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1 2 3

SHORT SKETCH

OF THK

PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA,

TOU

THE INFORMATION OF THE LABOURING POOR
^THROUGHOUT ENGLAND.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

THOUGHTS ON COLONIZATION.

ADDRESSED TO

THE LABOURING POOR, THE CLERGY, SELECT VESTRIES, AND OVERSEERS
OF THE POOR, AND OTHER PERSONS, INTEREs'^^D IN THE ADMI-
NISTRATION OF PARISH RELIEF IN TH» DIFFERENT
PARISHES IN ENGLAND.

By henry JOHN BOULTON, Esq.,

^ the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple,

HIS majesty's SOLICITOR-GENERAL FOR THK
PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA,

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

MDCCCXXVI.

4P^

x^*^^
&.,-^

LONDON 1

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,

Northuraberland-court.

A^ERTISEMENT.

My object, in publishing tfce following statis-
tical sketch of Upper Canada, being to afford
information to the lower classes, I have con-
sidered it necessary, in order to ensure in any
degree their confidence in the accuracy of the
facts stated, that the name of the Author
should je known, that he may be held re-
sponsible for the correctness of his statements,
otherwise I should not have obtruded my
name upon the public, fearing censure more
than anticipating applause.

As my desire, however, has been solely the
amelioration of the condition of a large body

B 2

¥•*

of my own suiFering countrymen, I trust I
shall experience the charitable consideration
of those in the higher classes of society, who
may chance to read what I have said on the
subject of colonization. ^

Mv«

Hin i mli i ijuuum i

THOUGHTS

^w I wf

^f^'

COLONIZATION.

Observing the state of pauperism which ex-
ists in many parishes that I have visited since
my return to England from Upper Canada,
and reflecting upon the facifi^ of the im-
provement of the poor in those parishes, if
they knew how to improve and had the means
of bettering their condition ; I have thought
that I could not better employ a few hours,
than in opening to their view a country to
which I have emigrated with advantage, in
order that they might avail themselves of
the great benefits which I have seen accrue
to the poorest colonists, by pursuing the plan

here proposed. My observations exclusively
apply to the case of able-bodied labourers,
for whose labour no real demand exists, and
who are consequently thrown upon the parish.
The love of one's country is certainly a
virtue of the highest order, but the love of
one's children and family is one of still greater
value; and, therefore, I ask which is the
more worthy an Englishman? to live with
his family in the village in which he was born,
dependent upon the necessarily parsimonious
hand of a parish officer, or to emigrate to a
healthy and flourishing Colony, under the
same crown, where his usefulness will demand
and ensure that respect which is due to his
nature, and where he will command by his
own exertions a much more plentiful supply
of the necessaries of life.

The poor-laws have a demoralizing influ-
ence, and an able-bodied Englishman ought
to be ashamed of taking advantage of them, if
it be possible for him to maintain his own in-
dependence by his labour ; but if no means of
maintaining it exist, he is necessarily justified

•

'i^^B

•

tfrtfaft

in preferring the degradation which such a
resort imposes on him, to the alternative of
absolute want. It is stated that paupers have
often times brought tliemselves within the
law for the purpose of obtaining the usual
relief. But how great a sacrifice of self-
respect, and of every just and sound feeling,
must be made before such a claim could be
preferred !

In Upper Canada, the emigrant, if not
so habituated to idleness as to neglect the
advantages the country holds out to him, can
in two or three years earn sufficient money to
purchase fifty acres of freehold land. He
then becomes a juror, an elector of his own
representative in Parliament, whose vote is
canvassed with as much care as that of the
squire in the parish he left behind him ; and
finds himself respected and looked up to, as
one of the yeomanry of the country. He
sees his family growing up around him, all
looking forward with a full assurance of
equal independence when they arrive at man's
estate. This is no picture of my own fancy,

it is what I have seen delineated a hundred
times in real life.

If paupers had no means of improving
their condition, and were bound by misfortune
to endure these ills, I trust I should be the
last man, who would wantonly insult suffer-
ing humanity ; but when people in this state
will absurdly talk of the hardships attending
emigration, and the violence which the thought
does to their feelings, I must confess I can
feel little compassion for such folly.

I must, however, do the majority of those to
whom I have spoken, the justice to say, that
they have manifested a strong desire to go to
Upper Canada, or anywhere else, were a ray of
hope was held out to them of bettering either
themselves or their families by the change,
and have complained of the want of means to
remove themselves to any of the colonies.

And this brings me to say a word or two
to the vestries, clergy, and overseers of the
poor in the different parishes.

" Increase and multiply and replenish the
earth," says the great Author of the Uni-

lin

verse; but the crowded state of the popula-
tion of this part of the Island, 1ms induced a
state of society incompatible with this great
command. ^

People in moderate circumstances are de-
terred from marrying, for fear of bringing
both themselves and their offspring to penury
and want. And those of better fortunes are
more solicitous to form a sort of matrimonial
partnership, founded upon pecuniary equality,
than an alliance cemented by mutual love and
affection, which are the only sure guarantees
of future felicit}'.

Among the lower classes matrimony is dis-
couraged by the more opulent, lest they
should in the end be called upon to maintain
their progeny. And though I am no enemy
to " love in a cottage,^' yet I must confess,
that love under a hedge is but a chilly dal-
liance ; and therefore I cannot blame those
who discourage marriage amongst persons
who have no visible means of supporting
their families.

This state of society is not a matter of

astonishment, it is the natural consequence of
the wealth and prosperity of the nation, com-
bined with our insular situation. That it
exists nhere can be no doubt, and that a re-
medy for the jvils arising out of it is loudly
called for, is equally obvious, and what that
remedy must be, I consider equally apparent,
namely, emigration. To replenish the earth
is to emigrate from those portions of it where
the inhabitants have already increased and
multiplied, and, therefore, instead of enacting
poor-laws, to support a supei-fluous popula-
tion, which, in spite of all the miseries at-
tendant upon the prospective pauperism of
the offspring of indigent marriages, still con-
tinues to increase, means should be adopt-
ed to give vent to that part of our population
which otherwise will become burthensome.

