CHAPTER SEVEN
Lord Liverpool II
(February 1820 to April 1827)
Summary. The characteristics of the nineteenth century were now fully
visible. Both parties were concerned with improvement and reform and the pace of
reforming and developing measures was stepped up. Religious organisations were
developing as religion became more prominent in people's lives, and religious
tensions grew. Education too was to become an abiding concern both of the
Government and religious bodies. The attitude of the administration and the
temper of the times turned markedly in favour of the Catholics and the
pro-Catholic and imperious Marquis Wellesley was appointed Lord Lieutenant. The
transition period allowed by the Act of Union came to an end and the Irish
economy was fully integrated with the United Kingdom
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The New King
The Marquis Wellesley
Ireland under Wellesley
Wellesley’s Reforms
Monetary and Fiscal
Changes
Survey and Valuation
Religious Matters
The Education Question
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The New King
[February 1820] A General Election
followed the accession of George IV and it was considered that the Whigs had
made a few gains. More importantly, in Ireland the Whigs sensed that the political
atmosphere was changing. In County Louth they attempted a canvass, but decided
not for the moment to challenge the Fosters who were holding both seats for the
Tories. The Government was virtually unchanged, but Peel replaced Sidmouth as
Home Secretary. Castlereagh remained as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the
House, continuing to sit in the Commons as Lord Castlereagh even after he
succeeded to his father's title of Marquis of Londonderry, an Irish title. In
1822 the Duke of Wellington found him in a state of deep depression and told
his manservant to remove every knife from him. Unfortunately, the servant
failed to find one, and Castlereagh managed to kill himself. Lord Liverpool
once remarked that he could never understand why Castlereagh was so unpopular
with the crowd, and the mystery remains to this day. No explanation could be
found either in his actions or his manner. His old rival Canning, who had just
accepted the Governor Generalship of India, but had not set sail, succeeded him
in both offices, getting the 'whole inheritance’.
The
burning topic of the hour was the attempt of George's estranged wife, the
Princess Caroline of Brunswick, to claim the title of queen. George,
on the other hand, wished for a divorce on the grounds of adultery with the
companion of her travels in the Mediterranean, Bartolomeo Bergami, and compelled the reluctant
Lord Liverpool to set up a process of examination in the House of Lords. The
princess was acquitted, but still did not get the title of queen. O'Connell
could be diplomatically naive, and he publicly supported the princess's claims.
Yet Emancipation could not be passed without the support of the king.
The
Irish Government remained unchanged until after the king's visit to Ireland in the following year. Then the
Marquis Wellesley, a pro-Catholic, was then appointed Lord Lieutenant, and
Plunket replaced Saurin as Attorney General. Henry Goulburn, a supporter of
Peel, a very able administrator, became Irish Secretary. Lord Manners remained
as Lord Chancellor, and William Gregory, remained as Under-secretary for Civil
Affairs. The administration was balanced, and should have alarmed nobody, but
the ascendancy faction was very alarmed. Saunders’
Newsletter observed that Wellesley was the first Irishman to be appointed
to the post for a century and a half.
[1821] On his
accession the king announced his intention of visiting his subjects in Scotland, Ireland, and Hanover. He was due to arrive in Ireland in August 1821. The Lord Mayor set up
a Mansion House Committee to prepare for his reception, and the Catholic Earl
of Fingall was invited on to the Committee. The arrival was postponed briefly
when the death of George's wife, Caroline of Brunswick, was announced. The king
landed from a steamship at Howth. There was an air of spring and hope in Ireland during the king’s visit that was never
to be repeated. It seemed possible that a new era had dawned, and the Catholics
and Protestants would in future live together in harmony. It was the first time
that a king had come to Ireland without an army. The whole population
seemed united in welcoming him. The Earl of Fingall presented the Catholic
bishops to him. The Catholic bishops appeared in their robes. The address of
the bishops was carried by the Primate and read by Archbishop Murray. The
precedence given to the Catholic archbishops was after the hereditary knights
and before the French and Hanoverian consuls.
The Earl then presented leading lay Catholics like Daniel O’Connell,
Eneas MacDonnell, More O’Farrell etc. He then
presented Mr Hussey who presented the loyal address of the Catholics of
Ireland. Royalty always remarkably affected Daniel O’Connell. He took a leading
part in the preparations to welcome the king. He presented a laurel crown to
the king on his departure. Lord Sidmouth (Addington) announced his name and he
was graciously received by the king who shook his hand. He pledged himself to give twenty guineas
annually to a fund to build an Irish palace for the king. Lord Castlereagh told
Archbishop Troy that he had not changed in twenty years and asked to be
introduced to the other bishops. (SNL
21 Dec 1821) The other presentations and addresses were also reported but the
presentation of the Catholics, especially the bishops and Daniel O’Connell, was
such a novelty that they were reported at length in the Protestant papers. The
king also visited the Dublin Society, went to Slane Castle in county Meath the residence of the Marquis Conyngham
and his wife who were the king’s closest friends. He inspected the obelisk on
the site of the Battle of the Boyne, the scene of William III’s victory in 1690 over
the Catholic James II, and attended a race meeting at the Curragh in
county Kildare. The Earl of Fingall was made a member
of the royal Order of Saint Patrick. The town of Dunleary where to new artificial harbour was
situated was re-named Kingstown after the king’s departure.
[Top]
The Marquis Wellesley
Wellesley was the first Lord Lieutenant since
Bedford in 1807 who
was likely to do anything practical for the Catholics. He began by appointing a
Catholic lawyer, Anthony Richard Blake, to a position of importance in the
courts. Feelings against the marquis ran high among the members of the
ascendancy faction in Dublin. (These latter, were often referred to
as Orangemen, but it is better to restrict the term to actual members of the
Order.) When Wellesley was visiting the theatre in December 1822 a
bottle was thrown at his head, in what came to be called the 'Bottle Riot'.
There was just then in progress the trial of several Catholics involved in
agrarian crime and a 'Ribbon conspiracy' of some extent was discovered. The
Government suspected an Orange
conspiracy as well. Plunket, the Attorney General, made great efforts to
uncover it, and was assisted by Peel, the Home Secretary, in the House of
Commons. But juries did not convict, and
a leading Orangeman refused to give information about his Order. (In his stand
he had the backing of some Freemasons.) Looking back, there was obviously no
plot to be discovered. The Government too, could never make up its mind whether
the Orange Order was dangerous after the manner of the Ribbonmen, or whether it
was dangerous after the manner of O'Connell's Catholic Association. The Orange
Order was caught by legislation aimed at both the one and the other. Actually,
the Orange Order was a purely defensive body largely kept alive by opposition
to O'Connell. When he was quiet membership dropped. When he started another association recruitment picked up again. Until its
virtual suppression in 1836 it matched O'Connell blow for blow. But in the
borderlands of south and south west Ulster, opposition to the Ribbonmen who were
strong in the area was probably a more important factor. Nor did Orangemen make
much of a difference between the Ribbonmen and the Catholic Association. South Ulster remained a great centre of Ribbonism
until the end of the century.
The king’s visit
marked the highest point of good relations between Catholics and Protestants
for centuries. Had the spirit of goodwill been allowed to continue the history
of Ireland would have been very different.
But there were some who were unaffected by it. Within
a few months of the king’s departure a widespread Ribbon conspiracy broke out
in Limerick. As usual, houses were raided at night
for arms. A Catholic family called O’Shea was burned to death in their house in
county Tipperary when the thatch was set on fire. They
were attacked because they would not agree to demands regarding rent. There
were many calls by Protestants for the largely Protestant yeomanry to be called
out. In Newry, when some of the yeomanry paraded with orange lilies in their
hats they were ordered to observe the King’s Regulations. Rather than obey over
fifty men resigned from the Corps. In county Limerick seventeen constables fought with two
hundred Ribbonmen in white shirts who were attacking the house of a tithe
proctor. On the other side there were Protestants with decidedly Orange sympathies. Alderman Darley was merely
unthinking when he proposed the traditional toast to ‘the Immortal Memory of
William III and he apologized.
