We have no
arrivals yet announced, either at Westport or Sligo, and the remains
there must be nothing, or next to nothing. The bills of lading from Mr.
Erichsen are all for small quantities, which will be distributed, and
perhaps eaten, in twelve or twenty-four hours after their arrival. It
would require a thousand tons to make an impression, and that only a
temporary one. Our salvation of the depot system is in the importation
of a large supply. These small shipments are only drops in the ocean."
The Treasury replies in this fashion, on the 22nd, to Sir R. Routh's
strong appeal:--"With reference to the remarks in your letter of the
19th instant, as to the insufficiency of the supplies for your depots,
the fact is that we have already bought up and sent to Ireland all the
Indian corn which is immediately available; and the London and
Liverpool markets are at present so completely bare of this article,
that we have been obliged to have recourse to the plan of purchasing
supplies of Indian corn which had been already exported from London to
neighbouring Continental ports."[139] And again, on the 29th of the same
month, Mr. Trevelyan thus explains the difficulties the Treasury
laboured under in endeavouring to purchase the supplies for which the
Commissary-General had been so emphatically calling:--"It is little
known what a formidable competition we are suffering from our
Continental neighbours.
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