THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the collection of 
 James Collins, 
 Drumcondra, Ireland. 
 Purchased, 1918. 
 
 25Q94IS 
 117 3m 
 

 
 
A MEMOIR OF IRELAND, 
 

 A 
 
 MEMOIR OF IRELAND 
 
 IN 1850. 
 
 BY AN EX-M.P. 
 
 Vo a. wv be vt j VVt wr^ 
 
 “ Sciagurata condizione di questa mia patria ! Se patria si puo chiamare una terra cosi 
 avvilita dalla fortuna, dagli uomini, da se meddsima.” 
 
 DUBLIN 
 
 JAMES M C GLASHAN, 50 UPPER SACKVILLE-ST. 
 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY, LONDON. 
 
 1851. 
 
Dublin : Printed by Edward Bull, 6, Bachelor’s- walk . 
 
I? Trw 2.5 batsHayv 
 
 »5 
 
 V i \'t'3Tru 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND 
 
 IN 1850. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF IRELAND. 
 
 The degraded and forlorn condition of Ireland has long 
 been tKe subject of cheerless and unprofitable investiga- 
 tion. The remedial measures proposed from time to 
 time have been abandoned as impracticable ; or, when 
 carried into execution, have proved either utterly in- 
 efficient, or, not unfrequently, have aggravated the evils 
 they were intended to palliate. This unfavourable result 
 has arisen from the want of accurate knowledge of the 
 case, from infirmity of purpose, or from the idea so pre- 
 valent among men of narrow intellect, that it is easier to 
 rule by artifice, by corruption, and. by internal discord, 
 than by the higher policy of a wise, humane, and equi- 
 table government. These causes, some of long standing, 
 and all of most injurious effect, have produced a state of 
 society altogether unparalleled and hard to be understood. 
 From the first invasion of Ireland, the dominion of Eng- 
 land has been exercised in abuse and maintained by 
 violence ; the constitutional authority of the laws has 
 
 B 
 
 404165 
 
2 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 never been firmly established, and for a lengthened 
 period, the body of the people groaned beneath the jealous 
 tyranny of a triumphant faction. The power of oppress- 
 ing has passed from the hands of the few, and, as it often 
 happens, has been replaced by the licentiousness of the 
 many. The country was not thoroughly conquered, 
 hence there was no blending of races, no community of 
 interest, but an interminable warfare waged in a spirit of 
 the most vindictive and atrocious retaliation. Unskilled 
 in the art of war, and ever at variance with each other, 
 the natives might have been completely subdue^ or ex- 
 tirpated ; but the descendants of the original settlers, 
 “ Hibernis Hiberniores took up and maintained the 
 conflict with even more determined hostility to the parent 
 country. 
 
 To these elements of contention was added, in the 
 course of a few centuries, the deadlier ingredient of 
 religious hatred, which quickly absorbed the others, and 
 has ever since continued to exercise its pernicious and 
 desolating influence over all the relations of social ex- 
 istence. 
 
 There are many difficulties to be encountered in the 
 ungrateful task of describing the actual state of Ireland, 
 the chief of which arises from the almost impenetrable 
 cloud of falsehood and misrepresentation that is spread 
 over everything Irish. The whole frame of society is 
 one vast fiction of no very reputable kind. From motives 
 of self-interest, from party feeling, from egregious national 
 vanity, or from a thirst for popularity to be gained on one 
 side of the channel only by exaggerated and preposterous 
 praise, and on the other by wholesale calumnies of the 
 foulest and most malignant nature, the real position of 
 Ireland is far less known than that of any other nation 
 
NO GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND FOR ANY USEFUL PURPOSE. 3 
 
 of Europe. Then, the strange discrepancies of disposi- 
 tion and habits, the deep-rooted prejudices, the cherished 
 animosities of sect and race, make it nearly impossible to 
 define the national character, or to apply successfully a 
 system of general legislation. There are, no doubt, 
 some features which may be treated as national : some 
 master evils must be met and eradicated before a reason- 
 able hope of improvement can be indulged. This great 
 object can be accomplished only by an Executive at once 
 irresistibly powerful and unquestionably honest. For a 
 series of years Ireland has had no government for any 
 useful or salutary purpose. It has had government for 
 official details, for paltry backstairs intrigue, for balancing 
 factions, for theoretical experiment, and, above all, for 
 the judicious management of patronage; but the greater 
 and more important functions of government were no- 
 where exercised for the regeneration of an impoverished 
 and distracted people. 
 
 In Ireland no man would venture to state all that he 
 knows to be true ; if he did, he would be met at once by 
 a storm of denial and invective which would render his 
 assertions nugatory, and his position neither safe nor 
 agreeable. No public man can obtain influence, nor will 
 he be even tolerated — he is a “bad Irishman” unless he 
 begin by heaping incense on the shrine of national self- 
 esteem. 
 
 There are matters, also, of paramount interest and of 
 imperative necessity, that should be dealt with, not dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 One of the most momentous phases of national character 
 has been little observed ; the morbid and restless spirit 
 of democracy tinged to a considerable extent, as it ever 
 must be, with the principles of what is termed commun- 
 
4 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ism, appears to have taken a strong hold of the popular 
 affections. Already may be distinctly perceived those 
 tumultuous and revolutionary heavings that precede the 
 birth and the development of democratic society. Ima- 
 gination cannot figure a position of greater unhappiness 
 and disquiet than that of a nation at strife with existing 
 monarchical and aristocratic institutions. The sore and 
 rankling passion of equality allows of no repose, and ex- 
 cludes every other thought in its desperate pursuit of an 
 unattainable object. The great Author of our existence 
 has decreed that there shall be rank and order among his 
 creatures ; superior talent, greater industry, more suc- 
 cessful enterprise, all tend to produce a difference of 
 station which no human efforts can destroy. But, although 
 superiority of mind cannot be annihilated, it can be reviled, 
 insulted, and excluded from political power. A man of 
 genius and independent spirit will never stoop to the 
 abject prostration that the multitude exacts. How little 
 talent of a high order is to be found in the House of 
 Representatives of the United States. How small an 
 amount of distinguished ability, information, or eloquence, 
 has been contributed by democratic Ireland to the Im- 
 perial Senate ! 
 
 In the great Western Republic men of higher mind 
 shrink from the public view : they are content to be tole- 
 rated in their obscurity, surrounded and oppressed by a 
 despotism that will acknowledge no superiority and tole- 
 rate no difference of opinion.* Many circumstances have 
 
 * “ En Amerique, la majorite trace un circle formidable autour de la 
 pensee. Au dedans de ces limites lecrivain est libre, mais malheur a lui 
 s’il ose en sortir. Yous resterez parmi les hommes, mais vous perderez 
 vos droits a l’humanite. Quand vous vous approcherez de vos semblables, 
 ils vous fuiront comme un ctre impur ; et ceux qui croient a votre inno- 
 
TREATMENT OF IRELAND BY HER POWERFUL NEIGHBOUR. 5 
 
 combined to produce this £tate of feeling, and to foster it 
 in Ireland. The merciless oppression of former ages 
 has been succeeded by the saturnalia of our times. From 
 a horde of crouching slaves, we have become a nation of 
 rampant grievance-mongers ; with this peculiarity, that, 
 overlooking the evils that weigh heavily on the State , we 
 clamour for impossibilities, and vehemently denounce 
 those imperfections which, for the most part, are merely 
 the concomitants of all human institutions. 
 
 When we consider the treatment that Ireland has all 
 along experienced from its powerful neighbour, who 
 trampled it under foot, and then, with an inhuman and 
 fiend-like policy, flung freedom to the Irish whom they 
 had rendered unfit for the rational enjoyment of it, letting 
 loose at each other the persecutors and their victims, 
 when it w T as no longer feasible to oppress both, can it be 
 a matter of astonishment that a strong latent feeling of 
 aversion and mistrust towards England and her dominion 
 should be the mainspring of every popular movement in 
 Ireland ? Can we wonder that the most beloved and 
 trusted leader was he, whose knowledge of the forms of 
 law enabled him to guide his followers within a hair’s- 
 breadth of indictable aggression on the power they loathe 
 and the laws they repudiate ? Little has been done to 
 allay this long-treasured sense of injury ; for little, indeed, 
 has been done in the way of alleviation or redress for 
 that unhappy country. The delusion of moral force* has 
 
 cence, ceux la memes vous abandonneront, car ou les fuirait a leur tour. 
 Allez en prix, je vous laisse la vie, mais je vous la laisse pire que la 
 mort .” — De Tocqueville sur la Democratie. 
 
 This is liberty, democratic liberty ! 
 
 * “ How to resist force without striking again, or how to strike with 
 reverence, will need some skill to make intelligible. He that can recon- 
 
6 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 had its day, and the practice of constitutional resistance 
 has yet to be learned. Political agitation in Ireland is 
 the surging of a perturbed spirit under the fetters of the 
 law, which incommode, but cannot control, its convulsive 
 action. 
 
 Were Ireland two thousand miles out in the Atlantic, 
 a separation from Great Britain would have long since 
 taken place without any extraordinary effort.* Nothing, 
 however, can be more mischievously absurd than the per- 
 petual aspiration after an end that is politically and 
 geographically impossible. If the public mind must be 
 kept in a state of ceaseless ferment, if agitation is to con- 
 stitute the “ whole duty of man” in Ireland, at least let 
 it be directed to some useful purpose, some rational and 
 attainable object. 
 
 In investigating the moral, social, and political condi- 
 tion of Ireland, it is essential to keep constantly in view 
 the treatment it has experienced from its rulers. It 
 would otherwise be extremely difficult to comprehend 
 how such an anomalous combination of conflicting evils 
 could have been effected. They who seek to win public 
 favour by sacrificing truth to national vanity, must be 
 prepared to hold that either political institutions and the 
 use made of power exert no influence over the human 
 mind ; or, that in the case of Ireland, by a stupendous 
 moral miracle, the worst of government has produced the 
 
 cile blows and reverence may, for aught I know, desire for his pains a 
 civil, respectful cudgeling wherever he can meet with it .” — Locke on Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 * “ On a beaucoup exagere d’ailleurs les efforts que firent les Americains 
 pour se soustraire au joug des Anglois. Separes par 1300 lieues de mer de 
 leurs enemis, secourus par un puissant allie, les Estats Unis durent lavictoire 
 a leur position bien plus encore qu’a la valeur de leurs armees, ou au pa- 
 triotisme dc leurs citoyens .” — De Tocqueville. 
 
THE REGENERATION OF IRELAND. 
 
 7 
 
 best of people, even “ the finest peasantry on the face of 
 the earth.” It is, indeed, time that this vile and trea- 
 cherous adulation should cease, or at least that it should 
 no longer be a passport to the confidence and the affec- 
 tions of a credulous, warm-hearted, and deeply-injured 
 race. There can be no hope of extensive and permanent 
 reform for Irishmen until they dare to look truth in the 
 face, until habits of punctuality and order be created, and 
 a just horror of crime and outrage be established. This 
 is not to be done by mob harangues, or by the workings 
 of clubs, by dextrous skirmishing with the laws ; and least 
 of all, by a shuffling, imbecile, pusillanimous administra- 
 tion, coquetting alternately with rival factions for their 
 reluctant and precarious support. 
 
 The regeneration of Ireland is not to be achieved by 
 small or dubious means, by diplomatic stratagems, or by 
 the futile dogmas of political economy. Procrastination 
 and evasion constitute the ground-work of modern Eng- 
 lish tactics for Ireland ; recourse was had to periodical 
 coercion to compel a suspension of crime when it had 
 become daring and intolerable, but it was ever unaccom- 
 panied by healing or preventive measures ; it was more 
 like vengeance than justice, and its effects ceased altoge- 
 ther with its immediate action. Concession, too, has 
 been tried with indifferent success. I do not mean the 
 great act of Roman Catholic Emancipation, but the 
 smaller game of spurious liberalism, catching at a despica- 
 ble popularity, by flattering the prejudices and the passions 
 of the ignorant and the worthless ; wasting, in the pursuit 
 of cherished illusions, those moral and physical resources 
 that, benevolently controlled and wisely directed, might 
 have raised our poor countrymen to a state of happiness 
 and independence. Had it been the deliberate intention 
 
8 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 of our rulers to further the spread of democratic princi- 
 ples and to hasten the outbreak of revolution, they could 
 not have employed more effectual means than those they 
 have from time to time adopted. The unpaid magistrates 
 were insulted and persecuted to such an extent as to 
 make them timid in the performance of their duties. If 
 some justices of the peace had abused their power, the 
 parties should have been dismissed or punished, and the 
 office itself freed from imputation. Instead of this, the 
 entire body was consigned to public scorn, and a number 
 of stipendiary magistrates were appointed, which, accord- 
 ing to one of the ablest political writers of the day, is in 
 itself a democratic revolution. 
 
 Still, following out the democratic principle in one of 
 its most mischievous developments, which renders a 
 Government at once shabby and expensive, admidst an 
 outcry for retrenchment, a host of minor paid situations 
 were created, and are continually augmented, the conse- 
 quence of which is, that disdaining the toilsome pursuits 
 of honest industry, two-thirds of the Irish people are 
 engaged in a hot pursuit of places of one kind or another 
 in the gift of Government. — The national taste for 
 “ monster meetings” was abundantly gratified, and ample 
 opportunities were afforded for the patriotic recreations 
 of law-making, denouncing, and domineering. It was a 
 perpetual ostracism. — In the same spirit the Grand Jury 
 Laws were altered ; the idlest and most ignorant portion 
 of the inhabitants of assize-towns were invited to assist 
 at the deliberations of the Grand Jury, to facilitate the 
 dispatch of business, and to overawe, by the actual pre- 
 sence of so much enlightened integrity and virtue, the 
 corrupt and fraudulent practices of the country gentle- 
 men. If such were really the opinion formed of an Irish 
 
THE MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 
 
 9 
 
 Grand Jury, would it not have been a safer and more 
 effective plan to have at once transferred the execution 
 of all public works to the officers of Government? Yet, 
 notwithstanding the barony rehearsals, and the preventive 
 check of the Grand Jury bear-garden, I assert positively 
 that there have been grosser jobs and far more flagrant 
 peculation perpetrated in one year of the reformed fiscal, 
 than in twenty under the exploded system, with all its 
 laxity and imperfections, which, certainly, I do not pre- 
 tend either to vindicate or deny. 
 
 Thus matters went on — a strange medley of the tragic 
 and the ridiculous ; the rulers trying to cajole the people, 
 and the people trying to bully their rulers, and to wrest 
 from them, by fraud or by force, whatever they deemed 
 essential to their somewhat indefinite ideas of freedom 
 and independence. The delirium of national rights was 
 succeeded by the Rebellion of 1798. The Legislative 
 Union followed closely after, and ever since, the manage- 
 ment of Ireland has been but a series of small manoeuvres, 
 a stop-gap administration, a sort of political patch-work, 
 all tending to debase and injure the national character 
 and condition. One only governor of transcendent 
 mind was granted to the Irish, the Marquess Wellesley ; 
 but his large and enlightened policy was thwarted by the 
 jealousy and the division of his English associates, and 
 the untameable ferocity of Irish faction. This truly 
 great man — distinguished even amidst the extraordinary 
 talent of his celebrated family — was recalled on a change 
 of ministry ; and, not long after, having been shamefully 
 betrayed and sacrificed by his party^ withdrew into pri- 
 vate life, to the enjoyment of those literary pursuits in 
 
 * It was stated in the newspapers, at the time of Lord Wellesley’s death, 
 that his Lordship had desired that his papers, giving a full account of this 
 
10 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 which this accomplished statesman took delight, to the 
 latest moment of his useful and honourable career. 
 
 The courteous and hand-kissing administration of the 
 bland and polished Normanby opened the gaols for 
 felons and the Castle to the canaille. Popular he was 
 beyond all precedent ; but what did his popularity effect 
 for Ireland ? Was the general condition of the country 
 improved — were its resources brought into profitable ac- 
 tivity — was the tone of its morality raised — were the peo- 
 ple made happier or better by the fascination of his 
 graceful and untiring affability ? Alas ! no. — There is 
 not a page of authentic Irish history that can be read by 
 an Irishman without strong feelings of shame and indig- 
 nation ; though an occasional ray of genius, eloquence, 
 and patriotism may flash through the gloom, it serves 
 only to make the darkness more hideous and oppressive. 
 Next came the blank of my Lord Fortescue’s obscure 
 administration, which requires no further comment. 
 
 When, in 1841, Sir Robert Peel was placed at the 
 head of affairs, he declared that Ireland was the diffi- 
 culty — he made it the opprobrium — of his administration. 
 The sum of his Irish policy may be described in a few 
 words. He sent over an honest and amiable, but most 
 inefficient Chief Governor, and for Lord Chancellor, an 
 able lawyer, but most ignorant statesman. His Chief 
 Secretary was a well-disposed and upright nobleman, 
 with good intentions and fluctuating opinions ; and as a 
 propitiatory offering to the nation at large, he chose for 
 Under Secretary an Irish gentleman of strong party 
 feelings and very moderate abilities. For the rest, Sir 
 
 transaction, should be given to the public. Has this been done ? Or has the 
 injunction of the illustrious dead been set aside in compliment to the worthless 
 survivors ? 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BESBOROUGII. 
 
 11 
 
 R. Peel copied with tolerable accuracy the hacknied and 
 pitiful plan of his predecessors, and after five years of 
 rather disreputable contention with the great Agitator 
 of the day, he gave up Ireland as he had received it, the 
 scandal of nations, the crime and the scourge of England. 
 
 Of the worthy Earl of Besborough little need be re- 
 corded. The principal events of his brief rule were, an 
 attempt to expound the provisions of the useless labour 
 scheme, in which the interpreter was the more unintelli- 
 gible of the two, and the solemn tasting, with vast ap- 
 plause on the part of the spectators, a certain nutritive 
 porridge, especially devised by the renowned M. Soyer 
 for the removal of Irish starvation. Will it be credited 
 hereafter, that at a moment of such awful distress, when 
 famine pressed sorely on the land, the Prime Minister of 
 England, the admired descendant of the demigod of 
 Whig mythology, could propose no more efficient mea- 
 sures of relief for a sinking nation than a blundering Act 
 of Parliament and the adventitious services of a French 
 restaurateur ! 
 
 The Lord Lieutenant died in the viceroyalty, and 
 with his funeral ended every trace and recollection of 
 his political performances. A well-meaning, honourable 
 gentleman Lord Besborough unquestionably was, and 
 useful also in his way. As president of a farming society 
 or teller of a division, his merits were undeniable $ but 
 qualities of a far different order are required to rule the 
 troubled waves of Irish wrongs and Irish dissensions. 
 
 At length, with a flourish of trumpets, came the “ able 
 and energetic” Earl of Clarendon, since Knight of the 
 Garter. His Excellency was received with the accla- 
 mations due to the fame of his diplomatic exploits in 
 Spain, and his approved devotion to the sublime myste- 
 
12 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ries of free trade. The new Lord Lieutenant was not 
 altogether a stranger to the country over which he came 
 to preside. We learn from the “Recollections of Lord 
 Cloncurry,” that, as Mr. Villiers, he had taken, in con- 
 junction with some other “ energetic” persons, an active 
 and influential, though by no means an ostentatious, part 
 in the direction of Irish affairs. 
 
 Months passed away ; the sufferings of the people 
 were not relieved, while rebellion stood forward un- 
 abashed and unchecked. Every week fresh instructions 
 were extensively circulated, pointing out the most effec- 
 tive mode of attack on disciplined forces ; suggesting the 
 conversion of soda-water bottles into hand-grenades, the 
 construction of barricades in towns, according to the 
 latest Parisian practice, and the most expeditious manner 
 of dispatching her Majesty’s troops travelling by rail- 
 roads. Nothing was omitted that considerable talent and 
 indefatigable zeal could supply for public information in 
 this department. During this eventful period, the opera- 
 tions of the accomplished Viceroy were apparently con- 
 fined to a benevolent admonition addressed to certain 
 homicides in the county of Tipperary, and a sort of po- 
 lemical skirmish with Roman Catholic prelates, in which 
 it was said that his Excellency was not particularly for- 
 tunate. 
 
 As far as circumstances had permitted, the ministerial 
 measure of relief in 1846-7 was well calculated to pro- 
 duce an outbreak similar to that which has since deso- 
 lated and degraded Paris. The millions dissipated in 
 the demoralising mockery of useless works, were all so 
 much devoted to foment the worst and most dangerous 
 propensities of the multitude ; if insurrection were delay- 
 ed, it was solely by the want of sufficient materials and 
 
PANIC AND DISMAY — 1848 — THE DREARY BALL. 
 
 13 
 
 training. Both were in course of being provided, when 
 a preliminary affair of words commenced between the 
 bold abettors of treason and the skilful diplomatist of the 
 Castle. After years of advantageous compromise with 
 well-disciplined sedition , at the eleventh hour it was, that 
 ministers resolved to bear down on the honest, undis- 
 guised, and therefore no longer serviceable treason. 
 While opponents were to be annoyed, or parliamentary 
 support procured, the choicest gifts of Crown patronage 
 were showered on those who kept up a perpetual turmoil 
 of political excitement, and boasted of “driving coaches- 
 and-six through Acts of Parliament !” Such was, such 
 is, and ever will be, the policy of our present rulers to- 
 wards ill-fated Ireland. 
 
 Suddenly there arose a cry of panic and dismay. 
 Loyal addresses were anxiously required, the Roman 
 Catholic cjergy were consulted, the Orangemen of the 
 North were soothed and commended ; in the confusion 
 of the moment, a sum of six hundred pounds was ad- 
 vanced to purchase arms for them by some generous 
 individuals unknown. Stringent coercion bills were 
 hurried through Parliament, troops poured in from Eng- 
 land, and forces of every description were harassed in 
 the constant pursuit of an enemy supposed to be every- 
 where, yet nowhere to be found. A dreary ball was 
 held at the Castle on St. Patrick’s night, where the 
 shivering guests, expecting every instant to be blown up, 
 thought more of gunpowder and pikes than gallopades 
 and polkas. It is supposed that, with the exception of 
 Holbein’s famous “Dance of Death, ” there never was 
 witnessed a scene of more ghastly merriment. Trade 
 and commerce were entirely interrupted, and every one 
 shuddered as he contemplated the approaching catastro- 
 
14 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 phe. — The insurrectionary campaign began and ended 
 in the cabbage-garden at Ballingarry ; with little credit, 
 it is true, for discretion or ability, to the insurgent lead- 
 ers, and, if possible, with less for foresight or statesman- 
 like talents, to the victorious Executive. But, it did not 
 consist with the reputation or the projects of Government 
 to allow this deplorable piece of absurdity to pass into 
 immediate oblivion. The unseemly trepidation at the 
 Castle was to be vindicated by the magnitude of the 
 peril from which the State had just been rescued. The 
 authors of this abortive outbreak were taken, tried for 
 high treason, and convicted. But, the extreme penalty 
 of the law which, under the circumstances, it would have 
 been monstrous to inflict, was, after considerable delay, 
 and a special Act of Parliament obtained for the purpose, 
 commuted into exile for life. Perhaps, had these rash 
 and thoughtless men been indicted for a riot only, and 
 when convicted, sentenced accordingly, all the ends of 
 justice might have been attained, and the dignity of 
 offended authority sufficiently asserted. If modern states- 
 men could condescend to profit by experience, ample 
 proof was given of the extreme impolicy of allowing 
 principles to be disseminated and associations to be 
 formed tending to disturb the public tranquillity, and to 
 overturn existing institutions. The sad affair of 1848, 
 permitted, as it were, to grow up under the unaccount- 
 able supineness of Government, might have been at- 
 tended by formidable consequences, had it not been for 
 the want of experienced leaders, for the secession of 
 the Roman Catholic clergy, and, still more, from the de- 
 spondency and inanition caused by two wasting years of 
 famine and disease. The flame of rebellion was thus extin- 
 guished, but the deep, inherent hatred of England, its 
 
RAPIDLY INCREASING PAUPERISM. 
 
 15 
 
 laws, religion and authority, smoulders beneath the deceit- 
 ful ashes. It may be asked, why recall those unhappy 
 recollections ? Simply because we have no other theme 
 of equal interest ; because there is not the faintest pros- 
 pect of better treatment. The same evils exist, the same 
 palliatives and stimulants are applied — the one inert, the 
 other actively mischievous. It is the duty of all who are 
 bound to Ireland by ties that they cannot, perhaps would 
 not, sever, to assist in tearing aside the veil that folly and 
 fatuity have thrown over its forlorn condition. 
 
 There is no record among civilized nations of such a 
 spectacle as Ireland now T presents. A people crumbling 
 away, resources wasted, or neglected, a large and impor- 
 tant class hunted to destruction by the servants of the 
 Crown ; pauperism and demoralization rapidly increas- 
 ing, dissension of every kind raging in the midst of 
 famine, sickness, desolation, and despair ! Yet, there is 
 nothing in all this that could not be readily accounted 
 for, nothing whatever that would not admit of a remedy, 
 if men could be found with courage to apply it ; notwith- 
 standing that it is the favourite cant of our incapables, 
 that “ legislation can do nothing ” for those whom legis- 
 lation has ruined ! Such are the results of a prolonged 
 series of wilful misrule, which seems likely to attain its 
 climax under the present possessors of office, who, hav- 
 ing confined their remedial measures for Ireland, during 
 the late session, to an additional incitement to discord by 
 granting a low and compulsory franchise, are too well 
 pleased to find themselves still in power, after the perilous 
 escapes of the session, to consider to what extent they 
 may become responsible before the meeting of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 The Repeal speculation appears to have worn itself 
 
16 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 out. It is questionable that it ever amounted to a real- 
 ity in the minds of its enlightened supporters. Repeal 
 never rested on its own merits, but on the demerits of 
 government. In its utmost honesty, it was but the 
 dream of indignant, or disordered spirits. Were that 
 object attainable by “ peaceful agitation,” it would in- 
 evitably have led, at no distant period, to a hostile col- 
 lision with England. A House of Commons elected on 
 Repeal principles, and sitting in College-green, would, in 
 the actual temper of the times, make short work with 
 the aristocratic portion of the constitution and commer- 
 cial intercourse with England. Popular edicts would be 
 resisted by the peers, and their extinction as a branch of 
 the Legislature would follow as a matter of course. The 
 “golden link of the Crown” would quickly be reduced 
 to the utmost degree of attenuation, and England would 
 have to battle for her existence, as a first-rate power, 
 with an enemy too formidable and too near home, to be 
 tolerated as an independent state. From national pride, 
 from a just sense of imminent danger, perhaps even from 
 that rooted vice in human nature, the disposition to hate 
 those whom we are conscious of having injured, all 
 classes of Englishmen would cordially join to reconquer 
 Ireland: and, though a destructive guerilla war might 
 for a space be maintained, the well-disciplined troops of 
 Great Britain, the most effective artillery in the world, 
 a numerous and powerful navy, which steam has rendered 
 almost independent of wind or tide, remove all doubt as to 
 the final issue of the struggle. Repeal, however, has passed 
 away; it was identified with its prophet, and it fell with 
 the autocrat of Conciliation Hall. The wild enthusiasm 
 of his partisans and the vehement indignation of his op- 
 ponents must have time to soften down into feelings ap- 
 
LAW AND PERSECUTION IDENTICAL. 17 
 
 proaching to impartiality, before a correct estimate can 
 be formed of the character of that extraordinary man. 
 It will be for the future historian to decide whether the 
 warm, unbounded confidence of his countrymen was 
 judiciously bestowed, and whether they derived propor- 
 tionate benefits from their utter devotion to his cause, 
 and from the vast sums which they annually poured into 
 his mysterious exchequer, not out of their abundance, 
 but of their want. 
 
 The chaos of Irish calamities would be a subject as 
 wearisome as it appears to be hopeless, were it not, that 
 amidst the numerous ills that gather around Great Bri- 
 tain, the imminently hazardous position of so large a por* 
 tion of its empire excites a painful superiority of inte- 
 rest. Each successive step taken by a perplexed and 
 vacillating government has only aggravated the desti- 
 tution, as it exhausted the remaining means of the country. 
 Ministers avow, that they have no remedial measures to 
 offer, nor any expectation for Ireland, but that want may 
 work itself out, and universal ruin announce the consum- 
 mation of that repose on which a new fabric of social 
 institutions may be erected. In Ireland, law and perse- 
 cution are identical in the estimation of the people, and 
 justice suffers. The most atrocious criminal is consi- 
 dered as a victim struggling to escape from the satellites 
 of power, and whom public sympathy absolves and en- 
 deavours to shelter. It is not by playing off parties 
 against each other, by alternate fits of culpable indul- 
 gence and excessive severity, that a salutary sense of the 
 benefits of law and order can be implanted in the minds 
 of the majority, and that they can be brought to look on 
 a malefactor as an offender against society, and an enemy 
 of the human race. 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 The due administration of the law is inaccessible to 
 every shade of party feeling ; it affords no triumph ; it 
 gratifies no revenge ; it decides and acts on the mere 
 merits of the case, without regard to the rank or condi- 
 tion of the conflicting parties. It gives to the entire com- 
 munity, “ not mad equality, but equal rights.” Unfor- 
 tunately, there is little in the daily proceedings of justice 
 to convince the people of Ireland that the law is the 
 common protector of all classes. The criminal courts 
 are tiltyards of chicanery, where perjury, intimidation, 
 and the ingenious distortion of law decide for victory 
 or defeat. Hence, the frequent and revolting impunity 
 of crime ; an assassin excites no feeling of abhorrence ; 
 he is known and protected.^ Instances without number 
 might be produced, where crowds looked on with indif- 
 ference at the noon-day slaughter of their fellow-creature, 
 rhetorically described as “the wild justice of revenge. ”f 
 In England, lawful authority is generally revered, and 
 cheerfully obeyed, for it is known and felt to be the 
 safeguard of every man’s property and rights. In Ire- 
 
 * Murder of Mr. Pike, 1850. — “ This fearful transaction occurred in 
 the broad daylight, upon an open public road, where travellers and vehicles 
 daily pass ; in no glen, no lane, no mountain fastness, no ravine, no jungle, 
 but on the common thoroughfare, with the full sunshine of heaven beaming 
 upon it ; numbers of the peasantry going to market, several inhabited houses 
 within a short distance of the spot, and nearly fifty people working in the 
 bog ; men they cannot be called, for they saw Mr. Pike murdered, they 
 beheld the assassins walk deliberately across the bog after they had committed 
 the diabolical crime, and not one person followed to arrest them, not one 
 came forward to give evidence before the coroner .” — Newspaper of the 
 day. 
 
 f A widow reduced to beggary by the brutal murder of her husband, has 
 been known to hurry the interment of his body in order to prevent, if possi- 
 ble, the holding of an inquest, which might have led to the apprehension of 
 the murderer. I was a witness of the fact. 
 
TEMPERANCE REVOLUTION. 
 
