CHAPTER I.
Preliminary considerations—Rational object of emigration—Present social comforts and discomforts—Classes that should or should not emigrate—Capability of emigrating—Inconveniences of journey, privations, and change of social position in a new country—Romantic hopes and actual occurrences of emigrant life—Present state of Ireland, and uncertainty as to her future condition—General conclusions thence drawn.
Since love of country has been deeply implanted in the mind of man by an all-wise Creator, and since the social relations that connect our early attachments cannot be dissevered without much reluctance, and strong external motives, it is but natural to suppose that the idea of emigration can be only entertained by persons who have hopes of bettering their condition in a strange land, or of furthering the interests which most engage their attention. The peculiar circumstances of nations and individuals in the Old World, and the systematic operations of colonization at the present time, lend additional importance to these considerations. "We do not intend to institute an enquiry into the nature of the social relations abandoned and reconstructed; of the abstracted wealth, or the physical and mental energies transferred from one nation to another; nor do we desire to discuss those favorite problems of political economy that distract the speculations of statesmen and philosophers. Our investigations have been reduced to a narrower compass, and a more practical result.—
