The Rev. Mr. Hughes stated, that the distress in his parish (Burrishoole) was chiefly owing to the failure of the potato crop, some of which was lost by the perishing of the seed, and some by high winds in August. Many families were obliged to put themselves on the short allowance of one meal in the day, so early as last February; he had already seen many with the signs of starvation in their haggard countenances, and had heard them cry from hunger. He knew whole families, each of which had subsisted, frequently, for twenty-four hours on one quart meal. The population was 11,761, of which number five thousand were now actually in want; three hundred families had neither cow, sheep, nor horse, nor any other means to purchase provisions; two hundred families, at least, had not been able to make their usual sowing of potatoes for want of seed; and hundreds would necessarily perish with hunger, unless something was soon done for their relief. [Illustration: Dresses.] [Illustration: Dresses.] The Rev. Mr. Gibbons stated the population of his parish (Kilgevar) at nine thousand. The crop failed there last year owing to the rotting of the seed and to harsh winds; two thousand five hundred persons were now in distress. About one half of these might struggle through summer, if they sold their few head of cattle to procure provisions, but the rest had no resource. The wives and children of a great many of them had already gone to beg. At subsequent meetings of the committee similar accounts were received from other parts of the western coasts and its islands. They exhibited the state of the country as being deplorably wretched, and the sufferings of the poor as daily and hourly on the increase. Several thousand families were reported to be without food, except the precarious sustenance they were enabled to gather in the fields, and among the rocks on the seashore. Cabbage and shellfish usually furnished their repast. In some places partial relief was given by the meal which the Central Board ordered to certain districts; and a resolution passed at a meeting, by which they requested permission of the London Distress Committee to procure, with the money remaining at their disposal, one hundred tons of meal, to give further assistance. A Mr. Owen, from the Board of Works, attended by order of the Lord Lieutenant, and informed the meeting that his mission was into Erris, where £500 was to be expended for the purpose of giving the poor employment. [Illustration: Hair dressing.] The costumes, etc., given for this year are a nursemaid and children, indoor and walking dresses, and different modes of dressing the hair. (See pp. 211, 212.) CHAPTER XX. 1836.