THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN 
 
 IN 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN 
 
 IN 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 g. Scvics of |)apcrs gcaling imih iln Subject of 
 JforetcfiT pauper Immiciration 
 
 AREAXC-ED AND EPITED BY 
 
 ARNOLD AVHITE 
 
 ilontion 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 
 New Yoek: CHAELES SCEIBNEE'S SONS 
 1892
 
 
 BrTi.Kii ,i Taxner, 
 
 TUE SeLWOOI) PlilNTIXG WoKKS, 
 
 Fkome, axd Loxdox.
 
 URL ^^ , 
 
 or 
 
 5 A FUTURE volume will deal with the economical bear- 
 
 -^ ing, American example, and medical and sanitary 
 aspect of Free Immigration ; also with the Jewish 
 question and recent events in Russia. 
 ^ Illness and compulsory absence from England have 
 ^ rendered it impossible for me to complete the ar- 
 cj rangements for bringing out the work as a whole 
 within the limits of time prescribed by expediency. 
 I have to thank my friend Mr. C. 13. Shaw for 
 ^ his good offices in seeing this volnme through the 
 2 press. 
 
 A. W. 
 
 :i8H<^2H
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. LxTRODucTOKY. By Amold White ... 1 
 
 II. The Huguenot and Flemish Lwasiox. Bj 
 
 C. B, Shaw 5 
 
 III. Should Goverxjiext Ixtegeere ? By Monta- 
 gue Crackanthorpe, G.C 39 
 
 I\^ The Moral Aspect. By the Rev. G. S. Eeaney 71 
 
 V. Statutoky axd Oeeictal Piiovisioxs. By C. J. 
 
 Follett, C.B 100 
 
 VI. Tjie liiPEKiAL Aspect. By W. A. McArthur, 
 
 M-P m 
 
 VII. The Italiax Aspect. By W. H. Wilkins . . 146 
 
 VIIT Foreign- Pauper Ijiiiigratiox. By S. H. Jeyes 1(58
 
 THE 
 
 DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 INTRODUCTOIIY. 
 
 BY ARNOLD WHITE. 
 
 The grow til of population and the pressure of existence 
 within these islands have occasioned, for some con- 
 siderable time past, anxiety on the part of those in 
 search of remedies for the evil conditions under which 
 so many of our fellow-subjects are compelled to toil. 
 Among the causes that have not yet received adequate 
 and dispassionate examination, is the flow of foreign 
 labour to our great towns, with its moral, physical, 
 and economical effects on the native population. 
 Throughout the civilized, and in parts of the un- 
 civilized world, a strange movement is taking place 
 towards the crystallization of national life from native 
 elements only, and the rejection of those alien con- 
 stituents which, since the fall of Rome, have generally 
 been considered desirable for the creation of perfect 
 national existence. This movement is no less marked 
 in the United States of America than in Russia, 
 or even in Arabia itself. The increased and increasing 
 stringency of the conditions under which Castle 
 
 B
 
 THE DESTITUTE A J.I EN IX GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Garden permits the entry of the Irish^ Hungarian 
 or Italian proletariat, finds a parallel in the renais- 
 sance of orthodoxy in Russia. The disfav'our into 
 which heterodox faiths have there fallen, under the 
 iron hand and strong convictions of the Attorney- 
 General of the Holy Synod, and the consequent 
 alliance of those forces of ignorance and of strength 
 that have hitherto occupied a dominant position in the 
 history of modern Russia, are proiluci ng much the 
 same effects as the anti-alienism of the United States. 
 In Mahommedan countries too, this note of national 
 revival is no less dominant than in lands where faith 
 is less effectual to stir the harmonies of nationalism 
 than self-interest, as in the case of the United States; 
 ambition, as in France; or the memory of a glorious 
 but vanished past, as in Portugal. Arabia, and a large 
 part of Central Africa, have recently become the scene 
 of a violent insurrection against the foreign element, 
 and a consequent drawing nigh of those who hold 
 undimmed the original doctrine of I^Eohammed. 
 
 England, thanks to the Huguenots, Mr. Cobden, 
 the Slave Trade, the Jews, and an inherent capacity 
 for taking lai'ge views of grave national questions, has 
 been the last country in all the world to question, 
 or even to examine, the doctrine that uninteri'upted 
 ingress for men, v/omon, and merchandise o£ other 
 nations, is essential to and advantageous to her 
 national life. There are, however, no longer wanting
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 signs that tlie reign of this dogma is not to continue 
 without challenge. Two phenomena combine to render 
 a critical examination of the effects of the doctrine 
 of free entry of all human beings not only inevitable 
 but indispensable. The first of these phenomena 
 is the attitude of the citizens of the United States 
 towards the whole subject of immigration^ and the 
 other is, the revival in Russia of the Middle-Age 
 methods of dealing with the Jewish question. The 
 first of these phenomena has set men thinking how 
 far a policy of free immigration that is bad for the 
 United States, with its vast and but partially occupied 
 territory, can be good for the United Kingdom with 
 its daily increasing population and diminishing capa- 
 city for the production of its own food. The second is 
 the recent Russian practice of harrying the poor Jews 
 until they fly their country in sheer despair, thus 
 creating a centrifugal force for the distribution of 
 needy and unskilled workers, which has already 
 affected Great Britain, and cannot fail to affect her 
 in the future to a still greater extent. 
 
 So far as Great Britain is concerned, the question 
 is unlikely to be settled without a more thorough 
 examination into the facts than has yet been made. 
 The House of Commons Committee on Immigration 
 touched but the fringe of the subject, and seemed 
 more interested in demonstrating that those who 
 wished to restrict and regulate immigration desired
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN hX GREAT nRJlAlK. 
 
 to attack the civil and religious liberty now happily 
 accorded to the Jews, than in bringing out the true 
 physical, moral and economical results of the system 
 as now followed in England. 
 
 The Sweating Committee of the Ilonse of Lords 
 refused to accept direct evidence bearing on the sub- 
 ject, for fear of trenching on the rights and privileges 
 of tlie Commons Committee, which was concurrently 
 occupied in tlie ostensible examination of the immi- 
 gration question. The consequence is lliat while the 
 country thinks the subject has been fairly considered, 
 nothing has taken place but a fruitless wrangle on 
 the Jewish question, which has nothing whatever to 
 do with the matter. 
 
 Accordingly, it is my intention to endeavour to 
 place before the public practical information provided 
 by experts on the various points from which the whole 
 subject may be regarded. The present volume is but 
 an instalment of the whole work.
 
 TtlE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 
 
 By C. B. Shaw. 
 
 TtiB discovery of printing", with the impulse thereby 
 given to religious and politica,! thought^ although in 
 the end of incalculable advantage to mankind, was, 
 by strange contrast with the blessings it conferred, a 
 principal factor in the persecutions inflicted on the 
 Protestants throughout Europe in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries. 
 
 During the long night of the middle ages science 
 and letters had fallen into decay, and the Church, 
 far from struggling against the mental darkness pre- 
 vailing, had done its best to maintain it. The austere 
 and penitential devotions of the early Christians had 
 been gradually succeeded by perverted doctrines, 
 sacerdotal tyranny, and ceremonials strangely allied 
 to pagan rites; and while the mass of the people 
 were the slaves of the Church in mind and body, 
 the clergy themselves were so degraded that purity 
 of manners and ecclesiastical rules were alike dis- 
 regarded. A large proportion of the laud was in 
 the hands of the Church, exempt from any corre- 
 sponding duty or obligation to the State; yet so
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 insatiable was tlie greed of tliat Sacred Institution 
 that it would soon have absorbed the whole wealth of 
 Europe had not the secular governments interposed. 
 In the pulpit preachers confined their exhortations 
 to alms-giving, pilgrimages^ and the obtaining of 
 religious indulgences, the traffic in the latter being 
 carried to such a pitch that papal pardons were sold 
 in parts of Christendom openly in the streets and to 
 the sound of the drum. Seminaries of learning, widely 
 scattered, and manuscripts, costly and difficult to 
 obtain, were the only resources of literary culture ; 
 the voices of the few pious and enlightened souls 
 who laboured for letters in the retirement of cloister 
 or study being inaudible to the masses for want of 
 proper channels of communication. False traditions 
 in history, amazing superstitions in religion, universal 
 belief in astrology, and barbarous punishment for 
 heresy — even for offences against the Church un- 
 intentionally committed — marked the degradation of 
 the age. 
 
 Such, then, was the condition of France — which, like 
 the rest of Europe, had lain for centuries mute and 
 despairing before the impassable barrier of bigotry 
 and ignorance — when the wooden blocks of Laurence 
 Coster, and the metal types of Gutenberg and his 
 fellow workmen, proclaimed to the world, at first in 
 the reserved and doubtful language of experiment, 
 but finally in the bold and confident voice of assured
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND ELEMISIl JNl'ASION. 
 
 EuccesSj the dawn of laodera liberty and the emanci- 
 pation of the human mind. 
 
 The efforts of the printers were at first slow and 
 laborious^ the Mazarin Bible taking some seven or 
 eight years to finish; but copies of the Scriptures 
 and ancient authors were in course of time widely 
 distributed and eagerly read. Luther, Zwingle, and 
 other ardent spirits began to preach the doctrines of 
 the Eeformation, including the Supremacy of the 
 Written Word — now brought within the reach of all, 
 and the Church of Rome, jealous of the new crusade, 
 commenced its onslaught against preachers, printers, 
 and books alike. 
 
 In spite, however, of persecutions and prohibitions, 
 books multiplied, and the reformers gained numberless 
 converts. The ranks of the Lutherans were swelled 
 not merely by the poor and lowly, but members 
 of princely houses, nobles, priests, and earnest sup- 
 poi'ters of the Catholic hierarchy rallied to their 
 standard. 
 
 So electrical were the effects of the religions reform, 
 that at length the very foundations of the Papacy be- 
 gan to totter. The more politic men of the day, 
 alive to the signs of the approaching storm, tried to 
 allay it by recalling the Church to a sense of its own 
 position, and by urging the introduction of timely re- 
 formsj but without avail. The Holy See, either from 
 stupidity or incorrigible pride, turned a deaf ear to
 
 niE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 the counsel of its friends^ aud betook itself to those 
 measures whicli were soon to make its name a terror 
 and a reproach to humanity. 
 
 Meaux^ from its proximity to tlie then Flemish 
 frontier^ and other circumstances that favoured the 
 transmission of influences from the north^ was the 
 first town in France to respond to the new movement. 
 Guillaume Brigonnet, the Bishop of the Meaux, joined 
 heartily in it_, and by offering the pulpits of his 
 absentee clergy to Lefevre, Farcl^ and other discij^les 
 of Luther, and distributing copies of the Bible among 
 the workshops, soon made his diocese a centre of 
 dissent. Other places followed the lead of Meaux, 
 and as the conversions spread, attendances at mass 
 naturally fell off and Church revenues declined. 
 The Sorbonue — -the Faculty of Theology at Paris, and 
 the inspiring author of many a cruel edict — there- 
 upon petitioned Parliament to interpose its authority, 
 with the result that partisans of the pernicious 
 doctrines were persecuted wherever found, those who 
 were unable to save themselves by flight being burnt 
 alive. The execution of the Placardists and the 
 butchery of the A'audois were farther instances of 
 the Church's '^ discipline ; ^^ but towards the end 
 of the reign of Francis I., says Do Felice, '"the 
 movement had made such extended strides that it 
 was impossible to follow its course in all its wind- 
 ings . . . there was in the minds aud hearts of
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 
 
 \Yni\\y even in the air tliey breathed^ au overwhelming 
 desire for religious reform.'' 
 
 The term '^llugueuot/' wliatevcv its origin^ soon 
 became the distinctive appellation of the advocates of 
 the new propaganda^ who, for the next hundred years 
 at least, were destined to play so important a part 
 in French history. The elements of order were intro- 
 duced into their hitherto defective organization, and 
 Calvin took the place of Luther as the apostle of 
 French Protestantism. 
 
 AVithin the limits prescribed me it is only possible 
 briefly to sketch the chain of circumstances that 
 eventually led to the exodus of the French Protes- 
 tants. No impartial writer, however, can touch upon 
 the history of that period without observing that in 
 the course of their bitter struggle, they were moved 
 by political as well as by religious considerations. 
 Many men of great influence, who were disaff'ected 
 towards the Government, or jealous of the court fac- 
 tion, joined the Huguenots in the hope of furthering 
 political aims ; indeed, so iiumerous and important were 
 the accessions to their ranks, from one cause and 
 another, that for a time it looked as if the supremo 
 authority wero likely to fall into their hands — a fact 
 which goes I'ar to explaiu, although it does not excuse, 
 the part played both by Church and State in the 
 measures adopted to destroy them. 
 
 The royal decree of 1 5G2, guaranteeing liberty of
 
 lo THE DESTITUIE ALIEX EV GREAT BRITAEX. 
 
 worship to IVotestants^ having been openly set at de- 
 fiance by the Catholics, and the massacre of Vassy, 
 followed by the destruction of Protestant Churches, 
 having provoked reprisals, France became for a time 
 the theatre of civil war. 
 
 Sheer exhaustion on both sides at len!2:th brouofht 
 the conflict to an end, and the treaty of St. Germains 
 was signed; but the peace proved of short duration. 
 The Queen Mother, Catherine do ]\Iedecis, laying 
 aside her terapoi'izing policy, now went entirely over 
 to the Guise party, and, with the assistance of foreign 
 counsellors, fresh schemes were devised for the ex- 
 tirpation of heretics. The marriage of Henry of 
 Navarre became the occasion of the treacherous 
 assassination of Admiral Coligny and the oft-recounted 
 Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. For four days the 
 streets of Paris ran with the blood of those who were 
 bidden to Catherine's hideous /e^^/o. But this was not 
 enough : the provinces also were made to contribute 
 their share to the blood-offering ; for six weeks simi- 
 lar scenes were enacted throughout the length and 
 breadth of France, and a hundi'ed thousand Huguenots 
 paid the penalty of heresy. To commemorate the 
 event a medal was struck, wliich bore the strange 
 device, "Piety has awakened justice." 
 
 The wars of the League which followed these bar- 
 barous acts were only terminated on the accession of 
 Henry of Navarre to the throne, and in lOOH the pro-
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND ELEMISH INVASION. ii 
 
 mulgatiou of the Edict of Nautes onco more accorded 
 to Protestants liberty of conscience and of worship. 
 The freedom they enjoyed was^ however, but short- 
 Hved; for, on the assassination of the king, religious 
 discord again broke loose, and for years the Huguenots 
 were the victims of ever varying acts of persecution. 
 
 After the siege of Rochclle, Avhere the English 
 twice iguominiously failed to relievo their Protestant 
 allies, the Huguenots ceased to exist as an armed 
 force or a political party. Being treated in a more 
 tolerant spirit by Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, 
 they showed a wise discretion, stood resolutely 
 aloof from civil broils, and if they took up arms at 
 all, it was, as has been acknowledged, almost in- 
 variably on the side of loyalty. Colbert, the enlight- 
 ened minister of Louis XIV., also protected them as 
 far as he dared ; and, although daring his lifetime 
 they were subject to disabilities and indignities against 
 which he frequently protested, it was not till after his 
 death, and mainly under the evil influences of the 
 triumvirate consisting of Pero la Chaise, Prime 
 Minister Louvois, and Madame de Maintenon, that 
 those persecutions were renewed which crushed them 
 in countless numbers, and denuded France of the 
 flower of her population. 
 
 Had the Huguenots been treated with leniency 
 they would have remained loyal and industrious 
 subjects of the crown, and France would not have
 
 12 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 had occasion to bewail the loss to her commerce, 
 industries, and wealth, to which their dispersion con- 
 demned her. Bat the persecutions directed against 
 them after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 
 1G85, passed the bounds of human endurance. Pro- 
 hibition of all forms of Protestant worship, destruction 
 of churches, abduction of children, wholesale con- 
 versions at the point of the sword, dragonnades 
 which spared neither sex nor ago, dungeons for the 
 men, convent prisons for the women, every means 
 that subtlety could devise or tyranny caiTy out, were 
 adopted by the " Great Monarch " and his Christian 
 agents to stamp out heresy and make Franco the 
 untainted rival of Catholic Spain. 
 
 Before the Pevocatiou, Colbert cautioned Louis 
 against the effects of his insane policy. '^ I am sorry 
 to say it," he observed, ^'but too many of your 
 Majesty's subjects are already among your neighbours 
 as footmen and valets for their daily bread ; many of 
 the artisans, too, are lied from the severity of your 
 collectors, and arc at this time improving the manu- 
 factures of your enemies " — ^tho J'juglish to wit. 
 
 Penalties were now enacted, against which " con- 
 version " was the only door of escape to those who 
 wished to remain in Prance ; but the spirit of the 
 Huguenot rebelled against so mean an evasion. He 
 would suffer death, or serve in the galleys, he would 
 leave his kindred, his wealth, even the country of his
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND ELEMfSII INVASION. i' 
 
 birth — wliich to a Frenclimixn has ever been the 
 symbol of his adoration, his devout conception of 
 God's choicest work — all these he would renounce 
 with manly resignation, but betray his conscience he 
 would not. 
 
 It was the same in Flanders. Causes similar to 
 those that brought about the flight of the Huguenots, 
 and which are fully described in the brilliant pages 
 of Motley, induced the Flemings who professed the 
 l^rotestant faith to leave their country and seek in 
 Holland, Germany and England that liberty of wor- 
 ship and personal freedom which were denied them 
 at home. The Church of liome, acting in concert 
 with the civil rulers, had adopted the same infamous 
 processes against the Protestants in the Flemish 
 tlominions of Philip IT. (with the added terrors of 
 the Holy Inquisition) as characterized the persecution 
 of the Reformed Church in France ; and the results 
 were in the two countries almost identical. Antwerp, 
 which is said to have done more business in one 
 month than Venice in two years when at the very 
 height of her grandeur, became deserted ; Bruges 
 and Ghent, abandoned by their respectable citizens. 
 Catholic as well as Protestant, became crowded with 
 thieves and paupers, and the whole trade of Flanders 
 was ruined. As in the case of the Huguenots the 
 Flemish Protestants carried to the countries which 
 gave them asylum, England among the number, the
 
 14 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 skill, tlie intelligence and the industry that liad made 
 their own country rich and prosperous. 
 
 Whilst the capitulation of Hochelle sealed the fate 
 of the Iluguenots as a political party, the Revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes put an end to such vestiges 
 of religious freedom as the dragoons of Louis XIV., 
 and the tender regard of the Jesuits for their spiritual 
 welfare, liad failed to confiscate. Many men of dis- 
 tinction fled to Holland, among others Jurieu, the 
 professor of Hebrew and Theology at the Protestant 
 University of Sedan, and Iluyghens, the Astronomer 
 and Mathematician. Some few, for the sake of ser- 
 vices rendered to tlieir country, were exceptionally 
 favoured by being freely permitted to leave it and 
 settle elsewhere. Among these were Marshal Schora- 
 berg, a man of distinguished family and high military 
 capacity, who subsequently served under William, 
 Prince of Orange, and was killed at the ])attle of 
 the Boyne, also the Marquis de Puvigny, whose son 
 entered the English service and became Earl of 
 Galway. Admiral Duquesnc, '^ the first sailor in 
 Erance," was, in consequence of his groat age, 
 allowed to end his days in his native country. His 
 two sons went to Holland. 
 
 Bnt means of escape became daily more difficult. 
 The sea-coast and inland frontiers were jealously 
 guarded, and those who were captured by the king's 
 scouts were treated with the- ntmost barbarity. The
 
 THE IlUGUEXOr AXD FLEMISH INVASION. 15 
 
 men, old and young, were condemned to instant 
 death, or to the galleys for life. Servants who aided 
 and abetted the escape of their masters were flogged 
 and branded Avith the fleur-de-lis, the emblem of 
 French Sovereignty ; magistrates, merchants, pastors, 
 peasants, all alike were forced to make long marches, 
 sometimes in chains, and in the company of thieves 
 and cut-throats, and were urged along, did they but 
 falter by the way, with blows and imprecations ; women 
 were torn from their husbands, and children from 
 their mothers' breasts. It is a relief to read that 
 in many instances the priests themselves revolted 
 against the unnecessary cruelties the Protestants 
 were made to suffer, and endeavoured to assuage their 
 lot. The women, even those who had been bred in 
 luxury and refinement, faced hardship, and resorted 
 to every conceivable disguise in attempting to escape. 
 They cut off their hair, disfigured their faces with 
 juices and d^'es that coloured and blistered their 
 skins, dressed themselves like men, assumed the 
 character of lackeys or peasants, drew wheel- 
 barrovrs, carried manure, walked hundreds of miles 
 through snow and mud, enduring with unmurmuring 
 fortitude hunger and thirst, every imaginable priva- 
 tion, rather than abjure their faith or submit to the 
 tyranny of their oppressors. Those who were dis- 
 covered and arrested were thrown into prison or 
 immured in convents. Persons of gentle birth,
 
 1 6 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN ]N GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 pregnant women, old men, cliildren and invalids, 
 many ^Yho liad "never seen the sea before, braved its 
 perils, and entrusted themselves in open boats in 
 their eagerness to escape. They fled in French, 
 English and Dutch merchant vessels, hidden under 
 bales of goods, heaps of coals, and in empty casks. 
 Other instances might bo mentioned of courage and 
 fortitude, of dangers faced and hardships undergone 
 by Protestants of both sexes and all ages in their 
 efforts to escape rather than endure tlie ignominy of 
 conversion, or the debasing terms on wliicli im- 
 munity from persecution was to be purchased; but 
 enough has been said to show the spirit of our foreign 
 settlers. 
 
 That the Huguenots were loyal when treated with 
 clemency is shown by their conduct^ during the wars 
 of the Fronde, by their refusal to assist the Duke of 
 Montmorency in his endeavour to excite rebellion in 
 Languedoc, and by their action at Kochellc when they 
 supported the licgent against their own governor. 
 Louis XIV., too, had actually thanked them at the 
 beginning of his reign "for the consistent manner 
 in which they had supported the royal authority." 
 '^riiat they were laborious, honest and enterprising is 
 shown by the condition of Franco before and after 
 their flight. ]jouis Blanc says of them that " they 
 made France an industrial power," and that the term 
 Protestant was ^^ synonymous with wealth." To be
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 17 
 
 '^lonest as a Huguenot/' moreover, became a pro- 
 verb. Being excluded from civil and political offices 
 on account of their religion, the Huguenots had 
 devoted themselves to industrial pursuits, and were 
 the best farmers, wine-growers, merchants and man- 
 ufacturers in France. The heaviest crops were to be 
 found on Huguenot farms, the finest woollen cloth 
 was of their manufacture, and so, also, were many 
 other articles largely exported to England and 
 Holland. Their paper mills were the best in Europe, 
 and the steel and iron industries of Sedan were known 
 far and wide. "If the Nimes merchants are bad 
 Catholics, at any rate they have not ceased to bo good 
 traders,^' once wrote one of their bitterest persecutors. 
 Smiles attributes much of their success in business 
 to the fact that their time"_ was less broken into by 
 feast and fast days than in the case of the Catholics, 
 and that they were therefore able to work more con- 
 tinuously. It is probable that the training of their 
 schools, some of which had obtained a European re- 
 putation, contributed materially to their acknowledged 
 superiority in most walks of life. The recognised 
 fairness and ability displayed in their business deal- 
 ings, also gave them to an enormous extent the 
 command of foreign trade ; the great centres of 
 French commerce, such as Bordeaux, Rouen and 
 Caen, being almost entirely governed by Huguenot 
 merchants. Jurieu, writing on the subject, remarked
 
 iS THE DESTITUTE ALIEN TV GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 that " the Protestants have carried commerce with 
 them into exile ; '^ and the Catholic merchants of 
 Metz also complained that '' it was impossible to 
 recover the connection with foreign markets which 
 the flight of tlio most considerable traders of the 
 town had broken/^ Poole qtiotes several instances, 
 both from the point of view of population and trade, 
 as typical of the injury resulting from the flight of 
 the Protestants. lie observes, "tliat Lyons, which 
 had emplo3-ed 18,000 silk looms, had but 1,000 remain- 
 ing at the end of the ceutur}'. Tours, with the same 
 interest, had had 800 mills, 80,000 looms and 40,000 
 workpeople, and in 1727, only 70 mills, 1,200 looms 
 and perhaps !-,000 workpeople. Of its 3,000 ribbon- 
 factories only 00 remained. Equally significant was 
 the ruin of the woollen trade of PoitoU; the drugget 
 manufactures of Coulonges, the serge and bombazine 
 manufactures of Thenars and Chataigneraie, and the 
 export trade to Canada, by way of Piochelle.''^ Xor- 
 mandy, Brittany, Picardy, Burgundy, Lorraine, Lan- 
 guedoc, every part of Prance which had prospered 
 owing to the sterling character and incessant industry 
 of its Protestant iidiabitants, felt the paralysing effects 
 of the general exodus, and it required all the ellbrts of 
 her subsequent rulers, all the fertility of her soil, all the 
 resource and versatility of her suns, to enable her to 
 recover from the desolation and ruin which the baleful 
 policy of Louis and his Catholic advisers had wrought.
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 19 
 
 The injury to Frauce iu tlio uuitter of population 
 is reckoned by different writers at from oOO^OOO to 
 500,000 ; but both in this respect, and as regards 
 the distribution of the exiles throughout the different 
 countries which afforded^ them shelter, reliable statis- 
 tics are difficult to obtain. Taking the registers of 
 the French churches in England, where the refugees 
 naturally reported themselves on arrival, Weiss esti- 
 mates that 85,000 landed here in the ten years preced- 
 ing and following the Revocation, But this number 
 is as likely to be under as over the mark; for the 
 same writer admits that the consistories never 
 furnished complete lists to the English authorities, 
 for fear of inspiring the jealousy of tlie inhabitants, 
 and closiug: the door to future immis^rants. Just as 
 unreliable are the statistics which bear on the mone- 
 tary loss to France. Poole, however, gives an excel- 
 lent illustration of the damage suffered by that 
 country in this respect. Citing authorities, he ob- 
 serves that the rate of interest on the Amsterdam 
 Exchange, in 1684-, went from o| to 3 per cent, and 
 to 2 per cent, in 1687, owing to the influx of specie 
 from abroad, whilst at the same time the French 
 Exchequer had to make up the -loss by the universal 
 use of paper currency. 
 
 The effects of the cruel and stupid policy, pursued 
 through so many successive generations and culmin- 
 ating in the revocation of the Edict of Xantes, becanie
 
 20 THE DESTITUTE A LI EX IX GREAT BRITAIX. 
 
 in course of time as visible in the moral as in the 
 material condition of France. AVith a ruined trade 
 and a credit exhausted by war, the population soon 
 became mutinous, and openly defied the authority of 
 the government. The horrors of Saint Bartholomew 
 and the Dragonnades also taught their lesson. Those 
 who had been among the most bigoted persecutors 
 of the Protestants revolted against their own leaders ; 
 the principles of the Encyclopedists became the gospel 
 of the people; and the majesty of the Church fell 
 into contempt. Long pent up feelings of resentment 
 {igainst tyranny and privilege at length broke through 
 all barriers of restraint, and the atrocities of the 
 Kevocation found their Nemesis in the excesses of the 
 Iievolution. 
 
 It is generally conceded that the English were 
 originally a purely pastoral and agricultural people, 
 who were dependent upon foreign markets for many 
 articles of clothing and manufacture which could not 
 be produced by their ordinary domestic industries. 
 Large quantities of wool, it is true, were produced here 
 and exported to foreign countries; but the skilled 
 workmen of Germany, l^'rance, and Flanders dyed and 
 wove it into cloth for our use as well as their own. 
 An outbreak of war, therefurc, occasiuued great dis- 
 tress on both sides of tlie channel. ^Ve in that case had
 
 THE HUGUEXOT AND FLEMISH IXVASIOX. 21 
 
 no market for our fleeces, aud those who were depen- 
 dent upon us for their supply were driven to despair, 
 for want of tlio raw material with which to keep 
 their looms going. Smiles says that when hostilities 
 broke out, and communication between the two shores 
 was interrupted, as much distress was occasioned in 
 Flanders as in our own day was experienced in Lan- 
 cashire by the stoppage of the supply of cotton from 
 the United States. 
 
 The inconvenience of having to send abroad for our 
 cloth was so much felt, that as early as the reigu of 
 Edward III. large numbers of Flemish weavers came 
 over, at the invitation of the king, induced by the 
 high wages and ample employ mout offered, and settled 
 in London, Kent, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and other 
 places. Successive English kings, down to the time of 
 Henry VIII., pursued a like policy and encouraged the 
 immigration of skilled artisans of all classes, such as 
 armourers, cutlers, brewers, miners, and ship-builders, 
 the principal workmen employed by the Court being 
 Flemings and Germans. 
 
 When Edward VI. came to the throne, it was no 
 longer necessary to hold out inducements for foreign 
 workmen, persecuted for their faith, to come and settle 
 here; the sympathy had been established, and skilled 
 labour flowed to England of its own accord. Latimer's 
 wish that valuable persons might l)o induced to settle 
 in this country as a means of '"'insuring its pros-
 
 22 THE DESTITUTE ALIEX JN GREAT BRITAIX. 
 
 perlty " was realized ; for foreigners were soon to be 
 found in nearly every important town in England 
 '^ diligently pursuing their sevei'al callings." The in- 
 flux of Flemings, however^ at length became so con- 
 siderable that the native population petitioned the 
 authorities to put a stop to it^ and an estimate was 
 ordered to be made of the foreigners in London. 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth persecuted Protestants 
 arrived in still larger numbers^ landing naturally on 
 those parts of the coast nearest to France and Flan- 
 aers^ namely^ at Dover_, Deal^ Sandwich, Harwich, and 
 Yarmouth. iVIaidstone^ Canterbury and Norwich also 
 offered them shelter. The Queen immediately gave 
 them her countenance and protection, writing to the 
 Mayor and Commonalty of one of the places named, 
 strongly recommending them as likely greatly to 
 benefit the town by teaching the inhabitants knowledge 
 in " sundry handycrafts " ; and she specially instances 
 the trades the foreigners were to carry on, such as the 
 " makingo of says, bays, and other cloth which hath 
 not been used to be made in this our realme of 
 Englondc.^^ Immediately the refugees landed they 
 began to pursue their various industries under the 
 protection of the local authorities ; from all of which 
 it would seem that England was not in those days the 
 great market of the world for those textile manufac- 
 tures in which she now excels. 
 
 Again we read that, the vcar after the Flemings
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH LYVASION. 
 
 came to Sandwich^ aud for several years ia succession, 
 numbers of French pooplo; of all ages and sexes, flee- 
 ing from their country, arrived at Uye, on the Sussex 
 coast, some in open boats, and in mid- winter. The 
 Mayor of Kye, writing to Lord Burleigh iu 1572, 
 states that "between the 27th of August and the 4th 
 of November no fewer than 041 had landed." It- 
 would appear from the records existing that the re- 
 fugees were of all sorts and conditions : private 
 gentlemen, doctors, ministers of religion, students, 
 schoolmasters, tradesmen, mariners, mechanics, and 
 labourers. Being more or less destitute, collections 
 were made for them throughout England, the poor 
 Flemings who had previously landed at Sandwich 
 giving from their own slender resources lielp to the 
 destitute Frenchmen in their need. 
 
 As the persecutions increased in severity in France 
 and Flanders, those who fled for safety continued to 
 arrive iu still larger numbers, — cloth makers from 
 Antwerp and Bruges, lace makers from Valenciennes, 
 cambric makers from Cambray, and glass makers from 
 Paris, who as they landed were despatched to different 
 parts of England, where they maintained themselves 
 by their diiferent trades. Facilities were also given 
 them for observing their own forms of worship, and 
 as early as the reign of Edward A' I. churches were set 
 apart for them in London, Norwich, Southampton, 
 and Canterbury. Throughout their wanderings they
 
 24 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 seem to have preserved the settled purpose of worship- 
 ping God in their own way, and their fasts and thanks- 
 givings generally had reference to events that had 
 occurred abroad^ or that marked periods of calamity or 
 deliverance in their history. The records of " God's 
 House" at Southampton, which was resorted to from 
 an early date both by French and Flemings, contain 
 many interesting entries ; services, for example^ re- 
 lating to the persecutions by the Duke of Alva, the 
 defeat of the Prince of Condu at the battle of Jarnac, 
 the ravages of the plague, the shock of an earthquake, 
 the appearance of a comet, the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada. The last-mentioned event seems to have 
 filled the hearts of the little congregation with joy, and 
 they united in public thanksgiving for the wonderful 
 dispersion of the Spanish Fleet and the protection of 
 this kingdom from the tyranny of the Pope. A few 
 days later another fast was held for the purpose of 
 beseeching a blessing upon the English navy for 
 putting the Armada to flight. Another interesting 
 memento of the foreign exiles exists to the present 
 day in the Walloon or French chapel situate in the 
 undercroft of Canterbury Cathedral, whore, with the 
 permission of the liberal-minded Archbisliop Parker, 
 the '"^ gentle and profitable strangers," as he termed 
 them, were permitted to conduct their worship in their 
 own language, teach their children, and even set up 
 their looms and carry on their trades.
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 
 
 When the Flemings first settled at Sandwich, the 
 town, which had originally been one of considerable 
 importance, had fallen into decay, and the inhabitants 
 were in great distress. Immediately on tlieir arrival, 
 however, it began to wear a more thriving aspect ; 
 looms were started for the manufacture of different 
 kinds of cloth, and bi-weekly markets, which were 
 resorted to by London merchants, were established. 
 Other branches of industry were also promoted; wind- 
 mills were erected for the first time near the town, and 
 smiths, brewers, hat-makers, carpenters, shipwrights, 
 and potters began busily to labour at their different 
 callings. All these trades the native population 
 learned of the strangers, and general prosporit}- 
 ensued. 
 
