e it applied to the carrying out of reproductive works,
according to the requisition of the owners and ratepayers of such
townland; such works, in every case, to be approved of by at least
three-fourths of the ratepayers.

Lord Bessborough gave a short, and, of course, a cautious answer to the
deputation, saying that he would give his best consideration to the
proposal; consult the Government, and in a few days let them know the
result. The "Labouchere Letter," authorizing reproductive works, was the
response to this memorial of the Royal Agricultural Society. But it
received another answer, and that from the Prime Minister himself. The
question of productive and non-productive labour was so important, that,
some time after the publication of the Labouchere Letter, Lord John
Russell discussed it, in a communication addressed by him to the Duke of
Leinster, as president of the Royal Agricultural Society.

After a passing allusion to the deputation that waited on the Lord
Lieutenant, he at once takes the landlords to task. "It had been our
hope and expectation," he says, "that landed proprietors would have
commenced works of drainage and other improvements, on their own
account: thus employing the people on their own estates, and rendering
the land more productive for the future. The Act, [the Labour-rate Act,]
however, was put in operation in the baronies in a spirit the reverse of
that which I have described ... When the case was brought before the
Government by the Lord Lieutenant, we lamented the wrong direction in
which the Act had been turned; but admitting the necessity of the case,
and anxious to obtain the willing co-operation of the landlords, we
authorized the Lord Lieutenant to deviate from the letter of the law,
and gave our sanction for advances for useful and profitable works of a
private nature. But after having incurred the responsibility, I am sorry
to see that, in several parts of Ireland, calls are made upon the
Government, to undertake and perform tasks which are beyond their power,
and apart from the duties of Government." The political-economy Premier
then enunciates this principle: "Any attempt to feed one class of the
people of the United Kingdom by the Government, would, if successful,
starve another part--would feed the producers of potatoes, which had
failed, by starving the producers of wheat, barley, and oats, which had
not failed." He proceeds: "That which is not possible by a Government is