Books: Irish Race in the Past and the Present

A >> Aug. J. Thebaud >> Irish Race in the Past and the Present

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Though the Irish people then appeared so different from that
humbled, crushed mass of oppressed beings, who, a hundred years
before, lay so completely at the mercy of their masters, it was,
nevertheless, the same people, and the difference was purely one
of circumstances. Had they been allowed in the previous century
to manifest their feelings, as a happy change in the state of
affairs now permitted them, they would assuredly have acted in
exactly the same manner. And this reflection tends to confirm
the opinion, several times here expressed, that the Irish people
existed all along, and that the most adverse circumstances had
never succeeded in destroying it.

Meanwhile, O'Connell was the sovereign of that nation, and one
whose power over his subjects was greater than that of any of
the kings or emperors who occupied the various thrones of Europe
at the time. Later events proved how precarious was the
authority of all those who appeared to hold the fate of millions
in their hands; the authority of O'Connell alone was deeply
rooted in the heart of his nation. From the humble position of a
Kerry lawyer, he had gradually risen to the proud preeminence
which he occupied in the eyes of Europe, and he owed it solely
to that moral force of which he was so sincere an advocate, and
which he knew so well how to wield.

But how came all the high hopes then so ardently entertained by
the friends of Ireland to be so suddenly dashed to the ground,
and O'Connell to die of a broken heart?

It seems, indeed, to be the opinion of Irishmen even, that
O'Connell's theory was faulty; that moral force alone could not
restore Ireland to her lawful position among nations; that, in
fact, he failed by his very moderation, and that the bitterness
which clouded his last days was the natural consequence of his
false and delusive expectations. Such seems now to be the almost
universal opinion.

Yet, in all his wonderful career, only one fault can be brought
against him. Yielding, on one occasion, in 1843, to the exuberance
of his feelings, "he committed himself to a specific promise that
within six months repeal would be an accomplished fact."

This promise, rashly given, and showing no result, is said to
have cooled down the enthusiasm of the people, who, from that
time, lost confidence in their leader; and to this alone is the
utter failure of the great agitation ascribed.

But there is so little of real truth in this assertion that,
when, on his well-known imprisonment, after the law lords, in
the British House of Peers, declared that the conviction of
O'Connell and his colleagues was wrong, he was restored to
liberty, the writer just quoted confesses that "overwhelming
demonstrations of unchanged affection and personal attachment
poured in upon him from his countrymen. Their faith in his
devotion to Ireland was increased a hundred-fold."

It is true that the same writer, Mr. A.M. O'Sullivan, adds that
"their faith in the efficiency of his policy, or the surety of
his promise, was gone;" but to reconcile this phrase with what
precedes it, it must not be taken absolutely. The want of faith
here spoken of was restricted to the members of a new party,
which had been organized chiefly during the imprisonment of the
great leader, the "Young Ireland party," the new advocates of
physical force against England, composed of the ardent and, most
surely, well-intentioned young men, who failed so egregiously a
few years later.

This party was the chief cause of O'Connell's failure, coupled
with the awful famine which followed soon after, and left the
Irish small desire for political agitation with grim Death
staring them in the face, and the main question before them one
of avoiding starvation and utter ruin.

Both causes, however, were purely of a temporary nature, and the
efficacy of moral force remained strong as ever, and, in fact,
the only thing possible.

The Young Ireland party could not exist long, as its avowed
policy was so rash, so ill-founded, and poorly carried out, that
the mere breath of British power was enough to dissipate it
hopelessly in a moment. Moreover, it placed itself in open
antagonism to the mass of the Catholic clergy, and appeared to
have so ill studied the history of the country that its members
did not know the real power which religion exercised over their
countrymen. They could not but fail, and their futile attempt
only served to render worse the condition of the country they
were ready to die for.

It would be enough to add here, of other subsequent attempts of
the same nature, that no real hope for the complete resurrection
of Ireland could be looked to from such abortive and stillborn
conspiracies; especially when the alliance entered into by some
of them with the revolutionary party of European socialists and
atheists is taken into account, men from whom nothing but disorder,
anarchy, and crime, can be expected. Thus, those who wish well to
the Irish cause have only moral force to fall back upon.

