, but many more
labourers had been dismissed, and were, therefore, on the verge of
starvation. No one, he admitted, could justly object to the general
proposition of the gradual withdrawal of the people from the public
works; but it appeared to him that such withdrawal, until some other
mode of subsistence was ready for them, was nothing short of sentencing
the people to death from starvation.
To Smith O'Brien's remarks, Mr. Labouchere gave the following reply, a
more formal and elaborate one than the above. He said:--"Her Majesty's
Government were satisfied, after the best inquiry they were able to make
upon the subject, that it was expedient and proper that on a certain day
the number of persons employed on the public works throughout Ireland
should be reduced by twenty per cent. They thought that was a step
which, upon their responsibility, they were bound to adopt, and in that
respect they left no discretion whatever with any one connected with the
Irish Government; but the rule laid down was this--they required that
twenty per cent. should be reduced on the aggregate number of the
persons employed throughout the whole of Ireland, leaving to the Board
of Works in Ireland a discretion as to whether, in each particular
instance, that precise number should be the proportion to be reduced or
not.
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