Leave private enterprise, said the right
honourable gentleman, to take its own course in Ireland, and you will
have railways constructed the same as you have got Mr. Bianconi's cars.
But, Sir, seven years have elapsed, and what has been the result? Why,
Sir, this: in England you have 2,300 miles of railroad; in Belgium there
are 375 miles completed; in Austria and Germany 3,000 miles; in the
United States of America, 3,300; whilst Ireland, where private
enterprise is left unaided by Government, has only 123 miles of
railroad. Would the House listen to this effete policy of the right
honourable gentleman, or would they agree with him (Lord George
Bentinck) in the opinion, that, as Government aid had succeeded in
Belgium, in Austria, in Germany, in the United States of America, the
aid of the Government of this country ought to be afforded to
Ireland--not to supersede private enterprise, for that he had never
proposed to do, but to stimulate private enterprise." Sir Robert Peel
had also gone into the state of the finances of the country, to show the
passing of Lord George's Bill would imperil them. Addressing himself to
that argument, his lordship said, Sir Robert Peel had totally passed by,
as all the three Chancellors of the Exchequer who preceded him did, the
financial statement which he (Lord George Bentinck) had made a fortnight
before to the House, and to which he challenged denial, that the effect
of giving to Ireland L4,000,000 a-year for railways would be not only
to improve her condition, but to increase the consumption of exciseable
articles in Ireland; not to take away from the general taxes of the
country, but to add, from the proceeds of Irish taxes, between L600,000
and L700,000 a-year to British revenue.
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