Three Decades of Irish History, 1770-1800: Chapter 1
(Extract) But the history of America at this time is so closely allied to that of Ireland that we must stop to trace it. Told briefly, the fact are as follows: To meet the expenses incurred by a late war, Lord Grenville proposed to tax the American Colonies by passing a Stamp Act. The Americans absolutely refused to pay this tax, alleging as their reason that they had no representation in the English House of Commons, and consequently had no share in the government of the country. While the English people in general sneered at the determination of the colonists, a few of the wiser heads saw that a storm would be raised if they dared to enforce the Stamp Act. The Parliament saw matters in this light too, and accordingly repealed the Stamp Act, alleging all the while that they had a right to impose taxation on their colonies. But the resentment of the Americans had not died down before new taxes were levied on tea, glass, wool, paper, and other commodities. Flushed by the success of their protests on the former occasion, they were now more determined to withstand the English imposition. They expressed their discontent in petitions which were spurned, in arguments which were jeered at, in threats which were mocked. Daily the arrangement between them and motherland grew greater; daily the spirit of resentment grew higher, until some young men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, emptied the taxed tea into Boston harbour. Now the game was fairly afoot. American had definitely refused to comply with British law, so England must proceed to humble her unruly offspring. It was in the middle of this ten years wrangle between England and America that the English Government requested the Irish parliament to pass a Money Bill. The Irish Parliament refused, through Townsend, the Lord Lieutenant used all his arts to persuade them. He had been specially chosen by the English Government as the most fitting person to uphold their cause in Ireland in those days of conflicting politics, nevertheless all his shrewdness could not avail against the spirit of independence which Henry Flood had lately infused into his countrymen. In 1771 a second Money Bill was also rejected with the result that Lord Townshend, defeated and disheartened, resigned his office and returned to England. The Parliament did not assemble again until the end of 1773, that is, for nearly two years, but meanwhile we are afforded a good opportunity to survey that state of the country at that time. It was a period of general depression and distress, probably the sternest through which this island ever had to pass. Ostensibly to make up a deficient revenue, but really to handicap the Irish workman in the interests of English trade, excessive taxes were levied on almost every species of our manufactures, with the dire result that our trade declined and our best workmen emigrated to the colonies. Ireland has now entered a night so dark that it looked as if the sun could never shine again. Sapped by incessant mis-government and taxation, she has drooped exhausted beneath the burdens placed upon her. Her hitherto prosperous industries were in most instances crippled, and in many havoced; her population was decimated by the unjust interference of a powerful rival; her agriculture was depressed; her commerce was curtailed; her manhood drained, ambition thwarted, and valour wasted by the reckless policy of headstrong and selfish rivals. In 1772-73-74 the linen trade, the only manufacture of any consequence that survived, suffered considerable depression, and this was a further stimulus to emigration from the North. To give some idea of the numbers exiled by very went from their native shores, we quote the number of the ships and passengers which left the ports of Belfast, Newry, Larne and Londonderry, during these three Years:- In 1771, 32 ships with 9,000 passengers. In 1772, 30 ships 9,000 passengers. In 1773, 39 ships 12,000 passengers. That this constant steam of emigration became a source of alarm to the patriotic political economists of the time is seen from the following photograph cut from a Newry newspaper, dated 20th March, 1773. It says: There are no less than fourteen ships advertised in the Belfast papers to take passengers to Philadelphia. If some stop be not put to this trade, we shall in a short time lose our manufactures with our workers. The numbers that went last year are incredible, and almost all Protestants. But despite the notes of warning from various quarters, no attempt was made to stem the steam, no effort was put forth to staunch the draining of a nations manhood and retain at home that youth and skill from which a nations wealth is coined. As in the centre of ancient Rome there stood a gilded pillar towards which all the military roads converged, and at which they terminated, so there are great focal points in history towards which the lines of past progress have converged, and from which have radiated the mouldering influences of the future. This emigration from Ireland, which , very possibly, many at the time looked upon as a light thing, is such a focal point, from which have radiated the influences which went far to shape the destinies of three countries England, Ireland and America - nay, the whole world, for who can gauge the past or assign bounds to the future influence of the Anglo Saxon race and language and the great American Republic. Transcribed by PaulaTraceyClose