Trevelyan’s Song

To Charles Trevelyan (1st Baronet) Colonial Administrator of Ireland during the Great Famines of 1845-1849 

Sarah Benjamin

I administered Empire 

By flickering light  

My papers piled high 

I worked late into the night 

My corn stored safe  

For Queen and country 

My tutors taught me well 

Work will set us free 

I thrashed the wheat from the chaff 

Served Empire’s hungry grasp 

I balanced the books 

Maintained the natural order 

I was the silent hand,  

Freeing commerce and industry 

So, do not sing to me 

Of hunger 

Of exile 

Of hollowed out bellies  

And silent cries 

I administered. 

Sir Charles Trevelyan wrote: “(The Famine) is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful, and rebellious country; an indolent and un self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God’s providence.” Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to Her Majesty’s Treasury, 1847.  [1]

1.“(The Famine) is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful, and rebellious country; an indolent and un self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God’s providence.” Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to Her Majesty’s Treasury, 1847.  

Source: O’Connor, J. (2002) Star of the Sea Orlando, Harcourt Available at: Scalar.usu.edu 

2.Trevelyan studied under economist Thomas Malthus at Cambridge and brutally applied his tutor’s principle of famine as population control to his handling of the Irish Famine (Great Hunger, An Gorta Mór) of 1845-1852. His world view would also have been formed by Victorian scientific racism, which saw the Irish (and working class) as racially inferior to the English ruling class, social Darwinism (‘survival of the fitness’) and laissez faire economics which emphasised free markets, individual self-reliance and ‘self-help’. He was knighted in 1848 for his role overseeing famine ‘relief’.  

Another inspiration for this poem, is the folk song (and alternative Irish national Anthem) ‘The Fields of Athenry’ (1979) by the Dubliners which tells the tale of Michael who ‘stole Trevelyan’s corn’ to feed his family and is transported to Australia. (Lyrics available at musixmathc.com).