1847 and 1848.
In the summer of 1847, when Bill-Ned’s decree was executed on our
house, and when all the furniture was canted, notice of eviction was
served upon my mother. The agent was a cousin of ours, and he told my
mother it was better for her to give up the land quietly, and he would
do all he could to help her. She had four children who were not able to
do much work on a farm. She had no money, and she could not till the
land. There were four houses included in the lease--our own house, Jack
McCart’s house across the street, Jack Barrett’s house next door above
us, and Darby Holland’s house next door below. Darby Holland had died
lately, and he would get her his house rent-free during her life, and
give her £12 on account of the wheat crop growing in the strand field,
and let her have the potato crop that was growing in the hill field. My
mother accepted the terms, and we moved into Darby Holland’s house.
The previous two bad years had involved us in debt; friends were
security for us in the small loan banks in Ross and in Leap, and as far
as the twelve pounds went my mother gave it to pay those debts. To give
my mind some exercise in Millbank prison one time, I occupied it doing
a sum in Voster’s rule of Interest, regarding those little loan-banks.
I made myself a banker. I loaned a hundred pounds out of my bank one
week, I got a hundred shillings for giving the loan of it; I got it
paid back to me in twenty weeks--a hundred shillings every week.
I loaned it out again as fast as I got it, and at the end of fifty-two
weeks, I had one hundred and forty-seven pounds and some odd shillings.
That was forty seven per cent. for my money. I wish some of my tenants
on the UNITED IRISHMAN estate would now go at doing that sum in the
rule of Interest-upon-Interest, and let me know if I did it correctly.
’Tis an interesting exercise to go at, if you have leisure time; you
cannot do it by any rule of arithmetic; I give out a hundred pounds
the first week, and get in on it a hundred shillings interest; I lend
out that hundred shillings, and get in on it five shillings: I hold
that five shillings in my treasury till next week; next week I get in
a hundred and five shillings; I lend out five pounds, and get in on it
five shillings interest; I have now a hundred and ten borrowers for the
third week, and have fifteen shillings in the treasury. So on, to the
end of the twenty weeks, and to the end of the year, when my hundred
pounds will have amounted up to £147.
The harvest time of 1847 came on. The potato crop failed again. The
blight came on in June. In July there was not a sign of a potato stalk
to be seen on the land. My brother John and I went up to the hill field
to dig the potatoes. I carried the basket and he carried the spade. He
was the digger and I was the picker. He digged over two hundred yards
of a piece of a ridge and all the potatoes I had picked after him
would not fill a skillet. They were not larger than marbles; they were
minions and had a reddish skin. When I went home, and laid the basket
on the floor, my mother looking at the contents of it exclaimed: “Oh!
na geinidighe dearga death-chuin!” which I would translate into English
as “Oh the miserable scarlet tithelings.”
I will now pass on to the year 1848. In our new house there was a shop
one time, and a shop window. The shop counter had been put away; the
window remained; that window had outside shutters to it, but those
shutters were never taken down. One morning we found pasted on the
shutters a large printed bill. My mother read it, and after reading it,
she tore it down. It was the police that had posted it up during the
night. It was an account of the unfavorable reception the delegation of
Young Irelanders had met with in Paris, when they went over to present
addresses of congratulation to the new revolutionary provisional
government.
France had had a revolution in February, 1848. The monarchical
government had been overthrown, and was succeeded by a republican
government. King Louis Phillippe fled to England--as the street ballad
of the time says:
Old King Phillippe was so wise,
He shaved his whiskers, for disguise;
He wrap’d himself in an old grey coat
And to Dover he sail’d in an oyster boat.
That you may understand thoroughly what I am speaking about, I quote
the following passages from John Mitchel’s history of Ireland:
“Frankly, and at once, the Confederation accepted the only policy
thereafter possible, and acknowledged the meaning of the European
revolutions. On the 15th of March, O’Brien moved an address of
congratulation to the victorious French people, and ended his speech
with these words:
“‘It would be recollected that a short time ago, he thought it his
duty to deprecate all attempts to turn the attention of the people to
military affairs, because it seemed to him that in the then condition
of the country the only effect of leading the people’s mind to what
was called “a guerilla warfare,” would be to encourage some of the
misguided peasantry to the commission of murder. Therefore it was that
he declared he should not be a party to giving such a recommendation.
