“I have now to report the continuance each day of numerous
arrivals of food cargoes here; the additional number during
the present week (mostly maize laden) considerably exceeds
100 sail, several being American ships of large burthen; and
although many have proceeded to other ports, the number afloat,
waiting orders or sale, has been fully doubled. I cannot
estimate the fleet this day in our harbours at less than 250
sail, nor the contents at much under 50,000 tons. Indian corn
may be purchased at 14ℓ. by the cargo, and retailed at 15ℓ. per
ton.”
It now began to be perceived that more was to be expected from the
collective exertions of the merchants of the United Kingdom, than from
the Admiralty or the Commissariat. The whole quantity of corn imported
into Ireland in the first six months of 1847 was 2,849,508 qrs., which
was worth, at the then current prices, 8,764,943ℓ.; and the Irish
market was, to use the words of the present Lord Lieutenant, “freer,
cheaper, and better supplied, than that of any country in Europe where
distress prevailed, and where those measures of interference and
restriction had been unwisely adopted which were successfully resisted
here.” The price of Indian corn, which in the middle of February had
been 19ℓ. a-ton, was reduced at the end of March to 13ℓ., and at the
end of August to 7ℓ. 10s. a-ton; and such was the quantity of shipping
which flocked to the United States on the first intelligence of the
unusual demand for freight, that the rate for the conveyance of corn
to the United Kingdom, which had been as high as 9s. per barrel during
the winter months, was as low as 4s. 6d. in May, and has since fallen
to 1s. 9d. It may safely be asserted that these results would not have
been obtained, if the great body of our English and Irish merchants and
shipowners, instead of having free scope given to their exertions, had
been left under the discouraging impression that all their calculations
might be upset by the sudden appearance in the foreign market, of
Government vessels and Government orders for supplies. The noble
harbour of Cork was established as the house of call and entrepôt for
the grain ships bound to every part of Western Europe; and the merchant
being now free either to sell on the spot or to re-export, Ireland
began to enjoy the benefit of her admirable commercial position, by
getting the first, and largest, and cheapest supply.
Nevertheless, the public establishments were not idle. Upwards of
300,000 quarters of corn were purchased from time to time to supply
the Government depôts on the western coast of Ireland[30], and large
stores of biscuit and salt meat, which had been laid up at the
different military stations in the year 1843, in anticipation of
popular disturbances arising out of the repeal movement, were now
applied to the relief of the people. One of the consequences of the
sudden change from a potato to a corn diet, was, that the means of
grinding were seriously deficient. The powerful Admiralty mills at
Deptford, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Malta, besides two large hired
mills, were therefore constantly employed in grinding the corn
bought by the Commissariat, leaving the mill-power of Ireland to the
private importers of grain into that country; and hand-mills, on the
principle of the old Irish Quern, were made for distribution in the
most distressed districts; while others, constructed on an improved
principle, were procured from France. Thirty-four large depôts were
established on the western side of Ireland, from Dunfanaghy, in the
most northern part of Donegal, to Skibbereen, in the south-west of
the county of Cork: and the sales were made, as far as possible, to
the Relief Committees, with the double object of drawing forth the
resources and activity of the upper classes, and of preventing an
indiscriminate pressure upon the depôts, which it would have been
difficult to resist. Several ships of war were moored in convenient
situations and used as store-ships. The largest and most powerful
war-steamers, reinforced, when the occasion required it, by sailing
vessels, were appropriated to the conveyance of the meal from the mills
in England to the depôts in Ireland, and every other available steamer,
not excepting the Admiralty yacht, was employed in making the necessary
transfers between the depôts, and in conveying the supplies which the
Relief Committees had purchased.
The highest praise to which these great operations are entitled, is
that they were carried through without any sensible disturbance of the
ordinary course of trade, and that in some important respects they even
gave new life and development to it. The purchases were all made in
the home market, and care was taken never to give the highest current
price. The sales were made at the wholesale price of the nearest
large mart, with a reasonable addition for the cost of carriage, &c.
When supplies of food could be obtained elsewhere, the depôts were
closed. Private merchants, therefore, imported largely in the face of
the Government depôts; while, in the remote western districts, the
Commissariat acted as pioneers to the ordinary trade, and led the way
to habits of commercial enterprise where before they had no existence.
There was the same general pressure for the premature opening of the
depôts as for the early commencement of Relief Works, but in this case
it was successfully resisted. It was explained that the Government
depôts were intended to be a last resource to supply the deficiencies
of the trade, and not to take the place of that trade; and that if the
depôts were opened while the country was still full of the produce of
the late harvest, that produce would be exported before the spring
supplies arrived from America and the Black Sea, and the population
would become entirely dependent upon the depôts, which must, in that
case, soon come to a discreditable and disastrous stop. Meanwhile,
great exertions were made to protect the provision trade, and the
troops and constabulary were harassed by continual escorts. The
plunder of bakers’ shops and bread-carts, and the shooting of horses
and breaking up of roads, to prevent the removal of provisions, were
matters of daily occurrence; and at Limerick, Galway, and elsewhere,
mobs prevented any articles of food from leaving the towns, while the
country people resisted their being carried in. Convoys under military
protection proceeded at stated intervals from place to place, without
which nothing in the shape of food could be sent with safety.
As many as 1097 Relief Committees were established under the
superintendence of the Commissariat; while 199,470ℓ.[31] was
subscribed by private individuals, and 189,914ℓ. was granted by the
Government (making together 389,384ℓ.) in support of their operations.
One of the functions of these committees was to provide supplies of
food for sale at the current market price; and when the rise of prices
began to be seriously felt, the Government was called upon from every
part of Ireland to permit the grants of public money made to the
committees to be employed in reducing the price of provisions to that
of ordinary years. To this demand it was impossible for the Government
to accede. In 1845-6 the scarcity was confined to a few districts of
Ireland, while there was abundance everywhere else. The question,
therefore, at that time, was a money one; and all that was required to
relieve the distress, was to purchase a sufficient quantity of food
elsewhere and to send it into the distressed districts. In 1846-7, on
the contrary, the scarcity was general, extending over all Western
Europe, and threatening a famine in other quarters besides Ireland. The
present question, therefore, was not a money, but a food question. The
entire stock of food for the whole United Kingdom was insufficient, and
it was only by carefully husbanding it, that it could be made to last
till harvest. If provisions had been cheapened out of the public purse,
consumption would have proceeded in a time of severe scarcity, at the
same rate as in a time of moderate plenty; the already insufficient
stock of food would have been expended with a frightful rapidity, and
in order to obtain a few weeks of ease, we should have had to endure a
desolating famine. Those Relief Committees which attempted to follow
this plan speedily exhausted their capital; and private dealers (who
necessarily lay in their stock at the current market price, whatever
that may be) retired from the competition with public bodies selling
food at prices artificially reduced by charitable subscriptions and
grants out of national funds.
