It is just possible—not probable, but just possible—that the Chistesequeetien
which has so perplexed America and Australia may be raised in England also. It is said that a number of merchants in the City have resolved to commence the importa- tion of Chinese labourers, and representatives of the workmen are condemning the project. The association which calls itself the Democratic Federation, but which always appears to act to Tory advantage, has also held a meeting, and passed strong re- solutions as to the demoralisation and misery which would follow any large importation of Chinese. We are by no means inclined to under-rate the danger latent in Chinese immi- gration, which involves the introduction into the community of hosts of pagans, whose best quality is an industry, the result of three thousand years of over-population, such as is possessed by no European whatever ; but we doubt, as yet, its reality. If England were attractive to Chinamen, why have they not come before? The truth is, we believe, that while they can undersell Americans and Australians, they would have great difficulty in underselling Englishmen ; and that the rate of wages would not be sufficient to induce them to bear the northern climate, and the deadly hostility which their employment would provoke. This is a very closely-packed society into which to import a visible foreign element. There may be an open chink, .but if so, it will be found in trades like baking, in which the 'first qualifications are the capacity to do without sleep, air, or 'sufficient sunlight.
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