CHAP. IV.
SUGGESTIONS ON EMIGRATION.
The Edinburgh Cabinet Library, in a most valuable paper on emigration, makes the following remarks and statements, which, being drawn up after evidently most careful observation and research, are better worthy than anything we could write, of being recorded in a chapter on this subject. “Britain can conveniently spare every season not less than 50,000 or 60,000 of her inhabitants, retaining a sufficient number for every useful purpose, and with much advantage to those who remain behind. The adventurers, too, will form on the other side of the Atlantic a great and flourishing people, imbued with the laws, letters, manners, and all the acquirements which have raised their native country high among nations. A portion even of our superfluous capital, which sometimes seeks employment in distant and even chimerical objects, might be very advantageously invested in the culture and improvement of those valuable colonies.
“Admitting, however, the national benefits of emigration, it remains a very important question, what are the individuals or classes to whom it affords advantages sufficient to compensate for leaving their native land; and what course they ought to follow in order to realize these benefits. This is a point on which the reader may reasonably expect us to throw some additional light; and we can in truth assert, that we have considered it as anxiously as if all our own prospects had been involved in its solution. To arrive at any fixed conclusion, however, has been by no means easy. The materials are ample, but they are furnished by individuals usually more or less prepossessed on one side, and in many instances incapable of expressing their ideas with precision, or even of forming any distinct or decided opinion on so perplexed a subject. We have endeavoured, however, by carefully collating opposite statements, by fixing upon ascertained facts and points in which all parties agree, to draw up for the intending emigrant a reasonable view of what he may expect to meet with in the settlements beyond the Atlantic.
“The individuals who usually migrate into that new region may be divided into two classes,—those belonging to the labouring order, and those who seek to support themselves in the middling rank of society. The former go in the view of obtaining each a spot which he can cultivate with his own hands, subsisting chiefly on its produce: the latter hope, by the application of skill and capital, and by engaging the aid of others, to carry on operations on a larger scale, and to draw from their property a portion of the conveniences and even elegancies of life. The former comprise the more extensive, and indeed the more important branch of the subject; but as the latter will lead us to view it under a greater variety of lights, we shall most conveniently direct our first attention to it.
“No one, who has made any observation on the present state of this country, can have failed to observe the extreme difficulty which the middling classes find to support their place in society, and particularly to enable their sons to succeed them in stations of well-remunerated employment. The reduced scale of the army and navy, and the rigid economy now introduced into all the departments of the government, have withdrawn many former sources of income. Manufactures and trade, even when prosperous, can be carried on with advantage only on a large scale, with low profits upon an extensive capital. Hence there remain only the learned professions, with the officers and clerks employed by banks, insurance companies, and similar establishments; and in these pursuits, the increase of population and the number thrown out from other occupations cause an eager competition. This is increased by the general diffusion of information among the inferior classes, many of whom, by merit and address, compete successfully for these higher appointments,—a state of things which may be, on the whole, advantageous, as securing for national purposes a greater degree of talent; but it obviously increases the pressure on the middling ranks already severely felt.
A Settler’s hut on the frontier.
“Among the numerous young men, however, thus languishing for want of employment, there are probably not a few who possess or could command a small capital of from 500l. to 1000l. and who have the degree of judgment and industry requisite to superintend the labours of agriculture. It becomes then an interesting question, whether Canada affords the means of attaining that independence, and earning those conveniences, which their native country denies to them. On this subject, and every thing connected with it, a great variety of opinions prevails; but on comparing all together, we shall state grounds for concluding that, with a due degree of skill and perseverance, the emigrant in this rank will find the means, not indeed of rising to wealth, but of placing himself in a comfortable and independent situation.
“The cultivator in Canada stands in very different circumstances from either the proprietor or farmer in Britain. He obtains an estate in full and perpetual property for a smaller sum than the annual rent which he would here be obliged to give for it. After paying this price, however, he must expend at least three times as much in clearing and bringing it into a state of cultivation. Even then it will not yield him rent; it will be merely a farm for him to cultivate, with the very important advantage indeed of its being wholly his own, and no landlord to pay. The taxes also are extremely light, when compared to those which press on the English farmer. But in return for these benefits, he must give to his servants considerably higher wages, and will even have no small trouble in procuring them on any terms. What is worse, he obtains for his produce much lower prices, and even these with difficulty, because the supply of grain and provisions in a region so wholly agricultural must more and more exceed the demand within the country itself. These commodities, indeed, will always find a market among the dense population of Britain, to which they are now admitted on payment of easy duties; and in point of fact, the price must be finally ruled by what they will sell for here. After paying the expense of transportation across the Atlantic, added to that of conveying them from the place of production to the ports of Montreal or Quebec, there is little prospect that the finest wheat of Upper Canada will permanently bring in this country more than 50s. per quarter. Deducting the duty, 5s.—freight, 10s.—carriage from even a favourable situation in the interior, 8s.—we have only 27s.; or about 3s. 4d. per bushel left to the cultivator.
