This completes my in-depth look at the effects of the Famine Years 1846-49.
The following articles are transcribed by Teena from the Banner of Ulster, Dublin Evening Mail, Dublin Mercantile Advertiser, Freeman's Journal, Northern Whig, and the Tyrone Constitution. (unless otherwise noted) 21 August 1849 The Tyrone Constitution regrets to state that during the last week, symptoms of a recurrence of the potato blight have greatly increased in this neighbourhood. The leaves and stalks exhibit the same blackened appearance, accompanied, in many cases, with a fetid smell from the fields. As yet the roots seem to be untouched. 8 Sept. 1849 Evictions in Ulster The territory of Farney in the county of Monaghan was for centuries a debatable land between the Irish of Ulster and the English of the Pale. The MacMAHONS were a stubborn race and fought long and bravely for the patrimony of their fathers. But time and the ceaseless border contests had thinned their ranks sorely and there were, but very few people left to resist the robbery when Elizabeth of England made the attainder of Shank O'NEILL a pretext for granting the entire county of Farney to Walter first Earl of Essex. The keen eye of the Earl had long before dwelt greedily on the rich acres and many military advantages of this important district and he never bated his solicitations at court until full powers for its possession and protection were accorded him. But he died before he had done more than take possession of his new fief, and the MacMAHONS, now by force and again as tenants held possession of it during the long minority and even to the death of his son, the splendid courtier, whose life and death alike, deeply stain the memory of Elizabeth. As he died attainted of treason, his estates were escheated to the crown, but the attainder was reversed upon the accession of James I, and Farney again passed into the hands his son, upon whose death without issue the inheritance of his estates devolved upon his sister Frances, Marchioness of Hertford and his nephew Sir Robert SHIRLEY. It is by the right of direct descent from the latter that Mr. Evelyn SHIRLEY is now quietly reproducing in Farney, by perfectly legal means, the calamities which, only protracted and desperate warfare could create there some centuries ago, and endeavouring as far as he can, to render it once more waste and depopulate. During the year 1846, 1847 and 1848, Mr. SHIRLEY practised extermination to an enormous extent, when we consider the small size of the entire district of which he only possesses one-half. The number of parties ejected from their holdings may have been something less than 300 per anum, averaging year with year. The 'tenant right' was, in some of these cases allowed, and in others, the parties ejected were furnished with the means of emigration. But this year ejectment is done on a wider, less decent, and more economical scale. Mr. SHIRLEY has served on the relieving officers of his district, through his agent, notice his intention to execute 245 evictions, and the Guardians of Carrickmacross union are already making preparations for the accommodation of Mr. SHIRLEY'S 1225 paupers, this being the estimated number of human beings whom he is driving out, to eat the bitter bread of public charity. While we are writing this perchance, even while it is being read, for this wholesale eviction is no one day’s work. Mr. SHIRLEY is turning out hordes of helpless men, women, and children on the wide world and levelling with the earth the simple homes where their people dwelt and died. This individual is of English birth and blood. He has not one Irish feeling, nor it would seem, one generous sympathy in his heart. He only knows that he and his absentee progenitors have been, for centuries, accustomed to draw a certain annual rental necessary to their support in English luxury, from Irish soil, and that for the last few years this rental has run a considerable risk of diminution. He is fully resolved to preserve this rental in its integrity. He has not reduced his rents that under the calamities which have afflicted them, his tenantry might have a chance of existence. He has been strict to the gale day and where his debtor proved bankrupt claimed literally his "pound of flesh". He would probably never have inquired how his ancestors acquired the right to this same rental, had not his son in account of Farney* published some years since, investigated the whole title and showed up (ingenuous youth!) the weary tissue of bloodshed and villainy, in which it is written that Farney became the prey of England, and the SHIRLEYS. If Evelyn Philip is ever tempted to continue the History of his father’s territory we will give him some hints towards its proper execution. He would, of course, include in the chapter on "Antiquities", an account of the hundreds of levelled cabins whose shattered walls blacken mournfully all over the estate. He would undoubtedly furnish a classified catalogue of the evictions, detailing the names and number in family, causes of eviction, (perverse