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GLEANINGS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 WEST OF IRELAND. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. & REV. S. GODOLPHIN OSBORNE. 
 
 Ike Queen reads. — " Can such things be, 
 
 And in my dominion? ?" 
 
 Play not yet publist 
 
 LONDON: 
 T. & W. BOONE, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 1S50. 
 

 ■ 1 1 
 
 DOAfflf 
 
TO 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY 
 
 THE EARL OF CLARENDON, 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 €i)te little CTorfe 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY ONE WHO IS AS SENSIBLE OF THE WORTH OF 
 
 HIS PUBLIC CHARACTER, 
 
 AS HE IS OF 
 
 THE VALUE OF HIS PRIVATE ESTEEM. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Some of the matter contained in the following 
 pages has already been published, in the columns of 
 the " Times" newspaper. I have added to it a good 
 deal of detail, as to the condition of the people, in 
 the West of Ireland ; which I think it important to 
 publish, but which would not have been acceptable 
 to the generality of the readers of a newspaper. I 
 desire, however, to place on record, in a form easily 
 accessible, the results of the inquiries I have made 
 into the nature of the treatment, to which the pea- 
 santry of the distressed districts are exposed, within 
 and without the workhouses. A newspaper, when 
 once read, is usually put aside, and then, very often 
 accidentally, or purposely misquoted. Those who 
 may attempt to refute the statements I have felt it 
 my duty to make, and those who may desire to lend 
 their aid to obtain redress for the grievances I have 
 proclaimed, will, I trust, in these pages, find a ready 
 source of reference to those facts, on which I ground 
 my appeal for the consideration of all who love 
 mercy and justice, to the oppression, and the suffer- 
 ing, of the people of this part of the Queen's domi- 
 nions. 
 
VI 
 
 In reference to Irish readers, I will now touch 
 upon a subject, which, had I reason to suppose my 
 readers would only be English, I should have passed 
 over. It has been more than insinuated in Ireland, 
 that in my tours in that country, I travelled as a 
 "Times Commissioner;" one paper pleasantly ad- 
 dresses me as a "penny-a-liner." A gentleman of 
 some rank, has — although he had some acquaintance 
 with me — put upon the books of his " Union," that 
 " I visited the country in the twofold capacity of an 
 anonymous correspondent of the " Times," and an 
 accredited informer of the Government." To any 
 of my readers who may feel any interest in so trifling 
 a matter, I beg to say — that in the inquiries I have 
 made in Ireland, as well as in the very many I have 
 made and published elsewhere — I have ever travelled, 
 wholly at my own expense, for my own pleasure ; in 
 no manner of connection with any public journal, or 
 any public authority. 
 
 For many years the Editor of the " Times " has 
 kindly indulged me with space in his journal, when it 
 has pleased me to write, what it has pleased him to 
 publish ; I never yet touched one farthing, or received 
 any personal favour from him, or the Editor of any 
 other journal, beyond that simple favour of making 
 public for me, what I wished to publish. 
 
 As to any connection with any Government, my 
 line through life has not been one calculated to win 
 for me any special countenance of that sort. In pur- 
 
Vll 
 
 suing an object to which, circumstances, years ago, 
 when I thought I had few to live, led me to dedicate 
 my every energy, I have set aside all consideration of 
 whether I might please or displease either those whose 
 private friendship I valued, or whose official position 
 could advance me in life. It is quite true, I have 
 asked, and always obtained, introductions from per- 
 sons in office, when I have needed them, to give me 
 opportunity to see and judge for myself, as regarded 
 the management of those matters under the control 
 of Government, in which I took an interest ; but I 
 have ever reserved to myself the fullest liberty of 
 opinion, and of right to make that opinion known. 
 
 I have no hesitation in avowing, that I am very 
 grateful for the assistance the "Times" has afforded me 
 in my efforts to ameliorate the condition of my poorer 
 fellow-creatures. I feel no shame in being called a 
 "correspondent" of that paper; I do not know one 
 single rank or profession which does not furnish 
 some who write occasionally for the Public Press. 
 Except in the case of one who writes for an avowed 
 philanthropic object, I own I can see no reason why 
 a peer, a bishop, or any one, of any rank, should 
 hesitate to receive pay from a newspaper, when it is 
 well known pay is gratefully accepted by men of all 
 ranks from the " Reviews." 
 
 As to the sneers of such little " Union" grandees 
 as my friend, who, as if to make good his nationality, 
 proclaims the writer of a series of letters, the first 
 
Vlll 
 
 of which had his name at full length, the rest his 
 initials, as an anonymous correspondent, I can easily 
 forgive him ; small minds bear but little disturbance, 
 though they are apt to exact no small amount of 
 deference to the self-magnified value of their clever- 
 ness. He will continue great on his own little 
 theatre; and even after the Board he adorns with 
 his presence shall have made their male paupers 
 decent — given them water to drink; I think it likely 
 he may find, that, though holding no official posi- 
 tion calling on me to represent the misdoings of the 
 said Board, I may yet take the liberty of doing so, in 
 other equally disgraceful matters ; where there is no 
 resident inspector, he must excuse a traveller, who 
 may think it his duty to expose what no inspector 
 would, I hope, suffer. If he will take a friend's 
 advice, he will devote himself more often to a real 
 inspection of the wards and yards of the parent and 
 auxiliary houses of his Union, and less, to heavy fa- 
 cetiae at my expense. 
 
 I will only add, that ill-health, and other unavoid- 
 able causes, have forced upon me the putting these 
 pages through the press, with a carelessness as to 
 form and style scarcely pardonable. I am prepared 
 to bow, in these respects, to all the criticism the work 
 deserves; I am equally prepared to defend every 
 statement made, as only made on good and sufficient 
 grounds. 
 
C X T E X T S. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Line of Travel — Unions visited — In-door Pauperism — Limerick 
 — Parent — Auxiliary "Workhouses— Gross mismanagement — 
 Wretched condition of Inmates — Board day— Personality of 
 Debates — Temptation to job — Accusations of jobbing . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Kilrush Union — Admission day— Appearance of Applicants — 
 Famine Cases — Starved Adults — Starved Children — Nature 
 of death from Famine — Mortality in this Union — Kilkee — 
 Journey to Ennis — Evictions — Their cruelty and effect on 
 the People — House-tumbling process — Scalpeens — Kildysart 
 — Inconvenience of charity — Where and how the evicted live 1 4 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Ennis— Private sitting room — The Union house — Creditable 
 management — Gort Union house — Wretched condition of 
 Children— Scramble for dinner — Horrors of one yard of 
 Women, etc. — Black Women — Shameful crowding — Lough- 
 rea — Appearance of street — Wholesale eviction — Balinasloe 
 — State of able-bodied men — An encumbered Estate — Oran- 
 more— War on dwellings — A fever case . . . . :3C 
 
X 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Galway — Use of big toe — Irish Gibbets — Workhouses — Dying 
 Children — Able-bodied (? ) — Pauper Women — Numbers — 
 Employment — Agricultural School — Godless College — Canal 
 -to Lough Corrib . . 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A good Landlord — The Fisheries— " Martin property" — Adven- 
 tures of Salmon — Clifden — Reformationists — The Work- 
 houses — Shameful condition of the Inmates — Another ex- 
 perience of the penalty of charity — A traveller hunt . . 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Out-Relief — Mr. Ellis and his Connemara home — English settlers, 
 the " Eastwoods" — Disadvantages to the ordinary traveller 
 . of the fishing season — Thoughts on fishing tackle — A Dia- 
 logue — Fishing Accidents — How to get a fish-hook out of 
 your own hand or lip— Author inclined to grumble — A clever 
 beggar — Westport — Its Workhouses — Emigration — Indus- 
 trial Societies, at Westport and Castlebar . . . .81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Castlebar— Workhouses — Execution in the Houses — Earl of 
 Lucan's farming operations — Ballina — Seizure and sale of 
 Workhouse property — Rescue by Mr. Gurney — Funeral of 
 Pauper Children — A very cautious Banker . . . .104 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 How does the Poor-law treat Paupers with reference to their 
 moral and social character ?— Population equal to English 
 
XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Towns in Irish Workhouses — Their Treatment — Neglect of 
 the Rules and Orders of Commissioners — Want of sympathy 
 to dying — Tight Officers ! — Want of reverence in Burials — 
 Jobbing in the Contracts US 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Condition of Peasantry out of the Workhouse — Potato culture — 
 Its consequence — The value it gave to land — Landlords — 
 Agents — Drivers — How they get their means of living — 
 Illegal acts of Agents — Deaths in Kilrush Union Houses — 
 The state of the Paupers on admission — A Landlord's Procla- 
 mation — Relievine; Officer's Statement .... 140 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Evidence taken at Inquests or Official Inquiries . . . .156 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Mortality in Union Houses — Peasantry said to be Priest-ridden — 
 Their devotion — Their gratitude — Neglect of their education 
 — Have been made lazy— Taught cunning — Their title to 
 sympathy — Agrarian Murders, not unnatural result of their 
 treatment 185 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Tenant-right Agitation — Will gain force in the West from the 
 oppression of the Tenants —Justice to Peasant as well as to 
 Proprietor — Tenants in the West compared with Tenants in 
 the North — The Proprietor's true interest, speedy Justice to 
 Tenantry 206 
 
Xll 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Brig- liter Prospects — Consolidation of Holding's — Decrease of 
 small Tenantry — The effect on Labour of Public Works — 
 Agricultural Instruction — Glasnevin College— Absenteeism — 
 The Priests — Their condition — Encumbered Estates' Act . 219 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Administration of the Earl of Clarendon — Its difficulties — His 
 encouragement of Agriculture and Art — Impartiality — 
 The Queen's visit — The Author's hope, that Justice will yet 
 be done to the Peasantry .... . 246 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 LINE OF TRAVEL — UNIONS VISITED— IN-DOOR PAUPERISM 
 — LIMERICK — PARENT — AUXILIARY WORKHOUSES — 
 GROSS MISMANAGEMENT — WRETCHED CONDITION OF IN- 
 MATES — BOARD DAY — PERSONALITY OF DEBATES — 
 TEMPTATION TO JOB — ACCUSATIONS OF JOBBING. 
 
 Early in the summer of the year 1849, I was 
 much struck with an account I read in the " Times" 
 newspaper, of the very large mortality from cholera, 
 in the workhouses of the Balinasloe Union, in the v^ 
 County of Galway, in the west of Ireland ; I was 
 also, with many others, much shocked with a dis- 
 cussion, which took place about the same time, in 
 the House of Commons, relative to the effects of the 
 famine, in that part of the sister country. 
 
 Circumstances, early in life, turned my attention 
 to the condition of the poorer classes in England, 
 and I had for many years taken an active and some- 
 what public part, with those who were seeking to 
 ameliorate that condition. I could not but feel, that 
 having devoted myself to this task of seeking the 
 good of my poorer fellow creatures ; I had no right 
 to confine my work, to those of my own immediate 
 country, if I could see any prospect of aiding the 
 same class, in a country so closely connected with 
 my own, and so easily accessible as Ireland. I 
 therefore determined to go myself, and see how "ar 
 
 B 
 
what I had heard to be the case was true ; and if true, 
 to judge how far any individual effort could prove 
 of benefit. The result of the tour I then made was 
 kindly published for rne in the columns of the 
 " Times" newspaper; and I have reason to believe 
 such publication proved at least of this much benefit ; 
 — it brought public opinion to bear on many of 
 those matters of detail, in the treatment of the poor, 
 on which, the effect of that opinion is always most 
 valuable. 
 
 I this year again determined to devote my month's 
 annual holiday to a second tour in the west of Ire- 
 land ; I was this time accompanied by a friend, who 
 wished to see for himself the state of things of which 
 he had heard so much from myself and others. 
 
 Those only who have had to travel in a land, in 
 which they were as strangers, who have had, day 
 after day, to go through lengthened scenes of desti- 
 tution, death, and misery, in every aggravated form ; 
 doing this alone; spending each day away from home, 
 all its ties, and comforts, many hours, in close con- 
 tact with the evidence and effects of famine, fever, 
 and oftentimes cholera, besides all the attendant 
 trials, physical and moral, of such a course of inves- 
 tigation ; can enter into all I felt of comfort in this 
 time having a companion, and in that companion, 
 one who had no common powers of discrimination, in 
 addition to a kind and generous nature. 
 
 I shall now proceed to give my readers some of 
 the gleanings of my late tour ; my route (I do not 
 
relate any part of my travel which was not made 
 with the purpose I had in view, to inquire into the 
 social condition of the people in the western districts 
 of Ireland) was — Limerick, down the Shannon to 
 Kilrush ; thence to Kilkee j retracing our steps to 
 Kilrush; by the northern bank of the Shannon, 
 Clonderlaw, Kildysart, Kilchrist, Clondegad to 
 Ennis ; from Ennis to Gort ; by Loughrea to Bali- 
 nasloe ; from thence by Oranmore to Galway ; from 
 Galway by Oughterard, through Connemara to the 
 "Fisheries" at Ballynahinch, (on the Martin pro- 
 perty) ; thence to Clifden, through Joyce's country 
 by Kylmore to Leenane ; to Westport, Castlebar, by 
 Pontoon to Ballina ; thence returning by Castlebar 
 to Tuam; back to Dublin by Athlone, Mullingar, and 
 the Midland railway. 
 
 In this journey, which, with very little exception, 
 and that only on our return, we performed by private 
 conveyance, I visited elevenUnion Houses, and most 
 of their Auxiliaries, and except in one or two in- 
 stances, I scarce left one department uninspected. 
 It will be seen by reference to a map of Ireland, 
 that, commencing with the capital town of the County 
 of Limerick, we went through the centre of the 
 County of Clare, and a very large proportion of the 
 County of Galway and Mayo ; these being, perhaps, 
 the most distressed districts in Ireland. 
 
 The only way of performing the journey, so as 
 to see with the greatest convenience, into those 
 
\ 
 
 matters into which I went to look, we adopted, viz. 
 hiring outside cars, and thus travelling at the hours, 
 and in the directions we thought best. 
 
 The population remaining in the west of Ireland 
 are studied with more ease at this moment, by a 
 traveller seeking to read man in men, women, and 
 children, than perhaps in any country in the world ; 
 so large a proportion of the population being 
 actually in the workhouses. I will here give a table 
 of the population, according to the census of 1841, 
 of the Unions we visited, with a return of the average 
 number of persons relieved weekly in the workhouses, 
 in the quarter ending March 30, 1850. 
 
 Union. 
 
 Limerick . . 
 
 Population 
 
 in 
 
 1841. 
 
 132,067 
 
 Kilrush . . . 
 
 82,353 
 
 Ennis . . . 
 
 77,840 
 
 Gort .... 
 
 71,774 
 
 Balinasloe . . 
 
 99,026 
 
 Galway . . . 
 Clifden . . . 
 
 88,973 
 33,465 
 
 Westport . . 
 Castlebar . . 
 
 77,952 
 61,063 
 
 Ballina, includ- 
 
 
 ing Belmullet, 
 
 
 DromoreWest, 
 
 
 Killala . . . 
 
 120,787 
 
 Tuam . . . 
 
 74,974 
 
 Relieved on an average each week 
 
 in the Quarter ending March 30, 
 
 1850, in the W orkhouse. 
 
 6,790 
 3,327 
 3,057 
 2,246 
 2,284 
 3,712 
 1,932 
 3,465 
 1,674 
 
 . 2,627 
 
 Population 920,274 In the Workhouses on 
 
 an average each week 34,621 
 
The above table shews, that in the quarter end- 
 ing March 30, 1850, nearly one-third of the whole 
 population of these Unions were on an average in 
 the Workhouse ; but I would have the reader bear 
 in mind, that the population has decreased in these 
 districts, by death, and by emigration, not less than 
 25 per cent, since 1841 ; and also it must be borne 
 in mind, that the quarter ending March, is not 
 nearly so bad a quarter as to the pressure on the 
 workhouses, as that which ends in June. We found 
 in these eleven Unions indoor paupers to the amount 
 of 44,000. 
 
 When then, the traveller has walked the wards 
 and yards of these Leviathan workhouses, he has had 
 the advantage of seeing, in the, for him, most conve- 
 nient form, by far the largest portion of the peasantry 
 of the several Unions ; for, from the Population 
 Census, we must deduct those classes who as yet are 
 not come upon the Poor-rate. 
 
 The Irish workhouses are large, and in general 
 well-built ; of handsome outward appearance, and 
 contrived with a good deal of care to meet the end 
 for which they were erected : however, such, since 
 the failure of the potato, and the progress of whole- 
 sale eviction, has been the increase of pauperism, that 
 the Original Workhouses have been found quite in- 
 capable of meeting the demand for in-door accom- 
 modation. A very large number of places, called 
 Auxiliary Houses, are now rented by the Guardians ; 
 
6 
 
 and into these they place different classes of their 
 paupers, under officers appointed for each house. 
 
 I am quite satisfied in my own mind, that could 
 any statesman have contemplated the possibility of 
 the present pressure of pauperism, he would have 
 hesitated before he passed a law, which in effect 
 should have to find food and shelter for the numbers 
 that are now to be fed and sheltered. The popula- 
 tion of the whole of Ireland, taken in 1841, was 
 8,168,632; the estimated workhouse accommoda- 
 tion, March, 1850, was for 273,076 persons; the 
 average number relieved weekly in the Union houses 
 in the quarter Ending March, was 227,627- 
 
 In the districts to which I am about to call the 
 reader's attention, the estimated amount of accom- 
 modation, i. e. that relative proportion of inmates to 
 the space in the houses, which the Poor-law Commis- 
 sioners had sanctioned, was almost in every instance 
 overstepped ; the houses in many instances are most 
 cruelly and disgracefully crowded. 
 
 The first Union-house we visited was that at Li- 
 merick. Last year, when I went over it, 1 found it 
 clean and in good order ; I now found it every way 
 the reverse. In the parent and auxiliary houses there 
 was no less a number than 8,000 paupers; every depart- 
 ment, except the fever hospital, shewed evident symp- 
 toms of gross neglect. I have no words with which 
 I can give any real idea of the sad condition of the 
 inmates of two large yards at the parent house, in 
 
which were a very large number of young female 
 children ; many of them were clothed in the merest 
 dirty rags, and of these they wore a very scanty 
 allowance ; they were in the dirt collected on their 
 persons for many weeks ; there was not about them 
 the slightest evidence of any the least care being 
 taken of them ; as they filed before me, two and two, 
 they were a spectacle to fill any humane heart with 
 indignation : sore feet, sore hands, sore heads ; oph- 
 thalmia evident in the case of the great proportion of 
 them ; some of them were suffering from it in its very 
 worst stage ; they were evidently eat up with vermin 
 — very many were mere skeletons : I know well what 
 the appearance of a really famine- stricken child is ; 
 there were, it is true, some here who had brought 
 their death-like appearance into the house with them ; 
 but the majority were as the type in which the one 
 word neglect was printed, in no mistakeable charac- 
 ters — the neglect of their latter state, not the conse- 
 quence of their former state. 
 
 The dirt and general filthiness of the yards, in 
 which these barefooted, ill-clad children had to spend 
 so many hours, made the whole affair more painfully 
 offensive ; dogs would have had more attention paid 
 to them. The women, and those I saw of the men, 
 looked, as far as clothes and flesh went, in far better 
 condition. 
 
 I was kindly allowed to attend the sitting of the 
 Board the following day, when I had the pleasure of 
 
hearing a very eloquent address made by a Guardian 
 to his brethren, founded on a report he read of the 
 condition of their poor ; a report, which really almost 
 did that horrid condition justice. I had also the 
 amusement of hearing an eloquent, personal, hard- 
 hitting debate carried on, in connection with the 
 simple question — whether the paupers being with- 
 out clothes, and the contractor unable at once to 
 supply them, the Board should study the paupers' 
 need, and get calico at once elsewhere — or the con- 
 tractor's convenience, and wait his time ? I had the 
 pain of afterwards hearing the contractor's interest 
 won the day. 
 
 I went from the Board-room in company with the 
 Medical officer, to visit an auxiliary -house in Clare- 
 street, Limerick, there were about 800 able-bodied 
 women in it— a few days before there had been 822 
 — for whom the Guardians had provided 267 beds! 
 Let me here observe, that a considerable space in 
 the dormitories was occupied as an infirmary — very 
 many of the cases were of a description which in any 
 decent public asylum would be rigorously separated 
 from communication with the other inmates ; these 
 beds had only, as far as I myself observed, one per- 
 son in each, so that the division of the rest of the 
 beds amongst the inmates must have been very 
 minute indeed. The sick ward, including all cases, 
 had, however, according to the Board's own admis- 
 sion, 115 patients in 88 beds, so that there were left 
 
179 beds to 707 people, all adults ! ! It was acknow- 
 ledged that many of the inmates had slept for weeks 
 without beds or covering. 
 
 One would have supposed, with such crowding of 
 the majority, and with such a number of sick, that 
 sanitary measures — so far as regards the cleansing of 
 the wards and linen, if not the persons, of the paupers 
 — would have been strenuously enforced. Reader, it 
 is but too true, that for weeks together neither soap 
 or candles had been allowed to this house ; for one 
 month, at least, no linen was washed; for many 
 months the matron had not been allowed any brushes, 
 or any of the absolutely necessary articles to cleanse 
 the wards. With regard to the house itself, it has 
 already been the scene of one sad catastrophe ; on 
 an alarm of fire, a rush by the inmates was made to 
 the staircase of a dormitory, and a great many lives 
 were lost ; such was the evident state of the walls, 
 roof, and floors the day we visited it, that I did not 
 let another day pass without communicating to the 
 highest quarter my apprehension for the safety of the 
 inmates; prompt inquiry was made, and, I believe, 
 instant measures for safety ordered. I have read 
 since, in the public papers, that an architect had in- 
 formed the Board, he thought the roof might stand 
 through August, perhaps September. 
 
 The violence of the language of the inmates, their 
 evident moral degradation, was too apparent ; but 
 who can wonder if human nature, even of the softest 
 
 b 2 
 
10 
 
 natural character, should become hardened as brass, 
 under a state of things which treats large bodies of 
 women as mere animals, except in the matter of ap- 
 parently caring less for their lives than most men do 
 for their dogs. 
 
 At another auxiliary-house, called I believe Mount 
 Kennet, I found a very large number of boys ; here 
 there was a state of things nearly as bad. Since 
 I was at Limerick these youths broke into open rebel- 
 lion, and the police force with fixed bayonets had 
 some difficulty in subduing them. At another 
 " auxiliary" the state of things amongst an immense 
 body of children was most disgraceful ; for weeks the 
 bed linen had not been changed or washed, in fact, 
 no soap had been allowed; the poor children had 
 from time to time to lie naked in bed whilst their 
 shirts, &c. were washed, when they were fortunate 
 enough to have even this chance of cleanliness ; we 
 found some thus naked, and this was the excuse made. 
 The infirmary, or sick ward, was a most piteous sight ; 
 to see these poor children suffering from dysentery 
 and other diseases, the direct result of physical de- 
 pression from want ; in this suffering left so dirty, 
 and so evidently neglected, was no small aggravation 
 of the sense at which I had already arrived of the 
 wanton abuse of their office shewn by the authorities 
 of this union. The rain, as I stood by the side of 
 one poor sufferer, called convalescent, was coming 
 through the roof on the bed in which he was laid. 
 
11 
 
 I had heard the excuse made at the Board in the 
 mornings for the evident want of clothing at the 
 parent house, amongst the children; "that they 
 had none to put on them ;" and yet, I found on strict 
 inquiry, that shirts and shifts had been sent to one 
 of the other auxiliaries, in which the children were, 
 whilst I was at the Clare-street house. Can it be, 
 that children were stripped at one establishment, 
 and their clothes sent to hide from the visitor, the 
 nakedness in another? If eloquence could clothe, 
 I could easily believe in the power of this Board, 
 with words to cover the naked ; but in the absence 
 of this extraordinary means, I am yet at a loss to 
 know, whence came the shower of little shirts and 
 shifts that afternoon. 
 
 As to the state of dicipline in which these 8,000 
 paupers are held, a short time before I was in Lime- 
 rick, the women and children broke out of several of 
 the houses, and actually marched bodily into the 
 streets of the town ; to the great disgust and terror 
 of the quiet inhabitants. 
 
 I would wish now to state, that this Limerick 
 Union, is by no means in any real financial difficulty ; 
 as a proof of it, at the time the " Rate in Aid" bill was 
 passed, before it had received the royal assent, the 
 Guardians actually struck a rate to carry them over 
 two years, that they might thus evade the provisions 
 of the Act. I will not argue on the honesty, or the 
 policy of this measure ; but I do argue from it, that 
 
12 
 
 a Union which has now a very large amount in the 
 course of collection, notoriously collecting the rate 
 with little difficulty, has no right to plead poverty 
 against an accusation of an amount of neglect of 
 duty, to which any amount of poverty would be no 
 answer. At the end of last March, they had still 
 £33,435 of the rate struck, yet uncollected. 
 
 I took some pains to ascertain, how such a Union, 
 with a resident nobleman for chairman, could get 
 into such a state of shameless disorganization. I 
 could get no satisfactory answer ; my own impression, 
 from all I heard and saw, is simply this — To feed, 
 clothe, &c. 8,000 paupers, at the expense of a solvent 
 1 Tnion, creates so large a demand, for the necessaries 
 required; that a primary object of large firms and 
 others has been to get themselves, or their friends, 
 elected into the Board, with a view of influencing 
 contracts for the supplies. 
 
 The open way in which I heard parties accuse each 
 other, by what could scarcely be called insinuation, 
 of gross jobbing, shewed me, the practice was pretty 
 generally admitted to exist. The Board Room has, I 
 fear, been mainly used as an arena for able debating on 
 the merits of contractors ; such merits being weighed 
 in a balance, the equilibrium of which owed its dis- 
 turbance, more to the friendship, or hostility, of the 
 parties, who were to decide on the acceptance of the 
 tenders, than on the comparative quality or value, of 
 the samples tendered. I should much like to see 
 
13 
 
 the result of an inquiry into the receipts and dis- 
 bursements of this Union, for the last two years ; I 
 only know one power which could be applied, with 
 any hope of success, to such an investigation — the 
 same Committee, or the same accountants, employed 
 on the great Hudson railway inquiry. 
 
 To give the reader some idea of the spirit in which 
 the Board business is conducted, I will quote from a 
 published Report of a meeting of the Board, Lord 
 Clare in the chair, held, I believe, the very day after 
 I left Limerick ; the concluding sentence of the con- 
 cluding speech of the day, being in continuation, or 
 rather in conclusion of a spirited debate, in which 
 accusations of jobbery were freely exchanged, it 
 simply was — " it is a d — d infernal he." 
 
 It is indeed time that some public notice should be 
 taken of the manner in which a Board, entrusted 
 with the responsible duty of supervising the relief of 
 8,000 poor, wholly at their mercy, abuse their posi- 
 tion and neglect their duty ; to the detriment of the 
 ratepayer, the disgrace of the law, and above all, to 
 the wanton injury of their poor fellow-creatures. 
 Heavy will be the guilt of the Poor-law authorities if 
 they do not quickly interpose, to secure the interest of 
 those who can ill afford to pay rates, and those whose 
 relief at best, is so narrowed, that they can less afford 
 any further restriction to it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 RILRUSH UNION — ADMISSION DAY — APPEARANCE OP AP- 
 PLICANTS—FAMINE CASES — STARVED ADULTS — STARVED 
 CHILDREN — NATURE OF DEATH FROM FAMINE — MOR- 
 TALITY IN THIS UNION — KILKEE— JOURNEY TO ENNIS — 
 EVICTIONS— THEIR CRUELTY' AND EFFECT ON THE PEO- 
 PLE — HOUSE TUMBLING PROCESS— SCALPEENS— KILDY- 
 SART — INCONVENIENCE OF CHARITY — WHERE AND HOW 
 THE EVICTED LIVE. 
 
 From Limerick I went by steamer down the 
 Shannon to Kilrnsh j the day was stormy, bnt not 
 sufficiently so to hide the beauty of this noble river ; 
 I fear, from all appearance, that it is but little tra- 
 versed now by trading vessels. 
 
 When I reached the Union house at Kilrush, I had 
 evidence at its very doors, of the awful amount of 
 destitution for which it is the last refuge. It was 
 " the admission day •" within the gates, and on the 
 open ground in front of the doors, were collected in 
 crowds, representatives of every species of extreme 
 suffering. \Here was ample evidence of the fact, that 
 the workhouse test is in Ireland, a real test of des- 
 titution ; for one's first impression was, why had not 
 many of these hundreds applied for food and shelter 
 and clothing, before famine, nakedness, and exposure 
 had so defaced and degraded their humanity ? 
 
 The debility of age, made worse by long borne 
 misery ; the debility of disease, aggravated by long 
 neglect ; hunger-worn countenances, telling the tale 
 
15 
 
 which at once explained the efficient cause which 
 had left the frame just a frame, and that all. Infants 
 at the breast of mothers, with the skin and visage of 
 advanced, careworn childhood ; children, whose sores 
 and dirt and squalid famished looks, told of the loss 
 of all the elasticity of their age, of their premature 
 acquisition of that stolid care-blunted nature, which 
 years of common suffering alone can give. Lazari, 
 to whom the hated workhouse had come to be as the 
 palace of a Dives, in which they hoped to hide their 
 sores and satisfy their hunger, here waited in crowds 
 longing at the gates : the whole picture was one of 
 utter, almost hopeless misery. 
 
 The process of admission or rejection was conducted 
 by one of the Yice-Chairmen of the Board, assisted 
 by tw r o other Guardians ; the relieving officers calling 
 out the names of the applicants, they were in turn 
 ushered in by the porter and some assisting paupers, 
 some of whom, I observed, had sticks in their hands. 
 The cases were disposed of with such celerity, that I 
 presume the relieving officers had taken no common 
 pains to ascertain the different features of each appli- 
 cant's case. I was shewn over the parent house and 
 auxiliaries by the Clerk to the Union and the Medical 
 officer ; the numbers in the houses were 4,S02. One 
 of the first departments we entered was the Infirmary. 
 I do not think my travelling companion will ever 
 forget this his first introduction to the stern reality 
 of famine. There were very many, of all ages, under 
 medical treatment, whose cases were literally those of 
 
16 
 
 simple starvation ; many, evidently past hope ; some, 
 whose end was very near. 
 
 To those who have had any experience in the 
 matter, there is no mistaking famine cases. I do 
 not know how the case may be in other climes, with 
 other races, but I can vouch for the fact, from my 
 own experience last year and on the present occasion, 
 that starvation in Ireland has its own distinct ex- 
 ternal physical phenomena. 
 
 In grown-up persons, besides an amount of attenu- 
 ation which seems to have absorbed all appearance 
 of flesh or muscle, and to have left the bones of the 
 frame barely covered with some covering, which has 
 but little semblance to anything we should esteem to 
 be flesh ; the skin of all the limbs assumes a peculiar 
 character, it is rough to the touch, very dry, and did 
 it not hang in places in loose folds, would be more of 
 the nature of parchment than anything else with 
 which I can compare it ; the eyes are much sunk 
 into the head, and have a peculiar dull painful look ; 
 the shoulder-bones are thrown up so high, that the 
 column of the neck seems to have sunk, as it were, 
 into the chest ; the face and head, from the wasting 
 of the flesh, and the prominence of the bones, have a 
 skull-like appearance ; the hair is very thin upon the 
 head ; there is over the countenance a sort of pallor, 
 quite distinct from that which utter decline of physi- 
 cal power generally gives in those many diseases in 
 which life still continues after the almost entire 
 consumption of the muscular parts of the body. 
 
17 
 
 In the case of the starved young — and we saw 
 many hundreds — there are two or three most peculiar 
 characteristic marks, which distinguish them from 
 the victims of other mortal ills ; the hair on a starved 
 child's head becomes very thin, often leaves the head 
 in patches, what there is of it stands up from the 
 head ; over the whole brow, in very many instances ; 
 over the temples, in almost all, a thick sort of downy 
 hair grows, sometimes so thickly as to be quite pal- 
 pable to the touch. The skin over the chest bones 
 and upper part of the stomach is stretched so tight, 
 that every angle and curve of the sternum and ribs 
 stand out in relief : no words can describe the ap- 
 pearance of the arms ; from below the elbow the two 
 bones (the radius and ulna) seem to be stripped of 
 every atom of flesh ; if you take hold of the loose skin 
 within the elbow joint, and lift the arm by it, it conies 
 away in a large thin fold, as though you had lifted 
 one side of a long narrow bag, in which some loose 
 bones had been placed ; if you place the fore-fingers 
 of your hand under the chin, in the angle of the 
 jaw-bone, you find the whole base of the mouth, 
 so to speak, so thin, that you could easily conceive 
 it possible, with a very slight pressure, thus to 
 force the tongue into the roof of the mouth; be- 
 tween the fingers there are sores ; very often there 
 is anasarcous swelling of the ancles; in the majority 
 of famine cases, there is either dysentery or chronic 
 diarrhoea. 
 
 There is one comfort to be found in these sad 
 
18 
 
 cases, there does not appear to be great present pain ; 
 I have now walked in the course of my two tours, I 
 should suppose, some miles of Infirmary wards in the 
 Union Houses in Ireland ; wards often very thickly 
 crowded, almost always sufficiently full. It has never 
 been my lot to hear one single child, suffering from 
 famine or dysentery, utter a moan of pain ; I have 
 seen many in the very act of death, still not a tear, 
 not a cry. I have scarcely ever seen one endeavour 
 to change his or her position. I have never heard 
 one ask for food, for water — for anything ; two, three, 
 or four in a bed, there they He and die, if suffering, 
 still ever silent, unmoved. 
 
 The death, however, of the adult is often of a very 
 different character. I will give a description of it 
 nearly in the words of one, whose position, and 
 opportunity of observation, has been great. "Men 
 often come into the Workhouse in the last stage of 
 famine. I have seen them," he said, "after they 
 have been in the house some little while, of a sudden, 
 assume a sort of talkative cheerfulness ; they will sit 
 up in bed, talk of their coming recovery, and their 
 hope in a week or two, to go again on out relief; 
 whilst thus talking, and eating between their sen- 
 tences, they will fall down, dead" He added, " The 
 doctor has sometimes said to me, as he has stood by, 
 if you wait a quarter of an hour, you will see that 
 man, (pointing to one of these cases) die." Such 
 cases have not met my own eye, but I can easily 
 believe them, for I have again and again had proof, 
 
19 
 
 that men will hold out to the last on insufficient 
 food,, and then having made up their minds to go to 
 the Union, they have walked miles straight to it, and 
 died, before they could eat their first meal after their 
 admission. 
 
 No one has yet I believe been able to explain, why 
 it is, that men and boys, sink sooner under famine, 
 than the other sex ; still, so it is ; go where you will, 
 every officer will tell you, it is so. In the same 
 workhouse, in which you will find the girls and 
 women, looking well, you will find the men and boys, 
 in a state of the lowest physical depression; equal 
 care in every way being bestowed on both sexes. 
 
 The whole of the hospital arrangements at the 
 Kilrush Union do the utmost credit to the medical 
 officer and the authorities of the establishment ; the 
 wards were it is true sadly crowded, still every pos- 
 sible ingenuity had been exercised, to secure ventila- 
 tion. The arrangements in detail for the distribution 
 of medicine ; for all the various aids the sick require, 
 were most satisfactory. To shew what care will do 
 to prevent disease, I narrowly examined, I believe, 
 more than 1,000 children, I did not find one case of 
 ophthalmia ; there were only 10 cases in the whole 
 establishment. 
 
 There are some twenty acres of ground under 
 cultivation, by the paupers, apparently with good 
 success, but the labourers were sad objects. The 
 mortality in this Union is very great, though I hope 
 decreasing ; at the end of the month of May last, 
 
20 
 
 the number in the house was 3,765, the deaths during 
 the month 197. In June, number of inmates 4,366, 
 deaths 144. 
 
 I cannot dismiss my notice of the Kilrush Union 
 houses, without stating my belief, that it is mainly 
 owing to the indefatigable exertions of the Inspector, 
 Captain Kennedy, aided by Dr. 0'Donnell, that so 
 large a number of paupers, coming into the houses in 
 the condition they do, are preserved in the cleanliness 
 and order in which I found them. I have no reason 
 to suppose but that the Board of Guardians are most 
 efficient, still I could see in the attention to minor 
 details of management, that a very great deal must 
 be owing to vigilant inspection and supervision, by 
 the resident inspector and medical officer. 
 
 From Kilrush we took a car for Kilkee, a small 
 sea-bathing place about eight miles off. No traveller 
 through this part of Ireland, should omit a visit to 
 this little town ; there is a very comfortable hotel, 
 and within a walk of it, some scenery, which in its 
 own way, can hardly be surpassed. I do not know 
 that I ever saw a sea-view, that struck me more for 
 its wild beauty, than that which is to be seen from 
 the cliffs, which command the entrance to the bay, 
 on which Kilkee is situated. The rocks are of a very 
 dark stone ; in places, quite perpendicular, and of 
 great depth; the waves of the Atlantic rolling in 
 huge breakers upon them, throwing up vast clouds 
 of white spray against and over them, had a most 
 magnificent effect. 
 
21 
 
 Retracing our steps to Kilrush, we obtained the 
 assistance of an individual, highly recommended to 
 me, as a good guide through the scenes of eviction, ^' 
 to which I now bent my course. 
 
 In this day's journey we went by Clonderlaw, 
 Kildysart, Kilchrist, Clondegad to Ennis. The 
 public have heard a good deal of the evictions, i. e. 
 the house levelling, in the Union of Kilrush ; the 
 reports made by Captain Kennedy and others, have 
 been often declared to be exaggerations. I had now 
 ocular demonstration, that no report can exaggerate 
 the amount of wholesale house levelling which has 
 taken place in this Union. 
 
 The rateable tenements in the Kilrush Union in 
 the years 1846 1847 1348 1849 1850 
 
 were as follows, 9050 8981 8546 7952 7299 
 
 The decrease of tenements at the commencement 
 of the ensuing year, will I think shew, that the sys- 
 tem of compulsory ejectment is still in full vigour. 
 One place was pointed out to me, where out of 64 
 houses 54 had been levelled within this last month, 
 there are now 10 caretakers left in possession of 
 the remaining houses. It would only tire the 
 reader to no purpose, were I to particularize the 
 different properties, on which this system has been 
 carried on ; the practice seemed almost universal ; 
 on both sides of the road, and as far every way as 
 I could command with a telescope, there was evidence 
 of this forcible removal of the population. 
 
Just as the eye and heart of every Englishman is 
 shocked with the first view he has of his fellow - 
 creatures, at death's door, for want of food ; beholding 
 in them the mere " wrecks" of life ; so are the 
 eve and heart painfully offended, when mile after 
 mile, " wrecks" of homes stand forth on every side. 
 I know not how a country looks, after the passage 
 of an enemy through it, bent on desolating its peo- 
 ple's homes; but I am quite certain, the work 
 of destruction could not be done more effectually, 
 though perhaps it would be done less methodically, 
 by such an army, than it is done in these western 
 counties of Ireland, by the proprietors of the land. 
 Roofless gables meet your eye on every side; one 
 ceases to wonder that the Union Houses are so full, 
 when there is this evidence of the fact that no other 
 home is left to so many thousands. 
 
 The law now provides, that before forcible posses- 
 sion is taken of the houses of the peasantry, notice 
 ! should be given to the relieving officer of the district, 
 in order that he may be prepared to offer "the 
 ejected," orders for the Workhouse. I had, however, 
 one case put before me on good authority, which 
 occurred in 1849, in which 70 houses were pulled 
 down, under the orders of the agent of the pro- 
 perty, at once ; the relieving officer had never got 
 the notice, through it was said some mistake ; 
 the people had for some days to crowd on the neigh- 
 bouring chapel floor, and by the sides of the ditches ; 
 
23 
 
 for the neighbours had had orders not to take them 
 in : it is fair to state the whole of this mass of tenan- 
 try had been created by a middleman, whose lease 
 was now out. 
 
 I was shewn one estate on which, in 1847, there 
 had been 482 families, now there are two. A priest 
 to whom I was recommended, and on whom I called 
 on my way from Kilrush to Ennis, told me, in the 
 two parishes in which his cure lay, viz. Clondegad 
 and Kilchrist, the population of the last census being 
 9,456 ; in June last he himself took a census, and 
 that he only found 6,360 remaining ; a very large 
 number had emigrated, very many died, and the 
 workhouses had received also their full proportion. 
 This gentleman told me, that the present state of 
 distress seriously affected the moral character of the 
 people; many had no clothes in which they could 
 come with decency to the " stations" to meet their 
 priest ; many of a family would often be found in 
 their cabins naked, the clothes being given to those 
 who had to go to the depot for relief. I had also an 
 interview with one of the Coroners of a district in 
 the Kilrush Union ; he admitted to me he had had a 
 great many inquests within these last eighteen months 
 on persons " starved to death." The accounts he 
 gave of some of the scenes he had witnessed were 
 most painful. 
 
 It would only be natural to expect, that the state 
 of things I am describing should render those subject 
 
24 
 
 to them, callous to the common feelings of humanity. 
 At a place called Carandotta, not many miles from 
 Kilrush, I was taken into a cabin, and confronted 
 with a man, one Molony, from whose lips I took 
 down the following narrative. He had a father and 
 a brother living near to him ; they were taken up 
 for stealing a sheep ; he said, and I heard it corrobo- 
 rated from a better source, that his brother had had 
 an excellent character till he committed this crime, 
 which he only did at all when driven to it by hunger. 
 The culprits were tried at the Sessions, but acquitted. 
 The man my informant rented under, a middleman, 
 came to him before his father and brother were 
 out of jail, and forgave him the rent he owed, and 
 said he would allow him to remain as " caretaker," 
 on condition that he would prevent his brother and 
 father returning, i.e. pull their cabin down ; for as 
 Molony said, " sure it was the only way I could do 
 it." He accordingly with his own hand tumbled their 
 house. When they returned another married brother 
 kindly took them in ; here the brother continued to 
 live, till he arrived at the last stage of want ; at last, 
 and before very long, he one morning started for 
 Kilrush, with a bundle of grass to sell, he dropped 
 down on the side of the road, a very short distance 
 off; he, the informant, brought him into his house ; 
 he lived just two hours. There was an inquest and ver- 
 dict, to the effect that the man was starved. I took 
 notes of this statement, in the presence of a gentle- 
 
25 
 
 man who saw him die, on the very spot I then stood, 
 and who was himself at the inquest. 
 
 A few miles from this spot, I copied from the Knock- 
 petty Petty Session book, the following charge : 
 "May 21, 1850, The Queen at the Prosecution of 
 Constable Coolican, for manslaughter against Pat 
 Halpin, viz. turning out of his house Pat Cahill, who 
 was his lodger, in consequence of which exposure he 
 died on the 1 1th inst. Dismissed with advice to not 
 act in a like manner again." The Sub-Inspector of 
 Police had caused this man to be summoned, he said 
 he did this, " not with a view to have him punished, 
 as he was a very distressed man, but with a view to 
 deter others from acting in a like manner ; he had 
 attended the inquest, and thought the inhumanity of 
 the case was beyond description, and required an 
 example, to deter others of his class, from similar acts 
 of brutality, as they thought no more of the life of a 
 fellow creature than they would of that of a dog" It 
 appeared that Pat Halpin seeing his lodger in the 
 very act of dying, in fact, having but a few minutes 
 to live, put him out of his house, he said, " because 
 his children got alarmed," " he had intended to take 
 him to another house." The poor creature died in 
 the open air, I believe by the roadside. The Magis- 
 trates gave the man a most severe reprimand, and 
 told him it was only on account of his large and dis- 
 tressed family that they did not send him for trial 
 for manslaughter. I see from the notes which have 
 
 c 
 
26 
 
 been given me of what passed, that the Magistrates 
 and Sub-Inspector alike stated, the people were dying 
 fast ; this, reader, was in May last. 
 
 It may be as well, perhaps, here, to give a descrip- 
 tion of the actual carrying out of the process of ' ' for- 
 cible eviction." The legal forms necessary to obtain 
 the Sheriff's authority to take possession, having 
 been gone through, and the proper notices served on 
 the parties concerned ; a notice is also served on the 
 Relieving Officer, informing him on what day the 
 people will be ejected. At the appointed hour, we 
 will suppose ourselves to be on the spot ; there are, 
 say, some six dwellings in a group, nearly adjoining 
 each other, and all situated close to a public road 
 side. Some of these dwellings may be larger than 
 others, but in outward form and actual structure, 
 they are all much alike, simply, two stone gables, 
 built of the stone of the country, a thatched roof 
 connecting them, and descending to some five or six 
 feet from the ground. A gig or outside car arrives 
 with the Sheriff's deputy; the Agent for the property 
 is in attendance on horseback, with some ten or 
 twelve rough looking peasants, one or two of whom 
 have iron crowbars, and other necessaries for their 
 business of destruction. A certain form is quickly 
 gone through by the Law's Officer, the effect of 
 which is, to put the Agent of the property in posses- 
 sion, in other words, giving him full power to turn 
 out the people and pull down the dwellings, if it is 
 
27 
 
 his pleasure to do so. In very many districts, a small 
 body of armed police attend, in case of any forcible 
 resistance. The Relieving Officer calls out the names 
 from the list sent to him, and as he may think 
 proper, offers to the parties now to be ejected orders 
 for admission to the Union House. These orders are 
 very generally refused, or if accepted, are not acted 
 on. 
 
