The Times, 1846-12-31, p.8

# Transcription — The Times (London), 1846-12-31, p.8 **Source**: The Times (London), Thursday 31 December 1846, p.8. **Status**: Complete. **Method**: Cleaned from the PDF's embedded OCR layer, hand-corrected against the rendered page image. Period spelling and punctuation preserved. Italics rendered with `*`. Square brackets `[ ]` mark editor's marks only. The clip begins mid-letter — it is the latter portion of an unsigned correspondent's report from the Barony of Bere. The opening of the letter is above the clip boundary and is not included. --- "... The barony of Bere contains a population ranging from perhaps 25,000 to 30,000 souls — the great majority of whom were dependent upon agricultural produce for their maintenance. The mines of Berehaven form the support of a proportion of this population, and, with a few individuals engaged in the fishing trade, constitute the only exceptions to those depending upon agriculture. The number of labourers at present employed upon the public roads in the barony is, as nearly as I could possibly ascertain, about 2,000, which, with 1,500 labourers at work in the Berehaven mines, makes the number receiving daily hire nearly 3,500 individuals. There is, then, an employed population of 3,500 persons, contributing to the support of families amounting, perhaps, to 14,000 or 15,000, out of a population twice the amount. From such a calculation — and its accuracy is beyond question — it must be evident that thousands still continue unwilling mendicants; and that the Government, if they be inclined to rescue them from destruction, must afford them immediate employment. "On the 10th of this month all the works in this barony, as I have learned from the best authority, were simultaneously stopped, and continued in that position until Monday last. It is true that snow fell for a few days during this period which circumstance might be availed of as a convenient excuse, but it is equally true that the cessation occurred before this interruption, and continued for some days after its termination. "A poor man, called Timothy Sullivan (Rockterah). [sic] who lived at Coulagh, in the parish of Kilcatherine, the father of four children, made several ineffectual appeals for employment, but, as is pretty generally the case, these appeals proved ineffectual, and he was compelled so [sic] endure the heart sickness of 'hope deferred.' Each day found his children clamorous for food; each day he solicited assistance from the Government officers, and the same result attended his exertions. His sorrowful appeal was, however, heard on Tuesday week last, and he was provided with a ticket for employment; but the assistance was rendered too late, poor Sullivan was beyond the reach of their niggardly bounty, and independent of that long-withheld support. He died on Tuesday last, solemnly declaring to the assembled neighbours that he had not tasted a morsel of food for four days before, and that no drink had entered his lips during that time, with the exception of a drop of cold water. Sergeant Murphy, a policeman of this town, after ascertaining those circumstances, informed head constable Wade as to the cause of the man's death, and Mr. Wade in consequence wrote to the coroner, requesting his attendance. That gentleman's duties probably prevented his compliance; and as he could not personally assist, Mr. Wade called upon Dr. Armstrong, a highly respectable practitioner of this town, and had the body disinterred. After a strict *post mortem* examination, held on last Sunday night, Dr. Armstrong, in my presence, subsequently stated his conviction that starvation was the immediate cause of Sullivan's death, and also remarked that the frequency of deaths at present occurring in this barony, he attributed to the badness of the quality and the insufficiency of the food which the people were at present obliged to use or enabled to procure. "Humphry Curtin, of Courough, died under exactly the same circumstances a few weeks since, after he, too, had frequently solicited employment on the reads [sic], and received an equally unfavourable response. "I have ascertained the particulars of other cases equally appalling; but what advantage is there in troubling your readers with narratives so heart-rending, and details of apathy so barbarous? What utility is there in transforming your paper into a register of mortality? — for such it would certainly become if I alluded to one-half the instances which are recorded in my note-book, or retained in my memory." --- The clip ends here. A new subheading begins immediately below the clip boundary — NEGLECT OF AGRICULTURE — which is not part of this letter and is not transcribed. *[Text checked against the page scan at 2.7x (disputed readings at 8-16x), 21 Oct 2026, starting from the tile-by-tile page reading of 20-21 Oct 2026.]*