The loss of the potato in this year,
and its cause, are thus epitomised in the following extract from the
Report of the London Tavern Committee:--"From the most authentic
communications, it appeared that the bad quality and partial failure of
the potato crop of the preceding year (1821)--the consequence of the
excessive and protracted humidity of the season--had been a principal
cause of the distress, and that it had been greatly aggravated by the
rotting of the potatoes in the pits in which they were stored. This
discovery was made at so late a period that the peasantry were not able
to provide against the consequences of that evil."[34] From the letters
published in their own Report, the Committee would have been abundantly
justified in adding, that the distress was greatly increased by the
almost total want of employment for the labouring classes, arising from
the fact, that very many of the landlords in the districts that suffered
most were absentees. A writer on this Famine, who, in general, is
inclined to be severe in his strictures upon the people, thus opens the
subject:--"The distress which has almost universally prevailed in
Ireland has not been occasioned so much by an excessive population as by
a culpable remissness on the part of persons possessing property, and
neglecting to take advantage of those great resources, and of those
ample means of providing for an increasing population, which Nature has
so liberally bestowed on this country.
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