THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE.

473

have seen such a thing before. The brown spot grew black and spread, and covered the stalk, till a whole potato-field looked as if a scorching wind had passed over it, yet, perhaps, the roots might appear to be in a good state; and one man would let the plants alone, while another would mow off the tops, and wait to see what happened. The stealthy rain had, by some means yet as mysterious as ever, generated some minute plague -of what nature nobody yet knows, if, indeed, it is certain that the rain was the instrument,-a plague so minute that no microscope has yet convicted it, yet so powerful that it was soon to overthrow Governments, and derange commerce, and affect for all time the political fate of England, and settle the question of the regeneration or the destruction of Ireland. The minute plague spread and spread till it blackened thousands of acres, and destroyed the food of millions of men." Sir Robert Peel, who knew something of Ireland, and whose intuitive perceptions were of the rarest order, recognized at once that his Ministry were called upon to face the dangers and difficulties of an Irish potato famine. It was a great advantage that he saw and appreciated the full extent of the emergency, for this was the primary condition of successfully grappling with it. He understood that the calamity against which he and his colleagues were called upon to guard was little less than the starvation of a people; and that he early foresaw the character of the measures to be adopted, we learn from a letter which he addressed, on the 13th of October, to Sir James Graham: "I have no confidence in such remedies as the prohibition of exports or the stoppage

474

THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.

of the distilleries.

The removal of impediments to

imports is the only effectual remedy."* And that Sir James Graham agreed with his chief we learn from a letter dated the 17th of October: +"The suspension of the existing Corn Law on the avowed admission that its maintenance aggravates the evil of scarcity, and that its remission is the surest mode of restoring plenty, would render its re-enactment a future operation quite impracticable; yet, if the evil be as urgent as I fear it will be, to this suspension we shall be driven." Nature had condemned the Corn Laws; and Sir Robert found himself driven to contemplate their repeal. He was as well aware as his colleague that, once repealed, they could not be re-enacted; that their repeal or suspension was in itself an admission of their injustice. To Lord Heytesbury, the Irish Viceroy, he wrote on the 15th:-"We must consider whether it is possible by legislation, or by the exercise of prerogative, to apply a remedy to the great evil with which we are threatened. The application of such remedy involves considerations of the utmost magnitude. The remedy is the removal of all impediments to the import of all kinds of human food-that is, the total and absolute repeal for ever of all duties on all articles of subsistence. I believe that practically there would be no alternative. To remit the duty on Indian corn expressly for the purpose of averting famine would make it very invidious to retain a duty on other species of corn more generally applicable to the food of man. You might remit nominally for one year;

*Sir Robert Peel, 'Memoirs,' ii. 114.

+ Ibid. ii. 117.

CABINET COUNCILS.

475

but who will re-establish the Corn Laws once abrogated, though from a casual and temporary pressure? I have good ground, therefore, for stating that the application of a temporary remedy to a temporary evil does, in this particular case, involve considerations of the utmost and most lasting importance."

Holding these views, and receiving every day information which showed the terrible character of the crisis, Sir Robert summoned a meeting of the Cabinet for Friday, the 31st of October. It was soon apparent that grave differences of opinion existed, both as to the necessity for adopting any extraordinary measures, and as to the nature of the measures, if any, which would be advisable. A second Cabinet Council was held on the 6th of November, by which time it had been ascertained beyond a doubt, "that famine, and, consequently, pestilence, were immediately imminent, unless the Government should without hesitation or delay take the most prompt measures to provide food for the people, and to organise means for the distribution of such food throughout the land." Sir Robert, accordingly, proposed to issue an Order in Council suspending the operation of the Corn Laws, to call Parliament together on the 27th, to ask for indemnity and for a sanction of the Order by law, and to intimate to Parliament the intention of the Government, immediately after the recess, to submit a modification of the existing statutes. He was supported, however, by only three of his colleagues, the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. At first, Sir Robert appears to have thought of resigning; but after mature reflection, considering

476 LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S EDINBURGH LETTER.

that the objections of many might be removed by additional information, and that the dissolution of a Government in such circumstances must greatly excite the public mind, he resolved to retain office until an opportunity arose for reconsidering the whole subject.*

But an unexpected external agent now moved in the troubled waters. Lord John Russell at this time was on a visit to Edinburgh, whence he observed with interest the meetings of the Cabinet, and, as a veteran politician, shrewdly conjectured the subject of their deliberation. When Ministers dispersed without summoning Parliament, he concluded that they had decided on a policy of inaction. The moment had come, he thought, for striking a blow at the Government. And without consulting his party, and with no "false delicacy" for his embarrassed opponents, he embodied his view of the situation in that celebrated "Edinburgh letter," which, on the 28th of November, he addressed to his constituents, the citizens of London.† In this he said, that, the Queen's Ministers having met and separated without affording the country any promise of seasonable relief, it became the duty of the Queen's subjects to consider how calamities of no ordinary magnitude could be best averted, or at all events mitigated.

"Two evils," said Lord John Russell, "require your consideration. One of these is the disease in the potatoes, affecting very seriously parts of England and Scotland, and committing fearful ravages in Ireland. . .

*Sir Robert Peel, Memoirs,' ii. 159.

p. 19.

Lord Beaconsfield, 'Lord George Bentinck: a Political Biography,'

A CHANGE OF VIEWS.

477

Another, under which we are suffering, is the fruit of Ministerial counsel and Parliamentary law. It is the direct consequence of an Act of Parliament passed three years ago, on the recommendation of the present advisers of the Crown. By this law, grain of all kinds has been made subject to very high duties on importation. These duties are so contrived that the worse the quality of the corn, the higher is the duty; so that when good wheat rises to 70s. a quarter, the average price of all wheat is 57s. or 58s., and the duty 15s. or 14s. a quarter. Thus the corn barometer points to fair, while the ship is bending under a storm.

"This defect was pointed out many years ago by writers on the Corn Laws, and was urged upon the attention of the House of Commons when the present Act was under consideration.

"But I confess that on the general subject my views have in the course of twenty years undergone a great alteration.* I used to be of opinion that corn was an exception to the general rules of political economy; but

* Lord Dalling, in his Historical Sketch of Sir Robert Peel,' very truly observes (p. 135) :-"Lord John Russell and other leading members of the Whig party, who had been supporters of a Corn Law, underwent, year by year, a modification in their former opinions, and were arriving in 1845 at the determination of abandoning them. Sir Robert Peel had been undergoing precisely the same influences, and was arriving precisely at the same conclusions. The country gentlemen amongst the Whigs had quite as much cause to reproach their leader for an alteration in his views, as the country gentlemen of the Tories had a right to reproach others. But neither the one statesman nor the other had as yet gone so far as to make common cause with Mr. Villiers and Mr. Cobden. An important and alarming incident Ihastened the decision of both. That incident was the failure of the potatoe crop."