He says the wretched beings were
devouring the raw turnips they found in the fields, but surely very
little such was to be found among the snowdrifts in the last days of
December, for, sad to say, his letter was written on Christmas Eve! Such
a Christmas for the people of Clare Abbey, and of a thousand places
besides!
Beyond doubt, the Government, and those under them, had enormous
difficulties to contend against. Every new scheme, or modification of a
scheme, proposed by them had its inconveniences. Inspectors, engineers,
and overseers appeared to regard the opposition to task work as the
dislike of the lazy Celt to labour for his daily bread, and to his wish
to get the "Queen's pay," as the wages on the works were termed, without
doing anything for it. Hence they were of opinion almost from the
outset, that the sooner the system of task work was enforced the better,
as the people, they said, seemed to be generally under the impression
that no work was really required from them. This was a very wrong and
demoralizing notion, if it were entertained to any considerable extent.
Very probably it had a percentage of truth in it, but no more. Worthless
idlers, in no very urgent distress, must from the nature of things, have
got employed upon works so extensive, but the officials were too fond of
founding general conclusions on isolated, or at least on an insufficient
number of cases.
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