exertion of
every kind was paralyzed; everything that could sustain or improve the
country was paralysed, by this blind, or wicked, or stupid, or
headstrong legislation of Lord John Russell's Government, by which the
energies and the capital of the country were squandered upon labour that
could not, and was not intended to, make any remunerative return
whatever.

Whilst the value of the general principle of employing labour on
profitable rather than on unprofitable works was evident enough, and
accepted by almost everybody, the practical carrying out of that
principle was not without its difficulties. Those who endeavoured to
solve them brought forward plans varying from each other in some
particulars; but, taking them collectively, there was sufficient good
sense in them to enable the Government to frame a system of reproductive
employment for the exigencies of the period.

Fears were entertained by many that much of the arable land would remain
unfilled in the ensuing spring, by which the Famine would be
perpetuated; and it was thought the labour of the country ought to be
made available for that purpose. A kind-hearted, charitable clergyman,
the Rev. William Prior Moore, who endeavoured most zealously to relieve
the sufferings of the people, put forward this view very strongly, in
letters addressed by him to the Chief Secretary. In those letters he
accuses the Government of being mere theorists, ignorant of the
practical way of relieving Ireland. "The Labour Act," he says, "was
worse than _absurd_--it was in many respects _pernicious_. The Chief
Secretary's letter (I speak with all respect), though well meant, was in
many cases impracticable; and the late Treasury Minute, also
well-intentioned though it be, is for the most part _incomprehensible_;
and when the three are taken together, or brought partially into
operation together, as in some places is attempted, the Irish gentry
would require a forty-horse power of intellect to understand or avail
themselves of them."[127] "I do not say, as many do," Mr. Moore
continues, "that the roads will be spoiled by cutting down the hills; on
the contrary, it will be of the greatest advantage to have level
highways through the land; but I do say, that there could not by
possibility have been a more absurd misapplication of the labour and the
power of the country. _Level roads are a good thing, but food is
better._ And what will level highways do for the poor of Ireland next