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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
In several respects the great famine revolutionized Irish overseas emigration. Numbers rose abruptly from an annual average of some 50,000 in the early ’forties to more than 100,000 in 1846, more than 200,000 in 1847 and an aggregate of well over one and a quarter millions in the six succeeding seasons. A relatively small, steady and considered emigration was replaced, especially during 1846-9, by a headlong outrush, sometimes more a hasty, even hysterical flight of economic refugees than a population movement as ordinarily understood. Unprecedented disasters overtook these emigrations, as epidemics swept over a passenger trade still painfully adjusting its shipping and standards to the new phenomenon and the growing predominance of Liverpool as the point of embarkation.
2 Hitchens, F. H., The colonial land and emigration commission (Philadelphia, 1931)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, provides a valuable introduction to the history of the commission and its activities, and to the collections of their official papers. The main purpose of the commission was, originally, the sale of colonial lands and the management of assisted emigration to Australia. While, however, these activities gradually declined, its other duty, the regulation and protection of voluntary emigration, increased steadily in importance.
3 I do not mean to imply that the changes in the scope and mechanism of state action were necessarily on a par with the industrial or agrarian revolutions, but merely use the words as a convenient description of a transformation in the nature, purpose and method of administration.
4 5 & 6 Vic. c. 107, sec. 2. On this point the American legislation was superior; it fixed a proportion between the superficial deck space and the height between decks, and thereby secured cubic and not merely superficial space. 2nd rep. select comrn. colonization Ire., 346, Q. 3318, H.C. 1847-8, (593), xvii.
5 5 & 6 Vic. c. 107, sees. 3-6.
6 In practice, this precaution was worthless, 1st rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 51, Q. 474-7, H.C. 1847-8, (415), xvii; 1st rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 121, Q. 2141-68, H.C. 1854, (163), xiii.
7 5 & 6 Vic. c. 107, sec. 13.
8 Ibid., sees. 8 and 22.
9 Rep. select comm. passenger acts, 480-9, Q. 4313-18, H.C 1851, (632), xix.
10 P.R.O., C.O. 384/92, 449 North America, 10 Jan. 1854. See also C.O. 384/84, 3155 Emigration, 13 Apr. 1849; 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 139-40, Q. 5573-80, H.C 1854, (349), xiii; Grey, Earl, The colonial policy of Lord John Russell's administration (London, 1853), i, pp. 236-42Google Scholar.
11 There was considerable opposition from the trade; see C.O. 384/73 324 and 341 Emigration, 25 and 28 Feb. 1842. It was argued that the increase in fares would be disastrous.
12 C.O. 384/80, 1069 Emigration, 19 June 1847.
13 See C.O. 384/74, 607 Emigration, 9 June 1843; C.O. 386/34, pp. 85-6, 2 Sept. 1846; C.O. 384/78, 182 North America, 26 Feb. 1846; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 10, [777] H.C. 1847, xxxix; & c.
14 Rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 17-18, Q. 130-8, [737], H.C 1847, vi.
15 6th rep. emigr. commissioners, 30-1, [706], H.C 1846, xxiv The measure proved a failure, because maize deteriorated much too quickly for a sea voyage; and permission was withdrawn in 1847, C.O. 384/80, 61 Emigration, 14 Jan, 1847; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 24, [777], H.C 1847, xxxix. See also Cork Constitution, 23 Feb. 1847.
16 C.O. 386/39, PP. 148-9, 13 Feb. 1846; C.O. 384/77, 410 Emigration, 31 Mar 1846.
17 C.O. 384/80, 61 Emigration, 27 Feb. 1846.
18 7th rep. emigr. commissioners, 32-6, [809], H.C 1847, xxxiii; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 9, 39, [777], H.C. 1847, xxxix.
19 E.g. C.O. 384/78, 1181 Canada, 3 Oct. 1846.
20 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 9-10, [777], H.C 1847, xxxix. William Power published a series of letters in the Nation, at the close of 1846 and the beginning of 1847, which criticized the passenger acts very intelligently.
21 It was interesting that it should have been Bentinck (on this occasion as on others) who pressed for more controls upon humanitarian grounds, Hansard, 3rd, xcii, 1164-5, 1237-41, 20 and 21 May 1847; xciv, 598, 20 July 1847- R. L. Hill's view is that toryism made ‘ appeal to the humanity of the state because it feared the inhumanity of the government’; Toryism and the people, 1832-46 (London, 1929), p. 186.
22 10 & 11 Vic. c. 103, sec. 9.
