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Whereas, with a little assistance and encourage ment, which is often of more real use than money, they may soon recover their health, strength, and spirits; and with proper advice with respect to the disposal of themselves, they may, in a short time, become useful citizens.

meal to make her some water-gruel, which the hard-hearted republican bashaw refused, though he, every day, washed his own vulgar visage and hands in oatmeal and water! By mere chance, none of them died at sea. Arrived at Philadelphia, they went on shore; but, in the dirty and diseased state to which they were reduced, they were thrusted from every door they attempted to enter. The whole of the hundred pounds, the earnings of their lives, had been paid to the Captain for their passage to "the land flowing with milk and honey." Thus pennyless and sick, they dragged their miserable carcasses out to the huts upon the commons, inhabited by negroes, where, after many vain solicitations, they obtained permission of a negro woman, to sleep upon her earthen floor for one night. Luckily for them a journeyman, who worked for an English master, happened to go by, and to be informed of their situation, which he made known to his master the next morning. This master, who was an intimate friend of mine, immediately repaired to the spot. He found them all sick, and starving. He immediately took a small house, and had them removed to it. The trustees of the Infirmary sent a doctor to attend them. My friend set on foot a subscription. The St. George's Society contributed a considerable sum; and the Captain of the vessel, seeing the poor creatures had found friends, thought it prudent to pay thirty dollars to save himself from a prosecution for his cruelty. If I recollect right, three of the children died, and I saw the man and several of the children sick in bed some weeks after their arrival. It was by mere accident, that any part of this family was preserved from death. Not that the Philadelphians are wanting in acts of humanity; on the contrary, they are very humane; but, it was not their duty to maintain these interlopers, and had it been so, the people would have been dead before any parish-officer would have heard of their situation. What punishment can be too severe for him, who can coolly set about exposing people to misery like this? Of all human beings, the most wicked and detestable are the land-jobbers of America and their agents in England.

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For, I would observe, that the benefit of this institution is not confined to giving pecuniary assistance to emigrants. Advice how to dispose of themselves to the most advantage, directions to cheap places of accommodation, some care to see that they are not imposed upon, and especially directions where to find employment, are often of much more use to them than money. And the persons who give their attention to the business of this institution are particularly assiduous in this respect; and by this means contribute more to its real utility than those who only give money. Few persons, however, are qualified to serve the institution in this way. They can only give money. But this money, in the hands of persons who can give their time, and employ their knowledge of the country to this purpose, will be of unspeak ably more use, than if it had been given by themselves as mere charity. For this, without putting the poor emigrant in the way of providing for himself, would soon be expended; and then he would be as destitute as ever. And if there was no public institution to which he could have recourse, conducted by persons qualified to give him the best advice, he would be reduced to the necessity of begging from door to door, and thereby become a nuisance, instead of a benefit, to society.

Hence then we see the use of a public institution, which being generally known, necessitous emigrants will of course be directed to it; and thus none of their time will be lost, or their money needlessly expended.* But no institution of this kind can be supported without funds, as well as proper officers; and therefore this institution, the utility of which is so apparent, has a just claim to

*The Emigration Society is here meant. A set of sharpers, employed by the land-jobbers.

VOL. IX.

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the benefactions of those who wish to employ what they can spare to the most advantage, for the service of their fellow creatures.

2. The present calamitous and oppressed state of Europe should more particularly draw the kind attention of the inhabitants of this country to the emigrants from that part of the world. Europe is not only overburdened with poor, but oppressed with servitude; so that the poor are not only unable to subsist by their labour, but lie under great restrictions with respect to civil and religious liberty. They are even, in a great measure, deprived of the satisfaction of expressing their feelings, of making complaints, or applying for redress of their grievances.*

Many persons of better condition in those countries, especially in Great Britain and Ireland, unable to bear the encroachments that are continually making on their liberties, civil and religious, and despairing of doing any good by any exertions of theirs, are note coming hither, bringing with them very considerable capitals, by which this country is enriched. In consequence of the purchases that foreigners of various descriptions, and especially those of this

How false this is all the world knows; but, methinks, the Doctor might have been silent upon the restrictions on religious liberty, at a time when he was kept out of every pulpit in. Philadelphia, not excepting those of the Baptists, and the Muggletonians, and when the Emigration Society were obliged to hire for him the room in which he was then prating, which was, however let to them upon the express condition, that he should not inculcate his deistical doctrine. To this hour he has never been able to get a meeting-house in America. His congregation at Northumberland consists of half a dozen Negroes, himself, and family.-What a satire on the inhabitants of Hackney!

