Another important department may be described as the letter or correspondence department, the value of which is becoming every year more fully appreciated, as well by emigrants as by their friends in America and at home. Suppose an emigrant, on arrival at New York, to be with out the means of proceeding inland, or disappointed in not receiving a communication from a friend or member of his or her family, a letter, announcing the person s arrival, and asking for assistance, is at once written by a clerk specially appointed for that purpose ; and in very many cases the appeal so made is promptly responded to, and the emigrant is thus enabled to proceed onwards. In the year 18G6, there were nearly 3,000 such letters written, stamped, and posted, free of all charge to the parties interested. Of these letters 2,516 were written in English, the balance in Ger man and other languages. The value of this admirable system may be shown by the fact, that the amount of money received in 1866, in reply to letters from the Land ing Depot for recently arrived emigrants, and applied to their forwarding, was $24,385. It is of the utmost consequence that attention should here be directed to what has been, and must ever be, a source of bitter disappointment, if not of the greatest affliction to individuals and families ; namely, the misdirec tion of letters; owing to the habit of not giving the full address, or the custom common with Irish women of the humbler class, of calling themselves by their maiden instead of their married names. It would be an act of great humanity on the part of those who are in a position to advise the emigrant, or the friends of the emigrant, whether at home or in America, to see that names are written accurately, and that addresses, especially American, are given fully that is, that the city, county, or State, should be mentioned ; and lastly, that the envelope, which bears the post mark on it, should be retained as well as the letter. An instance or two in point, and which I select
