ABSTRACT
Nationalists and reformers in Ireland came to see in the potato failure yet another and more disastrous demonstration of the fundamental defects in the national economy. By the autumn of 1845, Peel appears to have been satisfied that the restrictions on the importation of grain had little to recommend them in practice. The partial failure of the Irish potato crop proved a factor of critical importance in the formulation of Peel’s plans in the closing months of 1845. Despite strong opposition from the landed interest in the cabinet, Peel persisted in his efforts to secure approval for an Order in Council remitting the duty on grain to a nominal sum. The early reports of the potato blight had produced few indications of alarm in Ireland. The Irish landlord’s position was not an easy one; he could expect little support or goodwill from the impoverished and exploited tenant-farmers and he received but scant sympathy from the English Whigs and Radicals.
