Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/mysterysolvedoriOOdill 1 3Hi|Jstoi| $nkth OE, IRELAND'S MISERIES; THE GKAND CAUSE, AND CUBE. BY THE REV. EDWARD MARCUS DILL, A.M., M.D., MISSIONARY AGENT TO THE HUSH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Fifth Thousand. EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. BELFAST : W. M'COMB. DUBLIN : JOHN ROBERTSON. M.DCCC.LII. EDINBURGH \ TRINTED BY JOHNSTONE AND HCNTER, 104 HIGH STREET. O'NEILL LIBRARY BOSTON COLLEGE 9*##*# df^rim TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, THE FOLLOWING BRIEF AND SIMPLE SOLUTION OF gttbrifr feat f nrMem, DESIGNED MAINLY TO PROMOTE THE OBJECTS OF THE PROTESTANT ALLIANCE, (OF WHICH HE IS THE DISTINGUISHED CHAIRMAN,) IS, "WITH HIS LORDSHIP'S KIND PEE MISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. Killorglis, Cjctsty Keuet, April 2>, 18-S2. CONTENTS. Page PART I.— IRELAND'S MISERIES. CHAP. I. — GENERAL "WRETCHEDNESS. Country's present appearance — Commerce — Manufacture — Agriculture — Depopulation — Evictions, &c, . . 9 CHAP. II THE FAMINE. Frightful mortality— Scenes of horror — Affecting incident, &c, 13 CHAP. Ill EMIGRATION. Extent — Progress — Miseries — Evils: moral, political, and social, &c, ....... 15 CHAP. IV INCREASING PROSTRATION. State of gentry— Farmers —Peasantry — Growth of pau- perism — Decrease of births and marriages, &c, . 20 CHAP. V. — SINGULAR EXCEPTION. Superiority of Ulster — In manufacture, commerce, agricul- ture, &c. — Object of this volume, . . .29 PART II.— ALLEGED CAUSES. CHAP. I. — THE PHYSICAL. The Country— Soil— Climate— Resources, &c. The Race — Celt and Saxon— "Wales — Highlands— Irish mind, and heart, &c„ ....... 35 CONTENTS. CHAP. II. — THE POLITICAL. The Agitator — Natural history of agitation — Q'Connell — Page Ulster, &c. The Legislature— The constitution- Laws— Repeal— " Misrule," &c, . • . 47 CHAP. III. — THE SOCIAL. Habits— Feudalism— Style— Extravagance, &c. Pursuiis- — Trade— Agriculture — Rack-rents — Tenant-right, &c, 57 CHAP. IV. — THE MORAL. Knowledge — General and religious ignorance — Supersti- tions, &c. &c. Virtue— Military, police, and criminal statistics— Consequent disorganization, &c. &c. Con- trast in Ulster — Light — Morality, &c. &c, . . 69 CHAP. V. THE RELIGIOUS. The Coincidence — Superiority of Protestantism in England, Scotland, Ireland's provinces, counties, parishes, towns, people. The Inference— The key of history in Ireland, Europe, &c. &c, . 82 PART III.— THE GRAND CAUSE. Basis of demonstration, . .... 96 CHAP. I. — ROME ECLIPSES THE MIND. The Bible in Ireland— Altar harangues— Maynooth training — Priestly instructions — Impostures — Miracles — Rome the enemy of all light — Congregation of the Index — Parent of barbarism — Fruits in Ireland, &c. &c, . 93 CHAP. II. — ROME CORRUPTS THE CONSCIENCE. Principles — Absolution — Confession, &c. &c. — Irish Priesthood — Profane swearing — Drunkenness — Sab- bath-breaking— Adultery, &c. &c. Irish People— Fre- quency of crime — Its atrocity, &c. &c, • .116 CONTENTS. Vil CHAP. III. — ROME DESTROYS THE HEART. Pa;;3 Her hatred of the Bible — Payments — Tortures — Lough Derg — Purgatory — Priestly foragings — Robberies — Butcheries— In Ireland and all countries— Truculent spirit unchanged, &c. &c, . . . .133 CHAP. IV. — ROME DEBASES THE WHOLE NATURE. Makes mental imbeciles, social cripples, moral slaves — Dreadful engines of subjugation — Women— Convents — — Confessional — Degradation — Filth — Improvidence — Idleness — Beggars, in Ireland and all Popish lands, &c. &c, ....... 149 CHAP. V. — ROME BLASTS MAN'S TEMPORAL STATE. Financial Cup.se of Ireland— Destroys prosperity — Robs community, &c. &c. Physical Curse — Effect on soil, climate, race, &e. Social Curse— Paralyses energies, perpetuates feudalism, aggravates landlord tyranny, &c. Political Curse — Curses our civil blessings — Trial by jury — Elective franchise, &c. — Creates agitation, despotism, &c. &c, ..... 165 CHAP. VI. ROME CLOUDS MAN'S ETERNAL PROSPECTS. Protestant pseudo- Liberals — Paganism of Popery — Popish mummeries — A scene of devotion — Sacerdotal piety — The heaven, of Rome — Her saints and sinners, &c. &c, 186 PART IV.— THE CURE. Recapitulation—" The Mystery Solved." . . .199 CHAP. I. — THE MEDICINE — THE POPULAR REMEDIES. The Civil — The Land question— Ireland unfit for liberty — The mockery of freedom, &c. The Educational — Na- tional Board — Sectarian zealots— Godless philosophers — Insufficiency of mere education, &c. The Industrial — Industrial Schemes — Advantages — Defects, &c— The Scriptural— Touching incident— The two atmospheres — Power of the Bible — Its amazing triumphs— Glory of Britain, &c, ...... 202 CONTENTS. CHAP. II. THE MEDICINE THE GRAND SPECIFIC. Page Philosophy of the Gospel— Indispensable to virtue, happi- ness, and general improvement of mankind — Atonement — Regeneration— True Catholicon— Monstrous folly of endowing Maynooth— Fruits of the Gospel— Awakens the mind— Purines the conscience — Gives a heart — Ele- vates the whole nature— Blesses for time, and eternity— A word to our statesmen, .... 225 CHAP. III. — THE TREATMENT — INFORMATION. Protestant ignorance— The practical of Rome — Its Satanic philosophy — The eclectic system of evil— Rome's tactics in these lands — Blustering, cunning — Hatred of, and designs on England, &c, . . . . . 233 CHAP. IV. THE TREATMENT LEGISLATION. Rome a temporal power — The Convents — Their decoys — Their horrors — Our duty. Maynooth College— Its his- tory — Course of instruction— Moral influence — Endow- ment — Infatuation of our rulers — Duty of the people, &c. &c ' . . . .257 CHAP. V THE TREATMENT — EVANGELIZATION. Ireland's grand hope— Past neglect — Missionary statistics — The Irish Society — Dingle — Achill — Birr — " Irish Schools" — "Scriptural and Industrial Schools" — Awakening in Connaught, &c. — The grand requisite — Revival in the Churches — Prayer — Faith — Wisdom — Union, &c, ...... 277 CONCLUDING APPEAL. Alarming progress of Popery — Increase of Irish in England — Scotland— Australia — America, &c. — Hope for Ireland — Evangelization — Emigration — Immigration, &c. &c, 294 THE MYSTERY SOLYED, 4c. PART I. THE MISERIES. APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — COMMERCE — MANUFACTURES. The present condition of Ireland is perhaps without a parallel amongst the nations of the earth. Misery has long been this country's peculiar portion. Her history has been written with tears and blood. Her children are familiar with sackcloth and ashes. But in God's awful providence she seems at length to have reached the climax of wo ; and is now passing through such a complication of miseries, as has excited the as- tonishment and pity of the world. CHAPTER I. GENERAL WRETCHEDNESS. The first thing that strikes the traveller, is the air of desolation which begins to pervade whole districts — especially in Munster and Connaught. As he wanders through these provinces, he sees half-decayed towns, A 10 THE MISERIES. which once were so flourishing as to send members to the Irish parliament. He finds whole villages in ruins so complete, that nothing remains but a few tottering wall- steads, to tell that the hum of life was ever there. In some cases, even these monuments of desolation have disappeared, and the coachman points to a bare deserted spot, as the site of a former hamlet. And as to the des- truction of farmsteads and cabins, he can scarce move in any direction but the scene appears as if some invading army had passed by. He finds, on inquiry, that this decadence had com- menced long prior to the famine, and was only hastened by that fearful visitation. On the eve of that calamity, and while yet the tide of events flowed in its usual channels, Ireland contained one-third the population, with one-fourth the surface of the United Kingdom; and yet her national revenue was not one-eleventh, being £4,500,000 sterling out of £52,000,000. The re- gistered tonnage of her shipping was not one-twelfth, being 250,000 tons to near 3,250,000. And the pro- portion of persons employed in her factories was one twenty-third, being in round numbers, 23,000 to 545,000 ; * while her agricultural condition could scarce be compared to Britain's — there being then in Ireland near 1,000,000 of holdings on 13,500,000 acres of ar- able surface. And of these holdings, one-seventh did not exceed 1 acre each; one-third consisted of from 1 to 5 acres; not one-twentieth were above 50 acres each ; and two-thirds, at least, were wretchedly cultivated.f * See Thorn's Irish Statistics for 1849, pp. 54, 55, 177, 178, 182; Oliver and Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack for 1848, pp. 141, 142. + See Thorn's Statistics, 1849, pp. 168, 169. COMPARATIVE POVERTY. 