has been restrained at home. It is
not surprising that those who have been for life hoodwinked should fail
to see clearly for themselves in all cases; or that, falling upon
interested guides, they are occasionally led astray.

Wayward and wilful I will admit them sometimes to be, and in evil hands
their misdirected energies may for a time become the instruments of
evil. Mistaken in judgment they may often be, for such is the lot of
humanity, but regardless of right and justice they seldom are, and
ungrateful or ungenerous they cannot be. The evidence of their native
spirit of enterprise is found in their daily braving destitution in the
hope of bettering their hard lot. Their hatred of oppression is proved
by their ill-directed, but constant struggles for equal rights; and, if
kind-heartedness and charity cover a multitude of sins, no people on
earth can justly claim a larger stock. In illustration of which I will
present one proof out of the many I possess, because it will at once
serve as an illustration of my assertion, and gratify those who love to
contemplate the bright side of poor humanity.

The following statement was enclosed to me by an excellent Quaker, one
of the partners of the house from whose books the document is extracted,
with a letter which I need not insert here, but will add, that the
statement is incontrovertible.

"From the 1st of January 1834, to the 1st of May 1835, Abraham
Bell and Co. of New York have received from the working classes of
Irish emigrants, that is, from common labourers, farm servants,
chambermaids, waiters, &c. to remit to their friends and kindred in
Ireland, the sum of fifty-five thousand dollars, in amount varying
from five dollars upwards. The average amount of the whole number
of drafts sent is twenty-eight and a half dollars each."
New York, May, 19th, 1835.

There is not a part of the country to which I have wandered, where I did
not find that a like gentle recollection of the destitute left at home
prevailed. In every large city is some one or more Irish house, which
becomes the popular medium through which these offerings of the heart
are transmitted to the miserables at home. When it is reflected that the
donors are themselves the poorest of the poor, and that often at the
close of their first summer, they are found transmitting their earnings
to some mother, or aunt, or sister, without providing against or
thinking o