The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-23
british Emlgratlon and british POLICY.

ports. preparatory to their departure for this
country or for the British colonies. The same
tide has flowed increasingly for years, and as a
mere fact has long ceased to excite expressions
of regret or surprise. 1t is regarded as the
natural effort of population to rid itself Of the
effects of its redundancy. The full extent Of
the emigration was probably not fully realized
until the last census presented the startling
conclusion that during the previous ten years
the number of souls on the island had not only
not increased, but had been reduced to the
amount of more than million and half; nor
were lis immediate consequences perceived un-
til bankrupt landlords found themselves in the
possession of extensive estates without farmers
to rent them, and with diminished supply Of
the rude labor necessary for their cultivation.
They have now begun to perceive that the sys-
tenn of clearance" has been carried on some
what too long, and may lead to difficulties of
which they see not the end. For the first
time within the memory Of this generation the
provincial journals are recording a demand for
laborers, and are specializing on the POSSIBLE
ties that may arise if the living tide flow on as
now.
Meanwhile, and in defiance of the lessons
taught by Ireland, the Scottish highland lairds
continue to act on the principle of merging
small farms into large ones, and of converting
the present scenes of cottier life and industry
into huge sheep pastures, or wildernesses where
antlered deer may roam at will. In Ireland
the issue was high rents UerSus human life; in
Scotland ii is sheep or deer uersus men; the
acting parties in both cases being governed by
the same impulses and desires, forgetful Of
GoLDsMITH's warning against the fate of land
"Where wealth accumulates and men decay"
They have no idea of acknowledging force in
poetry or in the pleadings of humanity.
Every thing of that kind is set down as sheer
enthusiasm. Political economy is with them
omnipotent; and that teaches that mankind
multiply faster than the means of production
that small farms are likely to breed only a race
of paupers, infinitely more costly than herd
Of deer, and not quite SO easily shot dOwn-and
that under the operation Of free trade, farming,
whether pastoral or arabic, can be successfully
carried on only upon a large scale. A large
majority of the Scotch emigrants are sent to
Canada, their passages are often paid by the land
lords, and they are landed at Quebec or Mon
treal in 4 state of restitution as complete as
that of masses Of Irish poor who may be seen
at any time on the New York piers. Canada
is beginning to grumbe at the infection, which
has been brought full into view by crcum-
stance that is thus narrated in the Toronto
correspondence of the New York Tribune:
ga Col. Gordon, theowner of estates in South Uist
and Barra, in the highlands of Scotland, has sent
off 100 destitute tenants and cotters under
the moss cruel and delusive temptations; assuring
them that they would be taken care OF Immediately
on their arrival at Quebec by the emigrant agent,
receive free passage to Upper Canada, where they
would be provided with work by the government
agents, and receive grants of lands certain inn
aginary conditions. Seventy of the last cargo
of four hundred and fifty have signed statement
that some of them fled TO the mountains when an
attempt made to force them to emigrate
Whereupon,' they add, MIR. Fleming gave orders
| TO a policeman, who was accompanied by the
ground officer of the estate in Barra and some con
stables, to pursue the people who had runaway
among the mountains, which they did, and sue
ceeded capturing about t,oehty from the mountains
and from Other islands in the neighborhood but ol
came ,ciM the officers attempt being made 10
handcuf them, and that ioho dlray tuere nor
brought back; in consequence of tcIch four faniilits
at least hare been diudsd haUing come in the
ships 10 Quebec tDlie other members Of the same ta,n-
lies are lCft in the hghlands."'
Can any thing be conceived more heartless
or despotic than the conduct of this Colonel
GORDON, or more truly pitiable on the part of
the emigrants themselves, who are thus torn
| from their native soil, handcuffed as though
they were felons, and transported against their
will to country whose language they cannot
speak, and for whose rigorous climate they are
wholly unprepared. For His wholesale kid
mapping Colonel GORDON Is amenable to no
law. He effects his purpose with impunity;
his victims are left to discover the falsty Of
the representations that were held out to them,
and TO seek shelter and subsistence in land of
strangers, whose humanity alone can save
them from starvation. Yet Col. Gordon is but
the type of class common to Scotland and Ire
land; and the eleven hundred destitute emf
grants are but sample Of tens OF thousands
who are yearly added to the population of this
continent.
In England the poor law operates as bar
rer between destitute laborers and overreach-
ing landlords, and prevents the enactment of
scenes frequent in other parts Of the kingdom.
Even in England, however, the results of con
slant emigration are beginning to attract atten-
ton, and to give rise to considerations the
reverse of complimentary to British policy.
! The London Times in recent article on the
subject, remarked:
1.-The institutions and customs of this country
are all adapted to the supposition of vast differ
ence of classes-a lower cass, redundant, necessi-
tous, ignorant and manageable; an upper class,
wealthy, exclusive, united, and powerful and a
middle cass, struggling to emerge from the lower
and attach itself to the upper. This suppostion
must long hold good, and will probably reign az
an opinion even after it has been considerably
qualified fact; but, whether as a fact or an
opinion, it will long exercise repusiye influence
on the poorer, the less fortunate, and the more
struggling classes, and will drive them to seek