On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    them . The dinner came off last Monday , under the ^ residence of Mr . Grimshaw , and attended by numerous local lights , beside Mr . Sharman Crawford and Mr . Kirk , M . P . Of course the sole point of interest in the evening was the speech of Mr . Bright ; from which we proceed to give some of the most striking passages . , . . After thanking them for the honour done to Free Trade principles , and to the party with " whom he worked , Mr . Bright gave his views of Irish character .

    " Now I am one of those "who have never joined at all in the various charges which have been brought against the population of this island . I am . one who , from all my experience of the people of Ireland , am inclined to believe that , with certain variations , as in all countries , and among all people , the population have probably as many good qualities as are to be found among the people of any other country ( hear , hear , hear . ) I don't believe that the hundreds and thousands of men who travel from the far West of your country to all the counties of England and Scotland , to obtain a few weeks' well-paid labour , are men out of which nothing can be made ( cheers . ) I met a number of these men the other day in

    the county of Mayo , who had lately landed at one of your ports , and walked across the island . I saw them at their last meeting , before separating to return to their respective homes , and I never saw a happier and more delighted class of people . They seemed to be rejoicing in the results of their industry in England ( hear , hear )—they seemed to be glorying in their economy and prudence ( cheers ) . I entered into conversation with many of them , and I found that they had brought home sums averaging from U . to 7 Z . and 81 ., as the results of their sayings of the late harvest ( hear , and cheers . ) Now , nothing can persuade me—nothing at least that I have yet seen—that men who do this , and do it year after year—that men

    who make such extraordinary struggles that they may pay their rent , and keep their families and themselves in some degree of comfort and independence—ought not to be , and may not be , in a far higher and better position than they are to be found at the present time ( applause ) . Probably , too , what we observe with regard to that portion of your population which has emigrated to the United States is , on this point , still more striking and conclusive . It is stated , on good authority , that in the year 1851 , scarcely , if at all , less than a million sterling was sent from the United States to this country by Irishmen settled there , either to fetch their friends and relatives from Ireland to America , or to add to their comfort at

    home ( hear , hear , and loud applause . ) Well , that is a fact which , when men declaim against the Irish population , they ought to bear in mind , because it is , I think , such as has no parallel in the . history of any country in the world ( loud applause ) In my opinion , it is a conclusive answer to the thousands of charges that are made against the population of this part of the kingdom . I have , however , taken other means to ascertain something of the character of this people ; for I have gone over a very considerable number of the large drainage works carried out under the Board of Works in the West of Ireland , and I have found that where there was steady work , the Irishmen who , at first , were not able to earn at piece-work more

    than 3 d ., or 4 d ., or 6 d . a day , soon became able workmen , and able to realize Is . Qd . to 2 s ., or even more , per day ( hear , hear . ) I met a gentleman , who never should bo mentioned without respect in Ireland—I mean Mr . Dargan ( great cheering)—and if the honours that monarchy bestows were worth much , or bestowed as they ought to be , they would not be given to the bankrupt drones of your country , so much as to the captains and generals of industry , like Mr . Dargan ( continued cheering . ) I asked Mr . Dargan what he found in his intercourse with the Irish . I heard that ho had paid 50001 . a day in wages

    for fivo years together , and as ho passed from one part of the country to another , engaged in those contracts , he did not carry his staff of workmen with him , 'but employed those ho found in each district ; and thus he must have got an intimate knowledge of tho peoplo . What ho said to mo was this— ' Depend upon it , tho people * of Ireland want only th ( # disciphno of steady industry , and they will givo as good a return in labour for tho wages paid them as any peoplo in tho world' ( cheers . ) And I have no doubt that Sir John Maeneill , and Mr . M'Cormick , or any other gentleman engaged in employing tho people- would coincide in tho testimony I luivo now quoted . "

