It was originally estimated that the cost of the workhouses would not exceed a million sterling, and provision had been at the outset made to that extent: but as the buildings advanced, it became evident that this amount would not be sufficient, and application was made for a further loan of 150,000_l._. One cause of the excess was, that it had not been originally proposed to finish and fit up the workhouses in so expensive a way as was afterwards found to be necessary. As the general condition of the people with respect to their habitations and mode of living, was inferior to that of the corresponding classes in England, it was thought that the workhouses might properly be of a somewhat less finished and costly character, and the arrangements for the buildings were framed in accordance with this view. Further experience however showed it to be necessary that the Irish workhouses should be made in all respects as complete as those in England. Indeed the guardians very generally wished that the finishing and fittings should be more costly and complete than was the case in the English houses; and if the prevalent desire on this point had been complied with, the workhouses in Ireland would have been finished and fitted up after the model and with all the appliances of an hospital or infirmary. This will account for much of the excess beyond the original estimate in providing the Irish workhouses. [Sidenote: Workhouse employment.] In connexion with the workhouses, the difficulty of always finding suitable employment for the inmates requires to be noticed. That pauper labour is unprofitable, was generally admitted; and if it were so in England where there is a constant demand for labour, it could not fail of being so in Ireland where the labour market was for the most part overcharged. All that had hitherto been done in this respect in the Irish workhouses, was to keep the inmates occupied as far as possible in employments of the commonest kind. The aged and infirm of both sexes who constituted a great majority of the inmates, were generally employed in oakum-picking, in the picking carding and spinning of wool, in knitting, and some few in making and mending the clothes belonging to the establishment. There were scarcely any able-bodied men in the workhouses, although there were many partially disabled, who were mostly occupied in the kitchen or doing the rougher work about the yards, and where this did not afford sufficient occupation they were employed in breaking stones. The able-bodied women were employed in household work, and there were not always a sufficient number of these to clean and keep the house in proper order; but where the number was greater than could be so employed, they were set to work with the needle, or in carding spinning or knitting. With regard to the children of both sexes, when not at school, they are employed in occupations suited to their age and strength—the girls under the matron in household work, or in working