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potato crop took place, the consequences of which may be seen in the fact that the population numbered in 1850, 1,659,000 less than it did in 1840. Mr. Duffy, in a more recent article in the Dublin Nation, thus confirms all that has been said by the German and English travellers already quoted

"No words printed in a newspaper or elsewhere will give any man who has not seen it a conception of the fallen condition of the West and the South. The famine and the landlords have actually created a new race in Ireland. I have seen on the streets of Galway, crowds of creatures more debased than the Yahoos of Swift-creatures having only a distant and hideous resemblance to human beings. Greyhaired old men, whose faces had hardened into a settled leer of mendicancy, simious and semi-human; and women filthier and more frightful than the harpies, who at the jingle of a coin on the pavement, swarmed in myriads from unseen places, struggling, screaming, shrieking for their prey, like some monstrous unclean animals. In Westport, the sight of a priest on the street gathered an entire pauper population, thick as a village market, swarming around him for relief. Beggar children, beggar adults, beggars in white hair; girls with faces gray and shrivelled, the grave stamped upon them in a decree which could not be recalled ; women with the more touching and tragical aspect of lingering shame and self-respect not yet affected; and among these terrible realities, imposture shaking in pretended fits, to add the last touch of horrible grotesqueness to the picture! I have seen these accursed sights, and they are burned into my memory forever. Away from the town, other scenes of unimaginable horror disclose themselves. The traveller meets groups, and even troops, of wild, idle, lunatic-looking paupers wandering over the country, each with some tale of extermination to tell. If he penetrate into a cabin, and can distinguish objects among filth and darkness, of which an ordinary pig-sty affords but a faint image, he will probably discover from a dozen to twenty inmates in the hut-the ejected cottiers—clustering together, and breeding a pestilence. What kind of creatures men and women become, living in this dung-heap, what kind of children are reared here to go up into a generation, I have no words to paint."

Speaking of the exodus of the people from the province of Connaught, the Western Star, deprecating the idea of the total expulsion of the Celtic race, nevertheless makes the following confession, showing with what eagerness Irishmen make their escape from Ireland to enjoy peace and plenty in the United States :

"There is no doubt that in a few years more, if some stop is not put to the present outpouring of the people to America, and latterly to Australia, there will not be a million of the present race of inhabitants to be found within the compass of the four provinces. From the west,” it is added, “they are flying in hundreds.”

"No thoughts of the land of their birth," it continues, " seem to enter their minds, although the Irish people have been proverbial for their attachment to their country. The prospect of an abundant harvest has not the slightest effect in giving pause to their outward movement. The predominant, and, in fact, the only feeling that seems to pervade them, is an indescribable anxiety to get out of the country at all hazards. If war, famine, and pestilence were known to be close at hand, there could not be greater avidity

shown to fly from their houses than is every day exhibited by the hundreds who crowd our high roads and railways in their journey to the shipping ports."

And this view of the subject is confirmed by a writer in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1854, in which he in a graphic manner describes the scenes attending their departure from the land of their nativity as follows:

"When a number are about to leave, the whole village—the old (above sixty) against whose free immigration the passenger laws of some of the States interpose impediments; the well-to-do, who have no need to depart; the beggar, whose filthy shreds cannot be called a covering; the youngest children even,-gather in a tumultuous group about the car holding the smiling faces whose happy lot it is to leave forever their native land. With the wildest signs of grief for the departing, as if for the dead, with waving of hands, beating of the air, unearthly howls, tears, sobs, and hysterics, they press confusedly around the carriage, each one struggling for the last shake of the hand, the last kiss, the last glance, the last adieu. The only calm persons in this strange scene are the subjects of it all, to whom this moment is the consummation of long hopes and many dreams, who have talked of it and sang of it (for the songs of the peasantry now dwell upon it), till it has become a reality. Before going on board the ship at Liverpool they are subjected to a strict inspection by the medical authorities, and the same persons examine the medicine chests to see that the vessel is properly secured against maladies. They are then put on board the first vessel of the line sailing after their arrival; and we have the authority of Mr. Hale for saying, that they sometimes cross and land without knowing her name. When on board they are assigned to certain berths, their chests are hauled into the little compartments opening on the deck, in which their berths are situated; they are furnished with cooking places for the preparation of the stores which they take in addition to the ship's rations, the messes are made up for the voyage, the pilot takes the ship below the bar, search is made for stowaways, the pilot leaves, taking with him all secreted persons whom the search exposes, and the waters of the Irish Channel are breaking against the bows. There is even less sentiment in this parting than in the former; little of the regret so natural in leaving for the land of nativity. That comes later, when, in full employment, with plenty of money, à clean, comfortable room, a tidy wife, children at school, and the old folk and brothers and sisters brought out, Pat tells the Yankees what a jewel of a land he has left behind, and wishes (the rogue) that he may just lay his old bones once more there before he dies. There is no such feeling when the ship sails—not a wet eye, not a sigh, not a regret-all is buoyant hope and happiness."

Of the Germans, the same writer speaks thus:

"They take leave of their country with a little more sentiment than the Irish, but yet without sorrow. The legends of forests which yield them no bread, and of mountains from whose vineyards no wine is pressed for their lips, the memories of the grass-grown streets and decayed fountains of Augsburg, the departed greatness of Nuremberg

'Quaint old town of toil and traffic,
Quaint old town of art and song;'-

the dull magnificence of Berlin, the Anglified elegance of Dresden, the small-beer architecture of Munich, even the national waters of the wide and winding Rhine,' and the old Germanic glories of Cologne, are little to them at the moment of leaving for the land of plenty. The same want of capital, and of an active, energetic middle class, to stimulate industry and make a division of labor, which has produced in Ireland the voluntary immigration of its best laborers, is causing the same results in the centre of Europe."

