This composition is signed by ten Roman Catholic priests; and as these gentlemen afterwards scout the unimpeachable evidence of the Poor-law Inspector and others, on account of the distance at which the witnesses live from Gweedore, we append to their names the distances at which those who are non-residents live, according to their own mode of reckoning, viz., from the Gweedore Hotel :

John Doherty, P.P., Carrigart, Rossgull,
20 miles (at least).
Hugh M'Fadden, P.P., Falcarragh,
Cloughaneely.

Daniel M'Gee, P.P., Bunbeg, Gwee

dore.

Hugh M'Fadden, c.c., Allsaints, 33 miles.

James M'Fadden, c.c., Falcarragh,
Cloughaneely.

Bernard M'Monagle, c.c., Dunfanaghy,
Doe, 15 miles.
John M'Groarty, c.c., Cashelmore, Doe,
19 miles.

Hugh Cullen, c.c., Rossgull, 20 miles (at least).

The publication of this Appeal was vigorously carried out: nearly every newspaper in Great Britain inserted the edifying details into which the ten priests had "ventured."

Most of the Roman Catholic papers swallowed the tale at the first gulp. The landlords did not then think it advisable to publish a contradiction, preferring to await a regular investigation either from the Poor Law Commissioners or from Parliament.

The account given in the House of Commons by Lord Naas, of the Poor Law Commissioners' investigation, which took place immediately after, is so just that we cannot do better than transcribe it from the pages of the Times, of April 23:—

"The Poor Law Commissioners, acting under the direction of the late Government, very properly ordered an inquiry to be instituted into the truth of these allegations, and the officer selected to conduct the investigation was Mr. Hamilton, a public servant of great experience and ability, who had been employed under the Poor Law Board throughout the whole of the famine, Before Mr. Hamilton arrived in the district the board of guardians of the union in which it was comprised, viz., the

VOL. LI.-NO. CCCVI.

Dunfanaghy Union, met and agreed to the following resolution:-"That having seen with regret and astonishment in the newspapers an appeal signed by ten Roman Catholic clergymen setting forth a dreadful state of destitution at present existing in this union, we consider ourselves called on, as the guardians of the poor, both from our own local know ledge and upon inquiry, to say such a statement is quite false and without any foundation; and we think we are borne out in this by the fact of having only twenty-two paupers in the workhouse from the entire union.' As some proof of the incorrectness of the statements that had been made as to the destitution

of the people, the guardians asserted that in the month of February last there were only twenty-two paupers in the workhouse from the entire union; and they recommended that, as the 'Appeal' had been published for the purpose of raising money, the Poor Law Inspector should be instructed to inquire into the facts on the spot. Mr. Hamilton proceeded with his inquiry, and examined as many persons as he could find likely to give evidence. Among these was the clerk and master of the workhouse, and he stated that only twenty-seven persons had applied for relief since the last harvest, and they were all admitted, and no applications for provisional relief had been made at the workhouse."

"Mr. Hamilton added, he found potatoes at every house, either stored inside or in pits outside the premises; and he saw an abundance of the potatoes of the district, and there were unmispitted in the fields throughout the whole takable marks of cattle in almost all the dwellings."

We might have supposed that the sworn evidence of fourteen respectsertions even of ten Roman Catholic able witnesses, in opposition to the asclergymen (of whom only three were resident in these districts), would have induced sensible people to pause before they gave unlimited credence to the tale of destitution.

The sagacious Daniel O'Connell used to say, "Give a lie a week's start, and you'll never catch it." And notwithstanding every reasonable proof of the absence of foundation for these fictions, large sums of money have been given to "relieve the starving peasantry."

Sympathy, of a sterner and more suggestive character, was sent across the Atlantic. We copy from a Roman Catholic newspaper, a letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop, Mulock, of St.

47

gate the clothing, bedding, and domestic arrangements of hundreds and thousands of "perishing Celts;" and they may find it difficult to decide between the assertion of ten priests (of whom only three are resident), and the sworn contradiction of fourteen witnesses, of whom six are resident in these districts, and seven of the others either residents in the immediate neighbourhood of Gweedore or Cloughaneely, or officially responsible for their well-being. But no one is so dull as to be unable to ascertain the truth or falsehood of statements which can be proved either by the simplest inquiry, or by a tolerable map.

We need not follow these reverend gentlemen through their attack upon the credibility of the witnesses examined by the Poor Law Inspector. They assert that, with a single exception, these "were one way or other interested in favour of the landlords of these districts." Those of them who are resident are not to be believed, because they are themselves either landlords or tenants-in other words, because they are resident; while those who are not resident are not to be believed, because they are not resident; an objection which might, as we have before seen, be adduced against the evidence of seven of the priests themselves.

It would have been difficult for Mr. Hamilton to find witnesses who were neither resident nor non-resident in these districts.

At the Spring Assizes, in Lifford, the venerable Baron Pennefather had expressed his regret at the lawless state of these districts, and had sharply reproved those spiritual guides who were, to say the least of it, making no effort to restrain the agrarian outrages.

His lordship is thus elegantly alluded to by these reverend gentlemen: "The poor blind, old baron, of himself can be no authority whatever. They (the grand jury of the county) covered their foul deeds with the rough skin of the landlords: and then this blind old Isaac poured forth plentifully his benedictions on them, and as plentifully his maledictions on all who endeavoured

to check their cruelties."

We really think that the public character of those gentlemen who are attacked in the following passage

(with which this address concludes) is a sufficient refutation of the sweeping charge brought against them :

on behalf of these helpless victims of "At present we will repeat our appeal oppression; and we most earnestly implore you, our fellow-countrymen, that the more your enemies are determined to crush them, the more your aid is required to sustain them.

them;

The Grand Jury is against them; the Poor Law Commissioners are against the judge of assize is against them. All are leagued with their opthe good, be against them? If not, pressors. Will you, the charitable and then, continue sending us the means to alleviate their sufferings. For doing so, the God of charity will bless you, and we will feel deeply grateful; as thus you will prove to the world that the slanders of their enemies against men-even their defence, are not credited-are unhumble priests-who stand forward in worthy of credence, and are weak barriers to arrest the tide of charity, flowing steadily and strongly to refresh and invigorate the helpless victims of landlord oppression and tyrant laws."

Thus, then, do these reverend gentlemen take upon themselves the position of champions against the rights of property and the laws of the land. To what misstatements and exaggerations they have descended in carrying out their purpose, we have already seen; and when we reflect upon the fact that these agrarian outrages still go on, unchecked and unpunished, despite all the efforts that have been made against them, we think we have established the assertion with which we set out-that "in this obscure corner of Ireland a flame is being kindled which will, if unextinguished, spread far and wide, and shake the rights of property and defy the power of British law."

But, perhaps, the strangest part of all this strange business remains yet to be told. Charitable people from various quarters, shocked at the miserable state in which the peasantry were reported by their priests to be, sent in generous contributions, amounting, we believe, to more than £2,000. Now, that £2,000 is a great boon to any district no one will deny; and we should have been delighted to see the poor of Gweedore and Cloughaneely so enriched, if the money had been obtained truthfully, and for the purpose stated. But this ill-gotten money has

been expended in a way that we can hardly suppose was intended by its kind donors. So lately as Easter Sunday the priests gave notice that no one was to receive any "relief," except those who had paid "sheeptax."

Now as not a single person in the parish of Raymunterdony had been implicated in the sheep-killing, or paid tax thereon, the inhabitants of one of the two parishes for which money had been collected were excluded from any share of it. We remember hearing, some years ago, that a man was concealed and maintained for several weeks by the peasantry of a Western county, because he represented himself as a murderer fleeing from justice; but it was found that no such murder as he represented had ever been committed, and the pseudo murderer was hunted out of the country, the people saying, "The dirty fellow! an', afther all, he had done nothin' to desarve our kindness."

The inhabitants of the greater part of Cloughaneely had done nothing "to desarve the kindness" of their spiritual guides, so notwithstanding their published misery, they for some time received nothing, while men possessing more than a dozen head of cattle were "relieved" from their starvation because they had paid sheep-tax.

But since the 22nd of April "a change came o'er the spirit of their dream." On that day Mr. Bagwell asked for a Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the state of these districts. The landlords gladly heard of this opportunity of being set right with the public by an impartial inquiry, and through the county member, Sir E. Hayes, expressed their readiness to submit to this very unprecedented investigation. Since that day, the priests, who had previously confined their liberality to the taxed townlands, have flung about their largesses with the most open-handed profusion. They have sent emissaries through the country in all directions, inviting, nay, urging Protestants and Roman Catholics alike to accept clothes, meal, or money. This liberality will, no doubt, raise the popularity of the priests to the highest pitch, and make the peasantry if possible more than ever their ready tools. But we question whether those who gave their money for the relief of

starving and persecuted Celts, will be quite satisfied at the reckless distribution of it to multitudes in (for their rank) most comfortable circumstances -to people utterly unconnected with the mountains, and not even tenants of the maligned landlords.

