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E
P]
THOUGHTS
ON
EMIGRATION, EDUCATION, &c.,
IN A LETTER
ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND.
By " A CITIZEN."
d^.A
U^fTI.
MONTREAL:
PRINTED BY J. C. BECKET, 211ii, SAINT PAUL STREET.
MDCCCXLVIT.
^T
TO THE RlfxHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
My Lord,
I have taken the liberty of addressing the following
remarks to your Lordship, under the impression that they
will meet your Lordship's approbation. From the general
tenor of your conduct through a long public life, and your
recent declaration at the hustings of the British metropolis
in favour of rational reform, viz., " I am zealously attached
to the institutions of the country, but I wish to see those in-
stitutions from time to time conformed to the spirit of the
age, and to that advance of knowledge and of liberty, which
in a free country like this, must take place." From these
things 1 am fully convinced that there is not a nobleman in
the British dominions to whom the matter in question could
be more suitably addressed. Your Lordship's observations
are strikingly just and in strict accordance with unadulterated
reason. That the spirit of the Government and the spirit of
the age should go hand in hand, is a doctrine so palpably
correct, that one would suppose no sane man could utter a
syllable in opposition. Yes, my Lord, the doctrine is correct,
and the voice of enlightened reason is crying aloud that it
must be carried out. No Government can long exist under
the blighting sting of public disapprobation. No Govern-
ment can long hold the reins of State when its measures are
not in unison with the requirements of an enlightened and a
virtuous people. In short, my Lord, the offsprings of the
ignorance and barbarism of the dark ages must recede in the
same proportion as education and refinement advance ; and
the march of Government, and the march of mind, must be
ever kept in a parallel position. I am no advocate, my Lord,
for tearing up, root and branch, old and settled laws and
customs, however they may be enveloped in error and in-
IV.
justice, by one of tlio.sc siultlen convulsions which destroy
property and life and spread terror and desolation around ;
but by peaceable and rational remonstrance with the powers
that be, in order that the branches of those upas trees of
intolerance, ignorance, and bigotry which spread thai*-
venom through the length and breadth of the land, may
be gradually loped off, and t! e trunk and root of those sad
and repulsive monuments of the ignorance and folly of man-
kind be swept from the surface of the earth, supplanted by
the tree of knowledge, of liberty, and of happiness.
The subjects to which I would wish to call your Lord-
ship's attention, principally, are Emigration and Education,
subjects which are intimately connected with all that is
calculated to exalt mankind in their moral, political, and
social condition, and have a direct tendency to promote the
prosperity and happiness of society at large ; and if the
following remarks should be the means of drawing your
Lordship's attention more deeply to the above highly in-
teresting and important matters, so ihat the giant talent of
the British Legislature may be brought to bear more effect-
ually thereon, and if some new laws, regulations, and modes
of Government should be adopted that will have a salutary
and renovating effect upon the present and future condition
of my fellow-men, then the object will be accomplished of
Your Lordship's
Most obedient and humble servant,
A Citizen.
LEITER, &c.
My Lord,
As Emigration and Education are the all-important topics
of the day, will you kindly permit me to make a few ob-
servations relative thereto ; — first, then : —
I consider Emigration to be the safety valve of every
densely peopled country, by which the surplus population is
transferred to another soil, where immense tracts of land are
in possession of the inferior animals, and in many cases
where the foot of man has never trod. It is a safety valve,
because it carries off the non-produotive population of a
country who are daily consuming the produce of the land
vvithout being able to render an equivalent for the value
received. It is so, because it carries off' a class of people
who naturally become dissatisfied with matters as they
exist, and are apt to blame the Government for the poverty
and destitution that surround them. It is so, because the
wheels of the national machinery become clogged, inasmuch
as the unemployed portion of the inhabitants are a burthen\,
a dead weight upon those who are actively following their
daily occupation, and as the foimer class increase, the latter
become poorer, until they, too, loose all hope of maintaining
their families in comfort and respectability, and fall by de-
grees into a state of despondency and despair. Losing all
their spirit of manly independence and self-reliance, they
sink into the gulph of abject poverty and wretchedness.
But Emigration, to be an advantage and a blessing in
an individual, collective, and national point of view, must
be conducted upon an enlightened, liberal, and rational foot-
ing, suitable means must be adopted to bring about suitable
ends, regard must be had to the future welfare and pros-
perity of the emigrant, as well as to the inhabitants of the
country in which he is to reside, otherwise the gravest acts of
inj ustice may be committed on both. But can we say that the
Emigration of the present day is so conducted ? No, my Lord,
it is fraught v 'th the most glaring acts of injustice, both to
the poor deluded, suffering, trodden-down emigrant himself,
ns well as to the industrious and benevolent inhabitants of
this Province, and etorniil infiimy must rest upon the heads
of the doers of such deeds, and the causerH of such effects.
My lani^uage may appear to be somewhat intemperate, but
the reckless, unfeeling, and nefarious conduct of the parties
in question is of such an excitable nature, that it is extremely
difficult to keep within the sacred bounds of cool, calm, and
dispassionate remark.
I have frequently visited the Sheds, impelled by strong
feelings of sympathy for my keenly suffering fellow-mortals,
and done my best to cheer up their drooping spirits with the
hope of prosperity in tliis life, and of eternal happiness in
the next, and in some instances have seen beams of gratitude
in the eye when the tongue had ceased to speak, and never
in my life, in this country or the old, have I witnessed such a
melancholy mass of suffering humanity. After passing
through nearly two thousand adults in the different stages
of disease, you come to two or three hundred infant orphans,
some only fifteen or twenty days old, and many of^ them
taken from the side, and some from the breast of a dead
mother, and I envy not the feelings of the man whose
stony ci mposition can move through such a heart-rending
scene of human woe, without being touched with the deepest
feelings of sympathetic love.
The question naturally arises, wnat can be the cause
,;pf all this human suffering? what can be done to alleviate
the miseries of the present, and to prevent the like disasters
in the future ? With respect to the Orphans, I understand
that the Catholic Bishop has, by an arrangement with the
Government, taken them under his charge — that is, under
the care of the Nuns, whose conduct is beyond all praise.
They have shown a high standard of Christian character by
their untiring and indefatigable exertions in the cause of the
sick, both young and old, until about fifty have been laid on
a bed of sickness by their unremitting attentions to the dying
and the dead. I am glad to hear that the Bishop has taken
the Orphans, because I know they will be well taken care
of ; but I would have much rather that my fellow-citizens
had adopted a healthy child into each family, as far as they
would go. Here was an opportunity which may never
occur again for the citizens of Montreal to do an immense
deal of good, not only to the Orphans themselves, but to
society at large, for the amalgamation of these infants, who
would naturally, as they grew up, imbibe the sentiments and
feelings of the varied sects and parties into whose families they
would be placod, which would have a salutary effect both on
this as well as on the other side of the Atlantic, not only by
its influence as an cxaniph; of benevolence, but in its
tendency to break down those; truly contemptible distinctions
of country and party which too much prevail ; and this
act of the citizens of Montreal would have stood out in bold
relief on the page of future history as one of high-minded
liberality and Christian philanthropy. But what has been
the cause of the state of things which to this complex
has come at last ? That is the question. There must bo
something radically wrong somewhere. There is most
certairdy more than one screw loose in the frame-work of
society. There must be something rotten in the state of
Denmark ; and it is the bounden, the imperative duty of
every man to dive into the labyrinths and intricacies of
circumstances and events, and into the connexion between
causes and effects, and to endeavour to unravel the knotty
skein of human action, until the latent springs of those
frightful evils are discovered, and, when once found, let
every man set his shoulder to the wheel, and by firm
remonstrance, and by every peaceable and rational means,
endeavour to bring about a better order of things. Where,
then, is the why and the wherefore of this immense amount
of evil of which we are the painful spectators ? Is it the
work of the Almighty ? No, my Lord ; I believe with the
right Rev. Dr. Hughes, that blasphemy hangs on that
assertion. The Hon. John Neilson, in the House the other
evening, said that he believed it to be a visitation of Provi-
dence on the people as a punishment for their sins. But
would an All-Wise, perfect, and impartial Creator punish
one portion of his people only when all were equally sin-
ful ? O no, it is not the work of God — it is the work of
degenerate man — it is the work of the avaricious, the
ambitious, and the proud ; and Ireland, which is at present
the great charnel house of humanity, has been for years the
theatre of arbitrary domination. The Tithe System, that
sink of abominations, which gives to some of the high
clerical officials the trifling income of seventy thousand
pounds per year, and enables them to keep half-a-dozen
cooks, with two or three dozen other servants to wait their
Lordships' pleasure, — these doings have had a great share
in the cause of Ireland's troubles ; and I put it to the
unsophisticated reason of any man, as a plain common-
sense question, whether there exists, in the whole range of
the Almighty's creation, a greater discrepancy, a more
i t
palpable and glaring inconsistency, than that of a professed
follower and imitator of the humble Jj'suh of Nazareth
receiving such a sum from the public purse.
