.. L1,415,185 13 7
L229,464 8s. 0d. being the amount of grants, and L1,185, 721 5s. 7d.
being the amount of loans; besides which there was expended by the Board
of Works under various drainage Acts, for the year ending 31st December,
1846, a sum of L110,022 14s. 4d.
In the week ending the 3rd of October, there were 20,000 persons
employed on the public works in Ireland; in the week ending the 31st of
the same month, there were over 114,000. In the very next week, the
first week of November, there were 162,000 on the works; and in the week
ending the 28th of November, the returns give the number as something
over 285,000! A fortnight later, in a detailed account of the operations
of the Board, supplied to the Treasury, this remarkable sentence occurs:
"The works at present are in every county in Ireland, affording
employment to _more than_ three hundred thousand persons."[157] The
increase went on rapidly through December. In the week ending the 5th of
that month, there were 321,000 employed; and in the week which closed on
the 26th, the extraordinary figure was 398,000![158]
The number of persons employed was greatest in Munster, and least in
Ulster.
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