Volcano weekly ledger., 1856-10-18
Immense Emigration to the United stares

Mr.. William j. Bromwell of the Depart
ment of State, has prepared very complete
statistical history of emigration to the Uni
ted States, from the Both of September,
1919, to the 3lst of December, 1854, a pe-
riod of thirty-six years and a quarter His
figures are derived entirely from official date,
and according to hi7 table, the total number
of arrivals in the United States during the
time mentioned above, amounted to 4, 4,482,-
837; Of which, 4,2l2,624 were of foreign
birth. OF this last mentioned number. 20T.-
492 were born in England; 749,930 in Ire
land; "a, 4,559 in Scotland; 4,782 in Wales;
and 1903, $50 Others were born in Great
Britain and Ireland, the division not desig-
mated
To the 4,2l2,624 passengers of foreign
birth arriving in the United States since Sep
temher 80, 1919 may be added, according to
Mr.. Bromwell, 250, 900 as the number of EN-.
grants who arrived prior to that date, ma
king the total foreign arrivals from the close
of the revolutionary war, to December 81,
1855, 4,492, ,624 These figures are the most
complete and satisfactory which have been
made public.
While touching on this important subject,
we wish to call attention to recent article
in Mr.. Hunts Merchants Magazine Oh the
question. "Does emigration add to the
wealth Of country" The writer alludes to
the disastrous pecunary results of the perse-
eution and expulsion of the Jews and Moors
which composed the intelligent and indus
trial population-by Spain. and the French
Huguenots 10y France. By this act Spain
was crippled in her resources; some Of her
most ilourishng districts were converted into
uuinhabited wastes-her current of trade was
dried up-her capital was diminished; in fine,
she was indebted to this act of bad policy
for her present degraded and impoverished
condition So too, the expulsion of the HUI
guenots from France inflicted severe blow
upon her industrial resources and power, and
augmented the capital aud skill of the neigh
boring nations who received the fugitives.
The pacuniary value Of the emigrants to
the United States, as footed mp by this wri-
ter, show some astonishing results. The
whole number of emigrants in lS49 was
100000, and estimating the value Of the
capital, labor, and skill Of each at 500, and
the total augmentation of the national
wealth FOR single year amounts to more
than twenty-niue millions But as most of
the emigrants are able bodied men aud wo-
men, accustomed to hard work, possessing
various amounts of capital in money, imple-
ments, &C., the writer thinks it would be
farer to estimate the value at $780, less
than half the amount Of an able bodied me-
gro slave, which gives us the enormous sum
of one hundred and forty-eight millions Of
dollars added to the wealth of the United
States in single year from foreign emigra-
tion alonel
Let the reader apply the estimate of this
writer to the statistics of Mr.. Bromwell, Civ
ing the total emigration to the United States
for thirty-six years, aud then bethink himself
if there is not considerable foundation for
the remark, that ''the material and the men,
tai prosperity of nations, their activity and
position, in respect to influence, has cores
pondcd with emigration"