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MARTIN'S HOLIDAY BOOK, illustrated with numerous cu
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TV
V
* *


2 _
THE
SETTLER'S NEW HOME;
OB
WHETHER TO GO, AND WHlTHER?
BEING
A GUIDE TO EMIGRANTS IN THE SELECTION OP A. SETTLEMENT,
AND THE PRELIMINARY DETAILS OP THE VOYAGE.
EUBRAUING THE WHOLE FIELDS OF EMIGRATION, AND THE MOST SECEKI
INFORMATION RELATING THERETO.
IN TWO PARTS.
By SlDNEY SMlTH.
Hackney'd in business, wearied at that oar,
Which thousands, once fast chain'd to, quit no more,
But which, when life at ebb runs weak and low,
All wish, or seem to wish, they could forego;
The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade,
Pants for the refuge of some rural shade.
FART ONE.
BRITISH AMERICA—CANADA;
Embracing Nora Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, Prinee Edward's Island,
Eastern Canada, Western Canada.
THE UNITED STATES;
Including New England, The Western States, The Stare States, Texas,
California, Hudson's Bay Settlements,
Comprehending Oregon, and Van Couver's Island.
PART TWO.
The Cape of Good Hope. Port Natal. New Zealand. New South Walen
South Australia. Australia Felix.
Western Australia. Van Dieman's Land. Auckland Island.
Falkland Islands, and Remaining British Colonies,
LONDON:
JOHN KENDRICK, 27, LUDGATE STREET, SArNT PAULS;
AND 4, CHARLOTTE ROW, MANSION HOUSE,
MDCCCL.


CONTENTS.
PART ONE.
PAGE.
Preface iii.
Introduction 1
Motives for Emigrating 6
General Advantages of Emigration 16
Colonization 22
Emigration Fields 25
Climate 27
Transit 31
Allegiance.—Society 32
Choice of a Ship 33
The Voyage, and the Sea 36
"Works on Emigration 40
British America 41
Prince Edward's Island 46
I Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton 48
^ New Brunswick 60
- Canada 51
- Upper Canada 57
. Who should Emigrate? 62
j Locations 63
^ Choice and Cost of Land 64
- Life in Canada 65
^"Voluntary Emigration.—State Colonization 71
The United States , *72
Geographical Divisions 73
The Eastern, or New England States 73
The Western States 83
£&
*>


CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Ohio 83
Illinois 85
Michigan 91
Indiana 92
Wisconsin 92
Iowa 93
Comparison of Western States 94
Middle and South Western States 103
General Features of the Western States.—Conclusion 124
Texas 127
Oregon, Van Couver's Island, California 129
Appendix 130
PART TWO.
Introduction.
Cape of Good Hope 1
Natal 3
New Zealand 7
Localities and Settlements 17
Nelson 21
Wellington 24
Otago 26
Canterbury 38
General Information 40
Australia 44
New South Wales Proper 48
South Australia 63
Australia Felix, or Port Philip 74
Western Australia 87
Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land 85
The A uckland Islands 90
The Falkland Islands 93
Remaining British Colonies 94
Appendix 95


PAET ONE.
*
fTHE
SETTLERS NEW HOME
BRITISH AMERICA,—CANADA.:
EMBRACING NOVA SCOTIA, NEW BRUNSWICK, CAPE BRETON, PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND,
EASTERN CANADA, WESTERN CANADA.
THE UNITES STATES:
INCLUDING NEW ENGLAND, THE WESTERN STATES, THE SLAVE STATES, TEXAS, CALIFORNIA, HUDSON'S BAY SETTLEMENTS, COMPREHENDING OREGON, AND VAN COUVER*S ISLAND.


COMPANIONS FOR THE VOYAGE, THE HUT, AND THE FRAME
HOUSE.
The Emigrant may be removed from society without being deprived o
companions. Even if he sequesters himself from the company of the
living, he may have on the lonely ocean, the distant prairie, or in the
solitary wood, communion with those who never die. The mind, for want
of a better social circle, has been glad in the sea calm, or at the cattle
station, to pore over a series of old almanacks. Before it be too late
we would warn emigrants to provide against solitude by securing to them-
selves the intercourse of books, of which the best happen also to be the
cheapest. In the colonies they will always sell for double what they cost
in the mother country, while the purchaser has had the use of them into the
bargain. To supply this desideratum we have requested our publisher to
select a list of books from his stock suitable for settlers, and to append their
prices. These will be found at the end of the volume.


PREFACE.
It is not unreasonably made a charge against political economists, that
they are not agreed as to their objects, and that they are singularly in-
definite in the application of their principles. They aim at an arith-
metical exactitude which is not compatible with a due consideration of
the disturbing causes which must invalidate their calculations; or else
they exclude from the operation of the science, moral and political
influences, without the consideration of which it is of little practical value.
Somekeep in view solely the production of wealth,—others assign more im-
portance to its distribution;—not a few regard only the power, and great-
nets of a kingdom;—wiser men look rather to the diffusion of the general
happiness of its subjects,—the wisest, test economical theories solely by
their capacity for enlarging the contentment, security, and comfort of the
whole human family.
Your rule-of-three statistician has got hold of a phrase about produc-
tive labourers and unproductive consumers, upon which he rings the
changes of his political arithmetic, with much seZf-satisfaction, and with
little to any body else. All that he cannot post in a ledger he regards
at 'oss. All that he can enter in a day book, he reckons as a gain. The
more intelligent statist regards a great poet, a fine composer, an inspired
painter, or orator, or sculptor, or moralist, or philosopher,—the men
who have made the people of England that which distinguishes them
from the Kalmuck or the Cossack, —as more productive than a thousand
steam engines, or ten thousand power looms. The weaver can indeed
warp and woof threads into cloth, and the artizan can hammer iron into
tools; but the statesman, the artist, the man of science, the moral teacher,
the public writer, can breathe into crude humanity the breath of life,
and make of it a living soul, and call an Athens, a Rome, a Paris, a Lon-
don, out of the Serbonian bog of chaotic barbarism, and bring it into the
light of civilization. The mechanic who can make a compass, or the


It preface.
sailor who can haul a rope, is more arithmetically productive than the
man who discovered the principle of the attraction of the needle to the
pole, or the application of steam to navigation; but for all that, he
who can put types together scarcely does as much for the world as the in-
ventor of the art of printing. The wealth of nations is not to be estimated
by that alone which can be put on paper; nor is a balance sheet, or
columns of £. s. d. the proper measure of the power, riches, or happiness
of an empire.
It is on this account that the value of colonies to the mother country
cannot be ascertained by a mere debtor and creditor account. We do not
get at the bottom of this controversy by finding that the government of
Canada costs Britain £2,000,000,—that the profit on the goods we sell
her is only one million and a half, and that we therefore lose half a mil-
lion by the connexion. Nor, on the other hand, have we proved that it
is better for our outlying provinces, and for this our central kingdom,
that the former should be set adrift, by showing that the United States
cost us a great deal while they were dependences of the British crown,—
that at present they cost us nothing, while they take from us ten times
the amount of manufactures they ever did before, and that they are ten
times as populous, and ten times as wealthy as they were while they were
mere colonies. Had they never been British colonies, protected and fos-
tered by the crown, they would never have become a great Anglo-Saxon
republic. Had George III., listening to the prophetic wisdom of Chat-
ham, had the sagacity to have conferred upon the various provinces the
blessings of political independence, and that local self government, which
is no less our constitutional policy than the source of public spirit, indi-
vidual development, and social activity, America might now have been
as great as a colony, as she now is as a separate republic, and might still
be the pride and strength of Britain, in place of being our rival in com-
merce, manufactures and politics, and our often threatened antagonist in
war. Dependent upon her for cotton, she may one day shut up every
mill in Lancashire, and by some gigantic effort, manufacture for the
world, in our stead; and had she been at this moment a dependency of
ours, she could not have assailed us with a hostile tariff, which, while it
inflicts mischief on her own people, deprives England of a market for


PREFACE. v
at least £20,000,000 worth of manufactures per annum. What, indeed,
is it that has made and continues the greatness of the United States, ex-
cept that, speaking our language, adopting our institutions, assimilating
our jurisprudence, forming her public opinion upon our literature, oui
people make her, in fact, the chief of our colonies, by annually migrating
to and subduing her wastes,—adding to her capital, executing her pub-
lic works, and feeding her labour market with supplies, and her navy
with sailors, without which she would make but small appreciable pro-
gress. What is it that makes Canada a burden upon rather than an aid
to the imperial treasury, but the two-fold fact that the United States are
not now a British Colony, but a "sympathiser" with the discontents of
our subjects, and that we have too long withheld from our Acadian
possessions those powers of self-gov«rnment to the want of which alone
our colonial governors attribute their inferiority to the neighbouring
republic.
If we had not taken possession of the Cape, Natal, New Zealand, Aus-
ralia, Van Diemen's Land, of Ceylon, the Mauritius, they must have
been seized by other potentates, and could never have become places for
the settlement of British subjects. We would thereby have lost these
outlets for our redundant population, our surplus labour, or our super-
fluous energy. If our people had located themselves in these districts,
the common obligation under which every country rests to protect its own
subjects, would render it imperative on us to defend them in their pos-
sessions,—just as we send out fleets to protect our commerce, and to con-
voy our shipping. If we turn them adrift, because, on a calculation of
mere arithmetical profit and loss, they are found to be chargeable to us,
we must maintain them in their independence until they are able to pro-
tect themselves, and when they can do that, they would cease to be a
burden on our finances, even if they were continued among the number of
our dependences. There is not a colony we possess that could maintain
its own independence against 10,000 European troops for a month after we
had abandoned its sovereignty; and as a mere common sense proposition
it is obvious, that whatever expense our interference might incur, we could
not stand by and see even a minority of our fellow countrymen conquered
and subjected to the dictation of a foreign power. Cromwell, at a cost


Ti PREFACE.
of millions, vindicated the rights of a single British subject. Wherever
an Englisman goes, there the majesty of England must be with him
We recognize the duty of spending millions upon the mitigation of Irish
distress; we pay six millions every year to feed and clothe 1,900,000 En-
glish paupers who are totally unproductive. Shall we admit our obliga-
tion to support domestic beggary, and deny the duty of encouraging the
efforts of the enterprising, energetic and industrious, to maintain them-
selves, subdue the wilderness, extend our empire, and increase the pro
ductiveness of our dominions? In short, shall our paupers alone have
claims upon us, while our colonists are to be deserted? Two hundred
and sixty thousand of us expatriate ourselves every year, to make room
for others at home, to be no longer a burden upon us; to help us, it may
be, to more employment in their customs, in their shipping, in their ex-
ports and imports. How much greater would be our distress and com-
petition, our pauperism, if these remained in the mother country
The question of colonization is indeed a very distinct one from that of
our existing management of our colonies. Give to each of them an
independent government, and a domestic legislature, owning only like our
own, the common sovereignty of the British crown. Why pay governors,
and depnty governors, bishops and judges? May colonists not have their
own president, and vice president? their own religious instructors? their
own judges and jurisprudence? If they cannot all at once pay their own
expences, help them until they can, as we do many of our own provincial
domestic institutions. The Home Office does not rule the Irish Unions
because it helps them to a grant, or a rate in aid. It does not preside in
the town council of Edinburgh, because it pays half the debts of the munici-
pality. Neither is it right to keep colonies in the leading strings of Earl
Grey and Mr. Hawes, because they are compelled to creep before they can
walk. There is scarcely ever a private commercial enterprise that is self-
supporting at the first. The capitalist must long lie out of interest before
he can look for returns,—and so must a nation. But the sooner colonies
are endowed with self-government, the earlier will they be self-supporting.
But is it so certain that even under the existing vicious system, our
colonies are even a pecuniary loss to us? The wealth of the Indies is
raved to be spent in England. The West India trade and fleet, the New


vii
Zealand and Australian and Canadian timber, and wool, and minerals,
and shipping, and flax, and tallow, and oil, are they nothing to our
maritime interests, our merchants, and bankers, and manufacturers?
Cut us off from all these, and where would be Leadenhall Street, and
Lombard Street, and Broad Street; Liverpool, and Bristol, Manchester,
the Clyde, and the Thames? Compared with the population, Holland is
richer than England. Yet what is Batavia politically, socially, morally,
in the world's eye, to the leading power of Europe,—and to what account
does she turn her capital? But for the elastic enterprise, the inventive
fertility of mercantile resources, the restless spirit of adventure, the un-
ceasing energy of speculation which bear us onward under the inspiration
of the aphorism, "never venture, never win," what would there be to
distinguish England from Germany, or Spain, or Italy? And what
fosters that sentiment of universality and grandeur of endeavour which is
our characteristic, if it be not the extension of our name, race, language,
and empire over the world? It is of no consequence arithmetically to
us, whether a great number of private capitalists sustain heavy losses by
foreign speculation, or the amount be taken from the public treasury.
Either way it is a deduction from the national wealth. We have lost far
more by United States' banks and stocks, by Spanish Bonds, by foreign
railways, and continental ventures, than the whole cost of our colonial
government. Yet upon the whole we gain by the world in place of
losing by it; the state must not make itself the judge of the enterprise
of its subjects, and it must follow and help them wherever their energy
or interest lead them.
Trade begets trade. In searching for one adventure, our supercargoes
and ship-captains find out another. A single cargo of a strange article,
brought home in desperation for want of other freight, often lays the
foundation of an enormous branch of new commerce. We fish for whales
at the Bay of Islands, and find out flax, and gum, and ship-spars, and
manganese at Wellington and Auckland. We begin by banishing our
criminals to Australia and Van Diemen's Land, and end by becoming in-
dependent of Saxony for wool, and by finding coal to carry our steamers
to Singapore, and Bombay, and the Cape, as a halfway house to Europe.
Co we owe nothing to posterity? Is our money of no use to mankind,


viii
but to be kept in the money bags? Are we born only for ourselves?
Shall we be called the foremost men in all the world, and do nothing for
the world? Let England set her mark upon the earth to fructify and
bless it. Half a million souls we bring annually into the world. Year by
year, interest on compound interest is heaped upon our teeming popula-
tion. What can become of them, what shall we do with them if we keep
them all here ?" Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits." A
family is chargeable. Shall we therefore deny the proposition of Benedick
that,
"The world must be peopled."
No—if colonies cost us too much, let us retrench—if they do not "get
on," let us confer upon them the powers of self-government to energize
them into self-reliance;—if the colonial office mismanages, let the
colonists manage their own affairs, and pay for it. But we need new
fields of commerce—fresh subjects of trade—new homes for our over-
crowded people, and therefore let us have colonies and keep them.
The time should teach us a solemn lesson. We have become every year
more dependent on the continent of Europe for trade and custom. To
what alone can we trace our present depressed, almost prostrate con-
dition? The wars and disorders of our European customers have robbed
them of their means of purchase, or rendered them no longer trust-
worthy debtors for goods. Should the flame of war burst out over the
old world, we shall find ourselves with half a million of additional hands
yearly to find food and work for, and fewer safe customers than ever.
Mr. Mackay warns us that the vast mineral resources of Pennsylvania,
combined with the exhaustless water power and raw material of manu-
facture with which the United States abound, will speedily convert the
transatlanticrepublicintoamost formidable, and invincible manufacturing,
and commercial rival of England. With Europe at war, and America for
a competitor, where will our safety be, if not in finding customers in our
colonies? Universal Peace may come before the Greek Kalends, and an-
ticipate by centuries the Day of Pentecost; but our wants are urgent,
and our necessities immediate. We must find work and raiment, and
food now, in this very year of War, Pestilence, and Famine, of Irish de-


PREFACE. IX
population, and all but English ruin. If we had no taxes, we must still
seek trade, customers, elbow-room, and employment. And we repeat,
with dangerous commercial rivals, and distracted Europe, where are we
to find consumers, outlet, and provision for our increasing numbers, ex-
cept in Emigration and in Colonies 1
London, August, 1849,
4, Charlotte Row.
NOTICE—CANADA.
The ninth number of the Circular of the Emigration Commissioners,
announces that affairs in our North American Colonies are in a state of
depression, and that the demand for labour has, in consequence of a sus-
pension of the execution of public works, fallen off, although agriculture
and farming settlers are in a state of steadily progressive prosperity.
This is therefore the very time for the migration thither of all classes of
settlers. When everything is in a state of plethoric efflorescence in a
colony, the interest of money falls, cleared land advances extravagantly
in price, provisions are dear, and wages far too high for the permanent
advantage either of the capitalist or the labourer. To men, indeed,
seeking employment as artizans in the towns, the present will be an un-
favourable period for emigration to Canada, but all who desire to settle
on land will find numberless clearings and farms of all kinds remarkably
cheap, and the cost of subsistence uncommonly low. Stock, grain, agri-
cultural implements, log huts, frame houses, mills, may now be had at
cheap rates, and twenty shillings will go as far at present as forty shillings
did ten years ago. The abundant supply of labour at reasonable rates,
is a circumstance highly favourable to agricultural enterprize, and
capitalists cannot fail by seizing the present golden opportunity greatly
to better their fortunes.
The probability of the early execution of a main trunk of railway
through the chief districts of the colony, is a consideration of no mean
importance either to labourers or to capitalists.


We observe that the number of emigrants from the United Kingdom is
only 248,089, against 258,270 last year. There has been an increase of
settlers to the United States of 46,079, and to Australia of 18,955, the de-
crement amounting to 68,615, being confined to our North American
colonies. We are corroborated in our favourable opinion of the western
portion of Upper Canada by every fresh inquiry we have the opportunity
to make, and the recent answers we receive to questions relative to the
climate, continue to be more and more satisfactory.
The immediate prospect of a reaction towards war all over Europe,
will give a fresh and great stimulus to emigration, and we should there-
fore advise all who meditate the step of proceeding to the colonies, to
hasten their departure, so that they may arrive before the best locations
are bought up.
We cannot issue this edition to the public without acknowledging our
obligations to the various authors to whose works we have been chiefly
indebted. The "Emigrant's Journal" we are especially bound to recom-
mend to all intending emigrants, as a most valuable reporter of colo-
nial information. Mr. Byrne, Mr. Mathew, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Earp,
Mr. Gray Smith, and others, have also supplied much useful instruc-
tion, of which we have freely availed ourselves.
We are also bound to express our gratitude to the conductors of
the periodical press, for the kindly and liberal spirit in which they
have noticed the work—to which, much of its great success is to be
attributed.
It will be seen that the present edition contains many important
additions—and it is our intention, should our anticipations of estab-
lishing the work, as a standard book of reference on the subject of
emigration, be realized, to spare no labour which may conduce to its
completeness, and to render it a volume in which the most recent and
authentic information in reference to every colony may always be
found.
We have had access to the most certain and exclusive sources of
information, official and private. We have been guided by the strictest
and most disinterested impartiality; and have always written under the
sense of the deep responsibility which all should feel, who undertake


to advise our fellow countrymen in reference to a step which involves
such important personal results, as the fate of British families for
their whole lives.
We have also been solicitous to render the work accessible to the humblest classes of the people, by fixing its price at the lowest barely
remunerating cost.
To the perfect completeness of the subject, it was necessary that we
should exhaust the question of Home Colonization, and the prospects of
the Mother Country.
Of the interesting topics of entail, primogeniture, small freeholds,
spade husbandry, taxation, poor-laws, jurisprudence, land titles, and
other cognate objects of enquiry, we have accordingly undertaken to
treat in a separate volume, to which we shall earnestly solicit the at-
tention of those, who, having been interested by the following pages,
may feel inclined to accompany the author through a not less impor-
tant field of enquiry.





INTRODUCTION.
If that which is true cannot be profane, Voltaire may almost be
pardoned for the sentiment, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary
to invent Him." "Man never is, but always to be blest;" he cannot live
in the now and the here; he must fill the heart's aching void with a
heaven and a hereafter. So little to the meditative "in this life only is there
hope," so soon to the reflective and spiritual do "the evil days draw
nigh" in which they are constrained to say in weariness of very life,
"they have no pleasure in them;" that without the assurance of a God,
a heaven, and immortality, earth would be but one vast bedlam. In an
inferior but analogous sense what immortality is to time, foreign lands
are to space. Colonies are "the world beyond the grave" of disap-
pointed hopes. The antipodes are the terrestrial future, the sublunary
heaven of the unsuccessful and the dissatisfied. The weaver in his
Spitalfields garret who tries to rusticate his fancy by mignionette in his
window-box, and bees in the eaves, bathes his parched soul in visions of
prairie flowers, and a woodbine cabin beside Arcadian cataracts. The
starving peasant whose very cottage is his master's, who tills what he can
never own, who poaches by stealth to keep famine from his door, and
whose overlaboured day cannot save his hard-earned sleep from the
nightmare of the workhouse, would often become desperate, a lunatic, or
a broken man, but for the hope that he may one day plant his foot on
his own American freehold, plough his own land, pursue the chase with-
out a license through the plains of Illinois or the forests of Michigan,
and see certain independence before himself and his children. The in-
dustrious tradesman, meritorious merchant, or skilful and enlightened
professional man, jerked perhaps by the mere chance of the war of com-
petition out of his parallelogram, and exhausting his strength and very
life in the vain struggle to get back again into a position already filled;
compelled by the tyranny of social convention to maintain appearances
unsuited to the state of his purse; plundered by bankrupt competitors
or insolvent customers, and stripped of his substance by high prices and
oppressive taxation, would often become the dangerous enemy of society
or of government, but for the consideration that, in South Africa, in
America, in Australia, or New Zealand, he may find repose from anxiety
in independence, rude and rough though it may be, emancipation from
the thraldom of convention, and an immunity from any compulsion to
keep up appearances, and to seem to be what he is not. "I care nothing," said the French king, "for these clubs, plots, attempts upon
my life; but I have thirty-four millions of restless spirits to find food and
employment for, and I have no colonies." The redundant enterprise;
the surplus energy: the fermenting spirit of adventure with which the
B


2 IimtODtTCTION.
population of these kingdoms teems, would, like the figure of sin in
Milton, have long since turned inward to gnaw the vitals of its parent,
but for the "ample scope and verge enough" it finds in the romantic
life of our sailors, or the trials, perils, hopes and fortunes of emigration.
"Ships and colonies," the time-honoured toast of monopolists, have
stopped many an emeute, and saved many a rebellion. We are not sure
that they have not more than once averted a revolution. Hampden,
Pym, and Cromwell, turned back by a king's warrant from the emigrant
ship in which they had already embarked, remained to decapitate their
rovereign, and establish a commonwealth. The unsettled boil off their
superfluous mischief in the prospect of a fixed home in the bush or the
backwoods; the discontented find comfort and rest in the conviction that
"there is another and a better world" in the genial south, or the re-
gion of the setting sun. It is always in oui seasons of greatest com-
mercial distress and social privation that the largest export of emigrants
takes place. The misery and disaffection which otherwise would make
themselves formidable to constituted authority, hive off into the repose
of peregrine settlements, and, sluicing themselves into new channels, save
the overflow of the parent stream.
The wandering Arab, the vagrant gipsy, the restless discoverer and
circumnavigator, the pioneer of the backwoods, who no sooner has civi-
lized the forest and the prairie, by the plough, and the enclosure, and
human habitations, than he disposes of his home, and hews out for him-
self further and still further removed from man, and settled society, a new
resting place in the remote woods, these are all but types of an instinct
and rooted tendency in human character, which, if it do not find its
natural outlet in colonial settlements and naval enterprise, will invent the
occupation it cannot find, in dist bing the peace and interrupting tha
order of our domestic social fabric. If we do not make war upon the
forest we will make war upon mankind; if we do not subdue the wilder-
ness, we will conquer one another. It is in vain that we call upon the
governing power to employ our people at home, and to reclaim our own
waste lands rather than send our necessitous abroad. Few colonists leave
their country without the mixed motive of necessity and inclination. The
love of the romance of adventure is strong in many of the rudest and
apparently least imaginative minds. There is an instinct of vagabondism,
so to speak, in many otherwise well -regulated intellects, which must find its
vent in wandering over the face of the earth. The drudgery, the want
of elbow room, the absence of property in the soil one tills, rob a holding
on the moor of Scotland, or the bogs of Ireland, of everything which
can satisfy the activity and energy of the men whose tendencies present
the best materials for colonization. And whatever may be the interest of
the government or of the settled community in this regard, it partakes
wmewhat of mere sentimental cant to pity the hard necessity which
drives the poor from misery at home, to colonial independence, and de-
prives the peasantry of the privilege of starving in their native parish.
that they may leaven the primeval curse with its promise of daily bread,
in the abundance of a foreign location.
Let this sentiment be examined by the manly common sense of the
wuntry, not whined over by its Pecksniffs, and made the hobby horse of


