The Canadas: comprehending topographical information concerning the quality of the land in different districts and the fullest general information: for the use of emigrants and capitalists

Front matter

J^

THE '^

C A N A D A S :

Introduction

The subject of emigration, or rather colonization^ and all the enquiries connected with it, is, from the circumstances of the country at home, becoming daily of increased interest to all classes of the community. The employment of capital, not less than the employment of labour; the relief of distressed trades, of overpeopled districts, of individuals and their families struggling vainly without hope, and of overflowing manufactures seeking a market and a beneficial return ; all are connected with it, and with the effects that grow out of it in a new country. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that the public should not be easily satisfied in their enquiries upon a subject, which, in times like the present, comes so home to the businesses and bosoms of a large and enterprising class of individuals.

As the interest of the subject rises above those, classes by whom it has hitherto been looked upon merely as an ultimate relief from pressing distress, and extends to persons in better circumstances, who begin to enquire carefully into the state and prospects of those new countries, which open such a field for industry or adventure, — either with ideas of settling there themselves, or with a view to the profitable investment of capital in connexion with colonial companies formed at liome, — a species of information comes to be required, more particular and authentic than the hasty opinions of publishing travellers, or the brief reports of settlers in the vi^oods. In order as much as possible to meet this object, and yet to confine the information given to a price that shall be within the reach of the ordinary emigrant, the present has been undertaken ; upon the plan of selecting, compiling, and condensing, from every source deemed authentic, all the practical information and accredited opinion, which has been given upon the whole subject, both in evidence before the Committees of the House of Commons, and in every other shape in which that information seems to be worthy of entire reliance. In this point of view, a large portion of the present compilation has been devoted to condensed topographical sketches of as much of Lower and Upper Canada, as seemed to commend themselves to the enquiries of proposed settlers, or purchasers of land, either at home or in the colonies, — a species of information, which appeared to the editor to be of the first importance, both for general and particular guidance. In compiling this part of the present publication, the compiler has, in reference to Lower Canada, made free use of the valuable topographical dictionary contained in the large work of Colonel Bouchette, the able and indefatigable Surveyor-general ; and upon the upper province, particularly that where the lands belonging to the Canada

Company are situated, and the contiguous parts, he is indebted to original reports of inspections, and other documents, kindly furnished him by Mr. Gait, some of which he has given verbatim as he received them. The intelligent reader who is disposed to look comprehensively at a subject of such present as well as prospective importance, may also observe, that in the arrangement of his facts and the selection of his documents, as well as the correction of many vague opinions, he has been largely indebted to the communicative industry of the latter gentleman, whose accuracy of knowledge of Canadian colonization, and power of observation upon all its details, need no eulogium in this place. Upon all matters of statement or calculation, the editor has uniformly spoken from authority where compression was deemed necessary, or rather has preferred giving the documents themselves wherever they seemed sufficiently condensed and general for a popular publication, intended to comprehend as much matter as possible, that should be merely useftd. Before, however, proceeding to the usual particulars, a few general observations will naturally be expected.

Confining, for the present, the field of emigration from the United Kingdom to his Majesty's dominions in the two Canadas, what sort of jaersons should seriously think of so important a step, has often been matter of considerable discussion. Upon this subject, however, we are furnished by nature with one general lule, which, unhappily for this country, is becoming

B 2 daily and imperatively more extensively applicable; namely, the great rule of necessity^ which to minds of any decision, placed in circmnstances but too common, soon precludes all controversy. It is the feeling of the necessity of the case, arising from a fair view of a man's situation and prospects in the old country, — that is, in general, that impelling principle of self-preservation, which is too powerful to admit of long deliberation, or a plain question between subsistence and want, — which is not only the speediest decider between a balance of evils, but which, in its operations in new circumstances, is the best stimulant to exertion, and the surest safeguard of success. This great law of the natural sense, is now fast beginning to apply, not only to the peasant and the artizan, who in too many cases see nought before them in tliis densely-populated country, but the melancholy consummation of the parish work-house, and the pauper's grave, but, to a vast number who have been otherwise situated, on whom the crowded mart of overdriven industry of all sorts, has shut every door of decent employment at home, and left them no choice between personal labour, of an unwonted species, in another land, with a view to an ultimate independence, and the last state of degradation and misery where they are -, with the bitter aggravation, in such an alternative, of being perfectly miable to help themselves. This rule of necessity, naturally divides itself among three classes, all of whom feel it equally urgent, but not with the same degree of hope in reference to emigration.

