308 CHAPTER VI. SUGGESTIONS OF A REMEDY FOR IRISH WE have now, by means of copious and authentic testimony, exhibited the whole scheme of Irish Whiteboyism; we have described the spirit which moves it, the form which it assumes, the measures which it adopts, and the effects which it produces. We have likewise traced the Whiteboy disposition to its source, and proved, by unimpeachable evidence, that it springs from the peculiar state of the peasantry which makes the possession of land a necessary of life. Having shown that the Irish disturbances have this origin, it is needless to say that there is no prospect of suppressing them by the fear of punishment, so long as the same causes continue in force. All species of legal severity, compatible with our form of government and our state of civilization, have been tried and have failed. Pænarum exhaustum satis est*. Upon men who have nothing to hope in their actual state, and little to fear from the consequences of crime, it is vain to attempt to work with the ordinary engines of government. What influence can a ruler exercise on a man who despairs of being better, and yet can scarcely be worse? who has nothing to gain by obey * "Till some step is taken in favour of tillage and the poor (said Dr. Campbell in 1775), Whiteboyism will probably remain, in defiance of all the severities which the legislative power can devise, or the executive inflict."-Philosophical Survey, p. 313. ing the law, and nothing to lose by disobeying it? "When the heart is past hope (says the proverb), the face is past shame*." As well might we endeavour to resuscitate a corpse by administering medicine to it, as attempt, by offering a vain protection, or threatening a vain punishment, to work upon people so dead to motives upon which the very existence of government is founded. But even if coercive measures had been more successful than they have proved,-if the law of the state had waged a more prosperous war with the law of the Whiteboy, it would be advisable to remove, as far as possible, the motive and tendency to disturbance. Without a criminal law a state could not exist; but the less reliance that is placed on this ultimate sanction, the sounder is the condition of the society. It is most expedient that diseases should be cured, when they exist, even by means of the most painful remedies, and the most torturing surgical operations; but it is far better to prevent the existence of a malady which necessitates such modes of treatment. In order to ascertain what plan of prevention offers the best chance of success, or (rather it should be said) is exposed to the fewest chances of failure, it will be desirable to give a succinct view of the present state of the poorer class in Ireland, of that class by whom, and for whose benefit these disturbances are carried on. In Ireland there is no legal provision for the poor; so that whenever a person is unable from any cause to maintain himself, or to obtain a maintenance from his relations, he is forced to have recourse to mendicancy. The causes which drive persons to mendicancy are * 66 Chi non spera il bene, non teme il male."-MACHIAVEL. sometimes permanent,- -as old age, widowhood, or bodily infirmity: sometimes they are only temporary,— as sickness, or want of employment. The following classes of persons, who constantly rely on begging for their subsistence, may be traced in the evidence on Vagrancy, recently published by the Irish Poor Com mission: 1. Wandering beggars, who go from fair to fair, and stand at chapel and church doors, and other places of public resort. They are chiefly cripples, blind, maimed, deformed, men with sore legs, or other ailments calculated to excite compassion. These persons are clamorous and importunate, have regular set phrases, often are abusive, and expect alms to be given them in money. In some cases they are impostors, and they often practise deceptive means to excite compassion : their habits, likewise, are in general dissolute. Mendicants of this description are known by the Irish name of boccahs. 2. Professional strolling beggars, who have no fixed domicile, and live constantly by mendicancy. Some of these call themselves mechanics out of work; chiefly, however, they are not able-bodied, but old persons, sometimes with children. This class is not numerous. 3. Town-beggars, who live by mendicancy, but have a fixed domicile. They are chiefly old men and women past labour; widows with families; and sometimes able-bodied girls from sixteen to nineteen years of age. Those who cannot walk are relieved entirely by the shopkeepers; those who can walk by the shopkeepers and farmers in the neighbourhood. They are generally known by those who relieve them, and their character is not on the whole very bad. 4. Poor housekeepers, who are relieved by three or four neighbours, to whom their wants are known, but who would not resort to general begging. The letterwriters belong to this class; persons who occasionally present written petitions to the gentry in cases of peculiar distress and suffering. The persons composing these classes are the most suffering and destitute of the population; they are the outcasts of society, feeble and helpless; there are few able-bodied men among them, and those few take no part in Whiteboy disturbances. In the summer, however, when the stock of old potatoes is exhausted, and the new year's crop is not yet fit for food, the country is covered with swarms of occasional mendicants, being labourers' wives and families, who go about from one farmer's house to another, frequently to a considerable distance from their homes, in order to collect potatoes. When the immediate pressure is over, they cease to beg, which they consider as a disgrace, and to which they are only driven by necessity. The father sometimes joins his family at certain places, but rarely begs in company with them. This mendicancy of the wives and children of a large part of the agricultural labourers arises from the redundancy of the labouring population, and the consequent want of employment for them. The excess of the number of labourers beyond the demand for their services affects their condition in two ways: first, by keeping their wages at a low rate, and secondly, by making their employment uncertain and irregular. The ordinary rate of labourers' wages over a large part of Ireland is 10d. or 8d. a-day, in some cases even as low as 6d. This rate of wages, however, though low as compared with the English rates, does not afford the true explanation of the destitute state of the Irish peasant; his habits are so abstemious, he has learnt to live so hard a life, that in general he would consider himself in tolerable prosperity, if he could during the fifty-two weeks of the year earn 4s. a week. It is not the low rate of wages, but the inconstancy of employment which depresses the Irish labourer, and sends his family begging through the country during the summer months; which makes him dependent on his potato-ground, and thus sets all his sympathies on the side of Whiteboyism. We should probably exceed the truth if we said that a third part of the Irish labouring population were employed all the year round. The remaining two-thirds obtain work at the seasons of extraordinary demand, viz., at the potatodigging, and during the harvest. At other times of the year they trust to the produce of their own potatoground for food, whether they rent a small piece of land permanently, or temporarily in the form of conacre. It is this irregularity of employment for hire, and not the low rate of his wages, which is the true cause both of the poverty and turbulence of the Irish peasant. If every labourer in Ireland could earn 8d. a day for 310 days in the year, we should probably never hear of Whiteboy disturbances. It is the impossibility of living by wages, which throws him. upon the land* it is the liability of being ejected from the *"Mr. Sheehan states that many persons, having nothing to look to but the possession of land for subsistence, are induced to bid inordinate rents far beyond what they will ever be enabled to pay. The desperate competition makes men ready to grasp at farms on any terms, and landlords, who are frequently in great want of money, are blinded to their own interests by the temptation of a larger offer. This system is injurious |