%, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^111128 12.5 •^ IM 112.2 i^ 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" ■ ^ ► C^^ r vi %*" ->' A >r^ " *fc.'r ^V SOCIAL ECONOMY. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM AND ROBERT CEAMBERS. 1861. "■%» tt3 .'^>« ll ' i' EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY W. AND R. CHAMBERS. » m EMIGRATION IN ITS PHACTICAL APniCATION TO INDIVIDUALS AKD COMMUNITIES. • BY JOHN HILL BURTON, AUTHOE OF 'POLIUCAI. AND 80CI AL ECOJrOllT.' w , " mWti . WP ll pM X * mr-:.- 1 »HWWi i ^iw inipwiw^p>i i i n i f |i np i'g^p-Pi^ppiiip ft. I ■ # ;-L. '""^P*'"*^1PPI EMIGRATION IN ITS PRACTICAL APPLICAnOK. EMIGRATION SCHEMES. Among those many projects and principles for remedying all that IS socially wrong, with which the ear of the public is ever filled there is none so confidently asserted, and none so seldom denied or disputed, as an extensive systematic removal of our population to new lands and fresh sources of enterprise. The advocate of emigration finds it suflicient to describe without reasoning Here is our crowded empu-e, with its jails, and hospitals, and poor-houses. Take Its fruitful territories from Kent to the Grampians, and add to these whatever of the surface of Irehmd is not absolute stone and peat-moss; there is no other area on the face of the earth where the population is so dense. Competition, we are told, is worked to its highest power; every source of decent liveUhood is seized on by hungry rivals ; ragged wretches swarm on our streets • poUution spreads around, not from viciousness, but the shee^ necessity of living. Our towns are full of tramper lodgmg-places, I m each of which we shaU find some hundreds of idle weS filthy and diseased, who might in other circumstances keep oheep or plough, or reap, adding to the abundance of the world, and I livmg happy, healthy, vh^uous Hves. Such is generally the ; picture on the one hand; and then on the other is described the vast re^on of unploughed and almost untrodden soU at the Sr?S rl''''! r^P?^' '''' ^^'^ *^*^y ^S^* spread themselves forth like liberated prisoners. In Australia, not to speak of the mysteries of the mterior, where we may or may not on some future day find patches of luxurious productive land about the size of «ST f ^**^y-*h? Emigration Commissioners state that, attached sole y to the provmces of New South Wales and Victoria, there are three hundred millions of acres m the hands of the otoimlZ FMIORATION. !l diBposal, tho nmoiint alienated being about six millions of acrci. In tho now colony of South Au«tralia there are twenty millions of acres — a surface greatly more than double that of (Ireat Britain and Ireland. Van Diemon's Land is looked on as comparatively occupied colonial soil, being abotit half the size of Ireland, and liaving a population of 70,000. Tumuig westward round the huge bulk of tho island-continent, we come to Weslem Australia, the Swan River Settlement of calamitous renown, spreading over an area which is laid down as eight times the size of the British isles, and with a population of about COOO people. Passing oastwanl across the Pacific, we come to the last great object of British colonial enterprise — New Zealand — a compact group of islands like our own, and covering nearly the same area. It is here that the friends of emigration exhaust their eloquence on tho sweetness and salubrity of the climate, the l>eauty of the scenery, and the rich fertility of the productive pov/ers, anticipating, not without reason, that here will rise that southern empire of British origin to which must fall the future government of the Oriental nations. Again passing from the field of these late discoveries to one of the known old quarters of the globe, a cordon is drawn through Africa, near the twenty-fifth degree of southern latitude, and separating from the deserts and deadly swamps left to the rest of tlie world that sea- washed angle within the range of healthy existence, reserved as an emigration field for Britain, and containing a further area of territory larger than that of the British islands. It is un- necessary to speak of trifling spots like the Falkland Isles in a general survey like the present ; but passing at once to our North American territories, we have there, at the nominal disposal at least of Britain, a territory larger than that where the United States have near thirty millions of people, and will shortly have sixty millions; and lastly, there is at the disposal of those who choose or are compelled to seek a new home, this great republican empire itself, ever welcoming over our citizens as a useful addition to its population. Such is the general sketch, seeming to need no argument, which the advocate of emigration sends forth. But there are shades to add to the picture before it becomes a true representation. For two hundred years the efforts of this country to people foreign ■wildernesses have been a repetition of sad disasters — of sanguine hopes blighted, of the worthiest efforts defied and baffled by un- controllable difficulties. Emigration has been an ocean on which ignorant men have heedlessly trusted themselves without a pilot — a market in which gross and cruel impostors have found their most ready victims — a field of economical inquiry from which cautious, conscientious investigation has been driven forth by reckless 2 W M. EMIGRATION. exporimenters on the futo and fortune of their fellow- beingt. Endowed with a vastly beneficent operation, yet capable of the rnoHt mahgn perversion it thus becomes, as involving the happiness or nuscrv of multitudes, one of the most solemn subjects on which the practical economist can embark. It will be necessary in the following inquiry, made by one who has gone to his task in a purely critical spirit, and without any prepossession in favour of any theory of emigration, to notice many conditions m which, through rashness or misdirected zeal, it has been a dire calannty, instead of the blessing it is capable of being made But before entering on this, which may be considered as the discouraging side of the picture.it may be well, since we have glanced at the material area open for British emigration, to take a view of the economic prospects before our people, from a conscientious and cautious adjustment of its operation to the Jaws of political economy and the social condition of the nation. Ihat the vast sources of productiveness to which we have ™/''''^'?^^ '^^Y.f .'""*' ^" ^^^"P'^'i «"^ applied by the great race who, in following the original law of onr nature thafc man must live by the sweat of his brow, promis. .0 govern the world-is as clear and necessary a result of all economic laws a» any future event can be. With free trade our country has the markets of the world at its command, but the extent^to which they can supply us depends on their productiveness, and their productiveness depends on what political economy cannot control —the industry and energy of the races by whom the various territories of the globe are inhabited-the^extent to whidiTe ambition of participating in our wealth and luxury wUl induce them to imitate our industrious energy. But the Neapolitan Lazaroni he basking „ the sun ; the Hindoo throws on his padd^ field the industry which his ancestor bestowed on it a thousand V^HU *,SO,*nd no more; the Chinaman is content to turn his: litte wheel, and irrigate the paddock that satisfies all the wants lrthp"^hV''"''^'^.^' *^* ^'^ ^"'^^^^ ^««Pi««« work n:. does the whie man's dog; and the Zoolu of our African settle- ments though ofi-ered a fair per-centage of the fortime wh ch ^ ht le exertion from hun will draw out of the cotton plantation wm^ work tiU he has earned a red handkerchief, but no? TlZ^ There is just one boundary to the influence of free trade-the S?7i1 ''°r?^ P°"^^*^' satisfied with what it has, and uninduced by all that the world of commerce can offei- to exchange idleness and amusement for productive exertion. The en erpnsmg English subduing the soifand adapting it to their objects, are sometimes looked upon,' and openly spoken of,^ a EMIGRATION. I i people having the mixed elements of the madman and the fool ! the madman promptmg them to a restless energy in the cultiva- tion of the earth, the building of houses, and the fabrication of clothing — ^the fool prompting them to make a boast and exultation of this diseased propensity instead of concealing it. The people who so view our conduct cannot reciprocate in the race ^'ff nm. We obtain from them the surplus produce of the old traditional pursuits which they have followed for uncounted centuries. Per- haps they sometimes restrict their inf'ulgence in their own produc- tions, to be able to buy in exchange something of ours. But they do not go on indefinitely producing to meet in exchange with our indefinite production. Where slaves are kept, it is true, this will be done, and can be done. It is not that slave labour is nearly so Taluable as free labour ; but in those conditions where there are great natural elements of production — ^land cheap, or to be had for the mere occupation, with a richly-nutritious climate — it often happens that free people will not give the labour that enables these capa- bilities to be used. There the slave-master, who desires to possess in superfluity the riches of this industrial hive, can send us the raw cotton, the sugar, the tobacco, of his own favoured region tlurough the compulsory labours of those who would not have so tasked their energies to supply their own wants. Thus it is an unhappy fact, that a large part of the labour for which we must exchange commodities under free trade is slave labour. If it were capable of indefinite increase, it might be a question whether this country ought not, while sotting out upon its own great business of free labour, to make some vast efibrt to extirpate a crime so hideous ; but it is not a system that spraads like commerce. It is limited in every direction : in the field of slave production — in the means of getting the servile ^ ling to the flpot where he may be used — in the danger of allow? a race of slaves to increase to too great an extent — ^buk most .U, in the discredit and guilt attached to all dealing in sla"er;y —modified when it applies to the planter who is merely retaining the -nheri- tance of bondmen collected by his ancestois in a darker age, but fierce and righteously intolerant when it encounters the maii- Btealer employing the science and power of advanced civilisation to lay deadly snares for those simple children of the desert, whose sad ignorance and feebleness should commend them to the beneficence instead of the malignity of civilisation. J of exejjrtion was the one best adapted to them. There are many ■who go to the wrong place now who would go to the right place then, because they know that they must not take their journey at hazard, but must see the elements on which they are to work out success before tliey start. And finally, there are many who stay at home now who would then emigrate, because the benefits of the new field of exertion would be more distinctly brought before them by the success of those who have considerately and carefully entered on it. The benefit of emigration fields is the same as the benefit of all other sources of enterprise — they give opportunities for the men who are adapted to them, and know how to use their opportunities, to make success for themselves in life. Fortunes liave been made by emigrants who would not have made fortunes had they stayed at home ; and, on the other hand, fortunes have been made at home by people who would not have succeeded as emigi-ants, and who have perhapij succeeded at home all the better because the neighbours who might have been their rivals have emigrated and prospere''. In individual instances, many have made fortunes by lucJ-y accident ; but in all parts of the world— in Australia, New Zealand, and America, as well as here— the great staple elements of prosperity are industry, energy, and prudence, guided by knowledge. Though there is no act connected with his temporal interests for which every man should more fully and cautiously feel and know his way than the selection of a new sphere of existence for himself and his race, yet there is none where people act with more recklessness. Where the knowledge should be of the amplest, most minute, most carefully weighed kind, people take their chance, and will be swayed for or against by light and limited hints. The caprices by which the ignorant are actuated in their destination of themselves are incalculably preposterous, and throw on those who guide them a heavy responsibility. But there has hitherto been something in the mysterious chances attending the prospect of a new world which has made even the educated and the well-trained adopt this resource with strange recklessness. There is not a scrap of obtainable knowledge about the selected field which a man ought not to study before he casts his lot and that of his descendants into it. The scrutinising zeal with which a purchaser examines an estate, or a lender sees to an investment, should be far excelled, since the stake is generally greater, and the means of knowledge are more imperfect. Books, the very best, should not be absolutely relied on for final guidance. They should be amply studied beforehand, and made the means by which the intending emigi'ant casts about, and compares one field 10 EBnGRATION. with another; but ere he pack up his trunks and actually Btep on shipboard, he should have friendly personal advice about the land of his adoption, and its suitability to his own position. In so far as books are relied on, it may seem paradoxical, but it will be found true, that those written by men from the spot are less safely to be depended on than the compilations, in which their informa- tion is sifted and compared with that of others, by persons who have no interest in emigration or the success of theories, and, whose object it is simply to prepare works of reference and of information. Not only do those who live long in a distant, thinly- peopled country acquire one-sided notions regarding its relation to the rest of the world, but it is only on some very rare occasion indeed that any man who has had a personal connection with an emigration district writes about it without having some object to accomplish, and therefore some particular views to support and propagate. The laudatory is the prevailing tone of these works : the earth is fruitful, the scenery beautiful, the climate both pleasant and wholesome ; all succeed in the place with the excep- tion of one class, who are almost universally excepted from the general prosperity— the medical profession, who, in the general health and happiness, find no victims to work on. The ingenuity with which elements that cannot be othtjr than an evil in a country are described as something not much beneath a blessing may occa- sionally prompt a smile. Ihe obdurate timber, which twenty years of costly exertion will not eradicate from the grain fields IS an indication of the richness, depth, and productiveness of the soil : It makes excellent firewood, its ashes are valuable manure It IS an ornament to the scenery while it stands. It is said of a celebrated popular auctioneer, that one of his commendations of an estate sold by him in New Brunswick was, that it contained a quantity of fine old timber. Deadly swamps shew that there is no drought; shifting sandhills are a pleasant variety in the land- scape; stony wildernesses are dry and healthy. In short, it too frequently happens that the description obtained of a new emi- gration field, even from those who ought to know it best, is little more to be depended on than that of the dealer who vaunts his bargams and sacrifices. It is very uncommon to find a book written about any emigra- tion distnct for the purpose of pointing out its defects. There is scarcely one decided instance of such a thuig in late English lite- S!m-^' J.^^® "^^'■est approach perhaps to it is Mr Ho^vit's Port; r nuip. ihe disappointed emigrant generally wi-ites his letter to a newspaper, or his pamphlet, and has done— directing his thoughts .. ..J „„ni„ ouDjcCt muru ugreeaDie man tiie place where bis fortunes have been ruined and his prolific expectations blighted. 11 % BMIOiUTION. Almost all the works we possess on places of settlement, by per- sons practically acquainted with thevn, are written for the purpose , I of supporting them in public opinion, and enhancing their merits in the eyes of the intending emigrant. Looking with the impartial eye of one who neither desires to favour any emigration field beyond others, nor is subject to the anxieties of the actual emigrant searching for the best destination, we can see how large— iow formidably large— are the elements of deception in the means of information which the emigrant has usually at hand. If he doubt in the least the accuracy of the account given by a resident deeply interested in the prosperity of the colony, or rather in the increase of the number who will settle in it, and bring money thither to spend, he turns to the disinterested supporters of the ecclesiastical settlements. He would be justified perhaps in laying more reliance on the authori- tative documents issued by the bodies promoting these under- takings than on many other sources of information ; for the authors of them, though sangume, are generally men who have some consideration of the gravity of recommendations, thp adoption of which fixes the fate of families for generations. But perhaps the emigi-ant distrusts these authorities, and would like to know what the press says. He will in general find nothing there, unless in the organs kept for the furtherance of the eccle- siastical party who have started the enterprise. He then consults a periodical work representing the sentiments of his own religious community. He expects that a theological journal will be per- fectly impartial on a question of emigration or colonisation; but if he knew better, he would be aware that the journal will speak favourably of any project, whether it be for colonisation or currency, which is certified by the seal of its ecclesiastical denomi- nation. These bodies are not the only ones likely to mislead on such matters : political parties would seduce miserable emigrants still farther astray, without having the least compunction for then: calamities, if they happened to serve an immediate purpose. It happens, however, very fortunately, that while there have been colonisation projects upon ecclesiastical principles, there have been none in late times distinctly associated with poUtical parties. The fallacious character of some artificial colonisation projects will form a separate subject of inquiry farther on. The universal cause of social mistakes— of blunders made by men in taking up then: position in life, is ignorance. It is abundantly operative on the demand and supply of labour, even within the bounds of our own island. At one end of it are often found men in beggary and starvation, who, if they but knew then- own interest, would V>fl claYllfr TITQlo/%rMO/l i-r. ♦Va ^'Ur.^ Jf 11 __JJ 1 . .1 ies, and would EinaB4»ioiT. other. When there is such ignorance of the home-hibour market what must there often be of the colonial, many thouaanda of mile* , across the sea; and then, again, many hundreds of miles inland across deserts and mountains rarely tracked ? In old times our leri*^ natures endeavoured to put aU that is wrong in such matters right I by absolute mterference and direction. The working mim'a i destiny was laid out for him, and sanctioned by confiscations and ipunishment. In later times there has been a disposition to repkce Itlus clumsy, costly, harsh method by the gentler and more eSec^ Itive one of affording official information and counsel. I To aid the emigrant, to afford him counsel and superintend his Ishipment, there has now been established for some years an Emigra- Ition Board, the operations of which have been gradually extending Ithemselves. A pervadmg principle of that estabUshment is-that [all blunders made by the citizen in leaving the country under llallacious hopes or erroneous conclusions are evils to the com- munity, which it were well to protect it from, even at some cost. Ilhe government emigration officers scattered throughout tho Icountry and of whom more wiU have to be said m another pkce lare m this view a general machinery for communicating practical atonnation and advice to all who contemplate throwing a fresh stake for fortune m a new arena. Some years ago, tracts contaming k»ie most mmute cuhnaiy and drapery information for the emigrant -the best kmd of clothing— the most economical way of pur- msmg it-the means of packing it-the inconveniences of the royage, and the best methods of obviating them— were all of nfinite value. But besides that documents of this kind are now ssued m considerable numbers by the commissioners, the several igencies are a perpetual living channel of infon^ation and advice, aexible according to change of circumstance, and not liable, like UL n ;?-''*?**f'^ ^ documents, to deceive from being buperseded I is the first interest and duty of all who are likdf ntll^'*'!l'*"^?'r'*'^ ^ emigration to make ample inquir^ In thu: quarter, and the establishment should ever be reminded bv rrequent use, of the services it owes to the public '^'^^®''' ^^ .if+tr'"^-*^!-^^^^ ^^^ ''^'*'"'' *^^«"«^ an instructional orga- i^sation mdicative as it is of a great improvement in the functio^ bf the government. Ignorance and faUacious hopes are stiU the te Zf ^'^''*' '^ '^' ^'"^^*' ^d ^« A long to call on the most anxious services of the leaders of pubUo opinion for tehTatm^d: ^"'^,^^^-- .Through tha? gross &t burdLol at L ^l^- * P""*^'". "^ ""^ P^«Pl« ^^"^^less and IZ^^!T 1 ^""'J '* '' "^^* *° impossible to convey to them any practical sense of an emigration field as a ««w ur-.J J ZT ma. in the cottages throughout the mosi lestitutr^Irtr^f 18 t EMIOtATIOW. Ireland one may meet, stuck on the walls as decoratinn. ♦»,- trnX'o'ettVth "' ^"^T '^" ^^^' '' of 1 tr,Ts^:i! tions Wvoted to the same object; but it is sadly clear that the in- mate, know httle more of their practical meaning than if they w re ttse eTor'""T'"'r" f '"'-''''''- T»»« ^-^ influence of these evils on emigration has been but generaUy noticed in tho preceding remarks. In those which follow, having a more siec fie b^ouXur"'" "' P'""' *'"^ ^^«^*«^^^ be'more pSS^ 'i; FIT AND UNFIT EMIGRAnON FIELDS. The term ' emigration fields ' has aptly been annliV.1 in ^^.^ form suitable places of permanent settlement to the emigraS people of this country. All our dependencies are not SS emigration fieWs, and all emigration fields suitable for our people are not dependencies of the British empire. By emigration 'so be understood not temporary exile for the pmpose ofTccolL^^^^ nftancrorT.^^'*' o^ject-n^ccupying an Sicial positiTfor instance, or making a fortune by merchandise. It presumes a permanent home and settlement-the adoption of a ne w c^n r^ for the exile and his descendants. Hence it is not sufficient S the soil should be prolific, and the intercourse with the commercia thi oThimsl?;^' 7'^ ernigrant thinks of his descendantTmore than of himself, and must see that they are to live in a nkrfl ^Z'fy^'\^^^^-P^y^^ physical Ja moral nerves of hs tribes that cover our Indian empire. The very motives that wil iistrrrr'.*' ^^^^ %Pe-anent settlemerTin an insalubri^s district will induce him, for the benefit of those he is to leave for hp'. "^'v *P.'f'".^^^"^ ^°^^S^«« «"^ hi« chance of Se for the acquisition of ' an independence.' It may be gained either Xf'^i '''"' office where the avowed sacriL of^eahh p^^^^ tZf T '«™^r'*^'" ^^'^^ ^''' ^"fl»«»«e o^ distinguished talent alone could procure at home. The effort may be mde in another shape -by embarking in commerce or mining and even ma country where the people themselves are poor ttough Lstlessness and imprudence, by successfully devoting the BrS nS'j'b Jv'' fr*"''^ "^y P^««^««' *« '««P from the wS it^ZS- 1 K^*^' ''""*'^ '^^' '^''^y ^™t of riches which Its feeble mhabitants are incapable of gathenng. Even the mmor evils thus borne in Central America, if our mfddle ^rick^ settlements, and in the Eastern Islands, are a v.«f. iZtr^Pl?. a ' " — "" EMI0R4H0N. opnr