11 If we look to the circumstances of the population of that period, our results are not less remarkable. While the English upper classes have long been the wealthiest in the world, few of the Irish were even then out of debt, and numbers were hopelessly embarrassed. While the English middle classes have long been surrounded with comforts, Ireland can scarce be said to have ever had a middle class. And of the few that even then existed, the means were so slender, that often the Irish merchant was poorer than the English clerk ; and the Irish farmer would have been thankful for the food which English servants threw away; while the entire agricultural class, representing seven-tenths of Ireland's substance, were fast sinking into poverty. How, then, shall we compare the lower classes of both countries — the starved Irish peasant in his wretched hut, with the happy English hind in his cheerful cottage ? More than three-fourths of all the dwellings in Ireland were at that period built of mud. Near one-half of all the families in Ireland lived in dwellings of but one apartment each.* Two- thirds of the entire population lived by manual labour, and subsisted on potatoes. Xear one-third were out of work, and in distress thirty weeks in the year ; f while not less than one-eighth were paupers, or on the very verge of pauperism. We think no one can read these statistics without being able to account for all the horrors of the famine of 1847. Xo prosperous country could be utterly pro- strated by the failure of one crop — least of all, the potato — for no prosperous country depends upon it. It •Census for 1841. f Third Report, Poor Inquiry Commission. 12 THE MISERIES. is the staple food of poverty or sloth. That nation must have been foundering, which such a calamity could so completely engulf. The above statistics de- monstrate that Ireland was foundering — that the people were already so impoverished, as to be unable to bear any additional privations ; and many of them, indeed, so sunk in the gulf of wretchedness, that the least rise of its waters was sure to overwhelm them. The census of 1851 has accordingly shown the disas- trous effects of the famine upon Ireland. Ten years before, the population was 8,175,124. At the same rate of increase which had marked all previous decennial periods, it should at least have been 9,000,000 in 1851; and many believed it had reached that number in 1816. Yet it was found to be only 6,515,794 — thus revealing the astounding fact, that in five years, the population of Ireland had virtually decreased two millions and a- Jialf, or near one-third ! ! This number is within about 370,000 of being equal to the entire population of Scot- land. We have only, therefore, to imagine the almost total extinction of the Scottish nation, in order to form some estimate of our loss. Moreover, in the year 1841, there were 1,384,360 dwellings in Ireland. According to the census of 1851, the number was then reduced to 1,115,007, — showing, that in the mean time, no less than 269,353 of all the habitations of the country had been levelled to the ground! We find, from the same source of information, that this dreadful clearance has chiefly taken place amongst the small farmers — that humble class so graphically described by the poet, whose little plot "Just gave what life required, but gave no more." CLEARANCE OF SMALL FARMERS. 13 In 184-5, there were, as already stated, near 1,000,000 of holdings in Ireland; and of this number, those which contained from 1 to 5 acres each, amounted to 310,436; and supported 1,862,250 individuals— more than one-fifth of the population. The census of 1851 has revealed the awful fact, that near three-fourths of this entire class have been swept away — there being then but 91,618 holdings, supporting 549,708 indivi- duals ! We find, moreover, that of all the holdings which were under 15 acres each, one-half have disappeared, in- volving the clearance of 1,500,000 souls. All this in a few short years ! yet even now, the depopulation goes on as rapidly as ever. Who that has a heart can read these details without emotion ? Near two hundred and seventy thousand dwellings swept away ! And in these the pulse of affection once beat warmly; for nature has endowed the peasant with feelings as well as the prince. To these, the poor man proudly brought his bride. In these, they no doubt spent years of humble contentment, cheered amidst their sorrows by each other's love. There the mother has smiled over her infant's cradle, and perhaps wept over its coffin too ; and the hardy father has had his toils beguiled by the innocent prattle of his little ones. And there, too, have they often knelt around their dying embers, and in their own humble way and simple strains presented their evening prayer to heaven ! CHAP. II. THE FAMINE. Such are the general statistics of our depopulation — 14 THE MISERIES. the brevity of this sketch forbids minuter details. It is enough to say, that of the above 2,500,000, the famine destroyed about 1,000,000, and emigration has removed the remainder ; and let any one imagine, if he can, the scenes of wo embraced in these fearful figures! During the horrors of 1847, our country was transformed into a grave-yard and a lazar-house. It was quite common to see the people staggering like drunken men along the roads from the utter exhaustion of nature, their faces and legs being swollen with hunger; and pages might be filled with the bare record of cases the most affecting, of starvation, pestilence, and death. Let us just present the reader with an instance or two. At Killalla, the famished creatures used to crowd round the house of the Rev. Mr Rogers, wolfish with hunger ; and men once athletic and muscular would stand before his windows, take the skin which once covered a brawny arm, but now hung loose and wrinkled, and double it round the bone in order to prove the extent of their emaciation ! One woman was found stretched on the bed by the side of her dead husband, and after having just given birth to a poor wasted infant. It was not uncommon to find whole families dead in their cabins together. Nor were cases rare in which the famished creatures became deranged before expiring ; and in one such instance, the most awful of all the occurrences pre- dicted against the Jews, was found to have taken place — the delirious mother had fed on her dead infant ! Our missionaries were doomed to witness daily the most heart-rending scenes. The Rev. Mr Brannigan one day observed a man and his wife digging iu a stubble field. He approached and inquired what they were doing. AFFECTING INCIDENT. 15 They told him they had five children, whom they had for a fortnight supported on cabbage and mill-dust, but that they were now actually starving ; that for the last two days they had kept them in bed to try to sleep off the hunger; and that they had that day been out from the early morning in quest of some wild roots, of which they exhibited a handful as the fruits of their protracted labours. Mr Brannigan was moved, and, utter- ing some kind words, he handed them two shillings. This relief coming so unexpectedly on the poor man, weakened as he was by sorrow and hunger, completely unmanned him, and he sobbed and wept in the min- ister's face ; while his wife, still less able to control her feelings, clasped her husband in her arms, exclaiming — "My dear! our children won't die yet." And yet these are mere samples. How many scenes more tragic still were enacted during that dreadful calamity, which no chronicle has ever recorded, of whose existence the world never heard, and over which no tears of sympathy were shed, except perhaps by some fellow-sufferers ! Nor must we forget that, in consequence of the partial fail- ure of the potato ever since 1847, many districts have been suffering an annual famine, and have now, there- fore, almost equalled Egypt's seven years of dearth with- out its previous seven of plenty. CHAP. III. — EMIGRATION. For many years a large portion of Ireland's shipping trade has been mere emigration. And its aggregate amount can be best seen from the fact that, according to 16 THE MISERIES. a late estimate, there are in America 3,000,000 of native Irish, and 4,500,000 more of Irish descent. In other words, America now contains of inhabitants of Irish blood, 1,000,000 more than does Ireland itself! Even previous to the famine of 1847, the annual number of emigrants had in six years steadily risen from 40,000 to 95,000; and since that time it has increased so prodigious^ that the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners give the number emigrating in 1851 at 279,000. The daily arrivals of emigrants at the port of New York alone, range from 700 to 1000, and of these the great mass are Irish. Thus, after flowing westward for half a century, the stream of emigration, so far from diminish- ing, has swollen into a mighty flood; and the world now gazes on a phenomenon which can only be likened to the migrations of the Gauls or the Huns, or other wander- ing tribes of yore. Multitudes are flying from their once loved homesteads, as though Ireland were the scene of some physical as well as social convulsion, to a land which comprises all they can henceforth call a country ; deeming even its wild forests an asylum from their woes. They daily hear of the untimely end of thousands of their fellow-emigrants by shipwreck on the passage, or hardships on their arrival ; but so far is every other feeling overborne by the one desire to escape, that the most timid brave the deep, and the most infirm encounter the hardships. Of the crowds that thus hurry along in this general "exodus," scarce one returns, save the few who come back from ill health or indo- lence, nulla vestigia retrorsum ; so that a large portion of the country's business arises from emigration. From it our railways are reaping a transient and ruinous ALARMING PROGRESS. 17 harvest — the numbers continually pouring along the Great Southern and Western alone are surprising. And seacoast villages, which vessels were never known to touch before, ships now regularly visit for their human cargoes. Churches and chapels are fast being emptied. The country begins to feel the fearful drain, and faints from excessive depletion ; yet on goes the increasing tide, and on it promises to go. In many cases the wail of the emigrants who crowd our ports is not so heart- rending as that of their friends whom poverty compels to remain behind ; and had the people but the means of getting away, whole districts would rise and take their departure. Even the warmest advocates of the clear- ance-system begin to feel alarmed. Instead of a com- petition for land, as formerly, there has at length commenced a competition for tenants ; and some are seriously speaking of the necessity for parliamentary interference with the emigrant, to save the country from complete depopulation — it being a matter truly of easy enough calculation, that at the same increasing rate of emigration, a very few years indeed would leave Ireland a lonesome solitude. Here is a state of things as mournful as it is unpa- ralleled. We refer not so much to the previous dreadful hardships which such a general flight implies ; when, by a people proverbially attached to home, a Canadian log-hut is now deemed a blessing ; when the spell of country is so completely broken, that America, once their last resource, is now the goal of their hopes ; and what used to be dreaded as a land of exile, is now sighed for as a place of refuge. Nor do we refer so much to the anguish endured by our warm-hearted THE MISERIES. countrymen when thus torn from their humble, but yet beloved, homesteads! What this must be, the heart-rending cries of the emigrants who throng our quays but too painfully show ; or their still more bitter wail, when taking their last farewell of those homely abodes which were endeared to them by a thousand recollections ! Not surely that these woes are to be overlooked or underrated ; on the contrary, they must command the deepest sympathy of our nature. He can- not be a man who could witness such scenes without emotion, or feeling all that our native poet has so touch- ingly expressed — " Good Heaven! what sorrows gloomed that parting day That called them from their native walks away; When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last; And shuddering still to face the distant deep, Returned and wept, and still returned to weep." Most affecting of all is it to see amongst those mourn- ful groups, not the young and active merely, but many a poor old man who had hoped to lay his bones in his father's sepulchre : — to see trembling old age thus turned out on the world when almost leaving it; doomed to recommence life's pilgrimage at its close; and forced to encounter hardships fit only for elastic youth, and beneath which grey hairs are all but sure to sink. But we refer not now to these calamities. We allude rather to the moral and social evils of this unnatural state of things. For many years it has been the very flower of the people who have been leaving — our enterprising upright yeomanry — who were not con- tent to live on dry potatoes. It is the bones and sinews EVILS OF EMIGRATION. 19 of the country we have been losing, who, besides con- tributing their labour and skill to America's national wealth, have been carrying with them each from £10 to £1000. By the departure of this class, it is reckoned that since 1845 the country has lost in cash alone about half a million sterling. Thus Ireland has for years been little else than a nursery-ground for America, whence the hardiest plants are being annually removed, while the least thriving and healthy are left behind. The cream of the nation has thus for years been flowing off. Like some liquid of which the purer portion at the top has been repeatedly drawn away, till the very sediment itself begins at length to run off — such has been the draining process of Irish emigration, on which Britain has looked with indifference, till now the best of our people are gone to rear cities beneath a foreign banner, and all that remains for England's proud flag to wave over, is the pauperised and prostrated remnant. Nor are the political bearings of the case to be wholly disregarded. It were idle to deny that America now holds that place in the hearts of most of our countrymen which England ought to possess. Hearken to their con- versation, and America is the theme of their eulogies ; while England is spoken of in terms of invidious contrast, and in a spirit of moody discontent. Never was this fact more clearly proved than during the American am- bassador's late visit to Ireland. While at a recent festival in Limerick, the health of our beloved Queen was received with hisses by some of the party, the people every where gave Mr Abbot Lawrence a royal reception, and flocked around him as though he had been a visitant from some better world. In truth, the 20 THE MISERIES. hearts of the people are now in America. Enter almost any dwelling, and the great aim of the very servants is to save what will " take them out of this country" to that land of promise. Converse with our struggling farmers, and the last hope of many is that their sons who have gone before, may be spared to send for them- selves and their families, and enable them to exchange the condition of British subjects for that of American citizens. Follow that youth to those distant shores, and you find him sustained amid their summer droughts and winter snows by the hope of soon rescuing his revered parent from hunger and " oppression," and welcoming him to that " land of liberty" and wealth. CHAP. IV. INCREASING PROSTRATION. Such is the history of the millions we have lost — let us now glance at the state of the millions who remain. It would be some consolation for the loss of the former, if, as many hoped, it would have conduced to the good of the latter. According to our overpopulation theorists, Ireland was like some overcrowded ship ; and what was chiefly necessary to save her from sinking, was simply to lighten her of her human cargo. Well, this has been done, and to their hearts' content — has it enabled her to weather the tempest? Look to our upper classes, and how many of those who were embarrassed in 1846 are absolute bankrupts now ! Their property has so fast been passing through the Encumbered Estates' Court, that 2000 petitions have already been presented, of which 1600 have beenfiated; DECAY OF GENTRY. 