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ii,wt-*»i;viS

EMIGEATION

ITS ADVANTAGES TO

GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES.

TOGBTHEK

WITH A DETAILED PLAN

ron THE

FORMATION OF THE PROPOSED RAILWAY
BETWEEN HALIFAX AND QUEBEC,

BY MEANS or

COLONIZATION.

P. L. MACDOUGALL,

CAPT. RUYAL CANADIAN RIFLES.

LONDON:

T. & W. BOONE, NEW BOND STREET.

1848.

mmm

EMIGRATION.

It is now beginning to be admitted on all hands,
that Emigration is the great question of the day, the
only effectual remedy for the social ills which afflict
this country.

England has no political grievances ; at least, none
such as would create any political discontent among
the lower classes, if their labour could procure for
them a comfortable support : grievances indeed
there are, but not of a political character, and un-
fortunately no Government is able to reach them by
direct legislation.

The contrasts of this great country, as has very
often been remarked, are startling — they are appal-
ling ; Dives and Lazarus elbow each other in our
crowded thoroughfares by day ; by night, the unsur-
passed luxury and the unsurpassable misery lie
down side by side, separated only by the thickness
of a brick. It is this contrast which makes the
starving man, who would earn his bread by honest
labour, but can find none ; it is this contrast which
makti^ him think there must be " something rotten"
in the Institutions of a country, to permit such a
state of things ; that he has political wrongs to be
redressed, political rights to be conceded ; and if not
conceded, then wrenched from those above him, on
whom he is brought to look as his oppressors ; vcinly

A 2

fancying that were those rights obtained, he would
then have the power to remedy the social ills from
which he suffers in his own hands ; vain indeed is
the belief, but let him not be driven to make the
trial ; all who have anything to lose are interested
in preventing it ; for of the terrible crash and hideous
ruin which that experiment must produce, the con-
dition of France now warns the astonished world
with the voice of ten thousand trumpets.

What though there may be no probability, and I
believe there is no probability, of such an experi-
ment being made in our time ; still it is to what
this country is assuredly tending with every year's
increase to her population which she cannot sup-
port ; and because we may not see the crisis, are
we therefore to sit down in selfish security, and say,
" After us the deluge ;" are we to bequeath to those
who come after us, whose trustees we are, an inherit-
ance of so much embarrassment and misery ?

No, let this generation confer a lasting benefit on
its descendants by organizing an enlightened, widely
extended system of emigration, and thus entitle itself
to the blessings of a grateful posterity.

How is such a system to be originated and
developed ? by private enterprise, or by public
undertaking ? It is answered, by a combination of
both ; but it is absolutely necessary that private
enterprise should lead the way, and shew itself in
earnest and successful, before Government will come
forward ; otherwise, great as the importance of the
measure is, Government will do nothing.

There is a company lately formed for promoting
emigration in connection with New Zealand, which
has undoubtedly seized on the only true theory for
conducting a system of colonization ; viz. that of

translating a whole society, containing all the elements
of a society within itself ; such an expedition could
not fail of success, provided common foresight were
exercised in the selection of a settlement.

There are in the British Isles many hundreds of
young men of energy and talent, the younger sons
of gentlemen of landed property, with small capitals
of from one to ten thousand pounds. Their patri-
mony yields them an average interest of 3 per cent,
per annum ; and many of this class are passing their
lives in idleness, exercising their abilities on no
higher a theme than making up " a book for the
Derby,'* or their energies in no more profitable an
employment, than a season's hunting at Leamington,
or a wholesale slaughter of grouse on the moors of
Scotland.

These are men whose fathers or brothers have a
tenantry for the most part warmly attached to the
family of their landlord and to its name. (In Great
Britain, at least, this is the case.)

Suppose ten young men of the above description,
with average capitals of £5,000. combine to induce
as many tenants on their respective ancestral estates
as would better themselves thereby, to enroll them-
selves under their banners, and proceed to a new
world, on a more noble crusade than the spirit of
chivalry ever originated ; viz. to spread civilization,
to convert the wilderness into smiling abodes of
industrious happy men, who were struggling against
poverty at home ; to be their country's pioneers in
an undertaking that would remove the canker from
its core; a crusade against poverty, disease, and
crime in their native land ; against the only agents
which can bring a tarnish on British glory, or decay
on the British name.

Such a combination is wanted ; it is emphatically
now the example, the beginning that is wanted. Ten
such men, with the energy of the British gentleman,
and the hardihood of the British sportsman, each with
a following of twenty families, and a proportion of
artizans, proceeding to any of our colonies ; would
they not convert, as by magic, the lonely forest
into a flourishing city ? If successful, and they must
succeed, would they not draw after them thousands
encouraged by their example ?

Then will be the time for them to go to their
Government and say, We have made this trial, it
has succeeded ; the particulars and the proofs are
here. And then will be the time for the Govern-
ment of this country to consider and decide on what
encouragement and assistance to hold out to plans
of the same nature.

