See Sir W. Willcocks,Egyptian Irrigation(2nd ed., 1899); Sir C. C. Scott-Moncrieff,Lectures on Irrigation in Egypt. Professional Papers on the Corps of Royal Engineers, vol. xix. (London, 1893); Sir W. Garstin,Report upon the Basin of the Upper Nile. Egypt No. 2 (1904).
See Sir W. Willcocks,Egyptian Irrigation(2nd ed., 1899); Sir C. C. Scott-Moncrieff,Lectures on Irrigation in Egypt. Professional Papers on the Corps of Royal Engineers, vol. xix. (London, 1893); Sir W. Garstin,Report upon the Basin of the Upper Nile. Egypt No. 2 (1904).
V.India.—Allusion has already been made to the irrigation of India. The year 1878, which saw the end of a most disastrous famine, may be considered as the commencement of a new era as regards irrigation. It had at last been recognized that such famines must be expected to occur at no very long intervals of time, and that the cost of relief operations must not be met by increasing the permanent debt on the country, but by the creation of a famine relief and a famine insurance fund. For this purpose it was fixed that there should be an annual provision ofRx. 1,500,000, to be spent on: (1) relief, (2) protective works, (3) reduction of debt. Among protective works the first place was given to works of irrigation. These works were divided into three classes: (i.) productive works; (ii.) protective works; (iii.) minor works.
Productive works, as their name implies, are such as may reasonably be expected to be remunerative, and they include all the larger irrigation systems. Their capital cost is provided from loan funds, and not from the relief funds mentioned above. In the seventeen years ending 1896-1897 the capital expenditure on such works wasRx. 10,954,948, including a sum ofRx. 1,742,246 paid to the Madras Irrigation Company as the price of the Kurnool-Cuddapah canal, a work which can never be financially productive, but which nevertheless did good service in the famine of 1896-1897 by irrigating 87,226 acres. In the famine year 1877-1878 the area irrigated by productive canals was 5,171,497 acres. In the famine year 1896-1897 the area was 9,571,779 acres, including an area of 123,087 acres irrigated on the Swat river canal in the Punjab. The revenue of the year 1879-1880 was nearly 6% on the capital outlay. In 1897-1898 it was 7½%. In the same seventeen yearsRx. 2,099,253 were spent on the construction of protective irrigation works, not expected to be directly remunerative, but of great value during famine years. On four works of this class were spentRx. 1,649,823, which in 1896-1897 irrigated 200,733 acres, a valuable return then, although in an ordinary year their gross revenue does not cover their working expenses. Minor works may be divided into those for which capital accounts have been kept and those where they have not. In the seventeen years ending 1896-1897,Rx. 827,214 were spent on the former, and during that year they yielded a return of 9.13%. In the same year the irrigation effected by minor works of all sorts showed the large area of 7,442,990 acres. Such are the general statistics of outlay, revenue and irrigated area up to the end of 1896-1897. The government might well be congratulated on having through artificial means ensured in that year of widespread drought and famine the cultivation of 27,326 sq. m., a large tract even in so large a country as India. And progress has been steadily made in subsequent years.