23 C.O. 384/79, 241 and 948 Emigration, 15 Feb. and 3 June 1847; C.O. 384/80, 997 Emigration, 11 June 1847; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 171, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii; The Times, 1 July 1847; & c.
24 C.O. 384/79, 7O9 Emigration, 28 Apr. 1847.
25 C.O. 384/80, 651 Emigration, 19 Apr. 1847. See also C.O. 384/79, 588 Emigration, 12 Apr. 1847.
26 C.O. 384/80, 652 Emigration, 19 Apr. 1847.
27 C.O. 384/80, 650 Emigration, 17 Apr. 1847. Grey considered this unwise, but added that the commissioners’ pressure was so great that he must consent; minute dated 20 Apr. 1847. Undoubtedly, at this juncture, Grey was right; and eventually the clause was abandoned.
28 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 48, 183, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii.
29 Ibid., 103.
30 Limerick Chronicle, 8, 19 and 22 May 1847; Northern Whig, 27 Apr. 1847; Nation, 1 May 1847, p. 447; Cork Examiner, 5 Apr. 1847; Rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 243, Q. 2359-61, [737], H.C. 1847, vi; & c.
31 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 132, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 15, [964], H.C. 1847-8, xlvii.
32 See 1st rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 100, Q. 1736-40, H.C. 1854, (163), xiii.
33 C.O. 384/79, 535 Canada, S. de Vere to Lord Monteagle. Monteagle, who was de Vere's uncle, forwarded the report to Grey De Vere sailed to Canada in 1847 so ‘ that he might speak as a witness respecting the sufferings of emigrants ’, and do something to improve their lot; Ward, W., Aubrey de Vere, a memoir, p. 184 Google Scholar.
34 C.O. 384/79, 535 Canada, marginal comments; 1st rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 44, Q. 459, H.C. 1847-8, (415), xvii; Rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 526-8, Q. 4809-21, [737], H.C. 1847, vi.
35 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 12-16, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii.
36 C.O. 384/81, 752 Emigration, 18 Apr. 1848. For the later employment of chaplains at Liverpool, see C.O. 384/90, 11938 Emigration, 13 Dec. 1853.
37 1st rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 49-50, Q. 462-4, H.C. 1847-8, (415), xvii.
38 Hitchens, op. cit., pp. 137-8.
39 It is interesting to note that on 16 April 1845 the commissioners had observed that ‘ there are insuperable objections to restricting emigration to any particular ports ‘, C.O. 386/37, pp. 205-6.
40 Albion, R. G., The rise of New York port (New York, 1939), P. 348 Google Scholar.
41 Hansard, 3rd, xciv, 276-8, 13 July 1847.
42 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 124, 176, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii.
43 Ibid., 41-4. A few reputable shipping houses employed their own surgeons, 2nd rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 345, Q. 3307-8, H.C. 1847-8, (593), xvii.
44 C.O. 384/79, I77O and 1895 North America, 2 and 21 Nov. 1847, replies from the royal college of surgeons, Dublin, and the royal college of physicians, London.
45 C.O. 384/79, 1473 Canada, minute dated 31 Aug. 1847.
46 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 28-38, H.C. 1847-8, (50), xlvii.
47 1st rep. select comm. colonization Ire., 49-50, Q. 462-4, H.C- 1847-8, (415), xvii.
48 Very few vessels carried less than 100 passengers.
49 11 & 12 Vic. c. 6, sees. 1, 3, 4 and 7.
50 See the debates on the passenger bill, Hansard, 3rd, xcvi. 1024-35; civ, 21 Feb. 1848.
51 Northern Whig, 24 Feb. 1848.
52 C.O. 384/81, 421 Emigration, printed circular of J. & W. Robinson, 25 Feb. 1848, and minute of T. F, Elliot, 26 Feb. 1848.
53 This does not mean that it was not often violated, see Further papers rel. emigration British North America, 11-12 [964], H.C. 1847-8, xlvii; Papers rel. emigration British North America, 27, [1025], H.C. 1849, xxxviii.
54 Treatment of passengers on board ‘Washington', 2, H.C. 1851, (198), xl. See also Rep. select comm. passenger acts, 409-11, Q. 3736-48, H.C. 1851, (632), xix. At Liverpool, the commissioners employed full-time medical officers; at the Irish ports, general practitioners were called on to make the examinations as required.