The other function of the Relief Committees was to give gratuitous
aid in cases of extreme destitution, and this was well performed by
them to the extent of their means. As the distress increased, the
distribution of cooked food by the establishment of soup-kitchens was
found the most effectual means of alleviating it. The attention of
the committees was therefore generally directed to this object by the
Inspecting Officers. Boilers were manufactured and sent to Ireland in
great numbers, and Government donations were now in every case made
equal in amount to the private subscriptions (“pound for pound”), and
in cases of more than usual pressure, twice or three times that amount
was given. This mode of giving relief was not found to be attended with
any serious abuse. The committees expended in a great measure their
own money, which made them more careful in seeing that it was laid out
with the greatest possible advantage and economy; and as the ration
of cooked food distributed by them was not an object of desire to
persons in comfortable circumstances, as money wages were, it acted in
a great degree as a test of destitution. The defect of this system of
relief was, that being voluntary, it could not be relied on to meet the
necessities of a numerous population in a period of great emergency,
and the difficulty of obtaining private subscriptions was often
greatest in the most distressed districts.
The point at which we had arrived, therefore, at the commencement
of the year 1847, was, that the system of Public Works, although
recommended by the example of all former occasions on which relief had
been afforded to the people of Ireland in seasons of distress, had
completely broken down under the pressure of this wide-spread calamity;
while the other concurrent system, which, on the principle of the Poor
Law, aimed at giving relief, in the most direct form, out of funds
locally raised, had succeeded to the extent to which it had been tried.
The works were therefore brought to a close in the manner which has
been already described: and it was determined to complete the system
of relief by the distribution of food, to give it legal validity, and
to place it more decidedly on the basis of the Poor Law. This was done
by the passing of the Act 10 Vic., c. 7. A Relief Committee, composed
of the magistrates, one clergyman of each persuasion, the Poor Law
guardian, and the three highest rate-payers, was constituted in each
electoral division[32], the unit of Irish Poor Law statistics. A
Finance Committee, consisting of four gentlemen, carefully selected
for their weight of character and knowledge of business, was formed
to control the expenditure in each union. Inspecting Officers were
appointed, most of whom had been trained under the Board of Works
and Sir R. Routh; and a Commission sitting in Dublin, of which Sir J.
Burgoyne was the head, and the Poor Law Commissioner was one of the
members, superintended the whole system. The expense was to be defrayed
by payments made by the guardians out of the produce of the rates; and
when this fund was insufficient, as it always proved to be, it was
reinforced by Government loans, to be repaid by rates subsequently
levied. Free grants were also made in aid of the rates in those unions
in which the number of destitute poor was largest, compared with the
means of relieving them, and when private subscriptions were raised,
donations were made to an equal amount.
The check principally relied on, therefore, was, that the expenditure
should be conducted, either immediately or proximately, out of the
produce of the rates. No loan was to be made to any Board of Guardians
until the Inspecting Officer had certified that they had passed a
resolution to make the rate upon which it was to be secured, and that,
to the best of his belief, they were proceeding with all possible
dispatch to make and levy such rate. This principle, although still
imperfectly applied, and consequently irregular in its action,
exercised a pervading influence over the working of this system of
relief. In forming the lists of persons to be relieved, and making
their demands upon the Commissioners, few committees altogether
rejected the idea that it was their own money which they were spending;
and in some districts the farmer rate-payers assembled, and insisted
on large numbers of persons being struck off the lists, who they knew
were not entitled to relief. The tests applied to the actual recipients
of relief were, that the personal attendance of all parties requiring
relief was insisted on, exceptions being made in favour of the sick,
impotent, and children under nine years of age, and that the relief
was directed to be given only in the shape of cooked food, distributed
in portions declared by the best medical authorities to be sufficient
to maintain health and strength. The “cooked food test[33]” was found
particularly efficacious in preventing abuse; and the enforcement of
it in some parts of the country cost a severe struggle. Undressed meal
might be converted into cash by those who did not require it as food;
and even the most destitute often disposed of it for tea, tobacco, or
spirits; but stirabout, which becomes sour by keeping, has no value
in the market, and persons were therefore not likely to apply for it,
who did not want it for their own consumption. Attempts were made
to apply the labour test to this system of relief; but, besides the
practical difficulty of want of tools and proper superintendence, the
Commissioners considered that, owing to the absence of any adequate
motive, it would “lead to a want of exertion on the part of the men
which would perhaps be more demoralising than relief without any
work.” It was therefore left to the Relief Committees in large towns
and other situations favourable to such a mode of proceeding, to take
their own course upon it; and the result was, that some light kinds
of labour, such as cleaning the streets and whitewashing the cabins,
were exacted by a few of the more zealous and active committees.
Relief in aid of wages was strenuously insisted on by many of the
Relief Committees, and was steadily and successfully resisted by the
Commission; but it was not considered right, in the administration
of a temporary measure, to require the surrender of the land held by
applicants, provided they were proved to be at the time in a state of
destitution.
This system reached its highest point in the month of July, 1847, when
out of 2,049 electoral divisions, into which Ireland is divided, 1,826
had been brought under the operation of the Act, and 3,020,712 persons
received separate rations, of whom 2,265,534 were adults, and 755,178
were children. This multitude was again gradually and peaceably thrown
on its own resources at the season of harvest, when new and abundant
supplies of food became available, and the demand for labour was at its
highest amount. Relief was discontinued to fifty-five unions on the
15th August, and the issues to the remaining unions entirely ceased on
the 12th September. The latest date allowed by the Act for advances to
be made, was the 1st October.