The first and most numerous is composed of those, who, as mere labourers, and standing at the bottom of the scale of society at home, would be happy to go to any spot, where they could procure a subsistence by physical exertion. Though there is no doubt that, as far as individuals are concerned, this class ought to be the first to emigrate, yet the situation of such persons is rendered so completely helpless, by their entire destitution, and so formidable even to a colony from their numbers, that they become more the proper objects of the care of others than of them elves *. The operation of the feeling of necessity itself, then, ought to be checked, in reference to the helpless orders, by such regulations, even in the supply of labour beyond the Atlantic, as may prevent destitute families from throwing themselves in shoals upon a new country, without even the means of their own conveyance to those inland settlements where their labour may procure them present subsistence.

Upon this subject, the Committee of the House of Commons, in the course of their enquiries, make in their Third Report a very important and obvious distinction, which ought to be impressed at home, as well upon the poor man himself, before he suffers himself to be decoyed on board ship by low and mercenary agents, as upon bodies of individuals who are interested in the removal of the helpless. This distinction is, between Emigration and Colonization. The former in its simple sense, is mere change of * See paper A, in the Appendix.

place, whereas colonization in all its consequences ought to be the real and only object of the removal from the old country ; for, as the Report expresses it, were the Government at home, or parishes for their own relief, to transfer men to the Canadas who have not the means of becoming industrious colonists, such would only have the effect of a bridge thrown across the Atlantic, for thousands to hasten to the other side to glut the market for labour, extensive as it is — to embarrass the frontier towns, as has already been done, with the starving poor of the old country; while the victims of ignorance themselves, unable to proceed to where their labour was available, were left to die in the wilderness. It is therefore a general rule, applying most of all to that class which is strongest goaded by necessity, that no man ought to leave the old country, without the means, not only of paying his passage to the Canadian shores, but of subsisting until he reaches the settlements up the country, where he may be enabled to commence actual colonization, in its simplest form, by the disposal and exertion of his own labour *.

To the second, and a better class of persons, at least in reference to intelligence and handicraft acquirement, namely, men reared to manufactures of all sorts, who cannot procure employment at home, there is no rule will apply so generally as the great rule of necessity in favour of emigration ; if such persons

* For further opinion vipon the emigration of this class, see paper B, in the Appendix.

can only save or procure the means of support until they reach the place where they can be paid for their labour. Some controversy having been maintained as to the rationality of advising persons, accustomed to sedentary and in-door employments at home, to go where they shall be set to chop trees in the woods, and this occasioning many to waver in their resolves, in spite of the strongest feelings of the necessity of the step, this subject may require a few further remarks. If the experience of persons who have followed the sedentary employment of weaving may be taken as generally applicable on this point, we have the fullest satisfaction in the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons, in the Report just referred to. In the year 1827, during a time of great distress, the urgency of their circumstances had caused the weavers of the AVest of Scotland to form tliemselves into numerous societies, for the promotion of associated plans of emigration, in connexion with which they earnestly applied for the assistance of Government. On this occasion, delegates from them were examined before the Committee, and stated, that the anxieties of the weavers to emigrate to Canada were enhanced by the favourable reports daily received from those of their own class who had already been settled there. Various letters from persons who had formerly been weavers, but who had emigrated for some time, were laid before the Committee ; but the substance of them will best appear in the followingquestions and their answers. — {Vide Examination of

John Tait. — Third Report, Minutes of Evidence^ p. 106.)

