Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/358

 344 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1841- cases, building, draining, and the removal of the cumbrous banks which took the place of fences. This bill was read a second time on the 24th of June, but it did not become law. Its introduction would have been an important matter but for the troubles and ministerial changes which followed, and which unfortunately diverted attention from the subject. Lord Portman endeavoured to follow this up by a proposal to give compensation to English tenants, but his bill was defeated on the second reading on the 26th of June. The session closed on the Qth of August, with an outlook not so bright as that which marked its opening, but with no indication of the terrible extent of the trouble which was coming on. The gloom of the great disaster did not close over the country until some time after the prorogation, but symptoms of it speedily began to appear. Throughout the summer and early autumn there had been almost constant rain, chill and heavy rain, which made it certain that the harvest would be small in quantity and bad in quality, and that the nation would have to depend for its food upon a foreign supply. Soon a still greater misfortune was seen to be approaching, one altogether unforeseen and unprecedented. The potato disease was silently and rapidly destroying that crop upon which so large a portion of the people of Ireland especially depended, and the total failure of which would inevitably lead not merely to scarcity, but to absolute famine in many parts of that country. Fear and anxiety took possession of all minds, and all were anxious to know what ministers proposed to do. The League and the protectionists were especially interested. As the realization of the fore- bodings seemed to be more certainly approaching, it was everywhere admitted that some decided step must be taken with regard to the corn laws. Never since their first imposi- tion was it supposed that they could be maintained in their entirety in a time of actual scarcity. On previous occasions they had been temporarily suspended, the ports being opened to meet cases of emergency. Now it was doubted, by the most earnest protectionists, if after such a suspension they