TRANSACTIONS OF THE

CENTRAL RELIEF COMMITTEE

THE following pages contain a narrative of the measures adopted by the Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, for the mitigation of the distress arising from the failure of the potato crop in 1846 and 1847. As merely an incidental allusion is made to the important exertions of other similar bodies, or to the operations of the Government, this narrative cannot pretend to the character of a history of that eventful period; but when taken in connection with the information contained in the various reports and letters given in the Ap-pendix, it may furnish a few authentic materials for the future historian.

The attention of the Committee, whilst they were engaged in the duty of endeavouring to relieve the distress of their fellow-countrymen, was much drawn to the consideration of the economic causes which appear to them to have interfered

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with the prosperity of the country, and they have deemed it right to offer some observations and suggestions respecting them. Although some of the operations undertaken by them were not attended with the hoped-for success, it was never-theless incumbent on them to endeavour to rescue the famishing from death. It is not for man to command success; but it is his Christian duty, under circumstances of doubt and difficulty such as those presented by the recent famine, to labour from day to day, acting for the best according to his judgment, and willing to leave the event to Him who sees the end from the beginning, and who alone can bless the work. The faithful record of these transactions should not deter any, under similar circumstances, from endeavouring to per-form their duty, but it may in some degree serve as a beacon to direct their steps.

The "Transactions" have been issued separately for general distribution; but, for the information of the reader who may desire to investigate more fully the details of the famine as exhibited in the proceedings and corres-pondence of the Relief Committee, another edition has been published, containing in addition a copious Appendix, to which frequent reference is made in the following pages, and which may be had from the same publishers.

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IN presenting this statement of the proceedings of the Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, we feel that it is required of us to offer some ex-planation for the delay which has taken place, in supplying the contributors to the fund entrusted to our care with a full account of the distribution of their bounty. Some account of our proceedings for the first eighteen months, accompanied by a statement of receipts and expenditure during that period, was published in Sixth-month, 1848* ; and at that time we fully anticipated that our final re-port would not be very long delayed. It did not appear practicable to realize this expectation, as several of the measures which had been adopted, with the view of affording encouragement to the productive industry of the country, required a con-siderable time for a fair trial. A main cause of delay, however, was the delicate state of health of Joseph Bewley, one of our honorary secre-

*See Appendix XXII, page 438, for this report. 2

taries; and by his decease, which took place in Ninth-month last year, we were deprived of his important and highly valued assistance. He was the first promoter of this Committee, and as he had throughout taken a much larger share than any other of its members, of the labour and responsi-bility attendant on its proceedings, we hoped that he would have been able to prepare the report of its transactions. A few months before his death, he stated to the Committee that he felt himself unable to undertake this task; and at the same time presented to us some memoranda, as "heads for a report," which have been of great use in preparing the present statement. It was then agreed to place the necessary documents in the hands of another person. Various circum-stances, including the time required for super-vision and correction by a numerous committee, have prevented an earlier publication. To convey to our readers a clear view of our transactions, it appears necessary to give a general account of them from the formation of the Com-mittee, although this course will oblige us to repeat some of the statements already published. While thus detailing the measures which were adopted in the hopes of alleviating distress, we think it right to advert to some circumstances in the condition of Ireland prior to 1846, which appear to us to have aggravated the difficulties arising from the loss of the potato, and to have impeded the exertions

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made for the relief of the consequent destitution. We also feel it to be our duty to state the views we have been led to form, as to the injurious effects which these defective social arrangements must continue to produce, so long as they exist; and as to the measures which would appear to us likely to remove them. In venturing thus to place before the public our opinions on social and economical questions of great moment, respecting some of which the public mind is deeply interested, we feel that we are going beyond what some may consider the duty of the Committee of a charitable association; and that in so doing we may expose ourselves to censure, as out-stepping our province, and interfering in matters in which we have no proper concern. We do not claim for our suggestions any peculiar authority; but the circumstances in which we have been placed have forcibly attracted our attention to these subjects, and have produced in our minds strong convictions of the truth of the principles we advocate, and of their important influence on the future well-being of our country. The object of the improvements in legislation, which we have ventured to suggest, is the encou-ragement of industry, by the removal of obstacles which now obstruct its course and endanger its reward. Were a free scope given to exertion, it would remain for the people, by persevering indus-try in agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial

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pursuits, to improve their material condition, and acquire a larger share of the comforts and conve-niencies of life. Nevertheless, these views are not put forward as offering a panacea for the various evils which afflict Ireland. Many other subjects might be noticed. Even the best laws must to a great extent depend, for their successful working, upon the general knowledge and intelligence of the people. We feel the great importance of educa-tion-of that intellectual instruction which tends to raise the condition and to civilize the man-ners of a nation, and above all, we desire to express our conviction that pure religion and sound morality are the only solid basis for national happiness. For the opinions stated in this report, the Soci-ety of Friends as a body is not responsible, and we are aware that some of those in religious pro-fession with us entertain different views on some points. The responsibility rests on the members of the Central Relief Committee alone. We have little pecuniary interest in land, either as owners or occupiers; and if any class prejudices have influenced us, they are those derived from the mercantile pursuits in which nearly all the members of the Committee are engaged. We cannot claim an exemption from those sources of error to which all are liable; but we have no private objects to serve, and no interests other than the general welfare of the community.

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It is with some hesitation that we again obtrude ourselves on the public attention, so long after the active exertions of the Committee have ceased. We ought to have been prepared to make our report earlier; but the delay which has been suffered to take place in the performance of this duty is not a reason for omitting it altogether. Some statement of our transactions is due to the contributors, and it may be useful to leave on record a selection of authentic information, connected with a famine so memorable and so extraordinary. The time which has elapsed has afforded us an opportunity of judging of the means adopted for relief, by the results of some of the operations in which we were engaged. We are now enabled to review the whole course of our proceedings, and we see but too clearly that we have failed in several undertak-ings, in which we at first entertained sanguine hopes of success. Although public opinion has, on several occasions, been favourably expressed as regards our proceedings, we feel that we can only claim the merit of an honest intention, to dispose of the funds under our care to the best of our ability, for the temporary relief or for the perma-nent advantage of our distressed fellow-country-men. In endeavouring to carry these intentions into effect, we have made mistakes of judgment in the selection of the means of relief, and committed errors in the details of administration; so that the means placed at our disposal have 6

perhaps been less useful than they might have proved in other hands. But while we have to acknowledge these defici-encies, we feel bound to express our thankfulness to the Almighty that we have been made the means, to a large extent, of relieving destitution and of saving life. The awful visitation with which it pleased Divine Providence to afflict our country, was doubtless intended in wisdom for our good. His bounty has again given to us abundant har-vests and a plentiful supply of food. Still, many of the difficulties are but in part removed, and much distress exists around us. One of the results of the late visitation of famine has been, to fix the public attention on various social evils, which it brought more prominently into view; and we ven-ture to indulge the hope, that the attention thus called to these subjects will continue to be devoted to them, until such amendments are effected in the social and economical condition of our country, as will place the people in a state of much greater comfort than they have heretofore enjoyed.

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CHAPTER I. Extreme poverty of the people Their patience under suffering. The potato almost their only food. Conacre cultivation.

bourer of Ireland continues to suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that he continues to depend upon casual and precarious employment for subsistence; that he is still badly housed, "badly fed, badly clothed, and badly paid for his "labour. Our personal experience and observation during our inquiry, have afforded us a melancholy confirmation of these statements; and we cannot forbear expressing our strong "sense of the patient endurance which the labour-ing classes have generally exhibited, under sufferings greater, we believe, than the people of any "other country in Europe have to sustain."* The greater part of the labouring classes in Ireland were sunk in this state of poverty and wretchedness. The potato was almost their only food; and it formed their chief means of obtaining the other necessaries of life. The circumstances under which it was cultivated were very peculiar. A large portion of the crop which was to supply the food of the labourers, as well as that of the pigs which they reared, was grown under the conacre system. Under this system, the labourer usually took from some farmer a small portion of ground for the season, manured, prepared, and sowed it. The rent was paid sometimes in money, but more frequently by working a certain number of days for the farmer, at sixpence, eight-pence, or ten-pence * Par. Rep. 1845, vol. xix. page 12.

The poverty o f the Irish peasan-try improperly at-tributed to the potato.

In England farm buildings erected by the landlord.

