to find how many of those whose signatures they bear have already
passed from amongst us.

Other materials of great importance lay scattered over the Public
Journals of the period; were buried and stowed away in Parliamentary
Blue Books, and Parliamentary debates;--were to be sought for in
pamphlets, in periodicals, and more especially in the Reports of the
various Societies and Associations, which were appointed for dispensing
the alms given with such free hand, to aid in saving the lives of the
famishing people. Those Records will be found quoted and referred to in
the course of the work.

Amongst them, it is but just to acknowledge, how much the Author owes to
the Report of the Census Commissioners for 1851; to the "Transactions"
of the Society of Friends; and to the _Irish Crisis_, by Sir Charles
E. Trevelyan, Bart.; which originally appeared as an article in the
_Edinburgh Review_ for January, 1848, but was reprinted in a small
volume of two hundred pages. Although far from agreeing with many of Sir
Charles's conclusions (he was Secretary to the Treasury during the
Famine), still the Author cheerfully acknowledges, that the statistical
information in the _Irish Crisis_ is very valuable to a student of
the history of the Famine period.

It was to be expected, that the alarm about the Potato Blight and the
Famine would be first raised through the public Press. This was done by
letters from various localities, and by Special Reporters and
Commissioners, who travelled through the country to examine the state of
the people, as well as that of the potato crop. There was a Commissioner
from the London _Times_ in Ireland at this period. His letters
written to that Journal were afterwards collected, and they made an
octavo volume of nearly eight hundred pages.

The English people, and many in Ireland, long adhered to the opinion,
that there was much exaggeration in the Irish Newspapers regarding both
the Blight and the Famine; but subsequent investigation showed, that
there was very little, if any, exaggeration; nay, that the real facts
were often understated. As to the Famine, several of the gentlemen sent
by the Charitable Societies to make Reports, wrote back, that there was
no exaggeration whatever, and, for a very sufficient reason, namely,
that, in their opinion, it was impossible to exaggerate the dreadful
condition in which they found the people.

Another mode of acquiring information adopted by the Author was,