Every Clime, Class and Colour

Introduction

Two centuries after The Irish Potato Famine Charles Trevelyan name still conjures much distaste in Ireland. Whether in Eavans Bolands poem The Famine Road or Pete St Johns the Fields of Athenry he is not immortalised kindly. Usually, his name is used as a target for Irish hostility towards British rule and mismanagement. This is quite understandable given he was the head of the British funding for aid relief in Ireland from 1845 until the end of the Famine.

However, as if often the case the truth is more complicated. This video will focus on Trevelyan’s own history of the Famine, written in 1850. Like all histories it is biased in that his environment shaped his view and attitude towards the famine and with it the narrative of the text.  But the text does reflect both his political and social views, which is the focus for today’s video. His motivation for the writing will also be laid out. But first we must discuss his life before he became Assistant Treasurer of the United Kingdom.

Life

Trevelyan’s background was one to be expected for a man of his status. Born into a family of nine in 1807 he was the fourth son of Ven. George Trevelyan. Trevelyan senior was a protestant Minister and the 4^th Baronet of Nettlecombe, with these lands being in the family since 1452.[1]  He had a successful career in the Anglican church becoming Archdeacon for his home in Tauton, England. His wife Harriet Neave was a daughter of a wealthy merchant Richard Neave who also had a successful career as a governor of the Bank of England. As such Trevelyan junior was born into a wealthy and well-connected family, being exposed to both religion and politics at a young age.

 He was well educated and soon began a career in the British Civil Service in India. He soon gained a reputation for being hard on corruption, bringing his superior officer to justice on such charges. This and his skill for languages caused him to quickly rise through the ranks of the East India Company. During his time in India, he successfully campaigning for greater educational rights for Native Indians. His account on the topic entitled On the Education of the People of India (1938) documents this period.

The Irish Crisis

Returning later to Britain he continued his civil service career and was the highest-ranking servant at the outbreak of the Famine in 1845 as Assistant Secretary to the Treasury.[2] This put him as the third most powerful government official at the time and he would hold this post until 1850. As such he was involved in Famine relief for Ireland throughout the period, serving under two Cabinets. During those years he also released his work The Irish Crisis which documents his work and opinions on the disaster. His work is of course quite valuable as a source for historians and has been much studied.

The work also serves as a good insight into how Trevelyan viewed the world. His goal when writing the novel (first published by chapter in the British newspapers) was multifaced. He claims he wrote it to document the Famine for future generations to understand what had occurred.[3] As we have seen he did this previously at other times in his career. But the reader cannot help but notice he also wrote it to defend himself and the government’s actions during the period. As such the work could also be seen as politically motivated. He gives a robust defence of the government policy and even claims the Famine relief was successful. But 1.1 million deaths speak of a different story.

 A colonial attitude

Regardless, it gives a unique insight into his social and political outlook when discussing religion, economics, and Ireland as a whole. While Ireland had been a part of the United Kingdom all his life Trevelyan inherited arguably a colonial mindset when it came to Ireland. Perhaps as a symptom of being from a well-established family or from his experience as a colonial official in India, he at times held a dismissive tone when discussing Ireland. On the mere second page of the Irish Crisis he writes, “what hope is there for a nation who lives on potatoes?”. [4]

This of course lays the blame on the Irish people for the severity of the Famine instead of poor British policy. His tendency to write in such a manner reflects that he was a product of his time. Many British politicians blamed Ireland for its troubles to absolve themselves of responsibility for its ills. Some even go so far as blaming the morality of the Irish people. For example, in 1846 The Economist blamed the Irish for the famine as it was “brought on by their own wickedness and folly”.[5] Trevelyan’s writings did not fully escape this trope.

Racism

However, Trevelyan did not write in a racial way about the Irish people unlike some of his peers. He never strays into making remarks on the failures of the Irish character but rather complains about how inefficient the agricultural industry was. Some historians such as Robert Haines have argued that Trevelyan’s focus of frustration was towards the land holding classes, not the predominantly Irish catholic tenants.[6] While praising some pro-active landlords in The Irish Crisis, he wrote that “others have been guilty of that entire abandonment of duty which has brought reproach upon their order. For the future this cannot be”.[7]Such landlords were usually from British ancestry themselves.

Perhaps his lack of racial prejudice is a result of his progressive political views for the time or his fondness for collecting Irish paraphernalia helped him avoid such a bias. Ironically for an English civil servant, he was an avid collector of Irish nationalist pamphlets. More likely his lack of an openly racist view was caused by his Whig tendencies. The Whigs were the precursor to the modern Labour party and took up progressive causes during Trevelyan life. His sincere progressive beliefs seem to have kept him from adopting a more racial tone that his Tory counterparts. But he certainly held a common (for his station) Britain- centric view when discussing Ireland.

Laisser-faire economics

A second continuing theme in Trevelyan writing is his staunch belief in laisser-faire economics. During his lifetime the world saw the birth of capitalism, especially in Britain during the early 19^th century. Government intervention in the markets was seen as a poor idea. Rather the view that the market is a force that would correct itself if left alone was mainstream amongst Trevelyan and his peers in government. This attitude impacted both his response to the Famine and how he wrote about the topic. For example, the victims of the Famine are not mentioned but rather the economic ramification of their deaths are. He never once gives a human face to the suffering that occurred.

He viewed the Famine as paving a new opportunity to improve the country economically by becoming closer to Britain. He viewed it as his job to shift Ireland from a subsistence economy to one of agricultural capitalism.[8] He even concludes The Irish Crisis with a hope that God may bless the generation “in which this great opportunity has been offered.”[9] Besides the severe lack of compassion shown this also tells us that he truly was sincere in his economic beliefs. He viewed the Famine largely as an economic and agricultural problem, not a human one.

Religious views

As stated previously Trevelyan had a religious upbringing through his father. This is also reflected in The Irish Crisis. He, and many of his contemporaries, viewed the Famine as an act of God. In the Irish Crisis he refers to it as a “Direct stroke of an all-wise and all-merciful Providence.”[10] This was a common way of viewing the Great Hunger especially from devout British Protestants in England but also a times from Irish Catholics too. Trevelyan did not go as far as some of his peers in this view, however. The more extreme end believed the Famine was a punishment for Irelands immorality. In other words, they brought a racial element into their view. Trevelyan, as a loather of sectarianism and with a genuine interest in Ireland, stopped short of this extreme narrative. Once again, his Whig tendencies maybe have helped him moderated his view although this has not stopped his vilification. Many of the supposed racist remarks made by Trevelyan has been misattributed to him which has been abused by some historians. In no part of his writings does he use religion as a vehicle for prejudice.

Conclusion

So, what exactly could a reader perceive Charles Trevelyan political and social out look to be based on these writings? Broadly speaking Trevelyan had a similar view to many of his peers in England. An almost spiritual belief in laisser-faire economics certainly. A veteran of the East India Company it is understandable that he approached the issue of the Famine with such a mindset. And the lack of compassion shown towards the lower classes can be traced to this adherence to free trade. Interlinked with this was his belief in God. A member of the Anglican Church, he like many of his colleagues viewed the world through a religious framework. He believed that God could directly cause such a catastrophise as the Famine for a higher purpose.

But he differed from some in that due to a lack of sectarianism he did not hold prejudice for other denominations. He did however view Ireland in a disconnected way like many of his countrymen in a manner that could be described as colonial. This is not surprising for a civil servant of the British Empire. This view also likely originates also from his time in India as part of the colonial administration. In his account of his struggle for educational rights for Indians, On the Education of the People of India, he compares Ireland (and Wales) to India when discussing the teaching of English to foreign speaking peoples.[11]

What he will always be immortalised for however is as the man in charge of the Civil Service of the United Kingdom while 1.1 million of its citizens died from starvation and disease.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Gutenberg. (ed.) The Irish Crisis, (Edinburgh, 1848).

The Economist, 10 October 1846.

Trevelyan, Charles. On The Education of The People Of India, (London, 1838).

Secondary sources

Boylan, Ciara. ‘Charles Trevelyan and the great Irish Famine.’ Book Reviews, XIII (2005) p1.

Gillissen, Christopher. “Charles Trevelyan, John Mitchel and the historiography of the Great Famine”, Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, XIX-2 (2014) pp. 195-21.

Haines, Robin. Dictionary of Irish Biography, ‘Trevelyan, Sir Charles Edward’ (https://www.dib.ie/biography/trevelyan-sir-charles-edward-a8647) (October 2009).

Leazer, J. ‘Politics as Usual: Charles Edward Trevelyan and the Irish and Scottish Fisheries before and during the Great Famine.’ Irish Economics and Social History XLIX (2022) pp 47-59.

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[1] Christopher Gillissen, “Charles Trevelyan, John Mitchel and the historiography of the Great Famine”, Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, XIX-2 (2014) p 195.

[2] Robin Haines. Dictionary of Irish Biography, ‘Trevelyan, Sir Charles Edward’ (https://www.dib.ie/biography/trevelyan-sir-charles-edward-a8647) (October 2009).

[3] Gutenberg (ed.). The Irish Crisis (Edinburgh,1848) p 1.

[4] Gutenberg (ed.). The Irish Crisis p 2.

[5] The Economist, 10 October 1846.

[6] Ciara Boylan. ‘Charles Trevelyan and the great Irish Famine.’ Book Reviews, XIII (2005) p 1.

[7] Gutenberg (ed.). The Irish Crisis p 159.

[8] J Leazer ‘Politics as Usual: Charles Edward Trevelyan and the Irish and Scottish Fisheries before and during the Great Famine.’ Irish Economics and Social History XLIX (2022) p 3.

[9] Gutenberg (ed.). The Irish Crisis p 201.

[10] Gutenberg (ed.). The Irish Crisis p 201.

[11] Charles Trevelyan. On The Education of The People Of India, (London, 1838) p 220.