CHAP. A faithful dog was sometimes found beside the body, emaciated and weak, but true to its trust even in death. XLIII. 1847. "Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, A mournful scene was very frequently presented at the farmhouses during the winter, especially in the remote parts of the country, where the cattle, deprived for long of their wonted meal, were to be seen standing in silence round the deserted door, occasionally giving a low moan at the long-continued absence of the well-known hands. that were wont to nourish them, and whose prostration had been so sudden that they had neither strength to feed nor to slay them. The wail of starving children was to be heard on all sides, begging in vain of their parents the slender pittance on which they had long supported life. A melancholy feature of the times was exhibited in the long trains of convoys with provisions which traversed the country on their way from the sea-ports to the coast, guarded by long files of infantry and cavalry, round which the weeping villagers, with their children, crowded supplicating for a handful of meal to stay the pangs of hunger. The scenes exhibited far exceeded in horror anything yet recorded in European history; for, in the nervous words 325, 326; of Lord John Russell, it was a "famine of the thirteenth knowledge. Which had fallen on the population of the nineteenth century." 1 Nicholls, Personal 35. jesty's speech on " 1 In the midst of these unparalleled disasters, Parliament Her Ma- met on the 19th January 1847, and her Majesty in person addressed the following observations to her Parliament: opening l'ar-❝It is with the deepest regret that, upon your again assembling, I have to call your attention to the dearth of provisions which prevails in Ireland and in some parts of Scotland. In Ireland especially the want of the usual liament. Jan. 19. *SCOTT's Helvellyn. XLIII. 1847. food of the people has been the cause of severe suffering, CHAP. of disease, and of greatly increased mortality among the poorer classes. Outrages have become more frequent, chiefly directed against property; and the transit of provisions has been rendered unsafe in some parts of the country. With a view to mitigate these evils, large numbers of men have been employed, and have received wages in pursuance of an Act passed in the last session or Parliament. Some deviations from that Act, which have been authorised by the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in order to promote more useful employment, will, I trust, receive your sanction. Means have been taken to lessen the pressure in districts which are most remote from the ordinary sources of supply. Outrages have been repressed as far as was possible by the military and police. It is satisfactory to me to observe that, in many of the most distressed districts, the patience and resignation of the people have been most exemplary. The deficiency of the harvest in France and Germany, and other parts of Europe, has added to the difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of provisions. It will be your duty to consider what further measures are required to alleviate the existing distress. I recommend to you to take into your serious consideration whether, by increasing for a limited period the facilities for importing corn from foreign countries, and by 1847, 3; the admission of sugar more freely into breweries and dis- ixxxix. 1,2. tilleries, the supply of food may be beneficially augmented." 1 The debate which followed upon this speech turned, as might have been expected, entirely on the Irish famine, Ministerial and the means to be adopted for its relief. It was con- Irish relief. ducted on both sides with great temper and moderation, and an entire abstinence from party feelings or ambition. The magnitude of the calamity had banished all such motives, and inspired a universal desire to hurry forward to its alleviation. Ministers admitted that the Government's first plan of employing the poor on public works 1 Ann. Reg. Parl. Deb. 37. plan for the 1847. CHAP. had broken down, or rather become impracticable; not XLIII. so much from any defect in its original conception as from the prodigious numbers who had flocked for employment, threatening to drain away nearly all the labour of the country from productive occupations, and amounting even then to above 500,000 persons. Add to this that great numbers of the most destitute had, from long-continued scarcity of food, fallen into such a state of debility that many of them died before reaching the public works, and such as did reach them were still more frequently unable from sheer exhaustion to do anything. Labour was no longer a test of destitution; on the contrary, things had come to such a point that the capacity to endure its fatigue was rather the reverse. In addition to this, the 1 Parl. Deb. work expended on the roads, during the four preceding 47; Ann. months, had been so immense that all useful employment on them had long since come to an end; and the only Life of Ben- effect of now continuing it would be "to render," in the words of one of the government inspectors, "good roads impassable for public conveyances."1 lxxxix. 2, Reg. 1847, 10, 12; Disraeli, tinck, 367, 369. 