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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
EUROPEAN EMIGRATION TO AMERICA, AND ITS EFFECTS.
BY MEAD AND STREAM.
ILLICIT DISTILLATION IN IRELAND.
ONE WOMAN’S HISTORY.
INTERVIEWED BY A BUSHRANGER.
SOME REALITIES OF RANCHING.
REMAINS OF ANCIENT LONDON.
THE ‘STRONG-ROOM’ AT PETERBOROUGH.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
A MODERN MADRIGAL.
No. 41.—Vol. I.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1884.
EUROPEAN EMIGRATION TO AMERICA,AND ITS EFFECTS.
One of the greatest economic problems of ourtime is associated with the double stream whichhas been setting westward across the Atlanticwith steady persistence for some two or threeyears, and which even now does not seem to havepassed its height. It is a stream which is composedof the labour and the capital of the OldWorld. To the number of many hundreds ofthousands of individuals, some of the best boneand sinew of the European states has been transplantedeach year to America. And latterly, thisexodus has been accompanied by a large volumeof that without which labour can do little collectively.During the last twelve months especially,the number of schemes for the employment ofBritish capital across the Atlantic has increasedenormously; and at the present time, there aremany millions of money, belonging to people stillresiding on this side, invested directly or indirectlyin land, and in industries connected withland in the States of the Union and of Canada.The receptivity of the American continent inrespect both of labour and of capital is very great;but it is not unlimited. Nor is the supply ofeither labour or capital unlimited in the countriesof the eastern hemisphere. There is not as yetany imminent danger of excessive contribution inthe one case and of depletion in the other; butwe are within sight of consequences which it maybe well to consider.
And first with regard to Emigration. It mustnot be supposed that America—and for the presentlet us confine our attention to the United States—welcomeswithout exception the human stream.There are undoubtedly elements in it whichwould be objectionable anywhere. There arehordes of paupers and loafers and ne’erdoweels,who are as little likely to do any good for themselves,or to be