66

that the Germans, in particular, would, in progress of time, become possessed of the chiefest and most valuable part of our lands1. Indeed, he said, that "the "number of Germans imported into this province or "colony, in the course of about twenty-five years last past, has been so excessive, that if it is not limited by "a provincial act, or by the dernier resource, an act of "parliament, the province and territories of Pennsyl "vania may soon degenerate into a foreign colony." A German writer also notes, that from 1750 to the time in which he wrote, 1754, there arrived at Phila delphia, yearly, about the close of autumn, from twenty to twenty-four vessels, which, during that period, disembarked more than 24,000 persons 3. Nor can we suppose that the practice ceased as he laid down his pen. Even Franklin, after having said so much in honour of American prolificness, (how correctly remains to be shewn,) and who, consequently, was little disposed to attribute the increase of population there to any other cause, allows, neverthe less, that there were, in 1755, 80,000 emigrants in Pennsylvania; meaning, doubtless, to confine that number and his objection to its increase, to what were then denominated foreigners, which the English then never were', and, indeed, seldom now are-a most important distinction, which must be kept in mind throughout. It is, indeed, impossible to suppose otherwise; else his vituperative remarks would have reflected on his own father and his whole kindred. Regarding others, and especially the Germans, he ex

Dr. Douglas, Summary, vol. ii., pp. 119, 120.

Ibid., p. 317.

Hist. of Pennsylvania, translated from the German, by M. Roussetot, quoted from Warden, vol. ii., p. 101.

"By foreign settlers is to be under"stood-1. Germans from the Rhans, "Mozelle, and other parts. 2 Protest"ants from the South of France, &c.”Bartram, Description of East Florida, (1769) p. 31, note.

claims loud enough, "Why should the Palatine boors, "be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their manners and language, to the exclusion of ours1?"

(17) But, it is somewhat singular and illiberal that these views should have been entertained in a province where every soul, either in his own person, or in that of his immediate ancestor, had been an emigrant within the short period of threescore and ten years before. They, however, prevailed, and the governor of the province at length yielded; and, "as the emigrants poured in," it is said, "in such "numbers, he refused to receive any more, unless they paid a tax for their reception, which obliged many ships, full of them, to go to other British set"tlements." Henceforth, the stream of emigration divided, as it approached the Transatlantic shores, and became more equally diffused through every part of our colonial dominions.

(18) Let us here pause, and, taking into consideration the comparative paucity of the population of the American States at about this period, whether we estimate it according to the different enumerations which remain concerning it, or calculate its amount inversely from the last census, according to the ratio in which we are assured it has since increased "by procreation only;" and, going backwards to the time with which we commenced, comprehending a period of above a century, let us ask, whether any one can be so wedded to a theory as to persist in supposing that accessions, so constant and vast, to numbers originally so feeble, can have been " immaterial?" The absurdity of such an assertion could hardly be increased were the

1 Dr. Franklin.

period to which it is applied doubled, and it should therefore be maintained that American increase has proceeded, independent not only of these early and uninterrupted accessions, but even of the original planters themselves, the founders and fathers of American colonization.

453

CHAPTER VI.

OF EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA. ITS HISTORICAL PROOFS CONCLUDED.

(1) IN the last reign, the most eventful epocha in modern times, whether it respects American or European history, and after the peace of 1763, which had added greatly to the security and extent of the American colonies, the encouragements to emigration were considerably increased. Not only did government hold out every facility to private enterprise, but rewarded its victorious officers and soldiers by large donations of land, in proportion to their rank, to induce them to settle there'. Palatines, and other foreigners, continued to emigrate, but the largest accessions of inhabitants were still from the mother country, especially from Ireland and Scotland. Thus an historian of one of the provinces, already quoted, says, "Be"sides foreign Protestants, several persons from Eng"land and Scotland resorted to Carolina after the

peace; but, of all other countries, none has furnished "the province with so many inhabitants as Ireland. "In the northern counties of that kingdom the spirit "of emigration seized the people, to such a degree, "that it threatened almost a total depopulation. Such "multitudes of husbandmen, labourers, and manufacturers flocked over the Atlantic, that the landlords began to be alarmed, and to concert ways and means "to prevent the growing evil. Scarce a ship sailed 'King's Proclamation, Dr. Holmes,

vol. ii., p. 221.

2 Hist. of South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 273.

"for any of the plantations that was not crowded "with men, women, and children; and the merchants "often crammed such numbers into their ships, that "they were in danger of being stifled during the passage." Nor was Ireland the only division of the kingdom which furnished the emigrations to America. We have no particular account, indeed, of the numbers that went from England or Wales at this period, but concerning Scotland, Knox, in his view of the British Empire, says, "it is certain that between the

years 1763 and 1775, above 30,000 people aban"doned their habitations in the highlands, besides great "numbers in the lowlands." " Admitting," says Macpherson, "the immense number to be just, we may 'safely venture to assert, that the emigrants from the 'highlands alone are now (1799) increased to 60,000 "subjects of the United States 3." We know also that the spirit of emigration had begun to spread in the more populous districts of the lowlands, though the numbers from thence, any more than those from England, we find nowhere estimated.

(2) But the emigrations to America were neither confined to the British islands, nor exclusively directed to any particular province of America. Thus we learn, incidentally, (as, I again observe, we must gather all the facts pertaining to the subject,) from the report of Lieut.-Governor Bull, of South Carolina, dated 1770, among other important matters, the prosperous state of a colony of French Protestants, settled in that province in 1764, and of a large body of Germans, established there in the ensuing year. Indeed, the

'Hist, of South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 273.

Knox, View of the British Empire. Macpherson, Hist. of Commerce, vol. iii., p. 546.

Sir J. Sinclair, Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vi., p. 146. 'Universal Hist., Mod. Part, vol. al, p. 443.