was or could be relieved except by application to some neighbouring union. ----- [119] The rate amounted to 1,796_l._ The population of the union exceeded 70,000. ----- Even after the workhouse had been opened, and relief therein administered, there were several instances of unwillingness on the part of the guardians to make rates of sufficient amount to meet the liabilities of the union, and at the same time to provide for the relief of the poor. Some of the boards moreover refused to borrow and charge the rates with the sums necessary to cover the expense of building the workhouses, on the alleged ground of dissatisfaction with the architect’s certificates in favour of the contractors, or of the manner in which the work had been executed.[120] Legal proceedings against the guardians were in consequence taken on account of these refusals, and much expense was thus injudiciously incurred, whilst the poor were curtailed of their needful relief. The contracts entered into under such circumstances for supplying the workhouse, if they could be made at all, were necessarily made on extremely disadvantageous terms; and thus the intentions of the legislature were frustrated, and disaffection towards the law was generated, by the very parties appointed to carry out the one, and guard against the occurrence of the other. Several unions are named in the Report, in which such was or had been the case, and in one (Carrick on Shannon) a poor man had died in consequence of being refused relief. Yet there can be no doubt that where the unions were properly in operation, a large amount of actual destitution and extreme suffering was effectually met by opportune relief afforded in the workhouses. In many cases however the poor people were so reduced as to be in an extremely debilitated state when admitted, and they often died shortly afterwards. In this worst extremity to which, in a physical sense, a human being can be exposed, an institution affording shelter, medical attendance, and the last consolations of religion, must surely be one of the most effective forms in which relief can be administered, more especially among a population such as exists in Ireland. ----- [120] The complaints of the architect’s certificates were not confined to the guardians, for whilst these complained of his too liberal allowance of charges, the contractors complained that their charges were unduly cut down. Both complaints were however totally without foundation, and in fact one negatived the other. ----- [Sidenote: Divisional chargeability.]