THE FAMINE 
 
 AS YET IN ITS INFANCY 
 
 1847 
 
 COMPARED WITH THE PROSPECTS OE 
 
 1848, 1849, &c. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO EVERY-BODY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW, 
 
^" 3 -\ 
 
TIIE FAMINE 
 
 AS YET IX ITS IXFAXCY. 
 
 A Few weeks ago, when the cry of an English famine 
 arose, and excitement was daily spreading, and gloom 
 was deepening, and thoughtful minds were filled with 
 a fearful anticipation of evil to come, it might have 
 seemed to many a worse than superfluous talk, to con¬ 
 tribute in any way to darken the forebodings of 
 the future, or to increase the existing alarm. But 
 now the markets have fallen, and prospects seem more 
 cheering, and people are beginning to flatter them¬ 
 selves with a delusive hope that the worst is over, 
 and we seem to be in danger of forgetting the real 
 nature of our position, if we have ever fully known 
 it, and of neglecting that rigid economy and foresight 
 which alone can save us. Wc may be termed alarm¬ 
 ists and croakers; but we feel a strong conviction that 
 a calamity, the most terrible that can befall a nation, 
 cannot be too early or •widely known, nor its full ex¬ 
 tent too keenly and justly appreciated. Already, as 
 we shall presently feel to our cost, has there been too 
 much, either of ignorance or concealment. Know¬ 
 ledge is power, when there is the will and the energy 
 to use it. Our first duty is to look the danger fully 
 
in the face; our second to nerve our hands and hearts 
 for a conflict with the evils which threaten to over¬ 
 whelm us. 
 
 And never, we sadly yet confidently predict, in 
 the already eventful history of this nation, have the 
 boasted virtues of the Anglo-Saxon race—our strength, 
 our energy, our thrift, our patience, our endurance 
 and our courage—been so severely tested, as they will 
 he in the sore trial which awaits them, during the 
 years of famine and suffering which, in all human 
 probability, are about to terminate the first half of 
 the 19ch century. 
 
 We puipose giving a rough sketch of the reasons 
 which have forced upon us this melancholy conclusion. 
 
 It is a remarkable feature in our present condi¬ 
 tion—and one that invests it with a very strange and 
 startling character—that the knowledge of it has 
 come upon us so completely unawares, and long after 
 the causes which produced it have been facts as glaring 
 as the sun at noon-day. 
 
 The failure of the Potatoe crop of 1846, in Eng¬ 
 land, not less than Ireland, was a stern reality, brought 
 home at once and directly to the senses of each indi¬ 
 vidual. That it would involve Ireland in the horrors 
 of a famine was instantly perceived and acknowledged; 
 
but it did not appear to occur to any one at the time 
 that it might entail a similar fate upon England. It 
 had done us little or no harm in 1845, why then, it 
 was asked, should it cause us any inconvenience 
 in 1846 ? Besides, the Wheat harvest of last year, 
 though lately it has been the fashion to term it only 
 an average one, was pronounced at the time of its 
 being gathered, a very abundant crop. We had large 
 stocks in hand from the preceding year. The ware, 
 houses in our sea-port towns groaned beneath the 
 foreign supplies,® which had been accumulating in our 
 harbours for months previously, in consequence of the 
 anticipated changes in the Corn Laws, and which 
 were admitted, ahnost en masse , on the eve of the 
 harvest of 1846. 
 
 But all this was nothing compared with the vast 
 quantities of “ Bread-stuffs” vdiich were waiting our 
 acceptance in America and in the North of Europe— 
 and of which, indeed, we have most liberally availed 
 ourselves. There w'ould be no limit, we 'were told, 
 to the supplies of these cereal treasures, save our w r ants, 
 or our means to purchase and convey them. What 
 fear, then, could there be of a famine in England ? 
 The delusion has been almost universal. Statesmen 
 and farmers, com factors and statists have all shared 
 in it. The collective intelligence of the country has 
 been at fault. We have been dreaming of “ peace 
 and plenty,” and awake to find ourselves in the midst 
 
6 
 
 of food riots and scarcity. To be sure, there is a lull 
 at present, but it will not last long. 
 
