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Leader (1850-1860), 30th September 1854, Edition Town of 2, Page 924

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    • EMIGRATE STILL

      EMIGRATE STILL

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      sects in' the chapels of middle-class dissent ; and in every conceivable manner not conforming by the innumerable rest of the coTOnmnity . The Beer Act will check the * crcwding at public-houses , but how many 'will appreciate the abundance of the harvest chiefly by consuming the fermented juice of the barley . How many , with a slight acknowledgment of the form , will use the day for a rush into the country ; # nd how many , when it is all over , will for-• get all about it , or think of it only as & trivial observance , nine-tenths of which are . cant . And the insincere submission of cant

      deprives us of faculty of returning thanks . We can only make the sacred observance one anore addition to the pharisaical nonsense by which we lower our own character . If there are any thanks which the model man will give with , heartiness , it will be in thanking God that he is not like other men—which he is .

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      DENMARK FRIEND OR FOE . Never perhaps was there a more striking example of notional retribution inflicted for apolitical mistake than that which has befallen England in her relation with Denmark , rtow becoming so important an object of mistrust in the Baltic . " What would bur . Government give for a great hold over the Scandinavian kingdoms ? It would indeed be invaluable to us ; and what is more , if [ England had behaved rightly , the hold would tave been ready to her hand . Through her . Government , however , England behaved ill ,

      and her power is absent . The story , indeed , is one of the most instructive in modern history . The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein ¦ 3 iad been guaranteed , by the Danish crown , a certain degree of independence ; they were "to go together , and they had a right' of ¦¦ representation in the Grerman Diet . There was , however , much jealousy between the Germans of the duchies and the Danes of "the kingdom—a dispute not assuaged by the fact that there was a Danish party also within the duchies . " When the duchies

      sought to identify their political organisation with Germany in 1848 , they were put down by the Government of Denmark , with the assistance of the German Governments . The Danes , indulging their national grudge , united with their king to break down the law of Schleswig Holstein and to put down the Germans of the duchies . The king of Denmark has now visited the Danes with their punishment ; by 3 ioyal ordinances he has abolished their constitution and r » stn . -

      blished one for "the united empire . " There is to be a federal assembly , comprising fifty members , receiving salaries , twenty of whom are to be named by the king , and thirty to bo elected by the States of Denmark—Denmark Proper to elect eighteen ; Sclileswig , Holstein , and Lauen"berg , twelve ; and this assembly , is charged "with the double power of acting as a Parliament , and of framing the Constitution for a Suture Assembly . The Danes , indeed , lmve the additional cause for shamo at their own misconduct , in finding themselves thus braved "by an impotent

      Court-Having used the Danes against the Duchies , that Court uses the Czar against the Danes and England . Now in opposing the Czar , wo anight have counted upon the Danes as allies to drive their own Court , if indeed wo had acted so aa to win the coHfidenco of the Dunes . But wo forfeited their confidence , aa well na that of tho Germane , when we not only witnessed tho extinction of Constitutions in Germany without protest , but lent an active countenance to tho nnti ~

      Ministerial leanings do not check the utterance of a generous national feeling : The GermanB feel something more than this sense of self-degradation — this consciousness that neither they themselves , nor their then demi-god , rose to the emergency of a crisis which they and he created . Besides the blush of shame which arises in almost ^ every German face when you speak of their sad misuse of the opportunities of 1848-9 , you have also to encounter resentment , not alone for the passive indifference of England to their patriotic struggles , but for the active part which England and Trance

      took in the affair of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein , which are threatening again to force themselves on the attention of Europe . That question had a far greater significance in Germany than it had out of it . With us it meant the preservation of the kingdom of Denmark : in Germany it was tie symbol of the Unity . " Germany for Germans " was the idea it involved ; and that established , a- great point would have been gained . The loss or retention of the duchies was then a pivot on which turned other and far greater questions ; it was the touchstone of nationality .

      England ami France may have been right or ¦ wrong in the policy they pursued—that is a matter we have long ago discussed—but their policy deeply wounded the pride of Germany . The professors , the phil o sophers , the students of Germany cursed the Western Powers in their hearts , when the Duchies were annexed by a European act to Denmark ; and even other , more sober and less excitable , politicians saw in the proceeding the hostility of France and England to German unity and nationality . The effects of this opinion the world is now feeling in the present indifference of Germany to the Anglo-French , alliance .

