any stomach. Many of the shops I found where this material was foaming and sputtering in kettles over the fire, as if a handful of soda had been flung in, and sending forth an odour really unpleasant; and when any expostulation was made, the answer was "They're quite glad to get it," or, "We use such as is put into our hands--the government must see to that." Such meal, a good American farmer would not give to his swine unless for physic, and when the half-starved poor, who had been kept all their life on potatoes, took this sour, mouldy, harsh food, dysentery must be the result. One of the Dublin Relief Committee stated, that the government had kindly offered to save them the trouble of carriage by taking the American donations, as they arrived, and giving them an equivalent of that which was already on the coast, which they had purchased this equivalent was the corn above-mentioned, and the American donations were in the best possible order, and the very article to which the poor were entitled. Let the policemen speak if they will speak, and testify, if many an injured ton of meal have not been flung into the sea in the night, from ports in Ireland, which was sent for the poor, and by neglect spoiled, while the objects for whom it was intended died without relief. The novel prudence too, which prevailed nearly everywhere, was keeping the provisions for next week while the people were dying this, lest they should come short of funds to buy more, or that no more would be given them. The author of the Irish Crisis, January, 1848, gives a clear statement of many things relating to Grants, Public Works, and many other valuable statistics, and upon the whole it presents a fair picture for future generations to read of the nice management and kindly feelings of all parties; and "that among upwards of 2000 local officers to whom advances were made under this act, here is not one to which, so far as Government is informed, any suspicion of embezzlement attaches." It further states that the fasts set apart in London were kept with great solemnity, and that never in that city was there a winter of so little gaiety. But he has not told posterity, and probably he did not know, that the winters of 1847 and 1848 in Dublin were winters of much hilarity among the gentry. The latter season particularly, seemed to be a kind of jubilee for "songs and dances." The Queen appointed fasts on both these winters, the people went to church, and said they had "all gone astray like lost sheep, and there was no soundness in them," and some who heard believed that this was all true; but it may be scrupled whether many priests "wept between the porch and the altar," or that many Jeremiahs eyes ran down with water, for the slain of the daughters of the people." That the people of England felt more deeply, and acted more consistently than did the people of Ireland, cannot be disputed. Ireland felt when her peace was disturbed and her ease molested, and she cried loudly for help in this "God's famine," as she impiously called it; but ate her good dinners and drank her good wine, as long as she could find means to do so-famine or no famine her landlords strained for the last penny of rent, and sent their tenants houseless into the storm when they could pay no longer. ; This, her sirs, her lords, and her esquires did. "No suspicion of embezzlement attached !" when a company of more than 2000 were entrusted with money at discretion, they must indeed have been a rare lump of honesty if some few glasses of wine had not been taken out of it, to drink the Queen's health on their days of festivals, or a pound now and then to pay off some vexatious debt, &c. And who shall tell Government of that? shall the United Fraternity themselves do it?—shall the poor, who are powerless and unheeded, tell it; or shall" Common Fame," that random talking tell-tale, fly through the kingdom, and declare that Mr. "head and ears in debt," suddenly came out "clear as a horn" that Mr. Somebody was fitting up his house, and where did he get his money? and that the cattle and horses of Farmer G were getting fat and thriving astonishingly, &c. It was my fortune to be placed in a position among all classes, acting isolated as I did, to see the inner court of some of these temples-(not of the Committees), with these my business ended when at Dublin. But I had boxes of clothing, and am obliged to acknowledge what common report says here, that the people of the higher classes in general shewed a meanness bordering on dishonesty. When they saw a goodly garment they not only appeared to covet, but they actually bantered, as though in a shop of second-hand articles, to get it as cheap as possible; and most, if not all of such, would have taken these articles without any equivalent, though they knew they were the property of the poor. Instead of saying "These garments are not fit for the cabin people, I will pay the full worth and let them have something that will do them good," they managed most