Ation are an infallible test of a country's growth or decay, then
Ireland for nearly half a century after the Union must have been the
most prosperous country in Europe. The population of Ireland, which in
1792 was estimated at 4,088,226, had increased in 1814 to 5,937,856, in
1821 to 6,801,827, and in 1841 to 8,196,597. In other words, the
population, like the trade, of the doomed island had more than doubled
since the Union. We doubt if any European country could say as much.
Then came the great disaster, the potato famine of 1846-47, which,
undoubtedly, dealt a stunning blow to Irish agriculture. It was not the
first, nor the worst, of Irish famines--there is evidence that the
famines of 1729 and 1740 were, proportionately, more widespread and more
appalling in their effects. But, occurring as it did, in the middle of
the nineteenth century, with the press of the world as witnesses, it
attracted immense attention, and the nations, whom England, then high
and mighty in the undisputed supremacy of the doctrines of _laissez
faire_ and free trade, were not slow in retorting on their mentor.