The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

IRELAND.
r)ultL
boa tTitu. 25 —Many more deaths from starve-
whare reported in te accounts received to-day, end
thel is termed the 'starvation fever" is spreading in
western as well as the southern counties.
cat:me:Mg, contains the following alarming
rever is still on the increase ; the deaths in the
isPotr-house are most numerous, e.id almost all the per-
who have died have been carried off either by ty-
ET fever or dysentery. There are at present four
(7 dred on the sick list in the poor-house, or one-third
th all the inmates. This is really alarming, and from
Zpigreet increase of fever in the town we fear a plague
The
the wee coroners of Sligo are unable to attend. to all
th ."s made upon them, and although indefatigable in
been Iseharge of their duties, numbers of persons have
iiv.buried (who died of starvation) without inquests
.11N; been held upon them."
ate
giving details of inquests on_five persons who
.‘; from starvation, the Sligo Champion proceeds
Qii bile the coroner ;as engaged yesterday with the in-
ett Druincliff, he received an official communi-
e—"n from Head Constable Hay, of Riverstown, re-
n'tflesting his attendance to hold inquests on the bodies
t- I.t girl named Hodge, and a man named Brian Mat-
ven„ls, both of whom ;lied of starvation, and he was
three
by the messenger who brought thii letter, that
p " or four oraerlies were at his house, requiring his
rescoce in different parts of the county." •
t;O4 • r"'" such a district it is not surprising that emigra-
,..
still in progress, even in sold-winter. Two
V!lndred persons left the port of Sligo on Thursday, for
fAverpool, with a view of making their way to America;
but most of them were very poorly provided with sea
provisions
and some were almost destitute of clothing or
rr;"isions• Many of those creatures, no doubt, will
still further :pigment the pauperism in Liverpool.
• Prom all parts of the county of
.Galway the most
/torn accounts have been received, and deaths
starvation are increasing. The Tuam Herald
states that five inquests were held from the 16th to the
21st instant, and in each case the verdict was 4. died
b 7 starvation."
GALWAY, JAN. 23.—MORE DEATHS BY STARVATION.
—"Our private letters front Connemara mention details
of woo almost unparalleled. In Clifden, we are in-
formed that the population are fast dying away for want
Of food--many are hurried to their early graves from
utt-r destitution, without the ceremony of a funeral,
and frequently without the covering of a coffin, and the
Clergy are incessantly employed in administering the
consolations of religion tu those who are falling victims
to the ravages of famine. In the village of Glenn,
westward of Oughterard by about two miles, in one
wretched cabin, ten human beings, constituting an en-
tire family, lie deal in otte heap of rottenness and
putrefaction.

