The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1868,

the height of the gale ; if so, there is no doubt they
must have all foundered.

On Saturdap afternoon the bark Britannia, Capt.
Greig, bound from the West Coast of Africa for
Liverpool, put in to Holyhead, having on board the
master (Capt. Ferguson) and 21 men of the ship
Ghazeepore, from Akyab, laden with rice, for Liver-
pcol. On Monday afternoon the Britannia, while
40 miles south of Cork, came up to the Ghazee-
pore, which had been totally dismasted two days
previously and was in a sinking condition. The
crew were put on board the Britannia with consi-
derable difficulty. They landed at Holyhead and
proceeded on to Liverpool. They spoke very grate-
fully of Capt. Greig's kindness to them.
The lifeboats in connection with the Royal Na-
tional Lifeboat Institution have been the means of
saving life on the coast of North Wales and at Holy
island, Ramsgate, Anstruther, and other stations.

STATE SE7TLEMENT AND NATURALI-
ZATION.

From the Anglo-American Times.)
Governor BULLOCK in his Message to the Mas-
sachusetts Legislature touches on a subject which,
in a more general way, is now exciting the atten-
_ _

tion of he Anglo-Saxon race. The Massachusetts
laws of settlement are not remotely c'nnected with
the laws of naturalization, and the customs of Mas-

sachusetts exemplify the necessity for change, show-

Lug that however good originally, and well qualified
to meet the difficulties of the day, the best laws

may, under another order of things, become op-
pressive, and even absurd. It appears that in Mas-
sachusetts the State is responsible for the support
of all descendants of men and women who once

gained or derived a settlement within its limits,
their obligation remaining, though the family may
have left the soil for centuries. Whoever once se-
cured a settlement in Massachusetts retains the
right for his descendants, no matter how remote—
no matter where born or bred—to a provision in
case of destitution. Their sick, their insane, their
defective, their paupers, may return to Massachu-
setts to be supported by the town of original set.

tlement. The statutes of the State, as shown in
elaborate treaties by the Attorney-General, forbid
their removal—though they may be but great-grand-
children of the original settler, and acquired sub-
sequent settlements elsewhere—except with their
own free consent. Practically to illustrate his sub-
ject, the Governor gives the following instances :
" One hundred years ago a, resident of a small town
in the county of Worcester whose political senti-
ments, according to tradition, were obnoxious to his
fellow-citizens, emigrated to a neighbouring State,
where he lived and died, and his descendants after
him to the fourth generation, all having settlementa
in that State, and nearly all owners of the soil. A
few years since one of his great-grandsons returned
to Massachusetts, became insane, and was sent to
the hospital at a cost to the small town above
named, whence his ancestor originated, of about
twelve hundred dollars up to this time, and of two
hundred dollars a year in addition, as long as he
may live. He cannot legally be returned to his own
birth-place and the home of his fathers for four
generations. About 1743 a family left a small
town in the county of Bristol, and gained settle-
ments successively in three other New England
States, never returning to reside in Massachusetts.
One hundred and eighteen years afterwards four
idiot members of this family were returned to this
State to be supported by the ancestral town at an
expense of not less than six hundred dollars a year.
A town in the county of Norfolk, by virtue
of an ancestral settlement, is now compelled
to support a lunatic who escaped a few
months since from the almshouse of his native
city, where his legal residence is undisputed."
The English law of citizenship is
grounded on the
same principle, with this material difference, that
England selfishly endeavoured to hold her subjects
to the duties involved in citizenship, while she in
effect repudiated the reciprocal duties of protection.
But Massachusetts has fixed on its inhabitants the
burden of supporting the descendants of those who
once acquired the right to her support. The per-
manent and settled population has been gradually
but surely decreasing, while the number of those
entitled to aid may be counted by millions scattered
over the globe. of course such a system is unfair
and requires revision. The first instance of State
pauperism mentioned in the history of Massachu-
setts King occurred as early as 1639, in the time of King
PHILIP'S war, when the ruined and houseless inhabi-
tants of the ravaged districts were distributed by
of the colony. Nearly
three-quarters of a century
the general court for maintenance among the towns
ago the code was revised, and based as before upon
that of England, remaining substantially unchanged
time. Governor BULLOCK says :---" The
payment of all taxes assessed
requisitions to settlement are now resi-
dence for ten successive years without receiving
tporitnboeippraelsreecint
the payment
town purposes for any five
that time, or the residing upon one's
own real estate for three successive years—the party
fpyoeurabr
slsi et
adatui
odr,
during
gint
nh yt
always being a citizen and of lawful age. These
conditions might have been well suited to the needs
labour, they can hardly
of
ten years in
of an agricultural and commercial population,
secure i
nitsewal permanence. But the progress of
manufactures
among us has developed new and un-
foreseen relations towards our countrymen from
dutiesoth r w
ttoward States,
ad
ourhi brethren from other lands. Both
le immigration has imposed new
classes, seeking homes among us, have added largely
to our productive energies and material wealth ;
but for both, the conditions of acquiring settlement
are far too onerous. Compelled to follow the ebb
mand i
maintain
ao
iwn oa fthe n
uninterrupted demand
forresidencea
single town ; or, if perchance they accomplish it,
some wary official will omit to assess them for the
fifth time, or abate a tax with ready lenity. Large
numbers are thus, in ignorance of their rights,
deprived of the residence they are on the point
of acquiring; and after a sober and indus-
trious life, in the infirmity of age, are given
over to a State almshouse." The latp Governor
ANDREW earnestly advised a revision, and proposed
specific additions, which were defeated in committee
with one exception. GovernorßuLLoeK entirely agrees
with his predecessor, and proposes rather an exten-
sion than an alteration of the present statutes,
which may secure the objects without provoking liti-
gation. He would permit aliens to enjoy the privileges
of the native born on having complied with the
conditions of settlement. "No accidents of birth,
or colour, or race, or sex," says this document,
" should bar any from the rights of acquisition and
enjoyment. In her justice and her charity Massa-
chusetts should recognize no frontiers but those of
humanity itself." The l sett ement of single women
after useful and guileless lives, is next adverted to.
"We should not pe •
runt them, in their advancing
ago and infirmity, to be torn away from the friends
and associations and homes of half a century, to
linger out the remnant in a State almshouse." The
Governor next calls attention to a more efficient
protection of the rights of citizens, whose paternal
settlement is obscure, but who have a well-known
maternal settlement. The cities and towns take
advantage of this to send such persons to the State
almshouses. It •
is earnestly recommended to en-
courage the towns to assist at home worthy and in-
dustrious families who have no settlement, with a
partial or full reimbursement from the State, in the
same manner and under the same supervision as
that now adopted for the relief of the sick poor
therein. The Governor recommends careful in-
quiry whether the pre-requisite of ten years' con-
tinuous residence may not safely be reduced at least
to the maximum of the neighbouring States. Maine
requires but five years' residence, New York but
one, and the maximum of the others is seven. And
further suggests whether assessors shall be permitted
to prevent the acquisition of a settlement by omis-
sion to impose a tax, or abatement of any already
laid. We cannot doubt that a great amount of
hardship will be averted by these two changes alone.
It is quite clear that this subject, connected as it is
with naturalization, requires revision throughout all
the States. We may here allude to the broader
subject of naturalization now exciting so much in-
terest in the United States. There is no law of
expatriation in the Union, as emigration hasnot been
contemplated by the Legislature, and the judges
have carefully avoided establishing Y nprecedent.