per day. The labourer thus became a commercial speculator in potatoes. He sunk his capital in manuring the ground, and in seed. He mortgaged his labour for a part of the ensuing year for the rent of his field. If his speculation proved suc-cessful, he was able to replace his capital, to fatten his pig, and to support himself and his family, while he cleared off his debt to the farmer. If it failed, his former savings were gone; his heap of manure had been expended to no purpose in preparing his field; and he had lost the means of rendering his pig fit for market. But his debt to the farmer still remained, and the scanty wages which he could earn at some periods of the year, were reduced not only by the increased number of persons looking for work, but also by the diminished ability of the farmers to employ them. Many have attributed this state of chronic po-verty to the facility with which a bare subsistence was obtained by the cultivation of the potato. Such does not appear to us to have been the case. The people lived on potatoes because they were poor; and they were poor because they could not obtain regular employment. This want of em-ployment seems in great measure to have arisen from the state of the law, and the practice re-specting the occupation and ownership of land. In England it has long been customary for the landlords to erect farm buildings, and make all the requisite improvements. In Ireland, the landlords Not so in Ireland. Results from this state of things. Facility of encum bering landed pro-perty in Ireland. having in general only a life interest, and being unable to charge the cost of improvements on the estate, have rarely been willing to incur the ex-pense of making them; and consequently the whole expenditure for this purpose has usually been thrown on the tenants. The law which vested the ownership of all such improvements in the land-lord, gave the tenant no compensation for the out-lay of his capital, beyond the advantage he might derive during the existence of his lease; and if there was no lease, which was frequently the case, the tenant had no security for the enjoyment of his improvements except the good feeling of his landlord. The result has been such as might na-turally be anticipated; the requisite farm build-ings have in most cases either not been erected, or have been inferior in quality, and the other improvements essential to a good condition of agriculture have been neglected. The labourers in regular employment have in consequence been comparatively few. Whilst such discouragements impeded the im-provement of the land, there were several circum-stances which gave greater facility to those who wished to encumber it; so that it was much easier to encumber an estate than to sell it. It is well known that the Irish landed proprietors availed themselves to a great extent of this fatal privilege; and the heavy embarrassments of so large a num-ber of this class must have had a most serious effect on the condition of their tenantry. The complications of title arising from settlements, and from the various charges affecting land, were in-creased by the existence of incumbrances; and thus the difficulties of bringing landed property to a sale were rendered still greater. These difficulties frequently had the effect of keeping estates for many years out of the market; and when they were at length offered for sale, the un-certainty of title, and the delay and expense con-nected with the transfer were so great, as ma-terially to depreciate their value. From these causes, estates whose proprietors were actually in-solvent, in many cases, remained unsold: the rents were collected by receivers under the Court of Chancery; and from the inevitable mismanage-ment such properties were reduced to a deplorable condition. It is clear that, in any attempt to im-prove the condition of his struggling tenantry, little assistance could be given by a landlord over-whelmed with debt and tied down with settle-ments.* Not only were a great number of the landlords needy men, powerless to assist either themselves * It may be supposed that a settlement has the effect of preventing the de-struction of the estate by incumbrances; but, even in this case, the incumbrances of the tenant for life frequently lead to the appointment of a receiver, with all the usual injurious consequences; and for the evils resulting from this class of receiv-erships, the Incumbered Estates' Act provides no remedy. It also frequently happens that the incumbrances of the tenant for life are charged on the estate when it is again settled. or their tenants, but in very many cases they had ceased to reside in Ireland. They found that in other countries the scanty residue of their rental procured for them more of the luxuries to which they had been accustomed, than they could ob-tain at home. They were anxious to be relieved from the burden of supporting a high social posi-tion upon inadequate means. They were disgust-ed by seeing their estates placed under the ma-nagement of a receiver appointed by the Court of Chancery. They were annoyed by the importu-nities of their tenantry, and pained by the sight of misery which they could not relieve; and influenced by one or more of these causes, they sought in another land the consideration and enjoy-ment which they no longer met with in their own. The resident gentry were therefore few in many parts of Ireland, and were often widely separated; and in a large part of the country there was no middle class. There were whole parishes with scarcely an educated resident except the Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy; while the extent of others, and the union in some cases of several parishes into one benefice, deprived many districts even of that assistance. When the famine resulting from the blight of the potato brought so many to destitution, the labours of the few who, in those deserted districts, exerted themselves to feed the poor, were thus greatly increased, as the whole burden was cast upon them. "The position of a "country gentleman," writes one of this class, "left "single-handed as I am, to deal with such a cala-"mity, and doomed daily to hear tales of woe "which he cannot alleviate, is truly miserable." At any time, the want of an educated, intelligent body of men to carry out the various local measures must be severely felt. But its pressure was almost overpowering, when the whole population of many districts were fed by the hands of strangers. We believe that this want of the necessary machinery for administering relief in the districts which most required it, had more effect than any other cir-cumstance in impeding the exertions requisite to relieve the sufferings of the destitute in that time of calamity.* Besides the difficulty of carrying the provisions of the poor law into effect, arising from the want of an efficient local administration, the law itself, pre-vious to the amendment passed in 1847, was insuf-cient for the relief of such great distress. It had been passed while the country was comparatively prosperous, and contained no provision for such a social disorganization as that which resulted from the famine of 1846 and 1847. By the Act of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 56, no out-door relief whatever could be given under any circumstances. This unyielding enactment was manifestly unsuitable amid such * See Appendix IV. page 212, for some evidence as to the general non-residence of landed proprietors. extended destitution. The workhouses were soon filled with the old and the sick, with widows and orphans, and with the helpless of every kind, who were of course the first to feel the pressure and to seek for shelter. Even for these, so greatly increased was their number, the workhouse accommodation was wholly inadequate; yet when the houses were once filled, there remained no legal provision for the destitute. Thus the workhouses ceased to operate either as a medium of relief, or as a test of desti-tution. They became almshouses for the helpless, and hospitals for the sick. In-door relief was given to the class who might have been safely relieved out of doors, while the able-bodied, who of all others required the most stringent test of des-titution, received out-door relief indiscriminately, to an enormous extent, on the public works.* These works consisted principally of roads, and were originally undertaken as supplemental to the Poor Law, under an act passed in the beginning of the session of 1845-46. The expense was defrayed by advances from the Treasury, of which one half was a free grant, and the other half was charged upon the baronies In which the works were undertaken. Before the close of the session, the certainty of the total failure of the potato crop induced Parliament to continue the Act, with a view to its application * Under the Act 9 & 10 Vicfc. chap. 107, commonly known as the " Labour Bate Act." on a much larger scale than in the preceding season. The whole amount advanced by the Treasury was made a local charge, to be recovered in the same manner as the poor rate. It was directed that the wages on the works should be kept below the average rate in each district, and that the em-ployment given should be by taskwork; but it was rarely found practicable to carry out these directions. It is unnecessary to refer to the inju-rious effects which arose from this mode of relief. We need only say that in numerous instances it failed to attain its object. Not only was relief given to many improper persons, but the really destitute able-bodied were often neglected; while, from the very nature of the relief, the helpless were frequently left altogether without assistance.* The size of the Unions was a great impedi * This statement refers to the original arrangement, which has since been con-siderably modified. The expenditure under the act first referred to, the 9 Vict. chap. I. was £476,000. That incurred under the "Labour Rate Act," the 9 & 10 Vict. chap. 107, amounted to £4,766,789. By the former act, repayment was required for only half the amount expended under it. The same principle was subsequently applied to the expenditure under the Labour Rate Act also; and the whole expenditure for salaries and other costs of management was defrayed by a grant from the Treasury. The amounts chargeable on the baronies under these two Acts of Parliament were thus reduced to £238,000, and £2,231,000 respectively. By the Act 13 Vict. chap. xiv. these sums, together with £953,855, being that part of the amount advanced to the Poor Law Unions for the expenditure under the Temporary Relief Act, for which repayment has been demanded; and the sum of £300,000 advanced to the Unions to enable them to clear off' some debts; and a balance of £1,122,707 remaining unpaid of the loans for the erection of workhouses, were consolidated into annuities for various periods-in some cases extending to forty years; and were charged on the several unions and electoral divisions instead of the baronies. ment to the effective operation of the Poor Law. The average size of the Irish Unions was about three times as large as the corresponding divisions in England. It is impossible for any board of guardians to manage efficiently, yet economically, a district of hundreds of thousands of acres. Out of 130 Unions in Ireland in 1847, 107 contained up-wards of 100,000 acres; and of these, 25 contained upwards of 200,000. In Munster and Connaught, where there was the greatest amount of distress, and the least amount of local intelligence available for its relief, the Unions were much larger than in the more favoured provinces of Ulster and Lein-ster. But it was in Cormaught that the over-grown bulk of these districts attained its greatest extent. The Union of Ballina, which contained a smaller number of persons fit to undertake its management than most of the other Unions in Ireland, comprised a tract of upwards of 507,000 acres; and here, in the deserts of Erris, distress wore its most appalling form. From several of the most suffering localities of this immense district, the poor-house was more than forty miles distant.* The great extent of the Unions, which naturally led to large electoral divisions, had also another injurious effect. It not merely left unrelieved the * The size of the unions and electoral divisions has since been considerably reduced. A commission was appointed in the year 1848, to enquire what altera- tion might be beneficially made in the number and boundaries of the poor-law unions and electoral divisions in Ireland. The report of the commissioners, which 17 pauperism which existed, but it ultimately in-creased its amount. One object which it was sup-posed would be gained by the poor-law was, that the landlords would be induced to employ the labour-ers on their estates, in order to prevent them from seeking support from the work-house. Instead of having this effect, the pressure of the poor-rates in-terfered with the employment of labour, by lessening the capital of the employers, while the great ex-tent of the electoral divisions rendered the expect-ed stimulus ineffective. It was very discouraging to a landlord, after spending a large sum in wages, and successfully exerting himself to keep his own tenantry out of the poor-house, to find that his tax-ation was not perceptibly lessened; that the estates of the non-resident proprietors in the same elec toral division, on which nothing had been expended, was completed in Eighth-month, 1850, recommended an increase of 51 unions and 1478 electoral divisions, viz.:- This arrangement has not yet been fully carried into effect, but several new unions and electoral divisions have been formed in accordance with it; so that the present number of electoral divisions amounts to 3439, constituting 163 unions. Of these, there are only nine which exceed 200,000 acres. When the changes recommended by the commissioners are completed, the largest Union, that of Kenmare, will be 198,145 acres; and the largest electoral division, that of Glenco, in the union of Belmullet, 27,218 acres; the average size of the unions being 114,963 acres, and of the electoral divisions 5,908 acres. 18 and which were rated on no higher scale than his, had sent in their swarm of paupers to devour the hard earnings of his self-denying industry. The restrictions which had previously existed on the importation of foreign grain had evidently an important influence on the condition of the people of Ireland. The natural laws which the All-wise Creator has impressed on human society, render us dependent on each other for the various wants of life. This dependance appears to apply in the case of nations as well as individuals. It is a wise and benevolent arrangement of Providence, that different countries should yield different valu-able products; and one of the effects apparently intended by this variety of production, arising from the variety of soil and climate, is the promotion of that friendly intercourse and exchange of commo-dities by which both parties are benefited. This intercourse tends to make nation better acquainted with nation, to remove prejudices, to counteract the disposition for war, and to bind together in one family the whole brotherhood of man. If the trade in corn had been free, and if the almost exclusive possession of the English market had not held out peculiar inducements for the culti-vation of wheat, we may presume that the attention of Irish farmers and landholders would have been given to other crops for which the soil and climate appear more peculiarly suited. Wheat would still have been grown, but the principal objects of the 19 farmer's attention would have been oats, barley, green crops and flax; and even more care than heretofore would have been devoted to the rearing and fattening of cattle. The result would proba-bly have been the importation of wheat for the middle and upper classes; and of Indian corn for the use of the poor, and for the feeding of stock; while oats, barley, cattle, and flax, both raw and manufactured, would have been exported. A more extended commerce must consequently have existed with foreign countries. The price of food being allowed to sink to its natural level, would have placed bread and the other cereal products within the reach of a larger class of the people. The lower classes, being thrown less exclusively on the potato for support, would have consumed more oatmeal, and have learned the use of Indian corn; and for the distribution of these various articles of food, a larger number of dealers and a greater amount of internal trade would have been requisite. The want of a previously existing import trade in corn increased the difficulties of obtaining sup-plies from foreign countries. The restrictions were relaxed in the summer of 1846, and ceased entirely in the early part of 1847; but the effects they had produced could not be immediately removed. They had prevented the natural growth of trade, and a fully developed commerce could not at once be brought into perfect action. As soon as the B2 20 demand for foreign supplies became urgent, a sud-den and general advance of freights took place. Vessels could not be obtained for less than double, and sometimes treble the ordinary rates. The difficulty and expense of importing food was thus greatly increased. "We are unable," wrote a valued American correspondent, in Second-month, 1847, "to send you all the food you require, for want of vessels. It is heart-rending to think that while our granaries are bursting with food, your poor people are starving." Under any circumstances, it is pro-bable that the failure of an important crop would have produced a considerable advance of freights, in the endeavour to supply the deficiency; but the advance would in all probability have been compa-ratively small, if a foreign trade in corn had already existed, and if the people of Ireland had been less dependant on the potato for support. After a short time, the high freights produced their natural effect of attracting large quantities of shipping to the con-veyance of corn, so that freights fell even below their former rates. The great increase in the consumption of corn required a larger amount of grinding power than had been previously in use. This produced a difficulty in some places, although the Govern-ment mills in England, and many mills in Ireland which had not been worked for a long time before, were employed for this purpose. The want of local dealers in food was also seriously felt in. many 21 parts of the country; it increased the necessity of public relief, and rendered the exertions for relief less effective, than if this natural machinery for the distribution of food had already existed. The Indian meal imported was also at first much less useful than it would have been, if the people had been previously accustomed to it, and had known how to cook it. Its excellence as food depends greatly upon the manner in which it is prepared; and the people, especially in the west districts, had little experience in the preparation of any food except the potato; and were unable to cook the Indian meal so as to render it either as wholesome or as palatable as it might have been. Hence they conceived a prejudice against it, as an inferior and unwholesome kind of food. Indian meal is used by all classes in the United States, and in this country its consumption has greatly in-creased already; it is therefore reasonable to sup-pose that the Irish would not have neglected it, if they had had opportunities, under ordinary cir-cumstances, of becoming gradually acquainted with its value. It could not have displaced the potato in the poorer districts of the west or south, where, from the difficulty of obtaining employment, and the absence of money wages, the peasantry for the most part lived on the produce of their own potato gardens; but it would probably have been used, to some extent, at least by the poor in those parts of 22 the country where the people were supported by wages paid in money. When the first and more partial failure of the po-tato occurred in 1845, the Government introduced a large supply of Indian corn. This was done with as little publicity as possible, in order not to dis-turb the usual course of trade. The corn was distributed through the Commissariat depots in various parts of the country. Such an attempt to introduce a new and cheap substitute for the potato, was perhaps the best measure which could have been adopted in this emergency, to obviate the injurious consequences of preceding legislation. In consequence of remonstrances in parliament respecting this action of the Government, the Treasury minute of "August 31st, 1846," was is-sued. By this minute, Government interference was confined to the western parts of Ireland, where very little trade in corn for local consump-tion had as yet existed. This proceeding did not check the operations of the existing trade in other localities, but it doubtless had some effect in re-tarding the growth of a new one, in those very dis-tricts where it was most required. Any adminis-trative interference with the natural course of commerce produces an apparent necessity for its continuance. The original restrictions on the im-portation of corn led to the interfereace in 1845; and the interference in 1845 rendered some repeti-tion in 1846 almost unavoidable. 23 We have thus noticed some peculiarities in the condition of Ireland before the blight fell upon the potato, and have endeavoured to show their influ-ence in aggravating the consequent distress. A great part of the population were living in a state of extreme poverty. he laws relating to land were such as to discourage any general attempt at improvement. A large proportion of the land-lords were embarrassed, and in many instances they had ceased to reside on their property. The extent of land under the management of receivers ap-pointed bv the courts had increased to an alarming degree. From the poverty of the people living on potatoes grown in their own gardens, there were in many districts no retail dealers in food. Indian meal, which would have been an excellent substitute for the potato, had been so long systematically ex-cluded, that its use was unknown and its value dis-regarded. The poor-law contained no principle of expansion capable of meeting such a difficulty. Many of those who should have administered it were far away. The extent of the unions rendered the due administration of relief impracticable; while the poor-law taxation, by diminishing the funds applicable to the payment of labour, increased the amount of pauperism. Some of these circumstances appear to us to have been among the most influential causes of that depressed condition of the Irish peasantry, which forced so many of them to depend on the potato 24 alone for their subsistence; and this exclusive dependance on a single article of food greatly aggravated the consequences of the fearful blight of the potato; so that, while other countries expe-rienced the mitigated evils of a scarcity, we had to endure the intense sufferings of a famine. CHAPTER II FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP- FORMATION AND ARRANGEMENTS OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. PARTIAL failures of the potato, and severe conse-quent distress in particular localities, have been of frequent occurrence in Ireland. The summer months were generally a time of considerable trial and privation to the peasantry; as the old potatoes were frequently exhausted before the new crop had come in, and the demand for agri-cultural labour at that season was usually slack. Any partial failure of the crop increased this dis-tress; and on account of the poverty of the con-sumers, and the costliness of the carriage of so bulky an article, the abundance in one part could rarely be made available to supply the deficiency in another. On three occasions prior to 1845, the distress thus caused amounted to famine. In the year 1739, a severe and early frost destroyed the potatoes in the ground, and very great suffering ensued. Considerable neglect of tillage appears to have taken place in the following spring, and the distress was thus prolonged for two years. Fever and dysentery, the invariable effects of famine, succeeded, and raged with unusual vio- 26 lence in 1741. These diseases were peculiarly fatal, not only to the peasantry but also to the wealthier classes, and many persons of high social position were carried off by them. Considerable efforts were made in Ireland to alleviate the dis-tress. A large quantity of corn was imported from America, and soup kitchens were established throughout the country. It does not appear that this famine obtained much notice in Great Britain, or in any foreign country. Another period of distress occurred in 1822. The preceding season had been unusually wet, and the potatoes rotted after they had been stored in the pits. The loss was, therefore, not ascertained until the season was considerably advanced. The distress was very severely felt in all the western counties of Minister and Connaught. Fever soon appeared, and aggravated the sufferings of the people. The amount of distress produced extraor-dinary exertions to alleviate it. A committee was formed in Dublin, and sat at the Mansion House. The Lord Lieutenant placed at their disposal a con-siderable sum, which under former acts of parlia-ment had been left in his hands, and they received upwards of £31,000 in subscriptions. Central com-mittees were formed in the principal towns, and sub-committees in the several parishes of the distressed districts; and great exertions were made in the dis-tribution of relief. Parliament voted £300,000 for public works and other relief purposes, and also 27 appropriated £15,000 to facilitate emigration from the south of Ireland to the Cape of Good Hope. The announcement of this visitation excited much sympathy in England. A committee was formed in London, and subscriptions to the amount of £310,000 were raised. Of this sum, about £44,000 was collected in Ireland. A plentiful harvest ren-dered a continuance of their labours unnecessary, and it was then found that they had a balance in hands amounting to £77,074. This sum was sub-sequently granted to various societies, which had been established with a view to promote the permanent improvement of the people of Ireland.