One of the proofs brought forward that the Irish people were not so badly off as they pretended—­in fact that in many instances they were concealing their wealth, was, the increase of deposits in the Savings Banks.  At a superficial glance there would appear to be much truth in this conclusion; but we must remember that the millions whom the potato blight left foodless, never, in the best of times, had anything to put in Savings’ Banks.  They planted their acre or half acre of potatoes, paid for it by their labour; they had thus raised a bare sufficiency of food; and so their year’s operations began and ended.  An official of the Irish Poor Law Board, Mr. Twistleton, gave a more elaborate and detailed answer to the Savings’ Banks argument.  Writing to the Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, under date of the 26th of December, he calls his attention to leaders in the Times and Morning Chronicle on the subject.  One of those articles is remarkable, he says, since it “seemed to treat the increase in the deposits as a proof of successful swindling on the part of the Irish people, during the present year.”  So far from this being true, an increase, in Mr. Twistleton’s opinion, might show “severe distress,” inasmuch as when times begin to grow hard, deposits would increase for the following reasons: 

1.  People in employment, who were thoughtless before and did not deposit, would begin to be depositors in bad times.

2.  People in employment, who were depositors before, would increase their deposits.

3.  Thrifty people, who would at other times have gone into little speculations, would now be afraid to do so, and they would become depositors instead.

4.  Persons of a higher class, say employers, in such times cease to be employers and become depositors.

An increase of deposits, Mr. Twistleton admits, may arise from prosperity; he only wishes to show that such increase is not always a certain sign of it.  We know too well now, that the increase of deposits in some of our Savings’ Banks during the Famine, was no sign whatever of prosperity; yet the journals named above, at once built upon the fact a theory most damaging to the existing destitution of our people, and most injurious to their moral character; basing this theory on one of those general principles of political economy, which often admits of grave exceptions, and sometimes breaks down utterly, when put to the test of practical experience.

Amongst the minor difficulties with which the Board of Works had to contend, were scarcity of silver, and the impossibility of having suitable tools manufactured in sufficient quantity.  Gold and bank notes were of little or no use on pay day,—­and where works were opened in wild out-of-the-way places, there was no opportunity of exchanging them for silver coin.  Representations on this head having been made by the Inspectors, the “Comet,” a government vessel,