grees establishing themselves on the land, they would form other settlements, between which and the main line of communication through the country additional roads must become necessary. The lands in the immediate neighbourhood of such roads would of course acquire an additional value: capitalists will then be attracted to them and will require additional labourers, who, in their turn, will become capitalists; and thus our colonies might in a few years make a progress which, without a wise expenditure in the first instance, they could not have made till the lapse of half a century. Such interposition on the part of the State for the purpose of accelerating a natural if not inevitable process, would be no interference with the course which capital is disposed to take: it is only to tap the springs of national prosperity, leaving the currents thenceforth to flow in their natural channels.

Nor is it to be forgotten that there are other and most important advantages to be derived from such works in colonies, independently of their immediate pecuniary return. During a succession of years, and on the authority of successive governors, a railway has been earnestly recommended between Halifax and Quebec. It was advocated partly as the most effectual means for rendering accessible the interior of the country and giving to our North American Colonies the benefit of a port open throughout the winter; and partly on political grounds, as a great line of military communication. Even before railways were thought of, a military road was considered an object of the first importance. The line for the railway was at last surveyed; and nothing could be more favourable than the report made on it by the engineer employed. The colonies were zealous that the work should be undertaken: the State legislatures were unanimous. In this country, men rejoiced in the prospect of a work, which at so momentous a crisis might have caused a demand for thirty or forty thousand additional labourers, besides opening out four or five millions of acres for settlement. What proceeding has been adopted after so long a delay? Major Robinson's final report was submitted to the English Railway Commissioners! That body of course confined their deliberations almost to a single point,-namely, the amount of profit which might be looked for on the line, as an ordinary railroad speculation. The opinion delivered on this point was unfavourable accordingly nothing more has been heard respecting an enterprise more important, perhaps, than any which in recent times has been undertaken for the consolidation of the colonial empire of England, and the development of its remoter

resources.

1850. The United States' War 6

upon the Wilderness.'

47

It is not, however, in this spirit-penny-wise and poundfoolish that a great nation should deliberate, at a great crisis, on measures worthy of its highest energies. There are cases, no doubt, in which the immediate question of profit and loss is all in all. But a nation is sometimes called on to deal with other matters; and on occasions which demand somewhat of generous enterprise, of far-sighted wisdom, and it may be, of immediate self-sacrifice, such qualities can no more be dispensed with than the humblest of our nature. While we have doubted and hesitated, the United States, with far slighter immediate inducements, but with greater political foresight, have acted. They have already executed a large portion of a rival railway— that from Portland to Montreal-which, if left without a competitor, will transfer to our aspiring neighbours the traffic between Upper Canada and the Atlantic. It is not at home only that we shall suffer from a mode of proceeding, which so strikingly illustrates the difference between real prudence, and that poor caution which can gain nothing, because it will risk nothing and advance nothing. It is impossible that our colonies should not feel the contrast between their comparatively languid growth and the rapid progress of the United States. We speak not of the Canadas only, but of New Brunswick also, which with its 11,000,000 of unappropriated acres does not grow corn enough to support itself, and, after the closing of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, remains, like Nova Scotia, dependent on the United States for its supply. Well indeed may Major Robinson remark, in his able report on this proposed line of railway: Most unfavourable com'parisons are made by travellers who visit the British Pro'vinces and the United States. And some have gone so far 'as to state, that travelling along where the boundary is a 'mere conventional line, they could at once tell whether they 'were in the States or not. On the one side, the State Govern'ments become shareholders to a large amount in great public 'works, lead the way, and do not hesitate to incur debt, for making what has been called "war upon the wilderness:" em'ployment is given, and by the time the improvement is com'pleted, property has been created, and the employed become ' proprietors. On the other side the Provincial Governments do not take the initiative in the same manner; and hence in 'the settlements, and in the provinces generally, may be seen 'this marked difference in the progress of people who are identically the same in every respect.' This is a question which every day becomes more serious. Deep-seated discontents fling themselves upon the first pretext that presents itself, however

We

futile: but if they be rooted in reasonable causes, their ultimate effects must be calamitous, however irrational or blameable may be their occasional expression. Our choice is limited. may, if we please, discard our colonies: but if we would keep them, together with the greatness of our country, we must keep the hearts of our colonists; and these will be found not altogether divided from their interests.

It is impossible here to discuss all the suggestions relative to emigration, which have been recently made by witnesses examined before the Colonization Committee. Many important hints on the subject are to be found also in the various series of papers recently submitted to Parliament. They include the guarantee of a certain low rate of interest on loans raised by the colonies in order to carry on useful public works; the actual participation in the cost of such works; a combination of funds supplied by the sale of lands in the colonies with home funds, whether supplied by emigrants, by proprietors, or by Poor-law Boards; the reservation for the same purpose of a portion of the wages paid to labourers employed on public works; a tax on wild lands to defray the cost of passage, and the advance of money for the same purpose on the credit of that rent which a large immigration can alone produce.