* In 1831, violent storms and heavy rains brought 28 upon the west of Ireland another failure of tbe potato, with its usual accompaniments of famine and pestilence. The distress principally affected the coasts of Galway, Mayo, and Donegal; but it was partially felt in other districts. On this occa-sion the potato had failed while in the ground, and the pressure was felt as early as the First-month of 1832, The English public, with ready sympathy, again came forward, and two committees were form-ed in London. The entire amount of subscriptions which these committees collected was £74,410. In Dublin, two committees were also organized; one at the Mansion-house, the other in Sackville-street. Their united collections amounted to upwards of 29 £30,000. Government also advanced £40,000, part of which was expended on public works, and part in the actual distribution of food. On this occasion also a plentiful harvest followed, and the distress was immediately relieved.* On several other occasions, subsequently to 1831, the Government found it necessary to advance money for the relief of distress. The aggregate amount of these advances was not very great, and public attention was not in any particular way attracted to the subject.+ The first appearance of the fatal blight on the 30 potato, which has since been so severely felt, was in the year 1845. Late in the autumn of that year, it was found that the potatoes were rotting. The early crop had been saved, but throughout the whole country a considerable portion of the late crop was lost. Much apprehension was excited, and a Government commission was appointed to investigate the nature and origin of the disease; but all their enquiries proved unsuccessful, and its causes continue to the present time to elude human research. The distress, however, was not very great. The yield had been unusually plentiful, so that the portion that remained was considerable. The grain crop had also been abundant. Strong hopes were entertained that the scarcity would be followed, as on other occasions, by a year of plenty. In the summer of 1846, the potatoes looked re-markably well, and there appeared every prospect of an abundant harvest, when it pleased an over-ruling Providence that almost the whole crop should be destroyed in one week. The failure of the potato was not the only loss. The wheat was barely an average crop, and the barley and oats were deficient. The money value of the loss in potatoes and oats was computed by the Government to amount to sixteen millions sterling. The announcement of this dreadful calamity did not at first produce the alarm which might have been expected. The idea of millions being reduced to starvation was too great to be quickly realised. Many believed 31 that the accounts of the failure were exaggerated, while others who knew that the crop was lost, per-suaded themselves that the consequences would not be so very serious. It was not long before all such doubts and hopes were dispelled. The ac-counts which came in from every part of the country gave full proof of the awful calamity of impending famine. A deep sympathy was aroused, and great anxiety prevailed to do something to relieve the rapidly increasing distress. As far back as the beginning of 1846, nearly £14,000 had been subscribed at Calcutta, when the intelligence of the partial failure of 1845 had reached India. The distribution of this sum, under the name of the Indian Relief Fund, commenced on the 24th of Fourth-month, 1846, and continued during the remainder of the year. The earliest association formed in consequence of the failure of 1846, was the Irish Relief Association, whose meetings were held in Upper Sackville-street. This society, whose exertions in the famine of 1831 have been already noticed, was reorganised on the 2nd of Ninth-month, 1846. The subscriptions re-ceived by them exceeded £42,000. The General Central Relief Committee, over which the Marquis of Kildare presided, was formed on the 29th of Twelfth-month. The contributions placed under their care amounted to upwards of £83,000, in-cluding a grant of £20,000 made to them by the British Relief Association. In the distressed dis- 32 tricts Government offered to double the local sub-scriptions; and although many of the gentry, and others who could afford to do so, had liberally subscribed in the spring of 1846 to relieve the distress which then existed, they again responded with much liberality to the appeal made in the au-tumn of the same year. It is impossible to estimate the sacrifices and even privations, to which many of every class in Ireland cheerfully submitted, in their efforts to relieve the distress which surrounded them. In England, when the extent of the calamity was ascertained, a great and general sympathy was excited. The British Association for the relief of the extreme distress in Ireland and Scotland, was formed in First-month, 1847. The total amount of subscriptions received by them exceeded £470,000. Ladies also formed associations in different parts of Great Britain, some for supplying clothing, and some for promoting industrial occupations amongst the female peasantry. Before any committee was form-ed, as well as for a long time after, a large amount of private contribution was poured into every part of the country, chiefly through the agency of the clergy of the Established Church. It is not our province to record the noble self-denial shown in individual cases, or to narrate the unwearied exertions of the different associations in collecting subscriptions and distributing relief; yet we cannot avoid this passing allusion to these exertions, whilst relating our own part in the transactions of that eventful period, and 33 rendering an account of the execution of the trust confided to us. On the 13th of Eleventh-month, 1846, a meeting of members of the Society of Friends was convened in Dublin, to consider what steps were proper for them to take, and whether it was better for them to form a separate organisation, or to unite in a gene-ral effort. They determined on the former course, and agreed to form a Central Relief Committee in Dublin. The objects of this Committee were to raise a fund by subscriptions, which they might dis-tribute where relief was particularly needed; and to obtain authentic information respecting the cha-racter of the distress in the different localities, in order that the best means might be devised for its alleviation. For this purpose, twenty-one persons were then named, with power to add to their num-ber; to fill up vacancies from time to time, should they occur ; and to seek the co-operation of mem-bers of the Society of Friends in other parts, who should be associated as corresponding members, and should deliberate and act jointly with them as occasion might arise. In the selection of this Committee, care was taken to include some whose commercial pursuits had brought them into inter-course with distant parts of the country; for great difficulty occurred at the very outset, as to the agency by which relief could be administered in re-mote districts, or satisfactory information obtained.* See Appendix I. page 129, for names of members of Committees. C 34 At the first sitting of the Committee a letter from London was read, on behalf of a number of Friends in England, signifying their desire to raise a subscription for the relief of the existing distress; and wishing to know what steps we had taken. The reply informed them of the ap-pointment of our Committee, and that a subscrip-tion had been commenced; and stated the serious difficulties which would attend the undertaking on which we were entering, and which were likely to increase in proportion to the increase of the funds which might be entrusted to us. We also alluded to the gloomy prospects of the country, and the diffi-culty of administering relief, especially in remote districts; referred to the necessity of personal inspec-tion into the wants of these districts, by means of some confidential travelling agency; and concluded by requesting their advice and assistance. The re-sult of this correspondence was the formation of the Committee of Friends in London, by whose exer-tions subscriptions were raised to the amount of £42,905 12s., a large portion of which was subse-quently placed in our hands, as contributions to the fund under our care.* Our first act was the issuing of an address to the members of the Society of Friends in Ireland, informing them of the formation of our Committee, and soliciting subscriptions. This address was ex- * See Appendix II, page 135, for further particulars respecting London Committee. 35 tensively circulated in England also, and was sub-sequently reprinted in America.* The principles of operation which it was agreed to adopt were simple. It was determined to exer-cise great caution in furnishing gratuitous supplies of food; to endeavour to call forth and assist local exertions, wherever there existed a possibility of such efforts being made; and to seek to economise the consumption of bread-stuffs, by promoting the establishment of soup shops. For this purpose, it was agreed to supply boilers freely where they were wanted, and to make grants of money in aid. It was considered right to confine our exertions to those cases for which sufficient provision had not been made by Government, or which did not pro-perly come under its care, and which had not been relieved by the operations of other associations. It was resolved that the strictest injunctions should be given to those entrusted with grants, that no preference should be made in the distribution of relief, on the ground of religious profession; and there is reason to believe that the cases were few in which this condition was not faithfully observed. To carry these principles into execution, sub-committees were formed; one to plan and conduct a soup-kitchen; and another to undertake the charge and distribution of the contributions of clothing which were consigned to our care. For the con- See Appendix I.page 131, for this Address. c2 36 ducting of the general business, a sub-committee of seven was appointed, which was directed to sit at least three times in every week, and, if necessary, to meet daily; it was required to keep regular mi-nutes of its proceedings; to receive all applications for assistance, and to report thereon to the general weekly meetings of the Committee. It was also directed to prepare queries, to be answered by per-sons applying for assistance; and it was empowered to summon special meetings of the general Com-mittee, whenever it appeared requisite to do so. The Central Committee, at its appointment, had been recommended to seek the assistance of corres-ponding members in other parts of the country. Application was accordingly made to several per-sons in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, and replies were received stating their general and cordial con-currence. The difficulty of forming a satisfactory judgment respecting the applications for aid from many of the more remote districts, was felt from the com-mencement. This difficulty arose from our insuffi-cient acquaintance with the peculiar circumstances of each locality, and also from the want of means to obtain information respecting the applicants themselves. These considerations induced us, at the suggestion of the corresponding members resi-dent in Cork, to seek the assistance of an auxiliary committee in that city. Similar committees were appointed in the course of a few days, in the towns 37 of Waterford, Limerick, and Clonmel. These com-mittees were distinct from the associations which in all these towns were engaged in measures of local relief. Their business was to investigate and decide on all applications for assistance within cer-tain prescribed districts. This arrangement was found to work well. Although the appointment of auxiliary com-mittees in a great measure relieved the Central Committee of the charge of an entire province, and that not the least in point of destitution, the busi-ness which came before us increased very soon to such a degree, as to render some additional arrange-ments imperative. A sub-committee of twelve was therefore appointed, four of whom were speci-ally nominated for each of the three remaining provinces, although each member was qualified to act on all sub-committees he might attend. One member of each committee was appointed as its secretary, and was expected, along with two other members, to attend regularly at its meetings. The fourth member was named to supply the temporary absence of any of the other three. The numerous letters which daily arrived were opened and arranged by a member of the Com-mittee, who kindly volunteered his services for this important duty, and whose whole time was devoted to this and other office arrangements. He was assisted by a paid secretary and the necessary staff of clerks. CHAPTER III SOURCES OF INFORMATION. IT Has been already observed that some of the earli-est and most perplexing questions that presented themselves, were how to obtain trustworthy infor-mation as to the real state of the more remote districts, and through what agency to open suitable channels for relief. From this difficulty we were in part relieved, by finding that William Forster of Norwich intended to come to this country, be-lieving it to be his duty to undertake a journey through the most distressed districts, with the view of obtaining accurate information respecting the nature and amount of destitution, and of de-vising the best means of affording relief. The distressed condition of Ireland had attracted Wil-liam Forster's attention before he heard of the formation of our Committee, and he had confer-red with his friends in London on the subject, who fully united in his views, and encouraged him to prosecute the proposed journey. He set out on the 30th of Eleventh-month 1846, and was accompanied in different parts of his route by 39 some friends from England and of this country, with whom he visited the counties of Roscommon, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Longford, and Gavan. Most of these counties were closely inspected, and especial attention was paid to the wild and desolate parts of each. It was not until the 14th of Fourth-month, 1847, that he completed this engagement; which had been pro-longed greatly beyond the expectations at first entertained by himself and his friends; and which he prosecuted in the depth of a very inclement winter, deprived of many of the comforts to which he was accustomed, and his feelings often painfully excited by witnessing so much misery beyond his power to relieve. His examination disclosed a state of destitution and suffering far exceeding that which had been at first supposed. The Committee believe that his visit was very useful in many respects. He stimu-lated the upper classes in the endeavour to relieve the distress around them. He encouraged those with whom he had intercourse, by the information he was able to give respecting the exertions made in other parts of the country, and by shewing them that he himself sympathized with the difficulties of their position and with the sufferings of the poor. He also afforded most important help to our Com-mittee, by opening a correspondence with indi-viduals and local bodies in those remote districts; and thus furnished us with many efficient and 40 trustworthy agents for the distribution of the funds confided to us, in places far removed from the resi-dence of any member of our own religious profes-sion.* Previously to his leaving Dublin, William Forster had been requested to undertake the immediate distribution of relief, by advances of money in all cases in the course of his journey, in which there appeared to him a propriety in doing so. This dis-cretion he from time to time exercised. In Third-month, 1847, William Bennett of London announced to us his intention to distri-bute seeds for green crops, (purchased by his own and some private contributions,) among the small farmers in the more remote parts of Ireland. This proceeding appeared to us to be of questionable advantage at that particular time. An opinion was then widely prevalent that the Government in-tended giving seed-corn; and it was feared that the appearance of an Englishman engaged in the distribution of seeds would go far to confirm this expectation, and thus check the tenants in any at-tempts to procure seed by their own exertions, and render the landlords less inclined to assist them in procuring it. William Bennett's exertions were marked with caution and prudence, and there is good reason to believe that his labours were bene-ficial. It will be seen that the Committee adopted * See Appendix III. page 145, for extracts from the reports of some of those who accompanied William Forster. 41 the same mode of relief at a later period of the season. He has published an account of his jour-ney under the title of "Six Weeks in Ireland."* In Second-month, 1847, Edmund Richards of Gloucester, and George Hancock, of Liverpool, volunteered their services to superintend the de-livery of provisions shipped at Liverpool, in the steamers "Albert" and "Scourge" for various ports of the west of Ireland, and they sailed in these ves-sels in the capacity of super-cargo. Edmund Rich-ards afterwards proceeded on a tour of inspection, into some districts which had partaken less than many others of the immediate attention of our Com-mittee. He was accompanied by a member of the Limerick auxiliary committee, and visited several parts of Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork.+ In the autumn of the same year, James H. Tuke of York, who had during the previous winter been one of the companions of William Forster, under-took another journey through Connaught. The results of his observations, together with an ac-count of a second visit paid to Erris in the begin-ning of 1848, were communicated to this Commit-tee, and have been since published under the title of "A Yisit to Connaught in 1847."++ Additional information was also obtained by the * See Appendix III. page 160, for some extracts from this work. + See Appendix III. page 169, for some extracts from their letters. ++ See Appendix III. page 204, for some extracts from this work. 42 personal enquiries of members of the central, and of the auxiliary committees. In addition to the companions who travelled with William Forster, two members of the central committee, accom-panied by a friend from England, made a tour of inspection in Third-month, 1847, through a large part of Gal way and Mayo. Another friend deputed by our Committee visited a great portion of the afflicted district of Erris in the Fifth-month of the same year, for the purpose of making enquiries respecting certain alleged mis-appropri-ations of our grants, and also to distribute a quan-tity of provisions belonging to the Committee, which were stored at Belmullet. This visit was extended to the island of Achill and the western coast as far south as Clifden. The same person again visited Erris in the spring of the following year. Besides these, the auxiliary committees ap-pointed several deputations, for the purpose of personally inspecting the districts of the south and south-west committed to their care.* For the various objects of our association, we obtained the co-operation of benevolent persons in all parts of the country, and were thus brought into communication with men of all ranks and all classes, whether soliciting assistance on behalf of the poor around them, or engaged in similar en- * See Appendix III. pages 173, 194, and 208, for extracts from the letters and reports of these persons. 43 deavours to alleviate the prevalent distress. In carrying out the various measures of relief, it was necessary to keep up a very extensive correspond-ence. We do not pretend to have attained perfect-accuracy of information, yet we believe that the measures adopted for this purpose have not been unsuccessful; and that few private individuals have possessed more authentic and varied means for arriving at a correct opinion of the general condition of the country. 44 CHAPTER IV. SOURCES OF FUNDS FOR RELIEF. WHEN the real extent of the failure of the potato crop became known, there arose a deep feeling of sympathy, not only in Great Britain, but through-out a great part of the civilized world. The people of the most distant countries appeared anxious to prove the sincerity of their commisera-tion by the extent of their liberality. The differ-ences of country, race, religion, and language seemed to be forgotten in the desire to relieve suffering humanity. At home, the exertions both public and private to alleviate the distress were on a gigantic scale. Advances amounting to nearly ten millions were made by parliament.* Local and Central Relief Associations distributed sums which could not have * We have been favored by Sir C. E. Trevelyan with the following account of monies advanced from the Treasury for various purposes connected with the relief of distress in Ireland:- fallen far short of a million and a half.* Contri-butions were sent in small sums from all parts to various persons, of which no returns can be made; neither is it possible to estimate the value of the exertions of many Irish families of every class who stretched to the utmost their means, and denied themselves their usual comforts, that they might be able to relieve some of their destitute neigh- bours. There were also the savings sent home by the Irish emigrants in America, to assist other members of their families, or to enable them to emigrate. These sums were estimated by the late Jacob Harvey, from inquiries made by him in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, to amount in tained, were as given below; but there was unquestionably a very large amount of contributions which did not come under public notice:- Indian Relief Fund National Club, London Wesleyan Methodist Relief Fund, London Irish Evangelical Society, London Baptists' Relief Fund, London Ladies' Irish Clothing Society, London Less received from British Association, &c. Ladies' Relief Association for Ireland Less received from Irish Relief Association and for sales of manufactures Ladies' Industrial Society for encouragement of labour among the peasantry Less received from Irish Relief Association 47 1847 to £200,000. They have since been steadily increasing from year to year, until during the year 1851 they probably exceeded £1,000,000. These remarkable remittances, from those who depend on their daily labour for their daily food, satisfac-torily show that, under favourable circumstances, the Irish peasantry are influenced by the same mo-tives to economy and foresight which influence the rest of mankind.