[257] Commissariat Correspondence, p. 452. G.P. Scrope's letters to Lord John Russell, p. 58.
[258] Ireland: Historical and Statistical. By George Lewis Smyth, vol. 2, p. 452.
[259] "In the neighbourhood of Mullinahone I witnessed the daily painful sight of the perversion of the labour of this country to the most profitless ends. Roads, which are now more than ever necessary to be kept in order, are in the course of obstruction, whilst waterlogged lands, reclaimable bottoms, and mountain slopes stand out in damning evidence of the indolence, neglect, and folly of man."—Letter of Lieut.-Colonel Douglas to Sir S. Routh, dated Clonmel, 28th January, 1847. Commissariat Series, part 2. Strong language from a Government official.
"Some persons recommend emigration as a panacea for the distress in Ireland—that is, in plain English, to send the bone and sinew of our country to cultivate foreign lands, when countless acres are at their doors untilled, undrained, and therefore unremunerative."—The Case of Ireland: in two letters to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, Chief Secretary for Ireland. By the Rev. Wm. Prior Moore, A.M., Cavan. Dublin: Wm. Curry and Co., 1847.
[260] The number of persons employed on the public works reached its highest point in March, 1847, viz., 734,000. But this was the average for the whole month. Before the Committee of the House of Lords on "Colonization from Ireland," Captain Larcom, one of the Commissioners of Public Works, said that the Commissioners expected the number employed on those works to rise to 900,000 in June and July, having risen to 740,000 when the first stoppage took place on the 20th of March, at which time they were increasing at the rate of 20,000 weekly.—Answer to Question 2,547, p. 265.
[261] Freeman's Journal.
[262] Hansard, vol. clv., p. 436.
[263] 1847, March 11—Food riots occurred in the Highlands. May 19: Alarming food riots took place in various parts of England, at Taunton and in Jersey, and also in France and Spain.—Census of Ireland for 1851, Tables of Deaths. Vol. 1. p. 289.
[264] Fagan's "Life of O'Connell," vol. I, p. 111.
[265] Fagan's "Life of O'Connell", vol. I, p. 161.