 The word is now given by the Agent, to his " de- 
 structives." If the people will not come out of the 
 dwellings, they are dragged out ; with them, the bed, 
 kettle, old wheel, tub, and one or two stools, with 
 perhaps an old chest ; few cabins have anything to 
 add to this list of furniture at the time the tenants are 
 ejected ; the living and dead stock being alike out 
 in the road ; now begins a loud and long sustained 
 chorus of intermingled prayers, blessings, reproaches, 
 revilings, weeping, &c, generally ending in low 
 monotonous imprecations on the heads of those, who 
 thus are crowning the ruin of the ejected. 
 
 The women will " skene," beat their breasts, throw 
 themselves on the ground, embrace the knees of the 
 Agent's horse, hang on to the steps of the Sheriff's car ; 
 they will do and say all an excited Irish woman can 
 say and do, to either obtain mercy, or invoke ven- 
 geance; and truly poor creatures, they are gifted 
 with powers of eloquence, aided by a power of action 
 and gesticulation, which, as it may be employed, to 
 bless or curse, is in either way most impressive. 
 
 X 
 
 V 
 
28 
 
 Agents and sheriff's officers, however, from the 
 nature of their avocation, have become case hardened 
 against these attacks upon the softer feelings of our 
 nature ; the groans and prayers of the ejected, like 
 the dust of the falling thatch of their roofs, are 
 unavoidable evils, the regular result of the routine of 
 " house tumbling." "Don't be all day, boys," is 
 command enough ; a man jumps up on the roof, and 
 soon uncovers a part of the beam, which goes from 
 the point of one gable to the other ; he fastens a 
 rope round it, it may require, perhaps, a little action 
 from a saw, to weaken it ; the rope is passed through 
 the door of the house ; it is manned at once by some 
 others of the band ; an iron bar is now placed under 
 the wall plate, at one of the angles ; a pull at the 
 rope, breaking the back of the roof, and the lifting 
 of the bar, hoisting it from its bearing on the wall, 
 down it goes in a cloud of dust, sometimes falling 
 wholly within the walls, sometimes a part will remain 
 resting one end on the ground, the other against the 
 gable. 
 
 So clever are a good practised band of destructives, 
 that thirty houses in the morning, would not be at 
 all beyond their powers. Our group of six houses are 
 in about two hours and a half, rendered ruins, there 
 
 was a little delay from Honor going into a fit 
 
 as they removed her ; the tenants are now houseless. 
 They have been told that they may have the thatch 
 and blackened wood of the fallen roofs ; but thev are 
 
29 
 
 significantly warned, not to linger about the spot too 
 long. The Kelieving Officer will now try and persuade 
 them to be wise and go at once to the workhouse. 
 
 Last year I passed the scene of a small eviction opera- 
 tion, (there were only three houses " tumbled/') about 
 half an hour after the operators had left ; the wretched 
 creatures were most of them sitting in two or three 
 groups by the side of their furniture, such as it was ; 
 the only voice of lamentation I heard was that of a 
 little child about six years old, who was crying most 
 lustily, as it kept running round the flattened, fallen 
 roof of one of the cabins; I made my driver ask, 
 what made the little thing so miserable ? the answer 
 was, "that the cat was supposed to be under the 
 thatch." I tried to console her with a fourpenny piece, 
 but in vain ; however, whilst I was talking to one of 
 the women, a scream of delight, announced the rise 
 of pussy from one corner of the ruins, very dusty, 
 but from the quiet way in which she proceeded to 
 her toilet, less discomposed by the events of the day, 
 than any of the ejected. It was curious to witness 
 how quickly, the sense of being houseless, was soon 
 swallowed up, in the breasts of the juveniles, by the 
 delight they felt, in the cat's escape; and yet I 
 have no doubt they had, within an hour, lent their 
 tears and screams to the older chorus. 
 
 As there is a certain expense attendant on the 
 Sheriff's presence, the people now, seeing that their 
 houses must fall, for a small gratuity, will pull them 
 
so 
 
 down themselves. I took a statement from a clergy- 
 man, of one case, in which, an old woman, actually 
 worked her own house down, with her own hands, on 
 the belief, she was to have 5s. for doing so, she had 
 not however then got it. 
 
 One of these lately " tumbled out" colonies, though 
 a very wretched spectacle, is sometimes a very pic- 
 turesque one ; the women in the red petticoat of the 
 country, the said garment ever in tatters, with the 
 dark bodice only just sufficiently patched to make a 
 bare covering to the bosom ; their long dark parted 
 hair ; bare legs and feet ; the attitudes of the old, 
 crouching under the bank or wall ; of the less aged, in 
 active work, drawing the smoke-blackened wood from 
 beneath the thatch ; the baby, half out of the queer- 
 looking, half-box half-boat, called a cradle; the 
 younger children, half naked, romping about the 
 ruins, or climbing about the furniture on the road- 
 side ; the gables, their heads pointing upwards, as 
 though they would tell the tale to the powers above ; 
 the different positions of the fallen roofs, some shewing 
 the blackened rafters where the thatch has separated 
 from them in the fall ; others, the work not quite 
 finished, still hanging, hesitating as it were, in their 
 fall : a painter could find no little beauty in a scene, 
 which to one, who looks not at the picture, but at its 
 cost, is only a very ugly page in the history of the 
 exercise of man's power, over those who are them- 
 selves powerless. 
 
31 
 
 On our journey we had ample opportunity of 
 seeing to what shifts the peasantry will resort before 
 they will face the Union House, after they have been 
 evicted, and seen their homes "tumbled." Their 
 usual practice is, with the thatch and some of the 
 roof sticks, to build up a dwelling called a " scalpeen," 
 the most common form of this species of dwelling is, 
 what I suppose an Englishman would call, " the lean 
 to." The construction is simple ; some of the roof- 
 sticks, or beams, are placed, so that one end of them 
 shall rest on the ground, while the other end rests 
 against the side of a wall of one of the ruins, or failing 
 this, against a bank on the road-side : on these beams, 
 with the help of a few short sticks, the old thatch is 
 heaped up ; stones and more wood are laid on it, to 
 keep it together ; one end is closed up with a heap 
 of thatch and stones, the other end left just open 
 enough for the inmates to have egress ; into this stye 
 a whole family will crowd, and even take a lodger ; 
 and in a few hundreds of such, would often be found 
 a population of many thousands. Sometimes they 
 will make a sort of stye within the walls and between 
 the gables, keeping it so low as to avoid observation, 
 and into this stye they will creep, and dwell till utter 
 want forces them out, or they die, are found by the 
 police, and carried out. _^-, 
 
 It is a rare thing to find any males at these scenes / .v 
 of desolation ; in the majority of cases, I fear, they 
 desert their families, go to seek work at a distance, 
 
32 
 
 perhaps in England ; very often they start for Ame- 
 rica as soon as they find they are to be ejected. A 
 very large proportion of the families in the work- 
 houses are deserted families. In travelling in the 
 west of Ireland, it is a curious fact, that you scarce 
 ever meet an able-bodied labourer on the road ; the 
 only males you see, are the old and infirm, and the 
 very few small farmers who have as yet survived the 
 storm. 
 
 At Kildysart, we found a crowd of wretched objects, 
 waiting the coming of the meal for out relief; 
 my companion, who had an amiable propensity for 
 buying up bakers' shops, to distribute the bread, 
 thereby getting again and again into some trouble, 
 proceeded at once to indulge this charitable feeling, 
 the consequence was, that the shop was very soon in 
 a state of siege ; the assaulting party, being, I should 
 think, little less in number than 100, as starved, ill- 
 clad, and desperate-looking creatures as it is possible 
 to conceive j by the aid of one of the police, the door of 
 the shop was closed, so as to shut some in, many out ; 
 such, however, was the pressure, that it was thought 
 advisable that my friend should surrender his position, 
 and make a retreat by a back-door, then over a wall, 
 and thus escape to the inn. I was already seated on 
 the car, and just as he was about to join me, a detach- 
 ment from the scene of his late difficulty arrived; 
 in vain did he loudly declare, he had nothing more 
 to give ; would give nothing more, his head became as 
 
33 
 
 the centre of countless radii, in the shape of bony flesh- 
 less arms; before and behind, with outstretched hands, 
 this famished crew pressed upon him ; as the chorus 
 of entreaty rose with every fresh denial, its rising 
 seemed to call fresh fleshless actors upon the stage ; 
 nothing but the exercise of positive force, and no, 
 little of that, by two strong men, enabled him to 
 mount the car, and escape the blessings, embraces 
 and entreaties of those, who starving, wooed for 
 bread ; they followed us in a crowd, till stopped by 
 the police. 
 
 This is to be a wholly separate Union from Kilrush. 
 At present, it is a tributary to it, contributing its 
 full share of pauperage ; a few miles further on, after 
 passing many most wretched objects, the least miser- 
 able of whom would have caused a crowd in any 
 street in London ; we overtook two children, boys, 
 I should suppose, from 10 to 12 years of age; one, 
 himself very far from strong, was supporting the 
 staggering steps of the other, evidently sinking in the 
 last stage of famine. I know not how far he had to 
 go, before he found a shelter on earth, I feel a com- 
 fort in my assurance that his hours were numbered 
 there. 
 
 Passing a group of modern house-ruins, I thought 
 I saw some smoke curling up from a corner, between 
 two roofless gables ; we left the car and made our 
 way between the walls ; there were a few pieces of 
 turf smouldering on the ground, a board fixed into 
 
 c 2 
 
34 
 
 the -walls, immediately over this mockery of a fire, 
 to I suppose conceal all evidence of its existence from 
 any passer by ; by it as we came in view, was a wo- 
 man in mere rags; her child, a girl of about 12, 
 quite naked, and another little thing partially so. 
 She at once hung some rags upon the girl to make 
 her about as decent as herself. Her story was the old 
 one — " her house had been tumbled, she lived as we 
 saw her in the day, at night she was covertly sheltered 
 in a neighbouring cabin." A little further on, we 
 came to one of the "lean toV I have described above, 
 when we looked into it, we found a woman, perhaps 
 some thirty years of age, the place was a mere stye, 
 a lad of four feet heighth could hardly have stood in 
 the highest part of it ; the roof descended abruptly 
 to the ground ; here this poor creature had dwelt for 
 weeks, with her three children ; how she lived was 
 evident ; her stock of food was at her feet : a large 
 bundle of corn-weed and nettles ; she was positively 
 naked to the waist, but with the instinctive 
 modest quickness of her race, as she talked to us, by 
 crossing her arms and hitching up some of the rags 
 which hung about her, she extemporised a bodice. 
 
 We were glad enough to arrive at. Ennis, for our 
 journey from Kilrush had been one continued scene 
 of devastation and destitution. As to the crops, it 
 is true we saw here and there a good deal of potato 
 coming up well ; there were places too, but few and 
 far between, where the land seemed tolerably well 
 
35 
 
 cropped with cereals j but the great proportion of 
 the land, if cropped at all, had as much foul weed as 
 corn growing on it ; a great deal was utterly waste, 
 but with evidence on the surface, that it had once 
 been otherwise. 
 
 There had been, on this our route, a good deal of 
 what is called consolidation of holdings, i. e. the 
 laying into one farm the lands of several on which 
 the dwellings had been destroyed, and the people 
 driven out ; however, it was clear that the land had 
 not gained by the process j the rents exacted, the 
 want of skill and capital on the part of the tenantry 
 — the want of market for the produce, are working 
 their way ; the men who now occupy in the place of 
 the evicted will soon themselves share the same fate, 
 unless, according to the custom of the country, they 
 avoid that fate, by a sudden retreat across the 
 Atlantic. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENNIS — PRIVATE SITTING ROOM — THE UNION HOUSE — 
 CREDITABLE MANAGEMENT — GORT UNION HOUSE — 
 WRETCHED CONDITION OF CHILDREN — SCRAMBLE FOR 
 DINNER — HORRORS OF ONE YARD OF WOMEN, ETC. — 
 BLACK WOMEN — SHAMEFUL CROWDING — LOUGHREA — 
 APPEARANCE OF STREET — WHOLESALE EVICTION — 
 BALINASLOE — STATE OF ABLE-BODIED MEN — AN ENCUM- 
 BERED ESTATE — ORANMORE— WAR ON DWELLINGS—A 
 FEVER CASE. 
 
 Having a long journey before me the next day, I 
 determined to pay a visit to the Ennis Union work- 
 house, early in the morning; leaving my bedroom 
 at the hotel, soon after five o' clock ; I was met at 
 the foot of the stairs, by a sort of porter or boots, in 
 that state of somnambulism, in which such officials are 
 usually found, at that hour. As he went to let me 
 out, I saw he was anxious I should not enter the 
 private sitting room, I had engaged the night before ; 
 but as my hat was there, I was compelled to force a 
 passage. On opening part of a shutter, that I might 
 see my way ; to my amusement, I found our private 
 sofa was occupied, by a fellow mortal, in bed undress, 
 with a nightcap of some magnitude, the tassel of 
 which hung gracefully down over his nose, as he lay 
 on his back, in the happiness of deep sleep : hotels 
 in Ireland, — at least in the far west, — have many 
 
37 
 
 little customs and omissions in their economy, which 
 at first take an Englishman by surprise ; however, 
 as I was once asked to admit a gentleman to sleep 
 on a shakedown, on the floor of my bedroom, and 
 actually found all prepared, in anticipation of my 
 cheerful acquiescence ; I did not now feel disposed to 
 quarrel with a night's rest, stolen from the sofa of 
 my sitting room. 
 
 Having reached the gates of the Union House 
 before 6 o'clock, I employed a quarter of an hour, in 
 looking at the new court house, now nearly com- 
 pleted, which is a short distance from it. It was 
 another of the many instances I have seen, of the , 
 strange love for building at any cost, to the public 
 cost, common to the Irish. It is really a very fine 
 building, the front elevation, as handsome, classical, 
 and substantial, as if it had been built by a people 
 who could well afford it. It must have cost many 
 thousands of pounds ; it made me think the state- 
 ment, in an official document I had with me, must 
 be a libel — viz. — "That the net liabilities of the 
 Ennis Union at the end of the March quarter, 1850, 
 over the balance in Ban k, were £21,627/' if this is 
 not a libel, it can scarcely be one, to say that such 
 unnecessary expense, for such a building, under such 
 circumstances, is very foolish, if not very wrong. 
 
 Having obtained the assistance of the clerk of the 
 Union, to whose kindness I must acknowledge my- 
 self much indebted, for it was scarcely reasonable to 
 
38 
 
 rouse him so early, I went over every department 
 of the House, and then visited a detached mansion, 
 with large gardens, and some 25 acres of land — an 
 auxiliary inhabited by the boys. There were in the 
 Parent House and auxiliaries 3,528 paupers, 6,533 
 persons on the out-relief list, of whom only 4 were 
 able-bodied. This Union is very heavy in debt, and 
 has, I believe, received as much as £7000 in grants 
 in aid of relief, from Government. 
 
 The Parent House and the auxiliary I visited, were 
 both very clean, and the inmates were in evident 
 good order ; they were only just out of bed, and I 
 was much pleased with the celerity with which the 
 dormitories were cleaned, and the beds arranged, so 
 that they should get thoroughly aired, before they 
 were again used. In no house I visited, was there 
 more industrial employment, and employment turned 
 to better account. Every article of clothing is made 
 from the raw material, in the house; except of 
 course, fine linen. They manufacture all the shoes, 
 and even the boys scotch bonnets. The large kitchen 
 garden of the adjoining auxiliary was well stocked, 
 and most cleanly cultivated. I walked over the 
 farm, which was well cropped with root crops, &c. — 
 the labour being superintended by an agricultural 
 instructor ; the paupers were generally well enough 
 clothed ; the women looked healthy ; the boys, equal 
 to the average of workhouse boys, some however bore 
 the familiar "want" stamp in their countenances. 
 
39 
 
 The infirmary was clean — and I was much pleased 
 to see the tenderness, with which two nurses were 
 dressing one of the most distressing cases I ever saw ; 
 a child of some 6 or 7 years of age, whose eye from 
 disease had swelled to a size, that had I not seen it, 
 I could not have believed possible ; I was thankful 
 to feel it had not long to live. 
 
 For a Union under great financial difficulty, the 
 Ennis does great credit, to all who take the executive 
 part in its economy ; it is satisfactory to see those 
 who must be kept, not kept in idleness ; I am satis- 
 fied that the health, happiness, and morality of the 
 paupers, are alike advanced, by steady industrial 
 occupation. The average cost of each pauper is at 
 present lOf d per week — the bread is half rye, half 
 barley for the adult classes. 
 
 From Ennis to Gort the country offers nothing 
 worthy of particular observation, there are the same 
 traces of the hand of the home destroyer as in other 
 places ; the peasantry, what few are met on the road, 
 though perhaps not so distressed in appearance as 
 those I have already described, are still in very evi- 
 dent great distress. There was some fair cropping 
 of the ground, but a great deal of it lies comparatively 
 waste. 
 
 I found the Gort Parent workhouse as neat in its 
 outward elevation, as the Union houses generally are. 
 In proceeding to go over it, the first thing which 
 struck me was, the very wretched state of some 
 
40 
 
 children, in a yard on the right as you enter the main 
 building; there were about 200 of them, of the 
 class under fifteen years of age. They were in a 
 shameful state of neglect as to cleanliness and cloth- 
 ing : they were sitting, or squatting, here and there, 
 though not a cold day, still shivering ; many were 
 only clothed in such rags as I could conceive a beggar 
 would consider as the cast clothing of his order; 
 some actually, for want of anything better, were in 
 petticoats. The state of one poor little fellow, who I 
 should think can hardly now be alive, was most 
 pitiable ; he squatted by himself under the wall, and 
 looked in the last stage of existence, from the want 
 of every thing which could sustain and cherish it ; we 
 were told he had been in the yard (which I suppose 
 means in the house) for eight weeks ; his name, as 
 given me, was Larkin. It struck me as wanton 
 cruelty, to leave a poor creature in such weakness, so 
 clad, and so evidently neglected, in this yard; the 
 infirmary was his proper place. About 450 women 
 were bein^ fed in the hall ; from so many more being 
 crammed into the house than it ever was meant to 
 contain, they are obliged to be fed in relays; the 
 inspector afterwards told me, that it has happened, 
 that some have had to wait until twelve o'clock at 
 night, before they could get their dinner ; it was a 
 complete scramble ; the parties bringing in the food 
 — men — had short thick sticks, which they used very 
 freely, and I thought brutally, to protect the tins of 
 
41 
 
 stirabout from the rush made for them by these 
 hungry women. 
 
 In a yard at the back of the workhouse, and in a 
 day room opening into it, there were, as the num- 
 bers were given to me, 529 women and children, 
 129 of whom were between five and nine years of 
 age; in addition they had with them twenty-four 
 babies in arms. This crowd of human beings was 
 lying and crouching about the surface of the yard, in 
 masses, and in groups, whose disgusting appearance 
 it is difficult to describe. They were in the rags in 
 which they had entered the house ; many had been 
 in from one month to three, many, I believe, longer ; 
 what dress they had seemed to be rags of the red 
 petticoat of the country, from below the waist, rags 
 of some black stuff above it. Some of the infants 
 were nearly naked, and very evidently in the 
 most filthy state. In spite of all that was said to me 
 to the contrary, my own senses satisfied me that soap 
 and water were as equally foreign articles in this 
 yard as decent clothing : it is not to be wondered at, 
 that the gestures of the women, their language, and 
 very evident habits, were as unlike civilized beings as 
 possible. I found the name for this tribe amongst 
 the officials was " the black women," to distinguish 
 them, I presume, by their rags and dirt, from the 
 cleaner clothed women of other wards. They sleep 
 close packed in long sheds, have no sheets, and must 
 either sleep naked or in their rags; as it was admitted, 
 
42 
 
 indeed it was evident, they had in very rare cases, 
 any body linen. The one day room for this mass of 
 living filth, was crowded, as mnch as the yard ; I 
 leave the reader to conceive, what the state of things 
 would be, did rain drive them all into it. It is my 
 firm belief, that were the cubic feet taken of the 
 space, these women are forced to live in, and could 
 the details of their last few weeks existence be pub- 
 lished, a more dreadful expose could hardly be 
 imagined. The condition of the children, 129 be- 
 tween five and nine, stirred in with this mass of fes- 
 tering humanity may be imagined. I left this yard 
 utterly disgusted; I can scarcely believe that any 
 nobleman, priest, clergyman, or gentleman, can know 
 the state of things we saw ; if they do, it is a shame 
 on them to suffer it. I did not visit the Auxiliaries ; 
 this sample was enough to satisfy me, what the bulk 
 of wretchedness and mismanagement must be. In 
 passing, however, down the town, I saw some hun- 
 dreds of girls on the green, outside an auxiliary, look- 
 ing clean and well-clad ; but this was in a place so 
 situated that the eye of the public was for ever 
 on it. 
 
 In the Gort Union there were on the 14th of June, 
 3,392 inmates, the number for which the houses are 
 estimated is 2,850 ! The parent house is estimated 
 for 1,200, there were 1,895 ! ! in it. A sort of 
 apology was made for the state of things, " that 
 changes were taking place amongst the officers" — 
 
43 
 
 "the clothing was ordered," &c. The evident want 
 of discipline, the neglect of the children, the dirt, and 
 raggedness, and crowding of that horrid yard, were 
 of no modern date ; and could not have proceeded 
 from the mere neglect of the working, paid staff. 
 
 In travelling from Gort to Loughrea, there are, 
 here and there, symptoms of a better state of things, 
 so far as farming is concerned, there is more and 
 better cropping, and in places, a good deal of stock : 
 it seems to be very thinly populated : there are not 
 quite so many roofless gables by the roadside ; but 
 quite enough marks of eviction left, to shew that the 
 spirit still exists. As you enter Loughrea, such has 
 been the destruction of dwellings on both sides of 
 the road, right into the town, that a regular siege 
 could hardly have done more ; some were evidently 
 recent, as the children were yet busy in carrying off 
 the roof sticks from the ruins. Many hundreds of 
 people must have been here rendered houseless, and 
 there stand the gables with their blackened chimney 
 corners to tell the tale. Out of common decency, 
 when such work is done, one would expect, the marks 
 of it, in the very streets of a town, would be oblite- 
 rated ; however, here, the proprietors think no shame 
 of it, and therefore do not see that moral defacement^ 
 that strikes a stranger's eye. I could not visit the 
 Loughrea Union House, as I had engaged to be at a 
 friend's near Balinasloe that evening. The country, 
 now much improved, both in the appearance of the 
 
44 
 
 fields, the numbers of stock, and the dress and flesh 
 of the peasantry. 
 
 When I visited the Balinasloe Union last year, 
 the embers of the awful inroad of cholera within its 
 houses were yet smouldering : it is now in a healthy 
 condition. In the " Brewery" auxiliary, which was 
 then used as the cholera hospital, in one building of 
 which some hundreds died, I found a large number, 
 about 400 girls ; they were arranged in schools and 
 seemed in very good order, looking clean and healthy. 
 There were between 200 and 300 more, between 
 nine and fifteen, and from two to nine, in another 
 auxiliary, called " Waterloo ;" they had been lately 
 moved into it, out of the Parent House ; for many 
 reasons it would have been as well, if then removal 
 had been postponed, until it was ready for them ; 
 some had to sleep on a damp earth floor, and there 
 were other evident symptoms of the removal being 
 too hurried. In the Parent House, which with its 
 adjoining building is estimated to hold 1,390, there 
 were 1,540 returned as inmates; as the children of 
 " Waterloo'' had only just been removed, it must, I 
 conclude, have been still more unreasonably crowded. 
 The dormitories were very clean, some of the day 
 rooms very crowded. In the fever sheds, and 
 the permanent fever hospital [an excellent building, 
 in excellent order] there were about 120 patients. 
 
 From information I had received, I went into a 
 yard where about 140 men were employed in stone 
 
45 
 
 breaking; the state of all their clothing was bad 
 enough to be quite disgraceful, one in particular, 
 was in a condition of the grossest indecency. I 
 ascertained from one of these men, that for nine 
 days past, not one of them had had one drop of water 
 either to wash with, or to drink, day or night. The 
 Master admitted it was so ; the excuse was original ; 
 he shewed me a stone trough in the yard quite 
 empty, just above it, a stone, lately mortared into the 
 wall ; here there used, he told me, to be a tap, but 
 because it was often damaged (not unlikely where it 
 Avas the only supply for 140 men), the Board, he said, 
 had ordered him to do away with it, he had therefore 
 removed it, and had the hole built up. It had never 
 struck him, that the Board might have intended 
 water to be supplied some other way : " They had 
 given him no orders." Had the Visiting Committee 
 done their duty, this state of things must have been 
 discovered, and, I presume, would have been 
 remedied. The thing was notorious outside the 
 house, for a gentleman had called my notice to it. 
 The total numbers in the Houses were 2,775. 
 
 The railroad to connect Dublin and Galway goes 
 through Balinasloe, and the contractors are hard at f 
 work at it. I had an opportunity on my return 
 through this place, of paying a visit, with a friend 
 who had bought it, to an " encumbered estate" lately 
 sold under the powers of the much talked of " Act." 
 It was a beautiful specimen of the effect of negligence 
 
V" 
 
 46 
 
 and extravagance; the house — "mansion" I suppose 
 an auctioneer would call it, was at least as much 
 " out at elbows" as its last proprietor ever could 
 have been. It was an epitome in itself, of all one 
 ever read, of the " Rack Rent" school of property. 
 It proved that the caricaturist, must, let his talent 
 be what it may, find himself at fault, when he 
 endeavours to portray, the condition of an Irish 
 mansion sinking under such extravagance. On ask- 
 ing at the lodge where the iron gates were ? we were 
 
 told that Mr. O. B , the late proprietor had sold 
 
 them. The tenantry were quite in keeping in per- 
 sonal appearance and in the repair and nature of 
 their dwellings with the — mansion. I confess I could 
 not but think, that my friend must have had a very 
 strong possessorial fit upon him, when he consented 
 to encumber himself, at his own cost, with such a 
 possession. 
 
 We went hence to Galway, through a very unin- 
 teresting country ; there were here and there, symp- 
 toms of improving cultivation, but much of the soil, 
 which could have been turned to account, was either 
 barren, or growing as much weed as corn : the popu- 
 lation very thin ; still as elsewhere, a sufficient 
 sprinkling of cabin ruins, to shew the desire of the 
 proprietors, to still further reduce the number of the 
 people. I do not know who the proprietor or pro- 
 prietors of Oranmore may be, but its condition even 
 beat Loughrea — for there, what houses were not 
 
47 
 
 tumbled had an average amount of respectability; 
 here, it would appear as if in the work of destroying 
 a great many, the destructives had wounded all. 
 The whole town seemed like a hospital for dwellings, 
 in which they had been kindly received from some 
 field of deadly war, there was no state of domestic 
 decomposition, no class of architectural injury, which 
 had not its many representatives, in the dreary street 
 of that scene of decay and destruction ; the people 
 looked just the sort of creatures such a place would 
 foster and produce. Not very far from this "late" 
 town, as we were passing a group of some three or 
 four eviction ruins, I thought I saw within the walls 
 of one of them, a something in the shape of a shelter, 
 in which, T could conceive in this country, some human 
 beings might be found. We proceeded to explore ; 
 and there found — what I shall here find it very 
 difficult to describe; by the ingenious use of some 
 old rafters of one of the fallen roofs, and some thatch 
 from the same quarter ; a " lean to" had been built, 
 in its highest part, some four or five feet from the 
 ground, it descended to the ground at an angle which 
 left the area within, perhaps as much as eight feet by 
 four, more or less. On stooping down, to look into 
 it, I found at the farther end a middle-aged woman, 
 lying on some old sacking ; herself, that bit of sack- 
 ing, and an old square box, was all the place con- 
 tained. She was just getting out of the fever, having 
 been three weeks in the said fever, in this stye, on 
 
48 
 
 that sacking. I asked her — what she had got in the 
 box ? She crawled towards it, and unlocking it with 
 a key on a string, round her neck, she produced, its 
 sole contents, a jar of cooked " corn weed." Here, 
 and thus, she had been living with three children : 
 it was the old story, husband gone — house tumbled — 
 horror of the workhouse. There was a house near, 
 at which we inquired, and her story was corroborated. 
 Now I can assure the reader, that such cases are very 
 far from rare ; the number of persons who thus live 
 on nettles and green food, with a chance now and 
 then, of a little meal, the produce of their children's 
 begging, is very large. There is scarce a group of 
 ruins of any size, in which, were search made, some 
 such would not be found. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GALWAY — USE OF BIG TOE — IRISH GIBBETS — WORKHOUSES 
 — DYING CHILDREN — ABLE-BODIED (?) — PAUPER WOMEN 
 — NUMBERS — EMPLOYMENT — AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL — 
 GODLESS COLLEGE— CANAL TO LOUGH CORRIB. 
 
 Having installed ourselves at the very — for this 
 part of the world — comfortable lodging-house of one 
 Madame De Ruyter at Galway, we devoted two days 
 to looking at things about us. There is now a very 
 large amount of public works going on here. In 
 addition to the railroad works, there are some heavy 
 dock works in progress ; and a very important Go- 
 vernment work, in the cutting the canal to connect 
 the port of Galway with Lough Corrib. 
 
 There are a few fine buildings in the town, and 
 there seems to be a certain amount of commercial 
 activity ; the shops generally, in appearance and in 
 their "wares," are of a superior character to those 
 of most provincial towns. The streets of Galway 
 are, however, more crowded with wretched ragged 
 objects, in the shape of human kind, than any place 
 I ever saw. I can only suppose that the opportunity 
 Of begging of the many men earning good wages, and 
 the cheapness of food in the shape of coarse fish, 
 has drawn hither the masses of nearly naked women 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 and children who by day choke up every thorough- 
 fare : where they sleep at night no one could tell 
 me. I saw them again and again seeking food, even 
 in the offal of the fish-market : one has often heard 
 of the manner in which the anatomy of the human 
 frame will admit of the training of particular mem- 
 bers to extraordinary uses; twice we saw, in one 
 day's walk, a curious instance of the use to which 
 the big toe can be turned in the foot of an Irish 
 food-hunter; I saw a woman, and my companion 
 saw a boy, stop, and turn over a lump of fish or meat 
 offal, in which they expected to find something 
 edible, with the right foot, and then, by crooking 
 the big toe, lift up a piece of the said stuff, and pinch 
 it, to try its substance; in both instances it was 
 dropped again ; the toe evidently telegraphed, from 
 one end of the human frame to the other, a disap- 
 pointment — it might have announced a prize. 
 
 The fish-market at Galway is a very picturesque 
 and busy scene ; it seems abundantly supplied with 
 many different kinds of fish ; some, of the best species 
 ever brought to table ; and a good deal of a coarser 
 sort, but doubtless, at the price at which it is sold, 
 most acceptable food to such a population as we saw 
 here. 
 
 There is at this moment great local excitement on 
 the subject of Galway becoming a packet station for 
 America, when the railroad is finished. The Ame- 
 ricans will form a curious idea of Great Britain's 
 
51 
 
 prosperity, when their first welcome to our shores is 
 heard in such a scene of squalid wretchedness as that 
 which is now painted, in living colours, at every turn 
 of this town. The British ..lion has indeed here so 
 mangy an appearance, that every Briton of common 
 decency would be inclined to disclaim all connection 
 with, the unhappy animal. 
 
 One is for ever seeing strange things in this very 
 odd land. The workhouses are as handsome in their 
 outward elevation, as their contents are the contrary. 
 The Irish study effect very often in things the Eng- 
 lish hide altogether ; whilst, alas ! every traveller 
 will find, there are some things they do not care to 
 have, which we feel wretched without. When we 
 hang our criminals, we only bring out the gallows at 
 the last moment, and put away the horrid thing as 
 soon as its tragic office is over. The drop in Ireland 
 is commonly an iron balcony in front of the jail; 
 there it always is, on view, with its fallen floor hang- 
 ing down ; probably, just as it fell from beneath the 
 heels of its last victim. Thus is it at Galway jail; 
 the door from the inside of the prison was, the day I 
 was there, open on to it ; above the said drop was a 
 cast-iron imitation of the Roman fasces, but the bundle 
 of rods had a graceful curve given to them, so as to 
 bring the two axes in the proper position to receive, 
 at an execution, the ropes into two rings attached 
 to them; from which ropes the Galway hanged, 
 hang. At Mullingar, we saw a less classically adorned 
 
 
52 
 
 instrument of the law's last sentence, but one, per- 
 haps, whose adornment was more easily appreciated 
 by the vulgar eye — the same balcony made to hang 
 two, but over each trap-floor a projecting iron beam, 
 terminating in a large iron cast of a skull, from which, 
 by a ring receiving the rope, the culprit swings. 
 These drops are thus ever exposed, not much, if any, 
 higher from the ground of the street than an ordinary 
 second-floor. This strange attention given to the 
 detail of legal killing, compared with the little atten- 
 tion given to all that should be in character with life, 
 sustained by law, is curious, to say the least of it. 
 
 In the Galway workhouse and its auxiliaries, I 
 found 4,882 inmates. The houses are estimated to 
 hold 4,225 ; but I am told that a new estimate is in 
 the course of being made, which will diminish the 
 ugly appearance of these figures placed in compa- 
 rison. The parent house, though very crowded — far 
 too much so — was still in very fair order, the dormi- 
 tories clean, the people clothed. There was in several 
 departments a decided want of ventilation, but plans 
 are now before the architect, to remedy this failing. 
 The infirmary and the dysentery wards were here sad 
 spectacles ; they were not only too crowded, but the 
 cases were of a very bad type. There was one dysen- 
 tery shed, for children, in which were 81 patients; 
 I was told they had had 107 patients in it. The ap- 
 pearance of these poor things was sad in the extreme ; 
 they were far too closely packed, especially for pa- 
 
53 
 
 tients with a complaint which almost forbids cleanli- 
 ness. There was one bed with four children in it ; 
 one of them, quite naked, lay on his back, a mere 
 skeleton; the skin, which was painfully stretched 
 over the bones, was of a pallor I never saw in life 
 before; they cannot, they say, wash the linen fast 
 enough to keep them clad, even when they only 
 require a shirt to die in : I can easily believe it. This 
 little blanched piece of skeletoned humanity seemed 
 pushed up in the bed above his three companions, as 
 if their strength, such as it was, was forcing him out 
 of their way before his time ; this made his naked- 
 ness, and the horrors of his frame, the more apparent ; 
 one felt very thankful that he must soon die ; he 
 neither spoke nor moved — such children never do : 
 I have sometimes liked to think, that at a certain 
 stage of workhouse misery, the child's spirit has so 
 far escaped from the decaying frame, that nothing 
 remains, which can appreciate neglect, or be sensible 
 of real pain; there is just life to swell the total of 
 the dying, but not enough of it to add to the great 
 total of workhouse suffering. 
 
 The yard in which what was called the able-bodied 
 class of males was assembled, gave immediate, unmis- 
 takeable evidence of the state of the Union. Such 
 is the horror of the workhouse, especially with men, 
 that nothing short of the most pressing want will 
 ever drive them into it ; these, the so-called " able- 
 bodied," were mosl v retched samples of "starved 
 
54 
 
 in" humanity. It was clear they had fought the 
 battle of life without the hated wall, until all power to 
 contend had left them. This is the class which at 
 this season of the year ever appears the very worst ; 
 they are nearly all of them more or less so constitu- 
 tionally weakened, that food can do little to restore 
 them; the chronic diarrhoea, to which they have 
 been subject, is soon followed by dysentery ; they go 
 from the ward of their class to the infirmary, and 
 seldom quit that building but for the grave. If the 
 history of these poor creatures was accurately traced, 
 I..am informed, many of them would prove to have 
 been small farmers ; youths, i. e. those from sixteen 
 to twenty, will often rally on food and shelter ; the 
 full grown man, once brought below a certain point, 
 very seldom rallies ; the repairing power of nature in 
 his case seems altogether gone. 
 
 I went with the Inspector of the Union (who was 
 most kind in every way in meeting my wishes), on 
 the following day, to visit the Auxiliaries. They were 
 of the usual character, large old buildings, stores and 
 others, occupied very closely by many hundred wo- 
 men and children ; there was a certain amount of 
 schoolroom for the latter, of working rooms for the 
 former ; there was also one house, far too small for 
 the purpose, full of women with their babies. There 
 was one large old store-house or collection of houses, 
 with a very extensive open yard, near the quay, which 
 had I should suppose between 7 and 800 able-bodied 
 
55 
 
 women in it ; they looked well fed, healthy, and well 
 enough clothed : a certain number of them were at 
 work with spinning wheels, but the great mass were 
 squatting and tying about the yard, with the exception 
 of the tongue, in perfect idleness. 
 
 Next to squatting in a sort of heap, which sadly 
 taxes one's knowledge of anatomy, to discover on 
 what they sit, or how they dispose of their limbs ; 
 and in this position, remaining for hours — indeed 
 from one meal to another, and then till they go to 
 bed ; the most favourite indulgence is — combing 
 their own or each other's hair, and performing cer- 
 tain friendly offices to each other, as a part of the 
 task. They have reason, many of them, to be proud 
 of their locks ; you will from time to time see a pro- 
 fusion of coal-black tresses, industriously, but I 
 should think rather painfully pulled through, by the 
 great coarse combs they use; which many a lady 
 of fashion would envy. 
 
 .. It is painful to see this large mass of healthy* 
 young, well-limbed womanhood, vegetating in idle- 
 ness, or at best, only playing at work ; when in other 
 parts of our Sovereign's dominions, the only supply 
 which falls far short of a most pressing demand, is, 
 in the article of wives and female servants, and it is 
 the more painful to see this, and know, that the 
 rearing of these thousands of workhouse mermaids, 
 who live this mere hair-combing life, is just the thing 
 which makes them most unfit for service or matri- \/' 
 mony in the colonies. I am now, less surprised than 
 
56 
 
 ever, that the Australian colonial press, is so violent 
 as it is, against the importation of Irish workhouse 
 orphans ; for of all parents who train for the matri- 
 monial or the domestic service market, Madam 
 Workhouse is the very worst of all. She has no 
 power to enforce on her numerous and everchanging 
 progeny, the observance, of those, the commonest 
 rules of industry and decency, which are the very 
 elements of good education. There is, and there 
 must be, a constant wholesale process of female de- 
 gradation going on, where married women and single 
 women — girls of 16 — women of 40, are associated in 
 hundreds in idleness by day ; lay down to rest— but 
 too often in nakedness, by hundreds together in a 
 room at night. 
 
 It was with very great satisfaction, that I accom- 
 panied the Inspector of the Union, to see a most 
 praiseworthy attempt, as regards the boys of this 
 Union, to give them useful knowledge and habits of 
 useful industry. 
 
 At some little distance from the town, the Guar- 
 dians of the Union have taken on lease a capacious 
 house and premises, formerly a nunnery, with 25 
 statute acres of ground, at a rent of £204. 9.9 8d per 
 annum, on a lease for 999 years ; at this time it has 
 about 1000 inmates, boys from five years of age ; of 
 these, there is one class called " the Agricultural," 
 consisting of about 200 ; 150 of them work on the 
 farm, under the superintendence and tutelage of an 
 Agricultural instructor, who has a salary of £35 per 
 
57 
 
 annum and rations ; the other 50 are employed in 
 cooking, mending the roads, and in other miscel- 
 laneous labour. A great many more of the mass of 
 boys are, from time to time, employed on the farm, 
 in weeding and picking stones, &c. There is a paid 
 master tailor, who has a staff of lads to instruct in 
 his trade, and to whom is entrusted the repair of the 
 clothing of the establishment. There are also, a school- 
 master and assistant schoolmaster, and a matron. 
 
 We found the farm very highly worked, and the 
 crops coming up remarkably well ; there were several 
 large gangs of lads, working under the direction of 
 the Instructor, hoeing the turnips and mangold 
 wurtzel ; they seemed to take interest in their work. 
 The crops now in the ground are : — 
 
 Swedish Turnips 
 
 
 . 4 acres 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 
 3 „ 
 
 Cabbages . 
 
 
 ■ n » 
 
 Parsnips 
 
 
 2 „ 
 
 Carrots 
 
 
 A 2 JJ 
 
 Marigold wurtzel 
 
 
 Of „ 
 
 Onions 
 
 
 Of „ 
 
 Cabbage plants . 
 
 
 o* „ 
 
 
 bein 
 
 g 13f acres. 
 
 The whole is cultivated by the hand, a horse is only 
 used to draw manure from the parent and auxiliary 
 houses. Last year only five acres were cultivated ; 
 the value of the produce was calculated at £98. 95 9d. 
 These boys looked far healthier and happier in 
 
 D 2 
 

 58 
 
 every way than any I saw in any other Union. There 
 is plenty of space for exercise by day, and being away 
 from the town, the air is purer, and I have no doubt 
 the fresh vegetables, added to the usual diet, tends 
 also to health. The importance of a knowledge of 
 agriculture, as practised on sound principles, valuable 
 everywhere, is no where more so than in this part of 
 Ireland. I cannot, therefore, rate too high the ex- 
 periment here making, of turning the youthful pau- 
 perage of the Union, into future instruments for 
 advancing that particular species of knowledge, the 
 advance of which, and its practical result, can in the 
 end prove the only effectual means of contending 
 against pauperism. These lads are not only taught 
 the manipulation of the soil — the actual working of 
 it by hand labour, but they are taught the principles 
 by which what they do is regulated ; their practice, 
 and its result — the success or failure of the crops, is 
 to them, proof of the soundness or unsoundness of 
 what they are taught. The Agricultural instructor 
 has himself had a careful education, the aim of which 
 has been, to enable him to teach as well as practise 
 the best system of agriculture. 
 
 A separate set of buildings are in the course of 
 erection, for the separate use of the agricultural class 
 of lads ; it is intended to have them furnished with 
 yards, &c. for stall-feeding a small amount of stock, 
 that the youths may thus acquire practical knowledge, 
 not only of dairy work, and the best process of fat- 
 
59 
 
 tening cattle, but also in the economy and prepara- 
 tion of manures. Whilst they are thus advanced in 
 a species of knowledge which must be mainly acquired 
 in the open fields, they have also a certain amount 
 each day of in-door schooling. 
 
 If the Guardians steadily pursue what they have 
 so well begun, I have no doubt in my own mind, 
 they will reap a large harvest of future good ; for 
 these youths will — a new feature in pauperism — 
 become qualified to earn independence for themselves ; 
 and by diffusing the knowledge they here obtain, 
 will do much to better every neighbourhood in which 
 they may settle ; as colonists, also, they will have no 
 ordinary chance of success. I do not believe in the 
 end this establishment will cost more to the rate- 
 payers than a Mount Kennet, or any other auxiliary 
 house, in which the boys are maintained, little taught 
 in anything, and not at all practised in any employ- 
 ment by which they may in the end obtain their own 
 bread. 
 
 I visited the schools of the master and assistant- 
 master, and was much pleased with both of them ; 
 I heard a class read, and myself questioned them, and 
 they both read and replied well. I could have wished 
 there were more masters to so many children, but, as 
 it is, after what I had seen, it was most satisfactory 
 to see the order and the general appearance of the 
 children. There is a large kitchen- garden attached 
 to the premises, which was in good cultivation. 
 
60 
 
 Galway may justly boast of one very handsome 
 public building, one of the new Queen's Colleges ; I 
 unfortunately had not time to go over it, but its out- 
 ward elevation and the general appearance of the 
 grounds around it, were all in good keeping with its 
 object and importance. This College, with that of 
 Belfast and Cork, form, what is designated, "The 
 Queen's University in Ireland." The students, after 
 they have passed through their undergraduate course, 
 at any of these Colleges, will pass an examination at 
 Dublin for their degrees, which will be of the same 
 value to them as those of any of the other Universities 
 in the empire. 
 
 The great end and object of these Colleges is to 
 offer, at an expense within the means of the middle 
 classes, a sound classical and scientific education, to 
 their sons, if they are disposed to avail themselves of 
 it. 
 
 There is this difference in this College as to the 
 course of study from that of the older Universities, 
 the student has it in his power to select that parti- 
 cular faculty or school which he may think the best 
 calculated to assist him in his future career. There 
 are scholarships in the Faculties of Arts, of Medicine, 
 of Law ; a school of Civil Engineering, and of Agri- 
 culture ; and the fortunate holders of these scholar- 
 ships can obtain their education at a very small 
 expense. 
 
 The Session consists of three terms, and for two 
 
61 
 
 out of the three, the students must attend the lectures 
 of the Professors. There is a library ; a well-found 
 laboratory; a well-appointed dissecting room; a 
 museum is in the course of formation ; there are also 
 a sufficient number of convenient lecture rooms. 
 There are no less than twenty professors ; and I have 
 reason to believe, that in the choice of these gentle- 
 men, no common care has been taken ; for the diffi- 
 culties of their position were seriously taken into 
 consideration. 
 
