bud. An act was passed by the latter, in 1729, which exempted the silk manufactures of England from duty on importation into Ireland. This act sealed the destruction of the Irish manufacture. Ireland was deluged with English silks-the manufacturers were deprived of a market, and ruined, and their workmen devoted to penury." In 1764, the Dublin society, as patriotic and public-spirited a body as ever assembled, established a silk warehouse in the capital, where the sales amounted to above 300,000 dollars annually. But this was blasted by the same detestable policy which has so constantly watched, with unwinking eyes, to destroy the prosperity of Ireland. An act was passed, anno 1785, which prohibited the society from disposing of any part of its funds for the support of any house where Irish silk goods were sold. By this act the warehouse was totally ruined.1111 The Irish having carried on the brewing of beer, ale, and porter, and the manufacture of glass, to great extent, and with very considerable national and individual advantage, the hostility and jealousy of the English brewers and glass manufacturers were excited, and the oppressed Irish, engaged in those useful arts, abandoned and betrayed by their miserable parliament, were sacrificed to the monopolizing spirit of their rivals. Two acts were passed, which in a great measure laid the brewery and glass manufactory prostrate. By one, all hops, landed in Ireland, except British, were directed to be burned,† and a duty of three pence per pound, over and above all other duties, customs, and subsidies, was imposed on the exportation of the article from Great Britain. By the other iniquitous act, the importation into Ireland of glass from any place other than Britain-and the exportation of the article from Ireland to any place whatsoever, were prohibited, under penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo, and a heavy fine. per pound for all the glass found on board. "At the time of passing the act which exempted from duty the silk manufactures of Great Britain, there were, according to the evidence given before the Irish parliament in 1784, eight hundred silk looms at work in Ireland. Thirty-six years after there were but fifty: and thus 3000 persons were driven to beggary or emigration."1112 "It was enacted, by 7 G. II. c. 19, that all hops landed in Great Britain or Ireland, except British hops in the latter, should be burned, and the ship forfeited."1113 "By 19 G. II. c. 12, the importation of glass into Ireland, from any place but Britain, and the exportation of glass from Ireland to any place whatsoever, were prohibited, on pain of forfeiture of ship and cargo, and a penalty of ten shillings for every pound weight of glass put on board, or on shore, on the master and every person aiding and assisting therein. Had it not been for this violent and unwarrantable act, patiently acquiesced in by the subordinate and mercenary parliament of Ireland, it is not unlikely that Ireland would have surpassed and undersold Britain in the glass manufacture, as it certainly would have done in the woollen; for in respect of all the 11 Picture of Dublin, 194. 1112 Newenham, 119. 1113 Idem, 105. Under a succession of such outrageous violations of the rights of Ireland, it is not wonderful that her tonnage has been confined to a degree scarcely credible. Though her population is half that of England and Wales, the English carry on six-sevenths of the navigation of Ireland. In 1812, the tonnage of Great Britain was tons 2,421,695 Whereas that of Ireland was only 57,103 Whether any, and, if any, what, alteration has since taken place, I have no means of ascertaining. Among all the detestable means by which the prosperity and happiness of Ireland were sacrificed to English cupidity, one of the most shocking remains to be told. In all the former cases, the sacrifice was to promote the interests of Great Britain at large, or at least of considerable bodies of men. In the present, they were offered up to aggrandize half a dozen or a dozen persons. During the late war, under pretence of preventing the enemies of Great Britain from procuring supplies of provisions for their fleets and armies, their exportation was frequently prohibited for the benefit of the British contractors, who were thereby enabled to purchase at half or two raw materials taken together, the former was as favourably circumstanced as the latter; in respect of the principal ingredient of the crown-glass manufacture, (kelp,) much more so st and in respect of cheapness of labour it also had the advantage."1114 In the year ended 5th of January, 1807, there were built and registered in Ireland only 41 vessels, the aggregate tonnage whereof amounted to no more than 1,687 tons, or about 41 tons, on an average, each. The number of vessels belonging to the several ports of Ireland, on the 30th of September, 1806, was only 1,074, measuring 55,545 tons, or under 51 each, which is less than the tonnage of the shipping belonging to Whitehaven alone. The tonnage of Irish vessels which entered inwards into the several ports of Ireland, in the year ended 5th January, 1808, was only 107,703, while that of British vessels was 652,946. And the tonnage of Irish vessels which cleared outwards was only 97,856, while that of British vessels was 615,702, which last being added to the tonnage of the British ships which entered inwards, makes a total, amounting to 1,268,648 tons, yielding to the ship owners of Britain at only 17. 10s. per ton, 1,902,972,"1115 +"Not stopping with the gratification of the landholders of England, by prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle and provisions, the British government was frequently, and at a late period, inveigled into gratifying the avarice of a few contractors, by laying embargoes on the exportation of Irish provisions, for the ostensible purpose of preventing the enemies of Britain from being supplied therewith; but really for the sole benefit of the contractors, who thus became the only purchasers."1116 It appeared by the evidence of Mr. Hurst, before the committee of the Privy Council in 1785, that kelp, the most material ingredient in the crownglass manufacture of England, was supplied by Ireland. 1114 Newenham, 105. 1115 Idem, 156. 1116 Idem, 109. thirds or three-fourths of the usual prices. This sinister operation spread destruction throughout the south of Ireland, of which the main dependence has always been the sale of provisions. Nothing can more clearly show the utter disregard of justice of the British parliament in its legislation, whenever the interests of Ireland were concerned, and the servility of the Irish parliament, and its base sacrifice of the interests and welfare of the nation, than a comparison of the duties in England and Ireland, on the importation of goods from each other, as they existed in 1784, of which I annex a specimen. The whole system bore the same marks of iniquity and oppression. 