386 



IMMIGRATION. 



the payment of interest for improvements and for 

 city expenses, in excess of the ordinary revenue of 

 the fiscal year immediately preceding, unless in the 

 payment of interest on the public debts of the city, 

 they shall provide according to law, by taxation or 

 otherwise, some additional fund, out of which such 

 excess of appropriation may be made to meet such 

 indebtedness; or from issuing any warrants, or 

 authorizing tiieir issue, for the payment of any money 

 when there are no means in the city treasury for 

 their payment ; or from issuing the same to bear in- 

 terest, or to become due at a future day, or for the 

 payment of any money out of the treasury, without 

 by ordinance making appropriation therefor ; or 

 from assessing and collecting taxes for the year 1874 

 in any other manner than is provided for under the 

 general laws of the State for tne assessment and col- 

 lection of State and county taxes ; or from borrowing 

 money when the interest on the outstanding indebt- 

 edness shall exceed the one-half of the city revenue 

 arising from the ordinary taxes within the city for 

 the year immediately preceding. 



IMMIGRATION. During the last four years 

 of commercial depression there has been a 

 rapid decline of immigration to the United 

 States. In the year 1876 the immigrant ar- 

 rivals were fewer than during any year since 

 the first influx which followed the Irish potato- 

 famine of 1846, excepting during the period 

 following the financial crash of 1857, and ex- 

 tending through the first years of the war 

 (1858-'63), as can he seen at a glance from the 

 following tahle of the immigration statistics 

 since the foundation of the Republic : 



Total 9,726,455 



During the first 8 months of the year 1877, 

 the falling off was still increased, the number 

 of immigrants being 30 per cent, less than for 

 the corresponding period in 1876. 



The fluctuations in the tide of immigration, 

 apparent in the above table, may be briefly 

 explained as follows : From the year when 

 the records of immigrationjwere first officially 

 kept (1819), there was a gradual increase of 

 3,000 to 6,000 a year until the cholera year, 

 1832, when nearly thrice as many immigrants 

 arrived as in the preceding year. From various 



causes, chiefly industrial, the course of immi- 

 gration fluctuated, declining more than half 

 after the panic of 1837 ; then again increasing, 

 and again falling off one-half in 1843, and a 

 second time recovering, but, on the whole, 

 augmenting, until the year 1847, which year 

 shows an increase of 60 per cent, over the pre- 

 ceding. During the period of political distuib- 

 ance in Europe, from that year till 1854, there 

 was a vast flood of immigration ; in 1855 this 

 impetus had spent its force; the country was 

 over-stocked with immigrant-labor, and a fail- 

 ing off of one-half from the enormous immigra- 

 tion of 1854 was only partially recovered in 

 1857, when the panic of that year caused an- 

 other decline of one-half, and the outbreak of 

 the Civil War a further decrease of about 40 

 per cent. In 1863 the number again nearly 

 doubled, and from that time there was a con- 

 stant increase, until, in 1872, the number of im- 

 migrants exceeded that of any previous year, 

 being 5 per cent, more than at the high tide of 

 the European influx after the Revolution of 

 1848, which was during the year 1854. Since 

 the crash of 1873 a rapid decline has set in, and 

 during the last two or three years many labor- 

 ers have been driven, by dearth of employment 

 here, to return to their former homes. From 

 the following tabulated statement of the ar- 

 rivals of aliens at the port of New York in 

 which city fully two-thirds of the European im- 

 migrants disemberk it will be seen that for the 

 last 80 years, during which period the bulk of 

 the alien population has been imported, nearly 

 42 per cent, of the total number of immigrants 

 have been German, and nearly 36 per cent. Irish : 



ARRIVALS OF ALIENS AT NEW YORK. 



Eight months. 



