GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES

CURSO 2017 – 2018

MUNDOS ANGLÓFONOS EN PERSPECTIVA HISTÓRICA Y CULTURAL

PRIMERA PRUEBA DE EVALUACIÓN CONTINUA

EVELYN RIVAS URBINA

‘A FAMOUS LETTER’ CORK J.P TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

 A Famous Letter
Cork J.P Writes to the
Duke of Wellington

One of the most often quoted documents of the Famine was published in "The London Times" on Christmas Eve,
1846. Just as people were about to embark on sumptuous turkey and lucious plum puddings, here was a letter
describing unbelievable hardship just a few hundred miles from their homes.
The write of the letter was Mr. Nicholas Cummins, a Justice of the Peace of Unionist persuasions who lived at Ann
Mount, Cork. He wrote to the Duke of Wellington "without apology or preface" describing conditions in Ireland and
imploring for help.
Here we publish the letter in full:

"To His Grace,

Field Marshall, The Duke of Wellington.
My Lord Duke,
"Without apology or preface, I presume so far to trespass on your Grace as to state to you, and, by the use of your
illustrious name, to present to the British public the following statement of what I have myself seen within the last
three days:-
"Having for many years been connected with the western portion of the County of Cork, and possessing some small
property there, I thought it right personally to investigate the truth of the several lamentable accounts which had
reached me of the appaling state of misery to which that part of the country was reduced. I accordingly went on the
15th. inst. to Skibbereen, and to give the instance of one townland which I visited, as an example of the state of the
entire coast district, I shall state simply what I there saw.
It is situated on the eastern side of Castlehaven Harbour and is named South Reen, in the parish of Myross. Being
aware that I should have to witness scenes of frightful hunger, I provided myself with as much bread as five men
could carry, and on reaching the spot I was surprised to find the wretched hamlet apparently deserted. I entered some
of the hovels to ascertain the cause, and the scenes that presented themselves were such no tongue or pen can convey
the slightest idea of. In the first six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearance dead, were huddled in a corner
on some filthy straw, their sole covering what seemed a ragged horse-cloth, naked above the knees. I approached in
horror, and found by a low moaning they were alive, they were in fever - four children, a woman, and at what had
once been a man. It is impossible to go through the details, suffice to say, that in a few minutes I was surrounded by
at least 200 of such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe. By far the greater number were
delirious, either from famine or fever. Their demonic yells are still yelling in my ears, and their horrible images and
fixed upon my brain.
My heart sickens at the recital, but I must go on. In another case - decency would forbid what follows, but it must be
told - my clothes were nearly torn off in my endeavours to escape from the throng of pestilence around, when my
neck cloth was seized from behind by a grip which compelled me to turn. I found myself grasped by a woman with an
infant, just born, in her arms, and the remains of a filthy sack across her loins - the sole covering of herself and babe.
The same morning the police opening a house on the adjoining lands, which was observed shut for many days, and
two frozen corpses were found lying upon the mud floor half devoured by the rats.
"A mother, herself in fever, was seen the same day to drag out the corpse of her child, a girl about twelve, perfectly
naked, and leave it half covered with stones. In another house, within 500 yards of the cavalry station at Skibbereen,
the dispensary doctor found seven wretches lying, unable to move under the same cloak, one had been dead for many
hours, but the others were unable to move themselves or the corpse.
"To what purpose should I multiply such cases? If these be not sufficient, neither would they hear who has the power
to send relief, and do not, even "though one came from the dead."
"Let them, however, believe and tremble that they shall one day hear the Judge of all the Earth pronounce their
tremendous doom, with the addition, "I was hungered and ye gave Me no meat; thirsty and ye gave Me no drink;
naked, and he clothed Me not." But I forget to whom this is addressed. My Lord, you are and old and justly honoured
man. It is yet in your power to add other honour to your age, to fix another star, and that the brightest in your galaxy
of glory. You have access to our young and gracious Queen, - lay these things before her. She is a woman, she will
not allow decency to be outraged. She has at he command the means of at least mitigating the suffering of the
wretched survivors in this tragedy. They will soon be few indeed in the district I speak of if help be longer withheld.
Once more, my Lord Duke, in the name of starving thousands, I implore you, break the frigid and flimsy chain of
official etiquette, and save the land of your birth - the kindred of the gallant Irish blood which you have so often seen
lavished to support the honour of the British name - and let there be inscribed upon your tomb, Servata Hibernia.
"I have the honour to be,
"My Lord Duke,
"Your Grace's obedient, humble servant,
"N.M. Cummins, J.P
"Ann Mount, Cork,
"December 17th, 1846."

