The mystery solved : or, Ireland's miseries; the grand cause, and cure

Front matter

illKILIV

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA

CHAP. III. — THE SOCIAL. Page

The Agitator — Natural history of agitation— O'Connell — Ulster, &c. The Legislature — The constitution— Laws — Repeal — " Misrule," &c., . • ,47

Habits — Feudalism— Style — Extravagance, &c. Pursuits

— Trade— Agriculture — Rack-rents — Tenant-right, &c., bl

CHAP. IV. — the moral.

Knowledge — General and religious ignorance — Superstitions, &c. &c. Virtue— Military, police, and criminal statistics— Consequent disorganization, &c. &c. Contrast IN Ulster— Light— MoraUty, &c. &c., . . 69

CHAP. V.^ — the religious

The Coincidence — ^Superiority of Protestantism in England, Scotland, Ireland's provinces, counties, parishes, towns, people. The Inference— The key of history in Ireland, Europe, &c. &c., . . , . 82

Chap. I. — Rome Eclipses The Mind

The Bible in Ireland — Altar harangues — Maynooth training — Priestly instructions — Impostures — Miracles — Rome the enemy of all light — Congregation of the Index — Parent of barbarism — Fruits in Ireland, &c. &c., , 98

Chap. V. — Rome Blasts Man's Temporal State

Financial Cubse of Ireland — Destroys prosperity — Robs community, &c. &c. Physical Curse— Effect on soil, climate, race, &c. Social Curse — Paralyses energies, perpetuates feudalism, aggravates landlord tyranny, &c. Political Curse — Curses our civil blessings — Trial by jury— Elective franchise, &c. — Creates agitation, despotism, &c. &c., . , , . . 165

Chap. VI. — Rome Clouds Man's Eternal Prospects

Protestant pseudo- Liberals — Paganism of Popery — Popish mummeries — A scene of devotion — Sacerdotal piety — The heaven of Rome — Her saints and sinners, &c. &c., 186

Chap. I. — The Medicine — The Popular Remedies

The Civil — The Land question— Ireland unfit for liberty — The mockery of freedom, &c. The Educational — National Board — Sectarian zealots— Godless philosophers — InsuflBciency of mere education, &c. The Industrial — Industrial Schemes— Advantages — Defects, &c. — The Scriptural — Touching incident — The two atmospheres — Power of the Bible — Its amazing triumphs — Glory of Britain, &c., , . . . . .202

Till CONTENTS.

CHAP. II. — THE MEDICINE THE GRAND SPECIPIO. Page

Philosophy of the Gospel — Indispensable to virtue, happiness» and general improvement of mankind — Atonement — Regeneration — True Catholicon — Monstrous folly of endoAving Maynooth — Fruits of the Gospel — Awakens the mind— Purifies the conscience — Gives a heart — Elevates the whole nature — Blesses for time, and eternity — A word to our statesmen, .... 225

Chap. III. — The Treatment — Information

Protestant ignorance— The practical of Rome — Its Satanic philosophy — The eclectic system of evil — Rome's tactics in these lands — Blustering^ cunning — Hatred of, and designs on England, &c., . . . . . 233

Chap. IV. — The Treatment Legislation

Rome a temporal power— The Convents— Their decoys — Their horrors— Our duty. Maynooth College— Its history— Course of instruction — Moral influence — Endowment—Infatuation of our rulers— Duty of the people, &c. &c., 257

Chap. V The Treatment — Evangelization

Ireland's grand hope— Past neglect — Missionary statistics — The Irish Society — Dingle — Achill — Birr — " Irish Schools" — "Scriptural and Industrial Schools" — Awakening in Connaught, &c. — The grand requisite — Revival in the Churches — Prayer — Faith — Wisdom — Union, &c., 277

CONCLUDING APPEAL,

Alarming progress of Popery — Increase of Irish in England — Scotland — Australia — America, &c. — Hope for Ireland — Evangelization — Emigration — Immigration, &c. &c., 294

THE MYSTEEY SOLYED, &c.

Part I. The Miseries

APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — COMMERCE — MANUFACTURES.

