were in a state of excitement at the period.[147] Captain Wynne further says, that the perpetrator of the outrage was known, but could not be brought to justice.  The Board of Works, to mark its indignation at this murderous attack upon one of its servants, stopped the works in the locality, and the inhabitants, miserably off before, sank into a state of the most heartrending destitution, as is testified by Captain Wynne, writing from the same place a fortnight or three weeks after, to Colonel Jones.[148] “I must again,” he says, “call your attention to the appalling state in which Clare Abbey is at present.  I ventured through that parish this day, to ascertain the condition of the inhabitants, and although a man not easily moved, I confess myself unmanned by the extent and intensity of suffering I witnessed, more especially among the women and little children, crowds of whom were to be seen scattered over the turnip fields, like a flock of famishing crows, devouring the raw turnips, and mostly half naked, shivering in the snow and sleet, uttering exclamations of despair, whilst their children were screaming with hunger.  I am a match for anything else I may meet with here, but this I cannot stand.  When may we expect to resume the works?” This letter does much credit to the feeling and manly heart of Captain Wynne.  He says the wretched beings were devouring the raw turnips they found in the fields, but surely very little such was to be found among the snowdrifts in the last days of December, for, sad to say, his letter was written on Christmas Eve!  Such a Christmas for the people of Clare Abbey, and of a thousand places besides!

Beyond doubt, the Government, and those under them, had enormous difficulties to contend against.  Every new scheme, or modification of a scheme, proposed by them had its inconveniences.  Inspectors, engineers, and overseers appeared to regard the opposition to task work as the dislike of the lazy Celt to labour for his daily bread, and to his wish to get the “Queen’s pay,” as the wages on the works were termed, without doing anything for it.  Hence they were of opinion almost from the outset, that the sooner the system of task work was enforced the better, as the people, they said, seemed to be generally under the impression that no work was really required from them.  This was a very wrong and demoralizing notion, if it were entertained to any considerable extent.  Very probably it had a percentage of truth in it, but no more.  Worthless idlers, in no very urgent distress, must from the nature of things, have got employed upon works so extensive, but the officials were too fond of founding general conclusions on isolated, or at least on an insufficient number of cases.  The opposition to task work arose from more than one cause.  Lazy unprincipled people were opposed to it, because they were lazy and unprincipled; a far larger class were opposed to it, because it was no secret that the works were carried on not for