 Gardening, which had become a lost art in England, 
 was re-introduced, the vegetables grown by the 
 Flemings being so much in demand in London that 
 many of them removed from Sandwich to the neigh- 
 bourhood of the metropolis, where they started the 
 market gardens of Battersea, Bermondsey, and Wands- 
 worth. Before they arrived here the people of the l;0w 
 Countries had been noted for their horticulture; it is 
 even said that Katherinc, the Queen of Henry YIIL, 
 used to send to Flanders for her salads, not being able 
 to procure one in the whole of England. Whether this 
 be true or not, it is admitted by writers of the time 
 that in the sixteenth century nearly all vegetables were
 
 26 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IX GREAT BRITAIX. 
 
 imported from abroad^ and were veiy dear and a great 
 luxury. Smiles, quoting from Hartlib, says that in 
 1C50 an old man then living remembered '''the first 
 gardener who came into Surrey to plant cabbages and 
 cauliflowers, and to sow turnips, carrots, parsnips, and 
 early pease, all of which at that time ^Yere great won- 
 ders, we havinof few or none in England but what 
 came from Holland or Flanders/^ The introduction 
 of the hop plant into Kent has also been attributed to 
 the Protestant Walloons. 
 
 Many refugees also settled in London, where they 
 carried on their different trades. The Borgeny, or 
 Petty Bergundy, in the district of Bermondsey, took 
 its name from its foreign residents, as did Joiner's 
 Street, in the same vicinity, from the skilled Flemish 
 carpenters who worked there. In Bermondscy the 
 Flemings also started breweries and tanneries and 
 the manufacture of felt hats. The free school of St. 
 Olave's, in Southwavk, owes its foundation to the 
 benevolence of one Henry Leek, or Hoek, a brewer 
 from A\"esel. The famous dye works at Bow were 
 established by Peter do Croix and Dr. Kepler, the 
 white cloth of Enofland havin"- previously been sent 
 abroad to be dyed, and when re-imported sold as 
 Flemish. The making of brass plates for kitchen 
 utensils, of pendulum or Dutch clocks, arras, tapestry, 
 printed paper hangings, articles of jewellery, cutlei'y, 
 and mathematical instruments was introduced bv the
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND TLEMfSh LYVASIOA'. 27 
 
 French and Flemish workmen, who settled iu Mort- 
 hake, Fulliam, and diflferent parts of London. 
 
 A French refugee named Briot, wlio had been chief 
 engraver of moneys coined during tlie reign of Louis 
 XIII. of France, was the first to introduce the coin- 
 ing-press into Enghmd, and in or about 1G33 was 
 appointed Chief Engraver to the Mint. Foreign 
 merchants also settled in the city, where they infused 
 new life and enterprise into commercial undertakings. 
 Want of space precludes me from mentioning the 
 names of many leading foreign merchants who in 
 Queen Elizabeth's time acquired great weight and 
 influence in London; but their wealth may be judged 
 from the fact that to a voluntary loan raised by the 
 Queen the}- largely subscribed in sums of €100 and 
 upwards. 
 
 Although the jealousy of the native population was 
 frequently directed against the refugees, they con- 
 tinued to come over in increasing numbers. From a 
 census taken in 1G21 it would appear that 10,000 had 
 already settled in London alone, where they carried 
 on 121 different trades and occupations. So as not 
 to interfere too much with each other, the foreigners 
 availed themselves of the royal license, and settled in 
 different parts of the country. 
 
 Norwich is a remarkable instance of the beneficial 
 results arising from the importation of foreign enter- 
 prise and methods of manufacture, as well as of the
 
 28 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 narrow spirit which from time to time sought to re- 
 strict the strangers in the free exercise of the very 
 industries they liad originally taught the inhabitants. 
 Although the commercial importance of this city 
 was mainly owing to the energy and example of the 
 l*rotestant settlers, the local guilds passed such stria- 
 gent rules against foreign labour, that the Flemings at 
 last left Norwich and went to Leeds, Wakefield, and 
 other places where they were allowed to prosecute 
 their trades without molestation. When they had 
 gone the industries o£ Norwich gradually fell into 
 decay, the population diminished, houses stood un- 
 occupied, riots occurred among the workpeople, and 
 it was even proposed in Parliament to raze the place 
 to the ground. To put an end to so disastrous a 
 state of things the Mayor and Corporation, accom- 
 panied by the principal citizens, went in deputation 
 to the Duke of Norfolk, urging him to use his influ- 
 ence to procure a fresh settlement of foreign artisans, 
 in the place of those who had left. The Duke suc- 
 ceeded in inducing 300 families, Dutch and AValloon, 
 who were followed by others, to establish tliemselves 
 at his charge, upon which the manufacture of says, 
 bays, serges, arras, raouchado, bombazines, flowered 
 silks, damasks, and other articles of foreign importation 
 was begun. The cultivation of garden produce was 
 introduced, employment was found for the people, 
 food became cheap, trade remunerative, and the city
 
 rilE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 29 
 
 shortly regained its former prosperity, Bisliop Park- 
 hurst stating as his conviction '^ that these blessings 
 from God have happened by reason of the godly 
 exiles who were here so kindly harboured/"" Later 
 on the townsfolk again became jealous of foreigners, 
 but Queen Elizabeth and the local authorities inter- 
 fered, and the settlers were allowed to pursue their 
 occupations in peace. 
 
 As regards the material wealth — apart from in- 
 dustrial knowledge and enterprise — which the French 
 and Flemish refugees brought into this country, it is 
 difficult to form a correct estimate ; but if we take into 
 consideration the fact that Phillip of Spain derived for 
 several years many millions of dollars annually from 
 property left behind by the Protestants of the Low 
 Countries, and that both there and in France many of 
 the merchants and others delayed their departure until 
 they were able, in a measure, to realize their fortunes, 
 it is not unreasonable to assume that their aggregate 
 wealth was considerable, althougli some were so poor 
 that they brought with them " no other goods but 
 their children/^ 
 
 Throughout England the industrious strangers from 
 France and Flanders communicated their skill and 
 knowledge to the native inhabitants, and everywhere 
 new branches of trade were started. In the west Flem- 
 ish weavers set up their looms at Worcester, Evesham, 
 Droitwich, Kidderminster, Stroud, and Grlastonbury.
 
 p THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Ill the east they also established themselv^es at Col- 
 chestei'j Hertford aud Stamford^ and at Manchester, 
 Bolton_, Halifax and Kendal in the north. Thus addi- 
 tional sources of employment and fresh branches of in- 
 dustry were opened up to the people of this country, who, 
 instead of being dependent upon foreign countries for 
 their supply of cloth and the finer articles of manufac- 
 ture, began in their turn to make and export them. 
 In this way we learned the art of thread and lace- 
 making, thread spun from flax being still known at 
 Maidstone as ^' Dutch ^\^ork." Lace-makers from 
 Alencon and A^aleucienncs settled at Buckingham, 
 Stoney-Stratford, and Newport-Pagnel, and in the 
 counties of Bedford, Oxford, Xorthampton, and Cam- 
 brid ere. The trade iu bone lacs at Honiton and other 
 parts of Devonshire was first initiated by exiles 
 from Antwerp. Foreign immigrants set on foot other 
 industries also, in Vv'hich they were more adept than 
 ourselves, such as working in metals, salt-making and 
 fish-curing. Newcastle -on-Tyne became noted for 
 swords, edge-tools and steel implements, the manu- 
 facture of which had been introduced by the exiles 
 from Liege. Sheffield, now so famous for its steel 
 and iron industries, owes its reputation to the 
 exquisite skill of Fieiiiish workmen. Yarmouth 
 and many other places are also indebted for their 
 knowledge of fislxing and hcrriug-curing to tlie sailors 
 of ilia Low Countries v/ho fled to Eniriaad, the fish
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 
 
 sold iu Euglisli markets Laving been previously 
 caught and cured Ly the Dutch. The refugees made 
 their way, moreover, into Irehiud and Scotland, where 
 they introduced such industries as the conditions of 
 those countries permitted. In 1G09 we find a num- 
 ber of Flemings settled in the Canongate o£ Edin- 
 burgh, " making, dressing, and litting of stuffis, giving 
 great licht and knowledge of their calling to the 
 country people." 
 
 Akhough a large number of Huguenot fugitives, 
 after the lievocation, sought asylum in Germany, 
 Switzerland and Holland, it is estimated that at least 
 ]20,0U0 manufacturers and workmen, principally from 
 Xormandy and the northern towns of France and 
 Brittan}', took refuge here, and introduced the trades 
 they had practised at home. They were manufactur- 
 ers of fine linen from Xantes, liennes, and ]\Iorlaix; 
 cloth workers from Amiens, Abbeville, and DouUens; 
 gauze and lace- makers from Lille and V'alenciennes, 
 and workmen belonging to various crates from 
 towns and cities in the interior. Some of the refugees 
 were persons of raux, others were physicians, lawyers, 
 and ministers of religion, but the larger proportion 
 were artisans and workmen. A Relief Committee was 
 appointed, and the new-comers were distributed and 
 provided for according to their capabilities. Some 
 were placed in commercial houses, others in the army, 
 others again, for ^Yhom employment could not be foutid
 
 32 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 here, were despatched to America; but most of theui, 
 being artisans, were provided with tools a.ud employed 
 iu English manufactories. They also formed benefit 
 societies for the help of their poorer countrymen, and 
 started workshops of their own, where those who were 
 able to earn a living helped such of their fellows as 
 were unemployed or incapacitated. Smiles remarks 
 that their mutual aid societies wore probably, although 
 unacknowledged, the examples from which the Lodges 
 and Benefit Societies of our own labouring classes 
 have since sprung. AMiole colonies were founded by 
 the Huguenot refugees in London, where they set up 
 their schools, workshops, factories, and churches. 
 Several districts in the metropolis were almost entirely 
 occupied by them, as, for instance, Spitalfields, Bethnal 
 Green, and Soho. Others distributed themselves in 
 the neighbourhood of the Guildhall, Temple Bar, Long 
 Acre, and the Strand, where they began the manufac- 
 ture of goods they excelled iu making, such as cutlery, 
 surgical and mathematical instruments, watches, 
 clocks, and articles of jewellery and vertu. AVell-to- 
 do people in London had previously sent to Paris 
 for things requiring taste and delicate workmanship. 
 We had before that period also imported from France, 
 velvets, satins, silks, gloves, laces, buttons, serges, paper 
 of all sorts, beaver and felt hats, ironmongery, cutlery, 
 linen, salt, soap, pins, needles, combs, and a variety 
 of commodities fur household use, some of which are
 
 THE IIUGUEXOT AND F J. KM IS II IXl'ASIOX. y^ 
 
 in our day again iniportcd from that country ; but wlica 
 the French artisans settled here, they induced money 
 " to flow into Eng-laud instead of out of it ; '' articles 
 previously imported we began to make for ourselves 
 and export abroad, and in many respects the advan- 
 tage we then derived has remained with us to this day. 
 Of all the new industries and sources of wealth in- 
 troduced into this country by the Huguenot refugees, 
 none is more worthy of note than the silk ti'ade estab- 
 lished by the workmen from Lyons and Tours, first of 
 all at Canterbury and Blackfriars, and afterwards at 
 Spitalfields. 1'he latter place finally became the head- 
 quarters of the silk industry, and from thence it was 
 extended to other parts of England. The Huguenots 
 devoted themselves to this trade in all its branches, 
 introducing new or improving old methods in the 
 manufacture of brocades, satins, velvets and silks 
 of all kinds of texture and quality, by which means 
 we became endowed with a knowledge and skill that 
 we had formerly envied in our neighbours, and tried 
 in vain to imitate. Both Elizabeth and James I. had 
 endeavoured to foster in this country an industry which 
 had contributed so largely to the prosperity of France, 
 but it was not until the woi"kmenof Tours and Lyons 
 had transferred their valuable talents to Spitalfields that 
 t really took root and became an important branch of 
 English trade. It is worth mentioning, as showing the 
 progress we made in this particular business, that
 
 34 THE DESTITUTE A LI EX IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 according to Keysler, who travelled through Europe in 
 1730, merchants wishing to sell their silk hose in the 
 kingdom of Naples invariably protested that they 
 were "right English." Not only did we now make silk 
 goods for ourselves, and export to places hitherto sup- 
 plied by France^ but in a comparatively short time 
 our woollen trade enormously increased with those 
 countries from which we had to import raw silk for 
 our looms. 
 
 Canterbury and Ipswich also profited considerably 
 by the transfer to our shores of the artistic produc- 
 tions of the French Protestants, and the linen and 
 lace industries which had been introduced by previous 
 refugees were greatly improved. Other useful articles 
 of manufacture, too numerous to describe, were also 
 developed or improved by them. The paper made 
 in England before the Revocation was a common 
 yellow or brown kind, all the finer sorts being im- 
 ported from France. AVhcn the refugees came hero 
 they started paper-mills in London, Maidstone, Laver- 
 stoke, and other parts of England, and we were soon 
 able to turn out as good paper — even that required 
 for bank notes — as could be bought elsewhere. In 
 the manufacture of glass we had also made little pro- 
 gress, but the glass-nuikers from Paris, who settled 
 in the Strand, quickly established a reputation, which 
 this country has never lost, for some of the most 
 beautiful productions in glass and crystal.
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 35 
 
 The llagueuots likewise founded colonies in Scot- 
 land. In Edinburt^li, where tliey began the mami- 
 factui-e of linen, a district near Leith Walk is still 
 called after them ; aud Glasgow owes the first paper- 
 mill ever erected there to a Huguenot who escaped 
 from Franco with his little daughter, and managed in 
 the first days of his exile to earn a hare subsistence 
 by picking up rags in the street. 
 
 Ireland, too, is indebted to the French Protestants 
 for some of the most important industries which now 
 flourish in that country. They settled in Dublin, 
 AVaterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Lisburne, and Portarling- 
 ton, where thoy introduced their different crafts and 
 industries. The Irish are noted for their beautiful 
 linen goods; but few people are aware that it was to 
 the Huguenots they were indebted for the cultivation of 
 flax, in all its stages, and the methods originally em- 
 ployed in its manufacture, or that the mixed material 
 known as '^ Irish poplin ^^ was originally the endow- 
 ment of foreign immigrants. It is principally in the 
 north of Ireland, however, that the Huguenots have left 
 the most durable record. There the busy industries of 
 Belfast testify to the generous return made by the 
 talented and enterprising refugees to whoever received 
 them with hospitality, aud were willing to profit by 
 their teaching. 
 
 If we are tempted to assume vrith insular self-com- 
 placency that the rapid growth of our industries, after
 
 36 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 the arrival of the foreign fugitives, was chiefly attri- 
 butable to our own receptive qualities and inherent 
 aptitude, we have but to turn to the pages of Weiss to 
 learn that in whatever other countries the Huguenots 
 settled, the same beneficial results are to be traced. 
 In Brandenburg, the cradle of modern I'russia, in 
 Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and America — even 
 in Russia and the Cape of Good Hope — wherever the 
 exiles were driven to seek refuge, they communicated 
 to the people who welcomed them their native skill 
 and enterprise, and in each case there ensued a marked 
 improvement in the material condition of the countries 
 of their adoption. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the influence 
 of the Huguenots was confined to our industries alone ; 
 nearly every walk and profession in life was enriched 
 by the high and steadfast qualities of our foreign 
 guests. In the annals of literature and science they 
 have left an enduring record ; and many and distin- 
 guished are the names of foreign refugees and their 
 decendants, which are to be found on the registers 
 of the ]{oyal Society and the muster-rolls of our 
 Universities. On our own Protestant institutions, too, 
 the strenuous exertions of the French reformers at 
 homo in their struggles against Catholicism were 
 not without elfect ; neither was the example set by 
 their numerous churches in this country, before the 
 Pluguenots became finally absorbed within the Angli-
 
 THE HUGUENOT AND FLEMISH INVASION. 37 
 
 can community in creed as well as in language and 
 nationality. 
 
 Of the many important services rendered by the 
 Huguenots to this country^ not the least notable was 
 the part they played under William, Prince of Orange, 
 in the English rebellion of 1G88. AVhen that Prince's 
 intended expedition was made known, large numbers 
 of Huguenots flocked to his standard, and he was able 
 to raise three regiments of infantry and a squadron of 
 cavalry almost entirely from veteran troops who had 
 fought under Schomberg, Tui'enne, and Conde, 
 Seven hundred Protestant gentlemen of French birth 
 also served as officers in his other regiments. Schom- 
 berg himself, an ex-marshal of France, commanded 
 the expedition under the Prince, with secret powers 
 in case his leader should fall; and it was to his politic 
 advice and vast experience that the success of the en- 
 terprise, which rid this country of its unconstitutional 
 monarch, was largely due. In his subsequent cam- 
 paigns in Ireland and elsewhere, ^Yilliam the Third's 
 refugee soldiers and sailors bore themselves with the 
 valour of their chivalrous race, and on many a hard 
 fought field added not only to the laurels of Coutras 
 and Ivry, l)ut also to the fame of British arms. 
 
 From the earliest times this country has been sub- 
 ject to a variety of incursions, of which some have left 
 ineffaceable traces on the character and temperament 
 of its inhabitants, whilst others, as in the cases of the
 
 38 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN L\ GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Danish and Eoman occupations^ are so completely 
 forgotten that it would almost require tlio microscopic 
 eye of tlie archaeologist to discov^er any evidences 
 remaining. But neither the Saxon settlement, which 
 contributed so materially to the constituent elements 
 of our race and language, nor the Norman conquest, 
 to which we are indebted for our inclusion within the 
 circle of civilized nations, was pregnant with nior 
 momentous consequences to this country, from th? 
 point of view of material prosperity, tli:in the advent 
 (-f the busy, quick-witted and cultivated strangers 
 who enriched us with their rare skill and novel indus- 
 tries. Any excess of description in dealing with so 
 interesting a theme is to be condemned ; it would 
 detract from the merits of the picture and injure the 
 impression it is sought to convey. But when we com^ 
 pare the commanding position our country now enjoys 
 as an essentially industrial and trading power, with 
 that which it occupied in this respect when France 
 and Spain drove from their miclst the flower of their 
 population, it is surely no exaggeration to say that 
 the friendly invasion of the Huguenots and llemings 
 ma}" be regarded as one of the most eventful incidents 
 in our national historv.
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE? 
 
 Bv MoxTAOL'E Crackanthorpe. 
 
 The Preliminary Report of the recent census has been 
 awaited with impatience by all who take an interest in 
 the Social Problems of the day. What we have been 
 anxious to learn with certainty is — (1) the mode in 
 which our population is distributed throughout the 
 country; (2) its rate of annual increase calculated on 
 the average of the last ten years. The returns have 
 now been sufficiently analysed to furnish this inform- 
 ation, and to enable us to deduce several conclusions 
 of very great importance. 
 
 The population of England and Wales, which at the 
 end of the reign of Elizabeth was under five millions, 
 is now twenfy-nine millions. Its rate of increase — ■ 
 meaning by this the excess of births over deaths — 
 calculated on the average of the last ten years, is 
 about 300,000 per annum. j\[r. Mundella stated a 
 short time ago that we were "growingr a Birminofham 
 a year." As the population of Birmingham is nearly 
 400,000, it would have been more correct to say that 
 we grow three Birininghams in four years. It is true 
 that, owing to causes which will be indicated pre- 
 sently, the actual population falls short of the esti- 
 mate made by tlio Pogistrar- General by 800,000, the
 
 40 TldE DKSTITUTE A LI EX IX GREAT PKITAIX. 
 
 rate of increase liaving diminislied of lato. Thus in 
 1871-81 it was 1 l-GG per cent., whereas in 1881-91 it 
 was ll'G-3. Again, in 1890, the natural increase of 
 the population by excess of births over deaths Avas 
 303/2G7, while the average increase in the five preced- 
 ing years was 300,013. This is so far satisfactory. 
 But as the numbers accumulate on the principle on 
 which money accumulates when invested at com- 
 pound interest, the rapidity of growth is enormous. 
 
 If, indeed, the twenty-nine millions were all ])ro- 
 vided with food, clothes, and lodging, there would be 
 no cause for uneasiness. But, unfortunately, this is 
 far from being the case. A large proportion is com- 
 posed of those who are either unable to support them- 
 selves or have no desire to do so. Here are a few 
 facts. In 1890, no less than 011,000 of the inhabitants 
 of England and Wales were in receipt of poor law relief, 
 179,000 being assisted in the workhouse and •b)2,000 
 out of it. Taking the average of the first quarter of 
 the present year, the number of these paupers had 
 increased to 700,520, of whom 180,337 were receiving 
 indoor and oil,! 89 outdoor relief. Tliis amounts to 
 23"o per 1,000 of the population. Again, take another 
 test, as supplied by the Begister of Deaths. In the 
 last quarter of 1890^ out of the total deaths registered 
 in England and AVales, 11 in every T'O occurred in 
 workhouses, hospitals, and public lunatic asylums. 
 After making allowance for the fact that many
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERED 41 
 
 persons not belonging- to the pauper class may be 
 found in public hospitals, wo may safely infer that 
 one in every ten of the above 1 1 per cent, was depen- 
 dent either on the bounty of the State or on that of 
 pi'ivate individuals. 
 
 When we come to consider the condition of the 
 Metropolis, the figures are still more instructive. 
 First, take Inner London — that is to say, the London 
 which embraces the area of the administrative county 
 of London, and also the ''City" or municipal Lon- 
 don. This Inner London, we may remark in passing, 
 is the same as the London of the Registrar-General 
 (otherwise termed Registration London), provided the 
 small hamlet of Penge, which lies outside " Registra- 
 tion London" but inside the '^ county of London," 
 is excepted from it. Now, the population of this 
 Inner London, which covers 77,410 acres, was, as 
 enumerated last April, i, 2 11,05(3. In 1881 it was 
 3,816, 18^3, showing an increase in ten 3'ears of 39 1,573, 
 or about 10 per cent. All round Inner London lies 
 what is conveniently cnlled the Outer Ring, compris- 
 ing ]']nrield, Staines, Uxbridgo, Edgware, Harrow, 
 Watford, Hendon, Chipping Barnet, Totteridge, Ches- 
 hunt, East Ham, Walthamstow, Erith, Farnborough, 
 the Grays, Chiselhui'st, Carshalton, Epsom, Kingston- 
 on-TIiames, Richmond, Hampton, IlanwelK This vast 
 area covers 370,921 acres, and contained, in 1881, a 
 population oE 950,178. That population had grown
 
 42 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BK ITALY. 
 
 last April to ];422,276j an increase in the ten years of 
 472^098. The Inner and the Outer Rings, which 
 taken together constitute ^' Greater London/' showed 
 on the last census night a population of 5jGo3_,o32. In 
 1881 this population was 4,7GG,GG1 ; so that^ compar- 
 ing one census with another^ the total increase of 
 "Greater London^'' in the last ten years has been 
 8G6;G71; or at the rate of over 18 per cent. 
 
 The growth of the districts immediately contiguous 
 to the iMetropolis has been truly surprising. It 
 will be sufficient to give a few instances. The popula- 
 tion of Plaistow and Tottenham has considerably 
 more than doubled since 18S1. In Tottenham the 
 actual rise has been from IG.OOO to 97/300. Hornsey 
 has increased by 21,000 during the same period, 
 Willesden by nearly 34,000, Croydon by 27,000. A 
 like expansion has been going on at the same time in 
 our large provincial towns. Cardiff has grown by 5G 
 per cent., Newcastle by 28 per cent., Portsmouth by 
 24, Leeds by nearly 19, Birkenhead and Oldham by 
 rather more than 18. In fact, town growth has been 
 the almost universal rule. The one remarkable excep- 
 tion has been Liverpool, the population of which has 
 decreased. This is probably to be exphiined by the 
 fact that the area of official enumeration does not 
 coincide with that of the extended district. 
 
 Kow let us look at the statistics of the pauperism of 
 London coi'responding to those already given for the
 
 SHOULD GOVERXMEXT IXTERFERE? 43 
 
 wliole of England and Wales. Inside the Metro- 
 politan area 5/J0(> able-bodied men are "relieved"' 
 every day, at a cost to tlio Metropolitan ratepayers of 
 £188^000 a year. This is the testimony of tlie living. 
 Let us now listen to that of the dead. In 1890 the 
 number of deaths recorded in " Ptcgistratiou London '' 
 was 91/24o. Of these ol were caused by sheer starva- 
 tion, and of the rest 21,881, or 24 per cent., occurred 
 in institutions supported by the rates or by voluntary 
 contributions. Tliis 21 per cent was made up thus : 
 12o per cent., or 1 in every 8, died in workhouses; 
 8'5 per cent., or 1 in every 12, died in general hos- 
 pitals; 2'1 per cent, or 1 in every 18, died in lunatic 
 and imbecile asylums; and the remaining LI percent., 
 or 1 in every 90, died in the hospitals for infectious 
 diseases under control of the Metropolitan Asylums 
 Board. The last returns to hand as we v>'rite are as 
 follows. In the first week of August, 1691, the num- 
 ber of Metropolitan paupers (exclusive of vagrants and 
 lunatics in asylums) was — indoor, 53,827; outdoor, 
 •30,851 ; total, 8 Iv,ri78. A record of poverty^ this, for 
 the hot season of the year, that mny well sot all 
 Londoners a-thinking ! 
 
 When a viral organ of the body is overcharged and 
 its active functions are suspended in consequence, 
 doctors are in tlie habit of saying that the patient is 
 suffering from congestion of that organ. A similar 
 malady prevails in England at the present moment.
 
 44 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 London is the heart of England^ and the above figures 
 show that London is congested. If it were not, there 
 would be no overcrowding such as we see in the poorer 
 districts of the Metropolis, and there would be no 
 sweating such as disgraces its Eastern quarter. How 
 does a physician in the case of the human body seek 
 to relieve the congested part? First, by studying the 
 causes of the flow to it, and next by endeavouring 
 to arrest this flow by every means in his power. The 
 Social Reformer proceeds on the same lines in dealing 
 with the population problem. Having ascertained the 
 yearly rate of increase, he proceeds to ask himself two 
 questions : (1) To what is this rate of inci'ease due ? 
 (2) Can any means be suggested, consistently with 
 religion and sound morality, for keeping it within 
 moderate bounds ? 
 
 Tiie answers to these questions are not far to seek. 
 Assuming the death and oraig-ration rates to remain 
 the same, increase of population is obviously due 
 either to growth from within or to influx from without. 
 Now, growth from within, or, in other words, the num- 
 ber of fresh births, varies very considerably in differ- 
 ent grades of society. It is a curious but established 
 fact that the half-starved and the destitute multiply 
 far more rapidly than the well-nourished and the well- 
 to-do. So frequently has this been noticed, that able 
 writers — for instance, Mr. Thomas Doubleday, in his 
 ''True Law of Population ^' (1841)— have ascribed the
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE? 45 
 
 phenomeuon to physiological causes. Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer, in liis "Principles of Biology " (vol. ii. part 
 (5), maintains, however, that this is an error, and in 
 contradiction to the course of nature as observed in 
 the animal kingdom. Wo do not care to enter into 
 this controversy now. Assuming Mr. Spencer to be 
 right and Mr. Doubleday wrong, the relative infer- 
 tility of the comfortable classes is only the more sig- 
 nificant. It points to the exercise of prudence and 
 forethought on their part. It shows also that every- 
 thing that tends to raise the standard of living tends 
 also to diminish abnormal rapidity of growth. It 
 shows, further, that everything which, like the sweat- 
 ing system, tends to keep down wages, and therefore 
 to lower the standard of living, must tend in the 
 opposite direction. The practical importance of this 
 last conclusion will appear later on. 
 
 Before leaving this point there is one other observa- 
 tion to be made. 'J^he State cannot, it is true, control 
 the number of births, but it can directly encourage 
 their increase. At present it does this in a mischie- 
 vous way. In England we have an absurd law by which 
 boys of the age of twelve and girls of the age of four- 
 teen are permitted to contract a valid marriage. That 
 this license is largely availed of, the marriages at our 
 East End churches show. In France the marriageable 
 age is eighteen in the case of males and fifteen in tlie 
 case of females. Again, in England the consent of
 
 46 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 tliG parents of minors is not necessary to validate a 
 marriage. In France^ no male under twentj^-five and 
 no female under twenty-one can marry without tlie con- 
 sent of both parents, or of the survivor of them if only 
 one be living. It is an obvious, and would be a salu- 
 tary, reform to raise the age of marriage in England 
 to sixteen in the case of girls, and to eighteen in the 
 case of young men. Education and a just sense of 
 parental responsibility must be trusted to do the rest. 
 The labourer, both in town and country, must learn 
 that ho has no right to bring children into the world 
 whom he has no prospect of maintaining. This, as wo 
 have said, is the maxim of the upper and middle 
 classes, as well as of the best of our artisans. In fact, 
 its general acceptance amongst these is the true cause 
 of the decline of the birth rate during the last ten 
 years to which we adverted at the opening of this 
 paper. The teaching which has long influenced the 
 hig-lier social strata has now to be extended to the 
 strata belov*^, until at length it permeates the entire 
 community. 
 
 The second cause of increase — influx from without 
 — is of a twofold kind. It is caused either by migra- 
 tion from the provinces to London and other large 
 towns, or by immigration from abroad. The rush to 
 the towns from the country is due, in part, to the fact 
 that hand-labour has been largely superseded by 
 machinery ; in part, to the fact that the agricultural
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE^ 47 
 
 labourer lias, owing' to enclosures and the consolidation 
 of small holdings^ become divorced from the soil ; in 
 part; also; to the improvements in locomotion^ to the 
 attraction of the higher wages of the town, and to the 
 love of change and excitement which is innate in the 
 human breast. We cannot put back the clock of time, 
 or divert a stream of tendency by any legislative 
 enactment, but we can enhance the attractiveness of 
 our rural districts by facilitating the acquisition of 
 land by the labourer, so as to relieve the monotony of 
 his toil. The Allotment Acts, of which the earliest 
 dates as far back as 1815, and the latest is in 1890, 
 were passed with this view. The later Acts have been 
 attended with most satisfactory results; the number of 
 allotments having been 210,000 in 1873; in 1880, 
 357,000; and in 1890, 454,000. The Small Holdings 
 Bill of Mr, Jesse Ceilings is a further step in the 
 same direction, doing on a small scale for the Eno-lisli 
 peasant wdiat the Ashbourne Act has already done for 
 the Irish. The stimulus given to technical instruction 
 in agriculture, by the appropriations to that purpose 
 recently voted by County Councils out of their share 
 of the £743,000 transferred from the Imperial ex- 
 chequer under the Act of 1890^ will greatly aid the 
 new occupying owners to make the most of their land 
 wdien they get it. These measures have been sorely 
 wanted, as will appear from the following fact. The 
 total number of males and females engaged in aofri- 
 
 00 O
 
 4S TIJE ])ESTirUTE ALIEN LV GREAT JiRITAhV. 
 
 cultural work auJ food production at tlio present day 
 is one and a half millions^ being barely oae-half of" the 
 number so engaged a century ago. In 1709^ Arthur 
 Young estimated that out of a total population of 
 8,500,000 the agricultnral class numbered 2,800,000, 
 a proportion of one in every three. With our existing 
 population of 21) millions, the proportion is only one in 
 every nineteen. 
 
 In considering the increase of population due to 
 immigration from abroad, we propose to leave open 
 the question whether the influx of pauper foreigners 
 has, or has not, been of such magnitude during the 
 last ten years as to displace large bodies of British 
 workmen or materially reduce wages. At present, one 
 set of persons appears to be engaged in minimising, 
 another set in maximising, the figures. It is by no 
 means an easy task to strike the balance between them. 
 It will be sufficient for the present purpose to refer to 
 the report of the Secretary of the Commercial Depart- 
 ment of the Board of Trade, issued last March. " I 
 see no reason to doubt," says Mr. Giffen, a thoroughly 
 impartial witness, and one whom the minimisers con- 
 stantly quote, '' that there has Ijeen a substantial in- 
 crease in the immigration of aliens into London in 
 1890, and an increase of that special immigration 
 which has attracted so much attention of late years — ■ 
 that of Polish Jews, many of whom are in a state of 
 great povert}^, and some of actual destitution." It is
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTER EERE? 49 
 
 bej'ond dispute that the arrivals in London in 1890 of 
 aliens of every description were about 4,000 more than 
 in 1889, the total number of the former arrivals being 
 placed at about 9,000 by the Chief Commissioner of 
 Police of the Metropolis. But 1890 is hardly a safe 
 criterion by which to gauge 1891, owing to the recent 
 action of the Czar and of the Government of the 
 United States. The imperial ukase issued a few 
 months ago for the expulsion of the Jews from Russia 
 has, according to authentic accounts, brought about a 
 veritable exodus to the South. Tliey were reported 
 recently as leaving Moscow at the rate of 100 to 150 a 
 week. Thousands were then preparing to quit Kieff; 
 and the arrivals of these unhappy refugees at the port 
 of Hamburg and on the frontiers of Austria were lie- 
 coming more frequent day by day. 
 