Some description will now be given of the chief of these irrigation works. Beginning with the Punjab, the province in which most progress has been made, the great Sutlej canal, which irrigates the country to the left of that river, was opened in 1882, and the Western Jumna canal (perhaps the oldest in India) was extended into the dry Hissar and Sirsa districts, and generally improved so as to increase by nearly 50% its area of irrigation between 1878 and 1897. Perhaps this is as much as can well be done with the water at command for the country between the Sutlej and the Jumna, and it is enough to secure it for ever from famine. The Bari Doab canal, which irrigates the Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Lahore districts, has been enlarged and extended so as to double its irrigation since it was projected in 1877-1878. The Chenab canal, the largest in India and the most profitable, was only begun in 1889. It was designed to command an area of about 2½ million acres, and to irrigate annually rather less than half that area. This canal flows through land that in 1889 was practically desert. From the first arrangements were made for bringing colonists in from the more congested parts of India. The colonization began in 1892. Nine years later this canal watered 1,830,525 acres. The population of the immigrant colony was 792,666, consisting mainly of thriving and prosperous peasants with occupancy rights in holdings of about 28 acres each. The direct revenue of this canal in 1906 was 26% on the capital outlay. The Jhelum canal was opened on the 30th of October, 1901. It is a smaller work than the Chenab, but it is calculated to command 1,130,000 acres, of which at least half will be watered annually. A much smaller work, but one of great interest, is the Swat river canal in the Peshawar valley. It was never expected that this would be a remunerative work, but it was thought for political reasons expedient to construct it in order to induce turbulent frontier tribes to settle down into peaceful agriculture. This has had a great measure of success, and the canal itself has proved remunerative, irrigating 123,000 acres in 1896-1897. A much greater scheme than any of the above is that of the Sind Sagar canal, projected from the left bank of the Indus opposite Kalabagh, to irrigate 1,750,000 acres at a cost ofRx. 6,000,000. Another great canal scheme for the Punjabproposed to take off from the right bank of the Sutlej, and to irrigate about 600,000 acres in the Montgomery and Multan districts, at a cost ofRx. 2,500,000. These three last projects would add 2,774,000 acres to the irrigated area of the province, and as they would flow through tracts almost unpeopled, they would afford a most valuable outlet for the congested districts of northern India. In addition to these great perennial canals, much has been done since 1878 in enlarging and extending what are known as the “inundation canals” of the Punjab, which utilize the flood waters in the rivers during the monsoon season and are dry at other times. By these canals large portions of country throughout most of the Punjab are brought under cultivation, and the area thus watered has increased from about 180,000 to 500,000 acres since 1878.
It is on inundation canals such as these that the whole cultivation of Sind depends. In 1878 the area was about 1,500,000 acres; in 1896-1897 it had increased to 2,484,000 acres. This increase was not due to famine in Sind, for that rainless province depends always on the Indus, as Egypt does on the Nile, and where there is no rainfall there can be no drought. But the famine prices obtained for agricultural produce doubtless gave an impetus to cultivation. In Sind, too, there is room for much increase of irrigation. It has been proposed to construct two new canals, the Jamrao and the Shikárpur, and to improve and extend three existing canals—Nasrat, Naulakhi and Dad. The total cost of these five projects, some of which are now in progress, was estimated atRx. 1,596,682, and the extension of irrigation at 660,563 acres.
Turning from the basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges, the commissioners appointed to report on the famine of 1896-1897 found that in the country between the Ganges and the Jumna little was left to be done beyond the completion of some distributary channels. The East India Company’s great work, the Ganges canal, constructed between 1840 and 1854 before there was a mile of railway open in India, still holds its place unsurpassed among later irrigation work for boldness of design and completeness of execution, a lasting monument to the genius of Sir Proby Cautley, an officer of the Bengal Artillery, but a born engineer. Ever since 1870 consideration has been given to projects for irrigating the fertile province of Oudh by means of a great canal to be drawn from the river Sarda. The water is there in abundance, the land is well adapted for irrigation, but as there is a considerable rainfall, it is doubtful whether the scheme would prove remunerative, and a large section of the landowners have hitherto opposed it, as likely to waterlog the country. Among the four protective works of irrigation which were said above to have irrigated 200,733 acres in 1896-1897, one of the most important is the Betwa canal, in the parched district of Bundelkhand. This canal has costRx. 428,086, and causes an annual loss to the state in interest and working expenses of aboutRx. 20,000. It irrigated, however, in 1896-1897 an area of 87,306 acres, raising crops valued atRx. 231,081, or half the cost of the canal, so it may be said to have justified its construction. A similar canal from the river Ken in the same district has been constructed. Proceeding farther east, we find very satisfactory progress in the irrigation of southern Behar, effected by the costly system of canals drawn from the river Sone. In 1877-1878 these canals irrigated 241,790 acres. Rapid progress was not expected here, and 792,000 acres was calculated as being the maximum area that could be covered with the water supply available. In the five years preceding 1901-1902 the average irrigated area was 463,181 acres, and during that year the area was 555,156 acres, the maximum ever attained.
The canal system of Orissa was never expected to be remunerative, since in five years out of six the local rainfall is sufficient for the rice crop. In 1878-1879 the area irrigated was 111,250 acres, and the outlay up to date wasRx. 1,750,000. In 1900-1901 the area was 203,540 acres, the highest ever attained, and the capital outlay amounted toRx. 2,623,703. It should be mentioned in favour of these canals that although the irrigation is not of yearly value, they supply very important water communication through a province which, from its natural configuration, is not likely to be soon intersected by railways. If, moreover, such a famine were again to occur in Orissa as that of 1866-1867, there would be no doubt of the value of these fine canals.