This was the second occasion on which upwards of three millions of
people had been fed “out of the hands of the magistrate,” but this
time it was effectual. The Relief Works had been crowded with persons
who had other means of subsistence, to the exclusion of the really
destitute; but a ration of cooked food proved less attractive than
full money wages, and room was thus made for the helpless portion of
the community. The famine was stayed. The “affecting and heart-rending
crowds of destitutes[34]” disappeared from the streets; the cadaverous,
hunger-stricken countenances of the people gave place to looks of
health; deaths from starvation ceased; and cattle-stealing, plundering
provisions, and other crimes prompted by want of food, were diminished
by half in the course of a single month. The Commission closed amidst
general applause, and “Resolutions were received from many hundreds of
the committees, praising the conduct of the inspecting officers, and
frankly and honourably expressing their gratitude to Government and the
Legislature for the effective means afforded them for carrying out this
benevolent operation[35].” This enterprise was in truth the “grandest
attempt ever made to grapple with famine over a whole country[36].”
Organised armies, amounting altogether to some hundreds of thousands,
had been rationed before; but neither ancient nor modern history can
furnish a parallel to the fact that upwards of three millions of
persons were fed every day in the neighbourhood of their own homes,
by administrative arrangements emanating from and controlled by one
central office.
The expense was moderate compared with the magnitude of the object. The
amount at which it was originally estimated by the Commissioners was
3,000,000ℓ.; the sum for which Parliament was asked to provide was
2,200,000ℓ., and the sum actually expended was 1,557,212ℓ., of which
146,631ℓ. was paid to the Commissariat for meal supplied to the Relief
Committees from the Government Depôts. The price of meal fortunately
fell more than one-fifth during the progress of these operations,
or from 2½d. a ration, to less than 2d., including all expenses of
establishment.
The Finance Committees, which were selected bodies, consisting of from
two to four gentlemen in each union, “with rare exceptions acted with
zeal and intelligence[37].” The Relief Committees, a miscellaneous body
composed of the foremost persons in each petty district, whoever they
might be, showed, as was to be expected, every variety of good and bad
conduct. In some cases the three highest rate-payers could not read,
and even themselves established claims to be placed on the list of
destitute for daily rations. It is a fact very honourable to Ireland,
that among upwards of 2000 local bodies to whom advances were made
under this Act, there is not one to which, so far as the Government is
informed, any suspicion of embezzlement attaches.
In order to check the progress of the fever, which, as usual, followed
in the train of famine, the Act 10 Vic., c. 22 was passed, by which
the Relief Committees were empowered to attend to the proper burial of
the dead, to provide temporary hospitals, to clear away nuisances, and
to ventilate and cleanse cabins, the necessary funds being advanced
by the Government in the same manner as the advances for providing
food. These sanitary arrangements were extensively acted upon and at
moderate expense. On the 17th August 326 hospitals and dispensaries
had been authorized, with accommodation for more than 23,000 patients,
with medical officers, nurses, ward-maids, &c. The additional expense
incurred under this Act, was 119,055ℓ., the whole of which was made a
free grant to the unions, in aid of rates.
The state of the finances of some of the unions was a source of deep
anxiety through the winter and spring of 1846-7. Rates were not
collected sufficient to defray the current expenses of the workhouses
of these unions, and the guardians threatened to turn the inmates into
the street, if assistance were not given from the public purse. The
dilemma was a painful and perplexing one. There was no reason to doubt
the readiness of some of the persons who held this language to put
their threat into execution; while, to admit the claim, might bring
upon the Government the greater number of the workhouses, in addition
to the whole of the outdoor relief; in other words, would transfer to
national funds a burden intended by law to be local, and not likely
to be administered with economy on any other footing. Important aid
was, however, given. Large supplies of clothing were collected from
the stores of the army and navy, and sent to Ireland for the use of
the workhouses. Small sums of money, amounting in the aggregate to
23,503ℓ., were lent from time to time with a sparing hand to assist
the guardians in providing food and clothing in the most pressing and
necessitous cases; 4,479ℓ. was expended in providing proper medical
inspection and superintendence in localities in which great sickness
prevailed; and 60,000ℓ. was advanced for the enlargement of the
workhouses, principally by the erection of fever-wards.
The improvement of the Fisheries on the western coast of Ireland has
always been an object much pressed upon the Government. In order to
give the fishermen a motive for exertion, and to set them an example of
improved modes of preparing the fish for sale, experienced curers were
obtained from the Fishery Board in Scotland; six stations were formed,
at which fish are purchased at a fair market price, cured, and sold
again for consumption to the highest bidder; and supplies of salt and
tackle were provided for sale to the fishermen. This was done without
any expense to the public, by means of a sum of 5000ℓ. placed at the
disposal of the Government out of the balance of the subscription for
the relief of Irish distress in 1822.
The plan of making small loans to fishermen to enable them to equip
themselves for their trade, was not resorted to, because experience
had proved that the fishermen are induced by it to rely upon others,
instead of themselves, and that they acquire habits of chicanery and
bad faith in their prolonged struggle to evade the payment of the
loans. Sir J. Burgoyne had authority given him by the British Relief
Association, to apply 500ℓ. to this object, and he induced the Relief
Committee of the Society of Friends to take up the same cause. “I
have made,” he states, “many inquiries for the purpose, but I have
always made it a point that there should be a decided prospect of any
advances being repaid, and here the matter hangs. The officers all
report that they doubt being able to get the money back; and I think
it so necessary to be firm on this point, that I have not made use
of a penny of the 500ℓ., and have recommended the Friends to reserve
their funds also for a better mode of expending them.” Since then, the
Society of Friends, who are able to give a more particular attention to
such subjects than it is possible for the Government to do, have done
much good by assisting poor fishermen to redeem their nets and other
implements of their trade, which they had pawned during the season
of extreme distress; and these excellent people have also adopted an
admirable plan of providing good boats and all requisite gear, with a
competent person to instruct the native fishermen, who are formed into
companies or partnerships and work out the value of the boats, &c.,
of which they may then become the owners. A large supply of seamen’s
jackets and trousers, obtained from the Admiralty, was delivered to
the Society of Friends, for distribution among the poor fishermen on
the west of Ireland.
