e was no
harvest that year _for the poor_; their crop had vanished before the
destroyer, and they were actually worse off at the end of August, 1846,
than they had been since the beginning of the Potato Blight. In that
year, the potatoes never came to maturity at all, and any that were
thought worth the labour of digging, were hurried to market, and sold
for any price they fetched, before they would melt away in the owners'
hands. One of the Commissariat officers asked a farmer's wife, who was
selling potatoes of this kind, what was the price of them; "two pence a
stone, sir," she replied, "is my price," but lowering her voice, she
_naively_ added, "to tell you the truth, sir, they are not worth a
penny." Even in September--it was on the 18th of that month--a
resolution was passed by the Mallow Relief Committee, that from
information laid before them, and from the verdicts of several coroner's
inquests, held during the previous few days, disease of the most fatal
character was spreading in the districts around them, in consequence of
the badness of the food purchasable by the working classes. A little
later, the Rev. Mr. Daly announced to the ratepayers at the Fermoy
sessions, that at the moment he was addressing them, numbers of persons
were living on cabbage leaves, whose countenances were so altered, and
whose whole appearance was so changed by starvation and wretchedness,
that he could hardly recognise them. Lord Mountcashel, the Chairman of
the sessions, on the same occasion used these remarkable words: "The
people are starving; they have no employment; they require to be
attended to immediately, for, starvation will not accommodate itself to
any man's convenience." Nothing truer. Many landlords throughout the
country made similar observations; but to all such, the representatives
of the Government replied, and not without a good show of reason, that
whilst landlords talked in this manner, they themselves, with rare
exceptions, did nothing to employ the people, nor did they, in any way,
relieve the fearful pressure upon the Public Works.

The earliest famine demonstration seems to have taken place in Westport
on the 22nd of August. On that day a large body of men marched four
deep, and in a very orderly manner, to Lord Sligo's residence, beside
the town. They made their intention known beforehand to the inspector of
police, and asked him to be present to show they had no illegal designs.
They were chiefly from Isla