THE FAMINE.
It had often been predicted by writers on the state of Ireland, that,
owing to the rottenness at the foundation of the social fabric, it
would come down with a crash some day. The facts reported by the
census commissioners of 1841 showed that this consummation could not
be far off. Out of a population of 8,000,000, there were 3,700,000
above the age of five years who could neither read nor write; while
nearly three millions and a half lived in mud cabins, badly thatched
with straw, having each but one room, and often without either a
window or a chimney. These figures indicate a mass of ignorance
and poverty, which could not be contemplated without alarm, and the
subject was, therefore, constantly pressed upon the attention of
parliament. As usual in cases of difficulty, the Government, feeling
that something should be done, and not knowing what to do, appointed
in 1845 a commission to enquire into the relations between landlords
and tenants, and the condition of the working classes. At the head of
this commission was the Earl of Devon, a benevolent nobleman, whose
sympathies were on the side of the people. Captain Kennedy, the
secretary to the commissioners, published a digest of the report of
the evidence, which presented the facts in a readable form, and was
the means of diffusing a large amount of authentic information on the
state of Ireland. The commissioners travelled through the country,
held courts of enquiry, and examined witnesses of all classes. As the
result of their extensive intercourse with the farming classes, and
their own observations, they were enabled to state that in almost
every part of Ireland unequivocal symptoms of improvement, in spite
of many embarrassing and counteracting circumstances, continually
presented themselves to the view, and that there existed a very
general and increasing spirit and desire for the promotion of such
improvement, from which the most beneficial results might fairly be
expected.
Indeed, speaking of the country generally, they add: 'With some
exceptions, which are unfortunately too notorious, we believe that at
no former period did so active a spirit of improvement prevail; nor
could well directed measures for the attainment of that object have
been proposed with a better prospect of success than at the present
moment.'
But this improvement produced no sensible effect upon the condition
of the labouring people. However brightly the sun of prosperity might
gild the eminences of society, the darkness of misery and despair
settled upon the masses below. The commissioners proceed: 'A
reference to the evidence of most of the witnesses will show that
the agricultural labourer of Ireland continues to suffer the greatest
privations and hardships; that he continues to depend upon casual and
precarious employment for subsistence; that he is still badly housed,
badly fed, badly clothed, and badly paid for his labour. Our personal
experience and observation during our enquiry have afforded us a
melancholy confirmation of these statements; and we cannot forbear
expressing our strong sense of the patient endurance which the
labouring classes have generally exhibited under sufferings greater,
we believe, than the people of any other country in Europe have to
sustain.' It was deeply felt that the well-being of the whole United
Kingdom depended upon the removal of the causes of this misery and
degradation; for if the Irish people were not elevated, the English
working classes must be brought down to their level. The facility of
travelling afforded by railways and steam-boats caused such constant
intercourse between England and Ireland, that Irish ignorance,
beggary, and disease, with all their contagion, physical and moral,
would be found intermingling with the British population. It would be
impossible to prevent the half-starved Irish peasantry from crossing
the Channel, and seeking employment, even at low wages, and forming a
pestiferous Irish quarter in every town and city. The question, then,
was felt to be one whose settlement would brook no further delay.
It was found that the potato was almost the only food of the Irish
millions, and that it formed their chief means of obtaining the other
necessaries of life. A large portion of this crop was grown under the
system, to which the poorest of the peasantry were obliged to have
recourse, notwithstanding the minute subdivision of land. There were
in 1841, 691,000 farms in Ireland exceeding one acre in extent.
Nearly one half of these were under five acres each. The number
of proprietors in fee was estimated at 8,000--a smaller number, in
proportion to the extent of territory, than in any other country of
Western Europe except Spain. In Connaught, several proprietors had
100,000 acres each, the proportion of small farms being greater there
than in the rest of Ireland. The total number of farms in the province
was 155,842, and of these 100,254 consisted of from one to five acres.
If all the proprietors were resident among their tenantry, and were
in a position to encourage their industry and care for their welfare,
matters would not have been so bad; but most of the large landowners
were absentees. It frequently happened that the large estates
were held in strict limitation, and they were nearly all heavily
encumbered. The owners preferred living in England or on the
Continent, having let their lands on long leases, or in perpetuity
to 'middlemen,' who sublet them for as high rents as they could get.
Their tenants again sublet, so that it frequently happened that two,
three, or four landlords intervened between the proprietor and the
occupying tenant, each deriving an interest from the land. The head
landlord, therefore, though ever so well disposed, had no power
whatever to help the occupying tenants generally, and of those who
had the power very few felt disposed. There were extensive districts
without a single resident proprietor.
