The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
London considered by the Irish as an Infidel City, in which, without Loss of Character, they may live in the Neglect of all Religious Observances.
Others of the Irish immigrants regard London as an Infidel city, in which they may do what they please without reproach or damage to their character, and immediately on their arrival they throw off all restraint, and at once disregard their chapel and all the requirements of their religion. They even without scruple eat meat on Fridays, the same as on other days. Both these, and those before mentioned, in a short period have ordinarily arrived at the same point of all but Infidelity, and by the time they have become Irish Cockneys, no term is too bad to describe their character and habits. They run into every evil, become inmates of our gaols, and constitute a considerable part of our criminal population. These Cockneys are probably about a third of the Irish of London, and the Grecians constitute the remain- ing two-thirds. It is painful to reflect on what these two- thirds will almost inevitably become, at least those of them who remain in London, unless they are arrested in their downward course by religious instruction. Mr. Mayhew's remark on the comparative badness of Irish and English, when Irish have been here long enough, is correct. " I may here observe-in reference to the statement that Irish parents will not expose their daughters to the risk of what they consider corrupt influences-that when a young Irishwoman | |
313 | does break through the pale of chastity, she often becomes, as I was assured, one of the most violent and depraved of, perhaps, the most depraved class." [1] |
Footnotes: [1] " London Labour and the London Poor," vol. i., p. 109. |