From the first failure of the potato crop in 1845, the subject
of providing seed was repeatedly considered, and the conclusion
invariably arrived at was, that the moment it came to be understood
that the Government had taken upon itself the responsibility of this
delicate and peculiar branch of rural economy, the painful exertions
made by private individuals in every part of Ireland to reserve a
stock of seed would be relaxed, and the quantity consumed as food in
consequence of the interference of the Government, would greatly exceed
the quantity supplied by means of that interference. The Government
therefore never undertook to supply any kind of seed already in
extensive use; but Holland was had recourse to for flax and rye seed,
Scotland for the hardy description of barley called bere, and England
and the neighbouring Continental countries furnished turnip, carrot,
beet-root, and other vegetable and green-crop seeds; all of which were
sent to Ireland for sale at low prices, and latterly for gratuitous
distribution. More than thirteen tons of turnip seed belonging to
the Government and the British Relief Association were distributed in
the county of Mayo alone[38], besides 125 hogsheads of flax seed; by
which means, in addition to the present supply of food obtained, a
foundation was laid for an improved system of agriculture by a rotation
of crops. One of the remedial measures proposed by the Government at
the commencement of the parliamentary session of 1847, was to make
loans to landed proprietors to the aggregate amount of 50,000ℓ. to
enable them to provide their tenants with seed, which loans were to
have been repaid out of the produce of the crops raised from the seed;
but nobody availed himself of this boon. The objections which exist
to the Government leaving its province to interfere in the ordinary
business of private life, were in nothing more clearly demonstrated
than in what took place in reference to this subject. The accidental
detention, by contrary winds, of a vessel laden with rye and bere seed,
called forth expressions of anger and disappointment from various parts
of the west and south of Ireland which had depended upon this supply;
and the unfounded belief that the Government had entered upon a general
undertaking to provide seed corn, largely contributed to that criminal
apathy which was one of the causes of large tracts of land being left
waste in 1846-47. On the other hand, it was found, when inquiries
were made for vegetable seeds in the spring of 1847, that every ounce
of parsnip seed in the London market had been already bought up and
sent to Ireland; which is only one instance among many that might be
adduced, of the reliance which may be placed on private interest and
enterprise on occasions of this sort[39].
There is still another measure which does not the less deserve to be
mentioned, because it ended in failure. The Act 9 & 10 Vic. c. 109,
passed at the close of the session of 1846, had appropriated a sum
of 50,000ℓ. to be granted in aid of public works of acknowledged
utility, one-half of the expense of which was to be provided for by a
loan, and another portion was to be contributed in cash by the persons
principally interested in the works. No application was made to
participate in the advantage of this arrangement, and the 50,000ℓ. was
therefore transferred in the next session of Parliament to the erection
of Fishery Piers and other useful objects.
The qualities displayed by the officers intrusted with the conduct of
these great operations, will always be regarded as a bright spot in the
cloud which hangs over this disastrous period. The nation had never
been better served. The administrative ability which enabled Sir R.
Routh to dispose, without hurry or confusion, of masses of business
which to most persons would have been overwhelming; the stoutness of
heart with which Colonel Jones commanded, and ultimately disbanded his
army of 740,000 able-bodied Irishmen; the admirable sagacity displayed
by Sir J. Burgoyne in coming to a safe practical decision upon
perplexed social questions, then perhaps for the first time presented
to him; the remarkable financial ability of Mr. Bromley, the accountant
to the Relief Commission; the cordial co-operation of Admiral Sir Hugh
Pigot and his able secretary, Mr. Nicholls, and the valuable assistance
rendered in many different ways by Colonel Mac Gregor, the head of the
Constabulary Force, proved that, however great the crisis might be, the
persons in chief trust were equal to it[40]. But the most gratifying
feature of all, was the zeal and unanimity with which the large body
of Officers employed devoted themselves to this labour of love[41],
although they had been suddenly brought together for this particular
occasion from many different branches of the public service, or from
the retirement of private life. It may truly be said of them, that they
“offered themselves willingly among the people;” and several painful
casualties from the prevailing fever, and the failing health of others,
showed that the risks and hardships attending this service were of no
ordinary kind. The officers and men belonging to the numerous ships
of war employed in the “Relief Service,” entered with characteristic
spirit upon duties which indicated in a more direct manner than ever
before, that the real object of their noble profession, is, not to
destroy men’s lives, but to save them; and it was creditable to their
seamanship, as well as their humanity, that the dangers and hardships
attending their incessant employment on the exposed western coasts of
Ireland and Scotland during the stormy months of winter, did not lead
to the loss of a single vessel[42].
A slight reference to the exertions which had to be made for the single
object of conducting and checking the expenditure, will give some idea
of the magnitude and difficulty of the task which was imposed on the
officers of the Crown.
In establishing a system of Relief Works, intended to bring employment
to every man’s door, it was impossible to avoid creating an extensive
staff for the superintendence and payment of the labouring poor. Very
voluminous accounts suddenly poured into the Office of Works from all
parts of Ireland; and as the lives of thousands depended upon the
supply of funds, it became a duty of the first importance to insure
their immediate distribution over the whole surface of the country.
Remittances were made to about 600 pay clerks weekly, and it was often
found necessary to transfer from one to the other sums of money upon
the authority of local officers, whereby an intermixture of accounts of
a very intricate description took place. The weekly accounts sent to
the office at Dublin exceeded 20,000, and the pay lists were more than
a quarter of a million in number, the expenditure being at one time at
the rate of a million a-month. To watch the distribution of such large
sums would have been a gigantic task, even for a long-established and
well-organized department, but for a temporary establishment, composed,
for the most part, of persons with little, if any, previous knowledge
of business, the duty was one of unprecedented difficulty, and it is a
matter of surprise that greater irregularity was not the consequence.
