October 8th, 1846: O'Connell's secretary urges landlords, in a forlorn hope, to join the Repeal Association.
W.J. O'Neill Daunt, of Kilcasan, Co Cork, writes to fellow landlords: "You struggle to recover for yourselves and for your countrymen the exclusive control of your and their concerns; which for the last 46 years have been mismanaged by foreigners, always incompetent and often hostile.
"It may be asked, why agitate Repeal at a period when our attention is engrossed by the heavy dispensation with which Providence afflicts the land? I answer - because the Union is essentially connected with all Irish distress, either as a cause or as an aggravation. It is the direct source of much of the evil that our country suffers; and it aggravates all evils that spring from other sources, by diminishing or annihilating our power of self-protection."
He asserts that in no self-governing country "do the sufferers in periods of scarcity experience, from any portion of their fellow subjects, the heartless barbarity with which a part of the English press has treated the starving Irish population".
(Punch, for instance, publishes cartoons week after week depicting the Irishman as a filthy, brutal creature, a would-be assassin begging for money, under the pretence of buying food, to spend on weapons. It is comforting to treat Ireland's desperate appeals as merely another whine from a professional beggar. "It is possible to have heard the tale of sorrow too often," the Times remarked on August 3rd.)
Sir James Graham, who had been Home Secretary in the Peel administration, is critical of the policies adopted by the Whig government. He confides to Sir Robert Peel: "The real extent and magnitude of the Irish difficulty are underestimated by the government, and cannot be met by measures within the strict rule of economical science."
Meanwhile, a revised set of instructions for local relief committees is published. They stipulate that food can be sold only in small quantities and to people who have no other means of procuring it. Providing food gratuitously is to be avoided as far as possible. It can be given only to those who are incapable of employment on the public works and if the local workhouse is full.
Furthermore, underlining a reliance upon private enterprise, the relief committees are ordered to charge the local market rate for corn. In an era of high prices, this is of little benefit to the poor. When committees in Cork and Kerry reduce prices below the market rate, however, local traders complain to the government that their prices are being undercut.
Grain will not be sent to Ireland or any depots opened until the government believes it is absolutely necessary. Moreover, Scotland - where there is also a scarcity - is to be supplied with imported food before any can be sent to Ireland.