Lord George Bentinck's Railway Scheme; he thought the finishing of
the railways would be useful; he was a practical man, and wished to
use the labour of the people on useful and profitable work--The
State of England in 1841-2--The remedy that relieved England ought
to have the same effect in Ireland--Under certain arrangements,
there could have been no Irish Famine--Tons of Blue Books--No new
Acts necessary for Railways--1,500 miles of Railway were
passed--Only 123 miles made--Lord George Bentinck's Speech--Waste of
power-traffic--Great Southern and Western Railway--Principles of the
Railway Bill--Shareholders--What employment would the Railway Bill
give?--Mode of raising the money--£20,000,000 paid to
slave-owners--Why not do the same thing for Ireland?--Foreign
Securities in which English money has been expended--Assurances of
support to Lord George--The Irish Members in a dilemma--The Irish
Party continue to meet--Meeting at the Premier's in Chesham
Place--Smith O'Brien waits on Lord George--The Government stake
their existence on postponing the second reading of Lord Bentinck's
Bill--Why?--No good reason--Desertion of the Irish Members--Sir John
Gray on the question--The Prime Minister's Speech--The Chancellor of
the Exchequer's Speech a mockery--Loans to Ireland (falsely)
asserted not to have been repaid--Mr. Hudson's Speech--The
Chancellor going on no authority--Mr. Hudson's Railway
Statistics--The Chancellor of the Exchequer hard on Irish
Landlords--His way of giving relief--Sir Robert Peel on the Railway
Bill--The Railway Bill a doomed measure--Peel's eulogium on industry
in general, and on Mr. Bianconi in particular--Lord G. Bentinck's
reply--His arguments skipped by his opponents--Appoint a Commission,
like Mr. Pitt in 1793--Money spent on making Railways--The Irish
Vote on the Bill--Names.
No effort of statesmanship to overcome the Famine is remembered with
such gratitude in Ireland as Lord George Bentinck's generous proposal to
spend sixteen millions of money in the construction of railways, for the
employment of its people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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