The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-12 00:00:00

A PLEA FOR TITE SUFFERING
HIGHLANDERS.
BY MRS. CHARLES TINSLEY.
Forget them not, the sufferers
By glen and mountain side,
The thousands that now pine in want,
Where crowds in want have died ;
They send no loud complsinings forth—
They work no deed of wrong,
Nor tax a nation with the woes
In silence borne so long.
They pour not forth, as did their sires_.
In headlong foray bands,
Leaving the track of lawless war
On cattle-pilfered lands ;
They keep within their fastnesses,—
We scarce have heard the cry
That tells us how they daily live,
Acd how they daily die.
Think of those homes that Ho apart,
Some on the wide bleak moor,
Some bedded in the mountain clefts,
Where snow wreaths hide each door;
The hearths within are dark and cold,
The meal-tubs empty lie;
And children there, to anguished hearts,
In vain for succour cry.
Their wants are simple, frugal, few,
No luxuries they crave;
They waste not time or substance, yet
They have no means to save;
And stern inched is that distress
That pileth up the way
Whence men are wont, for daily bread,
To look from day to day.
Those unfrequented solitudes
No chance relief afford;
The scattered dwellers there are wont
To lean upon the Lord:
Pastor and flock alike are bowed
Beneath one common
For in those regions lone, remote,
All men are brothers still.

They suffer not the less because
They send few wailings forth;
Alas! life's ills fall heaviest
On hearts of quiet worth!
O ye that for imagined woes
Can boast the power to feel,
Turn to these living wastes of earth,
Where there are woes to heal!

And ye that in the summer sheen
Have wandered with delight,
Amid those old, song-haunted hills,
Now crowned with sorrow's night,—
Remember how, by Highland hearths,
Ye still found welcome true;
And let the hearts that hailed ye then
Find meet return from you.

So when ye seek those scenes again,
In brighter days to come,
A right good welcome ye shall find
In every Ilighland.horne!
And may be then yell hear some tale
Shall make your hearts rejoice,
Not baying coldly turned away
From sorrow's earnest voice!

