CHAPTER II. EMIGRATION.
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CHAPTER II.
EMIGRATION.
IF an historian were to write the history of the latter part of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth, and leave out the article Emigration, it might be affirmed, I think, with great truthfulness, that he had omitted one of the most striking, important, and characteristic features of the last hundred years. That emigration is one of the grand questions of the day cannot be doubted by any intelligent person at all acquainted with the features of the age in which we live: and to one who has but very cursorily dwelt upon the many startling and extraordinary changes of the times we have seen, I think his attention must very naturally have been involuntarily drawn to the subject. It may be proved one of the grand necessities of the age, and especially applicable to the countries of Great Britain and Ireland. To what extent Ireland is indebted to it is sufficiently obvious to every human being gifted with the smallest portion of common sense. During and after her fearful and devastating famine, she parted with nearly two millions of her native population to till the soil in distant parts of our colonial empire, and sent the
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majority of her sons to perform the menial offices in the United States, where the native American is too proud to perform the same, thereby decreasing the poor-rates, and at the same time laying the foundation-stone of that current of emigration from England and Scotland which has enriched her in a manner almost unprecedented, and made her very justly the envy of both Scotland and England under her present very flourishing condition. To what are we to attribute that immense annual increase of population in the British Isles, but to a grand Providential scheme of emigration, while France, inhaling the same air at the short distance of twenty-one miles, is on the decline? I believe it to be our duty, as well as our destiny, to provide this increasing, and starving, and poverty-stricken population with a house and a home, and by so doing lay the foundation and nucleus of a future empire. I shall here quote a few lines from a very interesting and instructive miter upon this question: 1 --"In the last forty years 6,000,000 of our people, nearly one-fourth of our present population, have sailed from the United Kingdom to our three great emigration fields--America, Canada, and Australia."
The national convulsions, the social earthquakes which our little islands have escaped by the safe seaward flow of this its "population-lava" defy all computation. If these six millions of emigrants and their increase, four millions more, had been caged up in our narrow streets and fields, increasing a thousandfold the numbers
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of our destitute and our desperate, who will assert that England would now have been England, that the Guelphs would have been at St. James's, the Russells at Woburn, the Stanleys at Knowlsey, the fundholder anywhere? While it has thus advantageously relieved us of our surplus population, to what extent has the merchant, the shipowner, and the manufacturer been benefited? The answer, if truly given, would be, To an incalculable extent. And what is the return that those great interests, after such benefits have been conferred, tendered to the starving population of our country? Why, comparatively nothing; and the Government of the country may be placed in the same ungrateful category. It is high time that both the Government and the legislature, and above all that the mercantile interest should be aroused from their lethargy upon this all-important and vital interest. Such has been the gratitude of some of our shipowners, that, in lieu of aiding the starving population of our country with pecuniary assistance and good vessels, they have left them to provide their own funds, and have most unfeelingly consigned them to ships that have not been seaworthy, and so sent them to colonize in the terra incognita of Neptune at the bottom of the ocean.
When writing upon this subject six years since, on my return from Australia and New Zealand, I made the best appeal to the sympathies of the Government and to the country, by stating that the wool and the grain crops of the antipodes would turn out both valueless for the year, from the great scarcity of labour, if a fresh stream of emigration were not quickly poured into those
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paths to the relief of the sheep squatter and agriculturist. At that time, I strongly recommended the people to take up the question and make a powerful appeal to the Government of the day, and, at the same time to get up subscriptions for the furtherance of emigration. I am happy to find, since writing the above, that two emigration societies have sprung into existence; the one headed by the Duke of Wellington, and another bearing the name of the "Ladies' Emigration Society." It is to be hoped that, after such a good example from the Duke of Wellington and the Ladies, that the Government, the merchants, the shipowners, and the manufacturers, will not be found in the background, but stand nobly forward in the good cause of emigration, by instituting each its Emigration Society. The Times fully attests the advantages of emigration, in this extract, "There are upwards of 130,000 able-bodied paupers in the unions of England and Wales. Taking their maintenance at £8 per head, these persons annually cost £1,040,000. Suppose it cost £24 per head to remove them to Australia, the total expense of the operation would be £3,112,000. If this sum were raised by way of loan on the poor-rates, the interest, at 3 per cent., would be little more than £93,000. Every emigrant might be bound to pay back his passage money as soon as he was able--an obligation in which many would fail, but which many would also perform. It is difficult to estimate the amount which would thus be returned; but, even, were not a single shilling repaid, the difference between £93,000 and £1,040,000 leaves a good margin tor a sinking fund. There
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are not many financial operations the result of which would at once be so certain and so brilliant."
