them the supply at half-price,
as their funds, being doubled, go twice in the purchases they require.
Point out to them also the dreadful responsibility the whole country
will incur, if they neglect the cultivation of the soil. The transition
from potatoes to grain," he says, "requires a tillage in the comparison
of three to one between grain and potatoes. All this requires a
corresponding increase of labour; and wages so paid are a mere
investment of money, bringing a certain and large profit." He adds these
remarkable words: "It is useless to talk of emigration, when so much
extra labour is becoming indispensable to supply the extra food. Let
the labour first he applied, and then, it will be seen whether there is
any surplus population, and to what extent. If industrious habits can be
established, and the waste lands taken into cultivation, it is very
doubtful whether there would be any surplus population, or even whether
it would be equal to the demand."[132] These were sound views, except in
so far as they threw upon landlords and people the duty of cultivating
the soil; the people could do nothing, and many of the landlords had not
capital: moreover, _as a class_, they were wholly disinclined to make
any adequate effort. From the terms of the memorandum just quoted, it is
evident that, in their intercourse with Commissary Hewetson, they were
clamouring for emigration. If the Government were sincerely anxious to
produce food, and save the country, they ought not to have leaned on
such rotten reeds. They should have put their own hand more thoroughly
to the work, and framed an Act which would, at least indirectly, have
compelled proprietors to second their efforts, and discharge those
duties, which, as men and as Christians, they refused to attend to or
acknowledge.

Besides the numerous letters called forth by the publication of the
Treasury Minute, that important document came prominently under
discussion at baronial sessions, and the meetings of Relief Committees.
At a meeting of the Relief Committee for the districts of Kells and
Fore, in the County of Meath, held in the Court House of Kells on the
5th of September, and presided over by the Marquis of Headfort, the
principal question debated was, "the nature of the employment which
ought to be provided for the poor during the ensuing season." A report
to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant was agreed to. It was based upon
the sound, common-sense principle, "that