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360
Hereditary Genius
three or four hundred thousand Protestants perished in prison, at the
galleys, in their attempts to escape, or on the scaffold, and an equal
number emigrated. Mr. Smiles, in his admirable book on the
Huguenots, has traced the influence of these and of the Flemish
emigrants on England, and shows clearly that she owes to them
almost all her industrial arts and very much of the most valuable life-
blood of her modern race. There has been another emigration from
France of not unequal magnitude, but followed by very different
results, namely that of the Revolution in 1789. It is most instructive to
contrast the effects of the two. The Protestant emigrants were able
men, and have profoundly influenced for good both our breed and our
history; on the other hand, the political refugees had but poor average
stamina, and have left scarcely any traces behind them.
It is very remarkable how large a proportion of the eminent men of
all countries bear foreign names, and are the children of political
refugees,—men well qualified to introduce a valuable strain of blood.
We cannot fail to reflect on the glorious destiny of a country that
should maintain, during many generations, the policy of attracting
eminently desirable refugees, but no others, and of encouraging their
settlement and the naturalization of their children.
No nation has parted with more emigrants than England, but
whether she has hitherto been on the whole a gainer or a loser by the
practice, I am not sure. No doubt she has lost a very large number of
families of sterling worth, especially of labourers and artisans; but, as
a rule, the very ablest men are strongly disinclined to emigrate; they
feel that their fortune is assured at home, and unless their spirit of
adventure is overwhelmingly strong, they prefer to live in the high
intellectual and moral atmosphere of the more intelligent circles of
English society, to a self-
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