The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-29 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

unpalatable to them, that they have been frequently
observed to throw their rations overboard as soon
as received. They propose instead, as the weekly
allowance, 311bs. bread, s:llbs. oatmeal or flour,
peas or barley; *lb. of dried fish, I.lb of rice, ?oz.
coffee, 2oz. tea, and *lb. of sugar,—a dietary ob-
viously more fitted for semi-invalids, such as the
majority of the passengers from Ireland. These
additional comforts would come cheap to the emi-
grant, as they would be supplied by the ship at the
prices out of bond.
It is, however, against the penal clauses of the
bill, which they denounce as most oppressive and
to a considerable extent nugatory, and those for
providing an additional superintendence of the
emigrants, whilst on the voyage, by the appoint-
ment of an officer for the purpose, that they object
most strongly, as calculated, by raising the cost of
transport to our colonies, to divert the stream of
emigration altogether to the ports of the United
States. At present the prestige is in favour of the
latter country, and nine-tenths of the passengers
proceeding to the Canadas are only induced to go
there by the great saving of expense, which, for a
family consisting of a male. and female adult, four
children from a year old to fourteen years, and one
in arms, was, in May last year, to British America,
about £l6 against £3B 10s. to the United States.
The power of a superintendent of passengers, ap-
pointed by government—(increase of patronage, as
usual, seems to form a portion of this as of all
Whig measures)—and with his duties and powers
laid down by the Privy Council, would interfere
injuriously with the authority of the captain, and
endanger the discipline of the ship; and by the
captains and owners of United States vessels,
which carry out the bulk of our emigrants, would
not be submitted to at all. And if it be made
compulsory that a surgeon should be taken out, or
that the superintendent should be of the medical
profession,unexampled difficulties would be created.
Last year the Colonial Land and Emigration Com-
missioners report on this subject as follows :
" The rate at which people were proceeding was such,
that at least 622 surgeons would have been required in
the first six months. Nor would they all have been
required at a few large towns where a considerable supply
of surgeons might be more reasonably hoped for; but
some of them must have been found, without delay, at
each of the various ports and creeks of England, Ireland,
and Scotland, from which emigrants may happen to pro-
ceed ; and in some cases where the condition could not
be fulfilled, the consequence would have been, that poor
people who had come from great distances to a strange
port, and had parted with all their means, would have
found the master of the ship unable to give them the
passage for which they had contracted. * * * We
doubt whether any 'measure whatever would have been
efficient, except some one which either directly or indi-
rectly compelled the great majority of the emigrants
altogether to relinquish their purpose."—Blue Book,
p. 36.

•
The most important consideration, however, just
now, is the question of expense. Dare the govern-
ment, or ought they, on the ground of last year's
increase of mortality, proved to have been of casual
occurrence, and to have been produced by causes
totally or mainly unconnected with the accommo-
dation of the emigrants on board, make such alter-
ations of the present system as may impose a bar
to emigration at all ? The season for Canada is
just setting in. Within a few weeks time our dock
quays will be crowded with Irish families, en route
to these settlements—with poor sickly and half-
famished wretches, who have left their little hold-
ings, and, having converted their all into cash, will
probably find that they have barely sufficient to
pay the expenses of a voyage, under the present
arrangements. Are we to arrest these people, now
rendered homeless and houseless, in their passage
by our ill-considered interference ? Are we to re-
ceive them in our workhouses, to become a further
charge upon our already overburthened ratepayers,
or to pass them back to Ireland to die in ditches or
upon the highways ? The question is a serious
one : and it v

,vould well become her majesty's minis.
ters to pause and to listen to the suggestions of
practical men before incurring so fearful a respon-
sibility.