 At the first meeting of the present session of Parlia¬ 
 ment, both parties concurred in the opinion, that how¬ 
 ever grievous the state of things might be in Ireland, 
 there was little or nothing to fear for England Lord J. 
 Russell stated his full confidence that wheat would not 
 exceed 65 or TO shillings per quarter.—(It has since 
 then reached 120s.) The stocks in hand, he observed, 
 were very large; and the quantities which could be 
 imported from America, were enormous. Lord Stan¬ 
 ley on the other hand, in the House of Lords, took 
 occasion to remark, that he for one anticipated 
 nothing like famine; and almost agreed with Lord J. 
 Russell that there would be very little rise in prices 
 between that time and harvest. It is now very clear 
 that both these eminent persons were mistaken ; and 
 it ceases to be surprising that the nation generally 
 were blind to results, which were concealed from the 
 possessors of the best statistical returns, and all other 
 kinds of official knowledge. 
 
 And now, how is this mystery to be solved! 
 What is it that, so far as England is concerned, has 
 thrown us out so utterly in our reckoning ? What 
 huge void 1—what insatiable gulf has swallowed up 
 the average wheat crop of one year, large stores from 
 the preceding one, unprecedented supplies from abroad, 
 and has still left us three months from harvest, on the 
 eve of famine! 
 
It is not Ireland, for in spite of her miserable 
 condition, she has, strange to say, exported to us 
 largclyof her own produce. It is not the scarcity abroad, 
 for whatever foreign nations may have suffered, we 
 have received from them supplies far exceeding those 
 of any former year. It is true, we have re-exported 
 to some slight extent; hut, there is still an enormous 
 balance hr our favour. What then is it 1 There can 
 be only one answer to this question.—Both the value 
 and the extent of the Potatoe crop in England have 
 been widely under-rated. It is this simple fact which 
 at once reveals the mystery of our present condition, 
 and involves the darkest augury of our future prospects. 
 And no one, we should have thought, who has re¬ 
 marked the immensely increased cultivation of this pro¬ 
 ductive vegetable in England, and the extent to which, 
 of late years, it has been made to meet the increasing- 
 wants of an hourly-increasing population, ought to 
 have been blind to the inevitable results of its suc¬ 
 cessive failures. We do not hesitate to affirm, and 
 time, we fear will speedily prove the truth of our 
 assertion, that it has for some years been impercepti¬ 
 bly growing into the value and importance of some¬ 
 thing like a second wheat harvest. We may talk of 
 our bread-eating population, and contrast their con¬ 
 dition, in this respect, with that of the potatoc-fed 
 millions of Ireland; and the comparison Avould be, to 
 a certain extent, correct. But those aaIio are conver¬ 
 sant AA'ith the habits of the English poor, that is, the 
 
great mass of consumers, ’cannot but be aware that, 
 generally speaking, the potatoe constitutes half, and in 
 some instances more, of their daily food. In the case of 
 the agricultural population, it has also enabled them to 
 feed a pig, which, converted into bacon, eked out and 
 gave a relish to their potatoe meals from one end of the 
 year to the other; and thereby saved a very large con¬ 
 sumption of bread. If we except the feeding of the pig, 
 the same remarks will apply to our manufacturing 
 population. Look at the immense tracts which have of 
 late years been devoted to potatoe cultivation, in the 
 neighbourhood of our large towns. From having been 
 almost confined to the garden, it has become a chief 
 object of attention on large farms.—It is this which 
 explains an otherwise inexplicable problem, viz—How, 
 with a population increasing in a much greater ratio 
 than our agricultural improvements, great too, as they 
 have been, the demand for food has not, long ago, ex¬ 
 ceeded the supply. It is this, also, which alone 
 accounts for our present situation. 
 
 But it will be objected to this reasoning, that the 
 potatoe failure in 1845, caused very little inconveni¬ 
 ence ; and that, though it appeared much sooner in 
 1846, and thereby stopped the growth of the potatoe 
 in a much earlier stage, yet, against this must be put 
 the fact, that of the crop, such as it was under these 
 circumstances, a very small part subsequently decayed. 
 How then, it will be asked, can this be the cause of 
 
