'Shovelling out your paupers': The British state and Irish famine migration 1846-50

Patterns of Prejudice

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 47-65

  Gray, Peter ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Australia; Britain; Canada; Colonization; Emigration; Famine; Grey; Immigration; Ireland; Irish; Russell

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033416375     PISSN: 0031322X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/003132299128810696     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. Quoted in 'Colonisation - the only cure for national distress - Mr Charles Buller's speech', Fraser's Magazine, vol. 27, July 1843, 749.
2. Robert Torrens, Systematic Colonization: Ireland Saved, without Cost to the Imperial Treasury, 2nd edn (London: Trelawney Saunders 1849).
3. Russell to Palmerston, 24 December 1844: University of Southampton, Palmerston (Broadlands) Papers, GC/RU/86/1.
4. Oliver MacDonagh, 'Irish emigration to the United States of America and the British colonies during the Famine', in R. D. Edwards and T. D. Williams (eds), The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52 (Dublin: Browne and Nolan 1956), 319-90.
5. Oliver MacDonagh, 'The regulation of the emigrant traffic from the United Kingdom 1842-55', Irish Historical Studies, vol. 9, 1954, 162-89; MacDonagh, 'Emigration and the state, 1833-55: an essay in administrative history', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 5, 1955, 133-59; MacDonagh, A Pattern of Government Growth 1800-60: The Passenger Acts and Their Enforcement (London: Macgibbon and Kee 1961), 166-221; Frank Neal, 'Liverpool, the Irish steamship companies and the Famine Irish', Immigrants and Minorities, vol. 5, 1986, 28-61.
6. Oliver MacDonagh, 'The regulation of the emigrant traffic from the United Kingdom 1842-55', Irish Historical Studies, vol. 9, 1954, 162-89; MacDonagh, 'Emigration and the state, 1833-55: an essay in administrative history', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 5, 1955, 133-59; MacDonagh, A Pattern of Government Growth 1800-60: The Passenger Acts and Their Enforcement (London: Macgibbon and Kee 1961), 166-221; Frank Neal, 'Liverpool, the Irish steamship companies and the Famine Irish', Immigrants and Minorities, vol. 5, 1986, 28-61.
7. Oliver MacDonagh, 'The regulation of the emigrant traffic from the United Kingdom 1842-55', Irish Historical Studies, vol. 9, 1954, 162-89; MacDonagh, 'Emigration and the state, 1833-55: an essay in administrative history', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 5, 1955, 133-59; MacDonagh, A Pattern of Government Growth 1800-60: The Passenger Acts and Their Enforcement (London: Macgibbon and Kee 1961), 166-221; Frank Neal, 'Liverpool, the Irish steamship companies and the Famine Irish', Immigrants and Minorities, vol. 5, 1986, 28-61.
8. Oliver MacDonagh, 'The regulation of the emigrant traffic from the United Kingdom 1842-55', Irish Historical Studies, vol. 9, 1954, 162-89; MacDonagh, 'Emigration and the state, 1833-55: an essay in administrative history', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vol. 5, 1955, 133-59; MacDonagh, A Pattern of Government Growth 1800-60: The Passenger Acts and Their Enforcement (London: Macgibbon and Kee 1961), 166-221; Frank Neal, 'Liverpool, the Irish steamship companies and the Famine Irish', Immigrants and Minorities, vol. 5, 1986, 28-61.
9. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 88, 777-8 (17 August 1846).
10. Cormac Ó Gráda, Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1999), 120-1. See also Cormac Ó Gráda and Kevin O'Rourke, 'Mass migration as disaster relief: lessons from the Great Irish Famine', European Review of Economic History, vol. 1, 1997, 3-27.
11. Cormac Ó Gráda, Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1999), 120-1. See also Cormac Ó Gráda and Kevin O'Rourke, 'Mass migration as disaster relief: lessons from the Great Irish Famine', European Review of Economic History, vol. 1, 1997, 3-27.
