[122] This rule gave great dissatisfaction, the wages in many places being already far too low, in proportion to the price of provisions. When the Cork deputation waited on Lord John Russell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said, in reply to Rev. Mr. Gibson, that the Minute of the Lords of the Treasury requiring that wages should be twopence under the standard of the country _was not the law_, and if necessary could be modified. [123] The italics are their lordships'. [124] Letter to Mr. Trevelyan, Commissariat Series, Part I, p. 439, who did not like it all, and sent in reply, on the part of the Treasury, an elaborate defence of high prices and large profits; although the people in many districts could only purchase one meal a day with the wages they received on the public works, as is testified by Commissary-General Doree's letter (p. 444); and by numberless other letters from almost every part of the country; hence men in full employment on the Government works died of starvation, or of dysentery produced by it. And why should they not? They were earning 8-1/4d. a day at task work, whilst meal was 3s. a stone; and the next shop in which it was sold for that sum was often a great distance from them--in some cases twenty, and even five-and-twenty miles! The following paragraph went the round of the newspapers at the close of December:--"A FACT JOB LORD JOHN RUSSELL.--Mr. Bianconi, ex-Mayor of Clonmel, had shipped to him on the 14th of December, at New York, a small lot of best Indian corn, at _twenty-three shillings_ per quarter of 480 lbs.; and the same post which brought the invoice brought a letter stating the price at Liverpool was _seventy-two_ shillings. What will Lord John Russell say to this? [125] Board of Works' Series, vol. L., p. 97. [126] Mr. Monsell's Letter to Lord Devon. [127] The case of Ireland, etc., contained in two letters to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, Chief Secretary of Ireland, by the Rev. William Prior Moore, A.M., Cavan, p. 6. Halliday Pamphlets, vol. 1991. [128] _Ib._ p. 7. [129] _Ib._ [130] The Case of Ireland, etc., p. 11. [131] _Ib._ p. 11, 12. The capitals and italics in the above quotations are Mr. Moore's. [132] Memorandum to Commissary-General Hewetson. Commissariat Series, p. 452. [133] "A great deal of delay on the part of the Board of Works in the respect of drainage was occasioned by that body involving themselves in legal intricacies which were not necessary under the Act." _O'Connell's Speech at the Baronial Sessions of Caherciveen._ [134] _Correspondence on some of the general effects of the failure of the potato crop and its consequent relief measures. By J.P. Kennedy, formerly an officer of the corps of Royal Engineers, and late Secretary of the Land and Relief Commissions. Dublin: Alex. Thom, 1847. Halliday Pamphlets, vol. 1993._ [135] _Ibid._ The italics are Mr. Kennedy's. [136] Now Lord Emly.