 This College opened at the end of last October, 
 under the Presidency of Mr. E. Beswick, a gentleman^ 
 who, as I heard in many quarters, had given the 
 highest satisfaction in the arduous post he holds : 
 before it had been open two months, it had 68 students 
 on its books; viz.— 38 Roman Catholics, 23 Pro- 
 testants, and 7 Presbyterians. From what I heard 
 from impartial sources, the conduct of the young 
 men had been every thing which could be wished. 
 Differing in religious persuasion, their religious 
 teaching is superintended by chaplains of their own 
 separate persuasion, who have also the control over 
 the residences, each of his own religious pupils. 
 That there may be no suspicion of any tampering 
 with the religious views of any of the pupil by the 
 Professors, the lecture rooms are always open to all 
 the chaplains. 
 
 This is one of the so-called "Godless Colleges;" 
 if violent attacks upon the system from its very infancy, 
 
62 
 
 could have destroyed its chance of success, it should 
 now be numbered amongst the departed failures of 
 well-intentioned men, who had no power to carry out 
 what they sincerely purposed. It is my own belief, 
 however, that a time will come, when the common 
 voice of men of all parties will give to these Institu- 
 tions the credit they deserve. No one can dispute 
 but that the means of a good professional education 
 in Ireland should be placed within the reach of the 
 Irish ; so far as it can be done, at an expense, within 
 the means of those classes of that country, from 
 whose ranks " the Professions" are recruited. 
 
 To go on withholding education, until all men in 
 Ireland are of one religious persuasion, or to give to 
 any particular persuasion a monopoly of it ; would be 
 in the one instance as foolish, as in the other it 
 would be unjust. 
 
 I have now had some knowledge of Ireland for 
 many years ; I have been intimate with its people of 
 all ranks, and I have long since come to the conclu- 
 sion, that religious and political bigotry are its two 
 greatest curses. I would hail anything, from any 
 source, which might exemplify in that unhappy coun- 
 try, the fact — that men may choose different paths to 
 Heaven without necessarily being in hate, on their 
 path in this life. Who does not know, how men, 
 whose practice proves they have no real religion, are 
 for ever educated with those who have deep views of 
 religion ; and yet they do not necessarily quarrel, or 
 
63 
 
 act injuriously to each other. I have seen at an 
 English University, the drunkard, the gambler, and 
 the profligate, drinking together at the streams of 
 general literature, of classical and scientific know- 
 ledge, in the same lecture rooms, with men of 
 high religious principle ; I have known, perhaps, 
 some evil, from this contact of the real believer with 
 the worldly despiser of the truth ; but I never knew 
 the man, who would say, the chances of religious 
 contamination were so great, as to forbid any but 
 those who would act up to a real and true profession 
 of Christianity, being received at the University. 
 I should be the first to say, exclude the man who 
 avows he has no faith, from contact with the believer ; 
 but where the religion differs, but still is a real 
 religion ; where all profess religion, though some act 
 unworthy of their profession, I should be the last to 
 say, that there must be unanimity in all the details 
 of faith ; in the carrying principle into action ; before 
 I would admit equal participation, in the teaching of 
 secular knowledge. 
 
 I am most happy to see that that most kind and 
 excellent man, Dr. Murray, gives these colleges his 
 support ; when men of his position, with his experi- 
 ence, are not afraid to sanction them, it may be well 
 argued, that the evils of which they are accused, are 
 either mere inventions, exaggerations, or the result 
 of that honest — it may be — but blind bigotry, which 
 in this country, alas ! is for ever looking for some 
 polemical feature, in every act, which men of one 
 
64 
 
 faith may do towards men of another, bringing in any 
 way, men of differing faith into social contact. 
 
 If Ireland is to rise to her just position in the scale 
 of nations, the first step of her elevation will be — 
 education — especially the liberal education of the 
 sons of her middle classes . The Irish have a peculiar 
 aptitude for .education ; I believe it has been again 
 and again said by competent authorities, that the 
 people of no nation on earth are easier taught. 
 
 These Colleges, will gain this much from the violent 
 opposition made to them : their Professors cannot 
 sleep on their oars; they will be closely, severely 
 watched ; but let them steadily pursue a diligent and 
 upright path, let them, knowing the rocks on which 
 they may split, and the under current which is ever 
 seeking to impel them on these rocks ; steer in the 
 clear path of duty ; neither turning to the right or 
 left ; neither lured by political feeling, or tempted by 
 religious feeling ; let them give, each in his school, 
 all of the best of teaching he has to give ; leaving 
 the religious professor — the chaplain — to do his part, 
 and I have no doubt, but that Galway College, and 
 the other Colleges, will outlive their present difficul- 
 ties ; and that Connaught will, in future years, find 
 the full value of this endeavour, to open within her 
 boundaries, a ready access to those branches of know- 
 ledge, which shall qualify her sons to obtain any 
 position they may covet and deserve, in any of those 
 liberal professions, to whose members, the men of all 
 nations owe so much. 
 
65 
 
 I have no doubt but that the completion of the 
 railway between Dublin and Galway will be of the 
 greatest possible service to the port itself and the 
 whole surrounding country; independent of the 
 question, whether or no it may be made a packet 
 station, there can be no doubt but that it will give a 
 great impulse to the markets over a large tract of 
 country. The opening of the canal now in course of 
 formation, which is to form part of the water com- 
 munication between Galway and the eastern point 
 of Lough Corrib, thence to and through Lough 
 Mask, will also have a most beneficial effect in aid of 
 the markets of this part of Ireland. If efforts are 
 made to give travellers good accommodation, the 
 beautiful scenery of this district, will, I am satisfied, 
 be yearly resorted to by large numbers of tourists ; 
 at present, although there is such accommodation 
 as may suffice for not over fastidious travellers, it 
 is scarcely, in amount, or in quality, equal to the 
 ordinary expectations of those who travel to spend 
 their money for their own amusement. If the wil- 
 lingness of Irish hosts and waiters, could make up 
 for the want of power in many ways to meet the 
 English traveller's ideas of comfort, none could com- 
 plain, for they are one and all most willing, as far as 
 they can, to answer the demands made upon them. 
 
 It is my firm belief that this part of Ireland has 
 seen its worst ; the dawn of better and happier times, 
 I trust, is now breaking upon it ; times, in which 
 
66 
 
 those who for pleasure, or business, shall come 
 amongst its people, will find far less of misery, and 
 social degradation, than unhappily is now so evident, 
 in every direction. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A GOOD LANDLORD— THE FISHERIES— "MARTIN PROPERTY'"' 
 — ADVENTURES OF SALMON — CLIFDEN — REFORMATION- 
 ISTS — THE WORKHOUSES — SHAMEFUL CONDITION OF THE 
 INMATES — ANOTHER EXPERIENCE OF THE PENALTY OF 
 CHARITY — A TRAVELLER HUNT. 
 
 From Galway we started to Oughterard, en route 
 to Clifden : the scenery is more or less pleasing, very 
 soon after yon quit Galway ; but still as ever dis- 
 figured by the evidence of eviction, and the wretched 
 appearance of very many of the people. We came 
 however to one estate, which really did form an ex- 
 ception to almost any I had as yet seen ; that of Mr. 
 Flaherty, the Member for Galway ; not only did all 
 the lands round about it, appear well and cleanly 
 cultivated; not only was there unmistakeable evi- 
 dence of a pains-taking management ; but the cabins 
 were all " in roof" — in repair ; the little holdings well 
 stocked ; and the people uniting in the same grateful 
 story, that this kind owner, did and had done, through 
 the worst of times, all man could do for his poor depen- 
 dents. Such examples are indeed bright exceptions 
 to the common run of proprietary ; it did one good, 
 to see that such goodness was appreciated here, here- 
 after none can doubt but that it will have its reward. 
 
 Soon after passing Oughterard, the traveller 
 
68 
 
 finds himself entering npon the far-famed mountain 
 sceneiy of Connemara : to any one, fond of lake 
 and mountain scenery, the road from Oughterard to 
 Clifden, will afford a great treat. I confess, I en- 
 joyed it the more, from the absence of population, 
 and therefore of misery. Here and there you pass 
 small holdings, or see them nestled under the moun- 
 tains in the distance ; but the nature of the country 
 is such, as to have little to attract settlers. There is 
 a continued succession of lakes, backed with moun- 
 tains, some of them, of great elevation ; all, more or 
 less of a wild and highly picturesque character. Our 
 destination was — " the Fisheries," on the Ballina- 
 hinch, — the great Martin property ; there is here a 
 small and clean hotel; built, I should suppose, 
 chiefly for the convenience of salmon fishers, as ex- 
 cept for fishing, there is little to tempt the traveller, 
 out of the direct road to Clifden ; from which place 
 this hotel is about eight miles distant. 
 
 We passed Bailinahinch, at about a mile or so from 
 the hotel ; it is a place of no great external pretension, 
 but I should suppose commands from its windows 
 extensive views of the beautiful country around. 
 
 For all I know to the contrary, there may be 
 portions of the " great Martin estates," well fitted 
 for colonization, or for investment, for agricultural 
 purposes ; but from all I saw of the property, and I 
 suppose we travelled some miles through it : I should 
 conceive little of it to be capable of any profitable 
 
69 
 
 cultivation. It is wild, mountainous, and much of it 
 heath, almost covered with masses of strewn rock : 
 there is a great deal of coarse, wet grass ground, but 
 of a nature little adapted for any grazing purposes. 
 
 That very hardy stock, might live and breed here 
 and there in large numbers, I can easily conceive. 
 That here and there patches of land could be culti- 
 vated in small holdings, so as to pay some rent, is 
 very likely the case. But my own impression is, 
 that if those who have talked so much, of what could 
 be done here, as from a sort of nucleus, for the 
 redemption of this part of Ireland; by settling 
 English capitalists and founding English colonies, 
 had seen, only what we saw, they would have 
 admitted that a worse site for the purpose could not 
 have been thought of. 
 
 There may be valuable land on the estate, but 
 certainly it is not in any extent, near the chief seat 
 of the property : and this, I found to be the opinion 
 of men, far better able to judge, than a passing 
 traveller. That the estate must return a large 
 revenue from some sources, is to be inferred, from 
 the immense mortgages known to encumber it. I 
 can only hope it may find a wealthy and liberal 
 purchaser : it is a fine possession, if only for its 
 magnitude, and its scenery ; and I have no doubt, is 
 a field, in which wealth and liberality might work 
 much good to this part of Ireland. 
 
 The "Fisheries" are worth a little notice. A 
 Scotch gentleman, I believe, the agent of the estate, 
 
has here established a sort of " fresh fish factory ;" 
 i. e. he prepares, after a fashion of his own, fresh 
 fish, for any the most distant market. A river runs 
 hence into the sea ; passing the fishery, on its way 
 to the sea, a mile or two distant. There are some 
 buildings erected, close to a bend, in this river; 
 in one building, there were all the various descrip- 
 tions of ingenious machinery, necessary, in the 
 manufacture of tin cases \ one boy cuts out the body 
 of the case ; another, with another machine, punches 
 out the top and bottom ; another forms the rims ; 
 another solders the sides and the bottom together, 
 so as to make a case, only wanting the top. It was 
 curious to see, how a Scotch foreman had got his staff 
 of young tinkers busily employed, and how expedi- 
 tiously they did their work. In another building, 
 are a certain number of boilers, superintended by a 
 woman. Presently, a signal is given " that there 
 are fish," a boat is manned, and a long net quickly 
 run out, so as to sweep a pool made by the bend of 
 the river; we saw at one haul some twenty salmon, 
 or salmon trout, brought in. They are at once 
 washed, and with very little mutilation, put into tin 
 cases, in certain weights or sizes, as it may be : so 
 quickly are they out of the river, into the " tin," 
 that as a workman described it, " you may see them 
 a panting, as we puts the tops on." The top once on 
 the case, it is instantly soldered on ; in short, portions 
 of a fish, or a whole fish, as it may be, are hermeti- 
 cally sealed up in a tin shroud or shrouds before he 
 
71 
 
 can scarcely believe he is out of the water; and 
 now into the water, he goes again, but this time 
 " he is in hot water." He is tenderly boiled, under 
 the mild superintendence of the boiler woman. 
 After having undergone this ordeal, he is ready for 
 exportation ; he may be eat at Liverpool, or on 
 board a transatlantic steamer ; he may be eat off 
 Cape Horn, or at the London Tavern : he is simply 
 for sale, in a travelling costume, warranted to pro- 
 duce him fresh, whenever and wherever he is 
 undressed from his armour, to be dressed for dinner. 
 Lobsters, oysters, and milk are all here prepared in 
 the same way; and if one can judge from the 
 mass of oyster-shells which are heaped up on the spot, 
 the demand for stewed oysters, must be very large. 
 
 The proprietor of the factory assured us, the de- 
 mand was greater than he could supply, for the 
 fishing was very uncertain, some seasons being far 
 more favourable than others ; there are large salmon 
 weirs in connection with the establishment ; in one 
 way or another, a great number of hands are em- 
 ployed at these fisheries ; it is a wild place, but worth 
 a visit ; especially I should suppose in the season, to 
 those fond of fishing, as there is excellent river fishing 
 for some miles. 
 
 We passed from the Fisheries to Clifden, through 
 some eight miles of very wretched, wild, barren 
 country, very thinly populated; there were, how- 
 ever, some cabins or small farms, giving evident proof 
 
72 
 
 of the perseverance with which this class of farmers 
 will try and get a living ; their little patches of crops 
 shewed the struggle of industry under no common 
 difficulties. 
 
 We found at Clifden the hotel in a bustle ; Mr. 
 Dallas, and his corps of "reformation" friends and 
 assistants, were just starting to visit some of their out- 
 xpOsts ; inasmuch as they had hired all the cars, and 
 I had yet a long day's journey before me, I did not 
 I fear feel very charitably disposed towards them. I 
 was informed, on good authority, that in Connemara 
 " the Reformationists" have upwards of 1200 children 
 of Roman Catholics, under education as Protestants ; 
 they are taught the Scriptures in the Irish language. 
 I believe a considerable staff of missionaries or in- 
 structors are employed amongst the peasantry as 
 Scripture readers. The children have one meal of 
 stirabout given them each day. On asking an indi- 
 vidual, whose position qualifies him to give good in- 
 formation, whether he thought the conversions were 
 real ; whilst he declined to give an opinion as to the 
 adult conversions, for he did not seem to have a high 
 idea of the adult's perception of " truth," he assured 
 me, that the meal did the children a great deal of 
 good ; and the education had tended to make them 
 less uncivilized ; he said he had heard them read well, 
 sing hymns, &c, and all this, he added, can't do them 
 harm ; whether they will grow up Catholics or Pro- 
 testants, he seemed to think as problematical, as, 
 
73 
 
 whether they would continue to attend school if the 
 potato crop was not blighted. 
 
 That the gentlemen and ladies embarked in this 
 crusade are most earnest and sincere, none dispute ; 
 whether they could, or could not, carry on their 
 operations less open to the accusation of bribing con- 
 verts, by feeding them, I cannot say : that they have 
 raised the utmost enmity of the priests, is only 
 natural; that they must cause much domestic di- 
 vision, is inevitable. That they feel themselves 
 justified in this, I do not dispute ; but for my own 
 part, I can only lament, that, in the working of God's 
 providence in this unhappy land, it would seem, that 
 nothing can occur upon which a casus belli for po- 
 lemical warfare cannot be founded. But I will say 
 nothing further here on the subject ; to touch any of 
 these matters in Ireland, is to handle a sort of con- 
 troversial " pitch " — you are sure to be blackened. 
 
 I went over the parent, and some of the auxiliary 
 houses at Clifden with the Inspector, who most 
 kindly gave me every facility of inspection. Here, 
 again, I have the painful task of recording a state of 
 things most disgraceful to a Christian, civilized 
 land. The parent house was built for 300 ; by how- 
 ever taking possession of parts of it not meant to be 
 so used, it got to be estimated as capable of contain- 
 ing 600. There were now 759 in it ! ! The infirmary, 
 estimated to hold 40, had 79 in it ! ! The total 
 number of inmates in all the houses was 2439. I be- 
 
74 
 
 lieve about 5000 were receiving out relief. The want 
 of clothing here was quite distressing ; it pervaded 
 all classes alike. There was a man just out of jail, 
 whose condition of rags, or rather want of enough of 
 them, made him a most disgusting object : it had 
 this effect, however ; by shewing his frame, it proved 
 in how superior a condition the criminal is kept, to 
 that of the pauper. 
 
 There was a yard, with a day ward in it, of about 
 30 ft. by 15 ft., with open roof, in which were about 
 160 small children; in one corner there was a child 
 with the small-pox out upon it ; at least 30 of the 
 others had not been vaccinated ; there were 24 with 
 caps on 5 with bad heads. The state of these chil- 
 dren's clothing was quite shameful; if possible, they 
 were in this respect worse than the same class at 
 Limerick. Many of them were mere skeletons. 
 They were walked out into the yard for me to see 
 them better ; as they passed us, one child actually, 
 whether of herself, or by order, put her hand across 
 to hold the rags together in front of the poor 
 thing who walked with her, that we might not 
 be more shocked than she could by such inge- 
 nuity prevent ; they looked in the yard so cold, so 
 comfortless, so naked, and such a libel on humanity, 
 that I was glad to have them called in again to the 
 close and infected atmosphere of the crowded day 
 room ; they were, I believe, all girls, though such is 
 the nature of pure rag attire, that the dress often 
 
75 
 
 ceases to be any guide, as to the sex, amongst the 
 young. 
 
 There were two underground places, which the 
 architect meant for lumber rooms, which we, how- 
 ever, found inhabited ; they were damp and chilly, 
 unventilated, and utterly unfitted for the purpose to 
 which they were applied. There were some adult 
 women in one of them, crouched upon the cold floor, 
 looking just as such beings, so starved, so clad, would 
 look in such a place; they were new admissions. 
 There was little about the whole house out of keep- 
 ing with what I have described ; want of space, want 
 of clothing, in a refuge crowded by those who come 
 in starving and naked, must defy anything like the 
 order and decency which should characterize every 
 public establishment professing to be under the 
 guardianship of the laws. 
 
 We now went to an Auxiliary, just occupied by a 
 class of able-bodied women, called the " Police Bar- 
 rack." The day rooms of this wretched building had 
 no sashes in the ground-floor windows ; they were, 
 however, covered with iron lattice ; immediately 
 under them was a mass of stinking filth of the most 
 miscellaneous character. Passing through a narrow 
 dirty passage, we turned out of a confined yard, in 
 which some masons were at work building up a wall, 
 into two day rooms, i. e. what had been two rooms ; 
 the partition door, however, had been removed, 
 though the division walls, or some of them remained. 
 
76 
 
 The rooms were measured in my presence, and the 
 result, on a drawing in my notes, records, that the 
 area of both inclusive was 21 ft. by 12 ft.; in this 
 space, we found 32 women in the inner room, 35 in 
 the outer, being 67 adult women in a space of 21 ft. 
 by 12 ft. ! the ceiling was not, I believe, nine feet 
 from the ground. In another small room, 9 ft. by 
 1 1 ft., twelve grown-up women lived, i. e. existed. 
 In a loft, of dimensions not larger than the first- 
 mentioned rooms, the roof coming down at an acute 
 angle to the floor, twenty-six adult women were said 
 to sleep ; I believe more did sleep. 
 
 No power of pen can describe the state of the 
 clothing of this seething mass of female pauperage ; 
 there were some, that the others, for shame's sake, 
 would not let stand up before us ; some I felt ashamed 
 to ask to do so, though with more rags on. The 
 smell of the rooms was intolerable ; that of the yard, 
 from an unmistakeable source, no improvement on 
 it. I can hardly conceive anything more thoroughly 
 brutalizing, than the herding of this mass together at 
 night ; for if they do not sleep in their dirty rags, 
 they must at all events, I presume, be disentangled 
 from them when they lie down, in the place where 
 they lie down ; this rag heap, then, redolent of many 
 days or weeks' wear in this confined space, must add 
 its share to that offence to every sense, which, with- 
 out it, the masses so herded on the floors would 
 produce. 
 
77 
 
 There were altogether 150 inmates in this house. 
 The day rooms look through the lattice into the 
 public street ; how such a place, for such a number 
 of persons, could ever have been sanctioned, I can- 
 not understand ; if they escape a pestilence, which 
 shall destroy life, they cannot escape an amount of 
 moral disease, which must so brutalize, as to painfully 
 affect it. 
 
 We now went to another Auxiliary, in which were 
 between 40 and 50 infants, with their mothers, many 
 of these small morsels of misery were absolutely 
 naked; their mothers, generally speaking, clothed 
 only so far as a small allowance of filthy rags, can be 
 called clothing. Of course they were crowded far 
 more than was in any way justifiable. In another 
 auxiliary, there were 2 or 300 able-bodied females ; 
 still the same want of dress, or rather the same insuffi- 
 ciency of rags ; packed closely at night in two or three 
 dormitories ; by day, their only shelter was one room, 
 of the same area as any one of the said dormitories ; 
 but its size reduced by the tables for dining ; they 
 were sitting in heaps, in idleness, about the yard. 
 The auxiliary for the boys was some miles off, so that 
 I did not see it ; I can only hope it is no worse than 
 those I did see, though that were scarcely possible. 
 
 This Clifden Union had poor rates in course of 
 collection at the end of the quarter, terminating 30th 
 of last March, to the amount of £2,287, it had 
 received relief from the rate-in-aid in that quarter, 
 
78 
 
 to the amount of £2,115, its net liabilities at the 
 same period, over balance at the Bank, were £6,292. 
 The weekly average mortality per 1000 inmates, for 
 the four weeks ending March 30, 1850, was 8'1 ! 
 
 It is awful to contemplate, as in the case of this 
 Union, to what one's fellow creatures can be exposed, 
 when the scene of infliction is in one of these out of 
 the way corners of her Majesty's dominions. There 
 is a chance, in a place like Limerick, of some stray 
 traveller, or some local party of sufficient courage 
 and humanity, rising up, to publicly protest against 
 such treatment of our fellow subjects, in ^establish- 
 ments, supported under legal enactment, and sup- 
 posed to be under official supervision ; but here, I 
 believe, anything might be done, and the chances of 
 exposure be small. The people of all ranks are so 
 now accustomed to scenes of misery and tyranny, 
 that they have ceased to be shocked or roused by 
 them ; they say, " the potato rot" brought it about, 
 "potato plenty" will heal it. The intermediate 
 misery is counted as a small thing for humanity to 
 notice ; humanity, I fear, has been so taxed, that it 
 has become blind to anything, which might increase 
 its burden. 
 
 I know no justifiable excuse, however, for such 
 wanton contempt of life and decency; I do not know 
 why the " rate-in-aid" Bill was passed, but to obtain 
 the efficient working of the Poor-law, in bankrupt 
 Unions j it is folly to call this make-shift, make- 
 
79 
 
 shame system, Poor-law administration. In England 
 one-fiftieth part of such conduct, would so rouse the 
 indignation of the public, that a speedy end would 
 be put to the abuse, and I have no doubt, pretty severe 
 rebuke dealt on all who connived at, or promoted it. 
 I have yet to learn, that Ireland is not an integral 
 part of Great Britain ; I have yet to learn, that 
 doings so disgraceful can exist in Ireland, and not be 
 a shame and disgrace to England. 
 
 My friend here again indulged himself in large 
 investments in bread, to feed the poor wretches he 
 found in the street, and with the customary result ; 
 he soon being forced from the pressure, to make a 
 retreat at the rear of the shop. I cannot wonder 
 at the perseverance he displayed, he was new to 
 Ireland ; less hardened than myself. From a window 
 we got an opportunity of seeing, ourselves unseen, 
 some of the bread he had given consumed; there 
 was no deceit in the way it was devoured; more 
 voracious reality, it would be hardly possible to con- 
 ceive ; to see the fleshless arms grasping one part of 
 a loaf, whilst the fingers — bone handled forks — dug 
 into the other, to supply the mouth — such mouths 
 too ! with an eagerness, as if the bread were stolen, 
 the thief starving, and the steps of the owner heard ; 
 was a picture, I think neither of us will easily forget. 
 
 Benevolence has its drawbacks; if Mazeppa had 
 been bound to an Irish car in Connemara, in a year 
 of famine, with a few loaves of bread tied to him, he 
 
80 
 
 would have had a scarcely less lively experience of one 
 wolf hunted, than he had on his wild horse, after the 
 fashion in which his perilous ride is handed down to 
 us. No sooner was our car under weigh, than a pack 
 of famished creatures of all descriptions and sexes, 
 set off in full chase after us ; the taste of fresh bread, 
 still inflamed the spirit of some ; the report of it put 
 others in hot hungry pursuit; the cresclt eundo is 
 ever realized in the motion of an Irish mob. Our 
 driver did his best, but our pursuers had us at 
 advantage ; for our road was up a very steep long 
 hill ; they gained on us, and we were soon surrounded 
 by the hungry pack ; the cry of the regular pro- 
 fessional mendicant, the passionate entreaty of the 
 really destitute — the ragged, the really starving ; the 
 whining entreaties of the still more naked children, 
 still more starved, — in a famine the weakest ever 
 suffer soonest. The quickness and volubility of Irish 
 national mendicity, sharpened by hunger, and excited 
 by the rare chance of appeasing it, all combined to 
 give voice to the pack. No two luckless human beings 
 were ever so hunted ; no ravening wolves ever gave 
 more open expression of their object — food. A little 
 coaxing — my friend's ; a little violence — my own ; a 
 little distribution of copper coin from both of us, 
 at last rid us of the inconvenient, but natural result 
 of an Englishman, with money in his pocket, and a 
 baker's shop near, wishing in Ireland to feed some 
 starving people. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OUT-RELIEF — MR. ELLIS AND HIS CONNEMARA HOME — 
 ENGLISH SETTLERS, THE " EASTWOODS" — DISADVANTAGES 
 TO THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER OF THE FISHING SEASON 
 — THOUGHTS ON FISHING TACKLE — A DIALOGUE— FISH- 
 ING ACCIDENTS — HOW TO GET A FISH-HOOK OUT OF 
 YOUR OWN HAND OR LIP — AUTHOR INCLINED TO GRUM- 
 BLE—A CLEVER BEGGAR — WESTPORT — ITS WORKHOUSES 
 — EMIGRATION — INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES, AT WESTPORT 
 AND CASTLEBAR. 
 
 "We now proceeded on our journey, through 
 " Joyce's Country/' on our way to Westport; the 
 scenery throughout this part of Ireland is very beau- 
 tiful, and would well repay any tourist in the search 
 of the picturesque ; the population is thinly scattered, 
 the nature of the soil does not seem to offer much 
 inducement to them to settle ; from time to time, 
 however, we passed some fair grazing ground, and 
 some few districts were apparently farmed by parties, 
 having capital as well as enterprize. We passed on 
 our way, one of the out-relief stations, and left our 
 car that we might witness the distribution of the 
 " meal :" by the side of the high road, and along the 
 banks of a short road, leading up to a cabin, were 
 collected a large number of poor creatures, chiefly 
 women and children, but there were a few old or 
 infirm males amongst them. They were squatting, 
 
 E 2 
 
82 
 
 and lying in all the varieties of posture, common 
 to this class : it appears to me, that their great object 
 is, to gather their limbs together, in any and every 
 way, which will best enable their rags to exclude the 
 air from their persons. 
 
 The allowance for an adult is I lb. of Indian meal 
 per day, in value about one penny : for those of a 
 family below a certain age \ lb. each. We made our 
 way to the cab in through the lane of unhappy 
 beings waiting for this dole ; many had come miles 
 for it. 
 
 A relieving officer from his book gave out a name ; 
 a man at the door repeated it, and took the bag of 
 the respondent ; a boy then weighed from a sack, 
 the quantity named by the relieving officer, and 
 emptied the meal from the scales into the bag ; I 
 was glad to see that fair weight was given. 
 
 There can be no doubt but that out-relief is the 
 cause itself of much mortality. The allowance, 
 except where the small children are numerous enough 
 to add from their quota some surplus, to the swelling 
 of that of the adults, falls short of what can really 
 support life;* it is eked out by the free use of corn-weed, 
 nettles and other weeds, and whatever else the parties 
 can beg or take. Indian meal, however good a food 
 when properly cooked, is far from wholesome when 
 
 * It is a well known fact, that children dying, are sometimes 
 buried privately by the parents, that the family may continue to draw 
 their share of meal. 
 
83 
 
 eat as these poor creatures eat it ; few of whom have 
 any means of properly cooking it ; with but too many, 
 from the almost raw state in which they eat it, it is 
 little digested ; however, they will hold out on it as 
 long as nature will endure, for with it they have liberty. 
 
 We had not left this wretched group many miles ' 
 behind us, when we suddenly came on a very different 
 scene. In a situation of great beauty, we came to a 
 very large enclosure by the side of the road, in a 
 very high state of cultivation ; there were root crops, 
 flax, &c. growing; a large number of women and 
 others, decently clad, working merrily with hoes, &c. ; 
 on the higher part of this enclosure, on an elevation, 
 with neat well kept, prettily laid out lawns descending 
 from it, there was a modern comfortable looking, 
 evidently English house. This was, we found, the 
 abode of Mr. Ellis, a member of the Society of 
 Friends, and brother of the member for Coventry. 
 This gentleman and his family, at least his wife, I 
 am not sure that he has children, are here settled : 
 he having purchased a considerable estate. His 
 attention, a year or two since, was turned to the 
 condition of this unhappy district ; he at once deter- 
 mined to pitch his tent amongst the people, and do 
 all God would enable him, to better their condition. 
 I called upon him, and was most kindly welcomed 
 by himself and Mrs. Ellis. He does not profess to 
 any scientific knowledge of agriculture, but he seeks 
 to apply practically, whatever he can gain of useful 
 knowledge on the subject; besides employing a great 
 
84 
 
 many persons on his farms, paying them punctually 
 money wages ; he has established schools, and with 
 Mrs. Ellis's assistance, is doing all he can, to raise 
 their intellectual as well as physical condition. 
 
 He does not state that his farming has as yet 
 answered as a speculation ; but he is sanguine that it 
 may do so. With regard to the character of the 
 peasantry as labourers, he states, that they are in the 
 first instance quite unskilled; but he found them 
 quick to learn; they are willing, and he considers 
 them faithful and honest; he spoke with some 
 earnestness upon this point — he had no bolts or bars 
 to his house ; his object seems to be, to raise their 
 character, by making their gains dependent upon 
 their industry ; and to obtain their respect and con- 
 fidence, by the strictest right dealing with them; 
 paying them punctually all they earn, and only exact- 
 ing from them what he pays for. 
 
 I believe this excellent man's intentions towards 
 these people are simply those of a most liberal phi- 
 lanthropy, guided by a wise judgment as to how 
 their interests can be best and permanently served. 
 I can only hope, as I believe, God will bless so 
 single-minded an effort to do good. It was refreshT 
 ing to see this oasis in the desert, which the scene of 
 cheerful industry around the house presented. It 
 was still more so, to hear the kind and sympathizing 
 but well-judging way in which Mr. Ellis spoke of the 
 condition of the people. The neatness of all the 
 details of his place, his own benevolent aspect, well 
 
85 
 
 set off by that peculiar neatness of attire common 
 to " The Society of Friends/ ' all combine to make 
 the contrast of the scene and the man the greater ; 
 in opposition to scenes and men, with whom we had 
 been brought in contact. 
 
 At a mile or two distant from the property of Mr. 
 Elfis, we came to another English settlement. Two 
 gentlemen, brothers, from the North of England, of 
 the name of Eastwood, have purchased a large tract 
 of land, and are cultivating it in a most spirited 
 manner; they are young, and evidently have no 
 small share of youth's energy. The chief scene of 
 their farming operations lies in a sort of " flat," sur- 
 rounded by mountains ; through the farm a salmon 
 river passes ; which they have bridged over, and the 
 road across it led us up to a comfortable house of 
 considerable size ; this, with the adjoining large farm 
 buildings, they have built, apparently with little 
 regard to expense. 
 
 We found Mr. A. Eastwood at home ; as our time 
 was limited we could only go with him over the farm 
 buildings, just so far as to get some idea of their 
 size, and of the nature of the experiment, in which 
 he and his brother have embarked. The barn and 
 yards and other buildings are on a scale, which in 
 England would be sufficient for a very large arable 
 farm ; but the weather is such here, he informed us, 
 that it is necessary to have buildings of a size which 
 will admit of a great deal of in-door work in the 
 winter. Every thing was substantially built ; there 
 
86 
 
 was a carpenter's shop and all the accessories to a 
 large farming concern. They use artificial manures^ 
 grow root crops, have done a great deal in draining 
 and reclaiming the land ; but he seemed of opinion, 
 that when they had once got the land thus treated, 
 into good heart, the wise policy would be, to lay 
 most of it down to the best possible pasture it would 
 admit of, and to look to stock more than to corn, for 
 then return. Having, I believe, a large amount of 
 mountain grazing ground, this view seems to be the 
 wisest. He spoke of the difficulty of finding a mar- 
 ket for corn, but seemed to think, and in my opinion, 
 rightly, that the demand for stock must increase. 
 
 He says of the men as labourers, that under a 
 good foreman they work well, and are honest, un- 
 skilled at first, but quick to learn. They pay them 
 money wages, and pay according to the value of the 
 work. There were drills, and carts, and other farm 
 upholstery of the orthodox red colour about the 
 premises, and every thing looked very unlike Conne- 
 mara. He spoke in no desponding terms of their 
 prospects, seemed to think the worst was passed. To 
 hear him tell of the trials and adventures he and his 
 brother personally went through in the famine year, 
 made me almost believe I was talking to some Bush 
 settler in Australia. I sincerely hope that these 
 gentlemen may succeed in their plans ; at all events, 
 they will have done much good j no effort to intro- 
 duce good farming, to promote real industry in the 
 men, and to shew integrity in the employer, will 
 
87 
 
 here be thrown away ; it may be a case of " Sic vos 
 non vobis" but benefit, and permanent benefit to 
 many will flow from it. 
 
 We now pursued our way to Kylemore, an hotel 
 by the side of a beautiful lake, at which we had 
 hoped to get accommodation for the night; alas, 
 wlien we got there, every inch of it was occupied by 
 a party of fishermen ; and we had no other choice 
 but to push the tired horse which had brought us 
 from the " Fisheries" in the morning, some six Irish 
 miles further to Leenane. 
 
 I do not know how far this fishing party were suc- 
 cessful, who had thus monopolized this hotel ; but if 
 tackle in abundance, and variety, could ensure sport, 
 they must be very " otters -" never did I see such a 
 collection of murderous implements as were strewed 
 about in all directions. Fond of the sport myself, I 
 have however long learned to distrust the effects of 
 too much machinery ; I have seen natives with very 
 rough rods, rougher tackle, and flies of very homely 
 manufacture, kill fish after fish, when gentlemen 
 with cars full of rods and gaffs ; deed boxes of every 
 kind of artificial bait ; big blotting books, with blan- 
 kets for leaves, stocked with every possible combina- 
 tion of feather and hook, have spun and whipped in 
 vain. I once saw a party arrive at the door of an 
 
 hotel at B in the West of Ireland, after a day's 
 
 whipping of the waters ; they had two fine fish in 
 charge of a " gossoon." A native fisherman, a pro- 
 fessional, was loaded with about seven per cent of the 
 
 / 
 
amount of the stock of a crack tackle shop ; the hats 
 of the two sportsmen were encircled gracefully with 
 tackle, the hand of one was tied up in a handkerchief, 
 the Up of his friend bore marks of recent incision; they 
 were moody, and only just in spirits enough to order 
 lobster sauce for the fish which was to be cooked. 
 In the course of the evening, I got into conversation 
 with the " professional/' who had been their guide. 
 I said, " Well, S — , you shewed them a good fish or 
 two to-day." " Bless your honour, the salmon were 
 all a just jumping out of the water, to pape at 
 the queeriosities, they had brought from London; 
 and little blame to them for that same." " They 
 hooked a couple tho' I see." " Well, then, it was 
 one of them fish you see the gossoon carry, as did 
 sure enough hook himself, on to one of them queer 
 flies ; and it was the bad luck to him, I was handy 
 with the gaff, before the silly thing could get out of 
 the shiver it put him into ; but t'other fish, was 
 just a clean caught purse one ; and it was not much 
 they give for it." " You have had a long day, how- 
 ever ; how was it you did not do better for them ? 
 you will lose your character, S — ." "Why, I tell 
 you what it is, your honour ; what with the turning 
 over of them kettles full of queer contrivances, and 
 the getting of one thing out of the way of t'other ; 
 each a shewing the other, what he called the most 
 killingest thing as ever cost money; what with 
 talking about this and that, they lost half their time 
 a putting together the sticks and the lines. Then, 
 
89 
 
 the one of them run a hook into his thumb, and we 
 lost another bit of an hour, hunting for a smart lot 
 of tools made a purpose he said, for cutting of hooks 
 out of the fingers ; there was a pair of small shears 
 like, for cutting the hook shank off, and a pretty 
 thing it was to look at, but sure, it was a time we 
 was, a trying to make it do the job ; the gemman 
 got so faint, we had to put him on his back, and wait 
 a while, before we could make a job of it ; then there 
 was what he called ' force ups/ to pull out the 
 point of the hook with, so as to get him out back- 
 wards ; at last however we done it ; but by the time 
 we had cleaned the tools, and tied up his hand, and 
 put fresh heart with whiskey into him, there was 
 another hour gone. The t'other one, got a hook in 
 his lip, as he was a c rubbering' the gut to make it 
 straight ; says he to me, f S — , just get it out your 
 own way for me, will you/ I just made him sit 
 down, curled his lip round my fingers, and with a 
 clean cut of my knife it was out in a jiffy; howsoever 
 tho', neither he nor t'other one, took much to the 
 sport afterwards for a bit." " It was a good day 
 was it not ?" e< Your honour may say that, and 
 what kept a stinging of *em was, they see Phil's boy 
 with his long stick, and line hitched round a bit of 
 an old shoe, a lying on the ground at his foot, catch 
 two good fish, in less than an hour ; they sent me to 
 ask a look at his fly, they sarched their flannel 
 books, but they could find nothing in all the heap 
 like it. I tell you what it is, there aint a bare-legged 
 
90 
 
 gossoon at the river foot, who dont know more about 
 the nature of our fish, than all the Londoners ; it 
 aint for me to say so, but if they hired our tackle to 
 catch 'em, just as they pays us to shew where they 
 are to be catched, they'd bring home more fish, and 
 carry a deal less useless stuff about with them." 
 
 An Irish car well hung, with a steady going horse, 
 the luggage well adjusted, a pleasant companion on 
 the other side, a fine day, and scenery, and a not too 
 long journey all at once, is very pleasant : leaving 
 good quarters, in heavy rain; horse knocked up, 
 luggage irritable — chafing your back; companion 
 closed up in his umbrella — silent ; your last cigar — 
 drawing badly; questionable quarters, at an un- 
 questionable distance ; is a trial of one's philosophy ; 
 arriving at last, at the Leenane Hotel a climax. It is 
 a bettermost sort of cabin; I daresay has been 
 better than it is; however, civility and attention 
 goes a great way, even with tired travellers, to make 
 up for other deficiencies. There were beds — there 
 were porter and eggs, hopes of bacon ; a few dogs of 
 sorts, children ditto, a fox, &c. made company; we 
 eat, drank ; one of us smoked a cigar, which has 
 always, on these occasions, the great value, that its 
 distinct smell, brings all other smells to a recog- 
 nizable focus ; we retired to seek rest, under, in my 
 case, some rather unpropitious circumstances. 
 
 The Leenane " Hotel" ? is very prettily situated, 
 at the head of a long arm of the sea; except its 
 position, it has little however to attract a traveller : 
 
91 
 
 it has nothing to detain him, we therefore started at 
 6 a.m. on our way to Westport. The scenery was 
 still very beautiful, very wild ; the district through 
 which we passed but little cultivated ; though the 
 back ground was still mountain, the plain had 
 changed its character, and seemed of a better nature 
 for grazing purposes, but there were very few farms, 
 and very little stock. We had an instance, in this 
 stage of our journey, of the wonderful way in which 
 the Irish can, in hopes of ever so small a gift, 
 sustain exertion in the practice of e running/ A 
 girl of about twelve years of age, of course bare- 
 footed ; dressed in a man's old coat, closely buttoned ; 
 ran beside our car, going at times very fast ; for a 
 distance, quite surprizing : she did not ask for any- 
 thing, but with hands crossed, kept an even pace, 
 only adapting it, to our accidental change of speed ; 
 we, as a rule, refused all professional mendicants; 
 we told her again and again, we would give her 
 nothing; she never asked for anything : I saw 
 my friend melting, I from time to time tried to con- 
 geal him, by using arguments against encouraging 
 such bad habits, &c. He was firm, astonished at her 
 powers, not so irritated, as I was, by her silent, 
 wearying importunity ; on she went, as we went ; he 
 shook his head at her ; every quarter of a mile I 
 thought the said shake softened in its negative 
 character ; I read fresh lectures on the evil of being 
 led from right principles, by appeals to our pity, 
 
92 
 
 through the exhibition of what excited our wonder ; 
 the naked spokes of those naked legs, still seemed to 
 turn in some mysterious harmony, with our wheels ; 
 on, on she went ever by our side, using her eyes only 
 to pick her way, never speaking, not even looking at 
 us ; she won the day — she got very hot, coughed — 
 but still ran with undiminished speed; my com- 
 panion gave way — that cough did it, he gave her a 
 fourpenny; I confess I forgave him — it was hard 
 earned, though by a bad sort of industry. 
 
 At Westport the Master of the parent workhouse 
 and the Medical Officer, gave me their escort, over 
 the extensive house and auxiliaries of the Union. 
 The numbers in the houses were 3977; about 1000 
 had been sent out on out-relief (Sec. 1.) within a few 
 days of my visit ; the deaths in the preceding week 
 had been 25. The pressure on the Union may be 
 judged from the fact that the admissions of the 
 last week had been 542. The numbers in the 
 houses were still far greater than there was proper 
 accommodation for ; but from the very great efforts 
 made, to preserve order and to keep the dormitories, 
 &c. clean, the crowding was not offensive, to the 
 degree, I had seen it elsewhere. A large number of 
 women were employed in carding and spinning ; the 
 flax is weighed out to them, and each has a certain 
 task to perform. The dining hall will hold about 
 550; they are fed in relays : those who got breakfast 
 at eight, I was assured got their dinner at four. The 
 
93 
 
 bread given to them, was made of equal parts — 
 " wheat flour/' " Indian meal/' and rye meal. There 
 were fifty-six cases in the fever hospital and sheds ; 
 some of these cases, were of a very bad type. The 
 details of the parent house, were similar to those in 
 the other houses I have described ; the dormitories 
 were very clean. I was much struck with the 
 cleanliness of the sick wards, and especially with the 
 attention evidently paid, to many small details of 
 management, which are not expensive, but tend 
 much to the comfort and decency of the patients. 
 From the parent house, I went to see an auxiliary 
 at the Quay, in which were some 250 females, the 
 majority girls, from nine to fifteen. The dormitory of 
 this place was 130 feet long by about 20 feet broad, 
 and in this 218 girls and 32 women slept. It was 
 however well ventilated; the clothing of some of 
 these girls was very bad indeed, but they were not 
 unhealthy in appearance. 
 
 We met about 400 boys coming up from the sea, 
 where they had been to bathe ; of course they looked 
 clean, but their physical condition generally was far 
 below that of the girls. They were for the most part 
 dressed in a sort of coarse canvass ; some of them in 
 loose frocks of that material, tied at the waist. I 
 then visited several very large auxiliaries, old stores ; 
 they were all more or less crowded ; but kept as far 
 as possible, very clean ; in one I should suppose there 
 were not less than 700 or 800 boys ; the larger lads 
 
94 
 
 were put through a sort of military drill by the 
 schoolmaster ; they performed the exercise very 
 well, aud certainly could stand at ease; in some 
 of the houses I had seen, it would have been out 
 of the question ; however, I must add, that in 
 the large number of children I saw at Westport, I 
 did not see any symptoms of vermin, nor did I see 
 any cases of ophthalmia. There were two or three of 
 these monster auxiliaries, so adjoining the one to the 
 other, that it was impossible to take any very accurate 
 notes, of their separate details. 
 
 In one yard of adult women, the want of clothing 
 was very bad ; but after Clifden, nothing could shock 
 me much. There was a great deal of active industrial 
 employment going on ; ten looms were at work, turn- 
 ing out a coarse linen, linsey woolsey, and flannel ; 
 a shoemaker had a large class of young Crispins, 
 whose work would have done no discredit to older 
 hands ; there was a master tailor, also, with his corps 
 of lads, busy with needle and shears ; in one room I 
 saw seventy -five spinning wheels in full work. There 
 was evidence, everywhere, of active superintendence, 
 and evidently no lack of personal washing : clothes 
 must be made before they can be washed. I was, 
 however, assured, that such was the pains now being 
 taken to clothe these masses, that in three weeks, all 
 will be clothed. I hope it may be so. There were 
 1556 able-bodied women, inmates in the houses ! In 
 one block of stores, auxiliary to the parent house,; 
 
95 
 
 the number of women given me were 1160! They 
 were very orderly, and, with the exception of the 
 want of clothes, their appearance was good. 
 
