$L. /s*- *%. ---s - S P E E C H Hon. FHANCL* SCOTT, M.P., IN NOVEMBER 18-18. TIIK ESTABLISH!!}*'XT 01* A BRANCH COLONIZATION SOCIETY AT LliEDS. LON DON: I'RELAWSEY WILLIAM SADNUEliS. (i. ClIARI-Vi CltOSS. 1818. COLONIZATION. Mr. Scott said— One principal object of the Colonization Society, of which he had the honour to be a member, was to encourage and assist emigration to the British Colonics on a scale more extended and systematic than the present. The Society had been fornn d only a few months, and had already enabled many thousand persons, valuable colonists, but ineligible under the Government regulations, to proceed to the Colonies at reduced rates. This was effected by dividing the expense. Part was defrayed by the emigrant, pari by his friends or those who took an interest in him, part (in certain eases) by the Society, and part by Her Majesty’s Emigration Commissioners, from colonial 1'unds at their disposal. The terms on which Her Majesty’s Commissioners received emigrants for the Australian Colonics were as follows:—Children, in any family not exceeding two under 7 years, or throe under 14 years of age. free; for each child beyond that number, £7. For adults, from 14 to 40 years, £5; 40 to 50 years, £7 ; 50 to 60years, £0. li was simply as connected with a Society which had great objects in view, and which dealt with a subject of vast importance to all those who were in distress and want, that he ventured to address the meeting. (Hear, hear.) Happily for the community of Englishmen, a growing interest was taking place in this country with regard tothe concerns of our colonies. Fortunately, the lethargy which hail endured so long, which so long trusted to the apathy and indolence, he would say, of tile Colonial Office, endured no longer. (Hear, hear.) YVe|begin to feel—and who did not led when pinched by suffering and hunger ?—we begin to feel that remunerative employ | ments were leaving us in this countrv, and that in order to obtain adequate remuneration for honest labour the surplus papulation must u look to tile extensive traclsof a boundless empire. Such an empire was Great Britain. We hat e a boundless territor y, and we hav , i within the narrow limits of litis island a population growing faster I than the supplies of food, and far faster than the supplies of em¬ ployment. He would prove by facts and figures, which fallacies and fictions coidd not withstand, that, while he re want, penury , and suf fering were increas ing, over our extended empire there was ample room and verge for them, and more than all of them. It might perhaps be asked, AYhy had the deputation been at so much pains to come down here ? lie would ask them, in return, to look ill to their mills, their factories, their lanes, their garrets, their cellars, and their empty purses—to look at the wan cheeks of their operatives, and the sunken eyes of their labourers, and then to say it* these were not suificient reasons why he should come to Leeds and ask them to exchange want and penury for plenty and abundance. (Cheers.) Nay, he would ask them to extend their glances a little beyond the town, to Bradford and other towns, where misery and want also prevailed, and then to look beyond the bounds of this island to countries where land was as much their patrimony as that in this country, which so imperfectly afforded them the means of subsistence here. If then they found in this country so much destitution, and so much dis-employment leading to destitution, was it not incumbent on them, although some might fancy they were seeking to se nd them out of th e country in order to get rid of the m. (Hear, hear, and cries of “ Give us employment here.”) Mr. Scott, in continuation, said lie had too much respect for the (rood sense of the meeting, and too humble an opinion of his own abilities, to think that any representations made by him could warp their judgment, or could induce them, when it was entirely optional with them to remain or to go, to leave this country for a foreign land; but since some among them thought that it was his object to get rid of them, and since it was said that the truth was elicited by divers opinions, he was induced to draw from his pocket a letter which he had received that morning from an eminent master manufacturer in a district some hundreds of miles distant; and perhaps the meeting would not be uuwilling to listen to ail extract from that letter. Alluding to a meeting similar to the present, which was proposed to be held in a distant manufacturing town, the writer said, “ I think such meetings in manufacturing 6 , in receipt of parochial relief in this country;'’ in Ireland, one in ' three. Now he saw by the return which lie held in his hand, that in June 1S4S, it was not ten but nearly eleven .per cent., or upwards of 1.700,000 persons, chiefly permanent paupers, who out of fifteen millions in