. The result, perhaps, could not have been
better. The wholesome distrust in the potato
was maintained, while time was allowed for
p.42
making the alterations which the new state
of things required. Although the potatoes
sown in Ireland in the year 1847 were estimated only at one fifth or one sixth of the usual
quantity, it would have been a serious aggravation of the difficulties and discouragements
under which that portion of the empire was
suffering, if the disease had reappeared in its
unmitigated form. The crops of wheat,
barley, and oats, in almost every part of
the United Kingdom, and in most of the
neighbouring countries on the Continent,
were this year, to use the epithet generally
applied to them, magnificent; and it became
more and more apparent on the brink of
what a precipice we had been standing, as
the unusually small remaining stock of old
corn came to light, and the exhausted and
embarrassed state to which every description
of business had been reduced, notwithstanding the advantage of a good harvest, gradually declared itself.
Among the numerous causes which enhanced the difficulty of obtaining adequate
foreign supplies at moderate rates during
the most exigent period of the winter of
1846–7, one of the most embarrassing, was
the sudden and extraordinary advance in
p.43
freights, which occurred simultaneously in
the ports of the United States of America,
the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea.
Vessels were not obtainable in the Black
Sea and the Danube at less than 18s. and
22s. per quarter for corn, whereas the usual
rates are 9s. and 11s.; while in the United
States, where large shipments of grain,
flour, and Indian corn, were going forward
to Europe, the comparatively limited number
of vessels caused the rates to run up to 9s.
per barrel for flour, and 16s. and 18s. per
quarter for Indian corn to British ports, the
rates usually given being 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d.
per barrel of flour, and 8s. and 9s. per quarter
for Indian corn.
On the 27th January, 1846, Sir Robert
Peel proposed his measure for the relaxation
of the duties on the importation of foreign
corn, by which the scale of duties payable
on wheat was to range from 4s. to 10s. per
quarter, and Indian corn, which had previously been charged with the same duty as
barley, was to pay only 1s. a-quarter. This
was to last till February 1849, when an
uniform duty of 1s. a-quarter was to be
charged on every description of grain. The
bill passed the House of Lords on the 29th
p.44
June, 1846; and Sir R.
Peel announced his
resignation in the House of Commons on
the same day.
Immediately on the meeting of Parliament
in January, 1847, Lord J. Russell introduced
bills to suspend until the 1st September,
1847, the duties on foreign corn, and the
restrictions imposed by the Navigation Laws
on the importation of corn in foreign vessels;
and he at the same time moved a resolution
permitting the use of sugar in breweries;
all which measures received the sanction of
the Legislature. At the close of the same
session, the suspension of the Corn and
Navigation Laws was extended to the 1st
March, 1848.
On the first appearance of the blight in
the autumn of 1845, Professors Kane, Lindley, and Playfair, were appointed by Sir Robert
Peel to inquire into the nature of it,
and to suggest the best means of preserving
the stock of potatoes from its ravages. The
result showed that the mischief lay beyond
the knowledge and power of man. Every
remedy which science or experience could
dictate was had recourse to, but the potato
equally melted away under the most opposite
modes of treatment.
p.45
The next step was to order from the
United States of America 100,000 l. worth of
Indian corn. It was considered that the
void caused by the failure of the potato crop
might be filled, with the least disturbance of
private trade and market prices, by the
introduction of a new description of popular
food. Owing to the prohibitory duty, Indian
corn was unknown as an article of consumption in the United Kingdom.23 Private
p.46
merchants, therefore, could not complain of
interference with a trade which did not exist,
nor could prices be raised against the home
consumer on an article of which no stock
was to be found in the home market.
Nevertheless, with a view to avoid as long
as possible, the doubts and apprehensions
which must have arisen if the Government
had appeared as a purchaser in a new class
of operations, pains were taken to keep the
transaction secret, and the first cargoes from
America had been more than a fortnight in
Cork harbour before it became generally known that such a measure was in progress.
p.47
In order to distribute the food so obtained,
central depôts were established in various
parts of Ireland, under the direction of officers of the Commissariat, with sub-depôts
under the charge of the Constabulary and
Coast Guard; and, when the supplies in the
local markets were deficient, meal was sold
from these depôts at reasonable prices to
Relief Committees, where any existed; and
where they did not, to the labourers themselves. In the time of the heaviest pressure
(June and July 1846); one sub-depôt retailed
20 tons of meal daily, and the issues from
a single main depôt to its dependencies
amounted to 233 tons in one week.
The Relief Committees were formed; under
the superintendence of a Central Commission at Dublin; for the purpose of selling
food in detail to those who could buy it; and
of giving it to those who could not; the requisite funds being derived from private subscriptions, added to, in certain proportions,
by Government donations. The Relief
Committees also selected the persons to be
employed on the Relief Works carried on
under the superintendence of the Board of
Works.
If the Irish poor had been in the habit of
p.48
buying their food, as is the case in England,
the object would have been attained when
a cheap substitute had been provided for the
potato; but as the labouring class in Ireland
had hitherto subsisted on potatoes grown by
themselves, and money-wages were almost
unknown, it was necessary to adopt some
means of giving the people a command over
the new description of food. This was done
by establishing a system of public works,
in accordance with the previous practice on
similar occasions, both in Ireland and in
other countries.
These works, which consisted principally
of roads, were undertaken on the application
of the magistrates and principal cess-payers,
under the Act 9 & 10 Vic., c. 1, which was
passed for the purpose, and the expense of
executing them was defrayed by advances of
public money, half of which was a grant, and
half a loan to be repaid by the barony. The
largest number of persons employed in this
first season of relief was 97000, in August,
1846.
The first symptoms of neglected tillage
appeared in the Spring of 1846, and they
were worst in those districts in which the
Relief Works were carried on to the greatest
p.49
extent. The improvements in progress on
the Shannon and the arterial drainages were
also impeded by the preference which the
labourers showed for the Relief Works.
The measures of which we have been
speaking were brought to a close on the
15th August, 1846, and they may be considered to have answered their end. The
scarcity being partial and local, the deficiency
of one part of the country was supplied from
the superabundance of others, and the pains
taken to prevent the people from suffering
want, led to their being better off than in
ordinary years. Above all, Ireland was prepared by the course adopted during this
probationary season of distress, as it may
be called, to bear better the heavy affliction
of the succeeding season. No misapplication
of the funds deserving of notice took place,
except in the instance of the Relief Works,
the cause of which was as follows: — The
landed proprietors of Ireland had long been
accustomed to rely upon Government loans
and grants for making improvements of various kinds, and the terms on which the Relief
Works were to be executed being more advantageous than any which had been open to
them for many years before, a rush took
p.50
place from all quarters upon this fund, and
the special object of relieving the people
from the consequences of the failure of their
accustomed food, was to a great extent lost
sight of in the general fear, which in many
cases was not attempted to be concealed, of
being deprived of what the persons interested
called ‘their share of the grant.’ This description of relief, therefore, instead of acting
as a test of real distress, operated as a bounty
on applications for public works from a class
of persons who were at once charged with
the administration of the relief and were
interested in the execution of the works.
The result was that, while the applications
amounted to 1,289,816 l., the sum actually
sanctioned and expended was only 476,000 l.,
and great part even of this was merely yielded
to the distressing appeals pressed on the Lord
Lieutenant on the plea of urgent local destitution, and of the lamentable consequences
to be expected from allowing it to remain
unrelieved. The other expenses connected
with this season of relief were as follows: —
Loans on grand jury presentments, 130,000l.
loss on the purchase and sale of grain, 50,000l.
given in aid of Relief Committees, 69,845l.
extra staff of the Board of Works, 7,527l.
p.51
thus making the whole sum expended in
relief to Ireland, up to the 15th August,
1846, 733,372l., of which 368,000l. was in
loans, and 365,372l. in grants. The sum
raised by voluntary subscription through the
Relief Committees was 98,000l.
The new and more decisive failure of the
potato crop called for great exertions from
Lord John Russell's recently formed Government, and the plan resolved upon was
explained in the Treasury Minute dated the
31st August, 1846, which was published for
general information.24
The system of public works was renewed
by the Act 9 & 10 Vic., c. 107, which was
passed without any opposition in either
House of Parliament. In order to check
the exorbitant demands which had been
made during the preceding season, the whole
of the expense was made a local charge, and
the advances were directed to be repaid by
a rate levied according to the Poor Law
valuation, which makes the landlords liable
for the whole rate on tenements under 4 l.
yearly value, and for a proportion, generally
p.52
amounting to one-half, on tenements above
that value, instead of according to the grand
jury cess (the basis of the repayments under
the preceding Act), which lays the whole
burden upon the occupier. It was also
determined that the wages given on the
Relief Works should be somewhat below the
average rate of wages in the district; that
the persons employed, should, as far as
possible, be paid by task or in proportion
to the work actually done by them; and
that the Relief Committees, instead of giving
tickets entitling persons to employment on
the public works, should furnish lists of
persons requiring relief, which should be
carefully revised by the officers of the
Board of Works; the experience of the preceding season having shown that these precautions were necessary to confine the Relief
Works to the destitute, and to enforce a
reasonable quantum of work.
The question which the Government had
to decide, in regard to the renewal of the
Commissariat operations, was of the most
momentous kind. After all that had taken
place during the last few months, it could
not be expected that private trade would
return, as a matter of course, to its accustomed
p.53
channels. Neither the wholesale
dealers in towns, nor the retail dealers in
the rural districts, would lay in even their
usual stocks of food; still less would they
make the extraordinary provision required
to meet the coming emergency, while they
had before them the prospect of the Government throwing into the market supplies
of food of unknown extent, which might
make their outlay so much loss to them.
The Government could not, therefore, calculate, as it did on the former occasion, on
finding the private trade, by means of which
the people are ordinarily supplied with food,
proceeding as usual, and on being able to
add more or less, at its discretion, to the
resources which that trade afforded. Mercantile confidence in this branch of business
was, for the time, destroyed. The trade was
paralysed; and if this state of things had
been suffered to continue, the general expectation of the Government again interfering
would inevitably have created a necessity for
that interference, on a scale which it would
have been quite beyond the power of the
Government to support.
Under these circumstances it was announced, — 1st. That no orders for supplies
p.54
of food would be sent by the Government to
foreign countries. 2ndly. That the interference of the Government would be confined to those western districts of Ireland in
which, owing to the former prevalence of
potato cultivation, no trade in corn for local
consumption existed. And 3rdly. That even
in these districts, the Government depôts
would not be opened for the sale of food,
while it could be obtained from private
dealers at reasonable prices, with reference
to those which prevailed at the nearest large
marts. It was also determined to adhere to
the rule acted upon during the preceding
season, not to make any purchases in the
local markets of Ireland, where the appearance of the Government as a buyer
must have had the effect of keeping up
prices and encouraging interested representations; and a promise was given that every
practicable effort would be made to protect
the supplies of food introduced by private
traders, both while they were in transit and
when they were stored for future consumption.
The Relief Committees of the preceding
season were re-organised; the rules under
which they had acted were carefully revised;
p.55
and inspecting officers were appointed to
superintend their proceedings, and keep the
Government informed of the progress of
events. A large proportion of the people
of Ireland had been accustomed to grow the
food they required, each for himself, on his
own little plot of ground; and the social
machinery by which, in other countries, the
necessary supplies of food are collected,
stored, and distributed, had no existence
there. Suddenly, without any preparation,
the people passed from a potato food, which
they raised themselves, to a grain food,
which they had to purchase from others, and
which, in great part, had to be imported
from abroad; and the country was so entirely
destitute of the resources applicable to this
new state of things, that often, even in large
villages, neither bread nor flour was to be
procured; and in country districts, the
people had sometimes to walk twenty miles
before they could obtain a single stone of
meal. The main object for which the Relief
Committees were established, therefore, was
to provide a temporary substitute for the
operations of the corn-factor, miller, baker,
and provision-dealer, and to allow time and
furnish the example for a sounder and more
p.56
permanent state of things; but they were
not precluded from giving gratuitous relief
in cases of more than ordinary destitution.
The agency of Relief Committees was this
season almost universally substituted for the
coast guard and constabulary depôts with
the object of drawing out the resources of
the country before the Government depôts
were had recourse to, of inducing the upper
and middle classes to exert themselves, and
of preventing a direct pressure of the mass
of the people upon the Government depôts,
which in a time of real famine it would
have been very difficult to resist.
Such was the plan resolved upon for the
campaign of 1846–7 against the approaching
famine, and we shall now show the result
of the struggle.
It was hoped that a breathing-time would
have been allowed at the season of harvest,
to enable the Board of Works to reorganize their establishments on a scale proportioned to the magnitude of the task about
to devolve on them, and to prepare, through
their district officers, plans and estimates
of suitable works for the assistance of the
baronial sessions. This interval was not
obtained. The general failure of the potato
p.57
crop spread despondency and alarm from
one end of Ireland to the other, and induced
every class of persons to throw themselves
upon the Government for aid. On the 6th
of September, the Lord Lieutenant ordered
all the discontinued works under the 9 &
10 Vic., c. 1, to be recommenced, and sessions were rapidly held in all the southern
and western counties of Ireland, at which
roads were presented in the mass, under
the 9 & 10 Vic., c 107, the cost of which,
in some cases, much exceeded the annual
rental of the barony. The resident gentry
and rate-payers, whose duty it was to ascertain, as far as possible, the probable amount
of destitution in their neighbourhood, the
sum required to relieve it, and the works
upon which that sum could best be expended,
and who had the necessary local knowledge,
in almost every case devolved these functions
upon the Board of Works, who could only
act on such information as they could obtain
from naval and military officers and engineers, most of whom were selected from
among strangers to the district, in order to
prevent undue influence being used. After
that, to advance the funds; to select the
labourers; to superintend the work; to pay
p.58
the people weekly; to enforce proper performance of the labour; if the farm works
were interrupted, to ascertain the quantity
of labour required for them; to select and
draft off the proper persons to perform it;
to settle the wages to be paid to them by
the farmers, and see that they were paid;
to furnish food, not only for all the destitute
out of doors, but in some measure for the
paupers in the workhouses, were the duties
which the Government and its officers were
called upon to perform. The proprietors
and associated rate-payers having presented
indefinitely, said it was the fault of the
Government and its officers if the people
were not instantly employed, and these
officers were blamed, even by persons of
character and understanding, if they were
not at once equal to execute the duties
which in this country are performed in their
respective districts by thousands of country
gentlemen, magistrates, guardians, overseers,
surveyors, &c, resident throughout the
country, and trained by the experience of
years to the performance of their various
functions. The Board of Works became
the centre of a colossal organization; 5,000
separate works had to be reported upon;
p.59
12,000 subordinate officers had to be superintended. Their letters averaged upwards
of 800 a-day, and the number received on
each of the following days was —
January 4th, - 3,104
February 15th, - 4,900
April 19th, - 4,340
May 17th, - - 6,03325
The strain on the springs of society from
this monstrous system of centralisation was
fearful in the extreme. The Government,
which ought only to mediate between the
different classes of society, had now to bear
the immediate pressure of the millions, on
the sensitive points of wages and food. The
opposition to task-work was general, and
the enforcement of it became a trial of
strength between the Government and the
multitude. The officers of the Board were
in numerous instances the objects of murderous attacks, and it became necessary for
p.60
the preservation of the whole community, to
have recourse to the painful expedient of
stopping the works whenever cases of insubordination or outrage occurred.
