[33] A disease called the _Curl_ appeared in the potato in Lancashire in 1764. It was in that Shire the potato was first planted in England; and we are told the Curl appeared in those districts of it in which it was first planted. The nature of the disease is indicated by its name. The stalk became discoloured and stunted almost from the beginning of its growth; it changed its natural healthy green for a sickly greenish brown, the leaves literally curling like those of that species of ornamental holly known as the "screw-leaved." The plant continued to grow, and even to produce tubers, but they never attained any considerable size, and from their inferior quality could not be used for food. The Curl appeared in Ireland about the year 1770, where it caused much loss, as we find a large quantity of grain was imported for food about that period. Isolated cases of the Curl were not unfrequent in this country long after it ceased to cause alarm to the farmer. I have seen many such cases, especially where potatoes were planted on lea. On examining the _set_ beneath a plant affected with Curl, I invariably found it had not rotted away as was usual with those sets that produced healthy plants. There were as many remedies propounded for the Curl as for the blight of 1846-7 with a like result--none of them were of any use. [34] Report of the Committee for the "Relief of the Distressed Districts in Ireland," appointed at a general meeting, held at the City of London Tavern, on the 7th May, 1822. [35] _Impartial Review_. Miliken, Dublin, 1822. [36] Report of Parliamentary Committee. [37] Amongst the means resorted to at this time to raise funds for the starving Irish was a ball at the Opera House in London, at which the King was present, and which realized the large sum of £6,000. This piece of information the Irish Census Commissioners for 1851, curiously enough, insert in that column of their Report set apart for "_Contemporaneous Epidemics_." [38] The chief part of this £60,000 is still under the management of the "Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor of Ireland." [39] The following extract from a letter of Mr. Secretary Legge, dated London, May 4, 1740, and addressed to Dublin Castle, expresses very _naively_ an English official's feelings about the terrible frost and famine of that year:--"I hope the weather, which seems mending at last, will be of service to Ireland, _and comfort our Treasury, which, I am afraid, has been greatly chilled with the long frost and embargo."--Records, Birmingham Tower, Chief Sec.'s Department, Box 10._ [40] Speech, p. 26; quoted by Plowden, vol. i., p. 253. Note. [41] Answer to Address of Commons, 2nd July, 1698. [42] _Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland_, App., p. 149. [43] _Groans of Ireland_, p. 20. [44] Mr. Prior's Pamphlet was dedicated to the Viceroy, Lord Carteret, and both Houses of Parliament, which proves how certain he was of his facts and statements.