4 JULY 1885, Page 3

The boundless charity of London, which is as exceptional as

the magnitude of the city, stops, it appears, at one point. Londoners will not assist Londoners to emigrate. The well- known philanthropist, Mr. J. H. Tuke, who has devoted himself for so many years to this subject, reports in a letter to the Times (Friday) that there are no less than twenty-four societies in the Metropolis for aiding emigrants, but that they do not altogether raise more than £4,000 a year, and annually assist only 2,000 persons. It would, therefore, be useless to form a

Federal Council of Emigration, as had been proposed, and the project has been abandoned. The reluctance of the charitable to assist emigration is due, we imagine, to a feeling latent among all the rich that the labour• market is already thin enough ; but there is evidence, Mr. Tuke adds, that this is a bad time for emigration. Workmen in Australia regard new arrivals with much jealousy; Canada is suffering from a diminu- tion in trade ; and wages in the United States have fallen by some 20 per cent. Under these circumstances Mr. Take, while lamenting the want of interest in the subject, and reiterating his conviction that behind the unemployed of London exist thousands of half-employed persons who would make capital emigrants, deprecates any " ill-considered attempt to increase the number of emigrants at the present time."