this but telling the people of
Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?

'Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland?
Some think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into
the matter. I have examined into the state of crime in at least five
counties--Tipperary, Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare--and I
find, that during the three months prior to the first appearance of
the potato disease, and when in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at
almost any former period--when plenty abounded in all quarters of the
empire, that the amount of crime exceeded that in the three months
immediately following. Now, those who doubt this statement will have an
opportunity of ascertaining the correctness of my figures, for I will
not deal in general assertions. Well then, sir, I find in the three
months, May, June, and July last, that the number of crimes committed in
the five counties I have mentioned amounted to no less than 1,180, while
in the three months immediately after the potato disease, or famine as
it is called, the amount of crime committed in the same three months was
not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know, therefore, what this agrarian
outrage has to do with the potato famine; and where is the justification
for a minister coming down to this House, and declaring that unless we
pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey her Majesty's commands
by passing a measure for the protection of life in Ireland. Why, sir, I
think when this language reaches the people of Ireland--coming, too, as
it does from the Treasury, above all, from the Secretary of State for
the Home Department--there is indeed danger to be apprehended that such
a doctrine may be written in letters of blood in that country. Why, sir,
if we are to hear such language as this from that minister of the crown
charged with the peace of the country, we may just as well have Captain
Rock established as lord lieutenant in the castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot
for chief secretary, and Molly M'Guire installed at Whitehall with the
seals of the home department.'

And afterwards he remarked, 'I have been taunted that when I may be
entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn
t