He rejected, therefore, heroic remedies ; but he had
been Chief Secretary for Ireland in a season of dis-
tress, and he did not leave a starving population to
depend on what are called the laws of supply and
demand. He set considerable public works on foot,
and he introduced secretly, but through the agency
of the State, a vast supply of grain into the poverty-
stricken districts. These measures certainly saved
many lives, and Peel's memory is loved in Connaught
to this hour ; but above all, he repealed the corn laws ;
and though this great measure brought no relief for the
time, it proved that he was thoroughly sincere in his
Irish policy. I may say that in this matter I never
could believe that a bread-tax was not a national evil ;
and I heard with unfeigned disgust one of the savage
philippics of Disraeli in the session of 1846, the more
so that it was plain the orator was speaking for effect,
and had no heart in his cause. The scorn his counte-
nance expressed was, however, fine ; it was exactly
that on the face of Rachel in " Ph^dre."



92 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS OF A LIFE

In 1846 a terrible loss broke up, for the first time,
the circle of our home. My father died after a few
weeks' illness. I have briefly described his kindly
nature; he is not yet forgotten by a few surviving
friends. His purchase of Gartnamona, however, had
been unfortunate ; he had become entangled in many
transactions which his family never completely un-
ravelled, and which led to one unhappy estrangement
at least, and my mother and I were left the owners of
an embarrassed heritage in a season of dire distress.
