In his opinion, therefore, the intervention
of the Government was absolutely necessary. Such intervention, he admits
to be surrounded with great difficulties, and calculated to impose an
enormous additional burthen upon them; it must, however, he holds, be
done, or the people will starve. In reply to those who called for loans,
at a low rate of interest, to be expended on the improvement of the
land, he says, it is to be remarked that there are already a million of
pounds sterling in the hands of the Board of Works, to be lent for the
drainage of Irish estates, and but few had availed themselves of that
fund.[133]
But this is no complete answer to the call made for reclaiming Irish
lands, because the money held by the Board of Works was only lent when
applied for. The advocates for reclaiming waste lands in order to give
employment to the starving people wanted a Special Bill empowering the
Government to call upon the owners of estates either to reclaim their
waste land themselves, or to permit the Government to do so on equitable
terms. To some this seemed an interference with the rights of property;
but even if it were, the occasion was sufficient to justify it; for when
a whole nation is in the throes of famine--threatened with annihilation,
as Ireland then was--_salus populi suprema lex_ should become the
guiding principle of a government.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326