Chapter IV: Part 4

The Treasury was authorized by the 1 & 2 Wm. IV, c. 33, passed in 1831, to lend money to private individuals for the improvement of their estates, provided the value of the estate was increased 10 per cent. and repayment was made in three years; and by the first Act of the Session of 1846 the period of repayment was extended to twenty years. This power was however very sparingly acted on. Grave objections existed to the State becoming a general creditor throughout the country, and the operations of private capitalists were likely to be deranged and suspended by the interference of such a competitor. A rate of interest (5 per cent.) higher than the market rate for money lent on mortgage, was therefore charged, and the result was, that only three persons took out loans under this arrangement, one of whom was the late Lord Bessborough. At the close of the Session of 1846, the Act 9 & 10 Vic. c. 101, was passed, by which 1,000,000ℓ. was authorized to be lent for drainage in Ireland, and repayment was to be made in equal half-yearly instalments, spread over twenty-two years, including interest at 3½ per cent.; but this Act could not be worked, so far as Ireland was concerned, partly owing to a legal opinion that tenants for life were not eligible for loans under it, and partly because the works must be executed to a certain extent before the money could be advanced. Upon this the Treasury issued a Minute dated the 1st, and a letter dated the 15th December, 1846[60], offering to lend money for the general improvement of estates, including drainage, on a footing which combined the advantages of the previous Acts with the indulgent mode of repayment introduced by the last; and in the following session the Act 10 & 11 Vic. c. 32 was passed, by which all the existing legislation on the subject was consolidated, and loans[61] were authorized to be made in Ireland to the extent of 1,500,000ℓ., on the principle that the improvements on each estate are to be executed by the proprietor, and that the interference of the officers of the Government is to be confined to ascertaining, in the first instance, that the proposed improvements are likely to be of such a permanent and productive character as would justify the cost of them being made a charge upon the estate, with priority over other incumbrances, and, afterwards, to inspecting the works from time to time, so as to secure the proper application of the sums advanced to the purposes for which they were intended. No advance can be made under this Act unless the increased annual value to be given to the land by the proposed improvement shall equal the amount to be charged on it; and a difficulty having arisen from the circumstance that the full benefit to be derived from draining is attained in different soils at different periods after the completion of the drains, it was declared by a Treasury Minute dated the 15th June, 1847, that it is not necessary that each portion of land improved should yield, in the first and in every subsequent year, an additional rent equal to 6½ per cent. per annum on the outlay beyond the present rent; but that the general result of the improvement of the lands on which the rent-charge is to be secured, will, one year with another, from the period when the full benefit of the improvement may be supposed to have accrued, be such as to produce an increased annual value to the above extent; taking care, of course, that the rent-charge is fixed upon lands amply sufficient to secure the repayment to the Government of the sums so charged. These directions had particular reference to the circumstances of the poverty-stricken districts in the West of Ireland, where it is peculiarly desirable to increase the food grown on the spot, and to provide the means of employment for the people in the productive avocations of agriculture; and every practicable facility and preference is therefore given to the landed proprietors in those districts, which is not inconsistent with justice to other parties. It was determined by the same Minute, in pursuance of the course taken by Parliament with respect to the loans for drainage in England and Scotland, that the loans to be made to any one landed proprietor should not, under ordinary circumstances, exceed, in the aggregate, the sum of 12,000ℓ.; but if, in any particular case, owing to the extent of the property to be improved, or other causes, it should be advisable to enlarge this limit, the Lords of the Treasury will be prepared to authorize such additional sum as may appear to be proper, not exceeding, however, an aggregate amount to the same proprietor, of 20,000ℓ.

In taking its line on this subject, the Government had to choose between employing the agency of the landed proprietors and that of public officers; and after much consideration and some experience, the final decision was in favour of the former alternative, as above described.

By following this course, all the existing relations of society were preserved and strengthened; the landed proprietors were held to their responsibility for the well-being of the people residing on their estates, and they were assisted to the extent of the loan fund placed by Parliament at the disposal of the Government. The proprietor or his agent has the strongest interest in seeing that the work is well done, and can exercise the most effectual superintendence over it; and as the people are invited to exert themselves under the eye of their natural employers, the healthy relation of master and labourer becomes established throughout the country. It has not, as yet, been usual in Ireland, for the landlord to undertake to make the more expensive and permanent improvements, as is the case in England, but it may be hoped that an impulse will be given to this wholesome practice by the loans to proprietors under the Land Improvement Act. The landlord will be encouraged to proceed in a course of improvement which he finds by experience to be profitable to him; he will be likely to make further investments on land which has been reclaimed or improved by him, and he will be especially careful to prevent it from being subdivided into small holdings[62].

The other plan of reclaiming waste lands by the direct agency of the Government, did not survive the objections made to it on the score of its interference with the rights of private property. The land must be obtained before it could be improved, and was it to be left to the discretion of Commissioners to take any bog-land they pleased at a valuation; to single out, for instance, a tract of unreclaimed land in the centre of an estate? Some firm land also must be annexed to each allotment for the erection of the farm buildings, and to obtain soil for the improvement of the bog, and this would have given a still wider and more arbitrary discretion to the Commissioners. The compulsory powers had therefore to be given up; and without them the plan could not be worked.