politics, sickness, starvation, &c.), the subsequent fate of the parties, (gaol, workhouse, exile, grave), the number of consolidations and other improvements effected in the estate thereby. He will not fail to chronicle the murmuring among the tenants of the neighbouring well managed estates, against the rates levied for the support of the SHIRLEY paupers, nor the grumblings on the same score among the struggling shopkeepers of Carrickmacross. He cannot forget to notice the fact, that after 300 years of possession of Farney, his father has in the year 1849, made it the same wild waste that its first English possessor found it; nor may he omit to celebrate the grasping skill equal to that of his ancestor, the first Essex and the savage truculence worthy of his kinsman, the murderer FERRERS, which have wrought in a Christian country and with the aid of human laws such inexpiable evil. But we ourselves will save him much of this trouble. Mr. SHIRLEY is now on the pillory of the public and most assuredly, he shall not leave it until pelted with every fact connected with this accursed business. Each disclosure connected with the case, its extent, its occurrence in a tenant-right county and on the estate of an English landlord, the total absence of all effort to render the terms of tenancy even tolerable, the stupid malignity which seems to have sat in projection over the entire undertaking; each new light, in fact, in which it is regarded renders it only the more necessary, that there should be at once, and on the spot, an accurate investigation of all the circumstances. For that purpose one of the staff of the 'Nation' will during the ensuing week visit Farney and report upon the condition to which Mr. SHIRLEY has reduced his share of it. The brave men of Farney need not fear that the persecution to which they have been subjected will pass unexposed, even in those days of apathy, and the English exterminator shall learn that though he need not dread in Monaghan the "wild justice" of Tipperary, there are other laws, to which he is amenable. * Some account of the territory or dominion of Farney, by Evelyn Philip Shirley, A.M., M.P., London 1845. This work is dedicated to Evelyn John Shirley, M.P., D.C.L. (father of the author who has done so much improve the district.) Dublin Weekly Nation (transcriber note - he evicted 260 people) 14 Sept. 1849 (extracts from) The 2nd annual report of the Commissioners for Administering the Laws for the relief of the poor in Ireland Think of the position of a country of about 8,000,000 inhabitants, with 950,196 of them sustained by rates expensively levied off the property and industry of the rest. Yet this was the number in receipt of workhouse and outdoor relief on the 30th Jun. 1849; the date to which the commissioners have brought down their report. To any one who knows Ireland it is unnecessary to suggest the huge number of persons that are as poor as those in actual receipt of charity from the guardians of their unions, but who eke out a miserable subsistence by begging, by vending small wares, by the wretched wages of occasional employment, and, finally, by thievery. The gaols throughout Ireland are little better than auxiliary poor-houses, hundreds of unfortunate creatures having sought them as asylums preferable to the work houses. The returns of the number of inmates in the Irish work-houses commence on the 15th Apr. 1848 and end 30th Jun. 1849. From these we learn that on the first-named day there were 126,051 persons in these buildings, sustained at an average weekly cost of 1s. 6¾d. each. Of able-bodied men, there were 11,172, and women of the same class, 25,112; children under 15 years of age, 51,406; sick in the hospitals, 21,585, &c. The deaths in the week were 1,295, or 10 one-third to the 1,000. As the season advanced the proportion of deaths decreased, but not so the amount of pauperism, for on the 29th Jul. 1848, the number of paupers in the workhouse was 127,264, while the proportion of deaths was 3⅛ in the 1,000. During the months of August and September there was a slight falling off in the number in the workhouses, but the following couple of months again saw them packed to over flowing. From the 1st Oct. 1848, to the 16th Jun. 1849, there was a steady increase in the number of paupers - each week showing an addition to that which preceded it. On that day the total numbers was 227,329; the deaths being 8⅛ in the 1,000. The following week there were 4,000 less; and the week ending 30th June there was a still greater reduction on that number, of 12,552; the gross being 214,867. We are told that, from the last day to which these returns were made up, to the present, there has been a steady daily diminution in the number of poor in the workhouses. On the 15th Apr, 1848, there were on the outdoor relief lists 675,114 persons, whose weekly support cost £17,221 0s. 5d. On the 22nd Jul. following, the numbers amounted to 825,234, their weekly support being £21,870 13s. 6d. As the autumn advanced, the lists were reduced until the 7th Oct. when the