pelled from the Roman frontier, their superfluous resources would naturally be consumed in intes tine wars with each other for room and subsist ence, until the power of population renewing the strength of those warlike communities, prepared them for fresh conflicts with the civilized world. Accordingly, we find them, in the decline of the empire, renewing their irruptions on the Roman territory. During the successive administration of a series of feeble princes, the empire was assailed by new swarms, and the degenerate Romans had re. course to the dangerous policy of bribing the enemy whom they could no longer conquer. This fatal dis closure of wealth and weakness soon excited the cu pidity of new enemies, who broke through the ill guarded frontier, and spread terror to the gates of Rome. The country became one universal scene of rapine and oppression, and it was only by the vi gour and activity of Aurelian, Probus, and Diocle tian, that the tottering empire was saved from its nal overthrow, During this interval, the barbarians wasted their population in bloody hostilities with each other, until nature, more powerful to renovate than war to destroy, recruiting their numbers, en abled them to set out on new emigrations with un diminished strength. During the reign Of Constan. tine, the whole power of the empire was again cal led forth to repel a new invasion of those destroying hordes. They were vanquished on every side, and driven into the mountains, where it is calculated that about 100,000 of them perished from cold and famine. Other invaders now arose, who were routed and dispersed with great slaughter by the warlike Ju lian, and pursued into the gloomy recesses of the Ger._ man forests; but those signal successes obtained for the declining empire no relief from incessant attacks, and the reign of Valentinian was one continued con test with the invading hosts. " The fate of Rome," Mr Malthus observes, "was at length determined by an irresistible emigration of the Huns, from the east and north, which precipitated on the empire the whole body of the Goths;" and the nations of Ger many, goaded on by this powerful impulse, were driven, en masse, on the Roman provinces. " An emigration," Mr Malthus continues, " of 400,000 persons issued from the same coast of the Baltic which hid poured forth the myriads of Cimbri and Teutones during the vigour of the republic. When this host was destroyed by war and famine, other adventurers succeeded. The Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, the Burgundians, passed the Rhine never more to retreat. The conquerors who first settled were expelled or exterminated by new invaders. Clouds of barbarians seemed to collect from all of the northern hemisphere. Gathering fresh dark: ness and terror as they rolled on, the congregated bodies at length obscured the sun of Italy, and sunk the western world in night." So long as such an extensive space of Europe and Asia was occupied by these pastoral tribes, the re the civilized world was constantly assailed their barbarous invasions; and, in the course of their various expeditions, ihe finest countries of Europe were taken possession of and plundered. The same principle of increase, which was the ori .ginal cause of all these movements, still continued to operate with undiminished force ; but while the central countries of Europe remained in possession of their recent conquerors, there was little chance of easily wresting from them what they had so hard ly won ; and the spirit of emigration being therefore checked and confined for a time within narrower li mits by land, the barbarous nations of the north • found vent for their overflowing numbers by sea. During the distractions which ensued in Europe subsequent to the reign of Charlemagne, their mari time enterprises were prosecuted with great vi; our, and they spread their devastations over Lower ony, Friezland, Holland, Flanders, &c. They ra vaged the coasts of France, pillaging and burning her finest towns, and at length obtained possession of some of her finest provinces. The British isles were for 200 years exposed to their ravages ; and, during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, their plunder ing expeditions were directed against all the most powerful nations in Europe, until at length the im proving powers of these countries, developed by civilization, and directed by policy, were found suffi cient to repel all such irregular inroads. It was in this manner that the growing strength of the Euro pean states laid the foundation for that important change of manners among the northern nations, under the influence of which, habits of emigration and plunder have been superseded by the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. From this period, the re pose of the civilized world has never been seriously endangered by the migrations of any barbarous na tion; and it is not likely that such contests will ever be • renewed. The pastoral tribes were formidable from the vast space over which they were allowed to range. They are now reduced within much narrow er limits. Most of them have been reclaimed from their rude habits and trained to industry. What has been thus lost to savage life has been gained by civi lization, The resources of the one have been in creased, as those of the other have diminished. It does not appear, therefore, from the present aspect of the world, that civilized man has any farther in justice to dread from his savage brethren. These views are eloquently enforced by Gibbon, in the phi losophical and striking view of the leading causes which conduced to the fall of the western empire, with which he closes his history. " Such formidable emigrations," he observes, " can no longer issue from the North ; and the long repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress of arts and agri culture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly scat tered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a list of two thousand three hundred wall ed towns; the Christian kingdoms of Denmark, Swe den, and Poland, have been successively establish ed ; and the Haase merchants, with the Teutonic knights, have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic, as far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the eastern ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilized empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge, are introduced on the banks of the Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and obey. The reign of indepen