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A Journal of a Visit of Three Days to Skibbereen, and its Neighbourhood By: Elihu Burritt (1810-1879) |
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OF A VISIT OF THREE DAYS TO SKIBBEREEN, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
BY ELIHU BURRITT. LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPGATE STREET WITHOUT.
BIRMINGHAM:
JOHN WHITEHOUSE SHOWELL, 26, UPPER TEMPLE STREET. 1847.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL, On The Irish Poor Relief Bill, March 12th, 1847.
"A gentleman who lately called upon me, and whom I have every reason
to trust, gave me a letter from a person resident in that union
(Skibbereen,) stating, that though the property within the union is
rated to the poor as being of the value of £8,000 a year only, its
actual value is no less than £130,000 a year, and that, until
September last, no rate had been made exceeding sixpence in the
pound, but that, in November, a rate was made of ninepence in the
pound; but that rate has never been levied. (Loud cries of 'Hear,
hear.')" See "The Times" of Saturday, March 13.
Elihu Burritt, well known on both sides of the Atlantic by his devoted
labours for the good of mankind, especially in the promotion of peace
and universal brotherhood, has recently paid a visit to some of the
distressed parts of Ireland, principally with a view of sending a
statement of facts, from his own observation, to his native country,
together with an appeal on behalf of the sufferers under the awful
pressure of famine and disease. In this appeal, which was sent to the United States by the last steam
packet, Elihu Burritt, speaking of the locality he had visited,
says: "I have come to this indescribable scene of destitution,
desolation, and death, that I might get the nearer to your sympathies;
that I might bring these terrible realities of human misery more vividly
within your comprehension. I have witnessed scenes that no language of
mine can portray. I have seen how much beings, made in the image of God,
can suffer on this side the grave, and that too in a civilized land." The reader will judge for himself, when he has perused the following
record of only three days of this journey, whether the foregoing
language is too strong. Although the fearful facts Elihu Burritt relates
may have found a parallel in the statements of others, it is thought
desirable to publish them in this country, as he recently witnessed them
in the very district to which the sympathies of the English have been,
for several months past, particularly directed, and for which locality
large subscriptions have been specially contributed. A single individual
is reported to have given £1000 for Skibbereen. Yet, notwithstanding all
that has been subscribed, up to the period when this journal was
written, no effectual means had been adopted for the decent interment of
the dead, or even for their timely removal from the hovels of the
living, and the great expenditure of the British Government, appears to
have effected, at least in this district, but little mitigation of the
fearful calamity. There are many noble instances of individual sacrifices by personal
attention to the sufferers, and other efforts for their relief, but
nothing short of a law to give the poor of Ireland the right to claim
support from the owners of the soil, before they are reduced to
starvation, will effectually meet the evil, or be any security against
its recurrence. The Poor Law of England admits the claim of the people for support from
the land and other fixed property; and, until this is given, neither
landlord or mortgagee is entitled to rent or interest. This should be fully applied to Irish legislation, and partial and
unjust laws removed, including those of primogeniture and entail. To the
neglect of these measures and that of giving the cultivators of the soil
a proper security for the labour and expense which they bestow upon it,
is mainly to be attributed the fact that a country possessing some of
the finest natural advantages in the world, and which could be rendered
capable of supporting in comfort at least three times its present
population, is now overspread with such extreme human misery that the
awful scenes portrayed in the following pages cease to excite a thrill
of horror... Continue reading book >>
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