"I beg to bring under your Lordship's consideration the distress prevailing in this town and parish and the parish of Clonfrost, forming the union of parishes under my jurisdiction. The potato crop of last year was very short in quantity and defective in quality. The stock saved is nearly exhausted in many cases, and, in some instances, not even a single meal of potatoes remain. The poor farmers and labourers of this district are obliged to use Indian meal as their food, and they have neither money to buy it nor credit to get it from the dealers who sell that article of food.

"In addition to the immediate want of food the farmers here require to be supplied with seed, both potato and corn, in order to be in a position to plant their ground. If this want is not supplied the land must go untilled, and the consequence will be another famine next year, as I well remember the same thing occurred in 1847.