A neighbour gave him one meal of food and a night’s lodging.  He was revived by the food, and had strength enough to make up two loads of turf, which he sold, and bought an ass, which he killed, and tried to cook and eat.  He partook of some portion of the ass’s flesh twice or thrice, but his stomach refused the food, as it always brought on great retching.  When his wife and children returned he was dying, and she was only in time to see him, and give the above sorrowful evidence.  We select this case, said the local journal, out of dozens; because it has some remarkable features in it.  Many, it further adds, who were sent to purchase food, died of starvation on the journey.  The family of Mary Costello were in a state of starvation for three weeks, and she herself had not had food for two days.  Previous to her death, one of her brothers procured the price of half-a-stone of meal, for which she was sent to town; and on the following morning she was found dead by the roadside, with the little bag of meal grasped tightly in her hand.

Although it is notorious that some districts in the South, especially Skibbereen, were the first to attract a large share of public attention, the county Mayo, so populous, so large, so poor, was from the beginning marked out for suffering; but it lacked an organ so faithful and eloquent as the Southern Reporter, through whose columns Skibbereen and Bantry and Skull became as well known to the Empire as Dublin, Paris, or London.  Poor Mayo suffered intensely from end to end, although it suffered in comparative silence.  In the beginning of January, what may be termed a monster meeting of the county was held in Westport.  Forty thousand persons were said to have assembled on the occasion.  The Very Rev. Dean Burke, who presided, complained that, as far back as September, a presentment of L80,000 was passed for the county, L12,000 of which was allotted to their barony, Murrisk; but from that time to the period of the meeting only L7,000 had been expended.  Resolutions were passed, calling for a liberal grant of money to save the people from death; expressive of deep regret at the uncultured state of the corn lands of the county; calling for the establishment of food depots in the remote districts; and recommending the completion of the roads then in progress.  More than one speaker hinted that there existed an under current for preventing the employment of the people, and that this under current emanated from the landlords, who were opposed to the taxing of their properties for such a purpose.  At the close of the meeting, one of the gentlemen present, Mr. John C. Garvey, made the following observations:—­“It has been said that an under current exists to prevent the employment of the people.  In my opinion the landlords would be working against their own interest in preventing the employment of the poor. (Cries of No, no.) Well, I, as one of the landlords, do declare most solemnly, before my God, that I have not only in public, but in private, done everything that I could do to extend the employment of the people (loud cheers); and I now brand every landlord that does not come forward and clear himself of the imputation.”