It was George Cruikshank who in allegory drew a map of England with a board on a pole stuck in the centre, and on it the following notice to Europe, "Rubbish may be shot here." It was a caricature, and like all caricatures subject to exaggeration, but it contained within it the germs of a great truth. But even Cruikshank little dreamed that these people would ever arrive here at the rate of 40,000 and 50,000 per annum. Had he done so the notice would rather have run, "No admittance." "Oh," but I hear some say, "you would check this influx, but what of the people we emigrate to other countries?" I would answer that there is no just or fair comparison to be drawn between the people we send away, chiefly young and able-bodied men, and the wretched, under-sized, destitute immigrants we gain in exchange. As things are at present all schemes of emigration and colonization, however well-meaning, are beside the mark. We are drawing out of the barrel and pouring in at the top. More than that, we are drawing out good wine and pouring in bad. It is idle to talk of reprisals, because, as I have already pointed out, other countries have taken steps to guard against this evil. No other civilized nation will take our paupers, our criminals, our lunatics, our outcasts. Why then, in the name of common sense, should we be compelled to take theirs? Many attempts have been made to confuse this simple issue. Many red herrings have been drawn across the track. It has been said, without one jot or tittle of evidence, that this demand for some moderate measure of restriction, veils behind it a desire to check foreign immigration altogether. Nothing could be farther from the truth. No objection can be urged against foreign immigration as a whole, but only that part of it which exercises an injurious effect upon our own people. There are, for instance, at the present time many foreigners in England employed in different professions and vocations, as teachers of languages, clerks, waiters, cooks, artisans, and so forth. These are in no sense an evil, for they supply a felt want, and are decent and cleanly in their habits and mode of living. Many of them are gradually absorbed into our national life, and become good and useful members of the community. The skilled labourer, the decent artisan, the man with brains to work, or with money to spend, is always welcome to our shores. Such were the Huguenots. They had not much money, perhaps, but they brought with them something more precious than mere wealth,--the brain, the bone, the muscle, and the manufacturing talent of France. They introduced into England arts and manufactures hitherto unknown, and they added to the lustre of their adopted country by contributing to the science and the literature of the day. They were in fact the _fine fleur_ of the French nation.