numbers were only 199,603, whose weekly support amounted to £5,925 4s. 2d. But thenceforward the same rate of increase observable in the workhouse took place out of doors. On the 30th Jun. 1849, the numbers receiving outdoor relief was 768,902, at a weekly cost of £21,253 0s. 7d. There was a progressive increase of the numbers relieved in the workhouses to the 24th Jun. 1848 and of the numbers on the outdoor relief lists to the 1st Jul. and that after the last of those dates, the numbers both of outdoor and indoor poor rapidly declined until the end of Sept. In the last annual report, it was stated that 176 inquests, in which the verdicts "alleged death through want" were reported by the constabulary to have been held from the 30th Sept.1847, to the 22nd Apr. 1848, inclusive. From the later date to the 29th Sept. 1848, the number of such reports was 72. Comparing the cost of food given in out-door relief with the number relieved, and with the contract prices, it appears that the quantity given to each individual was, on an average of all classes, rather less than 1lb of Indian meal per day and the cost about 6½ per week, adult persons receiving at least 1lb and when working a larger allowance, but not exceeding 1¾lb. At the rate of 1lb per day, a sum of £1 would furnish food, the chief necessary of life, for a space of 34 weeks. We believe that the food furnished at this low cost to the destitute poor of the distressed unions in the summer of 1848, was at that season, an effectual relief to a large mass of the population who received it and we regard as strong confirmations of that belief the decline of the rate of mortality in the workhouses, and the decrease in the number of reported inquests already adverted to. At the season of the year referred to, the weather is more favourable to those who, in addition to want of food, are unprovided for, or ill-provided with shelter, fuel, and clothing; and epidemic disease is partly perhaps, through the same causes, less frequent and less severe in its visitations. The great want therefore, at this season of the year is the want of food and making due allowances for such abuses as may have prevailed in the dispensation of relief to large numbers of claimants, there is just reason to think that the large issues of Indian meal and other food, which were sustained during so considerable a part of the years 1847 and 1848, were the cause of an immense saving of human life, while the more effectual relief afforded in the workhouses to 130,000 inmates daily was the means of rescuing many from the effects of long privation, followed by disease, which, but for the relief afforded in the workhouses, would probably have been fatal. We have had the satisfaction of finding that at no one point of time during the whole year 1847-8 more than 63,000 able-bodied males were engaged on the relief works under the poor-law throughout the whole of Ireland. We have to report with satisfaction the steady progress of the emigration of orphan girls from the Irish workhouses to the Australian colonies, which we undertook in pursuance of your Excellency's command and which we first commenced in the spring of 1848. Since that time the number of those emigrants shipped from Plymouth for Sydney and Adelaide has been 2,219, at a cost to the unions of about £5 per head for outfit and conveyance to Plymouth, the remaining cost being defrayed from the colonial funds. Disastrous Year 1848 "At the close of July, and at the beginning of August, the usual appearance of blight in the potato crop was reported from many parts of the country and although the blight was by no means so general, as in1846, it proved far worse than that of 1847 and there is no doubt that a large proportion of the crop relied on for food in this country, was again destroyed. The price of sound potatoes had risen to 8d. per stone of 14 lbs. so early as Oct., at which price the ordinary wages of unskilled labour, where any wages for it can be obtained, would not enable an average family to live on this description of food. It was very soon apparent, therefore, that another and severer season of distress must be expected. About the end of October the out-relief lists, which had been reduced from more than 830,000 in Jul., to less than 200,000 on the 1st Oct. again began to increase; and early in Nov. workhouse showed a very large accession of inmates, with an increased rate of mortality By the 30th Dec., the number of out relief was nearly 400,000 and at the same date the number in the workhouses was nearly 200,000, with a rate of mortality of nearly 6½ per 1,000 weekly. The earlier months of the year 1849 were marked by a great degree of suffering on the part of the population of the western and south western districts than any period since the fatal season of 1846-7. Exhaustion of resources, by the long continuance of adverse circumstances, caused a large accession to the ranks of the destitute. Clothing had been worn out, or parted with, to provide food, or seed, in seed time and the loss of cabins and small holdings