STATE OF IRELAND. (To the Editor of the ILLUsTRATED London News.) Sir-Having recently travelled in Ireland for the purpose of examin ing the prospects and condition of the Sister Isle, I shall feel obliged to you to insert my views thereon, in the hope they may lead to some measures to alleviate and ultimately cure the dreadful evils in that country The fact is undeniable, and is admitted by all parties, that the condi tion of Ireland has undergone, during the last three years, a considerable retrogradation; and every week adds to her misery. Her poverty can hardly be conceived by your English readers. In the whole district of the south and west of Ireland, not a corn-stack is to be seen: the people are worse fed and lodged than pigs are in England. I have myself seen the poor families' Sunday dinner consist of boiled nettles only: perhaps this may sometimes have an addition of one pennyworth of Indian meal; bread is never seen by these poor people. The conse quence will be, the people will grow weaker and weaker both in strength of body and mind, which is now almost prostrate. The country has the appearance which it might be supposed it would have, if the destroying angel had passed over it, blighting the food, the men, and destroying the dwellings of the people: thousands of houses are seen unroofed; the late inhabitants being either dead or having emigrated, or, what is more likely, taken shelter in the union workhouse: yet your readers will be surprised to hear, that in the face of all this is the most fertile land in the United Kingdom thrown out of cultivation and deserted.
The condition of these people is a disgrace to any civilised country, and I conceive England has a right to step forward and rescue the sufferers, who are fast descending into the lowest depths of misery and destitution. By the recent est blishment of the Poor-law, relief was extended to the destitute; but, instead of this law really benefitting the poor, it is, in reality, desolating the land. Any poor-law, if enacted among a poverty-stricken people, who have no surplus food for them selves, only aggravates the evil. Seizures take place every day for poor rates. The poor farmer, by this process, is unable to live himself; his land is thrown up, and he, too, is plunged into the vortex of poverty —the poor-house. It is my opinion this Poor-law must be abolished at all hazards, and a remedy found elsewhere. I would propose that, however unsatisfactory to some parties, England should step in with some new remedial measure. We are naturally responsible in some degree, having united Ireland to England. The poor people of Ireland at present receiving relief of course could not be allowed to starve on the road-side—they must be maintained; but no other able-bodied men should be admitted to receive relief than those at present receiving it. I would propose that commissioners be appointed, and they be empowered to pay the expenses of all persons wishing to emigrate, as many would be glad to do if they could raise so small a sum as £3. The superintendence of the poor-houses should be taken out of the hands of the present managers, many of whom are utterly incapable of governing these unions.
It may be asked, Where are the funds to come from to main tain the poor people who may still continue a burden in the unions? That fund, during the time it was really required, I propose should be raised by a Land-tax of 2s. per acre, and a fixed duty on corn of 3s. per quarter, which would be more than sufficient. This tax would, I think, be cheerfully paid by all, to rescue so many thousands from starvation, and save Ireland, with her millions of inhabitants, from total ruin and destruction. If it was proclaimed that a Land-tax of 2s. per acre could not be exceeded in Ireland, English capitalists would at once step in and employ the people in cul tivating the land. In throwing out these hints, I earnestly call the at tention of Parliament to the present Poor-law, which they will find is working ruin among all classes. -
I shall not enter into the many social grievances of the country; they are many, and the people must remedy these things themselves. The great selfishness of landlords—the pride, the distinction of classes—the want of disposition to work—the want of thrift—the extravagance of some of the higher classes (there is scarcely any middle class)—all these social evils must be operated upon by public opinion and a long course of teaching.
