The prices of provisions were high during nearly the whole of last year (1840), and there was a good deal of distress in some districts. Applications for assistance were as usual made to government on the approach of summer in the present year, and these being referred to the Dublin Board, were in every instance fully inquired into. It was evident that much pressure prevailed in some parts of the country, owing to the exhaustion or short supply and consequent dearness of the potato; but “it did not appear that the pressure was so great, or the distress in any district so urgent, as to call for extraordinary interference on the part of the government.” The distress which usually took place in the western parts of Ireland between the months of June and September, from a failure of the old and pending the incoming of the new crop, will it may be feared continue more or less to prevail, so long as the potato continues to be the chief or nearly sole food of the population. The intensity of the distress is always in proportion to the length of the interval between the exhaustion of one crop and the maturity of the other; and this interval under ordinary circumstances can only be reduced by the exercise of forethought and prudential considerations by the people themselves. These qualities happily appear to be increasing and becoming more general, the pressure of the preceding year having been sustained, not only without the usual aid from government, but with less suffering and privation than had prevailed in former years, although the last year’s crops were considerably under an average. The people therefore must have been more careful in husbanding their means, and were likewise, it may be presumed, better informed with regard to their social position, and the duties which it imposed upon them. Perhaps a portion of this improvement may be attributed to the frequent discussions with reference to the Poor Law question during the last five or six years, partly also to the organization of unions latterly in progress throughout the country, and partly likewise to the spread of temperance which had happily taken place of late.
[Sidenote: 1842. Fourth report of proceedings in Ireland.]