EMIGRATION. When a people find themselves uncomfortable in their native country, and when they depart out of it in order to settle and live in some other, there must be strong inducements leading them to adopt such a measure. It is directly repugn nit to those natural feelings, which local habits and residence, toge ther with tender attachments, create ; and these feelings, even in rude and barbarous countries, are commonly both strong and lasting. The motives which prove suc cessful in overcoming such feelings, and which operate as inducements to emigrate, must be so power ful as to produce these effects; and at the same time to meet and controul those apprehensions, which the prospect of dangers and of difficulties raises in such an under taking.
The records of history furnish many disjoined facts, which lead to the conclusion, that great emigrations have taken place; whole nations having quitted their native countries, in order to settle in others which they deemed preferable. But such events appear to have been rare. Lesser bodies of people have emigrated fre quently, in the prospect of settling in other countries likely to afford them superior advantages. The emi gration of individuals has always been frequent.
In early ages, when the earth was thinly peopled, and the patriarchal government subsisted, or something resembling that form, wandering tribes of families of people often migrated from one spot of territory into another, in order to find better and fresher pastures for their flocks. A removal of this kind was easily and speedily accomplished; and it was not attended with much hazard, anxiety or labour. The habits of such a life, however, were productive of a particular cha racter among the people; they were necessarily denied the comforts of regular and permanent habitations; their attachments were not strictly local ; their life was mostly of the pastoral description ; and they were exposed to such privations as the want of regular till age must have occasioned; the chase occupied part of their time, and in such a disorderly state of society, petty feuds and warfare frequently occurred ; their mi grations were frequent, but they were not extensive, and a iarge river, an extensive desert, or an arm of the sea, commonly proved limits to them.
The ancient inhabitants of many of the temperate re gions of the globe were accustomed• to such easy mi grations ; and these have been also practised, in model n times, by the tribes that occupy the vast plains of Tar tary. The frequent passage of trading parties and ca ravans, through a country peopled by such wandering hordes, has proved a temptation to robbery, and has added this feature to the character of many of the Arab tribes.
Emigration to remote countries is an occurrence more serious, being acco:apanied with greater danger and difficulty. It is patticularly affecting when those who emigrate have no expectation of again returning to their native land; yet there is evidence of many such occurrences in remote ages, and the discovery of the New World has rendered them frequent in latter times.
The local attachments of the natives of Sven =and are so remarkable, as to have become pro‘erbial ; yet, in former times, the people of that country deliberately resolved to abandon it, And persisted in that resolution. Ambition had led a distinguished individual to exert his influence among them, for the forming of this re solution, but they per.it vexed in it after he was gone, and were prevented only by the superior discipline and power of the Rotna.t pcope.. 10 :dieser! circumstances, it therefore appears, that in tne same country, the pea ple, in general, may possess the strongest local ments, or may become iesolyed on a general emigra non.
By this it appears. that moral causes may induce a ration to emigrate, and that political nilluencemay be employed extensively and successfully with this view. Natural causes do not appear to be so prevalent, though it cannot be doubted that their influence may have souse effect. The Swiss and the Scotish Highlanders inha bit the most rugged countries in Europe, and yet they possess as warm attachments to their native lands as any nation on earth; but the Swiss occasionally quit their country, to serve in small bodies as warriors in other lands. And frequent emigrations have taken place from the Highlands of Scotland without any hope ur prospect of return.