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Nassau Senior, the Whig Leaders' Counsellor in the Age of Laissez-Faire

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Nassau Senior, the Whig Leaders' Counsellor in the Age of Laissez-Faire Södertörn University College History of Ideas Tutor: Sten Dahlstedt. Spring 2006 Nassau Senior, the Whig leaders’ counsellor in the age of laissez-faire. Period considered 1829 – 1836. By Åke Forsberg. 1 Abstract. This paper concerns the ideas on society, policies and economic thoughts on Ireland before the cataclysmal famine of the 1840s. Senior, classified as one of the classical economists, elaborated these in the period 1829 – 1836, thus during the period of Parliamentary reform. As a trusted counsellor of the Whig governments, Senior advocated measures opposite to the common notions of laissez-faire. His basic ideas are contrasted to those of Malthus concerning economics and, in particular, the population doctrine that Senior never believed in and in its crudest form refuted. Senior regarded Malthus’ doctrine as devastating to governmental policies. Senior wanted an efficient and strong government. Moreover, Senior evolved ideas, in fact a strategy, for raising Ireland out of her common destitution instead of institutionalizing poor laws. This strategy embraced Catholic emancipation, education, public investments in infrastructure and emigration. His ideas, and proposals akin to Senior’s, are related to the political discourse of the day, which took a more common view of laissez-faire during the period considered. Nevertheless, there is consistency in his ideas on government, public investments and laissez-faire. Senior cannot be described as anything other than an early liberal and a classical economist and, hence, an advocator of economic laissez-faire. This paper underlines the need for a clear distinction between economic laissez-faire as a concept and the concept of political laissez-faire, whereas the former concerns thoughts on economics and the latter is related to the notion of the impassivity of the period of today’s discourse. Keywords: History of ideas, classical economists, liberalism, Senior, Ireland, Malthus’ population doctrine. 2 1. Introduction. ........................................................................................................................... 1 2. Research on Senior, Methodological issues........................................................................... 5 3. Nassau William Senior Briefly (1790 – 1862)....................................................................... 6 4 The Macro perspective .......................................................................................................... 9 4.1 The epoch in general, Great Britain ................................................................................. 9 4.2 Ireland and her relations to England. ............................................................................. 14 5 The Micro-perspective in the first decades of the nineteenth century ................................. 17 5.1 Opinions on society and the Poor laws – inputs to political economy. The drive towards ‘Christian Political Economy’ and the philosopher’s contribution...................................... 17 5.2 Main economic views..................................................................................................... 23 5.3 Ireland – harvesting the dragon’s teeth. ........................................................................ 27 5.4 The Politicians, Whigs and dawning Liberalism and Tories in ‘the age of reform’. ..... 30 6 Fundamental theses – the Malthusian Controversy (1829)................................................... 36 6.1 Senior and posterity........................................................................................................ 36 6.2. The Malthusian controversy on population................................................................... 38 6.2.1 The exchange of letters between Malthus and Senior............................................. 44 6.2.2 A few considerations ............................................................................................... 48 6.2.3 What happened later? ............................................................................................ 52 7 A Strategy for Ireland............................................................................................................ 53 7.1 The situation and the program........................................................................................ 53 7.2. The Poor Laws - Not a remedy. .................................................................................... 55 7.3 Political and economic long term remedies for Ireland. ................................................ 59 7.3.1 Catholic emancipation and education..................................................................... 59 7.3.2 Some of Senior’s aspects on economic growth and mobility. ................................. 63 7.3.3 Considerations ........................................................................................................ 65 7.4 Contextual interlude and On National Property............................................................. 67 7.4.1 Contextual interlude, Constitutional Crisis in 1835 ............................................... 67 7.4.2 Nassau Senior’s pamphlet On National Property................................................... 70 7.4.3. Some considerations............................................................................................... 77 8 Ireland, Poor Laws and political laissez-faire (1836.)........................................................... 79 8.1 Introduction – the English Inquiry. ................................................................................ 79 8.2 Poor Laws for Ireland – a touchstone............................................................................. 80 9 Reflections and a few findings.............................................................................................. 88 Source list................................................................................................................................. 93 Appendix 1. The judicial system, barristers and courts. .......................................................... 96 Appendix 2 Tocqueville on Ireland in 1835............................................................................. 97 3 1. Introduction. The reason I chose this subject at this particular time was not that I had reached a level of knowledge that made it useful to suppose some requirements of an ongoing discourse, pursue facts, try them in this inquiry, and neatly present the outcome. On the contrary, my choice was a result of sheer ignorance, a few, as it seemed to me, contradictory fragments of information and, of course, a good share of personal curiosity. When I read about the Victorian era in a history book a few years ago, [Victorian England, by Seaman London 1973] I came across an excerpt by ‘the economist Nassau Senior’ describing the unsanitary and squalid slums in Manchester in 1837, where miserable and cholera-infested tenements were erected on jobbery.1 Later I found Senior described as an exponent of laissez-faire and one of the classical economists, however, rather obscured. These samples seemed inconsistent. As I pursued more information, I learnt that Senior ‘refuted Malthus population doctrine’ and above all, was one of the foremost, if not the foremost English advocators of measures aimed at raising Ireland out of her utter destitution including proposals of considerable public investments and this around 15 years before the great, cataclysmal famine. Consider the concepts and their apparent inconsistencies – a classical economist and laissez-faire, opposing the Malthusian population doctrine; moreover, an Englishman and a governmental advisor during the age of laissez-faire as an indefatigable advocator of the oppressed Catholic population of Ireland, proposing public investments. Even at a profound level of ignorance like mine, I believe many of us recall certain sombre facts concerning the British oppression of Ireland and the disastrous famine in the late 1840s. Furthermore, especially we who once attended courses in political economics recall the line of development after Adam Smith: The classical economists Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo and then John Stuart Mill, though not Nassau Senior. Ricardo is firmly recalled as the man who formulated the infamous ‘iron’ law of wages based on Malthus population doctrine – the long run equilibrium of wages at subsistence level. Although details may fade over time the notion of classical economics, based on this law and the idea of non-interference of government, has a firm grasp on our minds. This is certainly a result of the canon, and were there a clear discord we should surely 1 The excerpt ’ .. In general the streets of these suburbs are unpaved, with a dung-heap or ditch in the middle; the houses are built back to back, without ventilation or drainage, and whole families are limited to a corner of a cellar or garret’ is taken from a letter dated April 2, 1837, SWE, p 25. The letter is a part of his severely criticised opposition of the ten hours bill, but in this particular context, it is a point that his anger concerned quarters in Manchester named Irish Town, Ancoats and Little Ireland, i.e. the wretched hovels of poor Irish labour immigrants, thus those on the lowest rung of the social ladder. 1 have remembered this. These facts settled the matter, and I embarked for a survey that would be wider than I had anticipated. I found consistency in the underlying thoughts and this consistency is what I want to convey.
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