"
These passages were indited by a minister who, coolly, and without any
sufficient authority whatever, assumed that there was no other remedy
for the failure of the potato crop in Ireland but a repeal of the Corn
Laws, and that it was the remedy the Irish public were calling for, to
meet the threatened danger. And yet so far from this being the case, it
was never propounded by any one as a principal remedy at all. What the
Irish public thought about the impending famine, and what they said
about it was, that the oat crop was unusually fine and more than
sufficient to feed the whole population, and that it should be kept in
the country for that purpose. A most obvious remedy; but the Premier had
other plans in his head, and could not see this one, because he would
not. Like Nelson on a memorable occasion, he persisted in keeping his
telescope to the eye that suited his own purpose. He does not condescend
to give a reason for his views, he only expresses them. He had no
confidence in the old-fashioned remedy of keeping the food in the
country, but he did put his trust in the remedy of sending 3,000 miles
for Indian corn--a food which, he elsewhere admits he fears the Irish
cannot be induced to use.
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