21 and yet it is the opinion of many that the labours of that court are only commencing. You now pass by numbers of decaying mansions which were once the homes of splendid hospitality. You see their magnifi- cent demesnes neglected, and their various monuments of elegance fast going to ruin. And you find the only tenant of their lonely halls to be, perhaps some Chancery keeper, or else some old caretaker of the family who en- tertains you with stories of its ancient " grandeur." Some of these dwellings have been turned into poorhouses — sad emblem of our country's state ! — and those who were once their lords are now penniless exiles in distant lands, or earning a pittance in some department of the public service. The sons of several of our gentry have been glad to enter the constabulary as common police- men, and a few at least are now private soldiers. A baronet is this moment a common turnkey in a prison, and at least one gentleman of high family has been dis- covered in a poorhouse ! There is something peculiarly affecting in these facts. By a merciful arrangement of Providence, those who have been cradled in hardships are for that very reason best fitted to endure them; but it is pitiful to think of hundreds in actual want who were reared as tenderly as any of our readers, and whose infant locks the rude winds of heaven were scarce ever permitted to toss. We have had applications from the daughters of gentlemen, couched in terms enough to make the heart bleed, begging to be made teachers of our industrial schools on ,£20 a-year. One of our mis- sionaries was some time since sent for to visit a reduced lady who was reported to be dying. He found her in a wretched dwelling, and sinking mainly from sheer 22 THE MISERIES. privation ; and the only relics of former years he could see, were a riding habit and a silver-mounted whip, which belonged to a beloved daughter ! And the most affecting feature of the case is, the shifts to which these persons frequently resort in order to conceal their dis- tress. In one case, the author accidentally discovered the starving condition of a gentleman with a large family, who had held a high situation in the Customs ; and having at length so far gained his confidence as to induce him to make known his wants, he learned amongst other things that the only covering which the gentleman and his wife had over them at night was an old green baize cloth to which he pointed on the table before him! Look now for an instant to our middle class — or rather to that class which in Ireland comes nearest to what is meant by this term, and embraces not only our merchants, shopkeepers, and higher agriculturists, but our traders, farmers, and private householders, of respectable charac- ter, but limited means. There is scarce any better index of the condition of this class, as well indeed as of all who stand between it and our humblest peasantry, than the state of our savings' banks. Now, in 1845 the number of depositors in the savings' banks of Ireland was 96,422; and the amount deposited, £2,921,581 ; where- as in the year 1850 the number of depositors had fallen to 47,987, and the amount deposited to £1,291,798 ! Another most important indication of a country's prosperity or decline, is the amount of its imports and exports. Now, in 1845, when we had a popula- tion of 8,500,000, our exports in grain alone were worth £4,500,000 sterling; yet, in 1850, with only FARMERS SINKING. 23 6,500,000 of a population to feed, the value of our corn exports was but £1,500,000 sterling; — in other words, this principal source of our wealth had, in the above brief period, fallen away tico-thirds ! Nor has this decline been confined to our grain trade. Our exports in cows and pigs amounted, in 1846, to above £4,500,000 sterling; while, in 1850, they had fallen away to £2,200,000, or less than one-half. And when it is recollected that seven-tenths of Ireland's wealth is agricultural, these figures but too plainly demon- strate the rapidity of her decline. If next we look to the private circumstances of the farmers, we know that their live stock is one of the most important items, and sources, too, of their wealth. Every one knows that much of the value of their farms depends on their ability to stock them well. Now, in 1841, the value of live stock on each holding under fifteen acres averaged £9, and the total value on all the farms of this extent in Ireland, was, in round numbers, £10,500,000 sterling; while, in 1851, the average value of live stock on each had fallen to £6, 10s., showing that more than one-fourth of this source of our national wealth has also disappeared. And it has been truly affecting to mark, in so many farmers' dwellings, those sure and steady strides of poverty which the foregoing statistics indicate ; to see, first of all, how the farmer's little savings were gradu- ally drawn from the savings' bank till all was gone — then how his cattle were sold, one by one, till fre- quently the last cow disappeared — then how his house- hold furniture itself went, piece by piece, and the very apparel of the family began to be sold or pawned ; and 24 THE MISERIES. how the long-maintained, but fruitless struggle, was finally closed by the poor man giving up his farm on which his fathers had dwelt for generations, and mourn- fully bending his steps to the poorhouse or the sea- port. The last five years have hence been unex- ampled for the number of auctions and other sales; and when so many were selling, and so few able to buy, the sacrifices often made at these were, of course, enormous. Nor have the pawnbrokers been less busily employed than the auctioneers. We have known even their yards and outhouses to be filled with articles from their surrounding neighbourhoods. And in some cases they have suffered from the very excess of their stores, so many have been pawning and so few pur- chasing ! Of course, there are many exceptions to this general decline, both in our middle and upper classes. We speak of the majority, though we fear it is the large majority ; for if so many signs of distress appear in those ranks of Irish society whose fondness for keeping up an appearance is so proverbial, and whose dread of being thought poor is so great, that they would almost rather starve than let their wants be known, we can- not but conclude that, were we admitted behind the scenes, we would discover an amount of privation which would more than justify the picture we have drawn. , If, then, such is the condition even of our gentry and yeomanry, what can we expect amongst those lower grades from which our vast armies of paupers are chiefly recruited ? Perhaps our poor-law statistics will form the best answer to this question. Let the reader GROWTH OF PAUPERISM. just look at the subjoined table,* which marks the progress of our pauperism, with all its ruinous expen- diture, for 11 short years. From it he will find that, whereas in 18-41, the numbers relieved were 31,000, and the cost of relief was £110,000; in 1849, the numbers relieved were no less than 932,000, and the cost of relief near £2,200,000 ; — that is to say, for eight years the scale continues to ascend till the num- ber of paupers has increased thirtyfold, and the cost of relieving them twentyfold! Indeed, in 1848, the number receiving relief, including out-door paupers, exceeded 2,000,000, or a fourth of the population ; and if the last two years exhibit a diminution, we fear this is to be ascribed to something else than return- ing prosperity. A depopulation of 2,500,000 should alone go far to explain the phenomenon ; while the country is so fast sinking beneath a load of poor-rates, that in several poorhouses it is found impossible to accommodate the paupers of the district; and those who find admittance, in many cases perish in such numbers from their miserable maintenance, that they begin to shun the poorhouse as a sepulchre. In two houses alone, those of Ennistymon and Kilrush, there died in the year ending March 1851, 3,028 paupers, being at the rate of 4 deaths a-day in the one house, and 4J- in the other! The state of our poorhouses, Year. Expenditure. Paupers. Year. Expenditure. Paupers. * 1841 £110,278 31,108 1847 £803,686 417,139 1842 281,233 87,604 1848 1,835,634 610,463 1843 244,374 87,898 1849 2,177,651 932,284 1844 271,334 105,358 1850 1,430,108 805,702 1845 316,025 114,205 1851 1,110,892 768,570 184*3 435,001 243,933 — Thom 's Statistics, 1852, p. 203. B 26 THE MISERIES. therefore, is no certain criterion of the state of our pauperism. Some of our Unions are insolvent, and many are in debt ; while the poor-rate is so fast has- tening the general decay, that a number of the rate- payers of one year are uniformly found amongst the paupers of the next. The poorhouse3 built only 12 years ago, with ample accommodation for the esti- mated wants of the time, have in many places been found so inadequate as to have added to them three and four auxiliary ivorJchouses. A large portion of the town of Millstreet, is at present thus occupied by paupers ; yet our poorhouse accommodation is still so deficient, that we fear the foregoing table scarce indicates three- fourths of the existing pauperism of the country. This prodigious amount of pauperism, embracing near one-sixth of the population, is yet but too easily accounted for by a glance at the state of the peasantry. While the average wages of the English labourer is about Is. 6d. per day, that of the Irish labourer is about 6d. ; it occasionally rises to lOd. and Is. ; it is often as low as 3d. and 4d. ; and, in the slack seasons, numbers are content to work for their food. We have seen that, for weeks together, they are unemployed; and in the west particularly the labour market is so wretched, that you will see them bringing ass 5 loads of turf and of chickweed for several miles into town, and selling them for -Jd. or Id., and a messenger will gladly travel 10 or 12 miles for 6d. Their food is of the poorest description. Before the famine, it con- sisted chiefly of potatoes, with sometimes milk, often herrings, rarely meat, and frequently nothing; but since the famine, it largely consists of Indian meal WRETCHED STATE OF PEASANTRY. 