1854.] 



REPORT OF THE BRITISH EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS. 



83 



Expedition to Ceixtral Arriea. 



Further communications have been received from Dr. Barth, from 

 Timbuktu, giving an account of his protracted sojourn at tliat danger- 

 ous place. The date of the present letters is two months more recent 

 than that of the first letters despatched thence. They reach up to the 

 15th of December last. They contain the gratifying news that this 

 indefatigble and courageous traveller had regained his full health and 

 strength. He writes that he would have quitted Timbuktu long ago, 

 — a place where his life was greatly exposed to the effects of an unfa- 

 voui-able climate, and much more so to the dangers arising from the 

 hostile disposition towards Christians of Ihe most fanatical Jlahome- 

 dan population of Northern Africa, — were it not that he would have 

 before him certain death, and share the fate of the unfortunate Major 

 Laing, if he left Timbuktu without sufficient protection. The murder 

 of that excellent officer was instigated by the Fullan (or Fellhas) of 

 Harmd-AUahi, — -a tribe living south-west from Timbuktu, the same 

 faction that is much opposed to Dr. Barth. These Hamd Allah Fullan 

 had received from their chief the most peremptory order to effect the 

 capture of the traveller, and bring him to his head-quarters, whether 

 dead or alive. For the3' had expressed their disbelief in the pretended 

 character of Dr. Earth iDoing an ambassador from Stamboul ; and they 

 had demanded all his papers, to ascertain whether they substantiated 

 what the Sheikh el Bakay had caused the great man of the people to 

 believe. Hitherto their hostility has availed nothing, owing to the 

 protection of Sheikh el Bakay, and to the energetic bearing as well as 

 the unceasing watchfulness of Dr. Barth himself. Unhappily the re- 

 nowned Sheikh has no military power of any kind, his authority con- 

 sisting solely of an extensive spu-itual influence over a great portion 

 of Western Sundan. Dr. Barth, therefore, and his own small retinue, 

 are almost at all times well armed and ready to resist effectively any 

 sudden attack. It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Barth is not in 

 possession of a letter from the " Sultan of Stamboul," inasmuch as he 

 states most emphatically that he would then not be in the least mo- 

 lested by any of the Mohammedan inhabitants. He hoped, however, 

 to be able to depart from Timbuktu by the close of the year, and thus 

 be freed from a situation which must at once be highly detrimental to 

 mind and body. 



While preparing the present letters Dr. Barth had the great joy to 

 to receive Auab, the mighty chief of the Tingeregif, a Tuarick tribe 

 inhabiting the regions east of Timbuktu along the Kowara, or Isa 

 Bailee as it is more properly called there. That long-expected chief 

 came, on the bidding of El Bakay, as the traveller's protector, with a 

 welcome escort of 100 horseman, to see him safely through his domi- 

 nions, on his way back to Siikatu. The news of Dr. Vogel having been 

 despatched from Europe to join him, had also reached Timbuktu, and 

 given him the utmost delight. 



Dr. Barth had collected a great mass of information, and drawn up 

 various maps ; of both of which he sent a small but valuable portion on 

 this occasion. There are no further news from the party under Dr. 

 Vogel ; but ample communications may be expected in the course of 

 the present month. AucnsTus Petebmas. 



niiuiiig statistics — Coaly Cop]>ei> &c« 



Coal may be justly considered the most important mineral product, 

 and 265,198 persons were emplo3'ed in Great Britain in 1851, either in 

 extracting it from the earth, distributing it amongst the consumers, 

 or manufacturing it into coke or gas. The owners of collieries are re- 

 turned as 703 in number ; agents and factors, 2.342 ; coal miners or 

 colliers, 1.50,722 men ; 65,64'1 youths, or 216,366 in the aggregate; 

 10,507 persons are returned as coal merchants or dealers, and 11,091 

 as coal heavers or coal labourers. Besides this enumeration, 1752 men 

 are returned as coke bui'ners or dealers, and 413 as charcoal burners. 

 The census also presents to us 19,800 men, and 3473 youths as stono 

 quarriers ; 2811 men as stone cutters ; 0442 as slate quarriers ; 5623 

 as limestone quarriers or burners; 1827 as marble masons; 23,374 

 men and 6580 youths as brickmakers : and 2338 as plate layers. 



