In a story by the above name, Doyle mentions Peel and the Corn Laws. So I searched for "Peel Corn Laws" and found a biography of Peel. Very,very impressive. Makes it clear that he was on of those great Englishmen who made Britain truly great.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRpeel.htm

So I searched for "Peel Corn Laws" and found a biography of Peel. Very,very impressive. Makes it clear that he was on of those great Englishmen who made Britain truly great.


Robert Peel might have some wonderful atributes, but you're libel to find a few here who wouldn't 'praise' the 'Corn Laws' that had grain exported from ireland (while millions died of stravation) in order to 'maintain' price support for grain in england.

i guess its a matter of which side you were on... the rich and middle classes of england were provided with cheap 'corn', while the irish died...

Dear of troy: If I remember right, Peel wanted to cut the duties on imported corn, but was unable to get the change made. I'll look at it again. It figures that farmers in both countries wanted to keep out imports. And a big part of the problem was deficient communications which kept the magnitude of the problem from being known in time. Plus a few bastards who weren't reading their mail.

From the site you posted, Dr. Bill:

However, Peel's attempts to improve the situation in Ireland was severely damaged by the 1845 potato blight. The Irish crop failed, therefore depriving the people of their staple food. Peel was informed that three million poor people in Ireland who had previously lived on potatoes would require cheap imported corn. Peel realised that they only way to avert starvation was to remove the duties on imported corn. Although the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, the policy split the Conservative Party and Peel was forced to resign.

From The Victorian Web takes another view: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/famine.html

The Irish crisis was used as an excuse by Peel in order for him to the repeal the Corn Laws in 1846, but their removal brought Ireland little benefit. The major problem was not that there was no food in Ireland -- there was plenty of wheat, meat and dairy produce, much of which was being exported to England -- but that the Irish peasants had no money with which to buy the food. The repeal of the Corn Laws had no effect on Ireland because however cheap grain was, without money the Irish peasants could not buy it.

The Victorian Web's section on Sir Robert Peel:

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/peel/peelov.html

Bingley

Dear Bingley: Your paragraph seems to refute the allegations that the English were to blame for the starvation in Ireland.

And the biography you cited shows clearly that Peel was well qualified for the positions he held, and deserves respect.

re:Your paragraph seems to refute the allegations that the English were to blame for the starvation in Ireland.


except if you consider that english law striped the irish of ownship of their traditional farmland, and made them 'serf' and 'tenent workers' to english 'lords', and english law forbade the irish from owning anything more than 10£ in value, and many were barred from gainfull employment, unless they converted to church of england, and so on, and so on...

please Dr Bill, the english have given the world many worderful things, including the language we love. but their history in ireland is rather black... goodness knows, the worst treatment the english dealt out to the 'people of its empire', was the treatment it gave to the irish.

the irish starved because they were poor, and as GBS put, 'not deserving poor' --soup kitchens and other 'reliefs' were denied to catholic irish...(the cathlic irish were deemed unworthy of english charity) i don't think the english of today look back to the behavior of the mid 1800's and claim 'it was our finest hour'.. the irish are bit hot under the collar, but even the english in retrospect think they could have handle the 'situation' (3 to 5 million irish dying of starvation over a 20 year period) better.

Dear of troy: What I meant was that the potato famine was not foreseeable, and that the severity of its consequences could not be foreseen, that it was more the result of ignorance on all sides.