England, were in the receipt of parochial relief—(hear, hear) ; and if that was not sufficiently convincing, he could assure them that £6,791,000 per annum were raised in England to relieve the poor; that £514,000 per annum were raised in Scotland: and, taking the amount collected, and the sums to be collected in Ireland, that £1,860,957 were raised in Ireland: making a total of £9,196,297 as the sum levied annually in the British empire, for tile relief of the poor. When we eon- sider that this immense amount of destitution, required not less than three times the amount of money which was required for the total civil government of this empire, independent of the naval and military forces ;—when we consider that upwards of £9,000,000 were required for the sustenance of the poor, for their bare sub¬ sistence, miserable as is their pittance, while £2,700,000 sufficed for the expense of Government, including all civil, judicial, political, and administrative charges;—when we reflect that poverty is yearly on the increase, and that to arrest its progress hr existing regulations is to stem a torrent with a broken reed, I think a case may he made out why some further measures should be adopted to relieve the poor. Well, hut these 1,700,000 in England may be looked upon as the standing army of pauper¬ ism—the regular immovable force of poverty. But there is another not less formidable body of misery—the irregular, the disposable force, called the casual poor. The vagrants give a fearful picture of suffering humanity. In certain districts south of the Thames, the number relieved in six months ending August 1S46, was 18,533; within the corresponding six months in 1847 the number increased to 44,900 ; and in theThirsk Union, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1836, they relieved one vagrant; in 1S47 they relieved 1,161 vagrants. Those relieved in one night in 1845 in 603 Unions were 1,791; on the 25tli March, 1S48, there were relieved no less than 16,086: thus perpetually moving onw ards, they constantly increase in num- itry; infecting and 7 bers as they advance, infesting town and coun exhausting every parish they go through.* By births aione there was to be added the annual increase of not less than 65,000 poor to these details. All this gives a very dark and gloomy picture of the state of destitution prevailing through this country, and the rapid increase of it. These might be considered, as he said, the regular and irregular forces of poverty, those who were dependent upon others for existence. But there was another class, those who were upon the brink or verge, hovering between what could and what could not support them—rate-payers perhaps, but more fit to be rate-receivers; almost pensioners on the bounty they dispense. These were possibly to he even more pitied than those who were entirely depending upon others, and who had lost all sense of independence. (Hear, hear.) Nor were they a small class. (Hear, hear.) He was induced to read to the meeting a single line from a letter written to him from Glasgow, which showed how they clung to the skirts—how they hung upon the shoulders of society, helping to carry those who had means down to the same gulf, with those who without means were struggling for subsistence. The gentleman, who was not known to him, wrote—"The paupers of this city have increased enormously, and will continue to increase. The torrent of destitution that has set in from the absence of employment threatens to engulf the entire property of the citizens in poor rates; and the law, as it at present stands, conspires to turn tire whole earnings of the mercantile classes into that channel.” If that were, and he feared it was, a correct picture of the state of society as regarded tile want and destitution existing in various parts of the empire, it behoved that meeting as well as him (Mr. Scott) to inquire whether there were not other parts of the same empire, subject to the same law, and governed by the same sovereign, which offered those who were willing to go, the means of employment and better remuneration than they could obtain 8 at home. This led him to mention, first, the extent of our colonies. That we had colonies they all knew—extensive, aye, and expensive appendages to this empire. Extensive, expensive, and some said “useless.” Useless they might become, and comparatively useless they were, solely because unused. (Hear, hear.) Those colonies might he reckoned at about fifty in number. He was speaking of the dominions and dependencies of the British Crown. They occupied about one-fifth of the whole habitable globe, and yet the number of British inhabitants living in those colonies was not greater than the population of a single county in Great Britain. Yorkshire with 1,690,000, or Lanca¬ shire with 1,670,000, numbered as many British subjects as one- fifth part of the habitable