dent barbarism is now contracted to a narrow span ; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose forces may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions of the great republic of Europe." • In modern times, since the progress of improve ment has restrained the licence of those rude tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest has chiefly ap peared among the civilized inhabitants of the world, by whose encroachments the barbarous nations have been oppressed. The discovery of the immense con tinent of America, which was chiefly overspread with savage tribes, or with nations in the infancy of improvement, presented a vast outlet to the over flowing population of civilized Europe, and the re puted wealth of those newly discovered countries, which were found to contain abundance of the precious metals, soon attracted crowds of adventurers from every quarter. The first expeditions of the Spaniards to the New World were for the undisguised pur poses of rapine and conquest. They were purely military, not so much with a view to settlement as to plunder; and it was only after the first race of ad venturers had perished, that the emigrants began to establish themselves permanently in the country. With this view they resorted to such measures of violence and cruelty, that, in most cases, they either extirpated the original inhabitants, or brought them under the most galling bondage, and in those parts of the country where they fled into the deserts be yond the reach of their oppressors, and where they subsist in savage independence, the cruel injuries which they originally suffered is still attested in their inveterate hostility to the Spanish settlers. The set tlements of the European states in North America were not planned upon exactly the same principles of open violence. The savage tribes, by which this portion of the continent was inhabited, presented no such temptations to the avarice of civilized nations, and the first emigrants who were sent out had no thing else in view but to cultivate the country for their subsistence. Agriculture and not conquest was their original object. They offered no violence to the native tribes. All they required was a space of unoccupied territory on which to settle, which was generally procured without any difficulty. But, as the colony grew and flourished, and began to re quire an extension of territory, the rude inhabitants of the country quickly perceived that they would soon be dispossessed of their hunting-grounds by the gradual increase of the new settlers. They had committed the capital error of allowing the colonists to take root in the country, and they now endea voured to correct this error, when it was too late. They accordingly entered into combinations for the purpose of exterminating the invaders of their coun try, and those infant establishments were alternately assailed by secret treachery or open violence. An equally inveterate warfare was in this manner begun with those who settled for the purposes of agricul ture, as with those who had commenced their career with open violence, and the object of contest was the possession of the country. From the rapid mul tiplication of the new settlers, it was obvious that the land would be speedily overspread with their in creasing numbers, and the whole being converted to the purposes of agriculture, there would be no room for the hunting tribes. This was the plain and ob vious principle of the war which was now commen ced. But the issue of a contest between the civilized inhabitants of the globe, assisted by the modern im provement of fire-arms, and the mere hunter of the desert, could not be for a moment doubtful. The arts and policy of Europe accordingly proved too powerful for the Indian savage. He has been gra dually pushed back, by the progress of the Euro into his native deserts; and though he aroccasionally disturbed their progress by his pre datory inroads, yet the inveterate warfare in most cases between the aborigines and the new settlers, by saving all perplexing or fruitless nego tiations respecting the cession of territory, and by reducing the matter to the plain issue of force, has, upon the whole, favoured the progress of the civiliz ed encroacher on the territory of the savage. The war of extermination which was commenced between the two classes was sure to end in the destruction of the native inhabitants. A quicker process, indeed, could scarcely have been devised for clearing the country of its barbarous incumbrances ; and, how ever cruel and unjust this may appear, such are un questionably the harsh means by which the improve ment of the North American continent has been brought about. The poor savage has been driven from his territory and his home to make way for the industrious tiller of the ground., The boundaries of the wilderness have been gradually narrowed by the progress of cultivation,—the country has been clear ed of its forests and of its inhabitants by the same merciless process of destruction ; and upon the ruins of this state of society the system of social improve ment has been reared. To the doubtful frontier of the American territory, where civilized gives place to savage life, it is well known, that crowds of ad venturous emigrants resort, dispensing with the ad. vantages, and exempted from all the restraints of social life. Here they act in the double capacity of cultivators and huntsmen, partly civilized, and partly savage, until, by the advance of new emigrants, they are gradually surrounded with improvement on every side, and are at length brought within the pale of order and law. Tired of this control, and anxious to resume their free and licentious habits, they dis pose of their lands to emigrants of a more settled .character, and again take their station on the verge of the desert, there to bear the brunt of savage hos tility, to hunt and to cultivate, and by their resolute and ferocious habits, to repress the inroads of the exasperated Indians, and to act the part of successful pioneers, in clearing the way for the great mass of the American population. It is in this manner that the
country gradually assumes the aspect of civilization— that the field are cultivated, and that the dwellings of men are seen to take place of the haunts of wild beasts. It is certain, indeed, that the policy of the American government, in regard to the native tribes, has uniformly been humane and enlightened; their original right of occupancy has always been respected, and the cession of their territory has ge.
