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Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certainea pages blanches aJoutpliances, and accommodations of social life. in. The railway being established, or dm-ing the progress of its construc- tion, the i)re[)aration of the land- would [)roc(;ed, by the same agency of combined labour, employed under the direction and control of skill and ! ■ ? e capital. The lands wor'i be properly surveyed and divided, the timber cleared, commodious dwellings erected, plans of towns marked out, corn and saw mills erected, roads and bridges constructed. The early and adventurous emigrants who had aided in this work of national pioneering would be entitled, as they would be enabled, to draw their subsistence from their own lands ; and substantial English and Scottish yeomen would be attracted to follow up the heroic work. Ordinary roads would connect the frontage lands with the more distant rural districts, and land now selling for three shillings an acre would, even at some distance from the trunk line of communication, realise as many pounds ; while sub- urban and town territory would become valuable to an extent which it might be deemed exaggeration to estimate. While the yeoman and the small agricultural capitalist were attracted to the new field of investment, and the first emigrants were established on their free allotments, suc- cessive arrivals of emigrants would find occupation in the other depart- ments of physical preparation, in clearing the more distant lands, at wages, and in opening up new territories by branches and extensions of the main trunk line of railway. IV. The moral, educational, and sanitary point of the question simply in- volves the reserve in the outset of blocks of land as an endowment for schools and churches • towards a revenue for State and local purposes of Government ; for parks, public walks, and cemeteries, and for other sani- tary objects. Upon the importance, the absolute necessity, of such pro- vision, we might dilate in infinitum; but our desire is more to present an outline of a comprehensive plan, with such practical details as are requisite to show its efficacy, than to argue elaborately in favour of in- stitutions, as to which no civilized man in this nir. teenth century will pretend to floubt that in a new country we have the opportunity to make a permanent and enduring provision, which in the crowded cities of Europe is necessarily left to irregular, unequal, and, frequently, oppres- sive, systems of taxation. V. The way being thus prepared for colonization, the real business of in- dependent voluntary plantation will begin, and emigration may then be safely left to itself. Capital will have rendered society possible, and offered a scope and opportunity for independent energy. The traflic of the lines will have secured a revenue on the one hand ; the disposal of the lands, on the other, at an enormous enhancement of value, will not only have secured a rental, but begun to rej>lace the capital. The in- ducement then — the source of profit on the investment — is twofold. First, from the traffic of the railways ; second, from the enhanced value of the lands. Confining ourselves, for the present, to the nearest field of colonial enterprise, that of British North America ; to the proposed railway coniiexions of the Atlantic and tlie St. Lawrence, the inteijunc- tion of Halifax, tlio Bay of Fundy, and Quebec ; of St. John, St. An- drews, and Fredericton, and the other centres and nuclei of civilization in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada ; a congeries of railways destined, we trust, within a generation, to extend itself through the fer- I % i i tile districts of the Ottawa and the Hudson, and to constitute the high- way between the Atlantic and the Pacific ; let us examine a few of the statistics now before us. In the first place, then, as respects the mere prospects of traffic, the population of British North America now exceeds two millions ; its im- ports last year touched upon four millions, and its exports upon three millions, sterling ; and this trade is annually increasing in an enormous ratio. The influx of emigrants into Canada last year exceeded 100,000 — the tide having now set in, this amount will receive annual accessions. A hundred thousand passengers at Id. per mile, for half the distance of a line from Halifax, through St. John and St. Andrews to Quebec, would amount to 125,000/. per annum, realising from passengers alone, de- ducting expenses, nearly 5 per cent, on a million of capital, leaving a wide margin from goods and local traffic for the necessary expense of a substantial railway. Now, from the prelimin.ory Report on the project of a railway between Halifax and Quebec, by Colonel Simpson (the Government Commissioner in Canada), we learn that the tonnage arriving in Quebec averages 566,000 tons per annum, and that, from sundry calculations and data there set forth, we may expect the following result : — Taking oae-fifth part — that is to say, all the provisions, being equal to 830,769 barrels, and 100,000 tons of lumber, as likely to be diverted into this new channel : — Dr. Cost of transport on 100,000 tons of lumber, at 4-lOths of a cent. per mile £60,000 rreif^ht received at Halifax for the same, at 78. 6d per load — lOO.COO tons of coal brought back, cost 4s. per ton, at a profit of 15s. per ton ., — 830,769 barrels of Horn-, at 2s. 6(1 — Cost of transport G-lOths of a cent, per ton per mile 67,971 50,000 tons of mcrchani".sc, brouglit back from Halifax at 278. 6d. — Cr. 37,500 75,000 107,694 68,760 £127,971 288,244 127,971 £160,973 Much of the calculation in the Report is based on a comparison of the estimates for the English Great Northern, and the experience of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway in America. Colonel Simpson hmits this estimate to the interchange between the termini, and that interchange to the supposition of only 100,000 loads of lumber, and 75,524 tons of produce, of exports; 100,000 tons of coal and plaster, and 50,000 tons of merchandise from Great Britain; when in 1844 there were imported more than 20,000 tons of salt alone, and goods paying an ad valorem duty of 2,411,154/., besides 50,384/. free. It is a circumstance deserving of mention, that in the investigations opened in the United States, on the part of Canada, as to the cost and management of railways there, men of all classes, from the President downwards, gave every facility to the Commissioner of the Canadian Government, although the projected railway was especially designed as a military defence, and to obviate the necessity of resorting to the Ame* I rican noil for Trausatlantiu advantages; as a means, indeed, whereby the ibrtress of Quebec, inaccessible at present I'or live months in the year, would be brought within thirty hours' travelling distance of the great naval station and depot of the military strength of Gx'eat Britain on the British American continent. These results, however, as