INTRODUCTION. 3
antiquated prejudice, and sentimental humbug. Every soldier, every
sailor, including members of the highest and richest classes of society, is
liable to expatriation at any time the duties of the service render it ne-
cessary he should go on a foreign station or on a lengthened cruise. The whole civil officers of our colonies, embracing Hudson's Bay and Sierra
Leone, Calcutta and Jamaica, sustain a virtual banishment from home,
and the perils of the most rigorous climates, added, in many cases, to
imminent danger from the barbarity of savage aborigines. The mer-
chant who sends his sons abroad to establish foreign houses, and open up
new channels of commerce, is driven to that necessity by the absence of
any proper opening for them at home. The squire who exports his bro-
thers to the East Indies, provided with a cadetship, or a writership, the
lord who places his relatives at the head of a colony of tenants, to fell
the woods of Canada or pasture the plains of Australia, are consulting
the real interests, not only of the mother country, but of the objects of
their care. It is not the rulers who misgovern us, or the legislators who
mismanage our affairs, upon whom are made to fall the consequences of
their folly or corruption. It is the industry and labour of the country which,
at the bottom, have to sustain the whole burden of maintaining all the other
orders of society. It is the working classes who produce every thing by
which all others profit, or are sustained in their position. The opera-
tives and the peasantry are the real honey bees to whom the hive owes
all its stores; they ultimately make the wealth by which the £10,000,000
of our■ poor-rates are found, they sustain the burden of finding food and
lodging for the 81,000 Irish vagrants who even now cast themselves on
the eleemosynary compassion of the metropolis. Upon their wages fall
the depreciation produced by the competition of a redundant population.
Out of their ten fingers, sweat and muscle, must be ground the local and
imperial taxes, wasted in the prosecution of crime, caused by want or
ignorance, or the abandonment of children by their parents. So long as
a man can maintain himself and those for whose support he has made
himself responsible, no one has a right to dictate to him either his mode
of occupation or his locality of life. But when, either by misfortune, or
his own fault, he has to call upon his fellow labourers to support him as
well as themselves, then he gives a title to society to say to him as well
as to the soldier, the sailor, the sprig of quality, or the farmer, "You
are not wanted here, go thou there where thou art wanted."
This is not a dispensation of rose water and pink satin. Here is no
Lubberland, wherein geese ready roasted, fly into our mouths, quacking,
"Come eat me!" It is a hard, working-day, unideal world, full of forge
culm, and factory smoke. The millions of our towns and cities have
to go into unwilling exile from honeysuckle, swallow-twittering eaves and
meadow scented air. The chief ruler among us is the hardest worker of
us all; nor can one easily conceive of a life more approximating to a
cross betwixt that of a gin-horse and the town-crier, than a Lord High
Chancellor or a barrister in full practice. Paley could not afford to keep
a conscience, and mankind cannot indulge in the luxury of mere senti-
mental patriotism. Nostalgia is a most expensive disease; home sick-
ness a most thriftless virtue; and the most elevated sentiment sinks into
sentimentality when it is indulged at other people's cost. And when this
«2


4 INTRODUCTION.
attachment to father-land becomes mere "sorning" upon useful industry
at the sacrifice of that manly independence without which the expatria-
tion of the citizen would be the gain of the community, it ceases to com-
mand respect or merit sympathy. It is a very small portion of the pop-
ulation of any country which can consult their taste, or study the fancy
of their mere inclinations, either in the choice of an occupation, or the
selection of their local habitation. Least of all should those dictate to
the toil worn but independent sons of labour the condition on which they
shall sustain the burden of their subsistence.
There are tens of thousands of the children of this country, who,
either abandoned by or bereft of their parents, or worse still, taught to
lie and steal, are let loose upon our streets, to find a living in begging
or petty larceny. They have no home but the jail, the union, the peni-
tentiary or the ragged school. Why should not society, in mercy to them
and in justice to itself, gather all these together and help them, under
careful superintendence, to colonize some of our healthy foreign posses-
sions? Besides the enormous masses of Irish vagrants and British men-
dicants, who infest every town and county in the kingdom, there are vast
numbers of habitual paupers, maintained in all our unions, whose very
condition is a virtual assertion, on their parts, that there are no means of
finding for them regular and legitimate employment. If society offers to
these men a good climate, a fertile soil, high wages, cheap living, a de-
mand for labour, and good land for the tilling, what justice, sense or
reason is there in permitting these objects of the public bounty to reject
the means of independence, and to compel the people to continue to bear
the charges of being their perpetual almoners?
There are thirty one millions of us swarming in these islands, 265
to the square mile. Wo reproduce to the effect of a balance of births
over deaths of 465,000 souls per annum; requiring, to preserve even the
existing proportion betwixt territory and population, a yearly ac-
cession of soil to our area of 1754 square miles, of the average
fertility ofthe kingdom, or an enlargement of our boundary equal, annually,
to the space of two or three of our larger counties. In the single year
ending 5th January, 1848, we were compelled to import no less than the
enormous quantity of 12,360,008 quarters of corn, to supply the defici-
ency of our domestic production, which amounted to quite an aveiage
crop, and for this additional supply we had to pay £24,720,016
Live Animals 216,456 432,912
Meat.592,335 cwts 1,480,837
Butter 314,066 cwts 1,256,264
Cheese 355,243 cwts 888,132
Eggs 77,550,429 1,292,507
Being an enormous aggregate of £30,070,668
spent to meet our domestic deficiency of supply of the barest necessaries
of life. As our population, at its present point, will increase five millions
in the next ten years, and proceed in a geometrical progression thereafter,
it has become demonstrable that the plan of carrying the people to the
raw material which is to be manufactured into food, is a wiser and
more practicable proposition than that of bringing the food to the people


« MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING.
tiply, to make the wilderness and solitary places glad, and the desert to
rejoice and blossom like the rose. When the whole parish of Cholesbury
was occupied by two farmers, the peasantry having no interest in the
soil, 119 were paupers out of 139; the farmers became bankrupt, the
parson got no tithe. The Labourer's Friend Society divided the land
among those very paupers in parcels of five to ten acres per family, and
in four years the number of paupers was reduced to five decrepid and
old women, and all the rest were in a high state of prosperity, affording
even to pay a rate in aid to the neighbouring parish. As "faith without
works is dead, being alone," so is land without labour, and labour with-
out land. Bring these two together, and the earth is conquered, and the
world served. Here we produce plenty for the back and little for the
belly. There the stomach is filled, while
"Back and side go bare, head and feet go cold."
Nothing is wanted to complete the circle of mutual accommodation, but
that dispersion of population, and diffusion of occupation which it is the
object of emigration to effect.
Let us not then, whine over the mere unmanly and irrational senti-
mentalities of home and country. Reason and conscience are para-
mount to the tenderest associations of the heart. Independence is better
than home "for behold the kingdom of heaven is within you 1" He
best serves his country who serves mankind. The natural history of
society shows human migration to be an instinct, and therefore a neces-
sity. It is indeed by earthly agents that providence works its inflexible
purposes; but when, by some supernatural soliciting, we go forth to
subdue the earth and make it fruitful, it is less in subjection to a hard
necessity than in obedience to a law of nature, that hordes and tribes and
races leave exhausted soils, or inhospitable regions, and wander westward
to the region of the setting sun, or forsake the hyperborean tempest, for
the climate of the milder south. Of all animals man alone has been
framed with a constitution capable, universally, of having his habitat in
any latitude; and when he leaves scarcity behind him, and goes forth to
adorn, with useful fruitfulness, the idle waste and inhospitable wild, he
but fulfils the great object of his destiny. As then his Creator made him
his heir of all the earth, let him enter with thankfulness upon the length
and breadth of his goodly inheritance.
MOTIVES FOB EMIGBATING.
That strange world madness called war has with so few intervals of
peace or truce, raged over the earth, that some philosophers have con-
cluded the natural state of mankind to be that of mutual devouring.
The train of reasoning by which a declaration of hostilities is arrived at
is so ludicrously inconsequential, that the misery of its results is the only
consideration which saves the tragedy from being farcical. That because
two kings, or a couple of diplomatists should differ in opinion, two hun-
dred thousand men, one half in red and the other half in green or blue,
should assemble with iron tubes to feed powder and carrion crows, with


MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING. 7
each others carcases, seems to partake to so great an extent of Partridge's
favourite element of logic called a nan sequitur, that one cannot help
suspecting that battles arise rather from the universal spirit of pugnacity,
than from any solicitude to find out a more rational apology for them.
Invasions, plagues, the small-pox, famines, are still considered as so
many substitutes for Malthus's prudential check to population. The pro-
gress in civilization, the improvements in science, which have so greatly
diminished these sources of mortality, are regarded by the cynical as a
thwarting of the tendencies of nature. They point to our thirty-three
years of peace and its effects in intensifying the pressure of population on
the means of subsistence, and the miseries of encreasing competition and
poverty, as a proof that over civilization defeats its own end, and that
social and scientific progression contains within itself the seeds of its own
destruction. They darkly hint at War, Pestilence, and Famine, as
scourges to the human race, which are as yet essential to the fulfilment of
the designs of providence, and silently point to warriors and destroyers
as virtually regenerators of mankind. And truly when a prime minister,
rubbing his drowsy eyes, calls to mind, as he awakes each morning, that
1,277 more subjects of the sovereign that day require bread, than when
he laid his head on his pillow the night before, it is not wonderful that he
should fall into antiquated habits of philosophising upon the best and
speediest means of getting rid of them. Nor can they themselves be less
interested in the practical result of this enquiry. All Europe has been
shaken to its very foundation by neglect of any endeavonr to furnish a
rational solution of the question. The very existence of civil society is
perilled. Class is rising against class—crime is spreading with unerring
consequentiality upon the heels of misery; we repose at the mouth of a
volcano; like snakes in an Egyptian pitcher each struggles to rear his
head above the rest for sheer air and breath; and a crowning selfishness
seizes on us all, in the struggle to preserve ourselves from sinking in the
crowd of competition for bare life, and from being trampled to death in
the contest for existence.
It is true we have still standing room in these islands, although how
long that will be possible, with an increment of five millions in every
ten years, and not a square inch increase of soil in a century, it is not
very difficult, by the help of Cocker, to predicate. But that is not life—
scarcely even vegetation—but a mere sickly and sluggish hesitative nega-
tion of dying. The Spitalfields weaver, the pale artizan, the squalid
labourer, the consumptive sempstress, classes that count millions in the
census, what optimist of us all can venture to say that that is God
Almighty's dispensation of the life of immortal creatures gifted with dis-
course of reason? Or the starved clerk, with the hungry children and
the pinched wife, nailed to the desk of the dingy office from year's end to
year's end—or the poor wretch that breaks highway mettle by the mea-
sure, losing a meal by pausing a single hour,—or the spindle shanked
peasant, paid in truck with tail wheat, and the very marrow drudged out
of his rheumatic bones, until toil is ended by a premature old age in the
workhouse — these are ceasing to be mere exceptions, and gradually be-
coming a rule of our population. The tradesman, the merchant, the
professional man, what one of all of these who reads these pages, «aa teH


8 MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING.
any but one history, that of continual anxiety to sustain himself in his
existing position—of a total inability to save anything for his children or
the decline of life, of a war to maintain his place against the encroachment
of his neighbour, a mote troubling his mind's eye with the spectre of pos-
sible misfortune and contingent destitution. It was intended that we
should toil to live, but never that we should live simply to toil; yet mere
work! work! work! is literally the exclusive element of our existence.
Rousseau's preference of the savage to the civilized state was not entirely
Utopian. If the pride of our civilization would let us, a modest hesitancy
might well whisper the question, whether the Cossack, the Kalmuck, the
New Zealander, the Otaheitian, the Hottentot, or the North American
Indian, is in very many substantial respects in a state of less dignified
humanity, or of less amplo enjoyment of the rights and priviliges of sen-
tient existence, than not a few of the mere drudges and scavengers of our
toiling population.
i "God made the country, man made the town,"
—and such a town! Wherein a man ceases to be a man, and is drilled
and drummed into a machine of the very lowest mechanical function,
spending a whole life in making a needle's eye, or exhausting an existence
in putting the head upon a pin! Look at that begrimed beer syphon a
Blackwall coal heaver, or his archetype the dustman, handling his "paint
brush," in doing a bit of " fancy work round a corner"—or the handloom
weaver throwing his weary shuttle for eighteen hours a day, to charm the
daily loaf into his crumbless cupboard—or think of the pinched drudge
"in populous city pent," who sees the sun only through the skylight of
the dingy office, and hears nothing of the fields but the blackbird in his
wicker cage on the peg, and scents the morning air only of the fluent
gutter, whose world boundary is the parish march, whose soul is in his
ledger, and whose mind is a mere mill for figure grinding—the slave of a
dyspeptic huckster, and thirty shillings a week, whose, and whose child-
ren's fate hangs upon the price of greengrocery and open ports—or call
to mind the lodging-house maid of all work, or the cit's nursery gover-
ness, or the trudging peasant, who is, indeed, in the country, but not of
it, who cannot leave the high road for the open field without a trespass,
or kill a hare without transportation, or eat the grain he sowed and
reaped without a felony, or pluck fruit from a tree, or a flower from a
shrub, without a petty larceny—or last of all picture the Irish cateran in
a mud pigsty, without bad potatoes enough for a meal a day, dying of
starvation while exporting the very food he raised, and after that turned
out of his only shed, and his children's sole shelter, into the nearest bog,
there to find some ditch that will shield their naked skeletons of carcase from the wintry wind—think of these pictures, and compare with them
that of nature's freeholders, that work only for themselves, and only
when they have a mind, who are monarchs of all they survey, who fell
the nearest tree when they want a fire, and shoot the fattest deer or spear
the largest salmon when hunger bids them, to whom every soil is free,
every fruit, seed and herb, belong for the gathering—every forest yields
a house without rent or taxes, who never heard of a workhouse, and never
saw a game certificate, and cannot conceive of a gaol or a gibbet—com-


MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING. 0
pare these archetypes of sophisticated civilization, and the rudest barbar-
ism, and which of us can, without hesitancy, determine that social better
than savage man enjoys the privilege of sentient existence, develops hu-
Bianity, fulfils the earthly purpose of his mission into this present evil
world?
To talk of the love of country to the man whose sole outlook into it is
through the cracked and papered pane of the only window in his Liverpool
cellar, whose youngest and oldest conception of England is that which the
coal seam in which he has spent his life presents; the only inspiration of
whose patriotism is the dust cart he fills; the union in which he is
separated from his wife, or the twopence-halfpenny she earns for stitch-
ing shirts for the slopsellers, is to display more valour than discretion.
The cry of some that there is no need of emigrating, that there is abun-
dance of food and employment at home which would be accessible to all
but for oppressive taxation, unwise restrictions in commerce, and a
defective currency, does it not partake a leetle of fudge, and not too much
of candour 1 Is not the objector thinking of his own pet panacea, when
he should be remembering that "while the grass grows the steed starves?"
A sound currency and cheap government are goodly things, but then the
Greek Kalends are a long way off, and, meanwhile, the people perish. Why,
the very insects teach us a wise lesson; it is not food and capital alone they
desiderate; the bee must have room to work; latitude and longitude with-
out unseemly jostling. What is swarming but emigration upon a system •
an acted resolution, that whereas there is not space and verge enough
for all of us here, therefore let some of us go elsewhither. There is no
conceivable state of social circumstances which can make general inde-
pendence, ease, and comfort compatible with a dense population crowded
together in two small islands, and sustaining the incursion of a daily
increment of 1,277 new competitors for work, food, and clothing. If to
that evil be added, the circumstance that only one person in every 108
can boast of the possession of even a rood of the soil of the country,
that scarcely one-fourth of the population has any industrial connexion
with its cultivation, that the great mass, both of the numbers and the
intelligence and enterprise of the nation exist in a state of the most
artificial mutual dependance; that their prosperity is contingent on the
most sophisticated relations of circumstances, and that their very ex-
istence in a state of civil society hangs upon the most complicated and
the least natural arrangements of human occupation, industry, and sub-
sistence, little reflection can be necessary to induce the conviction, not
only that emigration is essential to the relief of the majority who remain
at home, but to the safety and happiness of those who are wise enough
to see the prudence of shifting their quarters. When a revolution in
France destroys the means of living of millions in England, when the
very existence of many hangs upon the solution of the question of the
currency; when the fixing of the rate of discount seads the fate of
thousands, and a panic in Capel Court or Lombard Street, may emptythe
cupboards and annihilate the substance of half a kingdom, he is a wise
man who looks out over the world for a freehold on God's earth which
he may have, and hold, and make fruitful, and plant his foot upon, and
call his own, in the assurance that, let the world wag as it may, he at


10 MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING.
(least is inexpugnably provided for. What after all is at the root of social
existence and the basis of human industry and thought? The craving
maw that daily cries "Give!" the empty stomach with its tidal fever,
punctual as the clock, which must be filled else "chaos is come again."
But this, the preliminary condition of society, the fundamental postulate
of life itself, is almost overlooked among us, and nothing is perhaps less
seriously regarded than the appalling fact that twenty-one millions out
of twenty-eight of our population, have literally no more interest in or
concern with the soil, on whose productions they depend for bare being,
than if they were denizens of the arctic circle. Sweep away the leather
and prunella of civilization, credit, a government, institutions, exchange
and barter, manufactures, and what would become of the people in this
artificial cosmogony? Neither iron, copper, coal, nor gold; neither
cotton, bills of exchange, silk nor leather, neither law, medicine, nor
theology, can do much to save them from a short shrift and a speedy
end. No, plant a man on his own land, though it were a solitude;
shelter him in his own house, though it should be a log hut; clothe him
in self-produced integuments, though they were the skin of the bear he
killed, of the deer he hunted, or the sheep he tends; and what contin-
gency can give him anxiety, or what prospect bend him down with
care?
"Poor and content, is rich, and rich enough. But riches fiueless are as poor as winter
To him who ever fears he shall be poor."
Revolutions of empires, reverses of fortune, the contingencies of com-
merce, are for ever threatening the richest with poverty, the greatest
with insignificance, the most comfortable with every physical desti-
tution. At this very hour how many thousands are there who, by
revolution in France, or monetary crisis in England, after being racked
with anxieties, have been prostrated in the most helpless destitution! In
densely populated countries where the great body of the people live the
dependants on mere artificial contingencies, and destitute of any direct
relation with the soil, half the mortality is traceable to a purely mental
cause, the fear of falling out of the ranks of one's neighbours, of losing
place, customers, or money, the dread of poverty, or the terror of starva-
tion. But in America it is rightly said that there are, properly speaking,
no poor; no man dependant for life or happiness on any other man;
none without a freehold, or the immediate access to one, which would
amply supply him and his with all that is truly essential to the due en-
joyment of the glorious privilege of sentient existence on that beautiful
earth which every day in sky and sea, in sunrise, meridian, and sunset,
in cloud, and moon, and star, acts before us a succession of scenes to
which all that wealth, power, or genius can add, is less than nothing and
vanity. What are the hardships of the backwoods to the corroding cares
of the crowded city, or what the toils of the body to the anxieties of the
mind?
To the man whose very constitution has become cockneyfied, who has
long token leave of nature, whose soul has become moulded in the arti-
ficial and conventional; to whom Warren's blacking has become a neces-
sary of life; who cannot exist without hail of the newsman, or out of


MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING. 11
eight of^the town clock; whose tranquillity is dependent on the posses-
sion of the orthodox number of pots and kettles, and who scarcely con-
ceives how water can be accessible except it is "laid on" by the new
river company, it may appear an unconquerable difficulty, and the most
calamitous viciss^udeto be placed at once in immediate contact with nature
and the earth, to be called on to use his bodily faculties in the discharge
of the functions for which they were originally designed, to make war on
the elements, and to provide for his wants. But to him who yet has
left about him human instincts and manly intrepidity, his thews and sin-
ews, his ten fingers, his hardy limbs will soon find their right use. To
stand in the midst of one's own acres, to lean on one's own door-post,
to plough or sow or reap one's own fields; to tend one's own cattle; to
fell one's own trees, or gather one's own fruits, after a man has led an old
world life, where not one thing in or about him he could call his own;
where he was dependent on others for every thing; where the tax gath-
erer was his perpetual visitant, and his customer his eternal tyrant; where
he could neither move hand nor foot without help that must be paid for,
and where, from hour to hour, he could never tell whether he should
sink or survive, if there be in him the soul of manhood and the spirit of
self assertion and liberty, it cannot be but that to such a one the destiny
of an emigrant must, on the whole, be a blessing.
As hounds and horses may be " overbroke," and wild beasts have been
even overtamed, so man may be over civilized. Each player in the
Russian horn bandblows only a single note, andthat merely whenit comesto
his turn. Division of labour, however cut and dried a principle it may
be in political economy, cuts a very poor figure in the science of mental
development. We are so surrounded with appliances and "lendings,"
that none of us is able to do any thing for himself. We have one man to
make our shoes, another cobler to mend them, and a third to black them.
Railways and steam boats, gas lights, county constables, and macadam-
ised roads have extracted the adventurous even out of travel. Almost
without a man's personal intervention he is shoved in at a door, and in
three hours is let out at another, 200 miles off. Our claws are pared; we
are no longer men, but each some peg, cog, piston or valve in a ma-
chine. The development of our individual humanity is altogether ar-
rested by the progress of the social principle: we get one man to clothe,
another to feed, another to shelter us. We can neither dig, nor weave,
nor build, nor sow, nor reap for ourselves. We neither hunt, nor shoot,
nor grow what supports us. That variety of mental exertion, and of
intellectual and physical occupation which creates a constant liveliness of
interest, and cheerful healthiness of mind, is sorely neglected amongst
us, and nervous diseases, mental depression and the most fearful pros-
tration of all our over stretched or under worked faculties, is the conse-
quence. We abdicate our human functions in promotion of the theory of
gregarious convention. We lose the use of our prehensiles, and forget the
offices of our limbs. We do not travel, but are conveyed. We do not
support ourselves, but are fed. Our very manhood is no longer self-
protective. We hire police to defend us, and soldiers to fight for us.
Every thing is done for, scarcely anything by us. That universality of faculty
which is the very attribute of man is lost in the economy of exaggerated


12
MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATING.
civilization. Each of us can do only one thing, and are as helpless and
mutually dependent for the rest, as infancy itself. We spend our lives in
introspection; turning our eyes inward, like Hindoo devotees, we "look
only on our own navel;" the mind becomes diseased from monotony of
thought, and we vegetate rather than live through life's endless variety
of scene, incident and occupation. It is not royalty alone in Jerusalem
palace that sighs, "Oh! that I had wings like a dove! for then would I
fly away and be at rest . . . then would I wander far off, and remain in
the wilderness." There the necessities of present life, the every day
calls upon our industry and action, the constantly shifting scene of la-
bour and activity, the rural cares which become comforts, bid us to live
out of ourselves in the world of external realities. There our friends are
not our rivals, nor our neighbours our competitors. The sight of " the
human face divine," sickens us not with a sea of the squalid visages of
multitudinous population, but brightens our own countenance with wel-
come to a brother. The mind has no time to canker within itself: we have
to grapple with the palpable realities of the physical elements, and the
earth that is around us, not to wrestle with the diseased anxieties of the
brooding mind; the nervous energy which in populous city life, festers in
the brain, and eats into the heart, is exhausted in the healthful activity
of muscular exertion; the steers have to be yoked, the cows low for
milking, the new fallen lambs bleat their accession to our store; the
maple yields its sugar, the sheep its fleece, the deer their skin for our
winter integument; the fruit hangs for our gathering. There is no ex-
ciseman to forbid our brewing our own October, or making our own
soap and candles. With the day's work, the day's cares are over: the
soul broods not, but sleeps. Tired nature bids us take no thought for to-
morrow, for we have the promise that seed time and harvest shall never
fail, our house and land are our own, and we have fuel for the felling.
Children become a blessing and helpers to us. Nature is within and
above and around us. "Behold the lilies how they grow, they toil
not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these." If then the splendours of a royal
court are as nothing to those natural glories which God, in the
fields, by the rivers, and on the mountain side, has made accessible to the
meanest and poorest of us, and which we may drink in at every sense,
what is there in the crowded city, or the populous centre of wealth and
civilization that we should really prefer to the enamelled prairie, the
echoing forest, the contemplative waterfall, or the fertile valley.
M There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar."
Let him to whom a daily paper is an indespensable requisite, and
whose evening's happiness depends on the cooking of his dinner, who
has within him no mental resources, no self help, to whom the simplicity
of nature is nothing, and who is made up of conventionalities, who
"must have every thing done for him," and " cannot be put out of his
way," let such an one, whether rich or poor, stick to the sound of Bow
bell, and keen within the bills of mortality. Futile idleness, and worth-


