n of the liberty which is enjoyed in the country
which they have left; that they have severed themselves from their
friends to live amongst those with whom they do not like to associate;
that they must now labour with their own hands, instead of employing
others; and that the competence they expected, if it is to be obtained,
must be so by a sacrifice of those principles of honesty and
fair-dealing imbibed in their youth, adhered to in their manhood, but
which now that they have transplanted themselves, are gradually,
although unwillingly, yielded up to the circumstances of their position.

I was once conversing with an Irishman; he was not very well pleased
with his change; I laughed at him, and said, "But here you are free,
Paddy."--"Free?" replied he, "and pray who the devil was to buy or sell
me when I was in Ireland? Free! och! that's all talk; you're free to
work as hard as a horse, and get but little for so doing."

The German emigrants are by far the most contented and well-behaved.
They trouble themselves less about politics, associate with one another
as much as possible, and when they take a farm, always, if they possibly
can, get it in the neighbourhood of their own countrymen.

The emigrants most troublesome, but, at the same time, the most valuable
to the United States, are the Irish. Without this class of people the
Americans would not have been able to complete the canals and
rail-roads, and many other important works. They are, in fact, the
principal labourers of the country, for the poor Germans who come out
prefer being employed in any other way than in agriculture, until they
amass sufficient to obtain farms of their own. As for the Irish, there
are not many of them who possess land in the United States, the major
portion of them remain labourers, and die very little better off than
when they went out. Some of them set up groceries (these are the most
calculating and intelligent,)--and by allowing their countrymen to run
in debt for liquor, etcetera, they obtain control over them, and make
contracts with the government agents, or other speculators (very
advantageous to themselves,) to supply so many men for public works; by
these means a few acquire a great deal of money, while the many remain
in comparative indigence.

We have been accustomed to ascribe the turbulence of the Irish lower
classes to ill-treatment and a sense of their wrongs, but this
disposition appears to follow them every wh