The rapacity of the Irish landlords, is another great cause;
of the suiVeriiig of their countrymen. The Kcv. Dr. Jlughes
says, " Nearly the whole of the soil is under tlu; own<'rship
of persons having no sympathy with the population, except
the cold tie of self-interest." Thus we see that th<?re is
an almost total lack of Christian bearing and of Christian
feeling from the rich to the poor, who are, by tlx; benevolent
Creator of the universe, endowed with a superabundance of
wealth, not so much for the gratification of their sensual ap-
petites and passions, as for the mental gratification of doing
good, by visiting the fatherless and widow in their allliction,
and by endeavouring to introduce such measures as will
ameliorate the condition of the poor. I am fully of opinion
with the Rev. Dr. Hughes, who says, "The Slate, that great
civic corporation which we call the State, is bound, so long
as it has the power to do so, to guard the life of its members
against being sacrificed by famine from within, as much as
their being slaughtered by the enemy from without." Yes,
sir, the State holds the purse-strings of the nation in its
Iiand, and the voice of reason, of humanity, benevolence,
and philanthropy cry aloud, that if the rich will not volun-
tarily raise the condition of the poor, the State should com-
pel them to do so. If the rich will not voluntarily fomi an
extensive, permanent, and well organised Emigration As-
sociation, which would give a healthy tone to society by
carrying off annually a reasonable number of the surplus
population of the country, with a suitable provision for their
future welfare and prosperity, then the State should compel
them to do so. I have said a reasonable number of the
superabundant population provided with the means of emi-
grating annually, because it has been proposed to Govern-
ment, by a highly respectable and influential committee of
gentlemen in Ireland, to send out at once two millions, a
measure which appears to me preposterous, being altogether
impracticable, and the forming a separate and distinct
colony would be extremely bad policy. No, my Lord, this dis-
tinctive separation betv/een man and man, is the very bane
of society, and has inflicted nine-tenths of the evils that have
cursec mankind from *ime immemorial. The watch- word
of the Legislator, the statesman, and all who have in-
fluence over the public mind, should be " Amalgamation,
Amalgamation!" particularly in a young and rising country,
for it will in a cprcnt .iioasnre do away with sectarian and
national f«'ndH, and ntronp^hcn the honils of Mocial union. I
df) not think it would brin^ men all to one way of ihinUin^,
hut, it would have the eU'eel of briii^in^ \\\o.\n lo one way of
ii'elinjyj, inaHmuch as euch would he inclined to ju (u-de to
liis neighbour the unmolested rij^ht of worshippiufjf his
Maker according to the dictates of his conscience, respecting
him as a man and a brother, as a subject of tin? same (Jo-
vernnient, and a child of the sjune luiiversal Father.
I Ijave said that the State holds the purse-strings of tin;
nation, and llu; unanimous voice of the peoph* should compel
the Stale, by petitioning for certain legislativ(? enactments,
to secure what the absolute wanta of society demand. The
State can find al)undance of money for carrying on expen-
sive wars and the destruction of human lif(!, and surely it
ought not to b(! backward in finding means for saving it.
The English nation have (contributed towards the poor starv-
ing population of Ireland, and, at the first glance, the sum
appears to be something handsome ; but, when we take into
consideration the immense amoiuit of wealth which the
nation possesses, the princely fortunes of j)rivate indivi-
duals — some of them a thousand pounds and upwards per
day ; — then, again, the whole army of sinecurists, with in-
comes annually of from one thousand to forty ; when we see
those piles of wealth, comparatively wide as the broad
Atlantic, and high as Egy|)tian Pyramids ; when we
see all this, the appropriations do really appear like the
dust in the balance. But, perhaps, after all, it is as much
as could be expected at the spur of the moment ; but the
Government ought to have exerted legislative influence
years ago, to compel the Irish landlords to do their duty as
men and as Christians. It is said that the Irisli peasantry
are an idle, inactive set ; but who has made them so } The
rich, the unfeeling land-proprietor, who has in many cases
exacted his rent even to the bed from under his poor tenant,
at the same time s|jending that money abroad which ought
to have been circulated at home, and which might have
given employment to his poor starving countrymen, who
have contracted habits of idleness from the want of work,
and their spirit of independence is broken down by the
want of employment and the want of food, and at length
they become totally indifferent about the past, the pn^sent,
and the future. And when they are reduced by famine and
disease to the brink of death, these humane landlords
commit a double ret of injustice by shipping them, half-
10
lilii
starved and half-dead, to a foreign land, where a great
number suffer death themselves, and cause, by infection,
the death of otherj. When we take all things into consi-
deration, we must exclaim, there is, indeed, a rottenness
in the state of Denmark ! and it should be the earnest busi-
ness of the political economist, and the national financier,
the legislator, the man of talent, and the man of wealth, the
Christian, and the philanthropist ; nay, every man who
possesses the common feelings of humanity, to probe to the
bottom of the wound, and endeavour to extract therefrom
the gangrene that lies festering in the bowels of society,
and destroying tlie very vitals of the body politic. What
would one of Ireland's poets say now could he rise from the
grave and behold the deplorable condition of his country ?
At the time he wrote, the poor were comparatively happy,
but not so much so as to prevent him expressing his regret
on account of their being less so than in former times. He
says : —
« There was a time, ere England's wrongs began,
When every rood of ground maintained her man ; ' '"'•
For him light labour spread its wholesome store —
Just gave what life required, but gave no more."
And what would one of England's poets say who has for
years been numbered with the clods of the valley ? In-
stead of ' ' '•"^
« Man's sad necessity, destructive war,
Sweeps to the grave the surplus of her sons,"
i.
I suppose he would have changed the word war for famine
and disease ; but all that is expressed in poetry is not truth,
and this is the case in the present instance. No, my Lord, it is
a libel on the character of the Deity to say that God made
men to butcher one another. What ! tell me that the bene-
volent Creator of the universe, who sent down his Son from
heaven to shew men that the way to eternal happiness was
to love each o*her, to do good to all, and to do as they would
wish to be done by, and when they were reviled to revile
not again, but to return good for evil ; who said, he that
uses the sword shall die by the sword — he who was a living
model for humanity, and strenuously urged and commanded
man to practise the virtues of humility, forbearance, and
love. Could a being who is the very essence of all that is
pure and perfect create man for si*3h a purpose } Pre-
posterous ! If this globe should exict until the immense
tracts of uninhabited land in its various parts become
peopled, and there is not room for another being to live, then
11
ion,
)nsi-
ness
the
who
the
ifrom
there might be some shew of reason in the assertion. God
permits such things to take place ; but it is the folly and
wickedness of man that bring them into operation.
God never intended that the inhabitants of a nation should
depend upon one single root of vegetation, it is the avarice
and wickedness of man that have brought about such a state
of things. God never intended that millions of human beings,
on account of the colour of the mere surface of the body,
having the same physical and mental organization, should
be kidnapped, torn from their native land, put down into a
ship's hold, male and female indiscriminately, like so many
cattle, without room to stand erect, and crammed almost to
suffocation, and then sold in a foreign land, the mother from
the daughter, the husband from the wife — sold under the
hammer of a iiide, vulgar, and unfeeling auctioneer, whose
familiarity with the brutish traffic hardens him in his crime.
But this is not God's work, it is the folly, avarice, and
wickedness of man that are the causes. God does not convert
eight millions of quarters of wholesome grain annually,
which was given for the nourishment and support of the
body, into a poisonous fluid, a great part of which goes to
the destruction of both body and soul, and sends its hundreds
of thousands to a drunkard's grave to meet their Maker with
all their crimes upon their heads. All this arises from the
folly and wickedness of man. It is computed that the
enormous sum of nearly one hundred and fifty millions of
pounds sterling is lost, and worse than lost, lo great Britain
every year, by the manufacture, purchase, and sale of
alcoholic drinks ; but, great as the loss is in a financial point
of view, it is but as the drop of the bucket when compared
with the destn^ction of the morals, the peace, comfort,
security, and happiness of society. But the worst of all is,
this soul-destroying poison carries its baneful influence
beyond the confines of earth, to the precincts of heaven —
beyond the boundary of time, to the illimitable ages of
eternity. When will our rulers see the absolute necessity
of taking active measures on this point ? Joseph Sturge,
Esq., Chairman of the National Temperance Society, at its
annual meeting at Exeter Hall in May last, said that he
regretted that the petition which that society presented to
Parliament six months ago, had not been attended to;
if it had, as much food might have been saved as would
have kept the population from want till next harvest. John
Rutter, Esq., stated that 0,748,000 quarters of barley were
aniiaally consumed in the manufacture of beer and spirits.
ill
12
He said that it was ascertained that a man and his wife,
with four children, consumed at the rate of one bushel
of corn per week ; so that the amount of grain annually
destroyed was sufficient to sustain seven or eight millions of
people for one year, a number equal to the entire population
of Ireland. He said that our rulers could not be ignorant of
the nature and extent of the evil of such practices, yet they
refused to check it by the only rational means. What was
their excuse ? Why, the revenue would be endangered.
Then let them charge the deficiency to the rich and to those
that had property ; let them no longer encourage a system
by which the morals of the poor were corrupted, and then
accuse them for want of education.
J. S. Buckingham, Esq., dwelt chiefly on the folly of
Government in turning a deaf ear to the entreaties made to
them to keep the grain of the counts from being destroyed
in distilleries and breweries. He said the stock of food in
the country was less than in former years, and Government,
instead of increasing that stock, allowed it to be destroyed
by converting it into a poisonous drink, which was flooding
the country with immorality. He said it was the duty of
Government to watch over the welfare of the community,
and he trusted, at the coming election, men would be chosen
who would think it worth their while to improve the con-
dition of the people. Yes, my Lord, Mr Buckingham is right.
