the same virtues. It is the commencement, and yet some thing more than the commencement; it may be called 'half the battle,' for the rest depends on perseverance in the same course. The house may be rude in construction, mean in appearance, miserable in accommodation, but it is a house, in which the owner and his family can live rent-free, for it is their property—'their own.' With sufficient front and sufficient depth, what is there to prevent the owner, in time, from covering the space with a fine brick house, with its attractive shop, and as many stories as he pleases to raise? Once possess the 'lot' in the town, and the rest is comparatively easy. Every year adds to its value; and if the owner cannot build a good house on it, some one else may, and the owner receives in either case an ample return for his investment. But in thousands of instances throughout America, the Irish, even of the very humblest class, possess lots on which they have erected dwelling-houses which they themselves occupy; and in every city one may daily behold a happy transformation in the character of the dwelling, wherever industry is combined with thrift and frugality. The structure of timber is replaced by a building of brick; and so the family, it may be of the mechanic, it may be of the labourer, move up in the social scale; and the superior education which their children receive enables them to improve the position their father had acquired by his good conduct and good sense. That 'lot' is a wonderful friend to the Irish in America, and this the wise of them know full well.
The majority of those who now constitute the strength of the Catholic element in Halifax came without funds or friends, some literally without a shilling in their pocket; but with honesty, intelligence, and a determination to work. From the humblest occupations, natural to their first efforts in a strange place, many of the Irish in Halifax have risen to wealth and influence. Industry and good conduct—these their all, their sword and buckler,
