The Sun.
London, England, 1818-08-04 00:00:00

EMIGRA rioN.

(Frn,p, .EG (s)

We fed that we• caenot render a more import-
ant seteiee cp the British Public, than by offer-
' some ohs rveoions oil the scheme recently
propesed by fit Coighhotin, for the ameliore-
tion of our emelition, in an im rotted and %veil-
arraoged sys!em of Colonization. •It is 'impossi-
ble 'that any men can more conseth-ertiously
reite the Abandonment of the oat,,' soil, tot a
r,shiellce ill CotlllltieS sub3ected to different laces,
Red eovereed by a feeling hostile to the British
looion, ;hail we do. The late emigrations to
,Cteiet lea have given us cons;derable pain, as well
tor the disapponoment experienced by onfortu-
twe (tures, from attful misrepresenta.ions, on
their arrival in that country, as for the injury re-
ceived by this nation from the desertion of a con•
sider Ade eionher of her most effectual members ;
h.!! uft- cAunui be blind to the absolute necessity
of Entigra•.ion of some ;ort, and are therefore
anxious to call the attention of Gpvernment
to
the scheme which has been sebmitted to them,
and which is emit-wetly calculated to insure the
comfort and felicity of our redundant popuiatioo,
and the eventual honour of the British Nation.
The prosperity of a kingdom has been said to
depend on the great number of its innabitants
bin this is true only to a certain extent, and is by
no means applicable to England. A redundant
population is as destructive of the general inte-
rests of society, by increasing the demands tor
s..bsisteore beyond the resources of the county
to sepply them, as the opposite extreme of
thine ss of. inhabitants ; indeed, a too great po-
potation is the m st lamentable evil of the two :
for in a want of numbers to populate a country,
the evils are less real than imaginary. Society is
not so decant, learning is not so general, luxu-
ries and refinement are little known or cultivated,
because external relations cannot be formed by
those whose numbers are not sufficient to corn-
Mato! resources .shich iesure the .steem, or com-
mand the obedience, of foreign nations ; they do
not, however, %yam the necessaries, or even the
cointerts of existence ; whereaN in a redundant
popnlation- both of those evils must be felt by
coosidtrahle,-number ; the means of industry are
wanting—crimes are generated by the difficulty of
Pmenting an honourable subsistence—the civil
art angetnents of the nation become unhinged. and
!moiler or later the political stamina of the Con-
stitution is ruined by a scant of organization in
the inhabitants as a body.
Of the population of England, at least
1.500,000 persens, exclusive of the aged and the
infirm, aud children, are without the means of
exercising their industry or their ingenuity with
the prospect of obtaioing sufficient for the sup-
port of themselves and their families ; and are
therefore dependent, directly or indirectly, upon
parochial assistance. It is by no means difficult
to explain the cause of this misfortune. The an-
nual increase elf population in the United Kiog-
dorrts is not less than 200.000, or in hen years
tee, teollion ; so that it, in the year 1808, the re•
sources of Geeat Britain were equal tel the sup-
port of the )eopelatiou of the United Kingdonts,
her resources ought to be now equal to the stip-
port of an increased pepulation of two millions.
If the means of industry in the year 1815 are
equal to this important increase. nothing can be
said against a redinotant Emendation ; but it is not
too much to assert, that in the year 1808 England
was better able to provide support for the two
millions which did not then exist, than it is now
.able to provide for the population of that period.
The stagnation of labour in eve ry depattment
connected with the war', and the consequent dis-
charge of naury thousand effective members. of
society ; the hard policy of discoatinuiug the sup-
port of Government from respectable individuals
in public offices ; and the abominable absentee
system which has been so eagerly adopted by
many of our richest fellow-countrymen, are
among the causes of the distress which is now
felt throughout every part of the empire ; and al-
though attempts have been, and are made, to
conceal the extent of the prevailing misery, which
has been made the means of dissaffection and dis-
loy.alty by unprincipled indivicluel:, the fact can-
not, nor' ottebt not to be concealed, that there
are in Great Britain and Ireland more than two
million persons for whose support the Fresent
means of itichistry are by no means equal.
There is no longer a field for the exercise of
physical or intsllectnal industry ; those who are
employed,, with few exceptions, are not stimu -
fated to exertion by the reasonable prospect of
independence, and those who are without labour
become chargeable to the parish, or are inert ob-
jects of, private benevolence_ None, or very few
indeed, have died far want ; because an English-
man will sacrifice any thing rather thaw see' his
fellow-creature perish, from the common chance
of fottnee—he remembers that the rich and the
poor, the nobleman and the peasant, are de-
scended from one father ; and he knows too that
although imprudence, may have done much to
make some men poor, misfortune has done still
more—he feels that no man was created to die for
want, and that the food of the earth was sent for its
inhabitants; therefore he stretches forth the hand
of sympathy to relieve and succour. This is noble,
but,Englishmen ought mot to live upon the exer-
cise of benevolence; their national character,
upon which the national safety so intimately de-
pends, must suffer from this circumstance ; and
while there are other and better means of assist-
ing the stiff: ring part of the population, it is our
duty to adopt them. These means have been
pointed out and laid before Ministers, by a very
worthy individual, Mr. Colquhoun, and an able
treatise, written by that Gentleman, on tat same
subject, though not yet regularly published, is in
the hands of several men of fortune, 'who have
pledged themselves to support the plan as soon as
it shall have received the concorrence of Govern-
ment. While there are such immense tracks of
land in different parts of the globe, almost with-
ienabiraots, we must take the liberty of ob-
serving that the occupation of thost lands, many
of which are fertile in comforts and in luxuries,
would he a much better source of action for a re-
riendant population, thait war and bloodshed.—
Etnigrat ion then is what we would advise—not to