Three millions sterlmg annually would be a cheap
expenditure for the enormous results that would
flow from a maturely considered and approved plan
of colonization. Surplus British capital, now the
millstone of this country, would flow to the colo-
nies, where it could be employed to advantage ; the
profits of capital would increase at home; there
would be a yearly increasing demand for English
manufactures ; every branch of commerce and trade
would in consequence improve ; and increased sta-
bility would be given to our power in the colonies,
the levers by which England has raised herself to
her proud position in the world.

If such a grand beneficent system should be
developed, England and her children will present,
at no distant period, the most glorious family com-
pact, mankind has ever seen ; strong in their union
and mutual affection, engendered by benefits con-

ferred and received, they will govern the world by
their influence and example ; such a confederation
will defy time itself to weaken the links that bind
it together, or sap the foundations of its structure ;
$nd if it is destined, at some remote happy period,
that the nations of this earth shall be united together
by the bond of oo common language, it is not
unreasonable to suppose, nor presumptuous to pre-
dict, that that language will be English.

Before entering upon the details of any plan it is
well to examine the three following questions —

1. Will emigration such as has been above advo-
cated tend to diminish pauperism in England ?

2. Will it tend to diminish the colonial expendi-
ture of this country ?

3. Will it tend to the increase of the Imperial
revenue, and the diminution of taxation in general.

1st. Will emigration tend to diminish pauperism
in England ?

Why is there such an amount of poverty and suf-
fering and crime in this country ?

This is a question to which many different an-
swers will be given ; but whatever may be the cause,
the effect is too evident, that poverty and destitu-
tion do exist to a frightful extent ; or in other words,
there are more people in this country than our
present imperfect system of government enables us
to support ; this excess is " surplus population ;"
this surplus population is increasing every year in a
much faster ratio than the improvement in the
science of government, and the above named evils
must increase with it.

The question is. What is the simplest and quick-
est remedy for such evils? It is answered, To send
out of this country and to settle in our colonies

\ I

under a system which insures their success, a num-
ber of persons yearly ; enough, if possible, to reduce
the present excess of population ; or, if not, to keep
it down to its present level.

At the first sight the simplest proceeding would
seem to be to get rid of all the paupers by shipping
them off to other countries, and to keep in Great
Britain those who are enabled to support themselves ;
but a mere influx of paupers into a colony would /
confer an injury, instead of a benefit, upon it ; and
the relief to this country would only be momentary,
for a system of pauper emigration could not be car-
ried on with success ; it would fall to the ground ;
and colonization, to be effective, must be continuous.

But when we consider what a continued upward
pressure there is in every society ^by which is meant
the endeavours of those in a low station to raise
themselves higher,) it is supposed that the depar-
ture of any number of our population from our shores,
no matter in what rank or position they might be,
would only make room for an equal number, who
were beneath the first in the social scale, to rush up
into their places. This is most evident in reference
to the two lowest grades of society ; viz. those who
earn poor wages for their labour, and those who can
earn none. Remove 500,000 of the former, and
500,000 of the latter immediately step into the em-
ployment and wages the others have vacated. If
this obtains as a general principle, then it is evident
that the departure of any number of our population,
under a system that would ensure their success in
the colonies, would tend to diminish pauperism in
England.

2. Will emigratioi tend to diminish the colonial
expenditure of the country ?

It should be the wish of a real statesman to see a
colony attain to the condition of a great nation, able
to support itself without the aid of the mother coun^
try ; the nearer it attains to that condition, the
nearer it approaches to the perfection of a colony,
and all colonial legislation should be directed to
this point ; which, when reached, leaves the mother
country and her colony in the relative position of a
father with his son who has succeeded in the world ;
with the same affection subsisting between them as
before ; the same influence on the one side and de-
ference on the other, although legal authority has
ceased.

A system of colonization on a large scale, which
insures the success of the new colonists in the land
of their adoption, must evidently increase the pros-
perity of that land ; every year it must become
richer, and more able to take a part of the expense
of its support off the Imperial exchequer ; until at
length it arrives at the condition above described.

Let us take as examples our North American
Provinces and the Cape of Good Hope, being those
which have each a long frontier to be fortified against
a foreign nation, and requiring at present a large
military establishment for that purpose. The North
American Provinces have cost Great Britain
£1,000,000. per annum on the average of the last
ten years. The expense of the Cape must have
been, including the Caffre wars, at least £400,000.
per annum during the same period.

With respect to Canada, if we wish to retain it, true
policy suggests that, the enor'^nously long frontier
should be strengthened, not by forts, but by men ;
and the struggle between the two races, which has
kept that province in a constant state of agitation,

should be ended at once by overwheltning the
French population with a tule of English and Scotch
settlers (Irish would be dangerous).

There are in I ower Canada about 500,000 French
and 250,000 inhabitants of British origin. The
French are an amiable and very ignorant race,
easily contented and easily wprked upon by men of
superior knowledge ; they are destitute of eU energy,
perfectly deficient in knowledge of agriculture;
they possess some of the richest land in the world,
viz, the strip bordering on the St. Lawrence, and it
is worse cultivated than any the author has ever
seen; they are a dead weight on the prosperity
of the province, ultra-conservative ; opposing them-
selves to everything like improvement, much on the
same principle as the benighted inhabitants of
Grosvenor Square rejected with aristocratic contempt
the levelling innovation of gas, and clung to their
well beloved lamps of oil.