In the Madras presidency and in Mysore irrigation has long assumed a great importance, and the engineering works of the three great deltas of the Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery, the outcome of the genius and indefatigable enthusiasm of Sir Arthur Cotton, have always been quoted as showing what a boon irrigation is to a country. In 1878 the total area of irrigation in the Madras presidency amounted to about 5,000,000 acres. The irrigation of the eight productive systems was 1,680,178 acres, and the revenueRx. 739,778. In 1898 there were ten of these systems, with an irrigation area, as shown by the accompanying table, of 2,685,915 acres, and a revenue ofRx. 1,163,268:
In the three great deltas, and the small southern one that depends on the Srivaikuntam weir over the river Tumbraparni, extension and improvement works have been carried on. The Sangam and Pennar systems depend on two weirs on the river Pennar in the Nellore district, the former about 18 m. above and the latter just below the town of Nellore. The former irrigates on the left, the latter on the right bank of the river. This district suffered severely in the famine of 1877-1878, and the irrigation works were started in consequence. The Barur tank system in the Salem district was also constructed after the famine of 1877-1878. As yet it has not fulfilled expectations. The Periyar scheme has for its object both the addition of new irrigation and the safeguarding of that which exists in the district of Madura, a plain watered by means of a great number of shallow tanks drawing their supply from a very uncertain river, the Vaigai. This river takes its rise on the eastern slopes of the Ghat range of mountains, and just opposite to it, on the western face of the range, is the source of the river Periyar. The rainfall on the west very much exceeds that on the east, and the Periyar used to find its way by a short torrentcourse to the sea, rendering no service to mankind. Its upper waters are now stemmed by a masonry dam 178 ft. high, forming a large lake, at the eastern end of which is a tunnel 5700 ft. long, piercing the watershed and discharging 1600 cub. ft. per second down the eastern side of the mountains into the river Vaigai. No bolder or more original work of irrigation has been carried out in India, and the credit of it is due to Colonel J. Pennycuick, C.S.I. The dam and tunnel were works of unusual difficulty. The country was roadless and uninhabited save by wild beasts, and fever and cholera made sad havoc of the working parties; but it was successfully accomplished. The last of those given in the table above was not expected to be remunerative, but it should prove a valuable protective against famine. The system consists of weirs over the rivers Gulleri, Mahanadi and Rushikulya in the backward province of Ganjam, south of Orissa. From these weirs flow canals altogether about 127 m. long, which, in connexion with two large reservoirs, are capable of irrigating 120,000 acres. In 1901 the works, though incomplete, already irrigated 67,318 acres.
In addition to all these great engineering systems, southern India is covered with minor works of irrigation, some drawn from springs in the sandy beds of rivers, some from the rainfall of ½ sq. m. ponded up in a valley. In other cases tanks are fed from neighbouring streams, and the greatest ingenuity is displayed in preventing the precious water from going to waste.
Allusion has been already made to the canals of Sind. Elsewhere in the Bombay presidency, in the Deccan and Gujarat, there are fewer facilities for irrigation than in other parts of India. The rivers are generally of uncertain volume. The cost of storage works is very great. The population is backward, and the black soil is of a nature that in ordinary years can raise fair crops of cotton, millet and maize without artificial watering. Up to the end of 1896-1897 the capital spent on the irrigation works of the Deccan and Gujarat wasRx. 2,616,959. The area irrigated that year was 262,830 acres. The most important works are the Mutha and Nira canals in the Poona district.
In Upper Burma three productive irrigation works were planned at the opening of the century—the Mandalay, the Shwebo, and the Mon canals, of which the first was estimated to costRx. 323,280, and to irrigate 72,000 acres. The area estimated from the whole three projects is 262,000 acres, situated in the only part of Burma that is considered liable to famine.
