Nor when the food was there, on the quays, was it easy to put it, in due proportions, into the four million mouths.

Some mouths, and they, alas! the weaker ones, would remain unfed.

But the opportunity was a good one for slashing philanthropical censure; and then the business of the slashing, censorious philanthropist is so easy, so exciting, and so pleasant! I think that no portion of Ireland suffered more severely during the famine than the counties Cork and Kerry.

The poorest parts were perhaps the parishes lying back from the sea and near to the mountains; and in the midst of such a district Desmond Court was situated.

The region immediately round Castle Richmond was perhaps better.