Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/178

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162
FOOD RIOTS.
and there being no employment, says, 'On Monday morning, about ten o'clock, a boat containing 560 barrels of oats, the property of Mathew Reddan, Esq., or Tomgreeny, while waiting for the steamer, at Garrykennedy harbour, on its way to Limerick, was boarded by a large body of the populace, who, we are informed possessed themselves of part of the grain. The police were sent for to Killaloe, but did not arrive in time to capture any of the people, or to save the property.' The Dublin Pilot, of Wednesday, says that 'the populace of Limerick, many of them, no doubt, prompted by the cravings of hunger, have broken out in violent attacks on the flour stores and provision shops throughout that city, sparing none in their devastation. The stores of Sir David Roche, and those of Mr. Caswell, Mr. Poole Gabbett, and Messrs Harvey, all were attacked, and from each flour has been taken and distributed by the ringleaders in the coolest way imaginable. Far from justifying such conduct, we may account for it thus:—Provisions have risen so high, they are now beyond the reach of the poor—potatoes being 8d. per stone in the town, although we are informed by the Reporter that no actual scarcity exists. The crowd were at length dispersed by the military, and the mayor has called a meeting of the inhabitants, to provide some means of meeting the distress. In the meantime he has distributed ten tons of oatmeal amongst the most wretched, which, for the present, has quieted their cravings. But while all this is going on, the absentees are spending a thousand pounds each on a single ball Repeal the Union we say to the people of Limerick ; no other permanent remedy can ever be applied.'"

My comment at the time was "Repeal the Union! Repeal the Corn Law. That is both the immediate and the permanent remedy It is melancholy to hear this puling cry about a thousand pounds spent at a ball, while millions are taken from the Irish population under the pretence of protection—of protection to Irish agriculture. It is the lament that the farthing is not spent amongst them, while they say nothing of being robbed of the pound! This belly insurrection is the necessary consequence of reducing the people to potatoes as their only food. When wheat is the principal article of consumption, and when is a scarcity of that grain, recourse may be had to barley, oats,and rye, all furnishing comparatively nutritious farina; and when all these are scarce, the potato becomes