It is impossible for Englishmen not to feel a certain amount of envy at the energy and firmness which the American Government has displayed in excluding undesirable aliens. If such action be good, where the vast territories of the United States are in question, what must be thought of the _laissez-faire_ policy which allows our little British Islands to be overrun by the class of foreigner which America so rigorously excludes? CHAPTER XI. THE COLONIAL ASPECT. In this chapter I propose not only to deal with the general laws for restricting destitute and undesirable immigration into some of the principal colonies, but also the particular laws for prohibiting the immigration of Chinese. Sir Charles Dilke, in a general summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes:--"Colonial labour seeks protection by legislative means, not only against the cheap labour of the dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also against white paupers, and against the artificial supply of labour by State-aided white immigration. Most of the countries of the world, indeed, have laws against the admission of destitute aliens, and the United Kingdom is in practice almost the only exception."[31] The main object of all the general laws passed upon the subject appears to be the same, namely, to prevent the colonies from becoming the "dumping-ground" of the destitute, lunatic, vicious, and criminal population of older countries, including in several instances the mother country as well. With regard to Chinese immigration, two objects are apparent: first, to protect the native population from foreign competition in the different branches of industry, the effect of which is materially to lower wages, and reduce the standard of comfort of the colonial artisan or labourer; and secondly, to guard against the political dangers which the presence of a numerous alien race occupying an inferior position could not fail to bring about. To take the general laws first. The principal colonies which have passed statutes on the subject are Canada, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. In New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, the Cape Colony, and Natal, there are no similar statutes; but these colonies have the power, in the case of a threatened influx of undesirable immigrants, of passing restraining Acts, which effectually meet the purpose for which they are required. I now give a summary of the principal general statutes actually passed, other than those which exist for the immigration of Chinese. They are given in more detail elsewhere.[32] In Canada, the Immigration Act of 1886 enacts that the Governor-General may by proclamation prohibit the landing of destitute, pauper, or diseased immigrants; also of the criminal and vicious; and arrangements are made for the immediate return of the vessel and the prohibited immigrants to the port of Europe whence they came.