But there are other objections to this plan which have a much deeper root. The first result of the Government undertaking to reclaim the waste lands of Ireland would be that the mass of the people would throw themselves on these works, as they did upon the roads, taking it for granted that the means of payment were inexhaustible, and that less labour would be exacted than in employment offered with a view to private profit. The landlords and farmers would consider that, as the Government had undertaken to employ the people and improve the soil, they were themselves absolved from responsibility, and they would refer all the persons who applied to them for employment, to the Government works, as has been so often done on former occasions. The single agency of the Government would be substituted for the exertions of the whole body of the landowners acting in concert with their tenants and dependants; and instead of landed proprietors and farmers laying out their own money for their own benefit, with all the care and economy which this supposes, we should have hundreds of public officers, of various grades and characters, expending public money, for the supposed benefit of the public, in a business totally foreign to the proper functions of Government, and without a possibility of effectual superintendence; the inevitable consequence of which would be, bad work, idle habits, and profuse and wasteful expenditure. Lastly, when the land had been reclaimed, whatever care might be taken to dispose of it in farms of reasonable size, however durable might be the interest granted, or whatever legal restrictions might be attempted to be imposed, the old process of the subdivision of the land, and the multiplication of the persons subsisting upon it, would run its course. Nothing can supply the place of the watchful supervision exercised by a proprietor, for the protection of his own interests, in such a case.

A peasant proprietary may succeed to a certain extent[63], where there is a foundation of steadiness of character, and a habit of prudence, and a spring of pride, and a value for independence and comfort; but we fear that all these words merely show the vain nature of schemes of peasant proprietorship for Ireland. The small holders of Belgium[64], with all their industry and frugality, have, during this calamitous period, been the most distressed population in Europe next to Ireland. Their own resources were too small to carry them through a season of dearth, and they had no employers to assist them. In India, society is based on a system of small holdings, and there is no country in which destructive famines have been so common. In Ireland itself, the greatest over-population, and consequently the greatest distress, prevailed in those districts in which, owing to the existence of long leases, the landlords had no power to prevent the subdivision of the land. Mere security of tenure is of no avail, without the capital, and skill, and habits of life, and, above all, the wholesome moral qualities required to turn this advantage to good account. During the late season of dearth, food was dearer in the long peninsula which stretches to the south-west of England, than it was in Ireland, and the poor had no resource analogous to the farming stock of the Irish small holder; but the Devonshire and Somersetshire labourer lives by wages paid by persons richer than himself; and though severely pinched, he had enough for daily bread, with some assistance from charitable aid, which was generally afforded throughout the west of England, during the late season of distress, either by parochial subscriptions or by allowances from the unions. The south-west of England is the least favourable specimen which Great Britain affords of the system of society based upon wages, because the flourishing manufactures which formerly existed in that quarter have disappeared before the superior natural advantages of the North, and wages are consequently very low[65]. In every other part of this island the contrast is more decidedly to the disadvantage of the small holdings; and in Northumberland, which is a county of large farms, there may be said to be no poor. Whether the good order, the physical well-being, or the moral and intellectual progress of rural society, be considered, the best model is that in which the educated and enlightened proprietor, the substantial farmer, and the industrious labourer on regular wages, each performs his appropriate part.

The works required for deepening and straightening the course of many of the rivers are of peculiar importance to Ireland; because until the outfalls have been cleared, the landowners cannot enter upon the detailed or thorough drainage of their respective estates. In such cases the necessity of working upon the lands of different proprietors calls for the active interposition of the Board of Works, who make the preliminary survey, execute the work, and afterwards apportion the charge, according to the benefit derived by each person interested. The funds for carrying on these improvements had been chiefly obtained by the issue of debentures under the authority of the Acts of Parliament relating to the subject; but, under existing circumstances, loans were not to be expected from private individuals at a moderate rate of interest; and the ordinary loan fund of the Board of Works amounting to 60,000ℓ. a-year, was therefore reinforced with 120,000ℓ., transferred to it from the London Loan Commissioners, and 250,000ℓ. issued from the Consolidated Fund; making altogether a sum of 430,000ℓ. placed at the disposal of the Board of Works, between the 1st April, 1847, and the 1st April, 1848, to be advanced by them for works of utility in Ireland, but principally for drainage of the above-mentioned description.

Next to agricultural improvements, well-selected public works perhaps offer the greatest resource in the present unhappy circumstances of Ireland. It is a mistake to suppose that opening a good road may not be the most reproductive work in many districts; and the construction of railroads on the great lines of communication, does for the whole country what new roads do for particular districts, facilitating and stimulating every description of production, and agriculture more than all, binding society together by a closer intercourse and interchange of good offices, and rapidly diffusing through the remote provinces the advantages enjoyed by the more favoured parts of the country.

