cause of the distress, and that it had been greatly aggravated by the
rotting of the potatoes in the pits in which they were stored. This
discovery was made at so late a period that the peasantry were not able
to provide against the consequences of that evil."[34] From the letters
published in their own Report, the Committee would have been abundantly
justified in adding, that the distress was greatly increased by the
almost total want of employment for the labouring classes, arising from
the fact, that very many of the landlords in the districts that suffered
most were absentees. A writer on this Famine, who, in general, is
inclined to be severe in his strictures upon the people, thus opens the
subject:--"The distress which has almost universally prevailed in
Ireland has not been occasioned so much by an excessive population as by
a culpable remissness on the part of persons possessing property, and
neglecting to take advantage of those great resources, and of those
ample means of providing for an increasing population, which Nature has
so liberally bestowed on this country."[35]

The winter and spring of 1822 continued very wet, and it was extremely
difficult to perform any agricultural work. Seed potatoes were
excessively scarce, and the first relief that reached the country was a
prudent and timely one; it consisted of fourteen hundred tons of seed
potatoes, bought by the Government in England and Scotland. Charitable
persons at home also gave seed potatoes, cut into _sets_, to prevent
their being used for food; yet, in many instances, those sets were taken
out of the ground by the starving people and eaten. Cork, Limerick,
Kerry, Clare, Mayo, and Galway were the counties most severely visited.
These, according to the accounts given in the public journals of the
time, were in a state of actual famine. Potatoes were eight pence a
stone in districts where they usually sold from one penny to two pence.
But although the potato had failed, food from the cereal crops was