“With every disposition,” writes W.G., “to make allowances for the difficulties of their position, let me ask, Sir, how have the gentry acted?  They have seemed to think that the whole relief question just split itself into two sides, one of which belonged exclusively to the Government, the other exclusively to them.  One side comprised the duty of providing for the lives of the people, and this was left to the Government; the other, the duty of providing for the safety of the estates, and this the gentry took upon themselves.”  “They [the landlords] have complained much of the character of the works; they have strongly urged the Government to undertake something else; at all events to give up what they were doing at the moment; but when did their indignation take the shape of complaining that what the Government was doing was inadequate for coping with the starvation that was abroad?”

The penetrating mind of W.G. led him to forecast tremendous results from the potato failure, exclusive of its immediate effect—­death by starvation.  Having expressed his opinion that the extent of the destitution was fearful, he makes the following observations, which time has completely verified.  “As regards the effect,” says he, “of the present calamity upon the relations of landlord and tenant, believe me, that terrible as are the immediate and direct effects of the calamity, you will find a set of collateral results springing out of it, tending to the EXTERMINATION of the smaller tenantry by the landlords, that may lead you, ere many months, to regard the secondary stage of this scourge as scarcely less terrible to our unhappy peasantry than the first.”  And again:  “Symptoms of a WIDE-SPREAD SYSTEMATIC EXTERMINATION are just beginning to exhibit themselves.  I am not speaking under the influence of any prejudice against the landlord class.  Let none of your readers set down to the account of such a feeling my present warning as to the wholesale system of ejectment that is now in preparation.”  “The potato cultivation being extinguished, at least for a time, the peasant cultivators can pay no rents; sheep and horned cattle can pay rents, and smart rents too; therefore the sheep and cattle shall have the lands, and the peasants shall be ousted from them; a very simple and most inevitable conclusion, as you see.”  “I repeat it, a universal system of ousting the peasantry is about to set in.  Whether this results from the fault or from the necessities of the landlords it matters not.”  The following extract from the Roscommon Journal is emphatically cited by W.G. in support of his views. “The number of civil bills served by landlords for the approaching sessions of this town WILL TREBLE THOSE EVER SENT OUT FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS."[226]