men to be assured that those humane efforts, as well as those making by our government, will save thousands of famishing creatures from the death which otherwise awaited them. Hitherto they have been supported by the exertions of a nearly exhausted country-exertions stretched far beyond the means of those making them, but no longer able to carry them on. We have hitherto heard of but few deaths arising from actual starvation, but a short time more would make it tremendous, had it not been for this timely assistance. The pale and emaciated faces met with in the streets and on the roads, proved the rapid approach of this last stage. I have known an instance of a man who for three days had not a morsel to eat, and then stretched exhausted on his bed to die—a trifle saved him, but his recovery was slow. It would be painful to dwell on those instances of misery, and I only mention them to shew how timely the relief has been. From Roscommon. I am induced to address you in consequence of finding your liberality extended to several parishes in the neighbourhood of the one I reside in, the poor of which have already received £50 remitted me by the Commissioners appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; which sum, along with private contributions, was applied to the relief of the two parishes of Donamon and Kilbegnet, and is now very hearly expended; and those two very populous parishes will then be in the utinost possible distress, having no resident gentleman in either of them (except myself), which at this moment is not a very enviable situation, as there are nearly three thousand inhabitants who in a few days will again be reduced to a state of starvation. From Killarney. I will venture to say that no case, however melancholy, that has come to the knowledge of the London Committee, can in any particular surpass the actual misery and wretchedness of the residents of Ibrickkane and the adjoining Barony. Even in the best of times the appearance and condition of the poor creatures is sufficient to excite compassion. The soil, the most barren that can be conceived, yields but a scanty supply of potatoes, the only article of food. Happy are they, if they possess a sufficiency of this vegetable, and can add to their humble fare the luxury of a little milk. A total failure of the last year's crop deprived them of the sole means of subsistence. To prolong a miserable existence, they have been compelled for some months past to support themselves on rock weed, limpets, and the tops of nettles. Hundreds I have daily witnessed flocking to the sea-side to collect a scanty meal. It is scarcely possible to convey to you an idea of their actual sufferings and privations: humanity shudders on viewing their pale and sickly forms, worn away by disease and famine. In some of the wretched hovels may be seen the father and mother of a family lying down in the last stage of a fever, surrounded by their starved and half-naked children, with no support, beyond the casual pittance bestowed by the charity of an unfortunate neighbour, whose condition, with the exception of sickness, is no way superior. With feelings of joy and gratitude they hail the exertions made by a generous public to alleviate their misfortunes; but without the influence of some kind friend is exercised, to have their situation immediately attended to, relief will come when it can no longer be considered a blessing. From Tarbut. When we reflect on this glorious instance of lively feeling and generosity on the part of the English nation, any language of ours would fail in giving adequate expression to our most heartfelt sentiments of gratitude on the occasion. We shall, therefore, not attempt the fruitless task, impressed as we are, that to great and generous minds such deeds of humanity and generosity are their own truest rewards. But we beg further to state, that notwithstanding the degree of relief we have already received, the distress of our pining population is weekly and daily increasing last remnant of provisions, and the seain consequence of the running out of the son getting almost hopelessly late for sowing potatoes. We therefore beg to add, that unless further and immediate relief be afforded, the distress from actual want of food for 2197 individuals, with a prospect of a daily increase to that number, will be calamitous in the extreme, as the funds on hand are only equal to a scanty supply for six or seven days more. From Mayo. That the population of the parish of Kilmina exceeds eight thousand souls; that, from the unprecedented calamity of the last season, and almost total failure of both the potatoe and flax crops, the one half of those unfortunate beings are now literally in a state of starvation. And what renders it more melancholy, that the numbers crying out for relief are increasing daily. We beg to state that the parish is unfortunately circumstanced in neither having a resident rector, curate or gentleman of property. We therefore hope that our application will be humanely attended to. From Galway. I am not able-I have not language to describe the deplorable state to which this wretched people are reduced, many of them subsisting solely on a weed gathered on the sea-shore, and carried many miles on their backs; perhaps so for as 20 or 25 miles: this but barely supports existence; but for that what will not man do? What labour will not a parent undergo to still the piercing cries of his famishing children, looking to him and calling on him to preserve that existence he was the cause of giving? There are no resident gentry in the parish. I am the only landed proprietor who ever at all visits it; and being attached to the country, I sometimes spend a few days, occasionally, at a lodge I have in the mountains; it has no Protestant clergyman resident, nor a resident Protestant except myself; but the parish priest is a worthy, respectable gentleman. He and I have called a meeting of the most respectable of the inhabitants, but such is the want of money, that we could not get ten pounds: to this I shall add fifty pounds, but what is that to support above 4000 distressed beings, until the harvest? I have been requested by the meeting to act as Secretary, and to make this appeal to your benevolent Committee, which I sincerely hope may not be without effect. From Cork. Our means are so limited, and our claims so extensive, that the most calamitous consequences may be apprehended, if the immediate attention of the benevolent is not directed to this quarter. It is no uncommon occurrence to