55 C.O. 384/81, 1405 Emigration, 18 July 1848.
56 C.O. 384/81, 1202 Emigration, 17 June 1848.
57 C.O. 384/84, 3155 Emigration, 27 Mar. 1849.
58 C.O. 384/81, 1405 Emigration, minute of T. F. Elliot, 19 June 1848.
59 C.O. 384/83, 398o North America, 2 May 1849.
60 This procedure was sanctioned by 11 & 12 Vic. c. 6, sec. 10, which gave the commissioners discretionary powers in the matter.
61 Papers rel. emigration British North America, 43-4, [932], H.C. 1847-8, xlvii. See also 8th rep. emigr. commissioners, 17, [961], H.C. 1847-8, xxvi.
62 C.O. 384/81, 670 Emigration North America, 3 Apr. 1848.
63 This problem was still unsolved at the end of this period, C.O. 384/94, 11088 Miscellaneous, 30 Nov. 1855.
64 12 & 13 Vic. c. 33, sec. 15.
65 C.O. 384/84, 3155 Emigration, 13 Apr. 1849.
66 12 & 13 Vic. c. 33, sec. 24.
67 C.O., 384/84, 361 Miscellaneous, 13 Jan. 1849.
68 C.O. 384/88, 1293 North America, 16 Feb. 1850. It was also argued that ‘ passengers would rather lay in their own Provisions than have the Ship do it and be charged’, C.O. 384/84, 3155 Emigration, 27 Mar. 1849.
69 12 & 13 Vic. c. 33, secs. 43, 45, 46, and 49.
70 See 11th rep. emigr. commissioners, 36, [1383], H.C. 1851, xxii
71 14 & 15 Vic c. i. See also C.O. 384/86, 815 Emigration, 25 Jan. 1851.
72 11th rep, emigr. commissioners, 36, [1383], H.C. 1851, xxii. See also C.O. 384/86, 3696 North America, 30 Apr. 1851; Hansard, 3rd, cxix. 768-70, 17 Feb. 1851.
73 C.O. 384/86, 5705 and 6983 North America Emigration, 1 and 30 July 1851.
74 Rep. select comm. passenger acts, 101-3, 105, Q. 931-60, 974-81, H.C. 1851, (632), xix.
75 Treatment of passengers on board ‘Washington’, 1-6, H.C. 1851, (198), xl.
76 C.O. 384/88, 9428 North America Emigration, 12 Nov 1851.
77 Cf. C.O. 384/88, 518 North America, 17 Jan. 1851; C.O. 384/92, 449 North America, 10 Jan. 1854.
78 Prosecutions for breaches of the passenger acts could only take place when the offending vessel returned to a British port, by which time the witnesses, whose evidence was necessary to secure a conviction, were dispersed throughout the new world.
79 They seem to have come closest to success in 1854, when congress, at the president's request, reviewed the whole question, and had parliamentary papers and statutes, furnished by the colonial office, under consideration, C.O. 384/93, 4153 and 4455 Emigration, 4 Mar. and 17 Apr. 1854.
80 C.O. 384/93, 10350 North America, 6 Dec. 1854.
81 A similar proposal for young women was rejected on the ground that most parents would prefer to protect their daughters themselves.
82 Rep. select comm. passenger acts, xviii-xxxii, H.C. 1851, (632), xix.
83 C.O. 384/81, 1694 Emigration, 30 Aug. 1848. Hitchens, op. cit., pp. 148-50, confuses this project with the embarkation depôts for assisted emigration to Australia.
84 C.O. 384/84, 4584 Emigration, 22 May 1849.
85 Maguire, J. F., The Irish in America (London, 1868), pp. 187-88Google Scholar; 20th rep. New York commissioners of emigration, quoted ibid., pp. 211-12; Purcell, R. J., ‘ The New York commissioners of emigration and Irish immigrants, 1847-60 ‘ in Studies, xxxvii. 28–42 Google Scholar.
86 Westminster Review, lx, pp. 64–75 Google Scholar. See also Economist, 7 June 1856, p. 616 Google ScholarPubMed.
87 Economist, 4 Apr. 1857, p. 365.Google ScholarPubMed See also Illustrated London News, 26 Aug. 1854, p. 178 Google Scholar.
88 C.O. 384/38, 63 Emigration, 15 Apr. 1835.
89 C.O. 384/89, 33O2 Emigration, 19 Apr. 1852. The Liverpool chamber of commerce once observed, ‘The folly of throwing needless obstacles in the way of such a trade is very obvious ‘. See also The Times, 10 Feb. 1859.
90 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 50, Q. 3867, H.C. 1854, (349), xiii. Cf. ‘ These are not the days in which Trade is willing to be interfered with more than can possibly be helped ’ C.O. 384/92, 449 Emigration, minute of T. F. Elliot, 10 Jan. 1854.
