84 



" But what will you do with the earth you dig 1 

 out ?" 



" Och, there'll be time enough to think of that." 



And no doubt that would be really the idea of 

 our legislators. For, of course, the first principle of 

 government, is to provide for the immediate emer- 

 gency as the expediency of the moment requires, 

 and leave the rest to Providence. Perhaps they 

 thought of Abraham Lincoln's story to the deputa- 

 tion, that came to him in the middle of the war, to 

 discuss the reconstruction ; how before a camp 

 meeting in a distant part of the country, there was 

 a grand consultation as to how a certain river was 

 to be crossed ; and how " a cunning old coon of a 

 minister" got up and said, " My friends, I have had 

 much experience in my life, and much wandering, 

 and voyaging, and I have come to the conclusion 

 never to trouble myself how to cross a river till I 

 get to it." 



However, there have been Irish Acts of Parlia- 

 ment before this one. I think I have heard or read 

 of an Act that once ordained : 



(1.) That Greenwich hospital was to be rebuilt. 



(2.) That the new building was to be constructed 

 out of the materials of the old one. 



(3.) That the old hospital was to be made use of, 

 and kept standing, until such time as the new one 

 should be completed. 



" Quam parva sapientia mundus gubernatur," is 

 a very old and very hackneyed saying ; but it is so 