In the books of the temporary Relief Commission, it was found necessary
to open accounts with more than 2000 bodies intrusted with the
expenditure of public money; and such was the rapidity of the service,
that within a period of five months, more than 19,000 estimates were
received in the accountant’s office, and acted upon, with a like number
of accounts, which were registered for examination, and more than
17,000 letters were received and answered. The pecuniary transactions
of this Commission were not with public officers, but with ephemeral
bodies composed of persons generally unused to business, and almost
irresponsible; but the utmost good faith prevailed; and by requiring an
immediate account, with vouchers, every fortnight, of the disbursement
of the previous amount remitted, with the balance remaining on hand,
before a further supply was sent down, the best control upon the
expenditure was established, and the result has been the great saving
(more than half a million) effected, while scarcely an instance of
misappropriation has occurred. It has also been admitted in many
parts of Ireland, that these accounts, and the instructions for their
preparation, have induced habits of business that never before existed,
while at the same time they have urged the Stamp Laws into more active
operation.
The prompt examination and audit of the accounts of the Board of Works,
the Commissariat, and the Relief Commission, was provided for by the
deputation of experienced persons from the offices in London, under
whose superintendence the whole of the expenditure has been subjected
to a searching local revision, and wherever any symptom of malversation
has appeared, the matter has been probed to the bottom.
It has been a popular argument in Ireland, that as the calamity was
an imperial one, the whole amount expended in relieving it ought to
be defrayed out of the Public Revenue. There can be no doubt that the
deplorable consequences of this great calamity extended to the empire
at large, but the disease was strictly local, and the cure was to be
obtained only by the application of local remedies. If England and
Scotland, and great part of the north and east of Ireland had stood
alone, the pressure would have been severe, but there would have been
no call for assistance from national funds. The west and south of
Ireland was the peccant part. The owners and holders of land in those
districts had permitted or encouraged the growth of the excessive
population which depended upon the precarious potato, and they alone
had it in their power to restore society to a safe and healthy state.
If all were interested in saving the starving people, they were far
more so, because it included their own salvation from the desperate
struggles of surrounding multitudes phrenzied with hunger. The
economical administration of the relief could only be provided for
by making it, in part at least, a local charge. In the invariable
contemplation of the law, the classes represented by the rate-payers
have to bear the whole burden of their own poor; the majority of the
British community did so bear it throughout this year of distress; and,
besides fulfilling their own duties, they placed in the hands of the
minority the means of performing theirs, requiring them to repay only
one half.
A special objection has been raised to the repayment of the advances
for the Relief Works, on the ground that their cost exceeds that for
which they could now be constructed. The answer to this is, that these
works were undertaken solely for the purpose of giving employment in
a great and pressing emergency, when it was impossible for them to be
executed with the same care and economy as in ordinary times[43]; that
the counties are therefore chargeable with them, not as works, but as
relief; and that if they had cost either half as much, or twice as
much as they did, the liability would have been the same. But when
it is remembered that the expensive character of the works was in a
great degree owing to the Board of Works not having received from the
Presentment Sessions and the Relief Committees that assistance in
keeping down the expenditure, which it was the duty of those bodies
to have rendered, both by making a proper selection of the works to
be undertaken, and by confining their recommendations for employment
on them to those persons who were really destitute, it is a matter of
surprise that any answer has been rendered necessary.
We should probably have heard less of these repayments if it had been
generally known what their real amount is. The sum expended under the
first Relief Works Act (9 & 10 Vic. c. 1) was 476,000ℓ., one half of
which was grant, and the other half is to be repaid[44] by twenty
half-yearly instalments, amounting on an average, including interest,
to about 12,500ℓ. each. The expenditure under the second Act (9 & 10
Vic. c. 107) was about 4,850,000ℓ., half of which was remitted, and
the other half is repayable by twenty half-yearly instalments of
145,500ℓ. each, including interest. The annual addition made to the
Rates by the repayments under the two Acts relating to the Relief
Works is therefore about 316,000ℓ.[45]; while, by an Act passed on the
28th August, 1846, the Rates were relieved from an annual payment of
192,000ℓ., being the remaining half of the expense of the Constabulary,
the other half of which was already defrayed out of national funds. The
additional charge upon the Rates, therefore, amounts only to 124,000ℓ.
a-year for ten years, or 1,240,000ℓ. in all. The sum advanced under
the 9 & 10 Vic. c. 2, on the security of grand jury presentments, was
130,000ℓ., which will have to be repaid in various periods extending
from three to ten years; but the expenditure under this Act was merely
in anticipation of the usual repairs of the public roads, the cost of
which is in ordinary years raised within the year without any advance.
Lastly, the sum expended in the distribution of food under the 10 Vic.
c. 7, and in medical relief under the 10 Vic. c. 22, was 1,676,268ℓ.,
of which 961,739ℓ. is to be repaid, and the remaining 714,529ℓ. is a
free grant. The first-mentioned Act included a fund for making grants
as well as loans, and the demands for repayment have been adjusted as
nearly as possible according to the circumstances of each district. In
some of the western unions, where the amount of destitution bears the
largest proportion to the means of the rate-payers, and, owing to the
extent to which the potato was formerly cultivated, a painful period of
transition has yet to be endured, only a small part of the sum expended
is required to be repaid[46]; while in other unions where the return
of low prices has restored society to its ordinary state, grants have
been confined to those cases in which the expenditure has exceeded a
rating of three shillings in the pound on the valuation.
All the claims of the Exchequer, arising out of the Relief operations
of 1846 and 1847 have now been described, and it must be borne in mind
that the several localities received full value for what they have to
pay. They were saved from a prolonged and horrible state of famine,
pestilence, and anarchy, which was the main consideration; and they
had, besides, the incidental advantage of the labour bestowed upon the
Roads and other public works, especially in the poor and wild districts
of the West, where lines of road have been opened with the aid of
the relief grants and loans, which, although much wanted, could not
have been undertaken for years to come without such assistance. The
rest of the expenditure, including the large donations made to Relief
Committees previously to the passing of the Act 10 Vic. c. 7, the cost
of the staff of the Board of Works and of the Relief Commission, the
Commissariat staff, and the heavy naval expenditure, has been defrayed
out of the public purse; without any demand for repayment.
Hitherto our narrative has been confined to what was done by the
Government, but the voluntary exertions of private individuals
contributed their full share towards this unprecedented act of public
charity.
It is highly to the honour of our countrymen in India, that the first
combined movement in any part of the British empire was made by them.
