as remitted in prepaid passages to
Liverpool, Glasgow, and Londonderry, L332,638; more than was sufficient
to pay the passage money for all who emigrated that year! Imperfect as
our accounts are," continue the Commissioners, "they show that, in the
twenty three years from 1848 to 1870 inclusive, there has been sent home
from North America, through banks and commercial houses, upwards of
L16,334,000. Of what has been sent home through private channels we have
no account."[302]

A public writer, reviewing the Commissioners' Report, says: "Even this
vast sum does not represent more than the one half of the total sent
home. Much was brought over by captains of ships, by relatives, friends,
or by returning emigrants." No doubt, a great deal of money came through
private channels, but it is hardly credible, that another sixteen or
seventeen millions reached Ireland in that way. It is only guess-work,
to be sure, but if we add one-fourth to the sum named in the Report, as
the amount transmitted by private hand, it will probably bring us much
nearer the truth. This addition gives us, in all, L20,417,500.

There, then, is the one more testimony, that the Irish race lack neither
industry nor perseverance. For the lengthened period of three and twenty
years, something like L1,000,000 a-year have been transmitted to their
relatives and friends by the Irish in America. In three and twenty
years, they have sent home over TWENTY MILLIONS OF MONEY. Examine it;
weigh it; study it; in whatever way we look at this astounding
fact--whether we regard the magnitude of the sum, or the intense,
undying, all-pervading affection which it represents--it STANDS ALONE IN
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

FOOTNOTES:

[269] Census of Ireland for the decade of years ending 1851. Tables of
deaths, vol. I, p. 277. Quotation from _Dublin Quarterly Medical
Journal_.

[270] See "Census of Ireland, from 1841 to 1851." Tables of Deaths, vol.
1, p. 296.

[271] Dr. H. Kennedy, in _Dublin Quarterly Journal_.

[272] Census Returns.

[273] Those admissions increased to 110,381 in 1848.

[274] The percentage of deaths in the cholera, which succeeded to this
fever in 1849, was forty-two one-fifth.

[275] Census of Ireland for the year 1851. Report on tables of deaths.

[276] Report of Commissioners of Health.

[277] It is pleasant to know that the settlement at Peterborough has
continued to flourish, as the following extract from the late John F.
Maguire's