ed spot, he published, for the benefit of such as were disposed for similar enterprises, an account of his Journey and subsequent proceedings, in which he sets forth, in glowing colours, all the advantages of emigration. Other publications followed of an op posite tendency, and a controversy was in this man ner begun on this important question. That cer tain classes of persons will improve their condition by a removal to America, cannot be doubted. But it is equally certain, that the emigrant must lay his account with many difficulties and discouragements, and these, perhaps, Mr Bilkbeck has rather thrown into the shade. It must be recollected that he is himself a successful emigrant; perfectly satisfied both with the step he has taken, and with the country ; and this disposition of mind, communicating itself to his descriptions, is apt to excite fanciful anticipations, which the event may not realize.
It is singular, that the emigration of inhabitants from one country to another, should, in most cases be regarded by those who are left behind with the most decided marks of disapprobation. To such length has this spirit been carried, that laws have been passed, obstructing emigration, as if it was an evil; and, with a view of still farther discouraging all such schemes, the most exaggerated accounts have been studiously circulated of the distresses and difficulties in which the poor emigrant' nvolves him self by rashly removing to a foreign land. In the Highlands of Scotland emigration has always been viewed by the landed proprietors with the most ex treme jealousy and aversion, although it plainly has its origin in the measures adopted by themselves for the improvement of their own estates. The first step to an improved mode of cultivation is to clear the land of all its useless inhabitants; and the dis carded tenants are compelled to seek in a distant land that subsistence which they can no longer find at home. Emigration is the sad alternative which they embrace from necessity; they quit the cherish ed spot on which their family has been settled for ages, because they can no longer remain, and to re fuse them this resource appears both cruel and un reasonable. Under the influence of those prejudices, a law was passed in 1808, for the ostensible purpose of securing to •the emigrant good treatment during his voyage, but really with a view, it should seem, of obstructing it altogether. By this law, the most extravagant allowances are prescribed to him both as to room and food, and these he is not at liberty to dis pense with. Its effect isuently to enhance the expence of the voyage, and to o struct emigration, or, when this consequence does not follow, to waste the stock of the emigrant, by involving him in useless ex pences, and to land him on a foreign shore with dimi nished resources. It tends, in this manner, like all
the other laws which, in the management ofprivate concerns, officiously substitute loose and inapplicable rules for the prompt sagacity of individual prudence, to injure those whom it is intended to serve. By other laws, emigration, to certain classes, is actually prohibited under severe penalties. An artificer who attempts to emigrate « with the intention of devoting his knowledge for the benefit of foreign csuntries," is liable to puniahmant., sa well as any agent by •4olo he is encouraged to such an attempt ; and, upon this very absurd law, two convictions actually took place at the Old Bailey in 1809; the one of a master who had offered an artificer advantageous terms to emigrate to the United States, and the other of the artificer who, having no work at home, had accepted of those terms. It deserves to be remarked, that the judge who tried the case, forsaking his own pro per province of merely administering the law, com mended highly its policy, and dwelt at great length on the mischievous crime with which the prisoners stood charged, as deservedly and severely punish able by law. It is justly observed by Dr Smitb, that the industry of an artificer is his only inheri tance, and that to prevent him frRrn disposing of it to the best advantage is an unwarrantable act of power. The object of such regulations is to depress the art and industry of other nations, in order to monopolize for our own industry the market of the world. But this project, which originates in mer cantile rivalry of the most pitiful description, is as unjust as it is impolitic. We may indeed prevent, by particular laws, the exportation and importation of certain sorts of produce. But no laws can bind up the inventive powers of man, nor can any partial enactments of particular countries retard the im provement of the world. If the general increase of wealth requires a supply of the finer manufactures, and the proper reward is offered, the art and indus try necessary to produce them will be called forth, in spite of the regulations which any one state may pass to the contrary. The law, besides, admits of the following simple evasion The artificer who in tends to emigrate, takes hise as a labourer, and, in this character, he is to depart with out farther question.