The leading
alderman on Dublin Corporation, Alderman Darley, insisted on proposing the
toast 'to the immortal memory' at a banquet, but only after many of the guests
had departed. The king, on hearing of it from the Earl of Fingall, asked Lord
Sidmouth the Home Secretary to convey his displeasure to the alderman. A letter
to the Dublin Evening Post noted that
Orange processions were the chief cause of
irritation. In accordance with the king’s wishes the Corporation of Dublin
issued a proclamation against the annual dressing of the statue of William III.
Goulburn too disapproved of these attempts to keep alive hostile feelings (DEP 11 Dec 1849).
On the king's departure a committee
(which included O'Connell) was set up to organise a collection for a memorial
to the king's visit. Among the signatories of a public notice calling for
subscriptions were the Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Fingall, the Earl of
Roden, Archbishop Troy, and Daniel O’Connell. It was hoped to raise enough to
build a summer palace so that the king could visit Ireland frequently. Contributions flowed in
rather slowly, and eventually the money was used to build a bridge, the 'King's
Bridge' over the Liffey. Yet if the wealthy Protestants, who had subscribed to
the monuments to Nelson and Wellington, had supported the subscription there
is little doubt that a sum sufficient to build a palace would have been raised.
The history of Ireland thereafter would doubtless have been
different.
The
accession of George IV had a profound effect on many Irish Protestants. The
actual changes made in the Irish Government were slight, but the ascendancy
faction felt threatened. Every Government action was scrutinised anxiously. The
Lord Mayor of Dublin in 182l, just before the king's visit, expressed
the wish that 'Orange' demonstrations around the statue of
William III in College Green should be discontinued. The king himself desired
that the toast 'To the immortal memory of King William' should not be drunk.
(Originally this was just a loyal toast to the British free constitution
established by William, and Catholics felt free to drink to it. But it had
gradually taken on ascendancy tones, and by 1820 was an anti-Emancipation
toast.) The king's brother, the Duke of York, heir presumptive to the throne, resigned
from the Orange Order. Orange lodges were prohibited in the armed forces. Such
changes were slight and long over-due but some found them threatening. [Top]
Ireland under Wellesley
Wellesley, Plunket,
and Goulburn introduced over the next five years an extensive programme of
reforms and developments. As was to be the rule for most of the next thirty
years all such attempts were accompanied by outbreaks of agrarian, and at times
trade union, violence which normally led to the reintroduction of special
legislation by the Government. This kind of crime had no connection with any
political issues in Ireland, but always tended to distract
attention from the real issues. (O'Connell believed firmly that all grievances
should be brought to Parliament to seek legal redress. He was totally opposed
to agrarian crime and violent trade unionism. Like many he was absolutely
convinced that the restoration of an Irish Parliament would end all grievances
and violence. At the same time he was devoted to the Royal Family).
The first proper
Irish census was taken in 1821. It was entrusted to William Shaw Mason, a
statistician much valued by Peel, who had asked him to carry out a statistical
survey of Ireland similar to that of Sir John Sinclair in
Scotland. It was decided to enlist the services
of the clergy of the various denominations to check the results of the
enumerators before they were returned. Archbishop Troy was asked for his
co-operation, and he sent circular letters to the Catholic bishops,
and to the clergy in his diocese urging their co-operation. Troy stressed the fact that in some areas
there might be suspicions regarding the Government’s intentions, and the
priests should allay such fears. The Catholic Church was always prepared with
the Government in matters of law and order. John Foster resigned his seat,
having been a Member of Parliament for sixty years. He was then raised to the
peerage as Baron Oriel of Ferrard in the peerage of the United Kingdom. In 1823, the Lord Chancellor,
Manners, decided that bequests for masses were legal.
The
Irish economy continued to expand following its recovery from the post-war
slump. Gas lighting was being introduced into the big cities. In 1823 cargo
steamboats were introduced on the Irish Sea. In 1821 an illustration of a steam carriage
appeared in the Irish Farmers’ Journal. Steam transport by road did not
develop because the county gentlemen in Parliament placed every obstacle in its
way. Road transport would have involved the counties in expenditure on roads
and bridges whereas rail transport did not. Also there was a better return from
shares in railway companies. Steam ships facilitated the transport of
livestock, cattle, sheep, and pigs, to the English markets chiefly because they
were not delayed by adverse winds. Production in Ireland especially on the commercial farms
swung away from cereals to the more profitable livestock. More importantly, for
the smallholders, it became profitable throughout most of the north and east of
the island to collect fresh eggs and butter, besides poultry and feathers.
These developments had not penetrated as far as Connaught when the great Famine struck. But in any case the largely illiterate Gaelic-speaking peasants in
the far west showed little interest in the developments.
Before
a Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry, Charles Wye Williams, like John Anderson,
a great promoter of improvements in transport reported the benefits of steam
navigation. He was the first, he said,
to introduce steam cargo boats on the Irish Sea, building two ships for the purpose in 1823 at a
cost of £12,000 each. The first voyage was between Dublin and Liverpool and was made in 1824. Sailing vessels
between the two ports averaged eight round trips a year. The time from leaving
the quay at Liverpool to docking in Dublin was till then normally one week. Steam
vessels could do fifty two round trips a year. A cattle boat could do the
one-way trip with its cargo and return three times a week. Much less capital
was now tied up in shipping, and holding stocks on either side. Eggs and
poultry could now be marketed in Britain. The Irish cattle dealers cut out the
Dublin merchants and dealt directly with Liverpool. They could buy cattle in
county Clare, put them on canal boats at Killaloe
on the Shannon for Dublin, and ship them to Liverpool at 25 shillings a head. It became
possible to collect and sell fresh Irish butter in Liverpool. This was collected by a humbler class
of person than those who salted butter. The export of pigs was almost
incredible, growing from nothing in 1824. Many ships returned in ballast, but
if the duty on coal were removed, this would not be necessary. This led to
widespread pig rearing among the small holders. Combinations among
ship-builders were so common in Ireland that he and other merchants preferred
placing orders for ships in England (Dublin
Mercantile Advertizer 7 Feb 1831). This sunny optimistic evidence contrasts
with the usual pictures of poverty and doom, and especially with the letters of
John MacHale to Earl Grey about the same time. The turn-around times for
general cargo seem optimistic, though with speedy loading and unloading of
livestock on the hoof, figures for the cattle boats are more likely. Doubtless
livestock formed the bulk of his cargoes. Steam packets were now running
regularly to Holyhead.
The
Irish industrialists and traders were as interested in the possibilities of
using steam as their British counterparts. All those in favour of economic
development were aware that every step in the direction of progress must begin
by laying off workers in the short term. This was as
true of improvements in agriculture as it was in manufacturing. For example,
changing to row-cultivation and the use of the horse meant less work for spade
users and hand-weeders. In the textile industry, machinery had been used in the
cotton industry as far back as 1780 because there were no existing
hand-spinners and hand-weavers of cotton. Not until 1830 did Mulhollands of
Belfast introduce machinery into the linen industry when it was proving
impossible to compete with Lancashire in the cotton trade. The original use for steam engines had been for
pumping out mines, and steam had been used for that purpose in Ireland since the middle of the eighteenth
century. Irish merchants had been quick to exploit the possibility of using
steam at sea once its capabilities had been demonstrated. Its use on the canals
was tried more than once, but even sternwheelers caused excessive damage to the
banks. Irish shipbuilders began to construct paddle steamers themselves.
By
1825 the technical problem of putting a steam engine on to wheels had been
sufficiently overcome as was demonstrated at the opening of the
Stockton to Darlington railway. Interest in railways immediately sprung
up in Ireland. There were also doubts about it. Railways
required an immense amount of capital and expensive equipment. The
Stockton to Darlington Railway could show
profit because there was always a sufficient quantity of coal to carry. But
there seemed no place in Ireland that could generate a similar volume
of constant traffic. Operating profit would have to cover the interest on the
loans required before a dividend could be declared. Nevertheless, in 1826 it
was proposed to construct a railway from the centre of Dublin to Kingstown harbour. In the following year a line
from Dublin to Belfast was proposed, and petitions were
presented to Parliament. Little was done for some years. The completion of Telford’s great suspension bridge over the
Menai Strait, and Parnell’s Holyhead Road from Holyhead to London by the middle of the decade meant
relatively easy and swift means of transport to many parts of England.
