The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The last intelligence from Van Diemen's
Land affords striking evidence of the necessity
of conducting emigration on s -me well-under-
stood principle. It appears from the Hobart
Town papers that numerous emigrants had ar-
rived by the last two or three vessels, especially
the Stralh/Iddsay from Dublin, who were
crowding the streets of that place. The local
Government is very much at a loss how to act
under these distressing circumstances, and the
Hobart Town paper suggests that it should, in
the first place,
" Send home a strong remonstrance to the Govern-
ment and those persona at home who are chiefly instru-
mental, from whatever moive, in inducing those poor
persons to come out, no longer to tamper so with the i
prosperity, the comforts, the existence, the fate of their
fellow-creatures—to cease, in fact, altogether their liter.
Terence with them, unless they can do so to benefit;
secondly, to erect at the public expense—that is, from
money in the Treasury—an allum for them on their ar.
rival, where they may-at least be kept from starving in'
the streets or the hush, until permanently and profitably
employed ; and, thirdly, to employ one of the colonial or
other vessels in carrying round a portion of them to
Launceston, so as to equalize the influx with this side of
the Wand."

When we reflect that the whole system of in-
dustry of this great empire was for some time
deranged at the termination of the war, by the
discharge of so many soldiers and sailors, who
could not be immediately absorbed in the diffe-
rent localities, are we to be astonished that a
small society like that of Van Diemen's Land,
of which the population is not yet equal to some
of our market towns, should be distressed bs
the arrival of successive cargoes of emigrants,
landed in a state of destitution ? Even in the
rich and flourishing city of New York, the dis-
tress of Irish emigrants was often so great from
their glutting the market of labour, that a so-
ciety, of which the late Mr. Thomas Emmet
was a distinguished member, was formed for
the express purpose of relieving the necessities
of those destitute Irish exiles. Looking as we
do on emigration as a means of relieving our
labouring population, and adding to the wealth
of the community, we regret exceedingly that
mismanagement of this kind should be allowed
to interfere with its future success. The recital
of these calamities must throw a damp over the
mind of every labouring man in the country.
The great emigration of last year was caused
by the accounts transmitted by emigrants to
their friends and relations at home. There
requires no other persuasion than similar ac-
counts of the success of others. On the other
hand, recitals of misery will equally discourage
men from emigrating. We cannot expect
that they should he able to examine the object
in all its bearings, and to discover in the parti-
cular circumstances in the situation of the latest
emigrants the cause of the evils that befel them.
There are two classes of men desirous of emi-
grating—First, men possessed of a small capital,
which might be more available in a new country
than at home ; and next, men possessed of no
property but their labour. These two classes
may be made to assist each other. Let a Com-
pany be formed on the plan of the South Aus-
tralian Company, which Mr. Hay, the Under
Secretary of State, was allowed to paralyse,
governed by some well defined rules sanctioned
by the home Government, which should purchase
a large tract of country, the land of which would
be systematically sold, and the produce applied
to the conveyance of the necessitous class.
Here then the capitalist and the labourer are
brought into contact with each other. The
emigration in such a case could never be exces-
sive; because the labour of former emigrants
would always provide means for the employment
of fresh cargoes. The labour market would never
be overstocked, because the existence of the means
of transport would be a proof of the existence
of means for the employment of more labour.
The Poor Law Commission, at the head of
which is the Bishop of London, has, we under-
stand, procured a most valuable body of infor-
mation with regard to the state of the labouring
population throughout the country. When this
information is puhlished, we shall be in posses-
sion of the actual state of the country, and the
extent of the necessity for endeavouring to re-
medy the evil by emigration. But it must always
be kept in mind, that if the emigration is con-
ducted on a had principle, we not only throw
away money, and, what is worse, throw away
the happiness of our fellow creatures, but we also
throw away the means of correcting the evil ; for
the injudicious disposal of land, in a colony,
prevents the recurrence to a better system in it.
Land, it should always be borne in mind, is of
no value without labour ; but land may be so
disposed of that the profitable employment
of labour may be impossible. It has been
wittily said, with reference to the wisdom of
our ancestors that we have more wisdom than our
ancestors had, inasmuch as we have our own
experience in addition to theirs. But this re-
mark notwithstanding, there were several points
with respect to which our ancestors thought
more correctly than we do. Without going
back to the Greeks, who certainly understood
colonization much better than we do, it is only
necessary to turn to the very luminous account
given of the Plantation of Ulster, by Carte, in
his " History of the Duke of Ormond," and to
the observations of Lord Bacon on the Planta-
tion in Ireland, to be sensible that the subject
was much better understood more than two
centuries ago than it is now. " When men,"
says Lord Bacon, "come into a country
vast and void of all things necessary for
the use of man's life, if they set up to-
gether in a place, one of them will the better
supply the wants of the other ; work folks
of all sorts will be the more continually on work
without loss of time ; when if work fail in one
place they may have it fast by ; the ways will be
made more passable for carriages to those seats or
towns, than they can be to a number of dispersed
solitary places; and infinite other helps and
easements, scarcely to be comprehended in cogi-
tation, will ensue in vicinity and society of peo-
ple ; whereas, if they build scattered (as is pro-
jected?, every man must have a cornucopia in
himse f, for all things he must use, which cannot
but breed much difficulty, and no less waste."—
" It will also (he adds) be a means to secure
the country against fixture perils in case of any
revolt and defection ; for, by a slight fortification
of no great charge, the danger of any attempts of
kierns and swordsmen may be prevented ; the
omission of which point m the last plantation of
Munster, made the work of years to be but the
spoil of days." These are precisely the ideas
which have been so ably developed by the
acute author of " England and America."
Dr. Johnson, who, more than any man of
his time, perhaps, was able to apply) on the
sudden, the powers of his mind successfully
to subjects started in conversation, seems to
have taken a much sounder view of emigration,
as conducted in his: time, than Adam Smith.
Johnson not haying made it the subject of re.