MOTIVES FOR EMIGRATIXQ. 13
less ineffectiiality may prevail upon folly to mistake its pretentious bus-
tle for useful service; but it could not so impose upon the settlers in the
backwoods, or the prairie tanners. Riches can do but little for the lux-
urious in colonial settlements, where every man is master of his own
freehold, and will not own the service of any one. Tho tutor or gover-
ness that would rather bear
"The spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,"
than plough his own land, or milk her own cows, let them, too, stay at
home and wait upon providence. The man who has no internal resour-
ces, and no moral intrepidity, who has no external activity, and no spi-
ritual energy, to whom work and physical labour of any kind are a real
hardship, whose whole feelings, habits and sympathies are trained in the
sophistications of high civilization, and who so
"Heeds the storm that howls along the sky,**
that he cannot encounter it, even to be made
"Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye','
such an one needs no advice from us to deter him from emigration. No
doubt the life of a settler has its drawbacks. We cannot carry the con-
veniences of Cheapside, nor the roads of Middlesex with us into the
backwoods. To the member of the middle classes there will be found
the absence of the same obedience and servility in servants and labourers
to which he has been accustomed. His frame house will not be so fine
as the brick one he has left behind him. He has not at his elbow, the
shops, the social helps with which he was surrounded. He must often
serve himself where he was formerly ministered to by a hundred alert
appliances, he must oftener do as he can, than do as he would, and he
must not be ashamed to work with his own hands. His wife must lay
her account with often being deserted by her servants, and of being com-
pelled always to make companions of them. The doctor, the apothecary,
the blacksmith, the saddler, the carpenter, will not be so nearly within
hail as in England. Furniture will not be so good, nor ordinary appliances
and wants so easily supplied.
But if a man prefers toil to care; if he would rather have fatigue of
body than anxiety of mind; if he would train himself in that cheerful
self denying intrepidity which
"The clear spirit doth raise.
To scorn delights, and live laborious days,"
if he would rather lie harder that he may sleep sounder, than slumber
fitfully in troubled dreams, under the Damocles' sword of "thought for
to morrow;" if he would prefer his children's happiness to his own pre-
sent convenience, or
"A lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless continuity of shade,"
to life in the noise, strife, struggle and danger of multitudinous civilized
sophistication, then there can be little hesitation as to his choice
To the thoughtful parent of the middle classes, whose social position
can only be maintained by keeping up appearances, and who must either
c


16 GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION.
lonely prairie, where food and raiment, however rough and simple were
sure, and—
"Where rumour of oppression and deceit.
Of unsuccessful and successful war
Might never reach us more!"
Even where anxieties are imaginary, still they are anxieties. The
competition of the competent among each other, the struggling jealousy,
ambition, and rivalry of those, who in other regions would be friends, all
the more for being neighbours, the difficulties of setting up and getting
off sons and daughters—the perpetual round of unnatural drudgery in
the counting house with its risks, or the lawyer's chambers with their
galley slave work, or the thousand offices which minister to the needs of
society—do not they suggest the question, whether, under the most
favourable circumstances such avocations can stand a comparison with the
Healthy and athletic activities of agriculture, the freedom and leisure of
the settler, with his plough, his spade, his rifle, his horse, his salmon
spear, and canoe. Is not life in the crowded city lost in the struggle to
live,—does not the faculty of enjoyment pass from us before we have
leisure for its fruition, has not existence rolled past before we have begun
to study how it may be made happy—have we not put off retirement, until
it has ceased to please? We greatly mistake if these considerations have
not sunk deep into the public mind. The powers of steam, and the im-
provement in navigation are yearly, or rather monthly tempting better
classes of men to quit what some think a sinking ship, and to venture
their fortunes in the land of promise. America is within twelve days of
us, the Cape within forty, Australia within sixty-two, passage money has
become very moderate, and the previous emigration has facilitated every
thing necessary for the reception and settlement of after comers. As
families get settled they can offer a home to which others may at once
repair on arrival, and while their own experience gives them the authority
of the most unexceptionable witnesses, they acquire money and remit it
home to aid the emigration of their relatives. As colonies become more
populous, they offer new inducements to colonise, and the tide is likely to
set in and know no retiring ebb. Atlast colonies become mighty kingdoms,
and either sustain the greatness of the parent country, or become its
rival. But in either case retain its language, habits, sympathies and
wants, and become its most valuable customers.
GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION.
Every new country where land is cheap, the soil fertile, and the cli-
mate agreeable, offers to the poor man this obvious advantage. The
cheapness of the land makes every man desire to possess it, and to culti-
vate his own acres rather than to be the servant of another. If he can
fell trees he can always be his own master, and find his own, and that a
profitable employment. Hence the supply of hired labour is far below
the demand, and wages, even for the most indifferent service, are consi-
derable. The labourer, who in this country has the utmost difficulty to
procure employment even at the lowest rate of wages, is sure of an en-


GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION. 17
gagement in a new country at a remunerative price. The vast produc-
tion of food renders subsistence at the same time easy. We observe that
Indian corn is sometimes sold in America at 6s. 8d. per quarter, whole
hams for 6d. each, meat in retail at from a halfpenny to twopence per
pound, whisky at Is. per gallon, and other articles of prime consump-
tion in proportion. A comfortable log hut may be purchased for £20,
and a frame house of six rooms for £90. Taxes are nominal—water is
at the door—fuel is to be had for the felling—he can brew his own beer,
distil his own spirits, dip his own candles, boil his own soap, make his
own sugar, and raise his own tobacco. These are incalculable advan-
tages to the poor man. But their benefits are not confined to him.
For all practical purposes four shillings will go as far under such a state
of prices in America as twenty shillings in England. Substantially then
the emigrant finds £250 of as much value in Illinois or the Cape as
£1,000 would be in England, and if his family be large and his expendi-
ture upon the bare necessaries of life bear a considerable proportion to
his whole outlay, the difference in the value of money will be even greater.
Although the usury laws are in force in most of these new countries, it is
understood that the purchase of land may in general be so managed as
to yield from nine to twelve per cent. with perfect security for that return.
The state stock of Pennsylvania yields upwards of 7j per cent. on the
present price; and money has been borrowed on undoubted security, at
as high a rate as from 20 to 25 per cent.
From these data it is evident that besides the benefit of the exchange
in favor of British money which would add nearly £150 to every £1,000
carried out to America, or most of our colonies, £1,000 may be fairly
expected to yield in any of these settlements from £90 to £100 per an-
num, while that income will command about as much as £200 yearly in
this country. To the small capitalist therefore, without the desire or
design to become a farmer, or to enter into business of any kind, emigra-
tion offers the advantage of an easy independence.* The facility with
which by such a step be can provide for the prospects of a family is not
the least of the benefits which colonization is calculated to confer. It is
true that he cannot surround himself with the luxuries of life there, so
cheaply as in an old settled country. The same amount of money will
not give him abundant and good society in the prairies or backwoods,
• " Money may be lent on good mortgage security in this state [Ohio], at 8 per
cent. payable half yearly. 1 thought it probable that the high rate of interest, and
the facility of obtaining small portions of land transferable at a mere trifle of ex-
pense would hereafter induce a class of persons to emigrate, whose aim would be
not te work hard for a living, but to live easily on a small capital already acquired.
We have hundreds of tradesmen in our towns who cannot continue in business
without the fear of losing all and who have not accumulated sufficient money to
retire upon. A man of such a class in England cannot live upon the interest of
£1,000; but here for £200, he could purchase and stock a little farm of twenty-five
acres, which would enable him to keep a horse and cow, sheep, pigs, and poultry,
and supply his family with every article of food, while his £800 at interest would
give him an income of £64 a year. He could even have his own sugar from his
own maple trees, to sweeten his cup and preserve the peaches from his own fruit
trees, and almost all he would need to buy, besides clothes, would be tea, which
may be had of good quality at from Is. 9d. to 2s. per lb. Still further west he could have ten percent. interest for his money."—Tour in the United States, by Archi-
bald Prrhtice, 1848
0*


18 GENERAL ADVANTAGES OP EMIGRATION.
nor good roads, nor bridges, nor walled gardens, nor well built brick or
stone houses, nor medical advice at hand. Above all, no amount of
money will there supply him with good, respectful, and obedient servants.
A new country is the paradise of the poor—but it is the pandemonium
of the rich, and especially purgatory to the female branches of all who
are well to do. Those artificial and conventional advantages, those con-
veniences whose value is only known when they are lost, those endless
fitnesses and accommodations which are gradually supplied in an old
country as their need is perceived, the emigrant travels away from, and
will strongly feel the want of. The mere cockney will be thoroughly
miserable in the new mode of existence which every emigrant must enter
upon. The nightman, the shoeblack, the newsman, the omnibus, the
two-penny post, he will see little of. The water will not be laid on, nor
the drain connected with the soil pipe. Wooden houses have chinks—
logs are not so convenient as coal—rooms are small, and not very snug
—the doors and sashes do not fit—the hinges and floors creak—house-
hold secondary luxuries are dear—and the whole family must be very
much their own servants. Nobody will cringe and bow to them, and
just bring to their door the very thing they want, when they want it. But
then the real needs and requisites of life will be indefeasibly theirs. If
their house and its contents be inferior, they are as good as their neigh-
bour's, a consideration which takes the sting out of many disappoint-
ments. They fear no rent day, nor poor-rate or assessed tax collector—
neither game nor fish are preserved, nor licenses needed—around them
on their own freehold are ample means of subsistence, and a little money
supplies all the rest. They need have no care for the morrow except the
consciousness that each day their clearing is more improved and of
greater value. They have leisure, independence, peace, security. If
they can serve themselves, help each other, find pleasure in the useful
activities of self help and country life, and possess internal resources of
mind and occupation, then all such in emigrating change for the better.
If their society is bad, they can do without it, if an occasional qualm of
home sickness and the claims of fatherland come over them let them
think of the toils, fears, and anxieties they leave behind them, and be
grateful for the change.
To persons in the middle ranks of life, emigration is social emanci-
pation. Convention is their tyrant; they are the slaves of mere appear-
ances; they are never able to escape from the necessity for an answer to
the question, "What will Mrs. Grundy say?" They must implicitly
conform to the world around them, even to the number of rooms in their
house, the servants they keep, the hats and gowns they wear. They can-
not be seen in their own kitchen, to make their own markets, to carry
their own luggage. Their clothes must be superfine, and the seams in-
visible. They must net condescend to work, however willing and able.
A glimpse of their wife at the wash-tub would be ruin to the family. Is
it nothing to wise and worthy people to escape from all this thraldom?
The idleness, listlessness, total vacuity which produce in our daughters
and sisters so much disease of body and of mind, can find no place in the
settler's life. The weak spine, the facility of fatigue, the sick headache,
the failing appetite, the languor, the restless dissatisfaction which result


GENERAL ADVANTAGES OP EMIGRATION. 19
from romance reading and the polka, are speedily put to flight by the
exercise of cow-milking, butter-churning, baking, cheese-pressing, and
stocking-darning. To the man whose world has been his desk or his
counter, who can go nowhere without an omnibus, and do nothing for
himself, what a new world must be opened by his rifle and the woods, or
his rod, *md the waterfall! What new life and vigour may he not draw
by breaking his colt or yoking his oxen, or scampering over the prairies,
or sleighing from house to house in the way of good neighbourhood
when the bright snow has made a universal road! Think of the liberty
of wearing hob-nails and frieze cloth; of living, down to one's own in-
come in place of living up to one's neighbours; of walking abroad in
primitive defiance of a hiatus in the elbow or armpits of his coat; of
the luxury of serving one's self; of making war upon appearances by a
second day's beard or a third day's shirt, or a running short of shoe
blacking. Loneliness! monotony! not an hour, not a minute without
its occupation, compelling the mind to objectivity, and saving it from sub-
jectivity, that brooding on itself, which finally eats into the heart and
gnaws life away. Shelves have to be put up and hinges screwed, and
panes to be put in; a table has to be attempted, perhaps shoes have to
be cobbled. The young colt has to be broke; the larder is empty, more
game is wanted; the rifle must be got ready, or the rod for a dish of
fish; the sugar has to be made from the maple, or honey to be got by
watching the bees in the wood; the cider, the beer, grape wine have to
be brewed, or the whisky or brandy to be distilled, or the soap or candles
to be made; or, in fine, the whole offices of the farmer have to be per-
formed; the plough, the wagon, the seed time, the harvest, the cattle,
the sheep, the horses, the fences, the fuel, the cleared land and the wood
land, all cry out upon the sluggard, and promise to crown industry with
its just reward. Every work done is a hoarded comfort; every new
operation is prospective wealth; every difficulty conquered is ease ac-
complished, and a care chased away. You look around and whisper, I
vanquished this wilderness and made the chaos pregnant with order and
civilization, "alone I did it ." The bread eats sweetly, the fruit relishes,
the herb nourishes, the meat invigorates, the more that myself have
subdued it to my uses. I feel myself a man with a reasonable soul and a
contriving intellect; I am no longer a small screw in a complicated ma-
.chine; my whole powers are put forth, and every faculty put to its
providential use. To-morrow I am richer than to-day in all that is
worth living for; until the fixed and firmset earth shall perish, and the
"clouds shall return no more after rain," no human vicissitude can
deprive me of that, which, to have, is to possess all that a wise man should
covet.*
* Life in thb Wilderness.—Although liable to an accusation of barbarism, I
must confess that the very happiest moments of my life have been spent in the wil-
derness of the Far West; and 1 never recall, but with pleasure, the remembrance of
my solitary camp in the Bayou Salade, with no friend near me more faithful than ray
rifle, and no companions more sociable than my good horse and mules, or the atten-
dant cavute which nightly serenaded us. With a plentiful supply of dry pine legs
on the fire, and its cheerful blaze streaming far up into the sky, illuminating the
valley far and near, and exhibiting the animals, with well- filled bellies, standing-


20 GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION.
In such a state of being independence may be literally absolute. The
savage has retired to his remote fastnesses; the wild beasts and noxious
animals have followed him. In many parts of America the old custom
still prevails among many respectable, well educated, almost refined
families, of producing every thing which they use and consume. In the
winter the woollen and linen yarn is spun and woven into cloth; the
garments are homely, but comfortable and decent; the furniture if
inelegant suits all useful purposes; the sheep yields her fleece, the doer
and cattle their skin and leather; the fowls their feathers; the materials
of light, heat, cleanliness, even of sober luxury, are all around them
within their own freehold; sugar, fruit, wine, spirits, ripe October, may
be commanded on the spot; they may enjoy the moderate indulgences
of civilization by the work of their own hands without the possession of
even the smallest coin.
And if they are not competent to the production of all this, or do not
desire the labour, they may acquire a freehold just large enough for the
supply of their own wants, while a small yearly surplus of money will
furnish them easily with all the additional comforts they can reasonably
desire. Every addition to their family is an accession to their wealth;
no man is a rival or competitor, but only a companion of the other; and all neighbours are, in the most material sense, friends. The poor man
is always welcome, because he is never a pauper, but a helper, a sharp-
ener of the countenance of his fellow man. There is wealth to the com-
munity in his thews and sinews; a mine in his productive energy and
cunning skill. If he would still serve, his wages are high, and abundant
food found for him ; if he too would be a freeholder, the wages of a day's
work buy an acre of fat soil. Nor let it be forgotten that with the in-
heritance of the Illinois prairie, the Canadian clearing, or the Australian
plain, the settler is also the heir of European civilization. With the
science of agriculture, the habits of industry, and the development of in-
telligence, he may command if he desires it, his parish church, his dis-
trict school, the cheapest and best literature. He marries the advantages
'of both hemispheres, and leaves behind him the cares of sophistica-
tion.
What room is there for hesitancy ?" Dulcia reminiacitur Argos." He
cannot forget his country; his wife and daughters
"Cannot but remember such things were
That were most dear to them."
The thought of change
contentedly at rest over their picket fire, 1 would sit cross legged, enjoying the pe-
itial warmth, and pipe in mouth,-watch the blue smoke asit curled upwards, building
castles in its vapoury wreaths, and, in the fantastic shapes it assumed, peopling the
solitude with figures of those far away. Scarcely, however, did I ever wish to
change such hours of freedom for all the luxuries of civilized life: and, unnatural
and extraordinary as it may appear, yet such is the fascination of the life of the
mountain hunter, that 1 believe not one instance could be adduced ol even the
most^ polished and civilized of men, who had once tasted the sweets of its attendant libei ty, and freedom from every worldly care, not regretting the moment when
he exchanged it for the monotonous life of the settlements, nor sighing and sigh-
ing again once more to partake of it* pleasures and allurement*.—Kviton.


GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION. 21
'Makes cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale-cast of thought,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of."
Women that never did any thing for themselves, and rotted mind and
body in ease, if not in comfort, grumble at being compelled to do that
which will give health to both; mistresses accustomed to void their temper
upon submissive drudges, find themselves forced to respect humanity if
they would have its cheerful service. Masters before whom man, made
abject by dependence, had reverently to cringe, are disciplined to the
bitter lesson of doing homage to the nature which God had made only a
little lower than the angels, and for the first time are taught the infinite sig-
nificancy of a human soul. We are made to do that for ourselves which
others did for us, and to deny ourselves much that was never truly worth
the having. In nature's school we are set the tasks necessary for the
mind's sanity and the body's health, and we grumble like the urchm
that we are made to know that which will one day make a man of us.
Which is the really richer, he who has most appliances or the fewest
wants? Riches take to themselves wings and flee away; moth and rust
corrupt; thieves break through and steal. We have seen within the year
merchant princes beggared by the hundred; royalty teaching a school;
kings running from their kingdoms without so much as a change of
linen; the whole wealthy classes of a great nation reduced to beggary;
but he who can say omnia mea mecum porto, whose whole resources are
within himself, who never acquired a taste for that of which others could
deprive him; who has learnt quantum vectigal sit in parsimonia, who
never wants what he may not have, what are the world's vicissitudes to
him? Some emperors are wise enough to discipline themselves to
denial. The autocrat of Russia lies on a truckle bed, lives frugally,
labours industriously, sleeps little. Peter the Great worked in Deptford
Dock-yard; are they not wise in their generation? What is there in a
Brussel's carpet, down pillows, damask curtains, French cookery, stuffed
chairs, silver forks, silks, or superfine cloth, that we should break our
hearts for the want of them, and suffer the very happiness of our lives to
depend upon the milliner, the jeweller, the tailor, or the upholsterer?
Out of doors, man's proper atmosphere, does the turf spread a finer
carpet, the flowers yield a sweeter perfume, the lark sing a more melo-
dious song, the sun rise with greater lustre, or the heavens fret their
roofs with more golden fire for the peer than for the peasant? Will the
salmon come better to his hook, or the deer fall faster to his rifle? How
little more can money buy that is really worth the having, than that
which the poorest settler can command without it? He has bread, and
meat, a warm coat, a blazing hearth, humming home-brewed, the
"domtu etplacens uxor," children that
** Climb his knees the envied kiss to share;"
a friendly neighbour, and if he would have society, Plato, Shakespeare,
the dear old Vicar of Wakefield. Burns. Fielding, Scott, or Dickens, will
join the fire-side with small importunity. "The big ha' bible" and the
orisons of the peasant patriarch, will they whisper less soul comfort, or


COLONIZ^IIOK. 23
beforehand. The capitalist is assured of his old labourers; friends are
kept together; the vessel and the voyage are arranged in the best man-
ner for the safety and comfort of all. Our last letter from Auckland says,
"We have every reasonable comfort wo can desire but society and old
friends." Colonization supplies this want, and obviates many greater
hardships. All is prepared beforehand on a well considered plan, by per-
sons who know the country and its requirements. The necessaries of life
and those appliances, the want of which, form the first difficulty of
settlers, are anticipated. The helpless are assisted and advised; the des-
ponding cheered. Civilization is transferred to the wilderness, and even
frame houses are carried out in the ship. The first division arrived and
located, the second can venture with confidence, where they will be re-
ceived with welcome, and England itself is made to re-appear in the
wilds of New Zealand. As this system becomes better understood, it is
more generally followed. Nnmerous families of the middle and higher
classes agree to emigrate together; single capitalists freight a large ship,
and take out a whole colony on their own venture. Associations in pop-
ulous districts advertise for companions and canvas for fellow-voyagers;
agreements are made with ship owners, on an advantageous plan; each
contributes his fund of information and advice to the common stock,
resulting in greater comfort and economy. Younger sons of squires, ca-
dets of noble families go out at the head of their tenant's and cottier's
sons and families. It is indeed a somewhat ominous circumstance that
the Peels, the Carlisles, the Stanleys send their scions to the new world,
or the fifth section of the globe, as if they did not know how soon it
might be necessary to look out for new quarters and a quieter life than
amidst Irish rebellions, chartist risings and European revolutions.
But the great purpose of state colonization must be to relieve the
mother country of its most obvious redundances in the shape of popu-
lation. Lord Ashley has had a conference with a large deputation of the
thieves of London: they desire to change their mode of life, to which
so many have been driven by social neglect or "necessity of present life,
to which their poverty and not their will consents." They earnestly de-
sire removal to where they are not known, to work out reformation and
independence by industry and the right direction of a perverted ingenuity.
In 1847 the number of persons committed for serious offences in the
united kingdom was 64,847! All of broken fortunes, what more good
can they do to society or to themselves at home? In the same year the
total number of paupers relieved, was 2,200,739, at a cost of £6,310,599.
If to these be added the middle class of persons of broken fortunes, we
have a mass of population who, manifestly, in the existing arrangements
of society, are so much surplusage among us, a burden to themselves and
to the nation. When we add that these numbers nearly equal the entire
nation of the Netherlands, or Denmark, or Switzerland or the Roman
States, or Tuscany, or Scotland, and that the annual cost of prosecutions,
of jails, penitentiaries, hulks, workhouses, hospitals, added to ihe poor
rates, is upwards of £5 per head on paupers and criminals, a sum that
would carry the whole of them to Quebec or New Orleans, provisions
included, the half to the Cape, or one fourth to Australia, we need
scarcely ask whether a case is not made out for gigantic self supporting


84 COLONIZATION.
colonization. Add to these means the proceeds of the sale of lands to
capitalists attracted to the colonies by this prodigious supply of labour,
and the sums expended by them in wages, and it is clear that the prac-
ticability of the measure is demonstrable.
Hitherto, from the absence of any well digested system of coloniza-
tion, both the labour and capital of emigrantshave been in a great mea-
sure lost to us. Out of 258,270 emigrants in 1847, 142,154 went to the
United States. Left to the freedom of their own will, and unassisted by
any previous preparation in the colonies for their comfortable reception
and absorption, they naturally took refuge in the popular and prosperous
American Republic. What is wanted to be devised, is this:—Let a large
tract of good land, in a favorable district, be properly surveyed and divi-
ded, its roads laid out, good water frontage being an essential desidera-
tum. Let substantial frame houses be erected in proper situations on each section of 640 acres, and comfortable log cabins be put up in easy
contiguity, furnished with barely necessary household utensils, labouring
tools, and rations until harvest, for the family. Let labourers and capi-
talists, masters and men, make their contracts here, and go out in the
same ship together. Let the employers retain such a portion of
the wages agreed upon as will repay, in eighteen months, to the govern-
ment the cost of the various items supplied to the labourers, and let this
fund be applied to the surveying and dividing and housing and hutting
other tracts in the same manner. At first this must be executed on a
most extensive scale, and as emigration grows by what it feeds on, we
have no doubt that, largely and liberally carried forward at the outset,
the result will be such that government assistance will soon be rendered
unneccessary. A railway from the interior to the best shipping port,
would be constructed at a cost less than that of the mere labour spent
upon it. The land would be had for nothing; the property on the line
could well afford to defray a share of an expense which would so much
enhance its value; timber could be had for the cost of felling, and the
rails might quite practicably be made of logs, while in regions where the
winter is long and the frost steady, the closing of the lakes would not
obstruct traffic, which could then be carried on by rail. In many parts
of the United States the cost of a single tramway does not exceed £1,200
per mile. In our North American colonies the work could be executed
quite as cheaply. In Denmark and Norway the troops of the line are lo-
cated on regimental farms, under their officers, and made by their labour
on them to pay all their expenses, in place of destroying their own
habits and the morals of their neighbourhood in idleness. We need not
be at the cost of a single regiment in our colonies, if we would but, on
a systematic plan, send our army and navy pensioners there, and locate
them i proper cantonments. Here their pensions cannot maintain them,
tier* *11 the necessaries of life could be obtained by them without cost,
and their pensions would enable them to live in the highest comfort.
Our Navy entails a heavy burden upon us. Mr. Cobden's exposure of
;te way in which our fleet is disposed, proves that our sailors are not
trained as they ought to be, by being sent to sea to keep their sea legs, and
to be exercised in navigation. To what use could they be half so well
applied, even for maintaining the efficiency of the service, as in carrying