CHAPTER III.

PECUNIARY ADVANTAGE OF IMMIGRATION.

WITHIN the last year past a labored effort has been made to satisfy the public that a large amount of property is brought into the country by foreign immigrants, and that, independent of their labor, they contribute largely to the wealth of the States. This is, however, an argument more specious than it will probably, upon a close examination, be found sound. It is, of course, impossible to ascertain within even an approximation of accuracy, what amount of personal property is thus brought into the country. According to a statement in Hübner's Jahrbücher, the immi grants registered in Berlin in 1851, being 5,018 in number, took with them property amounting in the aggregate to $323,250, which apportioned equally among them would have been between $64 and $65 for each. But this can by no means be regarded as a fair basis to rest a calculation upon. Since Castle Garden, in New York city, has been made a depot for the immigrants, an attempt has been made, by the Commissioners of Immigration, to learn from each immigrant landing the extent of his pecuniary means, and the information thus received is paraded before the public by certain New York journals as evidence of the amount of wealth these immigrants add to the country. On classifying the passengers, the information thus derived from them would seem to confirm what has long been regarded as a fact, and no doubt is so, and that is, that the Germans are best off, and bring the largest amount of property with them. Their confessed means are said to average $60 per man, woman and child, while the Irish are said to bring an average of $30 each with them. During the month of August, 1855, the first seventeen days of it 4,318 passengers were landed at the Garden, including 148 who had visited Europe and returned, and they are reported by the Commissioners to have brought with them the aggregate sum of $293,469 47, being an average of $67 97 for every man, woman and child landed at the depot. Although this report may in this instance be correct, a fact which is by no means certain,

it can still not be regarded as any fair criterion to estimate the amount of capital brought into the country by immigration during the last ten years past. It is not reasonable nor likely that each immigrant from Ireland had, on arriving here, $60 or even $30 in his pocket, of all those whom starvation during the famine in that country induced to migrate hither. The time was when many considered themselves lucky to have means enough to pay their passage, and arrive here with a half dozen British pennies in their pockets. It is true, Ireland is more prosperous now, and the immigration may embrace a class who are, generally, not without some means; but it is very doubtful whether they average $30 per head.

It would be probably a much safer and more accurate calculation, to assume for its basis, that the average amount of property brought by each immigrant during the last ten years past, was $15. Bishop Hughes himself claims no larger amount; for but a short time since he averred in the Freeman's Journal that to be the sum. Taking that, then, as the amount, and what is the aggregate sum that has been brought into the country by them from the beginning of 1850 to the close of 1854? During that period 1,983,882 persons are reported by the State Department at Washington to have arrived, which at the rate of $15 per head, would make the sum of $29,758,220. Now, to arrive at a correct conclusion, and ascertain whether there is a balance in favor or against the country, let us take an account of the other side of the question and strike a balance sheet. By the general report of the British Immigration Commissioners, made on the first of May last, the amounts remitted from this country, by bankers and merchants, to Ireland alone, during the same period, was as follows: in 1850, £957,000; in '51, £990,000; in '52, £1,404,000; in '53, £1,439,000; and in '54, £1,730,000-making an aggregate in the five years of £6,520,000, which, when converted into our currency, sums up $28,948,800. We have thus a balance left in favor of this country of less than $1,000,000, without taking into account the amounts sent to Ireland through private sources, which cannot be ascertained, and without counting a dollar of the large amount remitted by the Germans and immigrants from other countries for like purposes. It is clear, therefore, and requires no further demonstration by figures, that immigrants do not, by the property they bring with them, add to our national wealth, but that, on the contrary, they contribute to swell the coffers of the countries of their birth, by remitting a larger amount of money than they bring with them.

But we are not yet done with the reckoning. The case has not been much more than half stated. We have ascertained, provided our premises be correct, (and the Freeman's Journal is our authority for assuming $15 to be the sum brought by each,) the amount brought into the country by

immigration, and, we think, satisfactorily shown, that, instead of one dollar of it being contributed to the common fund of the nation, they have remitted all and more to the countries from whence they migrated. Having contributed nothing to the aggregate wealth of the country, what claim then have they to its charitable consideration? And yet, whose means but the natives of this country and those now identified with them, feeds their paupers and educates their children? And how much of the public expenses is incurred by the crimes committed by the vicious portions of them, which has to be borne also by those among whom they have sought a home? These are questions yet to be taken into consideration before the balance sheet can properly be closed, and, when they are, they will be found to put at rest the claim now preferred in favor of immigration. A brief examination of the pauperism in the United States, the crimes committed, and the expenses incurred thereby, will show a heavy balance against immigration and in favor of the natives.

CHAPTER IV.

PAUPERISM.

THE published Census returns of 1850, are lamentably deficient in detailed information on the subject of paupers and convicts. We learn from it, however, that the amount of public means expended, within the year preceding 1850, for the support of paupers, was two millions, nine hundred and fifty-four thousand, eight hundred and six dollars; and the number of paupers supported within the same year, in whole or part, was one hundred and thirty-four thousand, nine hundred and seventytwo, of which number over one-half were foreigners, there being sixtysix thousand, four hundred and thirty-four native born, and sixty-eight thousand, five hundred and thirty-eight of foreign birth. It thus appears that of the 2,244,625 foreign born population in the United States, at that time, one of at least every thirty-three was a pauper, supported at the public expense, while of the 19,979,563 native born, including the free colored and those returned as of unknown birth, only one of every three hundred was thus a charge on the public.

Of the amount expended, and the number supported the year mentioned, there was expended in the free States $2,451,917 in the support of 113,712 persons, of whom 50,023 were natives, and 63,689 were foreigners; while in the slave States there was expended $502,889 in the support of 21,260, of whom but 4,849 were foreigners.

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