 19 
 
 land it is despised and detested, evaded, or violated 
 with perfect impunity. It was observed by an Irish 
 nobleman, of high character and distinguished ability, in 
 a report to the late Marquess Wellesley, that “ combina- 
 tion surpasses the law in vigour, promptitude, and effi- 
 cacy, and it is safer to violate the law than to obey it.” 
 I am well aware that this, among the rest, is denied in 
 the face of glaring facts, and, like the rest, it is denied 
 for a purpose, not of improvement, certainly ; while they, 
 whose honest attachment to the blighted land of their 
 birth has survived all the vicissitudes of her suffering 
 and degradation, are compelled to acknowledge, with 
 sorrow and shame, the truth of the impeachment. 
 
 The moral revolution of temperance effected by the 
 preaching of the Rev. Mr. Mathew, exhibited, in a re- 
 markable manner, some of the good and of the less 
 favourable qualities of the Irish character. It was easy 
 to foresee, that a pledge given, for the most part, without 
 inquiry or reflection, and in many instances without any 
 necessity whatever, but merely from a gregarious im- 
 pulse, would not be strictly observed, when the exalta- 
 tion of the moment had subsided. Thus it has fallen 
 out ; the reaction has set in extensively, and it has led, 
 in numerous instances, to excess to which the renegade 
 votaries of sobriety had not been originally addicted. 
 Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that thousands of con- 
 firmed drunkards were rescued from their vicious and 
 destructive habits, and permanently restored to their 
 families, and to society, by the benevolent enthusiasm of 
 Mr. Mathew. Had the experiment been conducted on 
 more moderate principles, it might have been more con- 
 sonant to religion and to reason ; but it would not have 
 
20 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 been by any means so popular, or so effective in its 
 operation. It would, however, be unfair to withhold the 
 tribute of our respect from those persevering spirits that, 
 aided by a sense of religious obligation, shrank from a 
 return to the degrading yoke they had thrown off in the 
 hour of irresistible excitement. 
 
 It is in the nature and, perhaps, it may be to the dis- 
 advantage of the Irish people, that they hold in supreme 
 contempt the petty contrivances of plodding mediocrity. 
 A project may be ridiculous, unjust, or impracticable; but 
 if it is extreme, it is sure to become popular. This dis- 
 position, so well suited to the designs of a speculating de- 
 magogue, might, in some degree, be made available for 
 higher and nobler purposes. Among the numerous mea- 
 sures proposed for bettering the condition of Ireland, 
 none have approached, in magnitude and consequent 
 effect, the Board of Commissioners for National Educa- 
 tion. Not that this institution has been unassailed, for 
 it has been furiously opposed by the bigoted and the per- 
 verse of every sect and class ; one party denouncing it 
 for not being exclusively under the domination of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy ; the other, because the entire of 
 the Scriptures is not made the ordinary school book ; as 
 if anv man of common sense would suffer his chil- 
 
 J 
 
 dren to read the sacred volume, chapter for chapter, 
 from Genesis to Revelations ! But the comprehensive- 
 ness and integrity of its principle, and the fair, open and 
 irreproachable manner in which the system of National 
 Education has been conducted by the Commissioners, 
 have borne it successfully through the storm of falsehood, 
 calumny, and vituperation that raged against it. In 
 spite of all, it has succeeded. Year after year, its bene- 
 
EDUCATION TO A STARVING POPULATION. 
 
 21 
 
 fits have been extended and admitted. It is difficult to 
 imagine how far malignity and infatuation may prevail ; 
 but, hitherto, the plan of National Education stands 
 triumphant — the single measure of British legislation 
 that has conferred substantial, undeniable, and impor- 
 tant advantages on the people of Ireland. If, however, 
 other steps of an enlarged and enlightened policy be 
 not taken to ameliorate the physical condition of the 
 people, and afford to them the opportunities of earning 
 their subsistence honestly, what can education bestow, 
 but a keener sense of their privations and their wrongs ? 
 Knowledge is power ; but power in the hands of a popu- 
 lation, driven frantic by despair and want, is not likely 
 to advance the general welfare, or to contribute to the ease 
 and satisfaction of those to whom the management of 
 State affairs may be committed. It is in vain that the 
 calamity stricken people are exhorted to bestir them- 
 selves, and work out their own regeneration. They have 
 neither the spirit nor the means for such an attempt. 
 The one is broken, the other wasted and destroyed. 
 Ireland does not ask to be carried on the shoulders of 
 her imperious sister, but merely to be raised on her own 
 feet. For this great end, the dull maxims of the lecture- 
 room will not avail ; the cold and narrow doctrines of 
 political economy must be set aside : we have to deal 
 with fearful realities, which must be treated conformably 
 to plain good sense and experience of human nature, 
 not by the rule and measure of abstract and fanciful 
 theories. It is true, however, that although the broad 
 principles of humanity and justice are everywhere, and 
 at all times, the same ; yet, in the practical applica- 
 tion of them, we should be guided by the habits and 
 
22 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 relative circumstances of those whom we intend to serve. 
 Ireland wants but a firm and friendly hand to lift her 
 from the gulf of wretched helplessness into which she 
 has been flung by a long series of disasters, by her own 
 guilt and recklessness ; and, most of all, by the oppres- 
 sion, the injustice, the inveterate misrule of England. 
 
POTATO FAILURE. 
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 POTATO FAILURE REMEDIAL MEASURES POOR-LAWS. 
 
 The general failure of the potato crop all through Ire- 
 land appears to have been one of those inscrutable dis- 
 pensations of Divine Providence which, if taken in a 
 spirit of becoming submission, we may humbly hope will 
 tend to our improvement and ultimate advantage. The 
 Almighty is merciful in his judgment ; he chastens while 
 he punishes his erring creatures ; but the mischief that is 
 caused by the perverseness or folly of our fellow-mortals 
 is of a malignant and, for the most part, an incurable 
 nature. The hand of man takes up the scourge of 
 Heaven, and knows not how to alleviate, or when to lay 
 it aside. 
 
 In particular districts of Ireland, a deficiency of food 
 during some months of each year seems to have been of 
 ordinary occurrence, and large sums were from time to 
 collected in England, as well as at home, for the relief of 
 the famishing population in the western counties.* A 
 
 * Mr. Peel, September, 1817 “ There can be but one opinion upon the 
 
 extent and severity of the distress which has been suffered for some time 
 past. It has been, generally speaking, submitted to with a degree of for- 
 bearance and fortitude very creditable to that numerous body who have been 
 exposed to it. I fear that it would be vain to expect any immediate or general 
 remedy of the evil, which results from the want of employment for a vast po- 
 pulation.” 
 
 Mr. Secretary Grant, May, 1822 . — “ Your lordship will have observed 
 that the distress of the south and south-west of Ireland has excited the 
 
24 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 partial loss of the potato having produced such disastrous 
 results, it must have been obvious to a foresightful states- 
 man how alarming the consequence would be of the total 
 destruction of that species of food on which three-fourths 
 of the nation entirely depended for their subsistence. 
 No preventive or preservative measures were thought 
 of ; the blow came at last — sudden, complete, over- 
 whelming ! 
 
 To comprehend the full extent of the calamity, it is 
 necessary to reflect how intimately and universally the 
 culture of this root was connected with the habits and 
 the wants of the Irish people. Of easy tillage and abun- 
 dant return, it gave to the poorer classes a cheering con- 
 fidence in a continued supply of humble but nutritious 
 fare for themselves, with the means of fattening a pig or 
 two to satisfy the rent — often excessive — of their narrow 
 holdings. To the wealthier farmer it was ever the staple 
 food of his household, as well as excellent fodder for his 
 cattle, and with all ranks it was a common and deservedly 
 favourite vegetable. Moreover, the potato was the cur- 
 rency in which the wages of labour were paid in the 
 rural districts. Although this esculent, naturally of de- 
 licate and uncertain growth, had been frequently affected 
 by frost and other atmospheric influences, yet hitherto 
 its partial failure, though always attended by more or 
 
 warmest sympathy in this country ; we hear of meetings in all parts. Our 
 London subscriptions amounted this day to £26,000, and they are in- 
 creasing.” 
 
 Mr. Peel, September , 1826 (i I regret to learn that you take so gloomy 
 
 a view of the prospects of Ireland with regard to the employment and subsis- 
 tence of the people. The accounts transmitted to me are far from being 
 satisfactory, but they certainly are not so extremely unfavourable as those 
 which appear to have reached your lordship .” — Recollections of Lord Cion - 
 curry. 
 
WHIGS ONCE MOKE IN OFFICE. 
 
 25 
 
 less of suffering to small holders, was in a great measure 
 compensated from other resources ; the people struggled 
 through in one way or another, and the country remain- 
 ed pretty much in its usual position. 
 
 In the year 1846, the potatoes came up well, and 
 flourished in more than wmnted luxuriance. The farmer, 
 at the close of his day’s work, surveyed his blooming and 
 fragrant fields, rejoicing in the promised abundance. The 
 morning came, and with it the destruction of his hopes, 
 for all was withered, blackened, and offensive. It would 
 be vain to attempt inquiry into the nature of this fearful 
 blight in its various types and degrees of intensity. 
 Amidst all the investigation that has taken place, and 
 the numerous remedies or preservatives that have been 
 put forward, the disease has steadily kept its course, set- 
 ting calculation and ingenuity at defiance, but evidently 
 changing the form and abating the virulence of its at- 
 tacks ; and allowing for the highly exaggerated reports 
 of the present year, a reasonable hope may be indulged 
 that its baneful influence is decidedly on the decline. 
 
 It being evident, however, from the first, that some 
 districts were less affected, and that some were better 
 able than others to contend with the disaster, great 
 caution w 7 as required in the manner of bestowing aid 
 where it was necessary, as well as to avoid raising a 
 clamour where assistance was not needed, or where a 
 less amount of it would have sufficed. On the calm and 
 careful consideration of this point it depended whether 
 the munificence of parliament were to have a beneficial 
 or an injurious effect. At this critical period, the Whig 
 ministers, who had been dismissed in the year 1841, w 7 ere 
 pitched back into office by the astounding tergiversation 
 of Sir R. Peel, and the consequent discomfiture of the 
 
26 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 powerful party by whose gallant and confiding support 
 he had been raised to the head of affairs. The position 
 of the new ministry was felt to be one of great peril and 
 difficulty, and never did any government meet with 
 readier indulgence or more efficient support. Although 
 the proofs of their incompetence became more glaring 
 from day to day, their remedial measures were not op- 
 posed, or even censured. In the exigency of the mo- 
 ment, perhaps, there might have been an excess of 
 forbearance towards ministers on the part of their politi- 
 cal antagonists, arising from a double feeling of the mag- 
 nitude of the danger, and the notorious dearth of ade- 
 quate intellectual resources in those who had incurred 
 such a heavy responsibleness. 
 
 A series of mischievous blunders followed in rapid suc- 
 cession. Ministers seemed determined to reject every 
 proposal that contained a particle of sober sense or dis- 
 cretion, and to adopt nothing that was not chimerical 
 and absurd. The first act of the new administration was 
 to proclaim “free trade” in fire-arms, of which the lower 
 classes already possessed a stock far more ample than 
 was consistent with the peace of society. Facilities for 
 murder were granted as a bait for such popularity as 
 might be thus obtained. The necessary consequence 
 w^as, the enactment, shortly after, of a far more stringent 
 Arms Bill than any of those previously in existence. 
 
 The potato famine w T as now to be encountered, and it 
 is scarcely possible to give a correct idea of the injury 
 created by the first crude remedial measure, dashed off 
 almost at random, and cobbled into inextricable confu- 
 sion by the efforts of the Irish Executive to reduce it to 
 practice. This was the memorable mock labour-scheme, 
 with its swarms of inspectors, pay-clerks, overseers, and 
 
DEMORALISING PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 27 
 
 plunderers of every degree, employed to carry out the 
 matchless absurdity of useless or destructive works. It 
 was sending a cloud of locusts to repair the damages of 
 blight. The magistrates, landowners, and landholders 
 were required to meet at public sessions, there to mort- 
 gage their property to Government for the execution of 
 works which they could neither select nor control. If 
 they hesitated to sanction the most wasteful and ridi- 
 culous presentments, the matter was soon decided by 
 threats from “ the friends of the people,” or at a pinch, 
 by the bludgeons of mobs panting for a share of the public 
 plunder. Hundreds of pounds were voted for repairs 
 to lanes leading only to farm-houses. It signified little 
 whether the pressure of want was greater or less ; the 
 thirst of spoil raged everywhere alike. This truly 
 44 Communist ” measure enabled the poor of every de- 
 scription to put their hands deeply into the pockets of 
 the affluent ; the lure of high wages, wfith scarcely any 
 labour, was irresistible, and, for a space , all other occu- 
 pation was abandoned. Females also, of all ages, were 
 admitted to those profligate gangs, with whom the most 
 innocent recreation was ball-practice at a hat set up on 
 the top of a spade-handle. Throughout the greater part 
 of Ireland there was not the shadow of a pretext for such 
 a wanton and detrimental expenditure — such a widely 
 demoralising invitation to pillage, on the part of Govern- 
 ment. It bore all the marks of extreme fatuity and pros- 
 tration of mind. Wherever the cry of famine was raised, 
 woe to him who presumed to question it. On this occa- 
 sion, as on many others, it was observable that they who 
 suffered most made least complaint. They endured 
 patiently, and sank almost without a murmur. 
 
 There are parts of Ireland in which starvation has be- 
 
28 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 come chronical — where uninterrupted misery broods over 
 dreary and neglected wastes. When such desolation has 
 been permitted to establish itself, nothing can avail for 
 the dire necessities of the moment, but downright alms. 
 This is but the fitting expiation of most culpable negli- 
 gence on their part, whose paramount duty it was to 
 have traced out the very root of the evil, and adminis- 
 tered an effectual remedy. For what else is all govern- 
 ment ordained, but for the safety and well-being of the 
 governed ? Surely not for the mere disposal of patron- 
 age, and the paltry management of parties. 
 
 No one would be justified in aspersing the intentions 
 of her Majesty’s Ministers ; it is generally admitted that 
 they meant well ; but, it is equally undeniable, that they 
 have proved themselves to be quite unequal to the duty 
 they so rashly undertook. The first and most obvious 
 mode of proceeding was, by every means, to keep down the 
 price of provisions. Our political philosophers, too re- 
 fined to go directly to the point, after the antiquated 
 practice of common sense, resolved not to interfere where 
 the 'pressure lay . At that awful hour, they refused to 
 stand between avarice and want. In their zeal for the 
 rights of money, they entirely forgot the rights of hu- 
 manity, and the duties of legislators. In the face of the 
 increasing ravages of famine, they committed the charge 
 of providing food for the people to the rapacity of private 
 speculation. Calamities of a nearly similar nature have 
 befallen mankind in various ages ; but never before did 
 it occur to rulers in any country to consider a period of 
 such affliction as a suitable season to indulge in working 
 out abstract theories and paradoxical experiments. 
 
 In compliance with the profound wisdom of the day, 
 no embargo was laid on provisions in our ports, as the 
 
LOUD CHATHAM IX SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 29 
 
 great Lord Chatham had done under like circumstances, 
 with complete success, in the early part of the reign 
 of George the Third. The famishing multitudes were 
 scientifically consigned to the mercies of usurers and 
 monopolists, whose cupidity, goaded to madness by the 
 prospect of unbounded gain, thought only of the means 
 by which they might screw up prices to their utmost 
 attainable height ! By a just judgment of heaven, ruin 
 overtook a great number of those speculators in the 
 misery of their fellow-men. 
 
 A clear and vigorous mind would have provided food 
 for those who were utterly unable to procure it, and 
 placed a plentiful, well-regulated market within reach of 
 all who could find employment. 
 
 When speculators in the public calamity inquired of 
 the Premier, whether he would interfere to hinder their 
 “grinding the faces of the poor,” according to the “sound, 
 general principles” of political economy, a statesman of 
 the olden time would probably have replied something to 
 the following effect : — “ If you act fairly by your country- 
 men in this grave emergency, I will not interfere ; but if 
 you attempt to wring immoderate profits from a starving 
 people, and to speculate in their hard necessity, it will 
 become my duty to interpose between you and your in- 
 tended victims. You shall not be permitted to traffic in 
 hunger, in disease, and death ; content yourselves with 
 a fair and reasonable profit ; keep the markets abundantly 
 supplied, and you shall experience not only no opposition 
 on our part, but you shall receive every aid and encou- 
 ragement that we can afford.” If this proposition had 
 been rejected, then should the vast resources with which 
 England has been blessed have been brought into full 
 exertion, to save and shelter a nation with whose fate her 
 
30 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 own is inseparably linked, for better or for worse. Thus 
 might the severity of the visitation have been in a great 
 degree mitigated, while advantage might have been taken 
 of the hour of humiliation and suffering to raise the tone 
 of public morals, to introduce habits of subordination and 
 regularity, and to lay the permanent groundwork of a 
 wiser and better system. 
 
 All this, however, was either beyond the comprehen- 
 sion, or beneath the notice of our rulers. It never 
 entered into their philosophy. Amidst professions of 
 unbounded sympathy, not altogether free from contempt, 
 they elaborated a law which neither relieved the actual 
 want of the Irish people, nor afforded the means of future 
 improvement ; it aggravated their defects, and threw a 
 shade over their natural good qualities. 
 
 The remedial measures broke down at every step. In 
 vain did my Lord Besborough explain, and Mr. Labou- 
 chere write. Nobody was the wiser. The mystery re- 
 mained, the confusion and the distress increased ; and, 
 amidst the most lavish expenditure, it is said that half a 
 million of human beings perished from absolute starvation. 
 Scenes of horror were now exposed, not to be described, 
 not to be credited, even among the most barbarous in- 
 habitants of the earth. In the frenzy of hunger, putrid 
 animals, noxious weeds, and, in some instances, human 
 bodies cast on the shore, were greedily devoured. Death 
 in its most appalling form was everywhere. Whole fa- 
 milies, swept away by fever or by destitution, remained 
 unburied in their loathsome hovels. 
 
 Yet, our rulers were neither inert nor parsimonious, 
 but their exertions were ill-directed, and their scornful 
 alms corruptive. With all their professions of philo- 
 sophical non-interference, they did interfere directly, 
 
INTERFERENCE WITH THE LABOUR MARKET. 
 
 31 
 
 largely, fatally, with the labour-market. They deranged 
 all the operations of industry, they squandered on wilful, 
 sturdy idleness, the funds that should have been sacredly 
 reserved for the destitute and deserving poor ; they 
 filled the minds of the working-classes with all sorts of 
 wild and dangerous illusions, and raised a formidable 
 barrier to the resumption of those agricultural labours on 
 which the future subsistence of the people almost entirely 
 depended. The evil became so monstrous and insuffer- 
 able, that a sudden stop was put to the waste labour 
 scheme, leaving many of the principal roads through the 
 country broken up and impassible. A gleam of a more 
 rational system appeared in the advancement of funds 
 for the purchase of food, to be distributed under the 
 control of local committees. This principle, which ought 
 to have been taken as the basis of a poor-law for the 
 greater part of Ireland, was worked w 7 ith comparative ease 
 and real advantage. It would have been of readier and 
 more useful application, were it not for a number of 
 ridiculous, harassing, and often impracticable regulations, 
 that were issued weekly from some restless spirit at head- 
 quarters. Nevertheless, it was a vast improvement. A 
 relief committee, over which I presided, had in its care a 
 district where several thousand pounds had been ex- 
 torted by popular clamour during the delirium of unpro- 
 fitable works. Notwithstanding the excited and unrea- 
 sonable expectations which we had to encounter, two 
 hundred pounds perfectly supplied the real wants of the 
 poor from March until August ; and when public relief 
 ceased, a small voluntary subscription from the members 
 of the committee, sufficed for the support of the needy 
 until the middle of the following December. It is true 
 that this occurred in a county better off* in some respects 
 
32 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 than many others, but which was on the verge of be- 
 coming as distressed, as idle, and more turbulent, than 
 those on whom the calamity had fallen with its utmost 
 rigour. 
 
 To this succeeded the extension of the poor-law to 
 indiscriminate out-door relief — another hasty and im- 
 provident measure, and, as connected with the existing 
 law , so open to abuse, so comprehensively wasteful, that 
 complete insolvency followed close on its introduction 
 into the more distressed unions, which were converted 
 by it into one mass of hopeless pauperism. The stoutest 
 hearts were now daunted, and the few who had hitherto 
 borne up manfully against the evils that surrounded them, 
 gave way beneath the intolerable burthen of poor-rates, 
 augmenting as the means of paying them diminished. 
 This fatal addition to an originally bad poor-law, operated 
 as a positive discouragement to industry, and a premium 
 on idleness and impudent extortion. It may be desig- 
 nated the Magna Charta of infamous pauperism — the 
 triumph of imposition and laziness over industry and 
 order. It should be remembered that all this occurred 
 in an afflicted and already exhausted country, and one of 
 all others where it was imperative on Government to have 
 thrown its weight, and employed all its means to have 
 given a powerful impulse in the very opposite direction. 
 
 When the Whig leaders grasped at rule so justly for- 
 feited by the disciple of Cobden, they could not have 
 been altogether ignorant of the arduous nature of the 
 task before them. The fallen minister himself threw a 
 parting brand on the pile. Six months previously, Lord 
 John Russell had declared his inability to form an admi- 
 nistration : yet, when matters had become far more 
 involved and perilous, the noble Lord accepted office 
 
FATAL RESULTS OF THE POOR-LAW. 
 
 33 
 
 without delay or scruple, and with his colleagues dashed 
 along in their wild career of experiment, until they con- 
 verted Ireland into a sort of moral and political “ caput 
 mortuum.” Their inconsiderate and unsparing edicts 
 have dragged down the industrious and the provident 
 to hopeless destitution. The living were linked to the 
 dead ; the system was rigidly enforced while a shilling 
 remained to the industrious and well-disposed portion of 
 the community ; as if the object to be attained were the 
 reduction of all to a common level of beggary and demo- 
 ralization. 
 
 In two provinces, at least, there were, until lately, 
 manifest signs of progressive civilization and comfort ; 
 there was good reason to hope that the force of example 
 would have made some way in extending the range of 
 improvement generally. All such expectation is at an 
 end, and Leinster and Ulster are sinking fast to the 
 level of Munster and Connaught. 
 
 Wherever destitution was excessive, the poor-law has 
 been a failure, and everywhere it has been a nuisance. 
 It has not only augmented the amount of pauperism, 
 but it has swept away every vestige of decency and 
 honest independence. Men who, but a short time since, 
 would have shrunk from a mean or fraudulent action, 
 now rush forward to clutch a share of the public spoil — 
 the last resource of degradation and despair. The Irish 
 poor-law besides being faulty in principle, is totally un- 
 suited to the circumstances and disposition of the people. 
 A compulsory provision for the poor is applicable only to 
 the ordinary necessities or vicissitudes of an orderly and 
 prosperous society. It never should be contemplated as 
 a provision for the people at large ; for, if all are to be 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 supported, who are to be the supporters ? Yet, as such 
 it was inflicted by a bewildered ministry on the broken 
 fortunes of a sinking nation. The object of our modern 
 poor-law appears to be in the first place to stigmatize 
 all poverty as culpable and disgraceful. “ Magnum 
 pauperies opprobrium ” should be inscribed over the 
 doors of these pauper palaces. This idea is certainly not 
 conformable to the doctrine of Christianity ; but, in a 
 solely political point of view, it can hardly be considered 
 just or expedient to make these unhappy beings eat the 
 bread of insult, and to brand with marks of reprobation, 
 unmerited and unoffending want. On the profligate and 
 the hardened such treatment can produce no good effect 
 whatever. 
 
 There is another and a formidable objection to the 
 shutting up of great numbers of our fellow-citizens, to 
 be maintained without labour on their part, at the pub- 
 lic expense. A nation of paupers thus grows up within 
 a nation, but unconnected with it by the usual feelings 
 and ties of social life — a vast multitude who eat without 
 thankfulness the food derived not from self-elevating 
 industry, but which is exacted by law from impoverished 
 and grudging rate-payers. As an adjunct of this ill- 
 conditioned poor-law, I cannot omit the expression of 
 my disgust at the inhuman practice that prevails in large 
 towns, of seizing mendicants and confining them for 
 twenty-four hours without food, fire, or straw to lie on. 
 
 One only benefit may accrue to the poor of Ireland 
 from the operation of workhouse discipline. In some 
 of the better administered and solvent unions, it is just 
 possible that a taste for cleanly and regular habits may 
 be acquired ; but it must be recollected that the indige- 
 
EXTRAVAGANCE IN WORKHOUSES. 
 
 35 
 
 nous Irish pauper is mortally averse to both, and that 
 relapse is almost inevitable, when the freedom of filth is 
 restored. The preliminary purification of soap-and-water 
 is the peine forte et dure — the real workhouse test in 
 Ireland. 
 
 There are so many conflicting reports as to the state 
 of morals, discipline, and education in these establish- 
 ments, that it would be extremely difficult to come at 
 the exact truth. But, whatever the amount of moral 
 discipline may be, there can be little doubt that, in case 
 of a serious revolutionary outbreak, a formidable body 
 of able, well-fed, ardent Socialists would forthwith issue 
 out of those receptacles of pampered idleness in every 
 direction. Thus far, I have taken into consideration 
 only those poor-houses where the system works with 
 comparative efficacy and smoothness ; with a copious 
 staff* of well-paid officers and a strong detachment of 
 police always at hand ; where all the comforts, and some 
 of the luxuries of living, are provided in great abundance, 
 at the cost of the hard working farmer, for poor mortals 
 whose most extravagant desires never went beyond clean 
 straw for a bed, with plenty of potatoes and sour milk. 
 In those fearful districts where desolation reigns para- 
 mount, the recorded statements of the horrors that 
 occur daily in the workhouses and hospitals prove, be- 
 yond all doubt, that the existing system of poor-laws, as 
 applied to extreme distress, is not a remedy, but an 
 aggravation of evil. 
 
 The next in order of the remedial measures of Go- 
 vernment was “ the rate-in-aid,” to be levied all over 
 Ireland, including, of course, those wasted and insolvent 
 unions, for whose benefit the subsidy was to be raised. 
 
36 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 As might have been expected, so iniquitous an impost 
 met with considerable opposition. It evidently tended 
 to exhaust whatever might remain of comparative compe- 
 tence, without the faintest prospect of improving the 
 condition of the ruined districts. It struck down all 
 security for the future, and crushed the last lingering 
 hope of the already overburthened farmer. 
 
 A great national disaster should be encountered by 
 the vigorous application of the national resources, not 
 frittered away in absurdities, or given up to be pillaged 
 by subalterns, but skilfully and honestly directed to the 
 all-important end of relief. Care should have been 
 taken to provide useful and reproductive employment for 
 every man able and willing to work, so that he might 
 fairly earn, by his day’s labour, wages sufficient to supply 
 him with the necessaries of existence. The rate-in-aid 
 was carried by the same influence that rejected the wise 
 and beneficent project of Lord George Bentinck, to em- 
 ploy the starving Irish in constructing extensive rail- 
 ways — that ill-omened influence which a Whig ministry 
 continues to exercise over Irish representatives, little 
 to their own credit, and still less to the advantage of 
 their most unfortunate country. 
 
 It was decreed to seek a remedy for ruin out of the 
 wreck of the ruined ! 
 
 It has been already observed, that the poor-laws were 
 framed in an utilitarian and unchristian spirit. They 
 stigmatize poverty as an offence against society, at the 
 same time that they perpetuate pauperism, by effacing 
 every vestige of honest shame and self-reliance* It may 
 be said, what is to be done with the starving multitudes 
 on the over-populated estates ? For the present, I shall 
 
THE PRESENT SYSTEM TENDS TO DESTITUTION. 
 
 37 
 
 merely hint, that it is for those to devise a remedy who 
 freely undertook the arduous task ; but, under any cir- 
 cumstances, it should not be unjustly attempted to re- 
 lieve their wants, by the destruction of those resident 
 landlords, who preferred their duties to their inclina- 
 tions ; or, by grinding down their hitherto contented and 
 thriving tenants to the miserable condition of the poor 
 wretches, who encumber the neglected or mismanaged 
 properties. Again, what is to become of the entire 
 population, when, as must happen if the present system 
 be continued, all property shall be wasted away, and 
 the level of destitution be completed ? Surely, it would 
 be wiser to preserve and foster what yet survives of 
 struggling independence ; by timely, well-disposed assist- 
 ance, to uphold the fallen ; and boldly, liberally to miti- 
 gate the distress where it has grown to be intolerable? 
 and passed beyond the reach of ordinary resources. The 
 conceits and crotchets of political economists have pro- 
 duced nothing but mischief ; it is not to be endured, that 
 the welfare and safety of a nation should be placed in 
 hazard for the glory and renown of the lecture-room. 
 Even while I write, the danger accumulates and draws 
 nearer every day. The wealthy and intelligent portion 
 of our farmers are emigrating, by thousands in each 
 week, with their activity, their capital, their agricultural 
 skill, in search of that security and fair return for outlay 
 in foreign lands, which the obstinate fatuity of our rulers 
 denies them at home. The hour will come- — it may even 
 be at hand — when England will mourn, in unavailing 
 tears of blood, the fatal policy that drove those gallant 
 spirits, and those stalwart arms, from the country of 
 which they should have been the pride and the. protec- 
 
38 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 tion. In many places, where happier days had seen the 
 heath driven out by persevering toil, the teeming crops 
 have disappeared, and the dull, rude garb of nature is 
 returning fast ; not, as frequently happens in America, 
 from the rapid sweep of improvement pressing onward 
 to reclaim new regions, and leaving the traces of past 
 labour to be overgrown by the wild luxuriance of native 
 vegetation ; but, alas ! from ruined means, from despair, 
 and a diminished people. 
 
 Ministers and their adherents are loud in their ap- 
 peals to Irish landlords to employ the labouring poor ; it 
 might, however, puzzle the most profound political econo- 
 mist in the cabinet — for instance, the learned President 
 of the Board of Trade ; yea, even the great Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer himself — to discover where that perse- 
 cuted and pillaged class were to find remuneration for all 
 this restorative labour. It can be considered only as an 
 unseasonable jest, when the unhappy Irish are assured 
 that Ministers are prepared to receive any remedial' sug- 
 gestions that they may think fit to offer. Yes, prepared 
 they are indeed ; for to obtain the slightest chance of at- 
 tention on the part of our State philosophers, the proposi- 
 tions must be in strict accordance with their “ sound ge- 
 neral principles.” In other words, the remedy to be 
 acceptable, must be identical with the disease ; it may 
 not have even the fashionable merit of counter-irritation. 
 Of course, the confidential advisers of the Crown would 
 gladly adopt any plan that would cause their absurd, 
 contradictory, and vexatious theories to work smoothly 
 and satisfactorily for the public, and creditably for their 
 own fame — a vain and fallacious imagination, that no 
 stretch of human ingenuity could accomplish. 
 
THE IRISH POOR-LAW A HASTY MEASURE. o9 
 
 The copious sterility of ministerial faculties, in dealing 
 with Irish disasters, is deserving of some notice. The 
 sum of their remedial policy has this extent — a large 
 amount of money mischievously squandered ; and, after 
 that, nothing but repeated aggravations of burthens al- 
 ready unproductive, from being excessive and insupport- 
 able. 
 
