§ Colonel Bagwellfelt it his duty to call the attention of ministers and of the House to a calamity, greater, perhaps, than had ever fallen on any country before. Of fourteen banks in the South of Ireland, no fewer than eleven had stopped payment. The consequences were dreadful to contemplate, as the people were now absolutely reduced to a state of starvation. The food which the country people had been in the habit of bringing into the towns was now quite withdrawn. No supplies could therefore be obtained; for as no circulating medium remained, the country people knew that if they brought any food into the towns it must be seized upon by the populace without payment, as no means of paying were in their possession. He begged in the strongest manner to call on the chancellor of the exchequer, as he valued the very existence of a considerable portion of the population of Ireland, to give his attention to this subject, in the hope that he might elicit something from him of a consolatory nature, which might, in this most pressing emergency, be forwarded to Ireland by that day's post. He hoped he should hear from the right hon. gentleman not only that government were disposed to do something, but that measures had already been adopted to mitigate the evil.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerdeeply regretted the distress to which the hon. gentleman had called his attention, but could not give that answer which he had desired to obtain. He was sure the House would feel the painful situation in which government was placed on the present occasion. To interfere in such cases was always a matter of great difficulty, and though the attention of government had been directed to the distress now felt in the South of Ireland, he was not prepared to give what the hon. member might consider a satisfactory answer.
Mr. V. Fitzgeraldfelt the deepest regret at the answer which the hon. member had just received from the chancellor of the exchequer. He concurred with the right hon. gentleman in admitting that extreme caution was necessary in such cases; he knew that interference on the part of parliament on such occasions was seldom thought advisable, and did not know that it had ever been called for on behalf of 1054 Ireland. He, however, now felt it to be his duty to warn the House that the present situation of the South of Ireland was one of great danger. Though it was not for government generally to interfere where distress was felt from local failures, he hoped it would not go forth to the world that they could do nothing on the present occasion.