The present condition of Ireland is perhaps without a parallel amongst the nations of the earth.

Misery has long been this country's peculiar portion. Her history has been written with tears and blood. Her children are familiar with sackcloth and ashes. But in God's awful providence she seems at length to have reached the climax of wo ; and is now passing through such a complication of miseries, as has excited the astonishment and pity of the world.

Chapter I.— General Wretchedness

The first thing that strikes the traveller, is the air of desolation which begins to pervade whole districts — especially in Munster and Connaught. As he wanders through these provinces, he sees half-decayed towns,

A which once were so flourishing as to send members to the Irish parliament. He finds whole villages in ruins so complete, that nothing remains but a few tottering wallsteads, to tell that the hum of life was ever there. In some cases, even these monuments of desolation have disappeared, and the coachman points to a bare deserted spot, as the site of a former hamlet. And as to the destruction of farmsteads and cabins, he can scarce move in any direction but the scene appears as if some invading army had passed by.

He finds, on inquiry, that this decadence had commenced long prior to the famine, and was only hastened by that fearful visitation. On the eve of that calamity, and while yet the tide of events flowed in its usual channels, Ireland contained one-third the population, with one-fourth the surface of the United Kingdom; and yet her national revenue was not one-eleventh, being £4,500,000 sterling out of £52,000,000. The registered tonnage of her shipping was not one-twelfth, being 250,000 tons to near 3,250,000. And the proportion of persons employed in her factories was one twenty-third, being in round numbers, 23,000 to 545,000 ; * while her agricultural condition could scarce be compared to Britain's — there being then in Ireland near 1,000,000 of holdings on 13,500,000 acres of arable surface. And of these holdings, one-seventh did not exceed 1 acre each; one-third consisted of from 1 to 5 acres ; not one-twentieth were above 50 acres each ; and two-thirds, at least, were wretchedly cultivated.|

* See Thorn's Irish Statistics for 1849, pp. 54, 55, 177, 178, 182; Oliver and Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack tor 1848, pp. 141, 142. t See Thorn's Statistics, 1849, pp. 168, 169.

COMPARATIVE POVERTY. 11

If we look to the circumstances of the population of that period, our results are not less remarkable. While the English upper classes have long been the wealthiest in the world, few of the Irish were even then out of debt, and numbers were hopelessly embarrassed. While the English middle classes have long been surrounded with comforts, Ireland can scarce be said to have ever had a middle class. And of the fcAV that even then existed, the means were so slender, that often the Irish merchant was poorer than the English clerk ; and the Irish farmer would have been thankful for the food which English servants threw away; while the entire agricultural class, representing seven-tenths of Ireland's substance, were fast sinking into poverty. How, then, shall we compare the lower classes of both countries — the starved Irish peasant in his wretched hut, with the happy English hind in hi§ cheerful cottage ? More than three-fourths of all the dwellings in Ireland were at that period built of mud. Near one-half of all the families in Ireland lived in dwellings of but one apartment each.* Two-thirds of the entire population lived by manual labour, and subsisted on potatoes. Near one-third were out of work, and in distress thirty weeks in the year ; | while not less than one-eighth were paupers, or on the very verge of pauperism.

We think no one can read these statistics without being able to account for all the horrors of the famine of 1847. No prosperous country could be utterly prostrated by the failure of one crop — least of all, the potato — for no prosperous country depends upon it. It

* Census for 1841.

f- Third Report, Poor Inquiry Commission, is the staple food of poverty or sloth. That nation must have been foundering, which such a calamitycould so completely engulf. The above statistics demonstrate that Ireland was foundering — that the people were already so impoverished, as to be unable to bear any additional privations ; and many of them, indeed, so sunk in the gulf of wretchedness, that the least rise of its waters was sure to overwhelm them.

