and resources. Even the most extensive reading in connection with these subjects will not furnish the amount of information to be acquired by a short residence in the country. It is no less certain, however, that the want of this knowledge will be at first felt, and often with serious inconvenience; and it may serve to retard the progress of the most enterprising and industrious persons. Regarding the practical pursuits of emigrant life, these papers will furnish abundant particulars, and they present no higher or ulterior pretensions.
In publishing this work, the compiler is bound also to return his acknowledgements to the gentlemen who have placed at his disposal the documents and information necessary for his purpose. These papers have been made use of with much advantage in the prosecution of his task; and the most interesting particulars extracted have been incorporated under appropriate heads. He cannot allow this opportunity to escape without tendering his acknowledgements to the President and gentlemen of the New York Irish Emigrant Society, for the very useful information they have so promptly and courteously transmitted, in return to the application made by him, before engaging on the subject of his present publication.
St. Louis, Jan., 1851.
