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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 38

Appeal

page 70

Appeal.

Little more than two months have elapsed since the Dublin Mansion House Committee for the Relief of Distress in Ireland started into existence. At the period of its formation, there were some who were slow to believe that any pressing necessity for the organization of such a body existed, and there were few who realised that the work before it would have proved so overwhelming in its sadness, and in its magnitude. At the commencement of the year, there were, however, abundant evidences that in many districts of the "West, and of the South-West and North, the shadow of a fearful calamity had settled upon the people, and that, there at least, there would be ample scope for the exercise of a benevolent charity.

With as little delay as possible the Committee applied itself to the task of sending succour to the afflicted; and as the funds for relief came in they were despatched with promptitude for distribution amongst the needy. The system adopted by the Committee, for relieving the wants of those who most required assistance, is described elsewhere; and the testimony that has been offered from every quarter of the country, as to the satisfactory results that have followed upon a close adhesion to it, is the best proof of its efficiency and efficacy for all its purposes.

Three times in each week, the Committee holds a Public Meeting for the discussion of its work and for the allocation of its grants, and on each of the other three days the Sub-Committees of distribution are engaged in the careful and scrupulous investigation of every application for relief. Day by day, it was found that the area of want was increasing, and that hunger and suffering and misery were creeping into households and into districts, where but a short time before their presence was but little anticipated.

The wail of woe that first came from Mayo, and Gal way, and Donegal, and Clare, and Cork, and Kerry, began to conic in equally harrowing tones from Sligo, and Cavan, and Roscommon, and Leitrim, and Longford, and Tyrone, and Fermanagh, and the picturesque Glens of Antrim and of Down; and it is but a short time since help was sent J to the fairest, spots in beautiful Wicklow, and to some of the once thriving villages of; fertile Kildare.

Tipperary has shared in these merciful ministrations, and Cork, and Limerick, and Dublin, have partaken of the magnificent generosity which has so splendidly manifested itself throughout the world, in behalf of our stricken and patiently-enduring people.

In truth, every day of the ten weeks that have passed since the establishment of the Committee, has intensified the distress, and to-day there is scarcely a corner of the land where famine is not impending over its inhabitants.

The prospect before them from this to August, when, as may be hoped, the fields will be ripe and rich for the harvest—is an appalling one, and but little expectation can be entertained that it will brighten till far into that month. A world's mercy and munificence have enabled the Committee up to this to save hundreds,—thousands, from death by starvation; to rescue thousands of little children from premature graves, and to avert the ghastly and historic incidents of the Schull and Skibbereen of three-and-thirty years ago. But as yet its work is far from done. The Committee has yet enough to keep our people alive for about six weeks more. With the expiration of that period, unless the world's mercy and munificence go on, God only knows what the result may be. The Committee makes a fresh appeal to the sympathy of the benevolent throughout the universe. The existence of a whole race depends upon the response. In her too brief and transient intervals of prosperity, Ireland was never slow in responding to appeals from afflicted nations, and out of her comparative poverty she gave with ungrudging generosity.

In her present need she asks for aid, and the Dublin Mansion House Committee will gladly continue to be almoners of any gifts that may be sent to it for the alleviation of Ireland's great distress.

St. Patrick's Day, 1880.