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Leader (1850-1860), 17th December 1853, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12, EMIGRATION THE BEST OF STRIKES. Yks, the...

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      Moral Signs In America. It Is Rather Rem...

      change of opinion , but because it establishes a fact which we have for some time asserted—that the Americans themselves are far from being content with the existing law in relation to slaves . We find the following passage in the Charleston Mercury : " The South lias gained nothing but a loss by this law . It was a stupid blunder on the part of Southern statesmen . The value of the slave lost is eaten up if capture follows , vrnile hatred to the institution abroad , and opposition to it at home , are increased by its hard , features and the barbarous enforcement of them . "

      This we say is highly satisfactory , not because it indicates that there is any sudden action against slavery , but because it marks the steady extension of dissatisfaction . The Fugitive Slave Law by no means merits the moral reprobation which has been levelled at it . It is not a substantive piece of legislation ; it was an element in the compromise intended to prevent an extension of slavery . It said , virtually , let us take the states as they now are ; let Massachusets be free , let Georgia retain its institutions ; let the affairs of each state be governed by that state , and the Black population shall not be suffered to disturb that distribution of

      jurisdiction . The law was one that could not properly be called in question by the North ; but if the South becomes dissatisfied with it—if the South is struck with the amount of shoe-leather wasted in pursuing the fugitive and dark phantom—if Charleston politicians discover that the bill is not wor ^ h the cost of retaining it , then , unquestionably , it is quite open to Congress to revise the compromise at the instigation of those states which are specially protected by the compromise . That there is a permanent and a ffenuine desire amongst the

      Americans themselves to handle " this subject of slavery , we have said , as Henry Clay had before us ; and the very fact that a Southern paper is able to put forth a remark like the one which we have quoted , proves how far dogmatic opinion upon the subject must have been shaken . In this result , indeed , we recognise the influence of Clay , not that of the more violent Abolitionist party . Above all , however , it is our present purpose to caution the reader against taking the last cloud or the last

      sunshine of the American news as constituting some new state of affairs . Repudiation is a permanent impulse , which the Americans will some day bring to perfect action . The repudiation of unjustly contracted debts is likely to consummate its Qbject by a natural self-development ; while an undue panic at that ultimate prospect may entail loss upon many who forget that , repudiation notwithstanding Philadelphia has once more acknowledged her liability

      1212 The Leader. : '¦ ¦'¦¦' • .. ' .;-&A...

      1212 THE LEADER . : '¦ ¦'¦¦ ' .. ' . ; - & AW ^ P . AY --

      Emigration The Best Of Strikes. Yks, The...

      EMIGRATION THE BEST OF STRIKES . Yks , the best of all strikes is emigration . It is good not only for the emigrant , but for the noncmigrant . The working classes have not yet appreciated that second effect of emigration : let us draw their attention to it . During the last aununer wages rose considerably , and almost universally . Why was that ? The reason was two-fold . There was a greater consumption of good . s at home and abroad , and

      the number of labourers was smaller . How was that brought about ? Thus : within the last five years , there had been an emigration of a million and a hnlf of people , comprising a large proportion of effective workers . The population actually diminished under the process , and the births , which partly replaced it , did not of course replace the labourer who had departed for America , . since the sucking babe , or even child five years old , cannot ¦ compete with the house-painter , the weaver , or the farm labourer . The million and a half went

      to America and Australia , where they helped to produce more corn and oilier commodities for us ; requiring Home of our goods in exchange . Our own manufacturers , shopkeepers , and labourers had more to do , and wanted more to eat , drink , and wear—another impulse to production at homo . Houses , clothes , and food had to be brought to market ; but now it began to be felt that there is no longer that . surplus of labourers which used to be wet against the man in work , to keep down hit )

      Wages . If builders wanted bricklayers , carpenters , or painters , they had to pay more . The- emigrants , therefore , who wont to Australia and America , nerved those that . stopped at home in two ways , —first , by diminishing the competition amongst the working people , and , secondly , by increasing the demand for the employment of the wprking man . That is the whole history of the causes which produced the enhancement of wages hist spring and summer .