 Now, what is the destination of all these exiles, 
 many of whom are wholly without money and ignorant 
 of any trade ? 'I'hey can no longer make their way 
 to New York, for the law of March last excludes from 
 the United States '' all paupers or persons who are 
 likely to become a public charge." They are equally 
 excluded by statute law from Canada and most of our 
 Australian colonies— e.(/., Victoria, South Australia, 
 'l^asmania, and New Zealand ; the only colonies in 
 which there are no prohibitive immigration statutes 
 being New South Wales, Queensland, Western Aus- 
 tralia, Cape Colony, and Natal. These, we may be
 
 ^o THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREA T BRITAIN. 
 
 sure^ will quickly follow tlie example set tliem by tlie 
 restj and if England alone remains passive_, she may 
 soon find herself exposed to an invasion from the East 
 of Europe of an alarming, albeit peaceful^ character. 
 
 What is her duty in these circumstances, and what 
 are her rights ? 
 
 It can hardly be disputed that every civilized State 
 is entitled to make what regulations it pleases both 
 as to emigration from, and immigration into, its 
 territory. Every such State may, for instance, on the 
 breaking out of hostilities with another State, refuse to 
 allow any resident in it, whether permanent or tem- 
 porary, to depart beyond its boundaries if his services 
 are desired for homo defence. It may also refuse to 
 allow any person to cross its frontier or land upon 
 its shores whom it regards as likely to be dangerous 
 to its internal peace. Witness the Alien Expulsion 
 Acts passed by us in 170;J, 1815, and 1818. On the 
 same principle it may decline, as the United States 
 Government has declined, to admit any one who is 
 likely to become a public or private charge by reason 
 of any defect, physical or mental, disabling him from 
 performing the duties of citizenship. Thus much will 
 be conceded as a matter of international law. ^ 
 
 ' See Llie recent case, before tlie Privy Coniici!, of 'Mas- 
 grove v. Clnin Teeovcj Ton (1891) App. Cas. 27'2, and auLbor- 
 ities there cited.
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE? 51 
 
 Let lis now push the argiiineut a little fiirthoi', with 
 the help of one or two illustrations from life. 
 
 An Italian padrone arrives in England with some 
 forty or fifty children. Tliese childro!i he has hireJ, 
 or rather bought, from their parents in the picturesque 
 but squalid villages of Calabria at a very low figure. 
 They are brought by him over here to earn money 
 in the streets of our towns, in order that their master 
 may end his days in his native land as a country 
 gentleman of independent means. All of us have seen 
 such children in different parts of London, though, 
 unless we have lived in the neighbourhood of Ilatton 
 Garden, we shall probably know nothing of their 
 cufrqirenenr. That this business exists and flourishes 
 was affirmed not long ago by Signer Righetti, the 
 Secretary of the Italian Benevolent Society. As the 
 nationality of the imported foreigner is only an acci- 
 dent, take another illustration from the far East of 
 Europe. A party of Syrian Arabs was despatched 
 from Marseilles (by whom it is not known, nor is it 
 at all material), with their passages paid to New York. 
 They had with them no money to speak of, and they 
 had no prospects of earning any. They were carried 
 through to Havre, and thence to Liverpool, but when 
 they reached New York they were refused permission 
 to land by the American authorities. The American 
 vessel which took them out had to bring tl;em back 
 to Havre, where they wore kept at the public expense
 
 THE DESTITUTE AI.IEX TV GREAT BkllAIX. 
 
 for about six week?. At the end of that time the 
 Havre people coaxed a captain of a British vessel 
 to bring them again to Liverpool, the Liverpool 
 authorities having, as the law now stands, no right to 
 reject them. In Liverpool they remained for several 
 months as pauper inmates of the workhouse there, 
 until at last a subscription was got up to send them to 
 their own country. This case was vouched for by the 
 vestry clerk of Liverpool in his evidence before the 
 Committee of the House of Commons on Foreign 
 Immigration in May, 18S9. "Will any one deny that 
 it would have been better, not only for the Lancashire 
 I'atepayers, but for these Oriental paupers themselves, 
 if the British authorities had been armed with power 
 to refuse them access here in the first instance, and to 
 compel the skipper of the ship that brought them to 
 take them away to their place of embarkation at his 
 own cost and charges ? 
 
 Now, let us take the otlier class of case referred 
 to a few pages back, and which occurs on the average 
 twice a week in the East End of our metropolis. A 
 number of Bussian and Polish Jews — the religion is 
 not of the essence, any more than the nationality- 
 reach the port of London from Hamburg. Their pro- 
 perty consists of a bit of dry bread and a piece of 
 mouldy cheese, with possibly a herring or two tied 
 up in a cotton handkerchief. The purpose of their 
 comii;g is to compote for employrar'nt in the English
 
 SHOULD GOVEKiYMENT INIERFERE '! 53 
 
 labour market. Their standard of living being ex- 
 cessively low^ they are able to do this with advantage. 
 Many of them are agriculfcural labourers j others have 
 some little skill in tailoring, in making boots, shoes, 
 and slippers, and in a kind of light carpentering, 
 which turns out cheap furniture and knick-knacks. 
 The foul air of the sweater's den does not tell on their 
 constitutions, already enured to greater hardships in 
 the overstocked and plague-stricken towns and 
 villages in South Russia from which they have just 
 emerged. Ou^-ht the British Government to decline to 
 receive them ? This question is a more complex one 
 than the preceding, and to answer it satisfactorily 
 wo must look into the case a little more closely. 
 
 And, first, let us remark that any one who desires 
 to satisfy himself of the characteristics of these 
 '^ greeners '' should pay a visit some Sunday morning 
 to Goulston Street, Whitechapel. He will there find 
 specimens of them standing at the street corner, on 
 the look-out for some one to hire them. The ear may 
 recognise them at once by their use of the Jiidisch 
 language, and the eye by their top boots, which pro- 
 bably have never left their feet during the whole of 
 the journey to Tjondon. If we inquire wliat are their 
 antecedents, and why they have come so far on so 
 unpromising an errand, we shall probably find it is 
 not by their own fault. Since the days of Catherine 
 II. the Itussian laws have been veiy severe on the
 
 54 THE DESTITUTE A LI EX IX GREAT BRITATV 
 
 Jews. Some six millions of them remain cageJ up 
 within the pale of settlement in Southern Russia, the 
 boundaries of which are prescribed by imperial edict. 
 In most parts of the pale they are reported, by those 
 who have made it their business to ascertain the facts, 
 to be treated, not as men, but as lower animals, or even 
 insects. In BerditschefF, in the government of Kieff, 
 the official statistics state, apparently without a twinge 
 of conscience, that they are huddled together more 
 like salted herrings than human beiugs. Tens of 
 thousands of them are devoid of any constant means 
 of subsistence, living from hand to mouth. Several 
 families are often crowded into one or two rooms of a 
 dilapidated hut, so that at night there is absolutely 
 no space whatever between the sleepers. The lodgers 
 turn their rooms into workshops in the daytime, 
 refiniog wax therein, making tallow candles, tanning 
 leather, and doing other like unsavoury things. Whole 
 families live, work, sleep, and eat together in that 
 fetid atmosphere, with theii- tools and materials lying 
 around on all sides. 
 
 Again, the Moscow Gaxclic, speaking of the same 
 town, says : — 
 
 '■ The streets of the Jewish quarter are not more than four 
 feet "wide. On eitiier side of tlicnx the tumlde-down old 
 houses seem ready to fall to pieces. Children are lying 
 before the houses iu the street in a state of almost complete 
 nudity, wallowing in the slough, tlie mothers of these children
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE? 55 
 
 sleeping in tlie mid>,t of tlioiu, stretched out sideways and 
 longways uudor the rays of the burning sun." ' 
 
 We do not; of coursOj meau to afliriu that all^ or 
 any, of the Kussiaii Jews who arrive here in search 
 of work come from this town of Berditscheff. It does 
 not matter to the argument whether they do or not^ 
 provided we assume, as it is conceived we may, that 
 Berditscheff furnishes a fair average specimen of the 
 native condition of the chiss to which these immi- 
 grants belong. Neither is it alleged that every such 
 immi<)fraut arrives here without a farthinof iq his 
 pocket. But at the best their store is a s:anty one, 
 and, in spite of police precautions, it often fulls into 
 the hands of unscrupulous crimps, who are in the pay 
 of the low lodging-house keeper, or of the master 
 sweater. 
 
 An accurate description of the mode in which 
 these miserable folk live in London was given by 
 Mr. Lakemau^ one of our Factory Inspectors, in his 
 evidence before the Sweating Commission. 
 
 •■ Tlie Iiabits of these peojile arc very, very dirty ; they seem 
 almost to revel in dirt, rather than in cleanliness. Going 
 into some workshops, you find a filthy bed. on which garments 
 wliich are made are laid, children perfectly naked lying 
 about the floor and on tlie beds; frying-pans and all sorts 
 of thirty utensils, witli food of various descriptions, on the 
 
 ^ See the interesting article on the Jews in Eussia, signed 
 "E. 11. Lanin," in the FortnighUy Review, October, lb90.
 
 56 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREA T BRITAIN. 
 
 bed, under the bed, over the bed — everywhere ; clothes liaug- 
 ing on a line, with a large gas stove to dry them, the ashes 
 all falling about, and tlie atmosphere so den^e that you get 
 ill after a night's work there. The temperature as tested by 
 me was found to be !I0'." 
 
 The ecouomical efl'ect of the introductiou of large 
 batches of meu who can exist under such conditions 
 as these is obvious: (I) Thej drive out of employ- 
 ment a corresponding number of Englishmen. (2) 
 They lower the standard of living all rounds and by 
 this means reduce the wage-rate, which is determined 
 by the local standard of living, and not by an imagin- 
 ary wages fund. (3) They give direct encourage- 
 ment to the system of sweating, by which unscrupulous 
 sub-contractors contrive to grind the faces of the 
 poor. (1) They breed great discontent in the localities 
 where the foreign immigrants are found, tending to 
 foster international and even inter-religious hatred. 
 Here is the experience of Mr. Freak, the Secretary of 
 the Shoemakers' Society, when (ptestiuned by the 
 Immigration Committee. 
 
 •■ I know that at the time when I first came to London any 
 one could get work at the middle or common class of goods, 
 and now the price is I'educed ^-o low that to work single- 
 handed a man cannot get a living, lie has to sweat his 
 children and his wife, and if a man and his wife and children 
 do not want anything more than Just bread and cheese and 
 sleep, then they ma\- get a living out of it. because some of 
 these Jews that come over will not come out of the house for 
 a whole week ; they will sleep in the same place where they
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE? 57 
 
 work daj- after da\', and lliey simply get food aud the barest 
 raiment to cover them, aud that is all they get for their 
 work."' 
 
 As long as we permit the East End of London and 
 our other large centres of industry to be invaded 
 with impunity by people of this class, it is waste of 
 energy to attempt to restrict our numbers in the 
 towns, either by raising the age of marriage, or by 
 schemes for settling the agricultural labourer on the 
 land. Our efforts in the cause of emigration, are, for 
 the same reason, both senseless and abortive. What 
 is the use of empowering Guardians of the Poor and 
 County Councils to raise money on the rates for trans- 
 planting our native paupers elsewhere, if for every 
 destitute Englishman we send out of the country we 
 let a destitute foreigner in ? Of what avail are our 
 thirty-seven Emigration Societies — there are, at least, 
 six of them in London alone — if their work of deple- 
 tion is to be undone at one end as soon as it is begun 
 at the other. One might as well try to empty a reser- 
 voir by opening a waste pipe at the bottom of it with- 
 out shutting oil: the pipe ofc' inflow at the top. It is 
 the old fable of the Danaids' sieve, with blood passing 
 through it instead of water. 
 
 But we arc told by the sentimentalists that con- 
 sistency is, after all, a poor business, and that to 
 pass any restrictive measure would be a grave 
 breach of hospitality, and an infraction of the
 
 58 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN TV GREAT BRTTA/X. 
 
 moral law. This argument involves a slight con- 
 fusion of thought. A political asylum is one thing ; 
 a refuge for the destitute is another. It is not pro- 
 poseJ in any way to inferfere with the immunity 
 which England has long secured to those who fly to 
 it to escape persecution in their own country on 
 account of their political or religious convictions, and 
 who are not charged with any ordinary crime known 
 to the English Courts. But a State is not bound to 
 admit the foreign pauper who can only thrive at the 
 cost of the independence of its own citizens, any more 
 than it is bound to give shelter and sanctuary to the 
 foreign fugitive from justice. Just as the surrender 
 of the one is a duty prescriijed by international law, 
 the breach of which would be a violation of the moral 
 obligations binding on civilized countries, so the 
 exclusion of the other is a duty which the luition 
 owes to itself, the breach of which would be an act 
 of national suicide. Besides, it is an entire mistake 
 to suppose that this right of asylum for political 
 offences is peculiar to Englaml, and that in this re- 
 spect we have a character to keep up whicli places us 
 on a pinnacle among the nations. It is now exactly 
 half a century since a French ^Minister of Justice 
 issued a famous State paper, in wliich, after coi-roctly 
 stating the ])rinciples on which the practice of ex- 
 tradition rests, ho laid it down that offences of a 
 political character formed an important exce])tion to 
 the "feneral rule : —
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE ! 59 
 
 '"Lcs crimes ])olLtiquc.s s'accouiplirisaut diuis des circou- 
 stauces si clililicil.es ;"i apprecier, ils jiaisseut do passions si 
 ardentes, qui souvent sont lour excuse, que La France main- 
 tient le principe que I'extradition »e doit pas avoir lieu pouv 
 fait politique. C'est une regie qu'elle met son honneur a 
 souteuir. EUo a tou.jours refuse, djpuis 1830, de pareilles 
 extraditions; clle ii'cn demandera jamais."' 
 
 Another argumoab soiiictitaes urged against ex- 
 cluding the pauper foreigner is that to do so would 
 be rank Protectiou^ and directly contrary to the 
 principles of Free Trade. The answer to this may be 
 o-iveu in a sentence. Livin«; human bodies are not 
 commodities^ and in the presence of the sweaters' dens 
 free competition is a delusion and a snare. The Polish 
 Jew drives the British workman out of the labour 
 market just as a base currency drives a pure currency 
 out of circulation. The British workman is as capable 
 as the foreigner of manufacturing slop clothing, bub 
 he cannot compete successfully with the latter unless 
 ho is willing to work for merely nominal wages and 
 under insanitary conditions revolting even to road 
 of. Nor is it merely a question of numbers. As Mr. 
 Hobson well puts it in his '^ Problems of Poverty" 
 (Methuen & Co., 1891) : " Where work is slack and 
 difficult to get, a very small addition of low living 
 foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the entire 
 wages of the neighbourhood in the employment which 
 their competition affects." lb is true that the -Jew
 
 6o THE DESrriUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 does not long continue working on starvation wages^ 
 and that he often rises by his industry and skill to 
 the position of a master sweater or the dignity of a 
 petty tradesman. But this is of no avail so long as 
 when one intruder quits the ranks another forthwith 
 enlists. Herein lies the gist of the nuisance. It is 
 not the mere fact of foreign immigration that damages 
 us. It is its pei'sistent and increasing flow. 
 
 But, it may be asked, Is it not the fact that 
 England has in modern times greatly benefited by 
 the introduction of foreign labour ? Undoubtedly it 
 is, as, for instance, when the Flemings came over 
 here in the reign of Edward III., and again in still 
 greater numbers after the sacking of Antwerp in 1585. 
 The same is true of the Huguenots who were driven 
 to our shores exactly a century later by the revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes (1()85). But the circumstances 
 were wholly different. The Flemings, by introducing 
 a finer kind of weaving, and the Huguenots, by estab- 
 lishing new branches of the silk, glass, and paper 
 manufacture, conferred a direct and positive benefit 
 upon English commerce. Both alike brought with 
 them considerable capital, and neither entered into 
 ruinous competition with our own working classes. 
 There is as much resemblance between these immi- 
 grants and the Polish Jew as there is between the art 
 of painting and the manufacture of garments from 
 shoddy cloth.
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INrF.RFERE? 6i 
 
 If precedents for State interference are asked for, 
 we may refer to what took place some years ago on 
 the western seaboard of the United States, when the 
 Chinese were swarming into California. It was then 
 urged on behalf of the new immigrants that they had 
 created a trade in the country which they had adopted 
 as their home. For example, that they made cigars, 
 and that no cigars had been made in California before. 
 That they also made shoes and built railroads, and re- 
 claimed swamp lands, none of which things had the 
 native settler cared to do so long as the population 
 had remained scattered and scanty. The answer of the 
 United States Commissioners was complete. Circum- 
 stances had altered since then, '^ The Chinaman had 
 begun to displace the white man. If Chinese im- 
 migration concentrated in cities where it threatened 
 public order, or //' /7 confined itsplf fo localities ivJtere 
 it was an injnrij to the interests of the American ])eoi-)le, 
 the Government of the United States had no hesita- 
 tion in taking steps to prevent its continuance." If 
 we alter " American " to '' English, ^^ the contingency 
 which wo have placed in italics has alread}' been real- 
 ized in Whitechapel and several of our northern 
 towns. 
 
 •K- ^ ^ ;f- >}; 
 
 One or two practical suggestions, in conclusion, as 
 to what ought to be done. The first and obvious 
 step is to collect inore precise information than we at
 
 62 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 present possess us regards tlio nationalities of these 
 pauper immigrants^ wliere tliey have last come from^ 
 and whither they are bound. Tlie machinery for 
 this is ready to our hand. In 183G was passed 
 the last of the series of Acts known as the Alien 
 Acts, the history of which is given in detail in 
 another part of this volume. Tliis Act (Gth and 
 7th, William 17., chap. 11) provides tliat ^'' all 
 masters of vessels coming from foreign ports shall 
 declare what aliens are on board or have been 
 landed." It further requires that all aliens on their 
 arrival from abroad shall declare tlieir name and 
 description. This declaration it is the duty of the 
 officer of customs to register, and to transmit a copy 
 of it to one of the principal Secretaries of kState. ^Iho 
 object of the Act, as explained by Lord John Russell 
 when introducing the bill, was not to impose any re- 
 strictions on foreigners, but merely to enable the 
 Government to ascertain how many foreigners were 
 in the kingdom at any one time. ''It wa^,'^ said 
 Lord John, ''far less vexatious to rccpiiro a man 
 entering this country to say Vvdiere he came from, and 
 where he was going to, than to be knocking at a 
 person's door, and taking a census of his whole 
 family.^' Unfortunately, the intention of the author 
 of the Act has not been carried out in practice. An 
 inspection of the form of report which the master has 
 to make, and which is set out in the schedule to the
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT LNTERFEKEl 63 
 
 Customs Law Consolidation Act, 1876; sliows that 
 the mastei- is not required to state where the alien 
 intends to (jn, and that all he has to report is the 
 number of alien passengers on board. Moreover, the 
 practice of numbering* aliens under the Act soon 
 fell into general disuse. During the last two years 
 indeed, the Customs House authorities have been 
 making an elTort to revive it, but the lists are still 
 very inipei-fect, and cannot be relied on for statistical 
 purposes. The inquiry should be conducted in much 
 more stringent fashion. The master\s report should 
 give full particulars, not only of the number of the 
 alien passengers in his ship, but of their nationality, 
 occupation, and destination. This information, how- 
 ever, need only be procured in the case of the great 
 immigrant ships which put in at Hull, Harwich, and 
 Tilbur}'. No inconvenience need be inflicted on the 
 rest of the continental traffic. The American arrange- 
 ments for inspection of immigrants are very complete, 
 and may serve as a useful guide. ]*]vcry immigrant 
 ship is visited six miles from the port of New York 
 by oflicers of health, and any who may be sick and 
 diseased are removed to hospitals under the care of 
 the Commissioners of Emigration or the Quarantine 
 Commissioiiers. Tlic others are landed at Castle 
 Garden, where there is a large rotunda capable of 
 accommodating 4,000 persons. Inside this depot the 
 immediate wants of the immigrants are supplied,
 
 64 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAI BRITAIN. 
 
 special care being taken to prevent tlieir falling into 
 bad hands and being victimised by the crimps. 
 
 Once we are satisfied that there is a case for State 
 interference, it is easy to suggest ways of keeping the 
 pauper alien from our shores. The indirect method 
 is to make the domestic workshop amenable to State 
 inspection, and so bring the sweater's den (the only 
 industrial opening which awaits the pauper on his 
 first arrival here) within the reach of the penal law. 
 The Factory and Workshop Bill now before Parlia- 
 ment seeks to accomplish this desirable object, and 
 we wish it Godspeed. The direct method is to pass 
 an Alien Exclusion Act, adapted from the legislation 
 of the United States, abstracted at the end of this 
 paper, so as to suit the special circumstances. The 
 indirect benefits flowing from such a measure would 
 be hardly less than the direct. For long before its 
 prohibitory clauses were enforced, it would have 
 checked the operations of the traffickers in human 
 flesh and blood who are at present pursuing that 
 Tiefarious trade for their own pecuniary ends. 
 
 Hostile critics, and there will be such, must not 
 charge us with exaggeration, for we have been careful 
 rather to understate than to overstate the case. Nor 
 do we suppose that we have done more than touch 
 the fringe of the population problem. The lively 
 discussion on the Polish Jew which has been going 
 on in public for the last few weeks, valuable as it
 
 SHOULD GOVERXMENT LKTERFERE? 65 
 
 lias been 011 its own account, has been more so for 
 tlie reflections to wliicli it has given rise. Men are 
 beginning" to see that the present discontent can only 
 bo partial!}^ healed by endeavours on the part of the 
 New Unionism to organize the unskilled -workers, 
 or by the "Fabian" policy of an eight-hours day. 
 The true remedy must, it is felt, come in the long run 
 from within. State-aided and State-enforced educa- 
 tion have already done much for the vast multitudes 
 whose stock-in-trade is the labour of their hands. But 
 it has yet much to do. It has to impress on the toiling 
 millions those elementary economic laws, without the 
 knowledge and observance of which it is hopeless to 
 expect that their material jn-ospects can be perma- 
 nently improved. In vain does the Social Demo- 
 cratic Federation insist that the State ought to cap- 
 ture the land, the mill, and every other instrument of 
 production, if we are to assume tliat the numbers who 
 will share in the fruits of all this State-owned capital 
 are lialjle to be indefinitely added to. Get rid of the 
 struggle for existence to-morrow, and provided this 
 assumption holds, the last state of this country would 
 in a few decades have become worse than the first. 
 
 Self-respect and self-control are two mainstays of 
 human happiness, and where these qualities are want- 
 ing no State redistribution of worldly goods can per- 
 manently benefit mankind. That end will best be 
 compassed by less lofty methods. Abstention from
 
 66 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 improvident marriages^ and from immoderately large 
 families^ has^ we repeat, long been practised by all 
 possessors of property, and by the more intelligent 
 of our artisans. Moral, just, and reasonable in itself, 
 there is still one class with which it has hitherto failed 
 to find favour — namely, the unskilled and unendowed 
 masses, whose low industrial condition is a barrier to 
 their upward progress. These, unhappily, are just the 
 men to whom the modern theories of social plunder 
 are preached with most effect. It would be well if 
 these preachers, instead of stimulating the predatory 
 instincts of their audience, were to insist now and then 
 on the obvious truth that no one who is labouring 
 hard to gain a competency should habitually act as 
 if he had nothing to lose. The gospel of moderation 
 is not only for the rich. It has to be proclaimed to 
 the poor also. All classes alike must be taught to 
 recognise the fact that the brute creation alone is 
 without responsibility in this matter — without re- 
 sponsibility because without reason. 
 
 Here, then, is a field of missionary labour upon 
 which those who have the interests of humanity at 
 heart may be invited to enter boldly. The work is of 
 great and pressing importance. We commend it 
 especially to the energetic followers of Karl Marx and 
 Henry George, who rank, in llyde Park and else- 
 where^ as prophets and guides of THE PEOPLE.
 
 SHOULD GOVERNMENT INlEREEREi 67 
 
 APPENDIX {sec pp. 49 and 64). 
 
 I. 
 
 An Act approved by Congress to prohibit the im- 
 portation and migration of foreigners and aliens under 
 contract or agreement to perform hibour in the United 
 States of America^ Feb. 26th_, 1885. 
 
 Section 1. — It is unlawful for auy person, company, etc., 
 in any manner to prepay tlie transportation, or in 
 any waj' to assist or encourage the importation or 
 migration, of foreigners and aliens under contract or 
 agreement to perform labour made previous to tlie 
 importation or migration. 
 
 Section 2. — Provides that all agreements, etc., made be- 
 tween people to perform labour, etc., in the United 
 States of America shall be void. 
 
 Section 3. — The penalty for each violation of Section 1 is 
 a fine of 1,000 dollars for each and every ofience. 
 
 Section 4. — Any master of a vessel knowingly bringing 
 any such immigrant labourer into the United States 
 of America is guilty of a misdemeanour, and -will bo 
 fined 500 dollars for each labourer or G months im- 
 prisonment or both. 
 
 Section 5. — Foreigners living temporarily in the United 
 States of America may engage other foreigners as 
 private secretaries, servants, etc. Skilled workmen 
 may be engaged to carry out anj^ new industry which 
 is not already established in the. United States of 
 America. 
 
 II. 
 
 An Act approved by Congress, Feb. 23rd, 1887, to 
 amend the Act of Feb. 26th, 1885 : —
 
 6S THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Section G (aiUed to tlie above Act).— Provides for tlie 
 examination of sliips and for the non-landini>' of pro- 
 hibited persons. 
 
 Section 8.— Proliibited persons are to be returned by any 
 Boards of Charities wliich maj' be designated by the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, wliich Board sliall be com- 
 pensated by Government. 
 Tlie expense of return to be borne by the owners of 
 vessels bringing such prohibited persons; vessels re- 
 fusing to pay such expenses shall not land at nor clear 
 from anj' port. 
 
 III. 
 
 An Act to prohibit the importation or mic^ration of 
 foreigners or aliens^ whicli was approved by Congress 
 of the United States on March 3rd, 1891. 
 
 Section 1. — The following classes of aliens shall Ije ex- 
 cluded from admission into the United States in 
 accordance Avith the existing Acts regulating immi- 
 gration other than those concerning Chinese 
 labottrers : — 
 All idiots, insane persons, paupers or persons who are 
 likely to become a ptiblic charge, persons stiffering 
 from a loathsome or contagiotis disease, persons "wlio 
 have been convicted of a felony or infamotis crime or 
 misdemeanour involving moral turpi tttde, polygamists, 
 and anj^ other persons whose tickets or jiassages have 
 been paid for with the money of others or who are 
 assisted to come by others, unless it is affirmatively 
 and satisfactoril}- shown on special inquiry that such 
 person does not belong to one of the foregoing ex- 
 cluded classes or contract labourers excltided bj- the 
 Act of Feb. 2Gth, 1885. Bttt this section does not pre- 
 cltide persons living in the United States from sending
 
 SFIOULD GOVERNMENT INTERFERE! 6c, 
 
 out for a relativG or friend who is not one of the ox- 
 cluded classes. 
 And the Act is not construed to apply to exclude persons 
 convicted of a political offence. 
 
 Sectidx .->. — It is a violation of the Act of Feb. 26th, 1885, 
 to assist or encourage importation or migration of any 
 alien by promises of employment through advertise- 
 ments printed and juiblished in any foreign country; 
 and any alien coming to the United States in conse- 
 quence of such advertisement shall be treated as 
 coming under a contract as contemplated by such 
 Act. 
 
 Section 4. — Xo steamship company or owners of vessels 
 shall directly or through their agents, either b^- 
 writing, printing, or oral rcpresentat'ous, solicit, 
 invite, or encourage the immigration of any alien 
 into the United States of America, except by ordinary 
 letters, circulars, and advertisements, or oral rejn-e- 
 sentations, stating the sailing of their vessels and 
 terms and facilities of transi^ortation therein. 
 Penalty under this section is a fine of 1,000 dollars for 
 every oflence. 
 
 Section G. — Any person who brings or lands in the United 
 States of America b\' vessel or otherwise, or who shall 
 aid any alien not lawfully entitled to land, shall be 
 fined 1.000 dollars or one \ear's imprisonment or both. 
 
 Sectiox 8. —Captains of vessels must give tiie name, 
 nationality, last residence, and destination of each 
 alien before landing. Thoy will be inspected on board. 
 
 Section 10. — All aliens who unlawfully come into the 
 United States of America shall, if I'n'acticablo, be im- 
 mediately sent back on the vessel by which t]ie\- were 
 l)rought; the cost of maintenance on land and the 
 expense of their return shall Ije borne by the owners 
 of the vessels on which the aliens came; if the owner, 
 master, agent, or consignee shall refuse or neglect to
 
 70 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 return tliem to tlie port from wliich they came lie 
 shall be fined 300 dollars for each and every offence, 
 and the vessel shall have no clearance from any port 
 till the fine is paid. 
 Section 11. — Aliens can he retvirned within one year at 
 the expense of the owners of the vessel bringing them ; 
 if that cannot be done, then they are to be returned 
 at Government exi)ense. Any alien who becomes a 
 jmblic charge within one year after ariival, from 
 causes existing prior to his landing, Avill be returned.
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 
 
 By the Rev. G. S. Reaney. 
 
 No apology is needed for tlic inclusion in this 
 symj^oslum of a sliort essay upon the moral aspects of 
 Alien Pauper Immigration. The ethical side of all 
 public questions looms largo at the present moment. 
 Political partisanship and political economy have their 
 place, doubtless, amongst the forces and facts of our 
 very complex national life ; and it were most foolish 
 for any one who thinks, writes, or works, in regard to 
 what are called " the problems of the day/' to ignore 
 such potent influences. But, on the other hand, the 
 ^' moral side " of all thinfvs with which this restless 
 age concerns itself must not, cannot, be ignored. 
 The fiercest political partisans may rave and rant 
 at the " fanatics," as they are pleased to dub the 
 '' Moralists "-, and the driest and most indifferent 
 '' economists '^ may add their less irate contribution to 
 the blatant abuse so largely poured out, in the press 
 and on platforms, upon the men who give conscience 
 the first place iu public affairs : yet the fact remains, 
 beyond dispute, that the English people will not con- 
 sider such questions as the " state of the poor " apart 
 
 71
 
 72 rilE DESTirUTE ALIEX LY GREAT BRITAEY. 
 
 from tlicir moral bearing's aud etliical issues. So 
 deeply itidcod has this '' hig-hor aspect ^^ of all puljlic 
 and national affairs forced itself into the common 
 mind, that it has become a powerful factor in both 
 political and commercial life. The "character of 
 political leaders/^ and the "conditions of labour/' are 
 no mere sentimental sentences, culled from the random 
 rhetoric of excited philanthropists; they are sober 
 words, full of force and meaning, and big with prac- 
 tical results in the two worlds of statesmanship and 
 trade. 
 
 The subject which has given the occasion for, and 
 forms the matter of, this book is a part of the larger 
 question, " the state of the poor.''' That question, in 
 its broad outlines, has filled a big place in the press, 
 and in the public mind aud imagination, during the 
 last 'iQw years, and it has forced its way to the front 
 of all political, social, and religious discussions. At 
 first it looked so large, and presented such enormous, 
 not to say, monstrous, proportions, that the biggest 
 brains failed to comprehend it, and the most generous 
 hearts faik'd fully to feel it. IJut with the practical 
 good sense and the real sympathy so chai'acteristic of 
 the English people, the great problem is now in the 
 course of being taken to pieces and considered in 
 detail; and as the result of that sensible endeavour 
 to master tl:e matter, the " immigration of ]^auper 
 aliens" has been made the subject of ofiicial iii(|uiry.
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 73 
 
 and bids fair to bccomo oiio of tlio questions wliicli, 
 ill the near future^ will engage the attention of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 In order to nuderstand tlie moral beariugs of the 
 subject of Alien Ininiigration, it will bo needful^ in the 
 first place, that we recall to our minds some indisput- 
 able facts connected with the condition of the poor in 
 the great cities and centres of Faigland. Much has, 
 doubtless, been said in regard to the poor, which has 
 erred on the side of rhetoric and sentiment. Poverty, 
 in all ages and in all countries, has been the shadow 
 of riches. In an age phenomenally wealthy, and in 
 cities splendidly rich, poverty is sure to be found ; 
 and, by the law of contrast, its miseries and its sins 
 will seem more deeply dark and more densely sad, 
 because of the "life of wealth^' with which it lies in 
 close contiguity, and with which it compares with an 
 intensity that nothing seems to mitigate or hide. 
 But in the interest of those for whom these pages are 
 written, it is of first importance that there be no 
 indulgence in exaggeration, and no overstatement of 
 fact. Vol' such exaggeration there is no need, and 
 I'or such overstatement of fact there is little oppor- 
 tunit}'. AVriters upon "the poverty" and the "East 
 i'hids '^ of our great cities are uneler no necessity to 
 do more than let the light of verification fall upon 
 the dark alleys, the dirty streets, the overcrowded 
 '•'homes" (!) and the laborious and sorrowful life of
 
 74 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 the city poor, to prove that a condition of tilings 
 exists that calls for careful, vigorous, and practical 
 treatment at the hands of Parliament, and at the cost 
 of the English people. 
 
