August 15th, 1846: With the poor at the end of their resources, the operations of the Relief Commission are wound up.
The Nation comments. "This day ends the commission of one set of government "Relief Commissioners". Today they close their office, balance their books and retire from their labours. The distress arising from last year's deficient potato crop is passed by the state alms givers shut their doors because it is the 15th of August, and the new crop ought to be crowned with abundance.
"And on this very day a cry of Famine, wilder and more fearful than ever, is rising from every parish and county in the land. Where the new crop ought to be, there is a loathsome mass of putrefaction the sole food on which millions of men, women and children are to be fed is stricken by a deadly blight, before their eyes and probably within one month those millions will be hungry and have nothing to eat.
"Yes, there have been, by this time, accounts received from every county in Ireland and they all concur in representing the blight as being, even at this early period of the season, almost universal for one family which needed relief during the past season there will now be three. Last year government had to be think themselves how to provide against a very general deficiency this year they will have to consider how a starving nation is to be fed."
Whatever machinery of public alms giving there is must not only be continued in operation, but have its powers and means increased, says the Nation "and it will be well, indeed, if with all possible efforts and furtherances in this direction, they may be enabled to stay the advancing Plague and rob Death of his prey".
British officials, on the other hand, consider that last year's aid programme should foster better relations between the two countries.
Sir Randolph Routh avers "A practical relief of this description, distributed to a nation in small issues, to reach the poorest families, is an event of rare occurrence, even in history . . . a deep feeling of gratitude has risen up in return for the paternal care of her majesty's government."
Sir Edward Pine Coffin writes that "an arduous task is ended at least for the present occasion. However, "the gratification which I have felt at the successful conclusion of this new and difficult duty is more than counterbalanced by the gloomy anticipation of the coming season. The prospect of the present potato crop is so uniformly bad, that I can scarcely enter into any details on the subject."