NOTES ON THE CONDITIONS OF IRELAND.
'Pamphlets, lectures, essays, articles - what a miscellany of
compositions on the state of Ireland problem lie on our
table: written by men of every party, made public through all
sorts of channels, delivered before various pretentious
societies - treatises replete with dogmatic assertion, and
contradictory to a greater extent than is usual even in
Hibernian controversies! Is the matter then, unscrutable?
This conflict of opinion would not seem to be occasioned by
its intricacy, for none of these writers speaks with the
humanity of one uncertain of his ground. However widely they
may differ, they are equally confident - one class of having
discovered the disease and the remedy, another of having
discovered that no disease exists, and that no remedy is
needed. Onlookers, awaiting a decision on the points at
issue, are utterly bewildered, unable to say whether the
country, in the elegant phrase of a late speaker is, "going
to the dogs", or prospering beyond all precedent, despite an
occasional check from a deficient harvest. Englishmen simply
do not know what to make of a people who, with all the data
of reports of departments, and statistical documents of every
necessary description, in addition to the resource of
every-day observation, cannot determine whether they are
retrograding or going forward, whether advancing in national
wealth or returning to a condition of poverty and
semi-barbarism - for no less opposite than these have been
the recent representations of the state and prospects of
Ireland by self-constituted expounders of our social
condition.
It must be evident at once that these strongly contrasted
pictures are less caused by any difficulty in the inquiry
itself than by the obscuring influences of prejudices, and
the intrusion into the investigation of the motives of the
partizan. In this matter very remarkably the "wish has been
father to the thought." It is fair to say so of both parties
in the question. The extreme "prosperity" men are not less
exaggerators than the rain-mongers Government treatises,
prepared to order by the scribes of the Castle of Dublin,
have sinned as much on one side, as the revolutionary
journalist and aspirant ultramontane candidate have done on
the other. The only thing to be stated in favour of the
former exaggeration over the latter is this, that the theory
seems more self-respecting which imputes our difficulies to a
temporary strain, that that which by producing something akin
to despair will cause that "folding of the hands" which must
directly tend to verify every unhappy prophecy. If the moans
of those who claim the special title of "patriots" were
justified, it would, in fact, be the merest folly to invest
capital in Ireland, whether in agriculture, in manufactures,
or in trade. The country, in their mind, is a doomed spot of
earth. Bad laws, which a powerful neighbour will not alter,
and has a selfish interest in maintaining, must always crush
her people. Nothing is left but to seek more hospitable
shores, since it appears hopeless to overthrow, at least just
now, the unnatural English Government, and to establish an
Irish Republic in its stead. On the contrary, let us say -
those that have most hope have commonly most success. It is
better for Ireland that Irishmen should rather over- than
under-calculate the advantages she offers to the industrious
and deserving in every walk of life. And this very spirit of
patient and hopeful labour, it is a satisfaction to know, has
been growing steadily in Ireland despite the sinister
croakings of a faction. It may be stated with confidence that
there never was a time when Irishmen of all shades of opinion
thought more and talked more of the practical interests of
their country, and less of irritating traditions, or visions
to be accomplished through a French or American intervention.
Hold forth a new flag of agitation, and the people surround
it very listlessly, if they gather to it at all. Announce on
the other hand that the Minister is to be solicited to offer
some special encouragement to flax-culture or to establish a
Royal dockyard in the harbour on Cork, and the result is a
popular stir in favour of whatever project promises
substantially to benefit the community. In this very matter
of the "ruin-cry", as it has been termed, although the last
three unfavourable years inquestionably gave agitators the
advantage, and frequent efforts were made to set the tenant
right movement agoing again, the people did not fall in with
the design, Those who sought to turn the trial sent by
Providence into a political instrument were foiled, and it
has been passed through without a political crisis or a
serious demonstration. Even the peasant, old enough to
remember former agitations, makes so much use of his natural
intelligence now as to reason that a repetition of the
hypocrisies of that era would not conduce to his advantage.