The objection to Lord George Bentinck’s plan for assisting Irish railways was, that while it was inadequate as a measure of relief, it was too large and indiscriminate when viewed as a measure for the promotion of public works. Private enterprise would have been overlaid; the bad lines would have been benefited at the expense of the good; the public credit would have been lowered; the available stock of national capital would have suffered an additional drain which it could ill afford; and after all, the object of relieving the existing distress would not have been attained. The famine was then at its height, and it could not be stayed by any measure short of distributing food to the multitude. After allowing for the largest number of persons who could be employed on railways, millions must still have starved, if other more effectual steps had not been taken; and the sums advanced to the Railway Companies, large as they would have been, would not have perceptibly diminished the expense of feeding a whole nation[66]. When this primary object had been attained, and all the funds had been raised by loan which the state of Ireland required, the Government was then in a position to consider what assistance could be given to railroads in common with other works of public utility; and 620,000ℓ. was voted by Parliament to be lent to Railways which were legally able to borrow, owing to their having paid up half their capital, and could undertake to expend within a certain fixed time, another sum of their own equal to that advanced to them. By the aid thus given, the great South-Western Railway of Ireland will be enabled to employ a large number of men throughout the winter, and the important object of opening the communication between Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, will be accomplished at a much earlier period than would otherwise have been the case.

The other works in progress in Ireland, with the aid of grants or loans from Parliament, are as follows: the Shannon navigation, which has been in operation for several years; the construction of new floating docks and markets at Limerick; works at Hawlbowline, with a view to render that place more useful as a naval station; four great works of combined navigation and drainage; the construction of three new colleges, and of several prisons and lunatic asylums; and the repair and construction of fishery piers, for which 50,000ℓ. was voted in the session of 1846, and a further sum of 40,000ℓ. in the session of 1847.

* * * * *

Having thus furnished as clear a sketch as the variety and complexity of the incidents would allow, of this remarkable crisis in our national affairs, when the events of many years were crowded into two short seasons, and a foundation was laid for social changes of the highest importance, it may be asked, what fruits have yet appeared of this portentous seed-time, and what the experience is which we have purchased at so heavy a cost?

First, it has been proved to demonstration, that local distress cannot be relieved out of national funds without great abuses and evils, tending, by a direct and rapid process, to an entire disorganisation of society. This is, in effect, to expose the common stock to a general scramble. All are interested in getting as much as they can. It is nobody’s concern to put a check on the expenditure. If the poor man prefers idling on relief works or being rationed with his wife and children, to hard labour; if the farmer discharges his labourers and makes the state of things a plea for not paying rates or rent; if the landed proprietor joins in the common cry, hoping to obtain some present advantage, and trusting to the chance of escaping future repayments, it is not the men, but the system, which is in fault. Ireland is not the only country which would have been thrown off its balance by the attraction of “public money” _à discrétion_. This false principle eats like a canker into the moral health and physical prosperity of the people. All classes “make a poor mouth,” as it is expressively called in Ireland. They conceal their advantages, exaggerate their difficulties, and relax their exertions. The cotter does not sow his holding, the proprietor does not employ his poor in improving his estate, because by doing so they would disentitle themselves to their “share of the relief.” The common wealth suffers both by the lavish consumption and the diminished production, and the bees of the hive, however they may redouble their exertions, must soon sink under the accumulated burden. The officers of Government, overborne by numbers, and unable to test the interested representations pressed upon them from all quarters, cannot exercise their usual watchful care over the expenditure of the public money. Those persons who have the will to do their duty, have not the power. Those who have the power, have not the will. There is only one way in which the relief of the destitute ever has been, or ever will be, conducted consistently with the general welfare, and that is by _making it a local charge_. Those who know how to discriminate between the different claims for relief, then become actuated by a powerful motive to use that knowledge aright. They are spending _their own money_. At the same time, those who have the means of employing the people in reproductive works, have the strongest inducement given them to do so. The struggle now is to keep the poor off the rates, and if their labour only replaces the cost of their food, it is cheaper than having to maintain them in perfect idleness.

Another point which has been established by the result of these extensive experiments in the science, if it may be so called, of relieving the destitute, is that two things ought to be carefully separated which are often confounded. Improvement is always a good thing, and relief is occasionally a necessary thing, but the mixture of the two is almost always bad; and when it is attempted on a large scale without proper means of keeping it in check, it is likely to affect in a very injurious manner the ordinary motives and processes by which the business of society is carried on. Relief, taken by itself, offers, if it is properly administered, no motive to misrepresent the condition of the people; and being burdensome to the higher, and distasteful to the lower classes, it is capable of being carefully tested and subjected to effectual controul. But when relief is connected with profitable improvements and full wages, the most influential persons in each locality become at once interested in establishing a case in favour of it, and the higher are always ready to join with the lower classes in pressing forward _relief works_ on a plea of urgent general distress, which it may be impossible to analyse and difficult to resist. Relief ought to be confined as much as possible to the infirm and helpless. Wages, by means of which improvements are carried on, should be given by preference to the able-bodied and vigorous. Relief ought to be on the lowest scale necessary for subsistence. Wages should be sufficiently liberal to secure the best exertions of the labourer. Relief should be made so unattractive as to furnish no motive to ask for it, except in the absence of every other means of subsistence. Improvements should be encouraged and urged forward by every practicable means, both as regards the parties undertaking them, and those by whom they are executed. If labour is connected with relief, it should only be as a test of the destitution of the applicant, and of his being consequently entitled to a bare subsistence, in the same way as confinement in a workhouse is also a test; and the true way to make relief conducive to improvement, is to give the rich no choice between maintaining the able-bodied labourers as paupers, or employing them on full wages on profitable works, and to take care that the poor have no reason to prefer living on public alms, to the active exercise of their industry in their own behalf.