nerally been procured in lieu of some satisfactory equivalent offered and received. But the licentious ness and cruelties under which the Indians have been oppressed, were committed by individuals be yond the precincts of law or government—they were besides glossed over under the specious disguise of legitimate hostility; and there was no one to plead the cause of the oppressed Indians. In these circumstances, the power of government could be exerted with little effect in favour of the native tribes; and accordingly, it is matter of history that many of the finest parts of the American territory were with difficulty wrested from their original pos sessors, after a most severe and sanguinary struggle.
In its present condition, America presents a grand outlet to the surplus population of Europe. It is the natural asylum of all those who are flying in quest of subsistence from the over-crowded commu nities of the old world. The inhabitants of America have before them an untouched and fertile country, about 2000 miles in extent (counting from their most remote settlements to the Pacific Ocean), in which for centuries to come their population will have full scope to expand. Here there is an ample supply of fertile and unoccupied land, which yields abundance of food, while its cultivation gives rise to a constant demand for new labourers. Wages are consequent ly high, the labourer lives in comfort ; and if he is industrious, he becomes in his turn a purchaser of land, from the savings which he accumulates. If, from the rapid increase of population, the demand for labour should be satisfied, and wages should fall, this is the new emigrations, and for the cupation of an additional portion of the uncultivated territory ; and thus the abundance of land, and the constant demand for labour in the western districts, maintains it at a high price in every part of the United States. In these circumstances, it is mani fest that a labourer, provided he can transport his lay hour from the overstocked market of Europe to the understocked market of America, will dispose of it to better advantage. He will unquestionably imA prove his condition if he can but once reach this ade vantageous market for his labour. But if he is al ready sinking under the miseries of his condition in Europe, the expence of a voyage to America, and even if this could be borne, the farther expence of a long journey inland, before he reaches the western provinces, forms, in most cases, an insuperable bar to his emigration ; and if the attempt is made with insufficient means, it becomes an extremely hazard ous experiment, and may ultimately increase, in place of alleviating, the miseries of the emigrant. That the inland states of America afford extraordi nary encouragement to labourers, is a point establish• ed beyond all dispute ; but the difficulty still re mains of reaching this desirable country; and to this, which is the important question, the attention of emigrants should be directed. It is their business to reflect, not merely whether it would be desirable to reach America, but whether they have the means of transporting themselves to so great a distance.
Besides those in the condition of labourers, there is another class of adventurers, to whom emigra-' tion to the western states of America presents a favourable chance of improving their condition. These are farmers with a moderate capital. An allotment of land may be purchased in the unset tled parts of the country, at the government price of two dollars per acre; and an emigrant who can afford to buy and to cultivate 100 or 200 acres, and acts with due discretion and skill, may not only pro mite himself a sure asylum from want, but, in the course of a few years, the country being settled all around him, and his property rapidly improving in value, he will realize an independent provision for himself and family. A removal to America, however, like every other important step in human life, should be gone about with caution ; it should be undertaken, not upon any romantic fancies of ideal happiness, which are sure to be disappointed, but on sober cal culations of prudence. Consequences must be cool ly considered—opposite inconveniences deliberate ly balanced—sanguine expectations must be tried by the test of experience—fancy must give place to reality, and what is calmly planned must be vigor ously executed. It is only in this manner, when emigration is deliberately chosen, that it promises to be a beneficial measure; and, even in this case, there are many difficulties and discourage ments which the emigrant will have to encoun ter. These consist chiefly in the • difficulty of ef fecting a settlement, and of subsisting until the land yields its first the herculean labour of clearing ground which is covered with a thick the danger to a European constitution from the laborious drudgery of felling trees, and af terwards pursuing game in the woods for a scanty subsistence, during which the exhausted body is ex posed to the cold dews of night—and finally, in the unhealthiness of the country in the vicinity of the na vigable rivers, where the choicest land is chiefly to be found. All these disadvantages and dangers should enter • into the estimate of the emigrant, that, when they occur, they may be resolutely met. From the concurring accounts of all those who have lately vi sited the United States, it appears that no other class, excepting country labourers, mechanics, and farmers, could be at all certain of improving their condition by emigration. There may occasionally be a favourable opening for the employment of capital in manufactures or in commerce ; but opportunities of this sort cannot be reasonably calculated on by those who are at a distance ; and emigration with any such views would be a rash and highly ineligible experiment. In the American there no vacancies for professional men of any description. It has been already stated, that