9 
 
 tile existing scarcity? Tliis difficulty we will now 
 proceed to explain:— 
 
 From various circumstances, but chiefly, we think, 
 from the low prices of most lands of agricultural pro¬ 
 duce, and the more remunerating nature of the pota- 
 toe crop, the cultivation of this vegetable reached its 
 height in 1845. In several extensive districts with 
 which we are personally acquainted, the quantity 
 grown was so large, and so much beyond even the 
 increasing average of former years, that had it 
 been spared by the blight, the crop would hardly 
 have paid its expenses. It would have been a com¬ 
 plete drug in the market—a fact, which we, ourselves 
 large growers that year, became aware of too late to 
 profit by it. Accordingly, the alarm which the first 
 appearance of the potatoe disease in 1845 had caused, 
 was met by statements and assurances from all quar, 
 ters, that a large part of them could easily be spared; 
 and that at most, the pigs, cattle and poultry, of whose 
 food they had in former years formed a considerable 
 portion, would be the sufferers. These statements 
 proved to be correct; and many who had speculated 
 on high prices in the spring, were disappointed by the 
 tolerable abundance; and also, be it observed, by the 
 limited demand for seed —while the cry of scarcity 
 which had been raised by Sir 11. Peel and his adher¬ 
 ents, and under cover of which, he introduced his wise 
 and inevitable measure respecting the Corn Duties> 
 
10 
 
 was stigmatized as a “ Tamworth lie.” Ail this contri¬ 
 buted to lead to the delusion that was about to follow; 
 for when the potatoe blight re-appeared in 1846, the 
 cry of scarcity was hardly raised, so little inconveni¬ 
 ence was apprehended from it in this country. But, 
 in truth, the visitation was about to operate under 
 very different circumstances. 
 
 The expenses of potatoe cultivation are heavy; 
 and this, combined with the great loss, and still greater 
 trouble incurred in 1845—the mysterious character 
 of the decease, baffling all inquiries into its cause, and 
 all expedients for its remedy—and the rumoured pro¬ 
 bability of its re-appearance, had paved the way for a 
 most material diminution in the breadth planted in 
 1846. Judging from personal observation of consi¬ 
 derable extent, together with credible statements from 
 well informed quarters, we believe, the extent planted 
 was from 30 to 40 per cent less than in 1845. This 
 fact—a very important one, as I shall presently show— 
 escaped general observation. It was not in the gar¬ 
 den, but in the farm cultivation of the potatoe that it 
 operated. The cottage garden—the little plot of two 
 or three acres was planted as usual. It was among 
 the large growers of from 10 to 100 acres, hi Cheshire, 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire, and in the neighbourhood 
 of all our large towns and manufacturing districts 
 that the deficiency was to be looked for, and to be 
 found. They planted more gram and fewer potatoes; 
 
11 
 
 and, in one sense, it is tlio decreased breadth planted 
 with the latter article, not less than its partial destruc¬ 
 tion, that has placed us in our present condition.* 
 
 This assertion will, at first sight, appear para¬ 
 doxical ; for it would be objected, that in pro¬ 
 portion, as there was a more limited breadth sown, 
 the narrower would be the field of the blight’s 
 operation, and the less the injury it would do. But, we 
 have only to remember, to show the fallacy of this, 
 that to sow with wheat, barley, rye, oats, peas or beans 
 (the only substitutes available to a large extent at pre¬ 
 sent) the same space of ground which has been for¬ 
 merly occupied by potatoes, will by no means produce 
 an equivalent supply of food. For every 1000 acres 
 of potatoes which goes out of cultivation, from 3000 to 
 4000 acres of grain must be substituted, if the defici- 
 
 * A comparative statement of the quantity of wheat brought to tlio 
 markets of 290 towns in 37 weeks, from Sept. 5th, 1848, to May 13tli, 1847 
 shows an excess of supply over the 37 corresponding weeks in 1845 and 1846, of 
 only 238,580 qrs. But any evidence derived from this source as to the actual 
 consumption in the country, is most fallacious. large quantities of wheat are 
 bought and sold, the samples of which never enter the market; and of that which 
 is bought and sold there, large quantities are never returned to the inspectors. 
 The miller’s books for the last 9 months, as compared with the corresponding 
 months of the year before, would, we believe, reveal truer and very startling 
 evidence on this subject. Not to mention other cases within our knowledge-we 
 were told by one of the largest millers in the manufacturing districts, that, for 
 some months previous to Christmas, 1848, he could hardly supply the demand for 
 "O” H ^"g >>is mill going night as well as day. The consumption he said 
 was 50 per cent greater than usual. He attributed it to the few potatoes in the 
 country being husbanded for seed. 
 
12 
 
 ency is to be made good. This might easily be pro¬ 
 ved by figures. But no one, practically conversant 
 with such matters, would dispute it. Or, if the cal¬ 
 culation is considered too large, we may add to eke it 
 out, the fact, that considerable tracts of land in this 
 country, have, of late, been brought into potatoe cul¬ 
 tivation, which it will scarcely pay to sow with any 
 other kind of crop, unless, perhaps it may be French 
 wheat, which, we conceive, is not likely to come 
 generally into favour. 
 
 As regards, therefore, the past year, and to an 
 enormously greater extent as regards the present one, 
 we are precisely in this position. Without any imme¬ 
 diate prospect of being able to bring a larger space of 
 ground into cultivation, we find ourselves unavoidably, 
 and to a great extent, in a state of transition from a 
 cheaper and more productive , to a dearer , because less 
 productive kind of food. It is obvious that the inevi¬ 
 table result is, and will be, scarcity! Where the 
 operation of this fact is to end as regards Ireland, it 
 is difficult to see. And we have no doubt that the 
 same considerations -will apply, more or less, both now 
 and prospectively to the other nations of Europe who 
 have been suffering from scarcity; and it will explain, 
 in some degree, the fact of its having taken their 
 governments so much by surprise, of which, France 
 js a notable instance. 
 
13 
 
 It is perfectly certain that inthe present year, as 
 compared with the last, there has been, in this country, 
 a still greater and more important diminution of the 
 potatoe culture on large farms. How far this may be 
 the case abroad, we cannot say; but, in England it is 
 evident enough to those practically acquainted with 
 the subject. In fact, the seed alone for 100 acres 
 would this year have cost £800, at 8s. per bushel of 
 901bs.: and, of course, it was not to be expected that 
 (after the experience of the last two years) many spe¬ 
 culators could have been found sufficiently hardy to 
 run so great a risk, even if they could have procured the 
 seed. We are, ourselves, acquainted with several 
 large districts, in which, compared with 1845, the 
 quantity planted cannot exceed a tenth of the amount 
 planted in that year. Could we entertain a hope that 
 the potatoe blight has not already shown unmistake- 
 able proofs of its re-appearance, we should consider the 
 above fact the worst feature in our future prospects. 
 As it is, we consider it the best, and that a very bad 
 one. 
 
 The present visitation too has come upon us at a 
 time of unprecedented enterprise and consumption. 
 The Times is perfectly right in attributing some part 
 of the scarcity to the Railways. Look at the swarms 
 of Irish who are not confined to Liverpool or Bristol— 
 but who, for the last two years, and most especially 
 of late, have been adding to the population of almost 
 
14 
 
 every town or village in the kingdom; and thousands 
 of whom are at this moment being employed on the 
 different farms throughout the country, to fill up the 
 void which has been caused by the withdrawal of much 
 of our rural population to the Railways. Talk to these 
 men—they will tell you, one and all of them, that 
 they have left behind them in Ireland from one to fifty 
 acres each—left it, as they say—“ to the Landlord”— 
 left it, that is, to remain untilled during the coming- 
 year; while its former cultivators are getting good 
 wages and eating good wheaten bread in England, and 
 thereby adding to a consumption which is already too 
 great for the supply. 
 
 To suppose, therefore, that the next harvest, if it 
 only prove a good one, (of which, thank God! there 
 is at yet every sign) will deliver us from our difficulties, 
 is to cherish a miserable delusion. It is no mere mat¬ 
 ter of 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 of quarters, with which 
 we have to contend. As we observed above, we are 
 to a very considerable extent, abandoning a much 
 more productive for a much less productive article of 
 food, and the most abundant harvest with which the 
 bounty of Providence ever rewarded the toil of the 
 husbandmen, can scarcely supply the void. 
 
 Closely connected with this part of our subject is 
 the important question of foreign supplies. What 
 between Protectionist ravings and American brag- 
 
15 
 
 gardism, some of us have been led into gross delusions 
 on this subject, as we are just beginning to find out, 
 and as we shall be more fully and painfully convinced 
 of before we eat of the next harvest. But putting 
 aside the question of our prospects between now and 
 then, we will merely mention the fact that in ordinary 
 years we are supposed to have in hand at harvest a re¬ 
 serve of at least 3,000,000 quarters from the old crop ; 
 whereas this year it is perfectly idle to hope that we 
 pha ll have anything at all worth speaking of. And 
 also, that on the eve of last harvest we received a vast 
 influx of “ bread stutfs” which had been accumulating 
 for months previously, in expectation of the reduction 
 of the Corn duties. 
 