This I consider to be not merely essential
in a political point of view to the well-being
and prosperity of the nation, but in a moral
^nd religious sense, to be the duty of those
who have the management of the })oc)r con-
fided to them

^-4

When Abram and Lot returned out of
Egypt, and found, from the strifes among
their herdsmen, that their flocks and herds
were so great, that the land was not able to
bear them, '* Abram said unto Let, let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and
thee, and between my herdsmen and thy
herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the
whole land before thee? separate thyself, I
pray J;hee, from me. And Lot lifted up his
eyes and beheld all the Plain of Jordan, that
it was well watered everywhere Then Lot
chose him all the Plain of Jordan ; and Lot
journeyed east; and they separated them-
selves one from the other,'*'

And this practice has been adopted in all
succeeding ages of the world to the present
time, and by no nation more successfully,
either in a political, moral, or religious sense,
than our own.

But though we have done much, I think
we have not done any thing like enough.

When a strife arose among the herdsmen
of Abram and Lot, we do not find penal laws*^

5''

enacted, to repress and punish evils, aridng,
as a natural consequence, from " the land
not being able to bear them, that they might
dwell together," but we find that the great
patriarch proposed the natural remedy for
the natural disorder, viz., to remove the
cause by a friendly separation ; and Lot chose
him all the " plain of Jordan, and journeyed
eastward."

The same crisis has long ago arisen in
England. The population is so great, " that
the land is not able to bear them ;' ' and with
a view to alleviate the consequent distress
which has followed, I humbly but strenu-
ously recommend the poor of this country to
choose them the fertile valley of the St. Law-
rence, which they will find " well watered
everywhere.''

No man, I ipprehend, will venture to deny
that nine-tenths of the crime which we see
daily punished in this kingdom arises from
the dehnquents having no visible means of
obtaining an honest livelihood ; and therefore
it is the duty of those, who have it in their

•

power to aid, by their countenance and sup-
port, by their influence as well as money, in
removing those unfortunate people, who from
their poverty are placed in temptation they
cannot withstrnd, to a situation where they
may have an opportunity of supporting them-
selves and their families, without committing
offences against God and their own con-
sciences, or being a burthen instead of a bene-
fit to the country they live in.

Giving a distressed man pecuniary relief is
unquestionably an act of charity, but giving
him wholesome advice, and using one's in-
terest to place him in a situation where he
will no longer need such assistance, is a cha-
rity of a higher order. The one is tempo-
rary, the other permanent ; the one removes
a present temptation to commit crime, the
other places the object above it.

What vestry, if they knew that by paying
ten guineas for the passage of a labourer in
the prime of life to any of the colonies, he
would be saved from the commission of crimes
that would bring him to an ignominious death.

would hesitate in affording that sum, or twice
the amount? And, although they cannot
foretel such a catastrophe as about to befall
any man by name, yet they must daily ob-
serve persons out of employment leading dis-
solute Hves, and evidently marching in the
high road to ruin; and it is their duty to
arrest their progress in vice, if in their power,
by putting them in the situation of earning
an honest livelihood.

This is charity, and charity of the highest
order; a charity which I hope to see exer-
cised by some of the leading men of this coun-
try, both in and out of Parliament ; and I am
proud to think, that upon most occasions
there seems to be no lack of this inestimable
quahty amongst my countrymen.

We have public meetings and petitions to
Parliament for the suppression of slavery,
Bible Societies, and innumerable others for
the amelioration of mankind ; and shall the
people of England be at vast expense in send-
ing missionaries to teach the savage to adore
the great Author of his existence, and not

aid their fellow-christians, who are in need of
such employment, to accompany them, to re-
claim the forest, and teach its inhabitants the
arts of civil life ?

Is it not the duty of this great nation to
extend to the uttermost parts of the earth, by
all legitimate means not injurious to herself,
the advantages of those civil and religious in-
stitutions which have placed her on the pin-
nacle of human greatness ?

What a subject of proud contemplation for
Englishmen is the continent of America ! The
North speaking our language, adopting our
manners and customs, and enjoying the full
benefits of those principles of free govern-
ment which they inherited from their parent
state ; and the South introducing them, as far
as the barbarous state to which Spain and the
inquisition has reduced it will permit. Can
there be a more striking proof of the im-
portant consequence? attendant on English
colonization ?

Example is far beyond precept, and, there-
fore, neither the liberal and tree principles of

our government, nor the pure doctrines of
our reformed religion, can be so effectually
spread by the publications teeming from our
press, as by the swarms of people bred in
those principles annually issuing from this

prolific hive.

« Bring up the child in the way wherein
he should go, and when he is old he will not
depart from it." Wherever the eagles of an-
cient Rome spread their victorious wings,
they brought in their train her language and
her laws; of which modern Europe bears
ample testimony at this day. And when the
greatness of the British Empire shaU, in the
natural course of the rise and fall of nations,
have passed away, will not the memory of
England be cherished in the western hemi-
sphere as the great parent of all their civil
and religious institutions, whose language,
arts, and sciences shall then have spread over
that vast continent, " as the waters cover the

sea.

But, if we look at colonization only in a
selfish point of view, and merely as a means

of improving the condition of those who re-
main at home, and as a mode of reheving the
wealthy from the burthen of providing for
the poor, no other method, I feel satisfied,
can be pointed out, which will so essentially
attain both these objects.

If Colonization Societies* were formed

* While the above was in the press, I observed the
following paragraphs in the Morning Post of the 14th
of February and 6th of March : —

" Two hundred and sixty colonists, chiefly Scotch
families, sent out by the Columbian A^iculturist
Association, arrived at Caraccas about the end of
December."

" The Countess of Morley, with two hundred and
fifty agriculturists and settlers for Rio de la Plata,
will shortly sail from Plymouth. This is the third
ship the Rio de la Plata Agricultural Society have
chartered to convey settlers. The settlement is about
two hundred and fifty miles from Buenos Ayres."

These emigrants with their capitals, by the same
exertions used by British, instead of South Ame-
rican Colonization Societies, might probably have
been induced to remove to Upper Canada, a climate
much more congenial to their constitutions ; thereby
adding strength to that part of the empire, instead

throughout the kingdom, and a proper im-
pulse given to what, I am convinced from
personal inquiry, is the natural inclination of
the poor, viz., to remove to some of our
healthy English colonies, I think the Poor-
laws might be gradually repealed.

