ll confidently rely on your co-operation in devising such other means
for effecting the same benevolent purpose, as may require the sanction of
the Legislature."

On 13 March, Parliament talked somewhat about the matter, and Sir James
Graham, the Home Secretary, confessed that distress "pervades the whole
of Ireland. It is to be found in every province, in every county, in
every union; nay, almost in every parish in Ireland. The course Her
Majesty's Government has taken, has been this. We have, in particular
parts of Ireland, established depots, where food can be bought at an easy
price, at the very lowest price, and, thinking that eleemosynary relief
ought to be avoided as much as possible, we propose to afford, to the
utmost possible extent, either by means of public works to be undertaken,
or by works already established, the means by which the people may be
enabled to earn wages, and so to purchase food at the moderate cost at
which it will be supplied."

But, in spite of all the Government could do, with the very best
intentions, gaunt famine was stalking through the land, and the hungry
folk could not be quiet, with the sight of food before them. They were
not going to starve when they saw the bakers' shops full of bread, and
the butchers', of meat. Human nature and a hungry belly could not stand
it--so we can scarcely wonder at the famine riots which ensued. The
shops were wrecked, the food was taken; they even laid their hands on a
boat proceeding from Limerick to Clare with relief, and plundered it of
its cargo of corn and maize flour. But, alas! this was only the
commencement of the sad story.

There was an alternative, open to those who had the money--to
emigrate--and this they did--see the following, from the _Cork Reporter_,
copied into the _Times_ of 18 April: "For the last fortnight our quays
have been daily thronged with the fine and stalwart peasantry of this and
the adjoining counties, preparing to emigrate to various parts of the
trans-Atlantic world. Perhaps, upon no former occasion, even before the
hope of railway employment was held out to the people, and when
"Government grants" for their relief were never heard of, did the number
of emigrants from this quarter exceed the proportion of this present
year. Besides the various large and full-freighted vessels, which have
left the quays of Cork, direct for America, several ships were despatched
to the west of the county, and had no difficul