EMIGRATION FIELDS. 25
detachments of emigrants to our colonies. Our steam ships could l'each
Halifax from Liverpool, in nine days, or the Cape in forty, and at the
latter place they could be met by steamers from New Zealand and Aus-
tralia, for emigrants to these localities, coal of excellent quality having
been found in abundance in many districts of those settlements.
The Wakefield system of Colon'zation is, it is hoped, now universally
exploded. The plan of compelling labourers to continue in the capa-
city of mere servants to capitalists by so enhancing the price of land as
to render its possession inaccessible to the poor, is clearly unjust and de-
monstrably impracticable. It is calculated to frustrate the very end it
aims at, by discouraging the emigration of labour. Capitalists after
having paid forty shillings an acre for land become insolvent, their pro-
perty is thrown upon the market, and sold for two shillings or three shil-
lings per acre, while the solvent purchaser finds that his settlement is
depreciated to the same extent by the glut of land thus forced upon the
market. The annual revenue derived from the sale of Crown lands in
Australia, when sold at 5s. an acre, was £115,825. When tho price was
raised to twenty shillings it sunk to £8,000, emigration fell oft' in the
same proportion, and universal depression was the result. Peasant pro-
prietors are the life and marrow of every state, and all other objects
should be postponed to the one great end, of making labourers freehold-
ers. The great stream of emigration from this country has been to
Canada and the United States, where the upset price of land varies from
5s. to 8s. per acre.
EMIGRATION FIELDS.
A very small number of the host of publications which profess to treat
of emigration are really written with the single view of enabling intend-
ing emigrants to form a sound judgment on the subject of the choice of
a destination. The authors are biassed in favour of the particular region
over which they themselves have travelled. Others have an interest in,
or have relatives in the colony described. Some have political prejudices
which warp their comparison of the merits of a settlement in a foreign
state, in the American republic, or in British Colonies. Not a few take
it for granted that no British subject would migrate to the possessions of
a foreign power. Land jobbers everywhere insinuate their lies into the
public mind, against every locality but that in which they have sections to
sell, and too many settlers who find they have made a foolish choice, seek
to mitigate the calamity of their position by trying to bring others into the
same scrape. A writer is well paid for writing up Texas, and the press is
bribed to spread the delusion. Merchants write home to their London
correspondents to " get up an agitation" in favour of their colony, and
straightway deputations are delegated, and public meetings called all over
the country. The New Zealand Company sets its powerful machinery to
work. The Canada Land Company gets its Union Workhouse settlers to
write home their unsophisticated letters to their parents, which are in-
ttantly published by the County paper, the "Cape and its Colonists" have
* whole republic of authors scribbling away on their behalf, while the


26 EMIGRATION FIELDS.
land sharks of the United States stir up the bile of the Chartists and
other simpletons in favour of the model republic and no taxation. As
the most recent and glaring specimen of this sort of constructive decep-
tion we may instance the article Emigration in the British Almanac for
1849. In answer to the question "whither should emigrants go," it
blinks the United States, it slurs over Canada with a kick at its rigorous
climate, it does not even mention the Cape of Good Hope, and devotes
nearly the whole of its space to South Australia. It shall be our object
to maintain the strictest impartiality in giving a candid and practical ac-
count of the various regions which offer inducements for emigration; and
to afford an intelligible and well digested view of the various features of
each district.
The climate of our West and East Indian possessions is so inimical to
the European constitution that we need say nothing more of these locali-
ties than to condemn them. Ceylon, Singapore, Sarawak, Labuan offer
great inducements to the store merchant, but not to agricultural settlers.
British Guiana adds to a good climate the advantages of a beautiful
country and a fertile soil, but is not yet in a condition for the proper set-
tlement of emigrants. The same may be said of the islands in the South
Sea, of the regions on the shores of the Pacific, and the other possessions
in North and South America not in the tenure of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Van Couver's Island, that splendid acquisition of the Hudson's Bay
Company, combines every advantage of soil, climate, aud production,
and will at some future day become one of the most valuable appendages
of the Crown; but its remoteness, its unsettled state, the uncertainty of
its position, the scantiness and uncivilised character of its European in-
habitants, combined with the precariousness of its existing elements of
trade and production, render removal thither at present unadvisable. To
California and other recently acquired annexations of Mexican territory
by the United States the same objections apply. Black Feet, Cumauches,
trappers, and herdsmen are not comfortable neighbours, and are uncer-
tain customers. Oregon, the Falkland Islands, and Astoria may be dis-
missed with similar brevity; and it has only to be remembered that the
Auckland Islands are considerably nearer the South Pole than the south-
ernmost point of New Zealand, in order to dispose of the question of the
ineligibility of those islands as a field of emigration for any except such as
are fonder of whales and cold weather than of fruits, flowers, and a genial sun. The only fields of Emigration which can at present be offered for the
choice of a settlement, are, 1. Canada and our other North American
colonies in the Atlantic; 2. The United States; 3. The Cape of Good
Hope, and Natal; 4. New Zealand; 5. New South Wales; 6. Van Die-
man's Land; 7. South Australia; 8. Australia Felix; 9. Western Aus-
tralia; 10. North Australia.
Before proceeding to describe these regions in detail, it is however
necessary that we should, having discussed the general reasons which
should determine the question of the propriety of emigrating at all, now
consider the various particulars which should fix the choice of a
locality, and review those suggestions of detail which are applicable to
the subject under all circumstances. Where you are to go is the first
problem to be solved. How you are to go is the second.


27'
CLIMATE.
Every other advantage of a settlement is secondary to that of climate.
Without health, there cannot merely be enjoyment, but even subsistence.
To a man who expatriates his wife and family, the responsibility he un-
dertakes in this regard is serious, and any material error in his choice,
fatal to his happiness. To save the life of some members of his family
he may be compelled to leave his location, perhaps to return to the mo-
ther country and make shipwreck of his fortunes. He himself may be
stricken down, and his helpless children left desolate in a strange land.
His wife may pine away while subjected to the process of acclimation.
The mortality among settlers is proverbially great. Tens of thousands of
the poorest have left competency and abundance, and returned to misery
and starvation in England, to remove themselves from the influences of a
bad climate, after perhaps having buried all their relatives. Every ship
which returns from North America brings back travellers of this kind of
all ranks. Stricken with disease in our own country we never blame the
climate, but when the husband and father has taken his family to a
strange land, every malady is attributed to the fatal step of leaving home,
and home is their only specific for a cure.
Climate then ought to be the first consideration of all emigrants. In-
deed it is inferiority of climate, which is the great preventive of emigra-
tion; millions have been deterred from joining their friends abroad by
reports of disease and denunciations of the climate.
We have been at much pains to gather and compare the testimony
given on this point; and the result of most anxious study and enquiry,
we shall now proceed to lay before the reader:—
New Zealand appears to possess for the European constitution, the
finest climate in the world. It has no extremes of temperature, and no
sudden changes of weather. At all times, both night and day, mild and
equable, it is subject neither to excessive droughts nor excessive rains—
labour can be at all times pursued in the open air—two crops in the year
are yielded, the leaves never wither but are pushed off by their suc-
cessors, and no diseases seem indigenous. It must be excepted, how-
ever, that this description applies only to the northern island—the tem-
perature at the southern extremity being sometimes rigorous; it has also
to be observed that, although the prevailing winds are unobjectionable
they are very high—that a degree of humidity exists sufficiently re-
markable to characterize the region, which may be unfavourable to
some constitutions, and that scrofula and consumption are, from what-
ever cause, common among the natives. Still as it is the most agreeable,
so on the whole it is the most healthy climate, in the world—presenting
scarcely any drawback, except the prevalence of earthquakes, at no time
infrequent, and very recently alarming, and even partially destructive.
Next in order of eligibility is Tasmania or Van Dieman's Land. This
island, in climate, possesses all the excellences and most of the charac-
teristic features of that of Great Britain. The winter is milder and of
shorter duration, and the summer is perfectly temperate, with less varia-
bility.
d9


Australia Felix also possesses excellent climatic qualities, and although
the heat is greater than in Tasmania, pleasant breezes, a sufficiency 01
water, a rich soil, and well sustained forests, render it very agreeable and
highly salubrious.
The constitution is in South Australia subjected to a much greater ex-
tremity of heat than in the settlement above noticed, although somewhat
mitigated by a pleasant sea breeze, which sets in regularly every day dur-
ing the arid season. We are bound to add, however, that we have re-
ceived unfavourable accounts of this district, and especially of Adelaide.
Of Western Australia very favourable accounts are given, from which
we would be led to believe that the climate is more temperate than that of
the Southern colony. Still arrow root, sugar cane, pines, bananas, the
cotton tree, which all luxuriate here, indicate a temperature, almost tro-
pical in its character, although satisfactory testimony is borne to its
salubrity.
The statements relative to New South Wales are not so concurrent. It
is said that in the course of a single day the temperature varies thirty
degrees, and Mr. Martin states that siroccos frequently occur, which raise
the thermometer to 120" Farh., and set vast forests and vegetation in a
blaze of fire, killing birds, beasts and men. It has, notwithstanding, to
be observed that Europeans enjoy excellent health in this colony: at some
of the military stations not so much as a single man having died in seven
years, and of 1,200 settlers, not more than five or six having been sick at
one time.
Port Natal, it seems conceded on all hands, possesses a climate much
resembling that of Australia Felix, enjoying abundance of most luxuri-
ant vegetation, valuable forests of timber, and a sufficiency of water.
The climate of the Cape of Good Hope partakes much of the charac-
ter of New South Wales, or of Southern or Western Australia. The
heat is often intense and most oppressive; periodical droughts burn up
and destroy vegetation; and opthalmia, dysentery and influenza, the
maladies of excessive aridity, occur periodically. But still, with regard
to all these settlements, it is to be admitted that the concurrence of testi
mony in favour of their superior salubrity, is nearly unanimous. In
them all the human constitution can sustain exposure to the weather at
all times with greater impunity than in any others embraced by our
enumeration. The average of health and life is higher; the diseases are
fewer; the recoveries from maladies contracted in other countries are
more numerous. These regions for persons having consumptive tenden-
cies, must obviously be excellently adapted, and they are said to be very
favourable to the recovery of dyspeptic patients.
The evidence with reference to the climate of the fields for emigration
in North America, is much more conflicting. It may be assumed, how-
ever, as indisputable, that in no part are they so favorable to health and
the enjoyment of life as the localities before enumerated. They are sub-
ject to sudden extremes of heat and cold, except in the regions of yellow
fever, where the heat is as great, and the climate as dangerous as in
Jamaica or Calcutta. As a general feature of the North American Con-
tinent it may be observed that it is remarkably dry without being arid.
The sky is seldom overcast, except for a few hours; the atmosphere is


CLIMATE. SW
delightfiilly clear, and throughout the winter the sun shines out without
a cloud, making the earth brilliant. Diseases produced by humidity,
especially asthma, we should expect to find rare. The sudden changes
in the Eastern States, produce, however, consumption, while fever and
ague of an aggravated character, annoy and sometimes scourge the pop-
ulation. Nowhere, can any freedom be used with the constitution inured
to habits of civilization, and there are few maladies incident to the old
world, which do not also ravage these parts of the now. "The climate of
America," observes Mr. Buckingham, "is much more pleasurable to the
Bight, and feelings than the climate of England. Whether it be as favor-
able to health and longevitymay be doubted." The highlands of Virginia
and the Southern Slopes of Kentucky, extending from the Potomac to
Alabama, are highly praised for their beauty and their delightful climate.
But in both the cold of winter is intense, and although they escape fever
and ague, except near the Lakes, the intensity of the summer heat pro-
duces, every fifth or sixth year, a considerable mortality. The New Eng-
land States are, as a general rule, not so healthy or agreeable as those
which are farther west; but the pulmonic and inflammatory diseases
produced in the former, probably do not create a greater amount of dis-
ease than the fevers and epidemics which occasionally scourge the
latter.*
We find an universal concurrence of opinion in attestation of the
remarkable salubrity of our American colony of Prince Edward's Island,
and we feel no hesitation in characterising it as the healthiest region in
all the Anglo-Saxon portions of North America. Its small size, its com-
plete environment by the sea, the absence of mountains or heights, and
of fogs, of forests (those nurseries of snow and ice,) to any but a moderate
extent, of the extremes of temperature which prevail in all the other re-
gions of America, coupled with a fine soil, a moderate winter, and a
temperate summer, make it so favourable to longevity, that invalids from
other districts make it a common place of resort to recruit.
To a good sound constitution Lower Canada presents a climate which
is healthy enough; but its winter is so long and so severe, that it is
''•Our New York friend said * Ah! you are now coming to our elastic atmosphere.1
fist June. New York.] " One of the Newspapers says, 'The temperature is delight-
fully cool, the thermometer is only 75 deg. in the shade/ We should call that pretty
bot in the old country, hull find it exceedingly pleasant, and shall not complain if it
do not exceed ten deg. higher.
[3rd June.J "82 deg. in the shade. Mr. Brooks and I do not find the heat oppressive.
[7th June.] Baltimore. The weather, hitherto, has been delightful, the heathaving
been felt oppressive only in the middle of the day at Philadelphia, when the ther-
mometer stood at 85 deg. in the shade. We are told that persons coming from
England do not feel the first summer's heat so oppressive as the second. Our indi-
vidual experience has been that of a temperature exceedingly favorable for a
pleasure excursion. Musquitoes have not yet introduced themselves.
[13th June, Cincinnati] "We are beginning to speculate how we shall feel,
when people acknowledge that it is hot. The evening air is balmy and delicious
but we do not desire at noon day to goout ahoeing potatoes.
[22nd June, Louisville, Kentucky.] "Hitherto we have not suffered from the heat,
although it has stood higher than SO deg., and the mornings and evenings have been
of a delicious temperature.
[32nd July, Gloucester.] " Nothing could be more delightful than the weather.
93 deg. at Boston, only 82 deg. here, and the air so pure and M elastic that to breathe
it was a positive at once felt luxury."—Prentice.


80 CLIMATE.
adapted to the robust alone. As the traveller moves towards the Upper
Province he finds that the further he goes west the shorter is the winter,
and the less rigorous the seasons. But it is said he, in the same degree,
approaches nearer the region of epidemics, of fever, and of ague. As a
general rule, with reference to this continent it may be observed, that as
you remove from the lakes and the forest, you recede also from disease,
and that the more barren any district is, the less unhealthy it proves to
be. It may be right to add that from an extensive series of medical statistics
it has been proved that the rigour of the Canadian winter is favourable
to the constitution, and that our troops enjoy as good health as in our
American provinces, at any station at which they are posted.
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, are less rigorous than
Lower Canada, but subject to the same extremes as Upper Canada, with
the addition of more frequent fogs, a longer winter, and tremendous gales
of wind. These districts appear to prolong the health of sound constitu-
tions, but are not so favourable to general longevity as Prince Edward's
Island. Newfoundland is the hyperborean ultima thule of these pos-
sessions, and totally unadapted for the purposes of emigration.
The climate of Texas has nearly an even balance of testimony for and
against it. The high authority of our emigration commissioners warns
emigrants of its insalubrity, and certainly its tropical productions do not
argue a region favourable to the European constitution. Independantly of the doubtful character of the climate, the population is of a character
too lawless and unsettled to render it an eligible choice for any class ex-
cept such as at home are significantly reported to have "gone to
Texas."
We have considered climate with its reference merely to health; but
for the proper end of existence its effect upon comfort and happiness,
although it ought to form the second, it should form by no means
a secondary consideration. In both respects we must assign the pre-
ference to New Zealand, particularly to the northern island. The long
spring, summer, and autumn, the short winter, a temperature which ad-
mits of two crops in the year, the absence of droughts, the presence ot
abundant and excellent water and running streams, and of a sun which
warms but never scorches or oppresses, place it without a rival.
Tasmania possesses a warmer climate, but the depth of soil, and the
sufficiency of moisture, exempt it from any serious inconvenience which
the greater heat might otherwise engender. Australia Felix, Southern
and Western Australia, New South Wales, and the Cape, partake of a
character of greater torridity than New Zealand and Van Dieman's Land;
but, nevertheless, they are all calculated for the pleasurable enjoyment
of physical existence.
It seems to be generally agreed that, although the extremes to whicn
most parts of the United States are liable, render that region less favour-
able to health than Great Britain; the weather is very much more
pleasant there than it is with us. An exception however must be made
in reference to those states which march with our lower Canadian frontier,
where the summer heat is very great, and the winter's cold is intense,
and of long continuance.
With reference to British North America, the decided preference is to


32 ALLEGIANCE.—SOCIETY.
deed do not always increase in the ratio of ils length, because diverse
voyages encounter various kinds of weather, and accidents seem to be less
frequent on the Australian than on the American station, although the sea
passage of the latter is only one-third of the length of the former. To some
persons, especially females, sea-sickness is mortal when long protracted; to
others a sea voyage is eminently disagreeable, especially where it involves
the care on shipboard, of a young and large family. In June, July, and
August, it is quite possible by steam to make the voyage to Halifax or
New York without encountering even a ripple on the ocean. This can-
not be promised in reference to long protracted voyages. The American
liners are remarkably swift sailers, and distinguished by absence of acci-
dent, and the great infrequency of shipwreck. To those who emigrate
with the ultimate intention of returning to their native country, it is
obvious that greater proximity to Europe is an item of consideration in the
fixing of their destination.
It would of course be ridiculous to exaggerate the advantage of mere
shortness of voyage in reference to emigration; but to persons not over-
burdened with capital, it must be a consideration that the passage to
America can be undertaken for about one-fourth of the expense of that
to Australia, and for less than one-half of that to the Cape. Where a large
family has to be taken out, this is a desideratum; but against this has
to be balanced the longer inland journey, which has to be made by the
American settler, and in the case of the labouring man, it has to be re-
membered, that if he have money enough barely to land him at the
Cape, New Zealand, or Australia, he will be hired at high wages literally before he touches the shore—an advantage which he will not enjoy in
America.
ALLEGIANCE.—SOCIETY.
To a British subject it must in general be a matter, not entirely of in-
difference, in the choice of a location, that it should place him under our
own laws, and government. Before he can become an American citizen,
he must forswear his allegiance to England, and be prepared to fight
against his own countrymen if necessary. Except in the higher Ameri-
can circles, there is, in the States bordering on Canada, aprejudice against
the Britishers, as we are called, almost fanatical. We shall afterwards
have occasion to expose this trait more at large. Here it is enough to
say, that to persons of the middle classes, the manners and habits of the
British Americans, the Cape, New Zealand, and Australian settlers, will
be much more congenial than those of the model republic. The emi-
grants of a poorer grade, but whose object is to farm, will, in some locali-
ties in the Western States, have a struggle to make against the quirky
and litigious spirit of the native Americans, who themselves boast that
they would go to law with their father for a shilling.
In British America, in New Zealand, the Cape, and tho various Aus-
tralasian dependencies, the society is thoroughly English. But in the
Cape and New Zealand, dangerous and powerful savages keep up a con-
tinual ground of anxiety to settlers, and in our penal settlements where so


CHOICE OP A SHIP.
many discharged convicts have risen to social importance, and where the
disproportion of the sexes is very great, the tone of society is low, and
the number and unscrupulousness of sharpers in trade is very great. Nor
ought it to be forgotten that in Australia and Van Dieman's Land "tin
blacks" have been troublesome, often very dangerous.
CHOICE OF A SHIP.
To persons in the middle and higher ranks of life it is scarcely neces-
sary to give a caution against runners, touters, and sharkish shipping
agents. But■the instances are so numerous, and so recent, in which
poor men have been swindled out of all their money, without even pro
curing a passage in a ship, or in which the contract made by them with
the shipper has been shamefully violated, that it may be useful here to
observe that no excuse exists for the encouragement of the tricks of the
vagabonds, who have so successfully preyed upon the simple.
The Government have appointed the following Emigration Agents to
watch over the interests of all Emigrants:—
London—Lieutenant Lean, 70, Lower Thames Street.
Liverpool—Lieutenant Hodder.
Plymouth—Lieutenant Carew.
Glasgow and Greenock—Lieutenant Forrest.
Dublin—Lieutenant Henry.
Cork—Lieutenant Friend.
Belfast—Lieutenant Stark.
Limerick—Mr. Lynch, B.N.
Sligo, Donegal, Ballina—Lieutenant Shuttleworth and Lieuten-
ant Moriarty.
Londonderry—Lieutenant Ramsay.
Waterford, and New Ross—Commander Ellis.
These gentlemen are bound by Act of Parliament, without fee or re-
ward, to procure and give information to every person who applies to
them, as to the sailing of ships, and means of accommodation. They
are obliged to see all agreements between ship owners, agents, or masters,
and emigrants performed—that vessels are sea-worthy, sufficiently sup-
plied with provisions, water, medicines, and that they sail punctually.
They attend at their office daily to afford, gratuitously, every assist-
ance to protect emigrants against imposition, and to enforce redress.
We enjoin all intending emigrants of whatever class, whenever their
resolution is formed, therefore, to go straight to the nearest government
agent according to the above given enumeration, and state exactly what
they want. Make no bargain with any shipper except through the
agent, and act implicitly on his information and advice. He it is, also,
v'ao can give intelligence of every particular regarding each colony, and
the method of procuring a free passage. Where persons have fixed upon
a particular vessel, or have even chartered a ship, let them still apply for
tho intervention of the government agent to complete the negotiation. It
has an excellent moral effect upon the ship agent. Let them also seek
the government advice in reference to the taking of their money, sea


31 CHOICE OF A SHIP.
stock,. clothing, implements, &c., &c., and get from the agent the ad-
dress of the government agent resident at the port of debarkation, so that
they may have every assistance and advice from him the moment they
land.
The Cunard and also the Peninsular ai.d Oriental Steam Navigation
Company's Steamers may be perfectly relied on for accommodation and
safety. So may the American liners, including both sailing and steam
vessels. Ships chartered by the New Zealand Land Company may also
be regarded as unexceptionable.
But it will be as well with reference to sailing vessels, to see that they
have side lights, and are at least six feet and a half in height between
decks.
Cuddies are so often carried away in a heavy sea, and, unless the
scuppers and fore-part of the ship are very free, are so apt to ship more
water than can get away, that although very comfortable, they may be
dispensed with, as besides, they break up the range of the deck walk.
High bulwarks, if combined with perfect facilities for heavy seas get-
ting away if shipped, add greatly to comfort, and the safety of persons
while on deck. They form a shelter against cutting winds, and the
spray of a rough sea. For steerage passengers an easy access to the
cooking apparatus, and abundance of other necessary accommodation
should be seen to, We differ from those who would appropriate a sepa-
rate cooking galley to the steerage passengers. Cooking requires a fire,
and on board ship no fire should be allowed except such as is immedi-
ately under the eye of the steward and cook of the ship. The fate of the
Ocean Monarch ought to be a solemn warning against permitting passen-
gers (steerage passengers especially), to have any lights, ignited pipes, or
other combustible material at their independent command. The Emi-
grants from Berwick-in-Elmet give an interesting account of accidents on
the voyage from permitting steerage passengers free access to the fire.
Safety, speed, and comfort are best consulted by the choice of a large ves-
sel not too deeply laden, nor yet too lightly. The character of the captain
and chief mate for successful voyages, and kindness to passengers, should
be carefully tested. But at all times rather take a sulky captain who is
a thorough seaman, and has a good ship, than the most gentlemanly offi-
cer who does not stand so high in these respects. We need not add that
on the construction of the cabin, and sleeping berths, much of the com-
fort of the passenger will depend, and that the nearer the centre cf the
ship the latter are, the less violent will the motion be felt to be. Have a
written agreement as to berth, diet, and all other stipulations, requisite
—let this be revised by the captain, and it will doubtless keep him to
the contract during the voyage. See that it is a fixed regulation of the
ship that no smoking is to be allowed, and that no candles or fires are on
any account to be permitted except under the direct regulation and su-
pervision of the officers of the ship. Persons of the working classes are
very careless about the carrying about of ignited materials, and a drunken
man may peril the lives of all.
Great care ought to be used to see that the ship has abundance of
water, and a superabundance of provisions in proportion to the number
of persons embarking. Potatoes are not to be relied on, as they may rot,