Give the British a numerical superiority in Lower
Canada, which the immigration of 300,000 would
effect, at the same time that it would strengthen the
frontier ; you remove the danger of another Cana-
dian rebellion, at the same time that by consti-
tutional means you place the British party in power ;
the prosperity of the province would be increased
out of all proportion to the actual number of immi-
grants; for British energy and enterprise, which
has heretofore shewn to so little advantage by the
side of the go-a-head spirit of our Yankee cousins,
would then only begin to have a fair field, un-
hampered by French opposition.

Under a good Militia system, such as at present
exists in our North American Colonies, the British
Government ought to be enabled to withdraw 100'»

soldiers for every 5000 new settlers capable of
bearing arms.

Fifty thousand such settlers, then, should enable
us to save the expense of 10,000 soldiers ; in fact,
the only troops Great Britain would require to
maintain in the North American Colonies would be
the present Canadian Colonial Corps, augmented
perhaps by a second battalion, and the three troops
of Provincial Cavalry at present employed. I pro-
pose to shew hereafter that the expense to the British
exchequer of sending emigrants to Canada would
be £4. per head ; fifty thousand men would involve
a gross number of 200,000 souls, including women
and children, whose transport would cost this
country £800,000. ; not only would this sum, so
expended, cause a saving to Great Britain of a
yearly sum about half as large ; but it is hoped to
shew good reason to expect, that the money so
advanced would easily be repaid by the emigrants
themselves in a period of six years.

Before leaving this subject, there is a question
now under consideration which, as long as Canada,
New Brunswick, &c. are provinces of Great Britain,
is of great importance to this country in a military
point of view ; that question is as to the practica<
bility of constructing a railroad to connect Halifax
with Quebec. As, during winter, there is no
approach to Quebec by sea ; that season would
always be chosen by the United States for an in-
vasion of Canada, in the event of a rupture with
England being contemplated by them. A railroad
from Halifax to Quebec would enable any number
of troops to arrive at Quebec within fifteen days of
their embarkation at Liverpool ; without such a
means of communication, we should eillier be com-

pelled to leave Canada to her own resources until
the spring, or to peril the safety of our troops
by a march through the forests of New Brunswick
in the winter season. This feat was accomplished
during the Canadian Rebellion by the 43rd and
another regiment without loss ; but they arrived in
Canada too late to be of service ; and marching in
small detachments, they ran the risk of being cut
off in detail, had the French population below
Quebec been in insurrection, as they certainly would
have been, if their countryr:en had not been defeated
by Colonel Wetherall at St. Charles.

The want of funds alone is the cause of the rail-
road between Halifax and Quebec not being imme-
diately commenced.

A plan for overcoming this obstacle has been
suggested, viz. that of settling along the proposed
and already surveyed line of railway, a sufficient
number of labourers to construct it, paying them
partly in wild land ; this plan would also create a
certain amount of traffic on the line.

The same reasoning, as regards the strengthening
of the frontier and the consequent reduction of
military force, applies to the Cape of Good Hope ;
excepting that you may safely send Irish ad libitum
to garrison that colony, as they could not make
common cause with their Caffre neighbours against
British dominion.

In the United States of North America, a large
proportion of the population of those States border-
ing on the Canadas is Irish ; many of their towns
boast a militia company calling itself" The Emmet
Volunteers," " The 98 Volunteers," &c. in fact,
hatred to England is transplanted from Ireland to
a new soil, and perpetuated there j witness the

■A

" New York Irish Brigade," the proposed " Ber-
muda Expedition," &c. Surely these would be
inflammatory and dangerous neighbours for our
frontier guard, if composed of their own countrymen
transferred to Canada in the present state of Irish
feeling towards England ; particularly when we
know by experience, that the Government of the
United States has no power whatever to prevent
any number of its enlightened citizens from forcibly
supplying themselves with arms from the State
magazines, and invading a neighbouring territory
at peace with their own.

These are the grounds on which it is above sup-
posed that an extensive Irish emigration to Canada
might prove dangerous.

3. Will emigration tend to the increase of the
Imperial revenue, and to the diminution of taxation
in general ?

A system of emigration, receiving the systematic
aid, and to a certain extent under the control of the
Government, would very greatly increase the value
of the unsold Crown lands throughout the colonies ;
there would be a yearly increasing demand for
those lands; emigrants from other European
countries than Great Britain and Ireland would
flock to them, when it was known that there they
would find a good field for the employment of
energy, skill, and capital.*

It is not probably over estimating the revenue
which Great Britain would derive from the sale of
the Crown lands, under a system which would
draw annually to our colonies large accessions of
labour and capital, in putting it at £500,000.

* Even now there is a considerable yearly emigration from
Holland a^d Germany to our North American Provinces.

}

yearly, within five years of the commencement of
such a system. The prosperity of a new country
increases in a geometrical ratio to the population.

It is the almost unlimited competition of capital
in the limited field for its employment, which bears
down the profits of capital in Great Britain. A few
years back a new field for its employment was dis-
covered in this country, viz. Railroads. How
immediately capital repaired to that field I what
unusual prosperity existed until that field became
over-tenanted ! Wages were high ; the demand for
labour fully equalled the supply ; the interest of
money, or rather the profits of capital (for the first
always depends on the last), rose universally.

