27 MARCH 1830, Page 9

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY—THE UNTRIED REMEDY.

THE late discussions on the state of the country have proved, if proof were wanting, how very little "the omnipotence of Parliament" avails it in its desire to diminish the distress of which every one admits the existence. Parliament cannot remove the national debt—cannot lessen the pressure of the poor-rates—cannot open new markets for trade—cann6t raise the rate of profit. Amidst the schemes for debasing the currency—for robbing the fundholders—for taxing absentees—for protecting native industry— and for paying at an enormous rate for the removal of our unemployed poor, we feel ourselves impelled to call the attention of our readers once more to the Emigration scheme which we have so often recom- mended—and which, from its tendency, if it shall prove well-founded, to minister relief to every class of the community, seems to us to demand the closest examination; at a time when the general or uni- versal distress is the theme of every tongue in Parliament or out of it. The principles of that plan we have more than once alluded to ; and in our next number we shall have the pleasure of submitting to the public an exposition ,of it, in all its bearings, by its highly talented author.

These principles, we may repeat, are CONCENTRA.TION and SELEC- TION. To concentrate and increase the population of our colonies, will civilize and enrich them : to select the emigrants from the young of this country, will suffice at once to increase the population in our colonies at the most rapid rate, and to prevent the domestic population from increasing in future more rapidly than the means for their subsistence.

If we would be convinced that this country contains a redundant population, let us turn our eyes to the police reports, or the records of our criminal courts. Nine-tenths of the crimes which it is the melan- choly duty of our judges and magistrates to punish, are proved to have their origin in want—in sheer inability to procure employment or food —in destitution so complete as to render the accommodation of a gaol an object of eager desire. If we shall be able to remove our unem- ployed people, and to check their increase, we shall enable those who remain to subsist by their labour, and we shall go nigh to extirpate that class of crimes which spring from the fear of starvation.

In the next place, we shall, by providing employment for all the poor who are fit to labour, relieve every other class of the community of the burden which the present amount of the poor-rate imposes upon it—we shall reduce it to a provision for the aged and infirm. At pre- sent it amounts in England to nearly eight millions a-year ; and by the remission of the greater part of that sem, we shall increase to a great extent the means of enjoyment to the landlord, capitalist, and workman But while emigration on sound principles will add to the comfort of every class in this country, it will secure the comfort of those who may adopt it as the means of bettering their condition. They will be conveyed to a country where wages are high, and where the means of rising to wealth are easy and obvious. They will be transformed, from paupers, first into highly-paid labourers, and ultimately into landed proprietors in a fertile country ; and these processes will se- cure for this country what its best friends in and out of Parliament require for it—new markets—new channels for industry and capital. To colonize India, and to embark in the China trade, are resources of which, no doubt, the country is right to avail itself; but the advan- tages to be derived from them are small, compared with those which we may derive from calling into existence a nation of customers as wealthy and intelligent as ourselves—cultivating an unexhausted soil —governed by wise laws—connected with us by the ties of kindred, of language, and religion, and, more than all, by community of interest. The wealth of Britain would increase not only by the removal of a part of those burdens which now diminish wages profits, and rents, and to us it seems, that to attain the relief which this scheme promises, landlords would part even with their beloved corn-laws,) but it would increase, besides, with every addition to the wealth and industry of our colonies. Every swarm of emigrants who left the hive of Britain,, would speedily swell the demand for the products of British skill. Industry would in this country become, in fact, more productive— would command a greater quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life.

On the second principle of the plan—the principle of selection—the undue increase of numbers in this country would be checked by the annual removal of fifty thousand couples of young people. These could be removed for about a million sterling, that is, for about an eighth of the sum now thrown away unproductively upon poor- rates. By such a sum, so expended, we may reduce the poor- rates annually by three or four millions—may diminish crime and relieve every class in this country—besides creating out of our crimi- nals and paupers a happy world in another hemisphere. We think the expense of two millions a-year (the difference in the cost between paper and gold) not too, high a price to pay for a pure currency—for a currency in which every man may see his industry realized ;—and we judge rightly ; but by relieving this country from its surplus labourers, we add to the productiveness of the industry that remains ; and to attain that end, even a higher price might be paid without a grudge. In addition to the poor-rates, however, we spend annually more than a million—the amount required for this scheme—in transporting convicts to our colonies, and in supporting them in the hulks and the various prisons in the country. Remove the long train of crimes that attend on want, and these establishments become in a great measure unnecessary; while the extension of in- telligence, which is sure to follow the increase of wealth, will diminish crime still further. But one of the great merits of the plan which we have recom- mended, will consist in its costing the country nothing. The advant- ages of CONCENTRATION are to be obtained only by selling the land in our colonies, and these sales will provide a fund sufficient to defray the expense of emigration. This is fully explained in the admirable essay which we shall lay before the public next week.