IRISH LEGISLATION; 
 
 OR 
 
 TWO WAYS TO MEET A CRISIS. 
 
 ORIGINALLY DEDICATED, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION, 
 
 TO THE LATE RIGHT HON. LORD GEORGE BENTINCK, M.P, 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT MAHON ALLEN. 
 
 “ Political Economy, considered as a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator, pro¬ 
 poses two distinct objects:—1st. To provide a plentiful revenue, or subsistence for the people, 
 or more properly to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves. 
 2ndly. To supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the public services, it proposes 
 to enrich both the people and the sovereign.”— Adam Smith. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 PRINTED BY PATTISON JOLLY, 12, ANGLESEA-STREET; 
 
 AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1849. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. LORD GEORGE BENTINCK, M. P. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 The strenuous but unsuccessful efforts of your 
 Lordship to mitigate the sufferings of the starving millions of Ireland, 
 under an unexampled visitation of Divine Providence, by the destruction 
 of the potato crop of 1846, and the sincerity of your Lordship’s motives 
 being fully demonstrated by the fact of your consenting to the ports being 
 opened for six months, for the admission of foreign corn, at the time 
 that your Lordship was most zealous in maintaining the principles of 
 Protection,—as a tribute of respect for such generous and self-denying 
 conduct, this pamphlet is most respectfully dedicated, with the special 
 permission of your Lordship, 
 
 By your Lordship’s 
 
 Most obedient humble servant, 
 
 ROBERT MAHON ALLEN. 
 
 Dublin, 1st January, 1848. 
 

 
 The latter part of the year 1846, and the entire of 1847, 
 replete as they were with so many circumstances of a painful 
 character—the fact that the food of six millions of people 
 having been destroyed by the unerring wisdom of Omnipo¬ 
 tence—evoked the slumbering energies of many who had 
 neither time, inclination, nor ability for taking an active part 
 in that gloomy drama which shall never be obliterated so long 
 as Ireland has a history. 
 
 I happened from my vocation to be one of those who wit¬ 
 nessed the dreadful strides of Famine and her twin sister 
 Pestilence, which devastated every province, county, town and 
 village in Ireland, whilst no means were taken—the Labour- 
 Bill excepted—to avert the crisis. I addressed the follow¬ 
 ing letter to the Prime Minister; and it was requested by a 
 great many persons in Ireland and Scotland, into whose 
 hands a copy of the letter had fallen, that it should be per¬ 
 petuated in the shape of a pamphlet : this compliment 
 being paid to my first public production, written under the 
 impulse of sorrow at the certain consequences which then 
 flitted palpably before my imagination—the downward ten¬ 
 dency of every existing interest, the certainty that society 
 would be shaken to its foundations, and above all, the vast 
 amount of human life that must pay the forfeit—induced me 
 to watch the progress of affairs* the policy of the statesman 
 
 59217 
 
 I 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 who had the management of that dark, decisive and ever 
 memorable era, the remedial measures proposed, and their 
 corresponding results. I have endeavoured to demonstrate 
 how a calamity, unparalleled as it was, might have been 
 successfully combated and efficiently met, without loss of 
 human life or serious detriment to any existing interest, by 
 the adoption of the measures recommended in my letters.* 
 
 It may appear anomalous to dedicate a work to a dead 
 man; but as I had the dedication written previous to the 
 lamentable occurrence which deprived Ireland of her best 
 friend, and the British Empire of one of its brightest lumi¬ 
 naries, I have allowed the manuscript to remain unaltered, 
 as a tribute of respect to the brilliant genius and honest and 
 indefatigable exertions of that mighty spirit that has been 
 eclipsed. 
 
 * A few weeks after the subjoined was written, I addressed another, which 
 was not published, in which I advised the Premier to suspend (during the 
 crisis) one-half the duty on tea; but, as I expected, it was also disregarded. 
 
IRISH LEGISLATION, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 TO THE BIGHT HONOURABLE LORD J. RUSSELL, M. P. 
 
 My Lord —The perils of a crisis will induce many per¬ 
 sons to come forward and remonstrate with the responsible 
 servants of the country, who would under ordinary circum¬ 
 stances maintain an observing silence, more particularly when 
 each succeeding day fails not to reveal its proportionate in¬ 
 crease of calamitous and heartrending occurrences, which must 
 shock every individual possessing the remotest feelings of 
 humanity. The same emotions will receive a double impulse 
 when there is no exertion made from a quarter, where it is 
 legitimately expected every means will be resorted to, to meet 
 the contingency, and avert the frightful consequences which 
 appear (so far as the human eye can penetrate) inevitable. 
 
 Your Lordship will excuse the rightful liberty exercised 
 by the writer, who flatters himself not incompetent authority 
 of his country’s present sufferings, (borne with a praiseworthy 
 and virtuous submission) occasioned by the dealings of a just 
 Providence, who is too wise to err, too just to act unkind : 
 who does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men ; 
 at the same time works His Sovereign will in such a myste¬ 
 rious way that we, short-sighted creatures, cannot comprehend, 
 although persuaded that permanent good will emanate from 
 the present visitation ; and even now apparently, under the 
 frowns of His Providence, he retains a smiling face, and in 
 the midst of deserved wrath will remember mercy. 
 
 The opportunities connected with my avocation, which 
 for eight years have constantly brought me in contact with 
 parties best acquainted with the wants and sufferings of the 
 people in all parts of Ireland, induce me to presume myself, as 
 
I have already asserted, not incompetent authority to proclaim 
 to your Lordship as the responsible party, the destitution, the 
 misery, wretchedness, and starvation of the peasantry, which, 
 no doubt, your Lordship in the abstract is already in posses¬ 
 sion of, through official channels. 
 
 Allow me, my Lord, with regret, to be the medium of 
 communicating to your Lordship, the general, I may say, with 
 the most perfect confidence—unanimous opinion of this country 
 that they have no confidence in your Lordship’s abilities, as 
 adequate to the emergency—worse still, the idea is entertained 
 (whether right or wrong I do not presume to offer an opinion) 
 that your Lordship is more anxious to support the monopoly 
 of the provision merchants of the city of London, whose 
 representative in Parliament your Lordship is, and which 
 distinction your Lordship would not wish to peril—than the 
 frightful cry of hunger which is ringing through the length 
 and breadth of the land. Already former acts of Whig misrule, 
 which would otherwise be generously buried in oblivion, come 
 forward in all their ghastly aspects, and the cry of dis¬ 
 content, dissatisfaction, and want of confidence, is the theme of 
 every member of the community, not alone of the uneducated, 
 or of a class—but of the rank, intelligence, and education of 
 the country, of all denominations, both lay and clerical. Your 
 Lordship’s Labour Act is denounced as the greatest political 
 blunder ever enacted ! ! The subsequent proclamation of his 
 Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, respecting works of a re¬ 
 productive nature, is a vote of censure on that bill; and while 
 the community justly repose the most implicit confidence in the 
 wisdom and discretion of our Chief Governor, we know his 
 generous acts will be checkmated by a Cabinet who have nei¬ 
 ther the wisdom to foresee, nor the fidelity to perform the duties 
 commensurate to the crisis. 
 
 Your Lordship’s letter to the Duke of Leinster confirms 
 the opinion of your Lordship’s unwillingness and incompe¬ 
 tency,—infinitely worse, it is believed that your Lordship 
 wished to commit to irresponsible hands the paramount duty of 
 
the Government to meet the crisis, and eventually to lay the 
 blame at the doors of the Irish Landlords of any ulterior con¬ 
 sequences that might happen. 
 
 Allow me to inform your Lordship that this tergiversa¬ 
 tion is unworthy and unbecoming the Prime Minister of the 
 greatest empire in the world. Such political economy is not 
 calculated to allay the fever of excitement which now rages in 
 consequence of the apparent indifference and imbecility of her 
 Majesty’s Government; this is no comprehensive scheme of 
 remedial legislation, exercised with a bold, manly, and states¬ 
 manlike fortitude. 
 
 There might be some palliation, if it were supposed that 
 the duties of the government were so onerous, that other bu¬ 
 siness equally affecting the public weal occupied their atten¬ 
 tion ; but such is not the case—there is no foreign war threat¬ 
 ening the empire—no intestine dissension distracting at home 
 —no corn laws to be repealed—no additional grant to May- 
 nooth College to convulse the nation, and divide parties—no 
 comprehensive measure of legislation for the improvement of 
 the moral and social condition of the people, (that can be ima¬ 
 gined) engaging the consideration of the Cabinet. The patron¬ 
 age of the government has lulled agitation — party feeling 
 has subsided—angry jealousies seem to have been forgotten, 
 and. highly creditable, all hitherto conflicting parties seem to 
 have merged into the paramount and praiseworthy duty of de¬ 
 vising measures to save the poor from starvation. All is ac¬ 
 tivity and exertion, except the paid servants of the country— 
 even the maligned landlords are now demonstrating “ that pro¬ 
 perty sometimes discharges its duties as well as enforces its 
 rights /” by involving their already overburdened properties in 
 years of debt, and cheerfully undertaking what they are scarce 
 able to perform, rather than allow their unfortunate country¬ 
 men to perish from starvation. 
 
 Your Lordship will naturally and reasonably remark, 
 when a party censures the acts of others, he must have some 
 definite remedial measures of his own to substitute. I am pre- 
 
8 
 
 pared to suggest for your Lordship’s consideration—nay, but 
 for your Lordship’s prompt adoption and immediate execution, 
 1st—Open the Ports, 
 
 2nd—Stop Distillation, 
 
 3rd—Increase the Absentee Tax 10 per cent, 
 
 4 th—Extend the Income and Property Tax to Ireland 
 
 on all nett profits, whether from income or other pro¬ 
 perty, where such shall amount to £150 per annum; 
 
 5 th—Establish depots in every county for the storage of 
 
 provisions purchased immediately by money from the 
 Consolidated Fund. 
 
 The opening of the ports and the stoppage of distillation are 
 acknowledged by all parties indispensable. This country may 
 not be prepared for the imposition of the Income and Property 
 Tax, but allow me to inform your Lordship, that for the last 
 three months, during that time being constantly travelling, I 
 have conversed with men of property, Protestant and Roman 
 Catholic Clergymen, and in the discharge of the duties of 
 my avocation, which brought me into the society of the princi¬ 
 pal commercial men in the different towns in the provinces of 
 Leinster and Connaught, and proud I am to record a recipro¬ 
 city of concurrence on this subject, and cheerfully would they 
 contribute a small portion of their incomes—nay, even deny 
 themselves and their families many gratifications and pleasures, 
 for the noble cause of alleviating the wants of suffering huma¬ 
 nity. Regarding the Absentee Tax, every man will acknow¬ 
 ledge that there should be no absentees under present circum¬ 
 stances, they should remain at home and make common cause 
 with their suffering tenantry, aid them by their advice in di¬ 
 recting their attention to means whereby their sufferings would 
 be mollified—assist them in proportion to their means—report 
 their grievances to the legitimate quarters—assist the Govern¬ 
 ment by precept and example, by inculcating obedience to the 
 laws, encouraging the industrious to exercise perseverance, 
 patience, and fortitude, and deterring the turbulent and lawless 
 
9 
 
 from plunder and other acts of aggression. This would miti¬ 
 gate the evil and implant in the minds of the peasantry 
 that their landlords are not regardless of their happiness, that 
 there exists an identity of interests, and that they may 
 always calculate on their assistance and co-operation in any 
 unexpected emergency. Of the establishment of county de¬ 
 pots for provisions purchased out of the funds of the country, 
 it is not necessary for me to say one word by way of recom¬ 
 mendation. From one end of Ireland to the other such is de¬ 
 manded, and the country is astonished that a minister dare for 
 a moment to procrastinate. We pay a large sum for a naval 
 force ; the steamers of the country in commission remaining 
 idle at the different ports or on experimental cruises, might be 
 much more profitably employed in carrying corn to the differ¬ 
 ent depots, and assisting private relief committees, who are, 
 where the Government should be long ago, in the different 
 markets, making preparations for a year of apparent unprece¬ 
 dented famine. 
 
 Your Lordship may not be inclined to recommend to her 
 Majesty’s Government the consideration of the Income and 
 Property Tax, your Lordship having denounced it in your 
 place in the House of Commons, when it was introduced by 
 your predecessor, as “ inquisitorial ” but your Lordship must 
 now admit how efficiently it has repaired the former ruinous 
 policy of your Lordship, and enabled the minister of the day 
 to make a vast reduction on articles of consumption. Its 
 substitution now, in lieu of your Labour Bill, would not un¬ 
 justly press on those landed proprietors whose estates are 
 already so encumbered as to be unable to discharge their 
 burdens, many of which are in the hands of receivers at the 
 instance of creditors. Your Lordship already expounded the 
 views of the Cabinet with regard to the non-interference with 
 distillation, and it is known that your Lordship is pledged 
 not to interfere with provision merchants. 
 
 But allow me, very respectfully to inform your Lordship, 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 that the blunders and imprudence of an individual or indivi¬ 
 duals are not to be considered as binding on a nation, when 
 circumstances turn up requiring them to be rescinded, more 
 particularly when these contingencies were never anticipated 
 by the party who rashly committed himself to those pledges, 
 and whose object we have no opportunity of ascertaining, 
 whether it was to pander to a party, secure a position for him¬ 
 self or his friends, or the public interests. 
 
 But if your Lordship feels unequal to the emergency, or 
 “ not strong enough for the situation /” why, make an 
 an honourable retreat. Nothing is more dastardly or disre¬ 
 putable than for a servant to retain, or rather usurp, a situa¬ 
 tion after his employer has given him- significant hints of his 
 inefficiency and disapprobation of his services; more espe¬ 
 cially when that servant on former occasions had all but 
 ruined the interests of his employer, and was only hindered 
 by an ignominious and immediate expulsion. 
 
 I feel no hesitation in telling your Lordship (and with 
 deference) that her Majesty’s Government might have done 
 much, and with a criminal neglect, allowed opportunities to 
 escape which cannot now be recalled or remedied, of averting 
 a great deal of the present calamities. Your Lordship need 
 not have distracted your inventive genius for schemes to meet 
 the crisis. The noble and effective example of Sir Robert 
 Peel must be vivid in your Lordship’s memory, and ere this 
 reaches its destination, your Lordship must have felt the 
 nation’s pulse calling aloud for the Right Hon. Baronet to 
 come forward, and under Providence yet save the country 
 from impending ruin. 
 
 If your Lordship is still determined to incur the additional 
 responsibility of continuing in office, and that your Lordship 
 has a head to think and a heart to feel and sympathise with 
 suffering humanity, I conjure your Lordship in the name of 
 my suffering country—in the name of Him at whose dread 
 tribunal your Lordship and the writer must separately stand 
 
11 
 
 and account for our respective stewardships, not to remain 
 any longer supine and indifferent while things of such para¬ 
 mount importance demand your Lordship’s most earnest and 
 indefatigable exertions. Your Lordship can, by an order in 
 Council, carry my suggestions into immediate operation* 
 “ Where there is a will there is a way,” and doubt not for a 
 moment but in the next session of Parliament your Lordship 
 will get an honourable and grateful indemnification, in addition 
 to the pleasure of your Lordship’s approving conscience, when 
 you reflect that your Lordship has been instrumental in meet¬ 
 ing a mighty calamity with substantial and beneficial mea¬ 
 sures. On the other hand, if after the lapse of four or five 
 months, when matters must of course be considerably aggra¬ 
 vated, and your Lordship, with a sickening horror and the 
 bitter knawings of self-reproach, takes a retrospect, and views 
 the ravages of starvation, and the smouldering embers not 
 yet extinguished of a nation’s misery staring your Lordship 
 in the face, what must be the bitter, tantalising, and unen¬ 
 durable pangs that shall rankle, nay, destroy your Lordship’s 
 future peace, and your Lordship’s name descending to poste¬ 
 rity with feelings of loathsome disgust and sovereign con¬ 
 tempt. Will not every man then say— 
 
 ‘ ‘ I’d rather be a dog and bay the moon, 
 
 Than such a Roman.” 
 
