Page:Letters to Lord John Russell on the Further Measures for the Social Amelioration of Ireland.djvu/59

56 rates will or can be collected by the Guardians, in the coarse of the coming winter and spring, to feed the destitute portion of their population, it becomes the imperative duty of the Commission—that is, of the Government—to provide the means for supplementing the deficiency. And should they neglect this duty, they cannot be absolved from responsibility for the awful consequences that must ensue!

I assume then as certain, that provision will be made for this purpose; and that can only be done by large advances from the national treasury. But these, it is equally certain, will not be tolerated by the guardians of the public purse, except on two conditions, both of which were neglected last year, namely:—

1. That the repayment of these advances to Irish Unions should be entire, certain and not too long delayed—an available lien being taken on the land itself, not merely on the rates leviable or proposed to be levied in future years from it.

2. That the expenditure should be as far as possible productive—relief being afforded to the able-bodied only in the shape of useful and remunerative employment.

Now these indispensable postulates cannot, it appears to me, be practically carried out, without new powers conferred by the Legislature on the Government—in the first place to advance the funds required, in the next to take a lien on the property liable to the burden of repayment, and, lastly,