      "If proper means were used , it surely might not be impossible to revive those noble throbbings in the now torpid hearts of the German' people , which if they did beat -wildly and injudiciously , still beat highly . " 1 ) 0 they Avant Germany for the Germans ?" Then let them allow Hungary to the Hungarians , Turkey to the Turks , and Poland to the Poles ; and applying ourselves at last to the resolute design of reducing the barbarian to subjection , let us , without heeding the effect which the success of any detail of

      it , such as the destruction of Sebastopolor Cronstadty may produce at Vienna . or Berlin , persevere till we have reduced tlie power of Russia to such limits as may be compatible with the interests of civilisation and humanity . Surely the great German people have but to be thoroughly disabused of the fear that we desire only to weaken the maritime position of Russia and not to lessen her general pressure and influence on the continent , even yet to rally to the French and English alliance , and nobly accomplish their own freedom in helping to liberate the world . "

      Yes , England and the Danes , the Western Powers and Germany , ought to he acting together . The German and Scandinavian courts ought to have no hopes , but in taking the side of the allies against the grand despot ; and it would be so , if the conduct of our own Government had not given the Danes and Germans equally a right to mistrust us . We may censure the Danes , but we have no claim to their confidence . We may , indeed , blame our own Government , but let us never forget that no Ministers could have acted thus in the name of " England , " unless passive permission had been given by the ignorant , and content to be iguorant , English people .

      Constitutional treatment of tho duchioa . On this aubject wo perfectly agree with our weekly contemporary tho Examiner , whose

      Emigrate Still

      commissioners , however , calculate the numbers that left Ireland in 1851 at 254 , 537 in 1852 , at 224 , 997 ; and in 1853 , at 199 , 392 " Assuming , " says the report , " that the calculations of former years were not quite accurate , we can scarcely doubt that the Irish emigration during 1853 was considerably less than for any year since 18-18 . As this

      decrease is evidently not caused by the failure of the means of emigration , we accept it as an additional proof that the distress by which Ireland has been so long afflicted is passing away , and that her labouring classes need no longer despair of being able to obtain in their own coimtry the means of an adequate subsistence . ' *

      ! N " ow this is confirmed by the inquiries of the Irish Poop Law Commissioners , instituted at the request of the Emigration Board . It is found in Ireland that there has been an increasein the money value of agricultural labour , while the wages of artisans have improved in . a still higher ratio . Here , then , is cause and effect , established on the authority of two Government boards . About a quarter of a

      million of souls have gone for two or three years , and wages have risen a few pence , or a shilling or two . Can , anything be more satisfactory ? Now ^ for our own part , we are by no means satisfied . We do not see why wages should not be raised to a still higher rate ; and we are perfectly convinced that , improved as the condition of the labourer may be in Ireland , it bears no comparison with the condition of the labourer in the

      United States ; while a very large proportion , of labourers in the American republic are continually passing out of the class of hired workers into that of the land owners . Of the population who have added the new states of Michigan , Iowa , Winconsinj Missouri , Kansas , and others to the Union , multitudes were but a few years ago labourers , and now are land-owners—not tenants , not occupants of conacre , not beggarly farmers struggling with ruin ; but owners of enough land to live

      upon , with the certainty that their children wiU be independent men . " The sky only , ' says the poet , " do they change who cross the sea ! " But the poet knew nothing of modern emigration . The man that leaves the life of a beggarly farmer in Ireland , or a precarious labourer in England to find employment in the United States , does exchange not only sky , but soul . He ceases to live in . fear of the parish , becomes his own master , looks to

      have a voice in the election of his representative , and can , if he likes , stand upon his own land , no one making him afraid . It is just the same if he goes to Australia . We do not speak of the gold—men must take their chance at that ; but we are thinking of tho lands to be settled along the Murray , and wo say that in that island-continent there will exist a numerous class of working farmers , which can be speedily recruited by our working classes , if our working classes please .

      EMIGRATE STILL . In is beginning to " pay" to stop at home , even in Ireland . Tlnat is to say , it pays as compared with tho past experience of Ireland . But let ub consider a little more closely the facts that are advanced in support of this new and hopeful assertion , and we shall see that if it pays to stop at homo , it pnys still better to emigrate . It is an extremely intcrosting inquiry for tho working classes , and we bog them to look at it closely . They will find emigration twice blessed—blessing him that gooa and him that stays ; and they must continue tho process if they want to got all the good out of it they can . Now for the proofs . We have already stated tho total amount of emigration during tho past year : it waa 829 , 937 . There is some difficulty in calculating tho exact number of Irish included in that total , since a considerable proportion of the emigrants from Ireland take ship at Liverpool , and some go from tho Clyde . Tho

      They have already shown that they are not afraid of the voyage , and they are right . Within the last seven years the Commissioners of Emigration have chartered 433 ships ; of that number two have been wrecked under circumstances not yery likely to occur again ; though of course the sea will always have its chances . Of the 140 , 000 passengers conveyed by thoao vessels not one has been lost . Of

      tho ships despatched from ports under the inspection of tho Emigration Oommiasionora the returns are not quite so favourable . Of the whole 2 , 311 , 175 soula only 1567 havo been lost at sea , and those principally by tho loss of vessels under such circumstances aa have chocked the recurrence of the disaster . The Tayfour , for example , was indifferently manned , but the Board of Commissioners have resolved that no vessel Bliall be cleared out ; with a smaller crow than four men to each

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      ***• THE LEADER : [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 30, 1854, page 924, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2058/page/12/