globe, the property of Great Britain. Those colonies possessed every description of climate, every quality of soil, and every sort of produce. They contained nearly four millions of square miles, and were forty-seven times or nearly fifty times the extent of the British islands; and yet the British popu¬ lation in British colonies was not equal to the number of paupers inhabiting English workhouses. The Canadas, the Southern African, and the Australian Colonies, each present natural advan¬ tages unduly known here, unduly cared for there. It was in vain to think of entering into details at present upon a subject so vast aud various: he might mention that in our colonies in North America, Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the land yielded from 25 to 30 bushels of wheat per acre. The cold was intense, certainly, for a portion of the year. Land might be had at os. an acre. In the Cape, the principal produce was wheat, wine, wool, sugar, coffee, indigo; and the climate as healthful as in England. Land might be had for about 2 s. 6 d. an acre, and the voyage there cost about £10. In Netv South Wales the produce, as the meeting knew, was chiefly wool. It produced, also, olive oil, wine, silver, copper, &c. in abundance. It was lately stated in the Legislative Council of New South Wales that 64,000,0001bs. of beef would be wasted, boiled down for want of mouths to eat it—(hear, hear) that there was there meat absolutely wasted for want of people to consume it, suffi¬ cient to feed 1,100,000 of the poor people who were starving in 9 England. (“ Why do you not send for it, then?’’) Ho would state why it was not sent for. Because, owing to the space which was required in a vessel bringing cows or sheep, and the long voyage, it became a much more expensive matter to transport the animal to this country in order to be killed here, than to afford a passage to the individuals who desired to go there and eat it. (Applause.) The population there was about 200,000; the cattle about 2,000,000 ; the sheep about 10,000,000; making about ten oxen per head, and about fifty sheep per head to each individual. To these attractions it might be added, that there is neither beggary nor starvation there, while night after night thousands wander about seeking shelter here. In South Australia there is a population of 30,000; of sheep, 1,000,000; and of horned cattle, 50,000. Now with regard to the other subject—that of wages. The wages in December last, in New South Wales, for agricultural labourers, who had also lodgings and rations, were £23 a year; bricklayers, £41, always with rations and house; blacksmiths, £40; carpenters and masons, the like sum; shepherds, £23 ; wheelwrights, £39 to £40; and they received 5s. Cid. per day, when without rations. Coffee, 3d. per lb.; meat, 2d.; sugar, 4d.; bread, ljd. In South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land, the same advantages were to be obtained by all who chose to go there, and also in various settlements in New Zealand. And if your attention were directed towards these foreign possessions it would soon render them alike valuable to the settler there, and to the manufacturer and operative at home. He would now speak of the wealth and power of England. England’s power depended upon her prosperity. Her prosperity depended upon her wealth. Her wealth depended on her commerce. Her commerce depended upon her markets. Her markets depended upon her remunerative labour. (Hear, hear.) The smallest amount of remunerative labour was to bo found in her workhouses; the largest amount of remunerative labour was to be found in her colonies. We had tried hard, perhaps, to become dissatisfied with our colonies of late years; we had almost succeeded in making some of our colonies dissatisfied with us ; but the increase of our revenue during the last half year, small as the increase was, bein'! in customs and excise, had shown us we would wish, nevertheless, while our home markets remained to us, and while we preserved our colonies, we might make our commerce almost independent of the world. (Hear, hear.) Our excise and customs increased above a million during the last year; it is not then upon our foreign trade that we mainly depend. Of what use, you ask, were tho-e colonies ? They took about one- third of our whole exports ; they took an entire half of our manufactured goods. The world, with its 1,000,000,000, or, at all events. 860,000,000, inhabitants, took from us little more than our British colonies in manufactured goods. The British manufactured goods exported to the colonics, was £14,826,000, or 30 per cent, of our exports. Europe (exclusive of Germany-, which took chiefly our yarn and wool) did not take so much. Our foreign transoceanic trad' only amounted to £15,900,000, while our colonial exports were £14,800,000. This, he thought, proved to some extent the value of our colonial trade. But with respect to the relative value of our commerce, while Prussia took but 64.; Russia, 84.; France, lv. 64.: and the United States, 5,. 