The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-13 00:00:00

FAMINE IN IRELAND.

Extracts from very recent letters from the scene
of famine and distress in Ireland forwarded to the
Western Committee for the relief of the Irish Poor:—
(From the Rev. Charles Hargrove.)

" We.tpart,-June 6, 1831.

" In this afflicted country, where famine meets us
whichever way we turn, every-day the distress is becoming
more oppressive and more obvious; to particular'ze.cases
would now be vain, where every one's case is becoming
one of starvation. We administer relief extensively once
a week, but not at all in sufficient quantity to meet the
wants of the poor ; our funds are inadequate -for this, and
the consequences are such as usually attend upon famine,
RS the use of wild herbs, sea-weed, and other unwholesome
food. This of course must have effect in producing
diseases, and I regret to add that, i❑ my parish, disease
exists to a considerable extent."

(From the Rev. W. RI Stoney.)

" Glebe 1-14.uge, Newport. Mayo, June 6, 1831.

" The famine is beyond description dreadful here. The
s'glits and sounds of woe are heart-rending. Though I
have expended in loans near eight hundred pounds since
the Ent of April, the greater part of which is borrowed
money, it seems as if the Want of food increased in pro-
portion to the efforts to give relief. Hundreds have by it
been saved from death. Provisions are rising in price, on
account of the great dem Ind. The people in parts of the
interior of the country prevented our cars from coming
with oatmeal, fearing-a scarcity themselves froni the con-
stant drain.

" Several from twenty to twenty-6ve miles distant on
the sea-coast were here to-d iy, scarcely able to walk from
hunger and fatigue ; their haggard looks and cries of de-
spair would melt the hardest heart. Some had to be re-
vived with cordials and bread to prevent death. I believe
this is the most extensive district and most distressed part
of Ireland. I offer up in my Church the prayer appointed
in our Liturgy for a time of famine."

(From N. 31.)

" Larbeg, Rutland, Donegal, June 5, 1831.

" The population here is so exceedingly dense, and the
famine so general, few—very few—having enough, and
none able to assist the sufferers, that a reflecting person
must feel its horrors awfully. I can positively assert there
were not less than 500 persons here yesterday, each a re-
presentative of a family, seeking and imploring relief,
which a very few could get, as the last arrival of potatoes
are gone (hut there are more coming), though, in the
mean time, it is small con/fort to the famishing. One
woman had left her father's dead body in the house with
her children, at five in the morning, and came to seek for
food; and as she lived in an island four miles from the
shore, she did not get home till night. I saw her in the
mornin4 and evening, her husband and four children ill,
without provision and without attendance; and the respect
which the lower order of Irish are scrupulously exact in
paying their dead neglected. Another poor creature from
the same island, Arranmore, had left her sister in a dying
state, and her niece dead, in the same bed with her
wretched mother. I have not time to enumerate the sad
tales of misery I hourly hear anti witness—the haggard
looks and tottering steps of even the young. I sent this
evening to have meal purchased ; it is exorbitantly dear-
-11. per cwt. now, and not easily got. I had a large
quantity of oaten cakes baked this morning, which 1 found a
ready mode of affording relief, as some of the people here on
getting the oatmeal requested to have it made into dough
with water, that they might eat it instantly."

(From Mr. Dombrain, Inspector-General of the Coast
Guard.)

"County Mayo, Bell=llet,Sunday, sth June, 1831.

. .
" The price of potatoes, two months ago was only 2s.
per cwt., the worst description are now with difficulty to
be had at 4s. 2d. ; oatmeal has risen from 131., in the
Militia market, to 191., and we have two months of the
worst and most trying time to come. Here the distress
is as great as in Donegal, and I feel convinced that, do
what you can, many, very many, must die from actual
starvation before food can arrive.

" The inclosed is a copy of an official report made to
me by the Inspecting Commissioner here, and in addi-
tion he has assured me that a number of cattle having
died from disease, they were, after their skins had been
taken off, buried under ground, but such was the state of
the poor fur want of food, that they actually dug them up
and eat them."

."_l3ellmullet, Ist June, 1831.

" I feel it my duty to inform you (with reference to the
dreadful dearth of provision in Erris) of a circumstance
which occurred en Monday last. A shoal of porpoises
having appeared in Ely-bey, they were chased by the boats
of the Lee cruizer, and five of them driven on shore under
Bingham Castle, and killed by Owen Parry, Coast Blockade,
who intended to have cut them up for the blubber ;' but
the peasantry having observed the destruction of the finny
tribe, they rushed in hundreds to the beach, with pots and
kettles, and in a very short time greedily devoured every
particle of them (except the bones). 'I do most painfully
submit, it but too truly exhibits the state of the all-but-
famishing population daily (indeed I may add hourly)
more apparent. _ _

" Anil I respectfully beg to observe, that uuless supplies
are Artlavith abundantly sent in, all the potatoe crops will
be destroyed, as the peasantry will from necessity tear them
up before they are half grown, and cause a greater dearth
neat year."

Letters were received yesterday by Govern-
ment from Glarnorganshire, announcing the complete sup-
pression of the disturbances at Merthyr Tydvil. The
ringleaders are all in custody. We need hardly repeat that
these disturb:lnt:es arose entirely out of disputes respecting
wages. The Magistrates and leading men at Swansea have
issued a pr. clamation, in English and in Welsh, putting
an end to the truck system, and declaring that henceforth
the men's wages are to be paid in money every Friday af-
ternoon. We have our own doubts how far, in a remote
district like Merthyr Tydvil, this change may in the end
he beneficial to the workmen ; but this is their affsir..—
Morning Chronicle.

FIRE AND LOSS OF LIVES AT BOSTON,—
About eleven on last Wednesday night, a fire broke out in
the large four-story building; at the corner of Broad-street
and Ilazoilton.avenue—the lower part occupied by Mr.
MAYNARD, M a bakery, and the upper by seven Irish
families. The Traveller says, " When discovered, the
flames had made considerable progress, and raged with
such rapidity and violence that Mr. JouN MURPHY, hi,
wife, and three children, all asleep in the upper stories,
were burned to death before assistance could be rendered.
Their remain., disfigured, partially consumed, and alto-
gether presenting a shocking and repulsive spectacle, were
yesterday morning taken from the smoking ruins, and pro-
perly interred. One TIMOTHY SULLIVAN, who occupied
a❑ upper room, not bring able to escape down stairs, first
threw a child from the window, and then leaped out
himself. The child was fortunately caught by some one
below and saved, but SULLIVAN, it is said, is so badly in-
jured that he cannot survive. Several others with great
difficulty escaped barely with their lives. The ages of the
ehildren burnt were, it is understood, about ten, six, and
two years. . They were, no doubt, all smothered while in
bed, as the bed, bedding, &c., were seen to fall in one
MM. The building was destroyed.