FAMILY
COLONIZATION LOAN SOCIETY,
By the Grant of Loans for Two Years or more without Interest;
OR,
A SYSTEM OF EMIGRATION
TO THE COLONIES
OF
NEW SOUTH WALES, PORT PHILLIP, AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA;
In a Letter
Dedicated by Permission to Lord Ashley, M.P.,
BY MRS. CHISHOLM.
To the Right Honourable Lord Ashley, M.P.
My Lord,
The earnest desire manifested by a large body of the industrious classes to improve their circumstances by Emigration, and the sufferings so patiently borne by our people seeking employment and finding none, make it imperative that a system of vigorous colonization should commence, in order that the munificent provision which the Giver of all things needful for man has placed in reserve, should be placed within the reach of our struggling population.
It is indeed melancholy to reflect, that thousands of British subjects should wander about more like spectres than beings of flesh and blood, and that hundreds should die from starvation while our vast Colonies could provide so abundantly for them. Anxious however as a poor man may be to emigrate to the Australian Colonies with his family, it is unfortunately, impossible for him to accomplish his desire without some assistance. My Lord, I take this view of the matter, that the necessities of our people are so pressing, that if some humane, patriotic, and national steps on the part of the public be not taken to develop and bring into operation the mines of wealth, and to explore the almost boundless fields for productive labour which a benign Providence has placed at the disposal of Great Britain beyond the seas, loyal British subjects will be driven by hunger and by England's neglect, to seek a livelihood in another country which may be inimical to British interests.
We are at home, my Lord, circumscribed by space. If we wish to keep pace with some of our neighbours, or desire to maintain our superiority, we must extend our sphere of action beyond the narrow confines of this Isle. Policy points out the way, and it remains for wisdom to lay the foundation of a sister nation, upon the sound basis of gratitude and justice; for these are the qualities that should constitute the bond which is to unite the vast Continent of New Holland to Great Britain. Helping then our struggling population is but our duty; and I ground my plan of a Loan Society upon this principle, that if the Australian Colonies are worth going to—if they remunerate, nay, frequently enrich the poor Emigrant, the passage thereto is worth paying for.