 But hoping better things of your Lordship, and wishing 
 your Lordship a more enviable fame; and as in duty bound 
 to pray for <k the powers that be,” I do in all the fullness of 
 my heart, that your Lordship may be enabled to exercise a 
 sound discretion and a wise judgment in all things, and be 
 the honoured instrument in the hands of Omnipotence in 
 saving this empire yet from the dreadful consequences of 
 Pestilence and Famine. 
 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship’s obedient humble servant, 
 
 Bobert Mahon Allen. 
 
 Sligo, November 19, 1846. 
 
12 
 
 When it was ascertained beyond doubt that the blight had 
 appeared in the potato crop, and was spreading with fearful ra¬ 
 pidity, and all the experiments that scientific men could devise 
 the previous season* were unable to arrest its progress; the 
 gloom and despair that pervaded all classes of the community 
 was dispelled by a temporary ray of hope by the following an¬ 
 nouncement from Lord John Russell, in his place in Parlia¬ 
 ment, in August, 1846, when he declared—“ That the whole 
 means of the country, the whole credit of the Treasury, should 
 be employed rather than suffer the people to starve.” 
 
 This declaration was hailed with delight and gratitude; 
 many that were sceptical allowed their misgivings to subside; 
 and, notwithstanding their gloomy forebodings, so noble and 
 manly a determination from so distinguished a quarter, calmed 
 their apprehensions and assuaged their fears. But this emo¬ 
 tion of joy was subsequently considered only a bubble that 
 was inflated to quiet the public apprehensions—a phantom 
 bark that only looms in view in the midst of storms to afford 
 an illusory hope to the shipwrecked mariner, who vainly ima¬ 
 gines it a reality, and after exerting all his remaining energies, 
 with one convulsive effort finds that the shadow has vanished, 
 and leaves the wretch to writhe in all the agony of despair at 
 his certain destruction. 
 
 Scarcely had the above paragraph been circulated on the 
 wings of the press, when it was succeeded by the stern and 
 laconic declaration of the Premier—“ That they would not in¬ 
 terfere with the course of trade.” His views were more 
 fully elucidated on that subject by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to Major Beamish, Cork :— 
 
 “We rely on the merchants of Cork to lay in ample stores of 
 Indian corn, and other kinds of food, for the supply of that city and 
 the adjoining country, without any assistance from the Government, 
 
 * In the month of October, 1845, Sir Robert Peel issued a commission for 
 the purpose of discovering some antidote to arrest the blight , composed of 
 the following scientific men, Sir Robert Kane, Professors Lyndley and Play¬ 
 fair, but all their experiments were fruitless; and although the object of the 
 Commission failed, it does not detract from the merit that is so justly due 
 to the statesman that originated it. 
 
13 
 
 tmd our interference will be confined to remote districts, which can¬ 
 not be expected to be sufficiently provided for by the ordinary 
 operations of trade. (Signed), “ C. E. Trevylyan. 
 
 “ Treasury , August 26, 1846.” 
 
 The effect of such a determination was not without its im¬ 
 mediate result:—The markets advanced; a monomania for 
 speculation spread like some contagious epidemic; vessels 
 were chartered at an unusually high rate ; accommodation bills 
 of exchange were circulated ; merchants abandoned their ac¬ 
 customed pursuits, curtailing, and in many instances, breaking 
 up their ordinary establishments, throwing their assistants out 
 of employment, who, from a feeling of pride, would not return 
 to their homes, but now swell the ranks of the army and man 
 the fleets of the navy, not alone of Great Britain, but those of 
 foreign nations. The provision merchants were to be pro¬ 
 tected, not alone of the city of London, the constituents of 
 the Premier, but those of the United Kingdom. A general 
 election must take place before fifteen months. The former 
 contest at the preceding general election was so sharp that, 
 with all the ministerial influence, the vast amount of patron¬ 
 age at the disposal of the first Lord of the Treasury, he had 
 only a majority of nine votes. This was not to be perilled 
 again. The Prime Minister must have a seat in Parliament; 
 and that for the most influential constituency in the empire, at 
 any cost. And “ O ! what millions died that Caesar might be 
 great.” Political economy could be brought to bear, and 
 shroud any mischief that might result. But this was not the 
 political economy of Adam Smith, of which the noble lord is 
 such an admirer , and which is eulogised by him when he 
 goes to Scotland ; but in London it will not do, it will not 
 suit his purpose on the hustings. It is not the part of a 
 statesman to turn merchant: it is degrading for a Government 
 “ to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people !” 
 
 But a statesman is a strange anomaly. One day he selects 
 protection for his text, another day “ protection is the bane of 
 agriculture and the bane of commerce.” Every person who 
 has paid any attention to what occurred in the year 1845, in 
 
14 
 
 the memorable month of November, when the “ Verbosa et 
 grandis epistola venit ” of the Premier to the electors of the 
 city of London, in which he has the paragraph just,quoted— 
 “ Protection is the bane of, etc., etc.” Protection could no 
 longer then exist; it must be destroyed. The free trade 
 movement required it; but, superior to all, its death knell 
 was the only passport to office. But circumstances alter 
 cases ; new years require new measures ; the altered circum¬ 
 stances of the country require an alteration in the policy of a 
 statesman ; and, although protection Avas the bane of agricul¬ 
 ture, and the bane of commerce, it must now serve another 
 purpose : it must be the means of saving the people from 
 starving. Accordingly the operations of trade are not to be 
 interfered with ; on the contrary, they must be protected ; 
 every barrier must now be removed, all opposition prostrated, 
 and trade stimulated. The first step then is to create a class of 
 corn-dealers. The Commissary General, Sir R. Routh, 
 writes to the Marquis of Sligo, on the 14th October, 1846,— 
 
 “ We have two great deficiencies to supply—mills and corn deal¬ 
 ers. With regard to the high prices which it is alleged the dealers 
 exact, we must bear in mind, that if an article is scarce, it must be 
 dear, that a smaller quantity of food must be made to suffice for a 
 longer period than is usual, and that the high price is the only cri¬ 
 terion by which consumption can be economised. The interests of 
 the intelligent dealer will always check the tendency to raise prices 
 above their true level; or, at all events, the attempt will carry its 
 cure with it, by disappointing him of his market.” 
 
 This then is the ministerial programme. Competition in the 
 shape of corn-dealers must be raised. Speculation on the 
 food of the starving poor encouraged, in the face of the fact 
 stated on undoubted authority —“ That those dealers exact 
 the highest prices they can.” The labourer or mechanic who 
 toils for twelve hours must curtail his allowance ; instead of 
 three meals he must be content with two, or perhaps one; and, 
 forsooth, because the price is high, he must make a virtue of 
 necessity, by restricting himself and his family in the necessaries, 
 (not luxuries) of life. These philanthropic dealers will reverse 
 
15 
 
 the maxim of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dear¬ 
 est markets ; “ not raising the prices above their true level 
 they are to be the sole arbiters of what amount of profit is 
 “ the true level,” whether 20, 100, or 500 per cent. But there 
 is a something to deter them. “The attempt will carry its 
 cure with it, by disappointing him of his market.” But they 
 can hold it over in expectation, and a certainty, of an ad¬ 
 vance, and the poor cannot enforce its sale, and still the crav¬ 
 ings of nature must be satisfied in the mean time- 
 
 O 
 
 The following circumstance will shew how far the gene¬ 
 rous anticipations of the Commissary General were likely to 
 be realised, which I have from an eye witness :—A corn dealer 
 came into a coffee-room in Cork, folding his hands and shrug¬ 
 ging his shoulders, called for a cigar and a glass of brandy 
 and water, and said to a friend, whom he recognised, “ Is it 
 not delightful what a cheering prospect, the markets are again 
 advanced ? I shall hold over until it arrives at 120s. per 
 quarter.” 
 
 Our ancestors seem to have imagined that the people would 
 buy their corn cheaper of the farmer than of the corn-mer¬ 
 chant, who they were afraid would require, over and above 
 the price which he paid to the farmer, an exorbitant profit to 
 himself. They endeavoured to annihilate his trade altogether; 
 they even endeavoured to hinder, as much as possible, any mid¬ 
 dle-man of any kind from coming in between the grower and 
 consumer; and this was the meaning of the many restraints 
 which they imposed upon the trade of those whom they called 
 bidders or carriers of corn, a trade which nobody was allowed 
 to exercise without licence, ascertaining his qualifications as a 
 man of probity and fair dealing. The authority of three 
 Justices of the Peace was, by the statute of Edward VI. ne¬ 
 cessary, in order to grant licence; but even this restraint was 
 afterwards thought insufficient, and, by a statute of Elizabeth, 
 the privilege of granting it was confined to the quarter ses¬ 
 sions. By the 5th & 6th Edw. VI., chap. 14, it was enacted— 
 
16 
 
 “ That whoever should buy any corn or grain, with intent to sell 
 it again, should be reputed an unlawful engrosser, and should, for 
 the first fault, suffer two months imprisonment, and forfeit the value 
 of the corn ; for the second, suffer six months imprisonment and for¬ 
 feit double the value ; and for the third, be set in the pillory, suffer 
 imprisonment during the King’s pleasure, and forfeit all his goods 
 and chattels.” 
 
 It may then be easily understood how diametrically op¬ 
 posite is the political economy of the present day to that 
 which was considered necessary and wholesome in the six¬ 
 teenth century ; we have no reason to suppose that, at the 
 time the statute of Edward VI. was framed, there was any 
 particular scarcity existing or anticipated, but solely that the 
 wise maxim, 44 Prevention is better than cure,” was acted on. 
 
 How indispensable was it then for a wise minister, regardless 
 of every other consideration, compared with the lives of the 
 people, to have deemed it his duty to follow up rigidly the ex¬ 
 ample, and enforce, with all the authority of the Govern¬ 
 ment, the policy of the sixteenth century, when it was a 
 truism that the food of six millions of people had been destroyed. 
 
 It will be seen, however, from the following extracts, with 
 what unbending firmness and dogged resistance the applica¬ 
 tions of benevolent individuals were disregarded. On the 
 5th October, 1846, Lord Mountcashel writes to the Editor of 
 The Cork Constitution newspaper :— 
 
 4 ‘ Sir, —In consequence of the rapid and lamentable increase of 
 misery in the district, the unaccountable delay in obtaining employ¬ 
 ment for the poor, I addressed, a few days since, a pressing letter 
 to Sir R. Routh, begging, as an act of mercy, that he would allow me 
 to purchase from the Commissariat stores, at Cove, two or three 
 tons of Indian meal per week, in order to save the people from all 
 the horrors of want, to which I received the following reply :— 
 
 “ ‘ Corny. General’s Office, Dublin Castle, Oct. 3, 1846. 
 
 44 4 My Lord, —Commissary General Sir R. Routh begs to 
 state, in reply to your Lordship’s inquiry of the 2d inst., that it is 
 not now proposed to sell the Commissariat supplies at Cork or in 
 any part of the country eastward of Skibbereen.’” 
 
 Again, in reply to an application from Major Beamish, to 
 Commissary General Hewetson, of the exorbitant price ex- 
 
17 
 
 acted for Indian meal, by the retail dealers in the towns of 
 Skull, Ballydehob, and West Carberry:— 
 
 “ Sir, —I now subjoin, for your information, the extract of a let¬ 
 ter from Sir R. Routh. ‘ Our reserve supplies cannot be received 
 from abroad, whence they must all come, until the end of Novem¬ 
 ber and all December; in the mean time, committees will have to 
 fall back upon the resources of the country, which, at the present 
 moment, are abundant. Our operations did not commence until 
 the 1st of last month, and time must be allowed for the termination 
 of the foreign harvests and the arrival of the new importations into 
 the United Kingdom. It is not even then proposed to open our de¬ 
 pots, while there are dealers who are ready to supply the public, 
 and who must he encouraged and protected so long as their prices 
 are within moderate bounds.’ ” 
 
 And then, again, in answer to Lord Bernard’s application $ 
 on the 10th October, 1846 :— 
 
 “ I have reason to believe that her Majesty’s Government con¬ 
 tinue to be decidedly of opinion that the public safety, as well as the 
 public faith, indispensably require that the pledge given—that no 
 interference will be exercised with the provision trade in the eastern 
 divisions of Ireland—should be strictly observed.” 
 
 Mr. Labouchere, the Irish Secretary, writing on the 23d 
 September, 1846, states— 
 
 “ The Government will, as far as possible, adhere to the principle 
 —That provisions shall only be sold at such prices as will allow of 
 the private dealer selling at the same price with a reasonable profit.” 
 
 “At Castletown, Berehaven, County Cork, January 27, 1847, 
 the Government officer informed the relief committee, that he had 
 received orders to raise the Indian meal to £19 per ton, which he 
 was selling the day previous for £18. The people, at the same 
 time, dying in tens daily.”— Cork Constitution , Jan. 30, 1847- 
 
 A gentleman, living in the neighbourhood of Banagher, 
 informed me that the Government purchased Indian meal at 
 £8 per ton, held it over, refusing the most urgent applications 
 from the poor to sell it at £10, and eventually sold it at £18. 
 
 At one of the largest meetings that was ever held in Dub¬ 
 lin, convened by the nobility and gentry and clergy, for the 
 purpose of taking into consideration the alarming state of the 
 country, and to petition the legislature, and which is noticed 
 more fully in a subsequent part of this work, Mr. Dillon Croker 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 read a communication from a Cork newspaper, from the Pro¬ 
 testant Dean of Cloyne and Ross :—that in the western por¬ 
 tion of his diocese alone, 5000 had perished from want, and 
 that 10,000, at least, were at the point of death ; and, in the 
 workhouse of Skibbereen, the deaths, from a certain period 
 last year, averaged only ten or eleven, while, for this year, 
 during the same period 288 had died, and 108 of these in 
 three weeks. He (Mr. Croker) had received a letter from 
 the Rev. Mr. Gayer, Dingle, stating, that while the people 
 were dying daily, there were locked up in the Government 
 stores 300 tons of meal for more than three months, which no 
 entreaty could procure ; and that had this been distributed 
 before this time many who are now in their graves would be 
 alive and well. 
 
 The first evening of the session of Parliament, 25th Jan., 
 1847, Lord John Russell stated in his place in the House of 
 Commons, that there was a depot in Mayo. The following 
 may be placed in juxtaposition to it:— 
 
 To the Editor of The Dublin Evening Mail. 
 
 “ Sir,— Amongst other false statements of the Government, is one 
 that a depot at Westport was open, and food selling out of it for 
 some months. This is not the fact. There are 150 tons of Indian 
 corn there since August last, and the Commissary has over and over 
 refused the committee to sell them a stone of it. It is said his pay 
 and allowances amount to eight guineas per day. 
 
 (Signed), “ A Connaughtman. 
 
 “28th January, 1847” 
 
 “ The application of the Board of Guardians of Tuam, Dun- 
 more, and Headford, and other towns in the Union, having been 
 referred to Sir R. Routh, he desires to state, that it is impossible to 
 extend the Commissariat depot in the manner pointed out. 
 
 “ Relief Committee Office, Dublin Castle, Sep, 22, 1846. 
 