* Of the general contributions raised for the relief of distress, the share which it became our duty to distribute was indeed large. The means placed at our disposal, including both money and food, amounted to nearly £200,000. Of this sum, £4,826 16s. 6d. was received from members of the Society of Friends in Ireland, indepen-dently of their local contributions; and £37,398 5s. 1ld. from the Committee of Friends in Lon-don. Other donors in England and Ireland, not members of the Society of Friends, entrusted their bounty to us to the amount of £4,065 6s, 8d+ But the chief source whence the means at our disposal were derived, was the munificent bounty of the citizens of the United States. The supplies sent from America to Ireland were on a scale unpa- * The amount of these remittances is estimated in the return presented to Par-liament, at £990,8] 1 for the year 1851, but it seems probable that it exceeded that sum, as many of the more private means of sending money would be likely to escape the government investigation.-See Appendix IX. page 356, for further particulars respecting Emigration and Remittances made by emigrants. +See Appendix XXIX. page 474, for list of contributions. 48 ralleled in history. It is our earnest trust that the effects of such generosity may not terminate with the relief which it afforded to tens of thousands; but that the promptitude with which that aid, almost unasked, was given, the unwearied zeal with which the subscriptions were collected and for-warded, and the warm sympathy which accompa-nied these generous deeds, will be held in grateful remembrance, and form a lasting bond of friendship and esteem between the United Kingdom and the great Republic of the West. On the 3rd of Twelfth-month, 1846, a few copies of the address of this Committee to the Society of Friends in Ireland, announcing its formation and object, were for-warded with some private letters to the late Jacob Harvey of New York. Without further solicitation, a letter, dated 31st of the same month, brought the cheering tidings that a subscription had been commenced among the members of our religious body in Philadelphia, and it enclosed £500 as their first donation. Although the members of our religious Society in America, having received the earliest authentic intelligence of the distressed condition of Ireland, were the first to forward contributions for its relief, yet a general feeling of sympathy was almost im-mediately excited throughout the Union. A meet-ing of the citizens of Philadelphia, over which the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presided, was held on the 28th of First-month, 1847, to devise 49 means for the collection of funds to relieve Irish distress. A great public meeting, over which the Vice-President of the United States presided, was held on the 9th of Second-month at Washington. A considerable sum was subscribed, and it was re-commended that meetings should be held in every city, town, and village throughout the Union, so that a large national subscription might be raised. Similar meetings in all parts of the country follow-ed in quick succession.* All through the States an intense interest and a noble generosity were shewn. The railroads carried, free of charge, all packages marked "Ireland." Public carriers undertook the gratuitous delivery of any package intended for the relief of the destitute Irish. Storage to any extent was offered on the same terms. Ships of war approached our shores, eagerly seeking not to destroy life but to preserve it; their guns being taken out in order to afford more room for stow-age. Subscriptions to a large amount were speed-ily collected, of which the sum of £15,976 18s. 2d. was entrusted to us, and cargo after cargo of pro-visions followed in rapid succession, until nearly one hundred separate shipments had arrived.+ The committee at New York made the most kind and considerate arrangements respecting the pay- * See Appendix V. page 216, for correspondence illustrative of American sympathy. +See Appendix VII. page 333, for schedule of shipments from America. I) 50 merit of freight. Their thoughtfulness was, how-ever, rendered unnecessary by the ready consent of our Government to pay the freight of all donations of food forwarded from America. The total amount of the American donations of food consigned to us was 9,911 tons, the value of which was about £133,847. 7s. 7d., including £33,017 5s. 7d.* for freight paid by the British Go-vernment. Very considerable donations of ready-made clothes came also from the same generous hands, but we do not possess the means of accu-rately determining the value of these consignments. While thus enumerating the sources whence the funds were supplied to us, for carrying on mea-sures of relief, we must not omit to notice the services of our various correspondents. The self-denial and exertions of many of the resident gen-try, and of the clergy of the Established Church, although they were themselves sorely pressed by the diminution of their incomes, were of great value; and they were seconded in their labours by the devoted zeal of their wives and daughters. Many of the Roman Catholic clergy also were very active in the discharge of their great and perilous duties; and some religious bodies of that per-suasion, where the means of co-operation existed, were among our most efficient agents. These * See Appendix VIII. page 347, for statement of freight paid by Government. 51 efforts, made to relieve the distress arising from this dreadful visitation, show how much benevo-lence exists when urgent need calls it forth; and we may be permitted to express the hope that the impression made by these good deeds will not pass away. CHAPTER V. MODE OF DISTRIBUTION. The effect of the destruction of the potato crop was first felt by the lowest class of the peasantry, who had depended on the conacre system for sub-sistence, and whose only means of support was gone when their crop failed. The next to feel the calamity were the poorer class of the tenantry who tilled small portions of ground. These men had, for the most part, small stocks of grain, and in some districts cattle, which in ordinary years enabled them to obtain some few comforts. The loss of the potato forced them to consume their corn, and their scanty supplies were soon exhaust-ed. The suffering in a short time extended beyond those who were directly supported by the potato. The wages given on the public works were barely sufficient to support life. Prices were so high, that those who were still able to maintain them-selves and their families, could not afford to spend 53 any money except on food. The small shopkeepers consequently lost their trade. The business of the wholesale dealer and merchant was diminished. The various branches of manufactures felt the want of demand; many of the work-people were dis-charged. Few houses were repaired or built, and masons, carpenters, and other tradesmen connected with building were left unemployed. The demand for clothes, notwithstanding the great want of them which was everywhere felt, decreased. Tailors, shoemakers, and other tradesmen of this class, ac-cordingly suffered. The gentry, whose rents were not paid, and who had poor-rates added to their other incumbrances, reduced their expenses, and em-ployed fewer servants and fewer labourers. Farm servants were among the first to suffer, and many of them endured extreme privation. All these classes did not suffer immediately, but became gra-dually affected, during the course of the year, as the destitution advanced. The country had sus-tained a great loss of property, and the shock was felt throughout all ranis, from the lowest to the highest. The first step adopted by us, to alleviate this widely-spreading destitution, was the establish-ment of a soup-shop in Dublin, both as a means of directly relieving the poor of this city, and as a model for similar establishments elsewhere. Premises were taken for the purpose in Charles-street, Upper Ormond-quay, and the institution 54 was opened under the care of a sub-committee, on the 23rd of First-month, 1847. Several of the committee attended in rotation, twice every week-day, to superintend the distribution. The soup was sold at one penny per quart; or, with a piece of bread, at three half-pence. Tickets were also sold at the same price to those who wished to distribute them gratuitously. In consequence of the prevalence of bowel-diseases, occasioned in a great degree by the use of unwholesome food, the sub-committee, in Third-month, introduced the use of cooked rice. Their report expresses their belief that considerable benefit was derived from its use. The quantity of soup sold averaged about 1,000 quarts per day. After the Temporary Relief Act came into operation, the demand gra-dually decreased, so that on the 22nd of Seventh-month, 1847, the sub-committee recommended that the establishment should be closed. This soup-shop appears to have accomplished, to a great degree, both the objects which were contemplated at its formation; for it not only afforded considerable relief to a large number of the poor of Dublin, but it was visited by many persons who were con-nected with similar establishments throughout the country. The total amount expended on this es-tablishment was £327 17s. 8d., of which £35 6s. was provided by a separate local subscription.* * See Appendix X., page 358, for particulars respecting soup-shop. 55 The distribution of relief throughout the rural districts was a far more difficult undertaking. The first object was to obtain the co-operation of suitable local agents. For this purpose a set of queries was prepared, to which answers were required from all. persons who applied for grants, to enable them to relieve the destitute in their respective loca-lities.* When the character of these applicants was not previously known to the Committee, enquiries were made before any grant was entrusted to them. If the information obtained proved satis-factory, we made, in the commencement of our proceedings, grants of small sums of money, ave-raging from ten to twenty pounds. In some cases grants were made absolutely to relieve urgent want; but, in the generality of instances, they were con-ditional upon local exertions. At the same time, assurances of future assistance were given, provid-ed the measures pursued were such as to obtain our concurrence. This system of small and fre-quent grants was adopted, although it involved a considerable amount of additional labour, because it appeared to hold out the fewest inducements to imposition, and because it afforded means of testing the efficiency and trustworthiness of the grantees. Wherever it appeared practicable, we tried to pro-cure the establishment of soup-shops, and for this purpose made several grants of boilers, and of sums * See Appendix XXVII., page 464, for these queries. 56 if money for their outfit. At first we were anxious to engage, as far as possible, the assistance of local committees; but the residents in the most distress-ed districts were so few and so scattered, that it soon appeared necessary, in the great majority of cases, to trust to individual correspondents. Many of these exerted themselves assiduously and zea-lously, for the distribution of relief to their dis-tressed neighbours; and their proceedings were in general as satisfactory as those of committees, and often more so. A very large proportion of grants was made to ladies, who were found to be our most efficient almoners. In Second-month, 1847, our attention was called by William Forster to the alarming increase of dysentery, and his information was confirmed by similar accounts from other quarters. It was accordingly determined to make grants of rice, and its distribution in a cooked state was strictly en-joined. This rule not only guarded against the rice being converted to improper uses, but prevented the injurious effect likely to arise from the con-sumption of raw or insufficiently dressed food. Printed directions for the cooking of rice were also widely circulated, and there is reason to be-lieve that these arrangements were of use. Still the destitution continued to increase. As the nature and extent of the calamity became bet-ter known, the sympathy for the sufferers and the anxiety to relieve them grew more intense. Early 57 in Second-month. 1847, the London Friends' Com-mittee urged upon us the necessity of a more liberal distribution than we had previously ventured to adopt, and announced their intention of shipping food to the distressed districts of the north-west and west. Almost immediately on the formation of our Committee, the subject of forwarding meal, or other articles of food, to some of the western ports, had been brought under consideration. After considerable discussion, it was decided that it was not desirable to make shipments of any of those articles in which merchants there usually dealt. We felt the propriety of leaving the supply of the market to private traders. But there were several articles of food, which, as their use was but little known in the remote districts of the west, could not be purchased on the spot, and which we were anxious to introduce. Rice was considered pecu-liarly important, because it was found to be an excellent corrective of the diseases which an un-wholesome vegetable diet had produced. There were, however, considerable difficulties in effecting the shipment proposed by our English friends. There was no regular communication by sailing vessels, to many parts of the western coast where it was desirable to establish depots. The naviga-tion was uncertain, and the necessity for an imme-diate supply imperative. These difficulties could be surmounted only by the use of steamers. On the representation of these circumstances by the 58 London Committee, the Government kindly granted the use of two steamers, one of which was char-tered for this particular purpose. Considerable quantities of food, consisting principally of peas, rice, Indian meal, biscuit, and American beef, were purchased, free of all commission, by our friends in Liverpool, and shipped in these vessels. Several boilers were also sent. The requisite funds, which amounted in all to upwards of £10,000, were sup-plied partly by subscriptions collected in Liverpool, and partly by remittances from the London Com-mittee. These vessels sailed from Liverpool in Second-month, 1847, under the care of George Hancock as super-cargo in the "Albert," and Edmund Richards in the "Scourge," and delivered their cargoes at Dunfanaghy, Belmullet, Westport, Clifden, and other ports on the west coast of Ire-land. These shipments appeared necessary, as many of the articles sent could not be procured at any price in the remote districts in which they were required; and could not have been sent by land without great expense, and considerable danger of pillage. Yet much loss and waste were incurred from want of proper stores and suitable agents. A few of the boilers fell into improper hands; and some of the food, through the inefficiency of those in whose care it had been placed, remained for a considerable time undistributed.* * See Appendix III., page 169, for extracts from letters of G. Hancock and E. Richards, and Appendix XI., p. 380, for statement of provisions shipped from Liverpool . 59 Most afflicting accounts of suffering among artisans and others of that position in society now reached us: and besides the natural progress of the cala-mity, other circumstances occurred which greatly increased our labours. In Third-month, 1847, the numbers employed on the public works had reached the vast amount of 734,000; representing, on a moderate estimate, about three millions of persons. The evils of this system had become so apparent, that its cessation was imperative. Accordingly, early in the session of 1847, the Temporary Relief Act (10 Vict. chap. 7) was passed. By this act, which ceased on the 30th of Ninth-month of the same year, all the destitute, of whatever class, were to receive daily rations, without any labour being required in return. The machinery which it em-ployed consisted of a relief committee for each electoral division; a finance committee, and a Go-vernment inspecting officer for each union ; and a Board of Commissioners in Dublin. The relief committees included the local magistrates, the poor law guardians, the three highest rate-payers, and one clergyman of each persuasion. The finance committees were composed of from two to four gentlemen, carefully selected for their character, intelligence, and knowledge of business; and were intended to control the expenditure in each union. The funds were supplied from the Treasury, by loans advanced on the security of rates, and by grants in aid of rates, and of local subscriptions. 60 The relief committees were to prepare lists of the destitute in each electoral division: these lists, when approved by the finance committee, were to be transmitted to the Commissioners in Dublin; the inspecting officer was to certify that the board of guardians had passed a resolution to make the rate upon which it was proposed to secure the loan; and that they were, to the best of his belief, proceeding with all possible despatch to make and levy such rate. The money was then to be ad-vanced by the Treasury to the finance committee, by whom it was to be distributed to the several electoral divisions of the union. In order to bring this measure into operation, it became necessary gradually to discontinue the public works. The Government therefore announced that, on the 20th of Third-month, 1847, a reduction of twenty per cent of the people employed on these works would be made; and that this reduction would be gra-dually continued, until the new system of relief could be carried fully into effect.* The influence of these reductions immediately appeared in the greatly increased number of appli-cations for relief which poured in from all sides, and which called for a larger number of grants, and a more liberal distribution of the funds uinder our care than at any other period. The prospect of a starving host of able-bodied * See "The Irish Crisis," by Sir C. E, Trevelyan, pages 42 and 43. men being thrown upon the country without legal means of relief, and the strong probability that some time must elapse before the new measure could be brought into operation, excited general alarm, and filled us with deep anxiety. A prompt and comprehensive system of relief appeared to be required during this period of transition. In the hope of mitigating the evils which we feared would arise, circulars were addressed to the Government inspecting officers of the most distressed unions, asking for a statement of the population in each electoral division, with an estimate of the numbers requiring relief, and of the probable cost at which such relief could be supplied for a fortnight. The Relief Commissioners, with their uniform kindness, directed their secretary to address a letter to each inspecting officer, calling attention to our inquiries, and requesting that the desired information might be supplied with as little delay as possible. At the same time, we stated to the Commissioners our willingness to expend a considerable sum in aid of local measures of relief, suggesting that Govern-ment should make advances for the same object to at least an equal amount. The Commissioners, however, did not feel themselves at liberty to adopt our suggestion; and the returns which we obtained from the inspecting officers exhibited such an amount of destitution, that it was hopeless, with the means at our disposal, to attempt any general system of relief. A second circular to the inspect- ing officers was accordingly issued, informing them that we felt ourselves obliged, though reluctantly, to relinquish our original design.* The difficulty and importance of the crisis induced the Relief Com-mittee of Friends in London to depute some of their number to join in our deliberations, and several of our country members also attended the meetings of our Committee. These Friends fully concurred in our opinion, that the period of transition was likely to be one of extreme severity; and strongly recommended the adoption, as far as lay in our power, of prompt, energetic, and liberal measures of relief. We were pleased to find that the views of our friends coincided with our own, as we had already in the previous month addressed a circular to our grantees, urging them to increased exer-tion, and promising to assist them by renewed grants.+ Grants in aid of the exertions of our correspon-dents were made at this period, to an amount con-siderably exceeding any former distribution. For several weeks they averaged more than two hun-dred and fifty in number, and upwards of £4000 in value per week. Such a distribution would soon have exhausted the means at our disposal, were it not for the opportune arrival of the American con- * See Appendix XII., page 362, for copies of these circulars, and correspon-dence with the Relief Commissioners. + See Appendix XII., page 361, for copy of this circular, and page 367 for copy of minute adopted by Central Committee while attended by this deputation. tributions. On the 10th of Fourth-month, 1847, the "Victor" arrived at Cork from New York, with a cargo consisting chiefly of Indian meal. Other vessels speedily followed, and by the beginning of Fifth-month it was estimated that shipments of pro-visions, in about twenty vessels, and in aggregate quantity equal to about 30,000 barrels of corn meal, had arrived, or were on their way. Many other articles of food, together with several pack-ages of clothing, were also included in these ship-ments. These munificent donations were indeed most timely. The entire amount of contributions which we had received from the commencement of our operations to the 1st of Fifth-month, was about £65,000.* Of this sum, about £40,000 had been expended, and the balance, at the rate of distribution which it became necessary to adopt, would not have lasted beyond the following two months. Our means would thus have failed in the months immediately preceding the harvest, a period of the year which has always been peculiarly trying to the Irish labourer.+ It has been already stated that the Government paid the expenses of freight of all these sup-plies. With regard to storage and transmission, they acted with equal liberality. The supplies, * This amount includes the contributions consigned to our care by the Londoa Friends' Committee, and some of the early contributions received from America. + See Appendix XXVIII., page 467, for statement of grants, shewing the progress of distribution from week to week. on their arrival, were transferred to the Commis-sariat, and placed in their depots, and we were cre-dited with the value of the food, at the current market-price of the port where the transfer took place. The Commissariat were then bound to honor our drafts on any of their stores, to the ag-gregate amount for which we were credited. The Government also offered to establish new depots, in any localities where we might desire them. This arrangement riot only saved considerable ex-pense in the carriage of the provisions, but ena-bled us to distribute them with much greater faci-lity and quickness than could otherwise have been attained. A great temptation to violence was also removed, which would have existed, if it had been necessary to send provisions to distant places, through the midst of a starving population.