, 1862-06-02
Free Homes for the Iaaborer.
fFFpm the Montreal Uerald.l

THE HOMESTEAD Law IN THE UNITED !
SrATEs.-While We are discussing and hesi-
tating about our policy for securing popula- |
tion-on the one hand sending agents to So |
1icit new inhabitants, and on the other, through
petty jealousies, preferences and fears, not un-
frequently placing secret obstacles in the way |
Of settlement By strangers-whi1e we are one |
day declaring that no land shall be sold ex- |
cept to iona j7de settlers, and the next selling
vast blocks TO an English land company, who |
everybody knows never mean to settle, bnt to !
make profit By peddling out what we have
sold in block, and who can afford to psy 81 900
to member Of Parliament fer bullying the
Government till they make the grants on terms
more profitable than was at first intended, the
American Congress has adopted the most COM
Prehensive policy for the encouragement Of i'm
migration which has perhaps ever been devised.
By the Homestead Act, which recently became
law, every man who will settle upon them
may have l60 acres Of land for nothing, and
without any conditions to drive him back
into the remoter corners or the inferior traets
Of the public domain. Partial Offers of such
doubt whether any endowment on go m,gnih-
cent = scale has ever been conferred on the
moneEiess sons OF labor, not Of one country,
but Of the civilized world. We lately men
presentatives Of the Law which forever pro
hibits the introduction of slavery upon any
territory now in the possession Of the United
States, OF which may at any future time come
into their possession. We described this IS
The chief point in the avowed programme of
the Republican party, which, BY the election
OF Lincoln, and the secession OF the South
obtained the control of the Government last
spring. But the Homestead law is the om-
pletenent of the prohibition of slavery in
TERRITORIES, Or rather, perhaps, one is the COM
plement Of the other. The great scheme Of
policy would be maimed II either Of them had
failed Of adoption. On the other hand, even
the gift Of land Eould have been poor at
traction to frcenacn who are to cultivate their
farms with their own hands, il by the side OF
them there should exist an institution which
makes all labor degrading, and the occupation
Of an inferior caste And, on the other hand,
tile most effective way to shut out slavery is
20 people the new lands. where it might other
wise setk to extend Itself, with men whose
position places them In natural antacopism
to the plantation system.
The attention Of the world is naturally turn
ed to the exciting scenes which are being cu-
acted, and are expected to be enacted, bT the
hosts Of armed men now confronting each
other. But war is in its nature temporary, and
decisive battles Of the world would be reduced
IN numbers if we could eliminate from them
tAose which were mere symptoms OF the di-
fectlon OF moral and physical forces rather
than the impulses which produce that direc
tion. The civil transactions Of the last few
months at Washington will make their i'm
preston upon ages to come, when the battles
on the Potomac and Tennessee will be regard
ed as mere accidents in history. They lay th,
foundation Of States larger by several tine
than all Europe, and they mark of the dwell
ling places and the homes Of huge popu1a
non Of free Jeomen, who in the next hal
century viii probably exceed in numbers al
Inc people who now live On the Norther
Mexican boundary.