The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

Lt-respect oegins
and, with God's

already to show itself
_as one of the results

blessbig, more extensive benefits are looked for

"`Premiums in articles of clothing are given weekly, for the
most punctual observance of time, as well as the quantity and
quality of work done.
" 'Mr. Gildea is anxious to be enabled to offer to these
people, as premiums, and to others, at a very reduced price,
flax seed, in order still further to excite to industry. The laud
is particularly suited to the cultivation of flax, which is more
valuable than any white crop. Various causes have combined
to render the people of this district indifferent as to whether
they sow the land or not; and little or no spring work is yet
done—in fact, up to this, not ten acres of two thousand, the
average number in tillage of a district containing fifty-five
thousand acres and thirteen thousand inhabitants, are yet
touched. It is almost late for anything but flax. No local
help can be had, and before one month four-fifths of the inha-
bitants will be on the relief lists.'

" foApril 16th, 1847.
The results of our reproductive labour plan are most satis-
factory; not only are the habits of industry and exertion, hi-
therto little understood here, showing themselves, but also an
evidence of proper self-respect among the people employed,
which strengthens my opinion of the evils of gratuitous relief,
and the very great and important advantages of industry.
Had the sums of money which the bounty of England has in
this day of Ireland's necessity poured in upon every distressed
parish, been extended in some industrial employment, under
even a defective management, a great amount of good would
have been the result ; but fortunately it has not been so ; and
we are now reduced to the melancholy position of confirmed and
hopeless mendicancy. Any remnant of moral feeling among
the people at large appears departed, and the country is in a
most deplorable and melancholy state. To stand alone against
all this is not easy, but God Almighty has, I feel sure,
blessed our efforts, and given us fruit.
(Signed) GEO. ROBT. GILDEA."

We shall not take our reader through the scenes in
question. Our object is rather to lay before a sympathis-
ing public the remedy which he proposes for the perma-
nent improvement of this part of Ireland, and the deve-
lopement of the industry of its people. In addition to its
natural resources, its quarries of stone and marble, its
fisheries, its kelp, and other adyantages for the employ-
ment of capital and industry, Mr. Browne says,—

"I went prepared to see misery general and unprecedented
such as had scarcely been equalled in extent or in i

tensity; but although I did not see one-tenth part of the
suffering going on continually around me, I was quite unpre-
pared for what I met. Death seemed to pace the streets—in
districts where I had before obser►ed a fine healthy race of peo-
ple, I encountered collections of skeletons, whose haggard
looks spoke volumes of hopeless misery. Wretched counte-
nances—emaciated forms—the dying and the dead—funerals
and desolation caught the eye on every side—busy villages
were becoming cemeteries cabins are being turned into
charnel-houses. I was awe struck. To appreciate such misery
we must behold it. May God grant that it be not brought to
our own shores. Let those who doubt rather go and examine
for themselves, and see if there be not a cause for our united
exertions to save a dying people."

In the neighbourhood of Castlebar, too, the same good
work is being carried on by the Rev. W. B. Stoney, who,
the writer states, " finds the people industrious, clever,

and mdst anxious to obtain wOrk-Lindeed I was an eie-
witness of their importunity—and his efforts are only
limited by the want of capital for investment in looms