THE COLONY OF ICARIA. [From the Times, October 20.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 482, 16 March 1850, Page 4

THE COLONY OF ICARIA. [From the Times, October 20.]

I If Christian coantries had bowels of com- \ passion for one another, and if we could di-

vest ourselves of the: nursery tradition) that Er»nceia<oor natural enemy,. the story, oi Mr Cabet and- his dupe«;, a8 elicited a short time agio, before- the- tribunal- of Correctional Po-lice,-wotild f excste ou^ profoundest commiseration. Ifr is' not- that the calamity- ifr one of greatextent* That a few hiindred-perJ*orr&have lost their lives, or their fiancs, th<?ir friends,or their baggage, through listening- to the promise's of a swindler, is but a trifle in this age of gigantic follies' and disasters. Our compassion is excited by the picture here presented of French emigration, aud by the reflection that this is more than a specimen, for it is almost the whole and sole attempt of emigration France can show of late years. .With her thirty-six millions devouring one another, she sent, some time ago, a few-thou-sands to the River Plate ; last year, a few hundreds to Algeria, whence many have returned ; and now five hundred dupes of a private swindle got op by a political impostor.' Some spell surely binds France to the circle of her own revolutions. Fast as the multitudes are driven away they return, like moths to the flame, or like deserters driven back to 1 a beleagured and famine-struck city. Yet France js not indisposed to emigration, or incapable of it. Canada proves her power of creating a colony after her own likeness on a desert shore. M. Cabet is one of those men of whom it is difficult to pronounce whether they be more enthusiasts or knaves. M. Cabet had an assistant, M. Krolikowski, of whom it is unnecessary to say more than he is a Pole. These two ingenious men imagined a community which; with a happy presentiment of its flimsy construction and speedy downfall, they called Icaria, an allusion better understood by scholars than by peasants. Icaria they placed on fchd " Red River," which, of course, had peculiar attractions for certain extreme politicians, and which in fact is a tributary of the Mississippi, dividing Arkansas frcm the newly annexed state of Texas. Here they had bought, they said, a million acres of land. Nothing, of course, was more plausible. Long before Texas was annexed it bad been parcelled out inco districts, called after the names of thirty or forty American speculators, and sold a hundred times over at par, at premium, and at discount, in every share-market in the Union. It was then, and for aught we know, it is now, possible to buy a million of acres of land in Texas. Not only, however, had M. Cabet bought his million acres, 'But Icaria was already in existence under ihe form of a second Paris. It combined all the pleasures of a loxutious metropolis with the resources and occupations of an extensive and fertile country. The whole population passed the morning in assisting the genial influences of nature towards the production of food, and the evenings at theatres, gymnasia, or chalets, whence they nightly returned home in comfortable omnibusses, fitted up en stalle, and drawn each by six horses. Everybody dressed in the height of fashion, practised horseriding, ran races, and did whatever wealthy people do in England or in France. The promised land, with all its charms, was already in operation, and M. Cabet, who knew the capacity of his dupes, did not think it necessary to explain how a French community had been founded, when as yet not more than a handful of Frenchmen had been known to depart for the place. The scheme had long been before the world, and, like everything else in France, had an organ in the press. La Populaire puffed M. Cabet and Icaria, just as the Merry Andrew at the fair used to recommend the quack and his nostrums. It was not, however, until last year that the scheme might be said to go down with the public. M. Cabet knew how to fish in troubled waters ; and while Marrast, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, Caussidiere, Louis Blanc, Barbes, and twenty other rival chiefs were splashing in the stream above and below him, he found' fishes of all sizes, from the gudgeon to the jack, hastening into his net. He. consolidated' bis cause, enjoined a suitable costume, and made preparations for departure. Though his philanthropy embraced the whole | species, and was especially designed for the I elevation of the poor, a cruel necessity compelled pecuniary 6uijscFiptwms. The letrians were r/ot only to pay for their passage> but to surrender, all their property into the hands of; the Icarian Executive. This reduced the sect to five hundred, that being the number that sold their property, or robbed their friends, or cheated their creditors, and committed themselves to the tender mercies of a theorist. Can we wonder that as many as five hundred persons could be guilty of so absurd a proceeding 1 Alas ! human folly is unfathomable. We have had our railway Icaria, with its Icarus, and not five hundred, but five hundred thousand dupes. On the other side the Atlantic, Joe Smith and Ms nation of Mormons doubtless suggested the idea to M. Cabet, and taught him the depth of human credulity. The five hundred Icarians soon began to have misgivings. One poor woman saw

