The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-13 00:00:00

771 E ENGLISH EXODUS.

When the politicians of the Southern States were
preparing for secession they perhaps knew there
was a chance that it might end in their own ruin ;
but they could not, shrewd and intelligent as they
were, have imagined even a small part of the con-
sequences that did ensue. Improbable as may ap-
pear the connection, their action to maintain slavery
has given the impetus required to inaugurate what
we believe will turn out to be an exodus from Eng-
land to America. No man could have foreseen even
the probability of such a result, yet the circum-
stances are undeniable by which the conclusion is
arrived at. The war caused the establishment of
an inconvertible paper currency, an effect it was
certain to have. The paper currency as surely
supplanted and drove from the country the specie
before in circulation. The released precious me-
tals took their way to Europe, where vastly increas-
ing the currency they had the effect of creating great
apparent prosperity, speculation, and an unhealthy
activity. This was aided by the disturbance of
trade that ensue 3, for the old channels of commerce
were broken up by the war, and the direction was
given by the Limited Liability Act of 1862, which
enabled all classes of Englishmen to enter into
trade, confining the risk to a definite sum. The
gates being thus opened to receive the great flood
pressing for admittance, there was a wild rush,
every conceivable plan took the shape of a Joint-
Stock enterprise, and English society formed itself
into innumerable companies for supplying all ima-
ginable wants, even inventing, where none had be-
fore existed. Industry was enormously stimulated,
employment was found for any number at good
wages, which quickly brought the working people
together. Then followed the collapse, for it was
soon discovered that every man could not be his
neighbour's grocer, hotel-keeper, carriage-builder,
as well as shipbuilder, and that the success of such
enterprises, conducted by practically irresponsible
persons, and directors who knew nothing of the bu-
siness, was in a high degree improbable. But the
mischief had been done ; the money of thousands
of families was thus invested, and the tens of thou-
sands of work-People gathered in the factories cre-
ated by that money were living on the wages there
disbursed. With the general break-up, these two
classes were left wholly unprovided for, and an
amount of distress ensued such as has seldom been
seen in England. It is in such unpleasant phases
great national movements have their origin, and
the want in the present as well as the hopelessness
in the future, have now directed public attention to
emigration. Although but beginning, the move-
ment having penetrated deeply is rapidly spread-
ing, and the questions most eagerly discussed in the
lower grades of English society are the best country

and the means required for successful settlement.
The practical answer given may be seen by a glance at
the emigration returns at Liverpool. It is clear that
the -English exodus will follow in the channel of the
Irish and the Germans, for the opinion of Europe
has been pronounced that, taking it all in all, the
finest field for emigration is the United States. We
maintain, then, that the glat of gold arising from
the substitution of paper for the metals in the cur-
rency of the United States caused by the War, led
to the unhealthy activity in England, ending in the
grand smash of 18GG, while the ruin and distress
ensuing therefrom have inaugurated a movement
likely to become an exodus of the people to Ame-
rica ; therefore, among the consequences of the War,
will probably be a great English emigration to the Re-
public. If we turn to other countries, we almost in-
variably see the seeming tide of prosperity arising
from a large influx of the precious metals, end
in a general depression and prostration of trade,
which, in au old country, causes emigration, and in
a new country checks the influx of population. In
Canada an immense amount of English capital was
expended on the construction of the Grand Trunk
and other railways; this led to an inflation, and
that to a collapse, from which the colony took
years to recover. Ia Australia the diggings in-
undated the province of which Melbourne is the
capital, with gold, and so buoyant was the gas
filling that balloon that it seemed likely to escape
altogether from earth. But, as usual, the collapse
brought it all the more heavily to the ground from
the magnitude of the elevation. The derangement of
the cotton trade led in Bombay to an immense influx
of silver. Never had the natives of the Deccan
and of Goozerat been so oppressed with money.
Agents travelled in all directions to buy up at
exorbitant prices the coming crop, and , the limn-
doo women and children were loaded with the
bangles which had formerly been dollars, and even
cartwheels were studded with silver nails. But
the consequence was that a very excellent little
doctor who had formerly been glad to compound
nauseous draughts for llindoo magnates erected
himself into a Providence, and greater far than
King CANUTE, commanded that the sea not merely
should not advance, but should retire. This worthy
gentleman proceeded on paper to point out the errors
of nature in the creation of the island of Bombay,
which he undertook to rectify. Reclamation Com-
panies were established, new cities were planned
away out in the ocean, and eager buyers were found
even among the cautious Ilindoos, who dug up their
boards and rushed frantically to purchase shares in
the Reclamation schemes. This madness was even
more transparent than that in Melbourne, and the
proceedings in London were analogous, though not
so easily to be detected. The result, however, in
London has been to gather people in localities
which have not, and never can have the means of
supporting them in health and comfort, and emi-
gration being now-a-days the only escape from
such a difficulty, to emigration the English turn.
We have always maintained that English emigra-
tion on a large scale directed to America, accom-
panied by English capital, will have a beneficial
influence on the relations between the countries ;
and this corning exodus, by the way, is one of the
points overlooked by GOLDWIN SMITH in his letter
recently published. He sees a land from which
emigration has been carefully diverted; but let
English emigration flow there as that of Ireland
did a few years ago and that of Germany does now,
and a change of feeling will soon be effected. The
points, too, he raises in objection to the entrance of
Canada into the Union would be answered by such
an immigration ; and we believe that the whole
could be made to harmonise, so that all interests
would be conserved. The feeling is abroad which
will gradually swell the present volume of British
emigration to the United States; and it would be
in vain, even if tried, to stem or turn its course ;
while we regard this as fortunate, for otherwise some
stupid people might do injury. The numbers who
assemble to hear lectures on emigration ; the avi-
dity with which pamphlets and all intelligence re-
garding the different States are read ; the number
of emigration agencies opened, the direction invest-
toasaet,- iu tLo puro►iace of loPeo traoto, :ma
the construction of railroads over them, which
smoothes the way for the settler while making a
profit for the capital employed, the good names con-
nected with COMO of these schemes, itself a proof
that a large business is anticipated, all combine to
show the strength of a movement already being
felt by employers, and which tends to clear away
some of the superabundant shops, small farms,
farmers' sons, and agricultural labourers, together
with the numerous applicants for every kind of em-
ployment.—Anglo-Anzerican Times.

