From the table given below, it appears that while, in the year 1826, immediately following the dreadful monetary crisis of December 1825,--by far the severest which had _then_ been felt--the total emigration from the British Islands was under twenty-one thousand; in the year 1849, being the fourth year of Free Trade, and in its last six months one of great commercial activity, it had reached _the enormous and unprecedented amount of_ THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND! In twenty-five years of almost ceaseless Liberal government, and carrying out the principles, social and political, of the Political Economists, the number of persons driven into exile had increased _fifteen-fold_. So extraordinary and decisive a proof of the progressive increase of suffering in a people is perhaps not to be found in the whole annals of mankind. The emigration-returns for 1850 have not yet been made up, but that they will exhibit a result not less striking and woful than the preceding years may be judged of by the facts, that the emigration from Liverpool, which in 1849 was 154,400, had risen in 1850 to 174,260; and that the emigrants who landed at New York alone, in 1850, were 212,796--of whom 116,552 were Irish, and 28,125 English subjects, the remainder being chiefly Scotch and Germans.[3] [3] _Times_, Jan. 21, 1851. We say, and say advisedly, that this prodigious flood of emigrants were, for the most part, _driven into exile_ by suffering, not tempted into it by hope, and that its progressive increase is the most decisive proof of the enhanced misery and suffering of the working classes. The slightest consideration of the last column of the table below[4] must demonstrate this. Every known and deplored year of suffering has been immediately followed by a great increase in the number of emigrants in the next, or some subsequent years. Thus, in the year 1825, the total emigration was only 14,891; but the monetary crisis of December in that year raised it to 20,900 in the next year. In the year 1830, the last of the Duke of Wellington's administration, the emigration was 56,907; but in the two next years, being those of Reform agitation and consequent penury, these numbers were almost doubled: they rose to 83,160 in 1831, and to 103,140 in 1832. With the fine harvests and consequent prosperity of 1833 and 1834, they sank to 44,478; but the bad seasons of 1838, 1839, and 1840 made them rapidly rise again, until they became, 1840, 90,743 1841, 118,592 1842, 128,342 [4] EMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM DURING THE TWENTY-FIVE YEARS FROM 1825 TO 1849.