Meanwhile, the number of persons employed on the works was rapidly on the
increase. The utmost exertions of two sets
of inspecting officers, one under the Board
of Works, and the other under Sir R. Routh,
were insufficient to revise the lists; and the
Lord Lieutenant in vain directed that no
person rated above 6l. for the Poor Law
cess, should, except under very special circumstances, be eligible for employment.
Thousands upon thousands were pressed
upon the officers of the Board of Works in
every part of Ireland, and it was impossible
for those officers to test the accuracy of the
urgent representations which were made to
them. The attraction of money wages regularly paid from the public purse, or the
‘Queen's pay,’ as it was popularly called,
led to a general abandonment of other descriptions of industry, in order to participate
in the advantages of the Relief Works.
Landlords competed with each other in
getting the names of their tenants placed on
the lists; farmers dismissed their labourers
p.61
and sent them to the works; the clergy insisted on the claims of the members of
their respective congregations; the fisheries
were deserted; and it was often difficult even
to get a coat patched or a pair of shoes
mended, to such an extent had the population of the south and west of Ireland turned
out upon the roads. The average number
employed in October was 114,000; in November, 285,000; in December, 440,000;
and in January, 1847, 570,000. It was
impossible to exact from such multitudes a
degree of labour which would act as a test of
destitution. Huddled together in masses,
they contributed to each other's idleness,
and there were no means of knowing who
did a fair proportion of work and who did
not. The general enforcement of the system
of task work had justly been considered
necessary to stimulate the industry of the
labourers on the Relief Works, but when
this point had been carried, after a hard
struggle, the old abuse reappeared in the
aggravated form of an habitual collusion
between the labourers and the overseers who
were appointed to measure their work; so
that the labourers, if they could be so called,
were not only as idle as ever, but were enabled
p.62
withal to enjoy a rate of wages which
ought only to have been the reward of superior industry.
The plan of the Labour Rate Act (9 & 10
Vic.,. r c. 107) was based on the supposition
that the great majority of the landlords and
farmers would make those exertions and
submit to those sacrifices which the magnitude of the crisis demanded, leaving only
a manageable proportion of the population
to be supported by the Board of Works;
and the Act would probably have answered
its object, if a larger, instead of a smaller
number of persons than usual had been employed in the cultivation and improvement
of the land, and the Relief Committees had
put only those who were really destitute
upon the lists. Including the families of
the persons employed, upwards of two millions of people were maintained by the
Relief Works, but there were other multitudes behind, including often the most
helpless portion of the community, for
whom no work could be found. The Relief
Works did not always furnish a subsistence
even for those who were employed on them.
The wages, paid regularly in money, were
higher than any which had ever been given
p.63
for agricultural labour in Ireland, but at
the existing prices of food they were insufficient for the support of a family, melancholy
proof of which was afforded by daily instances
of starvation in connexion with the Relief
Works.26 The fearful extent to which the
rural population had been thrown for support upon the Board of Works also threatened a disastrous neglect of the ordinary
tillage. If the people were retained on the
works, their lands must remain uncultivated;
p.64
if they were put off the works, they must starve. A change of system had become inevitable, and when Parliament met
in the end of January, it was announced
that the Government intended to put an
end to the Public Works, and to substitute
for them another mode of relief, which will
be hereafter described.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the Relief
Works was continually on the increase, and
the persons daily employed, who in January
had been 570,000, became in February
708,000, and in March amounted to the
enormous number of 734,000,27 representing
p.65
at a moderate estimate of the average
extent of each family, upwards of three millions of persons. At last, the Government,
seeing that the time suited for agricultural
operations was rapidly passing away, and
that the utmost exertions made on the spot
had failed in keeping the numbers in check,
took the matter into its own hands, and directed that on the 20th March, 20 per cent,
of the persons employed should be struck
off the lists; after which, successive reductions were ordered, proportioned to the progress made in bringing the new system of
relief into operation in each district. These
orders were obeyed, and the crisis passed
without any disturbance of the public peace
or any perceptible aggravation of the distress. The necessary labour was returned to
agriculture, and the foundation was laid of
the late abundant harvest in Ireland, by
which the downward progress of that country
has been mercifully stayed, and new strength
and spirits have been given for working out
her regeneration. In the first week in April,
the persons employed on the Relief Works
were reduced to 525,000; in the first week
in May to 419,000; in the first week in
June to 101,000; and in the week ending
p.66
the 26th June to 28,000. The remaining
expenditure was limited to a sum of 200,000 l.
for the month of May, and to the rate of
100,000 l. a-month for June, July, and the
first fifteen days of August, when the Act
expired. These sums were afterwards permitted to be exceeded to a certain extent,
but the object was attained of putting a curb
on this monstrous system and of bringing
it gradually and quietly to a close. Great
exertions were made, and a heavy expense
was incurred, to leave the roads and other
works in progress in a safe and passable state
as far as they had gone; but their completion
must depend upon the parties locally interested in them. From the first commencement of the Relief Works in February 1846,
repeated warnings were given that the object
was not the works themselves, but the relief
of the prevailing destitution through the
employment afforded by them; that the
works would be closed as soon as they were
no longer required for that purpose; and
that if the proprietors desired to complete
them, they might do so under the ordinary
system of Government loans made on the
security of county presentments.28
p.67
This system threw off a shoot, the history
of which it is necessary to trace. In order
to impose some limits on what threatened
to become a gigantic system of permanently
supporting one portion of the community at
the expense of the remainder, and of making
provision out of the taxes for classes of
undertakings which properly belong to the
economy of private life, the application of
the public money under the Labour Rate
Acts was strictly limited to works of a public
character, which were not likely to be undertaken except for the purpose of giving relief.
This condition was generally objected to in
Ireland; and although no disposition was
evinced to take advantage of the loans which
the Government was ready to make under
the General Improvement and Drainage
Acts, a great desire was expressed that the
funds advanced under the Labour Rate Act
should be employed on what were called
reproductive works. The Lord Lieutenant,
having obtained the sanction of the Government, yielded to this general feeling, and
p.68
authorized presentments to be made for the
drainage and subsoiling of the estates of
individuals, provided they consented to their
estates being charged with the repayment of
the sums advanced. This was the arrangement which acquired so much notoriety under
the name of ‘Labouchere's Letter’ owing
to its having been announced by the publication of a letter from Mr. Labouchere, who
then held the office of Secretary for Ireland,
to the Board of Works, dated 5th October,
1846; but the result did not answer the
expectations which had been formed. The
aggregate amount presented ‘under the
Letter’ was 370,607 l., of which presentments were acted on to the gross amount of
239,476 l. The sum actually expended was
about 180,000 l.; and the largest number of
persons at any one time employed was 26,961
in the month of May, 1847. Some incidental
good was done by the example of the advantages of thorough draining, and of the proper
mode of executing it; but, as a remedy for
the wide-spread calamity, the plan totally
failed.
Upon this, a two-fold agitation sprang up.
Some landed proprietors required that their
liability should be confined to the relief of
p.69
the destitute on their own estates; while
others demanded that, instead of being employed on the roads, the people should be
paid for working on their own farms. Both
these movements were steadily resisted by
the Government. The objection to the first
was, that if the inhabitants of the pauperised
districts had been separated from the rest
in the administration of the measures of
relief, they must either have starved or have
become entirely dependent on the Consolidated Fund; while, if the other plan had
been adopted, the entire cost of carrying on
the agriculture of the country would have
been transferred to the Government, without
its being possible either to test the applications for assistance, or to enforce a proper
amount of exertion. This last scheme was
most clamorously urged in the county of
Clare, and it may be considered as the masterpiece of that system of social economy
according to which the machine of society
should be worked backwards, and the Government should be made to support the
people, instead of the people the Government. The Government was also to provide tools and seed as well as wages, but the
rent was to be received by the same parties
as before.
p.70
Baronial presentments were authorized for
the construction of railway earthworks, as
relief works under the 9 & 10 Vic., c. 107,
subject to the conditions required for the
fulfilment of the object of the Act;29 but advantage was taken of this permission only in two baronies of the county of Cork,
where the Waterford and Limerick Railway
was aided from this source.
The silver currency which had previously
sufficed for a people who lived upon potatoes grown by themselves, and paid their
rent by so many days' labour, fell short of
what was required to pay the labourers employed on the numerous Relief Works carried on simultaneously in different parts of
the country, and a large supply was therefore
distributed, by means of a Government
steamer, among the principal towns on the
coast of Ireland. On the cessation of the
Relief Works, the greater part of this coin
accumulated in the banks, which were relieved by the transmission of the surplus to
the Cape of Good Hope to aid in carrying
on the Caffre war.
In the Commissariat branch of the operations,
p.71
every pledge which had been given
was strictly adhered to, and confidence having been re-established, prodigious efforts
were made by the mercantile community to
provide against the approaching scarcity.
The whole world was ransacked for supplies;
Indian corn, the taste for which had by this
time taken root in Ireland, rose to a higher
price than wheat; and the London and
Liverpool markets were again and again
swept by the enterprising operations of the
Irish dealers, who, from an early period,
appreciated the full extent of the calamity,
and acted upon the principle that the gulf
which had opened in Ireland would swallow
all that could be thrown into it, and remain
still unsatisfied. In February 1847, the beneficial effect of these measures began to be
apparent. On the 24th of that month, Mr.
N. Cummins, a respectable merchant of Cork,
wrote as follows to Mr. Trevelyan:
‘From this gloomy picture I turn to the supply
of food, and am happy to say that in this quarter
the importations, both direct and from England,
during the past month, have been very large;
heavy cargoes of maize continue almost daily to
arrive, and I feel persuaded that the stocks of
bread stuffs generally are accumulating here to a
p.72
much larger amount than some of our dealers
would have it believed. Prices cannot, however,
be quoted at more than a turn below the extreme
point yet; they stand as follows, — say Indian
corn, by retail, 17 l. 15s. and 18 l. per ton; Indian
meal to 19 l.; oatmeal, 25 l.; wheaten meal, 19 l.
to 20 l. per ton.’
On the 12th March, the same gentleman
wrote, —
‘Our market for Indian corn seems at length
quite glutted, the arrivals within the last few days
having been so extremely numerous, that the trade
is unable to take off the supply, or indeed to
find sufficient stowage in the city. Several cargoes for discharge here are at this moment lying
under demurrage, and I may quote the article
15s. to 20s. per ton cheaper than a fortnight
since.’
And on the 19th, —
‘There are at present over 100 sail, containing an aggregate amount of bread stuffs not short of 20,000 tons, afloat in our harbour; and
maize, which a month since brought freely 18 l.
per ton, is this day offered in small parcels at
15 l.’
And on the same day Father Matthew
wrote to Mr. Trevelyan as follows: —Lb>
‘For the first time since the Lord visited this
p.73
unhappy land with famine, I address you with
delight. The markets are rapidly falling; Indian
corn from 16 l. to 15 l. per ton. The vast importations, and the still more vast exportations
from America, have produced this blessed
effect.’
On the 26th March, Mr. Cummins states —
‘I have now to report the continuance each
day of numerous arrivals of food cargoes here;
the additional number during the present week
(mostly maize laden) considerably exceeds 100
sail, several being American ships of large burthen; and although many have proceeded to
other ports, the number afloat, waiting orders
or sale, has been fully doubled. I cannot estimate the fleet this day in our harbours at less
than 250 sail, nor the contents at much under
50,000 tons. Indian corn may be purchased at
14 l. by the cargo, and retailed at 15 l. per ton.’
It now began to be perceived that more
was to be expected from the collective exertions of the merchants of the United
Kingdom, than from the Admiralty or the
Commissariat. The whole quantity of corn
imported into Ireland in the first six months
of 1847 was 2,849,508 qrs., which was worth,
at the then current prices, 8,764,943l.;
and the Irish market was, to use the words
p.74
of the present Lord Lieutenant, ‘freer,
cheaper, and better supplied, than that of
any country in Europe where distress prevailed, and where those measures of interference and restriction had been unwisely
adopted which were successfully resisted
here.’ The price of Indian corn, which
in the middle of February had been 19 l.
a-ton, was reduced at the end of March to
13 l., and at the end of August to 7 l. 10s.
a-ton; and such was the quantity of shipping which flocked to the United States on
the first intelligence of the unusual demand
for freight, that the rate for the conveyance
of corn to the United Kingdom, which had
been as high as 9s. per barrel during the
winter months, was as low as 4s. 6d. in
May, and has since fallen to 1s. 9d. It
may safely be asserted that these results
would not have been obtained, if the great
body of our English and Irish merchants
and shipowners, instead of having free
scope given to their exertions, had been left
under the discouraging impression that all
their calculations might be upset by the
sudden appearance in the foreign market,
of Government vessels and Government
orders for supplies. The noble harbour of
p.75
Cork was established as the house of call
and entrepot for the grain ships bound to
every part of Western Europe; and the
merchant being now free either to sell on
the spot or to re-export, Ireland began to
enjoy the benefit of her admirable commercial position, by getting the first, and
largest, and cheapest supply.
Nevertheless, the public establishments
were not idle. Upwards of 300,000 quarters of corn were purchased from time to
time to supply the Government depôts on
the western coast of Ireland, and large stores
p.76
of biscuit and salt meat, which had been
laid up at the different military stations in
the year 1843, in anticipation of popular
disturbances arising out of the repeal movement, were now applied to the relief of the
people. One of the consequences of the sudden change from a potato to a corn diet, was,
that the means of grinding were seriously
deficient. The powerful Admiralty mills at
Deptford, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Malta,
besides two large hired mills, were therefore
constantly employed in grinding the corn
bought by the Commissariat, leaving the
mill-power of Ireland to the private importers of grain into that country; and
hand-mills, on the principle of the old
Irish Quern, were made for distribution
in the most distressed districts; while
others, constructed on an improved principle, were procured from France. Thirty-four large depôts were established on the
western side of Ireland, from Dunfanaghy,
in the most northern part of Donegal, to
Skibbereen, in the south-west of the county
of Cork: and the sales were made, as far
as possible, to the Relief Committees, with
the double object of drawing forth the resources and activity of the upper classes,
p.77
and of preventing an indiscriminate pressure upon the depôts, which it would have
been difficult to resist. Several ships of war
were moored in convenient situations and
used as store-ships. The largest and most
powerful war-steamers, reinforced, when the
occasion required it, by sailing vessels, were
appropriated to the conveyance of the meal
from the mills in England to the depôts in
Ireland, and every other available steamer,
not excepting the Admiralty yacht, was
employed in making the necessary transfers
between the depôts, and in conveying the
supplies which the Relief Committees had
purchased.
The highest praise to which these great
operations are entitled, is that they were
carried through without any sensible disturbance of the ordinary course of trade,
and that in some important respects they
even gave new life and development to it.