91 C.O. 384/88, 158 Canada, minute of T. F. Elliot, 9 Jan. 1850.
92 This sort of criticism was doubly odious, of course, because it placed the government in the embarrassing situation of resisting humanitarian appeals, P.R.O., Russell papers, box 6, B. Hawes to Russell, 22 May 1847.
93 C.O. 384/93, 4295 North America, 23 May 1854.
94 C.O. 384/41, 612 Emigration, 16 Apr. 1836. See also C.O. 384/84, 9485 Emigration, 31 Oct. 1849.
95 It was always possible to justify legislation as ‘ exceptional ’ Sidney, a social reformer in this field, argued that in most cases merchants were confined by self-interest, law or public opinion, none of which operated in the passenger trade. ‘ The law will not practically touch them; there is no public opinion; and their self-interest is not strongly acted on, because they will never see their customers again ’ Again, ‘ emigrants are not to be compared with other persons; they are an exception; they are the most helpless people in the world ’, 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 62, Q. 4140, 4168-84, H.C 1854, (349), xiii.
96 ibid., iv-v.
97 Ibid., v. See also ibid., 104, Q. 4904, the question put by the chairman.
98 C.O. 386/19, PP. 289-303, 8 Nov. 1837.
99 E.g., it ‘ is an old dogma that government has no right to interfere in matters [i.e. emigration] that infringe upon the enterprise and speculation of the subject’. But the emigration of the previous twenty years had disgraced a Christian country. ‘Who can contend that there is not full cause for the interference of government’? B. Bolton in Health of Towns Journal, 2 Dec. 1848.
100 15 & 16 Vic. c. 44.
101 C.O. 384/90, 10939 Emigration, 10 Nov. 1853; C.O. 384/92, 449 North America, 10 Jan. 1854; C.O. 384/93, 4295 North America, undated, April 1854; The Times, 27 Dec. 1853; &c.
102 18 & 19 Vic. c. 119.
103 For the commissioners’ expectations from this act see A return of names of emigr. officers in U.K., 7-22, H.C. 1854, (255), xlvi.
104 For the commissioners’ comments upon the 1855 act, clause by clause, see C.O. 384/92, 11344 Emigration. 30 Dec. 1854.
105 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, iii-xii, H.C. 1854, (349) xiii.
106 1st rep, select comm. emigrant ships, 87, Q. 1494-9, H.C. 1854, (163), xiii.
107 Ibid., 124, Q. 2236-54.
108 C.O. 384/99, 10207 North America, 11 Nov. 1857; C.O. 384/99, T. Murdoch to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, 17 Mar. 1859. During 1857, Vere Foster published further revelations in the Freeman';s Journal, as did Sir Frederick Foster in The Times.
109 C.O. 384/88, 1293 and 3079 Emigration, 16 Feb. and 22 Apr. 1850; C.O. 384/91, 3105 Emigration and circular to emigration officers, 7 Mar. and 16 Nov. 1853; C.O. 384/92, 1986 and 2188 Emigration, 3 and 8 Mar. 1854. See also orders in council issued after the passage of the 1852 and 1855 acts.
110 E.g. 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, vi, H.C. 1854, (349) xiii.
111 1st rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 116-17, 130, 142, Q. 2041-56, 2425-6, 2622-3, H.C 1854, (163), xiii.
112 C.O. 384/92, 2299 Emigration, 13 Mar. 1854. See also C.O. 384/84, 5069 Emigration, 7 June 1849.
113 E.g. C.O. 6554 North America, 25 June 1853. Grey's term of office may have hastened the tendency in this direction. For a fine analysis, probably by Bagehot, of the dangers of the development, see Economist, 5 Feb. 1859.
114 See 1st rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 9, 19, 21, Q. 105-15, 290-3, 325, H.C 1854, (163), xiii.
115 C.O. 384/92, 3573 Emigration, 25 Apr. 1854; C.O. 384/94, H73, 4004 and 5415 Emigration, 12 Feb., 28 Apr. and 12 June 1855; C.O. 384/96, 3362 and 5073 Emigration, 12 Apr. and 7 June 1856; &c. See also 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, 16, Q. 3437-53, H.C 1854, (349), xiii.
116 2nd rep. select comm. emigrant ships, x, H.C. 1854, (349), xiii. See also C.O. 384/94, 362 Emigration, 13 Jan. 1855; C.O. 384/98, unmarked, 25 Mar. 1857.