 From these extracts it will be seen with what a callous dis¬ 
 regard to the sufferings of the poor, the scenes of destitution 
 that were daily trumpeted in their ears from all quarters, the 
 revolting deaths from inanition, and the spread of pestilence, 
 the Government met the applications of benevolent individuals, 
 adhering to their mad and criminal doctrines of political econo- 
 
19 
 
 my, with such frightful obstinacy ; sacrificing not the wants 
 alone, but the lives of the many to the interests of the few, 
 “ by not interfering with the ordinary operations of trade”— 
 the preservation of human life being, under every circum¬ 
 stance, the primary consideration ; every other interest sinking 
 into perfect insignificance compared with this paramount obli¬ 
 gation. If a house is on fire, the first idea that presents itself 
 to the mind is to rescue, and place beyond jeopardy, the lives 
 of its inmates; even the lives of animals will take precedence 
 of any other property, and an endeavour will be made to save 
 them from the devouring element, even though the most 
 costly jewels, the most splendid furniture, and the most 
 sacred reminiscences of by-gone days, of family memorials 
 be destroyed in the conflagration. In the same way, if a ship 
 is in danger from being cast on a rock, or any other of the 
 many contingencies that attend a seafaring life, to save the 
 lives of the passengers and crew engages supremely the 
 thoughts of the commander, irrespective of any property he 
 or they may have on board. Every person, without hesitation, 
 will admit that the wealth of the world is not equivalent to the 
 loss of one human life, no matter how humble that individual 
 may be in society. The man that preferred his own interest, 
 even though himself and his family might be reduced to po¬ 
 verty and ruin by its loss, if in the rescue of it he allowed the 
 loss of a human being, would for ever be denounced and 
 execrated with a virtuous indignation. How much more 
 criminal is it for a Government which is paid so liberally by the 
 nation for the express purpose of watching their interests and 
 ministering to their wants in time of need, not to anticipate con¬ 
 tingencies and be prepared with remedial measures. A Go¬ 
 vernment should not be waiting for calamities to happen, or 
 for a crisis to take place, before they are prepared. If they 
 have not the wisdom to foresee, they are unfit to govern. It 
 i3 expected that a Government should not be an apprentice, 
 but having been previously skilled in the art, and having a 
 
20 
 
 perfect knowledge of the business,should be capable of executing 
 the undertaking to the satisfaction of the employer. It is the 
 perfection of folly, as well as consummate cruelty, to preach the 
 doctrine of self-reliance—“ help yourselves and heaven will 
 bless you”—to a starving people. There is a time for all 
 things; occasions when such maxims are wholesome, op¬ 
 portune, and necessary, and a time when they are fulsome 
 and ridiculous. It required no great elasticity of mind, no 
 extraordinary stretch of intellect, no towering genius, no 
 magnanimous effort in the face of an ascertained fact, that, 
 by an inscrutable decree of Omnipotence, the food of six mil¬ 
 lions of people had been destroyed beyond remedy, to make 
 up for that calamity, when there was a surplus revenue of ten 
 millions sterling in the national coffers—the fields of America 
 teeming with fertility, in so much, that the President of the 
 United States, in his official message to Congress, declared 
 “ that they had as much corn over and above their own wants 
 as would be required by the rest of Europe”—and we hav¬ 
 ing plenty of ships and steamers in commission, at an 
 enormous expense to the nation, idle at the different ports and 
 stations, which should have been employed carrying over part 
 of this corn. 
 
 The application of a distinguished and philanthropic mem¬ 
 ber of the Legislature, Wm. Sharman Crawford, soliciting 
 the Government to afford a few ships, I believe, to charitable 
 committees, in consequence of the enormous high rate of 
 freight demanded by ship-owners, received the following an¬ 
 swer from the Premier : 
 
 “ But it would be attended with this consequence, when once it 
 was known that vessels of her Majesty’s fleet were engaged in this 
 service it would operate as a great discouragement to the merchant 
 shipping .”—Extract from, Lord John Russell's speech in the House 
 of Commons , Friday , February 20, 1846. 
 
 On the 26th February, 1847, Messrs. Camman and White- 
 house, New York, in a letter to a friend, in London, write the 
 following paragraph: 
 
21 
 
 “ The high rates of freight, and scarcity of vessels, checking ship¬ 
 ment of produce, a considerable amount of capital is absorbed by 
 the necessity of holding the large quantities which are constantly 
 arriving from the interior.” 
 
 Another writer from the same place, and inserted in The 
 Times newspaper, 18th March, 1847, states: 
 
 “ You will be pleased to learn that, from Maine to New Orleans, 
 the whole country is aroused for famishing Ireland, and our contri¬ 
 butions will be large and continued throughout the Spring. But 
 we are in a woful state for want of vessels ; and, unless you send 
 the requisite number, we shall not be able to transport our surplus. 
 When Lord John Russell said that there would be ships enough to 
 take over our Winter supplies, he made a great mistake, he forgot 
 that the cotton and tobacco crops would require a large fleet of 
 themselves, and that the Government had abstracted some fifty ves¬ 
 sels to send troops to Mexico. The present want of tonnage will, 
 probably, exist for some time ; indeed, the means of conveyance for 
 the immense quantities of our products, yet to go forward, becomes 
 a matter for serious consideration. We must look for a supply of 
 shipping from your side; and, we hope, our advanced quotations 
 may be a sufficient incentive to ship-owners to direct their ships 
 this way. The New Orleans market now labours under great dis¬ 
 advantages, arising from high and increasing rates of freights and 
 the difficulty of shipping.” 
 
 Notwithstanding these facts, the Government remained 
 faithful to their fatal pledge—not to interfere with the mer¬ 
 chant shipping. Prices were still advancing far beyond the 
 reach of the poor who were dying in hundreds daily; the 
 want of ships gave an additional impetus to those highly fa¬ 
 voured regraters and forestalled to retain the stocks of pro¬ 
 visions they had on hands and push their fortunes further. I 
 have been told, from good authority, in Liverpool, that, in 
 several instances, a bill of lading, of a cargo of com expected , 
 passed through sixteen hands, paid sixteen profits before the 
 vessel arrived in the port; and these sixteen profits added to 
 the prime cost, the extravagant freight, and other incidental 
 expenses, raised it to a famine price; and this was the mode 
 the benignant Government took to feed the people. 
 
 The Government of the United States, from mingled feel¬ 
 ings of disgust and benevolence, placed at the disposal of 
 
22 
 
 charitable committees, in their own country, several of their 
 war vessels to carry bread-stuffs to the famishing Irish; the 
 first of which was The Jamestown , whose officers were enter¬ 
 tained at a public dinner by the citizens of Cork, but verv 
 coolly by the Government officials in Ireland; in fact, beyond 
 the common formality of a cold official letter, this humane 
 mission was not further noticed ; there was no complimentary 
 visit, which common courtesy would suggest, as due to the 
 American flag, or an invitation to the Castle of Dublin, to the 
 commander and officers. No doubt the British Goverment 
 must have keenly felt the rebuke; the antithesis was too gal¬ 
 ling, and seeing their own duty evinced by the voluntary 
 act of a stranger, the circumstance must have afforded them 
 no pleasure, but rather the poignant stings of remorse, for 
 such a wilful dereliction of duty. 
 
 But there was another vessel visited the shores of Ireland, 
 from the United States, freighted with additional supplies. 
 It was the Macedonian frigate; and there is something con¬ 
 nected with the history of this ship not very palatable for our 
 Government. This vessel was formerly in the British Navy, 
 and during the successful war of the United States—under a 
 Whig Government—when they achieved their independence 
 and separated from Great Britian, this ship was captured from 
 the British, and remains in the service of America, whether 
 from her utility or as a trophy is best known to themselves. 
 
 About six years ago, when it was generally expected that 
 a war between England and America was almost certain, in 
 consequence of the arrest of a Colonel M‘Leod by the Ame¬ 
 rican authorities, for being connected with the destruction of 
 a vessel called The Caroline , the British Government hav¬ 
 ing espoused his cause, “identified themselves with the acf for 
 which he was arrested, imprisoned, and afterwards tried by 
 the American law ; while this trial was pending, every pre¬ 
 paration was made, as in the event of his conviction and pun¬ 
 ishment, a war was inevitable between the two countries, 
 
23 
 
 from the declaration of her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs. In the interim, printed forms were 
 issued by the Government of the day to the different steam 
 companies in the United Kingdom, to ascertain their tonnage, 
 power, and capabilities, for the ostensible object of engaging 
 them against the United States; fortunately, the trial of 
 M‘Leod terminated in an acquittal, and averted a disastrous, 
 inglorious, and unprofitable war. Ifi therefore, the British 
 Government applied for the assistance and co-operation of the 
 mercantile marine, under an apprehension of war, how could 
 they refuse the ships of the country to import provisions to 
 save the British subjects from all the horrors of starvation; 
 and, it is needless to reiterate, that human life is of* greater 
 consequence than any point of national honour that might 
 lead to a disruption between these countries. A victorious 
 army would never destroy an unopposing, defenceless people. 
 The bravest man is always the most humane; so that even 
 from a successful war that might have been gained by fields 
 of carnage and rivers of blood, the inhabitants of this coun¬ 
 try would be perfectly safe. But grim hunger spares neither 
 age nor sex ; it gives no quarter ; all must pay the forfeit, 
 and that the most revolting of deaths. 
 
 How different was the conduct of the Emperor of Russia : 
 he did not leave the sustenance of his subjects to the tender 
 mercies of speculators. The following mandate was issued from 
 St. Petersburgh on the 18th May, 1847 :— 
 
 “ The Minister of the Interior has addressed the following circu¬ 
 lar to the Government Chiefs :—‘ By an ordinance addressed to me 
 by the Secretary of State, his Majesty the Emperor has been pleased 
 to command, that to provide against exhaustion of the reserve corn 
 magazines by the speculations which, in all probability, will take place 
 this Summer in corn, his Majesty desires most authoritatively to impress 
 upon the Government Chiefs and Marshals, as they are most re¬ 
 sponsible, to see that the quantity of corn fixed by law be laid up 
 in all the reserve magazines. His Majesty the Emperor intends to 
 appoint officers to make a tour of inspection; and, in case any irregu¬ 
 larity and deviation being observed, they shall be authorised to 
 make a judicial report to his Majesty thereof.’ 5 ’ 
 
 
24 
 
 There was something like energy, decision, and prompti¬ 
 tude in this proceeding; the wants of his subjects were not 
 to be left “ to the ordinary operations of trade.” This was 
 not the political economy of the Irish Commissary General, as 
 enunciated in his dispatch to the Marquis of Sligo ; this was 
 grappling courageously with a crisis, by a potentate deeply 
 anxious, and sincerely solicitous for the preservation and sus¬ 
 tenance of his subjects; and, it appears, that the King of 
 Bavaria was similarly influenced from the following announce¬ 
 ment in August, 1847 :— 
 
 “ The King of Bavaria has given strict orders to the principal 
 authorities to watch that no speculator shall attempt to buy new corn 
 beforehand, in order to keep up the prices.” 
 
 Such were the examples of despotic sovereigns, as re¬ 
 gards the zealous and anxious care they evinced for the hap¬ 
 piness of their subjects—the caution they exhibited, lest, by 
 the traffic in human food, human life should pay the ransom ; 
 and what a contrast to the conduct of those imbeciles who had, 
 unfortunately, the management of affairs in that gloomy time in 
 this doomed country. 
 
 Soup kitchens established in many places by charitable 
 individuals, for affording relief, were discountenanced by the 
 “ paternal ” Government, for the reason that it would inter¬ 
 fere with speculators in bringing down the markets, and hin¬ 
 dering those avaricious regraters from realizing their exorbitant 
 profits. The following correspondence with the Earl of Bosse 
 will demonstrate this :— 
 
 “ Parsontown, 18th Nov., 1846. 
 
 “ Sir, —I have the honour to inform you that there was a meet¬ 
 ing of the Relief Committee here yesterday, at which I was present; 
 the amount of subscriptions is above £500. I believe at Clonmel 
 and Carlow a quart of soup or porridge is given gratis to each per¬ 
 son, and a small loaf of coarse bread is sold at the same time at first 
 cost, if required. I understand that the soup or porridge alone is 
 sufficient to sustain life, and that relief has thus been afforded 
 in other places on a large scale, and at a moderate cost. In supply¬ 
 ing cooked food gratis, probably you will not see the same practical 
 evils as in giving away meal, or even selling it, at first cost— 
 
25 
 
 “ 1st_The fair dealer is not interfered with. 
 
 “2d—There is that proper pride amongst the poorer classes that 
 they will not take cooked food unless they are in absolute want. 
 
 “ 3d.—There is little danger of abuse, as cooked food is not likely 
 to be re-sold. It is also observed that there is some economy of 
 fuel in cooking food on a large scale, and that the process is more 
 thoroughly performed. 
 
 “ Should the experiment succeed, it is hoped that very many will 
 be enabled to struggle through without going to the poor-house. 
 Having, at the request of the committee, undertaken to apprize you 
 of their decision, I should be glad to know if it meets with the con¬ 
 currence of the Commissary General. 
 
 (Signed), “ Rosse.” 
 
 “ Commissariat Relief Office, 24th Nov., 1846. 
 
 “ My Lord, —Commissary General Sir Randolph Routh has 
 considered the proposal in your Lordship’s letter of the 18th inst., 
 to provide cooked food with the Relief Fund, and to sell the food 
 at less than the cost, or distribute it gratuitously, as may be neces¬ 
 sary. Although the arrangement may not apparently interfere with 
 traders, it would discourage them, by providing subsistence on terms 
 which must preclude their intervention. 
 
 “ The Commissary General could not therefore recommend a 
 donation to be made in aid of subscriptions so applied.” 
 
 By a recent act of Parliament, it was provided—“ That 
 wherever a Relief Committee were able to collect a certain 
 sum for mitigating distress, a similar sum was to be added 
 out of the money ordered by the act, the same to be paid by 
 the Commissary General.” But here it was refused. 
 
 Such then was the line of conduct our rulers thought proper 
 to adopt and to cling to with such a criminal tenacity ; the 
 condemnation of public meetings were as little regarded as the 
 benevolent solicitations of charitable individuals. 
 
 On the 17th October, 1846, there was a public meeting of 
 the Roman Catholic Clergy in Westport, when the following 
 resolutions were unanimously adopted :— 
 
 Resolved —“ That although most reluctant to cast blame on her 
 most gracious Majesty’s present advisers, we are compelled to charge 
 them with all the horrors of starvation and slow death which we 
 daily and hourly witness, from the nature of our avocations. 
 
 Resolved —“ That we cannot sufficiently express our condemna¬ 
 tion of the policy of the present Government, in their unnatural 
 solicitude for the mercantile interests of this unfortunate country at 
 the expense of millions.” 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 These sentiments, emanating from men unwilling to censure 
 a Government who were always favourable to the claims of 
 the Roman Catholics of Ireland, require no comment. 
 
 In Galway, at a coroner’s inquest, convened on the 14th 
 January, 1847, to inquire into and ascertain the cause of the 
 death of a woman named Mary Cummins, twelve men on 
 their oaths, deliberately recorded the following verdict:— 
 
 “ We find that the deceased Mary Cummins died from the effects 
 of starvation and destitution, caused by a want of the common ne¬ 
 cessaries of life; and, as Lord John Russell, the head of her Majes¬ 
 ty’s Government, has combined with Sir Randolph Routh to starve 
 the Irish people, by not (as was their duty), taking measures to pre¬ 
 vent the present truly awful condition of the country, we find that 
 the said Lord John Russell and the said Sir Randolph Routh are 
 guilty of the wilful murder of said Mary Cummins.” 
 
 On Thursday, the 14th January, 1847, an aggregate meet¬ 
 ing was held at the Rotunda, attended by twenty-one Peers, 
 thirty-five Members of Parliament, Deputy-Lieutenants, and 
 Magistrates from all parts of Ireland—in fact one of* the most 
 important that was ever held in Ireland—for the purpose of 
 expressing their opinions of the alaTming state of the country; 
 and as the Legislature was to assemble on the 25th of the 
 same month, for the dispatch of business, it was considered 
 necessary to record their sentiments of the past as well as 
 what they judged indispensable for the adoption of her Ma¬ 
 jesty’s Government: the most noble the Marquis of Ormond 
 in the chair. Sir Montague L. Chapman, Bart., M.P., (a 
 strenuous supporter of Government) stated,— 
 
 “ Two great subjects necessarily came before the committee, and 
 pressed on their immediate attention—1st. 4 The awful state of 
 famine under which the country was suffering.—2d. The equally 
 terrific waste of the public resources.’ The committee believe that 
 the shipping of the country should be employed in bringing food to 
 its shores. They believe that the use of sugar and molasses in dis¬ 
 tillation should be permitted, and that the grain now used in such 
 purposes might go to feed the people, and add to the national sup¬ 
 ply. They believe the portion of the Navigation Laws which inter¬ 
 fere with the commerce of the world, and prevent the importation 
 of food into this country* should be suspended. The committee also 
 declare their opinion, that the present system of road employment, 
 
27 
 
 however useful in finding employment for the labourer, has been 
 most successful in interrupting the internal communication of the 
 country. The committee calls for the immediate stoppage of that 
 ruinous system, and the substitution of a means of employment more 
 suitable to the wants and condition of the country. They (the 
 committee) thought it was not sufficient to point out merely the 
 measures of relief that should be at the moment adopted, but also 
 thought it right to allude to those mischievous consequences of the 
 past legislation.” 
 
 This report was received and unanimously adopted by the 
 meeting; and, although couched in the mildest language, the 
 reader of it being a staunch supporter of the Government, it 
 was condemnatory of their policy, and a vote of censure for 
 their tardiness, by neglecting to carry those measures recom¬ 
 mended by the committee, as the exigency of the crisis im¬ 
 peratively demanded. 
 
 It was afterwards proposed by George Alex. Hamilton, 
 M.P., seconded by Daniel O’Connell, M.P.— 
 
 “ That the object of this meeting is to save society from the ruin 
 by which all classes in the land are now threatened, and to preserve 
 the country from confiscation.” 
 
 During the proceedings of the meeting, Captain Bernal 
 Osborne, M.P., formerly an Aide de Camp to the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, under a Whig administration, stated, 
 
 “ He (Mr. Osborne) was a political supporter of the present 
 Government, and if they were determined to act on the principles 
 of Sir Randolph Routh, that they were determined to move an 
 amendment to the address, and, by their united votes, to turn out 
 the Government.” 
 
 In relation to the same subject, Henry Grattan, M.P., 
 also a supporter of the Government, declared— 
 
 “ He was willing to go the whole way and support Mr. Osborne, 
 by moving an- amendment to the address—‘ If the Government did 
 not send plenty of food into the country, and at once take imme¬ 
 diate measures to prevent the confiscation of their properties.’ ” 
 
 And, on the 16 th March, 1847, at a public meeting of the 
 citizens of Dublin, the following resolution was unanimously 
 adopted 
 
28 
 
 “ Moved by William Henry Fitzgibbon, Esq.; seconded by 
 Thomas Dixon, Esq., J.P.— Resolved , ‘ That it is the first duty of 
 Government to employ the powers of the State to protect the lives 
 of the people, whether perilled by war, pestilence, or famine ; that 
 in Autumn last this duty required the Government to employ the 
 vessels and resources of the State to bring food from foreign countries, 
 and by every means in its power to provide a substitute for the 
 food that was lost; that it manifested indifference to the lives of 
 five millions of her Majesty’s Irish subjects, or ignorance of the prin¬ 
 ciples of trade or commerce, in having left the food of this multi¬ 
 tude to be supplied by merchants ; that the capital and ships of mer¬ 
 chants are fitted to the trade they carry on, which consists in the 
 exchange of commodities between the classes in different countries 
 that have products to exchange; that the ships and capital of mer¬ 
 chants could not reasonably be expected to be withdrawn from their 
 usual trade, to supply a demand so sudden and so extraordinary, 
 which alone could be adequately met by new and extraordinary 
 powers of supply commensurate with the magnitude of this new 
 demand ; that had the Government in Autumn last, expended one 
 million in the purchase of corn in America, and employed the vessels 
 of the State in bringing it home, and through relief committees dis¬ 
 posed of it to the labouring people at its cost price, sending back 
 the proceeds to purchase more, so long as the scarcity lasted, it would 
 not have interfered with the trade of merchants, in supplying the 
 wants of their usual customers, the property classes ; that it would 
 have supplied a new carrying power, suited to the new demand, and 
 greatly increased the imports of food; that it would have kept the 
 prices within reach of the labourers’ wages, and thus saved the 
 people from the extremities of famine, without any great loss of the 
 public money and resources ; that waiting, without any attempt on 
 the part of the Government to bring food into the country, until 
 famine began to kill, and then purchasing food in the home market, 
 had the effect of deranging the operations of trade—of rendering its 
 channels inadequate to supply the classes depending upon them—of 
 bringing into prominent view the disparity between the demand and 
 the means of supply—of enormously raising the profits of merchant 
 importers—of cruelly raising the price of the necessaries of life, and 
 of bringing thousands within the jaws of famine, who would have 
 escaped had Government entered into competition for the food of 
 the poor Irish labourer with the consumers of the world in the 
 foreign market, rather than with their own citizens in the home.’ ” 
 
 Although the Government were most urgently requested to 
 convene Parliament early in November, from various quarters, 
 and by many influential persons, in order that some legislative 
 
29 
 
 enactment might be speedily carried, in the shape of a remedial 
 measure, as a panacea for the destitution, misery, and starva¬ 
 tion which had extended over the length and breadth of the 
 land. This step was considered indispensable, as her Majes¬ 
 ty’s ministers had refused to incur the responsibility of recom¬ 
 mending anything to be done by an order in Council; but 
 this remonstrance met the same fate as any former request, 
 and was cruelly disregarded. The Government knew very 
 well that all the solicitations of individuals, the resolutions of 
 public meetings, the petitions of deputations, could be shelved 
 and consigned to the “ tomb of the Capulets;” but the moment 
 that Parliament assembled, they knew that they should aban¬ 
 don their do-nothing policy. They could anticipate the meed of 
 indignation that was overflowing the public mind ; they saw 
 the pernicious and fatal effect of their political economy; they 
 felt that the ordinary operations of trade, or rather the inter¬ 
 ests of the provision merchants of the city of London, would 
 no longer be tolerated, or their avaricious passions pandered 
 to; and that one measure, at all events, discouraging, if not 
 fatal to the regraters, must take precedence of any other busi¬ 
 ness, namely,—“ The opening of the ports.” Accordingly, 
 when it could no longer be protracted, a virtue was made of 
 necessity, and the combined wisdom of the nation did actually 
 meet on the 25th January, 1847. Many were the specula¬ 
 tions as to the “ comprehensive” measures that were to ema¬ 
 nate from the beneficent Government. Surmises were made; 
 opinions were ventured; and rumour, with her thousand 
 tongues, prognosticated many things: amongst the rest—“that 
 we had seen the worst;” that the black cloud which hung 
 on the declivities of the mountains would be radiated by 
 some brilliant a@t of legislation; and some mighty scheme 
 matured to counteract a mighty calamity. These were the 
 views entertained by many. While the thinking portion of the 
 community were not so sanguine, they checked their aspirations 
 with the flattering unction—“ Blessed is he that expecteth 
 
30 
 
 nothing, for he shall not be disappointedand recollected the 
 fable of the mountain that was in labour, when some mighty 
 phenomenon was expected to be the olfspring of such a stu¬ 
 pendous convulsion of nature, when lo! to their chagrin and 
 disappointment, out crept a little mouse. 
 
 On that memorable evening, 
 
 With all its measures, bills, and blunders, 
 
 The Budget peeped into this world of wonders ; 
 
 and the Prime Minister concluded a harangue of some five 
 hours length, with the following peroration :— 
 
 “ I see no reason why Ireland may not become a state enjoying 
 the greatest prosperity. I will give you a description of a country 
 where property is secure, and where life is safe, where it is stated 
 that the whole of the inhabitants are in a state of poverty and des¬ 
 titution—and being turned out of their habitations without food 
 or clothing, or the least means of defending themselves from the 
 inclemency of the weather—where men and women, husbands, wives, 
 and their children were left to wander about the country in a state 
 of destitution and famine, where the young men were alike without 
 employment or the desire for it, and the old had no place to rest 
 themselves—where the only resort that they had was in begging or 
 stealing. That was an impartial description of a country where 
 property is secure, and all the enjoyments of life have been ready. 
 This shows that the evils that now afflict Ireland do not depend 
 upon the’ country itself, but arise out of the state of society there, 
 where the wretched families are now described as being driven from 
 their homes, and have no resource but in begging or stealing. This is 
 a description of wealthy, secure, happy England, by Sir Thomas 
 More, in his time. In this description it is stated that the people 
 roved about in bands of from 200 to 800 at a time, who lived en¬ 
 tirely by stealing or begging, taking cattle from the fields, and com¬ 
 mitting such excesses, that not any thing or any place was safe. In 
 such numbers, indeed, did the people roam, that it is said that as 
 many as seventy thousand thieves, rogues, and vagabonds were 
 hanged in one day. I will now turn to the state of society in 
 another country, where an equal degree of prosperity is known to 
 prevail. It is the description of the country at the end of the 17th 
 century, and in this description it is stated that so great was the 
 number of families that had been driven from their own homes, that 
 as many as 200,000 to 300,000 individuals were known to be prowl¬ 
 ing about the country, living by stealing and begging from door to 
 door. It was indeed believed, that 100,000 persons who were con¬ 
 tinually on the prowl about the country, and though the poor peo- 
 
31 
 
 pie who lived upon farms would give relief to as many as forty per¬ 
 sons in one day, yet they could not avoid being insulted, or protect 
 themselves from the commission of the most grievous depredations. 
 Such is the description of industrious sober Scotland at the end of 
 the 1Tth century. It shows that a country which has been without 
 order, where robbers were—where industry was neglected, may 
 afterwards become orderly and civilised, and I think we should be 
 unworthy of our position as Members of Parliament, if we were to 
 give way to despair, in the present case. Sir, I know, however, 
 that what I have touched upon relating to the social state of Ireland 
 —touching as I have done upon many important measures—is but a 
 part of the case. I am not one of those who think, that apart from 
 political questions—from political rights—from other questions 
 connected with political institutions—a merely beneficent Govern¬ 
 ment can restore a country to prosperity and happiness. It is my 
 opinion that other means will be required, and when the proper 
 time comes for preparing such measures, I shall be ready to under¬ 
 take anything for the benefit of Ireland ; but. Sir, I feel that, with 
 respect to these and all other meaures, that there are things which 
 the Crown cannot grant, which Parliament cannot grant, such as a 
 spirit of self-reliance, a spirit of perseverance. I must say plainly 
 that I should indeed despair of this task, were it not that I think I 
 see symptoms amongst the people of Ireland both of a greater re¬ 
 liance upon their own energies—their own exertions—and a greater 
 willingness to co-operate with us. I believe that they will encour¬ 
 age this spirit amongst themselves—I believe that they will see 
 what has been done in this country and in her neighbour Scotland, 
 by industry, by perseverance, by never despairing of success—that 
 they will go on in this spirit, not looking always to Government 
 for proposals, and to Parliament for enactments, but see what is the 
 task immediately before them, and set themselves down heartily and 
 strenuously to perform that task, and prove that there are means and 
 resources in Ireland which may bring these matters to a happy is¬ 
 sue. There is no doubt of the fertility of the land. Its fertility has 
 been the theme and admiration of the writers and travellers of all 
 nations. There is no doubt either of the strength and industry of 
 the inhabitants. The same man who is loitering by the mountain side 
 in Tipperary or in Derry—whose potato crop has just furnished 
 him with occupation for a few days—whose wages and whose pig 
 have just enabled him to pay his rent, and eke out a miserable sub¬ 
 sistence, has perhaps a brother in Liverpool, Glasgow, or London, 
 who, by the sweat of his brow, from morning till night, is compet¬ 
 ing with the strongest and stoutest labourers, and is earning wages 
 equal to any of them. I do not think, therefore, that either the 
 fruitfulness of the land, or the strength or the industry of the in¬ 
 habitants are to be blamed. There have been faults, it is true— 
 
32 
 
 there have been differences—but happy will it be for us if we lay 
 the foundation for the cure of these differences. Happy will it be, 
 if the Irish themselves take for their maxim the precept, ‘Help your¬ 
 self, and Heaven will help you,” and then I trust that they will 
 find that there have been uses in adversity.—(The noble Lord then 
 resumed his seat amid protracted cheering.) 
 
 Lord John Russell’s Speech in the House of Commons, on the 
 State of Ireland, on Monday Evy., Jan. 25, 1847. 
 
 These sentiments, as might have been expected, were re¬ 
 ceived with shouts of acclamation. There was still a hope 
 against hope; the flickering light had not altogether disap¬ 
 peared from the socket—the little star was not yet eclipsed in 
 the horizon, and it was hoped would emerge from the cloud 
 and illuminate this gloomy orb. Still there was a diversity 
 of opinion, and the thinking portion of the empire expressed 
 themselves again, and scepticism seemed to preponderate. These 
 sentiments, they said, were noble and philanthropic—no doubt 
 meant well—might suit a tyro statesman, who, in all the 
 enthusiasm of immatured and inexperienced policy, might 
 sincerely wish to improve the moral, social, and physical 
 condition of the people, vindicate his own fame, and obtain 
 a niche chiselled deep in that column, for posterity to laud 
 and emulate. 
 
 But! ! (this monosyllable is very awkward occasionally) a 
 statesman to give expression to such a prologue, who has 
 been fully a quarter of a century playing on the boards, and 
 acting the principal part of the drama, and still at the be¬ 
 ginning of the piece, was illusory and ridiculous. It might 
 be well said— 
 
 ‘ ‘ Bound him much embryo, much abortion lay. 
 
 Much future ode and abdicated play ; 
 
 Nonsense precipitate, like running lead 
 
 That slipped through cracks and zigzags of the head.” 
 
 The session was mostly occupied by the introduction and dis¬ 
 cussion of two bills—The Sale of Encumbered Estates, and the 
 Sanitary Condition of Towns—which were subsequently aban¬ 
 doned, owing to their inability to carry them; and the time 
 which was most precious was thus squandered, and the only 
 
33 
 
 measure carried was the Extended Poor Law. It was de¬ 
 creed, f that the land in Ireland must support its poor. No doubt 
 the principle was good, laudable, and humane, but it was ac¬ 
 cepted in a different spirit. 
 
 Those perpetual whiners and everlasting grumblers were 
 now in a fix. They considered that the fable of the stork and 
 the frogs was exactly their case ; but, be that as it may, it is 
 not my object to prove or gainsay. One thing is certain, that 
 it did not come into operation until thousands had died of star¬ 
 vation. It was like hanging a man first and trying him after. 
 
 The next matter that the Prime Minister imagined neces- 
 sary for the exigencies of the country was the cropping of the 
 lands for the next harvest, and a measure of greater importance 
 never entered a statesman’s mind. On the first night of the 
 session, he states :— 
 
 “ There was another proposal, of which, though of doubtful ten¬ 
 dency, he was inclined to try the experiment. He proposed to 
 advance £50,000, to be repaid on or before the 31st of December, 
 1847, to the proprietors of Ireland, to furnish seed for sowing their 
 lands; he did not intend to advance any part of it to the small cot¬ 
 tier tenantry, as it might not be used for the purpose for which it 
 was intended, but he thought if the advances were made to the pro¬ 
 prietors of the soil the measure might be safe and useful.” 
 
 This declaration was hailed with delight and gratitude ; it 
 was considered to be a ratification of the promise made by 
 T. J. Parker, in charge of the Commissariat district at Clif- 
 den, in a communication to Henry Blake, Esq., Renvyle, 
 dated October 19, 1846, he writes :— 
 
 “ I am aware of the unwillingness of the people to sell their grain; 
 grounded on the fear that they will find it difficult to replace it for 
 seed. But Sir Randolph Routh has provided against this, by im¬ 
 porting rye and bere for seed.” 
 
 This pledge, coupled with the subsequent statement of the 
 Premier, just quoted, induced the people both to sell a part 
 of their grain, and consume the remainder in food. “ But 
 there are many slips between the cup and the lip.” The 
 words of a statesman are, in many instances, capable of two 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 meanings. And when the time arrived for the seed-corn to 
 be put in the earth, and the proprietors of the soil considered 
 they had nothing to do but ask the seed-corn, “ either rye or 
 here,” oats or barley, they were astounded by the following 
 letter of Mr. M‘Cartney, of Lisanoure Castle, a Deputy-Lieu¬ 
 tenant of the County of Antrim. On the 27th February, 1847, 
 he wrote:— 
 
 “ I waited on Sir Randolph Routh, on Friday, the 26th February, 
 for the purpose of claiming a loan, when he stated it was not the 
 intention of the Government to make any advances for seed-corn ; 
 his duty, and that of the Commissariat, as regards seeds, being 
 strictly confined to the issuing of some peas and beans then on the 
 way, and seeds for green-crops, which had been purchased by the 
 Treasurer, as advised by Mr. Trevelyan, to be issued from the 
 Commissariat stores in Ireland, only upon the orders of Relief Com¬ 
 mittees, and that no seed-corn, or funds for procuring same, should 
 be issued, the growing opinion in England being against any such 
 interference in such matters.” 
 