CUBA AND THE ALABAMA QUESTION.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

We have always raised our small voice against a
policy we considered little less than idiotic, the in-
troduction of the " waiting game" into the settle-
ment of the Alabama dispute. It is all very well
for men to leave to the future what cannot be settled
in the present, and to shape their conduct so as to
secure as many of the chances as they can in their
favour. But the idea of committing an event to the
future, and then asserting positively what was about
to happen, is usurping functions not delegated to
man, and the " waiting game" has always seemed
to us to partake of this presumption. To wait
until England became involved in war, and then
to retaliate, whereby America might forcibly illus-
trate the true character of her conduct, was not,.
nor is likely to prove a wise course, though we do
not believe such a motive influenced American states-
men, however strongly circumstances have given a
colouring in justification of those who attributed
to them a view so openly advocated by some
American newspapers. The first objection is
hat the Republic might first find herself involved
in war, and that under any circumstances to keep
open this question was injurious to both nations
in proportion to their commerce, which with the
United States might soon again be greater than
than that of England in the ocean carrying trade.
We regard the Alabama case, if rightly dealt with,
as little less than fortunate for the two countries if
made the means of establishing a precedent on
which all would in future be compelled to act.
Should it instead be held up in its present
naked deformity as an example for others to fol-
low, it could not fail to become a curse to man-
kind, and be likely eventually to lead to the ruin of
British commerce. Even were the United States
in the full tide of success to cover the seas with
commercial fleets after destroying those of England,
they would probably have turned a useful trading peo-
ple into a community of pirates to prove thenceforth
a thorn in their sides. At any rate the " waiting
game" has already become an unexpected obstacle
in the way of American policy. The Philadelphia
correspondent of the Times, in his letter of the 21st
Sept ember,supports our view of the American policy
on the Cuban question in opposition to that of his
own journal ; indeed there is no small contrast be-
tween the letter of the correspondent and the opi-
nions expressed in the leading articles. Were it
not for the irksome restraint imposed by the
Alabama question, belligerent rights to the Cubans
would long since have been accorded by the United
States, and so strongly is it felt that many advise
the abandonment of the grievance against England
of a premature recognition of the Confederates as
belligerents. President GRANT and Secretary Fisii
are said not only to favour according belligerency,
but to go so far as to recognize the Republican
Government of Cuba, in which they are backed by
nearly all Americans. The Journal of Commerce
thinks
" The balance of advantages is decidedly in favour of
relinquishing Mr. Sumner's great point against England,
out of which no practical good may ever come, and speak-
ing to the Cubans aloud that intense national sympathy
which has never yot found official voice. 'A bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush.' Cuba will be worth hun-
dreds of millions to us. What reasonable man expects any
large payment of money—or the cession of Canada, or any
other substantial good—from England in expiation of
what wo call her fault in granting belligerent rights to
the rebels ?"

We certainly agree with our New York contempo-
rary, considering what moonshine the great point is
according to oneof the highest American authorities.
At the Social Science Congress at Bristol the llon.
WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE, formerly American