 I afterwards went some little distance to see an 
 auxiliary of girls under nine years of age, under the 
 care of a Miss Kelly as mistress. They were at their 
 dinner ; as usual, far too crowded j but they looked 
 healthy, and were fairly clothed. I drank some of 
 their soup, and found it good; they sang some 
 hymns very well, and then some of those old infant 
 school songs, to which there is a stamping, and clap- 
 ping of hands accompaniment : they seemed happy 
 enough. I was shewn their writing, which was good \ 
 it was evident much pains was taken with them, and 
 they did their mistress credit. 
 
 However much there was to deplore, in the ex- 
 istence of such a state of things as caused the mas- 
 sing of these thousands of paupers together, so 
 far as the Guardians, the Medical officers, and staff 
 generally are concerned, I could not but admit, that 
 they were doing their best to meet the evil in the 
 best way they could. 
 
 Let me say here, what I might equally well have 
 said elsewhere, that I heartily wish the authorities 
 would forbid the use of hunting whips by the officers ; 
 I have seen it in more houses than one, and seen the 
 abuse of it. If the porters or wardsmen must carry 
 a weapon of offence, a cane would be a better thing ; 
 the people in these masses are already too much 
 
96 
 
 kenneled ; one needs not the whip to make the com- 
 parison stronger. 
 
 Lord Sligo is Chairman of the Board, he resides 
 here a good deal, and takes a very active part in the 
 management; he seems also, by all report, to labour 
 hard in the encouragement of every sort of industrial 
 employment, for which any wages can be obtained by 
 the poor, who are as yet not actual paupers. 
 
 One of the most difficult, to solve, of all the 
 problems connected with the present condition of the 
 distressed districts in Ireland, is, what can be done 
 to relieve the rates from the burden of the masses of ]/ 
 able-bodied women now in the houses ? There they 
 are, immense consumers, but as producers in any 
 shape — in one sense to their honour be it said — they 
 make no return whatever. Very many thousands of 
 them are " orphans" or " deserted." Emigration has 
 been tried to some extent : I have reason to know, as 
 far as the Australian colonies are concerned, only 
 with evil to the parties emigrating, and to the settle- 
 ment to which they were sent. 
 
 A workhouse life in Ireland is just that particular 
 life which, of all others, unfits women for colonial 
 existence in any but its most deformed and degraded 
 state. A female colonist should have been brought 
 up hardily, in great bodily activity, in habits of con- 
 tinued and varied industry. She should either be 
 fitted for domestic service, by having learned to be a 
 good needlewoman, a nurse, a cook, an adept in that 
 
97 
 
 kind of mixed labour which in households is called all 
 work, or for out-door service, i. e. for marriage and 
 life in the bush; she should, in addition to some 
 knowledge of the above domestic duties, have been 
 trained to turn her hand to coarser labour; she 
 should know something of cattle, of dairy work ; she 
 should have been hardened to exposure in the open 
 air ; in a few words, she should know how " usefully 
 to rough it" 
 
 What can be more opposed to either of these con- 
 ditions, than women brought up to be fed in masses, 
 twice a day, on food prepared with about the same 
 amount of skill as is required to prepare that of dogs, 
 and very generally served and consumed with about 
 as much decorum as exists in a well appointed ken- 
 nel : passing the hours at which they are not feeding 
 either in sitting in idleness, close packed, in crowded 
 day rooms, or squatting in idleness, in groups, on the 
 ground of the large yard ; retiring to rest at night 
 under a condition of circumstance that makes the 
 decorum of the bedroom or dormitory about equal 
 to that of the dining hall, at best ; but often, I fear, 
 making it one of the most disgusting scenes of 
 personal degradation the mind can well conceive. 
 
 The last dormitory of a workhouse I visited, in 
 Ireland, was one at Tuam — at an auxiliary. The 
 length of it was 330 feet ; 365 women, able-bodied, 
 adult women, slept in it ! It had a triple row of ' 
 beds, i. e. of mattrasses, spread upon the floor, leaving 
 
 F 
 
just room for two narrow pathways, between the 
 heads and feet of the centre row and the ends of the 
 side rows. I have seen a male ward, though not on 
 this scale, when occupied at night ; from what I saw 
 I can conceive nothing more indecently offensive, 
 than such a space of ground, so closely covered with 
 women, nearly nude — for I am told night dress, in 
 these houses, too often may be taken to be just the 
 covering of the bed clothes. 
 
 That anything like personal modesty can long 
 survive the schooling of such scenes, I cannot be- 
 lieve. Were it necessary or fitting, I could prove, 
 from good evidence, taken in three different houses, 
 that the cramming of these large dormitories with 
 women, of every adult age, has proved itself to be, in 
 itself, a monster evil. I admit that, in some of the 
 workhouses, the women are made to do some work : 
 there are a certain number of spinning wheels kept 
 going ; there are a good many employed in carding 
 wool and flax ; a certain number in making clothing ; 
 but this is a very small per centage upon the whole 
 number. The fact is, there is not day room accom- 
 modation to afford the space for any real amount of 
 industrial occupation; there is not one-tenth of the 
 staff required to secure it. I have never seen any- 
 thing the least like an attempt to teach any of the 
 common requisites for domestic service. 
 
 Of the mere animal, woman, the Union Houses and 
 their auxiliaries are a market, from which a supply 
 
99 
 
 might be found for a very extensive demand ; and, 
 as mere animals, they would rank high, for they are, 
 in many districts, a powerfully framed, well formed 
 race ; but woe to the colony that seeks for mothers 
 for its future generations, wives for the present, 
 in mere women: — untaught, therefore ignorant; 
 undisciplined, and therefore adding rudeness to 
 ignorance. 
 
 I never saw collected together a more strong, 
 hearty, healthy, set of women than I saw within 
 this two years in an emigrant ship, on its way to 
 Australia ; with a number of young Irish girls from 
 workhouses. I have heard of them since their arrival; 
 what I heard fully confirms what I have stated above. 
 I believe women to be the very last of God's crea- 
 tures, capable of being brought up in masses without 
 losing their caste. Female virtue, all that tends to 
 form the wife, mother — the servant, is opposed at 
 its every step by too great association. 
 
 I was glad to learn at Westport, Castlebar, and 
 at Ballina, that very great efforts are making to 
 foster every species of industry amongst women, the 
 profits of which may enable them, by gaining the 
 bread of independence, to avoid the evils of work- 
 house association. Lord and Lady Sligo have, by 
 great pains and perseverance, succeeded in establish- 
 ing a new branch of industry at Westport ; it has 
 been followed out by others at Castlebar. Some 
 merchants at Glasgow were led to offer a species of 
 
 -A 
 
100 
 
 work, in the way of preparing for them the material 
 for window curtains, screens, &c. They send down 
 large quantities of muslin, with patterns drawn upon 
 it ; it is, I believe, unbleached ; a particular thread, 
 and frames of different sorts, are used. The women 
 work with the needle the different patterns, on frames 
 varying in size; some are large and square, some 
 small and circular. The agent of the firm pays the 
 wages weekly ; the earnings vary, according as the 
 women and girls acquire skill; some at first can 
 only earn from Ad to 6d per week ; when skilled they 
 can make as much as 2s. Lord Sligo has appro- 
 priated a large building at Westport to the purpose ; 
 there are certain teachers who are paid from 5s to 7$ 
 a- week. Some of the best workers are sent to dif- 
 ferent places to themselves act as teachers. I have 
 before me a list of fifteen different localities con- 
 nected with Westport and Castlebar, in which the 
 manufacture is carried on under the patronage of 
 different individuals. 
 
 I find that more than eleven hundred women and 
 children are thus employed; the demand for this work 
 is said to be likely to increase. The work seemed to 
 me to be of a nature, in which skill would easily be 
 acquired ; the smaller frames can be worked at the 
 houses of the peasantry ; it has one great advantage, 
 it requires cleanliness. 
 
 At Castlebar I visited the Industrial Society's 
 establishment ; it was founded early in 1848; it is 
 
101 
 
 supported by donations, and Is entrance paid by 
 members, with Id weekly subscription. A com- 
 mittee gives out work for the poor to do at their own 
 houses ; they, under certain rules, giving security for 
 its proper return, &c. In its first ten months 10,490 
 individuals received wages for work done for the 
 Society; the weekly average of persons receiving 
 wages was 219 ; their average wages 8c? per day. They 
 worked the following number of yards of goods, ma- 
 nufactured and sold by the Society, 3,947 yards, viz. : 
 1,500 yards freize 
 
 450 
 
 , fancy blue tweed 
 
 250 
 
 , shepherd's plaid 
 
 175 
 
 , dark woollen tweed 
 
 480 
 
 , flannel 
 
 1,092 
 
 „ bleached linen 
 
 3,947 
 
 
 In the second year, the total number of yards 
 of woollen fabrics manufactured by the Society, 
 amounted to 12,928 yards; linen, including sheeting 
 and ticking, 4,880 yards. 160 persons are daily em- 
 ployed by the Society; £1,890 was paid within the 
 year for wages and materials. This Society took and 
 fulfilled a large contract for clothing from Count 
 Strzelecki, to the amount of £500 ; they have sup- 
 plied one of the Unions with £700 worth of blanket- 
 ing, ticking, and sheeting ; independent of the work 
 
102 
 
 they give out, they employ 70 persons on their pre- 
 mises. 
 
 The subscriptions are certainly great aids to the 
 Society ; but their amount is such, that nothing but 
 the realising a fair manufacturer's profit could keep 
 it so prosperous ; and this is the great feature to be 
 regarded. They are now doing the tambour work, 
 having a teacher from Westport. At Ballina a 
 great and comprehensive effort is making to promote 
 the linen manufacture, and with every prospect of 
 success. 
 
 It is only to those who have studied the nature of 
 that social crisis, in which the west of Ireland is 
 involved, that the great value of this impetus to 
 native industry will come home. No step, however 
 small, which can turn the hand-power of the women 
 to account — to real fair profit, can be overvalued. 
 To give a habit of industry, you must secure a return 
 for it. Once get the peasantry into working habits 
 — lead them to learn the value of the independence 
 they can thus obtain, and I have no fear but some 
 way will be found to turn that industry to account. 
 u Tambouring" may only have its day ; but the spirit 
 of patient industry will survive any one class of 
 work ; there can be no reason why the same hope of 
 gain, which leads one firm to give one species of em- 
 ployment, should not incite others to find their gain 
 by seeking it, in the same market, from some other 
 work. 
 
103 
 
 I believe the day will come, when the water power 
 of these districts will be turned to account, to manu- 
 facture the flax, no land could grow better. I know 
 that already methods have been discovered of so work- 
 ing Irish flax, that it can be turned to uses, which will 
 bring it into competition with manufactures, which as 
 yet little know the enemy they may have to contend 
 against. 
 
 Let Ireland have a continuance of peace within 
 her borders, and I do not despair, but that her 
 hitherto neglected industrial resources — the wealth 
 that her people, her waters, and her lands could pro- 
 duce, will be known, and be appreciated. These 
 Societies, now in their infancy, are, whilst they sup- 
 port thousands in a crisis, laying a foundation for 
 that energy, which will be required from the people 
 when the crisis is past. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CASTLEBAR — WORKHOUSES — EXECUTION IN THE HOUSES — 
 EARL OF LUCAN'S FARMING OPERATIONS — BALLINA — 
 SEIZURE AND SALE OF WORKHOUSE PROPERTY— RESCUE 
 BY MR. GURNEY — FUNERAL OF PAUPER CHILDREN — A 
 VERY CAUTIOUS BANKER. 
 
 Between Westport and Castlebar there are but 
 too many proofs of the old evil — eviction ; but there 
 is also some evidence that it has not been so wantonly- 
 done as elsewhere ; not only have farms been con- 
 solidated, but as yet they seem to have been treated 
 so with this effect — the land is improved — there are 
 large fields under heavy cropping ; these must have 
 given employment, and so far I hope the last state 
 of many of the evicted has been better than their 
 former. It was market-day at Castlebar, and seemed 
 to be a very busy market; the appearance of the 
 town and people was much improved from what it 
 was last year. Very heavy drainage works are being 
 here carried out; these, and the large amount of 
 money paid by Lord Lucan in the carrying out of 
 his farming operations, I have no doubt powerfully 
 affect the prosperity of the town. I found the work- 
 houses certainly improved in their details from what 
 they were last year; the inmates looked healthy, 
 with the exception of some of the boys and men ; 
 they were on the whole fairly clad. The total num- 
 
105 
 
 bers in all the houses were 2,5 12, of whom 190 were 
 on the sick lists. Able-bodied working males, 201 ; 
 ditto, females, 693 ; boys and girls above nine and 
 under fifteen years of age, 1010 ! The average mor- 
 tality per week of the month ending 30th of March 
 last, was 4*9 ; a low mortality compared with very 
 many Unions. The only building which has more 
 inmates in it than it was estimated to accommodate, 
 is the parent house. I was much struck with the 
 clean appearance of the girls at the parent house. 
 There were some objectionable points with regard to 
 the state of the inmates of the probationary wards, 
 who had been in some days ; but on the whole, it 
 would be captious to find fault in small details, 
 where generally there was so much to praise. The 
 fever hospital, and the sick wards generally, were 
 very clean. I must say here, what I might have 
 said with more reason elsewhere, that I do think 
 nothing should ever justify the putting four or even 
 three children in one bed, when, to do so, it is neces- 
 sary to make them sleep, some with their heads at 
 one end, some at the other ; in cases of dysentery I 
 think it most cruel to do so. I believe it to be 
 against the rules of the Medical Inspector; unless my 
 notes deceive me, I saw one case of it in this house ; 
 I know I saw it again and again in other houses. 
 
 There are two te monster" permanent single story 
 wards or sheds being built in connection with the 
 parent house, one more than 200 feet long, the other 
 
 f 2 
 
10G 
 
 nearly 200. The object of the Board, a very wise 
 one, viz. to try and do without auxiliary houses as 
 soon as they can. The number of persons dependent 
 on out-relief is 2 ; 443. I think it was in this house 
 that I saw the bread for the dinner put into the other 
 food, in order to sop it, to make it an unsaleable 
 article outside the walls. 
 
 The parent house stands within walls enclosing a 
 large space of ground ; this is very nicely laid out in 
 a sort of pleasure ground fashion, with a great extent 
 of flower border, and broad gravelled walks; not only 
 has it been so laid out with no little taste, but it is 
 very neatly kept, and was well cropped with annuals 
 and other plants ; there were also in connection with 
 the hospital, gardens similarly laid out and cropped. 
 Not only am I convinced that there is sound policy 
 in thus surrounding the Workhouse with ground so 
 laid out as to secure a certain amount of neatness 
 and cleanliness, but that it is politic as well as 
 humane, to have the means of thus giving the chil- 
 dren occasional exercise, under circumstances which 
 tend to give them tastes of higher nature, than can 
 be given in the crowded, walled, barren yards. 
 Again, it did one's heart good to see some of the con- 
 valescent patients, walking about in a scene whichmust 
 have been most refreshing to their every sense, after 
 the confinement of the sick wards. 
 
 It may easily be conceived that the office of a 
 Guardian is not a bed of roses in these Unions. A 
 
10/ 
 
 small body of police, I was told, are here regularly 
 in attendance on the Board on admission days ; ap- 
 plicants are very apt to be violent when refused alto- 
 gether, or relieved in a way not according to their 
 own views. It has happened that a Guardian has 
 been severely wounded as he sat, by a stone thrown 
 by one of these unruly spirits. 
 
 At this moment, though all is apparently in fair 
 order, there is an execution in every Poor House of 
 this Union ; the cost to the Union of the bailiffs in 
 possession being not less than 1 7s 6d per week. On 
 the doors of some of the wards are pasted printed 
 notices, to the effect, that the contents of such ward 
 belongs to one " Charles Malley" a contractor, who 
 has made what is called a friendly seizure, i.e. I pre- 
 sume, having secured the property, he is content to 
 wait till he can be paid his debt. 
 
 In the immediate neighbourhood of Castlebar is 
 the mansion of the Earl of Lucan ; it is in itself a 
 place not pretending to be any thing more than 
 a country gentleman's country house. Within half 
 a mile of it are the farm buildings to which public 
 attention has more than once been called. They are 
 on an extensive scale, substantially built. They con- 
 tain all the necessary conveniences for working a 
 large amount of ground. The resident manager, 
 who went with me over them, was an intelligent 
 Scotchman, who evidently understood his business. 
 Lord Lucan' s aim has been to do away with the old 
 
V 
 
 108 
 
 system of very small holdings with their attendant 
 low farming, and to introduce the very best English 
 or Scotch plans of large farming operations, carried 
 on upon the best known system. He has accord- 
 ingly, here and on other parts of his estate, made 
 most wholesale " clearance," and has now embarked 
 a very large amount of capital in the cultivation, on 
 the new system, of the land thus cleared. 
 
 In connection with these particular buildings, he 
 has 1,000 acres under high tillage, carrying between 
 700 and 800 head of cattle, including 110 cows giving 
 milk; his flock of sheep exceeds 700, 220 are 
 Leicester ewes ; he has forty-six cart horses in work, 
 fourteen young horses coming on, has now about 
 100 men employed — has had 500 ; he pays each fort- 
 night, about £41. wages, for farm work; about the 
 same sum for draining operations ; he has, I believe, 
 taken up large sums under the Act for this object ; 
 he seems to spare no pains or expense in improving 
 his stock; he has some very fine Leicester rams, some 
 high bred short horned bulls ; I was told he was im- 
 porting more. 
 
 There is a well appointed dairy, in which we saw 
 cheese -making going on ; the cleanliness and appa- 
 rent activity of the dairy staff, and its appointments, 
 would have done credit to Cheshire. There is a large 
 bone-crushing mill, and all the other usual accom- 
 paniments to a first-rate modern bread and beef fac- 
 tory. On other parts of his property he has about 
 
109 
 
 4,000 acres of land, which he has laid out in three or 
 four farms ; having worked it into good heart, he has 
 put up suitable buildings on two of these farms, and 
 would find buildings for every good tenant he could 
 command ; at present they are unlet. He has 
 established a " tilery," making his own draining tiles. 
 The average wages of the farm labourers are from 9d 
 to Is a day. I was told, that like all other labour- 
 ing men on farms, they required looking after ; but 
 that they were quick at acquiring skill, and by 
 practice made good servants. The lands were laid 
 out in large fields, but not hedged the one from the 
 other. The crops looked very heavy and very clean; 
 but I did not go over them. The soil appeared to be 
 very good. 
 
 The reader must bear in mind, in order to esti- 
 mate the spirit of this undertaking, that it was begun 
 under every possible discouragement, and has been 
 continued in the face of ruinous poor rates, falling — 
 or rather no markets. There was not only the un- 
 popularity of the process by which he took possession 
 of the land, but he had to work out his schemes, in 
 the teeth of every conceivable local prejudice. He 
 had to revolutionize a wide-extended system, to 
 which long use, idle habits, and ignorance had 
 wedded the whole country round him — he himself, 
 the sole conspirator. Failure must be a dear-bought 
 ruin ; success could only be purchased by first tread- 
 ing the very confines of ruin. He had to prove that 
 
110 
 
 certain things conld be done even by instruments 
 opposed to their doing. Amateur farming in England 
 has all the excitement of racing ; the aristocracy of 
 the stall and the arable have excitement, fully equal 
 to that purchased by the frequenters of the ring and 
 the stable. I was born and bred very near Newmarket; 
 I have now lived for some years near my friend Hux- 
 table, and others of known arable and stall craft. I 
 have seen him, and them, fully as much engrossed in 
 a rivalry of beasts, pigs, and swedes, as I ever saw 
 the leviathans of the course in the comparative merits 
 of their studs. 
 
 Lord Lucan is farming where the burden of the 
 Poor-rate falls on the proprietary ; the town divides 
 him from the Union House, from the records of which 
 I took it, that it is now insolvent, there are now 
 within and without the houses, actually relieved 
 5,400 paupers ! This in the teeth of all the work, 
 he, the drainage works, and all other sources of em- 
 ployment, are affording. This is no mere library and 
 anti-luncheon amusement, to be followed out each 
 day by lively post-prandial discussion with brother 
 white-waistcoated agriculturists ; discussing theories 
 over claret, and matching pigs and swedes, in all the 
 comfort of a well-appointed social neighbourhood. 
 He had to build his success, in its very foundation, 
 on ground, unavoidably poisoned in the process. The 
 courage he has shewn, makes me desire to feel, that 
 V when he evicted, he saw so great an amount of even- 
 
Ill 
 
 tual good to a future race, that for this he was con- 
 tent to bear the burden of odium, his conduct to the 
 present race of peasantry would produce. If he did 
 the deeds I have abhorred in many, I must admit 
 that he proved in earnest in pursuing the end for 
 which he avowed he did them. There was no 
 cowardly wantonness in his work ; he chose his line ; 
 at every cost of fortune and of comfort, to much 
 present cost of character; he boldly pursued it. I 
 for one, try and forget the cost of the experiment, in 
 admiration of the courage of the man ; in the belief 
 that he has achieved a great movement in a most 
 valuable direction. 
 
 From Castlebar I went to Ballina; the scenery, 
 for a considerable part of the way, is very beautiful. 
 The pass at Pontoon, between the two lakes Cullin and 
 Conn, and the road for some miles on the banks of 
 Lake Conn, carries the traveller through some lovely 
 scenery. It is throughout very thinly populated. 
 Ballina was the extreme point of my journey : my 
 readers will not be sorry to hear that its workhouses 
 are the last I shall have to describe. 
 
 Perhaps few, if any, Unions have had heavier trials 
 than that of Ballina; I wish I could say it was 
 altogether out of them. The paupers now in the 
 houses amount in numbers to 3,788. The parent 
 house was very clean, and the inmates in good order. 
 The women, young and old, seemed healthy. The 
 clothing of the women and the children was pretty 
 
112 
 
 good. In the sick wards there were a good many 
 very distressing cases ; the old story, dysentery — the 
 result of want. The Medical officer reported as re- 
 maining under his care — sick — the previous week 
 479 ; he had had, in that week, 13 deaths. In the 
 fever hospital 60 cases remained under treatment : 
 two deaths in the week. Outside the house there 
 were some 150 so-called able men and lads, break- 
 ing stones, i. e. hitting at stones with hammers ; they 
 were a wretched spectacle ; a good many were late 
 admissions, and had come in, in the last state of weak- 
 ness. I was told that the stone breaking, in their 
 case, was made more a plea to get them out into the 
 air, than to exact work from them; in fact, any- 
 thing like real work they could not do. There is a 
 certain amount of ground under tillage ; the crops 
 were heavy ; from the manure we saw in use it does 
 not surprise me that they were so. Every endeavour 
 is made to promote industrial employment, and a 
 good deal of the clothing is manufactured in the 
 houses. 
 
 My attention was called to the fact of so many of 
 the articles of furniture — beds, tables, &c. being 
 marked with the initials S. G. ; on inquiry, I found 
 that last year some of the creditors, or some one of 
 them, made a seizure of the whole property in the 
 houses, and forced a sale ; I believe nothing was left 
 unsold but the beds under fever patients, and that on 
 condition they were not to be used for fresh patients. 
 
113 
 
 It so happened that Mr. S. Gurney, Sir E. Buxton, 
 and others, were travelling in Ireland at the time ; 
 with the help of a sum subscribed by one of the 
 Guardians, a sum of money was raised by them, and 
 a great deal of the property bought ; the things have 
 been marked with Mr. Gurney' s initials, and are by 
 him lent to the Union, to preserve them from a second 
 seizure. There are some auxiliary workhouses here, 
 built on a different plan from any I have seen else- 
 where; they are merely thatched long sheds, the 
 walls tolerably substantial, running round the four 
 sides of square yards. They are inhabited by many 
 hundreds of boys and girls ; the boys, many of them, 
 looked wretched objects. There were a great many 
 distinct famine cases amongst them; some were 
 wretchedly clothed — they all looked cold and 
 miserable. From the absolute want of tins at this 
 house, one portion of these wretched creatures we 
 saw waiting, shivering round the hall door, whilst 
 another class was fed : this, to me, is most cruel. 
 Children with such frames, such debilitated constitu- 
 tions, are the very last between whose meals there 
 should be any unnecessary delay. At an auxiliary 
 we visited afterwards, in which there were some 600 
 able-bodied women, they had not more than 30 tins 
 for the whole number to eat out of; we were there 
 when one relay was being fed, and a more savage, 
 noisy, turbulent scene I have seldom ever witnessed. 
 The girls and the little children at the "shed 
 
114 
 
 auxiliary/' were, as they ever are, better clad, and 
 looking in far better health, than the boys. The 
 women also looked strong and healthy ; there was a 
 certain sort of industrial employment going on 
 amongst them, but to a very limited amount. The 
 " bridge auxiliary" was to all appearance very 
 crowded ; and though the dormitories were clean, 
 the crowding of the day rooms, and the evident dis- 
 order at the meals, gave one a sad insight into the 
 evils of this massing of women in a confined space, 
 without even the staff that could control them, or a 
 sufficiency of the common necessaries of civilized life. 
 Two children, one six months, the other ten months 
 old, died here two days before our visit ; the previous 
 day to the said visit I happened to be in the Abbey 
 burying-ground, very near this house ; I saw there 
 two women squatting on the ground, beside two 
 coffins ; four workhouse boys, with long spades, were 
 scratching out a sort of grave; I returned a few 
 hours afterwards, and found they had put the coffins 
 about seven inches underground, some loose stones 
 and soil above them; this was the funeral of the 
 above two children. There was no ceremony what- 
 ever ; it was in the afternoon, in a very public part 
 of the town ; two dogs could not have been buried 
 with less respect. I found, on inquiry, neither of 
 these children had been dead twenty-four hours, one 
 not eighteen. It was, I was informed, against rules 
 to bury paupers in the Abbey ground ; however, the 
 
115 
 
 pauper boys must have had leave from one of the 
 houses to play at sexton. The women were the 
 mothers of the children. I will say no more here, 
 as I must presently enter at length into the subject 
 of the treatment of the dead. 
 
 It is satisfactory to know, that in a country which 
 has acquired very great notoriety for the reckless 
 disrespect generally shewn to the question of money, 
 there are yet in existence some men of money, whose 
 prudence and caution shine forth brightly, in an 
 atmosphere of extravagance and wanton credit giving. 
 I went with my friend into a certain Bank at Bal- 
 lina, and asked a clerk, whether they would kindly 
 cash a small cheque for me on a London bank; I 
 told him who I was. A partner, a man of years, 
 came forward from some counting-house back settle- 
 ment, and asked me, " if I was known to any one in 
 the town ?" I said, " I feared I was known by name 
 but too well; I was known personally to Captain 
 Hamilton, the Poor-law Inspector, living in the 
 town." "Had I any introduction from him?" 
 " Certainly not, but I could get one in the evening ; 
 he was now out of town, having just called on me ; but 
 then the Bank would be closed, and I wanted to leave 
 for Balinasloe early in the morning." The provin- 
 cial Rothschild heard with all due courtesy the proof 
 I tendered of my own identity ; he said, " how glad 
 he was to make the acquaintance of one whose writ- 
 ings he so admired," &c. &c. &c. ; drawing large bills 
 
116 
 
 on my self-love — very large ones — so large as to 
 seem to require no slight demand on my gratitude, 
 to honour them on the spot ; still, no admission of 
 my identity ; he evidently did not care, if he threw 
 his praise in the way of an impostor ; it cost the firm 
 nothing; but as to money, it was another thing. 
 However, he did so paint my excellency, that in 
 common decency he could not refuse gently to fathom 
 my need : " How much did I want ? who was my 
 London banker?" "£l5; Glyn and Co." "A 
 small sum — excellent house ; it was quite painful to 
 him, that he only knew me on my own introduc- 
 tion." No offer of the accommodation ; had I shewn 
 him the mark on my handkerchief, he might have 
 justly argued, it was possible I might have be- 
 come accidentally possessed of S. Gr. O/s China silk. 
 I do not think he would have believed me, had I 
 shewn him the said too well known initials on the 
 corner of my shirt ; he was so civil, however, he 
 would, perhaps, have only suggested, " Laundresses 
 sometimes make mistakes." I left him well paid for my 
 visit, in admiration of u real prudence" in such high 
 preservation in Connaught. O Ireland, " si sic om- 
 nes ! " there would then have been no " Encumbered 
 Estates Bill." Long may he live, a very prince of 
 banking diplomacy. One who, I believe, would not 
 stretch a rule of the firm to serve the Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant ; but who would as soon be gazetted a bank- 
 rupt in gold, as in the means of paying over the 
 
117 
 
 counter in civil terms — very civil terms — any and 
 every applicant for any the smallest, out of the ques- 
 tion, pecuniary accommodation. 
 
 Colonel Knox Gore lives closely adjoining the 
 town ; he is a large proprietor, and an honour to his 
 property. Foreseeing the probable force of the coming 
 storm, he determined to prepare to meet it, at any 
 sacrifice. He reduced his establishment to the lowest 
 possible point ; gave up every luxury, scarcely allowed 
 himself the commonest comforts of life; making 
 himself his own superintendent of labour; he has 
 given an enormous amount of employment, paying 
 the men with his own hand, according to the value of 
 their work ; he has thus laid out very large sums 
 of money ; has improved a large portion of his estate, 
 and been the means of doing a great deal of sub- 
 stantial enduring good : he speaks hopefully of the 
 future ; but evidently does not think the crisis over. 
 It is for the sake of such men one would indeed hail 
 better times. Sincerely do I hope he may live to 
 see the fruit of the self-sacrifice he has shewn. From 
 Ballina I returned to Dublin, by Hollymount, Tuam, 
 Balinasloe, Athlone, Mullingar, and the Midland 
 Railway : every step eastward shewed improvement : 
 the land more cropped ; the people better clad ; fewer 
 evictions — still a good many ; much less mendicancy. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW DOES THE POOR-LAW TREAT PAUPERS WITH REFE- 
 RENCE TO THEIR MORAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTER — 
 POPULATION EQUAL TO ENGLISH TOWNS IN IRISH 
 WORKHOUSES — THEIR TREATMENT — NEGLECT OF THE 
 RULES AND ORDERS OF COMMISSIONERS — WANT OF SYM- 
 PATHY TO DYING — TIGHT OFFICERS! — WANT OF REVE- 
 RENCE IN BURIALS— JOBBING IN THE CONTRACTS. 
 
 I would now entreat the attention of my readers, 
 
 to some remarks upon the condition of the pauper 
 
 population of Ireland, with reference to the effect 
 
 upon their social and moral character, which I affirm 
 
 their present treatment must have, as regards those 
 
 who may survive it, and those who are dying under 
 
 it. To beg, is now a punishable offence in Ireland, 
 
 on the grounds, that the destitute are provided for 
 
 by the Poor-law ; the peasant may be without shelter 
 
 and without food ; but if he is destitute of the means 
 
 of obtaining either of these for himself, he is, by 
 
 law, entitled to obtain both within the workhouse. 
 
 The law then, which makes it penal to beg, takes 
 
 upon itself the responsibility of feeding, clothing 
 
 and sheltering, the starving, naked and houseless : 
 
 how does the law as now carried out do this ? 
 
119 
 
 I have shewn in the former chapters, the chief 
 features of the practical working of that law ; I must 
 now again allude to those features, that I may prove, 
 how far in the operation of this law of relief, to 
 mere temporal necessity, mischief is done to the 
 entire social and moral character; admitting, that 
 my fellow creatures are fed and sheltered and 
 clothed in some degree as animals, needing those 
 processes for the sustainment of life ; I have to 
 regard how far they are treated as animals, having 
 the responsibilities of human beings, in a civilized, 
 Christian country. 
 
 In eleven Unions I visited — one had 8000 paupers 
 on indoor relief. Four, had more than 4000. Three, 
 more than 3000. Three, more than 2000. It is 
 difficult to bring home to the minds of readers, not 
 accustomed to think on these subjects, the real 
 import of these numbers, in reference to the subject 
 they concern. 8000 persons are more than double 
 the population of many large county towns in Eng- 
 land. 4000 persons are at least, the full amount of 
 population, in very many such county towns. I will 
 take the county in which I am now writing — Dorset- 
 shire. Weymouth with Melcombe Regis, a sea-port, 
 and fashionable watering place, does not in its popu- 
 lation, by the last census, return a number equal to 
 that in the workhouses at Limerick. Blandford — 
 Sherborne — Shaftesbury and Dorchester, are not 
 one of them equal in population, to the numbers in 
 
120 
 
 any one of four Unions I visited. Poole, a large and 
 important sea-port, returning a Member to Parlia- 
 ment, has not the population of the Limerick work- 
 houses. Dorchester, returns two Members, Shaftes- 
 bury one, neither of these have a population equal 
 to that either in the Galway or Kilrush Union- 
 houses. 
 
 I ask my readers then to suppose the population of 
 a large English county town, to be shut up within 
 walls ; to be daily allowed air only in yards ; and fed 
 and found in the bare necessaries of life ; even the 
 hospitals and the places of worship for this popu- 
 lation being within the enclosures. Again, be it 
 remembered, that the whole population of the work- 
 house, is one, of a grade, generally, far lower as to 
 ignorance and want, than any to be found in the 
 worst streets and lanes of any of the said towns. 
 Still further, it is to be borne in mind, that a very 
 large proportion of the said workhouse population, 
 consists of children and young women, either 
 orphans or absolutely deserted. Again, a very large 
 part of the population so walled in, have come within 
 the walls, as well in a state of almost nudity as in a 
 state of debility, which they can scarcely hope 
 ever to recover. 
 
 Food, clothing, shelter, education, medicine, reli- 
 gious teaching, industrial teaching, are to be found for 
 this mass ; grave-ground for a very large portion of 
 it : the law has undertaken this monster-task : what 
 
121 
 
 the law deliberately undertakes, every subject of the 
 realm has a right to demand, that the law shall do 
 its best to fulfil : a " Poor-law" is the pauper's 
 " charter," it gives him certain rights, when he 
 obtains them not he is wronged. 
 
 To feed a man, means to give him what will sup- 
 port him in health — to shelter a man, means to guard 
 him from exposure to weather, without exposing him 
 to disease in the manner of doing so — to clothe, 
 means to cover, all of the human body that health, 
 and decency, require to be covered — education, means 
 the process which shall cultivate man's reasoning 
 power, to fit him for his station — medical aid, means 
 to give him, when in a state of disease, or debility, 
 or when injured physically, the benefit of the 
 curative art of the physician, the surgical skill of the 
 surgeon — religious education, regards, the submission 
 of the reasoning powers, to the guidance of those 
 whose holy province it is to teach the responsibility 
 of the soul — industrial education, aims at the early 
 inculcation of habits, the early teaching in ways, by 
 which the man, or woman, or child, may by industry, 
 or the use of their physical powers, acquire the 
 means of earning their own support. 
 
 I have before me a certain small Green Book — " The 
 GeneralOrder of the Commissioners for Administering 
 the Laws for the Relief of the Poor in Ireland, for 
 regulating the Management of the Workhouses, and 
 the duties of the Workhouse Officers, 5th of Feb. 
 
122 
 
 1849/' (set forth within these eighteen months). This 
 General Order is sent out with all the weight of the 
 highest authority. The names of every Union to 
 which it applies are given ; it is " sealed with our seal," 
 i. e. the seals of E. T. B. Twistleton, Chief Com- 
 missioner, and T. N. Redington, Under-Secretary to 
 the Lord Lieutenant. There is the Proclamation of 
 the Lord Lieutenant at the foot of it, approving the 
 Order. It has, in fact, all the force and authority of 
 an Act of Parliament. 
 
 Were the Rules and Orders of this document carried 
 out, I have no hesitation in saying, I should, on the 
 whole, think the indoor paupers of Ireland fairly 
 dealt with. I have, however, no hesitation in as- 
 serting, that they are very generally in the West of 
 Ireland grossly neglected, cunningly evaded, or 
 openly defied. By these rules all I have said above, 
 as to things fitting to be found for the paupers in 
 the houses, are clearly laid down as to be found for 
 them by the Guardians. The former chapters of this 
 little work will prove, how these orders are carried 
 out, or rather with what open contempt they are 
 treated. 
 
 Suppose, reader, that you had a population, equal 
 to that of an English county town of some magnitude, 
 shut up within walls ; you would, I presume, at once 
 admit, that to preserve order amongst them, especially 
 when they were of the class I have described, you 
 would have a sufficient staff of trustworthy, well 
 
123 
 
 paid officers. You would not place 700 or 800 women 
 under the care of one woman, at a low salary, with 
 an unpaid assistant or two of the same sex, with the 
 further aid of a low paid man, or a pauper unpaid, 
 called a porter or war dsman, armed with a stick or whip 
 to force, by force, order at meals, &c. You would 
 not place 500 or 1000 boys or girls under some two 
 or three, at the most, very young, very low paid, young- 
 women or men, and call this education, when you 
 have not even given these instructors the commonest 
 necessaries of a school ; leaving to these young men 
 or women, with the aid perhaps of an adult pauper 
 or two, the whole management and supervision, by 
 day and by night, of these numbers of children, sick 
 or well. 
 
 You would not so regulate departments of your 
 walled up community, that women with the most 
 loathsome diseases, should be herded with the rest, 
 or at best, only imperfectly separated ; you would not 
 allow children, eat up with vermin, evidently affected 
 with contagious disease, to mingle in the massed 
 hundreds of your schools. You would not stow 
 away by night your men, your women, and your 
 children, each in three separate departments, so 
 crammed on the mattrasses, on the dormitory floors, 
 that when all are on the ground, those floors pre- 
 sent thick masses of hot, steaming life — all decency 
 defied, the weak at the mercy of the tyranny of the 
 strong — in the scramble for room to rest. Know- 
 
124 
 
 ing the common necessities of our nature, you would 
 not adopt insufficient disgusting expedients to meet 
 them at night, or, as sometimes is the case, have no 
 provision whatever for these necessities ; you would 
 not, by day, leave the same necessities to seek relief 
 under circumstances of publicity and scanty pro- 
 vision, which outrage every sense of decorum or 
 cleanliness. 
 
 If you had many hundreds of children suffering 
 from chronic diarrhoea or dysentery, I presume you 
 would not place them by 30, 40, 50, or 60 in a ward, 
 two, three, sometimes four in the same bed : some- 
 times four so placed, in a narrow bed, that two of 
 them have their heads on the pillow, two their heads 
 on the foot of the bed ; this, even when the disease 
 is dysentery ! 
 
 Water is not an expensive article. Cleanliness, 
 when the people are in masses, becomes a necessary 
 element to the common safety. You would not, then, 
 leave many, very many hundred children utterly un- 
 washed for weeks and weeks together ; you would not 
 leave them in filthy rags, as well as unwashed. You 
 would not herd hundreds, more or less, of women, 
 infants at the breast, children, with here and there 
 an idiot, in wards, with no choice but to crouch 
 down on the bare floor of the one small day room, 
 or on the bare ground of the one confined yard; 
 keeping them for weeks in the dirt and filth in which 
 they sought shelter from you, causing them to sleep 
 
125 
 
 at night naked, or in their rags — their beds foul 
 mattrasses thrown on a shed floor, with a foul blanket 
 their only covering : the hours of each night to be 
 thus spent — these people, of various ages, left each 
 night to seek rest in this filth, this promiscuous, 
 almost naked contact. 
 
 When the meals were to be served, say to a class 
 of some hundreds of women, you would not have them 
 served by men with sticks in their hands, to keep 
 them, as men do pigs, from the trough, till each is 
 served in turn; you would not suffer the periods 
 of serving the meals to be such times of disorder, 
 that when I told one official I had just seen the women 
 being fed in one of his workhouses struck with sticks 
 by men, his reply was, — " I am glad of it, it is time 
 something was done to keep order " I say, reader, 
 no one possessed of common sense, common hu- 
 manity, would permit such ways to exist in the walled 
 communities of which we are speaking ; and yet, I 
 assert, many of such ways are common to very many 
 Unions. I must, however, add, that all of this is 
 directly in opposition to the clearly laid down rules 
 of the Green Book, sealed by Messrs. Twisleton and 
 Redington, approved by the Earl of Clarendon. 
 They are, then, abuses of the law, and as such, on 
 the part of these wretched paupers, I protest against 
 them. 
 
 If every class of these thousands, above nine years of 
 age, are only to be fed twice in the four and twenty 
 
126 
 
 hours, is it justifiable that there should be such gross 
 inequality, between the means of so feeding them, 
 and their numbers, that, again and again, many 
 hundreds have to wait twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours 
 between their meals, and when fed, have but too often 
 to be hurried, that they may make way for the 
 hungry crowd waiting to rush into their places ? In 
 many of these Unions the halls are scarce ever un- 
 occupied, the coppers are ever going ; classes have to 
 wait until ten, eleven, even twelve at night before 
 they get their dinner ; those fed at four in the after- 
 noon see no more food until perhaps ten or twelve 
 the next day. Never shall I forget the looks of those 
 famished boys at Ballina, herding round the door of 
 a half empty hall, waiting till the few tins of the 
 establishment were at liberty from the class being 
 fed, that they might feed. 
 
 As for industrial occupation, with some few ex- 
 ceptions, it is very little regarded ; and yet the Green 
 Book lays down excellent orders regarding it. To be 
 fed as they can, to sleep as they may, to squat in 
 groups, close packed, for hours together, seeking a 
 little sun in the yards, or warmth from closing on 
 each other ; when driven in by weather, to crowd the 
 one day room, still in idleness ; this is the lot and 
 life of many thousands of adult women in the work- 
 houses T visited. It is mere animal vegetation, it is 
 not human life, in any common accepted sense of the 
 term. 
 
127 
 
 As to religious instruction and public worship, the 
 Green Book orders provision to be made for it : a 
 Chaplain is to be appointed, service is to be performed, 
 the children are to be catechised, the sick ministered 
 to. I have no doubt that mass is regularly performed 
 in the parent houses, and in some auxiliaries ; but I 
 know very well only a very limited number of the 
 inmates can attend it. I had it from the best au- 
 thority that, in some auxiliaries, there is no religious 
 service. As to the regular catechising of the chil- 
 dren, why the numbers utterly forbid it, even if there 
 were teachers enough, and books, &c. by which the 
 children could be prepared for the priests. There is, 
 I admit, in many Unions, very praiseworthy attempts 
 made by the priests to carry out a good deal of what 
 their church considers it right to enforce in and from 
 the people ; but the testimony of every priest I spoke 
 to on the subject, was, that the numbers, the want 
 of discipline, the whole economy of the Unions, ut- 
 terly forbids anything like a real carrying out of re- 
 ligious instruction, religious visitation, the public, 
 proper administration of religious rites. 
 
 And here I must speak with pain, what I with 
 pain observed. I have been in the houses at all 
 hours; last year, when the cholera, and fever, and 
 dysentery, were all at work amongst the people; 
 and in my late tour, when many hundreds were still 
 ever crowding the infirmary and sick wards ; I have 
 passed through, I should suppose, some miles of 
 
128 
 
 wards, to every two feet of which there was a sick or 
 dying human being. I saw the extreme rite of the 
 Church administered in a few instances last year; 
 hut neither then, or now, have I ever seen one single 
 human being giving any other consolation to a sick 
 or dying person. I believe, in the West, very few 
 Protestants are ever found in the workhouses ; I am 
 told, and I believe it, that when once an adult mem- 
 ber of the Catholic Church has received her last 
 rites, he has no further desire for any more spiritual 
 help ; he is as one waiting for death, in the full per- 
 suasion that he is fit to die. I have no reason to 
 doubt but that, in the case of the adult, except when 
 death is very sudden, he has generally been thus 
 prepared ; for I know the intense desire of the people 
 for this rite, and the readiness of the priests to 
 administer it. I therefore try to believe, that, 
 according to their faith, they have in this matter 
 what they desire, though I so seldom saw proof of it; 
 but I wish for them something more ; I should wish 
 to see these afflicted creatures made objects of com- 
 miseration to individuals, whose higher condition in 
 life and education would give their sympathy weight, 
 their words, authority. There is something to me 
 very fearful, in having one fellow-creature after 
 another, shewn to me as dying, shrived, but then left 
 to die, with no further regard to the feelings of the 
 dying, than what the chance kindness of some other 
 patient, or some officer of the house, may bestow. 
 
129 
 
 I can, however, endeavour to believe, that what I 
 have been told on this subject, corroborated to some 
 degree, as it has been, by what I have seen, is still, 
 less lamentable than I think it is ; I will allow it to 
 be assumed, that I speak in some ignorance about 
 adults ; that they may all have power to attend 
 mass, the confessional, &c. &c. ; but there is one 
 class of inmates, whose condition I know to be, as I 
 shall now, with no little indignation, paint it from 
 the life — or, rather, the death. 
 