The purchases were all made in the home
market, and care was taken never to give
the highest current price. The sales were
made at the wholesale price of the nearest
large mart, with a reasonable addition for
the cost of carriage, &c. When supplies
p.78
of food could be obtained elsewhere, the
depôts were closed. Private merchants,
therefore, imported largely in the face of
the Government depôts; while, in the remote western districts, the Commissariat
acted as pioneers to the ordinary trade,
and led the way to habits of commercial
enterprise where before they had no existence.
There was the same general pressure for
the premature opening of the depôts as for
the early commencement of Relief Works,
but in this case it was successfully resisted.
It was explained that the Government depôts were intended to be a last resource to
supply the deficiencies of the trade, and not
to take the place of that trade; and that if
the depôts were opened while the country
was still full of the produce of the late harvest, that produce would be exported before
the spring supplies arrived from America
and the Black Sea, and the population would
become entirely dependent upon the depôts,
which must, in that case, soon come to a
discreditable and disastrous stop. Meanwhile, great exertions were made to protect
the provision trade, and the troops and
p.79
constabulary were harassed by continual escorts. The plunder of bakers' shops and
bread-carts, and the shooting of horses and
breaking up of roads, to prevent the removal
of provisions, were matters of daily occurrence; and at Limerick, Galway, and elsewhere, mobs prevented any articles of food
from leaving the towns, while the country
people resisted their being carried in. Convoys under military protection proceeded at
stated intervals from place to place, without
which nothing in the shape of food could be
sent with safety.
As many as 1097 Relief Committees were
established under the superintendence of the
Commissariat; while 199,470 l.30 was subscribed
p.80
by private individuals, and 189,914 l.
was granted by the Government (making
together 389,384 l.) in support of their
operations.
One of the functions of these committees was to provide supplies of food for sale at the current market price; and when the
rise of prices began to be seriously felt, the
Government was called upon from every
p.81
part of Ireland to permit the grants of public money made to the committees to be
employed in reducing the price of provisions
to that of ordinary years. To this demand
it was impossible for the Government to
accede. In 1845–6 the scarcity was confined
to a few districts of Ireland, while there was
abundance everywhere else. The question,
therefore, at that time, was a money one; and
all that was required to relieve the distress,
was to purchase a sufficient quantity of food
elsewhere and to send it into the distressed
districts. In 1846-7, on the contrary, the
scarcity was general, extending over all Western Europe, and threatening a famine in
other quarters besides Ireland. The present
question, therefore, was not a money, but
a food question. The entire stock of food
for the whole United Kingdom was insufficient, and it was only by carefully husbanding it, that it could be made to last till harvest. If provisions had been cheapened out
of the public purse, consumption would have
p.82
proceeded in a time of severe scarcity, at the
same rate as in a time of moderate plenty;
the already insufficient stock of food would
have been expended with a frightful rapidity,
and in order to obtain a few weeks of ease,
we should have had to endure a desolating
famine. Those Relief Committees which
attempted to follow this plan speedily exhausted their capital; and private dealers
(who necessarily lay in their stock at the
current market price, whatever that may
be) retired from the competition with public bodies selling food at prices artificially
reduced by charitable subscriptions and
grants out of national funds.
The other function of the Relief Committees was to give gratuitous aid in cases
of extreme destitution, and this was well
performed by them to the extent of their
means. As the distress increased, the distribution of cooked food by the establishment of soup-kitchens was found the most
effectual means of alleviating it. The attention of the committees was therefore generally directed to this object by the Inspecting Officers. Boilers were manufactured and sent to Ireland in great numbers,
and Government donations were now in
p.83
every case made equal in amount to the
private subscriptions (‘pound for pound’),
and in cases of more than usual pressure,
twice or three times that amount was given.
This mode of giving relief was not found to
be attended with any serious abuse. The
committees expended in a great measure
their own money, which made them more
careful in seeing that it was laid out with
the greatest possible advantage and economy; and as the ration of cooked food
distributed by them was not an object of
desire to persons in comfortable circumstances, as money wages were, it acted
in a great degree as a test of destitution.
The defect of this system of relief was,
that being voluntary, it could not be relied
on to meet the necessities of a numerous
population in a period of great emergency,
and the difficulty of obtaining private subscriptions was often greatest in the most
distressed districts.
The point at which we had arrived, therefore, at the commencement of the year 1847,
was, that the system of Public Works,
although recommended by the example of all
former occasions on which relief had been
afforded to the people of Ireland in seasons
p.84
of distress, had completely broken down
under the pressure of this wide-spread calamity; while the other concurrent system,
which, on the principle of the Poor Law,
aimed at giving relief, in the most direct
form, out of funds locally raised, had succeeded to the extent to which it had been
tried. The works were therefore brought
to a close in the manner which has been
already described: and it was determined to
complete the system of relief by the distribution of food, to give it legal validity, and
to place it more decidedly on the basis of the
Poor Law. This was done by the passing
of the Act 10 Vic., c. 7. A Relief Committee,
composed of the magistrates, one clergyman
of each persuasion, the Poor Law guardian,
and the three highest rate-payers, was constituted in each electoral division,31 the unit
of Irish Poor Law statistics. A Finance
Committee, consisting of four gentlemen,
carefully selected for their weight of character
and knowledge of business, was formed to
control the expenditure in each union. Inspecting Officers were appointed, most of
p.85
whom had been trained under the Board of
Works and Sir R. Routh; and a Commission
sitting in Dublin, of which Sir J. Burgoyne
was the head, and the Poor Law Commissioner was one of the members, superintended
the whole system. The expense was to be
defrayed by payments made by the guardians out of the produce of the rates; and
when this fund was insufficient, as it always
proved to be, it was reinforced by Government loans, to be repaid by rates subsequently
levied. Free grants were also made in aid of
the rates in those unions in which the number of destitute poor was largest, compared
with the means of relieving them, and when
private subscriptions were raised, donations
were made to an equal amount.
The check principally relied on, therefore,
was, that the expenditure should be conducted, either immediately or proximately,
out of the produce of the rates. No loan was
to be made to any Board of Guardians until
the Inspecting Officer had certified that they
had passed a resolution to make the rate
upon which it was to be secured, and that,
to the best of his belief, they were proceeding with all possible dispatch to make
p.86
and levy such rate. This principle, although
still imperfectly applied, and consequently
irregular in its action, exercised a pervading
influence over the working of this system of
relief. In forming the lists of persons to be
relieved, and making their demands upon
the Commissioners, few committees altogether rejected the idea that it was their own
money which they were spending; and in
some districts the farmer rate-payers assembled, and insisted on large numbers of persons
being struck off the lists, who they knew
were not entitled to relief. The tests applied
to the actual recipients of relief were, that
the personal attendance of all parties requiring relief was insisted on, exceptions being
made in favour of the sick, impotent, and
children under nine years of age, and that
the relief was directed to be given only in
the shape of cooked food, distributed in
portions declared by the best medical authorities to be sufficient to maintain health and
strength. The ‘cooked food test’32 was
p.87
found particularly efficacious in preventing
abuse; and the enforcement of it in some
parts of the country cost a severe struggle.
Undressed meal might be converted into
cash by those who did not require it as food;
and even the most destitute often disposed
of it for tea, tobacco, or spirits; but stirabout, which becomes sour by keeping, has
no value in the market, and persons were
therefore not likely to apply for it, who did
not want it for their own consumption.
Attempts were made to apply the labour test
to this system of relief; but, besides the
practical difficulty of want of tools and proper
superintendence, the Commissioners considered that, owing to the absence of any adequate motive, it would ‘lead to a want of exertion on the part of the men which would
perhaps be more demoralising than relief
without any work.’ It was therefore left to
the Relief Committees in large towns and
p.88
other situations favourable to such a mode of
proceeding, to take their own course upon
it; and the result was, that some light kinds
of labour, such as cleaning the streets and
whitewashing the cabins, were exacted by a
few of the more zealous and active committees. Relief in aid of wages was strenuously insisted on by many of the Relief
Committees, and was steadily and successfully resisted by the Commission; but it
was not considered right, in the administration of a temporary measure, to require
the surrender of the land held by applicants,
provided they were proved to be at the time
in a state of destitution.
This system reached its highest point in
the month of July, 1847, when out of 2,049
electoral divisions, into which Ireland is
divided, 1,826 had been brought under the
operation of the Act, and 3,020,712 persons
received separate rations, of whom 2,265,534
were adults, and 755,178 were children.
This multitude was again gradually and
peaceably thrown on its own resources at
the season of harvest, when new and abundant supplies of food became available, and
the demand for labour was at its highest
p.89
amount. Relief was discontinued to fifty-five
unions on the 15th August, and the issues
to the remaining unions entirely ceased on
the 12th September. The latest date allowed
by the Act for advances to be made, was
the 1st October.
This was the second occasion on which
upwards of three millions of people had been
fed ‘out of the hands of the magistrate,’
but this time it was effectual. The Relief
Works had been crowded with persons who
had other means of subsistence, to the exclusion of the really destitute; but a ration
of cooked food proved less attractive than
full money wages, and room was thus made
for the helpless portion of the community.
The famine was stayed. The ‘affecting and
heart-rending crowds of destitutes’33 disappeared from the streets; the cadaverous,
hunger-stricken countenances of the people
gave place to looks of health; deaths from
starvation ceased; and cattle-stealing, plundering provisions, and other crimes prompted
by want of food, were diminished by half in
the course of a single month. The Commission
p.90
closed amidst general applause, and
‘Resolutions were received from many hundreds of the committees, praising the conduct of the inspecting officers, and frankly
and honourably expressing their gratitude
to Government and the Legislature for the
effective means afforded them for carrying
out this benevolent operation.’34 This
enterprise was in truth the ‘grandest
attempt ever made to grapple with famine
over a whole country.’35 Organised armies,
amounting altogether to some hundreds of
thousands, had been rationed before; but
neither ancient nor modern history can
furnish a parallel to the fact that upwards of
three millions of persons were fed every day
in the neighbourhood of their own homes,
by administrative arrangements emanating
from and controlled by one central office.
The expense was moderate compared
with the magnitude of the object. The
amount at which it was originally estimated
by the Commissioners was 3,000,000 l.; the
sum for which Parliament was asked to
p.91
provide was 2.200,000 l., and the sum actually
expended was 1,557,212 l., of which 146,631 l.
was paid to the Commissariat for meal supplied to the Relief Committees from the
Government Depôts. The price of meal
fortunately fell more than one-fifth during
the progress of these operations, or from
2 1/2d. a ration, to less than 2d., including all
expenses of establishment.
The Finance Committees, which were
selected bodies, consisting of from two to
four gentlemen in each union, ‘with rare
exceptions acted with zeal and intelligence.’36 The Relief Committees, a miscellaneous body
composed of the foremost persons in each
petty district, whoever they might be, showed,
as was to be expected, every variety of good
and bad conduct. In some cases the three
highest rate-payers could not read, and even
themselves established claims to be placed
on the list of destitute for daily rations. It
is a fact very honourable to Ireland, that
among upwards of 2000 local bodies to whom
advances were made under this Act, there
is not one to which, so far as the Government is informed, any suspicion of embezzlement attaches.
p.92
In order to check the progress of the
fever, which, as usual, followed in the train
of famine, the Act 10 Vic., c. 22 was passed,
by which the Relief Committees were empowered to attend to the proper burial of
the dead, to provide temporary hospitals, to
clear away nuisances, and to ventilate and
cleanse cabins, the necessary funds being
advanced by the Government in the same
manner as the advances for providing food.
These sanitary arrangements were extensively
acted upon and at moderate expense. On
the 17th August 326 hospitals and dispensaries had been authorized, with accommodation for more than 23,000 patients, with
medical officers, nurses, ward-maids, &c.
The additional expense incurred under this
Act, was 119,055 l., the whole of which was
made a free grant to the unions, in aid of
rates.
The state of the finances of some of the
unions was a source of deep anxiety through
the winter and spring of 1846–7. Rates
were not collected sufficient to defray the
current expenses of the workhouses of these
unions, and the guardians threatened to turn
the inmates into the street, if assistance
were not given from the public purse. The
p.93
dilemma was a painful and perplexing one.
There was no reason to doubt the readiness
of some of the persons who held this language
to put their threat into execution; while, to
admit the claim, might bring upon the Government the greater number of the workhouses, in addition to the whole of the outdoor
relief; in other words, would transfer to national funds a burden intended by law to be
local, and not likely to be administered with
economy on any other footing. Important
aid was, however, given. Large supplies of
clothing were collected from the stores of
the army and navy, and sent to Ireland for
the use of the workhouses. Small sums
of money, amounting in the aggregate to
23,503 l., were lent from time to time with
a sparing hand to assist the guardians in
providing food and clothing in the most
pressing and necessitous cases; 4,479 l. was
expended in providing proper medical inspection and superintendence in localities in
which great sickness prevailed; and 60,000 l.
was advanced for the enlargement of the
workhouses, principally by the erection of
fever-wards.
The improvement of the Fisheries on the
western coast of Ireland has always been an
p.94
object much pressed upon the Government.
In order to give the fishermen a motive for
exertion, and to set them an example of improved modes of preparing the fish for sale,
experienced curers were obtained from the
Fishery Board in Scotland; six stations were
formed, at which fish are purchased at a fair
market-price, cured, and sold again for consumption to the highest bidder; and supplies of salt and tackle were provided for sale to the fishermen. This was done without any expense to the public, by means of
a sum of 5000 l. placed at the disposal of
the Government out of the balance of the
subscription for the relief of Irish distress in
1822.
The plan of making small loans to fishermen to enable them to equip themselves for
their trade, was not resorted to, because
experience had proved that the fishermen
are induced by it to rely upon others, instead
of themselves, and that they acquire habits
of chicanery and bad faith in their prolonged struggle to evade the payment of
the loans. Sir J. Burgoyne had authority
given him by the British Relief Association,
to apply 500 l. to this object, and he induced the Relief Committee of the Society
p.95
of Friends to take up the same cause. ‘I
have made,’ he states, ‘many inquiries for
the purpose, but I have always made it a
point that there should be a decided prospect of any advances being repaid, and here
the matter hangs. The officers all report
that they doubt being able to get the money
back; and I think it so necessary to be firm
on this point, that I have not made use of
a penny of the 500 l., and have recommended
the Friends to reserve their funds also for
a better mode of expending them.’ Since
then, the Society of Friends, who are able to
give a more particular attention to such subjects than it is possible for the Government
to do, have done much good by assisting
poor fishermen to redeem their nets and
other implements of their trade, which they
had pawned during the season of extreme
distress; and these excellent people have
also adopted an admirable plan of providing
good boats and all requisite gear, with a
competent person to instruct the native
fishermen, who are formed into companies
or partnerships and work out the value of
the boats, &c, of which they may then
become the owners. A large supply of
seamen's jackets and trousers, obtained
p.95
from the Admiralty, was delivered to the
Society of Friends, for distribution among
the poor fishermen on the west of Ireland.