In conclusion, allow me to remind your English readers, that it is not only their duty, but their interest, to have Ireland a happy and prosper ous nation. We find it in private life to be better to be allied to rich than to poor relations; and, as a nation, England should see that her sister, Ireland, be made rich, prosperous, and happy. Ireland has all the capabilities of a great nation. She has the most fertile land in the world; she has a fine people, a healthy climate, and possesses within herself capabilities of producing everything that can tend to man's well-being on earth. I hope earnestly that not many months will elapse before the whole subject is inquired into, as a fearful day of reckoning is at hand unless some effectual measure is taken. The man who could save Ireland is SIR Robert PEEL. I believe he will be the man. Let us urge upon him not to delay in giving out his real opinions on the social and political state of Ireland. Yours, obediently, AN ENGLISH TOURIST. THE IRISH POOR-LAWS. To the Editor of the ILLUSTRATED London News. SIR,-The public is much indebted to you for the graphic descriptions you have lately given of the beautiful scenery of Ireland and the desti tute condition of her people. There is not now in all Europe, and, perhaps, there never was in the world, such a large mass of human beings, so completely deprived, and yet live on, of all that is necessary to a de cent subsistence. Such, too, has unfortunately been their condition ever since I began to take an interest in public affairs, now not a short period, and every measure that has been adopted by the Legislature within that time has been followed by still further degradation of the people. Nobody can accuse our law-makers of designedly bringing this about. On the contrary, they have been actuated by the best mºtives, they have meant to serve the Irish ; but, because they have been ignorant of the true condition of the people, or ignorant of the means to help them, the result has been a continued deterioration in their condition. ... I am old enough to remember the promises of improvement which re commended Catholic Emancipation to the Parliament and people of England in 1829. I believe that it was an essential as well as a just measure; that, like the Free-trade measures of 1846, which saved Eng land from sharing in the continental convulsions of 1848, it prevented a great calamity. But for that we should have had a rebellion in Ireland in 1830. Nevertheless, it carried no relief nor improvement to the mass of the Irish. From that time forth they were engaged in a continual series of political agitations, wasting their time and their money, their thoughts and their feelings, under the guidance of interested agitators, on impracticable objects, till the final and fitting close of such proceedings took place, in the childish and absurd rebellion of last year. I well remember, too, the magnificent promises of improve ment which were made when the first Poor-law for Ireland was dis cussed in 1837, and passed in 1838. It was expressly intended “to relieve distress and lessen destitution.” Zealously promoted by that amiable nobleman, the present Earl of Carlisle, then Lord Morpeth, and Secretary for Ireland, it was twice recommended in speeches from the Throne, was strenuously supported, against much opposition, by the Whig Cabinet, and enacted for the very purpose of relieving the unhappy Irish. Your testimony, sir, in common with the testimony of other tourists, of numerous societies, of many public subscriptions, and of not a few subsidiary laws of the same genus, proves that the condi tion of the Irish in 1849 is far more lamentable than it was in 1838. I am aware, sir, that much of this terrible distress is the consequence of the potato rot; but it is plain that the Irish would have been taught self-reliance at an earlier period—would have been compelled to take more care of themselves, and would not have been so numerous in rela tion to the land and the food, had there been no Poor-law passed in 1838. That was a provision for the indigent; it at once promised support to the destitute in the name of the State, on which the Irish have been taught to depend, and it aggravated the calamities of 1846–47. Fa mines are not uncommon ; even the Irish have frequently before suf fered from such visitations. No cycle of ten years passes without as serious a loss of produce, in point of value, occurring in England as occurred in Ireland in 1846–47; but in Ireland, where the people were before in a wretched condition, dependent exclusively on the land and on potatoes, such a famine, ten years after the Poor-law had been in existence, brought starvation to the majority of the people. The Irish have never been allowed nor accustomed to rely on themselves; and the Poor-law, by bolding out relief, tended to annihilate all sense of duty as to providing their own subsistence, and hastened the almost universal pauperism that now exists.
A regular and settled provision by the State for paupers has, for a long period, been objected to on principle. It has been said that, in pro portion as the national funds are allocated to particular classes, men of those classes will always be found in abundance. Any number of soldiers or sailors, or railway labourers, can be got at any time, or in a very short time, if there be funds provided to sustain them. It is precisely the same with paupers they will always be in proportion to the means provided for their subsistence; and inasmuch as no workhouse or other test (as long as food is supplied) can equal the horrors of starvation, no such test can ever be effectual in keeping them down. Perhaps your readers generally are not aware that, since, a compulsory provision for the poor was established in Scotland in 1845, the number of poor there, and the amount of the rates, have both increased as tonishingly. The rate is already within one; third as high as the rate in England ; and the sum levied has increased from £144,959 in 1846 to £544,344 in the last year. If there is some reason, therefore, to doubt the propriety of establishing such a pro vision in any country, it is peculiarly ill adapted to Ireland, where the landowners, as a body, are of one religious faith, and the bulk of the people of another; where the latter too often look on the former as intruders and usurpers, on whom they would be often glad to be re venged by devouring their substance. Besides all the ordinary motives for relying on a Poor-rate, which at all times makes that injurious to the people, the Irish have a strong additional motive for throwing them selves on the landlords, whom they have long regarded as aliens, as ene mies, and ºppressors. The results are before the world. The famine found the Irish utterly helpless—they were starving; and there was no alternative but that England should feed those whom the Legislature had helped to pauperise and degrade.
