GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



417 



for poverty. They advocated the adoption of 

 a central system of relief-works, proposing as 

 suitable and profitable objects the construction 

 of railways, the reclamation of waste lands,* 

 planting of barren districts to forests, and, as 

 most important of all, a system of arterial 

 drainage to cover the whole of Ireland. The 

 Government could lend its credit to this scheme 

 without loss, it was argued, because large areas 

 in the most fertile districts are water-logged. 



The scheme of emigration was begun in the 

 spring of 1882, through the efforts of Mr. 

 James L. Tuke, who undertook the task as 

 a private benevolent enterprise, and received 

 contributions which enabled him to settle 

 during that year about 1,300 persons, from 

 Connemara and neighboring districts, in the 

 United States and Canada. The condition of 

 the poorest class of Irish farmers was de- 

 scribed by Chief-Secretary Trevelyan as more 

 deplorable than that of any class of people in 

 any civilized country. There are 67,000 farm- 

 ers of less than five acres, and 160,000 of from 

 five to fifteen, of which, in many cases, only 

 two or two and a half acres are arable. The 

 land has been spaded over and planted to pota- 

 toes until it yields only 90 cwt., instead of 

 from six to nine tons. After the failure of 

 the potato-crop in 1879, these people were re- 

 duced to the verge of starvation. The Duchess 

 of Marlborough's fund (130,000), the Man- 

 sion-House collections (174,000), the Land- 

 League relief fund, the ' New York Herald" 

 and other American relief funds, and the 1,- 

 500,000 from the Irish Church surplus, all but 

 a sixth of which was apportioned out in loans 

 and grants, helped to sustain them during 

 that and the succeeding bad year, until, in the 

 third year, there was an unusually good crop. 

 A large proportion of the tenant-farmers of 

 this class defaulted in their rent in 1881. 

 Nearly 50.000 in the counties of Mayo, Done- 

 gal, and Galway resorted to the arrears act, to 

 obtain the advantages of which it is necessary 

 to pay a year's rent. This the new crop fail- 

 ure in 1882 placed beyond the power of very 

 many. There were evidences of the return of 

 acute distress in the winter of 1882-'83. Phy- 

 sicians observed the prevalence of the feeble- 

 ness and disease resulting from low and unnat- 

 ural diet, in which sea- weed took the place of 

 more substantial food. The Government could 

 not affect to ignore a state of things in which 

 a large part of the population of the western 

 counties were enduring semi- starvation, and 

 hundreds of families were evicted from their 

 holdings. The fact that the work-houses were 

 only half full was but a specious excuse, as the 

 work-houses could accommodate no more than 

 a fraction of the suffering, and as it was known 

 from experience that, owing to the strength 



* In 1842 a scheme contemplating the reclamation of about 

 one million acres was adopted by Parliament, and money 

 voted for the purpose. Only one quarter of that area was 

 reclaimed, consisting of what is now as good arable land as 

 there is in the country. Sir Kobert Peel advocated in 1849 

 the extension of the works. 



VOL. xxni. 27 A 



of household ties and their reluctance to leave 

 their land uncared for, the work-house system 

 is inoperative for the relief of want among the 

 Irish peasantry. Out-door relief, which under 

 the English poor-law system is lavishly be- 

 stowed, is practically prohibited by the poor- 

 law regulations of Ireland. 



Besides the scheme of public works to fur- 

 nish employment, and the relaxation of the 

 work-house test in the administration of public 

 charity, as demanded by the Irish party, and 

 the scheme of assisted emigration, favored by 

 the Government, the improvement of the coast- 

 fisheries and the encouragement of manufact- 

 ures, were suggested by .others as the only 

 hope of permanently relieving the chronic 

 agricultural distress of Ireland, by furnishing 

 the people with other employments. Some 

 believed that capital for industrial undertak- 

 ings, such as linen-factories, etc., would flow 

 into Ireland if it were not hindered by the 

 agitation and incident disorders. Mr. Trevel- 

 yan, in reply to the demands of the Irish party, 

 expressed the unwillingness of the Govern- 

 ment further to burden the British tax-payers 

 to assist the Irish. The advances made during 

 the recent distress to furnish seed had been 

 abused by the guardians of certain impover- 

 ished unions, who had dealt out the seed-pota- 

 toes for food to the people, in the expectation 

 that repayment of the debt would never be 

 required. Irish members denied that the Brit- 

 ish had ever been taxed for Irish relief. The 

 famine-debt of 1847-'49, amounting to about 

 10,000,000, was remitted, but the Exchequer, 

 they argued, was reimbursed by the imposition 

 of additional taxes. While the tax on malt 

 was reduced from 2s. S^d. per bushel to 6d., 

 that on whisky was more than trebled, pro- 

 ducing in Ireland 3,000,000 in 1871 against 

 900,000 in 1851, and making the burden of 

 imperial taxation equivalent to an income-tax 

 of 5s. Zd. in the pound, while the taxes collect- 

 ed in England represented only 2s. 6$d. in the 

 pound of the national income. 



A memorial was received by Lord Spencer 

 on the 9th of January from the Roman Cath- 

 olic bishops of the west of Ireland. They 

 stated that one half of the potato-crop and 

 from one third to one half of the oat-crop had 

 been lost; that the portion harvested was gen- 

 erally of inferior quality ; that the rains had 

 prevented the gathering of turf, causing a 

 scarcity of fuel; and that the destitute, com- 

 prising from one fifth to one third of the pop- 

 ulation, had generally parted with their money 

 and their stock to pay rent and arrears, and 

 were in debt to the shopkeepers, who would 

 give no more credit. The bishops proposed as 

 a remedy for the distress, which'would increase 

 every week of the ensuing six months, unless 

 relieved, that the Government should extend 

 loans for the improvement of the holdings, 

 rather than furnish employment on public 

 works, which they considered demoralizing. 

 The loans to the amount of five years' rent 