Then came the crash, occasioned by over-specu-
lation ; by the want of perception when the field of
employment was effectively occupied ; but the
abuse is no argument against the use. Throw open
a new field in our colonies that will be inexhaustible ;
British capital will flow to it ceaselessly, and the
profits of capital will rise at home as competition in
the home field is diminished. In short, the country
will become more prosperous ; taxes will be more
easily, and therefore more willingly, paid ; and the
revenue will be a gainer.

The increased, and yearly increasing demand for
home manufactures, consequent on a rapidly in-
creasing colonial population ; and the augmented
commercial intercourse between Great Britain and
her colonies would farther tend to the greater pros-
perity of this country, and on this head also the
revenue would be a gainer.*

* Those manufactureB, which under the present load of tax-
ation, are unable to compete with the manufactures of other
countries, must be discontinued in England ; there is no remedy

Besides the above supposed causes of an increased
revenue and reduced taxation, if emigration should
diminish pauperism in this country, it would be
relieved of a portion of taxation on that head also.

■i^

As an introduction to the details of a proposed
system of emigration, a few general rules and ob-
servations may not be misplaced here.

A single settler in the wilderness never can suc-
ceed in anything beyond providing himself and his
family with a bare subsistence ; there is no market
to which he can carry his surplus produce, nor roads ,
by which to carry it ; his nearest neighbour is em-
ployed in producing exactly the same commodities
as himself, and therefore there is no possibility of
exchange or barter taking place between them.

Settlers should always go in flocks, the larger the
better ; they are then a society within themselves,
and can introduce co-operation and combination of
labour, the first principles of political economy.

In our colonies there are millions of acres of good
land, which may be bought to-day for 5s an acre,
because it is wilderness ; but suppose it possible that
to-morrow a flight of 200 families should light upon
a tract of the above description, with sufficient pro-
vision for their support until they could make the
teeming earth yi'^I ' its first-fruits to their labour.
The value of an acre of that land to-morrow, what
would it be under such a change of circumstances ?
Would it be measured by 5s ? Assuredly not ; it

for it where the colonists will bay in the cheapest market ; the
suffering conseqaent on such a. state would, however, be partially
remedied by transferring those manufactures to our colonies,
where they could successfully compete with any in the world,
British capital and energy directing them.

Iff .

would be measured by the quantity of necessaries
and comforts which it could be made to yield to the
labour of the settler ; and by the power he might
have of exchanging the surplus produce which he
could not consume, for the surplus produce of the
labour of others engaged in producing different
commodities from himself.

It is clear that if each of the 200 families were
engaged in agriculture, in producing the same com-
modities, it would be a mere waste of time and
labour for each to produce more than that family
could consume (that is of course supposing the 200
families to be isolated) ; but if instead of such a state
of things, there were tailors, shoemakers, carpenters,
smiths, wheelwrights, &c. in a proper proportion to
the number engaged in agriculture, there would
then be an inducement to every farmer to produce
something more than his own family would require ;
what that " something more" should be he would
soon discover from the demand ; or in other words
" the demand would regulate the supply."

The desideratum is, that there should be an
effective demand for all the commodities which the^
labour of every member of the society can produce,
over and above that portion which the labourer and
his family can consume ; and it should be the care of
those who promote any system of colonization, so to
regulate the proportions which those engaged in
different employment in the society bear to one
another, that there shall be an effective demand for
all the produce of the labour of that society.

It is indispensable to the success of any scheme of
emigration, that every party of settlers should have
a fixed destination in the country to which they go, '^
previous to quitting England. It is the want of
such a destiuatiou which is the cause of the disap-

pointment and failure of the newly arrived settler ;
his time is lost in seeking a homCy his small stock of
money fast disappears, he Avanders from place to
place, and from Canada usually e^^ds in proceeding
to the United States.

It is also of great importance that a certain pro-
vision should be made in anticipation of their arrival
at any intended settlement ; that provision to con-
sist in having the lots intended for the occupation
of each family marked out, in providing for them
some sort of rough shelter, and in having two acres
on each family lot cleared and sown, so that the
settler on his arrival should have a crop on the
ground for his partial support in the ensuing winter,
and should find a home instead of an inhospitable
wilderness.*

At every settlement a Store should be built, and
a tenant for the store found bv advertisement in the

colony, who would stock it on his own account with
all the primary articles, such as dried provisions,
slop clothing, hardware, tools, &c. &c., which would
be in demand among the settlers. This store alone
would, to a certain extent, provide a market for the
produce of the society.

Let us now proceed to investigate the expenditure
which would be necessary to transport an emigrant
from this country to Canada, and settle him there
with the above enumerated advantages.

* The term wilderness here signifies only " wild land," which
is found in the immediate neighbourhood of flourishing settle-
ments in all new countries. In Canada particularly there would
\e no di£&;ulty in procuring the labour required to effect the
necessary preparation ; for many thousand emigrants who laud
in Quebec yearly wander off to the United States ; which they
would not do if tlie labour market of Canada could absorb them
on their arrival.

