eing
to get as much as possible out of it, without expending anything. The
tenants of such a man would be sure to be more destitute than those of
an improving landlord, who is thus taxed unfairly to support
them,--taxed in another way too,--taxed by giving employment, whilst the
other gives none. Indiscriminate taxation was, therefore, a positive
injustice to the improving landlord, and an actual bar to improvement;
for, of course, he would be rated higher on account of his improvements.
Such, however, was taxation under the Labour-rate Act.

Mr. Monsell concluded his able letter in the following words:--"I am
convinced that these evils cannot be avoided without a change in the
law. No matter how the managing of the public works may be extended,
you will still find that unless there is an absolute power given to the
owners and occupiers of land, to have the money raised from the land
expended upon it, you will have such a mass of jobbing and jealousy to
contend with, that very few works of private benefit, very few
productive works, will be executed. I am sure that if you agree with the
views that have now been laid before you, you will announce it speedily
in order to prevent the carrying out of the present ruinous system on
any scale larger than that required to meet our immediate wants, and
that you will not hesitate to recommend that Parliament should be called
together at once. This course may be inconvenient, but such an emergency
requires inconveniences to be encountered. History presents no parallel
to our circumstances. There is no other instance on record of the whole
food of a people becoming rotten before it was ripe. Of course the
system of public works would go on more smoothly than any other that can
be suggested. It would give far less trouble to the Government than the
system which it is proposed to substitute for it; but what would the end
of it be? Never since the connexion of Ireland with England has so awful
a power been placed in the hands of any statesman as in yours. The whole
country is, as it were, fused in your hands--on you depends the future
shape which it will assume. If you use your opportunities well--if you
develope its resources--if you increase its capital--if you improve its
agriculture--if you distribute its wealth as it ought to be distributed,
its progress in the next two or three years will be greater than the
progress ever made by any country in the same time. If you take the easy