I enclose letters
which have very recently reached me. Lord Heytesbury says that the
reports which reach the Irish Government are very unsatisfactory. I
presume that if the worst should happen which is predicted, the pressure
would not be _immediate_. There is such a tendency to exaggeration and
inaccuracy in Irish reports, that delay in acting upon them is always
desirable; but I foresee the necessity that may be imposed upon us at an
early period of considering whether there is not that well grounded
apprehension of actual scarcity that justifies and compels the adoption
of every means of relief which the exercise of the prerogative or
legislation might afford. _I have no confidence in such remedies as the
prohibition of exports or the stoppage of distilleries. The removal of
the impediments to import is the only effectual remedy_."
Sir James Graham wrote to the Premier from Netherby on the same day
enclosing a communication from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, _which is
not given_ in the Peel Memoirs, but which Sir James says, "conveys
information of the most serious kind, which requires immediate
attention." He goes on to give it as his opinion that the time had come
when speculation was reduced to certainty, as the potatoes were being
taken out of the ground; it was therefore the duty of the Government to
apply their attention without delay to measures for the mitigation of
this national calamity.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169