The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-22 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, OCT. 21.
The Mansion-house Committee for the Relief of
Distress in Ireland have published their report. It
is written in a spirit of candour and moderation,

and contains some valuable suggestions and sta-

tistics. The total amount collected since the com-

mittee commenced their operations last autumn is

£5,179165. 9d. No doubt, had the case -cc hich they
made out been fully credited by the Christian public,

the funds would have been ten times that amount

at IRast. But they remark that, " unfortunately a
portion of the public press asserted that there was

no distress which required more assistance than

could be met by the Poor Law, aided by local
efforts. This view was also taken in Parliamentary
and other public discussions, by the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, and other members of the Government,
and in consequence many were led to believe, and

others probably led to affect, that the cry of distress

was in a great measure artificial and chiefly sec-

tarian ; and the further consequence was that

with few exceptions, the contributions received by

the committee have come not only from one section

of the community, but from a very limited portion

of the wealthy of that section, as will be perceived
by a glance at the subscription list herewith pub-

lished." In several districts neither landlords nor
occupiers subscribed, the funds being altogether
given by parties unconnected with them, "among
whom the Society of Friends should be mentioned,
whose liberal and judicious benevolence on this and
on other occasions, in money and in food, is above
all praise." _

With regard to the foregoing statement, it is to
be observed that the whole Roman Catholic press
of Ireland loudly proclaimed that the distress was
extreme, and earnestly pleaded for relief. The
Roman Catholic clergy in all the suffering districts
vouched for the reality and the severity of the visita-
tion, and appealed in the most importunate and
pathetic terms for help. Yet in the face of all this
testimony, endorsed by this highly respectable and
influential committee—which includes the Lord
Mayor and Archbishop Cullen—they admit that the
contributions came only from a very limited por-
tion of the wealthy of one section of the commu-
nity, that section being the Roman Catholics. The
conclusion from these premises is inevitable, viz.,
the R. man Catholics themselves, with the excep-
tion of a very limited portion of the wealthy, did
not believe in the reality of the distress. If they did
they would unquestionably, as a charitable people,
have commiserated their suffering fellow Catholics
and contributed to their relief. But if they were
incredulous and deaf to the most piteous appeals,
Protestants may be excused for doubting, and the
portion of the press which gave expression to their
doubts cannot have fallen into very serious error.
If anything more were wanted to justify the course
which the press adopted in reference to this matter
it would be found in the statistics which the com-
mittee themselves have collected. The current
year's poundage rates on 172 electoral divisions in
the distressed districts present the following re-
sults :—The lowest rate is 2d. in the pound, the
highest is 12d. In only 29 divisions did the rate
rise to the last figure. The committee significantly
add " that the necessity for assistance was as pres-
singly put from the lowest rated districts as from
the highest of the other 420 divisions in which the
current rate ranged from ls. to 4s. 7d." Again,
the annual average expenditure during the last
three years of 27 Connaught unions which received
funds from the committee was £41,760, which was
an average poundage of 91d. on £1,268,158, the
valuation of those unions. In each of 20 it ranged
from 6d. to ls. ; in seven only it exceeded ls. The
population of these unions is about 850,000,
and the proportion receiving relief is 1 in 191
of that population. In England it is lin 24;

even in Leinster it is about 1 in 86.

" Yet

though the rates were much higher there than in
most Connaught unions, no appliance for assistance
came from that province, with the exception of one

from the Parsonstown union, and some from the
charitable society of St. Vincent de Paul, in the
North and South Dublin unions." In those Con-
naught unions, so lightly rated, from which such

loud cries of distress came for months, " the num-
ber in the workhouses was very small, and none, or
only few, on outdoor relief."

The committee, therefore, in order to avoid their
own stultification, in collecting and administering
charitable funds where there was really no need,
are driven to the necessity of virtually charging the
Connaught Boards of Guardians, the landed pro-
prietors, and the ratepayers with inhumanity in re-
fusing to relieve the distress of thekpoor, wno were
obliged to cry for bread to strangers in the other
provinces of Ireland, in Great Britain, on the Con-
tinent, and in America. The committee censure
the Poor Law Commissioners for not compelling the
Connaught Boards to administer the Poor LIW
relief more mercifully, and they recommend that
the Legislature should interpose to give them
greater coercive powers for that purpose. But the
public, I think, duly considering these facts and
statistics, will come to the conclusion that the im-
plied charge of inhumanity is a libel on the Con-
naught Boards—which, be it remembered, are for
the most part composed of Roman Catholics, magi-
strates, and elected guardians, who are not a whit
more likely to act with cruelty towards their poor
than the same class in any other part of the coun -
try. It is particularly unfair to cast such an impu-
tation on the Connaught gentry and ratepayers,
when not a single instance is adduced by the com-
mittee of death from starvation within their unions
—not a single case of destitution in which relief
was refused.
Dr. Radcliff, Judge of the Consistorial Court and
Vicar-General of the provinces of Armagh and
Dublin, died on Saturday.
Lord Stanley was present at the last petty ses-
sions held in the town of Tipperary, when he saw
the following specimen of the "Tipperary boys :"
John Mara, an old offender, was charged on his own
admission, with burning, on the lands of Kilfeacle,
a rick of hay, the property of Richard Dalton of
Tipperary, and also two houses the property of P.
Gleeson, of Kilfeacle. Constable T. Regan proved
that Mara came to his barrack the night previous
and showed him houses on fire, and in another direc-
tion, about three-quarters of a mile distant, he also
showed him a rick of hay on fire, and after being
cautioned he admitted to his having burnt the hay
and houses, and pointed out to the constable where
he threw away the matches. When asked had he
anything to say, he said that it was he who burnt
them, and that he would, "only his feet failed him,
burn every house from Kilfeacle to Cashel." When
asked where he was from, he said from Tipperary,
and that ho was only two days out of Clonmel Gaol,
where he had been confined. The total property
destroyed is about 15 tons of hay, a forge, and an
outhouse. The case was returned for trial to the
next assizes of Clonmel. This is the second in-
stance in the neighbourhood of Tipperary of
wantonly setting fire to farm buildings, thereby
. causing great destruction of property.

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