The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-24 00:00:00

Oxenin aitit

:NDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1849,

We congratulate Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT and his
committee in particular, and the benevolent public in
general, on the large amount already subscribed to
wards that most practical of all philanthropic pana-
ceas—the Female Emigrant Fund. The sums already
received amount to about ten thousand pounds, and
foremost on the list (as we announced on Saturday
evening), is a donation of 5001. from her MAJESTY
and the PRINCE. Great as is the amount
of the latter subscription, its intrinsic value
is less important than is the further evidence
which it affords of the liberality and kind heartedness
of the QUEEN. Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT may justly
pride himself upon the golden harvest which his
kindly sympathy has produced, but the large amount
ce subscription confers an additional responsibility
upon the members of the committee of management.
Rightly employed this Christmas bounty may prove
of inestimable benefit to thousands yet unborn. The
charge is not a light one, yet it could " hardly have
devolved upon better hands, or have met with a heartier
support from public sympathy. One fact we beg to
suggest to all who, on learning the largeness of the
present amount, may draw their purse-strings and
think enough has been already obtained. On the
contrary, the greatness of the sum received is only
an additional reason for augmenting it. Had a few
thousands only been collected, that would merely have
sufficed for some trifling and perhaps temporary
benefit. As it is, however, if the subscriptions con-
tinue aC, they have commenced, enough may, in all
probability, be amassed to prove of lasting service to
the community. Let all persons therefore who are
doubtful as to the actual value of the scheme do their
best to render it actually valuable—by helping to
make it large enough to enable the committee to con-
summate the undertaking worthily. We have heard
complaints against the proposed emigration on the
the ground that it is unfair to send off the refuse
population of the mother-country to demoralise the
colonies. Such an objection arises from very mis-
taken views, not to say prejudices. The unhappy
class in whose behalf we plead are, we apprehend, on
the whole, as virtuous as the charitable donors to the
Emigration Fund. We use the epithet advisedly, cal
ling to mind that beautiful definition of virtue—
" Innocence brought to trial and found
not guilty." The gentle daughters of our aristocrats,
tenderly reared and sedulously guarded, are pure; and
innocent as SHAKSPERE'S Miranda. But shall we
place them higher in the moral scale than the mothers
and maidens who have withstood the stern ordeal of
adversity—to whom honesty was too often synony-
mous with starvation, and sin but another name for
bread ? These women, to our thiLking, truly deserve
the name of virtuous, and these are the very women
whom we are called upon to help ! Are we not justi-
fied, then, in rejoicing at the large amount of the
subscription list? Are we not justified in feeling
gratified at the appearance of the name of the higher t
Lady in the land at the head of a scheme so calculated
to prove a blessing to thousands of English women ? The
easy and rapid descent to "Avernus" has passedinto a
proverb. But- what proverb can do justice to the
terrible nature of that slippery path on the brink of
which the unfriended female totters ? One step, and
she is the Pariah of civilized society—of that society