see the unfortunate individuals faint with hunger while waiting to obtain tickets, and many devour their small pittance before they reach their homes. To extend relief effectually to this barony, we require at least ten to twelve tons of meal per week. Much to the credit of the people of this county, they have betrayed no symptom of disturbance, and have hitherto borne their privations with patience and submission. No one could suppose that human nature was capable of bearing such an accumulation of misery and wretchedness. Sickness and famine are daily making such rapid strides, that, I think, nothing less than Divine interposition can prevent half of my unfortunate parishioners from perishing with hunger. If you could pro VOL. XVII. 3 D mitted to them direct, it would avert this cure any portion of the funds to be redreadful calamity, and save the lives of many. Your exertions in the cause of humanity and charity are never wanting, and I feel convinced that a knowledge of the distress and misery of these two unducement to exercise any influence you fortunate baronies, will be a sufficient inmay have with the London Committee, to direct their immediate and particular attention to that quarter. Any sum sent instructions how it is to be applied, will to the Secretary, Mr. E. Morony, with be most faithfully attended to. Committee are persons of the first respectability. From Kilmactronny, Sligo. The From every intelligence I can collect, as well as from my own knowledge, I do believe the population are in as deep distress, as they are in any part of the county of Roscommon; and I also believe that they are destitute of every means of procuring assistance within themselves, the income of the wealthiest individual resident in the parish, not exceeding 1507. per annum. The vicar is an active, zealous, conscientious clergyman, and any aid which your Committee may think it adviseable to afford him, will, I am sure, be expended in the most beneficial manner possible, for the relief of the people. From his Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. You kindly ask but for one line, and it is a charity, for in truth my time is so occupied that I cannot afford myself six hours in bed. I have been in Westport, Castlebar and Newport; I attended each of their Committees; I had intended to but on my way to Castlebar, I passed a have visited Kilmactye and Crossmolina, multitude of half-starved men, women and children, at Ballyglass and Balcara, seeking a share of a handful of meal, which could only keep them alive, and no more. This seemed to me urgent, and I appointed the gentlemen of the country to meet me at each of those places on Friday. state of those parts of Mayo which I From Clifden. To His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. Some benevolent Ladies of distinction have formed a plan for supplying the Peasantry of Ireland with articles of clothing, and for co-operating with and exciting similar benevolent exertions in that country. Such is their deplorable condition that the Committee have reason to believe numbers of those unfortunate creatures have been obliged to sell their clothing to provide food, and that they will be destitute of necessary clothing in the ensuing winter. This mode of relief has been suggested to the Committee, and they very earnestly recommend it to the consideration and good feelings of the Ladies of the United Kingdom. Other Ladies have become the receivers of the small donations of the circle in which they reside, and by attention to encourage the humble yet warm benevolence of the more favoured though still humble classes of society-always forward to do good according to their ability— have been the means of collecting sums which in the aggregate have aided the funds of the Committee, and gratified it with the means of rendering more decisive benefit to the sadly suffering Peasantry of the Sister Kingdom. sure of receiving your Grace's letter inclosing a letter from the Liverpool Committee with a donation of 501. for the relief of our starving neighbours. It was very kind and good, but it will not do; effectual relief has not been in time; public works and universal employment have been too long delayed: one poor creature who was employed by me last week to amuse, but not to fatigue himself, at the repairing of roads, was at work on Saturday evening; fasted, I am afraid, yesterday (Sunday); got up this morning (Monday) to work, not from bed, (for bed he had none,) but from the ground, on which he slept without bed-clothes in his daily rags: he said he felt languid and sleepy, he was in fact getting worse: he lay down again on the ground and died!!! Four died in Boffin, and, if swelled limbs, pale looks, sunken cheeks and hollow eyes, are the harbingers of death, the work of death will be soon very rapid in this country. I often saw scarcity and dearness of provisions, but I never had an idea of famine until now. Next year will be in all probability as bad as this; the poor people of this barony at least will find it so; they are so weak that they cannot work for themselves, because they have no food; they are not able to re-cover or re-mould their potatoes, Be pleased to direct to this Committee as and they do not think of cutting turf. As to the public works and general employment of the poor of this country, I fear it is almost too late; a few days more will incapacitate them from any thing of the kind. I dismissed this evening 300 men whom I had employed in the repairs of roads; I never witnessed such distress as my communication of not being able to give them another day's work occasioned; they said, that a day or two more without employment, that is, without food, would put an end to all their labours. Having thus extracted from the correspondence specimens of the relations with which the Committee are daily oppressed, and which they have to compare, and between which they have also to decide for the equitable distribution of the relief which they have (they wish they could say the unmixed gratification) to divide among the miserable, they are compelled strenuously to urge upon the ministers of religion-upon all congregations assembled for the worship of the Most High GOD-upon those whom he has blessed with the means that they be liberal, prompt, solicitous with others, now, while life yet exists, to bestow that which in a short time it will be too late to give for the rescue of the unhappy sufferers from death! under. MICHAEL WILLIAM TROY. On the Business of the Committee for the To FRANCIS