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(10)

make application for charity, or die of starvation.

On the 15th Inst I called to Judge Woodward at Grove Hill, he is probate judge for the County of Clarke, in course of conversation with him he told me that it would be almost impossible for a stranger to ascertain, from personal inspection, the amount of destitution existing in the county, he told me that Mr Cruikshank, State Commissioner, had called on him a few days ago, but that he could not give the exact number of the destitute, unless he took his horse and rode over, every precinct, which he could not spare time to do, he stated however that the courts having been sitting the preceding week, he had had opportunities of meeting and discussing the matter with the principal men, from each township, from their statements, he said, he believed the number of the destitute might be put down at (400) four hundred, in a subsequent conversation on the following day, he said he feared his former estimate might be too high, and that perhaps the totally destitute did not exceed (300) three hundred in number, from this second estimate, I think now, perhaps the Judge excluded a number of orphan children, whom he told me, if destitute were provided for by a late act of the