Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

ATROCITIES O BOA'aBD EMIGRANT SHIPS.

THE crizy OF MOBILE.

The following statement is condensed from the Dublin
Freeman's Journal,
"There are few to whom the benevolent exertions of
Mr. Vere Foster, our countryman, are not known. Some
time ago Mr. Foster collected in Louth, Meath. and the
neighbouring counties a number of young girls of unspotted
reputation, to the number of 120, with the view of pro-
viding for them in the Western States of America. Having
shipped them at Liverpool on board the packet ship City of
Mobile, and made all the necessary arrangements for their
safe conduct, as he imagined, Mr. Foster preceded them by
steam to New York, both to receive them on their arrival
•+ and conduct them to their future settlement. The City of
Mobile duly arrived, but for some reason or other Mr.
Foster found a general reluctance on the part cf his pro
togees to go further. Ultimately not more than a dozen
out of the hundred and twenty consented to leave New
York, with whom he went westward and placed them
in good situations. What became of the hundred who
left their homes under such promising auspices, and whose
characters were so pure before the pollution of the
emigrant ship ? Nothing was known of the poor creatures
—how !hey lived or died—until some time after, when
a kind-hearted gentleman was struck with the appearance
of a wretched object in the most fashionable thorough.
fare of New York. She was an Irish gitl—one who had
suffered and was suffering much in mind and in body.
Her face was covered with bruises and her body with rags.
She told a wild and pitiful story to the eommissionsrs of
emigration—th it she came to New York in the City of
Mobile under the ca-e of a gentleman whom she afterwards
requited with it gra, itude—that she had since lived a life of
crime and suffering, and was now a wanderer in a strange
land without a home, friends, or money. Susan Smith,
the Broadway outcast, was one of the girls who went out
under Mr. Foster's care, and had been seduced from the
ship by sailors and others to houses of ill-fame, where
their ruin was accomplished. The wretched girl was too
weak at the time to make a full statement, but sub-
sequently she deposed to the following facts, of which
there is no doubt, and which unfold another chapter in the
diabolical history of Liverpool emigration :—Her affidavit
is to the effect that, after the vessel had cast anchor in the
port, five of the female passengers were on the same night
taken on shore by a boat's craw rf the ship; next morning
five others were taken off by the quartermaster;' at noon
the same day the deponent and another girl were taken
away to a brothel, where they remained for six weeks ;
that the other womea were taken to Castle Garden, the regu-
lar point of disembarkation at New York, and landed. There
is little room, however, to doubt that all or the majority
were subjected to the same prcfligate influences and conse-
quences. Here is a whole cargo of virtue—before it was
subjected to the contamination of sailors —lost for the want
of ordinary care. We Lever heard or read of such a sad
story. Out of 120 who left Ireland in safety with their
characters vouched by their clergy, only twelve or so were
uninfected, the rest having been ruined in the short spare
of one month. We presume the friends and relatives of
the sad freight per ship Mobile, are already in possession
of the facts to which we have adverted ; if not, they may
discover in the subjoined deposition of poor Susan Smith
food for tears and lamentation. Better let the whole sad
history be known. It may produce ultimate good in
wholly staying that national ma lness for emigration, of
which we have well nigh seen the end:—

" 'DEPOSITION OF SUSAN SMITH.

" City and County of New York.—Susan Smith, late of
County Meath, Ireland, being sworn. deposes and says that
she is twenty-one years of age, and came passenger to
the port of New York in the ship City of Mobile, Mar.
shall, master, from Liverpool, and arrived on the 30. h
of J.3ne lest; that after the vessel htd cast anchor off
Castle Garden, Margaret Floody ►end four other passengers
of the ship were on the same night, at about 11 o'clock,
taken off the vessel by two of the sailors belonging to the
ship, in one boat, and brought to the city ; that on the next
morning, at about 8 o'clock, the ship having meantime
been taken round to a pier, five passengers, named Mary
Malone, Mary Kally, Ann Donnelly, Jane Crawley, and a
girl named Margaret, were taken off by the quartermaster,
named Bill Mooney, who was alwalp, so far as deponent
knows, at the wheel during the voyage ; that at about 12
o'clock at noon on the same day (Wednesday) deponent
and a girl named Ellen Neary, who was a passenger, were
taken off the vessel by two sailors, named James and
Thomas, and brought to the house of Kit Burns, No. 32,
Water-street, where deponent has remained up to the
present time ; says that the other passengers were taken
off the vessel in a steamboat on the day of arrival, at about
6 o'clock, p.m , and brought to Castle Garden, as deponent
believes, and that meantime deponent and the other
fema'es, as above stated, were c 'ncealed in the forecastle
of the ship by the sailors until brought ashore as above
stated. her
"SUSAN t SMITH.
Metk.
"'Swam to before me this 4.h day of August, 1857.
" BERNARD CASSERLY, Commissioner of Deeds.'

