1831 .J England at the Close of 1831 . 587 



be told ; that in all Europe there is no man who, with half the labour of 

 the English mechanic or peasant, does not live tAvice as happy a life. 

 There must be varieties of ranks in the world. There must be poverty 

 as well as princedoms. But from Calais to ]Mosco\v, the peasant and 

 the ai-tizan have decidedly more enjoyment of life for their labour, than 

 the English manufacturer, or the Enghsh tiller of the ground. This is 

 a fact beyond all question, verified by every traveller's common obser- 

 vation, by all public documents, by the acknowledgment contained in 

 the memorable and melancholy emigration of multitudes from the British 

 isles. The present year's retui-n of emigration to Canada alone — to Canada 

 with its ungenial, marshy, and untamed soil ; Avith its tremendous six 

 months' unbroken Avinter ; Avith its distance across a sea of three thou- 

 sand miles, and its long and inhospitable land journey — was 67,000. 



Yet Avhat Avould be the enumeration if it were to reach the multitudes 

 AvJio emigrate to the settlements of the Cape and Ncav South Wales, 

 or the United States, or the Continent ? Out of England a perpetual 

 stream of anxious and miserable life isfloAving hourly, to the extremities 

 of the earth. Any thing is better than home, Avith all its liberty, its 

 beauty, its recollections, its friendships, its fame ; it gives Avay to the 

 attractions of North America, a wilderness in Africa, or a sand in the 

 Pacific. The Englishman, of all men the most domestic in his nature, 

 the least fevered by the spirit of roving, the most natural, simple, and 

 faithful to common sense — becomes sviddenly the rambling refugee of all 

 lands, the habitual adventurer, the exile to a returnless distance from 

 his country. How can this be .^ Money flows by tides into England. 

 She is the banker of the Avorld. Every mine in South America pours 

 its gold into her purse. Yet a twelfth part of the population are at this 

 moment living upon actual charity : and there is no country where it is 

 so difficult to live. 



The truth is that the whole manufacturing system has been pushed 

 too far. The immense fortunes made by the sudden monopoly of Euro- 

 pean trade in the commencement of the late war, stimulated the national 

 avarice. The country Avas instantly croAvded with manufactories. The 

 peasantry were bribed by the inordinate Avages to leave their natural 

 and simple pursuits, for the unhealthy confinement of trade ; Avith the 

 sudden increase of their wages, appetites for ncAV and hazardous indul- 

 gences grew upon them. There is more drunkenness, low gaming, and 

 promiscuous vice in the vicinity of a single manufactory, than was once 

 spread over a whole county. 'Phere is more disease, hard labour, real 

 poverty, and rapid mortality in the neighbourhood of, and arising from 

 a single manufactory, than was once tlie inheritance of a province. The 

 cause Avas avarice, and we are noAv feeling the consequence in emigra- 

 tion, poor rates, and an outcry for political change. 



It is remarkable that a sudden influx of money into any one country, 

 has always had a calamitous effect on that peculiar country. The 

 notorious result to Spain of the discovery of the South American mines 

 is but a single instance. To go to ancient times. The plunder of 

 Egypt and Babylon overthrew the rough and hardy valour of the Per- 

 sian monarcliy. The sudden accumulation of money vitiated the whole 

 administration ofUie conquering power; until in a few years, it became 

 the ol)ject of insult to even the barbarian tribes on its borders. The 

 possession of the Thracian gold mines overset the supremacy of Athens, 

 and turned her into a beggarly nest of democracy, Avith one half of her 

 leading men liviny' on pensions from foreign powers, and the other half 



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