11. 



recognizing to the full that right of unrestricted 

 freedom in regard to emigration which its subjects, 

 by virtue of its constitution, enjoy, it would be 

 more consistent with the policy of the British 

 Government, to leave the laborer to his own free 

 choice, than to take legislative action with the avowed 

 object of facilitating the entrance of foreigners into 

 this country to entice him out of it, and thus 

 deprive India of that wealth which she most 

 requires/' 



" The question as regards India, it appears to me, is 

 one, not of price, as many suppose, but one purely 

 of progress ; and the anomaly, is not that while we 

 are crying out for labor in front, we are permitting 

 it to stream out of the country in rear; but that 

 while the law of the land restricts the liberty 

 of the subject in regard to emigration even 

 to British and Indian Colonies (Vide the Act of 

 1839,) we are daily forging new Acts to legalize the 

 transport of labor to countries over the laws of 

 which we have no control, and in which we cannot 

 consequently guarantee our Indian subjects proper 

 protection ; and that while Colonial and foreign, 

 Governments give their developers every possible 

 assistance in obtaining this labor, for three whole 

 years, the late Lieutenant Governor of Bengal 

 systematically refused to afford the same aid to 

 Englishmen engaged iii developing the resources of 

 the province he was paid for administering, and 