Sir, the history of Ireland is a history of confiscations. Great dis tricts were confiscated under Elizabeth, under James, I., under Charles I., under Cromwell, and again under William III. The whole land, as Lord Clare observed at the time of the Union, with the exception of the possessions of five or six families, has been confiscated, and a great part of it was confiscated two or three times over in the course of a cen tury. Those contiscations, however, were the transference of the soil from an Irish to an English chieftain, or from one English chieftain to another, or from a rebellious chieftain to Cromwell's soldiers or the Lon don companies, and they did not much alter the relations between land lord and tenant. The t'oor-law is the last and the crowning confisca tion of all. Far more injurious than all the others, it has confiscated property to the support of indigence, and has destined all the produce of industry in Ireland to the sustenation of pauperism. . It was calcu lated by Mr. Nicolis, the author of the law, that a rate of 8d. in the pound would be sufficient to answer all its purposes; but the rate has risen as high as 12s. in the pound, and not a few unions have been completely insolvent. Besides this, upwards of a million of money has been ad vanced by the Exchequer to build poor-houses, not a farthing of which has been paid nor is likely to be paid; and a sum not short of £10,000,000 has been contributed by the State and by private subscription, to relieve the distress of the people. That vast expenditure, too, has utterly failed to improve their condition.
If you trace the operation of a Poor-law, you will see its inevitable tendency to increase the number of paupers. In every community, and especially in Ireland, where there is no opulent middle class, there is a considerable number of persons justable to support themselves. To ex onerate them from any common burden is, in point of fact, to give them relief, and make them quasi paupers; to subject them to a rate for their more indigent brethren is to render them unable to support themselves, and compel them to become paupers. This has occurred in Ireland to a great extent. There are numberless instances of poor tenants whose property has been sold to pay rates, and who have then swollen the number of paupers, till the Poor-law seems likely to reduce nearly the whole people to one common level of pauperism, and absorb all the wealth of the land for their relief.
When Lord John Russell introduced the measure in 1838, he remarked “that it would be ridiculous to suppose, that it would be absurd to think, that the evils of Ireland could be cured in three, four, or ten years, by means of legislation.” Twice ten years cannot cure the evils of centu ries of mismanagement; but ten years have now elapsed, and all the evils that he then undertook to mitigate are ten-fold greater than they were. The noble Lord, with the best intentions, overlooked, or was ig norant of the fact, that his law is a continuation and an aggravation of the main cause of the evi's he hoped to remedy. All the laws which did exist forbidding the Catholics to hold land, and to reduce them, as Mr. Burke said, to be “a miserable populace without property,” were violations of their right of property—an indirect species of plunder which took away security for their property. In like manner, all the laws which have existed, and which still exist, to enable the landlords to ap from the land, were and are a complete denial to the tenantry of security for their property. The tenantry and the peasantry in turn have done what they could to make the property of the landlord insecure and his life unsafe. Thus, time out of mind, the want of security for property, continual confiscation, a tual invasion of rights, like that which takes place by the Sultan's Pachas, ex cept that it has here been too often solemnly ordained by law, has been the master evil of Ireland. The Poor-law continued that, with this difference, that whereas the law before confiscated the property of one man for another—the property of the Catholic people for the benefit of Protestant landlords and for the promotion of religion, it now confiscates the property of the landlords for the nourishment of pauperism. . The State did wrong for ages, by successive confiscations and by legislation against the Catholic tenantry; and it did not amend that wrong, but inflicted another and a similar wrong, when it passed the Irish Poor law. That was the complement, not the correction, of previous landlord legislation.
