"The Secretary of the Committee formed in the Dispensary District of Drimoleague, Skibbereen Union, has been directed to make application to the Mansion House Committee for immediate aid for the relief of the destitute poor of this district. I have no doubt but that application has been received in good time. Permit me, in support of that application, to make a few remarks upon the state of those parishes, and the urgency of the appeal.

"The parishes of Drinagh, Drimoleague, and the greater part of Carahagh, constitute the dispensary district of Drimoleague, Skibbereen Union. It extends beyond the mountains of Owren, in the north, to within a few miles of Bantry, and this embraces near all the country to the north of Skibbereen, a tract of twenty square miles, and containing a population of near 9,000 souls.

"In all this district there is not a single resident landlord, and at the present time not one landlord giving a day's work to a labourer (except Dr. Levis, of Glenveiw, Skibbereen, who has taken a loan for drainage). I may say that there was a total failure of the potato crop last year, and, indeed, the year previous was very little better. The corn crops are very inferior also, and what was the main dependence of the farmers of the district—namely, the produce of the cows, became so low in price that it completed the ruin of the poor farmer. Hence the district is in a most deplorable state, and how we are to tide over these five or six months to come, the Lord alone knows.

"To tell my experiences amongst the poor would be, indeed, repeating over again what we see every day in the public papers. In short, the poor want work to earn food for their families, and failing the work, there is dire distress upon many families, and sure to increase unless we can procure work for the unemployed. I am free to confess that but for the limited employment given to the Bantry Railway Extension, the scenes of '47 or '48 would, ere long, be enacted again in this country.

"At the meeting of the Committee, on Wednesday last, there were taken down for relief 190 families, representing 1,000 souls, in want of immediate relief, and since then application has been made to me by as many poor small farmers who have not the means of procuring the seeds for their land for the season to come; and, consequently, will be as badly off next year, if any struggle out so long. I have been at the houses of this class, and I must say that it would move the heart of a Turk to see the state of them; no clothes for their beds, for the children; none for themselves—none, all gone to make something to meet the decrees and keep the bailiff from the door, and, to increase the misery, bad, very bad fires, as the turf is but half dry. I could give many cases of very severe want, where entire families are living on very insufficient food. Suffice it to say that we cannot be very much worse off unless the terrible famine-sickness comes, which, I dread, cannot be very far off in our present circumstances. Be so kind as to say the remarks before the Committee, in hopes that they may be induced to act promptly and generously in our favour.