"In the city and county of Limerick; in the city of Waterford; in Mountmelick, Portarlington and Maryborough, I was kindly invited to unite in the formation of District or County Associations, from which reports of the regulations adopted have been conveyed to the Central Committee. In the city of Cork, and in the counties of Clare and Tipperary, I had the satisfaction of attending Committees already formed; and in several places had the opportunity of visiting the peasantry in their cabins, and in their miserable rooms in the old parts of cities.

"I do not conceive it possible for any language or picture of destitution to have conveyed to my mind the impressions received from the actual sight of the peasantry, as they at present exist. The wretched cabin, built by the hard-strained efforts of extreme poverty, is destitute of almost everything that could mark any attainment of civilized life. The yet more miserable room, in a lane of the city, each corner of which is, in many cases, occupied by a separate family, lodging four, five, or six together, on one mouldering portion of straw, insufficient for the nightly accommodation of a single animal, and with little or no covering, but the tattered garments of the day; here they breathe, night and day, a tainted sickly atmosphere, and in such abodes the frequent prevalence of fever is indeed no matter of surprise. Numbers of families of this description are supporting life, by means the most distressingly precarious; seeking employment, and earnestly soliciting it, at even the lowest rate, yet compelled to spend the chief portion of their time, however reluctantly, in idleness, and in consequent destitution and misery.

Yet, there is a feeling of generous kindness in the Irish peasant that shines and is beautiful amidst all the depressing circumstances with which he is surrounded. The peasant out of his poverty is the supporter of the destitute, so long as he has a single morsel to share with him; and thus it is that life has been preserved, and many kept from day to day from perishing for want.

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That employment is the great resource to be contemplated, for the improvement of the people, is generally acknowledged; and let it not be supposed that the attainment of this great object will be impossible, even though many difficulties may appear. Could the mothers of families be furnished with the means of putting their industry into action, how great is the demand for the occupation of that industry, in providing clothing for themselves and their now destitute families; and in the progress of supplying this demand, how many hands, in addition to their own, would soon be furnished with the benefits and advantages of occupation! It is in the consumption of the labouring classes, who form, as to numbers, the great mass of society, that the best resource must be found for the exercise of healthful and salutary industry. In proportion as these are brought into a state to support a regular demand for clothing, and for the simple accommodations of civilized life, the supply of this demand will necessarily induce that general action of industry and commerce which will convey riches and strength to every department of society.

"It is truly grateful to observe, that in the course of inquiries into the state of families visited by the Local Associations, as suggested by the

rules of the British and Irish Ladies' Society, female education and the occupation of juvenile industry are likely to be much promoted wherever the Local Associations are formed. The existing Institutions for education will give much facility to the establishment of Schools, where they are found to be wanting; and there is no doubt that, when the peasantry can obtain a sufficiency of employment, they will gladly contribute their own part toward the support of the Schools.

"The kind solicitude with which the upper classes of society in Ireland, are directing their attention to the improvement and well-being of the peasantry; the communication opened with them by the visiting Committees, and the good effects already seen to result from this communication, give ground to hope for great good from the Associations, if supported, as we cannot doubt that they will be. The different classes of professing Christians uniting together, in the prosecution of a widely-extended work of benevolence, in which all are interested, will become better known to each other, and disposed to acknowledge and to meet with that which is good in all.

"Although the grants conveyed to this Society, in its present early stage, have been generous and liberal, yet the object of the Institution is too comprehensive to be carried into full effect, without continued and powerful aid from the British public, in conjunction with the efforts of your correspondents in Ireland to obtain local funds. Unless means can be provided for furnishing general occupation to the mothers of families, the office of visitor will be a very painful engagement. It is well known that the Associations do not offer

gratuitous assistance, and all that the poor women solicit from the Committees is employment. The great deficiency is the want of wheels, and a little flax or wool to begin the occupation of each; could these be provided for all, there are resources for employment to an undefined extent, in the demand for linen yarn of a common quality, which the female peasantry would gladly supply, although on terms so low as not usually to afford more than twopence a day in payment. The manufacture of coarse clothing, into which some of the associations have entered, will also furnish another valuable source of occupation.

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"I have remarked on the present miserable form of the cabins as attributable to the extreme poverty of the tenants by whom they are built; and the peasantry being accustomed to this wretched kind of dwelling has, no doubt, a great influence on their general habits. On some estates the tenants are assisted in building their cabins by gifts of timber from the landlord, which, though easily given by the proprietor from his estate, afford material assistance to the poor tenant.

"I was informed of a number of people in some of the mountain districts, whom I had not the opportunity to visit, who, driven from their little holdings by inability to pay their rent, had cast up very slight huts on the uncultivated ground, and were living there in great misery. The object in resorting to such stations is to recover a piece of land for the cultivation of potatoes, and to dwell in these places, as they are allowed to do for a time, without the payment of rent. The forlorn state of the habitations thus descri think, surpass that of some

lands. In one which I entered the bog sunk under my feet even within the dwelling, as well as on the way to it from the open road. On a single stone in this hut was laid a small turf fire, over which sat, bent with weakness, a sickly female who had been confined eight weeks before, and was not yet recovered. Her infant was near, which, with two other children, an aged father, mother, and sister, formed a family of eight in this one miserable room, and in times of rain and snow the water was draining upon them in many courses through the roof. My heart sunk within me to see human nature in such a state of pitiable suffering and degradation; and I was only consoled in the belief that some generous measures for the effectual relief and improvement of the state of the peasantry would certainly be adopted, and that a state so wretched, so unworthy of civilized society, would not much longer continue to exist in the British Empire.

May our hope and trust be directed to the great Parent of the Universe, and in acknowledging the claims of the lowest, as children of the same family, may the deep responsibility be felt which attaches to every situation in which power is given to help and serve one another.

"In the retrospect of my late visit, I feel thankful to Divine Goodness in permitting what was felt to be so greatly desirable. An interest toward

Ireland, long alive in my mind, is now more deeply fixed than ever, and will not, I believe, be effaced by time or distance. The affectionate courtesy of every class in society towards one who was hitherto a stranger among them will still live in my grateful remembrance."