respects the trunk line, are necessarily sub- ject to further and more careful inquiry ; but more ample data exist for coming to a conclusion upon most important portions of such a trunk : one of these, the St, A idrews »nd Quebec line, being in itself a trunk con- nection of the Canadas and the Atlantic, offering the most palpable advan- tages as respects the trade of Europe, the West Indies, and the whole of North America, being the shortest practicable route across British North Amei'ica, and adapted to admit of the most successful competition with any similar connection through the States. This line, indeed, must form part oi a.'iy steam connexion between Halifax and Quebec, whether across the Bay cf Fundy, or by a continuous line through Shediac and St. John ; a central line through New Brunswick having been found impracticable, while a continuous railway by the north of the province would involve an immense addition of distance, besides passing away from the centres of population. The siune Report from which we have above quoted states, with re- fei'cnce to this line : — " The survey between Quebec and St. Andrews was made in 1836, by Major Yule, an officer of the Royal Engineers ; and I have authority tor stating that the line of country was found to be highly favourable. The Company was incorporated in that year ; but tlie action of the Con ^uny was stopped, by a i-emonstrance of the United States' Government, thi't the Railway Company was about to interfere with the disputed territory on the Maine frontier. Ilowison, in his ' European Colonies', observes : — ' Of all the physical peculiarities of British North America, the most remarkable is the general levelness of its surface ; for in her vast extent cf tenntory comprehended between the coast of Labrador and the Rocky Mountains, there does not exist one range of hills, nor even a single peak of moderate elevation. Tlie highest lands in that part of the globe seldom rise more than 400 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and, in many places, unbroken plains are found the same number of miles in circumference.' " The actual traffic between the Bay of Fundy and Woodstock, by the circuitous route of the river St. John — ^which is more than 50 miles longer than the railway (80 miles) from St. Andrews to Woodstock — is, at pre- sent, as follows : — Up traffic — Flour and salted provisions 100,000 barrels, at 2s. 6d £12,500 West Indian produce, equal to 20,000 barrels, at 2s. 6d 2,S0O British merchandise, equal to 20,000 barrels, at 28. 6d 2,f>00 rassengers, 60 per day, for 310 days, at 10s. each 9,300 ■ £26,800 Down traftic — Timber, deals, boards, &c. equal to 50,000 tons, at 7s. ed. per ton £18,750 Afiricultural prodi 1,500 Ta'sscngers, GO per day for 310 days 9,300 £56,353 paid eby the le year, le great 1 oil the •ily sub- jxist for nk : one nk con- B advan- whole of ih North ion with ust form er across John ; icticable, I involve ;entres of with re- Andrews igineers ; und to be rear ; but le United interfere >n, in his iarities of ness of its tween the exist one le highest above the plains are ik, by the iles longer ■is, at pre- £12,500 2,500 2,S0O 9,300 £26,800 £18,750 1,500 9,300 £56)353 4 Which estimate we may safely double, on the supposition of a railway being formed (and, in truth, it is highly probable that the extension of this line will bo for many years the great emigration highway into the Canadas) — Making £112,700 Deduct expenses of working, 40 per cent 45,080 ■■.'■: ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ • : .-iif-'M'i £67,620 ensuring a very large per centage upon the capital recpiisite to con- struct a line more substantial than any now existing in the United States. Again, as respects a line from Halifax to Windsor, on the eastern side of tlie bay, opposite New Brunswick. From estimates Iramed by Mr. Howe, M.P.P., of Halifax, we learn that, even in 1835, the traffic from hay, cattle, and merchandise; timber, cord wood, and bark; from general produce; and from travellers, reached 20,000/. per annum on the common roads. Half of this revenue (sup- j)osing that the railway offered the bare advantage of a reduction of price in that ratio), or 10,000/. Avould give 5 per cent, on 200,000/., the capital proposed to construct the 4o miles; but to treble or quadruple this traffic, would be amply justified by the lapse of time since 1835, and the im- mense advantage which a railway would present. We might enter into similar or analogous estimates with respect to the railway connection of >St. John and St. Andrews, St. John and Frederic- ton, and other important links of the great chain. But, in fact, the traffic is by no means the most important feature of such enterprises; and the profit from the sources indicated is as nothing compared to the rental that must arise from the lease and settlement of the lands which the Government will be glad to concede to the founders of such a work; the income to be derived from the sale of timber, and tlie revenue from the ground-rent of villages, mills, harbours, and towns, which the progress of colonization and emigration inevitably tends to establish. Of these results, however, it is impossible, with any degree of precision, to form an estimate. Of their value every one will judge more or less favourably, according to his experience, and his consideration of all the probable moral and social consequences of the rapid progress of colonial civilization, contingent upon the formation of railways and the organization of public works. These results we can here only barely indicate. It is right that we should, above all things, guard the colonist from sui)posing that, oji this system, he would be paying, as in the Australian colonies, a fictitiously aggravated price for his lands, on the plea of an unknown amount of labour being transmitted and organized for his benefit: that for every pound he pays there are to be five shillings' worth of land, and fifteen shillings for the infinitesimal proportion of able- bodied labour transmitted along witli him, and out of his advances, to the colonies; a fallacy and a dcce[>tion most flattering to the ear, and with which oiu' own ear was wont to be charmed, but to which the one sad fact is antagonistic, that the labour so transmitted cannot, by any human ingennity, be preserved and concentrated for the benefit of him who paid lor it; seeing that, for every 1,000 acres on this system sold for 1,000/., 10 there are 10,000 or 100,000 that were long ago sold for an old song, and to the reclamation of which, unless some altogether new system of allo- cation be devised, the labour so paid for is as likely to proceed as to any of the glittering Utopias of the Eastern Archipelago. Whatever we would, on tlie pri'.ciples licre set forth, charge for the land, would be for actual labour impressed upon the land, and after it shall have been so impressed; after railways and roads and markets shall have given it a real aud sensible increase of valuej and when land so