 Of the very many hundred young children I have 
 seen lying in the sickness which writes on them, that 
 "it is unto death ;" passing, as I have done, through 
 those long lanes, hedged by beds, crowded with chil- 
 dren in the worst stages of dysentery, fever, small- 
 pox, famine; I have never yet chanced to find one 
 single instance of any one person doing any one 
 office to them, but those mere offices which hired or 
 appointed nurses are compelled to do. I have seen 
 these, the young blighted of our kind, under every 
 varying shade of physical comfort, or discomfort. 
 In some instances, in beds clean and not very crowded, 
 in wards well ventilated, and with evident attention 
 to the details of personal cleanliness. In others, I 
 have seen them in long wooden sheds, on mattrasses 
 of unquestionable dirty hue, spread thick on the floor, 
 on each side; two, three, and even four children on 
 each; many of the children either shirtless, or in 
 very dirty, scanty linen ; the bed-covering filthy. 
 
 g 2 
 
130 
 
 In one respect I found all alike ; I never saw one 
 solitary instance of any one attempt to cheer these 
 little ones, in any one of the very many ways in 
 which we know children, sick and dying, can be 
 cheered. 
 
 I am not speaking in the religions view of the sub- 
 ject, but only as regards the utter absence of practi- 
 cal acts of sympathy ; it is rare to see death in any 
 shape left to do its work on its victim, with none 
 near to try and cheer and comfort that victim ; it is 
 still more rare to see the young, the very young, left 
 to die, without many a kind attempt to throw some 
 light, from human lips, on the darkened page of that 
 lesson they are then prematurely reading. 
 
 The cold-blooded sneerer at the sympathies of our 
 kind may scoff at the mother, who hides her tears, 
 forces down the emotion of her heart, as she holds 
 some gilded, painted toy, before the eyes of the child, 
 whose little foot is on the edge of its little grave : 
 she, however, knows the value of the faint smile she 
 may thus provoke; if she can banish an instant's 
 fear, a moment's pain, from its breast, she is well 
 repaid ; she is dealing with a child ; she knows toys 
 to be no small elements in childhood's philosophy. 
 
 I admit these children he tearless, as they are 
 smileless ; but, because I see neither pain nor plea- 
 sure speaking in their little disease-sunken faces, am 
 I to believe, that the former does not exist, that 
 something of the latter might not be produced? 
 
131 
 
 Twice only have I seen emotion of any sort, in any 
 of these cases ; once, when I removed for a moment 
 a kitten from a little shrunken arm ; again, when I 
 took a kitten from the floor, and placed it on a sick 
 child's pillow. 
 
 I am told that there are " Sisters of Charity" in 
 some of the towns, who pay regular visits to the 
 schools, and to the women's wards. What I would 
 pray to see, would be, mothers — women who have 
 learned at their own breasts, on their own knees, the 
 language, the character of childhood ; making these 
 poor suffering things, objects for practical works of 
 love. I want to see the pillow smoothed, the medicine 
 sometimes given by other than mere hurried hired 
 hands. This famine-cropped garden, in which the 
 fading flowers, the broken flowers, are for ever for a 
 time, however brief, in contact with the dead flowers, 
 needs kind hands and hearts to support and cheer the 
 living, even as hired hands weed out the dead. 
 
 I could have forgiven the crowding, for I could 
 try and believe in the necessity which crowds these 
 wards of sick children ; I cannot forgive my fellow- 
 creatures, that so few, if any, are found to face these 
 scenes of pain, where they might, at the little cost of 
 a few very brief little offices, do so much to cheer 
 those who are dying unheeded, amidst every sur- 
 rounding circumstance repulsive to every feeling of 
 their age. 
 
 From the verv limited number of officers in these 
 
132 
 
 houses, and, therefore, the little real inspection which 
 they can give over the doings of the inmates ; from 
 the necessity which thus exists of employing paupers 
 in very many offices ; I know that very great ty- 
 ranny, dishonesty, and cruelty result. / know no 
 such tyrant as a pauper dressed in authority. I have 
 heard it from sources on which I can rely, that not 
 only are the weak for ever robbed of their food and 
 rest by the strong, but that there is a regular market 
 within the houses, and without the houses, for food 
 stolen from the rations. To get " tight" officers is a 
 great object with the Guardians ; and certainly, when 
 such numbers, of such a class, are to be ruled by so 
 few officers, despotism must do the work. These 
 " tight" officers choose " tight" paupers to assist in 
 the hall, the kitchen, &c. ; they are little likely to 
 listen to any complaint against them ; and these 
 official paupers are as little likely to let complainants 
 pass unpunished; the rod they hold has, indeed, 
 many ways of giving its blows. 
 
 But I think I hear it said, there are Visitors ap- 
 pointed for the express purpose of seeing that the 
 rules of the Green Book are carried out ; it is true 
 this is the case, and they have certain questions each 
 week to answer in a book set apart for the purpose. 
 If they do visit at all, they must either be determined 
 not to see or hear anything which may displease 
 them ; or, hearing and seeing, they do not choose to 
 record the truth. It is very rare to find the answers 
 
133 
 
 put to the questions at all ; I have reason to know, 
 it is not rare for the page to be signed, when little, 
 if any of the duty has been performed. 
 
 The sum of the whole matter is simply this ; these 
 houses, as now very generally ordered, are theatres, 
 in which much gross cruelty is for ever enacted ; 
 they are rank schools of evil ; no human ingenuity 
 could contrive more powerful machinery to degrade 
 human nature than that now contained, and at full 
 work, within the houses for the relief of the poor, 
 in very many of the Unions in the West of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 As to the diet and cost of the paupers, it may 
 readily be conceived what it is, when the average cost 
 per head per week may be put at 10c?. The dietary 
 of the Green Book runs things near enough ; but I 
 do not believe, in many houses, what are called the 
 healthy adult classes get even the quantity ordered, 
 to say nothing of the questionable quality of much 
 of what they do get. Bread, or rather cakes, of half 
 rye-meal, half barley-meal, is food utterly unfitted 
 for the proper healthy support of human beings, 
 under so many sanitary disadvantages. I have again 
 and again seen the inside of these cakes, nothing 
 better than a sticky black dough. The bread is made 
 in the houses; and when it is admitted, that the 
 coppers must be kept going all day, it is fair to pre- 
 sume that the bakehouse department is equally hur- 
 ried ; I am satisfied, that such bread as I saw in 
 
134 
 
 several of the Unions, would not be allowed in any 
 jail in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Let us leave the living, and see how the dead are 
 treated. I know I shall be contradicted on this 
 point, but I challenge inquiry — fair inquiry, as to 
 the facts. The journey from the bed to the grave is 
 one very frequently indeed made under twenty-four 
 hours, very often under twelve. Nay, one who ought 
 to know, assures me, that sometimes the body has been 
 warm in the dead-house, scarcely cold in the coffin; 
 conveyed to the grave in the morning, having died in 
 the night. I am not speaking of persons dying of con- 
 tagious diseases. When the burial-ground is at any 
 distance, there is a sort of hearse, or black covered cart, 
 which goes, in many Unions, at least once a-day to it; 
 some paupers are told off for the purpose ; they just 
 go with it, and see the coffins put in the ground, and 
 covered up or not, as the pit may require more to 
 complete its complement. 
 
 No religious service whatever is observed at the 
 burial of the dead. Not only is no reverence shewn 
 in pauper burials, but the grave-ground, in nine cases 
 out of ten, might be used for any other purpose, so 
 far as any outward mark exists to distinguish it from 
 other ground. This to me is a gross outrage on all 
 decency. A dead pauper will rise from the grave on 
 an equality with the risen sovereign. I am no ad- 
 mirer of lead, and velvet, and gilded furniture, bind- 
 ing up the life-read pages of the rich departed, to 
 
135 
 
 make them worthy of those subterraneous well-kept 
 receptacles, in which the rich are pleased to place 
 their dead. Let marble say what it may to the living, 
 the closed vault can make no appeal to us, by the 
 voice of the splendour in which its dead are encased. 
 Still, the corpse was the tenement of a soul — of an 
 immortal existence ; and I never can think it right 
 that the ruins of that tenement should be just put 
 away, with no more ceremony in the act, and no more 
 respect to the place, than we should bestow on the 
 putting away of the carcases of mere animals, and on 
 the places in which we put them away. I am told, 
 the pauper burying- grounds are consecrated. I sup- 
 pose, therefore, they may be ; this makes me wonder 
 the more, that the priesthood, especially of the 
 Catholic Church, do not with one voice protest against 
 this leaving of these grounds in the state in which I 
 saw several of them. I only saw one with a wall 
 around it, and at the end of this one, some thrifty 
 agriculturalist had got a crop growing, I think, of 
 flax, on a spot to which the burials, and they had 
 been above a thousand, had not yet reached. I am 
 informed that when a Protestant dies the regular 
 service is read. I know this to be the case in some 
 Unions; but this does not affect the question of 
 the state of the "burial-grounds." They should 
 be walled in, have proper gates ; there should be 
 a large stone cross, or some religious emblem or 
 other, indicative of the solemn purpose to which 
 
136 
 
 the ground has been set apart; placed conspicuously 
 in, or about it. It should be kept at least as clean as 
 the other ground around it, instead of being as it 
 sometimes is, full of the coarsest weeds, and the worst 
 filth. 
 
 The consequence of the present neglect of these 
 common decencies to the dead is, that the friends will 
 try to get the bodies away from the workhouses how 
 they can — on all manner of excuses ; carry them away 
 in the most unheard-of— out of Ireland — methods; 
 one or two coffins tied on a donkey at night, are driven 
 to some of the old church grounds, and so long as 
 they are put beneath that, to the survivors, holy soil, 
 they care not how shallow the grave ; hence horrors, 
 quite unfit to relate. 
 
 As to the respect shewn to the bodies after they 
 are buried, even in regular burying-grounds, I saw 
 enough last year to cause me to communicate with 
 one of the highest authorities on the subject. In 
 this, my last tour, my friend and myself saw quan- 
 tities of fresh coffin wood in the abbey ground of 
 Ballina ; the explanation given of this by a man who 
 lived close by, was, that the ground was so crowded ; 
 that often to get a fresh body in, they had to " knock 
 the wood off " one that had been lately buried, so as 
 the more conveniently to force the new coffin down 
 into the hole. 
 
 A gentleman, in whom I can perfectly trust, lately 
 told me that he himself saw, in a churchyard in the 
 
137 
 
 West of Ireland, a coffin of a person of the higher class 
 exposed on the open ground ; he saw by the plate it 
 
 was that of a Miss ; it was so damaged that he 
 
 could see the body in it; it had been dug up to make 
 room for another corpse, and left on the ground. If 
 it is true that want of respect for the dead is a sign 
 of barbarism, of a truth, civilization is in rapid decay 
 in the part of the world of which I am now writing. 
 
 It seems, after what I have just been relating, a 
 trifling matter to talk of any features of this state of 
 things, of so comparatively trivial importance, as 
 those which concern the finance department of these 
 Unions. With 4000, 6000, or 8000 inmates, the 
 reader may easily believe, that to keep these masses 
 in any decent pretension to existence; to clothe them, 
 however sparingly; is yet to open a very large mar- 
 ket. Shut up Weymouth, or Poole, or Dorchester 
 within walls ; put the population under lock and key, 
 taking the responsibility of supplying, in any sort of 
 way, the necessaries of existence ; do this by contract 
 — and it is not difficult to believe, that to obtain such 
 contracts will become a matter of severe interested 
 competition. The contractor cares little where his 
 money comes from — the Union — the Government — 
 the Rate-in- Aid— all are alike to him; if the Union 
 is bankrupt, and at his mercy, so much the better, 
 they must accede to his terms ; if not, he can seize 
 and sell. 
 
 However it may have come to pass, that hundreds 
 
138 
 
 may be slain by the abuse of the law's operation, at 
 the hands of hard Shylocks in the shape of agents, 
 (by the by, they would be long on many an estate 
 before they could find a 'pound of human flesh), we 
 have not yet arrived at that point of barbarism, which 
 will suffer those to be deliberately starved in the houses, 
 who have been starved into them. The contractors 
 know this, and play their cards accordingly. I own I 
 have misgivings about friendly seizures ; they seem to 
 me something of the nature of a forestalling of all future 
 contracts : a friendly office in which self is not for- 
 gotten. It is rather suspicious, that on contract 
 days, the Board Room is crowded; on admission 
 days, just three Guardians, the legal quorum can alone 
 — very often, be found to attend. 
 
 That very much of the grossest jobbing has been 
 again and again exposed, is notorious ; like the old 
 " presentment to make roads," which found money 
 to build many a well known demesne wall, a good 
 deal of neighbourly feeling is shewn in these matters ; 
 indeed, where Government money is concerned, this 
 sort of "help me and I will help you" game, has 
 been so long the practice, that it is a stereotyped 
 virtue. I do not think it at all improbable, that some 
 very considerable amount of property, sold under the 
 Encumbered Estates Act, will be purchased out of 
 fortunes, made by contractors for workhouse supplies. 
 This will be one of the many curious social pheno- 
 mena, the future historian will have to relate. A 
 
139 
 
 Cheshire farmer would, I think, be puzzled to make 
 out, how a given number of cows, on very ordinary 
 diet, have been known to supply the large quantity 
 of milk, they have professed to do, for successive 
 months, in some Unions. The cows cannot multiply 
 their own quarts of produce ; however at the rate, I. 
 saw in one place, that it had been multiplied, I am 
 not at all surprised, that so small a dairy, so soon 
 enables its owner, to buy, in fee, pasture ground for 
 double the number of anima]s, 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONDITION OF PEASANTRY OUT OF THE WORKHOUSE — 
 POTATO CULTURE — ITS CONSEQUENCE — THE VALUE 
 IT GAVE TO LAND — LANDLORDS— AGENTS — DRIVERS — 
 HOW THEY GET THEIR MEANS OF LIVING — ILLEGAL 
 ACTS OF AGENTS — DEATHS IN KILRUSH UNION HOUSES 
 — THE STATE OF THE PAUPERS ON ADMISSION — A LAND- 
 LORD'S PROCLAMATION — RELIEVING OFFICER'S STATE- 
 MENT. 
 
 If the condition of the peasantry in the work- 
 houses, is one most disgraceful in a Christian country; 
 if it is one, utterly subversive of all that tends to 
 keep up decency and self-respect ; if it is one, which 
 confirms the idle in idleness, and rears the young in 
 no one useful habit, in very many pernicious habits ; 
 if. tyranny, and cruelty, are the lot of the weak, in 
 these great lazar houses ; what is to be said of the 
 condition of the peasantry, as yet out of the houses, 
 whether C( relieved" or not ? 
 
 When the " peasantry" are spoken of in the West 
 of Ireland, the reader must understand, the term also 
 means " the tenantry," they are nearly one and the 
 same class. The fortunes which have supported the 
 absentee landlords, their agents, the sub-agents, and 
 
141 
 
 "drivers," have simply been the produce of rents, 
 wrung, in great measure, from the people who now 
 crowd the workhouses, and are crowding the grave- 
 yards. They have been in one sense a most extra- 
 ordinary tenantry ; lazy, when cultivating their patch 
 of ground for themselves, they still even in their lazi- 
 ness, paid rents, from which large mansions, with 
 miles of demesne walls, have been built, their owners 
 supported in affluence. 
 
 With scarce any sweat from their brow, the peasantry 
 worked out of the bowels of the estates, a rent roll, 
 which placed the owners for a length of years in a 
 state of high ease. Rack-rents, upheld by com- 
 petition for potato land, gave that fictitious value to 
 land, which begot the extravagance, which again was 
 the father of those encumbrances, now forcing the 
 sale of so much Irish property. 
 
 I was shewn a table at one of the great Clubs 
 in Dublin, it is a national curiosity, as doubtless it is 
 a curious witness of the way to wide spread national 
 ruin. It was the table at which many of the last gene- 
 ration dispersed the wealth obtained from their potato 
 mines. It is a large table, round or oval, of hard 
 wood ; but the surface of it, so far as an arm could 
 reach, is one mass of circles, deeply imprinted in the 
 wood ; cutting each other in every possible form 
 of circular division. These circles, reader, are the 
 marks of the dice boxes of the gamblers of that day; 
 the table was a hazard table. 
 
142 
 
 It would be a most curious work of research, to 
 trace out the gradual increase of the importance, and 
 style of living, of many a past, and not a few present 
 owners of Irish property, from the gradual increase 
 of the system, which encouraged a potato eating 
 population. From the many curious statistics in this 
 matter, which I have seen ; it is quite clear to me, 
 that a very large amount of Irish property, owes its 
 existence solely to a system, which was perseveringly 
 and wilfully encouraged ; that very system of sub- 
 letting, which now is so cried down : nay, more than 
 this, I know now, that if the potato recovers, not a 
 few agents will at once begin again to revive the old 
 system ; within this few months con acre has shewn 
 symptoms, in more than one district, of revival. ^-^ 
 
 If Providence had not blighted the potato, I do 
 not believe the West of Ireland would have seen the 
 landlords so bent on the destruction of the small { 
 holding class. So long as "Pat's" lazy bed of 
 potatos, enabled him to pay the Rack-rent, which 
 kept up the old style of Irish living, of the agents at 
 home, and of the absent landlord ; a style notorious 
 for its extravagance ; Pat might have slept and bred 
 as much as he liked ; the more mouths, the more 
 potatos would be wanted — the more competition for 
 potato land ; such competition was the very soul of 
 rack-rent. 
 
 I shall presently have to horrify the reader, with 
 statements I can hardly hope to be believed, even 
 
143 
 
 proved as I will prove them j I must yet, however, 
 say a word or two, as to who are the real actors in 
 this scene of savage exercise of right. Instead of 
 travelling in my record over the whole West, I will 
 take the West of Clare for the ground of my ex- 
 hibition. The same effects are to be seen elsewhere, 
 and therefore I believe much of the same cause for 
 them exists. 
 
 To whom the estates in this part of the world in 
 justice belong, I cannot say \ the acting owners are 
 agents, and sub-agents : the professed owner may 
 now and then be found on his estate, but is then but 
 too often a mere cipher there ; in general, he is an 
 absentee. An agent for an Irish property seems only 
 to have one duty to fulfil, as between him and the 
 owner, in which the said owner takes any interest, 
 viz. to get all the rent he can, paying himself a per 
 centage, and remitting the rest, with as little 
 deduction for expenses of any kind as possible. Oc- 
 casionally, instead of an agent, there is a " receiver" 
 in Chancery. It is not often that these vicarious 
 owners live on the property ; they again have their 
 deputies, who do : these may be what are called 
 drivers — or some man, a class above them, who again 
 employs a driver or two. 
 
 The owner expects the rents, minus the agency 
 and unavoidable deductions, to be paid to his banker ; 
 the agent through his sub, or the drivers, expects 
 those rents to be collected. 
 
144 
 
 Now even Rack-rents conld not sustain this 
 amount of official taxation. Whilst the owner may 
 be any where he may choose, with no further interest 
 in the estate, than receiving what dividend it will 
 pay, after the agency and unavoidable drawbacks, 
 interest on bonds, &c. are paid. The agent has a 
 good deal of trouble, and for that gets very high costs. 
 I only wish I could have obtained a copy for the 
 press, of a not over harsh agent's bill, for even only 
 one year. Ingenious as a lawyer's bill ever is, and 
 must be, the books of an Irish attorney agent are really 
 quite curiosities. I don't wonder that they get rich, 
 that they are first creditors on so many an estate ; 
 that they like processes, decrees, evictions, levellings, 
 consolidation of farms, &c. &c. these are the grist of 
 their mills ; the agency per centage — they don't 
 always get it — is a mere bagatelle to the direct, in- 
 direct profits of an agency. 
 
 The resident land leech, i. e. the Driver, has on 
 his part also, no idea of living on his salary alone. 
 Lands are notoriously let by competition, the driver's 
 good word, if he is " a tight hand," will go a great 
 wav with the agent ; there are ways of purchasing 
 that word. Is a tenant in arrear? the dreaded 
 driver is to be soothed, to obtain a little time ; that is 
 an expensive process, for another tenant may be 
 soothing in his way, to get in, if the tenant in arrear 
 should be ejected. A tenant, seeing he cannot hold 
 on at the rack-rent, with poor-rate, &c. meditates a 
 
145 
 
 flight to America, after realizing all lie has on his 
 holding : there is a species of ophthalmia not cured 
 but produced, by golden ointment, which will often 
 make a driver so blind, that he is ready to swear 
 " that he never dreamed of ever such wickedness, as 
 that Phil Moriarty should be after bolting of that 
 fashion : wasn't he after him, the moment he heard 
 of it ; but the cunning rascal, he was gone entirely." 
 Does the Agent order keepers to be put upon some 
 defaulting tenant's stock ; the Driver sends a 
 cousin or two at 2s 6d a day, to be paid by the 
 victim; such cousin's usual earnings being perhaps 
 6d or 8d a day ; some think my cousin the keeper, 
 has to pay the cousin the driver half of this, for the 
 appointment. 
 
 These Drivers are chosen from a reckless class, and 
 have at their command a band of assistants, who 
 from fear, or by bribes, are ready to do anything 
 they put them to ; they will level or burn the house 
 of their own brother, if the Driver orders it. 
 
 The Drivers and the Relieving-officers are known 
 sometimes to play into each other's hands. Relief is 
 stopped till what is called a "Voluntary Surren- 
 der "? of the property is made ; the house is then at 
 once levelled. Or the family is forced to the work- 
 house ; whilst absent, some of the Driver's gang pull 
 down or burn the cabin, without any legal authority 
 whatever ; how is a pauper to prosecute ? I regret 
 to say that I have it on good authority that many 
 
 H 
 
146 
 
 Agents are also Magistrates. The Resident Pro- 
 prietors and the Agents are to all appearance strongly 
 combined together for one and the same end, to 
 clear their lands of the existing tenantry ; to employ 
 every possible means of intimidation, to prevent 
 these poor creatures shewing, even to the starving, 
 the commonest rites of hospitality, the smallest 
 amount of Christian sympathy. 
 
 God knows, the tone of the higher orders towards 
 the lower of this unhappy land was always harsh and 
 unfeeling enough. When they were in wealth from 
 the rents of fellow creatures, who, to pay those rents, 
 lived as pigs with their pigs, they still spoke of them, 
 and to them, in a way which grieved as it astonished 
 every English traveller. This I know from expe- 
 rience in years long past ; but little did I think, that 
 in any part of Great Britain such things could be, as 
 I have recorded and have yet to record. But here I 
 must say, I cannot believe that many absentee land- 
 lords, do really know all that is done in their name ; 
 if they do know it, and yet venture to live amongst 
 the civilized and commonly humane of any country, 
 their every sense of good must be blunted, or they must 
 live a life of constant self-reproach ; no, they cannot 
 know their money to be the coinage of such misery. 
 
 I shall presently give a series of evidence, which 
 has been sworn to, to prove the nature of proprietary 
 dealings with tenantry ; I will however first produce 
 evidence to shew, the condition in which the evicted 
 tenantry arrive at their last refuge — the workhouse. 
 
147 
 
 Some of my readers may be aware that certain papers 
 were printed for the House of Commons, 1849, con- 
 taining the Reports of Captain Kennedy upon the 
 horrors of the Kilrush Union. I will not quote 
 them, but will quote rather from official records 
 relating to the months of the present year, down to 
 the time of my visit to Kilrush in June last. 
 
 It is as well here to state, that the President of the 
 Irish Poor-law Commission, kindly gave me a letter 
 of introduction to the gentlemen in charge of the 
 Unions I should visit, assuring me "that they would 
 have much pleasure in giving me the information I 
 might wish to obtain from them." I am most 
 grateful to all the inspectors and officers I saw, for 
 one and all did for me all I wished. I shall now 
 quote from evidence taken from the Medical Officers' 
 reports of the Union Houses at Kilrush. 
 
 In the week 
 ending 
 
 5th Jan. 1850 . 
 
 There were Within one moi 
 of admission. 
 
 . 31 deaths . . 19 
 
 ith Within two months 
 of admission. 
 ... 4 
 
 12th Jan. 
 
 V 
 
 . 29 deaths . . 17 
 
 2 
 
 Fight of these described, 
 
 as emaciated children— one lived 
 better than skeletons. 
 
 only two days— two little 
 
 19th Jan. 
 
 j> 
 
 . 36 deaths . . 13 
 
 ... 7 
 
 26th Jan. 
 
 » 
 
 . 32 deaths . . 16 
 
 ... 5 
 
 2nd Feb. 
 
 ■>•> 
 
 • 40 deaths . . 23 
 
 ... 6 
 
 One little better than a skeleton on admission. 
 
 9th Feb. „ . . 29 deaths . . 11 ... 1 
 
 Three this week described as skeletons, one a wretched starveling. 
 
 16th Feb. „ . . 36 deaths . . 19 ... 5 
 
 One little better than a skeleton ; two sisters in the last stage when admitted ; 
 one starveling. 
 
 23rd Feb. „ . . 32 deaths . . 20 ... 6 
 
 Four little better than skeletons; one absolutely starved ; two dying when admitted ; 
 one all but dead. 
 
148 
 
 In the week There were Within one month Within two months 
 
 ending of admission. of admission. 
 
 2nd March 1850 . . 33 deaths . . 23 ... 6 
 
 9th March „ . . 29 deaths . . 16 ... 2 
 
 16th March „ . . 41 deaths . . 25 ... 8 
 
 Two almost starved when admitted ; five almost dead when admitted. 
 
 23rd March „ . . 40 deaths . . 27 ... 4 
 30th March „ . . 56 deaths . . 15 ... 8 
 
 One was brought in for a coffin ; another was found dying in a ditch ; another died 
 soon after admission. 
 
 6th April, „ . . 45 deaths . . 19 ... 14 
 13th April „ . . 52 deaths . . 19 ... 21 
 
 Three of them were admitted actually dying. 
 
 20th April „ . . 49 deaths . . 22 ... 24 
 
 Six are entered as received in a state of starvation ; two mere skeletons ; several in the 
 act of death. 
 
 27th April „ . . 51 deaths . . 23 ... 11 
 
 Two died in a few hours ; several starvelings. 
 
 4th May „ . . 48 deaths . . 23 ... 25 
 11th May „ . . 38 deaths . . 20 ... 4 
 18th May w . . 36 deaths . . 17 ... 8 
 
 One in artlculo mortis ; several described as starved. 
 
 25th May „ . . 22 deaths . . 13 ... 2 
 
 Two all but dead, several skeletons. 
 
 1st June „ . . 41 deaths . . 15 ... 7 
 
 Some little better than starvelings ; one found moribund by a ditch, where she was 
 thrown by the person she lodged with. 
 
 8th June „ . . 45 deaths . . 16 ... 27 
 
 Three were mere skeletons; two died of starvation; one was found speechless in the 
 road ; another found by police in a ditch, in a state of exhaustion. 
 
 Total ... 891 deaths .. 431 .... 207 
 
 By the above extracts from the Medical Officers' 
 Reports, it will appear that from the week ending 
 January 5th, 1850, to that ending June 8th, there 
 were reported 891 deaths, of which number 431 died 
 within one month of their admission, 207 within two 
 
149 
 
 months. I have annexed a few pertinent extracts 
 from the Observation column of these Reports. In 
 "the Cause of Death" column, I find that at times 
 there was a great deal of measles prevailing, and some 
 small-pox, but by far the greater proportion of the 
 deaths have been from dysentery — i. e. the breaking up 
 of the constitution by either actual starvation, or the 
 long use of unfitting, insufficient food. This Kilrush 
 Union, having these 638 deaths of persons within two 
 months of their admission; 431 of that number being 
 even within one month of the day when they were 
 admitted ; is officially returned as having workhouse 
 accommodation at the end of the quarter for 3,715 
 inmates ! I can truly say that the painful statistics 
 I have had to wade through to get at these horrifying 
 facts, are, after all, only so much recorded proof of 
 what the appearance of the people in the houses, 
 the day I visited them, would have led me to expect. 
 That they should die so soon after they are admitted 
 does not surprise me, now I know all to which an 
 Irish " tenant " or " peasant " is exposed to in this 
 Union whilst out of the Union-house. 
 
 I shall now proceed to give some copies of evidence 
 which has been taken on oath at different times; 
 much of it within a year, some of it within six months ; 
 either at inquests, or at official inquiries into the 
 cause of death, of persons dying under circumstances 
 calling for inquiry. I must add, however, my firm 
 conviction, that very many equally suspicious deaths 
 have escaped all notice ; nay, further, I have it on 
 
150 
 
 good evidence, that deaths are often concealed, the 
 bodies clandestinely put away ; that by this conceal- 
 ment, the portion of the family still alive may con- 
 tinue to receive the share of meal, allotted to the 
 member of the family who has died. 
 
 I entreat, however painful the task may be, my 
 reader's attention to these several depositions ; they 
 are only some from a large mass, and only relate to 
 this one Union. It will be seen, that however the 
 workhouse may degrade, it cannot degrade more, than 
 does the awful system on which the owners of land 
 are acting, to clear it of their pauper tenantry. I 
 heard it from the lips of a large Irish proprietor, and 
 he saw me take it down, that if the potato was not 
 blighted, he looked for a very large amount of relief 
 to the present pressure on the poor rates ; from that 
 kind, generous feeling, which made the Irish peasantry 
 ever share what they had with each other ; he argued 
 that many thousands of the houseless and destitute, 
 would leave the Union-houses, and be lodged and fed, 
 by those who had so far weathered the storm, that 
 they had cabins, and some potatoes. This gentleman 
 only spoke of the Irish peasant as he was by nature ; 
 for let it be granted that he is the cunning, idle, 
 ignorant creature, I have heard him so often said to 
 be, it has, even then, been generally admitted he was 
 to his kindred and his class ever generous. The 
 depositions I shall now place before the reader will 
 speak for themselves ; how the hand of the peasant 
 has been trained to seek food, by any cruel act, for 
 
151 
 
 which money can be paid, against even his own 
 kindred. It will be found that the dying are refused 
 food — shelter — left to die — put out of doors to die, 
 even by those of their own class. Taking no note 
 of the fact, that men can now be hired in gangs to 
 perpetrate, for small sums, any of the severest acts 
 the law will justify on their fellow-creatures ; that 
 they will do such acts, even knowing them against 
 the law. It will be found, that every feeling of 
 natural kindness, every tie of nature, all that once 
 made an Irish peasant's charity proverbial, is in de- 
 liberate course of extinction. 
 
 In the week ending April 20th, 1850, there were 
 49 deaths in the Kilrush Union-house ; out of which, 
 22 were within one month of admission, 24 within 
 two months ; 46 deaths, then, out of 49, in one week, 
 in these workhouses, occurred within two months 
 of admission. In the printed form for the week, 
 filled up by the Medical Officer, now before me, 
 there is a column thus headed, " Observations of 
 Medical Officer on each case, especially as to consti- 
 tutional weakness, or any causes than the other 
 assigned cause of death" The following observa- 
 tions are copied, from this column, in the return for 
 the above week : 
 
 . . . had dysentery. 
 . . . was starving. 
 . . . was a starved man. 
 . . . She and another were little 
 better than starvelings. 
 
 . . a starveling. 
 
 . . was quite a skeleton. 
 
 . . had dysentery, and was a 
 
 skeleton. 
 . .Do. 
 
152 
 
 had dysentery, and was a 
 
 skeleton. 
 Do. 
 
 emaciated starveling, 
 was quite exhausted when 
 
 admitted. 
 Do. do. 
 
 admitted all but dead, 
 had dysentery, was quite 
 
 emaciated, 
 a mere skeleton. 
 
 . a mere skeleton. 
 
 . was quite hopeless when 
 admitted. 
 
 . admitted last stage. 
 
 . was hopeless when taken 
 in. 
 
 . She and sisters were all 
 but starved. 
 
 . had dysentery. 
 
 . had dysentery and bron- 
 chitis. 
 
 The above, then, are the Medical Officer's observa- 
 tions on causes of death, other than the assigned 
 cause, in the column headed " Cause of Death." 
 
 This, reader, is the week ending April 20th, 
 1850; turn now to the following handbill, printed 
 from an original, in my possession; the date of 
 this Notice, or handbill, is — April 21st, 1850 — 
 the very next week to that of which such horrors 
 are recorded. I entreat you also to keep in your 
 mind the evident purport of this hand-bill, as you 
 peruse the depositions I shall presently lay before 
 you ; it will, I think, make clear to you, how it is, 
 the wretched dying are driven from door to door. 
 I know nothing of Crofton M. Vandeleur, ex- 
 cept that he is a resident at Kilrush, a large owner 
 of property there, and figures with others, though 
 with many who did more in that way than himself, 
 as an evictionist, in "the Returns relating to Evic- 
 tions in the Kilrush Union," made to Parliament in 
 
153 
 
 1849. I presume, however, he knew well the condi- 
 tion of the Union workhouses, as to clothing, accom- 
 modation, &c. when he issued an order, closing up 
 all liberality to the wretched but that of the Union. 
 
 NOTICE 
 
 TO THE RATEPAYERS 
 OF THE KILRUSH ELECTORAL DIVISION. 
 
 As this Electoral Division is much aggrieved by the large 
 influx of Vagrants and Paupers from other Districts, seeking 
 Lodging and Subsistence in this Town, as stated in the Me- 
 morial lately presented to me by the Inhabitants, 
 
 I HEREBY CAUTION ALL PERSONS HOLDING SMALL 
 TENEMENTS UNDER ME, 
 
 that if they persevere in harbouring Vagrants and pauper 
 families in their houses, not belonging to this Division, I 
 shall be obliged strictly to enforce the penalties TO WHICH 
 THEY ARE SUBJECT BY THEIR AGREEMENTS, and 
 take such other proceedings as may be necessary to prevent 
 the settlement of persons who may become chargeable to this 
 Division, so as to protect both the Rate-payers and the La- 
 bourers from undue competition with strangers ; and request 
 the active co-operation of all classes to enforce these regula- 
 tions, and assist me in protecting OUR MUTUAL INTE- 
 RESTS, by preventing abuses, supporting our own poor, and 
 thereby reducing the taxation. 
 
 CROFTON M. VANDELEUR. 
 
 Kilrush House, April 21st, 1850. 
 
 N.B. — Every pauper allowed to settle, may add £4 per 
 Annum additional to your Rates. 
 
 h 2 
 
154 
 
 I have also before me the evidence of a Relieving- 
 officer of this Union, taken by myself at Kildysart, 
 on my late visit there. He says, " I took a list of 
 " 840 paupers, on four successive Thursdays, to the 
 " Kilrush Board ; for three of those days I could not 
 " get the Guardians to take my cases into considera- 
 " tion ; they said, that as the Guardians from my 
 " district had not attended, they should take their 
 " own paupers first ; many of the paupers went each 
 " of the three Thursdays — it is twenty miles ; on the 
 " fourth Thursday, when my list was taken, many of 
 "them did not appear; "no appearance" was put 
 " against their names, and they got no relief; in 
 " some extreme cases I had given provisional relief. 
 " I have known paupers kept so long by the Board, 
 " they have had twenty miles to walk home after 
 " eight o' clock at night; in the winter they will sleep 
 " from 800 to 1,200 in the streets, and in and about 
 " the market-house at Kilrush." 
 
 I know not what the terms of the Memorial pre- 
 sented to C. M. Vandeleur were; but I think the 
 Ratepayers might have discovered, that the manage- 
 ment of the Union had quite as much to do with the 
 crowding into the town of these poor wretches, as 
 the hospitality of " Holders of Small Tenements" 
 \ under CM. Vandeleur. 
 
 Let the Board sit oftener, let more Union-houses 
 be obtained, more Relieving-officers; let the Guardians 
 attend better on the admission day ; and then, such 
 
155 
 
 a handbill would not be quite what I think, and every 
 humane man will think it to be : these poor crea- 
 tures are vagrants if they beg ; they are to be forbid- 
 den charity wherever they can find it in the town, or 
 in the Kilrush Electoral Division ; and yet, they may 
 be brought ten, fifteen, or twenty miles, kept till 
 night, and not heard, by the Board, even when 
 their cases are on the Relieving-officer's list : because 
 their own Guardians are not in attendance, and the 
 Board chooses to have so few admission days, that 
 it cannot get through the business brought before it. 
 I think the reader must already have nearly arrived 
 at the same conviction with myself, that Eviction, as 
 carried on in this part of Ireland, is very much the 
 same as Extermination; he will hardly want the 
 following proofs, that it is so ; but I think it right to 
 make these terrible truths stand forth, upon the 
 strongest possible evidence. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 EVIDENCE TAKEN AT INQUESTS OR OFFICIAL INQUIRIES. 
 
 Copy of Evidence taken before the Coroner, relative 
 
 to the death of William Moore. 
 
 February 18, 1849. 
 KlLFIDANE, 
 
 Biddy Moore sworn. — I am daughter to deceased ¥m. 
 Moore. He had a cabin in " Coolan," on Thomas Mis- 
 kill's land. He lived there four or five months. Thomas 
 Miskill came on Wednesday last, the 14th February, about 
 9 o'clock, a.m. My father and I were in bed ; my father 
 was sick ; he was ill since Christmas : he complained of 
 nothing, but was not able to walk from cramps in his 
 knees. He had his appetite, and was able to eat. He 
 was getting a stone of meal a week, out-door relief, for 
 self and three more. No doctor visited him. Miskill 
 came and desired us to get up ; I got up, but my father 
 was unable to get up. He begged for God's sake to 
 
 leave him within for that night, till Mr. , the re- 
 
 lieving-oflicer, would send him to the workhouse hospital 
 next day. Thomas Miskill said nothing, but went out 
 and began to strip the roof, over the bed where deceased 
 was lying ; some of the sticks and thatch fell down upon 
 deceased on the bed. My father asked Thomas Miskill 
 not to throw any more down until his daughter " Mar- 
 garet" would come in, and help him out of the bed. 
 
157 
 
 Thomas Miskill then went away to his brother's house, 
 and came back when my sister returned home. Thomas 
 Miskill commenced to throw down the thatch at that 
 side of the house where my father was lying. My sister 
 asked him not to throw any more till she would take her 
 father out, and she would throw the remainder herself. 
 Thomas Miskill then went away ; my sister and I then 
 lifted him out of the bed and brought him out on the road. 
 He was unable to stand up ; and we, being unable to 
 carry him, took him under the arms and dragged him 
 along the road till we went to Daniel Miskill' s house, 
 (brother to Thomas,) we took him in there to rest. My 
 sister went back from there to clear out deceased's 
 cabin ; my sister remained absent for some time ; de- 
 ceased and myself left the house and went to the next 
 house, Thady Doody's ; I was under one of his arms and 
 helped him ; my father stood in the door and asked for 
 lodging for that night, for Grod's sake. Doody's wife asked 
 him to go in to the fire, and she said she would leave him 
 in for that night, only she was under an oath to have no 
 one in the house. My father desired me to go and help my 
 sister to clear out the cabin. I did not do as he desired. 
 "We were in Doody's house about half an hour: I then 
 took my father, as before, to the next house, " Thomas 
 Mkil's." Nikil's wife asked my father what brought 
 him out ? He said, " Thomas Miskill threw him out, and 
 knocked his cabin." My father sat at the fire about an hour. 
 I went back to my sister to clear the cabin, and when we 
 returned to " Nikil's," my father desired us to take him 
 out, to the widow " Conners," as Mrs. Nikil could have 
 nobody within her house. My sister took him out on 
 
158 
 
 the road, and I remained at "Nikil's," to wait for 
 M'Pkelan the distributor, to get meal, as my father had 
 nothing to eat that day. My father eat his supper the 
 night before, as well as usual ; the next time I saw my 
 father, he was lying on Mike Hoolehan's dunghill : that 
 was about half an hour after I had left him at " Mkils." 
 My sister, myself, and Mrs. Connors, took him into the 
 widow Lyon's house, at " Stone Park," in Kilfidane 
 parish, C. Clare. Deceased sat in the chair, my sister 
 and I returned to the cabin for some straw, which we 
 brought to Lyon's. My father was asleep when we came 
 back. My sister prepared some straw in the corner of 
 widow Lyon's house, and then awoke the deceased. He 
 asked me where she was then going with him ; she 
 replied, " to bed." "We then stripped him and put him to 
 bed ; it was then late in the evening. To my knowledge, 
 he had eaten nothing that day ; he was very uneasy for 
 fear he would not get shelter anywhere. 
 
 I then went away for some meal, and when I came 
 back, my sister put some down in a saucepan, and made 
 some drink for him, but she found "his teeth stuck 
 together." He never spoke after. It was about an hour 
 after he was brought into widow Lyon's house that he 
 died. I think my father was as well that morning as he 
 had been for many mornings before. My father com- 
 plained of the dirt and sticks that fell on him while the 
 house was thrown down. I think that my father, being 
 turned out and exposed to the cold, without covering, 
 
 hastened his death. My brother went to Mr. , 
 
 Believing-officer, for a coffin for him. My father has 
 been getting relief for many months. I don't know his 
 
159 
 
 age ; my mother is dead six or seven years. For the 
 last fortnight, we had a stone and a half weekly (of meal). 
 My eldest sister was in the workhouse, and left it of her 
 own accord. It was my father got the relief. 
 
 I here omit the evidence of two witnesses, relating 
 very nearly the same facts, and proceed to the evi- 
 dence of the fourth witness. 
 
 Kate Lyons sworn. — I live at Stone Park, Kilfidane 
 parish, Co. Clare. I remember "Wednesday last. 
 " Margaret Moore," daughter to William Moore, de- 
 ceased, came to me, and asked me, for the honour of God, 
 to have her father in for that night, till Mr. Grwinne, the 
 Relieving-officer, would send them to the hospital next 
 day. I told her to bring him in. Margaret Moore told 
 me, that the reason she asked shelter for her father was, 
 that Tom Miskill had thrown down their house. Margaret 
 Moore, Kiddy Moore, and widow Connors, then brought 
 deceased into my house. They told me he was " stretched 
 on the dunghill at the side of the road." He was 
 unable to walk ; he looked very ill. His daughter brought 
 some bed clothes, and settled him in the side of my 
 cabin (about 12 feet square) ; we were obliged to lift 
 him in ; he asked for a drink, and never spoke after. 
 Deceased died about an hour after coming into my house. 
 He had hardly any clothes upon him : he had the old 
 shirt in which he is buried, an old flannel waistcoat, and 
 was without any stockings ; I am not sure whether he 
 had any coat. 
 
 5th witness. Dr. Thomas O'Donkell, sworn, states. 
 — I have examined the body of deceased, William Moore. 
 
160 
 
 I found no external marks of violence on him. From 
 the evidence I have heard, and view of the body, I think 
 he was a feeble and debilitated man. I think his death 
 was occasioned by the excitement, exposure to cold, and 
 want of nourishment, to which he was subjected, on the 
 day of his death. I am of opinion, that a weakly man, 
 taken out of his bed, as described in evidence, and 
 exposed to the cold, would have his death accelerated 
 thereby. 
 
 Margaret Moore, recalled and examined by a juror, 
 states. — My father had as much of the meal as I had. I 
 had no other means of subsistence : if I got a " bit" for 
 an odd job outside, I shared it with him. 
 
 Verdict. — " That William Moore came by his death, at 
 Stone Park, on Wednesday the 14th February, from 
 excitement, exposure to cold, and want of nourishment." 
 
 I must here give a summary of some* f act s, of which 
 I am possessed on good authority, relative to the 
 death of four persons, in consequence of their evic- 
 tion. I have reason to believe these facts were 
 proved on oath, before some of the authorities of the 
 Union, although I cannot find that any inquest was 
 held on the bodies. The occurrences I am about to 
 describe, took place in the electoral division of Kil- 
 lofin, Union of Kilrush, in May, 1849. 
 
 One Cox, his wife, and four children, lodged with 
 a man of the name of McMahon, on a townland the 
 property of a Mr. Westropp. This McMahon's 
 house was knocked down on a Monday, by one Mo- 
 loney, the agent to Mr. Westropp, assisted by a 
 
161 
 
 number of men, but no police or law officers present. 
 Cox and bis wife, thus turned out, built " a but" on 
 the strand close by; they were all then in good 
 health ; on the Wednesday, Cox was taken ill, died 
 before Friday morning, having just lived to be a pre- 
 pared" by the priest, one Father Taleent; Thomas 
 Cox, six years old, was taken ill Saturday, died on 
 the following Monday. 
 
