EMIGRATION.
The 23rd general report of the Emigration Commissioners
was issued on Thursday. The emigration from the United
Kingdom, in 1862, amounted to 121,214 souls, of whom
58,706, or upwards of 48 per cent., went to the United
States, 15,522, or a little more than 12 per cent., to
British North America, 41,843, or nearly 34 per cent., to
Australia and New Zealand, and 5,143, or more than 4 per
cent., to other places. The emigration of 1862 exceeded
the emigration of 1861 by upwards of 29,000 souls, and
was larger than the average of the four previous years.
Of the whole number of emigrants, 49,680, or 40.98 per
cent., were Irish. This proportion is larger than in
1861, and in some recent years, indicates an increase
of pressure upon the labouring class in Ireland.
Whenever that is the case the ample remittances so nobly
sent home to their friends in Ireland by those who have
preceded them, afford a ready means of extending the
emigration. The amount returned as sent home in 1862
was ÷463,024, making in the sixteen years for which there
are returns a total of ÷12,642,000. The Commissioners
believe that the great increase in the Irish emigration
of the present year is to be attributed rather to the
distress caused in Ireland by an unfortunate succession
of bad seasons, and to the high wages now prevailing
in the United States, than to any pre-conceived intention
on the part of the emigrants to take service with either
party in the civil war now raging.