We want men in Parliament who have the interest of society
at heart, men of sterling virtue and unbending independence,
who will not be subjected to the nod of the minister of the
day, nor truckle to the arbitrary and disgraceful custom of
bribery and corruption. We want men who possess at least
a spark of that first of virtues, public zeal. There is a wide
and open field for the labours of such men, for notwithstand-
ing much has been done by our native country for the
amelioration of the condition of ihe poor, notwithstanding
Hospitals have been erected, Magdalene Asylums, Poor-
houses, Houses of Refuge for the superannuated, Orphans'
and Widows' Asylums, Asylums for Juvenile delinquents,
and for the Insane, Charity Schools, and Missionary So-
cieties, — yet, after all, this is but a species of patch-work
benevolence, compared with what remains to be done.
Why, my Lord, at this very moment, the peasantry of Eng-
land are in a state of ignorance and pauperism. In the
counties of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, and
Lancashire, in particular, the ignorance of the peasantry
is most conspicuous ; and there you will find that there are
Id*
wife,
mshel
mally
ons of
ilatioii
rant of
;t they
It was
igered.
o those
system
id then
folly of
nade to
estroyed
food in
srnment,
estroyed
flooding
duty of
nmunity,
)e chosen
the con-
tn is right,
of society
pendence,
ter of the
custom of
;ss at least
! is a wide
withstand-
try for the
thstanding
ims, Poor-
[, Orphans'
elinquents,
lionary So-
patch-work
done.
itryofEng-
;ni. In the
ishire, and
3 peasantry
at there are
not many links in the intellectual chain between the horse that
draws the plough and the man who drives it ; and then every
body knows that the low price to which ihe farmers and
labouring men's wages are reduced, will not enable him to
maintain a family. The consequence is, the parish in which
he resides must make up the deficiency ; by this means he
becomes a pauper. Then in Ireland, what do we see there ?
The sad repulsive spectacle of a starving peasantry, on the one
hand, and a bloated aristocracy on the other. O, look on that
picture and then on this ; the one is rolling in every lu 'ury
of life ; the other, from their want of food, is sinking into
d(iath ; the one has ready access to all that taste, fancy, or
caprice can desire ; the other scarcely a cup of cold water
to cool the parched and burning tongue. But would this dark
and gloomy state of things ever have taken place, if the rich
and influential had been moving in their proper sphere of
action ; if they had had a proper regard for the welfare and
happiness of their fellow-men : if they had been actuated by
the divine principle of philanthropy, and employed a part of
the superabundance of their wealth for the benefit of their
fellow-men, of which they are the agents of almighty muni-
ficence ; if they had formed an Emigrant Association on a
large, liberal, and efficient scale, which would have given a
healthy tone to society, by the reduction of labourers and
the consequent increase of the price of labour to such a pitch
as would enable a man to support his family with some de-
gree of comfort, without being compelled to apply for parish
relief, and not have forced him to depend upon a single
root of the earth, when the all-bountiful Creator has clothed
the fields with diversified vegetation, and spread the cattle
on a thousand hills, all for the unrestricted support and enjoy-
ment of man. If, instead of encouraging church dominancy
and party divisions of every kind, of Conservatism, and
Radicalism, and Toryism, and Orangeism, and Whiteboyism,
and Catholicism, and Protestantism, and all other isms
which are the curse, the very cholera-morbus of the human
race ; and then by fanning into a flame the embers of party
feeling, by processions, carrying with them all the symbolic
parapharnalla of party spleen ; if, instead of encouraging
these party and distinctive feelings, accompanied with all
the vitiating and exciting exhibitions and tom-fooleries of
the day ; instead of encouraging all these things, if thty had
clothed themselves in the true nobility of nature and of man,
by a generous line of conduct, they would have pos-
sessed that in reality which they now possess in name
B
■ I
m i
I
u
^A their character with dignity
onlv and ,vould have s^^^fP^f ^^^^ i^, in Ireland had, years
te^' would have never come »o ^e b>M .^ „„t,i
Twhich they now stand^ V^^^^^ J ^1 'T but
■^"•^ ^Sf^nd'no "intaining *7 '^j fSs, of
Kr:lS\ng of P«.»i't;^rthey -"^d have taught
tnual labour, -'^.^''f^^tpaSu'^.ing an Emigrant^^^^
them to be ""iustrions^ anajy j^,,„g^ T" HnSf,
«».iation upon a large anu advantage to himseii,
S the effect of removing, w™ .^lo^, soil, and giving
?he swlus labourer to a »«« P™?;* Tft behind. Educa-
/.allinff whatever it may oe, ni hapPY man. o^h *■
S^V, an in^;i>;^t; v^^ an.i;S^| ^1^^^-
z:x^^^^ r *rnd'iXi.S"-*Vong
o« shores, Reading d>«cf«'j^r ^"""^^e, who are da. y
fering humanity. Jhu^ we jee the power, were
the Atlantic. ^^^g country are half deaa
The emigrants now sent to th^^^^^ i^^^.f ^'^ 7^^
before they embark ; and the suit ^^.easonable and un-
^ board the vessel such as the ^^ ^^^ ^^.p^ ^^ich
ZJLl number forced into the hoi ^^^ ^o neces-
h^the effect of destroying ^^e gases^^^^ ^^ ^^.ieh, to a
^ry for healthy respiration, and m
15
•certain extent, is fatal to animal life ; this, with a scanty
allowance of food, and that, too, of the very coarsest descrip-
tion, brings rapidly about, what to these poor, lost, dejected
and forlorn creatures, must be a happy consummation. But
the recent shipment of these poor unfortunate beings by Lord
Darnley, out-Herods Herod ; four or five hundred of whom
were put on board the ship Panope, with a promise that they
should receive one pound each from the Chief Emigrant
Agent at Quebec, but on their arrival, on opening the letter
which was supposed to contain the order, what did the poor,
half-famished, palid cheeked, sunken eyed mortals discover ?
0, tell it not inGath ! to their infinite regret and disappoint-
ment, they found that it was all a hoax ! But this is not all ;
they were allowed provisions for twenty-three days only,
and the ship did not complete her voyage in less than fifty !
O, cruelty ; cruelty ! cruelty ! ! Well might Scotland's
favourite poet, could he now arise from that bourne from
whence no traveller did e'er return, exclaim with double
emphasis in the following beautiful lines': —
<< And man, whose heaven erected face the smiles of love adorn ;
Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn."
I know it is said that this was Lord Darnley's Agent's
doing, but this is no extenuation of the act as respects Lord
Darnley, for he showed great indifference about the lives of
his poor countrymen when he trusted them in the hands of
a fawning and time-serving Agent. What, my Lord, can
the Government be about in neglecting to adopt IjCgislative
restrictions respecting Emigration ? The voice of this Pro-
vince, to a man, ought to cross the Atlantic with telegraphic
despatch, praying that the British Government would im-
mediately pass rigid and stringent laws, which would have
a salutary bearing on the matter in question ; praying that
they will not allow any emigrants to be shipped to this
country, under a very heavy penalty, but such as are strong
and healthy, and then only a certain number in each ship,
according to the tonnage of the vessel. It is a disgrace to
any Government to allow a parcel of avaricious and sordid
minded men to tamper with and endanger the lives of their
fellow-beings, both in their own country and in this, and to
inundate our land with a contagious disease, and with the
dying and the dead. Thousands of these poor unfortunate
men have had their passage paid across the Atlantic to lay
their bodies in a foreign land ; and about four thousand of
whom have already found a watery grave. In this city
alone, from twenty to forty per day are removed from the
16
I. o sutler in thib life, lo their
. • whicii they are doomea lo saner
knows that the » ate oi J ^^^y i James in ^^^
,0 what It was vender tnF^^^^^^^y,„tt«a^P
and Henry the Eightn, wu era that be, w"^""'
that was^t all <>Pr^f J:Zent for life, and howe^^S^ «!
jecting hl'"^ 'f;?ek Ttherws and P'^'^Xrinly opposed to
"'^K UmlsmW be, and XZ^"l^^^-^^^\ ^^
mentolineui j^^ right acuo»» species of
",te™ n thf humXting ''on'^^^f^fTfJi --nt, or
placed »n ">^ ^„v,oly pvoceedi^s oj j^^^^^ god,
offspring of Ignorance, Reform > U, J^e
. that immense amoum oi vs
n
to iheir
all thy
Imoved,
Jry body
lent now
[Second,
opinion
)ut sub-
er gross,
Govern-
»posed to
fject was
jpecies of
issent, or
ank God,
; are fast
cebergs of
withstand
he school-
jn abroad,
ave taught
I is liberty,
id has cer-
ods, in the
[ in all the
England has
gated others
njustice, the
The passing
the Catholic
ity Bill, are
s also made
s in that san-
irhich carried
scklessness of
tie world are
rk ages, and
and England
i.nent, by the
[ literary and
ns. She has
her crowning
,n of slavery ;
jrificed for the
poor, oppressed, and friendless slave, that he might obtain
his freedom and escape from the iron-handed tyranny of his
brutish oppressors, enabling him to tear off the shackles
from his limbs, and bound the verdant la'.va in all the buoy-
ancy of a free and a happy man, was a noble deed of dis-
interested benevolence, which will cover a multitude of
sins, and, with the name of Wilberforce, will go down to
distant posterity as one of the brightest spots in the whole
calender of human affairs. But even this act, great and
glorious as it was, sinks into comparative insignificance
when compared to what remains to be done ; for what is the
emancipation of the body compared to that of the mind ?