Canada is chosen as being the nearest colony to
Great Britain, and the most advanced in every way ;
and therefore presenting fewer difficulties to be
overcome.

£. «.

Ist. The cost of passage from this country to
Quebec, including children above ten years of age,
per head ........

2nd. A log house hastily constructed on each
family lot, to be finished and made weather tight by
the occupants after their arrival, would cost £5.
which supposing each family to consist of five, would
give an expense per head of ....

3rd. Two acres cleared and cropped on each lot
would cost ^8. and would be per head .

4th. A store large enough to supply the wants
of 100 families or 500 souls, would cost ^150. or
per head ... .....

1 12

Total . 7 18

Say £S. per head.

It is proposed that half of the above expense, viz.
£4. per head, should be borne by Government, and
the other half paid from other sources, either by
the emigrants themselves if in good circumstances,
or partly by the parish to which they belong, partly
by the landlord, whose estate is relieved by their
departure.

Government should take particularly under its
control and supervision that portion of the expen-
diture to be applied to the preparations above re-
commended to be made, in anticipation of the
arrival of parties of settlers.*

* Although the detailed expense of this preparation is only
£3. per head— and it is believed that the whole cost of the
passage of emigrants will be defrayed from private aourcei — the
extra £1. per head may be found necessary to meet accidental
claims, and to be occasionally given in assiBtance towardi the
cost of the voyage out.

Let it be understood, that for every emigrant sent
from England and settled in Canada, on the above-
explained principle of association, £4. will be paid by
the Government to those who have projected and
borne the expense of the expedition, after the
Government surveyor or superintendent, appointed
for the purpose, shall have given a certificate that
all the necessary preparations for the comfort of the
new settlers had been made.

Such an understanding would give a great im-
petus to private enterprise ; companies would be
formed for the actual purpose of promoting coloni-
zation instead of only talking about it ; great num-
bers of emigrants, and of a superior description,
would offer themselves annually ; particularly after
the stone should once be set rolling, and the letters
of the colonists should have been received by their
friends at home, with the information that they had
changed poverty for comfort and independence, and
that others might do likewise by following their
example.

Emigration from Ireland, as a general rule, would
probably be that of paupers ; if so, Irish landlords
would gladly pay £4. per head to relieve their
estates of their present closely packed tenantry, pro-
vided a comfortable provision were made for them
in another country. A gentleman, the agent of one
of the largest estates in Ireland, told the author
lately, that besides assisting in sending his poor
tenants to Canada, he would give every family the
sum of £10. on landing in that country, on con-
dition that measures were taken to insure their
comfort previous to their arrival. Although it
has been endeavoured to shew that a very exten-
sive Irish emigration to Canada would be a

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dangerous experiment, a limited one in conjunction
with English and Scotch colonization, would be -
beneficial ; for the Irish, where they are industrious, ^
are the hardest working men in the world, and ,
are capable of bearing the greatest amount of
fatigue.

In Great Britain, when paupers emigrate, or even
such as are only partially and occasionally relieved,
it should be made obligatory on the parish to which
they belong to advance at least as great a sum per
head towards the expense of settling them abroad,
as they would annually cost the parish if they
remained in it ; and as it is fair to conclude that,
under the present state of things in this country, the
condition of those who require occasional relief will
rather deteriorate than improve ; the parish should
advance the same sum for this class as for the
actual paupers.

If the Government were to undertake, and carry
out under its own superintendence, the formation of
new settlements ; choosing the sites it might deem
most advantageous, as well as causing all necessary
provision to be made in anticipation of the arrival
of each expedition ; it is reasonable to conclude that
great numbers would annually repair at their own
expense to the Government settlements.

Experience tells us that many thousand emi-
grants proceed to Canada every year, but that
Province is not proportionally benefited by them ;
not meeting there with a comfortable reception,
two-thirds of the number wander to the United
States, and finding it a more flourishing and enter-,
prising country, there they remain.

As an example of what might be done, let us
examine into the expense at which Government

could colonize the surveyed line of railway between
Halifax and Quebec.

It is supposed that of the whole length, 500 miles
pass through a wild district.

Fifty Government stations should be formed at
the distance of ten miles apart, on this wild part of
the line. Let accommodation be prepared at the
above estimated expense of £4. per head, or £20.
per family, for 400 families at each station ; the
cost of each station to the Government would be
£8000. The whole expenses, then, of settling
20,000 families in the above manner would be
£400,000.* This outlay, the settlers would be in a

* As these preparations appear formidable, the following
details are given to shew how they may be practically effected.

Let it be determined to commence by forming twenty stations
in the first year, beginning at each extremity of the line proposed
to be colonized.

Let the sites of the different stations be chosen by the engineer
officers who were employed in laying down the surveyed line.
Two officers would be sufficient for this purpose, and each should
have the direction of the works to be carried on at ten of the
stations, which would extend over a distance of 100 miles.

At each station there are to be cleared 800 acres. An expert
backwoodsman is able to chop down an acre of wood in ten days ;
allowing fifteen days, then —

One man can clear four acres in ... 60 days

To clear 800 acres in the same space of time would
require 200 men ; let it be intended then to employ
that number at each station.

