Let not this
picture be deemed overdrawn. If any one suppose it exaggerated, had that
individual been with me, on Sunday last, I could have shown him some
instances of suffering, that would have removed all doubt regarding the
reality of distress in Belfast. I will merely mention one of them:--"I
entered a house to which my attention had been directed; in the kitchen
there was not a single article of furniture--not even a live cinder on
the cold deserted-looking hearth. In the inner room I found a woman,
lately confined, lying upon a heap of chopped-up rotten straw, with
scarcely a rag to cover her; beside her nestled two children, pictures
of want, and in her bosom lay her undressed babe, that, four days
before, had first seen the light. She had no food in the house, nor had
she, nor her children, had anything since her confinement, save a little
soup procured from the public kitchen. Such was her statement; and the
evidence of her wretched dwelling bore but too ample testimony to her
melancholy tale."
Large numbers were in a state of utter destitution in the city of Cork.
As happened in other cities and important towns, the country people
flocked in to swell the misery; and roaming in groups through the
streets, exhibiting their wretchedness, and imploring relief, they gave
them a most sad and deplorable appearance.
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