[175]
Another demand which the landlords put in the shape of a resolution was,
that the Government should advance loans for the construction of
railways in Ireland. This the Government also refused, or rather, they
insisted on conditions that amounted to a refusal. They said proper
security could not be had for the advancement of the money; they
therefore resolved not to make any advances to Irish Railways, except in
the ordinary way, namely, by application to the Exchequer Loan
Commissioners, when fifty per cent of the subscribed capital would be
paid up. Could they not have made railways themselves, as they were
afterwards almost compelled to do by Lord George Bentinck, in which case
they would have had something for their money?
The landlords also made a demand which must be regarded as a fair one:
it was that all who received incomes from the land should be taxed for
the relief of the people. This was pointed at absentees, but still more
at mortgagees.
The Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, a society mainly
representing landlord and aristocratic views, of which the Duke of
Leinster was president, took up, as became it, the great labour question
of the moment.
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