f
which could not be exactly ascertained. The provisions were carried in
ninety-one vessels, the united freights of which amounted to L33,017 5s.
7d.[305]

The total number of ships which carried provisions, the result of
charitable contributions, to Ireland and Scotland in 1847, is set down
at one hundred and eighteen; but as only four of these went to
Scotland, one hundred and fourteen of them must have come here. The
total freightage paid to those ships by Government, was L41,725 8s.
5-1/2d; but as I find in another part of the Blue book, that between
L60,000 and L70 000 was paid by Government for freights on the cargoes
of provisions consigned to the Society of Friends and to the British
Association, and which I have above assumed to be L70,000, we may take
it for granted that something like twenty thousand tons of provisions
were consigned to both Societies, the money value of which was about
L280,000.

Two American ships of war, the "Jamestown" and "Macedonian," carried
cargoes of provisions to Ireland, for which no freight was charged.

The "Jamestown," a sloop of war lent by the government for the voyage,
was freighted by the people of Massachusetts with 8,000 barrels of
flour. She sailed from Boston on the 28th of March, 1847, and arrived at
the Cove of Cork on the 12th of April, after a most prosperous voyage.
The people of Cove immediately held a public meeting, and adopted an
address to her Commander, Captain Forbes, which they presented to him on
board. The citizens of Cork addressed him a few days later; and the
members of the Temperance Institute gave him a _soiree_, at which the
Rev. Theobald Mathew assisted.

The "Macedonian," another ship of war, arrived later on, conveying about
550 tons of provisions, a portion of which was landed in Scotland. Both
ships were manned by volunteers.

On the appearance of the potato blight scientific men earnestly applied
themselves to discover its cause, in the hope that a remedy might be
found for it. Various theories was the result. There was the Insect
Theory; the Weather Theory; the Parasitical Theory; the Electrical
Theory; the Fungus Theory; the Fog Theory. But whilst philosophers were
maintaining their different views;--whilst Sir James Murray charged
electricity with being the agent of destruction, and Mr. Cooper cast the
blame upon the fogs; whilst Professors Lindley, Playfair, and Kane were
busy with their tests, and retorts, and alembics; and whilst ot