But the state of affairs was totally different now, and he had no
hesitation in declaring that he thought the minds of intelligent young
men should be turned to the consideration of such questions as--How
strong places can be captured, and weak ones defended--how supplies of
food and ammunition can be cut off from an enemy, and how they can be
secured to a friendly force. The time was also come when every lover of
his country should come forward openly and proclaim his willingness to
be enrolled as a member of a national guard. No man, however, should
tender his name as a member of that national guard unless he was
prepared to do two things: one, to preserve the State from anarchy; the
other, to be prepared to die for the defence of his country.’
“Addresses, both from the confederation and from the city, were to be
presented in Paris, to the President of the Provisional government, M.
de Lamartine; and O’Brien, Meagher and an intelligent tradesman named
Hollywood, were appointed a deputation to Paris.
“These were mere addresses of congratulation and sympathy. De Lamartine
made a highly poetic, but rather unmeaning reply to them. He has since,
in his history, virulently misrepresented them; being, in fact, a
mere Anglo-Frenchman. Mr. O’Brien has already convicted him of these
misrepresentations.”
It was that “unmeaning reply” of Lamartine’s that the English
government placarded all over Ireland one night in ’48. It was that
poster I saw my mother tear down next morning. It is that memory,
implanted in my mind very early in my life, that makes me take very
little stock in all the talk that is made by Irishmen about France or
Russia, or any other nation doing anything to free Ireland for us. They
may do it, if it will be to their own interest to do it.
My friend, Charles G. Doran, of the Cove of Cork, comes to my
assistance at this stage of my writing. He sends me a full copy of all
that was printed on that poster which my mother tore down. He says:
MY DEAR FRIEND ROSSA:
I was struck when reading your exceedingly interesting
“Recollections,” by two things, which I am sure must have
struck others of your readers also--viz, that your mother must
have been a very intelligent woman, and a very patriotic woman,
to discern and so promptly resent the insult offered to the
Irish people by the government, in printing and placarding
the cowardly cringing pro-English reply of Lamartine to the
thoroughly sincere and whole-hearted address of congratulation
presented by the Irish deputation to the new provisional
government of France. It would hardly surprise one to learn
that the pro-English spirit pervading Lamartine’s reply was
prompted by English influence--influence that, though working
in direct opposition to the establishment of the Republic, was
not adverse to availing of the new order of things to give a
_coup de grace_ to Irish hopes for sympathy from that quarter.
Almost as soon as Lamartine had spoken his wretched response,
the English government had it printed in the stereotyped
Proclamation form, and copies of it sent to all parts of
Ireland, and posted by the police on the barracks, courthouses,
churches, chapels, market-houses--public places of every
description--aye, even on big trees by the roadside--anywhere
and everywhere that it would be likely to be seen. And it was
seen, and read, and commented on, and criticised and bitterly
denounced, and no matter what may be said to the contrary,
it had the effect that England desired--it disheartened and
weakened the ranks of the young Irelanders. At first, the
accuracy of the proclamation was doubted, but a couple of days
served to dispel the doubt which gave place to dismay and
disappointment, and England scored; substituting confidence for
uncertainty and uneasiness--Lamartine, her ally--not her enemy!
As there are few Irishmen living at present who have ever read
that document, or, perhaps, ever heard of its existence until
referred to in your “Recollections,” I have transcribed it
from an original copy, and send the transcript to you as you
may find a nook for it in your pages some time or another.
Here it is:
REPLY OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT TO THE IRISH DEPUTATION.
“PARIS, Monday, April 3, 1848.--This being the day fixed by
the Provisional government for the reception of the members
of the Irish deputation, Mr. Smith O’Brien and the other
members of the Irish confederation went to the Hotel de
Ville to-day at half-past three to present their address.
They were received by Mr. Lamartine alone; none of the
other members of the Provisional government being present.
Besides the address of the Irish Confederation, addresses
were presented at the same time by Mr. R. O’Gorman, Jr.,
from citizens of Dublin; by Mr. Meagher from the Repealers
of Manchester, and by Mr. McDermott from the members of the
Irish confederation resident in Liverpool. M. Lamartine
replied to the whole of these addresses in one speech as
follows:
“_Citizens of Ireland_!--If we required a fresh proof of
the pacific influence of the proclamation of the great
democratic principle, this new Christianity, bursting
forth at the opportune moment, and dividing the world, as
formerly, into a Pagan and Christian community--we should
assuredly discern this proof of the omnipotent action of
the idea, in the visits spontaneously paid in this city to
Republican France, and the principles which animate her,
by the nations or by sections of the nations of Europe.
