Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-06-23

vast domain there are mainohs VI eoAce
of fertile land, to be purchased at
moderate prices, according to its posi-
t;or and its state of improvement, and
there are hundreds Of millions of acres
= the state of nature, and gradually
sold at the government price of dollar
and quarter per acre.
1t is this which most strikes the
European imagination. The Old World
is nearly al appropriated by individuals.
There are public domains in most for
eien countries, but of comparatively
small amount, and mostly forests
With this exception, every acre of land
m Europe is private property, and in
such countries as England, the Neither
lands, France, Germany, and Italy,
what little is sold is sold only at a high
price. Ipresume the number of land
holders in England is far less than in
the State of New York. In the course
of the French Revolution the land has
been greatly divided and sub-divided in
France and Germany, and is now held
in small farms; but owing to the limited
quantity of purchaseable land, these
farms, when sold, are sold only at high
prices. Generally speaking, the mass
of the inhabitants in Europe regard the
ability to hold and occupy a consid-
cradle landed property as the summit of
human fortune. The suggestion that
there is a country beyond the ocean
where fertile land is to be purchased, in
any quantity, at a dollar and quarter
per acre, and that dollar and quarter
to be earned in many parts of the coun-
try by the labor of single day, strikes
them as the tales of Aladin's lamp or
Ali Baba's caves would strike us if we
thought they were true. Applause.
They forget the costs and sacrifices of
leaving home-the ocean to be traversed
the weary pilgrimage in the land of
strangers after their arrival. They see
nothing with the minds eye but the
''Iard of PROMISE they reflect upon
nothing but the fact that there is re-
gion on the earth's surface where few
days unskilled labor will purchase the
fee-simple of an ample farm. Ap-
plause.
Such an attraction would be irresisti-
bic under any circumstance to the popu-
lation of an old country, where, as 1
have Just said, the land is all appropri-
ated, and to be purchased only IN any
considerable quantity at prices which put
its acquisition beyond the thought of
the masses. But this is but half the
tale. 1t must not be forgotten that in
this ancient and venerable Europe,
whose civilization is the growth of two
thousand years, where some Of the
luxurious refnements of life are carried
to a perfection of which we have
scarcely an idea in this country, con-
siderable part of the population, even
in the most prosperous regions, pass
their lives in a state but one remove
from that of starvation-poorly fed,
poorly clothed, poorly housed, without
education, without political privileges,
without moral culture. The average
wages of the agricultural labor in Eng
land were estimated year ago at 9s Sd:
sterling (about 2,374) per week
The condition of the working popula
tion on the continent of Europe is in no
degree better, if as good. They eat
but little animal food either in England
or the continent. We form romantic
notions at distance of countries that
abound in wine and oil; but in the best
governed States of Italy-in Tuscany,
for instance-the peasantry, though
they pass their lives in the vineyard
and the olive orchard, consume the fruit
of neither. 1 have seen the Tuscan
peasants unable to bear the costs of the
most ordinary wine from the vineyards
IN which their cottages are embossed,
and which can be bought at retail for a
cent flask, pouring water over the
grape skins as they come from the wine
press, and making that their beverage.
Applause.
Even for persons in comparatively
easy circumstances in Europe there are
strong inducements to emigrate to
America. Most of the Governments
are arbitrary, the taxes are oppressive,
the exactions of the military service
onerous in the extreme. Add to all this
the harassing insecurity of life. For
sixty or seventy years the continent has
been one wide theatre of scarcely-inter-
mitted convulsions. Every country in
it has been involved in war; there is
scarcely one that has not passed
through a revolution. We read Of
events like these in the newspapers; we
look upon them with curiosity as articles
of mere intelligence, or they awaken
images of our own revolution, which
we regard only with joyous associations.
Far different the state of things in
crowded Europe, of which the fairest
fields In every generation are trampled
by mighty armies into bloody mire.-
Dazzled by the brilliancy of the militia
ry exploits of which we read at safe
distance, we forget the anxieties Of
those who grow up within the sound Of
the cannon's roar, whose prospects in
life are ruined, their business broken up,
their little accumulations swept away by
the bankruptcy of Governments or the
general paralysis of the industry of the
country, their sons torn from them BY
ruthless conscriptions, the means Of
educating and bringing up their families
consumed by disastrous emergencies