A purgatory of starvation

The man directly responsible for famine relief in Ireland, Charles Edward Trevelyan, Permanent Under-Secretary to the Treasury, was frankly racist:

``It forms no part of the functions of government to provide supplies of food or to increase the productive powers of the land. In the great institution of the business of society, it falls to the share of government to protect the merchant and the agriculturist in the free exercise of their respective employments, but not to carry on those employments... In Ireland the habit has proverbally been to follow a precisely opposite course...

``A remedy has been already applied to that portion of the maladies of Ireland which was traceable to political causes, and the morbid habits which still to a cetain extent survive are gradually giving way to a more healthy action. The deep and inveterate root of social evil remains, the cure has been applied by the direct stroke of an all-wise providence in a manner as unexpected and unthought of as it is likely to be effectual. God grant that we may rightly perform our part and not turn into a curse what was intended for a blessing.''

Another senior civil servant who controlled the purse strings during the famine, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Wood said:

``Except through a purgatory of misery and starvation, I cannot see how Ireland is to emerge into a state of anything approaching to quiet or prosperity.''

Lord John Russell, leader of the Whigs was to become British prime minster, with the support of the majority of Irish MPs, just as the second crop was failing in June 1846 said of the famine later:

``The great difficulty this year respecting Ireland is one which does not spring from Trevelyan or Charles Wood but lies deep in the breasts of the British people. It is this - we have granted, lent, subscribed, worked, visited, clothed the Irish; millions of pounds worth of money, years of debate etc - the only return is calumny and rebellion - let us not grant, clothe etc. etc. any more and see what they will do.''

The Economist went further, saying that paying Irish people a living wage would ``stimulate every man to marry and populate as fast as he could, like a rabbit in a warren''. The Times said: ``We help all those who help themselves but we do not like throwing money into a ditch''.

Following the death of Lord Bessborough, Britain's new Lord Lieutenant, June 1847, was the Earl of Clarendon. While Bessborough had been opposed to the export of food from Ireland, Clarendon, who described his appointment as akin to being thrown into an `Irish bog' openly stated that:

``I am convinced that the failure of the potatoes and the establishment of the Poor Law will eventually be the salvation of the country - the first will prevent the land being used as it hitherto has been.''

His experiences in Ireland changed him so that he was attacking the prime minister openly two years later.

``What is to be done with these `hordes? Improve them of the face of the earth, you will say, let them die... but there is a certain amount of responsiblity attaching to it''.

Or again later:

``Surely this is a state of things to justify you asking the House of Commons for an advance, for I don't think there is another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering as now exists in the west of Ireland, or coldly persist in a policy fo extermination.''

Though some of Britain's Establishment came around to the view that intervention or relief was needed on a greater scale, providence overtook them with the ending of that series of crop failures in 1850.

While the legislature and Establishment are criticised for doing too little too late, the attitude and priorities of Lord Londonderry reflects the majority of Ireland's and England's Ascendancy towards the starving millions.

He made a contribution of £20 to famine relief and his wife donated a whole £10, while at the same time spending £15,000 renovating their house in Mount Stewart in 1848.

The head of the British Empire, Queen Victoria's £2,000 (not £5 as popularly believed) should be compared to £2,000 spent on her trip to Ireland in 1849; or, the £200,000 raised and spent by the Society of Friends, the Quakers, on famine relief.