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All the
institutions which civilize and elevate the people were disappearing,
one after another. The churches were half empty; the temperance
reading-rooms were shut up; the Mechanics' Institute no longer got
support; only the jails and the poorhouses were crowded. A new
generation, born in disease and reared in destitution, pitiless and
imbecile, threatened to drag down the nation to hopeless slavery. Trade
was paralyzed; no one bought anything which was not indispensable at the
hour. The loss of the farmers in potatoes was estimated at more than
twenty millions sterling; and with the potatoes the pigs, which fed on
them, disappeared. The seed, procured at a high price in spring, again
failed; time, money, and labor were lost, and another year of famine was
certain. All who depended on the farmer had sunk with him; shopkeepers
were beggared; tradesmen were starving; the priests living on voluntary
offerings were sometimes in fearful distress when the people had no
longer anything to offer.


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