Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu/167

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AND COLONIZATION.
153

grations of this character are not calculated to give much relief; as it is only able-bodied people, and in good circumstances, who can leave the country at their own expense, while the poor and helpless are left behind; so that emigration, in order to be beneficial, will require to be taken up as a public measure. If the country were thus relieved of its surplus population, I am perfectly satisfied that the introduction of an improved system of agriculture would go very far to prevent such a visitation as we are afflicted with at present.'"

A similar state of appalling destitution prevails also in the parish of Sleat in the same island, where a public meeting, convened for the purpose of taking into consideration the actual condition of the parish on the 22nd of December, 1836, sum up their report with the following observations:

"With respect to the application of a remedy, to prevent a recurrence of such painful circumstances in future, the meeting see none, except emigration. The country is altogether adapted for pasture, and suited only for a limited population: when the population exceeds these limits, poverty and distress must ensue. It appears to the meeting, that neither manufactures nor fishing could be introduced with advantage; great distance from the raw material, and also from a con-