Among all our discouragements, there are not wanting many and sure grounds of hope for the future. The best sign of all is, that the case of Ireland is at last understood. Irish affairs are no longer a craft and mystery. The abyss has been fathomed. The famine has acted with a force which nothing could resist, and has exposed to view the real state of the country, so that he who runs may read. We have gained, both by what has been unlearned and by what has been learned during the last two years: and the result is, that the great majority of people, both in Ireland and England, are now agreed upon the course which ought to be pursued, in order to arrive at the wished-for end. The attention of the two countries has also been so long directed to the same subject, that a new reciprocity of interest and feeling has been established, and the public opinion of each has begun to act upon the other with a force which was never felt before.

The Irish have been disabused of one of the strangest delusions which ever paralysed the energies of a naturally intelligent and energetic people. Those who knew the country best, were aware of the habitual dependence of the upper classes upon the Government; and it was a common saying of former days, that an Irish gentleman could not even marry his daughter without going to the Castle for assistance. The vulgar idea was, that when difficulties occurred, every personal obligation was discharged by “bringing the matter under the consideration of the Government;” and if, in addition to this, “a handsome support” was promised, it seldom meant more than helping to spend any public money that might be forthcoming. But it was reserved for that potent solvent, the Famine, to discover to the full extent, this element of the national character. To pass with safety through this great crisis, required that every man, from the highest nobleman to the meanest peasant, should exert himself to the utmost of his means and ability; instead of which, the entire unassisted burden of employing all the unemployed labourers of Ireland, of improving all the unimproved land of Ireland, and feeding all the destitute persons in Ireland, was heaped upon a Board consisting of five gentlemen, sitting in an office in Dublin. The example of the gentry was followed with customary exaggeration by the lower orders, and throughout extensive districts, the cultivation of the land was suspended in the spring of 1847 until it should be seen what “encouragement” the Government would give, or, as it was sometimes ingenuously expressed, “We expect the Government will till the ground.” It is also a fact that the people in some parts of the West of Ireland neglected to a great extent to lay in their usual winter stock of turf in 1847, owing to the prevalence of a popular impression that the Queen would supply them with coals. Ireland has awakened from this dream by the occurrence of the most frightful calamities, and it has at last begun to be understood that the proper business of a Government, is to enable private individuals of every rank and profession in life, to carry on their several occupations with freedom and safety, and not itself to undertake the business of the landowner, merchant, money-lender, or any other function of social life. Reason is now able to make herself heard, and there has not been wanting many a warning and encouraging voice from Ireland herself, declaring--“The prosperity of Ireland is only to be attained by your own strong arms. We are able to help ourselves. We will no longer be dependent on the precarious assistance received from other lands. We will never rest until every sod in Ireland brings forth abundantly--till every inch of ground is in its highest and fullest state of bearing. In a short time we shall have among us more industry and exertion, less politics and more ploughing, less argument and more action, less debating and more doing[67].”

The uniting power of a common misfortune has also been felt throughout the British Empire. Those who had never before exchanged words or looks of kindness, met to co-operate in this great work of charity, and good men recognised each other’s merits under the distinctions by which they had been previously separated. The Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy vied with each other in their exertions for the famishing and fever-stricken people, and in numerous instances their lives became a sacrifice to the discharge of their exhausting, harassing and dangerous duties. To the priests all were indebted for the readiness with which they made their influence over their flocks subservient to the cause of order; and the minister of religion was frequently summoned to the aid of the public officer when all other means of restraining the excited multitude had failed[68]. The political dissensions which had distracted Ireland for centuries became suddenly allayed. The famine was too strong even for the mighty demagogue, that great mixed character to whom Ireland owes so much good and so much evil. People of every shade of political opinion acted together, not always in an enlightened manner, but always cordially and earnestly, in making the social maladies of Ireland, and the means of healing them, the paramount object. In the hour of her utmost need, Ireland became sensible of an union of feeling and interest with the rest of the empire, which would have moved hearts less susceptible of every generous and grateful emotion than those of her sons and daughters[69]. Although the public efforts in her behalf were without parallel in ancient and modern history, and the private subscriptions were the largest ever raised for a charitable object, they were less remarkable than the absorbing interest with which her misfortunes were regarded for months together both in Parliament and in society, to the exclusion of almost every other topic. It will also never be forgotten that these efforts and these sacrifices were made at a time when England was herself suffering under a severe scarcity of food, aggravated by the failure of the cotton crop, and by the pecuniary exhaustion consequent upon the vast expenditure for the construction of railways. Even in such a state of things, though serious injury was done to all her interests by the Irish Loan, and though the pressure upon the labouring classes was greatly increased by the wholesale purchase of their food, that it might be given without cost to the starving Irish, yet every sacrifice was submitted to without a murmur by the great body of the people.

