Whilst the value of the general principle of employing labour on
profitable rather than on unprofitable works was evident enough, and
accepted by almost everybody, the practical carrying out of that
principle was not without its difficulties. Those who endeavoured to
solve them brought forward plans varying from each other in some
particulars; but, taking them collectively, there was sufficient good
sense in them to enable the Government to frame a system of reproductive
employment for the exigencies of the period.
Fears were entertained by many that much of the arable land would remain
unfilled in the ensuing spring, by which the Famine would be
perpetuated; and it was thought the labour of the country ought to be
made available for that purpose. A kind-hearted, charitable clergyman,
the Rev. William Prior Moore, who endeavoured most zealously to relieve
the sufferings of the people, put forward this view very strongly, in
letters addressed by him to the Chief Secretary. In those letters he
accuses the Government of being mere theorists, ignorant of the
practical way of relieving Ireland. "The Labour Act," he says, "was
worse than _absurd_--it was in many respects _pernicious_.
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