e." Repeated cheers greeted these
observations.

Lord John met Parliament as Prime Minister on the 16th of July; on
which occasion he gave a brief outline of the Government business for
the remainder of the session. He said they would take up, and endeavour
to pass some of the measures of the late Administration. As to Irish
bills, he postponed the most important one, the Tenants' Compensation
Bill, which, he said, was complicated, and was therefore reserved for
further consideration. Referring to the waste lands, the reclamation of
which he had, a short time before, put so prominently forward, he said
he would make preparation for the introduction of a general measure on
the subject. Thus were disposed of in a very brief speech, and in a very
cool manner, the eleven measures which O'Connell required to be passed
before the rising of the Session, and on the passing of which he had
grounded any support he intended to give the Whig Government.

Whilst people were absorbed with the change of Ministry, and the
wretched conflict in Conciliation Hall, the fatal blight began to show
itself in the potato fields of the country. Its earliest recorded
appearance was in Cork, on the 3rd of June. Accounts of its rapid
increase soon filled the public journals, and the gloomiest forebodings
of the total loss of the crop of 1846, immediately took hold of the
public mind. Here are a few specimens of the manner in which the
dreadful calamity was announced: "Where no disease was apparent a few
days ago all are now black." "Details are needless--the calamity is
everywhere." "The failure this year is universal; for miles a person may
proceed in any direction, without perceiving an exception to the awful
destruction." The South and West suffered more in 1845 than the North;
but this year the destroyer swept over Ulster the same as the other
provinces. "We have had an opportunity," says a writer, "of observing
the state of the potato crop from one end of the county Antrim to
another, and saw only one uniform gloomy evidence of destruction. The
potatoes everywhere exhibit the appearance of a lost crop." The same
account was given of Tyrone, Monaghan, Londonderry, and, in fact, of the
entire province. On the 18th of August, the fearful announcement was
made, that there was not one sound potato to be found in the whole
county of Meath! Again: "The failure of the potato crop in Galway is
universal; in Roscommon there is not a hundred weight of g