160 PoTATOE*. [Part It 



or pretend to like them, which is the same thing in 

 effect. 



272. In those memorable years of wisdom, 1800 

 and 1801, you can remember, I dare say, the grave 

 discussions in Parliament about potatoes. It was pro- 

 posed by some one to make a law to encourage the 

 groMlh of them ; and, if the Bill did not pass, it was, 

 I believe, owing to the ridicule which Mr. Home 

 Tooke threw upon that whole system of petty legisla- 

 tion. Will it be believed, in another century, that the 

 laAv-givers of a great nation actually passed a law to 

 compel people to eat pollard in their bread, and that, 

 too, not for the purpose of degrading or punishing, but 

 for the purpose of doing the said people good by add- 

 itig to the quantity of bread in a time of scarcity ! Will 

 this be believed 1 In every bushel of wheat there is a 

 certain proportion of four, suited to the appetite and 

 the stomach of man ; and a certain proportion of pol- 

 lard and bran, suited to the appetite and stomach of 

 pigs, cows, and sheep. But the parliament of the 

 years of wisdom wished to cram the whole down the 

 throat of man, together with the flour of other grain. 

 And what was to become of the pigs, com s, and sheep ? 

 Whence were the pork, butter, and mutton to come ? 

 And were not these articles of human food as well as 

 bread ? The truth is, that pollard, bran, and the coarser 

 kinds of grain, when given to cattle, make these cattle 

 fat ; but when eaten by man make him lean and weak. 

 And yet this bill actually became a law ! 



273. That period of wisdom was also the period of 

 the potatoe-mania. Bulk was the only thing sought 

 after ; and, it is a real fact, that Pitt did suggest the 

 making of beer out of straiv. Bulk was all that was 

 looked after. If the scarcity had continued a year 

 longer, I should not have been at all surprised, if it had 

 been proposed to feed the people at rack and manger. 

 But, the Potatoe! Oh! AVhat a blessing to man! Lord 

 Grenville, at a birth-day dinner given to the foreign 

 ambassadors, used not a morsel of bread, but, instead 

 of it, little potatoe cakes, though he had, I dare say, a 

 plenty of lamb, poultry, pig, &c. All of which had 



