The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-06

Add to all this the harassing insecurity of life For
sixty or seventy years the continent has been one
wide theatre Of scarcely intermitted convulsion
Every country in it has been ed in war; there
is scarcely one that has not passed through revo
luton. We read of events like tn Sc in the news
papers; we look upon them with curiosity as arts
ces OF mere intelligence; or they awaken images
of our own revolution, which regard only with
joyous associations Far different the state of thin
in crowded Europe, Of which the fairest fields in
every generation are trampled by mighty armies
into bloody mirel Dazzled by the brilliancy of the
military exploits of which we read at a safe dis.
lance, we forget the anxieties of those who grow IN
within the sound of the lannon's roar; whose nros
poets IN life are ruined-ther business broken up
their little accumulations swept away by the bank
ruptcy OF governments or the general paralysis of
the industry OF the country-ther sons torn from
them by ruthless conscriptions-the means of edu
eating and bringing up their families consumed by
disastrous emergencies Terrified by the recent
experience the tradition of these niseries thou.
sands emigrate to the land of promise fviug not
merely before the presence, but the "rurnor of
war" which the Great Teacher places on level
with the reality.
Ever and anon some sharp specific catastrophe
gives intense activity to emigration When
the reign OF terror was enthroned in France and
when every thing in any way conspicuous, whe.
Their for station, wealth, talent servce-of every
age, and of either sex-from the crow ned mon arch
to the gray haired magistrate and the timid maid.
en-, was brought to the guillotine, hundreds of
thousands emigrated at once from tho devoted
most of the European population of that island to
the United States But beyond every thing else
which has been witnessed in modern times the
famine which prevailed few years since in Ire
land gave terrific impulse TO emigration. Not
less, probably, than one million of her inhabitants
left her shores within five years The population
of this island, highly favored in the gifts of ma
ture any spot on the face of the earth, has
ally diminished more than 800, 900 since the ia
mine years. the only example, perhaps in history
of a similar result in a country not visited by for
eign wars or civil convulsion. The population
ought, in the course of nature, to have increased
within ten years by at least that amount and in
point of fact, between lS40 and 1850 own popu-
lation increased by more than six millions
This prodigious increase of the population of the
United States is partly owing to the immigration
from foreign countries which has token place I'M
der the influence of the causes. general and spe-
cific, to which have alluded. OF late years from
300 600 to 400 goo emigrants are registered at the
several Custom-houses in the country as arrvin o
in the United States in the course of the year II
is probable that third many more enter by the
Canadian frontier. Not much less than 2 900 900
of emigrans are supposed to have entered the Uni
ted States In the last ten years; and it is calculated
that there are living at the present day in this
country 5000 900 of persons, foreI gners VINO have
emigrated since 1870, or their descendants
There is nothing in the annals of mankind to be
compared with this; but there is a series of great
movements which may be contrssed with it. In
the period OF a thousand years which began about
three or four hundred years before our Saviour the
Roman republic and empire were from time to
time invaded by warlike aces from the North and
East, who burst with overwhelming force upon the
South and West of Europe, and repea tedly carried
desolation to the gates of Rome. These multitu
dinous invaders were not armies of men; they
were in reality nations of hostile emigrants They
came with their wives, with their young barba-
rians,' with their SCythian cavalry, and their
herds of cattle; and they me with no purpose Of
going away. The dntosus nsanenh was m AIDE up
before they abandoned their ice-clad homes. Tnev
left their arctic allegiance behind them They
found the sunny banks of the Arno and the Rhone
more pleasant than tho ofthe Don and the Volga
1Unaccustomed to the sight of any tree more in.
viting than the melancholy fur and the stunted
birch, its branches giittering with snowy crystals
brought up under climate where the generous
fruits are unknown, these children of the North
were not so much fascinated as bewildered sin the
land of the citron and myrtle;" they gazed with
delighted astonis hment at the spreading elm, fes
TONED with Falernian clusters; they cluched with
kind of frantic Joy at the fruit of the fg-tree and
the olive; at the melting peach, the luscious plum,
the golden orange, and the pomegranate, whose
tinted cheek outblushes every thing but the living
carnatlon of youthful love.
"With grim delight the brood of Winter view
A brighttr day and heavens of azure hue;
Scent tie new fragrance of the breathing rose,
And gu II the pendant vintage as it grows -
By the fortune of war, single detaohments and
mighty armies frequently suffered defeat, but
their place was Immediately taken by new hordes
WHICH ieli upon utCilulDS nome, as the Vanished
wolves in one of Catn's pictures fall upon an aged
buffalo in our Western prairies. The imperial
monster, powerful even in his decrepitude, would
often scatter their undisciplined array with his
iron tusks and trample them by thousands under
his brazen feet; but when he turned back torn and
bleeding, to his seven bills tens of thousands came
bowling from the Northern forests, who sprang al
his throat and buried their fangs in his laceratcd
sides. Wherever they conquered-and in the end
they conquered everywhere-they established
themselves on the soil, invited new comers and
from their union with the former inhabitants the
nations of the south and west OF Europe at the
present day, for the most part trace their descent
We know but little of the numbers thus thro " n
in upon the Roman republic and empire in the
course Of eight or ten centuries They were, no
doubt, greatly exaggerated by the panic fear Of
the inhabitants; and as the pride Of the Roman
historians would lead them to magnify the power
before which their own legion. had so often
quaed. But when we consider the difficulty Of
subssting large number of persons in a march
through an unfriendly country--and this a,
time when much OF the now cultivated portion of
Europe was covered with forest and swamp am
disposed to think that the hosts which for cue
cession of centuries overran the Roman empire
did not in the aggregate exceed in numbers the
immigration that has taken place to The United
States since 1880 In other words am inclined
to believe that within the last sixty years the Old
World has poured in upon the United States
number of persons as great-witn their natural
increase-as Asia sent into Europe in these armed
migrations of barbarous races.
Here, of course, the parallel euds The races
that invaded Europe came to lay waste and to sub
IN gate; the hosts that the Atlantic are peace
full immigrants. The former burst upon the Ro
man empire and by oft. repeated strokes beat it to
the ground. The immi or ants TO America from oil
countries come to cast in their lot with the native
citizens and to share with this great inheritance
of civil and religious liberty. The former
ferocious ba bal ians-ha t clad in skins-speaking
strange oDgues-worshipping strange gods with
bloody rites; the latter the children of the
countries from which the first European settlers of
this continent proceeded, and belong with to
the great common family of Christendom. The
former destroyed the culture of the ancient world,
and it only after thousand years that bet
ter civilization grew up from its ruins. The mil
lions who have established themselves in America
within sixty years, are from the moment Of their
arrival, gradually absorbed into the mass OF the
population, CONFORMING to the laws, moulding
themselves to the manners of the country, and con
trbutpg their share to its prosperity and strength.
l. is curious coincidence that as the first mighty
wave of the hostile immigration that burst upon
Europe befo the time of our Saviour cons sled OF
tribes belong ing to the great Celtic race, the
mains Of which, identified by their original da ect,
ara still found in Brittany in Wales, in the high
lands of Scotland, and especially in Ireland-so
by far the greater portion Of the new and friendly
emigration to the United Saes consists of persons
belonging to the same fervid, imaginative and too
tains of Wales and the highlands of Scotland the
gospel preached in substantially the language
in which Brennus uttered his naughty summons to
l