The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-05-06 00:00:00

FEMALE EMIGRATION.
To the Editor of the Dorset County Exprus and
.4 grieultural Gazette.

SIR, —There is a certain journal among the carrot
quarterlies which has a paper devoted to that 'wide
and fruitful subject, "The Ignorance of Man." -
Never was a paper better timed. With 'all our
vaunted knowledge and research, we are—or ITS
likely to become—one of the most ignorant genera-
tions of mortals that have ever served their time
upon this globe. We read so much, that we are
more muddle-headed, and sometimes, by a proem
of mutual exclusion,nearly asempty-headed, as mail
a former generation upon whom we now look down.
A recent example will point the moral. Rvert,
reader of the Times is well aware wbat • dead of
correspondence we have had on the eegrailling 9"1"
tion of Woman's Emplo7ment--or, in more cloud
and more comprehensive terms, the question
"What are we to do with our surplus female popula-
tion?" What with S. G. 0., Professor Kingsley,
Miss Faithful!, and Miss Rye, we are kept at a very
hiklk.pressure point of interest in the several ram&
cations of this difficult inquiry. Yet, which of us
has two clear consecutive thoughta on the eubject?
or half • dozen clear and authentic fade to make
• basis for thought?
Allow me to lay before your readers the following
simple,but instructive details. They are taken from
• paper in the present National Review, which is
In
dn
the
eelnaatt o entirely on
upwards of
5,000
oean thuow RegistrarGene7l)o pe
's re e. turnnons
have definitely left our shores to settle in the
colonies or in the United States. Of this number
we know that the vast majority were men. A
considerable amount of that excess of women, there-
fore, which is giving rise to the present agitation at
home, is thus at once accounted for, and is shown
to be artificial, and not natural. 'Nature makes no
mistakes,' has no redundancies; and, as we shall Si..
the excess here is counterbalanced by a deficiency
elsewhere. To prove this :—in 1851, the deficiency
of women over 20 years of age was
In the United States 250,000
Canadian Colonies 45,000
„ „ Austria, Wades . 145,000

Total 440,000
In the saine year (1851) the esteem of women ever
20 years of age in Great Britain, was 405,000. So
that, on the aggregate, more women are wasted in
those new countries which took their rise from
hence than the mother country could supply them
with.

Now, Sir, the practical difficulties besetting the
great
indeed, emigration of
are
frweoealy
mieenronanad amplylargeectleataaretedvery
g
the excellent article referred to. Bat who, after
these few figures, can doubt that however zealous
we may and ought to be in the promotion of labour
schemes like Miss Faithfull'a, or in the circulation
of moral and charitable appeals relating to the
"Social evil," Emigration is the great poi!it—ne
mere palliative, but a cure—to which the voice and
influence (however feeble) of every thinking Eafillah.
man ought now to be directed.

Printed and pabliahed for th opi4efor byCRAM.°
Wairssua Murat., et Ism allidtye pm
Dorchester, Printer, at the Otos of
County Bxpress. Churl:4l4lin Pop:41011'f Plyr
day, 117 6, 10%