im- proved and adapted for social purposes shall be cheaper at 51. or 100/. an acre than an Eldorado in the wilderness shall be worth a penny, or a rural allotment at a mimimum price, embracing the mere promise, but no pos- sible assurance, of a supply of labour, shall be worth a pound. Not that we undervalue the general principle elaborated by Mr. Wakefield, that land is worthless without labour to improve it, but that we see no possibi- lity, in theory or practice, of the purchaser on that system securing any- thing but a homoeopathic proportion of the labour flowing in and dispers- ing itself over square miles of territory. L^t us only add, to meet the only possible objection that has been urged to these propositions, that this enhanced, but legitimately and not ficti- tiously enhanced price must be made convenient to the purchaser by being spread over a period of years, either on the principle adopted by the British American Land Company, or upon that of the Buildimg Societies, or upon a principle of life calculation. VI. But, for all this, one thing is essentially requisite — the ways and means — the sinews of this war with old Nature. Three years ago, three months ago, this was an infinitely difticult question; but every day the inducement to men of capital to regard colonization and colonization rail- ways as the most practical and profitable, as well as tlie most useful and national, of all investments, is becoming apparent; and the reaction of enterprise, which followed the railway mania, is only thoroughly to be counteracted by an expansion of the railway field — not, we trust (though we see symptoms of it), to be succeeded by a colonization mania as reckless and perilous as the past apathy was unworthy. Provided, as is now probable enough, that the first successful eff'cHs of the St. Andrews and Quebec Railway Company, and the rapid com- pletion of their firsf section to Woodstock, shall secure the necessary extension of their works to all parts of the province, the question will gradually be solved ; and the development of the colonies and the relief and permanent happiness of tJie mother country will proceed ^nfri passv. And wo have some hope, we say, that private enterprise will now be speedily secured for the complete establishment of the great chain of railways of which the pro[)o»ed short section is the first and, perhaps, most important, link, and which only our political difference with the United States, adjusted by Loi*d Ashburton, prevented from being carried into execution twelve years ago. The following plan was suggested as an alteinative, or rather conjunc- tive, proposition some time ago, when universal distrust t,of"..ied to reniler the greater undertaking unlikely to be carried ou* b^ private capital. It is not the less interesting and valuable now ; for mutatis 11 mutandis, the principle is equally applicable to all new countries, while the specific indication of towns and termini gives it a practical applica- tion and significancy which any abstract proposition would not present. The proposal we refer to is set forth in a letter lately addressed to an eminent and philanthropic nobleman, by one of the most practical leaders of the railway world; to which we cursorily referred on a former occasion, and which we are now permitted, in conclusion, to present in. extenso; wliich requires no commentary or commendation from us, and which we safely leave to tell its own story to all interested in this most " momentous question": — ;. • >f,i ri' !!;.m; »i;i " To THE EiGui Hon. the Earl Fitzwilliam, Milton, Peterborougu. " 20, Sussex-sqnare, Ilyde-park, June 30, 1848. " My Lonl, — The absohitc necessity imposed upon England by the conditions of the present crisis, of making some more benevolent, more effectual, and, at the same time, less expensive, provision for the increasing surplus population of the United Kingdom than that of the workhouse, induces me to trouble your Lordship with a plan that has suggested itself to me, calculated, I humbly submit, to meet this, the most important end of legislation. " In viewing the almost boundless field which the Almighty has spread for the use of man in our three North American provinces, now brought within a ten days* steam voyage of this country, and surrounded by the most ample and independent means of supply, it must strike one with wonder that no Government since 1815 should have done more than collect and print information in Blue-books upon the subject, at an expense exceeding the entire funds with which 'William Penn and his enlightened fol- lowers, amid dangers and privations endured for half a century, laid the foundation of tlieir now flourishing settlements. Removed as Ave now ai'c, from the risk of such pri- vations and hardships, the British Government, by the judicious application of means at their disposal, without a tax of one farthing, except on those who would cheerfully bear it, so long as was necessary to provide reproductive employment, might in ten years effect tenfold that great result, and place two millions of British subjects in a position of self-reliance and independence in those colonics, tlicreby ensuring employment at home to half a million more, in supplying them with clothing and implements in exchange for corn, meat, and timber, the produce of colonial industr;^ ; for every British subject is a customer to England to the extent of 100 times as much as the continental consumer, and to tlievcry amount which it costs us to maintain per head our redundant millions, in a state of demoralizing unprotluctiveness, in the workhouse. With such elements of commercial greatness as are apparent in the comparatively enormous con- sumption of British produce by British colonists; observing that, with a vastly dispro- portioned population, our coloniid markets, and markets founded by British colonists, absorb an amount of produce equal to tiirec-fourtlis of tliat exported to the densely- peoi)lod countries of Euv ^pc and the IVIoditcrranean, and more than doulde that con- sumed by all tlie rest of rho world; it is cvitlcnt that by duo concentration of wealth and labour in the colonicfi, through the obvious agency of the railway and contingent works of public tUility ; by substituting, for the present desultory and pernicious sys- tem of emigration, an Imperial system of colonization worthy of Great Britain, involving the application of all ii!or;d and institutional means of social elevation, we shall speedily render ourselves independent of the fluctuating markets of foreign countries, and creato a market of our own, transcending iu value jad amount our present commercial inter- course with thv, rest of the world. 