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THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE.


                  OF



             1845-1846.


       A COLLECTION OF

 ARTICLES, LETTERS, AND PARLIAMENTARY

AND OTHER PUBLIC STATEMENTS,


         REPRINTED FROM


C         9 .e 0


  n .
P    i ;


              PRICE ONE SHILLING,






                   LONDON :
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE TIIES OFFICE, BY F. GOODLAKE.
                    1880.


LEADING










        33q










                                 PREFACE.




    The recurrence of severe distress in Ireland has suggested the publication
of this Volume, which contains a Reprint from  The Times of Leading Articles,
Letters, and Parliamentary and other public Statements during the great Famine
of 1845-1846. It is thought that such a reproduction of the measures then pro-
posed, or adopted, and the opinions then expressed, cannot fail to be highly
instructive and interesting, now  that, after a lapse of more than 30 years,
.he Sister Island is again suffering from   deficient harvests.  The comparisons
thus suggested between that time and the present--unless we are much mistaken
-will be found to throw a broad light over some of the most important poli-
tical and social problems ; such as the effects  of Free Trade on the food
supplies of a people ; the influence of Emigration since it has been brought within
the reach of the humblest classes ; Poor Law legislation as a mean of counter-
acting Famine ; and the results due to the modifications which the tenure of
Land has undergone in Ireland. The retrospect thus supplied by these pages
can scarcely fail to command attention.


436295














IRISH   DISTRESS .N 1846.
   (FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1846.)


   (FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                       DUBLIN, AUG. 5.
  The Freeman's Journal of this day con-
tains the following letter, addressed to
the Prime Minister by "'John " (only)
" Archbishop of Tuam " :-
        " TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
     " St. Jarlath's, Tuam, Feast of St.
           Peter ad Vincula, 1846.
  "My Lord,-Among" the       many   and
obvious -grievances that press upon the
people of Ireland, requiring prompt and
vigorous measures for their redress, there
is one which cannot brook delay, involv-
ing as it does the lives- of thousands of
the inhabitants. I have read with sur-
prise, and with somewhat of dismay, the
report of a speech attributed to the Chan-
:cellor of the. Exchequer, announcing the
fearful intelligence that the relief which,
through the means of employment on
public works, had been in some instances
tardily meted out to the people, was,
from the 15th of August,to be withdrawn.
That auspicious day has, since the intro-
duction of Christianity into this country,
been a festival, bringing joy and gladness
to the people. Suffer it not, then, to be
dreaded   as a monument of national
mourning. You might- as well at once
issue an edict of general starvation as stop
the ;supplies which the feeble creatures
are striving to earn with the sweat of
their brows. The scenes of jealousy and
discontent that are of daily occurrence on
account of the real or: fancied preference
which some claimants for employment
receive, are evidence of the pressure of
hunger ; and never did a mutinous crew
piant more eagerly for the partition of a
rich booty, than the starving. inhabitants
of Ireland do at present for the miserable
pitt..nce earned on the public roads.
  "'Allow me, then, in the name of a
faithful and suffering people, to implore
of you not only to stretch the present re-
lief on an enlarged scale into the middle
of the month of September, but not to
suiffr the great council of the nation to
rise   without    adopting   prospective
hneasures .for the similar but severer
calamity   of the coming year. Some
Member of Parliament is said to have re-
marked, diring the discussion to which


I allude, that a people was not to be fami-
liarized to the practice of depending on
Government for their sustenance, and
that aid during an extraordinary season
was not to be converted into the rule of
ordinary years. Nothing could be more
just than this principle ; nor is it over-
looked by those who now appeal to the
Legislature for the extending of its pro-
tection- Visitations such as that we are
passing through are not always confined
to one season. Nay, they sometimes con-
tinue for two or three successive years.
That the disease in the potato is of that
character is now, alas ! too evident, from
the melancholy concurrence of the reports
attesting a more fearful failure in the
crop than that of the last harvest. But
these are not vague reports.     Having
recently passed through extensive tracts
of country and made a minute examina-
tion into the state of the potato, I can
bear testimony not only to thepremature
'withering of' the stalks, and consequent
decay of the roots, b'itinder stalks of
which the leaves were still green and
sound the roots were diminutive in size
and in a state of rapid decomposition.
The fact is then so, and to throw a people
accustomed for some time- to meal diet
on potatoes that are, some: rotten, aid
almost all unripo, would :be to aggravate
all the evils of famine with the horrors of
pestilence.
  " It is not, then, on the miserable and
peddling scale of levelling hills on a mail
coach road that the physical wants of a
numerous people are to be relieved, but
by those   extensive and necessary im-
provements which, while they mitigate
distress, will afford to the Government :a
adequate remuneration-such as the erec-
tion of quays and piers along the western
and southern coasts, by which the. exist-
ing misery would be relieved,ad courage
given to the hardy natives :along those
coasts to explore and- cultivate the rich
and abundant fisheries on :which any
benevolent statesman:: could : draw  for
supplying the wants of the people. ,Those
are public works which the people have a
right to expect in retirni for: the: ample
'evenues with which their industry e i:
riches the Exchequer.. They know they






6        THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


are improvements which an Irish Legisla-
ture would not delay. You may perceive,
then, how the natural calamities of the
country   are furnishing   arguments in
favour of justice, and as if rebuking the
reluctant tardiness of statesmen to con-
sult for the prosperity of Ireland. The
pittance doled out this year for their re-
liefwould form but a small item  in the
millions abstracted without any return by
absentees, whom  an  Irish  Legislature
would have kept at home to fulfil the
duties as well as to enjoy the benefits of
property. Are you, then, surprised that
while a nation is brought to the verge of
starvation,they are panting for the peace-
ful accomplishment of a measure which,
even in years of scarcity,. would supply
them with abundance, and in years of
plenty would     enable them   to devote
their surplus revenue to the cultivation
of the arts, the encouragement of science,
and the foundation ,of benevolent insti-
tutions ?
   " The trying ordeal out of which the
 people are   now   passing   with   such
 patience, notwithstanding the severe pri-
 vations which they still endure, has had
 -the effect of imprinting more deeply on
 their souls the necessity of a domestic
 legislature.  Fear not, however, that
 they meditate for that purpose either
 violence or insurrection. No,the weapons
 of their warfare are peaceful, constitu-
 tional, and  persevering remonstrance.
 They are resolved to make known the
 hideous injustice with which they are
 still treated, and determined to proclaim
 that the peace or discontent of an entire
 nation are interests too grave and too
 sacred to be looked on as mere political
 signs to measure the degree of the eleva-
 tion or decline of the Whig or Tory
 factions. With the advocates of physical
 force and sanguinary revolution we dis-
 own all sympathy. The impure sources
 from which they have imported their
 dogmas of infidelity and disaffection we
 abhor. It may be well worth the while
 of a profound statesman to pause, and
 consider whether, for the sake of vitiat-
 ing the Catholic religion and weakening
 the influence of its priesthood, it is not-
 hazardous to erect infidel colleges for the
 propagation of an infidel and revolu-
 tionary mania, which, should it succeed
 in overturning the altar, will not spare
 the throne in its career of demolition.
 Far wiser is it to provide for the starving
 and faithful people, than establish such
-mischievous institutions, the hotbeds of
every moral and political vice, and waste


the   public revenues on    the sinecure
salaries of professional idlers. Conse-
quences must be traced to their prin-
ciples. The turbid stream is easily known
from its kindred and congenial source.
The peaceful advocates of repeal are not-
making experiments of violence or war.
They argue on the justice and necessity
(which even this year illustrates) of a
people protected from hunger and starva-
tion by the care of a native and paternal
Legislature. This is a just principle, and
they rely on its progressing in despite of
every effort to crush it. All connexion
with the mischievous men who are for
forcing into the country the educational
despotism   of France   and Prussia, the
dangerous dogmas which       they strive
to spread, they entirely repudiate. Their
confidence is in the patriarchal patriot of
half a century, who, with the peaceful
principles of the Catholic Church to guide
him, has already advanced Ireland to a
pitch to which no military success could
have raised her during the same time.
In the same peaceful course, and under
his leadership, the people of Ireland are
determined steadily to push on their
claims, until the    monster  evil-the
frightful ancmaly    of the   Protestant
Church establishment-is annihilated by
the tardy justice of the Legislature, and
until no obstacle remains to prevent the
cordial union of all classes in bringing
about a peaceful achievement of the re-
peal of the union. This consummation
may be delayed by the followers of Maz-
zini and   Voltaire, but cannot be pre-
vented. It well became those who were
clamorous for infidel colleges, to be next
the consistent advocates of force and in-
surrection.   The    most   profuse  and
dexterous application of Whig patronage
cannot divert the people of Ireland from
Repeal-the necessary goal of all previous
reforms ; nor could the most inflamma-
tory effusions of the parodists of ' Young
Italy' ever drive them into rebellion.
Repeal they cherish ; their country they
love ; but 'there is another affection which
winds closer round their heart than either
-that of their religion. Between country
and   religion, hitherto united  in their
love, a divorce is now  insidiously at-
tempted by the enemies of both. They
will find themselves bitterly disappointed ;
for though the Irish people, free from
bigotry, and anxious for justide, will
practise the social virtues towards all,
without distinction-nay, will not refuse
the alliance of those who, on perfectly
fair and peaceful grounds, will advocate






THE     &~1EAT    IRTSH    FAMINE, OF       1845-1846.            -7


the public good-they will still jealously
watch the movements, and sternly sever
the partnership of all who would attempt,
under any guise, however specious, to
debauch those principles of attachment to
the Throne and to the Catholic religion


which, through all its vicissitudes and
disasters, have formed the chief glory of
Ireland.-I have the honour to be, your
very faithful servant,
      " JOHN, ARCHBISnOP OF TUAlr."


(LEADING ARTICLE, AMONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1846.)


  The reviving cry of Irish distress, to
which the PREMIER is to-day to call the
attention of the House, comes in at a
melancholy juncture to remind us that a
session has passed away, and little indeed
has been done that contains much promise
of: permanent relief. Several measures,
it is true, have been passed-nay, their
number has been made the subject of
Ministerial gratulation-bearing on the
di~icult relations of Irish society. It is
to be hoped that their ultimate value will
not be according to the insignificance of
their origin. It is true that the absence of
eclat is, under some circumstances, an: omen
of: greatness and a sign of worth. But
in the politicalfield we are not accustomed
to  these   stealthy  introductions  and
humble growths. We desiderate a" great
cry,"   whatever the result.   Probably,
therefore, notwithstanding the delightful
anticipations which the late PREMIER may
carry with him into his retirement on the
subject of Ireland, there are few who are
aware that much has been done for that
country. It is not that many are prepared
to dispute the probable efficiency of the
half-dozen Irish acts of this session. The
simple fact of the case is, that very few
indeed know   that any acts have been
passed at all. Fearful, as we are, that it
will be impossible to do much for that
miserable peasantry without laying greater
burdens on Irish property, and exacting
from it better securities for the general
well-doing than any British Minister has
yet dared to propose, of course we augur
ill from the absence of serious and noisy
opposition. We miss that ready instinct,
that desperate terror,'with which property
is wont to defend itself from costly obli-
gation, and are led to infer that for the
present it deems that the bitterness of
" confiscation " is passed.
  And now that melancholy cry is raised
again, and in the urgency of the imme-
diate distress, we have no other alterna-
tive but to look on Ireland as if all vet
remained to be done. The much-derided
calamity of-last season, which events have
proved to have been so exaggerated, and
yet so real-the subject of so much over-


statement, the cause of so much actual dis-
tress-it is now too evident is returning
for at  east a second 'time, under more
dismal circumstances, and in a graver
form. After a season which, notwith-
standing the economy compelled by the
fear of -starvation, left unusually little
surplus, the loss .appears to be far more
complete. The most alrming reports are
coming in of crops smitten in a night by
some killing blast-some chill or some
blight-which, coming on the plant in a
weak, a forced, and perhaps unhealthy
state, has in a few hours converted fields
of luxuriant green into black desolations,
and turned confident hopes into utter
despair. We are aware that it is neces-
sary to test and weigh an Irish fact before
we can admit it to the currency of this
more sober, not to say more sterling, isle.
But it requires an- amount of incredulity
which borders on the inhuman, to .dis-
believe the dreadful and very circumstan-
tial accounts which daily arrive. It is
at least safer to believe them, and there-
fore, on a principle which applies as well
to our social as to our religious obliga-
tions, it is also more right. But we have
now before us the history of the recent
distress,-if, indeed, there has been any
break,-and the methods taken to alleviate
it. The fate of those methods will warn
us how little they can dispense with the
absence of a permanent remedial system,
They cannot even be called an apology
for relief. So mixed are they in their
tendency, so awkward, so wasteful, so
intrusive, that, necessary as they are, we
can only class them with necessary evils.
We believe that every precaution has
been taken to secure as wise, as just, as
economic an application of the public
benevolence as the circumstances allowed.
Yet it is too evident, first, that a very
large absolute expenditure, amounting to
£357,000, besides a much larger-sum in
the way of advance, has left things no
better than they were; and then, tha.
inconveniences   of  a' positively   and
gratuitously   injurious  character have
resulted.
   There has been an absolute waste. It






8            THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


is nobody's fault, but such is the fact.
Taking the whole commercial view of the
transaction, the cost of the Indian corn
and oatmeal has been considerably above
the market price. The question of its
being sold or given away, or sold at what
is popularly called " the cost price," has
nothing to do with this view. We are
speaking of the total cost to the ration.
The 98,810 quarters of Indian corn and
oatmeal have cost, including all the out-
goings that could be included in the esti-
mate-such    as   freight, grinding, and
other expenses--as much as £185,432. But
this, of course, has not been all the ex-
penses. It is added, significantly, The pay
of the commissariat officers, of the Ord-
:nance and military officers employed under
the Board of Works, and the expenses
of the Admiralty steamers for the con-
veyance of the meal, are provided for
in the estimates of their respective de-
partments, and are not included in this
,statement." Now this, of course, is in
itself a very trifling affair. When the
question is a famine, this country can
afford to throw away hundreds of thou-
sands. But it is as well to observe that
the   British  Government    unavoidably
makes a bad merchant. That is not its
calling. Even taking into account what
is given to the charity account in this
transaction-looking only to the cost of
the food-it is a losing and wasteful
affair ; and the private speculator who
did no better would soon be bankrupt.
We repeat, it is no one's fault. No power,
no sagacity, no care on earth,could under-
take at once an entirely new mercantile
transaction, out of its sphere, with new
persons, and in new places, without con-
siderable loss. The whole experiment
was out of the regular streams of traffic.
Thoroughly approving the step, as we do,
we yet may point it out as a warning
ahat Government cannot continue it, or
fall into that style of policy. It is not
its office to supply food, and it cannot do
so without waste.
   There have been other effects more
serious and virtually more wasteful than
this direct and demonstrable waste. The
prices both of food and of labour have
been injuriously, though inevitably, in-
terfered with. That tendency to produce
in excess, to accumulate, and to reserve,
which is the very first and most nece:sary
instinct of trade, without which there
could be no wealth, no power, no pros-
perity, no peace, no improvement, no


society at all, has been discouraged.
Dealers have been disappointedanddriven
from the market, perhaps not always to
return. Their useful craft has been baffled,
their lawful store depreciated. So much
have they felt this " heavy blow and
great  discouragement,"   that at  this
moment we hear they are besieging the
Irish Secretary with questions whether
the relief measures of the past season are
to be renewed next winter. Should such
be the intention, they will take a common
sense view of the fact, and not invest
their money in food. The natural and
spontaneous purveyors for the people are
thus disabled and destroyed. The usual
storehouses, on which the chief reliance
must be laid, will be thus found empty.
A gigantic interloper, in the shape of the
public   benevolence, has   ruined   the
market. He does it only once or twice ;
but " once or twice " is serious in com-
merce. The demand of the dealer in food
encourages the producer. Both rise and
fall together.
  Labour, too, has been both injuriously
enhanced and diverted. The alternative,
or mere hope, of pottering a half-day on
the road, or some such " improvement,"
has withdrawn labour from the fields of
the few Irish agriculturists worthy of that
name, from the railroads in progress, and
to a very remarkable extent from this
island. It is said that this year, when
the demand for labour has been far
beyond all precedent, there have been
fewer Irishmen offering themselves for
harvest or railway work than were ever
known. The story among the Irish immi-
grants themselves is that their friends are
staying at home in the hope of employ-
ment in their own neighbourhood from
the   recent  and   forthcoming   grants.
Whether their employment on such works
as are likely to be selected by lccal relief
committees is likely to be so profitable as
the employment from which they are
seduced, we leave our readers to decide.
Are these results sufficient reasons against'
such measures of instant relief as were
adopted in the winter ? Certainly not.
Necessity knows neither law nor pru-
dence. If we are dying of hunger, we
must kill the milch cow for the sake of
its flesh. We must, and there is an end
of the question. But it is as well to re-
member that small measures of immediate
and 'extraordinary relief are dearly pur-
chased.






THE GREAT IRISH     FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


          THE    PUBLIC WORKS         BILL.
(DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1846).


  The House of Commons went into com-
mittee on the Public Works (Ireland) Bill.
  In the committee, Lord J. RUSSELL
referred to what had been done in the
course of last year, and in the spring
of this year, by the late Government, on
the failure of the potato crop in Ireland.
Having shown that in the purchase of
Indian corn, in donations, in aid of sub-
scriptions, in public works, in general
presentments, and in  various smaller
items, the Government had expended for
the relief of the  people of  Ireland
£852,481, of which £494,851 was either
repaid or to be repaid,he proceeded to ex-
amine in detail the amountof the evil which
this money was expended to remedy, and
to describe tothe House the benefit which
was derived from that expenditure. He
expressed his sorrow at being obliged to
state,that although there were,at present,
in the greater part of the counties of Ire-
land, harvest work and wages sufficient
for the support of the labouripg popula-
tion, the prospect of the potato crop was
this year even more distressing than it
was during the last. Having corroborated
this statement by private letters from
Lord SHANNON, Lord ENNISKILLEN, Lord
BERNARD, Colonel JowEs SMITH,and other
individuals in various districts of Ireland,
he proceeded to explain to the House the
measures which he intended to propose for
its adoption, in order to make provision
for some employment for the labouring
people of Ireland. He proposed to intro-
duce a Bill to this effect-that the LORD-
LIEUTENANT should have power, on recom-
mendation made to him, to summon a
barony sessions or a county sessions for
works for relief of the poor ; when those
sessions should have assembled, they
would be empowered and required to
order such public works as might be
necessary for the employment and relief
of the people. The choice of the works
would be left to them, and they would-
be put into execution by the officers of the
Board of Works. Advances would be
made from the Treasury for the purposes
of those works, to be repaid in 10 years at
3j per cent. interest, the lowest rate ever
taken for works of this kind. Having
described the manner in which he in-


tended to provide for the repayment of
these advances, he next informed the
committee how he intended to provide for
the case of poor districts, where it would
be impossible for the money to be repaid.
He proposed to grant £50,000 for the pur-
poses of those districts, where works of
public utility would be undertaken by the
Government on its responsibility. He
also proposed that commissariat officers
"should be stationed in different parts of
Ireland, who should from time to time
communicate with Sir R. ROUTH on the
state of distress in the several districts.
As evil had arisen from interference by
the Government with the supply of public
food, he did not propose to interfere with
the regular mode by which Indian corn
and other kinds of grain might be brought
into the country. There might, however,
be particular cases where it might be
necessary to employ the commissariat
officers.  He also added, that all the
officers of the commissariat, and of the
Board of Works, would be paid by Go
vernment for the services they performed.
Having these objects in view, he proposed
first, that a sum should be voted to defray
the expenses already incurred ; then a
vote for direct advances by Exchequer
Bills for the purposes stated in the 13ill,
and then the vote for the districts which
might speedily require it. He considered
the present as. a special case requiring the
intervention of Parliament, and rendering
it imperative on the Government to take
extraordinary measures for the relief of
the people. He trusted that the course
which he was proposing would convince
the poorest among the Irish people that
the House wasnot insensible to the claims
which they had upon it as the Parliament
of the United Kingdom. He concluded
by assuring the committee that the late
Ministry had shown a very laudable
anxiety to  meet this evil,-that  the
remedies which they applied had been
suited to the occasion,,-that the present
Government was imitating the spirit in
which they had acted, and was endeavour-
ing to take advantage of their experience
to correct errors which were inevitable,
in consequence of unforeseen difficulties.






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


A POOR      LAW    NECESSARY       FOR IRELAND.
(LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1846.)


  It is no great praise to the Minister to
say that his measures for the relief of
Irish distress are a decided improvement
on those of his predecessor. So much is
due to the interval, brief as it is, between
tlhe respective dates of the two sets of
measures. The few months that have
elapsed have removed that political in-
credulity which refused to admit the
seriousness of the disaster, and boasted
itself insensible to sufferings of which
the sons of wealth were never likely to
have any personal experience.     These
few months have also given too probable
an earnest of a long, or at least an in-
definite, period of straitness and priva-
tion. More than all, they have exhibited
the working of temporary measures. A
practical nation like ours will not go on
long temporizing with evils. Measures
of coercion, indeed, we have been glad to
make temporary enough. No terms could
be too short for enactments that pre-
sented so flagrant a violation to our own
notions of constitutional usage and law.
But the British Legislature will not go
on for years feeding and employing the
poor of Ireland on a mere extempore
system, for the simple reason that food
and employment are not, like flogging,
fines, and  imprisonment, merely occa-
sional necessities. Every month is now
adding to the argument for some better
plan for employing and maintaining the
Irish poor ; and common sense points out
that this plan must be permanent, as also
that it should not be simply an annual
grant from the public Exchequer.
   Really, then, we do not see how Lord
 JoHx RUSSELL could escape the conclusion
 to which he has Some. The district is to
 employ and feed its own poor. That
 simple formula fulfils thethree conditions
 of the question-i. The poor must be
 employed and fed. 2. That is a uniform
 necessity. 3. The public Exchequer can-
 not undertake the cost, nor the Govern-
 ment the sole administration, of relief.
   No prejudice, no ingenuity can avoid
 the only solution of this problem. Accept
 the premisses, and you have implicitly
Sconsented to a regular system of out-door
employment and relief. We can imagine
statesmen willing to go to any extremity
rather than    acknowledge this conse-
quence-willing to go an annually sub-


sidizing the poor of freland-equally
willing, perhaps, to see them annually
decimated by famine and pestilence-
rather than adopt a provision which
happens to be part of the wisdom of our
ancestors.  But unless a Minister be
pledged up to his neck against the old
practice of British benevolence, we may
now safely appeal to his candour. The
occasion has come. Ireland must have an
effectual system of Poor Laws.
  As the necessity is urgent, as well as
for other reasons, Government, in the
first instance,  advances  the   money.
" While there ought to be public works,
andr those public works ought to be
undertaken under due 'control, the cost
of these works will not be defrayed by
means of grants, but by loans, to be
defrayed by the baronies and the counties
in the districts for which they were
granted.' In those last words consist
the virtue and vitality of the measure.
The district in which are the persons
employed, and for the benefit of which
the work is to be done, will itself defray
the expense. The machinery is the next
question. The proposed Bill will give
power to the LORD-LIEUTENANT, on due
recommendation, to summon a barony
sessions or a county sessions, for works
for relief of the poor. " When these
sessions shall have been assembled,"
the PREMIER proceeds to explain, " they
will be empowered and required to order
such public works as shall be necessary
for the employment of the people and
for their relief "-" I say empowered
and required," continues the PREMIER,
because it is intended that it shall be
incumbent on them, on being summoned,
to order those works." Here is distinctly
recognized the local duty of finding em-
ployment for the poor. Under existing
circumstances, the locality most suitable
for the apportionment of this duty is the
barony of the county itself. That is a
matter of great indifference. " Public
works," of course, are great roads, canals,
drains, enclosures, navigations, and such
undertakings of general and extensive
utility. For them, of course, a large
district ought to be assessed.
   The choice of the works will be a matter
 of arrangement between Government and
 the local sessions. The latter will be


C--- ----- ---- -------- ---------- - ---- --


10






THE    GREAT IRIS II FAMINE            OF   1845-1846.


invited to suggest and recommend, and
Government--that    is, the Board     of
Works-will approve. As the        public
advances the money, and the improvement
effected by its outlay will be the chief
security for its repayment, it will be
proper to provide against an imprudentand
unremunerative expenditure. It is neces-
sary also to protect the interest of the
ratepayer in a country where jobbing is
rather a custom than a sin. The Board
of Works is already in possession of the
ground. It has an immense stock of local
information, and projects on its shelves
enough to remodel the Emerald Isle to
almost any conceivable fashion.     The
difficulty is to select and to execute--a
difficulty which will not be met by sur-
rendering everything to a local scramble.
The Board of Works has also the requisite
staff.  To  its  officers, therefore, the
execution of the public works will be com-
mitted. For our own part, so little are
we tied to any prejudice in favour of
purely agricultural employment, that we
do not see why these sessions should not
negotiate the employment of the poor on
railroads in progress. The*fact of their
legislative sanction presumes their utility ;
and it is also very evidently the policy
and the duty of the Government not to
aggravate the serious difficulties of those
gigantic undertakings by holding out to
labour any strong counter attraction.. It
is proposed that the money be advanced
at 3 per cent. interest-much less than
what Irish railroad companies, and any
other Irish borrowers whatever, are now
in the habit of paying. The loans are to
be repaid in 10 years ; and the levies for
that purpose are not to be according to
the assessment for the county-rate, but
according to the assessment for the poor"s
rate. A proportion of the expense, there-
fore, will fall upon the owners, and the
poorer occupiers will be in a great measure
relieved. These provisions, we think,


will be found to meet the superficial, not
to say flippant, objections we have re-
cently heard made to an efficient Irish
Poor Law-viz., that it would swallow up
the whole profits of the land, and that
there is not capital enough for the pur-
pose. The capital will be provided ; and
if the works are selected with tolerable
judgment, and executed with moderate
economy, we cannot doubt       that the
capital will be reproduced, and will re-
main on the land after it has been re-
funded to the Exchequer. But it is
ridiculous to say   there is no   capital
where there are labour and land. Tha
there is capital in Ireland sufficient fora
liberal Poor Law is evident from its ex-
porting a greater quantity of food than
any other equal country in the world.
That at least is an undeniable proof of its
actual wealth. A country which exports
the means of supporting millions can, of
course, pay for its own improvement.
  In principle, it must be observed, this
measure is no innovation in Ireland.
That country has all along had a system
for the employment of labour. It existed,
however, in a peculiarly Irish form, as if
meant to be abused. The grand juries
feared neither GOD nor man; they were
amenable neither to Government nor the
ratepayer ; so they jobbed away labour
and money with the same utter indiffer-
ence to justice and public utility as the
agrarian lawgivers living around them
showed in jobbing away human life. There
will be ample security-all the security
that the empire can bestow-against such
malversation in carrying out the forth-
coming measure. The Board of Works
will be responsible to the Imperial Par-
liament for the wisdom of its sanctions,
as also for its economical execution of tke
public works ; and the Legislature will
then be to blame if the Board of Works
is not kept tp its duty.


ENGLISH PROPERTY TAXED FOR IRISH DISTRESS.
       (LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1846.)


  A week or two after the beginning of
the session we brought on ourselves some
very grave rebukes by simply recording
the fact, that Ireland's weakness had
become England's opportunity, and that
the opportunity had been duly improved
by certain spontaneous acts of generosity
to that suffering isle. It was answered
with great solemnity, that what had been


done was no more than the bounden duty
of the strong to the weak, that Ireland by
virtue of the Union might demand this
assistance, and in according it the Im-
perial Legislature  only -admitted  a
peremptory plea. We should not recur
to the subject, nor run the least risk
of offending our sensitive neighbours,
but for two f awt. First. the popular


----.._


11






THE    GREAT IRISH         FA .MINE    OF   1845-1846.


instructors of Ireland maintain the extra-
ordinary doctrine that it is the duty of
the State to feed the Irish population.
Secondly,this demand is really addressed,
not to a few rich proprietors, bat to a
population who, as to outward opportu-
nities, are much on a par with the Irish
themselves,-viz., the labouring classes of
England. The claim which we have heard
lately enforced with all the passion and
acerbity of spiritual indignation is, that
the British labourer shall maintain the
Irish, whenever the latter finds himself
situated as the English labourer generally
is-viz., without provision for the future.
We are not conscious of misrepresenta-
tion. The labouring classes of this island'
pay the bulk of the taxes, and therefore
are the chief paymasters of the empire.
It is maintained that whenever the Irish
peasantry are short of potatoes they shall
be found in employment and food,at their
own doors, from the public fund-that is,
at the expense of the British labourer,
who, it is unnecessary to say, can claim
no such indulgence on his own account.
For these reasons, we consider it neces-
sary to record what the Legislature is
doing for Ireland.
   By virtue of an Act which last night
received the Royal assent, the Exchequer
is immediately about to lend money for
the execution of public works in Ireland.
That money is to be advanced within the
ensuing twelvemonth, and repaid in the
:course of the next ten years. Meanwhile,
it is to pay the moderate interest of 3
per cent. Now, take this measure at the
best, merely as a regular loan. Suppose
the money to be well employed, and
punctually repaid. Suppose that the
execution of the works brings no extra-
ordinary cost on the State. As a mere
loan, it is no inconsiderable favour to the
Irish at the cost of the British labourer.
The latter is to pay into the Exchequer,
say one million more, this year, from his
deep poverty and incessant toil, in order
that this sum may be buried, produc-
tiively we" hope, in Irish soil. It is so
much deducted from British and added to
Irish capital. True, the former is to be
gradually   reimbursed.  Bit. what     is
reimbursement in tenyears, and interest
at three-and-a-half per cent., to an in-
dustrious nation like the British ? There
is a phrase, for which a distinguished man
-incurred more ridicule than he -deserved,
about: remitting taxes that the money
might "fructify " in the pockets of the
people. To adopt this expression, the
million is to fructify in Ireland instead of


in England. Every labouring man on
this side of the Channel, when he is con-
triving his next year's Michaelmas rent,
may consider that he has five shillings
less, on account of this Irish loan.
  Let no one venture to cavil at the
statement that it is the labouring man
who lends the money. To enable the State
to advance this million, be it more or less,
we must go on one year longer with an
equivalent burden on some necessary of
life, and consequently also on the trade,
manufacture,   and   commerce    of  the
country. That strikes home to every
working man. If the working men of
this island are content to contribute a
million by way of loan to their suffering
Irish brethren, we can only say it is ex-
ceedingly kind of them. May they never
miss it themselves ! But that is exactly
what we are saying, and what we wish to
impress on the gentleman who subscribes
himself, " JOHN, Archbishop of TuAsr."
We are anxious to stamp on the tablets
of his mind the notable fact, that for the.
next year we shall be paying a poll-tax
amounting to a shilling a-head for every
man, woman,.and child, to make up, say
a million, for the immediate relief of our
poor Irish countrymen. Let him       not
suppose that this is a trifle to a British
labourer. If he wants to know out of
what poverty this kindness is afforded,
let him read the account of the Dorsetshire
peasantry which appeared in the same
copy of our journal as his own epistle.
Five shillings is a great deal to a family
fed, clothed, and housed on 7s. a-week.
It is our deep affection and admiration
for the patience, peacefulness, and in-
dustry of the British labourer under the
most adverse and trying circumstances
that prompts us to these reflections. He
is the veriest drudge of drudges, it is his
delight to be called a servant, he can call
nothing his own he possesses,-he claims
no land, he knows no rights, he accumu-
lates no store,.he forms no conspiracies,
he frequents no demonstrations, he gathers
round no leader. Yet these patient crea-
tures are in fact subscribing for' the
employment of a class, which claims a
much higher position in the social scale.
That is the " rent " which they gather.
   But we are anticipated with a reply.
Let that reply be heard. Ireland, it
urges, sends millions to England;c why
shall not a portion of this wealth return
to the soil ? If it be so, that does not
affect the honourable part of the British
working classes in this transaction. They
do not receive the rents :of. Ireland. By


~


12






THE    GEEAT IRISH -FA MINE           OF  1845-1846.


all means let Irish produce return to the
land, by taxing Irish property for the
employment of the poor. But when
British industry submits to be taxed for
this purpose, we can only say that it is
exceedingly generous, and deserves more
thanks than it is likely to obtain. We
must, however, protest against the system
of working the " willing horse." It will
never do for the Irish poor to depend on
British industry for employment. Is that
so extravagant an    apprehension   that
there is no prospect of it ever being ful-
filled ? On the contrary, things tend very
much this way. It is becoming an every-
day occurrence to charge British industry
with the duties of Irish property. The
Imperial Exchequer has just virtually
made a grant of no less a sum than
£5,000,000, out and out, to the Irish
landowner. We are indebted to Lord
MONTEAGLE for his forcible way of putting
the sacrifice. Irish property, up to this
day, has condescended to pay somewhat
more than a third of the expenses of the
Irish constabulary force; a sort of expense
which it is unnecessary to say English
'counties and English towns pay for them-
selves, without troubling their neighbours
for a farthing. That: third amounted to
£160,000 a-year, equivalent- to a capital
of £5,000,000. We now     discharge the
Irish landowner of that obligation. We
present him with the money. Hence-
forth, while the   English and    Scotch
wholly maintain their own county and
municipal police, the enormous and ex-
pensive police force of Ireland is wholly
saddled on the Imperial Exchequer. This
is one instance of a tendency to burden:
British industry with Irish obligations.
Other instances will be fresh to the


memory and familiar to the knowledge
of the reader. This year we have already
advanced more than £800,000, of which
£350,000 is not-to be repaid. Nor will it
be forgotten that Ireland pays no assessed
taxes, no land-tax, no income-tax, and is
favoured even in the Excise.
  There is a manifest tendency in these
things. It is a growing evil. The moment
Lord DEVON'S monster report made its
appearance, we immediately said that its
animus was the relief of the landlord;
and that if anything would come of its
recommendations, it would be the very
measure we have just alluded to--the
throwing on the State the remaining
third of the police. The landowner, with
infallible aim and relentless grasp, has
secured his interest in Lord DavoN's
suggestions. So we go on. The peasant
is starving, and we subsidize the land-
owner. Rents     rise, and the  peasant
starves more than ever. We _hall be
told, perhaps, just now it is rather un-
gracious to be making these exceptions..
But unless we do things "just now,"-r-
unless we point out the true nature and
bearing of enactments just when they are
passing, we should despair of procuring.
attention to the subject. We think that
British benevolence has been considerably
imposed upon, not so much by the Irish
peasant, whose distressis genuine enough,
but by the Irish landowner. He makes
the same use of his peasantry as the gipsy
does of her stolen child. She pinches
the poor creature, and extorts our alms
on the strength of its sufferings.  One
could almost imagine that some crafty
beldam   of a landowner was pinching
JoHN, Archbishop of TUAM, when he
howls so much to the landowners' tune.


EFFECTS OF DEPENDENCE UPON THE POTATO CROP.
      (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1846.)


  Sir,-The prospect of a second year's
famine in Ireland is far too serious an
event to bearegarded as a passing emer-
gency, or to be met by a temporary
expedient. We may vote millions to
alleviate the  impending  calamity-we
may cover the nakedness of the land with
cargoes of Indian corn ; but when all
this is done: we are as far from the end of
our labours as ever. The vote of this
year does not diminish the chances of a
famine the next---rather, it increases:
them, And, what is worse, people seem


to acquiesce in this state of things, as if
there were no help for it-as if Nature
had fixed her irreversible decree that once
at least in every four or five years Ireland
should be laid waste by famine. To judge
from the almost periodical recurrence of
these visitations, and from :the- tone in
which people speak of them, one would
imagine that Ireland was some barren
rock or thirsty wilderness in an inhos-
pitable region of the globe, to which:
Nature had denied all the genial qualities;
of soil and climate, and which she had


_


13






TlE i GREAT  11R1SI FAMINE OF 1845-184i.


filled with an exuberance of population,
without affording them  the means, or
even the possibility of subsistence. One
would imagine that this miserable people
had   neither hands to labour      with,
tools to till the earth with, nor grain
to sow it with. Such is really the aspect
in which we of this country seem to re-
gard the inhabitants of the sister island
during the period of one of their usual
famines. Our sentiments towards them
are simply those of pity.      Oh! how
shocking, we exclaim, that those poor
Irish should have lost their potatoes
again ! Where shall we find something to
feed them   with ? We do not think of
inquiring whether or no the dependence
of a whole nation upon so precarious an
article of food be a necessary or an un-
necessary evil, and ifunnecessary, whether
ib ought not to be in every way denounced
and discouraged. We do not think of
inquiring, with Bishop Berkeley," Whose
fault is it if poor Ireland still continues
poor ? "
/Now, the best friend to the Irish
would be he who could effectually per-
suade them that the fault lay entirely
with themselves. They inhabit a country
a great part of which is at least equal in
fertility to our own, with more that is
capable, of being made so. There is no
reason, except their own wilful mis-
management, why they should not grow
as fine crops of wheat as are raised in the
Lothians, and, after feeding themselves,
export the surplus to our shores. Yet,
after years of present suffering anid fear-
ful expectation, they idly and stupidly
persist in staking their very existence
upon a crop the precarious nature of
which is no more than a fair set-off
against the small amount of labour re-
quired to produce it. Without entering
into the question how far the laws and
customs relating to landed property in
Ireland, how' far the landlords themselves,
are responsible for this evil, I may safely
assert that the prejudices and ignorance
ofthe Irish people are at least as invete-
rate and as fatal as their misgovernment
and the ill example of their superiors
have been culpable and injurious. Every
Irishman must needs be a farmer, and
work as much or as little as he pleases ;
the idea of being a labourer,and engaging
in regular employment, is revolting to
him. The great object of his life is to
rent a miserable patch of land, to build
himself a hovel, or burrow in the earth,
to marry, and, if possible, to live as well
as his pig. The word " improvement "


is not in his vocabulary ; he is coitent
to live as his forefathers have done.
With such exalted views in his mind, the
first question is, how to realize them ;
and to this the potato furnishes a speedy
though treacherous reply. No other article
of food promises so much at so small
a cost. An acre of potatoes will maintain
four times as many people as an acre of
wheat, while the time and labour of cul-
tivating it are comparatively trifling.
Here, then, are abundant means of grati-
fying his love of idleness and what he
calls independence.  And  so long as
Nature bestows the years of plenty from
her revolving cycle, and withholds the
years of famine, things go on smoothly.
   For a month or two ourfarmer is busied
 with planting his potatoes; for another
 month or two he leaves his home and
 comes to reap where he sowed not, in the
 smiling harvests of England ; while for
 the remaining two-thirds of the year he
 does nothing but sleep, drink, or beg.
 But Nature will not suffer her laws to be
 broken with impunity. She has made
:daily labour the condition of daily food-;
and those who will not submit to her
decrees must be content to nay. the
penalty. Thus, famine is the certain re-
compense of a cheap and idle subsistence;
and while the latter, in addition to its
other evils, tends to multiply population
to an unhealthy extent, and to perpetuate
their miseries, the former stands ready,
with scourge in hand,to expel the noxious
brood, or to lash them into' industry and
prudence.
  Nothing is more certain than this-that
the dense population of Ireland and its
squalid condition are principally owing
to the potato. " Had it not been," says
Mr. M'Cullcch, "for the almost universal
dependence of the Irish people on the
potato for the principal part of their sub-
sistence, coupled with the facility with
which they obtain huts and slips of land,
it is quite impossible that population
could have advanced so rapidly as it has
done during the last fifty years."   The
same writer observes,-"So long as pota-
toes are used only as a subsidiary species of
food, their introduction serves to improve
the condition of the labourer, and they
frequently afford him an additional means
of support in years when there is a failure
of the corn crops. But those who are
habitually and entirely fed on potatoes
are placed upone the extreme verge of
human subsistence. When deprived of
their accustomed food, they are unable,
from the smallness of: their wages, to


1 _ _


14






THE    GREAT     IRISH    FAMTINE     OV   1845-18460,


purchase what is dearer ; and there is
nothing cheaper to which they can resort.
To a people placed under such unfortunate
circumstances, scarcity and famine must
be synonymous." Taking these facts into
consideration, I verily believe that if the


potato famine in Ireland were to continue
five years longer, it would prove a greater
blessing to the country than any that has
ever been devised by Parliamentary com-
missions from the Union to the present
time.      I am, Sir, yours,       B.


THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME FOR RELIEF.
(LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1846.)


  The accounts we continue daily to re-
ceive from all parts of Ireland leave no
room to doubt the failure of the potato
crop.   From the Giant's Causeway to
Cape Clear, from Limerick to Dublin, not
a green field is to be seen. The disease
having attacked the plant at a much
earlier period this year than it did in
1845, the root has been arrested in its
growth and prevented from arriving at
maturity. Thus, what was last year but
a partial destruction is now a total anni-
hilation; and it has become a very general
bolief that the month of December will
not find a single potato in the country.
Ireland is, therefore, doomed to suffer a
recurrence (if it should not rather be
called a continuance) of that distress
which has well nigh pauperized the whole
population. Taught by fatal errors of
policy to look to the State for assistance,
Ireland stands now in an attitude of con-
fident expectation, waiting for the public
supplies which hitherto have not been
denied her. Should they be denied in
future, there will be much bitterness and
great complaint. It is an inevitable con-
sequence,-as inevitable by Governments
as individuals. Benefits once conferred, if
they be not continued, are speedily for-
gotten, and in place of gratitude, breed
but discontent. It is a law, or a vice, of
human nature, and we are not to look for
an exception among the Irish people. If
any abatement is made in the amount of
relief afforded from the public funds, or
any change in its application     which
savours at all of retrenchment, the Go-
vernment will meet with more abuse than
thanks. The people expect to, be fed,
and one way or another they must be fed.
The precedent once established'must be
followed, and there is an end of argument.
  If with the experience of the present
we could recall the past, and place our-
selves again in the autumn of 1845,
there are few, if any, of the measures
then adopted on behalf of Ireland which


would now be approved. We write in no
spirit of hostility to that country ; but,
on the contrary, with the most earnest
desire to recommend what is most con-
ducive to her lasting interest. She has
suffered too much already from temporary
measures, from the application of super-
ficial remedies, which, alleviating only
the   symptoms, have    aggravated   her
disease. We desire to pee an end of this
patchwork policy, if policy that may be
called which is nothing but a series of
makeshifts. There is a kiind of spend-
thrift generosity that benefits neither the
giver nor the receiver, and of this com-
plexion have been the alms bestowed by
Great Britain upon her sister island. The
State has still some millions of Irishmen
to support, who, in spite of all that has
been done for them, are rather worse
than better for its charity. And why ?
Because the charity has been bestowed
without judgment, and accepted without
gratitude.  Neither the character nor
the condition of the people has been im
proved by the transaction.
  The measures proposed by the present
Ministry contain several marks of im-
provement, and the germ, at least, of a
more far-sighted policy. We publish in
another column a minute of the Lords of
the Treasury, intended for the guidance
of the various officials in Ireland, which
shows that the details of their relief
system have not been adopted without
mature   consideraticn.   One principal
error of its predecessors the RUSSELL
Cabinet is determined to avoid.     The
State will not meddle a:second time ,with
the provision-market, nor blindly enter
into a competition with private trade, at
once suicidal of itself and destructive of
its rivals. Indeed, with the experience of
the past and present year still fresh in
the recollection, it would have been little
short of madness to repeat the experi-
ment of feeding the Irish people from
Government stores.    The change, how-
                                UNIVERSITY OF
                                ILLINOIS LIBRARY-
                             T URBANA-CHAMPIG


__


15






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


ever, is not without exception. In some
districts, too poor to command a market,
and too difficult of access to repay the
merchant,-for instance, on the coast of
Connemara, or the most wretched parts of
Clare and Kerry,-food will still be sup-
plied from Government stores, not to
underbid the private trader,but to supply
his place. The exception does not seem
injudicious ; for, as the only objection to
the former plan was that it interfered
with the ordinary market, where there is
no market to interfere with the objection
fails.
  Another great improvement is in the
use of Government works, which will be
more sparingly applied and with greater
discrimination.   Employment on relief
works also is to be afforded to those oily
who cannot obtain it elsewhere, and to
them at lower than the average rate of
wages. The necessity of this restriction
will be understood by those who have
rea-d the correspondence between the Go-
vernment and its commissioners.   Major
SIMMONDS,'in a letter dated the 4th of
August, writes thus from  Limerick :-
"Nothing can be finer than the corn
crops now being cut, but slwly, I am
told, for-want of labourers, resulting, it
is to be feared, from the injudicious con-
tinuance of public works, as well as in
the mismanagement of some committees,
in not gradually- withdrawing relief from
persons able to work." It is notorious
also  that fewer Irish   labourers have
offered themselves for the English har-
vest this summer than in -any previous
year. These facts are but too significant,
and their purport has been duly appre-
ciated.
  There is still, however, in the new
measures some of the old leaven left.
The changes, although in the right direc-
tion, are still chiefly of detail ; the prin-
ciple is preserved which governed the late
Administration. That principle we find
it impossible to approve. We cannot, by
any process of reasoning, be convinced
that the general body of the nation ought
to be taxed for the support of particular
districts-in Ireland. The  theory and
practice of the Constitution are alike
averse from such a proceeding. Nor do we


feel ourselves in the   slightest degree
nearer conviction, when we reflect upon
the consequences which flow from the ap-
plication of the principle. We ask, in the
first place, who are the persons chiefly
benefited by it ? Are they the peasantry,
the poor, the mass of the population ? By
no means ; for to these it is indifferent
whence the money comes, so long as it is
not taken from themselves. For whose
sake, then, is it ? It can be for none other
than the landlords. These suffering gen-
tlemen, sinking   under burdens    which
never until now were heard of, groaning
under a pressure of taxation which never
until now was felt, ask, aid unhappily
for their country obtain, a relief in com-
p-arison of which the subsidies afforded
to the peasant are but dust in the balance.
   Perhaps it will be said on behalf of the
 Government that we have misrepresented
 its intentions, which are not to throw the
 burden of Irish poverty upon the national
 funds. It is true in theory that the sums
 to be immediately spent in Ireland are to
 be returned at a remote period, and by
 numerous instalments, the  worlks con-
 structed by their aid being the security
 for repayment. This is true, we say, in
 theory-that is,it is true so long as practice
 does'not make it false ; but we appeal to
 any impartial person in the    least ac-
 quainted with Irish affairs, whether there
 is the slightest probability of the money
 being in fact repaid.   For ourselves,
 looking at the state of the country and
 the inveterate habit of jobbing   which
 prevails among all classes, we are forced'
 to the conclusion that the so-called loans
 will in the end prove gifts. We, there-
 fore, call them by their true names.
   On the whole, however, it must be con-
fessed that HER MAJESTY'S Ministers have
made the best of the Irish difficulty. Like
the steward in the parable, Lord JoNS
RUSSELL has done wisely, at least for
himself and his of credit. His measures,
there is every reason to believe, will in.
sure a sufficient supply of food during
the coming winter. Thus Ireland, paid
by the   State, and, where   needful, fed
from her stores, cannot for very shame,
continue  to   assert--that " England's
danger is Ireland's opportunity."


16






THE    GREAT IRISH FAMINE             OF .1845-1846.


TREASURY MINUTE ON       RELIEF WORKS.
        (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1846.)


   The. following is a copy of a Treasury
 Minute, embodying revised instructions
 for the Board of Works and the Commis-
 sary-General,  with  recommendations
 urged on the Relief Committees. These
 instructions are the first movement of the
 Executive to give effect to the Act -just
 passed, " To facilitate the employment
 of the labouring poor for a limited period
 in distressed districts in Ireland."
               AUGUST 3L
   My Lords have before them the Act 10
 Victoria, cap 107, " To facilitate the em-
 ployment of the labouring poor for a
 limited period in distressed districts -in
 Ireland," and proceed to consider the re-,
 vised instructions which the provisions of
 this Act, and the experience which has
 been acquired from the operations for the
 relief of. the people suffering from the
 failure of the potato crop in Irelandsince
 the month of November last, render it
 desirable should be issued to the Board
 of Works and the Commissary-General,.
 Sir R. Routh, who is in charge of the
 duties lately executed by the relief com-
 mission.
 No authority  can, from  the present
 date, be given for the execution of any
 new -:works under the 9th Victoria, cap.1;
 ad such works as may hereafter be re-:
 quired for the relief of distress must be
 presented and sanctioned according to
 the provisions of the 10th Victoria, cap.
 107..
 The Board of Works were instructed
 by the   Treasury  minute, dated 21st
 ultimo, to bring to an early close all the
 works under the 9th Victoria, cap. 1,
 which were not required for the relief of
 urgent distress ; and the Board were in-
 formed that if the parties interested de-
 sired that works so discontinued should
 afterwards be recommenced and com-
 pleted, it was open to them to take the
 usua steps to provide for that object,-
 either by obtaining loans secured by
 grand  jury  presentment, or by other
 means.
 Their Lordships desire that the Board
of Works will report to what extent
works have been discontinued under these
instructions on the ground of their not
being really required for the purpose of.
giving relief ; and that it may be under-
stood. in, accordance with the passage


above adverted to in the minute of the
21st July, that if it should become neces-
sary to recommence. any such works, the
renewal of them   must be provided for
either in the manner above referred to,
or under the 10th Victoria, cap. 107.
   With a view to give: every practicable
 assistance to the presentment sessions,
 the-Board of Works should be prepared
 with plans and estimates of those works
 in each district in which relief is likely
 to.be required, on which the destitute
 poor might- with the reatest possible ad-
 vantage be employed ; and an officer of
 the Board should be in attendance at the
 sessions to furnish every explanation that
 may be called for.
   In order to prevent labourers from
 being induced to leave their proper em-
 ployments and to congregate on the relief
 works, in the hope of getting regularly
 paid money wages in return for a smaller
 quantum of work than they have :been
 accustomed to give, the fol-lwing rules
 ought, in their Lordships' opinion, to be
 strictly observed :--
   " No person should be employed on
any relief works who cas obtain employ-
ment on other public works, or in farming
or other private operations in. -the neigh-
bourhood.
   " The wages given to persons employed
on relief works should, in every case, be
at least 2d. a day less: than the average
rate of wages in the district.
   " And the persons employed on the
relief works should,to the utmost possible
extent, be paid. in proportion to the work
actually done by them."
  Their Lordships suggest, for the con-
sideration of the Lord-Lieutenant, that
it may be advisable that in every case in
which it may be determined to assemble
extraordinary sessions for the present,
ment of works under the 10th Victoria-
cap. 107, instructions should= also be is-
sued to the lieutenant of the county, to
re-assemble the relief committees of the
districts in which such works are proposed
to be carried on, making such changes in
the individuals composing the committees
as circumstances may require ; or, if no
relief committees have yet been organized
in the districts in question, to appoint
new committees in accordance with the
rules prescribedby the Relief Commission..


_ I


17






THE'E GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846


  Their Lordships also suggest that, in
order to obviate inconveniences which
may have been experienced during the
late relief operatibons, the following alter-
ations should be made in the instructions
under which the local relief committees
liave hitherto acted :-
  First, with regard to the assistance
given by the relief committees in the
proper appropriation of the relief pro-
vided   under the   10th Victoria, cap.
107, by    means   of   public  works,-
That tickets should not hereafter be
issued by the relief committees entitling
persons to employment on such public
Wiorks. That, instead thereof, the relief
&'mmittees should furnish (according to
a form to be supplied to them   for that
purpose) the officers in  charge of the
works, on the part of the Board of Works,
with lists of persons requiring relief,
xisting them  in the order in which they
are considered to be entitled to priority,
Dither on account of their large families,
or from any other cause; that the com-
ittees should revise these lists from time
to';time as occasion may require ; and
that thlie officers of the Board of Works,
acting on the information contained in
these lists, or acjuired by them  from
other- sources, should themselves furnish
tickets entitling persons to employment
o   the relief works for certain limited
periods, according to the circumstances of
adsh case.
  Secondly, as regards the functions per-
formed by the relief committees, indepen-
dently of the relief works carried on under
the provisions of Acts of Parliament,-
Their Lordships consider that donations
in aid of private subscription   may be
made, ..when   necessary, as heretofore,
from public funds placed for that pur-
pose :at the disposal of the Lord Lieu-
tenant ; and that these donations may
edoitinue to be, as a general rule, in the
proportion of from one-third to one-half
of 'the amount of the private subscrip-
tions, according to the extent of the desti-
tution and the means of the subscribers.
  But their Lordships are of opinion that,
  in consideration of the assistance so to be
given from    the public purse, the pro-
ceedings of the relief committees, in the
appropriation ofthe fundsadministered by
them, should be subjected to any degree
of control on the part of the Government
that may be considered desirable ; for
which purpose their accounts and corre-
spondence should at all times be open to
the inspection of Government officers ap-
pointed for the purpose, and any further


explanations that may be required on any
particular point should be immediately
furnished.
  In order to keep in check, as far as pos-
sible, the social evils incident to an ex-
tensive system of relief, it is indispen-
sably necessary that the relief committees
should not sell the meal or other food pro-
vided by them, except in small quantities
to persons who are known to have no
other means of procuring food ; that the
price at which the meal is sold should, as
nearly as possible, be the same as the
market prices which prevail in the neigh-
bourhood ; that the committees should
not give a higher rate of wages nor exact
a smaller quantum of work, in any works
carried on by them from funds at their
own disposal, than is the case in respect
to the works carried on under the super-
intendence of the Board of Works, and
that works should be carried on by them
only to the extent to which private em-
ployment is proved not to be available.
   The serious attention of every person
 who will have to take a part in the
 measures of relief rendered necessary by
 the new and more complete failure of the
 potato crop should be particularly called
 to this importarit fact, that the limitations
 and precautions which have been pre-
 scribed to the Government boards and
 officers in carrying out the relief opera-
 tions, with the object of rendering the
 necessary interference with the labour
 and provision markets productive of the
 smallest possible disturbance of the or-
 dinary course of trade and industry, will
 be rendered nugatory if the same pru-
 dence and reserve are not practised by
 the relief committees in the administra-
 tion of the funds placed at their disposal
 by private or public benevolence ; and
 their Lordships therefore feel it to be
 their duty earnestly to request that every
 person concerned will,to the extent of the
 influence possessed by him, endeavour to
 secure such a restriction of the measures
 of relief to cases of real destitution, and
 such a just consideration for the interests
 of merchants and dealers,in the free exer-
 cise of whose callings the public welfare
 is so deeply concerned,: that, instead of
 the habitual dependence upon charitable
 aid which  might otherwise be appre-
 hended from the extensive measures of
 relief in progress, every description of
 trade and industry may be stimulated by
 them, and   the bonds of, society may
 become more firmly knit by the benevo-
 lent and intelligent :co-operation of the
 different orders and ranks :of which it is


18






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


composed to avert a common calamity,
and to prepare for re-commencing the
ordinary occupations of social life with
advantages which are at present only im-
perfectly enjoyed in some parts of Ire-
land.
   The limited grant fund provided by the
 10th Victoria, cap. 109, entitled " An
 Act to authorize a further issue of money
 in.aid of public works of acknowledged
 utility in poor districts in Ireland," is,
 according to the terms of the Act, ap-
 plicable only to the case of unimproved
 districts, like parts of the counties of
 Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and       Donegal,
 ,h ere, although  the  roads and other
 works would be productive of more than
 usual public advantage, the districts are
 too poor to bear the whole expense of
 them ; and the Act therefore directs that
 in cases in which the repayment of loans
 to the amount of at least a moiety of the
 estimated expense of such works shall
 have been secured, and such further con-
 tributions shall have been made as the
 Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury
 shall think fit to require from  the in-
 dividuals principally interested in the pro-
 jected works, such aid shall be afforded
 from  this fund, in the shape of grants,
 as the occasion may appear to require.
 The applications which may be received
 for grants under this Act will have to be
 carefully ex-amined and inquired into by
 the Commissioners of Public Works, who
 will recommend or sanction those works
 which appear to them to combine the
 greatest public utility with the relief of
 urgent distress, taking care that the pro-
 prietors specially interested are required
 to contribute, in addition to their share of
 the general assessment for the repayment
 of half the expense of the works, sums
 proportioned, in some   degree, to the
 special benefits they will derive from
 them.
 My Lords have considered, with the
 careful attention which the importance of
 the subject demands, the measures proper
 to be taken with a view to continue the
 late commissariat operations to the ex-
 tent which may be absolutely necessary
 for the purpose of providing supplies of
 food for sale in districts to which the
 ordinary operations of the provisiou trade
 cannot be expected to extend,the strictest
regard  being at the same time paid to
the pledge which has been given, not to
interfere in any case in which there is a
re'lsonable expectation that the market
will be supplied by mercantile enterprise,
and they will proceed to state the course


which appears to them to be the best
adapted to secure the important object in
view.
   Their Lordships have already given
 directions that no portion of the stock of
 meal remaining in store in the different
 dep8ts should be sold merely for the sake
 of disposing of it.
   It has been fully established, by the
 experience of the late operations, that
 the ports on the northern, eastern, and
 southern coasts, from Londonderry to
 Cork, and those parts of the interior which
 are ordinarily supplied from them, may
 safely be left to the foresight and enter-
 prise of private mnerchants, and it will
 only be necessary for the Government,
 so far as this part of Ireland is concerned,
 to take effectual precautions that the sup-
 plies introduced by private traders from
 abroad are properly protected, both while
 they are in transit and when they are
 stored for future consumption ; and for
 this purpose their Lordships rely upon
 the Lord-Lieutenant making every neces-
 sary arrangement in communication with
 the Commander of the Forces in Ireland,
 and the Inspector-General of the consta-
 bulary force.
   Acting on this principle, their Lord-
ships have directed that the supplies of
food now in store should be concentrated
without delay at the following depots
  In the Interior-Longford, Banagher.
  On the coast-Limerick, Galway, West
port, Sligo.
  And    Commissary-General    Hewetson
has been instructed to take immediate
steps for the transfer of the quantity
remaining in store in the dep6t at Cork
to Limerick, in the charge of which dep it
he will relieve Commissary-General Coffin,
who will remain on full pay with a view
to his being employed hereafter as the
occasion may require.
  Subordinate dep8ts will be established,
under the charge of the constabulary, at
other places on the western coast, as, the
necessity for taking such  a step may
become apparent.
  Their Lordships desire that it may be
fully understood that even at those places
at which Government dep6ts will be
established for the sale of food, the depots
will not be opened while food can be ob-
tained by the people from the private
dealers at reasonable prices; and that,even
when the depots are opened, the meal
will, if possible, be sold at such prices as
will allow of the private trader selling at
the same price with a reasonable profit.
  The Relief Commission ceased on the
                                  B2


19






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


15th instant, since which period Com-
missary-General Sir Randolph Routh has
continued to transact such business as
required immediate attention; and con-
sidering the experience which has been
quired bythatofficer and his well-proved
~ilioty for the task, their Lordships are of
opinion that the duties confided to the
relief commission during the last opera-
ons, may, with great public advantage,
e intrusted to Sir Randolph Routh,
acting under the authority of the Lord-
ieutenant, and in constant communica-
ion with this Board.
  Their Lordships have taken steps to
oure the early arrival in this country,
-m the stations. where they are em-


ployed abroad, of a sufficient number of
well qualified commissariat officers, not
only to take charge of the dep6ts which
it has been determined to retain,but also,
under the orders of Sir Randolph Routh,
to communicate with the local relief
committees, and to afford, through him, to
Her Majesty's Government correct in-
formation as to the state of the districts
in which they will be stationed.
  Measures have also been taken for
strengthening the Board of Works, to
enable it to meet the coming emergency,
on which subject a separate communica
tion will this day be made to the Board of
Works and his Excellency the Lord-
Lieutenant.


  EXTENT     OF DISTRESS       IN  CORK     COUNTY.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1846.)


  Sir,-Perhaps the accompanying state-
  nt of the present position of an exten-
.irve district in the county of Cork, may,
under existing    circumstances, be con-
"idered worth a place in the columns of
STime. Those who know anything of
the country will read it with regret--
tose who do not, with surprise.
  There i nothing exaggerated, nbthing
  ated to awaken sympathy, and nothing
set down to mislead. The whole is the
Ilt of personal observation, and of in-
trnation from unquestionable sources.
   The barony of West Carbery, in the
ounty of Cork, contains a population of
about 87,940, according to the census of
1841.
   One-fourth of that number will not be
 fferers so far as want of food from the
 failure of the potato crop.
   This one-fourth comprises the whole of
 :he resident gentry, the tradesmen and
 rtisans employed, and the better classes
 of the farming popilation,especially such
 as have - leases of their farms.
   There remain three-fourths, or about
 6558, who are actually deprived of their
 onr means of subsistence, and of paying
 -their house and potato-ground rent, by
 the failure of their potato crops.
   Take from these three-fourths one-
 4enth, who will be almost constantly em-
 ployed in agricultural labour, in fishing,
 and ly the resident country gentlemen,
 and there remain about 59,359 to be fed
 for 1 months (supposing no other potato
 failure), either by constant employment


on public works or by Government aid,
combined with a liberal and prompt con-
tribution from the landed proprietors,
and all other wealthy and independent
individuals resident in or connected with
the barony of West Carbery.
  Take this large portion of the popula-
tion of the barony (who must get food) at
the miserable allowance for each of three-
halfpence per day for: 12 months, which
makes only £2 5s. 7d. per head per
annum, and it will give a total sum of
£135,298.
  Now, the value of the potato crop of
this number, at the very moderate calcu-
lation of two acres for each family (the
average number of each family being
taken at only five), and at a valuation of
but £8 per acre, supposing the crop to be
sound and to have come to maturity, will
give the sum of £190,240, which, large
though it be, would not be equal to sup-
porting this number for 12 months if They
had not the usual employment, occasion-
ally at least. What, then, must be the
condition of this very large portion of the
poor population with their entire crop of
potatoes lost and without any employ-
ment ?
  But suppose a well-distributed system,
of public works to be decided on and
actually commenced (which is not the
ease yet), and let it be equal to aff rding
constant employment for 12 mouths to
the number requiring it, it will be found
by making only a reasonable deduction
for Suindays, holidays, and wet days,. &c.,


-- r .--111~


.I


20






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


from the 29th of September, that the men
will not have more: than three days out of
seven for six months to earn a scanty
subsistence at 8d. a day if they are paid
so much, and this must place the unfor-
tunate labourer who has a family (and
how many are there that have not?) in the
most miserable position that imagination
can fancy ; in fact, actual starvation in
its fullest sense would be preferable,
because it would put a period at once to
his sufferings, mental and bodily. This,
Sir, is a pitiable and a degrading picture,
but it is a true one.
  Under this view of the subject, it is
evident that no system of public works
alone, however liberally and extensively
entered upon, can produce the required
amount of relief, or prevent famine, with
its desolating accompaniment, disease,
from scattering destruction over the whole
barony ; and there is, alas ! but too much


reason to fear, nay, to be certain, that
this portion of Ireland will not suffer more
severely than many others.
  It seems, then, that thisconclusionisun-
avoidable--namely, that a comprehensive
and generous measure, embracing a sound
andpractical system ofgratuitous relief for
alimited period, must be soon decided on
or the very foundation of the social
structure will be shaken to its base, and
the wealthy, as well as those whose fortune
it now chances to be to guide the destinies
of Great Britain, may have to repent too
late over the dreadful consequences of
their own culpable: supineness and parsi-
mony.
    I have the honour to be, Sir,
         Your very obedient servant,
  THO. J. HUNGERFORD, Secretary to the
      West Carbery Relief Committee.
 Rosebank-cottage, near Skibbereen, Aug. 31.


ANTI-RENT ,MOVEMENT IN TIPPERARY.
         (MosNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1846.)


    (FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                      DUBLIN, SEPT. 4.
  A letter from the county of Tipperary
,f yesterday's date, published in the Mail
of this evening,indicates that an anti-rent
war has commenced in that district, the
ultimate object of which, the writer seems
to think, is the overthrow of the landlord
as the prelude to the establishment of
,"fixity of tenure." H9 says,-
   'In diverse:parts of this district, since
the harvest- has been "cut, some landlords.
and agents have thought it prudent to
make, in certain instances, a distress on
the crops of defaulting tenants. Previous
to the respective sale days appointed,
written notices have been posted in each
place of public resort for some miles
around the vicinity of the place at which
the sale was advertised to take place,
those notices being to inform the public
that they are expected to attend to pre-
vent a sale taking place. The consequence.
has been, that within the last week large
multitudes have been assembled at the
several places appointed, and have suc-
cessfully, in these instances, prevented
any sale taking place. In one instance,
which occurred yesterday, preparations
were made for the attendance of a large
military and police: force at the scene
of an :intended sale, for the .purpose of


protecting the party authorized to sell
but their presence was dispensed  with
owing to that party deeming it useless to
prosecute the affair, as no one would ven-
ture to bid for the effects exposed for
sale. The friends of disorder, however;
assembled, and I make no doubt that had
the sale taken place, blood would have
been shed. To exhibit the character of
the warfare that has thus begun, Imay
mention that in the case to which I.have
just alluded, the tenant owed but £16'
being one year's rent of a nice farm; and
I am credibly informed that the wheat
crop alone on it- is value for £50. Here,
then, was ample provision for' the rent,
with a large overplus-besides which
were an oat and a turnip crop. -For
such a tenant nosympathy a n the score of
want of food could exist ; and therefore
the organized opposition to the payment
of rent is fully manifested. That such a
state of things must be met by prompt
and determined measures on the part of
the Government and landed proprietors
no one should for a moment gainsay-if
not, anarchy and confusion will overcome
law   and order, not only will ruin be
brought on many individuals, but the
entire rights of property Rill become
subverted.   Taking into  consideration
the severe loss of food that has been


r I


21






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


sustained by the people, it will become
landlords to exercise the utmost extent
of leniency towards their tenants who
have been sufferers--and who is it that
has   not   been ?--but,  of course, in
different degrees, proportional   to the
extent of their other means."
   In  the   meantime,   the   landlords,
naturally alarmed at the present dis-
couraging aspect of affairs, are bestirring
theinselves, and several influential gentle-
ien have already come forward with
plans and suggestions for the considera-
tion of the Executive ; the majority of
which, although more or less objection-
able in the details, tend to show that the
public mind is at length thoroughly
awakened to the danger, and that a crisis
is.approaching that will consummate the
Work tardily commenced by the institu-
tion of Lord Devon's Land Commission.
There appears in print this evening a
letter addressed to Lord Bessborough by
Mr. Horace Rochfort, of Clogrennan, a
magistrate, and Deputy-Lieutenant of the
county of Carlow, in the course of which,
referring to the recent landlord meeting,
held in Limerick, under the auspices of
the Earl of Devon, he observes :-
   " Mr. Monsell's proposal ' to compel
Shelandlord to provide productive em-
tloyment for the poor upon his estate,'
xe I believe, in many cases, quite im-
practicable. Many landlords have had
their estates handed down to them with
a, dense and wretched population, and,
moreover, heavily charged with mortgages
and   other   incumbrances.   This year
extreme difficulty will be found in col-
leting the rents ; and if with diminished
means they are still to be more heavily
taxed, all their present efforts to employ
the poor on productive labour will be
paralyzed. Still, God forbid I should
assert that, for this present year,we ought
not to be provided with some such tem-
porary measure as now      proposed, to
mitigate the impending calamity; but,
with -reference to future seasons, I do
assert that, to pursue, year after year, the
same course, would soon eat up all the
resources of the country. I entirely agree
with Mr. Monsell, that the general
employment of the people on productive
labour c in only be accomplished by the
direct agency of the landlords; but they
can only be enabled to perform this duty
by some such plan as is contained in the
following suggestions being adopted by
Government in the ensuing session of
Parliament :-Let them  carry out, to a
greater extent, the principle already acted


upon in the Drainage Act and Board
of Public Works Act. Let them lend to all
landed proprietors, who possess encum-
bered estates, money at 3   per cent., to
pay off their existing mortgages, taking
from them a first charge on their property
at 5 per cent., and binding them   down
to lay out the difference of interest be-
tween 3) and 5 or 6 per cent. annually on
their estates in permanent improvements.
These improvements to be carried out
by the landlords themselves and their
tenants, under the immediate supervision
and control of the Board of Works,
assisted by an additional staff of officers.
The fund by which they would be car-
ried on would thus be created out of
the difference between a low and a higher
rate of interest, and that without risk or
loss to either party. The landlord would,
probably, have no objection to having the
State for a creditor., instead of an indi-
vidual ; and the paying off of so many
mortgages would have the effect of un-
locking so much more capital for invest-
ment in land, and   its improvement.
By this plan one of the great objec-
tions to absenteeism would be done away
with. In many cases now a large rental
is swept yearly out of the country, and
little or no return given. But in every
instance where such absentee landlord
owed. money, and chose to avail himself
of this act, a portion, at least, of his
rental would be returned and invest_d
in lasting improvements. To this mea-
sure no objection of a party nature
could be made.      All persons circum-
stanced as I have described would, I
am sure, gladly avail themselves of it;
and thoAe landlords who now possess
their incomes clear, but hitherto have not
been inclined to expend money in im-
proving their estates, would, for very
shame, be forced onwards in amicable
rivalship with their neighbours. Employ-
ment becoming more general, the wages
of labour would of necessity rise, and the
labouring class would be enabled to pro-
cure a more substantial diet, and to with-
stand with courage the failure of the
potato crop. A higher system of agricul-
ture would be introduced,based on all the
modern discoveries, and aided by science
and the spirit of inquiry now abroad;
and I feel sure that the small cottier
tenant would not be left behind in the
general progress of society around him.
If by better farming he could be enabled
to pay his rent punctually (and such
members of his family as were not needed
on his- allotment would probably find


22






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


plenty of work as labourers), the great
temptation to his eviction would cease,
and thus the chief and primary cause of all
agrarian outrage would be checked. When-
ever, in the opinion of the overseer of the
Board of Works, an estate had been
improved to the uttermost, I would
suggest that the sum previously expended
upon it every year should be applied as
a sinking fund to pay off the principal of
the charge held by Government; we
might thus look to the next generation
coming into possession of their estates
not only highly improved, but also freed
from those heavy charges which now
paralyze the energies and cramp the best
intentions of the present proprietors.
Recollect the conclusion to which the
shrewd and talented commissioner of The
Times arrived :-That it was the want of
capital and enterprise, on the part of the
landlords, that tended to keep Ireland in
her present backward state ; and he
recommended every facility being given
to the transfer of property, that it might
come into other hands better able to
afford an outlay. But how slow this pro-
cess. How difficult the sale of a deeply-
mortgaged property is found to be. Adopt
the principle of the plan I now propose,
and you attain, by a different means, the


same beneficial results.  Neither the
State nor any other public board, with all
their exertions, can meet with effect the
present crisis. Their work is, of necessity,
almost unprofitable, and their expendi-
ture is large ; and each succeeding year,
if persevered in, it will fall with re-
doubled weight upon the land, till its
burdens become intolerable. Instead of
this,stimulate and encourage the energies
of the resident gentry of Ireland-tell
them you expect them to perform their
duty, and to come to the aid of the
millions, now without food,or likely soon
to be so ; and hold out the promise that
you, the State, will take away every
excuse for backwardness, for that you
will supply the means ; and I firmly
believe that every corner of our island
will ere long present the aspect of thou-
sands employed on productive labour, and
that each year will draw closer the bond
of union between the upper and lower
classes, and render the latter less de.
pendent upon the potato as their sole
supply of food."
  The suggestions here thrown out by
1Mr. Rozhfort were to a certain extent
adopted by Lord Mountcashell, at a special
meeting of the Fermoy Board of Poor
Law guardians.


  IRISH    DEPENDENCE       ON    STATE AID.
(LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1846.)


  The reports that daily arrive from the
weak extremities of the empire make it
too probable that we shall soon have to
deal with a substantial calamity, com-
pared with which last year's visitation
was only the warning and shadow. As
far as that partial failure taught the
necessity of preparation, it has-thanks
to a late repentant Legislature-proved a
real blessing. From the very first day
that the scourge was announced, we
braved no little ridicule by demanding
and proclaiming the end of the system
which partly rested on this precarious
foundation. We insisted that a nation in
which millions, to quote a piece of school-
boy vulgarity, "rejoiced in potatoes,"
was always on the eve of a famine. The
fact was now proved. ' The bruised reed,"
which poverty has- exchanged for " the
staff of life," was now " piercing the
hand."   Happily, we did not argue in
vain. But the event itself not only taught


-it compelled the repeal of those laws
which enhanced the price of a more
trustworthy food. It led to practical
difficulties which admitted of no other
solution. It was found necessary to im-
port corn. The glaring absurdity of a
national importation in the face of a pro-
hibitive system gave the latter that ccup
de grace which the Minister had crobably
hoped some day to administer with a more
leisurely and dignified hand. So much is
done. We have gained that amount of
advantage in a struggle with this terrible
foe. If the potato should now disappear
from the field and scarcely linger in the
garden-if this mysterious present from a
new   world should be as mysteriously
withdrawn,-it is some consolation to
reflect that, as far as respects the ancient
food of man, we now stand on the same
level with the rest of the world.  We
have now the free use of our greater
wealth.   Being   more industrious and


Y ~-                                               C~---


23






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


skilful, and therefore richer, than other
nations, we are now permitted to buy
without stint, in the open market of the
world, that food which our wealth puts
in our reach, and which our industry and
skill most fully deserve.
   There is a universality in the present
 disaster which immensely simplifies its
 consideration. The case is just this, that
 the whole labouring population of these
 islands, from Kent to Tipperary, from
 Dorsetshire up to the Highlands and the
 Western Isles, have lost a great part of
 their winter stores. It must be remem-
 bered that the English, the Scotch, and
 the Irish peasant are exactly in the same
 evil plight. The Irishman is destitute,
 so is the Scotchman and so is the English-
 man. In England it is no unusual cir-
 cumstance for even a prosperous labourer
 to find himself at the end of the harvest
 with absolutely nothing in the world
 besides the clothes on his back, a good
 master, and credit at the shop. It is no
 unusual thing for a more average class of
 labourers to find themselves climbing the
 bleak hillside of winter with  nothing,
,not even credit or a master. The nation
is not convulsed, Cabinets do not meet
daily, Parliaments are not summoned
in a hurry, suspended by Ministerial
changes, and protracted into autumn, by
events of this ordinary character. Ire-
land and the Highlands are now in the very
same case, and the empire is at its wit's
end for a remedy. What, then, is the
difference?  Why is that so terrible in
Ireland, which in England does not create
perplexity, and hardly moves compassion ?
   We ask this    question, because  it
 appears to us of the very first importance
 to all classes of Irish society to impress
 on them that there is nothing really so
 peculiar, so exceptional, in the condition
 which they look upon as the pit of utter
 despair. It is an object to impress on
 all that they must do as we do here ; they
 must be gradually assimilated to our
 state ; they must adopt our methods ; and
 agitate, if agitate they will, for a perfect
 community in our laws, as far as those
 laws appear to be the source of our
 greater  prosperity.  The   letters and
 extracts from the Irish Press which we
 have lately given to our readers show how
 deeply the delusion of some great legis-
 lative panacea has taken possession of
 the Irish mind. The State ! the State is
 to do everything. The labourer asks the
 State for  national   employment    and
 national food ; the landlord, with equal
 importunity, demands a national loan.


Does the State attempt this in England ?
But can the State anywhere make either
employment, or food, or     money I It
cannot. It is true it may make the
attempt, but it is certain to fail. It can
only succeed in exercising a slight regu-
lating power of these things when it is so
fortunate as to find them ready to its
hands.
  The landlords ask for a loan. They
put their demand in this specious and
moderate form :-" We      are burdened
with mortgages," say they, " at 5 or even
6 per cent. Lend us money at 3J per
cent., and pass a law that what is gained
on the change of lenders shall be spent in
the employment of the people and im-
provement of the land." Alas, for the
perverse ingenuity, for the hardihood of
promise, and confidence of expectation for
which needy men in all ages have been so
remarkable ! How can the nation lend
this money ? The sum     required would
be no trifle. The rental of Ireland is
estimated, it appears, at thirteen millions.
Suppose it mortgaged to not quite half its
amount, and then you have an aggregate
debt of one hundred millions, paying an
interest of five millions. Where is the
State to get these hundred millions ? Or
half, or a quarter ? To exchange only a
quarter   of the Irish    mortgages for
Government loans would not be thought
much relief, but that would cost twenty-
five millions. The State is itself the
greatest debtor in the world. It already
owes nearly eight hundred millions ; so it
is only one debtor asking another, who is
unfortunately still deeper in the mire, to
help him out of his difculties.
  We question whether the State could
borrow even as much as five millions for
this purpose without injurious conse-
quences very near akin to those experi-
enced by the owner of the goose that laid
golden eggs, as soon as he attempted to
" realize " the useful bird. Jt would,
in effect, be a creation of stock to that
amount, and would throw down t'he
market price of all securities, and raise
the rate of interest to an extent which, in
the present feverish state of things, it is
by no means agreeable to cntemplate.
It is not impossible that Movernmept
might find that borrowing five millions
at 31 per cent. was, after all, no such easy
affair. What becomes, then, of the un-
fortunate  money-lenders  themselves ?
The Irish landlord may possibly think it
a waste of sympathy to care for that
usurious race. He would not shed many
tears if mortgages and mortgagees were


__ __ _


S24






THE GREAT IRISR           FAMINE OF 1845-1846.                   25


made to take their several parts in one
splendid auto-da-f4. But he must remem-
ber that there are times when the sight
of a c pitalist is not quite so unpleasing ;
and, with a view to contingencies, it is
desirable not entirely to extirpate the
race. So gigantic a competitor as the
State, offering money at 31, would not
leave many of the breed on Irish soil.
  There is no chance whatever of the
scheme being attempted, so it may per-
haps seem unnecessary to sift it. We
are merely offering reasons to a class
which is apt to fabricate a grievance out
of a simple negative, however just and
necessary it may happen to be. The


State, once   for all, cannot lend the
money. It cannot borrow   the money
without ill consequences.  It cannot
undertake the invidious, the impossible,
selection of objects for its bounty. What
landowners, what railways, what naviga-
tions, what public works, what private
speculations, are to be singled out ? All
will ask. All have need. All are bur-
dened with debts at 4 or 5 per cent. Be-
fore many months, perhaps, even better
interest will have been   offered. Is it
likely that the ninety-nine who are dis-
appointed will silently endure the better
fortune of the hundredth who is blessed
with a frined at court ana 3j per cent. I


THE FOOD CRISIS--SUGGESTIONS        FOR  RELIEF.
              (FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1846.)


   (FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                      DUBLIN, SEPT. 9.
  The present crisis and the measures
taken by Government to meet the emer-
gency have called forth the following
memorial from a very influential meeting
of the landed proprietary of the county
of Meath,held under the auspices of the
Marquis of Headfort :-
'. To his Excellency, John William, Earl
  of Bessborough, Lord-Lieutenant Gene-
  ral and General Governor of Ireland.
  " We, the Central Relief Committee of
the baronies of Upper and Lower Kells and
Fore, having already, in our several local
committees, reported to your Excellency
our operations arising from the failure of
last year's potato crop, are now desirous
of submitting our unanimous opinion
respecting the nature of the measures re-
quired to meet a yet more extensive
calamity. We have, in the first place,
to express our conviction that the case
which we are now called on to meet
differs, not only in degree, but also
in the nature of the evil, from that
which we     had to contemplate     last
season. Last year, when it appeared that
a considerable portion of the food of the
people   had perished, we confidently
anticipated that at the return of harvest
the people would be restored to the
enjoyment of their usual supply. We
had, therefore, to provide for a present,
but temporary, deficiency ; and our exer-
tions for the relief of the people were
adapted to such an emergency. We did
note then at all contemplate a remedy by


producing out of the ground a substitute
for that which had perished ; the tempo-
rary necessity would have passed away
before such a remedy could have come
into operation. All that was possible in
that present distress was to accomplish
a fair and economical distribution of the
food which remained, supplying the actual
deficiency by the purchase of foreign
corn. To effect this, it was only required
that the labouring population who had
lost their food should be furnished with
more than ordinary resources in wages.
The readiest and the most -available
means of affording such wages was found
in the making and levelling of roads, and
other works of the like description ; and
such works were therefore      generally
adopted. These works we conceive to
have been suited to the emergency, and
highly useful for their temporary pur.
pose. But we feel called on to express our
conviction that the present deficiency is
not temporary but permanent. None of
us now entertain the expectation that next
year's potato crop will put an end to out
difficulties by supplying food for the
people. We have no longer a temporary
deficiency to meet ; and we cannot re13
on those expedients which were hastil ;
adopted to meet a pressing, and, as it was1
hoped, a passing emergency.     We are
satisfied that a continued reliance on thQos
expedients, so far from affording per,
manent relief, must inevitably aggravatO
the  evils, with   which  we are now
threatened, and prove highly injurious to
the true interests of all classes. For the






.26           THE GREAT IRISH           FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


question is, not now  of the distribu-
tion, but of the production of food.
We have not now to relieve a temporary
distress, but to make provision for the
food of a people. We cannot hope for
the permanent supply of the deficiency of
our home produce from the introduction
of foreign corn, to be paid for by a tax on
the land, which has ceased to be produc-
tive. We cannot now look on any remedy
as adequate or safe, which does not aim
at producing out of the ground a supply
Qf food equal in quantity, and, if possible,
superior in quality, to that which the
ground has heretofore produced. We are
of opinion that such a remedy is to be
found only in the employment of addi-
tional capital and labour on the land.
It is to the united exertions of the land-
owner, the farmer, and the labourer that
we must look for a substitute for the food
which has perished. To stimulate their
energies, and to direct the application of
the capital, the skill, and the labour of
these several classes to the increased
ciltivation of the land, afford the only
means of escaping from the evils with
which we are threatened. Any measures
which tend to divert to other objects the
capital and labour which ought to be so
employed, must, to a corresponding ex-
tent, withdraw it from that channel in
which alone it can be really useful.
To anticipate the available resources of
the country, and to compel or induce
the outlay of them on public works not
productive of food, or of any commodity
which could be exchanged for food, must
fearfully aggravate the dangers of our posi-
tion. Such, we are persuaded, must be the
eutimate result, if the relief of distress
i the ensuing year is to be effected by a
ontinuance of the system of public works.
Under that system, two classes, who
have heavily suffered in their incomes,-
te: landowner and the occupier,-are
taxedfor the relief of the national distress,
which results from their peculiar misfor-
tune. Their already lessened funds are
,tken away from  them at a time when
te increased application of capital to the
und is most essential to the national
   et  ; and those funds are employed in


withdrawing the strength of the labourer
from the production of food, to expend
it in a forced and unnatural extent upon
works which, when completed, would leave
him in a state of starvation as before.
But this system of relief tends further
to discourage and paralyze the exertions
of landowner and farmer still more than
it disables them. If the man who is
willing to employ additional labour on his
own land is also to be taxed for the support
of those labourers whom his neighbour
will not employ, he will be overburdened,
and will be driven to relieve himself.
This he cannot do but by restricting his
voluntary expenditure, and throwing his
labourers as well as his neighbours upon
the common fund, as the only means of
equalizing their burdens.  Many who
have employed additional labour already
feel that they will be constrained to
adopt this course, in self-defence, if last
year's system of relief be persisted in.
On these grounds, while we are pre-
pared cheerfully to undertake whatever
burdens are necessary for the relief of
present distress, and to make every exer-
tion which may be required to provide for
the future support of the people ; and
while we are willing and resolved, at all
hazards, to provide, by public works, the
promptest relief for immediate and urgent
necessity, we feel it our duty to deprecate
the continuance of a system which tends
to discourage the exertions of landlord
and farmer, and to misapply the labour of
the people. And we earnestly recommend,
as the principle of future relief, the adop-
tion of the maxim' That the labour for
which the land is compelled to pay should
be applied in developing the productive
powers of the land.' Private justice and
public policy alike call for its adoption,
for the preservation of the people, under
the heavy calamity which it has pleased
God to bring upon us. Believing that in
free discussion will be found the best
means of applying a principle so essential
to the national welfare, we shall direct
the attention of our baronies to the sub-
ject, and we respectfully recommend-it to
your Excellency's consideration."


(MonDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1846.)


   (FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                    DUBLIN, SEPT. 11.
  The Cork Reporter, just come to hand,
contains the following memorial, ad-
dressed to Lord John Russell, and ema-


nating from parties-landlords, as well as
people,interested in the well-being of the
country, which has been circulated and
most numerously signed in the parishes it
enumerates :-






THE GREAT IRISH FAMTNE OF 1845-1846


" To the Right Hon. Lord John Russell.
   " My Lord,-It having pleased the Al--
mighty-no doubt for wise and   useful
surposes, though hidden  from  human
eyes-to again visit this nation with a
great calamity-viz., the total destruc-
tion of the potato crop, the sole suste-
nance of the people of this country.
we, the inhabitants of the parishes of
Doneraile, Buttevant, Ballahay, Char-
leville, have with great patience and
anxiety awaited the announcement of the
relief we have a right to expect from
Government, when visited by a misfor-
tune which no human precaution could
prevent. Being now aware, through the
medium of the Press, of the inadequate
aid voted by Parliament to save from
starvation the working classes of Ireland,
and having perused Her Most Gracious
Majesty's speech at the close of the last
session, it is with the deepest disappoint-
ment we have seen the very trivial notice
taken of our misfortune. The starving
multitude would have been driven to de-
spair and desperation did there not arise in
the mind of this generously confidingnation
a belief that ignorance alone of its deplor-
able destitution has prevented your Lord-
ship's Administration from granting a
relief commensurate with the great pecu-
niary loss sustained in the cultivation
of our soil, and caused by the failure
of the potato crop, amounting   at a
low calculation to £9,000,000 sterling.
Aware that your Lordship has been the
uniform and consistent promoter and sup-
porter of all liberal measures, we confi-
dently trust in your generosity and in-
tegrity. We do not solicit eleemosynary
aid, but we feel we have an       un-
doubted right to expect that loans should
be granted out of the public purse to the
landed proprietors and others possessing
substantial and real property for the
purpose cf affording useful, profitable,
and permanent     employment     to  the
working classes. We also deem it incum-
best on Government to take measures to
keep down the price of food, in order to
prevent avaricious persons from taking
advantage of the misery of the people.
We have thus taken the     liberty of
making known to your Lordship our dis-
tress, and pointing out the means by
which ample relief,on undoubted security,
can with safety be extended to Ireland,
without increasing the taxes of the
British nation. No Minister ever had
such an opportunity of securing a nation's
gratitude. Placed as you have been by
Providence at the head of the most power-


ful kingdom in the world, by your com-
mand, my Lord, millions of your fellow-
creatures can at once be raised from a
state of destitution and starvation to one
of independence, comfort, and happiness.
   " With the highest respect, we l'ave
 the honour to remain, my Lord, your
 most obedient, humble servants."
   The Right Hon. Henry Labcuchere has
addressed the following circular to the
lieutenants of counties. It is nothing
more than a brief recapitulation of the
instructions set forth in the Treasury
Minute published in The Times some days
since :-
              " Dublin Castle, Sept. 7.
   " I am directed by the Lord-Lieutenant
to inform you that his Excellency, having
taken into his consideration the circutm-
stances in which the country is placed by
the extensive failure of the potato crop,
is desirous of calling the attention of all
classes of thecommunityto those measures
which have appeared to Her Majesty's
Government to be best calculated to
mitigate the effects of this calamity.
As no authority can now be given for
the execution of new works under 9 Vic-
toria, cap. 1, such works as may be re-
quired for the relief of distresy must be
presented for, and sanctioned under the
10th Victoria, cap. 107. With a view
of affbrding every assistance to the magis-
trates and cess payers at the special
sessions his Excellency hal directed an
officer of the Board of Works to be in*
attendance, and to submit the plans and
estimates of such works in the barony,
as the destitute poor may, with the
greatest possible advantage, be employed
upon. As in some instances the extent of,
the baronies is very considerable, a power
has been vested in his Excellency in
council of erecting certain portions of
them into a separate district for the pur-
poses of this Act. The necessity for
adopting such a course may, however,
be obviated if attention be paid to the
wants of each locality at the sessions
now convened, and works distributed
throughout the    barony, according   to
the extent of destitution in each dis-
trict. As some misapprehension seems
during the past season to have existed in
the minds of many persons with respect
to the district for which public works
were appropriated, his Excellency desires
it to be understood that the engineer or
officer superintending the work cannot be
authorized to regard the limits of paro-
chial boundaries in the employment of
the destitute. The law has no reference


27






THE GREAT IRIS4 FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


to such a sub-division, either in the
selection of the works or the district
upon which they are eventually charged.
The relief committee will not, as here-
tofore, be authorized to issue tickets for
employment on the public works, but
should furnish lists of the persons re-
quiring relief to the officers in charge,
noting them according to their compara-
tive  destitution and their number in
family. From these lists (revised from
time to time) the persons to be employed
must be selected, who should, as far
as practicable, be engaged at task or
piece work, and be p2id in proportion
to the work actually done. As these
public works are undertaken only with
a view of relieving the temporary dis-
tress occasioned by the failure of the
potato crop, it is desirable that no en-
couragement should    be given to the
labourers to leave their ordinary employ-
ment and congregate on the relief works,
thus seriously' interfering with the private
operations of the farmer, and such works
of improvement as may be undertaken by
proprietors on their respective estates.
The wages, therefore, should be regu-
lated with a view to prevent this evil, but
a fair remuneration should be given for
the work actually -performed. Arrange-
ments will be made for the weekly
payment in money of the labourers
engaged   on   the public   works.   His
Excellency will be prepared, as here-
tofore, to sanction donations to relief
commi t es in aid of private subscrip-
tions; but the accounts and correspon-
dence of such bodies must be always open
to the inspection of Government officers.
The judicious application of these funds
will require the most careful attention
of the committees.    The sale of meal
or other foQd in small quantities, to
persons who have no other means of pro-
curing it, and at the prices of ordinary
years-the abstaining from giving higher
wages than are paid,or exacting a smaller
quantum of work in return than isrequired,
on the works carried on by the Govern-


ment-the limitation of the works, in all
cases, to the extent to which private
employment is proved not to be avail-
able ;-these appear to be the chief
rules which should be adopted by the
relief committees for their guidance.
It should be distinotly understood, in
reference to the commissariat operations
of the Government, that it is not in-
tended to interfere in any case in which
there is a reasonable expectation that the
market will be supplied by mercantile
enterprise. In those districts to which
the ordinary operations of the provision
trade cannot be expected adequately to
extend, it will be absolutely necessary
to provide a supply of food, but where
the dep6ts are established they will not
be opened while food can be obtained by
the people from private dealers,at reason-
able prices ; and under any circumstances
the Government will, as far as possible,
adhere to the principle that the pro-
visions shall only be sold at such price
as will allow of the private dealer selling
at the same price with a reasonable profit.
The Lord-Lieutenant is fully sensible
of the patient endurance which has
marked the character of the people of this
country under great privations ; and he
trusts that the assurance of his unceasing
anxiety to alleviate their distress by
every means in his power, will tend to
allay  excitement in their minds, and
prevent those numerous assemblages,
which, while they create alarm in the
minds of many, can effect no advantage
to those who join such demonstrations.
His Excellency confidently  relies on
the co-operation and support of those
whose duty it will be to assist the Go-
vernment in the different counties and
districts of Ireland during the continu-
ance of the present calamity ; and.he
humbly trusts that the       blessing of
Divine Providence  will attend  their
united efforts to mitigate its severity.
   " I have the honour to be, &c.,
                   '. H. LABOUCHERE.


               IRISH   DEMANDS      UPON     THE    GOVERNMENT.
               (LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1846.)
  There is a degree of confidence which is  of modern science, finds himself on the
as dangerous as it is honourable to those   eve of immolation, because a band of
in whom it may happen to be placed. It  warriors returns unsuccessful from  a
is at last overtaxed.   The unfortunate  foreign expedition, or the fishing has not
missionary, after astonishing the weak  been so productive as usual. Such is the
minds of his savage flock with the miracles perilous mixture of advantage and diffi-


-                                         .


28






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


culty, affectionate trust and ridiculous ex-
.pectation, under which the new Govern-
ment of Ireland begins its career. It is
something to have landed at Kingstown
without being the object of a deep, in-
delible disgust, which condemns every
measure before it is known or even con-
ceived in the mind of the Minister. On
the other hand, it is dangerous to be sup-
posed to be capable of coining millions of
good metallic currency out of cotton rags,
transmuting cobble stones into potatoes,
road dust into wheaten flour, and the
sands of the sea-shore into edible grain.
The Pater patria will scarcely enjoy
the honours of the heart, when he finds it
alloyed with such delusions of the brain.
  ThoEarlofBESSBoouGa reigns in Dublin
  and has the singular good fortune to find
Ithat Conciliation-hall condescends to ac-
knmowledge his sway. So far, so good.
But if he were the Olympian Jovys
himself, come down, as fables relate, to
listen to the grievances of man, he could
not be more overpoweringly beset. Lords
and peasants, landlords and tenants,
possess all the avenues of his palace, and
shake its walls to their foundations with
simultaneous  cries-" Lend. us    ten
millions "--j" Make up the loss of our
potatoes "-" Advance to us ..the rents
e cannot collect "-" Excuse us the
rents we would rather not pay"-" Deliver
us from our creditors "-" Save us from
our head-landlords "-" Fixity of tenure"
-" No rents "-" No fines on renewal "
---" No leases "-      " £9,000,000," -
'"£10,000,000 " - " £13,000,000 " - Nay,
" £20,000,000 could be raised."  The
public expectation culminates with as-
tounding rapidity. How far will it go ?
Where will it stop?  When impatience
has once exceeded the limits of possibility
there is no knowing where it will stop.
Unless a Baron MUNCHAUSE will imme-
diately plant the Emerald Island with ten
million quartern-loaf trees, and the same
number of roast beef and leg of mutton
trees, all in full bearing, we see not the
least hope of appeasing a clamour which
makes it a merit to be unreasonable.
Even then a-few other vegetable novelties
will be necessary to complete the Parlia-
mentary boon. Unless a second course is
in flower, and a third course begins to
show, the Union, at least, must be re-
pealed.
   We are very unwilling to ridicule what
we know too well to be the voice of
genuine distress. T~ e are only doing in
time what events would do soon or late with
a much rougher hand. Again and again


we say, the State cannot accede to these
extravagant demands. Had it the will, it
has not the power-not, at least, without
a permanent aggravation of our diffi-
culties.  Put these propositions into a
working form, and they immediately con-
vict themselves. It is enough to state.
Lend the landowners £30,000,000. Where
is the money to come from ? In a few
months will it not be found possible to
procure money except on       the most
usurious terms for the many vast under-
takings this island is pledged   to-let
alone Ireland ? It is impossible to cal-
culate what depression in the money-
market, what pressure on banks and
private resources, what inextricable diffi-
culty, nay, what instant ruin to respect-
able mercantile firms, what collapse of
credit, what closing of manufactories,
what casting out of workpeople might be
the result, in the present state of com-
mercial affairs, of the issue of Exchequer
bills, or the creation of a new stock to so
serious an amount.
  But who are the parties on whom this:
demand is made -. It is assumed, with
sufficient tiuth, that England will be the
principal lender. Is the English land-
owner to advance money for the main-
tenance and employment of the Irish
poor, whom their own landowners refuse
to maintain and employ ? He maintains
and employs his-own, if not as humanely
and.nobly as one could desire, at least
twenty-fold better' than the Irish land-
owner. Is the English lbourer to com-
pensate the Irish peasant for the loss of
potatoes, and secure him a regular em-
ployer for this next twelvemonth ? Why,
the English labourer is in just the same
case. The Engli-h labourer has lost his
potatoes. Throughout extensive districts
of this island he will not recover the seed
he has sown. Already villages are sicken-
ing with the attempt to use the tainted
wreck of the crop. Already cholera and
typhus are the fearful companions of
want. Not one English labourer in ten
has at this moment either a stock of food,
or means to     purchase   food, for  a
month. He depends entirely on employ-
ment ; and many, full many, must this
winter leave their homes, and traverse
the country in quest of work. But are the
English  manufacturers-millowners or
operatives-to   feed  and  employ   the
Irish ? They will soon be hard driven
themselves. The direst, and we think
the justest apprehension of scarcity, per-
vades the manufacturing districts. What
does Lord GEORGE BENTINCK say ? "UnIess


- -1-


29






THE GREAT IJRTSH I iAMINE OF 1845-1846.


the crop of 1846 is one-third greater than
thecrop of 18t5, which all know it is not,
it is clear that before next harvest there
must be a great scarcity of grain. "
These words are ruin to manufacture.
They announce the closing of a thousand
factories. How are the chief sufferers by
this " great scarcity " to feed the Irish
millions when they cannot get bread for
themselves ? Is it just that they should
be the victims of so absurd and cruel an
experiment ?
  It is a very favourable way of putting the
case of a loan to the Irish landowners, to
call it equivalent to the grant of a given
quantity of actual food. Call it 3,000,000
quarters of wheat, or 5,000,000 quarters
of Indian corn. The Impcrial Govern-
ment enters the market as a purchaser to
that extent. Who does not see how
greatly this must enhance the general
price of food ? How many poor people,
fow many labourers, artisans, trade , and
employments must suffer-nay, how many
continental populations may be involved
in the wide-spread aggravation of cala-
mity, by so large and sudden an inter-
ference ? And why this interference ?
For what particular good is this general
evil ? That the State may make an
experiment certain to result in the most
injurious consequences. Money or corn,
whichever it be, advanced in these exces-
sive quantities, cannot  but be most
shamefully s:luandered.. A Board of Works
officered enough to superintend the em-


ployment of Ireland, and a commissariat
large enough to meet its weekly demands,
would be equivalent to an entire recon-
stitution of Irish society. It would be an
attempt to convert the island into one
large farm ;-the work of centuries in
two or three months. Nothing short of
angelic intelligence and power would be
competent to so immense an undertaking.
  Our chief object in these remarks is to
protect the measures actually adopted by
the Minister, and likely, in the hands of
the present Irish authorities,to be carried
out with energy and discretion, from that
trap, which many will be so happy to
devise for them,-a specious and unfair
comparison   with utterly impracticable
schemes.   Lord BESSBOROUGH will not
undertake, at a moment's notice, to fill
every potato pit, to stock every larder, to
redeem every mortgage, to discharge all
arrears of rent, to employ every pair of
hands, to repair every road, to create
every desirable communication, to make
every requisite drain,-in a word, to do
everything and something besides, in the
whole of extensive Ireland, presenting
unusual difficulties of a geographical,
social, moral, theological, and political
character. He will feel his way. He will
stake a million, perhaps a million and a
half, before he throws ten millions on the
board. Should he be blessed with toler-
able luck, it will then- be time to think
of a bolder venture.


IRISH   LANDLORDS AND           THE    DISTRESS.
(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1846.)


   The position of the potato in the social
 economy of Ireland has yet to be ascer-
 tained. There prevails a good deal of
 error on this point. The potato is treated
 by many as the natural food of that
 people. Use, of course, is second nature.
 The Irishman, it is said, requires a soft
 mouthful and a large bellyful of food.
 Bread is too hard for his mouth, and too
 compact for that other less dignified organ
 which plays so important a part in the
 physical and political constitution of man.
 This view of things applies with equal
 force to the tribes that depend on the pre-
 carious arrival of fish to their shores, or
seals to their icebergs, or who dispense
with the encumbrance of clothes. , Kind
Nature perforce adapts herself to almost


any privation. This is all that can be
said of a dependence on potatoes. But
we entertain no doubt whatever that the
hungriest and most squalid bogtrotter in
Connaught, whatever his present con-
dition, if it should be considered an
object, could with judicious treatment be
brought to bear a dinner of turtle soup,
roast beef, pheasant, and ice punch every
day of his life, without being very much
the worse for the change. So thoroughly
are we the creatures of habit, and so
easily adapted  to the most disagree-
able changes. The potato, therefore, has
no more claim     to be-considered the
Irishman's national food than that very
wholesome and palatable dish which is
called in this country an " Irish stew,"


_ _ __






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.                              31


or any other production of which Ireland
is proved to be capable.
  It is not in the physique of the peasant,
but in the moral and commercial system
of the landowner that we must look for
the natural habitat of this root. It is one
of the means by which the landlord exacts
a rent wholly out of proportion, not
indeed to the natural wealth of the soil,
but to the capital invested upon it. In
a country without capital, and without
that security for life and for property
which capital requires, the comforts and
decencies of life pull against rent. Could
the Irish live on the tops of their potatoes,
they could then give the roots to their
landlords. Could they go abroad without
clothes, each family would pay, perhaps,
ten 'shillings more than it does-such
being possibly the annual outlay in that
fashionable luxury.  The   commercial
principle of this view is familiar to every
householder. No person of ordinary pru-
dence will keep a hunter to do the work
of a nag, a horse to do the work of an
ass, or a man to do the work of a boy.
A regard for appearances will occasionally
require a deviation from this rule ; for,
whatever a certain noble lord may think
to the contrary, even a curate's wife will
hardly think " a donkey cart " a suitable
conveyance. Where profit is the question,
the general rule is to adapt the means to
the end; and to be as thrifty as the
habits of those with whom we have to
deal, and our own charity, or delicacy,
will allow.
  It is for a good reason, therefore, that
Irish landowners are always so ready
to back up the potato. " Pat thrives
upon it," they cry ;" see what work he
does on a good dish of mrurphies ! He
would not thank you for bread." In
ordinary times nothing can compare, we
are told, with the potato. " Bring it
into England," our provincial philan-
thropists are exclaiming ; " give every
man his quarter acre of potatoes, and he
is independent. No need then of poor
laws or labour rates." Happily, however,
Nature, in a larger sense of that much
abused term, protests against this de-
liberate degradation of her sons. Every
now and then she throws in an item,
peculiarly her own, which fearfully dis-
turbs the false balance of the base calcu-
lation. Blind ignorance and mad dis-
content, conspiracy and rebellion, dearth
and pestilence, and every other disorder
incident to human existence reduced to
the very zero of support, prove to the
statesman, if not to the landlord, that


there must, after all, be an error in the
account. The cheapness of savagery fairl
to compensate for the expense of con-
trolling its outbreaks. A nation of bar-
barians may be cheap to the landowner,'
but it is ruinous to the State. A costly
soldiery and police must make up for the
inferiority of the domestic standard;
and when the lowest possible average of
life sinks occasionally to a level below
the stretch of the most elastic endurance,
the nation is called in to supply the
terrible gap.
   That, in fact, is what the landowners
 of Ireland are now, with an importunity,
 approaching to impudence, demanding
 of the Imperial Government and Legis-
 lature. " The potato has disappointed
 us for once," they say ; " so you must
 make it up for this year, and help us on
 to the next." The only use of corn is to
 prop up the potato. Instead of consider-
 ing that, whatever is done, the wretched
 policy of encouraging this crop has already
 entailed a serious loss to the nation bg
 enhancing the price of all other food,
 these gentlemen consider that the State
 itself must immediately, aggravate that"
 loss by an immense artificial drain of food
 into Ireland, sure as it is, under such
 peculiar  circumstances,   to  be most
 wantonly squandered. " All that Ireland
 wants is the potato : " but then, when the
 potato fails, the whole nation is to ad-
 vance a loan or a gift, for it is much the
 same thing, to the amount of three or four
 million quarters of wheat, in order to
 make up the failure. This is like doing
 without warm   clothing, but reproaching
 one's neighbours with inhumanity be-
 cause, when the winter does at last set
 in, they will not part with their blankets
 and great coats. If we are exaggerating
 the tone of these aristocratic mendicants,
 we beg to refer to their words. At a great
 meeting of landlords held at Castlebar
 last Saturday, the Earl of LucN pre-
 siding, the Marquis of SLIGo proposed
 and carried, we have no doubt very
 triumphantly, the following resolution:--
   " That the potato, which constituted
the food of at least nine-tenths ofthe popu-
lation  of this county,  amoantfhg to
nearly 400,000 persons, is now  totally
gone ; that the failure last year was
partial, and, as we had hoped, tem-
porary in its consequences ; our posi-
tion now is beyond comparison more
alarming.   The calamity has now be-
come a national and      general misforo
tune, and can only be met by national
resources."






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


  It was then resolved, with equal una-
nimity,-
  " That it is most urgent that the
Government should at once provide,
throughout the country, such a supply of
meal as will enable the destitute to pro-
cure it at moderate prices ; for, without
such a provision, it is to be feared that no
local exertions can prevent starvation."
  The meeting then, with that readiness
and fertility of invention which charac-
terizes all Irish distress and Irish impor-
tunity, but is miserably incompetent to
provide for the day of calamity, proceeded
to sauggest how the national grant could
be   advantageously   employed.    Soon,
however, it returned to the landlords'
theory, Ireland's trust- the     potato.
Here it;is in plain terms :-_
  " Resolved,-The social system of Ire-
ad being founded and dependent on the
potato, as the fo vd and main resource of a
ery large portion of the people, its entire
loss must effect so complete a change in
the situation of the country, that we rely
on Her Majesty's Government taking the
earliest opportunity of passing such legis-
lative remedies as its totally altered con-


dition most urgently requires, and with-
out which it is much to be feared that
general distress (if not general disorgani-
zation) must prevail."
  On the fact itself, unhappily,there cannot
be any dispute. We are only remarking
on the naked shamelessness of the admis-
sion in a county meeting of Irish land-
owners. One grain of confession would
at least have helped to atone for the error
here revealed. Had the landlords only
resolved that, owing to the unfortunate
heartlessness, extravagance, and folly of
themselves and their predecessors, their
tenantry were dependent on the,: least.
tnutritious and most precarious of diets,
we might have had the satisfaction of
hailing some promise of amendment.; we
might have accorded a munificent grant
in the hope of return. But it is too clear
that so long as the State is ready, at the-
cost of all the provident and generous part
of the nation, to prop up the occasional
break-down af this wretched dependence,
the Irish landlords will still continuea.t
consider the potato the natural food of the
Irish peasant.


  POPULAR      .COMMOTION.
(SATuRDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1846.)


   (FROM THE TIMES' CORREISPONDENT.)
                     DUBLIN, SEPT. 17.
  The accounts from the provinces to-day
areanything but satisfactory. Although
no very formidable outbreak of the masses
has yet occurred, it is perfectly manifest
that unless prompt and decisive measures
be taken to procure employment, even
temporary, the patience of the people will
Le worn out, while some proprietors are
Iiggling about the exact interpretation
of an Act of Parliament, and others con-
triving the best means of eluding its pro-
visions. Much of the present commotion
appears to have been created by the very
proper direction embodied in the Treasury
mninute, which fixes the wages to be given
to labourers on public works at 2d. per
4iem less than the average rate of wages
paid in the districts where such works are
being constructed. The subjoined extracts
are taken from the country papers of
yesterday :-
      (From the Limerick Chronicle.)
  Yesterday morning, at 7 o'clock, a for-


mnidable body of labourers, to the amount
of 400, after proceeding to the new line of
road leading to Mungret, where they
expected to have obtained work, but with-
out success, paraded the streets with
spades, shovels, and hammers, for the
purpose of exhibiting their destitute con-
dition:at a period when the price of bread
and oatmeal has reached      a standard
beyond the ordinary resources of a labour-
ing man, whose earnings average but 10d.-
to is. a day for himself and family.
Having    passed  down   George's-street,
objects of commiseration and pity, they
proceeded   through   William-street to
John's-square, the residence of the Mayor,
to whom they were anxious to represent
their disappointment and wants ; but his
worship not being at home, they were
retiring, when a bread cart, belonging to
Mr. J. N. Russell,' which was supplying
dealers, happened to pass, upon which the
crowd rushed against it in a menacing
attitude, and plundered all the contents,
which were soon devoured by the hungry


I __ __ ~ __ __


32






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


multitude. Soon after, a second bread
cart, the property of Mr. Ryan,of Bruree,
drove up, and was also quickly rifled of its
provision in like manner. Sub-inspector
Williams immediately communicated the
outrage to the local magistrates and
Colonel Mansel, and despatched mounted
orderlies to the out stations for an aug-
mentation of constabulary, a precaution
which this preliminary outbreak fully
warranted. The Mayor, Mr: John Crips,
and Colonel Mansel, were soon in attend-
ance at the police-office, where applica-
tion was made by parties from different
flour  and   baking   establishments for.
protection, which   request was imme-
diately complied with. In the mean-
time a detachment of the 8th Hussars was
called out to patrol the street, and were
hooted as they passed along. The Mayor,
indignant at the violentoutrage on private
property in the public streets, told the
crowd that while he was most desirous to
procure them employment, and had left
nothing undone to relieve their distress,
he was fully determined to suppress and
punish any further lawless manifestation ;
and if they had patience for a few days
(cries of " We can't starve,") they would
certainly procure employment and food.
Much alarm was felt for two hours after,
but ultim-itely the labourers dispersed,
stating they would " hold out " a day
longer. A special private meeting of the
magistrates was held at 12 o'clock-the
Mayor presiding. Colonel Mansel also
attended. We understand a memorial to
the Lord-Lieutenant was adopted, urging
the absolute   necessity  of immedi tte
employment for the - destitute labouring
classes, representing the impossibility of
the low scale of wages (8d. to 10d. a day)
laid down by the Board of Works being
adequate to procure sufficient food for
their families, and advising opening the
Government stores for the sale of Indian
corn, in order to. reduce the high and
advancing prices charged for provisions.
A resclution was also passed, warning the
stewards of the intended race meeting at
Newcastle of the danger to be appre-
hended by bringing     a   multitude  of
persons together at a crisis when famine
threatens the land, and recommending
that they should abandon or defer the
race meeting. The Mayor and magistrates,
aided by the military authorities, have
taken the necessary precaution of holding
the troops and garrison ready for duty
when called upon ; and last evening the


Alban war steamer, lying at Harvey's-
quay, near the Ferry-slip, mounted addi-
tional pieces of brass ordnance. This
morning the labourers again proceeded
in a body to the Mungret road, where
several were put to work by Mr. Kearney,
county surveyor. Those who did not
get employment again paraded the streets,
but in a quiet and orderly manner. The
magistrates were on the alert, and the
city police, under Mr. Williams, mustered
in their barrack, William-street, ready to
turn out should their services be re-
quired.
    (From the. Waterford Chronvicle.)
  There was an immense multitude of the
rural population of the surrounding dis-
tricts gathered into town, who became
most outrageously tumultuous. The con-
duct of Mr. Howley, the resident magis-
trate, is above all praise on this trying
occasion. To his cool decision, prompt
attention, judicious disposal of the force
under his command, and humane for-
bearance, under most irritating circum-
stances, in dispersing a reckless multi-
tude, without the slightest injury to any
person, save himself and some of his men,
who were struck with stones, too much
praise cannot be given, and also to the
officers and men under his command. The
Catholic curate, Rev. Mr. O'Gorman,
exerted himself most effectually to cause
the people to retire quietly to their
homes, seconded by his reverend confr,
Mr. Mooney. The military and cone
stabulary, under Mr. Howley, paraded
the town until evening, at which time it
was quite clear-not an individual of the
unruly multitude to be found.    The
cause, principally, of this outrageous cou
duct was an impression prevalent among
them that their wages were to .be reduced
to 8d. or 10d. per day. The gathering of
such a multitude was caused by signal
fires blazing from hill to hill the previous
evening. It was calculated to do no
good. There wras not a gentleman at the
sessions ignorant of the state' of the
labouring poor, and surely an appeal to
their humanity, and not to their fears,
would have been more honourable to the
parties advising such a demonstration.-
a demonstration showing the .danger of
unnecessarily getting together such an
unruly   multitude ; for, indeed, the
numerous attendance of magistrates and
ratepayers was proof of a disposition to
do everything possible to relieve the
people.


-- _ _.,._._


33






THE    GR1EAT  TRISH  FAMINE    OF 1845-1846.


INDOLENT PREFERENCE OF RELIEF TO                   LABOUR.
      (LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1846.)


  SThe worst symptoms     of the Irish
'famine have begun to show themselves in
the way of popular gatherings and pro-
cessions, which at present are only turbu-
lent, but may soon become outrageous.
The twin powers of Fear and Rumour
have lent their hands to the colouring of
a picture already sufficiently  sombre.
The people have made up their minds to
:report the worst and believe the worst.
HXuman agency is now denounced as in-
strumental in adding to the calamity
inflicted by Heaven. It is no longer sub-
,ission to PROVIDENCE, but a murmur
against the Government. The potatoes
were blighted by a decree from on high,
but labour is defrauded by the machina-
tions of earthly power. Such are the
fiist aspirations of discontent,inflamed by
rrumour, and diffused by fear. Such are
.ih thanks that a Government gets for
atempting to palliate great afflictions
~i   satisfy corresponding demands by an
inevitable but a ruinous beneficence.
  The alarm of the populace in the prin-
cipaltowns has arisen in some cases from
the fact of the wages paid by Government
being below the average standard of
wages in the vicinity; in others, from
the report that it is the intention to
reduce them below that standard. This
iStle secret of the murmur. But how
much daces it disclose ! How much does
it indicate ! It is the old thing ; the old
grievance is at the bottom; the old
malady is breaking out. It is the national
character, the national thoughtlessness,
the national indolence. It is that which
demands    the   attention  of  Govern-
ments, of patriots, and philanthropists,
not a whit less than the potato disease.
The Government provided work for a
people who love it not. It made this the
absolute condition of relief. Doing so,
it only did that which every Executive is
bound to do in similar circumstances.
But, in laying out its plan, it was obliged
to square the execution of it by the
habits of the people. It knew that the
latter would at all times rather be idle
than toil ; would live on a small gratuity
ather than large or regular earnings ;
and would trust to the beneficence of a
Cabinet rather than to the sweat of their
brows, or the steady work of their hands.
Lt saw distinctly the prospect of more


than half a nation becoming complacently
dependent upon specious alms. There
was but one way to avoid a calamity com-
pared with which the potato blight is a
trivial thing. This was to enjoin that
work, slovenly and sluggishly performed
-as Government work was sure to be-
should   procure  subsistence  for the
peasant, but nothing more. The Govern-
ment was required to ward off starvation,
not to pamper indolence; its duty was
to encourage industry, not to stifle it ;
to stimulate others to give employment,
not to outbid them, or drive them from
the labour market. It- therefore threw
itself between the poor man and his gaunt
foe ; but it would not interfere between
him and his best friend-the man who
would employ him. It diminished the
competition which the labourer had to
fear ; it increased that which none but
a foolish proprietor could dislike. It
provided literally bread for the famished,
but it held out more than bread to the
active and industrious. The squire and
the farmer found that, in order to get
labourers at all, they must appeal not
only to the indigence,but the acquisitive-
ness of the poor. The contest thus arose
between the 8d. or 10d. a day of the
Executive and the Is. or ls. 2d. of the
landowner. In England or Scotland-
in any other country but Ireland-the
issue would have been clear from the
beginning.   All hands would    have
tendered their services to the squire or
the farmer. The Government contractor
would have been left to treat with the
refuse of the population Private works
would have enlisted youth, health, vigour,
activity, and zeal. The public works
would have devolved on age, infirmity, or
indolence. But, in the end, the nation-
the empire-would have gained. On the
spur of a temporary emergency permanent
improvements would have been effected
and normal habits established. The emu-
lation of the peasant would have conspired
with the ambition or the avarice of the
landlord to redeem the soil of Ireland
from the curse of perpetual neglect, and
the condition of Irishmen from the shame
of hereditary squalor. That which taught
men first of all to work, would have
taught Irishmen to work well, steadily,
and continuously. Hunger would have


_


_~___~__


;34






THE    GREAT IRISH    FAMINE  OF 1845-1846.


been (as elsewhere) the herald of comfort,
Necessity the parent of luxuries. The dis-
appearance of the potato, instead of being
a curse, might have been hailed as a boon ;
and the Celtic tiller eating better food
and cultivating a nobler crop, might have
learned to wonder how he could ever have
existed on so poor and innutritious a root.
   But what would happen in other coun-
tries never does happen   in Ireland.
There the process as well as the motive of
every action is inverted. Instead of in-
creased exertion and renewed industry,
passive submission and despondent indo-
lence awaited a famine epoch. Even the
annual migration of labour was suspended
in many instances. The English corn-
fields lacked their wonted reapers. The
Celtic features and the Celtic dialect
were missed from     our  northern   and
eastern harvests. The quays of Liverpool
and Bristol were unusually scant of those
strongly-marked  lineaments  and that
peculiar garb which distinguish the native
Irishman from every other denizen of
Europe. England wasrife of varied employ-
nrent and multiform speculation. Every
hand that could be turned to account, was
pressed into service. Our own peasantry
were,, in many counties, insufficient to
meet the demands of multiform occupa-
tion. Still the Irishman-he who, in
other and less happy seasons, has filched
more than his share from the competition
of his English fellow-labourer-he who
was erst reviled as a pernicious rival, but
who then would have been hailed as a
useful and kindly help mate-he kept
aloof. Here and there you might hear
the western brogue, but, almost univer-
sally, the harvest wooed in vain the sickle
of the sister isle. Why was this ? Why
was it that the prospect-the -certainty of
a great calamity, did not animate to great
exertions ? Alas ! the Irish peasant had
tasted of famine and found that it was
good. He saw the cloud looming in the
distance, and he hailed its approach. To
him it teemed with goodly manna and
salient waters. He wrapped himself up
in the ragged mantle of inert expectancy,
and said that he trusted to PROVIDENCE.
But the deity of his faith was the Govern-
ment-the manna of his hopes was a Par-
liamentary grant. He called his sub-
mission a religious obedience, and he
believed it to be so. But it was the
obedience of a religion which, by a small
but material     change, reversed    the
primaeval decree. It was a religion that
holds "Man shall not labour by the sweat
of his brow."


   All this was natural, and might have
 been expected from the original character
 and antecedent conditions of the Irish
 people. It was the same rooted and innate
 disposition which thwarts, and baffles,and
 depresses them whithersoever they turn
 their steps. On the banks of the Liffey
 or the Liver, the Thames or the St. Law-
 rence, the Murray or the Mississippi, it is
 the same thing. It is this that prevents
 them from working when they can idle ;
 from growing rich when they work ; from
 saving when they receive money. It seems
 a law of their being-a hard, a pitiable,
 a saddening law ; but one hitherto un-
 altered, and-we hope only to external
 appearance-unalterable. But why is it
 that in Manchester, or Leeds, or Stock-
 port, when he works and is well paid, the
 Irishman never thrives ? The Englishman
 and the Scotchman from small beginnings
 struggle  into  comfort, respectability,
 competence ; nay, sometimes even into
 wealth and station. The Scotch or English
 spinner, in no few cases, has become a
 manufacturer and a capitalist ; the Irish
 hardly in any. Thrown amongst mecbanics
 of the two nations,-receiving the same
 wages as they do,--stimulated by the
 same competiti'.n,-with the same pros-
 pect, and the same encouragement,-dis-
 playing, too, at times, an equal, if not
 a greater energy,--still he rarely attains
 the same position, or improves his con-
 dition in the same degree. lie remains,
 if not poor, at least uncomfortable. His
 family inherit the squalid slovenliness
 which their father imported. His quarter
 -as may be seen in Liverpool, Bristol,
 Manchester, Oldham, or Drury-lane-
 is always the most forlorn and cheerless
 in the district.
   All.these things are facts beyond doubt
and denial. We repeat them notfor reproach
or contumely, but to show that there are
ingredients in the Irish character which
must be modified and corrected before
-either individuals or Governments can
hope to raise the general condition of the
people. It is absurd to prescribe political
innovations for the remedly     of 'their
sufferings or the alleviation  of their
wants. Extended suffrage and municipal
reform  for a peasantry who have for
centuries consented to alternate between
starvation cft a potato and the doles of
national charity! 'You might as well
give them bonbons and ratafias. Nothing
effectual can be achieved until the habits
of the people are changed. And this
change cannot be effected unless the land-
owners and squireens exert themselves,
                                 Sc2


35






THE GREAT IRISH    FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


Had the smaller gentry resident in Ire-
land done their duty to their tenants and
dependents-for the best landlords in
Ireland are its absentees-had they set
the example of attention to their proper-
ties and improvement of their estates,
the Irish would long ago have repudiated
the potato. Neglected by others, they
neglected themselves. Hence the uni-
versal  prostration  of  self-complacent
poverty and unrepining discomfort.
  We have a great faith in the virtues of
good food.    Without    attributing the
splendid qualities of the British lion
wholly to the agency of beefsteaks, we
may pronounce that a people that has
been reared on solid edibles will struggle
long and hard against the degradation of
a poorer sustenance.  The stomach is,
more than the mind, a creature of habit.
Accustom it to leeks or potatoes, it is
indifferent to a generous  diet. Once
habituate it to    substantial solids, it
rebels against leguminous impostures.
The consequence is obvious. Le venire
gouverne le monde. He who is in danger
of being starved by idleness will make
one more struggle to earn his bread, his
beef, and his porter. On a question of
this kind all agree. The philosopher and
the gastronomist-SocRATES, ADEIMAN-
TUS, and ATHENzEUS-the framers of the
Republic and the coterie of the Deipnoso-
phists-concur in ascribing virtues, not
orily physical, but moral and intellectual,
to the excellence of man's food, and its
variety. The study of justice and the
proficiency in political science are repre-


sented by PLATo as correlative with, and
almost dependent on, a supply of the
finest grain and the most wholesome
meats.
  For our own parts,we regard the potato
blight as a blessing. When the Celts
once cease to be potatophagi, they must
become carnivorous. With the taste of
meats will grow the appetite for them; with
the appetite, the readiness to earn them.
With this will come steadiness, regularity,
and perseverance ; unless, indeed, the
growth of these qualities be impeded by
the blindness of Irish patriotism, the
short-sighted indifference of petty land-
lords, or the random   recklessness of
Government benevolence. The first two
may retard the improvement of Ireland ;
the last, continued in a spirit of thought-
less concession, must impoverish both
England and Ireland. But nothing will
strike so deadly a blow, not only at the
dignity of Irish character, but also the
elements of Irish prosperity, as a con-
federacy of rich proprietors to dun the
national Treasury, and to eke out from
their resources that employment for the
poor which they are themselves bound to
provide, by every sense of duty, to a
land from   which they derive their in-
comes. It is too bad that the Irish land-
lord should come to ask charity of the
English andSeotch mechanic, in a year
in which the export of produce to England
has been beyond all precedent extensive
and productive. But it seems that those
who forget all duties forget all shame.
The Irish rent must be paid twice over.


                 IRISH   LANDLORDS.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1846:)


  Sir,--You are generally a severe, but a
fair censor ; at least, if you permit attack
in your columns you insert the defence.
Bear with a few lines in defence of Irish
landlords from one who-is far more con-
netted by property with England than
with Ireland-; of an English family, but
born an Irishman ; who has lived in Ire-
land for the last ten years, and devoted
himself to the improvement of an exten-
sive, comparatively populous, and nearly
worthless estate.
  Having gone to Ireland perfectly free-
from the party feeling which distracts
that country ; having lived with persons
of all politics without expressing any,


tried at least to live with those of both
religions without offending any, I have
come to conclusions as to Irish affairs per-
fectly different from those now constantly
put forth in your columns, and perfectly
in accordance with the results of your
commission.
   The income of the whole landed pro-
 prietary  of Ireland will not feed the
 people this year, and few of the rents
 will be paid. A grant or loan of less than
 £10,000,000 will not suffice, and, owing
 to the rise in prices, it is more than
 doubtful if that will be enough.
   Now, is this caused by high rents, by
former ejectments, by cruelties which you


36






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


have been denouncing, and sometimes
fairly denouncing, of late ?
   It arises from  an over-population re-
 duced to the lowest point of subsistence'
 by ignorance, improvidence, and lawless-
 ness.
   And   who would gather from      your
 columns that it has been for many years
 the great object of nearly every landed
 proprietor of consequence in Ireland to
 remedy this evil by promoting emigration,
 increasing the size of farms, educating
 the people, and that, from these efforts,
 have sprung those calumnies which, alas !
 The Times has sent through Europe ? Who
 would suppose, from your articles, that
 Ireland contained such landlords a§ Lord
 Erne, a man whose sole pursuit and am-
 bition is not wealth or personal aggran-
 dizement, but the moral and social im-
 provement of his tenants ?-as the land-
 lords, whose estates are managed by Mr.
 B]lacker, a man who has devoted a long
 and active life to the interest of the small
 farmers of Ireland ?-as Lord Devon, the
 late Lord Caledon, Sir Robert Ferguson,
 and hundreds more whose names crowd
 to my pen? These       are men    to be
 honoured far before any English landlord,
 however good; not that they are      by
 nature better or more liberal, but because
 the life of an Irish landlord, who strenu-
 ously attempts to improve the condition
 of his tenants, is one continued struggle
 against the vicious system implanted in
 the hearts of the people, preached from
 the altars by too many of the priests,
 through which the rights of property are
 rendered insecure by certain by-laws of
 the people, unknown to the law of the
 land ; capital is driven away iLrom the
 country ; a man's qualifications are tested,
 not by his conduct, character, or capital,
 but by his being a Saxon or a Celt, a
 Protestant or Roman Catholic. This is
 the system  which makes, too often, the
 ignorant and vicious the advisers of the
 people, heaps calumny and outrage on
 those who would fain benefit them, steeps
 Ireland in poverty, and makes Irishmen
 dependent on potatoes. There are, it is
 true,  negligent  landlords,  like  the
 Marquis of Conyngham   in the reports of
 your commissioner. There are kind but
 careless landlords, like Mr. O'Connell,
 whose heavy avocations prevent his care
 of his estate ; but the crime of these men
 amounts simply to this-that while their
 care of their estates is not less than that
 of most English landlords, so far as per-
 sonal exertion is concerned, while their
subscriptions to local charities are far


larger in proportion, they do not spend
their lives and expend their substance in
the constant-generally thankless, often
unproductive-effort to ameliorate, in
spite of themselves, the condition of the
people. And the check being absent, and
the vicious system of Irish society having
full play, the land is divided, sub-divided,
worn out to the lowest possible point,
want appears every spring, but a failure
of potatoes is starvation for a year.
  Now,whence arises thisstateof things !
Why is it that the common laws of profit
and loss have not prevented or cured this
evil ? How is it that a better system of
cultivation is not found to be, as in
England, a matter of profit ? How is it
that the landlord has not preserved
farms of such a size, and tenants of such
a capital, that there is a surplus left for
rent,far more for subsistence,even though
one crop may fail ?
  It arises, first, from past neglect, an
evil fast being removed ; next, from the
difference of religion of the owners of the
soil and of the leaders of the people, the
priests ; but, mainly and immediately,
from  the system   I have referred to,-
from the want of security of properby,
from the soil being the sole dependence
of the people.
  Many and many a landlord has, at vast
expense to himself, assisted to emigrate
hundreds of people who, in defiance of
the terms of some old lease, had fastened
on his property-causing, perhaps, some
present pain, but saving thereby, in the
course of years, an incredible amount
of human suffering. And deep and loud
have been the denunciations of those
landlords from the altars by those whose
dues were thereby diminished.
  Many a Saxon capitalist would have
speculated in a country so favoured by
nature as Ireland, and the exports of
Ireland would have been purchased by his
money, and eaten by those whom he em-
ployed, but that the English rights of
property are not recognized by the Irish
people. And now they starve ; and land-
lords, priests, and parsons unite in one
cry, " Feed the people at any cost ; " and
the landlords offer still futher to encum-
ber their estates, already encumbered by
their forefathers, to provide the food
necessary, stipulating only that the work
for which the food is to be exchanged
shall be such as will enable them to repay
what they    borrow ;-and the leading
journ l of Europe denounces the land-
lords -    Yours, &c.,
                AN ANGLO-IRISHMAN.


37






THE GREAT IRISH IFAMINE OF 1845-1846.


(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1846.)


   Sir,--The general terms in which the
 resolutions passed at Castlebar in the
 County of Mayo on Saturday, the 12th
 inst., were conceived, has furnished you
 with materials to aim a heavy blow and
 great discouragement, in The Times of
 the 18th, to Irish landlords, by a whole-
 sale denunciation.
   By the aid of your criticism, then, and
 some other industrious helps on this side
 of the water, the phrase "Irish landlord"
 will soon become absolutely synonymous
 in the language  with " inhuman," or
 worse, if worse could exist. But an entire
 class should not be doomed to general
 odium, at least on the weak assumption
 that the general cultivation of the potato
 as the food of the Irish people is a selfish
 object with Irish proprietors, or is a
 benefit to them. I was never acquainted
 with any one who had a grain of educa-
 tion and foresight that did not regard
 that circumstance as a misfortune to the
 people, and the mode generally pursued
'in Ireland for the cultivation of the potato
as: most injurious to property. If you
want to denounce the creation of 40s.
freeholds up to the year 1825 (since when
it would have been impossible to make
one), as the indirect cause of an undue
increase of population in a state of
wretchedness, exert ,your industry and
the great resources  of  your popular
journal to ascertain on whose estates that
was practised ; and if you are disposed to
visit the sins of others on the present pos-
sessors, publish their names, or suggest
the modern remedy of a Committee of the
House of Commons to allot some recom-
pense from  them  to the     public, that,
having passed through that ordeal, they
may start fairly with others whose estates
were not so prostituted, of which latter
class, in passing, let me say, mine was
one. But do not one day deal out a kick
at the landlords of Ireland, and again,
on another, a deadly blow behind the ear,
and I may saybehind the back of the pro-
prietary of the whole island, because oc-
casionally, in the present crisis, the hasty
wording of resolutions in some locality
may leave an opening for attack. It was
impossible to read the able letters written
by The Times' agent last year, without
being convinced that the paper wished
well to Ireland, and desired to inform
the British public fairly on the state of
its people ; but it is equally impossible


to read the observations in Friday's paper
without being moved, and     at least to
notice them as most unfair. I have no
more to do with Mayo than you have,
but when you come down upon 'landlords
(Irish, of course) in  general as " very
unfortunately heartless, extravagant, and
guilty of folly in that sense as well as
their   predecessors," I ask   you   this
question :-If the greatest proportion of
the estates of such persons as are now
teeming with an overgrown population
would have been not now so situated,but,
on the contrary, had their farms properly
divided and cultivated as farms should
be, provided the perverseness of the oc-
cupiers by almost general custom had not
disregarded their own contracts, and sub-
divided the lands confided to their pos-
session underdirectly opposite conditions,
made with providence and foresight to
deter from conacre, and from a ruinous
cultivation of and calculation on the po-
tato, what becomes of the reasoning of
your article in Friday's paper.? I am
sorry some abler hand has not been moved
to  remonstrate   against these renewed.
attacks, but I shall not be deterred, by
apprehension of any retort I may draw
upon myself, from complaining of such
monstrous   injustice.  A   dispassionate
statement will meet the case.
  The Irish peasant, in the extreme west
and south of Ireland, is not remarkable
for foresight. You confide land to him,
or, as the law terms it, he is put into pos-
session of it, though he knows nothing of
sound agriculture. He abuses that pos-
session in every way. First, by bad cul-
ture of everything except weeds,and next
by subdividing it for marriage portions
for his sons and daughters. In the lapse
of a few years, therefore, a man's estate
is so huckstered, sold, and resold against
his wishes, and in the teeth of contracts,
that the proprietor can hardly recognize
his own. What is he to do? If his pro-
perty   be   anything considerable, the
people are in the military occupation of
it, and having one interest they have
one animus, that is, to remain masters of
it on their own terms. The Roman
Catholic clergy, too, have an interest in
this state of things. They are, as every
one knows, intimately conversant with
the affairs of all the families of their
flock.    That   marriages, births,  and
burials should go on merrily is their


__


38






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


interest. I do not say this now to re-
proach them with it, only the fact is so.
Indeed, I once asked one of them why he
married paupers ? and he answered, 1" If
I did not, another would."   So thus
stand these matters. But what says the
law, the wise law, the English law, in-
flicted upon us without the slightest refer!
ence to the social relations of the people'
whose dealings it is to regulate ?
   The prejudices of English law, riveted
by education in the minds of even Irish
lawyers, disregard   the  experience   of
country gentlemen, and both in and out
of Parliament a suggestion stands a bad
chance of being listened to unless by
their permission. I much doubt, how-
ever, if, under the meaning of " knights
and burgesses," it was ever originally in-
tended that one of their learned profes-
sion should have got into the House of
Commons at all.
   Try and obtain that a power shall be
vested in a local authority (as it is in
Scotland), to prevent the soil, the staple
of the ceuntry, being the plaything for
every ignorant pauper to carve' and ruin
at his pleasure, who happens to be in
momentary possession of it. Talk of pre-
venting it-" Oh no," the lawyer says,
" eject him-wait-let him half ruin you
and himself, and then eject him." This
is just the folly and destruction the law
creates,because who can eject in Ireland ?
or who will take land from which the
population, however they may   be to
blame, have been ejected ? -But at last
the learned profession must be forced to
give way ; means of summary prevention
must be adopted, or it is an injustice,
nothing less than infernal, to blame Irish
landlords as the authors of a condition of
things which is working out their own
ruin.
  Parliament must provide that no occu-
pation of any description of land in a
country so exclusively agricultural as Ire-
land is, may be encouraged or permiited
by law therein, without certain and im-
mediate securities to control and enforce
contracts; that laxity of practice may not,
as at present, necessarily lead to fraud, chi-
canery, perjury, demoralization, and dis-
turbance ; that means shall be devised to
have agreements promptly enforced, of
which no man could complain ; that over-
holdingshould be rendered an offence,and as
much punishable as forcible possession is
now considered to be ; that persons having
a casual possession of land may be re-
strained in limine from sub-dividing the
property of other persons against the will


and wish of the owners, and against the
faith.of their own contracts, instead of
driving   proprietors to the remedy of
ejectment after the injury is done, which
Irish tenants in many places now think,
when used, ought to be resented by assas-
sination.
  Parliament should also provide rreans
to abridge or diminish the unblushing
practice of perjury now so notoriously
common in the Quarter Sessions Courts
of Ireland, by the appointing of officers to
take down evidence as it is delivered
(where perjury is apprehended), to serve
towards the ends of conviction. Again,
that persons for whose benefit or interest
the owner or tenant of any land is com
pelled by threats or terror to surrender
the same, may be held responsible, as
parties now are who are guilty of taking
a forcible possession.
   Short of this your Legislature, year
after year, heaping burden upon burden
on Irish landlords, and the Press adding
contumely to these injuries, are confisca-
tion under pretexts, and nothing less.
When you have helped to ruin thousands
by bad legislation, other proprietors must
take their place, to be again the victims
of the same system ; but remember always
that, if the respectable part of the Eng-
lish  Press, even   though  unwittinglyi
poisons British opinion against a suffering
and injured class of their fellow-subjects
in Ireland, it is at the same time invol-.
ving British interests to an immense ex-
tent, as much of the soil of Ireland is
mortgaged to British capital, the land.
lords whereof are, to a great degree, ad:
ministrators for those who have lent their
money on the faith of the security of pro-
perty, which it is the fashion of modern
sympathy to attack through the sides of
its proprietors.
  During the late Lord Liverpool's Ad-
ministration I gave evidence before the
Committee on    Irish Disturbances, and
foretold that, unless steps were taken to
regulate the occupation of the soil, and
not leave it to haphazard, these periodical
famines   would   press with  increased
severity on the public purse the longer
the consideration of the subject was post-
poned. and both in and out of Parliament
since that time I have pressed the matter
upon the attention of every succeeding
Government; but have invariably been
defeated by the black-letter gentlemen.
   Some years ago, when solicited by the
late respected Mr. Purcell to become one
of the original members of the Agricul-
tural Society, I answered, that until the


391






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


law of landlord and tenant was put upon
a footing of common sense, agriculture
could at best but make a limping progress
in Ireland, and that everything else, with
that left undone, was beginning at the
wrong end, arnd I declined it. At this
moment, one-half of the province of Con-
naught is reduced to absolute barrenness
by the burning of the soil to force pota-
toes, and in that part now the distress is
the most intense. It could not possibly
be otherwise ; but, as long as the gentle-
men of the long robe, in and out of Par-
liament, are to be the paramount judges
of what is to be done, or left undone, the
landed interest, great and small, will be
the victims of their prejudices and of


their   ignorance.  For the    rest, the
activity, the zeal, and intelligence which
the resident gentry of Ireland exhibit to
adapt the powers of the law to the crea-
tion of profitable labour,that the advances
made to them    by Parliament may be
honestly and duly repaid to the Treasury,
are a sufficient answer to whatever else
may b.e uncharitably charged upon them.
The world will judge whether, under the
present awful visitation, they are fulfil-
ling their duties to their God and their
country. I am not afraid of any fair ap-
peal to public opinion which can be made.
  I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
  Dublin, Sept. 21.      WESTMEATH.


(LEADINa ARTICLE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1846.)


   The Marquis of WESTMEATH Will see,
by our insertion of his letter, that we are
anxious to,do full justice to his class. As
long as we observe the golden rule of
letting all parties speajk for themselves,
we incapacitate ourselves from the com-
Imission of any real injustice. If he ima-
gines that we have taken too large a
sweep in our censures, and charged on
the whole proprietary of Ireland the folly
exhibited by two or three meetings and
resolutions of the class, we afford him an
;opportunity of clearing himself fromthe
;common vice and the common opprobrium.
Of course we have never meant to say
that all Irish landlords are heartless, ex-
travagant, and foolish, or that the evils
of that country, to all appearance  as
ancient as the days of the elk and the
mastodon, are the work of one century of
absentee landowners. Had we said any-
thing,of the sort, some other passage in
the very same paper would have been
sure to qualify the apparent universality
of the expression. We are so-unfortunate
as to have a quarrel in our time with
every party involved in this ancient and
incurable   contention.   The   Imperial
Legislature, the Orangemen, the Romish
priests, the Anglo-Irish  establishment,
Mr.O'ColtNELL,the landlords,the peasants,
Whig and Tory, and we know not who
besides, have all assumed, in their turn,
the honour of being the single object of
our criminations. We     may safely ask
themito settle among themselves which
has been the most reflected upon. It is
our consolation that, on the whole, after
a thousand renewals of the illimitable
controversy, our course remains justified
by that public opinion which sees no


alternative but to distribute the blame.
Ask any ordinary man-you might almost
appeal to the next man you meet in the
streets-and, after five minutes' reflection
or embarrassment, he will answer that he
thinks there is nothing to choose between
the whole lot.
  If the Marquis considers that we have
swamped the meritorious exceptions by
our manner of referring to the prevalent
vices of the class, we must beg him to
reflect that the "individual here. always
labours under the difficulty of standing
out, by his own   exertions, above the
dreary average of men. Pauci quos cethera
virtues, &c.  If  the noble writer will
peruse his own    letter with that im-
partiality which its appearance in our
columns may possibly inspire, he will
perceive, by an example, for which he
will be disposed to make every allowance,
the difficulty of combining justice to in-
dividuals with a brief and emphatic de-
scription of parties. It is true that he
recognizes with sufficient discrimination
the   existence- of some   resident, en-
lightened, and    generous landowners.
When, however, he comes to the Irish
peasant, he says, with a force which we
admit would have been impaired by an
attempt at qualification, that " he knows
nothing of sound agriculture ; " that if
you put him in possession of land, " he
abuses that possession in every way ;"
that the only thing he cultivates with
success is weeds ; that he breaks con-
tracts, and, the  people being all one
interest and animus, retains possession
by   public  combination and violence
against the landlord. When he comes
to the priests, he says what is unhappily


40






THE    GREAT IRISH' FA1VIINE     OF  1845-1846.


too true in the main,--that, putting all
other considerations, human or divine,
out of the    question, these   spiritual
pastors consult their own interests in the
matter, which is, that " marriages, births,
and burials should go on merrily." When
he comes to the English law, he says that
" it is inflicted upon us   without the
slightest reference to the social relations
of the people whose dealings it is to regu-
late ;" and that " the     experience of
country gentlemen," in particular is set
at nought by " the prejudices of English
law, riveted by education in the minds
of even Irish lawyers."  The Imperial
Legislature he describes, without any
measures of a contrary      tendency, as
"1 heaping   burden   upon   burden   on
Irish  landlords ; " and  the  Press   as
"' adding contumely to these injuries."
It is perfectly allowable to make such
statements, and it would be very unwise
to complain of their general character,
when the memory of every well-informed
reader will at once throw in the requisite
granum salis with which they are to be
understood. An ordinary degree of can-
dour will excuse even the announcement,
apparently so sweeping, that, " as long as
the gentlemen of the long robe, in and
out of Parliament, are to be the para-
mount judges of what is to be done, or
left undone, the landed interest, great
and small, will be the victims of their
prejudices and their ignorance."
   We are not aware of having exceeded
ourselves the limits of that candid and
reasonable interpretation   which   Lord
WESTMEATH     himself deserves and re-
quires.   If, however, we seem to have
pressed rather hard on the landowner; we
must appeal,in self-defence,to the imme mo-
rial tradition of England, which considers
the la ndowner responsible for the welfare
of the tenantry and labourers on his soil.
Superstitious as this may be, it is a
noble and living remnant of that useful
feudalism which existed amongst us even
before the days of WILLIAI or of ALFRED,
and which has refined the temper and
moulded the institutions of this island.
Ireland, it is true, has  never passed
through the fiery and purifying furnace of
the feudal system. From  age to age it
has exhibited the afflicting spectacle of
an agrarian democracy. We in England
are, perhaps, too apt to judge her by the
rules and graces of a patriarchal code.
We .forget the commercial ideas that
belong to the "'plantation."  We expect
the landlord to show not only a rent-roll,
but high cultivation, substantial houses


and habitable cottages, well-stored farm-
yards, substantial   yeomen, contented
labourers. This is an English prejudice,
though we are aware how apt it is to bt
disappointed by sober reality. We will
not, however, resign it. We even enforce
it. To be a resident, an improving, a
generous   landlord, is supposed to be
necessary to the character of an English
gentleman. The ablest statesman would
find himself damaged by the belief that
he neglected his local and patrimonial
duties. We expect the same, unreason-
able as the expectation may seem, from
the Irish landowner. G" Show us your
model estate. Let us see your tenantry,
your labourers, your houses, your cot-
tages, your farms."  Perhaps we demand
too much ; but it is the English, the im-
perial standard.
  Lord WEsrTMEATH considers that the
great flaw in British legislation for Ira-
land is the want of a more real and effec-
tual enforcement of the rights of pro-
perty. Certainly he describes a state of
things not very creditable to the law. It
is not law, it is anarchy, when a tenant
openly and audaciously violates his con-
tract, subdivides his land amdng  sons,
relations, and squatters, and by the help
of a multitude of similar delinquents
refuses to give up possession of the land.
This amounts to what his Lordship calls
" military occupation."  The question is,
how   can  sufficient powers   be given
without offending the free genius of the
British Constitution, and without also
creating the still, more practical evil of
an expensive and demoralizing " military
occupation " on the part of the landlord
and the law. It is a question of possi-
bilities. Can it be done ? We feel in-
clined to fear that the chief remedy his
Lordship proposes will not be generally
considered to illustrate the facility with
which the object may be attained. When
he says, ' Parliament should     provide
that persons for whose benefit or interest
the owner or tenant of any land is com-
pelled by threats or terror to surrender
the same may be held responsible," he
introduces a principle to which the least
objection is the utter impossibility of its
enforcement in any British tribunal and
which would, therefore, cruelly multiply
the defeats which his Lordship already
complains of at the hands of the " black-
letter gentlemen."
  But is it a fair answer to say that, in
the existing state of Ireland, it is impose
sible to screw up the rights of property to
the English pitch ? The answer is ad-


_                                                               ___


41






TIlE   GREAT IRIS I       FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.


mitred in a parallel case. It is thought
quite fair and sufficient when the duties
of property are concerned. To the pro-
position of the Poor Law-not the present
atrocious  system, as exemplified     at
Andover and elsewhere, but a real, merci-
ful legislation for the wants of the poor--
it is replied,with triumph,-''But it would
swallow up the rental." We only ask
that the two may stand or fall together.
If the landlords demand the rights, let
them submit to the duties of their posi-
tion. If there is to be military occupa-
tion, let there be also an available system
of employment and relief.    We confine
ourselves  to the   capabilities of the
subject.  We say the one demands the


other. If we are to send over an army
to Ireland to oust the interloping pea-
santry from their miserable squattings
and subdivisions, whither are we to send
them ? There is the question. To the
road side ? To the pestilential suburb of
the crowded town ? To the seaports ? To
the noyades of the dreary     Atlantic ?
Noble service this for an  Anglo-Irish
army ! Perhaps also      possible ! No.
When something in the nature of a refuge
is provided, when poverty has its alter-
native, then will be the time to think of
more rigorous laws of property. Do not
import the English system into Ireland
by halves.


THE    DUTY     OF THE      GOVERNMENT.
(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1846.)


  The position of the Minister whom
the progress of events, the struggles of
party, the workings of public opinion,
and even the vicissitudes of the sky have
conspired to place at the head of this
realm, is one which- a moralist might
select to cure the most insatiable and
most daring ambition. In the approaches
of a famine, aggravated by a social dis-
order which centuries have been nursing,
it is his tremendous responsibility to hold
the key of: the national store. A few
years-almost a few    months-since. it
was pointed out to the admiration of Eng-
land that the manufacturing- masses of
Lancashire, deprived of employment, sat
down to die in sight of warehouses full to
overflowing with food. That was a noble
spectacle, and it has told. Resignation
has wrought a miracle such as the boldest
agitators did not venture    to expect.
Would that either the case were as
simple, the   remedy as    obvious, the
people as resigned, in the present in-
stance. An island, a social state, a race
is to be changed. The surface of the
land, its divisions, its culture, its pro-
prietors, its occupiers, its habitations, its
manners, its law, its language, and the
heart of a people who for two thousand
years have remained unalterable within
the compass of those mighty changes
which have given us European civiliza-
tion, are all to be created anew. That is
only part of the task which a destiny that
seems to mock alike the aspirations of
benevolence and of ambition, imposes on


the Minister of this State.. He has not
only to feed the people out of an insuffi-
cient store, but change their very nature
meantime. Should he fail both to meet
the crisis and improve the opportunity,
he will be reproached not only with the
horrors of instant famine, but with help-
ing to perpetuate a national degradation.
  Pity for a task so far beyond the
powers cf man teaches us to spare that
discursive variety of suggestions which
can only bewilder and cannot inform.
Would that we could impress this lesson
on the whole multitude of volunteer ad-
visers of the Crown. Perhaps it is use-
less to ask the great Agitator for one
short month to descend from his hobby;
to ask, the landlord to forget his rights,
and the tenant his wrongs ; or to entreat
all parties to agree to one brief truce of
historical grudges. Still, at the risk of
wasting our words, we will once more
invite all to remember that it is not
merely an Irish question, not a political
question at all, we have to deal with.
It is an   economical question.    How
are the twenty-five millions of these
islands to   be  carried  through   this
twelvemonth, and safely into the middle
of the next, on a seriously insufficient
store, which it appears impossible mean-
time to replenish ?
  The question only begins with Ire-
land. All are concerned, but they who
are actually perishing are the first to be
considered. The Irish must be fed at
once. That point is settled. But, that


~


42






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


done, the graver matters of future suste-
nance and future tranquillity cloud our
horizon with dark and ominous ambiguity.
It is not merely the present failure of
the potato, but the discovery that it is
not to be depended upon, that we have to
confront, to subdue, or to mitighte.
  There is a melancholy concurrence in
the opinions of most Irishmen that five
years at least. must elapse before in any
part of Ireland thepeasantry will be ableto
raise a new species of food. And even
this hypothesis is made on grounds more
favourable than a minute contemplation
of the case warrants us in assuming.
Five years must elapse before even the
more docile and tractable portion of the
peasantry will be able to cultivafe a new
and different species of food. But how
long a period must intervene before the
more intractable, the  more impatient,
and the more despondent part of them
habituate themselves to the idea-much
more to the study-of a novel and un-
wonted agriculture ? A length of time-
greater than we like to revolve in our
minds-must pass over       ere  the til-
lage be changed and the subsistence of
the people created afresh. What is to be
done in the interval ? Already the com-
plaint is that the baronies have overtaxed
themselves   that they are assessed to the
labour-fund far above their actual value.
This by itself would be found to be a
serious inconvenience, were the calamity
which it is proposed to obviate of a tem-
porary nature. But this is not so. The
most sanguine dare not hope that oneyear
will bound the sweep and severity of our
affliction. The remedy, therefore, which
applied to the first year's evil would be
inconvenient is, when proposed for the
second, impossible or ruinous. To repeat
the process of super- taxation-to renew
the great promissory note to Government
-would be simply to beggar the land-
owners without conferring a permanent
benefit on the people, or, what is equally
important, a permanent improvement on
the land. The landlords would fly from
-while their tenants would perish on-
a soil exhausted    by   mortgages and
crowded with a famished and reckless
population. Frightful as such a state of
things would be, it is no vague picture of
the imagination. It is just the very state
to which Ireland must inevitably be re-
duced, if the sums now collected, and
about to be collected, are flung away on
works which will add nothing to the
national wealth, and supply nothing to
the national want.


   The first object of Government, after
doing the best, as we admit Lord BESS-
BonoouG  seems to be doing, for the im-
mediate exigency, should be to provide
against its certain recurrence ; to devise
means for making the famine of the next
year less oppressive than that of the
present, and that of the following easier
than that of the next ; so that the weight
of suffering may be diminished season by
season, until PROVIDENCE has blessed the
industry of the people and the energy of
their advisers by new modes and new
fruits of husbandry. This can only be
effected by taking such measures as shall
insure the cultivation-the renewed, the
general, and the indefatigable cultivation
-either of such grain as may itself feed
the people, or be exported as the medium
of procuring for them a proper food. To
this object the attention both of Govern-
ment and of landed proprietors should be
directed. In this, as in every other
emergency which     demands vigour of
design and promptness of execution, the
plans of the landlord will be thwarted
and his directions contravened by the in-
extricable perplexities which beset the
Irish question. That we must expect.
There will be difficulty beyond what
Englishmen find it easy to conceive in in-
ducing the Irish peasant to till acres for
the reception of other crops than the
potato. Will the difficulty be too great
for the landlord to overcome ? Will it
be great enough to      shift upon   thb
Government ? This problem must sooner
or later be solved.
   Government has become a large money-
lender. It may have to become so again
even on a more comprehensive scale.
But it hardly appears as yet that Govern-
ment has succeeded in getting that which
of dinary money-lenders never fail to
obtain-security.   Suppose   the   land-
owners find themselves unable to repay
what has been advanced them   by Parlia-
ment-and this is no extravagant sup-
position-what then ? What remedy will
the Government have ? None that we
can see; at least, none that would be
worth a moment's effort, or a farthing's=
outlay. But, if the money now advanced:
by the Treasury be sacrificed to projects
of lavish but useless expenditure-to the
construction of trafficless roads and ship-
less harbours-or to the mere equipment
of private luxury  and  comfort-then
indeed will the stewards of the Imperial
purse have complicated a great temerity
with a great injustice, by lavishing away
loans without a guarantee either for their


~L


43






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


discharge, or their safe and profitable
investment.
  It has, therefore, been sugge.sted, that
Government should constitute itself a
mortgagee on a large scale, and should
itself enter on the lands which it has relieved
by its advances, leaving, of course, to the
proprietor his equity of redemption. That
such a scheme should have been thought of
for one moment only proves the desperate
character of the emergency.    Nothing,
in fact, could be more contrary to the
genius of a constitutional Government,
which aims to be an impartial arbiter
between all classes, and never descends
from the council-room to occupy the place
of any subordinate vocation. A British
Premier will probably feel as great a
scruple to play the part of a national
landlord as to intrude into the office of
Judge. Such a scheme would, in fact,
only be adding new elements of disorder
to a chaos which already confesses the
presence of too many.' Henceforth the
national landlord, the national tenant,
the national   agent,  national   leases,


national processes of distress, would be
added to the dramatis personce that already
so uncomfortably crowd the stage. If so
much is now expected from     the worth,
the ability, and forbearance of the private
landowner, what extravagant expectations
would usher in the reign of the national
proprietor ! But it is easier to raise ob-
jections to such a scheme than to refute
them. The Scriptural character of the
precedent claims for it at least a decorous
reception. But it would be difficult to
establish a parallel between the patient
children of HAM, the PHARAOns, and the
Delta of the Nile, on the one hand, and
the Celt, the British Government, and
the Emerald Isle on the other. We can
only class the scheme with those dreamy
projects which, impracticable as they may
be in themselves, like the  mysterious
gleams of morning twilight, do at least
prepare for great changes. And he must
indeed be blind who does not see that the
present relation of rich and poor in Ire-
land must precede some great revolution
in the tenure of landed property.


FOOD    EXPORTS      FROM     IRELAND TO       ENGLAND.
      (LEADINCG ARTICLE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1846.)


  The British islands, small as they are
in comparison either with the sway of
which they are the head-quarters, or with
the neighbouring continental empires,
contain ,within themselves the materials
for some of the most remarkable problems
the face of all this earth can supply. It is
true that we do not suffer either the blot
of legal slavery, or its bitter results in a
domesticated negro population; our plan-
tations are not fringed with Caffres or
Red Indians ; our downs are not scoured
by Bedouins or Calmucks ;our conquerors
and our conquered are not wholly un-
mixed.' So far there seems no discrepancy
which a few generations might not be
thought enough to overcome. Yet, within
24 hours of this great metropolis there
are differences which, as to their substan-
tial weight and effects,may well compare to
the more picturesque diversities to which
we have alluded. England and Jreland,
each as a whole, are as strange opposites,
as fertile subjects for speculation, as in-
explicable an enigma to the statesman, as
the city of the CzAR- and the half-con-
tinent of serfdomby which itis sustained.
  As is commonly the case with the


greatest questions, some degree of dis-
tance is necessary to a just 'estimate of
relative positions occupied by these two
portions of the empire. The benefit of
distance is enjoyed and freely used by our
neighbours. Every politician of Europe
is able, and always ready, to discuss the
Anglo-Hibernian controversy with a free-
dom of opinion and a largeness of view
almost intolerable even  to the most
liberal-minded Englishman. We do not
stop to inquire how far jealousy, ever
searching for blots on the escocheon of
greatness, has seduced the foreign spec-
tator into an impracticable and unreal
estimate of our internal relations ; nor
will we ask how far England may retaliate
the reproach. Such, however, is the
largeness of survey to be acquired, or at
least to be witnessed, in a brief sojourn
among another people, language, and laws.
It can, too, be predicted with certainty
that distance of time will have a corre-
sponding effect. The historian of future
ages will review the quarrel of the Saxon
and the Celt with wonderful impartiality.
He will visit upon our own heads that
noble simplicity of survey, that unsparing


IU__Y__ __


L


44






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


generosity of sentiment, with which we
are accustomed to treat the outrages and
tyrannies of classic or of medieval anti-
quity. If we hope to anticipate, and
perhaps   to  avert   the   judgment of
posterity, it is our place to aim at this
distance. It must be obtained by an
effort of the mind, by a comprehensive
and resolute grasp at all the conditions
and facts of the question.
   Nor can we doubt that the question is
now on the point of receiving a far more
dispassionate and comprehensive survey.
To this hope we are encouraged by the
fact that many other social questions have
lately received a similar emancipation.
For example, we are now able to perceive
and lament how many items our fore-
fathers omitted in computing the losses
and gains of our colonial empire, on a
protective'system. We see how seriously
they were imposed upon by the fallacy of
an upper current of fictitious advantage.
The Irish question is equally treacherous
to a superficial survey. When future
economists strike the balance of favours
and duties between England and Ire-
land, they will probably scrutinize the
traffic of the Irish Channel more closely
than we are wont to do. They will insist
much on the fact that the food of millions
will annually pass to the richer and
happier shore. They will not reconcile
this with the alleged improvidence of the
Irishman quite so easily as we are wont
to do. They will inquire very diligently
what England gave in return. When
their researches bring them to that crisis
which we are now actually suffering, they
certainly will be struck, perhaps even
unduly, by the fact that while England
was avowedly      feeding  Ireland--while
both countries agreed in that view of their
position-while all classes of Irishmen
were flinging themselves more and more
upon the bounties of the empire, whole
fleets of provisions  were  continually
arriving from the land of starvation to
the ports of wealth and the cities of
abundance. Scarce a day passes without
every great port of this country seeing
this visible contradiction, or rather this
painful anomaly. We are emphatically
reminded that it is not to Ireland her-
self, but to her social state, that the
famine is attributable. This is no ex-
aggeration, no  paradox. What, also,
will the future historian feel when in
the very columns which he is searching
for the distracting and harrowing notices
of Irish destitution, he lights on such a
paragraph as that which appeared in our


yesterday's impression, and which, in
fact, is only one out of the many we could
quote from the last few weeks :-
  " No less than 16 ships arrived in the
river Thames on Monday from the Irish
ports, laden almost exclusively with food
and provisions of various kinds,the produce
of that country, having collectively 14,960
packages of butter, 224 packages of pork,
1,047 hampers and bales of bacon, several
of hams, 140 sacks, 2,926 barrels, and
7,788 quarters of oats, 434 packages of
lard, 75 of general provisions, 40 of oat-
meal, 44 of porter, 259 boxes of eggs, and
a variety of other articles of lesser impor-
tance, which it would be quite needless
further to particularize. Of these almost
unprecedentedly numerous arrivals in one
day from the sister island 5 were from
Limerick, 1 from Belfast, 2 from Water-
ford, 1 from Galway, 1 from Kilrush, 2
from Dublin, 1 from Youghal, and 3
from Cork."
   Of course, to a certain extent every
well-informed person will be prepared for
such an announcement, and will not feel
his sense of injustice or his humanity
wounded. There are large agricultural
districts of England which transmit to
their wealthier or more populous neigh
bourhoods supplies of provisions, which
the    poverty-struck  producers   might
equally covet at home. The United States,
independent as they are of British rule,
may occasionally present the spectacle of
feeding us out of their poverty. There is
no inequality in an interchange of cloth-
ing and food. Ireland might owe as;
much to England as England to her, On
the other hand, history suggests too many
instances of Imperial States subsisting,
waxing fat and wanton, on the vital
wealth of their dependent provinces.
It informs us of a certain tendency, under
given circumstances, to a great inequality
of relations. So it is at least possible for
a fertile and populous region to suffer a
perpetual drain of its resources. Its vast
population may do nothing but expedite
the bounties of nature, and transmit her
bounties, untasted, to meet the relentless
demands of some foreign master. It is
possible that there may be no equiva-
lent, no return to be hoped, no debt to
be repaid. This may, then, be the case
of Ireland.
   This inquiry, we think, is now   likel
 to receive an accurate and authentic deterF
 mination. It may be put in some such
 form as the following :--Suppose, for the
 purposes of the calculation, that Ireland
 is an independent country. Its economists


45






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


will frequently compare the value of its
exports and imports. Should they find
the balance   against them, they    will
naturally conclude, in the first instance,
that the country is in debt,and the excess
against them  is nothing else than the
annual payment of the interest. Into
this debt, however, they will, of course,
inquire, looking for either a formal, or at
least a substantial existence. Of the
former there must be some record. The
latter,-viz., the real benefit received
and discharged by a continual exportation


of produce, must be capital in some shape
or other invested in the soil. If there
have been no real loan, no advance of
money, no tangible assistance, no con-
sideration received in any form,-if there
are no wealth laid out on the land, no
artificial property fairly attributable to
that relentless foreign debtor, then it is
hard to escape the inference that there
exists some sort of oppression ; and that
the excess of exports over imports is not
the interest of a just debt,but the tribute
of a weak and conquered realm.


STATE AID TO         PUBLIC    WORKS.
     (SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1846.)


   (FROIr THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                     DUBLIN, OCT. 29.
     LETTER FROM LORD J. RUSSELL.
  .The Evening Post, the Government
organ, contains the following letter,
addressed by Lord John Russell to his
Grace the Duke of Leinster :
            " Downing-street, Oct. 17.
  (, 'My dear Duke,-The Royal Agricul-
tural Society, of which you are the head,
sent a deputation not long ago to the
Lord-Lieutenant, representing that, in-
stead of public works of an unprofitable
nature, the baronies should have power
to undertake works of a useful and profit-
able nature. It had been our hope and
expectation that landed proprietors would
have commenced works of drainage and
other improvements on their own account,
thus employing the people on their own
estates, and rendering the land more pro-
ductive for the future. In that case it
would have been only the surplus labour
which would have been   employed on
roads, and other works not immediately
profitable.
   's The Act, however, was put in opera-
 tion in the baronies in a spirit the
 reverse of that which I have described. It
 was -taken for granted that the public
 works were the chief objects to be re-
 garded ; and proprietors began to calcu-
 late that, as so large a sum was to be
 repaid from their estates, they should not4
 be able to commence or even to continue
 private enterprises for the improvement
 0f their own lands.
   '<.When the case was brought before
 the Government by the Lord-Lieutenant,
 we lamented the wrongdirection in which
 the Act had been turned ; but, admitting


the necessity of the case, and anxious to
obtain the willing co-operation of the
landlords, we authorized the Lord-Lieu-
tenant to. deviate from the letter of the
law, and gave our sanction for advances
for useful and profitable works of a
private nature. But, after having in-
curred this responsibility, I am sorry to
see that, in several parts of Ireland, calls
are made upon the Government to under-
take and perform tasks which are beyond
the power and apart from the duties of
Government.
  " For instance, it seems to be expected
that we should not only pay an un-
usual rate of wages, but that we should
maintain in this time of scarcity the usual
price of food. A moment's thought will
show that this is impossible. A smaller
quantity of food is to be divided among
the same number of human beings. It
must be scarcer ; it must be dearer.
Any attempt to feed one class of the
people of the United Kingdom by the
Government would, if successful, starve
another part : would feed the producers
of potatoes, which had failed, by starving
the producers of wheat, barley, and oats,
which had not failed. All that we have
undertaken with regard to food, there-
fore, is to endeavour to create a provision
trade at fair mercantile prices, where no
provision trade has hitherto existed, and
where, without assistance, none might be
willing to undertake a new and unpopular
occupation.
   " But that which is not possible by a
 Government is possible by individual and
 social exertions. Every one who travels
 through Ireland observes the large stacks
 of corn which are the produce of the late


__


46






'THE GREAT IRISH           FAMINE OF 1845-1846.                   47


harvest. There is nothing to prevent
the purchase of grain by proprietors, or
by committees, and the disposal of these
supplies in shops, furnished on purpose,
with flour at a fairprice, with a moderate
profit. This has been done, I am assured,
ini parts of the Highlands of Scotland,
where the failure of potatoes has been
as great and as severe a calamity as it has
been in Ireland.
  " There is, no doubt, some inconvenience
attending even these modes of interfer-
ence with the market price of food. But
the good over-balances the evil. Local
committees or agents of landowners can
ascertain the pressure of distress, measure
the wants of a district, and prevent waste
or misapplication. Besides, the general
effect is to bring men together and induce
them to exert their energy in a social
effort directed to one spot ; whereas the
interference of the State deadens private
energy, prevents forethought, and, after
superseding all other exertion, finds itself
at last unequal to the gigantic task it has
undertaken.
   " There are other questions, however,
extending beyond the exigency of the day,
which, it seems to me, demand the atten-
tion of the landed proprietors of Ireland
much more than that of the Government.
   " It has been calculated that one-fifth
of the cultivated land in Ireland has
hitherto produced potatoes. After the
present lamentable failure, what course is
to be taken ? Some men of science deem
that the potato can no longer be relied
upon as an article of food; others say that
time may remove the disease. The editor
of the Gardener's Chronicle states that the
explanation of the potato disease,founded
on the hypothesis of some unknown
miasma, cannot be accepted as satisfactory ;
but neither can it be rejected, seeing how
signally all other  explanations  have
failed. Seeing; then, that science fur-
nishes us with no means of estimating
the effects of the prevalent disease upon
the potato plant in future years, it would
be impossible for the Government, with
any propriety, to give any advice to the
owners or occupiers of land in Ireland.
They must form their own conclusions
from facts that are known and the ex-
perience of the present and past years.
   "It is clear, however, that potatoes
 cannot be relied upon as they have been


hitherto. A cottier cannot hope to be
able to pay a large rent for conacre, and
the farmer cannot hope to obtain the
cottier's labour by allowing him land for
potatoes, which may probably fail. It is,
therefore, a most impdrtant question for
the people of Ireland, in what manner
the deficiency of food is in future to be sup-
plied. The nature of the grain or root which
is best adapted for this purpose ; the
course of husbandry which ought to be
followed ; the means of procuring seed ;
all these are important problems,to which
the attention of the Agricultural Society
of Ireland cannot too soon be directed.
   "One thing is certain ; in order to
enable Ireland to maintain her popula-
tion, her agriculture must be .greatly
improved. Cattle, corn, poultry, pigs,
eggs, butters, and salt provisions, have
been, and will probably continue to be,
her chief articles of export. But, beyond
the food exchanged for      clothing and
colonial products, she will require in
future a large supply of food of her own_
growth or produce which the labourer
should be able to buy with his wages. In
effecting this great change much good
might ultimately be done. But, unless all
classes co operate, and meet the infliction
of Providence with fortitude and energy,
the loss of the potato will only aggravate
the woes and sufferings of Ireland.
  " Such, then, is the great lesson which,
by the influence of the higher classes,
and of such good landlords as yourself,
may be taught to the Irish people. They
should be taught to take advantage of the
favourable condition of the soil and sur-
rounding sea ; to work patiently for them-
selves in their own country, as they work
in London and Liverpool for their em-
ployers; to study economny, cleanliness,
and the value of time ; to aim at improv-
ing the condition of themselves and their
children.
   " I would here conclude this letter,
 which is already too long, but I cannot do
 so without expressing my onviction that
 there is every disposition in persons of
 property in Ireland to meet their difficul-
 ties fairly, and submit to any sacrifices
 which the public good may require.
         " I remain, my dear Duke, yours
                  very faithfully,
                         ".J. RussELL.
   " His Grace the Duke of Leinster, &c."






