The total failure of the
food of a nation was, as Mr. Monsell said, a fact new in history; such
being the case, no machinery existed extensive enough to neutralize its
effects, nor was there extant any plan upon which such machinery could
be modelled. Great allowance must be therefore made for the shortcomings
of the Government, in a crisis so new and so terrible; but after making
the most liberal concessions on this head, it must be admitted that Lord
John Russell and his colleagues were painfully unequal to the situation.
They either could not or would not use all the appliances within their
reach, to save the Irish people. Besides the mistakes they made as to
the nature of the employment which ought to be given, a chief fault of
their's was that they did not take time by the forelock--that they did
not act with promptness and decision. Other nations, where famine was
far less imminent, were in the markets, and had to a great extent made
their purchases before our Government, causing food to be scarcer and
dearer for us than it needed to be. Thus writes Commissary-General Routh
to the Treasury on the 19th of September:--"I now revert to the most
important of our considerations, the state of our depots.
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