Chapter XXIV: The Best Remedy

_Emigration_—_The various Fields_—_Distinguish the industrious Worker in need of temporary Relief_—_Last Words_.

ALL other remedies considered, we come back to that which is cheapest, most lasting, and in every way the best—emigration. This, of course, as applying to unwilling and undeserved pauperism. These are the sufferers that our colonies are waiting to receive with open arms. They don’t want tramps and vagrants. They won’t have them, well knowing the plague such vermin would be in a land whose fatness runs to waste. But what they are willing to receive, gladly and hospitably, are men and women, healthy, and of a mind to work honestly for a liberal wage. New Zealand has room for ten thousand such; so has Australia and Canada.

It would be a happy alteration, if some milder term than “pauper” might be invented to distinguish the industrious worker, temporarily distressed, so as to be compelled to avail himself of a little parochial assistance, from the confirmed and habitual recipient of the workhouse dole. As was pertinently remarked by Colonel Maude, at a recent meeting held in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and at which the policy of assisting willing workers to emigrate to New Zealand was argued:

“There are people who are fond of putting forward the offensive
doctrine, that a man who is a ‘pauper,’ as they call him, has thereby
become unfit ever again to exercise the self-reliance and
independence in any other country necessary to procure him a living,
the want of which qualities has brought him to the abject condition
he is now in. Like most sweeping generalities, this is both false
and cruel. The condition of the wage-paid class is, in the nature of
things, more dependent than that of any other; and without for a
moment depreciating the wisdom of frugality and thrift, I would ask
some of those who are in the enjoyment of independent incomes,
whether their position would not be almost as desperate if their
income were suddenly withdrawn? And this is constantly happening to
large masses of our artisans, in many cases entirely without fault of
their own; and then how does the State deal with them? It says, ‘If
you will wait until you have parted with your last penny and your
last article of furniture, and then come to us, we will assist you,
but only then, and only in the following manner: The allowance of
food, clothing, and shelter which we will give you shall be the least
which experience proves will keep body and soul together. We will
break the law of God and of nature by separating you from your
family. We will prevent you seeking for work elsewhere by confining
you in a house where employers are not likely to search for you, and
whence you cannot go to seek it yourself. The nature of the work you
shall perform shall not be that in which you are proficient, but
shall be of the most uninteresting and useless kind. Owing to the
small quantity of food we give you, you will not be able to exert
your powers to their best advantage. By resorting to us for
assistance, you will be lowered in the estimation of your
fellow-workmen; and in all probability, as experience tells us, you
will return to us again and again, until you become a confirmed and
helpless pauper.’

“We are fond of pointing to Paris, and of showing how dearly the
French pay for their system of providing work for the people; but if
it be true, as I have lately heard, that there are one million of
paupers at this moment in England—and besides these, I am in a
position to state that there cannot be less than one million persons
who would be glad of permanent employment at reasonable wages—I do
not think we have much to boast of. Besides, does anyone doubt that
if the French Emperor were possessed of our illimitable colonies,
with their endless varieties of climate, he would very soon transfer
his surplus population to them, and be very glad of the chance? And
we ought to consider the cost of our paupers. Let us take it at
10_l._ a head per annum. As a matter of economy, it would pay very
well to capitalise this tax, and at two years’ purchase we could
deport large numbers in great comfort, and thus save a good deal of
money to the ratepayers, even supposing none of the money were ever
refunded; but I hope to show how that amount would be more than
repaid. But I suppose that some people will say, ‘Your system, then,
is transportation?’ My answer might be, ‘If you are not ashamed to
impose the humiliating and unpleasant condition which you at present
force upon an applicant for relief, surely when you have satisfied
yourselves that his lot will be much happier and brighter in the new
home which you offer him, all your compunctions should vanish.’”

I have ventured to quote Colonel Maude at length, because he is a man thoroughly conversant with the subject he treats of, and all that he asserts may be implicitly relied on. And still once again I am tempted to let another speak for me what perhaps I should speak for myself—the concluding words of this my last chapter. My justification is, that all that the writer expresses is emphatically also my opinion; and I am quite conscious of my inability to convey it in terms at once so graphic and forcible. The gentleman to whom I am indebted is the writer of a leader in the _Times_:

“Here is a mass of unwilling pauperism, stranded, so to speak, by a
receding tide of prosperity on the barren shores of this metropolis.
Something must be done with it. The other object is more important,
but not so pressing. It is, that people who cannot get on well at
home, and who find all their difficulties amounting only to this—that
they have not elbow-room, and that the ground is too thickly
occupied—should be directed and even educated to follow the
instructions of Providence, and go to where there is room for them.
There is no reason why every child in this kingdom should not have
the arguments for and against emigration put before it in good time,
before it arrives at the age when choice is likely to be
precipitated, and change of mind rendered difficult. Children in
these days are taught many things, and there really seems no reason
why they should not be taught something about the colonies, in which
five millions of the British race are now prospering, increasing, and
multiplying, not to speak of the United States. But we must return
to the object more immediately pressing. It is surrounded by
difficulties, as was confessed at the Mansion House, and as is
evident on the facts of the case. But we believe it to be a case for
combined operation. Everything seems to be ready—the good men who
will take the trouble, the agency, the willing guardians, the public
departments, or, at least, their functionaries—and the colonics will
not complain if we send them men willing to work, even though they
may have to learn new trades. The Boards of Guardians and the
Government will contribute, as they have contributed. But they
cannot, in sound principle, do more. The public must come forward.
Sorry as we are to say the word, there is no help for it. This is
not a local, it is a national affair. Chance has thrown these poor
people where they are. It would be a good opportunity thrown away,
if this work were not done out of hand, one may say. Here are some
thousands attracted to the metropolis by its specious promises of a
long and solid prosperity. They cannot go back. They must now be
passed on. Where else to but to the colonies?

“It must be evident by this time to the poor people themselves that
they may wait and wait for years and years without getting the
employment that suits them best. The metropolitan ratepayers are
losing temper, and making themselves heard. The colonies are all
calling for more men and more women, and more children approaching
the age of work. Several members of the Government attended the
meeting, either in person or by letter, with promises of money,
advice, and aid. There is the encouragement of successful millions,
who within our own lifetime have established themselves all over the
world. Every cause that operated forty years ago operates now with
tenfold force. At that date the only notion of an emigrant was a
rough, misanthropical sort of man, who had read _Robinson Crusoe_,
and who fancied a struggle for existence in some remote corner, with
a patch of land, some small cattle, constant hardships, occasional
disasters and discoveries, welcome or otherwise. It was not doubted
for a moment that arts and sciences and accomplishments must be left
behind. There could be no Muses or Graces in that nether world. The
lady, so devoted as to share her husband’s fortune in that
self-exile, would have to cook, bake, brew, wash, sew, mend, and
darn, if indeed she could spare time from the still more necessary
toil of getting something eatable out of the earth, the river, or the
sea. That was the prevailing picture of emigrant life; and when
missionary tracts and Mr. Burford’s dioramas indicated houses,
streets, and public buildings, it was still surmised that these were
flattering anticipations of what there was to be, just as one may see
rows of semi-detached villas, picturesque drives, shrubberies,
miniature lakes, and gothic churches in the window of a land-agent’s
office, representing the golden futurity of a site now covered by
cattle or corn. Forty years have passed, and where there might be
then a few hard settlers, there are now cities, towns, and villages
which England might be proud of; railways, and every possible
application of art and science on a scale often exceeding our own.
Large congregations meet in handsome churches, stocks and shares are
bought and sold, machinery rattles and whizzes, ladies walk through
show-rooms full of the last Parisian fashions, dinners are given
worthy of our clubs, and operas are performed in a style worthy of
Covent Garden, in places where, forty, years ago, men were eating
each other.”

* * * * *

THE END.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Second Edition, price 7s. 6_d._, nearly ready,

ROBERTS ON BILLIARDS.

BY JOHN ROBERTS,
CHAMPION OF ENGLAND.

EDITED BY HENRY BUCK,

_Author of_ “_The Board of Green Cloth_.”

WITH TWENTY DIAGRAMS, SHOWING IN A NOVEL MANNER
THE MODE OF “PLAYING BREAKS.”

CONTENTS.
CHAP. CHAP.
I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. XII. CANNONS.
II. STANDARD GAMES: ENGLISH. XIII. PLAYING BREAKS.
III. „ AMERICAN. XIV. A PRACTICAL LESSON.
IV. „ FRENCH. XV. POOL AND PYRAMIDS.
V. INCIDENTS IN MY CAREER. XVI. BETTING AND
CUSTOMARY
REGULATIONS.
VI. SCREW AND THE SIDE TWIST. XVII. CURIOSITIES OF THE
GAME.
VII. PLAYERS I HAVE MET. XVIII. HANDICAPS.
VIII. ROOMS AND TABLES. XIX. DEFINITIONS OF
TERMS.
IX. STRENGTH. XX. RULES: ENGLISH,
AMERICAN, FRENCH.
X. LOSING HAZARDS. XXI. CELEBRATED MATCHES.
XI. WINNING HAZARDS. XXII. SHARP PRACTITIONERS.

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