of land, either by eviction, or voluntary abandonment, rendered many thousands of families shelterless and destitute of fuel, as well as food. These circumstances, combined with the inclement weather which prevailed in the beginning of the spring, were not so effectually met by the system of outdoor relief to the able bodied as we earnestly desired they should be. In unions where the workhouses were full houseless persons receiving outdoor relief were compelled to part with a portion of their food for lodging. The cabins of the country became crowded with ill-fed, ill-clothed, sickly people and epidemic disease, whether originally induced by these or other causes, found large numbers predisposed to receive it, and to sink under its attacks. Thus a great proportion of those who died in the workhouses at this period were found to have suffered from fever and dysentery - the victims consisting chiefly of inmates recently admitted, and who had entered the workhouse after sufrering extreme privations, or in an advanced stage of disease. (Belfast Newsletter) 18 Sept. 1849 Act for the protection and Relief of the Destitute poor evicted from their dwellings" has been printed, in conformity with an order of the House of Commons. The following is a summary of this return; Ulster Province Counties; their population in 1841 and the total number of persons evicted. Antrim, 60,875 - 202 evicted Armagh, 232,393 - 475 " Cavan, 243,158 - 301 " Donegal, 296,448 - 372 " Down, 361,446; persons evicted 176 " Fermanagh,156,481 - 103 " Londonderry, 222,174 - 236 " Monaghan, 200,442 - 156 " Tyrone, 312,956 - 263 " total population in 1841 in Ulster 2,386,373 and total of those evicted 2,284. Leinster was the least of the 4 provinces and had a total population in 1841 of 1,973,731 and the number evicted 1,955. Highest was the Province of Muster with a total population in 1841 of 2,396,161 and those evicted 6,077) We select the following as some of the more extensive cases of eviction as given in this return; - In the union of Armagh, 30 persons evicted at the suit of W. M'Geoagh BOND Esq. - In the union of Ballymena (Co. Antrim), 40 by the agent to Lord O'NEILL - In the union of Ballyshannon (Donegal), 40 by the agent of Col. CONOLLY - In the union of Banbridge (Co. Down) 26 by the agent to the Marquess of Downshire; 43 by the agent to Count de SALIS - In the union of Castleblaney (Co. Armagh) 55 by J. M'WATTY Esq., for Walter M'Geoagh BOND Esq. and 21 by the same gentleman for T. P. BALL Esq. - In the union of Cavan, 60 by the agent to Robert HUTTON Esq. - In the union of Donegal 60 by the trustee of H.G. S. MURRAY Esq. - In the union of Glenties (Donegal), 39 by T. WILSON Esq. agent to Lord CROFTON - In the union of Magherafelt (Londonderry) 55 by R. SPOTSWOOD Esq., agent to the Marquess of Londonderry and Sir R. BATESON; 27 by the agent to G. A. HUTCHINSON Esq., and 27 by the agent to the Drapers Company. - In the union of Strabane (Tyrone), 28 by the agent to the Marquess of Abercorn; 24 by the owner, Isabella MATHEWSON. Morning Chronicle 17 Sept. 1849 Since the issue of our monthly report the progress of the potato blight has been rapid, beyond that of any year since 1846. The growth of the crop may be now said to be over, but that would be of comparatively little consequence, as they are in most places pretty well grown; but the disease has set in so fast on the roots, that we fear the worst consequences may be expected. During the past week we had the close night and morning fogs, which have always been the precursor of this sad calamity. However, the weather has changed since Monday, and copious rains on Monday night and Tuesday morning may, perhaps, somewhat check the destruction which now threatens the entire crop. (Derry Journal) 17 Sept. 1849 the Potato crop There have been more symptoms of disease during the last week in this neighbourhood, than for the fortnight previous. This may be accounted for the very wet weather we have had. Still, we do not apprehend any very serious loss of the crop, which is most abundant. (Monaghan Standard) 29 Sept. 1849 The Potato Crop We observed last week that the accounts from the provinces were daily bringing worse accounts of the gradual extension of the disease over the potato crop, that from the same districts the tone of the intelligence had changed within the week, from hopefulness, to alarm for the safety of the whole crop. The same progressive characteristic of bad news is perceptible since throughout the present week. >From the North we are informed by the Northern Standard - the disease is doubtless progressing principally in heavy lands and every place where water lies. It is difficult to make any calculation at present, but upon an average, we would say about two per cent, is already lost. What more may go, it is impossible to say, though in some instances whole fields do not exhibit a diseased root. Our Anglo Celt correspondents in different parts say the disease is rapidly progressing in this crop. One gentleman near Londonderry says - If the disease continue