One's heart sinks at tracing such a concatenation of evils, without seeing a hope of remedy. Though my cheeks tingle with shame at the thought that the ill-exercised dominion of England has brought, the Irish to their present condition; though I regard it, as alike our duty and our interest to help them out of this dreadful state, yet ſ con: ſess that I do not see the way; and, when the most experienced and greatest legislators of the age have gone astray, I cannot pretend to be a guide. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. H. I. PEAT BOGS OF IRELAND. PUBLIc attention has been excited by a very extraordinary statement made in the House of Commons by the O'Gorman Mahon, and supported by the au thority of Lord Ashley. By the accounts given by those gentlemen, we must be satisfied, that, if they are founded on anything like truth, the restoration of Ireland is to be effected by her 20,000,000 acres of bog, from which are to be produced sundry substances of great economic value, at comparatively small cost. From the speech of the O'Gorman Mahon we gather little—he deals with vague generalities; but Lord Ashley, speaking on the authority of one Mr. Owen, whom his Lordship describes “as a discreet, sober, generous, high minded, and religious man,” gives us more tangible inaterial. As it is of the first importance that any statement assuming such an air of authority as is given to it by the very circumstance of its engaging the attention of our legisla tive assembly, should have the most fair and at the same time rigorous investi gation, we have been at some pains to ascertain all the facts connected with this alleged discovery. Referring to the report of Lord Ashley's speech, we find that amiable and always well-intentioned nobleman is made to speak as follows:–“His object was to confer benefit upon Ireland, and to show that there existed in that country a profitable investment for money which had never hitherto been dreamed of. The statement which he had to make to the House was as follows: —The extraction of 100 tons of peat in Ireland would cost £8; the labour of chemically converting it would cost about £8 more; and the product would be the following substances:—Carbonate of ammonia, 2002 lb., value £32 10s. 2d.; soda, 21 18 lb., value £8 16s. 6d. ; vinegar, 600 lb., value £7 10s. ; naptha, 30 gallons, £7 10s. ; candles—that was, the stuff of which candles were constructed —600 lb., value 4:17 10s. ; camphine oil, 600 lb., value 4:5; common oil, 800 lb., value £3 6s. 8d.: gas to the value of £8 ; and ashes to the value of £1 13s. : total value, £91 10s. 8d. It appeared, then, from this calculation, that for £16 expended in raw material and labour—or take a wide margin, and say £20, a return of more than £90 would be realised. And these were not mere theoreti cal results. Mr. Owen had already operated upon hundreds and hundreds of tons of peat, and he was ready to stake his character and his fortune upon the accuracy of his experiments. And the advantage was not confined to the ex traction of the substances in question from the peat. When the superincumbent layer of that substance was cleared away, the soil beneath was found to be fruitful bey"ond all expression, having been for ages absolutely saturated with ammonia. The publication of this remarkable statement, upon the face of it bearing an appearance of so much plainness, is rapidly followed by a letter in the Times from Mr. Henry Seaman, of Plymouth, who informs us that he and his neigh bours lost £20,000 in an attempt to turn the peat of the bogs of Dartmoor to profitable account, in the same manner as the peat of Ireland has been treated iy Mr. Owen and his partners. This letter is again followed by one from Mr. 1:obert Oxland, a practical chemist, residing at Plymouth, who rather confirms the principal points of the statement made by Lord Ashley. Such being the position of the question, we proceed to our examination. The progress ºf the formation of bog, may not prove uninteresting to our readers. In the first instance, shallow lakes have induced the vegetation of aquatic plants, which have gradually crept in from the borders towards the deeper waters of the centre. Mnd accumulates around their roots and stalks, and a spongy semi-fluid mass is formed, well fitted for the growth of moss, and particularly of sphagnum, essentially the bog-moss. This, luxuriating, absorbs a jarge quantity of water—and, continuing to send out new plants above, as the (ld ones roº, the whole is gradually compressed into a solid substance, the water being replaced by vegetable matter. In some cases the commencement of this process appears to have been due to the destruction of a forest, the fallen trees Jamming back the water, and thus forming large beds of stagnant water. One-seventh of the total area of Ireland is bog land. Of these bogs, 1,576,000 acres are flat bog, extending along the plains; and 1,254,000 are mountain bog. distributed principally over the hilly country. These bogs vary considerably in depth, some being not more than five feet, while others extend to forty feet. If, therefore, we assumne, which is near the truth, that the bogs of Ireland have an average depth of twenty feet, we shall find that we have at least the enormous mass of 273,944,000,000 cubic yards of peat bog in that country available to some industrial purpose.Mr. Owen informs Lord Ashley that the extraction of 100 tons of peat would cost £8 ; observe the value