And in addition to these large donations of money and food, consignments of clothing were received from England and America, to the estimated value of from 5,000ℓ. to 10,000ℓ.
The ladies of Ireland exerted themselves with characteristic zeal and benevolence, to alleviate the sufferings of their country-people, and to promote their moral advancement, by awakening and encouraging a spirit of independent exertion, and fostering habits of industry and self-reliance. The “Ladies’ Relief Association for Ireland,” in the management of which the Honourable Mrs. Newcombe takes the principal part, and the objects of which are “to encourage industry among the female peasantry of Ireland, to contribute towards providing nourishment for the sick, and to procure clothing for the destitute,” raised 11,465ℓ. previously to the 1st of August, 1847, of which 3,043ℓ. was derived from the proceeds of a Fancy Bazaar in London, and of this sum 2,500ℓ. was appropriated to the relief of families whose husbands or fathers “have been removed while performing their painfully laborious duties.” The “Ladies’ Industrial Society for the Encouragement of Remunerative Labour among the Peasantry of Ireland,” of which Mrs. Lloyd is the active promoter, more particularly aims at encouraging the manufacture of those articles which are likely to find a ready sale in the trade; for which purpose, instruction is given in the best and most practicable descriptions of remunerative labour; patterns, models, and implements are furnished, and a sale is provided for the produce, through the intervention of a mercantile agency in Dublin. Numerous benevolent persons adopted the same course in various parts of Ireland, sometimes in connection with these societies, and sometimes using their own means, with such aid as was sent to them by their private friends. Mr. Gildea, the Rector of Newport, and the ladies of his family, revived the manufacture of coarse linen at that place, and they have employed between 500 and 600 females since the beginning of January, in the execution of orders sent them by charitable persons[49]. The ladies of the Presentation Convent at Galway gave every day a good meal of porridge to upwards of 600 starving children who attended their schools. The ladies of the Owenmore Relief Committee raised and expended in various works of charity, 2,427ℓ., exclusive of grants of the British Association and of the Government, to five parochial kitchens superintended by them. Want of space alone prevents us from alluding to many other similar instances.
In the autumn and winter of 1846 efforts were made to induce the Government to take an active part in assisting emigration by an apportionment of the expense of passage and outfit between the public, the landlords, and the emigrants themselves; but, on a full consideration of the subject, it appeared that the emigration about to take place in the ensuing season to Canada and the United States, without any assistance from the public, was likely to be quite as large as those countries could properly absorb, and that the consequence of the interference of the Government would be that the movement would be carried beyond those limits which were consistent with safety, and that a burthen would be transferred to the taxpayers of the United Kingdom, which would otherwise be borne by those to whom it properly belonged, owing to their interests being more immediately concerned. It is also a point of primary importance, that those persons should emigrate, who, from age, health, character, and circumstances, are best able to contend with the hardships and difficulties of a settler’s life, and it was considered that this object would be most fully attained if the emigration were entirely voluntary. The true test of fitness in this case is the possession, on the part of each individual concerned, of the will and ability to emigrate; and the probability of helpless multitudes being sent forth, who, both for their own sakes and for that of the colony, ought to have remained at home, is increased in proportion as other motives and other interests besides those of the emigrant himself influence his act of expatriation. For these reasons Her Majesty’s Ministers determined to confine themselves to taking increased securities for the safety of the emigrants during their voyage, and their early and satisfactory settlement after their arrival abroad. Additional emigration agents were appointed to Liverpool and to different Irish ports; the annual vote in aid of colonial funds for the relief of sick and destitute emigrants from the United Kingdom, was increased from 1000ℓ. to 10,000ℓ.; provision was made for giving assistance in the case of emigrant ships being driven back by stress of weather, and the Governor-General of Canada was informed that Her Majesty’s Government would be prepared to defray its fair share of any further expense that might have to be incurred in giving the Emigrants necessary relief, or in forwarding them to places where they might obtain employment[50].