 It may be fairly objected, that it is far easier to discover 
 faults in what is past, than to point out a safer and more 
 eligible mode of proceeding for the time to come. I 
 shall endeavour to do so, premising, that in my humble 
 attempt to suggest an approach to some improvement on 
 the mode of dealing with Irish pauperism, it is indispen- 
 sably necessary regard should be had to the conse- 
 quences of the mistaken system which has hitherto been 
 pursued. 
 
 The original introduction of the poor-law into Ireland 
 was a hasty, ill-considered measure. It was founded on 
 a very imperfect, superficial knowledge of the circum- 
 stances, wants, and social habits of the Irish people. 
 The calculations by which it was to be supported w r ere, 
 in many respects, erroneous, and the result has been 
 almost everywhere the reverse of what had been predict- 
 ed.* There can be no doubt that the time had arrived 
 when some provision ought to have been made for cer- 
 tain classes of the poor in Ireland ; the amount, the 
 claims, and the mode of distribution should have been 
 regulated with care and circumspection. The experi- 
 ment should have been commenced on a moderate scale, 
 and gradually accommodated to the real wants of the 
 
 * See Appendix A, 
 
40 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 poor, and the means of supply in the country at large. 
 Instead of this, the modern English poor-law was at 
 once imposed, with all its cumbrous and expensive machi- 
 nery ; its huge beggar barracks ; its endless host of sala- 
 ried officials ; its compulsory idleness ; its contracts for 
 luxuries ; and its burthens of every kind, which have 
 made even the enormous opulence of England stagger 
 beneath their weight. How could such an institution 
 act otherwise than mischievously in a country like Ire- 
 land ? 
 
 With a just, but not an oppressive, sense of the diffi- 
 culty, I venture to proceed. In the first place, a clear 
 distinction should be drawn between those districts that 
 are distressed beyond the reach of local aid, and those 
 where a well-administered supply of moderate relief would 
 effectually meet every case of real destitution. In the 
 latter, I should propose that committees be formed in each 
 electoral division, as now constituted, or in parishes, if it 
 should be found more advisable, with one paid officer, a 
 clerk at a moderate salary, to inquire, at such intervals 
 as might be thought expedient, into the condition of the 
 poor in their district, pretty much in the manner that the 
 “ meal-committees” were appointed and acted, in the 
 summer of 1847. They should be authorised to give 
 relief according to the necessity of each case, which would 
 be perfectly well known to them , and to strike a rate suf- 
 ficient for that purpose. I have already stated my opi- 
 nion, that out-door relief, in connexion with the machi- 
 nery of the actual poor-law, was merely an extension and 
 aggravation of burthens and abuses. But, long expe- 
 rience has convinced me that relief, judiciously distributed 
 under the inspection of a local committee, would, for the 
 
A POOR-LAW MORE SUITED TO IRELAND. 
 
 41 
 
 greater part of Leinster and Ulster, be abundantly suffi- 
 cient, and beyond all comparison, less expensive. Many 
 poor families, with a little assistance given at a proper 
 time, and always after due inquiry, would contrive to make 
 out a very tolerable existence: certainly not with the best 
 port wine, refined sugar, spices, and prime joints of meat, 
 as advertised for in workhouse contracts, but still with 
 enough of coarse but wholesome food, made sweeter by a 
 feeling of home.* The poor-law makes total idleness on 
 the part of every member of a family the condition, sine 
 qua non , of admission to the enjoyment of the dainties 
 above-mentioned, with a felon’s dress, and the confine- 
 ment of a jail. 
 
 The present poor-law prisons, with all their attendant 
 nuisances, might, in most cases, be safely abolished in 
 six months ; retaining, of course, a district asylum for 
 the destitute, aged, and infirm. In this case the state 
 of the poor should be under the general inspection of an 
 officer appointed for each province, who should furnish a 
 report to Government every three months. The Chief 
 Governor of Ireland should be authorised to extend the 
 powers of the local committees under any extraordinary 
 pressure ; to dismiss any member of the committee on the 
 report of the Inspector, or on petition from the majority 
 of the rate-payers ; and also, in case of palpable neglect 
 or misconduct, to suspend the functions of the committee 
 altogether, and to appoint an administrator during plea- 
 sure. As the events of late years have had the effect of 
 accumulating numbers of destitute persons in towns, it 
 would be unjust, as well as absolutely ruinous, to leave 
 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
42 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 the entire burthen of their support on the townsmen. It 
 would be, therefore, expedient, with all due restrictions 
 and facilities for detecting abuse, that whenever the rate 
 in towns exceeded a fixed percentage, the excess should 
 be provided for either by a county rate or a provincial 
 one. 
 
 In the crowded and wasted districts of the west and 
 south-west of Ireland, another and a more active system 
 should be adopted. The unemployed population should 
 at once be set to work in reclaiming waste lands, and 
 bringing them, as much as possible, into a profitable 
 state. If there be truth in any proposition, it is in this, 
 that reclaimable land may be rendered more or less 
 valuable by judicious treatment. There would be some- 
 thing available, at least, in the end ; as the work pro- 
 ceeded there would be a return ; and, incomparably above 
 all considerations, the poor would be usefully, whole- 
 somely employed ; and thousands of our fellow-Christians 
 would no longer be left to perish for w 7 ant on the high 
 roads, or driven to rot in the pestilence and filth of over- 
 crowded workhouses. 
 
 I know that I shall be met here by “ sound general 
 principles,” and I confess I have neither the patience nor 
 the courage to attempt a reply to such an objection under 
 such circumstances. From the infatuation of human self- 
 conceit there is but one appeal : it has been made, fear- 
 fully made to heaven, in the agony of an expiring people, 
 and we may not doubt that it will be heard. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands have perished miserably, in 
 sufferings that cannot be described, on the battle-field 
 of famine and disease. The fact is notorious, horribly 
 scandalously true. Again, I ask, what is the use or the 
 
ENERGIES OF GOVERNMENT WASTED. 
 
 43 
 
 value of civil government, if, neglecting its paramount 
 duties, or incompetent to discharge them, its energies, 
 destined to far nobler purposes, are yearly consumed and 
 wasted in the despicable effort to tide over the season of 
 parliamentary danger, leaving a long interval of inglo- 
 rious security to Ministers, and of increasing danger and 
 misery to the people ? In their dogged adherence to 
 fanciful theories, and their wilful blindness to the irre- 
 sistible force of circumstances, our rulers seem to have 
 satisfied themselves that great calamities, and a threatened 
 break-up of social relations, can be encountered by a 
 tissue of petty contrivances and fourth-rate make-shifts ; 
 or that chance -may benevolently operate to undo what 
 ignorance and perverseness have done. 
 
 There has been enough, and more than enough, of un- 
 heeded complaint and remonstrance. Events are coming, 
 and events will bring forth the men. 
 
44 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CURRENCY FREE TRADE CHEAPNESS. 
 
 I would willingly avoid the trite and distasteful subject 
 of this chapter, if it were feasible to treat of the disrual 
 condition of Ireland, without reference to those measures 
 which have filled to overflowing the cup of her misery 
 and degradation, and which have shaken to the centre 
 the principal interests even of haughty and prosperous 
 England. This great empire has been given up to the 
 experiments of grasping and self-sufficient theorists, for a 
 period of more than thirty years. Years they have been 
 of constantly returning distress and alarm to all except 
 stock-jobbers, usurers, and great capitalists, who rejoiced 
 and revelled in the plunder of every other class. Time 
 after time, we were assured from authority that we had 
 seen the worst ; each crashing convulsion was declared 
 to be positively the last, and that fresh precautions had 
 been taken to insure the return of general and perma- 
 nent prosperity. The ponderous evil was permitted to 
 hold on its destructive course ; the undaunted empiric 
 still prescribed, and still, in defiance of repeated and con- 
 vincing experience, Parliament concurred, and the people 
 submitted. 
 
 A more audacious or more successful attack on the 
 morals and the well-being of society never was made, 
 than by the currency system of the late Sir Robert Peel. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CURRENCY DELUSION. 
 
 45 
 
 It is the more dangerous and difficult to expose, from its 
 designedly intricate agency, and the idea that prevails 
 of its extremely dry and abstruse nature. Yet, when 
 stripped of the technical terms, and the metaphysical sub- 
 tleties with wffiieh its supporters love to invest their doc- 
 trines, for their special purposes, a knowledge of the 
 subject can be obtained with less trouble than is every 
 day bestowed on matters of greatly subordinate impor- 
 tance. 
 
 It is worth while to consider and trace the origin and 
 progress of this mischievous and extraordinary delusion 
 through its various degrees of dazzling novelty, gratified 
 avarice, and irritated self-conceit. 
 
 The first stage was that of brilliant discovery, of 
 courted inquiry, of bland persuasion, and of the intermi- 
 nable reveries of Horner, Huskisson, and Ricardo. It was 
 indeed conceded by the Bullionists, that a depreciation 
 of property to the amount of some four or five per cent.* 
 might take place from a return to cash payments, which, 
 however, they assured an ignorant and credulous public 
 would be more than compensated by the increased secu- 
 rity, the steadiness , and tne unassailable solidity of all our 
 commercial transactions. The measure was carried and 
 the havoc began. Then came the season of angry refusal 
 to investigate further ; of blustering sarcasm and bare- 
 faced ribaldry. They who prayed for inquiry were asked 
 
 * Mr. Ricardo afterwards admitted that the increased value of money, and 
 of course the depreciation of property, amounted to thirty per cent. He 
 might have gone near to the truth by doubling it. But why should the 
 debtor interest and the working classes be robbed, to any extent, however tri- 
 fling, for the exclusive benefit of loan-mongers, usurers, and great capi- 
 talists ? 
 
46 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 if they wanted to rob their creditors. “ If you must 
 cheat, go cheat abroad, do not try to pilfer at home.” * 
 Whereas, in truth, they did not seek to rob any one, but 
 merely to have an end put to the robbery so long and so 
 impudently perpetrated on themselves, by the dishonest 
 and pernicious crotchets of the “ sound and wholesome ” 
 currency-mongers. 
 
 The loss to the industrious classes was clearly proved 
 to be at least fifty per cent. ; the weight of taxation be- 
 came intolerable, and the country reeled beneath the 
 doubled burthen of public and private debt, contracted 
 originally in a currency not worth more than half of that 
 in which it had been made payable. Destruction of 
 property and confiscation now took place rapidly, and to 
 an extent surpassing that of political revolutions ; exceed- 
 ing in amount the cost of that glorious struggle which 
 preserved England from becoming a province of France. 
 
 That great statesman, William Pitt, seeing that the 
 levy of war taxes, as well as the increased commercial 
 relations of Great Britain, required that the circulating 
 medium should be augmented, and placed beyond the 
 reach of sudden contraction, to which it was exposed by 
 the ancient metallic standard, boldly released the Bank 
 of England from the obligation of paying its notes in 
 gold on demand. For seventeen years, during which 
 cash payments were suspended, not only were the ex- 
 penses of an arduous warfare amply sustained, but the 
 country generally reached a point of wealth and content- 
 ment unexampled before, and which continued progres- 
 sive up to the time when the new-fangled doctrine of 
 
 * Verbatim, as spoken in the House of Commons. 
 
REMONSTRANCE OF THE BANK DIRECTORS. 
 
 47 
 
 “sound and wholesome” currency came into operation. 
 It was in vain that the merchants, the bankers, and 
 traders of the metropolis, men who, from practical ac- 
 quaintance with commercial and monetary affairs, were 
 best qualified to give a valid opinion on the subject, 
 petitioned both Houses of Parliament against the Bill of 
 1819, stating their conviction that it would cause “a 
 forced and precipitate contraction of the circulating 
 medium of the country, tending to embarrass trade and 
 to injure public credit, agriculture, manufactures, and 
 commerce.” 
 
 The Directors of the Bank of England also remon- 
 strated strongly against the measure, which they pro- 
 nounced “ likely to compromise the universal interests 
 of the empire, in all the relations of agriculture, com- 
 merce, and revenue ;” and, “ as taking away from the 
 Bank anything like a discretionary consideration of the 
 necessities and distresses of the commercial world.” The 
 councils of the State were inaccessible to such arguments, 
 the law was passed, and the work of destruction began. 
 
 In the year 1821, agricultural distress became so pre- 
 valent and alarming, that a committee to inquire into 
 the subject was appointed by the House of Commons. 
 
 The evidence given before that Committee, by some of 
 the most intelligent landholders from various counties, 
 represents the farming population as suffering under 
 great depression and misery. It should be remembered, 
 too, that this occurred when high protecting duties were 
 in force. 
 
 Rents were paid out of capital, for profits were not to 
 be made ; and, in some instances, the produce of the 
 farm barely afforded the amount of the poor-rate. The 
 
48 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 graziers suffered as severely as the corn-growers ; the 
 price of animal food was extremely low. The evi- 
 dence of a Berkshire farmer is deserving of particular 
 notice. “ There have been several failures in my neigh- 
 bourhood ; and some who have it in their power are now 
 leaving their farms, and I believe that it is only the hope 
 of some relief being granted that at this time prevents 
 hundreds from leaving their farms. In fact, such has 
 lately been the general distress, that, during the nu- 
 merous conversations I have had with the different 
 farmers in my neighbourhood, I have never met with 
 one but has acknowledged, when asked on the subject, 
 that his losses on the crop of 1819 amounted to as much 
 as his rental ; and it is my firm opinion that, if the whole 
 of the occupiers of land in Berkshire were examined on 
 the subject, nineteen out of twenty would declare this 
 fact. A farmer, of forty years’ standing, has lately been 
 distressed for rent ; another is now upon the parish, who, 
 but a little time ago, was worth two thousand pounds : 
 and hundreds, with very large families, are on the brink 
 of ruin, and are obliged to mortgage the next crop of 
 corn before they can gather it in.” 
 
 Such was the immediate effect, on the landed interest, 
 of this iniquitous and offensive enactment, by which the 
 price of every description of produce was forcibly beaten 
 down, and the value of every debt was raised from a third 
 to a half above that of the original contract. There were, 
 it is true, occasional gleams of prosperity, when the force 
 of circumstances effected a virtual suspension of its func- 
 tions : but, as prices rose to a remunerating level, by the 
 increased issue of bank notes, the foreign exchanges turn- 
 ed against England, and the capitalists at once set to 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF SIR R. PEEL’S BILL. 
 
 49 
 
 work to draw the gold out of the Bank of England for 
 exportation. Hence arose the post prosperity panic of 
 1825-6. “ The gold of the Bank was drained to within 
 a very few thousand pounds.” — “ A certain Saturday 
 night closed with nothing worth mentioning remaining .” 
 At this moment of alarm and dismay, when the solvency of 
 the bank hung by a slender thread, the general ruin and 
 confusion were averted by the accidental discovery of a 
 million-and-a-half of the disgraced and prohibited one- 
 pound notes. They were sent into circulation, and the 
 nation was saved from bankruptcy, and a state of barter, to 
 which it had been exposed by the consequences of this pre- 
 cious “ sound and wholesome ” currency. Our rulers, as 
 usual, were not to be taught, and the destructive system 
 was resumed with all convenient despatch. Silver, which 
 as a precious metal, is, conjointly with gold, a standard of 
 value in all civilized states, was abolished as a legal tender 
 in England,* so that where the most extensive commer- 
 cial dealings in the world were to be carried on, where 
 the public debt amounted to a sum almost incredible, 
 monetary principles were adopted restricting, within the 
 narrowest limits, the operations of mercantile credit, and 
 sending suspicion, uncertainty, and apprehension into 
 the best conducted and most solvent establishments. All 
 that was dear and valuable to the community was sacri- 
 ficed to the integrity of Sir Robert Peel’s Bill, and the 
 
 * This alone, according to some financial authorities, amounts to a differ- 
 ence of twenty-five per cent, on the five hundred millions of public debt 
 contracted during the war. “ The raiment, food, labour, blood, bones, and 
 sinews of the mass of British subjects being thus drawn from them by laws 
 to enrich the monied capitalists, placemen, and annuitants !” — the very 
 drones of the national hive. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 sacred purity of his preposterous standard. This absurd 
 standard has made England the jest and the fable of the 
 civilized world. Foreign nations have profited by our 
 foolish experiments, without, however, attempting to follow 
 them. It would have been quite as fair and rational to 
 have affixed an ounce of gold to a quarter of wheat, as 
 to £3 17s. lO^d. of our money. And after all this 
 boasted fixity, the fluctuations in the standard of value 
 have been, and will continue to be, frequent and consi- 
 derable. 
 
 Then we were asked, with a self-complacent smile of 
 condescending arrogance, a What is a pound ?” Why, 
 Sir Oracle, it is a medium of representative value em- 
 ployed to facilitate the interchange of commodities, worth 
 precisely what it can command, and should be payable by 
 those who issued it, in the market-price of gold or silver, 
 neither more nor less. 
 
 It would seem that Providence, which frequently 
 “ makes foolish the wisdom of man,” is about to defeat 
 this inhuman scheme of avarice by the daily discoveries 
 of gold to an amount that will not only dispose of the 
 “purity of the standard” that has created so much human 
 misery, but will, in releasing industry from its oppression, 
 turn back the evil on the heads of its worthless contrivers. 
 Thus we have seen that high protecting duties are not 
 always a security for remunerating prices to the farmer, 
 but in every instance where the circulating medium was 
 contracted, distress ensued, and with its extension pros- 
 perity returned. We have been repeatedly told that the 
 currency question is a decided case, that it is fixed and 
 irrevocable. For an accomplished fact, the “ vital princi- 
 ple” has taken a vast deal of propping and patching; it 
 
“HUMAN LEGISLATION.” 51 
 
 has come to a dead lock more than once, and never can 
 resist the pressure of those difficulties which it has a ten- 
 dency to create. Under this most il sound and whole- 
 some ” system, we have had a commercial crisis in 1826, 
 relieved by a copious issue of Bank notes ; another crisis 
 in 1837, when the Bank was saved by borrowing gold 
 from the Bank of France ; and a crisis in 1847, arrested 
 by a suspension of the renowned Charter^ which, as we 
 were assured by its distinguished author, and his ardent 
 disciple, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, “ would pre- 
 vent, as far as human legislation could do so, the recur- 
 rence of the fearful monetary convulsions which took 
 place between the settlement of 1819 and the year 
 1841.” The effect of “human legislation” in this 
 instance was, to render insolvent several hundred re- 
 spectable mercantile houses, which, under a rational and 
 equitable monetary system, would have continued per- 
 fectly solvent. By this celebrated effort of “ human 
 legislation,” the Bank of England was authorized to issue 
 fourteen millions not reposing on a metallic basis. For 
 all the rest of its circulation the Bank must hold a corre- 
 sponding amount of bullion. A fantastical separation was 
 made between the Banking department and that of Issue, 
 and the Directors were compelled to lay before the pub- 
 lic, constantly, a statement of the affairs of the establish- 
 ment. It must be granted that this was going pretty far 
 for free-trade statesmen professing to abhor interference. 
 The local banks were also restricted in future to a certain 
 fixed average of issue, no matter what the extension of 
 commerce or the wants of the country might require here- 
 
 * Passed in 1844. 
 
52 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 after. The frequent publication of the Bank returns, 
 innocuous, perhaps, when the money-market was in a 
 tranquil state, would be eminently dangerous in one of 
 those moments of alarm which “human legislation,” 
 under the guidance of the “ vital principle,” has hitherto 
 failed to avert. Public credit should be unshaken and 
 unsuspected even as the wife of Csesar ; but it may be 
 presumed, that a perpetual “ delicate investigation ” into 
 the conduct of the lady would have contributed little 
 to the lustre or the stability of her virtue. 
 
 “ I think it is better,” said Mr. Rothschild, u that the 
 Bank should not tell the public what gold and what silver 
 they have. A great many people do not read at all ; if 
 they hear that there is a great deal of gold fetched from 
 the Bank, they will all run like a flock of sheep, and take 
 their money out.” No commercial house could stand 
 the gauntlet of such a scrutiny at all times, without 
 serious inconvenience, if not absolute danger. 
 
 To return to the tremendous crash of 1847, the first 
 fruit of the “ complement ” to the Act of 1819* One 
 great establishment went down after another. Deputa- 
 tions were sent with urgent remonstrances to Govern- 
 ment. In vain. Her Majesty’s Ministers held firm ; 
 partly from reluctance to admit the failure of their 
 favourite theory, and still more through fear of offending 
 the Coryphaeus of the “ sound and wholesome,” on whose 
 breath their official existence depended. I have before 
 me a list of leviathan houses, each from fifty thousand 
 pounds to a million and a -half, swept away by this 
 monetary hurricane, nearly all of which would have been 
 not only solvent, but possessed of a large surplus, under 
 a more rational and equitable system. “ Their ruin, 
 
FAILURE OF THE “ SOUND BASIS.” 
 
 53 
 
 and whatever loss their creditors sustained, was entirely 
 caused by the reduction in the circulation of Bank notes.” 
 So true it is, that the prosperity of the country is directly 
 affected by the greater or less amount of Bank paper in 
 active circulation. Should it extend to twenty millions, 
 all is tranquil at least ; if it continue to increase, im- 
 provement will be evident ; but if it should be screwed 
 down to sixteen millions, bankruptcy and ruin follow. In 
 the direful emergency of 1847, the Bank of England 
 could do nothing to alleviate the pressure. The Direc- 
 tors had no discretionary power to save even themselves ; 
 and it is a notorious fact, that in the month of October in 
 that year, the Banking department was on the point of 
 closing, with more than seven millions in gold utterly 
 unavailable in the Bank of Issue ! Such was the security, 
 “ the sound basis” which the Bank Charter bestowed 
 on the monetary affairs of England. The moment a 
 panic took place in the money-market, which we had 
 been over and over assured could never happen under 
 the new regulations, the grand Banking buttress gave 
 way, involving loss of property to an almost incredible 
 amount. As a preventive measure, then, the law com- 
 pletely failed, and such was the magnitude of the panic 
 caused by its disastrous consequences, that “ on one day, 
 the London bankers resolved nearly in a body to with- 
 draw their deposits from the Bank of England.” 
 
 “ Money was not to be procured by merchants of un- 
 questionable solvency on bills at short dates, accepted by 
 Jones, Lloyd and Co., Smyth, Paine and Co., and other 
 bankers equally unexceptionable. Merchants who had 
 received remittances of silver from America and else- 
 where, could neither sell it, nor raise money on it.” 
 
54 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 Still, ministers held out, and appeared resolved to ad- 
 here, per damna , per ccedes , to their ‘‘sound basis;” 
 being apparently convinced that nothing but money 
 should be considered as property, and that they who do 
 not possess this qualification, whatever may be the amount 
 of their other possessions, are not entitled to receive as- 
 sistance to fulfil their engagements. At length, however, 
 the imminent peril of the Bank produced that concession, 
 which the wreck of credit, and the wide destruction of 
 property had failed to elicit. Slowly and sadly, the 
 first Lord of the Treasury succumbed beneath the great 
 political agency of the day, “pressure from without.” 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer affixed his reluctant 
 signature to the memorable document addressed to the 
 Governor of the Bank of England, by which the two 
 branches of the establishment were again mingled, and 
 the fair weather “ sound basis” was laid in the dust — 
 
 “ Multa gemens, casuque animum concussus amici , 
 
 O nimium coelo et pelago confise sereno, 
 
 jacebis arena!” 
 
 The tardy and ungracious surrender was accompanied 
 by conditions painfully characteristic of the minds from 
 which they sprung. The advances were to be made to 
 distressed merchants, at a rate of interest not lower than 
 eight per cent ., and the Crown w-as to share in the profits 
 of the usurious transaction ! ! ! Such a piece of states- 
 manship defies all comment. No power of language 
 could do justice to an act of such consummate meanness 
 and absurdity. 
 
 Terrified, subdued, but not convinced, or not daring 
 to act on the conviction, no sooner had the alarm sub- 
 
MONETARY POLICY OF RUSSIA. 
 
 55 
 
 sided, than Ministers “ relapsed into error,” and the 
 country has been blessed again with the “ sound basis,” 
 “ the vital principle,” the divided Bank, all patched up 
 as good as new, waiting for another “ crisis,” and another 
 suspension. 
 
 It is worth remarking, that in Russia, where an exten- 
 sive paper money has been maintained and guarded from 
 injurious depreciation, none of these financial paroxysms 
 have taken place : on the contrary, upwards of six millions, 
 in gold and silver, were advanced to relieve the mone- 
 tary difficulties of England and France, by the Emperor 
 Nicholas, in 1847.* — I have been led into this cursory and 
 imperfect sketch of the working of Sir R. Peel’s monetary 
 system, by its immediate and detrimental influences on 
 the resources, and the prospects of Ireland, which suffered 
 from it all along, and sank beneath its wasting, destruc- 
 tive progress. I recollect, in the winter of 1819? having a 
 conversation on the subject with the late Sir John Newport, 
 who was a zealous supporter of the bullionist theory. 
 From the first, I had been struck with the injustice of the 
 measure, and the enormous sacrifice of property which it 
 involved. Among other objections, I stated to the vete- 
 ran financier my apprehension, that one of its earliest re- 
 
 * ff Whenever the Emperor of Russia may choose to demand this money, he 
 may at any time sell the £6,600,000 of stock, and thus obtain and take back 
 to Russia the £6,600,000 of gold and silver which gave relief. It will be 
 seen that the whole commercial community is thus exposed to be at any time 
 subjected to the calamities which the withdrawal of this amount of bullion 
 must necessarily occasion, if indeed that amount could be supplied without a 
 general convulsion and crisis .” — Currency Records. 
 
 A sort of control which British statesmen of other days would not have 
 tolerated for an hour. Fortunately for his people, the Russian Emperor has 
 eschewed our “ sound basis,” with all its miserable consequences. 
 
56 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 suits would be the insolvency of nearly all the private 
 banks in Ireland. He laughed at my fears, and declared 
 his conviction that the Bill would tend to confirm the sol- 
 vency of all well-regulated establishments. Before six 
 months, his brother, the head of one of the oldest and 
 deservedly most respectable banking-houses in the king- 
 dom, was insolvent and in his grave. The subject, there- 
 fore, cannot be considered foreign to the nature of the 
 task I have undertaken, of seeking to investigate, in all 
 sincerity and anxiety for truth, the causes that have re- 
 duced a land so blessed by nature with ample materials 
 for prosperity, and for honourable distinction, to be the 
 disgraced, the blighted, ruined thing it is. 
 
 Horace Walpole tells us, that the circulating medium 
 of Ireland, in 1754, was estimated at five hundred thou- 
 sand pounds. That amount of circulation was propor- 
 tionally far greater than that of the present day, if we 
 consider the increased number, wants, and taxation of the 
 people. Before the “ sound and wholesome” currency 
 came into fashion, the paper circulation of Ireland was 
 between eight and nine millions. It is now about four 
 millions, and the poor-rates amount to two millions 
 annually. On the extended and depreciated currency, 
 all the monied obligations were founded, which have 
 been made extortible — if I may coin the word to express 
 my meaning — in a currency of which the value has been 
 doubled by Act of Parliament. The original error of 
 the philosophers was that they confounded weight and 
 measure with value. The first should be known and 
 determined ; the latter has been always subject to fluctua- 
 tion, and ever will : the effect of the “ sound basis” was 
 to render it still more variable and uncertain. Before 
 
WELL-REGULATED PAPER CURRENCY. 
 
 57 
 
 quitting the subject, it maybe as well that I should meet 
 the objection that is always set forth against a paper cur- 
 rency — its abuse. No one can deny the mischievous 
 effect of an excessive issue of bank-notes. But I cannot 
 admit a manifest abuse as a valid argument against the 
 usefulness, nay the necessity, of a well-regulated cur- 
 rency in bank-notes, for the promotion of industry and 
 the facility of commercial dealings, in an advanced state 
 of civilization. The principle of applying the weight of 
 civil authority, to bring public credit into activity, and 
 make it applicable to the public service, is one of para- 
 mount importance.^ A well-understood system of paper 
 currency contains in itself a safe regulating principle : 
 when it ceases to have a salutary influence on the action 
 of industry, it is in excess, and should be contracted ; on 
 the other hand, when the legitimate operations of com- 
 merce are languid, or suspended from want of sufficient 
 pabulum, it should be supplied judiciously, but amply. 
 As matters now are, there is no discretionary power to 
 afford relief ; the banks are tied up the moment that 
 their assistance is most urgently necessary — ruin is left 
 to work without impediment. 
 
 There seems to exist in the minds of bullionists an 
 idea of something intrinsically sacred, exclusive of all 
 conventional value, in gold fixed at £3 17s. lOj-d. the 
 
 * “ II suffit que la proportion entre les choses achetees et le signe qui les 
 achete ne puisse pas etre soudainement et arbitrairement changee par une 
 multiplication desordonnee de ce signe monetaire. Le prix reel et vrai de 
 toutes choses s’etablit d’apres cette proportion. La loi seule, et une loi 
 probe et prudente peut done frapper monnaie. Que la loi frappe monnaie en 
 or, en argent, en cuivre, en papier, peu importe, pourvu que la proportion 
 soit religieusement gardee, et que le peuple conserve ainsi confiance dans la 
 sincerity et dans le credit de ce signe.” — Lamartine. 
 
58 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ounce. They bowed down before the idol they had set 
 up ; they absolutely worshipped this standard. One of 
 the most devoted adherents of this strange divinity, gave 
 it as his deliberate opinion before a committee of the 
 House of Commons, that the sole duty of the Bank of 
 England was to guard the immaculate purity of the 
 standard ! There are some who, regarding money as a 
 mere implement of commerce, and the Bank as the means 
 of putting it into motion, are inclined to suspect that all 
 this fine nummular philosophy is but a scheme to establish 
 the tyranny of riches over labour ; to enable the holder 
 of money to trample on the hopes, the energies, the very 
 existence of those who are still struggling to acquire it : 
 in a word, to kick down the ladder by which our “ capi- 
 talists” had rapidly ascended to wealth, power, and dis- 
 tinction.* 
 
 * Sir R. Peel and Mr. Samuel Jones Lloyd are two persons of enormous 
 wealth, produced by an excessive use of credit. On starting in life, their 
 fathers were poor men of great faculty, bold enterprise, and good conduct ; 
 they lived to be ranked among the most conspicuous millionaires of their 
 country, by what their sons, who inherit their wealth, would call the un- 
 wholesome use of artificial credit. Sir Robert Peel lived and carried on his 
 works at Bury, in Lancashire; he there issued one-pound notes to pay the 
 wages of his workmen ; he also established a warehouse in London for the 
 sale of his goods, and on that warehouse he drew what were then known in 
 Lancashire as “ pig-upon-bacon” bills, at two and three months’ date, to pay 
 for the raw materials of his manufacture. He forced his credit to such a 
 degree, as for a time to deprive himself of the means of paying with punctuality 
 the duties on his calicoes, and the officers of Excise held possession of his 
 premises in Milk-street for six weeks for arrears of duties. When Messrs. 
 Jones and Co., of Manchester, commenced the banking business there, they 
 drew bills at two and three months’ date on some relatives of the same name, 
 who, we believe, carried on their affairs in W r atling street. W hen that house 
 retired from business, Jones and Co., of Manchester, opened an account with 
 Vere and Co., bankers in Lombard-street, and the amount of bills drawn 
 from Manchester on this account was so large and extraordinary as to alarm 
 
EFFECT OF PEEL’S BILL ON IRELAND. 
 