For a few weeks after the blight of the potato crop in 1846 the
cottiers and small farmers managed to eke out a subsistence by the
sale of their pigs and any little effects they had. But pigs, fowl,
furniture, and clothing soon went, one after another, to satisfy the
cravings of hunger. The better class of farmers lived upon their corn
and cattle; but they were obliged to dismiss their servants, and this
numerous class became the first victims of starvation; for when they
were turned off, they were refused admission by their relations, who
had not the means of feeding them. Tailors, shoemakers, and other
artisans who worked for the lower orders, lost their employment, and
became destitute also. While the means of support failed upon every
side, and food rose to such enormous prices that everything that
could possibly be eaten was economised, so that the starving dogs were
drowned from compassion, the famine steadily advanced from the west
and south to the east and north, till it involved the whole population
in its crushing grasp. It was painfully interesting to mark the
progress of the visitation, even in those parts of the country where
its ravages were least felt. The small farmer had only his corn,
designed for rent and seed: he was obliged to take it to the mill
to ward off starvation. The children of the poor, placed on short
allowance, were suffering fearfully from hunger. Mothers, heart-broken
and worn down to skeletons, were seen on certain days proceeding
in groups to some distant depôt, where Indian meal was to be had at
reduced prices, but still double that of the ordinary market. As they
returned to their children, with their little bags on their heads, a
faint joy lit up their famine-stricken features.
When the visitors entered a village their first question was: 'How
many deaths?' '_The hunger is upon us_,' was everywhere the cry; and
involuntarily they found themselves regarding this hunger as they
would an epidemic, looking upon starvation as a disease. In fact, as
they passed along, their wonder was, not that the people died, but
that they lived; and Mr. W.G. Forster, in his report, said: 'I have
no doubt whatever, that in any other country the mortality would have
been far greater; and that many lives have been prolonged, perhaps
saved, by the long apprenticeship to want in which the Irish peasant
has been trained, and by that lovely, touching charity which prompts
him to share his scanty meal with his starving neighbour. But the
springs of this charity must be rapidly dried up. Like a scourge of
locusts, _the hunger_ daily sweeps over fresh districts, eating up all
before it. One class after another is falling into the same abyss of
ruin.'[1]
[Footnote 1: Transactions during the Famine in Ireland, Appendix III.]
The same benevolent gentleman describes the domestic scenes he saw in
Connaught, where the poor Celts were carried off in thousands:--
'We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely visible
from the smoke and rags that covered them, were three children huddled
together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and
ghastly; their little limbs, on removing a portion of the covering,
perfectly emaciated; eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last
stage of actual starvation. Crouched over the turf embers was another
form, wild and all but naked, scarcely human in appearance. It stirred
not nor noticed us. On some straw, soddened upon the ground, moaning
piteously, was a shrivelled old woman, imploring us to give her
something, baring her limbs partly to show how the skin hung loose
from her bones, as soon as she attracted our attention. Above her,
on something like a ledge, was a young woman with sunken cheeks, a
mother, I have no doubt, who scarcely raised her eyes in answer to
our enquiries; but pressed her hand upon her forehead, with a look
of unutterable anguish and despair. Many cases were widows, whose
husbands had been recently taken off by the fever, and thus their only
pittance obtained from the public works was entirely cut off. In many
the husbands or sons were prostrate under that horrid disease--the
result of long-continued famine and low living--in which first the
limbs and then the body swell most frightfully, and finally burst. We
entered upwards of fifty of these tenements. The scene was invariably
the same, differing in little but the manner of the sufferers, or of
the groups occupying the several corners within. The whole number was
often not to be distinguished, until the eye having adapted itself
to the darkness, they were pointed out, or were heard, or some filthy
bundle of rags and straw was seen to move. Perhaps the poor children
presented the most piteous and heart-rending spectacle. Many were
too weak to stand, their little limbs attenuated, except where the
frightful swellings had taken the place of previous emaciation. Every
infantile expression had entirely departed; and, in some reason and
intelligence had evidently flown. Many were remnants of families,
crowded together in one cabin; orphaned little relatives taken in by
the equally destitute, and even strangers--for these poor people are
kind to each other, even to the end. In one cabin was a sister, just
dying, lying beside her little brother, just dead. I have worse than
this to relate; but it is useless to multiply details, and they are,
in fact, unfit.'
In December, 1846, Father Mathew wrote to Mr. Trevelyan, then
secretary of the treasury, that men, women, and children
were gradually wasting away. They filled their stomachs with
cabbage-leaves, turnip-tops, &c., to appease the cravings of hunger.