These observations wil, probably, have shown that the
writer of the present article goes neither with the hired
pamphleteers and "placemen" who have been reiterating a
denial of the retrogression of the three or four past years,
nor with the extreme party in the other side, who, not
content with circulating the most deplorable representations
of our present condition, have consigned us to misery
henceforward. In this as in so many matters, truth lies
somewhere in the middle. In point of fact, Ireland has
endured another severe affliction - one probably that is now
over, for there are many promising circumstances in the
present year. That trial bore no comparison to the enormous
proportions of the Famine of 1847; but it is certain,
nevertheless, that had a population of seven millions and
three - quarters, deaths from starvation would, as before,
have been a common occurrence. Fortunately, the surplus
population had passed off to other lands, and the distress
was merely local, and everywhere of manageable extent. To
sudden reverses of a like course Ireland will ever be liable.
She has suffered at all periods of her history from
occasional inclement seasons. But though these must at
times check her progress, they will not affect the basis of
her prosperity, if it be founded on industry, thrift,
enterprize, and variety of effort. Upon the latter we lay
particular stress, for manifest reasons. A dependence on
agriculture alone is not for our good. The best feature in
the present condition of Ireland is the steady, if slow,
growth of the more important class of manufactures. When the
time comes for Munster to have a linen-trade, and when the
water-power of the West has attracted manufactures of a
different kind, the country will be in a position to bear one
or more under - average harvests without an undue pressure
upon her poor - rates, or the danger of political discontents
excited by charlatans.
There could be no better way of showing to what extent
harvests like the last three are likely to affect us
unfavourably whenever they may recur, than by consulting the
Poor Law and Emigration returns for these years. It is the
custom with some persons, indeed, to assert that there was an
enormous amount of positive destitution which did not come
under the cognizance of the poor law authorities, from the
unwillingness of the people to enter the workhouses. But that
disinclusion has been vastly exagerrated for political
purposes. Although benevolent individuals and voluntary
relief committees expanded a considerable amount among the
people at particular moments, taking the whole period during
which the distress existed into account, the state of the
workhouses may be regarded as a fair measure of the extent of
poverty. To complete the estimate it seems only necessary to
consider the emigration for the same period, as a certain
class, impoverished by the bad seasons, but not reduced to
beggary, sold the good - will of their farms, with their
effects, and sailed for America, where every Irish tenant -
farmer believes, as firmly as he does the articles of his
creed, that fortune awaits him. The present appears to be a
proper time for entering upon this retrospect, as the harvest
of 1864 is likely to be an improvement on those before it.
Mr. Donnelly, the Irish Registrar - General, stated, during
his examination a week or two ago before the Parliamentary
Committee on Taxation, that there has been an increase lately
in the number of cattle and stock - a cheering proof that the
worst is over. It was in this very particular that the
decline in recent years was alarming. The change from cereals
to pasture was accounted for by the operation of influences
in no degree a proof of increasing poverty; but then, if we
were running out of corn - growing and diminishing in the
number and value of our cattle at the same time, the case was
bad indeed.
Turning, therefore, to the Poor Law Tables, we begin, for
the purposes of comparison, with the year of 1854. We select
that year because the effects of the great Famine ran on to
the end of 1853 at least, when first the prosperity of the
country began to tell upon the condition of the people. In
1854, then, the maximum number of persons in the workhouses
and relieved out of doors on one day, was 117,582. From this
figure there was a decline steadily until 1859, when the
total number relieved on one day fell to its minimum, 48,055.
