Note 262a-8 — Chapter III

Great danger to the national life of the English people by immigration from Ireland. The Irish laborers, bare-footed and ragged, restricting themselves to potatoes and whisky, have carried their disgusting habit of living in cellars, and of congregating several families together into one room, even with pigs as companions, over to England. (Th. Carlyle, On Chartism, 28 ff.; G. C. Lewis, The Condition of the Irish in England.) It is said that, in 1819, in London alone, there were over 70,000 Irish; in 1826, over 119,000. (Edinb. Rev. XLVII.) Even J. S. Mill would have no hesitation to prohibit this emigration to prevent the economic contagion spreading to English workmen. (Principles, I, ch. 14, 6.) Fortunately now Irish emigration has taken the direction of America, where there is more room. Whether in future Chinese emigration may not greatly endanger the condition of the lower classes, first in America and Australia, and then indirectly in Europe, quære. It is estimated that between 1856 and 1859, 78,817 Chinese emigrated to the United States. In Australia, to deter them from immigration, a tax of £10 per capita has been imposed on their entry into the country. (Fawcett, Manual, 107.)