to the ground, giving him divers blows and wounds, and quite beat out one of On Monday after, my lord mayor and the aldermen of the city were called before the council-table to give an account of this uproar, his majesty saying, though Lamb were a vicious fellow, he would require an account of somebody for his subject. Some thought the city would be fined, unless they could excuse it the better. A friend of mine affirms that he heard, three quarters of a year since, that Lamb himself should say, he should be killed by the people in the streets, or to that effect, besides some other predictions of the like had of somebody else. If this be true, it may be the fear of his destiny made him, upon the first quarrelling of the boys, to hire a guard, whereby occasio ning a greater concourse of people, he may seem to have furthered what he would have declined. They say the people cried, moreover, whilst they were killing him, that if his master was there, they would give him as much. God grant that, to our other sins, there be no blood laid to our charge. We are afterwards told that the barbarous rabble which mauled and mangled Dr. Lamb, did it in reference to the duke, his master, as they called him, whom, they said, had he been there, they would have handled worse, and would have minced his flesh, and have had every one a bit of him. My lord mayor and sheriffs were sent for to court about it, and have been threatened to forfeit their charter if some of the malefactors be not pointed out. A ballad being printed of him, both printer, and seller, and singer, are laid in Newgate, and some three or four more upon suspi cion. The work concludes with an original memoir of the times, by an observer of totally different sentiments to those whose correspondence precedes him. Father Cyprien de Gamache is, as before remarked, the historian of the missive of the Capuchin zealots, who were upon the occasion of the royal marriage deputed over to this country for the purpose of gaining back one of the strongholds of the reformed religion. The narrative of the bigoted father, if it is not to be always depended upon, to the strict letter, like the correspondence of the professional Intelligencers, and is not therefore of so much interest to the historical student, certainly carries away the palm of amusement. The account of the escape from the custody of the parliament of the Duke of York, in the disguise of a girl, and that of the infant princess as a beggar's brat in the custody of the Countess of Morton, clothed in rags, and disfigured with a hump, is an incident so full of romance that we regret it is too long to transfer to our pages. The same narrative, besides many curious details of supposed and of real conversions, further contains many interesting particulars respecting the royal family, both before and subsequently to the execution of Charles, and also respecting several distinguished persons who remained with them after their exile. THE QUESTION OF GENERAL EMIGRATION. GENERAL emigration is decidedly the question of the day. The urgency of such a measure being carried out upon a broad and extensive scale, is felt on every side. The statesman is interested in finding a good outlet for a population which is always in advance of the existing arrangements for profitable employment, and which is sure to become expensive and dangerous when unemployed. The landowner under the existing system of parochial rates for the poor, is interested in settling elsewhere those whom he cannot employ, and who are sure soon or late to become a burden on his property. The labourer is interested in exchanging nine shillings a week, and the chance of still less, for full work, plenty of the necessaries of life, and a little farm of his own. manufacturer is interested in getting a colonist instead of a pauper for a customer. The colonial employer is interested in getting servants and assistants. The merchant and shipowner are interested in the colonial trade and the transport of emigrants. All parties are indeed alike interested in this great question. The "On the broad circle of this fair world's surface," says Mr. William H. G. Kingston, in some suggestions just published for the formation of a system of general emigration, "Great Britain claims dominion over thousands upon thousands of rich acres, ready to give forth all the necessaries of life to every one of her present, and to millions of her still unborn subjects, who will yet seek them; while, at home, multitudes, able and willing to work, are dying of hunger and disease-discontent and crime are seen around, because there is here no land to till, no occupation for their exertions, no remuneration for their labour. "The object then clearly all-important to be obtained is to transfer the superabundant population to those lands where their industry will be rewarded by the production of plenty, and where they will consequently become a contented, and under good institutions, a virtuous and loyal community." The means of attaining this object is the problem to be solved. For once, the distress and discontent manifesting itself in this country in almost open insurrection, the fears entertained from the pernicious examples abroad-the redundancy of population and the diminished and daily diminishing demand for labour-above all, the annual descent of hundreds of thousands of hungry Irishmen, rushing pell-mell along the highways and into the boroughs and