"The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated. The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people. We must not complain of what we are about to receive. We are about to undertake a great social operation, on a scale much larger than any that has yet been done in this country, and a great deal more efficiently. We must do it slowly, and do it thoroughly, and do it for good."

Charles Edward Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, letter to a colleague, 1846. Trevelyan was the senior British official with day-to-day responsibility for famine relief policy in Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845-52.