Lord Emly, yesterday week, called the attention of the House
of Lords to the persistent unwillingness of the Unions in the West of Ireland to use their power of sus- pending the ordinary rules, and give out-door relief to the starving peasantry of that district. On the unquestionable authority of Mr. Tuke,—one of the Society of Friends, who worked so hard to relieve the famine of 1847,—Lord Emly stated that there are in some districts 600 or 700 families kept alive only by private charity, in Unions where the Guar- dians have refused absolutely to stir a finger, and where, for anything they had done, it would appear that there was not -even a sign of distress. Lord Emly pointed out that the Government in this case had full power to dismiss Guardians who fail to do their duty, and to appoint Vice-Guardians in their place, and he held them to this clear and weighty respon- sibility. It is satisfactory to observe that the Duke of Rich- mond admitted this responsibility to the full, but not satisfac- tory to observe that he had, from official sources, no knowledge of the facts of the case at all equal to Lord Emly's.
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