The measures of which we have been speaking were brought to a close on the 15th August, 1846, and they may be considered to have answered their end. The scarcity being partial and local, the deficiency of one part of the country was supplied from the superabundance of others, and the pains taken to prevent the people from suffering want, led to their being better off than in ordinary years. Above all, Ireland was prepared by the course adopted during this probationary season of distress, as it may be called, to bear better the heavy affliction of the succeeding season. No misapplication of the funds deserving of notice took place, except in the instance of the Relief Works, the cause of which was as follows:--The landed proprietors of Ireland had long been accustomed to rely upon Government loans and grants for making improvements of various kinds, and the terms on which the Relief Works were to be executed being more advantageous than any which had been open to them for many years before, a rush took place from all quarters upon this fund, and the special object of relieving the people from the consequences of the failure of their accustomed food, was to a great extent lost sight of in the general fear, which in many cases was not attempted to be concealed, of being deprived of what the persons interested called “their share of the grant.” This description of relief, therefore, instead of acting as a test of real distress, operated as a bounty on applications for public works from a class of persons who were at once charged with the administration of the relief and were interested in the execution of the works. The result was that, while the applications amounted to 1,289,816ℓ., the sum actually sanctioned and expended was only 476,000ℓ., and great part even of this was merely yielded to the distressing appeals pressed on the Lord Lieutenant on the plea of urgent local destitution, and of the lamentable consequences to be expected from allowing it to remain unrelieved. The other expenses connected with this season of relief were as follows:--Loans on grand jury presentments, 130,000ℓ.; loss on the purchase and sale of grain, 50,000ℓ.; given in aid of Relief Committees, 69,845ℓ.; extra staff of the Board of Works, 7,527ℓ.; thus making the whole sum expended in relief to Ireland, up to the 15th August, 1846, 733,372ℓ., of which 368,000ℓ. was in loans, and 365,372ℓ. in grants. The sum raised by voluntary subscription through the Relief Committees was 98,000ℓ. The new and more decisive failure of the potato crop called for great exertions from Lord John Russell’s recently formed Government, and the plan resolved upon was explained in the Treasury Minute dated the 31st August, 1846, which was published for general information[24].