Allow for building 400 log huts, by 200 men ; at
the rate of two huts by ten men in one day . .10 days

Allow for clearing the land of the felled timber,
technically termed •' logging" . . . .20 days

Preparing the ground for seed and sowing a crop . 10 days

Total time occupied by 200 in the above works . 1 00 days ;
or sixteen weeks and four days, allowing six working days to
the week.

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condition to repay without inconvenience in five
years' time, as well as paying for the land they

Supposing 200 workmen at each station, the 20 stations would
absorb 4,000 men. These might be obtained by giving instruc-
tions to the emigrant agents at the different ports, to engage
emigrants for the purpose, as they arrive from England in the
spring ; eiercising a certain discretion in their celection, and
choosing them for physical as well as moral qualifications.
There need be no anxiety as to the means of subsistence of these
4000 men ; none of the stations would be more than 10 miles
from some small settlement ; and experience tells ns that in a
new country, wherever labourers are employed and wages paid
them, there a store is immediately established to supply them
with provisions, in exchange for their money. The erection of
a good building however to serve as a store, at each station,
would still be advisable ; and a tenant found for it without
difficulty.

By the above detailed means, accommodation would be pro*
Tided for 400 families at each of the 20 stations ; in all for 8000
families, or 40,000 souls. There would be no difficulty in pro-
curing that number of families to embark every year for our
North American colonies, if assured of a home on their arrival.
Ireland alone could furnish the number annually, and Irish land-
lords as a body would gladly pay ^200,000 annually for *.he
purpose of settling their superabundant tenantry in comfort ii>
another land.

Government having taken measures for making known to the
labouring classes its intentions in detail, should direct all volun-
teers to register their names, ages, occupations, and general cha-
racter (which every appUcant should bring, signed by his land-
lord, clergyman, or priest), with the emigrant agent of the port
nearest to their dwellings. Thus, Government would be in
possession of the numbers desirous to avail themselves of its
assistance iu the autumn, and preparation made accordingly
against the ensuing spring.

All the volunteers are supposed to be landed in New Brunswick,
without expense to the country. It is believed that upwards of
100,000 souls were so landed in Canada, in 1847, but no
arrangements having been made for them, great numbers perished
miserably, weakened as they were by starvation, and struck down
by fever; and most of the survivors went to the United States.

*he

occupy. Out of the 20,000 families of 100,000
souls, we may calculate on 30,000 labouring men.

It is proposed that the labour performed on the
railway should be paid one-half in land, the other
half in money.

Each settler should be compelled to work four
days a week on the railway, and be allowed to
devote the remaining two days to his own land,
until he had earned by his labour from the Govern-
ment his twenty-five acres of land at 5«. an acre
(the probable average price).

Being paid one half of his wages in money, and
supposing the wages of labour to be 35. per diem, he
would earn a credit each day of \$. 6d. ; at which
rate he would pay for his 25 acres of land in 83
days ; or, as he only works four days in the week,
in little more than twenty weeks.*

It is not too sanguine to expect that such ener-
getic measures would lead to the employment of
British capital in the scheme under consideration.

The first settlements once made, they would re-
ceive every year, nay, every month, large accessions
of labour, and it is to be hoped also of capital ; and

The service of forwarding the emigrants to their destinations
on arriving in New Brunswick, necessarily involves considerable
detail, which will not be entered into here farther than to sug-
gest that the river St. John's, intersecting the Province from
south to north ; and the rivers Restigouche, Mirimachi,
Richibucto, on the eastern coast, might be the p'^ints of dis-
embarkation of the different ships and the means of forwarding
their passengers to tbair respective stations.

* Three shillings sterling are equal to 3s. 9d. of the current
money of the province; and 35. Od. currency will purchase at least
double the quantity of provisions in New Brunswick that 3s. 9d.
sterling will purchase in England.

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Ibc railroad would probably be constructed in five
years time.

Under such circumstances it is not too much to
expect that the £400^000. would be repaid to the
Government within that period ; the debt with
which each family would be saddled being £20. and
this sum being of course a mortgage on the land
until its repayment.

Having considered in detail the facilities offered
by New Brunswick for colonization under the im-
mediate superintendence of Government, let us now
turn to the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, r.*
presenting the most favourable field for private
enterprise (still assisted by Government at £4. per
head) at the present moment.

They present the most favourable field for the
following reasons.

That district is already flourishing, possessing
many thriving villages, and only requiring to become
a rich country, markets and good communications.
It lies on the south of the river St. Lawrence,
comprised between the strip of the French Seigno-
ries on that river and the boundary of the United
States, and is within a general radius of 130 miles
from Montreal.*

A flourishing little town called Sherbrooke is the
capital of the district now under consideration ; it is

* That is, the portion of the Eastern Townships most eligible
for present settlement; for a Inrgc district, still being the
Eastern Townships, stretches away to the east and north-eaat a
distance of 200 miles, having a mean breadth of loO miles, with
very few settlers, and much of it still unexplored, or at least still
«niiurveyed.