In the extensive county of Cork the most appalling.
sc:-nes are to be witnessed on all sides. In the city of
Cork. on Saturday last, a crowd of labourers paraded
through the streets, but some of the ringleaders having
been arrested while endeavouring to force an entrance
into a shop, the remainder dispersed without committing
Any outrage.
The Cork Reporter of Saturday contains a statement
from it, correspondent of the dreadful destitution in the
district of Bantry. I have extracted the followlngarmss.
sage Mothers bearing dead children in their arms
are everywhere to be seen, and those who follow them
are often compelled to eat grim to satisfy the cravings
of the hunger that gnaws their vitals. As an example
l
of the rapidity with which death stalks through the and,
It may be stated that during the last ten days the Rev.
Messrs. Freeman Begley visited and prepared for death
no less than forty-two, thirty-five of whom were in the
utmost state of destitution, and of that number twenty-
eight died, twenty-five of absolute starvation. That
number did not include the deaths in the workhouse,
',which had been unprecedented in extent, notwithstand-
ing the exertions of the board of guardians. Scarcely
an hour elapses without some of the population dropping
and sinking into the grave, and children, after suffering
the Pangs of hunger for four or five days. Many die on
11;e mountains, uncared for and deserted. In the midst
(,),t, all these horrors, it is gratifying to find that
"(4e who have been blessed with a reasonable share of
the
world's goods have nobly done their duty. Amongst
,o most prominent in endeavouring to allay and mitigate
he misery which exists 4l amongst the tenantry is Lord
eninare. Some instances have occurred in the barony
where the landlord has demanded and distrained for rent,
but those instances, it is happy to observe, are very few.
alhe f •
th
i:yited, in
act is, the tenantry hare nothing to give;
.for
cligh I have seen more fields prepared for the coming
visited,
ni this neighbourhood than in most others I have
general all their corn is gone, and but few
2 any seed."
inactin
...I.rons
g• the southern counties the reports are equally
..rom
it home of the counties of Ulster the accounts are
tit: as bad as from the south or west. The Lord
week to a.sis "
gyre:jot Derry and Raphoe having recommended a
240/. from the National Club in London, con-
meeting of
' t
. his clergy at the deanery house last
in allocating the money and localobtain-
subscriptions. The reports submitted by the
Threglt"hi bit a mass of utter destitution in their parishes.
coma. ee
.. Mr. Maturin described the parish of Gorton as
than Intrif4 " one thousand individuals who have no more
ohleinit,w,eek:l provisions, and who are without means to
The f:-"J'IRANCE OF THE POTATO DISEASE.
sesidi ‘-ork Reporter of Saturday says:—" A gentleman
liotbeldlg in the neighbourhood of Kinsale planted in a
ho,_, , about three months since, a quantity of sound
;„`2"oes of the quarry kind, and on examining the pro-
it(icvea yesterday, which, by the forced growth, had far
rased.,, to maturity, he found them black and dis-
£HE IRISH DISTILLERS.—REDUCTION OF

DUTY ON RUM.
J 8 Project of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, re-
il esctlng the use of sugar in breweries and distilleries,
tt been received with general approval here ; but the
r opaed arrangement for reducing the duty on rum in
r
e
and to about one-third of the present amount, has
Produced absolute consternation amongst the Irish dis-
tillers

meeting of the Dublin distillers was held this day,
1./_t the Commercial-buildings, Sir John Power, Bart.,
Pre:iding,
when the following resolutions were adopted:
That the meeting have seen, with the greatest
!HIM, the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exam-
Illekmade in the House of Commons on Friday last,
to reduce the duties on West India rum imported into
Ireland to 3s. 2d. per gallon—a measure which, if car-
ried into effect, will prove utterly ruinous to the Irish
distillery trade, and most prejudicial to the landholders,
fanners, and traders of this country, and to every inte-
rest connected therewith.