The census of 1851 has accordingly shown the disastrous eifects of the famine upon Ireland. Ten years before, the population was 8,175,124. At the same rate of increase which had marked all previous decennial periods, it should at least have been 9,000,000 in 1851 ; and many believed it had reached that number in 1846. Yet it was found to be only 6,515,794 — thus revealing the astounding fact, that in five years, the population of Ireland had virtually decreased two millions and ahalf, or near one-third ! ! This number is within about 370,000 of being equal to the entire population of Scotland. We have only, therefore, to imagine the almost total extinction of the Scottish nation, in order to form some estimate of our loss. Moreover, in the year 1841, there were 1,384,360 dwellings in Ireland. According to the census of 1851, the number was then reduced to 1,115,007, — showing, that in the mean time, no less than 269,353 of all the habitations of the country had been levelled to the ground! We find, from the same source of information, that this dreadful clearance has chiefly taken place amongst the small farmers — that humble class so graphically described by the poet, whose little plot

"Just gave what life required, but gave no more."

CLEARANCE OF SMALL FARMERS. 13

In 1845, there were, as already stated, near 1,000,000 of holdings in Ireland; and of this number, those which contained from 1 to 5 acres each, amounted to 310,436, and supported 1,862,250 individuals — more than one-fifth of the population. The census of 1851 has revealed the awful fact, that near three-fourths of this entire class have been swept away — there being then but 91,618 holdings, supporting 549,708 individuals ! We find, moreover, that of all the holdings which vfere under 15 acres each, one-half have disappeared, involving the clearance of 1,500,000 souls. All this in a few short years ! yet even now, the depopulation goes on as rapidly as ever. Who that has a heart oan read these details without emotion ? Near two hundred and SEVENTY THOUSAND DWELLINGS swept away ! And in these the pulse of affection once beat warmly; for nature has endowed the peasant with feelings as well as the prince. To these, the poor man proudly brought his bride. In these, they no doubt spent years of humble contentment, cheered amidst their sorrows by each other's love. There the mother has smiled over her infant's cradle, and perhaps wept over its coffin too ; and the hardy father has had his toils beguiled by the innocent prattle of his little ones. And there, too, have they often knelt around their dying embers, and in their own humble way and simple strains presented their evening prayer to heaven !

CHAP. II. THE FAMINE.

Such are the general statistics of our depopulation — the brevity of this sketch forbids minuter details. It is enough to say, that of the above 2,500,000, the famine destroyed about 1,000,000, and emigration has removed the remainder ; and let any one imagine, if he can, the scenes of wo embraced in these fearful figures! During the horrors of 1847, our country was transformed into a grave-yard and a lazar-house. It was quite common to see the people staggering like drunken men along the roads from the utter exhaustion of nature, their faces and legs being swollen with hunger; and pages might be filled with the bare record of cases the most affecting, of starvation, pestilence, and death. Let us just present the reader with an instance or two. At Killalla, the famished creatures used to crowd round the house of the Eev. Mr Eogers, wolfish with hunger ; and men once athletic and muscular would stand before his windows, take the skin which once covered a brawny arm, but now hung loose and wrinkled, and double it round the bone in order to prove the extent of their emaciation ! One woman was found stretched on the bed by the side of her dead husband, and after having just given birth to a poor wasted infant. It was not uncommon to find whole families dead in their cabins together. Nor were cases rare in which the famished creatures became deranged before expiring ; and in one such instance, the most awful of all the occurrences predicted against the Jews, was found to have taken place — the delirious mother had fed on her dead infant ! Our missionaries were doomed to witness daily the most heart-rending scenes. The Eev. Mr Brannigan one day observed a man and his wife digging in a stubble field. He approached and inquired what they were doing.

AFFECTING INCIDENT. 15

They told him they had five children, whom they had for a fortnight supported on cabbage and mill-dust, but that they were now actually starving ; that for the last two days they had kept them in bed to try to sleep off the hunger; and that they had that day been out from the early morning in quest of some wild roots, of which they exhibited a handful as the fruits of their protracted labours. Mr Brannigan was moved, and, uttering some kind words, he handed them two shillings. This relief coming so unexpectedly on the poor man, weakened as he was by sorrow and hunger, completely unmanned him, and he sobbed and wept in the minister's face ; while his wife, still less able to control her feelings, clasped her husband in her arms, exclaiming — *^ My dear! our children won't die yet." And yet these are mere samples. How many scenes more tragic still were enacted during that dreadful calamity, which no chronicle has ever recorded, of whose existence the world never heard, and over which no tears of sympathy were shed, except perhaps by some fellow-sufferers ! Nor must we forget that, in consequence of the partial failure of the potato ever since 1847, many districts have been suffering an annual famine, and have now, therefore, almost equalled Egypt's seven years of dearth without its previous seven of plenty.

