in the week--not merely reports of deaths, but
forty-seven cases in which coroners' juries returned verdicts of death
from starvation. This was a horrible state of things, and he hoped that
they would soon be put an end to. The landlords had come forward to give
relief--at least, to some extent; but the merchant classes, he regretted
to say, were holding back. He had seen no meeting of these men; however,
he soon hoped to hear of one; and, in the name of the forty-seven
starved and murdered victims, he would implore of them, and the men of
all classes, to come forward and render every assistance in their power
to relieve the distress.

The orator on that occasion was less than just to the merchants, and
somewhat more than just to the landlords. It was brought to light by
certain correspondents of the London press, that on Mr. O'Connell's own
land the state of the people was most deplorable; that this was so even
before the failure of the crops; that the ordinary condition of his
tenantry bordered upon famine. Mr. O'Connell was, in fact, "a middle
man;" he rented extensive lands, and sub-let at a very large profit. The
persons who were his tenants were ground down with an oppressive rent,
and vainly endeavoured, without capital, profitably to cultivate their
"takings." On the land over which he had himself full control, the
people had little ground of complaint, and much cause for gratitude.
Although he did not come out unscathed from the controversy, which was
raised about the state of the people on his own lands, he was as much
sinned against as sinning--there was an unfair effort to fasten upon him
an imputation of selfishness, which, at all events, he confuted.

Such was Ireland in 1846. Much was done for her; but she suffered
not only in spite of these benevolent efforts, but even by them. She
sorrowfully exemplified the song of her bard--

"Thy suns, with doubtful gleam.
Weep while they rise."

The effect of the opposition of the Young Irelanders upon O'Connell
was signal; he evidently began to droop; his physical power no longer
endured. The attacks made upon him by the London press, in connection
with his conduct as a landlord, deeply depressed him; for although he
positively denied the imputations, and furiously assailed his critics,
he felt to the core the exposure of whatever was wrong in his conduct on
that matter. The failure of the potato crop, and the starvation of the
people, were all that s