" That any measure of a temporary nature, calculated
to meet the exigencies of the present time, however in-
convenient it might prove to the trade, would be cheer-
fully rt ceived and submitted to by the Irish distillers ;
but that the measure now proposed does not contemplate
any such effect, but is solely calculated permanently to
injure, if not totally extinguish, the manufacture of
spirits in this country.
" That a general meeting of the trade be called by
Public advertisement, to assemble in Dublin, on 'rues-
day, the 2d of February next, in the Corn Exchange, at
one o'clock in the afternoon, to take the proposition of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer into their consideration,
and that these resolutions be published in the meantime
In some of the morning and evening Dublin and London
Newspapers. By order of the meeting.
" WT'-TaAm W. JAMESON, Secretary."
Mr. O'Connell attended the meeting of the distillers.
The honourable and learned gentleman has delayed his
departure for London in consequence of the unfavourable
state of the weather ; but has to leave town by the mail
Packet to-morrow evening.
REPRESENTATION OF GALWAY TOWN.
The Galway Vindicator contains an address from Sir
valentine Blake, Bart., to the electors of the town of
Galway,
intimating his retirement from the representa-
on of the town, " it having pleased Providence to de-
rive me of the power to attend to your important inte-
estss in Parliament in future." The same journal con-
Ptains a letter from I'. S. Comyn, Esq., dated " Upper
L* t
x‘vnitam-street, Dublin, Jan. 21," in which the writer
says—" Either my brother (Francis Comyn, of Wood-
stock), or myself, will offer ourselves as candidates, and
We will not support any Government not pledged to the
repeal of the union."
_lt is generally believed that the Solicitor- General,
Cdr. Monahan, who is a native of the county of Galway,
will start for the representation of the vacant borough,
with a fair prospect of success. Mr. O'Hara, the late
recorder of the borough, is also spoken of as a candidate.
On Wednesdsy a meeting of the trades and other re-
peal electors, presided over by the Rev. Mr. Martyn, was
13,e1d in the repeal reading-room, Galway, when a resolu-
tion was adopted, pledging the meeting to use every
exertion in the event of a vacancy for the return of a
repeal representative.
REPEAL ASSOCIATION.
At the weekly meeting of the Association held this
day, Alderman Butler in the chair, Mr. W. T. Kelly,
solicitor, detailed at considerable length certain proceed-
ings instituted by a large number of landlords (whom
he named) in the county of Mayo, against their cottier
tenantry. From the statement of the Learned Gentle-
man, it appeared that at the recent sessions held at
Castlebar and Ballinrobe, an incredible number of civil
hill actions had been brought for non-payment of rent,
the greatest portion of which fell due in November last.
r. O'Connell moved that a special meeting of the cum-
raittee should be summoned for next day, to consider the
atatement, and that a petition to Parliament, detailing the
ftahets (if substantiated by the gentleman who announced
should be prepared ; and he (Mr. O'Connell)
nuld undertake to present it. How, asked Mr. O'Con-
-11..e11. could the Irish members have the face to demand
naistance from the British Government if it appeared
stated?
t the landlords of Ireland were acting in the manner
thltted? The Hon. Gentleman subsequently announced
at a Mr. Anthony O'Flaharty, of Knockbane, " having
tititi_fied his conversion to repea'," was i.eterinined to seek
etvikraetpiorneseefntation of Galway (town), vacant by the re-
Sir Valentine Bltike.
tot4iti the conclusion of the proceedings (which were
tUtally
devoid of interest), the rent for the week was an-
s
to be 151. 16,:. 9d.
The meeting then adjourned.
E

A great
, _XPERIENCES OF A GAOL CHAPLAIN."-- .
deal of interest has of late been, and continues to be taken in
0 e very important subject of prison discipline, and the re-
44!dinn of criminals, and several works have been written,
...„lell, to say the truth, have communicated much general
I,,:lorination touching this matter. But general treatises,
Q_ >wever elaborate, have not half the effect, and consequently
41e
inot nearly so useful, as particular facts. It is for this
T.. nthat we hail "The Experiences of a Gaol Chap-
rSlT?' Just bublished by Mr. Bentley. It is indeed a dark
aftet.fro, in life's volume, but which, whilst it is one of the most
p,..; ab'e di-closures ever made as to the economy of our
-mostlB and the moral condition of their inmates, is one of the
interesting collections of narratives ever published.

LITERATURE.

- -
HOOD'S 0 W2V; or, LAU
YEGHTER FROM YEAR
TO AR.

Happily for us there is no necessity for any
analytical examination of the contents of tits cele-
brated volume ; we say hapily, because were there
that necessity, we should find ourselves placed in a
bewildering dilemma; we should feel, at one and the
same moment, incited to enlarge upon it to the ex-
tent of many columns, and compelled, notwithstanding
that inclination to condense our observations in con-
sequence of the press of Parliamentary and miscel-
laneous intelligence. But, fortunately for us, there
is not merely no necessity for any lengthened criticism
of " Hood's Own," but such a criticism would be little
better than a wilful impertinence to the public. We
should just as readily attempt a critical dissection of
" Robinson Crusoe' " or "Tristram Shandy," or " The
Visit to the Other World," as we would of " Hood's
Own." One is about as much familiarised with the
popular mind as the other, and all of them are equally
associated with our pleasantest recollections. Why,
we should have ample matter for commentary upon
the profusion of illustrations scattered through the
letter-press--and such illustrations ! Forms and
faces as much in accordance with the pro-
portions of nature, as with the elementary
principles of art. Faces and figures little more
artistic in pencilling than the monstrous shapes pro-
duced by a child on its satchel. But brimming over
with the extravagantest drollery imaginable ! A
joke in every line—a witticism in every movement of
the pencil. Throughout the kingdom, these comical
engravings have, by one means or another, been cir-
culated in periodicals, in a variety of editions, in
broad-sheets, and so forth. They cannot be circu-
lated too much, for they have a morally medicinal
effect upon the mind of every spectator; they drive
away the nightmares of indigestion and the day-
mares (if we may so call them) of melancholy, and
whole swarms of blue devils and morbid phantassies ;
and they drive them away to the most hilarious of all
music—explosions of laughter ! Such is the inevitable
effect of this, the most humourous work of one of
the most humourous beings that ever breathed.

