Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 7.djvu/638

621 his race. In Mr. Forbes you will find one of Nature's nobles, who, leaving the endearments of home at this boisterous season, crosses the ocean, to imitate bis and our Saviour—to feed the hungry, and raise the despending."

The exertions of private individuals in relieving the distressed were beyond all praise. Many persons, both lay and clerical, devoted their whole time for months to this work of mercy. One clergyman, in the county of Mayo, kept a soup-kitchen at work, which supplied 2,500 persons daily. One of the inspectors of the Society of Friends saw, in Erris, the owner of a small estate feeding his whole tenantry, many of whom were once in comfortable circumstances. He bad seen bis soup-kitchen in operation, and admired the zeal and activity of his very large family in labouring for the relief of the poor. "What I wonder at," said the writer, "since I have seen with my own eyes, is, that he should have done so much, and that his family are so cheerfully devoted to the same work of mercy, without the slightest pecuniary recompense. With the exception of that family and two others—one a coast-guard officer—there were no persons whatever to look after the poor within a circuit of upwards of thirty miles, in a district filled with a swarming and wretched population. From strict inquiry and close observation, I am satisfied that the lives of hundreds have been saved by the efforts of these three men and their families. It is a great deal easier to put one's hand into a long purse, than to labour from mom till dewy eve,' filling out stir-about to crowds of half-clad hungry wretches, sinking with weakness and fever. I saw thousands to-day of the most miserable people I have ever seen." Another proprietor, whose wife and young daughter conducted two soup-kitchens, though he had lost his rents, kept eighty persons at work daily during the famine, and did not allow one of his tenants to be put on the relief lists. These are only specimens of hundreds of families, including those of many clergymen of the Established Church, who thus nobly exerted themselves during that terrible crisis. In one very destitute district in the county of Mayo, the indefatigable exertions of a lady had organised a Ladies' Association, to which she acted as secretary. It consisted of eight members, residing several miles apart. All had large boilers except one. They distributed cooked food daily, and had a weekly gratuitous distribution of rice and meal, besides sales at reduced rates. They employed 135 spinners and weavers. Their monthly expenditures exceeded £7000, and supported upwards of 15,000 families, and also several hundred occasional applicants; and all this labour was undertaken in addition to their household duties, as mistresses of families. Many persons in a lower station of life also distinguished themselves in this work of benevolence. The chief boatman of a water-guard station, in Mayo, with a very small salary, and four motherless children, very well brought up, kept a soup-kitchen, at which he worked daily, from four o'clock in the morning, without fee or regard." The following is a tabular view of the whole amount of voluntary contributions during the Irish famine, which deserves a permanent record, for the credit of our common humanity:—

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