It is needless to do more than mention the passing nature of the
frightful calamity of famine and consequent expatriation, which
have been sufficiently dwelt upon. The Irish race has passed
through ordeals more trying than either of these; it has
survived them, and increased in numbers after all previous
calamities, as it doubtless will after this last, when God
thinks proper to abate in the people the eagerness they still
feel for leaving their native country.

All the progress made by Ireland, so far, is due, therefore,
solely to the kind action of Divine Providence, which is
generally called the "logic of events," aided by men endowed
with prudence and energy. It would be superfluous for our
purpose to detail at length several other progressive steps made
subsequently, which the mad attempt of the party of physical
force would have effectually prevented if open tyranny were as
easy a thing in these days as it once was. The establishment of
the "Encumbered Estates Courts," and the disestablishment of the
Irish Protestant Church, are the chief measures alluded to: the
first so fruitful of good to Ireland since its adoption, and the
second destined to be no less so. It is useless to remark that
physical force had nothing to do with their introduction, and
that the British statesmen who advocated and carried them
through were swayed only by that unseen power which is said by
Holy Scripture to "hold the heart of kings in its hands." Let the
Irish do their part, and Heaven will continue to smile on them.

Since it is to this unseen power that all the improvement now
visible in the condition of the Irish nation is due, it is only
natural to expect from it every thing that is still wanting. For
we are far from thinking that nothing more is to be done, and
that all to be desired has been obtained. That the nation is
still dissatisfied, is plain enough; and it must be right in not
feeling contented with the various measures for its improvement
tendered it so far. The voice of its natural leaders--of the
prelates and clergy-proclaims that there are many things to
change, and many new measures to be introduced.

The first and foremost of these is a thorough remedy for the
disgraceful state of pauperism to which the great majority of
the Irish nation is yet reduced. That pauperism was wilfully
established, and this national crime of England stands unatoned
for still. It would be unjust to say that the policy which
produced it is pursued to-day by the English Government; we
sincerely believe, on the contrary, that the state of things
which has existed for the last two centuries is seriously
deplored by many of those who, under God, hold in their keeping
the destiny of millions of men. But it is surprising that so
many projects, so many attempts at legislation, the writing of
so many wise books, discussions so many and so exhaustive of the
evil, should all result in leaving the evil almost as it stood.

If we listen to those who know Ireland perfectly, who have
either spent their lives in the country, or traversed its
surface leisurely and intelligently, it would seem as though the
old descriptions of her in the time of her greatest misfortunes
would still be appropriate and true.

"No devastated province of the Roman Empire," said Father
Lavelle, but yesterday, in his "Irish Landlord," "ever presented
half the wretchedness of Ireland. At this day, the mutilated
Fellah of Egypt, the savage Hottentot and New-Hollander, the
live chattel of Cuba, enjoy a paradise in comparison with the
Irish peasant, that is to say, with the bulk of the Irish nation."

But, as this short passage deals only in generalities, and as
there may be some suspicion of the warm nature of the writer
having given a higher color to his words than was warranted by
the facts, let us listen to the less impassioned utterances of
travellers who have recently visited the island: let us see the
Irish at home in their towns and in the country.

I. In towns and cities: The most Rev. Archbishop of Dublin,
writing in 1857 to Lord St. Leonards, on the state of his flock
in Dublin, says: "Were your lordship to visit some of the ruined
lanes and streets of Dublin, your heart would thrill with horror
at the picture of human woe which would present itself."

And in a pastoral letter, November 27,1861, he spoke of "tens of
thousands of human beings, destitute of all the comforts of life,
who are to be met with at every step in all great towns and
cities. If you enter the wretched abodes where they live, you
will find that they have no fuel, that they are unprovided with
beds and other furniture, and that generally they have not a
single blanket to protect them from the cold."

