ich was very
severe in December, became its powerful auxiliary. Wherever the blame is
to rest--at head-quarters in Dublin, or with the clerks at the
works--the irregularity with which wages were paid by the
representatives of the Government, caused terrible suffering and
innumerable deaths. Many of those recorded at this period occurred from
the taking of food by persons who had been without it for a long time.
"Carthy swallowed a little warm milk and died," is the simple
announcement of one man's death from starvation; but, with slight
variations, it might be given as the record of thousands of deaths as
well as Carthy's.

The means of providing coffins for the victims of famine was becoming a
serious question, as the survivors in many a poor family could not now
attempt to purchase them, as the outlay of a small sum for a coffin
might be the cause of further deaths from starvation in the same family.
At a meeting in Skibbereen, in the beginning of December, Dr. Donovan
said that, since his return from Glandore that morning, he had been
followed by a crowd of applicants, seeking coffins for their deceased
friends; and he had, he said, just visited a house in the Windmill,[187]
where he saw two dead bodies lying, awaiting some means of burial. His
opinion was, that they were on the eve of a pestilence that would reach
every class. "And," said a gentleman, interrupting, "when I asked a
presentment for coffins at the sessions, I was laughed at." Dr. Donovan
continued: The case of a man named Sullivan was a most melancholy one.
His children began to drop off without any apparent disease, after they
had entered the Workhouse. From scarcity of beds, the father and
son--the latter being sick and weakly--had to sleep together; and one
morning the son was found dead alongside of his father, while another
child died in the mother's arms next day. He (Dr. Donovan) had asked
Sullivan why he did not tell him his children were sick. His answer was,
"They had no complaint." Mr. D. M'Carthy said it would be for the
meeting to consider whether they should not pronounce their strong
condemnation upon the conduct of an official in the town, who, with
starvation staring them in the face, would not give out a pound of food
except at famine price, though he had stores crammed with it. "He'd give
you," said Mr. Downing, "for L17 a-ton what cost our paternal Government
L7 10s."

Dr. Donovan, writing to one of the provincial journals at this