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


       RELIANCE     ON    STATE     HELP.
(LEADING ARTICLE, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1846.)


SThe plot thickens in Ireland. It appears
to be the order of the day that everybody
shall do exaccly that which he ought not
to do. A sort of St. VITUs's dance has seized
the whole population, and made their
limbs rebellious not merely to reasonable
authority,but to common senseand sound
instinct itself. The people are everywhere
deserting profitable labour. Preparation
for next year is indefinitely suspended.
The few    cultivators worthy of being
called farmers say, with what truth we
know   not, that they can scarcely get
hands at any price. Men employed at
good pay-good English pay-on rail-
roads, and even on iron-works, are de-
serting. They are coming even from
Scotland, and the north of Ireland. The cry
is gone forth that they are to be employed
at " public works," which said " public
works " are to be brought as near to their
qwn homes as may suit their convenience.
The golden vision of 500 men employed
on as many yards of useless road, under
the superintendence of one little clerk
armed with a note-book and a pen, and
making their own engagements, possesses
overpowering   charms to     the  Celtic
imagination.
  As for the farmers, such as there are
who are worthy of the name, it must be
confessed that they are in a dilemma,
even if they wish to do right. In one
point we suspect that there is no great
disagreement   between them    and the
labourers. They are not desirous to spend
much in regular wages for profitable
labour. They seemed disposed to adjourn
all operations, particularly the operation
of paying rent, sine die. They who wish
to be honest are selling their corn. It is,
however, too evident that there is a
tendency to hold it on speculation. It is
expected, with a degree of modesty
almost peculiar to Ireland, that Govern-
ment is to bring the produce of all the
world to every cottage door in the island,
buying at a famine price, and .~lling at a
charity price, while the stacks of grain in
the country are to remain untouched.
The stores of the world are to be first
exhausted in feeding the Irish peasant,
and then his next door neighbour is to
command his own prices in the market.
So prone is the Irish genius to such
unreasonable expectations, so little is it


to be trusted for a just sense of social
proprieties, that we fear the effect upon
it of even a prudent alarm as to the pro-
bable range of prices., A hint of what
may be possibly got for corn next summer
is enough, it seems, to stir     up the
cupidity of the Hibernian corn dealer, of
whatever class, not merely to the most
extravagant expectations, but to the most
unreasonable   demands.    An    English
farmer may have his own opinion as to
the next summer's prices, but he does
not act upon it, for the simple reason that
he has his rent to pay, and must pay it.
So, in the face of his own prognostications,
he sells the fruit of his labours at half its
future value.   While the tenantry    of
England, and of the greater part of the
world, is under this iron yoke, the Irish
tenants are claiming exemption. They ask
for a little elbow room  in the general
squeeze, that they may convert it to their
own advantage.
  We are aware that the farmer does not
always find it safe to transmit his produce:
to the port or the market. It is, however,
a matter for inquiry what proportion such
outrages as the stoppage and plunder of
corn and flour bears to the cases where a
transit has been, or might be, safely
attempted. Are there no small holders
of corn at the bottom of these tumults ?
The ,difficulty of transit is  a capital
excuse for those who do not wish to sell
their crop'or pay their rent. We hear on
all sides that there is a great tendency to
speculation, and that among very small
capitalists. They fancy they can get more
by holding their corn than by sowing it.
  A singular correspondence between a
commissariat officer and a    proprietor:
throws some light upon this state of
things, as far as concerns one of the most
destitute districts,-the celebrated region
of Connemara. The officer writes to offer
the services of Government, in aid of any
local exertions. He makes what we in
this country would consider some sensible
moves. He finds himself checkmated by
the invincible helplessness of the sufferer.
The first question is whether any relief
committees have been formed, or what
steps have been taken thereto.      The
answer is, that one has very lately been
named for two half-parishes, but that the
Vice-Lieutenant has not yet constituted


r


48






THE GREAT IRISI IFAMINE 01' 1845-1846.


it. So, in fact, through a complication of
delays, nothing has been done. The officer
then suggests a local subscription for the
purchase and sale of meal, and offers a
Government contribution in aid. The
answer is, that nothing to speak of can be
collected on the spot. The landlords have
received no rents, and cannot subscribe.
The tenants have paid no rents, and will
not subscribe. Whatever is done must
be done by Government. The -'officer
mentions the impression of Government
that there still are oats and barley in the
country, and that it is desirable to convert
them into food. As mills are wanted, he
offers to supply any number of hand-mills
at £5 a-piece. The reply is, that " the
corn that may be in the country is fast
rising up." This smacks of the specula-
tion we have mentioned above. Corn--
an unusually good; yield of corn of all
kinds-is rising, so there is to be nether
rent, nor wages, nor subscriptions, nor
corn-mills, nor anything, in fact, except a
Government importation, and a conse-
quent exhaustion of all other stocks. But
this very hopeful gentleman proceeds to
assert that the barley and oats in the
country will be wanted for seed-an excuse
too transparent to conceal the real reason.
As for the £5 hand-mills, they are, he
says, too dear even for the funds of a
relief committee ; and :he rather sneer-
ingly suggests that the best use Govern-
inent can put them to is to grind for
immediate use the bere- and rye it has
been importing for seed. All that he can
suggest in return for the advice and
benevolence of the commissariat is, that
it -should establish a cheap shop at his
own village.    While this   melancholy
work is going on in a district of Conne-
mara, it is repeated on a larger scale
between the PRIME INISTER and Ire-
land's only Duke. The Royal Agricul-
tural Society of Ireland, of which the
Duke of LEINSTER :is the head, have been


sending a deputation, asking that the
baronies should have power to undertake
works of a useful and profitable character.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL has met that demand.
The baronies now have that power.
His Lordship, however, avails himself of
the opening afforded by that demand to
address to the President of the associa-
tion a letter full of suggestions so good
that one's only regret is to think how
little they are likely to be acted upon.
The key-note of the letter is, " Why
come to us ? Do all this for yourselves:"
With a gentleness of reproach-not too
gentle, we hope, for its object, the noble
writer says, " Drain and improve on your
own account-purchase grain yourselves---
sell it cheap yourselves if necessary--
secure the food in the country-look to
future years-take a lesson from     the
present-do not always hang upon us-
teach your people independence."
  If the words are mild, never was advice
enforced by a graver occasion or more
terrible apprehensions. What the Duke
of LEINSTER and the landlords are to do
we will ourselves hardly .venture to
advise.   We believe that they declare
themselves ruined. They have submitted
to presentments vastly beyond the powers
of repayment, simply to save their lives ;
partly, also, in the hope: that the debt,
after all, will not be exacted. Let them
not lay that flattering unction to their
souls. The tax-payers in this empire are
too old to subsidize Irish landowners.
If the land must change hands, the result
will be accepted with great tranquillity.
The people of England will, not apply to
others a harder rule than they obey
themselves. First or last, in one way or
another, they feed and maintain their
own poor: ; an. they will deem it no
small mitigation of the present calamity
that it compels the application of the rule
to Ireland.


NEGLECT OF AVAILABLE FOOD SUPPLIES.
  (LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1846.)


  It is almost impossible to treat on any
Irish subject without the risk of stinging
national pride or exciting national pique.
Whatever is hinted in the way of sugges-
tion, however kindly, or reproof, however
moderate, is perverted :by ourneighbours
into an unmerited taunt or an intolerable


insult. And now that the horrors of an
extraordinary calamity have :supervened
on the ordinary evils which oppress the
sister island, the slightest  accent of
advice is repelled as an- insolent dicta-
'tion, and the smallest word:of remoi-
strance is denounced as cruel, insulting


~- II -- --


---~ --


49






50            THE GREAT IRISH           FAMINE OF 1845-1846,


and inhuman. As if there were not
,enough already to employ men's atten-
tion and monopolize their energies, the
opinions of English writers are seized on
with a reckless avidity,tokindle the flames
of international discord and foment the
fury ofpolitical strife.
   It becomes, therefore, a difficult matter
for a: journalist to comment upon any
events which relate to Ireland without
exposing himself to misconstruction and
abuse. If he speak of Celtic improvi-.
dence, he is reproached for speaking:
,lightly of the dispensations of Heaven. If
he recommend particular modes of saving
provisions or employing labour, a yell is
raisedagainst him for giving a stone to a
people clamorous for bread. This is in
:public meetings and political gatherings.
But we trust that there are men of in-
fluence in Ireland with clear judgments
and unprejudiced minds,, who recognize a
duty higher than that: of pandering to
the passions of a mob, and who would
welcome, from whatever quarter it came,
any feasible suggestion for providing a
practical relief of the present distress.
   We have at different times copied from
provincial papers accounts of a partial
escape of the potatoes from the prevailing
:blight. In some counties it would seem
that nsarly half were not affected by it.
.But it nowhere appears that any measures
-have been taken to turn this -.blessing
to its full account. 1No one among the
peasantry appears to have thought it
worth while to make an attempt at
saving that which had been so long un-
scathed. And no one among the gentry
seems to have impressed upon the minds
of his dependents the duty of doing all in
their power to secure for the emergencies
of the coming year that which PRovI-
DENo.c had spared from the too wide-
spread infection of this. The same bar-
baric thoughtlessness which congregates
hundreds together in the hope of getting
food without money, or wages without
work, makes them treat with contempt
all recommendations of patient industry
and painstaking precaution.
   Another instance of want of foresight
 or want of energy has lately been exhi-
 bited in regard: to the- present state of
 the Irish fisheries. The provincial jour-
 nals have on several occasions within the
 last few weeks mentioned that there has
 been an unusual quantity of pildhards
 and herrings on, the southern coast this
 year. As is generally the case when
 there is an abundance of fish off Ireland,
 the only persons. who profit by it are the


fishermen from the English coast. With
a new kind of food brought, as it were,
providentially within their reach, the
Irish people still reject the means of
staving off famine. A cry is sent forth
from one end of the country to the other,
that men and women are perishing of
want ; yet not an effort is made, not
an arm is extended, to seize, not a mere
article of necessary food, but that which
compared with their common sustenance
would be a luxury,-even when it is
brought almost.to their doors ! It is of
no use to say that an unforeseen evil
has paralyzed all exertion and subdued
all energy. A season like the present
only illustrates more strongly-the ten-
dencies of national habits, and the mis-
fortune of their long indulgence. It is
not the affliction of this year that has
repressed the native enterprise of the
Ish people or tamed their usual ardour ;
but it is their ordinary listlessness, it is
their innate want of enterprise, their
indifference to present comfort and; future
wants, that has made the sufferings of
this year more intense than they need be.
This year only presents to view an
extreme instance of    that which has
happened in other years. The traveller
will often be astonished by that which so
forcibly struck our own Commissioner--
viz., the neglect with which the Irish
treat that which might be made a perpetual
source of competence, if not of wealth, to
them. The sea round the southern coasts
teems with fish. In Scull-bay and Crook-
haven they areso plentifulthat the peasants
often knock them on their heads with oars,
yet will not take the trouble of netting
them. They rather starve in the midst
of the national wealth, which they. leave
to be gleaned by 'the bolder efforts of the
Cornish or Devonshire adventurer. They
sit in their squalid huts content to season
their scant potato diet with a solitary
herring, and beg of their neighbours, or
strangers, or Government-as the case
may be-the remnant of their wretched
fare. Let it not be said that we are
taunting misery or upbraiding famine.
We are pointing out a malady in the
national character which has preceded
and induced a more fearful malady in the
physical condition of the people. The
want of food this year results in some
degree from want of enterprise in:past
years. Had the Irish :peasantry been en-
couraged to mak;e use of the national
advantages which their country      pos-
sesses, they would not now be bickering
against task-work, or plundering provi-






THE GREAT IRISH           FAMINE       OF 1845-1846.


sion stores. Had they exhibited the same
prudent energy in clubbing- together to
man fishing-boats that they do on the spur
of an English harvesting, they would not
have seen a valuable trade pass into
"alien hands," or have found themselves
so helpless in a great social crisis.
  Let no man think that we intend to lay
the whole blame on the untaught Celtic
peasant'and his -hereditary  character.
Character is always modified by circum-
stances and moulded by    instruction.
Heaven knows that he has been dis-
ciplined in a hard school. His circum-
stances have ever been rugged ; his in-
structors inept or perverse. They have
taught him in turns everything but that
which was most necessary for him to
know. They have fostered every passion
which they ought to have quelled, and
forgotten every lesson which they ought
to have inculcated. They have made him


a partisan of clans, families, factions, and.
creeds, not of cleanliness, prudence, or per-
severing industry. He has learned to hate
whom his LIBERATOR reviles, and curse
whom his priest denounces. He votes
with his landlord and against him-
blesses or execrates him-according to
the dictation of the Altar or the Corn Ex-
change. Three-and only three-human
objects fill the void of his mind--his land-
lord, his LIBERATOR, and his priest. But not
one of these has ever deigned to tell him
the familiar lesson known to every village
hind in England-that unless he works
he cannot save, and that if he does not
save he must starve. He struggles on
from one year to another of contented
wretchedness ; then comes a year of evil
and great suffering, and lo ! the state to;
which the idols of his mind have reduced
him !


      THE    IRISH   SAVINGS  BANKS.
(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1846.)


. ' An official returh has been published
which wiill do imuch to allay the anxiety
excited by the  prospects of Ireland,
:blough it will also suggest other less
Fagteeable reflections. It is an account of
he sinums paid in and drawn out of the
Trish savings-banks in the year ending
October   10;  1846.   Were    superficial
appearances and popular statements to be
entirely trusted, we should be justified in
expecting an    immense    deficiency of
deposits as compared with repayments.
At a time when it is vehemently pro-
tested that there is no capital or stock of
any kind, no funds to pay wages or rent,
it is natural to fear that the savings-
banks have become almost superfluous
establishments. One expects to be told
that they are shut up, the accounts
wholly closed, aiid Government seriously
embarrassed by the vast aggregate with-
drawn from   its hands. Such, we are
sprry to say, is the case at this moment
in :France, where, if people are not lifting
up their voices quite so high as in Ire-
land, the weekly returns of the savings-
banks prove that their means are under-
going a rapid exhaustion. It is far other-
wise   in Ireland.   The   savings-banks
there, with one great exception, to.which
we shall shortly advert, never were more
prosperous than in this year of unpre-
cedented distress.  What increases the
marvel is, that    their  prosperity, in
different districts, appears to be exactly


in proportion to the 'extent 'of the
demands on public 'benevolence.   The:
more the people have wanted, the more
they have had. Under increasing distress
there has happily :existed a mine of in-
creasing wealth ; .and while the Treasuri
has been lavishing its bounties with they
right hand, with the left it has receivei
a back current of comfortable deposits.:
Of course one is only too happy to be!
assured by so undeniable a proof that
after all there is a solid bottom some-
where to this' slough of despond. With
a sound substratum of increasing depdsits.
the nation will not sink quite overhead
in the mire. At the same time one feelsi
very sure that no other country under the
sun could ever have presented so remark-;
able an inconsistency between words and
deeds.
  Connaught and Munster are the pro-
vinces   which   obtained  the  greatest
amount of relief during the twelvemonth;
and Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo,
Clare, Kerry, and Limerick were the
counties which made the strongest appeal
to the Imperial Treasury, and with the
most success. Our readers will look with
some curiosity to see how they severally
stand in the ledger of the savings-bank.
The sums " paid in" and the      sum
" drawn out " by the trustees in the
province of Connaught are respectively
£9,600, and £4,400 ; so that the province
had £5,200 more in the savings-banks, it
                                  D2


51






THE GREAT IRISH FA MTNE OF 1845-1846.


is to be presumed, on October 10, 1846,
than on the corresponding day the previous
year, though in the interval there were
two famines, two   great measures of
relief, two general sinkings or risings,
prostrations or insurrections, whatever
they are to be called, of the peasantry. This
at least is singular. We have heard of.
bankruptcies being very profitable affairs.
A man twice bankrupt, it is said, ought
to be rich. This does for individuals.
But for a whole population commend us
to a famine. A few more famines, and
Ireland will become one of the wealthiest
countries in the world. The population
of Connaught bids fair to thrive wonder-
fully on rotten potatoes well sauced
with " relief" works. There is the true
remedy    for this   mysterious disease,
which the English savans were so long
looking for, and with so little success.
The receipt is as follows :-Empty a
..cart-load of the infected potatoes on
one side of the road, and set 50 men
to shovel the heap to the other side,
giving   them   is. each for the     day's
work, and you will find that the men will
not only subsist on the potatoes, but will
put by. The receipt answers admirably
-in Connaught. Thus Mayo, which a
whole tribe of M'HAInES    are always
declaring to be at the point of starvation,
-drew out only £2,300, and paid in as
much at £3,200. Roscommon paid in
£3,300, and drew out nothing. Sligo paid
in £1,800, and also drew out nothing.
   Munster exhibits equally wonderful
 results. The whole province paid in
 £80,699, and drew out only £53,800, thus
 improving its account to the handsome
 extent of £26,899. We have frequently
 heard economists pronounce the potato
 rot the making of Ireland, but we think
 they could hardly have anticipated such
 immediate results. The particular in-
 -stances are some of them  exceedingly
 striking. Clare one always hears of very
 early in the famine. It occupies an
 equally prominent position in this return.
 The Ennis trustees " paid in " £7,100,
 and drew out £300, the difference in the
 favour of the Clare contributors being no
 less than £6,800. Kerry seems to have
 done very well considering. The trustees at
 Killarney had paid in £7,300 and drawn
 out £3,100-not nearly half. Tralee has
 not been equally fortunate, or equally
 ingenious. It has paid in £4,800, and
 drawn out £2,700, which is rather more
 than half. Limerick beats them all. Its
 trustees have paid in £18,200, only draw-
 ing out £3,300,


   The exceptions are generally insigni-
 ficant. The only one of any importance
 is that which occurs in Dublin itself, and
 has nothing to do with either the potato
 rot or the relief measures. As much as
 £223,800 was drawn out by St. Peter's
 parish, Dublin, between October 25, 1845,
 and January 3, 1846, in consequence of a
 rumour that the funds of that bank were
 not sufficient to meet the demands of the
 depositors. Such is the explanation given
 in the return. The circumstance that
 this happened to be exactly the period
 of the panic in the railway market may
 possibly have something to do with it.
 So large a sum of course gives an un-
 favourable result as far as the whole of
 Ireland is concerned; but taking Con-
 naught and    Munster separately, the
 excess of the deposits over the sums with-
 drawn is £32,099.
   We repeat that it is most gratifying to
 be able thus to sound the depth of Irish
 distress. A savings-bank, to be sure, is
 not the best form of savinc ; it is too much
 like hoarding for us. Lar more satis-
 factory is it to see capital wedded to
 industry, invested in stock, intrusted to
 the grateful soil, and returning a better
 interest to its owners than 33 per cent.
 We must say it is something like burying
 a talent in a napkin to lend £100 to so
 indifferent a banker. That, however, just
 now is a minor consideration. If the
 Irish peasantry have not such large heaps
 of potatoes as usual, it is clear they have
 better deposits. Somehow or other they
 have managed to make up the defi-
 ciency.
 One thing, however, we have a right to
 ask, and that is, that when the pecuniary
 result of the two famines has been thus
 far so decidedly favourable to the Irish,
 they should give the British Government
 some credit for supplying the deficiencies
 and mitigating the visitations of Nature.
 It is plain by the infallible rules of
 COCKER that the partial destruction of
 one potato crop, and the almost entire
 destruction of the other, ought to have
 left the population generally very much
 poorer. The actual result, however, is far
 otherwise. Something has qualified the
 inflictions of PROVIDENCE and the deduc-
 tions of arithmetic. The compensation
 has happily prevailed over the calamity.
 It is proved, iri pounds, shillings, and
 pence, that the Legislature possesses a
 claim to Irish gratitude. That the claim
 will be acknowledged, even in the face of
this return, we dare' hardly expect.


_ __ __


52






THE GREAT IRISH    FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


          WASTE     LANDS     IN IRELAND.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1846.)


  Sir,-Would you allow through your
columns a few brief observations on re-
claiming waste lands in Ireland ?
  I beg to premise that Irish waste lands,
generally speaking, mean bogs or peat
soils, and that these substances in Ireland
possess a peculiarly antiseptic quality,
and to such a-high degree as not alone
to preserve matter from decay, but to
confer a power to resist decay. Fertile
la ids have   wholly different agencies.
Reclaimed Irish wastes have      ever a
tendency to fall back into their original
state, and exertions must be constantly
applied to overcome their strong natural
inclination to sterility. HInce we see any
successful instances of redeemed land
almost invariably confined to cottier gar-
dens, bogskir ts, and patches annexed to old
lands, all continuously turned up, manured,
&c. The crops on "reclaimed " wastes
in Ireland are more subject to failure or
blight than crops on the old lands. I have
seen crops entirely blasted in one night
on the former grounds, whilst the same
crops,'on the old land alongside, growing
from the same seed, sown at the same
time, and cultivated in the same manner,
remained untouched and unharmed. The
expense of reclaiming Irish wastes ex-
ceeds the market price of the fee of the
best old lands. Look at the price paid to
reclaim Trafford-moss or Chat-moss, and
these wore concerns very different in
qualities from a "rale" genuine Irish bog.
It would be desirable if the advocates for
reclaiming would point out      a single
example of a reclaimed Irish waste where
the  expenditure   did riot exceed the
purchase-money of an equal extent of
good old enclosed land, and where tenden-
cies to deterioration have not appeared.
But suppose for the instant that re-
claimed wastes were profitable and safe
investments, I ask would the Irish people
on such territory be better oft than the
Irish people on the old territory ? Where
is the hope ? Is character to be changed ?
Are social institutions to be amended ?
Or are we to suppose that Misery will
lose her sting from having new regions
to develop her qualities ?
  It is supposed that a proprietary culti-


vator class would arise on reclaimed
lands, and present to us, through men
labouring for themselves, blooming fields
and happy homes. There is a something
more wanted to attain these ends than
the condition of every man working for
himself and on his own grounds. The
grounds must have the capability of re-
paying the labour expended on them.
Irish wastes have not this capability.
Instead of blooming fields, crested by the
Penates and Lares, and all the household
gods, we might behold blighted fields
and cheerless, crownless hearths.  In
place of " Shepherds nightly nodding o'er
their flocks," we might have fiery Celts
and their shivering wives and families
huddled   together on   rushes or fern.
The difficulty is gigantic, from  having
a population stimulated and left depen-
dent on an unsafe and acclimated plant ;
are we to add to all our perplexities by
"home colonization" on unsafe lands ?
The Irish people were given a peculiar
foreign vegetable for food, subject to
total blast and destruction ; are we now
to place them on a territory on which all
food crops, without distinction, are liable
to failure and annihilation ?
  We must turn our attention to the old
enclosed lands for security and employ-
rnent. I refer to the evidence published
some years since by order of Parliament,
relating to this matter, and particularly
to that of the officer of Woods and
Forests sent to Ireland. He emphatically
deposed that we should look solely to
the old enclosed lands to obtain the pros-
perity of Ireland. Mighty interests are
at stake. We cannot tamper, ar d dare
not try experiments. If Ireland is to
support the Irish people, it is clear the
action must be on her employers and food
producers. To this end let us forth with
ascertain the liabilities of support in each
parish. The English people are deeply
concerned in this, and every consideration
urges on them to press the Legislature to
provide that the poor in each parish in
Ireland shall be set to work under the
poor law of Elizabeth.
  Nov. 17.    AN IRISH LANDOWNER.


-..m


53






54           THE    GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.



                        LANDLORDS       AND    LABOUR.
           (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1846.)


   Sir,-I take the- liberty of enclosing
you the proceedings of the relief sessions
of the Barony of Coshma, in the county
'of Limerick, held on the 17th inst., and
trust you will give publicity to them.
The frequent attacks in your paper on the
gentry of this country induce me to do
so, in the belief that the resolutions of
this meeting will, in     some  measure
remove from your mind      many of the
charges which you have so frequently
urged against the resident proprietors of
Ireland, and show your readers that the
cause of our social disorganization arises
Ffrom laws over which the proprietors and
ratepayers have no control, and which
,they have done all in their power to get
-changed for just enactments, that would
,prevent care and industry being swamped
Py ignorance and neglect. Many of the
proprietors in this country are able
and willing to take upon themselves
,the entire labour attached to their pro-
perties, and last year did not accept
,of public funds for their support. Is it
likely that this could continue now that,
y law, the late Act of Parliament charges
hem  in addition with a proportion of
he neglected labour on all the other
lands in the district ? The consequence
is quite obvious ; and the complaint you
have so frequently made of the labourers
being dismissed must follow, as no man
can take his own proportion on himself,
--and the Government fund is called on
for the employmerit of the entire mass.
1I venture   to say, if the    townland
system were adopted, as recommended by
the Agricultural Association of Ireland,
--or even     if proprietors  were  per-
Imitted to relieve themselves   from  all
rother responsibility, by employing the
!labour on their lands, at their own
-expense-that a very large reduction
would soon appear in the      number of
those who are now     employed by    the
Government, and one path, at least, left
open for restoring labour to its natural
channel.
   I have the honour to remain, Sir,
            Your obedient servant,
A COUNTY OF LIMERICK PROPRIETOR.
  Croom, Ireland, Nov. 19.
  At an     Extraordinary   Presentment
Sessions Meeting of the Magistrates and


Cesspayers of the Barony     of Coshma,
held under the proclamation of the Lord-
Lieutenant at Croom, on Tuesday, the
17th inst., the Earl of Dunraven in the
chair, the following   resolutions were
unanimously adopted :-
  " Resolved, that while we willingly
tax ourselves for the support of the
poor in this season of dearth and misery,
we deprecate in the strongest terms the
laws that force us to waste the property
and labour of the country in works which
are useless, and in many instances in-
jurious, and which under no other circum-
stances would be either proposed or
tolerated.
  " That, with every anxiety to carry
out the    principle contained  in  Mr.
Labouchere's letter, by presenting for
works of a reproductive nature, we find
it impossible to do so from the conditions
with which it is clogged, the Croom
electoral district alone of the barony con-
taining  48  townlands, and the other
three districts nearly the same propor-
tion, rendering it quite impossible to
combine them or obtain the acquiescence
of the several proprietors, many of whom
are absentees resident abroad, not even
represented here.
  " That, unless some simple method be
devised, by which each townland may be
enabled to apply the amount of labour
for which it is to be taxed to works of
utility, the present ruinous system must
continue, which   cannot fail to prove
fatal to all classes in the country, by con-
fiscating the property of the gentry, and
laying the foundation of future destitu-
tion for the peasantry, withdrawing their
labour from the cultivation and improve-
ment of the soil.
  " That we are willing to charge our-
selves with the destitute labour on our
estates, to find for such labour full em-
ployment, at fair wages, provided the
destitution upon neighbouring properties
shall not be chargeable on our lands. All
we require is an amendment of the laws
obliging each townland to provide for its
own labourers, as far as 50 per cent. of
its value, after which, we submit, that
the remaining distress on such townlands
should be met by some general arrange-
ment of Government.
   " That in our opinion if these prin-






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


ciples were carried out by just and equal
legislation, forcing all proprietors or their
tenants to take charge of the population
on their respective estates, or that if
neglected, a moiety of such estates should
be confiscated to the poor thereon, under
such laws exertions would follow pro-
ductive of general benefit, by giving an
individual interest which would cause a
rapid advancement of agricultural and
manufacturing   industry, productive of
great profit to the industrious proprietor,
and of certain employment to the labour-
ing classes of this country.
  " That if this     stimulant  be   not
given, and that the mass of destitute
labourers (now over 2,000 persons, em-
ployed in this barony at the public ex-
pense) continue to be thrown into one
common stock, chargeable on the barony
at large, it must end in the total conifisca-
tion of the estates, leaving the country a


waste, and throwing the labouring popula-
tion entirely on the Government for sup
port.
  " That the maintenance of the vast
multitude of 2,000 labourers and their
families, chargeable on so small adistrict
has made the fear of confiscation invade
every man's mind, and paralyzes the in-
dividual exertions of all persons who con-
sider the likelihood of losing all benefit
from their industry, by the general and
indiscriminate charge on their properties
of the surplus labour of the country.
  " That these resolutions be transmitted
by our chairman to his Excellency the
Lord-Lieutenant, and  to  Lord John
Russell, with the humble hope that they
will take into consideration the laws we
complain of and the remedies we suggest.
              " DUNRAVEN, 'Chairman.
  " Nov. 17.,"


     LANDLORDS       AND THE       POOR    LAW.
(LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1846.)


  The proceedings of the Extraordinary
Baronial Sessions at Croom are con-
sidered by the " County of Limerick Pro-
prietor," who has recommended them to
our notice, entirely conclusive as to the
good   intentions of his class, and the
clumsy and ruinous character of the recent
Ministerial measures. We are aware that
it is thought exceedingly impertinent to
defend a Government, or a Legislature,
or anything else in the world, when a
body of Irish landowners is concerned.
Even if it is obvious on the simplest re-
flection that we are speaking the language
and advocating the institutions which we
have been taught to venerate from child-
hood itself, it is assumed that our argu-
ment is nothing more than a mischievous
weapon seized on the spur of the moment
for the purpose of discharging it at the
devoted head of the Irish landlord. It is
as Englishmen that we write. We desire
to propagate the laws we enjoy or have
enjoyed to our gain. We really cannot
oblige our friends across Ehe Channel by
forgetting that system of public charity
in the heart of which we had the happi-
ness to be born, and to which we partly
trace the immeasurable difference between
the condition of the Irish peasant and the
English labourer. We are habituated to
it. All our ideas of relief are cast in


that ancient mould. When, .therefore
we are invited to give our advice and our
money to relieve the distresses of Ireland,
uncivil and obtrusive as some may think it,
we cannot help lamenting the absence of
our own Poor Laws, such as they have been
till lately, and such as Ireland at least
requires ; nor can we help deprecating
the obstinate ingenuity with which the
Irish landowners continue even now to
reject them.
  The resident gentry of the barony of
Coshma have made the notable discovery
that both the original measure of the
Poor Employment      Act and    the ex
tended   provisions  set forth  in Mr.
LABOUCHERE's letter are liable to very
serious objections. The former taxes all
the proprietors very heavily, and quite
indiscriminately, for public works goene-
rally of little value, sometimes positively
injurious, and always tending to demora-
lize the peasantry by withdrawing them
from   agriculture, arid encouraging the
taste for combination. The latter is
tedious and difficult of application, by re-
quiring many consents, by such cautious
provisoes. Nothing can be more philo-
sophical than the tone of the resolutions
at Croom on this subject. But there are
people who always talk wisely. They
never say a foolish thing. Unfortunatelyf


__


55






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


they seem to suffer what may be de-
scribed in medical language as a determi-
nation of wisdom to thp tongue. " For
Heaven's sake, don't talk so wisely," we
are ready to   exclaim, " but just give
your fingers a turn. Act as wisely as you
talk."  To what purpose is it to prove
that impromptu    measures are charac-
terized by a waste of power and a clumsi-
ness of application ? When you close
your shutters because your windows are
broken by a hailstorm, do you expect to
have light as well as'shelter ? When the
crew of a foundering vessel commits itself
to a raft, does it expect dry berths and
ten knots an hour ? When your horses
upset your carriage in a storm, leaving
you to get over five miles of muddy lane
as best you can, in what condition do you
expect to arrive at your journey's end ?
Of course, extraordinary measures always
are imperfect.   Makeshifts always are
bad. It is a fitting retribution to impro-
vidence that they should be so. There
must be loss of power and everything
else in continual alterations and correc-
tions of policy. The resident gentry in
the barony of Coshma are only telling the
LORD-LIEUTENANT and Lord JoiN Rus-
SELL what they know too well already.
  From the inherent vices of every extra-
ordinary measure attempted for Ireland
the  only   real escape is a permanent
system such as that which has worked so
well in this country for nearly three
hundred years. However, the law-cob-
blers of the county of Limerick learn no
such salutary lesson. They wish to go
on patching, still, it is amusing to ob-
serve, with only a temporary object. The
very first words of the first resolution
betray the pious horror with which they
recoil from a permanent system. " Re-
solved-That while we willingly tax our-
selves for the support 'of the poor in this
season of dearth and misery, &c."     So
whatever is to be done is only for the
present moment. Let us have no precedent
_f an effectual Poor Law. These gentle-
men seem to have a very periodical idea
of human affairs. Are the Irish peasantry
in want only once inden years ? Do they,
like the boa constrictor, take only a dozen
meals in a lifetime, after a dozen proper
intervals spent in torpor and abstinence ?
We are at a loss to see what permanent
good a decennial measure of relief will do
towards raising the condition and charac-
ter of the people.
   There is another consideration which
 Englishmen, as constituting   the  vast
 majority of the tax-payers,may be allowed


to appreciate. The expense of a regular
system of public relief may be defrayed,
as the English Poor Law is, out of the
annual income of Ireland. An extra-
ordinary  measure, on the contrary, in-
volves a heavy loan,-besides the expense
of the machinery, besides also large bend-
factions,-from  the Imperial Treasury.
This loan must also come at a time when
it is most inconvenient. It is equivalent
to that of an expensive war, or the sup-
pression of an extensive rebellion.  Do
these gentlemen then seriously propose
that England shall purchase for them an
unmerited, unfair, improper, and impoli-
tic exemption from an ordinary and uni-
versal duty, at the cost of entailing upon
itself a periodical inconvenience of no
trifling character ?
  In England we are perfectly aware that
a temporary measure must be indiscrimi-
nate, and we accordingly feel a wise
horror of makeshifts. We may admire a
feat of ingenuity once or twice, and
derive some amusement from even a more
frequent repetition. But the man who
appears to have no plan but that which is
suggested by the crisis, and who rows his
skiff so clumsily that one hand is always
employed in correcting the e'xcesses of
the other, soon loses caste in English esti-
mation. We know that nothing done in
a hurry is done well.     The affairs of
domestic government are not to be de-
spatched with the expedition of a pitched
battle. If we choose to be wie and
humane only once in ten years, it must
be in rather a bungling fashion. Our ad-
visers  at Croom, however, expect the
care, the experience, the information of a
century to be condensed into a day. They
modestly ask that Government shall deal
with every particular township in Ire-
land.   Will they reckon up how many
townships there are ? Think of that for
a temporary measure ! Think of that for
a three months' or a six weeks' process.
Think of an extraordinary session, a pre-
sentment, a plan, an estimate, a visit by
a Government surveyor, a loan, fifty
letters backwards and  forwards, a ten
years' repayment, besides all the other
etceteras of Irish business, multiplied by
the number of townships    It would take
at least a hundred Boards of Works to do
the most moderate justice to the gigantic
operation, and at least a. hundred mem-
bers of Parliament to defend their pro-
ceedings from   the attacks which every
separate township would be sure to send
up the next session. A regular, universal,
and permanent system of public relief


_ _~ I


56






THE GREAT IRISH FAMTIE OF 1845-1846.


can be discriminate, and can deal with
individuals and minute localities ; a tem-
porary measure cannot.      It must sow
money, employment, and burdens too,
broadcast over the island. There is no
-help for it. As a nameless voice called
out from the crowd at the Croom sessions,
the proprietors " have brought it all on
themselves !"
   There is a very natural degree of vacila-
 tion in the ideas of the meeting at
 Croom, resulting, of course,in the circum-
 stance that there were more hands at
 work on the resolutions than could be
 quite reconciled in the preparatory hour
 and a half. In one and the same resolu-
 tion we find the expression of a willing-
 ness to take the whole charge of the
 destitute poor on the several estates, and
 a rather unintelligible, half-and-half pro-
 position, which shows off that willingness
 to very little advantage. However, let


us deal with the willingness,without that
disagreeable qualification.
  The landowners there met are willing
to find their poor full productive employ-
ment this year, on .the condition of re-
funding the loan in ten years. They expect,
or at least all the rest of the world ex-
pects, that by the end of ten years there
will be such another crisis, besides some
minor affairs in the interval. All is then
to be repeated. Now, we humbly sub-
mit that a loan made every ten years,
and repaid by annual instalments spread
over the intervals, is equivalent to an
annual burden for ever. Why should not
the landlords then ask for a. good Poor
Law at once, seeing that it is exactly the
same thing in the end, as far as their
pockets are concerned, and a thousandfold
more easy, discriminating, and reproduc-
tive.


LANDLORDS' OBJECTIONS TO A POOR                   LAW.
             (FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1846.)


    To IGHT ION. LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
  The memorial of the undersigned
showeth,-That your memorialist is a
resident landlord in the county of----,
on the west coast of Ireland, where he
has resided for above 25 years. That he
has during the whole of that time ex-
pended every year the wThole amount of
his rental in the  employment of the
people, and  endeavoured  to improve
their condition, his property being very
populous, though  of moderate value.
That he    has so far succeeded in his
endeavours, that no person from his pro-
perty has ever been an inmate of a poor-
house, nor does his estate supply any
pauper labourers for the public works
now in progress, unless they be discharged
from his employment for the causes here-
inafter mentioned. That in consequence
of the failure of the potato crop, upon
which the people chiefly pubsisted, memo-
rialist is, with all other landlords in this
quarter, deprived of the usual income
from his estate, while his tenants abso-
lutely require extensive aid to enable
them to subsist. That although he has
not the means of supplying the wants of
his tenantry and of the labouring poor
upon his property, he has taken measures
for charging his estate with a loan, to be
laid out in such works as shall increase its


value, while it affords sustenance to its
occupiers. That he is satisfied that, with
the means and facilities afforded, and
likely to   be   afforded, he   (and  all
landlords similarly circumstanced) can
very well support his own poor, if with a
good deal of present self-denial, yet with-
out ultimate loss to himself, or injury to
his property, unless prevented by the
operation of unfair laws. That the opera-
tion of the laws at present in force for the
maintenance of destitute paupers in poor-
houses, and for their employment upon
public works for the purpose of sustaining
them, is such as to prevent or overthrow
every such endeavour as that of memo-
rialist to keep his tenantry from sinking
into poverty, and the poor upon his pro-
perty from    destitution. For the law
makes the divisions, or districts, which
are equally taxed for poor-rates, without
reference to the boundaries of properties,
so that while memorialist has by years of
expenditure   and   exertion  raised his
tenantry above pauperism, and while he
is by the greatest self-denial procuring
means to keep the whole population upon
his property from destitution, he is taxed
enormously for the maintenance of those
paupers created by the neglect of others,
and now is liable to an assessment of un-
known amount to provide for the employ-


__ __I


57






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


ment of the impoverished population of
other estates.   That memorialist has
already voluntarily sunk 20 years' income,
and more, in improving and sustaining
his property and tenantry, and is ready to
continue to d o so,if the law does not continue
to threaten him with utter ruin in return
for his doing so.  That the neighbouring
properties, almost   without exception,
abound with destitute or very impove-
rished persons, who fill the poor house,
and crowd to the public works opened for
their employment, though all of these pro-
perties are equally well circumstanced, or
should be so, as that of memorialist ; and
that he will be obliged to bear such a
share of the cost of supporting these pau-
pers as will be alsolutely ruinous as well
as flagrantly unjust, unless the law be
altered so as to compel each property to
support or employ its own poor. That,
besides the dreadful taxation, memorialist
is much impoverished by the numerous
calls for private charity and private sub-
scription, to keep the above-mentioned
destitute  and   neglected  persons from
absolute starvation before his eyes, while
their natural protectors stay away, or
shut their eyes, or satisfy their conscience
with the subscription of a pittance atterly
unequal to their duty and inadequate to
the wants of their poor. That memo,
rialist would, therefore, respectfully and
urgently   suggest and press upon your
.Lordship the consideration of his case,
and the demand made by common right
and justice that the law should be at once
altered, so as to lay the burden in the
right place, and to encourage and insure
the employment of the poor population in
useful works, and in a way so much more
conducive to the national welfare and
character than that of working in pauper
gangs, congregated upon public works,
which is found so perplexing and expen-
sive to the Government, as well as demo-
ralizing to the people. That this would
be easily attained by making all assess-


ments for pauper support or employment
to be levied upon the divisions called
"townlands," such being almost always
the property of one owner (making ex-
ceptions where   any   peculiar circum-
stances require it, as in the case of the
paupers of towns). That althongh land-
lords are the most obviously called on to
support paupers, or prevent pauperism,
yet all classes are, according to their
wealth, justly to   be  charged with a
portion of the cost of this, especially
land-occupiers, mill-owners, merchants,
shopkeepers, &c., all of whom have more
or less benefited by the work and in-
dustry of the pauper while able to labour.
That, therefore, while the maintenance
of the pauper should be charged on the
land, and   divided  in just proportion
between the occupiers and the owner of
each townland, the expense of building,
and maintaining,and furnishing the poor-
house,and keeping up its permanent staff,
shoula be at the general public expense.
Memorialist has prepared a petition to
this effect to Her Majesty, which has
been signed  by   the members for this
county,by a great number of the nobility,
and gentry, and tenantry, and will be
forwarded for presentation in a few days,
a copy whereof accompanies this memorial,
and to the prayer of which your Lord-
ship's attention  is requested. Memo-
rialist considers that in laying his case
before your Lordship, the I irst Minister
of the Crown, he lays the case of Irish
landlords, both resident and absentee, as
also of the poor upon their estates, who
are the chief sufferers in the matter,
before the public of the empire, and espe-
cially before the Houses of Parliament,
before which he would respectfully en-
treat your Lordship to bring this matter,
in order to procure a just legislation on
the subject.
  Memorialist remains your Lordship's
humble servant,
              AN ULSTER LANDLORD.


(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1846.)


   The Memorial of"An Ulster Landlord"
 insists on a plea which in this country
 will always be attended to. He asks for
 fair play, and establishes, if not a griev-
 ance, at least an inequality. He has re-
 wided for a quarter of a century,and spent
 all his rental in the employment and im-
 Trovement of a people on a populous
 estate. The gratifying and honourable
result is, that not one of them has ever


been an inmate of a poorhouse, and, what
is still more remarkable, not one of them
is at present upon the " public works."
Having thus done his best, he considers
that he deserves an immunity from the
ruinous taxation, not to call it by a still
stronger term, which  the negligence,
penuriousness, and inhumanity of other
landlords have brought on the country.
He claims to be excepted both from the


_-__.


58






THE GREAT IRISH    FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


present baronial assessment, and also.
from   the  impending   poor-rate, if the
latter is to be assessed on the same broad
and indiscriminate principles. At least
he asks that, with certain exceptions,
properties, not parishes, shall be the
areas of assessments. There is something
besides fair play in the claim, as the
" Ulster Landlord " does not omit to
show. He can at present just do a land-
lord's duty with his own. With that ad-
ditional burden, that ,caiciy brarov, a dis-
trict rate, he will be obliged to reserve
for the collector what he now gives to his
steward, and throw away upon useless
paupers what now finds profitable em-
ployment for the independent labourer.
This is his case, and the case of many
other landlords. If we have not done it
full justice, a perusal of the document
will detect the deficiency.
  But, when we come to great social and
political questions, we may well ask,
What is fair play ? Is it possible to make
an   exact computation    of  individual
deserts, or to devise any measures that
shall exempt providence and humanity
from the burdens entailed by their oppo-
sites ? Can this be done, either at a
moment's warning or with the prepara-
tion of a century ? Social fair play is not
aidebtor and creditor account which can
be thus easily balanced. Society is full of
the grossest inequalities. We might safely
challenge our worthy, though indignant,
memorialist,to point out a single practical
instance  of the  Utopian     proportion
between merit and reward which he re-
quires. But, not to be unnecessarily dis-
cursive, we will confine ourselves to the
case of the landlord.
   The "' Ulster Landlord" cannot charge
us with any wilful unfairness if we mete
to him the same measure that we do to
ourselves. In fact, we only recommend
for Ireland the old English Poor Law, as
far as it can be applied to the country.
We can see no unfairness either in the
Irish Poor Employment Act, or in the
more permanent enactment of which the
" Ulster Landlord" very naturally deems
it the precursor, which English landlords
have now long suffered as a matter of
necessity. As for the measure now in
operation, there is no use talking about
it. We admit everything that can pos-
sibly be said against it. One answer meets
all the objections. It cannotbe helped. It is
childish and ridiculous to complain. Four
millions were to be fed at a month's warn-
ing.Youmustuse a roughand ready means
for such a crisis. If your child is in


flames, you must not spare your fingers,
much less your hearthrug. It is of no use
to  calculate  and   philosophize  when
moments are precious. For our own part,
we never doubted that there would be a
lamentable waste of labour and money,
and a still more lamentable demoraliza-
tion of industry. Much the same happens
at every calamity.    If a house is on
fire, the furniture of half the street is
thrown out of the windows, or saturated
with water, and some fifty firemen and
helpers will be equally saturated with a
more generous liquor for a week to come.
But if the " Ulster Landlord" is to have
only his own men thrown upon him, who
is to undertake the miserable crowds that
herd in the towns or squat on neglected
properties ?
  The burden must be shared by all who
can bear it. All England, landlord and
manufacturer, high and low, rich and
poor, share the burden. At a moment of
unexampled pressure the Treasury is ad-
vancing some five or six millions. The
price of every English labourer's daily
bread is enhanced  by the  calamitous
denouement of the Irish social drama.
Now, are not we all, on this side the
water, less implicated in the crime than
the " Ulster Landlord ?" lie has held
property for 25 years without a good Poor
Law-till recently   without any at all.
That of itself is a crime in our eyes.
Moreover, the "Ulster Landlord" admits
that his tenantry depended on the potato
crop. He is, therefore, personally com-
promised in the vicious system which has
led to the present disaster.
   The  memorialist assumes that the
measure now in such rough and violent
operation will be mended and adjusted
into a permanent law.   This we should
imagine can hardly be doubted. He then
offers his own suggestions. The principal
one is,that each townland,being generally
a separate property, shall maintain or
employ its own poor. His reason is ob-
vious from the above. If the assessment
is on a larger district, comprehending
many townlands, without reference to the
divisions of private property, he will fin
himself charged with a surrounding mass
of pauperism, caused by the inhumanity
or neglect of his neighbours. In fact, he
will have to maintain their poor as well
as his own,and considerably to the injury
of his own. What extent of district will
be taken,--what will be found possible,
- what expedient, we will not now
venture to predict ; but if the unfairness
so warmly deprecated by the memorialist


_ _


59






THE    GREAT      IRTSH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


should be actually perpetrated, we can
only say that it is one which is very
abundantly suffered in this country. So
familiarized are we to the burden of our
neighbour's neglect, that we have come
to look upon it as a social necessity, and
part of the great debt we owe to society
and to HIM who gave us all we possess
and imposed upon us all we have to do.
  Nothing is more usual than for an Eng-
lish landowner to employ his share, and
far more than his share, of labour on his
land, and sink many more than 20 years'
rental on the improvement of his pro-
perty, and then find himself in the very
predicament from  which     the " Ulster
Landlord" appeals to our sense of fair
play to be delivered. Owing to the em-
ployment be affords, it becomes an object
to get into his parish from the less fortu-
nate neighbourhood.  The smaller pro-
prietors speculate on this fact, and either
run up cottages by wholesale, or sell the
land at a high price to some little builder
or huckster who buys it for that purpose.
A colluvies of poverty and vice flows into
the opening thus made, and the parish is
inundated, to the augmentation of its
burdens and the injury of its character
and peace. Thus, the more     employ-
ment there is, the more it is demanded.
In large and populous parishes, divided
amongst many     proprietors, no private
means, no private humanity or enterprise
can keep pace with the pressure of that
law of necessity which is always urging
poverty towards the neighbourhood of em-
ployment. If we understand our memo-
rialist aright, this is what he considers


he ought to be protected from. He wishes
his own townland to stand alone, neither
helping, nor being helped, while, if the
crowded and poverty struck    townlands
about him eat up their rental, it is no more
than what the proprietors deserve. They
will only have to make in a year or two,
and by necessity, a sacrifice which he has
distributed over many years, from the
impulse of social duty.
  Applying, however, exactly the same
rule to the Irish as to English landlords,
we must reply, that the question is not
one of equity, but of charity combined
with considerations of a still more urgent
nature. The people must be employed
or maintained.    That burden must be
laid, not on those who deserve it, but on
those who can bear it. If it is found that
a large proportion of townlands cannot
maintain their poor, even by an entire
sacrifice of the rental, they must e rmani
pulated into sufficient and capable dis--
tricts. This is not the time for reckoning
up arrears of neglect, and holding a great
assize upon the quick and the dead Irish
proprietors. Things must be dealt with
as they are. That will be the best for all
in the end. Any very nice attempt to
save Irish capital, or reward Irish virtue,
will only deprive legislation of its effi-
ciency, and entail a universal catastrophe
far more serious than an unfair participa-
tion in social burdens.  Charity must
spread its cloak over the inequalities of
the system. But it is not merely the
dictate of charity. Self-preservation itself
enjoins a strong and, so to speak, unscru-
pulous measure.


      IRISH   OBJECTION    TO  POOfR LAW.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1847.)


  Sir,--No doubt it bears an invidious
aspect, and is a course open to obvious
and shallow taunts, for any one to dis-
suade, as you have, in my opinion, most
rightly, dissuaded your readers from the
indulgence of a blind and thoughtless
charity, in contributing through a sub-
scription list to the relief of the Irish
poor. This has been the usual resource in
all previous emergencies of the kind; and
with what result ? Why the money went
to pay the rents of landlords, who them-
selves refused to contribute -a farthing to
save their own tenantry from starving--
Day, it actually purchased in Liverpool


and Bristol the corn grown by those
tenants, and sent it back to feed the very
men who had raised, but had been forced
to sell it, to satisfy the pressing demands
of their landlord or his agent ! And this
is precisely what will again take place
when any money is subscribed here. Even
at this moment the Liverpool papers re-
cord daily arrivals of oats from Ireland
in that port, coming from districts where
the people are starving, and sent over
here  on account of the      landowners.
It is true that pith the corn they send
over their poor too ! But we have to
pay for the former and feed the latter.


....


                            ~IIC~
C _1_1_


60






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


The anticipated invasion of Irish pau-
perism  has commenced.      15,000 have
already within the last three months
landed in Liverpool, and block up her
thoroughfares with  masses of misery,
which by our law, must be and is relieved.
And the cry is,-" Still they come !"
How should it be otherwise ? On this
side of the Channel the law insures them
against starvation. On the other they
are allowed to starve, and must starve un-
relieved ! According to Mr. Chadwick,
the usual annual immigration is from
300,000 to 400,000. This year we must
expect it to be doubled. And, as the
recent Non-Removal Act has given a
virtual settlement to all who may con-
trive to remain five years here, we may
make up our minds to have the entire
pauperism of Ireland before long bodily
quartered upon us for a permanency, if
no steps are speedily taken to secure them
a maintenance at home. But this will
never be done so long as John Bull is
content to support the poor of Ireland
by   Government grants, private sub-
scriptions, and taking them on his own
pauper lists ;-so long as he shows this
amiable readiness to relieve the Irish
landlords from the performance of that
duty which nature and justice require of
him, but which the law has not yet im.
posed. The very root and origin of the
evils from which Ireland is now suffering--
fons et origo mali--is that dependence on
voluntary charity which we are now
called on still further to encourage. Had
England not been so lavish of her benevo-
lence on former occasions, the law would
before now have stepped in to compel the
wealthy classes of Ireland to do their
duty, and the poor of that country would
have been secured from      perishing of
want. But it is said the Government
cannot do more than employ the able-
bodied ; and the Relief Committee can-
not collect sufficient funds in Ireland to
save the infirm  poor from   destruction.
But why should     not the Government
lend the necessary funds for this purpose
to the Relief Committees, on the security
of the rates, as in the case of the money
required   for paying the   able-bodied ?
Why, when in England we are rated some
four or five millions a-year for out-door
relief to our infirm poor, is there to be
not a farthing raised in Ireland for the
same purpose, where the necessity for it
is so much greater ? The Irish landlords
cry out that their estates are being con-
fiscated. But if we are to sunDort their


infirm poor by subscriptions and grants,
they  may    contrive to make   a very
good thing of the relief they are forced
to give to the able-bodied. See only
the brief but speaking application of
Lord de Freyne to the Government.
He states on the best authority that
by expending £24,000, borrowed of Go-
vernment, in reclaiming the waste land
of his estate, he can and will increase
his rental by £3,000 a-year ! That is,
he will realize 122 per cent. per annum
by the employment he will give to the
able-bodied labourers on his property I
Ex uno onnes. There is probably scarcely
an estate in Ireland where the same thing
cannot be done. And why has it never
yet been done ? Because nothing but the
pinching pressure of necessity will urge
the apathetic and careless Irish landlords
to improve their properties or employ the
people on them. And if the charity of
England now, as heretofore, interpose
between them and the necessity which is
now opening their eyes to the enormous
resources at their disposal, which they
have hitherto neglected, they will fall
asleep again, and the lesson which this
crisis promises to teach will still be lost
on them.
   Why, too, if     landlords can make
12 per cent. on their outlay in employing
the able-bodied labourers now destitute,
and thus largely increase their incomes
instead of diminishing them, are they
not to be required to pay the necessary
cost of maintaining their impotent poor
likewise, even though that should prove
a tax on them ? Hitherto the Irish poor-
rate has not reached sixpence in the
pound on the average ; while in Liverpool
the rates are swelled to 4s. by the influx
of Irish   paupers !  No, no i Ireland,
which annually exports some 15 millions'
worth of food, is quite as capable as Eng-
land, nay,more so, to maintain her entire
population. Lend her the necessary funds
at a moment of pressure like this, and
until the fitting machinery of an effective
Poor Law be established, if you will ; but
if we give them, as heretofore, either by
private charity, public subscription, or
Government grants, we shall only per-
petuate the habit she has acquired of de.
pending on extraneous aid and chance
contributions, neglectful of her own ample
resources, and of the just claims lupon
them of her oppressed and miserable
people.
  London, Jan. 1.             JUSTUS.


61






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


  IRISH   PROPERTY AND     IRISH  POVERTY.
(LEADING ARTICLE. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1847.)


  There are occasions when something
like harshness is the greatest humanity.
When the crew of a sinking ship are
crowding into a cockboat, when a panic-
struck  multitude   are  trampling  one
another to death in a narrow passage,
when a caravan many days without water
gets at last to the pool, there is need of
a stern and vigorous hand to check the
suicidal efforts of impatience. We are
perfectly aware that we have incurred in
some quarters the imputation of heart-
lessness for some of our su ggestions on
Irish  affairs. The Irish   landlords in
general consider that if we had the
smallest touch of humanity, we should
advise the- State to undertake, now and
for ever, the relief of their poor, the dis-
charge of their mortgages, and the annual
subsidy of a few millions to their own
worthy selves--that is, to everybody who
may choose to prey upon the public re-
sources. We are also thought exceedingly
hard to insist on labour, in some tangible
and measurable form, as the condition of
relief.  Our perseverance in demanding
an effective Poor Law for Ireland is
stigmatized as an act of sheer hostility to
the owners of the soil. A portion of the
English oublic consider us nothing less
than savages, because, when the greatest,
most extensive, most difficult, and most
costly measure of immediate relief ever
attempted by this or any other nation is
in full work, and an unexampled demand
is made on the attention, the prudence,
and the resources of the commonwealth
for this one purpose, we do not join the
cry for something else, on the private and
voluntary plan, which to some extent
must be instead of the national measure.
  The experience of many years' uninter-
mitting discussion of the point assures us,
more and more, that for national distress
we must look to national remedies. For
the hundredth time we renew the cry,--
" An effective Poor Law for Ireland."
A subscription is merely a scheme'for
doing very ill what the existing Poor Law
and the existing relief works can doat least
very much better.    What is still more
objectionable is, that it is a shabby ex-
cuse in ambush for staving off that real
Poor Law, against which three-fourths of
the Irish landowners have solemnly de-
voted themselves at the altar of selfish-


ness. There are two natural, legitimate,
and   trustworthy  modes of charitable
relief-the one really private, the other
really public. Whatever you give with
your own hand or by the hand of a friend,
you have your own or your friend's secu-
rity for its proper application. If the
State gives it, you have the national
security. If it is collected by a host of
amateur tax-gatherers, and distributed as
seems fit to my Lord This and my Lord
That, to Bishop So-and-so, with a select
party of honourables and reverends, then
there is not a step in the affair which
deserves the least confidence. There is
every probability that the tax will be un-
fairly assessed. It will be levied from
fear, from fashion, from every form of
weakness. One man will give more than
he likes to do, or ought to db, and a
dozen others who might give will give
nothing at all. The distribution will be
even more partial and unfair. There is
no help for it.
   The Irish poor    nust be relieved :by
somebody, and the somebody is the State,
in the first instance, operating through
these clumsy relief tacts, siinmply for wafft
of a regular machinery. For the future
-we will take no denial-a good old
English   Poor Law. We      in England
maintain our own poor ; and, unless the
Irish landowners are prepared to see the
British public :deliberately, formally, and
explicitly demanding a summary confis-
cation of the whole soil of Ireland, they
mast and shall maintain theirs. This
falling back upon the resources of Eng-
land is a great misfortune. It must not
be repeated, much less made a regular
practice. It is seriously aggravating the
dangers of that commercial crisis which
the increasing price of food and of the
chief raw material of British manufacture
is now daily bringing on.
  The poor-rates of our great commercial
and manufacturing cities in the north
indicate  with  alarming certainty the
natural effects of leaving a nopulous
province without an effectual provision for
the poor. If matters go on at their
present rate, Manchester,Liverpool, and a
few other cities, will soon be fairly put
out, like candles in tropical climates ex-
tinguished  by   swarms of mosquitoes.
Shiploads of the most miserable destitu-


_C__ __ __


62






THEE GREAT IRISH          FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.


tion  daily  arrive  at  these  devoted
shores. By the English law, the starving
wretches must be relieved,-in the first
instance, at least. So they fly from the
Irish landlord   to the more generous
bosom   of the English    manufacturer.
There they are, and, of course, will not
be sent back. The influx has now been
going on more than two months, and it is
said to be chiefly from Mayo and other
western counties, whence they are fairly
starved out, and compelled, as well as
privately helped, to emigrate, by the very
persons whose place it is to maintain
them. In the uresent d:electable state of
the Irish law, out-door relief is not al-
lowed:; and as the workhouses have long
been full, charity  has reached its full
tether. There are now :between fifteen
and twenty    thousand Irish caupers in
Liverpool, and it is apprehended that the
rates will rise in consequence from 2s.,
the average of former years, to 5s., or
even 10s. in the pound. Glasgow is in
the same case, and many other ports
and inland towns are beginning to find
Irish distress brought home to their
doors in this-very disagreeable manner.
In Manchester workhouse there are at
,present  not less than 1,630 inmates.
What proportion of these are Irish we
cannot now say ; but, from  the report
for the week ending December 24, we
learn that in that one week there were
808 Irish cases in     which relief was
granted, the amount being £94 4s. 8d.
The increase of Irish cases, as compared
with the previous week, was 103, and as
compared with the corresponding week the
previous year, 371. It is scarcelynecessary
to ask where this will end. How has it
ended already ? A tabular statement of
the borough and poor-rate expenditure
of Manchester, published in the Man-
chester Courier, exhibits the actual pro-
gress of this cancer. The amount paid
on account of the poor had risen from
£20,854 in the year 1835, to £54000
in 1845. The amount for the year just
ended is not given ; but, as the rate
per pound has risen from 3s. to 5s.
for the total expenditure, and as the ex-
penditure for the poor is the item which
undergoes   the   greatest variations, it
would follow that it must have doubled,
or something like it, on the year 1845.
The rate per pound was as low as ls. 4d.


in the year 1836. During the dreadful
stagnation of trade it gradually rose to 4s.
in 1843. It then fell to 3s., till the
Irish influx, it appears, brought it sud-
denly up last year to 5s., where it is not
likely to stop,
  It must also be remembered that as
long since as the last census there were
residing in Lancashire more than 100,000
persons actually born in Ireland, besides a
corresponding number of Irish parentage.
Under the late Removal Act, all these,
and the swarms that are following in
their wake, will acquire virtual settle-
ments. This Little Ireland may go on
pretty well so long as trade is brisk. It
occupies the cellars and the least healthy
suburbs of the towns, and performs those
rougher offices which the division of
labour assigns to the lowest in the social
scale. But at the first blast of a reverse,
then the colony begins to show itself.
In the disastrous period of 1839-42, the
Irish were the most numerous, most
miserable, and   most helpless sufferers.
Should another reverse come now--which
Heaven forbid ! we should find we had a
Mayo on the banks of the Ribble, and
even of the Thames.
   Now, who will dare to deny that there
 must be some permanent provision for
 these unhappy creatures, flying from isle
 to isle, and from city to city ? Subjects
 of this wealthy, this Christian  realm'
 they must be partakers of the national
 blessings. Somebody must be responsible
 for their employment or their mainten-
 ance. Are they to die by the road-side in
 Ireland ? Are they to be all fathered on the
 first English port on which they may
 happen to cast themselves ? Is it fit, is it
 wise, that British industry should have
 the millstone: of a whole' Irish population
 tied round its hdek? No. We in Eng-
 land have sacrificed everything to the
 maintenance of our own poor. The land-
 owners, the   farmers, and   even   the
 labourers themselves have all      been
 tasked, pressed, mulcted; degraded, ruined,
 and ousted   from  their property and
 rights, to ensure a certainty of relief for
 the poor. For gelerations the pauper
 has been  the   real landlord.  Ireland
 must do what we have done and suffer
 what we have suffered, in the sacred
 cause of charity. It must maintain iti
 own poor.


_ ~~13~


63






04           THE GREAT IRISHF FAMINE                OF 1845-1846.


              IRISH   UNANIMITY.
(]"EADNG ARTICLE, MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1847.)


   It has all along been evident that there
 was one point on which the chief powers
 and political leaders of Ireland would be
ready to present a beautiful unanimity.
To that paramount duty and first article of
their faith, the defence of their pockets
at any expense of duty and of honour,
and to the proportionate plunder of the
Imperial Treasury; lords and common-
alty, Orangemen and Repealers, Protest-
ants and Roman Catholics, were only too
happy to surrender their much-cherished
differences.  Tara and the  Boyne-his
HIoliness and the Monarch of glorious,
pious,and immortal memory-it was clear
would be shelved in a moment, as soon as
pounds, shillings, and pence should be
seen to depend on the union of parties.
Well, Ireland has met. There has been
a convention of the States-General such
as a THEODORE WOLFE TONE would have
rejoiced in. By some accident or other
which has not yet reached us, it was not
held   in Conciliation-hall.  That   Mr.
O'CONNELL was not in the chair is only a
piece of that modesty which has often
induced him to delegate the throne of the
evening to an O'BRIEN, or any other
dummy or dupe. As the noble chairman
observed, " the meeting was one of a
most peculiar construction ; there were
persons present of every shade of politics ;
in fact, they were assembled together as
Irishmen, on Irish ground, for Irish ob-
jects."-" The hatchet of political ani-
mosity was buried for that day at least,"
and the resolutions were carefully accom-
modated ," to gentlemen of every creed
or class of politics."
   The business of the day was arrived at
 without much preliminary ado. It peeps
 out like a postscript at the end of a lady's
 note. It was " to preserve the property
 of the country from   confiscation." All
 classes,all creeds,all politics were to unite
 and operate in the closest combination to
 protect one another's purses from the
 CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER just as
 passengers sit close in a " 'bus " when a
 man who looks like a member. of the
 swell mob comes in. In fact, all the
 world is crying out at this moment that
 Irish property should be held responsible
 for the maintenance and employment of
 Irish poor. The present catastrophe only
 adds one more illustration of a truth


which every   man in this island with
brains in his head and a heart in his
bosom has held as an axiom of humanity
for these many years. To what effect is
the " United Irishmen's" reply ? It goes
straight to the physical force part of the ques-
tion ;-the glorious right of conspiracy.
" An understanding between 100 Irish
representatives would prevent any Minis-
ter, no matter what his politics might
be, from trying any more crude experi-
ments on Ireland and Irish interests."
(Loud -cheers.) This, of course, means
nothing by itself, but we are not long left
in suspense as to the measures which the
100 gentlemen are to oppose or demand.
" What the people most needed," said
Mr. O'CONNELL, " was food. It was most
foolish to talk of draining and subsoiling,
which were very good under ordinary cir-
cumstances. At present the object of the
Irish Party should be to force the Govern-
ment to give food to the Irish people. This
ought to be their first object."
  So now we know what to expect.
There you have the prospects of the Ses-
sion. Everybody who possesses an acre
in Ireland-for it is not confined to Irish
Peers and Irish representatives-is to
join in impeding.all legislation for that
country, and turning at least the Lower
House into a beargarden, till it consents
to feed all "'the  sick  and infirm, the
fatherless children and widows," of Ire-
land, to make all the roads, to drain and
subsoil every holding, to provide seed for
every cottar, to plough,to dig, to harrow,
to sow, to reap, and to carry ; to employ
every man within a hundred yards of his
own door,-and to do all this, not only
by direct and absolute gifts from the Im-
perial Treasury, but by gifts of actual
food,--not money-but food, lodged in
suitable quantities, and at a convenient
price, within five minutes' walk of every
cottage in the island. One of course asks,
" What next ?" It is impossible to sup-
pose that people who can ask this would
be content therewith.     The corn, of
course, must be ground ; the meal, of
course, must be converted into bread or
pudding ; and then, with something to
give it a relish, and something else to
wash it down, must be inserted leisurely
and abundantly into each individual's
mouth, just when it suits his own private






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


arrangements.   The    whole   cost and
trouble of this operation, from the growth
of the corn in the Ukraine, down to the
final deposit of savoury and convenient
morsels within the organ of mastication,
will have to be done, we presume, by a
commissariat, created, paid, and supplied
at the expense of the whole British em-
pire.
  Do we exaggerate in our account of
what these " United Irishmen" actually
demand ? Not a bit. It is all sad and
sober truth. Here is chapter and verse
for it, besides what we have quoted
above. The first man after the chairman
who spoke said that " the present dis-
tressed ctndition of the country was at-
tributable to the shipping of the country
not being employed in bringing food to her
shores, to the want of seed, which was
felt everywhere in the country, and to
the present neglected state of their agri-
cultural fields." " Within the last few
days," said  Mr. O'CONNELL, "he had
heard from an officer of the Board of
Works that he had sent £1,000 to a par-
ticular locality, to be' distributed as
wages, but there was not I 0d. worth of
food ,to be procured there. There was
money, but no food, and therefore food
should be got at any cost to preserve the
people from   starvation."  Mr. DILLON
CROKER " censured the Government for
not distributing the food which they had
in their storehouses to the - starving
people of Skibbereen, and'other distressed
districts. Nothing, in fact, but the most
vigorous and persistent pressure from
without would compel the Government
to do its duty."
   The second resolution, moved by the
 Earl of ARRtN, after the encouraging an-
 nouncement   that the   peasantry, not
 having made, and not being likely to
 make, the smallest preparation for the
 next crop, " intended to throw the seed-
 on the ground for manure," if they should
 ever get it to throw, declares it a solemn
 duty " to call upon the Government in
 the most imperative terms to take such
 measures as will secure the local supplies
 of food sufficient to keep the people alive,
 and to sacrifice any quantity of money
 that may be necessary to attain that ob-
 ject ;" it further pronounces Government
 responsible for every death by starvation;
 it demands the still further use of HER
 MAJESTY's Navy for the importation of
 food; and concludes with the often re-
 peated, but not less thoughtless request,
 that relief committees may be allowed
 to sell corn as much under its market


value as they please, the difference being
refunded to them out of the Imperial Ex-
chequer. To food dep6ts thus authorized
to buy in the dearest market and sell in
the cheapest at the public expense, a re-
solution moved by Lord FAi NHA& adds,
" seed depBts " vested with the same con-
venient authority.
   Now, of course, all these noblemen and
gentlemen know what they are about.
They know what has been done already
by Government; they must have some
idea what a Government can do,and what
it cannot do. They must know that no
Government on earth can fill a hundred
sail of the line with bread and biscuits
manufactured by steam out of the shingles
on Portsmouth beach. They must also
know that the act of purchasing 50,000
quarters of corn for Irish food and seed
dep6ts would immediately raise the price
some 5s. a quarter to everybody in these
islands who had not the run of these
dep6ts, with the ultimate effect of driving
away all private supplies from the very
spots where they are most needed. As
men of education, they must also know
the force of language, and the certain
effect of telling famished myriads, that
they owe their misery to Government's
not bringing their daily bread to their
own doors.    It is, of course, perfectly
useless to reason with men who show
themselves so utterly indifferent to the
truth or the tendency of their words.
But for the benefit of the unfortunate
and excitable -people whom     they are
hounding on against Government, we take
this opportunity of repeating from a list
in our Saturday's impression, that there
are at this moment, either actually em-
ployed in carrying food to Ireland and
Scotland, or from  one Irish port to
another, or actually used as dep6ts on the
Irish coast, or loading or preparing for
the service, no less than 44 ships of HER
MAJESTY'S Navy, of which 31 are steamers
amounting to    7,943-horse power ; the
total tonnage being 27,523, and the total
of the crews being more than 3,000. We
observe, too, that one of these vessels,
the Dee, of 704 tons, 200-horse power,
and 60 men, is carrying provisions from
Cork to the peasantry-we must not call
them "the tenantry "--at Cahirciveen; so
that if the proprietor of that justly cele-
brated town had possessed the smallest
particle of generosity or truth, he would
at once have informed the meeting, from
the testimony of his own experience and
his own pocket, that Government was
doing at very great cost the very thing


65






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


they were calling it the murderer of
thousands for not doing.
  But the gist of the day's resolutions
was, that whatever is done, it is not to be
charged on the proprietor. The State is
to do it, if not entirely in the first
instance, yet in that handsome and grow-
ing proportion which is so certain to be-
come soon identical with the whole. " No
Confiscation," is the word. " We solemnly
protest," says a resolution moved by Lord
BERNARD, " ill the name of the owners
and occupiers of land in Ireland, against
the principle of charging exclusively on
their property the money  which they
have been forced to waste on unproductive
works."   And then comes that ingenious
play on the word " Imperial," by which
these Imperial offenders argue that an
" Imperial calamity," the result of their
own neglect of their duty to the empire,
shall be met out of the Imperial Ex-
chequer :-
   " That the destruction of the staple
food of millions of our fellow-subjects
cannot be considered in any other light
than that of an Imperial calamity; and


we claim it as our right, that the burden
arising from it, so far as it has been ex-
pended on unproductive works, shall fall
on the empire at large, and not be thrown
upon Ireland alone, much less upon those
classes in Ireland which have suffered
most severely from it."
  This, of course, is not all. Not only
now, but for the future, Irish poverty,
Irish labour, Irish superabundance of
population, Irish prisons, asylums, crimi-
nal prosecutions, and an endless list of
etceteras, are all to be thrown on the
Imperial energies and resources. The
State, at its own expense, and, of course,
on its own responsibility, is to select the
very poorest   of   the  peasantry, and
draught them    off by wholesale to the
shores of America, or anywhere else out
of the landlords' way. When the people
are thus disposed of, the State is to take
the soil in hand, reclaim wastes, and so
forth ; and when it has converted the
wilds of Connemara into good Lothian
farms, it is to sell them back cheap to
their former proprietors.


             MEASURES OF RELIEF.
(DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT, TUESDAY, JANUARY fG, 1847.)


  Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in bringing under
the consideration of the House of Commons
the state of Ireland, observed that he had
never had greater need of its indulgence, or
so little need of asking it, in consequence of
the magnitude of the calamity now press-
ing on Ireland, and the further calamity
which was still impending over it. He
should first proceed to lay down the order
in which he should treat the different
Sarts of this great and important subject.
He should describe in the first place
generally the state in which Ireland was
placed owing to this calamity. He should.
next make a general statement of what
had occurred during the recess of Par-
liament, of what had been done in pur-
suance of the Acts which were passed last
session, how far those Acts had been
efficient for the purposes for which they
had been proposed, and what Government
intended to do at the present time and in
future to meet the emergency of the
moment. He would then proceed to invite
the House to the consideration of otler
measures, which, in the      opinion of
Ministers, were calculated to improve
the general condition of Ireland, and to


lay the foundation of future prosperity
and tranquillity. He would also mention
some other subjects, which, though they
had been under the consideration   of
Government, had not been so fully con-
sidered, and were not yet matured, and
the views of Government upon them. He
would then ask leave to bring in two Bills
-one to render valid certain acts which
had   been done under the authority
of the LORD-LIEUTENANT, as commu-
nicated  in the letter of Mr. LASoU-
CHERE ; and the other a Bill for the
improvement of private estates, in ac-
c3rdance with the Treasury minute of the
1st of December last, which was already
known to the House. In considering the
state of Ireland at present, he used the
guarded language of the reports of the
Commissioners of Inquiry on Poor Laws in
that country, and left the House to infer
therefrom how severely the calamity of a
total failure of the potato crop must be
felt there. Having read several extracts
from the first and third reports of that
Commission, to show how wretched the
usual state of Ireland was, he asked how
those, who were on the brink of famine


C~


_I _


66






THE    GREAT IRISH        FAMINE      01E' 845-1646.


in ordinary times, could bear up against
it under a calamity which was almost
without parallel in modern times, which
acted upon eight millions of people, and
which reminded him of a famine of the
13th century acting upon the population
of the 19th century ? He then mentioned
the course which had been adopted to meet
this disaster from its commencement to
the present time. He described the pro-
ceedings under the presentment system
and the Labour Rate Act. He showed that
under those enactments the employment
of so many men in unproductive labour
had become full of danger, but that the
danger would have been much greater had
the Government confounded that species
of labour with independent labour, and
so injured the great and important class
to which all the labourers   generally
belonged. He also called attention to
the fact, that no public body could suffi-
ciently superintend the employment of so
large a number of persons as were now
engaged under the Board of Works. The
staff itself was liable to abuse, for it con-
sisted of not less than 11,587 persons.
The number of persons employed last
week was 480,000, and it was probably at
present half a million. No doubt there
was great use in employing these persons,
and in furnishing them     with labour.
Taking each of these persons as providing
for four others, that employment found-
food for 2,000,000 of souls. The expense
of   this  employment    was enormous.
During the present month alone it had
amounted to £700,000 or £800,000. It
was impossible to view it without seeing
that it must be productive of great con-
comitant evils. One of them had been
that the labour was inefficiently per-
formed. To remedy that evil, task-work
had been substituted; but from     task-
work another evil had sprung up, and it
was this-that many of the labourers
obtained by it greater wages than were
ever before gained in Ireland, wages vary-
ing from Is. 4d. to 1s. 10d. a-day. The
consequence was, that farmers occupying
from 20 to 60 acres had obtained tickets
from the relief committees, had put their
eons on the relief works, had thus re-
ceived the money which was intended
only for the destitute, and, what was
worse, had prevented those who were
really destitute from   receiving it. I
therefore  appeared   desirable to the
Government to form in certain districts-
say the electoral districts-relief com-
mittees, which should be empowered to
receive  subscriptions, levy  rates, and


receive donations from the Government ;
that out of the sums thus raised they
should   purchase food, establish   soup
kitchens, and deliver rations from this
purchased food to the famishing inhabit-
ants ; and that, in furnishing that food,
they should not look to any particular test
of destitution, but should set the labour-
ing men who applied to them to work
either on their own grounds or on those
of the neighbouring farmers, so as to
earn for themselves some small wages by
their own industry. After the Govern-
ment in England had considered this
scheme, they had communicated it to the
LORD-LIEUTENANT of Ireland, to the head
of the Board of Works, and to the head
of the commissariat in that country.
Those  functionaries  had  received it
favourably, and the  Government was,
therefore, determined  by preparatory
measures in Ireland, and by a Bill to be
introduced into Parliament, to carry it
into eect ; and he was sure that the
House would be glad to hear that Sir
JOHN BURGOYNE had consented to super-
intend its operation for the next three
months.  In     proposing this measure,
however, with a view of affording, if
possible, a more effectual mode of giving
a relief of food to those who wanted it,
and of setting free labourers from the
public works for the ordinary avocations
of agriculture, we must take care that
this substitution should be made as easily
as possible by not dismissing large bodies
of labourers at once, and that when it
was made, no further presentments should
be offered and no further employment
given on the public works. With respect
to the money which had already been ex-
pended, and which was now to be ex-
pended, on public works in Ireland, a
claim had been advanced that the whole
of it should not be made a burden upon
that country. Considering how  exten-
sive the calamity was, he thought that it
would only be right that the whole
burden should not fall on Ireland. He
should, therefore, propose on a future
day, that in each succeeding year as each
instalment was paid, one-half should be
remitted, keeping up the whole debt
until one-half of it was paid, and then
throwing the other half of it on the
public. The money already issued for
these works had been issued out of the
balances now in the Exchequer charged
on the Consolidated Fund, and he was
happy to say that there had been no issue
of Exchequer bills to meet that expendi-
ture. It had of course placed a burden
                                 E2


67






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE       OF 1845-1846.


on the finances of the empire, and he
should, therefore, be   disabled  from
bringing forward some propositions for
the reduction of duties on soap, sugar,
tea, &c., which he was inclined to have
made, and which it was hardly fair that
the people of Great Britain should not
receive. With respect to the advances
made to proprietors who had expressed a
desire to make improvement on their
estates, under the authority of the LonD-
LIEUTENANT'S order, Government thought
that the terms contained in the Treasury
minute of the 1st of last December should
be extended to them, and that the time
for the re-payment of the advances which
they had received should be extended
from 10 to 22 years, as in the Drainage
Act of last session. , Having thus stated'
what the Government intended to propose
to meet the evil of the present year, he
proceeded to observe that there was
another proposal, of which, though of
doubtful tendency, he was inclined to try
the experiment. He proposed to advance
£50,000, to be repaid on or before the
31st of December, 1847, to the proprietors
of Ireland to furnish seed for sowing
their lands. He did not intend to advance
any part of it to the small cottier-tenants, as
it might not :be used for the purposes for
which it was [intended ; but he thought
that if the advance were made to the pro-
prietors of the soil, the measure might be
safe and useful. In stating these proposi-
tions to the House, he felt bound to say
that Government could not, and did not,
expect to be able to ward off entirely the
effects of the awful visitation under which
Ireland was now labouring. It was not
in the power of man to do away with the
ordinations of PROVIDENCE, and it was a
knowledge of that fact which led him to
express his astonishment that two such
eminent and respectable individuals as
the Marquis of SLIGO and Mr. MOORE
should have called upon their countrymen
to meet at Castlebar, for the purpose of
petitioning Parliament to take steps to
insure "' an immediate cheap and constant
supply of food " during the famine which
surrounded them and was still impending.
That was a task beyond all human power
to accomplish. All that any human Go-
vernment could do was to alleviate some-
whatthe present dreadful calamity, and to
save the great bulk of the people ; and
it must not be imagined that it could
turn scarcity into plenty. What, how-
ever, aston'shed him the most was, that
a meeting for such a purpose as that
which he had just described should have


been called at Castlebar, where there was
a union workhouse capable of containing
600 persons, but not containing at present
more than 130 persons, its doors being
closed, and the guardians alleging that
they could not levy the rates neces-
sary to support the workhouse. He saw
in the proposal of the noble Marquis an
unhappy tendency, which he had seen on
other occasions in Ireland, to recommend
others to perform vague, impracticable,
and visionary duties, while the plain and
practicable duty of paying rates for the
sustenance of starving men, women, and
children  in   the  neighbourhood   was
neglected. He was obliged to say that
while the Government would attempt all
that was practicable, it would refuse to
make any promise which was clearly im-
practicable.  He   then   proceeded   to
another part of his subject-namely, that
which related, not to the present, but to
the permanent benefit of Ireland. Al-
though we had been diverted by extra-
ordinary circumstances from general prin-
ciples, it was expedient that we should
return tb them as soon as possible. The
interferenice of Government might be
given in three ways, which ought to be
kept separate and distinct. With the
support of Parliament, it might give
assistance by loan to individuals anxious
to improve their property. It might also
give assistance by grant of public money
in the construction of works of evident pub-
lic utility. It might also enact that relief
should be given by law to the infirm and
destitute. The first measure which he
proposed to bring forward, founded on
the first of these three modes of inter-
ference, was based on the Drainage Act of
last session, and on the terms given to
the public in the Treasury minute of
December last. It was intended that
where an improvement of an estate was
proposed to be made either by drainage
or the reclamation of waste lands, certain
advances should be made from the public
funds. The usual rate of interest on
advances made by the Treasury was 5 per
cent. ; by the Drainage Act of last session
it was fixed at 3, per cent. ; and he now
proposed to extend the terms of the
Drainage Act to the improvements which
he had just mentioned. He also proposed
with regard to more general works to
consolidate and amend the Drainage Acts
now on the statute book. By the present
Drainage Acts the proprietors of a district
might meet-they      might   propose to
obtain a loan for the improvement of a
district bv drainage-and, if the nlan uro-


__


68






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE Of 1845-1846.


posed was approved by the majority, the
loan could be made and the drainage
effected. In that case the drainage was
undertaken by the Board of Works. Now,
this Act was only applicable to the
drainage of streams and rivers. He pro-
posed to apply it to other objects, and
therefore a consolidation and amendment
of the Acts was necessary. He also pro-
posed, on the same principle on which
other great works were adopted by the
State, to undertake by the State the
reclamation of waste lands in Ireland.
The waste lands of Ireland had been cal-
culated by Sir R. KANE at 4,600,000
acres ; Government proposed to devote
a million sterling to the purpose of reclaim-
ing them. It further proposed that the
waste land, if the proprietor were inclined
to dispose of it, should be purchased by
the public ; but if the proprietor refused
to improve it, as well as to sell it, then
a compulsory power should be lodged in
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests
to take and cultivate it. Such land,
however, must be below the annual value
of 2s. Gd. an acre. Land of this nature
was to be improved by the Woods and
Forests only so far as roads and bridges
went; the reclamation of the land was
not to be undertaken by that department.
When reclaimed, it was to be divided into
small lots, say of 25 acres each, and might
either be sold outright at once, or let to
a tenant for a certain number of years,
to be sold at the end of that time. He
expected that great advantage     would
arise from this plan, for a great many
persons who were      now   driven into
despair and crime owing to the enormous
demand now existing for land, would be
placed on these reclaimed lands, and
would thus be able to obtain a competent
living from their labour. He now came
to the class of measures founded on the
third mode of interference. And first, of
the relief to the destitute. It would be
remembered that when the Poor Law
Commission of Inquiry made its report,
it advised that all persons of a certain
class should be relieved; and in that class
it included all persons infirm, aged, and
permanently disabled. The Government
thought it safer to  have  workhouses
erected in Ireland, to allow relief to the
destitute able-bodied as well as to the
ag d and infirm, and to confine it to the
workhouse. It was n!:w its opinion,
formed on a general vi::w of Ireland, that
the Poor Law should be more extensive
than it is. He fl erefore proposed to
bring in a Bill for the more off ctual


relief of the destitute poor of Ireland,
which   would    enact  that :guardians
of the poor be required to give relief,
either in or out of the workhouse, to
the aged and infirm, and to all who were
permanently disabled. This would be
the means, first, of enabling the Boards of
Guardians to use the workhouse as a test
of destitution ; and, secondly, of enabling
them to afford relief to infirm and aged
persons at their own homes, with greater
satisfaction to the feelings of the people,
and with a hope of producing a better
working of the law. He also proposed
that when the workhouses were full, the
Poor Law     Commissioners should have
power to enable Boards of Guardians
to give relief out of the house to the able-
bodied poor. This power must be wed
with caution. The workhouses ought to
be kept as a test of destitution ; but there
were cases where they could not afford
accommodation to all who crowded to
their doors, and in such cases aid must be
given out of doors, not in money, but in
food. Relieving-officers also would be
appointed, and in cases of urgent neces-
sity, where there was danger of starva-
tion, must be empowered to take the
parties into the workhouse, or to relieve
them out of the workhouses until the
next meeting of the Board of Guardians,
when relief could be afforded according
to the general rules. Such were the
measures which he proposed to introduce
immediately. There were other measures,
however, still in contemplation of the
Government, of which one was a measure
for facilitating the sale of encumbered
estates. He also proposed to introduce
a Bill by which long leasehold tenures
renewable for ever should he converted
into freeholds. The various tenures of
land in Ireland were a great evil ; and it
was a matter worthy of Parliament to
consider how far those tenures could be
simplified, and the landlord be connected
with the tenant and the labourer, as in
England. It was owing to this want of
connexion between them  in Ireland that
it was almost impossible to discover who
was the party on whom, in the urgent
distress of the country, the duties of pro-
perty  become  obligatory. Under the
second head    of  public   works came
fisheries ; but he had no definite proposi-
tion to submit to Parliament on that sub-
ject at present. In the course of last
autumn a large supply of fish had been
caught on the west coast of Ireland, but,
from want of salt, it had been thrown on
the land for manure, instead of being


___ __________I______I______________


69






THIE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


cured for the food of man. He trusted
that before the end of the session he
should be prepared with a Bill on that
subject. There was another subject-
emigration-on  which he intended to
make no proposition, though extravagant
expectations, which  never  could  be
realized, were entertained respecting it in
Ireland. Pauper families could not be
removed so as to produce any sensible
effect on the population either by public
or by private means. This point was to
be considered. If you were greatly to
assist emigration, and to convey a million
of men beyond the ocean, what funds and
means are there in the countries to which
you remove them ? If by a large addition
to the burdens of the country we were
to remove hundreds of thousands of men
to the United States, the people of' that
country would complain, and    justly,
that we were casting upon them paupers
whor~ we ought to maintain ourselves.
If w4 were to remove them     to  our
own colonies, the same complaints would
be made by them-we should reduce
them to ruin, and create beggars in abun-
dance where we now had industrious and
happy settlers. Lord JOHN RUSSELL then
described the measures which he had
adopted when he held the seals of the
Colonial Department to promote emigra-
tion by taking charge of the emigrant
at the port of his disembarcation, and
by conveying him thence to the field of
employment.    He showed     that there
had been in consequence a large increase
in the amount of emigration during the
years 1845 and 1846, and affirmed that
under such circumstances he should be
afraid of giving a stimulus to further
emigration. There were, however, some
difficulties in the way of emigration con-
tained in the Passenger Act which he
intended to remove, but he coulld give no
hope of an extensive scheme of emigra-
tion. He knew not whether the calcula-
tion of Sir R. KANE was a sober one ;
but that eminent individual maintained
that there were such extensive agricultural
resources-to say nothing of mineral re-
sources-in Ireland that it could maintain
17   millions  of inhabitants  without
difficulty. He (Lord J. RUSSELL) was
himself of opinion that if a good system
of agriculture   were   introduced   into
Ireland-if   anything   like  permanent
security were afforded for the investment
of capital-if tl:e proprietors would im-
prove their lands-and if their tenants
and labourers would     co-operate  with
them, the present population of Ireland


was not excessive. He then alluded to
certain countries which had been formerly
in a condition as wretched as Ireland,
and which were now flourishing in order,
peace, and civilization. He entered upon
that retrospect because there were some
inclined to despair of Ireland. He saw no
reason, unconnected with laws which had
ceased to exist, and with unhappy circum-
stances to which he would not advert, why
Ireland should not rise at a future day to
as great prosperity. The noble Lord then
read a melancholy description of England
by Sir T. MORE, and another, equally
miserable, of Scotland at the end of the
16th century, to show that there was no
reason to despair of Ireland becoming
hereafter orderly and civilized. He knew
that what he had touched on was but a
part of the case. He did not mean to
argue that apart from political rights and
institutions a merely benevolent Govern-
ment could make a country flourish.
There were things which the Crown could
not grant, and which Parliament could
not enact ; and among them was a spirit
of   self reliance. He   should  despair
indeed of the task which he had under-
taken if he had not seen of late in Ireland
symptoms of greater reliance on its own
exertions, and a greater willingness to
co-operate with others. If its inhabitants
would but encourage that feeling among
themselves, and would look at what had
been effected in England and Scotland by
industry, perseverance, and self-reliance
-if they would but see the task before
them, and set themselves steadily to per-
form  it-there were circumstances in
Ireland which might still bring  this
matter to a happy issue. The fertility of
its land was an object of universal
admiration ; the strength and industry of
its inhabitants, when removed from its
soil, enabled them  to compete with
success with the sturdy labourers of Great
Britain  at   Liverpool, Glasgow, and
London. There may have been faults
and defects hitherto ; but happy shall we
be if we now lay the foundation of the
cure for those defects ; and still more
happy will Irishmen be if they adopt as
their maxim-" Help      yourselves, and
GoD will help you ;" and then he trusted
that they would find that there had been
some uses in their present adversity. He
moved for leave to bring in a Bill to make
valid certain proceedings taken under
Mr. LABOucHERE's letter. The noble Lord
then concluded, amid loud and universal
cheering, a speech which took more than
two hours and a half in the delivery.