 An anonymous production appeared in The Edinburgh 
 Review for January, 1848, called “ The Irish Crisis.’" After 
 I perused a few pages, I was satisfied the author, who feared 
 to attach his name, was a placeman. It appeared, however, 
 that having failed in that shape to attract that degree of pub¬ 
 lic attention which, no doubt, he desired, after nearly a 
 year’s intervention, he bounds enclosure, and re-publishes it 
 in a pamphlet, and Sir Charles Trevelyan, Secretary to the 
 Treasury, acknowledges himself the author. 
 
 In page 273 of The Review , is the following paragraph:— 
 
 “ 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 
 £50,000, 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.” 
 
 Contrasting the letter of Mr. M‘Cartney with the above 
 paragraph, it is evident the Secretary of the Treasury must 
 have either wilfully stated a falsehood or was completely ig¬ 
 norant of the matter he wrote on; but, under any circumstances, 
 it would have been more creditable to him to have continued in 
 
35 
 
 his retirement as an anonymous pamphleteer than attach his 
 signature to such an erroneous assertion. 
 
 After a perusal of these conflicting statements, it cannot be 
 supposed that this was, to say the least of it, straightforward, 
 as the people were completely thrown off their guard by 
 depending upon the high authority of the Prime Minister of 
 Great Britian; and when the proper time had arrived for crop¬ 
 ping their lands, the application for seed is made, but refused. 
 Fifty thousand pounds had been voted for that specific pur¬ 
 pose ; but it was to be given for the purchase of seed for green- 
 crops, say turnips. Fifty thousand pounds would supply 
 turnip-seed for 333,000 acres, at Is. per lb., allowing 3lbs. 
 to the acre, whilst it is a melancholy fact there are not 20,000 
 acres of tenant land prepared or fit to receive such a crop in 
 Ireland. And what w~as to become of the balance voted, 
 £47,000 ? Was that large sum to be squandered with pay¬ 
 ing a staff of officials ? There must have been some cogent 
 reasons for refusing corn-seed and substituting seed for 
 green-crops; one of which is explained by Mr. Labouchere, the 
 Irish Secretary, in his place in Parliament. On the 2d March, 
 1847, he states,—“ As to the measures the Government had 
 taken for the distribution of a supply of seed, he had lately 
 received a communication from a member of the Irish Go¬ 
 vernment, which would enable him to answer the question. 
 ‘ We have found it perfectly impracticable to get a sufficient 
 supply of corn for seed without serious interference with the 
 markets ; green-crop seed alone therefore will be supplied.’ ” 
 That is the cause assigned—“better late than never/' 
 The markets would be interfered with, which, at the moment 
 the Irish Secretary was speaking, had advanced to famine 
 prices :—Indian meal selling at £18 per ton, and all other 
 bread-stuffs in proportion. It would have been better not to 
 have spoken about corn-seed at all, than such a flagrant breach of' 
 faith ; but, to cover the defection, seed for green-crops would 
 be substituted. It could never be imagined that turnips were 
 
36 
 
 intended as an esculent; but they would feed cattle, and the 
 markets of England would be, by this means, abundantly 
 supplied with the usual supply of Irish beef and mutton. 
 
 I happened to be in the town of Galway, and carelessly 
 taking up one of the local newspapers, I saw a statement made 
 “ That a Government steamer had arrived with a cargo of 
 seed-corn, that circulars had been issued to the farmers some 
 twenty miles adjacent, inviting them to come in and purchase 
 at prime cost, Is. 5d. per stone.” A violent editorial article 
 arraigned the official in charge for having disposed of the 
 cargo in the interim to a corn merchant in the town, and 
 when the farmers had arrived in compliance with the terms of 
 the circular, instead of purchasing at Is. 5d. per stone, they 
 were obliged to purchase from the merchant—not at market 
 price, which was at the date of the circular, 2s.—but this 
 circumstance actually enabled him to raise the market still 
 higher, and the unfortunate farmers were obliged to pay 2s. 2d. 
 after their long journeys. 
 
 During my peregrinations, in relating this act, I was met 
 with the argument, by the friends of the Government, that I 
 was not to place confidence in newspaper reports. But I de¬ 
 termined on my next visit to Galway to ascertain, if possible, 
 the truth or falsehood of the statement; and happening # to 
 be invited to a friend’s house, on my return to Galway in two 
 months afterwards, among other guests I was introduced to 
 
 Mr.-, Acting Commissary General; I availed myself of 
 
 the opportunity, and introduced the matter. He told me he 
 had seen the article in the newspaper—that the cargo of 
 seed-corn was not the property of the Government, but be¬ 
 longed to the British Association—the steamer was lent by 
 Government—the circulars had been issued to the farmers— 
 the cargo sold to the merchant, but the steamer could not 
 remain ; and as to the statement in the newspaper, he did not 
 think it necessary to take any notice of it. 
 
 So much for the accuracy of newspaper reports; and it will 
 
37 
 
 be seen how the Government had the audacity to frustrate 
 the object of the British Association, in their benevolent un¬ 
 dertaking. 
 
 How different were the measures adopted by Sir Robert 
 Peel’s Government to meet the partial failure of the potato 
 crop in 1846. They purchased, early, at a very low rate, large 
 quantities of Indian corn—directed the attention of merchants 
 to its importation, while the Government supply prevented 
 them realising exorbitant prices—distributing assistance 
 through Relief Committees, under the superintendence of a 
 Committee, appointed on the 27th November, 1845; and 
 keeping in reserve a store of biscuits, ready, if necessary, to 
 be applied to feed the people, and some additional prepara¬ 
 tions to obtain, at a short notice, an additional supply of In¬ 
 dian corn ; they had, also, ninety-three depots established for 
 these reserve supplies, which were reduced by the Govern¬ 
 ment of Lord John Russell to twenty-four; and, in the 
 months of November and December, 1846, under the Govern¬ 
 ment of the latter, only 638,932lbs. of meal were distributed, 
 while during the two months previous, under the former 
 system, 23,257,000lbs. were distributed. Instead, therefore, 
 of an increased distribution, as should have been the case dm> 
 ing a crisis, there was a diminution from the quantity dis¬ 
 tributed of 22,618,068lbs. 
 
 If the Government had only performed their duty, in ap¬ 
 propriating the money voted by the Legislature for the wise 
 purpose of averting another famine, from an insufficiency of 
 crops not being duly sown, by reason of the poverty of the 
 people in being obliged to eat what they would have reserved 
 for seed, what would have been the happy state of Ireland ? 
 Our fields would have teemed with unusual fertility, our 
 storehouses crammed to excess, from the fact that, within the 
 memory of man, never was there so prolific a harvest. The 
 great Benefactor of the Universe did bless us with more than 
 an average crop—even the absence of disease in what was con- 
 
38 
 
 sidered a doomed esculent; and the potato, the greatest of 
 God’s gifts, the most suitable vegetable that was ever planted 
 in Ireland—remunerating to the farmer, and wholesome and 
 nutritious for man and beast, which has again given evidence that 
 it has not taken its final exit; and although it was disregarded 
 and spurned, we shall again, under the blessing of the Al¬ 
 mighty, be favoured with its perennial visits; and instead of 
 despising it, we shall, for the future, appreciate it with grati¬ 
 tude and thankfulness. If a sufficiency of corn had been 
 sown, we would not have had the gloomy Winter that was 
 then before us ; what was sown was so fruitful that a day of 
 public thanksgiving for an abundant harvest was ordered by 
 the Queen in Council, and celebrated on Sunday, the 17th 
 day of October, 1847. But, notwithstanding all this, the cry 
 of distress was again heard; and I assert, that if the wise pre¬ 
 caution had been taken, as was contemplated by the Legislature 
 when it cheerfully voted £50,000 for supplying seed for the 
 coming season, instead of the dismal cry of hunger and desti¬ 
 tution, it would have been supplanted by the dulcet notes 
 of plenty and happiness. 
 
 The potato crop was introduced into Ireland by Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and planted in the 
 in the vicinity of Youghall; they were also* planted in the 
 neighbourhood of Edinburgh in 1744, and shewed symptoms 
 of disease in 1844, a singular coincidence, of a century from 
 the time they were planted to the time they shewed signs of 
 decay. As regards this being the most productive root, and 
 so wholesome as an esculent, Dr. Adam Smith in the year 
 1776, writes:— 
 
 “The food produced by a field of potatoes is not inferior 
 in quantity to that produced by a field of rice, and much su¬ 
 perior to what is produced by a field of wheat. Twelve- 
 thousand weight of potatoes from an acre of land is not greater 
 produce than 2,000 weight of wheat. 
 
 “ The food, or solid nourishment, indeed, which can be 
 
39 
 
 drawn from each of those two plants is not altogether in pro¬ 
 portion to their weight, on account of the watery nature of 
 potatoes. 
 
 <e Allowing, however, half the weight of this root to go to 
 water, a very large allowance, such an acre of potatoes will 
 produce 6,000 weight of solid nourishment; three times the 
 quantity produced by an acre of wheat. An acre of potatoes 
 is cultivated with less expense than an acre of wheat, the 
 fallow which precedes the sowing of wheat more than com¬ 
 pensating the hoeing and other extraordinary culture which 
 is always given to potatoes. Should this root ever become, in 
 any part of Europe, like rice in some countries, the common 
 and favourite vegetable food of the people, so as to occupy the 
 same proportion of the lands in tillage which wheat and other 
 sorts of grain for human food do at present, the same quantity 
 of cultivated land would maintain a much greater number of 
 people and the labourers being generally fed with potatoes, a 
 greater surplus would remain after replacing all the stock and 
 maintaining all the labour employed in cultivation, a greater 
 share of the surplus too would belong to the landlord,^ popu¬ 
 lation would increase, and rents would rise much beyond 
 what they are at present. The land which is fit for potatoes 
 is fit for almost every other useful vegetable. If they occu¬ 
 pied the same proportion of cultivated land ivhich corn does 
 at present, they would regulate in the same manner the rent 
 of the greater part of other cultivated land. In some parts of 
 Lancashire, it is pretended, I have been told, that bread of 
 oatmeal is a heartier food for labouring people than wheaten 
 bread; and I have frequently heard the same doctrine held 
 in Scotland. I am, however, somewhat doubtful of the truth 
 of it. The common people of Scotland, who are fed with oat- 
 
 * All these effects have been produced. The rental of Ireland in 1778, 
 was computed at six millions, and the present rental is very nearly fourteen 
 millions. Population has also increased in proportion; and as the Irish 
 labourer is content to marry if he can find a poor cabin to accommodate his 
 family, and potatoes to feed them, the country is fully peopled in proportion 
 to its food. 
 
40 
 
 meal, are in general neither so strong nor so handsome as the 
 same rank of people in England who are fed with wheaten 
 bread. They neither work so well nor look so well; and as 
 there is not the same difference between the people of fashion 
 in the two countries, experience would seem to shew that the 
 food of the common people in Scotland is not so suitable to the 
 human constitution as that of their neighbours of the same 
 rank in England. But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes. 
 The chairmen, porters, and coal-heavers in London, and those 
 unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the strongest 
 men and the most beautiful women, perhaps in the British 
 dominions, are said to be, the most of them, from the lowest 
 rank of people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this 
 root. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nour¬ 
 ishing quality or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health 
 of the human constitution.” 
 
 The Government measure for giving employment to the 
 people, called the Labour Bill, was so imperfect, degrading, 
 and mischievous, that before its importation it was actually 
 arrested, convicted, and condemned. Its provisions were 
 simple enough :—In every barony which the Lord Lieuten¬ 
 ant proclaimed in a state of distress, Extraordinary Present¬ 
 ment Sessions were to be held, at which the magistrates and 
 cess-payers were to have the power of presenting for Public 
 Works to an indefinite extent, subject only to the control of 
 the Board of Works. The sums so presented were to be at 
 once advanced by the Treasury, to be replaced by instalments 
 that would spread the re-payment of the entire with interest 
 over a period varying, at the discretion of the Treasury, from 
 four to twenty years. 
 
 Hoads, bridges, and quays, it was found were the only 
 things that could be considered as Public Works. The 
 rate of wages to each labourer being restricted to ten 
 pence per diem. No sooner had this measure become the law 
 
41 
 
 of the land than its demoralizing character and mischievous ten¬ 
 dencies were perceived by the Earl of Besborough, then Chief 
 Governor of Ireland, who expostulated with the Cabinet on 
 its inefficient and pernicious provisions, which, however, had 
 no weight, and his Excellency took upon himself the great 
 responsibility of suppressing the whole measure, in opposition 
 to the wishes of the Cabinet—thereby annulling 114 the greatest 
 political blunder that ever was enacted,” and for which he 
 was liable to be impeached. This “vote of censure’’ on the 
 bill, the strangulation of the Cabinet bantling, no doubt gave 
 great offence to the other Ministers, and so incurred their dis¬ 
 approbation, that his Excellency tendered his resignation, and it 
 was currently reported that the Premier came over privately 
 to Dublin,'’personally to entreat of his Excellency to retain 
 the Viceroyship, as it was certain that his Excellency’s 
 retirement would be the means of breaking up the Govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 His Excellency, writing on the 28th September, 1846, states 
 —“ It is not intended that the works should be confined to 
 roads or any works which can be fairly considered of a 
 public nature, but such as would tend to the permanent im¬ 
 provement of the surrounding districts, and those which may 
 be expected to be reproductive should be preferred.” 
 
 The Cabinet and the Viceroy were at issue on this point: 
 one party preferring the money to be squandered on useless 
 and mischievous works, and the other recommending and per¬ 
 sisting in having the money beneficially expended in improv¬ 
 ing the surrounding districts, by works of a reproductive na¬ 
 ture,—as the following extract from a letter addressed by the 
 Premier to the Duke of Leinster, on the 17th October, 1846, 
 will illustrate:—“ When the case was brought before the 
 Government by the Lord Lieutenant, we lamented the wrong 
 direction in which the act had been turned.” 
 
 Notwithstanding this decisive step on the part of the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, who is not a member of the Cabinet, 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 they found him a more resolute subaltern than they expected ; 
 on that occasion, unfortunately, however, for the country, the 
 Cabinet Bill, as originally framed, was carried out. Its egre¬ 
 gious defects consisted in the absence of any one improve¬ 
 ment where its operations were felt'; while its degrading cha.» 
 racter alienated the people from their legitimate avocations in 
 neglecting their own holdings, by not putting them in a suita¬ 
 ble state for the reception of seed for the ensuing Spring; it 
 was also a bounty to idleness, for they preferred ten pence 
 per day on the Public Works, where they might eke out the 
 day to one shilling for a fair day’s labour for useful purposes. 
 In the next place, it was a wilful squandering of the national 
 finances collected from the industry of the empire; and again, 
 it was impeding the public and private conveyances, and kill¬ 
 ing the already half-starved horses, whose allowances of corn 
 were so considerably curtailed. The correspondence of the 
 empire and the operations of trade were intercepted by the 
 irregularity of the mails ; fares for travelling were considerably 
 advanced, in consequence of the almost impassable state of the 
 roads, and, in many instances, the regular conveyance discon¬ 
 tinued. Mr. Charles Bianconi, the enterprising car proprie¬ 
 tor, was necessitated to withdraw a dozen of his cars, to the 
 serious inconvenience of the community, in consequence of 
 the high price of corn, and the impassable state of the roads, 
 which were in capital order before, but at the caprice of the 
 Government were torn up, and remain yet unfinished, now 
 fully more than two years. 
 
 It mioht indeed be said of the noble Premier—“ This man 
 
 Q 
 
 began to build, but was not able to finish.’ He seemed to 
 be one of those individuals who would leap over a mountain, 
 but stumble at a straw. There is one thing certain, if he did 
 not bound the hill, he was determined to cut through it, and 
 thus exemplifying the adage. 
 