In 1901, after years of disastrous drought and famine, the government of India appointed a commission to examine throughout all India what could be done by irrigation to alleviate the horrors of famine. Up to that time it had been the principle of the government not to borrow money for the execution of irrigation works unless there was a reasonable expectation that within a few years they would give a return of 4 or 5% on the capital outlay. In 1901 the government took larger views. It was found that although some irrigation works (especially in the Bombay Deccan) would never yield a direct return of 4 or 5%, still in a famine year they might be the means of producing a crop which would go far to do away with the necessity for spending enormous sums on famine relief. In the Sholapur district of Bombay, for instance, about three years’ revenue was spent on relief during the famine of 1901. An expenditure of ten years’ revenue on irrigation works might have done away for all future time with the necessity for the greater part of this outlay. The Irrigation Commission of 1901-1903 published a very exhaustive report after a careful study of every part of India. While emphatically asserting that irrigation alone could never prevent famine, they recommended an outlay of £45,000,000 spread over a period of 25 years.
See alsoAnnual Reports Irrigation Department Local Governments of India;Reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1878, 1898 and 1901; Sir Hanbury Brown,Irrigation, its Principles and Practice(London, 1907).
See alsoAnnual Reports Irrigation Department Local Governments of India;Reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1878, 1898 and 1901; Sir Hanbury Brown,Irrigation, its Principles and Practice(London, 1907).
VI.United States.—At the opening of the 20th century, during Mr Roosevelt’s presidency, the new “Conservation” policy (i.e.conservation of natural resources by federal initiative and control), to which he gave so much impetus and encouragement, brought the extension of irrigation works in the United States to the front in American statecraft (see Vrooman,Mr Roosevelt, Dynamic Geographer, 1909). Though the carrying out of this policy on a large scale was hampered by many difficulties, the subject was made definitely one of national importance.
On account of the aridity of the climate throughout the greater part of the western third of the United States, the practice of agriculture is dependent upon an artificial supply of water. On most of the country west of the 97th meridian and extending to the Pacific Ocean less than 20 in. of rain falls each year. The most notable exceptions are in the case of a narrow strip west of the Cascade Range and of some of the higher mountain masses. In ordinary years the climate is too dry for successful cultivation of the field crops, although under favourable conditions of soil and cultivation there are certain areas where cereals are grown by what is known as “dry farming.” The progress in irrigation up to the end of the 19th century was spasmodic but on the whole steady. The eleventh census of the United States, 1890, showed that 3,564,416 acres were irrigated in 1889. This included only the lands from which crops were produced. Besides this, there were probably 10 million acres under irrigation systems constructed in whole or in part. In 1899 the irrigated area in the arid states and territories was more than twice as great as in 1889, the acreage being as follows:—
In addition to the area above given, in 1899, 273,117 acres were under irrigation in the semi-arid region, east of the states above mentioned and including portions of the states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The greater part of these lands was irrigated by canals or ditches built by individuals acting singly or in co-operation with their neighbours, or by corporations. The national and state governments had not built any works of reclamation excepting where the federal government, through the Indian department, had constructed irrigation ditches for Indian tribes, notably the Crow Indians of Montana. A few of the state governments, such, for example, as Colorado, had built small reservoirs or portions of canals from internal improvement funds.
The construction of irrigation canals and ditches was for the most part brought about by farmers joining to plough out or dig ditches from the rivers, descending on a gentle grade. Some of the corporations constructing works for the sale of water built structures of notable size, such, for example, as the Sweet-water and Hemet dams of southern California, the Bear river canal of Utah, and the Arizona canal, taking water from Salt river, Arizona. The cost of bringing water to the land averaged about $8 per acre where the ordinary ditches were built. The owners of extensive works were charged from $12 to $20 per acre and upwards for so-called “water rights,” or the privilege to take water from the canal, this covering cost of construction. Besides the first cost of construction, the irrigator was usually called upon to pay annually a certain amount for maintenance, which might often be worked out by labour on the canal. The cost ranged from 50 cents to $1 per acre; or, with incorporated companies, from $1.50 to $2.50 per acre and upwards. The largest expense for water rights and for annual maintenance was incurred in southern California, where the character of the crops, such as citrus fruits, and the scarcity of the water make possibleexpensive construction and heavy charges. The legal expense for the maintenance of water rights was often large because of the interminable suits brought during the times of water scarcity. The laws regarding water in most of the arid states were indefinite or contradictory, being based partly on the common law regarding riparian rights, and partly upon the Spanish law allowing diversion of water from natural streams. Few fundamental principles were established, except in the case of the state of Wyoming, where an official was charged with the duty of ascertaining the amount of water in the streams and apportioning this to the claimants in the order of their priority of appropriation for beneficial use.
