EFFECTS ON IRELAND 
and the Berlin Decrees caused a silk famine in 1809, which A-D. 1776 
reduced them to dire distress’. In so far as the war-prices 
gave a stimulus to agriculture, the Peace must have brought 
a reaction similar to that which, despite the action of the 
Corn Law of 1815, was so seriously felt in England. 
While Ireland had shared but little in the prosperity 
of war times, she undoubtedly suffered from the succeeding 
depression. The conditions of life were exactly those which 
made her feel the brunt of the trouble most severely. In and sub- 
England, where there was large capital, the distress did to Farming 
some extent act as a stimulant to call out more skill and jpeg 
enterprise ; in Ireland, where farming had not yet become a 
trade? but was an occupation by which men procured sub- 
sistence, the slightest signs of increased prosperity acted 
directly in encouraging an increase of population, while the 
pressure of distress could not force on any improvement; it 
only rendered labourers more miserable than before. The 
wretchedness in England was so great, that there was little 
inclination to attend to the condition of the Irish; though 
in 1822, and in 1831, when the potato crop was short, some 
public liberality was shown on their behalf. These years, 
however, were but a premonitory symptom of the frightful 
disaster of 1845 and 1846, when the state of Ireland was 
forced upon public attention, by the outbreak of the potato 
disease; the late crop of potatoes, on which the people 
depended for food, was entirely lost. As they had obtained with 
fair prices for other produce, they might have got through Fla 
the disaster with comparatively little help, and the Govern- e¢/amine. 
ment contented itself with purchasing £100,000 worth of 
Indian corn, and forming depdts where relief was administered. 
In the following year, however, the destruction caused by the 
disease was complete ; though both public and private charity 
were largely exerted, the shameful admission remains that 
very large numbers died through starvation, or from those 
fevers which are directly due to insufficient nourishment, 
Public works were opened, and there was very wide-spread 
sympathy shown to the Irish sufferers from all parte of the 
world. 
i Martin, 87. 
Sig 
1 On this change in England, see pp. 109, 545.