the
5th of December Sir Robert resigns--Lord John Russell fails to form
a Government--The old Cabinet again in power--Mr. Gladstone replaces
Lord Stanley.

As stated in the last chapter, the deputation that waited on the Lord
Lieutenant was superciliously bowed out, the moment his Excellency had
finished the reading of his reply; so that the usual courtesy extended
to such bodies, of having some conversation and friendly discussion on
the subject of the address, was denied to the noblemen and gentlemen who
presented themselves at the Viceregal Lodge on the 3rd of November. Yet,
more than a fortnight previously, Lord Heytesbury had written to the
Premier, expressing great concern at the accounts daily received of the
blight. "The reports," he writes, "continue to be of a very alarming
nature, and leave no doubt upon the mind but that the potato crops have
failed almost everywhere."[68] This admission he took care not to make
to the deputation, although its truth had not only been verified but
strengthened by the accounts which he continued to receive between the
date of the letter and the 3rd of November. In the Premier's
communication, to which Lord Heytesbury was replying, are, amongst
others, the following queries:--"At what period would the pressure be
felt? Would it be immediate, if the reports of the full extent of the
evil are confirmed, or, _is there a stock of_ old potatoes sufficient to
last for a certain time?" The Viceroy replies, that he is assured,
"_there is no stock_ whatever of _last year's_ potatoes in the country."
That is, in the middle of October, 1845, no stock of the potatoes grown
in 1844 had remained! Such was the knowledge which the Premier of
England (once an Irish Secretary), and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
possessed of the nature and constitution of the potato!

One of Sir Robert Peel's biographers, evidently a great admirer of his,
says of him that he was a freetrader in principle long before 1845[69];
whilst his enemies assert, that having been placed by the Tory party at
the head of a Protectionist Government, he betrayed that party and
suddenly threw himself into the arms of the Corn Law League. Neither of
these views appears to be quite correct. The common, and it would seem,
the more accurate opinion about him is, that he was a politician by
profession--a man of expediency--and that on the question of the Corn
Laws he did no more than he had previously done with regar