Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:17:42.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE GALWAY PACKET-BOAT CONTRACT AND THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN MID-VICTORIAN IRELAND*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

DOUGLAS KANTER
DOUGLAS KANTER*
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
*
Florida Atlantic University, Department of History, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33431dkanter1@fau.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that political considerations, economic theory, attitudes toward public finance, and concerns about regional development all influenced contemporary responses to the Galway packet-boat contract of 1859–64. Though historians have conventionally depicted the dispute over the contract as an episode in Victorian high politics, it maintains that the controversy surrounding the agreement between the Galway Company and the state cannot be understood solely in terms of party manoeuvre at Westminster. In the context of the Union between Britain and Ireland, the Galway contract raised important questions about the role of the British government in fostering Irish economic development through public expenditure. Politicians and opinion-makers adopted a variety of ideologically informed positions when addressing this issue, resulting in diverse approaches to state intervention, often across party lines. While political calculation and pressure from interest groups certainly affected policy, the substantive debate on the contract helped to shape the late Victorian Irish policy of both British parties by clarifying contemporary ideas about the economic functions appropriate to the Union state.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 747 - 774
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank James H. Murphy, Alan O'Day, and Mark Rose, as well as the Historical Journal's anonymous referees, for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

1 Hansard (3rd ser., here and throughout), cliii, 1898–9 (19 Apr. 1859); House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP) 1860 (328), First report from the select committee on packet and telegraphic contracts: together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix, pp. 425–32.

2 Hoppen, K. Theodore, ‘Tories, Catholics, and the general election of 1859’, Historical Journal, 13 (1970), pp. 53, 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Warren, Allen, ‘Disraeli, the Conservatives, and the government of Ireland: part 1, 1837–1868’, Parliamentary History, 18 (1999), pp. 55–6Google Scholar; George L. Bernstein, ‘British Liberal politics and Irish liberalism after O'Connell’, in Stewart J. Brown and David W. Miller, eds., Piety and power in Ireland, 1760–1960: essays in honour of Emmet Larkin (Belfast, 2000), pp. 58–9; Angus Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby, ii: Achievement, 1851–1869 (Oxford, 2008), pp. 181–2, 218.

3 Alvin Jackson, The two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007 (Oxford, 2012), p. 341.

4 McCavery, Trevor, ‘Politics, public finance and the British–Irish Act of Union of 1801’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 10 (2000), pp. 354–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Douglas Kanter, The making of British Unionism, 1740–1848: politics, government and the Anglo-Irish constitutional relationship (Dublin, 2009), pp. 101–2.

6 Philip Ollerenshaw, ‘Business and industry’, in Alvin Jackson, ed., The Oxford handbook of modern Irish history (Oxford, 2014), pp. 148, 156–8.

7 David S. Johnson and Liam Kennedy, ‘Nationalist historiography and the decline of the Irish economy: George O'Brien revisited’, in Seán Hutton and Paul Stewart, eds., Ireland's histories: aspects of state, society and ideology (London, 1991), pp. 17–28; Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland: a new economic history, 1780–1939 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 44–6, 306–13; Geary, Frank, ‘The Act of Union, British–Irish trade, and pre-Famine deindustrialization’, Economic History Review, n.s., 48 (1995), pp. 86–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Liam Kennedy and David S. Johnson, ‘The Union of Ireland and Britain, 1801–1921’, in D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day, eds., The making of modern Irish history: revisionism and the revisionist controversy (London, 1996), pp. 62–3.

8 For two notable exceptions to this generalization, see R. D. Collison Black, Economic thought and the Irish question, 1817–1870 (Cambridge, 1960), chs. 5–6; Gambles, Anna, ‘Free trade and state formation: the political economy of fisheries policy in Britain and the United Kingdom, circa 1780–1850’, Journal of British Studies, 39 (2000), pp. 288–316 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Boyd Hilton, The age of atonement: the influence of evangelicalism on social and economic thought, 1785–1865 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 13–16, 218–36; Harling, Philip and Mandler, Peter, ‘From “fiscal-military” state to laissez-faire state, 1760–1850’, Journal of British Studies, 32 (1993), pp. 66–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin Daunton, Trusting leviathan: the politics of taxation in Britain, 1799–1914 (Oxford, 2001), pp. 47–57, 63–76.