1^ " The combination of principles by which these beneficial results might be most readily, securely, and economically attained, appears to be — " That, in order to give immediate and profitable employment to various classes of emigi^nts, and to promote the development of the physical and economical resources of those colonics, investments bo made, in the manner I shall immediately indicate, in connecting the scattered nuclei of commerce and agriculture by substantial railways, combined with public works and institutions; and that, with a view to the recovery of such investments and to maintain a uniformity of system in the disposal of the national domains within a certain distance on cither side of such railways, a cultivation tax bo imposed upon all lands already granted to individuals. " As respects the ways and means and modus operandi, I would suggest, " 1. Tliat the revenues and property and the faith and credit of the three provinces be pledged to tlie State for the annual interest upon live millions of Exchequer-bills, to be issued by the British Government for the immediate railway connection of Halifax, Windsor, and Margaretville ; St. John, St. Andrews, Woodstock, Grand Falls, and Quebec; or 500 miles of railway at 10,000/. per mile, including three first-class steamers for crossing tlic Bay of Fundj". " 2. That such railways, constructed under the superintendence of the Government, be rented and managed in sections by private enterprise, the provinces Ixjing pledged, as above, to make up the interest to 4 per cent., in the proportion of Canada, on ^3,000,000 New Brunswick 1,200,000 ' Nova Scotia 800,000 ■; • £5,000,000 ' " 3. The advances to be spread over a period of five year.-*, or at the rate of one million per annum, and to be redeemed in fifteen years — the Imiicrial Government being the first mortgngces for tlie capital amount, and the provincial Governments the second mortgagees for the amounts of iutcrcst they may have severally been called upon to contribute. " 4. Tliat the colonies be bound to give immediate employment and shelter to thirty able-bodied men and their families per mile of railway, equal to 150 souls per mile, or to a population of 75^,000 for the whole distance; this number to bo nmdo up to 2,00^,000 within a limited ix:riod. " By the above plan, thus indicateil in outline, it will bo obvious to your Lordship that the Government will not l)c called upon for a farthing of monuv; and, indepen- dently of the experience of the United States, I need not insist that tho credit of the provinces of British North America, and tlie mortgage of the railway, and of the lauds to be thus intersected and indelinitely cnlmnced in value, nnist bo an ample security for tho annual payment of interest and replacement of capital. Nor will tho local Government be ever colled upon to pay anything like the interest of five millions of money. Tljo first advance of one million, upon wliich tlie interest would bo 40,000/., divided amongst tho provinces, will suflice to complete the construction of more than one rcnumerativo link of tho chain of railways, puch as that from St. Andrews to Wood- stock, or from Halifax to Windsor; the returns from whicli, set against the inteix-st above-nanvcd, will go far to balance the obligation of the jirovinoos; and there can bo Ihtlo dt)iil>t that, liy tlic time tho mnniint has been cxpcndrd, the interest payable by tho provinces, if it ever extended i)eyond the first year or two, will be reduced to nil, and the returns iitfurd a snfiicicnt dividend to the lessees of tho undertaking. " The burthen, therefore, whether on the Imperial or the Colonial Governments, will 13 l>c, In fact, nothing more than that of their patronage and encouragement of a great national work, Avhich cannot fail to tend as much to the aggrandisement of the parent State as of the colonics; and the obvious benefit to the commercial interests of this country will be realised of tying together the thi'ce provinces of Britisli Nonh America, of opening up a daily communication between Uoliftix and Quebec, and, during the winter months, of makin.]^ every part of Nova Scotia and of the Bay of Tundy equally available for the reception and subsequent transport of the mails. Tliat the employ- ment likely to bo afforded is rather understated may appear from this, that the North- Western Railway Company actually expend at tliis moment upwards of a million a year in rates and wages; and that no less than 16,000 men arc employed from day to day on the ix>rtiou of the Great Northern now in progress of construction. It is to bo remembered also, that the national ten'itory opened up for settlement by means of tlie proposed railways will ensure a pennancncy and expansion of reproductive employ- ment, which is not necessarily involved in the formation of a railway at home. Let me also advert to the fact that at least one-half of the sum proposed to be expended would be required for the iron to bo used in the works — thus at once creating a market for two millions and a half of British manufacture. " Permit me, in conclusion, to observe that my own experience teaches me what must be also well known to your Lordship, that the only possible remedy or preventive of social disaifection is to afford proiitable employment to the mass of the people; and it appears to me that the respect for law and order which has characterised the British population, at a time when all Europe has been in a state of ferment and transition, gives the people of these islands an additional claim for some immediate, practical, and comprehensive effort for their amelioration on the part of a paternal Government. " With these sentiments, I have undertoken to submit to your Lordship the sugges tions obovc set forth, to which I invite your early and earnest consideration. " I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's very obedient servant. (Signed) ♦' Jno. M. Laws." The cnrly and earnest consideration here besought, we have reason to helieve has been promptly accorded ; and we feel confident that the pro- position, tending as it does to solve the economical, which is the para- mount, difficulty of the question, will not be hastily overlooked by the powers that be. We have been induced to present it to public considera- tion, not with the view of adventitiously forcing the matter upon the at- tention of Government, through the medium of the press and of public opinion, but with the conviction that the genius of the English Govern- ment requires the concurrence of mature public opinion before under- taking any vast scheme of national economy. If practical and compre- hensive colonization has not been fostered and effectively promoted by late Colonial Ministers, whether by Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Glttdpione, or Earl Gny, wo believe that there are many other circum- stances to account for this besides simple disregard of the question, of which all Colonial Ministers are so lavishly accused. 14 :!.>;,- 1' APPENDIX. I OPINIONS OF EARL GBET, AND SuMMART OF EVIDENCE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE RAILWAY COLONIZATION OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, BEFORE LORD MONTEAQLE's select COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ■ . J I, — Opinions of Earl Grey, 1. The despatches to and from Earl Grey, in relation to this subject, to which we would first of all direct attention, extend over the past year, the first bearing date the 31st December, 1846. 