No food was to be given
away by Government; none was to be sold under price, it being assumed
that the people could earn enough to support themselves. Government
feared that, if they began to undersell the merchants and dealers, those
classes would give up business, which, in the Government's opinion,
would be a very great evil. Mealmongers and food dealers are generally
very shrewd men; and it was believed, with much reason, that they
succeeded in raising prices when it suited them, and in many cases in
realizing even large fortunes, by working on the apprehensions of the
Government in respect to this very matter.[159]
The Commissariat Relief Department was organized at the close of 1845,
for the purpose of managing the distribution of Indian meal, imported at
that time by Sir Robert Peel, to provide against the anticipated
scarcity of the spring and summer of 1846. Its head-quarters were in
Dublin Castle, and its chief was a Scotch gentleman, Sir Randolph
Routh--a name which, like some others, must occur pretty frequently in
these pages. The Commissariat people, as is usual in such cases, began
by instituting extensive inquiries. They ordered their subordinates to
furnish reports of the state of the potato crop throughout the country.
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