__


70






TlE GE AT 1 Kll- FAMINE OF 1845-1846,


              COST    OF RELIEF.
(LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1847.)


  It may, perhaps, be our own fault, but
certainly the measures for Ireland, as
sketched  by Lord    JOHN RUSSELL last
night, fill our whole souls with dis-
may. Of course, it is odious to talk
about expense when famine is said to be
killing its thousands ; and of course it is
very unpatriotic to stint the benevolence
or to doubt the ability of England. But
there are impressions against which it is
impossible to struggle, and the impres-
sions left on us by Lord JOHN'S speech of
last night are of the most invincible
character. It really adds to the supposed
climax of Irish affairs. Never let any one
pretend to be satisfied that he knows the
worst of that country. Depend on it,
there is a worse still in store. It has
been called an incubus, a burden, a mill-
stone, a chaos, a ditch, a slough of
despond, a Maelstrom. Alas ! these are
feeble expressions. They are much too
finite. Under the heaviest burden you
can only fall to the ground. A ditch, a
bog, a Charybdis itself has a bottom.
Not so Ireland. Of all human things it
presents, the nearest   approach to an
infinite idea. Each year opens to the
awe-struck soul a   perpetual increasing
vista  of   misery,  trouble, animosity,
expense, mismanagement, and ingrati-
tude ; and certainly we must confess that
the plainest and largest revelation of this
sort, as long as we remember, was that of
last night. It is possible we may owe
the prodigious character of the vision to
the far-sightedness of the    Ministerial
seer.  We only say it is most prodigious.
  In the first place, half the expense of
the   public works now in progress by
the   presentment of baronial sessions
under the Act of last session is to be
undertaken   at once by the Treasury.
These works are now employing, if em-
ploying it can be called, half a million of
men, and thereby supporting two million
persons. It is " a choice of evils," to use
an expression which has become a stereo-
type for articles on Irish affairs, whether
this half-million shall earn very little'
and work still less, or shall get decent
wages on task--work. The latter alterna-
tive has been taken in consequence of the
representation of travellers, as Lord JoI.N
informs us, who, seeing vast multitudes
amusing themselves on     the road-.ide,
were told that they were engaged on lthe


relief works. When task-work was intro-
duced, it became possible to earn some-
thing like an English labourer's wages,
and the small farmers forthwith rushed
to the roads, even to the exclusion of the
really  destitute class. The   enormous
aggregate is still rapidly increasing. The
present rate of cost is still about £800,000
a- month ; and before there can be any
check to the system some three or four
millions will have    been spent.    The
Imperial Exchequer is to bear half at
once. It is pronounced impossible, there-
fore, to repeal or reduce a single burden.
Tea,soap, malt,windows, are all to continue
as they were. Nobody must dream of
relief, in this island, for a twelvemonth at
least.
  But there is to be a change. What ?
From more to less expense ? From laxity
to rigour and discrimination ? From in-
competent to competent control 1 Vain
thought ! Inasmuch as the " relief " mobs
are neglecting their ordinary agricultural
Ia bours, and the new roads at the same
time are not of much use, " relief " com-
mittees are to be " holped "'with money
to give rations of food to everybody at
their discretion, while the said everybody
is working on his own land or his neigh-
bour's. The change is, that instead of
public works and public superintendence,
there are to be private works, or no works,
and no superintendence.    What is now
to hinder the whole population of Ireland
from being put on the re:hef lists ? Will
a million a-month suffice for at least a
million of aoen, paid and actually fed to
dig and sow their own land ? And this, we
are told, is inevitable ! Pray suppress
your murmurs. It is " a choice of e -ils.'
  But there is more and more still. The
procession of relief measures, of all sorts
of sizes, is infinite. As the sailor said of
the rope he was drawing up the ship's
side, some one must have cut the other
end off. You have never seen the last.
There is to be nmother Million Act for
drainage, with incre.sed  facilities and
easier terrms. Go'vern.e.nt is also to lend
money for :eed. Governmunt, again, is to
lend money for the reclarm;:tion of waste
lands ; or, if the proprietors do not choose
to avail Ihemselves of the proffered oppor-
tunity, it is to puzchaso the waste lands,
reclaim   them, and    divide them   into
small farms of 20 or 30 acres for poor,


a,.                                                                           .-- -


71






THE    GREAT IRIS TT FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


ejected people. The " relief " tenants,
of course, as being poor and ejected, will
want not only land, but everything else-
houses, implements, seed, cattle, and, to
crown all, the food and clothing for the
twelvemonth or more that must neces-
sarily elapse before the land begins to
bear, not to speak of future contingencies.
There are, however, two or three stray
bits of promise in this multifarious an-
nouncement. The Poor Law is to be ex-
tended, and out-door relief allowed when
the workhouse is full. But, as yet, there
is nothing to show that it shall be com-
pulsory, except in the case of those "who
are   permanently   disabled  by  bodily
infirmity."  The proprietor may, and,
judging from the past, most probably
will, leave ordinary destitution to its fate.
Again, it is not proposed that Govern-
ment shall ease the landowner of his
surplus population, and cast the naked
and hungry crowd on a foreign shore.
That looks like being able to say " No "
to an Irish landlord. But the question
still waits for an answer. If the railway
companies of Canada will accept money
from Government to build habitations for
emigrant labourers on the line, then there
will be a Government emigration,
  Were it only possible to see an end,
though ever so distant! The    nation
would be saved much anxiety if some limit
or other were fixed. The human mind
sinks under the infinite. Let it be laid
down at once that Ireland is to pay no
taxes, and that every man, and woman,
and child in the island is to be main-
tained suitably to his or her rank at the
Imperial expense ; that the land is to be
tilled, the harvest reaped, and the rent
collected for the landlords by Treasury


grants.  Put it down at £10,000,C00
a-year, and   ask no   receipts.  Great
Britain is strong and industrious. It can
do almost anything it attempts, solong as
it knows what is to be done. Set it a task,
and it will do it. We shall soon be
familiarized with the item. The returns
will give the army so many millions, the
navy so many millions, the interest of
the debt so many, and Ireland so many.
We are quite confident of the power of
Great Britain to maintain all Ireland, the
landlords in luxury and the peasantry in
comfort. It is only laying on a few more
taxes--say doubling the inconme-tax-doing
without a few more comforts, and working
a few more hours out of the twenty-four.
What is an Englishman made for but to
work ?   What is a Irishman made for but
to sit at his cabin-door, read O'CONNELL'S
speeches, and abuse the English ? The
English are ready to do anything, if they
can only see the end. This is, indeed,
the secret of the marvellous unanimity
and delight with which Lord JOHN'S an-
nouncement was greeted.     Sir ROBERT
INGLIS, indeed, thought that when every-
thing whatever was to be given that
could be given in the way of money, he
saw something like an end. He dreamt
of Ireland converted into a vast college of
pensioners on   British bounty, eating,
drinking, sleeping, praying, and washing
themselves like good Christians. Waking
from so agreeable a vision, what wonder
that he should thank Lord JOHN for his
boundless munificence ? Dulcis insania /
Sorry are we to dispel so agreeable a delu-
sion ; but it would take more millions
than even England can bestow to give it
reality and effect.


    GOVERNMENT         AND IRISH     RAILWAYS.
(DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT, FRIDAY, fEBRUARY 5, 1847.)


   In the House of Commons Lord G.
BENTINCK, in moving for leave to bring in
a "' Bill to stimulate the prompt and pro-
fitable employment of the people, by the
encouragement of railways in Ireland,"
observed, that when he recollected that
this Bill had been prepared by men of
such   powerful understanding as M1Yr.
HuDsoN, Mr. R. STEPHENSON, and Mr.
ILAING, he had no objection to take upon
himself the exclusive blame and responsi-
bility of introducing it to the notice of


  Parliament. When 500,000 men, com-
  manded by a staff of 11,587 officers, were
  living on the funds of the State and em-
  ployed on works productive of no other
  result than that of obstructing the public
  communications, he felt that a great
I salamity must be overhanging Ireland ;
  but he did not on that account look with
  despondency on the present state of affairs
  in that country. He was convinced that
  the best mode of overcoming its difficul.
  ties was by stimulating the employment


L


(72






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


of her people, and to that object he now
proposed to apply himself.    In 1836 a
report was presented by the Commis-
sioners of Inquiry into Railroads in Ire-
land, recommending that a system of rail-
ways should be carried out in thatcountry,
and that it should be carried out by the
assistance of Government. The recommen-
dation of that report had since been re-
ported by Lord DEVON'S      Commission,
which confirmed and sanctioned it. Some
years ago Acts of Parliament had been
passed for 1,582 miles of railway in Ire-
land, but as yet only 123 miles had been
completed, and not more than 156 miles
additional would be completed in the
present year. There must, therefore, be
some, weakness which prevented those
works from being carried out in Ireland
which had been successfully accomplished
in England, where 2,600 miles of rail-
road had already been completed, and
where 4,600 miles more were at present in
course of preparation. The proportionate
population in England and in Wales was
as near as possible on a par with that
in Ireland ; and in all railway specula-
tions Mr. HuDsoN deemed population to
be the first element of success. If he were
told that the population of Ireland was
incapable of travelling from poverty and
want of means, he would reply that the
results on the existing Irish railways
gave a flat denial to any such assertion.
If, then,there were promise of such profit
in rail way enterprise in Ireland, how was
it that private speculators in England did
not come forward to invest capital in it ?
He could not answer the question-he
only knew that the fact was so, arising,
perhaps, partly from fashion and partly
from want of confidence, and that the
result was that some of the best specula-
tions in Ireland had stuck fast from want
of money.     As, then, there was this
general distrust in the English money
market, his proposition   was that the
Government should come to the aid of
the railway compainies. His plan .was
that for every £100 expended on the rail-
way by the companies, £200 should be
lent by the Government, at the same
interest at which it borrowed the money.
It might be said that money thus lent
would be lent at a less rate of interest
than could be got elsewhere, and that it
would be lent on insufficient security.
He then proceeded to refute these ob-
jections, and to show that the security
afforded to the State in this way would
be a sufficient security.  Mr. HvnsbN,
the chairman of 1,700 miles of railroad,


was ready to pledge his commercial credit
that the State would not lose a single
shilling by acceding to this proposition.
Mr. HuDsoN     had  informed   him that
the worst railroad under his direction was
capable of affording cent. per cent. se-
curity to the Government ; and he had
documents to prove--which he read to
the House-that the worst railroads in
Belgium and Germany would afford suf-
ficient security for such a loan as he had
proposed. He would assume the interest
of money to be now 32 per cent., and if
the line were to pay £7 on every £200.,
that would afford ample security ; but he
undertook to prove that there would not
be a single line in Ireland which would
not pay more than that sum. He next
undertook to show that the effect of pass-
ing the measure which he then proposed
would so stimulate the employment of
English capital in Ireland that it would
forthwith complete all the railroads of
that country. To carry that measure into
effect he proposed that the Railroad Com-
missioners appointed under the Act of last
year should be formed into a Board, re-
sponsible to Parliament for dealing out
those loans. He would throw on that
Board the responsibility of the full per-
formance of the various duties imposed
upon it, and would enact that unless the
Board certified at once that the railway
would be beneficial, and was a sufficient
security, the State should not advance
any money to the promoters of it. Having
explained to the House the situation in
which his proposition would place the
shareholders, he   next  exhibited   the
double effects which it would produce
upon labour. It would set to work an
immense mass of labourers on the rail-
roads, and would at the same time enable
the shareholders to set free their money
for the improvement of their own estates,
and to employ an additional number of
men in their cultivation. As an instance
of the results likely to arise from his
plan, he mentioned that such a loan as
he had described, made to the Kil-
kenny,Limerick,aund Waterford Railroad,
would set at once 16,000 men to work,
and that, too, in four baronies alone,
which had been paying £4,000 a month
for unproductive works, with a prospect
of continuing that payment for some
months. He thought it better that the
advances should be made directly to the
railroad  companies than through the
security of the land ; for it appeared to
him to be impossible to assess on the land
any rate which was to be applicable to


73






THE GREAT 1RISH     FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


the future maintenance of railways. Such
were the leading features of his plan ; and
in producing it to the House he did not
bring it forward either in hostility or
rivalry to Lord J. RUSSELL. Though the
plan had originated at the house of Sir J.
TYRRELL, and though the Bill had been
drawn up ever since last November, still,
with the exception of the hon. member
for Harwich, it had not been communi-
cated t) any Irish Railway Company or to
any gentleman connected with Irish pro-
perty. It might be said that this measure
was more favourable to the proprietors
of Ireland than that which they had for-
merly proposed themselves. It might be
so ; but the reason for introducing it was
not so much to benefit the landed interest
of Ireland asto stimulate the employment
of the labour of that country. He showed
that such would be the effect of it by re-
minding the House that plans had been
or were before it for completing 1,500
miles of railroad in Ireland. Now, to ex-
ecute those works 60 men would be
wanted   for each mile for four years.
1,500 miles would,therefore, give employ-
ment to 90,000 men for four years on
earth-works and the line of road. It was
estimated that the employment to arti-
ficers on those roads would occupy six
men a mile. That would employ 9,000
more. Moreover, a railway, in making
new fences, in squaring fields, and in
making drains, watercourses, and roads,
would occupy as many men as were en-
gaged in constructing   it.  Thus, alto-
gether, 109,000 persons would be em-
ployed,independently of the other miscel-
laneous occupations to which the expendi-
ture of so large a body of men would
necessarily give rise. He therefore esti-
mated that this measure would give em-
ployment to 110,000 persons, represent-
ing, with their families, 550,000 souls.
If, then, by a measure such as this, cost-
ing the country nothing and leaving it
some profit, he could feed 550,000 souls
for four years he thought that he should
go a long way'in assisting Lord J.RUSSELL
to carry out his Act for the Amendment
of the Irish Poor La.. for, independently
of its other advantages, his arrangement
would afford the Board of Guardians ad-
ditional means of providing labour for
able-bodied persons out of employment.
He then informed the House that he had
inserted in his Bill clauses providing that
the contractors should pay their labourers
once a week and in hard cash, and that if
any of them should postpone the payment
from Saturday to Monday, or longer, he


should be compelled to pay double wages
for every day during which the payment
was postponed. He had also inserted a
clause by which the railway companies,
on the demand of the Railroad Commis
sioners, would be compelled to provide
suitable huts   and  lodgings for their
labourers before the works of the rail
roads commenced. He then proceeded
to consider the effects which would be
produced upon Ireland generally by the
construction of these railways. He cal-
culated the improvement of the land, one
mile on each side of each railway, to be
sufficient to pay for the construction of
the railways themselves, estimating that
in 25 years it would add £23,000,000 to
the landed property of Ireland. He also
calculated that these railways, when com-
pleted, besides relieving the county cess
from supporting 550,000 souls, would pay
£22,500 a-year to the poor-rates for the
purpose of maintaining the aged, infirm,
and impotent.   Inducements like these
would call forth the     capital of the
country; and he had no doubt that, if
his Bill met the approbation of the
House, a week would not elapse without
its being poured in to Ireland,and without
200,000 labourers being employed at once
on the railroads. What thenwouldhappen?
Land would have to be bought for these
railroads. On those already constructed
£170 an acre had been paid to the land-
lord, and £20 to the occupying tenant
for his rights. The effect of his measure
in this way would be to place £1,250,000
in the hands of Irish proprietors for the
employment of fresh labour,and £240,000
in the hands of the occupying tenants for
their own purposes. He then came to
the bearing of this measure on the re-
venue. He had heard it said that his
plan of raising £16,000,000 on the secu-
rity of £8,000,000, to be applied to rail-
roads, would knock down the funds, de-
press the money market, and operate as
a screw on the trading and manufacturing
interests of the  country. He< id not
think that it would have any appreciable
effect if the necessary sums were raised
at intervals of three "months, as was done
in 1835 in the case of the loan of
£15,000,000 for the emancipation of the
negroes ; and they must be timid finan-
ciers indeed who anticipated any mischief
from it. Even if he had not the experi-
ence of the loan of 1835 to direct him, he
should say that money spent in the
country and not out of it, and spent, too,
for the advantage of productive and
native industry, must be beneficial to the


74






TI L GREAT IR TSII FAMINE              OF   1845-1846.


funds and to the trading interest of the
empire. Whilst he was thus calling on
his country to lend to Ireland £16,000,000
at the rate at which it borrowed it, and
without any further charge, he felt it
right to state that the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER,when he advanced loans
to public works, did not stand in the
same position as a private capitalist, who
looked to nothing but the payment of his
principal and interest. He was sure that
the right hon. gentleman, when     he
looked back at the great things which the
sums spent in the construction of railways
had done for the revenue, would agree
with him in thinking that the State would
be a sleeping partner in this concern. It
would reap from     the expenditure of
£24,000,000 on railways in Ireland an
enormous increase of revenue in the in-
creased consumption of articles of excise
and customs. After declaring that it was
a scandalous calumny to assert that Eng-
lish loans to Ireland had never been re-
paid, and after quoting the report of Lord
DEVON's Commission to corroborate that
declaration, he proceeded to eulogize the
good faith of the Irish people and to give
several striking instances of it. He then
denied the danger of any outbreak in Ire-
land, and expressed his belief that the
peasantry, who had purchased firearms,
had not purchased them for any disloyal
purpose. He was then commencing his
peroration, when he recollected that he
had not uttered a word respecting the
manner in which this loan was to be re-
paid. It was his intention that the inte-
rest of the loan should commence on the
day of its being advanced, and that the
principal should be repaid in 30 years, by
instalments, commencing  seven  years
after a certificate was given of the com-
pletion of the railway. He then returned
to his panegyric on the character of the
Irish  people, eulogized  their patience
amid the most direful suffering, and con-
cluded by saying, that if, by his measure,
he could fill their bellies with good beef
and mutton, and their cottages with fine
wheat and sound beer, and their pockets
with   English gold, to   purchase   the
blankets of Wiltshire, the fustians of
Manchester, and  the cotton prints of
Stockport, he, though a Saxon, would
answer with his head for their loyalty,
and would lead them, through       their
warm hearts and sympathies, not to sever
but to cement the union of Ireland with
England.    The noble lord then     con-
cluded a speech which lasted for more
than two hours and a half, amid loud


and long cheers from all sides of the
House.
  Lord J. RUSSELL Laving paid a well-
turned compliment to the patriotism of
Lord G. BENTINCK and to his ability,
both in framing and expounding his plan,
wished that it had     been   such that
he could have adopted it, in aid of the
plans which he had brought forward for
the relief of the Irish poor. In point of
fact, the matter, not the plan, which Lord
G. BENTINOK had brought forward had
been for some time past under the con-
sideration of HER MAJESTY'S Government.
Some years ago Lord MORPETH, on behalf
of the Government, had brought forward
a plan of railroads, which he (Lord J.
RUSSELL) thought, and still considered,
likely to benefit Ireland. Lord MORPETIT
contemplated the construction of railways
by Government, of which the returns were
calculated to produce 4 per cent. interest
on the money advanced, and which were
to be applied, in case they produced more
than 4 per cent., to the reduction of fares
and to the extension of branch railways.
It was thought that such a plan, which
would have given the Government a con-
trol over the railroads very useful for the
forwarding of the mails and other pur-
poses, would have been much superior to
that adopted in England, where the rail-
roads had grown up almost free from all
Government control. But that was not
Lord G. BENTINc 's plan. Adverting to
the details of that plan, he observed that
he did not consider it advisable for Go-
vernment to step out of its proper sphere
to interfere with the general investment
of capital and to foster one set of com-
panies at the expense of another. He
then stated, that when the railway com-
panies of Ireland waited on him with a
proposition that Government should add
£5,000,000  in   three   years  to   the
£10,000,000 which they would expend in
the same time, he had considered it prin-
cipally in its bearing on the relief of the
then existing distress. The funds at his
disposal were not large, but limited. Of
all wants, the most pressing was the want
of food in the remoter districts of Ireland.
Now he found that the application of
money to Irish railroads would not have
benefited those districts at all ; for in
looking to the counties through which the
proposed railways were to pass, he found
that they were the most flourishing in
Ireland.  Railroad  labour, therefore,
would not have applied to the districts
which were most distressed, and to which
it was necessary that the attention of


5-----5-L--~


75






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


Government should be first drawn. He
did not mean to deny that the establish-
ment of railroads in Ireland would be of
great permanent benefit to it, but having
a case of extreme destitution before him,
he did not think     it wise to devote
£16,000,000,to the promotion of railroads;
for if Government did o, it would check
other expenditure much more necessary
and immediate. He did not, however,
intend to oppose the motion for leave to
bring in this Bill. In saying so, he hoped
that he should not hereafter be accused
of deception if on a future occasion he
should give it decided opposition. He
thought that it would not be wise to adopt
this scheme. In a future stage of the
Bill it would be necessary to go into a
Committee of the whole House to approve
a grant of public money to carry it into
effect. On that occasion it would be in-
cumbent on the Government either to
adopt the scheme as their own or to put
a decided negative on it. Now he was not
prepared for the first alternative, and
should therefore adopt the latter.
  Mr. B. OSBORNE expressed his admira-
tion of the bold, grand, and comprehen-
sive plan just propounded to the House
by Lord G. BENTINCK, and his delight at
seeing his great and powerful energies ap-
plied to the consideration of the condi-
tion of Ireland. He should give his
warmest support to his motion.
  Mr. ROEBUCK was sorely vexed at the
course adopted by Lord J. RUSSELL in
giving his assent to the introduction of
this Bill, which he intended to destrdy
on a future occasion. He for one should
oppose the introduction of the Bill alto-
gether, for he objected to the taxation of
the industrious people of England for the
investment of their capital in any specu-
lation whatsoever.  We were now sup-
porting millions of the Irish people at an
expense of more than half the money
which, after paying the interest on the
National Debt, remained for carrying on
the government of this great country ;
and yet we were to be accused of hard-
heartedness, and to be assailed/with many
other harsh expressions, if they objected,


on the part of the suffering people of Eng-
land, to give to the Irish that good beef
and mutton and strong beer which their
constituents wanted, and   to fill their
pockets with that " English gold" which
they had not themselves ! English gold
in Irish pockets ! Why that would be at
once the commencement and the end of
the halcyon state of things which Lord G.
BENTINCK anticipated. Having animad-
verted with some severity on the extra-
ordinary exhibition which he said that
Lord G. BENTINCK bad made of himself
at the close of his speech, he gave notice
that if on this occasion the House should
depart from the grand rule of allowing
private enterprise  to regulate private
capital, he should demand, as soon as any
sum was granted to the suffering poor of
Ireland, a similar sum for the suffering
poor of England ; for it was quit :evident
that we were fast coming to a general
scramble for property. The plan of Lord
G.BENTINCK was either good in itself or it
was good for the relief of the existiig
distress. Lord J. RUSSELL had shown its
uselessness for the latter object ; and as
to its first object, he would observe that
it was taking an unfair advantage of the
present distress of Ireland to press the
claims of its land lords on the compassion
of the people of England. If ever such a
bill of appropriation should be brought
into Parliament, he certainly would in-
troduce a clause into itthat no Irish land-
lord being a member of that House should
have any share in the spoil. He had the
satisfaction of knowing that at a future
stage the Crown would refuse its assent
to certain clauses of this Bill, and that it
must in consequence be given up. But
why not crush it at once ? W1 at had the
House been doing that night for the
people of Ireland ? Absolutely nothing.
They had wasted three good hours for no
other purpose than that of giving Lord
G. BENTINCK a n opportunity of making a
great display and a crack speech.
  The bill was then brought up, read a
first time, and  ordered   to be read a
second time on Thursday next.


(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, FBRUAY 5, 1847.)


  So more, and more still, is demanded
for Ireland. A loan of £16,000,000, or
thereabouts, to  finish her  railways, is
asked for. Certainly when the project is
put in so specious and pleasant a form as
it was last night, it may be ill-natured to


demur, but there are  occasions when
good nature gets the start of discrction,
and very soon loses its labour.  The
magnitude of the project and its very at-
tractiveness enjoin a thorough sifting.
We e are asked to play with great sums, to


_~_ ~1_~_


76






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF      1845-1846.


step into immense undertakings, to inter-
fere with grave interests, to show extra-
ordinary favour, to establish unusual pre-
cedents, to do what we have never done,
and what we have made it a most par-
ticular point not to do on other not less
deserving occasions. As the scheme is
pressed with a fervour and popularity
which   give  some   faint indication of
eventual success, it is better to discuss
its merits in limine. before people have
committed themselves too far.
  In the first place, what is the occasion
of this demand ? The Irish public, with
an impetuosity we did our utmost to
check, with a slovenliness that charac-
terized every stage of their petitions, and
with a special indulgence on the part of
the Legislature which we considered any-
thing but kindness, have obtained Acts
for railways amounting to 1,522 miles.
Both money and credit are wanting.
Though some of these Acts have been
passed eleven years, only 123 miles of
railway have been completed, and only
164 are in process of completion at the
present moment. The " calls " are not
paid up, and the shares are at a fright-
ful discount. The native capitalists are
no capitalists at all. The landowners are
"' stuck fast." The directors come to
the English market for loans, and find,
somehow, the " fashion " against them.
They are encountered by a sort of panic,
or epidemic of want of confidence in
everything Irish. So the " fix " is com-
plete. Government, therefore, is to set
the fashion, restore the confidence, lend
the money, finish the railways, change
discount into premium, fill the pockets of
the shareholders, and perform all those
other wonders which Harlequin is ex-
pected to do on the stage and a Minister
in the Emerald Isle. Now, with all due
respect to the fashionable " principle of
introducing capital into Ireland," we beg
to observe that in this part of the empire
we usually hold that the facility of ob-
taining capital is the chief test of utility,
that it is not ultimately advantageous to
force a particular improvement much in
advance of the general progress, and that
a   universal want     of  confidence  is
commonly too well founded. The moneyed
men of this country are not so hood-
winked by fashion or favouritism; they
are not so ignorant and suspicious as to
throw away the real prospect of a good
percentage. If Lord GEORGE BENTINCK
will prove by figures that the unfinished
Irish railways will pay 7 per cent. he
will have no need to go to the House.


He need only open shop as an Irish share-
broker, and the millions will flow in.
  But what is the difference between the
proposed railways and the new roads now
so universally stigmatized as useless, un-
productive, and demoralizing ? A rail-
way is only a better sort of road, and it is
also more expensive. If a road is a work
of the " unproductive " class-a point
which seems agreed on all sides-so also
is a railway. Both are immediately un-
productive, both are ultimately produc-
tive if judiciously designed, but other-
wise a great waste of money and labour.
At least let us take warning by the past,
and not pass in a moment from crying
down roads to crying up railways. Nor
does it follow that because 123 miles of
railway in all Ireland pay well, that 1,522
miles will enjoy an equal success.
  Unfortunately, the favour cannot be
shown without a flagrant injustice to
many-we had almost said myriads-in
this country who deserve favour quite as
well. It is true that as far as we know
there are not any railways in England
now at a stand-still. But the shares of
many have fallen to a discount, and the
shares of all have fallen very far below
the price at which they were estimated
twelvemonths since, and at which they
probably came into the bands of their
present holders. This fall, too, is owing
to the very same circumstances that have
cast down Irish  shares-viz., the per-
petual " calls," the straitness  of the
money-market, and the high price of food.
The depreciation, as compared with in-
trinsic merits and paying power of the
lines, has been quite as great here as in
Ireland. Perhaps the noble author of
the present scheme is hardly aware of.the
extent of the inconvenience, not to say
suffering, caused by this downfall of
prices, and the variety of classes affected.
Every fresh " call " throws down the
price of shares, and compels a large pro-
portion of the holders to part with them
for what they will fetch in the market.
The trade of the country is seriously
embarrassed by the number of those who
are now selling at a loss, or holding on
with   crippled means. The   grant of
£-16,000,000 to the lines of one province
would help to depreciate all the rest.
Now, we cannot but think that a very
deep and formidable sense of injustice
would be generated in the minds of the
English shareholders who, in the midst
of all their own losses and entanglements,
saw   the Irish   shareholders suddenly
lifted up out of the mire, and helped


77






THE GR EAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


through their  difficulties,  with  full
pockets, by a special favour which at the
same time gave the coup de grace to their
own hopes of returning premium.    A
system   of loans which is not equally
extended to the whole country is only
" robbing PETER to pay PAUL."    The
CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER cannot
make money or food out of nothing. But
what has the favoured class done to
deserve this favour ? Or what shculd put
one speculation more under national pro-
tection than another ?
  The present relief it would afford to
Ireland is an even more questionable
affair. In certain limited localities, in
the least distressed parts of the island,
the railroads would employ some 50,000
of the best men-either those who were
so fortunate as to be on the spot or those
who could easily seek work on the Scotch
and English lines.     The  employment
would not teach agriculture, or manners,
or morals. " Navigators " seldom return
to agricultural labour. That these 50,000
would be better fed for the time, would
consume   more   exciseable commodities,
might within the twenty-four hours after
rec iving their weekly pay have gold in
their pocket, eat beef and mutton, and
drink strong beer, is certain enough. But
the rest of the empire, from the richest
to the poorest, would pay      for that
dangerous prosperity. The honest and
obedient drudges of this island would be
removed farther than ever from these
unknown, unattainable luxuries.     The
labourers of Dorsetshire and the opera-
tives of Lancashire are already " paying
the piper." Every working-man in this
island has an Irish peasant on his back,
and may deem himself only too fortunate
if both are not floundering in the mud
before next August. But if these 50,000


able-bodied Irish navigators have no par-
ticular claim, no more have the landlords.
Give them £170 per acre for their land,
-give them   their shares at a premium,
-what is there to tie the money down to
the Irish soil, and stay it from going that
road, marked by footsteps all one way,
that leads to the den of the devouring
absentee ?
  But why is so serious an innovation on
the practice of the empire put forth by
itself without any more of the system to
which it properly belongs ? Propose a
new and peculiar system for Ireland if
you please. Declare the country bank-
rupt and incompetent. Supersede pri-
vate rights, take charge of all properties,
and comprehend all classes within the
leading strings of a kind but arbitrary
rule. Put young farmers to nurse. Teach
LEIBIG to the poor, and COCOKER to the
rich. Dispose estates, as CROMWETLL and
a few others have done, on the principle
detur dignieri. Lay out your own lines
of railway in a parlour of the Castle;
and when lords creep in by dozens to job,
to bully, and to bribe, whip them, and
send them to bed. In fact, make Ireland
a   model farm, and     its inhabitants
children, if you can. There will at least
be consistency in the plan. It will be an
attempt to govern Ireland. But we de-
precate applying to it a solitary and in-
sulated part of the system. If we are to
do everything for it, let us at least have
something for our pains in the shape of a
more efficient control. The assistance
Ireland asks will soon amount to the pur-
chase-money of the whole island. We
are open to an offer. What does Ireland
want for herself ? But we protest against
a one-side I bargain, in which we have
nothing to do but to pay.


          RAILROADS IN IRELAND.
(LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1847.)


  The glory and the misfortune of Ireland
is that vivid imagination which gives so
much life to the conceptions of the mind
and the utterance of the tongue. What-
ever it is that Ireland wishes or hopes for
itself, or desires to force on the conviction
of others, is immediately invested with a
peculiar .majesty  of   proportions and
brilliancy of hue. So long as the matter
is agitated in the House, the committee-


room, the bar, the pamphlet, the friendly
journal, or the society's apartments,
nothing can be more certain of success.
Whoever once lends his ear to the de-
lightful anticipations of that magic shore
is forthwith involved in the snares of the
siren.  Hard speculators  and hungry
landlords immediately join in propa-
gating the splendid    imposture.   The
great amalgamator himself becomes "-one


__


i8






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


of the prophets." It requires a heart of
stone to resist the    infection.  Once
drugged with Hibernian rhetoric, and you
find everything growing in your mind to
preternatural dimensions   and   eternal
reality. Should you by happy chance
awake from your dream, it will probably
occur to you that it is all too good to be
true. In this sober island we are accus-
tomed to the presence of drawbacks, and
we suspect a too unmixed success. By
the time, therefore, that the Irish orators
have run up their case to the clouds, and
put on the finishing stone, we find they
have proved too much. If their case is
so good, if their undertakings are so
sound, their capabilities so undoubted,
why do they come before the nation in
the form of supplicants ? Why is help so
importunately demanded for that which is
so strong in itself ?
  The Irish railroads, we are told, will
most certainly pay. The proofs are un-
deniable. Why, then, are the shares at
so considerable a discount ? Why is the
appeal not made to professional money-
lenders, who can understand the subject,
instead of to a Parliament of country
gentlemen? Mr. HUDSON informed us
the other night that a loan of £16,000,000
for Irish railways was the simplest affair
in the world ; indeed, that he and the
companies under his management only
two months since procured £10,000,000.
It is obvious to ask him,as the bystanders
asked the Rhodian braggadocio in the
fable, who boasted of his leaps, and was
challenged to the proof, Why then don't
you raise the £16,000,000 now ?  Last
night the Marquis of GRANBY informed
us, on the authority of " a gentleman in
Ireland," that there were a thousand fish-
ing boats at Claddagh, in Galway, which
will occasionally go out and capture in a
day eight million herrings, which, at 10s.
a thousand, amount to £4,000 for one
day's'work ; but that for want of con-
veyance it is impossible to dispose of
them, and accordingly even while the
shoal is on the shore the thousand boats
only go out one day in four. What in-
exhaustible wealth ? The " goods " re-
turns of a railway to Claddagh would beat
the London and Birmingham. Pursuing
the Marquis's arithmetic, the conveyance
of fish from Galway to Dublin, at the
moderate charge of 2s. 6d. a thousand,
would run up to £6,000 a week. But why
is not all this represented in the proper
quarter ? Wherever you can point out
a good coal field on this island ~r.
HUDSON and his friend Mr. STEPHENSON


will guarantee a railway to that point. A
fishery which produces £4,000 is as good
as a colliery. If coals are black diamonds,
red herrings are pearls.
  The same couleur de rose surrounda
every   branch   of the argument.     In
England people of the good old schcol,
country gentlemen and clergymen, old
ladies and amateur statesmen, used to cry
down railways as the greatest mischief
that could happen to a country. When the
railways were finished, and the said old
ladies found themselves whirled along
thirty miles an hour in carriages ten
times more comfortable than their own
family   coaches, they discovered that
railways, like cookery, were a pleasant
result of an unpleasant process. It was
the making of railways that did the
mischief. The tumultuous assemblages,
the mutual encouragements to outrage,
the drinking of beer, the robbing of hen-
roosts, the breaking the Sabbath, the
poaching, the swearing, the contamina-
tion of youthful minds, were now the
most offensive points. Could a railway
be constructed by genii, all would be
well. Take railways to Ireland, and all
is changed in a moment. There it is the
making of a railroad that does all the
good. The rough preparatory process is
to regenerate Ireland. Navvies and sub-
contractors are to be the chief instru-
ments in this great moral work. Under
their careful tuition the young men and
boys of the localities blessed with an un-
finished railway will learn to work hard,
to eat, drink, sleep, and blaspheme in
gangs. The ultimate advantage of the
railway is a secondary affair. The making
is the thing. It will do good, not because
it will relieve the destitute, not because
it will employ the    general class of
peasantry, not because it will cheapen
provisions, not because it will reproduce
food. It will do none of these things,
for the present at least. Its one great re-
commendation is that it will convert the
young peasants into railway labourers--
fit for that work, and that work alone.
Such is the surprising metamorphosis a
navigator undergoes as soon as he returns
to Irish soil, The rough son of Con-
naught was formidable enough to the
weak nerves of English gentility so long
as he was within a mile of the village, the
beer-shop, the barn-yard, :ni the pre-
serve. His foot once in Ireland, and he
is a missionary of order and peace.
  The truth is, the scheme comes under
the category of Irish panaceas.  That
nation is always looking out for " god-


79






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


sends," forgetting that the Giver of all
good gifts requires us to seek them by
industry and prudence. It is the bar-
barous old legend of the "' pot of gold "
repeated in ten thousand new forms. The
£16,000,000 are nothing but a " pot of
gold." Mr. J. O'CONNELL last night un-
reservedly declared himself ready to
support any    measure   whatever that
created an expenditure in Ireland. So
long as capital was to be introduced,
whatever the folly, whatever the waste,
to him it was enough. Sow sovereigns
broadcast over Ireland, for a good pur-
pose if you can think of one, but for some
purpose or other. We can understand
how Mr. J. O'CONNELL may attach even
a superstitious value to those bright
little counters. But we beg to remind
him that " all is not gold that glistens."
A loan may be sweet in the mouth, but
bitter in the stomach, Should England
advance these £16,000,000 for railways
not ultimately   profitable, the result
would be to render the British Treasury
a great absentee proprietor of Irish rail-
ways.   While a few paltry thousands
were here and there dropping into the
hands of the unfortunate shareholders,
£560,000 would annually cross the gulf
into the all-consuming land of the Saxon.
The debt would virtually be paid in
produce, and Ireland would point to a
fresh drain of food from her shores as a
proof of England's insatiable greediness
and grinding tyranny. But these gentle-
men leave others to calculate conse-
quences. They have no scruple in throw-
ing upon the public the responsibility of
the ,favours they demand from it. The
persons who actually bored the Legisla-
ture into suspending the standing orders
and the usages of Parliament in favour of
their railways, and now found upon the
concession of that favour a demand for
pecuniary assistance, would be quite as
ready to abuse the Legislature for draw-
ing out of Ireland the interest of the
national loans to her railways. If the
member for Shrewsbury lends his talents
to the general delusion, it is a weakness
we owe to his political attachments, and
the enthusiasm which a man of letters is
so apt to feel for whatever affects to be
generous. To scatter gold and employ
labour, even though the gold is robbed


from others and the labour is spent to no
purpose, is a noble, if not always a
rational,proceeding. He thinks it possible
by the introduction of railways to trans-
plant bodily as it were a better system
into Ireland.   To him it is only that
figure of speech familiar to  scholars,
whereby, to a suggestive imagination, a
part will sometimes stand for the whole.
"It will," he     says, " employ much
labour ; it will open markets to fresh
fields of industry in every part of Ire-
land ; it will create new buildings, new
trades, and will give a new impulse to the
fisheries ; it will give a new face and
character to the country, and, above all,
impart a new character to the people and
a new tone to the ago in which we live.
It is beyond all precedent a practical and
comprehensive measure."     Would    that
this were not merely the dream of a warm
and creative imagination ! It is no dis-
credit to Mr. DISRAELI that he should
even overrate that social progress, that
moral elevation which the intellect and
taste of the age perceive to result from
the railway system. When that system
demands its historian and its eulogist the
hon. member for Shrewsbury will dis-
charge that office with the inspiration of
earnestness and truth. In his eyes we
live, not in an iron, but a golden age.
But we beg most humbly to prepare him
for the disappointment which is so apt to
arise when one single circumstance and
means of civilization is pressed on before
the rest. Railways are not the only want
of Ireland. IThat country is not so be-
hindhand in its communications as it is
in most other respects. Its natural means
of communication are unrivalled. By a
strange accident, the proposed railways
are generally between places which have
already a cheap and easy medium       by
rivers and seas. But we will not return
to consider the practical working of the
scheme. It is a matter of feeling with
Mr. DISRAELI. He sees in railways only
a bit of his own England-England of the
19th century, improving, bustling, in-
genious, comfortable, and     locomotive.
Such is the idol of his patriotism, and we
can easily imagine his anxiety to intro-
duce the least portion of this leaven into
Ireland.


__ __ __ __


80






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


      THE    IRISH   SAVINGS     BANKS'
(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, MARCH, 4, 1847.)


  Ine returns of the Irish savings-banks
are, to say the least, a very remarkable
fact.  We have no wish to press them
into the service of any opinion, favour-
able or unfavourable, to the character of
that people. This is not the time for
such reflections ; but a fact is a fact, and
is always worth    something, especially
when it happens to go rather beyond
one's common calculations. Undoubtedly,
the thought that would first cross the
simple English mind, at the mention of
the savings-banks, is that they would
exhibit, in due proportion, the drain on
the   general  resources.  A   famished
people one expects to be poor. A popu-
lation of eight millions, out of whom
three or four are on the charity list, and
a large portion of the remainder are said
to be actually dying, or dead, in ditches,
cannot have much to lay by. They cannot
pay rent. They boggle at rates. As for
taxes, they have long been excused that
incumbrance. What can      they possibly
save ? A savings-bank in such a situa-
tion can be little else than a mockery of
woe. If the poor creatures could live on
flints, and sell the skins, there might be
a surplus ; but, as it is, one meal per diem
must run away with all their allowance.
These   are  natural reflections, but it
appears they are not founded on a just
estimate of the Irish character or circum-
stances. We find ourselves forced to
confess, what Irish gentlemen are so fond
of telling us, that we know nothing about
that most unaccountable people.     The
fact is; the Irish savings-banks never were
so prosperous.
  Leinster, excluding the city of Dublin
itself for the reason ,mentioned in our
remarks on the last return, exhibits a
total increase in the deposits on January
1, 1847, as compared with that day the
previous year, of not less than £36,000.
This would excite no remark in ordinary
years. The total deposits in the province
on the latest of those dates are £965,315 ;
and £36,000 is not much more than pro-
portionate to the usual increase      of
population. The only remark to be made
now is that famine has not affected the
savings of the people. In Ulster the
increase is greater, the  total deposits
under the two above mentioned dates
being severally £621,338 and £668,787.


Even in Connaught the deposits have
risen from £131,156 to £140,781, though
counties of such melancholy notoriety as
Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo ace in it.
In Munster the deposits have improved
from £1,045,58t to £1,107,280, and even
at that   focus  of  destitution, Castle
Townsend, for the special relief of which
every parish in the Bmpireo has been pri-
vately, as well as publicly solicited, there
has been a most unaccountable rise from
£1,571 to £2,651. It is worthy of remark,
that the ports exhibit the most striking
improvement. Drogheda, Dundalk, Wex-
ford, Belfast, Newry, Sligo, Cork, Water-
ford, are among the chief examples of
augmented deposits. Limerick, however,
stands at the head. There the totals at
the   two   dates  are,  £167,719   and
£189,378 ; the difference in favour of the
later date being nearly £23,000.
  Now, whatever the probable account of
this fact, at any rate let it be known.
Let all   Europe, which    watches our
domestic affairs with so benevolent a
curiosity, take notice that Ireland, star-
ving Ireland, oppressed Ireland, at this
very acme of her woes, is putting by more
money than ever. In France it is not so.
There the savings-banks feel and reveal
the wants of the people. Yet the de-
positors are of much the same class in
both places. They who save are not the
very poor. They are thrifty, struggling
people, either just beginning to rise, and
desirous to be at least one step higher in
the world, or equally anxious to secure
their present position amid the changes
and chances around them. In France,
the chief depositors are servants, artizans,
small tradesmen, and perhaps a small
proportion of farmers. The dearth has
drawn out the deposits of this class. In
Ireland it has increased them.
  Perhaps the readiest solution is, that in
a time of great apparent insecurity and
general decay, with destitution becoming
daily more importunate and threatening,
the great multitude of small holders are
doing what their ancestors did in time
of civil war-hoarding their money. We
have always been inclined to look on the
savings-hank as a species of hoar-ing ; a
weak resort for those who have no better
use for their money, and by no mea u a
sure indication of prosperity. The liish


______


81






THE GREAT JIRSH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


farmers are burying their money, not in
the ground, but in the bank, to save it
from the grasp of famine and the claims
of the landlord. In the books of the
bank it is safe from charity and rent.
Much of it is destined, probably, to cross
the Atlantic. That any considerable pro-
portion of it is directly derived from the
" relief works " we very much question,
though there are no doubt many thou-
sands upon the " relief lists " who are
thereby enabled to husband better their
own private means. It is impossible but
that out of so many millions sown broad-
cast over that country some portion should
find its way into the hands of the most
industrious   and thrifty.   Trhere is a
natural aristocracy in the rudest and least
organized form of society, which governs
and taxes the rest. The relief measures
themselves establish such a body in the
inspectors, paymasters, and other officers.
This will help to explain the increased
deposits, though it is impossible entirely
to dispel the disagreeable misgiving that


the savings-banks have become, so to
speak, the receivers of stolen goods,
holding that which was due in law to the
landlord, and in mercy to the poor.
  If we seem to have been touching upon
the less admirable points of the Irish
character, it will not be out of place to
notice another remarkable fact of an
opposite aspect from the above. In our
City Article of yesterday we adverted
again to the noble exertions made by the
Irish emigrants in America for the relief
of their friends at home. From the four
chief ports of the Union, it appears, they
annually transmit for this purpose more
than a million dollars, or upward of
£200,000. If to this amount be aded
the remittances which everybody knows
are continually sent from England and
Scotland, and also from the colonies, it
will not be thought improbable that the
Irish in all parts of the world send home
a larger sum than the very paltry amount
paid by the landlords under the head of
poor-rates.


   GENERAL APATHY           IN IRELAND.
(LEADING ARTICLE, MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1847.)


  There is one feature of the famine in
Ireland  which has forcibly impressed
itself on the English public, and which
we animadvert on now for the benefit of
those whom   it specially concerns. So
shockingly  prominent is it, that we
venture to say it will ever be recorded as
distinguishing the present from similar
calamities.  The astounding apathy of
the Irish themselves to the most horrible
scenes immediately under their eyes, and
capable of relief by the smallest exertion,
is something absolutely without a parallel
in the history of civilized nations. All
that we read of in the description of
Turkish or Chinese fatalism, of the in-
difference to life on the banks of the
Ganges, or the  brutality   of piratical
tribes, sinks to nothing, taking examples
and opportunities into account, compared
with the absolute inertia of the Irish in
the midst of the most horrifying scenes.
The Turkish pre destinarian sees a fellow-
creature struggling for life in the water,
and will not even     throw  him  a rope
though it lies at his feet. He sees a poor
wretch assaulted by assassins in the atreet,
and do-:s not even take the pipe from his
mouth to lend a hand or raise an alarm.


We can understand this, shocking as it
is ; but we cannot understand what ap-
pears to be of daily occurrence in Ireland,
and what we have on the authority of
persons who seem to share the general
stupidity.
   We are told by eye-witnesses of scores
and hundreds of poor creatures actually
dying for want of a meal ; families perish-
ing a member a day ; an old woman
found half-starved on Monday, dying on
Tuesday, dead on Wednesday, unburied
on Saturday, half devoured by rats on
Monday, dragged along the ground by a
dying brother, or roughly carted to the
burial-ground, and there laid with not
even a sufficient covering of soil. We are
told of whole families found dead at a
time,   in   populous  neighbourhoods.
Churchyards are scraped scarcely deeper
than the soil usually is for planting pota-
toes,and the coffins-if coffins there are-
laid three deep on the surface. But the
na r et with which these horrors are re-
lated by persons perfectly competent to
prevent them, is what utterly passes an
English apprehension. Informants of all
kinds-priests, who pretend to claim the
obedience of their flocks-laymen, able,


C~ __


82






1'HE   GREAT IRISH _FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


at least, to write a letter to a newspaper
and make a speech at a meeting-and
clergymen,living in cat!ies and parsonage
houses, with horses, servants, and car-
riages--tell us these things with as much
composure as they would of a murrain in
a rookery, or the destruction of a colony
of rats.
  A letter in the Irish news to-day is
only one of many we have inserted with
enual astonishment at the contents. A
clergyman at Skibbereen is visited by two
gentlemen from Oxford, who bring a con-
tribution from the University, elicited,
like  similar contributions from   many
other places, by the published accounts of
Skibbe~reen. The money sent to that
village  in  every   imaginable way, as
national relief money, as part of the
public subscriptions, and as more pri-
vate collect:ions, has been so considerable
as to double the population by enticing
poor creatures   from   all parts of the
country. This, of course, must increase
the difficulty of the clergy and other al-
moners, but it shows how much has been
done. 'This clergyman takes his visitors
round to see the sights of Skibbereen.
Awful sights they are ! But, not to speak
of the money that has been sent to this
place, the shocking incidents related are
such as mere manual help, with a very
little food, could have  obviated.   We
refer our readers to the letter. Let them
judge for themselves. Some days since
there was another case even more extra-
ordinary. A   clergyman told us of his
driving in a gig with his servant through
his parish, and being directed to a hut
where a woman had died and had not re-
ceived Christian burial. He looks over
the garden wall, and sees the corpse, half
in the ground, and torn by dogs, while, a
few yards off, he recognized as her hair
what he had mistaken for the tail of a
horse. He throws a stone at the dogs,
goes home, and writes a letter to the
newspaper.    If our readers will take
notice, they will find that the great bulk
of the letters describing the horrible in-
cidents of the famine betray the same un-
accountable  obtuseness of feeling   and
action. People die with money in their
pockets because the shop is a few miles
off, and nobody will fetch them a meal.
A sort of judicial helplessness interferes
at every  tage of the misfortune. The
whole population seem just a day too late
for every act of relief. The food or the
coffin is always brought twenty-four hours
behind   ti e time.   But that delay is
enough to settle the business.


   Why, what are these people all made
of ? Is Skibbereen like one of those cities
mentioned in Oriental history where the
men were all maimed of their hands by
some brutal conqueror ? Are they all
somnambulists ? Do they see these things
waking, or in a dream ? They are not
tongue-tied, why then are not their limbs
at liberty ? Could these things occur in
any English parish ? Did they in any of
the great plagues of London ? If the like
were happening anywhere in England, if
people were dying a dozen a day, the sur-
vivors could not eat, or drink, or sleep till
theyhad laid them decentlyin consecrated
soil. Any English clergyman would'hire
men at once, even if his own children
wanted a meal ; or if he     had   not a
shilling to hire a man,would take a spade
himself, and dig at least half-a-dozen
graves, two feet deep, in a day, and by
his example would soon gather a few
neighbours who     would see the work
thoroughly and religiously done. In all
these narratives the same thought will
occur to every English mind. How came
it to pass that the informant, being on
the spot, allowed these horrors to proceed
thus far ? In such cases no cure whatever
can make up for prevention. But the
Irish are always for curing, never for pre-
venting.   By   the news of to-day our
readers will see that while the people are
allowing coffins to be laid by scores actually
on the surface, simply because theywill not
he at the trouble of digging graves, they
are presenting thousands of pounds-for
what ? For covering the churchyards with
three feet thickness of earth ! Think of
that, Englishmen ! There is the way your
money is to be wasted ! In laying coffins
on the ground, and then drawing earth at
an immense expense to raise the church-
yard. Could the bare idea of such folly
enter an English mind ? Could anything
make it clearer that it is not money, but
men that Ireland wants-real men, pos-
sessed of average hearts, heads,and hands.
  Some of our readers, perhaps, may ima-
gine Skibbereen to be only an accumula-
tion of miserable objects, containing no
class to whom any appeal could be made
either for pecuniary or bodily assistance.
No such thing.     The savings-bank at
Castle Townsend doubled its deposits last
year. In the Union of Skibbereen, besides
many gentry, who consider themselves
no little people, and who would " cut"
ninety-nine hundredths of the subscribers
to the Irish destitution funds, there are
2,912 persons holding more than ten and
not more than twenty acres ; 2,4'31 hold-
                                  '2


83






TiHE   GR.EAT    IRISH    .FAMINE      OF  1845-1846.


ing more than twenty and not more than
fifty acres ; 420 holding more than fifty
and not more than a hundred acres ; 91
holding more than one hundred and not
more than two hundred acres ; 13 holding
more than two hundred and not more
than five hundred ; and five holding from
five hundred to a thousand acres. Is it
credible that among all these there was
not to be found the money, or the manual
strength, for giving decent Christian
burial to these poor creatures ?
   But the same feature runs through the
narratives and the complaints of every
other locality. Half the labour that has
been lavished in holding meetings to pass
resolutions against the Government or in
writingscurrilous andfoolish letters,would
havesulliced tosupply food,or,failing that,
Christian burial to all the cases of un-
doubted starvation. The priests set the
example, and    they  appear to confine
themselves entirely to the agreeable task
of calumniating the Government and dis-
covering in the calamity a new reason for
seizing the remnant of property left to
the Established Church. Why do they
not appeal to the more wealthy of their
own flocks ? They have the best oppor-
tunity  of knowing    the means of the
people ; and it is a very great mistake to
suppose that the substantial farmers are
suffering.  On the contrary, to a large
proportion of them the last year was a
very good year, and they have added to
its natural fertility an extensively suc-
cessful resistance to rents on the plea of
distress.
   On Saturday we gave reluctant inser-


tion to a string of stupid invectives
against the Imperial Government, the
union, and the clergy, and, as usual,
bringing home every death to the Eng-
lishman's door. They were in the shape
of resolutions drawn up at Ballinrobe by
a meeting of Dr. M'HALE's priests, pre-
sided over by a very reverend kinsman
of that amiable man. But are there no
people in the neighbourhood represented
by those clergy to whom they could ap-
peal instead of flinging their calumnies
across the Channel at a Legislature which
has just voted £8,000,000 to the relief of
the Irish ? Let us see how the farmers
in the union of Ballinrobe stand. There
are six persons holding,that is occupying,
from a thousand to two thousand acres,
21 from five hundred to a thousand, 111
from two to five hundred, 215 from one
to two    hundred, 439 from   fifty to a
hundred, 1,108 from twenty to fifty, and
2,252 from ten to twenty. The Very
Rev. Mr. M'HALE knows, as well as we
do, that a good many of these farmers are
making a very good thing of the famine.
Why does he not bestow on them a little
of his indignation ?
   But what can show more clearly the
absolute necessity of a law that shall com-
pel the richer to relieve the poorer, and
so exact those offices of charity which the
Roman Catholic priests are evidently un-
able or loath to prescribe ? It is a mis-
take to suppose that the Irish farmers are
an insolvent class. They have money,
but they hoard it. It is for their own
advantage they should be compelled to
use it in the employment of labour.


STATE OF SKIBBEREEN.
(MowDAY, MARCH 8, 1847.)


   (FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT.)
                     DUBLIN, MARcu 5.
  A letter from the Rev. Richard Boyle
Townsend, dated the 1st of March, gives
a harrowing sketch of the destitution that
still prevails in the doomed district of
Skibbereen. It appears that Lord Dufferin
and the Hon. Mr. Boyle (brother of Lord
Glasgow), aving read while in Oxford
some of Yir Townsend's statements, made
a collection in that city, and came over to
Ireland, in order to witness in person the
scenes of misery described in the public
journals.  Arrived   in  Skibbereen, the
noble Lord and his companion waited on


Mr. Townsend, who acted as their guide
in an excursion through the town and
suburbs. The rev. gentleman's narrative
proceeds as follows :-
  " I carried them to one of our cabins,
the best of its kind. I took them there,
supposing it free from disease ; but the
onlyinmate then within told us she was af-
fected with diarrhoea. They were shocked.
We went from this to the- old church-
yard. There they saw the mode of sepul-
ture now common, of thro'wing the bodies
out of a shell coffin into a pit, and cover-
ing them so slightly that a few scrapes of
a shovel soon laid bare the abdomen of


_ I_


__ __
r


84






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


one that was the uppermost. You may
be sure this sufficed for so far.  We
passed thence to the place occupied by
their more fortunate fellow-sufferers from
the workhouse. These had coffins. They
were, however, scarcely covered, and the
ends of two of one tier of coffins (for
there are three placed one over another
in a grave about two feet deep, and the
upper one comes level with the      sur-
face) were exposed. There was a pit in
progress of being filled by bodies from
the same house at the feet of these, and I
asked why it was left in that uncovered,
unmade state. The men employed digging
a lengthened pit said that the persons
employed by the workhouse authorities
had br ught four bodies as yet, and, as
they expected six more that evenirg,tbey
left the pit unfinished.   His Lordship
' never saw such a sight before.' ' They
had buried six the preceding morning from
the workhouse, and four more in the even-
ing of the same day. And they are in the
habit of bringing some days 1I bodies t- be
thus interred.' Such was the information
given by those disinterested workmen.
We left this, only to be witnesses of
a scene which, while it baffles description,
shows powerfully the terrible effect such
a state of things as ours is producing
on a people not previously brutalized!
At the end of what is called the New-
bridge, there is a miserable shed at the
gable-end of as miserable a cabin. The
parish coffin arrived just as we reached
the end of the bridge. I begged his Lord-
ship to stand and see. The men standing
by begged we might move off. But we
had come to see. The coffin was taken
from  the cart--its very size, to fit all
dimensions of persons, is in itself calcu-


lated to strike with horror. It was
brought to the door. It was too large for
this to admit it.   One of the fellows
began to blaspheme and curse at others
not disposed to do his work. They went
in, and after some minutes' rummaging
amongst her dying family of four which
she had left, they brought out the naked
and emaciated skeleton of an old woman
-a mere little torn remnant of what had
once been a quilt being just thrown over
the abdomen. One took her by the head
and the other by the heels and flung her
into the coffin, making some shocking ex-
clamation ! It was too much.     We
turned   from    the  sight  completely
sickened, and his Lordship made up his
mind   that ' he had seen enough. He
would not call on the doctor,' with
whom he was to go round the next day.
Hie had determined to stay the next
day to see all the multitudinous effects of
our terrible famine. He could look on
no more. He went off next day. In ad-
dition to the £50 he had collected
in Oxford, he gave £10    in  remem-
brance of the scenes he had witnessed.
The poor old woman's shattered frame he
never forgot the whole evening. And,
to say truth, when I returned I could eat
no dinner. I tried to eat, but could not.
His Lordship did not know how I could
stand such scenes and sights. God knows,
nothing but a stern sense of duty detains
me here ; for we cannot, with all we get,
do more than give a taste--we have not
enough to feed the creatures---victims of
a most mistaken nationial policy, on whom
the principles of political economy have
been carried out in practice to a mur-
derous extent."


   PLEAS AGAINST         A  POOR     LAW.
(LEADING ARTICLE, FnIDAY, MARCH 1.2, 1847.)


  Our readers probably know, as a mere
political curiosity, that a certain ima-
ginary claim, a trtiing little 1 0 U to the
amount of £60,000,000, or thereabouts,
has been brought up against the Jmperial
Treasury by that Nell-known capitalist
and money-lender the Irish people.   We
are not going to open that interesting
case, though, happily, we have accounts
in ouir possession which not only rebut
the   claim, but   establish   an   even
more formidable balance on the other


side. We only mention the claim to dis-
tinguish it from another assertion of a
much more tangibloe and practical charac-
t'r. It is alleged by many, not that Ire-
land is our creditor on a .lon,g- tanding
trade account, but that it is so yoor, so
bankrupt, as :ot to be able to , ay its own
prol or expenses. Be our der. x d right
or wrong, -we re told it is vim to urge it.
The landlord is the cnly responsible man,
and his back is broken already. What
can: he pay    " Sue a begg r," and all


_  ___~~_1_1~


85






THE    GREAT Il ISH FAMTNE     OF 1845-1846,


the damages you can recover will be that
which you would rather be without. A
man with nothing in the world cannot be
either generous or just. Ireland is quietly
gazetted by these writers as a bankrupt.
What is the    use, say they, of arguing
from your own case, your own full coffers,
and your own well-stored     warehouses,
against a mere ruined nation, which
really had not the means of doing as you
do were it ever so disposed, and were the
justice  of the case ever so manifest ?
Accordingly, our demand for a good Poor
Law and something like equality of taxa-
tion, is called as gross an inhumanity as if
we were to urge an old man to.keep pace
with a young one. Our plea of mercy is
thrown back in our teeth, and, when we
had no other intention than to secure a
provision for the millions, we are asked
just to have some little consideration for
a much more select and deserving class-
the old original pauper of Ireland-the
grandfather of all destitute persons- the
landlord himself.
  Of course Ireland is very poor.  We
see that it is. A country where the great
mass of the population do not work more
than three o months out of the twelve, and
where nearly all that is got from  the
earth, over and above a bare maintenance
to the peasantry, is consumed in luxury
or display, or exported, cannot but be
poor. Either of those evils is enough to
impoverish a country. Ireland is cursed
with hiem both. But at the same time
there lies great room for fallacy and de-
ception  under  general    assertions of
poverty.   Theire are many    states and
conditions of poverty. In what sense is
Ireland poor . Is it so poor as to produce
very little, and that with great difficulty ?
Is it unimprovable ? Is the soil ungrate-
ful ? With the present amount of labour
spent upon it, does it yield no super-
abundance for exportation ? Poor as Ire-
land is, all these   questions  must be
answered in the negative.     What was
Lord GEORGE BENTINK'S receipt for the
famine as s on as it appeared in good
earnest, and could no longer be called a
Tamworth lie ? He discovered that Ire-
land annually exported enough of corn
alone to supply the whole deficiency of
the potato crop. " Let it keep those three
millions of quarters at home,and they will
feed, at short commons, and with a little
else to help, five millions of people."
This was his advice, to the best of our
recollection, and very fair advice as re-
garded the   end, though    the way and
means were not very clear. We cherish the


memory of that suggeston, impracticable,
almost to the verge of mockery, as it was.
It recognized a great principle--the lien
that poverty has on the produce of the
land. Even    to  the  inconvenience of
those who had been accustomed to depend
on that supply, and had made all their
arrangements accordingly, Lord GEORGE
was for putting an embargo on the corn
at the Irish ports, and sending it back to
the famished children of the soil.
  That suggestion also gives a fortunate
prominence to the fact that there is that
quantity of corn, the food of three mil-
lions, annually sent out of the island.
Nor is that all. The other exports of food
-of cattle,pigs,beef, pork, butter, cheese,
lard, eggs, and other nutritious commo-
dities are on the same excessive scale.
" Poor Ireland" exports mre fooeed than
any other country in the whole world--
not merely more in proportion to its
people, or its area, but absolutely more.
Its exports of food are greater than those
of the United States, or of Russia, vast
and inexhaustible as we are apt to think
the resources of those countries. Such a
fact as this is very compatible with a
people being poor ; but it at least shows
that one ought to inquire what sort of
a poverty it is. A nation of slaves or of
helots may be poor, and worse than poor,
and yet enrich the world. Cotton, sugar,
spices, gold, silver, diamonds, and pearls
are, with few exceptions, the produce of
slaves.  Some    of the most celebrated
granaries of the world, such as Sicily,
Pontus, and Egypt have been the scenes
of the most flagrant oppression. In a
these  cases  the people are    poor, the
countries are poor, but the poverty is not
the poverty of nature ; it is rather a
social than a physical defect. Stand on
the quays of Ireland and see the full-
freighted vessels leaving her noble rivers
and coves. You will there see that so
far from Ireland being utterly, radically,
and incurably poor, barren, and unprofit-
able, she is one of the great feeders of
this populous island ; nay, its chief pur-
veyor. It is true, that several portions
of this island might be taken, which out
of a very much less area contribute to the
wants of the adjacent districts even a
greater amount of sustenance. But that
is hardly a fair comparison.      Ireland
does this out of her poverty, besides
feeding, after a manner, an immense
population. It is this that adds so pain-
ful an interest to her miserable state-
that she should " make many rich," and
yet remain herself so poor, and be the


86






THE    GREAT IR1ISH       FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


author of an abundance which she is not
permitted herself to enjoy.
  It is very clear, then, that the poverty
of Ireland   is not irremediable. Lord
3EORGE BENTINCK has given us some clue
to a remedy. This drain of food must be
first stanched. But in order to that it is
necessary to ask who it is that sucks and
exhausts the life blood of the island ?
Who is the exactor of this fatal tribute ?
Does it go to pay debt, or rent, or tax, or
the price of equivalent imports ? They
who are pleased to represent Ireland as
the victim of an Imperial oppression will
be apt to imagine that the State, the tax-
gatherer, is the master drain. On the
contrary, the State draws nothing from
Ireland. As far as regards her public
expenditure, Ireland has all the advan-
tages, and more than the advantages, of
an independent kingdom. Great Britain
not only draws nothing from the Irish
Treasury, but gives Ireland the gratuitous
benefit of her own enormous revenue,
both in   respect of her colonial em-
pire, besides   other common     advan-
tages, and also in extensive grants and
advances for the peculiar relief and irm-
provement of Ireland.
  The whole of the Irish revenue, in-
cluding  every sixpence    obtained  for
customs, excise, stamps, and postage--
from tea, sugar, coffee, tobacco, spirits,
and from every other article imported or
manufactured in the island, is spent in
Ireland itself. Not one sixpence is re-
mitted to the British Exchequer. That
taxation cannot be called heavy or oppres-
sive which is levied almost exclusively on
luxuries, and not in all cases as high even
on them   as in the rest of the empire;
while Ireland is excused, with what we
think an ill-judged kindness, from many
English taxes. This light taxation is all
refunded on Irish soil. We repeat for
the information of persons who probably
never saw or heard of the figures of the
question, that Ireland pays not one six-
pence to the British-that is, the Imperial
Excheau er. In the year ending January
5, 1845, the total expenditure out of the


revenue of Ireland was £4,197,482. Of
this £564,137 was for payments out of the
income in its progress to the Exchequer
for charges of collection, and other pay-
ments ; £1,395,127 was for the dividend,
interest, and management of the public
funded debt payable in Ireland; £585,350
for other permanent payments out of the
Consolidated Fund ; £1,183,780 for the
army in Ireland; £93,460 for the Ord-
nance ; £373,527 for miscellaneous pay-
ments ; and in the place of the gradually
diminishing sum which in previous years
had been applied to the reduction of the
National Debt and remittances to the
British Exchequer, the return for that
year was nil. In point of fact the current
had already set in from the British to
the Irish Treasury. The "advances "
are not reckoned in this statement, and
the balance due on them to the Consoli-
dated Fund at January 5, 1845, already
amounted to £1,235,822. Since that day
it is unnecessary to say that Ireland has
contributed   to the   British Treasury
nothing but an enormous loss ; nor is there
the least likelihood of any other kind of
contribution for many a year to come.
   Ireland, then, is at the same time rich
 and poor. It produces a vast superabun-
 dance of foeed, but that food is drained
 from  its shores. It is not, however,
 drained by the State. It is drained, in a
 great measure, by the landlords and their
 creditors, who, the more they can get, the
 more they will drain. Now, what does
 mercy to Ireland require under these cir-
 cumstances ? Is it mercy to let the land-
 lord go on, drain, drain, drain, for ever I
 Is it mercy to let him go on squeezing
 the hapless peasant down to the skin of
 his potato ? Is it of any use-has it been
 of any use, to remit rates and taxes, and
 lend money to the landlords ? No. The
 only mercy is to keep in the island, and
 upon the spot, the gracious gifts of PovI-
 DENCE and rewards of human toil, and to
 compel the landowner to spend them in
 the employment of the labourer and the
 relief of the poor.


            THE    POOR    RELIEF BILL.
(DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT, SATURBAY, MARCH 13, 1847.)


  In the House of Commons, on the
question that the SPEAKER do now leave
the chair for the committee on the Poor
Relief (Ireland)Bill..
  Lord J. RUssELL declared his wish to


state the recent   proceedings of   the
Government with respect to the cala-
mitous state of affairs in Ireland, and to
call attention to one or two of the pro-
visions of the Bill then before the House.


-----.


87






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1840.


In the present condition of public affairs,
when clouds and darkness rested on Ire-
land, and when many perils were before
the House, it was only right that he
should make the House acquainted with
the steps which Government had taken
from time to time to relieve distress, and
also with the measures which, if carried,
must exercise a serious influence on the
destiny of not merely Ireland but of
England also. Having entered at con-
siderable length into the reasons which
had induced the Government to adopt
some propositions and to reject others,
and having given the House a history of
the operation of the various legislative
'measures which had been passed with the
view of providing food and employment
for the people of Ireland, heturned to the
consideration of the Poor Law Bill, on
which it was necessary for him to address
the House at some length in consequence
of a representation that had recently been
made to him by 64 peers and 23 members
of that House well acquainted and long
conversant with the condition of Ireland.
He could not consent to the reasons which
they had urged upon him with a view of
inducing him to give up those provisions
of the Bill which afforded out-door relief
to the able-bodied labourer when in desti-
tution ; and, above all, he differed from
their assertion that the experience of the
last 32 months was conclusive against the
plan of Poor Law relief which he was
now   proposing.   He pointed out the
difference between the relief now afforded
on-public works in Ireland, and the relief
to be given hereafter, in and out of the
Irish workhouses, and showed that there
was nothing in the Bill which made the
relief to be given to the able bodied
labourer of Ireland gratuitous relief. In
England, when the workhouse was full
and relief was given out of the work-
house, labour was given as a test of desti-
tution, and he proposed that a similar
plan should be adopted in Ireland. Ad-
mitting, however, to these noblemen and
gentlemen, that it might be very difficult
to prevent out door relief from being ac'.
companied with abuses, he asked them,
since they objected so strongly to his pro-
position, whether they had any plan to
propose as a substitute for it, and, if they
had, to explain it to him in detail. He
repeated to them in public the question
which he had asked in private, and hoped
that he should be more successful now
than he had been then in obtaining an
answer. He admitted that there was
much of charity in Ireland; but it was


not the charity of the rich to the poor,
but the charity of the poor to the very
poor. Until the passing of the Poor Law
Act, which he had first introduced into
Ireland, and which he now asked leave to
extend, he did not think that there was
any burden imposed, on either the resi-
dent or absentee landlord of Ireland, ex-
cept the optional burden arising from the
calls of private charity, and that was
casily avoided. Considering, then, that
the destitute in Ireland who were not in
the workhouses had hitherto been sup-
ported by the voluntary charity of the
middle and still more by that of the
lower classes, he saw no other mode of
supporting them in future, when the con-
dition of Ireland would be entirely
changed in consequence of the diminished
cultivation of the potato by tl:e small
owners, than by adopting the Bill which
he now recommended to the House. In
making that announcement, he thought
that he could support it on grounds per-
fectly plain and intelligible. What he
now proposed as a permanent Poor Law
for Ireland had been found in England to
be perfectly consistent with the wealth,
security, and pro-perity of the country.
Let no one talk to him of the abuses of
the Poor Law; for we had reformed
them in England ; and yet in the last ten
years we had spent £49,000,000 in support
of the poor. He contended that it was
good economy to lay out such a sum
for  such a purpose. He showed the
mode in which the English Poor Law had
met the destitution of the year 1840,
when there was a greater want than or-
dinary of food and employment for the
poor of England ; and he now proposed
that in Ireland, in future, when there
was a deficient, instead of an average,
harvest, the same mode and nature of
relief should be applied to that country.
He admitted that the present calamity of
Ireland was so overwhelming that no
Poor Law would have been able fully to
meet its emergency. Most unfortunately
for Ireland, by the connivance of land-
lords, tenants, and labourers, there had
grown up on its soil a miserable cottier
population, and an   immense army of
mendicants, whose numbers and condi-
tion had been frequently portrayed to
the House. Such being the case, he did
not imagine that such a calamity as the
present could   have been met by the
gentry and farmers of Ireland. Though
many of the resident gentry had nobly
performed their duty, hcmust say, speak-
ing of them as a body, that the exertions


_ _


88






THE GREAT IRISHI FAMINE OF 1845-1846


of property in Ireland at the present
c:isis had not been so great as they ought
to have been. He thought that among
the resident landlords there were many
who ought to go further than th-ey had yet
gone in cntributi -nto relief of distress and
in abstinence from luxury, and that was
an arditionl reason why he should not
leave the destitute poor of that country
any longer to the mere hazard of being
relieved. He had been told that in some
parts of Ireland the population was so
great, and the property so inadequate to
its support, that property must inevitably
break down under the operation of this
Bill. He did not believe the assertion.
He admitted that his provision for the
poor might take a large proportion of the
rental now obtained ; but that certainly
was not the case at present. In Ingland
the average rate levied for the relief of
the poor amounted to is. 7d. in the
pound upon the rental ; but in Ireland it
did not exceed 5ad. He did not mention
this as a reproach to the proprietors of
Ireland-for they had done all that was
required of them by law--bu t as a proof
that there was property in Ireland on
which Government could call for a larger
assessment than that paid at present to
the relief of the poor. Every one had
been shocked by the number of deaths
which had occurred in the union of Skib-
bereen, and by the miserable condition of
its surviving inhabitants. Now, the pro-
perty of that union was estimated to the
rates at £8,000 a-year ; but its real annual
value was not less than £100,000 a-year.
The poor-rate there was 6d. in the pound.
It had been raised, it was true, in Novem-
ber last to 9d. ; but that rate had never
been levied. He mentioned this circum-
stance as a proof that there had not been
in Ireland that proper assessment and
levy of the rates for the relief of the poor
which circumstances required; and that
was. another justification for this Bill.
He believed that it would induce the
landlords and farmers of Ireland to give
more employment than at present; for
when they found that the labourer must
be supported either while he was doing
work useful to themselves, or while he
was doing, work of no use to them at all,
they-would prefer to support him in the


first state rather than in the latter. He
then proceeded to defend that clause of
the Bill by which it is provided that one-
half of the Board of Guardians should be
formed of magistrates being. e. ofcio
guardians. He consider:d that the dis-
satisfaction which that clause had excited
in Ireland must have arisen from    the
belief that the magistratesof that country
were hostile to the religious feelings and
prejudices of the great bulk of the popu-
lation.  Now, if the magistrates were
always to be considered by the farmers
and labourers of Ireland as their enemies,
he should be afraid of placing in the
Board of Guardians an equal body of
farmers and magistrates. But we were
on the eve of great changes in Ireland;
and he believed that we were now in a
course of transition to those times when
all the Irish would act willingly together
for the benefit of their common' country,
and would credit his assertion that in
England there was no wish to debar them
from any privilege or object of ambition
which was naturally their due. He hoped
that in these Boards of Guardians we
should see Protestants and Roman Catho-
lics, Tories, Whigs, Radicals, and Re-
pealers, differing as they did in religious
faith and political opinions, blending,
nevertheless, in social harmony, and
acting together in administering justice,
in conducting public works, in superin-
tending agricultural improvements, and
in relieving the destitute, as became the
inhabitants of the same country. It was
with this view, and not with any inten-
tion of giving any supremacy to the e
officio magistrates, thathe had introduced
this clause into the Bill, In reply to the
statement that there were leading Irish
proprietors in the Cabinet who might in-
fluence  its decisions on   this subject
favourably to the rights of property and
unfavourably to those of the poor, he
remarked that those    members of the
Cabinet were parties with him in thepro-
position of this measure. cIf it imposed
burdens on the land of Ireland, they
were willing to bear their share of it, and
it was with their sanction that he moved
that the House do now resolve itself into
committee on the Poor Relief (Ireland)
Bill.


_


89






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


(LEADING ARTICLE, SATU DAY, VARCH 13, 1847.)


   Lord JOHN RUSSELL does not at all
 overstate the difficulty of his path when
 he says that clouds and darkness rest
 over Ireland, and legislation is beset with
 perils. Often and often as statesmen may
 have thought that they had come to the
 bottom, of Irish distress, no one can
 deny that a worse than all has arrived,
 and, moreover, that a worse still remains.
 The half of the populous island, usually
 verging on famine, now actually suffers
 that dreadful extremity ; nor is there any
 appearance of early relief.  The usual
 food of the people has perished, and
 threatens not to return for a period far
 beyond the calculations of man.     The
 only storehouse to which the public pur-
 veyor can look for relief is that natural
 magazine created by the industry of the
 people, over and above their own simple
 wants, and usually reserved for the pay-
 ment of rent and other outgoings ; and
 the supplies providently arriving from
 distant shores. The former of these is
 that which common sense and economy
 would teach us most to depend upon. But
 here is the difficulty.  To arrest that
 nourishing and fertilizing stream in its
 course, to detain it on the spot, to con-
 vert it into the relief of distress, the
 wages of labour, and the material of re-
 production, is at least an apparent and
 possible loss to those who have hitherto
 exacted, wasted, or alienated this store.
 Hence a serious struggle   between the
 rights of the many and the rights of the
 few - between starving peasants and
 straitened proprietors-between famine
 and pestilence on the   one hand, and
 decay of fortune and position on the
 other. Such are the perilous alternatives
 before the House ; such the clouds and
 darkness over Irish affairs.
   For our own part, we do not hesitate
 to avow, as we have ever avowed on
 zimilar occasions, that at such a crisis the
 few must give way to the many, the part
 to the whole. While we most thoroughly,
 end at the same time most gladly, believe
 hat the proprietors exaggerate the sacri-
 fices demanded at their hands, we assert
.with all boldness that land was created
for man, and not man      for land; that
;landlords are made for the people, and
~heir peculiar interests are only minis-
terial and subordinate to the good of the
whole. A general in the field must lay
hold of the stores that he finds, and


devote them in the first instance to that
purpose which he is bound to consider a
paramount object-the maintenance of
his army.   The compensation    he may
think proper to afford to the owners is
another and a secondary question. What
is Lord JoHN    RuSSELL but our com-
mander-in-chief in an unexampled cam-
paign ;-Ireland the field, famine the foe,
and the army a vast population, without
magazines, order, material, or, in a word,
any other resource than the boldness and
skill of their chief 1 The necessity of the
crisis admits not the usages, or rather
the abuses, of peace. If an evil custom
has deprived the labourer of his hire,this
is just the time to found a more equitable
system. Labour and wages, population
and wealth, have suffered a long divorce,
and must now be reconciled. Grant that
the change is great, and what a man
would   not willingly  undertake ; it is
forced on the Legislature.  Society is
reconstructed in disaster ; each new birth
is in throes, and institutions are the
monuments of wrong. In " clouds and
darkness " it is necessary to take a short
and simple rule, the guidance cf some
great moral truth.    The first law of
nature, that the people must be fed, and
that more particularly from the work of
their hands, is the clue of this labyrinth.
In  the   public  weal an   enlightened
statesman will discern the cloud by day
and the pillar of fire by night through
this terrible wilderness ; and public weal
is an empty name unless it includes the
relief of those who are ready to perish,
and the employment of those who are
able to work, but have not the oppor-
tunity.
  The Minister takes an     unassailable
position when he rests the new Irish
Relief Bill on the new facts of the case.
He is entitled to call it the child of neces-
sity. It is contrary to the theories of his
less experienced age-and    less fearful
times. Ireland has undergone a virtual
revolution.   The food of independent
poverty  has failed.   The  spontaneous
charity of the lower classes has been ex-
hausted. The armies of mendicancy have
been destroyed or disbanded. All that
-miserable system, which was rather an
apology for society than a civilized society
itself, has fallen to the ground. Poli-
ticians held it up as long as they could.
Secretaries of State found it convenient,


".-


90






THE    GREAT IRISH        FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


and eulogized the noble and trustworthy
custom of a perpetual inbreeding beggary.
The right of preying on the infant re-
sources of rising enterprise, and blighting
the first bloom of prosperity, was cried
up as a sacred and infallible refuge, which
it would have been impious to supplant
with the coarse expedient of a poor's-rate.
All that is passed. PROVIDENCE, not nian,
has put an end to that folly. The cottier
remains without a crop ; the beggar
without a dole. A physical revolution
has overthrown the reign of mendicancy
and conacre. There is no possible, no
conceivable  alternative, but to create
another system on the ruins, or, rather,
in the place of the old. Time is the
greatest innovater, and we only submit to


his laws when we erect a new system on
a new foundation-that is, the present
facts of the case. Without a real Poor
Law, offering relief to the destitute and
employment to the idle, how are we to
meet the new phenomenon of a people in
the midst of comparative abundance, but
deprived of their wonted food ; paying
rent, but without a maintenanc, ; de-
pending on a root that will not thrive, or
on neighbours that cannot give ?     A
great crisis justifies and demands " a
great experiment."  The  dictates  of
nature are interpreted by the voice of the
people ; and from all sides are returned
" innumerable echoes" to the Ministerial
decision.