There were then more than 5,000 half-starved wretches from the country
begging in the streets of Cork. When utterly exhausted, they crawled
to the workhouse to die. The average of deaths in that union was then
over a hundred a week.
From December 27, in 1846, to the middle of April, in 1847, the number
of human beings that died in the Cork workhouse was 2,130! And in the
third week of the following month the free interments in the Mathew
cemetery had risen to 277--as many as sixty-seven having been buried
in one day. The destruction of human life in other workhouses of
Ireland kept pace with the appalling mortality in the Cork workhouse.
According to official returns, it had reached in April the weekly
average of twenty-five per 1,000 inmates; the actual number of deaths
being 2,706 for the week ending April 3, and 2,613 in the following
week. Yet the number of inmates in the Irish workhouses was but
104,455 on April 10.
The size of the unions was a great impediment to the working of
the poor law. They were three times the extent of the corresponding
divisions in England. In Munster and Connaught, where there was the
greatest amount of destitution, and the least amount of local agency
available for its relief, the unions were much larger than in the
more favoured provinces of Ulster and Leinster. The union of Ballina
comprised a region of upwards of half a million acres, and within
its desert tracts the famine assumed its most appalling form, the
workhouse being more than forty miles distant from some of the
sufferers. As a measure of precaution, the Government had secretly
imported and stored a large quantity of Indian corn, as a cheap
substitute for the potato, which would have served the purpose much
better had the people been instructed in the best modes of cooking it.
It was placed in commissariat, along depôts the western coast of the
island, where the people were not likely to be supplied on reasonable
terms through the ordinary channels of trade. The public works
consisted principally of roads, on which, the men were employed as
a sort of supplement to the poor law. Half the cost was a free grant
from the treasury, and the other half was charged upon the barony
in which the works were undertaken. The expense incurred under the
'Labour Rate Act, 9 and 10 Viet. c. 107,' amounted to 4,766,789 l. It
was almost universally admitted, when the pressure was over, that
the system of public works adopted was a great mistake; and it seems
wonderful that such grievous blunders could have been made with so
many able statesmen and political economists at the head of affairs
and in the service of the Government. The public works undertaken
consisted in the breaking up of good roads to level hills and fill
hollows, and the opening of new roads in places where they were not
required--works which the people felt to be useless, and at which they
laboured only under strong compulsion, being obliged to walk to them
in all weathers for miles, in order to earn the price of a breakfast
of Indian meal. Had the labour thus comparatively wasted been devoted
to the draining, sub-soiling, and fencing of the farms, connected
with a comprehensive system of arterial drainage, immense and lasting
benefit to the country would have been the result, especially as
works so well calculated to ameliorate the soil, and guard against the
moisture of the climate, might have been connected with a system of
instruction in agricultural matters of which the peasantry stood so
much in need, and to the removal of the gross ignorance which had so
largely contributed to bring about the famine. As it was, enormous
sums were wasted. Much needless hardship was inflicted on the starving
people in compelling them to work in frost and rain when they were
scarcely able to walk, and, after all the vast outlay, very few traces
of it remained in permanent improvements on the face of the country.
The system of government relief works failed chiefly through the
same difficulty which impeded every mode of relief, whether public or
private--namely, the want of machinery to work it. It was impossible
suddenly to procure an efficient staff of officers for an undertaking
of such enormous magnitude--the employment of a whole people. The
overseers were necessarily selected in haste; many of them were
corrupt, and encouraged the misconduct of the labourers. In many cases
the relief committees, unable to prevent maladministration, yielded
to the torrent of corruption, and individual members only sought to
benefit their own dependants. The people everywhere flocked to the
public works; labourers, cottiers, artisans, fishermen, farmers, men,
women, and children--all, whether destitute or not, sought for a share
of the public money. In such a crowd, it was almost impossible to
discriminate properly. They congregated in masses on the roads,
idling under the name of work, the really destitute often unheeded
and unrelieved because they had no friend to recommend them. All
the ordinary employments were neglected; there was no fishing, no
gathering of sea-weed, no collecting of manure. The men who had
employment feared to lose it by absenting themselves for any other
object; those unemployed spent their time in seeking to obtain it. The
whole industry of the country seemed to be engaged in road-making. It
became absolutely necessary to put an end to it, or the cultivation
of the land would be neglected. Works undertaken on the spur of
the moment, not because they were needful, but merely to employ the
people, were in many cases ill chosen, and the execution equally
defective. The labourers, desirous to protract their employment, were
only anxious to give as little labour as possible, in which their
overlookers or gangers in many cases heartily agreed. The favouritism,
the intimidation, the wholesale jobbing practised in many cases were
shockingly demoralising.
