o laws?
Statesmen appear to have understood them well enough: why then did it
require a famine to have them brought officially before Parliament?
Because it seemed to be the rule with successive Governments to do
nothing for Ireland until they were forced to it by agitation,
rebellion, famine, or some abnormal state of things, which could not be
passed over or resisted. Here we have a plan sketched for the
reclamation of the waste lands of Ireland, which, if in operation for
twenty years before, would have gone far to make the famine transient
and partial, instead of general and overwhelming, as it was. Still the
plan was very welcome when it came, as it offered the prospect of great
future prosperity for this country; everybody felt this, and hence it
was hailed with the most unusual marks of approbation by the House of
Commons. But, the turning point of the famine crisis over, one of the
most valuable measures ever proposed for the benefit of Ireland was
shamefully abandoned. One is inclined to suspect that the Government
never really intended to carry the measure,--it was too good--too much
to the advantage of the people--too great a boon to this country. Mr.
Labouchere, as Irish Secretary, had charge of it; he never seemed in any
hurry to bring it forward, and after a notice or two, followed by
postponements, it ceased to be heard of. Some excuse for the Government
may, perhaps, be found in the fact that the Tories would, in all
probability, have opposed it, and Lord John was only Minister on
sufferance; he could be displaced at any moment Sir Robert Peel pleased,
who expressed himself against the reclamation scheme in his speech
during the debate on the Premier's "group of measures" for Ireland, but
with this exception, Sir Robert gave his full support to those
proposals. He said it was better for Ireland to have self-reliance than
be looking to Dublin Castle; and he advised Irish proprietors to act
independently of the Castle. "With respect to the proposition for the
reclamation of waste lands in Ireland," said Sir Robert, "I shall only
so far allude to that proposition as to express a hope that the noble
lord will pause before he expends so much of the public money on those
lands." The noble lord did pause, and every Minister since his time has
continued to pause; so that the four and a-half millions of waste acres
are still unreclaimed, and the public money which, as was proved, might
be profitably expended on th