CENTRAL RELIEF COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY OF distribution of the American supplies by the

Although a prolonged state of distress in several parts of Ireland, and the continued sup-commodation, and the obliging manner in which plies poured in upon us from abroad with unexampled liberality, renders it impossible yet to close our labours, and to furnish our constituents with a full account of the distribution of their bounty; yet the lapse of more than a year and a half, since we entered upon the administration of the large fund entrusted to us, demands that some account of our proceedings, and of the present state of our accounts, should be laid before the subscribers.

local co-operation, superintended and aided as it has been by our efficient auxiliary committees of Friends in the towns of Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Clonmel.

afford a large amount of present relief. entertain a hope, however, not only that the funds employed will be returned, but that the exhibition of an improved mode of culture, and the growth of useful crops, hitherto but little known in that part of the country, will have a tendency to withdraw the peasantry from their exclusive dependence on the potato, and in other respects be productive of permanent benefit. The lands are of good quality, and in fair condition; and are placed at our disposal for one season by the proprietors, free of rent and poor rate: we provide the labour, manure, and seed, and receive the produce, giving up the land when the crops shall be disposed of.

We now turn from the past to our present operations. Under the extreme pressure of famine with which we had to deal for a considerable time after our appointment, the prominent object was to devise the most prompt and effectual measures for averting starvation. The dearth of food was generally attempted to be met by the formation of depots, where soup and other kinds of cooked provisions were gratuitously distributed; but the hurtful tendency of gratuitous relief in pauperizing the people was too apparent to permit the continuance of such a system beyond the period of urgent need, and accordingly, as the suffering gradually abated, and a more comprehensive poor-law came into operation, it became our anxious endeavour to apply the residue of the means entrusted to us, to such objects as were most likely, whilst affording present relief, to have a direct bearing upon the permanent improvement of the condition of the people, in promoting productive industry, and developing the resources of the country. With this view, we have for some months past very much discontinued gratuitous issues of food, for purposes of general relief, and have chiefly confined our grants to some suffering districts, for the purpose of affording nour-condition of the money being expended in the ishment to sick and convalescent persons, and their helpless children, who may not be adequately relieved under the existing poor-law. We intend to adhere to this system.

Considerable grants have been recently made, and are still in progress, in aid of an extension of the fisheries on the western and southern coasts. This is a branch of national industry which promises beyond most others to reward the enterprize of the intelligent and persevering; it also possesses the important advantage, in those parts where the produce of the land is insufficient for the support of its population, of being productive of immediate supplies of wholesome food. Our assistance has chiefly consisted of loans to parties who have undertaken to act in conformity to regulations carefully framed, with a view to the interests of both owners and crews of the boats employed. We consider that the obligation to repayment out of actual earnings will be a stimulus to industry, and lay the foundation for a more healthy prosecution of the trade, than if it were nurtured by a system of gratuities.

We have lately entered upon the cultivation of about five hundred and fifty Irish, equal to nine hundred English, acres of land in the county of Mayo-an engagement requiring the outlay of a considerable sum of money; which being chiefly expended in spade labour in one of the most impoverished counties in Ireland, cannot fail, whatever may be its ultimate issue, to

A considerable portion of the land is now sown, and the prospects so far are favourable. This operation is superintended by an intelligent local Committee, consisting of a few highly respectable persons, assisted by the County Surveyor, and one of the Practical Instructors at present so usefully employed by the Royal Agricultural Society, in diffusing sound information respecting the management of land amongst the small farmers in various parts of Ireland. A similar operation on a smaller scale has been undertaken on our behalf in the county of Galway by Lord Wallscourt: in this instance, we have simply given the seed and advanced the sum of £200, to be repaid in twelve months, on

culture by spade labour of fifty acres in crops approved by us. The whole of this land is now under crop, and the reports made to us of the execution and prospects of the work are exceedingly satisfactory.