 59 
 
 Common sense, humanity, and experience, are all 
 against this system. The opinions of some of the ablest 
 and best informed men are opposed to it. Pitt, Montes- 
 quieu, Adam Smith, Jean Baptiste, Say, Hume, Locke, 
 M. Attwood, and nearly all the modern banking autho- 
 rities, with Rothschild, the late Lord Ashburton, the 
 father of Sir Robert Peel, Alison, Walter Scott, and 
 others, were decidedly adverse to it. In no country 
 were ever known so many and such calamitous failures 
 as have taken place in the British dominions since the 
 passing of the Bill of 1819* Ruin has flowed in an 
 almost uninterrupted course, and industry was allowed 
 no breathing time to recover. The sum total of losses, 
 from the insolvency of banks, caused by over issues or 
 improvident speculation, was but a grain of sand in the 
 balance against the mass of property that sunk beneath 
 the scourge of Sir Robert Peel’s monetary laws. 
 
 The disastrous consequences which affected England, 
 fell with ten-fold force on Ireland, where there was but 
 one employment, one line only of profitable industry, 
 agriculture : there was there no manufacturing interest to 
 
 Vere and Co., who hastily resolved to refuse to accept them, and they were 
 dishonoured for non-acceptance, Yere and Co. holding, we believe, all the 
 time, ample security in the shape of Lancashire bills for all that had been 
 drawn upon them. In these circumstances Jones and Co., of Manchester, 
 being in a thriving condition, having a prosperous business, and being 
 necessary to the trade of the district, on consulting their friends and cus- 
 tomers, who were called to deliberate on the case, were at once advised to 
 open their own house in London, and be no longer dependent on the caprice 
 of timid and cautious London bankers, who knew nothing of the great power 
 and salutary uses of mercantile credit. This advice was adopted, and such 
 is the origin of the firm of Jones, Lloyd and Co., which now stands at the 
 head of the banking interest of the city for wealth, skilful management, and, 
 we believe, yearly professional income. — Bankers' Circular. 
 
60 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 profit by the ruin of the farmer, even if such a paltry 
 benefit could be considered advantageous to any country 
 at such a price. Although the circulation had never 
 been extensive in Ireland, yet all went on smooth enough, 
 while the means were afforded of discharging mutual 
 obligations. With the restriction of the currency, all 
 became ill at ease ; the arm of labour was struck down, 
 and every one began to harass and press on his neigh- 
 bour.* What has this precious “ purity of the standard,” 
 this ridiculous “ sound and wholesome,” conferred on Ire- 
 land, to compensate for such wide-spread misery and ruin ? 
 
 In Ireland, more than anywhere, it is important to in- 
 crease the amount of that 'which is the support of labour 
 and the representative of produce. Its potato currency 
 is gone, and the paper circulation has, within a few years, 
 been reduced by more than half its former amount. The 
 result has fully borne out the opinion of Mr. Humef — 
 “ A nation whose money decreases, is actually at that time 
 weaker and more miserable than another nation which 
 possesses no more money, but is on the increasing hand.” 
 “ Make money plentiful,” said Mr. Rothschild to a com- 
 
 * I want no further proof of the falsity of principle and the detrimental 
 effects of Sir It. Peel’s monetary system than the unquestionable fact, that for 
 more than thirty years, “ as often as the Act of 1819 was rigidly enforced, or 
 attempted to be enforced, so often was the nation brought to the verge of 
 ruin, while as often as it was relaxed, prosperity began to return.” And 
 most assuredly, never will the great productive industry of the British Em- 
 pire be successfully developed and flourish in security ; never will its glo- 
 rious institutions be acknowledged and revered with the feelings of gratitude 
 that spring from tranquillity and content, until the spirit of the money- 
 changers be expelled from the sanctuary of the law ; until the unjust and cruel 
 policy of the Peel and Jones Lloyd school be replaced by a system more in 
 unison with the interest and the happiness of the people. 
 
 f Not the cheese-parer, but the philosopher. 
 
CAUSES OF AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION. 
 
 61 
 
 mittee of the House of Commons — “ make money cheap 
 and plentiful, and you will have the trade of the whole 
 world.” It has been made scarce and dear ; the country 
 has suffered the penalty, but our rulers are unconvinced ! 
 Gold is, moreover, unsuited for general circulation from 
 the loss by friction. An account was published lately of 
 one commercial house having lost, in seven years, up- 
 wards of two thousand pounds by “ light gold.” Such a 
 medium of circulation is far too expensive a luxury for 
 so poor a country as Ireland ; where so many experi- 
 ments have failed, why not try that of an abundant, but 
 discreetly regulated paper currency ? Let the British 
 Ministers vouchsafe to Ireland the benefit of their super- 
 cilious disdain, fiat experimentum in corpore vili. 
 
 Having already observed, that agricultural produce 
 had been occasionally subjected to ruinous depression, 
 with high protecting duties, while it invariably prospered 
 with an abundant circulating medium, and suffered cor- 
 respondingly from its contractions, I confess that I am 
 inclined to consider the currency question as one of 
 greater import to agricultural affairs than even that of 
 free trade. At the same time, it must be allowed that, 
 to give a marked preference to the foreign artisan or 
 labourer over our own countrymen, is a singular mode of 
 encouraging domestic industry. A fair competition is 
 desirable, but an oppressive competition is ruinous. 
 How is equality of competition to be established between 
 heavily-taxed and lightly-taxed industry ; between the 
 condition of semi-barbarous serfs and the comforts to 
 which British subjects have been used ; between the 
 climate of England and that of more genial latitudes, 
 except by a moderate and justly-proportioned import 
 
62 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 duty ? Above all, how is free trade to be carried on 
 without reciprocity, which foreign governments appear 
 to be every day more determined not to concede ? 
 
 There can be no doubt, that the unlimited influx of 
 foreign grain, rushing at once into the home market, 
 gave the finishing blow to the struggles and to the hopes 
 of the afflicted Irish people. It came on them by surprise, 
 and at a moment when they were bowed down to the 
 earth by such an accumulation of misfortune as has been 
 seldom witnessed in all the vicissitudes of human affairs.* 
 Thus was the agricultural produce of Ireland virtually 
 excluded from British consumption ; because, in their 
 squabbles for power, it pleased my Lord John Russell to 
 throw down the gauntlet of free trade, in a grand and 
 
 * “FOREIGN COMPETITION VerSUS IRISH INDUSTRY. 
 
 “ Facts, it is said, are stubborn things, one of them being held to be worth 
 a thousand arguments in deciding controversy. We therefore submit, for 
 the consideration of our readers, the following returns, copied from the 
 London Standard of Monday, 7th January. 1850 : — 
 
 Imports from Dec. 31, to Jan. 5, inclusive. 
 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 SCOTCH. 
 
 IRISH. 
 
 FOREIGN. 
 
 Wheat, 
 
 2,150 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 6,001 
 
 Barley, 
 
 4,339 
 
 572 
 
 0 
 
 8,597 
 
 Oats, 
 
 2,735 
 
 2,344 
 
 4,380 
 
 7,863 
 
 Flour, sacks 
 
 7,875 
 
 0 
 
 150 
 
 3,666 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 12,384 
 
 “ For six entire days not a pound of Irish wheat or Irish barley has found 
 its way into the London market, while the cognominal foreign articles may 
 be counted by thousands ; whether of quarters or bushels is of little matter. 
 Even of oats, in which it was predicted we should enjoy something like a 
 monopoly, the quantity supplied by foreigners bears to that sent from 
 Ireland, a ratio of seven to four, or nearly two to one. And only look to the 
 flour returns, which speak for themselves. How long can Ireland bear up 
 against this crushing competition ?” 
 
 See also Appendix C. 
 
FREE TRADE RUINOUS TO OUR NATIVE ARTISANS. 63 
 
 verbose epistle from Edinburgh, which Sir Robert Peel 
 had not the moral courage to take up with defiance. 
 
 “ Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur, Achivi.” 
 
 Premising always, that free trade, to be just and bene- 
 ficial to any class, must be founded on a perfect equality 
 of condition, and a full reciprocity of dealing between the 
 competing parties, yet it does appear that the farmers, 
 grievously as they have been wronged by this one-sided 
 free trade, will not, eventually, be sufferers to the same 
 extent as artisans, and tradesmen concerned in the fabri- 
 cation and sale of articles of luxury or comfort : from un- 
 mitigated foreign competition, nothing can result to them 
 but starvation and ruin. Ask the shoemakers, the glovers, 
 the hatters, the silk-weavers, the watchmakers, the cabi- 
 net-makers, &c., how free trade agrees with them ? 
 Worse I think than with the farmer. Our philosophical le- 
 gislators seem to have forgotten, that the working-classes 
 are producers in the first place, and that they must be 
 remunerated as producers, before they can enjoy as con- 
 sumers. If, as producers, they are undersold in their 
 own market, such cheapness is no gain to them. Cheap 
 bread is the dearest of any to those who are thereby de- 
 prived of the ability to purchase at all. 
 
 There is also the double increase of national wealth, 
 when the farmer, and the manufacturer, or tradesman, be- 
 come reciprocally the consumers of the produce of each 
 other. It is evident, that if either party transfer their 
 custom to foreigners, so much is lost to the country.* The 
 
 * “ England, with a free importation, will obtain and consume in a given time 
 a certain quantity of foreign grain — say to the value of a million of money — 
 sending abroad in payment a million’s worth of manufactured goods. The 
 
64 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 cheapness that springs from native abundance is a blessing 
 to all parties, but the redundancy of the market from fo- 
 reign glut, can never be attended by domestic advantage. 
 Unlimited competition in cheapness is a rivalry in fraud, 
 ending, for the most part, in beggary and disgrace. It 
 implies an utter absence of every humane and honest 
 feeling ; a merciless desire to profit by the want of over- 
 worked and defenceless wretches, and to extract the 
 greatest possible amount of labour from the lowest pos- 
 sible amount of remuneration. Foreign wages will not 
 answer for British workmen. 
 
 result is a million’s worth of goods — of wealth — produced in England and 
 sent away, and a million's worth of wealth — of corn, consumed by our people 
 — a million’s worth of wealth is produced and consumed. But, suppose by 
 the imposition of a protective duty you cause the manufacturing population to 
 obtain the corn from British cultivators. In this case a million’s worth of 
 corn will be produced on British soil, and sent to the towns to be consumed 
 by the manufacturing population; and a million’s worth of goods will be 
 produced in the towns and sent into our rural districts in payment, and be 
 consumed by the agricultural part of the community. The manufacturing 
 population consumes a million’s worth of corn, and produces a million’s worth 
 of goods to pay for it, as under the system of free importation-. But this is 
 not all ; for the agricultural population also produces a million’s worth of 
 wealth — of corn, and consumes a million’s worth of wealth — of manufactured 
 goods. Thus the amount of wealth produced and consumed by the British 
 community is doubled. It may be said the manufacturing population would 
 have to pay dearer for grain to the British cultivator — would not get so 
 much in exchange for their million’s worth of manufactured goods, as they 
 would if they obtained corn from abroad. Let us suppose they pay 1 1 per 
 cent, more, or only get 900, 000 Z. ’s worth of corn for their million’s worth of 
 goods. In such case, the result would be, that a million’s worth of wealth in 
 the shape of manufactured goods, and 900,000Z.’s worth of wealth in the 
 shape of corn, would be produced and consumed at home ; that is, 900,000Z.’s 
 worth more than would be produced and consumed if there were no protective 
 duties, and the corn were obtained from abroad. The 900,000Z. ’s worth of 
 corn would be a clear gain to the community, as the men who might produce 
 it, if not so employed, would spend the time necessary for its production in 
 idleness. ” 
 
TRUE MEANING OF “ CHEAPNESS.” 
 
 65 
 
 Ingenuity is on the rack to get up cheap, showy, and 
 worthless articles ; because nothing will sell that has not 
 the appearance of being priced below the cost of its pro- 
 duction. The fair and honourable character of the Eng- 
 lish trader has suffered everywhere from these disre- 
 putable contrivances. But, the rage for cheapness has 
 seized the public mind ; the Government applauds and 
 the Legislature sanctions it ; the great body of the labour- 
 ing population are demoralized and starved by it. 
 
 The first shock of war, the failure of foreign crops, 
 many other possible events will bring irresistible convic- 
 tion of the mischievous absurdity of our free trade legis- 
 lation, as well as of the unsoundness and danger of the 
 system which, in defiance of repeated and woeful expe- 
 ence, it has been so perseveringly sought to inflict on 
 the monetary concerns of the country. Such free trade 
 as has been imposed on us is disastrous enough ; but, 
 free trade of this kind, and a restricted currency, cannot 
 long co-exist without ruin and revolution. 
 
 The real meaning of cheapness to the consumer will 
 be understood at last. It is this , to rob the poor and in- 
 dustrious artisans and labourers of the just reward of 
 their toil, for the benefit of the wealthy drones of society. 
 The unhappy sempstress who receives but five farthings 
 for making a shirt,* earning for a long day’s ceaseless 
 work but fourpence half-penny, at the utmost, has no 
 reason to bless the cheapness of these “ sound general 
 principles.” 
 
 Hitherto in England, the starting-point in the race for 
 wealth and consequent distinction, however humble, was 
 
 * See The Times newspaper, 6th December, 1849. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 no impediment on the road to success. It is most im- 
 portant that this facility of onward exertion should be 
 carefully preserved ; although it is very true that, in 
 some instances, indelible meanness of soul mav have been 
 borne by it to exalted station. The cheap system inter- 
 rupts the march of this great ascending movement, so es- 
 sential to the best interests of society ; for it restricts the 
 range of commercial enterprise to those huge capitalists, 
 who domineer in the mart, and whose dealings are so ex- 
 tensive as to afford an ample return from the aggregate of 
 infinitesimal profits. 
 
 It is revolting to see a grasping, hard-hearted, selfish 
 man, dissolving, as it were, into a flood of benevolence, 
 and congratulating himself on the idea of saving, for the 
 “ poor consumer,” a penny in the pound on sugar, wrung 
 out of the agony and torture of his fellow-beings ; while 
 it never occurs to this disciple of “sound general princi- 
 ples,” that by excluding the competition of foreign serfs 
 with his own countrymen, he might enable the “poor 
 consumer ” to pay that extra penny for sugar, raised by 
 free labour in British colonies ; thus rendering the “ poor 
 consumer,” at once prosperous himself, and the cause of 
 prosperity to others. This universal philanthropy will 
 be found to resolve itself into the narrowest and most in- 
 veterate selfishness. 
 
 We are told, authoritatively, that there can be no return 
 to the policy that made England the most powerful, and 
 the happiest nation in the world. But, unless it be de- 
 creed by heaven, that this mighty empire must fall speedily 
 and ignominiously, we shall retrace our steps and rescue 
 the country from the miserable consequences of this 
 paltry policy, and these pernicious doctrines. To those 
 
SMALL MEASURES AND PALLIATIVES USELESS. 
 
 67 
 
 who long for the overturning of all established institu- 
 tions, to the advocates of utilitarian principles, who would 
 convert the venerable cathedrals of England into cotton 
 mills, or sell the materials by auction ; to those “ sound 
 and wholesome” philosophers, who w T ish to effect a whole- 
 sale confiscation of estates, and to replace the old 
 proprietors by London Jews, and Manchester cotton- 
 spinners ; to the headlong disciples of “ progress,” I 
 have nothing to address. But, to those who feel strongly 
 the disgrace and ruin that has befallen their own glorious 
 native land, I would earnestly urge, that the safety, the 
 welfare, the honour of the state must be no longer sacri- 
 ficed to swell the unhallowed wealth of worthless indivi- 
 duals ; that the well-earned. reward of honest industry, 
 the peace and comfort of the peasant’s home must be no 
 longer brought into peril to bolster up the blunders of an 
 unprincipled system,. There is no alternative ; the sea- 
 son of small measures and palliatives is rapidly passing 
 away. We must return to “the old ways,” or proceed 
 onwards to revolution — reverse the engine, or we are on 
 the rocks. 
 
68 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RELATIONS OF LANDLORD AND TENANT IN IRELAND TENANT 
 
 LEAGUE INCUMBERED ESTATES COMMISSION EMIGRATION. 
 
 T he relations of landlord and tenant have long been 
 in a disorderly and unsatisfactory state in Ireland. Whe- 
 ther that may have arisen from the original imper- 
 fection of the laws, from the force of peculiar circum- 
 stances, or from a disposition in certain parties to abuse 
 or evade the law, is now a matter more of curiosity than 
 of profitable investigation. The important point is to 
 ascertain, as correctly as possible, the actual state of the 
 case, with a view to such remedies as are practically 
 attainable. From long and intimate acquaintance with 
 the subject, I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the 
 assertion so frequently made and so generally received, 
 that the laws in Ireland, relative to land, are all in 
 favour of the landlord, and systematically adverse to the 
 tenant. I have been taught by somewhat disagreeable 
 experience, that a dishonest and litigious tenant, with an 
 unscrupulous and smart attorney, can, in most instances 
 with impunity, plunder and defy his landlord to his 
 heart’s content. On the other hand, the existing law 
 gives to a merciless and unprincipled landlord ample 
 means of crushing a well-disposed and industrious tenant. 
 When both parties are upon a par in roguery, the ad- 
 vantages are pretty nearly balanced ; but for the humane 
 
FAIR DEALING BETWEEN LANDLORD AND TENANT. 69 
 
 and indulgent landlord, or the quiet, honest tenant, there 
 is no chance of safety except when they happen to 
 meet. 
 
 This is a state of things that no Government should 
 have tolerated, and which every man with a spark of 
 integrity must wish to see reformed. I am sincerely 
 and ardently desirous of an equitable and satisfactory 
 adjustment of the question : but I know that this can 
 never be accomplished by the pursuit of wild and im- 
 practicable schemes, or by the attempt to marshal the 
 tenantry in hostile array against their landlords. Their 
 well being is indissolubly united ; to think otherwise is 
 entirely to mistake the nature of the connexion. Pro- 
 ceedings, in the shape of an attack from either party on 
 the other, can end only in the aggravation of existing 
 evils ; no improved condition of society, no benefit to 
 the agricultural class can result from such movements. 
 It seems to me that the principle of dealing between the 
 owner of land and the man who hires it from him, is 
 clearly this : the rent agreed for should be such as 
 would enable the occupier, one year with another, by a 
 reasonable exertion of skill and industry, to provide for 
 the subsistence of his family, pay the rates and taxes, 
 lay by something for “ a rainy day,” or as future pro- 
 vision for his children, and stand clear with his land- 
 lord. This should be the regulating principle, and the 
 law should approach as near to it, as a due regard to the 
 nature and rights of property will permit. 
 
 Whatever permanent improvements the tenant may 
 have made, should be fairly valued ; and the amount 
 paid to him on the expiration of his lease, without, how- 
 ever giving him the power to retain possession for a 
 
70 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 single day beyond the specified term. This, I conceive, 
 to be in equity the tenant’s right and the landlord’s 
 interest, rationally considered. 
 
 There is no legal and peaceable means of securing 
 such a result to which I would not cheerfully subscribe ; 
 and I can add, with truth, that I have adhered to the 
 practice during a long course of dealing with my own 
 tenants. There can be no alteration made in the law 
 which would insure the payment of a fair rent, without 
 fraud or delay, by which I should not be decidedly a 
 gainer. Therefore, in stating the difficulties that arise 
 from the complicated nature of the case, and the objec- 
 tions that have been started to the published resolutions 
 of the “ Tenant League,” I protest against the inference 
 that I am opposed to a just and equitable arrangement 
 between landlord and tenant ; on the contrary, nothing 
 could gratify me more than to find those difficulties sur- 
 mounted, and those objections satisfactorily answered. 
 
 The leading principles of the “ Tenant League” as 
 announced, are chiefly comprised in two propositions — 
 a compulsory valuation of land, and a perpetuity of 
 tenure. The first involves the avoidance of all existing 
 contracts, wherever, as it is expressly stated, the tenant 
 may require his lease to be set aside. It does not 
 appear that a similar privilege is to be conceded to the 
 landlord. Previous contracts being thus cleared away, 
 next comes the important question, by what authority is 
 the new valuation to be made ? We are informed that 
 each party shall choose an arbitrator, to be bound to 
 decide according to certain rules drawn up by the 
 Council of the “ Tenant League .” So that the arbi- 
 trators are to be nominated merely for the purpose of 
 
TENANT LEAGUE PRINCIPLES. 
 
 71 
 
 carrying out regulations, framed without any concurrence 
 on the part of the landlords. 
 
 There will be some little difficulty also in enforcing the 
 prohibition of private contracts between man and man, 
 and in subjecting the lease of every farm in the kingdom 
 to the process of valuation. Again, supposing the perpe- 
 tuity to be taken from the owner and given to the occu- 
 pier, the ci-devant landlord is to be permitted to repur- 
 chase his property in detail ; but it is not very clearly 
 stated, whether if he let it there is to be a forfeiture toties 
 quoties. In the latter case, after having once redeemed 
 his land, he might possibly be inclined to keep it on his 
 own account. Indeed, if there were not a compulsory 
 letting law, the probability is, that in a few years Ireland 
 would become a mere sheep and cattle rearing draw- 
 farm for England. 
 
 In the breach of existing agreements, if required on 
 one side — in the compulsory valuation of private property, 
 by an ex parte standard — and by the forcible transfer of 
 the final possession from the hands of the present owners, 
 it cannot be denied that, at the first sight, there does 
 appear some trifling approximation to — 
 
 “ The good old rule, the simple plan. 
 
 That he should take who has the power. 
 
 And he should heep who can.” 
 
 It is grievous to reflect, that men, many of them not 
 holding a foot of ground either as landlords or tenants, 
 and who, consequently, can be actuated only by the pure 
 and noble sentiments of glowing patriotism, and by a thirst 
 for justice, should from the very novelty of the subject 
 and from their inexperience, expose their disinterested 
 
72 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 labours to such (of course unfounded) imputations. But 
 so it has ever been, purity of intention is not always a 
 safe guide amidst the passions, the prejudices, and the 
 contending interests of human existence. It indicates, 
 however, considerable discretion on the part of the direc- 
 tors of the “ Tenant League,” that they profess un- 
 bounded reverence for the constitution of these realms, 
 and have diligently sought to ascertain the precise ex- 
 tent to which their proceedings might be carried with- 
 out risk of infringing the law. They have set forth a 
 well-devised plan of general organization throughout the 
 provinces ; arrangements have been made for levying 
 a good round sum of money ; and the usual quantity of 
 native eloquence has been put into requisition. Yet, 
 there is danger that intemperate and thoughtless indivi- 
 duals may, here and there, give unwarrantable latitude to 
 professional opinions, and may even put a forced and 
 erroneous construction on the dictates and sentiments of 
 the supreme Council itself. In all popular confederacies 
 the great object should be, to enlighten the intellect, in 
 order to restrain the impetuosity of the many. It may 
 happen also in this particular case, that a considerable 
 degree of very natural impatience may be generated in 
 the public mind, if no authorised practical results should 
 be achieved by the display of moral energy, and the able, 
 but strictly constitutional exertions of the leaders in this 
 adventurous undertaking. It will take a high pressure 
 of moral force, I apprehend, to induce a British Parlia- 
 ment to enact, that there should be a compulsory valua- 
 tion of land, any more than a compulsory valuation of 
 the produce of land. And, it might puzzle the “ collec- 
 tive wisdom,” as much to devise an effectual method of 
 
JUST RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 
 
 73 
 
 controlling the agreements between lessor and lessee, as 
 between buyer and seller in fair and market. Neither 
 is it probable, that legislators at the other side of the 
 water could be easily convinced of the justice and expe- 
 diency of decreeing that the lawful possessor of a pro- 
 perty, who contracts with a tenant to let him have a farm 
 for a fixed term, and no longer, shall thereby forfeit all 
 claim to resumption so long as a rent at a compulsory 
 valuation shall be paid. 
 
 It is most desirable and essential to the improvement, 
 and, of course, to the tranquillity of Ireland, that the 
 just rights of property on all sides should be clearly de- 
 fined, and effectually protected by plain, straightforward, 
 and indefeasible legislation. It will then be for Govern- 
 ment to see that the law is obeyed. As matters now 
 are, it is but too true, that a worthless landlord may 
 avail himself of the strict letter of a contract, to enforce 
 obligations with which circumstances, beyond the control 
 of the tenant, have rendered it impossible for him to 
 comply. Without any fault on the part of the occupier, 
 he may have been reduced to want by ministerial ex- 
 periments ; and the improvements on which he had ex- 
 pended his capital, with, perhaps, the labour of his whole 
 life, may be confiscated for the exclusive benefit of his 
 landlord. This is a heavy grievance, a crying injustice. 
 It ought to be redressed without delay ; and, in this 
 instance, the remedy is of easy application. But how 
 stands the law between a wasteful, lazy, and litigious 
 tenant and his landlord ? By a series of intricate forms, 
 the slightest neglect of which on the part of the landlord 
 would be fatal to the proceedings, the tenant can contrive 
 to set his landlord at defiance ; he not only avoids pay- 
 
74 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 merit of rent, but he may rack his farm for years with 
 perfect impunity, and finally make off with himself when 
 all means of further annoyance are exhausted. If pau- 
 pers should settle on a piece of land without a shadow of 
 title, as happened lately on the estate of the Crown, or 
 if a house and an acre of land be allowed rent free to a 
 gate keeper, in either case the occupant can be dispos- 
 sessed only by an expensive suit in ejectment on the 
 title. It should be remembered that landlords are bound 
 by covenants, and are a fixed mark for condign punish- 
 ment, should they exceed by the smallest tittle the exact 
 limits of their legal rights ; whereas the tenant may 
 violate every contract, aud set at nought every principle 
 of law, leaving to the landlord enormous costs to pay, 
 and a “ dissolving view” of his persecutor in full march 
 for the United States. These are events of every-day 
 occurrence in Ireland; they -would seem to call for a 
 prompt and effective remedy. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of the intended reform are 
 not by any means diminished, as the matter comes to be 
 more minutely investigated. There must be interference 
 and restriction at every step ; for instance, if covenants 
 of any description are to be permitted, it is to be feared 
 that, under the circumstances, some landlords might be 
 indiscreet enough to introduce clauses into a lease that 
 would effectually neutralize the operation of the proposed 
 improvements. If, through the instrumentality of those 
 zealous and patriotic gentlemen wdio have placed them- 
 selves at the head of the Tenant League, an agrarian 
 code could be concocted that would establish the just 
 rights of property on a firm and unquestionable basis, 
 what an invaluable benefit w ? ould be conferred on all 
 
ENGLISH VIEWS OF IRISH DEALINGS. 
 
 75 
 
 classes of her Majesty’s Irish subjects ! Hitherto we 
 have heard of no complaints on the part of English 
 tenants against their landlords, yet it is extremely 
 doubtful whether the adoption, in their integrity, of the 
 English laws relative to the tenancy of land, would ex- 
 actly suit the habits and the wishes of Irishmen in this 
 particular. Indeed, the Tenant-Right delegates who 
 went over last spring to London, expressly state that 
 they found it impossible to prevail on English Members 
 of Parliament, however intelligent in other respects, to 
 see this matter “ in an Irish point of view." They had 
 a formal, John Bullish notion, that a bargain is a bargain, 
 and should be binding on both parties alike. 
 
 With such numerous and vexatious impediments in 
 the way, I cannot disguise my apprehensions, that during 
 the critical interval between promise and performance, 
 the principles of the Tenant League Council may be 
 put to a very severe test. I am the more inclined to 
 dread a result of this nature, from the language employed 
 by some of the correspondents of the Council, in which 
 landlords “ as a body,” are denounced as malefactors of 
 the vilest description, inaccessible to remorse, and past 
 all hope of improvement. One of them expresses him- 
 self thus in a Letter to the Editor of the Nation , 21st 
 September, 1850: — 
 
 “ That the present system of Irish landlordism is a 
 monstrous and infamous abuse, and that its continuance 
 must be the ruin of every interest in the land, every 
 right-minded man now admits. The landlords will cer- 
 tainly not reform it of themselves and take to honest and 
 Christian courses. The harrowing experience of the 
 last few years proves that, as a body, they are men of 
 
76 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 spoliation and of blood, mammonists and man-slayers, who 
 will trample upon humanity and justice, and make light 
 of the sacrifice of human life in prosecuting their mission 
 of devastation and plunder. Blind, cruel, and callous, 
 like the plague-struck persecutor of God’s people of old, 
 they will, in the face of outraged heaven, gratify old in- 
 stincts, however barbarous ; cling to old privileges, 
 however tyrannous ; even ultimately to their own inevit- 
 able destruction.” 
 
 I submit that this is not the tone and temper in which 
 so grave an affair should be discussed. Calm, deliberate, 
 and equitable legislation can scarce be expected to ori- 
 ginate in feelings so unwarrantably excited. 
 
 There is another, and very material point concerning 
 the interest of the most helpless portion of the poor, a 
 class from whom, before the potato blight, exorbitant 
 rents were wrung, and whose hopeless wretchedness con- 
 stitutes an insurmountable barrier to improvement, I 
 allude to the cottier tenantry. We have not been 
 informed whether it be meant that compulsory valuation 
 and perpetuity of tenure, with their adjuncts, are to 
 descend through all the degrees of sub-letting, which 
 have taken place so extensively throughout Ireland, and, 
 for the most part, in direct violation of covenants inserted 
 to prevent the practice. Neither has it been stated, 
 whether the improved measure is to be applicable to 
 towns, villages and town parks, or where the line of de- 
 marcation is to be fixed. Will no person be permitted 
 to take any portion of land under any circumstances, for 
 a less term than all futurity ? Those are weighty points, 
 and require mature deliberation. 
 
 The conduct of Government towards the landowners 
 
APATHY OF LANDOWNERS. 
 
 77 
 
 of Ireland is in every way deserving of particular notice. 
 By the alteration of the currency, and the free admission 
 of foreign corn, the value of landed property was reduc- 
 ed by two-thirds. No compensation whatever was made 
 for this unexampled legislative interference ; * the debts 
 of every kind affecting land remained as before. The 
 destruction of property was accompanied by the destruc- 
 tion of character. Atrocities, unheard of and incredible, 
 w T ere freely and perseveringly imputed to Irish landlords. 
 The Press thundered at them, amiable philanthropists 
 recited to shuddering senators a catalogue of landlord 
 enormities, that made the blood run cold in their veins, 
 while Ministers cheered on the cry against the victims of 
 their unjust and iniquitous policy. Since the first rude 
 groundwork of society was laid, never was there wit- 
 nessed before, the monstrous spectacle of a Government 
 declaring war against a numerous, loyal, and respectable 
 class of their fellow-countrymen, beating down the value 
 of their possessions, and openly avowing a fixed purpose 
 of hunting them to extermination. That the landowners 
 should have borne such unjustifiable treatment almost 
 without resistance, can be accounted for only by the 
 well-known fact, that from their habits of submission to 
 the laws, and their dread of any movement that might 
 bring into hazard established institutions, they have ever 
 allowed themselves to be wronged and plundered, with- 
 out an attempt to exercise the ample powers of redress 
 within their reach. As Sir Robert Walpole said of them, 
 
 * When slavery was first abolished in our West India Islands, twenty 
 millions were voted as compensation to slave owners. When the property 
 of Irish landowners, to a far greater amount, was sacrificed to free-trade, 
 the only indemnity they received was a confiscation court for the summary 
 disposal of their estates at little more than a nominal value. 
 
