EMIGRATION COMMISSION.
WE are glad to learn that Colonel TORRENS has given notice of a motion in the House of Commons; which will probably lead to a rational inquiry into the best mode of conducting Emigration. All the past inquiries of the House of Commons on that subject have been most irrational, having been carried on nominally by Corn- . mittees, but really by their Chairman, Mr. WILMOT Hoaroiv, who would make a puzzle of any subject whatsoever with which lie . was allowed to interfere. Colonel TORRENS proposes a Commis- sion (not a Committee) of Inquiry, consisting of a small num- ber of persons all acquainted with the subject, responsible, like the Commissioners of Law Inquiry, for their proceedings ; and who shall take evidence, as was done by those Commissioners ; by means of written questions, allowing time for deliberate answers. We think the proposal excellent, and cannot doubt that it will be adopted by the Government ; of whom it is no great disparagement to say, that they share the common ignorance of the subject in question. The "Board of Emigration," now sitting in Downing Street, is a mere make-shift or make-belief; and is not a job, only because (so we are told) it occasions no expense. A respon- sible Commission of Inquiry, consisting of not more than three or four well-selected persons, would, in the course of a month, do more to promote beneficial emigration, than all the labours of ill- chosen and irresponsible Parliamentary Committees for half a century.
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