New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-05-29

A simple. minded Virginiau being in the predica-
ment so cOmnOnIn that State of having more land
than he knows what to do with, recently addresseda
letter to the New-York Commissioners of Emigra-
ton. in which he asked for information of the best
means by which to promote the settlement of Ger
man emigrants in the Old Dominion. His eplstle
only provoked the merriment of the Board, and
after due amount Of joking more or less, but
principally less brilliant, the Secretary was directed
to inform this ucklcss correspondent that the Com
missoners were not "land- jObbers," and that no
other reply to his communication suggested itself.
1t Ill be more than We anticipate if in these days
the holders Of Office accomplish the duties which
are by statute precisely assigned to them, of which
replying to letters from Virginia is certainly not
one We do not therefore, find any fault with the
Commissioners for their cavalier treatment on the
landed cavalier; but We cannot refrain from eX-
pressing little regret that in this great city, into
which emigrants are pouring at the rate of over
eight thousand week it does not seem to be the
business of any body to furnish to these strangers
in strange land the information which
may render their future lives prosperous,
and the want of which may insure poverty,
disappointment and career of crime.
OF all emigrants, the Germans mOst likely to
assimilate with the predominant of the
country, to conform to what is best in It's lnsttu
tons. and to promote its agricultural production
And vet, when ship-lOad of them is landed upon
the Battery, nobody seems to feel the slightest in
terest in them except the keepers of Dutch hotels
the proprietors of lsger-beer saloons, and the
agents of certain railways. 1t is due to the in
genuOus and honest people who thus reach our
shores, to say that Of all emgrants they exhibit
in the least degree propensity to llnger amid
the squaldity and paupeTism of this crowded
metropolis; that they are not only well.meanlng
but shrewd; and that. with cOmmendable pluck,
great many of them strike beeene for the clearer
skies the kindlier soils and the larger OppOrtuni
ties of the North West 1t is impossible 10 say how
many Of them, for want of little advice, remain
here, where they are not wanted, engaged in mental
employments, or tempted in default of honest ayO
cations, TO crlmnahiy.
The Yirginian gentleman who has failed to elicit
any information from our Commissioners has our
heartest wishes for his better success should he
renew his application in other quarters. We can
not consider him at all culpabe in seeking to dis
pose Of land which he has not the capital to i'm
prove; and We think that he shows great good
sense, perhaps in sort of involuntary way, in
preferring to sell his spare acres to Germans. We
are not unmindful that he may have been led to
make bis oyertures in this particular direction by
the epidemcal iankeepbobIa now raging around
him. We know that in Virginia there is preya-
lent opinion that Britons Frenchmen, Dutchmen,
Swedes, and, for aught We know, SCuth-Sea
FLANDERS, would as colOnists, be preferable to the
lose New England agriculturists who are threaten
ing an inyasion and that nobody can be an Eman-
cipstionist who has not been seated at the feet of
Garrison, sud taught in the Anti-Ssvery Conyen-
IONS Of Boston. But this is harmless delusien
of the ultimate effect Of which stand in no fear
Whatever may be the character of the new popula.
tion which must sooner or later occupy Virginia We
should be afraid Of no possible race except the
French and the French not q cOlCniZng people
But We are certain that whatever men may pur-
chase these WORKOUT lands, and with the shovel
aa the hCe and the subsOl pOw attack them, will
not permit themselves to BE- fretted bothered and
impoverished by the employment Of slave labor
Virginia lacks intelligent responsible aud we'll
Iemunerated white labor. She has tried the oppo.
site system until che is upon the brink of bank
ruptcy Any change must, in the nature Of things
be change in the right direction.
Another thing seem. to be equally certain: The
proprietors Of wasted and wild lands il Yirguis
ate resolutely beat uPOn selling theu. They viii be