 Another of its effects was, that it subverted the securities on 
 land, and no nation in the world was so unable or so unpre¬ 
 pared for interference with its mortgages, as Ireland. If a party 
 
43 
 
 liad a mortgage on a landed property, say for ten thousand 
 pounds, before advancing that sum, he, of course, first ascer¬ 
 tained if the property be worth it and interest, the expense of 
 foreclosing, &c.; supposing then, that after making the ne¬ 
 cessary inquiries, he found that the property would barely 
 cover his debt with the legal expenses to sell it, what would 
 be his surprise to find that a debt had been saddled on that 
 property by the Government to the amount of three thousand 
 pounds, which of course would take precedence of his or any 
 other debt ? and if it so happened that circumstances obliged 
 him to call in his money, by selling that property, he should 
 first indemnify the Government, and lose, by this unexpected 
 enactment, three thousand pounds and the interest; and this 
 independent of the fluctuating value of land* which this year, 
 in Ireland, was so seriously depreciated by the failure of the 
 potato crop. I happened to be present at the selling of a small 
 property in the Court of Chancery, in July last, 1847, which 
 was knocked down at five hundred pounds per annum ; the 
 same party offering eight hundred pounds in the month of 
 October previously, was refused. 
 
 Another great hardship the Labour Bill imposed on the 
 proprietor was —that it actually demanded payment of a debt 
 which he had no funds to meet, endeavouring, perhaps, to 
 retain the family estate without emolument or gain ; and, per¬ 
 haps, struggling to relieve it of its burdens by diligence and 
 industry, rather than allow it to pass out of his hands, dear to 
 him by many associations of parentage and birth. 
 
 Finally, it was most oppressive and unjust that the people 
 of England and Scotland, particularly the industrious classes, 
 such as merchants, professional men, bankers’ and merchants’ 
 clerks, the majority of them with limited salaries, unequally 
 taxed, and, with the articles of consumption dearer in those 
 countries than in Ireland, more especially as funds could have 
 been raised amongst the wealthy landed and funded proprie¬ 
 tors of Ireland, who could well afford to pay a per centage 
 
44 
 
 out of their bona fide incomes for the support of the poor. I 
 remember reading an account of an individual who died in 
 Dublin, in the beginning of the year 1847, and leaving 
 £274,000 in cash, and house property worth £4,000 per 
 annum, who never paid one farthing of it to the Imperial 
 Treasury; and it is certainly very unequal justice to make a 
 mercantile clerk in England or Scotland pay an Income-tax, 
 and allow this gentleman to wallow in his riches free of*taxation. 
 
 But Lord John Russell was determined that the industrious 
 classes in England and Scotland should pay for his “ political 
 blunder on the 25th January, 1847, in his place in the 
 House of Commons, he declares— 
 
 “ With respect to the money which had been already expended, 
 and which w r as now to be expended on Public Works in Ireland, 
 a claim had been advanced that the whole of it should not be made 
 a burden upon that country. Considering how extensive the calamity 
 was, he thought it would be only right that the whole burden should 
 not fall on Ireland. He therefore should propose, on a future day, 
 that, in each succeeding year, as each instalment was paid, one-half 
 should be remitted. Keeping up the whole debt until the one-half 
 of it was paid, and then throwing the other half on the public.” 
 
 It can be no matter of surprise, therefore, that both English¬ 
 men and Scotchmen should consider it a hardship to be ob¬ 
 liged to pay for the support of Irishmen, and that their lead¬ 
 ing journal should denounce them as a nation of beggars; but, 
 although the fact could not have been gainsayed, still it was 
 neither humane nor benevolent to raise such a cry at such a 
 time. Nothing betokens a brutalised mind more than to take 
 advantage of the miseries of those we would wish to crush to 
 accomplish that purpose : to build our fortunes on the ruin of 
 others is not laudable. And “ to break the bruised reed” or 
 “quench the smoking flax” is not enjoined to be the practice 
 of a Christian. By the mismanagement and blundering of the 
 Government of Great Britain the nation was coerced to ac¬ 
 cept a loan from the public purse to meet an unexpected ca¬ 
 lamity, when there were ample means and plenty of resources 
 in Ireland, which, if vigorously enforced and judiciously ap- 
 
45 
 
 plied, would not unjustly press on any party, but would ulti¬ 
 mately be attended with the most beneficial results in improv¬ 
 ing the country and remunerating the proprietors. 
 
 There was great cause of dissatisfaction at this unwise dis¬ 
 tribution of money, not only for useless but mischievous works, 
 and it called forth the disapprobation of all classes. Not alone 
 of landed proprietors, whose estates were mortgaged for the 
 repayment of this money, but the citizens of Dublin also re¬ 
 corded their condemnation of the measure at a public meeting 
 at the Music-hall, on the 16th March, 1847, by the unani¬ 
 mous adoption of the subjoined resolution :— 
 
 “ Moved by Philip Dixon Hardy, Esq.; seconded by John 
 Thompson, Esq:— Resolved , That the Labour Rate Act provided 
 by the Government, in the place of food, to meet the loss of the po¬ 
 tato crop, has frightfully aggravated the sufferings and distresses of 
 the country: that it has not mitigated, and in its nature could not 
 mitigate, the scarcity of food; that it has only tortured before fa¬ 
 mine consigned the labourer to the grave; and that it has turned 
 the labouring power from the land, where alone it could avert fa¬ 
 mine in the coming year, to the roads, where it has done mischief; 
 that it has largely increased the incumbrances upon landlords, already 
 ruinously heavy ; that it has inflicted a heavy loss on the public 
 treasury, and added to the national burdens; that it has paralysed 
 trade, spread confusion and terror among all classes, and shaken 
 the whole frame-work of society in Ireland ; that no measures, which 
 do not increase the inadequate power employed in bringing food 
 from foreign countries, no scheme for giving employment, nor taxa¬ 
 tion, but food only, can be fitted to our present condition, or stop 
 the ravages of famine, and that if Government will not forth¬ 
 with employ the ships and money of the State to bring food from 
 other countries, our labouring population will be swept off the land, 
 their employers reduced to destitution, and our merchants and tra¬ 
 ders to bankruptcy, before another harvest returns.” 
 
 When the “paternal” Government managed to get hold of 
 the helm of State by out-voting the Government of Sir Robert 
 Peel, on a measure introduced by him for the more effectual 
 Protection of Life and Property in Ireland—whether to evince 
 their love of liberty or pander to the passions of a fierce de- 
 
46 
 
 mocracy—an act called the Arms’ Bill (one of their own mea¬ 
 sures, and an annual one) was about to expire; it was consi¬ 
 dered necessary by the Government of Sir Bobert Peel,‘that a 
 clause should be added:—“ That all fire-arms should be num¬ 
 bered and registered by the Constabulary, for the purpose of 
 tracing them if used for murderous purposes, and also for pro¬ 
 hibiting parties from lending them for the like or other un¬ 
 lawful purposes.” 
 
 Contrary to the remonstrances of many who saw, that from 
 the disordered state of society in Ireland, the indiscriminate use 
 of fire-arms amongst the peasantry, even with the restrictions 
 then in force, made murders an event of weekly occurrence, the 
 Government allowed that act to expire ; and, to add to the 
 grace and favour of the indulgence, the Chief Secretary of 
 Ireland (Mr. Labouchere), proclaimed “ the right of carry¬ 
 ing arms for lawful objects, which every Irishman now pos¬ 
 sesses.” 
 
 This announcement fanned the flame which burned in the 
 minds of the peasantry , not alone of the disaffected, but stimu¬ 
 lated the inordinate passion for the possession of fire-arms 
 that is proverbial amongst all classes in Ireland. Accordingly, 
 large quantities of fire-arms of the lowest description were im¬ 
 ported, and whatever way the money to purchase them was raised, 
 the vendors found plenty of buyers; insomuch, that on the 
 3d day of November, 1846, in the town of Clonmel, the capi¬ 
 tal of Tipperary, one hundred and thirty-eight stand of arms 
 were sold; and, in the short space of one month, 12,000 
 stand of arms were bought by the peasantry in that blood¬ 
 stained county. 
 
 This formidable addition to the fire-arms already in the 
 country, soon convinced the Government of their imprudence, 
 by the alarming increase of crime and the numbers of addi¬ 
 tional murders that were daily chronicled in the newspapers, 
 and officially reported to the Government. The demand for 
 fire-arms still continued, and the advertisements of those 
 
47 
 
 hawkers who"sold them in the public streets, headed by the 
 royal arms of England, with the quotation—“ The right of 
 carrying arms for lawful objects, which every Irishman now 
 possesses.” These circumstances plainly demonstrated the 
 necessity of some restriction to counteract the effect of such 
 an impolitic step, and the same functionary was placed in the 
 unenviable and unbecoming position of being obliged to issue 
 the following caution:— 
 
 “Dublin Castle, 3d December, 1847. 
 
 “ His Excellency’s attention having been directed to the frequent 
 outrages committed by armed parties, directs me to bring under your 
 notice the act of 15th and 16th George III., chap. 21, sec. 2., which 
 states—‘ Any person or persons being armed by fire-arms, firelock, 
 pistol, or any other offensive weapon, who shall use, assemble, or ap¬ 
 pear by day or by night,to the terror of his Majesty’s subjects, is guilty 
 of a high misdemeanour, and punishable by fine or imprisonment. 
 
 “ H. Labouchere.” 
 
 The imprudence of allowing fire-arms into the hands of the 
 peasantry was particularly noticed and condemned by Lord 
 Chief Justice Blackburne in his charge to the Grand Jury of 
 the County of Tipperary, at the following Spring Assizes, and 
 by Baron Lefroy at the Longford Assizes at the same time ; 
 and the following resolution was adopted by the Grand Jury of 
 the County of Tipperary after the charge of his Lordship :— 
 
 “ That we feel it to be our imperative duty to give expression to 
 the anxiety and alarm with which we have witnessed the recent ex¬ 
 tensive and rapidly increasing acquisition of fire-arms by the pea¬ 
 santry of this county. 
 
 “ That we consider the danger arising from this circumstance as 
 greatly aggravated by the prevailing destitution, as the evil-disposed 
 always avail themselves of such a state of things, as a pretext for 
 crime and outrage. 
 
 “ That we, therefore, solemnly warn the Government of the dan¬ 
 gers likely to result to the peace of society, from such an arming of 
 the masses at such a period, and earnestly beseech them to apply 
 some efficient and timely remedy to an evil which must otherwise 
 lead to the most disastrous consequences.” 
 
 The Grand Jury of the County of Kilkenny adopted a 
 similar resolution :— 
 
48 
 
 “ We, the undersigned Grand Jurors of the County of Kilkenny, 
 cannot separate without expressing our deep horror and regret at 
 the dreadful murder of Arthur Prim, Esq., pay-clerk, and of John 
 Yates, police constable, yesterday morning, in this county. This 
 awful event exhibits, most forcibly, the mischievous tendency of the 
 indiscriminate sale of fire-arms, by which life and property are 
 brought into jeopardy every day. Persons who are not trustworthy, 
 on account of their dissolute characters, are permitted to purchase 
 arms as they think fitting, and others, who, possessed of property, 
 may be supposed entitled to carry them for its defence, have, in 
 numerous instances, surrendered them without opposition when de¬ 
 manded by midnight assassins.”' 
 
 Notwithstanding these denunciations and recommendations, 
 while the Government allowed the evil to progress with all 
 its fearful results, without prohibiting the sale of those instru¬ 
 ments of death, such an act would have saved a vast sum to 
 the nation; for, in order to preserve any thing like social 
 order, a large military force was required, as well as a con¬ 
 siderable addition to the constabulary, the appointment of sti¬ 
 pendary magistrates also, and the expense of prosecuting and 
 punishing assassins, was a fearful waste of money. And as 
 the Irish Constabulary are paid out of the Imperial Exchequer, 
 the people of England and Scotland had to bear their part of 
 this expense, as well as the mischievous Labour Bill. 
 
 Twelve months had not expired after the date of the pro¬ 
 clamation— 4 f The right of carrying arms for lawful objects, 
 which every Irishman now possesses,” when the Secretary of 
 State for the Home Department appeals to the Legislature 
 for extraordinary powers to check the frightful increase of 
 crime from the use of fire-arms, and grounds his argument 
 from the following return :— 
 
 For the Six Months ending 1845. 
 
 Homicides,. 11 
 
 Attempts upon life, by firing ) ** 
 
 at the person,.f ° 
 
 Robbery of Arms,. 207 
 
 Firing into dwelling houses,. 51 
 
 For Six Months ending Oct., 1847. 
 
 Homicides,. 96 
 
 Attempts upon life, by firing ) . 
 
 at the person,. $ w 
 
 Robbery of Arms,. 530 
 
 Firing into dwelling houses,. 116 
 
 Was there anything more humiliating than for the Govern¬ 
 ment to ask a Coercion Bill, based on such a statement which 
 
49 
 
 trenched most materially on the liberty of the subject, de¬ 
 ranged the social state of the country, saddled it with a heavy 
 additional expense for carrying it into operation, when their 
 own unwise conduct was the principal if not the sole cause ? 
 
 The following circumstance, that came under my own ob¬ 
 servation fifteen years ago, will illustrate the difficulty of dis¬ 
 possessing the peasantry of fire-arms:—An uneducated peasant, 
 who appeared to be without a second idea in his head, kept a 
 gun for several years, not two miles distant from a police 
 station, and the residence of a magistrate, whose game he 
 occasionally thinned. The police being aware of his having 
 the gun, took every means in their power to deprive him 
 of* it, by repeated and unexpected visits, and after the most 
 scrutinizing searches he baffled all their plans and eluded their 
 vigilance. However, one day he happened to be at his 
 favourite diversion, shooting out of a boat on the river, and 
 after bringing down a brace of wild duck, the police were 
 attracted to the spot by the report of the gun, and seeing him 
 lift his game, they accosted him by saying, ‘ That was a capital 
 shot.’ 4 Yes,’ he replied, ‘better than you could do it.’ ‘ Give 
 up the gun/ demanded the constable. ‘ Don’t you wish you 
 may get it?’ was his rejoinder. He then immediately took the 
 oars, and with his sinewy arms soon reached his domicile, and 
 mentioning what transpired to his wife, they both, without 
 much hesitation, went to an adjacent town about three miles 
 from their home. On his return he was arrested by the 
 police. During his examination he denied being there at all, 
 and asserted he was in a position to prove that he was in the 
 town with his wife transacting business. The magistrate 
 asked him to name his witness, and the writer of this narra¬ 
 tive was given as the reference. Accordingly I was sent for 
 by the magistrate—(I at the time being ignorant of the 
 transaction.) In reply to the query, ‘ Do you know the man?’ 
 —‘ Yes.’ ‘ Did you see him on such a day in such place ?* 
 —‘ Yes.’ ‘ About what hour?’—‘ As well as I can recollect 
 
 G 
 
50 
 
 about one o’clock in the afternoon.’ ‘Liberate the man,’ was 
 the decision of the magistrate. Whereupon my friend Avas 
 released, and a great crowd of his neighbours and friends, that 
 Avere waiting with intense anxiety outside, Avhen the result 
 Avas announced, cheered me through the toAvn, and their plau¬ 
 dits caused such a sensation that I shall not readily forget 
 them. So much for the difficulty of curing the evil. 
 
