[179] This view differs considerably from that put forward in the Memorial of the 25th of the previous month, in which the Society tells his Excellency, “that, from their experience as the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, they are confident that every part of this country affords the opportunity of at once employing the rural population in the improvement of the soil, and of returning to the ratepayers a large interest for the capital expended, and thus providing an increased quantity of food and certain employment for the working classes in future years.”

[180] Letter to Edward Bullen, Esq., Secretary to the Royal Agricultural Society.

[181] A weight of potatoes in the South of Ireland varied from 21 to 23lbs.

[182] Times of 13th November.

[183] See pp. 214 and 215.

[184] A driver or bailiff is a man employed by Irish landlords to warn tenants of the rent day, serve notices upon them, watch their movements, see how they manage their farms, play the detective in a general way, and supply useful information to the landlord and his agent.  They are regarded with pretty much the same feelings as tithe-proctors were, until that historic class became extinct.  They are called drivers by the people, because one of their duties is to drive tenants’ cattle off their lands, that they may be sold for the rent.  When a peasant wishes to speak politely of this functionary he calls him “a kind of under agent.”  “There are many parts of Ireland in which a driver and a process-server—­the former a man whose profession it is to seize the cattle of a tenant whose rent is in arrear, the latter an agent for the purpose of ejecting him—­form regular parts of the landlord’s establishment.  There are some in which the driver, whether employed or not, receives an annual payment from every tenant.” Journals, Conversations and Essays relating to Ireland.  By Nassau William Senior, Second Edition, vol. 1, p. 33.

[185] An Irish word, so given in the report, but more correctly Creacan or Criocan.  It is used to express anything diminutive, when applied to potatoes, it means they are small and bad.

[186] Letter of Rev. B. Durcan, P.P., Swinford, Nov. 16, 1846.

[187] The Windmill is a bare rock, or collection of rocks, which is used as a Fair-field.  It overlooks the town.  It derives its name from the fact that a windmill had been formerly in use there.  Hence, several lanes leading to it are called Windmill Lane.—­Letter from Rev. C. Davis, Administrator of Skibbereen.

[188] Letter of Rev. K. Henry, P.P., Islandeady.

[189] Special Correspondent of Cork Examiner, writing from Skibbereen, 14th December, 1846.