" But, softly; let there be no
hasty conclusions. Hear the end. The County Surveyor gives the
population of Mayo at 56,209 families, _of whom 46,316 families_, he
says, _were to be employed on the relief works!_ Taking those families
at the common average of five and a-half individuals to each, the total
number would be 254,738 persons. The presentments allowed would thus
give about ten shillings' worth, of employment for each individual, with
nine or ten foodless months before them. The conclusion is inevitable;
the presentments allowed were utterly inadequate to meet the Famine in
Mayo, the fearful consequences of which we shall learn as we
proceed.[145]
Many of the speakers at the Presentment Sessions charged the Government
with a breach of faith, in not finishing the works which were
prematurely closed on the 15th of August, 1846. Those works were
commenced under the law passed by Sir Robert Peel's Government, whereby
the baronies, or, in other words, the ratepayers, paid _one-half the
expense_, and the Government the other; so that even if Lord John
Russell's Government took them up anew, under the Labour-rate Act, _the
whole expense_ should, according to the terms of that Act, fall upon the
baronies.
Pages:
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356