LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPGATE-STREET WITHOUT.
BIRMINGHAM:
JOHN WHITEHOUSE SHOWELL, 26, UPPER TEMPLE-STREET.
1847.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
On The Irish Poor Relief Bill, March 12th, 1847.
"A gentleman who lately called upon me, and whom I have every reason totrust, gave me a letter from a person resident in that union (Skibbereen,) stating,that though the property within the union is rated to the poor as being of thevalue of £8,000 a-year only, its actual value is no less than £130,000 a-year,and that, until September last, no rate had been made exceeding sixpence in thepound, but that, in November, a rate was made of ninepence in the pound; butthat rate has never been levied. (Loud cries of 'Hear, hear.')"—See "The Times"of Saturday, March 13.
[3]Elihu Burritt, well known on both sides of theAtlantic by his devoted labours for the good of mankind,especially in the promotion of peace and universalbrotherhood, has recently paid a visit to some ofthe distressed parts of Ireland, principally with a viewof sending a statement of facts, from his own observation,to his native country, together with an appeal onbehalf of the sufferers under the awful pressure of famineand disease.
In this appeal, which was sent to the United Statesby the last steam packet, Elihu Burritt, speaking of thelocality he had visited, says:—"I have come to thisindescribable scene of destitution, desolation, and death,that I might get the nearer to your sympathies; that Imight bring these terrible realities of human miserymore vividly within your comprehension. I have witnessedscenes that no language of mine can portray.I have seen how much beings, made in the image ofGod, can suffer on this side the grave, and that too ina civilized land."
The reader will judge for himself, when he has perusedthe following record of only three days of thisjourney, whether the foregoing language is too strong.Although the fearful facts Elihu Burritt relates mayhave found a parallel in the statements of others, it isthought desirable to publish them in this country, ashe recently witnessed them in the very district to whichthe sympathies of the English have been, for severalmonths past, particularly directed, and for which localitylarge subscriptions have been specially contributed.A single individual is reported to have given £1000for Skibbereen. Yet, notwithstanding all that has been[4]subscribed, up to the period when this journal was written,no effectual means had been adopted for the decentinterment of the dead, or even for their timely removalfrom the hovels of the living, and the great expenditureof the British Government, appears to have effected,at least in this district, but little mitigation of thefearful calamity.
There are many noble instances of individual sacrificesby personal attention to the sufferers, and otherefforts for their relief, but nothing short of a law to givethe poor of Ireland the right to claim support from theowners of the soil, before they are reduced to starvation,will effectually meet the evil, or be any security againstits recurrence.
The Poor Law of England admits the claim of thepeople for support from the land and other fixedproperty; and, until this is given, nei