Victoria (TV Series)

Faith, Hope & Charity (2017)

Martin Compston: Dr. Traill

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Victoria is horrified to read about the Irish potato famine] 

  Dr. Traill : [voiceover, reading his letter in the newspaper]  "Famine is advancing with strides so fearful that I verily believe that if some superhuman effort is not made to relieve us, half our population will erelong be blotted from the book of being."

  Victoria : Sir Robert, have you read this letter from the rector of Skull? He writes that people in his parish are living off seaweed and nettles.

  Trevelyan : As you will see in my memorandum of the 17th, ma'am, nettles contain more nourishment than you might imagine. I believe, when gathered young, the leaves taste like spinach.

  Victoria : Doctor Traill writes that people are too weak to bury their dead. And that corpses are left by the side of the road.

  Trevelyan : The Irish like to imbibe at funerals. Perhaps that is why they are incapable of digging a decent grave.

  Victoria : Aren't you going to do anything, Prime Minister?

  Sir Robert Peel : I'm afraid it would not be... desirable for the government to intervene, ma'am.

  Trevelyan : [patronisingly]  The truth is, ma'am, the population of Ireland has grown beyond its natural limits. It would be immoral of us to interfere in what is an inevitable period of self-regulation.

  Victoria : Self-regulation?

  Trevelyan : [even more patronisingly]  I don't know whether you're familiar with the works of Malthus, ma'am, but this is exactly the sort of situation he predicted. Population growth always outstrips food production, with inevitable results.

  [Trevelyan and Peel exchange uncomfortable glances] 

  Victoria : I think I should like to visit Ireland. I feel I need to see the situation for myself.

  Sir Robert Peel : Such a visit would be inadvisable, ma'am.

  Victoria : Why not? Surely my presence will bring them some comfort.

  Sir Robert Peel : I'm not sure how comforting your presence would be. I could not guarantee your safety.

• [Dr Traill has written a letter to the newspaper, imploring the government and the Church of Ireland to help the Irish peasants who are suffering in the potato famine. He is praying at the altar in church when the bishop bursts in, incandescent with rage] 

  Bishop : [yelling]  Have you lost your wits, Traill? Do you understand what you are saying? That we ought to feed a gaggle of potato-eating papists because they have broght this misfortune upon themselves through their own improvidence and fecklessness?

  Dr. Traill : It's not *their* fault the harvest failed, my lord.

  Bishop : [yelling]  But it is not the church's responsibility to feed them. Let them find work. If we were to start supporting them, there would be no end to it. They must learn to live within their means!

  Dr. Traill : What means? A loaf of bread now costs ten shillings. That is a year's rent, my lord. The people of this parish are already starving. Soon they will be homeless as well.

  Bishop : [yelling]  That is not our concern, Traill.

  Dr. Traill : "For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee say, 'Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother and to thy needy in thy land.'" Deuteronomy 15:11.