Glasgow Courier. — 1847-03-11 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

IRELAND-STATE OF SKIRBEREEN.  A letter from the Rev. Richard Boyle Townsend, dated the I.t of March, gives a harrowing sketch of the destitution that at 11 prevails In the doomed district of Skilibereen. It appears that Lord Dufferin and the Hon. Mr. Boyle then her of Lord Glasgow), having read while In Oxford some of Mr. Townsend's statements, made a collection In that city. and eame over to Ireland, in order to witness In persetithe t•Rortheal in the puhlii. }owns's. Arrived in Sin and hie companion welted on Mr. Towi,, e their guide in in excursion through the town and suburbs. The rev. geutletaatee narrative proceeds as folios's:—  " I carried them to one of our cabins, the best of its kind. I took them there, supposing it free from disease •' but the ouly in mate then within told us she was affected withtlidrringta. Tin' were shocked.  "We went from this to the old churchyard. There they sae the mode of sepulture new common, of throwing the bodies out ol a shell coffin into a pit, and covering them so sligh,ly that a fee scrapes of a shovel soon laid bare the abdomen of one that was the uppermost! You may be sure this sufficed for so far. Wi passed thence to the place occupied by their more fortunate fellow-sufferers front the workhouse. These had coffins. They were, however, scarcely covered, and the ends of teo of one tier of coffins (for there are three placed one over another in a gray. about two feet deep, and the upper one comes level with the surface) were exposed. There was a pit being in progress of being filled by bodies from the same house at the feet of these, and I asked why it was left in that uncovered, umnade state? The or,, employed digging a lengthened pit said that the persons employed by the workhouse authorities had brought four bodies yet, and, as they expected six more that evening, they left the pit unfinished I Ilia Lordship never saw such a sight before.' '"They had buried six the preceding morning from the workhouse, and four more in the evening of the same day. And they are in the habit of bringing some days 11 bodies to be thus interred.' Such was the information given by those disinterestet! workmen. "we left Htia, only to be witnesses of a scene which, while it baffles description, shows po verfully the terrible effect such a state of things as ours is producing on a people not previously lartitalleed I " ATOM awl of what is called the*etr-brittiatbere miser. ale shed at the gable-end a as miserable a cabin. The parish coffin arrived just as we reached the end of the bridge. I begged his Lordship to stand and see. The men standing by begged we might move off. But we had come to see. The coffin was taken from the cart—its very size, to fit all dimensions of persons, is in itself calculated to strike with horror. It was brought to the door. It was too large for this to admit it. One of the fellows began to blaspheme and curse at others., not disposed to do his work! They went in, and after some minutes rummaging atnongst her dying family of four which she had left, they brought out the naked and emaciated skeleton of an old woman—a mere little torn remnant of what had once been a quilt being just thrown over the abdomen. One took her by the head and the other by the heels and flung her into the coffin, making some shocking exclamation ! It was too much. We turned from the sight completely sickened, and his Lordship made up his mind that he 'had seen enough, He would not call on the doctor,' with whom he was to go round the next day. "He had determined to stay the next day to see all the multitudinous effects of our terrible famine. Be could look on no more. Be went off next day I "In addition to the .1.30 he had collected in Oxford. he gave tle in remembrance of the scenes he had witnessed. The poor old woman's shattered frame he never forgot the whole evening. And, to say truth, when I returned I could eat no dinner. I tried to eat, but could not. His Lordship did not know how could stand such scenes and sights. God knees, nothing but a stern sense of duty detains me here; for we cannot, with all we get, do more than give a taste—we have not enough to feed the creatures—victims of a most mistaken national policy, on whom the principles of political economy have been carried out in practice to a murderous extent."