78 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 “ they may be fleeced and slaughtered as easily and as 
 safely as their own sheep.” Confiscation by law is more 
 unnatural, and far more dangerous, than confiscation by 
 revolutionary violence. In the first case, the evil is in- 
 curable, for it is in the remedy itself. Yet, it has been 
 broadly asserted, that the sentence of the modern Court 
 of Confiscation may not prove eventually as conclusive, 
 or satisfactory, as it was originally supposed. Already, 
 the machinery appears to be somewhat clogged, and there 
 can be little doubt, that with the increasing number of 
 estates dragged into its vortex, the embarrassment will 
 augment proportionally. I am informed, that strong 
 doubts have been expressed by an eminent legal autho- 
 rity, as to the validity of the boasted Parliamentary title. 
 It is admitted, that it effectually excludes the claims of 
 puisne creditors, but whether it will be available in a 
 trial of ejectment, is not quite so certain. On the resto- 
 ration of Charles the Second, a Court of Claims was 
 instituted to revise the extensive confiscations of the 
 Usurper ; and, if ever reason and the principles of sound 
 justice resume their salutary influence over the conduct 
 of public affairs in Ireland, this mass of legalized rapine 
 must become the subject of an impartial and searching 
 investigation, with a view to indemnify the unfortunate 
 sufferers.* 
 
 * ‘‘ But let us ask our readers to remember the circumstances of Ireland when 
 this step was taken. A famine had in the first instance, in extinguishing a 
 great part of the produce of the soil, destroyed the power of the tenant to 
 pay, and of the landlord to receive rent. This was not all ; that same 
 famine, while it decreased the means, increased the liabilities of eveiy Irish 
 proprietor. The starving people were left to him to feed. Even this was 
 not all. Human legislation aggravated the mysterious calamity which Heaven 
 had inflicted. The recognition of the right to outdoor relief imposed upon 
 
IRISH EVICTIONS. 
 
 79 
 
 Evictions to a great extent, and sometimes accom- 
 panied by circumstances revolting to humanity, have 
 occurred of late years in Ireland. They have not only 
 been carefully displayed to public notice, but with grossly 
 exaggerated details, wherever, by possibility, an addition 
 
 the land a burden, the extent of which no one could calculate. Other im- 
 posts fleeced the owners and occupiers of land, to repay the prodigal expen- 
 diture of our Government, in what were termed public works. The 
 measures of free trade, in lowering, by at least a third, the value of Ireland’s 
 only produce, more than proportionally reduced the value of her land. The 
 circulation of money in Ireland is incontestibly proved by the Bank returns to 
 have fallen off nearly one-half. The necessary effect of all this was to destroy 
 all confidence, to unsettle all calculations, especially as to land. Tenants left 
 the island as a doomed place, and threw upon the hands of their landlords 
 farms which no one would take, and upon which, although lying utterly 
 waste, the landlord was made personally responsible for a poor-rate of not 
 unfrequently ten shillings in the pound. This was a state of things not very 
 inviting to purchasers ; it was not just the time when any sane man would 
 have proposed to sell property in Ireland. But just at this moment, and at a 
 time when everything connected with land in Ireland seemed at its lowest 
 ebb, when all confidence was gone, when no security could be felt in any in- 
 vestment in the soil, the Government, with that paternal care which has dis- 
 tinguished their conduct towards every Irish interest in turn, by legislative 
 enactment have called an auction of every incumbered estate in the island, 
 and are now offering for sale at the auction mart of Messrs. Richards, Long- 
 field, and Co., property, the annual produce of which cannot be much less 
 than a million ; an amount of property for which we will venture to say, 
 the most prosperous times would not invite purchasers or find the purchase 
 money, but which, if sold now, must be sold at a sacrifice that will make the 
 transfer an act of spoliation, differing very little in moral qualities from that 
 cheap and expeditious mode of conveyancing, to which we have already 
 adverted, as practised in old times by very respectable commissioners upon 
 Hounslow Heath. If the act is to be executed at all, no care, no caution of 
 the Commissioners, even were they disposed to exercise it, can avoid this 
 result. It is a moral impossibility to offer for sale this great quantity of pro- 
 perty without depreciating it. It is just as impossible to induce any person to 
 bid its fair value for Irish property now. The policy of the Incumbered 
 Estates Court is just that of the man who, watching the moment of commer- 
 cial depression, would pounce upon his debtor, and sacrifice his property by a 
 sheriff’s sale .” — Standard Newspaper , October, 1850. 
 
80 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 could be suggested to the horrible reality. For those 
 who, at such a time, ordered those clearances with any 
 view to mere profit, or loss, or to carry into effect the 
 inhuman and unchristian tenets of political economy, no 
 vindication can, or ought to be, put forward. In their 
 regard, let the reprobation of man be a prelude to the 
 vengeance of Heaven. Let us, however be just, and 
 remount to primary causes. Who compelled this work 
 of devastation and anguish ? Who robbed both landlord 
 and tenant, and rendered both unable to acquit their obli- 
 gations ? Placed between a persecuting Government 
 and an inflexible creditor, what chance was left to the un- 
 happy landlord, but to destroy, or be destroyed ? Again, 
 who called into existence this pauper population, and 
 ground them to the earth, while the power of grinding 
 them remained ? Not the head landlords certainly, at 
 least, not for the last quarter of a century, but many 
 of those who shout loudest for “tena n right,” and ex- 
 claim most lustily against the inhuman tyranny of land- 
 lords. — If the bared arm of Divine wrath ever yet struck 
 down the senseless arrogance of pitiless mortals, its ven- 
 geance must be reserved for those misgoverning rulers, 
 who wantonly blighted the growth of national improve- 
 ment, reduced a numerous and a thriving people to the 
 condition of a beleaguered town, and then deliberately 
 inflicted on them them the heaviest curse of all, their pal- 
 try, demoralizing, and destructive remedial measures. 
 
 Much has been said and written of the sufferings of 
 evicted tenants. But little has been heard of the afflic- 
 tion of those landed proprietors, who have been ruth- 
 lessly expelled from the homes where their ancestors had 
 lived, hospitably, independently, usefully, for many a ge- 
 neration past. Plundered by fraudulent tenants, and 
 
CHANGE OF LANDLORDS. 
 
 81 
 
 sold up by the court of confiscation, their feelings and 
 their destitution have excited little indignation or sym- 
 pathy. Perhaps it would have been politic, at least it 
 would have been decorous, on the part of the Tenant 
 League, if, with the assertion of those rights which they 
 claim for themselves, they had mingled some expression 
 of regret for the fallen fortunes of such landlords as had 
 proved themselves to be the friends and the protectors of 
 their tenantry. I cannot believe that a London Jew, ora 
 Manchester cotton-spinner, if he could be induced to in- 
 vest his money in a security so precarious as an Irish 
 estate, would prove a kinder, or a more generous land- 
 lord, than the majority of those whom a Whig Ministry 
 have doomed to extermination. It will be found on in- 
 quiry, that men who have made money are not particu- 
 larly lenient creditors, and that they have been known to 
 seize the property of their starving debtor, or turn his 
 family into the street and himself into a jail, with as little 
 hesitation or remorse as any landlord that ever disgraced 
 that name and position in Ireland. But, the money- 
 changers belong to a privileged class : weak and narrow- 
 minded statesmen bow down before them, their inhu- 
 manity is unrecorded. In Ireland, the only creditor who 
 may not, who dares not, seek for payment of what is 
 lawfully due to him, is the landlord : but pay he must : 
 there is no outpouring of parliamentary eloquence to de- 
 pict his unmerited sufferings, no government to which he 
 can look for protection ; he has no debtor right league at 
 his back. 
 
 After all, so long as a vestige of original property in 
 land is tolerated, much must, of necessity, be left to the 
 kindly feelings and to the sense of honour beyond the 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 reach of law, that should exist in the heart of the land- 
 lord. No enactment short of complete confiscation can 
 preserve the idle, the mismanaging, or unfortunate tenant 
 from being more or less at the mercy of him to whom he 
 has to pay a rent , modify it as you will. Now, it cer- 
 tainly does not appear to be the most efficient mode of 
 calling into active operation those benevolent feelings on 
 the part of the landlord, to assume as an incontroverti- 
 ble fact, that he is ex officio a bloodthirsty tyrant and 
 an insatiable extortioner ; to treat him as a public enemy, 
 and regulate the letting of his land by an arrangement in 
 the forming of which he has had no voice. Evictions 
 would recommence, a new “ Tenant League” would 
 spring up with ulterior views, or recourse might be had 
 again to the 44 wild justice of revenge.” 
 
 Of the debates at the Tenant League meetings, little 
 has been transmitted to the public ; but, every one who 
 has read the earnest and repeated assurance of the Coun- 
 cil, that they seek nothing but to secure the just rights 
 of all parties, and to place them on a firm and amicable 
 foundation, must wish them a speedy and complete suc- 
 cess. With a self-devotion that is truly admirable, its 
 members have undertaken a task that may, at any mo- 
 ment, involve a most serious responsibility. A discreet 
 and sober officer of the council in Dublin might suddenly 
 find himself made answerable for a lively outburst of 
 Southern patriotism, or a flare up of the Northern lights. 
 This sort of mutual insurance is by no means calculated 
 to encourage timid and cautious politicians. Then, again, 
 a course of strictly legal and discreetly subdued opera- 
 tions is not well fitted to excite the favour, or to com- 
 mand the support of the multitude. Should these saga- 
 
TENANT LEAGUE. 
 
 83 
 
 cious and upright directors, influenced by such consider- 
 ations, or meeting the ingratitude that too frequently 
 attends the exercise of patriotic virtue, withdraw from 
 the cause, what awful consequences might ensue ! Ad-- 
 venturers, with little talent and less honesty, without pro- 
 perty or character, practised dealers in public disturbance 
 for personal profit, would soon throw past professions 
 into the shade. The Council has already intimated an 
 intention of appropriating Parliamentary representation 
 to the objects of the Tenant League. Undoubtedly, 
 under such auspices, the elections will be conducted in the 
 most harmonious and constitutional manner. The only 
 force employed will be the force of energetic and unan- 
 swerable appeals to the reason and good feelings of he 
 constituency. If, however, by any chance, the manage- 
 ment should pass into less pure and pacific hands, the 
 melo-drama of Repeal agitation would be revived, to the 
 small edification or advantage of the Irish people. Im- 
 mense sums would be levied and disappear ; a pass-word 
 would admit to Parliament persons but indifferently qua- 
 lified to discharge the duties of representatives, and who 
 could take their seats only by an act of flagrant perjury. 
 These worthies would quickly come to an understanding 
 with knowing Whig negociators, by whom free permis- 
 sion would be granted to them to brawl for “ tenant- 
 right,” and even to vote for it, if it ever should find its 
 way to the House of Commons, certain of a majority of 
 ten to one against it. On all other occasions, especially 
 when the existence of the Cabinet was threatened, the 
 honourable members would be found voting straightfor- 
 ward with the minister, “ for a consideration.” 
 
 In the meantime, agitation in every shape would be 
 
84 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 kept up at home ; occasionally, perhaps, enlivened by 
 what the French call “ voie de fait” The most solemn en- 
 gagements would be volunteered to give up the ghost at 
 a certain time and place, if tenant-right, in its utmost ex- 
 tension, did not then and there become the law of the 
 land. The measure would be deferred to the Greek 
 kalends, and the patriots, alas ! would survive ; but 
 their merits would be ultimately recognised, and their 
 talents made available for the public service, in the 
 various departments of the State. 
 
 I cannot pass by unnoticed, the portentous subject of 
 Emigration. When a country sends forth emigrants, as 
 a hive does its swarms, from a plethora of inhabitants, it 
 is a natural and salutary relief to those who depart, as 
 well as to those who remain. In this case, however, 
 the emigrant should bear with him the means of future 
 support ; unlike thousands of our unhappy countrymen 
 who rush abroad, unfit to go, and unable to stay at home. 
 Where circumstances allowed, in many instances relief 
 and aid were freely given by the maligned and calum- 
 niated landlords ; but Government did little to amend 
 the condition of these forlorn outcasts. It was con- 
 trary to “ sound general principles!” I have often 
 passed, with deep commiseration, through crowds of 
 these “ poor exiles,” bewailing the ties about to be 
 broken for ever, and the dark and doubtful prospect 
 before them. 
 
 “ Good heavens ! what sorrows gloomed that parting day. 
 
 That called them from their native haunts away ; 
 
 When the poor exiles, every pleasure past. 
 
 Hung round their home, and fondly looked their last ; 
 
 And shudd’ring still to face the distant deep, 
 
 Returned and wept, and still returned to weep.” 
 
EMIGRATION. 
 
 85 
 
 I shall make no apology for the quotation. I have no 
 pretensions to overmuch sensibility; but there are feel- 
 ings that no utilitarian or pseudo-philosophical sneers 
 should be permitted to stifle, and emotions that we should 
 neither try to suppress, nor blush to avow. If employ- 
 ment cannot be provided at home, let us have emigration; 
 but let it be conducted on principles of humanity and 
 justice. The passage vessels should be subjected to a 
 careful inspection ; and dure attention should be given to 
 the accommodation, the facilities for cleanliness, and the 
 abundant supply of wholesome food. An active and 
 trustworthy agent should be stationed at the colonial 
 ports ; allotments of land should be prepared for the 
 emigrants ; instruction and assistance should be afforded 
 to them, for at least the first twelve months. These des- 
 titute beings should be taught to feel that they were not 
 quite abandoned ; that a protecting power still watched 
 over their wayfaring venture, and that for the indus- 
 trious and well-disposed, a home had been prepared 
 beyond “ the distant deep.” From the moment that 
 the emigrants embarked, they should be considered as 
 under the special care of the State authorities, which 
 should never lose sight of them, until the means of ac- 
 quiring honestly a comfortable independence were placed 
 within their reach. I will not enlarge on the sound 
 policy of such treatment. I am aware that the trashy 
 objection of cost will be made to it ; but I may be per- 
 mitted to observe, that it is not unworthy of an enlight- 
 ened statesman to consider, whether it be not more 
 desirable, politically speaking, that such numerous bands 
 of emigrants should leave their native shores under im- 
 pressions of gratitude and affection towards the parent 
 
86 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 country, than, as is too frequently the case, to be driven 
 forth with minds exasperated by wrongs, and panting for 
 revenge. 
 
 The emigration from Ireland has long since passed 
 the salutary point. It is now the fatal depletion of an 
 already sinking patient. The able-bodied, intelligent 
 farmers, with some capital, a class of men whom it would 
 take a century to replace, are quitting us every day by 
 hundreds for the United States, there to cherish, extend 
 and bequeath a deadly, implacable hatred to England, 
 its government, and its depopulating “sound general 
 principles. 5 ' Still, we are told that the system works 
 well ; that everything is improving, that the fortunate 
 result is on the eve of arriving, just as it has been at any 
 time during the last thirty-five years. We may be in- 
 credulous, but what care our rulers ? — we suffer on, and 
 we submit. 
 
 The crusade which it has pleased the Ministers of the 
 Crown to wage against Irish landlords, will be a matter 
 of astonishment to posterity. No extenuation of their 
 conduct can be offered, except that they might have been 
 influenced by some secret but futile expectation of ulti- 
 mate advantage from all this unjust and intolerable suf- 
 fering. It will scarce be credited, that the statesmen to 
 whom the government of a vast empire was confided, were 
 themselves governed by the clamour of a mischievous and 
 unprincipled faction. But whatever may have been the 
 object of their policy, ministers have evidently overshot 
 the mark in aiming at the too rapid extinction of land- 
 owners in Ireland. Between their free-trade and their 
 restricted currency, their confiscation courts, and the 
 atrocious slanders of their press, Irish estates have 
 
CONDITION OF IRISH LANDLORDS. 
 
 87 
 
 become almost unsaleable. There is no security for life 
 or property left to an Irish landlord. Few men of com- 
 mon sense, and possessed of a competence elsewhere, 
 would accept of an estate in Ireland with the condition 
 of residing on it. How would English landed proprietors 
 like to be perpetually on their trial for character and life, 
 in a court where no evidence is admitted for the accused, 
 and where execution frequently precedes conviction ? In- 
 stances are not rare of voluntary abatements of rent by the 
 landlord ; yet, if, after years of non-payment, he should 
 seek to recover possession of his land by eviction, he is 
 forthwith arraigned as an inhuman monster, unfit to live. 
 He gives a complete and undeniable vindication of his 
 conduct ; his statement goes for nothing, and the charge 
 is passed to the general account of what is termed 
 “ landlordism.” 
 
 Nothing can be more extravagantly false than the 
 ideas current in England as to the rights and conduct of 
 Irish landlords. Whatever might have been the case 
 formerly, it is now all duty and no rights, at least none 
 that can be enforced, except at the risk of life and repu- 
 tation. When the wretched “ clearance” system is de- 
 nounced, does it ever occur to the indignant philanthro- 
 pists to inquire who drove the landlords to it ? Stripped 
 of his property, loaded with execration and insult, the 
 unfortunate Irish proprietor is called on to exercise to. 
 wards all that forbearance which he receives from none ; 
 he is expected to give employment, to pay his rates and 
 taxes, while his debts remain doubled in value, and are 
 exacted with a degree of severity proportioned to the 
 general alarm and mistrust of landed property. We 
 hear of no lament over the expulsion of ancient families 
 
88 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 from the long-descended homes where they practised the 
 rites of hospitality, gave occupation to the poor, and 
 were the liberal guardians of their tenantry. Estates 
 where upwards of eighty thousand pounds had been ex- 
 pended on the principal residence alone, were disposed 
 of for less than twenty thousand by a compulsory auction. 
 Have those unhappy families who have been thus hunted 
 down, robbed of their all, and turned out on the world 
 to starve, no claim for commiseration and redress ? It 
 would appear not. The Communist feeling is abroad ; 
 they had it long enough . The generous sympathies of 
 the modern public are exclusively reserved for over- 
 holding tenants, squatters, and crop-lifters. I have no 
 hesitation to state my conviction, that to evict an indus- 
 trious, well-conducted tenant, who pays a fair rent, is 
 an act of insanity that should qualify his landlord for a 
 lunatic asylum. But no man should be held solely re- 
 sponsible for acts from which his natural feelings recoil, 
 and to which nothing short of an irresistibly compelling 
 power could bring him to consent. No offence is in- 
 tended to the liberal press, to political economists, to 
 London usurers, and Manchester cotton-lords, or to our 
 enlightened Ministers ; but it is humbly submitted that 
 the mere fact of being a resident Irish landlord ought 
 not to be considered a justifiable pretext for depriving a 
 British subject of all protection for his property, his 
 character, and his life. 
 
 At other times, the ruined land-holders are exhorted 
 to study what is called “ high farming.” They bid us to 
 exert ourselves, to take to chemistry and machinery, and 
 attend lectures on the last improved fashions of agricul- 
 ture. By what right do these arrogant men presume 
 
“ commercial” farming. 
 
 89 
 
 to impose this increase of labour and expense on people 
 who were doing well, and who would have continued to 
 prosper, had it not been for the mischievous interference 
 of these political intermeddlers with our affairs ? They 
 throw down my house, they carry off the materials, and 
 then desire me to rebuild it according to a more scientific 
 order. It is announced, ex cathedra , that “ to effectually 
 develope the agricultural industry of the country, we 
 must emancipate the land from the remaining trammels 
 in which it is still held ; and having made it free, it must 
 be allowed to remain so. Then, and not till then, may 
 we expect to see our farmers in a prosperous condition. 
 Let a farm be taken with the same views with which a 
 warehouse is rented — a more commercial spirit will ac- 
 tuate our farmers , competition will regulate the letting 
 value of land, and we shall hear no more of such absurdi- 
 ties as determining the letting value of any kind of pro- 
 perty by a public valuation.”* Now, may heaven avert 
 the day when a farm shall “ be taken with the same views 
 with which a warehouse is rented.” I protest against 
 being placed relatively to my tenants as a mill-owner is 
 to his factory slaves — to use them while profitable, and 
 then fling them on the workhouse. Then, indeed, would 
 the scourge of “ sound general principles” be laid on the 
 backs of the defenceless poor. Then should we require 
 the services of a Tenant League against those “ware- 
 house” proprietors, with minds devoted to Mammon, and 
 consciences inaccessible to feelings of pity or remorse. 
 
 There was much of absurdity, and, perhaps, of evil, in 
 the feudal system ; yet it contained a redeeming princi- 
 ple. The landlord and his tenant were bound to each 
 
 * 
 
 * See Appendix, D. 
 
90 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 other by ties of mutual attachment and dependence, 
 which the “ commercial spirit” of our days has brought 
 into disrepute, without substituting a rule of action better 
 calculated to make either happy, or more pleased with 
 their relative position.^ I have been a landlord for 
 many years, and I never once let “ competition regulate 
 the letting value” of my lands. No consideration what- 
 ever could induce me to set up to the highest bidder the 
 farm of a tenant, whose family had lived for generations 
 contentedly under mine, or whose personal good cha- 
 racter entitled him to a preference. I write not this with 
 any mawkish hope of obtaining favour, or of deprecating 
 censure. I feel that I belong to a class proscribed by 
 mistaken legislation, by popular clamour, and, above all, 
 devoted by its own unnatural and dastardly submission. 
 The worst feelings towards landlords have been long and 
 sedulously inculcated to the farming population, who have 
 been taught to turn a cold and jealous eye even on the 
 kindest actions of the proprietor. It is true that some 
 trace of compunctious visitings have been latterly exhi- 
 bited by the supreme authorities, and in the columns of 
 the hitherto immitigable press. The Times newspaper 
 has actually discovered that “he (the landowner) is not 
 blessed with any peculiar good fortune which makes it 
 
 * te In the history of modern times, the avarice of commercial monopoly, 
 no less than the ambition of weak and wicked chiefs, seems to have fomented 
 the universal discord — to have added stubbornness to the mistakes of cabi- 
 nets, and indocility to the infatuation of the people. Let it ever be remem- 
 bered that it is the direct influence of commerce to make the interval between 
 the richest and the poorest man wider and more unconquerable. Let it be 
 remembered that it is a foe to everything of real worth and excellence in the 
 human character. The odious and disgusting aristocracy of wealth is built 
 upon the ruins of all that is good in chivalry or republicanism.” 
 
 “ Possideat quantum rapuit Nero — montibus aurum 
 Exaequet, nec amet quemquam, nec ametur ab ullo.” 
 
 Juvenal. 
 
ALTERATION OF TONE IN THE PRESS. 
 
 91 
 
 justifiable to fleece him — society has no greater claims 
 upon him than upon others.” The “ able and ener- 
 getic” Viceroy of Ireland, in his late presidential progress 
 through the North, went so far as to hint that there were 
 good landlords in Ireland, and seemed disinclined to pa- 
 tronise the more rampant demonstrations of the tenant- 
 right principles. In all this there is a tenderness of ex- 
 postulation, a “ parcere subjectis ” tone that clearly de- 
 notes a change in the current of public opinion, either 
 from a tardy sense of error, or an inceptive apprehension 
 of approaching evil. 
 
 Meanwhile our Ministers enjoy and bless the treache- 
 rous calm of a parliamentary vacation ; they lie listlessly, 
 awaiting the chances of a popular air to waft them on, all 
 heedless of the ground-swell and the lowering clouds 
 that gather about them in every direction. In Ireland, 
 political asperity rages, unchecked by prolonged famine, 
 wide-spreading disease, and accumulated calamities. 
 Theological rancour, democratic communism, and an 
 hourly increasing aversion to law and order, unite in 
 rapid progress towards a great social convulsion. 
 
 Alas ! where are our guides in this extremity of peril ? 
 Where are the statesmen of ability and resolution com- 
 petent to encounter the storm, and to pilot the State 
 vessel through the conflict of troubled waters? Cer- 
 tainly not in Downing-street. 
 
92 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHY SHOULD ROMAN CATHOLICS SUPPORT THE WHIGS? 
 
 “ Some souls we see 
 Grow hard and stiffen with adversity ; 
 
 Yet these by Fortune’s favours are undone. 
 
 Resolv’d, into a baser form they run. 
 
 And bore the wind, but cannot bear the sun.” 
 
 Why should Roman Catholics support the Whigs? I 
 have never been able to comprehend thoroughly the 
 motives for that implicit obedience and abject sub- 
 mission to the Whig party for which Roman Catholics 
 have long been remarkable. It may not, perhaps, be 
 difficult to account for the devoted support which Whig 
 Ministers are accustomed to receive on all pressing occa- 
 sions from a considerable portion of the Irish Roman 
 Catholic members, for whose votes satisfactory reasons 
 can be traced through the entire range of Crown patron- 
 age, from the excise to the peerage. This circumstance, 
 though extremely natural, has sometimes had a disas- 
 trous influence on the prospects of Ireland, as was ex- 
 emplified in the rejection of the benevolent and compre- 
 hensive project of the late Lord George Bentinck for the 
 employment of starving Irishmen in the construction of 
 railways. Often has the fate of a Whig cabinet hung on 
 the sweet voices of Irish representatives ; but whenever 
 the cabalistic words, “ If you do not support us, we re- 
 
CONCESSIONS TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 
 
 93 
 
 sign,” were uttered at a meeting convened for the pur- 
 pose by Ministers, the effect was instantaneous and com- 
 plete. Yet there was once an independent and high- 
 minded Irish party in the Honourable House who could 
 resist the blandishments of the Treasury, and on whom 
 threats of resignation produced no effect whatever, when 
 the interest of their unfortunate country was in question. 
 That party was broken up by the late Mr. O’Connell 
 and replaced by his nominees, with, as it would seem, 
 little gain for the public, or addition to the national re- 
 pute for ability, eloquence, or patriotism. 
 
 It is worthy of observation that every concession made 
 to Roman Catholics , from the first dawn of toleration 
 to the repeal of the penal laws in 1829, was the work of 
 Tories exclusively . With the exception of one or two 
 situations about the Court, more of honour than of emolu- 
 ment, and to which the parties were fairly entitled by 
 their high rank, the English Roman Catholics appear to 
 have kept aloof from the seduction of ministerial patron- 
 age ; yet, on all occasions, whether present or by proxy, 
 the name of every Roman Catholic peer is to be found 
 on the Whig list in a division. 
 
 One is tempted to ask, do those noble lords ever read 
 the history of their country? or, having read it, by what 
 unaccountable infatuation do they give into this blind 
 adherence to the hereditary persecutors of their name 
 and religion. 
 
 It might be hard to produce a more striking instance 
 of voluntary self-disrespect, to be accounted for only by 
 the force of habit, or the absence of ^all reflection. 
 
 We may be permitted to doubt whether the Whigs, as 
 a party, were at any time sincere in their professions of 
 
94 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 liberality towards Roman Catholics. It is true that they 
 made Catholic Emancipation their war-cry in many a 
 fierce assault on their political antagonists ; but the 
 Whigs either could not devise the means of success, or 
 wanted the inclination to achieve it. When in power, 
 their cold and selfish advocacy resolved itself into a con- 
 stant endeavour to damp the expectations and keep back 
 the petitions of the Roman Catholics. Even the miser- 
 able pittance of relief which, from very shame, they ven- 
 tured to propose,* was at once abandoned in the hope 
 of retaining office. George the Third, who knew them 
 well, and was determined to get rid of them, met their 
 undignified submission by a proposal too insulting to be 
 borne. Their opponents returned to power, and not 
 long after, the very point at issue, the admission of Ro- 
 man Catholics to promotion in the army and navy, was 
 freely conceded. There were, indeed, truly great and 
 honourable men among the Whigs, even in our own 
 days ; giants they were in their career ; but they are 
 gone, and nothing now remains but the unforgiving 
 sternness of anti-Catholic prejudice, thinly disguised by 
 the mask of infidel liberality. It is a sorry sight to be- 
 hold Roman Catholic nobles allowing themselves to be 
 gratuitously dragged through all the mire of a tortuous 
 and contemptible policy by the effete representatives of 
 the men who proscribed their religion, who hunted their 
 forefathers to destruction, and poured out their innocent 
 blood as water on the scaffold ! Nor is there any reason 
 to believe that the opinions of modern Whigs have un- 
 dergone any considerable alteration respecting the treat- 
 
 * In 1807. 
 
LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE PENAL CODE. 
 
 95 
 
 ment of Roman Catholics. In “ An Essay on the Eng- 
 lish Government and Constitution,” written by the pre- 
 sent first Lord of the Treasury, and printed at London, 
 in 1821, I find the following passage. In discussing the 
 Toleration Act, 1 William and Mary, ch. 18, Lord John 
 Russell thus expresses himself : — “ Amongst the conces- 
 sions made to religious liberty, there were none in favour 
 of the Roman Catholics. On the contrary, new laws 
 were passed, of excessive severity, tending to render 
 the Roman Catholics poor and ignorant ; thus shutting 
 them out, not only from all power, but from all the 
 avenues to power, and making them, as it were, slaves 
 among a nation of free men. Yet it must not be sup- 
 posed that a nation so humane as the English acted in 
 this harsh and unusual bitterness without deep provoca- 
 tion. The reigns of Elizabeth, of James I., of Charles 
 II., and James II., had been disturbed by plots more or 
 less sanguinary, some using as their means the assassina- 
 tion of the sovereign, others the introduction of a foreign 
 army, but all tending to extinguish the liberties and sub- 
 due the independence of England. Whether the pre- 
 cautions adopted by the English parliament were wise, 
 I will not decide ; but I am clearly of opinion that they 
 were just.” ! ! — Chap xiii. p. 111.* 
 
 * That great moralist. Doctor Johnson, thought otherwise. He severely 
 reprobated the barbarous, debilitating policy of the British Government, 
 which, he said, was the most detestable mode of persecution. To a gentle- 
 man who hinted such policy might be necessary to support the authority of 
 the English Government, he replied by saying, “ Let the authority of the 
 English Government perish rather than be maintained by iniquity. Better 
 would it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the 
 sword, and to make them amenable to law and justice by an effectual and 
 vigorous police, than to grind them to powder by all manner of disabilities 
 and incapacities.” — Boswell's Life of Johnson, 
 
9 G 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 Such is the explicit and deliberate vindication of the 
 penal code, which has been placed on record by the 
 Whig leader. Had the noble lord made use even of the 
 word expedient , it would have ill assorted with those ex- 
 treme principles of liberality which he professes, and on 
 which he founds his claim to public estimation and sup- 
 port. But he decides, without hesitation, that these laws 
 wer ejust, and the nature of justice is immutable and in- 
 dependent of circumstances. What is morally wrong 
 can never be politically right. How ? Was the law that 
 gave a premium to the child for betraying the parent, 
 just f Was the law that disabled a Roman Catholic from 
 being the guardian of his own children, just ? W 7 as the 
 law that prompted the brother to rob his brother, and 
 confirmed the robbery, just ? Was the law that held 
 out a reward for priest-catching,* and made it felony for 
 a Roman Catholic clergyman to administer the sacred 
 rites of his Church, just ? Was the law that enabled a 
 Protestant to offer five pounds for the horse of a Papist, 
 and seize it, just ? In fine, were the laws that “ tended 
 to render Roman Catholics poor and ignorant, and make 
 them, as it were, slaves among a nation of freemen, "just ? 
 Yes ! it appears that in the Whig vocabulary these laws, 
 or, as Lord John Russell is pleased to designate them, 
 these “ precautions ,” were just ! I freely make a present 
 to the noble author, of his “ plots more or less san- 
 guinary,” more or less fabulous, more or less supported 
 by barefaced perjury ; but true or false, I never can con- 
 
 * By the 8th of Anne, c. 3, clause 20, the following rewards are provided : — 
 “For discovering an Archbishop, Bishop, Vicar-general, or other 
 
 person, exercising any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction, . . £50. 
 
