CHAPTER IV
THE FAMINE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES TILL THE DEATH OF O'CONNELL
The remedy O'Connell would have proposed in the days of his vigour—The futile remedy he proposed in 1846—Lord Cloncurry's advice—Policy of the Nation—John O'Hagan's advice (note)—Course adopted by Peel's Government—Their fall from Office—Indian corn and the British Navy—Arrival of the Macedonian in Dublin with a gift from the United States—Condition of Ireland in 1847—The Irish Council of Conservatives and Young Irelanders created—Fate of Mitchel's appeal to the Boards of Guardians, and of M'Gee's Native Manufacture movement—Letter from Dr. M'Knight—Advice of the Confederation—Speeches of Mitchel and Duffy—Archbishop Hughes on the famine—Lord George Bentinck's plan—O'Connell's last appearance in the House of Commons—His journey towards Rome—His death—Conduct of the Confederation and the Repeal Association—The General Election of 1847.
I have kept the fearful narrative of physical ruin which fell upon Ireland at this time apart from the political conflicts, which it dwarfed and overshadowed. The Famine, foretold from time to time as probable, announced itself unequivocally in the autumn of 1845; the potato crop was more or less blighted in almost every county in the island, and theatened before winter set in to rot in the ground. An eminent physician[1] warned the country that famine was not the worst danger they had to anticipate; it had been noted for a hundred years that famine was invariably followed by fever and pestilence, from which no class escaped. The potato blight was not confined to Ireland; it had appeared in many places in Europe and America, notably in Germany and the Low Countries, and in Canada and the United States; but in Ireland alone the food of the industrious millions was exclusively the potato. How this calamity could be best
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- ↑ Dr., afterwards Sir Dominic Corrigan.
