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Irish landlords were now proceeding to have recourse. Deprived of their rent of necessity during the height of the famine, and saddled by the new Poor Law with the maintenance of the poor, they were determined as far as in them lay to restore their land to the condition of profitable property. It can scarcely be said with certainty whether Ireland was over-populated or not; that is to say, whether the employment of the existing labour in wise directions would or would not have produced a sufficiency of food to meet the requirements of the people. But at first sight it no doubt appeared evident that the land was settled with a vast mass of pauperism, engendered by the fatal habit of subletting, and by the establishment of cottier tenancies, and that the only hope of restoring it to a remunerative condition lay in the large diminution of its population. The opposite view was somewhat speculative, and required a large and enlightened self

Unutterable misery of the evicted.

denial leading to a complete change in social organisation; the policy of clearance was simple and immediate. It is difficult to say that the proprietors had not a right to clear their lands, or that they were not even justified in trying to do so. But the manner in which they carried out their intentions and its fearful consequences form one of the blackest chapters in Irish history. The process of clearance continued during 1848 and 1849. In these years there was never a cessation of famine and of fever; the earlier part of 1849 was, in fact, as terrible as that of 1847 in many parts of the island, especially in the west and south-west. Throughout the whole of these two years the people were in a truly fearful condition, and are described as "half-starved creatures everywhere in the fields, picking weeds or herbs to eat." The number of deaths from fever and its kindred diseases was indeed higher in 1849 than in the previous years, reaching a total of 123,386. It was upon people in this unutterable misery that the landlords had to act in carrying out their plan of clearing the land. Two or three reports from Captain Kennedy, an official of the Poor Law in the Kilrush Union, describe in a few words what was done. "In November 1847," he writes, "an immense number of small landholders are under ejectment or notice to quit, even where the rents have been paid up." Four months later we are told that some of those admitted to the Kilrush workhouse ". were the most appalling cases of destitution and suffering" it had ever been the writer's lot to witness. "The state of most of these wretched creatures is traceable to the numerous evictions which have lately taken place." A fortnight later he states his conviction that "1000 cabins have been levelled in this union within a

1848]

CRUELTY OF THE EVICTIONS.

167

very few months." The numbers rapidly increased. A month later he calculated that 6000 houses had been levelled since November. "The wretchedness, ignorance, and helplessness of the poor on the western coast of this union prevent them seeking a shelter Kennedy's elsewhere; they linger about the localities for weeks or report. months, burrowing behind the ditches under a few broken rafters of their former dwelling, refusing to enter the workhouse till the parents are broken down and their wretched offspring beyond recovery. The misery attendant upon these wholesale evictions is fre quently aggravated by hunting these ignorant helpless creatures off the property from which they perhaps have never before wandered five miles. It is not an unusual occurrence to see 40 or 50 houses levelled in one day, and orders given that no remaining tenant or occupier should give even a night's shelter. I have known some ruthless acts committed by drivers and sub-agents, but, no doubt, according to law, however repulsive to humanity; wretched hovels pulled down where the inmates were in a helpless state of fever and nakedness, and left by the roadside for days. As many as 300 of the most helpless class have been left houseless in one day." In April 1849 the same writer reported that on one farm alone where there had been 73 houses there were now but 13. And in May, "notwithstanding that fearful numbers have been unhoused in this union within the year (probably 15,000), it seems hardly credible that 1200 more have had their dwellings levelled within this fortnight." The whole report was so terrible that it moved Sir Robert Peel to say that he did "not think the records of any country, civil or barbarous, presented materials for such a picture as was set forth in the statement of Captain Kennedy."

But whatever horror may have been excited by the inhumanity of the proceeding no attempt was made to stop it. The English Parliament was unable to conceive the legitimacy of interfering with the rights of property under any circumstances. The evil was traced not to the system which gave one man as complete command over the life of another as if he had been his slave, but to the bankrupt condition of the Irish landlords. No doubt it was impossible to expect from the bankrupt proprietors, whose lands were frequently in the hands of mortgagees, that sort of care for their tenants which a prosperous English landlord almost invariably shows. The necessity of paying the charges on the estate and living out of drove such poverty-oppressed owners to a rigorous exac- Estates Act. tion of rent, and to attempts to make their property more

it

Encumbered

Outbreak of the 1848 rebellion.

