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Gladstone and the Great Irish Famine

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Gladstone and the Great Irish Famine GLADSTONE AND thE GREAT IriSH FAMINE William Ewart Gladstone’s Irish policy as Prime Minister has received a great deal of historical attention, but aspects of his earlier engagement with Ireland remain less well known. In particular, Gladstone’s response to the defining social and economic crisis of modern Irish history – the Great Famine of 1845–52 – has attracted only cursory attention. In this article, Douglas Kanter explores Gladstone’s reaction to the Great Famine, some two decades before his first premiership. 8 Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 GLADSTONE AND thE GREAT IriSH FAMINE f, as George Boyce remarked months during his involuntary metropolis helped to ensure that, not long ago, the words ‘Glad- absence from the House of Com- by his own account, he remained stone and Ireland’ resonate mons, Gladstone made no signifi- unaware of the magnitude of the I 1 2 to this day, the same cannot be cant impact on relief policy in these approaching catastrophe. Perhaps said for the phrase ‘Gladstone and critical years, when deaths from as a result, Gladstone was at first the Great Irish Famine’. William starvation and disease mounted more preoccupied by the political Gladstone’s response to the defin- and the basic structures of govern- implications of the crisis than by ing social and economic crisis of ment assistance were established. its potential human cost. Initially modern Irish history, in fact, has His contribution to policy for- anticipating no more than a ‘tem- attracted only cursory attention. mulation remained slight after his porary’ suspension of the Corn Historians of the famine have gen- return to parliament as a member Laws, he was ‘rather puzzled’ by erally neglected Gladstone’s opin- of the Opposition in the autumn of the Peel ministry’s ultimately abor- ion of that tragic event, while his 1847, notwithstanding the recur- tive resignation in early December biographers have typically made rence of the famine and the revival 1845, and ‘dismayed and amazed’ only passing mention of it, in of contentious debates concerning by the evident willingness of the order to explain his support for the Irish land law and the financing Peelites to support the abolition repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. of relief. Nevertheless, in light of of the Corn Laws out of office.3 The reasons for such inattention Gladstone’s subsequent significance Even after Gladstone’s perusal of are not difficult to discern. Hav- to the Anglo-Irish relationship, his the government’s ‘Scarcity & Cri- ing resigned from Sir Robert Peel’s reaction to the Irish Famine merits sis papers’ in late December had Conservative government in Janu- a closer examination. Gladstone’s convinced him to join the recon- ary 1845 as a result of the Prime understanding of the crisis in Ire- structed Conservative ministry and Minister’s decision to augment and land was informed by his deeply assist Peel in the repeal of the Corn render permanent the grant to the held religious convictions, and the Laws, he continued for some time Catholic seminary at Maynooth, famine provided the occasion for to regard the famine primarily as a Gladstone was out of office when his earliest foray into Irish land problem of policy.4 As late as April the extent of the potato blight first legislation, with important, albeit 1846 he portrayed it, in essentially became apparent in October 1845. unanticipated, consequences for the secular language, as ‘an unfore- Although he returned to the Cabi- future. seen emergency’ and ‘a great public net in December of that year, his Gladstone was on the Conti- calamity’.5 Within several months, endorsement of Corn Law repeal nent, addressing a family emer- however, he had concluded that the over the objections of his patron, gency, in mid-October 1845, when famine was an act of God. the Duke of Newcastle, resulted in ministers received confirmation Gladstone’s perception of the the loss of his seat at Newark, and of the impending potato failure, famine began to change in the he did not return to parliament and after his return to England he autumn of 1846, after the Peel until November 1847. Despite, spent little time in London until William Ewart ministry had resigned from office. rather anomalously, serving as the second half of December. Gladstone When, in November, the reap- Colonial Secretary for several His protracted removal from the (1809–98) pearance of the blight prompted Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 9 glADSTONE And THE grEAT iriSH FAMinE Lord John Russell’s Whig govern- relief of distress, and to facilitate few months died … the dead are ment to approve a national day of such Christian charity Gladstone buried in trenches as in the time of humiliation in Ireland, Gladstone placed a collection box in the hall- plague, sometimes without cof- privately regretted that ministers way of his London home. (He