 Let the normal state of many a city " East End '^ 
 be remembered. Poverty is there — whatever be its 
 cause — poverty of work, of wages, of comfort, of re- 
 source, of opportunity, of character, and of life. I will 
 not attempt to describe it. But a most truthful, yet 
 restrained description of the condition of the '' poor " 
 of many a city is given in the report of the " Sweating 
 Committee '^ (1800, p. cxxxv), in which the ''ineffi- 
 ciency of the workers, early marriages, and the ten- 
 dency of the residuum of the population in large 
 towns to form a helpless community, together with a 
 low standard of life, and the excessive supply of "un- 
 skilled labour,'' are said to be the chief '' factors in 
 producing sweating." No more accurate description 
 of the cities of the poorest of the poor could be 
 penned. But let it be not be forgotten that the poor, 
 of which this dcsci'iption is given, are just those into 
 whose midst in London, Leeds, Manchester, etc., the 
 turbid streams of alien pauper immigration are con- 
 stantly flowing, deepening and broadening the area of 
 that community which, in the expressive words of the 
 Sweating Committee's report is ''helpless"! We 
 start with a condition of things as miserable as it is 
 menacing. And yet into that area of '•' helplessness"
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 75 
 
 we permit to pass every day a dirty, alien, and yet 
 more helpless inflow of humanity, cominc^ from the 
 far off cities of Russia, Hungary, and Poland ; and 
 bringing with it poverty, ignorance, and the vices 
 common to the deeper depths of continental cities ! 
 
 On the face of it, it looks as if the practice of laisser 
 faire was not the height of wisdom or the depth of 
 statesmanship. It might be thought that something 
 could be suggested to remedy a state of things for 
 which the most profound political, economic, and 
 moral justification must be found, if it is to continue 
 after the revelations made of late before Parliamentary 
 Committees as to the condition of the poor in those 
 parts of London, Leeds, and Manchester to which 
 the alien pauper immigrants come by hundreds, and 
 under the force of attractions which, when once 
 understood, make their advent both a mystery and an 
 addition to the misery already too prevalent in the 
 East Ends of great cities. 
 
 I know it will bo said, " There has been inquiry, 
 and one result of that inquiry is set forth in a 
 sentence in the report of the Committee on Sweating, 
 in which the opinion is stated that too much stress 
 had been laid upon the injurious effects on wages 
 caused by foreign immigration."' But let it be added 
 that farther on in the report this statement is some- 
 what modified, and wo learn that certain trades are 
 undoubtedly affected by the presence of poor for-
 
 76 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAJN. 
 
 eigners. Now if trades be affected, all else is affected 
 — sanitation, social habits, homo life, manners, and 
 morals. The normal condition of largo areas of 
 English cities is sad enough and bad enough. All 
 the moral evils that follow poverty, overcrowding, 
 physical depression, the fierce temptation to the over- 
 tried and helpless of vice, drink, and idleaess, are there 
 with a breadth and a depth that make good, men 
 despair and bad men grow cynical. So deeply is it felfc 
 that the '''conditions of life^' in city East Ends must 
 be bettered before the people will be "' better,'^ that 
 strenuous efiTorts are made to '' lift " men and women 
 out of these '^ submerged areas " into happier condi- 
 tions, where decency is possible, and where life may 
 find a fairer chance of being worth the living, and 
 childhood may bo sweet, love pure, and humanity 
 human. 
 
 Yet, how strange ! down at the " Docks " there 
 may be seen a crowd of emigrants standing on the 
 deck of some outward-bound steamer, and looking 
 their last farewell — half sad and half glad — to their 
 old home and fatherland, and steaming away to the 
 AVcst, where they may begin again, under brighter con- 
 ditions, 'Mife's fight that is ever fierce," but, while 
 fierce, need not always fail. And then, yet more 
 strange ! just on the other side of the '^ Dock " there 
 pours out from the decks of some continental ship 
 a bigger mass of alien, dirty, miserable immigrants.
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 77 
 
 bt'onglifc over to crowd into tho very cities^ streets, 
 worksliops and houses from wliicli the emigrants 
 have just steamed away. Now this anomaly, strange 
 as it seems, goes on weekly. It has its economic side, 
 and it has its moral parable. At homo we want more 
 room, more air, more work, more wages, and more 
 decent houses. We can only get much of this by 
 emigration. And yet side by side w^th emigration is 
 this immigration, making the physical, trade, social, 
 and moral conditions of our cities graver, more menac- 
 ing, and more difficult in every sense. On all hands 
 we hear the cry from the city to the country folk, 
 " Don't come up ; we are too many." And every 
 worker in city slums knows right well that they are 
 too many for health, for wages, for honest work, for 
 home life, for childhood, for decency, for chastity and 
 faith. And yet we are to stand aside, and let the 
 alien pauper in — with all that he carries on his face, 
 in his clothes, and in his person ; ay, let him in with 
 a hearty welcome from the sentimentalist and tho 
 capitalist ! 
 
 Were not another word written, this seems plain. 
 On moral grounds, with jvima facie evidence of the 
 character, aims, and habits of the alien pauper immi- 
 grant, he is just the one person who ought not to be 
 admitted to bring himself, his belongings, his poverty, 
 and his habits into the overcrowded East Ends of 
 English cities and towns.
 
 78 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 But we are met at once with the rejoinder^ " The 
 alien pauper immigrant is the modern political and 
 religious refugee to whom England has always given a 
 welcome, protection, and a home." The moral argu- 
 ment, we are told, is all in favour of our alien friend. 
 Of course this statement is made with perfect good 
 faith. Now, whatever it is worth, it is somewhat 
 limited in the area of its influence. The political 
 refugee and the rehgious exile are chiefly Semitics, 
 driven out of Russia, and perhaps in a few cases 
 exiled from Germany. If it is demanded of those 
 who oppose the present method and manner of alien 
 immigration that they give up contending for its 
 modification, restraint, and, in some phases of it 
 cessation, just because some one says that the Jews 
 are being expelled from Russia because they are 
 Jews, and on grounds purely political and religious, 
 it is but natural that we should ask for some very 
 definite proof of that statement. AVith the most 
 profound appreciation of the ability of "our own 
 correspondent," it is asking too much that the alien 
 pauper shall be allowed to " come in his thousands," 
 on the bare statement made by himself, his co- 
 religionists, and gentlemen of the press, often hard up 
 for good copy, that he is a political exile or a religious 
 refugee ! Certainly England has aforetime w'elcomed 
 the victims of Spanish persecution, of French religious 
 bigotry, and in doing so she has in trade, in liberty,
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 79 
 
 and in faith received an ample reward. The people 
 who crowd Hattou Gai'den, swarm in Soho^ aud 
 possess the very " gate of their enemies " in White- 
 chapel^ may be men to whom the sale of horrible 
 spirits to the Russian peasants, the lending of money 
 on monstrous usury^ and the gradual and utter de- 
 moralization of thousands of Russian communes are 
 things quite unknown; but before we are prepared 
 to receive the motley multitude that comes from over 
 the sea^ and across the vast plains of Russia^ with 
 open arms, as political exiles, and as religious 
 refugees, suffering for high, noble, and exalted 
 virtues, for faithfulness to the faith of their fathers 
 and to their God, we must know more about them, 
 and we must assure ourselves that the only reason 
 for their expulsion from Russia is because they are 
 so pure and saintly and true to the best traditions of 
 the remarkable race to which they belong. 
 
 Further. Before Englishmen are asked to accept 
 the very lofty character given to these immigrants, 
 it might surely be granted that some such estimate 
 should, ere this, have been formed concerning them 
 by their co-religionists, both on the Continent and in 
 England. The great Semitic race includes within its 
 unique area the poorest and the richest, the alien 
 pauper and the naturalized millionaire. Now no one 
 can say that any very remarkable excitement or 
 action has taken place amongst the big people of
 
 So THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 modern Israel in regard to tlie persecution in Kussia 
 and elsewliere of tlieir poor brethren. If the perse- 
 cution lias been real, if it has been because of tlie 
 Israelite religion, and if it has been as severe and 
 undeserved as wo are told it is, why, in the name of 
 ''•'kith and kin/^ ''faith and fathers," have not the 
 emperors of the European bourses brought the for 
 ever borrowing emperor of the North to book ? If 
 these immigrants arc political exiles or religious 
 refugees, it is rather hard upon the poor of ^Miite- 
 chapel that they arc to make room for them to come 
 in, and make the fight for bread fiercer in order that 
 these hungry and hunted Semitics may find house, 
 home and liberty in England. ^Vhy have not the 
 big-pursed men, who hold the secret, not of all the 
 creeds, but of all the stock-markets and bori'owing 
 houses in Europe, ])layed a nobler pai-t, and biought 
 the persecuting Czar to his marrow-bones, and so 
 saved the exile and the refugee from his long flight 
 and sad escape from political tyranny to find himself 
 the slave of the East End sweater? 
 
 There is ample justification fur the use of much 
 salt in regard to the whole story of the interesting 
 but not overclean 'Apolitical exiles,'^ and the uncouth 
 and not over devout '''religious refugees" from which 
 the East End of London suflfers so much. 
 
 But supposing that the lot of the alien pauper when 
 at home is hard, does it follow that it is playing the
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 8i 
 
 part of a frieud to liim to entice or welcome him to 
 the East End of London, or to Strangeways in 
 Manchester ? This is a question of the highest moral- 
 ity, for it appeals in no sense either to our fears or 
 our hopes. It is put purely in the interest of the 
 alien himself. Of course it may be said, '^ No one 
 entices these immigrants. They come, and we feel 
 bound to welcome them when they come.^' It is not 
 the place to discuss the means and methods by which 
 the pauper foreigners are attracted to our shores. 
 A full inquiry might however disclose some remark- 
 able facts. Let that pass. Would it not be kind to 
 let the pilgrims of the new exodus know what sorb 
 of "^promised land'' a^v'aits them here? Nay, might 
 it not be even more kind to make the path of that 
 pilgrimage more difficult, not to say impassable ? 
 Will some of the readers of this book take a stroll 
 in Hatton Garden, Soho, "Whitechapcl, and some of 
 the slums of Manchester ? And lot such think of 
 meu, women, and children brought over in scores 
 and hundreds, and just pitched down in an alien 
 land, ignorant of its language, ignorant of its trade 
 customs, wages, work, civic rights, and religion, and 
 left to make the best of it under conditions in- 
 tolerable to the native-born Englishman. There is 
 no need to accept the rhetorical description of the 
 Paris correspondent of the Times about a Sunday 
 slave-market in Whitechapel. But there is need to 
 
 G
 
 82 rilE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 read the pages of the evidence laid before the Sweat- 
 ing: Committee as to the conditions of life to the 
 '' Greener '^ down East. There is need to go and 
 see for oneself what life is behind Aldgato, in Beth- 
 nal Green^ and where the Semitic face pushes out 
 the " flat-nosed " Saxon^ and the weird names of He- 
 brew sound and foreign phrase spread themselves 
 street by street in Whitechapel^ and the language of 
 the pavement is not even the English oath or the 
 brutal Cockney jestj but a speech that comes from over 
 the sea. Before we hear so much about the ^' exile^s 
 home^' and the ^^ refugee's refuge/^ it might be well 
 to know what sort of a haven they will find who 
 seek our shores. There are moments^ it must be 
 admitted^ when those who live and labour in the great 
 East End feel hot and angry at the sight of the faces 
 so uu-Euglish^ and the sound of the speech so utterly 
 foreign^ which crowd pavement and road on "White- 
 chapel wastO; about the Miuories^ and all away down 
 Commercial Street and Bethnal Green. But anger 
 soon passes into pity when the thought comes into the 
 heart — -the thought of these poor wretcheSj landless^ 
 homelesSj and helpless — ■ the victims of imperial 
 tyranny, say some, of their own wrong- doing and 
 greed, say others — for years the victims of trade cus- 
 toms so cruel, of sweating so brutal, and of circum- 
 stance and social conditions so debasing, that the 
 only thing in their life that makes it bearable is
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. S3 
 
 the compaiiiousliip of thousands like unto them- 
 selves. 
 
 If these mcu aud women are political exiles and 
 religious refugees^ and we, in England, are bound in 
 conscience, iu faith, and in fealty to the splendid tra- 
 dition of onr freedom and our power, to give them 
 protection, safety and home, then let us do it, as in 
 the sight of God, with some thouglitfulness, some 
 wisdom, and some care. It is the sheerest hypocrisy 
 in the world for any one to talk of " protecting the 
 political exile from imperial wrath, and of guarding 
 the religious refugee from the bigotry of an ignorant 
 Greek priesthood,^' when all that we do is to let these 
 exiles and refugees crowd into the dense, dark, 
 debased and horrible areas of our city East Ends ! 
 Do the defenders of this cheap heroism realize what it 
 all means to the very poor wretches over whom they 
 are so sweetly sentimental and so selfishly indifferent ? 
 Let such " dcfeudei'S of Euglaud's noble name'' take 
 a lodging down iu Whitechapol ; let them spend days 
 and weeks iu studying the " labour market," the 
 ^' lodging-houses," the '• food markets," the clothes 
 fairs, the Semitic Sundays, and the '^ sweater's shop." 
 The result will bo everything but agreeable to the 
 amour propre of those friends of the exile and the 
 refugee. The Jjrlcufi'Ads of E<jypt uiust have been 
 pleasant compared iviih the cellars, garrets, shops, 
 and so-called factories in which the miserable alien 
 p.-iuper lives out his sad, toilsome, hopeless life.
 
 84 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Of course they are nob slaves ! They can sell their 
 labour and, if need bo, their life, on the best terms 
 they can get ! They are, in a sense, amongst their 
 own people ! Yes ; but it is possible that they find 
 little comfort in that fact. The worst '^sweaters ^^ 
 at tlie East Eud are prosperous " exiles ^^ and *^ refu- 
 gees/^ For oven the best of them there is little in 
 their life calculated to lift them, reform them, or better 
 tliem. They never assimilate our habits or become 
 Englishmen. In face, instinct, language and char- 
 acter their children are aliens, and still exiles. They 
 seldom really become citizens ; and our code of moral- 
 ity they never get by heart, but our vices they learn. 
 As they come, so they remain — aliens, children of 
 another race, amongst ns, yet not of us. And the 
 East End produces no typo of man or woman so 
 uutit, un-English, and morally and personally so alien, 
 as the pauper imnjigrant when he becomes a settler 
 in the regions of llatton Garden, Suho, and the 
 East End. If, when he conies atnongst ns, he is a 
 political patriot, exiled for his sturdy independence 
 and honest speech, or a religious refugee, driven from 
 the land of his fathers by cruel laws and edicts for 
 tlie crime of which Daniel and the three Hebrew 
 youths were condemned, it is certain that the haven 
 of safety and the home of liberty to which he has been 
 welcomed have served him but ill ; for it needs only a 
 few years of life amongst us to turn the political exile
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 
 
 into the drpaviest drudfre of tlio sweater, without one 
 political idea oi* hope, and to change the present reli- 
 gious refugee into a poor slave of toil who knows no 
 Sabbath, feels no inspiration in the splendid psalms 
 and prophecies of his fathers, and finds no hope even 
 in the unutterable name of his God. 
 
 If we are to welcome these alien paupers as exiles 
 and 'refugees, victims of a brutal tyranny, let us do 
 our duty with them, and save them from physical, 
 social and moral conditions which make their last lot 
 worse than their fii'st, and life in England less to be 
 desired than life in the communes of llussia and the 
 cities of Southern Europe. 
 
 There remains a yet more serious aspect of Alien 
 Pauper Immigration. What are its moral effects upon 
 our own people in those localities into which the in- 
 coiners crowd ? 
 
 Sufficient evidence has been set forth in other chap- 
 ters of this book to make it allowable for me to 
 accept many facts as proved. In the first part of this 
 essay I showed from the report of the " Sweating '^ 
 and the '' Emigration and Immigration '^ Committees, 
 that the normal condition of thousands of the poor 
 was, to use the word already quoted, '* helpless." To 
 allow, and even encourage, the immigration of alien 
 paupers into such areas, where such conditions prevail, 
 is, on the face of it, perilous in the extreme. It is 
 quite impossible to traverse the whole breadth of the
 
 86 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 facts brought out in the two inquiries referred to^ and 
 substantiated most fully by independent research and 
 testimony. At the best, in London, Leeds, Manches- 
 ter, and all large towns, ilierc are thousands of ijeoiile 
 to ivliom life is one grave, anxious, troubled tliougld ! 
 Work, for some reason, is always irregular, wages 
 fluctuating and low, houses difficult to obtain or 
 miserable to live in, and health precarious, and the 
 bright things of the world few or unknown. 
 
 During many years of close observation it was 
 forced upon my mind that tlie clironic condition oj 
 tens of tliousands of the poor is that of a ceaseless and 
 almost unvarijing depression. It comes from many 
 causes. It is an heredity, the heritage of generations 
 of overwork and underpay. It is a social condition 
 occasioned by w'ant of food, the uncertainty of em- 
 ployment, sickness, the fear of long illness, of the 
 workhouse, and of a pauper's funeral and grave. It 
 comes also from bad air, insanitation, overcrowding, 
 drink, and the awful monotony of daily life. In the 
 East End this " depression '^ has become quite a 
 symptom of the common lot of thousands, Ic looks 
 out of the face of the poor in streets, in the trams, in 
 the workshops, and in their homes. 
 
 "Mostly me:i's many-foaturo;! faces wear 
 Looks of fixeil ylooni, or else of restless care ; 
 The very babes, that in their cra'lles lie, 
 Otit of the depths of imlcnown trotibles cr}-."
 
 THE MORAL ASPEC'J'. 87 
 
 This " depression " is very wide and deep amongst 
 tlie East End poor, I feel sure that tlie presence of 
 the alien pauper increases it immensely. The sight of 
 one Semitic face seemed to act as a damper upon the 
 spirits of men and women wlio met the keen competi- 
 tion of their fellow countrymen as a natural thing. 
 But when visiting the poor when times were bad, I 
 often heard the weary complaint, '• It's them Jews." 
 Time after time have I heard that lament. Many 
 men and women^ struggling to keep a home over their 
 heads, but driven out of work by the foreigner, who 
 could ^Mive on less," and who vouJd take less, and 
 work longer, have said to me, '' ^Vhat's the use ? the 
 Jews are coming by thousands, and there will be 
 nothing left." I know it has been said that the 
 Gentile has gone to the wall because he flies to the 
 '' pub " more than the Jew. There are such cases, 
 but my own experience does not justify the sweeping 
 statement made by ^liss Potter before the Sweating 
 Committee. "The Gentile makes money to drink, the 
 Jews to save." The coming of the alien pauper has, 
 I feel sure, a most depressing effect upon thousands 
 of English men and women, both in London and Man- 
 chester. I write from what I have heard and seen. 
 
 Now, if there is one thing we want to bring about 
 amongst the poor, it is hope. But the presence, 
 especially in London, of thousands of foreign-faced 
 men and women crowding into the dense parts of the
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 poorer quarters of the great city does not so ranch anger 
 our own people as it saddens them. Quite apart froni 
 other questions^ their alien looks^ habits and language, 
 combined with their remarkable fecundity, tenacity 
 and money-getting gift, make them a ceaseless weight 
 upon the poor amongst whom they live. The marvel 
 is that the depression has not turned to anger, and 
 that we have not had a ^'Jew-hunt,'' such as has 
 been known abroad. May it never come ! but many 
 things are more improbable. Not anger with the 
 alien pauper, but a kind of pathetic sadness at the 
 hardness of his own lot, seems to possess the minds of 
 thousands of the poor in our big city, who feel the 
 Semitic alien both a burden and a fear. 
 
 The moral results of this daily depression are seen 
 on all hands. Many give up the light in despair, or 
 turn to the solace of drink, or even to the deadly 
 diversion of cheap vice ! People who go occasionally 
 to the East End may fail to realize these facts ; but to 
 those who have lived in its streets, and amongst its 
 people, the frightful depression, hopelessness, and 
 despair of thousands of the poor is the most difiicult 
 factor in their sad lives. It is a foolish policy to 
 deepen that depression by permitting the incoming 
 of hundreds of alien people, poorer than the poor, 
 yet able and willing to live under conditions which 
 are bearable only to Englishmen who have given up 
 all hope and self-help, and who drift from street to
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 
 
 street, from house to house, and from job to job, until 
 death seems life's most blessed expectation. And yet 
 such is the patient policy pursued by our authorities 
 at the present hour in regard to the immigration of 
 the pauper aliens. 
 
 Tlie fciuj^er alien intensifies the Iceen competition, 
 always too fierce, in the labour marliet. That such is 
 the fact has been more than proved over and over 
 again. There is no need to do more than restate 
 it. But one or two illustrations of its method and 
 influence upon the moral life of the poor may be 
 ad rem. Only those who have watched the ways 
 of the '' Sweater'' can understand how that a com- 
 paratively small number of men and women can bring 
 down the prices of work in the over-crowded East 
 Ends of our cities of the poor. It does not require 
 a thousand " seekers after work '^ to take off a half- 
 penny or even a penny in the dozen for articles in 
 the making of which the alien is a keen competitor 
 with English men and women. Such a scene as this 
 is not unknown down East. A crowd of seekers 
 after work. One woman goes into the office, or work- 
 shop, or warehouse. Slie is starving, or what is, 
 in its effect, equally bad, she is fairly well to do, 
 but wants to make a little pocket-money, or to lay 
 up a small fund for a "trip." Any way she is pre- 
 pared to take what she can get. The keen buyer 
 of her labour soon finds her out, and beats her down.
 
 90 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 little by little^ until she accepts, as is cfceii the case 
 when she is not in absolute need of the work, such a 
 price as her more necessitous sisters cannot liv^e upon. 
 But that price rules tl:e market for the day, and the 
 fairly well-to-do woman, wanting to earn a little 
 sum for herself, robs the mother, the lonely widow, 
 or the solitary woman of what would have been a 
 better payment for her work. Tliat aftects not one, 
 but scores, and in some cases, hundreds. Let the 
 one case be multiplied by scores; let the hungry, 
 eager, able-to-live-almost-upon-nothing alien come 
 in, crowd into the labour market of Loudon or ^Lin- 
 clicster, and the result is self-evident. Tlie '''sweater" 
 becomes master of the situation, and the poor half- 
 fed, over-worked man or woman the victim. 
 
 Now the economic effects of such competition are 
 not within the scope of this essay, only so far as 
 they have moral results; and they hive very terrible 
 results upon the home, the character, and the tone of 
 the life of the poor. 
 
 Lower wages, irregularity in work, with sp.'lls of 
 idleness and spells ot" over-work, have very certain 
 moral results. Nothing so soon breaks down the 
 moral nerve of a man as keen competition, followed 
 by a smaller wage, irregular employment, with the 
 necessity for cheaper lodgings, cheaper food, a cheaper 
 life all round. It just takes the heart out of a man. 
 But it may be said, and justly said, '■ Tiiis eifect
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 91 
 
 comes of all competition.^'' It does. There is notliiug 
 singulax' in the fact that the influx of hundreds 
 of pauper aliens into the labour market of London^ 
 Leeds^ and Manchester brings with it all the evils of 
 over-competition. That must be admitted. It might 
 bo a boon if the fact were singular. It does not 
 seem to show that the policy of letting ihings alone 
 is wise, because the immigrants from Eussia only 
 intensify a condition of things too prevalent in all big 
 centres of population already. But there is an aspect_, 
 a moral aspect, to this competition, so far as the 
 alien pauper is concerned, which is somewhat singular 
 and unique. It is this. The alien^ notwithstanding 
 many virtues, seems to bring a sort of social con- 
 tagion with him, which has the effect of seriously 
 deteriorating the life of those of our own people who 
 are compelled to be his neighbour. It is a painful 
 thing to write, but truth compels the statement, that 
 wherever the foreigner comes in any number, the 
 neighbourhood in which he settles speedily di'ops in 
 tone, in character, and in niorals. It can be seen 
 most distinctly in those districts in London where 
 the alien is to be found in large numbers. The same 
 fact is patent in regard to any trade into which the 
 alien enters in any considerable force. It is a fact 
 which soon makes itself felt, and those who watch 
 the steady and almost stealthy spreading of certain 
 importations from abroad in London aiid ]\Iancliester
 
 92 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 can quite confirm the statement. It is something' 
 very subtle and strange. It may not bo possible for 
 any one to say '^ they drink " or '^ their life is fdled 
 with kibricity/' yet it seems to liave a lowering in- 
 fluence upon the manners and the morals of all who 
 are compelled to herd witli the foreigner. Their very 
 virtues seem prolific of evil when^ like some seed 
 blown by the winds^ they fall and fructify in English 
 soil. It may be difficult to explain the fact, but 
 fact it is. The statement of it may give offence in 
 some quarters. That is to be regretted. But the 
 existence of the fact is an offence^ and a grave offence, 
 in our city life and in our national morals. It is 
 a very serious tiling to know that in the East End, 
 and in other parts of London and certain well-known 
 cities, this contagion in the life of the poorest of the 
 poor spreads apace, increasing year by year in its 
 fatal force, and forming one of the saddest factors 
 in the poverty of thousands. Surely it belongs to 
 us as a nation to consider this sincerely and earnestl3% 
 JNfr. Tillett's account of five hundred emigrants de- 
 parting from the Docks, driven out of England by the 
 pressure of over-crowded life, while, at the same hour, 
 and near the same spot, seven hundred pauper aliens 
 were coming in, has all the elements of tragedy and 
 comedy. But it can easily be surpassed, in that 
 respect, by the equally true statement, that while in 
 the East End wo send hundreds of earnest workers.
 
 711E iMORAL ASPECT. 
 
 and spend thousands of pounds in an endeavour to 
 drive out sadness^ over-work, sorrow, and sin, we do 
 our best to defeat our philanthropic purpose by per- 
 mitting the incoming of the ahen pauper, who deepens 
 sadness, increases weariness, spoils much work, and 
 spreads a peculiar influence amongst the poor, utterly 
 inimical to homo life, to honest toil, to fair work, to 
 fair wage, and to Sabbath keeping, and destructive of 
 that faith and character without which the lifting of 
 city East Ends is a hopeless task. 
 
 Two grave facts have been set forth in this essay. 
 The alien pauper deepens the awful depression which 
 rests upon the life of the poor, especially in the East 
 End of London, in some parts of Manchester, and 
 other towns. Eurther, the alien immigrant spreads a 
 sort of contagion in all neighbourhoods where he 
 settles in any considerable numbcj-, and through any 
 trade upon which he lays his hands. It may be said 
 that these statements are vague and incapable of 
 actual proof. They are vague, I admit, when put side 
 by side with figures and physical facts ; but that 
 vagueness belongs to all morals when considered in 
 connection with what may be called the mechanics of 
 life. But let any one who has worked and lived east 
 of Aldgate Eump consider the two points I have 
 sought to emphasize and illustrate, and I feel sure that 
 the conviction will force itself into his mind that I 
 have not written about mere imaginary things or the
 
 94 'J HE DES'JITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 creations of my own fancy. Every clergyman and 
 minister, every city missionary/ every sclioolmaster, 
 and every worker in the East End and in the slums of 
 great cities, knows perfectly well that the two prime 
 necessities of all social reform are Hope and Health. 
 Who has notj when working amongst the poor, longed 
 for something that would rouse them from their apathy, 
 and lift them out of their depression ? Who has not 
 learnt that in every strike, with all its necessary sorrow 
 and evil, there is a splendid force for stirring thou- 
 sands into mental exertion, and for quickening hope 
 and effort in the heart and life of men often too 
 dull to care for anything beyond something to drink. 
 Now to snch, the influx, especially into London, of 
 the ever-coming, ever-increasing, the ever-competing 
 pauper alien is a fact big with the saddest results to 
 tens of thousands in the suflbcating streets of the 
 East End. It means that work will be less, wages 
 lower, houses dearer, competition more keen, and life 
 UTore dull, dark, and depressing. Let it be imagined 
 for a mom.eut that the '•'open door'"'' through which the 
 alien enters were closed. Lot it further be imagined 
 that the splendid scheme witli which Baron Hirsch is 
 credited had come to a practical realization, and that in 
 London a new exodus had set in under the guidance 
 of the modern Moses, and that thou.-ands of tlie race 
 that spoiled the Egyptians journeyed down the broad 
 streets that lead to the Ducks at Poplar — what would
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 95 
 
 be the effect upon the poor in Whitechapel^ Bethnal 
 Greon^ and St. Georgo's-in-the-Bast ? Immense. I 
 could believe that in thousands of hearts of London^s 
 poor the thought would kindle like a now-born hope, 
 ''We shall have a chance now!'^ That thought would 
 be an inspiration and a help. But I fear the sugges- 
 tion is only a dream of a dream. Every day sees them 
 comOj and every week only adds to their numbers. The 
 "crowd of life" gets more crowded, the competition 
 becomes more keen, the poverty deeper, the sorrow 
 more hopeless, and the common life of the poor more 
 helpless. Nothing is done save a feeble and fussy 
 effort to count the aliens who land at the Docks or 
 come by more stealthy ways into the city. Never did 
 the good people of all creeds so earnestly care for the 
 poor, seek their betterment and their social salvation. 
 But, side by side with all their efforts, there is an 
 influence, powerful, prevalent, and iu ceaseless living 
 activity, which is foreign in character, apart in habit, 
 lacking all those fibrous characteristics which, even 
 amongst the worst of our people, help to keep men a 
 little manly and women somewhat chaste ; an influ- 
 ence that increases in force every day, that is fiercely 
 competitive in labour, unsocial, unpatriotic, because it 
 hath no real citizenship amongst us, and altogether 
 antagoni'^'^ic to our common faith, and unsympathetic 
 towards all our highest ideals and noblest aims ; an 
 influence which lies upon the life of thousands of the
 
 96 7'HE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 poorest of the poor like a burden, and penetrates that 
 life with forces such as no English Christian can con- 
 template unmoved ; an influence that is amongst us by 
 our own permission^ and is not a growth of our own 
 soilj but an importation. What is the duty of Govern- 
 mentj of Parliament, and of the Nation ? To let this 
 thing alone ? To leave the door still open ? To stand 
 alone amidst the nations of the world, permitting any- 
 thing to make its home where there is least room for 
 it, and least moral and physical resources calculated to 
 master it, mould it, and make it into a peaceful factor 
 towards all that is best in our national life ? Is that 
 the duty of a representative Government, supposed to 
 exist for the greatest good of the greatest number? 
 
 The policy of '^ let alone ^' is pretty well played out, 
 and gone with the brutal doctrine of the " survival of 
 the fittest." It has played its part of an implacable 
 indiiferenco long enough. Governments must govern, 
 or the people will. Of course it will be said the alien 
 pauper is "a good deal of a bogey,''' and wc shall once 
 again be enjoined not to 'Halk about heroic remedies'' 
 until we have ascertained that wo have a really dan- 
 gerous disease to deal Avith. But all that sort o£ 
 '''arm-chair" criticism goes for little in face of the 
 facts which every day makes more palpable in regard 
 to the pressure of the alien immigration upon the very 
 poor of East London and elsewhere. As for the much 
 higher criticism of the ^' political exile and the religious
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 97 
 
 refugee ^^ sort, that has pretty well had its day. It 
 starts with a great assumption, scarcely sustained by 
 facts. It lays upon the poor of the East End a 
 responsibility which surely belongs in the first place 
 to the co-religionists and the co-patriots of these per- 
 secuted people j and it takes up with a fussy osten- 
 tation the case of exiles and refugees who, if they 
 deserve any care and sympathy as such, ought not to 
 bo left by the lofty-minded defenders of modern 
 Huguenots to find a haven of rest in AVhitechapel, and 
 a home in the arms of the sweater ! 
 
 If it is the duty of England to open her ports and 
 her cities to these immigrants, it must be equally her 
 duty to see that, when they come, they shall find 
 something more suitable to political patriots than an 
 East End slum, and something more conducive to the 
 better exercise of their religious convictions than 
 the horrible physical and social conditions under the 
 influence of which, poor, alone, and often betrayed 
 by false friends, they drifc from street to street and 
 from sweater to sweater, until they become the most 
 hopeless and helpless of the deepest residuum of a 
 great city. 
 
 If, again, prompted by the memory of the days 
 when the liuofuenot found a refuo'e on our shores, 
 England stretches out sympathetic arms of welcome 
 to these " exiles and refugees,^^ it surely becomes her 
 duty to see, not only that they are " housed '' in 
 
 5
 
 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 decency, and treated with honesty and honourable 
 care, but that her own " sons of toil/^ fighting in our 
 big towns for very life, shall not find that fight made 
 more fierce, and that life made more sad and sinful, 
 because of the incoming of men and women alien in 
 race, religion, and character. If it is impossible to 
 checkj divert, or stop the inflow of the alien immi- 
 grant ; if he is a must-bo of our civilized inter- 
 nationalism and of our Christianized hospitality ; if he 
 is one of the very factors of our economic free trade, 
 — surely, by every consideration capable of realization 
 by a nation so generous and so noble, our own fullow 
 citizens, our own brothers and sisters after the flesh, 
 ought, with equal sympathy and with yet more than 
 equal Christian love, to be guarded from evils which 
 even a child might anticipate would arise from the 
 incoming into our poorer life of thousands of men and 
 women alien in race, in social habits, and in religion, 
 and so fiercely competitive in that labour world 
 wherein our poor have to gain their daily bread, not 
 only by the sweat of their brow, but often by tlie 
 breaking of their heart. By cveiy moral considera- 
 tion, bearing alike upon the condition, character, and 
 life of the alien immigrant, as well as upon the state 
 of our own fellovr countrymen, whose mistbrtune it is 
 to be poor, overworked, and underpaid, v.'o, as a nation, 
 are bound to see that, either wo shut our ports to 
 the Russian and foreign refugees, or that their settle-
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT. 99 
 
 ment in our midst shall not be inimical to tlieir social 
 progress and moral growth^ nor dangerous to the 
 liealtbj happiness^ and ethical betterment of our own 
 people.
 
