The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

taking measures for the

in the social seal'

'remier

himself estimates, will be required for the system which would combine under the same roof, and
—" • and how small a portion under the same system of instruction, persons of different
- - aria 421:41411 A THI4II a r crrpsat rings of objectors to

former purpose

ever repair

,blv to

•
ability, or authority in this country
;PO+ CA tr% or.lr ;vt÷n.rfovrail of. of 1-1,0

were those who ob-
arnroent at all with

years to cor

But the measure of Lord George Bentinek, it is the national education, and who considered that educa-
urged, will not meet the first emergency. In part, tion, into which subject they carried
we admit that such is the fact. We contend, how- they entertained on the subject of religion, ought i,,
the voluntary system. They held that any interferer,
ever, it will do something. In the first place, the
a gnogi.i xnerottiotno sthwehici
the Government onaanlargiesescale would have the effec
completion of the 1500 miles of railway in Ireland, of damping
for which acts of parliament are already obtained, were now making
gergiteos some exteonutr
will support 110,000 persons, representing 560,000 tent to which they ought to be made, but which tle;
cowmensouls, for four years; and although these lines are thought would ultimately be made to an extent cowmen
~ ---
generally to be constructed in districts of the surate with the neceqsitip. of +4, ,t
country where the population enjoys at present the

he same views wilier
4-1 be or

Where the nov

e‘,lty of the statement of difficulty

maximum amount of comfor

!ding if

cannot fail to produce benefit to those engaged in
the pursuits of agriculture and industry generally.
The labour afforded by these best of public works
will afford material aid in the carrying out of an
'my, and evenwiaf the restricted one

efficient poo

set free for the purposes of agricultural impr-ove-
ment, drainage, &c., will be of no mean assistance
to the landowner, cramped as his efforts are by the
pressure of mortgages and of tenure; and the cer-
tain ultimate improvement of hi's property may
tempt him to do more for the advancement of that
result by his own means than he might otherwise
attempt. The influx of English capital into Ire-
land, and its concomitant advantages, would be

another result of the guarantee afforc

rity by the State's pa;ticipation in such investment
The politico-economical objection we do not re

gard as at all tenable. Private enterprise, to which
it is urged that the improvement of the conlition
of Ireland should be left, has been tried for two
centuries and failed ; and such private enterprise
need not be hindered by the Government taking
into its own hands the maturing of the railway
system in that country. There is still a vast amount
of work for the capital and the industry of the
country to do before Ireland can be enabled to take
up her just position as an integral pdrtion of the
empire, or to develope the vast resources -of her
soil and of ha. geographical location. The abstract

theories of pohtleal economy are totally inapplica-
ble in a country whose evils and miseries are so
complicated and so accumulated.
It is more, however, as an aid to the measures
of Government for the permanent improvement of
Ireland, that we regard with favour the present
proposition. If the extension of the railway sys-
tem in England has converted the barren soil into

a fertile garden ; if it has made the green blade
sprint up and the corn crops wave, and planted
the habitations of man where, of old, was to be

found'only tle impervious morass;

if commerce

if the buried mineral wealth of our country has by
it been made conducive to the wants and the com-
forts of man ; if the locomotive has borne civiliza-
tion and improvement in its path—as who shall
deny that it has ?—if it has brought the unin-
formed denizens of thousands of obscure localities
into beneficial contact with those of the populous
manufacturing town or the busy port ; if it has
given markets to the industry of vast masses of

our population, hitherto shut out by nature

pelf from a participation in the benefits of our hi-

proved commerce, what is the same cause not cal-
culated to effect in benighted and unhappy Ire-
land ? Spend a million sterling in reclaiming
bogs and wastes, in making roads and building
farmhouses, for the permanent improvement of a
country, whose population has not capital to stock
and crop above a few roods of potatoe ground !
Faugh. Give Ireland railways, and her bogs and
wastes will reclaim themselves under the awakened

er own people. A railway never ran
gh a country the most uninviting, in which
t did not startle indolence from its slumber, and
develope, not only in the soil but in man, resources

and energies of which neither ever made use or

were imagined to possess

There are, however, some modifications in the
scheme of the Protectionist Leader which we think
might be made with advantage, and would be cal-
culated to win for it a more extended approval
from the public. In a measure so extensive as
this, which calls upon the State for so large an
advance of the public money as £16,000,000 ster-
ling, we ought to be careful as to the prospect of
repayment. I - of the

t is well known that many
r which acts were obtained last ses-

Irish lines

)n, were hurried through Parliamen

h muc

too little inquiry, English members deeming it
ungracious to oppose the declared wishes of Irish
communities, although doubtful of the correctness
of the data upon which they were formed, and
leaving to the representatives of Ireland the moral
burthen of their failure as sound investments for
capital. •In part, the suggestion of Lord George
Bentinck, that the Government
should reconsider these measure

being carried out by Government aid, will meet the
evil. We should suggest, however, that the ad-
vance by the State should be one-half the capital,
not one-third, as stated by his lordship, by which
a better security would be derived by the state.
We are not certain, moreover, that the present
position of Ireland, and the claim now made in
her behalf, do not afford a fitting opportunity for
Government to undertake the duty, which has
unfortunately been let pass by in this country, of

providing a system of -railways under its own'Ma-

theprofits of which should be devoted to purely

transit

~ as traffic i

tlie formation of

nmodation for the country. This
subject, however, is too grave a one to be discussed

here, and we only rele

as deserving o:

serious

consideration at

ie present elan

THE course which her Majesty's Government;
acting upon the advice of the committee ,of council,

:bout to to

e for the morc

general spread of
is precisely, what we

education among

the people;

subject in the

ed it the time

iat Lord John and

would not grapple

boldly with the admitted evils.

arising from the

want of a comprehensive educational measure, to
he carried out by the state, but would confine
themselves to some improvement in the training of
teachers, and in the supervision of the schools esta-
blished, or partially supported, by the state
sures good enough in their wav, but cm-

—mea-
nade-