in the illuminated chronicles of time; episodes, it
may be, of some magnificent epoch in a nation's history--tragedies acted
in remote times, or in distant regions--the actors, the inhabitants of
beleaguered cities, or the citizens of a narrow territory. But here the
tragedy is enacted with no narrower limits than the boundaries of a
kingdom, the victims--an entire people,--within our own days, at our own
thresholds."[245]

FOOTNOTES:

[213] Letter from Captain Wynne, Government District Inspector to
Lieutenant-Colonel Jones.--_Commissariat Series, part 1, p_. 438.--The
italics are Captain Wynne's.

[214] Report of Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, pp.
180-2.

[215] Census of Ireland for the Year 1851. Report on tables of deaths.

[216] The circumlocutions had recourse to by relief committees and
Government officials to avoid using the word _Famine_ were so many and
so remarkable, that at one time I was inclined to attempt making a
complete list of them. Here are a few: "Distress," "Destitution,"
"Dearth of provisions," "Severe destitution," "Severe suffering,"
"Extreme distress," as above; "Extreme misery," "Extreme destitution,"
etc., etc. The Society of Friends, with honest plainspeaking, almost
invariably used the word "Famine;" and they named their report,
"Transactions during the Famine in Ireland."

[217] Commissariat Series, part I, p. 409.

[218] Commissariat Series, part I, p. 382.

[219] _Ib._ p. 442.

[220] Appendix to Report of British Association, p. 181.

[221] Report of Central Relief Committee of Society of Friends, p. 168.

[222] This Workhouse was built to accommodate 900 persons. The Fever
Hospital and sheds had room for only 250.

[223] _A Visit to Connaught in the Autumn of_ 1847: by James H. Tuke, in
a letter to the Central Committee of the Society of Friends, Dublin, p.
8.

At the end of February there was a meeting of coroners in Cork, at which
they came to the determination of holding no more starvation inquests.

[224] Letters from Mayo to the Dublin _Freeman's Journal_, signed W.G.

[225] The italics in the above quotation are W.G.'s.

[226] It is not to be inferred from this, that evictions were rare in
Ireland immediately preceding the Famine. A writer has taken the trouble
of recording in a pamphlet Irish evictions, from 1840 to the 3rd of
March, 1846; a period of about five years. Up to March, 1846, evictions
_arising from the Famine_ had not really b