[190] The first case of death, clearly established, as arising from starvation, occurred at South Reen, five miles from the town of Skibbereen.  The case having been reported to me, as a member of the Relief Committee, I procured the attendance of Dr. Dore, and proceeded to the house where the body lay.  The scene which presented itself will never be forgotten by me.  The body was resting on a basket which had been turned up; the head reclined on an old chair; the legs were on the ground.  All was wretchedness around.  The wife, miserable and emaciated, was unable to move, and four children, more like spectres than living beings, were lying near the fire place, in which, apparently, there had not been a fire for some time.  The doctor, of course, at once communicated with the Committee.”—­Letter of Mr. M’Carthy Downing, M.P., to the Author.

[191] MS. Memoir of his famine experiences, by Dr. Donovan.  “Up to this morning, I, like a large portion, I fear, of the community hooked on the diaries of Dr. Donovan, as published in The Cork Southern Reporter, to be highly coloured pictures, doubtless intended for a good and humane purpose; but I can now, with perfect confidence, say that neither pen nor pencil ever could pourtray the misery and horror, at this moment, to be witnessed in Skibbereen.” Mr. Mahony, the artist of the Illustrated London News, in his letter from Skibbereen to that journal, Feb. 13, 1847, p. 100.

CHAPTER X.

The Landlords’ Committee—­A new Irish party—­Circular—­The “Great Meeting of Irish Peers, Members of Parliament and Landlords” in the Rotunda—­The Resolutions—­Spirit of those Resolutions—­Emigration—­Great anxiety for it—­Opening of Parliament—­Queen’s Speech—­England on her Trial—­Debate on the Address—­Lord Brougham on Irish Landlords—­Lord Stanley on the Famine—­Smith O’Brien’s Speech—­Defends the Landlords—­Mr Labouchere, the Irish Secretary, defends the Government—­The Irish Agricultural population were always on the brink of starvation, and when the Blight came it was impossible to meet the disaster—­The views of the Morning Chronicle on the Government of Ireland—­Mr. Labouchere quotes the Poor-Law Enquiry of 1835 and the Devon Commission—­Change of the Government’s views on the Famine—­Griffith’s estimate of the loss by the Blight—­Extent of Irish pauperism—­Lord George Bentinck points out the mistakes of the Government—­The people should have been supplied with food in remote districts—­He did not agree with the political economy of non-interference—­Mr. D’Israeli’s manipulation of Lord George’s speech—­Letter of Rev. Mr. Townsend of Skibbereen—­Fourteen funerals waiting whilst a fifteenth corpse was being interred—­Quantity of corn in London, Liverpool and Glasgow—­Lord John Russell’s speech—­He regarded the Famine as a “national calamity”—­Absurd reason for not having summoned Parliament in Autumn—­Sir