The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1854-11-08

S No small portion of the British magazines
J, devoted to speculations on American subjects
E Scarcely Review, crosses the water, bu
!, has one, at least, of its leading articles base
! upon some novelty in American life, govern
S ment or manners Even when abusive in thei
! character, they induce us to think that gu
. claims to consideration, if MOTTO greatness, ar
: not SO imaginary, as some sneerng tourist
: would have US believe
a Do we in our independent way Of thinkin:
and acting contrive and put in operation schoo
: system, which, ifnot purely our OWNS unlik
4 anything European that it would pass for ney
invention, straitway English journalists philoso
: phise upon its nature and probable or necessar,
results, in mode not unlikely to fatter our al
? ready well developed sense of Importance, es
pecially SO when these English pens in the same
t connexlon write bitter things against the old
!, slow-moving, inefficient and inadequate educa
; tional systems of the mother country.
, We attempt gigantic systems of internal i'm
provements, and forthwith the quarterlies arc
t full Of undisguised astonishment at the boldness
!, of our engineers tempered, however, with oc
casional but scarcely complimentary compare
sons between the magnitude of our ideas and
the smallness of the capital which is to devel-
ope them, and not by any means forgetting a
paragraph or two in which mississippi bonds
and Reputation figure conspcuously.
But more than all, our census returns are to
them rich in virgin ore,as affording material for
deductions without end. From these tables of
statistics they find, or think they find the solu-
ton of more than one social or governmental
problem, which, without the aid thus afforded,
must have remained unsolved.
The effect Of foreign emigration upon the
United States, happens just now to be subject
of grave consideration to the people of this coun
try generally, and OPPORTUNITY, the subject is
attracting no small share Of attention abroad.
The Edinburgh Review discusses it at length,
taking as a basis certain developments afforded
by the returns of our late census. Whether cor
rect Or incorrect, the feeling at home will make
it interesting to know how the subject is regard
ed abroad, where, if there is less opportunity
for practical observation, there is at the same
time more likely to be calmness in the invest-
CATION We CLEAN from the article alluded to
some Of its prominent ideas, which we present
not that they are our sentiments, but for just
what the reader may deem them to be worth
Emigration to to this country only began on
large scale in 1847. From 1890 to 1880 the
average number arriving was 90, 900 year. In
1847 the famine desolated Ireland, and the
revolution which unsettled the continentfollow-
ed the next year. The emigration increased
under the pressure to 100000 in 1947, and
reached 100000 in 1850. Speaking on this
subject, the Edinburgh" remarks that:
cas- ship after ship leaves Liverpool, London,
Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Bremen,
crowded with immigrants for America, we pic
ture that country yielding itself a prey to an ig-
norant peasantry. We see them in imagination
transferred to its shores, and invested by the
magic of an oath, with the attributes of citizen
ship, and we turn in sorrow from the contem-
plation of the probable humiliation Of the prin-
cples of constitutionalism in the clashing with
democracy. But nothing can be more unfoun-
ded than such fears. 1t is apparentthat the po-
litical influence of the emigrant is greatly exag-
gerated.
"Ifthree or four hundred thousand uneduca-
ted peasants, unused to govern their own affairs
and much less acquainted with the affairs of
state, were annually transferred to the United
States, placed in communities by themselves.
apart from the influence of more intelligent
minds, left without schools, cultivation. or cap
tai, to raise themselves as best they could, and
admitted nevertheless to the dignity of citizen
ship, and to share in administration, it would
De irrational not to fear the result Butwe see
A process quite the reverse going on. These
gnorant beings-ignorant, indeed, some of
hem are, and thickheaded and obstnate-are
aiken by the hand on arrival, and sent, mot into
he forest, but a more. thickly populated coun-
ry than the one they left with towns as large
Is any in Europe except the two capitals, with
schools better than anyof the same grade here
at the public expense, with work
enough for everybody, skillful and unskillful
md with better educated persons than them
selves to tell them what to do They labor con-
SANITY with Americans, their children, sit daily
ide by side with American children, reading .
rom the same books, playing the same games,
ind learning to think the same thoughts.
"There is no greater mistake than that the /
of nations and races are unchanged {
lie, leading minds mould the popular will to {
heir pleasure. Catholic England under Henry t
III. became protestant England under Henry {
iii. The freedom Of Arragon died under f
he heel Of the inquisition, Louis XIV was trou-
led but once in his reign blythe spirit of free
arliament. Can there be a greater contrast {
han between the age Of Elizabeth and Crom- Z
yell? or Of Milton and Congreve? William III. $
nade the English noblemen dutchmen, George T
V. beau Brummalised society, and the present a
curt Of England has set an example Of purer t
nd more refined manners In the same wav G
ne character and purposes Of the emigrants are S
hanged. They are fashioned by the Influences a
7hich surround them, and the second genera a
on become perfectly identified with the coun- 7
y Of their adoption. '
mi r Y