The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-27 00:00:00

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4

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1850.

There is a lady in this great capital, personally a
total stranger to ourselves, but known to us and to the
vast body of the community by her very noble and
beautiful reputation : a lady whose benevolence is
fast growing into a proverb, whose philanthropy has
revealed itself, and is still revealing itself, in the be.
stowal of inestimable benefactions upon her fellow-
' creatures, and whose generous solicitude to advance
the interests of humanity attested its earnestness
! during several years in a remote quarter of the globe
by her self-sacrificing devotion to the unfortunate.
All those who have interested themselves in be-
half of the destitute population of the United
Kingdom, or who have acquired any fa-
miliarity with the recent history of colonisation
in Australia, will recognize at a glance that our allu-
sions are directed to no other than the humane Mrs.
C uisnoext, a lady who has beeii not infelicitously desig-
nated " the Mrs. FRY of emigration." Our object in
directing attention at this moment to the labours of
this distinguished benefactress of the poorer classes,
is to enforce by our coincident opinion, as far as the
readers of this journal are concerned, the remon-
strances recently addressed by her to the committee
of the Family Colonization Loan Society against the
system, unhappily too much in vogue, in reference to
the selection of the individuals to beconveyed as settlers
to our different trans-oceanic possessions. According
to that system it is decided that single men older
than thirty-five years are ineligible, that parents
:god above forty, having families of children, are de-
barred from any participation in the benefits of such
assistance, and that the individuals most readily aided
in this kind of expatriation, are young married couples
ithout offspring. Against this perverse and erro-
neous mode of selection Mrs. CRISHOLM raises her
voice with a most eloquent earnestness, as against "a
gross outrage to humanity, a violent rending
of the tenderest ties of nature, and injurious to
morality." These objections are directed through
the new society for the advancement of colonization
against the plan upon which the Government are now
carrying out the emigration movement. For the
plan adopted by the Government is a plan based upon
these mistaken and pernicious principles The fal-
lacy of the entire scheme has unhaKily been but too
plainly testified by the general results of its opera-
tion. Failure, in fact, in its regard was nothing less
than inevitable. In consequence of the narrow mar-
gin allowed to those agents who have had to select
from the numerous candidates for aid in the way
of emigration, family bonds have been torn asun-
der, the youthful and inexperienced have been
separated from those whose age and relationship
would have constituted them their best guardians
and advisers, strangers to each other the young emi-
grants have been conveyed to their respective settle-
ments, there to work out their destinies as they best
could, dejected and unfriended. In lieu of this prepos-
terous system, a system as obviously irrational as it
is notoriously detrimental to the interests of the ap-
plicants for aid in emigration, Mrs. Catsuoam pro-
pounds a scheme simple, practical, and benevolent.
'What is suggested by this patroness of industrial
emigration may be very easily specified and very
readily comprehended. Its appreciation will
prove necessarily the sequence of its examination.
Briefly then :—it is proposed that at stated intervals,
in a room connected with the establishment of the
new association, groups of persons desirous of emi-
grating shall assemble together, there to talk over
the best method of proceeding, aided in their delibe-
ration by original letters from emigrants, colonial
papers, and other authentic documents. By this
means strangers can form an acquaintance with each
other, and this acquaintance, prior to their depar-
ture in company, may ripen into the intimacy
of friendship. Family will become associated
with family before the arrival of the time
of embarkation ; and any unfriended orphan,
or helpless girl, will be especially placed under
the protection of some elder of a family by Mrs.
Cnisteoem herself, the least competent to look after
their own interests being thereby humanely pro-
vided with a.:ivice and assistance before leaving Eng-
land,
during the outward voyage, and after their ar-
rival at the distant settlement. Anything more
familiarly practicable than this scheme of proceeding
is to our, mind beyond the reach of contrivance.
Again, in the distribution of pecuniary assistance,
a wise and judicous economy will be observed,
the advances being made•upon good, but at the
same tin* convenient, security, the emigrants engag-
ing to repay the amount of their loans (without inte-
rest), individually and collectively, within a period of
two years or upwards, these stipulations being made
by " friendly parties, or groups of approved indivi-
duals, who are acquainted with each other's character."
By this arrangement it will be at once perceived that
a sympathy will be established between all the diffe-
rent members of such a group, each one becoming nes
cessarily interested in the good success of the rest as
well as of himself, so that the liabilities for
which they are mutually responsible may be
duly attended to within the prescribed interval. Out
of this connecting interest will, in the majority of
instances, spring a willingness, or rather we may say,
an actual solicitude to labour, each one for their
common advancement. Every member of the family
or group with sedulous endeavour, not merely to
push onwards himself, but to aid his comrades in
doing the same, so as to deserve individually and col-
lectively their common prosperity. Under such
management as this we may at length hope to witness
the arrival of that period anticipated by the
benevolent originator of the system, when
" young women may be sent into a ship with the same
confidence with which females now enter our trains
and mail-coaches." Whether this time may arrive
sooner or later must, of course, yet awhile remain
merely matter for conjecture, but that it will ulti-
mately be witnessed we are sanguine and—what is
more confident confident from our reliance
upon the practicability of the system projected by
Mrs. Censumeg, end upon the continuance of the
unwearied industry hitherto evinced by that eminent
philanthropist.

After three days' sitting, the National Reform Con-
ference has, for the present, concluded its labours.
Chosen delegates , from all parts of the country, re-
presenting the various
associations that have sprung
up throughout the length and breadth of the land, at-
tended in the metropolis for thepurpose
athe d stateo of
detoefr politicalingo
n tfeelinghe
best in
mode
of attracting the
attention of the Legislature
to the
of the great body of the people.
many enthusiastic and ze-alous whOse former ser-
They were met by
vices have been already recognised by large and influ-
ential constituencies, and who are now placed in the
proud position of popular representatives, who have
achieved seats in the British Senate, and who were
ready to account to their brethren for the manner in
which they collectively end individually had fulfilled
the important and arduous duties confided to their
charge. Although the most perfect freedom of speech
was accorded to_ each there was no discord or dissen-
sion. With some insignificant exceptions, every dele-
gate submitted cheerfully to the decisions of the busi-
ness committee, and there was scarcely an attempt
made to divide the assembly by the introduction
of topics on which there would neces-
sarily have been differences of opinion. The
result was that all almost unparalleled unani-
mity was attained, which affords the most propitious
auguries of future succes9. What may not be anti-
cipated from men who are willing to yield some por-
tion of their own cherished opinions in order to co-
operate together, earnestly and efficiently, to achieve
the common object and to carry out the great princi-
lPie• in public -policy--" the greatest good to the a