•j5£

100 miles distant from Montreal to the east; it
boasts a cotton factory, a woollen factory, grist mills,
saw mills, kc. The cotton factory was established
for the manufacture of the coarser fabrics of cotton,
in which commodities the manufacturer of the
United States has long undersold the English
workman in the Canada market.

A railroad has been projected to connect Montreal
with Portland on the sea-board of the State of
Maine ; the line is already surveyed and determined
upon ; it passes through Sherbrooke. A portion of
the line is already constructed and open for traffic,
viz. from Montreal to St. Hyacinthe, a length of
thirty miles or thereabouts, and the work will be
continued unless want of funds should bring it to a
stop.

Land, that is, wild land, is still very cheap in this
fertile and beautiful district. Good land in the
neighbourhood of Sherbrooke is to be bought for
I5s. an acre. The wild land along the surveyed
line of railway would probably be purchased for the
same sum, excepting that part of the line nearest to
Montreal.*

In a political point of view, if England is desirons
to strengthen her power in the North American
provinces, she cannot take a more effectual step for
that purpose than by fortifying the weakest frontier
she possesses, and that is the frontier of the Eastern
Townships, by pouring into that district a tide of
British emigration ; which would, at the same time,

* The first wild lanf^ which the railroad strikes, in proceeding
from Montreal, is the township of Jlptouy about forty-five miles
from that city ; and the value of land in that locality is, of
course, considerably greater than about Sherbrooke. Probably
£2. per acre ia the averag<ii price of land in Upton.

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give the British population a numerical superiority
over the French in Lower Canada.

There is little doubt but that our enterprising
cousins across the " Canady lineSf'* as they caU
them, will be ready to flock into the Townships, as
soon as their abundant resources shall be opened out
by the railroad ; and though their presence would
be welcome as tending very greatly to the go-a-head-
edness of that part of the country, it is at least
desirable that we should have, there, four Britons to
one Yankee.

Let private enterprise, then, proceed to form set-
tlements along the surveyed line of railway, between
the township of Upton (the first wild land the line
strikes in its progress from Montreal) and the town
of Sherbrooke ; in the same manner as proposed for
colonizing the line through New Brunswick.

Suppose six gentlemen, with capitals of £5000.
combine to establish one settlement, choosing as its
site a tract of land of 12,000 acres, situated on or in
the neighbourhood of the railroad line, and having
a road passing through the heart of it. Such a tract
might be bought within sixty miles of Montreal at
the rate of £1. per acre, each member of the asso-
ciation contributing £2000. for the purpose. Its
selection must of course depend on local circum-
stances ; and the annexed diagram is only given to

The lubdiviiionit of each Townbhip Lot conilitof 20 acres— the black tu be flrat occupied.

I >

illustrate the general plan. It is proposed, that if
the road should cut the breadth of the lots* into
which each township is divided, following their
boundaries, as is the case in general ; 6000 acres
should be selected on each side of the road, having
on it a length of 240 acres frontage, and extending
back from it twenty-five acres (the length of the
township lots). It is proposed that 240 families
should be settled on 6000 acres, giving twenty-five
acres to each family, for \vliich payment is to be
exacted as will be shewn.

The provision to be made for their arrival, of
which the details have been given, would cost
£3. per head, or £15. per family, making in all
£3600., to which each associate would contribute
£600.

The frontage of each family lot on the road, or
parallel to it, would be two acres, running back
twelve and a half acres.

The lotsf which touch on the road to be charged
to the occupant bs. per acre more than those which
are retired.

It will be seen from the diagram tiiat a vacant
lot of twenty-five acres between every two families
is retained in the hands of the Association, or one
half of the whole tract ; and the principal profit of
the adventure will arise from the increased value

* Each township lot consists of 200 acres, twenty-five in length
by eight in breadth generally ; which proportion gives each acre
a frontage on the road of forty yards, and a back bearing of
121 yards.

t The frontage of each acre on the road would be forty yards,
its extension back from the road 121 yards. Thus each family
lot would have a frontage of eighty yards on the road and would
extend back a distance of 1512| yards.

II
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conferred on the reserved lots by the occupation of
the rest.

Although the tract selected may not be im-
mediately on the surveyed line of railway, still, if
it is not far from it, and no natural impediments of
consequence intervene, there is no doubt but that
the railroad engineers would make a small deviation
from their original direction to establish a " station"
on a settlement which should give promise of con-
tributing towards the traffic of the line.

Let us now consider what prospect the poor settler
would have of being able to pay for the land which
he occupies, as well as to repay the sum expended
in preparing for his reception ; and it is well to state
the circumstances which, it is expected, would
enable the poorest emigrant, if industrious, to pay
off his debt to the Association within a limited time.

Each gentleman would probably, by degrees,
build a separate house for himself and clear a certain
portion of land about it. This would either afford
work to the settlers, for which they would obtain
credit ; or other labourers would be employed, and
their wages circulated in the little colony.