10 K. Theodore Hoppen, The mid-Victorian generation, 1846–1886 (Oxford, 1998), pp. 91–100, 104–9; Paul Johnson, Making the market: Victorian origins of corporate capitalism (Cambridge, 2010), chs. 2–5.

11 Hoppen, Mid-Victorian generation, p. 118; Philip Harling, The modern British state: an historical introduction (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 84–5.

12 Peter Gray, Famine, land and politics: British government and Irish society, 1843–1850 (Dublin, 1999), pp. 331–8.

13 H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone, 1809–1898 (Oxford, 1997), p. 171.

14 HCPP 1852–3 (1660), Contract packets: report of the committee on contract packets: with appendices, pp. 49–51.

15 HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 467.

16 Harcourt, Freda, ‘British oceanic mail contracts in the age of steam, 1838–1914’, Journal of Transport History, 9 (1988), p. 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; B. R. Mitchell, British historical statistics (Cambridge, 1988), p. 822.

17 This estimate has been calculated with reference to HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 467; HCPP 1860 (347), The finance accounts i.–viii. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the financial year, 1859–1860, ended 31st March 1860, p. 15.

18 The state awarded £981,920 in education grants for primary schooling that year, consisting of £746,920 in Britain and £235,000 in Ireland; see HCPP 1860 (347), Finance accounts, p. 85.

19 Johnson, Making the market, pp. 25–7.

20 HCPP 1852–3 (1660), Contract packets, pp. 2, 38–9; see also Harcourt, ‘British oceanic mail contracts’, pp. 1–2.

21 Francis E. Hyde, Cunard and the North Atlantic, 1840–1973: a history of shipping and financial management (London, 1975), pp. 3–12, 55; Harcourt, Freda, ‘Charles Wye Williams and Irish steam shipping, 1820–1850’, Journal of Transport History, 13 (1992), pp. 155–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Freda Harcourt, Flagships of imperialism: the P&O Company and the politics of empire from its origins to 1867 (Manchester, 2006), pp. 46–7, 143–5, 192–3.

22 Harcourt, ‘British oceanic mail contracts’, pp. 4–5, 7.

23 HCPP 1852–3 (1660), Contract packets, pp. 2, 6–7.

24 HCPP 1859–2 (180), Report from the select committee on packet and telegraphic contracts: together with proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix, and index, p. 21.

25 HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 173, 179; Timothy Collins, Transatlantic triumph and heroic failure: the story of the Galway Line (Cork, 2002), pp. 28–30.

26 Collins, Transatlantic triumph and heroic failure, pp. 21–3; Geoffrey Elliott, The mystery of Overend and Gurney: a financial scandal in Victorian London (London, 2006), pp. 111–15.

27 Mitchell, James, ‘Father Peter Daly (c. 1788–1868)’, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 39 (1983–4), pp. 55–60 Google Scholar.

28 Sanderlin, Walter S., ‘Galway as a transatlantic port in the nineteenth century’, Éire-Ireland, 5 (1970), pp. 17, 19–25 Google Scholar.

29 HCPP 1859–1 (230), Postal communication with North America: mail service (Galway and America), p. 22; HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 447; HCPP 1860 (407), Second report from the select committee on packet and telegraphic contracts: together with the proceedings of the committee, and minutes of evidence, pp. iii–iv, 4–11, appendix 2, pp. 10–11, 13–14, 22–3.

30 Collins, Transatlantic triumph and heroic failure, p. 35.

31 HCPP 1859–1 (230), Postal communication with North America, pp. 22–3.

32 Ibid., pp. 3–19.

33 Ibid., pp. 20–1; HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 173; HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 40–1.

