CHAP. V. 3,408,000l. Irish. The charge of the Irish debt amounted to 6,826,730.; the total supplies, therefore, to be raised in Ireland amounted to 10,234,000l. The produce of 1816. Irish taxation, however, was only 6,000,000l., or, in other words, was not equal to the charge of the Irish debt. For all practical purposes Ireland was bankrupt, and nothing but the wholesale imposition of taxation or the assistance of England could have enabled her to pay her way. For the moment the gap in her resources was stopped by the application of some small balances available for the purpose, and by borrowing. But these devices could not conceal the fact that the Irish Government was insolvent; and that drastic measures could alone prevent its absolute bankruptcy.1 the British Exche Fortunately for Ireland relief came in the most effectual Consolishape. Before another Budget was proposed the formal dation of union between the two kingdoms was completed by the and Irish consolidation of the British and Irish Exchequers; and quers. the revenue of the United Kingdom was thenceforward raised by taxation which, with slight exceptions, has been equally borne by the two countries. The consolidation of the two Exchequers had become possible under the terms on which the Union had been effected. It had been agreed by the Act of Union that each country should defray the charges of its own debt (the British debt was then fourteen times as large as the Irish debt); that for twenty years Great Britain should contribute fifteen parts out of every seventeen of the joint expenditure of the United Kingdom; that, after twenty years, the proportion of such contribution might be altered by Parliament, but 1 The Irish Ways and Means were:-Irish taxation 6,000,000 991,570 100,000 111,960 3,041,666 £10,245,196 СНАР. V. 1816. that if in the interval' the debts of the two countries should be to each other in the same proportions with their respective contributions,' it should be competent for Parliament to declare that all future expenditure should be defrayed indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on each country, subject only to such particular exemptions or abatements, in Ireland and in Scotland, as circumstances might appear from time to time to demand.'1 No analysis of the ordinary Parliamentary accounts, however carefully it was made, would have enabled an inquirer to determine the exact amount of the Irish and the English debts. The debt of Ireland in 1816 appears in Parliamentary documents as rather less than 29,000,000l. The debt of Great Britain exceeded at the same time 817,000,0001.2 The British debt was, in other words, apparently twenty-eight times as large as the Irish debt. But these figures gave no accurate conception of the respective burdens of the two nations. The great mass of the money which Ireland had been compelled to borrow had been raised in London; and the greater portion of the debt, therefore, which the Irish had incurred was classed as British debt. The real state of the case, however, was very different. In 1811, when the whole debt of the United Kingdom amounted to 678,000,000l., the Committee of Accounts reported that the Irish portion of it was as nearly as possible two-seventeenths of the whole. The contingency had occurred which had been foreseen by Pitt; and the period had arrived for the consummation of the Union by the consolidation of the British and Irish Exchequers. It was the opinion of the bestinformed politicians of those days that, if Perceval had lived, the two Exchequers would have been consolidated in 1812. Perceval, however, died. On his death the subject dropped into abeyance, and was not actively 1 Parl. Ret., Pub. Inc. and Exp., part ii. p. 385. 2 Ibid., p. 306. СНАР. V. reopened till 1815. The Irish funded debt amounted in 1815 to 127,865,000l.; the unredeemed debt to 105,000,000l.; and the proportion of the debt to the 1816. British debt as 2 to 13.1 The Committee of Accounts saw that the time had come for completing the policy of 1801, and threw themselves actively into the work. The times were indeed ripe for the change. Ireland was virtually insolvent; and nothing but the fusion of her own accounts with those of a wealthier nation could have averted her bankruptcy. The consolidation of the British and Irish Exchequers was proposed on the 20th of May, 1816. It took effect from the 5th of January, 1817.2 The work, in its ultimate consequences, was the most important on which the Legislature was engaged during the year. It was perhaps the greatest pecuniary boon which had not merely ever been conferred on Ireland, but which had ever been granted by one nation to another. The greatness of the boon was thoroughly recognised at the time. Independent members of Parliament complained that Ireland was being