The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT Or THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

itmEs.—lt would be difficult to find a More ex-
cellent example of statistical inquiry than that
exhibited in the Report of the Emigration Commis-
sioners for the last year, just presented to Perlia-
ment. The Report preserves the same broad outlines
of popular movement shown in former years, but
there is a remarkable increase in the volume of
emigration, and the Commissioners have applied a
patient analysis to the discovery of its cause, Al-
though the conalirsion of the Emigration Commis-
sioners is irrefragable that no larger proportion of
emigrants from the United Kingdom have sailed for
the United States in the past year than in preceding
years, yet the feat that the proportion should be so
large seems to require some explanation. Two thirds
of our emigrants proceed to the United States. Out
of 5,482,000 who have left the kingdom during this
century 3,303,000 have sailed for the American Re-
public, and the some proportion was shown last
year, when 146,813 sailed thither out of 223,758
emigrants. Professor Gold win Smith seems to dis-
cover in the circumstance a tendency in the emigrant
to resort to a country emancipated from home con-
trol, but the fact admits of a simpler economic ex-
planation. The man who is driven to seek in other
lands the subsistence which the competition of his
fellows makes it difficult to obtain in this betakes
himself to the country which is at once most easy
of access and most richly furnished with the gifts
of nature. The necessary cost of passage to the
Australian colonies forces the poorer emigrant to
America, and his choice is confined to the States or
to one of the British Provinces. The rugged climate
of our own settlements is the principal influence
which deters him from etnigrating to them, but it
is impossible to attribute the climate to the effects
of home legislation. As it is, the Canadians have
the mortification of seeing hardy labourers passing
through their country and disdaining to settle there.
Immigrants, not only from Britain, but from Ger-
many, Norway and Sweden, pass up the St. Lawrence
en route for the Western States. In 1862 no less than
5,289 immigrants from Norway and Sweden landed
in:Canada, and not more than 40 of them are believed
to have remained there. Last year between 4,000
and 5,000 Germans and Norwegians permed through
in a similar manner. Few Englishmen are aware
of the extensive immigration of Coolies into our
sugar-producing possessions of Mauritius, Guiana,
and the West Indies, nor of the rush of Chinese inte
Australia which frightened the colonists into the
adoption of prohibitive legislation. The influx of
Chinese seems, however, to he less dreaded than it
was, for the Legislature of Victoria has suspended
for two years the tax of £lO imposed on Chinese
entering the colony by sea, and of £4 on those
entering it by land. The disturbed state of China
may have had some occult influence in lessening
Chinese emigration, just as it seems certain that the
increased demand for Indian produce hos checked
the migration of Coolies. The number of Coolies
who have sailed for the Mauritius and the West
s during the last year has been barely tea
thousand, a considerable falling off on the emigra-
tion of former years. The last year witnessed,
however, an entirely new phenomenon in the shape
of inter-colonial migration among the West Indies
themselves. The is'and of Barbadoes has preserved
a reasonable amount of prosperity through all the
vicissitudes of West Indian fortune, because it was
so thickly populated with negroes that they must
work to live. But last spring the unfortunate
summer in 1862 produced considerable distress in
Barbadoes, and labourers began to emigrate to An-
tigua, St. Croix, and British Guiana, until the
planters became alarmed at the loss of their men.
The cessation of the distress and of the consequent
emigration soon allayed their fears, but it seemed
at one time that the migration of negroes might
be summarily prohibited. A similar alarm pre
veiled in British Guiana by the report that the
Dutch planters of Surinam, having abolished
slavery, were enticing Coolies across the border.
One of the most satisfactory facts brought to light
by the Emigration Commissioners is the success of
the legislation imposing regulations on emigrant
passenger ships. Never has the interference of the
Government been better justified by the results.
The small rate of mortality among the emigrants is
everywhere apparent, but it is perhaps been seen by
the returns of immigrants into Canada. Out of
13,485 persons sailing from Great Britain in steam-
ships only five persons died, and out of 1,746 in
sailing vessels but one,whilo out of 2,105 emigrants
from Germany 46 died on the passage, and six out
of 1,119 from Norway. These returns show that the
mortality in our emigrant ships has been reduced to
a minimum, and the same satisfactory result is ar-
rived at an inspection of statistics of Coolie emigra-
tion. The rigorous regulations to which the latter
has been subjected have converted it from what
seemed at first a thin disguise of the cruelest slavery
into a beneficent distribution of surplus labour, to
the advantage bath of planter and workman.
