WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 239 



care for them in this respect would be a great 

 encouragement to emigration, and an act of charity 

 too. Boards of Guardians have power now to help 

 emigration from the rates. But larger powers might 

 be given to help, and in poor Unions loans for the 

 purpose granted, where the burden became too heavy. 

 When the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir J. 

 Macdonnell, was in London just before Parliament 

 was prorogued, he offered grants of the splendid land 

 in Manitoba, the wheat from which causes so much 

 fright to English farmers, 160 acres each to able- 

 bodied emigrants settling there; and he offered to 

 get an Act passed by the Colonial Parliament to 

 charge the cost of the emigration and support for 

 some months of the emigrant upon the land, in case 

 the cost had been advanced by any third party, as 

 Boards of Guardians, etc., so that, whether the emi- 

 grants stayed on the land or sold it, the money should 

 be repaid. A proper officer of the Government was to 

 see to the whole business, and procure repayment. The 

 proposal was communicated to Lord Dunraven (who 

 has travelled so much to the Far West, and has per- 

 sonal knowledge of the country) and to Lord Monck ; 

 they brought it before the House of Lords. Though 

 the climate is no doubt severe, still it must be a 

 very advantageous offer to poor emigrants. An 

 advance of 50, with what means he may have, 

 would be enough to pay for the emigration of most 

 farmers with their families. This, or even more, 



