Comparatively few of the men were
below thirty; many were married, and encumbered with families; not a
few were already up in years; and this itself was out of tune with my
imaginations, for the ideal emigrant should certainly be young.
Again, I thought he should offer to the eye some bold type of
humanity, with bluff or hawk-like features, and the stamp of an eager
and pushing disposition. Now those around me were for the most part
quiet, orderly, obedient citizens, family men broken by adversity,
elderly youths who had failed to place themselves in life, and people
who had seen better days. Mildness was the prevailing character;
mild mirth and mild endurance. In a word, I was not taking part in
an impetuous and conquering sally, such as swept over Mexico or
Siberia, but found myself, like Marmion, 'in the lost battle, borne
down by the flying.'
Labouring mankind had in the last years, and throughout Great
Britain, sustained a prolonged and crushing series of defeats. I had
heard vaguely of these reverses; of whole streets of houses standing
deserted by the Tyne, the cellar-doors broken and removed for
firewood; of homeless men loitering at the street-corners of Glasgow
with their chests beside them; of closed factories, useless strikes,
and starving girls.
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