now pointless or impractical, other means of relieving the famine had to be found. Hatherton stated that his purpose was to "implore their Lordships, in considering this question, to make the case of Ireland their own" and demanded the government treat it exactly as if it had happened in England. He asked the peers to consider what would have been their response if some pest had destroyed England's cotton imports: would they leave Manchester to its own devices? He demanded abolition of all residual restrictions on food imports. The government was proposing to finance relief from future taxes on Ireland. Hatherton rejected this explicitly. What would be the response to a famine in England: would Parliament really expect English landlords to pay thee entire cost of relief. Hatherton made clear that he was not speaking on the government's behalf: His speech, which had departed far from the usual formal paean to the monarch's words and criticised the central pillar of government policy, elicited considerable outrage. It was the peak of his career as a working peer. From this point, his contributions became briefer and less frequent. This roughly corresponds to the onset of important family bereavements. Hyacinth Anne, his daughter had died in July 1847 after a long struggle against tuberculosis. His wife, Hyacinthe Mary, too became seriously ill, dying at the beginning of 1849. Hatherton served as Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire between 1854 and 1863an honorific local post with considerable ceremonial duties that perhaps filled his time as he himself became less able to travel. His last contribution to debate, in 1852, was characteristically trenchant attack on the arrogance of the telegraph companies who inconvenienced residents without notice, and a demand that they pay compensation. Business and property interests Hatherton was a very wealthy man, partly because of his inherited interests, and partly because of his own business activities. The Littleton inheritance brought almost the whole of the manor of Penkridge, as well as the former Penkridge deanery manor, and other estates in that area – land accruing in the hands of the Littletons since 1502. The Walhouse inheritance brought large coal mines in Cannock and Walsall, as well as extractive works supplying the construction industry, including sandstone and limestone quarries, brickyards, gravel pits and sand pits. This made him immensely influential as a landlord and employer across a large tract of south and central Staffordshire. A listing of