34 HCPP 1859–1 (230), Postal communication with North America, pp. 25–30.

35 Ibid., pp. 5, 30.

36 HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 29–30.

37 HCPP 1859–1 (230), Postal communication with North America, pp. 59–76.

38 HCPP 1859–1 (257), Galway and Shannon ports: copy of the instructions of the 11th June 1852, from the Admiralty to the committee appointed to inquire into the suitableness and capabilities of the ports of Galway and the Shannon for a transatlantic packet station, in connexion with a harbour of refuge: and of the report and minutes of evidence of the said committee: together with the sailing directions for the River Shannon, drawn up by Lieutenant Wolfe, R. N.: also, of memorials from public bodies at Galway and Limerick; &c., pp. 91–4.

39 HCPP 1859–2 (184), Conveyance of mails (North America): copies of all correspondence between Her Majesty's government and the provincial government of Canada, in reference to the conveyance of mails between this country and British North America: of an address to Her Majesty on the same subject: and, of all correspondence between Her Majesty's government and the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company on the subject of the prolongation or renewal of the contract made with that company for the conveyance of mails to and from North America, pp. 26–8; HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. x.

40 HCPP 1859–2 (184), Conveyance of mails (North America), pp. 30–1; HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 232–4.

41 Hoppen, ‘Tories, Catholics’, pp. 48–53; Warren, ‘Disraeli, the Conservatives, and the government of Ireland’, p. 55; Hawkins, Derby, ii, pp. 181–2.

42 Mary S. Millar, ‘Montgomerie, Archibald William, thirteenth earl of Eglinton and first earl of Winton (1812–1861)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography.

43 Macintyre, Angus, ‘Lord George Bentinck and the Protectionists: a lost cause?’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 39 (1989), p. 153 CrossRefGoogle Scholar n. 39.

44 Hilton, Boyd, ‘Peel: a reappraisal’, Historical Journal, 22 (1979), p. 607 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 David Eastwood, ‘Tories and markets: Britain, 1800–1850’, in Mark Bevir and Frank Trentmann, eds., Markets in historical contexts: ideas and politics in the modern world (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 79, 86.

46 Harold Perkin, The origins of modern English society (2nd edn, London, 2002), p. 250.

47 Macintyre, ‘Lord George Bentinck’, p. 154.

48 Dublin Evening Mail, 23 July 1858, Dublin, National Library of Ireland (NLI), Larcom papers, MS 7769.

49 The earl of Eglinton to Lord Naas, 5 Oct. 1858, 7 Oct. 1858, NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11031/14.

50 G. A. Hamilton to Naas, n.d. [23 Oct. 1858], 9 Nov. [1858], NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11039/1.

51 HCPP 1859–1 (107), Galway harbour: copy of the report lately made to the Admiralty by Captain Washington, R. N., Captain Vetch, R. E., and Mr. Barry Gibbons, C. E., on the capabilities and requirements of the port and harbour of Galway, pp. 2–4.

52 James Booth to the secretary to the port of Dublin corporation, 16 Oct. 1858, W. G. Romain to the Treasury secretary, 21 Oct. 1858, NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11039/2; Sir John Pakington to Naas, 7 Nov. 1858, NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11039/3.

53 Dublin Evening Post, 30 Dec. 1858, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769.

54 Eglinton to the earl of Derby, 30 Dec. 1858, University of Oxford, Bodleian Library (Bod.), Hughenden papers, B/XX/S/192.

55 Andrew Shields, The Irish Conservative party, 1852–1868: land, politics and religion (Dublin, 2007), p. 19.

56 N[aas], ‘Memm. on proposed Galway line of transatlantic steamers’, 9 Jan. 1859, NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11039/4. This memorandum was endorsed ‘Copy of statement for Disraeli’. For the disagreement over the naval estimates, see Robert Blake, Disraeli (London, 1967), pp. 394–5.

57 Ghosh, P. R., ‘Disraelian conservatism: a financial approach’, English Historical Review, 99 (1984), pp. 282–8Google Scholar.