The following from Mr. Charles Hursthouse's interesting book I partly agree with, and which, I think, directly bears upon the subject in question:-- "Of the 1,000 persons who almost daily leave us, only some 400 go to our colonies, the 600 go to the United States. In the last ten years, whilst 2,000,000 of our surplus population have gone to the United States, fewer than 1,000,000 have gone to our various colonies. Now, even in a commercial pecuniary point of view, this is a fact to be deplored. English colonists, especially English-Australian colonists, consume British manufactures to quadruple the amount per head consumed by American citizens; and if the whole of these 3,000,000 of our countrymen had gone to Canada, and Australia, and Africa, and New Zealand, instead of two-thirds of them going to a foreign country, we should have had customers for some millions of pounds more of our manufactures; and should, probably, have been able to import double quantities of gold, wool, and raw produce in return. But the commercial loss, though heavy, is not the greatest loss. We lose our customers; but what is worse, we lose our countrymen. The most valuable article which ever leaves our shores--the emigrant-- goes by thousands, goes by tens of thousands, goes by hundreds of thousands, to increase the wealth and strength of a rival power. State system emigrationists say that these tens and hundreds of thousands of our countrymen should go to people our own countries in Canada, Aus-
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tralia, Africa, and New Zealand; that under a sound state system of emigration they would go thither and thus marvellously increase our national wealth and strength." Mr. Hursthouse, like many other English writers, has somewhat of the prejudice of his own countrymen against America. That country, with all its faults, has clearly demonstrated the fact than man can govern himself, and that very effectually too; and especially have the Americans succeeded in accumulating wealth and power, and widely diffusing their fame to an extent quite unprecedented by the countries of the old world. That she has been successful is amply proved from the fact of so few of the colonists returning to the old countries of Europe.
How very very seldom one hears of the return of emigrants from America to England: not so with our own colonists; they go to Australia or New Zealand, not always with the object of permanently settling in the country, but with a view to fortune-making, making self the centre; not developing the resources of the country as an adopted home for himself and sons, but as soon as the fortune is realized, quit it for ever to spend the money in England. This is one of the causes why some of our colonies creep and crawl instead of galloping after the fashion of the United States. All our colonies would do well to take a lesson from the Americans in their diffused educational system, as established in Massachusetts; in imitating their zeal and activity in commerce, agriculture, and, above all, in colonizing; in their love of their country, and in another feature which is eminently characteristic of an American, viz., that
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while he is amassing his own fortune he is ever ready to make any sacrifice for the good of his country, ever active in developing its resources with a patriotism stanch and true. They would do well to imitate that versatility of talent which the American possesses, that quality which makes him equal to every emergency, and which, under ordinary circumstances, would require five or six distinct individuals to execute the same. Those qualifications are of an immense value in a colony. The colonies have claims upon us from the fact of their being our very best customers. Nearly everything that they require and consume are imported from the old country, thereby increasing the revenue, stimulating the merchant service, and giving additional means to the merchant to enrich himself by a colonial commerce.
And I am very sorry to bear testimony to the fact that we have English merchants who send out articles to the colonies so inferior that the people at home would refuse to purchase. I have met frequently with working men and shepherds in New Zealand who have shown me an inferior fustian used for trowsers for which they have paid double the price perhaps as in England, not half so strong as my London-made best dress trowsers. Many of the shepherds have informed me also of the badness of the leather, by stating that their shoe-bills for the year have amounted to £12, a price equal to the wages of an English servant.