The following outline of a bill for further-
ing the object, I would suggest as proper to
be brought into Parliament.

And let it be observed, that the acceptance
of the advantages held out by it is optional,
and therefore such a law could do no harm.
And ihe operation of it must necessarily be so
gradual, that there will be no danger of any
serious evil arising, before Parliament would
have an opportunity of remedying it.

HEADS OF THE PEOPOSED BILL.

1st. Repeal so much of the laws now in
force for the rehef of the poor, as enable
parish officers to grant relief to persons not
of being- now for ever lost to the Parent State, and
laying, Vrliaps, the foundation for many of their
friends folio wins: them.— H. J. B.

■«!»

'^^

•If

«s>

afflicted with any permanent disability to la-
bour.

2nd. Empower the select vestries to raise
money upon the security of the poors'-rates,
redeemable by annuity in a given number of
years, (thirty, perhaps, would be a reasonable
period,) and to apply this fund in aid of any
parishioner representing himself as unable to
procure work, and therefore desirous of emi-
grating to some of the colonies to be named
in the bill, provided that it shall not be com-
pulsory on the vestry to afford this aid, un-
less they are satisfied of the inability of the
applicant to procure work in the parish at
such a rate as will enable him to maintain his
family, with an appeal to two justices, in case

of refusal.

3rd. That upon the vestry being satisfied of
the propriety of his application, they shall au-
thorize the overseer of the poor to give him a
ticket to an agent at some sea-port, to provide
a passage, with necessary provisions and cloth-
ing for the voyage.

The North American colonies, I appre-

C 2

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[lend, are the best adapted for this purpose,
as well for the colonist as for the parish, the
voyage thither being less expensive than that
to the Cape of Good Hope, or New South
Wales, 8^c.

3d. When any person has received a ticket
or this passage, and has gone on board, he
should lose his settlement in the parish, and
never after be entitled to relief there.

4th. Upon proof being made to the satis-
faction of the justices of the quarter-sessions,
in the county where the parish shall be situate,
that no parish relief has been granted, by the
parish applying, to any person other than
those before excepted, for the space of two
years last past, the chairman shall certify the
same, and cause the certificate to be entered
with the clerk of the peace, whereupon the
poor laws shall be considered as repealed in
that parish, but not to affect the loans raised
on the poor-rates.

5th. When the poor-laws cease to exist in
any given parish, let the vestry be empowered
to raise by assessment, fiom time to time,

what may be necessary for the support of a
poor-house, where none shall be received ex-
cept the persons before excepted, namely,
those afflicted with any permanent disability
to labour, whether from age or infirmity.

6th. Also let the vestry have a discretion-
ary power to aid occasional applicants to emi-
grate to the colonies, if they see fit.

The parishes would thus be enabled, as it
were, to redeem their poor's-rates by one gross
payment, in the same manner as individuals
can redeem their land-tax, and the country
would eventually be relieved from this into-
lerable burden. Should some such plan as the
one just suggested, be carried into effect, and
a sufficient number emigrate to equalize the
number of hands with the quantum of work,
so that each person in the community can ob-
tain a fair remuneration for his labour, the
whole population of the country will regain its
native vigour, and independence of character.

The aged and infirm parent will be sustained
in the decline of life by the child, the natural

prop of decaying years, — the unfortunate or
crippled brother or sister will be assisted by the
more prosperous and healthy ; and the natural
affections of the heart, no longer chilled by
adversity, will resume their wonted influence
over the mind, and sons and daughters, bro-
thers and sisters will no longer endure the
sight of their own blood languishing in a
workhouse, while they are enjoying comfort

at home.

Giving money to the poor, and founding
charitable institutions for their reception, when
grown old and infirm, is adding to the evil,
unless emigration keeps pace with the increase
of population.

Half the money laid out in promoting colo-
nization, would reduce the population to a
wholesome level with the want.; and demanas
of each other, and the exuberant part, instead
of constituting an excrescence, communicating
disease throuorhout the system, would become
a healthy hmy, m its turn, performing all
those functions for which nature designed it.

The young and the healthy being inde«

»,

pendent, would be enabled to maintain tlieiv
own infirm and aged relatives, and the m-
mates of the almshouse would be gradually

diminished.

Emigration will not only be efFectual, but
lasting in its benefits, because when the popu-
lation of the country has found its proper
level, and the advantages accruing to both
parties, those who remove, and those who stay
at home, have been felt, the labouring class
will never again remain long enough without
regular employment, to become so far reduced
as'' to be incapable of avaiUng themselves of
this resource. But if they should occasion-
ally find themselves in such distress, the
more wealthy having also seen the advan-
tages of the system, would be more willing
to lend their aid in furthering their inten-
tion.

Scotland presents a practical example of

the truth of my hypothesis.

If the population is too great now, what
will it bo at the close of the present century,
if it increases for the next as it has done for

the last seventy years*? London has attained
a magnitude vvhich is hardly credible to fo-

♦ In 1750, the popul.^«^ion of Eng-land and Wales
was estimated, according to the Parliamentary i eturns,
at 6,467,000.

In 1820, that population had increased to 12,218,500.
In 1749, which I take, because I have not been able
to find any returns for 1750, and which I presume can-
not be far different, the sum expended for the lelief of
paupers amounted only to 689,971/., while in 1819,
the amount expended for the like purpose, in time of
profound peace also, be it remembered, had increased
to the frightful sum of 7,329,594/.

Upon a return to a state of peace, it will be seen,
that the number of men discharged from the naval and
military services, and from other concomitant esta-
blishments, threw so vast a portion of hands out of
employment, that crime instantly increased more than
one-third.

In 1815, the year in which the war terminated, the
committals for orune were 7,818. In 1816, the first of
general peace, the committals increased rapidly to
9,091. But in the following year, when it may be
presumed *hese persons had expended whatever allow-
ances had heen made them on their discharge, and
when they were obliged to mingle in the general
avocations of the rest of the community, and, of

•s

reigners, and almost every town in the country
is extending its limits in the same proportion.
At what precise time, therefore, and by what

course, increased, by their numbers, the labouring*
classes, we find that commitments for crime had in-
creased to 13,932, and this appalling catalogfue has
shown no symptom of decline, but has occasionally
advanced to upwards of 14,000.