 Both these important sources of assistance will he 
 wanting next year; and this taken in conjunction with 
 what we have said on the subject of Potatoe Cultiva¬ 
 tion, sufficiently proves, we think, that our require¬ 
 ments in 1848 are not likely to he much less pressing 
 than in 1847; and the next point to be considered is 
 how far the large foreign supplies which have been 
 pouring in during the last two years are likely to be 
 continued during the next. It is pretty evident that 
 they are already begining to fail, as any one who 
 attentively considers the last advices from America 
 may perceive. But an examination of the following 
 official returns will illustrate the state of the case very 
 forcibly. 
 
16 
 
 Exports of Flour, Wheat, Indian Corn, and Indian Meal, from the 
 United States in each Year, from, 1835 to 1846, from July 
 lsi in each year. From Official Returns to the United 
 States’ Treasury Department: 
 
 Years. Flour. I. Corn. I. Meal. Wheat. 
 
 bbls. bushs. bbls. bitshs. 
 
 1835- 36 505,400 124,791 140,717 22,062 
 
 1836- 37 318,719 151,276 159,435 17,303 
 
 1837- 38 448,461 172,327 171,843 6,291 
 
 1838- 39 923,151 162,306 165,672 96.325 
 
 1839- 40 1,897,501 574,279 206,063 1,720,860 
 
 1840- 41 1,515,817 535,727 232,284 868,586 
 
 1841- 42 1,283,602 600,308 203,199 817,958 
 
 1842- 43 841,474 672,608 174,354 311,685 
 
 1843- 44 1,438,574 825,282 247,882 558,911 
 
 1844- 45 1,195,203 840,184 269,030 389,716 
 
 1845- 46 2,289,476 1,826,068 298,760 1,613,765 
 
 Export of Bread Stuffs from the United States to Great Britain and 
 Ireland from Sept. 1st, 1846 to March 21th, 1847. 
 
 Flour. I. Corn. Corn Meal. Wheat, 
 bbls. bushs. bbls. bushs. 
 
 1846-47 1,258,876 6,931,640 248,852 1,273,882 
 
 If we estimate the exports for the two months of 
 1846, preceding September, and for April 1847, (3 
 months in all) at one-half of the aggregate of the 7 
 months given above, the total export for the 10 months 
 from July 1st, 1846, to May 1st, 1847, would be 
 
 Flour. I. Corn. C. Meal. Wheat, 
 bbls. bush. bbls. bush. 
 
 For 7 months as 
 
 above . 1,258,876 6,931,640 248,852 1,273,882 
 
 For 3 months, as 
 
 per estimate... 629,438 3,465,820 124,421 639,441 
 
 Total... 1,888,314 10,397,460 373,273 1,913,323 
 
17 
 
 The export of these 10 months, therefore, exceed 
 by a very large amount the exports of any of the pre¬ 
 ceding 4 years in wheat, Indian corn, and corn meal, 
 and equal the export of flour any year but the last, 
 which was about 400,000 barrels more. In Indian 
 corn the excess is enormous, the highest previous ex¬ 
 port being under 2,000,000 bushels. It will also he 
 observed by a glance at the preceding tables, that in 
 wheat and flour, the exports in 1845-6, exceed those 
 of any of the five preceding years in a still more 
 striking proportion; just as the exports of 1839-40, 
 exceed in a very great proportion those of the four 
 previous years. 
 
 The explanation of this is the fact, that the 
 years 1835, 1836, 1837, and part of 1838, were 
 years of low prices in England. It did not pay 
 to import foreign corn. Prices rose towards the end 
 of 1838, and continued high till the middle of 1842; 
 consequently foreign corn came in with a rush hi 
 1839-40; hut the stream could not he kept up. 
 Prices were still high the next year and the next, hut 
 the importations were enormously diminished. Again, 
 in 1842, prices fell in England, with Sir Robert’s new 
 Tariff, and the exportations Rom the United States 
 came to a stand-still. During the years 1842-43, 
 1843-44, 1844-45, we received, comparatively speak¬ 
 ing, small quantities; hut, on the reduction of the 
 corn duties in 1846, we get a large part of the accu¬ 
 mulated surplus of the three preceding years; and 
 the rest we have received or are receiving hr 1846-7. 
 