An old colonist, with whom I lodged in Wellington, stated that upon one occasion she purchased a lot of sugar, which, upon using, turned out to possess one pound of solid sand for every twelve of sugar. Such is the gratitude of some
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English merchants and traders for benefits conferred upon them by our colonial empire. Setting aside the many commercial advantages derived from the colonies, to what extent have they not relieved our pauperism at home, converting, in many instances, the miserable tenant of the parish union into a small landed proprietor, and in a few cases into very extensive ones. And in another point of view the colonies have been beneficial to the old country, viz., in reforming many of the abuses of that parent stock from which they were descended. Indeed it may be asserted that the United States of America, which a little more than seventy years since was part and parcel of the British Empire, has instituted social, civil, and religious reforms which have not only powerfully reacted upon England, but have produced a powerful influence upon every monarchy and empire throughout the civilized world. The same may be said of Australia and New Zealand in a minor degree, when those countries are fully developed. To illustrate the point in question:-- The King of Prussia, hearing that a most valuable handicraftsman was about to sail for the United States, immediately sent for him, and asked him the cause of his leaving his native country, and giving his knowledge of his craft to a foreign power, tried to dissuade him from emigrating by making the following powerful appeal:--
"What can I do for you to induce you to remain at home?"
"Nothing," replied the artisan, "short of making Prussia what the United States are, will induce me to remain in my native country."
This may seem bold to tell some of the unin-
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formed squirearchy and aristocracy of England, that many of the poor creatures who have left our shores have been a means of reforming the old country. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless a fact. It is one of those mysterious and wonderful workings of an overruling Providence which history will have to record. In another point of view they may be said to be beneficial to the old country; in proportion as the poor people who go to our colonies rise in the world, in many cases, in such ratio have they a desire to improve themselves.
This altered condition of a member of a parish union cannot fail to react upon his brethren and distant relations at home, who may be supposed to be in occasional correspondence with him. This is another strange and startling fact, fully verified by the fact of Massachusetts having voted, in the year 1855, nearly as much money for educational purposes, with a population, perhaps, of not more than a million, as all England and Wales, with its many millions in the year I think, of either 1856 or 1857. I am speaking now only from memory; but, by referring the reader to the eleventh chapter of my "Rambles in the United States," published by Hope and Co., 16 Great Marlborough-street, London, he will there find the exact figures of this very extraordinary statement.
Looking at the colonies in this light, they may be denominated, in some sense, a reformatory school, not only for those who emigrate to their shores, but also to those who stop at home. And let us not forget that it was they who provided us with gold at a time which, perhaps, saved
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England from the fearful disaster of a monetary crisis--a crisis which, but for the very opportune and timely discovery of gold in Australia, might have given her such a shock, which, if not fatal to her interests, might have required many years for her recovery.
Another very interesting feature in the colonies is that when they are well-treated they are very loyal; and when they are thoroughly good men they are very independent and industrious, requiring but few soldiers to maintain public order. That the hand of Providence is mysteriously ruling in this spirit of colonization which forms so striking a feature of our age may he readily admitted from the fact of His governorship of the universe. Is it not, then, the duty of a Christian government, --one that professes so to blend Church and State for their mutual benefit, --so to act, both ecclesiastically and politically, as to further the good cause of emigration, and by so doing relieve pauperism at home, secure friendship with the colonies, contribute to the happiness and prosperity, not only of the mother country, whilst her extensive and youthful colonial children may be equally partakers in similar blessings?
GOVERNMENT RULES & REGULATIONS FOR EMIGRANTS.
FOR those who are seeking a home in the colonies, I trust that the following rules and regulations may not be found altogether without interest and advantage.
To be posted up during the voyage, in at least two conspicuous places between the passenger-decks.
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ABSTRACT OF THE QUEEN'S ORDER IN COUNCIL OF THE 25TH OF FEBRUARY, 1856,
For preserving order, promoting health, and securing cleanliness and ventilation on board of passenger ships, proceeding from the United Kingdom to any of Her Majesty's possessions abroad. Prepared by Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners, in pursuance of the 61st section of the Passenger's Act, 1855, 18 and 19 Vict. cap. 119:--
1. Every passenger to rise not later than 7 a.m., unless otherwise permitted by the surgeon, or, if no surgeon, by the master.