 STATUTORY AND OFFICIAL PROVISIONS. 
 
 By C. J. FOLLETT. 
 
 ''x\. WAN must live by liis work^ aud his wages must 
 at leasts be sufficient to maintain liim/^ 
 
 Thus wrote our great political economist of the last 
 century ; and, as a corollary to this, it has been 
 written that " man cannot safely increase in any 
 country beyond the means of subsistence available 
 for his support/^ 
 
 The means of subsistence are not now as they were 
 then. The subsistence of a country is no longer 
 confined to its own produce. Steam, and other means 
 of communication, have made the subsistence of 
 countries the granaries of the world. 
 
 At any rate, so long as we keep the seas open, this 
 is so with us. The means of subsistence are with us 
 the power of purchasing them. 
 
 The paraphrase of the above quotations should, 
 therefore, now, be that man cannot, with safety, 
 increase in any way so as to make his purchasing 
 power of the means of subsistence no longer available 
 for his support. 
 
 AVhat is true of a country generally, is true, mainly.
 
 STATUTORY AND 0FFICL4L PROVISIONS. loi 
 
 as to its labouring class, which are the larger portion, 
 and the producers of its wealth ; and so it comes to 
 this — that in no country, with safety, can wages be 
 reduced to less than the purchasing power of the 
 means of subsistence. 
 
 For a country to be, in this respect, in a thoroughly 
 wholesome position, it should be able to be asserted, 
 as to all its industries, that such a reduction does not 
 occur. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be Utopian to expect as much as 
 this, in even the happiest community. But a com- 
 munity falls short of the happiness which it should 
 aspire to attain to, if it can be said that this is 
 markedly not the position in any noticeable portion. 
 If any noticeable portion is condemned, from any 
 cause, to work for less than will give the means of 
 subsistence available for its support, something is at 
 fault which calls for correction. 
 
 But then comes the important question. What is 
 subsistence ? 
 
 This is a varying quantity dependent on the habits 
 of the particular society, acquired by generations ; 
 and, also, on climatic and other influences. Mere life 
 is subsistence in some countries and societies ; in 
 others life, so reduced, is not worth the having, 
 and its people are entitled, of right, to something 
 better. 
 
 Liberal reward of labour is the test of national
 
 I02 THE DESrirUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 wealth, and should be proportioued to that wealth. 
 With its increase^ the habits and mode of life of 
 the labouring classes become more elevated. Thej 
 advance with it ; and they have as much a vested 
 right to this advance as capital invested has to its 
 repayment. Improved enjoyment is the interest on 
 their capital. A brighter life is as much theirs as is 
 the dividend on money in the National Funds the 
 property of the iuscribed holder. 
 
 In a wealthy comnmnity, tlierefore, subsistence of 
 the labourer means^ not only existence, but fair and 
 reasonable means to enjoy life. He has a right to 
 this. It is his mode of subsistence ; and if his wages 
 drag hira down below this, he has not got the means 
 of subsistence ; he is existing without them, and 
 contrary to the fundamental rules of how man should 
 exist and increase. 
 
 And if this should be largely the case, the injuiy is 
 not confined to him alone. AVages are the sum which 
 the habits of each society render necessary for sub- 
 sistence accordinof to its customs. If the labourin^x 
 class fails to receive these, it will lower, of necessity, 
 the habits of the larger portion of the community 
 which they are ; and, v/ith them, it will affect the 
 habits of the community at lai'ge. 
 
 AVitli decaying wealth in a community a decay 
 of wages naturally follows, and want and mortality 
 are the result. To allow this to occur in a community
 
 STATUTORY AND OFFICIAL PROVISIONS. 103 
 
 "vvliere wealth in tlie aggregate is not decaying, bat 
 holds its own, is a blot on the social system. 
 
 These are all, I know, only truisms, and very trite ; 
 but I venture to name them as leading up to the ques- 
 tion at issue. 
 
 The question is this : Are we, or are we not, being 
 seriously injured by large importations of foreigners, 
 willing to work, legally, honestly and quietly, it may 
 be, but for considerably less w^ages than our own 
 people do work for, and, indeed, can work for consist- 
 ently with our ideas of subsistence ? And if we are 
 being so injured, ought we to do anythiug to stop the 
 injury? And if we ought so to do, what should the 
 particular remedial steps be ? 
 
 I suppose there are some ardent worshippers of 
 cheapness, who would assert that lowered price of 
 commodities obtained, even at this risk, must be ac- 
 cepted as a blessing, and not resisted. 
 
 But is the good thus obtained in any way commen- 
 surate with the evil ? It takes a wide range, and con- 
 siderable time, for lowered wages to reduce prices, 
 generally, even if they do it at all. Meanwhile, the 
 suffering and misery are great. 
 
 Cheaper trousers and cheaper boots in Brook Street 
 and Bond Street will not add to the necessaries and 
 conveniences of the East End ; and if those necessaries 
 and conveniences fall short, by sharp reduction, of 
 what the habits and proper customs of the people, and
 
 104 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN LY GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 tlie requirements of tlio climate to those Lorn in it, 
 demand, a grave deterioration must take place in tlicir 
 habits. 
 
 This would bo sufficiently serious if nothing else 
 was imported except very cheap, even though not 
 dishonest, industry. Unfortunately, however, the 
 cheap industry does not come alone. Its Lares and 
 Penates are certainly at a minimum; but it brings 
 with it a most sinister companion, which largely 
 {iggravatos the evil. 
 
 Cleanliness is mainly an occidental religion, and is 
 not worshipped as much as it should be in the lands 
 of the rising sun. After the visit of Peter the Great 
 to inspect our metropolis, two hundred years ago, tlio 
 house in which he lodged was so filthy that the es- 
 pecial payment from the Exchequer to clean it is a 
 matter of history. Similar experiences of Oriental 
 visitation have, if rumour be true, been felt in recent 
 years. The inundation of the East Eud by the poor 
 foreigners who come, with their empty hands and their 
 unsavoury habits, not only reduces the capacity of our 
 own people to resist dii't and degradation, but larg(>ly 
 increases the vc)lumo of dirt and degradation to be 
 resisted. 
 
 An evil somewhat of the same kind has been at the 
 door of (Ireat Pritain always, and (^specially in the last 
 century with its easy sea^ passage — in the larg(^ influx 
 of labour from Ireland.
 
 STATUTORY A .YD OFFICIAL PROVISIOyS. 105 
 
 There was, tlience, an influx of sturdy, quiclc-witteil 
 labour, but witli considerably lower conceptions of 
 subsistence than in this country, and lower demand 
 for the power to purchase. The introduction of this 
 totally different labour, with lower tastes and habits, 
 would have been a most threatening evil to the 
 labourers of Great Britain, and to society, if strenu- 
 ous efforts had not been made to raise the standard 
 (still unfortunately much too low) of Irish labour, on 
 the one hand, and, on the other, to facilitate its emi- 
 gration to younger lands. What, however, we may do 
 on our owu territory we cannot do on foreign soil. 
 Wc can only face the evil, if it is one, now threatened, 
 by consideration of how to treat it when it reaches our 
 waters. Can, then, anything be done ? Is it right to 
 do anything ? 
 
 Even if it were just to blame, it would bo most 
 diflicult to control, the use of this cheap labour by 
 employers. Competition, so keen whore trade is free, 
 so essentially part of free trade, puts interference here, 
 practically, out of court. It is certain that cheap 
 labour will be seized on by some to undersell others ; 
 and this means that it must, if, and so long as, it is 
 available, be commonly used where it appropriately 
 meets requirements. It is labour, not of the factory, 
 open to inspection, but of the garret, the solitary 
 candle, and the midnight hours. 
 
 Nothing, probably, but sumptuary laws, for Avhich
 
 io6 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 WO aro not yet prepared^ can stop this. Tho remedy 
 must be sougdit elsewhere. 
 
 I know tliat there is a variety of opinion as to the 
 extent of this evil of foreign immisration ; and that 
 able statistics liavo been put forward to show that it is 
 not so formidable as some suppose; that the increase 
 is not great, and that it is^ to a large extent, au in- 
 crease only in transit. 
 
 I have no desire^ and^ indeed^ no power to argue 
 this point ; but I recognise the well-known fact that 
 a small element of undersellino- is stror.o: in reducino- 
 price ; and I feel bound to regard as the most authori- 
 tative view^ the licport of the Select Conimittee of tho 
 House of Commons on the subject;, in 1880, wliich 
 announced as its conclusion that the evil was a grow- 
 ing one of serious dimensions, and that before long 
 tho wisdom of the nation would have, of necessity, to 
 gi'apple with ir, and find a remedy. 
 
 Ill writing tliis paper I am not putting myself for- 
 ward as an advocate, strongly, of any particular 
 remedy. I do not know enough to do so. I am n(;t 
 in a position to do it if I did. I am merely, at request, 
 patting down some points for consideration on what I 
 find suggested. 
 
 The prominent suggestion — indeed, the Select Com- 
 mittee itself n.amed it: as tho only elfectual one — is a 
 prohibition agaiur^t tho ini]iortatiou of this cheap 
 labour; and it calls for a great deal of rellection.
 
 S'J'ATUTORY AND OFFICIAL PROVISIONS. 107 
 
 As a merely abstract point; proliibition of importa- 
 tiou is not an i;iiknowu entity amongst us. 
 
 Wo prohibit various things — piratical books^ false 
 coinSj indecent works of any kind^ false trade marks 
 or indications^ disease in human beings, and in special 
 shapes in animals, products dangerous to life, such as 
 explosives, or adulterated provisions ; besides various 
 other things touching our revenue. Prohibition, there- 
 fore, per ,"":>, would be no innovation. It would be new 
 only, if adopted in this matter, in the extended pur- 
 view in a fresh direction. 
 
 At present, our proliibitions may bo put under the 
 following categories : — 
 
 Protection of mere life from disease or acci- 
 dent ; 
 Protection from disease in the means of sub- 
 sistence, and the adulteration of them ; 
 Protection from falseness in the medium of pur- 
 
 ch;ise of subsistence ; 
 
 Protection of public morals, and of honesty in 
 
 trade. 
 
 To go beyond these in the direction suggested 
 
 would be the doing of two things more : viz. — beyond 
 
 mere life, the protection of our habits of life, so as to 
 
 prevent their deterioration — to say not oidy, '^ You 
 
 sha'n-'t come in to kill us," but, furthei-, " You shahi't 
 
 come in to lower our mode of life ; " and, in doing 
 
 this, to make use of the powers of the Government,
 
 io8 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IV GREAT BE ITALY. 
 
 not only to prevent trade bein^ dishonest, bat to 
 secure its financial tone, and its scale of remunera- 
 tion. 
 
 This is the change which the suggestion meanSj or, 
 at least, which it would effect as regards advance in 
 prohibition. 
 
 Perhaps it may be further than strict political 
 economy would authorize us to go. I am not sure of 
 this when it is a question of human beings starving 
 out other human being's from their natural riofhts. 
 But take it so j and yet we have it on tlio highest 
 authority that the philosophy of political economy 
 may be banrshed, with safety, to Jupiter or Saturn, 
 when national urgency demands its expulsion. 
 
 There are, however (and the question should be 
 treated with complete frankness), reasons, besides 
 political economy, why we should, at first, shrink 
 from the stop of prohibition, and Unit notwithstanding 
 the example of other countries. 
 
 Many of these unfortunate beings are flying not 
 merely from poverty, but from persecution ; from 
 death and cruelty, to the merest patch of life in peace. 
 The shores of England are supposed to bo the free 
 haven for any suffering, sorrow, or distress that 
 chooses to seek them. It is one of our glories. AVe 
 would not willingly turn from it, though it may exist 
 to our own hindrance. Pity, wonder what else can 
 possibly become of the poor things, would restrain us
 
 STATUTORY AND OFFICIAL PROVISIONS. 109 
 
 unless duty, where duty most is due, imperatively 
 points otherwise. 
 
 Theu, again, the free ingress of foreign element is, 
 as an abstract rule, a benefit to the nations. This has 
 always been so in the dissemination of arts and 
 industries ; and, although, at times, in the history of 
 the world, it has led to a lessening of physical strength, 
 it has scarcely ever failed in the increase of civilization. 
 
 '' Grcecla cnpta feriun vldorem ceplt." The arts and 
 culture of conquered Greece took captive the conquer- 
 ing, but merely physical, force of Home by the influx 
 of Greeks over the lloman provinces. 
 
 The circumstances of the world now render no 
 longer dangerous to us the cultivation which emascu- 
 lated the liomau ; and the various immigrations 
 wliicli religious persecutions and other upheavals have 
 thrown on our shores, only taught us useful and 
 artistic improvements. They have never weakened, 
 they have always strengthened us. 
 
 The country in Europe which has been most free to 
 forcii^'uers — the Netherlands — has Ion"; been marked 
 as one of the richest and most self-reliant. 
 
 Reluctance, therefore, to exclude a foreign element 
 is part both of our feelings, our history, and our self- 
 interest; and the question whether we have a sufficient 
 reason for exclusion, in this instance, is, consequently, 
 one to bo approached with great care; but I think 
 that the consideration of it may, possibly, be helped by
 
 no THE DESTJTUTE ALIE.V IN GREAT BRITAEV. 
 
 a short statement of how, as regards arrival, and free- 
 dom to trade and work, and other political necessities, 
 our law and historj' has tre'ited aliens, and treats thotn 
 now. 
 
 Some of these provisions may, in qaotin;r, seem to be 
 but obsolete enactments of a system t',* which wo have 
 bid farewell — a system of interfering paternal govern- 
 ment, inconsistent with the present elevation of indi- 
 vidual freedom. Vyat he would bo a bold man who 
 would allirm that the battle between individualism 
 and socialism has left the ring. It would be safer to 
 allege that the concluding '"round" has yet to bo 
 fought out, on thoroughly iloubtful odds. 
 
 The extremes of such a combat raise their voices. 
 On one side, there are ardent politicians who would 
 elevate the individual to such ;i pedestal as not even 
 to tax him without his pers')nal consent. On the 
 other hand, there are prophets of socialism who fore- 
 cast all human life controlled in eveiy action of state, 
 of commerce, and of property, by rules for commuua 
 benefit. 
 
 AVho can positively say that we may not yet search, 
 for instructive guidance, the less individual legislation 
 of our ancestors? AVho ca.n tell that society may not 
 yet [)lace itself, with commoii acceptance, in leading 
 strings even tighter than any which guided it in the 
 (l;i\s at v/hicli wo arc r.ow Ji-posed to smile with 
 suiMTior comna'<sion.
 
 STATUTORY AND OFJ'ICIAL PROVISIONS. 
 
 Sovereign States possess the riglit internationally to 
 order aliens out of tlicir respective territories^ or to 
 prevent tlieir admission therein. It is stated that,, in 
 our conmion Liw^ there is a prerogative in this respect 
 vested in the Crown, as an appendant to its power of 
 declaring war. 13ut the extent of the right is doubt- 
 ful^ and the regulation of trading permission and 
 social life has been mainly exercised uudei'^ and by 
 virtue of^ special Acts of Parliament^ as the exigencies 
 of the country required; an.d as the varyii:g views 
 taken of the desirability of admitting foreign traffic 
 and intercourse oscillated to and fro. 
 
 The dealing witli aliens so lar in our history has 
 turned mainly on two points — interference with trade^ 
 and political agitation. The present point — its conilict 
 with the labour market— is a {|nestion cliiclly of this 
 day. I propose to shortly recount the dealings with 
 tlie first two ([uestions. I'ossibl}', thereby^ judgment 
 may be aided as to hov/ far it is right to deal with the 
 third. 
 
 Jn the great Charter^ and tlic Statutes confirming 
 it, it was provided that ■.— ■ 
 
 " All merchants^ unless they were openly prohibited 
 before, shall have safe and sure conduct to depart out 
 or England; and to come into England, and to tarry in 
 and go through Iilngland, as well by land as by water, 
 to buy or sell vrilhont an.y evil tolls by the old and 
 rightful customs, except in time of war.'"''
 
 112 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN LY GREAT TT ITALY. 
 
 This was the generous pronouncement of the 
 Charter of our liberties. It mentions merchants only^ 
 probably because merchants then, alone, travelled. 
 ^Vhether it Nvould have gone beyond this, if communi- 
 cation had been then as wow, cannot be affirmed ; 
 but, at the time, it more probably meant free access 
 to all strangers likely to reach our shores. 
 
 And yet it was very long before, and only after 
 various changes, that this freedom became complete 
 as to even merchants. 
 
 During the immediately succeeding reigns of the 
 early Plantagenet kings, it is quite clear that equality 
 of position was denied to alien merchants; and, until 
 the reign of Edward I., they suffered here, as in many 
 other European countries, great disabilities, and, 
 notably, amongst them, the unjust li:ibility of being 
 arrested, one of them, fur the debt or crime of another. 
 
 The policy, however, of that great king, the first 
 really English king of the Xornian concpiest, was to 
 encourage foreign trade, and especially the wooUon 
 trade, in aid of agricultural J'lngland ; and his Parlia- 
 ment enacted that, '"' in no city, borough, or town 
 should any person be distrained lor any debt whereof 
 he is not debtor or pledge." 
 
 This policy was taken up, confirmed, and extondod 
 by his grandson, Edward IlL, whose Parliaments en- 
 acted, amongst other things : — 
 
 " That all merchant strangers may go and come
 
 STATUTORY AND OFF/CIA I PROVLSlONS. 
 
 witli tlieir niercliandises into England after the tenonr 
 of tlio Great Charter ; and tliat all merchant alien.s 
 miglit Iniy or sell corn, wine, good.'^, flesli, fowl, and 
 all other provisions and victuals, wools, clotlis, ware, 
 inercliandiscs, and all other things, and freely pass 
 and sell them without interruption." 
 
 It is, however, clear that these free trade views 
 were those rather of the monarch than of the people. 
 Edward HI. was, in his personal character, his firm 
 position, and his brilliant successes, strong enough to 
 force his own views on even a reluctant people. 
 
 For centuries after his death, the policy of the 
 country and its laws as to alien trade swung round in 
 the opposite direction. 
 
 Restrictions, disabilities and practical prohibitions, 
 dictated by the corporations of the towns and their 
 guilds, took the place of freedom, encouragement and 
 even privilege. 
 
 Until the strong Tudor times no Sovereign stood in 
 Edward's independent positioii. Feebleness of char- 
 acter, doubtful claims to the succession, dynastic wars 
 and family rivalries, alike, combined to keep the 
 Sovereign subject to the feelings of tlie people, and 
 the opposition of corporate monopolies. 
 
 Hence we find, in that interval, such restrictions as 
 these, which we can only regard as those of England 
 speaking its real voice at that time : — 
 
 In 1390, Richard II., "That no alien person should 
 
 I
 
 114 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 trade without proof given that ho would expend lialt 
 the vahio of his mercliandi^e in other nierchaudiso 
 here.'^ 
 
 In lo92^ after stating that the Acts of i'^dward 
 III. were a great hindrance and damage to cities of the 
 realni; that '■' no foreign merchant sliould sell or buy 
 within the realm to any other foreign merchant to sell 
 again; that no foreign merchant should sell at retail 
 within the realm exce})t provisions, and as to some 
 provisiunSj only in large quantities/"^ thus furbidding 
 retail trade to foreigners almost altogethei-; and for- 
 bidding Avholcsale traffic except with Ijritish sub- 
 jects. 
 
 'i'his was fallowed, in I h'J2, Henry IV,, by })ro- 
 visions forbidding any carrying of the proceeds of 
 such trade out of the country, except in the shape of 
 other merchandise bought in exchange. 
 
 This was a great retrogression, from the full free- 
 dom of the Charter, and the Edwards, to restrictiun of 
 manner of trade, and restriction as to export. 
 
 But two stronger measures followed. 
 
 \\\ 1 121', Henry W., tliere was an enactment, some- 
 what interesting in these days of contest Ijetwcen 
 mono-metallism and bi-metallism. Despite prohibi- 
 tion, the aliens evident!}' managed to take av/ay coin 
 \\iLh them, jjoth standards obtained tlien, and for 
 many years afterwards ; but, with a shrewd eye for 
 business, the traders were in the habit of refusing
 
 STATUTORY AND OTTICIAL TIWVJSIOXS. 115 
 
 silvci'j wliich won 110 preiniuiii in their own countries, 
 and requiring', in payment, only gold, wliicli did. 
 
 This refusal ^yas emphatically declared illegal in 
 1 129, and the law then passed is a strong instance of 
 that species of paternal gorernment rendering ^^ con- 
 tracts out of an act^'' illegal, of which wc see specimens 
 in the present day. It provides that : — 
 
 '•'No merchant alien shall constrain or bind any of 
 the King's liege people by promise, covenant, or bond, 
 to make payment to him in gold for any inanner of 
 debt " — and, furlhcr, "To prevent the great loss which 
 persons of this realm have by losses made of their 
 merchandises to merchant aliens, no Englishman shall 
 sell within this realm, or cause to be sold to any 
 merchant alien, any manner of merchandise for any 
 but ready paytnont in money, or else in merchandise, 
 to be paid and counted in hand on pain of forfeiture of 
 the same/' ^ 
 
 The exclusion of pauper alions may bo a strong 
 measure, ])ut it v/ould be a trifle compared to this iu- 
 quisitoriid Act in the reign, of England'.s feeblest king, 
 forbidding, paternally, any trust of any hind to an alien 
 in this counlry. We sliould certainly be astonished at 
 an Act telling us, novr, wliom we may give credit to, 
 and whom not. And, yet, are vre so very far from it 
 
 ^ This was extended to a permission of six moiithb' credit 
 hy an early subsequent Act.
 
 Ii6 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 in these daj^s of Jupiter and Saturn, of tenants who 
 may only agree on statutory tcrms^ and of artisans wlio 
 ask to be prevented by law from selling their capital, 
 tlie labour of their hands, as each may think right ? 
 
 Then, there was another enactment which tells even 
 more on the immediate point — a law regulating the 
 location of aliens while trading in this country. 
 
 By an Act in 1439 (Henry A'l.), not repealed until 
 this century, it was enacted : — 
 
 ^' That all alien merchants shall be under the survey 
 of certain persons, to be called Hosts or Surveyors, to 
 be appointed by the Mayors of the several cities and 
 to be good and credible natives, expert in merchan- 
 dise." '' Such Hosts to be privy to all sales and con- 
 tracts of the Alien." "Aliens to sell all their merchan- 
 dise within eight mouths on pain of forfeiture. ^^ '^The 
 Hosts to keep books in which to register all contracts, 
 etc., of aliens, and deliver a transcript thereof to the 
 Exchequer." " The Hosts to have 'Id. in the L on all 
 such contracts," "and to be sworn to be faithful," 
 and "any alien refusing to submit to these rcgulatioiis 
 to be imprisoned until security given to comply with 
 them." 
 
 Iiestrictions on trade led naturally to restrictions on 
 manufacture. 
 
 In lIS-j, in the reign of Richard 111.-, it was on- 
 acted : — ■ 
 
 " Thiit no pca^gon not born under tlie King's ob'^y-
 
 STATUTORY AND OTFICIAL TKOr/STOXS. 117 
 
 sauce shall exercise or occupy auy handicraft^ or the 
 occupation of any handicniftsmau in this realm of 
 England, but that all such ])ersons shall (after date 
 then fixed) depart into their own country again, or 
 else be servants to such of the King's subjects only as 
 be expert and cunning in such Feats, Wits, and Crafts 
 which the said strangers can occupy/'' ' 
 
 In the reign of King Uenry VII. (1191). when the 
 death of James III. of Scotland had strained the rela- 
 tions between the two Kingdoms, an Act was passed 
 simply in these words: — "All Scots not made Denizens 
 shall depart this Ivealm \vilhin forty days after procla- 
 mation upon pain of forfeiture of all their goods." 
 AVhile,, one step further, in the reign of Queen Mary, 
 there is a Statute, directed against the French, in time 
 of dili'erencc with that nation, which, also, boldly 
 directed their departure from the realm and based it, 
 by the preamble, not only on political grounds, but 
 because the influx of such strangers tended to the 
 diminishing of the subjects of the Ilealm and the 
 treasure of the Sovereign. 
 
 Such, in very brief instances, was the policy of the 
 late riantagenet and the early Tudor reigns. I do 
 not suggest that it was a treatment more harsh than 
 that of other countries. It was accompanied by 
 
 ^ I'lii^', by several Statutes, and, notablj', by one of Henry 
 A'll., was uoL to ajjply to .subjects of the liaiise Towns.
 
 Ii8 THE DESTI'IUTE A LI EM IN GREAT BlUTAIN. 
 
 various enactments against tlio ill usage or illegal 
 over-cliaigiug of aliens; and altliouglij in some re- 
 spectSj the alien was cliarged more tlian the subject, 
 in other respects he was charged less; and his own 
 wit led liim to evade much that told against him. 
 
 But any allegation that our history has always 
 opened our shores to all trade and advent of aliens 
 without restriction, is incorrect as to this period. The 
 feeling of the people was otherwise; and the Sove- 
 reigns and Parliament followed it in their policy o£ 
 action. 
 
 There are, probably, few things in the history of 
 the world which liave so completely failed in their 
 oljject as religious persecution amongst Christians in 
 the last few centuries. It reduced Spain, where it had 
 its way, from a great empire to a third-rate power. 
 It led France to revolution and free-thought. It 
 raised Holland from enslavement as a Catholic 
 Province to a great free Protestant communit3^ 
 While, above all things, it not only fixed England as 
 an outwork against itself, which no storms have 
 shaken, but it changed the policy of that country on 
 the point under consideration. 
 
 A Protestant (j)ucen of England, with a firm hand to 
 repress real danger, brave, vigorous and patriotic, 
 could afford to think, and had to think of persecution 
 elsewhere. A Protestant alien in Europe began to 
 look to Queen I'llizabcth of I'higland as his guardian.
 
 SrATUrORY AND OFl-ICIAL PROVISIONS. 119 
 
 Eveu tlio trado prejudices of tlic country yielded 
 before tliis sympathetic demand. 
 
 In the reign of the great Quecn_, the alien laws 
 began silently^ and without objection^ to be uueuforcedj 
 and the persecution of Alva in the Netherlands; sent 
 to his master's greatest enemy a number of useful and 
 law-abiding subjects^ filled with the knowledge of 
 arts and sciences^ and calculated to be a Nvholesorao 
 leaven to a still stronger and more agricnltund peo- 
 ple. ^ 
 
 The Acts of the Plantagencts and early Tudors 
 grew into desuetude; and^ in the reign of Charles II. ^ 
 after tlie storms of domestic discord^ it was enacted 
 that aliens might legally trade and niannfaeture in all 
 the leading industries of the nation. 
 
 This was two years before the revocation of the 
 Edict of Xantes, and it was a fitting prelude to that 
 memorable event. 
 
 Tlie prejudices of the nation^ and its corporate 
 exclusiveness gave way to the brotherhood of re- 
 ligion ; and; in the reign of Queen Ann, in TTOSj 
 there was passed the Act for the Naturalizition of 
 Foreign Protestants, which is the fcumdation of our 
 present laws for the easy natiu'alization of foreigners. 
 
 During the first eiglity 3'ears of the Guelphie 
 
 ' (,)iieeu Elizahetli, however, made no scruple as to the 
 liaiuUing of aheiis where licr feehiigs led lier. ]>_)• simple 
 Proclatnation she ordered expulsion of Roots.
 
 120 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAI BRITAIN. 
 
 dynasty ;, and despite pretensions to the Throne^ no 
 special Alien Act appears to Lave been contemplated. 
 Bat, with the great upheaval of foreign thought and 
 foreign Government which convulsed the end of the 
 last century, a new consideration of the question of 
 aliens came upon this countiy, namely, that of deep 
 political aud moral danger. 
 
 The provisions as to aliens in the Geoi'gian and 
 A^ictorian eras are of three kinds, which may be 
 classified as follows : — 
 
 ('0 AVar Alien Acts. 
 
 (/y) I'eaco Alien Acts. 
 
 (r) liegistration Acts — these last of two degrees of 
 stringency. 
 
 The Alien Acts contain regulations (varying be- 
 tween peace time and war time) for expulsion of 
 aliens if the State requires it. In all of them power 
 of expulsion is conferred on the central authority. 
 In war time it is more stringent. All these Acts 
 contain also provisions as to registration. 
 
 The chronological history of these Acts, put bi'ieily, 
 is as follows : — • 
 
 In 1 70o, in the throes of the French devolution, 
 there was the iirst Alien Act, which, being of a 
 stringent character, became the model ^' A\'ar Alien 
 Act.^' This continued, with amendments, until the 
 i'eace of ^Vmiens, in Isijj. Then, for a year, thei'e 
 was a Peace Alien Act, followed, in the succeeding
 
 STATUTORY AND OI-'TICIAL PROI'JSIOXS. 
 
 year, by a "War Alien Act, when the Peninsular AVar 
 began. AVith the first French Eestoration there was 
 in 1S11-, a ]?eaco Alien Act, followed again, in the 
 year ensuiug^ by a War Alien Act, with the temporary 
 restoration of the Treuch h]iupire ; and, again, by a 
 Peace Alien Act, when the power of Napoleon was 
 tiually crushed. 
 
 This last statute was renewed, by biennial coutiuu- 
 auce Acts, until, in 1S2G, the expulsion clauses were 
 entirely removed, and registration only remained. 
 
 This registration was modified by the Act of G and 
 7 William W. c. 11 (b^oG), the present Alien Act, 
 and the only disturbance of its free and generous 
 ti'eatment has been the temporary Chartist Act ol: 
 1818, II tK: \'l of the Queen c. i!0, which was an 
 Expulsi(m Act, })assed for one year. 
 
 This is the oscillating history of these Acts, grow- 
 ing from that first passed in 179o. 
 
 Describin": them cfencrallv, their force was this : — • 
 
 In the war times, aliens were liable to expulsion at 
 the entire discretion of the Government, and also to 
 various other restrictions as to movemerits in the 
 country and otherwise. In peace, to expulsion only 
 on more special grounds. 
 
 P)efore 1 8-jG, registration was required to be made 
 by the alien himself on landing, and also, at stated 
 intervals, afterwards to an " Alien Oflice." By the 
 Act of that Year, registration, so far as the alien him-
 
 122 THE DESTITUTE ALT EN IX GREAT B RITA IX. 
 
 self was couceniotl^ was limited to a landing statement 
 to bo rendered to tlio customs oHicor. That absolved 
 tlio alien; all tlie rest was ofricial. And this is the 
 law that at present stands in the statute book. 
 
 It will thus bo seen that the great epochs as to 
 alien expulsion in the last hundred years were : — 
 
 The lieign of Terror; the outbreak of war after the 
 Peace of Amiens; the Hundred Days' Eeign; and 
 the Chartist and Revolutionary Upheaval of 181-3. 
 
 The Eestriction Acts of these epochs did not^ how- 
 ever, as is well known^ pass into law without strong 
 opposition ; and the debates which accompanied them 
 are not the least memorable in our history^ cither in 
 forensic ability or dram itic effect. 
 
 The Bills were introduced by Governments of 
 varying party politics. T!ie first was moved by Mr. 
 Pitt's Government, su])ported by Mr. Burke, and 
 opposed by Mr. Pox. Tliat in 18 IG was moved by 
 Lord Castlereagh, and opposed by Lord (then Mr.) 
 Brougham. That in IS IS was introduced by the 
 Governn:cnt of Jjord (then Lord John) Pussell, and 
 opposed by Sir A\'illiam ]\[olesu'orth, Mr. Joscpli 
 Uume, and ~Sli'. Bright. 
 
 Both great pai-ties of the State^ when in office, 
 deemed such Acts neccssai'v, and carried them by 
 large iiiajorities. Pur right or for wrong, sucli was 
 the fact. 
 
 No doubt great impulses at those epochs swayed
 
 STATUTORY AND Ol-'l'ICIAL TROVISIONS. \2 
 
 the country. It was in supporting tlio Bill of 1 793 
 that VLw BurkCj in a speech of iinpassioncd oratory, 
 denouncing '• the French murderers and atheists/^ 
 and urging the absolute necessity of keeping them 
 out of those realms^ drew from his breast tlie dagger 
 whicli he had kept concealed there, and " in frenzied 
 dechimation ^' threw it on the floor of the House. " I 
 warn my countrymen," he said, *''' to beware of these 
 execrable philosophers"; ''"///c ]utji'v c^l , Junic fa 
 Fiorniinc caret o." 
 
 The oratory of statesnion, however, on one side or 
 the other, is not so sure a guide as the calm study of 
 history, and the dry legislative results which indicate 
 rightly enough, in the main, the wish and policy of 
 the nation. 
 
