"I am directed by the Committee formed in this district (extending from Garron Point to Fox Point), in the glens of Antrim, to place before you a short statement of the distress existing in this neighbourhood, and to ask for some assistance from your fund.

"Though the distress is not so widespread as in other parts of Ireland, yet so far as it goes it is quite as acute. The almost total failure of the potato crop, together with the turf already cut, and they want of employment for labourers, has impoverished the people to an extent unknown since '47, and for some time past the clergy and gentry have been besieged by people for aid, which they have relieved to the best of their ability, but it has now become too heavy for them to cope with.

"We have appointed a Committee which includes all the magistrates resident in the district, clergy, doctors, together with a fair representation of the merchants and farmers. We have ascertained that there are upwards of fifty families, representing more than 200 persons, in immediate want of relief.

"One case reported to me yesterday, the head of a family of nine persons with not one penny, nor any food in the house. Another, a man looking for employment and going to walk thirteen miles, who had not tasted food at one o'clock in the day, leaving behind a wife and large family. Another, an old woman trying to sell brooms at one o'clock in the day, and failing to sell even one to get breakfast for herself and family.

"We shall make efforts to get seed potatoes, as in very many cases there are none left.