    Having thus spoken of tho people , Mr . Bright was naturall y led to tho master grievance ¦— tho land question . . "Tlioro is a great evil in Ireland not found at all to tho same oxtont in England . In Ireland the land is not possessed by tho peoplo . Tlioylivo upon it -or rather they "uiy bo said to sojourn upon it—they walk over it , they Rrovv potatoes upon it— -they drag out » i miserable existence upon it , but they do not possess it . And 1 believe that in that single fact and a great economical fact it is -is to bo found Uie true secret why tho peoplo of Ireland --or at joast its rural population , linn made lens progress during

    M » o last one hundred and fifty years than tho people of England and Scotland . W «> are not responsible , in our K « noration , for tho fact Unit the land is not as much < Uv » ded amongst the people an we could wish . We are not *«> Nporisil > lo for the groat confiscations that , took place from «» " tin ,,, of Elizabeth to that of William ; and I think I > rd Clare says that the land was confiscated twice ¦ over Ouruijir that period . Hut we are responsible for that during ° . time , we have contributed to the maintenance of laws ¦ , U (! " '"ive perpetuated nearly all the evils which must , " arisen from the conlimjationu of earlier times ( loud ° " 0 «> rs . " )

    And lHJ l ) rioji y traced the history of the peoplo in solution to tho land until bo anno to our own timo , wll « n , suid ho , tho population , devoid of n niiddlo cliuw ,

    consists almost of abject paupers on the one hand , and bankrupt nobles on the other . " JSTow , it is not an uncommon thing in the House of Commons to attribute all the misfortunes or' Ireland to the famine . They forgot that Before the famine there were two millions of your people" who had no regular means of subsistence , and that the Devon Commission speaks of over two millions who were dwelling in hovels it was a scandal for a people to dwell in . But the famine came , and after it the break up of society , and the Encumbered Estates Court , which was wanted long before the famine—wanted even when Mr . Sinclaire was among the volunteers ( laughter ) . But so it was in Great Britain . When Catholic emancipation is granted , the alternative is

    civil war . When reform is passed , the alternative is revolution . When eighty thousand slaves are emancipated in the West Indies , the alternative is immediate insurrection ( hear , hear , hear . ) And when the Corn Laws were abolished—although men were at work for that end eight or ten years who had convinced the majority of the people , still Parliament , with aristocratical opposition , did not succumb till the famine visited this island , and struck down hundreds and thousands of your people ( loud cheers ) . But the Encumbered Estates Court has come at last , and is probably doing more for the interests of Ireland , in giving an impulse to industry and making tho country worth living in , than all the laws that were passed since the Union ( loud cheers . ) It is odd that , though often

    proposed and opposed , for Lord John Russell was alarmed , having a hostile House of Commons , and I must say that the wisest measures introduced there are most stoutl y opposed by men from this part of Ireland ( laughter ) , it is odd that now everybody acknowledges the benefit of that law . The other day I passed from Enniskillen to Ballyshannon , and on the south side of the road , about half a mile from Lough Erne , I saw a range of land , some of which may be called mountain land . For twelve miles it is in the best state for draining , in fact , it invites somebody to come and open a little sluice , to let the water run down into the lake ( hear , hear , and laughter ) . B , ut for twelve miles that land is nearly all covered with rushes . I believe that land , if it were put into farms and possessed

    by fifty owners , and properly managed would , if tenanted , pay three times its present rent , and give six times as much produce as can now be got out of it . That land belongs to the Marquis of Ely . I know nothing of the Marquis of Ely—whether he is in the Encumbered Estates Court , or whether he has ample means ; but I do say that that land is a disgrace to its owner ( cheers . ) I believe , that , in a natural and right state of law , such a condition of things could not exist ( cheers ) . The object of the Encumbered Estates Court is to put the land into the hands of tho Seo ple . But we still maintain a law by which land , by eath , comes into possession of an oldest son ( hear , hear ) . There is an odious system by which a man—be he knave

    or fool , stuffed up with pride , or filled with prejudicemay pass his hand to a deed , even just on the point of death , and decide for two or three generations what must be done for ten or twenty miles of country . That law of entail does all it can to bind this generation ; the law of entail appears to me , in tho manner in which it is acted upon , to bind the generation which is living to the generation that is dead , and it binds us to all the faults , the pride and the prejudices of tho dead ( cheers ) . I would have the law of primogeniture abolished ( cheers)—leaving to all men the right to divide their property as they like amongst their heirs , but if they dio without a will , then the law should do that which morality alone would sanction , and should divide the property of the father equally amongst his children ( loud cheers . )'

