Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article690927

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English News

[FROM OUR FILES PER "OLIVER CROMWELL."]

THE FAMINE IN IRELAND.

From the Britannia, Feb 20.

It would be vain to attempt the collection in one article of the horrible details which reach us daily from Ireland of the progress of famine and pestilence in that unhappy coun- try. The destitution is rapidly increasing, all efforts to relieve it being unequal to the magnitude of the calamity. Borne down by long-continued privation, the people lose the strength which would enable them to seek for relief, and, abandoning themselves to despair, lie down on the floor of their hovels, waiting for death to release them from their sufferings. In the workhouses the mortality

continues on the increase. For the week ending January 30, the total number receiv- ing in-door relief was 110,561, and the deaths were 1,493, or at the rate of about 70 per

cent, yearly ! The Cork Examiner gives a return of the deaths in the Cork workhouse for the last three weeks :

" First week, 104 ; Second week, 128 ; last week, 164 : total, 396 in three weeks. Thirty six this week over last week, sixty over the week before-about one hundred over any week a month since. Will our citizens patiently

wait antil there are 396 in one week? Per- haps it may amount to 500 in seven days."

From other districts the returns are almost

equally awful. A letter from Kilglass, Ros- common, states that the people are wasting away so fast that they are unable to work when work is offered them. The parish, containing 10,000 inhabitants, it is said, will

soon be a wilderness.

Even of those employed on public works, the exhaustion is so extreme from hard la- bour and scanty nourishment that some drop down dead at their toil. It Is nothing un- common to find a man labouring at 1s. or 1s. 6d. a day, with eight or ten poor helpless creatures depending on him for support.

The future is forgotten in the midst of pre- sent calamity, and holders of small patches of land have entirely neglected the cultiva- tion of the soil. A Mayo paper writes :

" Up to this moment we may, without fear, assert that there have not been one hundred acres of land prepared for seed in this county (we mean by the poor farmers), nor is there any appearance of a change in this fearful course. In truth, we cannot blame the ma- jority of the farmers, as they have been de- pendent on public works for maintenance ; while a great number who could prepare for the spring are either indifferent to conse- quences, or determined to forsake this country when public employment ceases. Our position is really frightful in the extreme."

From the Dublin Evening Post, Feb. 16.

Day by day, the accounts that reach us become more horrifying. Two months since, Skibbereen in the South, and some parts of Mayo in the West, appeared to be the only districts where numbers were actually perish- ing for want of food. But now, there is scarcely a county in Ireland-not one, we believe, unless Kildare be an exception-in which the people are not dying of starvation. Even in the northern province, hitherto comparatively prosperous, there is terrible suffering amongst the mass of the peasantry ; the work-houses are over-crowded, and famine and disease are fast thinning the population. Within one week, as we stated some days since, there had been no less than 95 deaths in the Union work-house of Lur- gan, being nearly an eighth-part of the entire of the inmates ! This fearful state of things exists in Lurgan, one of the chief seats of the linen manufacture in the county of Armagh. In Fermanagh destitution is rapidly extending, and, we are sorry to add, crime has greatly increased. In the counties of Ulster-Donegal, for instance-where there are no manufactures, the state of the peasantry is to the full extent as deplorable

as in the south or west. In a north-western

county (Sligo) the ravages of famine are quite as dreadful as in Skibbereen, or any other southern district. So rapid has been the increase of mortality, that the coroners are totally unable to perform their duties ; and we are informed that in one place, Maugbarow, there are 40 dead bodies waiting for inquests!

From Kerry and other counties, the ac- counts are equally horrifying. In fine, in many of the counties, famine and pestilence are decimating the population.

Those who have strength sufficient, and can scrape up a small sum of money, are flying such scenes of desolation. Even in the depth of a winter of unusual severity, all who can are emigrating. Many who have been so fortunate us to obtain the means from their relatives in America, are encountering a steerage passage across the Atlantic. From parts of Limerick some hundreds of small farmers,agricultural labourers, and mechanics are to embark for the United States this

week. From all the leading outports, vast numbers are already emigrating ; those who can muster four or five pounds, are securing a steering passage to America, generally proceeding to Liverpool in the first instance. But the great tide of emigration is among the actually destitute classes ; those who can beg or borrow a few shillings to pay for a deck passage in the steamers or sailing ves- sels to Liverpool, Bristol, Newport, Glasgow, or some other sea port in England or Scot- land, where they proceed in the hope of ob- taining the means of keeping body and soul together-certain, at all events, that they escape, for the present at least, the horrors

of famine at home.

