led, in the House
of Commons, to the Irish Secretary not to allow the labourers on the
public works to be dismissed until provision could be made for their
support under the new Act. It was understood by both sides of the House,
Mr. Smith O'Brien said, that the Government had given instructions
against any dismissals taking place until other means had been provided
to enable the people to procure subsistence. Unless this were done, he
said, the greatest confusion must follow the putting in force of the
order for dismissing persons from the public works, which was to come
into operation on the 20th inst. Seven weeks had elapsed since the
temporary relief bill had become law, and he could not conceive why
relief committees had not been constituted. Mr. Labouchere said in reply
that the greatest caution was necessary in removing the labourers from
the works, and that although twenty per cent. of them were ordered to be
struck off on the 20th instant, that did not mean that twenty per cent.
of the people employed in every district on public works should be
dismissed, but that in the aggregate twenty per cent. of those employed
should be put off, leaving to the Irish Government to decide upon the
proportion to be removed from each district. It would be necessary and
proper to make a general reduction, but the Irish Government was left to
the exercise of its discretion in making the several reductions by
districts, as the executive in Ireland could best decide where it might
be dangerous or improper to make any change, and where a change might be
made with propriety and safety.

Four days later, on the question that the Irish Poor Relief Bill should
be re-committed, Mr. O'Brien again adverted to the discharge of the
labourers from the public works. He repeated, that the House and others
had been led to believe, that the dismissal would not take place until
new measures for temporary relief should come into operation; that,
nevertheless, in various parts of Ireland labourers had been dismissed
before any other relief had been provided; and he had, he said, received
from a part of the county he represented a letter from a Protestant
clergyman, stating that not only twenty per cent., but many more
labourers had been dismissed, and were, therefore, on the verge of
starvation. No one, he admitted, could justly object to the general
proposition of the gradual withdrawal of the people from the public
works; but it appeared to him th