to advance for the next few weeks, as it has done for the last two, we may expect another '46. In the neighbourhood of Cavan, the crop is much injured, but not extensively as it appears to be in other localities. We (Newry Examiner) lament to state that our accounts of the potato crop continue unfavourable. There are some more varying reports. Thus the Armagh Chronicle states the potato disease still extends, but the fine weather has checked the rapidity which characterised its progress during the past. It is still hoped that nothing like the destruction of last year's potato crop will be experienced this year. The Ballyshannon Herald remarks - We occasionally hear complaints of disease having appeared in potatoes in some districts, but the consequent failure is very limited. We have not heard of the complete destruction of any one crop in an entire field in any part of this, or the neighbouring counties. A few unsound potatoes here and there are the only proofs of disease. The Vindicator (Belfast) observes - The reports which have reached us of the potato crop during the last few days are of the most discouraging nature. The disease has attacked, in its most virulent shape, the late crop. The only chance that now remains is centered in the early sowing, which had attained maturity, before the disease made its appearance. Dublin Weekly Nation 6 Oct. 1849 The accounts received during the week continue, like those of the 2 previous weeks, to represent the potato disease as increasing, though they vary very much to its actual extent. The Northern Whig says “the potatoes are bad everywhere.” remain stationary.” The Armagh Guardian of the 29th - We regret to observe that the potato disease has been rather on the increase, but not to any alarming extent as of yet, or so exceedingly fatal as it had been for the last two years. A correspondent of the Examiner says, notwithstanding the very sanguine hopes generally entertained that the potato crop would, for this season at least, have continued unaffected the mysterious operation of nature, which has been so detrimental to it for several years past. I regret to have to inform you that there is no possible ground for indulging in the expectation. On Monday the 10th, I possessed a field of potatoes as promising and sound as could be wished for. On the following day I was absent from home. Wednesday morning, to my great astonishment, I observed what had been a verdant and healthful field of potatoes when I had last viewed it, universally blacker than the ink with which I write. The Ballyshannon Herald says - “ The disease in the potato is unmistakable, but certainly not to the extent generally believed - we do not think there is on an average, more than a peck in a barrel diseased and even those, if the rot dues not progress, will not be entirely useless, as they are quite sound enough for pig feeding. We not think that out of a rood of ground which produced 10 barrels of potatoes, there were 9 stone completely rotten. In many fields the crop is as fine as could be wished for. The diseased potatoes are selling in our market at 1d. per stone - sound ones from 2d. to 4d. The potato crop in the county of Cavan is seriously damaged, and the disease is rapidly progressing. From what we have seen during the week we roughly estimate the loss the entire crop will sustain at one-third, if not more. Wheat is injured by the smut in many places. Dublin Weekly Nation 6 Oct. 1849 The land Question - the Prospects and Duties of Farmers Well, the Queen's visit is now an historic fact and right loyally and enthusiastically she was received. We rejoice that her Majesty has thus honoured Ireland and in a manner that became the Sovereign of Britain; but, alas, the prophecies of the 'Times' have proved, but a shadow, or a dream and what demonstrates the blindness, or vanity of the London "seer" is that Ireland's wounds have bled too profusely and too long, to be "bound up and modified" by the unguents of state quackery. The evils that oppress her, socially and politically, are too old and inveterate too deeply seated in the social fabric - to be checked by baby-powders and charmed away by the strategy of pantomime. Famine is again rife in the south and west and multitudes pining away in nakedness, hunger and disease, are descending into a premature grave. The potato blight, in all the malignity of its early manifestation, has returned and who can forecast the consequences of this tremendous visitation. It is not too much to say that, by that stroke alone, the poor man's earthly hope, the support of the tenant and the rent of the landlord, from small holders at least, have been swept away. Tenant industry languishes, for it has no reasonable encouragement and no legal protection from the grasp of greedy oppression and the farmer, bereft of independence and competence, feels that his class, in many cases, have neither title nor tenure, except to be worked, taxed and teased at the sovereign will and pleasure of his lord and master. They see a a colossal pauperism rising up