27 stirabout, and this frequently but twice a-day ; and most thankful are some of them to get even this. We have known them to live for weeks on boiled tur- nips or cabbage ; and by the seaside you will see wo- men daily dispersed along the strand in quest of mus- sels or limpets, or whatever else they can find. You examine their dwellings, and as you gaze on those wretched hovels, with their straw roofs rotten and leaky, their floors soaked with damp, and the green glut from the thatch often streaking their walls, you wonder how human beings can possibly exist in them ! In truth, their accumulated hardships have, since the famine, wrought a melancholy change on this once hardy race. The children are now generally wasted and sallow, the parents have a famished look, disease is much more frequent, and longevity is daily becoming- rarer. There are very few cabins which have not, within the last five years, been scenes of sickness or death ; and you have only to enter and inquire for some parent or child, to be pointed to a wasted patient on a sickbed, or to the neighbouring graveyard. Hence the number of orphans is now quite remarkable. You will meet them by scores in the poorhouses and beg- ging along the roads ; and we fear it is this mournful fact which, in a great measure, accounts for another far more deplorable — that juvenile prostitution has of late been increasing. Nor has the distress of our peasantry failed to show itself in other affecting forms. It is indeed the last symp- tom of an expiring country and a famished people, when not only is the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride ceasing to be heard therein, but even that of the new-born 28 THE MISERIES. babe. Yet, since the year 1847, the annual number of marriages in Ireland is reckoned to have decreased one- third, and the number of births to have proportionally declined ; while in many cases the wasted appearance of both mother and offspring is truly affecting to behold, and the powers of nature have been so far exhausted, that abortions are of frequent occurrence. It is also asserted, that in some districts lunacy itself is increas- ing. In a word, life has become with many a desperate struggle to live. Even our enormous poor-rates, while beggaring the country, have not yet left our paupers the alternative of a poorhouse or a grave ; for deaths from starvation are still of frequent occurrence. Nay, even reduced below the alternative of flying to a foreign land or dying in their own, it has been proved that several prisoners committed the crimes they stood charged with, in order to obtain the privilege of trans- portation. We shall now only add the marvellous fact, that all this decay has been proceeding in an age which, for general advancement, has been termed the age of wonders, and that Ireland has been thus fearfully re- trograde in the very swiftest hour of the world's on- ward march. During the same period in which Britain has been rising to the highest pinnacle of greatness, Ireland by her side, and beneath the same sceptre, has been sinking to this deep degradation : until now, the one is the mistress and the other the mendicant of the world ; the name of the one is a glory commanding the respect of the nations, and that of the other a byeword commanding at best their commiseration. In the same time in which America has been transformed from a ULSTER AN EXCEPTION. 20 wild forest of Indians into a land of unparalleled pros- perity, our people have grown so utterly wretched as to fly to her backwoods as an asylum, to accept of her menial employments as a boon, and after being in many cases masters at home, to be thankful for the post of hired servants there. And what crowns the case is, that not only has this national consumption bid defiance to every form of treatment, but it seems rather to have grown worse under each successive remedy, and now appears likely to be arrested by nothing but dissolution. Each new measure has only blasted our hopes — each fresh loan has but increased our burdens — each remedial experiment has miserably failed, and often proved a curse rather than a cure ; — until now our social maladies have reached such a height, that unless in some way ar- rested by Grod's gracious providence, in a few more years our country's funeral dirge must inevitably be heard. CHAP. V. SINGULAR EXCEPTION. To this general scene of wretchedness we must notice a partial, yet remarkable exception. The province of Ulster has long presented so strange a contrast to the rest of Ireland, as to have elicited the surprise even of conti- nental tourists. Though warmed by the same sun, and watered by the same skies, this one province has pros- pered while the rest have declined ; and you have only to cross the boundary line which divides them, to find a comparative desert on the one side and garden on the other. If you look to Ulster's condition prior to the famine, 30 THE MISERIES. you find it has long been the home of comfort and industry, and the headquarters of our commerce and manufactures. Of the 22,591 persons employed in our factories in 1846, nearly four-fifths belonged to our northern province ; the proportions being — Ulster, 17,304 ; Leinster, 3,732 ; Minister, 1,155 ; and in Con- naught not a single one. To give one example of the relative progress of our northern and southern towns. In 1786, Belfast was an unimportant place with a wretched harbour; and the revenue of its port was but £1,500 sterling. In 1838 it contained 50 factory steam-engines ; in 1811, its mills for spinning linen yarn alone amounted to 25, one of the principal employing 800 hands ; in 1846, the Tidal Harbour Commissioners pronounced it " the first town in Ireland for enterprise and commercial prosperity ; " and in 1850, its port revenues had increased to .£29,000. On the other hand, Kilkenny was an im- portant city when Belfast was a village ; it once had several factories, 11 water-wheels, and such a carpet manufactory that Kidderminster petitioned for repeal of the Union. In 1834, Mr Inglis saw one man in the principal factory which once employed 200; and he adds, that of the 11 water-wheels one was going, not for the purpose of driving the machinery, but to pre- vent it from rotting ! If you next turn to the period of the famine, those scenes of horror which were so common in the south were scarcely known in the north of Ireland ; and many of those who did perish there were natives of Connaught and Leinster, who poured into Ulster in quest of food. Of £10,000,000 of relief sent to Ireland at that period COMPARATIVE COMFORT OF TEE NORTH. 31 by public and private charity, scarce £1,000,000 is sup- posed to have reached Ulster ; while that province actually contributed large sums for the relief of the south and west, and has ever since paid the rate-in-aid tax for the same end. Finally, if you look to its con- dition since 1847, you find that those calamities which have prostrated Munster and Connaught have fallen upon it with but mitigated severity. While Ireland has lost one-fifth of its inhabitants, Munster almost one- fourth, and Connaught nearly one-third, Ulster has not lost one-sixth. Its capital, Belfast, which in 1841 con- tained above 75,000 inhabitants, had risen in 1851 to near 100,000, showing an increase of upwards of 24,000 ! In fact, the population of Ulster is now rela- tively greater than it was before the famine — consist- ing in 1841 of above one-fourth, and in 1851 near one-third of Ireland's inhabitants. Of the government advances made during the famine, the entire of the country owes near £4,500,000 ; of this Ulster owes little more than £500,000, or one-eighth of the debt to near one-third of the population. Its pauperism is not half so great as that of the other provinces ; its pro- portion of the entire poor-rates of the country being also about an eighth. In a word, you find that Ulster, though exposed to every ordinary influence felt by Munster and Connaught, has scarce known the miseries which have given them such fearful notoriety. So soon as you enter that province, the entire aspect of the country changes. All around assumes that air of social health which is so easily perceived yet so difficult fully to describe. You have left behind the region of filthy cabins and swarming beggars, ruined villages and ! 