cities of Great Britain, often bringing with them fever and pestilence, always bringing loss to the British labourer, and the example of moral and political discontent and disquiet, has roused the public to the vital importance of the subject. That something should be done every one demands. That much can be done every one acquainted with the colonies admits. On every side and by every class of persons in England, not only the utility but the necessity of some great scheme is acknowledged. It has ceased to be a matter of speculative and contingent good; it has become one of earnest, urgent, and pressing need. Every body, however, finds the difficulties almost insuperably in his own case. Notwithstanding, therefore, the immense advantage of an extensive emigration, no one moves. Every body waits for every body else. A leading authority avers that such blame as belongs to the obstruction of colonisation must be divided between two parties, the government and the public. The public expects the government to take upon itself the whole management and responsibility of a wholesale emigration; to force the emigrants, to appoint their leaders, to find their ships (which Captain Marryat suggests very justly might be some of the men-of-war lying idle), and to procure them employment on landing. The government, on the other hand, waits till the pressure becomes urgent, till people are clamorous at the concurrent increase of rates and decrease of work, till our streets swarm with beggary, and our hospitals with pest, before it gives even a superficial attention to the most important of public questions. Yet surely it would be wiser and easier to find employment for the emigrant, than for the home labourer. Lord Ashley laid before the House, on the 20th of July, a petition from delegates representing 200,000 artisans and mechanics in London, asking among other things for a labour protection board elected by the working classes, the president thereof having a seat in the cabinet, a fair day's labour being fixed by each trade, and a fair remuneration by law. Demands of this kind may some day or other assume a far more perplexing character, than any that have to be got over in the great problem of emigration. It is the duty of government to do for all, that which each class cannot do for itself. That is what we have ministers for, with a legislature, and an immense machinery of deliberative heads and executive hands. Ministers have, however, a great dread of taking the initiative, and still more so of doing more than is absolutely necessary. A minister thinks that if he propounds a measure which has not been bellowed for by millions for several long years, he is going out of his way and giving himself most unnecessary trouble. A minister seeks not to suggest, but to keep in power and to live free of scrapes and difficulties. It is much to be regretted that we so seldom see men at the helm, who can suggest and govern, as well as defend themselves, and who can command opportunities as well as parliamentary majorities: Yet two immense responsibilities are wrapped up in the emigration question, the future peace and tranquillity of this country, and the prosperity of the greatest colonial empire in the world. When Lord Ashley introduced the other day to the notice of the House, the condition of those who form the staple of what are called the ragged schools, most appaling was the picture! Infancy without the tenderness of a mother's love-childhood without the protection of a father's care-boyhood with no instruction but that of older and astuter vice-manhood seared at heart and lost to all good purposes or end! Emigration was the remedy proposed, and government acceded to Mr. Hawes's request and assigned 10,000l. to the scheme; a sum, however, that will go but a very small way towards draining off even a portion of that hungry and clamorous industry which here pants in vain for work and for wages. On the other hand, the Australian and Natalian colonies concur in demanding an influx of labour. This is the indispensable condition of their existence. Give them labour, and every resource with which beneficent nature has blessed them-wide and verdant plains, spreading prairies, fertile valleys, thick woods, virgin mines, untried fisheries-shall all be brought into production. Whilst we in England are complaining of the dearness of food and the cheapness of our population, our fellowcountrymen at the Antipodes complain of the dearness of men and women and the cheapness of mutton and beef. There sheep are boiled down for tallow. Of 23,000,000 acres which are contained in the eastern division of the colony, only 40,000 are under cultivation. Look to the inexhaustible fields for agriculture and pasturage opened by the expeditions of Leichardt, Mitchell, and others! Then, while New South Wales prefers its claim against Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick retort by a comparative denunciation of Australia. To complicate the embarrassment, witnesses come forward to assure the legislature and the country that, in the competing virtues of Canada, New Brunswick, Australia, and New Zealand, we forget a modest possession, which shares the virtues of all, without the faults of any of them-Prince Edward's Island. Whilst the mind is puzzled by this cloud of witnesses, the perplexity is augmented by an unexpected recommendation of Ceylon, and a florid description of Natal in Africa. The