Sa a alll 
1826.] Emigration-Report. 359 
whereas the Committee expressly state; they contemplate no emigration, 
owhichis not’ * essentially voluntary,’ and where the ‘parties ‘are not in'a 
-eondition of'* permanent pauperism’—which smooth-flowing’ syllables, 
transmuted into rougher and more consistent phrases, mean, the pauper 
shall be compelled to emigrate, if it seem good to the legislature. « What 
else “essentially voluntary * as applied to < permanent pauperism,’ with a 
resolution all the while to carry emigration into practice, can’ mean, but 
virtual compulsion, we cannot divine; for of course the only choice that 
will be left is the option of going to the colonies or of starving at home, 
and if that be not virtual compulsion, we wonder what is. The very 
purpose of the project is to relieve the country of a burden, and if such 
‘project be adopted, of course the means of enforcing it must be given. 
The poor prefer home generally, though doubtless they will, most of 
them, prefer exile to starvation. The Committee must have meant to 
disguise the sense of virtual compulsion, under the dainty phrase of 
“essentially voluntary,’ and certainly they have shewn no mean skill in 
the use of language, if, as was once characteristically observed, that use 
be to conceal our thoughts. 
But if the Committee did not contemplate compulsion, though some 
of the plans given-in the evidence distinctly express it,—we are quite 
sure the country gentlemen do. The language of some of the evidence 
of ‘this class is perfectly disgusting—exhibiting a rancorous antipathy to 
the whole crew of paupers—‘ pests and nuisances’—and a manifest 
desire to’send them all—we had almost profanely said—to the devil. 
Unjust, oppressive, detestable as any scheme of’ banishment under 
the guise ‘of emigration must be; so long as there exist the plain means, 
or'even the bare possibility of subsistence at home, let us see what it is 
which the Committee and’ their evidence’ suggest—what is the amount 
of this precious scheme of theirs. deh 
In the first place, be it observed, the object being to relieve the land, 
_ or, as the Committee would phrase it, the nation, any scheme of emi- 
gration ‘that was to cost the said nation a sixpence was not’ worth a 
moment’s consideration. Therefore the Committee, as they themselves 
avow, bent the whole force of their powers to excogitate’a plan ‘that 
should; ‘asa speculator would say, pay its own expenses. And as ‘an 
thing’ can’ be accomplished on a sheet of paper, and indeed, till of late; 
by loans, the Committee have laid before the honourable House’ a lotig 
and laborious calculation, to shew, if not the practicabilities ofthe 
_ scheme, at! least—the facilities of figures. Site 
| The redundancy of the population—how endearing the’ phrase is—is to 
be'taken, it'seems, at 140,481 families, making perhaps 700,000’ per- 
sons. Divide these families into twenty-six portions, and expatriate 
oné''of these portions every year for twenty-six years, that is, five 
thousand for each of the first twenty-three years, seven’ thousand for 
the twenty-fourth year, eight thousand the twenty-fifth, and—we love 
tobe particular in nice cases, 10,481 the twenty-sixth. ‘The’ eurious 
reader, if he have any dexterity ‘in arithmetic, will find’ these numbers 
together to amount to the’said sum of 140,481. Well; for déspatching 
the first five thousand families, say the Ist of Januaty 1827, a loan of 
£752,500 at'4 per cent. is to be raised by the parishes, the interest 
guaranteed and paid by the parishes. “Now these five thousand families, 
be it remarked, would cost the parishes for their subsistence at home 
£200,000'a year; therefore they will of cow'se very. gladly give’ and 
