was that they
felt themselves compelled to pass a deliberate censure upon the apathy
of the Government; and it will be found, in the course of this
narrative, that the want of prompt vigorous action on the part of the
Government, more especially at this early stage of the famine, had quite
as much to do with that famine as the failure of the potato crop itself.

In November a cessation of the rot was observed in some districts, but
in that month the assertion made in the first resolution of the Mansion
House Committee, that more than one-third of the potato crop was lost,
was not only vouched for by hundreds of most respectable and most
trustworthy witnesses, as we have seen, but it was accepted as a truth
by every party. Moreover, the Government, whose culpable apathy and
delay was denounced on all sides, except by its partizans, was in
possession of information on the subject, which made the loss of the
potato crop at least _one-half_ instead of _one-third._ Professors
Lindley and Playfair made a report to Sir Robert Peel, bearing date the
15th of November, from which he quoted the following startling passage
in his speech on the address, on the 22nd of January, 1846:--"We can
come to no other conclusion," they write, "than that _one-half_ of the
actual potato crop of Ireland is either destroyed, or remains in a state
unfit for the food of man. We, moreover, feel it our duty to apprize you
that we fear this to be a low estimate."[64]

Estimating the value of the potato crop of 1845 in Ireland at
L18,000,000, not a high estimate, it was now certain that food to the
value of L9,000,000 was already lost, yet no answer could be had from
the Viceroy or the Premier but the stereotyped one, that the matter was
receiving the most serious consideration of the Government. And on they
went enquiring when they should have been acting. With the information
given by Professors Lindley and Playfair in their hands, they appointed
another Commission about this time, which sat in Dublin Castle and was
presided over by Mr. Lucas, then Under-Secretary. Its Secretary, Captain
Kennedy, applied to the Mansion House Committee for information. That
body at once placed its whole correspondence at the disposal of the
Commissioners; the Lord Mayor had an interview with Sir Thomas
Freemantle, one of them, by whom he was assured that the Government was
fully prepared to take such steps as might be found necessary for the
protection of the people