Persons who have recently travelled through Meath, Cavan, and Longford, in- form us that they met upon the roads great numbers of men, women, and children,   wending their way from the western coun- ties towards Drogheda and other eastern ports, with a view of proceeding to England. We learn from the Drogheda Argus, of Saturday, that the quays of that town are crowded with both classes of emigrants, such as we have described-the far greater number being the destitute beings seeking a deck passage to Liverpool, where, already, there are such indignant remonstrances against the "invasion of Irish paupers." Our Drogheda contemporary mentions the appalling fact, that the wretched women and  

children were to be seen on the decks of the

steamers, striving to appease their hunger with the turnips half-eaten by the cattle on

board !

And yet, in towns from which this species of emigration has been most extensive, the void is more than filled up by fresh inroads from the neighbouring rural districts. For instance, we have a printed statement from the guardians of the Skibbereen union, by which it appears that there is an increase in the population of that town to the extent of about 3,000, although much more than that number have emigrated, aud some hundreds have perished from want of food or disease.

We have obtained returns of the mortality in the workhouses of Ireland for the two last weeks of January. For the week ending January 23, the number receiving relief was 108,500; the deaths were 1,405. For the week ending January 30, the number re- ceiving relief was 110,561; the deaths had increased to 1,493.

After the preceding had been written, we received further and later accounts from the provinces. We deeply grieve to say that they exhibit a fearful increase of mortality.

From the Leeds Mercury, Feb. 20.

Dublin, Feb. 13.

A desolating famine, such as any one may read of in history, but with the actual horrors of which the present generation were unac- quainted, is now raging in several counties of Ireland, whilst extreme destitution pre- vails all through the country.

Fever and dysentery, produced by the want of food, are increasing in all directions, and the extent of mortality is daily becoming more alarming.

The deaths in the union workhouses alone amounted to nearly 1,500 in the last week of January! But of those establishments no record of mortality is kept. The coroners are totally unable to bold inquests on the numbers who die daily of starvation and cold. In fine, as a letter from Leitrim ex- presses it, "the peasantry are fading away

from the face of the earth."

The government are acting with the utmost energy and liberality to alleviate this dreadful

calamity. The Lord Lieutenant is advanc- ing a sum equal to the full amount contri- buted to each relief committee, with liberty to supply food gratis to the destitute, where the workhouses are crowded, and this is the case everywhere, with the single exception

of Castlebar.

IRELAND AND POTATOES.-The Cork Ex- aminer publishes a letter from Messrs. Keel-, ing and Hunt, who have been commissioned by government to look out in the different grain markets of the world for a supply of potato seed. They have made efforts to pro- cure seed potatoes from France, the Azores, and Russia, but unsuccessfully; and they have sent to Bermuda as a last resource.

" It is very evident," they say, " that Ire- land must fall back upon grain food. We kiok to the present visitation as a provi- dential warning as to the futility of depend- ing upon so precarious a root as the potato."

SYMPATHY FOR IRELAND IN AMERICA.

It is n very pleasing part of our duty to

notice the strenuous exertions which are

being made in behalf of the poor and desti- tute in Ireland. Meetings are in course of being held in several of the more important cities of the United States, and subscriptions to a large amount are collected. The New York papers before us mention that that city and other places had contributed 800,000 dollars, and the infant city of Jersey 1,000. A meeting was held in Newark (Jersey) on the 28th of January, at which committees were appointed to solicit subscriptions in the various wards, the Mayor beinz treasurer. The Canadian settlements are also bestirring themselves to promote this good and very important work of mercy. Sir John Harvey, the Governor of that province,- sent a mes- sage to the Assembly on the 28th January,

which was communicated to the house at the request of the Speaker. The Lieutenant Governor announced his readiness to concur in a reasonable grant of public money to be applied to the relief of the poor in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, in such a manner as her Majesty's government may appoint. We are happy to say the appeal thus made has been successful, and the par- ties to whom the message was addressed have done their duty in a uoble and praise- worthy manner, inasmuch as the house voted the handsome sum of £1,000 in furtherance of the objects brought under their consi- deration by Sir John Harvey.-Leeds Mer- cury, Feb. 20.

SUBSCRIPTIONS IN AID OF IRELAND AND THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND.-The sub-

scriptions received by the committee of the British Association amount at present to up- wards of £140,000. Among the recent con- tributions are-the Lord Chancellor, £300; Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Bart., £100; remittance from Manchester, £2000; Bradford, £1066; Hon. East India Company, £1000. The committee have purchased and forwarded to Ireland and Scotland 300 lons of wheat meal, 400 barrels of Indian corn meal, 327 quarters of maize, 1540 quarters of peas, 75 toni of biscuits, and 8175 bags of rice. BelVs Messenger, Feb. 15.

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