Early in the year 1847 the roads to the Irish sea-ports were thronged with families hastening to escape the evils which impended over their native land. The complaint in Ireland, at the time, was, that those who went belonged to the best and most substantial class of the agricultural population. The complaint afterwards in Canada was that those who came were the helpless and destitute. The fact was, that the emigrants generally belonged to that class of small holders, who, being somewhat above the level of the prevailing destitution, had sufficient resources left to enable them to make the effort required to effect their removal to a foreign land; and the steps taken by them to convert their property into an available form, had for months before been the subject of observation. Large remittances, estimated to amount to 200,000ℓ. in the year ending on the 30th March, 1847, were also made by the Irish emigrants settled in the United States and the British North American provinces, to enable their relations in Ireland to follow them[51]. The emigration of 1846 from the United Kingdom, which was the largest ever known up to that time, amounted to 129,851 persons; the emigration of the first three quarters of 1847 was 240,461; and almost the whole of it was from Ireland to Canada and the United States[52].
Even this does not represent the full extent of the outpouring of the population of Ireland which took place in this eventful year. From the 13th January to the 1st November, 278,005[53] immigrants arrived at Liverpool from Ireland, of whom only 122,981 sailed from that port to foreign countries. The conflux of this mixed multitude was formidable both to the health and resources of the inhabitants of Liverpool; but they nobly faced the danger, and exerted themselves to meet the emergency with the vigour it required. The portion of the town occupied by the Irish was divided into thirteen districts, in each of which a relief station was opened, and twenty-four additional relieving officers were appointed, under the superintendence of two inspectors. The number of persons relieved daily amounted for some time to upwards of 10,000. The district medical officers were increased from six to twenty-one, and extensive premises were hired or constructed for the purpose of being used as temporary fever hospitals. All this was done at the expense of the inhabitants, and the only assistance given by the Government was, that when the fever increased to an alarming extent, quarantine ships were stationed in the Mersey to receive the infected. Nineteen relieving officers died at Liverpool alone of fever caught in the execution of their duties. The influx of poor Irish by way of Glasgow, Ardrossan, Port Patrick, Fleetwood, the Welsh ports, Bristol, Plymouth, Southampton, and London itself, was also very large; and quarantine arrangements had to be made in the Clyde similar to those at Liverpool.
Some relief was obtained by the passing of the Act 10 & 11 Vic. c. 33, “to amend the Laws relating to the Removal of Poor Persons from England and Scotland;” and 4,583 paupers who had become chargeable to the Liverpool parochial funds, or who applied to be removed, were sent back to their own districts in Ireland, at a cost of 1,322ℓ., between the 19th July, when the Act came into operation, and the 31st October. Previously to this, there was very little crime among these poor people, not even in petty thefts; but it soon appeared that they preferred being sent to prison to being sent back to Ireland. In the year ending 30th September, 1846, 398 natives of Ireland were committed to the borough prison at Liverpool for begging, pilfering about the docks, &c. In the year ending 30th September, 1847, 888 were so committed. In the month of October 1846, 80 were committed; in the same month of 1847, 142. This pauper immigration passed inland to all the large towns of this island, as far as London and Edinburgh; and the following statement of the number of Roman Catholic clergymen who died of the Irish fever caught in attending the sick since March 1847, may be taken as an index of the relative pressure[54]:—
Lancashire.
Rev. Peter Nightingale, resident priest of St. Anthony’s, Great Homer Street, Liverpool.
William Parker, senior resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park Lane, Liverpool.
Richard Grayston, resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park Lane, Liverpool.
James Haggar, resident priest of St. Patrick’s, Park Lane, Liverpool.
Thomas Kelly, D.D., resident priest of St. Joseph’s, Grosvenor Street, Liverpool.
John F. Whitaker, removed from Manchester to succeed Dr. Kelly at St. Joseph’s, where he died.
J. F. Appleton, D.D., senior resident priest of St. Peter’s, Seel Street, Liverpool.
John A. Gilbert, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Edmund Street, Liverpool.
William V. Dale, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Edmund Street, Liverpool.
Robert Gillow, resident priest of St. Nicholas’s, Copperas Hill, Liverpool.
John Hearne, senior priest of St. John’s, Wigan.
Robert Johnson, resident priest of St. John’s, Wigan.
John Dowdall, resident priest in Bolton.
Cheshire.
Michael Power, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Duckinfield.
Yorkshire.
Thomas Billington, Vicar-General of Yorkshire district, and senior resident priest of St. Mary’s, York.
Henry Walmsley, senior resident priest of St. Ann’s, Leeds.
Richard Wilson, resident priest of St. Anne’s, Leeds.