“We are not astonished to see to-day a deputation from
Ireland. Ireland knows how deeply her destinies, her
sufferings and her successive advances in the path of
religious liberty, of unity and of constitutional equality
with the other parts of the United Kingdom, have at all
times moved the heart of Europe!
“We said as much, a few days ago, to another deputation of
your fellow citizens. We said as much to all the children
of that glorious Isle of Erin, which the natural genius of
its inhabitants, and the striking events of its history
render equally symbolical of the poetry and the heroism of
the nations of the north.
“Rest assured, therefore, that you will find in France,
under the Republic, a response to all the sentiments you
express toward it.
“Tell your fellow citizens that the name of Ireland is
synonymous with the name of liberty courageously defended
against privilege--that it is one common name to every
French citizen! Tell them that this reciprocity which
they invoke--that this hospitality of which they are not
oblivious--the Republic will be proud to remember, and
to practise invariably toward the Irish. Tell them above
all, that the French Republic is not, and never will be an
aristocratic Republic, in which liberty is merely abused
as the mask of privilege; but a Republic embracing the
entire community, and securing to all, the same rights and
the same benefits. _As regards other encouragements it
would neither be expedient for us to hold them out, nor
for you to receive them. I have already expressed the
same opinion with reference to Germany, Belgium and Italy,
and I repeat it with reference to every nation which is
involved in internal disputes--which is either divided
against itself or at variance with its government._ When
there is a difference of race--when nations are aliens in
blood--intervention is not allowable. We belong to no party
in Ireland or elsewhere, except to that which contends
for justice, for liberty, and for happiness of the Irish
people. No other party would be acceptable to us in time
of peace. In the interests and the passions of foreign
nations, France is desirous of reserving herself free for
the maintenance of the rights of all.
“_We are at peace, and we are desirous of remaining on good
terms of equality, not with this or that part of Great
Britain, but with Great Britain entire. We believe this
peace to be useful and honorable, not only to Great Britain
and the French Republic, but to the human race._ We will
not commit an act--we will not utter a word--we will not
breathe an insinuation at variance with the reciprocal
inviolability of nations which we have proclaimed, and of
which the continent of Europe is already gathering the
fruits. The fallen monarchy had treaties and diplomatists.
Our diplomatists are nations--our treaties are sympathies!
We should be insane were we openly to exchange such a
diplomacy for unmeaning and partial alliances with even the
most legitimate parties in the countries which surround
us. We are not competent either to judge them or to prefer
some of them to others; by announcing our partisanship of
the one side we should declare ourselves the enemies of
the other. We do not wish to be the enemies of any of your
fellow countrymen. We wish, on the contrary, by a faithful
observance of the Republican pledges, to remove all the
prejudices which may mutually exist between our neighbors
and ourselves.
“This course, however painful it may be, is imposed on
us by the law of nations, as well as by our historical
remembrances.
“Do you know what it was which most served to irritate
France and estrange her from England during the first
Republic? It was the Civil War in a portion of her
territory, supported, subsidized, and assisted by Mr. Pitt.
It was the encouragement and the arms given to Frenchmen,
as heroical as yourselves, but Frenchmen fighting against
their fellow citizens. This was not honorable warfare.
It was a Royalist propagandism, waged with French blood
against the Republic. This policy is not yet, in spite
of all our efforts, entirely effaced from the memory of
the nation. _Well! this cause of dissension between Great
Britain and us, we will never renew by taking any similar
course._ We accept with gratitude expressions of friendship
from the different nationalities included in the British
Empire. We ardently wish that justice may be found, and
strengthen the friendship of races: that equality may
become more and more its basis; but while proclaiming with
you, with her (Great Britain), and with all, the holy dogma
of fraternity, we will perform only acts of brotherhood, in
conformity with our principles, and our feelings toward the
Irish nation.”
There is the text of the document. It is printed with Great
Primer No. 1 type, except the underlined portions which, to
attract special attention, and convey an “Aha! see now what
France will do for you?” are printed with English Clarendon on
Great Primer body--an intensely black thick type.
Well, friend Rossa, that cowering Frenchman is dead, and that
Republic which he so zealously guarded in the interest of
England--not the Republic of the present, glory to it--is dead
too! Had Lamartine lived to witness the revival of Trafalgar
memories a few days ago, after a period of ninety years, I
believe that he would bitterly regret ever having given birth
to that disheartening document.
Hoping that you and yours are well, I am my dear friend Rossa,
Ever Faithfully Yours,
C. G. DORAN.