32 THE MISERIES. deserted farms ; and you enter a territory of compara- tively rich cultivation, studded with comfortable dwell- ings and thrifty towns. And you cannot but feel that, from whatever cause, Ulster is at least fifty years ahead of its sister provinces in all the true elements of national progress ; and in its general aspect, so much more re- sembles Britain than Ireland, that one could almost fancy some physical convulsion to have severed it from the one island and attached it to the other. Such is Ireland's temporal condition. We now pro- ceed to that question which has been so frequently asked and so variously answered — What is the cause of such fearful wretchedness, particularly of the marvellous contrast we have traced between one of our provinces and all the rest? What makes Ireland a desert and Ulster its only oasis? or how came the Newry moun- tains to form the boundary line between the abodes of comfort and the haunts of wo ?• On this subject how much has been written, yet how little seems to be understood ! Each successive writer has found out the " true cause" of our miseries, and of course the infallible specific ; yet these have been end- lessly various and often directly opposite. In truth, to Ireland's other misfortunes this also has been added, that she has long been the practice-ground of social and political theorists. Never was laboratory the scene of more experiments, nor patient the victim of blinder quackery. Until now the only parallel to her case seems that of the woman who spent all her living on physicians, " and was nothing the better, but rather grew worse." The result, of course, has been calamitous. Not only has OBJECT OF THIS WORK. 33 a vast amount of talent and treasure been wasted on Ire- land which, if wisely applied, might ere now, under God, have achieved her salvation, but not a little of what was meant as medicinal has proved absolutely poisonous: and, untaught by the experience of the past, many of our most intelligent philanthropists and statesmen are to this very hour hanging over our expiring country, — perplexed about the treatment, because ignorant of the grand disease. How long and anxiously have we looked for some one to arise and dispel this ignorance for ever! — some one who would trace out the cause of Ireland's miseries with such clearness and candour, as would leave ignorance nothing to mistake, and bigotry nothing to say. No such person having as yet appeared, and our country meanwhile sinking at a rate so fearful, a very humble individual has been urged to undertake a task which can no longer wait for an abler pen. Nothing but the emergency of the case could have secured his consent. But what would be presumption in one class of circum- stances becomes imperative duty in another; and in a crisis like the present, diffidence should yield to highe? feelings, and the most obscure emerge from the shade, if he can but render his country the least possible service. We crave, then, the reader's candid perusal of the following pages, whatever political or religious creed he may hold. We would especially bespeak for them our countrymen's calm attention. They are penned by one who can yield to none in devotion to his country and distress for her sorrows ; who has spent the best years of his life in seeking her good ; whose heart has often bled for her woes and throbbed for her future 34 THE MISERIES. enlargement. He entreats them to lay aside, at least for one brief hour, the spirit of party ; and if not on the high ground of their common country, at least on that of their common calamities, make this small sacri- fice at the shrine of reason. Common woes and dangers have united the deadliest foes. The most hostile bro- thers have embraced over a parent's dying bed. And, oh ! shall we ever permit the historian to tell, that even the grave, which entombed so many of our country- men, could not bury along with them our feuds and dissensions ; that these alone were flourishing, when all else around us decayed ; that amid the throes of our expiring country, we could not suspend our suicidal strife ; and therefore that her death was at least has- tened by her own children's hands ? * # * We may observe once for all, that we have found it impossible in so small a volume to notice the numer- ous sources from which our facts and statistics are de- rived. But the reader may rely on their correctness. part n. ALLEGED CAUSES. The alleged causes of Ireland's miseries may all be classed under the six following heads. Some have ascribed them to something in her physical state ; some, to her 'political condition; others, to her social; others still, to her moral; while a fifth class has attributed them to her religious character ; and a sixth has ascribed them, in part, to each of these. Let us briefly inquire how far each theory is accordant with truth. CHAP. I. THE PHYSICAL. This branch of our subject divides itself into the People, and the Land of their Birth. Does the cause, then, rest with Ireland, or the Irish ? Is the ground cursed with sterility, or the air with pestilence ? Is the climate bleak, or the coast inhospitable ? Is the island a Sahara or a Campagna di Eoma? Or is the now fashionable theory the correct one, that the race is hopelessly degenerate and spent — that, with them, "misfortune is another name for misconduct" — and that the Irishman, wherever he goes, is pursued by the curse of Cain or Cainaan, and for similar reasons ? 36 ALLEGED CAUSES. The Country. — Is the cause, or any part of it, found in the country ? The question scarce deserves an answer. Ireland is as much celebrated for beauty as misfortune. Yolumes have been -written on its scenery and resources. Swarms of tourists are annually lured to its shores. Poetry, often extravagant, speaks but sober truth in styling it the " Emerald Isle." And it is the unanimous verdict of mankind, that in all the requisites of national greatness, the entire island, but especially its southern province, is perhaps unequalled beneath the sun. In truth, here Nature has lavished her stores. If we turn to the climate, Heaven never blessed a land with more genial skies. Its temperature rarely falls below 30° or rises above 75° ; and thus it is preserved alike from the rigours of northern and the burning heats of southern climes. Its atmosphere is peculiarly free from disease, and altogether so pure, that till reduced by late hardships, its people were proverbially healthy ; and so mild are the winter months of the south particularly, that the invalid takes shelter in its coves from the less kindly airs of Scotland and Ulster. If you look to the soil, it is proverbially fertile. Its fields wave with the finest harvests. Its very mountains are verdure to their summits. Notwithstanding its vast tracts of waste land, and the wretched cultivation of much that is reclaimed, Ireland exports twice as much provisions as it retains for its own population. The mere trade in its agricultural produce employs a fleet of steamers most part of the year ; and you can scarce sit down to a table in Great Britain on which you will not find the produce of its soil. INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. 