AMALGAMATING OUR FOREIGN BORN 



the United States in 1830." At least 34 mil- 

 lions, and probably 40 millions, of our white 

 population in 1900 was of American descent 

 in that sense. If to this number be added 

 British immigrants since 1830 and their 

 descendants, probably three-quarters of our 

 white population today is of British origin. 



Great and rapid as our immigration has 

 been, foreigners have come here much more 

 slowly than to Australia, where the popula- 

 tion rose 200 per cent from 1831 to 1841 and 

 again from 1851 to 1861, doubling in the 

 decade between these two, and going up 

 once more by fifty per cent in the decade 

 1861-1871. During no 10 years has our 

 immigration formed over 8 per cent of our 

 population, whereas in Australia it reached, 

 in 1 86 1, almost 50 per cent, and continued 

 in excess of 10 per cent till 1891. 



Mr. Leroy-Beaulieu believes that "a 

 great part of the incontestable superiority 

 of America over Australia has resulted 

 from the slower movement of emigration to 

 the United States. American society has 

 had much more time to digest and assim- 



137 