What is the buoyancy and elasticity of the limbs, when com-
pared to the strength and culture of the mind ? or what com-
parison will the physical bear with the mental powers of
man : with the thinking, judging, defining principle within ?
I need not pause for a reply, because I know that there is a
ready answer in the breast of every human being. Then
my inference is, that England deserves much praise for the
good things she has done, and much censure for those that
she has left undone. Do you ask me what they are ? Why,
my Lord, there arc deep-bedded rocks of ignorance, and vice ;
of superstition, of bigo'ry, of sectarianism, of avarice, of am-
bition, of pride, of illiberality, of envy, of hatred, and malice,
and all uncharitableness. But you will also ask how can
these be removed ? I answer, by a system of liberal educa-
tion throughout Great Britain, by establishing public schools
in every city, town, and village in the kingdom ; not richly
endowed colleges with a clerical chair for the purpose of
giving some favourite clergyman a handsome living and an
income out of all proportion to the services performed, whose
business, principally, is, in attempting to define knotty points
of divinity and theological subtilties, which, in nine cases
out of ten, are assented to without being understood. We
want not schools for teaching the doctrines of a creed, but
the duties of a life. We want not schools to make men
bigots, but to make them men in the most exalted sense of
the word, to teach them that man is a high and noble being,
stamped with the impress of his divine Creator, made for the
greatest and wisest purposes, and blest with the powers of
intellect sufficient to raise him from the trammels of sin to the
practice of virtue, from the attractions of earth to the glories
of heaven ; give the reading of the Bible in schools if you
will, without comment, and there he will find that God is
love, that hr is, without partiality, no respector of persons :
ti
:u
18
,.V" he wh» ">"« '"''y '''"uiJ of the education
=" -:- t If a noble author, who, ^P^^l^mg °1 « „ ^^^^ ,„
»-«'™i"^:^e„ instmcted by phi^»P^>^^^^^^^^
^" ^_f„i t^ the society mey "; f ocfius-
T*!":;* when initmct'^d by V^^^^^^'Ci^.^vo^^^^- >
SEE--- '? ^^1^ ^r?
fom twelves to an a^t- l.fe- No^^ -"^r'^^t"
famous than jdleno^, ""/^^ ^^^ ^ he coua Jl^^ ^^je,
,anghtthe«youAhowan_^^^ ,heir P^^^^^'^^et ""hes,
*°"f^ tdesp";e death, ^o™^"'^' itir & if ^^^
^PTilt' smiles of ptinees as well ^b Iheir « ^j ^ j„„^.
»:Jro?th:^^^^^^^^^ i:
SiHiS£srb^^rr£5i-ris
^ade the above^q ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ '^'mc reliance, integrity,
?£■:;»"' n^' its; ss -^ £-«a
It
y
:ecl;
will
his
and
[ding
day,
the
at ion
led to
ible ;
ecus-
re in-
than
le lec-
o this,
coun-
subser-
as for-
They
, how
public
riches,
if they
)f educa-
ow upon
worthy to
he same
I have
te to the
on duties
integrity,
lould be
ful mind
extensive
iity spirit
, and un-
enly prin-
r[e should
listinctive
mces and
nded, and
i member
! hopes of
degree of
bted right
to think, judge, and speak for themselves, according to the
dictates of their consciences and the conviction of their minds,
and that whatever may be a man's difference of opinion
from our own, we are bound to treat him as a man and a
brother, always bearing in mind that the difference of exist-
ing opinions have been brought about by a chain of causes
and effects entirely beyond our control. If the minds uf
youth could be deeply imbued with these liberal and rational
views of men and things, how happy would be the condition
of society in comparison with its present state ; all wars and
heart-burnings, all public quarrels and private bickerings
would cease, and men would be ashamed to indulge in those
petty ebullitions of national and sectarian feelings which are
so prevalent in the present day, and which strike at the very
root of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of man. With
these views and doctrines laid down as the fundamental
basis upon which the future education of youth is to be
founded; with these salutary aud renovating influences
abroad in the land, what heart-cheering and life-inspiring
prospects might we soon expect to see of peace, and joy,
and good will among men ; then the averted eye of jealousy,
of distrust, of envy, and malice, would sparkle with the
glow of affectionate regard, and the turned-up lip of sovereign
and supreme contempt, would utter the manly greetings of
social joy, and there would exist a reciprocity of kindly feel-
ing and action among men, and we might then with truth
exclaim, "Verily the desert does indeed now blossom like
the rose."
I have said that the state has the command of the national
purse, and that the superabundance of wealth should go to
better the condition of the poor, at least a part of it ; — it
should go to dispel the ignorance, the poverty, and the vice
of the poorer classes ; it should go for the preservation of the
body, and the refinement of the mind ; it should go to raise
the poor in the scale of human being, and to bring them
from the lowest depths of degraded humanity to the high
and exalted standard of rational men ; it should go to teach
him that his rank in the order of the Creator, was intended
by almighty munificence to be far above the brutes that
perish, and that by the exercise of that reason which gives
him the distinctive superiority over the animal creation, by
the improvement of his intellectual powers, and by the ex-
pansion of his mind and by walking steadfastly in the path
of wisdom, piety, and virtue, he will gradually ascend to
the topmost heights of human excellence, and then it may
20
n I
t < I
\\i\\o lower than the
,. ,„., .M a.a. God ... u.ade m^ !>> , Bu^ U
a„g.U, and «— J ^^jhis to be <ione ? U >« ^^'y ,„ „<,,
may be a«ked how « • j^ ,„ .acl.se and do y ^^^
aiigeU, ana 'J'™ "^^ ,, ,his to be done r ■"= •- „„(
may ^ »^"\'rve«ditaU to practise; and ^ V,^ 1^^
l„l ill theory, «« '^';^ influential of the lanu ar
know that the rich and nn ^^^ „b. '";(1;„g.
makers of the ''^"^-rh/ifeUs of the churehe'j^bo^ °^^^
both wisdom and virtue, m r ^
lives.
«But 0, mankind are «nco weak,
A ^ r. tie to be trusted ;
And liuie w "« halance shake,
*,»^i
,„,„elyr.gMa-)— . ^^„ „^,„^, and
indeed such is *e genej^al we«^^„^ %^,S"wo.W
the almost ""'^J^^to ^^tction and pass ^ tew tha^^ ^
difficult for any ot "^^"j » ; but such thmg^s ^^^^
di^etly f «^' "-^Tone, ere we can «XXe of Poverty and
«'°"'' rl^d tCmassof ignorancefnd vice,^ P .^^^
{roin the ^na thatma b ^j But je interest,
^^^ whtch so a^armmg y^F ^.^ovJ ^ i,^
suppose that certmnm ^^ ^'^JLr For inBiance,
when they turn out ^^^ at "!?«.•' f., all the
tendency: -'If "^e^t be levied, suffic^nt for^^^
if a tax on property_w Emigration, the ncn ^d
pvitposes of Educ^on and t ^J^ moment, for Ae^P^^„„t
^e effects «X'^?^ve^ tew years, would ^tund the .^^^^
state of ?«=;^'/' "1th compound interest; f or ^ . the
80 contributed, with comp j^^^^,^ "^il^Mlydone
trious, temperaw^ and v^_^ ^^^^^^^ ''SfttpSs would
enormous expense op j^j„estic ; *^,^fP houses a
away ^'*, boj^^'^^^, «'°P%T."trfsvKoo, would
tu«r*^:rt^:«Z^J d^^^^^^ t^e
^e j;:Ud aS pA- ^- rf Po'cur andji^^
2\
II the
lut it
jauti-
(u not
law
great
ff Eng-
1 House
it there
IpoBsess
of holy
are, and
rould be
at would
hould be
removed
)verty and
lometimes
r interest,
a. opposite
r instance,
for all the
would feel
e improved
the amount
the indus-
people, the
nearly done
itals would
)or-house8 a
I, too, would
•s might be
en, and the
s, and with
ion's gone ;"
aceable, and
aring of the
ht about by
[ and renovat-
)on the minds
.'uid the hearts of tiie people, tlial they no longer require the
.services of those who have for ages lived sumptuously on
the foolish, destructive, and wicked litigations of their clients.
Thus you see, my Lord, the rich will be fully repaid their
fiist outlay by the reduction of the poor rates, and the reduc-
tion of those large sums which must now be raised by taxa-
tion for the confinement and safe keeping of criminals at
home, and the expense of sending and keeping them abroad ;
thoy will also be repaid by the increased security of property
and life. But what say the Scriptures on the duty of the
rich to the poor ? In the nineteenth chapter of Mathew, we
find the direct and positive command of our Saviour relative
to the duties of the rich to the poor in the following verses :
" And behold one came unto him and said. Good Master,
what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ?
And Jesus said unto him. If thou wilt enter into life, keep
the Commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus
said. Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false wit-
ness ; honour thy father and thy mother ; and, thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto
him. All these things have I kept from my youth up : what
lack I vet ? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he had great pos-
sessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples. Verily I say
unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the king-
dom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God." But this last verse, I conceive,
like every other passage of Scripture that seems to want a
little explanation, should be put to the touch-stone of reason,
that rudder of the mind, which was given to man by God,
to enable him to steer safely through every difficult channel
of life.
Is it to be supposed then, from the above passage, that
as it is absolutely impossible that a camel could go through
the eye of a needle, according to the common accept-
ance of the term, so it is also impossible for a rich man
I to enter into the kingdom of God? by no means, for this
would be charging the Almighty with cruelty and injustice,
whose every action is founded in purity and love. This pas-
sage can be explained clearly from the circumstance, that
there are in the countries where the Scriptures had their birth,
c.
narrow pusBages belweeii the rtxjks where the canieU have
to pass, called the m^cdles, and thev are so difficult to
ffet through) that the drivers arc obliged to take the burtheuH
From the animals' backs in order that they may be able to pass ;
therefore it is clear that the impression that Jesus intended
to make upon the minds of his disciples was, that a great
responsibility rested upon those who had the command of
wealth, that they had a weighty duty to perform to the jxwr,
and that it would be more difficult for the rich to obtain
eternal happiness than the poor, on account of the great
temptation which riches hold out to indulge the sinful pas-
sions in all their forms, to wean us from spiritual to temporal
things, to be unmindful of our duty to God, and regardless
of the welfare of our fellow-men ; in short, to lay up trea-
sures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves
break through and steal, rather than lay up treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves
break through and steal.
Thus we see from what has been stated, that the promises
and threats of Scripture have a direct bearing upon our con-
duct, relative to the charitable disposition of wealth, indeed
the general tenor of the Gospel goes to inculcate the virtue
of benevolence. Jesus Christ was a complete model of
disinterested benevolence, going about doing good both to
the bodies and minds of men, healing the sick, the lame, and
the blind, and teaching the heavenly doctrines of humility,
forbearance, and love. What an inducemeiit is there here
for the rich to appropriate a portion erf" their wealth for the
benefit of their poorer brethren, the ppmise is nothing short
of eternal happiness in a future life ; but there is also an in-
stantaneous reward for acts of benevolence in this life, for
the pleasing reflection of having benefited our fellow-men in
mind, body, or estate, will accompany us through every
changing and trying scene of this fickle and transient st te
of existence ; and in the hour of death will be as a refresh-
ing stream from the fountain of life. But, methinks I hear
some one exclaiming, " Stop, stop, my dear sir, your notions
of the improved state of society are altogether Utopian and
premature ; you have been soaring in the regions of unprofit-
able speculation, and indulging in the wild chimeras of a
disordered imagination ; you are at least two or three cen-
turies beyond the feelings and the spirit of the age ; your theory
may be good, but to reduce it to practice is morally impos-
sible.** — To which I must reply, that I humbly conceive that
the foregoing remarks are the offspring of calm and sober
mve
t tu
lUIlH
BHH ;
ded
jrtiat
id of
HX)r,
)tain
^reut
pas-
poral
dless
trea-
ieves
res in
ieves
rc;aHuii, thu legitiinaie conclusion of a cool and dispassionate
consideration of tlie subject in question, and the natural and
irresistable inferences whi(;h must hi* drawn by ev'ry man
whose mind is not shackh^d by the fetters of early prejudice,
bv the tyrant custom, or by political, national, or sectarian
bias. The spirit and feelings of the times are in favour of
improvement ; witness the steam engine, the rail-road, and
the telegraph ; witness Total Abstinence Societies, for young
and old, those great promoters of public morals, peace, and
prosperity, whose divine influence is like the dews from
lieuven, invigorating and fertilizing the land with health
and happiness ; witness, too, the free intercourse between
one country and another, and the liberal footing of transact-
ing business on the principles of free trade ; witness, also,
the decline of that sanguinary spirit which formerly plunged
nations in almost exterminating wars for mere trifling causes,
and the desire to settle national disputes by arbitration, all
these things shew that society wants not the lapse of cen-
turies for its improvement, it requires only a few philanthro-
pists in every town and city, to touch the latent spark of
benevolence that dwells in every human breast, and to rouse
their fellow men from the drowsy torpor of guilty indifference,
to a lively sense of duty, the duty of using every exertion to
obtain for our poorer brethren all those rights and privileges
which by the laws of nature and of God they are so justly
entitled to. Let them get up petitions through the length and
breadth of the land for tne immediate establishment of
schools on a large and liberal footing, such as have a
practical bearing on the e very-day-business of life, and the
reciprocal duties to be performed between man and man ;
let these be opened in every town and village, particularly
in Ireland ; let them petition, also, for a regular organized
system of emigration, on an efficient scale. These two
movements, if put into operation, will work wonders in a
very short time, providing they are carried out to the extent
required, and commensurate with the vast importance of he
objects to be obtained.
It would be well, too, for the Government of the coun-
try, to a certain extent, to adopt a system of compulsory
education. This measure may appear to be somewhat
arbitrary, but it is strictly just, for as the State is the guardian
of the public welfare, and compels its subjects to pay such
taxes as are absolutely necessary for the suppression of vice
and the punishment of the wicked, it has an undoubted
right to check in their bud, by counteracting influences, those
24
ii
;
elements which, if allowed to ripen to maturity, will destroy'
the peace, order, and happiness of society. I know it will
be said that the Roman Catholic population of Ireland would
never join in public schools, and why ? Because they are
afraid that an officious meddling will be made with their
religious principles ; because they fear that Government
would appoint Episcopalian or at least Protestant school-
masters. I do not think the Catholic clergy are opposed to
the improvement of the people in all the useful branches of
education, but the; are extremely sensitive on the score of
religious principle. Then, again, the rabid spirit of party
which has been kept up for ages between Catholics and
Protestants, and which have called into active operation all
the bad passions of our nature, and which are a disgrace to
the name of man, these have carried through the land their
baneful effects, spreading far and wide envy, and hatred, and
malice, and all uncharitable ness, filling the heart with sad-
ness and the land with blood. Need we, then, wonder that
a shyness between the parties still exist ; at such an awful
crisis as this, what can be done ? Are all hopes of the
future education of the labouring classes to be cut off for the
purpose of gratifying the morbid appetite for party spleen ?
Is the present and eternal welfare of the rising generation
to be sacrificed to the wicked propensities of those who con-
tinue to indulge reciprocally those feelings which are directly
opposed to reason, religion, and virtue, and which entail
upon society almost all the ills which flesh is heir to ? Do
you ask how it is possible to make a change in this unhappy
state of things } I answer, the Government can do it. Yes,
my Lord, they have it in their power, by a wise and judicious
course of measures to work a rodical cure for Ireland. Of
course some sacrifices must be made ; the Tithe System,
in Ireland at least, must be abolished. I know it will be
said that it is a law of the land which has been Icng stand-
ing, and that it makes no difference ciiher to the landlord or
tenant as to the amount of money collected in the shape of
tithes, as they had both entered into their respective purchases
and engagements with the known fact that the property and
the payments were inseparably connected. It will also be
said that, at the time of its adoption, it was a wise measuro,
as there was a laxity of religion and morals among the people ;
but what may be good in the reign of Ethelwald, may be bad
in the reign of Victoria; and a lav,r passed in a semi-barbardvis
state of society, may be good for the people of that age, but
may bear a very opposite character when society has arrived at
a higher pitch of civilization. So it is with the law of tithes ;
indeed it is almost too barefaced a thing to exist in the
present day, particularly in Ireland, where there is so large
a proportion of the Catholic population. It is th cause, in
that country, of deep-rooted dissatisfaction, and well it may,
for can any one imagine a more direct insult to the human
understanding than that of compelling a man to maintain a
religion whose doctrines are diametrically opposed to the
convictions established in his mind ; it is setting up, too, a
sort of infallibility in religion which ought not to be tolerated ;
it is forcibly wresting from man the gift of God ; it is inflict-
ing a deep wound on society which the sensitive feelings of
the age will not much longer endure.
The Tithe System must be abolished (i Ireland before
the least glimpse of reconciliation can be expected to exist
among the great body of the people, and with it, at no very
distant date, must also go by the board, the union of church
and State .in all countries, for it is the fundamental law of
progressive improvement, that all institutions which have a
direct bearing upon the great leading power of progressive
improvement, I mean the human mind, should bear a pro-
portionate advance in enlightenment and civilization ; and it
is in the constituted nature of things, the inherent, inaliena-
ble, and irrevocable right of every human being to judge
and decide for himself in matters of religion ; a right stamped
by the sacred seal of Divine Omnipotence. Before his great
Master he must stand or fall, any attempt, therefore, to keep
up a favoured and privileged order in the pay and patronage
of the State, is an arbitraiy act of injustice, and a direct in-
sult to the iinderstanding of all who do not come within the
circle of that order,
I say then, my Lord, that the Government have it in their
power, in a great measure, to break down the middle wall of
partition that divides man from man, by discountenancing
all party feeling and all measures that lead to internal dis-
sensions, and treating all upon the broad principle of impar-
tial justice. In establishing public schools in Ireland, much
care, and judgment, and impartiality will be necessary in
the choice of masters, or it cannot be expected that they will
be a iended with beneficial results. When the least national,
political, or sectarian bias is shown, then tnerf^ will be an
end to their general uoefulness at once. I would not ap-
point the man with the cookoo song of " God save the king"
upon his tongue, and selfishness and hypocrisy in his heart;
one who would make loud professions of loyalty an apology
26
for the absence of every requisite in character and talent ;
but I would rather appoint the man, if he possessed the
other requisites, who knew no loyalty at all save the loyalty
to right, who knew no loyalty to any Government whether
Conservative, Tory, Radical, or Whig, further than their
measures went to better the condition of society, and to the
general welfare of mankind ; one who would not by a word
or look give the least preference to any of his pupils on ac-.
count of sect or party. I would also appoint none but tee-
totalers, for they ought to be made the living land-marks to
the rising generation, to guard them against the rock of in-
temperance, that destructive rock upon which so many thou-
sands have already split with the wreck of body and the
crush of soul, and as the boy of to-day will be comparatively
the man of to-morrow, treading the stage of life in all the
diversity of human character ; of what mighty importance
must it be, both to Government and people, to fix firmly in
the youthful mind the embryo of future usefulness, of revt-.
ence to God, of love to man, not to a party or a clan only ;
not to this man because he carries a scrap of orange ribbon
at his button-hole, and another because he carries the same
vaunting exhibition of blue ; not to this man because his
clergyman chooses to preach in a black gown, and to the
other because he prefers a white ; not to this man because
he wants to go to heaven this road, and another that. — no,
but to the universal brotherhood of man. And
no, no
in
all the public schools, the foundation upon which all the
teachings should rest, is the science of universal benevolence ;
take this for the root, and all the branches that spring there-
from, whvjther in the common schools or those which give a
more extended course of education, will be adorned with
nature's choicest fruits, the fruits of peace, and joy, and good
will towards men. O that Government and people would
resolutely set their shoulders to the wheel to blot out from
the vocabulary of languages all party names, and consign
forever to the tomb of the capulets, all political, national, and
sec*arian distinction.
I have visited the benevolent institutions of New York
and Philadelphia, and met with the most bland and courte-
ous reception from their respective superintendents, and have
been forcibly struck with the beauty, order, and regularity
of their internal arrangements, particularly of those of the
Juvenile Delinquents' Asylum. There were about three or
four hundred girls and boys who had been met on the very
threshhold of a vicious course of life, and snatched from the
«1f
yawning gulph of destruction ; here no stone is left unturned
for their establishment in habits of industry, piety, and vir-
tue, each boy being taught a trade, and the girls all the oc-
cupations of domestic lile. The time for labour, recreation,
and instruction are so agreeably divided, that the inmates
naturally become attached to the Institution, and by a
pleasing diversity of employment, are daily acquiring more
strength of body and mind, and laying the foundation for
useful and respectable members ol society. I have read
several letters, in the annual reports, from those who have left
the Institution, expressing the most heartfelt gratitude to the
society for having saved them from certain ruin, and placed
them in their present happy position ; how much superior is
this mode of treating the young offender to that too frequently
practiced where he is thrown into prison for some trilling
crime, and exposed to all the pernicious influences <rf
hardened villany ; he thus becomes contaminated with the
seeds of every species of vice, and is then let loose on society,
rife with every principle of evil. The adult Institutions, too,
are of the same reforming and reclaiming character. Would
that poor suffering Ireland was blest with such Institutions,
for it is to the formation of the character in early life that
the future prosperity and welfare of society principally de-
pends, and to a judicious regard to prison discipline, that
the adult criminal is to be reclaimed. These stately edifices
of benevolence which everywhere meet the eye of the pass-
ing traveller, impress him with feelings of admiration and
respect, where nothing is left untried to effect the ameliora-
tion of suffering and degraded humanity. No public and
private expense, no untiring and indefatigable energy is
spared to give to the sick, the lame, and the blii. . the in-
sane, the widow, and the orphan, the young culprit, and the
old, the aid that their respective conditions require, and all
the comfort that the nature of circumstances can afford. I
could not but conclude that whatever may be defective in
the American character, their almost enthusiastic ardour in
the cause of their suffering fellow-man, which every where
prevails, is certainly a most redeeming feature. But, I am
sorry to say, that we Europeans in passing through their
country, are too much prone to quarrel with some little
difference of customs, habits, and manners which are not
exactly similar to our own, and which do not meet oinr
rather more refined ideas of the strict proprieties of social
life, thus attaching importance to the mere bubble that floats
upon the surface, instead of fathoming the intrinsic value
Wttmanmmam-
-■mtm.
^T-
28
within. It would be a matter ol deep regret, that two coun-
tries so alike as England and America are, in all that en-
riches and embellishes human life, should they, by the reck-
lessness of the few in opposition to the more considerate
and respectable classes of both countries, be plunged into a
destructive and exterminating war; a war which would
deluge the land with the fathers' blood, the widows' and
the orphans' tear, and all this, too, may Joe caused by some
trilling and unimportant circumstance, which, by arbitration,
might be fairly, honourably, and amicably adjusted.
In connection with my remarks on Temperance, there is a
pleasing incident which took place a few days ago, which
I cannot permit to pass unnoticed, and which your Lord-
ship will not consider out of place ; it will be read with
lively interest by many, and with none more so than your
Lordship, who w^ill, I am persuaded, rejoice to hear of any
movement in this Province which has a tendency to promote
the; prosperity and happiness of the inhabitants of this highly
important portion of Her Majesty's dominions. We had a
juvenile pic-nicfor the young buds of teetotalism,and His Ex-
cellency the Earl of Elgin addressed the children ; there were
about one thousand present ; his Lordship seemed to take
much interest in the scene, and with a degree of warmth and
energy, endeavoured to impress upon the young minds the
necessity of persevering in the course they had adopted, and
in every other virtuous principle, in order that they may
grow up good men and good women. His Excellency has
the honour of being the first Governor in Canada who has
given public countenance and personal approbation to this
great reforming and soul-saving influence. The late Lord
Sydenham, to whom I addressed two or three letters, and
had a private interview with on the subject, expressed him-
self very much in favour of temperance societies, and sent
a small donation, but took no active part to bring about the
happy consummation so much to be wished, and for which
the teetotal societies continually labour, viz., the restora-
tion of the inebriate from the lowest depths of depravity and
vice, to respectability, virtue, and happiness. H* • Excellency,
Lord Elgin's, public approbation of the teetotal cause, will
have a beneficial effect, for the actions of great men carry
with them great influences, and one single act of a person
in the position which His Lordship holds in society, may
entail on the people, even down to distant posterity, irrepara-
ble evil or incalculable good ; the good resulting from this
act of His Lordship's, I have no doubt, will be felt when the
d9
{present generation will he no more. There is something pecu-
iarly gratifying to the feelings in the spectacle of a Governor
of a country bending from his exalted station, and witfi a
benevolent regard and a paternal solicitude, condescending
to give to little children, those tender plants of humanity,
the advice of a father and a friend. Such a position, my
Lord, appears to me to be one of the highest stamp. To lead
such an army of young teetotalers is a glorious occupation,
and how do the armies of a Wellington, a Blucher, and a
Bonaparte, with their hundred thousand men each, sink into
comparative nothingness when compared with these ? For
the aim of the one is to kill the body, the other to save the jul ;
the one exerts its influence on time, the other extends it through
all eternity ; the one is physical, the other mental ; the one is
an appeal to animal energy, the other to reason and judg-
ment ; the one is destructive, the other restorative ; the one
is of the earth, earthy, the other is an emanation from
Heaven. We humbly hope that His Excellency will con-
tinue to favour the temperance cause, both by precept and
practice, and take a firm and manly stand against the des-
potism of foolish and pernicious customs by which the table
drinking usages are kept up ; let us humbly hope that His
Excellency will become the patron of the Canada Temper-
ance Societies, a step which would give great impetus to
the cause throughout the Province, both by the formation of
new societies and by the accession of members to those
already formed. His Excellency has now an opportunity
of doing much good by spreading extensively abroad in the
land this great moral influence, and I am sure if his Lord-
ship could but visit the abodes of destitution and vice caused
by intemperance, and witness the heart-rending scenes of
human degradation and misery which reigns in the home,
or rather the hell, of the inebriate, where the deserted wife
in her dank and dismal cell, without fuel and without food,
with palid cheek and sunken eye, sits with listening anxiety
till past the midnight bell, for him who had pledged himself
I at the sacred altar to be her guardian and protector through
life, and who, when he does arrive, adds insult to injury,
and inflicts fresh wounds upon a heart already too deeply
[pierced. 0, what must be the pitiable condition of the
mother of a family of famishing little ones, in such a
[home, where not an article that can be at all conducive to
lomestic comfort is left, where all has vanished beneath the
lonster alcohoPs blighting touch. Could His Lordship
[witness such scenes, which arc by no means uncommon, I
30
i
aril fully persuaded that the kindly feelings of his nature
would give way, and irresistably impel him to throw his
weighty influence into the cause of teetotal societies. His
Lordship's influence would have the effect of establishing
temperance societies on a more solid footing, and a greater
degree of permanency and efficiency would be imparted to
all, and His Excellency would acquire a fame far »nperior
to that which arises from a one-sided political bias ; he
would receive the spontaneous approbation of every wise
and good man, and would enjoy the greatest of all luxuries,
the luxury of doing good, and the remembrance of having
done such an act would cheer His Excellency on through
every untoward event of life, and on the pillow of death he
would be supported in nature's *rying hour with the ex-
hilarating reflection of having done essential service to man-
kind in his day and generation.
The crowned heads in Europe are beginning to feel the
importance and the necessity of moving in this great work.
The King and Queen of Sweden are almost enthusiastic in
their desire to establish and to promote the objects of Tem-
perance Societies. The King promised the American Agent
that he would do all in his power to bring about that refor-
mation of which his country stood so much in need, stating
that the Government was supported principally from the
revenue derived from distillation ; yet he felt that it was his
interest and his duty, and the duty of every member of the
State, to do all in his power to check that torrent of alcoholic
drinks which was making such rapid inroads upon the health,
morals, and happiness of the people, and they have done much,
both the King and Queen, by their powerful example and
patronage, to bring about a better order of things. At the last
National Anniversary Meeting, the King and Queen were
present and gave their countenance and sanction to the pra-
ceedings. This great Temperance Convention was held at
Stockholm, in the month of December last, and the reports
from Temperance Societies, from different parts of the coun-
try, by their deputed delegates, were of the most cheering
character.
I cannot dismiss this subject without making an extract
from the World's Temperance Convention, held in London
in the month of August, 1846. In an address to the monarchs
and rulers of all nations, it is there stated that a Committee
was appointed by the British House of Commons, in the
month of June, 1834, to enquire into the extent of evil caused
by the use of intoxicating drinks ; the Committee was com-
31
po.Htcl ul thirty -eight meitibers, and included Lord Althorp,
Sir Robert Peel, Admiral Fleming, Colonel Williams, and
Mr. Alexander Baring, the most eminent of British merchants,
and representatives of the agricultural, manufacturing, and
maritime counties of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; never
perhaps in the annals of Parliament was there a Committee
composed of more eminent or more impartial members.
There is a long list of resolutions given, showing the dreadful
havock that intoxicating drinks have made in society, but I
will give only one, it is this : That they produce the most
painful consequences to individuals ; disease in variety of
forms ; stunted growth in the young ; premature decay and
death in the middle aged ; apoplexy, paralysis, idiocy,
madness, suicide, and violent death, by all which more lives
are wasted and destroyed in one year, than in all the great
battles of the last century. The address then proceeds in
the following language : — We address ourselves in the spirit
of Christian regard and Christian frankness, when we say
rulers of nations and protectors of the people committed to
your care, if you desire to see the resources of your industry
fully developed, your golden harvest of grain husbanded for
the food of man, your population preserved in vigorous
healtii and industry, youth well instructed and morally
trained, the men sober, the women chaste, the public autho-
rities just and temperate, your subjects happy and obedient,
and the great duties of religion and morality cheerfully and
willingly performed, under the influences of love for their
excellencies, and a hearty p .rticipation in their enjoyments,
rather than from a fear and terror of the punishment- that
awaits their neglect. If these be the objects of your high
and noble ambition, O rulers and potentates of the earth, we
entreat you in the name of the World's Convention, now as-
sembled together in friendly union, from the various coun-
tries that have sent us here to represent their feelings, hopes,
and desires, that you will be with us in doing whatever in
your wisdom may seem best calculated to arrest the progress
of intemperance in your respective dominions ; to encourage
all Societies, Institutions, and measures for abolishing the
drinking usages and customs of your people ; you will thus
draw down upon your crowned and anointed heads, the
blessings of all your people, and the grateful homage of the
heart from millions yet unborn ; your dying moments, when-
ever they may come, as in the course of time must happen
to us all, will be soothed with the remembrance that you
have endeavoured to dischar^ the high trust and responsi-
8f
bility committed to your care, by encouraging within your
dominions a new moral reformation for the improvement of
mankind, the great end and aim of which is to promote
" glory to God on earth, peace and good will to men."
I have dwelt at some length on the subject of Total Ab-
stinence from alcoholic drinks, because I conceive it is the
duty of the Government of every country to watch over the
interest of its subjects, and to countenance and encourage
all the good influences that are abroad in society, and to
check and disparage those that are evil ; and every common
observer must admit that there is not a more satanic in-
fluence In existence in the present day, than the one in
question ; not a more demoralizing, desolating, paralysing,
and soul-destroying power amongst men ; its extensive
ravages amongst the poor and labouring classes, are dread-
ful to contemplate : it is the destroyer of domestic peace and
public tranquility, of individual happiness and social enjoy-
ment ; it extinguishes every spark of love, honour, justice,
and common honesty ; it makes the child an orphan, the
mother a wic'ow, and the father a brute. But its hellish in-
fluence does not stop at the cottage of the poor, but enters the
mansion of the rich and the powerful, it crosses the threshhold
of the man of wealth, of learning, and of high official station ;
kings, ministers, clergymen, and judges have been the
degraded slaves of the tyrant ulcohol ; all, all — ^from the
f>auper to the prince, from the beggar to the bench, have
ived, and died, and have gone unprepared to their last
homes, the pitiable victims of intemperance ; and many a
splendid intellect, possessing brilliant talents, deep penetra-
tion, sound judgment, and sparkling wit, which might have
been ':i benefit and an ornament to the senate, the pulpit, or
the bar, have been laid prostrate by the withering blast of
intoxicating drinks. But I hope I have said enough on this
subject to impress upon your Lordship's mind the necessity
of bringing Legislative enactments to bear upon this matter ;
there is not on this earth a more useful 'and honourable oc-
cupation, either for the statesman or the private individual,
than that of diminishing and subduing this frightful evil.
As the duration of human life is but a span long, even in
the ordinary course of nature, but taking into account the
numerous ills enwoven with our frame, how great is its un-
certainty, and how forcibly do these reflections impress upon
our minds the absolute necessity of being actively employed
in every good work, and of stamping on the rapidly rolling
wheel of time, the impress of some good, a mark of having
33
(lone sometliiiig lor our fellow man, whicli will carry down
its benign and cheering influences to distant generations,
and which will diffuse joy and happiness to future genera-
tions till the end of time, of having laid the foundation of, or
aided in promoting, some great principles of action such as
the total abolition of slavery : the total abolition of alcoholic
drinks as a beverage ; the total abolition of war; the universal
difiusion of knowledge, unconlaminated and untrammelled
by sectarian and national domination ; of civil and religious
liberty ; of universal benevolence and Christian pilanthropy ;
in short, all those great and good principles of action which
are calculated to produce peace and happiness in this life,
and to pave the way for everlasting felicity in the next.
But to the subject of Emigration : — Emigration, then, to
be beneficial to the emigrant, to our native county and to
the country of our adoption, three things are essentially
requisite : a fitness of the emigrant for his new occupation ;
assistance from the Government to enable him to obtain a
living for himself and family ; and a prospect of being able,
by industry, temperance, and frugality, to better his con-
dition. But the emigrant must be trained in the school of
hardy industry before he embarks for a foreign soil, where
he will have to fell the ponderous elm, and pluck the migh^
oak ; he should possess a degree of physical capacity suffi-
cient to enable him to wrestle with the roughness of nature's
wilds amid the roaring of the northern blast ; in short, he
should embark with body and mind educated for the task
he will have to perform : and be prepared to meet with and
conquer those difficulties and hardships which every settler
on new land has to encounter ; but, at the same time, let
him constantly keep before his mind, that by indefatigable
industry and perseverance in his daily calling, at no very
distant period, a state of happy independence will be his
most certain reward. I have been a resident of this city
thirty years, and have seen many a poor family from Ireland,
by a steady course of persevering industry, raise themselves
from poverty to a state of comparative ease and affluence.
Judge Draper thinks that the emigrant should be paid liberal
wages in order that he may be able to lay by a certain
amount for the purchase of a lot of land, and thus become
himself a proprietor. Earl Grey is of the same opinion ;
but no Legislative interference could be applied to the
regulation of wages or the price of labour, except on Govern-
ment works ; but some plan might be devised by the Govern-
ment by which a constant stimulant to active industry
84
might be kept up ; tliiu would liuve tlie eA'eut ul' improving
the country as well as the condition of the emigrant, it
would be the means also of increasing the spirit for emigra-
tion in the old country, and this emigration would annually
increase until the balance of the population of both would
be more equally poised, and, in the same degree, the
remuneration for labour in the old countries would become
more proportionate to the services performed ; consequently
the labouring man would be able to maintain his family
without applying to the parish for relief, and the poor and
the poor rates would decrease, and in the same ratio as the
emigration to the new world gets up, the poverty of the old
world will go down.
Then, my Lord, I must conclude that Emigration and
Education, on a large and liberal plan, and upon the most
generous and impartial footing, are the two main springs
which are to give new life and vigor to the body politic, and
which are to regulate all the connecting wheels of the
national machine, and by their renovating influence to give
new tone, order, beauty, and regularity to the social system.