From the first failure of the potato crop
in 1845, the subject of providing seed was
repeatedly considered, and the conclusion
invariably arrived at was, that the moment
it came to be understood that the Government had taken upon itself the responsibility
of this delicate and peculiar branch of rural
economy, the painful exertions made by private individuals in every part of Ireland to
reserve a stock of seed would be relaxed,
and the quantity consumed as food in consequence of the interference of the Government, would greatly exceed the quantity
supplied by means of that interference.
The Government therefore never undertook
to supply any kind of seed already in extensive use; but Holland was had recourse to
for flax and rye seed, Scotland for the hardy
description of barley called bere, and England and the neighbouring Continental countries furnished turnip, carrot, beet-root, and
other vegetable and green-crop seeds; all of
which were sent to Ireland for sale at low
prices, and latterly for gratuitous distribution. More than thirteen tons of turnip seed
p.97
belonging to the Government and the British
Relief Association were distributed in the
county of Mayo alone37, besides 125 hogsheads of flax seed; by which means, in
addition to the present supply of food
obtained, a foundation was laid for an
improved system of agriculture by a rotation of crops. One of the remedial measures proposed by the Government at the
commencement of the parliamentary session
of 1847, was to make loans to landed proprietors to the aggregate amount of 50,000 l.
to enable them to provide their tenants with
seed, which loans were to have been repaid
out of the produce of the crops raised from
the seed; but nobody availed himself of this
boon. The objections which exist to the
Government leaving its province to interfere in the ordinary business of private life,
were in nothing more clearly demonstrated
p.98
than in what took place in reference to this
subject. The accidental detention, by contrary winds, of a vessel laden with rye and
bere seed, called forth expressions of anger
and disappointment from various parts of
the west and south of Ireland which had
depended upon this supply; and the unfounded belief that the Government had
entered upon a general undertaking to provide seed corn, largely contributed to that
criminal apathy which was one of the causes
of large tracts of land being left waste in
1846–47. On the other hand, it was found,
when inquiries were made for vegetable seeds
in the spring of 1847, that every ounce of
parsnip seed in the London market had been
already bought up and sent to Ireland;
which is only one instance among many that
might be adduced, of the reliance which may
be placed on private interest and enterprise
on occasions of this sort.38
p.99
There is still another measure which does
not the less deserve to be mentioned, because it ended in failure. The Act 9 & 10
Vic. c. 109, passed at the close of the session
of 1846, had appropriated a sum of 50,000 l.
p.100
to be granted in aid of public works of
acknowledged utility, one-half of the expense
of which was to be provided for by a loan,
and another portion was to be contributed
in cash by the persons principally interested
p.101
in the works. No application was made to
participate in the advantage of this arrangement, and the 50,000 l. was therefore transferred in the next session of Parliament to
the erection of Fishery Piers and other useful
objects.
The qualities displayed by the officers
intrusted with the conduct of these great
operations, will always be regarded as a
bright spot in the cloud which hangs over
this disastrous period. The nation had
never been better served. The administrative ability which enabled Sir R. Routh to dispose, without hurry or confusion, of
masses of business which to most persons
would have been overwhelming; the stoutness
p.102
of heart with which Colonel Jones
commanded, and ultimately disbanded his
army of 740,000 able-bodied Irishmen; the
admirable sagacity displayed by Sir J. Burgoyne in coming to a safe practical decision
upon perplexed social questions, then perhaps for the first time presented to him;
the remarkable financial ability of Mr. Bromley, the accountant to the Relief Commission; the cordial co-operation of Admiral
Sir Hugh Pigot and his able secretary, Mr.
Nicholls, and the valuable assistance rendered in many different ways by Colonel
Mac Gregor, the head of the Constabulary
Force, proved that, however great the crisis
might be, the persons in chief trust were
equal to it.39 But the most gratifying feature
of all, was the zeal and unanimity with which
the large body of Officers employed devoted
themselves to this labour of love,40 although
p.103
they had been suddenly brought together for
this particular occasion from many different
branches of the public service, or from the
retirement of private life. It may truly be
said of them, that they ‘offered themselves
willingly among the people;’ and several
painful casualties from the prevailing fever,
and the failing health of others, showed
that the risks and hardships attending this
service were of no ordinary kind. The
officers and men belonging to the numerous ships of war employed in the ‘Relief
Service,’ entered with characteristic spirit
upon duties which indicated in a more direct
manner than ever before, that the real object of their noble profession, is, not to
destroy men's lives, but to save them; and
it was creditable to their seamanship, as well
as their humanity, that the dangers and
hardships attending their incessant employment on the exposed western coasts of Ireland and Scotland during the stormy months
p.104
of winter, did not lead to the loss of a single
vessel.41
p.105
A slight reference to the exertions which
had to be made for the single object of conducting and checking the expenditure, will
give some idea of the magnitude and difficulty of the task which was imposed on the
officers of the Crown.
In establishing a system of Relief Works,
intended to bring employment to every
man's door, it was impossible to avoid
creating an extensive staff for the superintendence and payment of the labouring
poor. Very voluminous accounts suddenly
poured into the Office of Works from all
parts of Ireland; and as the lives of thousands depended upon the supply of funds,
is became a duty of the first importance to
insure their immediate distribution over the
whole surface of the country. Remittances
were made to about 600 pay clerks weekly,
and it was often found necessary to transfer
from one to the other sums of money upon
the authority of local officers, whereby an
intermixture of accounts of a very intricate
description took place. The weekly accounts sent to the office at Dublin exceeded
p.106
20,000, and the pay lists were more
than a quarter of a million in number, the
expenditure being at one time at the rate
of a million a-month. To watch the distribution of such large sums would have been a gigantic task, even for a long-established and well-organized department, but
for a temporary establishment, composed,
for the most part, of persons with little,
if any, previous knowledge of business, the
duty was one of unprecedented difficulty,
and it is a matter of surprise that greater
irregularity was not the consequence.
In the books of the temporary Relief
Commission, it was found necessary to open
accounts with more than 2000 bodies intrusted with the expenditure of public
money; and such was the rapidity of the
service, that within a period of five months,
more than 19,000 estimates were received
in the accountant's office, and acted upon,
with a like number of accounts, which
were registered for examination, and more
than 17,000 letters were received and
answered. The pecuniary transactions of
this Commission were not with public
officers, but with ephemeral bodies composed of persons generally unused to business,
p.107
and almost irresponsible; but the
utmost good faith prevailed; and by requiring an immediate account, with vouchers,
every fortnight, of the disbursement of the
previous amount remitted, with the balance remaining on hand, before a further
supply was sent down, the best control
upon the expenditure was established, and
the result has been the great saving (more
than half a million) effected, while scarcely
an instance of misappropriation has occurred. It has also been admitted in many
parts of Ireland, that these accounts, and
the instructions for their preparation, have
induced habits of business that never before
existed, while at the same time they have
urged the Stamp Laws into more active
operation.
The prompt examination and audit of
the accounts of the Board of Works, the
Commissariat, and the Relief Commission, was provided for by the deputation
of experienced persons from the offices in
London, under whose superintendence the
whole of the expenditure has been subjected to a searching local revision, and
wherever any symptom of malversation has
appeared, the matter has been probed to the
bottom.
p.108
It has been a popular argument in Ireland,
that as the calamity was an imperial one, the
whole amount expended in relieving it ought
to be defrayed out of the Public Revenue.
There can be no doubt that the deplorable
consequences of this great calamity extended
to the empire at large, but the disease was
strictly local, and the cure was to be obtained
only by the application of local remedies.
If England and Scotland, and great part of
the north and east of Ireland had stood
alone, the pressure would have been severe,
but there would have been no call for assistance from national funds. The west and
south of Ireland was the peccant part. The
owners and holders of land in those districts
had permitted or encouraged the growth of
the excessive population which depended
upon the precarious potato, and they alone
had it in their power to restore society to
a safe and healthy state. If all were interested in saving the starving people, they
were far more so, because it included their
own salvation from the desperate struggles
of surrounding multitudes phrenzied with
hunger. The economical administration of
the relief could only be provided for by
making it, in part at least, a local charge.
p.109
In the invariable contemplation of the law,
the classes represented by the rate payers
have to bear the whole burden of their own
poor; the majority of the British community did so bear it throughout this year of
distress; and, besides fulfilling their own
duties, they placed in the hands of the
minority the means of performing theirs,
requiring them to repay only one half.
A special objection has been raised to the
repayment of the advances for the Relief
Works, on the ground that their cost exceeds that for which they could now be
constructed. The answer to this is, that
these works were undertaken solely for the
purpose of giving employment in a great and
pressing emergency, when it was impossible
for them to be executed with the same care
and economy as in ordinary times;42 that the
counties are therefore chargeable with them,
not as works, but as relief; and that if they
had cost either half as much, or twice as
much as they did, the liability would have
p.110
been the same. But when it is remembered that the expensive character of the
works was in a great degree owing to the
Board of Works not having received from
the Presentment Sessions and the Relief
Committees that assistance in keeping down
the expenditure, which it was the duty of
those bodies to have rendered, both by
making a proper selection of the works to
be undertaken, and by confining their recommendations for employment on them to
those persons who were really destitute, it is
a matter of surprise that any answer has been
rendered necessary.
We should probably have heard less of
these repayments if it had been generally
known what their real amount is. The sum
expended under the first Relief Works Act
(9 & 10 Vic. c. 1) was 476,000 l., one half of
which was grant, and the other half is to be
repaid43 by twenty half-yearly instalments, amounting on an average, including interest, to about 12,500 l. each. The expenditure
under the second Act (9 & 10 Vic. c. 107)
was about 4,850,000 l., half of which was
remitted, and the other half is repayable
p.111
by twenty half-yearly instalments of 145,500 l.
each, including interest. The annual addition
made to the Rates by the repayments under
the two Acts relating to the Relief Works
is therefore about 316,000 l.;44 while, by an
Act passed on the 28th August, 1846, the
Rates were relieved from an annual payment
of 192,000 l., being the remaining half of the
expense of the Constabulary, the other half
of which was already defrayed out of national funds. The additional charge upon
the Rates, therefore, amounts only to 124,000 l.
a-year for ten years, or 1,240,000 l. in all.
The sum advanced under the 9 & 10 Vic. c.
2, on the security of grand jury presentments, was 130,000 l., which will have to
be repaid in various periods extending from
three to ten years; but the expenditure
under this Act was merely in anticipation
of the usual repairs of the public roads,
the cost of which is in ordinary years
raised within the year without any advance.
Lastly, the sum expended in the distribution of food under the 10 Vic. c. 7, and in
p.112
medical relief under the 10 Vic. c. 22, was
1,676,268 l., of which 961,739 l. is to be
repaid, and the remaining 714,529 l. is a free
grant. The first-mentioned Act included
a fund for making grants as well as loans,
and the demands for repayment have been
adjusted as nearly as possible according to
the circumstances of each district. In some
of the western unions, where the amount of
destitution bears the largest proportion to
the means of the rate-payers, and, owing to
the extent to which the potato was formerly
cultivated, a painful period of transition has
yet to be endured, only a small part of the
sum expended is required to be repaid;45
p.113
while in other unions where the return of
low prices has restored society to its ordinary
state, grants have been confined to those
cases in which the expenditure has exceeded
a rating of three shillings in the pound on
the valuation.
All the claims of the Exchequer, arising
out of the Relief operations of 1846 and
1847 have now been described, and it must
be borne in mind that the several localities
received full value for what they have to
pay. They were saved from a prolonged
and horrible state of famine, pestilence, and
anarchy, which was the main consideration;
and they had, besides, the incidental advantage of the labour bestowed upon the Roads
and other public works, especially in the
poor and wild districts of the West, where
lines of road have been opened with the
aid of the relief grants and loans, which,
although much wanted, could not have been
undertaken for years to come without such
assistance. The rest of the expenditure,
including the large donations made to Relief
Committees previously to the passing of the
Act 10 Vic. c. 7, the cost of the staff of the
Board of Works and of the Relief Commission, the Commissariat staff, and the heavy
p.114
naval expenditure, has been defrayed out of
the public purse; without any demand for
repayment.
Hitherto our narrative has been confined
to what was done by the Government, but
the voluntary exertions of private individuals
contributed their full share towards this
unprecedented act of public charity.
It is highly to the honour of our countrymen in India, that the first combined movement in any part of the British empire was made by them. On the arrival of the news
of the first failure of the potato crop in the
Autumn of 1845, a meeting, presided over
by Sir John Peter Grant, was held at Calcutta, on the 2nd of January, 1846, for the
purpose of concerting measures to raise a
fund for the relief of the expected distress;
and a committee, consisting of the Duke of
Leinster, the Protestant and Roman Catholic
Archbishops of Dublin, and six other persons, was solicited to act in Ireland as Trustees for the distribution of such sums as
might be subscribed. This example was
followed at Madras and Bombay, and the
result was that a sum of 13,920 l., contributed as follows, was placed at the disposal
of the committee:
p.115
Bengal: 8,200
Bombay: 2,976
Madras: 1,150
Ceylon: 718
Hong Kong, 18th Royal Irish: 82
Mobile, U. S.: 192
Toronto, C. W.: 300
England, including 200 l. from Lord John Russell: 302
£13,920.
The whole of this sum was distributed
between the 24th of April and the 21st of
December, 1846, and was entirely independent of the large subscriptions from different
parts of British India subsequently added to
the funds of other societies. More than
2000 letters were received by the Trustees
of the Indian Relief Fund; and by a strict
attention to economy, they were enabled to
distribute 13,920 l. at an expense of 180 l.
In the United Kingdom, the Society of
Friends were, as usual, first in the field of
benevolent action. When the renewed and
more alarming failure of the potato crop in
the autumn of 1846 showed the necessity
for serious exertion, a subscription was
opened by them in London in the month
p.116
of November in that year; members of the
Society were sent on a deputation to Ireland, and those who resided there aided by
their personal exertions and local knowledge. On the 6th January, 1847, a committee, of which Mr. Jones Loyd was chairman, and Mr. Thomas Baring and Baron
Rothschild were members, invited contributions under the designation of the ‘British
Association for the Relief of extreme Distress in Ireland and the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland.’ On the 13th of
January, 1847, a Queen's Letter was issued
with the same object, and the 24th of
March was appointed by proclamation, for
a General Fast and Humiliation before
Almighty God, ‘in behalf of ourselves and
of our brethren, who in many parts of this
United Kingdom are suffering extreme famine and sickness.’ A painful and tender
sympathy pervaded every class of society. From the Queen on her throne to the convicts in the hulks, expenses were curtailed, and privations were endured, in order to
swell the Irish subscription. The fast was
observed with unusual solemnity, and the
London season of this year was remarkable
for the absence of gaiety and expensive
p.117
entertainments. The vibration was felt
through every nerve of the British Empire. The remotest stations in India, the
most recent settlements in the backwoods
of Canada, contributed their quota, and
652 l. was subscribed by the British residing in the city of Mexico, at a time when
their trade was cut off, and their personal
safety compromised by the war with the
United States. The sum collected under
the Queen's letter was 171,533 l. The
amount separately contributed through the
British Association was 263,251 l.46; and this
p.118
aggregate amount of 434,784 l., was divided
in the proportion of five-sixths to Ireland
and one-sixth to Scotland. But besides
p.119
this great stream of charity, there were a
thousand other channels which it is impossible to trace, and of the aggregate result
p.120
of which no estimate can be formed. There
were separate committees which raised and
sent over large sums of money. There
were ladies' associations without end to
collect small weekly subscriptions and make
p.121
up clothes to send to Ireland. The opera,
the fancy bazaar, the fashionable ball rendered tribute; and, above all, there were the private efforts of numberless individuals, each acting for himself and choosing his
p.122
own almoners, of which no record exists
except on High. Upon application being
made to the managers of the Provincial
Bank of Ireland to permit English charitable remittances to pass without the usual
charge, it turned out that they had been in
the habit of doing so for a considerable
time, and that the amount sent through
that one channel, in the six months ending
on the 4th March, 1847, exceeded 20,000 l.