 For a regular or secular clergyman, £20. 
 
 For a Popish schoolmaster or usher, £10.” 
 
PENAL LAWS. 
 
 97 
 
 sent to admit them as a justification of such ferocious and 
 indiscriminate vengeance. 
 
 “ Sunt autem quaedam officia etiam adversus eos ser- 
 vanda a quibus injuriam acceperis. Est enim ulciscendi 
 et puniendi modus”* 
 
 It is utterly inconceivable how Lord John Russell, 
 who has acquired, and, I believe, most deservedly, the re- 
 putation of a humane and honourable man in all the rela- 
 tions of private life, could ever have been led by party 
 prepossessions, or by enthusiastic veneration for the 
 memory of his ancestor, to arrive at so monstrous and 
 unwarrantable a conclusion. f I am aware that it is open 
 to the Minister to dismiss the imputation, by declaring^ 
 
 * Cicero de Officiis. 
 
 f “ Christianity disowns the penal code of Ireland. It could have no con- 
 nexion with laws which sought their object through every variety of moral 
 turpitude : which offered premiums for the blackest perfidy, and rewards for 
 the basest of passions ; and when it had raked together, from out the vices 
 and the villanies of mankind, a mass of the foulest pollution, applied it to 
 adorn the edifice of the State, or dragged it as an acceptable sacrifice into the 
 house of God. It was not Christianity which tempted the unhappy son or 
 brother to the plunder of his parent or kinsman, and led him to perdition with 
 a bribe. It was not Christianity, which, after invading and polluting the 
 sanctity of private life, after tearing to pieces all the charities and obligations 
 of kindred, went forth upon the high- way to fill the measure of its brutal 
 rapacity with the plunder of the passengers ; that robbed the traveller of his 
 horse, if its value exceeded five pounds, and made the robber its appraiser ; 
 that levied contributions on the piety of the people, taxing them for worship- 
 ping God according to the custom of their fathers ; that persecuted the priest 
 as a felon, and made his ministration a crime, asserting that his religion had 
 its root in ignorance, and nourishing that root with all the assiduity of legis- 
 lation.” — O'DriscoVs Ireland. 
 
 This can hardly be considered just , even towards those whose religion is 
 said to consist of “ the mummeries of superstition .” 
 
 f In March, 1838, Lord John Russell resisted successfully the appointment 
 of a committee to consider the Acts relating to the importation of corn ; also, 
 see his Letter to the Electors of Huntingdonshire on the Corn Laws. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 that he has changed his mind in this matter as in others ; 
 but it is one of the greatest misfortunes of our times, 
 that, from the practice of modern statesmen, the nation 
 at large can never know on what professions they may 
 rely, or by what principles they are to be governed. 
 Public men, now-a-days, are “ neither fish nor flesh ; a 
 man knows not where to have them.” This subject leads 
 naturally to an inquiry into the original formation of the 
 Whig party, and the unmitigated bigotry of one of its 
 most celebrated leaders, whose apotheosis has long formed 
 one of the most singular of historical delusions — I mean 
 the Lord Russell, beheaded for treasonable conspiracy in 
 the reign of Charles II. I know that to question the 
 fact of his having fallen a martyr in the cause of civil and 
 religious liberty, is to incur the guilt of leze wliiggery ; 
 but, not feeling scrupulous as to the commission of that 
 offence, I shall proceed to investigate the validity of his 
 lordship’s claim to such high distinction, both as regards 
 his crime towards his sovereign, and his immoderate 
 hatred of Roman Catholics. 
 
 In the paper delivered to the Sheriff by Lord Russell, 
 immediately before his execution, he avows his detesta- 
 tion of the Roman Catholic faith in these terms : — “For 
 Popery, I look on it as an idolatrous and bloody religion, 
 and, therefore, thought myself bound to do all 1 could 
 against it.” He adds, “ yet, whatever apprehensions I 
 had of Popery, and of my own severe and heavy* share 
 I was like to have under it, when it should prevail ; I 
 never had a thought of doing anything against it basely 
 and inhumanly, but what would consist with the Christian 
 
 * Perhaps his Lordship here alludes to what his noble biographer terms 
 “ an idle fear of losing his abbey lands.” 
 
WHIG MURDERS. 
 
 99 
 
 religion, and the law's and liberties of this kingdom.” 
 This is a bold assertion. So, then, to countenance the 
 infamous perjuries of Titus Oates was consistent with 
 Lord Russell’s sense of the Christian religion ; to pursue 
 to death the aged and innocent Lord Stafford, solely be- 
 cause he was a Roman Catholic, was not “ doing anything 
 basely to dispute with his sovereign the sad prerogative 
 of remitting the extreme barbarity of the sentence, w r as 
 not inhuman l Of the death of Lord Stafford, Mr. 
 Macaulay writes : “ The circumstances of his trial and 
 execution ought to have given an useful warning to the 
 Whig leaders . A large and respectable minority of the 
 House of Lords pronounced the prisoner not guilty. 
 The multitude, which, a few T months before, had received 
 the dying declarations of Oates’s victims with mockery 
 and execration, now loudly expressed a belief that Stafford 
 was a murdered man. When he, with his last breath, 
 protested his innocence, the cry w 7 as 6 God bless you, 
 my lord; we believe you, my lord.’ A judicious observer 
 might easily have predicted that the blood then shed 
 would shortly have blood.”* 
 
 The Archbishop Oliver Plunkett was brought over 
 from Ireland, and the penalty of treason, in all its brutal 
 severity, was inflicted on the illustrious and venerable 
 prelate. 
 
 By a just retribution of heaven, blood was required for 
 all this innocent blood, shed so profusely by bigoted and 
 merciless Whigs. Before two years from the murder of 
 Archbishop Plunkett, his chief persecutor had expiated 
 his guilt on the scaffold. In summing up the character 
 
 * History of England, vol. i. chap. 2, page 260. Sixth Edition. 
 
100 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 of his celebrated ancestor, Lord John Russell observes, 
 “ The political opinions of Lord Russell were those of a 
 Whig. His religious creed was that of a mild and tole- 
 rant Christian .” And such it was, no doubt, according 
 
 to Whig notions of Christian mildness and toleration. 
 
 With regard to the charge on which Lord Russell was 
 tried, the indictment may have been incorrectly drawn 
 under the statute of Edward III. ; but the jury was fairly 
 and lawfully constituted,* and there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that there existed in their minds any disposition un- 
 favourable to the prisoner. 
 
 “ If the King had prosecuted his opponents, he had 
 prosecuted them according to the proper forms , and be- 
 fore the proper tribunals. The evidence now produced 
 for the Crown was at least as worthy of credit, as the 
 evidence on which the noblest blood of England had 
 lately been shed by the opposition. The treatment which 
 an accused Whig had now to expect from judges, advo- 
 cates, sheriffs, juries, and spectators, was no worse than 
 the treatment which had lately been thought by the Whigs 
 good enough for an accused Papist.”f 
 
 It was proved distinctly, that Lord Russell had been a 
 party to a conspiracy for altering forcibly the lawful suc- 
 cession to the throne ; that he had been present when 
 “ some discourse there was of the feasibleness of securing 
 and seizing the Guards, J which he heard mentioned as a 
 
 * “ After the Revolution, the sheriffs, the secondaries and their clerks, and 
 the ten surviving jurors, were examined before a Committee of the House of 
 Lords ; but the result of their answers is that the jury were fairly selected, 
 and that no attempt was made to influence their verdict.” — Lords' Journals . 
 
 f Macaulay, ut supra. 
 
 t On his trial. Lord Russell said there was no discourse of surprising the 
 Guards. 
 
CONSPIRACY TO LEVY WAR. 
 
 101 
 
 thing might easily be done.” He did, however, exclaim 
 against “ killing the Guards in cold blood, which he 
 looked upon as a detestable thing ; and so like a Popish 
 practice , that he could not but abhor it.” “ By mere 
 accident, he stepped in at Shepherd’s for the purpose of 
 taking some wine,” and he chanced on a meeting of con- 
 spirators ! — “ Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.” 
 “ But it was the doctrine of the courts of law, that to 
 conspire to levy war is treason, when the object of such 
 conspiracy is to destroy, or depose, or restrain and 
 control the King. Was not Lord Russell a party to the 
 design of compelling the King, by force, to banish and 
 disinherit the presumptive heir to the Crown ? Had he 
 not attended meetings of which this was the only real 
 object ? Did he not concur in the design of raising an 
 insurrection in Scotland, to co-operate with another in 
 England for the same purpose ? On these questions, 
 which hardly admit of doubt, he was studiously silent,* 
 probably because he could neither deny them with truth, 
 nor admit them without danger to his associates. When 
 he embarked in them, he must have been aware that he 
 staked his life on the result. Never was any Government, 
 however liberal, known to admit in practice, that insur- 
 rection against itself ought to be suffered with impu- 
 nity .”f How many of the persons condemned to death 
 for the abortive rebellion in Ireland two years since, had 
 committed overt acts of treason ? perhaps two, or three, 
 at the utmost. 
 
 * Lord Russell himself says in his dying declaration, “I was also advised 
 not to confess matter of fact plainly, since that must have brought me within 
 the guilt of misprision.” 
 f Lingard. 
 
102 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 It appears, also, that these Whig conspirators had, at 
 one time, a secret understanding with the Court of Ver- 
 sailles, “ which exhorted the Whigs not to flinch, and to 
 rely with confidence on the protection of France.” I 
 quote again the history of Mr. Macaulay : — “ While the 
 leaders of the opposition thus revolved plans of open re- 
 bellion , but were still restrained by fears or scruples from 
 taking any decisive step, a design of a very different kind 
 was meditated by some of their accomplices. Thus, there 
 were two plots, one within the other. The object of the 
 great Whig plot was to raise the nation in arms against 
 the Government ; the lesser plot, commonly called the 
 Eye House plot, in which only a few desperate men were 
 concerned, had for its object the assassination of the 
 King, and of the heir presumptive.”* After this state- 
 ment of historical facts, who would be prepared for the 
 inference of the accomplished author, that “ Lord Rus- 
 sell was beheaded in defiance of law and justice ?” The 
 vaunted eulogy, in the patent of King William and 
 
 * “ The Duke of Ormonde, who had an old friendship with the Earl of 
 Bedford, was much concerned to see the heliaviour of Lord Russell, and to 
 find that he seemed not. sensible of the peril he was in ; for his Grace always 
 thought that young nobleman's case to be very dangerous ; and so it proved 
 soon after, when he was convicted and beheaded.” In a letter from the Duke 
 to the Earl of Arran, dated July 7, his Grace expresses himself in these 
 words : “ Ever since about the midsummer day last, we have been satisfied of 
 the truth of the information first given of a design laid for the assassination of 
 the King and Duke, and for the raising of a rebellion in England and Scot- 
 land. And though I make them two designs, because it doth not yet appear, 
 that all who were in at the rebellion were for the assassination, or privy to it ; 
 yet those crimes are so near akin, and the time for consulting for them both 
 almost the same, and some of the persons in at both, that nothing but the 
 monstrousness of the ingratitude of such a parricide in such as the Duke of 
 Monmouth, the Lord Russell, and Lord Grey, can leave a doubt, but that it 
 was all one entire plot, though consisting of two parts, and to be acted by 
 several persons .” — Cartes Life of Ormonde , Yol. ii. Book 8. 
 
PATENT OF KING WILLIAM III. — MR. FOX. 
 
 103 
 
 Queen Mary, creating a dukedom for the family of Lord 
 Russell, is worth exactly this and no more ; that the son- 
 in-law and daughter,* who had just expelled their father 
 from his throne and country, would, as a matter of course, 
 extol the conduct of a nobleman who had lost his life for 
 a conspiracy to effect the same object. As to the re- 
 corded sentiments of Mr. Fox, an authority, in the opinion 
 of Lord John Russell, “not easily matched by that of 
 any lawyer,” every one knows that Mr. Fox was a great 
 statesman, eloquent, accomplished, and of a kind and 
 generous disposition. But it is equally certain that Mr. 
 Fox was a thorough-going Whig partisan ; and, if the 
 assertion of Dr. Johnson, “that the devil was the first 
 Whig,” had been proved to demonstration, there can be 
 little doubt that Mr. Fox would have readily acknow- 
 ledged “the Prince of Darkness to be a gentleman,” and 
 an ill-used gentleman, too. 
 
 What would the Whig advisers of Royalty have said 
 if, towards the close of the reign of William the Fourth, 
 the chiefs of the high Orange party had entered into 
 an extensive conspiracy “ to raise the nation in arms 
 against the Government,” for the purpose of banishing 
 and excluding from the throne the heiress presumptive, 
 our present most gracious Sovereign ? Should we have 
 heard of patriotic victims, of martyrs to civil and reli- 
 gious freedom, had plots like those of Lord Russell been 
 
 * Of this Queen’s conduct on her arrival at the Palace, from which her 
 father had been driven, Evelyn observes : “ She came into Whitehall laughing 
 and jolly as to a wedding, so as to seem quite transported. She rose early the 
 next morning, and, in her undress, as it was reported, before her women were 
 up, went about from room to room to see the convenience of the house.” — 
 Evelyn's Diary. 
 
 No wonder that the Duchess of Marlborough said, “ Mary wanted bowels !” 
 
104 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 proved against them , and visited with exemplary pun- 
 shment ? Though perhaps not aware of the extreme 
 lengths to which some of his Whig associates were pre- 
 pared to go, yet, if their murderous design had been 
 carried into effect, would not Lord Russell have been 
 justly considered as implicated in this “plot within a 
 plot,” which formed part of the “ great Whig conspiracy 
 to raise the nation against the Government ? ” 
 
 “Lord Russell made but a feeble defence.”* He 
 gave no proof of an enlightened and superior mind. He 
 appears, from the commencement of his trial, to have 
 been oppressed by the conviction that it was impossible to 
 refute the evidence of his guilt. His objections were 
 limited to matters of form, to the mode in which the 
 sheriffs had been appointed, to the selection of the jury, 
 and the construction put on the act of Edward the Third. 
 He was found guilty, and condemned to die the death of 
 a traitor.f The odious and disgusting sentence was 
 changed by the King into that of beheading. On this 
 occasion his Majesty is said to have observed, that he 
 presumed “ Lord Russell would not dispute his preroga- 
 tive as he had done in the case of Lord Stafford.” Vast 
 sums of money were offered to the King’s mistress to 
 procure a pardon, and the unfortunate prisoner was in- 
 duced to petition the Throne for mercy ; avowing that 
 “ he had been present at meetings which he is convinced 
 were unlawful,” offering to “ live in any part of the 
 world the King should appoint, and never to meddle any 
 
 * Lingard. 
 
 f His fellow- conspirator. Lord Essex, escaped a similar doom, by self-de- 
 struction in tho Tower. 
 
ABJECT PETITION TO THE KING AND DUKE. 
 
 105 
 
 more in the affairs of England.’’* But, the most inglo- 
 rious part of the affair was, his supplication to the Duke 
 of York, whom he had endeavoured with his utmost abi- 
 lity to degrade and to injure.f He says, “ I do faithfully 
 engage myself, that if it shall please the King to pardon 
 me, and if your Royal Highness will interpose in it, I 
 will in no sort meddle any more in the least opposition 
 to your Royal Highness.” “ And, if your Royal High- 
 ness will be so gracious to me as to move on my account, 
 as it will be an engagement upon me, beyond what I can 
 in reason expect, so it will make the deepest impressions 
 on me possible ; for no fear of death can work so much 
 with me, as so great an obligation will for ever do.” 
 This was certainly not the act of a man of unshaken 
 courage, and of a nice sense of honour. This deplora- 
 ble weakness could only add to the gratified revenge of 
 the cold and unforgiving Prince, to whom it was ad- 
 dressed. Lord Russell seems to have been conscious 
 how unbecoming it was of his name and station, for he 
 said to Doctor Burnet, “ This will be printed and will be 
 selling about the streets as my submission, when I am 
 hanged.” It was, indeed, a miserable submission, equally 
 painful and fruitless, such as his noble-minded and in- 
 
 * “ Lord Russell indulged no hope of success from this petition. It could 
 not be expected that Charles should extend to one whom he thought guilty of 
 treason, that mercy which the same individual and his associates had, by inti- 
 midation, prevented him from extending to so many victims whom he believed 
 to be innocent." — Lingard. 
 
 •(■ “ It was to the influence of Lord Russell’s authority, as much as to the 
 contrivance of Shaftsbury, that the Duke owed his banishment from the 
 council and from the country ; Lord Russell had moved and supported in 
 successive Parliaments the Bill of Exclusion, and it was in reality to deprive 
 him of the succession, and perhaps of life, that he had engaged in those in- 
 trigues, for which he had been condemned.” — Lingard. 
 
106 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 trepid consort would never have stooped to, to save her 
 own life, though she consented to forward it in the vain 
 hope of preserving his. The relation of Lord Russell’s 
 trial is given with great fairness by his distinguished 
 biographer, though many will dissent from the conclusion 
 which he has adopted. It really is full time to break 
 through the trammels of a legend so fabulous and absurd, 
 as the martyrdom of Lord Russell in the cause of civil 
 and religious freedom. He was a martyr to his own un- 
 governable bigotry, which made him swift to shed inno- 
 cent blood, and finally involved him in those treasonable 
 practices for which he deservedly suffered.* When, 
 however, I reflect on the great wealth and the powerful 
 connexions of Lord Russell, the humble submission he 
 was induced to make, the solemn pledges he proffered, 
 “ never to meddle any more in the affairs of England, but 
 as his Majesty should be pleased to command him,” I 
 will not undertake to decide, whether the execution of 
 Lord Russell was wise, but I am clearly of opinion that 
 it was just. 
 
 It cannot be disputed, that the iniquitous and cruel 
 laws against Roman Catholics were the invention of the 
 Whigs, who enforced them with remorseless perseverance, 
 until it suited their political purpose to take up emancipa- 
 tion and confer on it a factitious and barren support. The 
 submissive and unvarying adhesion to the Whigs of Ro- 
 man Catholics, especially of the members of that reli- 
 gious persuasion in the Upper House of Parliament, can 
 be accounted for only on the supposition, that they are 
 
 * ‘‘If I do not take liis life, he will soon have mine,” was the expression of 
 the King. 
 
ORIGIN OF WHIG AND TORY. 
 
 107 
 
 endowed with a measure of primeval simplicity, or of im- 
 passable forgiveness of injuries, such as is rarely discover- 
 ed in mere human beings under similar circumstances. 
 On looking over the divisions in the Lords, a person 
 would be inclined to believe, that passive obedience to a 
 Whig Ministry was an article in the creed of Pope Pius, 
 or had been enjoined by a decree of a National Synod. All 
 the persecutions of Edward the Sixth, and of Elizabeth, 
 “ whiten in the shade” of the enormities perpetrated by 
 the Whigs on Roman Catholics, during the reigns of 
 Charles the Second, William, and Queen Anne. On the 
 other hand, from the commencement of these party dis- 
 tinctions, the Tories appear to have been favourably dis- 
 posed towards Roman Catholics. Mr. Macaulay says, 
 “ The appellation of Whig was fastened on the Presbyte- 
 rian zealots of Scotland, and was transferred to those 
 English politicians, who showed a disposition to oppose 
 the Court. The name of Tory was given to English- 
 men w 7 ho refused to concur in excluding a Roman Ca- 
 tholic prince from the throne.” A more likely origin of 
 these parties may be traced to the stern, sour Puritans 
 who brought their sovereign to the block ; and in the 
 loyal, gallant Cavaliers, who adhered to their allegiance 
 through every vicissitude of calamity and defeat. But 
 of whatever stock the Whigs may spring, they have 
 proved, that their boasted “civil and religious liberty” 
 is nothing else than arrogant domination over the Crown, 
 and war to the death against Roman Catholics ! It may 
 be, that the Whigs have laid aside the morose exterior 
 that distinguished their fanatic and more honest fore- 
 fathers ; but, the hatred of Catholicity still rankles in 
 their hearts, and it is tolerably certain, that they would 
 
108 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 raise the old No Popery cry to-morrow, if they thought 
 it could, by any means, tend to prolong their possession 
 of office.* From the earliest concessions made to Ro- 
 
 * I wrote this in October last, and I little thought that, within one month, 
 the mask worn so long and so profitably by the Whig party would be cast 
 aside. The late institution of a Roman Catholic hierarchy for England may 
 be considered offensive in manner, or injudicious as to time ; but it is per- 
 fectly ridiculous to suppose that the Church, or the liberties of Englishmen, 
 could ever be affected by the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff in any wav 
 whatever. To temporal authority the Pope makes no pretension ; and if he 
 did, it would be laughed at by all parties. The authority conferred on these 
 bishops by the head of their Church is not new, and it is applicable only to 
 Roman Catholics as such. Therefore, it may be difficult for Lord John 
 Russell so to frame his threatened penal law, as to control the voluntary 
 obedience of Roman Catholics to the dignitaries of their Church in matters 
 exclusively spiritual. Hitherto, at least, the ingenuity of persecution has 
 failed in that respect, and it is highly improbable, that his lordship will sue. 
 ceed in imposing his yoke on the minds and consciences of her Majesty’s 
 Roman Catholic subjects generally. 
 
 Amidst all this uproar, the really important point should be carefully kept 
 in view. The question is not so much whether the recent episcopal nomi- 
 nations were intended by the Court of Rome as an attack on the Church 
 and the Royal prerogatives of England, which, all circumstances considered, 
 would be downright ludicrous ; but, whether the Pope was not misled bv 
 the duplicity, or the want of firmness of the British Minister ? 
 
 Will the noble lord now require his Holiness to “ unfrock” his bishops, 
 and failing, is a fleet to be sent to Civita Yecchia, as it was to the Piraeus ? 
 Surely he would not fix on his country the stain of bullying every petty 
 state in Europe ! In the meantime, it might be as well for Lord John 
 Russell, however excited his feelings may have been at the invasion of the 
 Cardinal Archbishop, to refrain from the use of such insulting terms as 
 “ mummeries of superstition,” applied to the selection he was pleased to 
 make of religious tenets held by so large a portion of the Christian world. 
 Such language admits of no excuse or explanation ; it betrays a degree of 
 irrepressible petulance unworthy of a statesman, and altogether unsuiting the 
 tone and manner of a well-informed gentleman of the nineteenth century. 
 He has, indeed, succeeded, to a lamentable extent, in rekindling the embers 
 of religious rancour, and in checking the increase of good-will among different 
 persuasions ; while the refuse of society, who pant for disturbance on any 
 pretext, have gained an opportunity for mischief of which they will not fail 
 
TORIES CAN AFFORD TO BE TOLERANT. 
 
 109 
 
 man Catholics, down to the munificent grant for the 
 College of Maynooth, every measure of relaxation, or 
 of indulgence, was proposed and carried into effect ex- 
 clusively by Tories. Strong in the sincerity of their 
 attachment to the Established Church, they can afford 
 to be liberal and tolerant to others, without risking a 
 suspicion of their fidelity to the religion they profess. 
 
 Surrounded as we are by so many indelible memorials 
 of Whig hostility, again I ask, why should Roman Ca- 
 tholics support the Whigs ? If the answer should be, 
 “for titles and situations,” I at once admit the cogency 
 of the rejoinder ; on any other principle, such support is 
 incredible and preposterous. 
 
 By the violence of their intimidations, the Whigs com- 
 pelled William the Third, who was naturally of a humane 
 and liberal disposition, to violate the treaty of Limerick, 
 and to earn for his name the unenviable distinction of 
 being a watchword for discord and sectarian hatred even 
 unto our own days. More than once, he expressed an 
 intention of renouncing the throne of England and re- 
 tiring to Holland, in order to escape from the dictation 
 of their bigotry and insolence.* Modern Ireland has 
 
 to take advantage. After all, it is not easy to discern just grounds for the ex- 
 cessive indignation so generally manifested in England at the late proceedings 
 of the Roman Court. It ought, in justice, to have taken another direction. 
 
 Colonial bishops, with territorial designations , have been appointed by the 
 Pope, and officially recognized by the British Government. The creation of 
 a new Roman Catholic See at Galway called forth no remonstrance ; while 
 the Viceregal supplication to the Pontifical throne, in the affair of the Irish 
 Colleges, seemed almost to invite the aggression that certain diplomatic 
 doings at Rome were directly calculated to provoke. 
 
 * No sooner were the Whigs restored to power, than they pardoned and 
 pensioned the notorious Titus Oates, in 1689. 
 
110 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 to thank them for pauper-creating poor-laws ; for demo- 
 ralization superadded to famine ; for prolonged disturb- 
 ance and prostrated industry ; for the blight of all her 
 hopes and the waste of all her resources. 
 
 ; But, there is a yet graver charge affecting the ten- 
 dencies of present Whiggery. I allude to the anti- 
 christian spirit evinced in the disposal of Church patro- 
 nage. It is impossible to disguise the fact, that dissent 
 from the leading doctrines on which the Christian faith 
 reposes, and which are common both to the Church of 
 England, and the Church of Rome, has been no impedi- 
 ment whatever to Whig promotion. Among their ap- 
 pointments are to be found Deists and Latitudinarians of 
 every shade, nor is it altogether improbable, that if it were 
 feasible, “the Jew” might, in certain quarters, appear to 
 be a fit and proper candidate for the Mitre of Canterbury. 
 There may be Roman Catholics so bigoted, or inconsi- 
 derate, as to exult over such selections for ecclesiastical 
 preferment, as tending to degrade and injure the Estab- 
 lished Church. They should, however, remember that 
 the Church of England, strictly so called , differs less from 
 the ancient religion, than any other body who have sepa- 
 rated themselves from her communion ; that, its Liturgy 
 recites the same three creeds, word for word, as received 
 by Roman Catholics ; that the Collects appointed to be 
 read in the Book of Common Prayer are correct and 
 beautiful translations of those in the Roman Missal ; that, 
 even the Ritual retains a strong family resemblance to 
 that of the parent Church, and the ordinations of the 
 latter are admitted to be valid by the Established Church. 
 Some of the most pious and enlightened Roman Catholic 
 divines, among them the late illustrious Bishop Doyle, 
 
JEW BILL. 
 
 Ill 
 
 always maintained the practicability of a reconciliation 
 between the Churches. Above all things, Roman Catho- 
 lics should never forget, that the Church of England is 
 one of the great bulwarks of Christianity itself against 
 atheism, infidelity, and the abominable doctrines of ma- 
 terialist and utilitarian philosophy. If the Church of 
 England no longer existed as such, to-morrow, there 
 would be made a thousand infidels , for one Protestant 
 that was converted to Catholicity. The tendency of the 
 age, unhappily, is not towards an increase of faith, but to 
 the weakening or the extinction of it altogether. Can 
 such appointments, then, give a claim to support from 
 any conscientious Roman Catholic Christian ? But I 
 am not surprised that a jealous feeling should exist as to 
 the nomination by Whigs of the professors, to whom it is 
 proposed to confide the instruction of youth in the lately 
 established Irish Colleges. 
 
 I cannot forbear to notice, also, the often defeated, and 
 as often renewed, ministerial efforts to place Jews in Par- 
 liament. It is useless to assert that they are Englishmen, 
 professing the Jewish religion. England is not their 
 country, they can have no home but Jerusalem ; Jews 
 they are, and, by the sentence of the Almighty God, 
 Jews they must continue to be ; scattered among all 
 nations, but belonging to none, until the destined hour 
 of their enlightenment, forgiveness, and restoration. The 
 attempt to amalgamate them with the people of England, 
 by a fellowship in our social relations, and in the framing 
 and the execution of our laws, is, in my humble sense, a 
 design as impious, and as certain to fail, as was the dar- 
 ing enterprise of Julian to rebuild the Temple of Jeru- 
 salem. The instant that, by any act of human volition, 
 
112 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 the barrier between the Jewish nation and the rest of 
 mankind should be levelled, one of the living miracles on 
 which Revelation rests would no longer exist ; to the 
 great exultation, no doubt, of atheists, unbelievers, and 
 Whig political economists. The hopes and the affec- 
 tions of Jews are all concentrated on Jerusalem ; in 
 whatever part of the world their lot may be cast, the 
 bitter sense of exile presses on their hearts as mournfully 
 now, as it did of old, when they hung their harps on the 
 willows by the waters of Babylon, and sat and wept when 
 they remembered Sion.* God forbid that I should, by 
 word or action, insult the fallen condition of that ancient 
 and once glorious people. I view them with feelings of awe 
 and commiseration. We have no commission to aggravate 
 the fearful doom under which the Jews have languished 
 for nearly nineteen centuries, neither have we authority 
 to mitigate, or to annul it. I submit, that without being 
 exposed to the charge of bigotry, a Christian may shrink 
 from the legislative co-operation of men who proclaim 
 that He whom we believe to be our Redeemer and our 
 God, was a mere impostor — a justly executed malefactor ! 
 The subject is too awful for casuistry or subterfuge : 
 with the tremendous imprecation, “ His blood be upon 
 us and upon our children,” present to my mind, I dare 
 not question the justice of the Divine sentence which 
 man, in the exuberance of his shallow wisdom, vainly 
 endeavours to set aside. 
 
 In the same spirit of antichristian legislation, the vir- 
 tual repeal of the law against usury was carried. Usury 
 is repeatedly denounced as a great crime both in the 
 
 * Psalm 136. Heb. 137. 
 
REPEAL OF USURY LAWS. 
 
