He thought it quite right, and in accordance
with political science, to allow, or rather to compel Ireland,
threatened with famine, to sell her last loaf and then go to America to
buy maize, the preparation of which, she did not understand. Political
economists will hardly deny that people ought not to sell what they
require for themselves--that they should only part with _surplus_ food.
But to sell wheat and oats, and oatmeal and flour with one hand and buy
Indian corn with the other to avoid starvation could be hardly regarded
as the act of a sane man. "There had been--it was hinted, and we believe
truly, in Lord John Russell's letter from Edinburgh--some talk in the
Cabinet, and there was some discussion in the press, about opening the
Irish ports by proclamation. _Opening the Irish ports!_ Why the real
remedy, had any interference with the law been necessary, would have
been to _close_ them--the torrent of food was running _outwards_."[78]
So did the leading Tory periodical put this obvious truth some months
later.
The Viceroy, replying to the Premier's letter on the 17th of October,
says he is deeply impressed with the extent and alarming nature of the
failure of the potato crop, and has no doubt on his mind that it is
general.
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