Neither has a state of peace in any degree tended
to diminish the amount of poor's-rates or the numbers
to be relieved. In 1812, a year in which extraordi-
nary military exertions were made, and not without
a corresponding" degree of glory to the British arms,
our naval and military expenditure, exclusive of subsi-
dies, amounted to no less than 49,740, 1 12?. In the
same year, wheat, of which is composed the staff of
life, was higher than it had ever been before, or has
ever been since ; it rose that year to the enormous
average price of 125s. 5d, per quarter, and in this
year the sum expended for the relief of the poor was
6,636,105/, while in 1822, when the naval and military
expenditure was reduced to 13,900,437/., and the price
of wheat averaged 43.<f. 3fl. per quarter, and when our
foreign trade and manufactures were in a most flou-
rishing condition, the sum expended for the relief of
the poor amounted to 5,773,096/., which taking into
consideration the price of bread, ahnost the only footl

specific means are we to look for a suspension
of this increase ? Are we to wait for some
dreadful and appalling calamity which shall
thin our people like a pestilence, or shall we
not rather use the gentle remedy of gradually
transplanting the too luxurious growth, before
the whole becomes choked by its own exube-
rance ?

Supernumerary labourers are like the dog
in the manger, they cannot get work at a fair
price themselves, and they prevent others
from getting it too.

For example ; suppose a farmer has twenty
acres of wheat to crop, requiring four men to
do it in season, and there are precisely four

of the English pauper, must be considered as indicative
of a material increase of pauperism in the country.

In the years 1817, 18, 19, a period of considerable
distress in the manufacturing districts, the sums ex-
pended for the relief of the poor, were nearer eight
than seven millions, upon an average, of each year.

Thus we see that whether in peace or in war, in
commercial prosperity or adversity, pauperism, with
Jts loathsome catalogue of crime, keeps pace with the
increase of population.

men to be had ; the demand is in exact pro-
portion to the labour offered, and, conse-
quently, the latter will be sure of meeting its
fair reward. We will call three shillings per
day a reasonable rate of wages, and suppose
the farmer about to engage the four men on
these terms, when up comes a supernumerary,
who has been unable to procure employment,
and is anxious for a job. He immediately
says, *' Employ me, and I will gladly take
two shillings per day instead of three," of
course the farmer accepts his offer to the ex-
clusion of one of the four, who immediately
stands in the same predicament with the new
comer, and rather than be left without a
place, makes the same offer, which is also ac-
cepted, to the exclusion of one of his com-
panions, and thus the changes are rung upon
the whole four, and their wages reduced one-
third, by the introduction of the fifth man
more than was required.

This is an age for doing away old restric-
tions, and if it be found beneficial to relieve
our trade and commerce from those shackles,

surely the population of the country cannot
but improve by having their locomotive facul-
ties fully restored. There should neither be
restraint upon a man's motions, nor bounty
upon his idleness, both of which are conco-
mitants of the poor-laws. Let labourers go
where they please, and if they cannot get
work in one parish, let them go freely to
another, and if they cannot get employment
at home, let them go to some Other part of
the Empire, which, when the means are pro-
vided them, they will readily do, especially if
there is no parish relief to maintain them in
idleness.

Lest what I have said with regard to the
poor-laws should be misconstrued, and lest it
should be supposed that I am wishing to raise
discontent among the lower classes, I beg to
add, that the restraints which the poor-laws
impose upon the objects of their charitable
provisions appear to me to be quite neces-
sary as a part of the system, though I do, in
common, I beheve, with most Englishmen,
heartily wish such laws had never been en-

^19

acted. They tend to counteract the laws of
Nature, which point to colonization as the
proper, legitimate, and only relief which a too
crowded population is capable of.

Colonization is as natural a part of the
economy of a nation, as the settling of chil-
dren in the world is a part of the duty of those
who bring them into it. And it adds strength
to the parent state, in the same manner as
the settlement and flourishing condition of
one's children in a county, gives weight and
influence to the head of the family.

Placing the gross amount of the poor's
rates at £5,000,000 annually, which is below
the average, what results might not be an-
ticipated by employing one-fifth thereof to
the purposes of colonization ?

Such an appropriation of one-fifth of that
sum, would be adequate to the settling in
Upper Canada 50,000 paupers annually, sup-
plying them with a year's provisions, neces-
sary farming utensils, and a cow to each
family, thereby enriching that fine portion of
the empire by their industry, and creating an

increased demand for the manufactures of the

parent state.

If the system were carried on for a few
years, persons emigrating to Canada would
find so many of their English neighbours
there, that they would scarcely perceive their
change of residence. The mother country
would be relieved of a burden, and the
colony be enriched by the accession of such
a valuable population. In ten years, half a
million of persons will have been removed
from a state of interminable poverty and
pauperism, to independence and prosperity,
creating an increased demand for our manu-
factures, instead of remaining a clog to the
industry of the nation.

It has been ascertained by actual expen-
ment, that twenty pounds a head, including
men, women, and chUdren, is adequate to
placing settlers on their lands in Upper-
Canada, and furnishing them with a year's
provisions, necessary utensils, and a cow for
each family, which is doing the thing in a com-
fortable manner for the emigrant. But so de-

iil

cided an advocate am I for emigration, and
so certain am I of the benefits to accrue to
the pauper by the change of situation, that I
do not hesitate to recommend their removing
to Canada, if they can barely obtain sufficient
to pay their passage out, leaving all their
future prospects to chance. Half the former
sum will accomplish this. They will be sure
of obtaining employment, and, therefore,
though they will be longer in getting settled
on their own lands, they will eventually be-
come proprietors, if they continue steady and
and industrious.