* Are the weavers aware of the nature of the labour of a new settler ? '

' They are 'perfectly aware of the great hardships they must encounter in the first two or three years.'

' Do you think they will make good fellers of heavy wood, and that they will be able to stump up roots and clear land ? '

' A good many of them have been accustomed to out-door labour ; and during last summer a good number were employed in breaking stones — a species of labour harder than that of felling trees ; and if they can exert themselves in one way, they will do it in another.'

The editor of a Glasgow newspaper examined. — (76. p. 90.)

' Have you any knowledge as to the state of those parties now in Canada ? '

' I have ; I know that many who went over to Canada, in a state of utter destitution, in 1820, are now in a state of comparative happiness ; many of them have written to their friends desirous of coming over, telling them that they certainly encountered great hardships for eighteen or twenty months, but that after that time they found that their situation got progressively better, and that they would gladly endure five times the amount of hardship, in order to be placed in the situation in which they now are.'

As the subject is raised to apply to a third, and superior class at home, the answer to the question of who should emigrate? becomes more complicated, and is more involved in considerations of acquired habits, associations, and mental wants affecting happiness, which only the strong feeling of necessity^ resulting from an appalling balance of evils, can in many minds overcome *.

* And j;et the feeling of necessity itself, arising from the pressure of the severest distress, though affording, perhaps, the best general rule for the expediency of emigration, has not always been sufficient to overcome the prejudices entertained in some parts of the country against the step. It appears by the evidence of a magistrate of the county of Nottingham, (the Rev. Mr. Beechey,) given to the Committee before mentioned, that in 1819, during a time of the severest distress, ' many artificers in those days, who had lived in absolute luxury and comparative affluence, were reduced to such an abject situation that they worked as common labourers for tenpence a-day, and submitted to this drudgery sooner than accept colonization.' This prejudice arises very much, however, from the operation of the poor-laws, which tends gradually to degrade the poor, and deprive them of all manly spirit and self-dependence. The same witness adds, — ' I am also of opinion that the same feeling still exists, and will probably prevail in other places where the poor knowas well as they do in Nottinghamshire that they are, under the present laws, entitled to parochial support.' The inference drawn by this intelligent philanthropist is still more interesting, and illustrative of human nature. ' I think,' he adds, that when a family becomes actually pauperised, both in the parents and in their progeny, which is constantly the case, we appear in our legislation to want some provision beyond a work-house, or a prison; and I leave it to the judgment of the Committee to consider whether there may not be a class of paupers to whom colonization might be proposed^

To the mere agriculturist, who is accustomed to farming employment at home, and has some means left to prosecute his fortune, colonization in Canada is more a matter of choice and speculation ; and, when adopted, will well repay the industrious and enterprising emigrant. The man, however, whose habits are to be broke up, and whose pursuits are to suffer a total change by such a step, yet who is goaded on by the strong hand of necessity, will find, from the reports of all men who have tried it, that the first hardships of making a settlement, in a country which presents such an inexhaustible field of exertion and enterprise as Canada, is as nothing compared to the appalling prospects, particularly for large families, that await the declining and the friendless in an overpopulated country.

Upon a subject of this kind, however, which applies to men of broken fortunes or narrow means at home, and refers to habits of mind and disposition as various as the features of the face, opinion will of course be as various and it will be difficult to point out any general rule upon the subject ; unless the

accompanied with a condition, that, if rejected, these paupers should not become in future entitled to parochial relief.' — (Vide Minutes of Evidence, ^c, Third Repo7't, p. 401.) It should be added, however, that the colonization, against which the Nottingham artificers entertained such prejudices, was that to the Cape of Good Hope, — Canada not being then so well known and appreciated as a field for emigration. A few, however, did consent to go ; and, after being supplied with every necessary, were shipped to Algoa bay. The result is well known.

