The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 Part 29

Carter, Esq., Charles W. Hamilton, Esq., Richard Bourke, Esq., Fetherstone Haugh O'Neill, Esq., John Vernon, Esq., George Lendrum, Esq., Francis Latouche, Esq., Peter Latouche, Esq., John Robert G.o.dley.--_Report of House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, p.

168._

[288] Public letter.

[289] Reply to M.J. O'Connell, Esq., M.P., W.H. Gregory, Esq., M.P., and John R. G.o.dley, Esq., Secretaries to the Canadian Colonization Scheme; 9th of April, 1847.

[290] Taken from Thom's Almanack for 1853, p. 252. The census of 1851 only gives the emigration for the first three months of that year. The number of emigrants in 1852 was largely in excess of those of 1851.

[291] "At Quebec in particular, we read that 'the mortality is appalling;' it was denominated The Ship Fever."--_British American Journal_. "Upwards of 100,000 was expended in relieving the sick and dest.i.tute emigrants landed in Canada in 1847."--Nicholls' History of the Irish Poorlaw, p. 327--_note_.

[292] Dr. Stratten, in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, quoted by Census Commissioners for 1851 in p. 305 of their Report on Tables of Deaths.

[293] "The Irish in America," by John Francis Maguire, p. 186.

[294] "Report of Commissioners of Emigration for the State of New York,"

quoted by Mr. Maguire.

[295] Dr. Stratten in "Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal."

[296] Twelve months' residence in Ireland during the Famine and the Public Works: by William Henry Smith, C.E., late conducting engineer of Public Works, p. 92.

[297] Report p. 27. Halliday pamphlets, vol. 1990.

[298] Report, pp. 29, 30.

[299] Report, pp. 33, 34.

[300] _Ib._, pp. 54, 55.

[301] _Ib._, p. 73.

[302] The report of the Emigration Commissioners for 1873 [just issued 28th October, 1874] gives the following facts. In the course of last year 310,612 emigrants sailed from the ports of the United Kingdom, being a larger number than in any year since 1854. Of these, 123,343 were English, 83,692 Irish, 21,310 Scotch, 72,198 Foreigners, who had merely touched at British ports, and 10,929 whose nationality was not ascertained. The remittances of Irish Emigrants to their friends at home were as usual very large, the total sum being, according to the information within reach of the Commissioners, 724,040. This includes the remittances of both the United States and Canada. Of this sum 341,722 came in the shape of prepaid pa.s.sages, more than sufficient, says the Report, to defray the cost of steerage pa.s.sages at 6 6s. each for the 83,692 Irish who emigrated within the year. _Thirty-first General Report of the Emigration Commissioners, p. 4._

CHAPTER XV.

The Soup-kitchen Act--The harvest of 1847--Out-door Relief Act--Great extension of out-door relief--Number relieved--Parliamentary papers--Perplexing--Misleading--Sums voted--Sums expended--Sums remitted--Total Treasury advances under various Acts--Total remissions--Sum actually given as a free gift to meet the Famine--Charitable a.s.sociations--Sums collected and disbursed by them--Two Queen's Letters--Amount raised by them--a.s.sisting distressed Unions--Feeding and clothing school children--Feeling about the Irish Famine in America--Meetings throughout the Union--Subscriptions--Money--Food--Number of Ships sent to Ireland with Provisions--Freight of Provisions--Ships of War--The "Jamestown" and "Macedonian"--Various Theories about the Blight--The Religious Theory--Peculiar--Quotations--Rev. Hugh M'Neill--Charles d.i.c.kens--The Catholic Cantons of Switzerland--Belgium--France--The Rhenish Provinces--Proselytism--Various causes for Conversions a.s.signed--The late Archbishop Whately's Opinions--His Convert--He rejects the idea that Converts were bought--Statement of the late Archdeacon O'Sullivan--Dr. Forbes on the Conversions in the West--Mr. M'Carthy Downing's Letter--The Subscription of 1,000--Baron Dowse--Conclusion.

The Temporary Relief Act, popularly known as the Soup-kitchen Act, was limited to the 1st of October, 1847. The Government determined that after its expiration relief should be given through the Poorlaw system only. In preparation for this arrangement, an Act (the 10th & 11th Vic.

cap. 31,) was pa.s.sed in June, sanctioning outdoor relief. The harvest of 1847 was a good one, but so utterly prostrate was every interest in the country, that the outdoor relief system soon expanded into alarming proportions. In February, 1848, the cost of outdoor relief was 72,039, and in March it rose to 81,339. The numbers and cost were then both at their maximum, and according to the best estimate which can be formed, the number of outdoor poor relieved was 703,762, and of indoor 140,536, making an aggregate of 844,298 persons, irrespective of more than 200,000 school children, who were, as stated above, fed and in part clothed by "the British a.s.sociation." So that the total number receiving relief in March, 1848, exceeded a million of persons; being about one out of every seven of the population.

The parliamentary papers issued from time to time, detailing the sums granted on account of the Irish Famine, are, for the most part, very perplexing; because, being usually printed on the motion of some member of parliament, they only give the precise information called for, and only up to the period at which it was called for; so, not only are they perplexing, but they are often misleading, although correct enough in themselves. Then again, it sometimes happens, that the sum voted by parliament is not entirely expended on the object for which it was granted. To give an instance of this: there is a parliamentary paper before me, ordered on the 2nd of December, 1847, which says, the amount voted under the Temporary Relief Act was 2,200,000, of which sum there was _expended_ 1,676,000. Sir Charles Trevelyan gives the sum expended as 1,724,631. The only way of accounting for this seeming discrepancy is, that Sir Charles's statement was published later than the blue book, and that an outlay was still going on under the above Act, after the blue book had been published, which brought the expenditure up to the sum stated by him.

Here, besides the difference as to the actual sum expended, we have a considerable difference between the sum voted and the sum expended. But there is yet another thing connected with the Famine advances, which is very likely to mislead. The usual course was, that the money issued from the Treasury to meet the Famine, was in part a free grant, and in part a charge upon the land. It is only simple justice to state clearly how much of this money was a free grant, and how much of it was levied off Ireland, as a tax. The proportion is given in the Acts of Parliament, but it happens that the proportion eventually paid was less than what was levied: so that the proportions as given in the Acts of Parliament have to be altered to the extent of the remissions made.

In the short statement I am about to give, I follow Sir Charles Trevelyan's figures; being Secretary to the Treasury, he must have known the sums actually advanced by the Treasury, and the sums returned to it in payment of the loans granted.

_Amount_ _finally charged under_ _Amount advanced from the Treasury_. _the Consolidated_ _Annuities Act_.

_ s. d. s. d._ Under 9th Vict., cap. 1, 476,000 0 0 238,000 0 0 Under 9th and 10th Vict., cap.

107,"The Labour-rate Act," 4,766,789 0 0 2,231,000 0 0 Under 10th Vict., cap. 7, "The Temporary Relief Act," 1,724,631 0 0 953,355 0 0 Loans for building Workhouses, 1,420,780 0 0 122,707 0 0 Loans to pay debts of distressed Unions, 300,000 0 0 300,000 0 0 Grants by Parliament at various times: 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, and 1849, 844,521 0 0 ....

------------- --------------- Total, 9,532,721 0 0 4,845,062 0 0

_During the years 1846, 1847, and 1848, the following sums were also expended by the Board of Works:_ For arterial drainage, 470,617 10 3 Works under the Labouchere letter, 199,870 9 2 For land improvement. 520,700 0 .

----------------- Total, 10,723,908 19 5

In the above ten millions seven hundred thousand pounds, it may be fairly a.s.sumed, we have all the monies advanced by Government to mitigate the effects of the potato failure. Our next duty is to inquire how much of this sum was paid back by Ireland, and how much of it was a free gift from the Treasury.

