The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-27 00:00:00

CHARTISM AND EMIGRATION.

There are two styles of comedy, in one of which
the actor pretends to be utterly unconscious of the
amusement he creates, while in the other he him-
self appears to enjoy the fun, and laughs at his
own jokes. Some of our Chartist orators seem to
have studied the former style, and assume an air
mostothefridiculous m os
most seri oue
es
nti
m convictionen sentiments.
while
Their v
e xrew re s sei
of
ge the
i-
gration is, that it ought to be superseded, that it
does not relieve the
pauperism of the country, and
that it is rather mischievous than beneficial—opi-
nions directly in opposition to the current doctrine
that emigration is good for the colony, good for the
emigrant, and good for the mother country. It is
pleasant nowadays to meet with a man willing to
come down with a good round assertion of this
kind. What is the use of always talking sense,
and, if we ever differ, jangling
It is really invigoratingonly about words ?
to meet with a man who
is willing to swear in
n our faces that black is white,_
Such is the ridiculous style of oratory which
professes to guide our lower classes, leading them
actually to regard emigration as an evil. It is
an evil of the same kind which political econo-
mists anticipated many generations ago, when
they prevailed on the Government to tamper with
our imports and exports for fear that the country
would be drained of its wealth. An enormous
duty was laid upon French goods because it was
said that the result of our purchases was that all
our money went to France, so that our rivals were
growing at our expense, and, the effect of that
tariff injuriously exists to this day in our relations
with France. It appears now to be said, on prin-
ciples which are not essentially different, that the
loss of men through emigration is a national injury
—as if by thinning our population wages were not
raised, and the finding of employment made more
easy, not to speak of the creation of a new world
of customers in another hemisphere, and the
impulse given to it by our home trades and manu-
factures. On one only supposition can we con-
ceive the orators to whom we have alluded to be
serious, and that is that they are thinking of them-
selves and their own particular aspirations. A
healthy system of emigration, in some cases coin--
bined with involuntarily exile, has, together with
free trade, ruined Chartism. The demagogue's
occupation is gone.
How much emigrants are needed in Australia,
and especially in Victoria, may be gathered from a
letter which appears in another column. The rise
of Victoria is the greatest marvel of colonisation,
and its greatness is only limited by the want of
population. It was predicted that the discovery
of gold would be most unfortunate for a country so
thinly inhabited, and that the agriculture of the
province, which op to that time had been its prin-
cipal resource, must be sacrificed for the want of
labourers to gather the crops and to look after the
herds. The prediction has not been verified ; ix every
respect the Australian colonies have advanced, and
what has been gained by the golddiggers has not been
lost by the squatters. In the idea of many persons,
Melbourne is a mere encampment, a collection of
log-huts. That may have been true in the earlier
days of its history, but the appearance of the place
is very much altered. Warehouses built of stone
and brick are starting up in the room of wooden
and iron sheds ; the streets are wide and paved ;
great progress has been made in drainage ; the
city has gasworks and water companies ; rail-
ways are beginning to convey its goods to and fro,
and the electric telegraph is in active play. In
the midst of all this growth the wages of the la-
bourer are high ; they amount to 10s. or 12s. a day,
and our correspondent declares that food is not pro-
portionately
high, that meat is cheaper than in
England, that so also are potatoes, that bread is a
little dearer, and a cottage, such as few labourers
in this country enjoy, may be obtained at a rent of
about 7s. ot I.os. a week. The labour, however,
that is required in these regions is physical—the
strong arm that can hold the plough, wield the
hammer, and use the spade, not such as is only
accustomed to hold the pen, to measure tape, and to
cut cloth. Now, from various circumstances it has
happened that spontaneous emigration has been prat
tised chiefly by that class of persons who are least
wanted in that colony—by the class represented by
bankers' clerks and drapers' assis'ants, insteal of
by the mechanic and the field labourer. There is
not much difference between the wages of the
ordinary run of clerks and of handicraftsmen in
this country, and one naturally asks how is it that
the former have emigrated in such large numbers
with their own means, while the artisan has re-
mained at home, unless he has been helped out at
the expense of Government ? It is not by any
means that the profession of the clerks is more
crowded than that of the artisans, but there is a
wide difference in the character and position of
the two classes. A clerk who earns his 601. or 701.
a year draws his salary quarterly or monthly, while
the mechanic, who earns just as much, gets a
weekly payment. That fact indicates everything.
The clerk is trained to prudence ; he is obliged to
keep his money by him, and to look at it without
spending it ; while the mechanic in too many in-
stances lives
he
livgeisefurioumg hand to mouth, lives bountifully
of the week and sparely at the
end of it. The clerk is thus taught to save a little,
he is pretty well educated, he has generally friends
better off than himself, , who can give him now
ainndwhe
thenih m
a marriage is not encouraged, so that when
there is a demand for emigration he feels the im-
pulse, he feels pinched, and wants to make money,
he is soon ready, and in a few weeks he is on his
way. Not so our mechanics, who are decidedly
marrying men, who have large families, who have
no great ambition to rise, who have few friends
that are much above them in wealth or position,
who are often not particularly fond of reading, and
who therefore do not soon become acquainted with
the requirements of the colonies, nor, if they did,
would be either able or willing to pack up and
away. And yet that is the very class of persons
which the colonies want, instead of the men of
tape and the legion of quill-drivers. We should be
Very glad if these remarks, coupled with those of
our correspondent, should induce such an emigra-
tion to Victoria as will enrich, both that colony and
the mother country.—Times.