confluence of testimony from so many quarters, makes it almost conflicting. Yet there is great difference between them. The emigrants who prosper best at the Cape and in North America, in Canada, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward's Island, are very small capitalists, men who land with 10%. or 207. in their pockets, and enter upon a few acres at once, or those who make 107. and become proprietors forthwith. Australia requires generally speaking a different class of emigrants; capitalists of from 2000l. to 10,000l., or of nothing but health and willingness to work. The relative positions of the two is, however, too often placed in the extreme. The The case, however, is clear so far, that the old and new worlds are yearning to each other with reciprocal wants, and that for the welfare of both, an organised and extensive system of emigration, to be quickly entered upon and for a long time persevered in, ought at once to be set on foot. It does not appear that the public are unwilling to act. parishes, if we may infer any thing from the declarations made at Marylebone, are willing to contribute to the expense of a pauper emigration; the colonists, on the authority of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, are ready to contribute also. If between the two a sufficient sum cannot be raised for the purpose, surely government, which must ultimately exercise a controlling, a restraining, and a parental power over whatever system is adopted, might advance a loan to make up the deficiency. If the land fund is not sufficient, a labour fund might be created in the colony to repay this. Again, it has been justly remarked, that of the 5,000,000l. now annually expended on workhouses throughout England, one-twelfth might be not only humanely but profitably devoted to emigration. The colonial lands, except in the largest of the Australian settlements, where the Wakefield system of a fixed price per acre for all kinds of lands exists, are sufficient of themselves to defray the expenses of a large immigration. The price of transport to Australia averages to each emigrant about fifteen pounds. Of this, five pounds a head, it is believed, would be paid by most parishes; another five pounds would, it is said, be paid down at once by the settler on engaging his labourer. The third five pounds may be obtained by savings, or by government loans, and repaid by a labour-tax. There are here at once two modes of getting out of the difficulty. Another mode has been proposed, viz., the imposition of an excise duty on wine and spirits, which it is well known are ruinously cheap in the colony. To emigrate to Southern Africa, where labour is equally urgently demanded, eight pounds would suffice, and of this five pounds would be as readily paid down by the employer in our African, as in our Australian settlement. If such, then, are really the facts of the case, that emigration is for a variety of reasons become an imperious necessity, and that the means to further that emigration upon a sufficiently comprehensive scale already exist, it is obvious that all that is wanted is a well organised machinery to carry out a scheme forthwith. Mr. William H. G. Kingston justly remarks, that an association* might certainly be formed for the object of carrying out a general system of emigration, but were it to become of the magnitude required for effecting any visible or permanent relief to the crowded masses, that very circumstance would prove that the state ought to perform the functions of which it had been compelled to take charge. Mr. Kingston also argues, that if a parish incurred the whole expense (thirty pounds) of sending out a young couple, that they would be the ultimate gainers by not having the children of the said couple to provide for; that this country would benefit in like manner by the manufactures, &c., consumed by the colonist; in fact, that all classes would derive benefit from the outlay, and that the capital of thirty pounds expended on the deportation of an able-bodied prolific couple, would return to the mother country fifty per cent. in the first year of arrival, and would keep continually increasing! Mr. Kingston is of opinion that for an undertaking of the magnitude contemplated, it will be necessary to establish a new department of government. Certainly on the principle that preservation is better than cure, a board of emigration would be a far more adviceable measure than a board of labour. We must, however, refer the reader to Mr. Kingston's pamphlet for the details of the machinery by which he would make the proposed board adequate to the proposed objects. It is a clever pamphlet, worthy of study by all interested in so great and so national a subject.+ Nor must it be forgotten that in all schemes of colonisation there is one thing that must not be overlooked, and that is the education and paternal care of the emigrants. It would be a monstrous crime to lay the foundations of a new state upon immorality, lawlessness, and irreligion. All that can be done, must be done, abroad as at home, to educate, soften, and improve the hearts of the lower classes. A society has, it appears, been actually formed at No. 4, St. Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square, London, for the promotion of colonisation. † Some Suggestions for the formation of a system of General Emigration, &c. By William H. G. Kingston, Esq. T. Bosworth, 215, Regent Street. |