150 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



number, not more than half can be said to be removed 

 above abject want, and but five enjoy any degree of com- 

 fort. 



1. Mary Kelly is forty-five or fifty years of age ; is eleven 

 years a widow ; has four children two sons, the eldest of 

 whom is only thirteen, and two daughters, the eldest of 

 whom is fourteen. She lives in a small cabin, built for her 

 by an officer who was quartered here ; she has no plot nor 

 potatoe-ground, and pays no rent ; she is quite unable to 

 work in a field, and has no earnings. She had some good 

 days in her father's house, who was a comfortable farmer, 

 and lived pretty well before her husband died ; she is now 

 depending on her friends for her support. The land they 

 held being too dear, all they had was canted, and they 

 were obliged to fly ; and though she does not carry a bag, 

 she goes to the neighbours' houses to ask for relief. The 

 family are very badly clothed, and are often stinted in their 

 food, and the witness fears they will be worse off before a 

 year goes round. 



2. Mary Commons is seventy years of age, ten years 

 a widow, and has no children living with her. She has 

 two daughters married, who are in a low state, and unable 

 to do anything for her. She cannot earn anything for 

 herself, and still she does not beg publicly, though she 

 does not appear to have any better means. She has no 

 house, but a few sticks put up against the gable-end of an 

 old house that lately fell in, and many a better shed is 

 made for pigs ; a tall man could not stand up in it ; there 

 is neither hearth nor window, and a wattle thrown across 

 serves for the door. She 'appears to get her health very 

 well, and I do not know, says a witness, how she can, 

 lying on a wisp of straw without any covering. She is 



