CHAP. 1833. 55. The futility of the remedies brought forward by Government for the distresses of Ireland, appears the more conspicuous when the causes of suffering there pressing upon General dis- the whole nation are taken into consideration. Distress prevailed in to a great, and among some of the working classes to an the country. unexampled extent, prevailed not only over all Ireland, tress which but in many parts of Great Britain, the natural and unavoidable consequence of the shake given to credit and industry of every kind by the agitation produced by the Reform Bill. Three circumstances conspired at this time to paralyse commerce and spread suffering among the labouring classes. The first of these was the terror inspired by the disorders of which both islands had been the theatre; the flames of Bristol, the sack of Nottingham, the open declarations of the more violent among the Reformers, that they would take up arms and commence a civil war, unless their full demands were con vigorous application of this law would operate like a charm in dissolving the combination against tithes. The state of things for the last year in Ireland is a direct premium on rebellion, an encouragement to the cessation of the payment of taxes, rent, or burdens of every description, and an invitation to the people to avail themselves of the machinery now put in motion against the clergy for their deliverance from rent, taxes, and burdens of every description. "3. Having vindicated the authority of the law, measures should next be taken to prevent the clergy from coming in contact with the cultivators, by commuting the tithes, and laying them as a direct burden on the landlords, who, being nearly all Protestants, are the parties who should bear it. Though this measure would probably do as little as Catholic Emancipation to pacify Ireland, yet it would remove the irritation which now exists between the clergy and their parishioners, and thus withdraw the Established Church from a political contest of which it is now the victim. "4. The next great object of Irish legislation should be the establishment of a judicious and enlightened system of poor-laws for the relief of the sick, the aged, and those who, though willing, can find no employment. The English and Scotch will not much longer submit to have their poor-rates doubled annually by the inundation of Irish beggars, or their scanty channels of employment choked by multitudes of Irish labourers. The time is come when, in the general distress of the empire, caused by the shock given to credit and industry by the Reform Bill, each portion must be led to the maintenance of its own poor. A judicious system of poor-rates, instead of being an encouragement to undue increase, is the most effectual means for diminishing it, because it is a check to the propagation of those pauper and degrading habits which, more than any other cir cumstances, tend to the multiplication of the poor. "5. The greatest possible encouragement should be given by Government XXXI. 1833. ceded. The second was the vast reduction of prices CHAP. which had ensued from the successive contractions of the currency which had taken place since 1819, and especially the entire and final suppression of small notes, which had taken effect in spring 1829, and ever since continued. The result of this had been to lower the money price of every species of produce, manufacturing as well as agricultural, at least 50 per cent, while debts, taxes, and money obligations remained the same. The third was the continuance of four fine seasons in succession, from 1831 to 1835, which had the effect of lowering the price of agricultural produce, combined with the contraction of the currency, nearly 100 per cent. The result of this rapid and prodigious fall of prices, in so short a time, of the whole produce of the farmer, was to drive 1 Ann. Reg. the agricultural class to despair, reduce many of them to 149." insolvency,1 and put an entire stop to all those spirited to the emigration of the Irish poor. The number who emigrated in 1831 was 18,000. No reason can be assigned why it should not be 180,000.* The expense of transporting settlers to the shores of Canada is about £5 a-head; to furnish the means of emigration to this large body, therefore, would cost £900,000; but what an immense relief would it afford to every part of the empire! The common argument that it is needless to give the poor the means of emigration, because those who remain at home will only increase the faster, is altogether chimerical. By improving the condition of those who remain at home the principle of increase is checked, not facilitated, because artificial wants, its true limitation, are brought into operation. : "6. The fisheries, neglected harbours, and waste lands of Ireland, furnish ample room for the commencement of Government works on a great scale, to spread wealth, and industry, and orderly habits, through its labouring poor. The mines of untouched wealth which there exist are incalculable; they might almost pave the Emerald Isle with gold. In other countries such undertakings may be safely left to the exertions of private industry. In Ireland the case is otherwise unless they are begun and forced on by the capital and vigour of Government, they will never be attempted. If we would give the people in the south and west a taste for the enjoyments of wealth or acquisitions of industry, we must, in the first instance, force them on a reluctant people by Government expenditure."-Blackwood's Magazine, Jan. 1, 1833; ALISON'S Essays, i., pp. 260-264. The Author cannot but reflect with satisfaction on the entire confirmation which subsequent events have afforded of these views, emitted at a time when all that Government proposed to relieve the distresses of Ireland was to extinguish ten of its richest resident landed proprietors. * In 1852 it was 225,000 ! 