" And again, this enlightened Protestant English
gentleman says of the Irish landlord, that "nothing satisfies him but an
unlimited submission."[47]
Forty years later, some of their more obvious, not to say essential
duties, were brought under the notice of Irish landlords, but in vain.
The writer quoted above on the Famine of 1822 says: "It is therefore a
duty incumbent on all those who possess property, and consequently have
an interest in the prosperity of this country, to prevent a recurrence
of this awful calamity [the Famine], and to provide for those persons
over whom fortune has placed them, and whom they should consider as
entrusted to their care, and entitled to their protection; and this can
only be successfully carried into execution by their procuring and
substituting other articles of food, so as to leave the poor only
partially dependant on the potato crop, for their support."[48]
Some Acts of Parliament, without perhaps intending it, gave a further
impulse to potato cultivation in Ireland. As if the violation of the
treaty of Limerick by William the Third; the exterminating code of Anne;
its continuance and intensification, under the first and second George
were not a sufficient persecution of the native race, statutes continued
to be enacted against them, during the first twenty-five years of
George the Third's reign--that is, up to 1785, But although this was the
case, the necessity of making some concessions to them began to be felt
by their rulers, from the time the revolt of the American colonies
assumed a dangerous aspect.
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