In the contemplation of this great calamity,
the people of the United States of America
forgot their separate nationality, and remembered only that they were sprung from the
same origin as ourselves. The sympathy
there was earnest and universal, and the
manifestations of it most generous and
munificent. The contributions from this
land of plenty consisted principally of Indian corn and other kinds of provisions,
and the cargoes were, for the most part,
consigned to the Society of Friends, whose
quiet, patient, practical exertions, commanded universal confidence. The freight
and charges on the supplies of food and
clothing sent to Ireland by charitable societies and individuals, as well from the
United States and Canada on the one side,
p.123
as from England on the other, were paid
by the Government, to an amount exceeding 50,000 l.47
; all customs dues were remitted, and the meal and other articles were to a great extent taken charge of by
p.124
the officers of the Commissariat, and held
by them at the disposal of the parties to
whom they had been consigned for distribution;
p.125
by which means the necessary harmony was preserved between the operations
of the Government and those of the private
associations, and the bounty of the subscribers reached the destitute persons for whom
it was intended, with as small a deduction
as possible for incidental expenses. Thus,
when the British Association was desirous
of giving the cultivators on the Western
Coast of Ireland an opportunity of purchasing seed at a low market price at the close
of the sowing season of 1847, five large
steamers were collected by the Government,
which were loaded in a remarkably short
space of time, with oats and other seed
provided by the Association, and were sent
forth, each to its appointed section of the
Western Coast; so that every harbour accessible to a steamer, from Kinsale to Londonderry, was looked into, and what remained unsold was left in the Government
depôts for subsequent sale or gratuitous
distribution. On the other hand, the
Government received much assistance and
support from the operations of these benevolent societies, and they were especially
useful in bridging over the fearful interval
between the system of relief by work and
p.126
relief by food. Several gentlemen, with a
noble self-devotion, volunteered their services to the British Association, among
whom Lord Robert Clinton, Lord James
Butler, Count Strzelecki, and Mr. Higgins,
were distinguished by their zeal and ability,
and by the fortitude with which, for months
together, they endured the pain and risk
attending the immediate contact with hunger and disease.
A large committee, with the Marquis of
Kildare at its head, was formed in Dublin
under the name of the ‘General Central
Relief Committee for all Ireland’ the contributions received by which amounted to
upwards of 50,000 l., independently of
10,000 l. in cash and an equal value in food,
entrusted to this committee from the sum
raised by the Queen's Letter. British North
America contributed through this medium
the munificent sum of 12,463 l., including
5,873 l. from Montreal; 1571 l. from Quebec;
and 3,472 l. from Toronto. The United
States gave 5,852 l., of which 3,199 l. was
from New Orleans. British India 5,674 l.;
the Cape of Good Hope 2,900 l.; Australia
2,282 l.; South America 772 l.; the Military
386 l.; Scotland, France, Germany, Italy,
p.127
Belgium, Gibraltar, the Channel Islands,
West Indies, the Ionian Islands, &c.,
2,168 l.; Ireland, independently of local subscriptions, which were very considerable,
9,888 l.; and England, over and above the
20,000 l. remitted from the produce of the
Queen's Letter, 8,886 l.
Subscriptions were received to a smaller
amount, but from an earlier period of the
distress, by another committee established in
Dublin under the name of the ‘Irish Relief
Association for the Destitute Peasantry,’
which was announced to be a reorganization
of the Association formed during the period
of famine in the West of Ireland in 1831.
The list of patrons commenced with the
names of the Archbishop of Dublin and the
Duke of Manchester; and, independently of
some cargoes of corn, flour, &c., from
Canada and the United States, the funds
placed at their disposal amounted to nearly
42,000 l., among the contributions to which,
the following were conspicuous: — England,
17,782 l.; Ireland, 6,151 l.; France, 1,390 l.;
Italy, including 1,481 l. from Rome, 2,708 l.;
British North America, 2,821 l. (1,165 l. of
this being from Quebec); United States,
847 l.; India, 5,947 l., of which the large proportion
p.128
of 4,981 l. was from Madras; West
Indies, 1,043 l.; Australia, 2,314 l.; and from
the officers and men of various regiments,
and the pensioners and constabulary, 508 l.
But the most considerable of the Dublin
Charitable Committees was that composed
of members of the Society of Friends, of
which Mr. Joseph Bewley and Mr. Jonathan Pim were the Secretaries. The contributions placed at their disposal since the
3rd of December, 1846, in money and provisions, have been to the amount of upwards
of 168,000 l., of which no less than 108,651 l.
is the estimated value of provisions (7,935
tons) consigned to them from the United
States of America. Of the subscriptions in
money, 35,393 l. was remitted by the London
Committee of the Society of Friends; 8,494 l.
by members of the Society and others in
Dublin; and the large sum of 15,567 l. by
persons residing in the United States. The
provisions received from America were as
follows: —
- From New York, 4,496 tons, estimated value 58,299 l. 15s.
- From Philadelphia, 1,870.25 tons, estimated value 24,948 l. 18s.
- From New Orleans, 349 tons, estimated value 7,538 l. 5s.
p.129
- From Newark. N. J., 316.75 tons, estimated value 5,141 l.
- From Baltimore, 316.5 tons, estimated value 3,913 l. 10s.
- From Richmond, V., 252.5 tons, estimated value 3,486 l. 15s.
- From Charleston, 169 tons, estimated value 2,362 l.
- From Alexandria, V., 102 tons, estimated value 1,422 l.
- From sundry other Ports, Unites States, America, 117 tons, estimated value 1,518 l.
And in addition to these large donations of
money and food, consignments of clothing
were received from England and America,
to the estimated value of from 5,000 l. to
10,000 l.
The ladies of Ireland exerted themselves
with characteristic zeal and benevolence, to
alleviate the sufferings of their country-people, and to promote their moral advancement, by awakening and encouraging a spirit
of independent exertion, and fostering habits
of industry and self-reliance. The Ladies Relief Association for Ireland in the management of which the Honourable Mrs.
Newcombe takes the principal part, and the
objects of which are ‘to encourage industry among the female peasantry of Ireland, to contribute towards providing nourishment
p.130
for the sick, and to procure clothing for the
destitute’, raised 11,465 l. previously to the
1st of August, 1847, of which 3,043 l. was
derived from the proceeds of a Fancy Bazaar
in London, and of this sum 2,500 l. was
appropriated to the relief of families whose
husbands or fathers ‘have been removed
while performing their painfully laborious
duties.’ The Ladies' Industrial Society
for the Encouragement of Remunerative
Labour among the Peasantry of Ireland, of
which Mrs. Lloyd is the active promoter,
more particularly aims at encouraging the
manufacture of those articles which are
likely to find a ready sale in the trade; for
which purpose, instruction is given in the
best and most practicable descriptions of
remunerative labour; patterns, models, and
implements are furnished, and a sale is
provided for the produce, through the
intervention of a mercantile agency in
Dublin. Numerous benevolent persons
adopted the same course in various parts of
Ireland, sometimes in connection with these
societies, and sometimes using their own
means, with such aid as was sent to them
by their private friends. Mr. Gildea, the
Rector of Newport, and the ladies of his
p.131
family, revived the manufacture of coarse
linen at that place, and they have employed
between 500 and 600 females since the beginning of January, in the execution of
orders sent them by charitable persons.48
The ladies of the Presentation Convent at
Galway gave every day a good meal of porridge to upwards of 600 starving children
who attended their schools. The ladies of
the Owen more Relief Committee raised and
expended in various works of charity, 2,427 l.,
exclusive of grants of the British Association
and of the Government, to five parochial
kitchens superintended by them. Want of
space alone prevents us from alluding to
many other similar instances.
In the autumn and winter of 1846 efforts
were made to induce the Government to
take an active part in assisting emigration
p.132
by an apportionment of the expense of
passage and outfit between the public, the
landlords, and the emigrants themselves;
but, on a full consideration of the subject, it appeared that the emigration about
to take place in the ensuing season to
Canada and the United States, without any
assistance from the public, was likely to be
quite as large as those countries could properly absorb, and that the consequence of
the interference of the Government would
be that the movement would be carried
beyond those limits which were consistent
with safety, and that a burthen would be
transferred to the taxpayers of the United
Kingdom. which would otherwise be borne
by those to whom it properly belonged,
owing to their interests being more immediately concerned. It is also a point of
primary importance, that those persons
should emigrate, who, from age, health,
character, and circumstances, are best able
to contend with the hardships and difficulties of a settler's life, and it was considered
that this object would be most fully attained if the emigration were entirely voluntary. The true test of fitness in this case
is the possession, on the part of each individual
p.133
concerned, of the will and ability
to emigrate; and the probability of helpless
multitudes being sent forth, who, both for
their own sakes and for that of the colony,
ought to have remained at home, is increased in proportion as other motives and
other interests besides those of the emigrant
himself influence his act of expatriation.
For these reasons Her Majesty's Ministers
determined to confine themselves to taking
increased securities for the safety of the
emigrants during their voyage, and their
early and satisfactory settlement after their
arrival abroad. Additional emigration agents
were appointed to Liverpool and to different Irish ports; the annual vote in aid
of colonial funds for the relief of sick
and destitute emigrants from the United
Kingdom, was increased from 1000 l. to
10,000 l.; provision was made for giving assistance in the case of emigrant ships being
driven back by stress of weather, and the
Governor-General of Canada was informed
that Her Majesty's Government would be
prepared to defray its fair share of any further expense that might have to be incurred
in giving the Emigrants necessary relief,
p.134
or in forwarding them to places where they
might obtain employment.49
Early in the year 1847 the roads to the
Irish sea-ports were thronged with families
hastening to escape the evils which impended over their native land. The complaint in Ireland, at the time, was, that those
who went belonged to the best and most
substantial class of the agricultural population. The complaint afterwards in Canada was that those who came were the
helpless and destitute. The fact was, that
the emigrants generally belonged to that
class of small holders, who, being somewhat above the level of the prevailing
destitution, had sufficient resources left to
enable them to make the effort required
to effect their removal to a foreign land;
and the steps taken by them to convert their
property into an available form, had for
months before been the subject of observation. Large remittances, estimated to
amount to 200,000 l. in the year ending
p.135
on the 30th March, 1847, were also made
by the Irish emigrants settled in the United
States and the British North American
provinces, to enable their relations in Ireland to follow them.50 The emigration of
p.136
1846 from the United Kingdom, which
was the largest ever known up to that
time, amounted to 129,851 persons; the
emigration of the first three quarters of 1847 was 240,461; and almost the whole of
it was from Ireland to Canada and the
United States.51
p.137
Even this does not represent the full
extent of the outpouring of the population
of Ireland which took place in this eventful
year. From the 13th January to the 1st
November, 278,00552 immigrants arrived at
Liverpool from Ireland, of whom only
122,981 sailed from that port to foreign
countries. The conflux of this mixed multitude was formidable both to the health and
resources of the inhabitants of Liverpool;
but they nobly faced the danger, and exerted
p.138
themselves to meet the emergency with the
vigour it required. The portion of the town
occupied by the Irish was divided into thirteen districts, in each of which a relief station
was opened, and twenty-four additional relieving officers were appointed, under the
superintendence of two inspectors. The
number of persons relieved daily amounted
for some time to upwards of 10,000. The
district medical officers were increased from
six to twenty-one, and extensive premises
were hired or constructed for the purpose
of being used as temporary fever hospitals.
All this was done at the expense of the
inhabitants, and the only assistance given
by the Government was, that when the fever
increased to an alarming extent, quarantine
ships were stationed in the Mersey to receive
the infected. Nineteen relieving officers died
at Liverpool alone of fever caught in the
execution of their duties. The influx of
poor Irish by way of Glasgow, Ardrossan,
Port Patrick, Fleetwood, the Welsh ports,
Bristol, Plymouth, Southampton, and London itself, was also very large; and quarantine arrangements had to be made in the Clyde similar to those at Liverpool.
p.139
Some relief was obtained by the passing
of the Act 10 & 11 Vic. c. 33, ‘to amend the
Laws relating to the Removal of Poor Persons from England and Scotland;’ and 4,583
paupers who had become chargeable to the
Liverpool parochial funds, or who applied to
be removed, were sent back to their own
districts in Ireland, at a cost of 1,322 l.,
between the 19th July, when the Act came
into operation, and the 31st October. Previously to this, there was very little crime
among these poor people, not even in petty
thefts; but it soon appeared that they preferred being sent to prison to being sent
back to Ireland. In the year ending 30th
September, 1846, 398 natives of Ireland
were committed to the borough prison at
Liverpool for begging, pilfering about the
docks, &c. In the year ending 30th September, 1847, 888 were so committed. In
the month of October 1846, 80 were committed; in the same month of 1847, 142.
This pauper immigration passed inland to
all the large towns of this island, as far as
London and Edinburgh; and the following
statement of the number of Roman Catholic
clergymen who died of the Irish fever caught
in attending the sick since March 1847, may
p.140
be taken as an index of the relative pressure53 —
Lancashire,
Rev. Peter Nightingale, resident priest of St.
Anthony's, Great Homer Street, Liverpool.
William Parker, senior resident priest of St.
Patrick's, Park Lane, Liverpool.
Richard Grayston, resident priest of St.
Patrick's, Park Lane, Liverpool.
James Haggar, resident priest of St. Patrick's, Park Lane, Liverpool.
Thomas Kelly, D.D., resident priest of St.
Joseph's, Grosvenor Street, Liverpool.
John F. Whitaker, removed from Manchester to succeed Dr. Kelly at St. Joseph's, where he died.
J. F. Appleton, D.D., senior resident priest
of St. Peter's, Seel Street, Liverpool.
p.141
John A. Gilbert, resident priest of St.
Mary's, Edmund Street, Liverpool.
William V. Dale, resident priest of St.
Mary's, Edmund Street, Liverpool.
Robert Gillow, resident priest of St. Nicholas's, Copperas Hill, Liverpool.
John Hearne, senior priest of St. John's,
Wigan.
Robert Johnson, resident priest of St. John's,
Wigan.
John Dowdall, resident priest in Bolton.
Cheshire.
Michael Power, resident priest of St. Mary's,
Duckinfield.
Yorkshire.
Thomas Billington, Vicar-General of Yorkshire district, and senior resident priest of St. Mary's, York.
