fter 1741--Agricultural literature of the time--Apathy
of the Gentry denounced--Comparative yield of Potatoes a hundred
years ago and at present--Arthur Young on the Potato--Great increase
of its culture in twenty years--The disease called "curl" in the
Potato (_Note_)--Failure of the Potato in 1821--Consequent
Famine in 1822--Government grants--Charitable collections--High
price of Potatoes--Skibbereen in 1822--Half of the superficies of
the Island visited by this Famine--Strange apathy of Statesmen and
Landowners with regard to the ever-increasing culture of the
Potato--Supposed conquest of Ireland--Ireland kept poor lest she
should rebel--The English colony always regarded as the Irish
nation--The natives ignored--They lived in the bogs and mountains,
and cultivated the Potato, the only food that would grow in such
places--No recorded Potato blight before 1729--The probable
reason--Poverty of the English colony--Jealousy of England of its
progress and prosperity--Commercial jealousy--Destruction of the
Woollen manufacture--Its immediate effect--William the Third's
Declaration--Absenteeism--Mr. M'Culloch's arguments (Note
A.)--Apparently low rents--Not really so--No capital--Little
skill--No good Agricultural Implements--Swift's opinion--Arthur
Young's opinion--Acts of Parliament--The Catholics permitted to be
loyal--Act for reclaiming Bogs--Pension to Apostate Priests
increased--Catholic Petition in 1792--The Relief Act 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, 1

CHAPTER II.

The Potato Blight of 1845--Its appearance in England--In
Ireland--Weather--Scotland--Names given to the Blight--First
appearance of the Blight in Ireland--Accounts of its progress--The
Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland--Its action--The
Dublin Corporation--O'Connell--His plan for meeting the
Crisis--Deputation to the Lord Lieutenant--How it was received--Lord
Heytesbury's Reply--It displeases the Government--The _Times_'
Commissioner--His suggestions--Mr. Gregory's Letter--Mr.
Crichton's--Sir James Murray on the Blight--Action of the
Clergy--the Mansion House Committee--Resolutions--Analysis of five
hundred letters on the Blight-