1833, 148, CHAP. improvements which might have absorbed in some degree the redundant labour of the country.* XXXI. 56. Mr Att wood's pic 1833. This vital subject was, with his wonted ability, brought before the notice of Parliament by Mr Attwood on 21st ture of the March; and as he had been an active member of the state of the Political Union, and strenuous supporter of the Reform March 21. Bill, his testimony is that of an unsuspected witness as country. to its effects. "What is the good," said he, "of having a reformed Parliament, if they do not apply a remedy to the existing distress? and what will the people think of a reformed Parliament having sat so many weeks, without attempting any one measure in behalf of the distressed? Distress, general, extreme, unnatural, is greater than in any former period of our history. In agriculture, one half have more labour than they can bear, while the other half have nothing to do; and yet the labourer can produce four times more than is required for the support of himself and his family. In manufactures, the proportion of the produce to the wants of the labourer is still greater, but matters, instead of getting better, are daily getting worse. Labour is badly paid; manufactures scarcely carried on with a profit, in some with a loss; commerce is declining in the same proportion; and such is the distress of the shipping interest that two-thirds of the shipping in the Thames are under mortgage, which is not foreclosed only because it is not considered worth the redemption. The poor-rates have doubled in real -TOOKE On Prices, vol. ii. pp. 390, 396; and Parliamentary Returns of these years. XXXI. weight, from the price of the produce from which they CHAP. are paid having been halved. There are 100,000 men walking about London in search of employment. In 1833. many parts of the country, able-bodied men are working night and day for 8s. or 7s. 6d. a-week, and often can earn no more than 4s. England may be divided into two classes-the distressed and the affluent. In the first class are included the whole landholders, in the last the bond and fund holders. The former are depressed by charges on their estates, which were to be paid in a currency 50 per cent dearer than that in which they were contracted; the latter are enriched by receiving £90 in gold for their £60. The landholders in these circumstances cannot contribute to a war, and the fundholders will not, because it will reduce their £90 back to £60. Thus we do not venture to take a decided part in foreign transactions, and surrender Antwerp to France and Constantinople to Russia, rather than endanger the ill-gotten gains of the class whom it has been our sole object to enrich. The result of the distress is an enormous increase of crime. These deplorable effects are all owing to the alteration made on the currency, which it had been said would only alter prices 4 per cent, but had in reality lowered them, and in the same proportion reduced the gains of the producing classes, 100 per cent." 1 1 Parl. Deb. 1833, and March 21, Ann. Reg. 1833, 149. Ministers. Most of the facts stated in the preceding argument 57. were too well known to be true to admit of controversy; Answer of but, without denying them, Ministers contented themselves with strenuously resisting an inquiry into the currency. "The real aim of the motion now made for inquiry into the distresses of the country is to effect a change in the currency-a subject which, if discussed at all, should be brought forward in a separate motion. Great distress certainly exists, chiefly among the labouring classes of the community; but it is not greater than it has been at various periods before. Among certain classes, particularly the handloom weavers, there certainly XXXI. 1833. CHAP. is great suffering, and in some districts there is much distress among the agriculturists; but that is by no means universally the case. It is absurd to say tradesmen are living on their capital; if this were the case, trade would speedily be annihilated. What good would a committee do? The causes of the suffering are beyond the reach of legislation. If the motion for its appointment is carried, it will lead to the universal belief that the currency is going to be tampered with, and this will necessarily cause a general stagnation of credit, by which the existing distress will only be increased." Notwithstanding all the weight of Government, however, and of the capitalists 1 Ann. Reg. who had got the command of the greater part of the boroughs, the motion was only rejected by a majority of 34-the numbers being 192 to 158.1 1833, 149, 150. 58. for 1833. However resolutely Ministers might resist any inquiry The budget into the currency, and endeavour to palliate the existing distress, there were none in the community who felt it more acutely, for it was brought under their notice in the most sensible of all forms-by the falling off in the revenue. Notwithstanding the ample reductions made in the preceding year, already noticed, this decline of the revenue, arising partly from the reduction of taxation so largely made in the last three years, partly from the general distress, was such that, in the year ending 5th April 1832, there had been a deficiency of £1,240,000. This deficiency, however, was more than compensated by the unflinching reductions made in 1832-3, which amounted to no less than £2,493,000, and gave for that year an excess of income above expenditure of £1,487,000. This was effected, not by any corresponding increase of income, that for 1833 being only £235,000 more than for 1832, but by wholesale reductions in the army and navy, which amounted in one year to no less than £1,800,000. These reductions were secured by selling off old stores and buying no new ones in the navy, and by great reductions, chiefly in pensions and retired allowances, in the army. But hav |