BEGGARS. PLACARD. 65 



CHAPTER VII. 



LIVERPOOL CONTINUED. IRISH BEGGARS. CONDITION OF LABOURERS. COST 



OF LIVING. PRICES. BATH HOUSE. QUARANTINE. THE DOCKS. STREET 



SCENE. &quot; COMING YANKEE &quot; OVER NONSENSE. ARTISTIC BEGGING. 



I HAVE learned nothing reliable about the price of labour 

 here ; the Irish emigration keeps it lower in Liverpool 

 than elsewhere. This reminds me of beggars, and of a placard 

 posted everywhere about the streets to-day. The beggars are 

 not very frequent, and are mostly poor, pitiable, sickly 

 women, carrying half-naked babies. The placard is as fol 

 lows: &quot;The SELECT VESTRY inform their fellow-citizens, 

 that in consequence of the extremely low price of passage 

 from Ireland 4d. (8 cts.), great numbers are coming here ap 

 parently with no other object than to beg. They earnestly 

 desire that nothing should be given them.&quot; As a specimen, 

 they mention the following : an Irish woman, pretending to be 

 a widow, was taken up, who had obtained 3s. 2d. (80 cts.) in 

 an hour and a half after her arrival. Her husband was found 

 already in custody. 



The people all seem to be enjoying life more, or else to 

 be much more miserable than in America.* The labourers 



* I was surprised to find this remark in my first letter from Liverpool, 

 for it is the precise counterpart of my impression on landing again in the 

 United States, after six months absence in Europe. I observe lately, that 

 the Earl of Carlisle has said something of similar import. I do believe the 

 people of the United States have less of pleasure and less of actual suffering 



6* 



