eland," by Dr. (now Sir
Robert) Kane, a short time before the Famine, directed public attention
anew to the subject.

The area of Ireland is 20,808,271 statute acres. Of these it is commonly
admitted that 18,600,000, or thereabouts, are susceptible of
cultivation. In 1845, somewhat over 13,000,000 of acres were in
cultivation, whilst nearly 5,000,000, which could be brought under
culture, lay barren. Referring to the estimate of those writers who held
that Ireland contained 4,600,000 acres of waste, which could be made
arable, Dr. Kane said he did not think the estimate too high; and this
opinion was quoted approvingly by Lord John Russell.[253]

But the question might still remain,--could those four and a-half
millions of acres he profitably cultivated? Would their cultivation give
remunerative interest on the capital expended? That is the purely
commercial view of the matter; but there is another which should not be
overlooked: Would it not be wise policy to increase the resources of a
country,--to increase its area of cultivation,--to extend the means of
employing and feeding its population, even though the work did not
actually make a very remunerative commercial return? English capital has
gone to make canals and railroads and harbours, and open mines for the
antipodes, often with little or no return; not unfrequently with total
loss; surely as much risk ought to be taken for home improvements, in
which patriotism should come to the aid of commercial enterprise. The
Chinese have, after their own fashion, devoted themselves to this kind
of improvement for centuries; so have the enlightened Dutch, the most
recent example of which is that noble engineering achievement, the
draining of the lake of Haarlem; and although the sale of the drained
land did not recoup the Government for the outlay, yet they felt the
work was a great national benefit, inasmuch as it added forty-three
thousand acres to the arable soil of Holland. So pleased indeed are they
with the result, that they have at present under consideration another
undertaking of the same kind, and of far greater extent, namely, the
draining of the Zuider Zee.

It would seem, then, to be a question well worthy the consideration of
statesmen, whether or not, in the reclamation of wastes, it would be the
true and enlightened policy to act upon the commercial idea alone.

Mr. Fagan, a commercial man of sound practical ability, who sat in the
House of Commons for th