Since we cannot stop that emigration, is it not our first duty to direct it in such a way that it will be to the poor emigrants as little injury as possible?
Let us do everything to hinder them from going to the large cities of the United States.
Drowned in the mixed population of American cities, our unfortunate emigrating countrymen would be too much exposed to losing their morality and their faith.
Surely there is not another country under the heavens where space, bread, and liberty are so universally assured to every member of the community, as the United States. But it is not in the great cities of the United States that our poor countrymen will soonest find these three gifts. The French Canadian who will stop in the large cities, will not, with a very few exceptions, raise himself above the unenviable position of a poor journeyman.
But those among them who will direct their steps towards the rich and extensive prairies of Bourbonnais, will certainly find a better lot.
Many in Canada would believe that I am exaggerating, were I to publish how happy, prosperous and respectable is the French Canadian population of Bourbonnais.
The French Canadians of Bourbonnais have had the intelligence to follow the good example of the industrious American farmers in the manner of cultivating the lands.
On their farms as well as those of their neighbors, you will find the best machinery to cut their crops, to thresh their grain.
They enjoy the just reputation of having the best horses in the country, and very few can beat them for the number and quality of their cattle.
Now, what can be the prospects of a young man in Canada, if he has not more than $200? A whole life of hard labor and continued privation is his too certain lot. But, let that young man go directly to Bourbonnais, and if he is industrious, sober and religious, before a couple of years he will see nothing to envy in the most happy farmer in Canada.