IRISH SEA COAST FISHERIES.
(From the Dublin Evening Post.)
FOOD—E MPLOYMENT.
We are glad to find that practical measures have been
taken by the Board of Works to render the fisheries
immediately, and we trust permanently, available as a
source of food and employment in this season of un-
exampled distress. It is quite notorieus that although
there is abundance of the best kinds of fish on our coasts,
the market supplies are miserably deficient ; and it is
equally beyond doubt, that this deficiency is mainly
attributable to the want of a steady demand and a re-
munerating price, near the site of the fisheries, for the
produce of the fisherman's labour. Create this steady
demand— render the fisherman secure of a market—and
you will increase to a vast amount the stock of food, at
the same time that you will employ the fisherman in the
way most natural and best understood by him. Fully
aware of this, the Board of Works have established
three stations on the western coast—one at Roundstone,
county of Galway ; a second at Belmullet, county of
Mayo ; and the third at Killybegs, county of Donegal.
The agents there (as far as the means at their disposal
will admit) to keep up a constant and equable demand
by purchasing, at a moderate, but, at the same time, a
remunerating price, the produce of each day's labour,
without interfering with private traffic. All the fish not
required for consumption in a fresh state will be cured
on the best principles, and in such a ay as to re rider it
edible with bread or cakes made of Indian or other meal.
But the good. to he extensively ffective, must not stop
here. The course undertaken 1.37 the Board is not t er-
manent, but an eirperiment to meet an emergency—it is
necessarily confined in its operations, and entered upon
with a view that private individuals, having been taught
the advantages of such a system in a commercial way,
may be induced to purchase and cure an ample supply
of fish in the more remote districts.
We hare before us a pamphlet published by the Board
of Works on the subject of fish curing, from which we
beg to lay before our readers the following extracts:—
" The Board of Public Works, as Commissioners of
Fisheries in Ireland, having received from Sir Thomas
Dick Lauder, Bart., the annexed papers, have directed
them to be printed and distributed amongst the fishermen,
and other persons interested, with a view to promote the
establishment of a system of curing, as the most certain -
basis for the permanent improvement and extension of
the sea fisheries.
" Whilst'the Irish coast abounds with fish, it is a well-
known fact, that a very great portion of the salt or cured
fish consumed in Ireland is imported from Scotland,
where a spirit of trade and enterprise has generally led
to an extensive, distinct, and profitable investment of
capital, skill, and labour in the curing of fish.
" The formation of curing establishments, where judi-
ciously managed, affords a steady daily market for the
fruits of the fisherman's labour, and affords extensive
employment in the various trades connected therewith.
" In the present season of distress and privation arising
from the failure of the potato crop, it appears to be
essentially necessary to call attention to dee teat supply
of food of nutritious quality that surrounds the island,
and which a moderate degree of local energy, foresight,
and enterprise might readily make available in aid of the
pressing wants of the country ; whilst the result of pro-
perly directed exertions would be the permanent ime
provement of the fisheries, and profitable employment to
a large portion of the coast population.
" During this season large quantities of fish taken on
the coast have been lost or sold at a nominal price for
manure, for the want of local energy to provide suitable
means of curing, or even a sufficient supply of salt ; and
this has taken place in portions of the country where it
has since been reported that men have died of starvation.
"The curing of fish is a trade that may advantageously
be pursued on a large scale, with a considerable invest-
ment of capital, or which may be profitably followed in
the cabin of the fisherman's family, when properly in-
structed.
" The preparation, washing,salting, drying, or smoking
of the fish, with its subsequent transmission to market,
and its sale, would afford profitable employment to great
numbers of women and children, as well as men, whilst
the offal will sell well as a useful manure, and valuable
oils in addition may be extracted from the fish.
" The establishment of curing stations, especially for
round fish, which may be had almost without intermis-
sion throughout the year, producing a steady daily mar-
ket for the fishermen, will lead to increased exertion on
their part ; and the certain success attendant on perse-
verance., and increased industry, notwithstanding loug-
established habits, will enable them to procure improved
tackle, end to adopt improved modes of fishing. The
fisherman when encouraged by a fair steady price, will
proceed to sea to look for and follow the fish, rather
than wait, as is too frequently the ease at present, forth"
fish to come to them.
"Where a wholesome and even delicate article of foo4
for home consumption, and for keeping during a pe ned!
of two to four weeks can be prepared by an hour '4
immersion in pickle, and a few hours'
jog with even turf fuel,
sderylionsgs oanr
namuidokiy
-
fi!
the sustainedtotal
neglectby the peopleany
be calculated. iaiist
systemhaen yiomf t partsuerni
no
gf
cr ea l
na n d
scarcely
a smallo outlay
amply
ywould effect much
remunerative.'
whilst there can be little doubt, that if the trade be entered
good,l n
and, any
jcuadsieelo even
managed, b
upon in an enlarged spirit of enterprise end skill, and with;
sufficient capital, the Irish merchant might soon need no,,
other " official brand" than his own name, to render hie
cured fish acceptable at the highert price in the English,
or other markets of the world.
" It is hoped that the many useful observations in the
annexed p.epers, may be carefully considered and
acted
upon, as tar as practicable, at least by the fisherme4
thernselvas, to whom the Commissioners present the
work with the best wishes for their instruction and;
improvement."
This invaluable little book, presented to the fisher-
men, contains the instructions prepared by Mr. Ffennelli
one of the Board's Inpeciors ~f Fisheries, who had visited
the curing establishments in Scotland, and made himsel4
thoroughly acquainted with the several modes of curia;,,
adopted there, more especially those practised by the
fishermen in their own dwellings.
The Commissioners of the Beard of Works, weights'.
down as they are by the ovcr‘vbtluiing labeurs of the'
office, yet have contrived to carry out this project te,
the permanent amelioration of the condition of the isi•
mense popul4Con who stir atm teemed our coasts. It• •
thus that the C:mulis,'.oners, carr3ing ow the views('
a government devoted heart and soul to the welfare (4
the Irish people, have been working practically and e,
festively, whilst they have teen daily end hourly assailt4
by shallow and factious scribblers, who, whilst helpless •
ignorant about the really perilous condition of tl' -
country, do all that lies in their small way to aggrava
all the evis affecting the landed proprietor as well as ti
peasant.

We hear with much regret that Mrs. Marshall, 1-
venerable widow of the late John Marshall, Esq.,
extremely ill at her seat, liallsteads, Cumberland.—Lt(
Mercury.