[camelite]

> it was limited compare to what a modern government could do

That's 100% irrelevant. Compare it to what the contemporary British government was capable of doing - the very same protagonists with the same means available to them, who refused to act in Ireland - which was to prevent starvation during a the Highland potato famine[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Potato_Famine#Famine_...

Trevelyan made completely clear that "the people cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to starve" in a letter of September 1846.