lucrative. Thus the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849 was in principle a wise measure. It did not however produce such good results as were anticipated. The land, sold forcibly at a time of depression, fetched but small prices for the advantage of the original owners, and fell largely into the hands of mercantile men, often of the very class which had hitherto furnished the money-lenders and mortgagees, from whom it was intended the land should be rescued. It created also an indefeasible Parliamentary title which could not be disregarded, and strengthened the position of the landed proprietor against any future attempt to change for the advantage of the people the absolute character of his tenure. But this well-intentioned measure, from which great results were anticipated, had not been introduced till the critical state of Ireland had rendered repression a matter of absolute necessity, and an act of open rebellion had placed the leaders of the Young Ireland party at the mercy of the English Government. The Young Ireland party had entirely broken with the pacific policy of O'Connell, and in the spring of the year 1848 had used and printed language of a character in the last degree inflammatory. Rebellion was openly preached, advice as to the best means of destroying the troops given in detail, and all efforts at a peaceful solution of the difficulty treated with the profoundest contempt. The hopes of the party of rebellion had been raised by events in France. Smith O'Brien had gone to Paris for the purpose of obtaining assistance from the Provisional Government which had lately been established there. Lamartine, the President, had indeed declined to pay attention to his request, wisely pointing out the continued desire of France, even though it had become a Republic, to cultivate the friendship not of one part of Great Britain but of the whole country. None the less the Irish leaders were still boasting that 50,000 Frenchmen were ready to assist them in subverting the Monarchy. The Government thought it necessary to bring such violent and seditious writing within the compass of a more stringent regulation. A Bill was therefore brought in for altering the Act of 1795 with regard to high treason. By that Act compassing the deposition of the Sovereign, intending or compassing to levy war against the Sovereign, and seeking to bring a foreign foe into the country, were offences liable to the penalties of high treason. It was now proposed to declare them felony, and that persons guilty of them should be liable to transportation. The word "compassing" was to include the publishing or printing of any writing, or open and avowed speaking.

Government
Security Bill
passed.
April 22.

1848]

THE IRISH REBELLION.

169

Habeas Corpus

Act suspended.
July 22.

The Act thus changed was to be extended to Ireland, where it had not hitherto been applicable. Smith O'Brien made his last appearance in Parliament to oppose this measure. Within a few weeks, in company with Meagher, and Mitchell, the editor of United Ireland, the most outspoken of the Young Ireland party, O'Brien was brought to trial under its provisions. Mitchell was found guilty and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation, O'Brien and Meagher were acquitted, and able for some weeks longer to continue their treasonable course. The conviction of Mitchell and the arrest of Duffy under the late Act seemed to have driven the leaders to immediate action, and to have produced an abortive insurrection which for a while ruined their cause. The Confederation, as the Association of Young Irelanders was called, made preparations for a general rising in August, for the purpose of rescuing Mitchell and anticipating the trial of Gavan Duffy. Information of what was going on, and the strong representations of Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant, that extraordinary measures were absolutely necessary, induced the Government on the 22d of July to introduce a Bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. So urgent was the need considered that the Bill was hurried through all its stages on the Saturday, agreed to by the House of Lords on Monday, and received the royal assent on the Tuesday. On the arrival at Dublin of information that the Bill would be passed, Meagher and Dillon at once proceeded to join O'Brien in Tipperary. For several days the three leaders passed through the country making speeches, drilling and collecting armed parties. On Saturday July 29 a body of police some forty or fifty strong marched to disperse the rebels. They found themselves almost surrounded by some thousands of insurgents, and went for shelter to a neighbouring house. An attack of no very serious nature was made upon this post, and the fire returned by the police. On the arrival of a larger party of police, O'Brien, finding resistance useless, and losing all hope of persuading the constabulary to join in the movement, withdrew from his followers, and was shortly after arrested. A Commission was issued, before which O'Brien, Sentence of Meagher, M'Manus, and several others were tried for the leaders. high treason and condemned to death, a sentence subsequently commuted to transportation for life. With almost ludicrous perverseness the prisoners whose lives had thus been spared refused the commutation of their sentence, declaring that their own assent was requisite; the Queen could pardon, but the pardon must be absolute.

Suppression of

the rebellion.

July 29.

October 23.

The law officers of the Crown, although they entirely denied the grounds of the objection, caused a Bill to be introduced into Parliament to put the Queen's power of pardon in cases of high treason beyond further controversy. The prisoners were all deported as quickly as possible to various colonies, and all with the exception of O'Brien thankfully accepted the advantages of tickets-of-leave which Government at once offered them. The absurd inefficiency of the attempt at an insurrection, of which so much had been threatened, threw an air of ridicule over the whole proceedings of the Irish agitators. The capture and punishment or flight of so many of the ringleaders deprived the movement of all guidance, and for a time Ireland ceased to be a subject of dread, although the means of curing its disaffection and of healing the deep-seated social sores with which it was afflicted remained as a chief difficulty in the way of every English Government.

Effects of Irish affairs on England.

The misery of Ireland, and the measures of relief which it had necessitated, raised far-reaching questions as to the soundness of the general principles on which our commercial and social arrangements had hitherto rested. When it had been found necessary to suspend the Corn and Navigation Laws, it became a question whether they were under any circumstances desirable. When our financiers were driven to alter the sugar duties, the question of the protection of the Colonial industry was at once touched. The raising of the loan of £8,000,000 involved the whole principle of taxation; while the possibility of such a dissolution of society as was visible in Ireland under the influence of the misery, poverty, and ignorance of the labouring classes, might well direct attention to the condition of those classes in our own country.

In the early Session of 1847 but little of any sort was completed. The approaching dissolution, and the absorbing interest of Ireland, did not allow of much activity in other directions. But the feeling that it was necessary to ameliorate the lot of the workman was shown in the large majorities by which an Act introduced by Mr. Fielden for limiting the hours of labour of young persons between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, in certain factories, was carried. It was a revolt against the strict principles of political economy; and its success was secured by the general sentiment of Parliament in opposition to the arguments of its most respected leaders, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir James Graham, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Brougham, and Lord Clarendon, all

Mr. Fielden's
Factory Act.
May 1847.

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