* During Fourth and Fifth-months, the pressure continued with scarcely any abatement. The delays and difficulties which we had foreseen, in many impeded the exertions of the Relief Commis-sioners. Their judicious arrangements and steady determination, however, prevailed, and by the be-ginning of Sixth-month, 1847, the Temporary Re-lief Act was brought into effective operation, in almost all the districts in which it was required. As the Commissioners extended their operations, * See Appendix, XIII, page 369, for particulars of arrangement with the Commissariat. we gradually reduced our issues. At length in Seventh-month this system of relief reached its height. In that month, 3,020,712 persons received daily rations. Even under this gigantic system of relief, we found that our distribution could not be discontinued. There were several classes of persons whose claims we were bound to recognize, and in these cases relief was still afforded, though on a re-duced scale, and with considerable caution.* At an early period of the distress, fever and dysentery, the usual attendants of famine, had appeared, and continued very prevalent through-out the year. The fever was peculiarly fatal among the upper classes. Those who had exerted themselves in the relief of suffering were most exposed to contagion, and thus the best and most tried were lost at the time when their services ap-peared to be increasingly required. Others sank beneath their own unceasing though fruitless efforts to relieve the suffering which they daily witnessed. This mortality greatly increased the difficulty of procuring suitable administrators of * We find in the first annual report of the Irish Poor Law Commissioners (1848), page 4, the following statement of the progress of the working of the Temporary Relief Act, viz:-"The first return of the amount of daily rations, relates to the "8th of May, 1847, on which day the total rations issued appear to have been "826,325. The return of the 5th of June shews that rations were issued on "that day equivalent to the support of 2,729,684 persons: on the 3rd of July, to "3,020,712 persons : on the 1st of August, to 2,520,376 persons: on the 29th "of August to 1,105,800 persons; and on the 12th of September, to 505,984 "persons. At the end of September, all issues of rations under the Temporary "Relief Act finally ceased." B relief, and we had to deplore the loss of many of our most valued correspondents. The operations of the Relief Commissioners were limited by law to the end of Ninth-month, 1847, and for some time previously, preparations were made to bring that mode of relief to as gradual a close as was possible. The abundant harvest with which the country was blessed greatly facilitated these proceedings, by affording additional employ-ment, and by reducing the price of food. On the 15th of Eighth-month, relief was discontinued in fifty-five unions, and ceased altogether on the 12th of the following month. Most of the Commissariat depots being closed about this period, some change in our arrangements respecting the various bread stuffs which still con-tinued to arrive from America, was rendered neces-sary. During the closing period of their services, the Commissariat could only deliver meal and flour, while our grants consisted chiefly of rice. The arrangement with them thus ceased to answer our purposes, and we could not without great expense and delay transmit the food, which was arriving from America, to the various localities in Ireland where it, was wanted. We therefore thought it advisable, to make arrangements for the sale of such of the American supplies as had not already been transferred to the Commissariat; and a short time afterwards, that department, on closing their depots in Ireland, paid us for the balance of food then remaining in their hands. The sum realized from these sales amounted to £37,544 19s. 6d. The Temporary Relief Act was succeeded by the amended Poor Law. The most important pro-visions of this measure were those which em-powered the guardians to grant out-door relief to the sick and infirm, and the Commissioners to issue special orders for affording similar relief to the able-bodied. This poor-law was sufficiently com-prehensive to meet the emergency, but there seemed at the time little probability of its being soon brought into effective operation. In this, as well as in the first application of the Temporary Relief Act, we feared that the period of transition would be severe. Yet still we thought it right to withdraw as far as possible from gratuitous issues of food. Our funds were altogether inadequate for any general system of relief, to those classes for whose wants legal provision had been made; and we feared lest any temporary assistance might only retard the period, at which the provisions of the amended poor-law should be brought into efficient operation. It was accordingly determined to con-fine our grants, with some exceptions, to the relief of the sick, the convalescent, the old and infirm, and young children; and to reserve the greater part of our funds for the promotion of industrial objects. The classes just specified, as well as small land-holders, whom the quarter-acre clause ex- E 2 eluded from public relief,* received assistance from us throughout the winter, although with much caution. The severe distress which continued through the winter months induced us to consider the pro-priety of again commencing a more extended sys-tem of grants. Letters were accordingly written to many correspondents in various parts of the country, to ascertain their views as to the utility of such a course. On the 3rd of Second-month, 1848, after receiving the answers to these letters, the subject was discussed at a meeting of our Committee convened for this purpose, and it was de-cided that the re-organization of soup-shops would not be advisable.+ The exertions made during the past year were evidently too great to last. The sensitive had become habituated to the constant sight of mi-sery; the energetic were wearied by the sacri-fices which the distribution of relief involved; the sanguine were discouraged by the hopeless-ness of the task. Some who had administered relief had themselves become fit objects for re-ceiving it. The necessary attention to their pri-vate affairs-an attention which the general de-pression rendered still more imperative-deprived us of the services of others. Death had taken from us many of our best and most trusted assistants. * This refers to the provision in the Poor Law Amendment Act, prohibiting the granting of relief to any person holding more than a quarter of an acre of land. + See Appendix XIV, page 371, for extracts front some of these answers. We saw that the great difficulty with which we had from the first to contend, the want of suitable agents, would be indefinitely increased; and we felt that direct relief by a private association, cotempo-raneously with the amended poor-law, was not likely to be useful. It was therefore determined to reserve our funds for other purposes; and al-though we continued up to the harvest of that year, (1848), to recognise the claims of the suffering classes for whom the law had provided no adequate relief, our issues were made with great caution, and within very moderate limits. The total value of our issues for general relief, whether in money or food, was £151,114 ls. The distribution of this sum throughout the several counties was effected by upwards of 9,000 separate grants, of which the average amount was about £16 10s. About 3,600 of these grants were made at the central office in Dublin, and about 5,400 by the auxiliary committees in Cork, Limerick, Water-ford, and Clonmel. The amount of grants made to each province is as follows: Ulster, £21,332 I7s.4d.; Leinster, £9,576 17s. 6d ; Munster, £76,893 3s. ; Connaught, £43,311 3s. 2d.* Famine was not the only cause of the sufferings of the poor. The want of clothing, which in this climate is almost as severely felt as the want of food, greatly increased their distress. At all * See Appendix XXVIII., page 472, for statement of the value of grants made to each county in Ireland. 70 times the lowest class of the Irish peasantry were badly clothed; and as their food failed, they parted with every available article of clress in exchange for provisions. The affecting statements of the dis-tress thus occasioned excited a warm sympathy in England. Ladies formed associations in different towns, and exerted themselves zealously in making, preparing and collecting clothes. The bales con-taining these clothes were carried free by the railway companies in England, and by the Irish steam-packet companies. The quantities of ready-made garments transmitted to us soon became so large and valuable, as to require a sepa-rate management. On the 28th of First-month, 1847, a sub-committee, assisted by several women friends, was appointed to manage this important branch of relief. A friend placed at their dispo-sal a large warehouse free of charge, and they gave much time and attention to the necessary arrangements for receiving, sorting, and delivering the various garments which were entrusted to their care. On the 22nd of Fourth-month, the sub-com-mittee reported that almost all the clothes, as well those which they had received ready made, as those which they had purchased with the money remitted for this special object, had been distributed. As their funds were now almost exhausted, a grant of £500 was made to them, to enable them to continue their operations. It was found, however, in the course of Seventh-month, 1847, that the supplies and donations from England had so much fallen off, that the labour devolving on the sub-com-mittee was quite disproportionate to the good they were able to effect, and it was resolved on the 10th of that month to dissolve it and wind up its accounts. This committee received in all 210 packages of clothing, and £1,819 2s. ld. in money, in addition to £500 from the Central Com-mittee, as above mentioned, and some further sums, amounting to £145 8s. 9d., advanced to en-able them to close their accounts. They made 668 grants of clothing to the most distressed dis-tricts.* As winter approached, the want of clothing was again acutely felt. In the beginning of the year, those who were in distress had, as we have before observed, pawned or sold all the clothes they could spare. The scanty portion they retained gradually wore out, and they had no money to replace it. During the autumn urgent represen-tations were made to us on this subject. This mode of relief was not likely to interfere with the operation of the poor-law. It had rather a tendency to lessen pauperism, by affording facili-ties for obtaining employment, as without sufficient clothing a man was deterred from looking for work. The want of sufficient clothes tended also to pro-mote disease, both on account of the exposure to * See Appendix XV., page 376, for further particulars respecting first sub-committee for clothing. the severity of the weather, and because personal cleanliness was almost impossible when the same clothes were worn both day and night. The danger of disease was also much increased by the general prevalence of fever. This want of sub-stantial garments was not confined to the very lowest class; it prevailed to a considerable extent amongst those who had hitherto maintained them-selves in a more comfortable position. These considerations induced us again to allocate a por-tion of our funds for the purchase of clothing, and accordingly, in Eleventh-month, 1847, a new sub-committee for clothing was appointed, larger premises were taken, and the necessary assistants engaged. This committee were recommended to purchase the materials for clothing, where it was practicable to do so; so as to give employment to the poor of this country, especially in the western parts. It was also thought that they should con-fine their attention principally to flannels, grey calicoes, blue prints, corduroys, guernsey shirts, bed-rugs, cotton shirts, and leather for shoes. The materials were made up and distributed under the superintendence of benevolent persons in the country. It was required, where it was possible, that a portion of the value of the clothing should be repaid out of the earnings of the recipients. For these purposes, the sum of £6,333 2s, 6d. was advanced; of which £1,377 6s. ld, was repaid, leaving the sum of £4,955 16s. 5d. expended by this committee. The grants of clothing were chiefly made during the first four months of 1848, and were 612 in number. They were distributed through every county in Ireland, as was also those of the first sub-committee for clothing, and the grants for general relief. The aggregate value probably exceeded £7,500, including several pack-ages of old and new clothes received from America.* There were also other sums advanced for the same purpose through the Cork and Waterford auxiliary committees, and through a ladies associa-tion in Dublin, amounting in all to £793 14s. 11d. of which £379 12s. 8d. was repaid; thus making a gross amount of £7,772 6s. 2d. advanced, of which £1,756 18s. 9d. was repaid, leaving a nett expen-diture for clothing purposes of £6,015 7s. 5d. A large proportion of the clothing received from America having been landed at Cork, was distri-buted by the Cork auxiliary committee.+ But while we felt it to be our duty, under the extreme pressure of famine, to consider only what were the most prompt and effectual measures for averting starvation, we were fully alive to the hurt-ful tendency of gratuitous relief. It was suggested to us, at an early period of our labours, that if we directed our attention to the encouragement of pro- * See Appendix XV., page 381, for further particulars respecting second sub-committee for clothing. + See Appendix XV., page 384, for general account of expenditure for clothing purposes. ductive industry, we should not only afford present relief, but promote the permanent improvement of the country. The subject was discussed at consi-derable length at a meeting of the committee, held on the 9th of Fourth-month, 1847, at which a deputation from the London Committee and several of our country friends attended. At that time, however, there was no immediate pro-spect of the cessation of distress. The reduction of the number of men employed on the public works had commenced. The Temporary Relief Act was still untried, and its success was very doubtful. Our issues were every week increasing in amount, and the prospect of having any funds beyond those required for the immediate relief of distress was uncertain and remote. While, there-fore, we acknowledged the importance of the sub-jects which were brought under our consideration, we felt that the time had not yet arrived when we could with propriety engage in them. At length, however, the famine was stayed. Under the Divine blessing a favorable harvest brought with it in-creased employment and cheapened food. The legislature had made sufficient provision against actual starvation, and the energy and skill of the ex-ecutive had brought this enactment into operation. The untiring liberality of America had furnished us with surplus funds to a considerable amount. The continuation of an extensive system of alms-giving was not only in itself objectionable, but by interfering with the legal arrangements for the support of the poor, was likely to defeat its own object. We resolved, therefore, to apply part of the funds at our disposal to the encouragement of those branches of industry, which appeared likely to afford the greatest amount of employment, and ultimately to prove profitable to the country. The first industrial project which engaged our attention, was the distribution of seed to small land-holders. In Third-month, 1847, the Waterford Auxiliary Committee brought the condition of this class under our consideration. Large tracts of ground had been left waste, because the occupiers had no means to purchase seed; and serious appre-hensions were felt of the deficiency which might thus be caused in the following harvest. The Waterford Committee had made grants of seeds to some peasant proprietors in the barony of Forth, county of Wexford. These men had, with extraordinary labour, reclaimed parts of a sterile mountainous district, which had previously been in a state of commonage; and had, by right of posses-sion, at length acquired a title to their respec-tive holdings. In such a case, this mode of relief was most appropriate; but in the very different circumstances of the greater part of Ireland, and with the urgent calls for direct relief which then existed, we did not think such an undertaking desirable. It was not until a later period that we ventured to enter upon the distribution of seeds. In the latter part of Fifth-month, 1847, Sir Randolph J. Routh, Commissary-general, placed at the disposal of the Committee about 40,000 lbs. of green-crop seeds, which were in the hands of the Government. The gratuitous distribution of these seeds was committed to the care of a member of the Committee, and by using the mails and other quick modes of conveyance it was effected in a very short space of time. By the liberality of James Hartley, coach proprietor, and of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company; who, under the circum-stances, made no charge for the carriage; the expense of the distribution was inconsiderable. Owing to its being so late in the season, and to the land not being properly prepared in many places, some small quantity of the seeds remained unsown. On the whole, however, the results were truly valuable and encouraging. It appeared that 36,196 lbs. of seeds were distributed, in grants to 40,903 destitute land holders; and that 9,652 acres were sown, the greater part of which, through the extreme poverty of the occupiers, would otherwise have lain waste. The produce was generally abundant; and it is estimated that upwards of 190,000 tons of turnips were thus raised, by small farmers and cottiers, whose re-sources had been almost exhausted. In the spring of 1848, encouraged by the success of the previous year, and impressed with the great importance of such assistance, (an impression which the concurring testimony of all our correspondents from every quarter confirmed) we resolved to appoint a sub-committee, to endeavour to carry into effect a larger distribution. Great care was taken in the selection and purchase, and we re-ceived from many quarters very gratifying ac-knowledgments of the good quality and successful growth of these seeds. The experience acquired in the preceding year enabled the sub-committee to make a more satisfactory distribution. From the returns which were received, it appeared that including the seeds purchased by the Committee, and the remainder of those which had been transferred from the commissariat depots, the total distribution amounted to 133,796 lbs. The num-ber of acres sown was 32,446, and the number of persons supplied was 148,094. These grants were wholly gratuitous; the local correspondents were merely expected to satisfy themselves that the applicants were really in need of assistance, and that the requisite quantity of ground was pro-perly prepared. The expenditure for this object was £6,271 14s. 2d* A portion of our funds was also applied to the assistance of industrial schools. These institutions were generally under the superintendance of ladies, who in several instances shewed much energy and perseverance in conducting them. Numbers of poor children, many of them very young, received * See Appendix XVI. page 384, for particulars of distribution of seeds. in these schools their breakfast daily, which was too often their only meal during the day. Special attention was directed to such work as might ena-ble them, when instructed, to earn a livelihood; the girls being in many instances taught knitting and sewed-muslin work. Some support was also given by the Committee to a local manufacture of lace; and to the praiseworthy though unsuccessful attempts of the vicar of Newport, to introduce the linen manufacture into that part of the county of Mayo. By these means, a considerable amount of relief was given. The promotion of the Fisheries on the southern and western coasts was one of the first objects bearing on the industry of the country, to which our attention was turned. It appeared to the Committee that this branch of national industry promised, beyond most others, to reward the en-terprise of the intelligent and persevering; while at the same time it possessed the important ad-vantage, in those parts where the produce of the land was insufficient for the support of its po-pulation, of affording immediate supplies of whole-some food. In the beginning of 1847, some grants were made by William Forster to the Claddagh fishermen at Galway, to enable them to redeem their nets from pawn and to repair their boats. In Sixth-month of the same year, application for a loan for similar purposes was made on behalf of the Arklow fishermen. We complied with the request, and granted the sum of £50 to a resident gentle-man, who became responsible to us for the amount. From a statement furnished towards the close of the year, it appeared that the money had been expended in releasing 161 nets; that in the next month £33 was repaid; and that before Eleventh-month, each separate loan, except in three in-stances, was repaid. His report further stated that by this loan upwards of 160 families were sup-ported during five months, and that many of them had a surplus for their use during the winter.* In Fifth-month,1847, a letter was addressed to one of the secretaries by William T. Mulvany, Commis-sioner for the Fishery department of the Board of Works, suggesting to us the allocation of some of our funds in assisting the fisheries throughout Ire-land. He proposed that we should make grants of money to suitable persons, as loans for poor fish-ermen, to enable them to provide fishing gear, and for the repairs of boats, and similar purposes. Some communications afterwards took place with Sir John Burgoyne, chairman of the Government Relief Commission, and Sir James Dombrain, commander of the coast-guard. The latter officer addressed letters to the officers of the coast-guard in different parts of the country, and from their repre-sentations of the probable utility of the grant, and their promises of co-operation, it was agreed to * See Appendix XVII., page 390, for statement of this transaction. place £250 at the disposal of Sir James Dom-brain, to be by him allocated to the care of such of the coast-guard officers, as he might consider most likely to carry out the object efficiently. This arrangement was not carried into effect; and it is alluded to here only to shew the interest which was felt on the subject of fisheries, by these as well as other official persons.* About the same time, the attention of the Water-ford auxiliary committee was called to the condi-tion of the fishermen at Ring, near Helvick-head, about nine miles from Dungarvan, who were re-duced by the pressure of famine to great distress. An appeal on their behalf was made to that com-mittee by Jarnes Alcock, the vicar of the parish of King, and small loans were made through him, to enable the fishermen to replace their nets and fishing gear, most of which had been sold or pledged to obtain food. In almost every case, these loans were faithfully repaid. Shortly after these poor fisher-men had been set to work, two Scotchmen visited the place; and were so struck with the advantages which it presented, that they decided on forming a curing establishment there. The Committee, think-ing it right to give encouragement to private enter-prise, advanced them £100; and, in the following year, a similar loan was made to assist them in building a larger and better kind of boats than * See Appendix XVII., page 391, for correspondence on this subject. those hitherto in use. For some time the prospects of these men were satisfactory; they shipped to England a considerable quantity of cured fish, which there met with a ready and profitable sale. Unfortunately, however, they were induced to add the management of a farm to their proper occu-pation of fish-curing. They do not appear to have possessed the requisite knowledge of agriculture; and the distance of their farm from the station in-creased the difficulty of the undertaking. A mis-understanding with their landlord occurred, which finally resulted in a forced sale of their property at very low prices, and in their return to Scotland. Although, from these causes, the money we ad-vanced has not been repaid, we have no reason to consider the loan as having been injudicious under the circumstances. Whilst the curing establish-ment was in operation, the direct and collateral employment kept many persons from the work-house; and even still its good effects are percep-tible, in the increased skill which the people so em-ployed have acquired. They are now able to carry on their fishing operations from their own resources with considerable success. We have been informed that the quantity of cured fish retained for their own use last season, was unusually large; and that very few of the fishermen have emigrated, although many possess means quite sufficient to enable them to do s o.