other people in Europe would have submitted to such a fate.
But the leader whom they were accustomed to follow had involved himself
in a tangle of false doctrines by his unhappy "Peace Resolutions," and
he exhorted them to endure all with patience and submission. His son had
the amazing assurance to add that if they starved with complete
resignation the repeal of the union was near at hand.

On the relief committees, doctors, clergymen, and country gentlemen bore
the burden of the work, but a multitude of the gentry stood apart as if
the transaction did not concern them. They were busy in transferring the
harvest to England or clearing the population off their estates. The
English officials in Ireland accused them of jobbing in public works, or
quartering their relations and dependents on the Relief Fund, as
overseers, and, in some extreme cases, of obtaining grants for their own
families of money designed for the suffering poor on their estates. The
benevolence of the minority could not counterbalance these odious
offences, and deadly hatred was sown, which has since borne an abundant
harvest.

The state of the country grew worse from day to day. It is difficult now
to realize the condition of the western population in the autumn of
1847; but a witness of unexceptionable impartiality has painted it in
permanent colors. A young Englishman representing the Society of
Friends, who in that tragic time did work worthy of the Good Samaritan,
reported what he saw in Mayo and Galway in language which for plain
vigor rivals the narratives of Defoe. This is what he saw in Westport:

"The town of Westport was in itself a strange and fearful sight, like
what we read of in beleaguered cities; its streets crowded with gaunt
wanderers, sauntering to and fro with hopeless air and hunger-stricken
look; a mob of starved, almost naked women around the poorhouse
clamoring for soup tickets; our inn, the headquarters of the
road-engineer and pay-clerks, beset by a crowd begging for work."

As he approached Galway, the rural population were found to be in a more
miserable condition: "Some of the women and children that we saw on the
road were abject cases of poverty and almost naked. The few rags they
had on were with the greatest difficulty held together, and in a few
weeks, as they are utterly unable to provide themselves with fresh
clothes unless they be given them, they must become absolutely naked."
And in another district: "As we w