he occupier was to pay
one-half, and the landlord the other. Thus, by this law, the whole
expense of supplying food to the people during the remainder of the year
1846, and the entire year of 1847, was made a local charge, the Treasury
lending the money at five per cent, per annum, which money was to be
repaid at furthest in ten years. The repayments required by the previous
act, under which operations ceased on the 15th of August, had to be made
on the principle of the grand jury cess, which laid the whole burthen
upon the occupier. The Labour-rate Act got rid of that evident hardship,
and charged the landlord with half the rate for tenements or holdings
over L4 a-year, and with the _whole rate_ for holdings under that annual
rent.

The Lords of the Treasury published, on the 31st of August, a _Minute_
explaining how the provisions of this law were to be carried out, which
Minute was published to the Irish people in a letter from the Chief
Secretary for Ireland.

1. This _Minute_ directs the Board of Works to be prepared with plans
and estimates of those works in each district where _relief is as likely
to be required_, on which the people might be employed with the greatest
public advantage; an officer from the Board to be present at the
presentment sessions, in order to give such explanations as might be
called for. 2. It being apprehended by the Government that the public
works would be calculated to withdraw from the husbandry of the country
a portion of the labour necessary for the cultivation of the soil, the
three following rules were laid down in the Minute, which, "in their
lordships' opinion, ought to be strictly observed":--"No person should
be employed on any relief works who could obtain employment on other
public works, or in farming, or other private operations, in the
neighbourhood. The wages given to persons employed on relief works
should, in every case, be at least, twopence a day less than the average
rate of wages in the district.[122] And the persons employed on the
relief works should, to the utmost possible extent, he paid in
proportion to the work actually done by them." 3. Under the former Act,
the members of Relief Committees had authority to issue tickets, which
entitled persons to obtain employment on the Public Works; a system
which, it was found, led to abuses, numbers having obtained employment
on such tickets who did not require relief. The Treasury _Minute_,
therefore, confines the p