      N " ow , what became of those emigrants that went to America and Australia ? In America employment is rife , wages are high , and business generally moves rapidly . But there is something beyond . In America , every man who has lived a very few years in the country becomes a citizen , and has the franchise . He is certain of . subsistence for himself and his children , of political independence ,

      and he has a real chance of rising to the highest office in the State . Webster , Pierce , and we believe , General Cushing , now the Attorney-General , in youth followed the plough ; George Squier , one of the finest spirits of America , a stirring man , who is leading her on in her path of conquering greatness , had to find his livelihood and to study at the same time . In short , America is the empire

      of the working man . As America is , so is Australia becoming . Every man who goes out there , prepared to work , may get an income such as gentry only possess in this country of ours . Much is said of high prices in Australia ; but while bread has been dear , it has never exceeded the proportion which it bears in this country to wages ; and other things , such as tea and sugar , " are positively cheaper than in this country . Land * too , is cheap : every man may expect to die a landowner . And political freedom is cheap : they are adjusting their constitution in such a way that every working man may expect to obtain the franchise about as soon as he would

      in America , with a certainty that before many * vears are over the constitution of Australia will be practically in all respects as popular as it is in America . In the colonies , therefore , the working man gets independence , industrial and political : he can feed himself , his wife , and his children , and no man can make him afraid . That we say is the strike ! You do not , in Australia or in America ^ have wages kept down , nor is

      labour without tlft means of making itself represented , heard , and considered in the Legislature and the Government . The last accounts from Australia relate how , in New South Wales , the body of the colonists have stopped an eminent member of the Council who was planning an aristocratic form for the new constitution . In intellectual and flourishing South Australia the leadinsr colonists have

      voluntarily arranged a constitution like that of Canada , which combines the most liberal traits of America and of England . And in Victoria , the gold-diggers , whose pushing spades are turning up subterranean streams of gold six or eight feet wide , have compelled the Governor of the province , Latrobe , to give up an unpopular tax upon their gold licenses , after , like a genuine Lord Derby , he had declared concession to a popular demand " impossible . ' That is the strike—to goto the land where wealth freedom , and independence welcome labour .

      It is not every man that can go to Australia ; or can wish to go . But he can go by deputy ; and that does quite as well . There are many at Preston who do not wish to emigrate . Some , indeed , would soon do it , if they really informed themselves on the subject . But there are many also who already wish it , and in many of the agricultural counties there are numbers sighing to depart for America , where a man eats meat as well as bread , and votes without fear of farmer or landlord ; or foi » Australia , where a man fingers gold as well as coppers , and votes without fear of

      farmer or landlord . Something like three hundred and fifty thousand have been going this year;—more , we suspect ; as many will go next year ; and as they go , you men of the working classes will find the value of labour in tbe country rising generally . If cotton weaving does not pay , do you not think you could turn your hands to something else ? Why , common soldiers were cutting the hay last harvest for want of hands ; and if the red-coats can learn a business in a day , surely you can . Draft away a i ' ovr more hundreds of thousands from England , Ireland , and Scotland this year , a few more hundreds of thousands next year , and that Ktrike will attain the object which you strive for in a less effectual form of strike . We do not

      counsel you to abandon the right of strike after the old pattern ; but we say that if the strike sometimes fails—if the employing classes jiml the Legislature will not attend to your reasonable deinunds , there is still one strike that is absolutely and incontestably effectual—it is to strike your tents .

      Depalltulte Op The J)Aiiikn Canal Nufcvk...

