Q: Questions and Dissension AtoZ Challenge

Earl Grey Orphan Scheme

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is an annual challenge put out to bloggers, to publish a post from A-Z, every day in April, except for Sundays. April 1 is A, April 2 is B……….and so on throughout the month. Participants can post on a chosen theme or publish random posts with no theme at all.

Theme

My theme for 2025 is The Earl Grey Orphan Scheme which saw young destitute girls of about 15-16 years old sent to Australia between 1848 and 1850 to start their lives over. I became interested in this scheme when my research showed that my great great grandmother was an Earl Grey Orphan. I am not at all an expert on this topic. The posts in my A to Z Challenge come from information that I have come across over many years of research and reading.

Questions and Dissension

from: The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW: 1843-1893), Wednesday 13 September, 1848, Page 2¹

IRISH ORPHAN IMMIGRATION

A more detailed and circumstantial statement than we had previously met with of the intentions of the home government, with regard to sending out to South Australia and New South Wales, orphans of both sexes, between the age of 14 and 18, from the work-houses in Ireland, was published in our last number, from the South Australian Government Gazette.

This statement puts the orphan immigration scheme on a different footing to what the colonists had been led to expect it would he conducted on. From what had been previously published on the subject, we had been led to expect that this experiment would be tried without trenching much, if at all, on the general immigration fund of this and the neighbouring colony; that the home government, or the parish authorities, or both combined, would defray one half at least of the expense of sending out the orphans, and that the balance would be made up from the wages which might accrue during the apprenticeship of the parties so sent out. The latter condition we regarded as of little account, partly because of the practical difficulties which stand in the way of its being earned out, and partly because in the average of cases, there would be no wages accruing after providing the orphans with suitable clothing during their apprenticeship. But we must confess that we were scarcely prepared to see the other condition so unceremoniously set aside, and the colonists saddled with the entire cost of the passage out of those who are removed chiefly to relieve parties at home.

Stripped of the mock philanthropy and humbug with which it has been hitherto garnished, the scheme now stands out as little more than an ingenious device for applying the land fund of New South Wales and South Australia to the purpose of clearing out the Irish workhouses of orphans between the ages of 14 and 18, and thereby relieving the Irish ratepayers and the British government from the expense of their further maintenance; and further, for transferring from these parties to the Australian colonists the responsibility of providing for the future employment or maintenance of these orphans. Earl Grey, certainly, very considerately undertakes, on the part of the home authorities, to defray the "casual expenses attending the outfit, superintendence, and instruction of the intended emigrants;" but leaves to the colonists the much weightier matter of paying the cost of their passage hither, and of providing them with suitable employment and superintendence, when they arrive, or of supporting them, until they are so provided for.

A scheme of this kind is not, we are conscious, without the elements of good; but in the form which it has now assumed, it is clearly unjust towards the colonists of Australia, and partial, as regards the inhabitants of the United Kingdom,

It is unjust towards the colonists here, because they are entitled to have the land fund which they raise expended strictly and solely with a view to their especial benefit: the home government have no right to divert this fund from its legitimate application—that is, the introduction from the mother country generally, at the cheapest rate, of the labouring population best suited to the requirements of the colony - to relieving the burdens either of the imperial treasury or of the ratepayers of England, Ireland, or Scotland.

If any scheme for the transfer of the pauper population of the mother country, to these colonies is to be carried out, it should be based on equitable conditions. In such a measure there are three parties about equally interested, viz., the colonists, the rate-payers of the parishes relieved, and the imperial government; and it is certainly not unreasonable to ask that these parties should share equally in the expense of carrying out a measure which would be mutually and equally beneficial. If in this scheme of orphan immigration these conditions had been observed, and the selection and supply had been carefully managed, the colonists would have had no fair ground of complaint, and would, we believe, have cheerfully done their share towards working out the experiment with success. But where the entire cost of bringing the children out, and the responsibility of afterwards providing for them, is thrown upon the party least immediately interested, it is not to be expected that the colonists will cordially give their assistance towards earning out a scheme which violates their rights, and is likely to be prejudicial rather than beneficial to their interests.

The measure sanctioned by the home government is partial as regards the inhabitants of the mother country, because it’s benefits are confined to one portion of the United Kingdom. If it would be beneficial to destitute Irish orphans, to be removed to young and thriving countries, where they would be likely to find employment and food in abundance, would it be less so to English and Scotch orphans, who have been left burdens on their respective parishes? And if this be granted, why is the emigration contemplated to be confined to Irish orphans? Have they a claim, either on the imperial government or on the colonists of Australia, which the helpless amongst the English and Scotch have not? The scheme in its present form is evidently as partial in its operation at home, as it would be unjust towards the colonists here.

If the home government be desirous of transferring the orphan paupers of the United Kingdom to countries where they may become productive and useful members of society, let them set about the business in an honest and impartial way. Let them divide the expense between the imperial treasury, the parishes to be relieved, and the colonies to which the emigrants are to be sent; and let them make the measure as available for the benefit of the English and Scotch as of the Irish orphans. Then they may take credit to themselves for having laid the foundation of a system of immigration in which justice, philanthropy, and sound commercial policy, equally mingle.

If the orphan immigration contemplated by the home government be only carried on to a limited extent, the children will probably be readily enough absorbed, and the land fund will not be seriously damaged. But if it go to the extent suggested by Mr. Archibald Boyd in the manifesto promulgated on his return to the colony, there will not be much of the land fund left for any other kind of immigration, and the colony will become a kind of an imperial workhouse at large, in addition to being an asylum for those who are exiled for the benefit of their country.

Our representatives will do well to watch the experiment which is now going on with a careful and jealous eye.

1. 1848 'MAITLAND MERCURY.', The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), 13 September, p. 2. , viewed 15 Mar 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article709156