THE POOR IRISH.
[The author requests the use of our columns to lay the following ad- dress before the public. To a call of charity and benevolence, of course,
our columns are always open.] Westport, 45th July 1831. COUNTRYMEN—For the purpose of inducing every one with the means, as much as in me lieth, to add his mite for the benefit of our suffering countrymen and families of the Sister Kingdom, I beg, through the favour of this medium, to state, that being impressed with a strong feeling for the calamitous state of the poor Irish, I went amongst them, a few weeks ago, into the West of Ireland. I opened a soup-room„ wherein I have been daily feeding five hundred and fifty children, at the small cost of It. per diem. I feed them on the spot, under my own su- perintendence, to avoid the thousand impositions which these demora- lized beings practise Ma time of famine. I knew the appetite could not falsify, though the tongue might ; and, therefore, I filled the stomach, while some of the other soup-rooms, by delivering it out, were, perhaps, in many cases, only supplying the hog's trough. But now, since the press of the famine is over, I have turned my attention to a more permanent good than merely feeding : I have selected eighty of the elder girls from my establishment, and clothed their worse than Indian nakedness, to beget in them the virtue of decency ; and have them now at work, sew- ing, knitting, spinning, &c. to inculcate the good order and ingenuity of employment. I have adopted this scheme to do away with their resorting to begging, and as a plan of " practical morality," since the priests will not hear of any thing in the shape of education, fearing religious conversion amongst; the children.
The system has already been productive of considerable change in the character of the girls ; for, from a practice of squatting in groups about a puddle or manure-hill, chattering, musing, or dreaming their time away into idiotcy, they have become excited, by the spur of labour, to emulate our English industry. However, I fear my establishment is on too small a scale to become a national example, which has been my object from the first ; and therefore I appeal to the benevolent to assist me with funds, according to their means, to extend its scale. Their contributions may be sent through the Relief Committee, Castlebar, county Mayo, and applied under their inspection.—I am, &c. Davin Marruews.
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