Henry Walmsley, senior resident priest of
St. Ann's, Leeds.
Richard Wilson, resident priest of St. Anne's, Leeds.
Edward Metcalfe, successor to Rev. R. Wilson at St. Anne's, Leeds.
Joseph Curr, Secretary to Bishop Briggs,
with whom he resided at Fulford House
near York. He volunteered his services
after the death of Mr. Metcalfe, and in
p.142
the course of a few weeks died at St.
Anne's, Leeds.
J. Coppinger. Removed from Hull to supply the vacancies caused by the above deaths, and very shortly after his removal
died at St. Anne's, Leeds.
Durham.
Joseph Dugdale, resident priest of St.
Mary's, Stockton.
Northumberland.
James Standen, senior resident priest of St.
Andrew's, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Right Rev. Dr. Riddell, Vicar Apostolic of the
Northern District and Bishop of Longo.
After the death of Mr. Standen, Bishop
Riddell undertook to attend to the visitation of the sick in person. He very soon caught the fever and died at Newcastle.
Staffordshire.
Rev. James Kennedy, resident priest at Newcastle-under-Lyne.
Gloucestershire.
P. Hartley, resident priest of St. Peter's, Gloucester.
Wales.
Edward Mulcahy, resident priest of St.
Mary's, Bangor, North Wales.
p.143
M. Carroll, resident priest at Merthyr
Tydvil, South Wales.
Scotland.
Richard Sinnott, Stranraer, Greenock.
J. Bremner, Abbey Parish, Paisley.
W. Walsh, Old Monkland.
The pestilence, which all the precautions
practicable on land could not overcome,
broke out, as was to be expected, with
increased virulence on board the emigrant
ships. A new law was passed at Boston in
Massachusetts, empowering the local authorities to demand a bond of 1000 dollars from
the masters of emigrant ships for each passenger apparently indigent, that he should
not become chargeable to the State or to the
city for ten years, the effect of which was to
divert the stream of emigration to a greater
extent than usual to Canada and New
Brunswick. The deaths on the voyage to
Canada increased from 5 in every 1000
persons embarked, to about 60, or to twelve
times their previous rate; and so many more
arrived sick, that the proportion of deaths
in quarantine to the numbers embarked,
increased from 1 1/3 to about 40 in the 1000,
besides still larger numbers who died at
Quebec, Montreal, and elsewhere in the
p.144
interior.54 A Medical Board was appointed;
large supplies of provisions were dispatched
to the quarantine station; tents sufficient
for the reception of 10,000 persons were
issued from the Ordnance stores, and the
labours of the Commissariat in this war
p.145
against famine and pestilence, were carried
on at the same time on both sides of the
Atlantic; but the utmost exertions and the
most liberal expenditure could not prevent a
fearful amount of suffering amongst the emigrants, and a painful spread of disease to the
resident population.
We are well aware that among men of
talents and of benevolent dispositions, there
is a wide difference on the important question of emigration; and in what follows
on this subject, we wish to be understood,
not as committing ourselves to particular
opinions, but merely as making a statement, in pursuance of the historical character of this review, of what we believe to
have been the views which guided the resolutions of the Government.
There is no subject of which a merely
one-sided view is more commonly taken
than that of Emigration. The evils arising from the crowded state of the population, and the facility with which large
numbers of persons may be transferred to
other countries, are naturally uppermost in
the minds of landlords and ratepayers; but
Her Majesty's Government, to which the
well-being of the British population in every
p.146
quarter of the globe is confided, must have
an equal regard to the interests of the emigrant and of the colonial community of
which he may become a member. It is a
great mistake to suppose that even Canada
and the United States have an unlimited
capacity of absorbing a new population.
The labour market in the settled districts
is always so nearly full, that a small addition to the persons in search of employment makes a sensible difference; while the
clearing of new land requires the possession
of resources,55 and a power of sustained
exertion not ordinarily belonging to the
newly-arrived Irish emigrant. In this, as
well as in the other operations by which
society is formed or sustained, there is a
natural process which cannot with impunity
be departed from. A movement is continually going on towards the backwoods on
the part of the young and enterprising portion of the settled population, and of such
of the former emigrants as have acquired
p.147
means and experience; and the room thus
made is occupied by persons recently arrived from Europe, who have only their
labour to depend upon. The conquest of
the wilderness requires more than the ordinary share of energy and perseverance,
and every attempt that has yet been made
to turn Paupers into Backwoodsmen by
administrative measures, has ended in signal
failure. As long as they were rationed, they
held together in a feeble, helpless state;
and when the issue of rations ceased, they
generally returned to the settled parts of the
country. Our recent experience of the
effects of a similar state of dependence in
Ireland, offers no encouragement to renew
the experiment in a distant country, where
the difficulties are so much greater, and a
disastrous result would be so much less
capable of being retrieved.
It must also be observed, that from an
early period of the present distress, two
modes of meeting the calamity presented
themselves, which have since acquired greater
distinctness in people's minds, and have been
acted upon in a more and more systematic
manner. The first of these was to stimulate
the industry of the people, to augment the
p.148
productive powers of the soil, and to promote the establishment of new industrial
occupations, so as to cause the land once
more to support its population, and to substitute a higher standard of subsistence, and
a higher tone of popular character, for those
which prevailed before. This plan aimed
at accomplishing the object without the
pain or risk of wholesale expatriation; and
the result proposed by it was to increase
the strength and prosperity of the country
and the happiness of the people, by enabling the present population to maintain
itself comfortably at home by the exercise
of its industry. The Government adopted
this plan from the first, and has since promoted its success by every means in its
power. The other plan was to relieve the
mother-country by transferring large masses
of people to the Colonies; and great efforts
were made to obtain the command of public
funds to assist in paying the expense of this
emigration.
The main point, therefore, is, that by
taking an active part in assisting emigration,
the Government would throw their weight
into the scale with the last of these two
plans. They would assist it by their means;
p.149
and, what is of far more consequence, they
would countenance it by their authority:
and in the same degree, they would discourage and relax the efforts of those who
are exerting themselves to carry out the
opposite plan. In order to appreciate the
full ultimate effect of such an interposition,
it must be remembered that the solution of
the great difficulty by means of emigration
carried out on the scale and in the manner
proposed, offers to the promoters of it the
attraction of accomplishing their object by
a cheap and summary process; while the
other remedy, of enabling the population to
live comfortably at home, can be arrived at
only by an expensive, laborious, and protracted course of exertion: and it therefore
behoves the Government, which holds the
balance between contending parties, to take
care to which side it lends its influence on
a social question of this description.
Those who have purchased or inherited
estates in which a redundant population has
been permitted or encouraged to grow up,
may with propriety assist some of their people
to emigrate, provided they take care to prevent their being left destitute on their arrival
in their new country. The expense of assisting
p.150
emigration under such circumstances
properly falls on the proprietor. A surplus
population, whether it be owing to the fault
or to the misfortune of the proprietor or his
predecessors, must, like barrenness, or the
absence of improvements, be regarded as
one of the disadvantages contingent on the
possession of the estate; and he who enjoys
the profits and advantages of the estate, must
also submit to the less desirable conditions
connected with it. So long as emigration is
conducted only at the expense of the proprietor, it is not likely to be carried to an
injurious or dangerous extent, and it will
press so heavily on his resources, as to leave
the motives to exertion of a different kind
unimpaired. Emigration is open to objection only when the natural checks and correctives have been neutralized by the interposition of the Government, or other public
bodies. It then becomes the interest and
policy of the landed proprietor to make no
exertion to maintain his people at home, to
produce a general impression that no such
exertion could be successfully made, and to
increase by every possible means the pressure upon those parties who, having the command of public funds, are expected to give
p.151
their assistance; and the responsibility of
the consequences, whatever they may be,
becomes transferred from the individual proprietors, to the Government or public body
which countenances and promotes their proceedings.
Three things had become apparent before
the close of the year 1846: the first was,
that if these gigantic efforts were much longer
continued, they must exhaust and disorganize
society throughout the United Kingdom, and
reduce all classes of people in Ireland to a
state of helpless dependence; the second
was, that provision ought to be made for
the relief of extreme destitution in some
less objectionable mode than that which had
been adopted, for want of a better, under the
pressure of an alarming emergency; and the
third was, that great efforts and great sacrifices were required to provide another and a better subsistence for the large population
which had hitherto depended upon the potato. Upon these principles the plan of the
Government for the season of 1847-8, and
for all after time, was based.
Much the larger portion of the machinery
of a good Poor Law had been set up in
Ireland by the Irish Poor Relief Act (1 & 2
p.152
Vic. c. 56), which was passed in the year
1838. The island had been divided into
unions, which were generally so arranged as
to secure easy communication with the central station; and these had been subdivided
into electoral districts, each of which appointed its own guardian, and was chargeable only with its own poor, like our
parishes. A commodious workhouse had
also been built in each union by advances
from the Exchequer,56 and rates had been
established for its support. No relief could,
however, be given outside the workhouses,
and when these buildings once became filled
with widows and children, aged and sick,
and others who might with equal safety and
more humanity have been supported at their
own homes, they ceased to be either a
medium of relief or a test of destitution to
the other destitute poor of the union. To
remedy this and other defects of the existing
system, three Acts of Parliament were passed
in the Session of 1847,57 the principal provisions of which were as follows: Destitute
p.153
persons who are either permanently or temporarily disabled from labour, and destitute
widows having two or more legitimate children dependent upon them, may be relieved
either in or out of the workhouse, at the
discretion of the guardians. If, owing to
want of room, or to the prevalence of fever
or any infectious disorder, adequate relief
cannot be afforded in a workhouse to persons not belonging to either of the above-mentioned classes, the Poor Law Commissioners may authorize the guardians to give
them outdoor relief in food only; the Commissioners' order for which purpose can only
be made for a period of two months, but, if
necessary, it can be renewed from time to
time. Relieving officers and medical officers
for affording medical relief out of the workhouse are to be appointed; and in cases of
sudden and urgent necessity, the relieving
p.154
officers are to give ‘immediate and temporary relief in food, lodging, medicine, or
medical attendance’ until the next meeting
of the guardians. After the 1st November,
1847, no person is to be relieved either in
or out of a workhouse, who is in the occupation of more than a quarter of an acre of
land. No person is to be deemed to have
been resident in an electoral division so as
to make it chargeable with the expense of
relieving him, who shall not during the three
years before his application for relief have
occupied some tenement within it, or have
usually slept within it for thirty calendar
months. All magistrates residing in the
union are to be ex-officio guardians, provided
their number does not exceed that of elected
guardians. Greater facilities are given for
dissolving Boards of Guardians, in case they
do not duly and effectually discharge their
duty according to the intention of the several
Acts in force. Public beggars and persons
going from one district to another for the
purpose, of obtaining relief are rendered
liable to one month's imprisonment with
hard labour; and an independent Poor Law
establishment is constituted for Ireland, consisting of three Commissioners (two of whom
p.155
are to be the Secretary and Under-Secretary
for Ireland for the time being), an Assistant
Commissioner and Secretary, and as many
Inspectors as may be required.
The principle of a comprehensive Poor
Law and of the abolition of mendicancy,
having thus been established, the efforts of
the Government were earnestly directed to
the removal of the difficulties likely to impede its satisfactory working. The repayment of the first instalment due on account
of the advances for the Relief Works of the
winter and spring of 1846-7 (9 & 10 Vic. c.
107), was postponed until after the Spring
Assizes of 1848, and it was announced that
no demand would be made until after the 1st
January, 1848, for the repayment of the
advances under the temporary Relief Act,
when the rates levied previously to that date
for the current expenses of the permanent
Poor Law equalled or exceeded 3s. in the
pound, and that even when rates had been
struck for the purpose of repaying the
advances, they might, if necessary, be applied to defraying those current expenses. By these arrangements the demands for
repayment between the Summer Assizes of
1847 and the Spring Assizes of 1848 were
p.156
limited to the second instalment for the
Relief Works and repairs of Grand Jury
Roads of 1846 (9 Vic. c. 1 and 2), amounting only to 27,000 l. for the whole of Ireland;
and after providing for this and for the expense of the gaols and other ordinary local
demands, all the rates levied from the produce of the abundant harvest of 1847 became
applicable to the relief of the people under
the Poor Law, then for the first time coming
into full operation. The Guardians were at
the same time earnestly recommended by
the Poor Law Commissioners to strike rates
sufficient to meet the exigencies of the
coming winter, and to be strict in the levy
of them. They were advised to guard against
the necessity of giving out-door relief to the
able-bodied, by providing for disabled persons, widows, school-children, and fever patients out of the workhouse; and five Boards
of Guardians which had obstinately persisted
in not doing their duty, were dissolved, and
paid Guardians were appointed in their
place. Ireland had now had a year and a
half's experience of the administration of
relief on a great scale and in different ways,
and the objects to be aimed at and the
abuses to be avoided had become generally
p.157
known. ‘The very evil itself’, the Relief
Commissioners observe in their Sixth
Monthly Report, ‘has been attended with
a salutary reaction, and the whole country
seems, by this experience, to have been
made sensible that it is only by the most
rigid and thoroughly controlled principles of
affording relief by any public arrangement,
that society can be protected from a state of
almost universal pauperisation, and that the
charge of a more benevolent alleviation of
distress than what is absolutely necessary for
the bare support of the thoroughly destitute,
must and ought to be left to the exertions
and voluntary distribution of the charitable
and humane, which it is hoped will always
be largely afforded.’ During the week
ended Saturday the 14th August, 1847,
there were above 20,000 persons on the relief lists of the electoral division which comprises the northern half of the city of Dublin; and as the operations under the Temporary Relief Act terminated in that union
on the 15th, the guardians, on the 16th,
had to deal with the apparent necessity of
having to provide relief for above 20,000
persons. On the morning of that day, however, owing to previous arrangements, they
p.158
had room in the workhouse of their union
for 400 individuals; and by offering workhouse relief to applicants, aided by some
assistance from the Mendicity Institution,
the guardians were enabled in the course of
six days to reduce the number on the relief
lists to about 3000 persons. This is only
one instance among many that might be
adduced, of the practical value of the experience that has been acquired in Ireland
of the true principles of Poor Law management.
A principle of great power has thus been
introduced into the social system of Ireland,
which must be productive of many important consequences, besides those which directly flow from it. Mr. Drummond's
apophthegm, that ‘property has its duties as
well as its rights,’ having now received the
sanction of law, it can never hereafter be a
matter of indifference to a landed proprietor,
what the condition of the people on his
estate is. The day has gone by for letting
things take their course, and landlords and
farmers have the plain alternative placed
before them of supporting the people in
idleness or in profitable labour. Hitherto
the duties of Irish landlords had been, as
p.159
jurists would say, of imperfect obligation.
