The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-05 00:00:00

ATOWITIYth

45v7'
LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 5,184 g.

Ministers are at length resolved to grapple fairly
with Irish difficulties. They appear to have taken
the state and condition of that unhappy country into
their most serious consideration, and measures have
been introduced calculated to improve materially the
national resources, and to remove some of the chief
impediments to the development of its natural capa-
bilities. It is not by any single enactment, however
beneficial, that the social amelioration of Ireland
can be effected ; nor can an immediate change be
hoped for. There must be a series of judicious
measures tending to produce remunerative employ-
ment for labour in the due cultivation of the soil, the
drainage of the bogs, the reclamation of the waste
lands, the opening of proper modes of communica-
tion
throughout d
oathe
working country,s
well railways as
ordinary
of mines, so as: to ob-
tain the mineral wealth that now lies buried in the
rs; the
land; the extension of the fisheries, inland, coast, and
deep sea; and in a variety of other channels
available for the industrial occupation of
the people, but which remain uncared.for and
wholly neglected.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE4KIER last night
brought forward two of the measures proposed by
Government for the permanent improvement of the
country. The Right Hon. Baronet also stated that
he had intended applying at the same time for a vote
but that the state of the arrangements
n
authorising an advance to the Great Western (Ire-
laenway, necessary to delay the application. He
rendered
Red ail
it
emphaticallyl declared that the intention was, how-
ever, y postponed, not given up. There is, there-
fore, no reason
to fear that the project which
figured so prominently
in Lord Joux Rummel;
statement to the Irish Members as one of the rerne-
onoo
dial measures which were about to be brought for-
ward, is to be abandoned or relinquished. Two votes
were taken, amounting together to 500,0001. sterling,
of which 300,000/. is to be added to the fund avail-
able under the Land Improvement Act, and 200,0001.
isito be applied to arterial drainage, in addition to a por-
tion of the repayments into the treasury for advances
previously made, which, under the Act of last session,
may be re-issued without further application to Par-
liament. The entire sum that will be expended in
river drainage during the ensuing year will be about
270,0001,, a sum which will be productive of the most
beneficial results, not merely in the employment that
will be thereby afforded, but in the increased value
of land within the districts in which the works
may be carried on. These are, indeed, ex-
cellent measures in their way, and they proceed
on the just and sound principle, that every
shilling that may be required will be repaid by
instalments into the Imperial Treasury. Ireland
does not require grants ; we should not dole out
pittances sufficient to sustain the lives of the people,
but inadequate to produce any permanent ameliora-
tion in their condition. Such gifts are like the
halfpence bestowed on casual mendicants, which do
not benefit the recipients, or induce any feeling of
gratitude towards the donors. A vicious system is
thereby perpetuated, to the injury of all con.
cerned. We should rather induce habits of
self-reliance and strict punctuality in every
dealing. Thousands of small tradesmen, or of
industrious workmen have been enabled, by judicious
loans, to struggle through seasons of difficulty, and
ultimately to repay all their obligations, and to be-
come perfectly independent in their circumstances.
If those persons had in the first instance been
treated as paupers, and consigned to the parish work-
houses, they would have remained perpetual burdens
on the rates. By more judicious treatment they,
however, became useful members of society, and re-
paid with thanks the aid they had received in their
emergencies. So we should act towards Ireland. Let
us deal with her rather a 3 an equal than as
an inferior—as a friend involved in temporary diffi-
culties, whom we may fairly and willingly aid with our
credit and resources, but from whom we have a right
to expect that our assistance Will be made reAllyl