* * See Appendix XVII., page 394, for report of the present state of the fisher-men of King district. F Towards the latter end of the year 1847, after the new poor-law had come into effect, we ventured to extend our operations for the encouragement of fisheries, by making loans to a considerable amount to several persons, who undertook to act in con-formity to regulations carefully framed, with re-spect to the interests both of the owners and crews of the boats employed. With these views, and in the hope of bringing about an improved system of fishing, while direct relief was afforded where it was much required, we established stations at Ballinakill-bay, near Clifden, in the county of Galway; at Achill-sound and at Belmullet, in the county of Mayo; and at Castletown, Berehaven, in the county of Cork. At the last of these stations, a curing-house was also established. The estab-lishments at Ballinakill-bay and Achill-sound were not carried on to any great extent, and were soon discontinued: and after a year's trial, it was found that the prospects of the two remaining establish-ments were not sufficiently encouraging, to war-rant their continuance by the Committee. It had become evident, that the continued care and economy necessary for the success of such under-takings required the energy of private enterprise, and could not be attained by the agents of such associations as ours. After full deliberation, and a careful investigation into the affairs of both con-cerns, it was resolved to wind up the Belmullet establishment at once. The case of the Bere- haven establishment was somewhat different. A much larger sum had been expended upon it, and the well-being of many of the fishermen in that district appeared to be involved in its continuance; we were therefore willing that it should have a more extended trial. A change was made in the management, and the concern was continued for three years longer; but we regret to have to state, that the result of this experiment has proved very unsuccessful, and it has since been given up.* Urgent representations were made in Twelfth-month, 1847, by the rector of Castlehaven, and transmitted to our Committee by Sir Thomas N. Redington, Under-Secretary for Ireland, stating the advantages that would arise from the employment of a vessel of larger size, to assist the smaller boats when fishing in uncertain weather. These repre-sentations were supported by the opinions of other persons acquainted with fishing, and the Com-mittee, after much consideration, hired a trawler of fifty-three tons for this service, in order to test the value of such assistance to the local fisheries. Shortly after she arrived at her station, it became apparent that the special purpose for which she was engaged was not likely to lead to any useful result; and she was subsequently employed in in-specting the fishing grounds and fishing stations on the western and south- western coasts. The report * See Appendix XVII., page 396, for further information respecting these establishments. if the master of the trawler was not very encou-raging, as respects the greater part of the fishing ground on these coasts. He suffered a considerable loss in nets and gear, in consequence of the rocky nature of the bottom. Perhaps a more complete knowledge of the ground may hereafter lead to greater success. The entire amount advanced to tie fisheries, both in loans and grants for fishing materials, was £5,365 1s. 1d. of which £480 3s. 9d. was repaid, leaving the sum of £4,884 17s. 4d. expended for these objects.* There were other cases, also, in which we sought to combine direct relief with profitable industry. AS early as the spring of 1847, £200 was ad-vanced, on his personal security, to a landed proprie-tor at Dungloe, in the county of Donegal, to enable him to carry on the manufacture of kelp in that district. In the spring of the following year, it appeared that the undertaking had proved so un-profitable, that it was considered undesirable to hold him to an engagement the main object of which had been the employment of the destitute. It was therefore agreed to cancel the debt, on receiving from him the balance in his hands of £15 1s. 1d. The attention of the Committee had been called, on several occasions to the domestic manufacture of flannels and other articles, which has long ex-isted in the west of Ireland; with the view of mak- * See Appendix XVII., page 405, for further particulars respecting the em-ployment of the "Erne" trawler and the result of her voyage. ing some endeavour to support and extend these manufactures, by placing them on a commercial basis. Some inquiries were instituted in England for a person competent to conduct a manufactory of flannels ; and in Thir -month, 1848, a native of Yorkshire, acquainted with the business as a prac-tical weaver, was invited over. He proceeded to the west, accompanied by a friend who kindly volunteered his services on the occasion. They visited the principal places in Mayo and Galway, and reported that there was a considerable sup-ply of wool of good quality in Connemara; and that they had been offered for £100 some machinery for spinning wool, which had been previously erected in a mill in the county of Galway, and which appeared suited for the purpose and good value. They further stated that such an estab-lishment would give employment to about 150 persons; would require a capital of about £500 in machinery, and a working capital of from £1000 to £2000; and would have a fair prospect of success. After some consideration, it was decided that we could not with propriety undertake such a busi-ness on our own account, but we offered, if one or two trustworthy persons of skill and know-ledge of the business would undertake it, to ad-vance £1500 by way of loan, secured upon the machinery and stock. It was proposed that this sum should be repaid out of the profits of the business; or, in the event of the trade turning out to be unprofitable, that the loss should be borne by the Committee. The persons to whom this offer was made did not avail themselves of it; and no further opportunity was presented for any attempt to develop this promising branch of manufacturing industry. An improved system of cultivation of the soil, and the introduction of new and useful crops, appeared to us to be objects of the utmost im-portance. It appeared also that this could be best effected by means of spade-labour, and that thus the additional advantage would be gained, of afford-ing a great amount of present relief. An agree-ment was accordingly entered into in Second-month, 1848, with Colonel George Vaughan Jackson, of Carrarnore, near Ballina, county of Mayo, and with several other proprietors in that vicinity, under which about 550 Irish acres of land, equal to nearly 900 statute acres, were given to us, free of rent and poor-rate, for one year. We undertook to pay the county cess; to provide the labour, manure, and seed; and to give up the land when the crops had been disposed of. Some assistance was afforded by a local committee in superintending these opera-tions, and by one of the Practical Instructors of the Royal Agricultural Society. The cultivation was entirely by spade-labour, and employment was thus given for many weeks, to upwards of one thousand persons, who would otherwise have been totally destitute. The crops were selected with a view of uniting the greatest beneficial outlay in ma-nual labour, with the lowest expenditure for manure and seed; and consisted chiefly of turnip and other green crops, (excluding potatoes) with a small quantity of grain planted by dibbling, and about seventy acres of flax. We refused to purchase ma-nure collected in the neighbourhood; preferring to make use of guano and other foreign manures, or of sea-weed, lest we might interfere with the cul-tivation by the small farmers themselves. The wages were calculated by task-work; but as the persons employed were very generally chosen from among those whose strength had been greatly re-duced by previous starvation, the rates of payment were necessarily considerably higher than would have been required, if none but strong, able-bodied labourers had been employed. In the course of Seventh-month, 1848, two members of our Committee were requested to visit these farms. They recommended that a properly qualified person should be immediately sent down, to superintend the farming operations, and to dis-pose of the crops when they arrived at maturity. A competent person was accordingly appointed, whose services were very efficient. The proceeds from the sales of the produce fell far short of the amount expended in this operation, yet it was gra-tifying to know that the money thus spent was not wasted; for besides the large amount of relief given by the employment of destitute peasantry, there was great advantage derived from the practi-cal instruction given, as to the cultivation of the various crops, in a part of Ireland in which green crops had previously been scarcely at all cultivated by the small farmers. The amount advanced for this undertaking was £7,469 7s. 9d. of which £1,756 2s. 2d. was repaid out of the sales of pro-duce, leaving the sum of £5713 5s. 7d. as the nett expenditure.* Other advances were also made for the encou-ragement of spade-labour, but on a different plan. About the same time with our experiment at Bal-lina, Lord Wallscourt proposed to take into cultiva-tion fifty additional acres at Ardfry, in the county of Galway; and so give employment to many un-employed and able-bodied destitute labourers in his neighbourhood; on receiving from the Committee the loan of £200 for twelve months, payable without interest. Lord Wallscourt undertook the whole risk, the Committee merely advancing the money on his security, and taking care that it was properly applied. The loan was accordingly made; and it was intimated to Lord Wallscourt that if he doubled the number of acres, the loan would also be doubled. This was not done, but the sum lent was repaid, and the Committee have every reason to be satisfied with the result.+ * See Appendix XVIII., page 415, for further particulars respecting this agri-cultural experiment. + See Appendix XIX., page 426, for farther particulars respecting the effects of this experiment. Early in 1849, Colonel F. A. Knox Gore, of Belleek Manor, county of Mayo, urged us again to encourage spade-labour, by the application of the same principles as had been adopted in the case of Lord Wallscourt. He proposed to appro-priate one hundred acres of land, which would otherwise have remained waste, and to employ at fair wages an adequate number of labourers at his own risk, provided we would advance him the sum of £800, free of interest, for twelve months. It was agreed to make this advance, in the hope that it might tend to give a further impulse to this mode of farming in that neglect-ed district, and also because it would furnish a large amount of present employment to the desti-tute population. This loan has been repaid by Colonel Gore; and the Committee are well satisfied with the result of this experiment also.* Our efforts to extend this mode of cultivation were not confined to the west. In the spring of 1849, the rector of Aghalurcher, in the county of Fermanagh, -encouraged by his success in relieving the poor of his neighbourhood, by the judicious distribution of the green crop seeds which he had received from us, -undertook to cultivate by spade-labour about fifty acres, on receiving a loan of £350. There were several * See Appendix XIX., page 427, for further particulars respecting the re-sults of this experiment. causes which rendered this experiment less suc-cessful than the others; so that a heavy loss was incurred. The Committee, on considering the sub-ject, and knowing that their first object had been fulfilled, by the large amount of employment given, and the many destitute persons relieved, did not think it right to allow the rector to be a pecuniary sufferer by his benevolent exertions; and therefore resolved to relinquish one half the amount on the remainder being paid; which has accordingly been done, and the account closed. In all these cases, we required returns to be made to us, showing the number of persons employed, the rate of wages, the quantity of land cultivated, and other particulars. In addition to the loans for this purpose, some small grants were made with a similar object.* In 1849, a loan of £500, payable with interest at the rate of five per cent. in five instalments, was made to Hay Brothers, of Ballina, in the county of Mayo, to aid them in the establishment of a rettery in the vicinity of that town, for steeping and pre-paring flax on Schenck's patent. It was gratifying to us to find that our experiments in the preced-ing year had not been without result; as the in-ducements for commencing this useful undertaking arose from the large quantity of flax produced on our farms, and that which had been grown by some * See Appendix XIX., page 432, for further particulars. of the neighbouring farmers after our example. As a further means of promoting the cultivation of flax in this part of the country, it was agreed to lend the sum of £400 to Colonel Knox Gore, who offered with this assistance to erect a flax-scutch-ing-mill on a suitable site, and with good water-power. It was arranged that the amount should be secured by a mortgage on the property, and the advances repaid with interest at the rate of five per cent., by instalments of £80 per annum. The parties concerned did not carry this arrange-ment into effect. Only £200 were advanced, and in Second-month, 1851, repayment of this sum with-out interest was accepted, and the former agree-ment cancelled. Nevertheless, the means were provided by Colonel Gore, from other sources, and this undertaking is now in operation.* In Fifth-month, 1848, an application for a grant was made to us by Dr. Edgar, on behalf of the "Belfast Ladies' Industrial Association for Connaught." This association had exerted itself with great success, to promote the establishment of industrial schools throughout the west, in which young women and girls were taught the sewing of muslin and other kinds of needlework. We heard with much interest an account of their endeavours to extend to the province of Connaught this branch of industry, which had proved so useful in Ulster; * See Appendix XX., page 433, for further particulars. and offered to grant £500 as a donation, provided an equal sum should be raised from other quarters. About the end of the year, Dr. Edgar came before us with a list of subscriptions, somewhat above the required amount; and we gladly made the pro-mised grant, and have every reason to believe it was well and usefully bestowed.* In the spring of 1849, numerous enquiries were made as to the opinions our experience had led us to form of the condition of the country, and of the success of the various undertakings in which we had from time to time engaged. We were at first reluctant to trespass upon the public attention with a detailed statement of our views; but at length an "Address to the Public" was prepared, and, after mature consideration, was unanimously adopted on the 8th of Fifth-month. In this address, we al-luded to the great exertions made by the British Relief Association and other similar bodies, and the large amount of their distribution; and also to the numerous contributions of private benevolence, and the remittances from emigrants in America. But we had to state our belief that, while these exertions had afforded a large amount of relief at a period of great distress, and had preserved many from starvation, yet the condition of our country was not improved. We declared our con-viction, that until freedom was given to the sale * See Appendix XXL, page 436, for further particulars. and transfer of land, it was vain to hope that Ire-land could emerge from a state of poverty and de-gradation. Before our address was published but after it was drawn up, it was announced that the Government had resolved to introduce into Par-liament a measure which had a tendency to promote this object; and in the course of that session the Act for the Sale of Incumbered Estates was passed.* In Sixth-month, 1849, a letter was addressed to one of our secretaries by Sir Charles E. Trevelyan, Assistant-Secretary to the Treasury, on behalf of Lord John Russell, enquiring what plans the Com-mittee were pursuing for the alleviation of the great distress which still prevailed; and offering a contribution of £100 towards renewed efforts for its relief. The subject received the anxious consideration of the Committee; but, after full deliberation, we were of opinion that, in the event of undertaking the distribution of relief as hereto-fore, the sum which we could hope to collect would be utterly inadequate for such an object; that even if sufficient funds were placed at our disposal, we could no longer calculate upon the assistance of many of our most efficient agents and correspond-ents; and that the relief of destitution, on an ex-tended scale, should in future be entrusted to the arrangements which Parliament had provided for that purpose. We felt bound, therefore, though * See Appendix XXIII., page 445, for copy of this address. reluctantly, to decline being the almoners of Lord John Russell's liberality; yet we highly appreciated the kind feeling towards our distressed fellow-coun-trymen which prompted him to make the offer.* In the course of the following month, the atten-tion of the London Friends' Relief Committee was attracted to the severe distress which prevailed among the small holders of land, who were exclu-ded by the provisions of the poor-law from receiv-ing assistance out of the poor rates. They resolv-ed to remit to our Committee the sum of £2000, to be applied to the prompt relief of this class. The extreme privations which some of these per-sons were suffering were well known, and we had to some extent sought to alleviate them. Several cases had been reported to us, on credible evidence, in which individuals thus circumstanced had suffered members of their family to die of want, rather than render themselves entitled to poor-law relief by the surrender of their land. We accepted the charge of distributing this sum, and endeavoured to carry the views of the London Committee into effect. Grants were made in various districts, to those on whom full reliance could be placed. In the expec-tation of making it more useful, it was agreed that no grants of money should be made, without a previous understanding that the persons assisted should be required to engage in some useful la- * See Appendix XXIV., page 452, for copy of this correspondence. bour on their own holdings, and that the largest sum to be given to any one family should not exceed £3. The sums sent to those who under-took its distribution varied from £-10 to £30. The adoption of this plan was attended with gratifying results; and several letters were received from the grantees, stating their opinion of the good which had been effected.* In Ninth-month, 1848, a proposition was laid before the Committee for the establishment of a model farm, in which relief might be combined with industrial and agricultural improvement, in a more permanent manner than had been done at Ballina. After much consideration, the Committee were of opinion that it was desirable to undertake the pro-ject; and a sub-committee was appointed to carry it into effect, and to prepare a plan for the manage-ment of the new institution. Considerable delay arose from the difficulty of procuring a suitable farm, of which a permanent tenure could be given. At length, in Second-month, 1849, an agreement was entered into with Myles W. O'Reilly, of Knockabbey Castle, county of Louth, for the farm of Colmanstown, in the parish of Clonkeen, county of Galway. This farm consists of about 400 Irish acres, being equal to nearly 650 statute measure; and is taken on a lease for 999 years, at a rent of * See Appendix XXV., page 455, for extracts from letters shewing the distress of the small landholders, and also for some statements illustrative of this distribu-tion for their relief. 16s. per Irish acre. The land had been previously inspected, and was represented to us to be in many respects suited for the purpose. The objects con-templated by this undertaking were, first, to test by experiment how far the agricultural resources of Ire-land are capable of being developed by better modes of culture; and to institute, in an ill-cultivated district, a model where the neighbouring farmers might see an improved system of husbandry; and, secondly, in case the farm should hereafter be made sufficiently profitable, to establish an agricultural school for training young men in the practice of scientific farming. Arrangements were made for the permanent management of the institution, and a sum of £12,000 was transferred to trustees, to form a capital stock; to which £500 was afterwards added for some extra expenses, which the Committee considered not to be fairly chargeable to the new undertaking. This farm has now been nearly three years under the care of the Committee appointed for its management. Farm buildings have been erected on a large scale and of a superior character, and a considerable portion of the land has been drained and brought under fair cultivation. The outlay for these purposes has been heavy, as will appear by the report of the Model Farm Committee given in the appendix; but as the greater part of the capital invested has been expended in wages, we consider that it has so far subserved the primary object of 97 our association, by the large amount of employ-ment it has afforded. It will be obvious from the report, that, up to the present time, the crops have not paid for their cultivation. It should, however, be observed, that the land, which was in very bad condition when the committee got pos-session of it, has been greatly improved; although it cannot be considered that the improvement effected is equivalent to the expenditure. The farm has lately been inspected by a deputa-tion from the Central Committee. They reported it as their opinion, that the undertaking has not yet had a fair trial; and recommended that the remain-der of the land which requires it, should be pro-perly drained, and brought into the same good con-dition as the most improved parts; considering that the whole farm should be brought into a good state of cultivation, before it can be fairly pronounced successful or the contrary. It has therefore been determined to make the Farm Committee a further grant of £1,000, to enable them to drain and carry on the other improvements without delay; as they have expressed their expectation that, by increased attention to economy, the farm will be made to support itself. In this case, it will be useful to the neighbouring farmers, by exhibiting a good system of husbandry; and will enable the original object to be carried out, by the establishment of an agri-cultural school, in case it appears desirable to do so.