12. Copy of a Letter Addressed to HM Secretary of State for the Home Department, by Edward Rushton, Esquire, Stipendiary Magistrate for Liverpool, 21 April 1849, Parliamentary Papers (P.P.) 1849 (266), vol. 47, 53. For a full account, see Frank Neal, Black '47: Britain and the Famine Irish (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1998), 217-38.
13. Copy of a Letter Addressed to HM Secretary of State for the Home Department, by Edward Rushton, Esquire, Stipendiary Magistrate for Liverpool, 21 April 1849, Parliamentary Papers (P.P.) 1849 (266), vol. 47, 53. For a full account, see Frank Neal, Black '47: Britain and the Famine Irish (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1998), 217-38.
14. W. Bridges, New Zealand and Ireland. Colonial Economy: Embracing a New Mode of Combining Land, Labour and Capital, in the Development of Our Colonial Resources (London: D. M. Aird [1845]). For Wakefield's influence, see [Edward Gibbon Wakefield], The British Colonization of New Zealand; Being an Account of the Principles, Objects and Plans of the New Zealand Association (London: J. W. Parker 1837).
15. W. Bridges, New Zealand and Ireland. Colonial Economy: Embracing a New Mode of Combining Land, Labour and Capital, in the Development of Our Colonial Resources (London: D. M. Aird [1845]). For Wakefield's influence, see [Edward Gibbon Wakefield], The British Colonization of New Zealand; Being an Account of the Principles, Objects and Plans of the New Zealand Association (London: J. W. Parker 1837).
16. Despatch of Governor FitzRoy to Earl Grey, 30 January 1847, Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies, P.P. 1847-8 (50-II), vol. 47, 211-13.
17. New South Wales Legislative Council, Address to Governor FitzRoy, 22 September 1847, Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies, P.P. 1847-8 (986), vol. 47, 487-9.
18. [Aubrey De Vere], 'Colonization', Edinburgh Review, vol. 91, January 1850, 61.
19. See for example the petulant attack on Grey in Edward Gibbon Wakefield, A View of the Art of Colonization [1849] (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1914), 24-36.
20. See John Belchem, 'Nationalism, republicanism and exile: Irish emigrants and the revolutions of 1848', Past and Present, vol. 146, 1995, 103-35.
21. Petition of the mayor, aldermen and citizens of Montreal, 23 June 1847, Papers Relative to Emigration to the British Provinces of North America, P.P. 1847-8 (50), vol. 47, 14. The Montreal petitioners complained that they lacked the powers given to Liverpool to repatriate such Irish paupers.
22. At an average cost of between £10 and £11 per head, emigration to Australia was about three times the cost of passage to Canada; Return from Each of the British Colonies of the Amount of the Land Revenue and the Particulars of Its Application towards the Introduction of Emigrants, P.P. 1847-8 (345), vol. 47, 679.
23. Report from the Select Committee on Immigration (New South Wales), 11 September 1847, Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies, P.P. 1847-8 (986), vol. 47, 489-94.
24. Returns Exhibiting the Emigration from the United Kingdom between the Years 1846 and 1850 Inclusive, P.P. 1851 (680), vol. 40, 443.
25. Popular Malthusianism needs to be distinguished from Malthus himself, who wrote relatively little on Ireland; he did not envisage any catastrophe on the scale of the Famine but, although generally pessimistic about Irish prospects, thought emigration merely a temporary palliative. Cormac Ó Gráda, 'Malthus and the pre-Famine economy', in Antoin E. Murphy (ed.), Economists and the Irish Economy (Blackrock: Irish Academic Press 1984), 75-95.
26. See Peter Gray, Famine, Land and Politics: British Government and Irish Society 1843-1850 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press 1999), 8-12.
27. Third Report of the Commission for Inquiring into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland, P.P. 1836 (35), vol. 30, 17, 26. The Devon Commission report of 1845 repeated this call for assisted emigration as part of a wider comprehensive plan; Report from HM Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of the Law and Practice in Respect to the Occupation of Land in Ireland, P.P. 1845 (605), vol. 19, 28-9.
