to pay the whole; still it was urged that great numbers of the
occupiers of small holdings would be as much in need of relief as any
portion of the community, and in no position whatever to pay rates. That
was true enough, but a line must be drawn somewhere, and when they
determined to make the soil responsible, it is hard to see to whom they
were to look for rates, had they exempted the small farmers from them.
The exemption they made, namely, of those whose rent was under L4
a-year, was probably not liberal enough, but there does not seem to have
been any great reason for finding fault with it.

But the great and fatal blot in the Labour-rate Act was, that under its
provisions the people could not be employed on works capable of making a
profitable return. Lord John Russell's Government followed the precedent
set by its predecessors as to the class of works upon which employment
was to be given; but there was this important difference in their
legislation,--the former made no grants under their Labour-rate Act,
while the latter supplied about half the cost of the Public Works from
the Treasury, the remainder being a loan. Against this Act several
arguments were employed, and, for the most part, very cogent ones. 1. It
was said that as the country was taxed for the whole outlay, whatever it
might be, the Government had no right to apply the money to unprofitable
works, thus taking from our capital (already far too small) a vast sum
that could not return to it. 2. Moreover, no matter whence the money
came, it was urged that to employ it on barren works was wrong in
principle, especially in a country like Ireland, with millions of
reclaimable acres, which would, if brought under cultivation, return in
almost every case ten per cent, for capital expended. 3. Again, it was
put forward with reason, that the employment for the past year was meant
to relieve transient distress only; but now the case was very
different--a new, a far more extensive and complete failure of the
potato had occurred. There was now no question of transient distress;
the potato, the principal--almost the only--food of five millions of the
people of Ireland, had not only failed a second time, but, to all
appearance, had failed permanently and finally: such was the
apprehension at the moment. In face of that alarming state of things,
why talk of cutting down hills, or of making useless roads,--provide
rather some substitute for the doomed esculent, and