The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-05 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, JAN, I.
STATE OF TIPPERARY.

The following sums were received since last meeting :
—George Pim, Esq., Brenanstown, 200/ ; Rev. Dr.
Wray, vice.provost, 100/.•' Christopher Macdonnell and
Sons, 501.; Thomas N. Redington, Esq., 501; John
Hatchell, Esq., Q C., 50/.; 11. S. Sweetman, Esq., 201.;
Miss Sweetman, 101.; Cheyne Brady, Esq., 5/.; Rev. J.
Leary,•C.C:, Great Haywood, Staffordshire, per Daniel
O'Connell, 51.; Miss Smith, Glenaghgare, her second
subscription, 21.; Lord George Paget, officers, and non-
commissioned officers 4th Light Dragoons, 42/.; Sir
Montague Chapman, 101. The following letter was re-
ceived by the Marquis of Kildare on yesterday, at the
meeting of the committee:—" Lord George Paget pre-
sents his compliments to the Marquis of Kildare, and
has the honour to inclose him a draft for 421., being the
amount subscribed by the officers non-commissioned
officers, and privates of the 4th Light Dragoons, towards
the relief of the distress now existing in Ireland, which
he begs may be placed in the funds of the General Cen-
tral Relief Committee for all Ireland.—Portobello. Bar-
racks, December 31, 1846."
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. MR. FORSTER'S
MISSION.
_ _ _

The Dublin Mercantile Advertiser of this day contains
;he following :
" We have seen some letters from Mr. William Fors-
er, of Norwich, who has been engaged in his truly
benevolent mission for several weeks past, in the counties
of Roscommon, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, and Galway.
Mr. Forster, the brother. in law of the late Sir Thomas
Fowel Buxton, had entered upon his labours with the
utmost anxiety to ascertain the real extent of destitu-
tion. He has gone amongst the peasantry—ha.s in-
spected the poor-houses, and, after the most careful
inquiries, he has arrived at the cocelusion that the ter-
rible pictures of suffering, of actual famine, which have
been published in the newspapers are borne out to the
fullest extent by his personal observation.
"The scenes of misery detailed in Mr. Forster's letters
are most harrowing ; the people absolutely perishing
from fever and want, whilst in some districts food is not
to be obtained for money. Frcm Donegal Mr. Forster
wrote to the central committee in Dublin that the clergy-
man of a parish had been existing upon one meal in
the day, until he had been enabled to procure food, con-
veyed on horseback a distance of fourteen miles !
The Friends Central Committee have made arrange-
ments for sending relief to some of the most distressed
• trimettiiiste.te
epAre(tfsue their
sidrhiesdtrrequest,ewsist)hl
e6torwti. o,ohn mtmasemiloybnedrraas)isoeitnd'
otrhtnoeinCagol
irteok.
virte
ascertain the best mode of administering some relict to
the famishing people at Skibbereen, and the districts
adjoining.'e"'lh London Committee of the Society of Friends
have been most energetic in the good work. Amongst the
metropolitan donations followingly. e:
kSo ivt no
rd:
JohnareGurtnhey 5001 ; George H.
Gurney,
Head, 3005/0.0;1. ;EdjmoushndPeas.e, 200e1.%
2001.
; Robert Barclay, 2001. The followini, t y
Gurneysociety i n
Barclay,London
13 rnsubscribed
sixlool. membersea
ch :_o
jf
o thesh
Henry Berbeck, John Bell, John Ditching, M.aryE OtTvoehrn-
' end, Wiliiam Janson, John llodgkin, Thomas owler,
.Tosh. Owen Harris, Han. Ba6khouse, Josh. Stur
Fell, Samuel Hull, William Hull, 'Thomas Smittigeg
Gurney, jun., Henry Edmund Gutrviy, Henry'Cl7a3el,
George Thomas. Edmund Thomas, Joshua Eaton, Josh.
Sane George William Alexander, Charles H • urns,
Jane and Henry Harris.

Mr. S. Gurley, when putting down his name for
the 500/. which stands at the head of the list, said (so
ser;sihly did he feel for the privation of our countrymen),
that if five thousand were requisite, he would alter the
sum to that,

Friends generally to meet Iheca,llliinags
upon the
address from the London Canodmmsuibttseeer.
been issued and very generallpool, within two or three days,
y'
Birkenhead, very few
d
been collected, and the Friends of
ac
the tel
u upon.m of I ,17115011. i vheard.
otrfillwulitenid 2a5r01.
`` Mr. Forster, after leaving Connemara, intends .to
in affluent circumstances, have already con-
proceed to Limerick, and from thence continue his
mis-
sion
to the southern districts."
1.)1117,s ENTNI ENT SESSIONS.—TIIE LANDLORDS.
COUNTY OF CLARE.—BARONY OF LOWER BUN-
RATTY.—At the adjourned sesions for this barony, held
at Newmarket-on-FerguF, on Tuesday last, Sir Lucius
O'Brien, That., in the chair, new presentments were
pass( d to ihe amount of 17,000/., which, added to the
10,000/. passed at the meeting held on the week previous
for the completion oft wisorlkooiknedprougproenssiaymatikwe
gaentotltea.l
sum of 27,000/. w
men connected with the to ive em lo
barony as barely suffi-
months. We have l
cient gcnent to
from e people for three
yearnedofficers connected
with the Board of Works in that neighbourhood, that
the number of applicants for work are being daily in-
creased by accessions from the ranks of small farmers,
who are compelled, to adopt this course to secure sub-
sistence for their families. Among the prese.ntruents
passed on the occasion, there were some for now roads,
and also one for cutting down the hill at Dronaoland, the
-residence of Sir Lucius O'Brien, Bart., which was COll-

