[191] MS. Memoir of his famine experiences, by Dr. Donovan. "Up to this morning, I, like a large portion, I fear, of the community hooked on the diaries of Dr. Donovan, as published in _The Cork Southern Reporter_, to be highly coloured pictures, doubtless intended for a good and humane purpose; but I can now, with perfect confidence, say that neither pen nor pencil ever could pourtray the misery and horror, at this moment, to be witnessed in Skibbereen." _Mr. Mahony, the artist of the Illustrated London News, in his letter from Skibbereen to that journal, Feb. 13, 1847, p. 100._ CHAPTER X. The Landlords' Committee--A new Irish party--Circular--The "Great Meeting of Irish Peers, Members of Parliament and Landlords" in the Rotunda--The Resolutions--Spirit of those Resolutions--Emigration--Great anxiety for it--Opening of Parliament--Queen's Speech--England on her Trial--Debate on the Address--Lord Brougham on Irish Landlords--Lord Stanley on the Famine--Smith O'Brien's Speech--Defends the Landlords--Mr Labouchere, the Irish Secretary, defends the Government--The Irish Agricultural population were always on the brink of starvation, and when the Blight came it was impossible to meet the disaster--The views of the _Morning Chronicle_ on the Government of Ireland--Mr. Labouchere quotes the Poor-Law Enquiry of 1835 and the Devon Commission--Change of the Government's views on the Famine--Griffith's estimate of the loss by the Blight--Extent of Irish pauperism--Lord George Bentinck points out the mistakes of the Government--The people should have been supplied with food in remote districts--He did not agree with the political economy of non-interference--Mr. D'Israeli's manipulation of Lord George's speech--Letter of Rev. Mr. Townsend of Skibbereen--Fourteen funerals waiting whilst a fifteenth corpse was being interred--Quantity of corn in London, Liverpool and Glasgow--Lord John Russell's speech--He regarded the Famine as a "national calamity"--Absurd reason for not having summoned Parliament in Autumn--Sir Robert Peel's view--The Prime Minister on the state of Ireland--His views--His plans--Defends the action of the Government--Defends unproductive work--Reason for issuing the "Labouchere letter"--Quotes Smith O'Brien approvingly--Mr. O'Brien's letters to the landlords of Ireland (_note_)--Confounding the questions of temporary relief and permanent improvement--Fallacy--Demoralization of labour--The Premier's "group of measures"--Soup kitchens--Taskwork--Breakdown of the Public Works--Food for nothing--Mode of payment of loans--£50,000 for seed--Impossibility of meeting the Famine completely--The permanent measures for Ireland--Drainage Act--Reclamation of waste lands--Sir Robert Kane's "Industrial Resources" of Ireland--Emigration again--Ireland not