 The McMahon' s had also set up a sort of hut ; 
 this, however, one Jerry Moloney, a son, I suppose, 
 of the agent, desired them to knock down, or he 
 would do it ; it was knocked down by one of the 
 family ; and that night they slept without any shelter 
 but a few boards. Mrs. McMahon was taken ill on 
 the Tuesday night, the day after the cabin was 
 " tumbled," died on Wednesday night. The same 
 priest prepared her. Biddy McMahon, aged thirteen, 
 fell sick the day after her mother died, and died on 
 the Sunday morning following. I must here add a 
 cruel fact, for on the authority I have received it, I 
 must take it to be one. These poor creatures, having 
 by Moloney's (the agent) orders stripped their hut of 
 its straw, and put it aside to enable them to thatch 
 another, this straw was deliberately set on fire by 
 
 Jerry Moloney. A visitor to this scene of 
 
 thus describes it, whilst it was fresh upon his mind : 
 " In a hovel, six feet long and five broad, composed 
 " of a dresser lying against a low wall, and an old 
 " mat, I found the wife of Cox, who had died on 
 
162 
 
 " Thursday, lying in a little straw. A son, Thomas, 
 " six years old, dead, behind her ; and in her arms, 
 " a child a month old, apparently dying. Some forty 
 " yards off, in a similar shed, I found McMahon 
 " (whose wife had died on Wednesday) just returned 
 " with an ass, with which he had conveyed the body 
 " of his daughter, thirteen years of age, to the burial 
 " ground, who had died Sunday morning." If I 
 mistake not, the police in that neighbourhood can 
 bear witness to the above narrative, and that the 
 bodies of Cox and McMahon's wife lay amongst the 
 living in these sheds for two days unburied, and were 
 then only buried by their instrumentality. It was 
 stated, on the best authority, that these parties, thus 
 " exposed to death/ 3 had, up to the time of the evic- 
 tion, been in good health, having sufficient food. I 
 ask any English reader to try and conceive, what 
 four deaths so caused would produce in England, in 
 the shape of public execration of the whole transac- 
 tion. 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest held by Francis 
 O' Donnelly Esq. on the body of Michael Clancey, of 
 Knockbrack, on the 30th January, 1850. 
 
 Ellen Clancey, daughter of the deceased, sworn. — 
 Lives at Knockbrack ; held land from Gilbert O'Dea ; had 
 to give it up to get relief; deceased was about sixty years 
 of age ; he had five in family, himself and his wife ; they 
 were getting two stone of meal a week ; they used not to 
 
163 
 
 get it regularly ; they only got one stone for the entire 
 family last Thursday ; they had nothing else to subsist on 
 since, except they got something from the neighbours ; 
 while the stone of meal held, we eat two meals a day, but 
 had not enough in each meal ; all the meal was eaten on 
 Saturday night ; they had nothing since but a tea-cup of 
 meal, and a few heads of cabbage, which witness got from 
 the neighbours ; my deceased father partook of his por- 
 tion of the tea-cup of meal and cabbage; he had not 
 enough, he would have eaten more if he got it ; he died 
 on Monday about twelve o'clock ; he drank the cabbage 
 water on Sunday evening, as he had not enough in the 
 cabbage. Deceased had no complaint ; he was as well 
 the day before he died as he was for some time ; he was 
 weak, she thinks, from hunger ; if he had enough to eat, 
 she thinks he would not have died so soon. "We have 
 nothing to live on to-day ; looking for the meal is what 
 caused my mother's absence here to-day. 
 
 Bridget Eustice, sworn. — Is sister-in-law to the de- 
 ceased ; he lived with me for about two months, until he 
 left me about seven or eight days ago ; he was brought 
 back to my house the day he died, as his own hut was too 
 small, and it was impossible for any person to get into 
 it, it was so low ; he had to creep in and out of it him- 
 self ; he was getting two stone of meal for himself and 
 family (weekly) ; he did not get his meal regularly ; since 
 about ten days before Christmas, until the second last 
 supply ; and the last supply was only half complement ; 
 he and family were for twelve days trusting to four pounds 
 of meal. Deceased was delicate when he used to live 
 with witness ; but he told me, it was want of food caused 
 
164 
 
 his ill-health. I am of opinion that they had not enough 
 at any meal ; and were days on one meal, and were fre- 
 quently for three days without a meal at all, haying only 
 a few turnips, or a little porridge, which merely kept the 
 breath in them. 
 
 To Mr. Comyn, a juror. — Deceased had always a delicate 
 appearance ; but this time twelve months, having his own 
 food, he was then able to work every day, and from 
 what he told me, could do so this year had he enough 
 to eat. 
 
 Doctor B. O'Doknell sworn. — I have examined the 
 body of the deceased ; it was reduced to a mere skeleton. 
 Prom the evidence I have heard, I am of opinion that he 
 died of inanition. 
 
 Verdict. — " That deceased came by his death at Knock- 
 brack, on Monday, January the 28th instant, from 
 
 STARVATION." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquisition held by George 
 Studdart, J. P. Clonderalaw, and Robert H. Burrough, 
 J. P. Esqs. at Bleanmore, on the 19th January instant, 
 on the body of James Breene, late of Kilmichael. 
 
 Thomas Calligan, of Bleanmore, sworn, and examined 
 by Mr. Burrough. — On my way to John Mead's house, 
 on the morning of Tuesday, the 16th instant, about eight 
 o'clock, I saw the deceased stretched on the middle of the 
 road ; I took him up and walked about a perch with him. 
 I then asked him, was he able to travel by himself ; but 
 deceased made no reply ; he then staggered a few yards 
 and fell. I returned and took him up a second time, and 
 
165 
 
 assisted in placing him against a ditch, near John Mead's 
 house. I then asked deceased, would he go into the 
 house ? and he said, he would not be admitted. 
 
 Thomas Cakmodt sworn. — I saw the deceased on 
 the morning of the 16th instant ; he was stretched 
 on the middle of the road — it was after he was taken 
 up by Thomas Calligan ; I met a boy named Connell 
 taking a warm drink of milk to the deceased, who 
 drank it. Connell and I took him to Stretton's house : 
 lie was refused admittance. We then left him on the road, 
 near the house. From what I saw of the man, I think 
 it was cold and hunger that caused his weakness. 
 
 Nancy Stretton sworn, to Mr.Chaumiers. — I saw two 
 men, named Tim Connell and Tom Carmody, bringing 
 what I supposed to be a dead man to my house ; I at first 
 objected to let him in, stating as my reasons for objecting, 
 that I was that morning preparing myself and family to 
 go to the workhouse. I afterwards got alarmed, and 
 called on a man named Thomas Eeidy to assist me to 
 bring him in ; he did so. My son, Pat Stretton, asked 
 the deceased if he was hungry ? he replied, that he was 
 hungry enough. I then gave him some bread ; he took 
 one mouthful, which he was unable to swallow ; I then 
 attempted to give him some milk with a spoon, which he 
 was also unable to take. When first I took up the de- 
 ceased all he could tell me was, that his name was James 
 Breene ; that, and telling my son that he was hungry, 
 were all the words he was able to speak from the time I 
 took him in until he died, in about four hours after. 
 
 Doctor Benjamin Tidd sworn, to Mr. Burrough. — I 
 have examined the body of the deceased, and had a post 
 
166 
 
 mortem examination. I am of opinion that the deceased 
 died of want and privation ; the external marks on the 
 body might have been caused by a fall ; the body had a 
 dropsical appearance, indicating great debility. 
 
 The jury then retired, and after a few minutes returned 
 the following verdict : — " That the deceased James Breene 
 came by his death from hunger and cold." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest held by Mr. 
 Francis ODonnell on the body of Michael Moloney \ at 
 Lack, in the Electoral Division of Kilmichael, on the 2nd 
 February, 1850. 
 
 Margaket Moloney, wife to the deceased, Michael 
 Moloney, sworn and examined. — The deceased was forty 
 years of age ; he was on out-door relief on stone break- 
 ing until last harvest, when he was taken off; he then 
 went mowing, by which he supported me, himself, and 
 five children : he continued to work while he could get 
 threepence to earn. He then went for his keeping to 
 Andy Grlynn for a fortnight, and left me and family to beg 
 amongst the neighbours for that fortnight. On his re- 
 turn home, when he saw the state to which we were re- 
 duced from hunger, he upbraided himself for having left 
 us ; he then went to the Believing-officer, and had his 
 name entered for the workhouse, where we were admitted 
 about eight weeks ago. "We remained in the workhouse 
 until yesterday week ; three of the children died in the 
 workhouse, and he could not eat the black bread. He then 
 said to me, he would try to support the remainder of his 
 family by his hire. He since got no hire to earn, nor 
 
167 
 
 was he able to work. At our return from the workhouse I 
 got two bowls of meal from Mrs. Pilkington and a penny- 
 worth of potatoes that I bought, which was all the food 
 we had from Friday until the Tuesday following, which 
 was last Tuesday, when we got two stone of Indian meal, 
 but the deceased was so exhausted that he was not able 
 to eat any of it, nor did he use it, but he said he was now 
 satisfied, as we had it. He eat the last portion of the 
 meal we got from Mrs. Pilkington on Sunday, but did 
 not taste any thing from that until he died on Thursday 
 last. He would eat bread and milk if he had it, but I 
 do not think he could eat dry bread. He had a bowel 
 complaint, but I think he would have lived longer if he 
 had had anything he could eat. The entire family of 
 us had nothing but cold water from Sunday until we got 
 meal on Tuesday evening, and I fear I will never be the 
 better of it myself. I locked my house when the family 
 went to the workhouse, but it was thrown down whilst we 
 were in the workhouse, and on our return we had to take 
 shelter in the hut where my husband died, and in which 
 we had not the place of our bed dry. 
 
 Doctor O' Donne ll sworn and examined. — I have 
 viewed the body of the deceased, it presents all the 
 appearances of extreme emaciation and debility. I am of 
 opinion that his death was hastened by exposure to cold 
 and the noxious effluvia of the stagnant sink in the hut 
 — and want of proper and sufficient food. 
 
 Verdict. — " Deceased Michael Moloney came by his 
 death at Lack, on Thursday, January 31st, from exposure 
 to cold and want of proper food." 
 
168 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquisition held at 
 Burrane (on the 12th of February instant), by James 
 Little, R.M. and George Studdart, Esqs. on the body of 
 Patt Collins. 
 
 Johanna Bateman of Burrane sworn and examined by 
 Mr. Bryan Purcell, solicitor to the Union.— Deceased came 
 to my house on about nine o'clock on the 10th instant ; 
 my husband first refused him admittance ; I was at my 
 prayers at the time, when I heard the conversation 
 between them. I got off my knees, and requested my 
 husband to have him within, or that he would be dead 
 at our door in the morning, if we put him out ; my hus- 
 band then let in the deceased, and I made down a large 
 fire for him ; he took up a bit of a raw turnip that was 
 on the floor after our supper, and began to eat it ; I then 
 asked him what ailed him, or did he eat any supper, or 
 was he sick ? he said, he had no sickness since harvest, 
 and that all the supper he eat, was a small bit of bread, 
 he got from Mrs. Daley: I never saw such a sight before, 
 he looked like a starved man, he died at about seven 
 o'clock the morning following. 
 
 Mr. Simon Daley— a juror sworn and examined by 
 Mr. Little. — I have seen the corpse of the deceased Patt 
 Collins : I recollect the night he came to my house, he 
 presented an emaciated appearance ; I am of opinion he 
 died of starvation ; he told my mother, when she gave 
 him the bit of bread, that he eat nothing for 24 hours 
 before — he appeared to me like a man rather weak ; — 
 at the time my mother gave him the bread, he seemed so 
 exhausted from hunger and cold, that he was scarcely 
 able to eat it. 
 
169 
 
 Mr. Purcell, solicitor, sworn, and examined by Mr. 
 Little. — I have viewed the body of the deceased, and in 
 the course of my life I never witnessed so horrifying a 
 spectacle, the frame so denuded of flesh, that it appears 
 to be a mere anatomy of a human being. Mr. Studdart, 
 J.P. There can be no doubt but the man died of star- 
 vation. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Tidd, sworn and examined by Mr. 
 Little. — I have examined the body of the deceased — I 
 could discover no external marks or appearance of 
 violence on the body ; in the absence of a post mortem 
 examination, I am of opinion, from the emaciated appear- 
 ance the body presents, that the man died of starvation. 
 Mr. Studdart to Dr. Tidd. — I am of opinion that this is 
 much a worse case, than that of Breene, which you 
 attended at Bleanmore some time since. — Dr. Tidd. 
 — The other appeared dropsical ; but I never saw so 
 emaciated a corpse as the present ; both cases were bad : 
 this is the more frightful case of the two. 
 
 Norrt Collins, wife to the deceased, sworn and ex- 
 amined by Mr. Little, deposed to the identity of the 
 deceased. — They resided at Kilmurray, at a place called 
 Ballybought ; the deceased did not live with them for the 
 last five weeks ; he visited them off and on— they had 
 nothing to live on since the meal was stopped ; he was 
 stone breaking last year ; I got a ticket from Mr. 
 Greorge Studdart, the magistrate, and Mr. John Sennane, 
 the guardian ; to Jerry Malony, the Killofm guardian, for 
 meal, but he refused to give it to me. The deceased had 
 no business with them, as he could do nothing for them, 
 and they had nothing to eat. 
 
 i 
 
170 
 
 The jury, without retiring, returned the following 
 verdict : — " That the deceased died of starvation ." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest held at " Para- 
 dise," Parish of " Kilchreest," on the 11th of March, on 
 the body of Tim Spellacy. 
 
 Mart Spellact, wife to the deceased, sworn.— To the 
 Coroner. — Her deceased husband was about sixty years of 
 age ; he was on out-door relief. "We were getting two 
 stone of meal, for him, me, and five children, per week ; 
 he used to take his own half stone out of the two stone, 
 the day he used to get it, at Clondagad depot ; he did not 
 stop with us, but amongst the neighbours. I did not see 
 deceased from Saturday, the 2nd instant, until last Satur- 
 day. Thursdays were the days we used to get the meal 
 at Clondagad, but we did not get it on Thursday the 7th 
 of March ; the day was changed to Saturday. I saw him 
 eat bread at Kildysart on Saturday morning, before he 
 got the meal ; he did not complain to me on Saturday of 
 being ill ; he told me he eat something in the morning of 
 that day, before he got his meal on Saturday night ; when 
 he got the meal, he gave it to me, all but a little he kept 
 for his supper. When I came home with my meal, I 
 returned back, and met him on the road; he desired me 
 to go home, and that he would go to Tim Meany's house. 
 I did not see him after, until I saw him dead on Sunday, 
 the 10th instant, at Tim Cleary's. 
 
 Joseph McEneemt, sworn. — I am relieving-officer for 
 Clondagad. I knew the deceased ; he was on out-door 
 relief ; he, wife, and four children were getting two stone 
 
171 
 
 of Indian meal per week, up to Saturday, the 9th instant ; 
 on that day he got two-and-three-quarter stone. I saw 
 him on Saturday ; he did not appear to be weaker than 
 usual ; he mostly always came for his meal ; he did not 
 complain to me at any time of being hungry. 
 
 Patt Reilly, sworn. —To the Coroner — I was on my 
 way home from Kildysart, on Saturday night last, between 
 ten and twelve o'clock. I met a man lying on the side of the 
 road ; I spoke to him, but got no answer ; I viewed him, 
 and then went to James Healy's house, to know if he 
 would allow me to bring him in ; James Healy, in reply, 
 said he had no fire, and that he was told who was there. 
 I then asked Healy who he was ; he said, a man named 
 Spellacy. I then, with Thomas Healy, returned, and 
 raised deceased off the road ; I then knew him to be Tim 
 Spellacy. I then took him on my back, as far as James 
 Healy's house, and laid him there, and kept him sitting 
 on the side of the road, opposite Healy's house, who 
 refused to let him in. Thomas Healy then brought a 
 barrow, and I, with his assistance, put deceased into the 
 barrow ; he was then alive ; we brought him to Tim 
 Cleary's house ; he died before he came to Cleary's ; it 
 was on the night of Saturday, the 9th instant. 
 
 Dr. O'Gtradt, sworn. — I have examined the body of 
 deceased, and from the appearance it presents, I am of 
 opinion he died from exposure to cold and exhaustion. 
 
 Verdict. — " That the deceased, Tim Spellacy, died at 
 Paradise, on the night of Saturday, the 9th instant, from 
 exposure to cold and exhaustion." 
 
172 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest held at Ballyguiry, 
 on the 11th of March instant, on the body of Edmond 
 Kelly, by Francis O'Donnell, Esq. 
 
 Edmond Kelly, son to the deceased, sworn, and exa- 
 mined by the Coroner. We were in the Kilrush work- 
 house for five weeks ; we left it on Friday last. My de- 
 ceased father got his discharge from Mr. Foley ; he and I 
 were ordered by Mr. McEverney to get a ticket from the 
 doctor, to get meal outside, which we did. My mother, 
 two sisters, and brother are still in the workhouse ; de- 
 ceased was to send for them this day. When we left the 
 poor-house, on Friday, we came as far as " Ballykett" fair 
 place ; deceased then got so weak, that he went into a 
 house to rest himself, and get a stick to help him home ; 
 he desired me to go on before him, and to have a fire in 
 our cabin for him. I did not see him after until I came 
 home on Saturday night, after supper time ; he was then 
 stretched in a field, on a heap of bog-stuff ; he was then 
 alive. My brother and I brought him home, and he died 
 before day on Sunday morning, the 10th instant. Deceased 
 told me he eat very little for breakfast on Friday, and eat 
 nothing for dinner on Thursday night, but a pint of por- 
 ridge ; he was not able to eat the workhouse bread. 
 
 Maetin Coffee, sworn, and examined. — On Saturday 
 last, as I was going towards my own house, I heard the 
 deceased calling several times. I came up, and asked who 
 was there ; he said it was Edmond Kelly, and that he was 
 coming from the poor house, and that he eat nothing since 
 the Friday morning previous ; he was not able to stand 
 or move, he was so weak. I went to his son, and told him 
 
173 
 
 of it, and he went immediately for him. I did not see 
 him since, until this day. He was about fifty years of 
 age. 
 
 The jury, without retiring, returned the following ver- 
 dict : — " That deceased died of starvation" 
 
 County of Clare, to wit. — At an Inquest taken before 
 George Studdart, Daniel O' Grady, and B. B. Franks, 
 Esqs. three of her Majesty's Justices of the Peace at 
 Kildysart, in said County, on the body of Michael 
 Scanlan, of Shanahea, in said County. 
 
 Mary Scanlan, being sworn, saith, that her husband's 
 name was Michael Scanlan ; he is now dead. On "Wed- 
 nesday night, the 15th of May, after her going to the 
 Board of Guardians at Kildysart, he asked her for some- 
 thing to eat, and she had not it to give him, and he died 
 immediately after, sitting on a chair. He was in the 
 workhouse of Kilrush, and left it to-morrow fortnight. 
 She does not know why he left it ; she buried two of her 
 children there, and has five more ; they left the work- 
 house of their own free will. She got two stone of meal 
 since then from the Eelieving-officer ; she and her family 
 lived on nettles and wild garlic until her husband died. She 
 swears that he complained of a complaint in his bowels, 
 and that he died of hunger ; he complained that he did 
 not get enough to eat in the workhouse. She says that 
 the persons who were over the boilers used to sell the 
 bread and stirabout to any person who had a halfpenny : 
 two tins of stirabout used to be sold for a halfpenny, and 
 a lump of bread and a tin of porridge. She says the per- 
 sons who distributed the food took some from eacli 
 
174 
 
 pauper. She says that she heard all the women complain 
 to the Master that the soup was thin, and the stirabout 
 thin. 
 
 Thomas Guma^e. — Is Belie ving-officer of the Electo- 
 ral Division of Kilfidane and Kildysart. Knew Michael 
 Scanlan of Shanahea; on the 6th of March he got a 
 ticket of admission into the Kilrush workhouse, and re- 
 mained there until the 7th of May. His wife applied to 
 me to have her application placed on the books on last 
 Tuesday. His name was not called, in consequence of 
 the Guardians not being able to conclude all the business ; 
 but his wife was there on Thursday : she applied for a 
 coffin, which I gave her, and an order for two stone of 
 meal. He says that, from the appearance of the body 
 this day, as he saw it in the coffin, in the churchyard of 
 Kildysart, he thinks he died from want of food and 
 nourishment. 
 
 Verdict. — " We find that Michael Scanlan came by his 
 death from want of food and insufficient nourishment; and 
 we consider his death was brought on by his having left 
 the workhouse at Kilrush, where he was for some months 
 previous to his death, when his family were with him. 
 May 22nd, 1850." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest held at Laba- 
 sheeda, on the 11th of May, by Mr. Francis O'Donnell, 
 Coroner, on the body of Patt Cahill. 
 Patt Halpet sworn. — I knew the deceased well ; I am 
 
 of opinion that he was about thirty years of age ; he was 
 
 in the habit of visiting my house about six weeks ago. 
 
 He stopped at my house last night ; I was not at home 
 
175 
 
 when he came to my place ; he asked me for lodgings ; I 
 said if he would get a little straw to lie on, that I would 
 allow him in ; he was so weak he was not able to go and 
 look for it ; he brought down a few turfs and made down 
 a fire. He told me he was very weak, and that he eat 
 nothing from Thursday before but a bit of bread he got 
 from sub-constable Scully, and that he was weak with 
 hunger ; that his wife treated him badly ; that she took 
 away with her fourteen shillings she got from her mother 
 from America. He told me, the night he stopped with 
 me, that he was hungry and had nothing to eat ; he died 
 about half past nine this morning. 
 
 To Mr. Whitstone, Poor Law Guardian. — MaryMadi- 
 gan and I removed him from my house this morning, in a 
 dying state, and laid him by the ditch side. 
 
 To Mr. Blennerhassett, sub-Inspector, Kildysart. — Mary 
 Halloran then took him into her hut, and laid him by the 
 fire ; the reason I put him out was, my children got 
 frightened when they saw him dying. 
 
 Mr. Blennerhassett, with feelings of charity so cha- 
 racteristic of him, gave Mary Halloran five shillings as 
 the reward of her humanity, for taking deceased in a dying 
 state into her house, and said that he, (Mr. Blenner- 
 hassett,) for the life of him, did not know what was to 
 become of the country ; that it appeared to him that hu- 
 manity had fled the land ; that it was hard to say what 
 could be done. But there was one thing certain, the 
 people were starving and in a most deplorable condition. 
 
 Mr. Whitstone. — "We have made application to the 
 Commissioners for permission to relieve the able-bodied 
 under Section 2: we were refused. There is neither in-door 
 
176 
 
 accommodation or out-door relief; and as Mr. Blennerhas- 
 sett truly states, the people are starving. I brought a few 
 cases of extreme destitution under the notice of Captain 
 Kennedy last week, and as that gentleman could not 
 legally order them relief, he gave me money out of his 
 own private purse to relieve them ; so that there is no 
 use any longer cloaking the matter, — we are in a fix, and 
 the people are dying. 
 
 Mr. Blennerhassett. — It would be well if Captain Ken- 
 nedy had power, as he has the will ; he relieved two or three 
 cases that I recommended to him in a similar manner. I 
 am of opinion a good many drains have been brought on his 
 purse by cases of extreme destitution which he could not 
 otherwise relieve. The jury, all respectable rate-payers, 
 without retiring, returned the following verdict : ■— u Died 
 from starvation." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at a Coroner's Inquest, held on 
 the body of a child named Bryan McMahon, on the 25th 
 of January instant. 
 
 Maet McMahon, sworn, and examined by Mr. Little, 
 E.M. — I am mother to the deceased child, Bryan McMa- 
 hon, aged about seven or eight years. I was one of the 
 under-tenants on Mr. Westby's property, whose houses 
 were levelled about two years ago, at Tullybrack, in the 
 parish of Kilmacamane ; I was part of my time since 
 begging about the world. I stopped at John McDonnell's, 
 above at Ballycra, before I went to the workhouse. I left 
 the poorhouse the Friday before Christmas of my own 
 accord ; I was three weeks in the poorhouse. I left the 
 deceased child in the poorhouse hospital until he got 
 
177 
 
 better, when I brought him out of the poorhouse hos- 
 pital, about three weeks ago ; the child was delicate. I 
 got out-door relief last Thursday week ; I got relief twice 
 since I left the workhouse ; I got last Thursday week 
 two stone three-quarters of meal ; my family consisted of 
 myself, my husband, and five children ; I had about five 
 pounds of meal for seven in family, daily ; it would not 
 answer any more for me. I never made any use of the 
 meal but for the use of food, except a half-stone I sold 
 this day week to pay a week's rent. I got fivepence for 
 the half-stone ; I gave threepence to pay the rent, and 
 twopence to buy milk for my sick children. I sold a can 
 I had for twopence-halfpenny, and I pawned my hus- 
 band's coat for two shillings. 
 
 The woman appeared so stupified from actual want, 
 that she could not recollect the day on which the child 
 died, but at length stated, that she believed it died about 
 four days ago. 
 
 I had yellow meal in my house the day the child died, 
 but he could not eat it. I did not get meal for the last 
 half year but two weeks ; when I asked for relief I was 
 ordered into the workhouse. I sometimes did not get 
 enough to eat in the workhouse ; some of the inmates 
 got more than others. 
 
 Mr. Patt O'Connor (a juror). — It was the women that 
 were in the cook-house that had more chances than 
 others. The child got bad usage ; when I saw the child 
 it was striped and cut ; I then took him to myself to 
 make better of him. To Mr. Patt O'Connor.— I lived at 
 Tullybrack fourteen years before I was turned out. To 
 Mr. Little. — I was not able to go out to report my child's 
 
 i 2 
 
178 
 
 death to the police. My husband, myself, and family 
 was so weak and exhausted, that we could not leave the 
 house ; it was the want of food that caused all our sick- 
 ness ; the child was as fine a child when I took him into 
 the workhouse as could be seen. Mr. O'Connor. — When 
 I first visited these creatures a few days ago, I thought 
 at first sight they were all dead; but on my examining 
 their state more minutely, I found that they still breathed ; 
 I called on a few charitable persons, and we collected 
 some money for them ; they were at the time so exhausted, 
 that I thought none of them would linger out half the 
 time. 
 
 Mr. N. Lillis, Relieving-officer, sworn and exa- 
 mined by Mr. Little.— I saw the deceased child dead in 
 a house, in Chapel-street, Kilrush. The family were 
 relieved continuously up to the 15th September last; 
 that class, as able-bodied, were then struck off— the out- 
 door relief having ceased under second section. The 
 next time they applied for relief was about the 1st of 
 December ; I find by the records of the house, that they 
 were admitted on the 4th of December, and were dis- 
 charged at their own request on the 21st of December, 
 except the child in hospital. They then applied for 
 relief, on the 7th of January ; I took their application, 
 and brought them to the workhouse on the 9th of Ja- 
 nuary to be tested by the Board of Gruardians ; they 
 were ordered fourteen days relief by the Chairman ; they 
 got the first draft of it on week ending the 12th of 
 January, 38J lbs., and on week ending 19th of January 
 they got the second draft ; it was on the 16th they got 
 the last draft they received. My impression is, that the 
 
179 
 
 woman did send her son, which I met at Tullybrack, on 
 last Wednesday, the 23rd ; my place from here is about 
 four miles distance. I had no relief to give them, as out- 
 door relief was stopped last week. To the Jury. — The 
 state of the country is such, that it is a common practice 
 with those receiving relief to keep those deaths private* 
 and bury them in most cases without coffins, rather than 
 be deprived of their meal. 
 
 Dk. Thomas B. O'Donkell, sworn. — I examined 
 the body of deceased this day. I recollect his being under 
 my care in the workhouse infirmary for small-pox; he 
 was taken out of it on the 2nd of January, without my 
 consent, when nearly convalescent ; he presents a more 
 emaciated appearance than when in the infirmary. I 
 attribute his death to disease following the small-pox, 
 and aggravated by cold, want of sufficient and proper food 
 and treatment ; if the family had remained in the work- 
 house, the child could not have died for want of treat- 
 ment or proper food. To Mr. O'Connor.— The number 
 of deaths (last week) in the workhouse, amounted to 
 thirty-five. 
 
 Mr. Lillis, Eelieving-officer, to Mr. Little. — I have 
 done nothing to relieve the rest of the family. 
 
 Dr. O'Donkell. -When I saw the family on yester- 
 day morning, I thought you would have three deaths in 
 place of one ; and you would, were it not for the treat- 
 ment they received from me, the Eev. Mr. Moran, Ro- 
 man Catholic clergyman, and Mr. Patt O'Connor. The 
 straw they lay on was perfect dung. 
 
 The Jury, after a very lengthened discussion, which 
 lasted over an hour, returned the following verdict : — 
 
180 
 
 "We find that the deceased, Bryan McMahon, came by his 
 death, from want of proper and sufficient food and treat- 
 ment, four days ago, at Kilrush ; the mother of the child 
 having taken it out of the workhouse, being under the 
 impression the child would improve more under her care, 
 than it would in the workhouse." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest, held at Liscor- 
 mick, on the Wth of May, instant, on the body of Martin 
 Clancy. 
 
 Mart Clancy sworn and examined by the Coroner, 
 Mr. Francis O'Donnell. — I am sister to the deceased; he 
 came to my house on Wednesday last, about four o'clock 
 in the evening : he was then returning from jail : I went 
 out and borrowed a small quantity of meal from one of 
 the neighbours, and made a small cake of it for him ; he 
 eat it and went to bed, and he had not enough of it ; on 
 the next morning (Thursday), he told me he did not 
 know what to do ; that he would die with hunger ; he 
 eat a little for breakfast on Thursday morning, and a 
 little for supper Friday night ; my sister got a pound of 
 meal at Kildysart, and made gruel with it, mixed with 
 nettles ; I went to call him to eat a little of the gruel, 
 but he was not able to stir ; I put some of the gruel with 
 a spoon in his mouth, it stopped in his throat, he was 
 not able to swallow it ; he died in a short time after ; 
 before he lost his speech, he told me he was weak : I am 
 sure he died of hunger. 
 
 Biddy Clancy sworn. — I recollect when my deceased 
 brother came home on Wednesday evening last, my 
 sister, the last witness, told me she gave him a small bit 
 
181 
 
 of bread. I gave him some gruel, he complained of 
 nothing that night, on Thursday morning I gave him 
 some gruel ; he went on that evening to Rosshill, to the 
 house of Michael Donealy to look for employment ; when 
 he returned, he told me he was hardly able to come home 
 with weakness ; he said he begged a penny of Donealy 
 to buy meal, but he did not get it, he had not enough to 
 eat for an infant, on Thursday. I think if he had enough 
 to eat, he would live for many years after ; he was only 
 twenty-five years of age. I am sure he died of hunger. 
 Verdict. — "Died of starvation." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest, held by Daniel 
 O'Gready and B. B. Franks, Esqs. Justices of the Peace, 
 at Bally nacally, on the 21s£ day of May, 1850, on the 
 body of Thomas Cusack of said place. 
 
 Maet Bourse of Dromquim being sworn, saith— I 
 knew Thomas Cusack, of Ballynacally ; he came to my 
 house on last Tuesday evening ; he eat his dinner, and 
 slept in my house, about breakfast time he began to 
 moan ; my husband asked him what ailed him ? and he 
 said it would not signify ; he then fell asleep, and after 
 waking, he continued to moan ; he did not speak to me, 
 when I asked him some questions ; he had his hands 
 clenched, and remained in that state, until he died ; he 
 told me it was the "hungry grass" he met on the road; 
 he did not complain that he was in want of food. 
 
 Nancy Cusack, wife to the deceased, sworn, saith — 
 He was receiving out- door relief for the last two years ; 
 his niece came to tell me, that my husband was dead, at 
 the house of Thomas Eourke, of Dromquim ; I saw him 
 
1S2 
 
 here in the village this day week, he told me he would go 
 to Peg Kerin's house at " Dromquim ;" he did not say- 
 he was in any want, but that he was suffering, and in 
 trouble, from the swelling he had in his thighs, and limbs ; 
 but did not say he was hungry, or in want. My husband, 
 myself, and the children lived on a stone and a half of 
 meal a week, we used to get assistance from our neigh- 
 bours ; but we are mostly obliged to use weeds, corn- 
 kale, &c. for our support. I had no meal to give him for 
 breakfast the morning he went to Dromquim, and he was 
 obliged to eat corn-kale boiled. 
 
 Michael Hehie, sworn, saith — I am Eelieving-officer 
 for Ballynacally and Kilchreest, electoral divisions. I 
 knew Thomas Cusack, he was on out-door relief; he got 
 one stone and half of meal, per week> for self, wife 
 and one child ; he had two children more in the house 
 living with him ; I gave the two that was over age, tickets 
 to the Ennis workhouse, but they were not admitted 
 there ; I think the whole family lived on what was allowed 
 for three ; the reason they were refused the workhouse was, 
 for want of room. I think from the insufficiency of food 
 he had, his death was accelerated for want of nourish- 
 ment. 
 
 Verdict. — "We think his death was caused by weakness, 
 brought on by long continued want of sufficient food or 
 sufficient nourishment." 
 
 Minutes of Evidence taken at an Inquest at Kildysart, on 
 the ISth of April last, on the body of John Garvey. 
 
 Kate Sheehan, sworn and examined by the Coroner, 
 
183 
 
 Mr. F. O'Donnell. — Deceased slept at my mother's house 
 on Sunday night : he was so weak, that he could not lie 
 on a bed, but sat up on a chair. He was offered a bed, 
 but he said he could not lie on it ; his feet were greatly 
 swollen. He had some bits of turnips : I can't say that 
 he eat any of them, but took some gruel made of Indian 
 meal for supper on Monday night. On Tuesday morning 
 he took very little for breakfast, he was too weak to use 
 it. He was on the out-relief. He wanted to remain in 
 the house on Tuesday, but we turned him out when we 
 heard he had fever : it was for that we put him out. 
 When we put him out he stretched along the road ditch, 
 not far from the house. About twelve o'clock the same 
 day he came in again, and we turned him out in the 
 evening, a little before dark. I afterwards saw him lying 
 in a quarry not far from the house, stretched opposite a 
 fire. I went and brought him some straw, and made it 
 round him. He was then very weak. I did not see him 
 after until yesterday morning (Wednesday, April 17). 
 When I saw him, he was burnt to death. 
 
 John Reidy, sworn. — On Tuesday, about one o'clock, 
 I saw the deceased stretched by the road-side. I brought 
 him on a barrow to a quarry. At his own request I went 
 for some turf, and made down a fire for him. He had a 
 sheet, which he stretched on along the fire. I made 
 down another fire for him at nightfall. I did not see 
 him after, until I saw him dead next morning. 
 
 Michael O'Brien, of Eoss Hill, sworn. — On yester- 
 day morning, after my getting out of bed, I went out and 
 saw smoke in a quarry. I went there, and saw the deceased 
 stretched there, and burned to death. I called on 
 
184 
 
 another man, and we put out the fire by throwing water 
 on it. I am sure, that were it not for as soon as I came 
 up, the deceased would be consumed to ashes. 
 
 Verdict. — "Deceased came by his death inconsequence 
 of being burned by his straw bed taking fire while asleep 
 in the bed in a quarry, he being in a delicate state of 
 health, and refused shelter/' 
 
 The above evidence on "inquests," is copied verbatim 
 from the notes, taken at the time ; I fear, however, that 
 in recopying them for the press, there may be some mis- 
 spellings of names of individuals, and localities. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MORTALITY IN UNION HOUSES — PEASANTRY SAID TO BE 
 PRIEST-RIDDEN — THEIR DEVOTION — THEIR GRATITUDE 
 — NEGLECT OP THEIR EDUCATION — HAVE BEEN MADE 
 LAZY — TAUGHT CUNNING — THEIR TITLE TO SYMPATHY 
 — AGRARIAN MURDERS, NOT UNNATURAL RESULT OF 
 THEIR TREATMENT. 
 
 The contents of the foregoing chapters will, I 
 think, have satisfied every impartial reader, that the 
 statements I have made generally, on the condition 
 of the peasantry, in the districts I have been de- 
 scribing, are fully borne out by evidence, which can- 
 not be refuted. The official returns of the Medical 
 officers, and the verdicts of juries, are, as evidence, 
 given on the very spot where, if untrue, it could be 
 at once contested. The fact is, the horrors of these 
 Unions are not contested on the spot, though there 
 is every endeavour to confine the knowledge of them 
 to the neighbourhood in which they occur ; and such 
 is the power, exercised by proprietary machinery, 
 that it is very difficult to lift the veil, and expose to 
 the public eye what there is so powerful a combina- 
 tion to conceal. 
 
 It will be said, that the inquests and returns I 
 have quoted are from the Kilrush Union alone ; I 
 admit it; but I have described other Unions, as 
 crowded, as ill clad, nay, worse ; I have said, that I 
 
186 
 
 did not see eviction to be at all confined to Clare ; 
 far from it, it is the " rnle " of the West ; I shall 
 hereafter produce evidence to prove it to be so. If 
 at Kilrush, the mortality weekly, per thousand in- 
 mates, was, for the quarter ending March 30th, 1850, 
 8*7, at Limerick it was 6 : at Scariff, when I visited 
 it last year, it was 9*4 — this year it is 118 ! at Clif- 
 den it was this year 8*1; Galway, 7*6; Gort, 5*7 i 
 Ballina, 4*5 ; Castlebar, 4*9. I have a fair right then 
 to presume, that the same causes which produce death 
 in Kilrush, produce it in those other Unions, where 
 I saw those same causes at work, and could trace in 
 their degree the same effects. 
 
 At Ballinrobe, I see, the mortality weekly per 
 thousand, for the quarter mentioned above, was 10*6 ! 
 This Union has had its full share of eviction horrors, 
 as I saw last year, and I know the practice is not 
 discontinued. 
 
 I am satisfied, in all these Unions, the majority of 
 deaths will be found to be amongst the late admissions; 
 and if the whole truth could be got at, a very large 
 proportion of those deaths have been hurried, if not 
 actually brought about, by the grossest abuse of — 
 Law ; not a small number, by doings the law does 
 not allow. 
 
 Talk of a public prosecutor in England ! an able 
 man, with a good clerk, kept in communication with 
 the police, would in these districts have clients suffi- 
 cient to tax his every moment ; and could he get fair 
 
187 
 
 play, would, I firmly believe, soon be the cause of 
 the involuntary emigration of many rather high-class 
 Emigrants. 
 
 It is now for ever objected to me — " You don't 
 know our peasantry ; you really don't : you have 
 nothing like them in England ; the same rules will 
 not hold good with us which hold good with you : 
 priest-ridden, ignorant, lazy, cunning, and dishonest ; 
 they little deserve the sympathy you would excite/' 
 
 I will now, then, say a little of the peasantry, or 
 tenantry, of the West ; and what I say, shall be the 
 honest conviction of an experience, obtained by 
 repeated inquiry, now and for years back. They are 
 said to be priest-ridden. I do not for one moment 
 dispute but that, as in all Catholic lands, so in the 
 West of Ireland, where the majority of the peasantry 
 are Catholics, the priests have great power over 
 them; their office gives it; the entire character of 
 their officiate duty demands it. The more ignorant the 
 peasantry, the more power must the priests have over 
 them; for if they would have any religious teaching — 
 advice — consolation ; — any participation in religious 
 ordinances, they must obtain it, for the most part, 
 direct from the priest's lips — or through the cere- 
 monies which the priest conducts. 
 
 When the mind is uncultivated, the imagination is 
 chiefly worked on by the outward senses, — what the 
 eye beholds becomes the substitute for much, which 
 a cultivated understanding might have received or 
 
188 
 
 rejected by the exercise of sober judgment. But those 
 who learn by the eye and ear, whose inward impressions 
 have been trained into obedience to outward impres- 
 sions, are slow reasoners. The Catholic peasant hasbeen 
 reared to reverence his priest, as the organ by whom, 
 what he is to believe, is to be taught him ; what he is 
 to do, declared to him ; as the one power, on whose 
 office, directing his own efforts, will depend the 
 welfare of his soul. He has been reared to hate and 
 oppose everything which would encroach on that 
 narrow circle, within which he has bounded all he 
 would have of religious faith and teaching. The 
 Saviour — the Virgin — the Saints — are objects of his 
 faith and worship, after the way he has been taught ; 
 the priest teaches him how to worship them — disci- 
 plines him in the things his Church declares essential 
 to that worship. 
 
 I am of Protestants — protestantissimus. Still, I 
 cannot deny — I see no reason why I should — that I 
 have been struck most deeply with the repeated 
 proofs I have received, of the devotion — in their 
 own way — of the peasantry. I have seen them at 
 all allowable times, in their chapels; I have come 
 upon them in their private devotions — I have seen 
 them watching by the dying — on the ditch-side — 
 careless to answer any question, or receive any gift, in 
 the depth of the anxiety with which they awaited the 
 priest, sent for — to prepare — the sinking soul before 
 them. I have seen a daughter, whilst the mother 
 
189 
 
 stood thus watching, on the road, for the priest, hold 
 a cross, made of two pieces of stick, tied with rush, 
 before the glazed eyes of her dying parent ; nor shall 
 I ever forget the quiet agony of expectation with 
 which she waited, in hopes he would again recognize 
 the emblem of his faith. 
 
 In the wards of workhouses, by day and at night, 
 I have seen an attention paid to the forms of devo- 
 tion which does these poor creatures the greatest 
 credit. They, at least, are not ashamed to be seen 
 at prayer j and never did I see the slightest levity 
 shewn by others, when they were thus praying. 
 
 The language of excited lips is, in its way, no bad 
 interpreter of the real language of the heart. I have 
 seen a poor starving creature again and again pass a 
 traveller, without thinking of asking for anything; 
 a few pence, nay, one penny thrown to her, will fling 
 her on her knees, let the road before her be what it 
 may; with tear-startled eyes and uplifted hands, 
 there will she kneel, and bless the giver of those 
 pence with a vehemence and eloquence which could 
 only come from the heart. 
 
 No two things can be more different, than the 
 hackneyed blessings of the professional mendicant, and 
 those obtained by an unexpected gift, to some of the 
 thousands, who, starving, have yet ceased to beg of 
 any but their poor neighbours : passing cars are 
 generally to them, only as passing Relieving-officers, 
 or Agents, or any of that large class, on whose lips are 
 
190 
 
 for ever, the words " Be out of that, now ; why dorit 
 ye go to the workhouse ?" Go amongst the scalps and 
 scalpeens ; the wrecked dwellings you may find on 
 every side : give your alms to the poor creatures you 
 will find there, living as beasts — grazing on green 
 food ; the damp ground their bed ; rotten wet thatch, 
 on blackened sticks, their roof; relieve them, unex- 
 pectedly, and though it were only with the value of 
 one meal, you will hear and see an eloquence of 
 gratitude, speaking in every feature and gesture, 
 invoking from the lips every office of the Saviour 
 — every grace of the Virgin — every pleading of the 
 Saints, to bless you, which is as astonishing as — to 
 me — it is humiliating to the person on whom it is 
 expended. There is something very dreadful in this 
 cheapness of — blessings ; I fear they are very little in 
 demand, where they can be so easily purchased. 
 
 That the religion of very many of these peasants 
 carries them patiently through the very deepest 
 trials, none who have been amongst them will deny ; 
 it seems to be the only thing left them ; it don't 
 catch cold, fever, or die from exposure and want ; 
 legal process cannot evict it ; it survives and is 
 strong, when the body, in which it is the acting 
 spirit, can scarce be said to live. 
 
 I cannot, then, wonder at the power of the priest 
 over the minds of those who look for so much, by 
 him and through him. Again, be it remembered, 
 the priest stands almost alone in another respect — as 
 
191 
 
 regards the Catholic peasantry, in these scenes of 
 social war and disruption, he sympathises with them, 
 and that, not only in his spiritual character, but in 
 his temporal character. He would be worse than man, 
 and far less than a religious teacher, if he could live 
 untouched by the misery he is forced to see ; but he 
 himself is touched by the same misery; when the 
 flock is in process of dispersion, by violence, by fraud, 
 by famine j the priest is himself brought to the very 
 verge of absolute want ; no wonder, then, if he is on 
 their side ; if he acts and speaks, indignantly, of what 
 he sees. As a Christian minister, he would be bound 
 to do so; he will not — for priests are but men — do 
 so the less, in that the common suffering brings suf- 
 fering on him. 
 
 That the mere political power of the priesthood is 
 in abeyance, I admit ; the people and the priests — 
 the latter in ignorance, the former through a blind- 
 ness I cannot excuse, or a folly I must ever repro- 
 bate, lent themselves to the designs of mere dema- 
 gogues, who affected to seek social benefit, by the 
 wildest theories of mere political agitation. Starving 
 mobs were led to give support to so-called patriots, 
 who were either mere knavish seekers of their own 
 ends, or weak but dangerous actors in a drama, the 
 plot of which was badly defined ; the crisis of which 
 could only have purchased a momentary triumph, at 
 the present expense of the lives of thousands of their 
 
192 
 
 followers ; the future cost, of years of strife and con- 
 fusion. 
 
 Priests and people have alike seen the folly of such 
 national (?) attempts at freedom ; they have learned 
 enough to know that they are yet more likely to get 
 justice from England by a patient, persevering ex- 
 posure of their wrongs, than to obtain it, in spite of 
 English opinion, at the hands of their own country- 
 men. 
 
 We in England have been taught to think the 
 Irish hate us — it is false. Every feeling of an Eng- 
 lishman is known to be so opposed to tyranny, the 
 abuse of power, the perversion of legal right ; that, 
 so far from being hated, it is my own belief, that we 
 are, in our individual character, loved ; and shall be 
 yet more loved, as we shew more sympathy for those 
 wrongs in Ireland, which we would not suffer to 
 exist a day in England. 
 