After this the numbers began to rise again, but did not reach
in 1860, 1861,1862, or 1863, notwithstanding the severity of
the seasons, the figures of 1854, 1855, or 1856. The three
last years cannot have been, then, years of very violent
pressure: as to [the?] extent of pauperism, they were really
an improvement upon the state of things in years which no one
considered years of adversity. The exact increase in the
number of cases relieved throughout 1860,1861, and 1862, was,
respectively, 40,819, 62,238, and 62,020; ar only about
one - tenth more than in years when the number of paupers was
unprecedentedly small. The emigration, also, strange to say,
was not greater in the last three years than in the three
years immediately preceding. If it were true that poverty is
the strongest impulse to emigration, then the emigration
should have suddenly sprung up with the occurance of bad
seasons; and yet the figures for the six years beginning with
1857, and ending with 1862, are 95,081, 64,337, 80,599,
84,621, 64,292, 70,117. In 1863 an increase is found both in
the number of paupers and in the emigration. The total number
relieved in and out - door on one day in 1863, was 75,734.
Still this did not reach the total of 1856. The Irish
emigration rose in 1863-4 to 116,391, an advance which some
would refer to the practice of Federal enlistment in Ireland.
Whether due to that cause in any great measure, or simply to
an expectation of higher wages in America, it was certainly
in the least degree the result of domestic distress; for that
distress was severer during the year previous. We shall
subsequently examine the character of the emigration from
Ireland in recent years; at present it is enough to mark how
conclusively these figures establish that the pressure of the
last three seasons did not warrant the gloomy forebodings and
extravagant propositions based upon it."
The Poor Law Commissioners, in their Report for 1864,
trace the effects of these years of difficulty, thus:-
"A comparison of the summaries from February to September in
the last year with the same in the three preceding years
shows a progressive increase; the year ending 29th September,
1863, being the third of a series of years marked by
unfavourable seasons, each of which accordingly exceeded its
predecessor in the amount of pauperism, sickness, and relief
expenditure. Thus, while the maximum daily number of
workhouse inmates in the series 1859-60 was only 46,545, the
maximum number in the three suceeding series were 52,103,
61,791, and 66,976 respectively; and while the minimum
number in 1859-60 was 33,769, the minimum numbers of the
three following series were 36,107, 39,580, and 45,201
respectively." They add, with respect to the prospects for
the present year, in corroboration with the view already
taken in this paper:- "The accumulation caused in the work -
houses through the three years ending 29th September, 1863,
will require some time to disperse, probably not less than
three favourable years, in order to bring it back to the
level of 1859-60. The success of the last potato - crop, and
the low price of breadstuffs, have already told most
favourably on the number of inmates, even during the season
when pauperism is invariably progressive; and the comparison
is now in favour of the present over the preceding year; so
that we are enabled to see with certainty that the twelve
months ending 29th September, 1864, will be a year of lower
expenditure and less extensive pauperism than the year which
ended 29th September, 1863. It must be borne on mind, too,
that this improvement is occuring notwithstanding the matured
operation of the hospital sections of the Amendment Act of
1961, and notwithstanding the considerable number of removals
of pauper families which are taking place from England and
Scotland."
The steady decline of pauperism from year to year for a
decade may not be an absolute proof of material prosperity in
a country from which there has been, during the same period,
an enormous emigration. If, however, as the result partly of
this emigration, but in greater proportion of the improvement
of agriculture, and a general stir of business, the people
are better employed and better paid, and the poor - rates
have consequently diminished, it would be difficult to show
that, so far as these changes go, they are not evidence of a
real amelioration. The person who may happen to have been
acquainted with the ante - Famine Ireland has no difficulty,
from the simple testimony of his eyes, in declaring the
present state of things to be immensely in advance of the
seeming prosperity of the era of plenty, twenty of more years
ago, when, if potatoes were two pence a stone, wages were
four pence a day, and work hard to be procured; when the
island was greatly overpeopled as a purely agricultural
country, and contained a larger amount of privation and
misery, only short of utter starvation, than any place of the
same area on the surface of the globe."
(The writer shows, in a further analysis of the figures given
by the Poor Law Commissioners, that there was no serious
decline in general living standards. He then uses this
conclusion to attack the practice of out - door relief which
he notes is 'coming into favour with boards of guardians,'and
is on the increase. The Commissioners themselves, he notes,
say that workhouse statistics reflect more accurately the
condition of the people at any given time, followed by those
for emigration, which he proceeds to examine.)
