measure for the repression of pauperism."[469] In 1863, Mr. Villiers, speaking as President of the Poor Law Board, gave a new reason for the disfavour into which emigration had fallen. "I do not mean to say," he protested, on a discussion about the distress caused by the Lancashire Cotton Famine, "that the Government should discourage emigration.... [But] when we know the large amount of capital in the country, and the great increase of it, and are also cognisant of the demand for labour a few years since, I do not think it would be wise of the Government to expend public money in the promotion of emigration."[470] For the next seven years emigration at the expense of the poor rate practically ceases, the number of persons so assisted falling in 1866-7 to eighteen.[471] In the following year, 277 persons were sent from Poplar, then exceptionally distressed,[472] but there was no general resumption of the policy, so far as adults were concerned. In 1869 the Central Authority, whilst disavowing any intention of reviving the policy, tried to simplify the procedure with regard to emigration, but found the representatives of the colonies adverse.[473] In 1870 there was, however, a slight revival, accompanied by the new feature of the emigration to Canada of orphan or deserted children (Miss Rye's scheme),[474] destined to become thenceforth a constant feature, though not in any one year attaining any considerable magnitude. The total number of persons emigrated at the expense of the poor rate in the seventeen years between 1853 and 1870 was between three and four thousand, as contrasted with nearly 24,000 in the preceding nineteen years.[475] [462] 12 & 13 Vic. c. 103, sec. 20; Second Annual Report, 1849, p. 12. [463] "Your petitioners having had practical proof of the tendency of labour to accumulate beyond the bounds of remunerative investment for capital, consider that a well-arranged system of emigration is the present most feasible mode of preserving a correct equilibrium between the supply and demand for labour" (MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 12th July 1849). [464] Second Annual Report, 1849, p. 12. [465] Fifth Annual Report, 1852, p. 7. [466] _See_ the total given years later, in Ninth Annual Report, 1856, p. 119. [467] Sixth Annual Report, 1853, p. 6. [468] Seventh Annual Report, 1854, p. 8. [469] Twelfth Annual Report, 1859-60, p. 19. [470] Mr. C. P. Villiers, President of Poor Law Board, 27th April 1863, _Hansard_, vol. clxx. pp. 814-15. [471] Nineteenth Annual Report, 1866-7, p. 19. [472] Twentieth Annual Report, 1867-8, pp. 33, 398. [473] Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, pp. lvi.-lvii. [474] Twenty-third Annual Report, 1870-1, pp. xlvi., 441. [475] _See_ the total in Twenty-third Annual Report, 1870-1, p. 441. _L._--_Relief on Loan_