2. Breakfast from 8 to 9 a.m.; dinner at 1 p.m.; supper at 6 p.m.
3. The passengers to be in their beds at 10 p.m., except under permission of the surgeon, or, if no surgeon, of the master.
4. Fires to he lighted by the passengers' cook, and kept alight by him till 7 p.m., then to be extinguished, unless otherwise directed by the master, or required for the use of the sick.
5. The master to determine the order in which each passenger, or family of passengers, shall he entitled to the use of the fireplace at the proper hours.
6. On each passenger deck, at least, there are to be lit at dusk, and kept burning till daylight, three safety lamps, and such further number as shall allow one for each of the hatchways used by passengers.
7. No naked lights between decks, or in the hold, to be allowed at any time or on any account.
8. The passengers, when dressed, to roll up their beds, to sweep the deck (including the space
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under the bottom of the berths), and to throw the dust overboard. Breakfast not to commence until this is done. After breakfast the deck to be dry holystoned or scraped.
9. The decks to be swept again and the dirt thrown overboard after each meal.
10. The sweepers for the day to be taken in rotation from the males above fourteen, in the proportion of five for every 100 passengers.
11. Duties of the sweepers to be to clean hospitals and roundhouse, to sweep the decks after every meal, and to dry holystone and scrape them after breakfast.
12. But the occupant of each berth is to see that his own berth is well brushed out; and single women are to keep their own compartment clean in ships where a separate compartment is allowed to them.
13. Weather permitting, the beds to be well shaken and aired on deck, and the bottom boards, if not fixtures, to be removed and dry-scrubbed, and taken on deck at least twice a week.
14. Two days in the week to be appointed by the master as washing days, but no clothes on any account to be dried between decks.
15. The coppers and cooking vessels to be cleaned every day, and the cisterns kept filled with water.
16. Scuttles and sternposts, if any, to be kept open (weather permitting) from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and the hatches at all hours.
17. On Sunday the passengers to be mustered at 10 a.m., when they will be expected to appear in clean and decent apparel. The day to be observed as religiously as circumstances will admit
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18. No spirits or gunpowder to be taken on board by any passenger. Any that may be discovered, to be taken into the custody of the master till the expiration of the voyage.
19. No loose hay or straw to be allowed below.
20. No smoking to be allowed between decks.
21. All gambling, fighting, riotous, disorderly, and quarrelsome conduct, swearing, and violent, or indecent language, are strictly prohibited. Fire-arms, swords, and other offensive weapons, as soon as the passengers embark, to be placed in the custody of the master. No sailors to remain on the passenger deck, among the passengers, except on duty. No passenger to go to the ship's cook-house without special permission from the master, nor to remain in the forecastle among the sailors on any account.
ADDITIONAL REGULATIONS
TO BE OBSERVED ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS SAILING UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS.
1. The emigrants are to be divided into messes.
2. Every mess is to have a head man, to be responsible for the order and regularity of it, and whose duty it will be to report to the surgeon any misconduct or neglect requiring correction.
3. The surgeon-superintendent will appoint from among the emigrants a sufficient number of constables for the enforcement of the regulations, and of cleanliness and good order, and one constable for the special purpose of looking after and
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keeping in order the waterclosets and privies, who will, if his duties be satisfactorily performed, receive at the end of the voyage a larger gratuity than the ordinary constables.
4. The constables will attend daily at the serving out of the provisions, to see that each mess receives its proper allowance, and that justice is done; and a scale of the victualling will be fixed in some conspicuous part of the ship, for the information of all concerned.
5. The surgeon-superintendent is to appoint one man, if he think proper, to be his assistant in the hospital, or generally in attendance on the sick.
6. One or more women, as may be necessary, will be taken in rotation to attend any sick in the female hospital.
7. If there be no religious instruction on board, or schoolmaster appointed by the Commissioners, the surgeon-superintendent will select a person to act as teacher to the children.