adroitly to secure them for the smallest amount. These were people too who were not in want. The poor were shamefully defrauded, where they had no redress and none to lift the voice in their favour. Among the suffering it was not so; whenever I visited a neighbourhood or school, and clothed a naked child, or assisted a destitute family, those who were not relieved, never, in my presence or hearing, manifested the least jealousy, but on the contrary, blessed God that He had sent relief to any one. This so affected me, in schools where I went, that a garment for a naked child was not presented in the school-room; I could not well endure the ghastly smile of approbation that some child sitting near would give, who was nearly as destitute as the one that had been clothed. In one of Mr. Nangle's schools the teacher was requested to select the children most in want, and let me know, that I need not go into the room with new garments for a part, to the exclusion of others. These little suffering ones had not yet learnt to covet or envy-always oppressed, they bowed their necks patiently to the yoke. CHAPTER XIX. "There is no god, the oppressors say, POOR-HOUSES, TURNIPS, AND BLACK BREAD. THESE splendid monuments of Ireland's poverty number no less than 130, and some contain a thousand, and some two thousand, and in cases of emergency they can heap a few hundreds more. Before the famine they were many of them quite interesting objects for a stranger to visit, generally kept clean, not crowded, and the food sufficient. But when famine advanced, when funds decreased, when the doors were besieged by imploring applicants, who wanted a place to die, that they might be buried in a coffin, they were little else than charnel houses, while the living shivering skeletons that squatted upon the floors, or stood with arms folded against the wall, half-clad, with hair uncombed, hands and face unwashed, added a horror if not terror to the sight. Westport Union had long been celebrated for its management, its want of comfort, in fire, food, lodging, and room; but stay and die, or go out and die, was the choice. Making suitable allowances for a rainy day-the house undergoing some changes when I visited it-there then appeared little capital left for comfort, had the day been sunny, and the house without any unusual upturnings. The "yaller Indian," here, was the dreadful thing that they told me, "swells us and takes the life of us;" and as it was there cooked, it may be scrupled whether any officer in the establishment would select it for his food, though he assured the inmates "he could eat it, and it was quite good enough for a king." These officers and guardians, many of them, were men who had lived in ease, never accustomed to industry or self-denial, having the poor as vassals under them; and when the potatoe blight took away all means of getting rent, what with the increased taxations and the drainings by a troop of beggars at the door, they found themselves approaching a difficult crisis, and to prop up every tottering wall new expedients must be tried. Many of them sought posts of office under government, and were placed in the work-houses to superintend funds and food; and it will not be slander to say, that the ears of government have not been so fortunate with regard to the "slip-shod” honesty of some of these gentry, as in the 2000 which the writer of the Crisis mentions. When the poor complained, they were told that funds were low, and stinted allowances must be dealt out. Nor did the mischief end here; in proportion as the houses were crowded within, so were the purses drained without; and beside, in proportion to the purloining of funds, so was the stinting of food and the extra drains upon the struggling tradesman and farmer. An observer, who had no interest in the nation but philanthropy, going over Ireland, after travelling many a weary mile over bog and waste, where nothing but a scattering hamlet of loose stone, mud, or turf greets him, when he suddenly turns some corner, or ascends some hill, and sees in the distance, upon a pleasant elevation, a building of vast dimensions, tasteful in architecture, surrounded with walls, like the castle or mansion of some lord, if he knew not Ireland's history, must suppose that some chief held his proud dominion over the surrounding country, and that his power must be so absolute that life and death hung on his lip; and should he enter the gate, and find about its walls a company of ragged and tattered beings of all ages, from the man of grey hairs to the lad in his teens, sitting upon the ground, breaking stones with "might and main," and piling them in heaps-should he proceed to a contiguous yard, if the day be not rainy, and find some hundreds of the "weaker vessel," standing in groups or squatting upon their heels, with naked arms and feet-should he go over the long halls, and in some enclosure find a group of pale sickly-looking children cowering about a vast iron guard, to keep the scanty fire |