18 
 
 To expect that we shall obtain next year the same 
 enormous supplies that we have received during the 
 two last, is to expect an impossibility. In fact, the 
 dates branded on the flour barrels sufficiently show 
 the state of the case. And what is said of the United 
 States will apply to other exporting countries. In 
 Dantzic for instance, we know that wheat of 1842, 
 has carried off the highest price of the market. 
 
 It is, therefore, the accumulated surplus of years, 
 the garnered overflow of many an abundant harvest 
 which is now saving us from a sore famine. Our exi¬ 
 gencies will, in all human probability, be as great next 
 year; but if we look to the same source to meet them, 
 we shall be sadly disappointed. There is nothing gained 
 by blinking the danger. Whatever our wants may be, 
 it is on our own resources, and our own economy that 
 we must mainly rely to supply them. The only ad¬ 
 vantage we shall possess over our condition last year, 
 will be in the spring-sown grain crops of 1847. They 
 must be, humanly speaking, far superior to those of 
 1846. But barley and oats are not, speaking generally, 
 the food of man hi this country; and if we are to make 
 the same mistake next year that we have made this, the 
 one may be converted into malt, and the other con¬ 
 sumed by our horses, before we are aware that both 
 are absolutely needed for our own subsistence. And 
 this is a matter that will be found well worthy of the 
 attention of the Government. 
 
 But all we have hitherto said is meant to be irre- 
 
19 
 
 spective of the fate of the present potatoe crop.—This, 
 after all, is the most momentous question; and, we think 
 it stands pretty much thus:—Should Providence mer¬ 
 cifully spare us a repetition of the visitation of 1845 
 and 1846, it would not, indeed, avert a very large 
 amount of suffering which awaits us hi the coming 
 year; for the deficient breadth of land which has 
 been sown with this vegetable, added to the empty 
 state of the granaries both at home and abroad, and 
 the inevitable requirements of Ireland would tell fear 
 fully against us. But by restoring confidence, and 
 thereby causing the potatoe to be much more exten¬ 
 sively planted next spring, it would shorten the time 
 of our trial; it would fill up that enormous void in our 
 supplies of food which no amount of human skill and 
 energy can otherwise at once repair; it would give us 
 breathing time, during winch, we may improve our 
 system of agriculture, drain lands that require it, and 
 bring fresh ones into cultivation, and thus enable our¬ 
 selves by degrees to dispense with, as a mam staff of 
 life, so cheap and so productive, but withal, so preca¬ 
 rious a vegetable as the potatoe. 
 
 But if—and to expect otherwise, is to hope 
 against hope, if, we say—that fatal plague-spot,* which 
 
 * To the eye of the casual observer the Potatoe crop never looked more 
 healthy, vigorous, and luxuriant; unless, perhaps, it was last year, when nothing 
 could exceed the promise of its external appearance. But as then, so now, in 
 any crop above a foot high 9 plants out of every 10 show undeniable proofs of 
 the approaching pest. There is the same brown blotch on the lower part of the 
 stem, under ground, which announced the disease last summer many weeks before 
 it broke out on the leaves of the plant. The only difference is, that this year it 
 has appeared earlier and with more fatal symptoms. 
 
20 
 
 to the eye of the initiated, is already sufficiently visible 
 among the early crops of potatoes throughout the 
 country, is really about to develope itself in the same 
 wide-spreading calamity of the last two years, why 
 then—God have mercy on this nation! We are not 
 speaking in hyperbolical terms, nor indulging vague 
 apprehensions, when we say that the results of such a 
 crisis are almost too awful to contemplate. The heart 
 sickens, and the eye grows dim in seeking to trace 
 its; appalling horrors! There is nothing before us 
 but years of famine,-with its gaunt accompaniments of 
 pestilence, sedition and general demoralization. And 
 yet, bitter and searching as the visitation may prove, 
 we must confess, that as a nation, we have eminently 
 deserved it; and the mind is irresistibly carried on 
 to those happier results which may succeed the storm, 
 and which it may be intended, in the all-wise purpo¬ 
 ses of Providence to introduce. It is obvious that it 
 must lead to convulsions that will probe deeply the 
 hollow and rotten places of our social and political 
 economy. It may do for us,—to whatever extent we 
 [require it, what already it is about to do on a broad 
 >and sweeping scale for Ireland. It may prove itself the 
 ■stem and unsparing reformer of many social abuses 
 •of deep and awful magnitude. 
 
