ase of death clearly established as arising from
starvation," writes Mr. M'Carthy Downing, "occurred at South Reen, five
miles from the town of Skibbereen. The case having been reported to me,
as a member of the Relief Committee, I procured the attendance of Dr.
Dore, and proceeded to the house where the body lay; the scene which
presented itself will never be forgotten by me.

"The body was resting on a basket which had been turned up, the head on
an old chair, the legs on the ground. All was wretchedness around. The
wife, emaciated, was unable to move; and four children, more like
spectres than living beings, were lying near the fire-place, in which
apparently there had not been fire for some time. The doctor opened the
stomach, and repugnant as it was to my feelings, I, at his solicitation,
viewed its contents, which consisted solely of a few pieces of raw
cabbage undigested.

"Having visited several other houses on the same townland, and finding
the condition of the inmates therein little better than that of the
wretched family whom I had just left, I summoned the Committee, and had
a quantity of provisions sent there for distribution by one of the
relieving officers; and then published in the Cork and Dublin papers a
statement of what I had witnessed.

"Many subscriptions were sent to the Committee in consequence, and I
received from an anonymous correspondent a monthly sum varying from L6
to L8, for a period of more than twelve months.

"One subscription of L1000 came from another anonymous donor, and for
years the Committee knew not who those generous and really charitable
parties were; but I had always a suspicion that the giver of the L1000
was Lord Dufferin. The grounds for my supposition were, that during the
height of the sufferings of the people, I heard that two noblemen had
been in the neighbourhood, visiting some of the localities. One was Lord
Dufferin, then a very young man, who alluded subsequently in feeling
terms to the wretchedness and suffering which he had witnessed; the
other, I heard, was Lord John Manners.

"In some years after, I met at the house of Mr. Joshua Clarke, Q.C., in
Dublin, Mr. Dowse, then a rising barrister, now a Baron of the Court of
Exchequer, who addressed me, saying, 'We are old acquaintances;' to
which I replied that I thought he was mistaken, as I had never the
pleasure of meeting him before. He said 'That is quite true, but do you
remember having received monthly remi