“Under these circumstances, it has become a prevailing opinion, and maintained by many as an indisputable maxim, that a Canadian proprietor cannot cultivate with advantage by means of hired servants, but must himself perform the full task of a common labourer. Those only are represented in the way of well-doing who have constantly in their hands the axe or the plough, whose ladies are seen milking the cows, churning, and performing the humblest menial offices. We must frankly say that, if such be the necessary lot of a settler in Canada, we cannot but concur with Captain Hall in thinking it unfit for the class now in consideration. Can it be supposed that a young man, accustomed to refined society, should renounce friends and country, and remove to a remote land, not to improve his condition, but to reduce himself to the level of a common labourer? How can he expect a fair partner, accustomed perhaps to value somewhat too highly the immunities of a refined society, to share with him so hard and humble a lot? We most readily admit that the labouring classes have within their reach the best blessings of life, and are often happier than those called their superiors. Still the desire of exemption from bodily toil, and of enjoying a portion of the conveniences and elegancies of life, is natural, and has a salutary effect in stimulating to activity and invention. The lively author of the “Backwoods,” a zealous advocate of the working system, admits the hardship of a young gentleman, employed to “chop down trees, to pile brush-heaps, split rails for fences, dressed in a coarse over-garment of hempen cloth called a logging shirt, and a Yankee straw hat flapped over his eyes.” We cannot help thinking that this ingenious lady is somewhat too severe on those of her own sex who, without her internal resources and powers of reflection, could not accommodate themselves to the hard and dreary life consequent upon this system. In short, we may observe, that if land in Canada will pay nothing but the mere manual labour put upon it, it is fitted only for the peasant settler, and can never afford an income for a person of better rank. This opinion seems confirmed by the judgment of the learned lady herself, when, after an experiment of three years, she concludes, that for a gentleman a small income is almost indispensable,—a good one desirable; this last a case not very likely to occur.
“Notwithstanding these weighty authorities, we do not hesitate to assert, that in farming on such a scale as will remunerate a person in the middling rank, his devoting himself to constant bodily labour is not only unnecessary, but decidedly injurious. It is admitted, we suppose, that, in our country, upon an extent of 150 to 200 acres, the tasks of planning, arranging, inspecting, and finding a proper market for the produce, afford very full occupation to a single individual. But in a Canadian farm, all these occupations are much more arduous and difficult. The business cannot be reduced into the same fixed routine; a greater variety of produce, both in grain and live stock, must be reared; servants, less steady, and oftener changed, require much stricter superintendance; markets are not found without more difficulty, and at a greater distance. To perform all these functions carefully and well, on a property of this extent, must, we apprehend, keep the owner’s hands very full. To attempt to combine with them the daily task of a common labourer, seems to ensure their being executed in an imperfect and slovenly manner, and consequently the whole concern greatly mismanaged. The newly-arrived emigrant is indeed told that the other is the approved mode, and that if he wishes to thrive in the country he must follow its customs. The fundamental principles of rural economy, however, cannot be changed by the interposition of the Atlantic. The original settlers in Upper Canada were mostly of the less opulent class, who could cultivate their lots only by the labour of their own hands. A few of them, who, by extraordinary exertion, have risen to some degree of wealth, retain still probably their primitive habits and maxims, and represent their success as connected with the hard personal labours which they then underwent. These are held forth as the models to be followed by the young cultivator. But a general rule cannot be founded on a few cases where peculiar activity and energy were displayed. With an average allotment of these qualities, such as we are generally entitled to expect, the union of the intellectual and directing with the manual and operative department, can rarely succeed. We are convinced that a person of competent judgment, devoting himself wholly to the former, would raise on the same ground a considerably larger produce than one who, exhausted by daily toil, should follow only in a rough way the mechanical routine observed among his neighbours. He would thus create a surplus applicable to his own profits; and we are convinced that it is only by the exertions of such a class that any improvement can be expected in the system of Canadian culture, which is admitted on all hands to be at present exceedingly defective.
Davis’ Clearing.
(Eastern Township.)
