The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-04 00:00:00

Your Comrnittee having brought their inquiry
into the general subject bf emigration to a close,
have the satisfaction to present to the House a
gerreral.and final Report. There have been al-
ready laid before the House three successive Re-
ports on this subject ; the first at the clOse of
the -Session of 1826, by the former Committee ;.
the two 'others by your Committee, in the course
•of the-prevent Session. These two last have been
Special Reports, and relate to incidental points.
The first being of a more general nature, was
limited to the record of certain. facts and prin-
ciples, which, upon a careful re-examination,
your Committee are prepared conclusively to
confirm and support. It recorded the existence
of a redundancy of population in extensive dis-
tlicts of Ireland, and in certain districts of Scot-
land and England. It limited the meaning of
the term redundancy to a supply of able-bodied
and active labourers with their families, for whose
labour there was no effective demand. It main-
tained, that the effect of this redundancy was to
reduce the wages of, labour below their proper
level, by which much destitution and misery were
produced in particular places, deteriorating the
general condition of the labouring classes ; and
that the labourer, for whose services no real
demand exists, consumes more than he pro-
duces, and consequently adds ' nothing to
the general annual production, but so far
tends to diminish the national wealth. It-
contrasted the general effects of a redundant
population in England, where it is sUpported by
a parochial rate, with the result in Ireland, where
it is dependant for support' on the precarious
funds of-charity, or at times on the more. danger-
ous resources of plunder and spoliation. It re-
corded, that this redundancy was found practi-
cally to repress thee industry, and even some-
times to endanger the peace of the country, creat-
ing mendicancy, outrage, and diminution of occu-
pation,' with every attribute of excessive pauperism.
It adverted to,the immediate effect of a practice,
now in active operation, of clearing estates by-
the removal of a redundant pauper population,
for the purpose of placing such estates under
improved management in the hands. of a few sub-
stantial tenants, and to the probable consequences
of such clearing, in all cases, where no measures
were taken to provide for the ejected parties ;
and'it pointed out the manner in which a judicious
system of emigration was calculated to abet such
provision.

It laid down the principle, that neither parishes
in England nor Scotland, nor districts or pro-
prietors of lands in Ireland, could be expected to
contribute for purposes of emigration, unless it
could be demonstrably shown that their interests,
both general and pecuniary, would be benefited ;
and the Report anticipated the certainty of such
demonstration It considered the evidence on'
the state of Ireland to Shave established the im-
portant fact, that, although no direct levy 'for the
support of the poor takes place in that country,
a burden is yet imposed upon it for their relief,
which, though not legally assessed, is not the less
a practical grievance, and a sobstraction from
national and individual resources.

It objected, in the strongest manner, to any
system of emigration supported by public assist-
ance, which was .not essentially voluntary on the
part of the emigrants, or which did not propose
to remove that part of the community, who, beiug
in the 'possession of health and strength, were,
notwithstanding, in a state of permanent paupe-
rism.

It recorded, generally, that
:in the British
Colonies in North America, at the Cape of
Good,• Hope, and in New South Wales, and
Vain DiemaWs Land, there were tracts of unap-
propriated land, of the most fertile quality, ca-
pable of receiving arid subsisting any proportion
of the redundant population in this country, of
the nature and character to which that redun-
dancy had been limited, for whose conveyance to
those Colonies means could he at'any time found.
It adverted to the benefits which would specially
accrue to the •Colonies by the accession of such
population; to the expence at which emigration,
on an extended scale, might be carried into
effect ; and to the probability of the repayment
of .any capital advanced, by the subsequent con-
tribution of the emigrant. It adverted to the
market for the increased production of the Colo-
nies, which would arise from the cultivation of
the land by each successive series of Emigrants ;
and the,deniand for the manufactures of the Mo-
ther Country,
compa-
ratively later period. ;
Another most inportant subject of considera-
tiohthat which would accrue at a
.n Report was, the degree of proba-
bility of any temporary vacuum being filled up
which might be produced by Emigration. Such
collateral measures, both of a legislative and prac-
tical
nature, as might be calculated to repress, if
not to prevent, the replenishment of such vadium,
were also considered, and to some of those mea-
sures the Report specifically referred, An object
also of primary importance in the consideration
of Emigration as a national measure was refer-
red to in that Report, namely, the effect of the
removal of a comparatively small excess of popu-
lation, in benefiting and improving the condition
of the remainder ; and the Report finally con-
cluded by expressing the decided conviction of
the Committee, that its circulation, and that of
the Minutes of Evidence, throughout the United
Kingdom and the Colonies, would enable any
future Committee to resume the ec subj t with the
means of proposing measures sufficiently definite