IRELAND. [From Lloyd's London.]

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 105, 2 June 1847, Page 3

IRELAND. [From Lloyd's London.]

Darker and darker every day grows the cloud that lours over Ireland. Premature as the alarm was said lo be, there is already a fearful amount of misery lor which the foresight came too late. Famine will tiot wail, while the machinery for its mitigation is being fitted and put into action. The preliminary arrangements lor help are in progress ; the ultimate ravages of want and disease are, with multitudes, in progress also. Dciths, from utter destilution are beginning to multiply, appalling firstfruits of a fatal harvest. Typhus is taking possession of crowded hospitals and poor-houses, making those forlorn asylums lor relief atid remedy only the portals of the grave. Catacombs are not so gloomy, nor the battle-field so terrible, as the aspect of Ireland at this momcut. It presents a scene to strike with awe

the most unthinking. Ami yet the deepest impression is not made by the sufferings of the passing time, but by the portentous indications they afford that "worse remains behind." Landlords are rushing forward to proclaim what large percentages of their rents they arc ready to forego. Priests and clergymen of all churches are assailing Heaven with incessant piayers. Those who address the public at meetings, or through the press, vie with each other in lashing the inevitable slowness of the operations for relief. Convoys of corn for expoilation are intercepted, and provision stores are stormed. Some arc furious, and others stand aghast, like passengers in a loundering ship. Parishes and baronies are loud with their competitive statistics of starvation. Their domauds on the public purse are unbounded. They utterly forget that it is not the purse of Fortunalus : that nothing can come out of the Treasury but what has first gone into it, and been drawn, in large measure, from toiling multitudes not many removes from their own condition. The millions they calculate so fluently, and demand so fiercely, would he " blood, sweat, and tear wrung .trillions." The wi etched catch up this headlong claim. They aie impatient of the reasonable rcquiicmcutol labour for their lood. Heated with the hunger-fever, work seems to them a needless imcrposiliou between their wauls and the bounty ol relief. They strike for higher wages, when the lowest might well be deemed a heaven above their deep abyss of mysery. They refuse task-work, as if equality ol want were an all-sufficient to equality ol bupply. Bands of them traverse the country ; foraging parties in advance of the fearfullest of invasions. They beg with bludgeons. The robber and assassin are abroad, home cry for meal, and others for muskets. Power is compelled by the disorder to grow churlish m its charity; to surround with bayonets the bread it will distiibutc; and sometimes to fire on those whom it desires to feed. Public Distress, — Emioiiation.— The guardians of the Kilrusli Poor-law Union have agieed to a series of resolutions recommending an extensive system oj emigration to the notice of the (jiovernmcul, as the only mode of meeting the existing evil. Up to Thursday fortnight, the daily disbursements in the district reached Jt'l ,500, and even this prodigious outluy ot public moticy was instiiliciciit for the purpose. The resolution* are as lolUnv : "That the degree of destitution prevailing throughout this country, especially amongst the poorer classes, calls for the best exertions ol every well-minded person towards its alleviation. That this board, the constituted guardians of the poor of our union, after close investigation mt) the state of our several districts, contrasting the present extent of this calamity, and a certainty oTa continuance for months, also the possibility of a repetition with the amount of the resources made available by law as a remedy thereto, arc of opinion, that for so general and heavy a visitation such measures are not only utterly inadequate, but rather calculated to add to the list of paupers, and that an extensive and popular system of emigration appears to us be a more Icasible, and a more permanent measure of relieving such multitudinous destitution. That while the diurnal supplies are being provided, we address our brother guardians throughout the kiugdom,to solicit their co-operation in an unanimous appeal to Her Majesty's Government, to consider with that attention which so important -a matter requires, the actual state of our countiy, in ordci to devibe sonic plan of emigration commensurate with its wunts ; and that we express our readiness to co-opei.uc with the Government in purrymg into eifect ilu* provisions of tome such suitable enactment. That on obtaining the co-operation of the several boards of guardians for the purpose specified, no further tune be lost, iv entering upon the arrangements necessarily required to promote such a national charity — and that a memorial to that effect, addressed to Her Majesty's Government, be forthwith prepared lor auoption by this Board, and a copy ol which, together with a copy ot these resolutions, he transmitted to the several boards of guardians throughout Ireland."— C. M. Vandeixuk, Chairman. — Irish Paper.