In other words, their performance depended
upon conscience, benevolence, and a more
enlightened and far-seeing view of personal
interest than belongs to the generality of
men; the consequence of which has been
a remarkable difference in the conduct of
Irish landlords: and while some have made
all the sacrifices and exertions which their
position required, others have been guilty
of that entire abandonment of duty which
has brought reproach upon their order. For
the future this cannot be. The necessity of
self-preservation, and the knowledge that
rents can be saved from the encroachments
of poor-rates, only in proportion as the poor
are cared for and profitably employed, will
secure a fair average good conduct on the
part of landed proprietors, as in England,
and more favourable circumstances will induce improved habits. The poor-rate is an
absentee tax of the best description; because, besides bringing non-resident proprietors under contribution, it gives them
powerful motives either to reside on their
estates or to take care that they are managed,
in their absence, with a proper regard to the
p.160
welfare of the poor.58 Lastly, the performance of duty supposes the enjoyment of
equivalent rights. When rich and poor are
p.161
at one again, the repudiating farmer will find
the position of his landlord too strong to
allow of his taking his present license, and
p.162
it will then be fearlessly asserted that the
converse of Mr. Drummond's maxim is also
true, and that ‘Property has its rights as
well as its duties.’ For the first time in the
history of Ireland, the poor man has become
sensibly alive to the idea that the law is his
friend, and the exhortation of the parish
priest of Dingle to his flock in September
1847? indicates an epoch in the progress of
society in Ireland: — ‘Heretofore landlords
have had agents who collected their rents,
and they supported them. The grand jury
had agents to collect the county-cess, and
p.163
they supported them. Now, for the first
time, the poor man has an agent to collect
his rent. That agent is the poor-rate collector, and he should be supported by the
poor.’ Time must, however, be allowed for
the gradual working of this feeling, before
its full effects can be seen.
Those who object to the existing Poor
Law are bound to point out a more certain
and less objectionable mode of relieving the
destitute and securing the regular employment of the poor. The principle of the
Poor Law is, that rate after rate should be
levied for the preservation of life, until the
landowners and farmers either enable the
people to support themselves by honest industry, or dispose of their property to those
who can and will perform this indispensable
duty.
The fearful problem to be solved in Ireland, stated in its simplest form, is this. A
large population subsisting on potatoes which
they raised for themselves, has been deprived
of that resource, and how are they now to
be supported? The obvious answer is, by
growing something else. But that cannot
be, because the small patches of land which
maintained a family when laid down to potatoes,
p.164
are insufficient for the purpose when
laid down to corn or any other kind of
produce; and corn cultivation requires capital and skill, and combined labour, which
the cotter and conacre tenants do not possess. The position occupied by these classes
is no longer tenable, and it is necessary for
them either to become substantial farmers,
or to live by the wages of their labour.
They must still depend for their subsistence
upon agriculture, but upon agriculture conducted according to new and very improved
conditions. Both the kind of food and the
means of procuring it have changed. The
people will henceforth principally live upon
grain, either imported from abroad or grown
in the country, which they will purchase out
of their wages; and corn and cattle will be
exported, as the piece-goods of Manchester
are, to provide the fund out of which the
community will be maintained under the
several heads of wages, profits, and rents.
It is in vain that the granary of the merchant and the homestead of the farmer are
filled to overflowing, if the mass of the
people have not the means of purchasing,
and it has therefore become of the highest
consequence that the resources which are
p.165
most available for the payment of wages
should be cultivated to the utmost. The
Poor Law cannot alone bear the whole weight
of the existing pauperism of Ireland; and its
unproductive expenditure, however indispensable, must be supported by adequate
industrial efforts, in order to prevent all
classes of society from being involved in one
common ruin. Before this crisis occurred,
Sir Robert Kane had proved in theory, and
many good farmers in practice, that a much
larger produce might be raised, and a much
larger population might be supported from
the soil of Ireland than heretofore; and this
view has since been confirmed by numerous
surveys conducted under the superintendence
of the Board of Works, which have disclosed
an extensive and varied field for the investment of capital, upon which the whole unemployed population of Ireland might be
employed with much advantage to all parties
concerned. The great resource of Ireland
consists in the cultivation of her soil, the
improvement of her cattle, the extension of
her fisheries; and while there are large tracts
of flooded land to be reclaimed, and still
larger tracts of half-cultivated land to be
brought to a higher state of productiveness,
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it would be a misdirection of capital to
employ it in the less profitable manufactures
of cotton and wool. Ireland is benefited to
a greater extent than many parts of Scotland
and England are, by the markets and the
means of employment which Manchester
and Glasgow afford; but her own staple
manufacture is corn.
The Treasury was authorized by the 1
& 2 Win. IV, c. 33, passed in 1831, to lend
money to private individuals for the improvement of their estates, provided the value of
the estate was increased 10 per cent, and
repayment was made in three years; and by
the first Act of the Session of 1846 the
period of repayment was extended to twenty
years. This power was however very sparingly acted on. Grave objections existed
to the State becoming a general creditor
throughout the country, and the operations
of private capitalists were likely to be deranged and suspended by the interference
of such a competitor. A rate of interest
(5 per cent.) higher than the market rate
for money lent on mortgage, was therefore
charged, and the result was, that only three
persons took out loans under this arrangement, one of whom was the late Lord Bessborough.
p.167
At the close of the Session of
1846, the Act 9 & 10 Vic. c. 101, was passed,
by which 1,000,000 l. was authorized to be
lent for drainage in Ireland, and repayment
was to be made in equal half-yearly instalments, spread over twenty-two years, including interest at 3 1/2 per cent.; but this Act
could not be worked, so far as Ireland was
concerned, partly owing to a legal opinion
that tenants for life were not eligible for
loans under it, and partly because the works
must be executed to a certain extent before
the money could be advanced. Upon this
the Treasury issued a Minute dated the 1st,
and a letter dated the 15th December,
1846,59 offering to lend money for the general
improvement of estates, including drainage,
on a footing which combined the advantages
of the previous Acts with the indulgent mode
of repayment introduced by the last; and
in the following session the Act 10 & 11
Vic. c. 32 was passed, by which all the
existing legislation on the subject was consolidated, and loans60 were authorized to be
p.168
made in Ireland to the extent of 1 ,500,000 l.,
on the principle that the improvements on
each estate are to be executed by the proprietor, and that the interference of the
officers of the Government is to be confined to ascertaining, in the first instance,
that the proposed improvements are likely
to be of such a permanent and productive
character as would justify the cost of them
being made a charge upon the estate, with
priority over other incumbrances, and, afterwards, to inspecting the works from time to
time, so as to secure the proper application
of the sums advanced to the purposes for
which they were intended. No advance can
be made under this Act unless the increased
annual value to be given to the land by
the proposed improvement shall equal the
p.169
amount to be charged on it; and a difficulty having arisen from the circumstance
that the full benefit to be derived from
draining is attained in different soils at different periods after the completion of the
drains, it was declared by a Treasury Minute
dated the 15th June, 1847, that it is not
necessary that each portion of land improved
should yield, in the first and in every subsequent year, an additional rent equal to 6 1/2 per cent, per annum on the outlay beyond
the present rent; but that the general result
of the improvement of the lands on which
the rent-charge is to be secured, will, one
year with another, from the period when the
full benefit of the improvement may be
supposed to have accrued, be such as to
produce an increased annual value to the
above extent; taking care, of course, that
the rent-charge is fixed upon lands amply
sufficient to secure the repayment to the
Government of the sums so charged. These
directions had particular reference to the
circumstances of the poverty-stricken districts in the West of Ireland, where it is
peculiarly desirable to increase the food
grown on the spot, and to provide the means
of employment for the people in the productive
p.170
avocations of agriculture; and every
practicable facility and preference is therefore given to the landed proprietors in those
districts, which is not inconsistent with
justice to other parties. It was determined
by the same Minute, in pursuance of the
course taken by Parliament with respect to
the loans for drainage in England and Scotland, that the loans to be made to any one
landed proprietor should not, under ordinary
circumstances, exceed, in the aggregate, the
sum of 12,000 l.; but if, in any particular
case, owing to the extent of the property to
be improved, or other causes, it should be
advisable to enlarge this limit, the Lords of
the Treasury will be prepared to authorize
such additional sum as may appear to be
proper, not exceeding, however, an aggregate
amount to the same proprietor, of 20,000 l.
In taking its line on this subject, the
Government had to choose between employing the agency of the landed proprietors and
that of public officers; and after much consideration and some experience, the final
decision was in favour of the former alternative, as above described.
By following this course, all the existing
relations of society were preserved and
p.171
strengthened; the landed proprietors were
held to their responsibility for the wellbeing of the people residing on their estates,
and they were assisted to the extent of the
loan fund placed by Parliament at the disposal of the Government. The proprietor
or his agent has the strongest interest in
seeing that the work is well done, and can
exercise the most effectual superintendence
over it; and as the people are invited to
exert themselves under the eye of their
natural employers, the healthy relation of
master and labourer becomes established
throughout the country. It has not, as yet,
been usual in Ireland, for the landlord to
undertake to make the more expensive and
permanent improvements, as is the case in
England, but it may be hoped that an
impulse will be given to this wholesome
practice by the loans to proprietors under
the Land Improvement Act. The landlord
will be encouraged to proceed in a course
of improvement which he finds by experience to be profitable to him; he will be
likely to make further investments on land
which has been reclaimed or improved by
him, and he will be especially careful to
p.172
prevent it from being subdivided into small
holdings.61
The other plan of reclaiming waste lands
by the direct agency of the Government did
not survive the objections made to it on the
score of its interference with the rights of
private property. The land must be obtained before it could be improved, and was
it to be left to the discretion of Commissioners to take any bog-land they pleased
at a valuation; to single out, for instance, a
p.173
tract of unreclaimed land in the centre of an
estate? Some firm land also must be annexed to each allotment for the erection of
the farm buildings, and to obtain soil for the
improvement of the bog, and this would
have given a still wider and more arbitrary
discretion to the Commissioners. The compulsory powers had therefore to be given up;
and without them the plan could not be
worked.
But there are other objections to this plan
which have a much deeper root. The first
result of the Government undertaking to
reclaim the waste lands of Ireland would be
that the mass of the people would throw
themselves on these works, as they did
upon the roads, taking it for granted that
the means of payment were inexhaustible,
and that less labour would be exacted
than in employment offered with a view to
private profit. The landlords and farmers
would consider that, as the Government
had undertaken to employ the people and
improve the soil, they were themselves absolved from responsibility, and they would
refer all the persons who applied to them
for employment, to the Government works,
p.174
as has been so often done on former occasions. The single agency of the Government would be substituted for the exertions
of the whole body of the landowners acting
in concert with their tenants and dependants; and instead of landed proprietors
and farmers laying out their own money for
their own benefit, with all the care and
economy which this supposes, we should
have hundreds of public officers, of various
grades and characters, expending public
money, for the supposed benefit of the
public, in a business totally foreign to the
proper functions of Government, and without a possibility of effectual superintendence; the inevitable consequence of which
would be, bad work, idle habits, and profuse and wasteful expenditure. Lastly,
when the land had been reclaimed, whatever care might be taken to dispose of it
in farms of reasonable size, however durable
might be the interest granted, or whatever
legal restrictions might be attempted to be
imposed, the old process of the subdivision
of the land, and the multiplication of the
persons subsisting upon it, would run its
course. Nothing can supply the place of
p.175
the watchful supervision exercised by a
proprietor, for the protection of his own
interests, in such a case.
A peasant proprietary may succeed to a
certain extent,62 where there is a foundation
of steadiness of character, and a habit of
prudence, and a spring of pride, and a value
for independence and comfort; but we fear
that all these words merely show the vain
nature of schemes of peasant proprietorship
for Ireland. The small holders of Belgium,63 with all their industry and frugality,
p.176
have, during this calamitous period, been
the most distressed population in Europe
next to Ireland. Their own resources were
too small to carry them through a season
of dearth, and they had no employers to
assist them. In India, society is based on a
system of small holdings, and there is no
country in which destructive famines have
been so common. In Ireland itself, the
greatest over-population, and consequently
the greatest distress, prevailed in those districts in which, owing to the existence of
long leases, the landlords had no power to
prevent the subdivision of the land. Mere
security of tenure is of no avail, without the
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capital, and skill, and habits of life, and,
above all, the wholesome moral qualities
required to turn this advantage to good
account. During the late season of dearth,
food was dearer in the long peninsula which
stretches to the south-west of England, than
it was in Ireland, and the poor had no
resource analogous to the farming stock of
the Irish small holder; but the Devonshire
and Somersetshire labourer lives by wages
paid by persons richer than himself; and
though severely pinched, he had enough for
daily bread, with some assistance from charitable aid, which was generally afforded
throughout the west of England, during the
late season of distress, either by parochial
subscriptions or by allowances from the
unions. The south-west of England is the
least favourable specimen which Great
Britain affords of the system of society
based upon wages, because the nourishing
manufactures which formerly existed in that
quarter have disappeared before the superior
natural advantages of the North, and wages
are consequently very low.64 In every other
p.178
part of this island the contrast is more
decidedly to the disadvantage of the small
holdings; and in Northumberland, which
is a county of large farms, there may be said
to be no poor. Whether the good order,
the physical well-being, or the moral and
intellectual progress of rural society, be considered, the best model is that in which the
educated and enlightened proprietor, the
substantial farmer, and the industrious labourer on regular wages, each performs his
appropriate part.
The works required for deepening and
straightening the course of many of the
rivers are of peculiar importance to Ireland;
because until the outfalls have been cleared,
the landowners cannot enter upon the detailed or thorough drainage of their respective
estates. In such cases the necessity of
working upon the lands of different proprietors calls for the active interposition of
the Board of Works, who make the preliminary
p.179
survey, execute the work, and afterwards apportion the charge, according to the
benefit derived by each person interested.
The funds for carrying on these improvements had been chiefly obtained by the issue
of debentures under the authority of the
Acts of Parliament relating to the subject;
but, under existing circumstances, loans
were not to be expected from private individuals at a moderate rate of interest; and the
ordinary loan fund of the Board of Works
amounting to 60,000 l. a-year, was therefore
reinforced with 120,000 l., transferred to it
from the London Loan Commissioners, and
250,000 l. issued from the Consolidated Fund;
making altogether a sum of 430,000 l. placed
at the disposal of the Board of Works, between the 1st April, 1847, and the 1st April,
1848, to be advanced by them for works of
utility in Ireland, but principally for drainage
of the above-mentioned description.
Next to agricultural improvements, well-selected public works perhaps offer the
greatest resource in the present unhappy
circumstances of Ireland. It is a mistake
to suppose that opening a good road may
not be the most reproductive work in many
districts; and the construction of railroads
p.180
on the great lines of communication, does
for the whole country what new roads do for
particular districts, facilitating and stimulating every description of production, and
agriculture more than all, binding society
together by a closer intercourse and interchange of good offices, and rapidly diffusing
through the remote provinces the advantages
enjoyed by the more favoured parts of the
country.