“In estimating, however, the plans and views of such a settler, several circumstances must be taken into consideration, and, in particular, the situation of his property. The Canadian districts are classed under two heads. The first, called The Bush, comprehends those situated in the depth of the forest, where towns and markets are distant, and reached only by roads which are almost impassable. To compensate the obvious disadvantages of this locality, settlers obtain a greater chance of good land at a considerably lower rate; a party of neighbours or friends can cluster together; and they have every prospect that sooner or later the communications will be much improved, that villages will spring up in their vicinity, and their estates be thereby raised in value. These considerations may justly weigh with certain classes of emigrants, but for those now under consideration they are far overbalanced by the disadvantages. In such a position, there is much greater difficulty in procuring hired labour, while its price must be higher, because the workmen are not only fewer, but more generally aim at having land of their own. Hence the expense of clearing ground in the several districts has been stated as differing to the extent of 2l. an acre; and while the cost of raising the produce has thus been augmented, its price or money value is greatly diminished. Cash indeed is scarcely ever seen in the remoter parts. It may at first view seem singular that there should be abundance of commodities worth money, and yet not able to procure it; but we may observe, that gold and silver will purchase any thing in every quarter of the world, while the products of a landed estate are of value only on the spot: the merchant, therefore, may give goods produced in the same vicinity, but he cannot give money. Connected with this want is the impossibility of procuring many of the elegancies and luxuries of life, portions of which have, by the middling classes, come to be viewed in the light of necessaries. Mr. Pickering mentions that tea, when sold at Buffalo, cost 4s., at Port Talbot, 6s. per lb. Salt at the former place was 9s., at the latter, 1l. 2s. 6d. a barrel. The settler may have plenty of food and homespun cloth, but almost every other commodity will be beyond his reach. These observations are not indeed to be understood in their utmost rigour, for in every district a certain amount of money, or at least of foreign articles, may be obtained in exchange for the surplus produce. The merchant, however, in fixing the value, makes a large deduction on account of the long and difficult conveyance; besides, as he carries on trade on a small scale and without competition, he exacts high profits, and has the farmer a good deal at his mercy. Commercial transactions in all the country districts of America are usually carried on by an individual named a storekeeper, who keeps an assortment of all the commodities likely to be wanted, and receives in return the produce of the cultivator. This mode of proceeding still farther supersedes the necessity of employing cash as a medium of exchange.
“Compared to the various disadvantages now stated, the gentleman settler, who must take with him a certain amount of capital, ought not to regard even a considerable difference in the price of the land, because, as already observed, it forms the smallest part of the outlay requisite for bringing it into a productive state. With regard to the contingent expectation of a future rise in value, this can only take place upon the low original price, and therefore can never be of any very great amount. Besides, along with the general advance of the country, the settled districts, and those in the vicinity of towns, will acquire also an additional value. At all events, a rise in the land is of little importance to him, if it ceases to be his,—an issue to which a long course of heavy expenses and scanty produce is very likely to lead.
“We have thought it the more necessary to dwell upon these considerations, as they seem to have escaped a large proportion of the opulent settlers recently attracted towards Canada. Under the influence of vague and speculative hopes, they have made it their ambition to plunge into the extreme west and the heart of the bush, and seem to have imagined that the farther they placed themselves beyond every vestige of culture and civilisation, the greater advantages did they secure. A letter in 1834 states that almost all the emigrants of capital were hastening to the London District, a territory perhaps the most decidedly woodland of any in Canada. Settlers in these wilds encounter peculiar and extreme hardships, being deprived of every accommodation to which they had been accustomed; sometimes even in want of common necessaries, and in danger of starvation. At different times, pork, flour, or tea are wanting, when the weather cuts off all communication with the shore; and the ox-waggon, in travelling thence with supplies, is often so shaken that the contents are strangely mingled. Rice, sugar, currants, mustard, are jumbled together; and the next pudding perhaps proves to be seasoned with pepper, and even rappee. However, while their money lasts, they can make their way, and clear a certain portion of land, which yields in plenty the rude necessaries of life.
View from the house of R. Shirreff, Esq.
(Ottawa River.)
But they have no means to recruit their exhausted purse, or secure any supply of the comforts and elegancies to which they had been accustomed. If, in anticipation of prosperity, they have incurred any extent of pecuniary obligation, their situation becomes extremely embarrassing, and may issue in the entire loss of their property.
