Page:Irish In America.djvu/220

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198
THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

companies have their own business done by their own clerks, without the intervention of passage-brokers, &c. This class has thrown great difficulties in the way of the proper development of affairs in Castle Garden, by constituting a noisy crowd outside the gates, whose behaviour is utterly lawless, and endangers the personal safety, not only of the passengers who have to leave the Castle Garden to transact business in the city, but also the employees of the Landing Depdt, and of individual Commissioners of Emigra tion, who are continually insulted in the public grounds surrounding the dep6t. and have been obliged to carry loaded fire-arms in self- defence against the violence which has frequently been offered to them. The Grand Inquest, after administering some hard hits to the local authorities, for the culpable remissness of the police in preventing the disorders which they describe, thus conclude : Having become satisfied that the Emigrant Landing Dep6t, in all its operations, is a blessing, not only to emigrants, but to the commu nity at large, they would feel remiss in the performance of a sacred duty if they failed to recommend this important philanthropic estab lishment to the fostering care of the municipal authorities ; and they had dismissed the complaints preferred against certain employers of the Castle Garden, satisfied that they are not sustained by law, and have their origin in a design to disturb, rather than to further, the good work for which the establishment has been called into life by an Act of Legislature of April 1855. 1 This triumphant vindication of an institution which is to none more important than to the Irish who seek a home in America, bears the signature Howell Hoppock, Fore man of Grand Jury. With a full knowledge of the evils with which the Commissioners of Emigration had to contend, we shall be better able to appreciate the leading features of the system pursued at Castle Garden, and how far it realises the in tentions of its benevolent founders. The emigrant ship* drops her anchor in the North River,

  • It will be seen from the following passage from the report of 1866 published

in 1867 that steamers are fast driving emigrant sailing ships from the sea. Con sidering the shortness of the voyage, and the generally excellent nature of the