36 THE VOYAGE AND THE SEA.
The berths, especially for children, should have a board up the front,
to prevent the sleeper from rolling out. Where an air mattress cannot be
afforded, one of straw is best; have as many changes of sheets, &c., as
you can afford; a bag for dirty clothes, and all clothes not to be used at
sea, should be well aired, put up in chests, and all chests protected from
the wet floor by two strips of deal nailed along their bottom. Old worn
out clothes are good enough for contact with the tar, sea water, nails and
other wear and tear of a ship. Stout warm clothing in sufficient quan-
tity should be provided, as it is colder at sea than on shore. We cannot
advise the emigrant to lay in a great surplus quantity in this country, in
the idea of its being much cheaper here than abroad. It is now reason-
ably cheap everywhere, and in the region to which he goes, he will find
the best selection of clothing of the kind most adapted to the habits of
the people, and to the climate. Indeed he should encumber himself with
as little luggage, and land with as much money as he can. For medicines,
except a few aperient pills, he should apply to the captain or ship sur-
geon, and be very careful how they are administered.
As to his money, let him take the advice of the Government Emigra-
tion Agent as to its custody or conversion. Emigrants may steal from
each other, or they may be swindled by sharpers when they land. On
the American lakes and rivers the steamers and canal boats swarm with
miscreants, who lie in wait either to steal the emigrant's money or to cheat
him out of it. Let passengers take nothing but sovereigns, Bank of
England notes, or safe Bills of Exchange; these should never be out
of their sight until they are taken to the Colonial Agent at the port of
debarkation, and his advice taken as to how they may be exchanged. By
purchasing a "sett of exchange" that is three drafts for the same sum, giving one to the agent in England, another to the captain of the ship,
and keeping the third himself, the passenger can, in the event of losing
his own, receive payment on presenting either of the others. Take
no American Bank notes in exchange for British money. The Canada
Company, or New Brunswick Land Company will give bills on
their transatlantic agents. The emigrant, will in all cases be entitled, in
exchanging English money for the money of the country, to a greater
nominal sum than he pays over. In Prince Edward's Island a sovereign
is worth 30s. currency.
Besides sharpers on shore at both ends, beware of sharpers among your
fellow passengers.
THE VOYAGE, AND THE SEA.
Individuals who have once made a sea voyage, we observe rarely hesi-
tate to make a second. This is the testimony which experience gives to
the fact that a sea voyage is by no means so formidable an affair as is
imagined. Besides the crew and officers, who spend whole lives, at all
seasons, on the same passage to America or Australia (in steam ships to
New York once every month), actors, actresses, singers, dancers, authors,
take the trip across the Atlantic and back, again and again, without the
slightest repugnance. Noblemen and squires go for mere pleasure, and


THE VOYAGE, AND THE SEA. SI
timid women make the voyage to New Zealand and back to Europe,
without any scruple, two or three times. To good ships well found
manned, and officered, it is amazing how seldom any serious accident
happens, and still more remarkable how frequently life is saved in ship-
wreck. Many persons considered the President too weakly constructed
from the first; and Mr. Joseph Sturge, who was on her very track in an
American liner, and encountered the very same storm, sea, and passage
at exactly the same time, arrived atNew York without any accident. It is
very seldom that the violence of a tempest overcomes a good ship, well
laden, and properly navigated. Cases of foundering are of very rare
occurrence to staunch ships. Shipwreck is almost always caused by nau-
tical blunder, to which captains accustomed to the passage, and to the
trim of their ship, are very little liable.
"During the earlier part of the voyage," observes Mr. Marshall "ti-
mid people suffer a good deal from fear; should the wind blow hard, and
the sea run high, they will be likely to over-rate the danger; especially
at night, when the crew is busy reducing sail; the trampling of the sai-
lors over their heads; the loud voice of the commander and mates giving
orders; and the careening of the vessel, very naturally create alarm.
This will be increased by hearing other passengers express their fears..
Fear begets fear, and the steerage very often presents a scene of great
confusion, without the least just cause for it. Passengers should always
bear in mind this simple rule, " Never be alarmed until the captain it.""A ship is one of the safest modes of conveyance in the world. Let
the passenger remember this, and it will relieve him in many a moment
of anxiety. In proof of it, the insurance companies insure the liners
and first class transient ships at about five per cent. per annum: less
than one per cent. for each passage between Europe and America. At this
rate they make good profits, which shows how small the risk is. The
insurance companies understand the matter of course, for they make it a
business.
"Look at the thickness of a ship's sides. People talk about there
being but a frail plank between the sailor and a watery grave. This is all
nonsense. Take a liner for instance. Her outer planks are of solid well
seasoned white oak, at least four or five inches thick. These are spiked
on to solid live oak ribs of great thickness, which are placed so near toge-
ther, that they would almost keep out the water if the outer planks were
torn off. Inside of all this is another close sheathing of solid, well sea-
soned oak plank, some four or five inches thick, spiked on to the ribs
with heavy spikes. We measured the sides of the splendid line ship
Liverpool a few days since, and found them to be eighteen inches in thick-
ness of solid tough seasoned oak. It is so with almost all the liners, and
some of the transient ships. It should be remembered too that this
thickness of plank and timber is caulked together inside and outside, and
secured with all sorts of bolts, clamps, knees, breast hooks, beams, and
the like. It would puzzle a sailor to tell how to break up such a solid
mass of wood, iron, and copper, as this.
"A few years since Government sold an old vessel to a private indivi-
dual, who wished to break her up for the sake of the iron and copper
fuatcningg. The difficulty of doing so was so great, that he had to pur-
M


38 THE VOYAGE, AND ME SEA.
chase a large quantity of fire wood, which he placed inside the vessel to
burn her up. The strength of a well built ship is equal to any stress of
weather. On this point let the passenger dismiss all fear.
"The passenger should remember that a ship is as well adapted to the
water, as a sea-gull is. Both are made expressly for the water, and both
survive buoyantly, naturally, and safely, upon it, let the wind blow high
or low.
"As for upsetting, let the passenger put on his night cap and go to
sleep without any concern. There is not a liner afloat, nor a first class
transient ship, if properly loaded, but would carry away every one of her
masts before she could upset. And, of course, when her masts had gone,
she could not upset. The dangerof capsizing therefore is scarcely among
the possibilities. It never has happened to the modern and better class
ships, and it will be a pity if ships grow worse in this respect. Let her
roll, roll, roll, till she spills your soup, and cheat you too out of your
broth, and take no heed to it." "To travel by the better class of ships
is less dangerous, than to travel the same distance by land, in any con-
veyance under the eun."
Sea-sickness is undoubtedly a very painful malady; where there is
great liability to it in a violent degree, its incidence may form no minor
reason for going to Canada or the United States, rather than a greater
distance, and for choosing steam and the finest period of the year for the
voyage. But it is very seldom dangerous or of long continuance; and,
indeed, by straining the system, and cleaning it thoroughly out, it almost
invariably renovates and invigorates the whole constitution. Iu general
it will disappear in a few days; time and patience are the best cure for
it, and as a rule it is best borne lying in your berth.
Rome sickness is the more pernicious malady of the two, and much the
most lasting; indeed, so inveterate is it, that few leave their native
country without the design to return to it, however ill they have fared or
been treated while it was still their home. Women especially very rarely
become reconciled, even to the most eligible circumstances, which sepa-
rate them from the land of their birth. Nothing can be more injurious
to their prospects, either of happiness or prosperity, than this pining
nostalgia. It robs them of the stimulus to make the best of their new
condition, and it sheds the permanent gloom of settled discontent upon
their lot. Let wife and daughter, if they value their own interest and
comfort, beware how they damp the energies and depress those hopes
which stir up the soul of husband or brother to exertion, by complaining
of their adopted country, or hankering after that which they have left.
It makes the whole family miserable, exaggerates the disadvantages of
their new condition, and renders them blind to those of its excellences
from which so much contentment and enjoyment may be derived. Let
them beware also of sneering at or depreciating their new home to its
native inhabitants, or carrying their English prejudices among their new-
neighbours. Everywhere they will find kindness, advice, and help, if
they cheerfully enter into the spirit, customs, and character of the
society amongst which they settle. Give their neighbours respect, and
enter upon intercourse with them in a cordial and cosmopolitan temper,
and all will go well with them. Settle among them for the purpose of


THE VOYAGE AND THE SEA. 30
looking down upon or avoiding them, and they will find they have entered
a pandemonium. As no civilized man can be independent of the services
and sympathy of his neighbours, so no one can afford to neglect con-
ciliating their good will.
No sentiment can be more venerable than that of love of country.
A man whose sound heart is in the right place, may well
""Cast one longing ling'ring look behind."
-gaze on the receding shore until he can make it no bigger than a crow,
and then turn his eyes and weep. The word last, applied to objects
to which we have been long accustomed, even when they had become
disagreeable to us, falls like a knell upon the soul. We exaggerate
the good, and forget the evil of that to which we have been long habi-
tuated when we are to "know it no more for ever." We call to
mind
"All trivial fond records
All forms and pressures past"
associated with our youth, and early friends, and season of poetry and
young enjoyment, and because the place suggests pleasant memories, and
gay fancies, and happy thoughts, we think it is the place that makes
them. But be more rational; think that it is God's earth you tread and
work upon, whether you are in the new world or the old; that the same
firmament canopies all; that wherever men are, there are your brethren
and God's children, stamped with the broad arrow of our common human
nature; that your own freehold and independence of the world, and de-
fiance of its cares, are a better home, and truer friends, and a fairer
country, than any you left behind you j that, handsome is that handsome
does; and that love of country, or home sickness, will neither fill your
empty purse, nor make your pot boil. The God of nature is everywhere;
if he places you by the meditative waterfall, or opens the song of birds,
or strews in your path the prairie flowers, or awakens the echoes of the
leafy forest, or tempts you to the hills "with verdure clad," or sends
you where sits darkling the linnet "low down in the vale," or launches
you upon the moonlit lake, or leads you among the "hairy fools" of
the bosky dell or opening brake, and at eventide sends you to a comfort-
able house you can call your own, and with a welcome from a busy
housewife "plying her evening care" to make you happy before your
blazing hearth and abundant meal, where should be your home and
country, if that will not content you? And is it not the native home o.
your children; the country where you know you already see the cer-
tainty of their easy independence? "We speak as unto wise men, judge
ye what we say V
Are we not too prone to take for granted that there are great differ-
ences betwixt our past and our new condition, and to exaggerate va-
riations into contrasts? Green fields and the " rooky wood," the flowing
river and the "cloud-capt" hill, the sunbeam and "the majestical roof
fretted with golden fire," may be diverse in their aspects in different
countries indeed, as they vary in the different regions of the same
country. But after all where, at least in the same zone, should tha lover
B 2


40 WORKS ON EMIGRATION.
of nature feel himself far from a home? A Canadian or a Yankee, speak-
ing the language of Shakespere, and proud of the ancestry of Milton,
an Anglo-Saxon like ourselves, when you break off him the first crust of
custom and local habits, or break in yourself to look under these to his
inner soul, do you really find anything so strange about him and his ten-
dencies, that you can never feel he is your friend and neighbour, merely
because he was not born in England? Clear all this nonsense out of
your head, and be assured that it is nonsense. A foreigner is a man;
approach him in the spirit of your common humanity, and doubt not
but that everywhere you will find a home and a fellow-citizen.
WORKS ON EMIGRATION.
We havo already had occasion to expose the disingenuousness which
characterizes most works on emigration. Vamped up by persons either
hired or interested to cry up one locality in t* ■> general competition for
settlers, the authors are not worthy of trust in reference either to the ex-
cellences of the colonies they praise, or tbe faults of those they depreciate.
The patron of Canada describes it as a Valparaiso, while the hack of the
New Zealand speculation pronounces our North American colonies as a
slice off the arctic circle. Mr. Mathew, the appraiser of Auckland and
Wellington, takes it for granted that, because Canada has a long and
severe winter, he may venture to say that it will scarcely produce any
thing; forgetting that the hyperborean regions of the Baltic are the gra-
nary of Europe, while New Zealand has never yet fed its own population.
He prophecies that such an inhospitable region will soon be deserted, in
the face of the fact, that the population in ninety years has increased
twenty fold; that in twenty-three years it has received 736,308 emi-
grants, and that in 1847 nearly three times as many settlers arrived there
as in any former year, and twenty-four times as many as found their way
to all our other colonies put together, amounting to 109,680. Were we to characterize the statements of many of the writers who, under pretence
of giving an impartial view of the general subject of emigration, set out
from the beginning with the fixed design of crying upon one field of set-
tlement at the expense of every other, and of truth into the bargain, we
would apply a very short word to most of their misrepresentations. We
shall content ourselves however with merely cautioning the inquirer
against putting any reliance whatever upon a single statement of their own, and advise him simply to extract from their works such facts as
are authenticated by competent testimony, and substantial internal evi-
dence. Let us pass on at once to the proper object of this work, which,
founded on a careful collation of all treatises published on the subject of
the various emigration fields before enumerated, proposes to lay before
the reader a comprehensive, practical, and trustworthy detail of the
whole subject.


BRITISH AMERICA. 41
BRITISHAMERICA.
Of all British North America it may be observed that it has the ad-
vantage of greater proximity to, and easier access from Europe, than
any other settlement. By the finest and safest steam vessels in the world
Halifax may be reached by the Cunard mail packets in ten days from
Liverpool—or the American steam ships between Southampton and New
York, will convey passengers to the latter port, from whence they may
reach Canada in eleven or twelve days from port to port. 'The Aire by
the Cunard line is £35, and by the American line £31 10s., includ-
ing provisions and steward's fee. The second class fare is £20 by the
American steamers. We are not aware that the Cunard line carries second
class passengers. At certain ascertained seasons the finest weather may
be calculated on so as to avoid sea sickness. In June and July this may
be expected. The American liners from Liverpool and London to New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, Halifax, Quebec, are of the very best and
safest description. Their accommodations are of the first order, they are
expressly built for speed and safety, and they have appointments quite
unequalled for excellence. The cabin fare including provisions varies
from £18 to £25; the distance is from 3,600 to 3,800 miles (to New
Orleans, 4,300), and the average passage about thirty-five days or up-
wards, of 100 miles a day. By good transient ships we see it stated by
the emigration commissioners the average passage to Quebec is forty-six
days—to Prince Edward's Island forty days—Nova Scotia thirty-eight
days. The fare by these vessels is, to Quebec, New Brunswick, or Hali-
fax, from English ports, or the Clyde, cabin, including provisions, £12
to £20; intermediate, £6 to £10; steerage, £4 to £5; from Irish
ports £10 to £12; £5 to £6; £4 to £5; and to the nearest United
States ports, nearly the same.
The quickest passages are made in April and May, and these arc th«
periods when it is most advantageous to a settler to commence his ne\»
mode of life. All necessary preliminary information will be found in the
Colonization Circular, No. 9, published by Charles Knight, 90, Fleet
Street, by authority, price 2d.
North America, as a place of settlement, has the obvious advantage of
being easily, speedily, and cheaply reached, of being within easy dis-
tance of Europe, and of being nearer to the great market of all colonics than any other locality. The freights deduct less from the profits of
goods, the returns are quicker, the risks of competition in the market
with arrivals from other colonies are less than they can be in reference to
any other district. The country is comparatively settled—there are no
natives to battle with—credit and trade are steady—above all, labour is in
fair supply, and at a moderate price in comparison to capital—and all
the necessaries and comforts of life are accessible at a rate very much
below what they cost in the more distant colonies. In answer to this, it
indeed may be said that in the same degree labourers must be indifferently
remunerated, and the profits of the producer must be small. But cheap-
nt*s argues the pressure of abundance both of labour and of food; and
k 3


42 BRITISH AMERICA.
these, by forcing the investment of capital, must inevitably make *
country prosperous and happy.
Sugar, soap, candles, tobacco, flax, and wool, timber, are all manu-
factured and produced on the spot. Tea, 2s., sugar, 4d., butter, 5d.,
cheese, 4d, coffee, 10d., meat, 2d., per lb.; eggs, 3d. per dozen; fowls,
6d. per pair; venison, Id. per lb.; salmon of good size, 2s. each; and
other fish very cheap; as also fire wood—Indian corn, 8s. per quarter
clothing and servants wages as low in price as in England. A sovereigt
yields 25s. in Canada, and 30s. in Prince Edward's Island. A comfort-
able farm house with fifty acres of cleared and enclosed land may be had
for £300, or rented for £25 per annum; taxes are infinitesimal. To all
practical purposes, therefore, a man who can retire upon £150 per an-
num, would, by going to Prince Edward's Island, live quite as well as
upon £300 a year m England, and if he has a large family, they could
live infinitely better; if they chose to raise their own produce, for which
a farm of fifty acres would furnish them with all the means, they would,
except for clothing and a few groceries, be really independent of the need
of current coin altogether. Emancipated from the tyranny of conven-
tion, and liberated from the necessity of consulting mere appearances,
they may renovate the constitution by following the healthful activity of
a country life. They will be under British institutions and essentially in
British society, and among English customs; they will encounter little
of that mere Yankeeism, against which so many entertain so great a pre-
judice. The tone of social life is not there indeed very high, and man-
ners are more simple than polished. Settlers will not be quite as well, or
so obsequiously served as at home—they will find everything of a coarser
and plainer, and less perfectly convenient construction, and all around
they will be reminded of a ruder and less advanced state of society;
roads rarer and rougher, doctors further off, shops not so near, nor so
well supplied, conveyance and intercourse imperfect, life monotonous,
and company, news, incidents, scarce. Ladies especially, will miss many
appliances which they have been accustomed to, regard as indispensable,
and husbands may lay their account with a house full of patients, la-
bouring under the home sickness. Much must be done by, which has
hitherto been done for them—and much must be left undone, which they
believed they could never do without. Never mind—" Resist evil, and
it will flee from thee." Defy the women, and they will become resigned.
To horse! He may be had cheap, and kept at a cost little beyond his
shoeing. Take your rod, and bring home a dish of fish—shoulder your
Joe Manton, or your rifle, and bring down a wild turkey or a deer—there
is no license to pay for, and no gamekeeper to stop you at the march; or
in the winter evenings, bring a book from the town, and while all work
round the blazing hearth, do you read for the company. Make the
house more comfortable and neat within—more trim without—do what
you can for the garden, and inspire in the womankind a taste for botany
and flowers. You must be the jobbing carpenter, and locksmith, and
outcher, and gardener, and groom, and doctor sometimes—the executor
of commissions, the brewer, the wood-cutter, plasterer, and glazier, the
man of all work. And leave every other job to make the house pleasant
to the female eye, and replete with the amenities of civilisation. That ia.


BRITISH AMERICA. 43
the ftret thing which will reconcile your wife and daughters to their
adopted country. Interest them in your bee-hives, get broods of chick-
ens and ducks and geese, and all the accessaries of the dairy, and place
these under their dominion. Urge your friends and neighbours to join
you in your new location, and "make the solitary place glad" with con-
siderate kindness, well chosen acquaintances, and the fixed idea that that
is once for all your only home and final resting place.
To us it appears that the colonies are the especial field for men to re-
tire to from the wear and tear of life, with a small hoard that could do
little for them in the old world, but everything in the new. It is the
very place for a small capitalist to afford to be idle in. The literary man,
who is spinning his life out at his brains, the surgeon or attorney, whose
head work is eating the coat out of his stomach, the merchant, or clerk,
or warehouseman, or tradesman, whose anxieties and confinement, and
town life, are pushing consumption, or heart disease to their incipient
stage, and who with a family staring them in the face, know not where to
turn—let these men take stock, and if they can convert their possessions
into £2,000 or £3,000, let them take flight in time to the colonies, where
they may recover their health, and the tone of their minds, and add
twenty years to their lives. They will make room for others in England,
they will increase population where there is not enough, they will enjoy
existence on what they have, in place of throwing it away on the struggle
for more. Let it not be said that—
"No man, of anght he leaves, knows what it is to leave betimes."
These, if they be not mere mechanical unimaginative Bow Bell cocknies,
ought to be the very men to enjoy the country life of the settler. They
have intellectual resources seldom vouchsafed to the mere farmer, they re-
quire to change mental exhaustion for physical exertion, the most
healthful, as well as exhilirating of occupations—and, surfeited with social
sophistications, their palled senses may gladly " doff the world and let it
pass."
The surgeon-apothecary may do well in any of these colonies, espe-
cially if he adds a knowledge of the veterinary art, and can dispense
medicines for cattle, horses, &c.
The professional farmer may get a productive farm in fee simple for
little more than the amount of one year's rent of the farm he left in
England, with scarcely any taxes to pay. Every expense except that of
labour will be much less, and if he gets but a small price for his pro-
duce, he has no rent day to meet, or steward's wrath to propitiate, and
need care little for a failing crop, where he has few liabilities to encounter
which a scanty and ill paid harvest will not easily meet.
All these classes, capitalists in a greater or less degree, establish this
obvious advantage by emigration. They are emancipated from the ne-
cessity of keeping up appearances—they may live exactly as they please
—a frame or even a log house costing from £35 to £85 will lodge them
quite as securely as a brick one, which in England cost as much by the
year's rent—they gain ten per cent. on the exchange, converting £1,000
into £1,100, the second conversion from sterling into currency gives
them from 25s. to 30s. for every sovereign according as they go to Lower


44 BRITISH AMERICA.
or Upper Canada, or Prince Edward's Island, and they remove their
capital entirely from the operation of a taxation which amounts to at
least £35 per cent upon the whole property of England.
To those who have little or, still worse, nothing, the necessity and ad-
vantages of emigration are still greater. The sturdy but simple farmer
beaten by the times, by a bad farm or a high rent, need only to resolva
to be industrious and keep up a stout heart, to work out an early inde-
pendence. If he must begin by serving, a single day's wages will buy
an acre of good land; he may rent a farm on the simple condition of
giving the proprietor one third of what he raises; or he may get land of
his own immediately, at a cheap rate, and on the very easiest terms of
payment. A little capital, if judiciously laid out, will go a great way,
and if he have a family, especially of sons, ready and willing and able to
labour, he may reckon himself already independent.
The farm labourer, inured to greater hardships and privation, more accustomed to hard work and the manipulation of agriculture, will be
still better off if he cultivates industry and sobriety.
To the carpenter, blacksmith, mill and cartwright, and bricklayer, the
very best circumstances concur in these colonies, where wages are fair, employment certain, food cheap and rent moderate.
The tradesman who understands his business, and has capital to buy
goods for cash, is sure to make a speedy independence, by keeping a
store. The store-keepers are indeed the chief men in these colonies.
Mere money lending is highly profitable: on good security it will
sometimes bring 25 per cent. In bank stock it will readily produce 12
per cent, and by the buying and selling of land even larger profit may
be made. In seasons of temporary depression, such as the present,
cleared farms may be purchased at a very cheap rate. It is indeed sug-
gested that high profits of money are scarcely compatible with perfect
security: but if farms are purchased cheap, or even unimproved land, in
favorable localities, the investment may indeed be subject to temporary de-
pression, but the tide of emigration flows so fast towards these colonies,
the unsettlement of Europe gives such an impetus to the transfer of cap-
ital to the new world, and a young country such as Canada, must so cer-
tainly progress for many years, that we conceive the security better
than even that of land in Europe at present prices. The mortgagees of
Ireland would too fully corroborate this. Nor ought it to be forgotten
that the law expenses of conveyance, either for large purchases or small,
amount in our colonies, to not as many shillings as they do pounds in
England, that the title is clearer, and that there is no stamp duty on the
transfer, of any moment. Were the colonization of these dependencies
systematic, as government is about to make it, so that the emigrants
should, at once, on arrival, be placed in a position of comparative com-
fort, the filtration which percolates to the United States, would not take
place, and we should retain all the increment we acquired.
Referring the reader to the colonization circular, No. 9, for a detailed
statement of the rates of wages in these colonies, we may observe gen-
erally that for all kinds of handicraftsmen, they range about the same or
are somewhat more moderate than in England. Carpenters, blacksmiths,
millwrights, and bricklayers, from 5s. to 6s. Bakers, tailors, shoemakers^


