The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-09 00:00:00

honest pride and shame has prevented many of those in the
extremest distress from applying for parish relief; while
others, being from their remote situation less immediately
under the eyes of the regular authorities, have lingered on,
till found accidentally, as has been proved in evidence,
in the last stages of misery and disease. Your Committee
cannot but observe, that while the greater destitution of
this latter class points them out as requiring more imme-
diate attention, their partly agricultural habits render them
more eligible for the particular kind of relief contemplated by
your Committee : and your Committee cannot but express
a hope that the hand-loom weavers in general, and this
class in particular will receive from Parliament, that at-
tention and favour to which their sufferings and their pa-
tience amply entitle them.
Your Committee are strongly impressed with the con-
viction, that the removal to the Colonies of 1,200 families,
small as the number may appear, when the extent of the
district is considered over which it is proposed to spread
the relief, will tend in a far greater degree than is com-
monly supposed, to the diminution of general distress ;
and while those removed will be placed in a situation of
comfort and of ultimate independence, those who remain
will be materially benefited by the abstraction of their re-
dundant labour. And it is an object not to be lost sight
of, that these settlers may by their success excite a strong
feeling in favour of Emigration as a general measure, should
it ultimately be carried into effect ; and may mainly con-
tribute hereafter to people our colonies by a voluntary, un-
expensive, and beneficial abstraction from the population of
the mother country.
Under these impressions your Committee, while they
profess themselves not yet prepared to lay before the House
the details of a permanent and continuous system of emi-
gration (which nevertheless they are persuaded may be so
organized as to produce very beneficial results) confidently
appeal to the House, under the present urgent circum-
stances, and strongly recommend the grant of 50,0001.
from the national funds, in furtherance of an immediate
emigration from the manufacturing districts, at once as a
relief from present distress, and as an important national
experiment for the future.
In applying for this grant of public money, your Com-
mittee would have it distinctly understood, that they place
the grounds of their recommendation upon the urgency and
peculiarity of the case ; which appears to them to require
prompt and immediate action, even although the means of
carrying it into execution may not be so maturely or per-
fectly concerted, as they might have been, under circum-
stances of less immediate and alarming pressure.
Your Committee have therefore nut paused to consider
what portion of the expenditure may ultimately be repaid
by the industry and improvements of the settlers in their
new situations; although they have little doubt but that
the improvement of the lands will be a sufficient guarantee
for a certain proportion even of pecuniary return, especially
if allowed to be paid in the colony, and in produce for the
benefit of future emigrants.
But your Committee are yet further induced to sclicit
the immediate attention of the House to the subject of
their present report, because they cannot but be aware,
that the very circumstance of their appointment has ex-
excited great and earnest expectation ; that exaggerated
and erroneous accounts of their proceedings are daily cir-
culated, and that hundreds of families, prepared to emi-
grate, are looking with anxiety to their report, and the
decision of Parliament.

Your Committee by no means express their opinion
that upon future occasions, and when the -übject shall
he better understood, funds may not be raised from the
parish rates, for the purpose of relieving themselves from
the burthen of their redundant populations : on the con-
trary, 'they have had fr-.P.ent applications to this specific
effect. But they deem it necessary in candour to state,
that so far as their inquiries have gone, the funds of the dis-
tricts to which their present report alludes, are so far ex-
hausted that no such assistance on their part can fairly be
calculated upon. It is hardly necessary to state, that in
this, as in every other scheme for emigration which has
ever engaged the attention of your Committee, it never
has been for a moment imagined that it should be other
than wholly voluntary: and your Committee are satisfied,
that in the execution of their projects the main difficulty
would be to select the objects most eligible among the can-
didates who would offer themselves for the liberality of Par-
liament and the country.
In conclusion, while your Committee recommend the
present grant wholly in the consideration of the present ur-
gency, and peculiarity of the distress, which demand that
relief, to be effectual should be also immediate, they can-
not but express their hope that an experiment now, of the
success of which they entertain no doubt, may lead to
more extended, more organised, and more effective system
for the future; and in such a system your committee con-
_ _

Edently anticipate not only a material and perpetual relief to
the British Islands, but an augmentation to the resources of

Colonies, and ;an additional link to those connections of
blood and interest which now unite them to the Mother
Country.

Your Committee cannot, however, conclude this Report,
without expressing their deep conviction, that whatever
may be the immediate and urgent demands from other
quarters, it is vain to hope for any permanent and exten-
sive advantage from any system of emigration which does
not primarily apply to Ireland ; whose population, unless
some other outlet be opened to them, must shortly fill up
every vacuum created in England or in Scotland, and re-
duce the labouring classes to a uniform state of degradation
and misery. And your Committee therefore pledge them-
selves to devote their most anxious attention to the state of
that country, and the practicability of applying emigration
as a means of relieving it from its present overwhelming
population.
April 5, 1827.