THE DAY OF NATIONAL HUMILIATION.
  (LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, MARCI 26, 1847.)


  The cloud is thickening. We are just
fresh from a profound acknowledgment
of national demerits andan earnest depre-
cation of national sufferings. As a people
we have deplored our general shortcom-
ings. We have expressed our sense of
the share that we have had in provoking
inflictions, which we have made our own
by sympathy. We have made no distinc-
tion between Celt and Saxon. We have
confessed English and Irish misdeeds or
omissions to be alike worthy of punish-
ment. Our humiliation has repudiated
the sectarianism of caste ; our prostration
was that of the whole empire, not of
a portion ; of a people, not of a pro-
vince.
  But, while our language has shown
that we did not disavow our share in the
guilt which has drawn down these cala-
mities, and our actions have proved our
willingness to alleviate them, we have
never, even in our bitterest self-reproach
or our most extravagant prodigality,
claimed a monopoly either of the crime
or its atonement. We have taken to our-
selves our just burden, and more than
our just burden. But we have never
said that it ought to be wholly and only
ours. We have called on our Irish fellow-
subjects to bear some partin the cost and
consequences of a calamity which we
might have thrown almost entirely upon
them. A higher sentiment has dictated
a more generous policy. But it will
require something more cheering than


present events to demonstrate that a
generous policy is a wise one. While
we write, the uselessness-the worse than
uselessness-of our past efforts glares
painfully upon is. The voice of peni-
tential prayer has scarcely ceased to echo
in our churches, when we awake to the
prospect of evils even greater than those
which we have passed. We have done,
as a people, all that the most exacting
foe or the most jealous rival could have
imposed on our submission or our con-
science. In every city of the kingdom,
in every village, are seen signs of volun-
tary privation and self-denial. Our play-
houses, our concerts, our music-rooms, our
schools, no less than our churches and
public meetings, have been the arena of an
unselfish luxury, and a merciful enjoy-
ment. The stage has borne its votive
tribute to a more imperious cause than
any that has yet hallowed the sombre
pall of tragedy. The " poor Irish," the
" Irish famine," the " Irish relief fund,"
have all become household words, preg-
nant with a mighty meaning and fruitful
ofa noble prodigality. No Ministerial
tax, no autocratic ukase, could have
wrung from the nation more than has
gushed forth from the kindly heartiness
of the young, the poor, and the obscure,
as well as of the rich and the distin4
guished, not only through the open
channels of public subscription, but also
through the myriad streams of small and
humble contributions. And .yet, after


91






92        THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


all that we have done, in what condition
is Ireland ?
  Why do we state these things ? Why
do we harp on them as grievances ? Do
we brag in empty vaunt of a charity
made necessary by a crisis ? or do we
repine that the heart of benevolence was
not hardened, and its arm paralyzed,
when the cloud first gathered and the
plague first threatened the land ? GoD
forbid ! No such thing. Were it just
and needful that this, or more than this,
should be done by England, we know it
would be, and we should rejoice to see it
done. All this, and ten times as much as
this, would be achieved by the charity of
England, were it absolutely needful that
England should take the work upon her-
self. Comforts would be generally denied,
luxuries would be universally abandon:d,
equipages laid down, establishments dis-
b:nded, ev ry scheme that a generous
economy could devise earnestly embraced,
every assessment wilth which a bountiful
opulence could tax its own superfluities
would be rigidly enforced, if no other
human means were discerned for miti-
gating an enormous calamity.   But this
would be the condition indispensably pre-
cedent to such wholesale alms. All other
methods should    have been tried ; all
other exertions exhausted. The afficted
country should have helped to work out
its own redemption, ere it reposed incon-
fident security on the vicarious activity
of its wealthier neighbour. It is because
this has not been done ,that we repine;
and not only this, but because the in-
activity which shocks us is so hugely out
of proportion to   the demands of the
time-so monstrously inconsistent with
the details of suffering and the clamours
for help--so   hideously   irreconcilable
with all pretensions to the barest notion
of social obligations-so repulsive in its
present form, so dreadful in all that it
heralds. It is not simply the inertness of
Eastern submission, at once content and
superstitious, shrinking from   exertion
both because it might offend the Deity,
and because the ills which it might alle-
viate had been made tolerable by habit.
It is a crafty, a calculating, and a covetous
idleness; an abstinence from work, but
not from the wages of work ; a specula-
tive confidence in the assistance of others,
joined to a thorough repudiation of all
self-exertion.
  The gloom of the winter has passed
sway, a winter that, will never be for-
gotten by this generation ! The season
has come when not. only the herb of the


field should shoot forth, and   the tree
should blossom, but the hopes of man
also bring forth their fruits. But in Ire-
land, alas ! the voice of Nature strikes
upon listless ears and sluggish hearts. In
vain has spring returned to men of idle
hands and nerveless purpose. In vain has
the iron tongue of experience spoken its
warning to men who hug their indolent
misery as a treasure, far more precious
than the wages of unaided      industry.
They have tasted of public money, and
they find it pleasanter to live on alms
than on labour. The alternative raises
no feelings of shame or self-abasement,
Deep, indeed, has the canker eaten ; not
into the core of a precarious and suspected
root, but into the very hearts of the
people, corrupting them with a fatal
lethargy, and debasing them by a fatuous
dependence ! Not the subsistence of the
year alone, but the hope of many years is
at stake ; the honour, the industry, and
the independence of a million of men!
  The time for sowing ihe seed is come,
but no seed is sown. The man who has
dawdled on the public works will not toil
on the private farm. The farmer who has
received is unwilling to disburse money.
The landholder who will get no spring
rent has a good excuse for not hiring
labourers.   And the priest, dependent
on all, encourages all in their complaints
and clamours ! So closely intertwined
are the various combinations of Irish non-
feasance and mis-feasance ! The farmer
backs the labourer in his idleness, and
both protect the landlord in his neglect.
The Government must do all ! It has fed
the people through one famine, why
should it not bear the  expense  of a
second ? Thus the plough rusts, the spade
lies idle and the fields fallow. The worst
symptoms of war desecrate the meridian
of peace :--
    " Squalent abductis arva colonis."
  The Government Inspector in the
King's County writes thus :-
  " I have been credibly informed, from
various quarters, that the class of small
farmers, holders of from 25 to 30 acres
of land, have secreted bceth money and
seed amply sufficient for their holdings ;
but these men are doing       absolutely
nothing, under the impression that the
Government will eventually prepare their
land and give them  seed for it, rather
than see it uncropped. This opinion
pervades most classes, but particularly
the one above-mentioned ; and   it is
worthy of noto,. thatrthis class (generally
speaking)has not contributed one shilling






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


to the relief funds, but have dismissed the
one or two farm servants they usually
kept, and in not a few instances have got
their sons on the public works, to the
exclusion of the wholly destitute work-
man."
  The following instance, given by Cap-
tain FISHBOURNE, writing to Mr. TREVEL-
YAN, shows the ruinous effect of Govern-
mental assistance  on  a people whose
natural temperament disinclines them to
help themselves, as well as the cunning
which they enlist in support of their de-
liberate and darling indolence :- .
  "The difficulties encounteredare incal-
culable. I may mention a fact, part of
which I mentioned when I last wrote,
which will serve to show the unreas nable-
ness or wickedness which is abroad. Mr.
Thomas Mahon, owner of some property
near Quin, in this county, being told by
his tenants that they had no seed, pur-
chased 800 stone of seed wheat, with the
intention of giving it to them ; but,
doubting their integrity of purpose, he
had it steeped in a solution of sulphate of
iron, and then announced that they might
have it, but they, tinding that they could
not eat it, would not take a grain. He
then asked them to let him have the
land, and he would sow it and give them
the balance, after deducting the expense
of seed and sowing ; they refused this
also. Mr. Mahon is a man of the most


undoubted integrity, so they never could
have doubted for a moment the honesty
of his professions. I am convinced that
they have the seed, and that they will
eventually sow the land themselves, or
that they have entered into a combina-
tion not to sow ; this, I am told, has been
done in this county, in the barony of
Corcomroe."
  What will they next insist on ? That
the Government should give them seed ;
and not only this, but sow it for them 3
And then, that the ordinary duties of
husbandry shall be performed by Govern-
ment servants, under Government super-
vision, at Government cost, and with the
usual reward of    Government under-
takings--a deficit? To this they must
come, to be consistent with themselves.
  It is, indeed, the gloomiest feature of
the crisis. Physical evil could be miti-
gated, or, if not mitigated, endured.
Labourers' poverty might  be assisted
through its temporary struggle by a pru-
dent benevolence. Disease     might be
stayed by art and care. Privations might
be lightened by sympathizing affluence.
But what art, what policy, what wealth
is cunning enough, wise enough, rich
enough to assuage the moral evils and
stay the moral disease ofa vast population
steeped in the cbngenial mire of voluntary
indigence and speculating on the gains of
a perpetuated famine ?


THE ENGLISH    AND   IRISH  NATIONAL DEBTS.
     (LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1847.)


  Ireland is the land of fable. Many and
pleasing are  the fictions with which
Celtic literature has amused and excited
the less ardent imagination of Saxon
neighbours. But no fiction of her bards
and no figures of her rhetoric come
within many degrees of that pleasant fable
in which it is gravely told how she lent
England, and how England owes to her,
some sixty millions of money. The par-
ticular date of this little transaction has
never been accurately fixed. But it is
generally represented  as the balance-
sheet of a running account, which Ireland
exhibited against her importunate credi-
tor previously to the detested   union,
under cover of which England, we are
sorry to say, is said to have played the
part of a scurvy insolvent. It is the test
of a well conceived romance that it in-


spires its readers with a firm belief in the
truth, or makes them admit the proba-
bility, of the incidents which it embodies.
For this reason, no tale could have been
more ingeniously  designed, or  more
curiously adapted to the minds which it
was intended to influence, than this was;
for to this day the Kerry and Connemara
" boys " are devoutly convinced that the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER owes them
some sixty millions of principal, to say
nothing of the interest, which, however,
they are not averse to waive at a pinch.
  It is always ungracious to dispel a
pleasing error ; but it is sometimes neces-
sary as a matter of self-defence. And as
there is no knowing what our position
might be if the union were to be repealed
by either country, it is just as well to
square accounts now, that we may not be


__


__


93






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


frightened hereafter by the items of the
bill against us. Facts are proverbially
stubborn ; and there is no stouter foe to
figures of rhetoric than figures of arith-
metic. With every disposition     in the
world to take the ipsi dizxrunt of Con-
ciliation-hall financiers, we feel ourselves
bound, in the first instance, to apply to
our old friends the first two rules in
COCKER. If they disprove, not even the
account books of Burghquay can convince
us.   Now, it appears on    reference to
Treasury papers, published by order of
the House of Commons, that on the 1st
of February, 1817, the funded debt of
Ireland amounted to something more than
£130,500,000. By the contract of incor-
poration with England    this debt, in-
cluding the one funded in Great Britain,
and the other funded in Ireland, was
transferred to the British Excheque r in
that year, and the interest due on this
capital has been charged thereon ever
since. This at the present time amounts
t) about four millions a-year. It is
notorious that a stock grievance of the
RepealErs has been what they c-ill he
unfair apportionment of the national debt
between the two countri s. " It is true,"
they say, " that England took upon her-
self the Irish debt ; but she did it in
this fashion,-whilst she took her share
of the £130,000,000, and the annual in-
terest upon it, she threw upon Ireland a
moiety of her own £800,000,000, and the
annual inferest upon that ; so that Ire-
land has exchanged the sole payment of
£4,000,000 a-year for a participation in
the payment of £27,000,000 a-year, and a
redeemable debt of £140,000,000 for an
unredeemable    one  of £800,000,000 !"
And this is universally believed in Ire-
land, where, of course, England is looked
upon as a very artful dodger for having
" done " the sister-country. We need
scarcely say that, except for claptrap or
Repeal purposes,we have no right to this
national compliment. We have gained
nothing at all by this consolidation of the
exchequers. Nor has Ireland lost any-
thing by it. It is all the other way.
Whatever hypothetical      grievance   or
honorary distinction Ireland may claim as
jointly -interested in the Imperial debt,
she: has suffered no practical. wrong what-
ever by it ; for she has little ,beyond her
debts to contribute. She was always in
this predicament : she must either dis-
charge the current expenses of the year,
and forego to pay the interest of her debt,
or else pay the interest of her debt and
throw the burden of her expenses on the


Imperial Treasury.  As the amount of
the  former has generally been about
equal to her revenue, she has been in
debted to England    for defraying   the
latter. The following synopsis represents
the relation borne by her income to the
annual charge of her debt, and the cost
of her Government from 1817 to 1820,
and again from 1840 to 1846 inclusive :-



Ccc c         no c o o o c W Income paid into the
N on                    Exchequer in Ireland
    -c - -co             (as per accounu No 2.)
- o ,cW W ) o._Ca 00 0
c N N N N  N c a - -W t  Expenditure in Ire-
P         aa O W os W W C i Nl land, exclusive of the
  -     o   CO 3 t o - o  , 0 + :O charge oftheFund4
-P co"co N   O c-W C, :O)"Debt (as per
of C - OW 3 I  - O   r  -4 -  (   account No. 3.)
  W - U C  +        I           a- M t P-



i ..relanO to meet
C-a3C    sc D__ : :               (__ _ _ ~..


               c         nC.e.   o

-- sid   sO rC o  t  Intere.4 on the Funded
.1 .                 . an cD c0 c t

     CC        0                -o (as.per coutNo. 4
              O CD C0           a t rU




a s  o r   - d c  m  1i l i r e l a n d t o m e e t   t. e
-1 -O      P                         -O - o. w ¢ Annual Charge of
N- c-s   ...._ N c ca C  W   Inteet on the i unded






debt, and is below the joint demands of

the debt and the expenditure by several
millions.   In  the last seven  it ex-
ceeds the expediture singly,er accout No. 4is
generally two millions and a half less
than the expenditure and the debt to-
gether.st four years The deficiency in both cases income falls
made good by the Imperial Treasury-a
that is, by the taxpayers of England and

Scotland. And this is what the genius
of Irish romance, elaborating a grievance,
gravely calls saddling Ireland with the
debts of England !  England pays the
£4,000,000 odd which is annually raised
from Ireland to the Irish fundholder, and
then out of her own pocket defrays the
charges of horse, foot, -artillery, civil list,
civil engineers, and public works, necessary
for the "' tranquillity of the country." Yet
every Irishman is invited t) believe that
he is cheated by the arrangement, and
that it would be far better for himself to
go on blundering with a deficient revenue
which he was always anticipating, and
fresh liabilites which he never discharged !
   These accounts, of course, do not in-


94






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


elude the advances made during this year
of Governmental prodigality. But, viewed
by themselves, they give the unbiased
speculator a fair notion of the pecuniary
advantages which this country possesses
in her Irish resources, at the same time
that they furnish an interpretation to the
Irish theory of debtor and creditor. Now,
too, that we have undertaken the further
charge of the Irish police, it must by
parity of construction be inferred that we
are more in their debt than ever ; and
the public works have given them a lien
on us for generations to come !
   Heaven knows, we wish that it were
possible for us to become their debtors
in a good round sum. The possibility of
such an event would reconcile us to some
present sacrifice and future losses.   A
large loan from the substantial farmers,
gentry, and merchants of Ireland ! What
an idea ! There is not a man in all


England who, in order to realize it, would
not work double tides to pay off the en-
cumbrance, and endure to be taunted
with the obligation in every town and
barony of the green island. There is na
amount of labour, however severe, or of
taxation, however heavy, that English-
men would not readily undergo, in order
to discharge a debt of so novel, so unex-
pected, and so stimulating a character.
But, as yet, there is no prospect of it.
We must be content to hear of the unex-
plained sixty millions, of which we are
the upbraided, but unconscious, de-
faulters, and to satisfy an unknown debt
by unthanked contributions. Our only
human trust must be in some " social
revolution," which shall sweep away the
present anomalies of Irish relations, and
awaken throughout the whole population
an energetic and productive industry.


    ADMINISTRATION        OF A     POOR    LAW.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1847.)


  Sir,-Your paper has taken a distin-
guished position as the 'advocate of an
effective Poor Law for Ireland. Feeling
in common with you that a measure of
this nature can alone lay a foundation
for any improvement in the condition of
the people of that portion of the United
Kingdom, I am anxious that when a
triumphant majority    of the House of
Commons has forced this measure through
its previous stages, its uses and operation
should not be destroyed by the indirect
but more dangerous assaults of its oppo-
nents. I am, therefore, desirous to be
permitted to refer to some points which I
think may not be sufficiently understood
by the British public.
  The present tactic of the opposing
section of Irish landlords and their Eng-
lish supporters is to defeat the action of
the measure by     the non-collection of
rates. This would be the certain effect
of the clause moved by Lord George Ben-
.inck on Monday night. I am inclined
to hope that the noble Lord did not
understand   the result which his own
motion would produce ; and that he was
made the instrument of others to defeat
in this way the measure which he had
himself voted for. This proposition was
only defeated by a majority of three, and,
as it is confidently expected by the Irish
farty that it will be successful in the


Lords,I think it is a matter of importance
that its object and operation should be
clearly stated. The purport of the clause
proposed by Lord George Bentinck was to
repeal ti at power given to the tenant by
the IriLh Poor Law Act of deducting from
the landlord's rent a certain proportion
of the rate paid by the tenant in the first
instance, which proportion  amounted,
when the valufition and rent were equal,
to one-half of the whole rate, or to a
larger proportion when the rent exceeded
the valuation-the scale operating in such
manner that as the rent became higher
than the valuation the landlord paid a
greater proportion, till, in the event of
the rent being double the valuation, the
tenant became entitled to deduct the
whole rate from his rent ; and in all
cases wherein the rent was less than the
valuation, the tenant, in like manner,
was entitled to deduct a proportion-less
than the half--corresponding with the
degree in which the rent was lower than
the valuation. The intention of the
Legislature in this enactment was to im-
pose a penalty on rack-renting and a-tax
upon absenteeism, and to force from the
rich an aid in the support of the poor. Lord
George Bentinck's clause would abolish
this most equitable division of the rate
between the landlord and the tenant, and
throw the whole burden of the rate singly


----------


95






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


on the tenant, except with regard to the
rates of tenements under £5 value,for which
the landlord would be directly responsible.
This proposition was most artfully sup-
ported by the Irish landlord section, on
the plea of an assimilation of the law of
Ireland to that of England, and I fear
much that many English members were
deluded by this specious argument. It is
true that such has been the English law
for perhaps 300 years ; the rights of pro-
perty and the relations of landlord and
tenant have gradually been framed into a
conformity with this law, and, therefore,
it would not now be expedient to disturb
it; but, in creating a new law for Ireland,
I ask, is it not fitting and necessary to
take   into  consideration  the  different
system of landl-'rdim in Ireland and in
England . The English tenant is in a
condition to make a bargain with a land-
lord, and to address him     thus, " You
offer me this farm,with the buildings and
improvements, at (suppose) 40s. an acre,
but I find it will be liable to 10s. rates ;
I cannot have f ir profits and give you
more than 30s. an acre." Other competi-
tors, looking to a fair return for capital,
offer no higher rent. The landlord is
thus compelled to reduce his land to the
marketable value, founded on a fair calcu-
lation of the tenant's returns, and thus
virtually pays the whole rates, although
the occupier is directly liable. But can
the Irish tenant assume this independent
position ? No such thing. The poor Irish
tenant must have land or starve-he can
get no wages for labour wherewith to buy
food-he cannot have food except what
he raises by his labour on land in his oc-
cupation. Others are in the same posi-
tion, an unnatural competition is pro-
duced, excited by the most powerful of
all stimulants-the dread of the want of
food, without any relation' to the value
of the land or the charges affecting it.
The multiplicity of claimants gives the
landlord full power of extortion-a rent
I fixed by what is called letting by cant
(I speak of the rack-rented portions of
Ireland)--the power of extortion is un-
limited, every   burden   is cast on the
tenant, until he is reduced to the neces-
sitvy of a miserable   existence on the
iowest description even of potato food.
The Irish tenant is not a free agent, and,
therefore, has a just claim on the Legis-
lature for that protection which the enact-
ment in the original Poor Law Act was
intended to afford  him. This was sub.
mitted to by the landlords so long as the
Irish Poor Law existed in the state of an


imbecile delusion on the people ; but
now, when it is about to assume the form
of a substantial remedy to preserve the
poor from starvation, and to create a rreal
responsibility on property, this whole-
some and just provision is declared a
nui ance to be allowed no longer to re-
main on the statute-book. The proposi-
tion of Lord George Bentinck was but
feebly resisted by Sir George Grey on the
part of the Government ; he opposed the
clause as inexpedient at the present time,
" but he was anxious to     say nothing
which could prejudice the consideration
of the noble lord's proposition at a future
period ; " and that future period will-
arrive, as I very much fear,when the Bill
is returned   from the Lords with the
clause inserted, and then the resistance.
of .the  Government, if I can guess at
futurity, will cease. Thus the poor occu-
pying tenants, in the rack-renting dis-
tricts of Ireland, already ground to the
earth by landlord oppression and mis-
rule, and betrayed by landlord selfishness,
will have a new infliction added to their
present intolerable burdens. The absentee
landlords will clap   their hands with
delight at their -escape from the duties of
property, and the resident rack-renters
may continue to shut their demesne gates
upon   th3   poor man, as     they  have
heretofore   done,   and   say, " Thus
far you may come, but no farther.. The
poor shall continue to support the poor-
we are saved from confiscation of pro-
perty." Vain imagination ! The oppres-
sion of the poor tenant will produce a
more deadly confiscation by its natural
results ; rents will not be paid, and
every fresh ektortion will add to the
evil ; then real confiscation will come
from the absolute poverty of the people-
pauperism will increase,and the pauperism
of the people will create pauperism of
the landlords-th     just retribution of
neglected duties.
   It is clear that the Irish Poor Law Bill
 will be a nonentity if rates cannot be col-
 lected. Now, I shall proceed to show
 how that effect will be produced, if Lord
 George  Bentinck's clause   be carried.
 You are told rates are now imperfectly
 collected. This must proceed either from
 the poverty of the people or their un-
 willingness to pay the rates-I believe
 chiefly from the latter cause, and why so I
 Because the law, as hitherto constituted,
 was ineffective for relief. They see their
 fellow-creatures starving, and no means of
 feeding them,as the Act excludes external
relief, the houses filled with poor and cor-


96






THE GREAT IRISH     FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


rupted by disease, the entrance into such
houses the mere prelude to death--why
should they not be unwilling to pay the
rates for an administration of relief so
cruelly stinted ? Now, the law may be
improved, but if Lord George Bentinck's
clause be passed, it will contain new
principles of injustice--namely, the ex-
emption of landlord responsibility accom-
panied with an increase of ex oficio
guardians, placing the administration of
the law in the hands of this favoured
class, who have proved themselves its
relentless opponents. Disgust and mis-
trust will take possession of the people's
minds, they will refuse the payments ;
the passive resistance principle, formerly
so effectual in the case of tithes, will be
adopted ; distresses may be made, but no
purchasers will-be found for the goods ;
the sale will thus become an empty name,
because the rate will be a rank injustice.
I firmly believe a just, liberal,and humane
Poor Law would meet the sanction of the
people, and that the rates would be paid
to the uttermost farthing of their capa-
bilities ; but a law  poisoned with this
provision, if sd passed, will create an un-
conquerable spirit of resistance. Again,
with   regard to that portion    of the
rate which is now imposed directly on the
landlords for tenements under £4 value
(and which it is proposed to increase
to £5 value), we have information that
the payment is now refused or evaded ;
that the landlords avail themselves of
technical objections ; that their rates are
more difficult of collection   than  the
tenants' rates ; and that they have even
now, with their present limited number
of ex ofici' guardians, sufficient influence
in the boards to prevent the proper steps
being taken to put the law in force. It is
very material this point should be under-
stood. The Act of the 7th Victoria, c. 92,
provides that if the     rate chargeable
directly on the landlord   be not paid
within four months, it shall be lawful for
the board to levy     the same (after a
month's notice given) by distress on the
occupier's goods. A little manoeuvring
will easily effect this retardation. The
boards crammed with ex officios will let off
the landlords and distrain the occupier,
and the return will be no goods and no
rates. But, it will be said, the law allows
the occupier of these low-valued tene-
ments, when distrained    for 'landlord's
rates, to deduct the payment from  the
rents. I would ask, what chance would a
poor occupier of this description have in
a contention to recover rates from an


  Irish middle landlord, or an Irish rack-
  renting proprietor, or the rack-renting
  agent of an Irish absentee ? He would
  not dare to name the rate to these owners
  or receivers of rents-the power to do so
  is a mere farce, an entire delusion.
    I think I have now proved that under
  a law defiled with such a provision as that
  submitted by Lord George Bentinck no
  rates would be levied ; but this is the
  very object which the opposing section of
  Irish landlords desire to effect. They
  have prophesied no rates would be ob-
  tained ; they are now labouring to verify
  their own predictions. The Irish people
  will be again starving, and the responsi-
  bility will be again thrown on the Govern-
  ment, and the relief of Irish misery will
  be again a drain upon the resources sup-
  plied by British industry.
    I forewarn the representatives of Eng-
  land that if they desire a Poor Law for
  Ireland which shall have any substantial
  use -or action, they must accompany it
  with a measure which shall secure the
  liability of the landlord for the just pro-
  portion of the rates as heretofore ; and:
  this liability cannot be effective unless
  the landlord and tenant be made sepa-
  rately liable each for his respective pro-
  pcrtion.   So long as you continue to
  levy the  landlord's rates through the
  means of distress on the tenant's goods,,
  the tenant will be oppressed, the rates
  will be resistedy and the levy will be im-
  practicable ; and no other means can be
  adopted for the effectual levy of the land-
  lord's rates, except by taking a power to
  place a receiver on the estates where
  rates are unpaid ; this will be effectual,
  as evidenced in the case of the tithe rent-
  charge. Unless the Irish Poor Law Act,
  be accompanied with a measure for the
  just distribution and effective levy cf the
  rates in the manner I have suggested, I
  emphatically assert it will be of no more
  value than the waste paper on which it is
  printed. Such a measure I have intro-
  duced in the House of Commons, and it
  now lies f: r the disposal of the Legis-
  lature.
    In these, and in other statemcns which
  I have made iri my place in Parliament, I
  wish not to be understood as attacking
  individual landlords. Iattack the syAt ,m
  of Irish landlordism, as exhibited with-
  out doubt, or even an attempt at contra-
  diction, in various evidences and rep.rts
  to be found in-the reccrds of Parliam nt.
  I do not deny the individual worth and
  charitable  exertions of many      land-
  lords disposed over every part of Ireland.
G


97






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


I do not deny that many who are now
opposing this Poor Law do so from an
honest apprehension of its injurious re-
sults as well on the people as themselves.
The system of Irish landlordism  taints,
more or less, all our proceedings on the
relationship of landlord and tenant. I
do not desire to exempt myself, or my
predecessors, from the fault, at least, of
neglecting much which should have been
done ; but the more sensible I am of the


evils which the system produces, even
under the best circumstances,*the more
strongly it appears to me to be my duty
to labour in the cause of its exposure and
correction.
  Hoping I may be pardoned for this in-
trusion on your space,
  I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
            W. SHARMAN CRAWFORD.
  Crawfordsburn, April 5.


PROPOSAL FOR         IRISH   COLONISATION        IN. CANADA.,
        (LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1847.)


  We have already directed attention to
the means by which it has been proposed
to  mitigate the distress of Ireland.
Perhaps no stronger testimony to the
severity of that distress could be.found
than the scheme which certain noblemen
and gentlemen of that country submitted
to the notice of Lord JonN RUSSELL. The
transportation  of some thousands of
pauper cottiers for the purpose of found-
ing a pauper colony in America is just
such a measure as ought only to be sug-
gested when every     other device had
either- failed or become hopeless. And
till every other plan has been tried, it will
be an unaccountable temerity-perhaps
we should say a great crime-on the part
of any Ministry to people the forests of
Canada with an immigration isolated by
religion, language, and social habits
from the mass of the colonists by which
it is to be surrounded and the Govern-
ment on which it is to depend. Even
had the ordinary purposes of colonization
been kept in mind, and its ordinary pre-
parations made, it would have been a
dangerous experiment to settle a large
Celtic sept under its naturhl and here-
ditary chiefs in a remote dependency of
the Crown. Jealousies and heartburn-
ings, unintentional but unavoidable-
causes of separation manifold and insu-
perable, would, even under such circum-
stances, have occurred to show the folly
of giving at the Lame time the force
of combination and the greater force of
isolationi to a multitude whose allegiance
must always be lukewarm and whose
sympathies must be weakened by dis-
tance. But when tlhe scheme professedly
rejects an ordinary element of all modes
of colonization-when, instead of planting
a community comprehending all ranks


of society, and bearing the decided stamp
of social order, it is intended to trans-
plant only one class, and thatthe weakest,
the most supine, and the least educated
of all-suspicions are naturally aroused
at the daring imprudence of the specula-
tion, and its detected insufficiency as a
makeshift.
  Whilst we admit the justice of the pro-
position embodied in the memorial, that
any plan of emigration, to be satisfac-
torily carried out, must emanate from
private enterprise, we are convinced by
attending to the incidents of every day
that the time has not yet come in which
private capital and private energy are to
do all for these objects which they are
hereafter destined to effect. The subject
has been gradually looming on the minds
of statesmen ; it has begun to assume a
somewhat more definite and intelligible
shape than that which it once had. Men
are reconciling themselves not only to
the immediate necessity, but the eventual
duties of colonization. It is no longer
regarded simply. as the shortest means
for getting rid of so much wretched
poverty, and liberating people at home
from its unfortunate supplications ; it is
now viewed, as it ought to be, in refe-
rence to the fate of the political societies
of which it lays the foundation, and.heir
influence upon the civilized world: But
while the theory of colonization has thus
become more distinct and potential in
the eyes of thinking men, the capital
which it is necessary to invest in prose-
cuting its objects has been absorbed into
other channels. The last few years-and
more particularly the last year-have
seen the fruits of the national industry
lockedI up in the exacting, but not un-
grateful, coffers of one gigantic enter-


98






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


prise. For years to come the speculations
and the resources of commerce will be
confined within one channel. They will
in vain endeavour to escape. But as soon
as their liberation has been effected, and
they have been diverted into new courses,
we shall, perhaps, see the unexhausted
wealth and industry of England co-opera-
ting to discover new sources of wealth
and new springs of industry by schemes
of colonization worthy of being called
national, comprehensive, and statesman-
like.
  When this time shall have arrived
people will look back with wonder to the
epoch in which it was gravely proposed
to create in Canada a sectarian province
of Irish Roman Catholics, and will ask
what means had been exhausted for pro-.
viding at home for the people whom it
was thus intended to expatriate. The
wonder and the curiosity will be equally
just. It will then appear that after three
centuries of social disorganization, an
effort had been at last earnestly made to
put the different classes on their proper
footing--to lay its equitable burdens on
property, and give to poverty its just
relief. We hope that it will not in ad-
dition have to be related that all the
scope of. the proposed law was lost, and
the intentions of its authors defeated, by
the trickery of an insidious amendment,
and that, under the pretence of assimilat-
ing the English and Irish Poor Laws, the
Irish landlords succeeded in introducing
a clause which at once disgusted the mass
of the ratepayers, and made the collec-
tion of the rates impossible. Yet such
would have been the result had Lord G.


BENTINCK'S amendment      in  committee
been carried. The tenant ratepayer of
Ireland would have borne     the   whole
burden of the rate from which his land-
lord would have been exempted. Disgust
universal would have immediately been
aroused ; but the eventual consequence
would have been, as Mr. S. CRAWFORD
tells us, in a letter to which we refer our
readers, that not a single rate could have
been collected. Distresses would have
been unavailing, for all the force of the
law would have been met by the stubborn
idertia of passive resistance.
  That this dangerous coup d'etat may yet
be attempted in the House of Lords is far
from improbable ; nor is its success there
an impossible contingency. But, if the
amendment be carried there, it will be
one of the most unfort-unate pieces of
legislation to which their Lordships ever
put their hands. Forfrom the moment it
is enacted, confiscation-actual, sweepihg
confiscation-not that metaphorical one
of which we read in reviews and speeches
-but confiscation, arising from penury
unrelieved and labour unemployed, will
become a substantial danger.  As Mr.
CRAWFORD writes, " The irish   people
will again be starving ; the responsibility
will again be thrown on Government,;
and the relief of Irish misery will be
again adrain on the resources supplied by
British industry." But let not landlords,
great or small, lay the :flattering unction
to their souls, that in this extremity they
will pacify English justice, or ward of
their own Nemesis, by expatriating Celtic
pauperism to the banks of the St. Law-
rence.


THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY IN IRELAND,
      (LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1847.)


  We have frequently ventured to remind
the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland,
that assuming, as they do, to be the
leaders of the people, and being,to a great
extent, actually in that position, they are
bound to do all they can to reform the
habits and enlighten the 'understandings
of their flocks.  They are not, indeed,
backward to advise ; on the contrary,
they are only too ready touse for- temporal
purposes lhe awful prestige' of spiritual
authority. They do not hesitate to ex-
press themselves. warmly on the questions
of the day, nor do they  seem     to be


fettered by a nervous timidity as to the
casual effects of their language. We may,
therefore, reasonably expect them to give
the advice most required by the character
and condition of the people, and most
suited to the crisis.. In England we
certainly expect this from the lips of our
clergy.   Moreover, there is a certain
wholeness  and     oneness   about   the
very idea of duty which forbids any partial
fulfilment. Whoever it be that teaches a
people, cannot, w ithoat a palpable dis-
honesty and absurdity, pick and choose
from the virtues, cut and carve the corn-


__


99






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


mandments, inculcate this, and let alone
that, by the rule of convenience or other
such motive.
  Now, in this country there is one virtue
which the clergy do not omit to urge on
their flocks. The duty of honest industry
is early impressed on the child, and
driven home with continual blows on the
man. To do his duty in that state of life
to which PROVIDENCE has been pleased to
call him is almost the most definite and
peremptory idea of obligation in an Eng-
lishman's mind. The whole nation feels
one common impulse to work. All classes,
high and low, rich and poor, know they
have a task to be done. Everybody is
miserable till he finds out his office. An
idle man in this island feels himself out
of place. He wanders about like an evil
spirit, seeking rest, and seeking  it in
vain. Work, work is the order of the day
wherever you go. Dukes, millionaires,
.meh of science, clergymen, old ladies,
young ladies, all are unhappy, because
they are solitary and contemptible unless
they are doing something, and known to
be doing it. To be doing nothing    is
worse than the Oriental opprobrium of
barrenness. " What does such an one do
with   himself ?" is the most insulting
question an enemy can ask. On numerous
classes the pressure is absolutely over-
-whelming. They are not allowed a holi-
day. JoH GILPIN'S twice ten years of
drudgery,unchequeredwith a single dayof
leisure, is by no means uncommon.  Our
labourers give every day of their lives to
the service of their country, without the
subtraction of one hour, excepting only
Sundays and two or three holidays in the
year. How they find time to say a word
to their friends,-how they digest their
meals,-how get five quiet minutes with
their children,how they say their prayers
at least between Lady-day and Michael-
mas, is a wonder to all but those in the
secret. Toil hunts them down. The laws
compel labour, the farmer commands it,
the clergyman enjoins it, the family re-
quires it, the country expects it, self-
preservation   leaves no   alternative,--
every motive conspires. So the labourer,
and, like him, all other working men,-
lawyers, medical men, merchants, shop-
keepers included, work and think and
think and work, till their brains are dried
to dust, their sinews to whipcord, and
their souls to parchment.
   Wishing most heartily, as we do, that
 the English might be spared some of this
 slavery, we have no wish to impose it on
 Ireland. " All work and no play makes


JACK a dull boy." We should be sorry
to spoil that natural vivacity and wit
which throw such a charm over the eccen-
tricities, follies, and infirmities of the
Irish character. At the same time, we
must say that England has a right to ex-
pect something more than three or four
months' work in the year from all the
subjects of this realm ; and she has a
right to expect that the advisers who
have occupied the ear of Ireland should
back up so reasonable a demand. It is
not fit that England should always suffer
a monopoly of working and paying. Relief
for Ireland ; rest for England. Miserable
and degraded as the case of the former
country is, the peasant still has a com-
pensation.  He enjoys for weeks and
months the luxury of idleness. He has
Stime to tell stories, to hand down tradi-
tions, to practise his wit, to talk about
politics, to play with sediton, to attend
fairs, races, monster meetings, midnight
trainings, adventures, and councils. If
he is now to be maintained by British
money in the enjoyment of these luxuries,
it is evident that the English peasant
pays for all this.  Now, we say, that
while the Irishman has a claim to the
Englishman's money, that is, to the pro-
duce of his labour, the Englishman has a
claim in his turn to a little of the Irish-
man's rest. Would that the English were
a little less occupied, the Irish a little
more !
   Our readers have all of them read
 many pastoral    addresses  and   public
 resolutions of Irish   Roman    Catholic
 clergy. We ask     them,-Do    they re-
 member that in any one there occurs
 such a thing asa vigorous and pointed ad-
 monition to regular industry ? -Do they
 remember any expostulation with that
 which is notoriously the crying evil of Ire-
 land,--its universal sloth ? Have they
 ever observed one single text to this effect
 out of the many hundreds in Holy Writ
 quoted by sacerdotal pen ? Does Dr.
 M'HALE, in addressing the least thrifty
 and industrious people in Europe cite the
 words of the " Wise Man," or the sound
 common sense of the Apostolic Epistles,
 in favour of diligence,' economy, pru-
 dence, or other such vulgar but respect-
 able virtues ? On the contrary, every
 word uttered by these clerical authorities
 appears to have no other design than to
 unnerve the people, to teach them not to
 depend on themselves, and wait for some-
 thing or other from England, from Lord
 3 ons RUSSELL, from  Mr. LABOUCHERE,
 from the landlords, from Repeal, from


100






THE    GREAT IRISH        FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


confiscation, or from any other quarter,
event, person, or thing.
  After that hideous wretchedness which
discolours and deforms the very land-
scape of Ireland, the very first thing that
strikes a stranger of ordinary intelligence
fresh  from the industrious sphere of
England is the extraordinary apathy of
the people amidst abject wretchedness
and the comparative ease with which
that wretchedness might, by the slightest
exertion and enterprise, be converted
into comfort and plenty. An instance,
to use a common      phrase, will speak
volumes on this point. It is known that
,the rivers and seas of Ireland abound in
excellent fish, and that this year the
shoals are more numerous than ordinary,
but, as usual, are generally left to pursue
their course unmolested. Perhaps the
extent of this neglect is not realized.
The other day a gentleman of Cork, the
manager of some mines at the ill-fated
and ill-famed village of Scull, which is
about 10 miles from Skibbereen on the
coast, borrowed a common rod and linie
from a Cornish miner in his employ, and


caught 57 mackerel from the jetty in Scull
Bay   before breakfast. Each of these
mackerel was worth 2d. in Cork market,
30 miles off. Yet not a man was attempt-
ing to catch them, or doing anything but
wait upon PROVIDENCE, and expect Eng-
lish meal and money.
  Now, here is a case for the clergy at
once. " An Apostle would not hesitate to
rebuke such    neglect of the provision
which   PROVIDENCE    has brought, as it
were, to the very hands -and mouths of
the most famished district of the island.
He would bid his followers to let down
their nets for a draught, in faithful expec-
tation of those miracles which industry
and prudence will always achieve. - But,
like people, like priest.   Pop ulus vult
decipi and an obsequious hierarchy, de-
pendent not on the prosperity but on the
passion of the people, withholds those
homely, but disagreeable, lessons, which
alone can save Ireland. Decipiatur, they
say in their hearts, and leave Ireland to
its fatalism, to listlessness, dependence,
and inevitable ruin.


           THE    FAMINE -OF      1741.
(LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1847.)


  It might naturally be supposed that
the philosophy which teaches by example
would imprint its lessons more deeply
on the human heart than that which
preaches abstractedly, and that genuine
instances of sufferingwould warn mankind
more efficaciously than all the grave saws
of morals or of politics. Unfortunately,
this is not so ; at least, it is not so in Ire-
land.   There, the history of the past
speaks without effect, and the sufferings
of the past are recorded without admoni-
tion. A famine in one century signalizes
its havoc by causes and consequences
which are forgotten and repeated in the
next.   The most desolating pestilence
sweeps away its thousands,and is scarcely
remembered after it has ceased to slay.
The circumstances which either provoked
it, or aggravated     its intensity, are
swamped by the unaccountable careless-
ness of the many and the unpardonable
indifference of the few. , Diet, clothing,
comfort, the things which affect all these,
as the tenure of land, provision for the
poor, rents, subdivision of estates, early
marriages, unemployed multitudes, &c.,


all of which must have been recognized
as contributing to the magnitude of one
great calamity, are all overlooked as soon
as its immediate pressure has subsided.
  In the years. 1740 and 1741 Ireland was
visited with a severe famine and a de-
structive pestilence. Their records, as
originally presented in the journals of
that day, have been recently reprinted
for private distribution. The perusal of
this document is painfully curious. It
would apply, with hardly an alteration,
to the famine of the present year. Except
that the population has increased from
two to eight millions, there is hardly a
fact which is not as true in 1847 as it was
in 1741. Instead of the aphis vastater the
destroving power was a premature frost.
But the food that suffered in both years
was the same-the precarious and insuffi-
cient potato. The consequences were the
same ; the horrors witnessed the same ;
the   sentiments   or   prejudices   the
same ; the deeds of admirable kindness
or execrable heartlessness the same ; the
anticipations of a worse future and of the
doom that would then visit the empire


__


L


101






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


the same ; the supplies, both of food and
charity the same. May we hope that the
forgetfulness and want of provision for
the future may not be the same in 1847
that they were in 1741 ?
  The first emphatic notice of the state
of things in 1740, and dated the 22d of
January, is this :-
  "Ladies undertake to give all their
winnings at quadrille to    the   poor."
Then collections are ordered. Next we
hear of sheep dying, and a drought con-
tinuing from Christmas to April,-omens
more fearful than presaged the present
calamity ; then    starvation - America
looked to, as now, for the supply of pro-
visions ; -- then  proclamations issued
against forestallers. But one measure,
far more wise and more useful than Inter-
ference with dealers or their prices, was
one which it would have been desirable
to, reintroduce  within  the   last four
anonths :-
            " Dublin, January 3, 1741.
   "His Grace the Lord Primate, and
other charitable gentlemen of this city,
in order to ease the city of the great
number of strolling    beggars resorting
thereto from all parts of the kingdom,
and to relieve the truly necessitous, have
notified to the governors of the work-
house that they are willing, at their own
private expense, to give one meal each
day to every person who shall be deemed
by the governors of the house entitled
to such charity.: And, on Monday last,
the said governors, at a general board,
came to a resolution that tickets shall be
sent to each governor now in town, that
he may distribute them occasionally to all
such persons as are obliged, through the
deadness of trade and dearness of bread,
to seek relief through the streets and
suburbs of this city. The said tickets are
to be signed by the governors distribu-
ting them, who are to insert the name of
the person, with the number of children
in his or her family, who are directed to
go to the workhouse for such relief.
   " On Thursday last the officers began
to give one full meal to all such person-
as came with said tickets, and it is hoped,
since such provision is made for the poor,
the inhabitants of this city will discou-
rage all vagrant beggars and give their
assistance that they may be sent to Bride-
well to hard labour, and thereby free
themselves from a set of idlers who are a
scandal' and a reproach to the nation."
  If the present Government had exer-
cised a test of this kind, the Board of
Works would have- had the satisfaction of


paying wages to the indigent and the in-
dustrious, not to the idle, the disaffected,
and the buyers of firearms. Disease was,
of course, rife. " We hear," says the
journal already quoted, " that numbers
of people daily die of fluxes and fevers,
from want of proper food, and that there
is great sickness amongst horses, of which
numbers die, which the poor people eat
for want of other victuals !" New York
and Philadelphia-then small towns of a
remote province-sent " a great relief to
the poor " of Galway and    Limerick.
That we have improved somewhat on the
former principle of giving assistance,
though the principle has not fairly been
carried out in practice, may be gathered
from the following suggestion :-
  " It is earnestly recommended to every
great corporation and private gentleman
in this time of distress, to set forward
some work, such as paving, fencing,
draining, making roads or canals, cleans-
ing harbours, &c., which would employ
all that would work, and clear the country
of strolling  vagrants, who, if found
begging, should be sent to Bridewell, or
whipped ; the common pretence of want
of work being removed.      Corporations
and private gentlemen would be at no
greater expense by this charitable pro-
vision of work, they would only employ
more hands at this time when the neces-
sities of the poor call for them, and fewes
hands at other times when the necessitier
are  over ; whereas  giving  charity to
those who are able to work without re-
quiring work from them is an encourage-
ment to idleness and a public loss."
  Another incident to the famine of. 1741
finds a mournful parallel in that of 1847.
The people on the coast had then, as they
have now, a ready and present storehouse
of provisions in the sea. But we read no
account of their availing themselves of
the advantages which Nature had fur-
nished for them. They were content to
receive tickets, and be fed by alms. That
they did not work on land was perhaps
the fault of the Government and the
proprietors.  But that they abstained
from fishing in the sea can be attributed
only to their own inertness. As it hap-
pened, fish in some parts did constitute
a great proportion of the food consumed.
But it was imported from Scotland.
Faulkner's Journal for March, 1741,
mentions this :-
   " Quantities of herrings are come over
from Fife, besides a great deal from
Dunbar ; a seasonable relief for the poor.
It is computed the boats commonly catch


---


102






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


from 20,000 to 30,000 a-day each. They
sell in Fife at from 40 to 50 pence per
thousand."
  So unchanged are the people and their
habits within the last 100 years !
  And what reflections does not this
suggest ! It might perhaps excite some-
thing like a momentary sentiment of
triumph to observe that the boasted Irish
Parliament and     ranipant  nationality
allowed the people to sink into a state so
abject and so forlorn. But no feeling of
triumph can harmonize with the contem-
plation of such gigantic improvidence
and incurable lethargy as are exemplified
in the present state of Ireland. The re-
proach that we would launch against a
provincial Parliament or proprietary
redounds upon ourselves. We feel that
if they were careless through ignorance,
we have been careless without ignorance ;
and that if they sinned from want of
warning, we have sinned after warning.
For is it not a great sin to have left a
people, multiplied by time, to the chances
of the poorest and most uncertain root ?


Is it not a sin to have enacted no laws
and instituted no customs which should
correct the tendencies of the Celtic dis-
position and the habits of a Celtic popu-
lation ? We found them ignorant, indi-
gent,  and   indolent. Have    we    en-
lightened them, enriched them, or in*
spired  them  with energy ? Have we
strengthened their sentiment of inde-
pendence by the discipline which has
braced the mind of the sturdy Anglo-
Saxon ? Or have we suffered them to
grovel   in the squalor   of  contented
pauperism and revel in the imposture of
a beggarly proprietary ? If we have for-
gotten our duties, we must be content to
share the opprobrium of Irish helpless-
ness and Irish want with that wretched
fiction of legislation, the Irish Parlia-
ment. But we must not rest here. Our
penitence will be worse than useless
without amendment. Our future must
atone for our past. We must educate
and elevate Ireland, by teaching her
people to educate and elevate themselves.


          THE    DISTRESS      IN  MAYO.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 3847.)


  Sir,-It may be in the recollection of
some of your readers, that when we city
gentlemen were reviled last year by the
" noble country party " for the selfish-
ness of our pursuits and the inutility of
our lives, as compared with those of
deputy-lieutenants  and county magis-
trates, I availed myself of your kindness
to vindicate as well as I could in your
columns the order to which it is my pride
to belong.
  Perhaps, however, the taunts of the
landed aristocracy have not been entirely
without their use. The Barings, the
Rothschilds, the Jones Loyds, and other
moneyed magnates of London, have at
least since last year nobly borne their
share in attempting to relieve famine-
stricken.Ireland ; and I have endeavoured
to follow in their footsteps-longo inter-
rallo, I admit.
  The Committee of the British Asso-
diation for the Relief of Distress in Ire-
land, reading frightful accounts of pesti-
lence and famine in the county of Mayo,


and receiving urgent and perplexing
appeals for relief from various resident
clergymen and    landlords, decided on
despatching one of their number to the
spot, to examine into the state of affairs
and relieve the people promptly. As I
had been loudest in my condemnation of
the conduct of both English and Irish
landlords, and had boasted--I now feel
somewhat injudiciously--of what I would
do were I in their place, I was selected
for this not very agreeable service. In
consequence, I have been for the last few
weeks resident in Letterbrick, the capital
of the barony of Arderry. If you can
spare me room in your columns, I pur-
pose to lay before the public as accurate a
sketch as I can draw of what is actually
happening here.
  The barony contains 185,000 acres of
land, over which are scattered a popu-
lation of 30,000 souls. The little town
of Letterbrick is placed in the bight of 4
deep bay, one of the many noble habourk
with which the west of Ireland abounds.


-- -- -


103






101           THE GREAT IRISH           FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


The Union workhouse is 31 miles dis-
tant ; besides that there is neither hospi-
tal nor dispensary of which the poor can
avail themselves at the present moment.
Of three resident Protestant clergymen,
one is insane ; the other two are not on
speaking terms, and will not " act"
together in any way. The three Roman
Catholic priests are good, simple men-
poor and ignorant, and possessing little
influence over their flocks. Two-thirds
of this vast extent of land is divided
between two proprietors-Mr. Black, of
Kildare, and the Mulligan, who resides
in his baronial castle of Ballymulligan.
The Mulligan having been an Irish man
of pleasure is now a bankrupt; he amuses
himself in his dominions as well as he
can, but has lately been cast in damages
for the seduction of the daughter of a
coast-guard, and is in consequence at pre-
sent playing at hide and seek with the
officers of the law ; he is a married man;
he is the only resident magistrate in
Arderry, and as his present discreditable
social position renders him only accessible
on Sundays, he is utterly useless in that
capacity. His tenants are not in arrear.
They have been driven, ejected, and sold
up with incredible severity. To give you
an idea of what the people here endure and
the landlords perpetrate, I will state that
last week, accompanied by two credible
English witnesses, I met. several ema-
ciated cows, driven by two men, and
followed by their still more emaciated
owners, proceeding towards Letterbrick.
  Istopped them and inquired whither
they were going ? The two men said they
were taking them to the Letterbrick-pound
for rerit owing to them. The peasants
declared that the rent was not due till
the 1st of May. Their landlord admitted
this readily ; but added, that Letterbrick
fair was on the 12th of April, and he
feared, unless he pounded his tenants'
cattle before that, that they would sell
them at the fair and be off to America.
So he did pound them, for a debt that
was not yet due ; and the poor, ignorant,
starved wretches allowed him to do it.
Of, the Mulligan's exertions aid chari-
ties to meet the prese nt crisis, it is need-
less to speak. He is chairman of a relief
committee, which he never attends ; he
has given no money or food, whilst bhe
has extracted all ho can fromn   le soil.
He ;-ays no taxes, builds no cotages or
farm  buildings, supports no schools or
hospitals. The only duties which he
attempts to perform are those which he
considers he owes to himself. He and


his family own about 40,000 acres of land.
His uncle I saw when he came to pro-
pose to the purser on board the Horrible
steamer in charge of a cargo of seed, to
let him have some on the security of his
" paper at six months ;" and when we
were landing some meal in the rain from
that vessel, his brother gallopped into the
town in a rickety tandem, pulled up to
stare at us, and after having played an
amatory national air on a horn which he
had slung round him, gallopped off again.
Mr. Black, his co-proprietor, is a land-
lord of a very different species. He re-
sides in Kildare, where he has a large
property, and, by his own account, takes
an active part in the duties of the county.
Here he is represented by his agent,
Mr. White, a most intelligent and gentle-
manlike young man, who spends a few
months occasionally in Arderry, and is a
magistrate. I will not take the liberty
of saying anything more of Mr. Black,
as the correspondence which I have had
with him will speak for itself. I append
it to this letter. A variety of small and
sub landlords, whose lives are spent
in watching the growing crops and cattle
of their tenants, and pouncing upon
them the moment they are ripe or fit
for sale, occupy the rest of the barony,
and complete the misery of the people.
There is one single man who believes
that he has duties to perform, and -does
his best to fulfil them ; but as his pro-
perty is small, the good he can do is but
as a drop in this ocean of human iniquity,
and, being a Dublin lawyer, he is neces-
sarily an absentee.
   At this moment there is no food in the
 country save what is imported by Govern-
 ment and    the   British  Association ;
'neither have the people any money, save
what they earn on the public works,
which are to be stopped in May.
   The land is unsown-there will be no
 harvest. The Horrible when she was
 here  selling seed   under prime  cost
 sold but £100 worth; and that almost
 entirely to the benevolent individual I
 have alluded to.    At Killala, where
 the gentry clamoured loudly for seed,
 the Lightning was sent with 350 sacks,
 of which she sold one ; and at Killibegs
 the Horrible had no better market.
 There is at this moment, Sir, fever in
 half the houses in Arderry-I call them
 houses by courtesy, for 'they are but
 hollow, damp, and filthy     dungheaps.
 The, people, sell their last rag for food,
 and are then forced to remain in their
 hovels until the  weakest sink from






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


hunger ; their festering corpses, which
they have no means of removing, then
breed a fever which carries off the rest.
Efficient medicines or medical aid they
have none, and if they had, what but
good food could be prescribed with suc-
cess to a starving man ? During the short
time I have been here I have seen my
fellow creatures die in the streets. I
have found the naked bodies of women
on the road side, and piles of coffins con-
taining corpses left outside the cabins and
in the market-place. I have met mothers
carrying about dead infants in their arms
until they were putrid, refusing to bury
them, in the hope that the offensive sight
might wring charity from the callous
townspeople sufficient to protract for a
while the lives of the other children at
home. During the last two days I have
buried at my own expense 20 bodies,
which, had I not done so, would be still
infecting the living.
  I must here pause to remind you, Sir,
that I am a man of, business, deliberate
and calculating, nowise given to exag-
geration, and that what I am detailing to
you is not the recollection of some horrid
nightmare, but a state of society within
two days' post of London. The people
here, naturally docile, become uncontrol-
lable at the sight of provisions--not a
bag of biscuit can be landed or leave
the town without an armed escort, not
a vessel can anchor in the bay without
imminent risk     of  being   plundered.
Yesterday, three vessels, bound to the
north, were becalmed off the coast ; they
were instantly boarded and cleared by
the famished and desperate peasantry.
I purchased a little seed myself, which
I retailed in small quantities to the
people, chiefly to gain some insight into
their position. I found them utterly
hopeless, almost indifferent about sowing,
because they are aware that any crops
they may sow will be seized on for rent by
the landlords. They preferred buying
turnip and parsnip seed, although they
appeared quite ignorant how to cultivate
them, because the perishable nature of
these roots renders them less, convenient
for seizure than barley or oats.
   On my :arrival here I found the soup
kitchen, on which the lives of hundreds
depends, stopped, not for want of funds,
but because the vicar and the curate,
having £130 intrusted to them jointly by
our association, had quarrelled, and pre-
ferred seeing the parishioners starve to
making soup for them in concert. Lest I
may be suspected of caricature or ex-


aggeration, I will, in conclusion, set
down what my eyes have seen during the
last half hour. I have seen in the court-
house an inquest holden on the body of a
boy of 13, who, being left alone in a cabin,
with a little rice and fish in his charge, was
murdered by his cousin, a boy of 12, for
the sake of that wretched pittance of food.
A verdict of " Wilful Murder " has since
been returned. The culprit is the most
famished and sickly little creature I ever
saw, and his relatives, whom I heard ex-
amined, were all equally emaciated and
fever-stricken.,
   Driven from the court by the stench
 of the body, I passed in the street two
 coffins with bodies in them, in going to
 my lodgings from the court-house, a dis-
 tance of a hundred yards. I am prepared
 to hear that the truth of what I have
 here stated had been impugned ;to be
 informed that I am ignorant of the habits
 of the people, and that I have been hum-
 bugged by Irishmen having a natural
 turn for humour. I am       prepared to
 be ridiculed for my obesity, and to be
 told that a London banker is out' of
 his element in the romantic regions of
 the west. I should not wonder if the
 Mulligan called me out. Ig feel certain
 " he will court an inquiry."  To all
 this I will answer, that to the truth
 of all I have here stated I can, for-
 tunately,  produce  credible  English
 witnesses; that if the people have at-
 tempted to humbug me in the'midst of
 the horrors which surround us, the less
 they boast of their mistimed humour the
 better ; that by showing that I am uni-
 gracefully corpulent, and an indifferent
 snipe shot, they will not prove them-
 selves to be humane landlords ; and if
 the Mulligan exhibits any leaning to-
 wards the duello, I will inform him that
 although constitutionally timid, I can,
 take care of myself very well-having
 taken the precaution before I left London
 to borrow from an American friend, who
 is under some pecuniary obligations to
 our house, an excellent pair of Colt's
 revolvers-weapons, I believe, altogether
 new in the west of Ireland, but which
 are as effective in the hands of a flaccid
 cockney, as in the grasp of the most
 sinewy descendant of Brian Boru that
 ever bounded barefoot over a bog.
   I need scarcely say, Sir, that there is
 no such barony as Arderry in the west---
 no such town as Letterbrick-no such'
 chieftain as the Mulligan of Ballymulli-
. gan-no such people as Messrs. Black and
White; but there are a barony, a town,
   t


105






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


and people exactly like them, who are
acting exactly in the manner I have
described.  If they court an inquiry,
they shall have every facility given them
by me for it. I will supply names, dates,
and places, if they wish me to do so.
     I have the honour to remain, Sir,
           Your faithful servant,
  April 18.           JACOB OMNIUM.
                 No. 1.
 'Jacob Omrnium, Agent for the British As-
 sociation for the Relief of the Destitute
 Irish, to W. H. Black, Esq.. Kildare.
         " Letterbrick, April 11, 1847.
  " Sir,-Having been commissioned by
the British Association to accompany Mr.
Squills, R.M., a surgeon deputed  by
Government for the     same purpose to
Letterbrick, in Her Majesty's ship Horri-
ble, conveying a cargo of seed to Mayo
and Donegal, and to report to them the
actual state of the people and the exer-
tions which were being made by the
landed proprietors to save them, I feel it
my painful duty to call your attention
to the miserable tenantry on your estates
in Arderry.
  "Theyare daily dying from sheerfamine,
and rotting in the cabins where they die.
  " They have none to look to for
aid; for if you, who have for many
years derived your resources hence, aban-
don those whose labour has supplied
those resources the moment they cease
to be profitable to you for a time, you
cannot expect that the charity of Eng-
land can be extended to the tenants of
men who themselves will not bestir them-
selves to save them.
  " Your agent, Mr. White, aware of
the arrival of the Horrible, and of the
nargo which she brought, left Arderry
the day she anchored in the bay, without
making any arrangements for procuring
seed for your people, and there is now
no one in the country to represent your
extensive propertyphere, or even to bear,
personally, any share in the arduous task.
of dispensing the funds which English
public and private charity may devote
to the relief of the diseased and starving
poor on your estates.
  " I earnestly request that you will,
without delay, do me the honour of
acquainting me whether you are prepared
to co-operate in any way with the British
Association in saving the lives of the
dying poor on your lands.
P I am, Sir, your obedient, humble servant,
             " JACOB OMNIUM.
    " Agent to the British Association.
" W. H. Black, Esq., Kildare."


   To this letter Mr. Black returned an
 answer, saying that he had for 20 years
 watched anxiously over and devoted large
 sums of money to     his tenantry  in
 Arderry ; that his agent was a most able
 and respectable man, and did not deserve
 my censure ; that it was evident I had
 written my letter hastily ; that his own
 age and duties in Kildare prevented his
 attending personally to his estates in
 Arderry, but that Mr. White would im-
 mediately return furnished with powers
 to co-operate with me in every practi-
 cable manner. Mr. Black further informed
 me that for the last two years he had
 not received a farthing from his property
 here, and that the Government measures
 -amounting in his opinion to a confisca-
 tion of his estate-prevented his going
 to any expense about it.
 This, I believe to be a fair precis of his
 letter. I have sent it to London, and
 cannot, therefore, publish it now ; but, if
 he thinks I have garbled it, I will do so
 whenever he pleases.
                 No. 2.
 " Jacob Omnium to W. H. Black, Esq.
                           " April 16.
   " Sir,--If you will re-read the letter
which I had the honour of addressing you,
you will see that I made no reflections
whatever either on the manner in which
you had thought fit to conduct your
estates in Arderry in past years, or on
the conduct of your agent, of whom I
knew nothing, save that he had made no
arrangements for availing himself of the
facilities which the Government and:the
British Association had afforded you for
supplying your tenants with seed.
  " I have just had an interview with
him. He freely admits that the high
price of provisions has rendered your
tenants penniless, that they are daily
dying of starvation, and that the only in-
structions he has received from you are
to confine his expenditure for their relief
to any sums he may henceforward wring
from them.
  " He corroborates the   information
which I had already received, that this
town and about 60,000 acres of land, with
a population of 12,000 souls, belong to
you at a rent-roll of £2,500 a-year, part
of which is from a year to a year and a
half in arrear ; that in 1846 a sum of
£70 was expended on your account in
labour for your own benefit; and that
since the 1st of January your charities
over your entire property here are com-
prised in the sum of £15, granted to the
soup kitchen of Letterbrick.


-106






THE GREAT IRISH     FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


  "Yesterday, at my own private ex-
pense, I had the bodies of four of your
tenants dragged  out of their cabins,
where they were breeding     fever and
pestilence, placed in coffins, and buried.
Their wretched relatives had no money
to purchase coffins, and were too weak to
carry them to the grave.
  " Mr. White since his return has met
one of your people carrying on his back
the corpse of his wife stuffed into a fish
basket to the burial-ground.,
  " As you have supplied him with no
funds, he can do nothing to alleviate this
horrid misery ; and as you are not dis-
posed to provide seeds for your tenants,
unless the English support them-not
till harvest, for there will be no harvest,
but for an indefinite period-they must


all die. I thank Heaven that I am here
upon the spot to bear witness to and
publish a state of things which I could
not have believed possible in a Christian
country.
  "' I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
            " JAcoB OMNIUM,
    " Agent to the British Association.
" W. H. Black, Esq."
  Subsequently to my sending letter No.
2, Mr. White called upon me and men-
tioned that Mr. Black had, in addition
to the £70 disbursed in 1846, spent £200'
on his estate that year ; but that since
January he had, as I have stated, con
tributed but £15 to meet the present
crisis. He further said that Mr. Black
did not clear more than £1,000 last year
out of the property.


(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, A PRIL 23, 1847.)


  Where is the Irish malady to end.?
fHow far are the symptoms to proceed
before we can congratulate ourselves on
arriving at the crisis of the disease ?
What new forms of moral or physical evil
are to be developed before we can ap-
proach its termination ? It is difficult for
us, reposing in the tranquil contempla-
tion of metropolitan wealth and general
comfort, to realize the horrors which are
told us of that which is truly a great
famine. It is only when some one habi-
tuated to the luxury and opulence of
England   undertakes a pilgrimage     of
mercy to those shores of sickness and
suffering that we are made sensible of
the fearful visitation from which we are
separated by so slight an interval. Then
it is that the enormity of what we escape
and they endure is brought more forcibly
to our minds by the minuteness of detail
which is in strong   contrast with the
generality of an account purely Irish.
We then acknowledge the presence of a
salamity more severe than famine, and a
lestroyer  more   cruel than   the aphis
astator-a dearth of those virtues and
affections which enable men to     brave
national calamities with serenity and suc-
cess.
  In our columns of yesterday appeared
a letter from a =contributor whose playful
satire has so often afforded amusement to
our readers.    But " JACOB OxMNIUM "
writes no longer from the palatial mag-
nificence of Belgravia. The fears of Pro-
Iectionists and the treachery of PEEL are


no longer the themes of his light and
salient sarcasm. From the defence of civic
and the assault of bucolic wealth his pen
has strayed into the portraiture of poverty
unexampled not only in its severity but
its helplessness. From an ironical cre-
dulousness of virtues monopolized by the
agricultural interest, his mind's eye has
travelled to the contemplation of a mean-.
ness, a selfishness, and a heartlessness
which none but a purely agricultural class
has yet exhibited, and that in one coun-
try of the world alone. We almost hope
that his description is over-coloured by
his imagination. We would disbelieve
him in spite of our prejudices and our
suspicions.   We would fain hope that
others of that admirable band which has
sallied forth on its crusade of charity to
repay Celtic reproach by Saxon gene-
rosity could by their own experience con-
tradict his assertions and resist his de-
ductions. But these seem to harmonize
too nearly with all that we have heard
from other sources, and all that we daily
read of published grievances, to admit of
a doubt that they are in the main correct.
   And what a state of things it is that he
 describes ! Corpses festering together in
 ruined hovels, and breathing contagion
 on the survivors of the pestilence, or
,crammed in baskets and hurried in the
precipitation of unceremonious fear to
some unconsecrated grave ; the people
prostrated by disease, hunger, and panic }
and in the midst of this great physical
suffering, the graver moral evils, which


_ _ _.0


107






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


are limited in their causes and effects to
noone single period-apathy, indifference,
cruelty, despair. While the many are
perishing, the few are hoarding or ex-
torting. While the desolation of one
dearth is glutting unhallowed sepulchres
with unpitied victims, the consequences
of another are slighted and forgotten.
While the famished mother bears on her
shoulder the dead child whom     hunger
has slain, the rich man shuts his pocket
and the Union its door. While, too, all
signs and suffering bid men fear and
guard against another unfruitful harvest,
the ground remains untilled, the seed
unsown, and the     best bounty   which
policy could devise or charity dispense
is unheeded and rejected! So strange, so
wondrous, so incomprehensible is the
complexity of Irish character and cala-
mity. A vessel sails freighted with the
produce of last harvest. It is besieged
by expectant crowds. Its cargo is seized
by the ravenous competition of starva-
tion; or protected   by the arms of a
military force. But the seed which is
to raise other harvests, and to supply
future years, finds none to buy, and
hardly any to beg it. So strong is the
imperiousness of association,and so rooted
the sense of a bad social system, that the
people forbear to purchase the means of
a future supply, because they fear it may
be distrained for rent !
  S:" JAcoB OMNIUM " may be unfortunate
inthe scenes of his visitation. All places
may not be like Letterbrick ; all land-
lords may not be like the Mulligan. But
why is it that in Ireland, and nowhere but
in Ireland, events occur such as he wit-
nesses, and men are found such as he
paints ? We believe, for our own parts,
that there are no few good landlords in
Ireland ; we also believe that there is no
small viciousness in the peasantry. But
why is it that the former are lost and
buried in the general leaven of their
class ? Why is it that the latter is so
potent for mischief ?    This   is only
throwing the question a degree back. The
condition of Ireland is not caused by the
number of bad landlords or bad tenants.
It is caused by that neglectful and in-
different state of things-that want of
system-that absence of social regulatibn
-without which the rich and the poor
are ever in a state of mutual hostility.
IntIreland the rich man has been taught
to think that the poor man has no claim
upon him. The poor man, neglected by
the law, has learned to vindicate his
rights by its infringement.     The one


extorts and oppresses, the other cheats
or assassinates. The worst effect, then,
of a bad system is thus realized. The
good suffer for the bad.    The tenant,
demoralized by   a sanctioned   iniquity,
evades the payment of his rent.      His
lessor treats his own landlord in the
same way ; and thus many are deprived
of the means of practising that charity
which is at once congenial to their natures
and accordant with their station.  On
the one hand, the peasantry, made callous
by the affliction of one year and the in-
justice of many, filch from their landlords
their legal dues and from   the land its
natural tribute of labour, in order to
transport the joint accumulations of fraud
and imposture to some foreign shore or
remote province. On the other, the land-
lord, irritated by the pride of caste and
the jealousy of covetousness, blinds his
conscience to the wretchedness of his
starved dependents, and while he stoops
to solicit for his own kinsmen or house-
hold the degrading alms of English cha-
rity, shuts his ear and his purse to the
wail of destitute industry, to the rightful
demands of the 'worn-out and infirm
labourer, and the plaintive supplication
of orphan or widowed helplessness.
   If there is one class of human beings
which more than any other should pray
for a Poor Law with all their hearts and
souls, it is that of the Irish landlords.
The present state of things should be
intolerable to them.   They should not
live one day more under its despotism.
They should struggle to set themselves
free as from an overwhelming burded of
obloquy, infamy, and disgrace. No matter
how good they may be individually, their
class is branded with the stigma of a
heartlessness hard as the nether mill-
stone. It may be often an unjust accu-
sation ; but it is one to which partly
their own folly and partly the folly of
the Legislature have exposed them. They
have lived and do live in a state of society
which recognizes no dependence of poor
on rich ; no claims of poverty on pro-
perty ; no duties of the few to the many.
When this license is guaranteed, is it not
natural that many should avail them-
selves of it ? When they do so, is it not
intelligible that the reputation of their
class should suffer for it ? And when-in
addition to this-some of their body,
instead of helping by their means or
suffering in company with thcBe by whose
labour they have been supported, come
forward crouching and cringing to the
voluntary agent of English charity for a


_ _


108






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


sop of his eleemosynary sport la, is it  which has made one class of Irighmen at
strange that English indignation should  once mean and oppressive, while it has
be kindled at this shamelessness, and      made the other helpless as slaves and
should denounce that miserable system      reckless as savages ?




                 CONDITION      OF   CLARE     AND   LIMERICK.
                             (MoNDAY, MAY 3, 1847.)


  The following is a letter from an officer
of the Board of Works in Ireland, lately
employed on a tour of inspection :-
  " I have just returned to Dublin, after
having again visited the counties of Lime-
rick and Clare in the execution of my
public duties. Upon the whole, the aspect
of things was better than I expected
to have found, and I hope we have seen
the worst in this vunfortunate country,
although there are many difficulties yet
to be overcome by the executive officers
of the Government, and much privation
still to be endured by the people, before
a wholesome state of things comes round.
In my former letters, I remarked on
the tillage of the land, and on several
occasions I stated my opinion that culti-
vation was carried to a greater extent
than had been generally admitted to be
the case. Subsequent observations con-
tinue to confirm me in that belief. With
the exception of a small district to the
west of Erris, where the land seemed
scarcely suited, from its poverty, to any
cultivation, I saw no signs whatever of
neglect. On the contrary, there is un-
doubtedly more land in tillage than usual.
Between Limerick and Kilmallock, a
distance of 20 miles, I could see but nine
fields which were neglected, and even
these may yet be ploughed. Not that
the land has, I believe, been   so well
laboured   as heretofore ; less manual
labour has been expended upon it-the
plough has not gone so deep-the fields
have not been dug-in many places the
surface has been only scratched, and oats
have been sown in wheat stubbles, con-
trary to all approved     principles  of
farming ; but much meadow land has
been turned up and sown. I have seen
gentlemen's lawns  ploughed, and, in
short, the breadth of land in wheat, oats,
and barley far exceeds what the most,
sanguine person could have anticipated
three months ago. Moreover,' I have
reason to believe that this is generally
the case throughout Ireland. Of course
there are exceptions; but I doubt that


even these exceptions are so numerous
as have been stated. I have just been
informed, by a gentleman whom Ihold
in estimation, that what I have said is
true as regards Antrim, and along the
whole line of road between Dublin and
Belfast, which he has just travelled.
Except in wild, poor, and mountainous
districts, where the holdings are very
small, and nothing but the potato and a
few oats were produced by spade-labour,
the land has not been allowed to remain
waste. Strange as it may sound at this time
of _scarcity, I may say that it is not at all
impossible that, before the expiration of
another year from this time, if we hav6
an abundant harvest, if Indian corn con-
tinues to be poured into the country, and
the people become accustomed to it, to
cook it properly and to like it, as is pro-
bable-for it is what they term  strong
food as well as cheap-the farmers in Ire-
land may be loudly complaining that they
cannot pay their rents in consequence of
not being able to obtain a profitable price
for their corn.
   " I was quite surprised to find so much
land in preparation for potatoes. Between
Limerick and Kilmallock I counted 53
men and women in 32 different fields
" setting " them. This, however, con-
veys but an imperfect notion of the extent
of what is doing in this respect, because
there were many fields either sown or
ready to be sown with potatoes in which
no people were at work, and where ploughs
ing was going on I could not tell what
was intended to be put into the ground.
It is impossible to estimate the propor
tion of the potato seed sown or likely to
be sown in ratio to other years. A farmer
near Nenagh told me he counted on an
eighth in his neighbourhood, but I think
this is an over-estimate. In some places
it may prove a tenth ; probably, on the
whole, it will not be beyond a fifteenth.
None, however, can form a reasonable
guess, as the greatest pains were taken
by those who possessed the seed to hide
it from their neighbours. ISome buried.


109






THE GREAT IRTS T FAMINE OF 1845-1816.


under the floors of their cabins ; others
hid it aday in turf clamps, and the farmer
whom I have just mentioned told me he
knew instances of the seed being pitted
in a field, and corn sown over it to pre-
vent-any suspicion being entertained of its
being there. Now, however, it is appear-
ing in unexpected quantities. May not this
in some measure account for the otherwise
unaccountable refusal of parties to .put
into the ground turnip, parsnip, and other
seed given to them by their landlords ?
The potato seed which has been set is
universally in good condition-superior
to any planted for above seven years, and
far superior, I have been told, to that of
last year. The shoots     are firm  and
healthy, whereas of late years the shcots
qf this season have been long and feeble
--what the country folks call 'stags.'
You remember that last year's crop was
blighted in the course of two nights,
during which time the air was full of
electricity. People observed on the un-
usual quantity of lightning. Now, it may
have been that the electricity took effect
pn the potatoes with the weak shoots-
the 'stags '-whereas if the shoots had
been firmer and more healthy, as they
are this year, the blight might not have
been so general. Much foreign seed has
been introduced, likewise in a promising
state and at a moderate price. Twelve
days ago some very good were sold at the
quay at Limerick at 10d. per stone, which,
considering all things, is wonderfully
low. The wheat is looking well. There
has been a run on sowing barley latterly,
and farmers are sanguine as to its turn-
ing out profitably. Grass is backward.
Cattle and pigs are very dear. Three
tolerably good milch cows fetched £20 a
piece at Ennis market the week before
last.
  "The late reduction in the price of
food has already diminished the suffer-
ings of the poor, though the fall in the
wholesale price of the imported corn has
not yet produced an adequately corre-
4ponding effect on retail business. Indian
meal, however, was being sold last week
in Ennis at the retail shops at 2s., and
had been sold the week before as low as
is. 9d. per stone, which for some time
previously stood at 2s. 4d. and even
reached 2s. 9d. I found apprehensions
entertained of the supply from America
not being continued, and consequently
of a return to higher prices. These
apprehensions, certainly fostered by the
holders of corn, who in many instances
have been urging the committees to pur-


chase largely now, have had the effect of
keeping up prices. The people do not
appear to have yet got into the way of
cooking the Indian  meal sufficiently.
They consume it in too raw a state. Some
of them, however, mix it with oatmeal
in equal parts; they use the mixture in
the form of porridge, and find it whole-
some.
   ' I had an opportunity of seeing some
of the working of the new relief system
at Newmarket-on-Fergus, in the county
of Olare-the only place, I believe, where
it has come fairly into operation. The
works being stopped in this district, in
consequence of the attack made some
time ago on Captain Fishbourne, the
inspecting officer, the extreme wants of
the people stimulated the committees to
exert themselves to the utmost. Relief
in food has been given for a month, and,
so far, the trial, I understand, has been
successful.  Those in urgent distress,
and with large (families, attend for their
daily dole of Indian meal, but those who
are not in such distress, and who have
not such large families, are not disposed
to attend in the same manner. The relief
in proportion to destitution is given more
equally than was the case under the,
system of working on the roads. For
instance, every individual of a family of
eight, if in want, can obtain a certain
portion of food, whereas probably only
one, or two at most, were employed on
the roads, earning less than the value of
what they now receive ; and a family of
two, or even three, with one of them on
the public 'works, received more money
in reference to number than the value of
what they now obtain. Less money will
be spent in whisky. Moreover, it is a
cheaper mode of relief, and it by no
means opens a door to jobbing, as did the
works. How it may answer in densely-.
populated districts, or where there may
be a deficiency of eligible persons to con-
stitute efficient relief committees, yet
remains to be seen ; but I confess that I
entertain a better opinion of it now that
I have seen something of its working than
I did some time back.
   " I do not know if you have received
any detailed account Qf the attack made
on Captain Fishbourne in Newmarket,
which caused the stoppage of the works;
in the neighbourhood. I introduce it
here to show what an excitable and un-
reasoning assembly a mob is-not that
any additional proofs of this are wanting.
  "Captain Fishbourne arrived in the
district as inspecting officer just when the


110






THE GREAT TRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


orders to reduce the number of persons
on the public works were about to be
carried into effect, and doubtless he per-
formed his duty with stringency. Several
works ceased at the same period, from
the money presented having     been ex-
pended ; consequently many were thrown
out of employment, and the blame was
laid by them on Captain Fishbourne. Sir
Lucius O'Brien, Mr. R. Studdert, of New-
market, a magistrate of the county, and
Captain Flshbourne, were in the Sessions-
house at Newmarket, which looks upon a
large, open space in the town. The place
was crowded with men, chiefly from the
district east of Newmarket, in a state of
fury, armed with sticks, and many of
them, as afterwards appeared, with stones
in their pockets. Captain Fishbourne was
recommended to get away as quietly and
as secrectly as possible ; but he did not
conceive there was any danger, and boldly
went into the crowd. A cry was raised
among them that he was an Englishman,
who, having starved the people in Skib-
bereen, was sent into     Clare by the
Government, with a salary of £500 a
year, to starve them  also. How   this
strange report got abroad no one appears
to know. But its effects were terrific.
Sir Lucius O'Brien and Mr. Studdert at
once saw his danger. Mr. Studdert took
him by the arm, and Sir Lucius followed
him as closely as possible to prevent him
from being struck from behind. The mob,
shouting and yelling, crowded in upon
them, and evidently tried to force him
towards a    small stream, lined with
masonry, where the poor people were in
the habit of washing their clothes. If
they had once got him into it, nothing
would have saved him, but Sir Lucius and
Mr. Studdert succeeded in keeping him off.
Foiled in their purpose, the fury of the
people  increased ; they   mobbed  him
effectually, tore his thick great coat to
shreds, knocked off his hat, and cut his
head. At last one man twisted his hand
in his neckcloth and almost strangled
him. He was so closely pressed upon that
he could not raise his hands to free himself,
and he was sinking. Mr. Studdert per-
ceived the danger, but neither could he
get his hands up, from the pressure of the
crowd. There was nothing else for it ;
Mr. Studdert laid hold of the fellow's fist
with his teeth, and bit him to the bone.
Another instant and Captain Fishbourne
would have fallen never to have risen
alive, but Mr. Studdert's teeth saved him.
The man relaxed his grasp. The mob
then opened a little, some of the police


appeared, Captain Fishbourne contrived
to get on his car, which was in front, and
the driver succeeded in     pushing on,
clearing the crowd, and reaching the
police station. Sir Lucius O'Brien and
Mr. Studdert both thought at one time
that Captain   Fishbourne's chance of
escape was gone, and certainly without
their protection he would have been
sacrificed-sacrificed to the extraordinary
report that he was the man who destroyed
the people at Skibbereen.
   " The farmers are not employing the
labourers, and in this respect there are
very contradictory reports. The farmers
say the men will not work for them at all
-that they have been demoralized by the
public works. By the bye, that expres-
sion of the people being "' demoralized by
the public works " has become a regular
catchword throughout the country-all
hands make use of it whether they under-
stand its meaning or not. On the other
hand, the labourers say the farmers will
not hire them at any price. If it were
possible to decide the question, which it
is not, I believe it would be found that
blame rested with the farmers rather than
with the labourers. Much discontent pre-
vails among those who have been removed
from the works by the late reductions.
It could not be otherwise, and the most
discontent is shown by those who are
least deserving of relief, especially by
those who were improperly rlaced on the
lists. This jobbing has attracted great
attention and met with deserved repro-
bation in England. It is generally attri-
buted to the gentry and the relief corn-
mittees. But though these I-arties have,
in repeated ins ances, I must acknow-
ledge, followed a highly discreditable
course, and evinced a singular misappre-
hension of the principles by which they
ought to have been actuated, yet more
blame has been cast upon them than, I
think, on the whole they deserve. The
great extent to which jobbing went in
this respect has been perpetrated by
overseers and persons of that description.
   " From the different opinions I heard
 expressed I gathered that, however in-
 dividual pers:n s or individual places may:
 have been affected by the late reductions
 on the works, the decided steps taken by,
 the Government have met with general
 approbation among the better, classes,
 inasmuch as relief committees have been
 stimulated to exert themselves by the
 pressure upon tI :em by the poor people
 of their immediate neighbourhaods. It
 is fortunate, too, that the works have


III






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


been stopped, for the present at least,
though   many of the roads are left
in a dangerously unfinished state. A
great deal of money will be required to
put them in reasonable order, to say
nothing of what it would be necessary to
expend if they were to be finished in the
manner originally intended by the en-
gineers and sub-engineers who laid them
out. The fury of the mobs coerced the
presentment sessions into passing all that
came before them, and the necessity of
finding labour in the distressed districts
forced on works which would not have
been undertaken in ordinary times. Not
having time to consider maturely how


they (the roads) ought to have been laid
out, the engineers hurried into the exe-
cution of them irrespective of the pro-
bable cost. The subject seems to me to
be one of moment, and it is my opinion
that only those works should be completed
which are clearly indispensable to the
general communications of the country ;
that they should be executed at the
smallest cost with reference to common
safety, either by rigid task-work or by
contract, leaving the remainder to be
dealt with by the several grand juries, to
finish or not, wholly or partially, as the
exigencies of the various localities may
require."


