“This root is become a favourite because it is the suitable companion of misery and filth. It can be seized hold of before it be half ripe, it can be raked out of the ground with the paws, and without the help of any utensils except, perhaps, a stick to rake it from the fire, can be conveyed into the stomach, in the space of an hour. We have but one step farther to go, and that is, to eat it raw, side by side with our bristly fellow-creatures, who, by-the-bye, reject it as long as they can get at any species of grain, or at any other vegetable. I can remember when the first acre of potatoes was planted in a field, in the neighbourhood of the place where I was born; and I very well remember that even the poorest of the people would not eat them. They called them hog-potatoes; but now they are become a considerable portion of the diet of those who raise the bread for others to eat.” This passage is from a Botley _Register_, of 1813; but it will represent Cobbett’s notions and feelings on the matter during all his life--from the scarcity-period at the beginning of the century (when bills were introduced in Parliament to “encourage” the growth of potatoes; and Ministers of State, at their grand dinners, used fried potato-cakes, as a substitute for bread), to the time when he came to predict a disastrous Irish famine. And it would be hard to deny the force of his arguments; the burden of which was, that in order to keep a people in a condition of semi-barbarism, little else was necessary than to cause potatoes to be the general food of the country. A knife (he pointed out) which even savages rarely dispense with, is not required by the feeder on potatoes. No forethought, and only a minimum of industrious attention, are needed. The love of ease, so natural to mankind, soon prevails, in the absence of incitement to labour--a safe commonplace; but one of vital importance to be borne in mind, when the thoughtless, and the ignorant, and the purse-proud are content to see a whole class of their fellow-beings ranked just above the swine. Some curious notions used to get afloat, concerning cheap food for the poor. There was the Duke of Richmond’s celebrated discovery of the nourishing qualities of curry-powder; and the recipe of another clever fellow, for making _flint-soup_. Milk, produced by animals fed upon stewed straw, was discovered to have great fattening properties.…