The situation of small landholders, who have struggled under the great difficulties of the last two years to maintain their independent position, has repeatedly claimed our sympathy and assistance. We were enabled last year, by a liberal donation from the Government of about 40,000 pounds weight of turnip seed, to make a very seasonable distribution in small portions in various parts of Ireland. The results were truly valuable and encouraging. By the returns made from our correspondents entrusted with the local distribution, it appeared that nine thousand six hundred and fifty two acres were sown, a large proportion of which, through the extreme poverty of the occupiers, would probably have otherwise lain waste; and the produce having been generally abundant, it is estimated that upwards of one hundred and ninety thousand tons of turnips were thus raised by a class consisting generally of small farmers and cottiers, whose resources were almost exhausted. There is probably at the present time, no portion of the community labouring under greater difficulties and privations, than those whose occupation of land exceeding one quarter of an acre has excluded them from poor-law relief, and who cling to their little holdings as the only means of fu

MORAL REFORM.-The attention of those be

ture assistance. We have had undoubted evi- | below, may be justly regarded as one, to which it dence that several instances have occurred, in is hoped the attention of our benevolent citizens which persons thus circumstanced have suffered will be given. individuals of their family to die of want rather than surrender their land. Encouraged by the experience of last season, and as a means of the most useful assistance to this suffering class, we have this year allotted the sum of £5000 for the purchase of turnip and other green-crop seeds, of which the early kinds have been extensively distributed, and the allotment of others is still in progress. The seeds are given gratuitously, our correspondents in the several districts being merely expected to satisfy themselves of the real need of the parties, and that in every case the requisite quantity of ground has been properly prepared.

(To be continued.)

FRIENDS' REVIEW. PHILADELPHIA, FIRST MONTH 6, 1849.

nevolently interested in the welfare of the poor and wretched, is requested to the following brief statement of an institution established by an association of respectable coloured persons in the southern section of our city, for the moral reform of coloured women.

It has now been several years in operation, and is located in Lombard street above Seventh, and is known as the Moral Reform Retreat. Between one and two hundred women have been taken in from the lowest haunts of vice and intemperance, since the commencement; and after having been restored to decent habits, and their good behaviour tested by a trial of about six week's residence in the house, respectable places in the country are provided for them. Satisfactory evidence of the great benefit conferred upon these persons, has been received from a number of their employers. The Institution has been supported partly by annual subscriptions, but chiefly by donations in money, clothing, and provisions, from those inclined to as

The intelligence which we have introduced into our present number, and to be further continued in our next, respecting the efforts that have been made and are still in progress, to relieve the distresses, and improve the condition of the poor insist in this good work of helping to reclaim the Ireland, will, we trust, be interesting to many of our readers, notwithstanding the time which has elapsed since the documents in question were issued. The principal causes of the destitution, of which such appalling accounts have been diffused among us, are still at work in that ill-regulated and ill-governed island.

When we contemplate the destitute and suffering condition of the great mass of the labouring population, in that and its sister islands, as well as on many parts of the continent, and the heavy demands thence arising upon the time and resources of the philanthropists of those countries, we have great cause for gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, for the abundance with which we are favoured, and the comparative exemption from the worst evils of poverty which is experienced by the people of these United States. Yet, it is not to be forgotten, that here, especially in our larger cities, no inconsiderable share of suffering from want is witnessed by a part of our population. As in all cases, prevention is better than cure, it ought to be an object with those who are in possession of the comforts and conveniences of life, to use their means and their influence, not only in relieving distress when it actually exists, but in drying up the sources from which destitution and wretchedness usually spring. Among the means directed to this end, the Moral Reform for coloured women, of which a brief notice is given

wretched victims of vice, from the fearful pit into which they have fallen. The present amount of annual subscriptions, if all collected, is not adequate to pay the rent and the salary of the matron, leaving the entire expense of fuel, provisions, and clothing, to be provided for by donations.

Contributions in provisions, clothing, and fuel, may be placed under the care of the Matron, at Donations in the house, in Lombard street. money may be handed to the Treasurer, Matilda Cassey, Lombard street above Fourth, or to the following, who have consented to receive them on behalf of the Institution. John Stokes, No. 74 Marshall street, M. C. Cope, 286 Filbert street.

MARRIED, On the 7th of Ninth month last, at Friends' Meeting, Milford, near Milton, Wayne co., Indiana, JOSIAH CLAWSON, Son of William Clawson, to SARAH N., daughter of William Fletcher, of Perquimans county, North Carolina.

DIED,-On the 10th of the Eleventh month last, at the residence of her father, near Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 22d year of her age, Elizabeth C. Ephraim and Charlotte A. Morgan. By her mild CHILES, wife of John L. Chiles, and daughter of and amiable disposition, and the urbanity of her manners, she had endeared herself to a large circle of friends who deeply feel her loss. Although, in friend was called to give an account of her stewthe inscrutable wisdom of Providence, this young ardship in the morning of her days, and in the midst of earthly prosperity, it is believed that,

through Divine Mercy, she was prepared to do it | sumption, as well as vice, are to them forbidden with joy.