[1822] Nevertheless a widespread famine occurred in 1822
similar to that in 1817 but considerably worse, and
similar measures were taken to deal with it. It was estimated that up to half a
million people were starving. The potato crop failed over a wide area. This was
not caused by blight but by adverse weather conditions. But its failure served
as a warning that the hitherto reliable potato that thrived in the damp
conditions of Ireland was itself liable to fail. Many of the
best minds in Ireland, including Dr James Doyle and Sir
Henry Parnell, strove to find a remedy. The great problem was that the potato
could not be stored from one year to the next. So unlike Joseph in Egypt it was not possible to build up a
surplus in good years which could be used in the bad years. Three-quarters of
the population could support itself even in bad years but a quarter could not.
A quarter of the population might amount to nearly two million people, so the
problem was not a small one. Widespread collections were made in Ireland and Britain for famine relief. The Government
began public works. Much money was spent on piers and harbours on the southern
and western coasts to develop a commercial fishing industry such as had been
successfully developed in Scotland. Public administration in these
respects was rudimentary, so little more could be done than giving grants to
interested parties.
The
Irish economy was steadily developing but the population of cottiers fed on the
potato grown on reclaimed bogland in many parts of the West and South was
growing faster than the provision of jobs in local areas. England was slowly but surely managing to feed
its increasing population by developing its industry and commerce. The
Fisheries Act (1819) had provided money for the purchase of boats and nets. The
Government now gave money for the construction of roads fit for wheeled vehicles
into those parts of Ireland where they did not exist. A young
Scottish engineer name Alexander Nimmo was placed in charge of the construction
of the roads. In doing this the Irish Government was following what had just
been done in Scotland. Many of the more remote parts of the
west and south were opened up to wheeled traffic by means of the roads
constructed by Nimmo and Richard Griffith. Nimmo had been employed by the
Fisheries Board to construct thirty piers and harbours on the west coast. He
was made engineer of the western district, and was employed in reclaiming
bogland. He built the road from Cong to Killery on the coast.
Because of the
catastrophe of the Great Famine, the only major one in Europe in the nineteenth century, many people
think that the structure of population in Ireland was peculiar or unique in Europe; it was not. Though probably few
countries in Europe allowed unrestricted sub-division or
squatting to the extent it occurred in parts of Ireland. There was no law in Ireland which stated that a man should be able
to show he could support a family before he was allowed to marry. Ireland all through the nineteenth century was
producing enough food to feed its population. The problem was that the poorest
had no income to enable them to buy the food that was available. If the potato
failed, resort might be had to the gratuitous distribution of food, which would
lead to an enormous increase in the already numerous beggars. Or work might be
provided, either publicly or privately funded, to enable the poor to buy food.
There was no easy solution in sight. After the Great Famine the people
themselves undertook a policy of population control through emigration and
restriction of marriages, but in pre-Famine days the Rev. Thomas Malthus who
advocated precisely such measures got little support for his views from anyone.[Top]
Wellesley’s Reforms
[Government Measures 1822-27] The reforms of Wellesley, Goulburn,
and Plunket began with the issue of tithes. It was not intended to abolish them
altogether. The actual burden of tithes was not very great, but there were two
aspects of them that caused exasperation. The first was that, because of
sub-division of tithable land, the tithe collectors had to go to holders of
even the tiniest patches to assess the crops, and these visits of the tithe
proctors were often the only contact people had with the Protestant clergy. The
other was that grassland was largely exempt, so that a grazier with a thousand
acres might pay no tithes while a widow with a quarter of an acre might have to
pay a few shillings. It was pointed out that since the agistment tithe was
declared unlawful sixty years previously those whose crop consisted entirely of
grass paid no tithes on cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, or anything that
subsisted on grass (Irish Farmers’
Journal 9 Feb 1822). The tithe was payable by the actual cultivator, not
the head landlord, so each further subdivision increased the work of the tithe
assessors and collectors. The Government had previously considered the question
but arrived at no satisfactory conclusion. As Spencer Perceval pointed out,
once the tithe system was rationalized, the poorest people would end up paying
more not less. The law in Ireland had been fixed by the statutes of 36th
and 40th of Henry VIII which stated that the legal tithe was the
tithe then customary in each parish (DEP
26 May 1818). Like in many other ancient institutions in Ireland which had not been reformed down the
centuries abuses had crept in. One of these was that laymen owned the rights to
the tithes in a third of the parishes, and these rights were bought and sold.
The purchasers in turn farmed out the tithes, and it was in such cases that the
most oppressive exactions occurred (SNL
17 June 1811). Tithe proctors, who were lay lawyers, could make money for
themselves by accepting promissory notes from impoverished farmers, and then
subsequently ruined them in the courts (Irish
Farmers’ Journal 13 April 1816).
Now the Government proposed commutation and composition. By commutation
was meant changing the obligation to pay from the cultivator to the landlord who would recover the
amount from the tenants by a rent charge. By composition was meant that in place of the annual assessment the
clergyman and the parishioners would agree on a fixed annual sum, based on the
average paid over the previous few years. As this sum was spread over the
landlords (or parishioners) in proportion to the value of their holdings it
meant in effect that grassland would be equitably tithed. The Government did not
make these changes compulsory in law, and there was considerable opposition to
them among Protestants. By degrees many parishes adopted the system. It was
strange that the outbreak of the 'Tithe War' in 1830 occurred in a parish where
the new system was in force. The final settlement in 1869 changed the tithe to
a charge payable to the Government which then became responsible for its
collection. Houses, by Common Law, were not tithable, but in the reign of
Charles II (17th
and 18th Charles II) a rate or cess for the support of ministers in
towns was imposed on property in towns in the form of a charge on the rent. It
was therefore called Ministers’ Money.
Another
charge payable by Catholics to the Protestant Church was the Vestry Cess in each parish for
the maintenance of public worship. The Irish Church Act (1826) or Vestry Act
(1826) was passed specifying what could, and what could not, be charged to the
Catholics. Many obsolete statutes were repealed. In was enacted that only
Protestants could vote on church matters, but if a vestry was called to deal
with them no other matters could be decided. If a vestry was called to deal
with civil affairs all the men of the parish could vote. By and large, parishes
in Ireland had few civic functions, but some parishes
especially in Dublin still carried out some of these duties.
The
sub-letting and subdivision of land was seen as a major cause of poverty. A
piece of land sufficient for a family might be leased from a head landlord at a
reasonable rent. The tenant then split the holding and sublet all or part of it
at a higher rent. These tenants might sublet again at a still higher rent. In
county Limerick it was possible to find four or five
intermediate landlords. The actual cultivators paid the highest rent, the so-called
'rackrent', when the rent was almost equal to the 'rack', the output of the
plot for the year. (This sub-letting
also caused difficulties for improving landlords.) An effect of Irish law on
land holding was that if ever a landlord or his agent ignored any case of
sub-letting on his estate he was regarded as permitting it no matter to what
extremes it might be carried. Nor could the matter be remedied until the head
lease came up for renewal. At that point, the landlord, if he wished to end the
practice of subletting, had to evict
every single tenant and subtenant on his estate. The new head leases would
then contain an explicit clause against subletting. The matter was made worse
by the fact that on many large estates, leases of ninety nine years granted
almost a century earlier were coming to an end. Improving landlords, of whom
there were many, also wished, in setting new rents, to take advantage of the
agricultural improvements and improved access to markets which had occurred in
the preceding ninety nine years. But to prepare their estates for market crops,
all the tenants who could number thousands, had to be cleared off first. It was
envisaged that some of the evicted tenants would be employed either on works of
improvement, or as farm labourers. Most tenants with tiny potato patches were
already employed seasonally in the spring and autumn on the larger farms, but
without the potato patch their income would be insufficient to support a
family. Many evicted tenants would have to seek employment in England.
