o them the inmates went on
steadily increasing. In the month of December, 1845, the total number in
those workhouses was 41,118; in March, 1846, 50,717; and on the 13th of
June, the highest point attained during the year was arrived at, there
being, on that day, 51,302 persons receiving in-door relief. On the 29th
of August, owing, of course, to the harvest having come in, the number
had fallen to 43,655. In ordinary years, when there was neither blight,
nor fear of blight, it was deemed good husbandry to procure foreign seed
potatoes, and if this could not be done, farmers at least tried to
procure "strange" seed, grown at a distance from their own farms. A
larger and in every way a better crop was the usual result of this
practice. After the potato blight of 1845, the procuring of sound, and
if possible of foreign seed, for planting in Ireland was of the utmost
importance, and indeed Sir Robert Peel had included, in his new tariff,
the admission of foreign potatoes free, in the hope of securing good
seed for the planting of 1846; but as the Corn and Customs' Bill did not
become law until the end of June, this provision could be of no avail
for that year.

The Peel Government was defeated on the Irish Coercion Act on the 25th
of June, and the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel announced their
resignation on the 29th in the Upper and Lower Houses respectively. The
Duke contented himself with the simple announcement; but Sir Robert made
a speech, reviewing and defending his conduct whilst minister. Of
Ireland he said little, except that he had the full intention of serving
her in every way, by dealing with the land and other questions, telling
us patronizingly, that she was entitled to a "complete equality of
municipal and political rights." But this was only the old stereotyped
liberality of a beaten minister--beaten on an Irish Coercion
Act--speaking by anticipation from the Opposition benches, and
endeavouring to plant thorns in the path of his successful rival. The
sentiment, such as it was, was received with much cheers, and _some
murmurs_. Strange enough the _murmurs_ are not to be found in Hansard,
although reported in the newspapers of the day.

The Liberal party being for a long time the free trade party, and Sir
Robert Peel and his friends being only neophytes, he knew, even though
they did carry free trade, that they could not claim the merit of doing
so, only having taken it up, when it had attained such