"The Commissioner, by the consent (1 Justice Osborn,
sent an officer to No. 32, Water-street, and arrested Ellen
Neary, and sent her to Ward's Island."

THE CAMBRIA.

Mary Jane Brett, a passenger on the ship Cambria,
from Liverpool, complained, on landing at Castle Garden
on the 18th ult , of ill-usage on the ship during the
voyage. Her statement amounted to the charge, that
soon after leavirg Liverpool the second mate had
seduced her under an alleged promise of marriage,
and during the rest of thJ voyage he had repeated
illicit connection with her. After landing, finding
that he refused to marry her, she applied to the commis-
sioners, and detailing the above matters, wished to know
if he could be compelled to keep his promise. On proper
investigation it became aprarent that the only measure to
be adopted would be his arrest on a warrant for seduction.
This step she was urged by the commissioners to take, but
for reasons known to hersclf, she positively refused
acquiescence. However, on her examination, the com-
missioners ascertained that two female passengers, named
Jane Larken and Mary , had b.en kept on
board the vessel, and were not landed at Castle Garden,
as required by law, under the pretence that they were
needed to nurse the doctor, who had been unwell, The,
commissioners on ascertaining the correctness of that infor-
mation, took the neceqsary steps to enforce the fine of $5O
for each cf these two passengers upon the captain, under
the law of the Sta'e passed during the last session. The
captain having demurred to the infliction of the penalty,
steps were taken for the attachment of the ship. This had
the effect of enforcing the prompt payment of the money.
As to the women, it is known they did not land at Castle
Garden, but what became of them, or whether they are gone,
is a matter of uncertainty. The commissioners are
determined to act with promptness in all such cases
as come to their knowledge, being the only action within
their power, and thus to suppress an evil which is become-
ing obvious and more frequent than formerly.—New
York Tribune.

A meeting of the Oldham town c3uncil was held on
Friday, for the purpose of appointing an alderman for
Westwood ward, in the place of the late James Platt,
Eq. The voting papers having been handed round, it was
found that 13 gentlemen htd voted for Mr. George Barlow,
cotton spinner, Greenhill, and two for Mr. John Ri!ey,
councillor for Westwood ward. Mr. Barlow was therefore
duly elected.

LORD Lusortn.—Llrd Li!ford writes to Galignani's
Ifessenger to say:—" My attei.tion having been called to
a paragraph in your paper, to the eff-.c* that my son,
"the HJLI. Mr. P)wvs, had embraced the R)man Catholic
faith," copied, I believe, from same obscure English
country paper, may I r&q lest that you will do me the
favour to insert this later, the r,port in question being
entirely uefounded in fae, and being as mischievous as
untrue."

A SWINDLER CAUGHT. —On Saturday afternoon, a well-
kuown member of the swincring gang named Beck, was
apprehended at Cheadle, near Manchester. He appears
from his correspowienca, to have been "C. P. Russell,
Esq.," of Cheadle; and from the Post-office there he has
received several packages of books. From the letters found
upon him he seems to have carried on an extensive trade.
Ho is in the cus•ody of the county constabulary at Stock-
prrt. He is well known to the Manchester detective
officars.

THE ItionamNs.—Brigham Young, we are told, meditates
resistance to the Federal authorities. B igham is in his
way an autocrat on a grand scale; not only are the lives
and fortunes of his saljects in his hands, not only does he
claim the right to " unseal" their wives and " seal" them
to himself (and exercise the right which he claims), but
ha also claims and exercises the right of thinking for them
on all subj- eta. The constitution of the United States
guarantees the Republican form of Government to all the
States compsing the Federation. The Dred Scott decision
having removed from C mgresa the paver of regulating
the domestic concerns of the territories, the right can only
be exercised now under this provisio., ; and, whatever may
be thought of Republics in Europe, on this, side of the
Atlantic a State with an infallible, irrespansible theocratic
head is not a Republic according to the popular notion.
Public opinion will therefore support President Buchanan
in whatever measures ho determines to adopt. The season
is now so far advanced, and has been so cold, with such
prospect of early frost and snows, that I doubt whether it
will be deemed advisable to press on for Utah before next
year. This is to be regretted, as the blow could probably
be better struck this par than ;lest yeare—New loth
I.ooer,