28. Third Report of the Commission for Inquiring into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland, P.P. 1836 (35), vol. 30, 17, 26. The Devon Commission report of 1845 repeated this call for assisted emigration as part of a wider comprehensive plan; Report from HM Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of the Law and Practice in Respect to the Occupation of Land in Ireland, P.P. 1845 (605), vol. 19, 28-9.
29. Senior to Lansdowne, 10 May 1837: National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Nassau Senior Papers (NSP), C188.
30. Senior to Lansdowne, 2 December 1848: NSP, C218; [Nassau Senior], 'The relief of Irish distress', Edinburgh Review, vol. 89, January 1849, 221-68.
31. Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, P.P. 1847 (737), vol. 6, 238-9.
32. Annual Register, vol. 85, 1843, 66.
33. William Sharman Crawford, Depopulation Not Necessary: An Appeal to the British Members of the Imperial Parliament against the Extermination of the Irish People, 2nd edn (London: C. Gilpin 1850), 9.
34. [Thomas Davis], 'Emigration - no remedy', The Citizen, vol. 1, December 1839, 73-83. Davis in turn drew on the arguments for Irish under-population and for the vibrancy of small farms in William Sharman Crawford, A Defence of the Small Farmers of Ireland (Dublin: Joshua Porter 1839).
35. [Thomas Davis], 'Emigration - no remedy', The Citizen, vol. 1, December 1839, 73-83. Davis in turn drew on the arguments for Irish under-population and for the vibrancy of small farms in William Sharman Crawford, A Defence of the Small Farmers of Ireland (Dublin: Joshua Porter 1839).
36. Howick to Senior, 14 March, 18 May 1837: NSP, C118, C120.
37. As Lord Howick he was MP for Sunderland 1841-5.
38. For Wood's character and ideas, see John Anthony Jowett, 'Sir Charles Wood (1800-85): A Case Study in the Formation of Liberalism in Mid-Victorian England', M.Phil. 1981, University of Leeds.
39. The Times, 17 October 1845.
40. See, for example, The Nonconformist, 19 August 1846.
41. William Thornton, Over-Population and Its Remedy, or, an Inquiry into the Extent and Causes of Distress Prevailing amongst the Labouring Classes of the British Islands and into the Means of Remedying It (London: Longman 1846).
42. Poulett Scrope to Russell, 23 June 1846: Public Record Office, London (PRO), Russell Papers, PRO 30/22/5A, ff. 267-74; G. Poulett Scrope, Extracts of Evidence . . . on the Subject of Waste Lands Reclamation (London: Ridgway 1847).
43. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 70, 877-93 (10 July 1843).
44. Grey to Russell, 16 October 1846: PRO, Russell Papers, PRO 30/22/5D, ff. 216-17.
45. Russell to Grey, 15 October 1846: Durham University Library, Grey Papers.
46. Russell to Wood, 15 October 1846: Cambridge University Library, Hickleton Papers, A4/ 56/1 (microfilm). He remained of this opinion in January 1847, see Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 89, 449 (25 January 1847).
47. See Gray, 158-63.
48. Bessborough to Russell, 3 November 1846: PRO, Russell Papers, PRO 30/22/5E, ff. 19-20.
49. Russell to Bessborough, 29 December 1846, in G. P. Gooch (ed.), The Later Correspondence of Lord John Russell 1840-78, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1925), i.168-9.
50. Buller memo, 'Thoughts on the Irish measures of the government', n.d. [1847]: Durham University Library, Grey Papers. Buller thought Canada unsuitable for colonization, and expressed interest in Grey's plan only in so far as it might prove a precedent for his Antipodean vision; Buller memo, n.d. [December 1846], in A. Doughty (ed.), The Elgin-Grey Papers 1846-52, 4 vols (Ottawa: Government of Canada 1937), iii.1100-6.
51. Grey to Sir George Grey, 16 November 1846, and Grey memo 'Emigration', 15 December 1846, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1079-81, iii.1086-9.