58 Warren, ‘Disraeli, the Conservatives, and the government of Ireland’, pp. 55–6.

59 Hansard, clxiii, 1146–7 (14 June 1861).

60 T. A. Jenkins, ed., The parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858–1865 (London, 1990), p. 235 (20 Mar. 1863).

61 Hansard, clxiii, 1143–4 (14 June 1861).

62 Macintyre, ‘Lord George Bentinck’, p. 154 n. 43; Gray, Famine, land and politics, pp. 23, 86–7; Angus Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby, i: Ascent, 1799–1851 (Oxford, 2007), pp. 262–3, 284–5, 303–5.

63 Daily Express, 5 Aug. 1858, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769.

64 Derby to Disraeli, 2 Jan. 1859, Bod., Hughenden papers, B/XX/S/205.

65 Galway Express, 12 Feb. 1859.

66 Derby to Naas, 21 Feb. 1859, NLI, Mayo papers, MS 11025/31. In the letter to Naas, and in subsequent testimony to the select committee on packet and telegraphic contracts, Derby referred to this decision as a collective one, made in conjunction with Disraeli. While this was the case formally and officially, there is no evidence to indicate that Disraeli played more than a minor role in awarding the contract. As Allen Warren has observed, ‘real…authority’ for Irish policy in the Conservative ministries of 1852, 1858–9, and 1866–7 rested with Derby; see Warren, ‘Disraeli, the Conservatives, and the government of Ireland’, p. 52.

67 HCPP 1859–1 (230), Postal communication with North America, pp. 52–4, 56–7; HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 199, 210.

68 HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 206.

69 Hawkins, Derby, ii, p. 212.

70 Shields, Irish Conservative party, p. 15.

71 E. D. Steele, Palmerston and liberalism, 1855–1865 (Cambridge, 1991), p. 370.

72 Bernstein, ‘British Liberal politics and Irish liberalism’, p. 57; for the number of Irish Catholic MPs, see Hoppen, ‘Tories, Catholics’, p. 65.

73 Matthew, Gladstone, pp. 109–15; John Maloney, ‘Gladstone and sound Victorian finance’, in John Maloney, ed., Debts and deficits: an historical perspective (Cheltenham, 1998), pp. 31–6; Ghosh, ‘Disraelian conservatism’, pp. 284, 287.

74 Hansard, cliv, 802 (7 July 1859).

75 Ibid., cliii, 1570, 1586 (8 Apr. 1859).

76 Ibid., cliv, 801, 804, 838 (7 July 1859).

77 Ibid., 834, 836, 1091 (7 July 1859, 12 July 1859).

78 Dublin Evening Packet, 9 July 1859, Dublin Evening Mail, 11 July 1859, Freeman's Journal, 12 July 1859, Nation, 16 July 1859, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769.

79 Harcourt, ‘British oceanic mail contracts’, pp. 7–8.

80 Hansard, clix, 1222, 1229–31 (29 June 1860); HCPP 1861 (463), Report from the select committee on the Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company: together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index, p. 147.

81 HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. iv–v; Hansard, clx, 996–1006 (9 Aug. 1860); HCPP 1861 (463), Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, p. 34.

82 HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 172–99, 249–52, 332–8; HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. iv, 1–20.

83 HCPP 1861 (463), Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, pp. 30, 34, 36, 146–7, 149–51.

84 HCPP 1860 (328), Packet and telegraphic contracts, pp. 339–40, 367–8, 479; M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew, eds., The Gladstone diaries (14 vols., Oxford, 1968–94), v, pp. 424–5 (13 Sept. 1859, 19 Sept. 1859).

85 The duke of Argyll to William Gladstone, 11 July 1860, London, British Library (BL), Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44098, fos. 293–4.

86 HCPP 1861 (61), Atlantic Steam Navigation Company: copy of a memorial to the lords commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury from merchants, bankers, traders and others interested in the trade with Canada, praying that the contract between Her Majesty's government and the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company may be declared at an end, pp. 1–2.