The money advanced under the Labouchere letter for land improvement, and for arterial drainage cannot, of course, be regarded as a free gift towards staying the Famine; arterial drainage and land improvement go on still, through money advanced by Government. The works under the Labouchere letter were, no doubt, intended to give reproductive employment during the Famine, but the cost of them was a charge upon the land and not a free gift.

The money spent on arterial drainage and land improvement, under the Labouchere letter and various drainage Acts, during the years 1846, 1847 and 1848, was, as given above, 1,191,187 19s. 5d., which being deducted from 10,723,908 19s>. 5d. leaves the sum of 9,532,721, of which there was finally charged to this country 4,845,062. Deducting this from the 9,532,721 we have 4,687,659 as the amount of money given by Government as a free gift to Ireland to sustain the people through the Great Famine. To this, however, there is to be added a sum of about 70,000 paid for freights. The American people, when they had collected those generous contributions of theirs, and when they had resolved to send them in the form of food to Ireland, began to make arrangements for paying the freights of their vessels, but all trouble and anxiety on this head was removed by the action of the English Government, which undertook to pay the freights of all vessels carrying to Ireland, food purchased by charitable contributions. Those freights finally reached about 70,000. The addition of this sum brings the whole of the Government free gift towards the Irish Famine to 4,757,659.

The amount collected and disbursed by charitable a.s.sociations can be only approximated to. There is a list of those subscriptions, as far as they could be ascertained, given in the Report of the Society of Friends. They amount to 1,107,466 13s., but the compiler of the Report was of opinion that the sums so collected and distributed could not have fallen far short of a million and a-half.

No effective means were taken to ascertain the moneys sent to Ireland by emigrants until the year 1848; however, Mr. Jacob Harvey, a member of the Society of Friends, from inquiries made by him in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, computed the remittances from emigrants in 1847 at 200,000, but it is highly probable that the actual amount was far in excess of that; for we find in the next year, 1848, there came to Ireland through the banks and commercial houses alone, 460,180; which sum may also be regarded as a contribution towards the Irish Famine. I think we are justified in naming 300,000 for 1847, instead of 200,000, Mr. Harvey's estimate, these two sums make 760,180, which being added to the acknowledged amount of public subscriptions, we have a total of 1,867,646, 13s. as the amount voluntarily and charitably contributed to our Famine-stricken people. But if we take one million and a-half to represent _the actual charitable subscriptions_, as a.s.sumed by the Report of the Society of Friends, and add to it the money sent by emigrants in 1847 and 1848, we will have the enormous sum of 2,260,180.

The most important of all the a.s.sociations called into existence by the Famine was "The British a.s.sociation for the Relief of extreme distress in Ireland and Scotland." There are about 5,550 distinct subscriptions printed in the Appendix to its report, but the number of individual subscriptions was far beyond this, for, many of the sums set down are the result of local subscriptions sent to the a.s.sociation from various parts. This a.s.sociation established about forty food depots in various districts. They were, of course, most numerous in the South and West--most numerous of all in Cork, the wild and difficult coast of which county was marked by a line of them, from Kinsale Head to Dingle Bay.

n.o.blemen and gentlemen of high position volunteered their services to the a.s.sociation, and laboured earnestly among the starving people.

Amongst them may be named the Count Strezelecki, Lord R. Clinton, Lord James Butler, and Mr. M.J. Higgins, so well known on the London press by his _nom de plume_ of "Jacob Omnium."

Besides the sums contributed directly to the a.s.sociation, the Government gave it the distribution of the proceeds of two Queen's letters, amounting in the aggregate to 200,738 15s. 2d.[303] In August, 1847, when the a.s.sociation was about to enter upon what it calls the second relief period, it found itself in possession of a clear cash balance of 160,000. It had to consider how this sum could be most beneficially applied during the ensuing winter. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.