The Tipperary Constitution, a Tory paper, makes an
alarming representation ofthe state of that county. De-
tails of robbing of sheep and provisions are given. I
subjoin two extracts from that journal, which, it is ne-
cessary to remark, has long been in the habit of drawing
exaggerated pictures of the state of the district:—
" Mr. Sergeant Howley, the able and excellent as-
sistant barrister for this county, was obliged to be fur-
nished with an escort on proceeding to Clogheen to open
his court on Tuesday. The military and police are ha-
rassed.
" FIRING AT THE MILITARY.—On Monday evening,
about five o'clock, as the escort of military and police
were returning from Caber, a shot was fired at them
from a car, which was passing near Summerville: sub-
constable Crozier, who was with the party, saw the shot
fired, and arrested two men named Prendergast and
Slattery, who were in the car, and found a pistol which
had been recently discharged concealed in the car. The
parties have been committed."
DESTITUTION IN THE CITY OF DUBLIN.
At the meeting of the guardians of the South Dublin
Union yesterday, the clerk read the following important
report from the Surgeon-General, Sir Philip Crampton,
and Dr. Corregan:—
" Merrion-square West, Dec. 29, 1846.
" Gentlemen,—ln compliance with your resolution of
the 24th inst., we have this day visited the workhouse
in consultation with your medical officers.
" Of the total number of inmates (1,946), 815 are
labouring under illness, and a large proportion of these
are suffering under dranlica, or dysentery of a very fatal
form.
"In the process of our examination we were very
soon struck with the fact, that the fever accompanying
the disease was, in nearly all the cases, of the same low
typhoid character; your medical officers are of opinion
that the disease is contagious, and in their opinion we
fully concur. The great majority of the cases are in
persons advanced in life, and relapses are frequent,
which circumstance constitutes a serious aggravation of
the disease.
" Dysentery has prevailed throughout the city and
suburbs during the past autumn to a somewhat greater
extent than in preceding years, and many of these ad-
mitted within the last few months into the workhouse
laboured under it on admission ; but, nevertheless, its
more rapid increase, its assuming the form of an epide-
mic, the universal similarity of the accompanying fever,
and the more fatal character of the disease within the
walls of the workhouse, clearly prove that there must be
some additional influence of an unfavourable nature ope-
rating within the institution.
" The clothing of the paupers is sufficient, the food and
drink, which we examined, appear to be of good quality,
and, as your medical officers, in their report of Novem-
ber 25th, have justly observed, the disease cannot be
attributed to the use of Indian meal, because numerous
cases of dysentery appeared in the house several weeks
before that article of diet was introduced, and numbers
of the inmates have been attacked who never used the
Indian meal stirabout.' To none of those influences,
then, can the disease be attributed ; but, we cannot have
any hesitation in attributing to the following circum-
stances a very great influence in predisposing to aid in
propagating the disease :
" Ist. To the circumstance that, for some months past,
a large proportion of those admitted into the workhouse
have been already broken down in constitution ; and
many of them, as already noticed, labouring under dy-
sentery.
" 2d. To the circumstance, that in the workhouse itself
the wards are so crowded, and the ventilation so deice-
titre, that disease, no matter how caused at first, must
&ion_ acquire and maintain a highly contagious character;
and, as is universally the case under such circumstances,
will also assume a fatal form, bidding defiance to the
efforts of the best medical skill.
"We cannot let pass this opportunity of endeavouring
to impress this fact strongly upon your attention, that
good air is as necessary to the support of health as
wholesome food; and that, on the other hand, impure
air is not a less certain poison, though it may be some-
times a little slower, than unwholesome food.'
After urging the necessity of improved ventilation, the
report rroceeds:—
" We minutely examined the nature and progress of
the disease in all its stages, the appearance after death,
and the remedial measures employed. The result of our
inquiry is to be able to assure you that we believe all
that medical science and unweary ing attention could do
has been done by your medical officers to arrest the pro-
gress of the malady. We must observe that the labour
your medical officers at present undergo is more than, we
think, they can continue to endure, and a failure of their
energies in their present trying circumstances will be
productive of injury to the poor as well as to themselves.
Each of the medical officers has now under his care about
270 ratients ; allowing only five minutes, on an average,
for seeing each patient, twenty-two hours would be
required to go through the whole number ; or supposing
that cnly half the number require to be seen daily, the
duty to be yet done is far beyond what your present staff
of medical officers can efficiently perform.
" We cannot entertain a hope that any course of mere
medical treatment will of itself remove, or even materi-
ally arrest, the progress of disease in your institution.
The crowded state of the wards should be corrected
sufficient ventilation should be ensured ; the diseased
should be separated from the healthy ; the former re-
moved to situations more favourable to recovery, and the
latter no longer exposed to agencies calculated to predis-
pose to and engender disease ; in short, we are of opi-
nion, that the same institution cannot safely be at once
both a poor. house and an hospital. We renaa'n, gentle-
men, your obedient servants, '
"PHILIP CRAMPTON.
"D. J. CORRIGAN, NI.D.
"Note.—The beJs are so close together that there is
barely room for a person to walk in between them."
CENTRAL RELIEF COMMITTEE FOR
IRELAND.