onster meeting of the county was held in Westport.
Forty thousand persons were said to have assembled on the occasion. The
Very Rev. Dean Burke, who presided, complained that, as far back as
September, a presentment of L80,000 was passed for the county, L12,000
of which was allotted to their barony, Murrisk; but from that time to
the period of the meeting only L7,000 had been expended. Resolutions
were passed, calling for a liberal grant of money to save the people
from death; expressive of deep regret at the uncultured state of the
corn lands of the county; calling for the establishment of food depots
in the remote districts; and recommending the completion of the roads
then in progress. More than one speaker hinted that there existed an
under current for preventing the employment of the people, and that this
under current emanated from the landlords, who were opposed to the
taxing of their properties for such a purpose. At the close of the
meeting, one of the gentlemen present, Mr. John C. Garvey, made the
following observations:--"It has been said that an under current exists
to prevent the employment of the people. In my opinion the landlords
would be working against their own interest in preventing the employment
of the poor. (Cries of No, no.) Well, I, as one of the landlords, do
declare most solemnly, before my God, that I have not only in public,
but in private, done everything that I could do to extend the employment
of the people (loud cheers); and I now brand every landlord that does
not come forward and clear himself of the imputation."

A great number of coroners' inquests were reported from Mayo, but those
inquests were no real indication of the number of deaths which occurred
there from starvation; there were not coroners enough to hold inquests,
and four-fifths of those that were held were not reported. Besides,
inquests were not, and could not be held unless in cases where the death
was somewhat sudden, or had some specialty about it. The effects of the
Famine were not usually very sudden. People dragged on life for weeks,
partly through that tenacity of life which is one of the characteristics
of human nature; partly through chance scraps of food obtained from time
to time, and in various ways. Families have gone on for many weeks on
boiled turnips, with a little oatmeal sprinkled over them; often on
green rape, and even the wild herbs of the fields and seaweed; such
things kept prolonging life whilst t