THE NEW       IRISH   POOR    LAW.
     (TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1847.)


PROTEST OF PEERS ON THE IRISH POOR
              RELIEF BILL.
    Dissentient,-
  1. Because the first clause, conferring
discretionary  power upon Boards of
Guardians to give relief in or out of the
workhouse, involves an abandonment of
the principle of the existing law, uncalled
for by any necessity, opposed to the re-
commendations of every report bearing.
upon the subject that has been laid before
Parliament, and unsupported by a single
argument adduced inthe course of debate.
  2. Because it is of importance to main-
tain a distinction between those who sup-
port themselves by their own labour, or
who are supported by that of their fami-
lies, and those who depend upon Poor
Law relief-a distinction' which is at
present clearly established by the ad-
ministration of relief in the workhouse,
but which will necessarily cease when it
comes to be dispensed;at the dwellings of
the poor, as the recipients of public aid
will generally be as well, if not better,
provided for than the families of labour-
ing men.
  3. Because the primary object of the
institution of workhouses in     Ireland
having been to afford relief to poor per-
sons, helpless through age,'infirmity, or
defect, and to destitute children, such re-
lief has been given with advantage to
those who are the objects of it, as well as
with security against abuse.
  4. Because the 5th clause, authorizing
the Poor Law Commissioners to direct
the appointment of medical officers to


afford medical relief out of the work-
house never could be necessary if the
interests of the industrious poor were
duly attended to by the Government, by
placing  the   dispensaries  and   other
medical charities of Ireland upon a foot-
ing of efficiency, as recommended    by
various reports that have been laid before
Parliament.
  5. Because the 9th clause, disqualifying
any person who holds more than a quarter
of an acre from receiving relief, unless he
has surrendered his holding to his imme-
diate landlord, " which surrender the
landlord shall be required to accept," is
an interference with the rights of property
which may lead to great hardship and
inconvenience, and to the    evasion  of
every covenant or agreement by which
a tenant might have, at any time or under
any circumstances,bound himself,whether
to his landlord or to any other party, in
virtue of his occupation of land or tene-
ment.
  6. Because the 19th clause,for increasing
the proportion of ex officio guardians of the
poor, is an interference with the principle
of election upon which the Boards of
Guardians were originally founded, un-
called for by any necessity, and calcu-
lated to impair the usefulness of the insti-
tution.
           CLANCARTY.
           MONTEAGLE OF BRANDON
             (for reasons 1, 2, 3, and 4).
           MOUNTCASHELL (for first five
             reasons)..


112






THE GREAT IRISH FAMTNE OF 1845-1846.


(LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1847.)


  The Poor Law for Ireland is passed.
Other wise the prospect were gloomy indeed.
All else that concerns that unhappy island
is flat and stale. Every fact that is
chronicled is already anticipated. Any
comment that may be made is already on
the tongue. If we turn from the general
condition which is recorded in our columns
of people clamouring for food, or dying
from pestilence, to the details which are
furnished by private accounts, we find
little to console, and nothing to encourage
us. While actual famine-which exists
in spite of unparalleled bounty-has been
confined to the very poor, and the most
helpless of the very poor, disease and
death have stormed the houses of the
affluent and the well-to-do. Terror has
added wings to despair.     The sight of
suffering unexampled and undiminished
--;the wearisome monotony of woe--the
revulsion which throws the, mind back
itto other and happier scenes--all these
are driving away the few whose means
would suffice to ward off .extreme priva-
tion. The families of the gentry and the
middle classes are leaving the island, and
flying to England, to Wales, or to Scot-
land. With 'these depart the last natural
hopes, the last natural stay of Ireland.
A few months more of an emigration like
this, and a new element will be added to
'the perplexities of politics. A new body
will demand relief, and clamour for assist-
ance.   While the   Irish peasantry are
the- objects of national bounty and the
subjects of legislative anxiety, the =Irish
gentry will entail, another care, but in a
different shape from any that has hitherto
been suggested or dreamed of. Instead
Ef looking out a colony for the lowest of
the Celtic population, it will be necessary
to find one for their gentry and their
middle classes. Already people speak
seriously of such an emigration, its diffi-
dulties and its advantages. No mode of
speech could so strongly point the magni-
tude of the Irish dilemma.
   At such a crisis the New Irish Poor Act
 has been consummated. At such a crisis,
 too, appears the protest of Lords CLAN-
 CARTY, MONTEAGLE, and MOUNTCASHELL,
 on bringing up the report. As all these
 are Irish landlords-and all have been
 resident landlords--we felt no    slight
 curiosity to see the reasons by which they
 justify their rancorous but fruitless perse-
 cution of the obnoxious Bill. Not satis-
 fied with having resisted it while there


yet remained a chance of victory, why do
they now, in this supreme hour of its
triumph and their own defeat, persist in
the exhibition of an insatiate spite ? One
of these noble Lords, in addition to being
an Irish proprietor, has been an English
legislator for 27 years, was a member of
English Administrations for some 10 or
12 years of that time, and has taken part
in every debate that Ireland has given
rise to within the period of his public
life.  We are naturally  solicitous to
peruse the reasons which weigh with a
person who should have learnt something
by so much experience.
  The first two reasons amount to this--
that because the discretionary power of
granting out-door relief has never existed
heretofore, it should not exist now ; and
that its recipients will be better provided
for than the labouring man, &c. In fast,
it is the old story. They reason as if the
present imperfect system  of the Irish
Poor Law was the very best thing in the
world-as if no improvement on it were
feasible or conceivable. But they are'
blind to the facts, the almost incredible;
facts, of this very year. They forget that
in the year of redemption 1847, fanine
and pestilence came suddenly on a whole
nation, and found its poor utterly unpro-
vided with any relief but that of the
newly-erected   workhouses-the     work-
houses unable to contain a tithe of the
applicants ; that while in the hurry-scurry
of calamity means were being contrived
to satisfy an unwonted demand, thou-
sands perished, whom a milder and more
reasonable law might have kept alive -
that the dying and the dead lay together
in their cabins, breathing infection on
the helpless survivors ; that more severe.
than physical want or physical suffering
was the pressure of doubt, distrust, and
dismay upon a people for whom the law
had established no provision--who had
no claim   on human being     or human
chattel for support in the last agony of
their affliction ; that at this moment dis-
affection and insubordination, produced
by this moral infection, are raging in the
cities of Ireland. They shut their eyes
to the one great and pervading element
of all Irish questions-viz., the effect of a
long and lamentable misgovernment on
the character of the Irish people. They
forget that, whatever that may have
been in their indigenous state, it has
received no encouragement from laws and


I


113






THE GREAT JRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


legislators. It has not known the foster-
ing care of provident governors or gene-
rous benefactors. No kindly code has
mitigated  its  asperities, corrected its
peccant humours, or soothed its erring
waywardness.    Legislation  has played
with it, and petted, not fostered and
caressed it. English principles and insti-
tutions have been thrown at random
among them, not as things intended to
fructify, but as bones of contention to
instruments of quarrel. This oversight
runs through all the objections to the
Poor Law, as it runs through this protest.
An experiment is denounced as perilous,
because it ought not at this day to be
merely an experiment. The protestors
forget its danger, and terrors are only
owing to its having been staved off so
long.
   Viewed with reference to principles,
these protests only reflect discredit on
England for her ill policy, her neglect,
her dilatoriness ; viewed in connexion
with details, upon their authors only.
They object to one set of provisions,
when the very faults with which they
charge them are obviated by another to
which they also object. This is perhaps
too broadly stated. Let us be just. Lord
GLANcARTY is the only protestor who has
been able to swallow all the items of the
document to which he puts his name. He
objects therefore at the same time to the
scheme of outdoor relief as making the
idle poor too comfortable, and also to the
clause which limits the chances of that
relief by increasing the number of ex
officio guardians ; he objects, in the same
breath, to the plan as being too popular
and too despotic. The other Peers who
sign this protest do not go so far as this ;
they quietly shut their eyes to a sentence
of which they cannot but see the contra-
diction and the absurdity. But they no
less shut their eves to the fact which it
embodies, and thew general fact which it
leaves unnoticed. They blind themselves
to the universal laws of human conduct
and the invariable effects of certain con-
ditions.   They forget that    receiving
implies giving; that, however ready one


class of men may be to receive, the other
will be proportionately reluctant to give ;
that not only guardians, but ratepayers
of every degree, have a common interest
in refusing relief to the unworthy ; and
that the whole plan of a Poor Law is one
of reciprocal duties. The, man who can
just scrape a subsistence together, after
paying his rent, will be careful not to
pay to any one who can do without it ;
and this indisposition and the general
poverty of the country will disable those
who can work from getting relief without
giving work in return.
  Truly, the New Poor Law is an experi-
ment ; an experiment the more danger-
ous because long delayed. To defer it
was impossible.   It would only be to
accumulate   a catalogue   of calamities
almost beyond conception and certainly
beyond cure. It must be tried, and tried
fairly, come what will of it. Duty,
Justice, Mercy, imperatively demand this ;
and no more hopeful season than this
could present itself for a fair trial. The
melancholy death of the late respected.
VicEROY has devolved an office, formerly
honorary, but now the most onerous in
the Administration, on one whose sense
of its responsibilities will not allow him
to slumber at his post. To Lord CLAREN-
DON the Lieutenancy of Irelaid will be no
useless pageant, no trapping of idle state,
but a high magistracy, employing       a
watchful vigilance and a jealous control.
For this he has abandoned a department
more congenial to his tastes and far more
consistent with his ease. For this he has
given up much that makes office desirable
to men of his position and years, at a
time which exacts more than usual judg-
ment and    more than    usual firmness.
Lord CLARENDON has been no late or un-
willing convert to the doctrines of the
Irish Poor Law; he will lend no reluctant
and frigid aid to its administration ; he
will not sneer it down by well-timed ad-
mission of its difficulties, nor unite him-
self at an awkward crisis to its open and
bitter foes. So far, the prospect is favour-
able.


114.






TIlE   GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.


     SUBSIDENCE OF THE           DISTRESS.
(LEADING ARTICLE, SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1847.)


  The people of England are not wanting
either in charity or in patience, but we
are sure they would all think it high time
the Commissioners for Irish Relief should
close their account. By the end of Sep-
tember, the latest period to be allowed
even for the worst conditioned districts,
it will have been full two years since Ire-
land was put under the system of extra-
ordinary relief.  After two   successive
failures of the staple crop this is not too
much ; but with a good harvest actually
under the sickle, with food no longer at
famine prices, and with an unusual de-
mand for labour, there can be no reason
for suffering this enormous account still to
run on. Of course indolence, or cupidity, or
possibly a still more discreditable motive,
can always suggest to the recipients of
charity that they have a claim to its
further continuance. Where you have to
deal with the sluggish and desponding,
and where the moral is that they are to
sit still and do nothing while the State
puts into their mouths the bread of the,
industrious, the vis inertia of human
nature is sure to back your      advice.
Nothing is so easy as to go on for ever
giving what is not your own. To this
day, or at least till the other day-for we
think HUnE stopped it at last-we were
maintaining the widows and children of
the French Protestant ministers who fled
hither after the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes. Let extraordinary relief go
on a month longer than necessary, and it
becomes a    vested  interest.  Even   a
beggar's walk can   be sold.   Continue
rations for a year, and Irish property will
rise in the market. The faintest prospect
of legislative assistance will suspend the
auctioneer's hammer, and reward him
with one more bidding.      We presume
that when the industrious inhabitants of
this island made shift to carry Ireland
through the famine, they did not contem-
plate that their charity would be coolly
discounted and negotiated in the market
by landlords and land jobbers. So it is
high time the affair should be wound up.
  We are quite aware that there are cir-
cumstances under which the cessation of
extraordinary relief on any plea whatever
would be a mere mockery of distress. To
tell a starving man that he must starve
because he has returned to his normal


state, which happened to be one of star-
vation, would be a cruel jest. But while
we have propped up the nation with tem-
porary measures, we have taken the oppor-
tunity of presenting to it a permanent in-
stitution of charity. Ireland has now a
real Poor Law. Every man, woman, and
child struck off the extraordinary relief
list can go to the relieving-officer of the
union and claim support from the local
proprietors. In fact, the Irishman has
now the. same chance as the Englishman
in this respect. The English pauper does
not dream of extraordinary relief ; nor
does he ask the clergy to put their heads
together and send a howl to the news-
.papers. The English landowner, when he
finds a few dozen poor creatures pressing=
on his resources, does not make out a
case for Parliament or the Treasury. No;
the poor man goes to the parish, and the'
comparatively rich man  pays the just
debt of charity without more ado. I:
pays the debt to the ttermnost farthing,
even though the outgoings of his property
may be actually exceeding the incomings.
He must pay it. He knows that he has
no escape. The Irish proprietor must now:
do the same.
   Yet one of the pleas urged uponthe Relief.
 Commissioners to induce them to con-
 tinue their rations, is, " That the Poor;
 Law guardians have no funds." Were the
 plea once allowed, we may be sure the
 Poor Law    guardians throughout the
 whole island would take very good carei
 to be always without funds. In England'
 we do not consider want of funds a suffi-
 cient reply to the demands of a creditor..
 The debtor most either meet his social:
 obligations or resign his whole status in:
 society. He must give up the inheritance
 of his fathers, the mansion which he has
 built with his money and adorned with.
 'his taste, his sweet pleasure grounds and
 gardens, every curve of which has been
 traced with his eye and his pen, his heir-
 looms, his furniture, his jewels, his
 library, and even the portraits of his
 illustrious ancestors, though they seem to
 live again in his features-he must part
 with everything, and quit for ever his
 much-cherished home, a poor but honest
 man. Betwveen pr perty and its duties:
 in this island mercy is utterly unknown.
 The -law has not an atom of comnunotion.
                                  x~2-


__


115






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


It exacts to the uttermost farthing. If
one proprietor cannot pay     the debt,
another can. The same rule must and
shall be established in Ireland. They
tell us that there are parishes where the
whole produce of the land is insufficient
to the maintenance of the poor.     We
do not believe it. But at any rate the ex-
periment must be tried. Let the whole
produce be seized. When that is done,
and when all the crops have passed
through the books of the parish or union,
we shall then be in better condition to
ascertain the ratio which the resources of
the soil bear to the population upon it.
_We mean what we say; and are in-
different to the canting charge of in-
humanity which the landowners and the
landowners' scribes will be sure to bring
against us. The utter sacrifice and sur-
render of property to its charitable obli-
gations is by no means so uncommon as it
may seem.     Thousands of . yeoman and
tenant farmers in this island have been
reduced to beggary by the payment of
poor's-rates. We do not say that poor's-
rates were the sole or the necessary cause
of their ruin ; but we do say that when,
after lives of industry and competence,
they found themselves aged and penni-
less, they would have been wealthy men if
they could have recovered the sums they
had paid to the overseer. Perhaps they
might have managed with a little more
thrift--perhaps they inight have scraped
up their quota for the rate-book by the
savings of the larder or the beer cellar,
or by some other painful denial. But so
it was. The poor's-rate was just the last
ounce that broke their backs. After £100
for rent and £20 for tithe, £30 for the
poor took the wind clean out of them,
and kept them    continually ffoundering
from one scrape into another. We have
no wish to see any class of Irish proprie-
tors or tenants foundering further or
deeper than they now are.   We only say
that if they find themselves compelled to


practise the most rigid economy, or even
to suffer great loss for the sake of the
poor, they are only in circumstanc s
with which we are very familiar in this
country.
  But there is a still commoner and still
more painful case. In this metropolis
are many thousand occupiers of very
humble tenements, living by precarious
employments with severe toil, and in the
midst of very great discomforts. Instead
of blue sky and the balmy gales of spring,
they dwell under a canopy of smoke, and
breathe a poisonous and stenchy atmo-
sphere that taints the blood and sinks the
soul.   They would rather live  beside
heather and bog, but the calls of duty
and the necessities of life compel them to
seek employment where it is to be found.
Now, of these many thousands, nearly
all, however poor themselves, contribute
to the maintenance of the poor. The
invalid many    weeks   in arrears, the
widowed mother that toils all day at the
washing-tub or all night at the shirt, the
struggling mechanic, and the pensioned
solitary, must meet the demands of the
quarterly  collector.  Though they go
without bread for it themselves, and see
their little ones cry for food, they must
and do pay. In failure thereof they must
part with the bed on which they lie, and,
eventually, the house itself in respect of
which the demand is made. In behalf of
these many thousands, we peremptorily
insist on it that the Irish proprietors and
tenants shall have the self-same measure
of duty, and shall maintain their poor to
the very last farthing in their pockets
and the last rood of their estates. Other-
wise it must inevitably and speedily c me
to this most iniquitous and intolerable
result-that the overworked and hard-
pressed ratepayers and taxpayers of this
metropolis and of this country will have
to maintain not only their own poor, but
also the four million paupers of Ireland.


                     CLOSING     OF   THE    RELIEF    FUND.
                  (LEADING ARTIOLE, TUESDAY, AousT 24, 1847.)
  The day is now rapidly drawing near   still more will follow ; and on Sunday
when the Relief Fund will cease to be   fortnight not even Skibbereen will be
available in aid of any one electoral   entitled to further assistance. From the
division throughout   Ireland. Cs the   12th of September next Ireland must
15th of the present month the names of  swim alone, the Irish poor must be .up-
many were struck out of the lists of the   ported by the Irish soil. There should be
Relief Commissioners. On Sunday next    nothing disheartening in this proposition


_ _


116






THE GREAT IRISIB FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


for men who are worthy of the' name.
It is sufficiently evident to the eye of any
intelligent observer,  that  throughout
those districts.of Ireland from which the
loudest complaints are likely to arise the
soil is at this moment but in a state of
half  cultivation.  Take  Clare,  take
Galway--pass    up  through   Mayo    to
Donegal, walk through- large portions of
Limerick and Kerry, and compare the
state of cultivation there existing with that
of soils (f similar fertility in England and
in Scotland. What is the reason of the'
difference ? Protestant ascendency, an-
swers the priest-Saxon oppression roars
out the well-fed   Repealer-while the
Ribandman, as he takes a snap-shot in
the dusk of the evening at his employer,
thinks it strange that capi:al will not
remain in the country. There is, how-
ever, another and a better reason behind,
which is just this-the predecessors of
the now nominal owners of the soil were
a thriftless and improvident race, and the
present generation must pay not only for
their own manifold transgressions and
:shortcomings but for those of their an-
cestors. At this very moment a large
number of them are living beyond their
means. They not only have nothing, but
they are deeply involved besides ; and
yet they consider it a hardship that the
Imperial Treasury will not furnish them
with the means of continuing a style of
expenditure which is utterly inconsistent
.wi h their real condition. We are fully
aware that the usual answer to this is,
that the affliction which has fallen on Ire-
land in the year 1846-47 has been a special
visitation of PROVIDENCE--unexpected in
origin, dreadful in effect, sweeping in ex-
tent. It is as though the windows of
Heaven had been once more opened to
sweep away not a people, but the only
means on which that people could rely for
support.   We grant most readily that
which it would be affectation to deny,
with the fifth report of the Relief Com-
missioners before us, that the root which
has been the main staple of subsistence
for the Irish people was, in the last year,
mainly destroyed. From     that source we
learn that at the beginning of July up-
wards of three millions of persons were
supp :rted on daily rations afforded by the
public bounty,    while, on the 3d of
August, more than two millions and a
half had still no other means of subsist-
ence. - The fact, however, of the destruc-
tion of the potato is quite beside the real
merits of the question. The real point is,
Who brought the great bulk of the Irish


people to rely upon that root for support ?
By whose act did it happen, that while
in other countries of Europe land and
labour were settling themselves down
into their natural relations, Ireland alone
presented us with the phenomenon of an
unemployed peasantry and an untilled
soil ?
  There have been Trish landlords who
were a credit to their    country-men
worthy, in every sense, of the position
they were called to occupy. The white
list at the present day is, we believe,
still more numerous. But, when we have
made every necessary abatement, it still
remains a   lamentable truth, that the
prime cause why the ITish peasantry have
been reduced to their present level must
be sought for in the neglect and unthrift
of past generations of claret-drinking,
writ-despising landlords. That is at least
one reason why the Irish peasant is the
fed,w-fed,worst-clothed,worst-housed man
in Europe ; fed upon lumpers, clothed in
tatters, housed in a hovel which he dares
scarcely thatch, lest the torch of the in-
cendiary should be applied to it at mid.
night. That is the reason why bogs have
remained undrained, acres untilled. and
waste lands out of cultivation.
   With the operation of the Poor Laiw
will commence= a new    era for IyJelnd.
Up till harvest time three millions of
persons will have been     supported on
public rations, who, after the sickle has
done its work, must fall back for suppor)
on the produnts of their own soil. 'i'Th
landlords can no longer flinch from the
obligation. Evictions of tenantry have
had their day, but that system, at least,
will nowlonger avail. If proprietors in
Roscommon shall think fit to turn their
arable land, now let in small holdings,
into pasture, with no holdings at all,
they are welcome to work their pleasure;
There is just thisdifference between their
past and present condition,-formerly
they would turn their cottiers out to <ie
upon the roadside, now they must make
a rate for their support in the union
workhouse. We would have them        for
their own sakes to understand thus much,
that they may take their measures in
time-that, come ill, come good, this law
will be left to its natural opera- in.
It is in vain for them to look for further
aid or subsidy to this side of the Channel.
All that we could do we have done ,a
ready. Despite of all the obloquy and
abuse of which we have been the objects,
we say it in sorrow, not in anger, hence*
forth they must help themselves. We


__ __ _J


117






THE GREAT IRISH     FAMTIINE OF 1845-1846.


are not even disposed to rake up the
recent grievances of the abuse of the
relief funds, although we see by the
minute of the Commissioners that Irish-
mnen there have been who have driven an
unholy traffic in the misery of their coun-
,trymen. We are most happy to give all
publicity to the fact that the Commis-
sioners speak of this abuse as being far
from universal, and acknowledge in suit-
able terms the zealous co-operation of the
Relief Commnittees in the various districts
of the country.
   The question of the Poor Law and of
the absolute necessity of submitting to
its provisions is, we take it, for Irish
landlords just now the matter of most
vital importance. Another question has,
however, been raised, as to the time and
mode of repayment of the money advanced
to the different unions under the Relief
Act. We published yesterday the pro-
ceedings of the Board of Guardians for
the union of Fermoy, who had been
called together, under a requisition from
the Poor Law Commissioners, to levy an
additional rate to repay the advances
under the Temporary Relief Act. The
sums advanced by the Relief Commission
are referred to various heads. There are
donations in aid of local subscriptions ;
there are grants in aid of rates ; finally,
there are loans on the credit of rates. It
is with regard to a loan under this last
head that the discussion arose at the
Board of Guardians for the union of
Fermoy. We find this union debited in
the account of the Commissioners for a
loan of £23,829 12s. 5d., and it was for
the return of this money that application
was made. Some were for making a rate
to repay the loan ; others for paying it by
instalments ; others for not paying it at
all ; while Lord MOJNTOASHELL, with his
usual na:ivet, stated his opinion, that if
they once commenced to pay, even by
instalments, they would be opening the
door to exactions which would finally
grind them down into the dust.
   The discussion altogether took a turn


to which we have not been unaccustomed
from an Irish deliberative assembly. Mr.
RocIE, who seemed to have forgotten
altogether the sums that had been dis-
bursed from the Imperial Treasury for
the relief of Irish distress, was of opinion
that if the Fermoy union repaid this
loan, it would be calling on Ireland to
tax herself solely for the relief of Irish
calamity. He proposed to call together
all the Poor Law guardians of the county
.of Cork, in order that they might adopt
one uniform mode of action for repu-
diating their debts in a body. Mr. CAR-
ROLL, with some pretensions to sense and
honesty, referred to Lord JoHN RUSSELL'S
declaration on the 25th of June, to the
effect that arrangements should be made
by Parliament by which, in each suc-
ceeding year, money advanced to the
Irish landlords should be repaid by in-
stalments, and when each instalment be-
came due, upon one-half being paid, the
other half should be remitted, taking care
that the whole debt was kept up till that
half was paid.
   Without stopping     to  inquire   too
 curiously how far Lord JoHN RUssELL'S
 declaration was applicable to the rate in
 question, we are content to accept even
 this desire to meet an obligation as evi-
 dence of a better state of things. In no
 instance, we hope, will the loan be re-
 mitted ; but, at the same time, there is
 no doubt that, as to the mode of repay-
 ment, a certain regard will be had to the
 circumstances of each particular union.
 There is so deep an anxiety to give the
 landlords a fair chance with the New
 Poor Law (which will most assuredly be
 worked in its full rigour), that every con-
 sideration which is consistent with the
 exact repayment of the loans will, we
 trust, be shown them in other respects.
 The present crisis is the turning point of
 the future destiny of the landlords of
 Ireland. The burden of practical proof
 is thrown upon them  to show that the
 country can support their class.


MAGNITUDE OF RELIEF OPERATIONS.
(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1847.)


  We publish to-day a letter from an.eye-
witness of one of the most important
epochs in Irish history. For months and
months the great mass of a nation had
been supported by the public bounty, and
on a particular day that support was with-


drawn from a large section. The whole
scheme by which human society is else-
where regulated, the laws of economic
science, the relations between capital and
labour, had in these instances been prac-
tically annulled. Without effort or exer-


                                       __
L _I~


118






THE    GREAT IRISIH FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


tion on their own part, as each succeeding
day came round, they found prepared for
them  the means of sustenance.      The
pittance might be slender, the provision
mean, but it was sufficient to keep body
and soul together, and that was all to
which they had been accustomed in their
best days. As a mere question of quan-
tity and quality of food, they had not
been reduced below their usual level;
the only difference between their past
and present condition was this-now they
might dismiss all thoughts of the morrow.
While they slept, the Ministers and
official persons who were daily held up
to execration by their spiritual and poli-
tical pastors were anxious and afoot.
While Archbishop M'BALE was launch-
ing an anathema against the Saxon, Sir
C. WooD and Mr. LABOUCHIERE were busy
with the more prosaic, but not less
useful task, of arranging the most effec-
tive means of feeding the hungry popula-
tion of Ireland.
   Three millions of persons fed upon
rations supplied by public bounty I The
fact is without a parallel in history. When
the brilliant rhetoricians of Conciliation-
hall, and of that     other  nondescript
assembly for which as yet no apt name
has been devised, make an excursion into
the regions of history, let them not forget
the history of their own     time. The
heroes of Clontarf and Tara, if such there
were, have found their match in the Re-
lief Commissioners and Boards of Guar-
dians. We do not mean to deny the
claims to respect of FINGAL and BRIAN
BORoIME, but, without plucking one
shamrock from their chaplets, we trust to
see the names of BURGOYNE, REDINGTON,
and ROUTH come in for their fair share of
laudatory hyperbole. Take the case of
any army under the strictest discipline--
say an effective force of forty or fifty
thousand men, and the despatches and
letters of the most successful commanders
inform us that their chief difficulty was
in organizing a commissariat. Read the
despatches of MARLBOROUGH, or the noble
records which the Duke of WELLINGTON
has left us of his Peninsular career, and,
for once that you will find either General
occupied in ranging his men in the field
for some great military achievement, in
nine instances you will find him anxious
and occupied in providing them   with
suitable food and raiment.  But what
a drop of water in the ocean was the body
of men for which either had to provide
when compared with the3,000,000 of Irish,
men, women, and children, who, by the


beneficent and unexampled exertions of
the Legislature and the Government,
have been snatched from the jaws of
famine and the gates of death. We will
leave the Irish agitators to their own
reflections on  the subject. Every re-
proach, every invective they utter, in the
presence of this great fact, will be trum-
pet-tongued for their own dishonour and
confusion. The effort was, however, too
stupendous to last. Had it possessed the
character of permanence it would have
ceased to be that which it was--almost a
miracle. For the sake of Ireland herself
it was desirable that it should not he con-
tinued one moment longer than was
necessary. The lesson of self-reliance and
of practical industry is the one of which
her people most stand" in need, and they
cannot too soon begin their apprentice-
ship. The theory of relief was not to
lead the Irish people on step by step
until they could walk alone. A nation is
not trained to manly virtue as an infant
is taught to walk. A certain amount of
misery and hardship is the Styx in which
a people must be plunged, if, like the
hero of the pagan fable, they would be
invulnerable to hostile attack. Had we
persisted in the futile attempt to indoc-
trinate Ireland gradually into self-re-
liance, the to-morrow on which she was
to be liberated from tutelage woild have
never come. The endeavour was made,
and it has been to a wonderful degree a
successful one, simply to provide a starv-
ing people for one year with a substitute
for the crop which had rotted amidst
their hands. It was not, however, in.-
tended to leave them at the end of the
time precisely in the situation in which
they were found at the commencement of
the relief--for it was fairly calculated that
the time during which the people were
supported by the public bounty wou:ld be
occupied by the owners and occupiers of
land in preparing crops of a less perish-
able nature than the one which had been
swept away by a mysterious disease.
   We regret much that we have not the
 means of laying before our readers an
 estimate of the breadth of land, usually
 laid out in potatoes, which this year has
 been sown with wheat, turnips, peas,
 beans, &c. As far as Ulster is concerned,
 a correspondent, who from habits and pro-
 fession V;e believe to be a competent
 judge, sends us intelligence wlich will
 be received with great satifaction in
 this country. The grain crops in that
 province he describes as the finest he has
 ever seen; they ._are now ripe, :and only


119






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


waiting for the sickle. The green crops
are also of a breadth and style of cultiva-
tion that could scarcely have been ex-
pected under the pressure of such an
emergency, and the whole give evidence of
the result of incessant labour. Altogether,
the prospect is most consolatory. 0, si
sic omrnia ! If we could but indulge the
hope that the same state of things obtains
in the other three provinces of Ireland as
in Ulster, we should feel secure that the
gloomiest period of Irish history had now
become a tale that is told.
' Mr. BULLEN was an eye-witness to the
withdrawal of relief in the province of
Ulster. As was natural, the gloomiest
antigipations seem to have been indulged
by the people on the spot as to the effect
the measures would -have on the minds of
the population. There does not, how-
ever, appear to have been any disturb-
ance. The people felt themselves secure
in the presence of the harvest, which was
first to -supply them with employment,


and then with food. Another class might
contemplate the prospect before them
with equal pleasure ; for, if the enthu-
siasm of our correspondent be borne out
by the facts, it is not likely, for this year
at least, that the New Poor Law will bear
very hardly upon the      ratepayers of
Ulster. It is not, however, only in the
province of Ulster, but throughout the
whole of Ireland, that the       gloomy
prophecies of the ruin of the real land-
lords are, we believe, destined to meet
with a signal contradiction. We do not
speak of the nominal landlords, the men
with a nominal £3,000 and a real £300
per annum. We take the rental of Ire-
land in the gross, and we believe that it is,
in almost every union, quite capable of
supporting as large a rate as will, in
average times and with average manage-
ment, be required, and yet leave the pro-
prietary body unscathed by that ruin
they have so long affected to apprehend.


           THE IRISH CROPS IN 1847.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, THURSDAY, AUGusT 26, 1847.)


  Sir,-The state of this country at the
present moment cannot but prove inter-
esting to your numerous readers, and, as
I have just returned from an excursion
through the province of Ulster, I beg to
lay the result of my observations before
you.
  I am happy to inform     you that the
grain crop is the finest I ever saw, and
reeling ripe ; it now only waits for the
sickle to pour peace and plenty on the
land. The green crops are equally fine,
and of a breadth and style of cultivation
that I never expected to have witnessed in
so short a time and at such an emergency.
Turnip cultivation is the leading feature
of the scene, and nowhere did I ever see
such crops of this valuable esculent. In-
stead of a few stunted patches, as for-
merly, sown broadcast and never cleaned,
the eye now wanders over vast fields of
green luxuriance, without a weed to be
seen ; the drills well formed, the ridges
clean and free from foulness, and the
whole showing the effects of that endless
and incessant labour incident to this im-
proved system of husbandry. The bean
crop also looks uncommonly well, and it
is. much to be desired that this most use-
ful food should be more generally ex-


tended in this country. Considering the
present state and prospects of Ireland,
there appears to be no crop better adapted
to its wants and resources than peas and
beans, or none that I would wish to see
more generally cultivated. It is a better
food for man than any vegetable, keeps
well, is easily prepared and cooked, and
every way adapted to the wants and habits
of our poor farmers.
   With regard to the potato crop, it, no
 doubt, looks well ; and, considering the
 advanced   period  and  fineness of the
 season, I am strongly inclined to hope
 that it is safe. It now constitutes what it
 ought ever to have been-namely, a valu-
 able ingredient in our rotation system ;
t and I sincerely trust that the experience
of the past, and sound good, sense of the
future, will ever keep it from again be-
coming the sole staple tood of a civilized
people.
   Sir, the state of things I have just de-
 scribed appears to have had' a most salu-
 tary effect upon the minds and habits of
 the labouring population in these :dis-
 tricts. I watched with feverish anxiety
 the progress of events on Monday last,
 sharing in the general dread of the sud-
 den suspension of the late relief system


120






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


before the possible adoption of the new,
and dreading lest society should burst its
bounds from the pressure from   within;
but, thanks to the bountiful munificence
of Providence, the crisis passed off in
peace. The prospect of the future was so
cheering, and Ih3 demand for labour so
general-and immediate, that the public
mind appeared to have been suddenly ap-
peased and subsided     into a state of
healthy   confidence  and   tranquillity.
Everywhere I went I saw the legitimate
functions of society restored, and labour
apparently absorbed into its proper chan-
nels. The fields were full of industrious
men and women engaged in their legiti-
mate avocations. Some were reaping,
others deeply occupied in the cultivation
of their green crops ; and crowds of little
children were scattered over the turnip
fields, thinning and weeding them, and
lending their infant labour to the general
stock. The appearance of the" labouring
population was also gratifying in these
favoured districts. They looked clean,
contented, and -happy, able and willing to
do their work, and conscious of a certain
return for their exertions-not like the
famished-looking phantoms in the south
and west, that I saw toiling on the roads
in April last, whose unhappy lot it was
to have the punishment of the convict
and the felon added to their original in-
fliction, without the   consolation that
their exertions would be beneficial either
to themselves or the community.
   Thorough draining has been executed
to a considerable extent in certain places.
It is not, however, general, owing in a
great degree to the uncertainty that at-
tended the arrangements at the close of
the session before last. It struck me, also,
that many of the localities have not been
judiciously  selected ; traversing  large
tracts of mountain wastes with indiscrimi-
nate drains according to plans laid down
in a public office is not, in my mind,likely
to be either profitable or productive, and
will require a vast and immediate com-
mand of capital, both in farm-buildings,
stock, and labour, to render anything like
a return for the past expenditure. It is
much to be regretted, therefore, that the
efforts of the Executive were not more
generally directed to draining the low
lands, already cultivated, so as to make
good land better, and to secure a speedy
and a certain return for the outlay.
  I have ever considered a general system
of tile-making as the proper commence-
ment of thorough draining in this country.
There is nothing like beginning right,


and laying a proper foundation ; conse-
quently, I have always had my misgivings
that importing tiles and pipes from Eng-
land and Scotland at great expense, and
carting such a bulky material into the
central districts, can ever pay. It absorbs
a great portion of the capital, and deprives
the Irish labourer and artisan of his right
-namely, the absorption of his labour and
exertions, where pcssible, upon the spot.
I was, therefore, much gratified at see-
ing some of the finest clay and manu-
factured tiles and pipes from within a few
miles of Londonderry, and was told that
there was no limit to the quantity that
could be procured for the purpose. The
superintendent of Mr. Weller's tile-mak-
ing machine also told me that he never
saw finer, or clay that w-s more easily
worked, and the articles were superior to
any I ever saw in this country. If this
be the fact, it is a most important point,
and ought to be followed up at once. The
gentry and large proprietors ought to be
called  upon   forthwith - nay, in fact,
coerced, to establish tile-factories on their
estates, for the benefit of their tenants
and neighbours.
  When. England became a grain-eating
nation, the wisdom of our ancestors also
established manor mills on every estate
for their tenants, and  guarded their
mutual    privileges  with   the  utmost
jealousy. And so it is with Ireland at
present. We have suddenly liecome a
grain-consuming population, and every
precaution ought to be made at once for
securing these manufactured articles to
the public with facility and ease.
   Sir, I am confident that by the general
adoption of a few such timely acts as
these, combined with the plentiful supply
of food now almost within our reach, the
present crisis can be passed, and many of
our difficulties surmounted. Let us only
learn the value of self-reliance, of mutual
co-operation. Let us not be looking to
the Government and an over-worked Ex-
ecutive at every hand's turn, for assist-
ance and relief. No country was ever yet
made prosperous or wealthy by Acts of
Parliament. The power of the Legisla-
ture is limited and much misunderstood.
It cannot make a people frugal or indus-
trious, the only source of national happi-
ness or wealth. It can remove: difficulties;
it may supply certain wants; but it can-
not and ought not to he called upon to
supply the functions of a nation, and
nsurp thoseduties which civilized man1
imperatively called upon  to  discharge
himself for his existence.


_________ _ _~_


121






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


  The most formidable difficulty I see to
contend with for the future is the total
want or almost destruction of stock and
cattle throughout the whole country. It
appears to me the most alarming feature
for the future, for I cannot possibly con-
ceive how the relations of husbandry can
be carried out, or the new improvements
in draining or reclamation can be made
productive or available, without an in-
creased supply of this essential article.
If, therefore, the stock question be not
taken up at once and properly inquired
into-if the facts be not known and
stated,and the most vigorous efforts made
to supply the deficiency,the consequences
will be more disastrous than any we have
yet experienced.
  But, on the whole, Sir, I feel confident
from  what I have seen, that the darkest
hour of any is already past, and that the
crisis is over in Ireland. Many great im-
pediments to social improvement have


been suddenly removed, and a spirit of
mutual co-operation now appears to pre-
vail which never before existed. Let us,
then, enjoy the present calm in reviewing
the past, in order to guard against the
future. Let our plans be prepared and
matured, and, without     confidence or
despair, be suited to the wants and re-
sources of the country. We have many
favourable elements at our command, many
happy combinations, and I think I may
also say, with the unanimous consent of
all parties, that we 'now have a respon-
sible head to our local Government, every
way calculated by age, abilities, and ex-
perience to reconcile and direct these
various elements, and by their judicious
direction to relieve the present wants and
develop   the future   resources of the
country.
        Your obedient servant,
  Dublin, Aug. 22.  EDWARD BULLEN.


LOCAL PLEAS FOR      NON-PAYMENT OF LOANS.
  (LEADING ARTICLE, WEDNESDAY, SEP.TEMBER 8, 1847.)


  The great Irish difficulty, in the course
of its Protean transformations, is re-
solving itself into something of an ordi-
nary character. From almost every union
in Ireland we hear that portentous an-
nouncement, so familiar to the ears of all
who happen to be in the way of giving
trust to their neighbours,that they are not
able to settle their account. Out of 130
unions, we believe only eight confess to
any money in hand. There is a univer-
sal demand for more time, under circum-
stances which assure us that delays are
dangerous. In many districts it is com-
puted that the rates under the New Poor
Law will swallow up all that can be pos-
sibly scraped from the people, and that
)othing will be left for the liquidation
of the late Famine Loan ; and in not a
dew particularly ill-favoured districts it is
gloomily pronounced impossible to feed
the people, even if the rent be altogether
sacrificed. Although there is doubtless
an amazing degree of exaggeration and
downright invention in these statements,
et' we cannot doubt they contain a stub-
'stratunm of truth. We cannot avoid the
'conclusion that Ireland will find it very
difficult to repay even a moiety of what
"we have lent, and that thewhole strength
of the country will be taxed for the fear-


ful burdens it has now to undergo. Nor
can we doubt that there is much honest,
unaffected, genuine   insolvency.  Nor,
again, is there any reason to doubt-but,
on the contrary, we are most happy to
know, that almost everywhere in the
midst of this region of landlordism there
exist a few righteous men who do their
duty, and just save their class, if not
from  the judgments of Heaven, at least
from the unqualified censures of man.
  Of course, there are other objects to be
considered than the duty of a fair esti-
mate.   That   alone, however, is em-
barrassing enough.   Where is the man
who has discharged his conscience on the
subject of Ireland, and has not seen
reason to revise and amend his judgment
before another month has expired? Every
side of the question presentsitself in turn
with a force absolutely overpowering.
" An Irish Pauper," who dates his letter
from that Ireland of Irelands, M'Gilli-
cuddy's Reeks, County of Kerry, gives us
that view which certainly possesses pre-
ponderating attractions with the people of
England, viz., which lays most on the
shoulders of the landlord. Read the
letter, and how    true and familiar it
sounds ! How clear it seems to ring I
We are not speaking of what it proposes,


__


122






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


but what it tells and describes. It is
impossible to doubt a relator who speaks
with such simplicity fnd force, and whose
statements unfortunately tally wi-ith all
we know or are likely to know. But sus-
pend your judgment. Audi alteram partem.
The landlord or some one who has found
a good stratum   of landlords undertakes
their defence. He describes them      as
poor struggling men, rani nantes in gur-
gite vasto, who in the midst of difficulties
sufficient to break the highest spirit, to
craze the hardest head, drain the fullest
purse, and cross the finest temper, have
nevertheless kept on,and are still proudly
breasting the waves of social misery and
strife.  We may grant that this is true
also. Surely there must be some good
landlords in Ireland, else what would
long since have become of the class ?
   There is, unquestionably, the greatest
 possible difference between districts and
 men.   Nowhere    has   this fact been
 brought out with more circumstance and
 force than in these columns. The Times
 is the only British authority which has
 .ventured to embrace the whole surface
 of Ireland in one review, having, at the
 same time, the temerity to discriminate
 and show the good and the bad in their
 proper relief. If at any time we have
 seemed to relapse into vague generalities,
 it is only because Ireland certainly does
 present itself in one simple character
 with some pervading attributes. Ireland
 demands Repeal. Ireland begs. Ireland
 is excused direct taxes.   Ireland lives
 on potatoes. The potato fails, and Ire-
 land suffers famine ; Ireland comes on
 the Treasury for assistance. Ten millions
 ate borrowed at great loss by an embar-
 rassed people and advanced to Ireland.
 Half of it is given to Ireland. The chief
 spokesmen of, Ireland threaten that the
 five millions not given, but only lent,
 will not be repaid, or, if repaid at all,
 will be so very slowly    indeed. It is
 natural to personify an agent which acts
 and speaks with so energetic a uniformity.
 We talk, therefore, of Ireland, Irish
 landlords, and Irish peasants, not as
 doubting there are some exceptions to the
 rule, but merely taking the facts in that
 almost unvaried simplicity in which they
 are actually presented to our senses.
   What renders it still more difficult for
 the English to discriminate between the
 sheep and the goats of the Irish flock is
 that every post brings over a badget of
 news, consisting of little else than im-
 pudent repudiations of debt and savage
 abuse of the British benefactor. Ireland


-we really cannot help speaking of her
collectively-after sucking the very blood
of England for these      many months,
returns much the same thanks to the
people who have suffered, and are suffer-
ing, for her sake, that a wolf would
return to the man who should be simple
enough to draw it out of a pit. There is
hardly a British operative who is not
pinched in his wages, there is hardly a
British tradesman who is not pinched in
his business, by the unparalleled sacrifice
we have made to give or lend what we
could to our Irish fellow-subjects. Yet
here is the mail again, as the last mail,
and most probably the next, bringing over
brutal invectives and insolent disclaimers
of obligation. 'here may be much of a
contrary character in Ireland, but why
does it not contrive to make itself audible
and also influential ? We are justified in
suspecting an  interested  silence.  If
Tralee should carry its point by effrontery
it would be so much in the pockets of all
the landlords of Ireland. They would
rather, of course, that others did so dirty
a job. But so long as they let others be
the spokesmen of Ireland they must be
content to take a share in the scandal.
Should those spokesmen succeed, we are
sure there is not a landlord in Ireland who
will refuse his full share in the profit.
   It is for the Irish themselves to esta-
 blish any distinctions they may wish to
 feel. There are repudiating  and non-
 repudiating States in America. Let the
 non-repudiating unions of Ireland hasten
 to disavow their share in this baseness.
 Let the landlords come forward.     The
 guardians of Tralee are fighting the
 battle of the landlord. In this question
 the Board of Guardians wholly consist of
 landlords and their squires. It is the
 interest of them all to make the spinners
 of Manchester, the weavers and stock-
 ingers of Nottingham, and the labourers
 of Dorsetshire, maintain the Irish poor.
 Whatever can be filched from the Im-
 perial Treasury will find its way into the
 pocket of the Irish proprietor. Mr. J.
 O'CoWNELL himself is doing landlords'
 work when he shows such anxiety to
 thrust out the paupers of his country
 upon the shores of this island. It is for
 the Irish proprietors themselves to clear
 their own characters. Their tenants, the
 priests and the demagogues of their
 country, are involving them in the sins of
 dishonesty and ingratitude. Is it with
 their own free will and consent ? If it is,
 their silence is intelligible. If it is not,
 let them speak out betimes.


1230






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


HORRORS      OF   THE    EXODUS     TO    CANADA.
(LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAy, SEPTEIMBER 17, 1847.)


  The   great Irish   famine  and   pes-
tilence  will have   a   place  in  that
melancholy   series of similar calami-
ties to which    historians  and   poets
have contributed so many      harrowing
details and touching expressions. Did
Ireland possess a writer endued with the
laborious truth of THUCYDIDEA, the grace-
ful felicity of VIRGIL, or the happy in-
vention of DE FOE, the events of this
miserable year might be quoted by the
scholars for ages to come together with
the sufferings of the pent-up multitudes
of Athens, the distempered plains of
northern Italy, or the hideous ravages of
our own great plague. But Time is ever
improving on the past. There is one
horrible feature of the recent, not to say
the present, visitation which is entirely
new. The fact of more than a hundred
thousand souls flying from the very midst
of the calamity acro:s a great ocean to a
new world, crowding into _insufficient
vessels, scrambling for a footing -on a
deck and a berth in a hold, committing
thiiemselves to these worse than prisons,
while their frames were wasted with ill-
fare and their blood infected with disease,
fighting  for  months   of   unutterable
wretchedness against the elements without
and   pestilence within, giving almost
hourly victims to the deep, landing at
length on shores already terrified and
diseased, consigned to encampments of
the dying and of the dead, spreading
death wherever "they roam, and having
no other prospect before them  than a
long continuance of these horrors in a
still farther flight across forests and lakes
under a Canadian sun. and a Canadian.
frost,--all these are circumstances beyond
the experience of the Greek historian or
the Latin poet, and such     as an Irish
pestilence alone could produce.'
  By the end of the season there is little
doubt that the immigration into Canada
alone will have amounted to 100,000 ;
nearly all from   Ireland. We know the
condition in which these poor creatures
embarked on their perilous adventure.
They were only flying from-- one form of
death. On the authority of the Montreal .
Board of, Health we are enabled to state
that they wvere    allowed   to ship in
numbers two or three times greater than
the same vessels would have presumed to


carry to a United States port. The worst
horrors of that slave trade which it is
the boast or the ambition of this empire
to suppress, at any cost, have been re-
enacted in the flight of British subjects
from their native shores. In only ten of
the vessels that arrived at Montreal in
July, four from Cork and six from Liver-
pool, out of 4,427 passengers, 804 had
died on the passage, and 847 were sick
on their   arrival ; that is, 847 were
visibly diseased, for the result proves
that a far larger number had in them the
seeds of disease.   '" The Larch," says
the Board of Health on August 12, " re-
ported this morning from Sligo, sailed
with 440 passengers, of whom 108 died
on the passage, and 150 were sick. The
Virginius sailed with 496-158 died on
the passage, 186 were sick, and the
remainder landed feeble and tottering-
the captain, mates, and crew were all
sick. The Black Hole of Calcutta was a
mercy compared to the holds of these
vessels. Yet simultaneously, as if in
reproof of those on whom the blame of all
this .wretchedness must fall, foreigners,
Germans from Hamburg and Bremen, a-e
daily arriving, all healthy, robust, and
cheerful."  This vast unmanageable tide
of population thus throwT upon Montreal,
like the fugitives from  some bloody
defeat, or devastated country, has been
greatly augmented by the prudent, and,
we must add, most necessary, precautions
adopted in time by the United States,
where more stringent sanitary regula-
tions, enforced by severer penalties, have
been adopted to save the ports of the
Union from those very horrors which a
paternal Government has suffered to fall
upon Montreal.     Many of these pest
ships have been obliged to alter their
destination, even while at. sca, for the
St. Lawrence. At Montreal a large pro-
portion of these outcasts have lingered
-from  sheer inability to proceed. The
inh-tbitants of course have been infected.
From   the official returns of burials at
Montreal, for the nine  weeks ending
August 7, it appears that in the city there
- died during that period 924residents and
806 emigrants, making a total of 1,730
deaths. Besides these 1,510 emigrants
-died at the sheds, making a grand total
of 3,240 in the city of Montreal and its


I ,                 -00


124






THE    GREAT IRISH .FAMINE             OF 1845-1846.


en ianopre Lazaretto; against only 488,
including residents and emigrants, for the
corresponding weeks last year. A still
more horrible sequel is to come. The
survivors have to wander forth and find
homes. Who can say how many will
perish on the way, or the masses of house-
less, famished, and half-naked wretches
that will be strewed on the inhospitable
snow when a Canadian winter once sets
in.
   Of these   awful   occurrences   some
account must be given. Historians and
politicians will some day sift and weigh
the conflicting narrations and documents
of this lamentable year, and pronounce,
with or without affection, how much is
due to the inclemency of Heaven, and how
much to the cruelty, heartlessness, or-
improvidence of man. The boasted insti-
tutions and spirit of this empire are on
trial. They are weighed in the balance.
]Famine and pestilence are at the gates,
and a conscience-stricken nation might
almst fear to see the" writing on the
wal."    We are forced to confess that
Whether it be the fault of our laws or our
men, this new act in the terrible drama
has: .not been met as     humanity and
common 'snse would enjoin. The result,
was.quite within the scope of calculation
:a d: even of cure. For our own part,
before one emigrail vessel had left our
ports, and when thoughtless and selfish
men were first beginning to toalk of a
great systematic plan of 'emigration, we
called the attention of the Legislature to
the dreadful scenes that would be wit-
nessed on board the      emigrant fleet,
crowded with wretches already at death's
door, predisposed to almost any malady,
and certain victims to the first existing
cause of disease.   We subsequently ex-
posed the wickedness of transporting our
pauperism to shores where no provision
was made for its reception, and to a
climate where all the necessaries of life


were at least as indispensable as in our
own.
  The simple and infallible character of
the precautionis proper for the safe trans-
port of such a multitude will be seen
from the letter written at our suggestion
by the late lamented Dr. COMBE, and un-
fortunately interrupted by his death.
By the kindness of a friend our readers
are permitted to hear " his voice from
the grave," and it will, we trust, be heard
where   such   warnings   are   certainly
needed. But simple as precaution was,
what has been done ? In the first place,
our usual regulations as to the propor-
tions of passengers to tonnage are lax
enough. Then, it appears that British
ves:els bound to Canada, owing to the
recent repeal of a former enactment, need
not, and do not, take out snrgeons. Then,
as a correspondent informs us, the in-
spectors appointed to see that emigrant;
ships chartered from British ports ob-
served such regulations as there are, have
generally failed in their duty. Into this
part of the business we hope that Parlia-
ment will not omit to inquire. Fur-
ther,   notwithstanding  the  assurances
given to the Legislature last session,
it is quite   clear that due prepara-
tion has not been made at the colony.
As the IVMontreal Board of Health justly
complains, there have been no adequate
funds, or even compe ent authority, pro-
vided for the crisis;the establishment
at Grosse Isle has 1een ridiculously in-
suf icient, nor have any measures what-
ever been adopted or thought of for the
transmission of the helpless and destitute
crowd beyond Montreal, much less for
their employment and settlement. Such
neglect is an eterinal scandal to the
British name ; nor do we see any way to
escape the opprobrium of, a national in-
humanity, except by taking the earliest
and most effectual means to rectify -past
errors, and prevent their recurrence.


RESISTANCE TO


POOR'S-RATES.


(LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1847.)


  We shall not trouble ourselves with
any -apology for insisting that the first
duty of Ireland at the present juncture is
to pay all that it owes, both for the or
dinary and extraordinary    relief of its
poor. It is only called upon to pay five
millions out of the ten millions advanced


for the temporary measures. There can
be no hardship there, considering that
Great Britain was all the time maintain-
ing its own poor, and was suffering great
scarcity and ,ommercial depression. Five
millions are only a third part of the esti-
mated rental of the Irish soil, and far


_~_ji_~___~~__~ ~ ____)  _ i


__


125






THE GREAT IRISH IFAMINE OF 1845-1846.


below the sum commonly supposed to find
its way annually into the pockets of
absentees. As for the ordinary poor's-
rate, now, of course, considerably enlarged
by the institution of out-door relief, it
remains to be seen what that will amount
to. Many estimates are afloat which
appear to be exaggerated, but which are,
at all events, nothing but estimates, and
that by interested authorities. The Poor
Law hitherto in Ireland has been a mere
farce, and it is likely enough that they
who have hitherto been paying only a few
pence in the pound for the relief of the
poor should raise an alarm at the prospect
of :having   to pay   perhaps as many
shillings. It is :unnecessary, therefore,
to participate in their alarm till the rates
have been actually collected, the poor re-
lieved, the annual amount ascertained.
Should it then be found that the landlord
is left as much in the lurch as many an
English landlord has been, and is at this
moment, it will be for us to turn our
attention to his sufferings. Meanwhile
the charity which the Imperial Legisla-
t-ue has thrust on the Irish proprietor is
&n immense boon to Ireland, which the
eople-of that unfortunate country, if
they have a gleam of common sensense, will
render effectual by every means in their
power.
   The principles of common humanity
 introduced  in  the   Irish :Poor Law
 constitute the greatest   triumph    yet
 achieved over the monster evil of Ireland
 -its absenteeism. An effective Poor Law
 is the only conceivable method of laying
 an embargo on the absentee rents. But
 for our own English laws, the greater part
 of this island would have presented the
 same miserable spectacle of horrid, un-
 heeded, unrelieved poverty. Rents would
 have flowed from the provinces to the
 metropolis, to the watering   places, or
 the continent, in one continual stream,
 without leaving an odd sixpence in the
 pound for the destitute poor, who would
 have rotted as they have done till now in
 Galway or Cork. Now,with " a long pull, a
 strong pull, and a pull all together," we
 have squeezed a little decency out of. the
 proprietor. We have rendered the poor the
 first mortgagee. He comes first, then the
 money lender, then the landlord.      In
 fact, we have given the poor man a rent.
 That rent is now to be collected. Will the
 millions of Ireland be so infatuated as to
 aid the malcontents in withholding it ?
 If the rates are not collected, of course
 the poor will soon be dying by the road-
 sijes. laid on the sarface of churchyards.


and gnawed by dogs as before, with no
other relief in prospect for the survivors
than a daily journey to some distant relief
works for 8d. a day. Let them look to it
in time that they do not, by their mere
habit of resistance to pecuniary demands,
afford any countenance to the idea that
rates cannot be collected. Others will be
the gainers by their folly. Should they
see the wealthier farmers combinining to
resist the payment of rates, and here and
there a landlord laughing at the sport,
let them  remember that themselves are
the victims.
  One rule for England and for Ireland.
In this country the poor's-rate has always
had precedence of rent. First the poor,
then the landlord. In the whole of our
social economy, there has been nothing
so .invariable, so indispensable, so unin-
terrupted as the payment of rates. The
landlord, indeed, may have his mis-
givings as Michaelmas draws nigh, and
will prudently abstain from " counting
his chickens before they are hatched ;"
the steward may make up his mind for
two or three defaulters ; the relation of
the tenant farmer to the lord of the soil
forms no exception to the proverbial un-
certainty of human affairs. It is not so
with the rate for the poor. It must be
collected, and  it is collected.  The
dapper little collector takes the parish by
house row, armed with a rate-book and
portable writing apparatus that lay open
doors, pockets, and purses, more effec-
tually than a battering-ram or a park of
artillery.  Here and  there some one
modestly requests a little grace, which is
granted, because it will not be abused.
But whether the amount be small or
great, it is always paid. Old women,
orphans, and cripples, the lame and the
blind, the very outcasts of society, have
the first-fruits of the harvest. The land-
lord takes his turn after them, and gleans
what he can. Good years or bad years,
high prices or low prices, it is all the
same with the in-door or the out-door
pauper. There is no abatement of the
weekly bill of fare, the loaf or the pay.
The landlord takes the whole of the risk.
If there must be a reduction somewhere,
he is sacrificed. He puts down his horses,
and gives up his intended new carriage ;
he turns economist in his kitchen or his
garden ; or he po:tpones to another year
sending" HARRY " to Eton. Thus does
he stand the brunt of the storm which
passes over the head of the pauper. We
are only asking the same rule for Ireland.
   Roth the civil and the   ecclesiastical


'12i






THE GREAT IRISH .FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


chiefs of the Irish democracy appear to
understand the value of the poor's-rate
and the motives of those who resist it.
1Mr. J. O'CONNELL treats the question
with a spice of his father's vigour, though
he also betrays the same error of feeling
and of policy which prevented his father
from recognizing British sympathy, from
whatever quarter it proceeded, and so far
prevented   a   cordial co-operation of
British and Irish patriotism. However
little he may be disposed to believe it, a
pure unmixed pity for the condition of
the Irish peasant, and an honest indigna-
tion at the selfish position assumed by
the proprietor, were the mainsprings of
that movement which has thrust a better
Irish Poor Law on the Legislature. There
are friends -of Ireland here who have
wished it long,enough, but have not been
heeded until Nature herself added a fearful
significance to their counsels. The fact
is as Mr. J. O'CONNELL states. If the
people of Ireland only. see that the poor-
rates are collected, they are scathless.
Every acre is pledged to their support.
Ejectments will no longer rid the land-
owner of his burdens. He has his choice


of a tenant or a pauper. Let him take
which he pleases. He will find it better
to receive a little than to pay, a good deal.
The parish priests are opening the eyes
of their people to the ne w hold they
possess on the soil of their country, and
the interests if not the affections of their
landlords. There was great opposition:
at. Dingle, whereupon the priest stated.
the case very simply from the altar:--
" Heretofore landlords have had agents
who collected their rents, and they sup-
ported them. The grand jury had agents
to collect the county cess, and they sup-
ported 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."
And yet there are persons who fondly:
imagine that an anti-rate war can be got
up as easily as an anti-tithe war;and:
that as Government paid the tithe, it
may also pay the rate. There is all the
difference in the world between the two
cases. The tithes were the property of
a small, powerless, and, unfortunately,
not very popular class. The rate is the
property of the people themselves.


          FIGHTING     PROPENSITIES.
(LEADING ArTICLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1847.)


  It is now some years since trial by
wager was formally abolished in England.
A young woman had been murdered with
the greatest atrocity. The murderer was
brought to his trial, and nobody doubted
the issue. A clever fellow of an attorney,
however, had rummaged up an obsolete
statute, and when the accused was called
upon to plead he demanded another sort
of trial-viz., a personal combat with the
nearest relative of the deceased, who
happened to be the poor girl's brother, a
puny and sickly young man. There wasno
alternative but to admit the plea, and the
ruffian escaped. The statute was imme-
diately annulled. Now,we are almost dis-
posed to ask whether this was not done in a
hurry. Legislation ought not to be much
in advance of the times. It is open to a
question whether trial by wager, instead
of being a step backwards, would not be
a positive improvement upon the existing
practice of Ireland. In that country there
is a sort of natural foundation for the
appeal. There is, in fact, a standing
appeal to arms, and undoubtedly arms


do often decide the controversy.  The
question, therefore, is whether what is
now done illegally, roughly, and foully
should not be done with fairness and
solemnity. In trial by wager there are
spectators, umpires, rules, and invocation,
of Heaven.     That, of course, is an
improvement on murder, and on the
numerous gradations of menace and inso-
lence which derive their only force from
the circumstance that they point more or
less closely to the possible commission of
that crime.
  Last Wednesday night, in the county
of Limierick, a man was eating his supper
by the fire with a child in his arms. An:
armed party came round his cottage, fired
in at the windows and door, shot the'
man dead, breaking the child's legs, and
fled over the bog. Of course it was a-
quarrel about land.  if the man had been
allowed to exchange a shot with the prin-
cipal murderer, he would at least haven
had a chance of his life ; and perhaps this:
would have satisfied all the instincts of
Milesian   equity.  Possibly, too. the:


_ __ __


_ _


127






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


'4armed party," though they rather liked
the fun of discharging all their pieces
into a family circle gathered round a turf
fire, would have been glad to sneak out
of a combat face to face, and one at a
time. The Nenagh Guardian gives us
another example to the point, occurring
near Newport. There was a quarrel about
some cattle and their keep. The owners
of the cattle were driving them away,
when the servants of the man who had
undertaken to keep them interfered to,
get back the quadruped lodgers. The
servants were armed by their employer,
and of course used their weapons. One
of the two brothers that were driving
away the cattle received a ball in his
baiak, and will probably die. Elsewhere.
an agent of Lord SHASNON, with a large
party, were executing an habere, and
taking posstssion of a house as lest they
could. One of them was ordered to get
on the house and strip the roof. The
first slate he removed he fell dead to the
ground by a shot from: the occupant.
There is all the difference in the world
between the last two cases. -In the latter
there had been considerable violence to
the feelings of the manslayer, and ho was
one against many. He fought against
odds, and faced his danger. It is clear,
however, that a trial by wager would have
settled both affairs much less disagree-
ably. There would have been a bit of
romance, too, about, them, instead of
that ugly gallows look which, with our
prudish ideas of equity and law, they
must unavoidably wear.
  But we are forgetting a case vastly
more to the purpose than: any we have
mentioned. The people in the Lowthers-
own union' last winter were, or pre-
tended to be, in much the same case as
the rest of Ireland. They had their wheat
and their barley, but lost their potatoes.
So the Legislature offered them various
kinds of assistance, which were all thank-
fully accepted. One of these kinds was
an   advance   under the   "Temporary
Relief Act "-a sort of provisional Poor
Law, to be applied till the permanent
measure -could    come into operation.
When it was passed a declaration had
been recently made that half the enor-
mous expenses incurred by the " relief
works " would be undertaken by Govern-
ment, and time allowed for the repay-
ment of the rest. An estimate also was
made that of an aggregate ten millions
advanced to Ireland, half should be given,
half lent. Large sums were given out-
right, and as a set-off against them, as


well as for obvious reasons of justice, it
was decided and enacted that Irish pro-
perty should refund as soon as possible
the whole of what was advanced in the
particular form of " temporary relief of
destitute persons." There could be no
,mistake about it. Any child who can
read the act of 10 VICTORIA, cap. 31, will
see that it has not one word about either
giving half the money advanced or post-
poning repayment. On the contrary, the
Act proceeds some time without saying a
word of advances, and only authorizes
them in the case of ready money being
wanted, when they may be made on the
security of rates. What rates ? The rates
of the next six years ? No ; on the
security of rates '"made or about to be
made," or, as the margin expresses it, in
" course of making and collecting." The
guardians of Lowtherstown union, not
having money in hand,borrowed under the
Act. It is now their duty to make pro-
vision for the repayment of the whole in
their next rate. They decline to doso ;
and instead thereof modestly propose to
wipe out half with the sponge, and pay
the rest by    six  yearly instalments.
Nothing could be cooler than such a
proposal, excepting, perhaps, the manner
in which it is enforced.
   The Irish Poor Law Commissioiers, on
being informed of this resolution, find
themselves obliged to put in force an
enactment which orders them to suspend
the refractory Boards of Guardians, and
appoint paid officers to collect rates, and
repay the advances. In doing this, how-
ever, they write to the defaulters, and
point out their dishonesty in borrowing
money on certain conditions, and the
moment the money is got and spent
throwing the conditions to the winds.
One point also they bring out which it is
particularly important to notice, as we
are sure it will tend to counteract a
rather extravagant impression which pre-
vails as to the utter poverty of Ireland,
and the overwhelming burden of this
year's levies. They remind the guardians
that the amount of the rate required to
repay the whole advance does not exceed
is. 10d. in the pound in any electoral
division of the Union, and in one division
is as low as 9d. in the pound ; while, if
the guardians' own estimate of 10d. in
the pound for     ordinary  expenses is
correct, they would not have to make a
higher rate than 2s. 8d. in the pound for
all purposes in any electoral division;
in one division, indeed, not more than
is. 7d. in the pound. Now, we in Eng-


___


128 '






THE GREAT IRTSH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


land do not think that so out of reason
for a very bad year. Nay, we have many
parishes which pay every year, famine or
no famine, at least twice as much.
  On receiving the letter announcing
their dismissal and  containing these
fruitless appeals to their sense of honesty,
the guardians immediately answered the
Commissioners with-a challenge.   As
there are twenty guardians and only three
Commissioners, we do not know how the
affair is to be arranged on the usual plan;
and, therefore, we are inclined to suspect
that the guardians have in their eye
rather the case of the " armed party "
who poured a broadside into one man
with a child in his arms at Knocksentry
than a luiet little exchange of bullets at
twelve paces. However that may be,
there can be no doubt whatever as to the
particular and only possible purport of
the intimation. For merely suggesting
to the guardians that when money is
borrowed under certain conditions of re-
payment it is proper that those condi-
tions should be observed, the offended
guardians tell the Commissioners that
in doing so they have taken advan-
tage of their official position to use
language to a public board which in a
private capacity they dare not use to them
as private individuals. This, of course, is
meant to smell of powder, and to brand
with the stigma of cowardice those who
do not take it in the sense of the writers.
Lest, too, we suppose, the affair should
drop through the want of individuality
about: it, and the  multitude  of the
challenging party, one peppery fellow--a
Mr. W. D'Ancv-particularly given, wee
must conclude, to repudiation and pistols,
subscribes  his name with     a protest
against the inadequate tone of the letter.
Nor is this all, While " the satisfaction
due to a gentleman " is demanded from
the Commissioners, a still more bloody
threat is held out to the Lords of HER


MAJESTY'S Treasury. A sort of Rockite
notice is indited and posted to Downing-
street, announcing, on the authority of
those who are possibly able to fulfil
their own gloomy predictions, that if an
attempt is made to levy*the rate, a system
of resistance will be originated which at
future periods it will be difficult to sup-
press.
CTrial by wager is the only sort of jus-
tice we see that will satisfy these gentle-
men. To be sure, a duel between a debtor
and a creditor is not quite fair, as in
either case the creditor comes indiffer-
ently off. If he kills his man, he kills
the debt with him, and he does not get
paid by being shot himself. We should
not be surprised, therefore, to hear that
the Lords of the Treasury and the Com-
missioners of the Poor Laws decline
standing fire. They who handle the pen
may justly plead that they are not adepts=
at the pistol; and men who can strike
a   quarter's balance  with   wonderful
exactness are seldom competent to snuff'
a capdle at twelve paces. In fact, hair
triggers are not a part of the public ser-
vice. But could not a corps of champions
be organized ? Places are wanted for-
the promising scions of the aristocracy.
There should be more patronage at the
Minister's disposal than our grinding
economy has left us. Instead of making
young honourables precis writers and
aftaches, let them be trained for Irish
field service. In that case when a board
of Irish proprietors borrow money and
attempt to bluster out of the reckonihg by
telling HER MAIITESTY'S public servants
that they are not gentlemen, we shall have
a body of champions whom we can better
afford to risk, and who, living or dying,
will do honour to their country. A single
duel or a tournament will then settle the:
question of payment, and, even if the-
country loses the money, there will be at
least no more trouble about it.


IRISH   IMMIGRANTS       IN  CANADA.
      (FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1847.)


(From the Montreal Herald of Sept. 2.)
  IThe ship Julius Caesar, from Liverpool,
with 471 passengers, is at Grosse Isle,
had 33 deaths on the passage, and had 60
sick on board-it is said, in a miserable
state. The Canada, M'Arthur, from Glas-
gow, with six cabin and 129 steerage
                                         I


passengers, is also detained at the quaran-
tine. She had 12 deaths on the passage,
and has 20 sick of the small-pox. The
ship  Caledonia, Greenhorn, July 29,
from Glasgow, with a general cargo, for
Quebec and Montreal, arrived here this
morning on her second voyage this season.


S129






THE    GREAT IRIS          FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


Captain Greenhorn reports having spoken
the ship Cambria, from Glasgow, off Mitis,
on Monday last. On the 24th of August,
spoke the Pacific, hence. We are sorry
to say that the Catholic clergy has lost
another of its members this afternoon,
the Rev. Mr. Bardy, vicar at Rimouski,
who died at the Hotel Dieu Nunnery, of
fever contracted at Grosse Isle.

  (From the Montreal Herald, Sept. 4.)
  On Wednesday last his Excellency the
  Governor-General visited the new emi-
  grant hospitals on Point St. Charles, and,
  after a minute inspection of allthe various
  departments, we are happy to learn, ex-
  pressed his entire satisfactioi with the
  complete and admirable arrangements of
  the whole establishment.
  We visited the sheds yesterday morning,
  and propose briefly to state what we saw.
  The emigrants are landed at a temporary
  wharf, above the terminus of the Lachine
  Canal. They are carried clear past the
  city, and sent up ina barge, as they arrive,
  to Windmill-point. Thence the healthy
  are forwarded as fast as possible to
Lachine, on their journey westward. A
continuous barrier, between the landing-
place and the canal, is erected, and on the
canal itself the bridge is carefully guarded
by police, who prevent any unnecessary
.communication with the city, passes being
given to those who really have business,
with the hours specified both for departure
and return. A road by the river con-
ducts to the old emigrant sheds, which
are also completely fenced in and used
only for the temporary reception of the
healthy. Of this large pile of buildings
one is appropriated to the children of emi-
grants lying sick at the hospital. About
=120 are there at this moment, who are
well fed and attended to, and taught to
read and write, so far as practicable. If
their parents survive, they are forwarded
with them ; if left orphans, they are con-
signed to different charitable institutions.
So far there is neither cause,nor can there
be any reasonable apprehension, of in-
feation.             --
   (From the Montreal Pilot, Sept. 11.)
   We are happy to say that the mortality
 at the emigrant sheds is abated, still the
 diminution is nearly as much attributable
 to want of material on which to work as to
 a general improvement of health. The in-
 mates of the hospitals are nowa little over
 1,000 ; the daily rate of mortality varies
 from 12 to 24. Would we could congratu-
 late; the country that proper measures had
 been taken to provide for the misery and


destitution  which, superadded to the
ravages of disease, are to be apprehended
in the ensuing winter ! But we hear of
no such timely provision, and what is to
be the fate of our unfortunate country-
men who have betaken themselves to our
land  to relieve themselves from  the
miseries entailed on them by injustice
and oppression at home, God only knows !
Surely, on our executive a serious re-
sponsibility rests; and, if they have not in
a voice of thunder demanded from the
British Government the means of support
of those poor creatureswhohave been thus
unfeelingly cast forth   unprovided  to
" bide the pelting of the pitiless storm,"
they have committed a crime to which
their former misdeeds are as "dust in the
balance." We do hope that this neglect
of a sacred duty is not to be added to 'the
black catalogue of their offences.

  (From the Montreal Courier, Sept. 6.)
  We have received this month's number
of the British AmericanJournal of Science,
from which we extract thefollowing para-
graphs. We are happy to see that there
is a decrease in the mortality in this
city :-
   " Judged by the mortality reports and
general professional experience,the health
of the city is improving, although the
ratio of deaths from fever is still inordi-
nately   high. For the last ten weeks
the weekly returns of mortality from that
cause alone are as follows :-
   " June 19th, 3; 26th, 4.
   " July 3d, 12; 10th, 56 ; 17th, 53;
24th, 60 ; 31st, 68.
, " August 7th, 37 ; 14th, 40 ; 21st, 36 ;
28th, 31.
  " Other prevailing diseases are dysen-
tery and diarrhoea, the former of which
is more than usually prevalent this sea-
son. From    all accounts the  sanitary
state of Quebec has not improved much ;
typhus fever, introduced by the immi-
grants,being remarkably prevalent ; while
at Grosse Isle, though matters seemed to
be improving, the mortality among the
immigrants is still immense. On Sunday,
the 22d, at 10 a.m., there were 2,048
patients in hosiptal- and the deaths for
the week ending the same day at noon
were 228.    At the emigrant hospital,
Point St. Charles, on the 30th of August,
there were 1,198 sick ; and 20 deaths
took place during the preceding 24 hours.
Now, however, that the temperature of
the air has become cooler, we may antici-
pate a more healthy condition of both the
cities. '"


130






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


       (From the Toronto Patriot.)
   The following is the presentment by the
 Grand Jury at the last Mayor's Court. It
 deserves a careful perusal :-
   " City of Toronto, Home District, to
 wit-The jurors of our Sovereign Lady
 the Queen, on their oaths present, that in
 obedience to the charge delivered by the
 Court at its opening, they have conferred
 together on the   subject of the large
 pauper emigration  from     the  mother
 country to the province this season ; the
 amount of sickness and mortality among
 the emigrants ; the extreme helpless-
 ness of the large majority of them, and
 the alarming prospect before them on the
 near approach of winter, from the want of
 means for their support, the want of em-
 ployment by which to maintain them-
 selves and families, and their general
 inability to labour, on account of their
 want of a knowledge of the commonest
 arts and occupations of life, even if em-
 ployment were provided for them. In all
 parts of the province to which portions
 of the emigrants have     been dispersed
 severe sickness has accompanied them to
 an alarming extent ; hospitals have had
 to be erected for their special accommo-
 dation, Boards of Health established, and
 large expenditures incurred for their hos-
 pital attendance and medical treatment
 and support, beyond the ordinary dis-
 bursements for passage and rations while
 proceeding to their several destinations,
 and the cost of erecting or renting houses
 for hospitals. These expenses the Grand
 Jury are given to understand are borne
 by the Home Government, and defrayed
 under the immediate direction of the
 Boards of Health at the different stations.
 But there is no provision made for the
 support or employment of the patients on
 being discharged from the hospitals. They
 are allowed to roam at large, either to beg
 or starve, and instances frequently occur
 of their relapsing after being discharged,
 and returning from the country to the
 city to resume their places in the hos-
 pital. In Toronto some of our humane
citizens have formed a society for the re-
lief of the widows and orphans of deceased
emigrants, but the means at their dis-
posal are very limited, being derived en-
tirely from the voluntary contributions of
the benevolent. It must be obvious that
this laudable effort will fall infinitely
short of what is required to meet the try-
ing emergency. It is very evident that
during the winter the cities and towns of
the province will be      inundated   by
thousands of these unfortunate people,


unless timely provision is made for their
employment and support in some way or
other. To allow them to become a botr-
den on the public charity would be most
unjust towards the industrious inhabi-
tants ; nor can it be expected that they
would quietly submit to such an imposi-
tion any more than the inhabitants of the
cities and towns in Great Britain, for
whose relief special provision has, we un-
derstand, been made by Parliament, in
the authority recently granted for sending
the pauper emigrants   back  to their
parishes in Ireland, there to be provided
for by those upon whom the burden of
their support ought legitimately to fall.
In the United States the influx of pauper
emigrants is effectually prevented by the
laws of that country, so that the whole of
them intended for this continent find their
way into the British North American Pro-
vinces, and chiefly to Canada. Indeed,
cases have occurred of emigrant ships
having been refused landing at the port
of the United States, on account of the
poverty and :sickness of the passengers,
and they were therefore driven for shelter
into the British American ports, where
the poor emigrants who survived were
landed. Nearly 30,000 souls have already
passed the port of Toronto this year ; and
there are at present upwards of 1,100
patients in the Toronto hospitals, besides
the widows and orphans in the asylum
humanely provided for them, numbering
about 200. The fund as yet collected for
the support of this asylum falls consider-
ably short of £200, far too small a sum for
the purpose, and it is by no means pro-
1bable that a sufficient amount will be
braised by voluntary effort to carry the es-
tablishment through the winter, with the
great increase of inmates that may be ex-
pected to flock to it. Severe sickness and
death have ;been of frequent occurrence
among the attendants at the hospitals,
caused by the unceasing labours imposed
on them, among the hundreds of fever
patients with whom they are continually
intermingling. Sickness also prevails ex-
tensively throughout the province,caused,
in many instances, as we are informed,
by contagion from diseased emigrants, and
too frequently terminating fatally.
   " The Grand Jury, deploring these cir-
cumstances, feel constrained to call the
attention of the Court to them, and by
this means 'they trust also the attention
of the proper authorities, so that timely
relief may he provided against the ap-
palling calamities with which  we are
threatened on the approach of winter.
                                  I .2


131






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


They cannot countenance a proposal to tax
the inhabitants of the city for this pur-
pose. Already the amount of taxation
imposed for civic purposes (besides the
school tax) is as large as the corporation
would venture to inflict, or the inhabi-
tants can well bear. The powers of the
corporation go no further than Is. 6d.
in the pound for ordinary taxation, and
the rate now imposed is is. lid. in
the  pound (exclusive  of the school
tax), leaving but 4jd. in the pound
to reach the utmost limit. The gross
annual revenue arising from the pre-
sent rate is about £6,000, independent
of the school funds; and were an ad-
ditional rate of 41d. laid on (being to
the full extent of the powers of the
corporation), the amount to be realized
from it would most likely fall far short of
what would be required for the support of
the great number of pauper emigrants
who would be induced to flock hither
from the knowledge of such a provision
being made for them,while the imposition
of such a tax, for such a purpose, would
manifestly be as unjust as it would be bur-
densome and intolerable to the inhabi-
tants of the city.
   ': Neither can the Grand Jury see upon
what principle of justice the support of
these pauper emigrants can be made a
charge upon the revenues of the province.
They are not aware of any grounds that
can be urged for burdening Canada with
the support of the poor of the British
Isles, who ought to have been maintained
in their own parishes at home, or, if sent
from home, who ought to have been sent
with proper provisions, so as not to prove
a load and a buaden to those among whom
they have come, and a shame and disgrace
to those by whom they were sent, or who
permitted them to leave their own shores
in such a state of helpless wretchedness.
The visitation is one of extreme hardship,
both to the unfortunate emigrants and to
the province; and the Grand Jury feel
that they would ill discharge their duty
did they abstain from freely expressing
their sentiments regarding it.
   " It becomes a very delicate point to
suggest any course to be pursued under


such trying circumstances; but the Grand
Jury, in obedience to the invitation of the
Court, would respectfully submit, that
the necessary funds for the emergency
ought legitimately to be supplied by the
Home Government.      And they would
further respectfully suggest, that the
mayors and presidents of police in cities
and towns, and the wardens of districts,
might with propriety be placed in funds
by Government, for the employment and
support of indigent emigrants, at the dis-
cretion of the Government ; that the pro-
duct of the labour of the emigrants would
be accountcd for, at its fair value, to the
Government, and the funds to be set
apart relieved to that amount. The able-
bodied would be obliged to work or want,
where work was offered to them, and the
frail and disabled only be permitted to
subsist exclusively on the Government
bounty.
   " The Grand Jury would also respect-
fully state to the Court the gratification
it affords them to bear testimony to the
activity and energy of the Toronto Board
of Health, and the very efficient manner
in which the arduous duties devolving
.upon them have been discharged.
   " The Grand Jury present herewith a
 report from the gaoler on the state of the
 gaol, and beg to call the particular atten-
 tion of the Court and the proper autho-
 rities to the facts therein disclosed, and
 which the Grand Jury are aware have been
 repeatedly brought under consideration
 by many previous grand juries.
   " All which is respectfully submitted.
          SANGus BETHTTNE, Foreman.
          " EDWARD LEFROY CULL.
          SWILLIAM DAvIs.
          " WILLIAM CREIGHTON.
          " WILLIAM ATKINSON.
          " D. MACDONNELL.
          " WALTER MACFARLANE.
          " THOMAE WHEELER.
          SJAMES FOSTER.
          " Jon   SHAW.
          " JOHN WATSON.
          " HUGH SCOBIE.
          SRICHARD YATES.
  " Grand Jury-room, Toronto, Sept. 1."


(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1847.)