Nobody defended the
abuse of subletting. Subletting of its nature caused poverty, and poverty meant
diseases and early deaths. But on the
other hand, if it was not allowed who would support the numerous children who
got no land? The feeling of the country gentlemen, both Whig and Tory, was that
subletting should be abolished, the holdings taken back by the landlord when
the leases expired, and consolidated into holdings of reasonable size. What was
to be done with the others? Every solution called for cash, and any cash
expended on one solution had to be taken from cash allocated to another
solution. (This partly explains the opposition to a compulsory Poor Law.) Only so much could be done by employing more
workers on the landlord's estate, or by developing fisheries or industry. Many
landlords just gave a gratuity to enable their former tenants to reach the
manufacturing districts in England. This was possibly the best solution
available, but it caused great resentment. The sight too of illiterate peasants
who spoke only Irish sitting bewildered along the roads after their eviction
distressed many even of those who agreed that sub-letting must end. (In Scotland, where there was a similar problem, a
favourite solution was to re-settle the tenants on good lands in Canada, but this caused equal resentment.) A
great many estates in Ireland were heavily mortgaged, so the
landowner had little money and little prospect of getting any. On the other
hand, non-improving landlords (of whom Daniel O’Connell was the most famous)
tolerated squatting and sub-division with consequent total dependence on little
patches of potatoes.
As
it is not clear who exactly those engaged in agrarian crime were, it is not
clear if there was any connection between it and subdivision, or if, on the
other hand, subdivision inhibited such crime. A frequent cause of crime and
atrocities was, if a family was evicted for any
cause, it endeavoured by intimidation and threats to prevent anyone else
taking the lease. Those who suffered most from agrarian crime were the Catholic
cottiers. In many ways these agrarian conspirators were like the Mafia in
Sicily and the Camorra in Naples, but they did not reach the full
development of their organization and ruthlessness until the 1880s. Because of
the 'Ribbon Conspiracy' the Government was forced to pass the Insurrection Act
(1822). A Sub-letting Act (1826) proposed by Sir John Newport was passed which
made evictions easier, and allowed sub-letting only to one person. It was
criticized as benefiting only the landlord, and was later modified. Dr Doyle
devoted a large part of his episcopal career to combating agrarian conspiracies
in his diocese. O’Connell too frequently denounced them.
The
Government concluded that a drastic reorganisation of the police forces on
semi-military lines was essential, and that the New Police should be armed with
muskets. A Constabulary Act (1822, 3rd of George IV) was therefore passed. This
adoption of a continental style gendarmerie
in place of the traditional constabulary caused some unease. It is not obvious
what precise reasoning led the Government, and Peel, the Home Secretary, to so
drastic a change. As Sir Henry Parnell observed it seemed too much derived from
the French system. The organised gangs involved in illicit distillation rather
than the nocturnal gangs engaged in agrarian crime may have been the cause.
(The Revenue Police were untrained posses.)
The reasons given by Goulburn when introducing the Bill were the defective
state of the magistracy in some counties, due to age, absenteeism, or lack of
necessary requisites in those appointed magistrates; the poor quality of the
constables, the low pay discouraging suitable applicants, and the partiality of
local constables in particular cases. It seems too that Wellesley hoped that an efficient police force
would remove the need for special anti-terrorist legislation. By giving the
Government some measure of control over it, the remissness of the magistrates
who were always seeking Government help and demanding special legislation could
be overcome. Goulburn also noted that the Irish were notoriously averse to
assisting the police to seek out and apprehend criminals. It would seem that
there was a growing need for an armed police because of a greater readiness of
armed gangs, especially those engaged in illicit distillation, to use firearms.
The agrarian criminals operated secretly at night and dispersed to their homes
by day. Formerly too, if danger of attack by daylight was apprehended, for
example when escorting prisoners for transportation, files of soldiers had to
be used. Also, this was the period when faction fighting was at its height,
when various factions would agree to meet for a street fight or brawl in the
main street of a country town on a fair day.
The single uniform police force for the whole country would cost
£217,000 and would replace the baronial constabulary, the extraordinary police,
the Preventive Revenue Police, and military assistance, the total for which
came to £180,000. Plunket conceded that the costs would be greater by almost
£40,000, but considered that that there would be savings in the various
watches, reduced cost of prosecutions, and reduced losses from crime.
The police were removed from the direction of
the sheriffs and placed under their own officers or inspectors. The inspectors
were to draw up rules for the police that were to be approved by the county
magistrates at Quarter Sessions. The Lord Lieutenant was empowered to appoint
chief constables to baronies and half-baronies, though each constable was to be
a constable for his whole county. In other words he could be ordered to assist
in other baronies in the same county, or if necessary in neighbouring counties.
The Lord Lieutenant was also empowered to provide housing and equipment. Though
the Lord Lieutenant was empowered to do these things the responsibility and
much of the cost of the constabulary still lay with the baronies. The local
magistrates recruited the ordinary constables. But the extra cash available was
an incentive to the baronies to adopt the new system of policing. The Lord
Lieutenant was also empowered to appoint special magistrates if necessary.
These were later known as stipendiary magistrates because they were paid a
salary and were not dependent on the income from their own lands. The old
baronial constabulary was not abolished by this Act, except in those counties
where the Lord Lieutenant appointed Chief Constables and constables. Where
however the new constabulary was set up the Acts of 1792 and 1814, and the
clauses of Townlands Fines Continuation Act (1819) regarding special constables
no longer applied.
This Act was a kind of halfway stage between
the Constabulary Act (1792) and the Constabulary Act (1836) that finally
established the form of the Royal Irish Constabulary. This enabled a
professional police force to develop itself, and the Irish model was widely
copied around the world. Frederick Conway observed in the Dublin Evening Post (16 June 1835) that the character of the police did
not change much with regard to personnel. The same magistrates still recruited
working class Protestants with strong Orange sympathies, and inspectors were drawn from among
those who had experience in the old constabulary. In 1824 official returns
showed that one-quarter of the police were Catholics. The great improvement lay
in the new rules and the fact that their own officers controlled them. Also,
they could not be called out or used to enforce civil suits, but only in cases
where bailiffs met with resistance.
At the same time
the magistracy was purged of old, inactive, or absentee magistrates by the Lord
Chancellor Lord Manners by means of writs of supersedeas in the Court of Common Pleas. An Act was passed in 1826
abolishing all local gaols, for example those in manors or liberties. There
were 178 prisons or bridewells in Ireland according to the report of the
Inspector General of Prisons. In future all prisoners were to be held in the
county gaol. It was proposed to make extensive use of the treadmill to provide
hard labour to those sentenced to penal servitude with hard labour in place of
transportation. The system of two or three magistrates in a district meeting
regularly to hold petty sessions devised by Lord Cloncurry under special
legislation was extended by Act of Parliament to the whole of Ireland. The construction of modern county
gaols to replace the old ramshackle buildings commenced. Among the first was
Maryborough (pronounced Maraboro) Gaol in Queen’s County, now known as Port Laoise high security prison. [Top]
Monetary and Fiscal Changes
The period allowed
by the Act of Union for the retention of protective tariffs expired in 1820,
and Goulburn set about removing those remaining. Duties on tea, sugar, tobacco,
wine, and foreign spirits had been assimilated in 1814. Duty on malt was
assimilated in 1815. All customs duties were assimilated in 1822. Duties on paper, hides and skins in 1825; duty on vinegar 1826;
duties on glass 1828 (The Pilot 14
March 1842). The protective tariffs on cotton ceased, causing a switch
towards the use of machinery in the linen industry. The seventeenth century
Navigation Acts against foreign traders and foreign shipping no longer applied
to Ireland. A standard system of weights and measures, the
'Imperial measures', was introduced in 1824 and came into force on 1
May 1825.
