In order to secure regularity and efficiency in the collections, and the proper keeping of the union accounts, it was determined to appoint four auditors, who would be employed exclusively in that capacity; and it is expected that they would be the means of establishing a greater degree of uniformity as well as accuracy throughout all the unions in Ireland. [Sidenote: Cost of relief, and numbers relieved.] Fourteen workhouses had been brought into operation in course of the year 1843, the cost of relief administered in which amounted to 23,277_l._, and the number of inmates to 1,529, on the 1st of January 1844—on which day the number of inmates in the 92 workhouses in operation prior to 1843 was 31,981, and the cost of relief 221,097_l._ So that the entire number of persons relieved on 1st January 1844 in 106 workhouses was 33,510, and the cost of relief during the year amounted to 244,374_l._ This appears less than in the preceding year, but the difference is probably owing to the much greater number of workhouses which were opened in 1843, and the extra expenditure always attendant upon first bringing the houses into operation. By a statistical table appended to the Report, the total number of inmates of all classes in the several workhouses on 31st January 1845, is shown to have been 43,293, of whom 9,231 were able-bodied (that is 2,809 males and 6,422 females) and 11,441 were disabled through sickness age or other infirmity. Another minutely framed table in the Appendix to the Report shows, that of 27,529 adults above the age of fifteen, and 22,585 children under that age, 5,942 of the former were widows, and 3,622 widowers; and that of the children 19,886 were legitimate (4,164 being orphans) and 2,639 were illegitimate. [Sidenote: 1845. Seventh report of proceedings in Ireland.[121]] The Report of 1st May 1845, commences by declaring that “the administration of the law in Ireland had proceeded satisfactorily upon the whole since the date of the last Report.” The instances of resistance to the collection of the rates, or in which violence had occurred, were comparatively few, and the financial embarrassments which had operated prejudicially in several of the unions, had for the most part ceased. There were altogether 118 workhouses open for the purposes of relief. Of the 12 which remained, 3 were not yet declared fit for the reception of inmates, and in a few instances the guardians still neglected or refused to proceed in duly administering relief, although the workhouses had long since been declared. The most remarkable instance of this kind was in the Tuam union; but the commissioners had deemed it right to proceed against the Tuam guardians by mandamus, and their submission to the authority of the law was shortly expected. Meantime however they had, it is said, been sued for debts which they did not hesitate to incur, although they neglected to provide the means of payment. ----- [121]