settle in London, arrives by the Cork steamer
without knowing a single friend to whom he
can apply for house-room or assistance of any
kind. Sometimes a whole family is landed late
at night, worn out by sickness and the terrible
fatigues of a three days' deck passage, almost
paralysed by exhaustion, and scarcely able to
speak English enough to inquire for shelter till
morning.
If the immigrants, however, are bound for
America, their lot is very different. Then they
are consigned to some agent in London, who
is always on the wharf at the time the steamer
arrives, and takes the strangers to the homes
he has prepared for them until the New York
packet starts. During the two or three days'
necessary stay in London, they are provided for
at the agent's expense, and no trouble is ex-
perienced by the travellers. A large provision-
merchant in the city told me that he often,
during the season, had as many as 500 Irish
consigned to him by one vessel, so that to
lead them to their lodgings was like walking at
the head of a regiment of recruits.
The necessities of the immigrants in London
have caused several of their countrymen to open
lodging-houses in the courts about Rosemary-
lane; these men attend the coming in of the
Cork steamer, and seek for customers among the
poorest of the poor, after the manner of touters
to a sea-side hotel.
The immigrants'-houses are of two kinds --
clean and dirty. The better class of Irish
lodging-houses almost startle one by the com-
fort and cleanliness of the rooms; for after the
Column 2
descriptions you hear of the state in which the
deck passengers are landed from the Irish boats,
their clothes stained with the manure of the
pigs, and drenched with the spray, you some-
how expect to find all the accommodations
disgusting and unwholesome. But one in
particular, that I visited, had the floor clean,
and sprinkled with red sand, while the win-
dows were sound, bright, and transparent.
The hobs of the large fire-place were piled
up with bright tin pots, and the chimney
piece was white and red with the china
images ranged upon it. In one corner of
the principal apartment there stood two or
three boxes still corded up, and with bundles
strung to the sides, and against the wall was
hung a bunch of blue cloaks, such as the
Irishwomen wear. The proprietor of the house,
who was dressed in a gray tail-coat and knee-
breeches, that had somewhat the effect of a foot-
man's livery, told me that he had received
seven lodgers the day before, but six were men,
and they were all out seeking for work. In
front of the fire sat a woman, bending over it so
close that the bright cotton gown she had on
smelt of scorching. Her feet were bare, and
she held the soles of them near to the bars,
curling her toes about with the heat. She was
a short, thick-set woman, with a pair of won-
derfully muscular arms crossed over her bosom,
and her loose rusty hair streaming over her
neck. It was in vain that I spoke to her
about her journey, for she wouldn't answer me,
but kept her round, open eyes fixed on my face
with a wild, nervous look, following me about
with them everywhere.
Across the room hung a line, with the newly-
washed and well-patched clothes of the immi-
grants hanging to it, and on a side-table were
the six yellow basins that had been used for
the men's breakfasts. During my visit, the
neighbours, having observed a strange gentle-
man enter, came pouring in, each proferring
some fresh bit of news about their newly-
arrived countrymen. I was nearly stunned by
half-a-dozen voices speaking together, and tell-
ing me how the poor people had been four days
"at say," so that they were glad to get near the
pigs for "warrumth," and instructing me as to
the best manner of laying out the sum of
money that it was supposed I was about to
shower down upon the immigrants.
In one of the worst class of lodging-houses I
found ten human beings living together in a
small room. The apartment was entirely de-
void of all furniture, excepting an old mattrass
rolled up against the wall, and a dirty piece of
cloth hung across one corner, to screen the
women whilst dressing. An old man, the father
of five out of the ten, was seated on a tea-chest,
mending shoes, and the other men were looking
on with their hands in their pockets. Two
girls and a woman were huddled together on
the floor in front of the fire, talking in Irish.