feeling of necessity itself, in a mind of some decision, is sufficiently strong to overcome all obstacles to the undertakings and a resolute self-denial and persevering industry in the execution., comes into active operation, to ensure ultimate comfort and independence, as it no doubt will do. As to persons who have been accustomed to city comforts and city excitement at home, the question of the expediency of emigration, as far as their own feelings are concerned, is one of the mind, still more than even the habits ; therefore, the mind itself is the most competent, from its own consciousness, to give the answer. To some minds, the mere feeling of conscious prosperity and prospective independence, is sufficient to make labour itself an enjoyment, and petty inconveniences a subject of mirth rather than spleen ; while to others, these latter things are subjects of constant murmur and harassment. Upon this point we have the following opinion, in reference even to the greatest preliminary hardships of the worst provided settlers, by the son of the well-known Colonel Talbot, the celebrated colonizer on lake Erie, Upper Canada, whose experience and opportunities of observation well entitle him to be heard on any part of this snbject.

* It is a grievance of no inconsiderable magnitude,' says he, ' to be compelled, after a day of severe labour, to stretch one's weary limbs on the bare ground in the cold month of November, and to be protected from the " fierce North- wind, with liis airy forces," and from the chilling frost, only by a miserable hut, with a fire sufficiently near it to counteract, in some degree, their benumbing effects. But the hope of independence is sufficient to sustain the mind under privations still greater than these ; and he, who can bring himself to think, when lying down to rest on the bare earth, that the day is not far distant when he may happily repose on a more inviting couch, without one anxious thought respecting the future prospects of himself and his family, regards these transient sufferings with a kind of feeling nearly allied to actual pleasure. He sees the time fast approaching, when the wilderness to him shall be "a fruitful field, and the desert shall blossom as the rose;" — when the productive soil shall gratefully yield an ample reward to his toils ; — and when the hardships of his situation shall, by the blessing of heaven on his exertions, gradually disappear, and leave him in possession of health, plenty, and independence. While indulging in such pleasing visions, the wooden pillow of a new and industrious settler becomes softer than bolsters of down , and his solitary blanket feels more comfortable that sheets of Holland *.'

These considerations will apply well to the feelings of a still better class of persons, whom the vicissitudes of life in this commercial country are daily reducing to circumstances and prospects, which they and their families well may look upon with dismay. * Talbot's Five Years^ Residence in the Canadas, vol. i. p. 118.

To such individuals, the prospect of losing caste in their own country, of descending beneath and being avoided by their former equals ; of incurring, in sliort, the common consequences of misfortune, in respect to social intercourse and estimation in artificial life, — presents often an evil more terrible to a proud mind than the want of bread itself ; and rouses, in its most imperative form, the high resolves and deep determination which grow out of the most urgent operation of the great principle of necessity. To liide their heads in the wilderness, therefore, and submit to contend with the evils with which Nature surrounds the first intruder upon her domain, rather than further grapple with ills that seem more intensely galling, and are certainly mixed with less ultimate promise, has been the resolve of not a few determined minds, and, where there are any means left to begin the world on the other side, is a disposition which can hardly miss the reward of activity, and the triumph of its own perseverance. These are the sort of persons whom the late clever engineer Mactaggart designates as those who have been * badgered and abused' at home, but who, in spite of all their misfortunes, having a little cash left, if their minds are unbroken and their frames healthy, make, after all, the best settlers in Canada.