CHAP. III. — EMIGRATION.

For many years a large portion of Ireland's shipping trade has been mere emigration. And its aggregate amount can be best seen from the fact that, according to a late estimate, there are in America 3,000,000 of native Irish, and 4,500,000 more of Irish descent. In other words, America now contains of inhabitants of Irish blood, 1,000,000 more than does Ireland itself ! Even previous to the famine of 1847, the annual number of emigrants had in six years steadily risen from 40,000 to 95,000; and since that time it has increased so prodigiously^ that the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners give the number emigrating in 1851 at 279,000. The daily arrivals of emigrants at the port of New York alone, range from 700 to 1000, and of these the great mass are Irish. Thus, after flowing westward for half a century, the stream of emigration, so far from diminishing, has swollen into a mighty flood; and the world now gazes on a phenomenon which can only be likened to the migrations of the Gauls or the Huns, or other wandering tribes of yore. Multitudes are flying from their once loved homesteads, as though Ireland were the scene of some physical as well as social convulsion, to a land which comprises all they can henceforth call a country ; deeming even its wild forests an asylum from their woes. They daily hear of the untimely end of thousands of their fellow-emigrants by shipwreck on the passage, or hardships on their arrival ; but so far is every other feeling overborne by the one desire to escape, that the most timid brave the deep, and the most infirm encounter the hardships. Of the crowds that thus hurry along in this general "exodus," scarce one returns, save the few who come back from ill health or indolence, nulla vestigia retrorsum ; so that a large portion of the country's business arises from emigration. From it our railways are reaping a transient and ruinous

ALARMING PROGRESS. 17

harvest — the numbers continually pouring along the Great Southern and Western alone are surprising. And seacoast villages, which vessels were never known to touch before, ships now regularly visit for their human cargoes. Churches and chapels are fast being emptied. The country begins to feel the fearful drain, and faints from excessive depletion ; yet on goes the increasing tide, and on it promises to go. In many cases the wail of the emigrants who crowd our ports is not so heartrending as that of their friends whom poverty compels to remain behind ; and had the people but the means of getting away, whole districts would rise and take their departure. Even the warmest advocates of the clearance-system begin to feel alarmed. Instead of a competition for land, as formerly, there has at length commenced a competition for tenants ; and some are seriously speaking of the necessity for parliamentary interference with the emigrant, to save the country from complete depopulation — it being a matter truly of easy enough calculation, that at the same increasing rate of emigration, a very few years indeed would leave Ireland a lonesome solitude.

Here is a state of things as mournful as it is unparalleled. We refer not so much to the previous dreadful hardships which such a general flight implies ; when, by a people proverbially attached to home, a Canadian log-hut is now deemed a blessing ; when the spell of country is so completely broken, that America, once their last resource, is now the goal of their hopes ; and what used to be dreaded as a land of exile, is now sighed for as a place of refuge. Nor do we refer so much to the anguish endured by our warm-hearted countrymen when thus torn from their humble, but yet beloved, homesteads! What this must be, the heart-rending cries of the emigrants who throng our quays but too painfully show; or their still more bitter wail, when taking their last farewell of those homely abodes which were endeared to them by a thousand recollections ! Not surely that these woes are to be overlooked or underrated ; on the contrary, they must command the deepest sympathy of our nature. He cannot be a man who could witness such scenes without emotion, or feeling all that our native poet has so touchingly expressed—

" Good Heaven! what sorrows gloomed that parting day That called them from their native walks away ; When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last; And shuddering still to face the distant deep, Returned and wept, and still returned to weep/*

Most affecting of all is it to see amongst those mournful groups, not the young and active merely, but many a poor old man who had hoped to lay his bones in his father's sepulchre: — to see trembling old age thus turned out on the world when almost leaving it; doomed to recommence life's pilgrimage at its close; and forced to encounter hardships fit only for elastic youth, and beneath which grey hairs are all but sure to sink. But we refer not now to these calamities.