MURRAY'S HOME and COLONIAL LIBRARY

No. X L.—Gatherings from Spain. Part 11. By lii-

chard Ford. _
As pleasantly and good-humouredly as its com-
mencement is the conclusion of this excellent sketch
of Peninsular society. Here and there Mr. Ford ex-
hibits a quaint formality that almost reduces his style
to the grotesque, but the principal portion of his nar-
rative is keen and sparkling. The philosophy with
which he scans the people of Spain in their present
degeneracy is sweet and homely. Without any os-
tentation of shrewdness, the sarcasm of Mr. Ford is
at times surprisingly penetrant. He looks at the
descendants of the Cid not through the jaundiced
medium of national prejudice, but with a calm, im-
partial gaze. When he is wandering through the
streets of their principal cities he doubtless bears
in recollection the age in which those same
streets reverberated with the warlike wail of
Ay di mi Alhama! and the citizens drew their brands
against the Moors. Nevertheless, if his mind is
teeming with these remembrances, he seldom allows
them to appear, and that is what we conceive to be
the chief deficiency of the book. Probably he con-
ceives such dreams about the romantic chapters of
Spanish history to be the hallucinations of a contem-
plative rather than the embellishments of an observant
writer. For the pleasure of the thousands, who are
lovers of that tobacco which Mr. Ford poetically and
expressively terms " the anodyne for the irritability
of human reason," we copy sundry notes about the
"divine weed," contained in the closing pages :
"In Spain the bulk of their happy subjects cannot afford
either the expense of tobacco, which is dear to them, or
the gain of time, which is very cheap, by smoking a
whole cigar right away. They make one afford occu-
pation and recreation for half an hour. Though few
Spaniards ruin themselves in libraries, none are with-
out a little blank book of a particular paper, which is
made at Alcoy, in Valencia. At any pause all say at
once—"pues senoies! echaremos un cigarette—well then,
my Lords, let us make a little cigar," and all set se-
riously to work ; every man, besides this book, is armed
with a small case of flint, steel, and a combustible tin-
der. To make a paper cigar, like putting on a cloak, is
an operation of much more difficulty than it seems, al-
though all Spaniards, who have done nothing so much,
from their childhood upwards, perform both with ex-
treme facility and neatness. This is the mode :—the
petaca, Arabiee, Butak, or little case worked by a fair
hand, in the coloured thread of the aloe, in which the
storke of cigars if, kept, is taken out—a leaf is torn from
the book, which is held between the lips, or downwards
from the back of the hand, between the fore and middle
finger of the left hand—a portion of the cigar, about a
third, is cut off and rubbed slowly in the palms till re-
duced to a powder—it is then jerked into the paper-leaf,
which is rolled up into a little squib, and the ends doubled
down, one of which is bitten off and the other end is
lighted. The cigarillo is smoked slowly, the last whiff
being the bonue bouche, the breast, la pechuga. The
little ends are thrown away : they are indeed