 Such then is a brief outline of the short, inglorious, and 
 disastrous career of the present Ministry, not yet four years 
 in office, and of the measures they brought forward to meet 
 a calamity Avhich, although of great magnitude, required only 
 a little energy, a vigorous execution of the poAver, and an ap¬ 
 plication of the means within their reach to combat success¬ 
 fully the perils of the crisis Avitliout loss of life or serious de¬ 
 triment to any existing interest. It would appear, howe\ r er, 
 from a review of the preceding, that the noble Lord Avas not 
 adequate to the emergency—that he had not the mind to plan* 
 the heart to dare, or the hand to execute those measures which 
 the exigency of the crisis imperatively demanded; although* 
 perhaps, it Avas more his misfortune than his fault. And as it 
 betokens as much greatness of mind to acknowledge and con¬ 
 fess a fault as to be incapable of committing it, the noble 
 Lord, Avith a frankness Avorthy of the greatest commendation* 
 admits, in his place in Parliament, on Monday, 31st May, 
 1847 :—“ He (Lord John Russell) did not mean to say that 
 the measures which the Government had taken to meet the 
 great and unparalleled calamity were those which the utmost 
 wisdom could have devised 
 
 But the mere admission of incompetency was not a sufficient 
 equivalent to the nation for the amount of injury inflicted by 
 the mal-administration of men avIio had not, by their OAvn ad¬ 
 mission, the wisdom to foresee or the fidelity to perform the 
 duties commensurate to the crisis. It is evident that every 
 step taken Avas in the Avrong direction ; every panacea pre- 
 
51 
 
 / 
 
 scribed only probed the wound deeper and aggravated the 
 disease. The impolitic and criminal protection afforded to 
 the corn merchants had the effect of raising provisions to prices 
 they had never before reached, and the want of which con¬ 
 signed more than two millions of human beings to premature 
 (in many instances coffinless) graves; and, according to the 
 prediction of Sir .Randolph Routh, afterwards 44 worked its own 
 cure” by destroying not alone the avaricious speculator, but 
 the honest merchant: for, in the month of October alone, 
 there were failures to the amount of fifteen millions and one- 
 half sterling in the corn trade. And the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, in his place in Parliament, on Tuesday, 30tli 
 November, 1847, stated:— 44 The great bulk of the failures 
 were those of houses engaged in the corn trade; and these 
 failures were mainly to be attributed to the sudden fall in the 
 price of corn; and all those who had speculated in that com¬ 
 modity, and had miscalculated, had paid the penalty.” 
 What a consolation it was to those misguided individuals who 
 had lost the fruits of the industry of the previous part of 
 their liyes, and involved their families, likely their friends, 
 in ruin, by endeavouring to make fortunes in a day, and who 
 were encouraged and protected by the Government, which now 
 reproached them for their misfortune. On the same occasion, 
 the same personage stated— 44 That for the six months ending 
 in January, 1847, the amount paid for foreign corn was 
 £5,139,000; and for the six monthsending in July, 1847, 
 £14,184,000; and, in the three months just past,it had reached 
 the enormous amount of £14,240,000, being upwards of 
 £33,000,000 in fifteen monthsand the Earl of Mountcashe! 
 in a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the 20th 
 October, 1847, computes the aggregate loss of the United 
 Kingdom at £500,000,000 sterling for twelve months. From 
 the amount of fictitious capital afloat, in the shape of accom¬ 
 modation bills of exchange, the bankers saw that a crash was 
 inevitable; and, in self-defence, limited their discounts and 
 
o2 
 
 charged the enormous sum of ten per cent, on any paper 
 they negociated, which nearly paralized all legitimate trade. 
 Nine-tenths of the factories were obliged to be closed; the 
 few mills at work were only on short time, and the vast num¬ 
 ber of people consequently thrown out of employment was 
 frightful to contemplate. We are now after witnessing the 
 ravages of starvation, accompanied by the desolating hand of 
 pestilence, and seeing the gradual decline of the empire—its 
 resources crippled; its commerce almost destroyed; its manu¬ 
 facturers embarrassed ; its artizans starving, and without a ray 
 of hope to enliven the darkness of the surrounding horizon. 
 
 Such then 'is the climax of misfortunes—the acme of the 
 national malady; and unless some skilful physician take the 
 patient out of the empirical hands that has almost consummated 
 its destruction, it will be lost without recovery; indeed the 
 words of the poet appear not inapplicable :— 
 
 “ As when some dire usurper Heaven provides 
 To scourge his country with a lawless sway, 
 
 His birth, perhaps, some petty village hides, 
 
 And sets his cradle out of fortune’s way 
 Till fully ripe his swelling fate breaks out, 
 
 And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on— 
 
 His prince surprised, at first no ill could doubt, 
 
 And wants the power to meet it when ’tis known.” 
 
 If we are to look back to past circumstances, we will find 
 that a Whig administration was never an auspicious one for this 
 empire. Under them Great Britain lost her North American 
 colonies; the cholera devastating the Continent of Europe; a 
 rebellion in Canada under Papineau; the Chinese War ; four 
 successive years of commercial depression at home, and defi¬ 
 cient harvests; all this occured during the Whig administra¬ 
 tion, which, having come into office with a surplus revenue of 
 four millions, they managed to leave a deficit of more than the 
 same amount before they were ignominiously expelled from 
 office by a vote of censure of the House of Commons, and an In¬ 
 come and Property Tax were necessarily imposed on England 
 and Scotland to make good that sum, to equalise the income of' 
 
53 
 
 the country to its expenditure, thus rescuing the empire from 
 bankruptcy; and, still more recently, under the present Whig 
 Ministry, Great Britain was obliged to witness the infraction 
 of the treaty of Vienna, for the observance of which, the na¬ 
 tional honour of this empire was pledged, in addition to the 
 disgrace of her Ambassador’s expulsion from the once friendly 
 court of Spain. 
 
 After a careful and impartial consideration of the mis¬ 
 management and inability of this Government, there is one 
 question that prominently presents itself and demands an an¬ 
 swer, and that is—Would Ireland, with a Parliament of her 
 own, have suffered such a series of calamities ? ’Tis true there 
 is something noble, chivalrous, and laudable in endeavouring 
 honestly to work out the regeneration of one’s native land; to 
 raise her in the scale of nations ; to make her sons free, con¬ 
 tented, and happy ; to improve the moral, social, and physical 
 condition of the people; to develope her resources; and cause the 
 sound of the anvil, the fly of the shuttle, and the revolution of 
 the wheel, to be heard from one end of the isle to the other; 
 and not to allow Ireland, with all her natural advantages, 
 from her geographical position, her temperate climate, her 
 fruitful soil, her hardy peasantry, her water-power, her 
 mines, and other industrial resources, to remain undeveloped 
 and neglected. 
 
 But, before we suppose that all these calamities would have 
 been averted by the wisdom of a native Parliament, we must 
 bear in mind that since the Union there were not so many 
 Irishmen connected with the Government as at the present. 
 There are the Post-Master-General and Master of the Mint; 
 Cabinet Ministers; two Lords of the Treasury, the Comp¬ 
 troller of the Exchequer, the Under Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and his 
 Under Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, the Irish Attorney 
 and Solicitor Generals. With such a phalanx of Irishmen in the 
 Government it is reasonable to presume that Irish interests 
 
54 
 
 were fully represented, and yet we find that Irish affairs were 
 never so fearfully mismanaged. 
 
 And when the noble Lord to whom this pamphlet is 
 dedicated, saw, that amongst the Irish members of Par¬ 
 liament, there was not one to come forward and grapple with 
 the evil or introduce a beneficial measure, he proposed, 
 as a means to give employment to the starving millions of 
 Ireland, that a sum of sixteen millions should be lent by the 
 Government for the execution of railways in Ireland; and, 
 paradoxical as it may appear, amongst the members who voted 
 against that measure, there were found thirty-one Irish mem¬ 
 bers :—seven Repealers, twenty-one Whigs, and three Con¬ 
 servatives. 
 
 After such an insidious dereliction of duty—a base aban¬ 
 donment of the national interest, a pusillanimous defection 
 from the ranks of their country’s friends, can it be reasonably 
 supposed that such conduct would convince the community 
 that Irishmen were the most faithful guardians of* Irish rights, 
 and that Irish interests would be fostered, and prove suc¬ 
 cessful under their auspices. 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of nations as well as of indi¬ 
 viduals, which, if taken advantage of, is sure to float the ark 
 into the desired haven. Never did this tide flow so propi¬ 
 tiously as during the eventful year of 1847, when the cry was 
 raised against supporting a nation of beggars, and the connexion 
 was denounced a loss instead of a gain. The indefeasible 
 argument could have been then raised :—We have plenty of 
 resources within ourselves to supply our own wants; we ab¬ 
 jure your assistance; we scorn to be suppliants for your be¬ 
 nevolence. You have mismanaged our affairs, and if you 
 refuse to make good the defects caused by your ignorance of 
 our wants and your incompetency to legislate beneficially for 
 us and profitably for yourselves, you have one alternative— 
 cancel the bargain, abrogate the connexion, and get shut of 
 this vexatious and ruinous compact. This would have told 
 
more pointedly than the bristle of 20,000 bayonets and more 
 eloquently than iron thunder from the cannon’s mouth. 
 
 But the tide was allowed to ebb; the opportune moment 
 passed by unheeded ; the clamourers for nationality were 
 silenced by the Government patronage, and the aphorism 
 verified— 
 
 “Most men will be true ta their own private ends, 
 
 Though false to their country, religion, and friends.” 
 
 It would be almost impossible while recording the circum¬ 
 stances of those days, not to advert to that astonishing man, the 
 late Daniel O’Connell, termed “ Ireland’s Liberator,” who, 
 on one occassion, denounced the Whigs as base, bloody, and 
 brutal, but at this time eulogised them as 4 the Paternal Govern¬ 
 ment V But this is easily accounted for. In the course of a 
 few months after their accession to office, his son was pro¬ 
 moted to a situation of £1500 per annum ; his son-in-law was 
 made a police magistrate ; his physician an inspector of pri¬ 
 sons ; his nephew to a situation in the Board of Works ; and 
 many other inferior appointments not published. The repeal 
 of the Act of Union was cushioned. What was before recom¬ 
 mended to be had at any hazard, without brooking delay or 
 admitting of a compromise, was now postponed sine die , the 
 Government having connived at and supported Repeal* for 
 the purpose of embarrassing and ousting Sir Robert Peel and 
 his colleagues from office, and when the state manoeuvre 
 succeeded, prosecuted the few honest Repealers who would 
 not barter the sacred cause of liberty for place, patronage, or 
 pay ; these men attested the sincerity of their motives by risk¬ 
 ing their properties and perilling their lives by rashly having 
 recourse to the abstract right of the sword, to accomplish their 
 darling project. But while there is unspeakable cause for 
 thankfulness to a Superior Being, for averting the bloody re¬ 
 volution that was considered certain, and had actually com¬ 
 menced, the conduct of the men who connived at it, as an 
 
 * Her Majesty’s Attorney General for Ireland voted for the Repeal candi¬ 
 date at the last election for the city of Dublin. 
 
56 
 
 expedient to reinstate themselves in office, and which led to 
 the incipient rebellion, is not the less to be execrated. But 
 it did this much good at least, that it called forth a deter¬ 
 mined response from the loyal subjects of the Crown, and 
 proved that, in an emergency, they were neither few nor false, 
 even in Ireland, who were ready and willing to support their 
 sovereign and constitution, and demonstrated to the tottering 
 empires of Europe that in the British empire a revolutionary 
 movement should not be successful, having the motto Nolumus 
 leges Anglia mutari engraven on and cherished in their 
 hearts. 
 
 But, it must be admitted, that many who gloried in the 
 British constitution, and prized the privilege of being born 
 under its influence, and governed and protected by its laws— 
 the best still in the world, although often badly administered 
 —were so disgusted by the recent conduct of its legislators, 
 that they were anxious to escape from its shores, as if some 
 pestilential scourge was waiting there to prey upon them, 
 leaving their once happy homes, dear to them by many sacred 
 ties; some of them, perhaps, exclaiming as the Canadian 
 Indians did when once solicited to emigrate:—“ What,” they 
 replied, fi£ shall we say to the bones of our fathers: Arise and 
 go with us to a foreign land!” And, it is no matter of sur¬ 
 prise, that British subjects should be disgusted at these new 
 systems ; these recent innovations; the destruction of these 
 safe-guards, and the levelling of those bulwarks which has 
 secured to Great Britain her wealth and her fame, made her 
 be respected as well as feared by. the nations of the earth. 
 Others felt that they were only made the stepping stones for 
 trading politicians to walk into places of emolument, and 
 obliged to contribute a portion of their hard earnings, in many 
 instances under the threat of denunciation by ecclesiastical 
 tyranny, to pursue the splendid phantom of Bepeal, or 
 “ to hear of the something to their advantage,” at the same 
 time never imagining how often they were bought and sold. 
 The forty-shilling freeholders were the price of a seat in 
 
Parliament for Mr. O’Connell. The Repealers were next 
 brought to the hammer by that arch-crusader, when feder¬ 
 alism Avas considered a more convenient instrument to oust 
 the Conservatives and replace the Whigs ; and, of course, as 
 before, the Irish patronage was to have been the consideration. 
 But the honest advocates of federalism, the Earl of Charle- 
 mont and Sharman Crawford, declined the proffered adhesion, 
 and all that the “ speculator” gained by the ruse was, the de¬ 
 served chastisement from Charles Gavan Duffy. From that 
 day, when political delinquency the most flagrant Avas exposed, 
 and so fatal to the consistency of the “ Liberator,” until the 
 great sale of Repeal was effected, Old and Young Ireland Avere 
 
 “ Like a jarring man and wife, 
 
 Yet unwilling still to part 
 
 but, Avhen the bargain was duly perfected, then hostilities in 
 good earnest commenced, and the belligerents waged and 
 fought the memorable battle of the “forces.” But Omnipotence, 
 as if to mark His high displeasure of such traffick in human 
 minds, struck doAvn two of the high contracting parties ; and, 
 before one was cold in the tomb—interred Avith all the pagean¬ 
 try of extravagance and regalia of nonsense—the neAvs arrived 
 that the great salesman, in a foreign land, had expired in the 
 pangs of remorse. It Avas reported that he refused to take 
 the medicines prescribed during his last illness, and died of 
 congestion of the brain. Every man is more or less his own 
 physician, and understands his constitution best. This ap¬ 
 pears to have been the case in this instance. He knew full 
 Avell that no medicine could cure a disordered mind: and our 
 bones are not brass, nor our flesh iron, that Aye can bear the 
 lashes of a guilty conscience. The sacred cause of liberty will 
 ahvays call forth spirits from the vasty deep ; but it is another 
 thing to send them back again. The phantasmagora of our 
 OAvn creation maybe too strong for us ere we are aware of it: 
 and there need be no mystification about this matter, that 
 he that Avas called into political life by him Avho is noAv no 
 
 H 
 
more, even Thomas Francis Meagher, the stripling of twenty- 
 five, prostrated Daniel O’Connell, the political giant (as he 
 often called himself) of seventy-six. And what was the mis¬ 
 sile that brought this Goliah to the dust?—Political honesty. 
 His foul tongue had invaded the quiet of the domestic circle 
 as well as assailed every social body, and every constituted 
 authority, in that school for scandal, falsely called Conciliation 
 Hall. His constant boast was— 44 1 am the best abused man 
 in the world !”—being noticed too much by the news¬ 
 papers, whose stock in trade he was. But here lay his city 
 of refuge. This was his tower of defence. He considered it 
 to be the charter of his liberties to assail, malign, and calum¬ 
 niate, by the coarsest invectives and vulgar abuse. Even his 
 own followers were not exempt: for, when it would suit his 
 purpose, he would flatter their vanity with the most fulsome 
 adulation; but, if they dared to venture an opinion inimical 
 to his, he w r ould chastise them with the most unrelenting 
 severity. If the reader will only take the trouble to cast 
 a glance over the index of any periodical publication which 
 records the events of those times, he will find, in the letter 
 O, under the head O'Connell, abuse of the Wesleyan 
 Methodists; abuse of the Freemasons (by whom he was ex¬ 
 pelled in April, 1838) ; abuse of the Chartists ; abuse of the 
 English Radicals ; nay, even of the English women ; abuse of 
 the King of Hanover, of the late Duke of York, of George 
 III., of George IV., of the English aristocracy, of the Irish 
 aristocracy, of the French Government, and especially of the 
 French King; to say nothing of his onslaught upon Percival, 
 Liverpool, Wellington, and Peel, and the head of every Tory 
 ministry, upon the Established Church, on the Dublin Uni¬ 
 versity, on the Judges of the land, and, to cap the climax, 
 the Pope himself, the infallible head of his own church, whose 
 propaganda he denounced as uncanonieal, and said it should 
 not be obeyed, because he (the Pope) commanded the Catholic 
 clergy in Ireland not to interfere in political agitation. 
 