“Important, however, as a marketable situation appears, it ought by no means to be procured by any great sacrifice as to the quality of the land; for, as Mr. Talbot justly states, it is vain for a cultivator to be near a market, if he has little or nothing to carry to it. It has been already mentioned, that after paying the original price, a much larger sum, nearly equal in every case, must be expended in bringing the land under cultivation. Thus there is little difference between the cost of good and bad soil, while the former only, under existing disadvantages, ever can remunerate the settler. It is a grievous thing, as Mr. Shirreff observes, to incur heavy labour and expense in clearing a spot, and then find it worth little. The settler, therefore, who brings with him a certain amount of capital, practises a most wretched economy when he hesitates to pay such an original price as will secure both a good situation and good land. If a small sacrifice must be made, it should rather be on the former. A larger produce will pay for a small addition on the cost of transport, and time may remedy the one evil, but will never make a bad sale good. Some sacrifice of this kind may often be necessary; since, as Mr. Fergusson remarks, on the immediate banks of lakes and rivers it is not unfrequently light and sandy, whence arises the necessity of going somewhat into the interior in order to find the more valuable description.
“In consequence of the views now stated, it becomes a highly important question what are the market or cash districts (as they are sometimes called), in contradistinction to those in the bush. In regard to Canada, the topographical details already given must throw important lights on the subject; and to these some general observations shall now be added. The shipping ports of Montreal or Quebec form the central points, by proximity to which the advantages of all sites in either province are to be estimated; and next to this is a location on navigable waters having a ready communication with them. The banks of the St. Lawrence between these two cities are occupied to a considerable depth inland by the French seigniories. Land, however, in the vicinity of Montreal may still be procured, having the advantages of a ready market; but from this very circumstance it cannot be purchased under a price varying from 10l. to 20l. an acre, a rate beyond the reach of most emigrants. It may be rented indeed at 10s. or 12s. and Mr. Shirreff is of opinion that farming may there be carried on with advantage; but in a country where land may be obtained in full property at so cheap a rate, the British settler is not likely to be content with this dependent tenure. His object, therefore, must be sought somewhat farther in the interior.
“The parts of the Eastern and Johnstown districts along the bank of the St. Lawrence enjoy perhaps the best situation as regards proximity to market of any in Upper Canada; and their advantage in this respect will be further improved on the completion of the canal now in progress for overcoming the obstructions in the navigation of that river. This tract, however, labours under the very serious drawback of being decidedly inferior in soil and climate to the more western territories. The former deficiency, it is true, will appear from our topographical survey to be by no means universal, the idea having been in some measure suggested by the rugged aspect of the immediate banks. Matilda and other districts appear to contain a considerable extent of fine land yet-unoccupied. The climate operates chiefly to prevent the raising of wheat so fine as to bear the cost of transportation to Europe; but this is of less moment since live stock had begun to be considered the more profitable branch. On the whole, therefore, we incline to think that settlers of capital, in their eagerness to push westward and into the bush, have bestowed too little attention on this portion of territory.
“The banks of the Ottawa on both sides as far up as Hull, and including those of its tributary the Rideau, appear to possess similar advantages. Some demand for produce is also made by the lumberers who pass to and from the upper tracts on this river. The soil and climate seem to call for nearly the same observations as have been made on the two preceding districts.
Timber Slide and Bridge on the Ottawa.
“The shores of Lake Ontario, including a space varying from ten to twenty miles inland, afford good scope for a settler of moderate capital. This territory, though not uniformly fertile, contains a large extent of excellent soil with a comparatively mild climate; and as the rigorous season is shorter, winter wheat even of fine quality may be produced. Toronto and Kingston, now considerable towns, present a ready market, through the medium too of respectable merchants, who are known to deal on liberal terms. The river Trent and the Rice Lake might perhaps be viewed as enlarging the sphere of eligible settlement somewhat beyond the limits now stated; but we could scarcely recommend to a gentleman to go far beyond Peterborough. The vicinity of the city first mentioned, and the goodness of the road called Gouge-street, may indeed carry the range a little farther in that direction, though we doubt whether it would be advisable to go to the remoter shores of Lake Simcoe. Gore district, where it passes Burlington Bay, must, we suspect, be considered as mere bush.
“Beyond Ontario, the shores of Lake Erie, even since the completion of the Welland Canal, cannot be recommended without some hesitation. The distance from Montreal becomes great, and as the goods could scarcely be conveyed without transhipment, the tolls of three canals must be paid. At all events, it is only the lands closely adjoining this great lake that appear to afford a profitable site for the more opulent settlers; for the interior of the London District, including even the banks of the Thames, must still, we suspect, be classed with the bush-territory. Mr. Shirreff found that wheat bore a very low price there, and that it was moreover difficult to be procured. The shores of Lake Huron must also be included under the same description.