 The vigorous statements in opposition — 
 
 In 1703, that '■' the proposed measure was in 
 direct violation of the law and the Con- 
 stitution," and " would be an illegal sus- 
 pension of the laws of the land." 
 In 1S15 and 181(3, that '"'to the Constitution 
 such a measure was unknown, as the Con- 
 stitution allowed free ingress and egress to 
 all foreigners without restriction;" that ^'' it 
 was an innovati>:)n upon the laws of the land 
 and the principles of the Constitution." 
 arc not borne out by the legislative histoiy of the 
 Plantaircuct and cirlv Tudor reiiicns.
 
 124 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Nor tliatj ill ISiS, that "it liad boeu the privilege 
 of Euglaud ill all times to afford unrestricted hospi- 
 tality to the unfortunates of all countries in the world, 
 and that not only by law, but from the natural inclina- 
 tion of the national mind and character/^ 
 
 History rather justifies the words of Sir George 
 Grey, in introducing the Bill : " The grounds on 
 which it is proposed are simply those which this 
 country has always maintained, and has every right 
 to maintain, namely, that of self-protection.'' ' 
 
 The Act of l(Sj-8 soon expired. An Act for a 
 similar purpose now, when the naturalization of 
 foreigners is so easy, would have to be either pro- 
 hibitory of admission, or to extend to naturalized 
 subjects. 
 
 The Itegistration Act of & 7 William W . c. oO 
 is now, therefore, the last Act standing on the Statute 
 Book on this subject, and ic is the one generally 
 spoken of now as "' the Alien Act." 
 
 ' 111 all t]ic>o (lel)atL'S considiTalilc (liscussiou took iilaro as 
 to the nieanini;- of the words in the Gi'oat Cliartor. "■unless 
 ihe\- were openly iiroliihited before"' f///.s'/ auiiui jmhllci'' i>ru- 
 hihijl). Did this reserve a royal ]irero_n'ati\'e. or only a 
 stiitutory power y or what, if anything ])recise, did it ]ioint 
 to? So far, liowevcr. as aliens themselves are concerned it 
 is of little moment to them l)y what special branch of the 
 governmental machinery the law adverse to them becomes 
 law. The point is only interesting as indicating how far and 
 in wliat ilireclion expulsion was in the consiitiition, some- 
 where, a reserved right.
 
 STATUTORY AND OFFICIAL PROVISIONS. 
 
 It provides, in section 2, for a report l)y tlie master 
 of every arriving sliip, showing tlio number of aliens 
 on board or lauded, with penalties for non-compliance. 
 In section 3 for a declaration by the aliens themselves 
 of their names and country and other particulars. In 
 sections A- and 5, for registration of these declara- 
 tion?:, and transmission of a copy to the Secretary ot 
 State. 
 
 For the first of these requirements special provision 
 is made in the form of ship's '■' Report '' prescribed 
 by the Customs Acts, which has a heading, '' Number 
 of Alien Passengers, if any." Bub the enactment 
 generally has, of late years, and probably with intent 
 and from feelings of confidence, been but loosely 
 observed. The crudesconce of the present question, 
 and the desire expressed for more accurate statistics, 
 have led to a more strict revival of section 1 in the 
 ports esp(^cially affected. At the ports of rapid 
 channel transit close observance is not attainable ; 
 but those ports are not the inlets of destitute poverty. 
 
 In brief sketch this is the history of our law and 
 statutes as to aliens. It shows a great leaning on the 
 part of our country to generous hospitality. From 
 the Great Charter downwards this has never been 
 wholly forgotten, even in the hardest and most selfish 
 times. 
 
 On tlie other hand, it is impossible to affirm, with 
 truth, that it lias ever been the fixed policy of our
 
 126 THE DESTITUTE ALIEX T\ GREAT BRTTALX. 
 
 country to hold itself bound to tliis view against 
 proved national interests. 
 
 Taking the statutory history from first to last^ and 
 giving it close study, the conclusion it leads to is 
 rather that; while hospitality; free and unfettered; is 
 loved and wished for; if it can bo properly concedoil, 
 national interests arC; and ever have been in the 
 history of our country; deemed the superior call. 
 
 Is therC; theU; this superior call in the present 
 subject-matter? Docs an influx which; unassimi- 
 lating as it iS; threatens a progressive lowering of 
 wage-earning in our working-classeS; constitute such 
 a call ? 
 
 Tlie evil is in our lowest class. Tliat is true. Bat 
 the lowest class can least defend themselves; and the 
 lowest pricO; moreover; rules the higher markets. 
 
 Previous legislation rested on exceptiontd circum- 
 stances; and found opposed acceptance only on that 
 "•round. Is the present an exceptional circumstance 
 as serious as political and moral danger ? 
 
 Views on this may differ; but; compared with the 
 position under which the previous legislation obtained, 
 the circumstances arc certainly; in one sense, utterly 
 exceptional. 
 
 Rapid communication which; in tlio>;c dayS; has 
 changed the world, force on us new and exceptional 
 views. 
 
 The evolutions of science may evolve a new political
 
 STATUTORY AND OFTICL-IL PROVISIOXS. 127 
 
 economy, and establisii^ by tiicir own force, accepted 
 by the rest of tbo world, a supei'ior call, where, in onr 
 spirit and our sentiment, we slionld, in the abstract, 
 least desire it. 
 
 13ut, grant it to be a superior call, then comes the 
 last question. Is it practicable for us to do it ? A call, 
 however imperative, is limited by practicability. 
 
 Some of our cobjuies and various other countries 
 have adopted plans of proldbition — notably the legis- 
 lation of the Luited States. Xo aliens are admitted 
 there without proof of some standing, and some means 
 of supporting themselves without detriment to the 
 community. Without this proof they are sent back 
 as '•' returned empties.''' 
 
 It does not, however, necessarily follow that such 
 steps can be ado]:ited here. There is no traditional 
 history to tie the hands of these younger countries. 
 Their examples are not necessarily appropriate to 
 these isles of ours, where trade is freer and inspection 
 less close. Our country is the centre and depot of the 
 world's traeie and intercourse; while transit to our 
 nearest ports is over a vei-y small silvery streak. 
 
 AVe have therefore in this, as in other things, our 
 speci^d diiliculties to face. But I am sufficiently 
 optimistic to believe that if our country once decided 
 that this was an evil which must bo met, the precise 
 method of facing it w^ould work itself out, as most 
 thino-s do with us.
 
 I.?S THE DESriTUTE ALIEN IM GREAT llR ITALY. 
 
 If WG arrive at the conclusion of tlic old Greek 
 cliornSj -yjryjcfit^ojiieu rl Spdv, " we are decided that 
 sometliing mast bo done/' I feel it impossible to 
 doubt that the wisdom of oar administrators Avould 
 find some means, not inconsistent ^Yith our history 
 and our policy, to check an evil to the community 
 at large, and to our great centres of population 
 especially, 
 
 "London, the needy villains' t!,'0ucrnl lionic ; 
 The common sewer of Paris and of ]lome, 
 Condemned by fortune and resistless fate, 
 Sucks in tlie dre.^-s of cacli corruj)ted State." 
 
 (Such are the words which, in one of the great alien 
 debates in 18'i8, were quoted as to our vast metropolis. 
 A^ast it was then ; it is now — it seems almost fabulous 
 to state it — twice as vast. It lias sprung from two 
 and a half to nearly five millions in those four decades. 
 It has advanced also in beauiy, in enlarg(Hl thoi'ough- 
 fares, in magnificent streets, in grand open spaces, 
 in great sanitary vv'orks, in multiplied opportunities of 
 liealth, and enjoyment for the masses. Are we to say 
 that in the extrinsic debasement of its lowest class we 
 are powerless to mend it ? 
 
 (^ueen EHzabeth, in 151):], thought that London had 
 grown large enough for the proper management of 
 any congregation of Imman beings. In that year she 
 passed an Act which, reciting that Ijondon " doih 
 daily grow and increase by reason of the pestering of
 
 STATrrOKY AXD OFFICIAL PKOJ'IS/OXS. 129 
 
 houses with divers hunih'es^ and the harbouring of 
 iumates, Avhereby great infection of sickness and 
 dearth of victuals and fuel hatli grown and increased/' 
 enacted that "' no person or persons shouhl from 
 thenceforth make or erect any new building or build- 
 ingSj house or houses for habitation or dwelling, 
 within three miles of the gates of the city/' London 
 contained then only 150,000 inhabitants — not very 
 much more than its now annual increase. 
 
 This remarkable Act remained on our Statute Book 
 until its repeal only three years ago. It is almost to 
 be regretted that it has disappeared, and that so 
 curious an historical fossil has been thus obliterated. 
 ^Moreover, although it has not, as events have shown, 
 been strictly observed ! it was not without its effect 
 on the shape of the growth and the configuration of 
 London; nor is the interest of it altogether past. 
 
 The dangers then apprehended were, in their pre- 
 cise form, nnct bravely, boldly grappled with, and 
 surmounted; and we can justly afford to smile at 
 some of the fears and the views of those days. 
 
 And yet the underlvino: current- of them is with us 
 still. It is still London which '• sucks in the dregs of 
 each corrupted State ; "■" still there is amongst us " the 
 pestering of houses Avitji divers families," and thereby 
 the " infection of sickness and the dearth of victuals 
 and fuel," as in the days of the great 'J'ndor Queen. 
 
 Are we to touch this disease in its most feverish
 
 I30 THE DRSTiri'TE ALIEN IX GREAT BRITAIX. 
 
 development ? Aud if sO; how far and in what way 
 is it wise ? how far and in what way is it riglit^ 
 national, jnst, and benevolent, that we should touch 
 it in these more experienced days of a still greater 
 Qneen ? That is the question !
 
 THE niPERIAL ASPECT. 
 
 By AV. a. Mc Arthur. 
 
 Thk average Eng-lisliman is vei'y proiul of his oiiipire — 
 perliap?^ at tinies, oven a little arrogant. ITo is never 
 tired of telling the world how the sun never sets on 
 his flag. lie is always declaring liis cheerful willing- 
 ness to die for the empire at a moment's notice. He 
 loves the poems which talk of the flag which has 
 l)raved the storms of every sea_, and which never lloats 
 over a slave. The unity of the empire has been a 
 most successful electioneering cry. A new society 
 has sprung into being, under most distinguished 
 patronage, to forward the movement for the I'ederation 
 of the empire. J''iVorybody joins it. Speakers find in 
 the empire matter for glowing perorations — it is a 
 safe subject for a leading artich?. Yjven among the 
 politicians in tlie House of Commons, who have long 
 since lost belief in most things, thoro may be found 
 some who still hold to their faith in the empire. 
 
 All this indeed is to the good. Xo one who lias 
 seen with an intelligent eye the countries which make 
 up the British Empire, can i'ail to return to England 
 stirred to the very soul with a sense of the enormous
 
 132 rilE DRSTTTUTR ALIEN 7X GREAT BRITALW. 
 
 possibilities wliicli lie l)oroi'e those vast tei'ritories, 
 which tlie coni'ago and ontci'priso of Englishmoii ]i;ivo 
 ji(hlo(l to their ciiipii'o. And no impartial observer 
 can fail to sec that on the whole the onipire of fhig- 
 land is a factor in the world which makes for right- 
 eousness. AVherever onr Hag is planted there follow 
 the arts of peace. And there follows also the spirit of 
 fair l^lny and of just dealings with native races which 
 lias made our government always tolerated, and in 
 most cases welcomed by peoples the most diverse in 
 race and religion and character. 
 
 All this is true, and it is well that the original John 
 Bull at home should appreciate it, and bo proud of it, 
 and be always ready to cheer for his empii'(\ But his 
 testing time has yet to come. Up to the present he 
 has had nothing to do for his eni.pire but to cheer 
 and to pay the bill. And this, to do him justice, he 
 has always done cheerfully enough. Jhit the world 
 moves fast, and in matters of opinion it moves faster 
 in the English world outside J'higland than it does 
 in ]']nf>:laud itself. And John Bull will find out tluit, 
 if he is to realize his dream of a federation of the 
 empire, he must do more than cheer for his colonies 
 and pay some of their bills. It is good that he should 
 cheer, and also, within limits, that he shoidd pay. 
 But he must ;dso do violence to some of his opinions. 
 Ho must give up some of his pet prejudices. lie 
 mu:,t lie C(>nt(Mit to sink, to some (extent, his own
 
 THE JMI'ERIAL ASPEC'/: 
 
 iadiviJaality. He cau no longer pose as the all- 
 powetfal father, lie must take his place as the wise 
 elder brothei' of the English family. And ho must 
 admit that tliere are some tilings which his younger 
 brothers can teach ev'en him, and ia which their 
 experience may be a useful guide to him. 
 
 This is a hard saying for John 15ull. No one, on 
 the whole, has such uscl'ul prejudices as the good 
 John. And he has found many of them serve him 
 so well in the past that he clings to them with a 
 dogged desperation which has become almost a part 
 of his religion. A\'e lay violent hands on the very 
 Ark of the Covenant when we assail John Bull on 
 any of these dear beliefs of his. And yet, if we are 
 to make any progress with tlie subject of which this 
 book treats, we shall have to attack John Bull on two 
 of his most cherished illusions. 
 
 lie believes in Free Ti'ade as he does in the Thirty- 
 nine Articles. He probably does not cpiito understand 
 either, but he is convinced they are necessary for 
 salvation. Protection he will not have in any shape. 
 And for England itself no doubt he is right. Pro- 
 bably, alsi^, for most of her colonies, though many oi 
 tluMU have taken a dillerent view, being under dif- 
 iei'ent conditions. Ihit his belief in Eree Trade, like 
 all the beliefs he holds strongly, becomes to him a 
 sort of fetish. He has blindly worshipped it so long 
 and so ardently that, like Mr. Dick, who found it impos-
 
 134 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 siblo to keep tlie head of Charles I. out of his memoirs, 
 our good John finds an attack on Free Trade iu every 
 proposal for legislative interference with anybody or 
 anything which comes into this country. He jumps 
 to the conclusion that we are tampering with his most 
 cherished principles in trying to exclude the pauper 
 foreigner. But if he would learn from one of the 
 most flourishing of his colonies, that of Xew South 
 Wales, which is a free trade colony, he would find 
 that she has long ago, despite her almost pedantic 
 devotion to free trade, taken very strong steps indeed 
 to shut out such immigrants from other countries 
 as have seemed to her undesirable. I am not now 
 referring to the Chinese. They are practically ex- 
 cluded from Australia also, though for a different 
 reason, and I will return to their case later on. 
 But I am referring now to instances in which Aus- 
 tralia has refused to admit English subjects, natives 
 of these islands, for reasons that have seemed to her to 
 be sufficient. And, indeed, so strong has been her 
 determination to keep her people free from moral 
 contamination, that she has at times refused admission 
 to English -born subjects even without the authority 
 of a law to back her. "When the Irish informers, after 
 the trial of the Phoenix Park nnirderers, attempted to 
 land in Australia, neither Xew South AVales nor Vic- 
 toria would receive them. Their action was grossly 
 illeiral. It had no Icofal sanction. And vet tlie Homo
 
 THE IMPERIAL ASPECI'. 
 
 Goverumeut had no clioice but to acquiesce iu tlic 
 decision of tlio Colonial Govcrnmentj it bciug felt to 
 be an impossible thing to attempt to coerce a great 
 colony into receiving scoundrels of this class. 
 
 Most of the colonies have also taken steps to pre- 
 vent the introduction of persons likely to become a 
 charge upon the public or upon charitable institutions. 
 And in so doing they have only followed the general 
 practice of the world outside the British Isles. The 
 whole weight of colonial opinion and experience is 
 in the direction of imposiug reasonable restrictions 
 on the introduction of undesirable elements into their 
 society. They acted in the case of the Irish informers 
 upon moral grounds. They are acting in tlie case of 
 the Chinese upon material as well as moral grounds. 
 The Cliinamau has about as low a standard of comfort 
 as can be imagined. It is a standard which apparently 
 cannot be raised to our level ; at all events, not iu 
 Australia. And therefore they have been practically 
 excluded from these colonies^ in absolute defiance of 
 treaties between England and China. I should like 
 to see the English Colonial Secretary who would at 
 this time of day attempt to interfere with the Anti- 
 Chinese legislation of Australia. Sir Henry l^irkes, 
 the premier of New Soulh AVales, when charged with 
 bavins' broken the laws of the land in excludius the 
 Chinese; replied; '' 1 care nothing about your cobweb 
 ^j{ technical law; i am obeying a law fir superior
 
 i;6 THE DESriTUTE ALIEN EV GEE AT BRITAEY. 
 
 to any hiw wliicli issued those permits, namely, the 
 law of the prcservatiou of society in Xew South 
 AVales." That this is the right attitude no one who 
 knows the habits of the Ciiinese can doubt. It is, of 
 course, an attitude which shocks the pedantic free 
 trader. It is an attitude which is not for the benefit 
 of the consumer. If the be-all and end-all of govern- 
 ment is to obtain unrestricted competition at the price 
 of public morality and of decency of life, then no 
 doubt Australia is wrong. But if it be a good thing 
 to risk paying a shade more for a natiou\s goods, in 
 order to exclude a moral plague which may turn a 
 great city into a modern Sodom, then there is no 
 friend of his kind who will not approve Sir Henry 
 Parkes^ declarati'.)n^ aiid the action of the Xew South 
 AVales and other Australian governments. I am justi- 
 fied in saying that the Imperial view — that is the view 
 of almost the whole of the empire outside of England — 
 is in favour of the restrictions we are seeking to obtain 
 in England. Is it not a strong thing for England 
 absolutely to refuse to listen to the teachings of the 
 experience of almost every J'higlish-speaking com- 
 munity in the world except herself '" 
 
 And how, in face of her }ier.-istent defiance of 
 English opinion outside Jhigland, can she hope to 
 succeed with her pet })roject of Imperial Eederation ? 
 There can be no such federation ^vithe■ut some kind 
 of mutual give and take. Indeed, on this point of
 
 THE fMPERIAl. ASPECT. ij; 
 
 Chinese imtnigi-ution^ ]\[r. Gillies^ tlio then premier 
 of Victoria, declared that lie was not aware of the 
 exact nature and extent of the obh'gations of the Im- 
 perial Ciovernment to China; and went on to argue 
 that as the colonies had had no voice in the making 
 of these treaties their governments could not be held 
 to be bound to receive Cliinesc immigration to an 
 indeilnite extent. This is one of the points^ and a 
 most important point too^ upon which John Bull must 
 be content to sink his prejudices and learn from his 
 younger brothers before he can convince them of the 
 benefit of a closer union with him. 
 
 This Australian determination to preserve them- 
 selves from moral contamination is no new thing; nor 
 has it sprung into being over the recent dispute about 
 Chinese immigration. The feeling on that subject, as 
 1 have already shown^ is so strong in A-Ustraliaj that 
 the Chinese are now practically excluded from Aus- 
 tralia in absolute defiance of the treaties made 
 between ]higland and China^ which gi\'e citizens of 
 the Cliinese Empire the right to go to Australia^ or to 
 any other part of the Hritish EmpirCj if they please. 
 The same restriction is ap[)lied to Chinamen who are 
 actually Jilngli.sh subjects, and colonial feeling is so 
 strong u})on this point, and so general throughout all 
 classes of the community, that, illegal as it may be — • 
 in total disregard of treaty-rights as it is — no English 
 government has yet been fuund courageous enough to
 
 mS the DES'I rJVTE ALIEN I.V GREAT UK 17 A IX. 
 
 disregard wliat is practically a unanimous colonial 
 opinion. 
 
 1 venture to propbesy that wo sball never witness 
 ihe intervention of tlio Imperial government in order 
 to compel ]''nglisli subjects in Australia to carry out 
 the treaty-rights which England has provided for the 
 Chinese^ or that such intervention will ever be used to 
 compel Australia to receive Chinese immigrants who 
 may even be actually British subjects. 
 
 I said just now that the Australian action against 
 undesirable immigration v.'as no new thing ! 
 
 Between ISlO and 1850 Victoria was prepared to 
 prevent, by force if necessary, the landing of British 
 convicts at Melbourne. They passed in J >'o2 the 
 " Convicts Prevention Act/' which prevented convicts 
 who Avere pardoned, or whose time had expired, or 
 who had received tickets-of-leave, authorising them to 
 go where they pleased in Australia, from landing in 
 A'ictoria; and which imposed heavy fines upon ihe 
 captains of ships attempting to introduce such pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 I do not think that in Australia these laws are 
 dictated by any race-hatred, or by any religious preju- 
 dice. 
 
 There is no desire, so far as I have ever experi- 
 enced, to shut'"out Cliinese 7"'' Chinese — or to shut 
 out any other kind of itnniigi-ant solely because it 
 may be tliouglit that he is likely to add tu the cumpe-
 
 THE IMPERIAL ASrECT. 139 
 
 titiou wliich prevails already in the colonial labour 
 market — or because lie is of a different religion to the 
 bulk of the coniuiunity. Australian opinion usually 
 puts the case against Chinese^ against ex-convicts, 
 and against undesirable immigration generally, upon 
 high moral grounds — upon the grounds that the Aus- 
 tralians have a now country, with an educated, intelli- 
 gent, and moral papulation, and that they are not 
 willing to run the chance of seeing that population 
 corrupted by the introduction of a horde of immi- 
 grants, whose habits of life, whose notions of morality, 
 and whose standard of comfort, ai'c far below that of 
 the existing population. 
 
 Nor is the agitation against the Chinese connected 
 with any movement in favour of protection. 
 
 Sir Henry Parkes, whose words I have already 
 quoted, is premier of a free-trade cabinet in the free- 
 trade colony of New South Wales. The Hon. Air. Mc 
 Millan is his colonial treasurer — also a very strong 
 fi'cc-trader, and one of the most prominent leaders in 
 the recent struggle between free-traders and protec- 
 tionists in New South Wales. lie says to the electors 
 of East Sydney, '^' A\ e have decided, although per- 
 haps in a precipitate manner, that our virgin soil 
 shall not be contaminated l)y hordes of an alien and 
 uumixable race." 
 
 In one of his speeches u])on this subject, Sir Henry 
 I'arkes takes up the veiy^ strung ground that the un-
 
 140 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 restricted introduction of Chiueso into Australia 
 would absolutely cliange tlic whole character of the 
 Australian people. 
 
 Abaudoninf]^ for a moment the aro-umeut on the 
 ground of public moralitVj he declares that '' they are 
 a superior set of people belonging to a nation of an 
 old and deep-rooted civilization. A\'e know the 
 beautiful results of many of their luandicrafC; Ave 
 know how wonderful are their powers of in:iaglnationj 
 their endurance^ and their patient labour. ]t is for 
 these qualities that I do not want them to come here. 
 The influx of a few million of Chinese here would 
 entirely change the character of this young Austi'a- 
 lian commonwealth. It is^ then^ because I believe the 
 Cliinese to be a powerful race^ capable of taking a 
 great hold upon the countr\', and because I wish to 
 preserve the type of my own nation in these fair 
 countries^ that I am^ and always liave been_, opposed to 
 the influx of Chinese. ^^ 
 
 Now I am not aryuino- here in favour of racc-anti- 
 pathies, or of religious hatred ; and I am far from 
 advocating that anybody should break the law. I am 
 only using the Australian example, which shows their 
 feeling to be so strong that they have even risked the 
 defiance of treatv-riiifhts, and the breakiiiu" of i'hi2-lish 
 law, in order to keep out what they regard as beiiig 
 undesirable immigrants, and in order to preserve the 
 type of their own race, to prove how strong is colonial
 
 IIIE IMPERIAL ASIRCT. \ \\ 
 
 opinion upon those; points, and how vitally nocossaiy 
 for tlio wclFai-c of tlieir country tlu^y believe to Ijb tlio 
 poAvoi'S which tlu'V hav(> taken for the exclusion of 
 sucli people from their shoi'( s. 
 
 Is it notj then, a strange thing- for I'highiinl to 
 refuse to learn lessons wliich are the result of the 
 experierice of ^'Xqy^^ other ]']nglisli-speaking nation in 
 the woild ? For it must not be forgotten that the 
 United States also have found the burden of undesir- 
 able immigrants intolerable. Twenty years ago 
 America was inclined to be proud of the number of 
 lier immigrants, but within, comparatively speaking, 
 the last few years, they have begun to pour in npon 
 her in ssvarms from all parts of Europe, until she lias 
 bccon^ic saturated, so to say, with vei'y much the same 
 class of immigrant whom we arc seeking to exclude 
 from fhigland. 
 
 These immigrants — many of them — do not speak 
 English, and do not assimilate with the population as 
 do immigrants of the Scandinavian, German, and 
 even Irish type. They bring with them a low 
 standard of morals, and a low standard of physical 
 comfort, and they therefore compete unfairly with 
 existing labour in America, which has, for the most 
 part, attained tlio enjoyment of a wage which enables 
 it to live in tolerable comfort. Tiiere serious troubles 
 have recently arisen from this vei-y cause, '^i'hey find 
 that the lower class of foreign immigrants liave secret
 
 142 THE DESTirUTR AJ.IRN IN GREAT BRITAEX. 
 
 societies of their owu, with objects which are not 
 compatible with the obhgations of respectable citizen- 
 ship. Some of these evils have recently come to light 
 in the most marked manner daring the !Mafia Riots in 
 New Orleans ; and although the lynching of the 
 Italians in New Orleans, whom the American citizens 
 regarded as having been acquitted, owing to the 
 terrorising or bribing of the jury by a secret Italian 
 murder society^ was no doubt grossly illegal, and 
 ought to be repudiated in the name of law and ordei-, 
 yet there is not the slightest doubt that the entire 
 current of American unofficial opinion is very strongly 
 with tlio citizens of New Orleans, who are regarded as 
 having on the whole taken the ordy course open to 
 them to free themselves from the burden of an intoler- 
 able foreign tyranny. The presentment of the grand 
 jury of New Orleans points out that there is no f[ues- 
 tion more intimately connected with the subject 
 matter of their investigation than immigration, and 
 records its opinion '^ that the time has past when tliis 
 country (America) can be made the dumping-ground 
 for the worthless and depraved of every nation." 
 
 Amongst the foreign miners in America there is 
 also a grievous trouble. The Russian and Italian 
 miners are in open and armed revolt against the law, 
 and so strong is the public opinion which has been 
 stirred up in the face of all these facts, that it is very 
 probable indeed that the I'nited States will pass
 
 THE. IMrERLir. ASPECT. 1-43 
 
 logislatiou excluding from their country all immi- 
 grants — pauper or otherwise — ^excepting English, 
 German, Scandinavian, and perhaps the Swiss. 
 
 In the face of all the experience of other English- 
 speaking races it seems to me impossible that Eng- 
 land can stand still. Ainerica lias an area of some 
 three million square miles with a population of be- 
 tween sixty and seventy millions. Australia has 
 about the same area of country with a population of 
 between four and five millions. If these young coun- 
 tries, with a practically boundless supply of land, and 
 so comparatively sparse a population, find it expedient 
 to exclude the pauper foreigner — nay, more, regard 
 it as so vital to their interests to do so that they 
 are willing to run the I'isk of European complication 
 in the one case, and of infringing treaty rights 
 and breaking th.e law in the other, in order to accom- 
 plish their object — ^how much the more necessary is it 
 for us ':* Wc possess in I'higland one hundred and 
 twenty thousand square miles, as against three 
 million, with a population of, say, thirty millions 
 of souls. Neither America nor Australia, with an 
 infinitely smaller ratio of inhabitants to their acreage, 
 can afford to allow free entry to all comers. Nor, L 
 think, can we. It is surely time that our old counti-y 
 should wake out of her sleep and set herself resolutely 
 to v/ork to purge herself of lier dangerous foreign 
 elements wdiile there is vet time.
 
 144 THE DESTITl'TE ALIEN IX GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 The other nro'iimeiifc which sorely oppresses John 
 Bull is the argument in connection with political 
 refugees. lie fears that if leg-islation of this kind be 
 passed^ lie may be found some d;iy handing over conti- 
 nental political prisoners to the tender mercies of des- 
 potic governments. It is a fear which does him credit, 
 but which, I think, is not well founded. ]\Iean3 
 might very well bo devised to shield the political 
 refugee. To begin with, very few' of them come here 
 as paupers, and still fewer come who arc totally un- 
 known, and whose cases could not therefore be eu- 
 qnired into before they were sent back. 
 
 Fiuall}^ I think John Bull shonld reflect that he 
 owes a duty to his children. AVe believe the Anglo- 
 Saxon race to be the finest of the world. I'^very 
 Ihiglisliman, at home or abroad, or in America, is 
 proud of his race, of his language, of his traditions, 
 and of the great Anglo-Saxon stock from which he 
 sprung. Kingsley has told us the touching story of 
 the old w\arrior AVulf, who, on the point of submitting 
 liimself to Christian baptism, suddenly bethought 
 him to inquire from the ofiiciating bishop wdiero were 
 the souls of his heathen ancestors. "Jn hell!''' re- 
 plied the bishop. And ^Vulf drew back from the 
 font. '^ He would prefer, if Adolf had no objection, 
 to go to his own people.'^ 
 
 So, I think, say wo all. AVe prefer our own people 
 and our own race. Let us see to it that we preserve
 
 THE IMPEKIAL ASPECT. 145 
 
 its vigour and its noblo cliaractoristics, so that oul- 
 colonial ofFspi'ing may still boar themselves proudly 
 when they think of the parent race from which they 
 came, liot us be wise while yet there is time^ lest in 
 years to come our children should despise us. Surelj' 
 they must despise us if they see us heedless alike of 
 our own race traditions and of the experience with 
 which they themselves have furnished us.
 
 Till-] ITALIAN ASPECT. 
 
 J5v W. 11. AVjlkixs. 
 
 f lAr.v, fiiic of Xaliire's cfarcleiis, a land teouiiuk'' wilh 
 ixlics of the nu'gliry piist^ rich iu treasures of literature 
 and art; a country great in natural resoui'ce.s with 
 .some of the very best staple products^ io yet one of 
 the worst as r^'gards her economic condition. Iler 
 exports are varied and rich ; but over-populated^ and 
 with an internal system ^vh!ch does not ]irovide iy) 
 keep her pour employed, her surplus populatiuJi drifts 
 from homo to wurk^ to beg. or to starve iu other 
 lauds. 
 
 For mari_y years the influx of Italians into this 
 country has been very lai-go and increasing. Italv 
 would seem to show a partiality for England over all 
 other countries, except perhaps America, in sending 
 to its shores her illiterate masses, Eon^hjin, and many 
 of our large provincial cities, are cro vded with a class 
 of Italians, who are, Ibr the most part, ion-producers. 
 .Vbliorrino- agric'.lture, and in fact a:i\- settiCil occupa- 
 tion or trade, they cling to our large C'.'ntres of popu- 
 lation, and eke out an oxi.-teuce by means of the most 
 de^"'a-adini;' purc^uits. biitre art-, of course, notable
 
 THE ITALIAN ASPECT. 147 
 
 exceptions. 1 do not include in this category that 
 numerous chxss of Italiaiis who^ upon theii- arrival in 
 J'Jngland, take up some definite trade or employment, 
 such as confectioners, cooks, and waiters. These are 
 in no sense an evil, for thoy supply a felt want. They 
 come to us as skilled workmen, and are decent and 
 cleanU' in their habits and mode of life. Gradually 
 they are absorbed into our national life, and become 
 good and usefid niombers of the community. 
 
 Unfortunately, the great mass of Italian emigrants 
 differ widely from such as these. They are, for the 
 most part, the idle, the vicious, and the destitute, the 
 off-scouring of their own country, who, forbidden or 
 hampered by the drastic laws now enforced in Italy 
 against Viigrancy and mendicancy, drift over to 
 England, and here endeavour to pursue that nefarious 
 mode of life which is denied them in the laud of their 
 birth. 
 
 Aliny Italians arrive in this country in an absolutely 
 destitute condition, knowing no trade and having 
 neither friends nor money. They apply for relief at 
 once, and very often upon arrival go straight from the 
 railway station to the Italian Consulate, and beg for 
 tdms. They are ignorant of the country, of its lan- 
 guage, of its laws, and being thus unamenable to any 
 good iniluenees which may exist, they quickly fall into 
 baa hands. It is one more lUnsEration of the truth of 
 Dr. Waits^ old riKixim, that miichief is always found
 
 148 TUB DESTrjU'J-E ALIEN IN GREAT BR I IAIN. 
 
 " for idle hands to do."'' rrofessional bc"'""ars lav in 
 wait for theiiij and tcacli tlieni liow to approach with 
 success the different charitable societies, or, worse stilly 
 they fall an easy prey to one of the secret socialistic 
 ci" revolutionary leagues which abound in the uietro- 
 } olis. I am informed upon trustworthy authority that 
 the number of foreign revolutionists in this country 
 has very largely increased duiing the last thi-ee years^ 
 and with the object-lesson which the Mafia in New 
 Orleans has recently presented to us, there can be no 
 doubt that in this rapid increase of foreign revolu- 
 tionary societies lurk the elements of a very grave and 
 serious social danger. As an instance of tliisj the 
 Italian lienevolent Society quite recently befriended an 
 Italian on his arrival here, 1)y providing him with the 
 implements of his occupation, that of a cook in a re- 
 staui'ant. lie was dischai'gcd from his situation after 
 repeated trials, because of his dirl\', filthy liabits, and 
 because he absolutely refused to work. When with- 
 out employment, he fell in with some gang of foreign 
 sociLdists, whoso evil iullueuce (piiekly counteracted 
 all the good the I'onevolent Society had attempted to 
 do for him. lie wotdd do anything i-athcr than work, 
 and came again and again to the Society, begging lor 
 alms. At length he became such a nuisance, and was 
 so insolent, demanding as a right that to which he had 
 no right at all, that he had to be fureibly ejeeted from 
 the oilices of the Societv. Another ease is that oi' a
 
 THE ITALIAN' ASTECT. 149 
 
 inan who lias boon twicer sent, ])ack to Italy at tho 
 Society's expense, and each time lias found liis way 
 back agaia to London, One more very recent instance 
 Avill suffice. As I am indebted for tins to Signor 
 B.eglietti, the secretary of tho Italian Benevolent 
 Society, I will give it in his own words. Ho writes 
 in a letter dated from the Italian Consulate, April 
 27th, 1891 :— 
 
 '' On. Friday last, a man arrived by steamer from 
 Genoa, with the avowed purpose of begging. lie had 
 fifty fra)ii'.'< at Genoa, which ho paid for his passage, 
 and from the dock ho came at once to the Consulate, 
 perfectly penniless. lie asked for help, and how to 
 get a license to go out begging on account of being 
 deprived of four (uigers off one liand ! Similar cases 
 often oceui"." 
 
