The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
The better Class of Poor emigrate from Ireland to America, and the worst Class to London.
In the days of , it was customary to divide the Irish into three classes, " the Irish, the wild Irish, and the extreme wild Irish." The first of these | |
301 | divisions comprised the respectable and higher classes; the second, the poor inhabiting the towns and valleys; and the third, the inhabitants of remote country parts, and more especially of the bogs and mountains. The same divisions may be made in the days of Queen Victoria as in the days of. And the class of Irish with which we are most familiar in the courts and alleys of London, are by no means the most favourable specimens of the nation. We are the nearest country to which to emigrate from , and the Irish who have imbibed the common spirit for emigration, which is now so general there, but who can afford to emigrate nowhere else, come over to us as the nearest and the cheapest port. We therefore get the poorest of the people, almost all of whom come from country parts, and not from the large towns. It is also to be remembered, that the favourite country for emigrating to with the Irish is . Very few Irish leave their native land but with the intention of settling there. They intend their resort here to be only a step towards the accomplishment of that end. They know England, and especially London, to be a place where wages are high, as compared with what they can earn at home; and when they hear that Cardinal Wiseman opened an office for the transaction of business with the Irish, and with the Roman Catholics in general, on his arrival in London, in , , and that a large colony of their own poor fellow-countrymen reside in they believe the very names denote the wealth which there abounds. As an Irishman recently said to a party who visited him, " Well, I thought I should never here have a day's want. I thought money was almost to be picked up in the streets." They do not regard England with any fondness, excepting that they generally consider the English as honest, although heretics, who will keep their word, and pay them what they agree for. |
302 | They generally simply desire to come, in order to obtain money to get over to . The greater number succeed in their object, and gain enough here to carry them over, living in the interim in a manner, in order to save, which the English would consider an especial hardship. Some few of those who came over have already, by the recent efforts in , been converted to the Protestant faith. And it is most encouraging to know what large numbers of them become Protestants on their arrival in , where they can change their faith without being exposed to those annoyances and persecutions which invariably accompany such a step in their own land. Such a circumstance shows, however, how hopefully we might engage in efforts to convert them in this country. The following extract is from the pen of an Irish priest, named Mullen, and was lately inserted in the newspaper called the " Freeman: "- |
"Is there to be no voice raised, no hope held out, that will keep the people at home, and thus save millions from spiritual destruction ? I say millions ! Here are my facts:- | |
"The present population of the United States is about 15,000,000, and of these the Catholic Church claims only 1,980,000. From the year to , 1,250,000 left , 1,000,000 of whom came to ; the propor- tion of Catholics amongst these may be fairly estimated at 800,000. Since that period to the present the numbers who emigrated here from at the lowest calculation were 1,500,000; and taking the Catholics as above, we will have in 9 years 1,200,000. A large number (say half a million) came from Germany, some from , , , and other countries, during the last 10 years, half of whom were Catholics-say 250,000. Twelve years ago had a Catholic population (according to Dr. England,) of 1,200,000. Calculating the increase of this number by births at the very small number of 500,000, and | |
303 | adding, for converts in the larger cities and towns, 20,000, we will have the following total: |
Catholic emigrants from the year to . 800,000 Catholic emigrants from to . . 1,200,000 Catholic emigrants from other countries . . 250,000 American Catholic population 12 years ago . 1,200,000 Increase by births since . . . . 500,000 Number of converts . . . . . 20,000 Number who ought to be Catholics . . . 3,970,000 Number who are Catholics . . . . 1,980,000 NUMBER LOST TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH . 1,990,000 SAY, IN ROUND NUMBERS, TWO MILLIONS." | |
But is it not a reproach to London, that so few of the Irish who have immigrated here in recent years should have become Protestants, while millions have done so there? And is it not a still greater reproach to us, that while Popery bewails the loss of her sons and daughters to Protestantism in , it adds its lamentation on their loss, when they immigrate here, to "the moral turpitude of England [which] as a leprosy, spreads its vicious infection over others whose innocence and poverty expose them to its unholy influence ?" [1] | |
Footnotes: [1] "The Lamp." |