On the arrival of the news of the first failure of the potato crop
in the Autumn of 1845, a meeting, presided over by Sir John Peter
Grant, was held at Calcutta, on the 2nd of January, 1846, for the
purpose of concerting measures to raise a fund for the relief of
the expected distress; and a committee, consisting of the Duke of
Leinster, the Protestant and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin, and
six other persons, was solicited to act in Ireland as Trustees for
the distribution of such sums as might be subscribed. This example
was followed at Madras and Bombay, and the result was that a sum of
13,920ℓ., contributed as follows, was placed at the disposal of the
committee:
Bengal 8,200
Bombay 2,976
Madras 1,150
Ceylon 718
Hong Kong, 18th Royal Irish 82
Mobile, U. S. 192
Toronto, C. W. 300
England, including 200ℓ. from Lord
John Russell 302
-------
£13,920
The whole of this sum was distributed between the 24th of April and
the 21st of December, 1846, and was entirely independent of the large
subscriptions from different parts of British India subsequently added
to the funds of other societies. More than 2000 letters were received
by the Trustees of the Indian Relief Fund; and by a strict attention to
economy, they were enabled to distribute 13,920ℓ. at an expense of 180ℓ.
In the United Kingdom, the Society of Friends were, as usual, first
in the field of benevolent action. When the renewed and more alarming
failure of the potato crop in the autumn of 1846 showed the necessity
for serious exertion, a subscription was opened by them in London in
the month of November in that year; members of the Society were sent
on a deputation to Ireland, and those who resided there aided by their
personal exertions and local knowledge. On the 6th January, 1847, a
committee, of which Mr. Jones Loyd was chairman, and Mr. Thomas Baring
and Baron Rothschild were members, invited contributions under the
designation of the “British Association for the Relief of extreme
Distress in Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.” On
the 13th of January, 1847, a Queen’s Letter was issued with the same
object, and the 24th of March was appointed by proclamation, for
a General Fast and Humiliation before Almighty God, “in behalf of
ourselves and of our brethren, who in many parts of this United Kingdom
are suffering extreme famine and sickness.” A painful and tender
sympathy pervaded every class of society. From the Queen on her throne
to the convicts in the hulks, expenses were curtailed, and privations
were endured, in order to swell the Irish subscription. The fast was
observed with unusual solemnity, and the London season of this year was
remarkable for the absence of gaiety and expensive entertainments.
The vibration was felt through every nerve of the British Empire.
The remotest stations in India, the most recent settlements in the
backwoods of Canada, contributed their quota, and 652ℓ. was subscribed
by the British residing in the city of Mexico, at a time when their
trade was cut off, and their personal safety compromised by the war
with the United States. The sum collected under the Queen’s letter
was 171,533ℓ. The amount separately contributed through the British
Association was 263,251ℓ.[47]; and this aggregate amount of 434,784ℓ.,
was divided in the proportion of five-sixths to Ireland and one-sixth
to Scotland. But besides this great stream of charity, there were
a thousand other channels which it is impossible to trace, and of
the aggregate result of which no estimate can be formed. There were
separate committees which raised and sent over large sums of money.
There were ladies’ associations without end to collect small weekly
subscriptions and make up clothes to send to Ireland. The opera, the
fancy bazaar, the fashionable ball rendered tribute; and, above all,
there were the private efforts of numberless individuals, each acting
for himself and choosing his own almoners, of which no record exists
except on High. Upon application being made to the managers of the
Provincial Bank of Ireland to permit English charitable remittances to
pass without the usual charge, it turned out that they had been in the
habit of doing so for a considerable time, and that the amount sent
through that one channel, in the six months ending on the 4th March,
1847, exceeded 20,000ℓ. In the contemplation of this great calamity,
the people of the United States of America forgot their separate
nationality, and remembered only that they were sprung from the same
origin as ourselves. The sympathy there was earnest and universal,
and the manifestations of it most generous and munificent. The
contributions from this land of plenty consisted principally of Indian
corn and other kinds of provisions, and the cargoes were, for the
most part, consigned to the Society of Friends, whose quiet, patient,
practical exertions, commanded universal confidence. The freight
and charges on the supplies of food and clothing sent to Ireland by
charitable societies and individuals, as well from the United States
and Canada on the one side, as from England on the other, were paid
by the Government, to an amount exceeding 50,000ℓ.[48]; all customs
dues were remitted, and the meal and other articles were to a great
extent taken charge of by the officers of the Commissariat, and
held by them at the disposal of the parties to whom they had been
consigned for distribution; by which means the necessary harmony was
preserved between the operations of the Government and those of the
private associations, and the bounty of the subscribers reached the
destitute persons for whom it was intended, with as small a deduction
as possible for incidental expenses. Thus, when the British Association
was desirous of giving the cultivators on the Western Coast of Ireland
an opportunity of purchasing seed at a low market price at the close
of the sowing season of 1847, five large steamers were collected by
the Government, which were loaded in a remarkably short space of time,
with oats and other seed provided by the Association, and were sent
forth, each to its appointed section of the Western Coast; so that
every harbour accessible to a steamer, from Kinsale to Londonderry, was
looked into, and what remained unsold was left in the Government depôts
for subsequent sale or gratuitous distribution. On the other hand, the
Government received much assistance and support from the operations
of these benevolent societies, and they were especially useful in
bridging over the fearful interval between the system of relief by work
and relief by food. Several gentlemen, with a noble self-devotion,
volunteered their services to the British Association, among whom Lord
Robert Clinton, Lord James Butler, Count Strzelecki, and Mr. Higgins,
were distinguished by their zeal and ability, and by the fortitude with
which, for months together, they endured the pain and risk attending
the immediate contact with hunger and disease.
A large committee, with the Marquis of Kildare at its head, was formed
in Dublin under the name of the “General Central Relief Committee for
all Ireland,” the contributions received by which amounted to upwards
of 50,000ℓ., independently of 10,000ℓ. in cash and an equal value in
food, entrusted to this committee from the sum raised by the Queen’s
Letter. British North America contributed through this medium the
munificent sum of 12,463ℓ., including 5,873ℓ. from Montreal; 1571ℓ.
from Quebec; and 3,472ℓ. from Toronto. The United States gave 5,852ℓ.,
of which 3,199ℓ. was from New Orleans. British India 5,674ℓ.; the
Cape of Good Hope 2,900ℓ.; Australia 2,282ℓ.; South America 772ℓ.;
the Military 386ℓ.; Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium,
Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, West Indies, the Ionian Islands, &c.,
2,168ℓ.; Ireland, independently of local subscriptions, which were
very considerable, 9,888ℓ.; and England, over and above the 20,000ℓ.
remitted from the produce of the Queen’s Letter, 8,886ℓ.