Although the process by which long-established habits are changed, and society is reconstructed on a new basis, must necessarily be slow, there are not wanting signs that we are advancing by sure steps towards the desired end. The cultivation of corn has to a great extent been substituted for that of the potato; the people have become accustomed to a better description of food than the potato[70]; conacre, and the excessive competition for land, have ceased to exist; the small holdings, which have become deserted, owing to death, or emigration, or the mere inability of the holders to obtain a subsistence from them in the absence of the potato, have, to a considerable extent, been consolidated with the adjoining farms; and the middlemen, whose occupation depends upon the existence of a numerous small tenantry, have begun to disappear. The large quantity of land left uncultivated in some of the western districts is a painful but decisive proof of the extent to which this change is taking place. The class of offences connected with the holding of land, which was the most difficult to deal with, because agrarian crimes were supported by the sympathy and approbation of the body of the people, and were generally the result of secret illegal associations, fell off in a remarkable degree[71]; and although offences against other kinds of property increased, owing to the general distress, the usual difficulty was not experienced in obtaining convictions. The much-desired change in the ownership of land appears also to have commenced; and when great estates are brought to the hammer now, instead of being sold, as formerly, _en masse_, they are broken up into lots[72], which opens the door to a middle class, more likely to become resident and improving proprietors than their predecessors, and better able to maintain the stability of property and of our political institutions, because they are themselves sprung from the people. The most wholesome symptom of all, however, is that a general impression prevails, that the plan of depending on external assistance has been tried to the utmost and has failed; that people have grown worse under it instead of better; and that the experiment ought now to be made of what independent exertion will do. This feeling has been much strengthened by the necessity which has been imposed upon the upper classes through the Poor Law, of caring for the condition of the people; and the attention of the country gentlemen has in many districts been seriously directed to the means of supporting them in a manner which will be alike beneficial to the employer and the employed.

The poet Spenser commences his view of the state of Ireland by these discouraging observations: “Marry, so there have been divers good plots devised, and wise counsels cast already about reformation of that realm, but they say it is the fatal destiny of that land, that no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, will prosper or take good effect; which, whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil, or influence of the stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation, or that he reserveth her in this inquiet state still for some secret scourge, which shall by her come into England, it is hard to be known, but yet much to be feared.” Our humble but sincere conviction is, that the appointed time of Ireland’s regeneration is at last come. For several centuries we were in a state of open warfare with the native Irish, who were treated as foreign enemies, and were not admitted to the privileges and civilising influences of English law, even when they most desired it. To this succeeded a long period of mixed religious and civil persecution[73], when the Irish were treated as the professors of a hostile faith, and had inflicted on them irritating and degrading penalties, of which exclusion from Parliament and from civil and military office was one of the least; the general characteristics of this epoch of Irish management being that the Protestant minority were governed by corruption, and the Roman Catholic majority by intimidation. During all this time England reaped as she sowed: and as she kept the people in a chronic state of exasperation against herself, none of her “good plots and wise counsels” for their benefit succeeded; for there was no want of good intention, and the fault was principally in the mistaken opinions of the age, which led to persecution in other countries besides Ireland. Now, thank God, we are in a different position; and although many waves of disturbance must pass over us before that troubled sea can entirely subside, and time must be allowed for morbid habits to give place to a more healthy action, England and Ireland are, with one great exception, subject to equal laws; and, so far as the maladies of Ireland are traceable to political causes, nearly every practicable remedy has been applied. The deep and inveterate root of social evil remained, and this has been laid bare by a direct stroke of an all-wise and all-merciful Providence, as if this part of the case were beyond the unassisted power of man. Innumerable had been the specifics which the wit of man had devised; but even the idea of the sharp but effectual, remedy by which the cure is likely to be effected had never occurred to any one. God grant that the generation to which this great opportunity has been offered, may rightly perform its part, and that we may not relax our efforts until Ireland fully participates in the social health and physical prosperity of Great Britain, which will be the true consummation of their union.

FOOTNOTES

[1] We have endeavoured to gather up all the threads of this strange tissue, so that every circumstance of importance connected with the measures of relief may be placed on record; but our narrative does not, except in a few instances, extend beyond September 1847, and the progress of events after that date will form the subject of a separate article.

[2] The author of this paper was the late Mr. Joseph Sabine, the Secretary to the Horticultural Society.

[3] Sir John Burgoyne’s letter to the “Times,” dated th October, 1847.

