Page:Letters to Lord John Russell on the Further Measures for the Social Amelioration of Ireland.djvu/9

6 you shared this opinion, by declaring your intention to submit to Parliament a series of other measures to accompany the Poor-law. Most of these, however, were either never introduced at all, or fell to the ground through the pressure of other business, and the necessity of an early dissolution of Parliament. Other prominent Members of the Legislature likewise proposed supplementary measures on a large scale-such as assistance to railroads and colonization—which met with much favour from portions of the public; all shewing the general concurrence of feeling that something else is required besides a Poor-law to tide Ireland over her present unexampled embarrassments, and elevate her people to that condition which her abundant natural resources give them a right to expect.

That aid might be usefully afforded in moderation to the development of a system of railways in Ireland I fully admit. The expediency of a permanent national system of colonization for the benefit of the three kingdoms I have always advocated. But, nevertheless, I cannot agree with those who put forward either or both of these schemes as in themselves capable of acting with sufficiently immediate, direct, and powerful effect upon the present circumstances of Ireland to warrant their being so prominently advocated as they have been, to the exclusion of other measures more appropriate, and more immediately applicable to the crisis we have to deal with.