landlords plainly that they will not
obtain from the Imperial treasury the money necessary for the
undertaking he recommends, unless they mortgage their estates, and
pledge the county rates first. "An Irish member," he writes, "who would
propose to apply ten millions of money to the reclamation of land in
Ireland, would be laughed to scorn in the British legislature. Yet
Parliament would consent almost without a question--perhaps amidst the
cheers of all parties--to the expenditure of this amount in piratical
incursions, such as those made upon the inhabitants of Affghanistan,
Scinde, Syria, and other nations, who have never injured us." The fourth
letter is a continuation of the same subjects. The fifth discusses the
railway question, then in its infancy. The sixth deals with public works
and public instruction. The public works which he specially discusses
and recommends are--internal navigation, and fishery piers and harbours;
he does not enter into systems of education, he only calls for more
liberal grants. The seventh and concluding letter of the series is
devoted to what the writer calls fiscal arrangements. These letters
showed much practical ability, and knowledge of the true wants of the
country. They were written in a calm moderate spirit, but, emanating
from a man of his political views, they do not seem to have received the
attention they deserved.

No doubt, the difficulty stated by Smith O'Brien, and approvingly quoted
by the Prime Minister, did exist in the townland boundary scheme; it
was, perhaps, as great a one as the boundary scheme in the Chief
Secretary's letter; but sacrifices should have been cheerfully submitted
to on such a terrible occasion; and the greatest and realest difficulty
of all was, that the landlords, as a body, had little or no sympathy
with the people, and were not prepared to make sacrifices to save their
lives.

[199] The following is Mr. D'Israeli's account of the waste land
reclamation proposal: it does not, by any means, seem to be in accord
with the spirit with which that proposal was received by
Parliament:--"In the course of the next ten days the Government measures
of relief distinctly transpired. One of these was a public undertaking
to reclaim a portion of the waste lands of Ireland: but it was finally
proposed by the first Minister, sneered at a few days after by his own
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and finally fell prostrate before a bland
admonition from Sir Rober