The great twelve nights' debate on the repeal of these laws, commenced
five days after the speech above referred to, was made. The Premier, at
great length and very ably, repeated the arguments he had been putting
forward since the previous November, in favour of taking the duty off
everything that could be called human food; he even proposed to repeal
the duty on the importation of potatoes, by which, he said, he hoped to
obtain sound seed from abroad. Sir Robert, in this speech, may be said
to have been in his best vein,--- full, explanatory, clear, assumptive,
persuasive,--often appealing to the kindness and forbearance of his
hearers,--always calculating a good deal on his power of bending people
to his views by a plausible, diplomatic treatment of the whole question.
Addressing Mr. Greene, the chairman of the Committee, he said, with
solemn gravity: "Sir, I wish it were possible to take advantage of this
calamity, for introducing among the people of Ireland the taste for a
better and more certain provision for their support than that which they
have heretofore cultivated." Surely, the Indian meal, which he so often
boasted of having ordered on his own responsibility, was not a step in
that direction.
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