s as doomed;
and this feeling was expressed by their whole bearing. The extent to
which it prevailed amongst all classes is well illustrated by a
circumstance related by the same clergyman. When the Famine had somewhat
abated in intensity, he was one day in a field which was separated from
the public road by a wall. He heard a voice on the road; it was that of
a peasant girl humming a song. The tears rushed to his eyes. He walked
quickly towards her, searching meantime for some coin to give her. He
placed a shilling in her hand, with a feeling somewhat akin to
enthusiasm. "It was," said he to the author, "the first joyous sound I
had heard for six months."

From Roscommon the brief, but terrible, tidings came that whole
families, who had retired to rest at night, were corpses in the morning;
and were frequently left unburied for many days, for want of coffins in
which to inter them. And the report adds: The state of our poorhouse is
awful; the average daily deaths in it, from fever alone, is eighteen;
there are upwards of eleven hundred inmates in it, and of these six
hundred are in typhus fever.[222] In a circumference of eight miles from
where I write, says a correspondent of the _Roscommon Journal_, not less
than sixty bodies have been interred without a coffin. In answer to
queries sent to a part of Roscommon, I received the following replies
from a reliable source: _Query_. "What other relief was given during the
Government works by private charity, committees, etc.?" _Answer_. "There
was considerable relief given by charitable committees." _Query_. "What
did the wealthy resident landlords give_?" Answer_. "Considerable."
_Query_. "What did the wealthy non-resident landlords give?" Again the
answer was, "Considerable." But I am sorry to add that the two latter
queries were almost uniformly answered from various parts of the country
by the expressive words, "Nothing whatever." The same correspondent
said, in reply to another query, that the aged and infirm did not live
more than a day or two after being sent to hospital. They died of
dysentery. The two following anecdotes are given on the best authority:
a family, consisting of father, mother, and daughter, were starving;
they were devotedly attached to each other; the daughter was young and
comely. Offers of relief were made by a wealthy person, but they were
accompanied by a dishonourable condition, and they were therefore
indignantly spurned. Fond as I am of my l