This is an historical document that show us one of the most dramatic and awful chapter
of the Irish history.

The author of the letter is Nicholas Cummins, who was part of the Justice of the Peace.
He wrote a letter to the Duke of Wellington to ask for help for the Irish people that were
living in misery and were suffering famine. All these problems were generated for the
bad potato caused by blights.

Nicholas Cummins, the author, went to Skibberen to see by himself what was going in
with the people there. When he arrived, he realized that the situation was even worst
than what he had herd. He describes the scenes as terrifying situation, we saw dead
people, skeletons, and many families dying because they had nothing to eat.

Cummins wrote the letter on December 17th, 1846, and it was published by The London
Times on Christmas Eve. They may have decided to publish it on this date to show to
England society that Irish people were suffering while they were celebrating Christmas
and enjoying their family, and most important, eating while other people were dying of
famine.

During this period, the Liberals assume the Government with Lord Russell ahead, and
Charles Trevelyan took the control of famine policy. This last fact was horrible for Irish
citizens, Trevelyan decided to make Ireland more independent from Great Britain
closing the option of importing and exporting grain and other types of food. That
decision took Ireland to ruin, they couldn´t interchange their benefits with their
neighbors, so they couldn´t receive anything from other countries. Moreover, Charles
Trevelyan thought that all the situation that Ireland was living was generated by the
Providence to solve the problem of excess of population. Many historians consider that
Trevelyan did a ‘genocide’ because his way of thinking may have persuaded the British
Government to do nothing.

We can read in the letter that Cummins use the words ‘without apology or preface’, this
way of addressing to someone that was more important that him may be a bit strong, but
with this phrase we realize that Cummins wanted to show his desperation and be
focused in the problem.

We also see that the author reminds to the Duke of Wellington that ‘his land of birth’
was being killed. Telling him this, he wanted him to be persuaded and influent on him
to look for a possible solution.

Although the Duke of Wellington wasn´t in political live, Cummins decided to ask him
for help, with this desperate letter, because he still had many influence in political
environment. This could be the reason why he named the Queen in the document, and to
ensure that something could be done.

After the letter was published, the Government improved the laws and tried to help the
Irish population. But its help arrived too late and didn´t solve the situation. Many people
died because of cholera and other illness that arrived to them because of blights. So, we
could say that Cummins intention arrived too late too.

In 1847 the Government, under Prime Minister Russell in charge changed some laws to
try to keep Irish people alive, above all to change the image that they were giving to
other countries because they weren´t doing anything. They changed they non-
interventionist program and let a budget to make some soup kitchens to feed people
who needed. Although they tried, they couldn´t solved that people continued dying,
almost 2000000 of Irish citizens died. Many other people decided to emigrate to USA
and Canada. All this situation brought a new revolutionary movement, the Feminism,
that led to Civil War, and later made Ireland an independent state.
I think that the decision of making Ireland more independent from Great Britain was
just an excuse to reduce the population. Furthermore, the liberalism and some specifics
economics policies can´t be applied to all the countries. We have to consider that
Ireland, although it cultivated food, exported all the benefits to other countries,
moreover it was dependent from Great Britain, that´s why these decisions took Ireland
to the ruin.

In addition to this, Ireland and its citizens weren´t treated like equals, that is, the other
states of Great Britain had the protection and many rights, while Ireland didn´t enjoyed
this, they had a big lack of this kinds of laws. This could explain why Irish people
continue thinking that England led them to their fate in this period of the history and
this could answer the no-good relationship that exits between them nowadays.
Bibliography and web sources
British Civilization An introduction by John Oakland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Charles_Trevelyan,_1st_Baronet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_Russell