Formerly goods were bought in England or Ireland in the local measures and sold in the
other country in the measures that existed there. The most important measures were the Imperial
gallon for wet measures and the Imperial bushel set at eight gallons for dry
measures. The separate Irish Boards of Customs and Excise ceased to exist. The
Irish Stamp Office came to an end in October 1827. Thus two obstacles to trade
between the islands were abolished. Not all the changes were compulsory, and
Irish measures for land remained long in use. The Post Office brought in the
changes for weights and measures, coins, and distances on the same day. There
was no longer a need for separate Revenue Boards so the British and Irish
Boards were amalgamated. In Britain the Post Master General commenced the
now familiar practice of appointing and promoting on the grounds of merit. (It
should be noted that the Banking Acts of 1823 and 1824 still used Irish
measures, and the fifty mile limit from Dublin was measured in Irish miles which
equalled 63.5 statute miles. The Irish or ‘plantation’ acre of 7840 square
yards instead of the 4840 square yards of the statute acre continued in private
use until the twentieth century.) Irish currency was discontinued and sterling
made the single currency on 5 January 1826. Irish pounds were changed into
sterling valued 18 shillings and five and a half pence. Thirteen Irish pence
became twelve English pence, and other sums were exchanged accordingly. The
Irish currency however did not immediately cease to be legal tender, and could
be used until the Lord Lieutenant decided otherwise and issued a proclamation
to that effect. The Royal Exchange for currency was no longer needed.
When
he was in Ireland Peel had been very affected by the distress caused by
failures of banks. If it was the sole bank in a particular
area trade virtually ceased on its collapse. Irish banking laws were rather archaic and
restrictive, and needed updating. In 1821 an Act was passed modifying the
charter of the Bank of Ireland and allowing joint-stock banking. By this time
there were only eleven country banks in Ireland against one hundred and twenty eight
in Scotland, a comparable country. Credit for business
purposes was often unavailable in country areas. The monopoly of the Bank of
Ireland was to be restricted to within fifty Irish miles of Dublin, and 'joint stock' banks with
unlimited partners were to be allowed outside that distance. However, the
wording of the Act was unclear, and so had to be emended, and this was done by
the Irish Bank Act (1824). The old restrictions on private banks were also
lifted. The first of the new banks, the Northern Bank in Belfast, opened its doors in 1824. It had
previously been a partnership bank. Other banks were soon founded and they
started up branches in all the major towns in Ulster, Connaught, and Munster. The large amount of subscribed
capital and the system of interlinked branches provided for very stable
banking. As an additional safeguard Bank of Ireland began to act as a lender of
last resort. Without prompting from the Government the banks controlled the
issue of notes to what was essential, and so provided a stable currency.
Nicholas Mahon launched his own bank in Dublin hoping that the restrictions would be
removed. They were not, but his bank, the Hibernian was profitable, being very
popular with the Catholic merchants in Dublin. The Irish banks, like the Scottish
banks, continued to issue their own notes, and do so until this day. It was
noted that except in parts of Ulster, notes issued by the banks were the
only medium of circulation. In neither Ireland or Scotland were the notes based on a metallic
currency, unlike in England after 1819. Nowadays however they are
regarded as merely a form of advertising. In December 1825, in England there was crash of a speculative boom
which caused seventy banks to fail, but Ireland was largely unaffected.
[Top]
Survey and Valuation
The legislation on
tithes showed the need for a uniform system of valuation throughout Ireland, and the need to map lands reclaimed
from bogs since the previous survey which might have been done nearly a hundred
and fifty years previously. In many cases no changes in valuation had taken
place since the Down Survey of Sir William Petty between 1649 and 1660. In some
parts of Ireland assessment was by townlands all valued equally; in other cases
the townlands were valued by extent, not by produce; in other cases valuation
was carried out on other sub-divisions variously called catrons, tates, etc. (SNL 29 Sept. 1824).
Two commissions, one of survey and the other
of valuation, were appointed. The work of the survey was entrusted to officers
seconded to the Irish Government from the Board of Ordnance. For this reason
the Irish Civil Survey is always called the Ordnance Survey. The chief officer
was Major Thomas Frederick Colby, a man who set meticulous standards of
accuracy. The standards he set in Ireland became the norm for the whole of the United Kingdom, and eventually for the rest of the
world. Up to three-quarters of a million pounds were spent on the survey and
mapping. He decided not to farm out the survey to local surveyors as had been
the practice in England, but with the permission of the Master General of
Ordnance, the Duke of Wellington, he raised three companies of sappers and
miners to be trained in surveying. Additional workers were also hired locally.
Work commenced on Divis Mountain overlooking Belfast in 1825. A base line exactly eight
miles long was measured along the shore of Lough Foyle in 1827-8.
The first task of
the surveyors was to map the boundaries of townlands.
All previous measures of land like tates, ploughlands,
and ballybetaghs were discarded, and the Ordnance Survey maps recorded only
townlands as the basic local unit. A townland, literally the land belonging to
a town, was between 300 and 500 acres, but could be as low as 50 acres.
Originally it was the same as farmstead or homestead belonging to a single
family. But in the nineteenth century it had often been split into tiny
holdings. An historical branch was formed to examine manuscripts and records
with a view to determining the correct local names. A Gaelic scholar named John
O’Donovan was employed to do this and he visited almost every part of Ireland and left copious notes about the
places he visited. Hundreds of manuscript volumes of historical information
were written. The Ordnance Survey maps contain 144,000 names of which 62,000
were names of townlands. Another scholar employed in this work was Eugene
O’Curry who was to become professor of Irish History and Archaeology in the
Catholic University. It is astonishing that people had
attempted to write histories of Ireland without the work of these men. It was
an extraordinary outcome of what had started as a simple survey for purposes of
equalizing taxation.
An Irish Valuation Act (7 Geo IV) was passed
in 1827. Richard Griffith did the most of the work. He had already been employed
from 1809 to 1812 as one of the commissioners for surveying Irish bogs and to
report on their possible utility. He then was employed as Inspector of Mines in
Ireland. After 1822 he was employed on
measures for the relief of famine and for the construction of roads in the
south and west. It proved difficult to arrive at acceptable criteria for
valuation, and Griffith made more than one attempt. He attempted to
obtain an absolute value for a given piece of land based on the quality of the
soil and the nature of the underlying rock. But obviously proximity to markets
had to be included, and agricultural improvements. The
point in his approach was to value the land at what the local soil was capable
of producing under an energetic improving farmer, rather than what it was
actually producing, or what the historic rent had been. The 'Griffith valuations' were to some extent
replaced in the 1840's by a valuation of all real property carried out by the
Poor Law Commissioners. The Poor Law Valuation (P.L.V) to some extent replaced
the others and became the basis for fiscal administration in local government.
But for leasing of land the Griffith valuations remained until the end of
the century, provision being made to have them continually updated (Weekly Irish Times 28 March 1903). It
was the valuation, minus discounts, which was used for the purchase of land
under the various Land Acts.
Luddism,
or the breaking of machinery, either industrial or agricultural, does not seem
to have been a problem in Ireland. In the 1820's there was a rather
unusual episode of breaking the banks of canals. The canals brought cheaper
goods from Dublin, showing that there are losers as well as winners
in every development. Combination or trade unionism in Ireland followed the same course as it did in England, and in the 1820's was becoming
increasingly violent. A Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry recommended that the
Combination Acts should be repealed. This was done, but it led in England to a massive increase in the use of
violence for trade union purposes. A Trade Union Act (1826) was then passed to
regulate associations of tradesmen or journeymen. In Dublin especially the existing combinations
legalized themselves. In the south of Ireland, after a brief intermission, agrarian
crime broke out on a greater scale. The worst troubles from combinations, which
Dr. Doyle had to face, were in the mining districts.