40 PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.
head of a family to have a long sickness, is famine and ruin, and to the
capitalist, who may thereby be prevented from looking after his labour-
res, it is an immense loss. It is indeed said that wood land is always
productive, while much that is cleared is impoverished by cropping.
But the remedy for this is to examine the soil, and, if need be, to rent
at first, with the option of purchase if approved. A capitalist can, at
all times, purchase a cleared farm for one-third less than it cost to im-
prove it, and considering the inexperionce of new settlers, and that they
know, at once, their whole outlay, when they buy a cleared farm, there
is no room to doubt the prudence on the score of health, economy, and
profit, of the course we recommend.
It is also especially desirable that in all cases the emigrant should
avoid buying more land than his capital will easily enable him to culti-
vate. The poor man should have a sovereign to put against every acre
of uncleared land he buys, and the capitalist at least £4. If possible
let neither run into debt, but pay the purchase down. From the store
keeper they will buy goods much cheaper, and sell produce much higher,
by avoiding barter or eredit, and introducing cash into all transactions.
The store keepers are the usurers of Canada, and squeeze terrible interest
out of the needy.
Colonial Commissioners advise emigrants to keep their contract tickets,
carefully, till the conditions have been fulfilled, by their being fairly
landed; to provide themselves with food sufficient for their maintainence
until they reach the interior; to take no tools or furniture with them;
to set off from England in the middle of March; to remember that they
are entitled to be maintained on board for forty-eight hours after their
arrival in port; to avoid drinking the water of the St. Lawrence, and to go
to Quebec, if Canada be their destination, and to Halifax, if for the other
colonies. It may be questioned whether passengers for the Upper
Province might not more conveniently reach it by New York. The
government agents at Quebec or Montreal, and the emigration societies
at New York will give ample advice and information as to route, convey-
ance, fares. Emigrant sheds, and medical advice are provided gratis at
all the principal towns. From Quebec to Hamilton, Upper Canada, 667
miles, the steerage passage is 29s. currency; time about eight days. To
Toronto it is 22s., exclusive of provisions, for persons above twelve years.
Half price for those between twelve and three, all under, free. The ex-
pense of a log hut, is from £5 to £12, and if the chief labour be per-
formed by the emigrant, it will cost less. By New York a person in good
circumstances may reach Toronto in three days, at a cost of £4 16s. 3d.
It is not our purpose to include in this work information which is
more properly the object of a mere gazetteer. But as some distinctive
features belong to each of the North American settlements, wo shall no-
tice them in their order.
PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.
This island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is 140 miles long, at its
greatest breadth 34 miles, and contains 1,360,000 acres, of which all but
10,000 are fit for tillage. It is indented with numerous bays and harbours,


PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND. 47
and possesses many nVeW. "fte'souis of excellent quality, and very
productive of all crops, which thrive in England. The coast and rivers
abound with fish: the country is very level, and easily farmed. Its in-
habitants are chiefly Scotch and presbyterians. It is divided into King's,
Queen's and Prince's Counties. The population is upwards of 40,000,
and it has a governor and legislature of its own. Charlotte Town, the
capital, is neat and pretty.
From the absence of mountains and its proximity to the sea, the island
is quite free from fogs, and is very dry, with a climate more temperato and mild than any other in North America. The inhabitants are remark-
able for health and longevity. In all these points every writer on the
subject concurs, and we incline to the opinion, that for every class
of emigrants, this, on account of its salubrity, and the superior character
of its soil, is the most eligible locality of all our American possessions
Ague is unknown, and fever is accidental, not incidental.
The island contains a colony of old-fashioned, jog-trot folks, who
would never set fire to the Thames, nor let the Thames drown them.
Life seems easy to all classes, wages moderate, provisions and clothing
cheap. From the perfectly reliable authority of a member of the colo-
nial legislature, whose letter is dated so recently as August, 1848, we
glean the following particulars. "The climate of the island I regard as
very healthy. The summers are very fine; the winter, at times, very
severe, but generally clear and bright, and I do not think, except during
snow storms, that the cold is felt to be a serious inconvenience. The
island is esteemed to be so beneficial to persons out of health in the
other provinces, that it is no unusual thing for them to come here to
recruit. Indeed the general report and impression of its salubrity is very
prevalent. I know of no case of asthma, and the governess who came
from England with me, used in England always to wear a respirator, but
never used it while in this country. Consumption is, I believe, com-
mon to all parts of the world, but certainly not more so here than else-
where. I know of no case of ague. Fever is an accidental intruder at
times, but not more than in England. With respect to the state of
society, it is perhaps as good as in any colony, for a good many English
families have, within the last ten years settled in the island, bringing
property with them, and having by their superior means and number
obtained some little influence in the place, they have improved the char-
acter of society in it."
"There would be no difficulty either in leasing or purchasing a small
farm or a small house according to the views and fancy of the settler, as
the enterprise of the people of the colonies finds its vent principally in
building, &c. &c. in the expectation to sell, and proceed through the
same course over again. From £200 to £400 sterling would do all that
moderate wants would require.
"The currency of the island is at a depreciation of fifty per cent. in con-
sequence of an issue of paper money, and increase of debt at the same
time, which is now better understood, and put under restraint; but it
has become established as the fixed rate. A sovereign is therefore
£1 10s. of this currency, and an English shilling, in like manner, passes for Is. Cd. With £200 per annum a man may live here far better than


48 NOVA SCOTIA AND CAPE BRETON
with £300 in England, and so in proportion. The price of the chief ne-
cessaries of life, as stated in the gazette, August Ist, is as follows (and it
must be remembered that we are this year experiencing the bad effects of
two years' failure of the potatoes, and a very bad years' crop of wheat
and oats last year.) Beef 2d. to 3d. per lb.; mutton l$d to 3d.; veal Id.
to 2|d.; flour 2d. per lb.; butter 4Jd. to 6fd.; cheese 3d. to 5d.; po-
tatoes 2s. to 2s. 4d. per bushel; eggs 3§d. to 4d. per dozen; fowls 6Jd.
to 9|d.; pair of chickens 6Jd. to 8d.; cod-fish, mackarel, haddock at
very low prices; salmon of fine flavour and good size, 2s. to 3s. (id. each.
By this it will be seen that a little money with management may be
made to go a great way here; tea, sugar, &c. are at low prices, and
clothing as cheap as in England.
"There is very little difference between this and England, as far as
respects domestic servants, save that their wages are rather less; agricul-
tural labourers are generally paid 14s. per week, finding themselves, or
£16 per annum boarded in the house."
Bouchette, Macgregor, and Macculloch describe the island as well
wooded with spruce, fir, birch, beech, and maple. Flax grows luxuri-
antly, the pastures are excellent, and cattle and sheep thrive eminently.
Only 100,000 acres are under cultivation, but all authorities concur in
stating that the settlement is admirably adapted in every part for suc-
cessful and even luxuriant cultivation, and indeed that it is capable of
feeding the whole of the neighbouring colonies.
It is obvious that the moderate price of labour and of land, and the
low price of all the necessaries of life, make this place of pure English so-
ciety and manners, highly eligible to the capitalist or to persons in the
middle ranks of life, while its temperate climate ought also to allure the
labouring man. Indeed, it appears to us that the insulation of the place,
and the easy manageability of the soil, have made it too snug, and the
acquisition of competence too easy, to stimulate the energies of the sober
population. A little fresh blood infused amongst them, and some more
capital, will doubtless, at no distant date, make this a most desirable
colony; the only drawback seems to be the length of the winter. Seed
time begins at Ist of May, and harvest ends in October 3Ist.; snow falls
at Christmas, and remains until the 5th of March.
NOVA SCOTIA AND CAPE BRETON.
These islands are under the same government, and are only separated
by a narrow strait; they are also within fourteen miles of New Bruns-
wick. Nova Scotia is 300 miles long, and of various breadth, containing
an area of 15,620 square miles; 10,000,000 acres, whereof 5,000,000 are
arable, 400,000 under actual cultivation, and a population of 165,000 souls. Cape Breton is less than a third of this size, and both partake of
the same character, abounding in coal, gypsum, iron, salt, and other mi-
nerals, having numerous rivers teeming with salt and fresh water fish,
and carrying on a very large trade in all the more common sorts of
timber, in the curing of fish, in ship building, and in mining.
The eastern division of the island consists principally of a strong,
loamy clay, productive of good wheat crops, while rich alluvial in-


KOTA SCOTIA AND CAPE BRETON. 49
tervales are still more fertile. In the Pictou district seven crops of
wheat are taken in succession without any manure. Towards the north
west rich alluvial marshes are reclaimed from the sea, producing from
5 to 7| quarters of wheat, and three tons of hay per acre. The average
produce of farm land per acre is twenty-five bushels of wheat, forty of
oats, 200 of potatoes, 2 J tons of hay. Good dairy farms are found in the
north-west division; the population is chiefly Scotch, and is ruled by a
governor, a council, and a legislative assembly elected by forty-shilling-
freeholders. The prevailing religion is protestant, of various denomina-
tions, and the provision for education seems to be ample. Taxation is very
light amountingto about 6s.8d. per head; the upset price of the public lands
is Is. 9d. per acre, 100 acres or £8 15s. worth, being the smallest quan-
tity sold. For miners, coopers, fish curers, sawyers, lumberers, ship
carpenters, fishermen, tanners, and farm labourers, the demand must be
considerable. The yearly shipping amounts to 800,000 tons.
The changes of temperature are sudden and extreme; the severe
weather sets in in December, and the frost breaks up at the beginning of
February; the severity of the winter ends in March, when chill, damp,
east winds prevail till the end of April. It is often the close of May be-
fore the spring fairly covers the fields with verdure. May and June are
foggy; July and August are warm, clear, and serene; September and
October, are like ours; but November, and even December, produces
days equal to the loveliest of our English May. Consumption and in-
flammation are somewhat common, but fever and ague are unknown;
and on the whole these islands are very healthy, the inhabitants living to
a great age. That Indian corn can here be raised successfully, pumpkins,
all our culinary vegetables, and all our fruits abundantly and of good qua-
lity, as also excellent clover and meadow grass, are facts which warrant the
belief that the climate must be by no means of the hyperborean character
which some have represented. The land abounds with lime, free, and
slate stone, and brick earth, the rivers with salmon and trout, the sea
board with white and shell fish. There are here manifestly the elements
of great comfort and prosperity, which the progress of society, the in-
crease of steam navigation, and immigration from the mother country,
cannot fail to develop.
It is our duty however to qualify this favourable report with the
caution, that, although, as in most rigorous climates, this is a healthy, it
cannot be said to be a very pleasant locality. To people from Scotland
of average constitution, we think it would be suitable; for healthy work-
ing men it is very well adapted. Persons of enterprise and activity, who
must follow some occupation as the means of subsistence, will here find a
better scope than in Prince Edward's Island; but it is not so temperate,
it is liable to fogs from which the latter is free, and for the middle classes as
a place to retire to and save in, it is not so eligible. Having more bustle
and life about it, 15,000 tons of shipping, and an aggregate of £1,000,000
in exports and imports, it is obviously better adapted for the young as a
field of exertion, and, by its command of coal, joined with its proximity
to New York, where steam navigation produces such a large consumption
both of that article and of iron, we can scarcely doubt that it must now
rapilly increase in wealth and the pursuits of industry.
p


NEW BRUNSWICK
NEW BRUNSWICK.
This province, possessing an independent legislature and government,
is situated on the mainland of North America, forming the south-eastern
coast boundary of Lower Canada; it has a population of 200,000 souls,
16,500,000 acres of area, whereof 11,000,000 are arable, and is said to be
capable of supporting at least 3,000,000 inhabitants.
The upset price of unreclaimed land is 2s. 8d. per acre; 50 acres is the
smallest quantity sold, price £6 13s. 4d. The soil is fertile, several ac-
counts concurring in the statement that in the Stanley settlement wheat
is produced weighing 70 lbs. per bushel, which is superior to the best
produced in England. It is highly recommended to emigrants, especially
of the labouring classes; it is very rich in minerals, especially coal, and in
river, lake, and sea fish of all kinds; from its dense forests, it has a vast
timber trade, and carries on fish curing and whaling to a large extent.
Saw mills and ship building, for which it possesses superior capabilities,
afford increasing means of employment and commerce.
The province is said to be very healthy, and the climate much to re-
semble that of Nova Scotia, not being subject to the great extremes of
Lower Canada, nor to the fevers of the Upper Province. But, the fact
that it is the boundary of Lower Canada, and the eastern boundary too,
leads us to expect that it must be more subject to the rigours which cha-
racterize that region, than has been represented. The density and extent
of the forests to which the sun cannot penetrate, must make them har-
bours for immense masses of snow, which cannot fail to render the currents
of air extremely cold, and to compel winter to linger much longer than
might be argued from the state of the sky and sun. We observe that
15,000 emigrants settled in the province last year; that they were easily
absorbed, and that wages did not fall in consequence. These facts argue
a high estimation of the colony, and a rapid progress in prosperity. Im-
proved farms are said to cost £5 per acre, and near the towns as much
even as £20. Succession is wisely determined by the law of gavel
kind. i
Led away by what the St. John's Chronicle calls the " timber mania,"
the population have neglected the more important pursuits of mining,
fishing, and above all agriculture. Lumbering is notoriously a demora-
lizing employment, and ultimately much less certain and profitable to
the community at large than other fields of enterprise.
An American, met by Mr. M'Gregor in 1828, near Frederic Town, in-
formed him he had been settled in the district seven years, and, com-
mencing without a shilling, had, in that short time, cleared three hundred
acres, and acquired a great flock of sheep, horses, oxen, milch cows,
nwine, and poultry. He lived in a large and comfortable dwelling house
well furnished, with his family, and a number of labourers, had a forge,
trip hammer, fulling, saw, and grist mills, driven by water power, raised
large crops, grew and manufactured excellent flax, and grew as much as


CANADA. St
ninety bushels of Indian corn on a single acre. He talked in high terms
of the rich interior country.
As evidence of the state of the climate the fact here stated, of the
existence of prolific crops of Indian corn is very important. In refer-
ence to Lower Canada, Mr. Shirreff observes that "the climate is too
cold for the cultivation of Indian corn, whieh only occasionally comes
to maturity in the most favoured spots." Indian corn is a very tender
plant; to come to maturity it must be sown early, and it never becomes
ripe until the middle or end of October. If then it is successfully culti-
vated in New Brunswick, it is apparent that the spring must be earlier,
and the commencement of winter considerably later than in Lower
Canada.
The prices of improved land in this, and all emigration fields vary
much according to the temporary state of the district. In hard times,
for which an emigrant should wait, good cleared farms with suitable
buildings, may for cash be had for 30s. or 40s. per acre. At this season
ef depression great bargains are to be made. We have examined tho
files of the colonial newspapers (a most useful study for an intending
emigrant), and from their advertisements we observe that, good farms
are to be had in all the provinces at prices varying from 20s. to 100s. per
acre.
CANADA.
Lower Canada, or Canada East as, since the union of the two pro-
vinces, it is called, contains an area of 132,000,000 acres, and is divided
into five districts, and twenty-one counties. The population, which is
chiefly French, amounts to upwards of 1,000,000 of souls. It contains
several handsome and prosperous towns, and possesses the best river and
lake communications of any country in the world. Its cities, Quebec
and Montreal are very populous, commodious, and picturesque, and the
scenery of the region is altogether very fine. Abundance of land of ex-
cellent quality is every where to be had on easy terms, the upset price of
uncleared land, ranging from 3s. to 5s. per acre, and improved farms
with suitable offices even in the neighbourhood of the chief towns, be-
ing purchaseable, at prices, varying from £20 to £5 or even £3 per acre.
The country is well settled—the institutions for government, jurispru-
dence, religion, and education, matured, and ample, and the state of
society not uncongenial to the British taste or habits. Roads, bridges,
canals, coaches, steam and ferry boats, hotels, hospitals, &c., are more
numerous and better arranged and appointed in this than in the other
provinces, and the conveniences of civilized life are here more readily
attainable. Shipping and commerce are prosperous, and transactions are
conducted less by barter and more through the medium of a currency
here than in the other districts, or the Western United States. The
working population are simple and inoffensive in their habits, and more
respectful in their manners than elsewhere. Produce yields a better price
and is more easily convertible into cash also, and wages are fair but not
excessive. The proportion which arable land, and soil of superior
f2


62 CANADA.
quality, in the settled parts of this province, bears to the whole ter-
ritory is very high, and the better classes of timber, which it bears in
perfection (oak, maple, beech, elm, walnut, cedar, and ash), as also the
quality and quantity of the wheat (forty bushels per acre), sufficiently
indicate its superiority.
Let us here premise what is necessary to be observed in reference to
climate, both in its effects upon animal and vegetable life. Other things
being equal, that is to say cleanliness, drainage, food, household and
clothing comforts. occupation, and medical assistance, persons are heal-
thiest and longest lived in cold climates, and even in temperate regions
they are healthiest at the coldest season of the year. The Poles, the
Russians, above all the Cossacks, occupying the steppes of the Ukrain, are the healthiest and longest lived people in the world. The Norwe-
gians, Danes, and those Germans who live in the regions where winter is
long and severe, are alse long lived; so are the Dutch. As you rise into
the mountainous districts of warmer countries, you find the population
stronger and more healthy. The Caucasians and Balkans have given
Russia more trouble than all her other enemies. It is then quite to be
expected that Lower Canada, longer settled, more extensively cleared,
surrounded better with the appliances of civilization, with a drier air,
fewer swamps, and a longer and severer winter than any other part ot
North America, should also be healthy, and remarkable for the robust-
ness and longevity of its inhabitants. More subject, however, to ex-
tremes than the eastern dependencies, and to sudden alternations of tem-
perature, it has its drawbacksto the sophisticated or delicate constitution;
and considering that the length of winter and its severity endure for
from six months in the eastern, to five and a half in the western extre-
mities of the province, we regard the district as altogether unsuitablefor the
fair enjoyment of life and nature, and ill adapted for the successful pro-
secution of agriculture; no spring, summer and autumn insupportable,
areconditionsforwhich to our tasteno commercial advantages can compen-
sate. Every thing sealed up and made dead by frost and snow, bird, beast,
and creeping thing absconded or perished, the thermometer standing
thirty degrees below freezing point, water, nay whisky, freezing within a
foot of the fire, boiling water when thrown up falling in icicles, milk pro-
duced in lumps, meat having to be thawed before it can be eaten, the
dead even being kept for months before being buried, and this enduring,
not occasionally, but for a lengthened period,—these are phenomena of
which we cannot recommend to any the practical experience. We are
bound to state that the air is so dry, the sky so clear, and the zephyr
so light and genial, that the cold looks very much greater than it feels.
The blood is so well oxygenated with the pure and exhilirating atmos-
phere, that an improved circulation, by generating great animal heat, de-
fies somewhat the external rigour. Still the mere time which winter
lasts is an intolerable nuisance to all who enjoy nature and out door life.
The same observations apply to vegetation; the cold countries of
Europe are its granaries. Polish, Tamboff, and Dantzic wheat, are the
best which come to our market. Rye, oats, barley, beans, are produced
in abundance in those frigid climes, and Holland condemned to an arctic
winter, is the dairy store of England. But for pasture and store farm-


CANADA. 53

ing, a six months winter forms a serious drawback, especially where
labour is expensive; large quantities of food have to be stored for the cattle, they have to be properly housed, their meat prepared and set
before them, their houses kept sweet, and themselves carefully tended;
and this in a country where manure is regarded as not worth the cost
of spreading and ploughing in, is manifestly a heavy deduction to be
made from other advantages.
Major Tulloch in his military reports states, that "of all the colonial
stations occupied by our troops, rheumatic diseases affect them least in
Canada. Neither acute diseases nor deaths are so numerous by one-half
in winter there, as in summer. Remittent and intermittent diseases are
much less prevalent in Lower than in Upper Canada, and not very fre-
quent in either province; but in July the deaths in the lower province
amounted to 4,068, and in January to only 2,365. The constitution of
the soldier is not affected in any material degree by the extreme severity
of the North American winter; on the contrary, the degree of health there
enjoyed is not exceeded in any quarter of the globe."
"The summer heat," observes the backwoodsman, "of Upper Canada
generally ranges towards 80 degrees, but should the wind blow twenty-
four hours from the north, it will fall to forty degrees. One remarkable
peculiarity in the climate is its dryness—roofs of tinned iron of fifty
years standing are as bright as the day they came out of the shop; you
may have a charge of powder in your guns for a month without its hang-
ing fire; or a razor out and opened all night without a taint of rust.
Pectoral or catarrhal complaints are here hardly known. In the cathe-
dral of Montreal, where 5,000 persons assemble every Sunday, you will
seldom find the service interrupted by a cough, even in the dead of win-
ter and in hard frost; pulmonary consumption is so rare in Upper Canada
that in eight years residence I have not seen as many cases of the disease
as I have seen in a day's visit to a provincial infirmary at home. The
only disease annoying us here, to which we are unaccustomed at home,
is intermittent fever, and that, though abominably annoying, is not by
any means dangerous: indeed, one of the most annoying circumstances
connected with it is that instead of being sympathised with, you are
laughed at. Otherwise the climate is infinitely more healthy than that of
England.
"Though the cold of a Canadian winter is great, it is neither distress-
ing nor disagreeable. There is no day during winter, except a rainy one,
in which a man need be kept from work. The thermometer is no judge
of temperature. Thus, with us in Canada when it is low, say zero, there
is not a breath of air, and you can judge of the cold of the morning, by
the smoke rising from the chimney of a cottage straight up, like the
steeple of a church, then gradually melting away into the beautiful clear
blue of the morning sky; yet it is impossible to go through a day's march
in your great coat, whereas at home when the wind blows from the north
east, though the thermometer stands at from 50 degrees to 60 degrees,
yon find a fire far from oppressive. During the Indian summer (three
weeks of November), the days are pleasant, with abundance of sunshine,
and the nights present a cold clear black frost; then the rains commence
—then tho regular winter, which if rains and thaws do not intervene is
f3


54 CANADA.
very pleasant—then rains and thaws again until the strong sun of mid-
dle May renders everything dry and green."
The author of Hochelaga (Mr. Warburton) corroborates these obser-
vations, and Mrs. Jameson, although in the outset of her work she gives
the gloomiest picture of a Canadian year, winds up, after three years ex-
perience, in high spirits, the best health, and with the most favourable
opinion of Canada "and all which it inherits." Indeed, although com-
plaining, on her arrival, of very delicate health, she undertook long ex-
cursions down the lakes and rivers in open canoes, resting in rude tents
during the night, and suffered neither from fatigue, nor an exposure,
which most English ladies would regard as suicidal, and which undertaken
in England would be decidedly hazardous.
It is not the rigour of the winter which is so formidable in Canada,
but rather the summer heats and the sudden changes of temperature.
An Aberdeenshire gardener, settled at Montreal, observes, "the garden is
surrounded by high brick walls, covered with peach and nectarine trees;
the peaches grow to a great size, and ripen excellently in the open
air; the grapes bear well on the trelisses in the garden; I had a fine crop
of them, superior to any I saw in the houses at home; and the melons
are also surprisingly fine; I cut 300 melons from ground not twenty feet
by twelve, some weighing fifteen pounds; they require no attention;
just sow the seed and this is all you have to do. We sow cucumbers
about the ditches, and they produce abundantly. Gourds here weigh
fifty pounds. The thermometer s'ood for three months at 99 degrees all
day in the shade, and 86 all night. I thought I should be roasted alive,
being obliged to take my bed out of the house and lie in an open shed,
with nothing on but a single sheet, and after all I perspire very freely."
In winter observes Mr. Montgomery Martin and Mr. Evans (on Cana-
dian agriculture), "all the feathered tribe take the alarm, even the hardy
crow retreats; few quadrupeds are to be seen, some, like the bear, re-
maining in a torpid state, and others, like the hare, turning to a pure
white." "The country is covered with snow; within doors the Cana-
dians are well secured from the cold—the apartments being heated with
stoves, and kept at a high equable temperature. Winter is a season of
joy and pleasure, sledges, curricles fixed on skates, convey over the rivers,
lakes, and roads, visiting and pleasure parties, and dining, supping, and
balls fill up the evenings. Even the St. Lawrence is frozen over from
Quebec to Montreal."
The authoress of the "Backwoods of Canada," after giving a glowing
account of the aspect of the country around Quebec, observes, under date
17th of August, "the weather moderately warm (this on board ship op-
posite Montreal), and the air quite clear; we have emerged from a damp
atmosphere to a delightful summer. The further we advance the more
fertile the country appears; the harvest is ripening under a more genial
climate than that below Quebec. We see fields of Indian corn in full
flower—the farms and farm houses are really handsome places with
clumps of trees to break the monotony of the clearing. The land is
nearly an unbroken level plain, fertile and well farmed. The country
between Quebec and Montreal has all the appearance of having been long
settloJ -~J«r cultivation, but there is a great portion of forest still stand-