'After the working of the poor law, the course and
character of Irish emigration constitute the most important
element, in a candid consideration, of the state and
prospects of the country. With respect to emigration, in its
connexion with pauperism, th Poor Law Commissioners make a
statement to which too much prominence cannot be given. "The
tide of emigration from Ireland to America," they say, "which
has set in with increased force during the last twelve
months, we believe to have little effect one way or the
other on the expenditure of the poor rates in Ireland, beyond
the increased amount which the guardians of unions might
expend in assisting the emigration of such poor persons
wishing to emigrate as might otherwise remain or become
chargeable on the rates. By a comparison of the sums
contained in the instrument authorizing such expenditure, we
find that in the twelve months ending 25th March, 1864, the
expenditure (œ4,770 4s 5d) exceeded that of the preceding
twelve months (œ2,541 3s 8d) by œ2,229 0s 9d. " This sum
however, at the utmost, did not suffice to send out more than
about 500 persons over the number despatched in 1862, a small
part of the total increase of emigration discovered in a
comparison of the same year. "The parties emigrating at their
own expense," continue the Commissioners, "are of such a
class that if they remained in Ireland they would not be
likely to become chargeable, and their departure, therefore,
is no relief to the unions on that respect. It is possible,
on the other hand, that some increase to the rates may occur
by reason of the emigrant, in a few cases, leaving dependants
or relatives behind him, who may by his departure be rendered
destitute either for a time or permanently; but it is
difficult to ascertain the extent to which this may be
occuring throughout the country." The important bearing which
facts of this nature have upon the condition of Ireland
question, will be better seen when the incidents of later
emigration are looked into a little more closely. It is
admitted that the distress of the past three years must have
had an influence on stimulating emigration, but this was only
one of several influences, and more than probably not the
greatest. For instance, from the Twenty - fourth Report of
the Emigration Commissioners, issued during the last month,
it appears that of 146,813 emigrants who went to the "United
States" last year, 67,314 or 45.85 per cent, took passage in
the several steam - liners which touch at Londonderry, Cork,
and Galway. This is not only al gratifying statement, in the
contrast it suggests with the horrors of the passage by the
old sailing - ships, but one of obvious importance as a proof
that the emigrants from Ireland are not of a destitute class
such as fled from the country in the famine years. They are,
on the contrary, to a greater or less degree, persons of some
means, who can afford to pay the difference of fare between
steam and sailing ships for the greater comfort of the
former.
It is a remarkable fact that, even in prosperous times,
the Irish people have always been ready to yield to any
special attraction in foreign countries, as if it were an
instinct of the race to overspread the earth, Could Australia
have been reached as readily as America, when the gold -
fever raged there, ten times the number of Irishmen who found
their way to that shore would have crowded to it. When, some
years after the famine, Ireland had begun to lift her head
again, and employment was good, this did not prevent hosts of
Irishmen from going to America to meet a sudden labour demand
there. That emigration went on until the Russian war began in
1854. When the national desire for change and love of
excitement found for a time a new direction. It soon,
however, returned to its old channel, from the fixed idea
existing in Ireland, the fruit, in great part, of Mr
O'Connell's habit of continually instituting rhetorical
contrasts between this country and America, to the
disadvantage of the former, that the States were a sort of
golden paradise. This tendency was also constantly stimulated
by the large amounts sent home by friends who had settled in
America to their relatives in Ireland, to help them to
emigrate for the same destination. There has been published,
for the first time, in the Report referred to in these
remarks, a return of these amounts, and those who have not
heretofore given attention to the subject will be astonished
by their magnitude. The return includes more than the money
sent to Ireland, being of sums "remitted by settlers in
North America to their friends in the United Kingdom, from
1848 to 1863, both inclusive;" but as by far the largest
portions admittedly came from Irishmen to Irishmen, the
document possesses a manifest value. The amounts vary from
year to year from one million and three - quarters sterling
to half a million pounds sterling, the figures being for each
successive year, from 1848, œ460,000; œ540,000; œ957,000;
œ990,000; œ1,404,000; œ1,439,000; œ1,730,000; œ873,000;
œ951,000; œ593,165; œ472,610; œ575,378; œ576,932; œ426,825;
œ381,901; œ412,053; besides very considerable sums which have
been transmitted since 1850, from Australia, for the same
purpose. It is stated on the authority of the Commissioners,
that the sums remitted from America last year would have been
sufficient to defray the whole expense of the emigration to
that country. A portion of the amount was probably expended
by the Federals on the clandestine encouragement of
enlistment in Ireland; but it does not appear that they had
any remarkable success, as the emigration of men in
proportion to women was not greater in 1863 than in normal
years, when no disturbing influence operated.
