The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-29
PETERSBURG. January %, 18t

PETERSBURG, january 20, looos
At the inception of all new enterprises
it is a difficult matter to secure the favor
and attention of the public. And to no
subject is this remark more applicable than
to the very important one of immigration.
One reason of this may be that at o not
remote day some degree of popular aver
sion was felt to the settlement Of strangers
in our midst. But as the policy which
dictated that aversion no longer exists,
the prejudice may be supposed to
have died out also. Nevertheless, the
measures which have been initiated for the
introduction Of q respectable class OF for
eigners TO occupy our uncultlvated iands
do not seem to be patronized so fully rs
might have been expected. Landed pro-
prictors are backward in cooperating with
the immigration Society. They are in
deed willing to sell, and anxious to sell,
and in most cases at a moderate price, to q
present purchaser; but / hear Of few in
stances where they are willing to reiin-
quish q part Of their property, and
place it in the hands of the Society to
constitute q working capital for building
I'D a system Of emigration. If we ever
succeed in divertipg q stream of emigra-
ton to Virginia from the great centres Of
population in the Old World it must be
by placing lands in the market at some
thing like a uniform price, SO that every
cmigrant will know before leaving home
how to adjust his means to the purchase.
1t is this certainty, as much, perhaps, as
any thing else, that influences almost every
emigrant crossing the ocean to turn his
face at once to the northwest. Whenever
q similar system is established in Vir-
ginia it cannot be long before the tide
will begin to set in for, probably, no part
of the world offers such inducements'to
foreigners as this. It were to be wished
that half the lands in the State-in all the
lower part OF least-were surveyed and
laid off into quarter sections, at specific
prices, varying, it may be, according to
locality, but moderate in all cases, and
within the reach Of the average class OF
emigrants. In twenty years the remaining
half of the land would be worth five or ten
times as much as it will sell for now, or
ever will sell for in its present condition.
The attention of landowners ought to be
enlisted in favor of this or some other
practicable scheme, and it deserves to be
enforced by the press, in season and out OF
season.
The memoir bearing the signature of
General Tochman is a valuable tract. It
presents q plain, mattor-of-fact statement
of the quality and products of Virginia
lands, and the salubrity of our climate, all
in remarkably good taste, ard we'll ealcu-
lated to attract the notice of foreigners.
Had it been too highly colored it might
have defeated its W object; for no coun-
try is q paradise. 1t requires the diligent
hand Of man to make it one, and it is only
practicable then when Nature has been
lavish in her bounties, as in the case of oul
own State.
The large a%uction-house of Davenport
Fitz s. Davis has been robbed three nights
in succession, and goods to the amount Of
several hundred dollars distracted. Nc
clue has yet been found leading to the
identity of tho robbers, who, it is thought
must have been concealed in the house al
the time the rooms were closed in the
evening.
Mr.. Samuel Lecture, for many years o
member of the Council, and one Of our
most respectable citizens, is lying Q
tremely i'll at his residence on Boiling.
brook street. S.