2. The despatch of the Slst December authorised Lord Elgin to advance the sum of 50,000/. in the establishment of villages for the reception of emigrants, the situations to be selected in localities which would afford immediate employ- ment for the people, at wages. Each village was to consist of a sufficient num- ber of log-houses to accommodate 300 soiUs; and to each house a garden, sufficient to occupy the tenant's spare time, but not to relieve him from working for wages ; and cheap and simple wooden buildings were to be erected to servo for a church and a school. 3. Insuperable difficulties to such a schema presented themselves, from the fact that, in Canada, straggling grants of land, with here and there an inter- vening frontage for a road, precluded the possibility of finding a compact site for the establishment of these villages. 4. On the 29th of January, 1847, Earl Grey countermanded the advance above authorised ; and, on the 25th February, Lord Elgin expressed his satis- faction at such a course, and enclosed a statement from the Attorney- General of the Province, exhibiting the insurmountable obstacles to the village system. 5. On the r2th February also, Mr. Buchanan, the emigration agent at Quebec, submitted to Lord Elgin that 25,000 souls might be at once emj)loyed in the construction of a railway from Halifax to Quebec, to be guaranteed employment for two years at 2s. per day, and a grant of 50 acres on the route of the railway. Such a road, he added, " as a groat and national work, is admitted by every one connected with the colony to be of the first and most vital importance, not only to the colony, but to the mother country ; and it will, when completed, tend more to advance the interests and prosperity of this noble appendage to the British Crown tlian any other measure. It will serve to open out a large and valuable tract of country for settlement. A i)ortion of the money which is now being expended in providing temporary relief for the disti'cssed in Ireland, and elsewhere, might be advantageously employed in tliis work ; and, by the settle- ment of these poor people along the route of tlie railway, they would soon bo able to provide for themselves and their families permanently by their labour on their own lands." 6. Mr. Buchanan further pointed out, with reference to parties who might possess small capital, that " families of this class, if supplied by Government with a free passage to the port of landing in the colony, would be placed in a position at once to enter upon the occupation of land, and to permit the field for labour to remain open for their more destitute foUow-countrymeii." 7. Earl Grey expresses great doubts as to the practicability of a patrlarcliid scheme of colonization from Ireland, embodied by Mr. Godley in a nemorial to Lord John Russell ; that the District Councils, in whose sui)port much reliance was placed, would be neither able nor willing to render aid and encouragement ; and that no commensurate advantage would arise from giving a public Company Ql. for every emigrant carried out and settled on the land. 8. Lord (jrey strongly recommends that, if any assistance be afforded towards colonization. It nrw be in the shape of encouragement to railways and public works. " Assumiii-'," says his Lurdahip, " that rarllament were prepared to grant such a very large sum of money for this purpose, I cannot but believe 15 that more would really be accomplished towards encouraging emigration by applying it to the construction of great public works ; such, Ibr instance, as railways, by which employment would be provided for a large number of emigrants in the first instance, and a gi'eat extent of land would be rendered far more accessible, and therefore available for settlement, than it now is. The demand for labour thus created would, I am inclined to think, create a spon- taneous emigration to a large extent, and of a more healthy character, than the adoption of such a scheme as has been suggested." 9. The want of the means of intercommunication Lord Orey wisely affirms to be the main cause of the hardships and privations attendant upon young settle- ments, and of their slow and unequal progress — hardships and difficulties and great waste of labour, " incurred entirely in consequence of the want of some means of giving increased efficiency to labour, by combination, and by the divi- sion of employments. "We hear of days wasted, perhaps in the busiest part of the season, in carrying to a distant forge, to be repaired, some necessary imple- ment of agriculture, which, in England, would be taken to the village shop, and be again ready for use in an hour ; of bread being scarce, where corn is cheap and abundant, because, from the distance of mills, and the badness of the roads, it takes many days of toilsome labour for men and horses to carry a small quan- tity of corn to be ground, and to bring it back in the shape of flour." " Hence, too, the want of adequate means of religious instruction for scattered settlers, of education for their children, of medical assistance, and of all the main advantages of civilized society." 10. A railway, then, in the opinion of the present Minister for the Colonies, is the first requisite for successful and civilised colonization. A railway first ; then such an enhancement of the price of land (and a railway at once enhances the value of such land) as shall supply a preparation fund — a fund which shall not only replace the outlay in the construction of the railway, but supply the attractions of civilised life to the settlement. 11. Thus Earl Grey observes: — " It is difficult to understand what natural obstacle prevents such a territory from being occupied, not by individuals, but by societies properly organised for mutual support and assistance, carrying with them, as they advance, all the means and appliances of civilisation. For this purpose, what seems to be most required is, to carry further than has yet been done, the principle of making all who obtain land pay for it at such a price as at once to afford the means of effecting those improvements, by the construction of roads and bridges, and by erecting schools and other public buildings, which are necessary for its regular and systematic occupation. If no public lands were alienated, but at a price sufficient to pay for such improvements, and if the money obtained from their sale were so expended, land would only be pur- chased where the improvements were already m j)rogress, while the settler, re- ceiving in return for the enhanced price he paid for land, not only the land, but the advantage of those works by which its i)rofitablc occupation is facilitated, would not in reality pay more, perhaps not so much, for the mere land, as when it is disposed of at a very low and almost nominal price. Where the previous improvident id' ".atlon of large quantities of land presents an obstacle to the adoption of the system of selbng land in this manner, precisely the same results are attainable by the imposition of a moderate tax upon all land, whether wild or reclaimed, and applying the proceeds to the same sort of improvements. Such a tax is not felt as any practical burthen unon settled land, but presents a powerful bar to the acquisition or retention of land which cannot be turned to some account." 