The Irish race get but little credit for industry or
perseverance; but in this they are most unjustly maligned, as many
testimonies already cited from friend and foe, clearly demonstrate. If
one more be wanting, I would point to a fact in the history of the
worn-out remnant of our Famine-emigrants, who had tenacity of life
enough to survive their endless hardships and journeyings. That fact
is, the large sums of money which, year after year, they sent to their
friends--every penny of which they earned by the sweat of their brow--by
their industry and perseverance.
Thus write the Commissioners of Emigration, in their thirty-first
General Report: "In 1870, as in former years, the amount sent home was
large, being L727,408 from North America, and L12,804 from Australia and
New Zealand. Of this sum there was 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.
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