before discovered—­no inquests to inquire how they came by their death, as hunger has hardened the hearts of the people.  Those who survive cannot long remain so—­the naked wife and children of the deceased, staring them in the face—­their bones penetrating through the skin—­not a morsel of flesh to be seen on their bodies—­and not a morsel of food can they procure to eat.  From all parts of the country they crowd into the town for relief, and not a pound of meal is to be had in the wretched town for any price.”

“This parish (Keantra, Dingle) contained, six months since, three thousand souls; over five hundred of these have perished, and three-fourths of them interred coffinless.  They were carried to the churchyard, some on lids and ladders, more in baskets—­aye, and scores of them thrown beside the nearest ditch, and there left to the mercy of the dogs, which have nothing else to feed on.  On the 12th instant I went through the parish, to give a little assistance to some poor orphans and widows.  I entered a hut, and there were the poor father and his three children dead beside him, and in such a state of decomposition that I had to get baskets, and have their remains carried in them."[242]

A hearse piled with coffins—­or rather rough, undressed boards slightly nailed together—­each containing a corpse, passed through the streets of Cork, unaccompanied by a single human being, save the driver of the vehicle.  Three families from the country, consisting of fourteen persons, took up their residence in a place called Peacock Lane, in the same city.  After one week the household stood thus:  Seven dead, six in fever, one still able to be up.

The apostle of temperance, the Rev. Theobald Mathew, gave the following evidence before a Committee of the House of Lords on “Colonization from Ireland":—­

Question 2,359.  “You have spoken of the state of things [the Famine] as leading to a very great influx of wretchedness and pauperism into the City of Cork.  Will you yourself describe what you have seen and known?”

“No tongue,” he answers, “can describe—­no understanding can conceive—­the misery and wretchedness that flowed into Cork from the western parts of the county; the streets were impassable with crowds of country persons.  At the commencement they obtained lodgings, and the sympathies of the citizens were awakened; but when fever began to spread in Cork they became alarmed for themselves, and they were anxious at any risk to get rid of those wretched creatures.  The lodging-house keepers always turned them out when they got sick.  We had no additional fever hospitals; the Workhouse was over full, and those poor creatures perished miserably in the streets and alleys.  Every morning a number were found dead in the streets; they were thrown out by the poor creatures in whose houses they lodged.  Many of them perished in rooms and cellars, without its being known, and without their receiving any aid from those