The beautiful picture which he drew of the Irish peasant’s home in his native land was not too highly coloured, as applied to the great majority of the people:—­’The bonds of blood and affinity, dissoluble by death alone, associate in the cabins of the Irish peasantry, not only the husband, wife, and children, but the aged parents and the married couple and their destitute relatives, even to the third and fourth degree of kindred.  God forbid that political economists should dissolve these ties! should violate these beautiful charities of nature and the gospel!  I have often found my heart throb with delight when I beheld three or four generations seated around the humble board and blazing hearth; and I offered a silent prayer to the great Father of all that the gloomy gates of the workhouse should never separate those whom such tender social chains so fondly link together.’

The following is a tabular view of the whole amount of voluntary contributions during the Irish famine, which deserves a permanent record for the credit of our common humanity:—­

                                             L s. d.  L s. d. 
Local contributions officially reported
  in 1846 104,689 18 1
Local contributions officially reported
  in 1847 199,569 4 1
British Relief Association, total
  received 470,041 1 2
 say five-sixths for Ireland 391,700 17 8
General Central Relief Committee,
  College Green 83,934 17 11
 Less received from British Relief
  Association 20,190 0 0
                                          _____________ 63,744 17 11
Irish Relief Association, Sackville
  Street 42,446 5 0
Relief Committee of the Society of
  Friends, London 42,905 12 0
Central Relief Committee of the
  Society of Friends, Dublin 198,313 15 3
 Less received from Committee of the
   Society of Friends in London,
   and interest 39,249 19 11
                                          _____________ 159,063 15 4
Indian Relief Fund 13,919 15 2 National Club, London 19,928 12 2 Wesleyan Methodist Relief Fund,
  London 20,056 14 4
Irish Evangelical Society, London 9,264 9 9 Baptists’ Relief Fund, London 6,141 11 2 Ladies’ Irish Clothing Society, London 9,533 4 0 Less received from British Association,
  &c. 5,324 12 11
                                          _____________ 4,208 11 1
Ladies’ Relief Association for Ireland 19,584