"[155]
One of the proofs brought forward that the Irish people were not so
badly off as they pretended--in fact that in many instances they were
concealing their wealth, was, _the increase of deposits in the Savings
Banks_. At a superficial glance there would appear to be much truth in
this conclusion; but we must remember that the millions whom the potato
blight left foodless, never, in the best of times, had anything to put
in Savings' Banks. They planted their acre or half acre of potatoes,
paid for it by their labour; they had thus raised a bare sufficiency of
food; and so their year's operations began and ended. An official of the
Irish Poor Law Board, Mr. Twistleton, gave a more elaborate and detailed
answer to the Savings' Banks argument. Writing to the Home Secretary,
Sir George Grey, under date of the 26th of December, he calls his
attention to leaders in the _Times_ and _Morning Chronicle_ on the
subject. One of those articles is remarkable, he says, since it "seemed
to treat the increase in the deposits as a proof of _successful
swindling on the part of the Irish people_, during the present year." So
far from this being true, an increase, in Mr.
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