In a certain sense it may be said that the history of immigration into the United States has been synonymous with the history of the nation itself; but it is evident to all unprejudiced minds, that the motives which induced those early immigrants, the Pilgrim Fathers, to leave their native land and settle in the New World, were very different from the motives which actuate the greater numbers of those who are pouring into the United States at the present day. In fact, the time from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers down to the year which witnessed the inauguration of the first President of the United States, may not unfitly be regarded not as the period of immigration, but of colonization. Since then the rapid growth of the population--though of course largely due to natural causes--has been greatly accelerated by immigration. Immigration into the United States appears to come in tidal waves. It has its flood and its ebb; but each decade, with the exception of the war period, shows that the new flood is higher than its predecessor. The magnitude of this influx of alien immigrants is best shown by the Annual Reports which have been issued by the late Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. Without troubling my readers with unnecessary statistics, I may say briefly from calculations which have been made, the total number of immigrant aliens who arrived at the port of New York from the 5th May, 1847, until the 31st December, 1890 inclusive, was 10,050,936. It should be noted that at least two-thirds of the whole number of alien immigrants who come to the United States from other countries, arrive at the port of New York.