    He entered deeply into tho religious question , and tho relation of the three churches to the state . " Animosities , arising out of religious differences , prevail to an exceeding extent in this country . I have met with many men who loll me that such is not the case , and they point to this man and to that man , and to three or four other men , perhaps of different religions , who , they say , care nothing at all about what their neighbours think . But I have formed a very different opinion ; t have been in many families , and I am thoroughly convinced that there is scarcely a social or political question which is not affected b y theso religious differences ; and , therefore , tho whole social atmosphere in your country is biassed by this very thing . ( Hear , bear , hear . ) This country , at present , possesses something over six millions of peoplo ; you have three Churches , which occupy tho main proportion of the people . The Catholic is tho most numerous of these ; then there an * the Church of the Kstablishment and the

    Presbyterian Church , which , though numerous , are not no numerous as tins Catholic . Tho Established Church , which , I suppose , is not much more numerous than the Presbyterian -some have stated that the latter is the larger of the two ; at least , in tho north of Ireland , the ' Presbyterian is in a very considerable majority the IOstublished Church has an available annual income- —I . will not say so largo a sum as it is estimated at by some authorities — which I will take at 400 , 000 ^ . or oOO . OOO / . Some make it twice that , but it does not servo my puix pose the more to have tho figure greater . That Hum now is worth twenty years ' purchase , or about lO . OOO . OOO / . storling ; nnd that in the sum which tho State actually has granted for the keeping ,, f a Church for the purpose of its religion , and with an especial object of being a bulwark against the progress of the Church of Home , and of con - verting the Catholics to Protestantism . ( Hear , hear . ) Now , lot ; us dismiss from our minds any feelings that may exist there about those Churches ; lot us look at the

    matter as wo would at a question of arithmetic , or a question of science , and with our passions unoxoil . ed . ( Hoar , hear , and cheers . ) . IJoohuho the time Iiuh eomo when everybody should get rid of passion in considering Mm condition of Irelantl . The Presbyterian Church is similarly supported by a grant of 40 , 000 / . annually , whioh , at twenty yearn' purchase , amounts to , we will say , a million sterling ; and tho Catholic Church hun ii ( J , ( KK )/ ., which , on

    the same calculation , would amount to 600 , 000 Z . in round numbers . JNow , if the principle of religious liberty be admitted at all , this would seem , so for as we sec of it , to be a sad sort of an arrangement . If the Catholic religion is a legal religion , and if it is not a crime to bo a Catholic —and the law has admitted long ago it is not—then it appears to me that the arrangement is singular indeed ; for it appears that 500 , 000 ? . are granted every year as a bulwark against the Eornan Catholics , and for the purpose of converting . Catholics to Protestantism , while

    26 , 000 ? . are granted annually to the Catholics for tho purpose of teaching men the Catholic religion , in order that they again may teach it to others . ( Laughter and cheers . ) ' Then , the Presbyterians , who , I know , are looked upon with great favour in high quarters when they do not meddle with dangerous questions —( hear , hear , hear ) —they have a sum granted them each year larger than tho Catholics have , although they do . not form more than one-eighth of the number of persons professing the Catholic religion . "

    Comparing this with the Scotch Church , he continued : — " But in Ireland it unfortunately appears that the Established Church never was the church of the people or the nation —( hear , hear)—that it never was established here by their votes ^ by their consent or their will , in any shape whatever ; that it was established by wliat was then , and I wish it were not so much so now—a foreign country , and a foreign and conquering power . That Church lias , unfortunately , been alKed through all the time since its establishment with a course of political action which has not been considered favourable , or liberal , or just , to the greater portion of the population of Ireland . ( Cheers . ) It is a part of the original mistake that this country was to