We allude rather to the moral and social evils of this unnatural state of things. For many years it has been the very flower of the people who have been leaving — our enterprising upright yeomanry — who were not content to live on dry potatoes. It is the bones and sinews

EVILS OF EMIGRATION. 19

of the country we have been losing, who, besides contributing their labour and skill to America's national wealth, have been carrying with them each from £10 to £1000. By the departure of this class, it is reckoned that since 1845 the country has lost in cash alone about half a million sterling. Thus Ireland has for years been little else than a nursery-ground for America, whence the hardiest plants are being annually removed, while the least thriving and healthy are left behind. The cream of the nation has thus for years been flowing off. Like some liquid of which the purer portion at the top has been repeatedly drawn away, till the very sediment itself begins at length to run off — such has been tlie draining process of Irish emigration, on which Britain has looked with indifference^ till now the best of our people are gone to rear cities beneath a foreign banner, and all that remains for England's proud flag to wave over, is the pauperised and prostrated remnant.

Nor are the political bearings of the case to be wholly disregarded. It were idle to deny that America now holds that place in the hearts of most of our countrymen which England ought to possess. Hearken to their conversation, and America is the theme of their eulogies ; while England is spoken of in terms of invidious contrast, and in a spirit of moody discontent. Never was this fact more clearly proved than during the American ambassador's late visit to Ireland. While at a recent festival in Limerick, the health of our beloved Queen was received with hisses by some of the party, the people every where gave Mr Abbot Lawrence a royal reception, and flocked around him as though he had been a visitant from some better world. In truth, the hearts of the people are noXv in America. Enter almost any dwelling, and the great aim of the very servants is to save what will " take them out of this country" to that land of promise. Converse with our struggling farmers, and the last hope of many is that their sons who have gone before, may be spared to send for themselves and their families, and enable them to exchange the condition of British subjects for that of American citizens. Follow that youth to those distant shores, and you find him sustained amid their summer droughts and winter snows by the hope of soon rescuing his revered parent from hunger and " oppression," and welcoming him to that " laud of liberty" and wealth.

CHAP. IV. INCREASING PROSTRATION.

Such is the history of the millions we have lost — let us now glance at the state of the millions who remain. It would be some consolation for the loss of the former, if, as many hoped, it would have conduced to the good of the latter. According to our overpopulation theorists, Ireland was like some overcrowded ship ; and what was chiefly necessary to save her from sinking, was simply to lighten her of her human cargo. Well, this has been done, and to their hearts' content — has it enabled her to weather the tempest ?

Look to our upper classes, and how many of those who were embarrassed in 1846 are absolute bankrupts now ! Their property has so fast been passing through the Encumbered Estates' Court, that 2000 petitions have already been presented, of which 1600 have beenfiated;

DECAY OF GENTRY. 21

and yet it is the opinion of many that the labours of that court are only commencing. You now pass by numbers of decaying mansions which were once the homes of splendid hospitality. You see their magnificent demesnes neglected, and their various monuments of elegance fast going to ruin. And you find the only tenant of their lonely halls to be, perhaps some Chancery keeper, or else some old caretaker of the family who entertains you with stories of its ancient " grandeur." Some of these dwellings have been turned into poorhouses — sad emblem of our country's state! — and those who were once their lords are now penniless exiles in distant lands, or earning a pittance in some department of the public service. The sons of several of our gentry have been glad to enter the constabulary as common policemen, and a few at least are now private soldiers. A baronet is this moment a common turnkey in a prison, and at least one gentleman of high family has been discovered in a poorhouse ! There is something peculiarly affecting in these facts. By a merciful arrangement of Providence, those who have been cradled in hardships are for that very reason best fitted to endure them; but it is pitiful to think of hundreds in actual want who were reared as tenderly as any of our readers, and whose infant locks the rude winds of heaven were scarce ever permitted to toss. We have had applications from the daughters of gentlemen, couched in terms enough to make the heart bleed, begging to be made teachers of our industrial schools on £20 a-year. One of our missionaries was some time since sent for to visit a reduced lady who was reported to be dying. He found her in a wretched dwelling, and sinking mainly from sheer privation ; and the only relics of former years he could see, were a riding habit and a silver-mounted whip, which belonged to a beloved daughter ! And the most affecting feature of the case is, the shifts to which these persons frequently resort in order to conceal their distress. In one case, the author accidentally discovered the starving condition of a gentleman with a large family, who had held a high situation in the Customs ; and having at length so £ar gained his confidence as to induce him to make known his wants, he learned amongst other things that the only covering which the gentleman and his wife had over them at night was an old green baize cloth to which he pointed on the table before him!

