IRISH DISTRESS. (Hansard, 30 April 1849)

§ LORD WHARNCLIFFE

then rose, in pursuance of his notice, to move for— Copies or extracts of any further correspondence that might have taken place between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Ireland, or between Her Majesty's Treasury and the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland, relative to the steps taken, or to be taken, for the relief of destitution in certain parts of the country since the last papers were presented to Parliament on this subject, at the commencement of the present Session. His Lordship said, that he stood before the House unconnected with Ireland either by birth, or property, or official connexion; yet, although he was thus unconnected with that country, he ventured to think that he could be justified in the opinion of their Lordships in calling their attention to the present condition of the greater portion of Ireland, and in demanding from the Government the papers included in his notice. He had been forcibly struck by the melan choly accounts which had recently reached this country from Ireland, and which had been made public in the usual channels of information. [His Lordship then read various descriptions, which he had collected from various quarters, of the condition of the union of Skibbereen; from which it appeared, that no rates could be collected in that union, that its credit was gone, and that the people were dying daily within it. His Lordship next read a similar account from the union of Westport.] Now, such being the case, he thought that their Lordships were entitled to have an official account of these appalling disasters; for, if true, they were sufficient to account for the causes which now weighed down the industrial energies of Ireland. [His Lordship then took a review of the last set of 971 papers on the distress of Ireland which had been laid before their Lordships, and showed from them, that the condition of the unions of Ballina, Clifden, and seven other places, which he enumerated, was quite as calamitous as that of Skibbereen.] In February last, the recommendation of the Poor Law Commissioners was, that 12,000l. must be advanced to those unions to relieve the distress which existed within them, and to avert starvation from the people. The Government now proposed to advance 50,000l. for the relief of Irish distress; and yet a fourth of that sum had been expended in one month for the relief of distress in the nine unions alone which he had mentioned. Under these circumstances, it was impossible not to feel anxiety, both with regard to the expenditure of that sum, and to its efficiency as well as sufficiency for the purpose to which it was to be applied. It was impossible, in his opinion, to contemplate a more fearful state of things than that which was contained in the papers which he had read to their Lordships. Those papers disclosed an extent of destitution which had never before existed in any country on the face of the globe. It was, therefore, important for their Lordships to consider, not only the amount of relief to be advanced, but also the manner in which that amount was to he administered. He felt impelled to call on Government for the information described in his notice in consequence of the decision which had recently been come to in another place on the proposition of a rate in aid. He believed that there was no intention on the part of Her Majesty's Ministers to oppose his Motion, and he, therefore, should not intrude further upon the attention of their Lordships.

§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE

observed, that the noble Baron had correctly anticipated that there would be no objection to his Motion on the part of Her Majesty's Government. For his own part, he was much obliged to the noble Baron for having moved for this correspondence; because the present was the particular time in which every species of information would be valuable to their Lordships, as their Lordships would soon be called upon to pronounce on more than one measure which would be presented to them for the relief of Ireland. He wished that it were in his power in any way to contradict the allegations upon which the noble Baron founded his Motion. So far was he from thinking that those allegations were exaggerated, 972 he was afraid they afforded too true a picture of the state of Ireland. He must, however, warn the noble Baron not to place implicit credit on all the local accounts which he received from Ireland; for many of them were utterly unfounded, and others were much exaggerated. The calamities over which the noble Baron so eloquently mourned were not yet at an end, in consequence of the renewed failure of the potato crop, on which so large a portion of the Irish population depended for existence. There was, therefore, no reason to be surprised that the pressure upon the energies of Ireland, which was great enough before, was now severely aggravated. It was right that their Lordships and the people of England should be made acquainted with the full magnitude of the evil. It had been the duty of Her Majesty's Government to prepare measures for its removal—measures which would also tend to the future improvement of the moral and social condition of Ireland.