84. per head of the population of our manufactures, Canada took £1. 13*.; the West Indies, £2. 17s. 64.; the Cape, £3. 2s.; and the Australian Colonies, £7. 14s. 34. per head of the popu¬ lation of the manufactured goods of Great Britain. But it was said, by certain economists and statesmen, that against these colonial exports y ou must se t off the amount due to fleets, armies, garrisons, and foreig n militar y stations . But, he would ask, if they were to make those - •:$ oft" against colonial exports, were there none to be made against foreign exports? If you were to to have no set oft" against the 64. to Prussia, and the 1*. 64. to France? Would not the £7. 14s. 34. to Australia, or the £3. 2s. to the Cape, bear a certain set off better than the 84. to Russia, or even the os. S4. to the United States? What was there to set off against our Australian exports, and what against Brazil, ami n liat against the Mediterranean ? Little colonial trade there, and 11 \et Hr had a fleet in the Mediterranean five times as large in com- pVmrnt of men as in North America and the West, Indies put together ; wliile the fleet in the Pacific and Brazils, with a force of 5 300 men, exceeds that which watches over the interests of any of We had the same colonies in 1835 as in 1817, but our navy in 1835 cost only £-1,271,000; in 1S47 it cost £7,920,000; showing an increase of £3,050,000 in that service in twelve years. The colonies were about the same; we ought not therefore to look to them, but to their management at home, for alteration ami economy. In 1835, our total land and sea service cost £11,700,000; at present it cost £i7,300,000. (Hear hear.) There was an increase of £5,000,000. Did the colonies cause that ? No. Then let them not abuse the colonies, but look to their own interests and to the advantage which the colonies offered to them and to the trade of Leeds. The commerce of Leeds required large markets. IIow were they to enlarge them? lie should say. by inducing those who were hanging here upon society, unable to support themselves, to go to a land where they could live in plenty and abundance, and at the same time contribute to the employment of their relatives and friends whom they left at home. (A voice, " You want to make slaves of us.”) lie knew no serf wdiosc condition was worse than tile man who was unable to maintain himself in¬ dependently—the man who lived upon the earnings of others. Do not. therefore, accuse him as the advocate of slavery if he sought to afford a mail the means of honest independence. (Hear, hear.) Tile total number employed in the woollen, worsted, flax, cot¬ ton, and silk trade in this country, amounted to 5-14,S7fi persons, of w hom 23 per cent., or nearly one-fourth, were engaged in the woollen and worsted trade, in which Leeds was largely interested. The number of factories employed in the trade was 1334, with a horse power of 21,163. He would now state what were the imports from Australia, as affording the means of useful employment here, and also the amount they took of our manufactures. Our exports to Australia were twenty times as great in proportion to tiie population as to those dwelling in the United Stales. (Hear, hear.) 12 Karl Grey last summer »id the exports now, to 300.000 An?, ‘“aliens, are -renter than the; were to 2.300.000 North American riuotiMs m 1773. lie sound a period of peace lor comparison ami therefore his cmpari*. :i was valiule-s: tile exports now to 300.000 Australians equal those to 7,000.000 foreign North of 1 to 7 : tliat of the present .lav gives one of 1 to 23, in favour of the Australian compared with the North American as a customer of Great Britain. Australia, moreover, is capable of supplying you with cotton, with wine, with oil. with minerals unappreciated in value and inexhaustible in abundance: besides, while she takes what yon have made, she repavs in material for vou to make: she is thus doubly useful, as a supplier of your factories, and a receiver of your manufactures. Wool is brought from Sydney and other pans of Australia to Leeds as cheaply as it was from Hamburgh, although one voyage was about 160 and the other 16,000 miles. Then with regard to the value of those colonics, they exported to us 21,000,000 lbs. of wool, of the value of Is. per lb., being one-third of our whole imports of wool; and we exported of manufactured woollen goods to foreign countries not less than £^,170,000 per year. Leeds was not the only town which was thus interested. Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield. Huddersfield, all the great clothing districts of this empire, were equally interested in this question. The question was first to enlarge our markets. Do we enlarge them ? Do we try to people our colonies ? 