[4] The following description of the state of agriculture in West Clare, previously to the failure in the potato crop in 1845, is taken from a narrative by Captain Mann of the Royal Navy, who had for some time previously been stationed in that district, in charge of the Coast Guard, and when the distress commenced, he took an active and very useful part in assisting in the measures of relief: “Agriculture at that period was in a very neglected state; wheat, barley, and oats, with potatoes as the food of the poor, being the produce. Of the first very little was produced, and that not good in quality; barley, a larger proportion and good; oats, much greater, but inferior for milling purposes. Various reasons were given for this inferiority in produce, the quality of the land and deteriorated seed being the cause generally assigned; but I would say that the population being content with, and relying on, the produce of the potato as food--which had with very few exceptions hitherto proved abundant--there was a general neglect and want of any attempt at improvement. Green crops were all but unknown, except here and there a little turnip or mangel wurzel in the garden or field of the better class,--the former scarcely to be purchased. Even the potatoes were tilled in the easiest way, (in beds called ‘lazy beds’), not in drills, so that the hoe might in a very short time clear the weeds and lighten the soil.”

[5] We are indebted for these particulars to Mr. Mc Cullagh, who has lately collected the contemporary accounts of this famine. It appears that the farmers at this period did not dig their potatoes until about Christmas, and that few stored them at all for use.

[6] An interesting account by Mr. Bertolacci, of the manner in which this fund and that collected in 1831 were distributed, will be found in the “Morning Chronicle” of the 25th November, 1847.

[7] For the details of these operations see the following Parliamentary papers:--

“Copies of the Reports of Messrs. Griffith, Nimmo, and Killaly, the civil engineers employed during the late scarcity, in superintending the Public Works in Ireland; 16 April, 1823 (249).”

“Report from the Select Committee on the employment of the poor in Ireland; 16 July, 1823 (561).”

It is a remarkable testimony to the improvement effected by such works in the social habits of the people, that the district between the Shannon and the Blackwater, which was opened in four directions by the roads executed by Mr. Griffith, although formerly the seat of the Desmond Rebellion, and subsequently, in the year 1821, the asylum for Whiteboys and the focus of the Whiteboy warfare, during which time four regiments were required to repress outrage, became perfectly tranquil, and continued so up to the commencement of the late calamity.

[8] The following remarkable passage is extracted from the Report of the Dublin Mansion House Committee, dated the 22nd October, 1831:--

“But while the Mansion House Committee thus congratulate themselves and the subscribers upon the success of their efforts to avert famine and disease for a season from so considerable a portion of the island, they owe it also to themselves and the subscribers to avow their honest conviction that similar calls will be periodically made on public benevolence, unless a total change be effected in the condition of the Irish peasant. What means should be adopted to remedy these evils it is not the province of this Committee to suggest; but they deem it their duty to call the attention of the subscribers particularly to this state of things, in the hope of some remedy being discovered and applied before public benevolence is quite exhausted by repeated drains on its sympathy.”

On the 21st May, 1838, the Duke of Wellington made the following observations in the debate on the introduction of the Irish Poor Law:--“There never was a country in which poverty existed to so great a degree as it exists in Ireland. I held a high situation in that country thirty years ago, and I must say, that, from that time to this, there has scarcely elapsed a single year, in which the Government has not at certain periods of it entertained the most serious apprehension of actual famine. I am firmly convinced that from the year 1806, down to the present time, a year has not passed in which the Government have not been called on to give assistance to relieve the poverty and distress which prevailed in Ireland.”

[9] The particulars of what took place on this occasion will be found in a letter from the Poor Law Commissioners to Sir J. Graham, dated the 9th June, 1842, and in a statement dated 18th August, 1842, prepared under the directions of the Irish Government, showing “the sums issued for the relief of distress in Ireland from the 17th June to the 17th August, 1842,” &c.

[10] This Return is for sums “advanced on loan since the Union,” but in some cases the advances have not been repaid, and in others large grants were made in addition to loans.

[11] “Observations upon certain evils arising out of the present state of the Laws of Real Property in Ireland, and Suggestions for remedying the same.”--Dublin: Alex. Thom, 1847. The author of this pamphlet is Mr. Booth, who has for many years past held the responsible office of Clerk of the Survey in Ireland, under the Master-General and Board of Ordnance. It will be seen by a perusal of the pamphlet, that this able and deserving officer has fully availed himself of the opportunities which his situation afforded, for making himself acquainted with the social state of Ireland; and that he has successfully applied to the consideration of the subject, that practical ability from which the public service has derived so much benefit.

[12] “Observations on the evils resulting to Ireland from the insecurity of Title and the existing Laws of Real Property, with some Suggestions towards a remedy.”--Dublin: Hodges and Smith. London: Ridgway; 1847. The author of this pamphlet is Mr. Jonathan Pim, who, in the capacity of joint secretary, with Mr. Joseph Bewley, of the Dublin Friends’ Relief Committee, took the lead in the admirably benevolent and practical measures adopted by that excellent society for the relief of the distress, and the re-establishment of the industry of Ireland on a more secure and satisfactory footing than before. Mr. Pim is also the author of a more extended work, entitled “The Condition and Prospects of Ireland,” which has just been published, and which, if we mistake not, will prove one of the most useful publications which have yet appeared on this deeply interesting subject.