the great cause of emigration is the want of subsistence, and that where a community is prosperous and happy, man kind will follow their natural 7 to settle ment and rest. But this general cause frequentlt aided by other causes, originating in those changes of manners, to which the progress of society is con stantly giving rise. In consequence of that great revolution which took place in modern manners, when the feudal system was superseded in Europe by the progress of commerce and industry, the nu merous retainers of the great landed proprietors were thrown loose upon society, and reduced to quit their former abodes in quest of a new settlement. Prior to the improvement of industry, there was no way in which the proprietors of the soil could consume their surplus produce, but in maintaining a retinue of idle dependants, who repaid, by their fidelity in war, the bounty on which they subsisted during peace. No equivalent existed for which they would exchange their revenues, which were accordingly wasted in the most profuse hospitality, and in these times a train of idle retainers was the never-failing appendage of wealth and greatness. But when com merce and industry began to supply the landed pro prietors with a new equivalent in which their sur plus produce could be expended, their idle retain ers were gradually dismissed, and the surplus pro duce of the soil, by which they were supported, was now laid out by the landlord in expensive luxuries and refinements. In the more improved parts of the country, all those changes have already taken place. The land is invariably let for the highest rent that can be procured, and the superfluous population from which it has been freed is absorbed in the ge neral mass of society. But, in the Highlands of Scotland, these changes are not yet fully accom plished. Traces are still to be discerned of that ancient state of manners which was formerly pre valent all over the country, but which are now fast disappearing before the progress of improved cultivation. Until about the year 1745, the landed estates in the Highlands of Scotland were occu pied by tenants, who paid for the possession of the land rather in military services than in money ; and though, after this period, these services were of little use to the proprietors, yet from habit, and the influence of old attachments, the tenantry were still continued on their lands. The obvious interest of the proprietor in letting his lands to the best advantage, has gradually broke the force of these old feudal connections, and the hereditary occupants of the Highland estates are now ejected by the landlord, to make way for a more improved mode of cultivation, and for more profitable tenants. Under the old system, as many inhabitants were set tled on the land as it could maintain; under the new system, no more hands are maintained on it than can be profitably employed ; and the superfluous la bourers or tenants, who are thus removed from the spot which their families have possessed for centu ries, naturally turn their views to America, where there are boundless tracks of unoccupied land ready to receive them. Their early habits and mode of life entirely disqualify them for mercantile business. Ejected from their hereditary possessions, they are in a manner outcasts in their native land, and, in search of some new place of rest, they voluntarily quit their kindred and their home. Lord Selkirk, in his able publication On the State If the Highlands of Scotland, points out the strong motives which prompt the Scotch Highlander to emigration, in preference to settling at home as a day labourer or a manufac turer. " The manners of a town " he observes, " the practice of sedentary labour under the roof of a ma nufactory, present to the Highlander a most irksome contrast to his former life. The independence and irregularity to which he is accustomed, approach to that of the savage; his activity is occasionally called forth to the utmost stretch, in conducting his boat through boisterous waves, or in traversing the wild est mountains amidst the storms of winter. But these efforts are succeeded by intervals of indolence equal ly extreme. He is accustomed to occasional exer tions of agricultural labour, but without any habits of regular and steady industry ; and he has not the least experience of sedentary employments, for which, most frequently, the prejudices of his infancy have taught him to entertain a contempt." The emigrations from the Highlands of Scotland have always kept pace with the progress of improve ment, and, from about the year 1773, they have been continued with little intermission. Of all those who were thus compelled to quit their native land, Ame rica became the natural asylum; and to different points of this extensive continent they were attract ed by circumstances in a great measure accidental. The first emigrations were undertaken under all the disadvantages and anxiety of imperfect information. But these having succeeded, a more secure founda tion was laid for future enterprises of the same na ture; and the Highlanders, who were disposed to emigrate, naturally chose the spot where their friends were already settled. In this way, they are scatter ed throughout different parts of the American con tinent. Some have formed settlements in the state of New York, on the Delaware, the Mohawk, and the Connecticut, while others have gone to Geor gia and to North Carolina, or to the more northerly climate of Canada and Nova Scotia. Their choice of a settlement appears to have been dictated by the natural with of being near their friends, by whose experience and advice they would be assisted through all the difficulties of a first establishment. A mode of conduct more rational, more calculated for social comfort and for ultimate success, can scarcely be imagined ; and if the interest of the emigrant had been alone considered, no other plan would ever have been adopted.