Thornhill, Jan. 18, 1833.
As to emigration I feel at a loss what to write. There is in fact hardly a man living but in some way or other may succeed in this fine country, and yet there is scarcely a man who may not fail and suffer disappointment, so that I dread recommending; but were I in the condition of nineteen out of twenty, I would make every effort to come out. Most have to rough it for about a year; few need do this much longer; that is, if thoughtful, prudent, and moral: their wilderness soon begins to smile, and comforts one after another crowd around them. I must turn to my log-book for something to say on this score.
“Of all settlers the medical profession seems to have least encouragement; they are worse off than even ministers; for in this country the population is so scattered, and the roads so impracticable, that they slave and toil beyond all endurance for a scanty pittance, and finding so small a remuneration, they are obliged to merge their professional engagements into those of the largely cultivated farm. Should they speculate on more extensive practice and larger returns in some of the towns there, so many have anticipated them, that they half starve before they can get into practice, and, after paying dear for their rashness, are compelled to return to the country, and to rough it like others in employments for which their previous habits have but little qualified them. Another evil is that all the three branches are here united, there not being a sufficient call to admit of a division; and then, again, we are all so healthy, excepting, indeed, the whiskey drinkers, who die by inches, but who have no peculiar penchant for bitter drugs; so that had it not been for the cholera, which so extensively visited us, I fear the medical gentlemen must have had no great cause to congratulate themselves on their speculations. The best description of settlers are young persons with or without families, married or single, who can command about £1000 in cash, and have about £80 or £100 per annum, on which they can regularly calculate. These can purchase a fair quantity of land in cultivated districts, where there is good society and English comforts; can build their house ample, commodious, and well-looking; and can realize from their farm what will enable them to live as gentlemen. I know two or three families of this description, in this neighbourhood, who have freely exhibited their finances before me, and they are just what I have noticed above. And if these do well, much more those whose income is larger. Such are the settlers we most need, for improvements follow so fast in their train. Capital and taste are in their case combined, and their respective neighbourhoods start into notice and comfort.”
As to young men of the more respectable order, they must be willing to go into trade, and in this they have abundant encouragement, not so much in specific trade as in the keeping of stores, both wholesale and retail, and to such they give a salary for five or six years, and then either take them into partnership, or else set them up in some country store, furnishing them with goods on easy terms to begin with. Farming will not do for young men of this description, till they are of age to farm for themselves, and then they may begin, if they have a small capital to purchase land and stock it. They want very little of any previous training; the advice of some friend or neighbour on the spot is quite adequate, if he be of any tolerable capacity. As to settlers I can say little beyond what I have intimated before. With £10 or £12 a head, they need not hesitate a moment. The principal thing is raising sufficient money to bring them far enough into the country, and without this it is almost cruelty to say a word to induce them to leave England.
To finish these remarks on emigration, from one who knew what it was from his own experience, I shall add one other short extract from a letter dated Feb. 21, 1835, addressed to Mrs. D. Whitmore:—
But with all this improvement in society and literature, the matter of emigration puzzles me more than ever. Produce is sadly falling; my wheat I sold last year for 4s. 3d. a bushel; the same sample would now fetch only 2s. 6d., and all other farming produce of course in the same ratio. Farmers, therefore, are crying out that they shall now be ruined. Stores also abound so greatly, that a very small profit can be obtained, where competition is so great. Fortunes, therefore, are not, as they once were, so easily procured; and most classes of emigrants are sadly disappointed. Those who come out with ample means will easily succeed; for living is so cheap, and capital wanted, and amply remunerating interest in various ways obtained. But then, again, those who already have fortunes, or ample means, will mostly prefer the good old country, and well they may.
TO MISS E. FORD.
Lockport, State of New York,
May 1, 1833.
My dear Madam,
It was very unexpectedly but most joyously that I received your kind communication respecting the sailing of the Bristol, [196] and I lost no time in leaving Thornhill for New York. I am now on my way thither, and hope to find a few leisure intervals during my journey to fill my sheet, reserving merely a small space for a postscript, that I may communicate, should all be well, the tidings of the safe arrival of the endeared party: they have much occupied my thoughts of late, and, sometimes, with too much of anxious solicitude, for which I have as often felt reproved; for such has been God’s mercy to us hitherto, that it is not merely infirmity, but positive sin to be distrustful of his faithfulness and love. I feel much indebted to you and Miss Ford, for your peculiar kindness to my dear Mary. I am never surcharged with feeling, I wish it were my habit; but still great kindness quite affects me, and as requital will be ever out of my power, I must look to the beneficent and faithful retributor above, and would give vent to the utterance of my heart in the language of the holy and grateful apostle, “The Lord grant that you may both find mercy of the Lord,” and especially “in that day.”