ABSTRACT
Though emigration from the United Kingdom to North America had begun on a limited scale in the early part of the seventeenth century 1 and had grown in volume during the eighteenth, no official returns relating to the extent of the exodus were made until 1815. In this year, the great war, in which England had for so long been engaged, terminated, and men turned to emigration as though it were the one panacea for all social ills. 2 In 1815, the outflow to North America stood at 1889 persons; it then grew annually with slight fluctuations until 1852, when the enormous total of 277,134 was reached, an exodus which is, considering the volume of people from which it was drawn, 3 probably without parallel in the history of any civilised country. The years 1846 to 1854, inclusive, were remarkable for their high rate of departures, but, after 1854, a sudden and, with some fluctuations, a continued shrinkage took place until in 1861 the numbers dropped to 62,471, the smallest emigration since 1844. The Crimean War, 1854–6, and the Indian Mutiny, 1857–9, which caused an increased demand for young men in the army and navy, were largely responsible for the falling off in the returns of this period. Between 1861 and 1869 the exodus took an upward tendency, and, in this latter year, acute distress at home made the figures rise to 236,892, and they remained somewhat high until 1873. 1 The middle seventies proved a period of diminished emigration, but the ebb was soon followed by a copious flow, for, in the year 1882, the important total of 349,014 was reached. Recent times have shown somewhat high figures; in fact, for every year since 1903, with the exception of 1908, an exodus to North America of over three hundred thousand has been returned. In 1910, the outward stream numbered 499,669, and, in 1911, 464,330 souls.