 113 
 
 Old and New Testament, yet, the practice of it has not 
 only been sanctioned by the Legislature, it has even been 
 enjoined by the Ministers of a Christian Sovereign. I 
 am aware of the burst of vituperation and ridicule to 
 which I expose myself from the disciples of a school, of 
 which one of the most eminent professors pronounced 
 usurers to be the benefactors of the human race ; * never- 
 theless, I do dispute with these blatant worshippers of 
 Mammon, the fitness of removing all restraint on the in- 
 ordinate covetousness of man, and of placing youth, in- 
 experience, and defenceless want, at the mercy of insa- 
 tiable and unscrupulous extortioners. It has been alleged 
 that the law against usury was evaded, and that there- 
 fore it was safer to legalize what it was impossible en- 
 tirely to prevent. How often has murder been com- 
 mitted with impunity ; are we, therefore, to abolish the 
 statutes against homicide ? The duty of a legislator is 
 to guard against the perpetration of crime, to provide 
 for its detection and punishment, by every means that 
 human sagacity can devise ; never to suggest, or to protect 
 the commission of evil. The truth is, that your philoso- 
 phic pretenders to statesmanship are at issue with the 
 Bible on this as on other points. Their object is to 
 establish the hateful supremacy of riches, and in further- 
 ance of this design, they consider it a praiseworthy act 
 for man to profit freely by the wants and the calamities 
 of his fellow-mortals. 
 
 In all these things may be clearly traced a reckless 
 spirit of innovation, a morbid longing for change, an 
 ominous propensity to adopt principles and support pro- 
 
 * Jeremy Bentham. 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 jects tending directly to disturb and to demoralize so- 
 ciety. On whatever side I turn, it is in vain that I seek 
 satisfactory reasons for the habitual devotion of Roman 
 Catholics to the representatives of the men who framed 
 the exterminating penal code, to the inheritors of their 
 policy and the vindicators of their atrocities. I allude 
 not to the conduct of this or that individual. I know 
 how variously the political opinions of the most perfect 
 mortals are liable to the influence of particular views and 
 circumstances ; it is against the grovelling obsequious- 
 ness of Roman Catholics, as a body, towards the Whigs 
 as a political party, that I indignantly protest ; and once 
 more I ask, on what principle of religion, of sympathy, 
 or common sense, do Roman Catholics support the 
 Whigs ? 
 
RECAPITULATION. 
 
 115 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 RECAPITULATION — GOVERNMENT AND MEASURES NECESSARY FOR 
 IRELAND MODERN STATESMEN WHIG ADMINISTRATION CON- 
 
 CLUSION. 
 
 I return with a heavy heart to the afflicting subject of 
 Ireland. Even to a cursory observer, this collapse of 
 industrious enterprise, this abandonment of hope, this 
 moral decomposition of society, present some novel and 
 deeply interesting features. There is at the same time 
 profusion and misery ; a hectic glare of extravagance and 
 luxury in the midst of desolation and want. Were a 
 stranger to see the apparent stir of business, the hand- 
 some equipages, the superb display in the shops, the 
 entertainments of all kinds, he could hardly suppose that 
 he was in the metropolis of an impoverished and dis- 
 heartened people, trembling on the verge of utter ruin. 
 This may be in some degree accounted for from the 
 lavish expenditure of the artificially rich class, either 
 fundholders, annuitants, or placemen, who thrive on the 
 calamities of the nation at large ; for they command three 
 times the quantity of the produce of overtasked and ill- 
 requited industry that they ought in fairness and justice 
 to receive. Whatever money remains is unwholesomely 
 congested in the capital, whither many of the landed pro- 
 prietors, either expelled from their ancient homes, or 
 unable any longer to afford the becoming hospitalities of 
 
116 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 their rank, hasten to conceal the humiliation of their 
 downfall. Few persons can anticipate what their own 
 condition may be at the end of six months ; a reckless 
 feeling prevails extensively ; as in a town where the 
 plague rages, men hasten to enjoy the brief space of life 
 that may remain. There is absolutely a ferment of cir- 
 culation in the metropolis ; money cannot remain station- 
 ary except in the gripe of inveterate and impracticable 
 misers. I have repeatedly seen, of late, men and women 
 in tattered garments bidding at auctions for books, pic- 
 tures, and articles of luxury, which were paid for on the 
 spot. The rivalry of cheapness has wrought this bad 
 effect among many others, that here, as in England, it 
 has given the poorer classes a knowledge of luxuries, 
 and a consequent taste for them, which is not conducive 
 to their happiness or to their morality. 
 
 “ Nunc patimur longse pacis mala ; ssevior armis 
 Luxuria incubuit.”* 
 
 While the fine old houses of the fallen aristocracy are 
 either decaying or sold at a low price, more modern and 
 elegant buildings in fashionable localities are easily dis- 
 posed of at extremely high rents. The innumerable villas 
 scattered over the beautiful suburbs of Dublin are fitted 
 up with a refinement of expenditure fully equal to those in 
 the vicinity of London. Adventurers from all parts of 
 the world send over their advertisements, or flock in 
 person to raise contributions on Ireland. And, what is 
 most astonishing, they succeed to a considerable extent. 
 Farmers are every day emigrating to America, having 
 
 * Juvenal, Sat. vi. 
 
DEMORALIZATION — WANT. 
 
 117 
 
 their pockets well lined with sovereigns, notwithstanding 
 the rapacity and extortion of landlords. The building 
 of churches in excellent taste, and with the most costly 
 materials, proceeds uninterruptedly ; and, what is de- 
 serving of admiration, with such ruined means and such 
 numerous demands, nowhere can be found, in proportion, 
 so many valuable and well-supported charitable institu- 
 tions as in the city of Dublin. 
 
 But, under this deceptive surface, lies a fearful gulf 
 of demoralization and real want. I have heard from a 
 magistrate of the highest respectability, that nothing can 
 exceed the depravity which comes before him daily in 
 the discharge of his official duty. He ascribed it to the 
 pressure of extreme destitution, and a longing for grati- 
 fications formerly unthought of by the poorer classes. 
 A Roman Catholic clergyman of great piety and good 
 sense attributed to the same cause the growing immo- 
 rality and decay of religious feeling among his parishion- 
 ers. The restraint of honesty seems to have disap- 
 peared altogether. Money must be had , by all means 
 and at any price. 
 
 This is the moment for an intelligent and humane 
 Government so to regulate the relations of society as to 
 place the object of this ardent desire within the reach of 
 all who are willing to labour for it honestly ; to turn the 
 workings of human passion to the account of morality 
 and order; to remove temptation from the poor and 
 ignorant, and give them at least a chance of becoming 
 virtuously independent. 
 
 Another remarkable fact connected with this perilous 
 social disorganization, is the vast increase of insanity 
 
118 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 among the middle and lower orders. I have it from 
 eminent medical authority, that the lunatic asulums are 
 everywhere crowded beyond all former example, and 
 that applications for admission continue to be made, with 
 which it is impossible to comply. It is but too evident 
 that unforeseen and overwhelming calamity has in most 
 instances caused this lamentable wreck of intellect. Is 
 this , then, a time to dally with power as if it were the 
 plaything of a child, or to use it only as a child might a 
 sword, for mischief? 
 
 The first step to be taken for the regeneration of Ire- 
 land is, to establish the security of life and property. 
 We are told that we have a Government and constituted 
 authorities : but of what avail are they amidst the open 
 violation of all law, and where a week’s cessation of 
 murder may be called “ halcyon days ?” 
 
 By whatever stretch of power, at any risk or sacrifice, 
 these atrocious practices must be effectually suppressed, 
 before improvement of any kind can be attempted. In 
 the name of outraged heaven, let there be no more free 
 trade in blood. The paramount supremacy of the law T 
 being asserted, the spirit of industry should be stimulated, 
 the capabilities of the country should be called from the 
 state of abeyance to which they have been too long con- 
 signed, and every pains taken to inculcate habits of order, 
 punctuality, and method. The people should be taught 
 that there are more useful and satisfactory modes of em- 
 ploying their time, than in the bewildering pursuits of 
 political agitation. They should be made to comprehend 
 that they are not called on to govern the State, or to 
 control the Legislature : that they shall no longer be 
 ruled by clubs and confederacies, and that the rural po- 
 
NEW ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 
 
 119 
 
 pulation might very well meet for purposes of business or 
 amusement, without forthwith forming committees, ap- 
 pointing chairmen and secretaries, and entering into dis- 
 cussions not always suited to the ear of the Attorney- 
 General. 
 
 I have, in a former chapter, hinted my doubts that the 
 late franchise granted to Ireland would contribute to the 
 happiness or advantage of the people. I look on it as an 
 insidious gift, bestowed for a party purpose. On this 
 point, as on that of the Repeal of the Union, I am anxious 
 not to be misunderstood. I should wish that the electoral 
 franchise were extended even to universal suffrage, pro- 
 vided that the entire people were sufficiently well in- 
 formed to make a judicious use of it, and completely free 
 as to the disposal of their votes.* I submit that education 
 has not yet made sufficient progress to warrant a large 
 increase of the elective body ; and even among those 
 who may be competent to form a correct choice, a consi- 
 derable portion have no freedom of election. Their votes 
 are not their own , but the property of a club, of a demo- 
 gogue, or a league, and woe to him who dares exhibit 
 symptoms of independence. Thus it was, that the Reform 
 
 * “ Liberty, the most ardent of our wishes, must be bestowed with caution, 
 in order that the sacrifices which are made, for the purpose of gaining it, be 
 not rendered useless. Every civilized people is in a state to be free ; but the 
 degree of freedom which a country can enjoy, ought to bear an exact pro- 
 portion to the measure of its civilization. If the first exceed the last, no 
 power can save them from anarchy. Such improvements as the country is 
 prepared to receive, should be gradually and judiciously introduced .” — San 
 Martin's Address to the Peruvians , 1821. 
 
 “ Look at the sort of persons chosen at elections where the franchise is 
 very general, and you will find either fools, who are content to flatter the 
 passions of the mob, for a little transient popularity, or knaves who pander to 
 their follies, that they may make their necks a footstool to their own promo- 
 tion .” — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
120 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 Bill, which nearly extirpated nomination boroughs in 
 Great Britain, so far from adding to the freedom of con- 
 stituencies in Ireland, at once converted two-thirds of its 
 representation into a “ monster” borough, at the sole 
 disposal of one individual. Another proof, if it were ne- 
 cessary, that English institutions are not always particu- 
 larly happy in their application to the existing state of 
 Ireland. The new franchise, by making the vote conse- 
 quent on mere occupation, will tend to discourage the 
 granting of leases, and invite further aggression on the 
 independence of the voter ; while the required payment 
 of rates, in many districts enormously high, will either 
 disfranchise thousands, or open a ready market for a 
 wealthy purchaser. I repeat it, the points of paramount 
 importance to the Irish constituencies are information 
 and perfect freedom of choice. It is deeply humiliating 
 to Irishmen, to see speculating adventurers rushing from 
 all quarters to be returned to Parliament, on the strength 
 of some vague shibboleth which binds them to nothing, 
 but merely conveys to their constituents their adhesion 
 to some indefinite, darling something or other, not ex- 
 pressed, or, indeed, very well understood by either party. 
 Of those to whom “ Repeal ” was an “ open sesame ” for 
 the House of Commons, how few there were who gave it 
 the same meaning, or any meaning at all, except the 
 selfish purpose of the moment ! 
 
 The abstract principle of self-government, of which no 
 rational being can deny the justice or propriety , gave 
 these candidates little concern ; they never troubled 
 themselves to consider the weighty obstacles that stood 
 in the way of repealing the Legislative Union between 
 Great Britain and Ireland ; or if they did, they took good 
 care to eschew the perilous honesty of declaring them. 
 
POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 121 
 
 It is quite impossible for any Government to act suc- 
 cessfully and advantageously for the country, so long as 
 ignorant individuals are suffered to erect themselves into 
 a tribunal of public opinion, and to rule, with no light 
 hand, the actions, the words, and, as far as they can, the 
 very thoughts of the community. People associate under 
 their direction, professedly for the purpose of making 
 speeches and passing resolutions ; but the idea of ap- 
 proaching action preoccupies every mind. Fencing with 
 the laws, as a preparation for overturning them, is a 
 practice that no wise Government w T ould tolerate for a 
 day. A writer of great political eminence, and a deter- 
 mined admirer of democratic institutions, observes, that 
 “ of all kinds of liberty, the unrestrained liberty of asso- 
 ciation for political purposes is that which can be with 
 least safety conceded to the people ; for, if it does not 
 plunge them into anarchy, it is ever on the brink of it.” 
 Therefore, decided steps should be taken to put a stop 
 to agitation, at least for purposes of personal ambition, 
 for profit, or for mere mischief. The grievance trade 
 should be declared illicit, and dealt with accordingly. 
 But, to make this line of policy irreproachable and safe, 
 every just and reasonable cause of complaint should be 
 promptly and entirely removed. To stifle the voice of 
 remonstrance, while wrongs remain unredressed, is an 
 act of monstrous tyranny, as well as of consummate folly ; 
 for nothing is more to be dreaded than the compulsory 
 silence of men conscious of injury, and waiting their 
 time. Government should take the initiative in all 
 measures of redress, or reform of existing laws ; to leave 
 them to be extorted by popular tumult, indicates a la- 
 mentable want of ability or of moral courage in the 
 rulers. Homoeopathic doses of relief will not answer in 
 
122 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 the case of Ireland ; the remedy must be proportionate 
 to the evil.* The current of national feeling must be 
 turned into another channel ; and the people should learn 
 to confide in an Executive, fully alive to their wants, too 
 vigilant for surprise, and too formidable for resistance. 
 An administration that, bold in the rectitude of its inten- 
 tions, would proceed straightforward in the glorious task 
 of improvement and reconstruction ; unmoved by party 
 violence, by calumny, or intrigue : prepared to suspend 
 the letter of the Constitution, if it were necessary for the 
 purpose of preserving its spirit and restoring its salutary 
 action ; but, even during that suspension, adhering to the 
 sacred principles of right and justice. 
 
 The folly and the oppression of man have impoverish- 
 ed and degraded Ireland. The hand of God lies heavy 
 on her now. Perhaps but a short space may remain 
 during which human efforts might be available for repa- 
 ration and amendment. Alas ! there are no traces of true 
 patriotism, no restorative elements, no rational prognos- 
 tics of success in all the ceaseless turmoil of Irish politi- 
 cal agitation. There have been speeches, and meetings, 
 and resolutions without end; “rents” and tributes in- 
 numerable have been collected ; the people were trained 
 to live in perpetual adoration of themselves and their 
 leaders, and gratified with the often-repeated and ever- 
 welcome assurance that they were “ the most oppressed 
 and the finest peasantry under heaven.” The people 
 of Ireland have been purposely divided ; they have been 
 frequently duped and misled; they have been grievously 
 
 * The cultivation of flax is now the panacea for all the evils that afflict 
 Ireland ! ! The growth of hemp, inasmuch as Ministers might be concerned, 
 would be more appropriate, and decidedly more efficacious as a remedial 
 measure, than anything that has been hitherto brought forward. 
 
MODERN STATESMANSHIP. 
 
 123 
 
 wronged ; but with all their faults of native growth or of 
 foreign culture, my unfortunate countrymen are not in- 
 corrigible. Their hapless condition is not beyond the 
 grasp of a humane, enlightened, and intrepid mind ; the 
 present moment is in some respects propitious for at- 
 tempting great and salutary changes. The very diffi- 
 culty of succeeding only adds to the necessity for exer- 
 tion.* 
 
 After such a lengthened period of habitual misrule on 
 the one hand, and violation of the laws on the other, it 
 cannot be expected that men may be won over to steadi- 
 ness and order by bland exhortation, or paternal remon- 
 strance. You must control while you cherish, and 
 correct while you encourage. Surely we may yet be 
 permitted to believe in the possible formation of an able 9 
 honest, determined Ministry, whose actions would bear 
 the light of open day, freed from the obscure manceuver- 
 ing, the intrusive littleness , and low cunning that consti- 
 tute the statesmanship of modern “ red tape” men of 
 business. Nearly all those who are designated as the 
 rising politicians of the day belong to this class. They 
 have their merit, no doubt : it should be acknowledged 
 and duly rewarded. “ Un zero bien place a une grande 
 valeur but let them be chained to their desk, the ap- 
 propriate and exclusive sphere of their usefulness. The 
 K very qualities that render them valuable in a subordinate 
 
 * It may, perhaps, excite some surprise that I have made no allusion 
 to the political influence of the Roman Catholic clergy. I do not think 
 that it would answer any useful purpose to discuss that subject at this 
 particular moment. Besides, I have long considered the active interference 
 of that reverend body in political matters as not being in itself a primary 
 movement, but rather as one of the anomalous consequences of a faulty and 
 inefficient administration. 
 
124 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 department, are in a great degree incompatible with a 
 higher order of talent, which accordingly they sneer at, 
 as dangerous and visionary.* 
 
 A modern accomplished statesman is a paragon of 
 duplicity and cunning, with a heart most sensitive to 
 pressure from without, but devoid of generous impulse 
 within, and a head well stored with plagiarisms, and fur- 
 nished with plausible subtleties of all sorts. At the 
 head of this school of triumphant mediocrity stood, facile 
 princeps , the late Sir Robert Peel — a man with vast 
 powers of application, of indefatigable industry, and most 
 useful memory. None better understood the practice 
 of the House of Commons, or could avail himself more 
 dexterously of that knowledge. To loftiness of mind, to 
 warmth of feeling, or originality of thought, he had no 
 pretensions whatever. There was no portion of his ex- 
 tensive reading that was not always at his command ; he 
 never forgot even a happy phrase, and never hesitated 
 to appropriate it without ceremony at the first conve- 
 nient opportunity. Sir Robert Peel was, in truth, only 
 the manufacturer of other men’s ideas ; nor is there, in 
 all the voluminous records of his elaborate oratory, one 
 idea or sentiment of his own that ever was, or ever will 
 be, quoted either for ornament or illustration. His ap- 
 pearance was characteristic of his disposition : it was 
 neither dignified nor easy. Educated with the utmost 
 care, and accustomed to the highest society of Europe, 
 nevertheless there was a “ constant struggle to appear 
 the fine gentleman his condescension was offensive 
 
 * “ Ceux qui sont capables d’inventer sont rares ; ceux qui n’inventent 
 point sont en bien plus grand nombre, et par consequent, les plus forts ; et 
 voila pourquoi lorsque les inventeurs cherchent la gloire qu’ils meritent, tout 
 ce qu’ils y gagnent c’est qu’on les traite de visionaires.” — Pascal. 
 
SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 125 
 
 and his dignity ludicrous. # It was amusing to see the 
 right hon. gentleman with one hand on his hip, and the 
 other flinging back the breast of his coat, delivering a 
 well-rehearsed discourse to an audience prepared to 
 cheer every sentence of this spoiled child of the House 
 of Commons. Even these traits of manner may not be 
 considered as trifling or irrelevant ; for every particular 
 connected with the public career of a statesman who ex- 
 ercised so long-continued and powerful an influence over 
 the national councils, becomes an object of legitimate and 
 interesting inquiry. Nor is it at all improbable, that the 
 interdiction of aristocratic bearing which Nature imposed 
 on Sir Robert Peel might have awakened, in a greater 
 or less degree, the hostility he displayed to the ancient 
 territorial proprietors. 
 
 But far more important charges await the memory of 
 the departed statesman, from the deplorable consequen- 
 ces of his vacillating principles. His admirers may as- 
 sert that his motives were honourable, that his tardy 
 convictions were sincere ; but either his original judg- 
 ment was invariably wrong, or he wanted the moral 
 courage to adhere to what he believed to be right. Sir 
 Robert Peel seems never to have felt that delicacy to- 
 wards his own reputation that would have hindered him, 
 even when fairly convinced of his error, from coming 
 forward as the proposer of measures in direct contradic- 
 tion to his deliberate and recorded opinions. Under the 
 auspices of his intelligent and experienced father, he 
 commenced his public life as a strenuous opponent of 
 the monetary doctrines of Mr. Horner. Mr. Peel sub- 
 sequently brought in the fatally celebrated Cash Pay- 
 
 * Rochefoucault says — “ L’air bourgeois se perd quelquefois a l’armee, 
 mais il ne se perd jamais a la cour.” 
 
126 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ment Act of 1819> which has conferred on his name a 
 distinction more permanent than enviable. The bitter- 
 ness of his opposition to the claims of Roman Catholics 
 obtained for him the felicitous cognomen of “ Orange 
 Peel and with the accents of “ No Popery” still linger- 
 ing on his tongue, he introduced the Emancipation Bill 
 of 1829- On his unexpected return to power, after the 
 expulsion of the Whigs by William the Fourth, we find 
 the Right Hon. Baronet addressing the constituency of 
 Tamworth in these terms : — “ I have the firmest convic- 
 tion that public confidence cannot be secured by any 
 other course than that of frank and explicit declarations 
 of principle ; that vague and unmeaning professions of 
 popular opinions may quiet distrust for a time, may in- 
 fluence this or that election, but that such professions 
 must ultimately and signally fail, if, being made, they are 
 not adhered to, or if they are inconsistent with the ho- 
 nour or character of those who made them. Now, I say 
 at once that I will not accept power on the condition of 
 declaring myself an apostate from the principles on 
 which I have hitherto acted .” Sir Robert Peel as- 
 
 sumed the chief command, and it was not long before he 
 proved his unfitness for the position he occupied. He 
 dissolved the Parliament at once, and thereby threw away 
 a most important advantage. Under far more discou- 
 raging circumstances, Mr. Pitt contended with a hostile 
 House of Commons, until the greatness of his genius 
 effected a revolution in the public mind, and then he dis- 
 solved Parliament with complete success. — The Minister 
 was defeated in the new House at the election of a Speak- 
 er; and when beaten on his tithe law, by the Whig amend- 
 ment for the appropriation of Church revenue — a motion 
 that bore on the face of it the impress of trickery and 
 
SIR ROBERT PEEL — CORN-LAWS. 
 
 127 
 
 faction — he gave up his Bill and fled from office. He 
 might justly have said — “ My tithe arrangement is a good 
 one ; you admit its merit and the pressing necessity for 
 it ; you have succeeded in factiously connecting with it 
 a proposition which you all well know will ensure its re- 
 jection elsewhere : let the responsibility rest with the 
 opponents of my measure.” 
 
 But Sir Robert Peel resigned — 
 
 “ Tel brille au second rang qui s’eclipse au premier, 
 
 Et devient lache chef d’intrepide guerrier.” 
 
 Henriade. 
 
 Five years after, Sir Robert Peel said, in the House of 
 Commons : — “ Well then, Sir, I am asked to enter an in- 
 quiry at the bar, as to the operation of the corn-laws. 
 Why do I resist it ? Upon the ground merely, that the 
 inquiry would consume the time of the House ? I do 
 not resist it on any of those grounds. I resist it from 
 the strong conviction in my own mind , that the present 
 system of corn-laws ought to be maintained ”* On this 
 “frank and explicit declaration of principle,” Sir Robert 
 Peel obtained the support that made him Prime Minister 
 of England, to the grievous injury of the great Protec- 
 tionist party, who believed him to be incapable of declar- 
 ing himself an apostate from the principles he had hitherto 
 professed. It cannot be denied, that by his versatile 
 opinions and fluctuating policy, Sir Robert Peel lowered 
 the standard of ministerial morality, and greatly damaged 
 the confidence of the people in the principles and profes- 
 
 * So far did the Right Hon. Baronet carry the sensitiveness of his adhesion 
 to protective duties, that he actually returned a present of a superb waist- 
 coat, because the design was a sheaf of wheat, with the offensive word “ free” 
 across it ! And this not long before the grand circumvolution. 
 
128 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 sions of public men.”* Of the personal good qualities 
 and worth of the deceased statesman, I know nothing, and 
 am quite willing to accept them at the highest estimate of 
 his most devoted followers. But, the more excellent and 
 honourable his private character may have been, the 
 more pernicious it became, when he lent its weight to the 
 mischief of his public example : — 
 
 “ Totius autem injustitise nulla capitalior est, quam 
 eorum qui quum maxim e fallunt, id agunt ut viri boni 
 esse videantur.” — Cicero. 
 
 On the memorable conversion of Sir Robert Peel to 
 the doctrines of Messrs. Cobden and Bright, there was 
 found but one Cabinet Minister f who adhered to his 
 principles, and indignantly refused to pass through the 
 Caudine forks. 
 
 If, instead of inheriting immense riches, Sir Robert 
 Peel had succeeded to a decent competence only, it is 
 not probable that he ever would have reached distinc- 
 tion or pre-eminence. He would, no doubt, have been 
 the admired of the vestry, the oracle of the village club, 
 and if he ever reached the bench, the “ decus et tuta- 
 men ” of the Quarter Sessions. Yet, he was well suited 
 to the age in which he lived, and the task he undertook. 
 Sir Robert Peel will long continue to be a great man to 
 that numerous party, who consider that the sole purpose 
 of creation was the uninterrupted interchange of com- 
 modities ; who look on traffic as the presiding Divinity 
 over human affairs, and hold, that the principal, if not 
 
 * For a complete exposure of the erroneous inferences and fallacious argu- 
 ments of the late Sir R. Peel, see a very clever pamphlet, entitled “ The Act 
 of False Reasoning Exemplified.” London: 1850. 
 
 f Lord Stanley, who has more than once sacrificed his place, but never his 
 principle or his truth. 
 
THE LATE LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 
 
 129 
 
 the only end of civil government, should be to facilitate 
 and to protect the operations of commerce. 
 
 The profuse and indefinite legislation of our day is, 
 in itself, sufficient proof of the failing intellect and dimi- 
 nished energy of those by whom the Government of the 
 country has been conducted. Where is the mind com- 
 petent to redeem the consequences of so many fatal 
 errors, and to provide for the future prosperity of the 
 State ? A great statesman is able to from a correct 
 judgment of the nature of a principle, and seize, with a 
 comprehensive grasp, all the bearings of a proposed 
 measure. Having taken his position he is prepared to 
 defend it. The threats of a League, the bellowing of 
 a tribune, the insidious cartel of a cunning adversary, 
 never can compel him to renounce the principles he had 
 adopted, or to betray the friends who confided in his 
 honour. Enlightened, resolute, and, above all, of in- 
 flexible integrity, of unbroken faith, he will, without 
 one moment’s hesitation, sacrifice power, patronage, and 
 all that is most dear to human ambition, sooner than 
 yield one tittle of what he believes to be just and true. 
 In debate, he will express, in the manly tones of a fervid 
 and sterling eloquence, the strong convictions of a clear 
 and vigorous understanding. Free from the spasm of 
 cold, malignant rage, no infirmity of temper will hurry 
 him into the indecorum of treating the unanswerable 
 arguments of an intelligent opponent, as “ fit only for 
 the stable,” or of desiring a celebrated author to insert 
 his facts in his next novel. Of the former object of such 
 self-withering sneer, it may be truly said, that he dig- 
 nified and redeemed those amusements to which the 
 wearisomeness of inaction frequently impels an enterpris- 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ing and powerful genius. The career of Lord George 
 Bentinck was brief, but it was, in every respect, dis- 
 tinguished and unsullied. 
 
 “ Oh, ancient honour ! Oh, unconquer’d hand. 
 
 Whom foes unpunish’d never could withstand ! 
 
 But, England was unworthy of his name, 
 
 Short is the date of all immod’rate fame ; 
 
 It look’d as heav’n our ruin had design’d, 
 
 And durst not trust thy fortune and thy mind !” 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 The hazardous condition of England calls for a Minis- 
 ter who can regulate his policy by a clear and enlarged 
 view of the difficulties that surround him ; who means 
 what he says , and performs what he promises : who can 
 extend his care to the well-being of a//, and who never 
 would consent to devote to ruin a great and important 
 class, in obedience to the troublesome clamours of a 
 rapacious and unprincipled faction. 
 
 Such is the leader on whom the nation’s hope must 
 fix in the hour of alarm and peri]. Yes, the hour will 
 come and the man, unless the doom of England be irre- 
 vocably decreed by a power which none may resist. The 
 cavils of his enemies, the doubts of the wavering will 
 melt away before the stern necessity of the moment, 
 bringing with it fearful conviction to many a hesitating or 
 reluctant mind. 
 
 The present Ministry have now been nearly five 
 years in office. During all that time, Ireland has been 
 rapidly sinking, not one effectual measure having been 
 applied to relieve her afflictions, or arrest her fall. On 
 the contrary, each succeeding year has seen her calami- 
 ties increased and her prospects darkened. At length, 
 even the most sanguine have ceased to hope, and the 
 
MINISTERIAL PROLUSION. 
 
 131 
 
 stoutest hearts are stricken with dismay. All confidence 
 between man and man is destroyed ; every one is press- 
 ing on his neighbour,* reckless of the present, and de- 
 spairing of the future. The circulation of Bank paper is 
 more and more contracted ; there is no value in any pro- 
 perty but money, and that is not to be had on any terms.f 
 Everything indicates an approaching break up of society, 
 when law and order will contend in vain with the frenzy 
 of destitution. We have here no manufactures ; we can- 
 not be gulled in the midst of ruin, by flattering commer- 
 cial reports got up for the purpose of creating a momen- 
 tary delusion. 
 
 Yet, with a prospect so fearful before us, have Minis- 
 ters cheered our failing spirit with any hope of relief, any 
 assurance of their sympathy and good-will ? No. The 
 Prime Minister occupies his leisure in writing a “ pen- 
 dant” to the celebrated Despatch from Edinburgh, when 
 he outbid Sir R. Peel in free-trade, as he now volunteers 
 to outbid even Orangemen in ultra-Protestant and “ no 
 Popery” zeal. But, the circumstances are widely dif- 
 
 * One of the disastrous consequences of the Incumbered Estates Commis- 
 sion is, that persons who were hitherto well pleased to have their money out 
 at interest on landed property, are taking it up in every direction ; partly in 
 the hope of escaping the consequences of a compulsory sale, and partly in order 
 to purchase land at less than a third of its true value ; thus adding grievously 
 to the pressure that already exists for money, and bringing down ruin on 
 many a proprietor, who might otherwise have withstood the storm of rapine 
 and persecution poured upon this country by the destructive and infatuated 
 policy of Ministers. 
 
 f Until the stringent monetary system of Sir Robert Peel be relaxed, it 
 will be found impossible to afford effectual relief to the people of Ireland. 
 Every feature of the distress denotes the nature of the evil, and points out 
 the specific remedy. How long are the happiness and the very existence of 
 millions of human beings to be made the sport of selfish and inhuman 
 theorists ? 
 
132 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ferent, and he has to deal with a statesman of another 
 stamp. 
 
 The official existence of the present Ministry has fre- 
 quently been described as a “ necessity ; ” and their ad- 
 mirers have disported themselves with many a delectable 
 antithesis thereon. The “necessity,” however, does 
 not arise from the absence of superior abilities. Take 
 any tw T elve men out of the street, and the probability is, 
 that nine of them would be found to surpass the actual 
 occupants of the Treasury, in all the qualifications requi- 
 site for governing. The “necessity” lies in the decay 
 of public spirit, the political apathy of the moment. No 
 matter how men may have been jumbled into power, or 
 what sort of use they make of it, any attempt to disturb 
 their official repose is considered little short of petty 
 treason. 
 
 “And, if in Downing, street Old Nick should revel, 
 
 England’s Prime Minister, then bless the Devil.” 
 