It may be said that, up to the year 1900, irrigation progressed to such an extent that there remained few ordinary localities where water could not be easily or cheaply diverted from creeks and rivers for the cultivation of farms. The claims for the available supply from small streams, however, exceeded the water to be had in the latter part of the irrigating season. There remained large rivers and opportunities for water storage which could be brought under irrigation at considerable expense. The large canals and reservoirs built by corporations had rarely been successful from a financial standpoint, and irrigation construction during the latter part of the decade 1890-1899 was relatively small. Owing to the difficulty and expense of securing water from running streams by gravity systems, a great variety of methods were developed of pumping water by windmills, gasoline or hot-air engines, and steam. Ordinary reciprocating pumps were commonly employed, and also air lifts and similar devices for raising great quantities of water to a height of from 20 to 50 ft. For greater depths the cost was usually prohibitive. Throughout the Great Plains region, east of the Rocky Mountains, and in the broad valleys to the west, windmills were extensively used, each pumping water for from 1 to 5 acres of cultivated ground. In a few localities, notably in South Dakota, the Yakima valley of Washington, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino valleys of California, San Luis valley of Colorado, and Utah valley of Utah, water from artesian wells was also used for the irrigation of from 1 to 160 acres. The total acreage supplied by such means was probably less than 1% of that watered by gravity systems.
The development of irrigation was in part retarded by the improper or wasteful use of water. On permeable soils, especially those of the terrace lands along the valleys, the soluble salts commonly known as alkali were gradually leached out and carried by the percolating waters towards the lower lands, where, reaching the surface, the alkali was left as a glistening crust or as pools of inky blackness. Farms adjacent to the rivers were for a time increased in richness by the alkaline salts, which in diffuse form might be valuable plant foods, and then suddenly become valueless when the concentration of alkali had reached a degree beyond that which the ordinary plants would endure.
The situation as regards the further progress of irrigation on a large scale was however dominated in the early years of the 20th century by the new Conservation policy. Mr Roosevelt brought the whole subject before Congress in his message of the 3rd of December 1901, and thereby started what seemed likely to be a new sphere of Federal initiative and control. After referring to the effects of forests (seeForests and Forestry) on water-supply, he went on as follows:—
“The forests alone cannot fully regulate and conserve the waters of the arid regions. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of the streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual states acting alone.“Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the resources of single states would often be inadequate. It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid regions useful by engineering works for water storage, as to make useful the rivers and harbours of the humid regions by engineering works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headquarters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches of the same streams.“The government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry season, to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow.“The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish the object water must be brought within their reach.“The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the nation.”
“The forests alone cannot fully regulate and conserve the waters of the arid regions. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of the streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual states acting alone.
“Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the resources of single states would often be inadequate. It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid regions useful by engineering works for water storage, as to make useful the rivers and harbours of the humid regions by engineering works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headquarters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches of the same streams.
“The government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry season, to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow.
“The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish the object water must be brought within their reach.
“The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the nation.”
In 1902, by Act of Congress, a “reclamation fund” was created from moneys received from the sale of public lands; it was to be used under a “Reclamation Service” (part of the Department of the Interior) for the reclamation of arid lands. The “Truckee-Carson project” for irrigation in Nevada was immediately begun. About thirty other government projects were taken in hand under the new Reclamation Service, in some cases involving highly interesting engineering problems, as in the Uncompahgre Project in Colorado. Here the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers flowed parallel, about 10 m. apart, with a mountain range 2000 ft. high between them. The Uncompahgre, with only a small amount of water, flowed through a broad and fertile valley containing several hundred thousand acres of cultivable soil. The Gunnison, with far more water, flowed through a canyon with very little land. The problem was to get the water from the Gunnison over the mountain range into the Uncompahgre valley; and a tunnel, 6 m. long, was cut through, resulting in 1909 in 148,000 acres of land being irrigated and thrown open to settlers. Similarly, near Yuma in Arizona, a project was undertaken for carrying the waters of the main canal on the California side under the Colorado river by a siphon. In the report for 1907 of the Reclamation Service it was stated that it had dug 1881 m. of canals, some carrying whole rivers, like the Truckee river in Nevada and the North Platte in Wyoming, and had erected 281 large structures, including the great dams in Nevada and the Minidoka dam (80 ft. high and 650 ft. long) in Idaho. As the result of the operations eight new towns had been established, 100 m. of branch railroads constructed, and 14,000 people settled in what had been the desert.