 The Italians, of whom these three cases are fair 
 specimens, mostly come from Naples and the vicinity, 
 where they live in pauperism, filth and vice, with no 
 higher ambition than to get cheap food enough to 
 keep them alive. Uneducated and slovenly when they 
 come, they never improve, and despite all efforts to 
 restnun them, they persist in following here tho same 
 mode of living which they practised at home. They 
 are ineradicably bad, and only the fear of the law's 
 punishment, of which they have a lively dread, keeps 
 them in any wny disciplined. Tlie degraded habits of 
 this class of immigrants, innate and lasting as they ai'C,
 
 i.-^o TIIF. ]^>rsri'l r I R AI.IKX IX CI^EAT URIJ'AIK. 
 
 stamp tliom a.s a most inidesirablo ,s(M-, wliose aftiiiatioii 
 with our own pcioplo must in time work great injiiiy. 
 
 One of tlie most serious aspects of this question of 
 the immigration of the destitute^ and by far the saddest 
 and most pathetic, is tliat which relates to the disgrace- 
 ful traffic in Italian children carried on under the 
 auspices of the Fadroi/i. The employment of a large 
 number of Italian chihlren in England as vagi-ants and 
 itinerant musicians, is a matter wliich has for a long 
 time exercised the minds of philanthropic persons ; 
 but i'ew, save tlioso who liave made tiiis cjuestion an 
 especial study, liave any conception of its increase and 
 extent. 
 
 The traffic is carried on in this wisi; : — Tiie children 
 are brought ov(M" from tlieir native country by men 
 who obtain tliem from their parents for a very small 
 sum, for a few ducats annually — a ducat equals 
 3.S'. G'l. — and npnn uiidei'taking t*) clothe and to feed 
 tliem. The heartless parents who thus dispose of their 
 offspriiig arCj for the most part, very poor peasants 
 living in Calabria and the South of Italy ; Caserta, in 
 the South of Italy, is one of the pi'incipal places from 
 which tliese vagrant children come. The land around 
 Caserta is very pooi-, yit^lding scarcely sufficient sus- 
 tenance to keep the ])eople who dwell npon it alive, 
 and the conditions of existence ai'o nocossai'ily hai-d 
 in th{> exti-eme. This, perhaps, accounts to some 
 extent for the nnnatinvd ahicritv which tliese })arenls
 
 THK ITAr.IAX ASPECT. 151 
 
 sliow in ]iai'ting' witli tlioir cliildKMi. Their desire to 
 get lid of jiareiital ros])onsibility is i:() doubt stimu- 
 lated bv the oflowinoc tale of .1'] no-land's fabled wealth 
 which the piidrone unfolds to them^ and bj the way 
 in wliicli he dwells npon the rich and prosperous 
 future which is open to the children. lias he not 
 himself been once as they are? Is he not now rich, 
 as rich as the village usurer or the sindaco ? So 
 drugging their consciences to sleep — if, indeed^ they 
 can be said to have any conscience at all — the parents 
 surrender their childreii, a)id a few coins change 
 hands. The childre?i are sold into what is a veritabh^ 
 slavery without any heed being takc^i of their future, 
 and the parents are glad to 1)e I'f'lieved of the present 
 responsibility by their maintenance and education. 
 It is not always the iiadroni though^ who bring the 
 children to England. Sometimes they ai"e consigned 
 to relatives^ and sometimes the parents bring them 
 themselves ; but whether they come under the care 
 of the parents, or the care of the pailroni, the evil 
 effects of the system remain the same. 
 
 The padroni, that is tlie masters, having thus 
 oljtained possession of the children, they bring them 
 by circuitous routes to England. How these slave- 
 drivers — for they are little better — manage to evade 
 the new Italian law against their traflic it is not easy 
 to say ; but when they have once got clear of the 
 fi'ontier, their course is plain. Some travel by rail-
 
 152 THE DESTITUTE ALIEX T\' GREAT TRITALW. 
 
 Avay ; but many of tlicm actuary Jonniey on foot^ from 
 town to town^ and village to village, all tlio way up to 
 Dieppe or Calais, from thence crossing over to our 
 shores. 
 
 Once arrived in England, these poor children ai'o 
 compelled to begin their sad career of degradation, 
 vagi'ancy and hardships. They are, in fact, imported 
 simply for the purpose of following one or the other 
 of the vagrant professions in the streets of London, 
 and througliout the countr}'. AVe are all familiar with 
 the little dark-eyed southerner who plays with sucli 
 pathetic patience upon his whee/y accordion, and 
 thaidvs us for our pence in a broken tongue. Early 
 in the morning they arc sent out with an accordiun, 
 concertina, or other instrument, and told to sing ov 
 play before houses, and there to wait for money. As 
 a rule, they do not openly beg for alms, as this would 
 bring them within i-each of the law ; ])ut they just 
 stand and wait, and charitably disposed persons, 
 attracted by their ])icturestj,ue appearance, and moved 
 to compassion, give them money, ignorant or forget- 
 ful of tlic fact that this money benefits them personally 
 n()t at all, but the j'ft'7/'o//e whose property they are. 
 
 The ptnlrvnl ai-e cruel and pitiless masters, and 
 treat the children just like slaves. If the little ones 
 do not bring home a suflicient sum, they arc cruelly 
 Ix'aten an.d ill-treated, kept without fuod or nourisli- 
 ment, and sent hungry to bed. Aery often these poor
 
 THE ITALIAN ASTECT. 
 
 cliildrou do not got liomo from tlieir weary rounds till 
 ])ast midnight, and arc often found ut terly worn out 
 and fast asleep under an areliway or on a doorstep. 
 
 The cff(}cts of this evil system upon its victims are 
 necessarily very Ijad. They do not go to school, they 
 become very idle, and begin early to drink, smoke, and 
 take to all kinds of vices. They are habitually over- 
 worked and underfed, their staple food being much the 
 same as that to which they are accustomed in tlieir 
 native country, such as maccaroni, rice, and so forth. 
 fjut the climate is so much more rigorous in England, 
 the fogs of smoky London so different from the warm 
 clear air of sunny Italy, that they cannot live propei'ly 
 on such diet, even if they had enough of it to cat, 
 which is very seldom the case. They suffer cspecialls' 
 fi-om the diseases of the throat and pulmonary affec- 
 tions brought on by this underfeeding, and by being- 
 exposed to all kinds of weather. The mortality from 
 these causes is, of necessity, considerable. Every year 
 many die. ]jut the lot of those who survive is sadder 
 still. They grow up immoral, illiterate, vicious, and 
 low, a degraded class, exercising the most undesirable 
 iniluonce upon those with whom tlioy come in contact. 
 'Jdiey are wretchedly lodged, huddled together, four 
 or five sleeping in a bed, when they have one to sleep 
 in at all. Ik-ing private houses, tlieir lodgings are not 
 in any way open to inspection. To them the word 
 '■' home," so sacred to English cars, has no meaning
 
 15 1 TIIF. DES'JlTrTE ALIEX IX GREAT EKiTAlX. 
 
 al;- \\\\, and witli thcin (lecciicy, cl('aiiliiu\<s ami 
 iiioilosty ])GCOine unimayinablo tliinys. IToro is a 
 description of a sleeping room — it ofteti serves for a 
 living- room as well — iii one of the ordinai-y dwelling 
 honses in the neighVjourhood of .Saffron Hill. In this 
 one rooni^ neither very lofty nor very lai'ge, may fre- 
 quently Ijo found a dozen persons herded together 
 ratlier like cattle than human T)eings, sleeping pi'omis- 
 cuously as follows : — In one be d^ or what serves for a 
 bed^ a married rouph» ; in the next^ two yonng girls ; 
 in a third, a single young man ; in a fonrth^ three (jr 
 fonr children of different ages and sexes, and so on ! 
 The sanitaiy ai'rangeinents of these dwc-llings leave 
 eveiything to lie desii'fd, and in the sleejung room 
 I'eferred to, owing to the lack of ventilation, and the 
 nundK'r of hnman Ijeings crowded therein, to cpiote 
 the words of my infoi'mant, '^ The stench is awfid/' 
 And yet this particular in.stanc^' is a fair sample of all 
 the rest ! 
 
 As a resnk of this promiscnous intercourse, the 
 girls, especially, neaily all go to the bad. They are 
 entirely at the mercy (jf the infamous j^i^h-uiii', who 
 gets these young and unprotected girls under his 
 baleful influence, and at an age of fourtee.'i, fifteen, or 
 sixteen, seduces them. Aftei- that their downwai'd 
 couivse is certain, and it is. rendered (Msier fi'om tlic-> 
 faet that in the exei'cisf^ of tlieii- vagi'ant calling, they 
 are often sent into low drinkiiig-sh'')ps, ])ublic-hou--es,
 
 rilF. JTAIJAN ASPECT. 
 
 and siiiiihir places wliPi'O l);ul {'liaracters abound. The 
 boys, when tliey grow up, beconiG beg'gars by pro- 
 fession, and always remain so, for they learn no other 
 trade, and can neitiier read nor write. Some remain 
 in England, but many go over to Italy and bfing 
 back children themselves. Sometimes, when they are 
 seventeen or eighteen 3'ears old, they run away from 
 \.\\Q 'padfonl and set up ou tlieir own account. 
 
 'V\\Q pailroul are men utterly witliout principle, and 
 morally bad in every way. I will sketch the career of 
 one of thom, who is, I believe, not a wit more infamous 
 than many of liis f(dlows. T am not permitt(^d in this 
 instance to give the pi'eciso soui'C(> of my iiiformntinii, 
 but it is absolutely trustworthy. 
 
 Guiseppe Delicato, for such is this man's name, is 
 a ijadronr., who foi* many years has carried on his 
 infamous traflic in Birmingham. Ilis business would 
 seem to be a very extensive one, since, in addition to 
 the ostablisliment at Birmingham, ho has also similar 
 houses in l^ho^uix Street, Plymouth, and ^Mtirsh 
 Street, Hanley, for the purpose of plying his trade in 
 those places as well. He is a nat^ive of Rosanico 
 Contrado, in the province of Attina, and would seem 
 to bo a man of some standing in his native couutiy, 
 since ho is well acquainted with Signor Bernardo 
 >\Ianciiu, ]\Iayor of Attina, with whom ho is in the 
 habit of frefjueiiily coi-responding in reference to his 
 business mattei-s. Delicato ha- nvi<le frequent journovs
 
 156 THE DESTirUTF. A LI EX IX GREAT ERITAIX. 
 
 to Italy for tlio purpos'o of ouf^aging' recruits. On 
 several occasions lie has brouglit with \\\\\\, on liis 
 return^ girls whom he has snl)S{;quenily sednced. It 
 is impossible to give a full list of his victims, Imt in 
 order to show that I do not exagj-scerate this man's 
 iniquities, I will give a few instances which arc well 
 authenticated. One case is that of IMarannia Tada, 
 aged twenty, a native of Sora-di-Compigno, in the 
 province of Cersata, who has borne two children by 
 him. A second case is that of a young girl named 
 Macolata Faccinda, of Pisanisco, province of Cersata, 
 l)y wliom he has had another child. Some time since 
 lie also sednced an English girl named Annie d'ylor, 
 who bore him three children. He afterwards induced 
 an Italian, named Pietro Dibonce, to marry liei-, and 
 they left England f)r America in ]\[arch of this year 
 (bSOl). .\rany other young Italian girls have also 
 fallen victims to this man, Ijut as the inrpiiry into his 
 antecedents is not yet complete, it is not possible at 
 present to give more details. In common with many 
 otlier pudronl, Guiseppe Delicate has not confined his 
 traflic only to children. Whole families, mother, 
 father, and children, arc brought over to England for 
 the purpose of begging and playing instrun"icnts .about 
 the streets. Here is an instance of a fandly imported 
 by him — a father, mother, and two children. They 
 were in Delicato's service for two or three years, 
 cari'viiig on the MrsHt'rc, or trade of vagrancy an.d
 
 'line JTA/.LLV ASPKCr. 157 
 
 begging. At tho cud of that timo the record of this 
 iiiifortuniitc family was as follows : l^elicato paid the 
 fatlier 12 only for three years' work, and discharged 
 liitii ; the mother he had previously sent back to Italy, 
 as Froui ill-health she had become practically useless 
 to liim ; one of the; girls he seduced, who is still living 
 under what, by a cruel misnomer, would be called 
 liis "protection," and lie refused to pay the other 
 girl's wages because she had married and left liiui. 
 Her husband has brought an action against him to 
 recover the money. I'he action is still pending, and 
 since it has been brought, inquiries have been insti- 
 tuted, which have brought to light the iuicpiities this 
 man has been carrying on for years. These incidents 
 happened in Jjirmingham. 
 
 The parents arc often as cruel as tho i)ailron[ ; in 
 fact, considering the relations which ought to exist 
 between them and their children, they are worse. 
 'J'hey seem to have no sense of parental responsibilities, 
 and they look upon their children only as means 
 whereby to fill their pockets with monej^ Although 
 often well able to atlord it, they will not even supply 
 their children with boots, and allow them to run about 
 bare-footed in rain and mud, or apply to tho Italian 
 l>e]ievolent Society for assistance, representing them- 
 selves as being in such a destitute condition that they 
 cannot afford to buy tlieni. 
 
 The irathc is most lucrative, and the gains which
 
 ijS THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 tlie 2VMJro)u', more especially^ make out of these 
 cliildren, are very large; so much so^ that after a 
 few years they ;ire able to retire to sanuy Italy, and 
 to live as jiropridari, or country gentlemen. Some- 
 times the children will bring home as much as ten 
 shillings in a day, and as^ often, one jxidronc has as 
 many as fifty children under his care, spread about 
 in companies in London and the country, under the 
 supervision of his confederates, it will be seen that the 
 total amount of the number of small sums accumu- 
 lating daily nmst be very large. Of course, sometimes 
 the children bring hojue very little, and sometimes 
 nothing at all, but as the ])enalty in this case is a 
 beating, and being kept without food, fear stimulates 
 their efforts, and they seldom return empty-handed. 
 
 Many efforts have been made to put a stop to this 
 disgraceful trafhc. The Italian Benevolent Society, 
 established in London — a Society which might serve 
 as a model for others, both from its admirably organ- 
 ized system of relief, and for the efforts it makes to 
 discourage these people from coming to England — 
 has been especially energetic in the matter. Lender 
 its auspices, several petitions have been made to the 
 English Government, one to the Kome Secretary, to 
 bring the matter before him vrith the aid of the 
 I^mbassy. So long ago as 1S77 an inquiry into this 
 question vras instituted by the Charity Organization 
 Societv, and a depuration waited on the Home
 
 '1 IjR riAI IAN ASl LCr. 139 
 
 Secretary; then Sir Kicliard Cross^ with the result 
 that H circular was addressed to the police magistrates^ 
 asking them to help in dealing with these children, so 
 that where it was possible they should be returned to 
 Italy. The Italian Benevolent Society can only deal 
 with the children when they are handed over by the 
 magistrates. The Society has returned a great many 
 in this way to Italy, but as a rule they come back 
 again. If the children are taken from the p'i'Ji-niii, 
 the parents often bring them themselves, and then, of 
 course, they cannr.t be taken away from their parents. 
 'J"he only visible efl'ect has been to reduce slight!}' the 
 number of p'i'h''>iii, and to increase the number of 
 parents; but, as i have said beibre, the parents are 
 so unnatural; that whether the children are brought 
 ln.'re by them or by the jin'/ri.ni i, the evil effects of 
 the system remain the same. 
 
 In 1:^7') the Italian .Benev(dent Society went on a 
 deputation to tlie London Scliool Buard, and it vras 
 decided to com])el those children to go to school in 
 the same way as if they had been English children, 
 and an Italitin School Board oHicer was appointed for 
 the purpose. The consequence was that many were 
 compelled to go to school, chiefly to the schools 
 connected with the Roman I'ath'jlic Ciiureh (jf St. 
 Peter, in ilatton (jardtm, v/hi.jh; wiih the adjoiiuug 
 portions of SatTron Hill and Xew lijiebery Avenue^ 
 forms the principal Iraiian quarter m London. There,
 
 100 rilE DESTITUTK ALIEN IX GREAT BKITAIX. 
 
 ill stuuted streets and in narrow courts clioked with 
 ice-cream barrows, vendors of hot chestnuts, and sucli- 
 like delicacies, will be found not only a large colon}- 
 of these imported itiueraiit musician?, but also a 
 young Italy which has never been further abroad than 
 (lie sunny slopes of Clerkeuwell Gi'cen. JJut to return 
 to the action of the School Board. The jiinlnnic was 
 equ;d to the occasion. ]^eaviug his beloved haunts 
 <jf Saffron llill he fled eastward and westward to 
 the suburbs of Deptford, Greenwich, Kingston and 
 Hammersmith. The School Boards out of London 
 take no action in this matter, to compel these children 
 to go to school, so there his slaves reside, and ply 
 their trade undisturbed by that terror of indigenous 
 truants, the School Board officer, and the evil is not 
 sensibly affected or diminished. 
 
 ]jy the recent Children's Protection Act a step luis 
 been made in the right direction, and the state of 
 affairs slightly ameliorated. 1\\ consequence of this 
 Act, a good many Italian bo3's under fourteen years of 
 age, and girls under sixteen, have been taken up for 
 playing and performing in tlie public streets, and the 
 parents or masters })unished. Tills new Act, if only it 
 were rigorously and universally a])[)Iied, would be a 
 great help in chee-king the e\'il, Ijut it is not sufru'lcnt 
 to eradicate it altogether, ;is the liLnit of age is fixed 
 rather too low. Siguor Bighotti, the courteous and 
 energetic secretary of the Italian lienevolent Societv,
 
 THE ITALIAN ASPECT. l6i 
 
 to wbom I am indebted for much valuable information, 
 and who has been untiring in his endeavours to check 
 this trafllc, wrote to me in a recent letter : '' the state 
 of affairs is somewhat better on account of this Act, 
 but not very much.'' 
 
 In Italy, where the evil had attained intolerable 
 proportions, seriously affecting the social wellbeiug 
 and prosperity of the nation, a very rigorous law was 
 passed in 187-3. The history of this Act is rather a 
 curious one. Ten years previous to its passing, a 
 former Italian Ambassador to the Court of St. James^, 
 at that time Secretary to the Embass\', on coming out 
 from a grand reception at one of the mansions in 
 Piccadilly, found himself literally surrounded by a 
 crowd of Italian children, wdio pestered him for alms, 
 and impeded his free progress by their importunities. 
 This incident made Sruch a profound impression upon 
 him, that he dii'ccted his especial attention to the 
 condition of the Italian colony in London, and with 
 this residt. Wq was so liorritied when he became 
 aware of the nature and extent of the evil, that his 
 strong representations to the Italian Government, and 
 the nnceasir.g elforts which ho made to obtain some 
 legislation for the purpose of checking the system of 
 mendicancy and vagrancy, which had become a bye- 
 word and a reproach to his country, were mainly 
 instrumental in passing the drastic Italian law of 
 ]iS7-;. .By this Act, whoever hands over to be 
 
 11
 
 i62 THE DESriTi'TE ALIEX !X GREAT BRTTAIX. 
 
 eiuployod; or employs persons of either box under the 
 
 jige of eighteen in the exereise of vagrant professions, 
 
 sucli as '■' jugglers, conjurerSj clowns, itinerant players 
 
 or singers, tight rope dancers, diviners of dreams, 
 
 exhibitors of animals, mendicants, and such like,'^ is 
 
 liable to both fine and imprisonment. Italian subjects 
 
 who cmr)lov Italian children in a foreign state in 
 
 vagrant professions, or who entrust them to others to 
 
 be so employed, are also liable to the penalties (>f line 
 
 and imprisonment; in case of bad usage and illireat- 
 
 ment, the punishment is three years' imprisonment, 
 
 aud if the childreu have been entrap})cd or kidnapped 
 
 by violence, the penalty is seven years. In Italy this 
 
 Act has produced most beneficial rc-ults, but it does 
 
 not appear to have in any way lessened the evil traffic 
 
 in England, where all eilbrts, Icgishitive or otherwise, 
 
 have hitherto lalieu short of the uuirk. 
 
 tSeveral suggestions have b-cen made Ijy which the 
 existing state of affaiis may be remedied, all worthy 
 of consideration. One i^ to increa.-.e the limit of age 
 laid down by the Children's Protection Act to eightee 
 years of age in the case of persons of both sexes. 
 This vrould bring the Act still closer in accord with 
 tlie law of Italy. The limit of age at present fixed by 
 the law is too low, and fur this reason. Directly the 
 children leave school, at about fourteen years of ai:e 
 — I speak here of those resident in Loudon, wLo 
 arc under tlie supervision of the Italian School Board 
 
 n
 
 THE ITAl.TAN ASPECT. i6: 
 
 ofiiccr — tlioy arc put on to the strccls to ply the 
 mct^titre. It is an impressionable age. All the good 
 they learn at school is quickly undone, and tiie law is 
 powerless to touch theni; whereas, if the limit of age 
 were fixed at ei":liteen, the uu/sfirrc could not lonty be 
 followed, and the ])arents would provide them with 
 some definite occii])ation, or put them to learn some 
 proper trade, so that their time would notice wasted. 
 
 Another sugge.-tii)n is that there should be a general 
 tightening of the compulsoi'y method by the h^chool 
 Jioards all o\-er the country. J^et the pa-lrunr know 
 that in e\'ei'v J'hi<;'li^li t(jwn his siuyiiiiif l;(i\-s and 
 playing girls will be hurried off to school by the 
 .School Board Oiliccr, he \vill scon find his i^'aius 
 dtci'crise. If only the children coiild be compelled to 
 live laborious days in school, the occupation of the 
 /jitilronc would be gone, and his dream of retui-niug to 
 ho beJU ItaVi'j , to live there as a country gentleman, 
 v>-ould vanish for ever, it is ilhgical that the com- 
 pulsory action of the »Schoul Hoard should be en- 
 forced in Lyjiidou, and allowed tu rcuiain idle in the 
 provinces, 
 
 'J'ho third and most dra-^tic remedy, and by far the 
 most effective, vrould be to adopt the American plan, 
 and stop the children at the p.jrts of arrival when 
 they come to England, and send them back at once 
 to their own country; and nut the chiidren only, but 
 the whole class of destitute, idle, and useless irnmi-
 
 1 64 THE DESTrrUTi: AIJEX IN GREAT BE IT A EX. 
 
 grants who attempt to land upon our shores. Signor 
 Tiighetti, who has gone into this C[U_estion of Italian 
 immigration more thorouglily than any one eUe, is 
 especially emphatic in declaring that this is the only 
 efficacious way iii which the evil can be eradicated. 
 
 At present^ however^ wo have no laws on the 
 subject of foreign immigration^ and though doubtless 
 before long some sucli restrictions as those recently 
 enforced by the United States Government will have 
 to bo adopted here^ yet it is idle to deny, Jiaving 
 regard to the present state of public business and 
 public feeling, that any legislation of this kind must 
 of necessity be taril\-. In the meantimOj what is to 
 be done ? For ;i nation which was foremost in 
 abolishing the slave trade to tamely tolerate in its 
 midst an inhuman traffic such as this, is something 
 worse than an anachr(jnisni. It is a blut and a re- 
 proach up'''n our ^'aunted civilizaliMU, 
 
 'I'hc Chiklren's Protection Act is declartMl to lie 
 insufficient to cope with this evil. \ ery energetic 
 measures are needed against the masters and parents 
 of these p'.or children. At present the punishment 
 is far too mihl. A fine or a few weeks' imprisonment 
 counts as nothing to them in comparison to the gains 
 thev make. As an instance of this a magistrate once 
 made a 'i>odr"nc deposit 12C) ^vit1l the Italian Benevo- 
 lent Societv a^ a guarjintee that he W'jukl take S'lmo 
 children back to it;ilv. out liie '.'1^' still remain^ in
 
 THE ITArJAy ASPECT. 165 
 
 the liauds of the Socicfy, and tlio man did not go, 
 saying, as lie quitted, the court, " Wliat is tlio money 
 to us ? VsG can soon mako it over again ! ^' If a 
 child is left an orphan there is ahvavs a great rusli 
 for it among the padroni. They will promise any- 
 thing, however extravagant, if they think they can 
 gain possession of it to use it for their own infamous 
 purposes. 
 
 One remedy, at least, can be put into force at once, 
 and that independently of all legislation. It is simply 
 for the English public to refrain from giving the 
 children money. The misplaced generosity of charit- 
 able persons is the cause of so many of these little 
 ones being brought over here to lead a life of degra- 
 dation and ruin. 'J'he public should bear in mind 
 that neither directly nor indirectly do the children 
 beneiit by the alms so thoughtlessly given. On the 
 contrary, the money goes to swell the ill-gotten gains 
 of the parents and j^iadroiii, and to encourage and 
 foster a system fraught with evil consequences, not 
 only to the recipients of their bounty, but to the com- 
 munity at hu'ge. 
 
 The great thing is to lose no opportunity of bring- 
 ing this truth before the notice of the public. Some 
 little time since the Tiim-.s', commenting upon a letter 
 which I, at the request of the Italian Benevolent 
 Society, had written for their columns, condemned in 
 no measured terms this dis":raceful traffic. The
 
 i66 THE DESrirUTE ALIEN IX GREAT BEITALW 
 
 inattor was taken up wrirni'y b}' the provincial papers, 
 and by tlie Press of Ita.ly, and for a time ic really 
 seemed that some good might be done. For a time 
 only, and then some new sensation arose, and the 
 iniquities of the padroue, and the sulTerings of his 
 poor little victims, were tlirust aside and forgotten. 
 In fact, instead of the Press usiu"' its great influence 
 to stamp out the evil, one portion of it — some of the 
 children's papers — liave unwittingly encouraged it. 
 Only the other day T came across, in a paper for chil- 
 di'en's reading, a picture of an Italian organ-grindei', 
 with an t'xpi'ossion of unusual amiability on his 
 swai'thy face, and by his side was standing a little child 
 Inohing np in niute appeal for alms, whih^ nnderneath 
 the legend ran : '' (live something to the jn'ctty little 
 Italian chihl, who comes from the sunny south, and is 
 so {)Oor, and yet sings hapjjily all the day.'^ A pretty 
 illusion indetd ; but the veriest fable that was ever 
 invented by the imagination of man ! The legend 
 sliould rathcn' have run : " Have merin' on the poor 
 little Italian child, who comes fi'oin the foul dens of 
 Saffron Hill, who is half-starved, cruelly beaten, and 
 roljbed of every penny of its earnings, and who sings 
 in mortal terror of the bi'utal master, who grows rich 
 n])on its sufferings." 
 
 A good deal of anxious ihonglit has of late been 
 cx})ended ()n the snbj(^ct of black slavery in Africa. 
 Would it not I)e well that some attention slionld be
 
 THE I TALI AX ASPECT. i^,; 
 
 given to tliis form of wliito slavery at homo ? On 
 a superficial aspect of the life of these youthful 
 vagrants, the idea of slavery is probably the last 
 which would occur to one iu connection with them. 
 They are apparently free and listless as the air they 
 breathe, and as lightly tasked as any children in the 
 land. It is only when we come to look beneath the 
 surface, and examine the conditions of this seemingly 
 careless existence, that its cruelty, hardship, and 
 injustice become manifest. I have shown that many 
 succumb to the miseries of their lot, and go down 
 unheeded to an early grave. But what of those who 
 survive, who gr-o'w up to manhood and to woman- 
 hood amid the contamination of these corrupt sur- 
 roundings ? Is not their lot sadder still ? Can 
 nothing be done to rescue these worse than orphans 
 from their life of moral and physical ruin ? The 
 problem is not an easy one, I admit, but surely some 
 attempt might be made to solve it, some organized 
 effort on the part of 'charitable and philanthropic 
 persons, bearing in mind the w'ords of One who made 
 little children His especial care : ''" Inasmuch as ye 
 have d<jne it unto one of the least of these My 
 bretln'on, ye have ddiic if unto ^le."
 
 FOREIGN PAUPER LMMIGRATIOX. 
 
 Bv S. 11. Jeye^. 
 
 " Let tlie alarmist sleep easy on his Led'^ — so Mr. 
 Charles Booth declared in the first volume of liis 
 '^ Labour and Life of the l^eoplo ^' — '^untroubled by 
 visions of Oriental hordes of barbarians^ streaming in 
 like Huns and Yandals, and snatching the bread from 
 the mouth of the much-enduring Londoner. What- 
 ever may have been the cause for alarm presented l^y 
 the immigration of the Jew, it is all over now — at 
 least for the present. ■'' These words of reasoned com- 
 fort were published in 1839 : they could not be re- 
 peated in 1891. When Mr. Booth wrote them we had 
 apparently reached the end of a period marked by an 
 abnormal influx of destitute exiles. In 1881 and 1882 
 a violent if somewhat intermittent persecution had 
 been directed against the Jews in Russia ; about two 
 years later an edict was issued by Prince Bismarck, 
 which aimed at expelling the Poles from I'russia. 
 Realizing, as best they could, such poor possessions as 
 they owned, and departing with all possible hasLc, the 
 exjiatriatod wretches made every attempt to reach a 
 more hospitable land : those who could muster the 
 passage-money were bound for America; the rest, the 
 more destitute and the elderly ones (the great majority
 
 FOKEIG.Y PAUPER IMMIGRATION. 169 
 
 of tlio exodus), were hoping to settle in tlio great 
 English towns. The immediate and permanent result 
 may bo given in Mr. JJooth's carefully moderate 
 language : — 
 
 '•Tlie ii3wconi3rs havo ii,Tadually roplacod llio Enii,-Iish 
 population in wliolo districts wliicli were formerly outside 
 tlie Jewish (luarter. Formerly in Whitecliapel, Commercial 
 Street roughly- divided the Jewish haunts of Petticoat Laus 
 and Goulston Street from the rougher English ([uarter lying 
 to the east. Xow (iSS!)) the Jews have flowed across tliis 
 lino : Ilanhury Street, Fashion Street. Pelham Street, Booih 
 Street, Old Montague Street, and many other streets and 
 lanes and alleys have fallen hefore tliem ; they hil whole 
 blocks of model dwellings ; thcj' liave introduced new trades 
 as well as new habits, and they live and crowd together, aud 
 work aiLd meet their fate almost independent of the great 
 stream of London life surging round them." 
 
 Nor must it be supposed that this is the only Jewish 
 quarter in the metropolis ; that London is the only 
 town which the foreigners invade ; or, finally, that 
 the host of immigrants is exclusively recruited from 
 the Children of Israel. ^W^e have no trustworthy 
 means of numbering our nninvited visitors, though 
 various bases of calculation have been suggested. AVo 
 may count the Jewish funerals reported to the Jewish 
 Board of Cuardians in a year, and thus form souu> 
 approxinuite estimate oC the total Jewish population. 
 But it is well known that infant mortality constitutes 
 a largo ])ercentage of the death-rate, and there are 
 but i^\^ infants among those immigrants, for reasons
 
 I70 rilE DESrrj'UTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 which are sufficiently olnioiis. Again, •\vo niay look 
 at tlie returns of Jewish children in the Elementary 
 Schools, and adopting the method of the Education 
 Department, multiply by six to find the total colony. 
 But these Jews are notori'^usly and unhappily prolific ; 
 their multiplying capacity cannot he estimated on a 
 Gentile basis. Finall}", we may resort to the Alien 
 Lists which are supposed to be drawn out 1)y captains 
 of sliips entering the poi't of fjondon. They ai'c 
 enjoined by the Alien Act of AVilliam I\". — which 
 is not obsoh^te, but merely disr(>gardeil. '"'The lisis 
 are still handcMl in/' W\\ liooth says, ^'^and filed at, tlu^ 
 Home Office, but they ai'e never chec-ked, and are, so 
 loosely made out that a whole family is often returned 
 as only one person.'' Xor can we expect that the 
 ngents and servants of the steamship companies will 
 go out of their way to call public attention to the 
 magnitude of a traffic on -which they subsist and thrive. 
 'bhere is no reason to accuse anybody of systematic 
 evasion or wilful deception ; but we are entitled to 
 make a very considerable addition to any figui'(>s 
 which might lie reached by a study of the Alien In.-t-, 
 documents so generally ignored that (aUhough they 
 have been summarised since 1888 and the results jnil)- 
 lishecl) on June 22nd a mendjcr of l^vrliament felt 
 himself justified in asking the Home Secretary 
 whether the Act under which they werc^ re ([uirinl was 
 ^till in ( xistence ! V\'V tli(> i)i(sent, until tliov have
 
 FORKIGN PAUPER IMMIGRATION. 171 
 
 been strictly enforced and a return published^ we are 
 coinpelled abnosfc to ignore tliein and to make our 
 computation, sucli as it is, upon the otlier data men- 
 tioned by Mr. Booth. Using* these he reckoned that 
 in 1889 the Jewish population numbered some- 
 where between 60,000 and 70,000. lie put the gross 
 annual influx between 1881 and 1889 at an average of 
 about 4,000, '' falling from about 5,000 or 0,000 in 
 the earlier years, to 2,000 or 3,000 in the lator years. ^' 
 From these confessedly rougli calculations, ]\Ir. Booth 
 was justified in writing the sentences quoted at the 
 beginning of this article. The alarm, he said, was 
 all over tlien — at least for ihe irre-'^ont. 
 