Edward Metcalfe, successor to Rev. R. Wilson at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
Joseph Curr, Secretary to Bishop Briggs, with whom he resided at Fulford House near York. He volunteered his services after the death of Mr. Metcalfe, and in the course of a few weeks died at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
J. Coppinger. Removed from Hull to supply the vacancies caused by the above deaths, and very shortly after his removal died at St. Anne’s, Leeds.
Durham.
Joseph Dugdale, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Stockton.
Northumberland.
James Standen, senior resident priest of St. Andrew’s, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Right Rev. Dr. Riddell, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District and Bishop of Longo. After the death of Mr. Standen, Bishop Riddell undertook to attend to the visitation of the sick in person. He very soon caught the fever and died at Newcastle.
Staffordshire.
Rev. James Kennedy, resident priest at Newcastle-under-Lyne.
Gloucestershire.
P. Hartley, resident priest of St. Peter’s, Gloucester.
Wales.
Edward Mulcahy, resident priest of St. Mary’s, Bangor, North Wales.
M. Carroll, resident priest at Merthyr Tydvil, South Wales.
Scotland.
Richard Sinnott, Stranraer, Greenock.
J. Bremner, Abbey Parish, Paisley.
W. Walsh, Old Monkland.
The pestilence, which all the precautions practicable on land could not overcome, broke out, as was to be expected, with increased virulence on board the emigrant ships. A new law was passed at Boston in Massachusetts, empowering the local authorities to demand a bond of 1000 dollars from the masters of emigrant ships for each passenger apparently indigent, that he should not become chargeable to the State or to the city for ten years, the effect of which was to divert the stream of emigration to a greater extent than usual to Canada and New Brunswick. The deaths on the voyage to Canada increased from 5 in every 1000 persons embarked, to about 60, or to twelve times their previous rate; and so many more arrived sick, that the proportion of deaths in quarantine to the numbers embarked, increased from 1⅓ to about 40 in the 1000, besides still larger numbers who died at Quebec, Montreal, and elsewhere in the interior[55]. A Medical Board was appointed; large supplies of provisions were dispatched to the quarantine station; tents sufficient for the reception of 10,000 persons were issued from the Ordnance stores, and the labours of the Commissariat in this war against famine and pestilence, were carried on at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic; but the utmost exertions and the most liberal expenditure could not prevent a fearful amount of suffering amongst the emigrants, and a painful spread of disease to the resident population.
We are well aware that among men of talents and of benevolent dispositions, there is a wide difference on the important question of emigration; and in what follows on this subject, we wish to be understood, not as committing ourselves to particular opinions, but merely as making a statement, in pursuance of the historical character of this review, of what we believe to have been the views which guided the resolutions of the Government.
There is no subject of which a merely one-sided view is more commonly taken than that of Emigration. The evils arising from the crowded state of the population, and the facility with which large numbers of persons may be transferred to other countries, are naturally uppermost in the minds of landlords and rate-payers; but Her Majesty’s Government, to which the well-being of the British population in every quarter of the globe is confided, must have an equal regard to the interests of the emigrant and of the colonial community of which he may become a member. It is a great mistake to suppose that even Canada and the United States have an unlimited capacity of absorbing a new population. The labour market in the settled districts is always so nearly full, that a small addition to the persons in search of employment makes a sensible difference; while the clearing of new land requires the possession of resources[56], and a power of sustained exertion not ordinarily belonging to the newly-arrived Irish emigrant. In this, as well as in the other operations by which society is formed or sustained, there is a natural process which cannot with impunity be departed from. A movement is continually going on towards the backwoods on the part of the young and enterprising portion of the settled population, and of such of the former emigrants as have acquired means and experience; and the room thus made is occupied by persons recently arrived from Europe, who have only their labour to depend upon. The conquest of the wilderness requires more than the ordinary share of energy and perseverance, and every attempt that has yet been made to turn Paupers into Backwoodsmen by administrative measures, has ended in signal failure. As long as they were rationed, they held together in a feeble, helpless state; and when the issue of rations ceased, they generally returned to the settled parts of the country. Our recent experience of the effects of a similar state of dependence in Ireland, offers no encouragement to renew the experiment in a distant country, where the difficulties are so much greater, and a disastrous result would be so much less capable of being retrieved.