that all
those visible signs which prognosticate any particular description of
weather, had altogether lost their significance. If a fine day came,
for instance, which indeed was a rare case, or a clear and beautiful
evening, it was but natural that after such a dark and dreary course of
weather, the heart should become glad and full of hope, that a permanent
change for the better was about to take place; but alas, all cheerful
hope and expectation were in vain. The morrow's sun rose as before,
dim and gloomy, to wade along his dismal and wintry path, without one
glimpse of enlivening light from his rising to his setting.

We have already mentioned slightly, those outrages, to which the disease
and misery that scourged the country in so many shapes had driven the
unfortunate and perishing multitudes. Indeed, if there be any violation
of the law that can or ought to be looked upon with the most lenient
consideration and forbearance, by the executive authorities, it is
that which takes place under the irresistible pressure of famine. And
singular as it may appear, it is no less true, that this is a subject
concerning which much ignorance prevails, not only throughout other
parts of the empire, but even at home here in Ireland, with ourselves.
Much for instance is said, and has been said, concerning what are
termed "Years of Famine," but it is not generally known that since the
introduction of the potato in this country, no year has ever past, which
in some remote locality or other, has not been such to the unfortunate
inhabitants. The climate of Ireland is so unsettled, its soil so various
in quality and the potato so liable to injury from excess of either
drought or moisture, that we have no hesitation in stating the startling
fact of this annual famine as one we can vouch for, upon our personal
knowledge, and against the truth of which we challenge contradiction.
Neither does an autumn pass without a complaint peculiar to those who
feed solely upon the new and unripe potato, and which, ever since
the year '32 is known by the people as the potato cholera. With these
circumstances the legislature ought to be acquainted, inasmuch as they
are calamities that will desolate and afflict the country so long as the
potato is permitted to be, as it unfortunately is, the staple food
of the people. That we are subject in consequence of that fact,
to periodical recurrences of dearth and disease, is well known and
admitted; but that