little, for a Spanish fore-finger and thumb are
quite fire-browned and fire-proof, although some
polished exquisites use silver holders : these
remnants are picked up by the beggar-boys, who
make up into fresh cigars the leavings of a thcusand
mouths. There is no want of fire in Spain ; everywhere,
what we should call link-boys run about with a slowly-
burning rope for the benefit of the public. At many of
the sheds where water and lemonade are sold, one of the
ropes, twirled like a snake round a post, and ignited, is
kept ready as the match of a besieged artilleryman ;
while in the houses of the affluent, a small silver chafing-
dish, with lighted charcoal, is usually on a table. Mr.
Henningseu relates that Zumalacarreguy, when about
to execute some Christinos at Villa Franca, observed one
(a schoolmaster) looking about, like Raleigh, for a light
for his last dying puff in this life, upon which the Gene-
ral took his own cigar from his mouth, and handed it to
him. The schoolmaster lighted his own, returned the
other with a respectful bow, and went away smoking and
reconciled to be shot. This urgent necessity levels all
ranks, and it is allowable to stop any person for fire ;
this proves the practical equality of all classes, and that
democracy under a despotism, which exiAts in smok-
ing Spain, as in the torrid East. The cigar forms a bond
of union, an isthmus of communication between most
heterogeneous oppositions. It is the habeas corpus of
Spanish liberties. The soldier takes fire from the canon's
lip, and the dark face of the humble labourer is whitened
by the reflection of the cigar of the grandee and lounger.
The lowest orders have a coarse roll or rope of tobacco,
wherewith to solace their sorrows, and it is theircalun:iet
of peace. Some of the Spanish fair sex are said to in-
dulge in a quiet hidden cigarrilla, una pajita, una reyna,
but it is not thought either a sign of a lady, or of one of
rigid virtue, to have recourse to these forbidden plea-
sures; for, say s their proverb, whoever makes one basket
will make a hundred.

' Nothing exposes a traveller to more difficulty than
carrying much tobacco in his luggage ; yet all will re-
member never to be without some cigars, and the better
the better. It is a trifling outlay, for although any cigar
is acceptable, yet a real good one is a gift from a king.
The gi eater the enjoyment of the smoker, the greater
his respect for the donor ; a cigar may be given to every
body, whether high or low : thus the petaca is offered,
as a polite Frenchman of La Vieille Cour (a race, alas !
all but extinct) offered his snuff-box, by way of a prelude
to conversation end intimacy. It is an act of civility,
and implies no superiority, nor is there any humiliation
in the acceptance ; it is twice blessed, ' It blesseth him
that gives and him that that takes.' It is the spell
wherewith to charm the natives, who are its ready and
obedient slaves, and, like a small kind word spoken in
time, it works miracles. There is no country in the
world where the stranger and traveller can purchase for
half-a-crown, half the love and good-will which its in-
vestment in tobacco will insure, therefore the man who
grudges or neglects it is neither a philanthropist nor a
philosopher." _ _ _

This is a pleasant enough description. James I.
of England, and Louis X EV. of France, would have
thought difficulty ; but the imperturbable Spaniards
would, no doubt, have retorted upon their irascibility
—" Pues, senores! echaremos un cigarrito." That
would have been an expressive counter-blast to the
counter-blast of James and also to Louis, " qui kris•
soil le tabac singulierement," according to La Beau-
melle.

THE ECLECTIC REVIEW.
We observe that the Eclectic Review, for January,
devotes more than a merely cursory review to. the
rayers
riei toi ft
utdhee p
tree,:
nngt
aagitation
texts
tfso re
ft h
itse eedbus
ecravt
an it
ine
no
sf
and Bell,
the of Mr.
ejaculation
ninetse anthdeDmr.eVmaourgyhconr.RAebfeterrt
Raikes, and to the systems o.f
.Lancaster_th
alarm-
ing
the writer enters upon a consideration of
increased a
vastly Kr
nd
necessity extension
some ignorance,
in-
struction. He is irrate at the manner in which the
clergy continued for a long series of years the most
inveterate opponents of the diffusion of knowledge
systematicaned of the
among the poorer classes, and he is indignant at that
same clergy on their ungraceful conversion to the
cause of education (simply because they saw
that further antagonism on their part would
be utterly ineffectual), wanting to monopo-
lise the direction and superintendence of the
national schools. We are amazed, considering the
frankness and impartiality of the article generally, to
find the reviewer in one part characterise the Crusade
agaii.st Ignorance, led on by Lord Brougham, as
" earthy " and its measures all of the earth. As if
the mere absence of conventional phrases of devotion
derogated from the divine and god-born influence of the
study of Nature's laws and of the organisation of the
universe ! As if the contemplation of the phenomena of
this globe, and of the mysteries of the skies were ini-
mical to religion, and not an almost irresistible im-
pulse to its more ennobling impressions ; The deve-
lopement of the Free Trade question in France is
noticed, as is also the doctrine of Future Punishment,
the Career of Thomas Clarkson, the Abolitionist, and
Dr. Croly's Fiction of Marston.