It has been supposed that out of the capital of
£5000, each gentleman has devoted £260 J to the
purchase of the land and preliminary arrangements ;
£2400 remain to him, which, if invested in Bank
Stock would give an income of £144 per annum ;
to this must be added the interest of the £2600 at
the same rate ; which it is proposed to shew, the
settleis will be enabled to pay annually ; viz. £160
per annum : making in all an income of £300 a
year to each member of the Association. With-
drawing £100 a year to be required probably else-
where, each member would have £200 to circulate

yearly in the settlement, and the aggregate circu-
lation would be £1200 per annum, or at the rate of
£5 for each of the 240 families.

Many elements must enter into the choice of a
tract of land ; the possession of a good water power
is one of the most essential : with a water-power the
erection of saw-mills, grist-mills, &c. may be under-
taken by the Association, or left to the enterprise of
others ; they will always be established by some one,
if the prosperous condition of the settlement should
make it a good speculation.

In some of the villages which dot the surface of
the Eastern Townships, mills have been established
with machinery worked by water, for the purpose
of making ornamental furniture out of the beautiful
varieties of wood which abound in that district.

It is evident that every new work undertaken,

which is to be paid for with money, adds to the

circulation of the settlement, and to the ability of the

emigrant to pay off his debt; which will stand

thus : —

Preparatory outlay at £3. per head, or j€15. per family £\5
Twenty-five acres of land at ^1. .... d625

Total debt of each family ...... ^40

It is confidently believed that the settler will be
enabled to pay off this debt by instalments, in five
years* time, together with the legal interest of the
province in the following manner.

1st year, interest on j640. at 6 per cent
2nd year, instalment of .
Interest on j640. . . .

Total payment, 2nd year . .

£.

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£.
10

f. d.
2

3rd year, iDstalment of
Interest on ^40. less £5.

Total payment, 3rd year .

4 th year, instalment of
Interest on ^640. less ^15.

Total payment, 4th year .

5th year, last payment of .
Interest on ^40. less ^25.

Total payment 5th year .

Sum paid up

The land then becomes the property of the settler
and his heirs for ever.

The above calculation has been made in reference
to the most disadvantageous case, that of an emi-
grant who has not even a few pounds to start with ;
it is evident that if the bulk of the emigrants were
of the upper class of farm labourers, as is anticipated,
who had been able to bring with them £30 or £40
the question would be much simplified.

It must be remembered also, that no account is
taken of the railroad in the above calculation ; if it
pleased them, the emigrants might work on the line,
and so be enabled to pay for their land ; and it is
certain tha^ as soon as there should be a railway
communication between the settlement and Montreal,
the latter place would afford a never-failing market
for all the produce that could possibly be raised on
it. Large and yearly increasing quantities of pro-
visions will pass from the Eastern Townships to
England when their resources shall have been

thrown open by such a means of communication ;
for if not destined to be the granary of Great Britain,
they certainly seem intended by their position,
extent and natural fertility, to supply that country
with a large proportion of the food yearly imported
into it.

Instead of a gentleman farming his own land, the
breeding of live stock is recommended. For this pur-
pose the land requires at first very partial clearance ;
the cattle range through the woods feeding by day,
and return at night to their homes.

Horses of an excellent description for farming pur-
poses may be purchased in the Eastern Townships
for £10; a superior description well-bred for £15;
and for £20 as good as would sell for £50 in England.
Good milch cows cost about £5. sheep 15s. A great
improvement in the breed of the above animals
could be effected by men having a practical know-
ledge of the subject, and with the power of occasion-
ally spending a little money for the purpose.

The price of hay per ton, is in the Eastern Town-
ships, in average years, 30«. ; that of oa*s, per bushel.

It may be mentioned here, that sterling money is
worth one-fifth more than the currency money of
the North American Provinces ; 45. 2d. sterling,
being equal to the dollar, or 5s, currency ; and
though all the money to be expended in Canada
has been put down as sterling money, the real
expenditure would be the same nominal sum in
currency money ; but this has been done in order
neither to overstate the advantages, nor underrate
the necessary outlay.

In the foregoing pages it has been the endeavour
to awake attention to the advantages of an enter-

prise such as is advocated,— without over estimating
them. Probably all who take the trouble to read
will suggest difficulties; it is impossible but that
difficulties will arise in practice which cannot be
foreseen, and no man should join in such an under-
taking who would not be fully prepared to encounter
many obstacles ; the question is, are these insur-
mountable, or likely to prove so ? and is the end to
be obtained of sufficient importance to induce enter-
prising men to embark ia the adventure ; well aware
that many will be the difficulties, many the dis-
appointments, many the vexations; but all to be
overcome, it is firmly believed, by stem spittts
resolute to succeed.

In conclusion, the author casts this little pamphlet
on the favour of the public, like " bread upon the
waters," in the hope that he may " find it after
many days ;" and that if its suggestions are con-
sidered capable of being acted upon, it may be
productive of something more than a barren ac-
quiescence ; that it may induce a few of his country-
men, whose time and money are both unprefitably
employed at home, to join in the endeavour lie is
determined to make (if left in the world a few years
longer), viz. to demonstrate practically, that capital
employed in ^colonization will obtain an ample
remuneration, and confer incalculable benefits both
on England and her colonies.

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THE END.

O. NORMAN, PRINTSB, MAIDEN LANS, COTBNT OAROkM.

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