The plan adopted was by establishing public works, as had been done on former somewhat like occasions; and an Act was accordingly passed enabling the magistrates and principal cess-payers to obtain advances of public money for this purpose, one-half as a free grant, the other half as a loan to be repaid by the barony out of the grand-jury cess. The greatest number of persons employed under this system was 97,000. It was brought to a close in the month of August, and may be said on the whole to have answered its intended purpose, although not without considerable drawbacks, partly through the misapplication of public money, and partly by increasing the tendency which has always prevailed in Ireland to rely upon government aid. The entire amount expended by the government down to the 15th of August 1846, in affording relief to the Irish people during this season of distress was 733,372_l._, of which one-half was a free grant, and the other half a loan. The sum raised by voluntary subscription for like purposes was 98,000_l._, making together 831,372_l._, obtained from other than poor-law sources, and expended during this first season of severe pressure in relief of persons many of whom would else have perished through absolute want. [Sidenote: The autumn of 1846. Severe distress.] With the approach of autumn another period of distress commenced in Ireland, far heavier and more intense than the preceding, the potato crop having now almost universally and entirely failed. In the former season there were helps or palliatives, some districts having nearly escaped the disease and others being less generally affected by it; but in the present season there were no such exceptions, and neither help nor hope was to be found in the natural resources of the country. A new emergency may thus be said to have arisen, and the public works which had been put an end to in August were renewed in the following month, and the entire machinery of provision depôts and relief committees was reorganized on a more comprehensive scale than before. [Sidenote: The Labour-rate Act, _9th and 10th Vict. c. 107_.]