around them, standing side by side with a land-aristocracy, almost as dependent as its fellow and both to be supported by the earnings of a common 'industry' and when their scanty means are continuously exhausted by the poor law taxation, county rates and landlord's dues, the only alternative and it is a hard one which is left them, is eviction and the poorhouse, or emigration, if they can. Hence, while there are thousands of acres of "waste lands" inviting the hand of the husbandman in his own land, the work of eviction goes on and a tide of emigration has swept and almost left desolate villages and districts, carrying to the shores of America, our enterprise, strength, and youth - which starved and pined at home - like the birds moved by instinct, taking flight from northern inhospitable regions and seeking a home in some more congenial clime. In Ulster, too, the crisis has come and many of the farmers, depressed by a series of adversities, are now on the verge of bankruptcy and utter ruin. The failure of the potato crop, which they had grown so largely, free trade, and the consequent low prices of corn, wheat and other articles of farm produce, increasing poor rates and exorbitant rents, have embarrassed and overwhelmed them in inextricable difficulties. These potent influences have "changed everything, but the law, the landlord, and the land taxes", which last, have been growing in magnitude and weight, till, like the last straw on the camel, they have broken the back of "the beast of burden." It is true, our Ulster farmers have not had recourse to deeds of violence, or to the evasion, or resistance of law, as have their southern neighbours, in similar difficulties; no, they have borne their hardships with unexampled patience, kid breasted the adverse waves with inimitable courage and constancy. They have, in many instances, permitted the cottiers under them, to occupy their cabins without rent for years, when it would have been their interest to have ejected them, thus affording a practical reproof to those large proprietors who visited, with eviction and heartless severity, those tenants, who, in spite of their best exertions, had fallen into arrears. And what reward or encouragement have these men received? Did the government give them justice? - a legal title to their own improvements and tenant-right property, and protection from the rod of oppression and covetousness. Did the landlords, as a class, compassionate them in their altered fortunes? And, imitating the wisdom of the " unjust steward," who forgave his lord's debtors 50 and 20 per cent, of the amount of oil and wheat they owed and have they said to their tenantry, "We reduce your rents a half, a third, or a fourth (as the case may be) to enable you and your families to live." There have been noble exceptions, but the majority, noble in birth and title, but with little nobility besides - have exhibited neither the wisdom nor the mercy commended in the parable; nor has the boasted Establishment proved the poor man's friend, or pleaded the claims of the farmer and the cause of right against might, "mercy and not sacrifice". The ally and the dependent on Irish landlordism, she has seldom lifted her voice in remonstrance and admonition to the noble proprietors within her pale teaching them to "do justice, love mercy," and "hide not themselves from their own flesh." Her "liturgy" and "collects" seldom speak in this strain, "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's land-mark, and all the people shall say, "Amen." But while British justice is tardy and landlord clemency tardier, Ireland is sinking, degraded, poverty-stricken, bankrupt in means and character, below the level even of Spain or Sicily. Yet, in the face of all this misery and degradation, with nearly a million paupers, the farmers all but beggared and the policy of rack-rents, evictions, and consequent crime, going on in full force, our rulers and statesmen speak with wonderful self-complacency of "our glorious institutions," and the "protection" of the constitution and the laws, with a degree of infatuation far beyond that of the careworn sailor who sings, himself asleep in a leaky ship, with the "breakers ahead." Still, our friends, the farmers, must not despair. Let them gravely ask their masters what they mean. Let them meet in each townland for mutual conference and as brethren in adversity, compare their grievances and devise righteous measures of redress. Let them, without respect to agents and underlings, wait on their landlords personally, by deputation and petition, for a reduction of rent suitable to their changed condition and such as their grandfathers paid; Let them tell parliament the tale of their wrongs and sufferings and their reasonable demands will ultimately be conceded; but if not, they will, at least, have the satisfaction of having done their duty to themselves, their families and their country. In Cavan, the Anglo Celt informs us, that Mr. NESBITT, of Castleraghan, who in the spring gave his tenants "seed, oats, and other grain, gratis", had