rd in
it which was taken up by them. The crisis, he said, was one of terrible
importance; the lives of the people were at stake; the calamity was all
but universal; something must be done, and done immediately, to meet it.
Private subscriptions would not be sufficient; they might meet a local,
but not a national calamity like the present. By a merciful dispensation
of Providence there was one of the best oat crops that we ever have had
in the country, but that crop was passing out of Ireland day by day.
Then, quoting from the _Mark Lane Express_, he said, sixteen thousand
quarters of oats were imported from Ireland to London alone in one week.
His proposal was, that a deputation should be appointed to wait on the
Lord Lieutenant (Lord Heytesbury) to urge certain measures on the
Government, in order to mitigate the calamitous state of the country. 1.
The first measure he proposed was the immediate stoppage of distillation
and brewing, 2. Next, that the export of provisions of every kind to
foreign countries should be immediately prohibited, and our own ports
open to receive provisions from all countries. From this prohibition he,
strangely enough, excepted England, although he had just shown that it
was England which was carrying away our provisions with the most
alarming rapidity. He probably made this exception to induce the
Government to lend a more willing ear to his other propositions. He
adduced the example of Belgium, Holland, and even of Russia and Turkey,
in support of this view; all these countries having closed their ports
against the exportation of provisions, under analagous circumstances. 3.
But all this, he said, was not enough; the Government must be called on
to assist the country in buying provisions--called on, not in a spirit
of begging or alms-seeking--but called on to supply from the resources
of Ireland itself money for this purpose. Let our own money be applied
to it. The proceeds of the Woods and Forests in this country are, he
said, L74,000 a year; money, which instead of being applied to Irish
purposes, had gone to improve Windsor and Trafalgar Square--two millions
of Irish money having been already expended in this manner. This is no
time to be bungling at trivial remedies; let a loan of a million and a
half be raised on this L74,000 a year, which, at four per cent., would
leave a portion of it for a sinking fund; let absentees be taxed fifty
per cent., and every resident ten per cent. By these