September 27th, 1847: The distribution from government soup kitchens is to cease at the end of this month without reference to the grossly inadequate supply of potatoes.
With an economic slump in Britain, middle-class opinion now agrees with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Wood, that the Irish must rely on their own inadequate resources.
For Charles Trevelyan, his right-hand man in the Treasury, "the change from an idle, barbarous isolated potato cultivation to corn cultivation, which frees industry and binds together employer and employee in mutually beneficial relations . . . requires capital and a new class of men." He regards the Famine as a form of divine intervention to solve the problem of Irish over-population, a reduction in the population being a prerequisite for improvement. It is necessary to remove not only the potato cultivators from the land, but also many landlords who are seen as a barrier to modernisation.
The Lord Lieutenant, Clarendon, too considers the blight has initiated a social revolution which must be consolidated: "In the next two years there will be a grand struggle and the government of Ireland will be a painful thankless task, but I am convinced that the failure of the potatoes and the establishment of the Poor Law will eventually be the salvation of the country - the first will prevent the land being used as it hitherto has been."
Even though the Irish Poor Law administration is already in crisis, the British government forces it to assume responsibility for providing relief. The starving are to be left to the mercy of a Poor Law system maintained by whatever can be extracted from landlords and stronger farmers.
Relief Commission operations are to be wound up, Trevelyan informs Sir John Bur goyne: "The duties we lay down have been imposed by the Legislature on the Poor Law Commissioners and the Boards of Guardians." While regulations to protect the paupers are flouted, misery and chaos prevail in the workhouses. Guardians routinely abuse their position by awarding themselves lucrative supply contracts, which they fill with sub-standard materials to the detriment of the powerless inmates. Ratepayers are becoming cynical, blind to anything which might increase their burdens.
Wood warns Trevelyan to "look sharp after the rates", amid reports that landlords are seizing corn for rent, in advance of rate collectors. Britain is not abdicating its responsibility totally, however. The 22 poorest unions on the western seaboard will continue to receive assistance, but as far as possible, the money distributed is to be drawn from the funds of the British Relief As sociation rather than the imperial Treasury.
Trevelyan takes his family for a fortnight's holiday to France, "after two years of such continuous hard work as I have never had in my life".