A KERRY EMIGRATION SCENE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
am sure no one would regret more than Mr. W. H. ;(Bullock) Hall that any wrong impression should be the result of his kindly letter. I therefore ask you to grant me space to say a few words relative to the passage in his letter referring to the priest who happened to be too late to witness the embarkation. In the first place, it was my fault, not his—I having named eleven a.m. as the hour best suited to see the (emigrant ship—that this estimable clergyman was late. The Lake Manitoba' was under weigh at 10.45 a.m., sooner by an hour than I calculated. Again, such is the interest as to the future of the Kenmare emigrants taken by the priests of this district, that this same 'gentleman, the Rev. M. Neligan, whom Mr. (Bullock) Hall saw in the boat, sails from Queenstown on June 8th, at the request of his Bishop (the Most Rev. Dr. Higgins), to investigate the condition and prospects of those who have left the old country in the hope of bettering themselves in a new, under the Assisted Emigration Scheme. He has, from a sense of public and religious duty, laid aside his own convenience, in order to discharge a most charitable and excellent mission, suggested by the wisdom and kindness of his Bishop. I may add the announcement of the fact of his undertaking was received with the greatest satis- faction by all creeds and classes here.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Drouniquinno, Kenmare, May 29t1i. J. C. R. Counts.
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