Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/184

Rh 174 EMIGRATION Greeks, and their industrious habits, enabled them to make a rapid progress, so that several of these colonies became, in no very lengthened period, populous and powerful states. &quot; Few voluntary emigrants ever left Rome. The colonies which she sent forth were intended to bridle subjugated provinces, and should be regarded rather as the outposts of an immense army, the headquarters of which were at Rome, than as establishments of individuals who had bid adieu to th eir mother country, and who intended to maintain themselves in their new residence by their own industry. &quot; But in their wish to amend their condition, emigrants have not always been contented to establish themselves in unoccupied or thinly-peopled countries. Sometimes, as in the case of the irrup tion of the northern nations into the Roman empire, they have attacked countries that were densely peopled, and, having subdued the inhabitants, have seized upon the whole, or upon a greater or less proportion of their lands. &quot; Pastoral nations, inasmuch as they can carry with them the flocks and herds from which they derive their subsistence, may emigrate in very large bodies, and previously to the invention of gunpowder and other improvements in warfare were very danger- ous neighbours. The danger was further increased, or rather was perpetually kept up, by the fact that the emigration of one tribe or nation, by making more room for those that remained behind, gave a corresponding stimulus to population, so that, the vacuum being soon filled up, the motive to fresh emigration became as great as ever. On this principle we are able to account satis factorily for the successive swarms of barbarians that, issuing from the countries in the north of Europe, first attacked and ultimately overthrew the colossal fabric of Roman power. It admits of demonstration that these countries were then not nearly so populous as at present, that they had not more, perhaps, than a fifth or a sixth part of the inhabitants by which they are now occupied. But as they depended principally on pasturage, their numbers were often in excess compared with their means of support. And the pressure of want, that is, the necessity of finding additional room for their flocks and herds on the one hand, and, on the other, the prospect of vast wealth and riches of which they might hope to possess themselves, precipitated them into those expeditions in which, though often defeated, they were in the end successful.&quot; A movement which is to be recognized as one of the necessary conditions of human progress is thus seen ad vancing in its early history from a collision of interests, and receiving both impulse and advantage from all the discords, wars, and difficulties of social and political life. It may be presumed, notwithstanding the imperfect civilization of many large regions of the world, that emigration has now attained so many ways and means, and so well-established an order, as to proceed more spontaneously and functionally, and be less indebted to violent forces for its impulsion, than in past times. The striking modern form of emigration is the removal of individuals and families from their native seats to distant countries, in large numbers, yet without concert and without apparent distress, silently and intelli gently, the emigrants knowing what they are leaving and whither they are going. Emigration of this kind, like the commerce in commodities, does not advance rapidly for a long period. The first adventurers have often a rough experience, and do not invite others, but gradually the number who succeed increases, and in their letters home encourage relatives and friends to follow their example, and not unfrequently supply the means of acting upon their advice. This, in a constant and cumulative form, comes to have more real and wholesome influence than all the emigration aid societies ever established, however useful these may have been in their place. The traffic of the steam navigation companies during the last twenty- five years would show how largely the volume of free and well-considered emigration has thus been increased; and, indeed, it may be observed that emigration of this kind has received much the same impetus as material commerce from the ocean steamers, railways, telegraphs, and other greatly improved means of transmission. The movement is liable to its own fluctuations ; it ebbs and flows from one year to another ; but of its permanence and extension there can be no reasonable doubt. Trite as this may appear, it is worthy of being observed how rapidly the change has been evolved. In the thirty years from 1815 to 1845 the annual emigration from the United Kingdom to all parts had not increased to 100,000 souls. The total number of emigrants in 1815 was only 2081, in the following year 12,510, and 20,634 in 1817. This was the starting-point on the close of the great European wars ; and at the end of thirty years of peace, what progress had been made? In 1843 the total number of emigrants from the United Kingdom was 57,212 ; it was 70,686 in 1844, and 93,501 in 1845. Only in three years of the long interval, viz., 1832, 1841, and 1842, had the annual emigration risen to or above 100,000. But 1847, in which year the emigration rose to 258,270, marks the beginning of unwonted increase, sustained over many years in succession, and, with some exceptional years, sustained, indeed, to the present time. The average annual emigration in the five years ending 1853 was 323,002, whereas from 1815 to the same year 1853 it had only been 97,269. The Irish famine, ensuing on an almost total failure of the potato crops, was the first in the order of events to which this remarkable increase of emigration is to be ascribed; but the California!! and Australian gold discoveries, the political reaction caused by the coup d etat in France, the failure of the European revolutions of 1848, and the rising spirit of enterprise and grow ing prosperity following on the adoption of free trade in the United Kingdom, by which the industry and pro duction of all the emigrant-receiving countries were largely promoted, prolonged the impulse which had first been given by a sharp distress affecting more parts of Europe than Ireland, and placed emigration on the more voluntary and substantial basis which has characterized it of late years. The way was made so plain by the ocean steamers and railways, which trade and capital were bringing into rapid action, that larger numbers of people saw the advantage of passing over great distances from one hemisphere to another. It was not till 1855 that any relapse occurred in the large annual totals of emigration from the United Kingdom; and so late as the five years 1869-73 the average number per year of emigrants from British ports was 274,645. This increase of emigration was not confined to the United Kingdom. It was European; and, indeed, our emigration statistics always include some proportion of emigrants from neighbouring countries, who ship from British ports. But from the north of Europe from Scandinavia and Germany there has been a largely in creased emigration during this period, proceeding under much the same incitements and facilities as from England, Scotland, and Ireland. From France the emigration has not been so marked as from many less populous countries. The German race have peopled the United States so largely as to have become a prominent element in the Transatlantic republic ; but no one hears of the French as one of the constituents of a commonwealth which they helped materially to found, and where they must always be held in esteem. The emigration of France follows her own colonies and traditions chiefly ; it is found in Louisiana and in Canada, and almost everywhere discursively and thinly ; and in much the same way the Spaniards and Italians still lean in their emigration to La Plata and South America, where there is a trace of ancestry, and their language is spoken. The industrial motive and faculty, however, now draw emigrants from all the European nations into the most various parts of the New World. In Australia and other southern climes, where the grape has found an extended cultivation, Rhineland and Cisalpine vine-dressers are at work. The Highland Scotch cling to Canada, and prefer New Zealand to the Australian mainland; but the engineers of the Lowland Clyde, ubiquitous as their ships, are found