t Peel, who was skilful always in detecting
when the Cabinet was not confident in a measure, and by an adroit
interposition often obtained the credit with the country of directing
the Ministry, when really he had only discovered their foregone
conclusion."--_Lord George Bentinck: a political biography, p. 367, 5th
Edition_.

[200] In the _Utopia_.

[201] "The people are not indolent. Of that there has been abundant
proof. Give them a definite object, a fair chance of profit, and they
will work as well as the people of this or any other country. Of this I
have had ample opportunity of judging, on works where thousands have
been employed, both here [England] and in Ireland."--_A twelve months'
residence in Ireland, during the Famine and the Public Works in 1846-7,
by Wm. Henry Smith, C.E., late conducting Civil Engineer of Public
Works_.--London, 1848; p. 120.

"A foreign railway company, a few months ago, advertised in the English
papers for Irish labourers to work on their lines, where they would
receive one-third more wages than the French people themselves were
receiving. He [the Irishman] would do the same amount of work at home,
if properly fed; but the principle is much the same as keeping a horse
without his oats, and expecting him to get through his work the same as
if well fed. The Irishman at the English harvest, or as a railway
labourer, and the London heavy goods or coal porter, is not excelled in
his willingness or industry."--_Ib._ 196.

"It is a mistake to suppose the Irish people will not work. They are
both willing and desirous to work, and, when in regular employment, are
always peaceable and orderly."--_His Excellency Lord Clarendon's Letter
to the Lord Mayor of London, on the "Plantation Scheme," dated Viceregal
Lodge, June 26, 1849._

[202] _Freeman's Journal_, 23rd June, 1847.

[203] Armagh could be scarcely said to have had any manufactures at this
time, as machinery, erected in the large factories of Belfast and other
places, had abolished the hand-looms at which the people worked in their
cottages, and the linen trade had been greatly depressed for years
before; but no doubt there was a time when it was a material help to the
inhabitants of that and other Northern counties.

[204] Immediately after the above clause was added to the "Poor Relief
(Ireland) Bill," Lord George Bentinck made the following attack upon the
Irish-famine policy of the Government: "The noble Lord," says the
report