The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-03

vacuum that may present Itself al certainly
as the atmosphere flows into an exhausted
air-pump. 1t is possible, then, that the
remedy for over-population may come In
stronger shape than our physicians are in
olined TO prescribe. The exodus has not dis |
tinctly get in, partly because under existing |
circumstances the demand from the other |
side is not so great as it may easily become. |
But the state of mind favorable to 1t seems to
be widely prevalent, and efforts directed to
different purpose may supply the occasion Tor
an outward rush on large SCALE
These, however, are matters for specula-
ton, and we can exercise little control over
them. If the worldng-classes should resolve
to emigrate in large numbers, we cannot
restrain them and must be content to make
the best of che result The movement has
not as yet begun on large scale, and may
perhaps never take place The practical
question is as to the duty of Govern
ment and Of charitable associations. One
part of the recommendations of the Emf
grafton Societies may be accepted without
hesitation. MIR. McCullagh Torrens sug-
gested at the late meeting that agencies
should be established by the cooperation of
the Home and Colonial Governments, at
which information should be given to in
tending emigrants, and that arrangements
should be made for experimenting their pas
sage, and securing their proper reception
machinery ought certainly to be provided for
the purpose indicated. At the present, the
emigrant is too often in q state of profound
ignorance as to every circumstance OF his
future home. He does not know where it is
that his services are really wanted; and he
may find that, from being burden to his
own country, he has simply become q burden
in strange land. Some better organization
for helping the stream of emigration to direct
itself towards the places where it is most re-
quired might be of essential service. So far
the proposal of the Emigration Societies IS
unimpeachable; but the real difficulty IS to
decide how far their further request should be
granted for promoting emigration by
direct pecuniiry aid The view OF the
emigating classes themselves ia simple
enough They would, of course, like
to have their passage paid and be provided,
free of cost, with few fertile acres of land
in the colonies. If we were simply discuss
| ing the propriety of permanent system OF
| emigration, it would be easy to show that
| such demands, even in a moderate form, are
| liable to the objections which beset other
| forms of gratuitous charity. 1t has indeed
| this advantage, that the pauper is perma-
nently taken off our hands. He is not likely
to be constantly falling back upon us for
assistance But in its degree assistance so
| given would be equally dangerous to the self
respect and prudence Of the recipient If
| man is entitled to be provided for at the ma
| tional expense, his spirit of Independence is
| equally lowered whether the provision is in
| England or abroad We should be merely
introducing a new form of outdoor relief.
Moreover there is the special objection that
we should be interfering with the natural
working of the labor-market. The
colonists want intelligent laborers; if
| we send them paupers, in order to
| relieve the rates, we should be giving them
bad material to the injury of those who
could supply better. By making known
as widely as possible the nature of the colonial
wants, and probably even by advancing pas
sage money in some cases, we may promote a
very useful circulation of labor; but as soon
as we extend our views and regard the colonies
as so many waste places upon which we may
| recklessly discharge the crowds which fill our
warehouses;, the benefits of the plan become
questionable. 1t is an excellent thing to
facilitate the intercourse between diff
ferent parts of our empire; but it is a
mistake to assume that we can regularly shift
our burdens upon our dependencies AS q
temporary measure of relief, when sudden
calamity has pauperized particular district,
it may be occasionally worth while to adopt
something like wholesale scheme of emigra-
tion. But even there we encounter the diff
Guilty that, in the first instance, it is not so
easy to find immediate room for large masses
OF the least valuable classes OF our population;
and that, secondly, temporary measures of
relief have an unpleasant facility for becom-
ing permanent. Most charitable acts do good
at the moment; it is only when they pass into
a system that they become positively PERM
cious.
These and other obvious considerations
may be adduced to show that emigration is
far from being the panacea that some people
fancy. 1t may do much good under judicious
regulations, but it is not likely to bring about
the millennium; and in order that it may dc
good at all, we must scrupulously observe Ger.
tain conditions. And it is the more necessary
to make the remark because there is par
donable tendency to look about for some
sudden and spasmodio means of relief. We
are impatient at the presence of so much
misery, and are anxious to throw it aside by
some desperate effort. Yet we must remem
ber that such efforts can rarely be successful
and that, even if the most sanguine anticipa
tions were realized. they do not point to very
satisfactory ideal II should not be accepted
as permanent condition of things that We
should be constantly encountered with 6
population incapable of supporting itself in
decency and comfort. If the working CLASSES
were aG intelligent, as self-respecting and, il
short, as civilized as they ought to be, there
is no reason why the whole existing popula
tion should not live and thrive within these
islands. We ought not to give uI
the hope that the English poor may some day
or other be made sufficiently prosperous moi
to regard emigration as door of escape from
helpless misery, but as an excellent field for
men of superfuous energy. At the present
! moment, it is true, we are far enough from
} that desirable consummation but the advo
cates of State emioYotion are tO mt IN t,1rr