59 
 
 Numerous opinions were volunteered as to the cause of 
 the calamity of 1846 and 1847. Many thought there must 
 have been unprecedented wickedness in the land that caused 
 the out-pouring of such an unprecedented vial of wrath. 
 Some ascribed it to the additional endowment of Maynooth 
 College, which was voted in 1845, submitting the precedent 
 of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, which was succeeded by the 
 cholera in 1830; adding, that there was a striking coincidence 
 even in the dates—the college of Maynooth was re-endowed 
 in 1845, the famine in 1846 ; and the emancipation bill was 
 passed in 1829, the cholera followed in 1830 ; precisely the fol¬ 
 lowing years in both cases. Others stated that individual 
 sins cause national calamities, and that the vaunting arrogance 
 of O’Connell in marshalling his followers was analagous to the 
 haughty display of King David, when he numbered the chil¬ 
 dren of Israel, which so offended the Almighty, that he was 
 obliged to choose one of three punishments that were sub¬ 
 mitted to him, and from which he was obliged to make his 
 selection, and his wise choice was to fall into the hands of his 
 Maker rather than man. And we read—“ There died of the 
 people, from Dan even unto Beersheba, seventy thousand 
 men.”— 2 Samuel, xxiv., 15. Others thought that it was 
 a just punishment on the people for their ingratitude in con¬ 
 temning the choicest blessing that ever was conferred on this 
 or any other country—the much-maligned, but now much 
 regretted, potato. That presumptuous mortal (O’Connell) 
 had the infamous effrontery of denouncing it as food only fit 
 for swine; but he soon found how contingent his revenue 
 was on this swinish food, and when one failed, the other 
 ceased altogether. 
 
 From the following figures it will appear what an enormous 
 quantity of grain there was drawn off for brewing and distil¬ 
 lation in the year 1847, which should have been appropriated 
 
GO 
 
 for human food, more especially as there was a substitute 
 available, both abundant and cheap, which would neither have 
 affected the revenue nor interfered with the brewer and dis¬ 
 tiller, but would have been a vast saving to the consumer:— 
 With regard to barley, it appeared that during the first six 
 months of 1846, the average price of barley, per quarter, was 
 28s. It was, in 1847, 54s. per quarter, being an advance of 
 nearly 100 per cent. Let us look at the operation of this ad¬ 
 vance. According to The Economist paper of 24th Oct., 1846, 
 there are 1,248,000 quarters of barley used in distillation, and 
 7,500,000 quarters used in brewing—making, together, a 
 yearly absorption of 8,748,000 quarters; which, in round 
 numbers, might be assumed at 0,000,000 of quarters yearly. 
 Now, it is calculated that one quarter of wheat is sufficient to 
 support one person for a year, and making an allowance for 
 the difference of weight between wheat and barley, nine mil¬ 
 lions of quarters of the latter would be equivalent for the sup¬ 
 port of between six and seven millions of persons. Here, then, 
 by saving these nine millions from absoption in brewing and 
 distillation, we provide food for about one-fourth of the popu¬ 
 lation of the United Kingdom. Applying the same data, let 
 us look at the operation of the enhancement of barley in a 
 pecuniary point of view. Nine millions of quarters at 54s. 
 gives £24,350,000 as the cost of barley used, whereas the 
 same quantity at the average price before the advance of 28s. 
 would only cost £12,600,000, shewing the increase of cost in 
 material to the brewer and distiller, and ultimately to the con¬ 
 sumer, of £11,750,000, or, in round numbers, £12,000,000. 
 Next, in regard to the prices of sugar, we shall find it low 
 and tending downwards. The Economist states the stock of 
 sugar in Europe to have been 50 per cent, larger than at the 
 same period last year—the prices also varying from 10 to 30 
 per cent, below those of last year. But, besides this, the crops 
 of sugar were unusually large, both in the British colonies and 
 in foreign countries. It was calculated that the importations 
 
during the year 1847, would be 385,000 tons, from which de¬ 
 ducting 260,000 tons, as a large allowance for our own con¬ 
 sumption, in the shape of sugar, there will be left an excess 
 of supply beyond our ordinary wants of 125,000 tons—an 
 excess which, unless drawn off for brewing or distillation, 
 must unavoidably cause a still farther prostration of prices, in 
 addition to the evils to which the colonist has been already 
 subjected, who would be poorly compensated by any little advan¬ 
 tages which the consumer in this country might derive from 
 it. Such being the scarcity and the high price of barley on 
 the one hand, and the plenty and cheapness of sugar on the 
 other, let us look at their combined effects. The equivalent 
 in sugar for brewing and distillation is stated at 185lbs., and 
 the difference between malt and barley being, according to 
 7 he Economist , 20 per cent., w T e may assume the equivalent 
 of one quarter of barley to be 140lbs. weight of sugar. By 
 this rule, nine million quarters of barley are equivalent to 
 11,250,000 cwt. of sugar, which, at 21s. for foreign sugar, 
 and 28s. for colonial, shews a cost of £11,812,500 on the for¬ 
 mer, and £15,750,000 upon the latter, which costs being de¬ 
 ducted from £24,350,000, as the present cost of nine millions 
 of quarters at 54s. leave £12,337,500, as the saving on the 
 use of foreign sugar, and £8,600,000 as the saving on the use 
 of colonial sugar, from the substitution of sugar for barley. It 
 is also stated that the colonial sugar being almost wholly re¬ 
 quired for ordinary consumption, the principal consumption 
 of brewing and distilling would be of foreign sugar. These 
 data and calculations, which are principally taken from The 
 Economist papers of the 4th and 9th October, 1846, present 
 a saving not only of so large a portion of food, but also 
 comparatively cheap prices to the consumer of beer and spirits. 
 In regard to the effect of the proposed changes upon the re¬ 
 venue, in as far as distillation is concerned, the duty being 
 charged upon the manufactured spirit, it can make no dif¬ 
 ference in the revenue w hether that spirit be made from barley 
 
62 
 
 or from sugar, excepting so far as the reduced cost of spirits 
 from sugar would increase the consumption, and consequently 
 the quantity paying dut}^ 
 
 Although Lord John Russell was in possession of these 
 details, he seemed determined not to interfere, as will appear 
 from his reply to the memorial presented from Glasgow, which 
 suggested the necessity of prohibiting the use of barley for 
 distillation. 
 
 “ Downing-street, 16th October, 1846. 
 
 “ Lord John Russell is deeply sensible of the calamity which now 
 presses so heavily on the poorer classes of the United Kingdom, 
 owing to the almost failure of the potato crop, &c. I have also 
 been instructed to inform you that it is not the intention of the 
 Government to prohibit the distillation from grain. 
 
 (Signed), “ R. W. Gray.” 
 
 Another recommendation I made to the Premier was the 
 necessity of reducing, during the crisis, the duty on tea, which 
 would have afforded the poor a wholesome, nutritious, and 
 economical beverage. The duty on tea is 2s. 2|d. per lb., 
 and fully 150 per cent on the average value, and amounting 
 on some of the lower qualities to about 300 per cent. The 
 deliveries for 1848, were 31,838,000lbs. Now, if the duty 
 were reduced to Is. per lb., there would have been a saving of 
 more than one million and a half sterling to the consumer; 
 and, from the increased consumption, consequent on the cheap¬ 
 ness, the probability is that a considerable gain would revert 
 to the revenue; and the reduction of postage is a safe prece¬ 
 dent, as well as a demonstrative evidence of this ; but, look¬ 
 ing at it in the worst light, and, for argument sake, admitting 
 the certainty of a loss on the one hand, and the surplus 
 revenue that existed on the other, was it commendable or 
 humane, considering the scarcity and high price of food and 
 the thousands that were dying for the want of it, not to have 
 relaxed the duty on that article, which would have averted a 
 great deal of the mischief, as well as materially conduced to 
 the support and comfort of the people ? 
 
From the following calculations it will be seen what a 
 revenue could have been raised from the imposition of the 
 direct taxes, and the saving that could have been effected to 
 the consumer from the measures recommended in 1846:— 
 
 Funded property of Ireland and interest, £42,000,000 0 0 
 
 Expenditure of Do., . 5,000,000 0 0 
 
 Rental of Do., £13,500,000^ 
 
 Amount drawn by Absentees > 4,500,000 0 0 
 
 and other incumbrancers,... 9,000,000 ) 
 
 Profits from trade,. 1,620,680 0 0 
 
 Income from professions,. 500,000 0 0 
 
 £53,620,680 0 0 
 
 Deduct 3 per cent, for income and I 
 
 property tax, .J 
 
 Deduct 10 per cent, off Absentees’! 
 portion, ./ 
 
 £2,508,620 0 0 
 
 From the above table we make up a fund of two 
 millions and a half, allowing the difference to be struck off for 
 salaries and incomes not amounting to £150 per annum ; 
 we also save to the consumer, by the substitution of molasses 
 and sugar for grain, for brewing and distillation, £8,000,000 ; 
 we save by the reduction of the duty on tea, £500,000 ; and 
 all these put together would be more than the parliamentary 
 grants and loans which were voted from the Imperial Exche¬ 
 quer for employing the people on useless and mischievous 
 public works. 
 
 I have collected these figures from the most correct sources, 
 and the estimates must be admitted as unobjectionable in 
 their general bearings. 
 
 £1,608,620 0 0 
 900,000 0 0 
 
These are no idle theories or vague generalities, but stubborn 
 facts. If they were adopted, carried out, and applied, there 
 would have been no necessity for Government loans, or tres¬ 
 passing on the industry of others : we could have borne our 
 own burdens, and we were able to meet our own difficulties 
 out of our own resources, even though great, unparalleled, 
 and unexpected as the visitation was. Yet with such feelings of* 
 our own independence we cannot but feel grateful for the 
 charitable donations from the English people and others; they 
 were large and munificent, given in a spirit of Christian com¬ 
 miseration, and will do more to cement the union between the 
 two countries than all the parchment compacts that ever were 
 executed; and although the matter was made use of to con¬ 
 trast the generous qualities of a rich nation with the un¬ 
 grateful acknowledgments of a poor one, by newspapers, they 
 have failed to accomplish their unchristian and vicious designs. 
 The donations that have been given to an integral part of 
 the empire, which would have been and were given to a 
 foreign nation under similar circumstances, have been grate¬ 
 fully acknowledged, and will be as gratefully remembered. 
 
 The great question that presents itself is—What good will 
 emanate from these gleanings and figures—now that the crisis 
 is over you cannot cure the past ? My answer is—A periodical 
 famine is not now-a-days rara avis in terris ; and, as 
 “ knowledge is power,” it may be useful to know the measures 
 proposed and how applied, and what have been their corres¬ 
 ponding results during the late eventful and ever memorable 
 crisis; it may point out to some succeeding statesman who 
 may be placed, perhaps, in similar circumstances, with similar 
 duties and similar responsibilities, to avoid a policy that has 
 entailed so much mischief, misery, and death; it may enable 
 him not to mistake the wild clamours of interested agitators 
 for the sage advice of public opinion, or the inordinate pas¬ 
 sion of mad speculation for the steady and wholesome course 
 of legitimate trade; never to make promises but those that 
 
65 
 
 can be fulfilled to the letter—as was the case in the seed- 
 corn affair—and not to dash from the lip of hope the cup of 
 amelioration, and that he should estimate, above all things, 
 that the lives of the people are paramount to any other con¬ 
 sideration, and should be the special object of a statesman’s 
 care. It is indeed unreasonable, as well as unjust, to be con¬ 
 stantly intruding on the industry of others. We will occa¬ 
 sionally relieve our friends in distress, but we grow weary of 
 and object to the constant practice of it. It is incompatible 
 with, as well as inimical to the laws of human nature. We 
 must all earn our bread by the sweat of our brow; that is the 
 irrevocable decree, and cannot be either annulled or over-ruled. 
 
 If a commercial firm have different branches of an establish¬ 
 ment in different places, with the same advantages, and one 
 branch fails to pay its own current expenses, the maintenance 
 of its .staff, &c., it cannot be allowed to remain a drag on 
 or depending to the head establishment; its directory must 
 be changed, its system altered, and radically modified in all 
 its departments, and must contribute a living profit over and 
 above the cost of management. Should it fail, after being 
 re-organised, to add its proportion to the general prosperity, 
 it should be finally abandoned. If it prospers under the new 
 system, it is evident that either incapacity or neglect on the 
 part of the managers retarded its prosperity. This is exactly 
 the case of Ireland ; its natural advantages are equal, if not 
 superior, to the other branches of the imperial establishment. 
 And I assert, and I hope have proved, that it has been fear¬ 
 fully mismanaged and grievously neglected, and never so 
 lamentably as during the late crisis. It is evident a 
 new directory must be appointed, a radical change effected, 
 both at the parent as well as in the branch establishment, 
 particularly in the departments of the agriculture and commerce 
 of the latter. It wants labour, machinery, and capital. These 
 are the chief elements required to make a nation prosperous, 
 happy, and great. And, of all the three, labour is by far the 
 
 i 
 
66 
 
 most important desideratum. Labour can make machinery 
 and capital, but neither machinery nor capital can produce 
 labour. If there are, as has been computed, nearly four mil¬ 
 lion acres of reelaimable waste land in Ireland, and were these 
 wastes reclaimed what a considerable addition to the wealth of the 
 country would they be; and, of course, the principal agent in 
 accomplishing this would be labour. If arterial drainage, the 
 building of piers, and the deep sea fisheries, are undeveloped 
 sources of national wealth—safe and profitable investments and 
 wide fields for speculation and enterprise—is not labour the ne¬ 
 cessary and principal agent ? If our latent mines lie buried 
 in the bowels of the earth, is not labour the principal agent 
 required to explore and work them? And, as a matter 
 of course, railways will be required to carry their pro¬ 
 duce ; and the most essential agent for the execution of 
 railways is labour. But, unfortunately, the feeling has 
 taken hold of the minds of the strong and able-bodied, the 
 bone and sinew of the country, that there is a field more 
 remunerating for their labour than that of their native land. 
 And the thousands that are emigrating is a melancholy proof 
 of this, taking all the wealth they can with them, and leaving 
 the aged and infirm as a first charge on the land. But when 
 these three constituents, labour, capital, and machinery, ac¬ 
 companied by education, and repose from agitation, are skil¬ 
 fully amalgamated, Ireland will pay her way, aye, and contribute 
 a respectable quota to the imperial wealth, and there will be 
 a perfect bond of union established ; then, and not until then, 
 will the respective branches of the empire harmonize sweetly 
 together. 
 
 Repeal will not be preached either as a bugbear or recom¬ 
 mended as a panacea. We shall then look back, not for the 
 restoration of the Brehon law and the old system of Irish 
 chieftainries, but with pleasure we shall reflect that the char¬ 
 ter of our liberties, and the right to and the benefits we derive 
 from our constitution, arise from our connexion with England. 
 We will adopt the language which Grattan expressed in 
 
67 
 
 the Irish House of Commons, on the 16th April, 1782:— 
 “ The people of this kingdom have never expressed a desire 
 to share the freedom of England without declaring a deter¬ 
 mination to share her fate likewise—standing or falling with 
 the British constitution/’ Away then with the demon that 
 would still wander among the tombs to hold communion with 
 the evil things of by-gone days, and, by an infernal necro¬ 
 mancy, call from the grave the hideous spectres of forgotten 
 feuds, and make Ireland again the battle-ground for political 
 and party strifes, and convulse the present day with the guilt 
 and the passions of the past. 
 
 I cannot more appropriately conclude this essay than by the 
 introduction of the following well known and much admired 
 remarks of the gifted Curran :— 
 
 “ I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes 
 liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil; 
 which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner, the mo¬ 
 ment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on 
 which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of 
 universal emancipation. No matter in what language 
 his doom may have been pronounced—no matter what com¬ 
 plexion incompatible with freedom' an Indian or an African 
 sun may have burnt upon him—no matter in what disastrous 
 battle his liberty may have been cloven down—no matter with 
 what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar 
 of slavery—the first moment he touches the sacred soil of 
 Britain, the altar and the God sink together in the dust— 
 his soul walks abroad in her own majesty—his body swells 
 beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around 
 him—and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled 
 by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PATTtSON JOIXY, PRINTER, 12 , ANGXESKA-STREET, DUBLIN.