aid:--"There is another source of
benefit, namely, the cultivation of the waste lands. On that subject I
do not see the difficulties which beset the propositions in the regard
of the Poor-laws." Now it is the very reverse. He sees difficulties in
reclaiming the waste lands of Ireland, but finds none in putting into
operation the most objectionable part of the Poor-Law system--- outdoor
relief; for, his Labour-rate Act was, substantially, a gigantic system
of outdoor relief.[137]

Meantime the following requisition was put in circulation and numerously
signed, both by peers and gentry: "We, the undersigned, request a
meeting of the landowners of Ireland to be held in Dublin on the __ day
of ____ next, to press upon her Majesty's Government the importance of
at once adopting the necessary measures to alter the provisions of the
Act, entitled the 9th and 10th Vic., chap. 107, so as to allow the vast
sums of money about to be raised by presentment under it, to be applied
to the development of the resources of the land, rather than in public
works of an unproductive nature."

The principle of the Labour-rate Act was doomed; no voice was raised in
its defence, nor could there have been. The Government having turned a
deaf ear to the call for an Autumn Session, the Repealers were anxious
there should be a demonstration in Dublin that would, as far as
possible, bear the similitude of an Irish Parliament. The above
requisition, very probably without intending it, sustained and
strengthened this idea; the Prime Minister and his colleagues became
alarmed, and the Lord Lieutenant, on the 5th of October, suddenly and
unexpectedly issued, through his Chief Secretary, the famous
Proclamation known as "Labouchere's Letter," which, if it did not
entirely repeal the Labour-rate Act, changed its whole nature. In that
document the Irish public are told that the Lord Lieutenant has had
under his consideration the various representations which had been made
to him of the operation of the poor employment Act, and the difficulty
of finding "public works" upon which it would be expedient or beneficial
to expend money to the extent requisite for affording employment to the
people during the existence of distress; and to obviate the bad effects
of a great expenditure of money in the execution of works _comparatively
unproductive_, he desires that the Commissioners of Public Works would
direct their officers, in the respective counties, to consid