'Hie Emigration Commissioners register this fact: We have had colonies 200 years: our colonies contain 1,600,000 of Britisli The Emigration Commissioners, who were now doing then- duty more efficiently and with more service to the country than any other branch of the Colonial Oilice, state that emigration from Great Britain was now progressing at the rate of 250,000 a year. Some said at the rate of 300,000. 300,000 was about the population of Australia. We had hail Australia these 50 years. What became of the 250,000 emigrants who were poured out every 13 year ? (“ America.’') They all went, not to tile country which returned £7. 14v. 3d. per head of the population to Great Britain for manufactured goods; they went either to the country which returned ox. S d., or to some other country which afforded still les, valuable support to British industry. In‘23 years above 1.700.000 had gone from this country, whereof G5 per cent, had gone to North America. Since the beginning of 1347 above 3(10.000 valuable colonists for the Australian Colonics had gone and settled in the United States, taking their savings to promote the prosperity of a foreign country contributing in so small a proportion to the support of the people of this country ; while from 1S45 up to 13-17 the sole individual who arrived in New South Wales at the public expense was one man. (Hear, hear.) The Colonial Minister, Earl Grey, thinks that nothing can be more satisfactory than the emigration to that colony—an intermittent emigration of Hoods and stops, now conducted only on a temporary Colonial Loan, exhausting the future resources of the colony to meet the existing necessities;—an emigration in whose expense the country, which reaped half the benefit, bore none of the cost. It was true that a great many were going to that country at present, and he thought the Emigration Society had great reason to be satisfied at the stimulus which had been given to emigration to the Australian Colonies. The exertions of the society with which he was connected had induced the Government to take there emigrants who were formerly ineligible upon terms advantageous to them, to the Colony, and to the Government that sent thorn. Allusion had been made to the amount of deaths on board emigrant ships; hut as contrasted not only with the voyage of ships in general, but with the voyages of select ships, nothing could bo more satisfactory than the sanatory regulations adopted, and the small loss of life on hoard the ships going to the Australian Colonies. On hoard those ships there was always a qualified surgeon, and no persons were taken on board who were suffering from disease. He hoped the same regulations would be adopted in all emigrant ships, whether going to Canada, or elsewhere. If they looked at this question cither with the vr v of the philanthropist or with the view of the moralist, he thought the meeting must agree with him. Ilia: 14 it was a duty incumbent upon them to endeavour to promote emigration, and thus increase the comforts and decrease the suffer¬ ings of the ill-remunerated and unemployed workpeople of this country. But if none of them were moralists, but mere cold¬ blooded, calculating economists;—if they looked to the charge which every unfortunate pauper caused to them;—if they considered that he was unwillingly the recipient of the bounty given him; that they could, by inducing him to emigrate, make him happy and self-supported; that his passage cost only £ 10 to £13; that in two years he more than re-paid his passage in the amount he took from them; that every man who went to the colony in two years took of the produce of their labour to the amount of £15. Sr. 6d.;—if they considered that instead of being a burden of £S he was a profit of £15, then he thought that, putting those figures together, they would be able to estimate the value which they had conferred not upon him (the emigrant) but upon themselves; not upon master manufacturers, but upon those who toiled for their daily bread. If they considered that the emigrant’s passsage cost £10 to £13, and that if he went to America he wotdd not take British produce amounting to £7. 14r. 3d. but to 5r.;—if they considered that in the one case he would contribute more than the return of his passage money in two years, and that in the other case it would take him more than dO years to repay the value of his passage, then they' might esti¬ mate the relative importance of the Australian Colonies. If it cost parishes £6.14s. 5 d. per head, as it had done, to send paupers to North America, taking the average of the last 11 years, lie asked whether there were not more valuable seed beds in which they might sow industry, and reap a rapid and remunerative harvest ? Here each pauper was a burden of £8 a year; anti adding that to the sunt of £7- 14s. 3