PosT.----A further suspension of hostilities for a
period of fourteen days gives some hopes of a preli-
minary arrangement being arrived at by the Con-
ference within that period. We confess, however,
that unless the German Powers consent to abate
their pretentious we have but little expectation of
seeing peace issue from the present negotiations.
The prospect which most encourages us in a san-
guine view is our trust that England may at last
take up the position which, in our opinion, she
should have assumed at first, and that, abandoning
anxious enunciations of opinions and wishes, this
country ratty now speak with a firm resolve. It is
well known that we have made every sacrifice,
even to the destruction of the Treaty of 1852. We
have ourselves proposed the dismemberment of
Denmark, and have suggested that Holstein and
Linen burg, and the southern pert of Schleswig,
should be given over to Germany. We have drawn
the line ofdemareation at the Schlei and the Dane-
wirke. This proposal, injurious as it is to Den-
mark and unpleasing to ourselves, should at any
rate satisfy the cravings of the Germans, while it
should content all demands founded upon the for-
tune of war. But there is only one way to secure its
acceptance and to ensure peace, and that is, to be re-
solute in carrying out the plan we nave fixed upon.
If we waver once more, a e shall assuredly see war
renewed, and ultimately find ourselves, however
unwillingly, involved in it. We must take a stand
somewhere. We must either place our back against
a wall, or retreat till we stumble into a ditch. It
is idle to talk of the small importance of a belt of
territory 20 mil©s wide. It is this very areutnent,
this very underrating of demands, that has brought
us to this pass. Thus we countenaeced the execu-
tion in Holstein. This we undertook to obtain the
revocation of the constitution. Thus we allowed
the invasion of Schleswig. Thus we shrank from
opposing aggression in Jutland. This receding
policy, this manner of shirking a dog or withdraw-
ing the hand from a cat, only provokes the certain
scratch or bite. We have had much time for reflec-
tion; we have heard and read and seen all that can
be said, written, or done on both sides, and we have
arrived at our conclusion. We have laid down the
line of the Schlei—let us enforce it. The Danee,
however bitter their disappointment, accept it; we
have, then, only to induce the Germans to accede to
our proposal. Let us consider what prospect we
have of this. On the one hand, we have reason and
equity to back our arguments ; on the other, we
have the military prospects of renewed war. First,
reason suggests that the Germans ought to be satis-
fied with obtaining far more than they required
when they first began their aggression, for then
there was no question of depriving Denmark of
provinces, but only of insisting on a change of con-
stitution which she had imposed upon her German
subjects ; and equity would seem to imply that,
after a victorious campaign for the cause of nation-
ality, it should be required that, in addition to Ger-
mans supposed to be freed from a common yoke,
Danes, in their turn, should be subjected to the like
anomalous fate. Secondly, as to the military aspect
which the question would assume in the eventof the
renewal of hostilities, the Germans would do well to
remember that their present position in the penin-
sula cannot by any means be considered as either
pleasant or safe. They would infallibly be com-
pelled to retire at once to Holstein if a combined
Danish, Swedish, and English army occupied the
islands either of Funen or Alsen with a numerous
fleet. The German forces would be thus outflanked,
and would of necessity have to retreat to the Eider,
The Allies might thus, merely by this demonstra-
tion, repossess themselves of the Danewirke with-
out striking a blow, and then negotiations might
begin again on more equal though on different
terms. We have nothing to be afraid of in such a
war, if, unfortunately, we are forced into it; and
we aro anxious that the German Powers should un-
derstand that we estimate the position of affairs at
its true value. Our extreme unwillingness to en-
gage in hostilities with a kindred race leads them
erroneously to suppose that we are utterly averse
from war under all circumstances. The Americans
were for a long time under this delusion, until the
effair of the Trent taught them a new lesson; and,
when they saw that we were not prepared to sub-
mit to insult, they at once gave way. It is our
earnest desire that our German cousins should in
their turn appreciate more really both the forbear-
ance and the pugnacious disposition of this coun-
try. A Ministry may melte
great efforts for peace,
may allow much foreign interference, and even con-
vulsion, for the sake of prospective tranquillity in
Parliament and in Europe, but they must not be
driven too hard ; and if the Plenipotentiaries of
the Fatherland are not empowered to sign the pre-
liminaries of a pacification within the next fort•
night, we shall infallibly "drift," as in the Crimean
war, till our lronclade are in Danish waters and
our Guards in the islands. If such a situation of
affairs were brought about we should have the as-
sistance of some, And the countenance of most,