 I am obliged to admit, with grief, what I fear is 
 somewhat of an object of congratulation to many 
 whom I respect. The religious character of the lower 
 Irish has received of late ( ' heavy blows, much dis- 
 couragement." That they are becoming irregular in 
 many of their Church's demands upon them ; that 
 they do not crowd their stations as they used to do ; 
 that they have become in some matters less moral, 
 and therefore that they less readily submit to their 
 Church's discipline — I admit. The naked must fore- 
 
193 
 
 go even the publicity of religious public service ; the 
 weak become incapable of leaving their homes ; fear 
 of many an evil, keeps many close within their dwell- 
 ings ; starvation drives to dishonesty ; the breaking 
 up of every social tie ; the indecent confusion of the 
 workhouses, the indecent crowding of the huts; 
 these are all so many powerful sources of moral 
 poison; that they have a far-spreading effect I know; 
 that they may make thousands, bad Catholics, I do 
 not doubt, for they make bad men of them; but 
 whatever my feeling for my own faith may be, my 
 own deep sense of the Catholic's error, I cannot see 
 any thing but a cause of grief, in the undermining 
 of a people's religion, by such a process as this. 
 
 As to the ignorance of the peasantry, I at once 
 admit that they have for the most part, in this western 
 part of Ireland, been born and bred, in an ignorance 
 on all subjects which require any amount of mental 
 cultivation, which is most lamentable. But whose 
 fault is this ? What effort, until of late years, was 
 made to give them any real education whatever? A 
 very large proportion of them only understand the 
 Irish tongue ; it is notorious, that publications of any 
 description, in that tongue, have been, and still are, 
 very rare ; those that now exist have been published 
 for the most part avowedly for polemical purposes. 
 There is no subject on which there exists more bitter 
 division of opinion, than that of the education of 
 the peasantry. There are those who argue that this 
 
 K 
 

 194 
 
 arises solely from religious jealousy ; one party will 
 not hear of any system, which does not teach in the 
 schools from the whole Bible, and the English autho- 
 rized version of it ; the Roman Catholics very natu- 
 rally object to this ; they would only have their own 
 version used, and only such portions of it as their 
 priesthood consider expedient to set before the young; 
 another party, steering between the two, would have 
 selected — so to speak — neutral portions of the Holy 
 Word made the text-book of religious teaching, so 
 that the children of all might learn together, whether 
 they were Protestants or Catholics. 
 
 Again, it is urged on me, and I am not prepared 
 altogether to dispute it, that the priests are against 
 all education ; that they wish to keep the peasantry 
 in ignorance, because the more ignorant they are, 
 the greater their power over them, in opposition to 
 those who would convert them. I must add to these 
 generally allowed obstacles to education, in this part 
 of Ireland, my own conviction, that very many of 
 the very men of influence, who use these various 
 arguments, as their creed may be; have also, one 
 ground of common agreement, as against education ; 
 which they hold very strongly, but seldom have the 
 courage to openly profess — they fear, that education 
 may make the people more troublesome ; less easily 
 dealt with, after the fashion, in which men of all 
 creeds, are very apt to deal with them. I myself 
 quite believe that a good sound education, that species 
 
195 
 
 of mental training which would be proper for the 
 class of small holders, or peasantry of the west, 
 would not only curb any undue influence of the 
 priesthood, but it would, to a very great degree, 
 check the tyrannical abuse of delegated power, of 
 the agents, sub-agents, and drivers. 
 
 I have said, that there is a very large proportion 
 of the lower grades of Irish, who know little of any 
 tongue but the Irish ; and yet, I have yet to learn, 
 that any one of the legal processes, by which their 
 lives and properties are every day affected, are ever 
 published in that tongue ; I have some now before 
 me, that certainly are not. No one would more 
 rejoice than I should, to hear that the Bible in the 
 Irish language, could be generally read by these 
 people ; but I, in addition to the value I should set 
 upon the study of that book, as it would affect their 
 religious knowledge ; should put this further gain to 
 the account — that once taught to read that Book, 
 there would be an opening, for the spread in the 
 Irish language of literature ; directly applicable, to 
 the many phases of the social and political state of 
 this people. 
 
 The dreadfully depressed state of the people at the 
 present moment, altogether precludes the present 
 u national system" having a fair chance in the dis- 
 tressed districts; I regret this, for though I think there 
 is much which might be amended in that system, it 
 is at all events one conceived in a liberal, tolerant 
 
196 
 
 spirit, quite refreshing in a land where tolerance 
 is so rare. I give every credit to the sincerity 
 of those who oppose it, on the grounds that it ap- 
 pears to be a virtual surrender of the great principle, 
 that the Bible, the whole of it, and nothing else, 
 should be the ground work of all education ; but I 
 myself am borne down by the weight of that simple 
 argument which says, this principle would consign to 
 ignorance — of necessity, a very large proportion of the 
 children of Catholics : these districts are essentially 
 Catholic. I must not, also, conceal my own feeling, 
 that it is wise to take every step which shall tend in 
 any way to qualify that tone of social opposition and 
 hate, which I am satisfied is so much fostered, by the 
 for ever separating the Catholic and the Protestant. 
 
 It is said the tenantry, i.e. the peasantry are "lazy." 
 Now, how have they been made so ; and who have 
 been the gainers by their sloth ? Can any thing be 
 more in opposition to every feeling and habit of 
 industry than the rearing a people on a food — the 
 potato — cultivated with the least possible pains, 
 harvested with very little trouble, and cooked by the 
 simplest and cheapest of all processes? A stack of 
 turf, a potato heap, a cabin, and a pig, formed all the 
 small holder required. With very little labour in the 
 season he planted his potatoes, cut and stacked the 
 turf; by a little more labour at another season he dug 
 and pitted the potatoes ; selling some, he bought his 
 pig ; fattening the pig from the others, he paid his rent 
 
197 
 
 with it ; he made a little more by working for larger 
 holders or his landlord at their harvest • he had still 
 time enough left on his hands to confirm him in lazy, 
 idle habits. 
 
 And yet, with such a population, from the rent of 
 such holdings, the owners of land reaped enormous 
 incomes, were content to encourage the system, so 
 long as it kept up their incomes ; nay, more than this, 
 were for ever causing or conniving at a still further 
 subdivision of their property; thus they became men of 
 importance ; lords over an almost countless peasantry. 
 Their jointure deeds, their marriage settlements, their 
 establishments, were on a wild princely scale. Rack- 
 rents were still paid ; they went on spending, as if 
 potato ground and peasant breeding could have no 
 limit in its profitable returns; they got in debt — 
 deeply in debt ; leased out more land at high sums, 
 to be minutely subdivided into heavy rented small 
 holdings. The people grew too fast even for the 
 potato ; they had seasons of almost periodical famine. 
 It was thought to check this by a Poor-law ; for a 
 few years that law did act in some degree as a warn- 
 ing, if not a check, to the awful abuse of property. 
 The potato blight came, knocked from under their 
 feet the ground which had long trembled beneath 
 them, and left landlord, mortagee, middleman, agent, 
 &c. to face the consequence of their folly and usury 
 how they might. Now came the cry against the 
 ignorant, the lazy peasantry ; for they were no longer 
 
 
198 
 
 in their ignorance and idleness a source of wealth, but 
 a burden. With the potato went the pig — the great 
 security for rent : creditors pressed their claims ; the 
 rate collector pressed his ; no rack could have wrung 
 the payment of rack rents on potato-valued land, 
 when all confidence in the potato had vanished. If 
 money could not be raised, money must be saved ; 
 those who could not pay rents, should, if possible, 
 be prevented themselves from being burdens on the 
 rates; the tenantry were paupers; paupers were a 
 drain on the rent roll ; the object was now to get rid 
 of them ; hence the wholesale clearances ; hence that 
 relentless, reckless work, which has within this few 
 years driven from their homes, in one Union alone, 
 more than 10,000 people ; which has caused the death, 
 the most painful death of very many thousands. 
 
 The peasantry are cunning and dishonest, — so it is 
 said. I deny that they are generally dishonest ; that 
 being driven to steal or die has made them face the 
 jail, rather than the grave, I admit; but when well 
 treated, they were and are an honest race. As for 
 cunning — here, as elsewhere, cunning is the child of 
 circumstance. The instinct of the beast of the forest 
 ever becomes more acute, as he practically learns the 
 cunning by which man attempts to entrap him. The 
 Irish peasant, in his ignorance, is no match for the 
 acuteness of the paid agency, which has so long 
 dealt with him ; no people are more fond of law ; 
 they seek to hire craft to oppose to craft ; at every 
 
199 
 
 Sessions a spectator may see frieze-coated moths in 
 dozens fluttering round legal lights; burnt again 
 and again, they still persevere in the silly, simple 
 flight to the " counsellor ;" in vain he tells them that 
 they have no chance : " Sure, then, its just your 
 honour's the man to make it clear for me in court." 
 
 The whole system of land tenure in a great part of 
 Ireland, has been just that system which would beget 
 low cunning — the cunning of ignorant people. The 
 poorer a tenant could look, the less likely he was to 
 be "put upon " to look as if he thrived on his hold- 
 ing, was to hang out an invitation to have his rent 
 raised : yes, let who will deny it, it is too true, that 
 the Irish small holder has had every inducement to 
 conceal every farthing of profit he could make by his 
 tenancy ; as sure as he had the character of doing 
 well, he ran the risk of having his rent raised ; such 
 was the competition for land, that there were ever 
 ready plenty of persons to step into his place. So 
 exorbitant has been the rent in many districts, that 
 the tenant had to lie himself into his holding, with 
 the only hope of keeping it by more lying still. He 
 had to promise a rent he knew he could not pay ; to 
 assert a capital he had not ; and then to lie how he 
 could, to get an abatement on the day of payment. 
 
 Many tenants had to work so many days for their 
 landlords, as a part of their tenancy. I am ashamed 
 to say, that it was the unanimous opinion of every 
 independent employer of the peasantry in the dis- 
 
200 
 
 tricts I visited, that nothing could for a time over- 
 come their unbelief, that when put at task-work they 
 would be paid the stipulated price ; they had been so 
 accustomed to deal with employers who had again 
 and again deceived them. 
 
 That there are elements in the Irish character 
 capable of being developed, on the side of industry, 
 honesty, and intelligence, is easily proved. No men 
 work better, wherever they are fairly dealt with and 
 fairly paid ; this every officer of every great engineer- 
 ing work will say ; from the small-holding tenantry, 
 and from the families of a class little, if any, raised 
 above them, have been recruited the majority of one 
 of the finest forces in the world — the Irish police ; a 
 force, not less distinguished for their physical, than 
 they are for their moral and intellectual character. 
 
 As to the Irish peasantry being deserving of the 
 sympathy I and very many others would seek to excite 
 in their favour, I can only say, that I can conceive no 
 class of human beings on this earth, whose condition, 
 every way, can be worse. I know no one ingredient 
 in the catalogue of those dark ingredients which enter 
 into the composition of human suffering, which is not 
 to be found in the cup from which they have, of late 
 years, been compelled to drink. Much of what 
 Howard found in the jails of Europe ; not a little of 
 the wrongs and sufferings the Wilberforces and Bux- 
 tons of our day have exposed in the case of the chil- 
 dren of Africa ; no less of suffering than that which 
 
201 
 
 an Ashley has brought to light from beneath the 
 ground, and above it ; very much of the worst which 
 has been said of the wrongs of the Polish patriots, 
 Polish serfs, from Russian tyranny ; has, in its degree, 
 been the lot of the suffering people of the West of 
 Ireland. 
 
 The worst feature in the whole matter is the fact, 
 that this war of class on class, had its commencement, 
 took its date, from the very hour the weakest class 
 had become still weaker, by a direct dispensation of 
 Providence. 
 
 God forbid, that I should say, that all landlords, all 
 agents, have acted the same wantonly cruel part in 
 the life-destruction drama of the West; or that I 
 believe, that all proprietors really sanction all that is 
 done in their name ; but I cannot rid myself of the 
 conviction, that the general spirit of landlordism, and 
 the policy of agents generally, connives at, if it does 
 not directly abet, that class war, that class extinction, 
 which has existed, and now exists, to a degree defy- 
 ing all contradiction. I have heard, that it is openly 
 avowed in certain circles, that the wholesale clear- 
 ances are made on some— on many estates, in order 
 to enhance their selling value at the Rotunda sales ; 
 I can just believe it, however horrible the idea. 
 
 In justice, 1 must now touch on one characteristic 
 very generally ascribed to the peasantry ; it is said 
 that they are very revengeful, and the agrarian mur- 
 ders are quoted as proof that they are so. There is 
 
 k 2 
 
202 
 
 no one public writer, I believe, who has written in 
 stronger language than myself his abhorrence of that 
 trait in the character of the Irish peasantry, which 
 evinces itself, in their callousness, to the deaths by 
 violence of those they hate. There is no one mea- 
 sure which could, in the severest justice, be devised, 
 winch I would not gladly see in force, to put down 
 these horrible assassinations. I regard the paid or 
 oath-bound assassins, as not one whit worse than 
 those who witness the murders, but refuse to arrest 
 the murderer, or give evidence against him. I think 
 those really leagued for these impious ends, and 
 those not in league, but who connive at them, are 
 equally guilty. Still, I cannot say these murders 
 surprise me. The men who do them, the class who 
 connive at them, are in intellectual culture little 
 better than brutes ; they have all the passions of the 
 most violent of brutes, with none of the restraints, 
 which, giving man the command of Iris evil passions, 
 raises him above them. For ever made victims of 
 some legal process or other, they hate all law which 
 they cannot turn against others; they make their 
 own will their law ; that will, inflamed by the specious 
 arguments and wild theories of ill advisers, assumes 
 the dark hue of the worst human hate ; their whole 
 existence, from the earliest moment they could dig a 
 potato for themselves, has been one, binding them by 
 every conceivable tie to the occupation of land, as 
 the very tenure by which the living spirit would find 
 
203 
 
 an occupation in their own persons. Their know- 
 ledge of history has simply been the traditions of 
 their own and neighbours' holdings ; if they have 
 ever learned anything of politics, or polemics, it has 
 been at the mouths of those, who knew well enough, 
 that to rouse the passions of the ignorant, they must 
 paint their oratory with the brush of untruth's 
 colours; left for years to contend against many a 
 real wrong, with no other weapons than the cunning 
 they could oppose to the craft of those who for ever 
 were trying to overreach them ; disciplined in petty 
 falsehood in the schools of usurious middlemen ; they 
 were fitting subjects for those schools, which in every 
 age are from time to time so openly established by 
 ambitious demagogues, who need numbers to prop 
 their own insignificance ; and know full well, that to 
 get those numbers they must be little particular in 
 the means they use. 
 
 I am not going to deny but that Ireland has been, 
 in years past, sorely misgoverned; that wanton insult 
 was often cast upon her, in matters in which insult 
 breeds most discontent ; that she had not that share 
 of either religious, or political freedom, which was 
 her due. But I do assert that the means which 
 were taken to enforce attention to her real wrongs, 
 were those which have bred in her people, by exciting 
 them with statements of false and exaggerated 
 wrongs, a spirit every lover of that country will for 
 ever deplore. 
 
204 
 
 Let any one take the files of Irish and English 
 papers for some years back, and study their contents, 
 and he will cease to wonder that the Irish peasant 
 takes the law into his own hands j it would be con- 
 trary to all the experience of history, if the poison of 
 sedition, if the preachings of violence, of very many 
 years, imbibed and digested by this class, did not 
 bear their natural fruit — a sullen, revengeful spirit : 
 deceived and betrayed by those who promised what 
 they knew they never could perform ; the peasantry 
 now trust none above their own class. It is on that 
 class that every social misery has come with a stun- 
 ning force ; they see their race in progress of extinc- 
 tion; they prefer the jail to the workhouse — the 
 very jails are full. Human beings who have been so 
 bred, so socially depraved, so politically misled, so 
 driven wholesale from everything to which their 
 nature clings — looking at the workhouses, as too 
 many have found them to be, as refuges, in which the 
 evils encountered are worse than the evils fled ; seeing 
 house after house cast down — kindred after kindred, 
 doomed to the workhouse, to banishment, or to 
 death — who can wonder that they are ever ripe for 
 every deed of violence ; that they have learned to 
 rejoice in the perpetration of acts, the perpetration 
 of which so brands infamy on their nation. 
 
 Let no one course be spared which can pursue the 
 assassin , till the earth is rid of him ; lay on all who 
 pollute the earth, by the countenance of his crime, 
 
205 
 
 all of painful burden the law can impose ; but let us 
 be assured of this, the remedy for this moral disease 
 is — the education of the people, to the raising them 
 from their moral degradation ; the treatment of that 
 people with Christian forbearance, rather than with 
 legal stringency, in a crisis, which has so sorely 
 wounded them in its every circumstance, that we 
 cannot wonder if they are impatient under any aggra- 
 vation of their social wounds. 
 
 To the honour of the districts I have now twice 
 visited, the patience and forbearance of the people 
 has had a trial, which has proved it to be beyond all 
 praise ; they suffer, die, are silent, and scarce in any 
 instance are they driven to violence ; for such a peo- 
 ple, so patient, and yet so suffering, who does not feel 
 — who, feeling, would not do his best to aid them. I 
 can only pray that they may resist all temptation to 
 violence, leaving their condition, once exposed to the 
 full force of public opinion, to that redress which the 
 verdict of public justice will reward, and ere long see 
 enforced. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TENANT-RIGHT AGITATION — WILL GAIN FORCE IN THE 
 WEST FROM THE OPPRESSION OF THE TENANTS — JUS- 
 TICE TO PEASANT AS WELL AS TO PROPRIETOR — TENANTS 
 IN THE WEST COMPARED WITH TENANTS IN THE NORTH 
 — THE PROPRIETORS' TRUE INTEREST, SPEEDY JUSTICE 
 TO TENANTRY. 
 
 Can Ireland be, for any length of time, without 
 some popular cause of agitation ? to us, in our gene- 
 ration, it would seem to be impossible. In the 
 Western districts, which I visited, I could, however, 
 hear of no movement on any grounds of political 
 grievance ; but I could perceive that the present lull 
 was no proof of contentment. Unless I much mis- 
 take, the next great movement of the masses will 
 take a form of a very different character from those 
 movements which have kept this unhappy land, of 
 late years, in so unsettled a state. 
 
 There are those, amongst men of no mean politi- 
 cal ability, who are inclined to treat lightly the 
 " tenant-right agitation ;" they argue, that whatever 
 may have been the result of the custom, which has 
 
207 
 
 assumed all the force of law, as determining tenure 
 and its rights in Ulster and elsewhere, it is mere folly 
 to suppose that any such custom shall ever rule the 
 relations of landlord and tenant in the South and 
 West. I admit, that, in the West, the feeling thus 
 far developed on this question is but as a distant echo 
 of the cry from the North ; but I have seen enough 
 of the condition of the West to account to me for the 
 apparent weakness of the " tenant-right" agitation 
 there : when a population is bleeding at every pore^ 
 the pressure for the life of the moment may well ac- 
 count for the want of all energy, with regard to the 
 prospects of the years which may or may not be 
 granted to it. 
 
 If "tenant-right" is "landlord-wrong," as many 
 say, never did men so deliberately set to work to 
 achieve their own ruin as these Western proprietors 
 are doing. Why, the very gables of the land, the 
 roof-robbed stones, would soon find a voice and 
 cry for " tenant-right," if exposure, fever, cold, hun- 
 ger, and workhouse relief (?) should continue to com- 
 bine to close the mouths of men. I am, and I have 
 again and again proved it, no advocate for that ex- 
 treme interference with the owner of property, and 
 his tenants, which is so boldly advocated by the 
 agitators of this question. I have always held that 
 it would scarcely, under any circumstances, be justi- 
 fiable to force on the owner in fee a permanent part- 
 nership with the mere conditional occupier. I am 
 
208 
 
 one of those who believe that law seldom meddles 
 between landlord and tenant without working to the 
 injury of both. If I have held extreme opinions, as 
 to the jealousy with which every right of property 
 should be guarded, I have done so from the feeling 
 that public opinion and self interest would combine 
 to enforce the duties attached to property. 
 
 I never read of, never dreamed of such romantic 
 oppression as that which I have lately learned really 
 exists ; even now, when I look at the papers before 
 me, attested as they seem to be, by scenes which, un- 
 less I dream, I surely saw, I can scarcely accept the 
 reality, of what appears to be a page from some ill- 
 conceived romance. 
 
 Then, again, there is a " Bradshaw" on my table ; 
 it persists in assuring me, that the scenes I am 
 forced to believe I saw, were only at that distance 
 from the seat of Government, which a traveller may 
 compass, easily, in some "thirty hours." English 
 public opinion may be so diluted in its strength, 
 before it could reach even the Mauritius, that I could 
 suppose small tyrants might there act their little 
 tyrannies, and be heedless of English rebuke ; but 
 Kilrush, for all I know to the contrary, reads each 
 day its yesterdays " Times," and yet its Union 
 records week after week, scores of cases of human 
 beings, late "tenantry," coming to its workhouse, 
 just in time to die under a roof, having been forbidden 
 to live under one. 
 
209 
 
 I am, nevertheless, very bigoted in my opinion, 
 that the tenant-right of Ulster could be only forced 
 on the proprietors of Ireland generally, by gross 
 injustice ; but I am quite satisfied, that the time is 
 come, when some check must be put upon that 
 reckless abuse of the rights of property, which 
 deliberately compasses in a day of trial, the ruin, if 
 not deaths, of tens of thousands of these self-same 
 beings ; from whom, by a course of many years hard 
 exaction, immense incomes were drawn in better 
 times. This much I am quite prepared to contend — 
 if all this eviction is legal, and the consequences of it 
 are the mere consequences of laiv, not of abuse of it ; 
 if I am to be told, the proprietor has nothing to do 
 with the after effect of these laws, to which he has a 
 clear right to appeal ; I must be permitted to ask, 
 Are one set of laws to be rigidly enforced, another 
 set cunningly evaded, or wilfully broke by the same 
 parties ; and yet, the enforcement to be justified, 
 whilst the evasion is winked at ? Do the Landlords 
 and Agents, who act as Guardians, give to the 
 tenantry when pauperized, the same measure of law 
 they deal out to make them paupers ? 
 
 If the landlord has aright to eject, the pauper has 
 a right to certain shelter, certain support, &c. &c. — 
 Vide " Green Book of Orders of Commissioners of 
 Poor-laws." Compare what the pauper gets, with 
 what he is ordered, and then see how the law differs 
 
210 
 
 in the measure of justice it gives, from the measure 
 of justice by which it takes from him. O, but I hear 
 it said, "the proprietors cannot pay the rates to 
 keep the pauper as the law orders him to be kept." 
 I don't now believe this so easily as I did last year ; I 
 was then led to think, that the return from land was so 
 little, and the rates so high, that it was impossible to 
 carry out the Poor-law humanely, even with that nig 
 gard amount of humane treatment to which it entitles 
 the destitute. I have now more knowledge of the real 
 expense of the existing pauperism, the real amount of 
 money the land has returned in rent, even during the 
 last year or two. I had been led to believe, that 
 the Poor-law valuation was above the letting value of 
 the land ; I have now reason to know, that in some 
 of the very districts most cruelly defaced by the 
 evictions, the land has been let for a very far higher 
 rent than the Poor-law valuation would set it at; 
 nay, I believe that a very large amount of most 
 exorbitant rents has been netted, though I do not 
 say it has reached the landlord's own pocket. 
 
 We English get frightened at the number of pau- 
 pers on the rates in Ireland ; and arguing on our own 
 experience of the expense of pauperism, we set down 
 huge sums as the cost of Irish relief. I have an 
 account of a Union in Clare now before me, that 
 of Ennis ; there were actually in the workhouses 
 3528 persons j the cost for the week was £192. 8s 7%d. 
 Out-relief, 2544 cases, 6553 persons, cost, in money, 
 
211 
 
 45 6d— in kind, £149. 9s 9d. Meal has lately risen, 
 but I see that the cost per head for the last week of 
 last month (July), of the paupers of the Limerick 
 Union, was 12|d. In several Unions I visited, the 
 cost per head, weekly, was under lid, out-door 
 relief about 8d. I am just returned from my own 
 Board of Guardians in England — the cost per week, 
 per head, is 2s *]\d\ 
 
 I have some idea, that if in the distressed districts, 
 the money received from Government, directly and 
 indirectly ; the money received from English charity ; 
 the money lately received per rate-in-aid ; the money 
 actually collected for rent and rates, was all put toge- 
 ther, and a balance struck between the gross sum and 
 that actually spent in relieving destitution, we should 
 arrive at a most puzzling result, as to where the 
 balance has been expended. I am sure of one thing, 
 our indignation would not be less than it now is, at 
 the cruel course pursued on the grounds of — so 
 called — necessity. I know I shall be told, that the 
 Poor-law is an English measure, worked on English 
 principle, &c. &c. I have nothing to say to this, 
 beyond the assertion, that Irish Guardians do not 
 work it according to law, though the same parties 
 do work their evictions to the extreme letter of the 
 law. If we cannot pay our rates in England, extreme 
 measures are taken, just as the Western landlords 
 take them to get their rents. If I am told, that 
 to find proper workhouses, to feed the paupers, 
 
212 
 
 clothe and educate them according to law, could only 
 be done by selling up a great portion of the estates ; 
 what, then ? is the selling up of one man worse than 
 the selling up another ? Has the peasant no claims 
 for mercy, if mercy is to be shewn the class above 
 him? Because landlords are bankrupt, are tens of 
 thousands of miserable beings, bred upon their 
 estates, to be cast on the mercies of a Poor-law, and 
 then denied that amount of charity, which the law 
 declares to be their due ? 
 
 No reverence for the rights of property can guard 
 it from attack on those rights, when such property is 
 found to be either itself a mere shadow; or if it be of 
 any substance, acting out its rights in opposition to 
 all that ever claimed respect for such rights. Go 
 where Tenant-right exists — go where the tenant by a 
 sense of some security of tenure, feels that he may 
 hope to reap the fruits of his industry ; and you will 
 find, however subdivided the land may be, the tenantry 
 are in comparative comfort : the reason is obvious, 
 industry cannot survive without hope ; the very soul 
 of a tenant's hope, is — that he may himself gather 
 the result of his own invested capital, his own in- 
 dustry. Land, like life, is a trust — the reckoning 
 for the abuse of the latter is an affair principally of 
 the next world ; but who shall dare to argue, that 
 when law, by common consent, was made the guar- 
 dian of the proprietor's rights, it bound itself to 
 respect those rights, however he might abuse them. 
 
213 
 
 The tenantry of the West were bred to be tenantry 
 not labourers; their tenancy was for many gene- 
 rations, at the cost of their own character, more 
 profitable to the proprietor, than their labour, as 
 labourers would have been. He never could have 
 farmed to the profit, to which he let and sublet. I 
 have learned to discard the idea that the subletting, 
 was so altogether in opposition to the will of the 
 landlord. The middleman, he must have known, 
 could never have paid the rent he did, had he not 
 looked to redivide his holdings again and again. 
 
 Why is the tenant's house in the West, of so 
 homely a structure, that any of the well trained 
 levelling gangs, can make its utter ruin, almost a 
 matter of minutes ? — simply because, feeling the 
 uncertainty of his tenure, it was the best he dared 
 to build, or rent. Why did these cottier tenants, live 
 so from hand to mouth, not caring to save, or if 
 they saved, not daring to shew any improvement in 
 their condition ? — because, having no leases, or none 
 that could not easily be rendered void, they feared, 
 to have their rent raised, the moment it was known, 
 they had made one farthing beyond the sum on 
 which they could exist. Why is it, that in the 
 counties of Ireland, where there is something like 
 fixity of tenure ; the land is worked in a different 
 way ; the higher classes of crops grown, stock kept, 
 &c. whilst the Western tenant, leant alone on potatoes, 
 with now and then a patch of oats ? — because the 
 
 
214 
 
 said Western tenant knew, that to bring the face of 
 his land to a higher culture, was to advertise it, as in 
 the market, for all who would fee the driver, or the 
 agent, to get possession of it for them, at the higher 
 rent they would boldly promise. Can it be wondered 
 at, when it is proved, to the experience of thousands, 
 that property has been so abused, industry so fettered, 
 idleness so encouraged, lying and cunning so fostered, 
 that there is a feeling gaining ground, that for the 
 good of all — for the common weal ; the law should give 
 to the tenant a better, a more hopeful position ? 
 
 The nature of a tenant-right agitation, will now 
 be very different from that of any agitation we have 
 yet known ; it will be one, which for once will throw 
 open its arms to welcome men of all creeds, all 
 politics. The agitators will be of a class of far more 
 esteem, than ever were the leaders of mere political 
 or sectarian movements. They will argue from 
 premises, very difficult to refute, capable of the most 
 popular reception. They will hold up two pictures, 
 and bid us look on this — on that — on the comparative 
 prosperity of subdivided Ulster ; on the wretchedness 
 of Connaught. They will say here are solvent 
 tenants, solvent landlords, a people well domiciled ; 
 cropping their lands with turnips, wheat, flax, &c. 
 living at ease, an ease purchased by industry ; they 
 will say — on the other hand, there, are large fields 
 planted with workhouse corpses; vast districts of 
 fallen dwellings — thousands of acres of waste land — 
 
215 
 
 land fast receding to its original barrenness ; there, 
 paupers are counted in tens of thousands ; granaries, 
 corn stores, and factories rented for workhouses, and 
 crammed as soon as hired; — here, behold water 
 power turned to account, factories raising up markets 
 for agricultural produce, scenes of busy employment, 
 active enterprise; — there, water power wasted — 
 manufacture almost unknown, or only kept alive by 
 the force of alms ; the people naked, and yet, fields 
 barren of the flax the power of the rivers could 
 turn to clothing — here, they will say, "is tenant- 
 right," prosperity, — a low degree of pauperism; — 
 there, mere property right — adversity — unheard of 
 pauperism and mortality, far spread ruin. 
 
 They will add to these more homely illustrations, 
 of the effect of tenants in security, as opposed to 
 tenants wholly unsecured in their tenure ; arguments, 
 drawn from a comparison of the intellectual condition 
 of the two classes ; pointing to the schools, churches, 
 chapels, &c. on the one side, and their effect upon 
 the social condition of every class ; on the other side, 
 holding up the ignorance of the masses, the wretched 
 church and chapel accommodation ; the scanty 
 attendance on the schools, and the general neglect 
 of all the known means, of improving the intellectual 
 tone of social life. 
 
 Now I am far from myself admitting, that the 
 force of such arguments, if they can be proved to be 
 well founded in their premises, would lead me to 
 
216 
 
 allow, that the tenant-right of Ulster, could be jus- 
 tifiably forced upon the landlords of the West. But 
 knowing, as I do, the disposition of the people in the 
 West, to accept such arguments ; not only for what 
 they allow to their weight, but because they tend to a 
 consummation, they have long desired ; I shall not 
 be surprised, if the utter disgust, and discontent, the 
 dealings of the landlords have produced, prepare the 
 way in the Western districts, for the most strenuous 
 efforts, on the side of that agitation, on this question, 
 as yet, chiefly confined to the more northern, and 
 eastern parts of Ireland. 
 
 The new proprietary, it is to be hoped, will be wise 
 in time ; there are many ways of forming agreements 
 with tenantry, giving to them what is just towards 
 them ; securing to them, a fair and equitable treat- 
 ment, as regards the questions of rent, value of 
 improvement, duration, and conditions of tenure; 
 without resorting to the length, which in my opinion 
 seems to make the landlord a mere annuitant on his 
 own estate. If they, with those of the present pro- 
 prietary, who may yet weather the storm, will seek 
 by timely measures of justice, to disarm the force that 
 threatens them ; they may do it, to their own gain, 
 and the social benefit of their several distiicts ; but 
 if on the other hand they are going to stand on the 
 letter of their right — to do as they like with their 
 own ; I fear they will find, when it is too late, that 
 the days are gone by, in which, such a stretching of 
 
217 
 
 the recognised privileges of property will be en- 
 dured.* 
 
 They had better learn of Lincolnshire, and of the 
 north of England, how to deal with tenantry, before 
 they are forced to learn a less agreeable lesson from 
 the county Down, and the north of Ireland. Of the 
 effect the late policy of the Irish proprietary, espe- 
 cially in the West, has already had on public opinion; 
 there scarce can be a stronger proof, than the rejection 
 of the "Bill," by the House of Commons, for the 
 better protection of the landlord's right to the crops, 
 in the case of insolvent tenants. The Legislature, 
 naturally enough, fears to put even a just power into 
 the hands of those, who themselves, or by their 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have seen the accounts of 
 the sayings and doings of the Tenant- Right League ; they 
 do not take me at all by surprise ; I have long since felt and 
 declared my opinion, — that the land question would ere long 
 enlist into one body, men of every creed. I can only hope, 
 means may now be taken, to do what is fair between both 
 parties, before the pressure from without, may threaten even 
 louder than at present, to bring about a system, I think fair, 
 to neither landlord or tenant ; for it destroys their true position 
 towards each other ; taking from one, the power he ought to 
 hold over his own property; giving to the other possession, 
 under the name of tenancy. I cannot but think, that all 
 which justice would demand for either party could be obtained, 
 without this open departure from those principles of justice, 
 as regards the rights of ownership, which are the very basis 
 of civilization. 
 
218 
 
 agents, have so abused the power they at present 
 possess. I regard " corn lifting" as a thing which 
 should be put down by law ; I therefore regret that 
 power has not been given to suppress it ; but I am 
 not surprised at the jealousy which has denied that 
 power. I regret the more, that some simple Act 
 has not been passed, to check the turning the Sab- 
 bath into a day of fraud; because, I fear this 
 fraudulent practice will find favour, in districts, where 
 the tenants have been well treated. I believe, how- 
 ever, the amount of crop-lifting last year was much 
 exaggerated ; I fear it will be far exceeded this year. 
 A very great number of tenants, hold on with their 
 land, only to the moment, when they can realize 
 enough to fly to America ; to get the means of doing 
 so, they will strain their every cunning. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BRIGHTER PROSPECTS — CONSOLIDATION OF HOLDINGS — 
 DECREASE OF SMALL TENANTRY — THE EFFECT ON LA- 
 BOUR OF PUBLIC WORKS — AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION 
 — GLASNEVIN COLLEGE — ABSENTEEISM — THE PRIESTS — 
 THEIR CONDITION —ENCUMBERED ESTATES ACT. 
 
 I have now to invite my reader's attention to some 
 of the brighter features in the state of this unhappy 
 country. It used to be said, that there was a popu- 
 lation in Ireland so disproportioned to the real power 
 of the soil to afford employment for it, that this alone 
 was cause sufficient to account for the amount of 
 misery which existed. I do not think any one pos- 
 sessed of common sense, and the most limited know- 
 ledge of Ireland, can say this at the present time. 
 According to the returns of the Emigration Commis- 
 sioners, emigration from Ireland to the Colonies and 
 the United States, has averaged for the last three 
 years, 200,000 per annum ; there is now no material 
 diminution in the outward-bound movement of this 
 people. It is a well-known fact, that very large sums 
 are for ever arriving, by one channel or another, from 
 those who have gone, to help those who remain to 
 follow them. Unfortunately, there is no way of 
 
Il 
 
 220 
 
 ascertaining the amount of the doings of death in the 
 various Unions with anything like accuracy; my own 
 firm belief is, that if a line was drawn from Ballina, 
 Mayo, touching the border of Roscommon, King's 
 County, and Kilkenny, to Wat erf or d, that to the 
 West of that line, the decrease in 1851 will be found 
 to be not less than 40 per cent on. the census of 1841 ; 
 I believe that death and emigration have yet to de- 
 crease very seriously the population for at least 
 another year. There are scarcely any marriages, the 
 males have died, or emigrated, in a far greater pro- 
 portion than the females ; and a very large proportion 
 of the existing pauper population of the West are in 
 a condition of weakness, forbidding hope of eventual 
 recovery ; many may live for a few years, surviving 
 their present physical depression ; but I believe, the 
 dysentery produced by famine and exposure so injures 
 the organism of life, that all that skill and care can 
 do seldom affects anything beyond an arrest of the 
 acute symptoms ; chronic ailment of the worst cha- 
 racter remains. 
 
 If, then, over-population was a curse, it must be 
 allowed that, however awful, in every sense, has been 
 the process, a decrease has been effected, and is still 
 in progress, likely to remove this avowed bane of 
 Ireland. It has been argued, that the land could 
 never give the employment, which alone could make 
 the capital invested in it reproductive, until the hold- 
 ings were more consolidated. I here insert a table, 
 
221 
 
 compiled from Captain Larcom's returns for 1848, 
 shewing, in the counties I visited, the progress of 
 consolidation. 
 
 
 Holdings above 1 and not 
 exceeding 5 acres. 
 
 Holdings above 5 and not 
 exceeding 15 acres. 
 
 Holdings above 15 and 
 not exceeding 30 acres. 
 
 
 Numbers in 
 
 a 
 
 ■— 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Numbers in 
 
 u 
 
 Q 
 
 Numbers in 
 
 U 
 
 u 
 u 
 
 Q 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 Clare . . 
 
 Limerick 
 Galway . 
 Mayo . . 
 
 4,747 
 5,051 
 12,798 
 10,349 
 
 2,763 
 3,927 
 9,419 
 6,775 
 
 1,984 
 1,124 
 3,379 
 3,574 
 
 10,977 
 
 6,048 
 
 21,621 
 
 23,571 
 
 8.110 
 5,17.4 
 17,805 
 19,230 
 
 2,867 
 
 874 
 
 3,816 
 
 4,341 
 
 7,936 
 
 4,919 
 
 10,486 
 
 9,857 
 
 7,661 
 4,736 
 8,911 
 9,403 
 
 275 
 
 183 
 
 1575 
 
 454 
 
 2487 
 
 Total. . . 
 
 32,945 
 
 22,884 
 
 10,061 
 
 62,217 
 
 50,319 
 
 11,898 
 
 33,198 
 
 30,7 1 1 
 
 
 Total Decrease, 
 10,061 
 
 Total Decrease, 
 11,898 
 
 Total Decrease, 
 2,487 
 
 Total decrease, in one year, in the above four counties, of 
 
 holdings under 30 acres 24,446 
 
 It appears from the above table, that in one year, 
 the holdings in those counties, between one and five 
 acres, have decreased 10,061 ; between five and fifteen 
 acres, 11,898; between fifteen, and not exceeding 
 thirty acres, 2,487- 
 
 In the whole of Ireland, between 1847 and 1848 — 
 I quote again from the same returns — 
 
 Holdings under one acre have become 30 per cent less. 
 Ditto above one, and not exceeding five 20 „ 
 
 Ditto five „ fifteen 11 „ 
 
 Ditto fifteen „ thirty 3 „ 
 
 Above thirty acres, there is an increase of 3 per cent. 
 
222 
 
 That the small farms and farmers have thus under- 
 gone rapid obliteration, even in one year, is a fact 
 beyond all dispute. The returns for 1849 are not 
 yet published : unless I am mistaken, they will prove 
 the process of exterminating the small holdings has 
 not nagged. 
 
 What prospect is there of these consolidated hold- 
 ings being turned to account ? What are the owners 
 doing with them ? The tenants — are they tenanted? 
 In a great part of the country through which I travel- 
 led, nothing can be worse than the appearance of a 
 great proportion of the land said to be under cultiva- 
 tion; where four or five holdings have been thrown into 
 one, a great deal of what I saw was the tillage of men 
 without knowledge or capital; there was a good deal of 
 potato, some little oats, scarce any turnips, and very 
 little wheat. The crops were foul and poor; a good 
 deal of land was waste ; there were all the marks of 
 former tillage of some sort ; but the surface of a great 
 deal of the ground was a mass of weeds, thistles, &c. 
 The farmhouses (?) had no conveniences for farming; 
 it is clear to me the majority of these tenants, who 
 have eagerly grasped the land, torn from, or deserted 
 by others, must soon follow them, and will do so, 
 either voluntarily, midnight fashion, or by day, under 
 Sheriff pressure. They had no capital or skill ; they 
 have been offered no security that, had they both, 
 their application would eventually benefit themselves. 
 They just answer this purpose — they exist — the pro- 
 
223 
 
 prietor's apology for eviction; they adorn " Particu- 
 lars of Sale " of encumbered estates, as tenantry in 
 occupation of promising holdings. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is this much of hope, in this 
 state of things; new proprietors, with capital, and 
 without encumbrances, have had their way so far 
 smoothed, that they have, in reality, little surplus 
 labour to provide for ; and the estates are just in that 
 condition, which, whilst it calls for energy and indus- 
 try, has now fewer difficulties, in the Avay of both, 
 than their former condition. A better system of 
 tenure, some present help, some little sympathy, a 
 little patience, and practical teaching; may yet 
 make of the tenantry who remain, valuable agents 
 for their own eventual good, and the return from 
 the soil of produce, sufficient to pay a fair interest 
 for the capital invested. 
 
 A very large number of the peasantry, are being 
 fast led into habits, which will fit them for hard work, 
 in return for money wages ; a great and satisfactory 
 change from their old potato-bred habits : I allude 
 to the men, employed on the drainage, and other 
 great works, now in progress. These men will be 
 available for very much of that species of work, which 
 a better state of farming will require. The amount 
 of arterial drainage now in progress, will, when 
 completed, confer extended and permanent benefit 
 to the districts through which it will pass ; it will 
 give the owners of lands, over a large extent of 
 
224 
 
 country, the power, at a comparatively small expense, 
 to drain their property, and thus permanently raise 
 its value. 
 
 The cultivation of the potato, must now, I would 
 hope, at once, and for ever, be given up, as the great 
 absorbing object of the tiller of the soil. In the year 
 1848, as compared with 1847, that crop occupied an 
 increase of area to the amount of 481,750 acres; it 
 will not be denied, that this present year has seen 
 every possible pains taken, to give this favourite 
 root, again, a position as the first object of the small 
 farmers' hope ; as I write, I have received intelligence 
 corroborating all my fears — that again the potato 
 would be, what is called blighted. I myself do not 
 believe it is a blight. I firmly believe, this vegetable 
 has now — from what first cause I know not — an 
 hereditary taint of constitution ; like scrofula in the 
 human race, there is some latent germ of disease, in 
 the genus, potato, which will from time to time 
 develop itself, in more or less severity, in the various 
 species of that root. I believe it will not for many 
 years, if ever, put off this susceptibility to disease ; 
 one year may be better than another, but I expect 
 that there will be few years, in which those who look 
 for a harvest of this root, unaffected by disease, will 
 not be disappointed. Deeply as I regret this year's 
 threatened visitation ; I cannot but believe, it will 
 work for eventual good. 
 
 The intersection of Ireland from East to West by 
 
225 
 
 railway, is in quick progress ; when the railway is 
 open to Galway, it will, I am satisfied, prove of very 
 great benefit to the whole of the western coast. 
 Ready access to markets, is a very great incentive to 
 industry ; it will require years to resuscitate mere 
 local demand, to that amount, which would be 
 required to develop the resources of the coasts, the 
 lakes, and the soil of the West : ready and quick 
 communication with Dublin and the East and North 
 of Ireland, in connection with such a town as Galway, 
 must tell greatly in favour of the country, for miles 
 around : the opening of the canal to Lough Corrib, 
 and from that Lake again to Lough Mask, making 
 a safe and speedy transit for goods to Galway from 
 so great a distance up the country, will help the 
 extreme North- Western districts. I look at the 
 supposed value to the West of Ireland of the 
 railroad to Galway, on the supposition of that port 
 becoming a packet station, as quite secondary to its 
 value, in the way of creating a market for the produce 
 of those fisheries, farms, and factories in the West, 
 which I have myself no doubt, will in the course of 
 time, exist and require, as they will thus obtain, such 
 a means of disposing of the result of their several 
 productive powers. 
 
 It is in vain to attempt to spur on the different 
 branches of industry, for which there is such an 
 ample field in Connaught, until there is a prospect 
 of a better market for their produce. What is doing 
 
 l 2 
 
 
226 
 
 now by individuals, however praiseworthy, is only 
 the mere keeping just alive what might be nurtured 
 into great results. There is not native capital enough 
 to call out all that could be done by native industry ; 
 but I am satisfied there is a good deal of capital in 
 Ireland, as well as in England, only waiting for the 
 ordinary chances of commercial speculation to em- 
 bark itself in the fisheries and farms of Connaught ; 
 and I have no doubt, in my own mind, but that in a 
 country so suited to the growth of flax, with an 
 amount of water power to be had at such little cost, 
 the best of building materials cheap at hand, and 
 thousands of hands to be very reasonably hired, 
 manufactories of linen and of woollen will ere long 
 spring up in these districts. 
 
 If we once see a speedy and cheap communication 
 open between a country possessing great advantages 
 for cheap production, with distant localities, in which 
 there is a demand for the matters produced ; if we 
 could see some mitigation of those awful scenes of 
 misery, which are now so far spread, and so power- 
 fully prejudice every would be settler ; if we should 
 happily arrive- at a time when sectarian and political 
 differences could so far restrain their respective evil 
 passions, that men could live at least as neighbours 
 in this life, however they may differ in politics and 
 polemics ; if there was once a well established sense 
 of safety to life and property, of the reasonable 
 probability of the results of industry becoming the 
 
227 
 
 secured property of the industrious producing them ; 
 then, I have no doubt, but those districts in the West 
 of Ireland, now so morally and socially defaced, in 
 which God's gifts are so wantonly abused, would be- 
 come fields of successful commercial and agricultural 
 enterprize, to an extent sufficient to restore the people 
 to a state of comparative prosperity. 
 
 A great deal of money is now expending under the 
 Land Improvement Act ; and I rejoice to see the 
 money so obtained may now be applied in the erection 
 of farm buildings ; in no direction could borrowed 
 money be of more service. With regard to agri- 
 culture, so far as a more accurate knowledge of its 
 principles is a thing to be desired in these districts, 
 rapid strides are making in the right direction. Not 
 merely is there a disposition on the part of such men 
 as Lord Lucan, Lord Clancarty, Colonel Knox Gore, 
 and many others, to prove, at their own expense on 
 their own estates, the advantages of a sound system 
 of agriculture, but there is a large machinery at work 
 to force, as it were, a knowledge of good husbandry 
 on the attention of the small holders : too old to come 
 to school, the schoolmaster is sent to them : on very 
 many large estates individuals called " Practical In- 
 structors" are salaried to go amongst the farmers to 
 offer, gratuitously, advice and general direction, as to 
 all the best means of improving their land, and in- 
 creasing its returns, which such land will admit of. 
 I had the pleasure, at Lord Clancarty' s, of seeing 
 
 
228 
 
 several of his small farms, on my former tour, and 
 hearing from his lips, on the spot the amount of in- 
 creased produce these small holders had attained, by 
 having given their minds to learn, and their hands to 
 practise, improved husbandry — he had on his estate 
 one of these " Practical Instructors." 
 
 There is a large Agricultural Society at Balinasloe ; 
 I have attended many such meetings in England, to 
 meet English agricultural stars, but I must say, I 
 never heard, at any English meeting, anything so 
 good and practical as the speeches which I have read 
 as delivered at these Irish meetings. It will serve to 
 give the reader some idea of the effort making to 
 spread sound agricultural knowledge, if I now pro- 
 ceed to detail the result of my late visit to the Glas- 
 nevin Model Farm Establishment, near Dublin. This 
 school is under her Majesty's Commissioners of 
 National Education in Ireland. I found some neat 
 buildings in connection with about 100 acres, more 
 or less, of land; there were cattle sheds, with a 
 certain amount of stock, piggeries, &c. The land 
 was very heavily cropped, and farmed on the highest 
 known principles, applicable to such an extent of 
 soil. It is worked, I believe, entirely by the labour 
 of the pupils, under the direction of a Mr. John 
 Donaghy, the Agricultural Instructor and Super- 
 intendent. 
 
 The young men here educated, are received on cer- 
 tain rules of recommendation, from all parts of Ireland, 
 
229 
 
 to be qualified for the situations of Land Bailiffs ; 
 Agricultural teachers in schools; Practical Instructors 
 in the provinces ; or as Farmers on their own account. 
 The day I visited the establishment, there were forty- 
 seven pupils in course of instruction. Before giving 
 any account of the nature of the education afforded 
 them, T will place before the reader the different 
 parts of Ireland from which these forty- seven pupils 
 came, their parentage, and their intended future 
 occupation, from particulars kindly furnished at my 
 desire. 
 
 Sons of Farmers 
 
 . 26 
 
 INTENDED OCCUPATION. 
 
 „ Tradesmen . 
 
 . 7 
 
 To be Land Stewards . 43 
 
 „ Land Stewards 
 
 . 6 
 
 To farm on his own ac- 
 
 „ Schoolmasters 
 
 . 6 
 
 count . . . 1 
 
 Son of a House Agent 
 
 . 1 
 
 To teach Agriculture . 3 
 
 „ Medical Man 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 47 
 
 47 
 
 HAVE COME FROM. 
 
 Co. of Cork . 
 
 2 
 
 Co. of Meath . 
 
 1 
 
 „ Donegal 
 
 1 
 
 „ Wicklow 
 
 2 
 
 „ Clare . 
 
 4 
 
 „ Galway 
 
 3 
 
 „ Limerick 
 
 1 
 
 „ Mayo . 
 
 3 
 
 „ Roscommon . 
 
 1 
 
 „ Kerry . 
 
 1 
 
 „ Kildare 
 
 . 2 
 
 „ Dublin 
 
 1 
 
 „ Down . 
 
 2 
 
 „ Louth . 
 
 1 
 
 „ Antrim 
 
 8 
 
 „ Waterford . 
 
 3 
 
 „ Cavan . 
 
 4 
 
 „ Tyrone 
 
 1 
 
 „ Kilkenny 
 
 2 
 
 „ Leitrim 
 
 o 
 
 „ King's Co. . 
 
 1 
 
 „ Tipperary . 
 
 1 
 
 47 
 
230 
 
 From the above particulars it will be seen, that the 
 advantages of this institution are sought by just that 
 class most to be desired, for the ends for which it was 
 established ; it also appears, that this leavening of the 
 agricultural mind, is a process in course of action, 
 throughout the length and breadth of the country. 
 
 The following is the result of an inquiry as to the 
 destination of those pupils who have been already 
 educated. Of seventy-one pupils who have left this 
 establishment since 1st Nov. 1847 to the 1st of July, 
 1850, 
 
 26 have been appointed to conduct small Agricultural 
 
 schools. 
 8 to Literary schools, until Agricultural schools need 
 
 their services. 
 4 are Land Stewards. 
 4 Practical Agriculturists on private estates. 
 
 3 „ „ under Lord Clarendon's letter. 
 
 4 conduct the business of their fathers' farms. 
 
 5 have emigrated. 
 5 dismissed. 
 
 12 occupations unknown. 
 
 71 
 
 After going over the land in cultivation, I saw the 
 young men collected in the Class-room. They were 
 put through a long examination in the practice and 
 theory of agriculture. They were questioned nar- 
 rowly as to the nature and classification of soils ; the 
 theory and practice of draining ; the economy, nature, 
 and effect of manures, natural and artificial; the 
 
231 
 
 relative cost of particular courses of cropping ; the 
 theory of cropping; succession of crops, &c. The 
 organism of plants ; their relative effect upon the soil; 
 the application of chemistry to agriculture ; the com- 
 parative cost of land worked as arable or pasture, &c. 
 &c. They were, in fact, examined with some strictness 
 as to their knowledge of all those subjects, which form 
 the staple of books on the Science and Practice of 
 High-farming. Many of them answered quickly and 
 understandingly ; they all gave evidence that fully as 
 much pains was taken in the theoretical teaching, 
 as in the practical. I looked at some of the themes 
 they write on the subject of agriculture ; they were 
 all directed to the same end, viz, teaching thoroughly 
 all that is known on this interesting branch of know- 
 ledge. I at first doubted whether they could under- 
 stand the scientific terms they so freely used; I 
 therefore laid wait for an opportunity to test one of 
 them, and, to my surprise, had a good plain defini- 
 tion of a term given, which I thought must have 
 been as Hebrew to the youth who used it. 
 
 They looked to me to be youths of just the right 
 stamp for the purpose, for which they were in training ; 
 hardy, healthy and homely. They have lately got an 
 increase of land for the farm, and are about to put up 
 a house and offices on a larger scale. I was much 
 gratified with the time I spent at this establishment ; I 
 can see no bound to the good it is calculated to effect. 
 In December, 1848, there were fifty agricultural 
 
232 
 
 schools in connection with the Commissioners of 
 Education in Ireland. I am afraid I forgot to in- 
 quire whether the pupils were chiefly Catholics or 
 Protestants, I hope there are many of both religious 
 professions, and have no doubt that the pupils of these 
 establishments are not exclusively of any one religious 
 denomination. 
 
 Those only who have had an opportunity of ob- 
 serving the general nature of farming, as practised 
 amongst the small holders in the West, can form any 
 true idea of the value of this system of training 
 young men to become teachers, and exhibitors of a 
 very different practice. The soil of the South and 
 West of Ireland is, very much of it, capable of a very 
 high cultivation, especially as regards root crops and 
 flax j but much of it requires thorough draining, and 
 a very large proportion of the tenantry, until of late 
 years, had nothing beyond the most limited know- 
 ledge of those well known principles, which regulate 
 good tillage. 
 
 The " Agriculturists" and " Practical Instructors" 
 make it their duty to go from farm to farm, wherever 
 invited, and give on the spot every necessary advice 
 and direction, to assist the tenant in bettering his 
 mode of tillage. They work powerfully in aid of the 
 Agricultural Societies, and very generally act as 
 judges on those estates, where the proprietors try by 
 premiums to improve the farming of their tenantry. 
 
 I have now before me a handrbill relative to prizes, 
 
233 
 
 — 1st, A New Turn Plough ; 2nd, A Double Har- 
 row; 3rd, Three Turnip Hoes — offered by the pro- 
 prietor of Kilbrittain Castle, county of Cork, for 
 competition amongst his tenantry ; I have also the 
 award made, with all its details of inspection, and 
 grounds of decision, it is signed, T. F. Gerrard, Prac- 
 tical Instructor; Geo. Ronaldson, Superintendent of 
 Drainage ; Hugh Irvine, Agriculturist. In a short 
 address circulated with the above award, Colonel 
 Alcock reminds his tenantry how much they owe to 
 the " Practical Instructor." 
 
 I believe, in nothing will " practical instruction" 
 more avail for good, than in connection with the cul- 
 ture and management of flax. It is now capable of 
 easy proof, that flax grown for the loom, not for seed, 
 is not the land scourging crop generally supposed ; 
 it is found that there are ready means of returning 
 to the soil from the refuse of the crop, and by use of 
 the water in which the crop is steeped, all or nearly 
 all, of those properties of the soil the crop has taken 
 from it. Both soil and climate are peculiarly adapted 
 for the growth of flax, and the employment it affords 
 in its preparation for the loom is most valuable. So 
 far then, as the population being now, not more than 
 sufficient (I doubt its sufficiency) to cultivate the land 
 in the West of Ireland ; the land being so cleared of 
 small holdings, that there is a great facility for an 
 improved system of cultivation; the peasantry, in 
 large numbers, having, by employment under engi- 
 
234 
 
 neers, at draining and other operations, acquired 
 habits of hard work, for moderate money wages. A 
 great and systematic effort being in operation to teach 
 practically the best methods of cultivating the soil ; 
 it cannot be denied but that there are grounds for 
 hope of a better state of things — grounds not ren- 
 dered less sound from the warning again given to us, 
 of the uncertain result of potato culture. That there 
 is also very great improvement in the returns of " live 
 stock" upon the face of the land cannot be denied. 
 There is even to the passing traveller, proof that the 
 pig is again making his appearance, and here and 
 there, as you travel eastward, may be seen a consi- 
 derable quantity of sheep and cattle. 
 
 Taking a comparison between the year 1847 and 
 1848, and classing the holdings of the whole rural dis- 
 tricts of Ireland, as — under 1 acre — above 1 under 5 — 
 above 5, not exceeding 15 — above 15, not exceeding 
 30 — above 30. There was an increase in horses and 
 mules at £8. per head to the value of £8,976 — a 
 decrease of asses at £l. per head, to the amount of 
 £7,012. Cattle at £6. 10s per head, an increase to 
 the value of £743,354. Sheep at £l. 2s per head, 
 had decreased to an amount in value of £189,857- 
 Pigs at £l. 5s per head had increased, as in value to 
 the amount of £40,134. 
 
 The horses had decreased on the holdings under 
 15 acres to the amount in numbers of 10,222; in- 
 creasing on the larger holdings 1 1,344. Cattle on 
 
235 
 
 holdings under 15 acres, had decreased in numbers 
 36,300; on the larger holdings they had increased 
 149,662 ; on the holdings under 15 acres, sheep had 
 numerically decreased 56,622 ; on the larger holdings 
 also decreased 115,906 ! on the holdings under 15 
 acres pigs had increased 9,455, on the larger holdings 
 22,652. The reader must bear in mind these details 
 are taken from Captain Larcom's tables of 1847- 
 1848 — they shew a great diminution in the capital 
 of small farmers ; a large increase in the stock of the 
 larger holders. 
 
 I look with much curiosity to the forthcoming 
 returns, which will shew us the state of things in 
 1849, my own impression is, pigs will still be looking 
 up. Cattle will have increased, though not in the 
 ratio of 1848 over 184 J". Sheep it will not surprise 
 me to find, have, as to all Ireland, increased, but have 
 decreased in the West of it. 
 
 One result of the system of clearance has been, in 
 very many districts, to throw a large amount of 
 arable land into pasture ; perhaps, in many instances, 
 with a good effect ; but this can only go on to a 
 limited extent, there must be winter feed found for 
 the stock ; and stock farms must have in connection 
 with them, land tilled to carry root, and some cereal 
 crops. The system of improved farming now pur- 
 sued in England, will make a great demand for lean 
 stock, and this a great deal of Irish land will be 
 able to furnish, with fair profit ; but the improvement 
 

 236 
 
 of tillage, must keep company with the extension of 
 the numbers of stock, yearly bred ; the mere 
 grazier, and the cultivator of arable land, can neither 
 do, the one without the other. It is satisfactory to 
 see the increase in the amount of cattle in the aggre- 
 gate, as also the increase of horses, although it 
 appears, that the increase has been at the cost of the 
 small holders ; the decrease in the number of asses, 
 is again proof of the pressure which has existed on 
 these holders ; it is satisfactory to see, however, that 
 such small holders as remain are gaining in the 
 matter of pigs, for the pig is of all animals one that 
 they can the least afford to lose. 
 
 I am far from denying that the West of Ireland 
 is as yet beset on every side with difficulty — 
 financial, social, and to some degree political ; but I 
 am myself well assured, that there yet remains abun- 
 dant material for a great, though it must be gradual, 
 revival of its depressed resources; of one thing I 
 have no doubt — if it has a fair chance of recovery, its 
 second state will be one far better every way than its 
 first. The proprietors who survive, and the new pro- 
 prietors, will alike have had a valuable lesson from 
 the past ; it is all very well for angry or interested 
 parties to say, that the estates now selling by the 
 Commissioners are confiscated, are sold at such un- 
 justifiable sacrifice. I believe, on inquiry, it would 
 be found they sell for their full value, taking into 
 consideration the condition they are in, and the capi- 
 
237 
 
 tal which will be required to restore the waste of their 
 natural resoiu'ces. 
 
 Men talk of " so many years' purchase/' as if any 
 man in his senses would measure the future by the 
 past in the matter of an Irish estate, and expect to 
 get potato rack-rent from a dispersed, diminished, 
 enfeebled population ; the potato itself having proved 
 in itself its own deterioration. I wish the estates may 
 not go too cheap, for, as in matters of tenancy, the 
 man who holds his land at too low a rent is very apt 
 to be a bad farmer, wanting the spur to industry, 
 which a fair rent ever proves itself ; so the higher the 
 terms of purchase the greater must be the effort to 
 get the interest for the money invested, out of the soil. 
 An unencumbered landlord starts free from those 
 clogs upon his will to rightly manage his property 
 after his own way, which tie down the debt-ridden, 
 agent-ridden proprietor of an estate, in which one 
 interest alone is felt by all concerned in its manage- 
 ment, viz. to screw out any how, all that in any way 
 can be got each year out of it. 
 
 It is satisfactory to notice another healthy symp- 
 tom : those who have the power and the desire to 
 improve their estates, are now more intent upon draw- 
 ing out all the value of good and ordinary land, in 
 preference to endeavouring to reclaim bog and old 
 barren waste land. I have seen many thousands of 
 acres of reclaimed bog at different times in Ireland ; 
 there is no denying but that in some instances such 
 
 
238 
 
 land does become valuable ; but as a rule, I am satis- 
 fied it is far better every way to apply the money 
 such reclamation costs, to the bringing land, which is 
 in cultivation, into the highest order it will admit of; 
 there are few estates in the West which would not in 
 this way profitably absorb all the capital at the dis- 
 posal of their owners. 
 
 There is some hope too — I wish there was more — 
 that Absenteeism will now be less the rule than it 
 has been. There is reason to believe that the divi- 
 sion of the large estates sold, and in the market, into 
 smaller properties will lead to more proprietary resi- 
 dence. That the purchasers will, many of them, be 
 of a class likely themselves to look after their own 
 properties. For my own part, I believe there could 
 scarce be a greater blessing to the West than the 
 raising up a race of proprietors, who would find occu- 
 pation, amusement, and a sphere of usefulness, with- 
 out aspiring to be of great individual provincial im- 
 portance. A good many moderate sized houses of 
 mere country gentlemen, inhabited by men aiming to 
 be nothing more, would be as gratifying to the eye, 
 as they would prove beneficial to these districts. 
 
 Landed grandeeism is all very well in its way ; deer 
 parks, demesnes, and miles of well kept walls, telling 
 of exciusiveness, and seeming to claim a sense of 
 inferiority from all landed beings less qualified 
 in these respects, have perhaps some advantages ; but 
 to keep up the healthy elements of social life, it is 
 
239 
 
 needed that no one scale of social importance should 
 so far prevail, as to make the lines too broad which 
 necessarily divide class from class. There are very- 
 many matters in rural districts requiring the con- 
 tinued consideration of practical men, interested 
 in the prosperity of such districts, and invested 
 with official power to act in aid of those many 
 minor matters, which avail to the advancement and 
 upholding of order, &c. &c Where the estates are 
 on a very large scale, not only is the number of pro- 
 prietors who can reside and act for the public benefit 
 necessarily narrowed, but they are then, generally, 
 men in a rank of life which necessarily draws them 
 much from home ; when they are at home, has many 
 hinderances in the way of their performance of social 
 duties, men of smaller calibre could do with more 
 ease to themselves and others. 
 
 One of the great social evils, which has had no 
 little effect in the production of a great deal one sees 
 to lament in the condition of the peasantry, is, the 
 little direct communication they ever have, with their 
 landlord or chief employers ; they have been far too 
 much handed over to agents and land stewards et 
 id genus omne. They have but too often been pur- 
 posely kept from communication with those on whose 
 conduct towards them depends so much of their 
 interest. I have again and again been struck with 
 the great difference between England and Ireland in 
 the matter of communication between landlord and 
 
 
fl 
 
 240 
 
 tenant, labourer and employer. In no one thing do 
 the two countries more differ j in England, the land- 
 lord is, with very rare exceptions, ever accessible to 
 the tenant ; the tenant is ever treated at least with 
 courtesy, if not with familiarity ; who is there, who 
 knows anything of Ireland, who will say the same of 
 that country ? I live in hopes that a new race may 
 take a different course ; nothing can be more painful 
 to any well thinking man, than to see frieze-coated 
 farmers, who have come from miles off, waiting hour 
 after hour at lodge gates, hall doors, anywhere about 
 the demesne, where they may hope at last to get " a 
 hearing" from the proprietor, and then to hear them 
 laconically dismissed with some such observation as 
 " What do you come to me for ? why do I pay an 
 agent, if I am to be ever pestered myself by people 
 coming after me ?" That power of the Priesthood, 
 which I hear so often complained of, owes, I am con- 
 vinced, a good deal to the want of sympathy shewn 
 to the small tenantry, by almost every other class. 
 
 There are no men on earth more susceptible of 
 civility from their superiors in rank than the Irish ; 
 they of all men look up to, and highly estimate rank. 
 They may cringe to the agent they hate, but still would 
 propitiate ; but they would do anything, go anywhere, 
 heart and soul in the act, in return for one word of 
 kindness from a "real gentleman" — "the man who 
 just owns them." They have been made suspicious 
 and cunning by the force of circumstances ; the same 
 
241 
 
 force, in a healthier direction, will still find in them 
 elements of honesty and real respect for their superiors, 
 which, once developed, will prove them to be all we 
 could wish them to be. 
 
 Ignorance can only be overcome by education; 
 although the pressure of general distress has for a 
 time much interfered with the progress of education, 
 still, it does make some way, and the machinery of it 
 is ready to be applied to happier times. It is true, 
 that the national system of education has to en- 
 counter no common opposition, but this very opposition 
 I believe to have been, in a great measure, the result 
 of a state of opinion fast giving way before the expe- 
 rience of the few past years. The religious strifes, 
 which have been aggravated by fierce political con- 
 tention, are gradually becoming weaker ; I believe 
 men of all parties are beginning to see, that 
 weightier matters than mere polemical and political 
 contentions claim their attention. I can easily con- 
 ceive, that were Lord Roden and Dr. M f Hale in the 
 same ship, in danger of wreck, they would not hesi- 
 tate, had they opportunity, to ride the same hen-coop 
 ashore. The threatening of a national bankruptcy, 
 the existence of scenes of misery — a national dis- 
 grace ; the mischievous and absurd results of past 
 contests of creeds and opinions, are fast forcing on 
 the minds of men, of every creed and opinion, that it 
 would be as well to bury "the hatchet," and see 
 what " the plough" can do. 
 
 M 
 
242 
 
 I firmly believe, that even the Godless Colleges will 
 yet survive the pains and perils of their birth, and 
 that they will not be found to act in any way sub- 
 versive of the several creeds of those who study at 
 them. The boon of a sound, first-rate education, so 
 near home, and at so moderate a cost, to the middling 
 classes of Ireland, is one so great, and must in the end 
 so tell on the prosperity of the people, that I cannot 
 conceive that any sound argument can tell against 
 an effort to afford it ; in a way so open to observa- 
 tion, and, therefore, so easily checked in any matter 
 in which it may be thought the interest of any par- 
 ticular creed is unduly dealt with. 
 
 That a source of bitter feeling does still exist, 
 and may yet be aggravated, from the attempts of 
 well meaning persons to proselyte amongst the 
 Roman Catholic peasantry, I cannot doubt ; I believe 
 the parties engaged in this aggression are in earnest, 
 and the leaders of the movement to be honest. 
 However much I may in my heart desire the con- 
 version of those whom I believe to be in error, I 
 cannot however, but lament the strife, ill-feeling, 
 and but too often hypocrisy, which, I fear, is the 
 result of the attempts made in this direction. My 
 own impression is, that the progress of general educa- 
 tion will do more to elicit real truth and put down 
 error, than any other means. What we Protestants 
 hold to be the errors of the Catholic's faith, are just 
 those matters which I believe will be the most affected 
 
243 
 
 by the spread of general knowledge. I rejoice to see 
 the spread of the Bible in the Irish tongue ; I should 
 rejoice to see that the power to read that book, and 
 many other books in that tongue, was very general; 
 but I cannot, I own, rejoice as others do, in that 
 excess of zeal which is very often little scrupulous in 
 the instruments it uses, so long as it can compass the 
 object, of gaining over converts. 
 
 Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the pre- 
 sent status of the Catholic priesthood. Spiritual 
 advisers of the great body of the people, they are yet 
 made so dependent on their congregations, for the 
 merest pittance which will support them in their proper 
 character, that, in such days as these, I believe many 
 of them scarcely have the means of life. I do not 
 believe them to be individually disloyal, or opposed 
 in heart to the English ; but I can see quite enough, 
 in their anomalous position, to keep up within their 
 breasts a state of feeling the very reverse of that 
 which one would desire to see in the spiritual advisers 
 of so large a proportion of the people. I can pray 
 for, and from my heart desire, that a time may come 
 when they may be, in religious profession, less 
 severed from those with whom I believe and worship; 
 but till that time comes, I cannot in justice cease 
 from wishing, that they may have afforded to them 
 means of subsistence and of education fitting their 
 office, and that esteem in which they are held by so 
 many thousands of my fellow-subjects. I look on it 
 
 
l\ 
 
 244 
 
 as another good symptom, that the feeling of the 
 public generally is less opposed, than it has been, to 
 the giving to the Catholic priesthood that considera- 
 tion which is their just due. It has been too much 
 the fashion to argue about them, as if they were all 
 chargeable with the wickedness which has proved 
 itself in some of their body. Because some have 
 proved themselves reckless in their support of the 
 objects of unprincipled men ; because some few have 
 rashly polluted their office by altar denunciations of 
 the most dangerous character ; we have no right to 
 argue that the whole body is corrupt. I have this 
 opinion of the majority of them; that, did they see 
 a kinder and more just treatment of those classes, 
 who form the great proportion of their flocks ; were 
 they less personally assailed on the score of those 
 matters of faith, in which I am bound to believe 
 they think they are right, by those who I equally 
 think believe them to be wrong ; were they treated 
 by the higher ranks of their own faith with more 
 sympathy and indulgence ; they would be found to 
 be ready to lend their very powerful aid on the side 
 of all those social improvements now to be so much 
 desired. 
 
 I have just seen a statement with regard to the 
 working of the Encumbered Estates Act, from which, 
 as it corroborates the views I have put forth in these 
 pages, I will give some extracts. Up to the 31st of 
 July, 1850, 1,085 petitions had been presented, the 
 
245 
 
 gross amount of incumbrances on which were, 
 £12,400,368; — the annual rental £655,470; — the 
 total produce of sales, up to the 10th of August inst. 
 is £748,474. 125 \0d. In many places the property 
 appears to have been saddled with incumbrances to 
 double its value, and the reputed owners have long 
 since lost all actual right of property in the soil. 
 Now, I ask, where could be found more telling proof 
 of wanton, reckless extravagance, than is to be found 
 in these figures? Who can wonder, that the te- 
 nantry on such estates were ground to the earth by 
 exaction, as long as they could pay, and then " cleared'' 
 any and every possible way, as soon as they became 
 a burden ? Could any greater bar to local improve- 
 ment have existed, could ingenuity have devised 
 any more perfect plan of social destruction, than the 
 holding this amount of property, in hands bound by 
 the fetters of engagements, which forbade all expen- 
 diture in improvements, and required even double 
 the value of the property to cover the annual de- 
 mands upon it ? 
 
 
CHAPTER X1Y. 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE EARL OF CLARENDON — ITS DIFFI- 
 CULTIES—HIS ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND 
 ART — IMPARTIALITY — THE QUEEN'S VISIT — THE AU- 
 THOR'S HOPE, THAT JUSTICE WILL YET BE DONE TO THE 
 PEASANTRY. 
 
 If the storms which have assailed Ireland's social 
 interests, during the last few years, which now still 
 in some degree prevail, are to be finally weathered ; 
 if this, in itself great, but in its circumstances, pitiable 
 land, is to gain at last a haven, in which its people 
 shall find domestic peace and prosperity, it will owe 
 a very heavy debt to the present Lord Lieutenant, 
 as the pilot who has so ably held the helm. Modern 
 history affords no parallel to the difficulties, which 
 have of late years beset and hindered his course; 
 falling into the hands of the direct judgments of God, 
 he has also had to encounter the worst violence of 
 man's worst passions. 
 
 Pestilence and famine scarcely needed civil war to 
 complete the picture, which set before him, a state 
 of things, calculated to paralyze the senses of one 
 less courageous, less heart inspired in his work. 
 Even these very morbid symptoms in the economy 
 of the country, committed to his charge, were not 
 alone in their distracting, disturbing consequences. 
 
247 
 
 To party rancour was allied, bitter sectarian feeling, 
 productive of outbreaks, seldom ending without shed- 
 ding of blood : and all this, at a period of history, 
 when the whole governments of the civilised world, 
 seemed simultaneously to be infected by some far- 
 spread convulsive epidemic. 
 
 Lord Clarendon was, however, neither appalled, 
 nor discouraged by the difficulties of his position ; he 
 never faltered in his course ; his energies, and his 
 resources, grew with the occasion. With the cha- 
 racter of an able diplomatist, his was no course of 
 mystery ; he boldly faced the evils, he never doubted 
 that he could crush. He met the violent weapons of 
 the insurgent, with those weapons with which the 
 rebel expects to contend ; whatever was work for the 
 Law Courts, he was content in those Courts to 
 attempt. Possessed of powers granted him by the 
 Legislature, which gave him all even a despot could 
 have desired; he never resorted to extraordinary 
 means, until all other means were likely to fail. It 
 has been admitted by some of the most democratic 
 spirits of the age, that so great an amount of power 
 was never, in any ruler's hands, so little abused. 
 
 There are those who affect to ridicule the Balingarry 
 insurrection ; now my own firm belief is, that had 
 not Lord Clarendon taken the position he did, and 
 at once determined, at every cost, to put down, at the 
 earliest moment, that outbreak, one short fortnight 
 would have seen the whole South and West of Ire- 
 
248 
 
 land in rebellion. A very small amount of success 
 would have fired the hearts of tens of thousands of dis- 
 contented men, who only waited to see, whether there 
 was anything of reality in the intentions of the 
 popular leaders. It is true, Smith O'Brien had no one 
 requisite for the leader of a rebellion, but how often 
 has it happened, that the occasion, in these matters, has 
 begotten the man. A leader who knew the people 
 and the country, although he never could have gained 
 the day, would, before he had been put down, have 
 caused a confusion and destruction of property, and 
 of life, which would have stained the annals of Ire- 
 land for centuries. 
 
 Lord Clarendon, a civil ruler, wisely determined 
 to employ the civil force, to the last possible moment; 
 he had the army in reserve, but he put down the 
 insurrection, chiefly by the use of that admirable 
 body — the Police. A very large proportion of that 
 body were Catholics, to a man they were staunch to 
 their duty ; that duty was often of a most harassing 
 and dangerous character ; far more so, I believe, than 
 is generally known ; they performed it in a way 
 beyond all praise : Lord Clarendon had won their 
 most complete confidence ; they had found in him 
 one, who took a deep and active interest in them as 
 — a force ; they knew him to be fully alive to their 
 value to the country. They had again and again 
 had occasion to know, that he was as prompt to 
 estimate special service, as he was to sanction the 
 
249 
 
 severe consequences of disobedience. It was well 
 known throughout the whole force, that when one of 
 their body^had been wounded in an attempt to per- 
 form a dangerous duty ; the marked sympathy 
 of the Lord -Lieutenant, had reached him within a 
 few hours from the time he was laid on the bed of 
 the hospital. It is then no matter of surprise, to those 
 who know the real services of this force of late years, 
 that they shewed the zeal, the firm, and temperate 
 courage they did, in that employment, which called 
 for so much from them. 
 
 Not the least remarkable feature in Lord Claren- 
 don's administration of his office, for the last few 
 years, has been the fact — that, amidst all the anxiety 
 and toil of days and months of turbulence and 
 dangerous disaffection, he never ceased his efforts to 
 advance every plan, holding out any hope of success, 
 from which he could expect aid in raising the social 
 condition of the people. He found leisure — how I 
 can scarcely conceive — to keep in view Ireland's 
 commercial improvement, even when most harassed 
 by the attempts of those who aimed at a violent 
 revolution. The promotion of sounder views as to 
 agriculture ; the endeavour to make agricultural sci- 
 ence a part of the general education of the people ; 
 the encouragement of every experiment tending to 
 develop any new branches of manufacture, to im- 
 prove existing manufactures ; the extension of the 
 means of educating the peasantry ; the establishing 
 
250 
 
 institutions for the giving to the sons of the middling 
 and higher orders, education of the highest class ; the 
 promotion of every public work likely to develop 
 fresh sources of private enterprise; these subjects, in 
 the most minute of their minutiae, obtained, through- 
 out all the busier and more pressing duties cast upon 
 him, no little share of his attention. The artists of 
 Ireland found him ever alive to their efforts, and 
 ready to patronize every branch of art, which, whilst 
 it raised the national taste, tended to reward the 
 industry of those who professed the finer arts. An 
 improvement in the manufacture of lace, or even any 
 new form in which Irish grown flax could be brought 
 into competition with the products of other lands, 
 anything bearing on the subject of profitable em- 
 ployment, however trifling in detail, still was ever to 
 him a subject of deep interest. 
 
 Again, he had the courage to support those bold 
 measures, which established a new system of dealing 
 with property, so encumbered as to make the real 
 proprietors mere shadows of their own substance. 
 Where property could not fulfil even its first duty, of 
 paying the just claims of those who held heavy liens 
 on it, as security for money lent ; he saw, clearly 
 enough, that it must depreciate in real value, and 
 cease to render to the general good, that social value 
 which is the chief ground for the laws, which so 
 jealously protect it. However deep the wounds the 
 Encumbered Estates Act may inflict on family pride, 
 
251 
 
 no just man can doubt, but that the working of that 
 Act, the carrying into effect its principles, is, after all, 
 the mere encouragement or enforcement, of a plain 
 system of justice. 
 
 One of those curses in Ireland's social condition, 
 which of late years has grown with her growth, was 
 the existence of that spirit of religious (?) feud, which 
 was for ever arming man against man on the score of 
 the antagonism of religious creed. In days of old, 
 according as Toryism or Whiggism was in the as- 
 cendant, the Orange or the Riband faction became 
 bold for evil. Lord Clarendon, whilst he has shewn 
 every respect for the claims to the law's protection, 
 of men of every creed, has at the same time shewn, 
 that violence shall find no excuse on the grounds of 
 religious hate. He cannot make men of one mind ; 
 but, to a great degree, he has enforced the rule that 
 no difference of mind shall justify the breach of the 
 law. 
 
 To hate and to murder were, at one time, as cause 
 and effect, in very many Irish districts. Agrarian 
 disputes found their solution in agrarian violence : 
 this was a many-headed monster. Let any man im- 
 partially regard the state of society, as it now is in 
 Ireland, with what so many of us remember it ; bear- 
 ing in mind, that at no period for many past years 
 has more provocation been given to the passions of 
 violent and ignorant men ; and then let him deny, if 
 he can, that Lord Clarendon has upheld the majesty 
 
252 
 
 of the law, in a degree, under all circumstances, which 
 reflects infinite credit on the days of his rule. 
 
 Acting, as if the land he ruled was the land of his 
 birth, he has made of his high office a matter of heart- 
 felt interest, as well as of grave responsibility ; the 
 want of opportunity has alone limited his endeavours 
 to advance every true interest of Ireland. With a 
 pardonable pride in his own knowledge of the people, 
 he ventured on one noble and successful experiment, 
 which, to many at the time appeared rash, to say the 
 least of it. Ireland's soil was yet warm from the 
 embers of a lately suppressed insurrection ; the ink 
 had scarce got the darkened hue of a few weeks' age 
 on the signatures of sentences, which had banished 
 the popular idols ; when he boldly placed the Sove- 
 reign before the people — brought her, her consort, 
 her children, into the thickest of their crowds : he 
 had the satisfaction to see that he had construed the 
 public mind aright j strong at heart and true of heart, 
 no Sovereign ever had a more wildly warm welcome 
 from subjects, than did our Queen receive from the 
 Irish. And I believe I only speak the truth when 
 I add, that of all the scenes she has ever yet had to 
 encounter as a Sovereign, none ever touched more 
 closely, every the deepest feeling of her heart, than 
 did her receptions in Ireland. 
 
 The comparison may appear a little invidious, but 
 I will not conceal my own belief, that the general 
 transaction of business in the public offices of Ireland 
 
253 
 
 is at least equal to, if not superior, to that of the public 
 offices of England. I believe Lord Clarendon has 
 been able to attain, with regard to Ireland, an amount 
 of statistical information, in connection with every 
 subject, which can aid the course of legislation, or 
 prove the real condition of the governed ; in many- 
 respects far superior to any we possess, and attained 
 at a far less expense than we have had again and again 
 to pay, for information less in detail and less accurate. 
 Every failure, of any the most trifling work of Irish 
 legislation, is proclaimed far and wide, by some of 
 that band of Irish legislators, who seem to think that 
 the representation of the people consists in the per- 
 petual vituperation of the governing power. It is 
 rare indeed to hear credit given for the success, even 
 of measures yielded to the popular demand. 
 
 When the accounts of the Lord Lieutenantcy are 
 brought to a close, I for one have no doubt but that 
 there will be such a balance on the side of all which 
 can confer credit on the last of the race — if Lord 
 Clarendon shall be that last — as will extort, even 
 from his bitterest opponents, the confession — that he 
 governed in most things as wisely, as prudently, as he 
 governed boldly. 
 
 How is it, it may now be well asked of me, that with 
 so much credit given to theEarlof Clarendon's govern- 
 ment of Ireland, the misery and oppression of the 
 people, described in previous chapters of this volume, 
 has been suffered to exist to the amount it evidently 
 
254 
 
 has ? I am willing to admit, that no powers, no wis 
 dom, can grapple with a force of circumstances, such 
 as those the destruction of the potato produced in 
 the western districts of Ireland. The antecedents of 
 the famine, all combined to aggravate it : the virtual 
 bankruptcy of so many of the proprietary ; the amount 
 of absenteeism ; the long-fostered false habits of the 
 people ; all these, in their different degree, were so 
 many elements of evil, calculated to make the pres- 
 sure of the famine the more heavy. I do not see 
 how any policy of a government could have done 
 more than was done at the earlier stages of this 
 wretched crisis ; that many lives were saved, I feel 
 assured, though I am equally convinced that many of 
 the methods by which they were saved, were most 
 injurious to the people themselves. I may see much 
 to lament in the working of the early machinery, em- 
 ployed to stave off the effects of the famine, but I 
 feel no surprise that so great an infliction was pro- 
 ductive of fresh evil, in the attempts at its remedy. 
 
 I cannot, however, acquit the Government of all 
 blame, in those matters I am now seeking to 
 expose. This is not a year of famine ; the people 
 have starved in many hundreds, I believe, within the 
 last twelvemonths, in the face of an abundance of 
 cheap food. They have starved under the working 
 of a law especially directed to meet the case of 
 the destitute. I have no hesitation in adding my 
 firm conviction, that very many have been done to 
 
255 
 
 death by pure tyranny. I have seen a very large 
 amount of indisputable evidence, to the effect, that 
 very many hundred evictions have been illegally 
 carried out; death has again and again been the 
 result. I do, therefore, charge the Government 
 with this much of blame — the Guardians have been 
 allowed to shirk the fair performance of their duties ; 
 the destitute have not had what the law professes to 
 secure to them; the workhouses have not had the 
 supervision they ought to have had ; they have been 
 suffered to be the places I have proved them to be, 
 in the face of laws, and orders with the force of law, 
 calling for a very different state of things. No 
 executive dare defend the cruel and indecent crowd- 
 ing, the absence of clothing, the want of discipline, 
 but too often the abuse of the diet table, which, alas ! 
 it is notorious, exists. It is nothing to tell me that 
 there are Inspectors. I reply, how are these Inspec- 
 tors supported, when they report as against the 
 Boards of Guardians ? My own very strong impres- 
 sion is, that the Inspector who would persevere in 
 reporting and remonstrating against the abuses of 
 the law, perpetrated and sanctioned by the 
 Guardians, would be considered in anything but a 
 favourable light at the head-quarters of the Poor-law 
 Department. The Inspector who goes on comfort- 
 ably with his Board, however that Board may act, 
 stands the best, I fear, in the graces of his superiors. 
 I cannot get rid of a very strong impression I 
 
256 
 
 entertain, that there has been a disposition to look 
 at the difficulties of the crisis in these respects as so 
 great, that there was a sort of tacit determination, to 
 let things take their course, at any cost. If we were 
 dealing with any animals, but those of our own kind, 
 this would not surprise me ; but I cannot admit, that 
 any amount of expense, any amount of official 
 interference, should be spared, to simply secure to 
 the destitute, what the destitute have by law a right 
 to demand. I repeat here, what I have said else- 
 where, I do not know what the object of the " Rate- 
 in-aid" Act was, except to provide, by extraordinary 
 means, for an extraordinary state of things. As to 
 the last year's, and this year's published figures, so 
 far as they regard the diminution of pauperism, I 
 hold them as of little value. If you take the de- 
 crease by death, and by emigration, and the real 
 condition of the Western districts at this moment, I 
 see no ground whatever to believe, that pauperism 
 has decreased in degree. I think it, however, but 
 just to say, that I fully believe the real condition 
 of many of the Union Houses, has not, until now, 
 been known at the seat of Government — but it ought 
 to have been. 
 
 Again, I cannot acquit the executive of one very 
 serious omission of duty; I am satisfied, that the 
 illegal processes of eviction, so generally resorted to 
 by cigents, drivers, and others, by which so many of 
 my fellow-creatures have been destroyed, were mat- 
 
257 
 
 ters of general knowledge. I have never been in 
 any society in Ireland, where it was not admitted, 
 that a very large proportion of evictions were carried 
 out by fraud, or by violence. I know in some 
 instances the Vice- Guardians were ordered to prose- 
 cute the perpetrators of these outrages ; but now I 
 know the nature of the process of such prosecution ; 
 I feel, as those in authority must feel, that nothing 
 could be less likely to succeed in obtaining convic- 
 tions, however clear the guilt of the offenders. 
 Eats might as well hope for the conviction of ferrets 
 by a jury of rat-catchers, as the peasantry to obtain 
 redress for manslaughter against drivers, from juries, 
 many of whom daily employ them. 
 
 These are not days to justify private Associations 
 taking upon themselves the functions proper to public 
 officers ; and yet, it would not surprise me, if things 
 continue as they are, if " an Aborigines Protection 
 Society for Ireland," was to start into existence, 
 with a well paid, able machinery, to watch over the 
 lives and properties of the native population of the 
 Western districts. I can already fancy I see their 
 first annual Report in type, setting forth the details 
 of the prosecutions, by which verdicts for " man- 
 slaughter" was obtained against a long list of pro- 
 prietors, agents, process-servers, drivers, house- 
 levellers, &c. for acting contrary to law, and thus 
 causing death without the law's sanction. I say, this 
 would not surprise me, for English philanthropy is 
 
 N 
 
258 
 
 impatient in these matters ; when we do get into a 
 bustle about them, our Associations are soon formed, 
 and soon at work. I should, however, regret it, and 
 I live yet in hope, that even the efforts of one or 
 more private individuals may not be needed for this 
 work ; but that, ere the race of Vice- Royalty is run, 
 Lord Clarendon will grace its departing years with 
 the additional laurel — that the destitute did get, 
 what the Poor-law gave them a right to ; that whilst 
 the law shrunk not from supporting the rights of 
 proprietors, it was equally bold to defend the 
 tenantry from the abuse of those rights ; in a few 
 words — that the Law dealt the same justice alike to 
 Poverty and to Property. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 G. SOKMAS, PRISTEK, MAIDEN LA.NE, COVENT GARDEX. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 61, line 23, for religious, read religion's. 
 
 — 82, — 9, for cab in, read cabin. 
 
 — 191, — 17, for people and priests, read priests and people. 
 
PUBLISHED BY 
 
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 THE LOAN FUND, 
 THE CHILDRENS' EN- 
 DOWMENT SOCIETY, 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 BY THE HON. AND REV. S. G. OSBORNE. 
 
 " It is impossible that this plain, familiar, and engaging 1 exposition 
 (price a trifle) will not he greedily sought after and earnestly perused, 
 the moment that some of its excellencies and contents are under- 
 stood." — Monthly Review. 
 
 " Its principal aim is to promote economy and industry among the 
 poorer classes, and show how they can he made comfortable with very 
 little ; and we hope that all those who look with eyes of Christian 
 feeling on the miseries of their fellow-creatures, will carefully look 
 over the plans laid down in this little volume. How much good 
 can be done with a little rightly bestowed." — Polyglott Magazine. 
 
 Also by the same Author, Third Edition, 18mo. price 1*. 
 
 HINTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE AMELIORATION OF THE MORAL CONDITION 
 
 OF 
 
 A VILLAGE POPULATION. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE SQUIRE, 
 THE FARMER, 
 THE TRADESMAN, 
 THE LABOURER, 
 
 KEEPERS OF PUBLIC 
 
 HOUSES, 
 FEMALE SERVICE, 
 EDUCATION, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
Published by T. $• W. Boone, 29, New Bond Street. 
 
 Also by the same Author, in 8vo., pp. 20, price 3d. each, 
 or 205. per 100. .*. 
 
 THE SAVINGS' BANK. 
 
 Some Particulars of the Life and Death of " (BlU 2ft amp 
 2Baj>," a Lover of Funerals ; with a few Observations 
 added, in the hope of persuading others to do as he did, 
 viz. Save against "A Bainy Day." 
 
 Also by the same Author, in 8vo. price Is. 
 
 A VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LOW MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 
 
 Also by the same Author, 
 
 On a Large Coloured Sheet, with Wood-cuts, 
 
 Price 3d. each, or 20s. per 100. 
 
 A HAND-BILL FOB, THE COTTAGE WALL. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 About G-od and your Souls — How to make the best of 
 your situation in life — A "Word about Health. 
 
 On a large sheet, folio, price 4d. or small size 4to. price 2d, 
 
 WILL PAPERS. 
 
 Being Papers on which Testators may write their "Wills 
 as on common writing paper, but containing printed 
 Marginal Directions for the due execution of "Wills under 
 the new Statute. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 CODICIL PAPEKS, 
 
 OF THE SAME DESCRIPTION AND PRICE. 
 
 " This is an excellent form for testators, and -will save an infinity of 
 manuscript. It also furnishes whatever leg-al advice or reference may 
 be necessary ; and is of equal service, indeed, to the solicitor as his 
 client." — Conservative Journal. 
 
 " So simple and plain are they that any person may make his own 
 will, without either the expense or the delay of professional assist- 
 ance." — Weekly Clironicle. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS, INC. #859-5503 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
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