The “Jamestown,” a sloop of war lent by the government for the voyage, was freighted by the people of Massachusetts with 8,000 barrels of flour.  She sailed from Boston on the 28th of March, 1847, and arrived at the Cove of Cork on the 12th of April, after a most prosperous voyage.  The people of Cove immediately held a public meeting, and adopted an address to her Commander, Captain Forbes, which they presented to him on board.  The citizens of Cork addressed him a few days later; and the members of the Temperance Institute gave him a soiree, at which the Rev. Theobald Mathew assisted.

The “Macedonian,” another ship of war, arrived later on, conveying about 550 tons of provisions, a portion of which was landed in Scotland.  Both ships were manned by volunteers.

On the appearance of the potato blight scientific men earnestly applied themselves to discover its cause, in the hope that a remedy might be found for it.  Various theories was the result.  There was the Insect Theory; the Weather Theory; the Parasitical Theory; the Electrical Theory; the Fungus Theory; the Fog Theory.  But whilst philosophers were maintaining their different views;—­whilst Sir James Murray charged electricity with being the agent of destruction, and Mr. Cooper cast the blame upon the fogs; whilst Professors Lindley, Playfair, and Kane were busy with their tests, and retorts, and alembics; and whilst others again—­microscope in hand—­were in active pursuit of the Aphis vastator, or Thrips minutissima, a not inconsiderable class of persons, departing widely from all such speculations, discovered, beyond all doubt, that Popery was the true cause of the potato blight.

“As this predicted system” [popery], says a pamphleteer, “is an idolatrous one, any treaty with it must be opposed to God’s will, and call down his wrath upon those nations who have commerce with it:  more particularly upon nations wherein its hideous deformities are most signally manifested.  Now, how have we seen in the first part of this work, that He has repeatedly punished?  By famine and pestilence!  Oh, beloved countrymen of every diversity of creed, in the heart-rending scenes around us do we witness punishment for national idolatry, systematic assassinations, performed occasionally with a refinement of cruelty worthy of incarnate devils."[306]

“This much is certain” writes a public journalist, “that our country is scourged with famine.”  Three causes are then given for the scourge; the second of which is, “Idolatry in the professing people of God, especially when sanctioned by the rulers of the country.”  After quoting examples from the Old Testament of the manner in which God punished idolatry, he proceeds:  “It [idolatry] is just as true of the millions of Ireland as it was of the millions of Judah:  ’They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.’  And to complete the resemblance to apostate Israel, and fill the measure