The Tuam and Castlereagh boards dissolved.

The Tuam guardians, against whom judgment had been pronounced under the proceedings by mandamus, as noticed in the last Report,[[127]] although professing compliance with the peremptory order issued by the court, were still backward in fulfilling the duties which the law imposed upon them, as were also the guardians of the Castlereagh union. The commissioners therefore deemed it right to dissolve both these boards, on whom it was evident that reliance could not be placed for an effective administration of the law, in the impending season of scarcity and distress through the failure of the potato crop; and it was at the same time intimated, that if the boards elected in lieu of those dissolved “failed to discharge effectually their duties as guardians of the poor,” paid officers would be appointed under the 26th section of the Relief Act to carry its provisions into execution. “It is satisfactory (the commissioners observe), prepared as we are in case of necessity to resort to the exercise of those powers, that we have, in the first instance, always endeavoured to give effect to the views of the legislature, when resisted, by an appeal to judicial authority. We still trust that the decisions which the Court of Queen’s Bench has pronounced in vindication of the law, and which have invariably been followed by submission elsewhere, will finally have their due effect in the Tuam and Castlereagh unions, and render unnecessary the appointment of paid officers to perform the functions of guardians in those unions.”

Fever wards.

Considerable progress had been made in providing for poor persons afflicted with fever. In 50 of the unions, fever wards in connexion with the workhouses were either built or in course of building, and in others houses had been hired for the purpose, or temporary provision was made until fever wards could be erected. Arrangements had likewise been made for sending fever patients from the workhouses to county fever hospitals, and no pains were spared in urging upon the guardians the necessity of their being prepared for the occurrence of fever, which experience had shown to be always prevalent in seasons of distress, from whatever cause arising.

Failure of the potato.

We are now arrived at the period of the potato failure, some account of which as affecting England and Scotland has been given in the respective histories.[[128]] “The potato disease,” so called to distinguish it from the less general and entire failure of that root which has occasionally occurred, first appeared in America in 1844, but it did not show itself in Ireland until the autumn of 1845. The early crops generally escaped its ravages, but the late or main crop was found to be so far tainted with the disease, that although much of it was susceptible of being used at the time the potatoes were dug, they afterwards rotted in the pits, and became an offensive mass unfitted for the use of man or beast. This was especially the case in the western districts; and there as well as wherever the small cottier or the conacre systems prevailed, any failure in the potato crop, even although it were small and partial, would necessarily occasion much distress, the population being in such cases generally redundant, and subsisting nearly altogether on that root.

In the present instance there was not only a failure in the quantity raised, but the portion of the crop stored for future use was known to be in jeopardy, and the distress and alarm were proportionally increased. Both were in fact excessive, the one adding to the other, and causing the most serious apprehensions throughout the country. Government participated in these apprehensions, and took early steps for obtaining 100,000l. worth of Indian corn from America, in anticipation of the distress and difficulties sure to arise through the failure of the potato, and for which the country itself afforded no substitute.[[129]] This timely supply arrived in course of the spring of 1846, and in order to its distribution, depôts were established in various places along the coast under the direction of commissariat officers, with sub-depôts in charge of the constabulary and coast-guard.[[130]] Wherever the ordinary supplies of food were found to be deficient, Indian meal was sold from these depôts at a moderate price, to the relief committees if any such had been formed, and likewise to all who applied for it. The meal was not however at first relished by the people, for although far more nutritious than the potato, it was new, and they preferred that to which they had been accustomed. But necessity is ever a successful controller of taste, and Indian meal which was at first disliked, and about which the most absurd stories were promulgated, became ere long, and after the mode of preparing it came to be understood, a favourite description of food with the Irish people.

Although the potato had thus failed, not only in Ireland but in England and Scotland, and throughout the greater portion of Europe, the grain crops were generally abundant, and would in a great degree supply the deficiency caused by such failure, except where the potato constituted the chief or nearly sole article of subsistence, as was the case in many parts of Ireland. Here the void caused by the loss of the potato could only be supplied by imports from abroad, and this circumstance was adduced by Sir Robert Peel in January 1846 as one of the reasons for a reduction of the corn-duties, and led to Indian corn being admitted at a duty of 1s. per quarter, instead of being charged the same duty as barley, as it previously had been, and owing to which charge probably, it was little used or known either in England or Ireland.

In the autumn of 1845, as soon as the prevalence of the “potato disease” had been ascertained, government deputed three gentlemen of high scientific attainments[[131]] to examine into its nature, and to suggest means for checking its ravages. But the result showed that the evil was beyond the reach of human skill, for notwithstanding the application of every remedy which science could devise or experience dictate, the decay of the root continued with undiminished rapidity. On the appearance of the disease, the Poor Law Commissioners entered into active communication with the several boards of guardians on the subject, and endeavoured to mitigate the consequences of the potato failure, by authorizing the use of other kinds of food in the union dietaries. These were for the most part modified accordingly, and bread, or stirabout prepared from Indian meal, was substituted for potatoes.

A fourth commissioner appointed.