87 HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 54; Irish Committee of Management, [Circular letter to prospective shareholders,] 15 Sept. 1859, Dublin, National Archives of Ireland (NAI), M5383/4; Freeman's Journal, 3 Oct. 1859, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769.

88 For the early composition of the board of directors, see ‘The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company Limited: articles of association’, n.d., NAI, M5383/1; and ‘Report and balance sheet of the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, Limited’, 21 Mar. 1860, NAI, M5383/5. The original board, constituted in 1858, consisted of seven English members; by March 1860 one Canadian, five Irish, and eight English directors comprised the board.

89 HCPP 1860 (407), Packet and telegraphic contracts, p. 54; HCPP 1861 (463), Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, p. 300.

90 Freeman's Journal, 23 July 1860; Dublin Evening Post, 30 Aug. 1860, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769; ‘Report of the directors to the second ordinary general meeting of the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, Limited’, Mar. 1861, NAI, M5383/8.

91 HCPP 1861 (216), Conveyance of mails (Galway and America): copies of all correspondence between the Treasury, the Post Office, and the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Ship Company since 1 September 1860, with reference to the conveyance of the mails between Galway and America, pp. 27–30; HCPP 1861 (276), Atlantic Royal Mail Company: copy of a letter from the postmaster general to the lords commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, dated 11 May 1861, proposing to terminate the contract with the Atlantic Royal Steam Navigation Company, together with a copy of the Treasury minute thereon, pp. 1–3; Hansard, clxii, 2094–5 (16 May 1861).

92 Dublin Evening Packet, 12 Apr. 1860, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7769; HCPP 1861 (216), Conveyance of mails (Galway and America), pp. 3–7, 19–21, 24–5, 30, 32–4, 37–8; HCPP 1861 (463), Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, pp. 95–8, 101, 115, 125–6, 129, 142. The fourth vessel built by the company never sailed under the contract, as the builder retained it owing to non-payment.

93 Freeman's Journal, 17 May 1861, Dublin Evening Mail, 17 May 1861, Dublin Evening Packet, 17 May 1861, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

94 Freeman's Journal, 27 May 1861, 30 May 1861, 5 June 1861, Dublin Evening Post, 23 May 1861, 28 May 1861, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

95 Hansard, clxii, 2193–4, clxiii, 188, 244–5, 630, 1071–90 (17 May 1861, 28 May 1861, 30 May 1861, 6 June 1861, 14 June 1861).

96 Walker, Brian M., ‘Villain, victim or prophet?: William Gregory and the Great Famine’, Irish Historical Studies, 38 (2013), pp. 581–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 Donnelly, James S. Jr, ‘The Irish agricultural depression of 1859–1864’, Irish Economic and Social History, 3 (1978), pp. 34–6Google Scholar, 47–8, 52–3.

98 Peter Gray, ‘The making of mid-Victorian Ireland? Political economy and the memory of the Great Famine’, in Peter Gray, ed., Victoria's Ireland? Irishness and Britishness, 1837–1901 (Dublin, 2004), pp. 152–60; Terrence McDonough, Eamonn Slater, and Thomas Boylan, ‘Irish political economy before and after the Famine’, in Terrence McDonough, ed., Was Ireland a colony? Economics, politics and culture in nineteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2005), pp. 212–17.

99 Alan O'Day, ‘Nationalism and political economy in Ireland: Isaac Butt's analysis’, in Roger Swift and Christine Kinealy, eds., Politics and power in Victorian Ireland (Dublin, 2006), pp. 122–7; idem, ‘Isaac Butt and neglected political economists’, in Nigel F. B. Allington and Noel W. Thompson, English, Irish and subversives among the dismal scientists (Bingley, 2010), pp. 389–92.

100 Gray, ‘The making of mid-Victorian Ireland’, pp. 160–6; McDonough, Slater, and Boylan, ‘Irish political economy’, pp. 218–31.