Ing; many herds of cattie were feeding on little grassy islands. Some
miles below Montreal the appearance of the country became richer, mor«
civilized, more populous; in the lower division of the province you feel
that the industry of the inhabitants is forcing a churlish soil for bread—
in the upper, the land seems willing to yield her increase to moderate ex-
ertion. August 21.—The weather is sultry hot, accompanied by fre
quent thunder showers; I experience a degree of langour and oppression
that is very distressing."
Mr. Patrick Shirreff, an East Lothian farmer, who visited Canada in
1834, expresses an indifferent opinion of the country in every respect,
and a great preference for Illinois. But on comparing his narrative with
that of a very great many reliable and eminent authorities, and with
facts stated by himself, and looking to the spirit in which he views every
thing, we are not inclined to place implicit reliance on his estimate. Na-
turally of a morose temper, and tainted in his view of external appear-
ances by mere political impressions, we are more inclined to judge from
his facts than his mere dicta.
"Around Cornwall" he admits, "and more particularly from Coteau
de Lae to the Cascades, much excellent wheat was growing on clay soil,
formed into very narrow ridges. Other crops indifferent, and choked up
with perennial thistles."
"I experienced much pleasure at finding my friends and former neigh-
bours possessing so many more old country comforts than the backwood
settlers in Upper Canada, and all enjoying good health and spirits. This
is quite an East Lothian colony; four farmers who have settled here dined
with us, and there are blacksmiths, sailors, &c., without number in the
village. The township of Hinchinbroke is a thriving settlement, and in
point of climate perhaps the best in Lower Canada. The banks of the
river are free from wood—good farms are seen." "The Chateauguay is
here joined by the Hinchinbroke, Trout River, and Oak Creek, the banks
of all of which are settled and abound in good situations." Grass was in
many situations excellent, red and white clover abounding without being
sown." "The houses consist of wood; a log house consists of rough
logs piled above each other; dove-tailed at the corners, and the intervals
filled up with clay or other material. A block house is square logs classed.
A frame house is sawn boards nailed on a frame, lathed and plastered in-
side with pitched roofs, slated with shingles."
"Land in Hinchinbroke district sells moderately; a friend bought two
hundred acres, with a frame and log house for £270 currency; another,
three hundred acres with ninety cleared, for £237." "The general as-
pect of the country from St. Therese to Montreal, a distance of forty
miles, closely resembles the finest parts of England. I do not recollect
of having travelled over the like extent of continuous good wheat soil in
any part of the world." "Clover seeds are never sown, yet cowgrassand
white clover every where abound, and often attain the utmost luxuriance.
Heaps of manure were seen dissolving to earth on the way sides." Mr.
Shirreff states that the farming is of the most wretched description, and
the sheep, cattle, and horses very inferior. The Canadians live in large
block houses, clean and neat, but deficient in orchards and the ornament
of trees. They are extremely respectful and civil. Another East Lothian


farmer, who had recently settled, told him his purchase was very cheap,
and be was in high hopes and spirits. He gives a most favourable ac-
count of the Montreal district, and recommends market gardening there
as highly lucrative. A milch cow can be grazed for the season for 4s. 3d.
The price of land on the island of Montreal varied from £10 to £20 per
acre, according to quality, situation, and buildings. Labour is cheap—
crops are reaped at 7s. 6d. per acre. An East Lothian ploughman got £12
a year, house, garden, firewood, cow's keep, oatmeal, potatoes, and peas.
Mr. Joseph Pickering, in his "Inquiries of an Emigrant," more than
corroborates this favorable account. He speaks of the great number of
houses and farms on the banks of the Lower Canada rivers, the neatness,
cleanliness and orderliness of the appearance of the French population,
and of the great excellence of the Canadian horses. "If not for the
extremes of climate, this might be considered almost a paradise." "At-
tended a cattle show, a few good Leicestershire sheep, good bulls, cows
indifferent, very useful English and Canadian brood mares." "Manure
produced splendid grass, but so disregarded that men were hired to cart
it to the river." "The goodness and cheapness of the old cleared land,
(£5 to £6 only the acre,) low price of labour, (30s. to 35s. per month,)
point this place out as eligible for farmers with capital, as there are no
taxes." Hemp grows very luxuriantly." "Winter wheat is little sown;
but a Canadian informs me that he knew a small piece this season that
answered extremely well, much better than spring wheat. The snow
would preserve it." At Quebec district, land is good, grass fields luxu-
riant. Pasture had a fresher appearance the lower I came down the pro-
vince, attributable to the dampness of the climate, for there have been
more misty foggy days since I have been in Quebec, than I saw all the
time I was in the Upper Province." "Attended two agricultural meet-
ings. Very fine vegetables exhibited, and also fruit; excellent plough-
ing by settlers, (Irish and Scotch,) and very good cattle.
The Aberdeenshire gardener states, that in Montreal bread is cheap,
6 lbs. for 8d.; beef 4d., pork 6d., mutton 3^d. per lb.; eggs 5d. per
doz. Labourer's wages, 2s. 6d., currency; joiners 5s., masons the same j
tailors 7s. 6d.; blacksmiths 4s. 6d. Clothes dear, 30s. for making a dress
coat; 6s. for trousers; shoes the same price as in Scotland, but not so
good.
Such is an eliptical account of the various more important particulars
relative to the lower province, which it is important for emigrants to
know. The character and topography of the various sub-districts, it is
not necessary they should learn until, being on the spot, they can inform
themselves of the minutest particulars. Here it is our object only to
supply such information as may enable them to form a general idea of
the suitableness of the province for their taste and circumstances. Our own conclusion from the facts is, that for handicraftsmen, and persons
not proposing to follow agriculture, the chief towns of Lower Canada
form the preferable location; and that for agriculturists the Upper Pro-
vince is very much better adapted.


UPfEK CANADA. W
UPPER CANADA.
The area of the Western Province is 64,000,000 of acres, and the white
population is principally British, amounting to upwards of500,000 souls.*
It contains thirteen districts, twenty-six counties, six ridings, and 273
townships.
The climate of Canada becomes milder, and the winter shorter, the
further west the emigrant goes; "So much so," observes the report of the
government agent, "that although the frost generally commences in No-
vember at its eastern extremity, and continues in that neighbourhood till
the middle of April, it rarely commences on the shores of Lake Erie
before Christmas, and usually disappears between the 25th March and
the 1st of April. On a comparison with the climate of Great Britain,
the summer heat is somewhat greater, but never oppressive, as it is
always accompanied with light breezes. There is less rain than in Eng-
land, but it falls at more regular intervals, generally in spring and
autumn. The winter's cold, though it exceeds that of the British Isles,
is the less sensibly felt on account of its dryness, and seldom continues
intense for more than three days together." A writer in the colonial
magazine observes that "the climate is brighter, clearer, drier than
Great Britain, but neither so much warmer in summer, nor so much
colder in winter, as to prove disagreeable: it is neither scorched by the
sultry summers of the south, nor blasted by the biting winters of the
north." There is, at least, the difference of a month or six week's dura-
tion of winter between Quebec and Lake Ontario.
Mr. Pickering's diary gives an exact account of the climate for each
day of three years. A few extracts will convey a more precise idea than
any general description. "August 16, (1825.) Harvest finished,—ram
all day. Sowed wheat from beginning of September to 5th October.
Cut Indian corn 20th September. December 10. Summer and fall
remarkably dry, and still continues. November was mild and pleasant, at
times too warm. 21. Snow not half an inch deep, but sharpish frost.
January Ist, (1826.) A few very sharp, frosty days, with a little snow.
February 12. Steady frost three or four weeks. Last winter hardly any
frost in Western Province. 26. Quite moderate of late; quite mild and
thawing. March 12. Frost out of ground, ice off lake; rain; foggy.
19. Three severe cold days, and snow storms, gone again with thunder;
26. Frosty, cold, wet, mild; thermometer up to temperate, and below
•The total population of British America,appears to be 1,639,715, including New
Foundland and Honduras. The latest account assigns 623,649 to Lower Canada,
and 506,855 to Upper Canada. We are therefore not a little perplexed to find it
stated by the Honorable J. H.Boulton of Toronto, M. P. for the county of Norfolk
in Canada, that Canada alone contains a population fast approaching to 2,000,000.
It is still more inexplicable to reflect that if the return be correct which gives only
1,199,704, to the two provinces, that of that amount no less than 767,373 are made
up of emigrants direct from the mother country; a number greater than the whole
existing British population of the provinces, if it be true as stated in the last ac-
counts, that the native Canadian habitans muster upwards of 500,000, souls. This
fact would certainly give countenance to the received impression that upwards of
60 per cent. of all emigrants to British America, find their way, ultimately, to the
United States.


08 UPPER CANADA.
freezing point. April 2. Fine pleasant days, some frosty nights. 8. Partly
wet and cold, partly fine and pleasant. Sowing spring wheat and clover;
sheep lambing; calves and cows turned out to grass. 15. Three rather
severe frosty days; 17, 13 then 53 degrees above Zero. Sowing peas,
kidney beans, garden turnips. 22. Cold. Spring later than usual;
spring wheat coming up. 29. Heavy rain; fruit, wheat, grass begin to
bud. May 6. Stormy and cold; one very warm day; 71 deg. at noon,
generally 48 deg. to 62 deg.; peas up. 13. Warm growing week, 65 deg.
morning, 81 deg. noon. 20. Dry, warm, 60 deg. to 65 deg. Planted
Indian corn. June 4. Foggy; Indian corn and oats up; potatoes planted.
6. 81 deg., 88 deg. at Montreal. 10. Very hot week; cutting clover;
wildgrapesin blossom. 18. Rain and cool, 55deg.to 67 deg. 24. Rainy.
July 1. Fine and temperate. 22. Harvest general. 29. A cool week,
70 deg.; mornings rather cold. Aug. 5. Another mild week. 12. Very
hot; no wind; 83 deg. 19. Hot week; 75 deg. to 85 deg. 26. From
this date to 14th September, very fine weather, 58 deg. to 76 deg.
16. Warm; nights cold; 53 deg. morning, 71 deg. noon. 23. Some
thunder and rain; all fruits ripe, and potatoes plentiful and ripe. Oct.
1. A beautiful day, serene sky; still air; covered with flowers. 8. Very
fine week, 45 deg. morning, 60 deg. noon. Potatoes all up. 14. Some
rain, but fine and pleasant week. 55 deg. to 63 deg. 21. Frosty morn-
ings, days warm. Nov. 1. Mild and pleasant; a little rain; 50 deg. and
60 deg. 4. Snows and sleets all day. 5. Thaw to day. 8. Heavy rain;
snow washed away. Dec. 5. Fine pleasant day. 25. Frost has set in
sharp; plenty of snow, six or eight inches. Feb. 23, (1827.) A beautiful
clear day; snow wasting. March 25. Open weather; some days mild
and pleasant; ice off the lake, frost off the ground, snow all gone.
April 1. mild air, cloudless sky. 2. Beautiful and warm. 5. Wheat
grows and looks well. 9. Spring in all its beauty. June 1. Frosty
nights, warm days. 10. dry and warm ; wheat in ear. July 2. Pleasant;
sultry. 23. Harvest general. August 1. Mild, moderate, some rain.
Sept. 10. Weather of late fine and pleasant. Few very hot days. Oct. 1.
For a fortnight cloudy and coldish. Winter 1827-8, open and dry. Wet,
cold spring, but without snow of any consequence. Summer 1828.
Various; some very hot days, but generally pleasant, with showers.
Indian corn excellent. Fall of 1828. Sickly. May 1, 1829. Winter
mild, open, till 11th February, when a little snow, sharp frost, no rain,
snow off in the end of March; showers to Ist of April. May rather hot,
86 deg. at times. June and up to July, cool and pleasant, 76 deg.
The lady who writes letters from the backwoods observes, under date,
November 20.—" My experience of the climate hitherto is favourable.
Autumn very fine, slight frosts on September mornings; more severely
n October, but during the day warm and cheerful. November in the
beginning soft and warm; latterly, keen frosts and snowfalls, but bright
and dry. May 9, 1833, snows of December continually thawing; not a
flake on Ist of January; couldn't bear a fire; weather open till 29th of
January, then cold set in severely. 1st of March, coldest day and night
I ever felt, even painful; 25 degrees below Zero in the house; breath
congealed on the blankets, and metal froze to our fingers; lasted only
three days, and then grew warmer. 19th of March, snow lay deep till a


UPPER CANADA. 59
fortnight ago, when a rapid thaw has brought a warm and balmy spring.
Though the Canadian winter has its disadvantages, it has also its charms;
the sky brightens; air exquisitely clear and dry; I enjoy a walk in the
woods of a bright winter day, when not a cloud, or the faint shadow of a
cloud, obscures the soft azure of the heavens above; and but for the
silver covering of the earth, I might say, 'It is June, sweet June.' May
10th, the weather oppressively warm; I am glad to sit at the door and
enjoy the lake breeze; black flies and mosquitoes annoying; forest trees
all in leaf; verdure most vivid. November 2, 1833, changeable seasons;
spring warm and pleasant; from May to middle of harvest, heavy rains,
cloudy skies, moist hot days; autumn wet and cold; I must say at pre-
sent I do not think very favourably of the climate. March 14, 1834,
you say the rigours of a Canadian winter will kill me; I never enjoyed
better health, nor so good as since it commenced; there is a degree of
spirit and vigour infused into one's blood by the purity of the air that is
quite exhilarating; I have often felt the cold on a windy day in Britain
more severe than in Canada. There are certainly some days of intense
cold, but it seldom endures more than three days together; and blazing
log fires warm the house, and when out of doors you suffer less in-
convenience than you would imagine while you keep in motion. July
13th, winter broke up early, by end of February snow disappeared;
March mild and pleasant; last week of April trees all in leaf. 16th of
May, cold sharp winds; heavy storms of snow nipped the young buds
and early seeds. November 28th, winter fairly setting in; I do like the
Canadian winter."
"You ask me if I like the climate of Upper Canada; I do not think it
deserves all travellers have said about it; last summer very oppressive;
drought extreme; frosts set in early; very variable; no two seasons alike
owing to clearing of the forest; near the rivers and lakes the climate is
much milder and more equable."
Mr. Shirreff estimates the duration of winter in Upper Canada at four
months, and observes: "Upper Canada differs from the lower province in
climate by having a longer summer and a shorter winter; while the ex-
tremes of heat and cold, as indicated by the thermometer, are nearly the
same in both provinces. The waters of the St. Lawrence and lakes, in-
clining to the north-east, the climate improves in ascending the waters
till reaching Amhersthurgh in about 42 degrees of latitude. The pro-
vince, as far as it is accurately known, has not an eminence of sufficient
height to affect temperature, and the climate of different situations may
be estimated according to their latitudes. In the most southerly parts,
near the head of Lake Erie, the length of the winter varies from two to
three months; ploughing commences about the 1st of April, and cattle
and horses are allowed to roam in the woods during winter, a practice
which marks the mildness of the climate, and also perhaps the laziness of
the inhabitants. The climate of Upper Canada is as healthy as the lower
province, although the inhabitants are more liable to sickness from the
surface not being so well cleared of forest."
We have here given in detail a complete narrative of the incidents of
the climate of Canada with perhaps some prolixity, and exhibited it as it
affects a practical farmer of the country, an occasional visitor, and a lady


Of) tJPPER CANADA.
settler. To us it appears the most important inquiry connected with
these settlements, because, except on the score of climate, they present
far greater advantages of soil, productions, communication, supply of
labour, and proximity to markets, than any other.
It is obvious that Upper Canada is by no means so agreeable a climate
as those which we shall have afterwards occasion to notice; nor perhaps
is it, on the whole, so free from causes of disease. Regions which can
produce two crops in the year, which can receive all seeds without risk
of destruction by frost, and can raise fruits and other vegetables of almost
a tropical character, cannot fail also to offer great facilities to the agri-
culturist, store farmer, and wool grower. They are also much less liable
to the fever and ague which produce such annoyance in countries liable
to extremes, and to great deposits of vegetable alluvion on the shores of
lakes and rivers.
But while these differences ought to be duly appreciated, it appears to
us from the foregoing vidimus of the Canadian weather, that the climate
of Upper Canada, especially towards the north and west, is by no means
so objectionable as has been represented; that its rigours are not so for-
midable, and that every day the progress of settlement is diminishing
their severity. A certain degree of rigour is protective of health; it
effectually kills corruption, pulverizes the soil, and braces the system;
the complaints of sickness are not so great anywhere in Canada as in the
United States. The aspect of the people is less sodden and parched; the
flesh is more rounded, and consumption is not so common as in the
eastern states, or fever so frequent as in the western.
We ought however to state our impression, that both here and in
the Western States, much is attributed to the climate with which it has
nothing to do. The depression which attacks new settlers at the thought
of having parted with their native home, renders them liable to attacks
which would otherwise not affect them; the despondency which weighs
upon them as their first difficulties arise, assists other febrile causes; the
fatigue and exposure they encounter; the want of that care to provide
against the physical consequences of contact with the elements, and of
the temporary deprivation of those means of comfort which they before
enjoyed, have all to be taken into account. Delicate females, gentlemen
who never before handled an axe, cannot all at once entirely change
comfort for privation or toil, without being affected by the transition;
but we believe the greatest mortality to arise from the sudden and com-
plete change experienced by starving peasants, from famine in Ireland
or want in England, to a country where whisky is to be had for 3d. per
bottle; where butcher's meat is served to the labourer three times every
day; and where there are pickles and sauces, and preserves, and pies,
and fruits, and kinds of bread and vegetables innumerable, at their com-
mand, to any extent to which their consuming power may reach.
It is our decided opinion that, if all classes would be as careful of avoid-
ing unnecessary exposure in Canada as the same persons were in England,
and if they would be as moderate in their eating and drinking, both as
to quantity and (especially) quality, they would enjoy better health in the
dry atmosphere of Upper Canada than in the humid climate of England.
But daily whisky, hourly tobacco, in smoke, or juice, long sauce, short


UPPKH CANADA. 61
sauce, sour pickles, pork, pumpkin pie, Johnny cake, com bread, and
bread in every indigestible shape in which it can be devised, acid fruits
in high summer, every variety of vegetable in every form of cookery,
medicine and advice miles distant, changes of clothing after exertion, or
the broiling of a hot sun not very accessible; these ate incidents which
would make a "stomach doctor's" hair stand on end, and would in this
country kill offa greater number than in Canada. Even in England typhus
and other intermittent carry off an enormous mass of our population,
while consumption, a disease little known in Upper, and not very much
in Lower Canada, is our perpetual scourge. Cholera, influenza, are
more fatal here than in the colonies, and the observations made by oui
military physicians with regard to the health of our troops at our dif-
ferent stations, where all other circumstances are precisely the same, lead to the conclusion that they enjoy as good health in Canada as in any
other colony.
A great contrast exists betwixt the condition of the Canadian popula-
tion, and that of the inhabitants of the United States. The conter-
minous republicans are greatly more industrious, active enterprising,
and prosperous, than the colonists—indeed, so much more so, that while
tho emigrants from the United Kingdom to all parts for the twenty-four
years ending 1848, numbered 1,985,686, the proportion which went
direct to the United States, was 1,040,797, and in 1848 alone, 188,233,
while those to our colonies, in that year, only numbered 59,856, and
of those who yearly land in Canada great numbers (sixty per cent.),
percolate to the neighbouring 'republic. From New Brunswick alone we
are informed that 20,000 souls removed to the States last year, and from
Bremen the migration thither is 60,000 souls yearly. Our French ha-
bitans, a simple but unenergetic race, are ill adapted to make a stirring
colony. The enormous tracts of land granted to absentees and reserved
U' the clergy, intervene betwixt the "clearings" of the settlers, and ob-
struct that concentration of population which is necessary to effective co-
operation. The absence of entire self-government in the colonies has the
necessary effect of rendering publie spirit apathetic, nor can it be stimu-
lated, by that sense of nationality which energizes an independent po-
pulation. Above all, the mutual co-operation of eighteen millions of
people, spread over a surface raising every variety of produce, and
commanding every variation of climate, must necessarily be much mora
effective than that of a million and a half of a mixed race inhabiting u
region where there is no diversity, either of production, climate, or
circumstances. Undoubtedly also, for the mere production of wealth,
tie southern and the most western states, with a very short winter,
vast prairies, large tracts of alluvial valley, and seasons, which in many
districts bring tropical productions, and in all Indian corn, to perfection,
are better adapted than our colonies. In proportion, however, nearly to
their productiveness, is their unhealthiness. The valley of the Mississippi,
along a great part of its course, is a mere grave, and as a general rule it
would appear to hold true that the milder the climate, the more prevalent
is fever and ague. It is also worthy of notice that not only are the prices
realised for produce in Canada better than they are in the Western States,
in comparison to the cost of transit, but that the greater proximity of
G 


62 WHO SHOULD EMIGRATE.
Canada to Europe than the Western and Southern States, and the easier
internal traffic to the ports of shipment are countervailing items. Labour
is also cheaper in Canada, and the more ample supply of hands coupled
with the superior state of society in Canada are considerations which,
to a British capitalist, or emigrant of the middle classes ought not to
be overlooked. Taxation is lighter in Canada than in any country in
the world, amounting to little more thah 2d. per acre.
WHO SHOULD EMIGRATE?
*'' A child of seven years," observes the Backwoodsman, " is, in Upper
Canada, considered worth his maintenance, and a boy of twelve, worth
three dollars and a half per month, with his board and washing. 'A
poor man with a large family' is, in Canada, a contradiction in terms— for with a large family he ceases to be poor.—"All mechanics and arti-
zans will do well in Canada. Even weavers make good farmers, and in
the Bathurst district are very prosperous. A sober blacksmith might
make a fortune!"—A farmer who commences with, say £250, ought in
six years to have a good, well cleared, well stocked farm, with house and
outbuildings complete, and the whole of his capital in hand besides.—
where a man has a large family of sons, a large capital will yield an ex-
cellent and certain return."
Howison, Ferguson, and indeed, all the writers on the subject, concur
in the assurance that " either the moderate capitalist, or the industrious
labourer or artizan, cannot fail of success. Fortunes will not be made,
but it will be the settler's own fault if he does not enjoy in large abund-
ance every solid comfort of life."
The lady emigrant recommends artizans to keep to the village, towns,
and long cleared districts—and observes, that men of moderate income
or good capital, may easily double or treble it by judicious purchases of
land to resell. To lend money on mortgage is very gainful from the high
rate of interest procurable—"Those who have money at command can
do almost anything they please."—The poor gentleman of delicate and
refined habits, unwilling, or unable to work with his own hands, and
without capital to command plenty of assistants, ought to stay at home.
Indeed it is not advisable for even a person of moderate capital to become
a farmer unless he can "put to his hand" as an example to his labourers.
A settler's wife should be active, putting her hand to every household work
—" she must become skilled in sugar-boiling, candle and soap making,
and the baking of bread, the manufacture of leaven, salting, and curing
of meat, and fish, knitting of all kinds, spinning, dyeing, and making
into cloth and clothes her wool and flax, for there are no tailors or mantua
makers in the bush—she must also manage poultry, butter, and cheese.
I have seen the accomplished daughters of officers of rank, milking their
cows, and churning their butter. I am sorry to observe women come hither who give way to regrets which destroy the harmony of the fire
side, and deaden the energies of husbands and brothers by constant re-
pining. Having made up their minds to follow their husbands or friend?
to this country, it would be wiser to conform with cheerfulness to the]'


