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Leader (1850-1860), 18th October 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 990, J) %r Pit n & y —«<>——

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    • J) %r Pit n & y —«<>——
    • ^it lit Ma ira.
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      Untitled Article

      ENGLISH NATIONALITY MIGRATING TO THE COLONIES . The Irish nation is flowing out of Ireland , and the English are gradually , but not slowly , acquiring the propensity to migrate . We have already pointed out this move , and noted its inevitable effect on the relations of trade and industry . It may be said that we are very advanced in our views and speculative ; but we find the same views , the same anticipations , in the commercial Times . Our contemporary argues against the notion that the Irish drain will be stopped exactly at the point of a just level in wages : —

      " In England it has been anticipated by some writers , that when the Irish population should be reduced to a certain low level , the inducements to remain would rise so high that the migration would stop , and the remnant left behind would be contentedly and permanently attached to the soil . The Irish authorities , as we are disposed to think very correctly , do not expect the migration to stop as soon as the population has assumed its proper proportion to the work to be done . The people who have been in the habit of paying 30 s . an acre would

      not now remain on the land if it were reduced to 20 s . or 10 s ., they will have it at no price . Their minds are completely made up to go after their friends—to go home , that home rot being ' Ould Ireland / but the ' Far West ! ' The stream once set that way , it Avill not stop till Ireland is absolutely depopulated , and the . only question is , when "will that be ? Twenty years at the present rate would take away the whole of the industrious classes , leaving only the proprietors and their families , members of the learned professions , and those whoso age or infirmities keep them at home . "

      " x lie Englishman , we are assured , is too much attached to his country and too comfortable at home to cross the Atlantic "; but the Times argues to show that " Geography , union workhouses , ocean mails , and the daily sight of letters arriving in ten days from prosperous emigrants , are fast unrooting the Briti .-h rustic lroiu the soil , jsnd giving him cosmopolitan ideas . In a very few years the question uppermost in his mind will be whether he will he better off here or there ?" ^ Yes , nationality has yielded to that modern test . The sole test of worth , in trade , lies in the question — " will it pay ? " In labour , the sole test of home i . s the workhouse test— " settlement , " they call it . To love your country because it i . s your country , to serve an Englishman because he is an Englishman —these arc superstitions which have passed away . Free-trade in commodities , Free-trade in labour , b ree-tr . ule . in human muscle , human hopes ami fears , —all these forms of Free-trade have been

      followed up by Free-trade in nationality . England is , perhaps , the only country in the world of which it muy be said that its people arc losing their care for it as theirs ; nationality being wholly lost in the jealousies of class against class , of party against party . And the retribution approaches in the shape of an immense . social change . The prospect , says the Times , is far too serious to be neglected : — " The depopulation of them ; isles , supposing the Celtic exodus to run out its course , and ii British cxodtiH to follow , constitute about us Kcrions n political event as can 1 jc conceived ; for a change of dynasty or 11113- ° 'her political revolution in iiothiii " compared \\ il h it change in the people themselves . All the departments of industry , the army , | , ||

      departure of Englishmen from the land of their birth , but rather simpers at the prospect of being quit of troublesome spirits . But whither are these Englishmen going ? To North America—to the United States , which have broken with England ; or the British colonies , which are threatening , every now and then , to break off and to be independent , or to annex themselves to the United States ; to- the Australias , already leagued against the English Government and its doings ; or to the Cape of Good Hope , successful in rebellion , and still sulky .

      The Australias are deeply offended . They are made to endure Imperial taxation—the imposition of exorbitant salaries ; the very sting which provoked the United States to the war of independence , and which helped to exasperate Canada ; to say nothing of similar quarrels with the West Indies . The Australias have been deprived of convictism ; and then , when they had learned to appreciate the relief from that curse , it has been forced on them again : — " The colonies have a point of unity and agreement , and that point is resistance to the indignity and injury which they suffered from . Great Britain . Such things are not long in growing to a head .

      • ' It was only in September last year that New South Wales founded her Anti-Convict Association ; and this body , after an existence of only six months , has been swallowed up in the League of the four colonies—New South Wales , Port Phillip , Van Diemen ' s Land , and South Australia—pledged to resist the importation of British , criminals into any of them , under whatever designation , and upon whatever terms , to raise funds for the support of the League , and to abstain from employing any convict who shall hereafter be sent out .

      • ' Among the principal supporters of this League are men of well-known moderation and discretion , who have hitherto kept aloof from political agitation , and who have evidently only been drawn into it by the deepest and most heaitfelt conviction . That spirit of enthusiasm which has given rise to so many religious wars seems to be revived in this confederacy . They are animated by the feeling that their dearest interests are at stake , and , though measured and respectful in their language , are evidently prepared to

      carry out their principles , at whatever cost . * * * " It is sixty years since the first of these was founded , and but fifteen since the last ( Port Phillip ) assumed a separate name ; and yet that which the Government of Lord North forced upon the American colonies after a hundred and fifty years of growth , sixty years has sufficed to teach our Australian children . They also have their Congress , because they also have their common grievances and common fears . "

      It is not we who say this , but the Times . The emigrant , alienated from his home , goes forth to strengthen colonies that are beginning to array themselves against the Imperial Government . See Sir Andrics Stockcnstrom ' s pamphlet , directly accusing the Government of garbling documents , of suppressing vitally necessary passages in published papers ; and warning it that it must retrace its policy on the . border of the Cape , or carry out the war against the Blacks to " extermination . " Sir Andries is a moderate practical man , publicly elected with Mr . Fairbaim as the representative of the colony in thLs country . The Cape Colonists have some sense of nationality ; they can all act together .