52. T. F. Elliot to Lansdowne, 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1096-7.
53. MacDonagh, 'Irish emigration', 344-5; T. F. Elliot, 'Memorandum on villages', 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1110-13.
54. MacDonagh, 'Irish emigration', 344-5; T. F. Elliot, 'Memorandum on villages', 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1110-13.
55. [Anon.], The Measures Which Alone Can Ameliorate Effectually the Condition of the Irish People (London: Hatchard 1847), 50-68; T. St Leger Alcock, Observations on the Poor Relief Bill for Ireland, and Its Bearing on the Important Subject of Emigration (London: Ridgway 1847).
56. [Anon.], The Measures Which Alone Can Ameliorate Effectually the Condition of the Irish People (London: Hatchard 1847), 50-68; T. St Leger Alcock, Observations on the Poor Relief Bill for Ireland, and Its Bearing on the Important Subject of Emigration (London: Ridgway 1847).
57. John Roben Godley, An Answer to the Question What Is to Be Done with the Unemployed Labourers of the United Kingdom? (London: Stewart and Murray 1847); Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, P.P. 1847 (737), vol. 6, 183-205; 'Copy of the memorial addressed by noblemen, gentlemen and landed proprietors to Lord John Russell, 23 March 1847', Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, 776-91.
58. John Roben Godley, An Answer to the Question What Is to Be Done with the Unemployed Labourers of the United Kingdom? (London: Stewart and Murray 1847); Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, P.P. 1847 (737), vol. 6, 183-205; 'Copy of the memorial addressed by noblemen, gentlemen and landed proprietors to Lord John Russell, 23 March 1847', Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, 776-91.
59. John Roben Godley, An Answer to the Question What Is to Be Done with the Unemployed Labourers of the United Kingdom? (London: Stewart and Murray 1847); Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, P.P. 1847 (737), vol. 6, 183-205; 'Copy of the memorial addressed by noblemen, gentlemen and landed proprietors to Lord John Russell, 23 March 1847', Colonization from Ireland: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, 776-91.
60. The Times, 26 January, 7 April 1847.
61. Grey to Elgin, 2 February 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.10-12.
62. Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 'Return of the tonnage of vessels which cleared out with passengers for North America etc.', 23 January 1847, and T. F. Elliot, 'Memorandum on villages', 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1110-13; Eighth General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, P.P. 1847-8, (961), vol. 26, 15.
63. Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 'Return of the tonnage of vessels which cleared out with passengers for North America etc.', 23 January 1847, and T. F. Elliot, 'Memorandum on villages', 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1110-13; Eighth General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, P.P. 1847-8, (961), vol. 26, 15.
64. Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 'Return of the tonnage of vessels which cleared out with passengers for North America etc.', 23 January 1847, and T. F. Elliot, 'Memorandum on villages', 23 January 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iii.1110-13; Eighth General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, P.P. 1847-8, (961), vol. 26, 15.
65. Grey to Elgin, 19 July 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.57.
66. Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners to Hawes, 20 November 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iv.1324-39.
67. MacDonagh, 'Irish emigration', 345-8.
68. Grey to Elgin, 27 January 1848, Stephen De Vere to T. F. Elliot, 30 November 1847, in Doughty (ed.), iv.1339-47; MacDonagh, 'The regulation of the emigrant traffic', 167-76.
69. Address of the Legislative Assembly of Canada, 25 June 1847, Papers Relative to Emigration: Part I: British Provinces in North America, P.P. 1847-8 (50), vol. 47, 13.
70. Elgin to Grey, 7 May 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.34-7.
71. Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 12 November 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.58-9, 79-80.
72. Cited in Donald MacKay, Flight from Famine: The Coming of the Irish to Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1990), 290.
73. Grey to Elgin, 18 November 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.78-9; Eighth General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, P.P. 1847-8 (961), vol. 26, 14-17.
74. Elgin to Grey, 28 June 1848, in Doughty (ed.), iv.1372-5.
75. [John Anster], 'Colonization from Ireland', North British Review, vol. 8, February 1848, 421-64; The Times, 14 October 1847.