It is for persons of this sort, as well as all who, possessing intelligence and minds disposed to enterprise and activity, with some little substance that they cannot make a safe or hopeful use of at home, that we more particularly design the information and opinion collected or condensed in the following pages. These we give as far as convenient in different shapes, that individuals may be better enabled to form a judgment, both as to the difficulties to be encountered, and the nature and extent of the promised advantages. Particulars as to these, however, will be more fully given in the latter part of the volume, and in the shape of statement or quotation in the Appendix. As the evils of home to the better classes of whom we have been speaking, are chiefly those of the mind and habits, including the incessant cares, fears, despondency, and harassment, which are incident to a life of narrow circumstances, or commercial vicissitude ; the evils to be endured in such a place as the Canadas, after the first difficulties are surmounted, seem chiefly to assume the shapes of mental and social privation, with unwonted field employment, and in general a certain rudeness and rusticity, as well as loneliness of life, to which some minds take with tolerable facility, while others never can thoroughly bend into it. To these last, therefore, the occupations, as well as the rewards of colonization, only gives them a new modification of that constitutional discontent, which to many is the common burden and curse of existence. But this disposition, however common, is very difl'erent from the clearheaded, a priori perception, manly resolution, and heroic perseverance of stronger minds, which, in cases such as that of Mr. Philemon Wright, the American,

(see Appendix,) Colonel Talbot, on lake Erie, the Highland Chieftain M'Nab, on the Ottawa, and a hundred others now prospering in Canada, have been the foundation of such marked colonizing success.

To persons to whom colonization in Canada is, to a great degree, matter of choice, the consideration of time of life is, by all writers, allowed to be one of the most important. AVere young inen of the handicraft class more generally to train themselves for putting forth their exertions in the extensive field of a new country^ much misery would be saved to themselves and their descendants. But man is a gambler in his own fortune ; and, while life is young and hope is fresh, he would rather take his fate among the vast array of blanks that appear around him, for the barest chance of the solitary prize that occasionally turns up to his competitors, than betake himself to a country where the very nature of things makes the advantages sure, and almost present. So it is with persons in the better classes of life, — buoyed up by hope, they struggle on from disappointment to disappointment, until the rational emigrant who has gone before, tells him at last that it is now too late.

The next common consideration of the highest importance is, with reference to making provisions for growing families. At home, every one knows, there is not a more difficult problem that an anxious parent has to solve, than, what he is to dowith his children? Unless, then, he possesses some peculiar advantages

INTRODUCTIO-V.

for placing them eligibly in the world, few contemplations can be more melancholy than their probable career, left to struggle with the overwhelming competitions of overpeopled society. It is these considerations that often make the elderly parent seek an asylum for himself, and a field for the independence of his family, among the echoing forests of the Canadian wilderness.

To all these classes, however, and particularly to a restless scheming sort of men who have dabbled in many of the artificial employments of the old country, it is important to observe, that while in England there is an endless variety of profession and occupation, in Canada there is, properly speaking, only one ; or at least, that, excepting for a few of the simplest artisan employments, farming, and farming only, should be looked to as the staple profession of all who mean to emigrate. The plans and enterprises that are connected with farming, and the raising of a new settlement, will always commend themselves to an active mind, but they bear no proportion to the staple concerns of the clearing of land and the raising of produce, to which a steady and rational mind ought to give its first attention. Though the various shades of folly, as to emigration, that grow out of the vices and discontents of an old country, ought to be discouraged, boili as to their wild plans and extravagant hopes, yet it seems, after all, to be a general rule, in respect to this interesting field of human exertion, that any, or ' every individual,' as Howison expresses it, ' who to youth and health joins perseverance and industry, Avill eventually prosper.'

' Mechanics,' adds the same observer, ' cannot fail to do well in Upper Canada ; for, when not employed in clearing lands, they will find it easy to gain a little money by working at their professions ; and they likewise have the advantage of being able to improve their dwelling-houses, and repair their farming utensils at no expense *.'

The sort of mechanics recommended for emigration by the Canada Company, — even to Upper Canada, in which the wants of the population may be supposed to be more limited than in the Lower Province, where there are several cities — are ' working artisans of almost all descriptions, particularly blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, and plasterers ; masons, coopers, millwrights, and wheelwrights, get high wages, and are much wanted.' ' Industrious men, adds the Company, ' may look forward with confidence to an improvement in their situation, as they may save enough out of one season's work, to buy land themselves, in settled townships.'