37 Nor is it less bountifully provided with other ele- ments of wealth. It is intersected by the finest rivers. Its bowels teem with the richest minerals. Its coasts swarm with shoals of fish. It contains some of the best harbours in the world ; and such are its engineer- ing facilities, that there is scarcely a tunnel in all its railways. While, as to still higher commercial advan- tages, it stands out on the world's highway — the At- lantic — with the fleets of nations daily passing by ; and between the old world and the new, as though designed to be their link of communication, and enjoy the bless- ings of both. In a word, on this wretched country the God of Nature has showered his bounties so pro- fusely, that one can scarce help thinking it was de- signed to be a garden of plenty instead of a land of paupers. You would say, that if on earth there was a spot which He had graciously exempted from the full effects of the curse on " mans first disobedience," it was this ; and that nothing but some malignant agency could possibly have hindered it from becoming the model and envy of the nations, instead of being their prostrate suppliant. Therefore the country's physical condition, so far from accounting in the slightest for her miseries, makes them, in truth, more unaccountable. And the con- trast between Ulster and Munster, as well as between Britain and Ireland, instead of being thus explained, becomes more perplexing than ever. Plants which even in England require a hot-house, flourish in Ire- land in the open air ; whilst Scotland is largely in- debted to her even for poultry and vegetables. And as to other advantages, Nature has given the south of 38 ALLEGED CAUSES. Ireland the finest river in the three kingdoms — the Shannon ; and the most magnificent harbour — Queens- town. "Who would compare to the former the Bann, or even the Clyde, or to the latter the slimy port of Bel- fast, or the sandy entrance to Liverpool ? Whatever "English jealousy" may be thought to have denied us, it has ever conceded that Ireland is naturally the finest of the British isles ; and we shall only add, that Mini- ster is confessedly the richest portion of the island. The farther you travel south, both clime and soil become more kindly. The snow-storms which visit Ulster, are scarce ever seen in Minister; and the "trap" hills of Antrim can ill be compared to the "golden vales" of Tipperary ; while the same universal award which has conferred on Ireland the title of the " Green Isle," and on Minister that of " the sunny south," has pronounced Ulster the " black north," and Scotland the " barren rock." The Race. — Is the cause found in the natural cha- racter of the people ? Is the Irishman more sparingly furnished than the Englishman, or the southern than his northern brother, with those qualities of mind and heart which form the elements of a noble race ? Such is the favourite theory of some. Because our poor countryman has yielded to influences sufficient to de- grade the finest race, degradation has been all but pronounced his normal state. Because he has not been more than human, he has almost been considered less. His worst misfortune has been thus converted into a fault, and he has been exposed to general scorn for the very thing which composed his strongest claim to THE CELT AND THE SAXON. 39 general sympathy. The reproach which should have been heaped on the authors of his shame has been lavished on their injured victim, until now his very name is a byeword ; you will hear even the expression in Christian circles, " a blessed land but a cursed people ;" and the words of one of our finest sacred melodies have been uncharitably applied to him — " Where every prospect pleases, And only man is vile." The doctrine just amounts to this — that the blood of the Saxon is naturally purer than that of the Celt ; and its advocates consider it at once the most just and charitable explanation of Ireland's wretchedness, that the Irish, as such, have some hereditary blemish, which we may pity but can scarce hope to cure. The shortest refutation of this doctrine would be to trace the distri- bution of the two great families of which the Celt and the Saxon are themselves but branches — to appeal, for example, to Celtic France, the second nation in Europe ; to show how much England herself owes to the arms and arts of the Celtic Normans ; and to prove, besides, the utter impossibility of knowing, at this time of day, what blood is Saxon and what is Celtic, in a race so mixed as the British. But we are content to meet our theorists on their own ground ; and, assuming that the Irish are Celts, and the English Saxons, we shall demonstrate the false- ness of their hypothesis. If they mean no more than that the Irish as a nation have long been exposed to influences which are found in the course of ages to degrade a people, this is not to explain the mystery of Ireland's woes, but only to remove it a little further 40 ALLEGED CAUSES. off; in truth, it is virtually to give up their theory, for this position none will deny ; and the true question then is — What are these degrading influences ? But if they mean that there is in Irish blood a deeper natural taint than what we all inherit from our first progenitors, we pronounce the theory false and absurd. The blue- eyed Saxon and the black-eyed Celt are children of the same common parent ; and the corruption which has flowed from that original fountain, has been shared alike by all its streams. The history of every race has proved that none is naturally worse than another, but that each in its turn has risen and sunk according to the influences to which it has been exposed ; and to charge the evils of Ireland on the Celt as a race, proves not the guilt of the accused, but the ignorance of the accuser. In the middle ages, when Saxon lands were shrouded in dark- ness, Ireland, then most purely Celtic, was the seat of learning for Europe ; it is now when the least Celtic that she has grown most wretched ; and this shifting on the social scale would itself demonstrate, that her children's degradation springs not from any thing ivithin them, but something from without. Again, the midland counties of Munster and Connaught contain a mixed race of Saxon, Norman, and Danish blood ; while the pure ab- original Celt is chiefly found in their western regions, — yet the fact is notorious, that it is these midland counties which are the chief scenes of blood, and those western regions which have the best excuse for poverty. Moreover, on the Highlands of Scotland and the moun- tains of Wales, we find two other branches of the Celtic family ; and who hears of their hills being drenched with the blood of murder ? Where can you find over I WALES AND THE HIGHLANDS. 41 all their -wide moors assassin-clubs nightly plotting crime, or ruffians swearing away innocent life for hire, or that general conspiracy against law and justice, which has filled Ireland with police and military ? No ; the British Celts are as proverbial for peace as is their Irish brother for disturbance. The most orderly sailor who enters our ports is the Welshman, and our Queen yearly seeks the Scottish Highlands as the most quiet retreat in her kingdom. You say that these British Celts are at least like the Irish, poor and indolent ? We ask how mountaineers can well be otherwise. Is it on the stormy sides of Snowdon or the Grampians you would look for wealth or bustling enterprise? — or is it such dreary moor- lands you would compare with one of the finest islands of the sea? Why, it seems almost as necessary that the British Celts should be poor and slothful, as that the Irish should be wealthy and diligent ; yet they have not a tithe of the sloth and poverty we find in Ireland. The traveller can testify how cultivation is creeping up their bleakest mountains, while with us the process is reversed, and the wilderness is creeping down upon our finest vales. And though in 1847 the potato failed with them as with us, yet who heard of their hills covered with the dead and dying — of millions granted them from the treasury — of months spent with their case in parliament — or swarms of their beggars disturb- ing the world ? How, then, can race explain the difficulty, when we find such difference in tribes of the same race ? Yes, and strangest of all, in the same tribes at different periods. Time was when Wales and the Highlands were the very I °- 42 ALLEGED CAUSES. homo of blood and desolation. The Welsh mountains have witnessed tragedies which still form the theme of many a thrilling story ; and those Scottish glens through which our Sovereign wanders unattended by a soldier, once rung with the clansman's wildest yells. Now, surely any natural degeneracy of the race would exhibit much the same features at the same time in all its tribes ; yet here we have two emerging from bar- barism to civilization in spite of vast disadvantages ; and the third, from having once been the light of Europe, fast sinking into ruin, despite all that can be done to save it. So much for this groundless assertion. We now go farther, and boldly assert that the Irish, so far from being naturally degraded, possess qualities so admir- able, that nothing but the foulest mismanagement could have hindered them from becoming one of the finest nations on the earth ; and we feel the more at liberty to speak to this point, as none but an Irishman can truly comprehend the odd construction of the Irish mind. To most men it is a puzzle — and to the British a national contrast. They see before them a strange medley of faults and virtues, of blunders and cleverness, of the comic and the tragic ; and they are bewildered amidst the nooks and corners of a