Subscriptions were received to a smaller amount, but from an earlier
period of the distress, by another committee established in Dublin
under the name of the “Irish Relief Association for the Destitute
Peasantry,” which was announced to be a reorganization of the
Association formed during the period of famine in the West of Ireland
in 1831. The list of patrons commenced with the names of the Archbishop
of Dublin and the Duke of Manchester; and, independently of some
cargoes of corn, flour, &c., from Canada and the United States, the
funds placed at their disposal amounted to nearly 42,000ℓ., among the
contributions to which, the following were conspicuous:--England,
17,782ℓ.; Ireland, 6,151ℓ.; France, 1,390ℓ.; Italy, including 1,481ℓ.
from Rome, 2,708ℓ.; British North America, 2,821ℓ. (1,165ℓ. of this
being from Quebec); United States, 847ℓ.; India, 5,947ℓ., of which the
large proportion of 4,981ℓ. was from Madras; West Indies, 1,043ℓ.;
Australia, 2,314ℓ.; and from the officers and men of various regiments,
and the pensioners and constabulary, 508ℓ.
But the most considerable of the Dublin Charitable Committees was that
composed of members of the Society of Friends, of which Mr. Joseph
Bewley and Mr. Jonathan Pim were the Secretaries. The contributions
placed at their disposal since the 3rd of December, 1846, in money and
provisions, have been to the amount of upwards of 168,000ℓ., of which
no less than 108,651ℓ. is the estimated value of provisions (7,935
tons) consigned to them from the United States of America. Of the
subscriptions in money, 35,393ℓ. was remitted by the London Committee
of the Society of Friends; 8,494ℓ. by members of the Society and others
in Dublin; and the large sum of 15,567ℓ. by persons residing in the
United States. The provisions received from America were as follows:--
Estimated Value.
_Tons_ £ s. d.
From New York 4,496 58,299 15 0
” Philadelphia 1,870¼ 24,948 18 0
” New Orleans 349 7,538 5 0
” Newark, N. J. 316¾ 5,141 0 0
” Baltimore 262½ 3,913 10 0
” Richmond, V. 252½ 3,486 15 0
” Charleston 169 2,362 0 0
” Alexandria, V. 102 1,422 10 0
From Sundry other
Ports, United
States, America 117 1,518 7 10
And in addition to these large donations of money and food,
consignments of clothing were received from England and America, to the
estimated value of from 5,000ℓ. to 10,000ℓ.
The ladies of Ireland exerted themselves with characteristic zeal and
benevolence, to alleviate the sufferings of their country-people,
and to promote their moral advancement, by awakening and encouraging
a spirit of independent exertion, and fostering habits of industry
and self-reliance. The “Ladies’ Relief Association for Ireland,”
in the management of which the Honourable Mrs. Newcombe takes the
principal part, and the objects of which are “to encourage industry
among the female peasantry of Ireland, to contribute towards providing
nourishment for the sick, and to procure clothing for the destitute,”
raised 11,465ℓ. previously to the 1st of August, 1847, of which
3,043ℓ. was derived from the proceeds of a Fancy Bazaar in London,
and of this sum 2,500ℓ. was appropriated to the relief of families
whose husbands or fathers “have been removed while performing their
painfully laborious duties.” The “Ladies’ Industrial Society for the
Encouragement of Remunerative Labour among the Peasantry of Ireland,”
of which Mrs. Lloyd is the active promoter, more particularly aims
at encouraging the manufacture of those articles which are likely to
find a ready sale in the trade; for which purpose, instruction is
given in the best and most practicable descriptions of remunerative
labour; patterns, models, and implements are furnished, and a sale is
provided for the produce, through the intervention of a mercantile
agency in Dublin. Numerous benevolent persons adopted the same course
in various parts of Ireland, sometimes in connection with these
societies, and sometimes using their own means, with such aid as was
sent to them by their private friends. Mr. Gildea, the Rector of
Newport, and the ladies of his family, revived the manufacture of
coarse linen at that place, and they have employed between 500 and 600
females since the beginning of January, in the execution of orders
sent them by charitable persons[49]. The ladies of the Presentation
Convent at Galway gave every day a good meal of porridge to upwards
of 600 starving children who attended their schools. The ladies of
the Owenmore Relief Committee raised and expended in various works of
charity, 2,427ℓ., exclusive of grants of the British Association and
of the Government, to five parochial kitchens superintended by them.
Want of space alone prevents us from alluding to many other similar
instances.
In the autumn and winter of 1846 efforts were made to induce the
Government to take an active part in assisting emigration by an
apportionment of the expense of passage and outfit between the
public, the landlords, and the emigrants themselves; but, on a full
consideration of the subject, it appeared that the emigration about
to take place in the ensuing season to Canada and the United States,
without any assistance from the public, was likely to be quite as large
as those countries could properly absorb, and that the consequence of
the interference of the Government would be that the movement would be
carried beyond those limits which were consistent with safety, and that
a burthen would be transferred to the taxpayers of the United Kingdom,
which would otherwise be borne by those to whom it properly belonged,
owing to their interests being more immediately concerned. It is also
a point of primary importance, that those persons should emigrate,
who, from age, health, character, and circumstances, are best able to
contend with the hardships and difficulties of a settler’s life, and
it was considered that this object would be most fully attained if the
emigration were entirely voluntary. The true test of fitness in this
case is the possession, on the part of each individual concerned,
of the will and ability to emigrate; and the probability of helpless
multitudes being sent forth, who, both for their own sakes and for
that of the colony, ought to have remained at home, is increased in
proportion as other motives and other interests besides those of the
emigrant himself influence his act of expatriation. For these reasons
Her Majesty’s Ministers determined to confine themselves to taking
increased securities for the safety of the emigrants during their
voyage, and their early and satisfactory settlement after their arrival
abroad. Additional emigration agents were appointed to Liverpool and
to different Irish ports; the annual vote in aid of colonial funds for
the relief of sick and destitute emigrants from the United Kingdom,
was increased from 1000ℓ. to 10,000ℓ.; provision was made for giving
assistance in the case of emigrant ships being driven back by stress
of weather, and the Governor-General of Canada was informed that Her
Majesty’s Government would be prepared to defray its fair share of any
further expense that might have to be incurred in giving the Emigrants
necessary relief, or in forwarding them to places where they might
obtain employment[50].
