come to him from the extreme west, and tell him there is in their parish neither potatoes nor corn—­that they have neither stores at home, nor trade from other places; and ask him, as ‘Commissary-General,’ and public relief officer, what he is to do with them?  The epauletted philosopher strait replies that trade must take its course (such was the word of command), that ‘nothing was more essential to the welfare of a country’ (so it was written in the orderly book) ’than strict adherence to the principles of free trade;’ and that if the deputation doubted it, they might read Burke.”  A leading morning journal remarked, that Sir R. Routh’s reply to the Achill deputation had not even the merit of originality; for there was an Eastern story, in which it was related how a deputation of Sheiks came, once upon a time, to the Calif, and announced the sad intelligence that all their date trees had withered, and his subjects were perishing throughout the region whence they had come.  They demanded assistance:  but before the Calif could make any reply, an old Moollah, who stood by, told them to return home and read the Koran,—­Freeman’s Journal.

[160] Commissariat Series, p. 6.

[161] Ib. p. 15.

[162] Ib. p. 16.

[163] Treasury Minute, Sept. 29.  Commissariat Series, p. 63.

[164] Letter to Mr. Trevelyan, dated 19th Sept.  Commissariat Series p. 80.

[165] Commissariat Series, p. 208.

[166] Cork Examiner.

[167] MS. Memoir of his experience during the Famine, kindly written for the author by Daniel Donovan, Esq., M.D., Skibbereen.

[168] Commissariat Series, part I, p. 46.

[169] Commissariat Series, part I, p. 55.

[170] Ib. p. 50.

[171] Commissariat Series, p. 122.

[172] Mr. Trevelyan gives the following caution to the Commissary-General at Malta:  “I am told that the Egyptian wheat is mixed with the mud of the Nile; and if such be the case, it will, of course, be washed before it is ground.”—­Commissariat Series, p. 156.

Salm was the word used at Malta for “quarter,” being, probably, a corruption of the Spanish salma, a ton.

[173] In some parts of Ireland there existed a custom of boiling new wheat in this manner, but without steeping.  It was merely intended as a mess for children, in order to give them the first of the wheat at reaping time, but was not continued as a mode of cooking it.  This mess was called in, Irish gran bruitead, (pron. grawn breehe), boiled or cooked grain.

CHAPTER IX.