Abbe Perraud, after a thorough examination of the subject, wrote,
in 1864, in "Ireland under English Rule:"

"The poor quarters of Cork, Limerick, and Drogheda, present the
same spectacle as Dublin, and justify the sad proverbial
celebrity of `Irish rags.' Dirt, negligence, and want of care,
doubtless, go a long way in giving to destitution in Ireland its
repulsive and hideous form; but who is unaware that continued
and hopeless destitution engenders, as of necessity,
listlessness and carelessness, and that, to enter into a
struggle with poverty, there must be at least some chance of
carrying off the victory?"

A German Protestant, Dr. Julius Rodenberg, writing in 1861,
expressed his astonishment at the sight of Ireland's poverty, as
he saw it in the streets of Dublin, although he had doubtless
read a great deal about it previously. "You are in a country,"
he says, "whence people emigrate by thousands, while fields, of
such an extent and power of production as would support them all,
lie fallow."

And with respect to the progress already made, M. de Beaumont
had remarked many years before that in Ireland a certain
relative progress was quite compatible with the continued
existence of pauperism among the lower classes. "One single
cause," he remarks, "suffices to explain why the agricultural
population becomes poorer, while the prosperity of the rich is
on the increase: it is that all improvement in the land is
profitable solely to the proprietor, who exacts more rent from
the farmer in proportion as he works the land into a better state."

Since M. de Beaumont wrote, the pauperism in the cities has
assumed a more wretched and repulsive form, in consequence of
the crowding there of poor peasants who had been evicted from
their small farms and fled to the nearest city or town with the
hope of finding there at least charity.

"For the last ten years," wrote Abbe Perraud, in 1864, "there
has been taking place in the large cities an accumulation of
poor as fatal to their health as to their morality. They are
mostly country people whom eviction has driven from the country,
who have been unable to emigrate, and who were unwilling to shut
themselves up immediately in the workhouses. The resources they
procure for themselves, by doing odd work, are so completely
insufficient, that it is impossible to be surprised at their
destitution."

Dr. Rodenberg, describing the state of the poor country people
crowded in the "Liberties of Dublin," says of the rooms in which
they live: "In those holes the most wretched and pitiable
laborers imaginable live; they often lie by hundreds together on
the bare ground."

Such citations might be sadly multiplied, but those given are
sufficient as descriptive of the state of the poor Irish in the
cities. Let us now see how the peasants live in the country in
many parts of Ireland:

II. "The destitution of the agricultural classes," writes Abbe
Perraud, from personal observation, "in order to be rightly
appreciated, must be seen in the boggy and mountainous regions
of Munster, of Connaught, and of the western portion of Ulster.

"The ordinary dwelling of the small tenant, of the day-laborer,
in that part of Ireland, answers with the utmost precision the
description of it twenty years ago given by M. de Beaumont: 'Let
the reader picture to himself four walls of dried mud, which the
rain easily reduces to its primitive condition; a little thatch
or a few cuts of turf form the roof; a rude hole in the roof
forms the chimney, and more frequently there is no other issue
for the smoke than the door of the dwelling itself. One solitary
room holds father, mother, grandfather, and children. No
furniture is to be seen; a single litter, usually composed of
grass or straw, serves for the whole family. Five or six half-
naked children may be seen crouching over a poor fire. In the
midst of them lies a filthy pig, the only inhabitant at its ease,
because its element is filth itself.'

"Into how many dwellings of this kind have we not ourselves
penetrated--especially in the counties of Kerry, Mayo, and
Donegal--more than once obliged to stoop down to the ground, in
order to penetrate into these cabins, the entrance to which is
so low that they look more like the burrows of beasts than
dwellings made for man!

"Upon the road from Kilkenny to Grenaugh, in the vicinity of
those beautiful lakes, at the entrance of those parks, to which,
for extent and richness, neither England nor Scotland can
probably offer any thing equal, we have seen other dwellings. A
few branches of trees, interlaced and leaning upon the slope in
the road, a few cuts of turf, and a few stones picked up in the
fields, compose these wretched huts--less spacious, and perhaps
less substantial, than that of the American savage."