* * See Appendix XXVI, page 459, for further information. G CHAPTER VI. REFLECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. BY the accounts given in the preceding chapter, it appears that the Committee, in distributing the funds placed at their disposal, were guided by the varying circumstances and exigencies of the dif-ferent periods of distress. In the earlier part of our operations, when the great object was to save life, grants of money were made in aid of local ex-ertions, and also grants of food and clothing, under the most effectual restrictions which we were able to devise for the selection of fitting objects and the prevention of fraud. As the pressure became less severe, and the measures of legal relief more com-prehensive, our issues of food were contracted to the necessities of the old and infirm, of young children, and of those who were actually suffering under, or gradually recovering from sickness; while some assistance was given to those classes whose wants the law did not reach, by affording employ-in ent on works which promised to be profitable, and which tended, by bringing into action the dor-mant resources of the country, to improve the per-manent condition of the people. Our first endea-vour was to enable the people to help themselves by making grants of green-crop seeds to small far-mers, and by supplying clothing to the industrious poor. Some assistance was afforded towards the training of the young in useful and profitable arts. Attempts were made to develope, in the fisheries, a valuable resource which had hitherto been much neglected; and to further manufacturing industry, by assisting establishments for the preparation of flax. As soon as circumstances admitted, exertions were made to promote an improved system of land cultivation, and to encourage the growth of green crops in the west, both by the cultivation of land on our account, and by advancing money to land-lords, to be employed by them in spade-labour. When the season of extreme suffering had gone by, the larger portion of our surplus funds was devoted to the establishment of a model farm. With respect to our first and most important proceeding, the gratuitous issues of money, food, and clothing, we believe that we were enabled to afford a considerable amount of immediate relief; and that the lives of many were preserved, who without some such assistance would probably have perished. Yet it is painfully evident that the relief afforded was neither so extensive nor so complete as the exigency required. Several circumstances com- G 2 bined to produce this result. Our Committee had no experience in such an undertaking; and as most of the members resided in Dublin, or in the large towns of the south, we saw comparatively little of the actual suffering existing in the most distressed districts. It was under considerable difficulties, therefore, that we entered upon our task; and we could hardly expect to perform it without mak-ing serious mistakes. Those who have not been actually engaged in the administration of relief, can very imperfectly comprehend its difficulties. Strangers thought, when they knew that the distress was occasioned by want of food, that the obvious remedy was to pour into the country as much food as they could procure; and they were surprised and pained to find that their benevolent efforts were insufficient to effect the relief of desti-tution. This unexpected and unwelcome result was principally owing to the small number of resi-dents, who had time and ability to act as adminis-trators of relief, and to the absence of sufficient means of distribution. The people had been accus-tomed to depend for their support on the produce of their own small holdings; and consequently, in the poorest localities, dealers in food were almost unknown. As soon, therefore, as the potato failed, even those who were not destitute found much difficulty in many places in purchasing food. They were too few to create a trade in their several localities, and consequently were obliged, in many cases to send to a considerable distance for their daily supplies. Among the multitudes applying for assistance, no stranger could distinguish those who really required relief from those who did not. This task, and also the distribution of relief to the fitting ob-jects in any locality, is peculiarly the part of the intelligent and educated residents. Of these, by far the most valuable for such purposes are the middle classes of society; whose position brings them into connexion with both extremes, and whose habits of business qualify them for the conduct of public affairs. But, in many districts in Ireland, such a class had literally no existence. The landed gentry and the clergy formed the first rank of society; and there were very few between them and the lowest class, which was composed of the labour-ing peasantry and the small landholders. The latter were scarcely removed above the labourer, either in circumstances or education. In almost every district, the few that were found capable of administering relief were so widely scattered, that their best efforts appeared trifling when compared with the mass of destitution around them. Some persons were of opinion, that issues of money would be preferable to those of food; and that the recipients should be left to purchase food as they required it. Such a mode of relief, when practicable, possesses many advantages. It saves the trouble, risk, and expense of the conveyance of provisions. It secures the services, in some in-stances, of a better class of distributors; many per-sons would give out money, who would not or could not attend to meal stores and soup shops. It also saves the expense of storage, and of the necessary staff of attendants. The money probably goes farther in the hands of individuals; and there is no reason to suppose that greater abuses would exist, under proper management, in this system, than arose from the gratuitous issues of food. Above all, the distribution of money has the signal advantage of encouraging rather than depressing the ordinary operations of trade. If each person had the means of purchasing the necessary supplies, the natural influence of demand would secure to the community the most judicious and the cheapest distribution of food. For these reasons, this mode of relief may be appropriate under ordinary circum-stances; and in some instances, both in town and country, in which it was tried, it worked with con-siderable success. But it appeared to us that, as a general system, it could not be adopted with safety. The liability to abuse is evidently greater than in the distribution of food, unless the money be dis-tributed under the care of very efficient and trust-worthy persons; and therefore the difficulty arising from the small number of residents fitted for this work, would have been even more severely felt than it was with the mode of distribution actually adopted. The wisdom of that natural law, under which the distribution of food to the public is effected by the instinctive operations of self-interest, was clearly indicated during the endeavours made to mitigate this famine. As it is in time of sickness, that men learn to estimate at its real value the blessing of health; so the importance of the trade in food was unheeded, until a large proportion of the population was thrown upon the public for support. No human ingenuity could have devised any machinery which would have completely obviated suffering; but the absence of the ordinary means for the ad-ministration of relief rendered the calamity much more severe. The want of food was supplied; but neither money nor exertions could suddenly pro-vide for the people the local dealers by whom that food should have been distributed. It was equally impossible to place in the country those middle classes, whose local knowledge and exertions would have in some degree compensated for the absence of the trader. The mode of relief adopted was perhaps the only one which was practicable; yet the same peculiarities in the condition of the coun-try which rendered this mode of relief imperative, hindered its successful administration. The distribution of seeds, considered as a measure of direct relief, was useful, although it was liable to some abuses. There must, however, be some-thing radically wrong, when the loss of a single year's crop was so severely felt, that neither land- lord nor tenant appeared to be able to make the necessary arrangements for the cultivation of the ground in the following year. The few loans made to landlords, to assist them in an extended system of spade cultivation, answered the purpose for which they were made; inasmuch as a large amount of em-ployment was given, and land was cultivated which might otherwise have lain waste. We are unable to state whether this mode of cultivation repays the expenditure or not; but we are aware that, in the cases assisted by us, it effected a considerable diminution of the poor rates. Besides the assistance thus given to the tenant and the landlord, we undertook the temporary cultivation of land ourselves; not from any ex-pectation of the attempt proving profitable, but in order to give employment in a distressed dis-trict, and to introduce the knowledge of valuable crops and of an improved agricultural practice. The expenditure on this operation was large, and some additional losses were incurred through the want of that efficient control, which it is scarcely possible to obtain in the management by a com-mittee; yet we are disposed to regard this as one of the most useful undertakings in which the com-mittee engaged. We further endeavoured to carry out our views for the improvement of agriculture, by establish-ing a model farm. It may, perhaps, be questioned whether it be right to devote to a permanent object, however useful, any portion of funds raised for the immediate relief of destitution. We were induced to do so, because we thought that the evil con-sequences arising from the mode of relief which it had been at first necessary to adopt, exceeded any benefits which could be expected from its con-tinuance. We knew, also, that the improvement and the cultivation of this farm would give a large amount of employment, and thus afford more assis-tance to the poor, by the money dispensed in wages, than if the whole sum had been expended in gra-tuitous relief. If it be as an industrial experiment that this farm should be judged, it is evident that pre-sent appearances are against its success. The soil is not of a very good quality, and the rent paid for it is probably above its value. Of the many offers of farms made in answer to our ad-vertisements, there were very few of which we could obtain immediate possession, and of which a lengthened tenure could be given; so that our choice was greatly restricted. This was, in fact, almost the only one offered to us which appeared at all suitable, and we were therefore induced to take it, as being the best we were then able to obtain. The time has not yet arrived for forming a decided opinion as to its ultimate success; but it appears to us doubtful whether it be practicable for any committee of management, living at a dis-tance, to give that vigilant superintendence which is necessary to render a farm profitable; and with-out profit, it is evidently not a model which can be held up for imitation as a whole. When this undertaking was commenced, we thought a model farm would be useful, if well managed; and therefore considered it advisable to establish one; but further experience has shown us that the greatest success we could hope from such an undertaking would only be to render it as useful as a well-managed farm in private hands. Model establishments are not found ne-cessary in other branches of human industry. There are no models for mercantile enterprise, nor for the management of ships or factories. Pri-vate enterprise and individual exertion, under the spur of competition, have effected the improve-ment which we see everywhere around us. People improve by observing what is done by their neighbours. They follow their plans when suc-cessful, and learn to avoid their mistakes. Those who are less observant, or less industrious, soon find themselves surpassed by others. The improve-ment is gradual, but steadily progressive. The most useful model is the farm of a thriving and industrious neighbour. It is from free competi-tion that we must look for improvements in the system of farming, such as have taken place in other branches of business. Under such circum-stances, these improvements will arise without any interference, either on the part of the state or of charitable associations; except such legal provisions as may be necessary to afford reasonable security to the farmer, for the improvements effected by his industry or his ingenuity. But although this industrial experiment may be a failure, and, as a whole, unsuitable for imitation, yet some good results will probably be effected by the introduction of improved methods of cultiva-tion. It is true that men whose practice and habits are very defective, rarely appreciate the ad-vantages of plans which are much beyond their present ideas. Still there are some whose minds are more open to improvement; and to such the new agricultural implements and the superior modes of culture which they may see made use of on this farm, will afford valuable lessons of instruc-tion. Or if the establishment hereafter be con-ducted in part as a scientific experimental farm, although the experiments made may not be profit-able in themselves, they may be very useful to others who witness the results; and who can adopt what they find useful, and avoid what is proved to be injurious. Few of the operations which we undertook in the hopes of developing the fisheries have succeeded. The establishment at Ring in the county of Water-ford had a considerable measure of success; and by it, as well as by some others, employment was given at a period of great distress to many destitute fishermen, who were enabled by our loans to acquire a livelihood for themselves and their families; but our attempts to develope the fisheries in the west and south-west have been failures as com-mercial undertakings. This department was under the especial care of a member of our Commit-tee, who had some experience in respect to fish-ing; and we are aware that several matters were neglected during the long illness which terminated in his death, and that considerable loss was incurred in the closing of the different establishments, which might have been avoided if he had been able to attend to them. Nevertheless, we are inclined to attribute our failure chiefly to the want of that vigilant superintendance and those active personal exertions which this business particularly requires, and which the managers of a benevolent associa-tion can never give. Some reference may perhaps be also made to natural obstacles-to the severity of the weather, and the dangerous and unprotected character of the western and south-western coasts. A main obstacle, however, to the success of the fisheries appears to have been the absence of a local demand. Although this difficulty has since been lessened by the extension of railway communica-tion, yet the cost of carriage must operate unfavor-ably to those who depend on a distant market. Except in some very poor countries, fish is not a primary article of food or an absolute necessary of life. In these climates it is used rather as a luxury, and is eaten with bread or potatoes. When the people have not means to purchase both, the fish is given up. On this account, the failure of the potato, so far from increasing the demand for fish, greatly diminished it, and thus presented an additional discouragement to fishing operations. When the several counties of Munster and Connaught in-crease in wealth, a new demand for fish will gra-dually arise, and will induce persons to undertake its supply as a regular and profitable employment. In the first chapter, we adverted to several cir-cumstances in the condition of the country as aggravating the distress, and impeding the admin-istration of relief. Amongst these were the want of a middle class in the most distressed country districts; the embarrassments, and, in many cases, the non-residence of the landlords; and the defec-tive condition of agriculture, the inferior character of the farm buildings, and the general absence of im-provement on the part of the tenantry. It is highly important to investigate these circumstances. Do they result from causes beyond human control, or can anything be effected by improved legislation? What impediment has prevented the formation of a middle class in so large a part of Ireland? What has rendered the landed gentry of Ireland more embarrassed than other classes of the community, and prevented so many of them from improving their estates? What circumstances can account for the inactivity and want of improvement which have characterized the tenantry? The civic po-pulation are more industrious and energetic; and the same men who are indolent on their farms in this country exhibit a different character when they emigrate to America. It is a strange pheno-menon to see landlords almost ruined by the taxa-tion required for supporting pauper labourers in the workhouses; while millions of acres are wholly waste or imperfectly cultivated, and millions of money are lying at a low rate of interest in the funds. There are, no doubt, various causes for the de-pressed condition of Ireland: but it is an important question for public consideration, how far that de-pressed condition has resulted from injudicious legislation. If there be any legal impediments to the prosperity of the country, they should first be removed, and a free scope left for human exertion, before it can be right to condemn the people for improvidence or want of industry. The state of the law respecting land is universally admitted to be complicated and uncertain. A thorough reform appears essential to the improvement of the social condition of the country. Great difficulties have existed in the sale of lan-ded property. The uncertainty of title has been often complained of; and it is generally admitted that in almost all cases of sale, the title to an estate was more or less defective. The necessity of a tho-rough investigation Involved much delay and heavy expenses; and the investigation often ended in dis-appointment to the seller, and not unfrequently in a law-suit, when he considered the defect of title insufficient to warrant the buyer in refusing to complete his purchase. Even after the title was acknowledged to be good, there still remained the costs of the conveyance, which were rendered un-necessarily heavy by the length of the deeds, in addition to the heavy stamp duties. Unless the purchaser of a small property were willing to incur the risk of taking it without proof of title, the same tedious investigation and similar expenses were necessary; so that the costs of transfer were propor-tionably much greater in the case of a small than of a large property. This has operated injuriously to the small proprietor, and has practically pro-hibited the formation of small estates. It appears to us that complete freedom ought to be given to all transactions respecting land; and that the laws ought to be such as would enable every member of the community to sell or to pur-chase any quantity of land, with the smallest prac-ticable delay, expense, and risk. A good system of land registration, for which the Ordnance Maps afford great facilities, appears a needful preliminary to this freedom of transfer. It is the opinion of many competent persons, that it is practicable to make such arrangements with regard to registra-tion, as would render it possible to effect the trans-fer of land by a simple transfer in the books of the registry office, without much greater expense, delay, or risk than that which now attends the transfer of Government stock. In a majority of cases, the landlord, by theeffect of a will or of a marriage settlement, is a tenant for life, with remainder to his children. Unless a power of sale be given, which is very rarely the case in Ireland, the land thus settled cannot be sold until the eldest son comes of age. Unless there be special provision in the deed of settlement, the owner of such an estate cannot raise money upon his land for the purpose of improving it; because the property in the improvements goes with the soil, and he cannot, from the nature of his tenure, charge the estate with the amount. He will not borrow money on his personal security, or invest his own savings for the purpose of such improvement; because he would thus benefit his heir at the expense of his younger children, for whom a comparatively small provision may have been made. He cannot secure his tenant in any expense which the latter might be willing to incur, because the improvements of the soil are consi-dered as part of the soil, and no permanent charge can be placed on the estate. In some cases, and for certain objects, the leasing powers of a tenant for life are extended by law or by the provisions of the deed of settlement; but they are always restricted, and the risk of an improper exercise of these powers considerably diminishes their value. The restricted leasing powers, and the rule that all improvements become attached to the soil and pass with it to the landlord, obstruct the application of capital, not merely to the soil, but to the various natural products to which commercial value can be given. Instances are not wanting in which, to the mutual disappointment of all parties concerned, the inability to give good leases has checked the progress of a town, or altered the position of a manufacture.* These dificulties have been greatly increased by the general embarrassment of the landed proprietors. Partly from charges made for the younger mem-bers of the family, partly from his own or his ancestors' improvidence, the nominal owner has often been in reality only a trustee for others. In such cases, the attempt at improvement was almost hopeless. The landlord had only a very moderate income to support the rank derived from a large rent-roll. His creditors had little interest in the improvement of the property, and were merely concerned in the repayment of their money. The tenants knew that any improvements they might effect, would become at once the property of the landlord or of his creditors, and would probably cause their rent to be raised. After an ineffectual struggle on the part of the landlord, the estate was * See a remarkable illustration of the injurious effects which may arise from want of leasing power, given in Dr. Hancock's valuable work, "Impediments to the Prosperity of Ireland," chap, xix., page 85. H in most cases brought into Chancery, and placed under a receiver. The number of incumbrancers, and the necessity of all parties interested in the property being brought before the court, rendered the expense of this proceeding very heavy. The general condition of properties under the manage-ment of receivers, in suits by creditors, is well known. No lease could be given which would extend longer than the duration of the suit. This uncertain tenure, and the want of efficient management, has frequently ended in the demo-ralization of the tenantry, and the serious injury of the property. In the year 1849, it was estimated that, on the lowest calculation, estates in Ireland to the value of £1,500,000 per annum were under the care of the courts.