  The boast of Britain is her transmarine
empire. The sun never sets on her do-
minion. In every continent and in either
hemisphere she exercises with compara-
five peacefulness, and with acknowledged


beneficence, an almost unlimited sway.
The number and variety of: nations, of
colours, of climes, of religions, and of
laws, united into one vast whole under
our QUEEN, reduce to an empty ostenta-


132






HlE[   GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


lion the antique or barbarous titles of
Emperor and Czar.    To rule the waves,
indeed, would be an idle ambition, were
it not that wherever those waves beat the
shore, whether in the Australasian archi-
pelago, or the peninsulas of tropical Asia,
or habitable Africa, or the Antilles and
forests of the New    World, we have
claimed or founded a home.   The fairest
regions, the most docile and industrious
races, the most cardinal promontories,
straits, and stations are ours. With so
proud a position, sitting apart and onhigh,
yet girding the earth with the chain of
our power, we have a right to some in-
sular pride, and need take little heed of
continental envy. Did the account of
Britain's lofty titles and additions end
here, wemight suppose thatposterity would
have nothing else to do than to proclaim
the splendour and beneficence of our em-
pire. But it is wise to note betimes what
posterity will see with noon-day distinct-
ness, and to anticipate with amendment,
if it be possible, the irreversible judg-
ment of time. Is there no blot in this
gorgeous escocheon ? Wisdom as well
as candour will reply that there is.
  In all this great dominion, the work of
ages and the fortunate result of many op-
portunities, we have but few colonies, and
scarce one worthy of our name. Amid
the spoils of every clime Britain nowhere
sees the likeness of herself. A true child
of that majestic mother is not to be found.
Much as we profess to value the tradi-
tionary character of this kingdom, its
happy admixture of various elements, its
freedom tempered with reverence, and
its practical usefulness dignified with con-
ventional grandeur, we do not so much
value these blessings as to carry them to
our adopted homes. We have stocked
plantations with slaves, we have occupied
rocks with soldiers, and peopled solitudes
with crime ; we have subjugated heathens
with whose religion and manners we dare
not interfere ;.we have permitted, and
even encouraged, misery, discontent, and
vice to find a refuge within the range of
our laws and the protection of our arms ;
we have increased the nominal rent-roll
of the empire by almost any compliance
and at any expense ; yet the Englishman
,who once embarks from these shores will
never again see happy England till he
returns.   Lower Canada was-nay, is
still, a province of France, and even re-
tains that identity of usages and manners
which at home the revolution has des-
troyed. Spain lives and flourishes again
in South and Central America. England


alone is travestied and libelled in a neg-
lected and degenerate progeny.
  The truth is, that with all our im-
mense capabilities for the task, we never
yet have attempted to colonize in a great
and worthy manner. We have scarcely
yet put the question, What ought a
British colony to be ? Antiquity had
left splendid examples ; in the diffusion
of mankind and the spread of religion
over the known world, there were pre-
cedents enough for any possible require-
ments ; and the discovery of a new world
opened a field for the grandest designs.
Our race is prolific, adventurous, and suc-
cessful. Yet a certain fate has always
stood in the way. England was not only
the last maritime power of Europe that
gained a footing in the New World, but
was   whole  generations  behindhand.
During more than a century that elapsed
from the day when COLUMBUS sent his
brother to solicit the aid of HENRY VII.
to the close of the Tunon dynasty, the
English Government gave itself no con-
cern whatever, and contributed nothing
whatever, except one or two useless and
ridiculous charters, to the colonization of
the opposite shores. Queen ELIZABETH
defeated the Invincible Armada, and re-
ceived DRAKE on his return from a voy-
age round the world ; but on the day of
her death there was not a single English-
man settled in America. The history of
British America dates from the first year
of JAMES I., but the private memoirs and
other writings of that and the succeeding
reigns prove how vainly the enlightened,
the noble, and the pious strove that Eng-
land might be transplanted,such as she is,
in Church and in State, into her new pos-
sessions. There exists a continuous chain
of protests from the ageo of RALEIGH,
HAKLUYT, and BAcoN down to the fatal
year 1775, against the petty, grovelling,
sordid spirit in which colonization :was
conducted.   Traders, sailors, deserters
from the army, outcasts, convicts, slaves,
the democratic and the fanatical, were
the first and, for generations, the only in-
gredients of a society destined to elbow us
out of the New World, and even to beard
us in the Old. It was truly a plantation
or a settlement, but a colony it never was..
A crowd whomwe had sufferedto gather to-
gether and grow up in absolute insulation
from all the influences which form British,
society and are the life of the British;
State, as soon as they were many and
strong enough renounced the authority of
a Government with which they had hard!-
a sentiment or an institution in commo


___


133






THE GREAT IRISH HFAMINE OF 1845-1846.


When that rude and indigested mass first
felt the instincts of political life, they
were such as irresistibly drew it from the
parent country.   Hence the darkest page
in British story ;-the darkest page as
yet ; for, as we still pursue the same im-
policy, perhaps a darker age is still to
come.
   What is it that has preserved Canada
to us thus far ? Not anything it has de-
rived from  this country. Not political
affinities. Not similarity of race. Not
community of institutions. Not force of
arms. To the French origin" of Canada
we owe that it is ours. Social habits pre-
rvailed over national antipathies; and a
primitive rggime of seigniors, priests, and
habitans stood by us, their recent con-
querors, when our own flesh and blood
abhorred us, and were driving us from
the soil. Raise Canada to the level of
England, and she is safe to our rule ;
else- but it is needless to repeat what
every one foresees ; which, however, the
Legislature will not practically recognize.
What man of rank, of wealth, of con-
nexions, of generous ambition, of superior
attainments and capacity, will go to a
country which is not England, which he
feels to be a banishment: and a final ex-
clusion from all that we prize in this
country ? Ask any one pining for oppor-
tunities, and willing to run any risks for
honourable advancement, why he does
not see life and try his fortune in the
colonies. He will answer that it is banish-
ment ; colonial life is altogether low;
the utmost that a colonist can hope for is
to get money, and so to fight his way back
to the land of his birth. To fraternize
with colonels and have tbe entre of mess-
rooms, to make up to functionaries and be
one of a clique, is the height of colonial
ambition. Thence there is no return.
The soldier brings home his glory and
promotion, but the founder ofa town and
the reclaimer of a forest, should he wish
to return, brings back nothing but his
money.     There is the sure sign of a
stigma. The degradation is irretrievable.
A colonist can never be aught but a
colonist--a better sort of backwoodsman.
In England, the chairman of the sessions,
the county member, the millionaire, the
keeper of a pack of hounds, the clever
pleader or debater may rise to the peer-
age,while baronetcies have been showered
on they humbler class of supporters and
useful public men. A man who should
give the QUEEN a province on the shores
of Lake Huron might sigh in vain for a
place in the British roll of honour.


  It is not without reason and occasion
that we endeavour to stir up the good
sense and noble instincts of this country
to an entirely new system of colonization.
If little should be thought of our opinions,
the whole world is this year the spectator
of a fact absolutely and utterly beyond all
former precedent, and one which seems to
call with a voice of thunder for measures
to prevent its too probable recurrence.
The population of British North America
in 1844 was 1,851,241. Before the close
of this present year nearly 100,000 per-
sons, amounting to a twentieth of the
existing population, will have arrived in
the St. Lawrence, almost entirely from
Ireland. Instead of that enormous im-
migration  representing in any degree
whatever the wealth, the education, the
rank, the habits, the loyalty, and the
whole character of the mother country,
they are to a man from the lower orders
of Ireland. They represent, they carry
with them, misery and degradation, a
visionary temperament, a deep sense of
injury, and a burning hatred of the
British name. Centuries will not efface
from their vindictive memories and their
inventive imaginations the dark circum-
stances of their,banishment, their passage,
their landing, their dispersion over the
inhospitable wild. Let any one read the
extracts fromn Canadian journals in our
columns last Friday, and find a parallel, if
he can, in any annals. Is it possible that it
should ever be forgotten ? These hundred
thousand, after the loss of thousands by
disease on the passage; and as many more
in hospital sheds, are forwarded up the
river to Toronto, and thence to the upper
provinces, still perishing, still scattering
disease wherever they go, and entirely de-
pendent for support on the piety and alms
of the benevolent. The clergy, the medi-
cal men, and other charitable persons who
have tendered to their wants, have fallen
by wholesale martyrs to that service. The
Grand Jury of the     Mayor's Court of
Toronto has made a presentment, showing
that the city is no longer capable of bear-
ing the increasing burden thrown on its
resources, and offering too valid reasons
to apprehend that the myriads passed
upwards, at this period of the year, will
perish miserably by the way. Such is
British colonization under the present
system, or rather want of system alto-
gether. .What else is to be expected than
a demoralized and disaffected population,
a lost colony, and an aggrandized rival ?
And whom have we to thank for these in-
evitable results I


134






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


ENGLAND'S AID TO      IRISH  DISTRESS.
(LEADING ARTICLE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1847.)


  The humanity of the British people
does not require a defence at our hands.
It  is known    by  its fruits.  In  no
country  is  public  opinion   so  quick
to the impulses either of indignation or
of pity. In England, at least, the meanest
wretch carinot fall to the ground without
compassion and inquiry; and, except by
some untoward accident,by some singular
neglect cr oppression, or by the temporary
harshness of some newly broached theory,
no one need lack proper food, clothes,
or shelter for a day. It has been our
painful duty to bring to light the excep
tions to  this general account of our
national benevolence. We have also had
to deplore the peculiar degradation of
the poor in this or that district. But the
public opinion of this cournry, the voice
and soul of the ed-ciated classes, is ready
to bear any burden and make any sacri-
fice when a manifest obligation is to be
discharged, or benefit to be done. Though
it deposed 'a Ministry on the question of
a paltry list of sinecure pensions, it has
since voted away millions to succour the
victimis of famine. or slavery, or political
oppression. To that public opinion we
have appealed, not without a degree of
success, for the rights of Celtic industry,
and the relief of Celtic destitution. To
the public opinion of this country Ireland
owes that happy foundation of better
days, the Act of last session, " to make
furtner provision  for the relief of the
destitute poor in Ireland." It matters
little what calumnies the avowed enem~ies
of this people and, state may propagate
against England. Her deeds are before
the whole world. With all her faults,
she is generous as she is great ; and no
one will ever persuade thp enlightened
and the truthful that she id otherwise.
   We do not, therefore, fear the imputa-
 tion of inhumanity when we say that
 public opinion is decidedly adverse to
 this repeated " begging" for Ireland.
 It is not that any doubt exists as to the
 reality of Irish distress, and the necessity
 of strong and timely measures of relief.
 Something   must    be done, and more
 must be done than has yet been.done for
 Ireland, but the more this is felt, and the
 more' the calamities and perplexities .of
 that ill-fated country attract our sympathy
 and stimulate our speculation, the more


it is felt that importunate appeals to the
benevolent are not the right way of meet-
ing a case of permanent and inveterate
national degradation.
  The most positive assurances are given,
indeed, that the " alms" of this country
are not solicited for national, but local
destitution, and not to the exclusion of.
that regular system of relief now happily
afforded by the law. A letter by Sir
JOHN BURGOYNE, which we publish this
day, is designed to show the place which
the thank-offerings of our churches are to
fill in the scheme of relief. The great
drifts of population cast and pent up on
the promontories of the west, and occu-,
pying' almost a fifth of the island, are
said to present a mass of poverty beyond
the power of any local resources, however
taxed, to relieve. Famine is about to re-
new its attack on these devoted shores.
The one chance of the people has again
failed, and a few months will bring back
the desolation of last year.   Nay, the
argument goes further than this. The
potato being destroyed, or given up, it is
impossible to say when the West of Ire.
land will be able to exist by its own;
industry and on its own resources. At
present, there are neither crops for the,
tenant, nor rents .for the proprietor, nor.
alms for the poor, nor can it be said when.
there will .be again. It is simply the=
case of a vast population crowded in a.
narrow space, without either food or the
means of production or purchase--a diffi-
culty which does not admit of speedy self-
extrication. Sir Jon  BURGOYIE must
permit us to say that he provep too much.
By his own showing, this is not a case
for temporary or occasional alms, but for
comprehensive plans and permanent insti-
tutions.
   You have a law. .Do your best to
 carry it out. Let this be your first ob-
 ject. All a nreals to private charity merely.
 tend t      r from your only proper
 course.   Ity tend to relax the honesty
 of ratepay rs and guardians and the ac-
 tivity of collectors. Under the pretence
 of expected alms, rates will be resisted.
 Do not give up any portion of Ireland by
 wholesale, but make every union do its
 duty. The question is not the competency
 of certain towns, or small districts, but
 of extensive unions three or four timel


135






ITHE   GREAT IRISH    FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


larger than our own. On the old English
principle of " rates in aid," adopted into
the Act of last session the expenses of
every electoral division over and abovel5d.
in the pound for each half-year are to fall on
the union atlarge. Take the very worstcase
in all Ireland. The union of Skibbereen
contained,in 1841,a population of 104,508.
Its area, however, amounts to 236,000
statute acres, and its Poor Law valuation
-on the profits, not on the produce of
the land-is £98,255, while of the occu-
piers of land, considerably more than half
hold more than ten acres, 2,421 hold
between 20 and 50 acres,420 hold between
50 and 100 acres, 91 hold between 100
and 200 acres,-13 hold between 200 and
500, and five hold between 500 and 1,000
acres. Here is the very worst case in all
Ireland-the refuge and resort of all the
outcasts in Munster. We see nothing
hopeless in this disposition of people and
land. At any rate, carry out the law as
far as it will go. When you have pro-
ceeded so far that any further pressure
on the resources of the union will be evi-
dently ruinous, and will defeat the ends
of   humanity,   let  the Legislature,-
essembled for the purpose, if you please-
grant present relief, and devise some
ermanent remedy.       We    will answer
for it, that when a case for national
assistance is clearly made, England will
not be backward to help the weaker
members of the commonweal.
S There is no assistance, no confidence,
that England will not be ready to grant


the Minister who shows that he is pre-
pared to govern Ireland with the eye and
the hand of a master. It will strengthen
his hands to establish order, and fit
them to reward and develop it. As soon
as it shall see that he can use extra-
ordinary powers neither to oppress the
peasant nor to aggrandize the landlord,
that he can administer bounties without
jobbing, and transplant British capital so
effectually that it shall take abiding root
in Irish soil, England will consent to
almost any drain on its resources and any
stretch of its constitutional usages. It is
prepared to make great efforts for that
wayward and self-tormenting, but still
unfortunate people. It is aware that
nothing but a participation in the for-
tunesandprosperity of the sister island can
rescue Ireland from its degrading bondage
to fanatics, incendiaries, and charlatans,
from   the  disciples  of  M'HALE, the
myrmidons of O'CONNELL, the followers
of DOHENY and LALOR, and the murderers
of ROE. It knows that an extensive
island cannot be     redeemed from   ill-
culture, and a people from indolence,
superstitution, and crime, without the
most heroic devotion of labour and of
means. But in proportion to its estimate
of the work, so it is averse from that tem-
porary, precarious, and peddling sort of
assistance which only disguises theextent
of the evil, and furnishes a pretence for
postponing to the indefinite future the
measures really required for the deliver-
ance and regeneration of Ireland.


(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1847.)


  Sir,--I hope you will,in justice to those
who have appointed a general collection
in the churches on the 17th (the day of
the Thanksgiving), and still more in pity
to the unhappy people in the western
listricts of Ireland, who will again perish
by thousands this year if they are not re-
lieved, publish the accompanying state-
waent, which has been prepared by Sir
John Burgoyne, for the purpose of ex-
plaining why another effort of this sort
as necessary.
  It may be satisfactory to you that I
ahould add my testimony on three main
points, having, as you are probably
aware, made this subject my principal
study for a long time past, and being con-
stantly in the habit of receiving informa-
tion, bothl written and   oral, from all


parts of Ireland in reference to it. These
points are-
  First,-That the New Poor 'Law will
be enforced in Ireland to the utmost
extent of the power of the Government
-that no assistance   whatever will be
given from national funds to those unions
which, whether they have the will or not,
undoubtedly have the power of main-
taining their own poor-and that the
collection of the rates will be enforced as
far as it can be, even in those distressed
western unions in which some assistance
from some source or other must be given.
  Secondly,-That    there   are  certain
unions in the west of Ireland where the
social system was so entirely based upon
the potato, as described by Sir J. Bur-
goyne, that it was impossible that the


136






THE GREAT        IRISH    FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.


habits of the people could be so suddenly
changed, and new modes of subsistence
so suddenly established, as to allow of
the crowded population which has grown
up under the potato system supporting
themselves without assistance in the
second year after the failure. And
  Thirdly,-That the change from an
idle, barbarous, isolated potato cultiva-
tion, to corn cultivation, which enforces
industry, binds together employer and
employed in mutually beneficial relations,
and, requiring capital and skill for its
successful prosecution, supposes the exis-
tence of a class of substantial yeomanry
who have ari interest in preserving the
good order of society, is proceeding as
fast as can reasonably be expected under
the circumstances ; and that if the rich
and highly-favoured portions of the em-
pire give some further temporary assist-
ance to these distressed sections of our
population, to enable them to "'tide over"
the shoals upon which they have fallen,
the harbour will, ere long, be attained.
   If you consider my testimony on these
points of any public value on the present
occasion, you are at liberty to make any
use of it you think proper ; and it is Sir
John Burgoyne's intention that his paper
should be published with his name,
which, considering the  accurate infor-
mation he has obtained in the manage-
ment of the Relief Commission, cannot
fail to carry great weight with it.
   Believe me, Sir, yours very faithfully,
                    C. E. TREVELYAN.
  Salt-hill Hotel, near Dublin, Oct. 7.
  Sir,--Notwithstanding the impatience
  expressed at the demands for Ireland, we
  must still, in common charity, afford her
  considerable assistance.  Distress still
  hangs over that country, from which she
  is quite unable to relieve herself. It is
  not the ordinary distress of a lowering
  of the condition of people from one of
  luxury or comfort, but it is the reducing
  them from the lowest state that can sup-
  port life to one without means even to
  do that.  Absolute famine still stares
  whole districts in the face, and we must
  not allow ourselves to become callous to
  the horrors of such an evil because we
  have had it before us for any given period:
  But it is said that it is their own
  fault, and originates in an erroneous and
  improvident system ; supposing it to be
  so, are we to allow thousands to die of
  starvation because they were enabled by
  Providence to subsist previously, for
  almost ages, on an erroneous system.


  The only other argument against ex<
traneous relief is that the country oright
to be called upon to make sacrifices to
relieve itself, and that the property of
Ireland must support its poverty--a just
maxim under ordinary circumstances, and
one that has been adopted by the Legis-
lature in the provisions of the New Poor
Law. That law, being duly carried out,
will compel all who can contribute for the
support of the poor to do so in proportion
to their means, and will reduce the de-
mand on others to what cannot possibly be
met by that provision. The extent of the
effect of the loss of the potato in Ireland,
however, is still not perfectly understood,
particularly as affects all whose income was
dependent on the land, up to the greatest
proprietors. Thegreat mass of adensepopu-
lation spread over the face of the country
lived, as is well known, on the potato.
A family 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 a 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 requisite to
pay 6 rent, and for such clothing and
other articles as were absolutely neces-
sary, and which with a great proportion
were on the lowest scale of human exis-
tence. The foundation of the whole, how-
ever, was the possession of the bit of land;
it was the one, and the only one, thing
absolutelynecessary; the rent consequently
was high, and generally well paid, being
the first demand on all the money re-
ceived, in order to secure that essential
tenure, and only what remained became
applicable to the other objects. Although
of the lowest grade, it was an easy mode
of subsistence, and led to the encourage-
ment of early marriages, large familie
and a rapidly increasing population; an
at the same time afforded the proprieteo
a very good return of profit for his land,
We can hardly wonder at the continuance
of this improvident system, as it has been
called.
   The entire loss of the potato in 1846
 threw this whole class into    absolute
 destitution; whatever little means could
 be obtained went for food ;-thousands died
 of want, and of course not a shilling o
 rent could be raised among them, thist
 spreading distress  to.. many superir
 classes. The next to these were the simac


__ ___


137






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


farmers who cultivated from 6 to 20 or
30 acres, and may be supposed to have
been exempt from being much affected by
the calamity, but were. not so.  They
were, in fact, without capital; the food
for themselves, families, and dependents
was still the potato; they had a cow or
two, perhaps a pony and a cart, and two
or three pigs. Their farming was of the
most slovenly description, and their sell-
ing produce, after paying their rent,
afforded a little better clothing and a little
more of comforts than enjoyed by the cot-
tiers. Still the main stay was the potato.
When that went, everything else at the
disposition of this class was required for
food, and with a great number was in-
sufficient ; the payment of rent was not
only impossible, but all the little stock
and other means for future continuance
of their habitual occupationwere disposed
of ; and a great number of this class
were added to the absolutely destitute.
Here again is experienced another falling
off ; for these constituted the lower rate-
payers, whose contributions for support-
ing the poor can not only no longer be
looked to, but who will themselves, many
of them, add to the number of paupers to
be supported. The extent to which these
two classes were affected by the loss of
the potato may be estimated by the
numbers that it was found necessary to
furnish with mere food for many months
in 1847,. which at one time amounted to
3,000,000 individuals.
  It is usual to consider the property in
Ireland generally as fairly chargeable
with the remedy for the result of this
calamity after the first helping hand
given to it, but it cannot be so adjusted.
In all parts the evil has been felt, but in
some much more intensely than in others.
On all the eastern side of Ireland, from
north to south, the proximity to the
English markets induced a greater culti-
vation of produce for barter, and there
are more farmers, graziers, &c., inde-
pendent of such an article as the potato,
although there is mixed up with them a
large number of cottiers ; but even these
latter have in some degree more resources
in available means for. the application of
their labour. These districts, therefore,
anay reasonably be required.to make the
necessary sacrifices to struggle through
the difficulty, and  may  comprehend,
perhaps, four-fifths of the country, but
the remaining fifth-that along the west
of Ireland-remains in a most deplorable
condition,:and has not within itself the
possible power of relief.


  The west of Ireland is far removed from
markets, and it would require the judi-
cious application of much capital, and
under more favourable circumstances than
Ireland has yet afforded, to raise it from its
late conditionof mere self-supportingexist-
ence. The consequence has been that these
western counties are almost entirely occu-
pied by the cottiers and small holders
above described,not only arising from their
backward state as regards the production
of articles for barter, but encouraged by
another casual circumstance in the nature
of the coast, which being in deep gulfs
and inlets, supplied them with an abun-
dance of sea weed, which applied to the
land was peculiarly favourable to the pro-
pagation of the potato. Hence the great
body of the people there are now without
food, and the few above them without the
rents which could supply their only means
of relieving the rest.
  In other countries one interest may
come to the relief of another ; the farmer
may relieve the manufacturer and the
merchant, and vice versd, as the case re-
guires it ; but in Ireland there is but one
interest, being that in the produce of the
land. It may be assumed, perhaps, that
the people having now gone through the
periods of dearth of the last two years,
ought to be sufficiently provided for by the
abundant produce of the present season.
Undoubtedly the especial hand of Pro-
vidence has been thus mercifully ex-
tended towards the relief of the people,
in a manner that will greatly mitigate
the general distress, but it still leaves a
large amount absolutely requiring a great
extent of human and humane exertion.
Although the potatoes have succeeded
better this year than on the two former,
not above one-sixth of the usual quantity
has been planted, and that not by the
small occupiers, as usual for their sup-
port, because the case appeared hopeless,
and even otherwise the seed was wanting.
The lands of many were ill adapted to
other crops, or they had no means of
tilling them ; or even where they had
put in turnips or oats, &c., the produce
will be quite insufficient for their sup-
port, for it must be observed that it re-
quires three times the quantity of land
laid  out in   corn  to what   would be
necessary in potatoes to feed for the year
any given number of persons.
   Thus it must plainly appear that Ire-
land in all parts is still in much distress,
but along the west very active and ex-
tended benevolence is required to be
exerted from   elsewhere to prevent the


138






THE    GREAT IRISH         .FAMINE     OF   1845-1846.


most horrible scenes ; that this calamity
is continuous, and can only be gradually
removed by a new order in the social
system, which it will be the interest, and


must be the effort, of all parties to intro-
duce and to accelerate.
  Dublin, Oct. 6.    J. F. BURGOYNE.


(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1847 )


  Sir,--It is with feelings of no slight
satisfaction that I see now daily evidences
through the English press, that the Eng-
lish people are beginning rightly toappre-
ciate the true cause of the " poverty " of
the Irish. It is a satisfaction to me,
because I may pardonably hope that the
seed which, when in Ireland, I laboured
to sow through your columns is at last
beginning to bring forth fruit.
  IFor some days past letters have ap-
peared in your     columns   from  many
clergymen of the Church of England, ex-
pressing a unanimous feeling of indignia-
tion that they should again be called upon
to solicit alms from their congregations
on behalf of " the poor and starving
Irish ;" and your paper of this day con-
tains a long letter from Sir J. Burgoyne,
deprecating that burst of honest indigna-
tion at the impudent appeal, and putting
forth some reasons why there should be a
further contribution of alms from England
to "the poor and starving Irish," but con-
fined locally to places on the western coast.
To have refused eleemosynary relief to
a: distressed people when those among
them who were in want could not obtain
food by law from the community of.those
who had enough and to spare, whilst the
law punished them as criminals if they
took that food by force, would have been
a manifest cruelty and injustice. The
common principles     of humanity and
equity forbade us to stay our hands;
and, however much our judgments might
deprecate the means of relief employed,
it was contrary to our nature to compel
or permit helpless people to starve. The
Legislature   has, however, at     length
remedied that wrong ; it has granted a
first instalment of enlightened legislation
to Ireland, despite the determined oppo-
sition of Irishmen to the boon, and has
at length declared to be law that first
principle of equitable rule, that while it
professes to enforce obedience to the
laws which protect property, it at the
same time will not suffer men to be
tempted by want beyond human endur-
ance to     break those   laws, but will
give them a right, if in destitution,
to sufficient relief to support life from
the commonstock of the local community.


Having advanced thus far in the civi
lized government of Ireland, appeals to
our humanity for the " poor and starving
Irish "no longer have any just founda-
tion. We have a right to repel the claim,
as it is now being repelled ; nay, more,
when the true causes of that " poverty
and starving " condition of " the Irish "
are beginning at length to be in some
degree appreciated in England, indus-
trious, and painstaking, and enterprising
Englishmen, who " earn their bread by
the sweat of their brows," have a right
to repel the claim with indignation and
scorn.
  Sir J. Burgoyne, in his letter of reasons
for giving assistance to the' Irish, thus
truly describes their condition :-
  " The great mass of a dense population
spread over the face of the country lived,
as is well known, on the potato. A
family 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 requisite 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 gene-
rally well paid; being the first demand on
all monev received, in order to secure
that essential tenure, and only what re;
mained became applicable to the 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 a very good return
of profit for his land. We can hardly
wonder at the continuance of this impro-
vident system, as it has been called."
   He then proceeds to describe the con.


-----


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THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF] '3845-1846.


dition of the small farmers of 20 to 30
acres of land, and says,-
  "_Theirfarming was of the mostslovenly
description, and their selling produce,
after paying their rent, afforded a little
better clothing and a little more of com-
forts than enjoyed by the cottiers."
  There are inen (and the counsels of
such appear, unfortunately, to have pre-
vailed in the government of Ireland) upon
whom all opportunities of observation are
thrown away. There are men who cannot
read human nature though the index
point never so plainly. There are well-in-
tentioned men who, by a kind of perverse
ingenuity   or   impenetrable  stolidity,
will stumble on the most mischievous
remedies for any evil. What does all
this painfully faithful description of Sir
J. Burgoyne indicate, but the universal
prevalence   of contented   laziness and
apathy and want of enterprise am6ngst
the Irish people? A " few days' " labour,
without a " sixpence expense," procures
the Irish cottier his cabin; " a very little
labour supplies him with a sufficiency of
potatoes for food," with which he is
" perfectly content," and " occasional
labour" pays his rent and buys his
clothes i What ! and is the Dorsetshire
peasant and the Suffolk labourer, to whom
twelve hours of daily labour the year round
scarcely affords sufficient bread, and who
has more than once within recent recol-
lection been rendered desperate by the
insufficiency of the pittance of 7s. a-week,
the price- of his labour, to pay £2 or £3
rent? for his cottage and to provide bread
for his family, to be asked by his clergy-
man to contribute his mite for the ".poor
and starving Irish," who live habitually
contented with the cottages and the food
with which " a     very little occasional
labour," supplies them ?
  ..But the response is, they are starving.
They cannot now starve by law; there is,
therefore, an end of that plea. But it is
said they are wretchedly poor and dis-
tressed. Our answer is, let them work
As we do, and their poverty will become
_vealth, and their distress will be changed
Ifto abundance. But it is replied, " Give
them time, and they will work better
pesently." Give time to a people to
oluntarily increase the amount of their
  bour who for ages have " been content "
  p live on potatoes I The proposition
tarries-, on the face of it a contradiction.
potatoes were got with " a very little
abour;'k little more labour, voluntarily
given, would have procured hem a better
%od an woultd have made the.' slovenly


farms " yield a better return-would, in
fact, have been the first voluntary step
out of poverty and wretchedness towards
comfort and independence. But that
voluntary step has never been taken.
Why ? Because the Irish people pre-
ferred poverty and wretchedness and
dependence, with " a very little labour,"
to   comfort, and    independence, and
wealth, with hard work. And it is ex-
pected that they will take that voluntary
step now, if we only subscribe alms
enough to provide them meanwhile with
a sufficiency of food I Oh, admirable in-
sight into human nature i-Oh, perfect
conception of the Irish character ! It did
require, in times past, " a very little
labour " to procure  them  the   most
wretched   subsistence, wherewith ',they
were " content ;" give them that subsist-
enpe without any labour at all, and think
you not that still therewith they will be
" content ? "   It is apparent that if
"a little labour " would procure sub-
sistence to an Irishman, hard work (to
which Englishmen are accustomed, and
to which, for the sake of the benefits
which accrue to them from it, they volun-
tarily yield themselves) would have pro-
cured something beyond mere subsist-
ence ; the    continually   accumulating
value of which surplus production over
consumption  would long      since have
changed the poverty of   Ireland into
wealth. And it is as apparent, as Irish-
men were " content " with a wretched
existence procured by "'a very little
labour," that the necessity of doing some-
thing for existence was alone the spur to
that ". very little labour ;" for when the
necessities of the merest animal existence
were supplied the " very little labour "
ceased.; they were "content-" with a
mud hut and potatoes. It was the spur
of necessity alone that drove them to " a
very little labour." The necessity was
small ; the labour was proportioned to
it. It has pleased God to visit their land
with a famine in a particular kind of
food.   Their land, with industry, will
grow abundance of all kinds of food, far
beyond anything that the land of Eng-
land will yield. The spur of necessity to
labour by the providence of God, which
ought in truth to be regarded as a bless-
ing, has been increased to the people of
Ireland. If the labour of the  people,
urged on by this necessity, be given,
there is no shadow of doubt but the
return will be sufficient for their wants.
But experience teaches us that they will
not vo]pntarily give this labour without


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THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


the spur of necessity ; their " content-
ment " with mud huts and potatoes, with
" a  very little labour," proves  this.
What, then, do we, in our mistaken
humanity, propose to do ? With a stupid
blindness to the character of this people,
under the name of "' charity to the poor
Irish," we would thwart the providence
of God,-we would lighten that necessity
under the pressure of which, and to meet
which, they alone will work,--we would,
in fact, cast the greatest stumbling-block
that the most perverse ingenuity could
devise (looking at the character of the
people) towards the progress of the coun-
try out of that " slovenly cultivation "
and that misery and wretchedness with
which, and " little labour," the people
are " content ;" we would degrade them
into " contentment" with subsistence
on charity.
  But it is only the people onthe western
coast, says Sir J. Burgoyne, who will
want this assistance; those on the eastern
coast, from their proximity to England,
have a market for their produce, are
better off, and can pay rates. The people
on the eastern coast are better off, because
they are more industrious, and      they
.are  more   industrious  because   they
have amongst them a large admixture of
men of English blood, who have trans-
planted among them the characteristics of
their race-industry and enterprise.
   The qualities wanted to make the people
 of the west of Ireland as prosperous, are
 simply industry   and enterprise. Will
 giving them English alms and supporting
 them  on  charitable donations promote
 either of those qualities ? They will take
 our alms and live thereon in "content."
   One other step by the Legislature in
the right direction will leave the west of
Ireland without the shadow of an excuse
if it does not progress at equal pace with
any other part of the United Kingdom.
tOnce let the Legislature facilitate the
transfer of land, and the sale of mort-
gaged estates-once let them admit men
of capital to the responsible ownership of
the soil, and get rid of the present help-.
lessness, of nominal landlords without
power, of receivers in Chancery, taking
the responsibility of the lords of the soil,
and of absent and irresponsible capita-
lists, as mortgagees carrying off without
return or care the usufruct of the land,
and the opportunities will be afforded for
the development of industry. At present


-and I do not speak as a mere theorist,
for I have been over every part of it, from
Dunfanaghy Head, in Donegal, to Cape
Clear, in Cork-the west of Ireland is a
disgrace to the British empire, for its
neglected capabilities and its poverty
and wretchedness, in the face of every
natural advantage  that  can lead to
wealth. There are to be found neglected
the finest harbours, magnificent rivers, and
an almost continuous succession of lakes
affording natural water carriage of the
cheapest kind, unlimited water power,
rich and discovered mines, thousands of
uncultivated acres, and a sea teeming
with fish.   The harbours    are unfre-
quented; the  Shannon impresses you
with melancholy at its vast and deserted
expanse ; the lakes are unused, except by
an occasional turf-boat ; no water-wheel
betokens   industry ; the  minerals are
unwon ;the land is a dreary-looking
waste ; while Cornishmen almost alone
fish the coast, in the sight of the " starv-
ing Irish !"
   What, surely, here is wanted but enter-
prise and industry among the people to
win the wealth which so temptingly in-
vites them to labour ! Yet, what must
we propose to deaden their impulses to
either, but-to support them on charity i
Oh, let every man who loves Ireland
sternly refuse to advancer to her one
penny, and compel her,fin spite of herself,
to do more than " labour a very little "
to convert into many sources of wealth
her almost boundless natural advantages
and let every soft-hearted Englishman
impelled by his humanity to contribute
a sovereign for the relief of "Lthe starv-
ing Irish," feel assured of this, that he
has contributed towards the removal of
that necessity which will alone impel the
Irish of the western coast to work, and in
so doing has helped to perpetuate their
poverty and wretchedness and their de-
grading " content."
  Pray excuse this long letter, impelle
by your paper of to-day, from one who,
as your former " Commissioner " in Ire.
land,. had perhaps unexampled opportu-
nities of studying the character of its
people, and whilst admiring their virtues,
of not being blinded to their faults ; and
believe me to remain very faithfully
yours,
                T. CAMPBELL FOSTER.
  The Temple, Oct. 12, 1847.


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THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845 1816.


              IRISH   EMIGRATION.
(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1847.)


  Of the many trials to which human
nature is exposed, we can imagine none
more severe than to set an Irish proprie-
tor to write on the subject of emigration.
There is something so delightful in the
idea of a good human current setting
strong from an estate up to the neck
in mortgages and men, rates and rent-
resisters, that it makes a landlord almost
beside himself with longing. His land of
promise, flowing with milk and honey, is
British America, not, of course, for him-
self, as he still cleaves to the flesh-pots of
Egypt, but for his tenants and squatters.
If Heaven, indeed, should please to take
them, that would be the most satisfactory
of all possible events; but as Heaven
does not often take a million at a time,
Canada, or, indeed, any place either
beyond or at the bottom of the sea, will
do quite as well. Were the Canaan for
oneself, one would not be content without
actually getting there ; but where it is
for others, as in this instance, a few
trifling casualties on the  way, a few
thousand starved, or rotted, or drowned,
do not much signify. In fact, if the
whole indigenous population of Ireland
were simultaneously to  pack up their
kneading troughs, and set off for Canada,
we are inclined to believe that the land-
lords, having the fate of PHARAoH before
their eyes, would not order out their
chariots and try to bring them back.
   Such of our readers as perused the
report of the Committee appointed by
the Lords, on the subject of Colonization
from Ireland, will recognize in that really
very clever and interesting document the
couleur, de rose we are speaking of. One
could almost imagine that a religious
question was involved in the matter, and.
That the writers were a committee of JOE
SMITH' elders setting forth the saving
efficacy of a journey to Nauvoo. There
are, indeed, some rather ugly rumours of
happiness not wholly unmixed, and order
not wholly undisturbed, on the banks of
the St. Lawrence.     Only half-a-dozen
years since we had to reconquer the
colony. Wherever the Irish constitute a
majority, as in Newfoundland, they give
us, on that minor theatre, a repetition of
the performance which has won such
applause on the boards of old Ireland.
In the United States there is rather a
strong feeling on the subject, and the


Union is almos; vtorn asunder by the con-
flict between the Irish and their bitter
opponents. The most serious aspect of
the matter is its effect on the security of
the British character of our American
possessions. May Canada long be ours !
May    we  long   possess the   northern
and the eastern shores of those magnifi-
cent lakes I May there long be a place
not quite as far as the Antipodes, and in
a better neighbourhood than Caffres and
cannibals " once removed," where British
enterprise  may find   room to expand,
British poverty may find a retreat, and
British disappointment a new start in
the race ! How long will that continue
the case when     three-fourths  of our
American colonists shall be of Celtic ex-
traction, theproduce of a continual out-
pouring of -Irish calamity, and  when
nothing but a river full of steamers shall
separate the colony from an ambitious
neighbour, perhaps actually at war with
us in every quarter of the world ?
  The "Irish Proprietor," whose letter
we give in another place, exemplifies the
almost morbid jealousy with which the
class regards anything that can possibly
check the great Celtic migration. Nothing
can be less tothe purpose than his sermon
to its text. We last week called the
attention of our readers to the very un-
worthy character of British colonization,
and urged every rational attempt to make
the colonies true children of the parent
society, like in privilege and rank, like
in prospects and wealth. To elevate the
colonies by all the means at the disposal
of the Legislature and the Crown seemed
to us the most likely :method of attracting
thither the rank, the education, the capi-
tal, the enterprise, and, in their train,
the population of these islands. Unless
Canada, for example, .could be made
thoroughly British in condition; in tastes,
in habits, in institutions, and even in pre-
judices, as well as in name and in law,
lamentable but most instructive prece-
dents justified the apprehension that it
might not long be ours. We then ad-
verted to the unparalleled character of
this year's migration from Ireland ;--an
army, or rather a flight of a hundred
thousand souls, driven over the ocean by
famine and pestilence,and-without homes,
or employment, or any other preparation
for their settlement. We said of them,


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THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


in the merest pity, and with reference to
the misery of their lot, " Instead of that
enormous immigration representing, in
any degree whatever, the wealth, the
education, the rank, the habits, the
loyalty, and the whole character of the
mother country, they are to a man from
the lower orders of Ireland." That, we
presume, cannot well be denied. It may
be our lack of information, but we cer-
tainly have not heard of many gentlemen
of fortune, many " Irish proprietors,"
many savans * or scholars, many right
honourables, many persons of taste and
refinement, many gentlemen distinguished
for their public services, among those
hundred thousand. We very much ques-
tion whether there was even one substan-
tial tradesman  or half-a-dozen  large
farmers in the number. We shall be only
too happy to be assured we are wrong.
  Continuing to speak of thbse hundred
thousand persons, of whose sufferings we
have lately read  such     heart-rending
accounts, we said, " They represent, they
carry with them, misery and degradation,
a visionary :temperament and a factious
religion, a deep sense of injury and a
burning hatred of the British name." We
then dwelt on the horrors of their passage,
their disembarcation, the gigantic laza-
rettos in which they there perished by
thousands, and the still further calamities
which awaited them on their dispersion
into the interior. It was natural to in-
quire after this, " What else is to be ex-
pected than a demoralized and disaffected
population, a lost colony and an aggran-
dized rival ? And whom have we to thank
for these inevitable results ?" On this
text the "'Irish Proprietor " writes a
rather warm epistle. Does he, however,
deny our statements, or attempt to re-
move our apprehensions ? No ; he does
not dispute a word. He ventures, indeed,
on a greater misrepresentation. He says
we " abuse the poor emigrants." If we
abused anybody, we abused the British
Government, and that state of British
society which induced such lamentable
events as the emigration of this season.
He says, again, that we would shut both
England and the colonies against the
Irishman, and intimates that we would
leave him only CROMWELL'S alternative.
That is not only unfair, but wholly at
variance with the letter and purport of
what we wrote. We wished that the
Irish should be drawn rather than driven
to Canada-that rank, wealth, education,
and such invariable ingredients of British
society should, if possible, be associated


with numbers, poverty, and ignorance.
If what we call society is a real and a
happy thing ; if gentility is not an impo-
sition, and knowledge folly ; if the con-
dition of England is better than the con-
dition of Ireland,and it is worth Ireland's
while itself to be wealthier, then certainly
a multitude of a hundred thousand small
farmers, cottiers, labourers, aud mendi-
cants fleeing across the Atlantic within
half a year, with less preparation and
providence than   any such   number of
wanderers ever enjoyed before, is a very
great and an ominous misfortune. It
bodes no good to England. That unhappy
multitude lands under evil auspices. All
the blessing it carries with it is, " Your
room  rather than your company."      It
owes nothing to the country it leaves. It
cannot but remember the story of its
banishment.    Do we " abuse the poor
emigrant " in all this as the " Irish Pro-
prietor " alleges ? No ; we pity and be-
friend him. We ask for an improved
system of colonization, worthier of the
British name.
  Then, why does the " Irish Proprietor"
call us so angrily to account ? Because
by holding up the dark side of the picture
he fears we may discourage emigration.
His jealousy for the   character of the
" poor emigrants" we really believe to be
nothing more than anxiety to get rid of
them. He is anxious to seize the oppor-
tunity, which we willingly afford, of pub-
lishing the generally successful and re-
spectable career of the Irish settler. His
collection of evidence on this point, how-
ever, is perfectly gratuitous. We never
dfenied that when the Irish do settle
in Canada they almost invariably get on
well. We have said on a former occasion,
that though they do not, at first, make
good agricultural servants, they do better
as independent settlers than the English
labourer, trained as the latter has been
only to service. But many of the Irish
do not settle   anywhere; they become
" canallers" or "navigators," and exhibit
in that employment much the same pecu-
liarities of character as at" home. Many
of them pass through to the States, and
become violent politicians, particularly
when England is in question. This is a
result we should do well to anticipate, if
we can. But the " Irish Proprietor's "
quarrel with us is that in our attempt to
procure some improvement on the exist-
ing practice we have exposed its miseries,
and thereby committed treason against
the interests of the landowner.


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THE GREAT IRISH     FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1847.)


  Sir,--Even when I differ from you I
cannot help reading your observations
with the greatest interest. But you must
allow me to say that you deal somewhat
too severely with all classes at this side
of the Channel, whether an Anglo-Irish-
man, like myself, or the " merus HIiber-
nicus" who rejoices in a patronymic com-
mencing with " 0 " or " Mac."   It is on
this very account, however, that I think
you will be the more disposed to give
some attention to opinions somewhat op-
posed to your own. Your love of justice
will compel you, at the least, to examine
them. If you so far favour me as to notice
them in your journal, they will at least
have the charms of novelty and variety
for your readers, who are not accustomed
to find in your columns any defence or
apology for Ireland. This will enable
you to return to your usual tone of
general and sweeping condemnation with
somewhat more of zest and relish. Your
readers, too, will be refreshed by this
momentary change of key and variety of
modulation. I do not ask you to read or
to accept any defence of Irish landlords.
I do not ask you to tolerate Conciliation-
hall, Irish councils, or Irish confedera-
tions. The truth is, I can hardly tolerate
them myself. But you have lately pub-
lished  some severe strictures on the
character and conduct of the poor Irish
emigrants, and it is on their behalf that
I take the freedom of addressing you ;
and I am inclined to hope that you will
not be the less inclined to favour me with
some attention because those whom I
defend are the poor, the weak, and the
unprotected. No one can charge you with
being indifferent to this class or indis-
posed to listen to their appeal.
   You have most strongly denounced our
peasantry if they make their way to Eng-
land ; and where they spread poverty and
disease in your more fortunate country, I
am not astonished at your opposition and
alarm. You attack us, likewise, on our
conduct and social state at home; and if
no vigorous efforts are made by ourselves,
honestly and boldly to improve it, I am
willing to admit the justice of your cen-
sure.   But you are now endeavouring to
describe the Irish emigrants as nuisances
in our distant possessions; and it is' on
this point that I wish you, for the present
at least, to pause and hesitate before you
promulgate opinions which I think I can


prove to you would be as unjust as they
would be cruel.
  But, Sir, consider if excluded from
England, if condemned at home, and if
refused admittance to the colonies, where
it is that you would wish us to turn.
Cromwell, it is true, offered to the Irish
an alternative for Connaught ; but this
you decline to mention " to ears polite."
You rather adopt the course which is de-
scribed  in   that  memorable, though
perhaps apocryphal epistle called the
" Tears of the Britons." " The sea," ob-
served your ancestors, " drives us on the
barbarians, and the barbarians on the
sea." It is so with you. You seem to
be determined to meet us wherever we
seek refuge, and your "Shut; Sesame !" is
spoken at every door where we ask admis-
sion.
  I appeal from, what seems to me, a
hasty and erroneous judgment, to conclu-
sions which are to be deduced from evi-
dence open to no cavil or suspicion-the
evidence, not of Irish writers or Irish
proprietors, but of sworn witnesses con-
nected with our colonies and identified
with their best interests.
  Among the many topics adverted to in
the huge blue book which bears the title
of " The Report on Colonization," printed
by the House of Lords in the last session,
the character and conduct of the Irish
emigrants in our colonies are prominent
subjects of special examination. . I shall
not rely on the testimony of the witnesses
from Ireland, but I beg to call your atten-
tion to the following extracts from the
colonial evidence, as being conclusive in
my favour. I shall not only refer to my
authorities by name, but shall give you
likewise the number of each answer, that
you may be enabled to detect any want of
fairness or candour in my mode of dealing
with the subject, should I be justly liable
to any such imputation.
  Mr. Porley, the emigration agent and
commissioner of Indian affairs in New
Brunswick is asked (Question 165),"What
has been the conduct of the: Irish emi-
grants on the whole ? Has it been peace-
able, orderly, or the reverse ?" And the
answer is," I think I can safely answer
that question in the affirmative.   The
Irish have conducted themselves very
well in the province of New Brunswick."
I may here remark, that this is the result
of no slight experience, for out of 9,600


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144






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846


emigrants who arrived in New Brunswick
in-a single year, 9,500 came from Ireland
(Question 133); and ofthis vast multitude
Mr. Porley had better means of judging
than any other individual, being brought
in contact with them  personally and offi-
mally. But you may say that his reply
Is vague, and that doles versatur is gene-
Stitlms. Let us, therefore, in the language
of the Scotch law, "'condescend to particu-
iars."He describes (225)an Irish settlement
formed from    Cork and Kerry, in 1842,
and informs us-"' Where but two years
ago stood a dense forest, there have been
gathered by 35 settlers, during the past
autumn, 7,236 bushels of grain, potatoes,
and turnips.    An accompanying return
shows an estimated value of £1,137 in
holidings and clearings ; and when to this
ir added the :market value of the crops,
eceeding £800, we have above :2,f000
teturn, which, in its wilderness state,
would not have prcduced one shilling."
   Mr. Uniacke, a member of the Colonial
gislature, describing the colony of Nova
iot      states (458)-" The   Irish, gene-
rally speaking, conduct themselves ex-
tremely well. Those- who live in the in-
  risot and become settlers are a remark-
ably   yell-conducted class.  Of course,
among those hanging about the towns,
there are soine worthless, who. get a worse
.ime  for the     whole class than they
deserve."   Mr. Uniacke, then, like Mr.
Purley, illustrates his general statement
by a more precise example, the more valu-
able as it is taken from the ,country which
b ehas worthily represented in the Pro-
  incial Parliament for 17 years. "A
nmber of Irish," he informs us," quitted
Ireland in 1798. They now form a thriv-
ing settlement. They are well off, .free
from debt,with good farms and quantities
of :tck. It is looked on as one. of the
most thriving settlements in the island."
  MLr. Cunard, to whose enterprise the
Il llic owes the successful establishment
of steam packets between Liverpool and
Halifax-thus doing more for the union
of British North America and the mother
country than the legislation of a century
had achieved-is the owner of 230,000
acres in Prince Edward Island, and of
large estates both in New Brunswick and
Nova    Scotia.   His, evidence, though
cautious, is not the less satisfactory. " I
think," he observes, " that the English
farmers are the best. I think the Irish
stand next if they come from the farming
districts, and their children are very good.
The Irish are very good to their friends ;
no people in the world are more so. The


Irish make good settlers after a time.
Their descendants are all good settlers."
(705-743.)
  In Canada, Mr. Pemberton, a member
of the Legislative and Executive Council,
observes (876)-" I do not make any dis-
tinction between the emigrants from the
different parts of the United Kingdom
except in this-I find the Irish best
adapted for all work requiring great
strength, and so far I think them better
calculated than anyother class for settling
in a new country whenwithout the- means
of purchasing land."
  Captain Rubidge, an intelligent naval
officer, concerned in emigration for 28
years in Upper Canada, states that-
" Even in the worst situation the Irish
pauperized emigrants are much improved
in their condition ; they have everything
here that is necessary for their support ;
their land is become more valuable ; their
farms have increased; they      have a
certain number of cows ; and are getting
into better houses.   Every family has
been the means of bringing out about five
times the number to join them as volun-
tary emigrants."
  Let us now pass . to the case of New
South Wales :-" There is a class of the
Irish emigrants that would. be admirably
adapted   for the ruder labour of the
colony. Very many of them, particularly
the people of Connaught,would be admir-
ably suited for the occupation of herds-
men and shepherds. It is an occupation
quite suited to the civilization of the
people. The children who encumber the
poor houses in Ireland might be intro-
duced into the Australian colonies with
very great advantage. Iknow that most
vahtable agricultural servants have been
found among thp Irish."  Thisis the evi-
dence of Colonel M'Arthur. Mr. Willis,
late a judge in the colony of New South
Wales, expresses the following somewhat
qualified opinion :-" The:irish are good
labourers if they are looked after, but
they require some superintendence. They
require very close superintendence, and
then they will work as well as any English-
men." A most striking -case is described
by Mr. Verner, a resident at Fort Philip
(3,844) :-"- An Irishman, named John-
son, was my gardener ; he had not a six-
pence when he came. When I last saw
him he rented a farm (50 acres he had
cleared). He had a large crop of wheat.
I think the vhole 50 :acres: were under
cultivation.  He had a team  of eight
bullocks, a horse to ride, a good garden,
and some few cows. This is not a -solitar",


-_.


14.5






THB    GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


instance:; I could name many others.
I chiefly employed Irishmen; I found
them extremely    useful;I should say
equally useful with any other men."
  But perhaps the most interesting evi-
dence, on the whole, is that of Mr. Chis-
holme,: whose disinterested and untiring
benevolence is gratefully recorded in
the report of the Colonial- Legislative
Council, November, 1843. He informs
us (4,071) :-"I did not find the slightest
difficulty in dealing with the Irish settlers
as compared with others. I found them
extremely   well-tempered.   It latterly
became a point with me to explain to two
or three sensible Irishmen the line I in-
tended to take. I endeavoured to give
them hope, and having succeeded in that
I used to let them loose among the others.
Confidence would spread without any more
direct influence from me. If I had itaken
the English or Scotch first I should have
found more difficulty."
  I have thus conducted you from North
Brunswick, through Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, Upper and Lower Canada,
and finally, to New South Wales, and its
most prosperous off-set, Port Philip. The
evidence is all to the same effect, and
there is much more on the minutes which
I could have extracted in aid of my argu-
mentf
  -I think,Sir, that you will now admit that
I have referred you:to some evidence that
should induce you to reconsider a state-
ment made in an article on colonization,
written in other respects with consum-
mate ability and truth. You speak of
Irish emigrants as consisting, "to a man,
of. the lower orders, of Irish, carrying
with :,them misery and degradation, a
visionary temperament, and a factious
religion ; a deep sense of injury, and a
burning hatred of the  British name."
Believe me, Sir, you are mistaken. When
their loyalty was tried in Canada, no men
were more to be relied on than the Irish.
No sympathisers were to be found among
them, and the extracts with which I have
already troubled you prove how rapidly


they rise from poverty to wealth, to intel-
ligence, and to   well merited  political
rank. I fully admit the sufferings of the
present year and the wretchedness of too
many of the emigrants. But you havre
most justly   attributed  this to " our
present system, or rather our want of
system altogether." You  have shown
both the power and the knowledge requi-
site to  grapple  with this subject. I
entreat you to persevere, but to do so
with calmness and impartiality. Do not
embitter or poison the springs in those
newly-settled lands, or excite at the Anti{-
podes that war of races which has been
tpe curse of our societyand the bar to our
progress in Europe.
  You must not infer from these observa-
tions that I am :favourable either to the
creation  of a Nova Hibernia in our
Colonies or an endowment of Romanism
there. I think these suggestions great
blots in the otherwise very able Memorial
of Mr. Godley to Lord John Russell.
Neither am I for freeing the Irish land-
lords from their duties and responsibilities
by clearing their estates at the expense of
the Treasury. No emigration from  Ire-
land will be effectual to which these-land-
lords are not called very largely to, contri-
bute. I wish to guard against these sup-
positions, but I must not pursue the
subject. Remember, Sir, that every Irish
emigrant fixed in our colonies is an emi+
grant the less to Liverpool and Man4
chester. Remember that prosperous emi-
grants fixed in Australia become con-
sumers of British produce to the value of
from £6 to £7 per head, and iq British
North America to the value of £3 or £4.
But remember, above all, that the passion
of Ireland-a desire for land-becomes in
the colony the reward and incitement to
industry, while in Ireland it is the source
of social disorganization, rapine, and
murder.
    I am, Sir, your very obedient, humble
                 servant,
  Oct. 9.      AN IRISH PROPRIETOR.


(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1847.)


  Sir,-You probably willby good enough
to allow the following facts to appear in
your journal, as it is but just that the
true position of the landed gentry of
Ireland should be placed     before the
British public at this important crisis.
  An overwhelming population has grown
up on their estates, in nine instances out


of 10 in oppositioijto the attempts of the
landlords to restrain it. Two causes have
created this state of things ;-first, the
generation of landowners who lived 60
and 80 years ago let their farms in large
tracts to persons who were then substan-
tial yeomen. They grazed these lands,
but when corn reached an enormous price


146






THE    GREAT IRISH        .FAMINE      OF 1845-1846.


during the revolutionary war these yeomen
subdivided these farms ad infinitum; these
second-class tenants again subdivided
their lots, until the country in many
places became cut up (like France) into
farms or lots, no larger than pocket hand-
kerchiefs, with a consequent increase of
the population.  The landlord had no
power to prevent this system ; the head
tenant had a lease, and "could do as he
liked with his own ;" which he did with
a vengeance. An Irish farmer provides for
his sons and daughters by giving them
so many acres of his farm  as marriage
portions. This is their custom, and until
the system can be prevented by time and
perseverance an estate cannot be placed
in a healthy position.  Where a :lease
stands against the landlord, he is power-
less; where it expires, he is called an
exterminator ; if he endeavours even to
buy out the petty occupants and increase
the size of the farms, he is resisted by all
the chicane of the law, and probably
shot into the bargain. So much as regards
the =middlemen, 'as they are termed.
i :In= the second place, the population has
increased   prodigiously  from   another
cause :-the  priesthood  receive their,
moneys from the dues paid them by the
lower classes ; these dues -c consist of fees
payable at Christmas and. Easter, on
marriages, births, deaths, confessions,
purgatorial payments, and many other
Roman Catholic ceremonies. Consequently,
it is the interest of the priesthood to
encourage early marriages by every means
in their power. Marriages in Ireland and
subdivisions of land   are synonymous.
Between the middleman with a lease,
and the priest, the landlord is in a serious
predicament ; he has a very difficult task
tp perform, and one which requires daily
attention and vigilance, coupled with ex-
teme caution, or the results will be fatal.
  From these two causes have arisen the
fact, thatthere are at least 1,000,000 people
if Ireland, whom no one knows what to
do with or whither to send, or how to
keep from starving, now that the potato
has become degenerated. The three king-
idoms groan under the weight of the ex-
penses lately incurred:; it is almost an
iinpossibility to counteract these evils,
exc pt by a system  of emigration on a
large scale. Drainage and other improve-
nients in agriculture will only be an
adjunct--the population can never be
suipported by these measures alone.
  The position of the great mass of the
landowners of Ireland is this-over two-
thirds of the country they are owed from


a year and a half to two years' rent. The
farmers hav-e reaped a plentiful harvest,
which they .have well thatched in their
haggards, and will not sell it, intending
to pay their landlords little or nothing.
There is a wide-spread combination or
confederacy formed from one end of the
country to the other (generally speaking)
to defraud the landlord of his just rights,
on the same plan of action which was
resorted to in the anti-tithe war. The
same opposition is carried on by the
farmers against the payment of taxes for
the county cess as well as the poor rates.
The laws of the land are defied by an
armed population, who have become a
drilled banditti. The lowest rutfians are
armed, they plunder every one ad libi-
tum, and there is no law to disarm them;
The landlords have been disunited from
their tenants by the hourly exertions of
the priesthood and the agitators, whose
sole object in so doing is that they may
wield the masses at elections, and return
to Parliament those precious specimens
of legislators who are sent over to London,
to represent Irish constituencies ;-that;
is the secretofthesystematic abuse of Irish-
landlords. *Alo,: they are to be anti-'
hilated, because the great majority of
them are Protestants, attached to their;
religion and the British connexion. They-
are, in fact, the only bar to the supremacy,
of the Popish religion in Ireland. These
priests never will be at rest till they
have established   the Roman Catholic
religion in the ascendant.
   The Protestant religion and the union
of England and Ireland stand or fall with
the fate of the Protestant landlords.
People in England cannot comprehend
these things ; it requires a residenceof
years in Ireland to understand this vital'
subject in all its truth. A man must have
dealings with these people to discover
these facts, but not till he has trafficked
with them for land can he possibly be made
to credit that which is the actual and bond
fide state of the case-he is no judge till then.
Of late years the collection of the tithes
has been thrown on the landlord ; he is"
now the tithe proctor and is obliged to
get in the Protestant clergyman's rent-
charge (as it is facetiously called) from a
Roman Catholic population. Human art
could not have devised a system better
calculated to disunite landlord and tenant
in Ireland. The tithe should have been
converted into a land-tax, and placed
under the control of commissioners, and
the clergy paid from the   fund, similarly
to the system   pursued by the Board of
                                   x2


u


147






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


Ecclesiastical Commissioners, &c., who
have the management of the affairs of
abolished sees. In the meantime the poor-
rate, in its mitigated state, amounts to
a tax of 20 per cent. generally. This pro-
portion falls on the landlord at this very
moment, besides other county charges for
previous relief rates; and, deprived by law-
less violence of his rents,he is forced to pay
these taxes, and hooted if he does notgive
employment to the masses,. though he has
not a shilling to pay them      for their
labour.
  The Government of the country now
begin to understand the true state of
things in Ireland ;they  see that this
iuaiversal  system . of  "repudiation "
amongst the land: occupiers must be put
down by the strong arm   of the law,. or
the bonds of society: will be uprooted, and
caos be the result. I understand that
measures to counteract this infamous
confederacy will be immediately proposed
to Parliament. There is not a man in
bIeland who has anything to lose, who
does not fully appreciate the manly de-
rmination which the Earl of Clarendon
has shown to sustain the: rights of pro-
perty   and the   enforceme  of legal.
demands. But " the law as it stands "
Us inadequate to meet the emergency ; it
has not power enough to. conquer " passive


resistance " combined with " brute force."
Much land has remained uncultivated,
especially in the west of Ireland. The
landlord has-no power to get into posses-
sion of it and till it, the tenantry having
leases ; they will neither surrender it nor
cultivate it. A year must elapse before
the law can give it to him,for every chicane
willbe resorted to,toprevent him. In fact,a
summary statute must be passed on this
very important question. The truth is,
the Government as well as the landlords
are both counteracted by the excess of
knavery exhibited by the lowerclasses ;
they are demoralized: to a degree un-
paralleled in the history of the world.
  Having trespassed so much on your
space, I must conclude by expressing an
earnest hope that the landowners of Ire-
land will not be dispirited,-that they
will put their shoulders resolutely to
the wheel, and work like men. I feel con-
vinced that, by trusting to their own
energies and to the mercy of Providence,
they will in the end conquer their diffi-
culties and regenerate their country,
.aided and assisted as they will be bythose
in England who value therights of pro-
perty.
     I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
                      AN IRISH: PEER.


            LANDLORD       MURDERS.
(LwADI' ARTICLE, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1847.)


  Not a year passes but on some casual
encouragement there arises the wishful
exclamation, Now, at last, there is some
hope for Ireland - Hope is the very soul
of the Englishman.      With him, any
change is the promise of better things.
Whether, therefore, calamity flings our
unfortunate fellow-subjects into the pos-
ture of dependence, or the- returning
lounty of Nature invites them to exer-
tion, we fondly' expect either the decay
of hostility or the revival of industry and
content. Symptoms of improvement are
watched and recorded with an officious
anxiety which almost defeats its own pur-
pose. Of Ireland alone we think it a
duty to forget that lesson of experience
Which teaches the inveteracy of habits
and the unchangeable doom of impenitent
crime. Of Ireland alone we think the
only prudence is to hope against hope.
To the warm imagination of British phi-


lanthropy the moral deserts of that island
are ever on the point to " blossom as the
rose." We cannot conceive a people
proof against the irresistible force of
sound and honest intentions. Hence we
almost knowingly exaggerate the few
glimpses of a happier futurity which now
and then open in that overcast sky. We
persuade ourselves that this generation
shall behold what centuries have sighed
for in vain. As fast as our expectations
arise they are dashed to the ground. The
dark spell reappears. Spectral horrors
brood and thicken anew. Blood crieth from
the ground. In an instant joy and hope
fly away ; and we return for a period to
the sorrowful conviction that Time fleets
without change, and Ireland is the same.
  Major MAHON, of Strokestown, a man
of high family, and connected by inter-
marriages with the Duke of WELLINGTON,
succeeded about three years ago to an


__


_ ___ __ ___ ___ _ I__


148






THE GREAT IRISH FAMTNE OF 1845-1846.


estate of £10,000 or £12,000 a year,which
,had  belonged  to  Lord HARTLAND, a
lunatic. As the property was under the
tender care of the Irish Court of Chan-
cery, it had been very badly managed,
with an immense pauper population ;
and, it is said, £30,000 arrear of rent.
The manager had for some time been
threatened. The tenants refused either
to pay rent, to till the land, or to give it
up. It was the plain duty of a proprietor
to check a state of things fraught with
misery and death to the still increasing,
still impoverished mass.    Accordingly
Major MAHON last year assisted many to
emigrate, leaving the coast clearer for
those that remained. At the expense of
£6,000 he chartered two vessels and sent
ott a number of his tenants to America.
Many more wished to be so favoured, but
the Major's means were exhausted for
that year. We are now told, however,
that long before this he was " a doomed
man." His name stood first on a list of
twelve gentlemen    proscribed  by   the
Carbonari of Roscommon, for refusing to
continue the wasteful and     degrading
conacre systeni. The failure of the potato
crop saved them for a time. Last Tues-
day this gentleman drove into Strokes-
town, and called at his agent's office, to
lay out extensive plans of improvement,
having just borrowed money from the
draining fund to employ sixty families
for the winter. He proceeded to Ros-
common, where, for want of funds, the
poorhouse was in danger of being closed,
and exerted himself there to keep open
all the arrangements for the benefit of
the poor. On his return from this chari-
table duty he was murdered on his own
estate, and there is every reason to be-
lieve by his own people. A little after 6
o'clock in the evening two assassins marked
him as he passed. One of their pieces took
effect, lodging a heavily loaded discharge
in his breast, and killing him on the spot.
  The moral aspect of this tragedy may
not distinguish it from the vulgar crowd
of assassinations. In some respects ,he
sacrifice of a large proprietor, necessarily
brought into collision with poverty, num-
bers, and discontent, is not so horrid and
unnatural an -offence as the treacherous
slaughter of a neighbour dwellingsecurely
in the midst of. his murderers. By us,
however, and by all who on this side
the Channel have felt it:their duty to
inculcate with a timely vehemence the
duties of property, this fearful catas-
trophe will be felt as a great blow and
discouragement to the cause of Irish :y-e


generation. We know that no argument,
no appeals to conscience or to shame, no
penalties, no   boons, will countervail
against the hideous thought, that the
Irish proprietor who sets to work to
rescue his land from barrenness, and
his tenantry from barbarism, may carry
his sentence on his brow, and be for
years-" a doomed man." The world
nowhere presents a state of things so cal-
culated to extinguish   all cheerfulness,
to corrode the heart, and  darken the
soul. The victim of a hellish but almost
universal conspiracy moves about among
a people who daily and hourly see him
by anticipation weltering in his gore.
Man, woman, and child know his fate.
They that greet him mind of the hour
when he shall receive-his last bloody
salutation. Men, as they ask favours of
his hand, see it grasping the dust of the
road;and as they exchange smiles see
the lips before them struggling for utter-
ance in vain. Of those many hundreds
or thousands, no one dares to reveal the
dark secret and betray his allegiance to
hell. It is not, however, for the victim
that our-feelings are most aroused. The
comfort and the life of one man are not
to be compared with the welfare of many,.
He dies, and is at rest ; they live, and
occupy the soil which they have pollute4
with his blood. To all who are in any
degree accomplice in the crime, the lan
of their fathers becomes a foul charnel-
house, and the very mist of their valleyt
are the reekings of the grave.
  But it is in vain to expect that ordinary
men will endure so horrid an existence.
While we urge men of patriotism and
honour to reside on their :properties, and
be the stewards of Heaven for the good
of their people, hideous catastrophes
drive them back to security and indiffer-
ence. Who will take British capital and
enterprise to Ireland with -uch expecta-
tions 7 Who would be a D:roNSlcs in Ros-
common with the sword of DAMOCLES
hanging over his head eveni n his domestic
retirement and at the social board ? ecec
signun. The very day after this atrocity
a fine estatein the fatal vicini tyof Strokes-
town was offered for :sale in Dublin, and
could not meet with an offer for more than
a tithe of its value. Can we wonder at
it ? Better people a desert, -- con uer
a savage tribe, than dwell in a society of
conspirators, who for years can gloat on
their victim, and enjoy the .sweet :antici
pation of his last mortal agony. Human
nature was not made for this ordeal,
Few, indeed, will stand it. The soil wi


_ _~


149






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


continue in the management of those
hard but courageous hirelings who are
content to face death for money, and who
will balance the score    of occasional
murder with continual oppression. Ire-
land will have it so. Those sons of CAIN
will still eschew the arts of peace, and
cling to their privilege and destiny of


blood. We cannot help it. We have
written, and written    in vain.    The
blunderbuss is more than a match for the
pen. The still, small voice of conscience
pleads in vain for voluntary duty when
life and death are at stake. Men will not
encounter martyrdom in so doubtful, so
miserable, so inglorious a cause.


OUTRAGES     IN IRELAND.
(SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1847.)


    (FROM THE TIMES' coRRESPONDENT.)
                       DUBLIN, Nov. 4.
   An incident took place yesterday in the
office of Mr. Murphy (one of the Masters
in Chancery) which strongly illustrates
the disastrous effects of the utter inse-
curity of life and property in this coun-
try. A fee simple estate, consisting of
,288 acres of prime feeding land, with an
excellent dwelling-house, advantageously
situated, in the county of Roscommon,
was put up for sale at £10,000 for the
first bid, being scarce one-half of the esti-
Imated value of the property. While the
tsale was proceeding, a gentleman got up,
'and addressing those about him, spoke of


the dangerous neighbourhood in which
the estate lay, remarking that it Wps
close to the spot where only the night
previous Major Mahon fell by the bullet
of the   assassin.  The   announcement
created a powerful sensation in the office,
and a chilling silence of a minute or two
succeeded. The Master at length inter-
posed, and having severely reprimanded
the speaker for his intrusive observations,
ordered the sale to proceed. But it was
to no purpose.    'Ihe blow had struck
home ; and after an offer of £2,500, or
something like four years' purchase, the
sale was indefinitely postponed.


EMIGRATION      AS A     REMEDY      FOR    IRISH   POVERTY.
  (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1847.)


   Sir,-In a former letter, which you did
 nie the favour to insert, I endeavoured to
 vindicate, on the authority of colonial
,evidence of the highest respectability,
tthe characters of the  Irish  emigrants.
tUnless that evidence is to be    set at
nought, I flatter myself I demonstrated
that the Irish, when removed from the
,unhappy influences which affect them at
!home,   are  thrifty, industrious,  and
orderly, and are readily accepted bythose
colonies where labour is in demand. I
was rejoiced to see., from your commen-
tary on my letter, that we did not differ
so essentially as 1 hadat first apprehended.
  Will you permit me now to bring under
  your observation the statistics of a single
  townland, which seems to me to prove
how   utterly impossible it is, in certain
parts of Ireland, that the present problem
can be solved, unless emigration be. re-
stored to? I say ' in certain parts.of


Ireland " advisedly, for I am far from
affirming that emigration is universally
required ; but where this safety-valve
does not exist the consequences are not
only to create misery in one spot, but to
extend discontent and disorder into neigh-
bouring districts, though- they may be
more happily circumstanced.
  The townland in question is situated in
a southern county. No complaint can be
made of the want of security of tenure,
from the absence of a lease, nor of suffer-
ing produced by the exactions of the
landlord ; on the contrary. The town-
land consists of 125 statute acres, and is
valued to the poor's-rate at £125. It was
let in 1781 for three lives, two of which
are still in being, for a rent of £10 Irish
currency. It was let -as a single tenement
to one tenant. On this land there exist
at present 43 houses, containing upwards
of 50 families and 277 human beings.


I-


150






THE    GREAT IRISH        FAMINE       OF 1845-1846.


Of these 277, above 100 occpuy less than
a space of 12 statute acres. Five families
are without one square foot of land ;
three hold but 20 perches, or 1-16th of an
acre, each ; three hold but one rood, and
six but half an acre. Your intelligence
will at once show you that it is utterly
impossible for this multitude of paupers
to subsist where they are now placed.
Even before "Ireland's woes began,"
even if a poet could have dreamt that a
rood of ground could have sustained ' a
man," it would be impossible for Gold-
smith himself to suggest that 20 perches,
or half a rood, could have maintained
families of 8 and 10 persons, which must
be the case if this townland is to be
left as it is at present. The proprietor.
only receives £10 rent, or less than
1-12th of the valued rental. The middle-
man or mesne lessee is almost as great
a pauper as the most wretched of his
tenants ; 27 out of the 43 houses con-
tain but one single room, occupied in
some cases by two families, consisting of
six, seven, and eight individuals, of all
ages. Let me ask you how can this land be
made to raise an adequate supply of food
so long as it is thus occupied ? The
Tipperary meeting could hardly contem-
plate a nearer approach     to fixity of
tenure than has existed for 66 years, or a
more moderate rent. Yet the condition
of things which I have described exists,
and is an absolute bar to all amelioration.
No expenditure of capital, no application
of skill and science, would meet the case,
whilst this excess of population exists.
Rothschild and Lord Ashburton, Liebig
and Mr. Coke, would be alike at fault.
  Nor let it be said that if proper cove-
  nants had been introduced into the ori-
  ginal lease this misery might have been
  averted. There is no one familiar with
  the state of Ireland who does not know
  that such covenants, where introduced,
  were openly violated, and that such vio-
  lations were sanctioned by the subtleties
  of the law. The receipt of rent was held
  a waiver of the covenant, however clear
  and distinct might be its'import. And
  when, in later times, the Imperial Par-
  liament endeavoured to prevent the con-
  tracts entered into between landlord and
  tenant from being defeated, " scared at the
  sound itself had. made," it repealed the
  Actagainst sublhtting soon after its enact-
  ment. In a case like this the proprietor is
  powerless. If he buys out the middle-
  man he renders himself subject to all in-
  cumbrances the tenant may have thrown
  on the land, to all the contracts which


may have been made by him, either legal
or equitable,to all outstanding judgments,
to all uexccuted decrees. He involves
himself in a labyrinth whence there is no
extrication.
  Compare the stateof one ofthesepaupers
with the following account of the con-
dition of an Irish free emigrant settled at
New Richmond, in New South Wales.
I transcribe the words of an original
letter now before me :
  " When first I set up farming I had no
means of cultivating the land but by the
strength of our arms. I ran credit £20
for seed and provisions, which took two
years to pay. When I got myself out of
debt I built a house and fenced the farm,
and now, thank God, I have 25 acres of
wheat, and 26 head of horned cattle, to-
gether with three head of horses and a
quantity of pigs. We have four bullocks,
a plough and harrow. We grow .and cul.
tivate our own tobacco."
   I shall only add one extract more. It
is taken from a letter dated Wallongong,
and is written by a free emigrant who
had not even the means to reach the port
of embarcation without charitable help i---
   " Dear Brother,--I mean to  let you
know how I cm going on. I am living
on a piece of ground which we call a
clearing lease. You clear as much as you
can for the term of seven years, rent free,
with a run for cattle attached to it. We
have five acres of wheat, three acres of
potatoes, seven acres of maize, together
with pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and
vegetables of every description 'which is
useful for pigs. I live here more com-
fortable than -- and -      at home. I
live rent free, and they cannot; and my
diet generally is bread, butter, tea, and
the best of beef and pork-ten -times a
day if I have a mind to eat it. I have
nothing to buy but beef, tea, and sugar.
When I go to Sydney with my crops I
buy half a chest of tea and four bagd of
sugar."
   Compare this statement with the condi-
 tion of the inhabitants of the over-peopled
 townland I first described. Remember,
 too, that in the one case the Irishman
 builds houses, in the" :other he biirns
 them .;in Ireland he cuts down landlords'
 agents and police, in the other he cuts
 down wheat and maize. The only 'blood
 he sheds at Sydney is thrt of fat cattle
 and pigs. Remember that in one case he
 adds to the capital of his neighbours, in
 the other that he destroys it. Remeriiber,
 moreover, that in Sydney he consumes
 British manufacturesf~ othe value obf £7


__


151






152           THE    GREAT     IRISH    .FA3MINE    OF   1845-1846.


per head, whereas the experience of last
year shows the expenditure of millions of
public money as being required for support-
ing all this wretchedness at home. Above
all, remember that every Irish colonist the
more is an immigrant into England the less.
You have most justly, and with your ac-
customed sympathy for human suffering,
adverted to the frightful mortality and
disease of this year's North American
emigration. Your account is sad, and all
too true.   But this confirms my    case
rather than disarovos it. It is the present


sudden unsystematic emigration which
has produced these results, coupled with
the unexamtnlled extent of disease preva-
lent in Ireland. But look at the emigra-
tion to Australia, and especially to that
so ably and benevolently superintended
by that excellent public servant, Mr.
Frederick ]7lliott, and you will find no
such casualties as those you describe to
have there taken place.
  I am, Sir, your very obedient rervant,
     AN IRISH LANDED PBOItOIETOR.
  Nlov. 6.


           DISORDER      IN IRELAND.
(LEADING AIRTICLE, SATURDAY, N< E Vl.BER 13, 1847.)


  The intelligence from Ireland presents
no exception to the melancholy sameness
which runs through the annals of that
country. Unless we would invent, it is
impossible to relieve the dismal mono-
tony. Take the budget of this day : read
the murders, the outrages, the perpetual
hitches in the administration of the law,
the failure of local responsibility, and the
abject dependence on foreign resources,
and it might be supposed we were in the
habit of serving up again the contents of
a last year's number of our paper, or that
we had half-a-dozen  Irish paragraphs
stereotyped for an occasional vacancy in
our columns, or non-arrival of the mails.
Tipperary, indeed, does its murders with
so much method and regularity as to sug-
gest the idea that there are bands devoted
to the employment, and maintained in
full work at the public expense. Detach-
ments of big fellows, armed to the teeth,
walk about the county without the least
disguise on their errand. Just as suits
their convenience, they drop in by night
or by day. They walk into a cottage,
and, stationing their sentinel at the door,
proceed to shoot, to smash with blud-
geons, or to burn alive the master of the
house in the midst of his family, or per-
haps together with them, if it is incon-
venient to make a distinction.   The
neighbourhood respectfully stands aloof,
knowing as well what is going on inside
the door as a rabbit-hunter does when he
has put his ferrets into the hole. When
the doomsters: have done their bloody
work, they coolly walk away with their
guns over their shoulders, without show-
mng any desire to quicken their pace or
escape observation. Such are the un-


varying characteristics of Celtic Thuggism
in Tipperary and a few other favoured
localities. We have described one which
occurred the other day within three miles
of Nenagh, but, with a slight substitu-
tion of names and dates, it would do for
almost any day in the twelvemouth.
   As far as we are concerned, nothing is
 more odious to a journalist than this plr-
 petual iteration of the most horrid de-
 tails. One fouls positively degraded in
 having to tell over and over again the
 same tale of brutality  and cowardice.
 Why is the daily press, the annalist, the
 reviewer, the monitor of the world, con-
 demnetd  to the enumeration of such
 butcheries ? The " Newgate Calendar"
 has its own readers, the " Hue and Cry"
 has its own uses. There are plenty of
 writers quite ready to draw on their ima-
 ginations for narratives adapted to the
 vulgar relish  for horrors. The daily
 newspaper has something else to do. We
 would gladly avoid the invidious appear-
 ance of remembering crimes with un-
 charitable accuracy, and dwelling  on
 them  as though we would make them
 more.   There is, however, no possible
 alternative. Theo most prominent features
 of Irish intelligence are such as we have
 alluded  to. Moreover, they have too
 direct a bearing on the great social ques-
 tions of the day to be suppressed or
 slurred over. We urge the landlord to
 reside and do  his duty. It would be
 simply ridiculous to conceal the dangers
 that beset him. We are labouring to
.abolish a bloody agrarian code. We nust
publish its fearful executions. We pro-
claim to the whole civilized world the
crimes of wealth, the sores of society, the


--






THE    GrldA'' 1'ISH       FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


selfishness of the great, the injustice of
the strong, the grovelling propensi tics of
wealth and power, and other countless
evils. We deliver over Fngland hand
and f or. to the mercy of continental calum-
niatc.rs. In the columns of the daily
press the worst enemies of this country
may find materials for their slanderous
atd vindictive indictments.  they can
rhow it up to the earth as the oppressor
of the weak and the consumer of the poor.
Ireland  is the perpetually  recurring
climax of their angry philippics. Fair-
ness, therefore, obliges us to publish both
sides of the question. It becomes our duty
to inform a jealous continent that the un-
fortunate and 1eruecuted people whom it
professes to befriend will not give them-
selves a chance. They will talce the law
into their own hands. They will put
themselves into the position, and, indeed,
the actual condition of savages, by their
greedy appetite for blood.  They will
neglect and actually   thwart the most
benevolent, energetic, and great-minded
efforts to improve them. It is due to the
memory of our forefathers to record the
obstructions they have had to encounter in
the labours of Ireland. It may be due to
our own memory in turn.
  The present Viceroy of IRELAND enjoys
a European reputation. He is known to
be a man of justice and peace, and one
who will never for a moment be led away
by passion from the calm contemplation
and steady pursuit of what is best for all
parties. No one will accuse him of siding
with a faction, or exaggerating the sins
of one class by forgetting those of another.
Such we believe to have been the general
character of those whom successive Ad-
ministrations have selected for   this
arduous post. But Lord CLARENDON is
known to be such as we have described. Yet
even he is obliged to exhibit the sternest
side of his character in an admonitory


proclamation.   He   is driven   to  con-
form to the sad precedents of office; to
denounce outrage, to threaten an indirect
and indiscriminate vengeance on the dis-
tricts disgraced by cr ime, to warn acces-
sories, abettors, and protectors, and to
disguise the real gentleness of l.i spirit
in the stern phraseology of official rebuke.
Nor will the example be lost on this
country. We believe it to be one princi-
pal element of difliculty in the Irish ques-
tion, that in this empire two races are
necessarily united under the same political
sentiments and constitutional maxims,
who are in fact by no means equally pre-
pared for their actual application. The
strong measures necessary for Ireland are
revolting to the feeling of this country.
Ireland, meanwhile, is ever arguing on
the basis of British liberty, all the time
that she is claiming a licence absolutely
inconsistent with liberty or any other
principle of order. Like a snau.vais sujet
in good society, Ireland asks at the same
time the pleasures of self-will and the re-
wards of self-control. The public opinion
of this island, however, is fast becoming
alive to the truth that a different measure
is necessary for the loyal and orderly on
the one hand, and the lawless, seditious,
mischievous, and   irreconcilable on the
other. An evident organization against
property and life, tolerated and excused
by the spiritual leaders of the disaffected,
is an incident which calls for something
more than    mild  expression, flattering
titles, affectionate familiarity, and confi-
dential discussion. The people of England
are all aware that if Lord OLARENDON is
driven to harsh measures it is absolutely
impossible to dispense with them ; and
the future Minister will, in consequence,
incur less odium by appealing to the last
resources of his office or of the Legisla-
ture.


               THE IRISH      FISHERIES.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, SATURDAY, NOVEMBBER 13, 1847.)


  Sir,-A letter lately appeared in your
paper from the '' Manager of a Fishing
Experiment at Valentia," the purport of
which was to show how much more profit-
ably the funds at the disi-osal of the
British Association could be employed in
stimulating the fisheries than in gratui-
tous relief. A further letter corroborating


that view has also appeared, and I hope you
will permit me, by a few facts, collected
by myself in that neighbourhood within
the last two months, to attempt to throw
some further light on this question.
  All admit that Ireland can only be per
manently Lenefited by an extension of the
field of employment, and it is equally


L L


153






TH     GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


clear that this can only be effected by the
introduction of capital. Let us see, then,
what is the effect of gratuitous relief on
the capital already employed, or that
has been recently attempted to be intro-
ducedwith a view to profitable investment.
At Valentia, from which place your cor-
respondent dates his letter, there has
been long in work an extensive slate
quarry manufactory, employing at times
as many as 1,200 men. I hive before me
a letter from the manager and principal
shareholder in that work, to the effect that,
so long as gratuitous work is distributed,
he cannot procure labour at the same
price as heretofore, and, consequently,
those works must be contracted, Again,
at Dingle, which is the principal fish-
ing town on that coast, there are about
50 small boats of one sort and an-
other, with from six to eight men de-
pending for subsistence on the working
of each boat. In the first week of Sep-
tember I spent three days at Dingle--the
first two days were stormy and the boats
did not go out, the third day was as fine
a day for fishing as any in the year, and
the mackerel and pilchards were reported,
by vessels that had seen the shoals in
and about the bay, to be very abundant.
To my great surprise I observed that
no more than 12 boats had gone out that
morning, and on investigating the cause
I found it to be strictly and solely the
following :--Being Saturday, a double
allowance of soup was to be distributed ;
there was also an expectation of a gratui-
tous distribution of meal and it being a
regulation that the application for the
soup and meal should be made in person,
the day's fishing was thus sacrificed.
   The experiment, of which Mr. Benett
 Is the manager, has excited considerable
 interest and expectation in that part of
 the  country, but its principal result
 hitherto has been to show the impractica-
 bility of introducing foreign capital with
 any prospect of adequate return, so long
 as the labour has to compete with idle-
 ness, though that idleness be associated
 Swith the barest subsistence, or even a
 chance of subsistence. Such is the dispo-
 sition of the Irish to depend on charity
 Iand gifts, that no amount devoted to
 sucnh purposes could: satisfy all; where
 ine is satisfied, 10 are disappointed,
 and no one can witness the reckessness
 jwith which the    Irish in  the South-
 wPestern districts' will cast to -the-wiids
 :a certainty to be obtaiied' by labour,
 for the merest chance of the barest
 subsistence to be obtained_ by begging,


without feeling that the charity which
has been so lavishly contributed to save
life, indirectly by its inevitable in-
adequacy   to  meet    all expectations,
has been the means of destroying life.
Many    well-informed  persons   believe
that fewer lives would have been sacri-
ficed if not one penny had been given
gratuitously. However that may be, the
moral mischief that has been done to the
survivors seems to admit of but two re-
medies; the one is to let starvation take
its course until such as are capable of
being instructed shall take warning, and
recover their reason sufficiently to see
that their only hope of life is in finding
work ; the other is to employ what re-
mains of the charitable funds in providing
such work as shall produce, in the most
direct manner, food and subsistence, at
the same time that it will aid in teaching
them the salutary lesson, that life de-
pends upon labour, There is, doubtless,
much more difficulty in administering
a fund in this way than in gratuitous
relief ; but surely this ought not to be
an impediment. Would it not be well
worth while to devote a portion of the
fund to payment for such additional
care and attention, than that the whole
fund   should  not only be     sacrificed
and lost, but might become the means,
though remotely, of sacrificing more of
life and happiness than it immediately
aves?  
   There is no lack of precedents to justify
 the British Association in setting apart a
 portion of their funds for reproductive
 purposes, such as fishing. In 1786, a
 society, called the British Society, raised
 £40,000 for . the  improvement of the
 fisheries of Scotland, and the result of
 their operations may be se6n in the
 now flourishing town of Tobermory and
 other towns and villages established by
 them. More recentlya fund was set apart,
 under the name of the Reproductive
 Loan Fund, from a charitable subscrip-
 tion like the present, and it is by a sum
 of £5,000 advanced to the Government
 out of that fund that the curing stations
 were established on the west coast of Ire-
 land at the end of last year. And it
 appears that the Highland Relief Com-
 mittee have already adopted a similar
 course by applying what remains bof their
 fund, I believe about £30,000, to the
 extension of the fisheries. The managers
 of  that fund allowed     no  imaginary
 difficulties to stand in the way of this
 obviously wise and beneficent plan, and
 determined at once to obtain an act of


'154






THEIB CREAT   Il&H &FAMINlj     OF 1845-1846.


