The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-18 00:00:00

meeting.

A DIPLOMATIC DIARY.

Admiral Persano, the Italian officer to whom his
_ountrymen attribute the defeat at Lissa, has published
his journal for the years 1860 and 1861, which contains a
series of letters by Cavour, D'Azeglio, Garibaldi, and
others, giving a complete history of the expedition of the
Two Sicilies. The real intentions of Cavour, and the
understanding between the King and Garibaldi, are
among the most interesting points on which light is
thrown by these important documents.

ENGLISH EMIGRATION.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

It has been noticed that population in America
tends from the country towards the town ; but this
is the universal course wherever the network of
railroads has been most extended. It is the case
even in a greater degree in England, where in 1811
there ware but 51 towns containing over 10,000
persons, making up 24 per cent. of the population,
while in 1861 there were 165 such towns with 44
per cent. of the population. In 1811 there were 16
towns containing over 20,000 inhabitants, amount-
ing in all to 19 per cent. of the population ; in
1861 there were 72 such towns with 38 per cent.
of the population. In the first-named year London
was the only city that had more than 100,000 inha •
bitants, while in 1861 there were 12 towns wher,24
dwelt 25 per cent. of all the people.* These facts
prove the rapid increase of towns, but it remains to
be shown where the increase came from. It has
been ascertained that out of 11 adult citizens of
London, Liverpool, Blanchester, and Birmingham
5 only had therein been born, the greater portion
being immigrants, and the question is whence came
the foreign six. It is asserted that of that six
ninety per cent. were from the rural districts, and
but ten per cent. from other centres of population,
which shows that in no other land has the drift of
population from country to town been so marked
as in England. The same phenomenon is now ob-
servable in the United States, and has given rise to
much speculative theory. The broad reason pro-
bably is the essential change wrought by such an
easy mode of transport as the railway. Bad roads
make many villages ; good roads condense them into
towns ; railways gather all into cities. 11711,-:re
roads are bad and communication difficult much of
the produce must be consumed where it is raised, re-
sulting in an overflowing plenty and the consequent
cheapness of most essentials of living, while food
being abundant in these distant localities popula-
tion will there be gathered. A railroad changes
this, carrying the produce to the town, where it
finds a remunerative market, making what had be-
fore been cheap little less dear than in the city,
while what the city produces is by no means cheap-
ened in a like degree. One reason is that agricul-
tural produce is bulky in proportion to value, while
the manufactures of the city are, as a rule, light,
handy, and valuable in proportion to bulk, making
carriage comparatively inexpensive. Another is that
the city goods are generally lasting, being less liable
to decay than agricultural, which must be consumed
within a shorter period or lost. The effect is to make
the city cheap as well as the country de ir, also to
bring from the little villages the tradesmen who,
when the towns were comparatively inaccessible,
supplied their neighbours with their handiwork made
on ti.e spot, far railways render it less costly to those
neighbours to procure bet: er articles in the chief cen-
tres of commerce. Tile economic result of the lo-
comotive and rail is to sweep the country of its
scattered hamlets, leaving nothing but the popula-
tion required to till the soil, gathering them into
manufacturing towns, where food is by the rail
made cheaper and work more abundant. The great
emigration of Britain, then, has been from the
country into the towns, raising such places as Liver-
pool, Manchester, and Glasgow. In Ireland, where
no such centres of industry arose, the emigration
from the rural districts was across the ocean to
America, and this is perhaps the chief reason why
the foreign flow of the Irish so vastly exceeded
that of the English, though the movement of popu-
ation may not have been greater in Ireland than
in England. What is to be the effect of thus
gathering the people into dense communities re-
mains to be seen, and must soon develope itself in a
marked manner in England. So far there is reason to
believe that the movement is not a healthy one,
but there is no reason why with greater knowledge
of sanitary matters and a more diffused education
there should not be counteracting influences mak-
ing up on the whole a balance of good. Difficult
problems are in the change brought more fully and
prominently to the notice of the nation. A period of
speculative action helps to gather into manu-
factories the country hands, and the reactionary
stagnation which surely follows throws them out of
employment when settled in their new homes. The
evil influence is two-fold, for as a rule the agri-
cultural labourer is better fitted in health and
habits for an emigrant than the townsman, while
his training in the town wherein he is eventually
brought to abject poVerty, tends to disqualify him
for his remedy in emigration. It is generally ad-
mitted that the time has arrived when it has be-
ome necessary to organise a system of emigration
from England, and we have always advocated that
such an emigration should be freely poured into the
United States. Why, is obvious to those who un-
derstimd the subject, yet the general impression in
England is altogether opposed to our doctrine.
Above all things is it -advisable that the inexpunge-
able relationship and the consequent sympathies
existing (though overlaid with much bad feeling)
between the United Kingdom and the United States
should be strengthened. It is of paramount im-
portance to the two great nations not only to main-
tain such friendship as exists, but to become closely
allied. With different institutions, with divergence
in external appearance, the broad basis of charac-
ter is the same in England and America ; and what
we have asserted and maintain is that no foreigner
but an American, especially.a New Englander, could
gather, excite, and sway a British mob north or
south from Johnny Groat's House to the Land's
End by addressing to them precisely what he would
say to his own people in Massachusetts or on
the green hills of Vermont. What BRIGHT says
from a platform is much the same as what SUMNER
says, putting aside, of course, the subject of inter-
national disputes. The utterances in the High
Church, Low Church, and other church pulpits of
England find their exact counterparts in the cor-
responding pulpits of America. Hence Englishmen
would assimilate readily with such a population,
and it is, in our opinion, to be deplored that the un-
due rise of the manufacturing industry of England
direc:el emigration to the great cities, instead of
to the United States. If it becomes a tenet of Eng-
lish policy, as we hope and believe it soon will be,
to make great efforts, and even sacrifices, to draw
close the bonds of relationship with America, the
first step is to
.educate and train those designed for
emigration, so that they can take their places in their
new Fphere as valuable citizens at once, where their
influence will be in prOportion to their intelligence
and good conduct rather than to the number of
votes they can control. We say America, design-
edly ; for we believe the great object to be the fusion
into the Republics of all the North American Conti-

* Lecture of Mr. John Honry Bridges.