"With respect, however, to another shade of the merely clever classes, the opinion of Mr. Talbot,

* Howison's Upper Canada, p. 239. See also an excellent description of the proceedings of a new settlement, and of Andrew Gimlet, a carpenter, in I\Ir. Gait's ' Bogle Corbet,' vol. iii. p. 31 — 142, &c. See in this book, Appendix Paper C, an interesting account of the early proceedings of Mr. Wright and his associates, in the township of Hull, published at the expense of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. _

C formerly quoted, is mucli to the point. He says, * with respect to the emigration of yomig men of talent and enterprise, but of no particuhir profession, I think it my duty, most decidedly to urge upon their choice the preference that is due to the kingdoms of Europe, and especially to that of Great Britain. For they who imagine that any other part of Canada, than the cities of Montreal and Quebec, is favourable to their views of literary, scientific, or commercial advancement, are of all men the most dreadfully deluded. I have heard of many such persons, who have recently arrived in the province, and I feel sorry to say, that I am not able to mention a single exception in which they have not been compelled to resort to the use of the axe, or to some other office which they consider equally degrading*.' Mr. Talbot's book, however, was published in 1824. since which the reader may allow for some slight degree of change.

Further, as a matter of choice and speculation, there is no class to whom colonization in the Canadas presents more manifest advantages than persons of small capital, — small, independent incomes, with large families, whom they are naturally anxious to see settled in life ; particularly if such persons and their children are at all wilhng to engage heartily themselves in active employments, for the sake of freedom from despondency, and future comfort. Undoubtedly, to persons accustomed to artificial * Five Year's Residence, vol. ii. p. 247.

circumstances, and possessed of the feelings of gentlemen, farming occupations, in a new country, imply many sacrifices ; yet, it ought to be recollected that, after all, field-labour, and the tilling of the ground, are the original and most natural employments of man, and even age and the fixed habits of artificial life cannot altogether destroy the relish with which the healthy mind returns to these, almost at any period. In confirmation of this, we have the uniform testimony of most travellers and residents in the new country, and the letter of a half- pay officer, who, with his family, had emigrated from Wales, and settled in Upper Canada, to Captain Basil Hall, speaks as strongly to the point, as any that we have met with. ' Even a person not brought up to labour, and under many disadvantages,' he recommends to the step he had himself taken ; particularly, if the person had ' a good heart,' and was ' of an industrious turn, and will turn his hand to anything, he will soon better his situation. For example,' he adds, * while in England, on half-pay, nearly all my income went for food ; here it nearly all goes for clothing of British manufacture. My family is supported with respectability and comfort, having abundance of all the necessaries of life within my farm, and my pay enabhng me to supply all other requisites. Here we can keep the door of hospitality open without inconvenience, and fiind leisure to visit our friends, and enjoy ourselves in a pleasant way, keeping a pair of good horses, sleighs, &c. &c.

c 2

' Persons with families, as they have the most urgent reasons to migrate, so they will always make the best settlers. Their children can assist materially in the mode of farming pursued on wild land, and may do so without its being looked upon as a degradation. If they are well educated, there is little doubt of their advancement in the professions ; and if not, they will be always sure of a provision by farming, as their parents may, with a moderate outlay, acquire property for them. As British goods of almost every description are now brought down to a moderate price, gentlemen coming out will do well not to stock themselves with more than they want for their own use, as they will find their money more useful than superfluous articles of any description ; and such, with an income of from fifty to two hundred pounds a year, with prudence, may live in the most comfortable and respectable way here, being able, by means of a farm, to supply the table with abundance, and to enjoy themselves at their leisure, in as good society as can be found in most country towns in England. Indeed, were it not for the differences of fences, occasional dissight of old stumps, or dead standing trees, and now and then " I guess," a person in this neighbourhood can hardly fancy himself in a foreign country.