of
1793--Population of Ireland at this time--The Forty-shilling
Freeholders--Why they were created--Why they were abolished--The cry
of over-population.

The great Irish Famine, which reached its height in 1847, was, in many
of its features, the most striking and most deplorable known to history.
The deaths resulting from it, and the emigration which it caused, were
so vast, that, at one time, it seemed as if America and the grave were
about to absorb the whole population of this country between them. The
cause of the calamity was almost as wonderful as the result. It arose
from the failure of a root which, by degrees, had become the staple food
of the whole working population: a root which, on its first
introduction, was received by philanthropists and economists with joy,
as a certain protection against that scarcity which sometimes resulted
from short harvests. Mr. Buckland, a Somersetshire gentleman, sent in
1662 a letter to the Royal Society, recommending the planting of
potatoes in all parts of the kingdom, _to prevent famine_, for which he
received the thanks of that learned body; and Evelyn, the well-known
author of "The Sylva," was requested to mention the proposal at the end
of that work.

The potato was first brought into this country about three centuries
ago. Tradition and, to some extent, history attributes its introduction
to Sir Walter Raleigh. Whether this was actually the case or not, there
seems to be no doubt about his having cultivated it on that estate in
Munster which was bestowed upon him by his royal mistress, after the
overthrow of the Desmonds.[1] Some confusion has arisen about the period
at which the potato of Virginia, as I shall for the present call the
potato, was brought to our shores, from the fact that another root, the
_batatas_, or sweet potato, came into these islands, and was used as a
delicacy before the potato of Virginia was known; and what adds to the
confusion is, that the name potato, applied to the Virginian root, is
derived from _batatas_, it not bearing in Virginia any name in the least
resembling the word potato. Up to 1640 it was called in England the
potato of Virginia, to distinguish it from the sweet potato, which is
another evidence that it derived the name potato from _batatas_.[2] The
latter root was extensively cultivated for food in parts of America, but
it never got into anything like general cultivation here, perhaps
because our climate was too