[13] It is perfectly true that the unembarrassed holder of an entailed estate is often not sufficiently owner of it to be able to do justice to it. He cannot sell a portion to improve the remainder, however much both the part sold and the part retained would be benefited by it. He can burden the estate to provide for younger children’s portions, but not to carry on improvements which would increase its annual produce. Improvements are generally made out of capital, and not out of income. Owners of entailed estates, for the most part, live up to their means; and when they do not, their savings are seldom sufficient to carry on works of any importance. Over the capital sum representing the aggregate value of the estate, they have no command, except for purposes which make them poorer, and consequently still less able to execute any useful design. At the present crisis of our national affairs, it behoves us to consider what course will be the best both for the landowners and for the community at large. There is a fearful surplus population in Ireland and the north-western part of Scotland which must be provided for; while in England itself thousands of railway labourers and Irish paupers roam unemployed about the country; and the question is, whether, by removing the obstacles which at present oppose the profitable employment of the enormous capital invested in land, we might not obtain new resources which would enrich the owners of land, diffuse comfort and enjoyment in each locality, and help to provide for the unemployed population which is sitting like an incubus upon all the three kingdoms.

[14] The following Table gives the leading particulars relating to the estates under the management of the Courts in Ireland during the years 1841-2 and 3:

_Court of Chancery._

+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
| | | | Arrears of Rent. |
| |No. Of| Rental of +-----------------+----------------+
| |Causes| Estates. | When Receiver | When Receiver |
| | | | was appointed. | last accounted.|
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
| | | £ s. d.| £ s. d. | £ s. d. |
| 1841. | 698 |598,635 13 10¾| 39,358 16 4½ |347,226 14 10 |
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
| 1842. | 595 |548,783 12 9 | 3,105 0 10 |299,554 10 8 |
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
| 1843. | 764 |563,022 2 4 | 39,265 13 1 |290,292 4 10 |
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
|Average of | 686 |570,147 2 11¾| 27,243 3 5 |312,357 16 10 |
|three years| | | | |
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+
| | | _Court of Exchequer._ | |
|From 1836 | | | | |
|to 1843 | 316 |132,675 2 3 | 56,163 6 6 | 87,849 0 11¼ |
|inclusive. | | | | |
+-----------+------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+

The arrears of rent have since greatly increased, although the object of the Courts is confined to getting in the Rents, improvements being seldom attempted. The condition of the people on these neglected, and with reference to their present state of cultivation, over-populated estates, is melancholy in the extreme.

[15] “Observations upon certain evils,” &c.

[16] “Observations upon certain evils,” &c.

[17] “Observations upon certain evils,” &c.

[18] “Observations on the evils resulting to Ireland,” &c.

[19] Treasury Minute, October 15, 1847.

[20] These useful reforms were suggested by Mr. Pierce Mahony, who is entitled to the gratitude of the public, for the perseverance and ability with which he has, for many years past, with little encouragement either from the public or from those who have administered the Government of the country, advocated these and other measures directed to the extremely important object of simplifying, facilitating, and rendering more secure the transfer and tenure of land.

[21] The year 1845 was the second and worst in America; and in 1846, although it still extensively prevailed, the disease was of a milder type and only partially affected the crop.

[22] The following extract from Captain Mann’s Narrative, descriptive of what took place at this period in the county of Clare, will be read with interest: “The early culture of 1846 was in no way improved; a great proportion of the land was again tilled with potatoes, under the expectation that, as in former years, the late scarcity would be followed by a bountiful supply. The first alarm was in the latter part of July, when the potatoes showed symptoms of the previous year’s disease; but I shall never forget the change in one week in August. On the first occasion, on an official visit of inspection, I had passed over thirty-two miles thickly studded with potato fields in full bloom. The next time the face of the whole country was changed; the stalk remained bright green, but the leaves were all scorched black. It was the work of a night. Distress and fear was pictured in every countenance, and there was a general rush to dig and sell, or consume the crop by feeding pigs and cattle, fearing in a short time they would prove unfit for any use. Consequently there was a very wasteful expenditure, and distress showed itself much earlier than in the preceding season.”

