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Journals, Conversations and Essays Relating to Ireland

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Journals, Conversations and Essays Relating to Ireland JOURNALS, CONVERSATIONS AND ESSAYS BELATING TO IRELAND. BY NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1868. ADVERTISEMENT. rPHE state of Ireland was a subject of continual -L interest to Mr. Senior. The first of his Journals (written in 1819) contains an account of a visit to Ireland, and the last but one that he ever wrote is a record of his travels in Ireland in 1862. Throughout these forty-three years he advocated mainly the same principles—in pam- phlets, reviews, and finally in the Journals which are now for the first time laid before the public. In 1861 he arranged the Papers mentioned in the Preface, with a view to their publication after his visit in 1862 but his health before ; gave way he had leisure to complete his design. As far as it was possible, the original plan has been adhered to in these volumes. The lapse of time has, however, rendered some ' changes expedient. A Letter to Lord Howick,' vi ADVERTISEMENT. to first published in 1831, and relating chiefly Irish Poor Laws, with an Appendix published in 1832, have been omitted, to make way for matter of more immediate interest ; a short extract, on 'National Property,' from a pamphlet published by Mr. Senior in 1835, has been added; and have been retained many parts of the Journals which could not have been published at an earlier period. Archbishop Whately, Lord Eosse, Lord Mont- revised the eagle, and Mr. Stephen Spring Eice in took and their conversations which they part ; representatives have greatly increased the value of the work by permitting the insertion of the names of those distinguished men. Mr. Steuart Trench and Mr. Stephen de Vere, and other friends whose names do not appear, have also rendered valuable assistance by revising the portions of the Journals which relate to them. To all the friends who have thus contributed to the interest of the book, the Editor desires to return grateful thanks. June 16, 1868. •I PREFACE (WRITTEN IN 1861.) Papers contained in this volume were THEwritten in the years 1831,* 1832,* 1844, 1846, 1849, 1852, and 1858. They relate, there- fore, to a period of nearly thirty years. My motives for republishing those which have already appeared, and for publishing those which, till now, have remained in manuscript, are these. In the first place, I hope that they will be use- ful historical documents. They show what were the prevalent opinions respecting Irish affairs— the wishes, the hopes, the fears, and the expec- in tations, which were felt, both in England and Ireland, at different periods, during a long and anxious portion of Irish history. The extracts from the Journals contain facts, of * Omitted. viii PREFACE. which there will soon be no other record, illus- trative of the state of the country at those times. They contain also information, which I believe to be of present practical value. Though the aspect of Ireland is somewhat changed since 1852, and much since 1844, I doubt whether any great real alteration in the habits or feelings of the people has taken place. They still depend mainly on the potato. They still depend rather on the occupation of land, than on the wages of labour. They still erect for them- selves the hovels in which they dwell. They are still eager to subdivide and to sublet. They are still the tools of their priests, and the priests are still ignorant of the economical laws on which the welfare of the labouring classes depends. They are still the promoters of early and improvident still to to their marriages ; they neglect preach flocks the prudence, parsimony, industry, clean- liness, and other self-regarding virtues, on which health and comfort are still depend ; they the enemies of are still the emigration ; they enemies of landlord are still hostile every improving ; they to a Government which has seized the property of their Church—which refuses, or at least neg- lects, to provide for the spiritual instruction of the PREFACE. ix great mass of the people, and everywhere, except in its workhouses and in its gaols, ignores the ex- istence of a Soman Catholic clergy. The combinations and the trades-unions are little less ferocious than they were in 1838. Ire- land is still governed by two codes, dissimilar, and often opposed : one deriving its validity from Acts of Parliament, and maintained by the magis- trate—the other laid down by the tenants, and enforced by assassination. It is important that the details of the latter code should be known. It is important that an Irish landlord should know what kind of management of his property is safe, what is hazardous, and what is certainly fatal. Some information on these points will be found in these Journals. Nearly all the persons whose conversations I extract, were owners or managers of land. They relate their own experience. They tell us what is the conduct which an Irish tenant — approves what he will tolerate, what he will resent, and what he will punish. In the second place, I believe that the measures which, from 1831 to 1849, I persisted in recom- mending, are still expedient. Some of them have been adopted. Tithes have been commuted, the PREFACE. absurdly excessive Episcopal Establishment has been reduced (though less perhaps than it ought to be), and the revenues of the suppressed sees have been applied in relieving the people from the vexation of Church cess. Great progress has been made in abolishing the mischievous system on which ecclesiastical property was leased. The niggardly grants by which National Education was rather kept alive than encouraged, have been enlarged, till they bear a fair proportion to those afforded to Great Britain. Other measures, perhaps of still greater impor- tance, have been carried into effect, which I can- not claim the merit of having proposed, or even supported. A Poor Law has been introduced—I believe the best which any country has ever adopted. In I860, the last year for which we have re- turns, the whole money expended on the relief of the poor—including the large item of medical relief, and the nearly equally large one of the salaries and rations of the officers employed in the administration of the Poor Law—amounted to only 558,778/. A Table contained in the Appendix to the Eeport of the Committee of the House of PREFACE. XI Commons on the Irish Poor Law, dated July 9, 1861, states that, in 1859, the average daily num- ber of persons in receipt of relief was— In England 828,247 In Scotland 120,906 In Ireland ..... 41,617 being, in proportion to the total population— In England . 1 in 23| In Scotland . 1 in 25f In Ireland . 1 in 140 And the same Committee, after an enquiry of nearly four months, reported that the powers of the Guardians to afford relief were sufficient, and that their exercise of those powers was such as to render any interference in their administration inexpedient. The Encumbered Estates Court—by simplify- ing legal procedure, and by the bold novelty of giving a Parliamentary title—has made property, nearly thirty millions in value, which the poverty of its nominal owners, and the complication of its title, had rendered almost unsaleable, a valuable and useful subject of investment. But these measures, beneficial as they were, would have been powerless if the population of Xii PREFACE. Ireland had continued to increase, or had even in 1841. remained stationary at its amount The causes by which it was reduced, from 8,175,124 to 5,764,543, were foreseen by no one. with The potato disease, which has now lasted, is an event varying intensity, for sixteen years, That almost unparalleled in agricultural history. to be ex- it should be followed by a famine was the pected, but who could foresee subsequent emigration ? to 1854 inclu- That in eight years, from 1847 at the com- sive, a population, not exceeding mencement of that period 7,000,000, should have sent out more than 1,600,000 persons (nearly one-fourth of its original numbers), to inhabit coun- tries the nearest of which was more than 3,000 miles from its shore, was an event still stranger than the potato disease. Stranger still is the fact, that the greater part of the expense of this emigration was supplied : — by previous emigrants by men who, having sometimes by their own exertions, but more fre- quently by the assistance of their landlords— obtained a new country, saved year after year, from their hard-earned wages, sums which they PREFACE. Xiii sent to home, enable their brothers, their sisters, and their parents to join thern. ' I say hard-earned wages,' for the life of the Irish emigrant, at least in the United States—the country to which, as the most accessible, Irish has been emigration chiefly directed—is painful and hazardous. In the slave countries he is put to the works which are so unhealthy, that the life of a slave is not risked in them. In the free countries, he is put to those which an American rejects as too dangerous, or too disagreeable, or too severe. But he is at a small well-paid ; comparatively price, he is well-fed. In a few years he can accumulate a little capital, not to be spent, not to be invested, but to be sent home to brimr out other members of his family. For this purpose he sacrifices enjoyment, and even comfort, and risks health and life. It will be seen in the following pages that, earnestly as I desired a large emigration, I did not expect one; and still less hoped for good from a Poor Law.
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