staff of 11,587 persons, employed upon works which have
been variously described as 'works worse than idleness;' by the
yeomanry of Ulster as 'public follies;' and by the Inspector of the
Government himself, Colonel Douglas, as 'works which will answer no
other purpose than that of obstructing the public conveyances.'" The
calamity was great, but he did not, he said, despond. "We, who at one
period of the war were expending, upon an average, for three years,
L103,000,000 sterling a-year, will not be downhearted at having to
provide for a deficiency and for a disaster that may be estimated at
L10,000,000." He quoted the two Commissions above referred to, and said
that railway Acts had been passed for 1,523 miles of railway, whilst at
the moment he was speaking only 123 miles were completed, 164 miles
being in course of construction. There must, he thought, be some
weakness in Ireland up to this, as 2,600 miles of railway had been
constructed in England and Scotland, and Acts passed for 5,400 miles
more--8,000 miles in all. The denseness of population, said his
lordship, is in favour of Ireland as against England and Scotland. "But,
Sir," he continued, "perhaps you will tell me this may be a very good
argument as far as population is concerned, but what is the use of
population if they have no means of paying for their conveyance by
railways? Sir, my friend, who sits beside me (Mr. Hudson) will tell you
that in all railway speculation population is held to be the first
element of success--property second,"

He then went on to show that the traffic upon the Irish railways already
opened, was greater than upon the English and Scotch lines. This
argument met the assertions of some persons, who said that if money were
advanced to make Irish railways they would never pay; and it would be
asked, if they are paying, why not have them done by private enterprise?
Lord George confessed that he could not answer this question
satisfactorily, but English capitalists would not come forward, partly,
he thought, through distrust, and partly through ignorance, whilst the
calamity of the Famine had, of course, a great effect in preventing the
small amount of Irish capital which did exist from coming forward. The
prejudice which English capitalists had against investing in Irish
undertakings, is strikingly illustrated by a fact stated by Lord George
in the course of his speech. It was this: the Great Southern and Western
Railway of Ireland