hey were destroying it. After a
while they brought on dysentery: dysentery--death. But no one thought of
a coroner in such cases, which were by far the most numerous class of
cases until fever became prevalent, and even then dysentery commonly
came in to close the scene.

"During that period," writes Mr. James H. Tuke, "the roads in many
places became as charnel-houses, and several car and coach drivers have
assured me that they rarely drove anywhere without seeing dead bodies
strewn along the road side, and that, in the dark, they had even gone
over them. A gentleman told me that in the neighbourhood of Clifden one
Inspector of roads had caused no less than 140 bodies to be buried,
which he found scattered along the highway. In some cases it is well
known that where all other members of a family have perished, the last
survivor has earthed up the door of his miserable cabin to prevent the
ingress of pigs and dogs, and then laid himself down to die in this
fearful family vault."[223]

In January, 1847, a Protestant gentleman, now a colonial judge, well
known for his ability and integrity, gave, through the columns of a
Dublin newspaper, an account of the state of Mayo as he saw it. He found
great dissatisfaction--in fact indignation, existing with regard to the
unaccountable delay of the public works, which had been presented for in
that county; and this not merely amongst the starving people, but
amongst the most respectable and intelligent persons with whom he
conversed. He--a man not likely to take a narrow or prejudiced view of
any subject--was of opinion that those complaints were not groundless.
The officials, he says, instead of extending the works in Mayo, and
feeding the people, "are employed in diverting public attention by
prating of subscriptions, paltering about Queen's letters and English
poor-boxes, and frittering away the strength of public opinion and the
efficiency of all public action, by engaging private charity in a task
that can be met only by the Herculean efforts of a whole nation, knit
into a single power, and bound into concentrated exertion by all the
constraining forces that the constitution of political society
affords."[224] And then the starving people are blamed for finding
fault, and for being suspicious. What else, he asks, can they be? How
can a man dying of starvation have patience?

The chief places he visited were Balla, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, and
Hollymount. The scenes he wit