[Top]
Religious Matters
[Religious Matters 1822-27] It had been
the aim of the various Prime Ministers, Lords Lieutenant, and Irish Secretaries
since the Union to promote the growth of religious
harmony in Ireland. But developments in all three major
Churches in the 1820's made the possibility of this happy outcome more remote.
The Established
Church was finding its feet, and renewing the work of the Reformers that had
slackened in the previous century. The character of Irish Protestantism
changed. More and better-educated clergy were being provided, houses built for
them, salaries set aside for them, churches built or re-built, and the
residence of the clergy in their parishes enforced. Dissenting clergy were
excluded from conducting services in parish churches and the bishops and deans
insisted on the proper and dignified conduct of worship. It was becoming more
difficult for the Catholic (or Dissenting) clergy to find matter to criticize.
Religious observance increased among the Protestant laity, more attendance at
churches, more Bible-reading, less intoxication, more truthfulness and honesty.
The Established Church was beginning to look like a proper reformed Christian
Church.
William Magee, a
learned Protestant mathematician and theologian, an active reformer considered
liberal in his views, was bishop of Raphoe in 1819. After spending over a year going
round his new diocese to see how religious affairs were being conducted he
addressed himself to his clergy. He told them that he had been impressed by
what he had found. There was a spirit ‘in all ranks from the highest to the
lowest, in active exertion, seeking everywhere after the young and
uninstructed, visiting every cottage, soliciting every parent, encouraging and
instructing every child, to draw them to the knowledge and practice of
religion, and to guide their feet into that part, which if through the Divine
grace they continue in it, will lead them to everlasting happiness’ (Charge to the Clergy of the diocese of
Raphoe 1821).
When
Wellesley arrived he appointed him archbishop of
Dublin (1822). His Charge to the clergy of
Dublin showed that he was for the most part
pleased with the efforts of the clergy there. There were however some however
with whom he was less satisfied; some who were not devoted to the welfare of
the flocks entrusted to them; some who seemed to regard the Church as a means of
livelihood, and who lived like gentlemen or men of the world. These however he
was satisfied were not numerous. He always strongly defended the Established
Church though he confessed before a select committee of the House of Lords that
he had no particular knowledge of the Roman Catholic religion other than what
was commonly known in Ireland. He was equally opposed to those who
considered the reading of the Bible without comment sufficient for true
knowledge of salvation and the instruction of a clergyman superfluous. He was
entirely opposed to unlicensed clergymen being allowed to preach or celebrate
services in Church of Ireland churches.
He had a habit of
making tactless remarks and for these he is best remembered. His famous remark that Roman Catholics had a
Church without a religion and the Dissenters a religion without a Church
probably accurately reflected his views. Many Catholics were offended by an
incident that occurred in St Kevin's churchyard in Dublin, for which the archbishop was
incorrectly blamed. Catholics were normally buried in Protestant cemeteries,
the only ones there were, but were prohibited from conducting the burial
service there. So instead they led the mourners in some common prayers. The
sexton seeing this expelled the clergyman, and thereby incurred the wrath of
the formidable Dr Michael Blake. (Magee’s explanation in a letter to the bishop
of Limerick was reported in Saunders’ Newsletter 19 April 1824. Dr Blake was the parish priest of the
parish of St Michael and St John in Dublin. He was later sent to Rome to re-open the
Irish College, closed since the Revolution, and
finally became bishop of Dromore.). In the course of his reforms the archbishop
had stressed, correctly in canon and civil law, that no clergymen other than
those of the Established Church could conduct public services in churchyards on
the occasion of a funeral. The Protestant verger misunderstood either what the
Catholic priest was doing or the instructions of the archbishop. Magee in his
later life had become a conservative and may not have been displeased at the
incident. More and more clergymen of the Established Church began to identify
themselves with the ascendancy faction, and strenuously opposed Emancipation,
all Whig administrations, and the administrations of 'the great betrayer',
Robert Peel. An Act of Parliament (Irish Burials Act 1824) was passed to enable
Catholics to establish their own cemeteries.
There
were changes in the Catholic Church as well. By 1815 the Penal Laws were
regarded as well and truly in the past. (The continued exclusion of Catholic
gentlemen from Parliament was like a speck of dust in the eye, a major
irritant.) No longer fearing persecution some priests took a more prominent
part in public life, and began to take part in politics during elections. In
1820, a young professor in Maynooth named Dr John MacHale published a series of
diatribes in the style of Swift under the pseudonym of Hierophilos. The Catholic bishops began to meet regularly to
consult before dealing with the Government. Relations with the Government were
becoming friendly. After the Marquis Wellesley was appointed Lord Lieutenant,
Archbishop Murray, usually accompanied by some other bishops, presented himself
at a levee each year to pay his respects. When Wellesley, in 1825, married a Catholic,
Murray conducted the Catholic service.
Suspicion of the Government and of Protestants, so strong a few years earlier,
had died down, but people like MacHale were again fanning the suspicions. As
time passed the suspicions of Government motives, and defensiveness in their
regard, were to grow and grow until they pervaded the entire Catholic Church in
Ireland. But while Primate Curtis, Archbishop
Murray, and Dr James Doyle, were in charge the Catholic hierarchy maintained
friendly relations with the Government, and co-operated closely with Whig
politicians, especially with Sir Henry Parnell.
It
was noted that between 1809 and 1816 all the bishops appointed in Ireland had studied in Salamanca under Dr Patrick Curtis, and finally
Curtis himself was appointed. On the same day was appointed a young bishop
whose education in Portugal was cut short by the French invasion,
Dr James Doyle. In 1825 there was appointed a young professor from Maynooth as
co-adjutor to the bishop of the remote diocese of Killala, Dr John McHale. He
was to be the stormy petrel of the Irish Catholic Church. It was extremely
self-opinionated, and it was said of him that he was only happy when he was
opposing somebody. But in the meantime the Catholic bishops were united.
It
is interesting to note that when Dr. Doyle was appointed bishop of Kildare and
Leighlin (pronounced Locklin, roughly the counties of Kildare, Queen’s
County/Laois and Carlow) he found the clergy much as Dr Magee did in
Dublin. He was satisfied with most of them,
but some had grown old and lazy, and more concerned with gathering money to
support their old age in comfort than with improving church buildings or
schools. He also detected willingness on the part of some to mix in public
gatherings that were unsuitable for clergymen. After the slackness of the
preceding century discipline was being tightened in both churches
(Fitzpatrick). Like most Catholic bishops in the first half of the century he
began constructing a proper cathedral for the Catholics, as the existing
cathedrals were in Protestant hands.
This clearly signified the final
abandonment of any claim to churches or lands in the possession of the
Established Church. (In Dublin, after the death of Archbishop Murray,
the nationalist clergy persisted in referring to his cathedral as a
pro-cathedral. The implication was that the Catholics had the moral right to
the two medieval cathedrals. Re-building a cathedral,
or moving it to a different church in the same city can be done by the bishop,
and does not require the assent of the Holy See.)
The
Irish Presbyterians too were emerging from the obscurity forced on them by the
Penal Laws. But their situation was different from that of the Catholics in one
respect. Emancipation for them would involve the repeal of the Test Act and the
admission of Dissenters to public office as of right. (The 'Sacramental test'
was the obligation to take the sacrament in the Established Church. An
Indemnity Act allowed Presbyterians to take public office.) Catholics could
look to the possibility of taking political control in Ireland whereas Presbyterians could not. As
long as Catholic priests stayed out of politics there was a chance that the
Presbyterians would side with the Catholics and even also support Repeal. But
obviously, they would never vote to submit themselves to the Catholic
hierarchy. It was noted that if Ireland had been completely Protestant a
demand for Repeal would have been widespread - religion was to prove a stronger
force than nationalism. It seems certain that the enrolment by O'Connell of
Catholic priests to assist the laity in the struggle for Emancipation tipped
the scales within the Presbyterian body.
