What then can be urged against England following the example of other countries in this matter? Nothing but a mere sentiment that she is a country free and open to all, and that all who will should find a refuge upon her hospitable shores. This is a sentiment worthy of all honour, but hospitality may be carried too far, and in this instance it is not a question of its exercise, but of its abuse. There is a homely maxim that "Charity begins at home," and if this be true of individuals it is no less true of nations. The first duty of the father of a household is towards his own family. He must not give bread to others while his own children are starving. He must not give shelter to the stranger, and drive his sons and daughters out into the cold. In the same way, the first duty of a nation is to its own kith and kin. It must not open its arms to the surplus population of other lands, while its own people are clamouring in vain for work. Yet this is the case, and while every day destitute aliens are pouring in, Englishmen are driven from the land of their birth to make room for them. Speaking last year at Liverpool, upon the subject of our rapidly-increasing population, Lord Derby is reported to have said that "Emigration is the only palliative." On all subjects connected with population Lord Derby is a great authority; but of what avail, I would ask him, is it to recommend emigration as a panacea for our social ills, when for every hundred of our people taken away, a leak remains behind by which thousands more of an immeasurably inferior calibre come pouring in, by whom the conditions of existence are made harder than before, and the standard of comfort and decency in the home-life of our people is infinitely lowered? As illustrative of this it may be mentioned that at Leeds, where there is a very large and increasing foreign colony, some £500 was spent in 1887 in emigrating English children to Canada; and evidence was given before the Sweating Committee to the effect that one day a party of 500 emigrants, mostly young men in the full prime of their health and vigour, sailed out of Tilbury Docks, and at the same time another vessel, having on board 700 foreigners, came in. Truly, we are an eccentric nation!