The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-05 00:00:00

*he lowness of wages were mrelative circumstances.
No man, he thought, could detibt that the increase
•of crime was the result of tit:: lowness of wages, which
induced the laboorinn elaeses to resort -to' other
Meat's than itidusio-y to supply their wants.- •MI the* im-
vertant cOnSideeetions were interwoven with the einestinn
.',of a reditridaoy of pJpalation. . if the eedondant portion
eif'thep4ulation were abetracted fteera the market, the
:price otlabour would rise. This must be donehefore it
eveitid-be possible to withdraw that clause of the poor
which compelled parishes to find eneployment for
he unemployed past of, tbe . population. So long as
that clause existed, it would act, as a bonus on popula•
tiato Mr. Malthus was of - opinion, that finless
.7;7:Ilion were extensively . resorted to, ate 'alteration
of flee poor laws would speedily 'he found necev-
%dry. The opinions .beld by Me. Malthus on the sub-
elect of einigratemi were, he wts happy to find, adopted
by InanY ',moons in this
.coitetry, and also in the colonies
theineelves. Long befot' .it was possible that. either
the report or tile eeidence of the feet emigration terkm:
veittee email havo leached Canada, he coined the 'following
vcsolutions had 1n n passed at itieentreal. (Here the
reiehie Mtn. Member read some reoei?utbns in favour of
emigretiore) . In Upper Uttada they were in want of this
P"Pulatieno which was the itto4-..as under whose weight ti:e
Prolreerity of this country eeiffered so much. In may of
th'e colonies, the surplus population we'lld be an eaeoote
'age ;at hottete it was worse than useless. It appeared,
from correct estimates, that the cultivated pall of the Ca-
&lades amounted to 111,000,000 of aces-a. In Great Britain
-end Iceland, the whole amount VC land cultivated and uncul-
rei voted was 77,000,000 of me m The calculation Arm) that
there was one person in the Uatiadas to eery 169 acres,
wilertas in this country tiecre were inetY-seven per-
eons in the saute extent of kr.4. In a conversation
with Mr. Gallatin, of the retited States, that_ gentleman
had stated that he hod otiginally settled on the extreme
'borders of civilization, beyond which extended thoee
boutullese Forests which seemed to put a chetk to
the improvement of man. At this day, however, a line
deown in a straight direction from that ]mint of settlement
along the space formerly occupied by those forests, would
pate through civilized countries for an extent of 800 miles.
'When such was the prodigious advance of civilization in the
United States, what !eight not he expected from a josh-
cious disposal of that part of our population who might
be willing to try their fortune is our own esettlements? It
'u a principle admitted by all political teonomists, that in
a •couurry highly civilized :roll Improved like England,
there must always be a tendeecy to reitnulant population.
But so far were we from'eatleaeouring to correct that ten-
`,leneY, that we hid abandootat all checks av the wretched
system of our poorNws in this country. n id by the equally
. injurious praCtii:c of sub-letting which hid proved so dis-
.asterous to 'lie interests of Ireland. (Hear, hear.) If it
were askse;t what good would this measure confer upon Ire-
- land, kte would say, the very greatest, provided the etni-
grat.un were strictly voluntary--.a condition without which
Zle3 never would consent to soy measure of the kind. But
• supposing the emigration to be voluntary on the 'tart of the
population, and well-directed on the past of tho Govern-
ment, and that it were followed op. with regulations at
home, calculated rather to check than, entourage the re-
oelundeney, he would then say. that a greater benefit could
'cartel}- be conferred upon any country. (Hear, hear.)
Great good was to be expected. from. the increased intelli-
gence of the peomne who alltnieeistered parochial affairs,
and the improved Igiowledgee of the country gentlemen of
Ireland \vitt% respect to tbe
•n of their estates.
TO tiveir united exertions,, and to the operation of good
4aevo, theeeutentry was to look for the ottly permanent re-
Lief excessive population. Not that he would insinuate
t:ait the country was at present uverpopulous in relation to
its extent. No man could deny that in that view of the ques-
tion, England evae capable of suppem ting many uiore,and Ire-
land, perhaps, iu a still greater proportion. The, great evil
was the want of a due proportion between the number of la-
betreers and the demand, for labour. But it was not to
C owls alene that they were bound to look. There were other'
Colonies as much in want of population. When they looked
the evidence of Mr. Pringle as taken in the committee,
they would find that he attributed the distresses at the
Cape principally to the want •of labourers. New South
Wedes was another, colony to which, notwithstanding its
remoteness, we might look with great • confidericte That
colony *as already capable of furnishing prn,lts Which
had an exchangeable value, not only with the mother coun-
try, but in various parts of the Eastern Archipelagai. Site
therefore held out .*seat temptations, notwithstanding the
.exteetne. difference in point of distance between her and
dm other teelonies. Upon a review- of all the circuni-
ota.nees,'ho was bound to come to- the conclusiononot only
that the plan of relieving the country by encouraging co-
lopization was beneficial in a direct way,- but that it was
impossible to lay out capital with a better prospect of en-
serrieg a fair return than by sending our supernumerary po-
pulation to New South Wales. In fact, many parishes
were so well aware of this, that they would willingly un-
elertake the expence of sending their oft'h poor, under a
conviction that in the present state) anti with the peculiar
wants of, the colony, they could not expect any thing more
profitable titan an export ofpopulation•—(Hear, hear.)—
Nor was it in the home parishes ohmic that this truth
Was felt and acknowledged. In the colonies them-
seloeo the inhabitants would he most willing to pay
the expence of conveyance) if the individuals were
articled to them as servouts on going out, so great Was
the demand for labour of all kinds in those places.
