We now come to the third and final stage of the regenerative process.
The Colony Over-Sea.To mention Over-Sea is sufficient with some people to damn the Scheme.A prejudice against emigration has been diligently fostered in certain quarters by those who have openly admitted that they did not wish to deplete the ranks of the Army of Discontent at home,for the more discontented people you have here the more trouble you can give the Government,and the more power you have to bring about the general overturn,which is the only thing in which they see any hope for the future.Some again object to emigration on the ground that it is transportation.I confess that I have great sympathy with those who object to emigration as carried on hitherto,and if it be a consolation to any of my critics I may say at once that so far from compulsorily expatriating any Englishman I shall refuse to have any part or lot in emigrating any man or woman who does not voluntarily wish to be sent out.
A journey over sea is a very different thing now to what it was when a voyage to Australia consumed more than six months,when emigrants were crowded by hundreds into sailing ships,and scenes of abominable sin and brutality were the normal incidents of the passage.The world has grown much smaller since the electric telegraph was discovered and side by side with the shrinkage of this planet under the influence of steam and electricity there has come a sense of brotherhood and a consciousness of community of interest and of nationality on the part of the English-speaking people throughout the world.To change from Devon to Australia is not such a change in many respects as merely to cross over from Devon to Normandy.In Australia the Emigrant finds him self among men and women of the same habits,the same language,and in fact the same people,excepting that they live under the southern cross instead of in the northern latitudes.The reduction of the postage between England and the Colonies,a reduction which I hope will soon be followed by the establishment of the Universal Penny Post between the English speaking lands,will further tend to lessen the sense of distance.