OFTEN an Irish immigrant, whose object is to 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 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 or days' necessary stay in London, they are provided for at the agent's expense, and no trouble is experienced by the travellers. A large provisionmerchant in the city told me that he often, during the season, had as many as Irish consigned to him by 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 Rosemarylane; 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 kinds— clean and dirty. The better class of Irish lodging-houses almost startle by the comfort and cleanliness of the rooms; for after the 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 somehow expect to find all the accommodations disgusting and unwholesome. But in particular, that I visited, had the floor clean, and sprinkled with red sand, while the windows 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 corner of the principal apartment there stood or 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 kneebreeches, that had somewhat the effect of a footman's livery, told me that he had received lodgers the day before, but 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 wonderfully 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 newlywashed and well-patched clothes of the immigrants hanging to it, and on a side-table were the yellow basins that had been used for the men's breakfasts. During my visit, the neighbours, having observed a strange gentleman enter, came pouring in, each proferring some fresh bit of news about their newlyarrived countrymen. I was nearly stunned by half-a-dozen voices speaking together, and telling me how the poor people had been 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 of the worst class of lodging-houses I found human beings living together in a small room. The apartment was entirely devoid of all furniture, excepting an old mattrass rolled up against the wall, and a dirty piece of cloth hung across corner, to screen the women whilst dressing. An old man, the father of out of the , was seated on a tea-chest, mending shoes, and the other men were looking on with their hands in their pockets. 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 'rigisthration-ticket,' or he'd have got a berruth long since, and that it was all for 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, -. This cannot be better shown than by citing the returns of the number of persons admitted into the Asylum for the Houseless Poor, in Playhouse-yard, Cripplegate. These returns I obtained for years, and the average number of admissions of the applicants from all parts during that time was yearly. Of these, the Irish averaged yearly, or considerably more than a of the whole number received. The total number of applicants thus sheltered in the years was , of which the Irish numbered . The smallest number of Irish (men, women, and children) admitted, was in -, about ; in -, it was as many as , while in -, it was , and in -, .

But it was into Liverpool that the tide of immigration flowed the strongest, in the calamitous year of the famine. "Between the Jan, and the , both inclusive," writes Mr. Rushton, the Liverpool magistrate, to Sir G. Grey, on the last, " persons landed in this port (Liverpool) from Ireland. Of this vast number, about emigrated to the United States; some were passengers on business; and the remainder (), 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 Roman Catholic and 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 — 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 cabbageleaves 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 subsequently, 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 dishonest.

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 comparatively small, on account of the greater length and cost of the voyage. During the last year I am informed that or passengers were brought from Ireland to London direct, and, in addition to these, more were brought over from Cork in connection with the arrangements for emigration to the United States, and consigned to the emigration agent here. Of the (taking the mean between the numbers above given) emigrated to the United States. It appears,