76. [John Anster], 'Colonization from Ireland', North British Review, vol. 8, February 1848, 421-64; The Times, 14 October 1847.
77. Palmerston to Grey, 20 December 1846: Durham University Library, Grey Papers; Redington to Labouchere, 20 January 1847: West Sussex Record Office, Chichester, Bessborough Papers, F. 337. For Palmerston's efforts to reduce the population on his Sligo estates through assisted emigration, see Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland; Together with Minutes of Evidence, P.P. 1847 (737), vol. 6, 159-68.
78. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 92, 899 (1 June 1847). State-assisted emigration was regarded by Irish landed opinion as a vital precondition for Irish improvement; Lord Rosse, Letters on the State of Ireland, 2nd edn (London: J. Hatchard 1847), 24-5; [Isaac Butt], 'The famine in the land. What has been done, and what is to be done', Dublin University Magazine, vol. 29, April 1847, 529-35.
79. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 92, 899 (1 June 1847). State-assisted emigration was regarded by Irish landed opinion as a vital precondition for Irish improvement; Lord Rosse, Letters on the State of Ireland, 2nd edn (London: J. Hatchard 1847), 24-5; [Isaac Butt], 'The famine in the land. What has been done, and what is to be done', Dublin University Magazine, vol. 29, April 1847, 529-35.
80. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 92, 899 (1 June 1847). State-assisted emigration was regarded by Irish landed opinion as a vital precondition for Irish improvement; Lord Rosse, Letters on the State of Ireland, 2nd edn (London: J. Hatchard 1847), 24-5; [Isaac Butt], 'The famine in the land. What has been done, and what is to be done', Dublin University Magazine, vol. 29, April 1847, 529-35.
81. Russell memo, 'State of Ireland', July 1847: PRO, Russell Papers, PRO 30/22/6D, ff. 84-7; Clarendon to Russell, 12 July 1847: Bodleian Library, Oxford, Clarendon Deposit Irish (CDI), letterbook I; Russell to Grey, 2 August 1847: Durham University Library, Grey Papers.
82. Grey to Elgin, 19 April, 16 June 1847, in Doughty (ed.), i.24-5, 47-8.
83. F. Hincks, 'Memo on the projected Halifax and Quebec rail road', 18 December 1848, in Doughty (ed.), iv.1425-7.
84. Grey to Elgin, 22 March 1848, in Doughty (ed.), i.126-7; 'Lord Grey, and his plans of colonisation', Fraser's Magazine, vol. 35, June 1847, 738-49.
85. Grey to Elgin, 27 July 1848, in Doughty (ed.), i.206-8.
86. Russell to Clarendon, 2 October 1847: CDI, Box 43, and Clarendon to Grey, 29 November 1847: GDI, letterbook I.
87. Grey to Clarendon, 4 December 1847: Durham University Library, Grey Papers.
88. Russell to Clarendon, 20 December 1848: CDI, Box 43, and Clarendon to Russell, 6 January 1849: CDI, letterbook III; The Times, 26 December 1848, 3 January 1849.
89. Grey memo, 'Remarks on emigration, poor law and Ireland', 18 December 1848: Durham University Library, Grey Papers.
90. Christine Kinealy, This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1994), 309-27. For the Ballykilcline case, see Robert J. Scally, The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and Emigration (New York: Oxford University Press 1995).
91. Christine Kinealy, This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1994), 309-27. For the Ballykilcline case, see Robert J. Scally, The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and Emigration (New York: Oxford University Press 1995).
92. David Fitzpatrick estimates that up to 8 per cent of immigrants arriving at Québec in 1846-50 had received some assistance from landlords, the state or charities. American ports of entry would have seen far fewer. David Fitzpatrick, 'Emigration, 1801-70', in W. E. Vaughan (ed.), A New History of Ireland, Vol. 5: Ireland under the Union, I: 1801-70 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1989), 592.
93. Earl Grey, The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London: R. Bentley 1853), i.239-45.
94. Ibid., i.329-35.