    be allied to England by force—( hear , hear)—that we were to be two kingdoms united under one Crown , by force of a garrison holding a particular form of religion , which was prevalent in England . ( Hear , hear . ) Now , I am not one of those who think it necessary that the people of a country should be of the same religion . I am rather of opinion that difference of sects in a country , with honest and just treatment , tends to greater activity , greater exertion and pi-ogress ; but difference of sects , where the Government has held up one sect as its favourite Church , through which it distributes its patronage , and uses it only to tie that country , then , I say , that hardly anything can be conceived more unfortunate than that there should be a difference of religious opinion and a difference of Churches

    in such a country . ( Loud cheers . ) Now , what are the results ? I assume that every man here is as honestly anxious for the good of Ireland as I am , who am not an Irishman , arid there is no reason to doubt but that tho multitude who honestly differ from us are equally anxious as we are for the good of the country-.- But let us , I say , look at the results . It is . ' 300 yeai-3 since you bad a Parliamentary Church Establishment in Ireland . Whatwcro its objects ? To conquer Ireland by , or to prevent the diffusion of the Catholic religion ; or , further , to convert tho followers of the Catholic Cliurch to some form of Protestantism . Has it succeeded in any of those objects ? ( Cries of ' no , no . ' ) Is there at this moment , through the population of Ireland generally , a feeling of affection to the

    Imperial Government ? ( No , no . ) Is there a common interest felt with England ? Is there not , on the contrary , lurking in the minds of hundreds and thousands of your people , such a feeling as ought never to exist , and 1 believe ' never would exist in any well-governed country ? So far from our being united under its system , there are many men in this room who recollect a most formidable rebellion , which but for an accident might have had very serious results ; and all of us can recollect those insurrections and incitements to insurrection which are discreditable to a Government :, even though Lhey may not be f ' ormidablo to its power . ( Hear , hear . ) And what had tho Established Church done ? According to the host data , it appears that tho proportion of Catholics in Ireland to

    Protestants was , probably , before the famine , greater than almost at any period for the last 200 years ; and probably at this moment it is about as grout as it ever ban been during tho whole of that period . ( Hour , hear . ) The peoplo of IOngland are terrified at the approaches of the Church of . Rome . ( Hoar , hoar . ) You heard tho uproar that was made last winter about it . You saw ( he Imperial Parliament for a whole session busy in doing that which they knew would end in nothing . ( Heiir , hear . ) You have seen men from platforms vituperating tho people of 1 reland ; and the most powerful organs of the pi-ens from

    week to week heaping insult of every kind upon the religion of nix or seven millions of the people of tho United Kingdom . ( Hear , nnd cheers . ) Well , they had had a Church established for three hunilrod years , with half-uniillioii per annum , for it , was hnlf-a-iniilion not . long ago ; 11 . Mt ill bore the same proportion to tho population that it did now ; and in ICngluud they have had an Established Church , with ten times more revenue , for the sole purpose , as they . said , of being a bulwark against the Church of Rome . Yet , notwithstanding all this , they seemed nioro afraid , in 186 'J , ol' that same Church Ilian over they won-. "

    ( Cheers . ) His remedy ( rather obscurely hinf . ed at by 1 . 1 io way , and rather implied than stated ) was voluntaryism , and the fullest religious liberty , the most complete equality , and tho encouragement of # ood feeling i" religion * mutter * uinoiitf men . Turning t » political topics , ho defended the ! character of Irish representatives | from Mr . Hume's charges Y \ and Irish priests : — " When \ was asked to this great linii (| iiet , reference wan made to tho part I had taken in and out of Purlim it . I am one of those , sensible of the fuel ,, that , whatever has been done within tho last thirty . yours within the imperial Parliament for freedom , it always had the . support of the majority of t . ho Irish representatives ; and I now believe ' that , if 'hero is to bo anything done in the way of liberal progroHti in tho next Parliament it would

    Untitled Article

    October 9 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . &S 9 ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ - —— - ''— ¦ i ¦ ¦ ¦ -- ii—1 . 1 ¦ . i i . ¦ ... i ... in i i ¦¦¦¦ I ¦"" ' . __^__^ ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1852, page 959, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1955/page/3/