The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-02-10

For mark, if the letters of half dozen
EncIishmen can "do" so much "SOod a
our youthful friend suggests. it is plain "
systematic diffusion Of the information, ell
llrscd and verified, contained in private let
tiers would attain the desired result on al in
1initcly enlarged scale. The "good" TO he
done by the "half dozen Englishmen is to
secured, how9 Why, simply by giving III
formation. Can these "half dozen English
men" reach as many readers as would listen
to the Bureau? The question carries its own
answer.-NorJolk Fryinian.
The difference consists partly Of the fact
that English people will believe whatever
their friends write TO them, and will not be-
lcve the representations ofagents paid to set
forth in glowing colors the peculiar attrac-
tons Of our State. We do not deny that a
thousand private letters would influence more
people to come hitler than hundred would;
but we do say that hundred private letters
would be more influential in this respect than
thousand or ten thousand circulars. .
The immigrants that now flock TO this
country and spread themselves over the
northern States arc not drawn hithcr, as our
contemporary seems to suppose, by the cir
culars, and pamphlets, and other advertise
ments of railroad and immigration compa-
MICS, but by letters from the thousands of
immigrants who preceded them.
1t is useless to spend money to bring COM
mon laborcrs to Virginia. They would not
remain with the negroes. 1t is idle to en-
pcct it. The land-holdcrs Want purchasers
for their lands. Did the ViVnian ever hear
of case in which 4 man able to purchase
land was attracted to this country by an inn
migration agency? There have been lands
sold to immigrants in the West, but these
were sold at extremely low &riccs and upon
long time. If we could offer 100 acres of
land for three, or four, or five hundred dol
lars, and give the purchaser a credit Of five
years, we might compete with the Pacific
Railroad Company for some excellent immi-
grants; but when we ask from two to ten
times as much fE our lands, and want one
fourth or more in cash, we cannot expect to
get immigrants of this class. They have not
the money. 1t appears, then, that we can
get neither those who are merely common
laborcrS nor those who are able and willing
to purchase land and pay for it as soon as
they can make the necessary money out Of
the land. But one class of immigrants re-
mains. These are the men whom no paid
agent can influence in the slightest degree,
and who come and see for themselves, or
take the representations of one or more Of
their own class who have come and seen for
themselves.
We do not wish to be considered as OPP
posed to immigration. We are, however,
opposed to forcing system. We do not be-
leve it will accomplish the objects for which,
it will be instituted, if it shall be instituted
ut all. We do not believe that even Commo-
dore MAuRY, much less an old fossil of po-
Gtician, can give intelligent Europeans any
information concerning Virginia which they
have not the means of procuring without his
aid. One young man goes from Richmond
to st. Louis. He draws dozen after him.
A Virginian removes to Missouri. lie draws
a dozen of his old neighbors after him. And
this not because these followers did not have
all the information they ever received before
going thither as to that State, but because
they gave no credit to representations made
for the whole world. So it is with imm-
grants from Europe. The letters that 60
from our German and Irish and English fel
low-citizens will, we repeat, induce more peo-
pie to come to Virginia in one year than the
Bureau will in ten--such people, we mean,
as we desire to have here.
Our Norfolk contemporary quotes an eN-
tract from letter from an Englishman pub
lished in the Lynchburg Virglntan to sup
port its views. We wish to make no other
or better reply to this quotation than to
reproduce what the VtrgtnSan Iynchburg)
says Of this Englishman. Read it:
He "has determined to come out and see
for himsey."