In the spring of the year ships begin to
leave Liverpool for Quebec in ballast, to
bring home timber, and passages may be had,
I believe, at that port between the 1st of April
and the 1st of August, for two guineas a head,
exclusive of provisions. Two months' pro-
visions should be laid in to provide for acci-
dents, though they might anticipate a voyage
of five or six weeks. I believe a grown per-
son may reckon upon procuring a passage
from Liverpool to Quebec for seven guineas,
including: provisions. . ,

There . are numerous steam-boats plying
between Quebec and Montreal, a distance of
180 miles, which they perform generally in
twenty-four hours. Deck passengers are car-
ried in these boats that distance for five shil-
lings each, exclusive of provisions, and cabin
passengers for thirty shillings, including pro-
visions.

From Montreal to Prescott is 120 miles,
and brings the emigrant into a flourishing
part of Upper Canada, where he may begin
to inquire for employment if he thinks pro-
per, or he can easily get a passage either
in steam-boats or schooners to the more
western portions of the province. The jour-
ney from Montreal to Prescott is chiefly per-
formed by the lower class of people in some
of the numerous open boats, of from three to
thirty tons burden, which are constantly ply-
ing with freight up and down the river St.
Lawrence. The central parts of the province
above Kingston, I would recommend to the
emigrant, on account of the soil and the
temperature of the climate.

A Short Sketch of the Province o/Upper
Canada, for the Use of the poorer Class
of Persons disposed to emigrate thither.

SITUATION.

The organized part of the province of Upper
Canada stretches along the River St. Law-
rence, and Lakes Ontario and Erie, to an
extent of about 600 miles, and varies from
50 to 150 miles in breadth. Its north-eastern
boundary is a day's ride from Montreal,
whither vessels of 250 tons burden fre-
quently ascend from the ocean, and the
southern frontier is accessible from New
York, in from six to twelve days' journey, by
land or by water, varying according to the
situation of the place in Canada one wishes to

arrive at.

CLIMATK.

The climate of Upper Canada may properly
be termed temperate, and I think would
never be found oppressive by an Englishman
in either season. The clothing necessary for
rendering a seat on the outside of a stage-
coach comfortable during the winter in Eng-
land, would be found amply sufficient for re-
sisting the ordinary cold of an Upper Canada
winter's journey ; and the heat in summer is
always accompanied by genial breezes, which
render it elastic, and prevent its becoming
sultry. The nights are, with but few excep-
tions, cool and reviving after the hottest days.
The best practical criterion, however, per-
haps, is the dress of the inhabitants, which,
varying according to the seasons, differs in no
material respect from that of the correspond-
ing classes in England.

SOIL.

The soil of Upper Canada is not surpassed
by that of any other country of equal ex-

:35

tent in either licmispherc ; and it will be
more intelligible to the class of persons for
whom I am writing to say, that all the grass,
grains, vegetables, fruits, and other produc-
tions which thrive in the open air in England,
may be cultivated to perfection in Upper
Canada. Clover and timothy are the most
common grasses, and are, perhaps, the most
profitable, as requiring least labour in their
cure and cultivation. Wheat, rye, oats, pease,
barley, buckwheat, tares, and Indian corn,
are commonly cultivated. Flax and hemp
may be and often are cultivated in great
abundance. The crops vary more, perhaps,
according to the labour bestowed and mode
of agriculture adopted by the farmer, than in
proportion to the fertility of the soil.

I have known six quarters and a half of
wheat grown off an acre of good medium
land, with the application of ordinarily good
English husbandry ; but I think half that
crop would be nearer the average with fair
culture. Hay varies from one to two and a
half tons per acre, and chiefly from the like

D 2

causes. All kinds of building timber, wcmkI
for cabinet and joiner's work, &c., abound in
all parts of the country.

LABOUR.

In Upper Canada labour is the staple capital
of the country in its fullest sense. A man
of any or no profession, trade, or handicraft,
if sober and industrious, without a farthing
to begin with, may set his foot in Upper
Canada, with a stout heart and firm step,
fully convinced that in four or five years he
will become an independent freeholder, and
in a few years more, require the aid of la-
bourers in his turn to carry on his more ex-
tended operations.

This is not a fanciful picture of what may
be done, it is a bare statement of what is
frequently accomplished in Upper Canada
by the better class of poor emigrants of all
countries. One instance out of many just
presents itself to my recollection, of an emi-
grant from Yorkshire, who upon landing
from a schooner in the harbour of York, the

cai)ital of Upper Canada, casually diroctccl his
steps to my house, and requested me to give
him something for himself and family. He
was a robust, stout man, and I felt some de-
gree of mortification at hearing a person,
who by his looks seemed to bid defiance to
ordinary adversity, ask charity, and I re-
monstrated with him for degrading himself,
by asking as an act of charity for that small
pittance, which a few hours* honest industry
would have entitled him to demand as a right.
The poor fellow had feeling, and shewed, by
the tear starting from his eye, that he was no
common beggar, and was as conscious of his
own tempoary degradation as I was, and ex -
cused himself by telling me, that he had landed
from the vessel which had just entered the
harbour— had paid his last shilling for his
passage — was an emigrant, as his dialect
amply confirmed, fresh from Yorkshire-
knew nobody and wanted a meal for himself
and his family— was willing to work, but had
had no time for seeking employment. I gave
him what I considered proper instructions for
his future conduct, and a small sum to supply

his present wants. I saw nothing more of
him for nine months, when he entered my
yard one day with a load of oats for sale. I
went into the granary to see them, and recog-
nised my Yorkshire acquaintance, with a
countenance bespeaking at once gratitude
for the trifle I had given him, and pride
in the consciousness of his present inde-
pendence. I bought his oats, and was much
pleased to see how industry alone in such a
country was sure to be attended by com-
petence.

The man, by his own account, had taken
a farm to till upon shares, which is a mode
commonly adopted in Upper Canada, and
his proportion that year had placed him in
comparative affluence.