Castlereagh
had increased the Regium Donum, the
financial assistance given by the state for the support of Dissenting
ministers. But the Presbyterians largely supported their own clergy and
churches. The Presbyterians had constructed a college like that in Maynooth,
under the direction of their own ministers, partly as a grammar school, and
partly as a college for ordinands. A small parliamentary grant was usually
voted annually to assist its upkeep. The Presbyterian clergy, like those in the
other Churches, were developing their Church in a similar fashion, building
churches, providing ministers, tightening up on discipline, and so on.
One
point came to the fore that many Presbyterians regarded as being of fundamental
importance. In theory, all Presbyterians recognised no authority but the Bible.
It had become customary, and then of obligation, to require prospective
preachers or ministers to attest their true beliefs by subscribing (signing) to
a traditional statement of Puritan doctrine, the Westminster Confession. This
document had no authority but was considered a test of orthodoxy. In the
eighteenth century, in various places subscription was no longer exacted if the
minister could prove his orthodoxy to other learned ministers. Non-subscribing ministers tended to be
Whiggish or even liberal in their views, and supported Emancipation for the
Catholics. A feeling was gradually growing that subscription should be
enforced. The reason for this is far from obvious. About 1815 the Government
was worried about certain political opinions in the
Belfast Presbyterian College, the Royal Belfast Academical
Institute. Also, the champions of subscription began to get worried about the
orthodoxy of some of the non-subscribing ministers teaching there. Two factions
grew up. The non-subscribers were led by the able and liberal minister, the
Rev. Henry Montgomery; the subscribers by the equally able and extremely
energetic Rev. Henry Cook. (In his old age Cook was to become as 'High Tory' as
many of the Established clergy, but the views of his old age were not
necessarily those of his youth.)
Throughout
the 1820's the struggle between the subscribers and non-subscribers raged until
in 1828 and 1829 Cook's faction triumphed. Montgomery's faction then withdrew from the Synod
of Ulster and set up their own grouping, the
'Remonstrant Synod'. Disputes between the synods over churches and endowments
continued for many years, but the Remonstrants found a protector in Robert
Peel, who always tried to safeguard their interests. Under Henry Cook's
influence the Presbyterians of the Synod of Ulster, and later the General
Assembly, became aligned with the Established Church on many issues.
In
the 182O's a movement arose unconnected with any of the Churches that many
Catholics regarded as a conspiracy to subvert their religion. It is commonly
called 'The Second Reformation'. It was conducted by the numerous Missionary
and Bible Societies in Britain and Ireland. These societies, the earliest and
most important of which was the British and Foreign Bible Society, aimed at
printing the Bible in all languages and distributing it throughout the world.
For them the Gaelic-speaking adherents of 'Popery' in Ireland were no different from the Bushmen or
Hottentots of South Africa. But the Irish cottiers already belonged to a
Christian Church and attempted 'poaching' could only lead to disputes. For this
reason the Government always discouraged 'proselytising' by the clergy of the
Established Church, indicating that no clergyman engaged in such activity would
be promoted. Most of the Irish Protestant Bishops withdrew from the societies
working in Ireland because of their lack of respect for
canon law or a bishop's authority. To avoid any suspicion of proselytising they
told their clergy never to make the slightest connection between the bestowal of alms, food, or clothing, and any work of
religion like Bible-reading or hymn singing. But over the activities of the
Bible Societies they had no control.
The Societies had some advantages. They had
adequate funds to pay schoolmasters, and they had a Bible printed in Irish.
Catholic children attending their schools could learn to read the language they
spoke. Precisely what was done in each local school is not clear. Some Catholic
schoolmasters seemed prepared to accept the cash and conditions. They could then draw their salaries, teach the
children to read the Irish Bible, and then charge for teaching anything else.
The belief grew among the Catholic priests, and was carefully fostered by the
likes of MacHale, that such schools were extremely dangerous for Catholic
children. No doubt in some of their schools anti-Catholic teaching was
practised.
The
Bible Societies were growing more active. They were formed originally to print
and distribute Bibles without note or comment so that everyone would be able to
read the word of God for themselves without any interpretation or comment by
any Church whether Catholic or Protestant. They insisted however that only one
particular translation could be used: the version approved by King James I. (This was not a particularly accurate version
either with regard to the Hebrew and Greek texts from which it was translated,
or with regard to the translation itself which was tendentious. It has since
been revised several times.) The Dublin
Evening Post printed a letter from a Catholic prelate saying that Catholics
do not object to Protestants attacking Catholic doctrines but to the
misrepresentations as ‘so many hideous spectres, or ridiculous abortions of
bigotry and superstition, to the hatred and contempt of mankind’. The campaigns
of the Bible Societies were manifested chiefly by scurrilous attacks on
Catholic doctrine. (This kind of attack has been found since the sixteenth
century and is still found in places today; claims that the Catholics ate human
flesh, worshipped idols, worshipped saints, despised the Bible, bought pardons
for sins; that the Pope is Anti-Christ; that Catholics are obliged to kill
heretics and so on.).
At a somewhat
higher intellectual level, newspapers and periodicals like the Warder and the Antidote were started to promote a strong Protestant and
anti-Catholic feeling among the reading classes. A group of Protestants
launched a new newspaper in Dublin called the Dublin Evening Mail entirely independent of any Government funds.
The proprietors were unwilling to ask a tainted source like Wellesley’s Government for any cash. It proved
an immediate and dramatic success. It also marked the alienation of a large
number of Protestants from both the Whig and Tory governments which was to last
until the middle of the century. There would have been a great demand for Home
Rule among them if they had not realised that the Catholics would form the
great majority in an Irish Parliament.
There was a
different aspect of the Second Reformation unconnected with the preceding one.
This was the series of public debates or controversies organised in various
parts of the country. Once they started various people thought they saw how
they could use them to their own advantage. The fact that O'Connell helped to
organise one series is symptomatic. They were originally conceived by a group
of well-educated young clergymen of the Established Church. Up to that time
some Catholic priests had been poorly educated members of the lower classes.
Such were not typical, but the young clergymen thought they were. It seemed
easy to challenge Catholic priests to public debate and show up their
ignorance. They overlooked the fact that the Catholic Church had capable
professors of theology and, more importantly, printed books on controversies
with the Protestants on the Continent going back centuries. The Catholic
priests who took up the challenges had the answers to hand even before they
started. The arguments were no more conclusive in Ireland than they had been on the Continent,
but each side claimed the victory. Seeing this the Catholic bishops tried to
put a stop to the polemical disputations, but they continued.
But perhaps the
person who contributed to sectarianism in Ireland was O’Connell himself. He had no
understanding of Protestants and had no wish to understand them even if they
were on his own side. The Romantic Movement was in full flower with romantic
visions of bold chiefs of old which found its greatest expression in the novels
of Sir Walter Scott then being written. He imagined himself in his home in Kerry
as a descendant of the O’Connells, chiefs of Iveragh. (Some Protestants
maintained he was not a descendant of chiefs but was plain Dan Connell, the son
of a peasant. The ‘O’ signifying descent from a chiefly family was often added
or dropped.) He never addressed a Protestant meeting, but his love of
addressing Catholic meetings and confusing Catholic with Irish and Protestant
with foreign oppressors was chiefly responsible for developing the national
identity of modern Ireland. Those who followed him like
Archbishop MacHale and Cardinal Cullen developed his ideas, and in Cullen’s
case they developed a real hatred of Protestantism which O’Connell, despite his
rhetoric, did not have.
When
George III died in 1820 there was a sense that a logjam had been broken, and
changes were about to occur for the benefit of Catholics. The idea of promoting
on merit to public offices was still in the future. Would the Catholics, when
they got public offices, just promote their friends, or would a fair share of
jobs go to the Protestants? Archbishop Magee probably spoke for many when he
said that he had no objection to emancipation for Catholics in itself, but he
feared that if the Catholics were secure in power they would overthrow the
Protestant establishment. Of crucial importance then was the question who would emerge as the principal leader of the Catholics.
Lord Killeen or Richard Sheil could gradually have allayed Protestant fears;
O'Connell was certain to increase them. Several factors had to be considered.
