History, in its blackest pages, records nothing more horrible than the miseries of the passage; yet while we are maudlin over the horrors of the slave-trade, we “reflect, with a painful satisfaction, and reasonably expect” the more dreadful sufferings of our fellow-citizens. The slave-dealer—before the Abolition made it necessary to stow three cargoes in one ship—calculated to land at their destination four-fifths of his cargo; and it was thought sufficiently shocking that 1 in 5 died on the passage. But the mortality on board the Irish emigrant-ships was greater. Many vessels, from their rotten state, perished altogether, with from 200 to 300 passengers. This rarely happens with a slaver, as the vessels are necessarily of the very best construction. But, of those who escaped shipwreck, 1 in 3, and 1 in 4 died on the passage from fever, and one half the remainder suffered from disease. The “Laren” from Sligo sailed with 440 passengers—108 died and 150 were sick. The “Virginius” sailed with 496 passengers—158 died, 186 were sick, and the remainder landed feeble and tottering. It could hardly be otherwise, when vessels built to pack 200 emigrants sailed with twice that number; so that they are described to be worse than the blackhole of Calcutta. And this was the emigration which the British parliament—which laboured to put down the slave-trade—declared itself willing to encourage, had it been necessary, from any backwardness in the wretched Celts, to avail themselves of it, and which a British Minister coolly declared it would have been inhuman and unjust to interfere with. Footnote 45: “Territa quæsitis ostendit terga Britannis.”—LUCAN. Footnote 46: Edinburgh Review, No. 178, p. 443, Oct. 1848. Footnote 47: Schnitzler’s ‘Russia under Alexander and Nicholas.’ Footnote 48: Humboldt’s Cosmos, p. 411. Footnote 49: Acts, ch. xvi. Footnote 50: That is, westerly from the country last civilized or Christianized. Footnote 51: The repugnance of Christian commentators to allow any good in Mahometanism, has caused them to apply the promises of national glory made to Ishmael, to the petty chieftainship and desert supremacy of the Arab tribes during the centuries antecedent to Christ, though it is obvious that they were not then more powerful as “a nation” than they are now, and that to no period of their history but to that of the Saracenic Caliphates can the fulfilment be justly accorded. Footnote 52: The Hebrews consider themselves to be so named from Heber, an ancestor of Abraham (Gen. xi. 15). The descendants of Ishmael are therefore equally entitled to the name. Footnote 53: