138 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



are sheltered or educated by the religious orders. The 

 churchwarden does not always take care of them. 



County of Mayo ; examinations taken by John Spencer, Esq., and Wilson 

 Gray, Esq. ; parish of Aughvale, barony of Murrisk. Fourteen wit- 



The parochial assessment for the support of deserted 

 children has been discontinued for three years, although 

 the number of orphans has lately very much increased by 

 the prevalence of cholera. One of the officers of health 

 says, that there cannot be less than three hundred children 

 under the age of twelve years without father and mother ; 

 a subscription was raised, by which perhaps one-fourth of 

 them were assisted. He could not say what had become 

 of the others. A large number must have been reduced 

 to beggary ; the children of the town labourers particularly 

 could scarcely have any other resource. 



A poor man, a weaver, stated that one of his neighbours 

 had taken four of these children, another three, and that 

 his aunt and himself had received two ; that they could not 

 do otherwise, since the parents had died suddenly. Not 

 one of those who took the charge of these children had the 

 means of boiling a potatoe more. 



Town of Ballina and Ardnaree, barony of Tyrawley. Twenty-jive 

 witnesses. 



There are four deserted children in the parish, all of 

 whom were deserted more than two years ago. The 

 support of the children now falls on the nurses, with 

 whom they were put out by the churchwardens, before 

 the collection of the parochial funds for their support 

 ceased. 



A labourer, one of those on whom the support of three 



