' People come to him from
the extreme west, and tell him there is in their parish neither potatoes
nor corn--that they have neither stores at home, nor trade from other
places; and ask him, as 'Commissary-General,' and public relief officer,
what he is to do with them? The epauletted philosopher strait replies
that trade must take its course (such was the word of command), that
'nothing was more essential to the welfare of a country' (so it was
written in the orderly book) 'than strict adherence to the principles of
free trade;' and that if the deputation doubted it, they might read
Burke." A leading morning journal remarked, that Sir R. Routh's reply to
the Achill deputation had not even the merit of originality; for there
was an Eastern story, in which it was related how a deputation of Sheiks
came, once upon a time, to the Calif, and announced the sad intelligence
that all their date trees had withered, and his subjects were perishing
throughout the region whence they had come. They demanded assistance:
but before the Calif could make any reply, an old Moollah, who stood by,
told them to return home _and read the Koran,--Freeman's Journal_.
[160] Commissariat Series, p.
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