Calaveras chronicle., 1851-12-20

1he following rs extracted from {
book, written by Mrs. Nicholson, al
American lady, on tour through Ire.
land during the famine, which shows
how Father Matthew became a poor
man
Mrs. Nicholson, an American lady
made tour through ireland during the
awful period Of the famine, with view
Of making herself perfectly acquainted
with the social condition Of its suffering
people. She visited the leading towns
and cities, penetrated into the remote
villages, visited the hut of the peasant
and the dying couch .he furnished ar
tisaH, and SAW Father IA gfneW IN the
midst of those labors which have en-
tailed on him his present pecuniary en-
barrassments. His house was convert
ed into soup depot, and the streets
leading to it blockeH up daily with fa-
mine-stricken multitudes, piteously be-
seeching for what would merely sustain
existence. And was this a period when
Father Mathew could stop to cooIly
calculate whether this debt, contracted
under such circumstances, in the cause
of suffering humanity, would be liqui-
dated Had he dozen fortunes, he
could not, with the feelings of Chris
Etian, resist the supplicafing, the heart
rending groans of the sick and the dy-
ing. Yielding to the generous impulses
of his nature, he left no means untried
to raise funds to save human life; and
truly grateful to him must be the noble
Testimony of this accomplished lady, an
American, a Protestant, and an eve
witness of his benevolent labors for
many months. We quote from Mrs
Nicholson's work, entitled 6 Famine
in lreland,o just published sc Father
Mathews countenance IS marked one,
and would be distinguished as such in a
crowd of strangers but grief and blast
ed hopes have so scathed his warm
heart, that though he retains that be-
nightly of expression sd peculiarly his
own, yet the pencil of sorrow has so
shaded it, continued anxiety has so pa
ralysed that hope which ever is, and
ever must be, the welI-spring of his
soul, that there seems a trembling doubt
in every feature, whether to settle into
a desponding passiveness, or struggle
to maintain that wonted complacency
which has seemed animate and inse-
parable part Of his whele constitution.
The scourge that has laid waste his
people has scathed his very soul. He
stood 6 between the living and the dead'
like Phineas, till the plague was mea-
[surably stayed, when, in letting go his
Fstrained grasp, he found that he felt his
own hand had been weakened and
though he complained not, he saw, he
knew, that many who had cried Ho-
sanna,' if they did not say Cruelty
him. would turn away and walk no
more with him. The palsy that shook
his body was faint shadow ofthe palsy
that wIthered the springs of his heart,
and dried up the Iife-blood of his soul.
Great as was his goodness, and good as
was his greatness, they neither Of them
had power to sustain fabric whose
framework was gentleness and confiding
love. When the blast swept over him
and he felt his feet sliding, he reached
out his believing hand to the supports
he thought near him; they were gone.
1t was then that the iron entered his
soul : it was then he found that love
dies with money, and that popularity
thriVes best when its hand is fullest and
needs it least. 1t was then he found he
was in debt. Yes, he was, as the w world
calls it, in debt but virtually, he owes
no man anything. The world never
has, the world never will, the world
never can, repay him. His debt is Civ
ing to the poor, when the poor were
" hot hn hot H.
his own and justly tangible and that
IdepraVity is to be pitied that imputes
blame to generosity like this-a gene
rOsity that seeks not its own, but the
good of those that are ready to perish.
He loved his country, he loved his fell
low men of every cline, and his whole
life has been spent IN seeking their
good. When he saw that the world had
misunderstood him, then he suffered
unutterable things, and the shock that
both body and mind sustained has left
an impress that throws a constraint
upon that full freedom which his real
friends have been wont to exercise to-
wards him. So distracted does his mind
at times appear, that it is sometimes
difficult to know either what chord ia
touch, or what time to strike it, lest the
unostentatious senslbilities of his heart
should be awakened afresh to painful
sensations. The perusal of this vo-
lume by the bigots who have recently
assalled this good man, the testimony
OF this amlable Presbyterian lady, may
remind them OF the danger of &C bearing
false witness" against one whose labors
and spotless life, where he is best
known, are the most conclusive refuta-
ton of their vituperation.
NoLcANo.-A team left Volcano for
Sacramento on Sunday last, containing
gold dust to the amount of one hundred
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