[23] The following extract from Captain Mann’s Narrative will give some idea of the difficulty of prevailing on the people to have recourse to the new food:--“The first issue of Indian corn meal was in March, 1846. It is impossible to conceive the strong prejudice against it; and I may here bear testimony to the benevolent and right feeling of the Rev. J. Kenny, P P. Previously to the sale of the meal being commenced, a small portion was sent to me by Commissary-General (now Sir Edward) Coffin, which I placed in the hands of the reverend gentleman. He tried and approved of it, and in order to overcome any feeling against it, subsequently, with his two curates, all but entirely lived on the meal made into bread and stirabout, for nearly a fortnight using all his influence to convince the people that the pernicious effects ascribed to it were untrue. Such conduct is above any praise of mine. The success attending this measure, it is quite unnecessary for me to allude to; and the merchants profiting by the example, commenced a trade new to them by importing the article.” The use of Indian corn meal was adopted in hundreds of households of the higher classes, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, besides that of Father Kenny, for the purpose of overcoming the popular prejudice by the force of example. The Society of Arts awarded a gold medal to Mr. O’Brien, baker, of Leinster Street, Dublin, for the attention paid by him to the introduction of cheap popular modes of preparing Indian corn for use; and tens of thousands of pamphlets and printed sheets were distributed through the Commissariat containing instructions for cooking the Indian corn, and showing the people what other cheap descriptions of food were available to them. Those who know how difficult it is to induce a large population to adopt new habits, will be surprised at the success which attended these efforts. The “yellow meal,” as it is called, was first known as “Peel’s brimstone,” and it was remembered that the attempt to introduce it in a former season of distress occasioned a popular commotion, arising from the absurd notion that it had the effect of turning those who ate it black.

[24] This minute will be found from pages 67 to 71 of the first Board of Works Series of Parliamentary Papers for 1847.

[25] A member of the Board of Works, writing to a friend, observed as follows:--“I hope never to see such a winter and spring again. I can truly say, in looking back upon it, even now, that it appears to me, not a succession of weeks and days, but one long continuous day, with occasional intervals of nightmare sleep. Rest one could never have, night nor day, when one felt that in every minute lost a score of men might die.”

[26] An officer of the Board of Works, observing the emaciated condition of the labourers, reported that, as an engineer, he was ashamed of allotting so little task-work for a day’s wages, while, as a man, he was ashamed of requiring so much. In some districts proof of attendance was obliged to be considered sufficient to entitle the labourer to his wages. The exhausted state of the workmen was one main cause of the small quantity of work done compared with the money expended. The Irish peasant had been accustomed to remain at home, cowering over his turf fire, during the inclement season of the year, and exposure to the cold and rain on the roads, without sufficient food or clothing, greatly contributed to the prevailing sickness. In order to obviate this as far as possible, a Circular Letter was issued by the Board of Works (1st series of 1847, page 499) directing that, in case of snow or heavy rain, the labourers should merely attend roll call in the morning, and be entered on the pay list for half a day’s pay; and if it afterwards became fine, they were to come to work, which would entitle them to a further allowance.

[27] In this month (March) the expenditure upon the Relief Works was heaviest, viz.:--

Labour and Plant £1,024,518
Extra Staff 26,254
----------
Per Month £1,050,772

In the Week ending 13 March, 1847,
the expenditure for all the above
services was £259,105
which gives a Daily average for
that week 43,184
On the 5th March there was remitted
into the interior for carrying on
Relief Works 68,000
On the 30th March, only 16,000
These two are the extremes during the month.
The mean (for the month) of daily
remittance 38,920

[28] The proceedings of the Government, in reference to this point, are fully explained in a letter from Mr. Trevelyan to Colonel Jones, and in the accompanying Treasury Minute, printed in the first Board of Works Series for 1847, page 97 to 100.

[29] See page 44 of the first Board of Works Series of 1847.

[30] The following shows the extent of the Government interference in the supply of food in the two seasons of 1845-46 and 1846-47:--

+--------------------------------------------+--------------+---------+ | | Reduced | | | | to general | | | | denomination | Cost. | | | of | | | | quarters. | | | +--------------+---------+ |Total quantity of Indian Corn and Oatmeal | | £ | | provided for the Relief Service during the | | | | first season of distress, up to August 1846| 98,810 | 163,240 | | +--------------+---------+ |Of this quantity there remained in store | | | | at the close of the first season of the | 14,575 | 24,073 | | operations | | | | | | | |Total quantity of provisions of all kinds | | | | (Indian Corn, Wheat, Barley, the meal | | | | of those grains, Ryemeal, Biscuit, Peas, | | | | Beans, and Rice) provided for the Relief | | | | Service, during the second season of | | | | distress up to September 1847 | 289,335 | 672,767 | | +--------------+---------+ | | 303,910 | 696,840 | | +--------------+---------+ |There remained in store at the close of | | | | the second season of the operations, about | 108,960 | 249,836 | +--------------------------------------------+--------------+---------+

[31] This was the amount of the private subscriptions upon which Government donations were made; but other large sums were raised by local Irish subscriptions, through the medium of some of the Relief Committees, of which no account was furnished to the Government, because the Committees concerned would not submit to the rule of selling at cost price except in cases of extreme destitution. Large funds were also administered by private individuals, quite independently of the Local Relief Committees; of which class of operations the following account of the expenditure of a Protestant clergyman in the south-west of Ireland, with a parish of 10,000 inhabitants, no resident gentry, not a single town in the whole of it, nor a road through the greater part of it, may be taken as a specimen:--