Another suggestion, strongly urged, is that new ports with suitable establishments should be selected for the embarkation of assisted emigrants. A memorial recently addressed to Lord Grey from South Australia, complains that emigrant vessels have hitherto been despatched exclusively from London and Plymouth, and has earnestly recommended that vessels should be sent from various other ports, such as Liverpool, Bristol, Leith, Glasgow, Dundee, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Londonderry, Belfast,' &c.

We shall notice also a suggestion, made by Mr. Cunninghame, and confirmed by Colonel Macarthur, - respecting the establishment of a Colonial Board of Emigration in this country. Mr. Cunninghame expresses himself thus:

'I have no doubt that every colony should have either a board or a representative at the board. Each colony should have an agent, in the confidence of the colony; because the difficulty of the colonists is this, that one of the most important branches of colonial business, viz., the selection and supply of labourers whose passage is paid from colonial funds, whose wages are to be received from colonists, and whose employment is in the service of the colonists, this branch, I say, of colonial business is managed, not merely in its principles, but in its minute details, by a board not appointed by the colony, nor in any way under its control, and consisting of gentlemen who, however

1850.

Enlargement of our Colonial Labour Markets.

49

anxious to do justice to the subject, and however well acquainted with official documents, cannot have the time to bestow on the wants of each one of a large number of colonies which the importance of the subject demands, and that with men who, whatever may be their knowledge of documents, have not that practical knowledge of each colony which can only be gained by having lived in it, and for the want of which no perusal of official returns can in any manner compensate.'

In considering the various modes by which we might soon enable our colonies to absorb a far larger population than they can now employ, we must not forget one which, though it may possibly not be found necessary, would certainly prove efficient the formation within them of new settlements. Here, again, we are met by objectors, who assure us that the expense of such settlements will be so great as to render them impracticable. The assumptions, however, upon which they reason, are generally fallacious. They begin by calculating the expense of settling emigrants according to some exorbitant scale founded on the blundering proceedings of times long gone by; they demand next what is the number who stand in need of emigration, and they finally ask whether it be possible for such a number to emigrate at such a cost? The first error in this method of reasoning consists in a forgetfulness of the fact, that a new settlement is necessary only as a germ which, if successful, will grow of itself, and without further charge. The second consists in an estimate of the original cost either greatly exaggerated, or excluding all notice of the compensating benefits by which it is in part repaid even at the time. When it is urged that to settle emigrants on land in British North America will require an outlay of 207., or at least of 127. per head, the assertion is justified by such reasons as the following: 'You must allow so much,' it is said, ' for the passage across the 'sea-so much for making the roads immediately necessary, 'building houses, &c.,-so much for clearing,--and then food 'for fifteen months, as the emigrants will arrive too late to have 'a crop the first year.' Now, in the first place, this calculation obviously counts the same items several times over; for the wages spent upon road-making, clearing, and building should, of themselves, support the new settlers until their crops are fit to be reaped;-even supposing that the simple course has not been adopted, of clearing and sowing a small portion of the land destined for them, in anticipation of their arrival. In the second place, it omits all consideration of the momentous facts that the land thus cleared may in a short time be sold at a price which (paid by instalments) will fully make up for the cost of clearance, and that

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the adjoining land will also sell at a price double that which it could otherwise have fetched. In the third place, it is to be remembered, that if the site for the settlement has been well chosen, the road to it will probably be part of one to some remoter settlement, or at least will open out a tract of valuable country. In several instances these collateral advantages have completely shifted the balance from the debtor to the creditor side of the account.

In order to make a settlement economically, the first thing necessary is, that it should be undertaken conjointly with the construction of a road. Such was the case in the instance of two successful settlements referred to by Commissary General Filder in the following extract from a letter to Sir C. Trevelyan :

There have been two instances of successful settlements formed by the local government here. . . . . In one of them the government opened a road (the Garrafeasen Road), giving out the work in small portions of one or two miles each. There were thus numerous contractors employed, all of whom were paid one half in cash and one half in land, wherever they might choose to locate themselves on ungranted land. In the other instance the government opened a road (from Oakville on Lake Ontario to Owen's Sound on Lake Huron), and paid the whole cost in cash; after it was completed the government offered free grants of land, of fifty acres each, on condition of actual settlement: And the whole extent of the road was speedily settled on these terms;' &c.

The same causes seem to have led to the same effects in the case of two settlements in New Brunswick, described by Mr. Perley, the Emigration Agent in that colony, (p. 22.):

Two very striking instances of the success attending the formation of new settlements in the wilderness by associations of settlers, having the privilege of making their own roads at a reasonable rate, exist in York County. The Harvey Settlement was formed in 1837, by a party of emigrants from the north of England, who landed in New Brunswick in a very destitute condition. A report upon this settlement was presented to the Lieutenant-Governor, on the 9th February 1844, accompanied by a statistical return. This report states that it is shown by the return that from land where not a tree was felled in July 1837, there had been taken during the preceding autumn, 260 tons of hay and straw, and 15,000 bushels of grain, potatoes, and turnips; and that the great success which had attended the labours of these industrious and valuable settlers, afforded an unquestionable proof of what might be done on the millions of wild land in New Brunswick. The return shows the number of settlers to be forty-four, and the value of the improvements to be 4,2897. 10s.'

The second of these settlements was an Irish one. Mr. Perley describes it as follows: