The Land-War in Ireland: A History for the Times

by James Godkin

The clergy, Protestant and Roman Catholic, almost the only resident gentry in several of the destitute districts, worked together on the committees with commendable zeal, diligence, and unanimity. Among the Roman Catholic clergy, Father Mathew was at that time by far the most influential and popular. The masses of the peasantry regarded him as almost an inspired apostle. During the famine months, he exerted himself with wonderful energy and prudence, first, in his correspondence with different members of the Government, earnestly recommending and urging the speedy adoption of measures of relief; and next, in commending those measures to the people, dissuading the hungry from acts of violence, and preaching submission and resignation under that heavy dispensation of Providence. Of this there are ample proofs in the letters published by Mr. Maguire, M.P. 'It is not to harrow your feelings, dear Mr. Trevelyan,' he wrote, 'I tell this tale of woe. No; but to excite your sympathy in behalf of our miserable peasantry. It is rumoured that the capitalists in the corn and flour trade are endeavouring to induce the Government not to protect the people from famine, but to leave them at their mercy. I consider this a cruel and unjustifiable interference. I am so unhappy at the prospect before us, and so horror-struck by the apprehension of our destitute people falling into the ruthless hands of the corn and flour traders, that I risk becoming troublesome, rather than not lay my humble opinions before you.' Again: 'I hail with delight the humane, the admirable measures for relief announced by my Lord John Russell; they have given universal satisfaction. But of what avail will all this be, unless the wise precautions of Government will enable the toiling workman, after exhausting his vigour during a long day to earn a shilling, to purchase with that shilling a sufficiency of daily food for his generally large and helpless family?' Father Mathew earnestly pleaded for out-door relief, in preference to the workhouse, foreseeing the danger of sundering the domestic bonds, which operate so powerfully as moral restraints in Ireland. The beautiful picture which he drew of the Irish peasant's home in his native land was not too highly coloured, as applied to the great majority of the people:—'The bonds of blood and affinity, dissoluble by death alone, associate in the cabins of the Irish peasantry, not only the husband, wife, and children, but the aged parents and the married couple and their destitute relatives, even to the third and fourth degree of kindred. God forbid that political economists should dissolve these ties! should violate these beautiful charities of nature and the gospel! I have often found my heart throb with delight when I beheld three or four generations seated around the humble board and blazing hearth; and I offered a silent prayer to the great Father of all that the gloomy gates of the workhouse should never separate those whom such tender social chains so fondly link together.'

The following is a tabular view of the whole amount of voluntary contributions during the Irish famine, which deserves a permanent record for the credit of our common humanity:—

	£	s.	d.	£	s.	d.
Local contributions officially reported
in 1846				104,689	18	1
Local contributions officially reported
in 1847				199,569	4	1
British Relief Association, total received	470,041	1	1
say five-sixths for Ireland				391,700	17	8
General Central Relief Committee,
College Green	83,934	17	11
Less received from British Relief
Association	20,190	0	0
	_______	___	___	63,744	17	11
Irish Relief Association, Sackville
Street				42,446	5	0
Relief Committee of the Society of
Friends, London				42,905	12	0
Central Relief Committee of the
Society of Friends, Dublin	198,313	15	3
Less received from Committee of the
Society of Friends in London,
and interest	39,249	19	11
	_______	___	___	159,063	15	4
Indian Relief Fund				13,919	15	2
National Club, London				19,929	12	2
Wesleyan Methodist Relief Fund,
London				20,056	14	4
Irish Evangelical Society, London				9,264	9	9
Baptists' Relief Fund, London				6,141	11	2
Ladies' Irish Clothing Society, London	9,533	4	0
Less received from British Association, &c.	5,324	12	11
	_______	___	___	4,208	11	1
Ladies' Relief Association for Ireland	19,584	0	9
Less received from Irish Relief
Association and for sales of
manufactures	7,659	6	7
	_______	___	___	11,924	14	2
Ladies' Industrial Society for encouragement
of labour among the peasantry	1,968	12	8
Less received from Irish Relief
Association	1,500	0	0
	_______	___	___	468	12	8
Belfast Ladies' Association for the
relief of Irish Distress				2,617	1	6
Belfast Ladies' Industrial Association
for Connaught				4,615	16	1
There were also two collections in
Belfast for general purposes, the
amount of which exceeded				10,000	0	0

Footnote 1: [(return)]

Transactions during the Famine in Ireland, Appendix III.

CHAPTER XVII.

TENANT-RIGHT IN ULSTER.

The Earl of Granard has taken a leading part in the movement for the settling of the land question, having presided at two great meetings in the counties in which he has large estates, Wexford and Longford, supported on each occasion by influential landlords. He was the first of his class to propose that the question should be settled on the basis of tenant-right, by legalising and extending the Ulster custom. A reference to this custom has been frequently made recently, in discussions on the platform and in the press. I have studied the history of that province with care; and I have during the year 1869 gone through several of its counties with the special object of inquiring how the tenant-right operates, and whether, and to what extent, it affords the requisite security to the cultivators of the soil; and it may be of some service that I should give here the result of my enquiries.

Of the six counties confiscated and planted in Ulster, Londonderry, as I have already remarked, was allotted to the London companies. The aspect of their estates, is on the whole, very pleasing. In the midst of each there is a small town, built in the form of a square, with a market-house and a town-hall in the centre, and streets running off at each side. There are almost invariably three substantial and handsome places of worship—the parish church, always best and most prominent, the presbyterian meeting-house, and the catholic chapel, with nice manses for the ministers, all built wholly or in part by grants from the companies.