The Irish
landlords, as a class, were not improvers of their properties before the
Famine;--how could he expect them to become so at such a crisis, when
many of them feared, with reason, that both themselves and the people
would be swallowed up in one common ruin? Besides, most of the wealthy
proprietors were Englishmen or absentees, who, with few exceptions,
never saw their tenants; took no friendly interest in them, but left
them in the hands of agents, who were prized by their employers in
proportion to their punctuality in sending the half-yearly remittances,
no questions being asked as to the means by which they were
obtained.[177] How could the Prime Minister pretend to think that such
men would rush into the midst of a famine-stricken people, to relieve,
employ, and improve them? He knew, or ought to have known, they would do
no such thing, except on compulsion, and there was no compulsion in the
case; he being, he said, for "willing co-operation" only. His government
has certainly a right to be credited with the praiseworthy attempt it
made to turn the labour of the Irish people to profitable work, but it
came too late for immediate practical purposes.
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