38. of the cala Upon these grounds, Ministers justly declared that Description they regarded the misfortunes of Ireland as an imperial mity by Lord calamity, which could no longer be regarded as affecting Brougham. that part of the empire only, or capable of being relieved from its resources. The magnitude of the evil was such, that the whole empire must contribute to its relief, and the resources of it all would be strained to the uttermost to effect it. Lord Brougham, when the subject was first mooted in the House of Lords, gave the following striking description of the state of Ireland, and the impossibility, by any effort, of legislating calmly or wisely for its relief. "I hold it to be indispensable," said he, "to draw a line of demarcation between temporary and permanent meaIt is impossible, when the cry of hunger prevails over the land—when there is the melancholy substance as well as the cry when the country is distracted from day to day by accounts of the most heart-rending spectacles sures. XLIII. 1847. I have ever heard or read of-when there is a deep misery CHAP. and distress prevailing in and pervading Ireland, rendered only the more heart-rending because the more touching by the admirable and almost inimitable patience with which it has been borne; that at a time when this grievous calamity exists, when there are scenes all over those unfortunate districts which nothing can be found to surpass in the page of history, disease and death ever following in the train of famine; to which nothing exceeding is to be found in the page of Josephus, or on the canvass of Poussin, or in the dismal chant of Dante,-that at this very time, and under the pressure of these sights, from which, with instinctive horror, we avert our eyes, but which we are compelled, by a more reasonable humanity, to make an effort to relieve, that at such a moment, with such feelings pervading millions in both islands, we should Parl. Deb. be able, calmly and deliberately, to take up a question of 51; Ann. permanent policy, I hold to be utterly and necessarily 6,7. impossible."1 1 lxxxix. 50, Reg. 1847, plan for re land. Notwithstanding the almost insuperable difficulty thus 39. forcibly stated by Lord Brougham, the measures of Gov- Ministerial ernment were vigorous and energetic, and, in the circum- lief of Irestances, among the best that could be adopted. They consisted of two parts. The first was directed to facilitating the introduction of foreign grain and food of all kinds, by the removal of all restrictions on its entrance, and lessening the cost of its transit; the second, of means to insure its conveyance to the starving population of Ireland. Under the first category was included the immediate repeal of all the remaining duties on grain of every kind, even the shilling duty on wheat being for the time taken off, and an entire suspension of the Navigation Laws, so as to give every facility for the importation of food of all kinds from foreign countries. The latter measure was based on the statement, that, to supply the deficiency of food in the British Islands, at least 6,000,000 quarters of grain would require to be imported, being XLIII. 1847. CHAP. about 850,000 tons; and that, for the carriage of so large a quantity, the whole commercial navy of Great Britain, large as it was, would not suffice. In addition to this, an Act was proposed, modifying the duties on rum and sugar, so as to equalise them with those on grain used in distilleries; the effect of which, it was hoped, would be at once to give some relief to the West India proprietors, lxxxix. 210, and diminish the pressure on the grain resources in Great Britain. These measures, as well as an Act legalising Ann. Reg. the deviation from the Public Works Act of the preceding session, under the pressure of necessity, all passed both houses without any opposition. 1 1 Parl. Deb. 273, 275, 281, 481, 609, 1220; 1847, 21, 52. 40. Amended Poor and 10 and 11 Victoria, c. 7. The second class of measures intended for the relief of Ireland consisted of an extensive modification and extension of the Poor Law, and an establishment of committees Relief Act, to distribute relief, independent of work, to such persons as might require it, to be provided for partly by rates and subscriptions, and partly by grants from the public exchequer. It directed that a relief committee should. be appointed in every electoral division, consisting of the magistrates, a clergyman of each persuasion, the poorlaw guardian, and the three highest rate-payers, and a finance committee appointed of four gentlemen of character and knowledge of business, should be formed to control the expenditure of each Union. Inspecting-officers were also to be appointed, and a central commission, sitting in Dublin, was to superintend and control the working of the whole system. The expense incurred was to be defrayed out of the poor-rates, and when these failed, they were to be reinforced by Government loans, to be repaid by rates subsequently levied. The guardians of the poor were REQUIRED to give relief, either in or out of the workhouse, to the aged and infirm, and to all who were permanently disabled. The workhouses were to be retained as a test, so far as they could be applied, of real destitution; but in cases where accommodation could not be afforded to all who crowded to the doors, relief was to |