At the time of Abbe Perraud's visit, a correspondent of the
Dublin Saunders News-Letters, who was commissioned to inquire
into the condition of the peasants, gave the following reply,
which, as the abbe justly remarks, is but the faithful echo of
all the descriptions made within the last half-century:

"The inhabitants of Erris appear to be the most wretched of all
human beings. Their cabins, their patched and tattered clothes,
their broken-down gait--every thing bears witness to their
poverty. Their beds consist of a few bits of wood crossed one
upon the other, supported by two heaps of stones, and covered
with straw; their whole bedclothes a miserable, worn-out quilt,
without any blankets . . . . But there is nothing in Ireland
like the habitations which the people of the village of Fallmore
have made for themselves, who have been evicted by Mr. Palmer.
They are composed of masses of granite, picked up on the shore,
and roughly laid one by the other. These cabins are so low that
a man cannot stand upright in them; so narrow that they can
hardly hold three or four persons."

After all, F. Lavelle was guilty of no exaggeration in stating
that the hut of the Hottentot was better than that of the Irish
peasant. But, in the district of Gweedore, northeast of County
Donegal, the state of the peasantry is more deplorably wretched
still than in any other part of Ireland. At the time of a
celebrated parliamentary inquiry in to the matter in 1858, a
Londonderry newspaper stated that "there are in Donegal about
four thousand adults, of both sexes, who are obliged to go
barefoot during the winter, in the ice and snow--pregnant women
and aged people in habitual danger of death from the cold . . . .
It is rare to find a man with a calico shirt; but the distress
of the women is still greater, if that be possible. There are
many hundreds of families in which five or six grown-up women
have among them no more than a single dress to go out in . . . .
There are about five hundred families who have but one bed each--
in which father, mother, and children, without distinction of
age or sex, are crowded pell-mell together."

If from the dwellings and clothing of the peasantry we pass to
their food, there is no need of adding any thing to what was
said on this point when describing the periodical famines. One
detail, however, not yet mentioned, deserves to be recorded:

"In the district of Gweedore," says Abbe Perraud, "our eyes were
destined to witness the use of sea-weed. Stepping once into a
cabin, in which there was no one but a little girl charged with
the care of minding her younger brothers, and getting ready the
evening meal, we found upon the fire a pot full of doulamaun
ready cooked; we asked to taste it, and some was handed to us on
a little platter.

"This weed, when well dressed, produces a kind of viscous juice;
it has a brackish taste, and savors strongly of salt water. We
were told in the country that the only use of it is to increase,
when mixed with potatoes, the mass of aliment given to the
stomach. The longer and more difficult the work of the stomach,
the less frequent are its calls. It is a kind of compromise with
hunger; the people are able neither to suppress it nor to satisfy
it; they endeavor to cheat it. We have also been assured that this
weed cannot be eaten alone; it must be mixed with vegetables,
since of itself it has no nutritive properties whatever."

How long is such a state of things likely to continue? It has
already existed long enough to be a disgrace to the much-vaunted
benevolence of the nineteenth century. A sure and radical remedy
must be found for it; and, as it has been already so long
delayed, it should be found the more promptly.

It seems that the tenure of land lies at the bottom of the
question, and that respect for what are called "established
rights" offers the main difficulty. Those rights, indeed, were
founded on the cruellest wrong and the most flagrant injustice;
but as possession is "nine points of the English law," and so
long a time has passed since the land changed hands,
prescription must be admitted and let them be called rights; nor
can any man in his senses ask for a violent subversion of
society for the sake of righting an old wrong.

But it has ever been a maxim of jurisprudence that summum jus,
summa injuria; and this axiom finds its full explanation in the
present case, when it is considered that the jus is on the side
of a comparatively small number of men, for the most part
absentee landlords, while the injuria leans to the great mass of
the primitive owners of the soil. The time-honored policy of the
English Government, that all the open abuses of landlordism
should be watched over and protected with the most jealous care,
while, on the other hand, the wretched farmer and cottier is
supposed to have no rights to defend and guard, should be
abandoned at once and forever, with a firmness that can leave no
room for doubt or equivocation, if the restoration of confidence
on the part of the Irish is esteemed any thing worth.