The copper miners are 18,408 : viz, 12,708 men, and 5700 youths ; 

 those engaged in the manufacture of copper are 2115, and the copper- 

 smiths, 14,443 — 3918 females, namely, 1565 women, and 2353 girls, are 

 returned under the class of copper miners, a number exceeding the fe- 

 males returned as coal miners, amounting only to 2049. Another sub- 

 class presents 12,912 tin miners, — 8007 men, 4305 youths, besides 843 

 women, and 1295 girls. The lead miners are 16,680 men, 4937 

 youths, 400 women, and 513 girls. These arc, of course, exclusive of 

 the very extensive classes engaged in the manufacture and working of 



these several metallic products. Our limits will not permit us to 

 pur3ue°this enquiry, or present an enumeration of the vast variety of 

 arts connected with metallic manufactures, particularly those of iron 

 and steel. We have confined ourselves to the leading classes of our 

 mining population, and the rapid improvement and commercial in- 

 crease in England within the last half century demonstrates the great 

 national advantages which the empire derives from their labours. To 

 ameliorate their lot, to improve their social condition, and to render 

 their lives and persons comparatively secure in the perilous employ- 

 ments to which they are destined, have been objecis to which we have 

 long earnestly devoted our efforts. While it is the painful duty of 

 this Journal to record, week after week, fatal casualties in our coal 

 mines, attended with lamentable consequences, we feel for the infirmi- 

 ties of our nature, when we admit that the men who are the sufferers 

 are, generally, also the authors of those calamities. To their reckless 

 disregard to the most solemn admonitions, to their careless contempt 

 for the most appalling examples, can, in almost every instance, be 

 traced the causes of colliery explosions — a total disregard of human 

 life, substituting the certainty of mischief in the naked candle for the 

 almost unerring security of the safety-lamp. This deplorable want of 

 prudence, this dificiency in due discipline, can only be fairly met by 

 improved training and early cultivation. It is the imparative duty, 

 therefore, as well as the decided interest of the colliery proprietors, 

 amounting to so large a body in number as the census presents to us 

 to introduce and encourage amongst the coal mining population — 

 classes mutually dependent on each other — a system of education com- 

 mensurate with their requu'ements. — Mining Journal. 



Report of tlie Britisli Elmigi'atiou Commissioners* 



The annual report of the Emigration Commissioners has just been 

 published. From this it appears that the total emigration of last year 

 was 329,937, being 38,827 less than in 1852. There was a diminution 

 of 26,480 to Australia, and 13,376 to the United States, the falling off 

 being accounted for in the case of Australia by the greater excitement 

 regarding the gold discoveries prevalent during the summer and 

 autumn of 1852, and in that of the United States by the departure of 

 a smaller number of Irish, the aggregate emigration of the latter 

 people throughout the year being estimated at 199,392 against 224,997 

 in 1852, The remittances from their relatives in America were, how- 

 ever, larger than in any previous year, the amount sent through the 

 various banks, apart from private channels, being £1,439,000. With 

 respect to the Australian emigration, the total from the united kingdom 

 to all the colonies was 61,401, or about one-fourth of that of the 

 United States. Subjoined are the general figures ; — 



United States 230,885 



Australia — 



New South Wales 10,673 



Victoria 40,469 



South Australia 6,883 



Western Australia 965 



Van Diemen's Land 991 



New Zealand 1,420 



61,401 



Canada, &c 34,522 



East Indies 928 



Central and South America 833 



West Indies 600 



Cape of Good Hope 369 



Western Africa 308 



Maui'itus 63 



Hongkong 27 



Falkland Islands 1 



329,937 

 According to a supplementary statement, it also appears that the 

 emigration during the first three months of the present year has been 

 49,750 persons, against 00,807 in the corresponding period of 1853, 

 and 59,523 in that of 1852. There has been a continued dimunition 

 in the departures to the United States, but in those to Australia, 

 although there is a great falling off as compared with the first quarter 

 of last year, there is a considerable increase as compared with the first 

 quarter of 1852. Of the total, 49.756 emigrants, 26,128 were Irish, 

 12,430 Engli.sh, 2,905 Scotch, and 8,233 foreign or unspecified. This 

 proportion of Irish is much smaller than in 1852 or 1853. — Evening Mail. 



