Ireland: Social, Political, And Religious

by Beaumont, Gustave De

• ISBN13: 9780674021655
• ISBN10: 0674021657
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-01
• Publisher: HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

Paralleling his friend Alexis de Tocqueville's visit to America, Gustave de Beaumont traveled through Ireland in the mid-1830s to observe its people and society. In Ireland, he chronicles the history of the Irish and offers up a national portrait on the eve of the Great Famine. Published to acclaim in France, Ireland remained in print there until 1914. The English edition, translated by William Cooke Taylor and published in 1839, was not reprinted. In a devastating critique of British policy in Ireland, Beaumont questioned why a government with such enlightened institutions tolerated such oppression. He was scathing in his depiction of the ruinous state of Ireland, noting the desperation of the Catholics, the misery of repeated famines, the unfair landlord system, and the faults of the aristocracy. It was not surprising the Irish were seen as loafers, drunks, and brutes when they had been reduced to living like beasts. Yet Beaumont held out hope that British liberal reforms could heal Ireland's wounds. This rediscovered masterpiece, in a single volume for the first time, reproduces the nineteenth-century Taylor translation and includes an introduction on Beaumont and his world. This volume also presents Beaumont's impassioned preface to the 1863 French edition in which he portrays the appalling effects of the Great Famine. A classic of nineteenth-century political and social commentary, Beaumont's singular portrait offers the compelling immediacy of an eyewitness to history.