Some days ago, the board of guardians of the Dunfanaghy union held a meeting, in order to lay before the public an account of the state of the district. All the members attended except Lord George Hill and his subagent, Mr. Robertson. Mr. Hamilton, the poor-law inspector, was present, and interrogated the guardians respecting the condition of the people. The names of the gentlemen who replied to those queries sufficiently guarantee the accuracy of their answers. Mr. Wybrants Olphert occupied the chair, and to questions put through him, the guardians unanimously stated that during the winter no unusual poverty or privation had characterized the district. Fourteen of the persons present affirmed that the potato crop of last year had produced more than the average, while three gentlemen estimated it at a full average only. There was a still more significant fact mentioned, however, regarding the state of the present crops. The query was as follows: "Have the people cropped their farms this spring as well as usual?" To this it was unanimously replied: "The farms are as well cropped as we ever witnessed." Another interrogatory was: "Are you acquainted with any families living on unwholesome food, and who are in really destitute circumstances?" To this it was answered that there had been but one mendicant woman in the union for a long period, who refused to go into the workhouse; and she, strange to say, had not been considered by the dispensers of the "Gweedore fund" a fit recipient of the bounty of the subscribers, who meant to relieve pressing and peculiar distress in the wilds of Donegal.

Furthermore, perhaps the most striking point brought out by this investigation had reference to the daily wages paid to labourers in the parishes where the 1,500 families were said to be driven to the extremes of starvation. The remuneration of the agriculturist is always, and properly, considered a fair test, if not the best test, of the condition of a country. Now,

in the "destitution" townlands, according to the evidence of the Dunfanaghy guardians, "employment is abundant, and "there is an advance in the rate of wages!" When asked what sum was paid to labourers, one of the guardians stated that he had to pay two shillings a day with diet! A parliamentary paper has just been printed, showing the expenditure for the relief of the poor in each union in Ireland during the past year, and the total number of persons relieved during the same period, in and out of every workhouse. By quoting the names of the unions in which the largest numbers were relieved, and in which the poundage was heaviest, we shall best come at our point. Belfast relieved 6,812, and expended £16,718; Cashel, 2,291, and disbursed £5,751; and so on with other places, the lowest unions in point of numbers relieved, and money spent, BUT ONE, were, strangely enough, Skibbereen (of unhappy memory) and Belmullet;

in the latter of which the relieved paupers of the year numbered 106. The one union lower than Belmullet, and lower than every other in all Ireland, in the numbers relieved and cash expended, was Dunfanaghy. Here, amid the scenes of unparalleled and appalling destitution, there were only seventy-eight individuals who applied during the twelvemonth for relief; and even at the season when the alleged poverty was said to be at the severest, the total number in the workhouse was only twenty-four, including the infirm, and several deserted children.

As a conclusion to the array of facts we have grouped, we may state that in the districts of Magheraclogher, Gortahork, and Meenaclady, where thirty females were represented to be on the brink of the grave from sheer want of food, there is not a single human being on the workhouse books; and all the activity of the guardians cannot discover one candidate for the unionrations, male or female, old or young.

CENTRAL North America is one huge palimpsest. Ruins of vast extent cover its interior. The story of ancient cities, of proud palaces, of magnificent temples, of an architecture that is unique in its style, of sculpture, which in its execution equals any thing that Greece ever produced, but is, in its conception, wholly original, survives but in the fragmentary, fast-fading characters in which the lords of this lovely land once wrote the history of their civilization. Who were they? Whence came they? What did they? Answers to each of these questions are to be found, doubtless, in those numerous stony records covered with a hieroglyphic, to which a larger induction of examples might betray to us the key. Yet these records are fast perishing. Here are pages on which no learned eye has ever looked. Tangled forests have covered whole volumes of such records. The rank luxuriance of the tropics sufficed, as Stephens tells us, to plant a thick growth of trees

some of them twenty feet in heighton a space that one short year before had been laid bare for investigation. How dense, then, is the shroud that Nature has flung over these remains of the lords of Mexico! Lofty peaks appear there, but of moderate elevation to him who has been acquainted with the Alps, because they spring from a table-land whose absolute height over the sea level is greater than that of Mount Cenis, or the St. Gothard. Such a model do the ancient architects of Central America seem to have chosen for their proudest structures, and terraces, whose actual altitude equals some of the noblest of modern works, were employed by them merely as a platform to give effect to the aspiring turrets which were made to spring from them. But this has only insured the completeness of their destruction. Nature has all the more easily scaled the height on which they placed the monument, and converted the whole mass into one wooded knoll. Fair, oh, how