 There is another and more intelligible principle of this 
 same “necessity :” the risk of the Whig party being out 
 of place, while the perilous distemperature of the times 
 might afford them an opportunity for greater mischief. 
 We are constantly told that this is an age of “ progress,” 
 which it is equally dangerous and useless to resist. Does 
 it ever occur to these enthusiastic disciples of perpetual 
 motion, to inquire whither we are “ progressing ” in this 
 wild career of innovation ? The hunger for change is 
 not to be appeased by concession — at every step the goal 
 recedes. Already, murmurs begin to rise against “ that 
 costly bauble,” the Crown, and that “hereditary nui- 
 sance,” the Peerage. 
 
 The British Constitution, that glorious monument of 
 human wisdom, contains within itself a skilful combina- 
 
LIMITED MONARCHY — ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 133 
 
 tion of freedom and of salutary restraint. It already holds 
 as large a portion of the democratic principle as is con- 
 sistent with the existence of monarchy in any shape . 
 Every addition to popular power tends to destroy the 
 nicely adjusted balance of the State ; it diminishes the 
 security without augmenting the substantial freedom of 
 the people. If the universal nation willed a pure demo- 
 cracy, it would be far better to have it at once, than thus 
 to fritter away an unequalled Constitution, and to degrade 
 the throne of Britain to an American rocking-stool. The 
 tendency of our latter legislation has been to pamper the 
 worst feelings of democracy, by establishing the domi- 
 nion of the monied interest over the territorial aristo- 
 cracy.* Without the latter, it is utterly impossible for a 
 limited monarchy to exist. A despotism needs no gra- 
 dation of ranks, it consists of the autocrat and his slaves : 
 but, in a constitutional monarchy, an intermediate class is 
 essentially necessary to protect the just rights of the sub- 
 ject, and uphold the independence of the Sovereign. The 
 full and free exercise of both is requisite for the safety 
 and the welfare of the State. 
 
 The bold and loyal yeomen of Great Britain have 
 been crushed by unjust and perverse legislation. The 
 farmers of Ireland are flying in crowds from its devoted 
 shores. No smooth words, no parade of “ sound general 
 principles,” no appeals to the guardian shade of the 
 “ great statesman we have lost,” can reconcile men to the 
 “ progress” of destruction, or induce a hope of better 
 days in minds worn down by suffering and callous from 
 repeated disappointment. The question must be decided 
 
 * With a nominal preponderance in the Legislature, the landed proprietors 
 have been for some years treated by capitalists and cotton-spinners as mere 
 drudges, submitting to work out their own destruction. 
 
134 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 before long, whether the ancient possessors of the soil, 
 who founded the vaunted institutions of England, and 
 shed their blood in defence of them, shall be stripped of 
 their property, and their influence be transferred to a 
 class, the monstrous excrescence of a gambling age, with- 
 out love of country, or of anything else, save money and 
 the means of acquiring it. In place of the old English 
 landlord, who takes a pride in the comfort and respect- 
 ability of his tenant, they would give us the “ capitalist,” 
 who is proud of nothing but his wealth, and who considers 
 his purchase solely in the light of a profitable investment. 
 He has no ancestors to disgrace, no generous feelings 
 transmitted through a long descent of kind-hearted pre- 
 decessors. Exulting in his riches, the insolent “millo- 
 crat” comes prepared to treat the slaves of the soil as he 
 treated the slaves of the factory. 
 
 Versed, as the present Ministers undoubtedly are, in 
 the arts of political intrigue, and skilful as they may be 
 in the use of every sort of delusion, they may find it a 
 task above their strength to tide over the approaching 
 session. Not content with the ordinary embarrassments 
 of their arduous station, they appear to have involved 
 themselves wantonly in perplexities, which no amount of 
 ingenuity can solve. They have accumulated difficulties 
 around them, which neither their own peculiar talent, nor 
 even the posthumous protection of the “ lamented states- 
 man” can bear them safely through. With foreign states 
 we have peace, indeed, but no cordiality. Our diplo- 
 matic policy has been made up of small provocations and 
 unwarrantable intermeddling ; of alternate bullying and 
 submission. Our friendly intervention at Rome drove 
 
 the Pope from his capital. Restored by the arms of Re- 
 publican France, his Holiness lost no time in sending a 
 
FOREIGN POLICY. 
 
 135 
 
 Most Reverend Plenipotentiary to return the obligation 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Greece, rescued from the barbarian sway of Turkey 
 by a Tory administration, has been worried into the pay- 
 ment of some thousand piastres, by the seizure of its 
 ships, and the threat of bombardment from a British 
 fleet, on the part of a “ liberal” Government. The King 
 of Naples, also, has good reason to remember the lively 
 interest we took in the concerns of his Sicilian subjects. 
 The superintending cares of our Minister at Madrid were 
 met by his sudden and discourteous expulsion from that 
 Court ; and well do the great powers of Europe know 
 that, if it were practicable and safe, our Foreign Office 
 would be dabbling in their domestic broils before a week 
 were over. Every attempt to overturn the existing 
 institutions of other states has been honoured by the fa- 
 vourable regard of England ; and when insurrection has 
 been subued, the authors of it are welcomed to her shores, 
 there, at their ease, to plan fresh treasons, and provide 
 the means of future disturbance. 
 
 Almost the last time that Grattan spoke in the British 
 House of Commons, he said, “ the greatness of England 
 is identified with her being ; when she ceases to be great, 
 she ceases to exist.” That greatness is visibly on the 
 decline. The most important of our domestic interests 
 has been given as a spoil to a rapacious faction; there 
 is not a power in any part of the world that is not well 
 acquainted with the inefficiency of our national defences, 
 contracted and reduced, as they have been, by the short- 
 sighted, ill-timed parsimony of peddling economists, who 
 cannot discern that the only safety for their money, 
 their manufactures, and themselves, lies in being always 
 well prepared to resist aggression from every quarter ; 
 
136 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 who, wrapped up in traffic, imagine that soldiers and 
 sailors can be hired like factory fags when wanting, and 
 that war can be carried on by the operations of single or 
 double entry. 
 
 We hear every day, that Parliament dares not do this , 
 and dares not do that . It dares not interfere to protect 
 property from fraud, and toiling industry from oppression. 
 It dares not strengthen the arm of justice to preserve 
 the public tranquillity ; in short, it dares not interfere to 
 control the senseless prejudices and excited passions of 
 the multitude. But there is nothing that an able, strong, 
 and truly honest Government dares not propose and 
 execute, in conformity with the spirit of the Constitution.* 
 A Legislature and an Executive are no longer a Go- 
 vernment, when they are coerced by what is called “pres- 
 sure from without,” which frequently means nothing more 
 than the will of a lawless and unprincipled confederacy. 
 
 Notwithstanding the benevolent labours of the Peace 
 Congress, and the touching exhortations poured forth 
 incessantly by its members, war may become inevitable ; 
 and one month of war would scatter to the winds all this 
 rubbish of free trade, and of “ sound and wholesome” 
 currency, by which the national resources have been im- 
 paired, and the national character degraded. During a 
 period of peace, almost unequalled in duration, so far 
 from the public prosperity having been augmented, and 
 the waste of former war repaired, the country has been 
 
 * One of the most offensive and monstrous assumptions of modern “ class 
 legislation” is the placing of it on the Mede and Persian system. No matter 
 how absurd, or how mischievous a measure may have proved, once carried by 
 clamour or delusion, it is proclaimed irrevocable. Any man who presumes to 
 resist this consolidation of error, this perpetuity of wrong, is given to under- 
 stand that he does so with a halter about his neck, and people actually 
 believe it ! 
 
FATUITY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 137 
 
 reduced to such a state of exhaustion, that it is far less 
 able to defend itself from a foreign foe, than it was at the 
 close of a prolonged and expensive struggle. Can this 
 have been the result of a firm, enlightened and equitable 
 administration of public affairs ? In every direction, the 
 fatuity and weakness of the present Government are ap- 
 parent. By way of preparation for rebellion in Ireland, 
 they gave up the Arms Bill ; as a compliment to the ruf- 
 fianism of all nations about to congregate in London, the 
 salutary control of the Alien Act has been abandoned ! 
 And now, forgetful of his “ liberal” professions, sus- 
 pected, at least, of connivance in the late Episcopal Ap- 
 pointments of the Roman Pontiff, the drowning Minister 
 catches at a “ no Popery” straw ! Alas ! Alas ! poor 
 liberal Whigs ! 
 
 “ He that stands upon a slippery place, 
 
 Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up .” — King John. 
 
 It is full time for every man who feels an interest in 
 the prosperity of his native land, for every loyal and 
 faithful servant of our gracious Queen, for every one 
 who wishes for the maintenance of religion and good 
 order, to protest against this mischievous and disreputa- 
 ble system of Government. They who from intimida- 
 tion, or perhaps meaning well, have hitherto concurred in 
 the principle of indefinite progress , and aided its deve- 
 lopment, w 7 ould do wisely to “ see and ask for the old 
 paths, where is the good way, and walk therein;”* to 
 endeavour to secure, before it be too late, some certain 
 line of defence, where they may make a successful stand 
 on behalf of all that yet remains of the laws and the Con- 
 stitution that raised England to such unrivalled great- 
 
 * Jeremiah, chap. 6. 
 
138 
 
 A MEMOIR OF IRELAND. 
 
 ness ; that caused her to be feared and respected abroad, 
 and rendered her people united, prosperous, and happy. 
 
 “ For, whatso’er their sufferings were before. 
 
 That change they covet makes them suffer more. 
 
 All other errors but disturb a State, 
 
 But innovation is the blow of fate. 
 
 If ancient fabrics nod and threat to fall. 
 
 To patch their flaws and buttress up the wall, 
 
 Thus far ’tis duty ; but here fix the mark, 
 
 For all beyond it is to touch the Ark. 
 
 To change foundations, cast the frame anew. 
 
 Is work for rebels, who base ends pursue ; 
 
 At once divine and human laws control. 
 
 And mend the parts by ruin of the whole. 
 
 The tamp’ring world is subject to this curse. 
 
 To physic their disease into a worse.” 
 
 Absalom and Achithophel. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 Wth December, 1849. 
 
 Ballinasloe. — At the last meeting of the Ballinasloe Guardians 
 it appeared that the cost of provisions, &c., for the week was, 
 £157 12s. 8d. ; amount of rate collected, £00 Os. Od. ! ! ! remaining due 
 on the union, £23,735 12s. 5d. 
 
 Roscommon . — Some difference of opinion exists between the Guar- 
 dians of this union, relative to a proposition of Mr. Brown, that a rate 
 of 10s. 6d. in the pound be struck. Mr. Taaffe said that “ the impos- 
 sibility of collecting such a rate was strongly exemplified by the fact, 
 that of the last 3s. rate, fully one-third remained uncollected.” 
 
 The number of paupers in the house is 2,293 ; those receiving out- 
 door relief amount to sixteen, and the sums paid to twelve relieving 
 officers amount to £365 annually !!! 
 
 Castlebar. — The number of paupers receiving relief in this impove- 
 rished union averages 3,458. 
 
 Carrick-on-Shannon. — The number of paupers at the last meeting 
 of the Board was 2,074, and the amount of rate uncollected was 
 £6,199 2s. lljd. 
 
 Castlerea. — The Vice-Guardians have left this union saddled with a 
 debt of uncertain magnitude to the contractors. At the last meeting 
 the Clerk stated, that the only way he was able to ascertain, when 
 he took office, what was due, was by writing to the contractors to fur- 
 nish the Board with their bills, and he believed there were about £3,000 
 due to them. 
 
 A discussion having followed relative to arrears of rate, 
 
 Mr. B. O’Connor said — “ No measures should be left untried to have 
 the rate all collected. Where there is nothing on the lands to distrain, 
 let the lands be sold, if the immediate lessors do not pay.” 
 
 After some further discussion, 
 
140 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. Brown said some of the paupers were selling the clothes of the 
 union throughout the country. 
 
 Mr. Gordon said some of the paid officers are bringing them out of 
 the house. 
 
 The Master said it was impossible there could be much taken, as no 
 one had the key of the store where the clothes were kept but himself 
 and the matron. He knew there were some things taken out of the 
 house, but not lately ; he knew of one instance (that surpassed all he 
 ever heard) where the paupers cut the blankets in two and put half on 
 each bed so as to bring away the other blanket, and when the beds 
 were inspected every day and the blankets seen on them it was thought 
 all was right, till it was found out after further inspection. 
 
 In this union it has been also discovered that the ledger was not 
 balanced ; that the accounts were only audited twice a year ; that the 
 guardians were completely in the dark as to their liabilities ; that the 
 relieving officers were doing nothing , and yet receiving from £40 to £50 
 per year. The number of paupers in the union was 2,332. The Guar- 
 dians have decided on publishing the names of the defaulting rate- 
 payers. 
 
 Galway . — 2,712 paupers are inmates of this union, and its auxiliary 
 buildings. The uncollected rate amounts to £19,000. The guardians 
 at their last meeting agreed to apply for a military and police force to 
 protect the collectors in Killannan and Claregalway. 
 
 Drogheda. — Total receiving relief, 670. 
 
 Navan. — 897 paupers are inmates here ; 1,200 receiving out-door 
 relief. 
 
 Bailieborough. — 1,230 union inmates ; 120 receiving out-door relief. 
 
 Listowel . — The unfortunate ratepayers have presented a petition to 
 his Excellency the Earl of Clarendon, the opening passage of which is 
 as follows : — 
 
 “Humbly Showeth — That rates for the relief of the poor, of 5s., 
 6s. 4d., 7s. 4d., 13s. 10d., and 14s. 7d. in the pound have been struck, 
 and are about to be laid, as they have been, on six electoral divisions 
 in this union, which, if attempted to be collected, must inevitably lead 
 to the entire abandonment and final confiscation of the land, and ulti- 
 mately leave the poor themselves unprovided for.” 
 
 His Excellency, of course, has promised to “ bring the matter under 
 the attention of the Government.” 
 
 Clonmel. — Total receiving relief, 1,796. 
 
 Thurles. — Total receiving relief, 1,640. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 141 
 
 Wexford. — Total of paupers, 908 ; of the rate made in March last 
 £3,219 remain uncollected; and yet the Poor Law Commissioners have 
 modestly endeavoured to lay their claws on the entire balance in the 
 treasurer’s hands, for the advances under Act 10 Vic., desiring the guar- 
 dians only to retain “ sufficient to provide for the current expenses of 
 the union. ,, 
 
 Athlone . — The amount of arrear uncollected is £6000. The number 
 of paupers for the week ending December 8 was 1,747. Their High 
 Mightinesses the Commissioners sent a missive to the Guardians dis- 
 approving of the punishment awarded by the Board to the two female 
 paupers, Mary Dolan and Rose Mulveyhill, who were ordered to be 
 confined ten hours every day for a week, and put upon “short com- 
 mons/ ’ The Commissioners’ letter stated that it was contrary to the 
 regulations for the punishment of refractory paupers to confine them 
 for so lengthened a period ; and the term “ short commons” was un- 
 intelligible to the Commissioners. 
 
 [They are quite right. It is the unfortunate ratepayers, not the 
 paupers or the Commissioners, to whom the term “ short commons” is 
 intelligible.] 
 
 Mullingar . — Total number relieved, 1,655. 
 
 Ballinrobe . — At the last meeting of this Board there were thirty 
 Guardians present. It appeared from the financial statement that this 
 unfortunate union is indebted to contractors and officers, up to the 31st 
 of October, in the sum of £11,000. 
 
 Gort . — The Sheriff came to the Gort Union Workhouse the other 
 day with an execution, but he had nothing to get in it ; all the things 
 that were in it were hired, and did not belong to the union. 
 
 Boyle . — We are concerned to find that the workhouse is filling fast; 
 within the last week thirty-eight were admitted and twenty discharged. 
 Total remaining, 906. There were no deaths during the week. The out- 
 door relief list for the entire union contains the names of 120 persons. 
 
 Ennis . — The Board was occupied throughout Saturday, up to a late 
 hour, in inspecting the books of the relieving officers and the admission 
 of paupers, and so numerous were the applicants for relief that the 
 Board was obliged to postpone the inspection of some of them, until 
 the adjourned meeting, to be held on Wednesday next. 
 
 Ennistymon . — The rations of the various officers of the house are 
 higher than that allowed in many other unions — the first class weekly 
 rations, consisting of 141bs. of best white bread, 71bs. of meat, 3joz. of 
 tea, 1 jibs, of sugar. — [Not a bad allowance; but what about the pau- 
 per rations ?] 
 
142 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 In this union the salaries of officers, though reduced £510, amount 
 to £620 ! 
 
 Kinsale. — The total rate uncollected amounts to £6,204 3s. 8d. The 
 number of paupers is 830. 
 
 Fermoy. — Number of paupers 2,215. 
 
 Bandon. — Number of paupers, 1,734. 
 
 Middleton . — Number of paupers, 1,735; auxiliary workhouse, 921. 
 
 Dunmamuay. — The uncollected rate amounts to £5,260 14s. 7^d. 
 The number of paupers is 730. 
 
 Caherciveen. — Number of paupers, 932. 
 
 Clogheen. — Total paupers, 1,005 ; receiving out-doorr elief, 162; rate 
 uncollected, £1,347 2s. 3d. 
 
 The Clogheen Board of Guardians have declared a rate of 6s. 8d. in 
 the pound on the electoral division of Ballyporeen, which is the most 
 pauperised division in the union. 
 
 Newcastle . — At the last meeting the number of inmates in the differ- 
 ent workhouses was 2,463 ; the number on the out-door relief, 9,370. 
 The Guardians are about to take Glenville House as an auxiliary work- 
 house, lately the residence of Captain John Massy. All the boilers used 
 for cooking food are to be disposed of for the benefit of the union. 
 
 Kilrush. — A crisis has taken place at last in the Kilrush Union. 
 Notwithstanding the exertions of the local Board and P.L.I., the in-door 
 paupers were obliged to go to bed without dinner on Thursday night. 
 The Master brought the state of the house, as regards want of provi- 
 sions for that day, before the Board, when soup, and chopped turnips 
 grown on the land, was the only food available. The out-door paupers 
 are in a desperate state, crowding the depots, and following the reliev- 
 ing officers by thousands to town to get into the workhouse ; but one 
 day’s admission (300 admitted) so crowded the auxiliary that admission 
 was impossible. Barley, the produce of the land about the workhouse, 
 has been ordered to be threshed ; but are 2,600 paupers to be fed on 
 the principle of “ live horse and you’ll get grass.” It is fearful to think 
 of the state of the Kilrush Union — nothing but starving creatures from 
 the country to be seen pouring into a starving workhouse ; the Board 
 meet every day, but if we are to judge from the general confession of 
 that body, they are able to effect no good. The chairman, Colonel C. 
 M. Yandeleur, took the chair yesterday, and his presence was sufficient, 
 it was thought to get the “ needful,” but to no purpose ; out-door pau- 
 pers and relieving officers were sent home, and in-door paupers recom- 
 mended to go to bed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 143 
 
 The above facts and figures have been collected from the latest re- 
 turns appearing in the provincial journals received at this office yester- 
 day, and though they only deal briefly with twenty-nine of the 131 
 unions into which Ireland is divided, they afford a significant example 
 of the working of the Irish Poor Law. Here we have, in twenty-four 
 of these unions, an aggregate of paupers amounting in round numbers 
 to 62,000, to which, every day and hour, large accumulations are added. 
 On eight of these unions, in which the returns of arrears are given, there 
 are due upwards of seventy thousand nine hundred pounds, and this 
 crushing debt is hourly increasing. In fact, Irish Poor Law statistics 
 are statistics of ruin — ruin rendered by Free Trade hopeless and irre- 
 mediable. 
 
 In the unfortunate Kilrush Union, with which our extracts terminate 
 this evening, the evils of the Poor Law have reached their climax. Two 
 thousand some hundred inmates crowd the workhouse, there are up- 
 wards of twelve thousand applicants for out-door relief, and it is only 
 on turnips and parsnips, boiled by the Matron and Master, that the in- 
 mates have been fed for days. On Thursday the Board of Guardians 
 met, and a petition to the Commissioners was resolved on. It sets forth 
 the awful state of the union ; and, declaring that nothing but an ad- 
 vance of money can save thousands of lives, concludes in these words: — ■ 
 
 “ They therefore implore of the Commissioners not to lose a moment 
 in applying to the Lords of the Treasury for relief, and they feel them- 
 selves relieved from all moral responsibility, having laid this statement 
 of the facts before the pommissioners.” 
 
 An adjourned meeting was held on Saturday, when Colonel Vande- 
 xeur, whose exertions to mitigate the sufferings of the poor are worthy 
 of all praise, presided. From his statement it appears that the outlay 
 in the Kilrush Union, under the admirable Poor Law, for the past eigh- 
 teen months, amounted to £60,000 ! and that on the dismissal of the 
 elected Board in March they were in debt but £1,500, whilst on their 
 return to office last month they were incumbered with a debt of £15,000. 
 
 In fact, forty-one shillings in the pound would be required to extricate 
 the single union of Kilrush from its financial difficulties. And where 
 are they to come from ? 
 
 Altogether the above returns, defective though they are, furnish some 
 evidence of the destructive working of the Poor Law. Can any land 
 bear up against so tremendous an incubus ? 
 
 We have been assured from high authority, that pauperism and the 
 consequent pressure of the Poor Law are on the decrease in Ireland. 
 This is mere delusion. 
 
144 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A general rate of five stillings in the pound has been struck for all 
 the electoral divisions in the Westport Union. Of sixteen electoral 
 divisions in the Union of Castlebar, only four are rated under five shil- 
 lings in the pound. In the electoral division of Loughatory, in the 
 Union of Loughrea, the rate is sixteen shillings and eight pence in the 
 pound. — September, 1850. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 Pauperism and Poor Laws. — The law of Denmark regards relief 
 as a debt to the State, and requires all paupers receiving it “ to work 
 to the best of their ability, until all they owe is paid off.” The first 
 step is to procure them work, and the deficit only is made up in food 
 and clothing. All who are without steady employment are treated as 
 vagrants, and punished accordingly. 
 
 In Mecklenberg, work and a dwelling must he provided with the poor 
 law fund for the ablebodied ; and the impotent must perform such light 
 work as they are able. 
 
 In Prussia, the police scrutinise the capacities of all applicants to 
 maintain themselves by work, and if not, they are sent to the poorhouse, 
 there to be taught “ to earn their own livelihood.” The paupers are 
 made to support themselves to the uttermost of their ability. 
 
 In Belgium, most of the poorhouses are agricultural establishments ; 
 and at Ostend and Antwerp large amounts have been realised through 
 the labour of the paupers, who receive a portion of their earnings ac- 
 cording to their industry. 
 
 In France there is little attention paid to the requirement of labour 
 in return for aid. It sets no example to other countries. Pauperism 
 is nursed and fed with alms rather than cured by labour. There are 
 some few exceptions, of which the Gironde is one, where labour is en- 
 forced. There are also one or two industrial day schools for pauper 
 children, where they are taught trades and receive two meals. 
 
 The Sardinian States are quite as deficient in industrial training for 
 their poor. 
 
 The Hanseatic Towns generally adopt the system of making relief 
 depend on industry, and afford it only to those who will work, and, 
 moreover, cannot find work for themselves ; to such the State gives it, 
 but not to ablebodied men. 
 
 In Bavaria, the public charge of the poor is brought to bear wholly by 
 industrial employment for those who can, and relief without it only for 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 145 
 
 those who cannot work. And what is this work ? Is it, as here, the 
 breaking of stones, mere barren toil ? — on the contrary, materials and 
 tools are provided for all those who cannot find wbrk, in order that they 
 may be “ usefully employed” in some mode of livelihood. 
 
 In Saxony and Wurtemberg it has ever been the law, that they who 
 .cannot find employment shall have means found them by the magis- 
 trates to earn a livelihood by their labour ; but that lazy idlers who are 
 strong and healthy shall be compelled to work . 
 
 In Russia, they who will not work voluntarily may be delivered over 
 to any individual, and compelled to work for their own support, “ at the 
 discretion of the elder and his assistants.” 
 
 In Sweden there exist “ work institutions” for similar purposes, and 
 they who will not work are sent to the house of correction. 
 
 In many parts of the United States the guardians are bound to fur- 
 nish work according to the physical abilities of the destitute ; so that 
 opportunity and means of reimbursing the State for its outlay may be 
 secured. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 Hitherto the English markets have been chiefly supplied with pro- 
 visions by Ireland. How stands the case now ? From an official return 
 published in the Morning Post , we learn the imports of foreign bread- 
 stuffs, as they are termed, into Great Britain, for the first ten months of 
 the present year, were as follow : 
 
 “Wheat ... ... ... ... 8,352,442 qrs. 
 
 Flour ... ... ... ... 2,872,870 cwt. weight. 
 
 Indian corn ... ... ... ... 1,991,587 qrs. 
 
 Barley ... ... ... ... 1,122,865 qrs. 
 
 Oats ... ... ... ... 1,061,615 qrs. 
 
 Beans ... ... ... ... 409,540 qrs. 
 
 Oatmeal ... ... ... ... 35,584 qrs. 
 
 Indian corn meal ... ... ... 101,787 qrs.” 
 
 Now almost every shilling of the price of these articles, with the ex- 
 ception of three, is so much abstracted from the income of Ireland. Nor 
 is this all. Formerly the Irish trade in beef, pork, and other kinds of 
 flesh meat provisions, fresh and cured, was immense, and many firms, 
 to say nothing of individuals, in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, 
 and the other large towns, realised fortunes by that branch of business. 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 APrENDIX. 
 
 Yet it was only a few days since we learned that a large portion of the 
 contract for supplying the British Navy with beef and pork had been 
 given to the merchants of Hamburgh. And if that were not bad enough, 
 read the following return of animal food imported into Great Britain, 
 for the period already mentioned : — 
 
 “ Oxen, cows, and calves 
 Sheep and lambs 
 Pigs 
 Bacon 
 Salted pork 
 Salted and fresh beef 
 Butter 
 Cheese 
 
 44,071 
 
 101,309 
 
 1,889 
 
 370,134 cwt. 
 328,998 do. 
 121,812 do. 
 232,139 do. 
 279,286 do. 
 
 (number) 86,258,229 ” 
 
 Here again is Ireland robbed to the extent of several millions ster- 
 ling. inasmuch as, with the exception of cheese, these articles used, in 
 by-gone times, to have been imported from this country. We say 
 robbed , because the advantage of the trade with England was indirectly 
 held out as the principal lure to induce the Irish Parliament and their 
 constituents to consent to the Legislative Union. That part of the im- 
 plied compact is now shamefully violated in favour of strangers ; and still 
 we are told, that, so far from repining, we should be perfectly contented, 
 and hold fast to British connexion. 
 
 And is the agricultural interest the only one that has suffered by the 
 abolition of duties on foreign imports ? Quite the contrary. Let any 
 man, while passing through our principal streets, take a glance at the 
 shop windows, and what will meet his eye ? Notices, in large letters, 
 intimating the arrival of French and other foreign articles of every de- 
 scription announced for sale at reduced prices , while our own manufac. 
 turers and artisans, whom a little encouragement would render not in- 
 ferior to any in Europe, are pining away in rags and wretchedness. 
 For the truth of what we say here of our manufacturers and artisans^ 
 we may confidently appeal to those ladies and gentlemen who have vi- 
 sited the annual exhibitions at the Royal Dublin Society-house, where 
 they must have seen specimens of works of art, designed and executed 
 in this city, which would do credit to Paris or any other European ca- 
 pital. Yet many, if not a majority of the persons whose taste and inge- 
 nuity have excited the admiration of all beholders, may be found ne- 
 glected and forgotten in cellars and garrets. How could it be otherwise 
 when our city is inundated with articles of foreign production ? 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 147 
 
 Look, as a third instance of what the Free Trade tariff has done in 
 the way of depressing home industry, to the following return, extend- 
 ing also over no more than ten months of the current year : — 
 
 But it may be said that the thousands of the industrious classes 
 thrown out of employment by this tremendous influx of foreign articles, 
 have the advantage of being able to purchase cheap food. What a 
 heartless mockery ! Cheap food to those who have no money to buy 
 it, and do not possess a shilling now for the pound which they formerly 
 used to command. Of what benefit, for example, can cheap food be to 
 the several thousands of London needleworkers who earn no more on 
 an average than three pence per day, as was lately proved ? The very 
 sight of it can only serve to tantalise the unfortunate creatures by re- 
 minding them of the bounty of God, withheld through the wicked policy 
 of man* 
 
 (D.) 
 
 We have now arrived at the close of the harvest of 1850. Pretend- 
 ing calmly to view the present circumstances of the British farmer, and 
 assuming that his labours have been crowned by an average harvest, 
 the “leading (?) journal of the day” coolly informs him, that if, for the 
 future, he obtains 45s. per quarter for his wheat he must be satisfied, 
 for that he will be as well off as any other part of the community. 
 After indulging in a very prosaic dissertation upon the manner in which 
 the transition through which the nation is passing will affect the Eng- 
 lish grower, our contemporary thus proceeds : — 
 
 “ The large manufactories of the cotton and woollen spinners in 
 Yorkshire and Lancashire may be taken as the types and models of 
 the mode in which skill and industry ought to be employed. No 
 power is lost, no time is thrown away, eyery act is performed^with 
 mathematical precision. The thing to be produced must be the 
 
 “Clocks 
 
 Cotton manufactures 
 Needlework embroidery 
 Lace 
 
 Boots and shoes of various kinds 
 
 Boot fronts 
 
 Gloves 
 
 Silk manufactures of Europe . . . 
 Woollen manufactures 
 
 (value) £52,732 
 
 868,458 
 
 86,765 
 
 72,945 
 
 126,177 pairs. 
 461,066 do. 
 3,051,807 do. 
 
 828,683 
 
 611,828 
 
148 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 result of the least possible expense ; every calculation must be so nicely 
 made, and the system of production so accurately apportioned, that the 
 whole profit — the final result to the capitalist — that which he obtains 
 after, replacing all that he has expended, is often only a very small 
 per-centage upon each transaction, rapidity of operations making 
 up for the smallness of the return. Now, capital employed upon 
 land cannot, because so employed, be freed from the obligations of skill, 
 care, accuracy, and constancy, which attach to it in every other em- 
 ployment. Agriculture, in short, must be brought under the 
 
 SAME RULES WHICH GOVERN THE OTHER MANUFACTURING PRO- 
 CESSES. Agriculture must become a manufacture, and a 
 FARM BE GOYERNED VERY MUCH AS A MILL NOW IS. The practical 
 result, from which there is now no escape, is, that capital employed on 
 the land, to be profitable, must be applied in large masses ; and the 
 persons who so apply it can no longer be a sort of upper farm 
 
 LABOURERS/' 
 
 Correctly interpreted, this language means, that nine-tenths of the 
 yeomanry of England, “ the back-bone of the country,” are to be swept 
 away, and their places supplied by a race of men who will be able to 
 set all the vicissitudes of the season at defiance, laugh at the storm 
 and the tempest, the mildew and the frost, and direct and govern the 
 elements with as much accuracy as the manufacturer can regulate his 
 machinery. 
 
 And such is the trash daily swallowed by the thousands who consult 
 the Oracle in Printing-house square . — London Paper ofZlstSept , 1850. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Dublin: Printed by Edward Bull, 6, Baclielor’s-walk. 
 

 
 
 
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