a few days ago made an abatement of 15 per cent. although the holdings were let at a moderate rent before, considering what is exacted on other estates in this county. Freeman's Journal 27 Nov.1849 A Precocious Thief A very young lad, named Daniel GRIBBEN came before the Bench at our police Court onSaturday, charged by a respectable looking woman named Letitia KIRKPATRICK, dealer, with a daring robbery. It appeared that, in company with some other young criminals, the prisoner entered her shop, and under pretence of making some purchase, thrust his hand into the drawer whence he abstracted a quantity of coppers. The case was extremely clear and the prisoner who, notwithstanding his youth, is well known to the police, had nothing to offer in his defence. He was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment and to be well whipped 3 times. It appears that this is his 6th conviction during the year for different petty offences. He is in appearance, as unmistakable a specimen of the "flash" genus, as could be well imagined, with a countenance in which cunning and daring are equally stamped. The prosecutrix mentioned a number of the expressions which she had occasionally heard used among the company with which she had habitually observed the prisoner. One of them is worth of mention. Passing before the shop on one occasion, he was accosted by a comrade, "Where have you been?’’ replied the prisoner, pointing to witnesses’ goods, "I’ve just been taking this gentleman's stock", meaning that he had laid his eye upon the articles most easily removed. It is to be hoped that the whipping system will be attended with salutary effects, in such cases as this, where the dread of mere imprisonment has proved so utterly ineffectual. The Rev. Mr. DORAN of Loughbrickland, has purchasod 20,000 acres, at two dollars an acre, in the State of New York, Catewragus <sic> county, (USA) for the purpose of colonising it. Reduction of Rents at Castleblaney - A correspondent informs us that Hamilton and Andrew M'MATH Esqrs., in addition to supplies of turnip seed, flax-seed, and other encouragements, given to their tenantry, near Castleblayney, have made a reduction of 20 percent upon their rents, although the latter had been considerably lower than Mr. Griffith’s valuation. Banner of Ulster Evictions in Ulster The Newry Telegraph says that 15 families were, on Thursday last, evicted in Milltown and the townlands in the immediate vicinity of Lough Neagh. The evicted parties were very poor, and utterly unable to pay rent or till the land which they held. An Extraordinary Turnip A turnip, grown on the farm of J. CROMIE Esq., Cromore, has been left at our office by his land steward, Mr. YOUNG, the singular growth which has astonished all who have seen it. It is a perfect representation of the human hand. The fingers are well represented by five roots, both in shape and size. Nails are also represented, but not so perfectly are the other parts of the hand. It is the most wonderful 'nitendus naturoe' of the vegetable world we have ever seen, and is worthy of a place in the British Museum. (Coleraine Chronicle) 29 Nov. 1849 Reduction of Rents John BIRNEY Esq. of Lisburn, County Down has granted 25 percent, of a reduction in the rents of his properties, in the parish of Clogher and County Tyrone, for the present year. This is not the first instance of considerate liberality towards his tenants on the part of this gentlemen. In the year 1846 he forgave all arrears to his tenantry. He also gives them all kinds of seeds every year and pays all poor rates. Sir William VERNER Bart., on the representation of his agent, James CROSSLE Esq. he directed that a general reduction of 20 percent, should made in his rents, and that considerable allowances should be given to those who had suffered from the loss of cattle. Mr. CROSSLE with that benevolent liberality which has rendered his name justly popular in Tyrone, has himself given a sum of £100, to be added to the sums allowed by the landlord and distributed amongst the more distressed tenants on the estate. Messrs. John and Wm. TREDENNICK of Camlin, in the County Donegal, have reduced the rents of their property in the parish of Cappagh, near Omagh, at a rate of 3s. 6d. in the pound. In the year 1846, the most frightful of the potato blight, they reduced their rents on the same property 6s. on the pound; in the year 1847 they made a reduction of 2s; and they have followed up this humane course by the above reduction for the present year. The tenantry on the Messrs. TREDENNICK property are lease holders, which renders the liberality of the landlords still more praiseworthy. Conway R. DOBBS Esq., Carrickfergus Castle, we understand has made a reduction of 35 per cent, to the tenantry on his Ballynure estate, of their rents for the current year. John S. MOORE Esq. of Shannongrove, has made a reduction of rents on his property, in the townlands of Dunaven, Derryogue, Maughramurphy, and Bucknagh in County Down, from 10 to 15 shillings per acre, according to the quality of the