The usual terms of cropping farms on
shares in Upper Canada, where the tenant
has no team of his own, is to allow him
half the produce of the arable land, and
one-third of the hay, the landlord furnishing
all farming-stock, seed, utensils, and a house
for the tenant to live in. Cropping land
upon shares is a plan which I would earncstlv

II nil 1 1. .11 mia

recommend to practical agriculturists, of little
or no capital when first they arrive in Canada.
Farms are to be had in abundance upon these
terms, in all parts of the country, and if emi-
grants turned their attention to them more
than they do, I am satisfied they would find
it mjre for their advantage. An emigrant
may take a farm for one or more years as it
suits his views; and therefore it is obvious
that if he does nothing more than maintain
himself and family by his year's crop, he will
have gained a year's experience, and have
acquired a knowledge of the country, which
will lead him to the selection of such a resi-
dence as will best answer his expectation. A
man should never be too hasty in fixing him-
self permanently, for when once estabUshed,
it is very difficult to get ones money again
without long credit, and thereby men are fre-
quently prevented from going to a part of
the country most agreeable to them, and dis-
contentedly remain in a neighbourhood they

do not like.

If an emigrant is a single man, I would

recommend his hiring himself to some one of
the best farmers for a twelvemonth, to ac-
quire a knowledge of the practice of the
country, and look around him, and gain ex-
perience. He will always find farmers in-
clined to hire labourers, provided they will
take some agricultural productions for their
wages, which emigrants are generally averse
to doing, and thereby the labourer often loses
a good place with a respectable farmer, from
whom he would gain more useful information
than his wages would be worth, from a foolish
determination to take notliing but money in
exchange for his work, and they will rather
go to some of the towns and work as occa-
sional labourers, at buildings, public works,
or as menial servants, for less wages, than
remain with farmers and get grain or cattle
for their hire. The consequence is that, from
a want of regular employment, they become
unsteady, frequent public houses, and acquire
dissolute habits, which often ends in entire
worthlessness.

After a man has cropped a farm upon

shares, or lived with a farmer for a twelve-
month, he will be enabled to form some idea
of what ought to he his future conduct. If
he has a year's clothing and provisions in
hand, which he may have, if he has been in-
dustrious and frugal, he may purchase upon
credit such a portion of wood land, as he
thinks he can eventually pay for, and during the
ensuing year clear and put into crop sufficient
to feed his family and a little to spare, to pay
the first year's interest on his purchase.

The usual mode of selling land in Canada
to people of no property, is to give them
from fi\e to seven, sometimes ten, and even
fifteen years' credit, paying the interest of six
per cent, annually, and after the first two
or three years have elapsed, a portion of the
principal, to be agreed upon between the
parties. Proper instruments of writing are
of course interchanged, binding each party to
perform his contract. The security the seller
has, consists in the daily improvement of the
property which he sold, but for which he stiU
withholds the title, by the cultivation of the

purchaser ; and the purchaser must be care-
ful, either that the seller is responsible, in
point of capital, to make good his engage-
ment, or require a deed of it in the first in-
stance, giving a mortgage for the safety of
the vender, all which is effected at a trifling
cost, frequently not exceeding two guineas,
which is generally paid by the seller in equal
portions with the purchaser.

For single emigrant families, I consider it
more advantageous to buy land in a neigh-
bourhood where there are roads already made,
by which they can go at once to their respec-
tive habitations, than to seek a grant thereof
from the crown, in a situation remote from
other inhabitants, without roads, and devoid
of all those advantages attendant upon prior
settlements.

If a large body of emigrants come together,
and can get a grant of land in a block, whither
they may join in cutting a road, and where
they at once form a neighbourhood of them-
selves, it may be very advisable for them to
avail themselves of his Majesty's bounty ; for

a solitary family, however, to go five or six
miles into the woods, away from any human
being, is appalling enough to an American, who
is accustomed to the wilderness, but for an
European emigrant, it is too much for ordi-
nary resolution to encounter ; and the diffi-
culties attendant on such a situation, are such
as none but an experienced woodsman can sur-
mount. Besides, the settler must pay certain fees
to the government for his grant, (which in those
remote situations, where alone land can now be
obtained from the government, in the ordinary
course,) added to the expense of labour in
cutting a road, removing a family, transport-
ing provisions, and the prospect of having to
keep the road in repair for an indefinite
period, with the loss of time in going back-
wards and forwards such a distance to the
neighbouring settlements, every time he is
driven by his new and lonely situation to the
necessity of seeking either assistance or advice,
is more than the grant is worth. These con-
siderations induce me to recommend persons
.o situated, to buy their land, in preference to

obtaining it from the crown. The fee-
simple of wild lands in townships, partially
settled, may be bought at from 7s. 6d. to 50s.
per acre, all perhaps equally good at i£.

lity of soil, but differing in the extent of the
improvements of the surrounding country. If
a man has the cash in his pocket, he may often
get lands very cheap from necessitous people,
who are obliged to sell, as well as at auctions.
As a good labourer can earn 40^. or 50^.
per month, besides his board, it is plain that
if he is frugal, he can save money enough in
one year, to make a large payment upon a
purchase of 50 acres in an advantageous situ-
ation, at ^Os. per acre, being as high as it
would be judicious for such a man to go,
under almost any circumstances— and I have
known many instances of men with families,
not worth a farthing, contracting for the pur-
chase of 50 and 100 acres of land, at from
7^. 6d. to 15^. per acre, trusting solely to
their own labour for realizing the purchase-
money off the land, when reduced into culti-
vation, within the time stipulated.

4
m

mmtammmmmmmmmm

MODE OF FARMING.

If a settler selects an uncultivated portion
of land covered with wood, which is generally
most advisable for him to do, his first employ-
ment is to clear off an acre, leaving no large
trees near enough to the place he intends build-
ing upon, to endanger the house, in case a
gust of wind should blow any of them down.
He should select a spot as near as he can to
a never-failing spring or brook, for the conve-
nience of his family and cattle. He then
builds his house of the trunks of the moderate-
sized trees, of a foot or eighteen inches in
diameter, according to his fancy, cutting the
logs according to the length and breadth of
his building, the ends of which are dove-
tailed together at the different corners of the
house ; the usual height is about eleven feet,
which, with the roof, affords a ground-floor,
and a garret. His barn and stabling are built
in the same manner. When the walls of the
house are thus erected, the windows and doors
are then cut out of the walls where the owner

■1l k

pleases, and the dwelling may be finished ac-
cording to the means of the party, and either
become a warm and comfortable habitation, or
remain a mere hut— though the poorest settler
may render it warm by filling the spaces be-
tween the logs with split wood and clay, and
plenty of fuel being at command, no one suf-
fers from cold, unless he be too idle to cut
wood, and bring it home.

