possible by individual and social exertions. Everyone who travels
through Ireland observes the large stacks of corn, which are the produce
of the late harvest. There is nothing to prevent the purchase of grain
by proprietors or committees, and the disposal of these supplies in
shops furnished on purpose with flour at a fair price, with a moderate
profit. This has been done, I am assured, in parts of the Highlands of
Scotland, where the failure of the potatoes has been as great and as
severe a calamity as it has been in Ireland.[176] There is, no doubt,
some inconvenience attending even these modes of interference with the
market price of food; but the good over-balances the evil. Local
committees or agents of landowners can ascertain the pressure of
distress, measure the wants of a district, and prevent waste and
misapplication. Besides, the general effect is to bring men together,
and induce them to exert their energy in a social effort directed to one
spot; whereas the interference of the State deadens private energy,
prevents forethought--and after superseding all other exertion, finds
itself, at last, unequal to the gigantic task it has undertaken."
Towards the end of his letter, the First Minister gives his views on
another point or two. "One thing," he writes, "is certain--in order to
enable Ireland to maintain her population, her agriculture must be
greatly improved. Cattle, corn, poultry, pigs, eggs, butter, and salt
provisions have been, and will probably continue to be, her chief
articles of export. But beyond the food exchanged for clothing and
colonial products, she will require, in future, a large supply of food
of her own growth and produce, which the labourer should be able to buy
with his wages."

There can be little doubt but the Premier intended this letter as a
defence of his Irish-famine policy. As such it is not very conclusive.
It is quite true to say, that the landlords should have exerted
themselves far more than they did, to employ the people in improving
their estates, by draining, subsoiling, and reclamation; which works
were sure to be remunerative, and at no distant time. But had they done
all this, Lord John Russell could take no credit to himself for it,
having done nothing to induce or compel them to do so. When he says he
expected it, he shows great ignorance or forgetfulness. The Irish
landlords, as a class, were not improvers of their properties before the
Famine;--how could he expect