 mi- ..-History informs-ns. that the extremes of riches 
 and,,-pauperism, luxury and squalor, feasting and 
 famine, enlightenment and brutish ignorance have 
 
21 
 
 ever met in hideous contrast in all advanced stages 
 of national wealth and civilization. But never, in 
 the records of great empires, did they present so 
 striking an antithesis as in the present condition of 
 England. Never, putting theory aside, and looking 
 only to their practical operation, did the relations of 
 Capital and Labour—of the Employer and Employed— 
 stand in more direct antagonism. 
 
 When the threatened crisis arrives, it will he then 
 that the true nature of our manufacturing system, at 
 once the mightiest and most perilous element of our 
 greatness, will be fearfully illustrated, and with it, the 
 huge amount of our national neglect and omissions. 
 Yes, when the latent evils of this gigantic but overgrown 
 fabric which prosperity has concealed, and periods of 
 temporary stagnation only partially revealed, shall be 
 fully and frightfully laid bare by the combined force of a 
 commercial paralysis and a grievous famine;—when the 
 swarming millions we have suffered to increase and 
 multiply in their abodes of vice, ignorance, and filth— 
 savages and heathens in the midst of a civilized and 
 Christian nation—unrestrained by any knowledge of 
 God or any regard for man, and maddened by the fiercest 
 and most imperative of all nature’s instincts—shall 
 burst forth, like the Huns and Goths of old, from their 
 native fastnesses, and carry havoc and rapine into the 
 peaceful country town and the secluded village, to the 
 destruction of all law and social order—when all this 
 
22 
 
 or worse shall overtake us, and who that attentively 
 reads the signs of the times can dare to guarantee that 
 it will not—we shall then begin to discover that, both 
 as a nation and as individuals, we have grossly neg¬ 
 lected our nearest and most important duties; that, 
 though we have shown some signs of repentance of 
 late, it has not come soon enough to save us; and 
 that neither our educational grants, nor yet our sana¬ 
 tory measures, which should have dated a quarter of 
 century hack, can now avert, or rather mitigate the 
 retribution which threatens to ! overwhelm us. 
 
 For there are worse features in the picture than 
 even the tumultuous outbreaks of a savage and hunger- 
 smitten multitude. Pestilence and Famine are twin 
 sisters; and the effects of their allied ravages upon 
 the thick world of human life which crowds and hud¬ 
 dles in the labyrinthal hive of the manufacturing town, 
 in the narrow lanes and fetid alleys, and damp noisome 
 cellars of city and of suburb, amidst poisonous exhala¬ 
 tions and disgusting nuisances, and every means and 
 appliance for breeding and aggravating a pestilential 
 miasma—the effects of all this, we say, may be 
 imagined, but cannot easily be described. One thing 
 we may make quite sure of—the mischief will not end 
 where it begins. The diseases bred among squalor, 
 misery and rags, will assuredly ravage in their turn 
 the abodes of the luxurious and wealthy; and dearly 
 shall we pay for our long neglect of the happiness and 
 social comfort of the great mass of the population. 
 
23 
 
 In a very few weeks the fate of the Potatoe crop, 
 that is, the food of millions, will be clearly seen. Upon 
 it depends the peace, the prosperity, the very safety 
 of the Empire. Those who have watched most closely 
 the progress of its mysterious foe, can scarcely venture 
 to hope anything hut the worst. The visitation, if it 
 does come, will surpass the calamity of 1846 as in¬ 
 tensely as that did the one of 1845. Beneath its over¬ 
 whelming shock, England will reel and totter on the 
 giddy pinnacle of her greatness, and perhaps, present 
 to future ages an awful instance of the instability of 
 all material power. 
 
 But we would hope, that when the fiery tempest 
 has passed over, and left us scorched, and humbled in 
 the dust, we may arise a sadder yet -wiser people. 
 We may learn to abate largely of our Pride, our 
 Mammonism and out inordinate worldliness. We may 
 exchange our luxury for moderation, and our self- 
 seeking and self-aggrandisement for an enlightened 
 philanthropy and a due regard to the social welfare of 
 the masses; and England may take her place the 
 happiest and most virtuous, as she is already the 
 wealthiest and most powerful, among the nations of 
 the earth.