and summer of 1846. Its head-quarters were in
Dublin Castle, and its chief was a Scotch gentleman, Sir Randolph
Routh--a name which, like some others, must occur pretty frequently in
these pages. The Commissariat people, as is usual in such cases, began
by instituting extensive inquiries. They ordered their subordinates to
furnish reports of the state of the potato crop throughout the country.

The Assistant Commissaries-General and others employed in this service,
in due time, made their reports, which in the main agreed with the
statements in the public journals, and with the opinion prevalent
everywhere among the people; thus differing with those officers of the
Board of Works who held that there were more sound potatoes in Ireland
than was generally admitted. So early as the 11th of August, Mr. White,
writing from Galway to Assistant Commissary-General Wood, makes a most
unfavourable report of the state of the crop in Clare; the Blight, he
says, was general and most rapid in its effects, a large quantity of the
potatoes being already diseased, and a portion perfectly rotten. "I am,
therefore, clearly of opinion," he continues, "that the scarcity of the
potato last year will be nothing compared with this, and that, too,
several months earlier."[160] Commissary-General Hewetson sent specimens
of diseased potatoes to the Secretary of the Treasury in the middle of
August, with this information: "The crop seems to have been struck
almost everywhere by one sweeping blast, in one and the same night. I
mentioned a hope that the tubers might yet rally, many of the stalks
having thrown out fresh vegetation; I fear it is but a futile
hope."[161] Just about the same time, Assistant Commissary-General
Dobree reports to the same quarter: "It is superfluous to make any
further report on the potato crop, for I believe the failure is general
and complete throughout the country, though the disease has made more
rapid progress in some places than in others. In a circuit of two
hundred miles, I have not seen one single field free from it; and
although it is very speculative to attempt a calculation on what is not
yet absolutely realized, my belief is that scarcely any of the late
potatoes will be fit for human food."[162]

Considerable stores of oatmeal and Indian corn remained in the
Government depots throughout the country, when they were closed in
August. By a Treasury Minute, these were ordered to be concentrated at
six points; t