e County Wexford, put forward, in the famine
period, a scheme for the reclamation of the waste lands.[254] It was
mainly based upon the principle, that the men whose labour reclaimed
those lands should have a beneficial interest in them. The wealth--the
capital of the poor man, he said, lie in the health and strength with
which God has endowed him, and if he be denied the means of employing
this capital profitably, what matters it to him that the harvest is
bountiful--that the corn stores are full? Mr. Fagan discusses several
plans according to which Irish waste lands might be reclaimed. 1.
Individual exertion. This, in his opinion, would not answer, because it
would be too slow, too isolated, to do the work in a broad,
comprehensive manner, and within a reasonable time. 2. The next plan
which he passes in review is what he terms joint-stock enterprise. This
he also rejects, as being expensive in management, and therefore
unremunerative. 3. Reclamation by the Government, so commonly advocated,
he also rejects, because he did not think such an undertaking within the
legitimate sphere of the Government, and that it would be inconsistent
with sound policy.

Having set aside these three modes of reclamation, he puts forward his
own.

1. He was of opinion that the principle of _individual_ industry should
be applied to the reclamation of the waste lands, and that a reasonable
share of the fruits of the industry of the reclaimer should be secured
to him. Where enlightened proprietors have done this, their wastes, he
says, became fertile, and agrarian outrages were unknown. Give, in a
word, the Irish peasant the same interest in reclaiming the waste at
home, that he gets in reclaiming the waste abroad, and the same
beneficial results will follow.

2. For the right working of this principle, the waste lands should be
resumed by the State. This he regarded as an indispensable preliminary.
Pay the proprietors fully for them, let the ground be valued as it is
valued for railways; paid for at its present, not its prospective value,
and let it be vested in Commissioners. Lots of convenient size should be
made, and sold, when reclaimed; but at no higher price than twenty-four
years' purchase. The State should also empower the Commissioner to sell
waste, in lots of not less than ten acres; ten acres to be the minimum
of reclaimed lots also. Existing proprietors should have the option of
reclaiming or selling; but in the former case