year, if they have nothing to eat?"[128] When Mr. Moore penned these
lines he assumed, we must suppose, that all roads undertaken by
Government would be completed, which would, in its way, be an
improvement; but such was not the case.

At this time a class of landowners, and an extremely numerous one,
raised the cry of "excessive population." They were anxious to clear
their lands, not of rocks or briars, but of human beings; and in their
opinion the country could be saved only by a vast system of emigration.
Mr. Moore denies that such excess existed, and therefore condemns
emigration. "_It is not a fact,_" he says, "_that Ireland is
over-peopled;_ the contrary is the fact. But the strength of Ireland,
her bone and sinew, like her unequalled water-power, is either unapplied
or misapplied."[129] "Simply two things," in his opinion, were
required--"immediate occupation for the people, and that that occupation
shall, as far as possible, be made conducive towards providing for the
exigencies of coming seasons ... WE WANT EMPLOYMENT WHICH CAN BE MADE
IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD--and _nothing will or
can answer this purpose, save only to employ the people in tilling and
cultivating the soil; and not a moment is to be lost!_"[130] One is
inclined to doubt the feasibility of sending the labouring population of
Ireland in upon the tillage farms, to trench, and dig, and plough, and
sow; but Mr. Moore had his practical plan for doing it; and although he
does not go into details, it does not seem to offer insuperable
difficulties. "The plan I would suggest," he writes, "is briefly this:
to HIRE THE LABOURERS TO THE SMALL FARMERS ALL THROUGH THE COUNTRY, AT
HALF-PRICE, TO TILL THE GROUND. The farmers would be delighted at the
arrangement."[131]

The necessity of applying labour to the cultivation of the soil was also
most strongly insisted upon by a high Government official, Sir Randolph
Routh, the head of the Commissariat Relief Office, Dublin Castle, whose
experience was of the most extensive and valuable kind, he having
superintended the relief works through Ireland in 1846. He says: "Under
the circumstances which you describe, I recommend you to call a meeting
of the proprietors, to explain to them the state of the country; to
state the liberal intentions of the Government to give a grant equal to
the amount subscribed, when the Workhouse is full; to explain to them
that this grant is tantamount to selling