le on the works in preference to
others, but the efforts of such parties would be calculated to
neutralize each other. The balloting for the lists is explainable on
very legitimate grounds. Great as the extent of the Relief Works
undoubtedly was, these works were lamentably short of the wants of the
time. Let us suppose that five hundred men in a district were, every
one, urgent cases for the Relief Works, and let us suppose employment
could not be given to them all, a very common occurrence indeed, what
more natural--what more just than to select by ballot those who were to
be recommended? It is hard to see what else could be done, unless the
system of influence and favoritism against which Colonel Jones
complained, were adopted. The ballot, in short, would seem in many
instances the only means of defeating that system. It might be said that
five hundred equally pressing cases could not be found in the same
district. Very true. But what was unfortunately found in many districts
was, twice--thrice as many cases as there was employment for, the least
urgent of which might be well pronounced very urgent. Such, for
instance, was the fact in the whole county of Mayo.

After Skibbereen, Bantry, and Skull, there was scarcely any place in the
South so famine-stricken as Ennistymon. The gentry of the place knew the
real wants of the population, and pressed them on the Government
officials; while they, on the other hand, in obedience to orders, felt
bound to keep the labour lists as low as possible. To have reduced those
lists always served an inspector at head-quarters. In such cases it is
no wonder that unpleasant differences sometimes arose between Committees
and inspectors. That Ennistymon was sorely tried appears from many
communications to the Board of Works. A very short time after Captain
Wynne's unpleasant quarrel with the Committee there, I find Mr. Millet,
the officer, I suppose, who succeeded him, writing to the Board from
that town, that he was besieged in his house by men trying to compel him
to put them on the works, on which account he could not get out until
half-past four o'clock in the evening. "Some of the men make a list," he
writes, "and get it sent by the Committee whether men are wanting or
not. The people think this is sufficient authority."[152] From this it
seems clear that the works at Ennistymon were quite insufficient for the
number of the destitute. The starving people wanted to get employment,
_wh