[53] These Irish labourers who annually come to England, by way of Liverpool, to help to gather in the harvest, and return to Ireland after it is over, are included in this number. They are variously estimated at from 10,000 to 30,000.
[54] 5000 Irish paupers were relieved in Manchester in the last week in February, and for several weeks following there were more than 4000 on an average receiving outdoor, and from 600 to 700 in-door, relief. This was independent of the adjoining districts of Salford and Chorlton, where great numbers of Irish were also relieved. Nearly 90,000 destitute and disabled Irish, including women and children, were reported to have received parochial relief in Scotland at a total expense of about 34,000ℓ.; but as the same persons were frequently relieved in more than one parish, and were therefore returned by more than one Inspector, the number of persons of this description newly arrived in Scotland is not so great as that above stated.
[55] The details of the frightful mortality connected with the great emigration of 1847 from Ireland to Canada, are as follows:—
Whole number of British emigrants embarked 89,738
| Died on the passage | 5,293 |
| at the quarantine station | 3,452 |
| at the Quebec Emigrant Hospital | 1,041 |
| at the Montreal ditto | 3,579 |
| at Kingston and Toronto | 1,965 |
| 15,330 |
showing a mortality of rather more than 17 per cent. on the number embarked. One-third of those who arrived in Canada were received into hospital.
The people of Canada deserve great praise for the spirited and benevolent exertions made by them to meet the exigencies of this disastrous emigration, which is described as having “left traces of death and misery along its course, from the Quarantine Establishment at Grosse Isle to the most distant parts of Upper Canada, cutting down in its progress numbers of estimable citizens.” Besides the larger hospital establishments, twenty-four Boards of Health were formed in Upper Canada. Numerous deaths also took place among the emigrants to New Brunswick. The ships containing the German emigrants, and two ships fitted out by the Duke of Sutherland from Sutherlandshire, arrived in Canada in a perfectly healthy state.
[56] Settlers in the backwoods must have the means of support from twelve to fifteen months after their arrival, and this cannot be accomplished for less than 60ℓ., at the lowest estimate, for each family consisting of a man, his wife, and three children, or equal to 3½ adults on an average.
[57] The repayment of these advances, which amount altogether to £1,145,800, has not yet been pressed, out of consideration for the circumstances of the country.
[58] An Act to make further provision for the Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland, 10 Vic. cap. 31—[Passed 8th June, 1847.]