+ The Doctor alludes here to the son of Mr. ERSKINE, and others of the same stamp. These men "despair of doing any good here." May their despair end but with their lives!

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class, who have the greatest confidence in this government, are making, the price of your lands is daily rising, and your labourers and artisans are getting higher wages. This circumstance adding much to the wealth of the country in general, you are better able, out of the emolument accruing to yourselves from European persecution, to assist those who are distressed in consequence of it. The poor emigrant, therefore, in fact, only asks of you some part of that which you have gained by his more opulent brethren. These more opulent emigrants will, no doubt, exert themselves in behalf of their distressed countrymen; but it is not reasonable that the whole of the burden should lie upon them. Many of them suffer considerably in their fortunes by the disadvantageous sale of their property in Europe, and THE GREATER EXPENSE

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AT WHICH THEY ARE OBLIGED TO LIVE HERE.

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Let those, then, whose ancestors, if not themselves, were driven from Europe, by the same spirit of persecution which still prevails there, feel for those who are now in a similar situation; though it must be acknowledged, and with gratitude, that they now come with much better prospects. America is not at this day, as it was then, an inhospitable desert, or inhabited only by savages, at whose mercy they were, and of whom they consequently lived in continual dread; finding there nothing but that liberty which they wanted at home, but destitute of every thing else. But even then the natives of this country, before their jealousy was excited, and their passions inflamed, by the improper conduct of Europeans, afforded

* Mark this well. This is a proof of the cheap living, which so many discontented fools go to America to find. Let them go. Let the winter freeze them, and the summer thaw them, and the sun" draw their honours reeking up to Heaven."

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much relief to some of the first settlers, and behaved to them with great kindness. America is now, to a great degree, peopled by Europeans, who have formed an excellent constitution of free government, having learned, by the example of the governments of Europe, what to aim at, and what to avoid, in their own institutions, and they are flourishing in all respects to a degree that was never known in any part of the world before.*

For this you are indebted to a good providence, seconding your virtuous and strenuous endeavours, in your late hard but successful struggle for liberty. Receive, then, with open arms, those who, at a distance, were praying for your success, and in various ways, though not by fighting, contributing to it, and for which they now suffer. For the crime of wishing well to the liberty and independence of America will never be forgiven by the Court of Great Britain. The friends of America in Europe

*This was said in 1797. The Doctor has changed his opinion since. See the Trial of Republicanism, where he is shown to have declared just the contrary of what he here asserts.

This passage, which is composed partly of truth, and partly of falsehood, requires some comment.-The rebellion, the Doctor styles a "virtuous struggle for liberty;" and he says, that the emigrants, amongst whom he certainly includes himself, "were praying for its success, and, in various ways, contri"tributing to it." This is very true, but the Doctor never confessed it so freely till he reached the transatlantic shore, and Mr. Johnson of St. Paul's Church Yard has taken care never to publish the confession in England, even to this day. But here the Doctor ceases to speak truth. He says, that he and his brother emigrants now (in 1797) suffer for having prayed for, and contributed to, the success of the American rebellion, and " the "crime of wishing well to the liberty and independence of Ame"rica, will never be forgiven by the Court of Great Britain." What an atrocious falsehood! That the crime ought never to be forgiven, until the criminals have received punishment, is certain; but, that any attempt, either direct or indirect, has ever been made, by the Court of Great Britain, to punish them, is the most impudent falsehood that ever dropped from

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