CHAPTER IX.

REMEDIES FOR ENGLAND VAIN WITHOUT EMIGRATION-CAPABILITIES FOR POPULATION-THE AMERICAN CONTINENT-BENEFIT OF EMIGRATION TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY - THE MOVING PEOPLE-TERRITORIAL RESOURCES-COLONIZATION-PROBABLE DESTINIES OF THE NEW WORLD.

But all that has hitherto passed in review before our eyes will seem ineffective to meet and to remedy the great social diseases of the people, resulting from the dense overcrowding, consequent upon our very ancient civilization. Population would seem, from the life we lead in the British Isles, to have pressed in the last degree upon the confines of production. We know, indeed, that this is not the case; we know that millions of untilled, but profitable land, exist in our country; long years must pass before they can be redeemed. Meantime, what is to be done with the destitute and wretched? What shall save the reputable and respectable middleman of scanty means from sinking to degradation in society? And the reply is, if he has moral courage let him husband his resources, and fly to the kindlier soil smiling and waiting to receive him. England is not, indeed, as yet overcrowded her broad acres would maintain well, many a million more of inhabitants; but the prospect at present before the majority of the children of toil, agricultural or manufacturing, is indeed dark and

stern; but in yonder old world of boundless woods and waters, labour need not be in vain-the acre and the farm are there to be easily obtained-to the oppressed of every clime, especially to the British race, to the Anglo-Saxon people; behind the encurtaining waters spread the soils of plenty, and it behoves every intelligent reformer to guide and hasten the stream of humanity pouring thither; let him swell the shouts of “WESTWARD, Ho!”

We have been told, that in this land we indeed press too closely upon each other; yet the moors, and parks, and commons, and wastes, are extensive still, and with due cultivation 50,000,000 of persons could live at ease in England. But hasten across the Atlantic; there, in North America alone, is a platform on which 636,000,000 of souls may stand in comfort, and then be no more inconvenienced than now we are here; and South America would hold a population of 535,000,000 more, and we perish with hunger. All things are waiting for the emigrant; for him all things in season have been prepared; mountains are wasting and sprinkling their detritus over the plains; trees are decaying and enriching to surpassing exuberance, an already kindly soil; rivers are winding their slow majestic way; and imagination finds no difficulty in picturing the time, when their banks, the banks of the Orinoko, the Amour, the St. Lawrence, shall be fringed with happy fields and farms. A solemn human silence broods over a great part of the earth and the ocean, while we, a festering and starving people, lie inanimate here. Yet nature is

doubtless working still: forces there are, preparing beneath the waves the foundations of future homes; the coral insect builds, the volcanic fire pants and roars, the submerged continent pants, and throes, and heaves, the Deltas are forming at the mouths of mighty rivers; there, over those boundless prairies and woods, cornfields might wave; there roam millions of wild beings fit for food; the fish impede the solitary occasional canoe struggling through the waters; the clefts of the rocks are crowded with birds—and we here perish with hunger. Has the spirit of the ancient Northman Sea-king gone from us? There is "ample room and verge enough." Let the capable adventurous man leave a blessing on his fatherland, but let him bestir himself, and away. We shall hear the ringing of his hatchet in those far-off woods and wilds; we shall mark the trail of the keel of his vessel over those watery wastes; we shall hear the echoes startled by his gun, rumbling through the distant hills and mountains. Sad indeed is the condition of the man who cannot find wherewith to go. Going, he leaves many comforts behind; he leaves the churchyard where his dead are laid; he leaves the lecture-hall and the library, the city and the post-office; he also leaves taxation and a workhouse, jails and fashions; the living for appearances, the hopeless, aimless struggling with life, There he goes to rear himself a home in the wilderness: almost a beggar here he may be a person of great importance there; he will leave a heritage to his children. Questionless, he is going out to battle, to fight with forests and swamps, with

he leaves.

beasts and with the elements. And if he stays here, will he not have to fight a far more unpromising battle? There, he fights a noble battle for himself, his family, and his race; here, he fights a battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil; and the probability is, that he will be worsted in the encounter. Beside all this, in all the operations of society God is saying to him to Go! This pressure of man on man has been the cause, in every age, of the young blood from the old poured upon a new continent. And God has sent the necessary elements of success, has launched the steam-boat, and laid the long line of rail, thus, as plainly as possible, pointing him to distant worlds to sow the seeds of new kingdoms. Tradesmen, pressed with anxieties, to whom life is an intolerable burden, crushed beneath bills and rates, shut up shop, take stock, and away. Mechanic-hard wrought much enduring man-sell the furniture, shoulder the tools, and away. Poor labourer, apply to the government agent, get together thy pound or two, and away; there is room for all; the long procession pours on; yet there is no jostling, no disturbing force; we hear the ripple of no wave, the tramp of no footfall; yet the crowds are incessantly pouring over the mountain, through the forest, over the wave, one animating stirring note rousing them all, WESTWARD, HO!

There is no new thing to be said in reference to this great movement of the people of the old continent and kingdom, towards the forests and prairies of the west. It is most obvious as those places is peopled that those who settle there have not merely benefited