o aid in the sustenance of
their fellow-countrymen in Ireland, while, artificially, by the laws,
the price of the food of the people of Great Britain is enhanced." With
regard to this logic of Sir James, it may be remarked, (1) that the
immediate effect produced, _and sought to be produced_, by a repeal of
the Corn Laws, was to cheapen in the market the only thing Ireland had
to sell--corn; (2) that the Irish members did not ask any portion of the
taxes of Great Britain, to feed their countrymen,--they proclaimed and
proved, that the resources of their own country were sufficient for this
purpose; and this view was frequently put forward by O'Connell, and
other leading Irish representatives.

William Smith O'Brien, the member for Limerick county, spoke but little
during the session. He, and that advanced party in the Repeal
Association which acknowledged him as leader, had made up their minds,
that Irish Parliamentary business should be transacted in Ireland; and
that St. Stephen's was not the place, where patriotic Irish members
could best serve their country. Agreeably to this view, he remained in
Ireland for nearly two months after the meeting of Parliament, in
regular attendance at the Repeal Association, throwing out suggestions
for the formation of an Irish party, on a basis wide enough to admit
Liberals, Conservatives, and all others with national aspirations. He
also paid much attention to the measures brought forward by the
Government for the relief of his famishing countrymen; he prepared and
brought up reports in the Association on those measures, and reviewed
and criticised them in his speeches. At length, he entered an appearance
in the House of Commons on the 13th of March. There was a motion before
the House, brought forward by the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, that
provision should be made to meet the impending fever and famine in
Ireland. Sir James, in his speech, boasted of the sums of money already
advanced, with such liberality, for the relief of Ireland. Smith O'Brien
made a brief reply, in which he said that the moneys advanced were badly
expended, having found their way into other channels than those
intended. "He would," he further observed, "tell them frankly--and it
was a feeling participated in by the majority of Irishmen--that he was
not disposed to appeal to their generosity. There was no generosity in
the matter. They had taken, and they had tied the purse-strings of the
Irish purse." "