of that statement. Sir Robert Kane, in his “ In dustrial Resources of Ireland,” informs us, that a cubic yard of good turf, packed in close sods, weighs about 900 lb.: therefore, 100 tons will be found to consist of nearly 250 cubic yards: and the same authority assures us—and this is corroborated by the “Report of the Bog Commissioners”—that turf, con sumed in the immediate neighbourhood of the bogs, costs 3s. 6d. per ton ; but Sir Robert Kane prefers stating it at 4s. per ton generally. Even at 3s. 6d. per ton, the cost of 100 tons will be £17 10s. Even Mr. Oxland states that the Dart moor peat cannot be raised for less than 2s. 6d. per ton; which we believe to be very far below the cost per ton of any raised by the company who | tely abandoned their works in that district. But this 100 tons of jeat contains about a fourth of its weight of water; therefore, 125 tons must be raised to produce 100 tons for the manufactory ; the cost of which will, therefore, be £21 18s. instead of £8–no small difference in a business transaction. “The labour,” says Lord Ashley, “ of cheinically converting this peat will cost about £8 more.” Mr. Robert Oxland was well acquainted with the manufactory at Dartmoor, and he states that for 100 tons of peat in the retorts 100 tons of peat must be burnt in the furnaces. This is another £21 18s.; so that, instead of the allowance inade by his Lordship, taking, as he said, “a wide margin' of £20, we find the materials produced actually inust cost £13 16s. ; and to this must be added men's wages in the manufactory, the cost of very expensive apparatus; and, even then, we have only produced an impure mixture, containing certain valuable compounds, which can only be separated by Lice chemical operations. The material” produced, as enumerated above, are estimated as worth £90, and, no doubt, a fair marketable value is taken for the several items; but we believe, and we express this most conscien tiously, that the cost of production would exceed their commercial worth. As the substances said to be produced are explicitly stated, we are also en abled to test their value. Sir Robert Kane, than whom a more careful analytical chemist does not exist, gives the following analyses of two varieties of dense turf:—Kilbaha. Canno 72-80 * 23*66 volatilo Matter . . Pure Charcoal -- -- 19-14 -- -- Ashes . . . . . . . . *"6 ... ... .. 6 24 The ultimate analyses of the same turfs show its actual composition to be— Kilbaha. - Ca - Carbon -- -- ... ... ol' 13 .. -- -- º Hydrogen .. -- -- -- 633 .. -- -- 6'85 Oxygen ... . . . . . . 31.48 .. . . . . 3955 Ashes -- -- -- -- 805 -- -- -- 2-55 100 00 Too oo From these elements, by re-combination, may be formed vinegar, naptha paraphine, the composition for the candles, &c., but certainly neither carbºnatº of ammonia nor soda. “Turf," says Sir Robert Kane, “contains much less litrogen than coal. Hence the liquor obtained in distilling turf contains no free ammonia.” And yet Lord Ashley assures us that for ages the soil has been absolutely saturated with free ammonia. We think those who are desirous of investing capital will place more reliance on the Irish chemist than the hon member. Again, Sir Robert, Kane tells us that the quantity of vinegar is so much less than that obtained from wood, that it cannot become an object of tnºnufacture. The soda said to be produced is, as is shewn by Mr. Oxland alded to aid in the format on of such carbonate of ammonia as they may 99tain. . Mr. Oxland gives the value of the sulphate of ammonia from one hundred tons of peat as £5 12s. 6d., instead of the £32 los. stated by Lord Ashley. The gas cannot be employed on the Spot, and it is therefore valueless, and the use of the ashes is exceedingly problematical ; the account is therefore reduced, when we abstract the excess of ammonia. the soda which is not produced, and the gas and ashes which cannot be male available, from £90 to £63 10s., to produce which, be it remembered, the raw material costs £43 16s. So much for this loudly trumpeted realisation of an Irish El DoradoThe works on Dartmoor are, it is said, to be resumed; but the com - tend only to produce charcoal and tar: the charcoal is to be used to *... ironstone of the district, and thus it is hoped will be produced a good cast steel. The proprietors themselves state that to produce 100 tons of peat char. coal, 300 tons of peat must be employed, and that the cost thereof is £75. We have faithfully examined the facts as they stand, and we are convinced that somewhere the grossest deception has been practised. Instead of working upon hundreds and hundreds of tons of peat, Mr. Owen contesses to having erperimented only, upon comparatively few tons; and, without any fear of con: tradiction, we boldly declare that it is utterly impossible to produce, by any pro cess of manufacture, anything like the quantities of any of the materials named except the charcoal and the gas, from one hundred tons of Irish peat. - We cannot but regret that gentlemen unacquainted with manufactures should allow themselves to be made the medium of promulgating as facts impossi bilities, thus lending themselves to the ruin of innocent man.
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Bibliography
“State of Ireland.” Illustrated London News 15 (11 August 1849): 79. Hathi Trust online version of a copy of the Illustrated London News in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 19 June 2021.
Last modified 19 June 2021