there are things done which will bear looking in the face without blushing; there are things done so well that an enemy, however skillful, could not improve them; and there are fallen men and women in the lower ranks of life, without any refinement of education, that can appreciate these well done things and even do them too; and with all the zigzag movements in the famine there were some redeeming qualities, there were some things carried on and carried through, which were not accused of sectarianism, for the simplest reason—none was manifest.
The Society of Friends justly merit this acknowledgment, and they have it most heartily from every portion of Ireland. Not belonging to that Society, my opportunity of testing the true feeling of the poor was a good one, and when in a school or soup-shop, the question was put—Who feeds you? or, who sends you these clothes? the answer was: "The good Quakers, lady, and it's they that have the religion entirely." One young man seriously inquired of me, what sort of people they might be, and if their religion were like any other, and where they got such a good one; "By dad, don't you think it's the best in the world? It certainly produces good works among the poor of Ireland, was the reply. "And where may they say their prayers? I wish I could hear 'em;" or, "don't they say prayers?" He pressed so closely, that vague answers would not avail; the foundation of a faith which was so different from what he had seen in any people, as he said, "intirely," he determined to make out; and finally
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