The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-02-17
E,odus Of Skilled LABOR.

| ~
state of ptiable suffering and destitution.
According to the computation OF the Lord
Mayor of London, the number OF skilled Ia
borers who cannot find employment is now
between 10, 900 and $4,000, and England has
no alternative save to remove them or to
starve them.
But where shall these men with their fam
lilies he sent? The delegates from the colo
NAL societies are making application Tor
them. They assure the government that sit
sis of the highest importance to the mother
country and the colonies to encourage emil
..cration to these, and for this purpose to
make much more largely available than
"hitherto the almost unbounded resources OF
sthe British Empire" But there's oneprin-
ciple that these petitioners seem to forget.
1t is this-that skilled labor is out OF its cle-
ment in new countries. The artisan whose
capital, to great extent, consists in refined
taste and delicate skill, is not the qualified
pioneer Of civilization. To succeed on the
rude Canadian frontiers, in the untrodden
wilds OF Australia, or among the motley pop
ulations Of Rngland's tropical dependencies,
the English artisan would need first Of all to
revolutionize the industrial aptitudes Of a
lifetime. Only in cultivated states of soc-
ETY. and in populations already grouped in
industrial and commercial affiliations, can
he find such employment as lie is fitted for.
England has produced one Robinson Crusoe;
she would fail if she endeavored to produce
seventy thousand
There is, of course, a place Tor some of
this number in the ports and towns that skirt
the shores and river margins OF the colonies.
But these workmen, with their families, COM
puted by Sir James Lawrence at hundreds
of thousands, would soon overstock the
meagrc colonial market. They need field
of wider scope and OF different capabilities
such field as We Of the South can give.
Hitherto the large proportion of English
immigrants to America belonged to the as
ricultural class. Hence it was TO this class
that Professor Fawcett confined his observa-
tions in the elaborate and mastery lecture
on emigration delivered at the University Of
Cambridge in 1864. And the colonial depu-
ties to the gathering at London seem to
have confounded the mechanic, who must
now emigrate, with the peasant who has
emigrated heretofore. They seem to imagine
that the former can be transformed into the
| Loft I, n oh of ,,lo nv n N
fo- s-~,--, tho --r>-'--I~-- -F.~.~-.- .~+-"| ~
plantation in jamaica or trackess forest
in Canada. Better that they should come
among people who speak their language,
who inherit their traditions, who admire and
use the productions of their industry, and
who dwell in the temperate zone!
Most of the English immigrants have set
tied at the North. They are found in COLI
siderable numbers in the States of New York,
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and
Michgan-the relative proportion being in
the order named. The minority are found,
in lessening numbers, in Florida, Arkansas,
Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Mississippi. For forty years the abolition
agitation has turned this rich tide away from
our borders. Especially has this ism been
maintained among the workingmen of Lam
cas!ire, district which outnumbers two to
one the whole population of the State OF
Indiana; which has again and again suffered
the most terrible revcrses, anu which could
hare contributed during all that period the
most important additions to our mechanical
industry Now that difficulty is removed.
Lancashire can como among us, and we
have no fear that when Lancashire does
come, it will any longer look upon the South
through Mr.. Bright's spectacles.
We respectfully call the attention OF our
immigration societies to the condition of
things in England. The British emigration
societies appeal for help to the government;
the government ''cannot see its way clear"
to make the necessary appropriation. And
we, on our part, can do but little at lirst.
But we have not much to do in order to get
What we want from England. Let pas
sage, however shallow, be opened for this
tide to our Southern fields, and it will cut i
way for itself. One successful colony Of
skilled English labor will stir every indus
trial community in Great Britain. And as
the Irish do, the English will help their
friends to come to q country where the
wages are four or five times greater than are
given at home What our natural;zed citi-
zens send over the water, by private hand,
is of course unknown. What they rcmitted
through banks aud large mercantile houses,
in the ten years embraced in the las; census,
was ten millions OF pounds sterling. Thus
does immigration supply and augment im-
migration.
Let public spirited capitalists ana societies
avail themselves OF the occasion which now
presents itself. Yonder in Lancashire are
the very men We nced-mcn of world-re-
nowned skill and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and
delicate manipulators of the cotton we pro-
duce-sincwy and practical explorers OF such
mineral wealth as our soil has in its keep
ing. They are starving They are eager to
emigrate. They can be brought TO our
|