relieved of all share of the cost of the war, and that the entire burden was being thrown on Great Britain. The complaint which was thus made was undoubtedly an exaggeration. The Government had been culpably negligent in omitting to impose fresh taxation on Ireland during the continuance of the war, and culpably ready to take the easier course of accumulating the Irish debt. But the British Government and British Parliament were responsible for this policy, and there was no real injustice in saying that the burdens which had been incurred in a common cause should be borne indiscriminately by the United Kingdom. While Parliament was making these various arrangements for the future the condition of the country was 1 Hansard, vol. xxxiii. p. 811, and vol. xxxiv. p. 592. Hansard, vol. xxxiv. pp. 588616. Alison, vol. i. p. 126. V. Critical state of the country. CHAP. becoming more and more critical. The fall in the value of corn at the close of 1815 deprived the farmers of all 1816. probability of profit; and farms in every part of the kingdom were thrown out of cultivation. Early in 1816 the Board of Agriculture issued questions to 326 persons with a view to testing the condition of agriculture in different parts of the country. In 168 of the replies cases were mentioned in which farms were unoccupied. In 37 of the replies it was stated that all the farmers who could had given notice to quit. In 103 of the replies it was stated that many of the farmers, and in 111 of them that several or a few of the farmers, had given notice to quit. 212 of the replies spoke of a reduction of rents. The average of these reductions of rent amounted to 25 per cent.; and, placing the gross rent of land at 36,000,000l. a year, the Board of Agriculture, in consequence, inferred that the loss occasioned by the distress, to landlords alone, amounted to no less than 9,000,000l. a year. But the landed interest represented only one portion of the sufferers, and the class which was perhaps able to bear the suffering more easily than any other. Far more serious was the distress which was everywhere felt by the agricultural and the manufacturing poor. Everything conspired to reduce the value of labour. 'English goods were selling for much less in Holland and in the North of Europe than in London or Manchester.' Manufacturing operations were consequently paralysed. Agricultural produce was suddenly reduced to half its former value; and agricultural operations were suspended in many parts of the kingdom. Labour everywhere failed to obtain remunerative employment; and at this very moment a large addition was made to the number of labourers. The navy had suddenly been reduced from 100,000 men in 1815 to 33,000 in 1816. The militia 1 The report will be found in Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., p. 459. V. had been disbanded, and the establishment of the regular CHAP. army largely contracted. At a time when the supply of workinen was already in excess some 200,000 able-bodied men had been added to the crowd of labourers seeking for employment.1 The hopes which the peace had raised had been suddenly turned into the most bitter disappointment. The distress was visible in every class of life. Every avenue,' wrote Scott to his brother, is now choked with applicants, whose claims are very strong; for the number of disbanded officers and public servants dismissed in consequence of Parliament turning restive and refusing the income tax is great and increasing. Economy is the order of the day, and I can assure you they are shaving pretty close.2 The number of bankruptcies,' said Brougham in the House of Commons, is daily increasing;' the home trade is at a standstill; the landlord receives no rent; the tenant can sell no corn. Upon two estates in Norfolk,' said the Duke of Bedford in the House of Lords, 'lands in one instance of 5,000 acres, in another of 3,000 acres, were offered to tenants rent-free if they would cultivate them, but none would take them.' Distress,' said another member, 'pervaded every branch of commerce.' 8 6 1816. vest fails. Nothing seemed wanting to complete the universal The harmisery and distress; but the cup of suffering was to be filled more fully. If work was scarce bread was, at any rate, cheap; and, in the cheapness of their chief article of food, the labouring community found some moderate consolation. A wet and chilly spring threatened, however, to deprive them of this advantage. The harvest seemed imperilled by the rains, and corn rose in value. Wheat, at the end of April, touched 80s. a quarter, and the old prices seemed on the eve of returning. Farms, which had been thrown out of cultivation, were 'Alison, vol. i. p. 109. 2 Lockhart's Scott, p. 331. › Hansard, vol. xxxii. pp. 38, 67, and vol. xxxiii. p. 162. VOL. I. E E |