Matthew James Higgins

Matthew James Higgins (4 December 1810 – 14 August 1868) was a British writer who used the nom-de-plume Jacob Omnium, which was the title of his first magazine article. He was born in County Meath, Ireland to a landed family. He owned an estate in British Guiana, which he visited twice.

Higgins became well known for his aggressive, campaigning journalism. His first essay was a satire on dishonest business practices, entitled "Jacob Omnium, the Merchant Prince". It was published in New Monthly Magazine in 1845. Though the name was that of the villain, he adopted it as his main pen-name. Nevertheless he also used other names such as "Civilian", "Paterfamilias", "West Londoner", "Belgravian Mother", "Mother of Six" and "John Barleycorn".^[1]

He was particularly active on behalf of sufferers from the Irish potato famine in 1847, demanding more decisive action and volunteering as an agent of the British Relief Association. His The real bearings of the West India question (1847) advocated support for West Indian plantation owners who, he argued, could not compete against slave-owning countries which bore no wage costs.

He contributed regularly to the Peelite newspaper The Morning Chronicle and also to The Times, the Pall Mall Gazette and the Cornhill Magazine (under Thackeray's editorship). His letters in The Times were instrumental in exposing many abuses. Like his friend Thackerary, he was active in gentlemen's social clubs, being a member of many London clubs and societies, including the Philobiblon Society and the Cosmopolitan Club.^[1] He was married to Emily Joseph, daughter of Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne.

Thackeray dedicated to him his novel The Adventures of Philip, and one of his ballads, Jacob Omnium's Hoss, deals with an incident in Higgins's career.

Some of his articles were published in 1875 as Essays on Social Subjects.

References

1 2 National Portrait Gallery

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Matthew James Higgins

Stephen, Leslie (1891). "Higgins, Matthew James". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 26. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 370–371.

Great Hunger in Ireland, 1845–52

General	1740–1741 Irish Famine History of Ireland (1801–1923) Penal Laws Absentee landlord Corn Laws Chronology of the Great Famine British Relief Association Souperism Coffin ship Irish diaspora Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 Encumbered Estates' Court Legacy of the Great Famine National Famine Commemoration Day List of memorials to the Great Famine 1879 Irish Famine

People	Queen Victoria Earl Russell Viscount Halifax Earl of Lucan Marquess of Londonderry Marquess Conyngham Nassau William Senior Viscount Palmerston Marquess of Lansdowne Charles Trevelyan Robert Peel Lionel de Rothschild Stephen Spring Rice John Abel Smith Paweł Strzelecki Matthew James Higgins William Henry Gregory

Laws	Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 Temporary Relief Act Irish Poor Law Extension Act Crime and Outrage Bill (Ireland) 1847

Historians	John Mitchel Cecil Woodham-Smith F. S. L. Lyons Robert Dudley Edwards Joel Mokyr Cormac Ó Gráda Diarmaid Ferriter Colm Tóibín Tim Pat Coogan

Related	Highland Potato Famine European Potato Failure Laissez-faire Economic liberalism Theories of famines Food security Malthusian catastrophe Irish Land League Land War

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 49986170 LCCN: no89010360 ISNI: 0000 0000 8228 4393 GND: 116797665 NLA: 49787472

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