boundless extent of fertile land, nothing is easier than for
the labourer to pass from the place which is overstocked with labour to
the place which is understocked; and that thus both he who moves and he
who stays always have enough. This it is which keeps up the prosperity
of the Atlantic States of the Union. They pour their population back to
the Ohio, across the Ohio to the Mississippi, and beyond the Mississippi
to the Rocky Mountains. Everywhere the desert is receding before the
advancing flood of human life and civilisation; and, in the meantime,
those who are left behind enjoy abundance, and never endure such
privations as in old countries too often befall the labouring classes.
And why has not the condition of our labourers been equally fortunate?
Simply, as I believe, on account of the great distance which separates
our country from the new and unoccupied part of the world, and on
account of the expense of traversing that distance. Science, however,
has abridged, and is abridging, that distance: science has diminished,
and is diminishing, that expense. Already New Zealand is, for all
practical purposes, nearer to us than New England was to the Puritans
who fled thither from the tyranny of Laud. Already the ports of North
America, Halifax, Boston, and New York, are nearer to us than, within
the memory of persons now living, the Island of Skye and the county of
Donegal were to London. Already emigration is beginning to produce the
same effect here which it has produced on the Atlantic States of
the Union. And do not imagine that our countryman who goes abroad is
altogether lost to us. Even if he goes from under the dominion of the
British Queen and the protection of the British flag he will still,
under the benignant system of free trade, continue to be bound to us by
close ties. If he ceases to be a neighbour, he is still a benefactor
and a customer. Go where he may, if you will but maintain that system
inviolate, it is for us that he is turning the forests into cornfields
on the banks of the Mississippi; it is for us that he is tending his
sheep and preparing his fleeces in the heart of Australasia; and in
the meantime it is from us that he receives those commodities which are
produced with most advantage in old societies, where great masses of
capital have been accumulated. His candlesticks and his pots and his
pans come from Birmingham; his knives from Sheffield; the light cotton
jacket which he wears in summe