also, fins, there seem even to have been had not appointed a fast day in Brit- according to his account book, sub- cases in which their bodies have ain as well.6 By January 1847, he had scribed £50 for famine relief, and remained exposed’. ‘Looking to discerned ‘the hand of providence’ if this sum represented a small per- the future’, he lamented, ‘we have in the famine, and by March he centage of the £562 he contributed to expect a great increase it may be had become convinced that it was to religious and charitable objects in feared in the number of deaths’.14 ‘a calamity most legibly divine’.7 1847, it also constituted the second Because Gladstone regarded sin as Gladstone’s profoundly religious largest donation he made to any intrinsic to the human condition, temperament doubtless encouraged philanthropic cause in that year.10) moreover, he rejected explanations such a providential interpretation Members of his household could, of the blight that ascribed it to the of events, particularly in the con- in the second place, economise ‘the excessive immorality of the Irish text of the deepening subsistence consumption of food’. Finally, and people. Instead, in his third famine crisis in Ireland. But his views also most importantly, they could hum- sermon he recalled Jesus’s message reflected a developing consensus in ble themselves before God. Only to the Jews, as recorded in Luke 8: Britain concerning the divine ori- through ‘a true repentance’, Glad- gins of the famine, which was fos- stone insisted, would God ‘find His There were present at the season tered by the Whig government and scourge has done its work & … in some that told him of the Gali- the established church.8 His great mercy withhold it’.11 In leans, whose blood Pilate had Gladstone offered his lengthi- his subsequent famine sermons, mingled with their sacrifices. est and most detailed analysis of Gladstone returned to the theme And Jesus answering said unto the famine in three sermons that of atonement, warning his audi- them, Suppose ye that these Gal- he composed and delivered to his tors that they might avert a simi- ileans were sinners above all the household in March 1847, in prepa- lar infliction upon England only Galileans, because they suffered ration for a national day of humili- through genuine penitence and a such things? I tell you, Nay: but ation held throughout the United sincere abhorrence of sin.12 except ye repent, ye shall all Kingdom on 24 March. These fam- If Gladstone’s famine sermons likewise perish. ine sermons were hardly unique reflected the religious tenor of early – Gladstone completed almost 200 Victorian society, they were also Lest his household misunderstand sermons between 1840 and 1866 – shaped by the distinctive contours the message, Gladstone drew the but they were unusual in explicitly of his faith, and particularly by his moral explicitly. ‘What the Jews addressing a contemporary event.9 profound sense of sin and personal thought of the Galileans slain by In the first sermon in the series, unworthiness in the eyes of God. Pilate’, he explained, ‘we perhaps Gladstone situated the Irish Fam- Many early Victorians, particularly are tempted to think of our fel- ine within a framework of sin and Whigs and Liberals, embraced an low countrymen in Ireland. Law retribution provided by the Old optimistic version of providential- & order[,] care & thrift are highly Testament. Passages from the books ism during the famine. God had prized among us, whereas we hear of Isaiah, Numbers and 2 Kings sent the blight, they believed, to of them as wild and unruly, set- revealed that God, ‘in divers times correct the moral failings of the ting too little value on human life & places[,] sent forth the Angels of Irish people, and to reconstruct and caring too little for the future’. destruction to punish the sins of Irish society. While the famine, ‘Do not’, he exhorted his listen- particular periods and nations. … unfortunately, entailed some nec- ers, ‘let us assume that the blow Sometimes by pestilence … Some- essary suffering, in the long run it By 1847, has descended upon Ireland and times by the Sword [and] … Some- would demonstrate God’s benevo- not upon us because God is better times also by Famine’. Although lence by effecting the permanent Gladstone pleased with us: for we have seen some commentators had ‘foolishly improvement of Ireland. This that He sometimes visits earlier or impiously’ suggested that the anodyne view often distanced the had come to where He means to chastise more potato blight in Ireland was the government officials and opinion- lightly’.15 By 1847, therefore, Glad- result of ‘natural causes’, Gladstone makers who subscribed to it from interpret the stone had come to interpret the was certain that ‘we should divine the human cost of the famine.13 famine as both a divine judgment in it the hand of God conveying to Gladstone’s providentialism, in famine as upon Ireland and as a providential us especial tokens of His displeas- contrast, emphasised the retribu- admonition to Britain.
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