As a question in political economy, opinions about E. have oscillated violently. At one time it has been prohibited, at another encouraged by all kinds of tempting offers held out to emigrants, while teachers of political economy have proclaimed that there can never be too much emigration. The conclusion to which we are coming In this, as iu so many other questions in political economy is, that what is good for the individual members of a community is good for the community collectively—if people can improve their condition by emigrating, it is as well that they should emigrate; but if otherwise, they had better stay at home. It might seem unnecessary to promulgate a doctrine which every man's self-interest should teach him, but unfortunately E. is one of the matters on which the populace have been liable to delusions which have produced great mischief. Sometimes poor workmen have crowded in where labor was superabundant and capital deficient; at others, men have taken their capital to districts where there was no employ ment for it, and the unnaturally high price of the necessaries of life has immediately absorbed it all. Young gentlemen, with nothing but showy accomplishments, have gone to the backwoods of America, where they could only prosper by ceaseless toil in felling and clearing. Ambitious, discontented artisans have wandered to the wide pastures of Australia, where they could only get a scanty subsistence as hut-keepers or assistant shepherds, not having skill enough to be intrusted with the charge of stock. Such mis takes have originated from people's ignorance of the fate of those who have gone before, it being generally taken for granted that the emigrant has gone away for his benefit, whereas it has often been for his ruin, and to meet an untimely death.
The standard difficulty is the want of adjustment of capital to labor. This is enhanced by the circumstance, that those who wish to emigrate are generally persons feeling the pressure of poverty at home. The man, however, who goes to a place where there is no capital to employ him with—either his own or some other person's—is just in the position of a shipwrecked mariner cast on the shore. Government interference has been found necessary for the protection of emigrants. Before he leaves his own country, the intending emigrant, through means of agents, cannot only be shipped for a distant port, but can contract for his removal inland to his final place of settlement, and can even contract for the purchase of a plot of ground, or for the sale of his labor.
The temptations and the opportunities for imposition in contracts to be fulfilled so far away from the place where they are undertaken, are obvious, and the instances of cruelty and rapacity exhibited in the E. trade are among the most atrocious that have ever disgraced human nature. These led to the appointment of a department of govern ment called the E. commission, and to the passing of the passengers' act of 1849, which regulates the build and character of the vessels which may carry emigrants to certain points, limits the number that may he conveyed, requires the sufficiency of the provisions and other stores to be certified, and provides for proper medical attendance. The British government cannot, of course, enforce obedience to their regulations in vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, after these have gone to sea; but before allowing such vessels to receive emigrants, the owners must find security in this country for the performance of their undertakings, and to a considerable extent the American government has co-operated with ours for the protection of emigrants.
The greatest amount of E. from any one country is from the United Kingdom. There is also a continual stream of E. from Germany, which has formed several sepa rate German communities in the States of America, and also in the British colonies there, and in Australia. A new kind of E., which has come under the charge of the British authorities, is that of hill coolies from India, and of Chinese, both for the pur pose of supplying free labor in the sugar-growing and other tropical colonies where Europeans cannot work with safety. A difficulty which more or less attends all kinds of E. is peculiarly felt in this kind—that of keeping the two sexes nearly equal.
The "thirty-fourth report of the E. commissioners" is for the year 1872. The com missioners state that, as the administration of the passenger act has been transferred to the board of trade, it is the last report which they shall have to make on E. from this country. The following table shows the number and nationality of emigrants from the United Kingdom in 1870, 1871, and 1872! mieroso-,;,(A)