through it all. when-^at the point of embaftkttion,.she found herself relieved of airher property by her new associates. She ffed^ was pursued through the fields, dragged^ back through Havre to the vessel, and* forcibly transported* to- Texas. A strange incident certainly, in the principal port of a«new-born-, Republic ! At New 1 Orleans, the sea- sick, cholera-sick,, and famished crowd 1 sprang, ashore, and' asked eagerly, the way to Icaria. They were told that already the advanced guard of the expedition had returned in despair, and was' rotting in the almshouses and hospitals of the city. But there was no alternative. M. Cabet had possession of their luggage and their cash, and compelled them to go up the Mississippi, unless they chose to compromise for a trifling per cent age of ttieir money. Every mile they advanced they were more in his power; indeed j_ it is difficult to conceive a more dismal situation of affairs. It was a little France ; there was a President and a body-guard of some twenty- ruffians ; sixty were " passive instruments without an opinion of their own ;" one hundred and ten were invalids ; ninety proietaires hung on the expedition like wolves waiting the opportunity to devour it ; and the remainder of the five hundred had broken down on the way, or escaped to France. The President had his palace in the cabin of the steamer, while his citizens were packed like bales on the deck. From the Mississippi they turned up the Redr River, and after a time came within two or three hundred miles of their location.- The rest of their journey was overland, and the results were such as might be expected. The dying and the dead, broken carts, deserted luggage, marked the trail : and, as we were; told last year in the history of the advanced guard, the Indians of the neighbourhood began to appear in embroidered shirts, Joinvilleties, patent leather boots, and paletots of every variety. At last, the survivors reached a few huts, surrounded by graves, or rather by human remains. This was Icaria. M. ('abet, however, could not even call this his own, and could consequently make no grants to his followers. They, on the other hand, were not in a condition to purchase land from Mr. Peters, the real proprietor, even if they had liked his terms. M. Cabet's own Icaria having failed, he had recourse to the deserted seat of another imposture. He went to Nauvoo, purchased the site of the temple arid arsenal, and began to exercise on his dupes thefunctions of civil and ecclesiastical head. The local authorities, however, who had smoked out one nest of hornets, did not want another, and put a stop to M. Cabet's brief reign. Such of the poor simpletons as found their way back to Paris, prosecuted him for getting their money under false pretences, and the great Icarian is now a convicted swindler, under sentence of imprisonment and political disqualification. M. Cabet, happily, is not forthcoming. He has good reason to keep out of sight, for fine and imprisonment are not the only dangers that await his reappearance. One woman, the mother of a large family, who is now reduced to misery by her weakness in believing these contemptible impostors, declared that if she could lay her hands on them, she would make them pass " Un mauvais quart d'heure" There is nothing really now in these incidents. Knaves and dupes there are every-* where, and will be to the end of the chapter. The wonderment and pain that we feel at the narrative, as vre said above, chiefly arise from comparing this frantic effort with the general result of French coTonisatten. The British empire is pouring out her subjects at nearly the rate of a thousand a day. From the ports of Great Britain, Ireland, and the United* States, there comes the same tale of an emigration each day surpassing the last. Never were there such crowds embarking at Cork,, or landing, at New York,. . Tjhe number of emigrants that arrived at the latter port alonein the first seven months of this year waa 143,222, being 32,818 more than in the-sam* period of 1848. Of that number, lol^22o. were British and Irish, ahd'34, 142 Germaria;, but, as far as we are told, no French. There is not a more important problem in modern politics than the causes and probable result* of that mysterious chain which binds-French-men to their soil. It is not a romantic pa** sion it is not domestic prosperity ; it is not the hope of empire, or any . other .political illusion ; nor, on the other hand, is it want of enterprise, or of courage, or of constructive power. But, whatever its causes, it threatens to have a serious effect on the. fortunes both of France and her neighbours.