c. to criticize his government's policy on Ireland
In the passage the narrator is literally talking about cooking and eating a child. He says that a child who has eaten well and is a year old would be a good food not matter how it was cooked. In the second paragraph, he says that eating the child would be no problem for landlords since they've already devoured the parents. The author may be talking about literally eating children, but in actuality he's criticizing his government's policy on Ireland.
