At last the Irish famine opened the Prime Minister's eyes (S592).
When in Elizabeth's reign Sir Walter Raleigh brought over the cheap
but precarious potato from America and planted it in Ireland, his
motive was one of pure good will. He could not foresee that it would
in time become in that country an almost universal food, that through
its very abundance the population would rapidly increase, and that
then, by the sudden failure of the crop, terrible destitution would
ensue. Such was the case in the summer of 1845. It is said by
eyewitnesses that in a single night the entire potato crop was smitten
with disease, and the healthy plants were transformed into a mass of
putrefying vegetation. Thus at one fell stroke the food of nearly a
whole nation was cut off.[1]
[1] O'Connor's "The Parnell Movement."
In the years that followed, the famine became appalling. The starving
peasants left their miserable huts and streamed into the towns for
relief, only to die of hunger in the streets.
Parliament responded nobly to the piteous calls for help, and voted in
all no less than 10,000,000 pounds to relieve the distress.[2]
Subscriptions were also taken up in London and the chief towns, by
which large sums were obtained, and America contributed shiploads of
provisions and a good deal of money; but the misery was so great that
even these measures failed to accomplish what was hoped. When the
famine was over, it was found that Ireland had lost about two million
(or one fourth) of her population.[3] This was the combined effect of
starvation, of the various diseases that followed in its path, and of
emigration.[4]
[2] Molesworth's "History of England from 1830."
[3] The actual number of deaths from starvation, or fever caused by
insufficient food, was estimated at from two hundred thousand to three
hundred thousand. See the Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Ireland."
[4] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," Vol. I.