lie had encountered much scepticism in the course of those
proceedings. It was natural that he should have done so,
and therefore he did not complain. Nothing was more
common or more easy than to charge those plans with be-
ing visionary which were still to be tried. But, whatever
littargcs might be brought against the Plan which he would
confess himself anxious to recommend, nothing could be
more conclusive than the evidence by whieh its practica-
bility was established. Having thus dismissed the general
subject, he now came to the Passefigers' Act, of which
he had given notice for that day. It was with regret be
hail beard that an Hon. Friend of his had expressed an in-
tention to oppose it. He spoke in the presence of many
gentlemen who had been members of the Emig' ation Cool-
mittee, and under whose direction he had brought in a Bill to
repeal the Passengers' Act. He would admit that this Act
was objectionable, as its operation was to check emigration;
but still he would have preferred the middle course, of
qualifying and revising, instead of repelling the Act. The
necessity of some such measure was to be inferred from
the evidence which Government had received tm the sub-
ject.. There was a despatch from Sir Howard Douglas,
which represented the starving and distressed condition in
which many of the emigrants had arrived at Halifax,—
Such was the effect of leaving unfortunate passengers to
the consideration of those Who speculated in the transport.
No one, he thought, who husked at the subject without
prejudice could he willing to leave the ignorant persons
who crowded to the'coasts of Ireland, either at the mercy
of the captains with whom they sailed, or to their own un-
assisted discretion in providing for the voyage. The most
calamitous results might be expected in either case,----nay,
had actnallt resulted fr?in the operation of the present
measure: The despatch of Sir James Ketnpt, also from
-Halifax, alluded to the same distress and-misery which
was noticed in that of Sir Howard Douglas. It was not
from a speculative appreltensiun, but from a knowledge of
these facts that he thought the old Bill ought to be re-
vived under certain modifications. The object of that mo•
dificitioa would be to establish a minimum of space and a
ininimom
of food, below which the emigrant should .not
be supplied. The utility of such
bad arisen from its h a rule Wild proved, not
.
merely by the disadvantages.'
which
neg-
lect, but by the positive advantage with which its adoption
was attended. . Of two
thousand individuals who were taken
from Ireland: iu IB2h, when this law waster force, the health
and comfort
.Of the emigrants was properly attended to.
There were no deaths on the voyage, no sickness, nor was
theme a siugle instance of crinie.—(Hear, hear.)—From
the papers which were laid ou the table of the House,,and
they, were many, the atuouut; of misery inflicted,upon un-
"NV Passengers by the want of some ppsitive regulation
. with respect to the amount of space anti of filed, was greater
t15.0'1 Night he =Peeled. It was to prevent the recurrence
such miseries that he ivas desirous to introduce a modified
Pill, asking only for the establishment of a minimum with
respect to then two itemtant poiate._(Hear, hear.)--
He was astonished, to hear
,that his lion. Friend • could
tend to oppose a Pleasure of- that nature. The United
states had already- passed A.lotasuto to prevent the intro-
duction of migrants into that country except under
certain: regulations. Our ow, Colonies would feel
the benefit of so slight ail
the,.etugrants themselves regulation io_
as this which
.
he proposed. and above a -;
ould feel it, and the (Tinto!' of the country would
w
• consequence
of it, to
he more favourably disposed, in
which_ h
at he. was
li is a_on. S_ disposed to anti-
the general -measure fro
cipate so much good. He
trusted th
not object in the first instance
to the bringing in of the Bill,
RS it was of
.nunnent that no time should be lost. If it
?I'e iu tether hands more capable than he was of awaken-
,
they-would seen
i ig the feelings and interests of the House,
bo convinced that their deliberations
had never
never been directed
to. a question of greater importance.
T
with many difficulties he did not meanla it teas attended
to deny, but its
impot letoce was a reason for encountering those difficulties.
If they wished that their colonies should become a source
of wealth instead of:an, incumbrance, they must supply
them with a portion of our own population. The e
tiou which be contemplated was essentially voluntary
igea-
Fotuitieti upon that principle, it would be attended Ftth