Robert Peel’s view—­The Prime Minister on the state of Ireland—­His views—­His plans—­Defends the action of the Government—­Defends unproductive work—­Reason for issuing the “Labouchere letter”—­Quotes Smith O’Brien approvingly—­Mr. O’Brien’s letters to the landlords of Ireland (note)—­Confounding the questions of temporary relief and permanent improvement—­Fallacy—­Demoralization of labour—­The Premier’s “group of measures”—­Soup kitchens—­Taskwork—­Breakdown of the Public Works—­Food for nothing—­Mode of payment of loans—­L50,000 for seed—­Impossibility of meeting the Famine completely—­The permanent measures for Ireland—­Drainage Act—­Reclamation of waste lands—­Sir Robert Kane’s “Industrial Resources” of Ireland—­Emigration again—­Ireland not overpeopled—­Description of England and Scotland in former times by Lord John Russell—­His fine exposition of “the Irish question”—­Mr. P. Scrope’s Resolution—­A count out—­Bernal Osborne—­Smith O’Brien—­The good absentee landlords—­The bad resident landlords—­Sir C. Napier’s view—­Mr. Labouchere’s kind words—­Confounds two important questions—­Mr. Gregory’s quarter-acre clause—­Met with some opposition—­Irish liberals vote for it—­The opponents of the quarter-acre clause—­Lord George Bentinck’s attack on the Government (note).

About the middle of December, there was formed in Dublin a committee of landlords, which assumed the name of the Reproductive Works Committee.  Its objects were excellent.  It was to be the beginning of a real Irish party, whose members were to lay aside their differences, political and religious, that, by a united effort, they might carry the country through the death-struggle in which it then was, and lay the foundation of its future progress to prosperity.  Many of the best men in the whole nation were active promoters of this movement; but, viewed as a whole, it was little more than the embodied expression of the fears of the landlords, that they would be swamped by the rates levied to feed the people, and of their hopes that, by uniting, for the occasion, with the popular leaders, they would be able to compel the Government so to shape its course, that, at any rate, they would come forth safe from the ordeal.  Neither the Committee, nor the landlords who met in Dublin at their call, intended to form a permanent Irish party; in fact, it could not be done in the sense indicated by them.  In a circular which was issued the first week of January, they say: 

“That, at this awful period of national calamity, it becomes the first duty of every Irishman to devote his individual efforts to the interests of Ireland, and that neither politics, parties, nor prejudices should influence his mind in the discharge of such a duty.”

“That, as we feel deeply convinced that our own divisions have been the leading causes of our own misfortunes, and, by weakening our influence in the councils of the empire, have deprived us of our share in the general prosperity, so we are no less firmly persuaded that it is by union alone that we can repair the evils that dissension has created.”