Parliament to sanction such an appropri-
ation, if, on  further consideration, it
should appear inconsistent with the ob-
jects of the donors. But can it for one
moment be supposed that any contributor
to such a fund would object to the trustees
availing themselves of the experience of
the last year in the appropriation of
such portion of the fund as remains in
hand '   Strictly speaking, the fund was
subscribed   for the potato failure of
1846-7, and the Committee, as it appears
to me, would have been perfectly justified
in closing their accounts at the end of
that period and reporting to their sub-
scribers the balance in hand. In reser-
ving this balance for the      exigencies
of the forthcoming     winter, they   are
clearly taking upon themselves an au-
thority which was not permitted        to
them by the subscribers. The appeal to
the public was for the " relief of extreme
distress in remote districts "then pre-
vailing ; is it not quite reasonable to
assume  that many     of the   subscribers
would positively dbject to the extension
of this relief to another season, the cir-
cumstances and causes of the distress
being  in  the     meantime    completely
changed I May not the diminished sub-
sorition, under the Queen's letter, be
attributed, in part at least, to a considera-
tion that it was no longer expedient to
support the people of Ireland by gratui-
tous relief ?
   Surely, Sir, sufficient has been done to
 uphold the character of this country for
 charity and generosity quite unparalleled
 -may we not now be permitted to take a
 more deliberate and calculating view as
 to what may be the best mode of prevent-
 ing such calamities for the future 1 What
 security have we that the potatoes will be
 planted next year 1 How are people who
 are to be fed gratuitously this winter to
 be convinced of the necessity for their re-
 lying on their own exerLions for the next?
 The present distribution is no longer a
 sudden    and  overwhelming    visitation,
 under which both donors and recipients
 are   panic-stricken and   indisposed  to
 reason and    calculate. The people do
 reason, and their reasoning brings them,
 as I know from actual observation, to this
 conclusion-that the. English are bound
 to keep them alive, come what may.
 They consider it but part. payment of the


great debt due from the Saxons ; when
the £30,000,000--its present amount--
shall have been fully paid, they have un-
doubting confidence in the ingenuity of
Mr. O'Connell; and their priests show
that we are still indefinitely in their debt.
It is not for nothing that Repeal and
priestoraft have been so liberally sup-
ported during the present crisis ; without
the indefatigable exertions and ingenuity
of their leaders, the people must have
felt the degradation,--" the coals of fire"
of Saxon bounty in return for Celtic
abuse ; and though we may smile at the
ravings of the lion of the fold of Judah
and the weak     Jesuitism of Mr. John
O'Connell, we should also reflect that our
indiscriminate bounty is received with
their commentary upon it, and is made to
corroborate their arguments as to the ob..
ligatibns of the Saxon to the Celt.
   I cannot close these remarks without
 bearing  my humble     but disinterested
 testimony to the manner in which the
 Committee of the    British  Association
 have hitherto performed the duties they
 undertook. The    zeal and ability and
 promptitude with which they have dis-
 charged their trust, are as honourable to
 them individually as the fund itself
 is to the nation which they represent.
 It is with the utmost respect and con-
 fidence in that Committee that I have
 thus ventured to suggest to them,through
 your columns, that facts have now been
 elicited, that experience has been bought,
 which not only justify, but demand from
 them, a reconsideration of the best mode
 of applying what remains of their fund.
 There is, by all reports, enough, if ap-
 plied, as similar funds have been, to some
 reproductive purpose, such as fishing, to
 convert all the disasters which have oc-
 curred into a permanent boon to Ireland.
 If, on the other hand, the gratuitous
 system is continued, neither that, nor
 any other conceivable amount of money,
 will be sufficient to save the lives which
 have been thrown upon it, or to conci-
 liate the affections of the people ; but, on
 the contrary, it will aggravate every evil
 by which Ireland is afflicted. Wherever
 this charity extends;commercial capital is
 driven away ; whenever it falls short, dis.
 content and destitution will be increased,
    I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,
                                   A.4B


__


155






156       THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


CLERICAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF MURDER.
(LEarING ARTICLI, T UrRSDAY, {OVWM BER 18, 1847.)


  Public meetings in Ireland are not the
  tame affairs they are in this country.
They lead to something. Among us a
dozen or two landlords, or Radicals, or
fanatics, get up a demonstration, in or
out of doors. They are eloquent, menac-
ing, and unanimous. They must have
their will, and nothin  can stand in
their way. As for Sir LOBERT or Lord
Jomg they will give him a trial ; but woo
batido him if he does not take their
warning in time. The speeches, however,
once made,    reported, read, and   for-
gotten, there is generally an end of the
matter. Excepting, perhaps, a certain
ultimate and imperceptible effect on that
mysterious existence, the public mind,
the most popular gathering is as barren
of taiigible results as a grand display of
fireworks at VauxhalL It is not so in
Ireland. A " tenant-right " meeting does
not de.l with squibs or blank dartridge.
It bites as well as barks. The appeal is
to the individual agency of the hearers,
and out of ten thousand is sure to be
heard by a few,-by enough, in fact, for
the purpose of the meeting. That appeal
is to the blunderbuss. We pointed this
out in our. remarks on the Holy Cross
affair, and the results have borne us out--
Tipperary to wit.
  The expectation of suich tangible results
proves a   wonderful' stimulus to the
speaker.. An English orator, as he hits
his good points, or winds up a climax,
feels the hearts of his audience kindling,
expects a " Hear, hear," or thinks how it
will all look in print. The gentlemen
who address some fifteen     or twenty
thousand tenants across the water have
other sights and other sounds in anticipa-
tion. They cannot be so blind to the
future as not to know thati wheilthey set
a poor fellow's finger tinglingg thiey are,
in fact, putting it on the trigger, that
every shout will be echoed in time: bY a
harsher report, and that the visions raised
by the magic of their tongues oncentrate
on one particular scenei  more f::miliiar
and   agreeable to the Celtic than : the
Saxon imagination.
  The tenant-right meeting held last Sun-
day on the race-course of Cashel was the
very thing for Ireland in its present state,
and calculated to create quite a famine of
powder and shot. The Venerable Arch-


deacon LArFAN spoke wonderfully to the
point. If there happened to be anybody
there with 20 sovereigns in one pocket
and as many slugs .in the other, and
rather divided as to which he should use
in discharge of his three years' rent, that
dear Archdeacon was the man to excuse
the little frailty of choosing the least
precious metal. " He looked round him,
and he saw an assemblage of his brother
Tipperary men (cheers), the good and the
noble-hearted, though perhaps excitable
men, who were called by the Englishmen
murderers"    (Groans.) We shall now
know what to call them. The men, who
meet night after night, settle over their
whisky who is to be knocked on the head,
who contribute each of them his man to
the list, send for two or three boys of the
right sort from a distance, subscribe a
handsome fee for the job, and direct the
sportsmen where and when to wait for
their game, are " excitable." That is the
word.   We are wrong to call them
murderers, and do not know what murder
is. In fact, the Archdeacon goes on to
abuse us for not being murderers our-
selves. If JoHN BUL   were hungry, and
" had courage enough, he would stand
upon one side and shoot the first man he
would meet with a decent coat upon his
back. (Cheers.) But the Saxon had not
the courage to do anything like a man."
This is rather too hard. We demur to it
altogether. In the first place, with all
due respect for the Venerable Arch-
deacon, we cannot agree with him that it
is "-like a man " for anybody, be he ever
so hungry, to stand aside and shoot the
first person that passes "ith a good coat
on his- back. .-As the "-Archdeacon truly
observes, Englishmen: call this murder.
Then    the excitale~:iTipperary ir.en "
usually fire:-fromb~ind a hedge or a
stone 'vall, or walk, two or three or a
dozenia:,ri'edto the teeth, into a neigh-
bour's hotise, when he is eating his supper
or iii bed. They never give their victim
a chance. Is this " likea man I" More-
ovrsr they can be in no danger, when the
whole population is on their side. It is
the whole country---ten thousand to one
against the poor wretch. Where is the
heroism in ten thousand men conspiring,
conniving, or consenting to blow out one
poor fellow'(brains I However, here is






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 9:.1845-184.   157


an Archdeacon, a venerable dignitary in
the   Roman    Catholic Church, telling
fifteen thousand   brother  " Tipperary
men " that murder is an act of noble ex-
citableness, " like a -man," and that
Englishmen do not do it because they have
not the courage to do it. We grant that
they have not- the courage to do it ; but
whom   do they fear? One whom Arch-
deacon LArwrN and his brother Tipperary
men do not seem to take much into
account.
  In England, we may venture to tell this
Venerable ecclesiastic there are plenty of-
poor fellows hungry enough; and some
hundreds of thousands are at present
hungry because the money that should
feed them'has been taken for Ireland. It
is not from any want of real courage that
an English labourer, will " starve in a
workhouse," which the Archdeacon in-
stances as- an acme of oppression sufficient
to provoke a Tipperary man to murder,
rather than lift up his hand against the
life even of a landlord or an employer.
An :English labourer will speak his mind
freely enough to ra hard-hearted master,
and get discharged inmconsequence ; but
it never comes into the  head of that
master that his life is in danger. How-
ever, we are only lowering the English-
man in the Archdeacon's estimation,-so
we will return to his Reverence's Sunday
exhortations. Appealing to certain M.P. s
who were present, he said, " Do, for
GoD's sake, exert your power in the
House to have a law made to protect the
landlord from  the  vengeance of the
tenant."   We are- not left to inquire
what the law is which alone can protect
the landlord from his ." excitable "tenant,
and which. alone is to satisfy the latter.
It is explained in the resolutions of the
meeting, which stipulate -for an act con-
ferring upon every tenant in, Ireland the
right of-selling to the highest bidder the
occupancy or possession of his holding.
This, of course, puts the landlord wholly
out of the question. So long, however,
as this is refused, the tenant is only
acting " like a man," the Archdeacon
tells him, if he shoots his landlord. If
such a law is not passed forthwith, the
Tipperary boys are assured, on.the same
Venerable authority, " there is no know-
ing where oppression may stop on the
one hand, and madness on the other-
there is..no calculation to what extremes
they may be driven; though good in
heart, their. exasperated   feelings may
overcome their goodness."
. Indian Thuggee is a cult,--a religion.


It has its priests and its ceremonies.
Such, too, is the character of the solemnity
we are describing.It was held on Sunday.
The   Venerable    Archdeacon   LAFFAIr
seconded the first resolution, and the
Very Rev. Dean BURxE the second ; while
the Rev. Mr. RYAN, of Cashel, assisted
to keep order, end parish priests formed a
considerable portion of the persons on
the stand-house, used as the platform, or
rather the pulpit, for the meeting. A Mr.
MAHER took occasion to point out the.
superior importance of their proceedings
to what might he supposed on that day
to be going on elsewhere. Speaking of
the landed proprietors, whom he professed
himself disappointed not to see there, he
said,-" Some of them were, perhaps,
so sanctimonious that they would rather
spend some hours listening to a stupid
preacher than come and listen to the
important truths inculcated at the meet-
ing." The only "truths" of any im-
portance " inculcated " at the meeting
were the sanguinary dogmas preached by
Archdeacon LArrN   , that it is excusable
to kill a landlord who will not absolutely
surrender to his tenant the " possession "
of his holding, and that, in general, it is
cowardly for .a hungry fellow not to
" stand aside " and shcbt his man. Cer-
tainly a sermon     against robbery or
murder would sound exceedingly fat and
" stupid " after such a lively, or rather
deadly, discourse. Unquestionably Father
LAFAN     is  an   interesting preacher,
though the fruits of his ministry will be
rather in the destruction of lives than
the salvation of souls. We have no doubt
that " excitable "' tenants, a. few years
in arrear, saving for a flight to America
or for a larger holding at home, sit under
the Archdeacon with great comfort and
edification. "Killing no murder" is to
some "noble-hearted  but excitable "
persons a most comfortable gospel. How
far it is. compatible with the creed of that
church which boasts Mr. LAFFAN for.an
archdeacon we leave to those who. are
better acquainted with its peculiarities.
It is said to have modified one of the com-.
mandments, and we should think that.it
will now  find it high time to alter
another. The omission of the negative
from the sixth commandment will atleast
remove an apparent inconsistency bet  Been
the Archdeacon's     r practice and-:creed
Either this, or he must start-:for .himsel
and found an independent: ali:forwihi  i
we have no doubt.Tipperr :i:ill   uppl
a sufficient number of disciples, ::
India a significant name.






158          TRE    GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE      OF  1845-1846.


     THE NEED      OF COMMON        SENSE.
(LEADING ARTICLE,, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1847.)


  Oh for just a little common sense in
our poor Irish kinsmen I We do not ask
for the powerful intellect of A sroTE,
or the mother wit of:SooBATES. We have
no wish to see them all at once a nation
of ADAM SMITHS or PAEYS. The smallest
modicum   of that sterling  commodity
which forms the chief stock in trade of
every village and almost every family in
England, will be a wonderful improve-
ment. Were the Irish-of course we take
them as a whole, and particularly as they
are represented by their leaders-only as
wise as an average English- and Scotch
farmer, or shopkeeper, or labourer, we
should shortly find them quite another
nation. The Act of Union was confessedly
incomplete without this, for the first con-
dition ought to have been that Ireland
should have a share in the joint stock of
British sagacity.  There should have
been free trades in prudence as well as
pigs, and while England opened her ports
to black cattle, Ireland should have re-
moved    the  prdhibition on practical
wisdom. The person who first invents
common sense in Ireland, and brings it
into general use, will rank above the
greatest discoverers. We would rather
teach the people there ten maxims of good
management than show them ten hundred
new planets. The O'CoNEsNLs, after all, are
right in saying that we have done nothing
for the country. We gave or lent them
last winter £10,000,000, but we did not
give them, for we could not give them,
one sixpen'orth of sense.
  Here the Irish members, they who
particularly profess to represent Ireland,
and enjoy the confidence of the country,
are . using their great opportunity to
send the Irish on as mere a wild goose
chase as ever wasimposed on the greenest
April fool. The poor Irish peasant is about
as destitute of capital as the peasants of
most other countries ;-but he possesses
good wind and limbs, has some stock of
ingenuity, and a warm  heart in  his
bosom, That poor fellow's only chance
is to be urged to depend on himself, to
set steadily to work, to make his own
fortune, or follow it should it happen to
present itself. But what is the O'CONNELL
receipt for making him a man ? He must
go back 47 years, and rip up the Act of
Union ; he must pine for the golden age


which commenced     in  the  repeal of
POYNING'S Act, and ended in the great
Irish rebellion ; he must extract .oracles
of independence from    PLUNKETT and
SAusxN, Lord CLZARS, Lord CASTLEREAGH,
and Mr. Plrr ; he must re-open the
apportionment of our national debt, esti-
mate comparative percentages of increase,
and declare a balance of £60,000,000, or,
while he is about it, £600,000,000 due
from England to Ireland ; he must set
down to the credit of Ireland all the war
taxes which England. has remitted from
her own shoulders, and had never im-
posed on Ireland at all ; he must compute
the corn and cattle which his father and
his grandfather sold to England for his
rent ; in a word, he must keep open and
before him some five hundred debtor and
creditor accounts between the Saxon and
the Celt, and make a point of doing nothing
till every score of the five hundred is
settled to his mind. The five hundred
bills of right are to have a daily hearing,
and no peasant must lie down in his hut.
till he has pronounced judgment in-his
own favour. No change of conditions or
distance of time is to bar the. recovery of
his claims. Nusllumtempus Celtico occurrit.
Every peasant must have a horse gratis,
because a hundred years since, by a then
obsolete Act, a Roman Catholic gentleman
might conceivably be dismounted.
  We have not alluded to a tenth or a
hundredth of the mare's nests which the
poor Celt is duped by his guides day by
day into finding. It would take a history
of the world to retrace them. They begin
with the deluge. The young O'CoNNELLS
indeed are beginning to. be rather shy. of
very remote and dubious antiquity. .the
House of Commons is. too matter of fact
an assembly for this mythical lore. Sir
ROBERT, who would find: no difficulty in
reducing mHANNIBAL to £ s.:d., would
soon tell you the value of 500 ancient
Kings. of Ireland in a convertible cur-
rency. Mr: FEAnous O'CoNNoR, however,
supplies the omission, and we have no
doubt that in doing so fills a real gap in
the   Irish  understanding. Under his
judicious auspices poor Pat has to travel
rather far. He is to learn, in order to
reject, the Charter of EDGAR, and to
analyze the bull of Pope ADRIAN to
HENRx II. He is to oriticise the rights.






ITHE   GREAT     IRISH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


of STRONGBOW    and the demeanour of
Prince JOHN at the mature age of twelve.
He is to bore through fifty strata of
borough corruption, through the rich
alluvial of PITT to the gravel of King
JAMES I. He is to learn the table of
political prices, from the days of the
GERALDINES to the creation of the Union
Peers. He is to solace his leisure hours
with recollections of CROMWELL, and calm
his perturbed spirits with the victories of
King WILLIAM. He is to number the
Irish missionaries of the seventh century,
and its learned doctors of the ninth. He
is to read his story in every tale of con-
quest, and his wrongs in every act of
oppression. He is to confine his know-
ledge to that which no longer exists, and
his ambition to that which cannot return.
His hopes are to be in the ruined castle,
and his affections in the grave. Whereas
the instinct of ambition is strong in all
men, and the law of progress is compelled
on human affairs, the Irishman alone is to
be always looking back to what time and
Heaven are taking away. He is to be
tempted backwards in the race by the
bitter apples of revenge. Heis taught to
retrieve the past by retaliating forgotten
injuries and reviving dead feuds. Back-
wards, backwards-downwards, down-
wards-deeper and yet deeper into the
mire and the clay I is the cry of his
blind guides. He hears the treacherous
appeal to his weakness, his indolence, and
his passions, and exhibits a consequent
degradation and misery unparalleled in
Europe, unaccountable in the children of,
SHEM.
   Now look to this island. How do we
 get on 1 Not that the Saxon is so full of
 Irish beef as a certain Archdeacon repre-
 sents. The great majority of the Saxon
 race know as little of this luxury as the
 Celt. But they are industrious, content,
 dutiful, and happy ;-at least as happy
 as may be in this world. But what, we
 ask again, is the secret of British success ?
 Looking forwards. There are but few
 men in this country, we had almost said
 in any class of life, who have not been
 wronged and injured-we might say,
 ruined-and all but annihilated over and
 over again, they and their fathers before


them. Time after time we have begun
life again, and rejoiced in a fresh start.
Who cannot remember, if not in his own
history, at least in that of his family, the
greatest vicissitudes ? We could point to
men who twenty years ago swept shops
and slept under counters, who were cast
on the world orphans or homeless, or
who, after a youth of toil, were stripped
of their all by dishonest partners or needy
friends, who were ruined by commercial'
crises and financial uncertainties, who
might have sat down and wept themselves
to death at the very sight of the misery
around them, but who speedily wiped the-
tears from their eyes and smoothed the
wrinkle fLom their brow, who found hope
at the bottom of their empty wallets, and
set to work as if the world was before
them, who have thus won from the future
a revenge on the past, and remember
what they have gone through only as a
foil to their present prosperity. Such is
the case,not merely in the classes in which
fortunes are lost and won, but even still
more so the great industrial staple of the
British population. Nineteen labourers,
or artisans, about, of every twenty, could
tell, if they chose, how they were buffeted:
in youth, how they were starved at home,
slaved by their first masters, insulted,
turned off, cast adrift, wanderers "on the
face of the earth. They could tell of
cottages from which they were ousted,
and commons of which they were de-
frauded; how often they had to begin
the world afresh, how often they were
penniless and friendless. But they did
not turn rebels and murderers. They did
not even sit down to make a catalogue of
their wrongs. They forgave what they
could, and forgot the rest. They buried
their grievances, and so put them out of
sight. They looked before them for em-
ployment, and above themfor aid. So they
set to work and built their nests again.
Such is the story of that Saxon whom we
are accustomed to hear so much beholden
to fortune, to position, and successful
ascendency. The secret of his success is
in himself, as it is in every one who
chooses to look forwards instead of sitting
down to brood upon the past.


. -


159






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


    THE   IRISH    PARTY    IN   PARLIAMENT.
(LEADING ARTICLE, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1847.)


  The residuum of the O'COrNNELL party
in the House is not a very formidable
affair. Possessing neither numbers nor
weight, and telling neither in doors nor
0ut, it is compelled to adapt its opera-
tions to its diminished resources, and no
longer agitates but obstructs. It ex-
hibits rather the doting obstinacy of an
ctogenarian litigant than the freshness
and vigour of which patriots are made.
'or our own part, we derive but a very
:sixed satisfaction from so lamentable a
decay. There ought to be an Irish party
n the House-we will not say as a stand-
ing condition of our political arrange-
ments, but at least in .existing circum-
astpes. That party ought to be strong
in numbers, in unity, and in moderation.
Whatever may be urged as to every
member representing not merely one
erough or county, one interest or class,
* :is. impossible but that men should.
:advocate with more spirit, information,
ad effect, the interests with which they
ire personally   acquainted.   Whatever
the conceivable hazard to the balance of
English party, we should rejoice to see-
the whole Irish representation united as
one man in the Furtherance of just, sound,
ad ::practical measures for the improve-
meo t of their country. We have never
maintained that the deeply involved, and
ineterately disordered interests of Ire-
land could safely be left to an English
Premier, Parliament, or people, and that
~Te representatives of the former had
nothing to do but to wait and agree.
:hey might wait long enough, and agree
tio their damage. But we have main-
tained, and do maintain, that the repre-
rntatives and people of England are en-
titled, both in wisdom and in equity, to
- very great deference at the hands of
Ireland, and should be allowed a great
negative authority in Irish affairs. We
kn;w the path of fortune and the rule of
right. Our customs and institutions are
the envy not only of other countries, but
of Ireland itself. The very     jealousy
which Ireland betrays at our greater
success is an argument why she should
give us credit for being able to advise
her, and why she should respect our
opinion in questions of social improve-
ment. The data of legislation, however,
the facts of the case, and also the sug-


gestions, may well be expected to proceed
from the Irish representatives.
   There exist, then, the occasion   and
 the opportunities for a good Irish party,
 which shall really be at the head of Irish
 progress. and command the entire sym-
 pathy and respect of the whole British
 people. If no such party is in being, if
 what party there is drags on a precarious
 and attenuated existence, and ispositively
 odious and contemptible to the public
 opinion of this island, that is not he
 fault of England or the fault of oppor-
 tunity. It is the fault of that party
 which has lost and degraded itself by con-
 tinual exhibitions of rashness and vio-
 lence, of passion and caprice, and sym-
 pathy with crime, and antipathy to order
 and right. But it is not only the moral
 effect of these exhibitions, and the im-
 pressions they leave on the feelings of the
 public. There is also a sound argumen-
 tative conclusion in the matter.   The
 people of England see not merely with
 horror and disgust, but with a sober
 apprehension of danger, that the leaders
 of Irish opinion, and the selected cham-
 pions of the popular hierarchy, throw the
 veil over crime and ask licence for out-
 rage. They see that the mercies of this
 party are reserved for the assassin, and
 its severity for the victim. No sooner
 does a landlorl or a parson bite the dust.
 of the .highway than immediately a
 rigorous inquisition is held over his life
 and deserts. Mr-oss-and RHADAMA NTIIUS
 sit in St. Stephen's and scrutinize his
 words and his deeds. With these iron
 judges a life of patriotic intentions and
 laborious service is of no avail. The
 agrarian code guides the decision. It is
 true that the unfortunate deceased spent
 thousands in emnploymentand emigration;
 it is true that he- brought mountains
 under the plough, and doubled or tripled
 the produce of the land he inherited from
 his fathers ; but he displaced the intruder
 and the drone, who would neither pay
 rent, nor till his land, nor give it up to
 those who would. The occasion is duly
 amplified by the exparte statements of
 his murderers and their friends. So his
 doom is pronounced. MINos and RHADA-
 MANTHUS declare his life justly forfeited,
 his memory attainted, and his butchers
acquitted. Such are the verdicts which


C- C ____~___


160






THE GREAT IRISH    FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


are nightly heard with just indignation
in the British House of Commons. Eng-
land abhors the bloody tribunal, and
leaves CATILINE and     CETHEGTUS in a
minority which counts scarcely one to
twenty honest men.
  England, as Mr. M. O'CONNELL says,
without intending to eulogize, feels a sin-
cere and substantial sympathy with distress
and oppression in every part of the world.
She ransomed the African. Twice within
our age she has spent her treasures and
her blood for the deliverance of the
Spanish   Peninsula.   She  maintains a
wordy but generous protest in behalf of
the Pole. On her own soil poverty has
the first lien on the land. The pauper
is maintained though the landlord takes
nothing. Mr.     M.   O'CONNELL    taunts
England with a compassion andgenerosity
from the benefit of which Ireland alone
is excluded. Does not England feel for
Ireland ? What mean the £10,000,000 ?
What mean the £700,000 raised byprivate
hands ? Was it from any sordid feeling
for the rights of property that all England
combined to thrust a good Poor Law on
the Irish proprietor ? We declare our
belief that in all history, and in all the
world, there is no public fact that so
touches and afflicts the Englishman as the
melancholy condition of his Irish fellow-
subjects. England would undergo any
labour or cost, and almost any risk, to
rescue Ireland from its slough of despond.
Once show the way and prove the sound-
ness of the plan, and England will see it
fully tried. We may confidently appeal
to what we ourselves have done for Ire-
land. We have risked the goodwill of the
whole English aristocracy by the zeal and
perseverance with which we urged the
duties of property. We laboured that
the absentee should be a byword and a
reproach, a very outcast from English
society. We risked our credit for truth
by retailing with strong comments Irish
narratives of ejectments and clearance,
extermination and death. We were ready
to support the Ministers in any measures
required for the famine, however arduous
and costly. Nay, to go further back,
the O'COONELLS may know by domestic
tradition that while we kept no terms
with Repeal, or with the Liberator him-
self, so long as: he was marshalling mil-
lions on the old battlefields of the Saxon
and Celt, we nevertheless always received
from his hands, with favour and indul-
gence, any project whatever that intended
the substantial good, not the further divi--
sion and exasperation of the people.


  Then what now makes the gap ? Why
do the O'CONNELLS look round and see the
ancients of the Liberal cause, men not
given to change, the representatives of
large, popular constituencies, men whose
pulse beats with the pulse of the people-
all gravely resolved to establish first of
all the reign of law and order ? Why do
a host of great men whose lives, whose
goodness and integrity are before all the
world, express the gravest reprobation of
the course which the Irish party thinks
fit to adopt ? These real patriots see that
there is no hope whatever for Ireland
till its long-standing issue of blood shall
be stanched. In vain shall the landlord
be goaded to his duties, when the slugs
of the assassin threaten his path. Capital
is a sensitive thing, for it deposits many
hostages wherever it settles. It shrinks
instinctively from the soil on which dis-
putes are settled with the rifle, where
combination is familiar with the price of
blood, and where as soon as speculation,
after long and tedious promise, is matur-
ing its fruit, outrage stalks in and flings
the crop to the ground. Nor can we
hope to see the reign of terror at an end
so long as the flame is openly or in-
sidiously fanned from the altar, or the plat-
form, or the walls of Parliament itself.
Were the owners of £10,000,000 on the
point of carrying their wealth into Ireland,
to buy estates, to drain bogs, to build
factories, one such speech as LAFFAN'S,
and one such incident as the slaughter of
Major MAHoN      would scare away the
whole timid tribe. Long and bitter ex-
perience has taught the Liberals and the
democracy of England, sorely against their
will, that no plans of emancipation or
liberation whatever, no screw applied to
the landowner, no extrication from the
toils of the law, no levelling of religions
or assimilation of races, will be more
than " a mockery, a delusion, and a
snare," until the blunderbuss is rusted
and broken, until the Celt learns from
the Saxon his horror of blood, until
priests   become   meek    and  agitators
cautious,-until the population acquires
either   goodness   enough, or    wisdom
enough, or courage enough, to refuse all
sympathy to the assassin.
   Is there personal feeling, or is there hos-
 tile nationality between Great Britain
 and Ireland ? On the contrary, nothing
 is heard or read with more pleasure in
 this country that any testimony to the
 general merits of Irish classes or indivi-
 duals. The House of Commons has re
 cently rejoiced to be informed, on goo(


0


161






THE GREAT IRISH FAMTNE OF 1845-1846.


authority, that the  Roman      Catholic
bishops and clergy of that country have
rendered great assistance to the officers
of the Government in the difficult admi-
nistration of the late relief measures. The
House of Commons does not believe that
all the counties of Ireland are as Ros-
common or Tipperary, that all the arch-
i bishops are M'HALES, all her bishops
SO'HIGGINs's, and all her priests, de-
nouncers. Last night supplied an instance
of British generosity and candour which
should prove to the Irish how little pre-
judice has to do with our measures. Dr.
RYAN, the Roman Catholic Bishop at
Limerick, in the course of a      charge
delivered some weeks since, took a review
of all classes, and reproved them in turn.
With a very intelligible and excusable,
though somewhat improper, generality,
he said, unreservedly of all the higher
'Classes, that they " were  forgetful of
:their Christian obligations-they treated
the poor like cattle-they were cold and


callous to the voice of humanity, dead
to all feelings of compassion, untouched
by the cries of famine, the wailings of
hunger, the lamentations of women and
children, and the terrible condition of the
poor man ; they exercised   over their
victims a system of heartless cruelty,
calculated to bring down vengeance from
Heaven upon them." No sooner, how-
ever, had this been cited againsthisLord-
ship, than the chivalry of the House was
stirred up to give the interpretation all
the benefit of the context and of the
writer's  known  virtues.  One  after
another, half-a-dozen members connected
with Ireland rose up to defend Dr. RYAN
from the construction  which  it was
natural to put on those words. If men
will only live and preach as Dr. RYAN is
said to do, they will not find their fair
names hanging on this or thatexaggerated
expression. England is able to appreciate
a tenor of excellence, and to do justice to
it on a public appeal.


  THE VALUE OF AN IRISH             POOR LAW.
(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1847.)


Mr. H. GRATTAN has proved himself on
at least one occasion since the meeting
of Parliament a sensible and moderate
man. It is on that account we are con-
cerned he should attempt to damage the
character and operation of the present
Irish Poor   Law, and     encourage  his
countrymen in their extravagant demands
on the Imperial Treasury. That law, as it
now stands, is a step of incalculable im-
portance ; so much so that, unless we
are mistaken, it will hereafter be thought
to compensate for the horrors of " the
Great Irish Famine."   It has a sufficient
resemblance to our own to promise similar
results. Putting imperfections out of
the question, and admitting that the Irish
as well as the English Poor Law might be
better, we still say that both are infinitely
better than the barbarous and inhuman
denial of all public charity which Ireland
till lately exhibited. It is a regular
system, and insures some beneficial results
besides the mere relief of distress. Cer-
tainly nothing has contributed so much to
the present state of English industrial
society as our Poor Law ; and if Ireland
is ever to be made like England, that will
be one of the means.
  One obvious merit of a compulsory and


effective system of charity is that it
makes up     for absenteeism, and    for
the moral defects and disabled finances
of individuals.  As a general rule, land-
lordism  is   absenteeism.  Throughout
the whole of these islands the instances
in which landlords reside are the excep-
tions to the general fact. The owner of
the parish seldom comes near it. He
resides at his seat twenty or two hundred
miles off, and is to be found either in
town, or at Brighton, or abroad, or in
the Highlands, or anywhere but on the
soil whence his income is derived. Even
if he did or could reside, the example of
Ireland warns us that he might witness
starvation two hundred yards from his
stables or his kennels, while his horses
and dogs were consuming good Christian
food. In England, however, the Poor
Law comes in to set all this right. Out
of every thousand pounds that would
otherwise go to the landlord, and never
be heard of again, the overseer lays an
embargo on     one  hundred, or three
hundred, or, if necessary, more for the
poor. Hence the burden of poverty does
not fall exclusively on the resident and
the kind. The main expense is equally
shared by the absentee, the pitiless, and


162






[TH1    GBREAT    IRISH    FAMINE      OF   1845-1846.


the spendthrift. Were the. landlord left
to himself he would, perhaps, send a
£5-note in reply to the   importunate
demands of the clergyman, and expect to
see his name figure in the county paper
in consequence. Instead of £5, however,
he pays £100, and that long before he
receives himself one sixpence of his rent.
Whatever the landlord may think fit to
give is in addition. One thing, too, is
very clear-the larger the poor's-rate the
more is got out of the absentee. We
have no wish to see him or any man
plundered in the name of charity ; but if
the poor happen to be numerous, and there
are very large demands, then a good Poor
Law is the only engine that can effectually
reach him.
   It was, then, a singular perversity of
 reasoning that led Mr. GRATTA to assign
 absenteeism as an argument against a
 good poor's-rate.  We could     scarcely
 believe our eyes when we saw it stated so
 broadly as he put it at the last sitting of
 the House :-
   " The comparison between the burden
 of the poor-rate in England and Ireland
 was scarcely fair, considering that so
 much money was carried out of Ireland by
 the absentee landlords in this country.
 If they sent back the money taken away
 by the rich proprietors, the Irish would
 be as able to    pay poor-rates as the
 English were ; but, after taking away the
 rich proprietor, and exhausting the poor
 proprietor who remained, it was rather un-
 fair to taunt Ireland with paying only 8d.
 in the pound, while England paid 1s. 7d.
 If they did not take care of the operation
 of the out-door relief clause in the Poor
 Law Bill, the Irish resident proprietors
 would be brought to poverty and dis-
 tress, and  the result would   be  that
 they  would   come over here     as the
 French  refugees did after the revolu-
 tion, and we should have to give them a
 shilling a day to maintain them."
 Now, in what other way can we " send
 back the money " taken away by' the rich
 proprietors so effectually as by a good
 Poor Law ? The Irish orators tell us
 that £6,000,000, or even £8,000,000, are
 annually drained from Ireland in the
 shape of rent.   We suspect that they
 possess very few data for that estimate,
 ,nd speak very much at random. Taking
 the lower sum, however, we have half the
 rateable value of Ireland carried out of
sit, as Mr. G RATTAN says, by the absentee
landlords, who, however, do not reside by
any means exclusively in England, but are
also to be found in shoals at Paris, at


Rome, and elsewhere. Mr. GRATTAN is
as indignant as we can be at the spec-
tacle, and cries out, "' Send us back their
money." We do send it back. How ? In
a poor's-rate.  The collector, whatever
his Irish title may be, stops the money at
the agent's gate, and takes out of the bag
the poor man's pence. It is idle, then, to
urge in the same breath that Ireland
cannot maintain its own poor, because its
funds are insufficient, and yet that the
absentee sacks six or eightnmillions. Here
is a plan for taking half that -oney, -or
rather half that value of Irish produce,
and detaining it for the poor. Yet we
are told that an Irish Poor Law is only
feeding a hungry dog with a joint of his
own tail.   A moiety of £6,000,000 is
something more than the joint of a dog's
tail, and, in the - present instance, it has
already been detached from the absentee,
and a Poor Law reunites it to the hungry
beast. Or, rather, when the absentee has
the tail of his prey already between his
teeth, we compel him to a partial sur-
render of the mouthful.
  But, says Mr. GIATTAN, the Irish
resident .proprietors will be brought to
poverty and distress by this -law. How ?
By a law which compels the absentee to
share with the .resident the cost of
humanity ? The grievance, however, is
in the amount.    Hitherto, during   the
very few years there has been a Poor Law
at all, Ireland has usually paid about 8d.
in the pound, while England has paid
is. 7d.   We are taking Mr. GRATTAN
figures. Is it, then, an intolerable -hard-
ship to ruin a man,--to bring him to the
dogs,-to drive him into banishment, and
make him a pauper, if we exact from
him is. 7d. in the pound on his rental ?
Why, there's 18s. 5d. left, which is no
despicable change out of a sovereign. But
what if other rates and charges ran the
drawback up to 5s. in the pound, then
15s. in the pound on the gross rental is
very fair net income. But Mr. DEERING'S
answer fully meets the complaint, and is
perfectly true :-
   " With reference to the remarks which
had been made respecting the different
ratings for the poor in England and Ire-
land, he begged to -say that in the 27
parishes which constituted the borough
he represented (Aylesbury) the average
poor-rate was 6s. in the pound. -(Hear,
hear.) He was quite certain it wasas
high as 6s. 6d. in his own parish. When
the Irish gentlemen were rated to that
extent, it would be time enough for
them to come over and ask his con-
                                 L2


163






THE GREAT IRISH .FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


stituents to contribute to their relief.
(Hear.)"
  In other words, first try the Poor Law.
See what it will do. Levy the same rates
that we do in this country. Make all the
recipients who can work, work for their
money. When you have done your best,
then let us see what more is wanting, and
wherein the law is defective. It will then
be time to see what supplementary mea-


sures may be required. But so long as
the poor's-rate is only a third or a quarter
of what is paid with tolerable cheerfulness
in this country, it is simply ridiculous for
the Irish proprietor to cry out, " Oh,
murder ! I'm ruined !" We do not give
ourselves up for lost simply because the
overseer comes upon us for a second nine-
penny rate in the year.


   AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION              IN IRELAND.
(LETTER TO THE EDITOR, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1847.)


  Sir,-The success which has attended
-Lord Clarendon's Practical Instructors in
HIusbandry is gratifying in the extreme;it is,
in fact, the only cheering prospect which I
have yet seen in the disastrous history of
this country,and which, if properly followed
up, might lead   to the most important
consequences.   Amid   all the revolting
accounts that reach you from this country,
it is satisfactory to see one movement
prospering   in the right direction, and
small though this effort may appear at
first, yet I trust I shall see it officially re-
cognized, and become one of the pre-
manent institutions of the land.
   It appears that there are now 10 of
 these practical instructors engaged in the
 remote and helpless districts of the south
 and west of Ireland. Where the locality
 evidently could not contribute to the ex-
 pense, their services are free, and where
 the proprietors of any particular district
 subscribed one half for the purpose, the
 iCouncil of the Royal Agricultural Society
 ontribhted the other half, and provided
 a competent person to act as Instructor.
 By these means the interest and co-opera-
 tion of the locality have' been secured,
 and active and efficient men established
 under the control and direction of head-
 quarbers.  The cordial reception which
 these  men have almost invariably re-
 ceived, is strong evidence of their utility
 and of the demand for their exertions,
 and I refer with pleasure to their reports,
 by which it appears that they have been
 everywhere well received by the Roman
 Catholic clergy, who gave them every co-
 operation and assistance. This is deci-
 dedly the most important feature in the
 movement, and when it is considered that
 this is the first time in which practical
 instruction has been tried among the
 remedies for the social evils of Ireland, it


is gratifying that the attempt should be
so favourably received and promise to be
so successful.
  There is certain executive machinery
in Ireland, that, if judiciously combined
with voluntary and individual exertions,
might be productive of the happiest re-
sults ; but, unfortunately, the efforts of
Government have been hitherto conducted
with a reckless indifference to the real
wants and resources of the country. It is
really melancholy to look back upon the
doings of the last two years, and to com-
pare the profitless expenditure of public
money, labour, and     time, with   what
might have been done if the same had
been properly and judiciously directed.
The sensible and thinking portion of the
community    foresaw  all this, and pro-
tested against it, but, unfortunately, their
iwarnings, Cassandra-like, were neglected,
and passed unheeded by, so that the old
proverb of " Quicquid delirant Reges,
plectuntur Achivi" still prevails, and
whatever follies our rulers perpetrated
the poor Irish were sure to suffer for them.
Thanks, however, to the wisdom, judg-
ment, and energy of our present viceroy,
there is some chance now that these
gigantic errors will be henceforth avoided.
Of an age and experience to qualify him
for public business, he combines the most
active exertions with a natural disposi-
tionto do what is right, and the public
feel confident that no more of these dis-
astrous blunders will be inflicted on them,
from which they and the whole united
community are now suffering so severely.
With that foresight     and intelligence
which marks the statesman, Lord Claren-,
don saw that the only way to rescue the
depressed and struggling farmers of Ire-
land from ruin was to stimulate and to
instruct them, to rouse them to exertion


.._ r _..   --


164






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


at the present critical moment, and by
one combined effort to awaken them to a
sense of their self-dependence. He saw
that to persevere in a system of elee-
mosynary relief or badly managed public
works, would only perpetuate the evil,
and end in the total demoralization of the
country ; and that the only hope was to
appeal to the people themselves, and, by
convincing their understandings, to force
them to exertion. In that attempt the
efforts of the noble lord have fortunately
been attended with unexpected success.
  Ten active and intelligent men are now
employed in so many districts of the
south and west of Ireland in stimulating
and instructing the farming classes ; and,
small though the number may appear at
first, compared to the wants and resources
of the country, yet it is incredible to con-
ceive the practical and beneficial effects
that have been already produced by their
exertions.   These men furnish reports
weekly to the council of the    central
society,and they form,without any doubt,
the most accurate and interesting account
of the actual state of things in the titral
districts at present. Their instructions
are to go about from place to place, and
point out to the farmers the great advan-
tage to be derived from digging and turn-
ing their land, and exposing it to the
effect of frost during winter; they also
point out to them that they can no longer
rely for subsistence upon the cultivation
of potatoes and grain alone, but must
seek, by more varied culture, to supply
those wants which are now become so
emergent ; and they instruct them in the
cultivation of those vegetables and green
crops which have hitherto been totally
unknown in these neglected districts.
   It is really gratifying,though painful,to
 read the accounts these men give of the
 state of the small farms in the west of
 Ireland, and the efforts they   make to
 follow their instructions ; though almost
 starving at the present early season, and
 depending in many cases on a scanty
 supply of roots and vegetables for food,
 they still obey the Qall, and turn with
 eagerness to cultivate the land which
 .they never thought of touching so early
 before. The instructors also state, that,
 on   their returning   to any particular
 locality  which   they   had   previously
 visited, they saw evident symptoms of
 the parties having profited by their
 advice, and that the land appeared abso-
 lutely red from being turned up, which
 formerly was never touched until spring
 began. To those acquainted with hus-


bandry the importance of this process
must be manifest, and I am happy to hear
that it is the intention of the Council
to retain these men during the winter
months, in order that they may be pre-
pared to impart additional instructions to
the same parties in cultivating their lands
when spring approaches.
  Here, then, is a system  quietly and
substantially  established  that involves
the greatest principle connected with the
management of Ireland - namely, the
practical  instruction  of the farming
classes, and the successful effort to stimu-
late them to exertion. The progress, how-
ever, of this movement will depend en-
tirely upon the funds that will be avail-
ble for the purpose, and I know of no pro-
ject as yet started that so well deserves
the confidence and support of the charit-
able and philanthropic. While thousands
are spent with questionable benefit in
feeding the idle, from which no return is
received, a few thousands may be now
judiciously applied, at this critical junc-
ture, in instructing these same people,
and rousing them to exertion. A few
benevolent individuals have,hitherto con-
tributed most liberally, but the fund at
the disposal of the Council is totally in-
sufficient to produce any great or bene-
ficial effect, as 50 at least of these instruc-
tors would be required before spring to
effect any substantial impression upon the
helpless and neglected outcasts they have
to deal with.
   I trust sincerely, therefore, that the
 noble efforts of Lord Clarendon will be
 supported, as they deserve, both by the
 State and by voluntary contributions;
 that the importance of the movement will
 be fully recognized   and hailed as the
 dawn of happier days for Ireland ; that
 while every constitutional effort shall be
 made to punish the wicked and coerce the
 strong, the real causes of our social evils
 shall not be lost sight of, and every exer-
 tion made to remedy and relieve them.
 Already a movement has been made from
 the boards of different Poor Law Unions
 who have felt the benefits of the system,
 to extend its advantages and to make
 them permanent; and numerous memo-
 rials are being presented to his Ex-
 cellency from these bodies, calling on
 him to follow up his views as the prac-
 tical instructor of the Irish peasantry,
 It is to be hoped, therefore, that these
 appeals will be attended to, and that
 justice will be tempered with instruction;
 for, it is the general opinion, that if the;
 vindication of the law be. not followed b


165






THE GREAT IRIsf .FAMINE OF 1845-184.


a corresponding amelioration in the social
and domestic condition of the people, the
same endless state of coercion and resist-
ance will be perpetuated which has dis-
graced the annals of this country for ages
back.   An opportunity now    occurs of


taking advantage of the turn of the tide,
which now appears to be at its lowest
ebb, and which if properly directed might
still lead onward to comparative pros-
perity and improvement.
  Dublin, Dec. 19.                  B.


          AGRICULTURE       IN IRELAND.
(LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1847.)


   The practical instructors in agriculture
 who, at the suggestion of Lord CLARENDON
 were recently appointed to traverse cer-
 tain districts of Ireland have  already
 commenced their task. We publish to-day
 a letter from a gentleman who has every
 means of acquainting himself with the
 result of these operations, and, as far as
 his report goes, it is good. There has
been, no doubt, a good deal of burly con-
tempt displayed in certain districts for
these emissaries of civilization. PLUTUs
was looked for, and TRIPTOLEMUS is ill-
received. We have often thought it a
pity that for their own sakes Irishmen
could not be deluded like the old man's
sons in the fable.
   The story goes that a certain man, a
 landed proprietor, was blessed with a fine
 family of sons. His estate was so large
 that it sufficed for the wants of the family
 during his children's infancy that but a
 slender portion of it should be taken into
 cultivation. What was enough for one
 family, however, was not enough     for
 twelve. The old man got uneasy about
 the future fate of his sons. They were
 good-humoured, idle, jolly fellows-more
 constant attendants at wakes and merry-
 ,makings than at the plough's tail. If
 any one of them ever gave the future a
 thought, it was but to repose on the con-
 viction that Fortune would  stand his
 friend.  One idea, singularly   enough,
 was common to them      all-that when
 matters came to the worst, and the black
 ox had put his hoof upon the foot of any
 one of them, he would be relieved from
 his difficulties by the discovery of a pot
 of gold. Upon this hint the .old man on
 his death-bed acted. The fable is too
 well known for us to transcribe it at
 length. The dying father told the young
 men who surrounded his bed-side, that
 with his own hands he had dug a hole in
 a particular spot on the estate, and had
 .deposited in it a pot containing the whole
 hffis personal property converted into


bullion for the occasion. That which
reason could not accomplish was effected
by imagination. Their father gone, the
young men dug and they delved, they
ploughed and they harrowed. They found
no direct treasure, but they obtained
what was more to the purpose-white
crops and green crops, and mangold-
wurzel and swedes in great abundance.
Such was the realization of the old man's
promise. Not one, but each of his sons
discovered the treasure, and each appro-
priated to his own particular use the pot
of gold.
  Now, could we persuade the great bulk
of Irishmen that in some one province of
their island there lies buried a Bill which
has received the full assent of Queen,
Lords, and Commons, and which, among
other things, provides that there shall be
granted to Ireland ten millions sterling
per annum, for an indefinite period, with
a large percentage to the fortunate finder,
we should convert them at once into the
most industrious nation on the surfac3 of
thelearth. The landlord and the conacrer,
the priest and the Thug, would shoulder
the spade in concert, and the soil of the
country be turned up as the Irish soil.
never was before. The willing labourers
would not, indeed, light upon the Bill,
but they would find their country teem-
ing with the fruits of the earth in due
season, and soon be ready to acknowledge
that the results of steady industry are
better than a Godsend or a wind-fall.
Lord CLARENDON has done the best he can
to persuade the citizens of his Celtic
Barataria to set themselves honestly to
work in the only way which promises
anything like success. As is well observed
by our correspondent, the LoIn-LE-
TENANT has seen that the only way to
save the struggling farmers of Ireland
from ruin is to rouse them to exertion at
the crisis of their fate. It is no golden
shower that would avail them  in their
need, even if the clouds which yield such


__ __~_ __


166






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


rain had not long since been drained of
their supplies. What would be the result
to the people themselves if the govern-
ment were to persevere in a system of
almsgiving and public works, it would be
easy to foretell. The moneys thus dis-
bursed would be charged upon the unions,
and every shilling of property in Ireland
rateable to the poor-rate would become
the subject of confiscation. We would,
then, for their own sakes, impress upon
such of the Irish public as have anything
to lose by taxation the fearful responsi-
bility they incur when they throw diffi-
culties in the way of any scheme to rouse
the farmers to exertion. The people of
the three kingdoms will suffer in the end,
that is very true, but the first victims will
be the very men who are an impediment
to improvement. The factious and dis-
contented in Ireland cannot reach the
public in general but through the sides of
their own countrymen.
   There have been also forwarded to us
reports from the practical instructors in
husbandry,which, in themselves, perhaps,
convey the fairest idea of the state of the
west of Ireland, as far as agriculture is
concerned.  We     take   two  or three
instances at random. Mr.THoMAs MARTIN
was appointed to visit the barony of
Erris, in Mayo. He thus describes part
of his progress through the district. On
the 20th of November he assembled some
of Sir RICHARD O'DONINELL'S tenants, and
instructed them in green-cropping and
particularly turnips. We would call the
attention of those who assert that no
practical benefit is to be derived from
the mission of these instructors to the
next fact recorded by Mr. MARTIN. He
describes himself as pointing out to his
audience a field of turnips sown broadcast
on ridges which was completely lost for
want of proper cultivation. They told
him they knew no better. They had never
tried to grow turnips before. Is Lord
CIARE DON, then, so far wrong in the
estimate he formed of the ignorance of
the people in agricultural matters ? Mr.
MARTIN describes himself as passing the
day after   he had    indoctrinated this
audience   with the theory of turnips
through a large tract of waste land which
might be easily reclaimed. "It has gravel
banks so convenient," he writes, " that
boys with    wheelbarrows could easily


gravel ten perches a day." Nothing is
done-the    Irish  Agitator would tell
you there is a want of capital. The
gravel and the "boys," however, are
there. Mr. Mr. WALS another of these in-
structors, gives us a very sad account of
the condition to which the poor people'
are reduced in the neighbourhood of Kil-
rush,in Clare. He saw crowds of labourers
and small landowners with their children
waiting for admission to the workhouse,
although so backward was the agriculture
of the country that they might well have
been employed. When it is asserted that;
the want of capital alone, and not the'
want of skill, is the cause of the estrange--
ment between the people and the soil, we
find from these reports that the facts are!
not so. The peasantry and small farmers
frankly confess their ignorance of the pro-
cesses of agriculture, and show themselves
anxious for improvement. This may bey
said to be the general spirit of the reports.
we have received from      Mayo, S1igo,
Connemara, Clare, Kerry, and Donegal.
To their honour be it spoken, the Roman;
Catholic clergy have in general shown
themselves ready to give every assistance!
in their power to Lord CLARENDON'S
emissaries. Lord SLIGO has adopted an
opposite course, and gives as his reason,
his strong conviction that the mission of,
these instructors will not be attended
with any practical benefit to the people.
   We have repeated it over and overi
again, we look for no miracles from this
measure of the LORD-LIEUTENANT. We
look for no miracles from any measurea
that can be devised for Ireland. Her ad-
vancement in civilization must be thei
slow growth of years, the development ofz
a germ that already exists. You cannoti
import civilization as you would guano.;
The Czar PETER tried the experiment in
Russia, and the result of his labours-as
DIDEROT aptly said-was the production?
of a fruit which was rotten before it was;
ripe. So it is in Ireland. The advance-
ment of her population must be from the;
people and of the people. It must come'
from  below, not from   above. It must
be the result of industry - ceaseless,!
effective, earnest industry. In a quarter
of a century, such a course of conduct
would reclaim the country. Nothing else
will, not even the occasional finding of a
pot of gold.


167






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


REMEDIAL MEASURES FOR IRISH DISTRESS.


  Mr. T. C. Foster, Q.C., who was in-
structed, in 1845, as The Times' Commis-
sioner, to investigate the condition of the
people of Ireland, at the conclusion of
his inquiries expressed his views of pos-
sible remedial measures in the following
letter :
   " I have just finisheda careful examina-
tion of the numerous letters which I have
written to you from Ireland, having
entered on that examination anxious to
rerresh my memory with the impressions
which those letters contained, prompted
by each locality from which they were
written. I assure you that I rise from
the task depressed by the almost unvary-
ing evidence which they bear of neglected
capabilities, of want of energy, enter-
prise, and industry-of misery and degra-
dation. To grapple with these monster
:evils is, indeed, a terrible task ; but
these are the evils with which the Govern-
anent must grapple if it hopes to see Ire-
land no longer a stumbling-block and a
difficulty-alike the weakness and the dis-
grace of the empire.
   ' Want    of employment is the first
 superficial want which presents itself. It
 is, however, a want which is more imagi-
 nary than real. Employment abounds ;
 but there is the want of energy and the
 'want of industry to set about finding em-
 ployment. Want of capital to give em-
 ployment is the first cry with which you
 are met. But it is enterprise and industry
 which creates capital. Capital is wealth
 accumulated; and wealth can increase
 only in proportion as the produce of the
 labour of the community is greater than
 its consumption. Labour is the first price
 --the original purchase-money which was
 paid for all things. 'Labour is the
 source of all wealth.' It is, then, to the
 want of industry that we must attribute
 the want of capital. But the statesman
 will ask, almost in despair, ' How   can
 you make a nation industrious which is
 steeped in apathy and laziness ?' It is
 the business of a statesman to try-and
 the task is worthy of a statesman.
   " It is at once conceeded  that the
 Government cannot find employment for
 a nation. Employment for the mass of
 the people must spring from the people.
 That which    the Government can do
 only, is to aid the people, to stimulate
 them, to lead them, to protect them   in
 finding employment. The question, then,


arises, how are these things to be done I
I know the appearance of egotism-the
seeming presumption-of writing to you
what may be done to reclaim a people.
There are quacks in abundance, each
with his nostrum ; I may be esteemed
a quack. After, however, having been
all over Ireland-after having written on
every subject which is talked of in it,
and prepared laborious details on every
subject-after having had no common
advantages, having always had the oppor-
tunity of mixing with the best informed
society in each town     and county, I
humbly submit to you the opinions which
I have formed. I believe them     to be
well-founded-test them ; if you  find
them worthless, reject them.
   " The want of industry of the mass of
the people is but partly their fault. It
is partly owing to their natural disposi-
tion, and partly to their want of know-
ledge, and the want of opportunity of
being industrious. Again, the want of
knowledge and the want of opportuni-
ties of being industrious are faults which
must be laid at the door of the middle
and upper classes. It is for them to
guide and teach those below them, and
'find them the opportunities of industry.
Strictly speaking, there is hardly what
can be termed a ' middle class ' in the
country, looking at it as a whole. The
middle class man in England is the most
useful member of society ; along with
considerable physical activity and exer-
tion, he is perpetually striving with all
the energies of his mind to accomplish
some useful object, which gives employ-
ment and creates wealth. He is either
a merchant, a manufacturer, a farmer, or
a shopkeeper. Each gives his energies
and his skill to make the business in
which he is engaged succeed. Excepting
parts of the north of Ireland, and two or
three of the principal towns, the middle
class man in Ireland is what is termed a
' middleman '-a perfectly useless drone,
apeing the manners and habits of the
class above him, living on a profit-rent
which he neither uses skill nor exertion
to enable his wretched under-tenants to
realize. His superior knowledge never
directs them. He is of no use in society.
On the upper class man, then, falls the
duty of teaching the mass and finding
them opportunities of industry. For the
most part the upper classes almost en-


168






THE GREAT IRTSH EFAMINE OF 1845-1846.


tirely neglect both these duties.   And
this fault is partly to be attributed to
their negligence, partly to their embar-
rassments, and partly to that unhappily
prevailing system of .intimidation which
drives them  out of the country. How-
ever well disposed, the mere nominal
owner of an estate has not the power to
promote improvements which give oppor-
tunities of industry, and without the
opportunities of industry the people can-
not learn to be industrious. However
able and well-disposed, the man who is
placed in apprehension of his life will
leave to agents the duties of his position,
and the door for neglect and abuse is at
once opened ; and neglect and abuse but
aggravate the evils which prevail.
   " What measures, then, would such a
 state of society dictate to a statesman ?
 Remember that individual likings and pre-
 judices,-nay, that individual interests,
 must give way to the interests of the
 nation. We cannot expect improvement
 to spring from the mass-from the com-
 mon people ; not only is this true of all
 nations, but in Ireland it is contrary to
 the national character for the mass of
 themselves to improve. They are con-
 tented with potatoes. Remedial measures
 must, then, be directed to the middle and
 upper classes-must be fitted to meet
 their peculiar relations and positions,
 under which now the opportunities of
 knowledge and employment cannot arise
 -for from the middle and upper classes
 must improvement spring.
   " Of what use is the' middleman ? ' If
 he usurp the place of landlord, while in
 reality he is not landlord, give reality to
 his position; compel him to become the
 landlord, or to give up his position. If
 he take the place of an extortioner, and
 as an idle drone consumes the surplus
 produce-the wealth and capital of the
 community-extinguish him ; put an end
 by law to his abilitytocontinue to do so. In
 fact,create a valuable middle class bypr6-
 hibiting absolutely all subletting and thus
 compel the middleman either to purchase
 the fee, or become, as in England, a work-
 ing farmer of the lands which he holds,
 finding capital and intelligence and skill
 to employ and direct labour on his lands.
 What would be thought in Suffolk, for in-
 stance, of any man who should go there
 and take a dozen farms, as Mr. O'Connell
 does in Kerry, and sublet them to small
 tenants at three times the rent which he
 himself paid, he doing nothing but receive
 the rents ? It woild not be borne ; but,
 if borne, it would soon make Suffolk what


the farms of Mr. O'Connell are now--
an abode of wretchedness and neglect.
It is true that the Government can-
not well compel the negligent among the
upper class to attend to the duties of
their position by direct means ; but they
may by indirect means. Whatever tends
to raise the tone, the expectations of
society will compel the negligent among
the upper class to meet those expecta-
tions. Such utter neglect of all the duties
of a landlord, such contrivances to insure
rent, and such unscrupulous means as are
resorted to to realize it, as are sometimes
met with in Ireland, society would not bear
in England. For instance, it is common
in almost all parts of Ireland to let lands
in partnership. In the north and west
this is called ' rundale,' or ' common,'
and the tenants occupy in common, and, of
course, the best tenant will take care not
to do more than the worst, as he would
only be working for the benefit of others
and not for himself. If he drain and
make a piece of land rich for himself one
year, another of the rundale tenants gets
it in rotation the next year, and reaps the
benefit of his labour. This would not be
endured in England; but it arose from a
landlord's contrivance to make a whole
batch of tenants jointly liable for each
individual's rent. In Tipperary the same
system   is extensively pursued, under
the name    of ' partnership ' holdings.
There the tenants do not hold in com-
mon, but divide their holdings. Half a
dozen tenants will take a tract of land,
and become jointly and severally liable for
the whole of the rent, and divide the land
among themselves. If one tenant does
not pay his portion, the remedy resorted
to is not to distrain his stock, for fear of
rescue, but to proceed by ejectment ;
but, in order to eject him, declarations in
ejectment must be served on all the
tenants who are joined in partnership
with him. It is true that. they usually
club up the money somehow or other, but
is it possible to imagine any management
more likely to create disorder than this ?
In England society would not suffer it-
would compel, in fact, the landlord thus
negligent of his duty to alter such a
management of his estate.      Negiigent
landlords must improve-must attend to
their duties, if the expectations of society
are raised. But the mass of'Irish landlords
do not afford opportunities for employment
and instruction, because they are so em
barrassed that they cannot. They have
merely nominal estates-the real owners
of their lands are mortgagees. No one


-     -


169






170          THE    GREAT     IRTISt   FAMINE       OF   1845-1846.


can doubt the advantages which the upper
classes are able to confer on society. Society
wants an upper class. But it must have
it in reality-in substance, not merely in
name. Nor does it matter who the indi-
viduals are who compose the upper class
so long as they are men of education, of
honour, and of wealth. What matters it
to society whether the lord of 50,000
acres be lineally descended from the
treacherous   scoundrel  Dermot    Mac-
murrough, or from a respectable cheese
and bacon factor of Cork, or yarn-spinner
of Belfast, who realized a fortune by his
industry half a century ago. It is the
man society wants ; and in that man the
power of doing good-the wealth to give
opportunities of industry, the knowledge
to direct those opportunities, the honour
to act justly and to set an example to all.
But if you have a mere nominal landlord
-a man over head and ears in debt and
embarrassments, you lack in him the
first and most needful quality, the power
of doing good. Take measures, then, to
give to society that which it wants to
stimulate it and direct it-a real and not
a nominal owner of the lands. Facilitate
the transfer of lands. Enable an en-
cumbered proprietor to sell a part of his
estate to pay off his encumbrances, giving
the purchaser a clear title by Act of Par-
liament, provided the purchase-money be
paid over to the encumbrancers accord-
ing to priority of claim. It is foreign to
my object now to go into detail; but let
in the life-blood and energy, and enter-
prise of capitalists into the lifeless masses
of huge, encumbered, unimproved, help-
less estates. They will become real owners
of the land, will give employment upon it,
and stimulate industry. Employment will
bring peace. Industry will bring wealth.
1." When an estate gets into such a hope-
less condition that it can no longer pay
the interest of its mortgage debts and
keep the owner, no: longer permit a re-
ceiver in Chancery to be appointed to
receive the rents and hand them over to
the mortgagee.    The mortgagee has no
responsibility, and no honour from the
estate ; he cares nothing about it so long
as his principal is secure and he gets his
interest paid. The nominal owner has no
power to do anything, and, however well
inclined, the estate goes to ruin under his
eyes. We may respect his attachment to
his ancestral acres, and his dislike to part
with them ; but we must not let his in-
dividual likes and dislikes stand in the
way of the public good. If he cannot ful-
fil the duties of his position it is his mis-


fortune; the State must take care that
the community and the country do not
suffer  because of it. When     this is
the unhappy condition of an estate, at
once compel a sale ; let in capitalists, and
substitute a real for a nominal owner of
the land. That which his good feeling,
his inclination, or his good sense prompts,
the real owner will have the power to
carry into effect.
  " There are, however, many landlords
who have both the inclination and the
power to benefit their tenantry-to give
them opportunities of employment, and
to instruct them, but who, owing to the
disgraceful system of intimidation that is
allowed to prevail, are driven out of the
country. It is foolish to hope for im-
provement if you do not enforce the law-
if you do not give the consciousness of
security for life and property to every
man. The outrages and shootings of Tip-
perary and some adjacent counties are dis-
graceful to the nation-they mark the ex-
istence among the people of the most
cowardly and savage brutality. It is folly
to apply to such a society the humane
and moderate provisions of laws adapted
only for a peaceful and orderly and in-
dependent community.     No man is in-
dependent in Tipperary. He dare not act
justly for fear of his life. However much
he may hate the crime, he must shield
the murderer for fear of his own life. He
dare give no evidence calculated to lead to
the punishment of an offender for fear of
his life. He dare not turn away a servant
that robs him for fear of his life. He
dare not compel the fulfilment of a con-
tract, or enforce the payment of a debt,
for fear of his life. Nay, he dare not
express a political opinion adverse to the
prevailing mob opinion for fear of his life.
For the Lord-Lieutenant     to   talk of
putting in force the laws in such a state
of society as this-of summoning juries
who will not convict, and subpoenaing
witnesses who will not give evidence, is
childish. A free and liberal Government
-mild and humane laws, which depend
as much upon the co-operation and aid of
the people, as upon the law or the
Government, are only fitted for an en-
lightened and orderly and just commu-
nity ; they are helpless and mischievous
in a cowardly, a savage, a brutalized, and
an ignorant one. Such a people will
bear and require a more despotic rule.
Fine the comrmunity for every crime, and
enforce the fine. If crime still goes on,
send another thousand policemen into
the county,  and make the county bear






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


the whole expense. Billet the police in
the farm-houses, and let them worm out
crime in a manner fitted to the cautious
and timid character of the people. The
man who dare not go to the police-office
and give information of a murderer will hint
it to the policeman billeted in his house,
because he will not be suspected of giving
the  information.   Appoint stipendiary
magistrates for every district, and it
would be wise to extend their powers
where juries will not convict. If acriminal
is sentenced to transportation, pack him
off at once ; do not give him time in gaol
to leave behind him among his friends a
legacy of revenge. Punish every brutal
crime  with   a fitting  penalty. What
cares the man who can gloatover revenge,
p3rpetrated or determined on, for a three
months' imprisonment ? Cat-o'-nine-tail
him at a cart's tail through the chief town
of his neighbourhood-hold him up to the
scorn and derision of his neighbours for
having been a cowardly brute, with just
courage enough to skulk behind a hedge,
and try to shoot an unconscious victim,
or knock him senseless with a stone from
behind. At the termination of his im-
prisonment give him a repetition of the
same dose, and send him home to his
friends to doctor his back for him. A
few such examples as these would have
a thousand times greater effect than all
the rewards and proclamations in the
world. Strive bygoverwhelming force to
make the punishment of crime certain,
and make its punishment terrible. If an
outcry is raised against you by vagabonds
and the press of: the ' Vindicator' class,
never minds it ; uphold what is good in
the community, and the clamour of the
worthless will not injure you.
  " With a firm and determined hand
put down agitation, whether that agita-
tion be Orange or Repeal. If necessary,
fear not to do it despotically. Remember
you are dealing with a people who in the
mass are almost uncivilized. Like children,
they require governing with the hand of
power. They require authority, and will
bear it. A more enlightened community
would not require it, and would not bear
it. Rigorously put down all combina-
tions and punish the combinators. It is a
remarkable fact that there is scarcely a
trade which has prospered in Ireland,
save that of brewers and distillers. Almost
every other trade has been ruined by com-
binations. One brew er andonedistiller,with
a few unskilled labourers,are sufficientfor
a brewery or distillery, and these can,
therefore, be no combinations. of skilled


workmen against them. For instance-
and I name these only as examples amid
hundreds--a timber merchant of Dublin,
Mr. James Fagan, erected saw-mills. The
sawyers combined against him and, be-
cause he persevered, murdered his head
sawyer, Hanlon, in open day, in one of
the most populous streets in Dublin. Mr.
Fagan, however, had sufficient capital to
enable him to persevere, and now more
' pit ' men are employed in his saw-mills,
because he has created a trade, than he
employedsawyers before. The same gentle-
man leased a useless dock, intending to
make it a graving dock for the repair of
vessels, instead of sending them to Glas-
gow or Liverpool to be repaired. His
men combined, and refused to work ex-
cept on certain terms and at certaintimes.
This he would not submit to, and he pro-
cured Scotchmen as ship carpenters. About
four months ago, while some of these
men were working at a ship's side, on a
stage suspended by ropes, some of the
combinators got on board, cut the ropes,
and precipitated the men into 16 feet of
water. Their lives were with difficulty
saved.; a Dublin magisterial Solon, before
whom the fellows who attempted to
murder these men were brought, satisfied
himself and the law by simply binding
them   over to keep the peace. A Mr.
Folds, a printer, about four years ago,
rented a magnificent printing establish-
ment in Dublin, and      erected  steam
presses, to enable him to compete with
the London printers. No sooner had he
got contracts and was beginning to suc-
ceed, than his men combined against him
and began to dictate [terms to him, and
the rules on which he should conduct his
business. Determined not to submit to
this, he procured English and Scotch
printers. Almost immediately afterwards
his printing establishment was set fire to
and burnt down, and thegrand jury found
that it had been done maliciously. This
gentleman's undertaking, calculated to
give employment and      benefit to the
community, was ruined in consequence.
It is only two months ago that the colliers
of Slievardah coal mine, Tipperary, and
also of Earl's-hill Colliery, and South
Ballinastick Colliery, in the same county,
worked by the Mining Company of Ire-
land, combined to prevent the  agents
working them in the manner they thought
most advantageous, and shot one of the
agents. The average labourer's wages in
that district is 8d. to 10d. a day, while
every colliery was earning from 2s. to 3s.
a day. The company have been corn


171






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


pelled to suspend the working of these
mines in consequence, and a large number
of men are thus thrown out of employ-
ment. I have before me a report, politely
furnished to me by Mr. Strangman, of
Waterford, in   which   that gentleman
details the establishment of a Coast Fish
ing Company there. There were but few
fishermen, earning a precarious subsis-
tence there, and it was said that the fish
had deserted the coast ; the trade was de-
clining. Four years ago a fishing company
was established there, and a trawler of
about 40 tons burden was purchased. I
cannot do better than quote his own
report of the difficulties every undertak-
ing in Ireland has to encounter, first
from  the most stupid opposition, and
eventually from illegalcombinations :-
   " ' First, as our mode of fishing was
novel in this quarter, we had to employ
Englishmen until some of the natives
were instructed ; an outcry immediately
arose for bringing strangers when so
many at home wanted employment. Then,
when we told of the profits likely- to arise
from this mode of fishing, some accused
us of boasting, while others circulated a
report that    fishing was merely the
nominal object, but that smuggling was
the real one. One class found fault with
us for sending any fish to England until
their wants at home      were  supplied.
Others. complained of the high prices
charged. Another set denounced us for
taking the bread from poor men-for that
we caught so much       we should    not
leave any for others ; and, further, that
the market would be so glutted, and the
prices depreciated, that even if they did
catch as much as they had done previously
they would not be remunerated for their
labour. This latter was asserted by many
who ought to have known better ; and,
such being the case, it was no wonder
that those poor men, who fancied their
rights and mode of living would be in-
fringed upon, were so excited as to
threaten us if    we   persisted.  These
threats, of course, had no effect upon us,
further than to explain how ill-founded
those reports all were ; but it was of no
use, and one night a party of them seized
a new net, worth about £15, cut it in
pieces, and threw it over the cliffs into
,the sea. We offered a reward of £50, and
Gqvernment £30, for the discovery of the
perpetrators, but it was no avail ; for
though one of the men in our employ-
:ment knew the parties, yet he stated he
would prefer being turned off to giving
us information, fearing the consequences


to himself. These were very discouraging
circumstances ; but this extreme violence
brought matters more speedily to a con-
clusion. An inspector from the Fishery
Board came down, and also a stipendiary
magistrate. A meeting was held, and an
investigation entered into. The Roman
Catholic clergy   also  exhorted   their
flocks, and, after some time, peace was
restored. Since that time other parties
have procured similar boats, and there
are now   12 cutters of 40 to 50 tons
burden, each belonging to this port,
regularly engaged in this branch of fish-
ing, besides sometimes as many as 20
more from other places, who occasionally
visit us. The good wages the men earn
has quite altered the current of public
opinion, and those who were before hostile
to us are now anxious we should get
more boats, and thus give more employ-
ment. The apprehension of the fish being
all caught has proved fallacious ; and, so
far from this market being glutted, it is
found the demand has increased with the
supply, fish having become an article of
regular diet. The cost of one of these
cutters, with her gear, &c., is £500 ; and
the value of the gross produce of the fish
taken by each of our boats is about £400
per annum. If, then, we suppose the
other boats have been equally successful,
the 12 boats, at £400, would clear £5,000
worth of good, nutritious food, drawn from
the ocean, by this means giving so much
wealth to the community ; and there is
abundant opening for three times as
many boats in this branch alone. The
men receive certain proportions of what
the fish sells for. The earnings of our
skippers or captains average about 25s.
per week, the men from 16s. to 21s., and
boys 7s. to 10s. per week; and, after
paying for wear and tear,the owners divide
about 20 per cent. per annum. With this
pleasing result, I feel no hesitation in
stating it as my opinion that the sea is a
rich mine, which only requires to be judi-
ciously worked to yield abundant reward
for labour and capital-in other words,
riches. Besides the trawl-fishing, our com-
pany were anxious to introduce improve-
ments in other modes; and we began
with lobsters, crabs, and prawns. We
procured a suitable boat and apparatus,
costing about £40, and two qualified
hands. The summer before last this boat
caught upwards of £100 worth, the men
earning 30s. per week, while employed,
and the owners dividing 50 per cent. The
last summer, however, we have met with
sad disappointments. Our previous suc-


172






THE GREAT 1LT5 H FAMINE OF 1845-184.  


cess excited much envy, and several of
our pots were destroyed.    We offered a
large reward, but without effect. At first
the   parties cut   the  apparatus ; but
latterly they adopted an ingenious mode
by which they conceive they can ease
their consciences   as well   as escape
punishment. The lobster pots are put in
deep water about a mile or two from the
shore,with a buoyorfloat on the surface to
indicate their position. The plan resorted
to is to get a piece of cord, about a yard
long, with a stone tied to each end. This
is dropped, " accidentally on purpose,"
saddle-wise on the float, which, being
unequal to sustain the weight, is sunk to
the bottom, and consequently defies all
attempts at recovery. In consequence of
these repeated losses I fear we shall be
obliged to give up this branch, although
we offered to the parties we have reason
to believe were the perpetrators to pro-
cure similar apparatus for them at cost
price, and instruct them in the proper mode
of using it. Last summer we found the
sea to be absolutely alive with herrings,
mackerel, and pilchards, from   one-half
mile to six miles seaward from the coast,
but there being no sufficient or suitable
boats or nets to take them, owing to the
opposition and prejudices of the people,
the advantage was entirely lost, with the
exception of a very small quantity that
came in close to the shore.'
  " It is melancholy to contemplate a
stupidly ignorant opposition to enterprises
like these from a people starving for want
of employment. The Government, then,
as a first duty, ought to protect every enter-
prise by the most stringent and deter-
mined en:fore ment of the law, and secure
to the prr:jctars the fair rewards of their
enterprise, and with it employment for
the people. The people themselves are
too apt to mistake cunning for wisdom ;
and the cunning which delights in the
cleverness of ruining a rival, or forcing
terms and rules on a speculator which his
business will not   bear, has not the
wisdom to see that in ruining a rival it
ruins a trade by which it lives, and that
its forced terms have stopped the specu-
lation which was its only livelihood.
Insure by law payment to a tenant for
those improvements which have increased
the value of the landlord's land, according
to a fair estimate of the increased value.
This is simply honest and fair. The
landlord loses nothing, for he has the in-
creased value for his money, and the
tenant will thereby be encouraged to
improve.


   ' These are indirect means of insuring
employment and prosperity. But there
are other direct means which are in the
power of the Government.
   " Provide suitable piers and harbours
for the accommodation and safety of the
fishing craft. This would be a direct en-
couragement to industry, and would leave
laziness in sight of an abundance of fish
without an excuse. On the coast of Erris,
in Mayo, of parts of Connemara, of
Donegal, of Kerry, and of the west of
Cork, the sea swarms with fish, which
often cannot be taken because there are
no harbours of refuge. If a Donegal or
Erris man ventures to sea, he does it at
his peril, if the weather is at all doubtful,
because there is no harbour to which he
can run. And yet these people periodi-
cally starve with swarms of fish beside
them ; and are fed by the money of Eng-
land, which wouldalready have twice over
built all the piers and harbours they
wanted, and have enabled them inde-
pendently to earn their own food.
  "With the revenues of the Crown
lands, lease, or purchase, and promote
the draining and cultivation of waste
lands. These would act as public ex-
amples to capitalists who might become
purchasers; for it is from them that general
improvement must come. The Govern-
ment can only set examples, it cannot
cultivate the whole country. This would
cost nothing, but would, on the contrary,
pay well.
  " Establish in different districts model
farms and agricultural schools to teach
and instruct the peasantry, by both pre-
cept and example, how to cultivate the
land and make the most of those advan-
tages they have.
   " Attend to reasonable applications for
assistance made by enterprising portions
of the community. This would encourage
and urge them  on. Limerick, for in
stance, complains that she has no dock '
that her trading vessels are in danger of
being driven against the bridge, and, in
fact, have been thus destroyed ; that the
navigation of the Lower Shannon to the
sea, which is now dangerous and full of
shallows, might be improved at small ex-
pense, while the liberal grant of £600,000
by the Parliament of Great Britain is
being jobbed away in improving the
Upper Shannon, and not one farthing is
spent on the    Lower  Shannon.     The
citizens of Belfast complain that, with a
trade that yields a Customs revenue of
£360,000 a year, the Government will
not aid them to build a Custom-house


_m


173






THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE OF 1845-1846.


for the convenient transaction of business
and the collection of the Queen's taxes.
They complain, also, that their repre-
sentations about their insufficient Post-
office establishment ate totally disre-
garded, and that the enormous com-
mercial undertakings of that city are put
to continual losses and inconveniences in
consequence. Attention to matters like
these is one of the routine duties of Govern-
ament and effects much good. Inattention
to them excites discontent, and depresses
and beats down enterprise.
   " Now, every one of these measures is
practicable. Every one of them would
tend to benefit, to encourage, to stimu-
late the people ; to excite emulation,
enterprise, and industry. Yet every one
of them   is neglected.   Such measures
would let capitalists into the country.
The efforts of the Government at improve-
ment and civilization would urge on those
capitalists to imitate the example set to
them, and they would have the power to
do it. The peasantry would be encouraged
to be industrious, and would be taught
how to be so. Compare any of these
measures in probable benefit with the
recent college grants. These grants are
thanklessly received by the people. The
colleges will teach young men Latin and
Greek and theology, who had better be
learning some honest trade by which to
earn a living. Educated young men
without means will be thrown upon the
world, to fill professions, and to become
priests ; and these young men, penniless
and disappointed, with cultivated minds,
must become the seeds of future agitation.
   " You complain of the turbulence of


Ireland. The means of employment will
stop turbulence. The measures which I
have humbly suggested will promote-
nay, insure-employment.      ' Necessity
and poverty,' said the great Lord Bale,
in his plan for a reform of the English
poor laws, ' and want of due provision
for the employment of indigent persons,
and the custom of a loose and idle life,
daily supply with advantage the number
of those who are taken off by the sentence
of the law ; and doubtless as the multi-
tude of poor and necessitous and unedu-
cated persons increases, the multitude of
malefactors will increase, notwithstand-
ing the examples of severity.'  'The
want,' says he, ' of a due provision for
education and relief of the poor in a way
of industry is that which fills the gaols
with malefactors and fills the kingdom
with idle and unprofitable persons that
consume the stock of the kingdom with-
out improving it, and that will daily in-
crease even to a desolation in time, and
this error, in the first conception, is
never remediable but by gibbets and
whippings; for there must be a sound,
prudent, and resolved method for an in-
dustrious education of the poor, and that
will give better remedy against those
corruptions than the after gain of penal-
ties can.' What Lord Hale wrote of
England in his time is true of Ireland
now. Give, then, that ' industrious edu-
cation of the poor,' and those means of
employment which the measures pointed
out will insure, and Ireland-unhappy,
neglected, agitated  Ireland-will no
longer prove ' the great difficulty 'of the
English Government."


174

















IN          E X,


                                        Page.
Irish Distress in 1846 ... ... .......     5
The Public Works Bill...   ....  ... ...  9
English Property Taxed for Irish Distress ... 11
Effects of Dependence upon the Potato Crop 13
The Government Scheme for Relief ... ... 15
Treasury Minute on Relief Works ...  - 1 17
Extent of Distress in Cork County ... ... 20
Anti-Rent Movement in Tipperary ...  ... 21
Irish Dependence on State Aid    ... ... 23
The Food Crisis--Suggestions for Relief ... 25
Irish Demands upon the Government      ... 28
Xrish Landlords and the Distress ... ... 30
Popular Commotion     ............ 32
Indolent Preference of Relief to Labo  ... 34
Irish landlords ... ...... ...   ...   .. 36
The Duty of the Government...    ...   ... 42
Food Exports from Ireland to England   ... 44
State Aid to Public Works   .....      ... 46
Reliance on State Help...   .....       . 48
Neglect of Available Food Supplies...  ... 49
The Irish Savings Banks (1846)  ...    ... 51
Wastoe Lands in Ireland    ...   ...   ... 53
Landlords and Labour ....... ...       ..  54
Landlords and the Poor Law ...   ...   ... 55
Landlords' Objections to a Poor Law    ... 57
Irish Objection to Poor Law ...  ... ... 60
Irish Property and Irish Poverty .... ... 62
Irish Unanimity...    ...  ...   ...... ...64
Measures of Relief    ....   .....     ... 66
Cost of Relief  .... ... ...     ...   ... 71
Government and Irish Railways    ...   ...72
Railroads in Ireland  ... ....,,.   ... 78
The Irish Savings Banks (1847)   ... ... 81
General Apathy in Ireland  ... ... ... 82
State of Skibbereen   ,,.  ,.     , ,. ,. 84


                                        Page.
Pleas Against a Poor Law   ...   ...   ... 85
The Poor Relief Bill ...   ...   ...   ... 87
The Day of National Humiliation  ...   ... 91.
The English and Irish National Debts   ... 93
Administration of a Poor Law     ...   ... 95
Proposal for Irish Colonisation in Canada ... 98
The Roman Catholic:Clergy in Ireland   ... 99
The Famine of 1741   ...   ...   ...   ... 101
The Distress in Mayo ..... ....        ... 103
Condition of Clare and Limerick  ...   ... 109
The New Irish Poor Law     ...   ...   ... 112
Subsidence of the Distress       ...   ...115
Closing of the Relief Fund ...   ...   ... 116
Magnitude of Relief Operations   ...   ... 118
The Irish Crops in 1847    ...   ...   ... 120
Local Pleas for Non-payment of Loans   ... 122
Horrors of the Exodus to Canada  ...   ... 124
Resistance to Poor's-rates ........  ... 125
Fighting Propensities .......    ...    .. 127
Irish Immigrants in Canada ...   ...   ... 129
England's Aid to Irish Distress  ...   ... 135
Irish Emigration     ...   ...   ...   ... 142
Landlord Murders .    ...  ....  ...   ... 148
Outrages in Ireland   ...  ...   ...   ... 150
Emigration as a Remedy for Irish Poverty 150
Disorder in Ireland   ...   ..   ...,.. 152
The Irish Fisheries   ........         ... 153
Clerical Encouragement of Murder ...   ... 156
The Need of CommonSense ......         ... 158
The Irish Party in Parliament    ...   ... 16O
The Value of an Irish Poor Law   ...   ... 162
Agricultural Instruction in Ireland ... ... 164
Agriculture in Ireland ... ......      ... 166
Remedial Measures for Irish Distress   ... 168


PRINTED BY FRANCIS GOODLAKE, THE TIMES OFFICE, LONDO.








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This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
  the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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