In the Premier's
communication, to which Lord Heytesbury was replying, are, amongst
others, the following queries:--"At what period would the pressure be
felt? Would it be immediate, if the reports of the full extent of the
evil are confirmed, or, _is there a stock of_ old potatoes sufficient to
last for a certain time?" The Viceroy replies, that he is assured,
"_there is no stock_ whatever of _last year's_ potatoes in the country."
That is, in the middle of October, 1845, no stock of the potatoes grown
in 1844 had remained! Such was the knowledge which the Premier of
England (once an Irish Secretary), and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
possessed of the nature and constitution of the potato!
One of Sir Robert Peel's biographers, evidently a great admirer of his,
says of him that he was a freetrader in principle long before 1845[69];
whilst his enemies assert, that having been placed by the Tory party at
the head of a Protectionist Government, he betrayed that party and
suddenly threw himself into the arms of the Corn Law League. Neither of
these views appears to be quite correct. The common, and it would seem,
the more accurate opinion about him is, that he was a politician by
profession--a man of expediency--and that on the question of the Corn
Laws he did no more than he had previously done with regard to Catholic
emancipation,--followed the current of public opinion, which he always
watched with the most anxious care,--and turning round, carried through
Parliament a measure which he had long and strenuously opposed.
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