101 Hansard, cxliii, 452, 1142 (3 June 1861, 14 June 1861).

102 Ibid., 1073–5, 1121, 1137, 1158 (14 June 1861).

103 Ibid., 1088 (14 June 1861).

104 Ibid., 1165 (17 June 1861).

105 Ibid., 612 (5 June 1861).

106 Ibid., 1085–7 (14 June 1861).

107 Ibid., 1113–14 (14 June 1861).

108 Ibid., 1137 (14 June 1861).

109 Ibid., 1087–8, 1103, 1112 (14 June 1861).

110 Ibid., 615–16, 1117 (5 June 1861, 14 June 1861).

111 Ibid., 1089 (14 June 1861).

112 For the budgets, see Matthew, Gladstone, pp. 113–14; David Brown, Palmerston: a biography (New Haven, CT, 2010), pp. 460–2.

113 John Vincent, ed., Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative party: journals and memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1849–1869 (Hassocks, 1978), p. 171 (23 May 1861); Jenkins, ed., Parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, pp. 172–3 (26 May 1861, 27 May 1861).

114 Lord Palmerston to Lord John Russell, 25 May 1861, London, The National Archives, Russell papers, 30/22/21, fo. 482.

115 Hansard, clxiii, 244–5 (30 May 1861).

116 Russell to Palmerston, 25 May 1861, University of Southampton, Hartley Library (HL), Palmerston papers, PP/GC/RU/659; Hansard, clxiii, 267–8 (30 May 1861).

117 Dublin Evening Post, 1 June 1861, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

118 Vincent, ed., Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative party, p. 171 (30 May 1860).

119 Hansard, clxiii, 446, 455 (3 June 1861).

120 Ibid., 1150 (14 June 1861).

121 HCPP 1861 (463), Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, p. xiii.

122 The earl of Carlisle to Palmerston, 30 July 1861, HL, Palmerston papers, PP/GC/CA/510; Hansard, clxiv, 1892 (6 Aug. 1861).

123 Argyll to Gladstone, 8 Aug. 1861, BL, Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44099, fo. 59.

124 Hansard, clxiv, 1891 (6 Aug. 1861); for the earlier loans, see Brown, Palmerston, pp. 92–5.

125 Peter Mandler, Aristocratic government in the age of reform: whigs and Liberals, 1830–1852 (Oxford, 1990), pp. 80–2, 100–1.

126 Hansard, clxiii, 1107 (14 June 1861).

127 Argyll to Gladstone, 19 Aug. 1861, BL, Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44099, fo. 63.

128 For the (predominately English) composition of the board after its second reorganization, and the dire implications of this restructuring for the original shareholders, who effectively lost their investment, see HCPP 1862 (107), Royal Atlantic Company: copy of letter addressed by the directors of the Royal Atlantic Company to the first lord of the Treasury, dated February 1862, p. 3; Hansard, clxix, 1668–9 (20 Mar. 1863).

129 [Gladstone], ‘Draft minute, read to cabinet & approved’, 17 Nov. 1862, BL, Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44752, fos. 89–92.

130 Hansard, clxix, 187–8 (9 Feb. 1863).

131 HCPP 1863 (433), Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company: further papers and correspondence in regard to the application of the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, for the conveyance of mails between this country and North America, pp. 8, 23–4.

132 Daily Express, 18 July 1863, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

133 For Baxter, see Henry Miller, ‘Baxter, William Edward (1825–1890), of Ashcliff, nr. Dundee, Forfarshire’, History of parliament: the House of Commons, 1832–1868: online preview, www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1832-1868/member/baxter-william-edward-1825-1890.

