TOPICS OF THE DAY.
TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, PAYERS OF POOR-RATES, CAPITALISTS, AND PHILANTHROPISTS.
Tait essay on Colonization, which in another section of this sheets we submit to our readers, has claims upon public attention to which few of the schemes that excite popular interest can pretend. It con- tains a remedy for the severest evils to which the social state is liable, —a remedy not temporary, nor depending for its efficacy in the slight- est degree upon chance, but which, when well understood, can be ren- dered available at all times, and under every variety of circumstances. Emigration has, to be sure, been, at certain periods, among the re- sources of every country in which the means of subsistence did not in- crease in the same ratio as the inhabitants ; but emigration, as hitherto practised, has always been, in the first instance, the source of misery to the parties who adopted it. It has severed them from the scenes of their attachments, and subjected them to privations to which nothing but the fear of starvation at home could have inspired them witti courage to submit. Emigration has always been a penance. It has hitherto, moreover, been found practicable on too pitiful a scale to be of service to the mother country,—in short, the principles of emigra- tion have never been understood. The present plan unfolds these ; and tends to establish and extend the sovereignty of man over the earth which was given for his use. It is calculated to give the prin- ciple of population full scope ; it does not present obstacles to the command to multiply. It throws new light upon the right of every man to live. It proves that there is room enough in the world for all of us ; and discloses new harmonies in the system of the universe, by showing how evely increase of numbers may be converted into an in- crease of wealth and happiness. The plan is perfectly new, and wears the demonstrative form, which the exposition of its principles demands. It is addressed to the Legis- lature—to Government—and to all who have the disposition and the means to relieve the humbler classes of the community. To this de- monstration, however, as to demonstrations in other sciences, certain postulates are essential. The plan assumes that Government shall afford every facility to the scheme, should its principles be admitted,— that Government shall, in the first instance, dispose of no more land in our colonies, and afterwards proportion the sales of land to the condition of each society of colonists. In this way alone can the ad- vantages of concentration be obtained, without the misery which in Europe is its concomitant. This may seem a formidable duty for Go- vernment to undertake ; but in truth it may be easily discharged. The rate of wages will at all times determine the condition of the greater portion of the community. Tnat is an index to the degree of happi- ness which the labourers enjoy, which it will be a very easy matter to consult. When wages sink below a certain point, Government can raise them Cthout injury to any other class, simply by allowing more land to be taken, into cultivation. When this is effected, society will make a fresh start—wages will • and capital will accumulate. It is most desirable that Parlia- ment should be convinced of the truth of the principles on which the plan rests, because Parliament may bring it into operation for a smaller sum of money than it has been proposed to lavish upon culti- vating the bogs of Ireland—for less than is annually lost on the pre- sent leases of the Crown lands.
If Government were fairly convinced of the practicability of this great scheme, parishes would gladly co-operate in carrying it into effect ; and the private benevolence which at present expends itself at times in the patronage of institutions of which the tendency is doubt- ful, would receive a direction of the highest possible utility. Among the supporters of the scheme, may fairly be assumed the proprietors in the colonies, whose lands are only under partial culti- vation; and among the capitalists of this country will be found many willing to make advances on the lands which Government may deem it expedient to bring first to market.
• Appendix, p. 1. to
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