The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-04 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times thinks that no ono willingly assumes even
the appearance of harshness, and Mr. Gladstone seems
to have felt on Thursday afternoon in a very special de-
gree the unpleasantness of having to say " No" to a
plausible prayer. Tho promoters of the National
Emigration League waited upon him at the Trea-
aury to urge him to adopt the policy of affording assist-
ance from the Exchequer to the unemployed who de- ,
Aire to emigrate to other fields of labour. They had, of
Course, many things to say, and not a few of their state-
pents were such as to be painful to all, but above all to a
Wan of acute sensibility. Mr. Gladstone was undoubtedly
embarrassed in his reply. His perplexity may easily be
understood. He has lived so much in the eye of the world,
ho has always been so eager to catch at anything which
offers scope for charitable action, that we may well believe
we know what he felt as much as if he had spoken with
his usual effusion instead of being shy and reticent under
a new and strange sense of not being sure of his ground.
It is disagreeable, as we have confessed, to appear un-
gracious, yet we are sorry that what NA al administered to
the Emigration League was not a tonic instead of a sooth-
ing draught. There is not one of the statements of facts
upon which they base their proposals which is not open
to serious question, while their plan of curing the social
maladies of the nation must be condemned upon the con-
siderations we have on another occasion advanced. The
annals of emigration are full of wretched tales of misery,
oven of starvation and of death, suffered by bands
who were sent forth full of hope and zeal, aided
by the gifts of their Sovereign and countrymen, to find a
fate worse than that from which they thought they had
escaped. If any one wants an example, let him follow the
fortunes of the German emigrants, as brave and industrious
as any colonists could be, who were settled in Nova Scotia.
The sick and despairing workman of England dreams of
pastoral plenty in happier lands, and he may himself secure
the blessing, but the Government which would undertake
to convey an army of 100,000 such
.to their Canaan must
expect more murmuring than gratitude from the first
generation.
The Standard considers that the deputation of the
Emigration League received such an answer on Thursday
from Mr. Gladstone as might have been anticipated,
Although the Ministry have been for the last six months
at least fully aware of the emergency of the case—although
it has been brought to their minds by such unexceptional
authorities as Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr. G. Potter, and Mr.
Beales ; although the distress, both in the metropolis
and in the provinces, has been a matter within every-
body's immediate cognisance—the desirability of affording
some help to the existing schemes of emigration is to
the Primo Minister only a subject for "serious
consideration.' Not a single word of comfort beyond this
was Mr.. Gladstone able to afford to the members of the
deputation. We have not a hint as to what is the policy
of Ministers on this most important national question, nor
a word even to show that they have conceived in regard
to it any notion of duty at all. To settle the conditions
and the form which national emigration should assume
belongs to the prerogative of the Government. To decide
in what shape the emigrant is to be assisted is the duty
of the Administration. The first practical step
to be taken is to shorten and cheapen the road to our
colonial possessions, so that, at least, the emigrant
may get there as easily as he could got to any other coun-
try. What we want, in fact, is, to use Mr. M'Cullagh
:Torrens's happy phrase, to establish third-class parliamen-
.t trains across the ocean We want to make it cheaper
for a working man to get into the heart of the Canadian
Dominion, or even to Australia, than to reach such of the
United States as offer him a home. We want to bridge

the Atlantic between Great Britain and Canada, and to

make the road to Melbourne no more inaccessible than
the road to New York. This can only be done by the
help of the Imperial Government, acting in concert
with the colonists. We have indicated briefly some of the
ways in which the State could assist the movement, and it
is impossible to see how any of them are in excess of the
ordinary duties cf the Government. The working men, at
least, ought to be curious to know upon what principle a
Government which has undertaken to interfere with the
natural relations between the landlord and tenant in In-
land—which has spoken through one of its members of
ofres land" to be provided in some way by legislation for
the people of Ireland—can excuse itself from the far easier
and more legitimate task of providing a systemof national