      Yes ; it is in the colonies that the Englishman is driven to learn that nationality which is forgotten at home , and which , by a strange fatality , when it has reached the colony , finds an unyielding enemy in the Government . In the United States the interest of human beings i . s not accounted subordinate to that of goods , of bureaux , or of " the system . " In the United Stales the Englishman finds that the , first care is for the People ; and in the Colonies be finds the resolve to make the

      People the first care rather than particular cliques or " interests . " The trading spirit has made nationality a scoff , and this country is threatened with that Social revolution predicted by the Times The state whicli has consented to forget its nationality i . s raising up states hostile to itself , although peopled by its own children . So true i . s it that niere " self-interest . " or mean . statesmanship defeats itself . England must recover its nationality , or Il . H colonies will outgrow it ,, and will take , the lead of the world into their own hands .

      Untitled Article

      NOT " REPUDIATION , " BUI POSTPONEMENT . Four years ago certain sums were advanced by the Imperial Treasury to the Irish Unions , secured upon the rates , and , therefore , ultimately upon the land . We saw , in those days of famine , a gigantic scheme of eleemosynary relief carried out ; and enormous . sums spent in the most unproductive way , in order that a whole People might bo rescued from the jaws of . starvation . Reproductive works were studiously avoided , lest a _ | MI 1 I 'J Ministry should be charged with " Socialism-The money , borrowed mainly upon the national credit , a surplus being a rarity in those days , was literally sown broadcast . JS ' caily ten million * went so . Rwas understood that they should be repaid out of tlie rates , and that the land of Inland should be mortgaged to that extent . How stands the case now i ' 1 he normal condition of Ireland has for years been that of bankruptcy . Few expect a handsome dividend from a bankrupt debtor . Hut in addition to chronic bankruptcy , or rather as a consequence of hankriinu-y , Ireland has sustained an incredible emigration—depopulation is the right word ; i'H <| besides this , she has been subjected to try ""/? : in ( l tremendous . social changes , the double action ol a htringent Poor Law and the sweeping machinery of an Encumbered Estates Court . The famine wan

      J) %R Pit N & Y —«&Lt;&Gt;——

      J ) % r Pit n & y —«<>——

      ^It Lit Ma Ira.

      ^ it lit Ma ira .

      Untitled Article

      li SATURDAY , OCTOBER 18 , 1851 .

      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there 13 nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .

      Untitled Article

      THK SITUATION IN FRANCE . Evkntm have been too strong for the Prince President , ami , if the recent rejioi ts from Paris are to be trusted , his has tf iven in . The resignation of Iuh Ministry m u capitulation ; the resolve to repeal

      the Law of May 31 is a reform of conduct ; and the new Ministry will probably indicate a changed spirit in his administration . We touch upon the subject with reserve , because we desire more complete information from Paris , and because we have no guarantee against a new reaction ; but we are aware that many of our readers will desire to know " what we think of it , " —and we will not disappoint them to indulge any pedantic punctilio of journalism .

      we think well of it , so far as we can see . The motive of the altered course is plain . We are aware , and , indeed , we stated the fact some time ago , that among the authors of the Law of May 31 abolishing universal suffrage , were those who said ' that , although passed for a temporary purpose it would not remain on the statute book until the next election . But , it is evident that the President had recently been taught to rely on the restricted franchise . At last he has found that the game was

      hopeless . He must have desired to exclude his enemies from the Presidential and Legislative election ; but , trusted by no party , he found ° himself without a chance of making a majority . His only remaining chance is once more to seem to throw himself on the People . The People will be to some extent conciliated , and he does , though to a doubtful degree , recover a portion of the chance which his reactionary conduct had thrown away : his adherents will be recruited by this advance of penitence .

      But the action of France , once more set free , will be too large to be altogether within management , and the nation will probably be thinking about other things besides the maintenance of M . Bonaparte . That there will be a trial of strength we hold to be beyond doubt ; but that the popular interests will , in any event , gain by the recentlyadopted step of the President we equally believe . According to the new aspect of the political sky , the trial of strength will be peaceably conducted ; which is much . Should it be fairly conducted , France will once more resume her place in the ranks of popular nationality against Despot-bureaucracy . Should there be any fresh attempt at reaction , it will be but a fresh impulse to reawakened energies .

      We say nothing of particular candidates for Presidency or Ministry . It is idle to speculate , it would be presumptuous to advise . We note with satisfaction the influence which has again been recognized in a national crisis—that of Emile de Girardin , —perhaps the boldest , most sagacious , and most able man in France . We have differed from him in opinion ; but we recognize qualities of a greatness that is not likely to waste itself in an idle contest with events . On the contrary , a keensighted interpreter of facts , he is likely to borrow

      his chief strength from them ; and if the necessities of the time be but a'lowcd fair play , France , we are assured , will recover her freedom , her vigour , and her glory . We do not regard M . Bonaparte as the right man for President ; we think that ho should be President who has served his way to that post . But we trouble not ourselves with names or individual pretensions : let him be President who can command the suffrage of the nation ; let him be Minister who can give action to the energies of the nalior .

      Untitled Article

      990 ©|> e QLeahet * [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 990, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1905/page/10/