KNIGHT'S MONTHLY VOLUME. No. Vl.
Moliere and the French Classical Drama.
To those enviable individuals who have not yet
made their acquaintance with Jean-Baptiste Pogue-
lin, commonly called Moliere, the little book which

forms the present number of the monthly volumes,
formerly published by Mr. Charles Knight, but now
published by Mr. Charles Cox, will prove an admi-
rable pioneer. Even to those few who are ignorant
of the French language, the little work translated
from the original of Madame Thaz de Bury, (nee
Stuart,) comprehensible and, we will under-
take to say, most charming. The smallest quotations
of wit, irony, sarcasm, retort, equivoque, and so
forth, from the exuberant drolleries of Moliere, are
given throughout with their English version. Every
paragraph in this composition of Madame de Bury
is stored with anecdotes or critical observations of a
piquant or delightful character.

KNIGHT'S WEEKLY VOLUME. No. CXI.
The Romance of Travel. Vol. H. By Charles
MacFarlane.
We should feel disposed to utter a somewhat
lengthened commendation upon the oriental sketches
of Mr. MacFarlane, but that we deem such eulo-
giums to be altogether superfluous, from the popu-
larity already acquired by his writings. Like
Eothen, and Elliott Warburton, and Mrs. Romer, he
regards the East from two separate points of view—
first as a fervent worshipper of the physical creation,
and, secondly, as a shrewd contemplator of the
spiritual nature of the lands visited; he looks at one
moment to the peculiarities of the country which he
is traversing, at another he regards the society, the
habits, the customs, the disposition, the creed, and
the traditions of the multitudes by whom it is popu-
lated. Mr. MacFarlane has an eye for the pic-
turesque, and one capable of appreciating the beautiful,
whether of the moral or actual world.

PROGRESS OF THE NATION in its Various
Social and Economical Relations from the Beginning of
the Nineteenth Century. By G. A. PORTER, ER. S.

4 new edition.

The work, of which this is a new edition, has long
since been universally recognised as the authority on
all matters relating to the statistics of the British
Empire, and for years past it has been constantly ap-
pealed to as such in Parliament by men of all parties.
The statistics of the empire aro, in this edition,
brought down to the close of the year 1847. In his
preface to this edition, Mr. Porter, to whose demon-
stration of the absurdity of the protective system, the
destruction of that system is mainly owing, and to
whose record of facts, quite as much as to the " un-
adorned eloquence of Richard Cobden," the conver-
sion of Sir Robert Peel may be attributed, thus
speaks of the mighty victory of truth over fallacy
which is accomplished in the year 1846:

swms
oyaasisnt
enstmw.et "During the year in which these sheets have been
passing through the press, changes of the most momen-
tous character, affecting our commercial relations, have
been crowned with legislative sanction. The protective
womwo
asvhhteiioens
uhe
dwioat nhsv
eyaanl
vtl
ivaosriueofren
twhaora
yb3ri•
anet
sinasrdaesn
adhaigst
interestsohyeooaierpeip t
, aa
gr
hteandai
nas tts ost
anyubdi
te:
denly yielded to the force of argument, and is abandoned
by every one having valid pretensions to guide the
opinions, or to govern the decisions of the legislature.
"If this sudden change could have been foreseen, some
of the arguments might possibly have been spared, that
wear in the following pages, and that were levelled
against positions which, at the time, were by most per-
sons deemed impregnable, but which are now and for
ever given up as no longer tenable; for it is not to be
conceived that a victory so signal over deep-rooted pre-
julices, and which has been gained by changing the
convictions of the great majority of those by whom they
were entertained, can ever be reversed, nor that circum-
stances can hereafter arise to call for a repetition of the
means by which that victory has been aehieved,"
is admirably said. We join with Mr. Porter in cele-
brating this signal victory over deep-rooted preju-
dices, and we entirely agree with him in opinion that
a victory so gained can never be reversed.