The mode of clearing land of its wood is
simple, and costs in general, if a man hires
it done, from three to four guineas per acre,
fencing with rails included. The brush-
wood is first cut down close to the ground,
and piled in heaps to dry, then the larger
trees are felled, leaving their stumps breast-
high to the woodsman. These trees are then
cut into such lengths as the team to be em-
ployed in rolling them together can draw with
a chain along the ground, reserving such
parts as are best adapted to the purpose for
fencing the field. In a f^w years the stumps
rot out, and leave the field clear of any ob-
struction. For the first three or four years

after a mau has settled on a new farm, it is
better each year to lay down what he clears
with grass, at the time he puts in his winter
crop, and clear fresh land for the next year
without ploughing at all. He thereby gets
abundance of hay and pasture, gives time for
the stumps to rot, and by degrees enlarges
the quantity of cleared land to what he con-
siders sufficient for regular farming. At the
end of the third, fourth, or fifth year he may
begin to break up the first field for tilth, and
proceed one year after another until the
whole has been subjected to the plough,
which, when once accomplished, opens the
road to a regular course of English hus-
bandry.

PRICES or PROVISIONS, STOCK, S^c.

s. d. s^ (I.

Wheat varies from 2 6 to 5 Win. bush.

Oats . . 9 to 1 6 do.

Pease . . . 1 6 to 4 do.

Grass-fed beef . 15 to 30 the cwt.

Pork about the same price.

Christmas is the cheapest season for buying.

s. d. s. d.

Mutton varies from 2 to 4 per lb.

Butter „ 6 to 1 do.

Wool averages 2 per lb.

Hay in the autumn averages about two
guineas the ton, and gets dearer towards the
spring. Cows in calf are worth from three
to five guineas a head, the latter being an ex-
treme price. Oxen for work bring from 15/.
to 20/ per pair. Store sheep are worth from
Is. 6d. to 15^. a head. Horses for farming-
work vary from 20/. to 50/. the pair. A
good waggon may be bought for about fifteen
guineas, and from that to twenty. Oxen,
however, are generally used on new farms,
and are much preferable to horses.

THE LAWS OF UPPER CANADA.

The constitution of Upper Canada is an
epitome of that of England. There is a
Parliament consisting of the governor, who
is the king*s representative; the Legislative
Council, the members whereof are appoint-
ed during life by the King, represents

the House of Lords; and the House of
Commons are elected by the free voice of
each freeholder possessing an estate of forty
shillings annual value, the same as in Eng-
land, which privilege is possessed by most of
the inhabitants, and may be acquired by any
pauper in England, who is able and willing
to work, after a two years' residence ;— con-
sequently there are no poor-laws in Canada.
The taxes of an ordinary farmer amount to
about ten shillings and sixpence a year, with
five or six days' work on the road which
passes his own house; therefore I may be
permitted to say, that there are comparatively
no taxes. Tithes also never existed, but to
quiet the minds of the people they have been
formally abolished by Act of Parliament.
Every man who can borrow a gun, and buy
a charge of powder and shot, has a right to
shoot what he pleases, from a buck down to
a squirrel, and from the royal swan to a wood-
pecker ; consequently there are neither game-
laws, game-keepers, nor poachers. These,
together with the bankrupt laws, constitute

mum

'Ml

■ (

the principal exceptions to the general adop-
tion of the laws of England, both criminal
and civil. The assizes are held once a year
during the summer throughout the province,
where causes are tried by juries of the coun-
try, as they are here. There are sheriffs,
justices of tlie peace, and constables executing
the same duties as are performed by the like
persons in England, and every individual,
whether high or low, is equally protected.

SAGGAGE OF COLONISTS.

The baggage of the poorer class of emigrants
should chiefly consist of strong clothing of
different kinds, and that part of bedding
which is least bulky. Feathers can be bought
for two shillings per pound in the country.
All heavy or bulky furniture should be left
behind, as it can be replaced in Canada at
an easy rate. Chairs, tables, bedsteads, side-
boards, sofas, wardrobes, &c., are made to
order in most of ihe towns, as good as are
usually made in the country towns in Eng-
land. Books, and all kinds of light orna-

^ I

mental furniture, and carpeting, liad better
be brought out by those persons whose cir-
cumstances will warrant the use of them;
though most kinds of EngUsh manufactures
may be had in the chief towns, but of course
at rather higher prices than in England.

KOADS AND MODES OF CONVEYANCE.

Besides the numerous cross-roads which in-
tersect the interior of the country, there is
one grand line of communication from the
eastern boundary to the most western ex.
tremity of the organized portion of the pro-
vince in the western district. The whole of
this main road is passable for waggons, and
gentlemen's carriages may be driven with
comfort upon more than half of it. The
roads, however, are daily improving; and as
far westward as Niagara, public stages are
established for those seasons of the year that
*}team-boats do not ply. Between Montreal
^nd Prescott there are daily coaches, which
travel from five to seven miles an hour, and
are very commodious. From thence, up the

■■! !

U \

country, the steam-boats in the summer su-
persede all other modes of conveyance; and
in winter, travelling in sleighs is very pleasant
and expeditious in all parts of the province.

The Welland canal, which is now cutting,
a few miles to the westward of the Falls of
Niagara, to connect the waters of Lakes Erie
and Ontario, is in a very active and vigorous
state of forwardness, and will add to the
means of internal communication naturally af-
forded by those lakes, and to the commerce of
the country, in a degree scarcely to be ima-
gined. Last Autumn, there were upwards
of seven hundred people employed upon this
great work, and it is hoped that the whole
will be completed during the year 1827. It
is calculated for the passage of vessels of
120 tons burthen, which usually traverse ihose
extensive waters, and when completed, will
open an uninterrupted navigation from Pres-
cott and Ogdensburg, on the River St. Law-
rence, for all craft used in navigating the Cana«
dian seas, to the western shores of Lakes Huron
and Michigan, and, if the obstructions were

*«'

removed at the Sault of St. Mary, to the
Head of Lake Superior ; a distance of more
than 1200 miles, or upwards of 3000 miles of
coast.

