The Tuam guardians, against whom judgment had been pronounced under the proceedings by mandamus, as noticed in the last Report,[127] although professing compliance with the peremptory order issued by the court, were still backward in fulfilling the duties which the law imposed upon them, as were also the guardians of the Castlereagh union. The commissioners therefore deemed it right to dissolve both these boards, on whom it was evident that reliance could not be placed for an effective administration of the law, in the impending season of scarcity and distress through the failure of the potato crop; and it was at the same time intimated, that if the boards elected in lieu of those dissolved “failed to discharge effectually their duties as guardians of the poor,” paid officers would be appointed under the _26th section_ of the Relief Act to carry its provisions into execution. “It is satisfactory (the commissioners observe), prepared as we are in case of necessity to resort to the exercise of those powers, that we have, in the first instance, always endeavoured to give effect to the views of the legislature, when resisted, by an appeal to judicial authority. We still trust that the decisions which the Court of Queen’s Bench has pronounced in vindication of the law, and which have invariably been followed by submission elsewhere, will finally have their due effect in the Tuam and Castlereagh unions, and render unnecessary the appointment of paid officers to perform the functions of guardians in those unions.” ----- [127] Ante, p. 300. ----- [Sidenote: Fever wards.] Considerable progress had been made in providing for poor persons afflicted with fever. In 50 of the unions, fever wards in connexion with the workhouses were either built or in course of building, and in others houses had been hired for the purpose, or temporary provision was made until fever wards could be erected. Arrangements had likewise been made for sending fever patients from the workhouses to county fever hospitals, and no pains were spared in urging upon the guardians the necessity of their being prepared for the occurrence of fever, which experience had shown to be always prevalent in seasons of distress, from whatever cause arising. [Sidenote: Failure of the potato.]