Increase Of Starvation In Ireland

After nn absence of nearly a week from Skibbereen, I passed throngh thal tuwn on Thursday last. Vty two respcctnble inhabitanls I was assured that the mortality, so forfrom diminishing, hnd up to that day qppeared to increase. One of these gentlemen told me pasitivply, that one day during t'. e week he hnd counted no less than fifteen funerals. On leaving Skibbcreen the poach was circled round by at least from fifty to si.xty women, all of whom appeared in the most extreme Hestilulion, and who appeared to i pay particular aitention to a gentlemun who was about leaving Skibbereen for Cork. On making inqujry as to tliis gentlcman's name, I was informed that it was Inglis, and thal he held the staion of Commjssary General, and that he wassent down specially by government to investígate the condition of the peopla of this disirict. By chanco l happened to iravel wilh htm on Thursday last, and during my journey, received some irnportant nfornmtion regarding tlic efTects of ihe present mortality, and the operations of the relief and soup committees. He related to me several incidents connected with the present deslitutionof the tmvn, and alludcd to one pnrticularly, wbich, even n this abode of destitution and misery, is so singulaily shocking as to require a more letigthened notice. On Sunday, (2Oth Dec.) a youngwoman with difticulty entered the public streets from one of the narrow and illformed lanes that conipose the outskirts of ihc town ; with ioitering steps and tremulous voice sh.e beáought the charity of the passer-by ; but foi some time her aoUcilations were useless, and from continued absence of food, and consequent exhaustion, she feil in. the street, and re mained there for a short time unable to risc or even to speak. She was shortly aítej removed from the place where she feil ; aft er the prapei res:oratives had boen supplied, thq poor suiFerer was conveyed to tho wretched cabin thnt sheed her home. She there informed the charitable persons in attendnnce, lhnt her futher and mother had died within the twa previous weeks, and at the same time directed tlieir nttention to a heop of dirty straw that !ay in the corner, and apparently concealed somo objeel under it,= On removing thi.s covering of straw, the Spectators wew horrifiedon beholdingthe mangled corpses of two grown boys, a, large portion of each of which had been removed by the rats, while the remainder lay festering in its roitenness. There they remained, perhaps, for a veek,or it might be for a fortuight, uuknown and unheedpd, the wretched relio.s of poor mortality, oh which these loalhsome oreatures had nightly held their disgusting banquet. Suc! a fact and such. t state of society, communicated to me by a responsible official of the present Government, requires in this place neitlier remark nor comment ; indeed I must do the gentleman the julice to say that he evinced a generous sympathy i the distress of which tlis incident is but oneof the results. From the same unquestionable source, I learned that the deaths in the town of Skibboreen alone, for the 3 weeks previous to my second arrival, amounted to }G9, aqd these, in qlmost e ery instance, ofinöufliciency or tola! ab