134 Hansard, clxix, 1664, 1667 (20 Mar. 1863).

135 Philip Harling, ‘Rethinking “Old Corruption”’, Past and Present, 147 (1995), pp. 127–44.

136 Hansard, clxix, 1664, 1672 (20 Mar. 1863).

137 Jenkins, ed., Parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, p. 235 (20 Mar. 1863).

138 Hansard, clxix, 1680 (20 Mar. 1863).

139 Ibid., 1691 (20 Mar. 1863).

140 Dublin Evening Mail, 3 May 1864, Irish Times, n.d. [19 July 1864], NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

141 Dublin Evening Mail, 3 May 1864, 31 May 1864, NLI, Larcom papers, MS 7770.

142 Bernstein, ‘British Liberal politics and Irish liberalism’, pp. 58–9; Hawkins, Derby, ii, pp. 181–2.

143 Hilton, ‘Peel: a reappraisal’, pp. 589, 596–7; Kanter, Douglas, ‘Robert Peel and the waning of the “influence of the crown” in Ireland, 1812–1818’, New Hibernia Review, 5 (2001), pp. 61, 69–70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sir Robert Peel to Henry Goulburn, 3 Dec. [1841], Peel to Sir Thomas Fremantle, 13 Mar. [1845], 12 June [1845], BL, Peel papers, Add. MSS 40443, fos. 66–7, 40476, fos. 416, 426–7.

144 Macintyre, ‘Lord George Bentinck’, p. 151.

145 Hansard, clxiii, 1116 (14 June 1861).

146 Warren, Allen, ‘Lord Salisbury and Ireland, 1859–1887: principles, ambitions and strategies’, Parliamentary History, 26 (2007), pp. 204–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

147 O'Day, ‘Isaac Butt and neglected political economists’, pp. 381, 398.

148 Liam Kennedy, ‘The economic thought of the nation's lost leader: Charles Stewart Parnell’, in D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day, eds., Parnell in perspective (London, 1991), pp. 179–80, 185–6, 190–1.

149 Pauric Travers, ‘The financial relations question, 1800–1914’, in F. B. Smith, ed., Ireland, England and Australia: essays in honour of Oliver MacDonagh (Canberra, 1990), pp. 53–4, 58, 67.

150 Black, Economic thought, p. 173.

151 See, e.g., James S. Donnelly, Jr, The Great Irish Potato Famine (Stroud, 2001), pp. 11–32, 209–45.

152 Gladstone to Lord Wodehouse, 17 Dec. 1864, Bod., Kimberley papers, MS Eng. c. 4016, fo. 143.

153 John Bright to Gladstone, 9 Dec. 1867, BL, Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44112, fo. 63.

154 Gladstone to Sir George Grey, 13 Dec. 1864, Gladstone to Wodehouse, 17 Dec. 1864, Bod., Kimberley papers, MS Eng. c. 4016, fos. 114, 142–3; Matthew, Gladstone, pp. 196–9, 444–8, 496–500.

155 Gladstone to Chichester Fortescue, 17 Sept. 1869, Taunton, Somerset Record Office, Fortescue papers, DD/SH/61/324/1/61; BL, Carlingford diaries, Add. MSS 63681, fos. 64, 104, 63682, fo. 15 (24 July 1872, 10 Dec. 1872, 8 Feb. 1873); Earl Spencer to Gladstone, 13 Feb. 1873, Spencer to the marquess of Hartington, 27 Apr. 1871, 12 Dec. 1871, BL, Althorp papers, Add. MSS 76852, 76888, 76890.

156 Martin Maguire, ‘Gladstone and the Irish civil service’, in D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day, eds., Gladstone and Ireland: politics, religion and nationality in the Victorian age (Basingstoke, 2010), pp. 212–15; Gladstone to Spencer, 5 Jan. 1874, BL, Althorp papers, Add. MS 76852; James H. Murphy, Ireland's czar: Gladstonian government and the lord lieutenancies of the red Earl Spencer, 1868–1886 (Dublin 2014), p. 214.

157 Gladstone to Spencer, 3 Feb. 1883, BL, Althorp papers, Add. MS 76857. See also Maguire, ‘Gladstone and the Irish civil service’, pp. 209–12; K. Theodore Hoppen, ‘Gladstone, Salisbury and the end of Irish assimilation’, in Mary E. Daly and K. Theodore Hoppen, eds., Gladstone: Ireland and beyond (Dublin, 2011), p. 56.