25
The Bridge - 1861 - Erasmus+
DEAR SIR– It is sorely against my will that I am compelled to trespass upon your columns; believe me, Sir, it is the direct necessity that constrains me to do so; and were I not well aware of your readiness to lend a willing ear to the piercing and soul harrowing cries of the poor– actually famishing of want– I would still hesitate.
The Lismore Board of Guardians can boast of some high-minded and honourable members. I need only name the chairman– Sir R. Musgrave– and yet both ratepayers and paupers have reason to complain. Weeks and weeks have been wasted away in mock attempts at striking a rate, and it was only after the 29th September it was finally settled.
However, it has been struck, and very generally collected; and yet, week after week, the trembling skeletons of human beings are denied relief, there being no room in the Workhouse– and are sent back to their cold and cheerless homes– if homes they can be called– without a morsel to eat, or perhaps a rag to cover their attenuated limbs. Have these men hearts to feel? –is it by violating God’s most imperative precept they expect to extricate themselves and the country from its present awful and embarrassing position? No– no– the cry of the hungry widow and the orphan penetrates the clouds; heard it likely will be. Why not allow the relieving officers to afford them as much relief as would help to sustain life at all events, till such time as room was made for them in the regular Workhouse or elsewhere?
Unless deprived of all feeling, and dead to all sense of shame and humanity, they will not continue this barbarous and wholesale system of thinning the population. –I have contributed more than many, much even beyond my means, to the support of the poor, and yet cheerfully would I meet another call from the Collector, rather than be forced to witness the miserable remnants of human beings wasting away before my eyes. Hoping you will excuse this trouble. –
I am, dear Sir,
A FRIEND TO HUMANITY.
DREADFUL DESTITUTION.
A CASE of death from starvation occurred lately in the vicinity of Nenagh, under circumstances of aggravated horror. The deceased was a man named Edward Hogan, a carpenter, who was reduced from a state of great physical strength until his person was totally fleshless. He had been disabled by fever from working, and was waiting at a place called Dolla, to get relief on a cold and wet day; but the relieving officer did not come. Returning he was excluded from a refuge through the people’s dread of contagion, and stopped outside the police station.
One of the police– and it is not the first time the force have been distinguished for such kindly acts– got permission to have him put in a neighbouring barn. Here they left him, and on the constable coming again with some nutriment, the wretched man was found almost in a state of insanity, with a sod of turf firmly grasped, which he endeavoured to gnaw. Assistance appeared to revive him, but next morning he was found a corpse.
This shocking event seemed to be attributable entirely to the conduct of the relieving officer of the district. In the present state of the country such an officer exercises a power more tremendous than that confided to any other. His dismissal, therefore, is the least punishment that can be inflicted for the neglect of duties, upon which human life depends.
TENANT RIGHT.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRIDGE
SIR,– As a Tenant Farmer, I think it right to have my name to the requisition, calling a meeting of all persons interested in the adjustment of the rights of Landlord and Tenant; the non-settlement of which, on fair and equitable terms, in my opinion, is the cause of all the misery and wretchedness that has fallen on the country. Allow me to state a few facts, and ask a few plain questions?
Who were the parties having the power who passed all the laws now in existence between landlord and tenant? Who were the parties having the power, I will not at present say whether justly assumed, sold our Parliament to the English Minister, at a time admitted by all, when Ireland was prospering? Who are the parties that have brought famine, and its accompnaying miseries on the people?
I say without fear of being honestly contradicted– The landlords. They have unmercifully enforced the laws made by themselves in recovering rack rents!– Rack-rents would not satisfy them without trampling on the independence and consciences of the people. I wonder how much better off are they? I would recommend them to join the Tenant Farmers at the county meeting, and there make an honest effort to redeem the country from impending ruin.
Let them have the views impressed on their minds by the Devon rambling commission, and by Stanley’s removal of banks or fences, at home. That sort of thimble rigging will not do. Better they should remain away, if not honestly disposed to come to the tenant-right question, as our honoured and respected member for the county, E. B. Roche, did, at the Irish Council in Dublin.
I trust, Mr. Editor, our County meeting will be such as will prove to the Minister of the day, that we are in earnest, and that our demands are just. If he passes a law, free of legal technicalities, granting that right, he may rest assured the miseries of the country will be removed in a very short time. But if he perseveres in upholding the old injustice, or passing half measures, on him, and on his colleagues rests the blame of all the future wretchedness and misery that will befall the country. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
A DURALLOW MEMBER OF THE TENANT LEAGUE