 If e did well to add that final proviso, ^riie tide had 
 not turned, though it seemed for a brief period to be 
 slackening. We were very soon undeceived. Let us 
 turn to the official reports for the following year, the 
 " Statistical Tables relating to Emigration and Immi- 
 gration from and into the United Kingdom in the year 
 1890, and report to the Board of Trade thereon.'^ 
 These were published last March, and their accuracy, 
 so far as they go, is attested by the namie of ^Ir. 
 Robert Giifen. Without giving the total number of 
 Jewish immigrants in any year, the following table is 
 confined to those persons who fall under the title of 
 destitute aliens. When they arrived in England, or 
 soon afterwards, they were compelled to ask for assist- 
 ance from their charitable co-religionists here; —
 
 172 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IX GREAT B RITA IX. 
 
 XUMBKR OF Al'l'lJCATKjNS yoK RkLIKF TO 'JlIK JeAVISH BoAKD 
 OF GlAKUrANS, XUMliEll OF CaSFS liKLl F VKI), AM) >.'U-\I- 
 
 F>ER OF Xew Cases IiElieved by the JJoaku ix ea( ii of 
 
 TlfE UXFU:U.MENTI0.\E1) YEAKS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Xumber of Ajipli- 
 cations for Relief 
 
 Xumbei" of Cases 
 Relieved. 
 
 Xumher of Xc^ 
 Case- onl.w 
 
 
 (Cases). 
 
 
 
 1876 . . 
 
 1,903 
 
 1,851 
 
 606' 
 
 1877 . . 
 
 2,296 
 
 2,242 
 
 862 1 
 
 1878 . . 
 
 2,471 
 
 2,410 
 
 873' 
 
 1879 . . 
 
 2,639 
 
 2,557 
 
 1,003' 
 
 1880 . . 
 
 2,583 
 
 2,441 
 
 945 ' 
 
 1881 . . 
 
 2,629 
 
 2,380 
 
 981' 
 
 1882 . . 
 
 2,953 
 
 2,775 
 
 1,306' 
 
 1883 . . 
 
 2,882 
 
 2,737 
 
 1,103 ' 
 
 1884 . . 
 
 3,313 
 
 3,054 
 
 1,368 
 
 1885 . . 
 
 3,586 
 
 3,408 
 
 1,536 
 
 1886 . . 
 
 4,497 
 
 4,139 
 
 1,9 i4 
 
 1887 . . 
 
 3,415 
 
 3,313 
 
 1,203 
 
 1838 . . 
 
 3,719 
 
 3,513 
 
 1,318 
 
 1889 . . 
 
 3.131 
 
 2,980 
 
 923 
 
 1890 . . 
 
 3,569 
 
 3,351 ! 
 
 1,319 
 
 Ijut these f]g'ure.s are even iiioi-e forinulaLlo than 
 they appear to he. No statement is made ou the 
 point; ]jut we are reasonably entitled to assume that 
 a very great proportion, and perhaps a majority, of 
 these "xlpplications for Kelief " stand^ not for so 
 many individuals, but for so many families — perhaps 
 largo families. It has already been hinted that the 
 plague or (shall we say ?) the embarrassment caused 
 by these destitute aliens is not confined to London. 
 
 ' Up to 1883 the ligures in this column include case-; rel'asctl as 
 well as cases relieved, but the numbers are small.
 
 FOREIGN PAUPER IMMIGRATION. 
 
 173 
 
 Just to bring out this very important^ but often 
 ignored^ part of the problem^ it may be useful to 
 quote the case of ]\[anchester : — 
 
 Statistks of Rkj.ikk by the ?^rAN( iikstki; .Ii.wisii J5()Ai;n Of 
 rivAKDrw.s IX j:a( II of tiik ixdkkmf.ntioxkd Yeahs. 
 
 [Compiled from tlie Tloport of: the Manclicstcr JcAvisli Boiird 
 of (uiurdiiii'.s.^ 
 
 Casuals 
 
 Fixed weekly cascr 
 
 
 18SO-90. 
 
 8651 
 1,085 1 
 
 95 
 
 1838-89. 
 
 l».S7-88. 
 
 Number of applicants . . 
 Kuniber of applications 
 Applications refused . . 
 
 843 '^ 
 
 1,0942 
 
 112 
 
 1,109 
 1,3.S7 
 
 178 
 
 Eelieved : — 
 
 llesidrnts 
 
 888 1 
 
 756- 
 
 995 
 
 183 
 372 
 
 196 
 39 G 
 
 219 
 389 
 
 Total 
 
 Number of times relieved 
 
 1,443 
 
 4,511 
 
 1,348- 
 
 4,3G5 2 
 
 1,603 
 
 4,7t;5 
 
 It lias already been explained why the Alien Lists 
 cannot be accepted as containing any near approach 
 to the actual numbers of foreigners landing at the 
 port of London. Yet^ in ^Nlr. Giffen's words, they 
 show '^ a notable increase/' especially as regards 
 arrivals from Jlamlnirgj the point from which most 
 
 ' To compare 1889-90, when holidays occurred in April, Septem- 
 ber, and October, witlr 1583-89, when holidays occurred only in 
 September, and no Passover relief v.-as given — Passover having 
 occurred twice daring tlie financial year 1837-88— deduct 70. 
 
 - To con:paie 1863-S'.t with 1587-S3, add 170.
 
 174 THE DESJ7TUTE ALIEN EV GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 of the superfluous Jews of the Continent are passed 
 on to the United Kingdom^ or perhaps to America — - 
 no matter which^ so long as they do not stay on the 
 European Continent. The number of aliens entered 
 in these Lists (where one person's name frcrjiiently 
 stands for those of a whole family^ fe^ii: I\Ir. Charles 
 Booth), rose from 0,,sl.tj in 1339 to 1 1/2 02 in 1^00 — 
 an increase of 4.11 o. It is not; however^ to foreigners 
 as such that we make objection^ but to those of tliem 
 who are destitute or on the verge of destitution. For 
 these we must particularly look to the immigrants 
 from Hamburg. And we find with less surprise tliau 
 concern that the number of arrivals from this port 
 alone rose from .j;073 in '\'6^^.) to 0/3 :j 1 in IdOO— an 
 increase of '■\,6~v\. Xot all are destitute^ not all stay 
 with us ; but those who go away are just those whom, 
 if we had to choose^ we should prefer to remain : those 
 with some money iu their pockets, some vigour in 
 their bodies^ some enterprise in their hearts. The 
 Continent shoots its outcasts on these devoted 
 islands: they are sifted hero by natural selectiun : 
 and we keep the refuse. 
 
 According to the Chief Commissioner of the !Metro- 
 politan Police; by one line which trades between 
 Hamburg and London^ no loss than -J-/JOO aliens were 
 landed here last year_, of whom chjldij fier cent, aiipearcd 
 fo he qiuft! ilestitnf': ; the total aJ.difiojiul number of 
 sue 'a immigrants was from l/'OO to -'i.O'JU ; and.
 
 FOREIGN PAUPER RUMIGRAPWy. 175 
 
 fililifjiigli sumo were merely passing tlirough London 
 on tliL'ir way to Ainerica^ the uinjuritij came to settle 
 licro. Tho Chief Constable ut Manchester reports 
 that of- tho Jo.OOU or lO/KHj Jews in that city not 
 less than scvent}^ per cent, are believed to be Eussian 
 PuleS; and that the Jewish population there has very 
 largely increased during the last few years. The Chief 
 Constable at LeoilSj on the authority of tho local 
 Jewish i5uard of Guardians^ says that the uumber of 
 Jewish immigrants arriving at that town last year was 
 ;ibout 2;<JU0; this being an increase of a few hundreds. 
 But Ijtfore we part with the report from Leeds^ we 
 must quote a particularly enlightening passage. The 
 authorilies i-eferrcd to^ it is declared^ know of no 
 society in Leeds to assist alien immigratioUj ];ut — 
 
 ■' A iii-iu of money lendoi-s .-tauj tiiat they lend money to 
 •Je'U'isli apiilicaut,-; for au^- purpose, hut, in mau^' cases, there 
 are aiiplieaiUs ^vho express ;i ilo.-ire to send for their friends 
 or r.datious from Ea-^sia or Poland wlien lliey oldain the 
 money; Ijut tbeir society is nrtt estalJislied for any .-ucli pur- 
 pose: t]io\' lend money to any on''^ who finds tlie necessary 
 security.'" 
 
 Here we come upon a clue to the puzzle how it is 
 tluit destitute aliens find the meaiis to pay their 
 passage money to England. And connected with this 
 is the system of clniritable relief established by the 
 Jewish Ijvards of Guardians (some of whose work is 
 purely beneficent^ that p.irr^ at leasf^ which consists
 
 J 76 THE DESTITUIE ALIEN JN GREAT EKITAJN. 
 
 ill sending back to tlioii* own countries those new- 
 comers who couki not pick np a living here^ and in 
 passing others on to America)^ and by tlio I'oor -Jews' 
 Temporary Shelter (whose philanthropic activity some- 
 times assumes a more questionable shape), and, in 
 principle the worst of all, l)y the Jjondon Society for 
 Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. Of the 
 last-named institution Miss Beiitrice I'otter has given 
 a dryly humorous account. It enjoys, she says, an 
 income of £35,000 a year; it is housed in mngnihcent 
 premises, comprising a chapel, a missionary training 
 institute, and an operatives^ homo. In the year 1888 
 it baptized twelve Jews in the chapel, maintained 
 forty children in the school, and supported twelve 
 converts in the home. "The process of conversion 
 is very simple; board and lodging ;it a sjK'cially fur- 
 nished house during the incpiiry stage, constiint charit- 
 able assistance after conversion, and free education 
 and free maintenance (jf Jewisli children brought up 
 in the Cliristian faith. . . . Imugine tlu tempta- 
 tion to the poveriy-stricken inhabitants of the crowded 
 alleys of the Jewish slum." J'ut the iunnitesimal pci'- 
 forniances of this Gentile society might be left out of 
 account for the present purpose, were they not known 
 to hav(3 aroused an uidiealthy emulation among the 
 charitable Jews. Determined b) protect the friend- 
 less, destitute, unemplu3ed immigrant from these the 
 nraterial iilluru'iuents of ('iirisii;;u enterpi-i^e, they ^-cr
 
 FOh'FJG.V PA UP El: IMMICRATfON. 177 
 
 np ;i rival insLitution in tlie abovc-iiiciitiouod Poor 
 Jews' Temporary Slielter, wliicli lias fallen into con- 
 siderable Jisfavonr, even in the commnnity to which 
 it belono-s, because^ rig-htly or wrongly^ it is believed 
 to attract pauper immigrants to this country. Nor 
 could we be surprisetl if such were the case^ since in 
 1883 it "^ provided board and lodging for ii period of 
 from one to fourteen days to l,o22 homeless immi- 
 grants." 
 
 The mischievous effect of these charitable agencies 
 (which have been reduced to the practicable vilnimuin, 
 it should be admitted, in the case of the Jewish ])oards 
 of Guardians) is not greatly counteracted by the 
 official warnings wliich are issued by our Consuls 
 aljroad. Against them have to be set the undeniable 
 chances of making some sort of a living here; the 
 certainty of complete political liberty and religious 
 toleration ; escape from the conscription ; the genei'- 
 ous assistance of their co-religionists ; and — last but 
 not least — the blandishments of the agents of the 
 German, shipping companies. 'J'he J'ritish vessels 
 engaged in this traffic — so we are informed in the 
 report of our Acting Consul-Gencral at Hamburg — 
 oidy carry the boinljlde emigrants^ that is, those who 
 have obtained through tickets to the United States 
 or other parts. But the German vessels are under no 
 such restrictions. The (piestion is how long we shall 
 wink at a ti-atfic which we could stop by a short and
 
 I7S THE DESTITUTE ALIEX IX GREAT BRETAIX. 
 
 simple Act of l?;irli;imont. At ]ii'e.seiit we se(nn to 
 confine ourselves to publisliint,'-, in certain foreign 
 new.«p;iperSj circulating among the class from Avhich 
 the emigrants are taken, notices sncli as tlie f .Ih^wing, 
 in (lerman, liebrew, and Ihiglisli : — 
 
 '• Ifcr liriiaiinin IMa.je-ty's ( 'on-;ul-( General at lias In-fu 
 
 iustnicied to causo it to 1j3 made jjuhlic that destitute persons 
 intending to oinigTate to Great Ei'itain to seek emjiloj-nient 
 are likely to he disaiiijoinifd on ai'rival, tlie prosiiects of 
 oljtaining- eniployineut heing very limited.'" 
 
 Destitute persons ! But who is destitute if he lias 
 friends abroad who will lend him passage-money, and 
 a society which gives him temporary board and lodg- 
 ing, starts liim in a humble way of business, and, at 
 the very worst, pays his passage back again to the 
 plac(^ whence ho came ? 
 
 I'his question of Alien Imtiiigrati(;n came to tlu^ 
 front in England when the news was confirmed tliat 
 the Czar had at last hardened his heai't to pidjlish and 
 enf)rce those edicts against his I'ussian subjects wdnch 
 had long been lying in his desk — edicts wliich he liad 
 allowed to remain dormant, pei'haps through the fear 
 of enraging (as \\ii has enraged) llu^ cosmo])olitan 
 Jewish millioriaires, who can make a hian or mar it 
 (they chose to mar the last) ; perhaps through some 
 remaining sense of duty or spark of pity towards 
 subjects wdio have as full a right to his care and pro- 
 tection as any Slav in his dominiiins. J]ut policy and
 
 /■OA'K/C.y PAl'PI'.R l}rMIGRATlO.Y. 170 
 
 religions zcjil — the p"li''y of kcci)iiig" Uu.ssia for the 
 TJn.-.sinns^ (lie zoiil of big-otry — liavo at last prevailed; 
 and a serit's of rules and regulation?; are being re- 
 morselessly exercised against the daily life of the 
 JewSj their religion, their traditions, their ways of 
 subsistence, which amount in ett'ect to a general 
 decree of exile. Nominally restrictiv^e, they arc really 
 expulsory, and five million Jews are looking out for 
 a home, 'J'here are plenty of reasons why they should 
 tui'u to England as the land of their choice. They 
 will not come at once : to mobilize an army of one- 
 fifth of that number, consisting of able-bodied men, 
 and without regard for expenditure, is a feat of 
 organization v/hich would puzzle a great captain. 
 These expatriated Jews can only pass over iu driblets. 
 But the important and the dangerous thing for us is 
 that the process has unmistakably commenced, and is 
 going on noiui the less steadily because the beginning 
 was slow. 
 
 'l"nero is no doubt that these aliens arc swarming 
 upon the Port of London ; no doubt that the nrijority 
 will rc-main .'imongst us ; no doulit, unhappily, that 
 they are practicidl}^ paupers, 
 
 Tlu> opinion that v/o should impose some legislative 
 restriction upon the free immigration of destitute 
 aliens is naturally strongest among the working 
 classes of the great towns, who find the rate of wages 
 for Unskilled Labour sensibly reduced by the conipe-
 
 iSo THE DESTirUTE A I.J EX EV GREAT EK'/TAIX. 
 
 titiou of foreigners more frugal and certainly more 
 sober tLan tlieraselves. On tlie face of it, that is a 
 selfisli and almost an ignoble motive. But we must 
 remember^ in tlie first place, that we have made tlie 
 working-men our masters, and tlnit through their 
 parliamentaiy lepresentatives, whom they are able to 
 treat as mere delegates, tliey have the power of giving 
 efTect to their views. Already we find that a con- 
 siderable number o£ ^lembers of Parliament, in rs.^c 
 and in ijossc, are prepared to vote for regulations here 
 sucli as are in force in Germany and the United 
 States. Amongst them are men who are above the 
 suspicion of mere popularity-hunting, and who have 
 achieved a certain position in politics, such as 1s\y. 
 Darling, Q.C., JM.P. for Deptford, and .Air. P. G. 
 Webster, ]\I.P. fur i-'iast St. Pancras, and Mr. L. J. 
 Jennings, ]\r. 1*. for Stockport -not to mention Lord 
 Dunraven, who has no votes to court, in the present 
 demoralized state of politics it is easy to suggest 
 doubts about this man's honesty and that man's ear- 
 nestness ; we are not concerned, however, witli the 
 inner woi'kings of the parliamentary conscience, but 
 with the reasons which nnderlic what is certainly a 
 powerful sentiment in man}' populous constituencies. 
 'J'o begin with, the dislike for alien competition is not 
 purely selfish : it proceeds not from individual avarice, 
 but a feeling of corporate loyalty. Ivnglishnien who be- 
 long to the Siime trad*' h;iveanoti"n that the\' ought to
 
 FOREIGN VAUPKR IMMIGKATION. i8i 
 
 st;uid by ouo unother iu tlie interests of all ; they de- 
 spise those whom they regard as traitors to the common 
 cause. That is why, iu a strike, decent and generally 
 amiable men will bully and maltreat the " blacklegs ^^ 
 and the '' kuobsticks ^^ and the '^scallywags.'" The 
 motive does not justify, but it does explain, conduct 
 which ought to be vigilantly exposed and sternly 
 punished by law. Now these resident aliens in Lon- 
 don are the " blacklegs " aud the '' knobsticks ^' and 
 the " scallywngs ^^ of tlie Unskilled Labour market. 
 They will do more work for less Avages than their 
 English rivals j they submit without grumbling to the 
 petty tyrannies of the overseer and the mean exac- 
 tions of the sweater; they joiu no Trade Union ; mauy 
 of them, perhaps most, do not speak Euglish, and 
 they mix very little with Luglislimen; they marry 
 and give in marriage amongst their owu peo]ile ; in 
 their virtues as in their vices they are a race apart. 
 Under no circumstances would they bo popular here ; 
 but siuce they succeed, if not in taking the bread out 
 of English mouths, at least in reducing the margin of 
 wages which might be spent on beer and gin, they are 
 naturally and not cpiito unfairly detested. Li line, 
 they are believed, rightly or wrongly, to be respon- 
 sible for that bundle of abuses and misfortunes which 
 are lumped together under the name of the Sweating 
 System. 
 
 If we are ever to abolish or modify that system, we
 
 J'lIE DESIfJUT]: A 1. 1 EM IX GKKAT BRfTAJX. 
 
 must control^ not tho much-abused Sweater^ but Lis 
 mucb-piticd victims tlie sweated workers. The sweater 
 is generally an industrious and often a decent fellow ; 
 he takes his share iu the job that is going" on in. his 
 place, supervising and stimulating, sometimes with 
 encouragement and sometimes with curses. 11 is 
 functions ai'e to find out trustworthy workmen and 
 keep them up to the mark — a business which must 
 be learned and practised by somebody. If it were 
 not done under the sub-contracfc or '•' sweating ^^ sys- 
 tem, it would have to be undertaken by paid agents of 
 the great trading houses^ and there is nothing to show 
 that it would be carried out with more humanity or 
 greater generosity. Lot us look the facts in the face 
 and admit that every producer who is working for a 
 profit in days of free and open competition is bound 
 to cut down expenses to the lowest possible figure. 
 Turn and twist the principle how we may, this comes 
 to grinding the faces of the poor. We should not 
 eradicate or even mitigate the practice by abolishing 
 the middleman or "^ sweater/^ and replacing him by 
 the paid agent or departmental supervisor employed 
 by the principal. The money now taken as the 
 middleman's profits would then be absorbed iu the 
 supervisor's salaiy and percentage. Ilo, if we wish to 
 see better wages paid, we must go io the workman 
 direct, and induce him to insist on a moi'o a(le(|uate 
 remunera^tion. 'J'o such an exhortation Ihi'^lish uork-
 
 FOREfGN PAUPER IMMIGRATION. 183 
 
 meu give a roudy aiid^ perhaps^ too ready rcspouse ; 
 but tliesG })auperj or nearly paujDer^ aliens arc deaf to 
 it. Our own coimtrymeu liave a higher standard of 
 comfort ; rather than accept wages which fall below 
 it they will go on strike^ if they have a Unicni at their 
 backs; and^ if tliey have not, they will resort to the 
 workhouse or, more likely, pick up a precarious but 
 not fatiguing livelihood as corner-men, street-loafers, 
 cas^lty labourers or occasional criminals. It is be- 
 cause the pauper aliens prefer to go on workiug for a 
 regular pittance (and even save money on it, so penur- 
 ious arc their habits) that they reduce the rate of 
 wages in the Unskilled Ijjdjour market, and, in fact, 
 make possilde the Sweating System which we all 
 deplore. 
 
 It Would be impossible here to cover tin; vast and 
 rather shifting tt)pics discussed in the evidence and 
 report of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating 
 System. liut one or two points may be touched 
 upon. Mr. Arnold White made the remarkable state- 
 ment that if there icere no iKior foreijners there ivonld be 
 no siceathuj ,^;i/slerit — a statement which he subse(piently 
 modified and cfjnfined to iho special case of the boot- 
 making trade. The origiiud statement v/as, of course, 
 ti) ) bruad ; vre i;uist t;d\:e accounr, nut oidy of the 
 poor foreigners, but also of the poor J*higlis;hwomen, 
 wliose competition with male labour has a luweriug 
 tendency on the general rate of wages. Jiut it is
 
 iS4 THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 cci'tain that, if \yg could remove '^ the gi-ecners '' from 
 the slums of our groat towns, we should unfailingly 
 strike at one of the two taproots of the Sweating 
 System. And our own women, under the tutelage of 
 agitators and philanthropists^ would very soon learu 
 the useful and necessaryj if occasionally inconvenient^ 
 lesson how to start and carry on a strike for better 
 wages. The principle of human advancement is 
 '^ progressive desire'" — that is, the amiable side I'f 
 incessant discontent. At present our underj)aid 
 women are too sensible to refuse work at the current 
 rate of wages. The money would go to the " greener/"'' 
 and they would be so much the worse off. JJut take 
 awav the "' fxreener," ami tliev would very soon form 
 'J'rade Unions, and extort inore reasonable wages. 
 ]t is said on behalf of the "'greener" that he dues 
 not absorb the money hitherto earned by English 
 ])ersons, but introduces new trades, and accepts work 
 which our own couutrynien reject. That is true to 
 some extent : the lower branches of tailoring and boot- 
 making are almost his specialities. lUit what is the 
 result ? 'J'hat the better work of our (jwn country- 
 men is beaten out of the held. Ju the mania for 
 cheapness which has demoi'ali/.ed many branches of 
 J'higlish industry, jH-uple look to the outward form of 
 an article, not to its genuine (jualities. A coat is a 
 coat if it covers a Ijack, and a ]i:iir of boots is a pair 
 of boots if thev will go on the I'eet.
 
 FOREIGN PAUPER LUMJGRAE/LW. 1S5 
 
 Some of tliG most moderate, least prejudiced, and 
 most trustworthy evidence taken before the Sweating 
 Committee was given by Dr. ]3illing, now Bishop of 
 Bedford, but then Bector of Spitalfields. He dechired 
 that, withiu his immediate observation of East Lon- 
 don, the "greeners'^ have '^ very largely displaced 
 native labour,^^ and that under stress of the competi- 
 tion our own people are being driven into pauperism, 
 casual labour, or emigration ; that Jews and Gentiles 
 '' very seldom work together " (a point in which ho 
 was to some degree contradicted by the evidence of 
 Doctor Adler, the late Chief Babbi) ; that during the 
 past few years (licre confirming Mr. Charles Booth's 
 statement already quoted) whole streets had become 
 entirely populated by foreign Jews " where there was 
 not a Jew before" ; that manv of those who, havino- 
 come in search of work and failed to find it, had been 
 charitably assisted home, only returned a second time; 
 and, finally, that ho was prepared to refuse to admit 
 by the law of England men fiyiug from persecution 
 abroad. " They are flying/' he said, ^' from one 
 great evil to another, and producing an intolerable 
 evil here." As a rule, it should be admitted that these 
 foreign Jews do not become a direct charge upon the 
 Boor Bates. But they drive our own people into the 
 workhouse or, still worse, into vagabondage; so that 
 in giving asylum to them we are turning Englishmen 
 out of their own homes. It is pretty to talk about our
 
 1 86 HIE DESTITUTE ALTEN IN GREAT BK/TA/N. 
 
 national hospitality, but are wo prepared to practise it 
 on these terms ? Will the working classes permit us 
 to continue it at such a sacrifice ? 
 
 There is no proposal to exclude here, as the United 
 States exclude, persons who come under contract of 
 labour; though it might hereafter bo advisable thus 
 to extend our Icffislatiou if we found that it was beinof 
 violated by colourable evasions and bogus engage- 
 ments. At present it will be sufficient to turn back 
 all immigrants without visible means of subsistence, 
 and to send them away in the vessel which had 
 attempted to land them — thus throwing the expense 
 on the persons responsible for the mischief. In the 
 United States a money penalty and a term of im- 
 prisonment are further provided to meet the case of 
 any captain or agent who succeeds in unlawfully 
 landing a contraband human cai'go, and some such 
 provision would, perhaps, have to be adopted here. 
 J5ut it would not be necessary, in all proljability, to 
 inake it here, ai in the United States, a punishable 
 offence to solicit or encourage immigration. AVe should 
 probably eifect our object — English officials as a rule 
 not being venal — if we made the business risky at all 
 times, and generall}^ futile. 
 
 Tiie provisions of the United States Act of 1885 
 were mainly directed iigalnst the unrestricted im- 
 migration of Chinese cheap labour. And this brings 
 us to an incidental diplomatic advantage which we
 
 FOREIGN PAUPER IMMfGRATIOiY. 187 
 
 sliould secure by aJoptiug similar legislation. It is 
 well known tliat one of the points wherein we are not 
 (juite at harmony with the Australian colonists is as 
 to the feasibility of regulating- Chinese immigration. 
 The colonists insist upon doing so; and it may some 
 day become so urgent a domestic question with them 
 that we shall have to concede them an unlimited dis- 
 cretion. This ^vill be highly offensive at Pekin, and 
 ^ve have the strongest Imperial reasons for wishing 
 to remain on cordial terms with China — the great 
 Iilastern counterpoise of Russia and the not uncon- 
 cerned spectator of her ambitions in Asia. The sting 
 of our refusal to permit Chinese iiiimigratiou into 
 Australia would be taken away if we could show that 
 restrictions imposed on a particular nation in a par- 
 ticular quarter of the globe were but ])art of a general 
 Imperial policy — a policy so like the Chinese tradition 
 ol exclusiveness that it would not lie in the mouth 
 of Pekin statesmen to protest against it. 'i'me^ they 
 might retort; if they cared for a barren dialectical 
 triumpli; by threatening altogether to close China 
 against British capital and British enterprise. But 
 they will exclude or admit our merchants and en- 
 gineers according as they \vant or do not want them. 
 \\Q :?hall enter when our presence is required ; not a 
 d;iy sijonci', not a day later. 
 
 it has been said that '" cver\' nation has the Jew 
 wliom it deserves.^' ^Ve have, then, our native En^--
 
 iSS 'J'lIE J)ESrnUTE ALIKX IX GKKAT Ji RITA IX. 
 
 lisli Jews — a better^ a sturdier stocky a more desirable 
 body of fellow-citizeiiSj it would not be easy to find. 
 They have tlieir faults^ but tliey are English to the 
 core. lu patriot'.siu tliey are not inferior to any of 
 us Gentiles. But the Jews who are cotuinf^'' to us 
 from liussia and Poland have all the vices which are 
 generated by many centuries of systematic oppression 
 varied with occasional outbursts of violent persecution. 
 It is absurd, of course^ to pretend that the morals of 
 our ]vist Ihid will be corrupted b}- Oriental vices. 
 In the first place^ tlie Jews there do not mix freely 
 with the Gentiles; in the second place, they will com- 
 pare favourably in many respects with our native 
 countr\'mcn. IJut — such as they are or have been 
 made — the}' are politically unfit to be suddenly trans- 
 planted into those democratic institutions for which 
 we have adajited ourselves, or partially adapted our- 
 selves, by a long course ol self-governing liljert\'. 
 'J'hcir advent might be welc(jnied, or at least tolerated, 
 if the (pialities which they brought wore such as would 
 reinforce the weakened fibres of our own town-bred 
 population. If they were a martial r;ice, we might be 
 glad of them. If their tastes and gifts l;iy towai'ds 
 pastond and agricultural pursuits, we could find a 
 place for thorn or their children in the depopulated 
 vibages. If the same penurious content and the same 
 untiring indu.-try which they show in the slopshops 
 and sweating-dens were devoted to the work of farm
 
 FOR R 1(1 M PArPER IMMIGRATIOy. 1S9 
 
 luboui'Ci's — which iiuisfc always be uiiJerpaiJj aiul 
 
 therefore unattractive to Eaglislimcn, so long* as wo 
 
 import cheap corn — we iniglit utiliso the new strain 
 
 of blood, ]5at tlic foreign Jews do not coine to man 
 
 our Army and Navy (many of them have fled to avoid 
 
 the conscription at home) ; they do not come to till 
 
 the soil (they never keep to farm work if they can find 
 
 the meanest opening in trade) ; they come simply to 
 
 swell the swollen tide of immigration into the towns, 
 
 to reduce the rate of wages there, and therefore to 
 
 strengthen that spirit of discontent and disorder on 
 
 which the agitators live and batten, and which in 
 
 time may pollute the ancient constitutional liberalism 
 
 of Ihigland witli the visionary violence of Contincnt:d 
 
 Socialism. That would be a disaster not to this or 
 
 that party, l)ut to the -whole i;ation. At present it 
 
 has not seriously sliovt'ii itself, for tiic very good 
 
 reason that the foreignei's as a body take little part 
 
 in our public life. V>\\t it would bo seen and felt as 
 
 soon as they began to amalgamate with our own 
 
 people : it is certain that any measure of success 
 
 which might be obtained in Anglicising these resident 
 
 aliens would be badly compensated by the concurrent 
 
 process of Continentalising the native Englishmen. 
 
 One word more. It is frequently asserted that the 
 immigration into England is roughly balanced by the 
 emigration. That is partially true. But it is not 
 true (ns is shown by the oHici;il i'(>jK)i-ts of the Police
 
 IQO 77//: DESTirUTF. AI.IKX IX GRjiAT HhTJ'.l/X. 
 
 Commissioners^ and as is known by all who have any 
 thorough acqn:iintanco v.'ith the slams (A our (,n"cat 
 towns) that anytliing approachinc^ such a balance is 
 struck amono'st tlie aliens who come to our [rreat 
 poi'ts. l^crhaps the mnj'^i'ity, and certaiidy one-half^ 
 como to stay with u-. And tlic emigration lists are 
 swollen with the names of Englishmen prevented 
 from making a worthy Hving in their own Lmd. A\ e 
 are turning away the phickiest^ the most enterprising, 
 i\\e most valuable of our ordinary workmen^ in order 
 to find room for the least progressive and the least 
 desirable natives of other countries. AVe are ex- 
 changing the pick of our m.anual workmen for the 
 residuum of foreign states. ]\rost of us are vaisi 
 enough to think that Englishmen are worth retaining 
 at home ; that England should be kept for English- 
 men, and tlio British Empire for the I'ritish people. 
 Let the politicians look to this question. The agitators 
 have taken it up : the strike-leaders are discussing it. 
 At present it is a managealde problem ; but if it were 
 neglected much longei"; we may witness in civilized 
 Enfdand scenes not fjrcatlv unlike those outlMirsts o\' 
 popular persecution which have ircently shocked u^ 
 in the Ionian Islands — followed, at n^, distant date, by 
 summary measures of similar aim with those riuw 
 adopted by the Iiussian Clovcrnment. That would 
 not be so much a disgrace to our civilization as a 
 reproach to our short-sighted legislators. If wc would
 
 J-OKKIGX PAUPER LMMIGKATJON. 19 1 
 
 go on doing our duty by tliosc uliens wliom wo have 
 too freely admitted to our citizonsliip, wo must pre- 
 vent them from growing into a body at once more 
 noxious and more disliked than they ai-e at present. 
 iMr. liurns and ls\v. Tillett and Mr. ^Nlann eould raise 
 a Judenlict/o to-n)orrow if they lilced to do it. It is 
 for the prudent statesman to eut away the ground 
 under their feet. ^Ve cannot go on keeping open 
 house for the paupers of all the world. 
 
 [Eeprinted by vjermission from tlio FuriahjhUij Picrieir of 
 .Julv. 1891.1 
 
 l'.utlei i r;u:i;tr 'Wc strUA^od iTii.l.ii.i.' W i^rLs Frv^me, aiul l-ouauu.
 
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