If Catholics could enter Parliament, this could be counteracted by raising the
property qualification for voting so as to benefit the Protestant electors.
This in the event was what was done, and it was not until towards the end of
the century that an overall majority for a Catholic Nationalist Party became
possible.
Before
considering the political struggles which ended with the truce between the
Whigs and Tories in 1838, it is worth considering the balance of military power
in Ireland, or what would happen in a case of armed
insurrection. Some Irishmen in 1798 thought that all that was required was a
call to arms. Then 'all Ireland' would rise against 'the invader', the
'British' would leave, and everyone would live happily ever after. In 1820 the
only groups likely to heed such a call to arms were to be found among the
poorest Catholic working classes in the eastern parts of the island, the parts
where agrarian crime was rampant. A call for an uprising among these classes
could initially have been more successful in 1820 than in 1798. But when the
army with its field guns arrived the insurgents would have been blasted to
bits. Steamships too meant that the delay of reinforcements from England would not again be delayed by contrary
winds. But there was no group advocating such a call to arms. Nor were
political conditions in Europe
favourable to an insurrection.
If
the Government was unwilling to crush the rebels, the ascendancy faction, the
Orange Order, and the yeomanry, would have combined to do the job. It would
have taken them longer, but the 'extermination' of the 'rebels' would have been
more systematic and thorough. The Protestants had ready access to money, arms,
and cavalry horses which the impoverished Catholic cottiers or labourers had
not. This was the reality of the situation, and those vividly appreciated it
like O’Connell and Murray who had lived through 1798.
If
the Protestant yeomanry wished to emulate their fathers in 1782 and assemble in
a national convention, the army too could have dispersed them. Their success in
1782 was caused by extraneous factors, namely the distraction of the American
War, the danger of a French invasion, and the fact that most trained soldiers
had been stripped from the country and could not easily be brought back to Europe. The Protestant yeomanry always
remembered this and made no attempt to combine against the Government or to try
to over-awe it. It was the Catholics who came to believe that the Government in
1782 had caved in before a show of strength.
The policies of any ministry were constrained
by these factors. It would have, either from policy or conviction, to make
considerable concessions to the Catholics without driving the Protestants to
exasperation. The over-riding preoccupation of any Government is to maintain
its own authority. It is significant therefore in this connection that
operational control of the new gendarmerie
was taken away from the county authorities, which were in many cases controlled
by gentlemen with Orange sympathies. It was always the objective
of O'Connell to force the Government to bring in benefits for the Catholics and
to defy the ascendancy faction.
Emancipation
was not a topic particularly to the fore. Most people regarded it as
inevitable. If it did not get through Parliament this year,
then perhaps next year or the year after. There was no urgency. A
petition was presented to George IV's first Parliament in 1820. Henry Grattan,
now dying, made his last journey to Westminster to present the petition. He travelled
from Liverpool to London by canal boat. He died before getting
the opportunity. Plunket presented it in his stead, but the affair of the
Princess Caroline prevented Parliament from attending to it.
[Top]
The Education Question
[Education 1822-27] The question of
education was thought more urgent. Peel had considered the matter closed in
1814, and Government money in increasing sums every year was being given to the
Kildare Place Society. This Society insisted on the common reading of the Bible,
and some Catholics considered, or affected to consider, that this amounted to
proselytising. An inaccurate letter of complaint was sent to Rome, and the Holy See replied with
considerable vagueness recommending the establishment of Catholic schools. (Such
replies from Rome without a full enquiry are always conditional: if
the facts are as you say. The onus is placed on the petitioner to establish the
true facts.) The Catholic hierarchy, whether for this or for
other reasons, began to think of establishing a Catholic Education Society and
applying to the Government for support for it too. The Government was
unwilling to go against its principles and support sectarian schools, so the
Catholic Education Society collapsed. Most of the bishops felt that if such a
society could not survive in Dublin it had no chance at all in the rest of
Ireland, and considered what modifications
they could seek to the existing system.
When
the Marquis Wellesley arrived he listened sympathetically and set up a
Commission of Education Enquiry (1824) to examine the existing system and to
recommend improvements. Anthony Blake was one of the commissioners. Obviously a
system of non-sectarian education like that provided by the Kildare Place
Society could not work if Catholic parents considered it a sectarian body and
refused to send their children to its schools. The Education Enquiry Report
(1825) therefore recommended that the Government itself should undertake the
work, and that a Board of National Education should take over from the Kildare
Place Society. Wellesley reappointed the Board with the remit that they
prepare for the establishment of such a Board.
By this time John
MacHale had been made a bishop. The Catholic bishops meeting (1826) prepared
recommendations to put before the new Board. If they could not get a Catholic
society then they would aim at making the Board as Catholic as possible in
Catholic areas, while allowing the Protestants the right to make it Protestant
in Protestant areas. Where a majority of pupils were Catholics, they said, the
teacher should be a Catholic. Every Catholic bishop should have the right to
approve all books used in the schools in his diocese. For the majority of the
bishops these objectives were unrealistic, but a minority, led by MacHale, regarded
them as irreducible rights. Archbishop
Murray was the chief negotiator for the Catholics with the Education
Commission, and discussions dragged on for years. The majority of the
Commissioners insisted on preparing religious moral readings for use in the
period of common instruction. It was still an age when education was supposed
to have a strong religious content, where readings, if not directly from the
Bible, should have a strong moral content, inculcating for example honesty at
work, or duty to one’s parents. In a typical example, it would be proposed that
the Nativity account in Saint Luke should be read. Murray would reply that verse 28 of the first
chapter was significantly different in the Catholic version and insist that
Catholic children read that version. The Protestant archbishops, seeking to
regain some authority over education, claimed that only they could authorise a
translation of the Bible. There was no need to use the Bible at all in the
period of common instruction, and Murray told the Commissioners that they were
making unnecessary difficulties for themselves. The matter was not decided
until 1831.
[1825] In
1825, separate Committees of Enquiry into the state of Ireland were set up by the House of Commons,
and the House of Lords. Archbishop Murray, who had succeeded Troy as archbishop of Dublin in 1823, was called to give evidence,
as was Dr. Doyle. The evidence given was printed separately, and it is the most
informative of all the reports of committees of enquiry in Ireland. In 1826 Goulburn had an Act passed
regulating the minor or manor courts, and requiring the registration of
seneschals. In 1826, Philip Whitfield Harvey, one of the great newspapermen in Ireland died. His newspaper, the Freeman’s Journal had suffered
financially as a result of Saurin’s campaign against the press, and he himself
had been gaoled for nine months. Archbishop Murray attended his funeral. The
first quarter of the century were the great days of
the Freeman’s Journal. After his
death it declined, and became a poor mouthpiece of various repealing or Home
Rule interests. In 1826, the Irish national lottery was ended. George IV began
the construction of Buckingham Palace. In 1827, the king’s brother, the Duke
of York died, leaving the next brother, William, Duke of Clarence as heir to
the throne. As he had no legitimate issue, the next in succession was the Duke
of Kent’s daughter, Victoria. Kingstown replaced Howth as the terminus for the
steampacket service in 1826. In that year too the first steampacket was built
in Ireland.
[1826] A General election was held in 1826. The Whigs
made some attempt to contest more seats. The leading members of the Catholic
Association played a prominent part. O’Connell was nominated as a candidate in
Waterford, but this was merely to give the
opportunity of addressing the electors, before standing down in favour of the
Whig candidate Villiers Stuart. Shiel addressed the electors of Dundalk in favour of the Whig candidate. The
Whigs took both seats in Waterford and wrested one seat in Louth from the
Fosters. It was fifty eight years since Louth had been last contested. It was
regarded as an omen for things to come. Conway considered that this election was the
most fiercely contested in Ireland since the reign of Queen Anne. The Catholic
Association began to scent victory in their struggle for emancipation.
Lord Liverpool died
in April 1827 and was succeeded in quick succession by four Prime Ministers.
The
great political event of the decade, the struggle for Catholic Emancipation,
will be treated in a separate chapter.