Early in the year 1847 the roads to the Irish sea-ports were thronged
with families hastening to escape the evils which impended over their
native land. The complaint in Ireland, at the time, was, that those
who went belonged to the best and most substantial class of the
agricultural population. The complaint afterwards in Canada was that
those who came were the helpless and destitute. The fact was, that
the emigrants generally belonged to that class of small holders, who,
being somewhat above the level of the prevailing destitution, had
sufficient resources left to enable them to make the effort required
to effect their removal to a foreign land; and the steps taken by
them to convert their property into an available form, had for months
before been the subject of observation. Large remittances, estimated
to amount to 200,000ℓ. in the year ending on the 30th March, 1847,
were also made by the Irish emigrants settled in the United States and
the British North American provinces, to enable their relations in
Ireland to follow them[51]. The emigration of 1846 from the United
Kingdom, which was the largest ever known up to that time, amounted to
129,851 persons; the emigration of the first three quarters of 1847 was
240,461; and almost the whole of it was from Ireland to Canada and the
United States[52].
Even this does not represent the full extent of the outpouring of the
population of Ireland which took place in this eventful year. From the
13th January to the 1st November, 278,005[53] immigrants arrived at
Liverpool from Ireland, of whom only 122,981 sailed from that port to
foreign countries. The conflux of this mixed multitude was formidable
both to the health and resources of the inhabitants of Liverpool;
but they nobly faced the danger, and exerted themselves to meet the
emergency with the vigour it required. The portion of the town occupied
by the Irish was divided into thirteen districts, in each of which
a relief station was opened, and twenty-four additional relieving
officers were appointed, under the superintendence of two inspectors.
The number of persons relieved daily amounted for some time to upwards
of 10,000. The district medical officers were increased from six to
twenty-one, and extensive premises were hired or constructed for the
purpose of being used as temporary fever hospitals. All this was done
at the expense of the inhabitants, and the only assistance given by the
Government was, that when the fever increased to an alarming extent,
quarantine ships were stationed in the Mersey to receive the infected.
Nineteen relieving officers died at Liverpool alone of fever caught
in the execution of their duties. The influx of poor Irish by way of
Glasgow, Ardrossan, Port Patrick, Fleetwood, the Welsh ports, Bristol,
Plymouth, Southampton, and London itself, was also very large; and
quarantine arrangements had to be made in the Clyde similar to those at
Liverpool.
Some relief was obtained by the passing of the Act 10 & 11 Vic. c.
33, “to amend the Laws relating to the Removal of Poor Persons from
England and Scotland;” and 4,583 paupers who had become chargeable
to the Liverpool parochial funds, or who applied to be removed, were
sent back to their own districts in Ireland, at a cost of 1,322ℓ.,
between the 19th July, when the Act came into operation, and the 31st
October. Previously to this, there was very little crime among these
poor people, not even in petty thefts; but it soon appeared that
they preferred being sent to prison to being sent back to Ireland.
In the year ending 30th September, 1846, 398 natives of Ireland were
committed to the borough prison at Liverpool for begging, pilfering
about the docks, &c. In the year ending 30th September, 1847, 888 were
so committed. In the month of October 1846, 80 were committed; in the
same month of 1847, 142. This pauper immigration passed inland to all
the large towns of this island, as far as London and Edinburgh; and the
following statement of the number of Roman Catholic clergymen who died
of the Irish fever caught in attending the sick since March 1847, may
be taken as an index of the relative pressure[54]:--
_Lancashire._
Rev. Peter Nightingale, resident priest of St. Anthony’s, Great
Homer Street, Liverpool.
William Parker, senior resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park
Lane, Liverpool.
Richard Grayston, resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park Lane,
Liverpool.
James Haggar, resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park Lane,
Liverpool.
Thomas Kelly, D.D., resident priest of St. Joseph’s, Grosvenor
Street, Liverpool.
John F. Whitaker, removed from Manchester to succeed Dr. Kelly at
St. Joseph’s, where he died.
J. F. Appleton, D.D., senior resident priest of St. Peter’s, Seel
Street, Liverpool.
John A. Gilbert, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Edmund Street,
Liverpool.
William V. Dale, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Edmund Street,
Liverpool.
Robert Gillow, resident priest of St. Nicholas’s, Copperas Hill,
Liverpool.
John Hearne, senior priest of St. John’s, Wigan.
Robert Johnson, resident priest of St. John’s, Wigan.
John Dowdall, resident priest in Bolton.
_Cheshire._
Michael Power, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Duckinfield.
_Yorkshire._
Thomas Billington, Vicar-General of Yorkshire district, and
senior resident priest of St. Mary’s, York.
Henry Walmsley, senior resident priest of St. Ann’s, Leeds.
Richard Wilson, resident priest of St. Anne’s, Leeds.
Edward Metcalfe, successor to Rev. R. Wilson at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
Joseph Curr, Secretary to Bishop Briggs, with whom he resided at
Fulford House near York. He volunteered his services after
the death of Mr. Metcalfe, and in the course of a few weeks
died at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
J. Coppinger. Removed from Hull to supply the vacancies caused
by the above deaths, and very shortly after his removal died
at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
_Durham._
Joseph Dugdale, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Stockton.
_Northumberland._
James Standen, senior resident priest of St. Andrew’s,
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Right Rev. Dr. Riddell, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District
and Bishop of Longo. After the death of Mr. Standen, Bishop
Riddell undertook to attend to the visitation of the sick in
person. He very soon caught the fever and died at Newcastle.
_Staffordshire._
Rev. James Kennedy, resident priest at Newcastle-under-Lyne.
_Gloucestershire._
P. Hartley, resident priest of St. Peter’s, Gloucester.
_Wales._
Edward Mulcahy, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Bangor, North
Wales.