Hence, the potato blight was, in more senses than one, an untoward event
for himself and his Cabinet, since it hurried him into the doing of
that, which he hoped to have done without giving any very violent shock
to the opinions or prejudices of his Tory supporters.
Sir Robert, if not a man of great forecast or intuition, was certainly
one to make the most of circumstances as they arose, provided he had
time for reflection. When the news of the potato failure in Ireland
became an alarming fact, he recast his plan, and put that failure
foremost amongst his reasons for repealing the Corn Laws; in fact, in
his own adroit way he left it to be understood, that this was the
immediate and urgent cause for dealing with the question--nay more, that
the real, the _only_ question he was dealing with was the potato blight,
and the threatened famine in Ireland; and that, in anxiously seeking for
an adequate remedy for such terrible evils, he could find but one--the
total repeal of the Corn Laws. Some in his own Cabinet, and numbers of
thoughtful people throughout the country, saw a variety of plans for
meeting the failure distinct from such repeal; very many even, so far
from regarding it as a remedy against Irish famine, considered it would
be a positive injury to this country, under existing circumstances; but
Sir Robert Peel, with that charming frankness and simplicity, the
assumption of which had become a second nature to him, could see but one
remedy for poor Ireland--a repeal of the Corn Laws.
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