tedated his letter by a day, in order to sustain its charge of
suppression.

The _Packet_ also omitted those portions of the letter which represented
the loss of the potato crop as extensive, and which called on the
Government to employ the people.[66]

The _Freeman's Journal_ of the 24th of November, in commenting on the
way in which its Tory contemporary dealt with Dean Hoare's letter, says:
"The _Packet_, in its last issue, has returned to its appointed task of
denying that the failure of the potato crop is so extensive as to demand
extraordinary measures on the part of the Government." Although, at the
time, this could be nothing more than a bold guess, it is highly
probable that the writer of it hit the mark, for in his memoirs,
published by his literary executors, Earl Stanhope and Lord Cardwell, we
find the Premier, in the middle of October giving this caution to the
Lord Lieutenant: "I need not recommend to you the utmost reserve as to
the future, _I mean as to the possibility of Government
interference_."[67]

A few days after the _Packet_ had published the above sentiment, the
_Evening Mail_ said, "there was a sufficiency--an abundance of sound
potatoes in the country for the wants of the people." And it goes on to
stimulate farmers to sell their corn, by threats of being forestalled by
Dutch and Hanoverian merchants. In the beginning of December, a Tory
provincial print, not probably so high as its metropolitan brethren in
the confidence of its party, writes: "It may be fairly presumed the
losses have been enormous.... We repeat it, _and we care not whom it
displeases_, that there are not now half as many sound potatoes in the
country as there were last December." The Editor seemed to feel he was
doing a perilous thing in stating a fact which he knew would be
displeasing to many of his readers.

FOOTNOTES:

[57] _Morning Post_, 11th September.

[58] _Ipswich Gazette_, 9th September.

[59] _Cambridge Chronicle_ for September.

[60] But the disease was not so rapid as this in all cases.

[61] _Freeman's Journal_, Nov. 4.

[62] The letter is dated Cork, 22nd Nov., 1845

[63] All the italics in the above quotations are Mr. Foster's own.

[64] The last short sentence about the "low estimate" was not quoted by
Sir Robert, although it immediately follows the previous one in the
portion of the communication given in the Memoirs. Part 3, page 171.

[65] Memoirs, part 3, page 143.

[66] The remedies w