ve--with
a loyalty only too rare in public life--his powerful support to a
Minister who would otherwise have been driven to bay by his own
followers. It was, in fact, owing to Lord John's action that Peel
triumphed over the majority of his own party, and his speech in support
of the Ministry, though not remarkable for eloquence, was admirable
alike in temper and in tact, and was hailed at the moment as a presage
of victory. 'Peel lives, moves, and has his being through Lord John
Russell,' was Lord Shaftesbury's comment at the moment. Looking back at
the crisis from the leisure of retirement, Lord John Russell declared
that the Maynooth Act was a work of wisdom and liberality, and one which
ought always to be remembered to the honour of the statesman who
proposed and carried it. The controversy over the Maynooth Grant
revealed how great was the gulf between Peel and the majority of the
Tories, and Greville, as usual, in his own incisive way hit off the
situation. 'The truth is that the Government is Peel, that Peel is a
Reformer and more of a Whig than a Tory, and that the mass of his
followers are prejudiced, ignorant, obstinate, and selfish.' Peel
declared that he looked with indifference on a storm which he thought
partly fanatical and partly religious in its origin, and he added that
he was careless as to the consequences which might follow the passing of
the Maynooth Bill, so far at least as they concerned his own position.

Meanwhile another and far greater question was coming forward with
unsuspected rapidity for solution. The summer of 1845 was cold and wet,
and its dark skies and drenching showers were followed by a miserable
harvest. With the approach of autumn the fields were flooded and the
farmers in consequence in despair. Although England and Scotland
suffered greatly, the disaster fell with still greater force on Ireland.
As the anxious weeks wore on, alarm deepened into actual distress, for
there arose a mighty famine in the land. The potato crop proved a
disastrous failure, and with the approach of winter starvation joined
its eloquence to that of Cobden and Bright in their demand for the
repeal of the Corn Laws. In speaking afterwards of that terrible crisis,
and of the services which Cobden and himself were enabled to render to
the nation, John Bright used these memorable words: 'Do not suppose
that I wish you to imagine that he and I were the only persons engaged
in this great question. We were not e