The Famine continued through the year 1741 and even deepened in severity, provisions still keeping at starvation prices.  The Duke of Devonshire met the Parliament on the 6th of October, and in the course of his address said:  “The sickness which hath proved so mortal in several parts of the kingdom, and is thought to have been principally owing to the scarcity of wholesome food, must very sensibly affect His Majesty, who hath a most tender concern for all his subjects, and cannot but engage your serious attention to consider of proper measures to prevent the like calamity for the future, and to this desirable end the increase of tillage, which would at the same time usefully employ the industrious poor, may greatly contribute.”  In answer to this portion of the speech, they promise to “prepare such laws as, by encouraging tillage, and employing the industrious poor, may be the means for the future to prevent the like calamity.”  A Committee was appointed to inquire into “the late great scarcity,” and some matters connected with tillage.  They met many times; now and then reported to the House that they had made some progress, and at last the heads of a bill were presented by Mr. Le Hunte, the Chairman, which were ordered to be sent to England.  Nothing, as far as I can discover, resulted from this proceeding, unless indeed it was a bill passed in 1743 “to prevent the pernicious practice of burning land,” which is probable enough, as the heads of this bill were presented to the House by the same Mr. Le Hunte.  During the time this Committee was sitting and reporting, and sitting again, Mr. Thos.  Cuffe, seconded by Mr. George M’Cartney, presented the heads of a bill “for the more effectual securing the payment of rents and preventing the frauds of tenants,” which was received and read and committed by a Committee of the whole House on presentation, and was hurried through its other stages, apparently without discussion, but certainly without opposition; and this in the second year of a Famine, now combined with pestilence, which slaughtered one-eighth of the whole population.[26] The Act was a temporary one, but was never afterwards allowed to die out.  It was renewed in various reigns, and is the foundation of the Acts which were in force up to 1870 “for the more effectual securing the payment of rents.”

The land had been thrown into grazing to an alarming extent for years, so that the acreage for producing grain and other such food was very limited; the people fell into listless despair from what they had endured in 1740, and did not cultivate the ground that was still left for tillage.  The Catholics were paralyzed and rendered unfit for industrious pursuits, by an active renewal of the worst penal statutes.  The prospect of a war with Spain, which was actually declared in October, 1739, was made the pretext for this new persecution, and all the severities recommended by Primate Boulter were put into rigid execution.  These measures plunged the people into the deepest distress:  horror and despair pervaded every mind.[27]