ssions
held in the barony--were said to be quadruple the rental of the entire
barony! This, however, was only one district of the largest Irish
county; but the presentments for the whole County of Mayo, the most
famine-stricken, to be sure, of all the counties, are worth remembering;
and so is their explanation. They were forwarded to the Board of Works
by the County Surveyor. The number of square miles in the county are
given at 2,132, the rent value being L385,100. The County Surveyor
recommended to the Sessions presentments amounting in the aggregate to
L228,000, nearly two-thirds of the entire rental. The Baronial Sessions,
however, were far from resting contented with this. The ratepayers and
magistrates assembled in their various baronies, presented for works to
the amount of L388,000, nearly L3,000 in excess of the entire rental of
the county; but which was finally cut down by the Board of Works to
L128,456 8s. 4d. Prudent people and political economists will at once be
inclined to exclaim, "Very right; it was most fortunate to have an
authority to check such recklessness." But, softly; let there be no
hasty conclusions. Hear the end. The County Surveyor gives the
population of Mayo at 56,209 families, _of whom 46,316 families_, he
says, _were to be employed on the relief works!_ Taking those families
at the common average of five and a-half individuals to each, the total
number would be 254,738 persons. The presentments allowed would thus
give about ten shillings' worth, of employment for each individual, with
nine or ten foodless months before them. The conclusion is inevitable;
the presentments allowed were utterly inadequate to meet the Famine in
Mayo, the fearful consequences of which we shall learn as we
proceed.[145]

Many of the speakers at the Presentment Sessions charged the Government
with a breach of faith, in not finishing the works which were
prematurely closed on the 15th of August, 1846. Those works were
commenced under the law passed by Sir Robert Peel's Government, whereby
the baronies, or, in other words, the ratepayers, paid _one-half the
expense_, and the Government the other; so that even if Lord John
Russell's Government took them up anew, under the Labour-rate Act, _the
whole expense_ should, according to the terms of that Act, fall upon the
baronies. This was looked upon as a grievance, and at the Glenquin
Sessions, in the county Limerick, Lord Monteagle, a friend and supporter
of the Ad