The objection to Lord George Bentinck's
plan for assisting Irish railways was, that
while it was inadequate as a measure of
relief, it was too large and indiscriminate
when viewed as a measure for the promotion of public works. Private enterprise
would have been overlaid; the bad lines
would have been benefited at the expense of
the good; the public credit would have
been lowered; the available stock of national
capital would have suffered an additional
drain which it could ill afford; and after
all, the object of relieving the existing distress would not have been attained. The
famine was then at its height, and it could
not be stayed by any measure short of distributing food to the multitude. After allowing for the largest number of persons who
p.181
could be employed on railways, millions
must still have starved, if other more effectual steps had not been taken; and the
sums advanced to the Railway Companies,
large as they would have been, would not
have perceptibly diminished the expense of
feeding a whole nation.65 When this primary
object had been attained, and all the funds
had been raised by loan which the state of
Ireland required, the Government was then
in a position to consider what assistance
p.182
could be given to railroads in common with
other works of public utility; and 620,000 l.
was voted by Parliament to be lent to Railways which were legally able to borrow,
owing to their having paid up half their
capital, and could undertake to expend within
a certain fixed time, another sum of their
own equal to that advanced to them. By
the aid thus given, the great South-Western
Railway of Ireland will be enabled to employ
a large number of men throughout the winter, and the important object of opening
the communication between Dublin, Cork,
and Limerick, will be accomplished at a
much earlier period than would otherwise
have been the case.
The other works in progress in Ireland
with the aid of grants or loans from Parliament, are as follows: the Shannon navigation, which has been in operation for several
years; the construction of new floating
docks and markets at Limerick; works at
Hawlbowline, with a view to render that
place more useful as a naval station; four
great works of combined navigation and
drainage; the construction of three new colleges, and of several prisons and lunatic asylums; and the repair and construction of
p.183
fishery piers, for which 50,000 l. was voted
in the session of 1846, and a further sum of
40,000 l. in the session of 1847.
Having thus furnished as clear a sketch
as the variety and complexity of the incidents would allow, of this remarkable crisis
in our national affairs, when the events of
many years were crowded into two short
seasons, and a foundation was laid for social
changes of the highest importance, it may
be asked, what fruits have yet appeared of
this portentous seed-time, and what the
experience is which we have purchased at
so heavy a cost?
First, it has been proved to demonstration, that local distress cannot be relieved
out of national funds without great abuses
and evils, tending, by a direct and rapid
process, to an entire disorganisation of
society. This is, in effect, to expose the
common stock to a general scramble. All
are interested in getting as much as they
can. It is nobody's concern to put a check
on the expenditure. If the poor man prefers idling on relief works or being rationed
with his wife and children, to hard labour;
if the farmer discharges his labourers and
p.184
makes the state of things a plea for not
paying rates or rent; if the landed proprietor joins in the common cry, hoping to
obtain some present advantage, and trusting
to the chance of escaping future repayments,
it is not the men, but the system, which is
in fault. Ireland is not the only country
which would have been thrown off its balance
by the attraction of ‘public money’ à discrétion. This false principle eats like a
canker into the moral health and physical
prosperity of the people. All classes ‘make
a poor mouth,’ as it is expressively called
in Ireland. They conceal their advantages,
exaggerate their difficulties, and relax their
exertions. The cotter does not sow his
holding, the proprietor does not employ his
poor in improving his estate, because by
doing so they would disentitle themselves
to their ‘share of the relief.’ The common
wealth suffers both by the lavish consumption and the diminished production, and
the bees of the hive, however they may
redouble their exertions, must soon sink
under the accumulated burden. The officers
of Government, overborne by numbers, and
unable to test the interested representations
pressed upon them from all quarters, cannot
p.185
exercise their usual watchful care over the
expenditure of the public money. Those
persons who have the will to do their duty,
have not the power. Those who have the
power, have not the will. There is only one
way in which the relief of the destitute ever
has been, or ever will be, conducted consistently with the general welfare, and that
is by making it a local charge. Those who
know how to discriminate between the different claims for relief, then become actuated
by a powerful motive to use that knowledge
aright. They are spending their own money.
At the same time, those who have the means
of employing the people in reproductive
works, have the strongest inducement given
them to do so. The struggle now is to keep
the poor off the rates, and if their labour
only replaces the cost of their food, it is
cheaper than having to maintain them in
perfect idleness.
Another point which has been established
by the result of these extensive experiments
in the science, if it may be so called, of relieving the destitute, is that two things ought
to be carefully separated which are often
confounded. Improvement is always a good
thing, and relief is occasionally a necessary
p.186
thing, but the mixture of the two is almost
always bad; and when it is attempted on a
large scale without proper means of keeping
it in check, it is likely to affect in a very injurious manner the ordinary motives and
processes by which the business of society
is carried on. Relief, taken by itself, offers,
if it is properly administered, no motive to
misrepresent the condition of the people;
and being burdensome to the higher, and
distasteful to the lower classes, it is capable
of being carefully tested and subjected to
effectual controul. But when relief is connected with profitable improvements and
full wages, the most influential persons in
each locality become at once interested in
establishing a case in favour of it, and the
higher are always ready to join with the
lower classes in pressing forward relief
works on a plea of urgent general distress,
which it may be impossible to analyse and
difficult to resist. Relief ought to be confined as much as possible to the infirm and
helpless. Wages, by means of which improvements are carried on, should be given
by preference to the able-bodied and vigorous. Relief ought to be on the lowest scale
necessary for subsistence. Wages should be
p.187
sufficiently liberal to secure the best exertions of the labourer. Relief should be
made so unattractive as to furnish no motive
to ask for it, except in the absence of every
other means of subsistence. Improvements
should be encouraged and urged forward by
every practicable means, both as regards the
parties undertaking them, and those by
whom they are executed. If labour is connected with relief, it should only be as a test
of the destitution of the applicant, and of
his being consequently entitled to a bare
subsistence, in the same way as confinement
in a workhouse is also a test; and the true
way to make relief conducive to improvement, is to give the rich no choice between
maintaining the able-bodied labourers as
paupers, or employing them on full wages
on profitable works, and to take care that
the poor have no reason to prefer living on
public alms, to the active exercise of their
industry in their own behalf.
Among all our discouragements, there are
not wanting many and sure grounds of hope
for the future. The best sign of all is, that
the case of Ireland is at last understood.
Irish affairs are no longer a craft and mystery. The abyss has been fathomed. The
p.188
famine has acted with a force which nothing
could resist, and has exposed to view the
real state of the country, so that he who runs
may read. We have gained, both by what
has been unlearned and by what has been
learned during the last two years: and the
result is, that the great majority of people,
both in Ireland and England, are now
agreed upon the course which ought to be
pursued, in order to arrive at the wished-for
end. The attention of the two countries has
also been so long directed to the same subject, that a new reciprocity of interest and
feeling has been established, and the public
opinion of each has begun to act upon the
other with a force which was never felt
before.
The Irish have been disabused of one of
the strangest delusions which ever paralysed
the energies of a naturally intelligent and
energetic people. Those who knew the
country best, were aware of the habitual
dependence of the upper classes upon the
Government; and it was a common saying
of former days, that an Irish gentleman
could not even marry his daughter without
going to the Castle for assistance. The
vulgar idea was, that when difficulties occurred,
p.189
every personal obligation was discharged
by ‘bringing the matter under the consideration of the Government;’ and if, in
addition to this, ‘a handsome support’ was
promised, it seldom meant more than helping
to spend any public money that might be
forthcoming. But it was reserved for that
potent solvent, the Famine, to discover to
the full extent, this element of the national
character. To pass with safety through this
great crisis, required that every man, from
the highest nobleman to the meanest peasant, should exert himself to the utmost of
his means and ability; instead of which, the
entire unassisted burden of employing all
the unemployed labourers of Ireland, of
improving all the unimproved land of Ireland, and feeding all the destitute persons in
Ireland, was heaped upon a Board consisting of five gentlemen, sitting in an office in
Dublin. The example of the gentry was
followed with customary exaggeration by
the lower orders, and throughout extensive
districts, the cultivation of the land was suspended in the spring of 1847 until it should
be seen what ‘encouragement’ the Government would give, or, as it was sometimes
ingenuously expressed, ‘We expect the
p.190
Government will till the ground.’ It is
also a fact that the people in some parts
of the West of Ireland neglected to a great
extent to lay in their usual winter stock of
turf in 1847, owing to the prevalence of a
popular impression that the Queen would
supply them with coals. Ireland has awakened from this dream by the occurrence of
the most frightful calamities, and it has at
last begun to be understood that the proper
business of a Government, is to enable private individuals of every rank and profession in life, to carry on their several occupations with freedom and safety, and not
itself to undertake the business of the landowner, merchant, money-lender, or any
other function of social life. Reason is now
able to make herself heard, and there has
not been wanting many a warning and encouraging voice from Ireland herself, declaring — ‘The prosperity of Ireland is only to
be attained by your own strong arms. We
are able to help ourselves. We will no
longer be dependent on the precarious
assistance received from other lands. We
will never rest until every sod in Ireland
brings forth abundantly— till every inch of
ground is in its highest and fullest state of
p.191
bearing. In a short time we shall have
among us more industry and exertion, less
politics and more ploughing, less argument
and more action, less debating and more
doing.’66
The uniting power of a common misfortune has also been felt throughout the British
Empire. Those who had never before exchanged words or looks of kindness, met to
co-operate in this great work of charity, and
good men recognised each other's merits
under the distinctions by which they had
been previously separated. The Protestant
and Roman Catholic clergy vied with each
other in their exertions for the famishing
and fever-stricken people, and in numerous
instances their lives became a sacrifice to
the discharge of their exhausting, harassing
and dangerous duties. To the priests all
were indebted for the readiness with which
they made their influence over their flocks
subservient to the cause of order; and the
minister of religion was frequently summoned
to the aid of the public officer when all other
means of restraining the excited multitude
p.192
had failed.67 The political dissensions which
had distracted Ireland for centuries became
suddenly allayed. The famine was too
strong even for the mighty demagogue, that
great mixed character to whom Ireland owes
so much good and so much evil. People
of every shade of political opinion acted
together, not always in an enlightened manner, hut always cordially and earnestly, in
making the social maladies of Ireland, and
the means of healing them, the paramount
object. In the hour of her utmost need,
Ireland became sensible of an union of feeling and interest with the rest of the empire,
which would have moved hearts less susceptible of every generous and grateful emotion
p.193
than those of her sons and daughters.68
Although the public efforts in her behalf
were without parallel in ancient and modern
history, and the private subscriptions were
the largest ever raised for a charitable object,
they were less remarkable than the absorbing interest with which her misfortunes were
regarded for months together both in Parliament and in society, to the exclusion of
almost every other topic. It will also never
be forgotten that these efforts and these
sacrifices were made at a time when England
p.194
was herself suffering under a severe scarcity
of food, aggravated by the failure of the
cotton crop, and by the pecuniary exhaustion
consequent upon the vast expenditure for
the construction of railways. Even in such
a state of things, though serious injury was
done to all her interests by the Irish Loan,
and though the pressure upon the labouring
classes was greatly increased by the wholesale purchase of their food, that it might be
given without cost to the starving Irish, yet
every sacrifice was submitted to without a
murmur by the great body of the people.
Although the process by which long-established habits are changed, and society
is reconstructed on a new basis, must
necessarily be slow, there are not wanting
signs that we are advancing by sure steps
towards the desired end. The cultivation of
corn has to a great extent been substituted
for that of the potato; the people have become accustomed to a better description of
food than the potato;69 conacre, and the
p.195
excessive competition for land, have ceased
to exist; the small holdings, which have
become deserted, owing to death, or emigration, or the mere inability of the holders
p.196
to obtain a subsistence from them in the
absence of the potato, have, to a considerable extent, been consolidated with the adjoining farms; and the middlemen, whose
occupation depends upon the existence of a
numerous small tenantry, have begun to disappear. The large quantity of land left uncultivated in some of the western districts is
a painful but decisive proof of the extent to
which this change is taking place. The
class of offences connected with the holding
of land, which was the most difficult to deal
with, because agrarian crimes were supported
by the sympathy and approbation of the
body of the people, and were generally the
result of secret illegal associations, fell off
in a remarkable degree;70 and although offences against other kinds of property increased, owing to the general distress, the
usual difficulty was not experienced in obtaining convictions. The much-desired
p.197
change in the ownership of land appears
also to have commenced; and when great
estates are brought to the hammer now,
instead of being sold, as formerly, en masse,
they are broken up into lots,71 which opens
p.198
the door to a middle class, more likely to
become resident and improving proprietors
than their predecessors, and better able to
maintain the stability of property and of our
political institutions, because they are themselves sprung from the people. The most
wholesome symptom of all, however, is that
a general impression prevails, that the plan
of depending on external assistance has been
tried to the utmost and has failed; that
people have grown worse under it instead of
better; and that the experiment ought now
to be made of what independent exertion
will do. This feeling has been much strengthened by the necessity which has been imposed upon the upper classes through the
Poor Law, of caring for the condition of the
people; and the attention of the country
gentlemen has in many districts been seriously directed to the means of supporting
them in a manner which will be alike beneficial to the employer and the employed.
The poet Spenser commences his View of
the state of Ireland by these discouraging
observations: ‘Marry, so there have been
p.199
divers good plots devised, and wise counsels
cast already about reformation of that realm,
but they say it is the fatal destiny of that
land, that no purposes whatsoever which are
meant for her good, will prosper or take good
effect; which, whether it proceed from the
very genius of the soil, or influence of the
stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet
appointed the time of her reformation, or
that he reserveth her in this inquiet state
still for some secret scourge, which shall by
her come into England, it is hard to be
known, but yet much to be feared.’ Our
humble but sincere conviction is, that the
appointed time of Ireland's regeneration is
at last come. For several centuries we were
in a state of open warfare with the native
Irish, who were treated as foreign enemies,
and were not admitted to the privileges and
civilising influences of English law, even
when they most desired it. To this succeeded a long period of mixed religious and
civil persecution,72 when the Irish were
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treated as the professors of a hostile faith,
and had inflicted on them irritating and
degrading penalties, of which exclusion from
Parliament and from civil and military office
was one of the least; the general characteristics of this epoch of Irish management
being that the Protestant minority were
governed by corruption, and the Roman
Catholic majority by intimidation. During
all this time England reaped as she sowed:
and as she kept the people in a chronic
state of exasperation against herself, none of
her ‘good plots and wise counsels’ for their
benefit succeeded; for there was no want of
good intention, and the fault was principally
in the mistaken opinions of the age, which
led to persecution in other countries besides
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Ireland. Now, thank God, we are in
a different position; and although many
waves of disturbance must pass over us
before that troubled sea can entirely subside,
and time must be allowed for morbid habits
to give place to a more healthy action, England and Ireland are, with one great exception, subject to equal laws; and, so far as
the maladies of Ireland are traceable to political causes, nearly every practicable remedy
has been applied. The deep and inveterate
root of social evil remained, and this has
been laid bare by a direct stroke of an all-wise and all-merciful Providence, as if this
part of the case were beyond the unassisted
power of man. Innumerable had been the
specifics which the wit of man had devised;
but even the idea of the sharp but effectual,
remedy by which the cure is likely to be
effected had never occurred to any one.
God grant that the generation to which this
great opportunity has been offered, may
rightly perform its part, and that we may
not relax our efforts until Ireland fully participates in the social health and physical
prosperity of Great Britain, which will be
the true consummation of their union.