The Returns of emigration statistics summarised in Tues- day's Times
deserve attentive consideration in connection with the recent Report of the Alien Commission. Against the fact that there is a slight increase in the number of native emigrants, the Returns make it clear that there has been no material increase in the total number of alien immigrants who actually settle here, while the number of foreign emigrants to British North America was in 1902 not only the greatest recorded, but considerably in excess of the British and Irish emigrants. - It is, pointed out by the Times that modern migrations differ from those of early ages in being to an enormous extent the expatriation of the grown-up men of the community, the exception to the rule being furnished by Ireland, the land of exceptions, though here the excess of females has fallen 50 per cent. since 1895. It is further noted that Scotch emigrants are accompanied by their children in a larger proportion than either English or Irish, and that foreign immigrants (i.e., "inward-bound" persons) almost invariably include fewer children than foreign emigrants. The United States still remains the chief goal of all emigrants—two hun- dred and thirty-two out of every three hundred and eighty-six native emigrants in 1902 being bound for that destination— but the preponderance is far less marked than it was, and British North America now comes next, displacing Australia and New Zealand, and the Cape and Natal together make a good third. The great lesson of emigration, as the Times remarks, is that it sets most strongly towards countries with free institutions.
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