All these people seemed to be utterly devoid
of energy, and the men moved about so lazily
After I had left, the young fellow who had
acted as spokesman followed me into the street,
and taking me into a corner, told me that he
was a "sailor by thrade, but had lost his ` rigis-
thration-ticket,' or he'd have got a berruth long
since, and that it was all for 3s. 6d. he wasn't
at say."
Concerning the number of Irish immigrants,
I have obtained the following information:
The great influx of the Irish into London
was in the year of the famine, 1847-8. This
cannot be better shown than by citing the re-
turns of the number of persons admitted into
the Asylum for the Houseless Poor, in Play-
house-yard, Cripplegate. These returns I ob-
tained for fourteen years, and the average num-
ber of admissions of the applicants from all
parts during that time was 8,794 yearly. Of
these, the Irish averaged 2,455 yearly, or con-
siderably more than a fourth of the whole
number received. The total number of ap-
plicants thus sheltered in the fourteen years was
130,625, of which the Irish numbered 34,378.
The smallest number of Irish (men, women,
and children) admitted, was in 1834-5, about
300; in 1846-7, it was as many as 7,576, while
in 1847-8, it was 10,756, and in 1848-9, 5,068.
But it was into Liverpool that the tide of im-
migration flowed the strongest, in the calamitous
year of the famine. "Between the 13th Jan,
and the 13th Dec., both inclusive," writes Mr.
Rushton, the Liverpool magistrate, to Sir G.
Grey, on the 21st April last, "296,231 persons
landed in this port (Liverpool) from Ireland.
Of this vast number, about 130,000 emigrated to
Column 2
the United States; some 50,000 were passen-
gers on business; and the remainder (161,231),
mere paupers, half-naked and starving, landed,
for the most part, during the winter, and became,
immediately on landing, applicants for parochial
relief. You already know the immediate results
of this accumulation of misery in the crowded
town of Liverpool; of the cost of relief at once
rendered necessary to prevent the thousands of
hungry and naked Irish perishing in our streets;
and also of the cost of the pestilence which
generally follows in the train of famine and
misery such as we then had to encounter.....
Hundreds of patients perished, notwithstanding
all efforts made to save them; and ten Roman
Catholic and one Protestant clergyman, many
parochial officers, and many medical men, who
devoted themselves to the task of alleviating the
sufferings of the wretched, died in the discharge
of these high duties."
Great numbers of these people were, at the
same time, also conveyed from Ireland to Wales,
especially to Newport. They were brought over
by coal-vessels as a return cargo -- a living ballast
-- 2s. 6d. being the highest fare, and were huddled
together like pigs. The manager of the Newport
tramp-house has stated concerning these people,
"They don't live long, diseased as they are.
They are very remarkable; they will eat salt
by basons-full, and drink a great quantity of
water after. I have frequently known those
who could not have been hungry eat cabbage-
leaves and other refuse from the ash-heap."
It is necessary that I should thus briefly
allude to this matter, as there is no doubt that
some of these people, making their way to
London, soon became street-sellers there, and
many of them took to the business subse-
quently, when there was no employment in
harvesting, hop-picking, &c. Of the poor
wretches landed at Liverpool, many (Mr.
Rushton states) became beggars, and many
thieves. Many, there is no doubt, tramped
their way to London, sleeping at the "casual
wards" of the Unions on their way; but I believe
that of those who had become habituated to the
practice of beggary or theft, few or none would
follow the occupation of street-selling, as even
the half-passive industry of such a calling
would be irksome to the apathetic and dis-
honest.
Of the immigration, direct by the vessels
trading from Ireland to London, there are no
returns such has have been collected by Mr.
Rushton for Liverpool, but the influx is com-
paratively small, on account of the greater
length and cost of the voyage. During
the last year I am informed that 15,000 or
16,000 passengers were brought from Ireland
to London direct, and, in addition to these, 500
more were brought over from Cork in connec-
tion with the arrangements for emigration to the
United States, and consigned to the emigration
agent here. Of the 15,500 (taking the mean
between the two numbers above given) 1,000
emigrated to the United States. It appears,