The circumstances of Ireland at this time, induced the government to exercise the power conferred by the 119th section of the Irish Poor Relief Act, and to appoint a fourth commissioner to act in that country. The gentleman selected was Mr. Twisleton, of whom mention has been made in connexion with the Scotch Poor Law;[[132]] and on his proceeding to Ireland, the powers previously delegated to the two assistant-commissioners[[133]] were revoked.
1847.
Ninth report of proceedings in Ireland.
The ninth Report (for 1846-7) is like the others dated on the 1st of May. It describes very fully the effects consequent on the potato disease of the previous autumn, so far as these effects bore upon the working of the Poor Law. The connexion between the two, although in one sense intimate, is in other respects limited; for where the land has ceased to be productive, the necessary means of relief cannot be obtained from it, and a poor-law will no longer be operative, or at least not operative to an extent adequate to meet such an emergency as then existed in Ireland. A poor-law, rightly devised and judiciously administered, will generally be found equal to the relief of destitution in the ordinary progress of events; but a state of famine, or a total failure of the means of subsistence is extraordinary, and the wide-spread destitution thence arising is beyond the powers of a poor-law effectually to relieve, although it may doubtless be applied to some extent in mitigation. Under the circumstances at that time unhappily existing in Ireland, other aid was necessary beyond what could be derived from any modification of the Poor Law; and the nature of those circumstances, and the means pursued in dealing with them, will be explained in the following pages.
The potato disease in 1846.
The potato disease made its appearance in 1846 much earlier than in the preceding year, and it was also much more general and destructive. Captain Mann in his narrative of events in the county of Clare at this period, says that the symptoms of the disease were first noticed in the latter part of July; but that the change which took place in one week in August was such as he shall never forget—“On the first occasion (he says) I had passed over thirty-two miles thickly studded with potato-fields in full bloom. The next time the face of the whole country was changed—the stalk remained a bright green, but the leaves were all scorched black. It was the work of a night. Distress and fear was pictured in every countenance, and there was a general rush to dig and sell, or consume the crop by feeding pigs and cattle, fearing in a short time they would prove unfit for any use.” And in a letter printed in the Parliamentary Papers, Father Mathew[[134]] states—“On the 27th of July I passed from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest. Returning on the 3rd of August, I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putrifying vegetation. In many places the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing their hands and wailing bitterly the destruction that had left them foodless.”
The disease made its first appearance in the form of little brown spots on the leaves of the plant. These continued to increase until the leaves became withered, leaving the stem bare, and so brittle that it snapped off on being handled. The whole was effected in less than a week, the fields appearing as if they were burnt, and the growth of the root entirely destroyed. No potatoes were pitted this year, and the wheat crop barely amounted to an average, whilst barley and oats were decidedly deficient. “On the continent the rye and potato crops again failed, and prices rose there early in the season above those ruling in England, which caused the shipments from the Black Sea, Turkey and Egypt to be sent to France, Italy and Belgium; and it was not till late in the season that our prices rose to a point which turned the current of supplies towards England and Ireland. The Indian corn crop in the United States this year was however happily very abundant, and it became a resource of the utmost value to this country.[[135]]
Reduction of duty on corn imported.
In June 1846, The 9th and 10th Vict. cap. 22, was passed, providing for the gradual reduction of the import duty on corn, and fixing it at 1s. per quarter on every description imported after the 1st of February 1849. On the assembling of parliament in January 1847, two other Acts were passed[[136]] making further reductions in the duty on corn, and removing the restriction imposed by the Navigation Laws on the importation of corn in foreign vessels; and shortly afterwards the whole duty on rice and Indian corn and Indian meal was suspended.
Relief committees formed.
In the early part of 1846, relief committees were formed throughout Ireland, under the superintendence of a central commission established in Dublin, for the purpose of dispensing food, the requisite funds being furnished by private subscriptions assisted by donations from government. The months of June and July was the period of heaviest pressure, during which one of the central depôts established by government, issued in a single week no less than 233 tons of meal to its various sub-depôts, and one of these latter again retailed 20 tons to the public daily. If the people had lived by wages like the labouring classes in England, the providing a cheap substitute for the potato would have been sufficient for the present emergency. But money-wages were comparatively little known in Ireland, the people chiefly subsisting on produce raised by themselves; and it was therefore necessary to adopt some plan for enabling them to purchase the new description of food which had been procured for them.