A White House conference of governors of states was held at Washington in May 1909, which drew up a “declaration of principles” for the conservation of natural resources, recommending the appointment of a commission by each state to co-operate with one another and with the Federal government; and by the end of the year thirty-six states had appointed Conservation committees. Thus, in the first decade of the 20th century a great advance had been made in the way in which the whole problem was being viewed in America, though the very immensity of the problem of bringing the Federal power to bear on operations on so vast a scale, involving the limitation of private land speculation in important areas, still presented political difficulties of considerable magnitude.
A White House conference of governors of states was held at Washington in May 1909, which drew up a “declaration of principles” for the conservation of natural resources, recommending the appointment of a commission by each state to co-operate with one another and with the Federal government; and by the end of the year thirty-six states had appointed Conservation committees. Thus, in the first decade of the 20th century a great advance had been made in the way in which the whole problem was being viewed in America, though the very immensity of the problem of bringing the Federal power to bear on operations on so vast a scale, involving the limitation of private land speculation in important areas, still presented political difficulties of considerable magnitude.
IRULAS(“Benighted ones,” from Tamil,iral, “darkness”), a semi-Hinduized forest-tribe of southern India, who are found mainly in North Arcot, Chingleput, South Arcot, Trichinopoly, and the Malabar Wynaad. The typical Irulas of the Nilgiris live a wild life on the lower slopes of those hills. At the 1901 census this branch of the Irulas numbered 1915, while the total of so-called Irulas was returned at 86,087.
See J. W. Breeks,Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris(1873);Nilgiri Manual, i. 214-217;North Arcot Manual, i. 248-249.
See J. W. Breeks,Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris(1873);Nilgiri Manual, i. 214-217;North Arcot Manual, i. 248-249.
IRUN,a frontier town of northern Spain, in the province of Guipúzcoa, on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, opposite the French village of Hendaye. Pop. (1900) 9912. Irun is the northern terminus of the Spanish Northern railway, and athriving industrial town, with ironworks, tan-yards, potteries and paper mills. Its principal buildings are the fine Renaissance parish church and the fortress-like 17th-century town hall. It derives its prosperity from the fact that it is the most important custom-house in Spain for the overland trade with the rest of Europe. Irun is also on the chief highway for travellers and mails. It is the terminus of some important narrow-gauge mining railways and steam tramways, which place it in communication with the mining districts of Guipúzcoa and Navarre, and with the valuable oak, pine and beech forests of both provinces. There are hot mineral springs in the town.
IRVINE,a royal, municipal and police burgh, and seaport of Ayrshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 9607. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary of the Irvine, 29½ m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway, with a station also on the Glasgow & South Western railway. It is connected with the suburb of Fullarton on the south side of the river by a stone bridge, which was built in 1746 and widened in 1827. Alexander II. granted it a charter, which was confirmed by Robert Bruce. Towards the end of the 17th century it was reckoned the third shipping port in Scotland (Port Glasgow and Leith being the leaders), and though its importance in this respect declined owing to the partial silting-up of the harbour, its water-borne trade revived after 1875, the sandy bar having been removed and the wharfage extended and improved. The public buildings include the town hall, academy (1814) and fever hospital. The principal historical remains are the square tower of Stanecastle and the ancient Seagate Castle, which contains some good specimens of Norman architecture. The industries include engine-making, shipbuilding, iron- and brass-founding, the manufacture of chemicals, brewing and soap-making. Irvine unites with Ayr, Campbeltown, Inveraray and Oban in sending one member to parliament. The exports consist principally of coal, iron and chemical products, and the imports of grain, timber, limestone, ores and general produce. AtDreghorn, 2 m. to the S.E. (pop. 1155) coal and iron are worked.
