the term to stand for a
change of habitation occurring within the boundaries of a land that is
under the same government.

Inter-migration, although it has never before reached the development
to which it has risen in the present, is not a new form of the
migratory habit of peoples. Ancient records tell us that a forced
inter-migration has frequently taken place. The conquerors of old,
desirous of making one nation out of the many peoples they subdued by
their valiant sword, would transplant large numbers of individuals
from one province to another distant one, giving their land and their
possessions in exchange to settlers, whom they drew from some other
country. Their scheme, however, rarely succeeded, because the
difficulties of a long journey made it impossible for them to
transplant a sufficiently large number of people; the masses remained
undisturbed, the few new-comers were soon absorbed by them, and the
desired change of sentiment was not produced. The moment the
government was attacked by a new conqueror, all provinces would at
once rise in revolt, and thus hasten the downfall of empires, such as
was, for instance, the Persian, before the onslaught of so small an
army as that with which Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont.

The golden era of the Roman Empire, and the prosperity and the culture
which then prevailed, were made possible solely through the facilities
which were given to inter-migration. Good roads connected the ends and
dissected the width and breadth of the great Roman Empire. Travel was
well protected. A well-drilled army suppressed highway robbery, and an
excellent navy put down piracy. A resident of Gaul could with ease
settle in Syria, while the Syrian, if he so desired, could find with
ease a home in Gaul. The residents of Brittania and Greece could with
comparative ease inter-migrate, and had not the floods of barbarians
which deluged the Roman Empire put an end to civilization, and with it
the possibilities of inter-migration, we might stand to-day on a much
higher round of culture, and our knowledge might have been much
greater than it is.

If the inventions of the nineteenth century have made possible
emigration to such an extent to-day as never before existed, it has
still more facilitated inter-migration. It has almost destroyed the
equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal forces, giving the
advantages to the latter. The facilities of locomotion have made
people r