a vast and increasing amount of employment to Irish mechanics and labourers. The shipping of Quebec and New York gives employment to another class. Of the cartmen, porters, and warehousemen also, a large proportion are Irish. But there is this feature in employment in America, which is wanting in Great Britain and Ireland, namely, its progressive character. The porter of to-day, whose only capital is a stout rope, or a strong leather strap, will, before long, become the owner of a barrow. In due time his barrow is exchanged for a horse and cart. After a while, he is enabled to purchase a second horse and cart, and becomes a master carter. His progress is now rapid; he has more leisure on his hands; he devotes a portion of his time to public matters; he aspires to municipal office, is chosen, and thus forms a part of the system of self-government which has now for upwards of half a century been in successful operation in the United States of America.

Men who start from a higher point, as regards intelligence and skill, have fewer difficulties to struggle against. Mechanical skill especially, is not merely highly rewarded, but new roads to advancement are continually opening to it. The steam-boat -the canal-the railroad-are all steps to fortune, in a country where hands are seldom supplied to the full extent required. It cannot be deemed out of place here to mention that Andrew Jackson, the late President of the United States, was the son of an Irish emigrant, and was born either just before his parents left Ireland, or just after their arrival in the then Colonies.

The reader will now be prepared to learn, that in New York, Quebec, and Montreal, the Irish are a very influential body. In New York especially, it is actually a grave subject of complaint with one political party, that "the Irish govern the city, and rule the elections." Let it be remembered, that this complaint is made in a city where the majority only can prevail; so that it stands as evidence of numerical power, which, in such a case, is legitimate power. It is a standing joke in that city, that an Irishman, being asked how he intended to vote, and not having gotten rid of his old country associations, exclaimed, "against the government, any how." It so happens, however, that the Irish in America for the most part vote with the government; that is, with the democratic or popular party, and against the federal or privilege-craving class. Now, in New York city, this class, though in a minority, is very numerous. At the elections, it is prone to put in practice the arts of intimidation, so common in this country; but, as the voter has the protection of the ballot, the popular party has always prevailed. It is by this wealthy class, that the complaints to which we have already alluded are usually put forward; and as the New York press is for

the most part under their controul, by means of their mercantile advertising patronage, it is not at all wonderful that our commercial connexions make us more acquainted with these complaints than with the explanation thereof. There are thirteen or fourteen daily papers in New York, of which the democratic party is only able to support two, namely, the Evening Post and the Times, so that, in nearly all cases, our views of American affairs are seen through a false medium.

Miss Martineau, in her able and courageous account of the state of society in the United States, exposes most completely the character of the wealthy privilege-desiring class, and, among other things, explains that most of the outrageous Lynch law mobs are composed of gentlemen. From personal knowledge, we can bear testimony to the truth of the statement, in a sufficient number of cases to warrant its being received as the general rule. During the election of 1832, for instance, the class in question strained every nerve, but without success, to defeat every candidate for office who was in favour of the Jackson or democratic party; it was an important point with them to create a fear of the operation of democracy-to make the people, in short, afraid of the people. Among the means resorted to, was that of closing all places of business,-warehouses, stores, shops, &c. The effect was, that the whole population was turned, in an excited state, into the streets. In the course of the election, all sorts of petty jealousies were fomented between the Irish and native American population, and some fights took place. Hereupon loud were the complaints of the "turbulence of the people," "the undue influence of the Irish," and so forth. But the majesty of the law prevailed. The authorities were enabled generally to keep order, and the grand object of the "Bank, or Whig party," as they are called, was defeated.

Every now and then, some of the choice spirits of the " great Atlantic city," amuse themselves, when tired of wantonly assaulting the coloured people, (their more constant pastime) by attacking the Irish. As Irishmen never were in the habit of quietly presenting a second cheek when the first had been smote, the result invariably is-blows in return. Occasionally it may be, Pat does venture beyond the mere line of defence, and handsomely punishes his aggressors. Now, however strange it may appear, your genuine gentlemen mobs never can take (they cannot even give) a sound beating quietly. The day after said beating, their papers are filled with the disinterested and sympathetic bewailings of the advertisement-bribed editors, whose

*The Democratic Party is stigmatized as the "Tory" party, because it is possessed of the government; the privilege-hunting party is called Whig.

eloquence is perchance farther excited, by a broken sconce falling to the share of one of their honourable and dignified corps. Think of such respectables being soundly drubbed by a parcel of vulgar mechanics and labourers! Verily," the Irish must be put down;" they must be "taxed;" "doors must be shut upon them;" they must be "declared contraband,”—or fair New York will speedily become an Irish city.