IRVING, EDWARD(1792-1834), Scottish church divine, generally regarded as the founder of the “Catholic Apostolic Church” (q.v.), was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, on the 4th of August 1792. By his father’s side, who followed the occupation of a tanner, he was descended from a family long known in the district, and the purity of whose Scottish lineage had been tinged by alliance with French Protestant refugees; but it was from his mother’s race, the Lowthers, farmers or small proprietors in Annandale, that he seems to have derived the most distinctive features of his personality. The first stage of his education was passed at a school kept by “Peggy Paine,” a relation of the well-known author of theAge of Reason, after which he entered the Annan academy, taught by Mr Adam Hope, of whom there is a graphic sketch in theReminiscencesof Thomas Carlyle. At the age of thirteen he entered the university of Edinburgh. In 1809 he graduated M.A.; and in 1810, on the recommendation of Sir John Leslie, he was chosen master of an academy newly established at Haddington, where he became the tutor of Jane Welsh, afterwards famous as Mrs Carlyle. He became engaged in 1812 to Isabella Martin, whom in 1823 he married; but it may be at once stated here that meanwhile he gradually fell in love with Jane Welsh, and she with him. He tried to get out of his engagement with Miss Martin, but was prevented by her family. If he had married Miss Welsh, his life, as well as hers, would have been very different. It was Irving who in 1821 introduced Carlyle to her.
His appointment at Haddington he exchanged for a similar one at Kirkcaldy in 1812. Completing his divinity studies by a series of partial sessions, he was “licensed” to preach in June 1815, but continued to discharge his scholastic duties for three years. He devoted his leisure, not only to mathematical and physical science, but to a course of reading in English literature, his bias towards the antique in sentiment and style being strengthened by a perusal of the older classics, among whom Richard Hooker was his favourite author. At the same time his love of the marvellous found gratification in the wonders of theArabian Nights, and it is further characteristically related of him that he used to carry continually in his waistcoat pocket a miniature copy ofOssian, passages from which he frequently recited with “sonorous elocution and vehement gesticulation.”
In the summer of 1818 he resigned his mastership, and, in order to increase the probability of obtaining a permanent appointment in the church, took up his residence in Edinburgh. Although his exceptional method of address seems to have gained him the qualified approval of certain dignitaries of the church, the prospect of his obtaining a settled charge seemed as remote as ever, and he was meditating a missionary tour in Persia when his departure was arrested by steps taken by Dr Chalmers, which, after considerable delay, resulted, in October 1819, in Irving being appointed his assistant and missionary in St John’s parish, Glasgow. Except in the case of a select few, Irving’s preaching awakened little interest among the congregation of Chalmers, Chalmers himself, with no partiality for its bravuras and flourishes, comparing it to “Italian music, appreciated only by connoisseurs”; but as a missionary among the poorer classes he wielded an influence that was altogether unique. The benediction “Peace be to this house,” with which, in accordance with apostolic usage, he greeted every dwelling he entered, was not inappropriate to his figure and aspect, and it is said “took the people’s attention wonderfully,” the more especially after the magic of his personality found opportunity to reveal itself in close and homely intercourse. This half-success in a subordinate sphere was, however, so far from coinciding with his aspirations that he had again, in the winter of 1821, begun to turn his attention towards missionary labour in the East, when the possibility of fulfilling the dream of his life was suddenly revealed to him by an invitation from the Caledonian church, Hatton Garden, London, to “make trial and proof” of his gifts before the “remnant of the congregation which held together.” Over that charge he was ordained in July 1822. Some years previously he had expressed his conviction that “one of the chief needs of the age was to make inroad after the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of literature, of sentiment, of policy and of rank, who are content in their several idolatries to do without piety to God and love to Him whom He hath sent”; and, with an abruptness which must have produced on him at first an effect almost astounding, he now had the satisfaction of beholding these various votaries thronging to hear from his lips the words of wisdom which would deliver them from their several idolatries and remodel their lives according to the fashion of apostolic times.
