Trevelyan was an appointee of the Government - the responsibility for what happened was theirs, not his.
Had his opinions on such a fundamental matter coming from someone holding such a vital post conflicted, in any way conflicted with theirs he would have been dismissed - he was honoured for his work in Ireland - I million dead and mass immigration forever.
The government adhered to his wishes to the letter because they were one and the same.
In the end his was the voice that decided Ireland's fate
When the Government softened and decided to send ship-loads of seed corn for relief, he opposed it - none was sent.
It was the Government decision to dismantle was Peel had set up - not Trevelyan's.
The Government closed the workhouses and warehouses, adopted a policy of laissez-faire and mass immigration - not Trevelyan.
Britain put the interests of the richest and most powerful Empire on the planet before the lives of the Irish people - a million died and many millions were forced to emigrate - that is the judgement of history.
It is not the job of historians to "come up with a solution - it is their job to judge if the actions taken were the right ones - all have said that they weren't.
It doesn't hack it to blame the staff - it was Government policy, pure and simple, that was responsible for the outcome of the famine.
Whether the Government shared Trevelyan's views was immaterial - it was his opinions that were translated into action (or should that be inaction)
Jim Carroll

Trevelyan, Sir Charles Edward (1807-1886), British civil servant. As assistant secretary to the Treasury, 1840-59, he virtually dictated relief measures during the GREAT FAMINE (1845-9 . Together with the Prime Minister, LORD JOHN RUSSELL, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, SI CHARLES WOOD, he was totally committed to free trade; in addition he held the belief that the famine resulted both from a benign Providence seeking to reduce an expanding population and from 'the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.' From March 1846 he controlled public works through the disbursement of public funds. He defended the export of grain from Ireland on grounds of free trade; when rioting broke out in protest at the exporting of corn he deployed mobile columns of two thousand soldiers (who were provisioned with beef, pork, and biscuits) 'to be directed on particular ports at short notice.' He was opposed to railway construction as a form a relief and successfully opposed Russell's scheme for the distribution of some £50,000 worth of seedlings to tenant-farmers. Informed bv an official, 4 September 1847, that 'the face of the country is covered with ripe corn while the people dread starvation' and that 'the grain will go out of the country, sold to pay the rent' Trevelyan (who had never visited Ireland) replied, 'It is my opinion that too much has been done for the people. Under such treatment the people have grown worse instead of better: and we must now try what independence exertion can do . . .' In 1848 he ceased Treasury grants to distressed POOR LAW unions, though by now there was an outbreak of cholera. Later in the year he was knighted for his services to Ireland.