Reference is made in the Report of 1846, to the generally satisfactory state of the finances of the unions;[154] but such was no longer the case in 1847, the heavy pressure consequent on the potato failure having exhausted their resources, and in many cases caused the most serious embarrassment. The returns show, that instead of there being as before money in the hands of the treasurers to meet the current expenditure, there was now, taking in the whole of the unions, a considerable deficit. Even those unions which were accustomed to maintain their finances in a fair state of efficiency, had latterly failed to obtain funds from the ratepayers proportioned to their expenditure. In some instances, the commissioners say, they have been compelled by the extreme urgency of the case, to supply the guardians with bedding and clothing, and with the means of procuring food to satisfy the immediate wants of the inmates, “the means of doing so having been furnished by government;” and they close their observations on these financial difficulties by stating, “that while the total expenses have been at the rate of at least 756,000_l._ a year, the sums collected have not much exceeded the rate of 609,056.” ----- [154] Ante, p. 304. ----- [Sidenote: Increase in the cost of relief.] The effect upon prices caused by the failure of the potato, may in some measure be judged of by the weekly cost of maintenance in the workhouses, which instead of being about 1_s._ 5_d._ per head as in former years, averaged 1_s._ 8_d._ per head in March, and 1_s._ 9_d._ per head in September 1846, after which it exceeded 2_s._ per head. This increase of cost must have materially added to the difficulties of the unions, not only by augmenting the pressure of the poor-rate, but also by reducing the means of the ratepayers for satisfying its demands. On every side there appeared ground for alarm, and no one could venture to look forward without feeling the most serious apprehensions. A third failure of the crops, should such unhappily occur, would be attended with consequences the disastrous extent of which it must be alike impossible fully to estimate or guard against; and the period was approaching when uncertainty on this vital point would be removed—At the end of another three months it would be seen whether want disease and misery were again, but in a more aggravated form, to overspread the land, or whether the earth would yield forth its increase for the sustenance of man. [Sidenote: 1848. First annual Report of the Poor-law Commissioners for Ireland.]