Trevelyan, in that month wrote to the chairman, recommending the a.s.sociation to select, through the Poorlaw Commissioners, a certain number of Unions, in which there was reason to believe the ratepayers would not be able to meet their liabilities, and that the a.s.sociation should appropriate, from time to time, such sums as the Poorlaw Commissioners might recommend, for the purpose of a.s.sisting to give outdoor relief in certain districts of such Unions. After much deliberation the a.s.sociation accepted this advice, and asked for the names of the most distressed Unions. A list of twenty-two was supplied to it in September. Some others were added later on. The grants of the a.s.sociation were issued in food, and the a.s.sistant Poorlaw Commissioners aided in the distribution of it. Under this arrangement the advances made by the a.s.sociation from October to July amounted to 150,000.

A peculiar feature of this relief system, adopted and carried into effect by the advice of Count Strezelecki, was the giving of clothing and daily rations to children attending school. This was done in twenty-seven of the poorest Unions, and with the best results. By the first of January, 1848, the system was in full operation in thirteen Unions, and 58,000 children were on the relief roll of the a.s.sociation.

The numbers went on increasing until, in March, there were upwards of 200,000 children attending schools of all denominations, in twenty-seven Western Unions, partic.i.p.ating in this relief. The total sum expended on food for the children amounted to 80,854, in addition to which 12,000 was expended on clothing for them.

On the 1st of November, 1848, 12,000 was still to the credit of the a.s.sociation. By a resolution, it was handed over to the Poorlaw Commissioners for Ireland; and so closed the labours of the British Relief a.s.sociation, so vast in its operations, so well managed, so creditable to all engaged in it, and such a lasting testimony to the generous charity of the subscribers.

Such frequent reference has been made in these pages to the "Transactions" of the Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, during the Famine, and so much use has been made of the information contained in that carefully compiled book, that I will only here repeat the amount of the charitable offerings confided to them for distribution. It was:--198,326 15s. 5d.

The General Central Relief Committee for all Ireland, which met in College Green, received in contributions 83,934 17s. 11d., but of this, 20,000 was given by the British a.s.sociation. The Marquis of Abercorn, the most Rev. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, the Lord Mayor, the Provost of Trinity College, Lord Charlemont, O'Connell, the Dean of St.

Patrick's, and several other n.o.blemen and gentlemen were members of this Committee. The president was the present Duke of Leinster, then Marquis of Kildare. It remained in existence just one year, from December, 1846, to December, 1847.

"The chief source," says the "Transactions" of the Society of Friends,"

whence the means at our disposal were derived, was the munificent bounty of the citizens of the United States. The supplies sent from America to Ireland were on a scale unparalleled in history."

When authentic intelligence regarding the Irish Famine reached America, a general feeling of sympathy was at once excited. Beginning with Philadelphia, in all the great cities and towns throughout the Union, meetings were almost immediately held to devise the best and speediest means of relieving the starving people of this country. "All through the States an intense interest, and a n.o.ble generosity were shown. The railroads carried, free of charge, all packages marked 'Ireland.' Public carriers undertook the gratuitous delivery of any package intended for the relief of the dest.i.tute Irish. Storage to any extent was offered on the same terms. Ships of war approached our sh.o.r.es, eagerly seeking not to destroy life but to preserve it, their guns being taken out in order to afford more room for stowage."[304]

The total contributions received from America by the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, were,--Money, 15,976 18s.

2d.--Provisions, 9,911 tons, valued at 133,847 7s. 7d. Six hundred and forty-two packages of clothing were also received, the precise value of which could not be exactly ascertained. The provisions were carried in ninety-one vessels, the united freights of which amounted to 33,017 5s.

7d.[305]

The total number of ships which carried provisions, the result of charitable contributions, to Ireland and Scotland in 1847, is set down at one hundred and eighteen; but as only four of these went to Scotland, one hundred and fourteen of them must have come here. The total freightage paid to those ships by Government, was 41,725 8s.

5-1/2d; but as I find in another part of the Blue book, that between 60,000 and 70 000 was paid by Government for freights on the cargoes of provisions consigned to the Society of Friends and to the British a.s.sociation, and which I have above a.s.sumed to be 70,000, we may take it for granted that something like twenty thousand tons of provisions were consigned to both Societies, the money value of which was about 280,000.