      DEPAllTUltE OP THE J ) AIiIKN CANAL NUfcVKY EXPEDITION . In the year 1695 William Paterson conceived the magnificent design of uniting tho commerce of the two Indies by moans of a colony plnntcd in the

      Isthmus of Darien ; He wished to - wrest from Spain this " key of the world , " and to open out a trade between Scotland and the East , which mi ght rival that of the East India Company . Anticipating a commercial policy , whose advantages are even yet only partially acknowledged , he proposed to render the colony a free port , in which no distinction of party , nation , or religion should prevail . " The enterprising Scotchman obtained a charter from King William , but the jealousy of

      the rival company organised a strong opposition , and the king—too busy with his wars to pay heed to commercial developments—revoked his grant . The adventurers , however , were not deterred , and , in spite of the discouragement which they had received from the court , a band of twelve hundred Scotchmen determined , on their own responsibility , to carry out the splendid project of their leaden But the curse was upon them . Their ships were rotten , and nearly two hundred of the emigrants never saw the coasts of Darien . The natives were not

      unfriendly , and everything might still have prospered , but famine commenced a work of destruction , which the more fatal influence of religious dissension , and the narrow jealousy of English monopolists , speedily brought to a terrible conclusion . In the words of a brilliant writer , " ambition , ignorance , and selfishness , with their concomitants , mutiny and discontent , combined to destroy the infant colony . Among all these torch

      combustible ingredients was finally flung the , of fanaticism ; and thus the destruction , which neither King nor Parliament could have effected * was rendered inevitable . " Presently arrived an order from King William , forbidding the English colonies in America and the East Indies to supply provisions to the perishing ^ Scotchmen . We need not write the sequel , which is a history of disastrous ruin , of blighted hopes , of a jealous monarch , and an injured people .

      A peace of forty years has opened out many fields for the development of commercial enterprise ; and , among many which have lately started into life , is one for uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by means of a ship canal ( without locks ) across the Isthmus of Darien . . Out of the seven schemes forcrossing the isthmus , this seemstobethe least " liable to objection . Information of the route was first brought to England by Dr . Cullen . tsir Charles Fox , to whom this gentleman had applied ,

      did not hesitate to send out a competent engineer , Mr . Lionel Gisborne , to make preliminary surveys . The result wa 3 most satisfactory . After encountering many hardships , including a capture by a party of hostile Indians , Mr . Gisborne and his companion , Mr . C . H . Forde , returned to this country , enabled to pronounce that the scheme was feasible . So convinced , indeed , was Mr . Gisborne of the practicability of his plan , that he was ready , on his own responsibility , to return to Darien , with a corns of volunteer engineers , in order to

      complete his survey . He recommended to tonu a navigation between the two oceans , which win , without locks , at all times , permit the passage 01 the largest vessels , having \ 50 feet breadth at mid-water , and thirty feet depth at low tide . Happily the plan did not depend for its success upon men wanting either intelligence or energy . Before long a company was . formed , with urn Whnrnclifle at the head , for the purpose ot carry-If JliUlllyllllU lit lylA *^ AAl ^ ttU ) « v * w--w ^ x ^ - | - - xi

      ing out Mr . Gisborne ' a recommendations , true that no less than 15 , 600 , 000 / . arc rcquireu for the completion of the work , but the sum is i significant when compared with the « p lei » uou and utility of the grand result . This . nor n Mr . Gisborne and his band of engineers s » me from Southampton . Before many days lll > e . ^ J ' they will haw begun a work which will co for a mighty benefit upon the whole civ h ^ world , will unite tho commerce of tho r-ijst , tho West , shorten the distance between anfi , . „ , „! flw , s . rtl / inliiu . owl II-1 VI > t . llfl W » V W 1 ' li t >

      « l » ll « Ijipvi \ ^ ljl \/ lll \**) y UAH * 1 f * * q Federal Union which shall include all nations . But if the project has been conceived by « individual , « nd if the work is commenceci nj ^ private company , we are glad to state that" ^ merit lend their active co-operation . ^' j great Powers of the world—Eng la , * rancc » America , have expressed their > villingne « H j ^ mote the sucoms of this enterprise , A ,, of the flags will wave in the waters on either s « - isthmus , as a protection for tho band of ««» ¦> AirEnglish lieutenant of Engineers will a < ^ ^ puny Mr . Gisborne , and we trust that »« ^ . ^ this great undertaking may cement f . - | jHlfctio ^ among Powers on whom the fate ot o »> dopendtf .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17121853/page/12/