134 



IRELAND (SOCIAL STATE.) 



celebrated captain Rock, and he excited a general 

 opposition to rent over Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and 

 Cork. In 1825?, the peasantry rose in a body for the 

 reduction of rent ; and most of the cases of outrage 

 subsequent to that period have been connected with 

 land. The Carders, the Righters,. the Shanavats, the 

 Caravats, the Whiteboys, the Peep-o'day boys, the 

 Thrashers, the Riskavallas, the Rockites, the White- 

 feet, the Blackfeet, the Lady-Clares, and Terry-Alts, 

 are all varieties of the same gang, and have all, 

 more or less, originated in the enforcement of rents 

 or the ejection of tenants. 



In seeking for the causes of these and other evils 

 that afflict Ireland, and that prevent it from taking 

 that place among the prosperous and civilized king- 

 doms of Europe which its many natural advantages, 

 and the warm-hearted and quick-witted character of 

 its inhabitants, so eminently entitle it to do, the 

 reader may be surprised to learn, that the extensive 

 cultivation of the potatoe in that country has been con- 

 sidered by some economists as its greatest curse. This 

 startling doctrine was, we believe, first advanced by 

 Mr J. R. Macculloch ; and is supported by him with so 

 much apparent reason, that we cannot close the subject 

 better than by quoting his own words. After demon- 

 strating that an acre of potatoes will feed at least 

 double the number of individuals that can be fed from 

 an acre of wheat, Mr Macculloch proceeds to say 

 that, 



" On the most moderate estimate, the population 

 of a potato-feeding country may become, other things 

 being about equal, from two to three times as dense 

 as it could have been, had the inhabitants fed wholly 

 on corn. But it is exceedingly doubtful whether an 

 increase of population, brought about by a substitu- 

 tion of the potato for wheat, be desirable. Its use 

 as a subordinate or subsidiary species of food is 

 attended with the best effects producing both an 

 increase of comfort and security ; but there are cer- 

 tain circumstances inseparable from it, which would 

 seem to oppose the most formidable obstacles to its 

 advantageous use as a prime article of subsistence. 



" It is admitted on all hands, that the rate of wages 

 is principally determined by the species of food made 

 use of in a country. Now, as potatoes form that 

 species which is produced at the very least expense, 

 it may be fairly presumed, on general grounds, that 

 wages will be reduced to a minimum wherever the 

 labouring classes are mainly dependent on potatoes ; 

 and the example of Ireland shows that this conclusion 

 is as consistent with fact as with principle. It is 

 clear, however, that when the crop of potatoes happens 

 to be deficient in a country thus situated, the condi- 

 tion of its inhabitants must be in the last degree un- 

 fortunate. During a period of scarcity, men cannot 

 go from a low to a high level : if they would elude 

 its pressure, they must leave the dearer, and resort 

 to cheaper species of food. But to those who subsist 

 on potatoes this is not possible ; they have already 

 reached the lowest point in the descending scale. 

 Their wages being determined by the price of the least 

 expensive sort of food, they cannot, when it fails, buy 

 tliat which is dearer; so that it is hardly possible for 

 them to avoid falling a sacrifice to absolute want. 

 The history of Ireland abounds, unfortunately, in 

 examples of this sort. Nothing is more common 

 than to see the price of potatoes in Dublin, Limerick, 

 &c. , rise, because of a scarcity, to five or six times 

 their ordinary price, and the people to be involved in 

 the extreme of suffering ; and yet it rarely happens, 

 upon such occasions, tliat the price of corn is mate- 

 rially affected, or that any less quantity than usual is 

 exported to England. 



" It may be said, perhaps, that had potatoes not 

 been introduced, wheat, or bailey, or oats, would 



liave been the lowest species of food ; and that when- 

 ever they happened to fail, the population would 

 have been as destitute as if they had been subsisting on 

 potatoes. It must, however, be observed, that the 

 proportion which the price of wheat, or any species 

 of grain, bears to the price of butcher's meat, tea, 

 beer, &c., is always decidedly greater than the pro- 

 portion which the price of potatoes bears to these 

 articles : and it therefore follows, that a people, who 

 have adopted wheat, or any species of com, for the 

 principal part of their food, are much better able to 

 make occasional purchases of butcher's meat, &c. ; 

 and will consequently be more likely to have their 

 habits elevated, so as to consider the consumption of 

 a certain quantity of animal food, &c. as indispensa- 

 ble to existence. And hence it appears reasonable 

 to conclude, that a people who chiefly subsist on corn, 

 would, in most cases, subsist partially on butcher's 

 meat, and would enjoy a greater or less quantity of 

 other articles : so that it would be possible for them, 

 in a period of scarcity, to make such retrenchments 

 as would enable them to elude the severity of its 

 pressure. 



" But though the population in corn-feeding coun- 

 tries were dependant on the cheapest species of grain, 

 not for a part only, but for the whole of their food, 

 their situation would, notwithstanding, be less hazard- 

 ous than that of a population subsisting wholly on 

 potatoes. 



" In the first place, owing to the impossibility, as 

 to all practical purposes at least, of preserving pota- 

 toes, the surplus produce of a luxuriant crop cannot 

 be stored up or reserved as a stock to meet any sub- 

 sequent scarcity. The whole crop must necessarily 

 be exhausted in a single year; so that when the in- 

 habitants have the misfortune to be overtaken by a 

 scarcity, its pressure cannot be alleviated, as is almost 

 uniformly the case in corn-feeding countries, by bring- 

 ing the reserves of former harvests to market. Every 

 year is thus left to provide subsistence for itself. 

 When, on the one hand, the crop is luxuriant, the 

 surplus is of comparatively little use, and is wasted 

 uuprofitably; and when, on the other hand, it is 

 deficient, famine and disease necessarily prevail. 



" In the second place, the general opinion seems to 

 be, that the variations in the quantities of produce 

 obtained from land planted with potatoes, are greater 

 than the variations in the quantities of produce ob- 

 tained from land on which wheat, or any other species 

 of grain, is raised. 



" And lastly, owing to the great bulk and weight 

 of potatoes, and the difficulty of preserving them on 

 shipboard, the expense of conveying them from one 

 country to another is so very great, that a scarcity can 

 never be materially relieved by importing them from 

 abroad. In consequence, those who chiefly depend 

 on potatoes are practically excluded from participat- 

 ing in the benevolent provision made by nature for 

 equalizing the variations in the harvests of particular 

 countries by means of commerce, and are thrown 

 almost wholly on their own resources. 



" We should, therefore, be warranted in conclud- 

 ing, even though we were not possessed of any direct 

 evidence on the subject, from the circumstance 01 

 the potato being a crop that cannot be kept on hand, 

 from its natural fickleness, and from the incapacity of 

 importing it when deficient, or of exporting it when 

 in excess, that the oscillations in its price must be 

 greater than in the price of wheat; and such, in 

 point of fact, is the case. The oscillation in wheat 

 is thought great when its price is doubled ; but in a 

 scarce year the potato is not unfrequently six times as 

 dear as in a plentiful one! And the comparatively 

 frequent recurrence of scarcities in Ireland, and the 

 destitution and misery in which they involve the 