In order to induce the people to attend to their ordinary spring work,
and put in the crops, it was found necessary to adopt the plan of
distributing free rations. On March 20, therefore, a reduction of
twenty per cent. of the numbers employed on the works took place, and
the process of reduction went on until the new system of gratuitous
relief was brought into full operation. The authority under which this
was administered was called the 'Temporary Relief Act,' which came
into full operation in the month of July, when the destitution was at
its height, and three millions of people received their daily rations.
Sir John Burgoyne truly describes this as 'the grandest attempt
ever made to grapple with famine over a whole country.' Never in the
history of the world were so many persons fed in such a manner by the
public bounty. It was a most anxious time--a time of tremendous
labour and responsibility to those who had the direction of this vast
machinery. A member of the Board of Works thus describes the feeling
which no doubt pervaded most of those that were officially connected
with the administration of relief: '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 night-mare sleep. Rest
one could never have, when one felt that in every minute lost a score
of men might die.' Mr. Trevelyan was then secretary of the treasury,
and it was well that a man so enlightened, energetic, and benevolent
occupied the post at such a time. He was indefatigable in his efforts
to mitigate the calamity, and he wrote an interesting account of 'The
Irish Crisis' in the _Edinburgh Review_. Having presented the dark
side of the picture in faithfully recording the abuses that had
prevailed, it is right to give Mr. Trevelyan's testimony as to the
conduct of the relief committees during this supreme hour of the
nation's agony. 'It is a fact very honourable to Ireland that among
upwards of 2,000 local bodies to whom advances were made under this
act, there is not one to which, so far as the Government is informed,
any suspicion of embezzlement attaches.'
The following statement of the numbers receiving rations, and the
total expenditure under the act in each of the four provinces,
compared with the amount of population, and the annual value assessed
for poor-rate, may serve to illustrate the comparative means and
destitution of each province:--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Population | Valuation | Greatest | Total |
| | | | Number of |Expenditure |
| | | | Rations given | |
| | | | out | |
|---------|-------------|------------|----------------|------------|
| | | £ | | £ |
|Ulster | 2,386,373 | 3,320,133 | 346,517 | 170,508 |
|Leinster | 1,973,731 | 4,624,542 | 450,606 | 308,068 |
|Munster | 2,396,161 | 1,465,643 | 1,013,826 | 671,554 |
|Counaught| 1,418,859 | 1,465,643 | 745,652 | 526,048 |
| |-------------|------------|----------------|------------|
| | 8,175,124 | 13,187,421 | 2,556,601 | 1,676,268 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Private benevolence did wonders in this crisis. The British
Association raised and distributed 269,302 l. The queen's letter,
ordering collections in the English churches, produced 200,738 l. But
the bounty of the United States of America transcended everything. The
supplies sent across the Atlantic were on a scale unparalleled in the
history of the world.
Meetings were held in Philadelphia, Washington, New York, and other
cities, in quick succession, presided over by the first men in the
country. All through the States the citizens evinced an intense
interest, and a noble generosity worthy of the great Republic.
The railway companies carried free of charge all packages marked
'Ireland.' Public carriers undertook the gratuitous delivery of
packages intended for the relief of Irish distress. Storage to any
extent was offered on the same terms. Ships of war, without their
guns, came to the Irish shores on a mission of peace and mercy,
freighted with food for British subjects. Cargo after cargo followed
in rapid succession, until nearly 100 separate shipments had arrived,
our Government having consented to pay the freight of all donations of
food forwarded from America, which amounted in the whole to 33,000 l.
The quantity of American food consigned to the care of the Society of
Friends was nearly 10,000 tons, the value of which was about 100,000
l. In addition to all this, the Americans remitted to the Friends'
Committee 16,000 l. in money. They also sent 642 packages of clothing,
the precise value of which could not be ascertained. There was a very
large amount of remittances sent to Ireland, during the famine, by
the Irish in the United States. Unfortunately, there are no records of
those remittances prior to 1848; but since that time we are enabled
to ascertain a large portion of them, though not the whole, and their
amount is something astonishing. The following statement of sums
remitted by emigrants in America to their families in Ireland, was
printed by order of Parliament:--During the years 1848, 460,180 l.;
1849, 540,619 l.; 1850, 957,087 l. 1851, 990,811 l.
The arrival of the American ships naturally excited great interest at
the various ports. 'On Monday, April 13,' writes Mr. Maguire, 'a noble
sight might be witnessed in Cork harbour--the sun shining its welcome
on the entrance of the unarmed war-ship Jamieson, sailing in under a
cloud of snowy canvas, her great hold laden with bread-stuffs for the
starving people of Ireland. It was a sight that brought tears to many
an eye, and prayers of gratitude to many a heart. It was one of those
things which one nation remembers of another long after the day of
sorrow has passed. Upon the warm and generous people to whom America
literally broke bread and sent life, this act of fraternal charity, so
gracefully and impressively offered, naturally produced a profound and
lasting impression, the influence of which is felt at this moment.'