12. Acting upon these principles, he concludes : — " I am of opinion that the mode in which colonization niay, with most prospect of success, be promoted, is by the application of any money which may be hereafter granted or advanced by railianient for thi? purpose, in opening land for bcttleiuont, by making such improvements as I have described, or by constructing public works of a more important character, such as railways and canals." \f " 16 13. On the 1st of April, 1847, he desired Lord Elgin to reserve the 50,000/., formerly aathorised to be invested in villages, in lien of which a sum of 10,000/. was to be voted for the relief of sick and destitute emigrants who have flocked into New Brunswick in such numbers as to swallow up half the whole provincial revenue for their care and maintenance. - - ■• --wj ''.o»'^'; pletely inoperative, except as respects the comfort of the emigrant himself; that public works in Ireland, of themselves, only tend ultimately to reproduce and enhance the evil they temporarily remedy. It was suggested, therefore, that a Company should be encouraged to undertake a scheme of colonization by large bonuses — 51. per head for every emigrant family settled in the land, and 1/. per head for passage-money. 4. The principles propounded also embraced what we might call a sort of Roman Catholic patriarchalism. Each body of emigrants to be accompanied, and spiritually governed, by a priest, with an endowment by the State, to be repaid by an Irish Income-tax. 5. Irish emigration to America, Mr. Godley wisely holds to be a necessary alternative of Irish migration to England — the great moral and physical evil of which can hardly be exaggerated. 6. The United States at present are more attractive to emigrants, in con- sequence of their superior advantages as respects the means of intercommuni- cation by railways or otherwise, and by a command of capital, and the possession of towns and cities, securing the appliances of civilized life. In British Ai ricp, even the most promising settlements exhibit a rude and barbarous prosperity. 7. The formation of the Rideau Canal had been useful in, first of all, anording employment, and, secondly, in opening up land for settlement. The first thing to be done was to encourage other works of the kind ; and, in a word, that, towards any system which should embrace social organisation, every settlement should possess the five pre-requisites of roads, bridges, mills, schools, and churches. 8. With the present public economy of Canada, even the moderate average immigration of^ 40,000 souls per annum would not be profitably or advan- tageousely al>sorbed in British North America. ///. — Evidence of Oeorge PemhertoUy Esq. I. Mr. Femberton settled in Canada in 1816, and his evidence is the result of 30 years' experience as a merchant in the district of (iuel)ec, where he wns largely engaged in the export of timber; a landholder to a moderate extent; and a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. He also visited many pai'ts of Upper Canada, the United States, New Brunswick, and Nie been of much use in securing a superior class of vessels for the poor emigrants, and also in putting emigrants in the proper channel to obtain emplo3rment. By these and other similar agencies, little difficulty bad been found, except in i.be cholera year of 1832, in providing employment for those who reach Canada. Many arrived in a state o^ destitution, but, by industry and economy, had become independent farmers. 3. The natives of Ireland are found to be the best adapted for works re- quiring great strength. All laboriouo undertakings in Canada and the United States are carried through by Irish labourers ; and they are better adapted for settlers, when without means, than any other class. 4. Many emigrants pass on to the United States, where there are more ex- tensive public works ; and, therefore, Ohio and Michigan, and the new settle- ments of the Western States, have hitherto swallowed up much of the emigra- tion, which, being once attracted thither, has there also generally found a home. 5. But the provinces of Canada have, in some respects, great advantages over the States; the climate is healthier, and the inhabitants suffer less from fever and ague, except in swampy districts. 6. There are vast tracts of land in the Ottawa favourable for settlement, and equally productive with the lands in the United States ; and where the winter is of about the same duration as in Quebec, extending over five months in the year. 7. The statement set forth in Lord Durham's Report as to the great differ- ence of energy and development manifested on the United States and British sides of the boundary line, are held to be greatly exaggerated and too highly coloured. The progress of Canada, since it was ceded to England, has been equal to that of the thiiteen old States of the Union, but not to the rapidly-advancing new ones in the West, such as Ohio, lUiut is, and Missouri. In 1759, the popula- tion of the two Canadas was 70,000 ; it is now 1,400,000 — an increase of twenty - fold; and the town of Toronto will favourably compare with Buffalo — its population, which was but lately 1,000, having rapidly advanced to 20,000. If public works were duly encouraged, Mi'. Pemberton asserts that its natural advantages will speedily put British North America on a level with the United States. 8. Railways have been the chief of the public works to which the States have owed their wonderful progress ; and now, in order to open and maintain a con- stant communication with Upper Canada in the winter, the capitalists of the Union are uniting with the merchants of Montreal in the construction of a railway from Portland, a port of Maine, to Montreal. The Americans under- take the moiety to the boundarjr line, of 140 miles, the remaining 140 through British territory to be coterminus with one now in operation from Lake Champlain to Laprairie, opposite Montreal. Forty miles oi this line are already under contract. 9. It is laid down that such an undertaking, if a line be not formed through New Brunswick, must prove most injurious to all commerce below Montreal, as the trade of Quebec, and the rest of Lower Canada, will proceed to Portland ; and, at the same time, the proposed Anglo-American line would be preferred even to that between New Voi-k and Albany, seeing that, by means of canals (which have been fostered by a grant of a million and a half from Government), produce from Upper Canada must always find its way cheaper to Montreal than to the head of the Hudson. Part of Maine is very mountamous, but fair levels have been found. 