only kept “a little” for the children.  “The rest was sent to him,” said Mrs. M’Kennedy, through her choking grief, “but it was too late; before it arrived he was dead.”  Thus, through the whole of that, to her dreadful week, she had for her family of five persons about half a weight of potatoes,[181] small and bad, which were given to her by a kind neighbour, Mick Sweeney (God bless him, she said, for he often relieved us), two pints of flour, and one head of cabbage.  It is no great marvel that the man who was trying to work on his share of such provision was dead on Saturday.  In M’Kennedy we have a specimen of the people to whom the Board of Works insisted on giving task work.  “For the three weeks he was at work,” said his wife at the inquest, “he got two shillings and sixpence, being one week’s pay.”  There was a fortnight’s wages due to him the day he died.  “Even if his hire was regularly paid,” she added, “it would not support the family; but it would enable us to drag on life, and he would be alive to-day.”

Jeremiah Donovan, the steward of the works at Caharagh, deposed that M’Kennedy was at work the morning of the day on which he died.  On that morning he saw the deceased leave his work and go to the ditch-side; seeing him stop so long, he told him to return to his work.  He did not return, but said to deponent, “How can a man work without food?—­a man that did not eat anything since yesterday morning.”  Deponent then handed him a bit of bread.  He took it in his hand and was putting it to his mouth when it fell from him.  He died in two or three hours after.  His pay was eight pence a day.

The Rev. Mr. Webb, incumbent of Caharagh, then volunteered a statement—­hear it, ye rich, who have not that mercy and compassion for His poor, which the God of all so strictly requires at your hands,—­“I have been told by some on the road,” said the Rev. gentleman, “that this poor man has frequently divided amongst the labourers his own scanty food.”

There were two physicians at the inquest, of whom Dr. Donovan was one; having made a post-mortem examination, no disease was discovered that could account for death.  There was no food in the stomach or small intestines, but a portion of raw, undigested cabbage.  The physicians said they had seen hundreds of dead bodies, but declared they had never seen one so attenuated as that of M’Kennedy.  The representative of the Board of Works, when asked to explain why it was that a fortnight’s wages was due to M’Kennedy, said, that the money was sent to the wrong pay-clerk.  It had really come, but through some mistake, had been sent to Mr. Notter, and was by him expended in payment of his own district, when it should have been paid on the Caharagh line.  “But these stories,” he added, “received in gossip, are turned against the Board of Works.”  It is not very clear what this official meant by stories, but there is one thing plain enough in the matter:  Mr. Notter’s men must have been in arrear of