Lady Pasley, of 7 Esplanade, Plymouth, has told, in the
Tinter of Thursday, a frightful story of the misery of a little fishing village, called Beer, in the neighbourhood of Axminster. The place is actually plague-stricken with measles. The inhabitants are all fishermen, and at. this time of the year always in want. The children do not die of the disease, but of weakness and starva- tion after it. Mrs. Bingham, Lady Pasley's sister, who lives .near Axminster, writes, "the bell is tolling constantly, and five or six children brought over here in a cart to be buried daily. The village altogether is like a thing you dream of. The mothers themselves look like hungry wolves, without a feeling left for their dead children. I have only seen one woman crying, until I said a kind word, such as The summer is coming, and better times, please God,' and then they sob as if they would go into hysterics from weakness. In one den to-day there were six children lying before the fireplace, and I asked the woman if they were hungry. 'No,' she said, thank God they are not as hungry as I am, for I have nothing to give them. I could eat the table-board!' These poor children die in the dark, and the mothers have to watch for daylight to see them, not having a candle in the house." Who is the clergyman of this parish ? It is curious that Lady Pasley only gives her own address at Plymouth, and her sister's, at Seaton near Axminster, and does not refer to the clergyman, who must be employed burying, and we will hope also visiting, these poor wretches.
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