8. One man may be taken, in rotation, if necessary, to act as the cook's assistant.
9. The teacher and the constables are to be exempt from the duty of cleansing decks amongst the messes, or from taking their turn in the party of general cleaners and sweepers; the man acting as cook's assistant for the day, if there be any, and the hospital man, will also be exempt from those duties.
10. On every Thursday there shall be a muster of the emigrants in clean linen and decent apparel.
11. Weather permitting, all the children are to be sent on deck immediately after breakfast,
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to be inspected as to their cleanliness by the surgeon, religious instructor, or the teacher.
12. School-hours are to be fixed by the religious instructor or schoolmaster, subject to the approval of the surgeon-superintendent, or, if there be no religious instructor, by the surgeon himself.
13. Divine Service is to be performed at least once on every Sunday.
14. The married men, in rotation, will keep a watch in their part of the 'tween decks during the night. There should be two or three in each watch, and the night should be divided into three watches--the first from 8 p.m. to midnight, the second from midnight to 4 o'clock, and the morning watch from 4 to 7 a.m. The business of the watch will be to prevent irregularities; to assist any person taken ill; to attend the hatchways, deck ventilators and scuttles, seeing that they are open and shut, according to the weather and the surgeon's directions; and to make any representation that may be necessary to the surgeon-superintendent.
15. The heavy luggage is to be put in the hold. The emigrants will have access to their boxes at intervals of three or four weeks, as the surgeon-superintendent may direct.
16. All questions that may arise on the preceding regulations are to be decided conclusively by the authority of the surgeon-superintendent, who is entirely responsible for the care and good management of the emigrants, and whose authority is to be respected in all cases accordingly.
17. The surgeon-superintendent is enjoined to refuse the extra comforts, when in course of
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issue, and to deny any other indulgence he may think proper, to any persons who wilfully neglect or obstruct the established rules; and in case of gross misconduct or insubordination, he will report it to the Governor on arrival, with the name of the offender, in order that any penalties which may have been incurred under the Passenger Act may be duly enforced.
The preceding regulations, in connection with those prescribed by the order in council, will, the Commissioners believe, if properly attended to, be found sufficient to ensure good order, cleanliness, and comfort during the voyage; but if they be neglected, the health, comfort, and future prosperity of the emigrants must be injured. Unless cleanliness and ventilation be attended to, the emigrants cannot be preserved in health; unless regularity and harmony be maintained, their comfort cannot he ensured. And the Commissioners desire to impress upon the emigrants, that on the report which the surgeon-superintendent may make of the state of their health, and of their conduct on board, must depend very much their success in finding employment in the colony.
By order of the Board,
STEPHEN WALCOTT, Secretary.
GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION OFFICE,
8, PARK-STREET, WESTMINSTER.
DIETARY SCALE FOR EMIGRANT SHIPS SAILING UNDER GOVERNMENT SUPERINTENDENCE.
The scale on the following page is for persons of twelve years of age and upwards. Children of one year and under twelve years of age, one-half
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of such rations. All the issues are to continue on the same days as specified in the scale.
YOUNG CHILDREN'S SCALE.
Children between one and four years of age are to receive preserved meats instead of salt meat every day, also a quarter of a pint of preserved milk, and every alternate day one egg.
Children under one year old are to be allowed three pints of water daily, and if above four months old, a quarter of a pint of milk daily; also three ounces of preserved soup and one egg every alternate day; 12 oz. biscuit, 4 oz. of oatmeal, 8 oz. of flour, 4 oz. of rice, and 10 oz. of sugar daily.
To infants under four months old, the surgeon may issue such nutriment as he may in any case think necessary; while in any port of the United Kingdom, or in any port into which the vessel may put before completing the voyage, and for one or two days after sailing, if practicable, two-thirds of a pound of fresh meat, one pound and a half of soft bread, and one pound of potatoes per statute adult, are to be issued daily with a suitable supply of vegetables, in lieu of all other rations, except tea, coffee, sugar, and butter.
By order of Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners,
S. WALCOTT, Secretary.
GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION OFFICE,
PARK STREET, WESTMINSTER,
Sept. 1856.