As an agreeable illustration of this subject, the following anecdote may be given:

tended; about 300 had signed the pledge, 40 of whom were reclaimed from habitual drunkenness. He had been the means, also, of putting into circulation about 4000 tracts. He had established a Sabbath school into which about 250 children had been admitted; a day school, the average attendance at which was 120; and an evening school for adults, in which were several persons now able to read a chapter in the Testament. Further, he had founded a Savings' bank for the children's half pence and farthings; £15 had been paid in, which instead of being wasted in sweet-meats and fruit, bought on the Sabbath, was expended last Christmas in shoes, frocks, jackets, and other useful articles. Nor was this all: many had been brought to hear the Gospel preached, and some of those who at first molested the preacher, were now the most ready to protect and to assist him. All this was done by one reclaimed man, a working gardener, in the course of twelve months.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
FEMALE HEROISM.

(Concluded from page 231.)

A few years ago, a young man who had enjoyed the advantage of a sober Quaker education, was led in the course of his business to the house of a full-blooded Southerner, whose family was involved in a perplexing dilemma, in consequence of some misunderstanding that had arisen between a young man nearly connected with the family and one of his acquaintances; who, in the impetuosity of youth, and without understanding the case, had sent him a challenge. The youth to whom the cartel was sent had no animosity towards his opponent, and had no desire to kill him or be killed himself. But, with the notions of honour entertained by himself and his family, it was a serious question how he should act. If he made concessions or declined a meeting, his courage might be questioned: and if he did not manifest a proper spirit of resentment his honour might be tarnished. A letter was therefore prepared, to be communicated to the challenger through the medium of the newspaper, manifesting what was thought a proper spirit; but which was calculated to widen the breach, and render a duel between two such chivalric characters inevitable. The young I have said that the attendance of the day Friend, after explaining his code of honour, scholars seldom exceeded three years; and much which, he declared, would not permit him under as Mrs. Wilson desired to believe that the bread any conceivable circumstances to fight a duel, cast upon the waters would not be lost, no wellproposed trying to write a letter on behalf of his authenticated evidence ever reached her that the new acquaintance, instead of that which had brief school days produced any permanently been prepared. This being agreed to, he wrote beneficial effects, sufficient to counteract the a cool, dispassionate explanation of the case, superstition and ignorance with which her pupils making no acknowledgment of fault on his own were necessarily surrounded. Feeling the imside, and casting no reflections upon his oppo- possibility with day-schools of obviating infecnent; but simply showing that no reason existed tion from such sources, she had always cherished for a quarrel between them. This letter being the idea of rearing some children from their very read, and subjected to the Southern test of ho- infancy, uncontaminated by the evil examples of nour, appeared free from unmanly concessions, a native home; but it was not till just before she and not calculated to compromise the chivalry of moved into the Central School that she had an its reputed author. It was accordingly adopted, opportunity of carrying her plan into execution. and inserted in the public papers. The conse- Her durzie (tailor) feeling himself dying, sent quence was that a request was soon afterwards for her, and implored her to take charge of his received from the author of the challenge, for only child: he said he could not be a Christian liberty to withdraw his cartel of defiance. This himself, but he wished her to be one; and that of course was readily granted, and the whole if Mrs. Wilson would promise to keep her, he difficulty amicably settled. The youth most would, in the presence of his relatives, make deeply interested, finding this Gordian knot so over the little girl to that lady. The assurance quietly and easily untied, candidly acknow-was as readily given as her task was conscienledged the superiority of the Quaker code of

honour.

WHAT ONE POOR MAN CAN DO.

E. L.

tiously fulfilled; and no first fruits could have been more promising, or could have ripened more satisfactorily; no commencement could have been followed by more complete success. In a very few weeks another orphan, totally destitute, was thrown in Mrs. Wilson's way; and much about the same time she was requested to receive as a boarder a little slave girl, the "A reclaimed drunkard made the following charge of whom had, by very peculiar circumstatements a few evenings ago. He had opened stances, devolved on a lady whose health and a room for the advocacy of Teetotalism, in a position prevented her training the poor castaway very low and degraded neighbourhood in the satisfactorily. That there needs only a begindistrict of Holloway, near London. Many at-ning,' was never more fully verified than in the

We find the following in one of our English exchanges, and have no reason to doubt its accuracy: