The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1847.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 97, 10 April 1847, Page 2

The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1847.

Be just and fcnr not .• Let all the ends thou aims'fc at, be thy Country's, Thy GoDs, and Truth's.

THE PROBABILITY THAT A SYSTEMATIC PLAN FOU THE PROMOTION OF EMIGRATION WILL SOON BE COMMENCED IN ENGLAND.

In antient times, states possessing scanty and over-peopled territories, and unable to enlarge them by conquest at home, sent forth portions of their population in quest of new habitations. Like the parents of the human family after their expulsion from their appointed place of abode, the emigrants were absolute masters of their own actions and movements, and had, in a certain sense, the wide world before them to choose their place of rest in. The new settlements were perfectly independent states, con nected with the parent societies, only by iden« tity of origin, language, laws, and customs — a connexion which was never forgotten, and by which they considered themselves to be laid under a solemn obligation to assist and pro • tect one another in all times of difficulty, and especially of war. Powerful and conquering states, without any absolute necessity of turning out their citizens to seek their fortunes in the world at large, assigned lands to them in the conquered provinces, with the view of establishing garrisons for securing the other wise doubtful obedience of the vanquished.

The settlements thus foimed became so many municipal corporations, having the power of enacting by-laws for their own government, but continuing at all limes subject to the control, jurisdiction, and legislative authority of the parent state. In both cases, the new setilcnients derived their origin from irresistible necessity* or motives of utility, which, though distinctly conceived, were extremely limited in their range. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, a spirit of commercial rivalry led to the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. A few years before, the vast importance attached in Europe to commerce with India, and the geographical errors as to the extent of thai country which were then prevalent amongst the learned, led to the discovery of Ameiica and the West India islands, by an individual, who, in acquit ing just views of the figure of ihe earth, was in advance of the age in which he lived. The first settlers in those latter countries were attracted to them by the hope of discovering gold, silver, and diamond mines, and of thereby acquiiing incalculable wealth. The real advantages of colonies to the parent states, and the nature of colonial life, being then wholly unknown, they formed no part of the motives which led to the discovery of these countries,or the emigra« tion of the adventurers who first settled in them. These advantages, developing themselves by slow degrees, and acting upon the spirit of national and commercial rivalry and pride which existed in Europe, caused the work of discovery to be pushed forward, until every continent and island on the globe which could be reached by a ship was not only discovered, but partially explored. Expensive expeditions were even fitted out for the mere purpose of settling geographical questions, without a ray of hope that any practical benefit cou'd be derived from them. While this career of discovery was going on, the kingdoms of Europe were, from a variety of causes, becoming more and more populous, aud some faint lights were, from time lo time, being thrown upon the real nature of colonial life. Emigrants, aceoidingly, now left Europe, influenced by views, and impelled by motives, which were in several repects novel, when compared with those which actuated the emigrants from autient kingdoms of the first planters of America. Still, however, it was only within the last fifty years — since the whole business of colonization fell into the hands of Great Britain, that the real advantages which parent states derive from their colonies, have become formal subjects of discussion. Some of the most striking and important of these have, within the last few years, been fully illustrated, and the knowledge of them has already made its way through the intelligent and influential portion of the British public. There can be little doubt, too, that many others, less observable, though perhaps not less important, yet remain for detection or illustration. But, however this may be, it is quite certain that, if the im« penal government can excuse itself for not having yet given to the subject of emigration generally, that attention which it demands ai its hands, it must be upon other grounds than ignorance of its importance to the nation over whose fortunes it presides. As to the chimed* cal views and golden visions, by which, at no distant date, the imaginations of intending erni« grants were taken captive, they have been completely dissipated by the authentic accounts of the real nature of colonial life continually sent by the settlers to their relations and friends at home, by the host of books written by intelligent travellers in the different colonies, by the parliamentary debates upon colonial affairs, and by the powerful influence of the British press. Even land-jobbing, petty commercial speculations, and the exportation of minerals before the proper time, and without the necessary means, are now discountenanced in England, as tending to divert the settlers from their proper and ultimately more profitable pursuits, Intending emigrants are now well aware, that, in colonies, wealth is to be gathered, not from the bowels, but from the surface of the earth, and that they will be beaten in the race with their wiser competitors, if they turn aside from the course to pick up the golden apple. It is now universally known in Great Britain, that, in colonies, artizans and labourers may, after a few years spent in industry and sobriety, become capitalists, that those who come to them possessing capital, may, by a judicious use of it, live happily during their lives, and leave handsome inheritances after them, and that, in fine, colonies present splendid prospects, indeed, to those who seriously apply themselves to the simple and straightforward means which are necessary for realising them, and to none others. The simplest Englishman would now be very rarely imposed upon by the bills, from time to time, posted on the old walls of the sea -port towns at home, or by the six-penny puff of the shipowner or emigration ageut. Nor do the dolor ous accounts of unsuccessful adventurers, which, from some colony or other, are continually reaching England, make any impression in the present times. It is invariably believed, that these men have been disappointed in hopes, which they ought never to have entertained, or that they failed in their enterprises through want of that toughness of head and heart, which are indispensable elements in the composition of a genuine settler,

Rut, to return to our subject, if so many continents and islands have been discovered, and partially colonised, without any distinct notions of the advantages to be derived from colonies by the parent state, or any clear ideas ;is to the real nature of colonial life, it may b reasonably presumed, that, since these subjects have, during the last few years, been fully expounded and illustrated at home, emigration must, at no distant date, be carried on upon very muchlarger scale than it has hitherto been If the work of colonization was partially promoted by the imperial government and the peo pie of England when they were really in quest of other things, it must be much more promoted by them when it is made the direct object of their exertions. If part of their work has been performed with tolerable correctness without the proper guides and instruments, when those guides and instruments are used, the remaining part of the work must be executed in a more finished nnd masterly style. Finally, if, while they worked in the dork, they did something, they must do infinitely more when they work in the broad daylight. The moral certainty that emigration from Great Britain and Ireland will soon be carried on upon a greatly enlarged scale, and upon a systematic plan, may be also established by considerations of a, different kind. For many years, the pressure of population upon subsistence at home lias been intense. Four or five millions of human beings composed of labourers, artizans, and their families, ate, in consequence, precariously maintained by low wages, alms, or pittances from the poor'srates. Possessing minds capable of the views and aspirations of other men, they are compelled to confine the exercise of them to the maintenance of vitality in their bodily frames. Even in this, the humblest of all human objects.they are by no means always successful, livery epidemic disease, every reduction in the wages of labour, every rise in the price of the necessaries of life, and every accident that can exercise an unfavorable influence on the crops, thieatens them with decimation. Events, which har.Jly throw a faint and fleeting shadow over the spirits of other men, are looked upon by those unhappy creatures as possible harbingers of death. The filth by which they are surrounded, the unsightly objects in the midst of which they are compelled to pass their days, and the gross and coarse immorality and vice which reign around their dwellings, which would seem to cut off all hope, and to deprive Jife of every thing worth living for, scarcely move the attention of men whose whole souls are habitually riveted upon the means of supporting mere animal existence. Some of them, in s.me measure, entrapped into the commission of crime by the circumstances in which they are placed, are hardly prevented by their remaining sense of duty, from considering the less severe penalties of the law as a change for the better. Others, fearless of the extreme consequences of crime, openly court the inferior punishments of the law as so many boons. Some of them, too, unable to endure their trials any longer, and too proud for the commission of crime, depart from their posts in this world by their own act, without waiting to be relieved in the appointed way. Upon the one hand, then, Her Majesty's immense colonial possessions are only veiy partially peopled, upon the other, five millions of her subjects at home pine in a state of the most abject misery to which human beings can bo reduced. The colonies with one voice cry aloud for emigrants, and continually proclaim the good tidings of unoccupied countries of vast extent, and of inexhaustible fields of speculation and enterptize. Millions of wretched beings in Great Britain and Ireland burn with desire to go to these regions of pro* mise, but are unable, through the want of pecuniary means, to accomplish their desires. Here, then, is an aptitude, which, in the nature of things, must necessarily, at no distant date, produce its natural consequences,-* must bring into contact the lands and the wretched men who long for them. But, it will be said, that this aptitude has been long in existence, and, that emigration has, nevertheless, proceeded at only the same snail's pace as usual. The answer to this objection is full and decisive. Over and above the mere aptitude upon which we have been insisting, and which certainly only proves that, at no distant day, a systematic plan of emigration upon a large scale must be instituted, several other circumstances fully prove that measures of this kind must be immediately adopted. The existence of such a mass of misery in the United Kingdom is disgiaceful to the Government who have 'the means of preventing it in their hands. The turbulence of the miserable is becoming every day more and more dangerous to the social and political fabric The United Kingdom is almost crushed to death by the poor laws. The very, men, too, who at home have drunk the cup of misery to the very dregs, and who are on that accouut so troublesome and dan gerous to their country, would, if removed to the Colonies, become, for the very same reason", permanent sources of wealth and power to their native land. Thus, shame, interest, policy, and the irresistible instinct of self-preservation, motives which, at this moment, are .excited to the highest pitch of intensity by the existing state

of things at home, will, in all human probability, lead to the establishment of systematic measures for the promotion of emigration upon a large scale, before the lapse of two or three years. The objection to the adoption of such' measures, which was once so much insisted upon, has long since been forgotten. It was supposed, that free-born British men would shrink with horror from availing themselres of any Systematic measures of emigration, be? cause, though neither direcily or really compulsory, such measures would always, to a certain extent, wear that appearance in their eyes. But, this unnatural and unreasonable pride has been for a long time literally annihilated by poverty and misery. If the measures in question we rain operation to-morro^r, the applications far passages to the Colonies would be found to excepd greatly the means of meeting them, and Would probably alway* eonlinne to exceed them. As to the proper method 01 methods Of raising funds for carrying out systematic measured of emigration, they have been subjects of earnest discussion* in England for the last twenty years, an^d, cannot possibly, at this day, present any difficulty. The other inducements to emigrate^ besides the mere payment of the cost of conveyance, having also been long discussed with equal zeal and attention, no part of an imperial enactment upon the subject of systematic emigration cou'd now take the people of England or the inhabitants of the Colonies by surprise. It is hardly necessary to observe, that, when emigration of this kind is once regularly underweigh, capital will soon follow it in the. proper proportion. For, in modern tim.es,; capital follows labour with nearly as much regularity and certainty as labour follows capital. Over and above- the extraordinary- advantages and resources of New Zealand, some other circumstances of a peculiar nature, which we cannot enter upon here, must inevitably direct more than a fair share of the approaching current of emigration to these shores.