The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-26 00:00:00

TER IP. we believe, cosaected by pmpetty with one
of the Leinster comities of Ireland; and states inci-
1
dentally the fact that he had previously assisted
many individuals to emigrate in the usual way. Ilia
sympathies doubtless became enlisted in their priva-
tions and adventures; and probably with a view to
understand more perfectly what others of like condi-
tion might require as outfit, and what means of pre-
caution it would be necessary to take against ill
usage or neglect, he determined to make a winter
voyage across the Atlantic.
The Washington, A. PAGE, master, is described as
a fine vessel of IMO tons register, fitted out spe-
cially for carrying the greatest number of persons
who can be induced to pay a moderate charge fur
transport across the ocean. She contains two decks

sufficiently capacious and well ventilated to accom-
modate a large number of passengers. That nine
hundred human beings, however (besides the crew),
ought not to have been suffered to embark together
on such a voyage in the ship in question is obvious
from the fact that, when huddled below, they found
themselves obliged to sleep five and even six together
in each berth. The scene at embarkation must have
given our enterprising narrator a foretaste of what
awaited him and his comrades. It might serve for
a description of the hurried deportation of a human
cargo from one of the African berracoons

There was no regularity or decency observed. Men and
women were pulled in, any side or end foremost, like so
many bundles. I was getting myself in as quickly and dex-
terou.ly as I could, when I was laid hold of by the legs and
polled in, falling down headforemost on the deck, and the
next man was pulled down upon the top of me. There are
on police regulations ;_ the officer. of the ship take the kid
in the ill-treatment of the passengers.
- -

- -
At the last moment, with passage tickets paid
for, hearts sinking within the bravest breast, women
weeping, and children stricken with terror and dis-
may, what poor man would dare to expostulate ?
Or, if he did, who would heed or hearken to his
remonstrance ? We talk much of our Christian

civilisation ;a
but our social system is one that bids
multitudes yearly begone from amongst us fur no
other fault than that the hive is tau full to hold us
all ; and we have not the humanity or decency to
insure to the exiles of industry the semblance of a
secure lenvetalung, or their protection during their
voyage from ill-treatment the must wanton and most
cruel.
By the terms of the contract made between the
shipping agents at Liverpool and the emigrants, a
certain quantity of provisions was agreed to be
given out weekly to each individual. These terms,
however, were in hardly any one respect observed.
In many instances, nut more than half the quantity
of meal and flour were doled out to the famished
multitude which had been bargained and paid for.
And even the supply of water, although no allega-
tion of deficiency on board seems to have been made,
was so irregular as to wring from some of the more
courageous reiterated remonstrances. But such in-
subordination was speedily and summarily quelled.
Imprecations, menaces and blows seem to have been
dealt out with no sparing hand by two of the ship's
mates, accompanied by terms of blasphemy and
coarseness not to be repeated in our columns.
On the fifth day after leaving Liverpool a respect-
ful inquiry was addressed in writing to the captain
by Mr. Fosna and ten other passengers, as to when
the allowance of necessaries would be given out to
those on board. A copy of this letter is given at
length, and well deserves perusal. In the postscript
there arc these words:

While writing the former part of this letter at the request
of my fellow-passengers, the first mate, Mr. Williants,
knocked me down that on the deck with a blow in the
face!
And the writer adds in his diary, that he had
offered no sort of provocation whatever for this out-
rage, except the silent reproof, the occupation in
which he was at the moment engaged, might have
afforded to the person thus assailing him. On hear-
ing the first few sentences of the letter, the captain
broke forth into a volley of intemperate and abusive
expressions, designated the complainant as " a pi-
rate" and "a rascal ;" and threatened to put him in
irons if he troubled him further in such matters!
The details of privation, filth, and disease, on such
a voyage, in a ship so officered, and with such a
cargo of victims, may be too readily conceived.
Fever does not seem to have visited them; but from
dysentery several perished. Their bodies were Hung
into the deep without religious ceremony of any
kind; and the survivors were given to understand,
that for whatever medicine they might require, they
must pay a certain private consideration to the sur-
geon, although this also was specifically enumerated
amongst the items paid for at starting in the passage
money.
On arriving at New York Mr. FOSTER was dis-
suaded from instituting legal proceedings against the
proprietor of the Washington or the officers of the
vessel, on account of the time and expense which he
must have necessarily devoted to a prosecution of
doubtful issue. His aim would seem to have more-
over been rather to warn others than to resent the
wrongs. he had personally endured. Hence the
transmission of his journal to his relative, Lord
lloweaT, for the purpose of being brought under the
consideration of the authorities at home. We cannot
help reiterating our regret that so little energetic
attention has apparently as yet been /mid to the
subject. 'fhe return before us was moved for on the
19th February, and was not ordered to be printed
until the 9th April. How many yearn of unnoted
suffering and injustice will be required at this rat,
to stimulate government into a sense of their respon-
sibility to the voluntary exiles whose parting rveol-
, lection it is our national interest and duty to render,
if possible, one of love, not of loathing!

If any novelist wanted a subject, we should say
he would find one full of the most romantic details
in the financial history of the governments in the Pc-
nirtsula. It is nut often that figures contribute to
swell the imagination. Indeed, since the days of
PvTuAtioit-ts they have been abandonid to the
every day purposes of life; but if some future
SOVTIIET should arise, and turn over the records of
the Junta and the committee of public credit, in-
stead of rummaging the dusty libraries of Spain and
Portupl, we conjecture he might find materials for
the fabrication of something more interesting to the
British public than the .Viktikrinnes qt. or
the " ..14/rodures qt• Thalobtt.4 In the absence, how-
ever, of any spiritist writer, the fugitive cases that
accidentall)• arise arc more than sufficient to
absorb the attention of the spectator, and
display the rich ore of romantic materials that
lie embedded in the strata below. Cou'd all this be
properly worked out, and were every creditor per-
mitted to be his own chronicler, we arc certain that
the old world would be nothing to the new, that
truth would seem stranger than fiction, and romance
wear a common-place aspect in comparison with'
reality.