Hudson's Speech--The
Chancellor going on no authority--Mr. Hudson's Railway
Statistics--The Chancellor of the Exchequer hard on Irish
Landlords--His way of giving relief--Sir Robert Peel on the Railway
Bill--The Railway Bill a doomed measure--Peel's eulogium on industry
in general, and on Mr. Bianconi in particular--Lord G. Bentinck's
reply--His arguments skipped by his opponents--Appoint a Commission,
like Mr. Pitt in 1793--Money spent on making Railways--The Irish
Vote on the Bill--Names.
No effort of statesmanship to overcome the Famine is remembered with
such gratitude in Ireland as Lord George Bentinck's generous proposal to
spend sixteen millions of money in the construction of railways, for the
employment of its people.
In the autumn of 1846, when the Potato Blight had become an accepted
fact by all except those who had some motive for discrediting it, he
began to think that to finish the railways, already projected in
Ireland, would be the best and promptest way of employing its people
upon reproductive works. He was a great enemy to unprofitable labour. To
the Labour-rate Act, which became law at the close of the session of
1846, Lord George was conscientiously opposed; because, whilst millions
of money were to be spent under it, the labour of the people was to be
thrown away upon profitless or pernicious undertakings.
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