n which we are
now obliged to chronicle it. There must have been extensive employment
at wages that would have afforded great numbers other and better food
than the potato. As it was, all that resulted from those commissions,
and countless others of the like kind, were the ponderous Blue Books,
which contained their reports, and the evidence upon which they were
founded. And, indeed, so many tons of those had been, from time to time,
produced and stowed away in Government vaults and rubbish stores, that,
had they contained some of the nutritive qualities which, go to sustain
human life, they would have been an appreciable contribution towards
feeding the starving Irish people during the Famine.

No new Acts were necessary to be passed through Parliament, to authorize
the construction of railways in Ireland, in order to justify the
Government in advancing the necessary funds. When Lord George Bentinck
brought his plan before the House of Commons, there were Acts in
existence authorizing the construction of more than 1,500 miles of
railway in this country, some of those Acts having been passed so far
back as eleven years before; yet, at the close of 1846, only 123 miles
had been completed. Here, then, was the field in which Lord George had
made up his mind that the superabounding but wasted labour of the
famishing people should find profitable employment. After taking the
advice of his political friends, and securing their approval and
support, he, on Thursday, the 4th of February, introduced his Bill to
the House of Commons, in, says Mr. D'Israeli, the best speech he ever
made. It was evidently prepared with great care, and was both lucid and
argumentative.

His exordium was solemn and earnest, and he seemed much impressed with
the importance and magnitude of the subject with which he was about to
deal. For the principle of the Bill, and for the faults that principle
might contain, he alone, he said, was responsible; but as to the
details, they had been wrought out by the ablest minds in England;
amongst whom he named Hudson, Stephenson, and Laing. "It is not my
intention," he said, "to make a very long preface, or to enter into any
general discussion as regards the state or condition of Ireland: suffice
it for me, that this great fact stares us in the face, that at this
moment there are 500,000 able-bodied persons in Ireland living upon the
funds of the State. That there are 500,000 able-bodied persons,
commanded by a