when this should be done it would appear that though London consumers paid less than before for their coals, Great Britain suffered serious damage? The discovery made, Parliament would quickly either impose a protectionist duty to shut out French coal, or pass an emigration bill to remove the surplus population elsewhere.
Fair trade offers certain methods of adjusting the difficulty we have been considering. Mr. Ecroyd has lucidly stated and exhaustively exposed all the most telling and useful facts and arguments of the new economical school. It is enough to observe in their regard that the methods suggested, even did the country at once close with these doctrines, must take long years to put into practice, while, in the meantime, trade and social difficulties thicken, and the Registrar General will continue to report such and such weekly excesses of births over deaths. What is wanted is something that can be done without delay.
The free trade policy cannot be reversed in a hurry, and if it could be, difficulties of a fresh, very perplexing class would have to be faced; but systematic migration[1] from this portion to another portion of the Queen's dominions, of superabundant mouths, might be organized and begun this Session. The work can evidently only be undertaken on any effectual scale by the State, for the very phrase "surplus population". implies not surplus capital but surplus labour. Those whom it is desirable to remove are such as are willing to go, who would usually be persons without resources beyond their industry, without settled occupation at' home, which in itself inclines a man to stay and let well alone. To remove such people would benefit them, but it would be losing time to argue from that point of view. The principal motive for State intervention is that the State would be greatly benefited, and this result would follow, first, from the departure of persons who, whether there is or is not work for them must, according to law, be maintained, and are in fact maintained by the rest of the community; second, by selecting a British colony as their home; lastly, by securing there without cost a valuable source of revenue that cannot fail to lighten the burdens borne by British taxpayers. Clearly, the Colony must be chosen, at all events for inaugurating the system, which, possessing social and climatic requisites, is nearest, and so accessible at least expense, viz., the Dominion of Canada.
- ↑ This is a felicitous expression of Mr. James Lowther, M.P.