*«'

SUPERIORITY OF UPPER CANADA OVER THE
UNITED STATES, AS A COUNTRY FOR THE
RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS.

I would recommend all emigrants to go to
some of the British Possessions in North
America, but more especially to Upper Ca-
nada, in preference to any other of the co-
lonies, or to any foreign state.

The United States have become so popu-
lous, that they are independent of emigration ;
and a few emigrants sprinkled here and there
over that vast country, are like grains of sand
on the sea-shore. In that country they will
be foreigners, and will find in all their inter-
course with the Americans that they are so
considered. They form no proportion to the
natural population anywhere, (with the soli^
tary exception of the Irish in New York,)
and tlierefore they have no weight in the

relations of society; whereas, in Upper Ca-
nada, emigrants are so numerous everywhere,
that they have an influence in the transactions
of their neighbourhoods ; and in many parts
of the country they compose the majority.

In the United States, any public employ-
ment, either of honour or profit, is natu-
rally given to a natural-born citizen, in pre-
ference to a foreigner of any nation. In
Upper Canada the emigrant from the mother
country will find no such distinction operating
to his prejudice. And though last, not the
least, of all the moral objections to going to
the United States instead of Canada, is the
necessity that the emigrant will find himself
under, if he intends to end his days there in
peace and quietness, of swearing allegiance to
the United States, and especially renouncing
his allegiance to his natural sovereign. And
when he has done that, he must affect, at all
events, to like every thing American in pre-
ference to what he has been accustomed to at
home, whether in reality he does so or not, or
be looked upon as a suspicious sort of person,

; !

who, although lie has sworn allegiance, is not
in sentiment a true American. But should
he even succeed by this sacrifice of feeUng, or
what would be worse, by actually expatriating
his mind as well as his body, in acquiring
the confidence of the lower class, he will be
sure to be thought the worse of, in conse-
quence, by the higher.

In all the older states, land has become ex-
tremely valuable, and is only to be had at
high prices, and therefore is quite beyond the
reach of the poorer class of emigrants. And
if he goes to the newly-organized states or
territories in the western part of the Union, he
will find no reason to prefer the best of them
to Upper Canada, but many to induce him to
make choice of the latter.

The price of land is greater, and the taxes
very much higher in all of them than in
Upper Canada; and the climate is not so
good in any. Those western countries are
much warmer in the summer; are not so well
watered; arc more flat and intersected by
large savannahs or \,ild meadows, without

i I

s i

any small brooks, streams or springs passing
through them, all of which subject these por-
tions of the United States to annual fevers,
which, though far from being generally mor-
tal, are, nevertheless, very fatal to the Eu-
ropean emigrant; injure the constitution, and
produce in the inhabitants a sallow, unhealthy

appearance.

Besides, the distance of these New States
from the ocean is much greater than that of
Upper Canada, and their situation altogether,
as regards Europe, is much more remote,
consequently it is much more expensive re-
moving a family thither, than it would be to
Canada; there is not so great a facility in
sending or receiving letters, or getting English
news as in Canada, where feelings and ideas
partake of those of the mother country, which
is called by the endearing appellation of
<« Home," even by persons who were never
out of the colony. Moreover, in those re-
mote western parts of the Union, the laws are
not so impartially administered as they are
either in Canada or in the Old States, owing.

a great deal, to political causes; and people
very commonly wear dirks and other secret
weapons to protect themselves from personal
violence, and sometimes, I fear, to inflict it
upon the unwary; and instances are not
wanting of atrocious murders and robberies
going unpunished, from the political influence

of the offender.

I do not wish, by any means, to be under-
stood as insinuating that such is the state of
American society generally ;— far from it. I
know that the very instances which I could
name are held up to public execration with
as much abhorrence in New York and all the
older parts of the country, as they would be in
London. I mean merely to put Englishmen
upon their guard, that they may not go to
these countries in preference to our own colo-
nies, under an idea of finding all that impar-
tiality and eKcellence which some men imagine
must exist in communities where people go-
vern themselves.

The great inducements for people to emi-
grate to Upper Canada, are— the cheapness of

58 "^

land and provisions ; the certainty of employ-
ment; the excellence of the soil and climate;
the moderate distance it is from the Mother
Country ; and the similarity of its laws, ha-
bits, customs, and general state of society to
those of England ; none of which exist in the
same degree in those parts of the United
States, where a poor emigrant would have
any chance of becoming a landed proprietor.
Many people from ignorance go to New York^
a city as large as Liverpool, to which latter
place it would be as sensible to emigrate from
any other part of England, as to the former.
Every profession, trade, and employment is
full in the large towns in the United States,
and there is no opening for the poor man in
any of them .

Although I have greatly exceeded the li-
mits which I had prescribed to myself when I
began tc put my thoughts on paper for the
use of the labouring poor, being drawn on by
the interest which I feel upon this subject, I
cannot refrain from saying a few words in con-
clusion to the small capitalist.

Men of two hundred a year arc enabled
to live with great comfort and respectability
upon their own farms in the country; with
proper economy they may keep two or three
servants, with their horse and gig to drive to
church in, and see their children gradually
settling around them, and in their turn filling
a respectable station in society. Of course,
men of larger fortunes with large families will
find their account in settling in Upper Cana-
da; for, although a man of six or seven hun-
dred pounds a year, in the decline of life/
would perhaps enjoy more personal comfort
by remaining where he is, yet he would find
much to cheer him at the close of his career
in Upper Canada, in the reflection that he
would leave his numerous progeny indepen-
dent; which such a man would do in that
country with more certainty than one pos-
sessing three times the sum could hope to do
in England.

The farmer and the mechanic, who have
been reduced to, or never had more than
a small capital, cannot lay it out anywhere

to so good advantage as in Canada. A
hundred pounds in his pocket on his arrival,
will buy land enough to maintain himself and
family with comfort ; and he must remember,
that every year that he lives on his own
estate gives an additional value to it, as
landed property rises rapidly by cultivaticjti
iu all new countries.

TUT- Eyi>-

LONUON :
I'lMifed by W. Clowks, NorthHmberlaiifi-c<.iirt.