"
A deputation from Cork waited on the Prime Minister to urge upon his
attention the utility and necessity of employing the people in
productive instead of non-productive works. He read to them a reply, in
which he said he thought the measures that had passed through Parliament
ought to be sufficient to meet the existing emergency; but whilst he
expressed this view he, using the time-honored official style of
replying to deputations, promised that the subject should receive the
deepest consideration during the ensuing session of Parliament. There
were, he said, subjects of great difficulty to be encountered in
legislating for a country circumstanced as Ireland was. The lands held
by Government might be at once improved, but the case was different with
respect to those that were the property of individuals. Still, he would
not shrink from the necessity or duty of Government interfering even in
the latter case; neither did he deny that while property had its owners
and its rights, that such ownership and rights should not be allowed to
interfere with the operations intended to develop the resources of the
soil, and improve the social condition of the people.
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