mind so singular. Hence they are unable to discern between his natural qualities and his actual condition — between what he is and Avhat he might be made ; and because they see him begging and stealing, and robbing and murdering, they put him down as all but hopeless. Alas ! they forget that in truth he has been "more sinned against than sinning," and have confounded the man with the malig- nant influences with which he is beset. THE IRISH MIND. 43 If you look even to his body — where will you find a hardier? — able on dry potatoes to work down the English labourer on his flesh meat and ale ; and one cannot see his miserable diet without wondering how nature can manufacture such bone and sinew out of food so wretched ! Yes, and within that robust frame dwells a spirit whose buoyant vivacity years of sorrow have not destroyed — of which his fun and frolics arc but the irregular escapes, and which one cannot but think was mercifully given him to support him under woes which must have crushed a more gloomy and con- templative spirit. If you look to his mind, he is at least as much cele- brated for intelligence and wit, as for wildness and rags. Expressions to him the most commonplace, you hear detailed as gems by the delighted tourist ; nor can we think their simile very much exaggerated who have compared his mind to the fragments of the diamond sparkling in the brilliancy of unpolished lustre. And even as to those more substantial qualities for which he usually gets less credit, where has he ever been care- fully trained that he has not rewarded the cultivation ? Shall we appeal to the revolution wrought by Lord George Hill in one of the most barbarous of our moun- tain regions?* or speak of the Connaught children who come to our industrial schools absolutely wild — needle and thimble being to them perfect mystery — and who in a few months become new beings, and execute work so fine and delicate as to have won a high place at the Great Exhibition. While as to more lofty pursuits of mind, though our country cannot boast many stars in * M Facts from Gweedore," by Lord George Hill. 44 ALLEGED CAUSES. the firmament of knowledge, she has at least shown what her sons could do were their advantages equal to those of others ; and has given to philosophy, a Boyle — to literature, a Goldsmith — to eloquence, a Grattan, and to poetry, a Moore — to the senate, the immortal Burke, and to the field, the Hero of Waterloo. Finally, if you look to our countryman's heart, what fine traits of character you will often see bursting forth through all his degradation ! Within his rude bosom lies the germ of many a noble quality which, if duly ripened, would make him a fine specimen of human nature. Hospitable to a proverb — generous to a fault — grateful, confiding, warm-hearted, and enjoying a world-wide renown for that reckless valour which seems scarce conscious of danger ! Of this the peninsular war furnished scores of romantic instances ; and the truth of O'Connell's doggerel none can dispute — *' On the field of "Waterloo, Duke Wellington would have looked blue, If Paddy hadn't been there too." We have noticed those heart-rending proofs of pas- sionate tenderness which are daily furnished by our de- parting emigrants ; and if any one is disposed in cruel coldness to hint that such affectionate grief is too strong to last, we appeal to the letters and remittances they are continually sending home, not to then parents and friends only, but often to their neighbours, to enable them also to emigrate. It appears from official papers that near £2,000,000 sterling have in the last three years been remitted from North America by these poor people. And a return lately made by the Post- office shows, that one-third of all the letters coming THE IRISH HEART. 45 weekly from America are destined for Ireland. Fol- low those letters to their destination ! Imagine the sensation produced in each humble abode when the anxiously- expected epistle from some absent child ar- rives ! The village neighbours flock in to hear it read ; and as some one more learned than the rest reads aloud, mark the tears, not only of the old couple, for that is nothing, but of many a kind-hearted neigh- bour ! It is full of inquiries after old acquaintances, and tender allusions to bygone scenes, which, despite their occasional tinge of the ludicrous, do vast credit to the best feelings of our nature. In a word, the char- acter of the Irish is so richly dramatic, as to have given rise to a distinct class of writers, such as Edgeworth, Lover, and Carleton. The bleak winds which beat on their half-naked forms may make their bodies more callous, but they leave their feelings as tender as ever ; and those sensibilities which misfortune sometimes blunts in others, it often makes morbidly acute in them. Still we own they have many faults ; we only assert, and engage to prove, that these are the offspring of the unhappy circumstances in which they are placed ; while we contend that many of them confirm the position we are establishing, and are the faults of a fine mind which has been poisoned or neglected. How many of our countrymen owe their present poverty to the very ex- cess of their hospitality ? How many, their turbulence to that unsuspecting confidence in their advjsers, which marks a generous mind? How many of their worst quarrels, to that warmth of temper which usually ac- companies warmth of heart ? And if, as is too justly alleged against our countryman, there is as much mer- 46 ALLEGED CAUSES. s cury in bis heels as there is wit in his head ; if he is as fond of handling the shillelagh as the spade ; it is owing- much to that impulsive ardour of character which is as useful when well trained, as it is mischievous when ill directed. Nor should we omit to mention, that, being a sort of living hyperbole, he has in very many respects earned a reputation much worse than he deserves. When he is drunk, he makes the whole town know it; when provoked, he bawls and gesticulates as though he were frantic, and perhaps makes free with his neigh- bour's head ; yet we who know him well assert, that in all this "pother" there is not so much real, and far less enduring, wrath than is often betrayed in another man's scowl. xllere, then, we find the elements of a noble race — a mind and heart of a structure as fine as it is singular, resembling a complicated but delicate musical instru- ment which is easily destroyed by a clumsy hand, but gives forth the finest tones when swept by a skilful per- former. We have here a character peculiarly capable of great good or great evil — of the loftiest elevation or the lowest degradation — which, like their own rich soil, can produce nothing in common measure, but exhibits equal rankness in the weeds that infest it, and richness in the flowers that adorn it — a character, in short, which can be turned to the best or the worst account, and has been justly compared to fir,e, which when uncontrolled is the most destructive of elements, but skilfully managed, is the most useful, serving alike to propel the engine and kindle the incense of the altar ! And thus we demonstrate that Ireland's miseries can no more be traced to the race than to the country ; A POPULAR THEORY. 47 that, on the contrary, the natural superiority of both proves that not only must the cause be sought in some other quarter, but that it must truly be one of dreadful malignity to have desolated so fair a land, and degraded so fine a people. CHAP. II. THE POLITICAL. We now approach a subject which contains perhaps the most popular solution of Ireland's wretchedness — the very eureka of multitudes. For many years we have had two sets of rulers, the one in St Stephen's, and the other in Corn Exchange ; and we have had each charging the other with our country's woes, in terms generally more forcible than courteous. The grand text of the one has been — " the curse of British misrule ; " and a favourite theme with the other — " the pest of Irish agitation." And if what the one party rings in our ears be true, the wrongs of Hungary are trifles to ours ; while if we are to listen to the other, such swarms of demagogues must needs destroy the finest land. Let us judge for a moment be- tween parties so fierce, and statements so conflicting. ; The Agitator. — It is true, Ireland has for ages been the hotbed of agitation. Inhabited since the days of Elizabeth by two distinct races, having little in common but the soil they tilled, regarding each other as aliens in blood and religion, and their feelings embittered by their relations as conquerors and conquered — the result has been, that party strife which has so long afflicted !