Table of Contents

Historical Introduction
Translator's Preface	3	(2)
Historical Introduction	5	(1)
First Epoch: From 1169 to 1535	6	(17)
Chap. I	6	(5)
Political Condition of Ireland in the Twelfth Century	8	(1)
The Still Recent Invasion of the Danes	9	(1)
Influence of the Court of Rome	10	(1)
Chap. II	11	(12)
Political Condition of the Irish an Obstacle to the Conquest	12	(1)
Second Obstacle to the Completion of the Conquest: The Relation of the Anglo-Norman Conquerors to England, and of England to Them	13	(7)
Third Obstacle to the Conquest: The Condition Imposed on the Natives by the Conquerors	20	(3)
Second Epoch: From 1535 to 1690	23	(26)
Chap. I: Religious Wars	23	(26)
How, When England Became Protestant, It Must Have Desired That Ireland Should Become So Likewise	24	(1)
Of the Causes That Prevented Ireland from Becoming Protestant	25	(4)
How England Rendered Ireland Protestant---Protestant Colonisation---Elizabeth and James I	29	(3)
Protestant Colonisation---Charles I	32	(2)
Civil War---The Republic---Cromwell	34	(9)
The Restoration of Charles II	43	(6)
Third Epoch: From 1688 to 1755	49	(31)
Chap. I: Legal Persecution	49	(7)
Chap. II: The Penal Laws'	56	(24)
Special Character of the Penal Laws	64	(1)
Another Special Character of the Penal Laws	65	(1)
Legal Persecution beyond the Limits of Law	66	(3)
Persecutions Continued When Passions Ceased	69	(1)
Which of the Penal Laws Were Executed, Which Not	70	(2)
The Whiteboys	72	(8)
Fourth Epoch: From 1776 to 1829	80	(299)
Revival and Enfranchisement of Ireland	80	(1)
Chap. I: Effects of American Independence on Ireland	81	(22)
First Reform of the Penal Laws, 1778	83	(1)
Second Effect of American Independence on Ireland (1778 to 1779)---The Irish Volunteers	84	(2)
Independence of the Irish Parliament	86	(2)
Legal Consequences of the Declaration of Irish Independence	88	(5)
Abolition of Certain Penal Laws---Consequences of the Declaration of Parliamentary Independence	93	(1)
Continuation of the Volunteer Movement---Convention of 1783	94	(1)
Corruption of the Irish Parliament	95	(5)
Is a Servile Parliament of Any Use?	100	(3)
Chap II: The French Revolution---Its Effects in Ireland	103	(13)
1789
Other Effects of the French Revolution---Abolition of Penal Laws	108	(1)
Other Consequences of the French Revolution--Reaction	109	(1)
French Invasion of Ireland--Insurrection of 1798	110	(4)
Consequences of the Insurrection of 1798---The Union	114	(1)
Constitutional and Political Effect of the Union	115	(1)
Chap. III: Catholic Emancipation in 1829	116	(5)
PART I
Chap. I: External Appearance of Ireland. Misery of Its Inhabitants	121	(13)
Chap. II: A Bad Aristocracy Is the Primary Cause of All the Evils of Ireland. The Faults of this Aristocracy Are, That It Is English and Protestant	134	(48)
Civil Consequences	139	(1)
Extreme Misery of the Farmers---Accumulation of the Population on the Soil--Absenteeism---Middlemen---Rack-Rents---Want of Sympathy between Landlord and Tenant	139	(5)
Competition for Land---Whiteboyism---Social Evils--Inutility of Coercive Measures---Terror in the Country---Disappearance of Landlords and Capital	144	(7)
Political Consequences	151	(2)
The State	153	(6)
Hatred of the People to the Laws	159	(1)
A Public Accuser Wanting in Ireland	160	(1)
Unanimity of the Jury in Ireland	161	(1)
Legal Functionaries Peculiar to Ireland	162	(1)
The County	163	(4)
Municipal Corporations	167	(2)
The Parish	169	(4)
Judicial Authority	173	(2)
Religious Consequences
Legal and Official Establishment of Protestant Worship in the Midst of Catholic Ireland---The University and the Protestant Schools	175	(7)
Chap. III: Tithes	182	(6)
Resistance to the Payment of Tithes	182	(6)
Chap. IV: The North of Ireland	188	(3)
Chap. V: Irish Character	191	(12)
Chap. VI: Illusions of the Irish Aristocracy	203	(13)
Part II (Annexed to Part I in the Translation)
How Ireland Has Resisted Oppression	209	(7)
Chap. VII: How Ireland Tends to Democracy	216	(47)
The Association	216	(7)
O'Connell	223	(9)
The Catholic Clergy	232	(7)
The Presbyterians	239	(5)
The Middle Classes	244	(7)
On the State of Parties in Ireland	251	(12)
PART III
Chap. I: The Three Principal Remedies That Have Been Proposed for the Evils of Ireland	263	(27)
Increase of Industrial Employment	264	(7)
Emigration	271	(10)
Poor Laws	281	(9)
Chap. II: Remedies Proposed by the Author---The Civil, Political, and Religious Privileges of the Aristocracy Must Be Abolished	290	(7)
Chap. III: It Would Be an Evil to Substitute a Catholic Aristocracy for the Protestant Aristocracy	297	(4)
Chap. IV: How the Irish Aristocracy Should Be Abolished	301	(34)
Necessity of Centralisation	302	(3)
Necessity of Rendering the People Landed Proprietors	305	(7)
State of Landed Property in England	312	(1)
State of Landed Property in Ireland	313	(3)
Entails in England and Ireland	316	(1)
Primogeniture in England	317	(3)
Means of Abolishing the Religious Privileges of the Aristocracy	320	(1)
Supremacy of the Anglican Church	320	(7)
Payment of the Catholic Clergy	327	(2)
Equality of All Creeds	329	(6)
Part IV
Chap. I: What Will England Do?	335	(6)
Chap. II: Relations of English Parties to Ireland	341	(20)
The Tory Party	341	(2)
The Radical Party	343	(1)
The Whig Party	344	(2)
Whig Reforms of Religious Privileges	346	(2)
Whig Reforms of Civil Privileges	348	(2)
Whig Reforms of Political Privileges	350	(11)
Chap. III: General Survey of the State of Ireland	361	(18)
Final Reflections	375	(4)
Preface, 1863: A Report on the Present State of Ireland (1862--1863)	379	(28)
Chronology	407	(4)
Index	411