10. But the average cost of single iron railways in Massachusetts has been 10,000/. a mile (the import duty on British iron, the American being inferior and brittle, has added to the comparative cost), and by the adoption of a more economical system there is a wide field of competition open ; while, besides the 18 fl exports to Great Britain, a railway from Quebec to the Bay ol' Fundy would involve the supply of New Brunswick and parts of Maine — a vast district, and year by year increasing in importance. 11. The proposed continuous railway from Halifax to Quebec, though of national value, would not, in [Mr. Peniberton's estimation, advantageously com- pete with that through INlaine, in consequence of its great length and expense ; but the shorter line from St. Andrews to Woodstock and Quebec would not only do so, but immediately alFord a stimulus to New Brunswicik colonization and progress, while, trom its largo existing trailic, it would jiave the way to the profitable foi-mation of the greater trunk, to which it would bj a most valuable feeder, and would be innneiliately I'emuncrative to capitalists. At present, all the main supplies come from above Montreal, and from the Lake district of the Union. • 12. While Canada and New Brunswick possess vast capabilities of increase (in New Brunswick ahjne there are 1'2,000,00() acres of ungranted lands), the greatest goods' trailic Avill, according to Mv. I'emberton, consist in the sunnner transit by the lakes, the cannls, and the St. Lawrence, seeing tliat in New England less goes by railway to Boston than by water to New York. 13. In the United States, most of the lines have been constructed under the Government guarantee of a minimum dividend. But the profits have always far exceeded the return guarsinteed ; so that the public Treasury has never been called on to fulfd its obligation. 14. The works in British America, which have hitherto not only given con- stant employment to emigrants, but have been the origin of many ilourishing settlements, are the llideau and Welland Canals. On and in connection with these, many labourers have been enabled, in tlie course of two or three years, to save money and become owners and farmers of land. But the Kideau is finished, and the deepening of the NN'elland, and all other jmblic works, would, it was expected, be completed in tlie bcfjinning of October; everything, there- fore, coucuri'ing to ur^e on the undertakinos now under discussion. 15. Besides the railways spi ified, there are numerous promising matters of speculation and investment in L'pjx'r Canada. A railway, for exaniple, from Kingston to Lake Huron, would make a (liflerence of 1,000 miles in the distance between those important districts. Between Toronto and l^ake Huron, in the same manner, there is at present no road, while either a canal or a railway con- nection would be i)racticable, and would beyond anything, tend to develope the resources of the fertile lands of AVestcvn Caiuula. Jiytown, not long since a wilderness, has, by means of the Bidcau Canal, become a flourishing, peopled town. Greater effects might be produced by the same facilities in Canada West, which alone would sustain a population equal to that of all Great Britain. The imports of Canada have more than (puubupled since 181 (>. 16. Mr. Pemberton put in an estimate by Mr. Stevenscm, the chief Crown Land Clerk of Bytown, exhibiting the jirobable results of an experiment in the (colonization of a million acres ; the sum of which is, that the cost of this •piantity of land, at Is. Gd. jter aci'c, would be 7o,000A ; and adding to this the exi)ense of survey, wu have a primary outlay of !)0,000/. The charges of taking out 5,000 families, at 10/. each, their inq)Iements, rations for a year at 10s. per week, and clothing at '2s., and an allowance of .'JOs. each at the end of the year, would amount to '2-2l\/A)0l. ; while the value of their labour, at 2-2s. per week, might be estimated at 280,000/. 17. The present system of land sales in British America is held to be one of the greatest obstacles to a healthy colonization, and has driven many to the United States. All land sales aie under the control of tlie local Executive, who, untbrtunately, endeavour to get as mucii ready money as possible for the land, without regard to the interests of immigratiui or settlement — have imposed heavy duties on timber, and injuriously affected the timber trade, whieh has already the dilliculty of the Baltic commerce to c;''itend with — the duties levied being Ad. per cubic foot of white pine, and Id. per cubic foot of oak and red 19 f)ine — and thus encouraged squatting, in lieu of legitimate settlement. The ands are put up to auction at a minimum upset price of from 2s. to '20s. per acre ; out of whicli very little indeed goes to form a fund for improvement — or what we must regard as the grand picliniinary pbeparation — ^without which, land, at any price, is valueless ; and the Canada Company, too, owning vast territories on Lake Huron, at the same time dispose of large tracts at a price varying from 10s. to 2.5s. per acre in the wilderness. 18. There is nowihl land-tax or tax on absentees. Large grants of uncidti- vated lands are in the possession of individuals ; blocks of 20,000 to 40,000 acres have been sold at 6d. per acre, and remain still in a state of nature ; and thus in every possible way we find squatting, land-jobbing, and other detrimental practices. The great grievance of the clergy reserves has been somewhat modi- fied in consequence of the efforts and policy of Lord Sydenham ; but the town- ship corporations (in whose election the s(|uatters have an ecpial voice) mode- rately tax the colonists, while the whole proceeds of the land sales go into the common fund of the province — scarcely a pound being laid out in roads through the district of the timber trade — though they have lately begun to contribute to the construction of slides over the Pipids. Seeing that large tolls also are levied, it is obvious that a considerable j)ortion of the proceeds of sales should be 0 emigrants who reached New Brunswick in 184t), 9,000 landed at St. John, ^/iOO were fVoin Ireland, only 60 or 70 from England; 4,500 pro- ceeded to the United States ; 5,000 were absorbed locally. 3. The progress of emigration is as follows: — in 1843. 392 persons; 1844, 2,600; 1845, 6,000; 1846, 9,600. The progress of population during the last 65 years has been— 1783, 12,000; 1803,27,000; 1834,120,000; 1846, 200,000. [The population of the whole of tlxis vast colony being thus about equal to that of one of the parishes of London.] 4. The imports in 1842 amounted to 200,000/.; in 1846, to 600,000/., or 3/. per head of the population. 5. The area of New Brunswick is about 19,000,000 acres, of which not 7,000,000 are located; 12,000,000 ungranted; little more than half a million cleared, or l-37thof the whole; the quantity of land sold in 1846 was 48,995 acres. 