er and
report upon such works of a _reproductive character and permanent
utility_, as might be presented at any Sessions held under the above
Act; and his Excellency would be prepared to sanction and approve of
such of those works as might be recommended by the Board, and so
presented, _in the same manner_ as if they had been strictly "public
works," and presented as such in the manner required by the Act.[138]

Never did any Government pronounce against itself a more complete
verdict of ignorance and incapacity. The Government had framed the Act;
every clause of it was its own handiwork; it was passed through
Parliament without being modified, amended, or in the slightest degree
opposed, and yet, before it was brought into practical operation--for a
single work had not been commenced under it at the date of the
Proclamation--that same Government virtually repeal it, well knowing
that for such proceeding it must come before Parliament for an Act of
Indemnity.

FOOTNOTES:

[122] This rule gave great dissatisfaction, the wages in many places
being already far too low, in proportion to the price of provisions.
When the Cork deputation waited on Lord John Russell, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer said, in reply to Rev. Mr. Gibson, that the Minute of the
Lords of the Treasury requiring that wages should be twopence under the
standard of the country _was not the law_, and if necessary could be
modified.

[123] The italics are their lordships'.

[124] Letter to Mr. Trevelyan, Commissariat Series, Part I, p. 439, who
did not like it all, and sent in reply, on the part of the Treasury, an
elaborate defence of high prices and large profits; although the people
in many districts could only purchase one meal a day with the wages they
received on the public works, as is testified by Commissary-General
Doree's letter (p. 444); and by numberless other letters from almost
every part of the country; hence men in full employment on the
Government works died of starvation, or of dysentery produced by it. And
why should they not? They were earning 8-1/4d. a day at task work,
whilst meal was 3s. a stone; and the next shop in which it was sold for
that sum was often a great distance from them--in some cases twenty, and
even five-and-twenty miles!

The following paragraph went the round of the newspapers at the close of
December:--"A FACT JOB LORD JOHN RUSSELL.--Mr. Bianconi, ex-Mayor of
Clonmel, had shipped to him on the 14th of Decem