This sudden leap into popularity seems to have been occasioned in connexion with a veiled allusion to Irving’s striking eloquence made in the House of Commons by Canning, who had been induced to attend his church from admiration of an expression in one of his prayers, quoted to him by Sir James Mackintosh. His commanding stature, the symmetry of his form, the dark and melancholy beauty of his countenance, rather rendered piquant than impaired by an obliquity of vision, produced an imposing impression even before his deep and powerful voice had given utterance to its melodious thunders; and harsh and superficial half-truths enunciated with surpassing ease and grace of gesture, and not only with an air of absolute conviction but with the authority of a prophetic messenger, in tones whose magical fascination was inspired by an earnestness beyond all imitation of art, acquired a plausibility and importance which, at least while the orator spoke, made his audience entirely forgetful of their preconceived objections against them. The subject-matter of his orations, and his peculiar treatment of his themes, no doubt also, at least at first, constituted a considerable part of his attractive influence. He had specially prepared himself, as he thought, for “teaching imaginative men, and political men, and legal men, and scientific men who bear the world in hand”; and he did not attempt to win their attention to abstract and worn-out theological arguments, but discussed the opinions, the poetry, the politics, the manners and customs of the time, and this not with philosophical comprehensiveness, not in terms of warm eulogy or measured blame,but of severe satire varied by fierce denunciation, and with a specific minuteness which was concerned primarily with individuals. A fire of criticism from pamphlets, newspapers and reviews opened on his volume ofOrations, published in 1823; but the excitement produced was merely superficial and essentially evanescent. Though cherishing a strong antipathy to the received ecclesiastical formulas, Irving’s great aim was to revive the antique style of thought and sentiment which had hardened into these formulas, and by this means to supplant the new influences, the accidental and temporary moral shortcomings of which he detected with instinctive certainty, but whose profound and real tendencies were utterly beyond the reach of his conjecture. Being thus radically at variance with the main current of the thought of his time, the failure of the commission he had undertaken was sooner or later inevitable; and shortly after the opening of his new church in Regent Square in 1827, he found that “fashion had taken its departure,” and the church, “though always well filled,” was “no longer crowded.” By this desertion his self-esteem, one of his strongest passions, though curiously united with singular sincerity and humility, was doubtless hurt to the quick; but the wound inflicted was of a deeper and deadlier kind, for it confirmed him finally in his despair of the world’s gradual amelioration, and established his tendency towards supernaturalism.
For years the subject of prophecy had occupied much of his thoughts, and his belief in the near approach of the second advent had received such wonderful corroboration by the perusal of the work of a Jesuit priest, writing under the assumed Jewish name of Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, that in 1827 he published a translation of it, accompanied with an eloquent preface. Probably the religious opinions of Irving, originally in some respects more catholic and truer to human nature than generally prevailed in ecclesiastical circles, had gained breadth and comprehensiveness from his intercourse with Coleridge, but gradually his chief interest in Coleridge’s philosophy centred round that which was mystical and obscure, and to it in all likelihood may be traced his initiation into the doctrine of millenarianism. The first stage of his later development, which resulted in the establishment of the “Irvingite” or “Holy Catholic Apostolic Church,” in 1832, was associated with conferences at his friend Henry Drummond’s seat at Albury concerning unfulfilled prophecy, followed by an almost exclusive study of the prophetical books and especially of the Apocalypse, and by several series of sermons on prophecy both in London and the provinces, his apocalyptic lectures in 1828 more than crowding the largest churches of Edinburgh in the early summer mornings. In 1830, however, there was opened up to his ardent imagination a new vista into spiritual things, a new hope for the age in which he lived, by the seeming actual revival in a remote corner of Scotland of those apostolic gifts of prophecy and healing which he had already in 1828 persuaded himself had only been kept in abeyance by the absence of faith. At once he welcomed the new “power” with an unquestioning evidence which could be shaken by neither the remonstrances or desertion of his dearest friends, the recantation of some of the principal agents of the “gifts,” his own declension into a comparatively subordinate position, the meagre and barren results of the manifestations, nor their general rejection both by the church and the world. His excommunication by the presbytery of London, in 1830, for publishing his doctrines regarding the humanity of Jesus Christ, and the condemnation of these opinions by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the following year, were secondary episodes which only affected the main issue of his career in so far as they tended still further to isolate him from the sympathy of the church; but the “irregularities” connected with the manifestation of the “gifts” gradually estranged the majority of his own congregation, and on the complaint of the trustees to the presbytery of London, whose authority they had formerly rejected, he was declared unfit to remain the minister of the National Scotch Church of Regent Square. After he and those who adhered to him (describing themselves as of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church) had in 1832 removed to a new building in Newman Street, he was in March 1833 deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland by the presbytery of Annan on the original charge of heresy. With the sanction of the “power” he was now after some delay reordained “chief pastor of the church assembled in Newman Street,” but unremitting labours and ceaseless spiritual excitement soon completely exhausted the springs of his vital energy. He died, worn out and wasted with labour and absorbing care, while still in the prime of life, on the 7th of December 1834.