35 15 0 29 15 0 Bed ticks, per cent. 9 15 81117 Bed ticks, per cent. It is impossible to examine this table without sighing over the profligate disregard of the eternal laws of honour and justice displayed by public bodies, unchecked by any sense of shame or disgrace. Had the British parliament decimated the whole nation, and imposed a poll tax of five guineas per head on the survivors, they would not have produced the tenth part of the misery caused by this odious and iniquitous system, which paralized the industry and energies of the Irish, and consigned so large a portion of them to idleness, misery, and wretchedness. 1117 Newenham, 106. N. B. I have omitted the fractions on both sides. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Extreme misery of the Irish peasantry, in point of food, clothing, and habitations. Potatoes and milk, or potatoes and salt, the chief part of the fare of a large portion of them. When we see a suffering people, "with depressed minds and indolent habits, we do not ascribe their poverty to the men who govern them: but no one who sees a mangy, half starved flock of sheep, ever doubts that it is the fault of the farmer to whom it belongs."1117 "The misgovernment and consequent misery of Ireland are chargeable, not upon the present minister, but upon the English nation generally, and upon all the statesmen, of every persuasion, who have administered its affairs for the last two cen turies."1118 "The discontent and poverty of the people of Ireland are entirely owing to the vicious political institutions of the country, and the misgovernment and oppression to which they have been subjected."1119 "It is only by exposing national evils, that the attention of those who have it in their power to apply a remedy, can be excited."1120 I NOW proceed to present a slight sketch of the wretchedness entailed on the Irish by the preceding system, from the commencement of the last century, when the depredations perpetrated by warfare and sham plots had ceased, and the great mass of the landed property of the nation had been transferred from the original proprietors, most of whom had been reduced to abject penury. This system, steadily pursued, has blasted the manifold blessings bestowed by heaven on that ill-fated land. That no industry, talent, or energy could withstand the deleterious effects of such a barbarous and unrelenting persecution as was carried on against the national industry of Ireland, must be obvious on the slightest investigation. And that the necessary consequence of such a system, wherever it prevails, must be to deprive myriads of the people of profitable employment-diminish the demand for labour-lower its price and thus spread desolation and distress around, is as clear as the noon-day sun. Such have been its pernicious effects in Ireland. All travellers agree, that an intensity of misery prevails among a large portion of the Irish peasantry, in their food, their clothing, and their habitations, which is hardly credible. The proofs of these assertions shall be drawn from three works of high reputation, written at three different periods-"Young's Tour in Ireland," published in 1776-" Newenham's View of the Natural, Political, and Commercial Circumstances of Ireland," in 1809-and "Mason's Statistical Account, or Parochial Survey of Ireland," in 1816. These works coincide in their statements, and draw such a hideous picture of the sufferings of the Irish, springing chiefly from the detestable system of which I have sketched the outlines in the preceding chapter, as must reflect eternal disgrace on the monopolizing spirit, which suggested it-on the various English administrations by 1118 Edin. Rev. XXXVII. p. 63. 1120 Wakefield, II. 780. 1117 Maurice and Berghetta. 1119 Idem, 109. which it was matured-and, more than all, on the wretched Irish parliament, who basely purchased the right to enslave and depredate on their Roman Catholic fellow subjects, by the odious and execrable sacrifice of the dearest interests of their native country." "The common Irish are in general clothed so very indifferently, that it impresses every stranger with a strong idea of universal poverty."1121 "The cottages of the Irish, which are all called cabins, are the most miserable looking hovels that can well be conceived: they generally consist of only one room; mud kneaded with straw is the common material of the walls; these are rarely above seven feet high, and not always above five or six; they are about two feet thick, and have only a door, which lets in light instead of a window, and should let the smoke out instead of a chimney."129 They are "scantily supplied with potatoes; clothed with rags; famished with cold, in their comfortless habitations: nor can they, though sober, frugal and laborious, which, from my own knowledge, I assert, provide against infirmity and old age, with any other resource than begging or dependence; than the precarious relief of charity; extremeties to which many are constantly reduced."1123 "The population of the country is much increased of late years; and it is a sad reflection, that their miseries are multiplied in the same proportion. The wealth of other states is appreciated by the number of their children, and with the Irish peasant, they constitute his misfortune and poverty. How few of them enjoy the luxury of a little milk."1124 "Throughout the King's county, the cottages of the peasants are miserably poor and wretched, in few instances weather proof."1195 "The cabins, or rather hovels, of the cotter tenants, are in general wretched, beyond description, often not sufficiently covered to keep out the rain: they are all built with mud." 291126 "The state of the poor cannot be worse than it is in many parts of Meath and Kildare."1127 "The clothing of the people, if rags which scarcely cover their nakedness can be so called, consists of wollen cloth or frieze, manufactured at home, and almost every other article of their dress is made by themselves."1128 *This wretched body was signalized throughout its career, with few exceptions, by a destitution of honour and honesty, of which the "ferocious code to prevent the growth of Popery," a code which legalized almost every species of crime, would be sufficient proof. I now adduce another striking case. In the year 1735, they passed a vote, by which they declared every man a traitor to his country, who should assist in a prosecution for tithes of agistment, that is, for the tithes of pasture lands: and thus, according to the Edinburgh Review, threw the clergy of the established church from the opulent grazier, and the Protestant proprietor, upon the Catholic peasantry-for the peasantry are almost universally Catholics-for support."1199 1121 Young, II. part ii. 35. 1122 Ibid. 1123 Wakefield, II. 774. 1124 Idem, 775. 1125 Ibid. 1126 Idem, 779. 1127 Idem, 780. 1128 Idem, 731. 1129 Edinburgh, Review, XXXVII. 75. |