6. Mr. Perley submits a table of particulars relative to the lands granted and ungranted to each colony ; but, as printed in this Blue-book, there is an evident uiistake of between two aiul three millions of acres in i-ach cokuun. We, there- fore, interpolate in this place a table, (lonqMJed fVom IMi-.l'erlev's official Ke])orts, which embraces the whole of these particulars, with additional information. ■I a 'Z 30 P Hi Cp^>5 n I o o ^^ ^ £ ^ g tR CO 00 CO <— o o ►- 03 tn Oi -4 ^ bS •^j o oi 00 4^ Kl 00 To O CO 8 Oi CO *» CO H-l if>' CO O 00 CO >- 00 CO hS as O |S CO Co V 10 1^ itk <-' o -~i 00 en ■>-» -a i« ■*_ •* o o ►- O ^J o» to A 00 O CO di « tnOO •^ OS 00 O OS OS CO »J K- >- o Is c to 03 CO CO CO g§ 00 To lo to _f- O OS »-l CO 00 00 OS ifk ©"to to 00 00 to o o o >^ 4^ o o 00 o ^i to 00 OS 4i- o o o 09 to 09 00 00 >— 1^ OS to CO CO to O 4k OS 00 tn to CO to CO c» to 0)0 p V 09 ft t-- to S 09 to to '- OS w 00 -t 1-1 CO 09 09 00 09 it^ 00 it^ "to to'i' OS 09 OS O to if> to ^ OS OS O 09 ifi>' 4*. ^J 09 to cn OS O h-* h- 1 3>d •o Wi tal nil fbl wl std on wd ani or iiiJ 31 > o § 1 7. The ordinary prices of provisions in New Brunswick are 308. per barrel of best flour ; bread, 2d. per lb. ; beef, 3d. per lb. ; mutton, 4d. per lb. ; potatoes, Is. 3d. per bushel. 8. The duties of the Emigration officers consist in inquiring into and redress- ing complaints as to treatment of emigrants, in aiding them with advice and assistance in procuring employment, and in registering and supplying the wants of employers of labour up the country. In the course of this duty he assists them also with occasional funds, and this out of his own pocket — the emigrant tax of 58. per head going into the general revenue. 9. The general management of emigration has greatly improved since the Passenger Act of 1842 was passed; but, nevertheless, he had to conduct thir- teen prosecutions last year, to conviction, for bad provisions and other offences ; this proportion forming one-tenth of the arrivals. 10. The sum of 40,000/. was last year granted for local road-making, being about one-third of the revenue, which is principally derived from customs ; and as, during the some period, there was extensive employment connected with ship-building, laying of gas and water pipes, and erection of saw-mills, a thou- sand families readily found employment. 11. An emigrant commences with the use of the spade, earning 25s. a month, which is advanced to 51. or more as he learns to wield the axe ; thus, in the course of a year or two, he may save money to buy a farm of 100 acres, and gradually to become independent. By contract or piece-work, the road-maker may earn 25s. per week. At the end of three or four years, a settler may afford to employ one man ; in seven or eight years he may perhaps hire a few more, on the present system. 12. Two settlements — one English and one Irish — the " Harvey " and the " Teetotal," had been formed within the last twelve years ; the former in 1835, by 44 families, who, last year, gathered 15,000 bushels of grain and other crops ; the other, by 35 families, in 1842, who realised 7,000 bushels; the aggregate value of buildings and crops being now 4,000Z. and 2,000Z. respectively. They were all paupers at the commencement — had " blazed " their way into the wil- derness; and now, after twelve years, the Harvey-road has been extended right and left between Fredericton and St. Andrews. 13. Tliere are gravelled mail-coach roads between St. John, Fredericton, and Quebec, and from Miramichi to Fredericton. The road from Dalhousie to Fredericton is 225 miles ; as the crow flies, only 100. Heavy goods proceed by water ; the river is a mile wide at Fredericton, and the St. John and its tribu- taries embrace 4,000 miles of navigation. The roads and clearances have mainly been carried on by piece-work. There is no fund for clearing lands or for " preparation ;" out of 2s. 6d. per acre, there is indeed no margin for a pre- paration fund. 14. The cliurches and schools are not paid for by the legislature, but the gaols are; a gaol to every village; 12,000/. is voted annually for education. The district, when it can afford it, builds a school, and gives 20/, for a master, when the Government adds 20/. 15. Lands are generally disposed of at the auction minimum price of 2s. 6d. sterling an acre. At present, the purchase is often made out of first savings; the owner continues to hire himself out for wages ; the second season, perhaps, he gathers a crop, chops down some trees, and slielters himself in a log-hut, and is safe. But the system of land sales, the application of the land fund, the ob- jectionable practice of making roads by statute labour — four to twenty days' work being supplied by proprietors, according to their means — all these things deter and repel settlers of a superior class, and all require re-organisation ; and, in order to do this, the local legislature would gladly listen to Imperial recommendations. Application must be made for an auction by any one desir- ous of purchasing a particular lot ; he must pay for the survey, if unsurveyed, or 3d. per acre, before the same is put up. Ihe sale must be advertised one month before the time fixed: and the purchase-money, aller all. goes into 22 \i 'M the general revenue, and not for roads or improvementg. There is no wild laud tax. 16. All this narrow aud liniitod colonization would receive an expansion and stimulus from " reproductive " works — embracing, pre-eminently, railways, as no tolls are levied on ordinary roads and bri(lis line passes througli one of the richest and most highly cultivated districts of North America, and would, with the exception of the short passage across the bay, ojien up a con- tinuous and immediately-remuneraUvc railway connection with Canada, by way of the St. Andrews line ; serving also for the rapid transmission of troops and stores through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, and especially to the United States frontier.] 20. Tli:' indirect would be still greater than the direct effects of railway con- structions in the employment of labour. The land in the neighbourhood of the line would increase from the value of 2s. to at least 20s. per acre, and for every labourer employed upon the line, at least four would be employed in the fi)rnia- tion of settlements growing up on either side ; in the foundation of towns ; the Of Jiay at aj 6. l>ort| coasf tions mllcj iiostl 7. Hostl HaliJ 8. raihvl cliarj 23 ! forma- irns, the oonstruction of roads and bridge 3, of forges, foundries, and furnaces ; and the erection and use of saw-niills. '21. The means of intercommunication would give a powerful stimulus to the fis*li(!ries, the coast on the Bay of St. Lawrence being peculiarly fitted for fishing colonies, and calculated to give inexhaustible employment to fishermen from England and Scotland. The north-east coast is jfonerally level, the soil sandy and argillaceous, admirably suited for the growth of wheat, and nowhere rising more than 300 feet above the level of the sea. Wheat in ltestig