Look now for an instant to our middle class — or rather to that class which in Ireland comes nearest to what is meant by this term, and embraces not only our merchants, shopkeepers, and higher agriculturists, but our traders, farmers, and private householders, of respectable character, but limited means. There is scarce any better index of the condition of this class, as well indeed as of all who stand between it and our humblest peasantry, than the state of our savings' banks. Now, in 1845 the number of depositors in the savings' banks of Ireland was 96,422 ; and the amount deposited, £2,921,581 ; whereas in the year 1850 the number of depositors had fallen to 47,987, and the amount deposited to £1,291,798 !

Another most important indication of a country's prosperity or decline, is the amount of its imports and exports. Now, in 1845, when we had a population of 8,500,000, our exports in grain alone were worth £4,500,000 sterling; yet, in 1850, with only

FARMERS SINKING. 23

6,500,000 of a population to feed, the value of our corn exports was but £1,500,000 sterling; — in other words, this principal source of our wealth had, in the above brief period, fallen away two-thirds ! Nor has this decline been confined to our grain trade. Our exports in cows and pigs amounted, in 1846, to above £4,500,000 sterling; whUe, in 1850, they had fallen away to £2,200,000, or less than one-half. And when it is recollected that seven-tenths of Ireland's wealth is agricultural, these figures but too plamly demonstrate the rapidity of her decline.

If next we look to the private circumstances of the farmers, we know that their live stock is one of the most important items, and sources, too, of their wealth. Every one knows that much of the value of their farms depends on their ability to stock them well. Now, in 1841, the value of live stock on each holding under fifteen acres averaged £9, and the total value on all the farms of this extent in Ireland, was, in round numbers, £10,500,000 sterling; while, in 1851, the average value of live stock on each had fallen to £6, 10s., showing that more than one-fourth of this source of our national wealth has also disappeared. And it has been truly affecting to mark, in so many farmers' dwellings, those sure and steady strides of poverty which the foregoing statistics indicate ; to see, first of all, how the farmer's little savings were gradually drawn from the savings' bank till all w^as gone — then how his cattle were sold, one by one, till frequently the last cow disappeared-^then how his household furniture itself went, piece by piece, and the very apparel of the family began to be sold or pawned ; and how the long-mairxtained, but fruitless struggle, was finally closed by the poor man giving up his farm on which his fathers had dwelt for generations, and mournfully bending his steps to the poorhouse or the seaport. The last five years have hence been unexampled for the number of auctions and other sales; and when so many were selling, and so few able to buy, the sacrifices often made at these were, of course, enormous. Nor have the pawnbrokers been less busily employed than the auctioneers. We have known even their yards and outhouses to be filled with articles from their surrounding neighbourhoods. And in some cases they have suffered from the very excess of their stores, so many have been pawning and so few purchasing !

Of course, there are many exceptions to this general decline, both in our middle and upper classes. We speak of the majority, though we fear it is the large majority ; for if so many signs of distress appear in those ranks of Irish society whose fondness for keeping up an appearance is so proverbial, and whose dread of being thought poor is so great, that they would almost rather starve than let their wants be known, we cannot but conclude that, were we admitted behind the scenes, we would discover an amount of privation which would more than justify the picture we have drawn.

If, then, such is the condition even of our gentry and yeomanry, what can we expect amongst those lower grades from which our vast armies of paupers are chiefly recruited ? Perhaps our poor-law statistics will form the best answer to this question. Let the reader