says of the capital, Washington, so recently founded, "nearly one half of the population is of Irish origin'." that the labouring class, particularly, is chiefly Irish, many of whom have no acquaintance with the English language; that they have cut the canals, made and repaired the streets, and executed most of the manual labour of the city'. Charleston is said to be still more indebted to foreigners for its population. Of Baltimore, Dr. Morse says, the bulk of the inhabitants have been recently collected from all quarters of the world; and adds, that they vary in their habits, manners, and their religion," if they have any." The inhabitants of Albany are "collected from all parts of the northern world." As to Philadelphia it is needless to speak of the multitude of emigrants it has always contained; it has been increased to its present magnitude, as Morse says, by "the constant and regular influx of foreigners. "The inhabitants," therefore, "con"sist," he informs us, " of emigrants from England, "of "Ireland, Germany, and Scotland." New York, now the largest city in the Union, is peopled "by all "nations and religions?," and experiences a con"stant change of inhabitants by emigration from

Europe." It is curious to read Dr. Dwight's classification of the inhabitants of this city, arranged, as he intimates, according to their supposed numbers. "1. Emigrants from New England. 2. The original "inhabitants, partly Dutch, partly English. 3. Emigrants from other parts of the State. 4. Emigrants "from Ireland. 5. Emigrants from New Jersey. "6. Emigrants from Scotland. 7. Emigrants from "Germany. 8. Emigrants from England. 9. Emi

Warden, Statistical Account of the United States, vol. iii., p. 192.

? Ibid., P. 192.

Morse, Geog., p. 468.

• Ibid., p. 258.
5 Ibid., p. 432.
Ibid., p. 312.

↑ Ibid., p. 253. Ibid., p. 257.

grants from France. 10. Emigrants from Holland, "11. Jews. To these," he says, "are to be added a "few Swedes, Danes, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, " and West Indians. The children born of emigrants "are numerous. Among so many sorts of persons you will easily believe it must be difficult, if not "impossible, to find a common character." The other cities of America might all be brought forward in this argument, especially those in the New States; but I shall mention only one more, and that the oldest considerable city in the Union, and the capital of the New England States, to which we are assured so often no emigration is at present known to proceed; I mean Boston. Dr. Morse informs us, that one third of its inhabitants are strangers and fugitive persons.

(28) I said I should only add the instance of Boston; but an account has just come under my notice of another city which I will also mention, inasmuch as in its census the foreigners are discriminated, the only case of the kind I have hitherto met with in any district or town in the United States: it is the city of Pittsburg, a place, that as far as I can learn, has no claims whatever to the particular preference, or even notice, of emigrants, more especially when compared with the larger cities of the Union. It had, in 1826, 10,515 inhabitants, of whom 2303 were foreigners; at least half the whole number of the adults.

(29) But to return to the general argument. Such has been the vastness of this emigration, that even when it has been generally distributed, they have, in its several ramifications, carried, as we have seen, diversity and confusion into the very elements of the

Dr. Dwight, Trans., vol. iii., p. 439. July, 1826.-See Bul. Univer., vol. viii., 2 New York Inquirer, 10 and 13 p. 54.

social system. Not only has it varied the characters, manners, customs, and religions of the community, but it has created a dissonance in its very language, (though that is the first thing in which human beings, when closely associated, necessarily and anxiously assimilate,) so that in large tracts of country foreign languages are alone spoken or understood'. Happily for the American community, not only the first, but the greatest accessions of inhabitants have proceeded from these shores, and have consequently carried their language with them, and permanently established it. Still, as Coxe remarks, "the German, the Dutch, and the French, are spoken by large bodies of the citizens'," a fact which Morse also mentions; where he says, "intermingled with "the Anglo-Americans are the Dutch, Scotch, Irish, "French, German, Swedes, and Jews; all of whom, except the Scotch and Irish, retain, in a greater or "less degree, their native language, in which they perform their public worship, and converse, and "transact their business with each other3." But the confusion of languages, which we are taught to believe caused the dissolution of one of the greatest accociations in the ancient world, has not interrupted the progress of this immense social structure in the new. May the latter, as it did not originate in the impiety, never share the fate of the prototype of all political confusion, in its disunion and destruction!

(30) Such then are the consequences of the recent emigration which has poured from all parts of Europe into the states and territories of the great American republic. Effects so striking and universal prove the existence of a cause, which, according to the reasoning

Hall, Travels in North America, 456.

Coxe View of the United States,

p. 101.

3

Morse, Geog, p. 68.

of Dr. Morse, already quoted', must have been vast and continued indeed, to have been adequate to their production. "The time is, indeed, anticipated," says the same excellent writer, "when the language, manners, customs, and political and religious sentiments "of this mixed mass of people who inhabit the United "States shall have become so assimilated, as that all "nominal distinctions shall be lost in the general and "honourable name of American 2." In the mean time, this very prophecy amounts to a full and unequivocal proof, that emigration has had a most material influence on the character (and how much more so on the numbers!) of the population of the United States.

494

CHAPTER VIII.

OF EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA: PROVED BY SUNDRY STATISTICAL FACTS AND RECORDS.

(1) THE preceding parts of our present inquiry have, it is conceived, already established the fact of a vast and continuous emigration to America, but still the precise proportion of that emigration, compared with the entire population, has, in great measure, eluded our research.

Of that proportion, however, it is necessary to the question to have as accurate an idea as possible, and we must therefore pursue the subject, though it is wearisome to persevere in calculating, from a number of unconnected and incidental facts, results which, by a certain and customary process, might have been at once ascertained. Had the American legislature willed it, their four last censuses might have included a column containing the number of citizens natives of other countries; that would have settled the question, and it would have been, at least, as easy a matter to have done so, as to have presented us with the exact number of males between 16 and 18 years of age, the motive for doing which no scientific man can possibly divine. The omission is now, however, irreparable; so much nationality and spurious patriotism would be mixed up with the inquiry, were it now instituted, that however honest the intentions of the supreme government might be, its subordinate agents could no longer be fully depended upon. The reason is obvious: "the Americans," as a writer before