Lake Massawhippy.
(Eastern Townships.)
“It ought, however, to be observed that these limits may be considerably modified by the great works mentioned in the commercial chapter as being contemplated for extending the communications of Upper Canada. These, unfortunately, are now at a stand for want of means; but if the plans of Lord Durham be carried into effect, we may hope to see them all accomplished on an augmented scale.
“It will be proper to consider under this view the eastern townships of Upper Canada. Their situation is peculiar, owing to the banks of the St. Lawrence and of the Richelieu being occupied by the French seigniories, having a tract of inferior ground in their rear. The townships are thus thrown much inland, and their products can be brought to market only by a land-carriage, varying from 60 to 120 miles. The roads too have hitherto been bad; but the British American Land Company have been employed in making a very good one from Port St. Francis to Sherbrooke, and in improving the others. The evil also is much mitigated by the circumstance that cattle, which form the main staple of this territory, can convey themselves to market, and, even if killed, the salted meat contains much more value in the same bulk than grain. Yet we should hesitate in advising settlers of the more opulent class to proceed further than Melbourne and Shipton, on the side of Port St. Francis, or beyond Shefford, if proceeding from Montreal. Here they will find good land, which, when the promised improvements are completed, will not be much more than 50 miles from a port on the St. Lawrence.
“A young man, who desires to form a judgment how far such a mode of life will suit him, must be warned not to carry out the ideas of rank and dignity which are connected with the possession of land in Europe. Here, according to feudal ideas, not wholly extinct, it was anciently combined with power; and still, from the large rents paid for its use, it generally confers wealth without labour—the enjoyment of splendor and luxurious ease. But in America, this species of property has never implied hereditary influence; and it yields income, in most instances, only by hard personal labour, or an active superintendence. The few wealthy men of which it can boast, have acquired their riches by acting as merchants and storekeepers; and these are, on the whole, the persons of greatest consequence in the country. But, though landed estate does not ensure those factitious distinctions, there are important advantages of which it can never be divested. It is attended with a degree of independence seldom enjoyed by the middling classes in Britain; for here, farmers, with a heavy burden of rent and taxes, which they must make good amid many uncertainties, are always liable to come under the power of their landlords. Salaried officers, too, may be exposed to insult, and even the loss of their situations, through the caprice of employers or superiors; whereas, a proprietor in the colonies, if he can draw a subsistence from his lands, and keep clear of debt, is scarcely liable to any vicissitude. He is removed, indeed, from the society of his friends; but this, unless as to occasional visits, is usually the lot of professional men even in our own country, who must accept employment wherever they can find it. Again, he can never return to reside in his native land—a privation which, to those who have spent the best part of their lives abroad, is, in a great degree, imaginary; and, aided by the improving means of communication, he is not debarred from the possibility of seeing his relations at home. In regard to society in Canada, if he has followed the advice of not going far into the bush, he will find it as good as it is usually met with in the rural parts of Britain, or even in provincial towns.
A Lake farm on the Frontier.
“The foregoing estimates have been made with the view of ascertaining what income may be expected from a Canadian farm, after it is cleared and placed under regular cultivation; but the momentous question—by what means and resources the emigrant is to bring it into this condition, still remains to be considered. It must not be concealed that his task will be arduous; and if he is to perform it, as is here supposed, by hired labourers, a certain capital will be requisite. 200 acres of land, of good quality, and in an eligible situation, cannot be purchased for much less than 200l. He must erect some kind of habitation, though at first a simple one, and have certain farm-offices, implements, and labouring stock, which will require at least 100l. He must also have the means of subsistence till he is able to draw it from his farm; though this, it is presumed, during his noviciate, will be managed with the strictest economy. But the hardest part of the task now remains; for the dense forest which covers his ground must be cut down before a single blade can grow upon it. This process, with the addition of fencing and sowing, is averaged at 4l. an acre, which, with reference to the requisite space of 150 acres, would amount to 600l.; the remaining 50 being advantageously allowed to remain in woodland. It is true that this process may be gradual, and that the increasing produce of the improved portions will afford means for clearing the remainder; but as there is also to be paid out of it the subsistence of the emigrant, the expenses of cultivation, and the additions necessary to the stock of the enlarged farm, the improvements must be far advanced before any surplus can be expected.”
Lake beneath the Owls-head Mountain.
(Eastern Townships.)