DR. CHALMERS ON EMIGRATION.
Ediubureh. 29th December 1842.
" My dear Sir—I think I told you some time ago that 1 had received no less than twenty different applications from as many Emigration Societies in the Vest of Scotland ; to most, if not all of which, I have given a contribution.
•• I resolved, when the number had come to twenty, that I should make a change on my own treatment of their applications.
" I have since received two additional applications ; one by a letter subscribed 'Wm. Selmond,' from the Bridgeton Emigration Society, another by a per- sonal call from two men who appeared in behalf of the • Glasgow Calton Ca- nadian Village Emigration Society.' "Now, however painful the necessity for refusing to entertain any more of these specific applications, multiplying upon us by a process of endless subdi- vision, yet my heart bleeds for the distress which has given birth to them; and
am still willing to make one sacrifice more in behalf of emigration.
"Let a Society be formed in Glasgow, which will undertake to examine all the special claims, and to meet them, as far as it is enabled to do, from a general fund, formed by a general subscription from the country at large. Let this Society be recommended to public confidence by the guarantee of known and creditable names. Let subscribers at a distance be henceforth protected from the appli- ance of parties who are perfect strangers to them, and be henceforth relieved from the necessity of ascertaining the merits of each separate application, and I have no doubt but a very large sum may still be had, whenever the present system is superseded, by which the patience, though not the wealth of contri- butors, has been well nigh exhausted. "Would Government give their countenance to such a Society, this additional sanction would stimulate the liberality of all who feel for the distress of their Countrymen, and are most desirous of relieving them, if they best knew how to do it effectually. "1 shall most willingly share as a humble contributor towards such an ob- ject; and I do think that my compliance with twenty of the bygone applica- tions entitles me at least to make the suggestion, whether it shall be adopted and acted on or not.
"But before I conclude, I must, though you are already aware of it, testify My own opinion of the utter inefficiency of Emigration as a lasting expedient of relief for the distress of a redundant or unemployed population. At the mot, it will but yield a transient and temporary relief from the pressure which IS now felt in the manufacturing districts of our country. I cannot see my way to any scheme of permanent amelioration for the working-classes, but through the medium of a commensurate parochial sj stem, by which a universal education, both Christian and common, shall be provided for our people. The scheme of a Poor-law is beginning to look at us in good earnest; and I shall now cease to lament what 1 bold to be the infatuation of expending a five times greater sum, and doing worse than nothing with it, than would suffice for the establishment and vigorous opeation of those moral causes by which alone the comfort and economic prosperity, as well as the transcendently higher inte- rests of the common people, can be placed beyond the reach of every fluc- tuation.
"1 have made many an effort for the elevation of that class in society whom I most love-1 mean our artisans and our labourers ; but my season of effort has now passed away; and I therefore conclude with the expression of every wish, and my most earnest prayers, for a larger sufficiency of this world's com- forts, and all those spiritual blessings which furnish and prepare for the world to come, in behalf of the common people of Scotland. "1 ever am, my dear Sir. yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS. "William Collins, Esq., Glasgow."