STATE OF IRELAND.—PROGRESS OF FAMINE AND DISEASE.
The year 1847 opened upon Ireland in many respects as gloomily as that which preceded. During the early months of the year the weather was very severe, and this added materially to the miseries of an already famine and disease-stricken people. The most heart-rending events connected with these disasters occurred everywhere throughout the country. The government continued its efforts for the mitigation of the prevailing evils; but the plans put forth for this object were not always wise, and the conduct of the people, high and low, baffled the projects of relief. All the mischievous proceedings of a social nature narrated in the previous chapter continued, and many of them were aggravated. The result was that great numbers perished in all parts of the country, especially in the south and west; and philanthropic men in Europe, in America, and throughout the whole world where civilised man dwelt, perused the records of Ireland’s sufferings and infatuation with horror and awe. This state of matters continued even to the harvest, and although there was then the prospect of abundant crops, that circumstance neither revived the hopes, nor assuaged the political rancour, of the people. Late in the month of June a clergyman addressed a letter to a Dublin newspaper, describing the condition of the peasantry in his locality, and it but too faithfully depicts the sufferings prevalent in most other places. It was as follows:—“The population of the district for which I would plead amounted at the last census to eight thousand seven hundred souls, but, owing to the dreadful ravages of famine and disease, it is generally considered that two thousand have perished during the past brief season of unexampled horror. Notwithstanding the relief administered through the medium of public works, and the subsequent distribution of rations, many instances have recently occurred of horses being stolen and destroyed for human food, and great distress still extensively prevails. During previous years, every available spot of land was alternately cultivated with potatoes and wheat or oats; but this year, owing to the utter destitution of the farmers, generally speaking, it is computed that one-third of the land last year under the potato crop still lies waste, while almost all the stubble ground remains untouched. If then, after the harvest of last year, when all the existing tillage was cultivated, and some proportion of the potato crop, such as it was, was available for food, such wholesale destruction of human life has taken place in this district, under circumstances of such a character that their mere recital fills the mind with horror and dismay—if, after two thousand have been swept away by the devastating power of famine and disease, four thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine of the survivors are at this moment kept from impending death by the daily distribution of rations,—what are we reasonably to anticipate for the time to come, unless prompt and energetic measures are adopted to provide means for sustaining those who may be spared?”