as able to levy, after
putting forth its strength in every possible way, was 12,000 l., the
cost of collection being 15,000 l., so the Government was not able to
raise as much money as would pay the expenses of the campaign. This
was how Lord Stanley illustrated his favourite sentiment that the
people should be made to respect the law. But the Liberal party among
the Protestants fully sympathised with the anti-tithe recusants.

Of course the Government did not persevere in prosecutions from which
no parties but the lawyers reaped any advantage; consequently, all
processes under the existing law were abandoned. It was found that,
after paying to the clergy the arrears of 1831 and 1832, and what
would be due in 1833, about a million sterling would be required,
and this sum was provided by an issue of exchequer bills. The
reimbursement of the advance was to be effected by a land tax.
Together with these temporary arrangements to meet the exigency of the
case, for the payment of the clergy and the pacification of Ireland,
an act was passed to render tithe composition in Ireland compulsory
and permanent. But Ireland was not yet pacified.[1]

[Footnote 1: The foregoing sketch of the tithe war was written by the
author seven years ago for Cassell's _History of England_, from which
it is now extracted.]

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FAMINE.

It had often been predicted by writers on the state of Ireland, that,
owing to the rottenness at the foundation of the social fabric, it
would come down with a crash some day. The facts reported by the
census commissioners of 1841 showed that this consummation could not
be far off. Out of a population of 8,000,000, there were 3,700,000
above the age of five years who could neither read nor write; while
nearly three millions and a half lived in mud cabins, badly thatched
with straw, having each but one room, and often without either a
window or a chimney. These figures indicate a mass of ignorance
and poverty, which could not be contemplated without alarm, and the
subject was, therefore, constantly pressed upon the attention of
parliament. As usual in cases of difficulty, the Government, feeling
that something should be done, and not knowing what to do, appointed
in 1845 a commission to enquire into the relations between landlords
and tenants, and the condition of the working classes. At the head of
this commission was the Earl of Devon, a benevolent nobleman, whose
sympathies were on th