FREELING, Esq. LAW REPORT. London. Court of Chancery, Lincoln's Inn, March 26. Lawrence's Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man. LAWRENCE v. Smitii, (Concluded from p. 318.) Mr. Wetherell to-day replied to the arguments of the plaintiff's counsel. He had little more to say in addition to what he had already urged to the Court. Mr. Lawrence had asserted the materiality of the soul for the purpose of denying its immortality. He did not content himself with stating certain premises, and leaving it to his readers to draw their inference from them; he had deduced his own conclusion with mathematical precision, and asserted it as a matter beyond all conjecture. He had said that the mind kept equal progress with the body; like it, it was feeble in childhood, gained strength with puberty, declined in old age, and was annihilated in death. This was not a work containing the doubts of a sceptic, but asserting that of which it said there was no doubt. It stated, that unless you were prepared to admit that an immaterial principle existed in the whole class of animals, down to the animalcule, you could not ascribe it to man. He did not go on to inform his pupils, that although zoological reasoning did not enable them to ascertain this principle, yet they might learn from revelation what it was impossible for the imperfection of human science to discover. Had the book made such a reservation in favour of the doctrines disclosed in Scripture, then, indeed, it might be said to contain what had been called by his learned friend Mr. Shadwell, the antidote to the poison But that was not the case. He denied the authenticity of Scripture, and scoffed at religion, rather than made a reservation in its favour; abstaining from any where stating that that which was inconsistent with zoological reasoning, existed, nevertheless, theologically. Mr. Shadwell had quoted a passage from p. 7, which he (Mr. Wetherell) had abstained from reading in his opening of the case out of delicacy to Mr. Lawrence; as he thought it was sufficient to charge him with what he had directly asserted, without alluding to that which bore a doubtful construction. But siuce Mr. Shadwell had used the passage for the purpose of shewing that it contained a corrective to the offensive passages, he (Mr. Wetherell) should be allowed to use it also. [The learned counsel then read the passage alluded to, which spoke of the theological doctrine of the immortality of the soul as depending upon a different authority from that of natural reason, and calling it a sublime doctrine; and one, the introduction of which, as it had existed in all ages, and amongst all nations, &c., was not suited to that place.] He contended that this passage was not meant to create respect towards the authority of revelation. The word "sublime" seemed rather to be used in a sense of ridicule than other wise, for it was put in antithesis with the powers of the anatomist and the physiologist, by which the immaterial being could not be discovered, and that therefore the doctrine was too sublime to be true. Its introduction not being "suited to that place," namely, the theatre of the College of Surgeons, seemed also to be meant as a sneer. He should have gone on to state, that "what we cannot demonstrate is made clear by divine revelation." He did not do so; but rather put the Bible on the shelf altogether; and therefore the passage contained none of the autidote ascribed to it by Mr. Shadwell. And then as to the passage in which he denied the truth of the deluge, and the peopling of the earth by the descendants of Adam and Eve as being zoologically impossible; there, also, he refrained from stating that it might have taken place by miraculous interposition of the Deity. There was also another passage in the work which he (Mr. Wetherell) was compelled to say, so far from its reserving a saving to revelation, was intended to revile religion. It spoke of the peculiar virulence of religious controversy as being proverbial, and said the odium theologicum was a fiend that should not be suffered to intrude into the fair garden of science. Now, although the words odium theologicum might, taken abstractedly, be said to apply to the controversy, yet, when coupled with what went before and what followed, it was pretty evident that they were intended to apply to the dogmas themselves, as constituting the ugly fiend whose admission would deface the beautiful parterres of the modern garden of science. The passage that followed, also, in which Churchmen were railed at for the abusive epithets they were in the habit of pouring forth upon their controversial antagonists, when placed in contact with what went before and came after it, particularly when contrasted with the term "sublime," shewed what sort of corrective was intended for those parts of the work which impugned the doctrines contained in revelation. Mr. Shadwell had quoted passages from the works of a long list of eminent divines. He (Mr. Wetherell) was not a little astonished to hear the names of Butler, Locke, Paley, Warbur ton and others, cited in support of the doctrines contained in this work. There certainly might be some terms in the holy writings which had engaged the attention of great and learned men, as throwing some doubt upon the state of existence in the intervening period between the death of a body and its resurrection; but they had never said that it was therefore to be inferred that the annihilation of the soul took place with that of the body. The term ekoimethesan, as used by St. Paul, Mr. Wetherell contended, had not the meaning imputed to it by Mr. Shadwell. It was used in a neuter, not a positive sense, and did not imply the extinction of the soul, but was meant to express the intermediate state, whatever that state might be. So the word psyche, which was used in the Septuagint, as occurring in the book of Genesis, did not, merely because it had a comprehensive sense, therefore imply an immaterial principle in the brutes and fishes, as well as in man. An allusion had been made to Mr. Locke. He had amused himself The Lord Chancellor said that this case had been argued at the bar with great learning and with great ability. He would explain in a few words the principles on which his decision should be founded. On the observations which had been made upon the College of Surgeons, as the place in which these Lectures had been read, he would not touch; he would only treat the plaintiff as the author of the work. This case had been decide that they had denied the truth of |