The clergy, Protestant and Roman Catholic, almost the only resident
gentry in several of the destitute districts, worked together on the
committees with commendable zeal, diligence, and unanimity. Among the
Roman Catholic clergy, Father Mathew was at that time by far the most
influential and popular. The masses of the peasantry regarded him
as almost an inspired apostle. During the famine months, he
exerted himself with wonderful energy and prudence, first, in his
correspondence with different members of the Government, earnestly
recommending and urging the speedy adoption of measures of relief;
and next, in commending those measures to the people, dissuading the
hungry from acts of violence, and preaching submission and resignation
under that heavy dispensation of Providence. Of this there are ample
proofs in the letters published by Mr. Maguire, M.P. 'It is not to
harrow your feelings, dear Mr. Trevelyan,' he wrote, 'I tell this tale
of woe. No; but to excite your sympathy in behalf of our miserable
peasantry. It is rumoured that the capitalists in the corn and flour
trade are endeavouring to induce the Government not to protect the
people from famine, but to leave them at their mercy. I consider
this a cruel and unjustifiable interference. I am so unhappy at the
prospect before us, and so horror-struck by the apprehension of our
destitute people falling into the ruthless hands of the corn and flour
traders, that I risk becoming troublesome, rather than not lay my
humble opinions before you.' Again: 'I hail with delight the humane,
the admirable measures for relief announced by my Lord John Russell;
they have given universal satisfaction. But of what avail will all
this be, unless the wise precautions of Government will enable the
toiling workman, after exhausting his vigour during a long day to earn
a shilling, to purchase with that shilling a sufficiency of daily food
for his generally large and helpless family?' Father Mathew earnestly
pleaded for out-door relief, in preference to the workhouse,
foreseeing the danger of sundering the domestic bonds, which operate
so powerfully as moral restraints in Ireland. The beautiful picture
which he drew of the Irish peasant's home in his native land was
not too highly coloured, as applied to the great majority of the
people:--'The bonds of blood and affinity, dissoluble by death alone,
associate in the cabins of the Irish peasantry, not only the husband,
wife, and children, but the aged parents and the married couple and
their destitute relatives, even to the third and fourth degree of
kindred. God forbid that political economists should dissolve these
ties! should violate these beautiful charities of nature and the
gospel! I have often found my heart throb with delight when I beheld
three or four generations seated around the humble board and blazing
hearth; and I offered a silent prayer to the great Father of all that
the gloomy gates of the workhouse should never separate those whom
such tender social chains so fondly link together.'
The following is a tabular view of the whole amount of voluntary
contributions during the Irish famine, which deserves a permanent
record for the credit of our common humanity:--
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Local contributions officially reported
in 1846 104,689 18 1
Local contributions officially reported
in 1847 199,569 4 1
British Relief Association, total
received 470,041 1 2
say five-sixths for Ireland 391,700 17 8
General Central Relief Committee,
College Green 83,934 17 11
Less received from British Relief
Association 20,190 0 0
_____________ 63,744 17 11
Irish Relief Association, Sackville
Street 42,446 5 0
Relief Committee of the Society of
Friends, London 42,905 12 0
Central Relief Committee of the
Society of Friends, Dublin 198,313 15 3
Less received from Committee of the
Society of Friends in London,
and interest 39,249 19 11
_____________ 159,063 15 4
Indian Relief Fund 13,919 15 2
National Club, London 19,928 12 2
Wesleyan Methodist Relief Fund,
London 20,056 14 4
Irish Evangelical Society, London 9,264 9 9
Baptists' Relief Fund, London 6,141 11 2
Ladies' Irish Clothing Society, London 9,533 4 0
Less received from British Association,
&c. 5,324 12 11
_____________ 4,208 11 1
Ladies' Relief Association for Ireland 19,584 0 9
Less received from Irish Relief
Association and for sales of
manufactures 7,659 6 7
_____________ 11,924 14 2
Ladies' Industrial Society for
encouragement of labour among the
peasantry 1,968 12 8
Less received from Irish Relief
Association 1,500 0 0
_____________ 468 12 8
Belfast Ladies' Association for the
relief of Irish Distress 2,617 1 6
Belfast Ladies' Industrial Association
for Connaught 4,615 16 1
There were also two collections in
Belfast for general purposes, the
amount of which exceeded 10,000 0 0