The conclusion seems inevitable from these data that the
continuance of a very considerable emigration from Ireland is
no proof of domestic retrogression. It proceeds more from
attraction than repulsion, and is likely to last, because
these temptations are sure to be of a permanent nature. Some
have supposed that with the close of the war in America a
period will commence of a taxation so heavy that emigrants
from Ireland will turn their steps rather to Canada, or the
colonies of the far east. This calculation will doubtless
disappoint those who build upon it. The rates of Northern
America taxation will, of course, be enormous, unless resort
should be had,in the desperation of the case, to a wholesale
repudiation; but the return to a condition of peace will
possibly be attended with a great effort to develop the
resources of the States, so that the burdens created by the
war may be better met, and thus will be opened new avenues
for profitable labour, which there will be a scarcity of
hands to occupy. Besides, the close of the conflict, however
it terminates, will see a new and vigorous nation established
in the Southern States, with wants unknown to its people in
their former purely agricultural condition; with a spirit of
enterprise in reclaiming and settling the outlying lands,
which will rapidly extend their boundaries and consolidate
their power; with a large army to maintain, a navy to create,
and an independant commercial marine to man. Men like Mr.
Jefferson Davis, and Messrs. Benjamin and Mallory are likely
to take very prompt and vigorous steps to supply those wants.
There may consequently arise a competition between the
Northern and Southern nation for the foreign tradesmen,
labourer, and recruit; and Ireland will, no doubt, supply her
full quote to this demand. In short, henceforward the
population of Ireland must continue to be small in comparison
with the figure it stood at even ten or twelve years ago.
There is no fear of another "surplus" for many a year to
come. The apprehension rather is, that the competition
instituted by a labour - market so readily reached as that of
America, will deprive us of a larger portion of our people
than we can spare. That point has not certainly been
reached yet, but it can easily be conceived possible at no
distant date. A crowded population is not necessarily wealth,
but too sparse a population is undeniably a source of
impoverishment. To the extent to which human hands are
wanting, the country so circumstanced is unworked, and its
powers lie latent and unproductive. But it must be clear to
every honest mind that even should a fate of this sort be in
store for us, no laws a government could make would avert it.
We must accept our position as the nearest land to America,
and the nursery of its best blood, with all its incidents and
consequences. Over two per cent of the estimated population
of Ireland left its shores last year, and fully three per
cent will leave this year. The probabilities are, that the
influences just referred to will keep up an emigration of
fully two per cent for some years to come. In that event, the
total population will suffer a still further substantial
decline, and if the country returns even to a tolerably
prosperous condition, a want of labour is likely to be felt.
If that result should concur, as it very possibly may, with
the more liberal investment of English capital in Ireland,
and an increase of the manufactures of the country,
remarkable social changes will follow, through the
introduction of artisans, factory - workers, and labourers in
considerable number, from England and Scotland. '
(The author concludes with an account of the history and
growth of the linen trade throughout Ireland, particularly,
Ulster. He also looks at manufacturing in general and
discusses the merits of taxation.)
