way the poor emigrants who
had come to Liverpool from all parts to go by the ship were treated, was
most shameful.

He told me that, in the first place, they were attracted there by
advertisements long before the ship was ready for sea, partly that the
ship-brokers might make certain of having the ship filled, and not a
little for the benefit of the inns and lodging-house keepers. As soon
as they arrived--most of them absurdly ignorant of what was to be done,
and of the necessaries required for the voyage--they were pounced upon
by a set of harpies, who misled them in every possible way, and fleeced
them without mercy. There existed--and, I am sorry to say, exist to the
present day--a regular gang of these wretches, by profession
lodging-house keepers, ship-chandlers, outfitters, and provision
merchants. So notorious have they become, that they now go by the name
of the Forty Thieves, for to that number amount the worthy fraternity.

Silas Flint took me round to a number of our intended fellow-voyagers;
and we found them loud in their complaints of the treatment they had
received, though, when he had discovered them, he had been able to
preserve them from much further expense by describing the character of
the country to which they were going, and the things they would most
require. Among them were a great many of my countrymen. They were
generally the most forlorn and heartbroken, though they had indeed
little to leave behind; but then the slightest incident would make them
forget their grief, and clap their hands with shouts of laughter.

The sorrow of the English was less loud; but it took much more, I
observed, to make them smile. They were better dressed, and seemed to
have made more provision for the voyage. They had also been
proportionably more fleeced by the Forty Thieves. When so many of our
poor countrymen are leaving our shores annually to lands where they can
procure work and food, we should have a far better supervision and a
more organised system of emigration than now exists. And again I say to
my young countrymen, when you grow up, make it your business to inquire
into the subject; inquire with your own eyes, remember; do not trust to
what is told you; and if you do not find such a system established,
strive with heart and hand, and weary not till you have established it;
at all events, correct the abuses which too probably by that time will
have sprung up. You will all have the power of aid