Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-02-19

very intensely. and continued longer thai
usual with us; and had a heavy fall of snow
taken place, or should it come, what woulC
be the condition of the isolated peasantry il
our western districts, it needs little foresirh
to predict! The melancholy task, in all bu
man calculation, would only remain for Tn,
survivors to inter the wasted remains of tbeii
brethren and sisters, where 'relentinp nature
had opened the way.
And how are our poor people behaving IN.
der their uneXampled sufrerincs and priva.
tionsl Why, with unwavering patience
such as only the Irisliman, and perhans the
Hindoo, would exhibit! Every one who has
gone into the West tells the same taie-is
unbounded in admiration Of the people. Yes.
there are traits of nobleness, of hcroism. OF
selErenunciation, shining out from these
wilds, which make one revere human nature,
and which nobly vindicate it from the mass
of darkness which priests and statesmen and
warriors have heaped upon it. Poor as the
Connaught peasant is, his last meal Of pota-
toes is shared with the stranger; and the rea-
son why greater numbers have not vet died
of starvation is, because of the disinterested-
nCss, the tend er-hear.ednes of their neiuhbors
who will not let them die till they are involv-
ed in a common fate with them. There is
talk about the peasantry arming, but this is
all a ridiculous falsehood, as regards the mass
es. They have not a shilling to buy food.
much less to purchase a gun. No-but at
Dingle, furnishing thousands looked on at 200
bags of Indian meal, lying unguarded on the
quay for a whole night, and did not touch a
grain of it, because they knew it belonged TO
those who were straining every nerve 10 re-
lieve their distresses.
A worthy and excellent Friend, in the true
sense of the word-Willialn Forster, of Nor
wich-has been for weeks engaged in ira
Yelling through the country, investigating the
universal misery, and seeking proper chan
nels through which 10 dispense a pretty liber-
al subscription which is raised by Friends
in this land, and which is being ncbly added
10 in England and the scenes which he re-
counts are truly heart-rending. Think of a
feeling mind being obliged TO witness such
scenes as this-to see a crowd of upwards of
100 furnishing fellow-beings, a large portion
of them women and children-the o~ld-lookinr
and haggard faces of the latter, and their at
tenuated limbs, telling their tale too plainly,
and struggling to obtain admittance into a
wretched work-hOuse, where fever and dys-
EMERY were raging, with the certainty that
the over-crowded house could only receive
thirty of their number.
/ must not pursue the tale. 4 y But il
is vain to conceal from thee, my friend, that
our future prospects are gloomyi in the extreme.
The peasant is not filling his feld-it is no
Use his doing so: he has no seed TO sow it
Sith-the future is pregnant with dark and
owering clouds to as. But let me apain tnrn
% YOU. You have the power to help US. Let
then, your farmers, your tillers of the soil,
sow their broad acres with redoubled activi- /,
ty. In helping themselves, they will helm
us; the bond Of brotherhood will be more and
more strengthened the lrishman will sneak.
| think, more kindly than ever, of his Ameri-
can brother, when he is eating of his bread
the broad bond of Christian brotherhood will
be UNNECESSARILY strengthened thereby. We
have not now the accursed Corn Law to keep
out your food from our millions. Only mis-
cradle SIRED of it remains, which popular cla-
NOR must inevitably sweep away.
| am glad TO say, that good is coming out
of all this suffering. The kindly feelings of
humanity and charity are being opened in
many hearts, and are left TO flow freely. Ma
ny a friend in need have the poor found N the
hour of trial, and the simple response has Of
ten been made to succor offered in the last
extremity Il prayed TO God, last night, that
he would not let my children perish. knew
he heard my prayer and here is the proof of
it, Yes, we have many such beautiful in
stances Of simple, childlike faith, and the re-
alization of the truth, that He will not suffer
His dependant children to perish.
But while write thus mournfully of our
present prospects, | think | vet see a hand
of mercy high above all for poor, SUFFERING
lreland-lreland, which has drunk of the
wine of bitterness, even TO its dregs-Ireland,
ground down by misrule; her children robbed
of their daily bread her land possessed by
the Gew, who, like The dog in the manger.'
can neither use it themselves, nor will thew
allow others TO use it. How my heart burns!
how my Indignation rises! how ny blood
boils within me, when think of the wick
edness, the diabolical nature of the Wholesale
robbery OF our laws of primogeniture and en-
tail, which keep the property of the country
in the hands of a few, whose extrafapance,
or the extravaganza Of their predecessors, has
so clogged and mortgaged their property, that
while the laws insist that they must remain
in the possession of the lands, totally incapa-
citates them from doing anything toward i'm
proving either them or the existing myriads
who are congregated on their estates.
Ihls must come to an end The present
events are rapidly bringing it to a crisis
The taxation now necessary to keep the poor
alive, must be followed by some legislative
means to enable it to be paid. | see no other
but the excellent one of breaking up those
accursed laws, and bringing those great es-
tates, or large portions of them, into The mar
ket, there TO find their way into the hands of
men who have capital and enterprise. and
common sense to know that in r%aisinr a beg-
CARED and disaflected tenantry to a happv,
comfortable and coniented state, they are most
efiectually adding to their own PROSPERITY and
10 the general veal.
And now, | must come to a close. ! have
written this hasty epistle beside my own fire.
side (Which is, thanks TO an all merciful
Providence, as comfortable as every in the
midst of many interruptions, one Of which
has been the arrival of No. of William
and Mary Howitt's Own Journal, which an
pears full Of good matter. Success to their
exertlons to benefit the human race Success
to them for their hopeful spirit!