Mr. Balfour on Thursday, in an exhaustive speech, detailed the
measures he intended to take for relieving the appre- hended distress in the West of Ireland. He acknowledged a serious failure in the potato crop, thereby confirming our statements of September 27th, and promised to provide seed- potatoes for the people without present payment, the interest of the money being repaid out of the Irish Church surplus, and 20 per cent. discount allowed to all who could pay cash. He would also push on light railways, so as to provide wages, cut roads worth permanently keeping up, begin certain schemes of main drainage, and try some experiments in reclamation and afforesting, of which the latter ought to be beneficial. The whole plan has been most carefully thought out, so as to relieve the people without repeating the injurious waste of 1880 ; and it was accepted by Mr. Morley on behalf of the Opposition as a sound plan, though he warned Mr. Balfour that the money required would be greater than he imagined. That is always probable in Ireland; but, at least, it will not be paid away in demoralising doles.
Previous page
