ABSTRACT
I feel some surprise at the mode in which the noble Marquess (The Marquess of Lansdowne) has disposed of the Emigration Clauses. He has told us that they were introduced by a very respectable Member of Parliament, and formed no part of the Government Bill; they are treated as matters of comparative indifference. Are Her Majesty’s Ministers prepared individually, as well as collectively, to justify such an opinion? Can they, with the evidence before them, either state that emigration is unnecessary, or that it is now going on so extensively, so rapidly, and so satisfactorily, that it neither required aid or guidance? But is this consistent with their own acts? The First Lord of the Treasury had himself proposed, in the Select Committee, that powers should be given to impose rates of 2s. 6d. in the pound, or one-eight of the whole rental of Ireland, for the purpose of emigration. I therefore have at least Lord John Russell’s authority for my assertion, that it is necessary and expedient to assist emigration from Ireland. Unless, therefore, you undervalue that noble Lord’s authority, it is an invention and a calumny on the part of those who describe emigration as a selfish device of the landlord to get rid of a burdensome population. Lord J. Russell would not have appropriated 1,600,000l. for a purpose so indefensible. It is true there is a large emigration now in progress; – that emigration will and must increase; but of what elements is it composed? It is the emigration of the most active and industrious classes; it is the emigration of the small capitalists; of those whom you grieve to lose, and whom you would readily made large sacrifices to retain.