land. The Rev. J. C. GORDON, Dellamount, has reduced the rents to his tenantry Drumalig from 10 to 25 percent. The Rev. gentleman also granted three barrels of lime to the acre at May last. (Londonderry Standard) 29 Nov. 1849 The Grand Banquet to the Potato That highly respected vegetable, the potato, being now, it is hoped, thoroughly re-established in health, it was determined, by a few leading members of the vegetable kingdom, to offer a banquet to the worthy and convalescent root on his happy recovery. The arrangements for the dinner were on a scale of great liberality and the guests included all the principal vegetables. The invitations had been carried out by an efficient corps of scarlet runners and the onion occupied the chair. He was supported on his right by the head of the asparagus family, while salad occupied a bowl at the other end of the table, and was dressed in his usual manner. The potato, though just out of his bed, was looking remarkably well, and wore his jacket, there being nothing to mark his recent illness, except perhaps a little apparent blackness round one of his eyes. After the cloth had been removed. The onion got up to propose as a toast, "the potato, their much respected guest." (Immense cheering.) He, the onion, had known the potato from infancy and, though they had not always been associated in life, they had frequently met at the same table. They had sometimes braved together the same broils, and had found themselves often together in such a stew, (he alluded to the Irish stew,) had brought them, for the time being, into an alliance of the very closest kind. He, the onion, was delighted to see the potato once more restored to his place in society, for he, the onion, could say, without flattery, that society had endeavored to supply the place of the potato in vain. (Hear, hear.) They had heard of rice having been suggested to take the place of his honourable friend, but the suggestion was really ridiculous. 'risum, teactis, ---nica' (?) was all that he, the onion, had to say to that. (Loud laughter, in which all but the melon joined.) He, the onion, would detain them no longer, but would conclude by proposing ''health, long life and prosperity to the potato." The toast was received with enthusiasm by all, but the cucumber, whose coolness seemed to excite much disgust among his brother vegetables. The onion had, in fact, affected many of those present to tears; and the celery, who sat next to the horseradish, hung down his head in an agony of sensibility. When the cheering had partially subsided, the potato rose, but that was only the signal for renewed enthusiasm; and it was some minutes before silence was restored. At length the potato proceeded nearly as follows; "Friends and fellow vegetables. It is with difficulty I express the feeling with which I have come here today. Having suffered for the last three or four years from grievous disease, which seemed to threaten me with total dissolution, it is with sincere affection I find myself once more among you, in the vigour of health. (Cheers.) I should be insensible to kindness were I to forget the anxious inquiries that have been made as to the state of my health by those who have held me in esteem, and sometimes in steam. (A laugh, in which all but the melon joined.) I cannot boast a long line of ancestors. I did not, like some of you, come in with the Conqueror, but I came in the train of civilization, amidst the memorable luggage of Sir Walter Raleigh, in company with my right hon. friend the tobacco, who is not now present, but who often helps the philosopher to take a bird's eye view of some of the finest subjects for reflection. (Immense cheering, and a nod of assent from the turnip top.) Though I may be a foreigner, I may justly say that I have taken root in the soil, and though I may not have the grace of the cucumber, who seems to have some here in no enviable frame, (loud cheers) I believe I have done as much good as any living vegetable, for, though almost always at the rich mans table, I am seldom absent from the poor man's humble board. (Tremendous applause.) But (continued the potato) let me not get flowery or mealy, mouthed, for there is something objectionable in each extreme. I have undergone many vicissitudes in the course of my existence. I have been served up, ay, and served out (a smile) in all sorts of ways. I have been roasted by some; I have been basted by others; and I have had my jacket rudely torn off back by many, who knew not the treatment I deserved. But this meeting, friends, repays me for all. Excuse me if my eyes are watery. (Sensation.) l am not very thin skinned; but I feel deeply penetrated by our kindness this day.' The potato resumed his seat, amid the most tumultuous cheering, which lasted for a considerable time. Punch (Londonderry Standard) All the best~ Teena -- www.cotyrone.com http://lists.cotyrone.com/mailman/listinfo/ulsterancestry https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoTyroneIrelandGenealogy/
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