* The injury to the country arising from the em-barrassment of the landed proprietors, has been in some degree lessened by the introduction of the Act for the Sale of Incumbered Estates. Hitherto the working of this act seems satisfactory, and it has doubtless effected and will probably continue to effect a large amount of good. At the same time, it should be remembered that this act was intended to apply only to such estates as were heavily incumbered, and even in such eases it provides no security against the future accumulation of similar difficulties. It is merely * It is to be hoped that the recent legislation for the amendment of the proceedings in the court of Chancery may obviate, or at least diminish, many of these difficulties. a measure of temporary relief, framed to meet a particular exigency: useful as the basis of future reforms, but by no means superseding the necessity for them. This appears to be generally admitted, and a strong feeling exists in the public mind as to the importance of perpetuating the principle on which the Incumbered Estates Act is founded, and of extending its operation. The possession of land should be so far con-sidered as a trust for the benefit of society at large, that no private arrangements should be per-mitted to interfere with the public good, by imped-ing those improvements which may be necessary to render the soil as productive as possible. In the absence of all restrictions, the interests of the in-dividual owner perfectly coincide with those of so-ciety, and will secure for the public the best man-agement and the largest production. But when human laws separate those interests which nature has united, that security for proper management is lost which individual instincts afford. Under the present complicated and costly system of settle-ments, it has been shewn that the interest of the owner is generally so limited, that the permanent improvement of the estate cannot be carried out by him, consistently with his private advantage. The same restrictions frequently prevent him from sell-ing it, or leasing it on such terms as would induce his tenant to undertake its improvement. These difficulties have been often recognized, and attempts H 2 have been made to obviate them, by increasing the leasing powers of the tenant for life, in favour of certain special objects. If, therefore, the system of settlements is to continue, this power ought to be extended. It appears to us that no land should be permitted to be tied up by settlements, so as to lessen its value to the community; but that the general interests of the public should be secured, by the existence of some person recognized by law as the absolute owner of the estate, with full powers for sale or leasing. The special interests of the par-ties under the settlement may be guarded, by trans-ferring the trust, in the event of sale, from the land to the money for which it is sold.* Powers of sale are generally given to the trus-tees of a settlement in England, and are often found to be very useful. It is not easy to assign a reason why this practice is so rarely followed in Ireland. There is a vast amount of funded and other property completely in the power of trustees, in the management of which fraud very rarely occurs; and there seems no reason to believe that land under a similar system would be less safe. The act of the trustee should always be maintained in favor of a bona-fide purchaser or tenant; and an * It may be said that the system of settlements is not the result of restrictive laws, but of an habitual mode of exercising ownership which the law has not in- terfered to prevent. This is no doubt true. The restrictions are produced by the act of the owner, while yet free, executing an instrument by which he places fetters on himself or his successors; and the restrictions thus self-imposed in most cases place serious impediments in the way of the full development of the resources of the property. ordinary suit, in case of breach of trust, would as effectually secure the rights of the landowner as of the fundholder. The proper security against breaches of trust, in landed as in other property, consists in choosing trustees of prudence and integrity, rather than in tying up their hands in a manner which often proves highly injurious both to the property in question and to the public. Another serious obstacle to the free sale and trans-fer of land results from the law of debtor and creditor. With the exception of the temporary jurisdiction of the Incumbered Estates Court, to which we have already referred, a creditor has no effectual means of enforcing his claims upon his debtor's real estate, except by tedious and ex-pensive proceedings in the court of Chancery. The various delays incident to such proceedings are hurtful not merely to the creditor, but to the debtor and to the public at large. They not only impede the creditor in any attempt to sell the land, but they prevent the debtor from freeing the re-mainder of his estate by the sale of a part; and the want of efficient management while the estate is in Chancery is subversive of the public interest. Justice requires that a creditor should have prompt and ample power of recovery against the property of his debtor, whatever it may consist of; and whether the debtor may have been engaged in trade or in agriculture. There does not appear to be any suffi-cient reason why the provisions of the bankrupt law should not be extended to all persons unable to discharge their engagements, whether traders or not. Farming is in reality a trade; and it appears anomalous that the production of flax or corn should be conducted under different laws from the manufacture of linen or bread. The condition of the tenants is also seriously affected by the present state of the laws which regulate real property. The heavy expenses of transfer, by discouraging the sale of land in lots of moderate size, deprive them of the opportunity of investing their savings in land, and thus becoming the farmers of their own estates. The want of a secure tenure for the farms they now hold has the inevitable effect of impeding their improvement. In many parts of Ireland leases are rare, and the occupants hold merely from year to year. When a lease is given, it is occasionally found that the landlord has exceeded or unduly exercised his leasing powers, and the lease is consequently void. All improvements made by the tenant in or upon the soil become the property of the landlord; immediately, if the tenancy be at will; or at the termination of the lease, if there be a lease. This rule greatly increases the evils arising from the want of a secure tenure. If the tenant have no lease, he knows that any additional value he may give to his farm, whether by his capital or his industry, renders him liable to a demand for in-creased rent. If he hold by a lease, the same cause gives importance to any technicality which may render it invalid; and whenever the lease terminates, the landlord may take possession of the land with all the improvements, and the tenant has no claim for compensation. Thus, similar causes prevent the improvement of the land, and the erection of suitable farm-buildings by either landlord or tenant; the former, because he has only a life interest, will not expend money for the benefit of his heir; and the latter, because he has no security for the enjoyment of his im-provements, will not devote his labour or his capi-tal for the benefit of his landlord. The landlord, when the estate is under settlement, cannot gua-rantee to his tenant compensation for his improve-ments; for such a contract would not bind Ms successor. The honour and kindly feeling of his landlord are the only substitute the tenant can obtain for a fair mercantile contract; and this is too precarious an assurance to rely upon. It is not surprising that the Irish farmer, without security of tenure, without the requisite farm buildings, without any adequate motive to effect improvements, and without the power of making any valid agreement which might induce him to do so, should have hitherto made little progress in agriculture. If perfect freedom, of contract in the letting and hiring of land be obtained; and if such facilities be afforded to both parties, as may enable them to form whatever contracts may suit their mutual convenience; it seems probable that land will rarely be taken even for a single year without a definite agreement. Such agreement, when both parties are ; free, will no doubt provide for the question of improvements. But as cases may arise, in which land will be taken without any specific agreement in this respect, it is desirable that the law should define the just rights of both parties in the absence of a special contract. Under the present law, all improvements made in the land, all buildings erected on it, everything attached to it, is irremoveable, and becomes the property of the landlord. The only exception to this rule is in the case of trees planted by the tenant, and registered under an act of the Irish parliament, the 23rd and 24th Geo. III. c. 39. The tenant is even liable to an action for dilapidation, if, by his neglect, he suffer the buildings erected by himself to get out of repair. This law, in Ireland at least, is generally admitted to be inexpedient, and to have worked badly. When there is no specific agreement to the contrary, the tenant is not re-quired to expend his capital in the erection of buildings, or in the improvement of the soil. He is bound not to deteriorate, but he is not bound to improve; and if he surrender the property in as good condition as he received it, and has paid his rent, the requirements of justice are fulfilled. Can any valid reason be assigned against his claim in equity to the improvements effected by himself? There may be considerable difficulty in securing his rights by law to those improve-ments which, being effected in the soil itself, are not capable of being again detached from it. But no such difficulty exists with respect to erections on the land which are capable of being removed, and which still possess a marketable value. It may be that if the tenant who built a house have no other alternative but to take it down and sell the materials, he will get much less for it than it would have been worth to the landlord; but this seems no reason for depriving him of it alto-gether. And if the house be valuable where it stands, the two parties concerned would almost invariably succeed in coming to some agreement which would prevent such a waste of property. Is it not therefore both just and expedient, that in the absence of any contract respecting them, all improvements erected by the tenant upon the land, and which may be capable of being removed without injury to the land itself, should be his own property, and treated accordingly? and that, if practicable, such legal provisions should be made, as would entitle him to compensation for the un-exhausted value of any improvement in the soil effected within a limited period? At the same time, a cheap, certain, and speedy remedy should be given to the landlord, for any neglect of the tenant to perform the covenants agreed to in the lease. If sufficient facilities for contracts be given, it is not probable that a solvent tenant will agree to burdensome covenants; and the landlord will soon understand his own interest sufficiently not to desire to impose them.* The law of distress, which includes the prior right of the landlord to seize the property on his land for nonpayment of rent, appears to us to have had an injurious effect on both landlords and ten-ants. It has increased the evils of insecurity of tenure; because the occupying tenant, even though he has paid his own rent to his immediate land-lord, is liable to be distrained if the rent of any of the superior lessees remain unpaid. Should the tenant require banking accommodation, it places a great difficulty in his way; and too often forces him to submit to ruinous terms in order to raise money. The preference given to the claim for rent over the other debts of the tenant, and the possi-bility of serious loss which frequently arises from the summary seizure of the tenant's goods, lower his credit, and incapacitate him from offering the security necessary to obtain money on fair terms. * There has been some change in the law in this respect, by the act of last session, the 14th and 15th Vict., chap. 25, which enacts that buildings erected by the tenant with the written consent of the landlord, whether they be detached or connected with buildings previously existing, shall be the property of the tenant, and removable by him, even if permanently fixed to the soil; provided the tenant leave the land and the buildings belonging to the landlord in as good condition as they were in before the erection of any buildings so removed. The act further requires the tenant to give a month's notice of his intention to remove the improvements; giving the landlord the option of taking them at a valuation, to be ascertained by two referees mutually appointed. This appears to be an acknowledgment of the equity of the principle advocated above, and a precedent for its application. The priority thus given to the landlord renders him less careful of the character of his tenant; and induces him, from a reliance on the facilities for the recovery of his rent which the power of dis-tress affords, to let his land to the highest bidder without reference to his capital or his means of keeping his engagements. This practice has had a serious effect in deteriorating the character of the tenantry in Ireland. It has subjected the farmer possessed of capital to an unfair competition, by admitting the offers of persons who, having nothing to lose, were willing to offer any rent in order to obtain possession of land. These injurious effects have been particularly felt as respects the farms held under middlemen. If the power of distress, by which they were enabled to enforce their claims before other creditors, had not existed, they would hardly have obtained a profit-rent sufficient to in-duce them to place themselves between the head landlord and the tenant. The law of distress en-abled the middleman to raise the rent of land by the competition of paupers. It enabled him to col-lect that rent whenever the produce of the farm was sufficient; and, even when the crop proved in-sufficient, to take from the tenant all beyond a bare subsistence; so that the arrears remained a charge against the better produce of a future year. Thousands of active and energetic farmers have been driven out of Ireland by the operation of this law; which has swelled the rent-rolls of the landlords, and encumbered their estates with a pau-per tenantry; while those who declined to enter into this ruinous competition, or their descendants, are now cultivating land of their own in Canada or the United States. The oppressive nature of the right of distress has been so strongly felt, that various checks have from time to time been placed on its exercise. The result is, that its value to the landlord has been greatly lessened, while its injurious effects to the tenant remain in full force. At the same time that these extraordinary powers have been given to the landlord for the recovery of rent, his power for recovering possession of his land, in the event of non-payment, has been much more limited. He seldom can effect this object at a less cost than two years' rent, besides expensive litigation; and he is often obliged, from the defective state of the law, to pay the tenant for giving up to him his own land. The undue advantages which the law gives him in the one case, and the difficulty of enforcing his rights in the other, have proved materially injurious to both parties.* There are some peculiarities in the position of a landlord which distinguish him from other credi-tors, and which induce many to think him entitled to peculiar privileges. This subject has not hitherto * There has been some recent legislation which has given increased facilities to landlords to recover possession, when the rent is not paid, or when the land is deserted by the tenant. received the attention its importance demands, and which we think it must shortly receive. It appears to us worthy of serious consideration, whether it would not be right that rent should be considered as a simple contract debt, recoverable in the same way as other debts; that the landlord should have no priority over other creditors; but that ample facilities should, at the same time, be af-forded him to obtain possession of his land, if the rent be not paid. Nor are the difficulties of enforcing the recipro-cal rights of landlord and tenant confined to the punctual payment of rent, and the peaceful sur-render of land. If means existed for enforcing the due performance of other covenants between these parties, the ruinous practice of exhausting land during the last years of a lease could be effectually checked ; but under present circumstances all such covenants are practically useless. The power to enforce the observance of contracts is not less im-portant than perfect freedom in making them; yet it is stated by a barrister of high legal reputation, who recently investigated this subject, that "in the ordinary class of tenancies, a landlord or tenant is without any practical remedy to enforce any of his rights, save the payment of rent; and that the modes of enforcing even this first duty are oppressive and inadequate."* * "Report on the Legislative Measures requisite to facilitate the adoption of commercial contracts respecting the occupation of land in Ireland." By Robert Longfield, Esq. The agrarian outrages which have so deeply stained the character of Ireland, have lately ap-peared in an aggravated form where they were least expected to arise. It is due to society that every right effort should be made to secure life and pro-perty. But experience has abundantly shown that it is not sufficient to endeavour to repress crime by the terrors of the law: it is also necessary to search out the proximate and remote causes, and, by removing the temptations to crime, to diminish its amount. Far be it from us to extenuate the enormity or to palliate the guilt of these dreadful outrages; yet they have exciting causes, which should, if possible, be removed. The objects of these agrarian disturbances are various, but they always imply a contest between the landlords and the tenants-whether to obtain the possession of land, to prevent ejectment, to obtain a reduction, to prevent an advance of rents, or from vindictive motives. Their existence indicates a degree of energy and determination grievously misdirected, and they rarely appear in a very distressed district. Throughout a very large part of Ireland, such out-rages are as little known as they are in England. We are convinced that if a good system of laws for the regulation of real property had existed, so large an amount of agrarian crime would never have dis-graced our country. Many remedies have been proposed, with the view of promoting the improvement of the country. The Ulster tenant-right depends merely on the good feeling and sense of justice of the landlords, joined with the fear that an infringement of what the tenants have esteemed their rights might pro-duce serious disturbances. It does not effect per-fect security in Ulster, and it appears to us im-practicable to extend it by law to the rest of Ireland. To give the tenants a perpetuity at the present rents, or at a valuation, as proposed by the advo-cates of Fixity of tenure, would be to violate the rights of property, by confiscating the interests of the landlord for the advantage of the tenant. In-justice can never be expedient, and so long as the present laws respecting the transfer of land remain in operation, it does not appear to us that it would be permanently beneficial to the party for whose advantage it is proposed. Again, the plan of giving the tenant a legal right to compensation for improvements, subject to all the restrictions and limitations which the various measures hither-to proposed in Parliament have contained, would appear to us to be an additional complication of the law, harassing and vexatious to the landlord, and delusive to the tenant. Freehold Land Societies for the creation of pea-sant proprietors, and Farmers' Estate Companies, to create a class of yeomanry cultivating their own estates, are necessarily too limited in their operation to have any immediate or general effect. Unless our laws respecting land be simplified, these small estates will be much less valuable than they might be made under other circumstances. The expenses necessarily incurred in the sale and trans-fer of small properties, being relatively more op-pressive than in larger ones, will render it less profitable to hold land in small parcels; and it may be anticipated that the newly created small estates will again be gradually absorbed by the large ones. The remedy we venture to propose is the re-moval of all restrictions, whether of law or prac-tice, which interfere with the free use of the land for the various purposes of human industry. We advocate neither large nor small farms; neither peasant proprietors nor large estates; but simply that every facility should be given for the sale and transfer of land, and for the making and enforcing of fair agreements between landlords and tenants. We are aware that the passions of men and the temptations to which our fallen nature is liable must continue to produce both moral and physical evil; and will shew themselves in the social and political condition of the country, as in every relation of life. But it appears to us that these evils are greatly increased by the defective and un-certain working of complicated laws; and that it is necessary to free the agricultural population from these trammels, in order to give full scope to any measures which may be introduced for the elevation of their condition. The first object of legislation with respect to a! dealings connected with land is, to guard agains all restrictions or arrangements which practically interfere with the freedom of contract, or which impede the free operation of individual interests The second is, to make such provisions as may be required for those cases in which contracts are im-perfect or wholly wanting. Simplicity of legisla-tion is of great importance; and all unnecessary interference with that mode of management which private interests may dictate, is by all means to be avoided. The legislation on this subject should therefore be permissive and enabling, not compul-sory. If all parties connected with land be placed on a footing of complete equality, if perfect facility of forming and enforcing valid contracts be given them, the arrangements which their mutual in-terests will suggest will ensure the greatest bene-fit to themselves and to the public. The mea-sures her: suggested would not injure any class. If landed property were treated as a regular article of commerce, the owners would be benefited, for its price would rise. The increased security of title and the facility of sale would at once produce an increased demand. The same effect would be produced by the facility of selling estates in lots of moderate size. Many small capitalists, who have hitherto been altogether excluded from the market, would be able to purchase land, and would by their competition raise the price. The capital- Conclusion. ists would be benefited; because a new and secure investment for their capital would be opened; and the money which now seeks a precarious return in foreign securities, would be employed in giving in-creased fertility to the soil of our own country. The occupiers of land would be benefited; because they would be secured in the enjoyment of what their own industry had produced; and they would find at home those motives for exertion, which are now urging so many to quit their native land, in the reasonable hope of bettering their condition. The public at large would also be benefited; because the increased number of persons possessing landed property, and the greater facility of acquiring it, would promote the preservation of peace and order. There is no time to lose in effecting these reforms. The present state of the country, while it exhibits some indications of improvement, is such as to cause deep anxiety even to the most hopeful. The strong tendency to emigration still continues to diminish a population, which, in the midst of peace, has experienced a decrease such as the ravages of war have rarely or never produced; and it seems to have completely severed the ties which bound the people to their native land. Yet, although the present is dark, and the fu-ture uncertain, we are disposed to regard the pros-pects of the country with hope. Some of the causes of pauperism, which have heretofore been overlooked, are now forced on men's notice. Our misfortunes are no longer contemplated with sur-prise, but are regarded as the natural result of our social arrangements. The consideration of those arrangements ought to explain the causes of our past distress and to point out the remedies. If those remedies be fully and fairly applied, we ven-ture to indulge the hope that, under the blessing of Him who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, the social state of our country will rapidly improve, and Ireland ere long attain to a degree of pros-perity in remarkable contrast with her past severe sufferings. By order of the Committee, JONATHAN PIM, Secretary. Dublin, 5th of Eighth-month, 1852,