But, if for no other motive, at least for the sake of securing
peace and order in Ireland, a remedy must be found. There is no
reason why the Irish should longer remain a nation of paupers;
and, although some may still pretend that the fault and its
remedy lie with themselves, unprejudiced men will readily
acknowledge that the fault lay first, at least, at England's
door --a fact which the London Times has conceded often and
proclaimed loudly enough.

Let British statesmen, then, devise proper means for such an end
without social commotion, with as little disturbance of private
rights as possible; for the object is an imperious necessity. It
seems that the latest law enacted with this view is not the
measure that was required; is totally inadequate in its
provisions, scope, and extent. In such a case it is always open
to legislators to introduce a new and more satisfactory measure;
and moral force will surely bring this about, provided it is
true to itself. We confess to having no scheme of our own to set
forth; but Irishmen are free, nay entitled, to speak, to write
on, and discuss the subject; and a serious, steady, but lawful
agitation of the question will surely find its true and final
solution. The last Galway election, notwithstanding the temporary
triumph of Judge Keogh, was a beginning in the right direction.

There is no need here of revolution, of what the French call une
jaquerie, of arming the populace for the purpose of violently
ejecting the great land-owners. No Irishman has ever stood for
so calamitous a remedy. The aid of the Internationalists will
certainly never be called in by the true children of Erin for
any purpose whatever. It seems that the great and holy Pontiff,
Pius IX., made this remark to the Prince of Wales, at their last
interview at the Vatican, and, according to the report, the
prince fully admitted its truth as far, at least, as he, by any
outward sign, could show.

The question is one of pure justice, to be settled within the
limits of order and law; and surely, when all admit that the
evil is so crying, that a remedy must be found, one will be
found, which, while it does no real injury to any person, will
bring comfort and relief to the most deserving and suffering
race of men--the Irish peasantry. We will soon see how.

But the Irishman is not only physically destitute; he is also
destitute mentally; and, if the first case calls for a prompt
remedy, the second is no less urgent. Pauperism and ignorance
were the two terrible engines so long worked by England for the
degradation and final destruction of the Irish race. Our readers
have seen how persistently was education, of any kind, refused
to the natives. The Universities of Dublin and Drogheda in the
fourteenth century, the cathedral schools, founded by the Anglo-
Normans, in the same age, carefully excluded the Irish from
their benefits. And, when the Reformation set in, with its long
series of oppressions, no Catholic could share in the new
foundations of the Tudors and the Stuarts without first abjuring
his religion. Penal statute after penal statute made of all the
shifts, to which the Irish were driven in order to educate their
children, so many crimes, punishable by death or transportation.
That, under such a state of things, they could remain Catholics
without becoming idiots is one of the most remarkable instances
on record of buoyancy of spirit and soundness of mind on the
part of a whole nation.

From the end of the last century the policy of England changed
completely in appearance. The foundation and endowment by the
state of the great college of Maynooth, destined for the education
of the Irish clergy, in 1795, was certainly a step on the right
road, and if only primary schools for the people had, at the same
time, been spread all over the island on the same principle of true
liberality, the old injustice on the matter of education would have
been atoned for and remedied, to a great extent.

But the Kildare Peace Society and the Church Education Society,
founded in 1839, showed that the antagonism to the Catholic
Church in Ireland was far from being dead; nay, was as rife as
ever.

Lord Stanley's National Education System, in 1831, at first
seemed of a character altogether above Protestant or infidel
proselytism. But, the composition of the various boards under
that system, and some of the measures adopted, gave evidence
clearly and soon enough that the education proposed for the
Irish was not in accordance with the true spirit of the nation,
so eminently Catholic and religious as it is. Hence, the total
failure--for such it is now admitted by all to have been--of
that system ought to have opened the eyes of all impartial
Englishmen to the necessity of starting from the principle that
Ireland is Catholic, and that the Irish are true children of the
Catholic Church. But this fact seems not yet recognized or
acknowledged by those who rule the nation, since, at this very
moment, a bill lies before Parliament against which all the
bishops of Ireland have united in raising their voice. The
queen's colleges all confess to be a wretched failure.