Towards the close of the debate, Sir Robert Peel spoke against the Bill,
and made one of those weak, hollow, plausible speeches for which he was
justly famous. His two chief objections against it were--(1), that they
had not the money to spend which Lord George Bentinck asked for, and (2)
if they had, he doubted if they could not find a way of spending it more
profitably for Ireland. He doubted:--yes, his habit was to kill every
measure he did not approve of by doubts and fears. When Lord John
Russell, at the beginning of the Session, proclaimed the determination
of his Government to take in hand the reclamation of the waste lands of
Ireland, and said he would begin by allocating for that purpose the, not
extravagant, sum of L1,000,000, Sir Robert, in his blandest accents,
expressed a hope that the noble lord would _pause_ before spending so
much money on such an object. Now, it is railways, Lord George Bentinck
asks the Government to lend, not the public money, but the national
credit, to raise a loan for extending railway accommodation, and save
the lives of the people; but Sir Robert tells him England has not the
money for such a purpose, and if she had, his idea was that some other
way of spending it could be devised, which would be more beneficial to
Ireland; but he did not favour the House with what, according to his
views, that better way was.
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