Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1847-02-05
THE FAMINE IN IRELAND.

THE FAMINE IN IRELAND.
The accounts brought over by the Hibernia
from Europe, are really heart rending. Nev-
er in all our life have we more deeply felt for
a starving nation, than we do for that OF Ire
land. May we not congratulate the world on
the PRONUNCIATION of the free trade principles
of the Democratic party of the United States.
They have been the means of opening forelgn
markets for our products, and thus at time
when nation is dying from hunger, we are
looked up TO for food. This ID beautiful
picture. 1t does our very soul good to know
that ire have helped to accomplish the means
whereby the starving man receives succor-
We are proud to number ourselves with the
friends of a measure so beneficial to humanity.
But on the other hand, what must these great
advocates for protection and home market
think of themselves now? Are they so blind
TO every thing that is right and just as to still
persist in their unholy crusade against the
best interests of the whole world, and the in
terests of the great mass of mankind !?
But we set out to give a description OF
the deplorable condition of the poor Irish.
Just listen to the following, taken from the
Baltimore Chpper:-
We gave yesterday an account Of many appal-
ling scenes resulting from the famine IN Ireland.
The Freemans Journal contains number OF 9TH
ers equally distressing. At Skihbereen a reporter
staying half an hour in town counted three funer-
al PROFESSIONS. One family was found dying of
disease and want, unable to go out aud seek food
or medicine. In another cabin, nine persons lay
stretched on the ground. suffering from fever pro-
ducqd by want of food; here a woman had given
birth TO a child, lying upon some straw. Six per-
sons Law around her, suffering from aggravated
symptoms of fever brought on by starvation In
another cabin whole family was i'll with fever,
having lost two of its number within two days,
and the unfeeling landlord had unhinged the door,
took off their blankets, and left them to die with
out shelter clothing food. In thirty houses
at least two of each family i'll with fever or
dropsy in some nine in family were
down, unable to move. and apparently anxious for
death to relieve them from their suf1erings.
A man. his wife and children were confined
with the fever; and among the dying children
was found the decaying corpse of little boy who
had died some time previously. In this a
piece ofcoarse packing stuff was the only covering
over the living and the winding sheet of the dead
In another house a poor woman having lost two
of her children by fever, was found lying at the
side of her third end last child. She tried to go
the town for relief for her dying infant, and while
doing SO, dropped down in the street. was carried
home and died in twenty-four hours. John Malo-
ney and Michael Donovan, of the town Of Beenan.
were found in their hove having been dead some
time. They died of famine. There was nothing
in the house to keep the vermin off the bodies
Four corpses lay in that town as they had died,
without preparation of any kind. Another case
is reported, of body who lay six days and nights
beside dead body, without being able to procure
assistance for its removal and when the last far
thing candle went out, the rats commenced TO eat
the decomposing body The employment furnish
ed by government scarcely saves the laborers from
famine. By day the hungry wretches steal tur-
nips from the fields and gnaw them in their flight.
A: night fall they proWl through the pasture lands
and slaughter sheep and oxen to stay their hun
ger. A private letter letter gives an account Of
the flight to England of an Irish landlord with all
his movable property.
And in addition to the above, we make the fol-
lowing melancholy extract from Wilmer & Smiths
European Times. The picture it presents is re.
ally deplorable:
IHEtAND.-1n no former period Of her history
has this part Of the United Kingdom exhibited
| such miserable and alarming aspect as at the
present time. Starvation of the most dire descrip-
ton stalks throughout the length and breadth of
its provinces--disease and death are hurying their
victims from off the stage of time, and millions of
brave but misguided people know not how, and
where, to bra the awful misery which haunts
their MONDAY walks and midnight visions. So
great and unparalleled is the amount Of restitution
now prevailing, that the efforts of Government 10
abrldge and mitigate the sufferngs of the distress
sed prove unequal to the emergency. Private be-
nevoence starts back at the horrifying picture of
misery which daily demands relief. In fact, in
many instances the Irish cabins are little better
than charnel houses. where the dead, uncnred for,
unbured, lie fostering by the side of the dying.
Day after day are the details of wretchedness and
suffering laid before the public through the me-
dunn of the Irish journals. Liverpool has prac-
teal proof of these statements. Her charitable f.
nances have been swallowed up of late in award
ing temporary relief to the innumerablc number 70
Irish paupers who frequent the port. The &C
counts which have reached US since the sailing of
the last packet state that the laborers in the neigh
borhood of Bantry are moved down by famine,
|
look gloomily forward to the dav, not far distant
as they believe, when they will be found either on
fields o. on mountains without the consultation
of clergy or the comfort Of friends" magistrate
of the county Cork has addressed letter to the
Duke of Wellington, which contains a dreadful
catalogue of the familiar horrors of the time. Is il
possible such things be, III the nineteenth cen
fury, in the midst of gigantic and prosperous
empire, proud of its charity and wealth We
fear that fault is to be found with some party OIL
other for in many instances the commonest pre-
cautions seem to have been neglected. We heal
of remote districts where journes Of 40 or SO miles
including the going and return, made by the
poor man before his family can be supplied with
their slender provision of Indian meal.
HENRY S. CLARK, ESQ, member of Congress
from the late 9Th district, has published an ad
dress in the Tarboro' Press of last Saturday
declining to bea candidate for reelection. H.
says
"The last Legislature of our State has tho
proper, since our last election, so to chang
the several Congressional Districts, as to Civ,
our opponents, in the District in which | nov
reside, a considerable majority. This MAORI