The following account of one of these attacks upon the Irish is from a recent number of the New York Times, a well-conducted democratic paper :

"On Tuesday night a riot occurred at the corner of Mott and Walker streets. From affidavits made at the police office, it appears that a number of persons resolved to amuse themselves by an attack on "the b-dy Irish." They accordingly commenced operations by attacking a house in the above neighbourhood. The inmates armed themselves with pokers, tongs, &c., and quickly repulsed the assailants. A party of watchmen, hearing of the affray, proceeded to the spot. The Irish, supposing the assailants were returning in greater numbers, by mistake rushed upon the watchmen, by whom a number were taken prisoners. The magistrates have expressed their decided opinion, that the Irish were not the assailants, and that the attack was wanton and unprovoked. Notwithstanding, the Commercial insists on knowing best, and serves up the Irish as if they were so many strawberries, a mouthful each."

The Evening Star, too, a paper of the anti-democratic and pro tanto anti-Irish paper, admits that the Irish were aggrieved, and even speaks of these attacks as a common practice.

"Some of our rowdies (says the Star) last night, in their shameful practice of attacking the Irish, made an assault on two Americans in mistake, one of whom, a gentleman from Poughkeepsie, they shamefully beat; the other escaped in a house near by in the Bowery."

We shall pass over the cowardly attacks which have been made by the fanatical convent-burners of Boston on the Irish of that city, because they were "religious" attacks, and moreover, throw no light on the subject-matter of this article. Suffice it to say, that the warm attachment of the Irish to popular rights -to political and religious freedom-has caused them to identify themselves with the system of government which prevails in their adopted country, and this alone is enough to unite them in brotherly amity with the mass of the people, in common cause against the remnants of the federal party.

In Canada, in like manner, we find them acting with the majority, and the House of Assembly, against the local oligarchy,

The Commercial is a paper of the anti-democratic or Whig (Anglicè, Tory) party.

and especially against the coercive resolutions of the British Government. The infamous Orange societies of Ireland have, we are sorry to say, also found their way across the Atlantic, and have taken root in the upper province, under the auspices of a Mr. Ogle Gowan, a person of disreputable character, who is stated, in the evidence on Orange Lodges, collected by a Committee of the House of Commons, to have been discountenanced by the parent society, on account of his tarnished reputation. However, such societies must die away before the influence of adverse opinion, and even now they are seldom heard of, except during a contested election, where the local government finds them useful.

Before we leave the Irish of the towns, and follow those of the country, we must give another piece of evidence exhibiting the Irish character, under its new developement, in a favourable light. The document to which we allude, is a jail return, comprising the prisons of three States, namely, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It is as follows:

We regret that we have not a classified statement of the offences for which these one hundred and fifty persons suffered punishment. The following piece of testimony on the subject, however, from a New York paper of neutral politics, called the Journal of Commerce, says much in favour of the Irish in America:

"You will scarcely ever find an Irishman dabbling in counterfeit money, or breaking into houses, or stealing, or swindling: but if there is any fighting to be done, he is very apt to have a hand in it. Our reporter, who attends the Police and Sessions' Courts-himself an Irishman-has frequently noticed this fact."

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And even this fighting is the result of some sudden excitement. A Montreal paper observes on this same point:-" Although Pat may occasionally meet with a friend and for love knock him down,' there is, it must be allowed, but little malice prepense' in his whole composition."

Distress is too frequently the parent of crime. In old and thickly-peopled countries, where the number of the competitors for employment have a perpetual tendency to exceed the means of employing them, it is not surprising that the frightful misery which ensues should drive men to the commission of acts of delinquency, which, under other circumstances, they would avoid. The father of a starving family, who steals a loaf of bread to allay the cravings of his half-famished children, can scarcely be deemed a criminal; and although society, for its own protection, may visit such acts with punishment, that punishment is of the exemplary, not of the vindictive kind. It is intended to be motive-creating; and although the legislator cannot, the philanthropist must, draw a marked line between the offences which spring from necessity and those which spring from vicious habit. A single crime does not make an habitual criminal. A man who forms a single project, is not a projector in the ordinary sense of the word,* neither does any man think of stigmatizing as a drunkard him who is once "overtaken” over a social board. We need not multiply illustrations. We have always felt convinced of the truth of the proposition which Mr. Bulwer's novel of Paul Clifford seems to have been designed to illustrate,namely, that "Man is the creature of circumstances;" but had we entertained a doubt on the subject, the absence of crime among the Irish in America would have generated the opinion.

When it is considered that a long course of misery might be presumed, without direct evidence of the fact, to operate unfavourably on the character of the people of the "old country" generally, and that the mass of the hired labourers of the State of New York are Irish, the force of the new circumstances in the midst of which they are placed, as shown in the small amount of crime, and improved habits generally, is truly surprising. "It is a pleasing record," says the New York Courier and Enquirer, "in favour of the sons of the Emerald Isle."