I mean that kind of education which is not to be confined
to the science of pounds, shillings, and pence, but that
which is to train both body and mind for all the useful oc-
cupations and all the relative duties of life. I mean that
kind of emigration which carries in it some regard for the
fitness of the subject for his intended undertaking, and some
provision for his future welfare and prosperity, and that
which has some regard to the welfare and happiness of the
people among whom he is placed, and not that kind of
emigration which empties its alms-houses and gaols with
indiflerence, and suffers moral and physical infection to
spread through the land, cutting off many of our most valua-
ble citizens, whose benevolent and philanthropic exertions
in the cause of suffering humanity have been repaid by the
forfeiture of life ; not that kind of emigration which causes
our towns and cities to be deserted, our commerce and trade
to be paralysed, and the whole country to be filled with
fearful forebodings for the future ; this is what we should
not have, what we must not, what we will not have repeated ;
it is a direct flagrant act of injustice towards our people ;
and the Government that permits such proceedings among
its subjects, and adopts no counteracting Legislative inter-
ference, is highly censurable. If the proper course of educa-
tion be adopted, it will mould the labouring classes into that
form >;^ich will insure their future success ; and if a liberal
36
system of einigrutiun be udupted, it will insure them a happy
independency, and confer an ineetimable blessing upon the
emigrant as well as upon the country of his adoption. Thus
the redundant population of the old world might be transferred
to the new with reciprocal advantage, for the increase of
the population in the one, would be the increase of poverty,
but in the other, the increase of wealth ; and it would be
well for both, if the time should ever arrive, when the
annual increase of the one would be kept down by the
aimual emigration to the other. But the question may be
asked : Pray, sir, after all these somewhat rambling and
unconnected observations and remarks, what position is it
you wish to establish ? I answer that there is a large
amount of destitution, misery, ignorance, and vice in the
world, which cannot be charged to the great Creator, but to
the folly of man, to the perversion of human reason, to the
closing our eyes to the light of nature, and our ears to the
voice of revelation, all of which cry out with ten thousand
tongues that all mankind are brethren : '* The rich and the
poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all."
The rich have the power to raise the poor from poverty,
ignorance, and vice, and the Scriptures most emphatically
commands them to do so ; then I hold that if there is not a
voluntary combination of the rich to effect this highly honour-
able purpose, it becomes the bounden, the imperative duty
of the Government to compel them to do so, for it has a right
to adopt such measures as will produce the greatest amount
of good to society at large, and the people have a right to
demand it at their hands ; and I also maintain that it is the
plainest dictate of reason, and the most positive command
of revelation, that the surplus of the rich should be appropria-
ted to raise the condition of the poor, both mentally and
physically — the one can be done by education, the other by
emigration, and the mode of raising the money might be by
a property tax, to be called the Education and Emigration
tax, and to be applied exclusively for the purpose of estab-
lishing schools lor teaching agriculture, manual labour, and
other useful branches of education for the poor, and reforming
penitentiaries for the depraved. These, with a well organized
plan and system of Emigration, would in a few years do all
that the most benevolent and philanthropic could wish. The
tax might commence on small annuities, with a very light
percentage, and increase on the principle of arithmetical
progression, taking in the Government salaries above a
rtain amount ; this would furnish ample means for all
86
i
=i i
purposes required, thi8 would give efficiency, stability, and
permanency to a Bystem that would work a complete revolu-
tion in the social compact ; the poor would become more en-
titled to the regard and respect of the rich, from their improved
character, conduct, and general deportment ; and the rich
would be looked up to with feelings of gratitude for what
their bounty had done for them, and there would be a
reciprocity of kindly feeling existing between them, which
would be felt better than it can be described.
Then I would say to the middle classes of Great Britain,
rise up in your might and tell the Government that this
great and glorious reform must be accomplished ; tell them
that the sovereign people demand it ; tell them that the
voice of an intelligent, an educated, and a virtuous popula-
tion must be heard ; take all peaceable means to impress upon
the mind of the Government the absolute necessity of this
great reform ; let your petitions crowd the Legislative halls,
till the tables groan beneath their weight. Let your voices
ring with loud peals of remonstrance and request, till the
echoing walls, with thick vibrations, shake the vaulted roof.
O plead vdth all the power of your souls, for the exaltation
of your fellow-men, and your humane and benevolent de-
mands will be favourably answered ; depend upon it, that
your persevering petitions will be heard, and the majesty
of the people will eventually bear down all opposition. O,
how much it is to be desired that all the talented and in-
fluential men of rank and station, in our native land, would
trample under foot all party differences, and unite in one
noble and generous band, linked together in the bonds of
universal charity and love, with a full determination to
make this the era for laying the foundation stone for a new
order of things for remodelling rw iety, by an unbounded
system of liberal education, and a well concerted plan and
regularly organized and liberal system of Emigration, so
that by the one the poor may learn how to live, and by the
other where to live. The course of proceeding which I have
humbly proposed, would, if carried out, bring about a happy
consummation, and could not fail to bless society with the
most beneficial results. It would be the means of raising
human nature from its low and degraded state, to a higher
standard and to a more exalted position in the creation ; it
would give a higher tone, more stability, independence,
mutual confidence, virtue and happiness to society at large ;
it would enaLie many a poor man to rise from the grave of
ignorance, a gem of virtue and talent, which may be some-
and
tevolu-
)reen-
)roved
[e rich
what
be a
which
ritain,
lat this
1 them
hat the
popula-
iss upon
of this
/e halls,
voices
till the
Ited roof,
caltation
>lent de-
it, that
majesty
ion. O,
and in-
d, would
e in one
bonds of
nation to
or a new
ibounded
plan and
ration, so
d by the
ich I have
It a happy
with the
>f raising
a higher
nation ; it
3«ndence,
at large ;
grave of
be some-
times found in llie rudest tenement of flay, iiiid wliith bul
tor the animating, invigurutiiig, and rctiiiing touch of <mIiicu-
tion, would have for ever slumbered in the Hileiii loml). 1
remember a certain reverend genllemun, a vii-ar of aelmrch
in a borough town in England, where 1 resided about fifty
years ago, publishing a pamphlet against the education of
llie j)oor, condemning, in toto, every branch of learning which
went beyond a very confined and limited stock of id(N'»s,
just enough to form a human machine. II is grountl of
argument was, that the poor were more contented anti happy
without learning than with it; that those who had, by per-
severance and close application to study at every opportunity,
actpiired a certain amount of education, became resth^ssand
discontented in their stations of life, and were always strain-
ing after something which was entirely beyond their reach.
But it is to be hoped that there are not many such reverend
gentlemen in the present day, although I believe he was a
very good and a very talented man, and I have listened to
him when a boy, Sunday after Sunday, with much interest,
and I hope some profit ; but at the same time that I admit
that he was a learned and a good man, I humbly conceive
that he was a mistaken one, tor the natural tendency of an
enlightened and liberal education is to expand the mind,
refine the feelings, and improve the heart ; it teaches man
to discharge with fidelity in every station in which it has
pleased God to place him, all the relative duties of life ; it
teaches him that the path of duty and of ri^;iit action, is the
path of safety ; it teaches him that man when uncontamina-
ted with vice, is a noble being, far removed from the beasts
that perish, blest with the high intellectual powers of reason
and judgment, with faculties of the mind which enable him
to rove through the diversified beauties of the animal,
vegetable, mineral, and fossil kingdoms ; to trace the starry
heaven, and to fathom tlve boundless productions of the
earth ; in short, to revel in the grandeur and beauty of
nature's work. It teaches him that nothing is so degrading
as sin ; nothing so deplorable as ignorance : and that by the •
assiduous cultivation of those faculties of the mind with
which God has blest him, he will be enabled to dive into
the secret depths of science and of art, and by their aid sub-
due the elements to his command, and bring the most power-
ful agents of nature submissive to his will ; thus, by the
power of steam, man has almost annihilated time and space,
and by the electric spark carries human thought, which
would formerly require a week for its conveyance, in the
E
transit of a moment. Seeing then that education confers
upon so-jiety so much private happiness a»»d so much public
good, how must the heart rf the philanthropist glow with
the desire that every human being s^houid partake of its
blessings, and that not a child in any country should be
allowed to grow up to maturity without having his mir^d
impressed with all those principles which are calculated to
fit him for the varied duties of iuture life, his duty to God,
and his duty to his fellow-man in all the diversified bearings
of human action ; in short, with sach impressions as v/ill
make him a good father, a good husb'»T>d, a good subject, a
good neighbour, and a good member of society. This kind
of education, carried out to the full extent to which it is in
the power of the Grcivernment to carry it, it will produce
peace on earth and good will among men ; v^ill produce
peace, happiness, and love here, and eternal happiness he^
after; and the statesman, through whose instrumentality those
happy changes may oe effected, will go down the page of dis-
tant history with the well merited applause of every right
lihinking man, and with universal honour, love, and grati-
tade, to ages yet unborn.
That this glorious achievment of Christian philanthropy
may be accomplished ai no distant period, is the sincere
and ardent wish of
Your Lordship's
Most obedient and humble servant,
A Citizen.
infers
)ublic
with
of its
ad be
mir^d
ted to
God,
arings
LS v/ill
ject, a
LS kind
; is in
roduce
roduce
3S he^^
ty those
' of dis-
y rig^-*
1 grati-
nthropy
sincere
V
it,
nZEN.