Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/286

 270 IRELAND [HISTORY. dreaded name of Whiteboy was first heard in 1761, arid agrarian crime has never since been long absent. Since the Union we have had the Threshers, the Terry Alts, the Molly Maguires, the Rockites, and many others. Poverty has been the real cause of all these disturbances, which were often aggravated by the existence of factions profoundly indicative of barbarism. Communism, cupidity, scoundrel- ism of all kinds have contributed to every disturbance. The tendency shown to screen the worst criminals is some times the result of sympathy, but more often of fear. The cruelties which have generally accompanied Whiteboyism is common to servile insurrections all over the world. No wonder if Irish landlords were formerly tyrannical, for they were in the position of slave-owners. The steady application of modern principles, by extending legal pro tection to all, has altered the slavish character of the oppressed Irish. The cruelty has not quite died out, but it is much rarer than formerly ; and, generally speaking, the worst agrarianism has of late years been seen in the districts which retain most of the old features. The mediaeval colony in Ireland was profoundly modified by the pressure of the surrounding tribes. While partially adopting their laws and customs, the descendants of the conquerors often spoke the language of the natives, and in so doing nearly lost their own. The Book of Howth and many documents composed in the Pale during the 16th century show this clearly. Those who settled in Ireland after 1641 were in a very different mood. They hated, feared, and despised the Irish, and took pride in preserving their pure English speech. Molyneux and Petty, who founded the Royal Society of Dublin in 1683, were equally Englishman, though the former was born in Ireland. Swift and Berkeley did not consider themselves Irishmen at all. Burke and Goldsmith, coming later, though they might not call themselves Englishmen, were not less free from provincialism. It would be hard to name other four men, who, within the same period, used Shakespeare s language with equal grace and force. They were all educated at Trinity College, Dublin. The Sheridans were men of Irish race, but with the religion they adopted the literary tone of the dominant caste, which was small and exclusive, with the virtues and the vices of an aristocracy. Systematic infringement of English copyright was discreditable in itself, but sure evidence of an appetite for reading, &quot; The bookseller s property,&quot; says Gibbon of his first volume, &quot; was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin.&quot; The oratory of the day was of a high order, and incursions into the wide field of pamphlet literature often repay the student. Handel was appreciated in Dublin at a time when it was still the fashion to decry him in London. The public buildings of the Irish capital have always been allowed great architectural merit, and private houses still preserve much evidence of a refined taste. Angelica Kauffmann worked long in Ireland ; Barry and Shee were of Irish birth ; and on the whole, considering the small number of educated inhabitants, it must be admitted that the Ireland of Flood and Grattan was intellectually fertile. Struggle The volunteers extorted partial free trade (1779), but for inde- manufacturing traditions had perished, and common experi ence shows how hard these are to recover. The demand for union was succeeded by a craving for independence. Poyning s law was repealed, and in 1782, in Mr Grattan s opinion, Ireland was at last a nation. The ensuing period of eighteen years is the best known in Irish history. The quarrel and reconciliation of Flood and Grattan, the kindly patriotism of Charlemont, the eloquence, the devotion, the corruption, are household words. In 1784 out of 300 members 82 formed the regular opposition, of whom 30 were the nominees of Whig potentates and 52 were really elected. The majority contained 29 members considered independent, 44 who expected to be bought, 44 placemen, 12 sitting for regular Government boroughs, and 12 who were supposed to support the Government on public grounds. The remaining seats were proprietary, and were let to Government for valuable consideration. The House of Lords, composed largely of borough-mongers and controlled by political bishops, was even less inde pendent. Only Protestant freeholders had votes, which encouraged leases for lives, about the worst kind of tenure, and the object of each proprietor was to control as many votes as possible. The necessity of finding Protestants checked subdivision for a time, but in 1793 the Roman Catholics received the franchise, and it became usual to make leases in common, so that each lessee should have a freehold interest of 40s. The landlord indeed had little choice, for his importance depended on the poll book. Salaries, sinecures, even commissions in the army were reserved for those who contributed to the return of some local magnate. But no political cause swelled the population as much D as the potato. Introduced by Raleigh in 1610, the culti- e! vation of this dangerous tuber developed with extraordinary rapidity. The Elizabethan wars were most injurious to industry, for men will not sow unless they hope to reap, and the very essence of military policy had been to deprive a recalcitrant people of the means of living. The Mantuan peasant was grieved at the notion of his Jiarvest being gathered by barbarian soldiers, and the Irishman could not be better pleased to see his destroyed. There was no security for any one, and every one was tempted to live from hand to mouth. The decade of anarchy which followed 1641 stimulated this tendency fearfully. The labour of one man could plant potatoes enough to feed forty, and they could neither be destroyed nor carried away easily. When Petty wrote, early in Charles II. s reign, this demoralizing esculent was already the national food. Potatoes cannot be kept very long, but there was no attempt to keep them at all ; they were left in the ground, and dug as required. A frost which penetrated deep caused the famine of 1739. Even with the modern system of storing in pits the potato does not last through the summer, and the &quot; meal months &quot; June, July, and August always brought great hardship. The danger increased as the growing population pressed ever harder upon the available land. Between 1831 and 1842 there were six seasons of dearth, approaching in some places to famine. The population increased from 2,845,932 in 1785 to 5,356,594 in 1803. They married and were given in marriage. Wise men foresaw the deluge, but people who were already half-starved every summer did not think their case could well be worse. In 1845 the population had swelled to 8,295,061, the greater part of whom de pended on the potato only. There was no margin, and when the &quot; precarious exotic &quot; failed an awful famine was the result. Great public and private efforts were made to meet the case, and relief works were undertaken, on which, in March 1847, 734,000 persons, representing a family aggregate of not less than 3,000,000, were employed. It was found that labour and exposure were not good for half-starved men. The jobbing was frightful, and is probably insepar able from wholesale operations of this kind. The policy of the Government was accordingly changed, and the task of feeding a whole people was undertaken. More than 3,000,000 rations, generally cooked, were at one time distributed, but no exertions could altogether avert death in a country where the usual machinery for carrying, distri buting, and preparing food was almost entirely wanting. From 200,000 to 300,000 perished of starvation or of fever caused by insufficient food. An exodus followed