LOCATIONS. 63
lot, and bear with sprightliness that burden which becomes light when it
is well borne."
LOCATIONS.
Mr. Ferguson recommends Toronto as the head quarters of those who
intend making a purchase of land. There he is sure to meet with nu-
merous offers of farms, and, in inspecting the plans of the public land,
he will be enabled to avail himself of the valuable advice and assist-
ance of the superintendent. The rich and heavy land of Upper Canada
is not to be found in general on the immediate banks of lakes or rivers.
The Gore, Niagara, London and Western districts of the Western sec-
tion of the province, Mr. Bouchette regards as the most eligible for
settlement, having a pleasant climate, excellent land, and numerous
useful rivers. The Simcoe district is equally recommended, and re-
garded as more free from ague. Mr. M'Grath speaks highly of
the township of Adelaide in the London district, where he preferred
the "bush" to cleared land. Mr. Sommerville, of Mayfield, town-
ship, of Whitby, near Windsor Bay, gave £260 for one hundred acres
in that district (fifty-nine cleared), and from his account it would
appear that it is most desirable to purchase land partly cleared, as a
mere question of profit and loss, to say nothing of the comfort.
His neighbour, an emigrant from Scotland purchased two hundred
acres, and although he commenced without capital, and also once lost all
his property by fire, he had at the end of twelve years three hundred
acres cleared, and was worth £3,000—while another of three years
standing had increased £500 to £1,200 The backwoodsman regards the
London and Western districts as the garden of Canada, and concurs with
several authorities in thinking the Huron Tract as the most eligible, of
the best quality of soil, of large extent, (thus affording choice of selec-
tion), superior water privileges, and water conveyance to carry away the
produce. It is also very healthy, and the prevailing westerly winds,
blowing over the lake, which never freezes, temper the rigour of the
frosts and summer heat. It has also good roads, and is becoming rapidly
settled. Mr. Evans says the whole tract is alluvial in formation, of a
rich deep vegetable mould intermixed with sandy loam.
To intending settlers this general description of the districts is better
than minute details which can be more precisely ascertained at Toronto
or other head quarters, brought up to the most recent date, in a country
where changes from wilderness to population are very rapid and
capricious.
• "Lower Canada was left out of the comparison (between Canada and th
States), on account of its long and severe winter. There was a general agreement
that the triangular territory of which two sides are formed by Lakes Ontario, Erie,
and Huron, is as fertile as any tract of the same extent in the States."
*' It is probable that the, as yet, very thinly populated, but fertile district on the
lakes, may take great strides in advance of the rest of Canada; and a well informed
farmer, who is settled twenty miles back from Toronto, told me, thata British far-
mer, possessing from £200 to £500, accustomed to work and plain living, could not
fail to do well. I asked how a man with a £1,000 could do. He could do anyg2


64 CHOICE AND COSI Ofr LAND.
CHOICE AND COST OF LAND,
The government price of land in Upper Canada is 6s. 7d. per acre,
and not less than one hundred acres can be sold to each individual. Clergy
reserves 9s. 6d.; the Canada Company charge from 7s. 4d. to 35s. per
acre for wild land according to situation. The expense of clearing land
ranges from £3 10s. to £4 10s. per acre. Mr. Butler gives an estimate
of the expense of clearing twenty acres, and the concurrent profit for the
first three years cropping, from which it would appear, that by the pro-
cess of chopping, the mere clearing would be £80, seed, labour, &c., &c.,
£37 10s., and the profit £165, leaving a balance of £47 10s. By "slash-
ing" the cost would be £133 14s., and the gross profit £201.
A farm of good land can be purchased, says Mr. Pickering, about
Talbot district, or almost anywhere in the Western part of the province,
at from lis. 3d. to 22s. 6d. per acre. A farm of two hundred acres,
seventy cleared, with a good log or small frame house, a barn, and a
young orchard, &c., &c., say at 18s, per acre, or £180; (£22 10s. down,
and so forth yearly), may settle very comfortably a farmer with £200,
and cover all necessary outgoings. Stocking the farm, furnishing the
house, and paying the first deposit, would cost £148 10s. A year's ex-
penses would be £126 13s. 6d., and gross profits £260 5s. "With the
beef and vegetables allowed in the calculation, 282 dollars will
keep a family of four or five persons well during the year,
leaving a clear profit of 200 dollars, or €45, besides the improve-
ment of the farm; and if hemp and tobacco were made part of the
productions, the profits probably would be larger." Mr. M'Grath cal-
culated the cost of purchasing and clearing an acre of land at st 6 6s., and
the proceeds at £8 15s., leaving a first year's profit of £2 8s. 3d. Mr.
Ferguson, in his practical notes, calculates that a farmer, with a capital of
£500 in the township of Nichol, would clear £200 the first year, £380
the second, £420 the third, and £600 the fourth, besides a cleared farm,
fenced, and with the n icessary stock and buildings, being equivalent in all
to £1,200 in four years. This calculation is indeed severely criticised by
Mr. Shirreff, who considers that at the end of the fourth year the settler
is only worth £427 8s. 2d. after paying all expenses. But we think this
writer is not borne out by other authorities upon the subject.
Mr. M'Grath gives the preference to the plan of buying uncleared land
to that of buying a cleared farm. It is secured against having been run
out, and the title is unquestionable. No doubt it would be a useful
precaution in taking a cleared farm, to have it for a year on trial, so
that the purchaser may satisfy himself of the good heart of the soil—
but with that precaution and with proper care, in seeing to the title, there
can be no doubt of the superior advantage of taking cleared land by in-
experienced persons accustomed to a European life.
thing! he said, He could be either a farmer or a dealer. Bless you, sir, £1,000 of
your money makes a considerably snu■; man, either in Canada or the States. Alto-
gether (at Toronto), there was as much outward appearance of ;ul\ aucemunt, a* in
the towns on the Stales side."—Puentice


LIFE IN CANADA. 65
The rent of a cleared farm in fine situations is from 10s. to 20s. per
acre, and in less populous places from 5s. to 10s. The most common
method is farming on shares, the proprietor receiving one half or one
third of the produce. The erection of a good log house costs from
£35 to £60; a frame house about £90; barn and stables from j£30 to
£40. The Emigration Commissioners calculate the profits on farming
at thirty per cent. on the capital.
IIFE IN CANADA.
A Scotch settler emigrating to Lower Canada with £300, purchased
300 acres (50 cleared,) with a log-hut and a good framed barn, price
£300 by annual instalments of £100 the first year, and £50 each of the
others, with interest at 16 per cent. A yoke of oxen cost £15, three
cows £15, ten sheep £5, a horse £'/. agricultural implements, furniture,
kitchen utensils, pigs, poultry, &c. The first year he put in a small crop,
raised fences, cleared 3J acres of woodland, which he sowed with wheat
in September, and occupied the autumn with his late oats, potatoes, and
Indian corn; he hired another man to cut the trees into lengths to burn,
and by the 10th of April he had completed the clearing of 30 acres, be-
sides splitting rails and making firewood. In spring he had only £50
left, and £200 yet to pay; his 30 acres of crop looked indifferent; there
were great falls of rain, his horse died, his sheep were devoured by
wolves, and an old sow gobbled up all his goslings. But it soon cleared
up, his felled timber became very dry and easily burned; he planted
20 acres of Indian corn between the stumps, and 10 acres of oats and
wheat. The rest of his money was spent on clearing 5 acres of wheat,
and in turning his oxen into good pasture for Montreal market in winter;
his crops were good, his potash from his burnt timber sold well; he pur-
chased another yoke of oxen, and got in his fire-wood before winter. The
result was that, in a few years, his property was worth not less than
£3000; he received letters from his brothers located in Illinois, which
gave a deplorable account of their health and condition.
Another emigrant, from Beith, Ayrshire, travelled through the Western
States, and gave a most favourable account of Illinois, but a very in-
different report of the climate as indicated by the appearance of the
people. But we are inclined to suspect that both statements in this
respect are prejudiced or interested by the fact of these persons being
Canadian settlers; and it ought not to be forgotten that, in all countries, England as well as others, epidemics seize whole counties. It was but
the year before last that influenza was so universal that the death column
of the Times was five times its usual length, and that institutions and
schools were entirely closed from the universal prevalence of disease.
The last emigrant, above mentioned, purchased a good farm in Upper Ca-
nada, and reports favourably of his own prospects and those of his
neighbours. He also says that farms to let, yield to the proprietor a return
of upwards of 10 per cent.
A Scotch settler speaks highly of Sandwich in the Western District, as
possessing a very fine soil and excellent markets, particularly at Det'*Tit j


68 LIFE IN CANADA.
"but what chiefly fixed his determination was the salubrity of the cli-
mate, which is immeasurably superior to most other places." Another
in Zorra cautions emigrants against States' notes, and observes that,
although his health had been very bad in Aberdeenshire, in Canada he
had not had an hour's sickness in ten months of hard work, and a very
rough life of it, and that it is a very fine country. A settler at St. Clair
recommends New York as the best port of debarkation; he speaks most
favourably as to health, calls the climate moderate, not having been pre-
vented for a single day from outdoor work, and never housing cattle in
winter; he dissuades all from going to Lower Canada, Halifax, or
St. John's, on account of the severity of the winter. And although he
landed without a shilling, his prospects soon rose to such a point that he
became proprietor of 200 acres of land, and £22 in money. A clergy-
man at Perth U. C. says: "As to farming, with a family able and willing
to work, your friend may live very comfortably. Few people accustomed
to home comforts like this place at first, but most settlers become fond of
it after a short residence."
The lady emigrant describes the district of Peterborough as eligible,
and the society, composed to a great extent of British officers, as excellent.
They keep stores, cultivate farms, and they and their families cheerfully
put their hands to any kind of work. She likes the manners, and parti-
cularly the tendencies of the United States' settlers, which, though,
extremely cold and simple, are really polite and kind.* She gives a less
favourable account of those of British settlers of the lower classes, parti-
cularly Irish and Scotch, who are too apt to mistake rudeness and even
insolence for independence. Settlement in the bush is earnestly de-
precated from the many hardships it at first entails; supplies run short;
there are no, or very bad, roads; cattle are lost, cows die of a hard winter,
pigs trespass everywhere, and you have to put up with a shanty for
a year or two. After making their purchase of a "lake lot," the
lady and her husband, "through bush and through briar," reach it with
difficulty, and are welcomed by, and become the temporary guests of, the
kindest neighbours. A "bee" is called to build the house, which con-
sists of friendly meetings of neighbours who assemble at your summons
to raise the walls of your buildings. You provide abundance of food and
plenty of whisky, and everybody considers himself bound to turn out to
help the stranger. It was the end of October; sixteen good Samaritans
assembled; the work went merrily on, with the help of plenty of whisky.
Huge joints of salt pork, a peck of potatoes, a rice pudding, and a loaf
big as Cheshire cheeses, formed the feast. In spite of the differences of
rank, the greatest harmony prevailed, and by night the outer walls were
raised." "A nice small sitting-room with a store-closet, a kitchen
• "The look and demeanour of the men in the United States is rather staid and
aristocratic than otherwise; self-iritroductionB are made respectfully but with-
out grimace, or the affeeted gesture of an overstrained courtesy.
"1 could not help marking the quiet and gentlemanly demeanour of the company,
a great portion of whom were tall, fim-grown men, with a very intellectual cast of
countenance. As we did not find two seats together, a gentleman said courteously,
• You are strangers, you would like to sit together; I will find another seat for my-
self.' There was no hurry—the Americans do not seem to be in a hurry—but they
'get on." "—Prrntice.


LIFE IB CANADA. 67
pantry, and bed-chamber, form the ground floor; there is a good upper
floor that will make three sleeping rooms; a verandah to the south with
slopes adorned with beautiful parasitical plants, forms a summer dining-
room; the parlour is warmed by a Franklin stove, and the furniture
simple, useful, and neat, adorns the dwelling with humble comfort. The
Indian summer is succeeded by walks through the snow-clad woods, and
spring brings round the manufacture of sugar from maple sap, "little if
at all inferior to muscovado." Then comes oppressively warm weather,
and with it black flies and mosquitoes, and their consumers the lake
fish, masquinonge, salmon-trout, white fish, black bass, and many
others. Fishing and shooting the myriads of wild fowl which re-appear
at the breaking up of the ice, combine pleasure with profit; then came a
logging bee to burn up the timber felled on the clearings for potash; the
ground fenced and crops of oats, corn, pumpkins, potatoes, and turnips
raised, which however are regarded as less profitable than the rearing of
stock, as a labourer receives ten dollars a month and his board, while
wheat fetches only from 3s. to 4s. per bushel. The return of winter brought scenes of picturesque beauty and exhilirating pedestrian and
sleighing excursions to cordial neighbours and Indian villages, and all
seasons in their turn brought their interest to the ornithologist and
botanist in the profusion of the flowers and the variety of the birds. Then
came in the usual course a farm cleared, a new house built, numerous
new settlers, roads cut, a village, mills, and a steam-boat on the lake.
Fever and ague laid the family prostrate, but only for a short time; and
their crowning luxury was a garden producing every variety of fruit and vegetable in perfection.
A clergyman planted himself in the bush with his family; their fare
was salt pork and potatoes three times a day; often no bread, except
made of crushed corn from a bad hand-mill; their cow died of the hard,
fodderless winter; a shanty imperfectly kept out the cold; next year a
block-house improved their comforts; after a general ague and many
privations, clearings made progress, the tide of settlement set in; a saw
mill was built; then a grist mill, two stores, and at last a village. Land
rose in value; a congregation restored the parson to his proper duties,
and all has gone well with him.
The letters of the Magrath family are well deserving of perusal. "Being
informed," they proceed, "at Toronto, that the emigrant can purchase
wild land at 5s. or 10s. an acre, the writer proceeds to inspect—for
fifteen miles in a public coach; then by a hired wagon, and a guide, and
roosts for the first night in a settler's shanty. Ill refreshed, he starts
next morning, and at length is told by his companion, 'this is the lot.'"
He returns to the shanty where the settler is ready to share his last loaf
with a new neighbour. Engaging accommodation for his family at the
nearest farm, he conveys them by a new purchased wagon and horses,
with provisions for six weeks to his lot. Men, oxen, sleighs are pro-
cured, a brush road made, a wooden camp erected, bedding and provisions
deposited in it, and a frying-pan, dinner of pork and paste cakes con-
sumed. A log-hut is then erected, and the family planted. The expense
of all this, of clearing ten acres, and buying two hundred, is stated a>
£178; fot£29 more he may at once find a lot partially cleared: t«


08 LIFE IK CANADA.
arable acres in good heart, house, and offices ready built, including a
dairy, wash, and fowl-house and garden; "thus enjoying, in his first
year, many necessaries and comforts (and of his own production,) that
could not be grown till the second in the bush, and being enabled t*
purchase others at a moderate rate, in an established settlement, which
in a new one must be procured at an advanced price." Mr. T. W. Ma-
grath purchased 700 acres in the bush eighteen miles from Toronto, for
£325, and with the aid of seventy kind neighbours, they erected a house
of three stories, a verandah, a barn 60 feet by 36 and 18 feet high, an ice
and root house, and dairy, at the cost of good will, 12 dollars, and 2s. lOd.
worth of nails. The family, with the aid of two carpenters, finished the
inside handsomely. Twenty acres were meanwhile cleared with hired
help, planted with wheat between the stumps, and sown down with
timothy, grass, and clover. After wheat, hay is the only crop taken, till
the removal of the stumps, when the plough has room to enter. Of this
two tons are cut per acre with the cradle scythe, which gets through from
two to three acres a day.
The man who has land and seed, leaves the management of them to
the labourer on shares, who takes half the produce, and draws the rest
into the barn of the proprietor. On taking logs to be sawed, one half are
left for payment; and wool is carded, spun, and woven into cloth, on the
same plan of taking part in payment of the rest.
"When we first came here," observes Mr. Magrath, "our hands were
delicate, unused to manual labour, but seeing every one round us, magis-
trates, senators, councillors, and colonels, labouring steadily, we fairly set
to. Charles can make a great gap in a field of corn, and James can cut
two acres of rye before dinner. He makes all the waggons, sleighs,
harrows, &c., and I shoe the horses, make gates, fences, chimney pieces,
and furniture,—an ivory tooth for my girl, and an iron one for my
harrow,—work in the potatoe field in the morning, and figure at the
Toronto ball at night."
Mr. Hadcliffe, his brother and their friends settled in the Huron tract,
in the bush, and gave ten shillings per acre for uncleared land. His
house, 46 feet by 16 feet, and consisting of a parlour, drawing room, hall,
kitchen, five bed rooms, two stacks of chimneys, and Cantalievre roof,
cost £50. His brother's large log house cost £25. Their farms in tho
Adelaide district were beautifully situated and of fine soil, well timbered.
Venison brought to the door at a half-penny per lb., mutton, beef, fowls
and potatoes. Butter 7|d. Cattle do not stand the winter in the woods
well, at least the first year. Clearing by task is done at 28s. per acre;
but care should be taken to have a written agreement at the sight of
arbitrators. "Now my dear A.," he continues, "as to advising you
whether to come out or not, as I promised to do, I can safely say from all
I have seen and heard, that if you can contrive to reach my house with
£500 in your pocket, you may, with your present experience, insure your-
self a certain and gentleman-like independence."
"We are now comfortably settled, and should have little to complain
of if the state of the roads would permit me to haul my luggage up from
the lake; but the mildness of the winter prevents this, as there has not
yet been sufficient frost and snow to admit of sleighing. What renders


LIFE IN I'A.IAUA. 09
this settlement peculiarly agreeable is, its being peopled by British fami-
lies of respectability, living within a few minute's walk of me. We are
making rapid advances, and there is every reason to look forward to the
future with the happiest anticipations.
"Whenever you have money to transmit, lodge it to my credit with
the London agents for the bank of U. C, as it will be paid by the bank
at York, with the benefit of exchange. Bank stock is now upwards of
12 per cent."
These letters contain many animating descriptions of sport, in hunting,
fowling, and fishing, from which it would appear that Canada abounds
with game of all kinds; and they conclude with a caution against being
deceived with the high nominal wages given. In comparison to the
superior value of the work done, and the cheapness of food, it is not
considered that the wages in Canada are very much greater than those in
England, while it has to be remembered that a Canadian shilling is much
less than an English one, and that wages are often paid in truck, by an
order on a store, for goods which are charged at a high rate of profit.
We have already observed upon the dry-haired grumbling depreciation
which runs through Mr. Sherriff's account of Canada, and which appears
to have been poisoned by political animosities. He is flatly contradicted
by nearly every authority on the subject, and we place small reliance on
his dicta. He states that game of every description is so scarce as hardly
to be said to exist, while we find it a universal statement that it is so
abundant. Wolves, bears, cat-a-mounts are generally complained of
by the farmer. Beavers, racoons, martens, deer, hares, partridges,
pigeons, ducks, wild turkeys, quails, a great variety of fish are abundant.
Any person of the slightest reflection must see that this must be so, from
the vast expanse of forest and prairie, the large space of uncleared land,
and the great extent of water. Snakes of many, some of dangerous kinds,
are found in particular districts, but they do not seem to produce much
annoyance. A much more troublesome vicinage is that of black flies
and musquitoes, and also, for vegetable life, the wheat and turnip fly.
A large farming capitalist, in the township of Yorra, grows "more and
more enthusiastic in favor of the country: climate delightful,—neigh-
bours excellent and obliging,—would not, for twenty thousand pounds, return to Scotland. I rise at five; while the servants manage breakfast,
I light the fire, to have all ready by daylight. My shoes are not blacked,
but greased. I have cut down twenty acres,—seven axes getting through
an acre a day. As currency goes as far here as sterling in England, I am
a gainer of more than a fifth; with the high rate of interest, cheapness of
living, and exemption from taxes, I am at least three times as rich a man
as I was at home."
These pages are written not for the purpose of forming a vade mecum
to a settler after he is located. He will get far better advice and infor-
mation as to details on the spot from his neighbours than any to be found
in books. Minute directions as to distances, routes, conveyances, fares
are also much more accurately afforded at Quebec or New York, by
Emigration Agents or Societies, who can supply the most recent informa-
tion, and who, from the increased facilities which every day presents for
locomotion, can promise the emigrant quicker and cheaper transport


70 LIFE IM CANADA.
than even the latest news to Europe could supply. We have abstained
also from giving all cut and dried tables of the various items of the cost
of settling, and carrying, and farming operations, as the sum total is the
only thing which can be usefully communicated to the emigrant here;
and these estimates vary as to particulars, sometimes to a bewildering
extent. The regulations of Emigrant ships are always to be found on
board—and with regard to these it is enough to say that they form an
ample provision for the protection of the voyager, who has only to seb
that they are rigidly enforced in his own favour.
Our aim has been to present the emigrant, of any degree or pursuit,
with such a general, yet complete view of the position and prospects of
a settler in Canada, of the kind of life he will lead, and of the country
which he may adopt, as to enable him to form a sound judgment of his
chances of success and happiness; and to regulate his choice as to the
place of his destination. All accounts agree in the assurance of the en-
counter of certain hardship, and early privations—and in making hard
work, great industry, cautious frugality, and sobriety, and courageous
perseverance, indispensable conditions of success. Very few of the cor-
respondents who write home appear to have escaped fever and ague, but
not one appears to have sustained any serious inconvenience from the
visitation, except in very unfavourable situations. Of other diseases
there appear to be few, especially of the thoracic viscera; and the mea-
sure of health enjoyed by the population appears to be rather greater
than in England. The extremes of heat and cold seem to be intense only
for two or three days at a time either way—but the fact that the cold frost-
bites off the toes of poultry, shows that occasionally the low temperature
must be intolerable. We incline to the impression that Canada isa more
healthy, but less pleasant climate than that of the United States; and
the fact that such vast numbers of emigrants who go expressly to Canada,
move forward to the States, is to our mind demonstrative of the supe-
rior advantages of the latter. Still it must not be forgotten that there has
also been a considerable immigration of Yankees into Canada, that the
large influx into our American colonies from England is a proof of their
advantages, that extensive improvements, especially in water commuui-
cation, are continually in progress in the provinces, that a thoroughly
English society of a pleasant and congenial kind is to be found in all the
settled districts of Upper Canada, that the people are little distracted by
the excitement of politics, and that they are the most lightly taxed peo-
ple on the face of the earth, possessing at the same time, ample provision
for defence, education, and religion. So rapidly does the climate improve
by settlement, that colonization, on an extensive scale, cannot fail ma-
terially to mitigate the rigours of the region; and we feel convinced
that nine-tenths of the privation, hardship, annoyance, and disease of
which emigrants complain, might be effectually obviated by settlement
on a large and liberal plan, and in a well digested systematic form. An
outlay of four or five millions a year for a few years, advanced by gov-
ernment on the credit of the poor rates, which would be ultimately saved
by colonizing the paupers, would relieve the mother country of unpro-
fitable subjects, and give us profitable consumers of our manufactures on
the other side of the Atlantic. It is in vain that Mr. Muntz and other


VOLUNTARY EMIGRATION.—STATE COLONIZATION. 71
crotcheteers urge that, if this or that were to happen, or the other were
to be done, which does not happen, and will not be done, there would be
no need of emigrating, and there would be abundance of employment
for double our existing population. We have not treated of emigration
as a banishment or a necessity—and whatever its effect may be on those
who remain at home, there can be little doubt that it is a relief to the
starving and desperate condition of those who go abroad. We are sim-
ple enough to believe that a freehold, and the life of a farmer in Canada
is preferable to the condition of a miner, or scavenger, or handloom
weaver, or navigator, or road maker in England, even if he could be
guaranteed constant employment. We believe that if our constitutional
policy could admit of the masses of our people being distributed over
our own soil as yeomen, the population would be far happier than they
are, and would consume three times the quantity of manufactures that
they do. As that is impracticable, or is at least not done, the next best
thing is to make them yeomen elsewhere. Let this be done on a truly
national scale, and we make no doubt that a great and happy people may
be called into existence in Canada, and that our exports to that colony
would amply repay all the expense which an efficient system of coloni-
zation would temporarily entail.
VOLUNTARY EMIGRATION.—STATE COLONIZATION.
Migration has tacitly become recognized as a national necessity with
us. In 24 years 1,985,786 of us have taken it for granted, that we are
not wanted here, and may be useful, at least, to ourselves elsewhither.
767,373 have landed in Canada, of whom half have proceeded onward
to the model republic, 1,040,797 have gone direct to the United States,
153,195 to Australia, and 24,321 to other dependencies. In 1847,
109,680 landed in Canada, and in 1848, only 31,065; whereas, the num-
ber to the United States were, in 1847, 142,154, and in 1848, 188,233.
It is deliberately stated in the latest circular of the Emigration Com-
missioners (No. 9), with reference to all our North American Colonies,
that the demand for labour is limited and has materially fallen off.
Now the temper in, and the circumstances under which, emigrants
leave their native country, make all the difference betwixt their con-
tinuing well affected to their fatherland, and being converted into its bit-
terest enemies. We believe that the most rancorous of the war party in
the United States, the fiercest denouncers of England, are those of our
own countrymen, especially from Ireland, and their descendants, who
have been starved out of Britain by want of employment, or by landlord
ejectments, without one helping hand having been held out to them by
the state, to render their path smoother, and make their new location a
place of rest and comfort to them. Those, also, who having escaped
from famine in this country, find, when (no thanks to their own sove-
reign), they have crawled to Canada, that there is nothing to do, no pro-
vision made to establish them on a clearing, and that they must escape
for bare life to the States, can entertain no other sentiments, either to


72 THE CKITED STATBS.
tlioir country or to their countrymen but detestation and contempt: in-
deed, their own recollection of both is, that they have beggared and done
nothing to help them. If a collection of their letters could be made, it
would be found that the nearly universal sentiment was that of enmity
to the British Government, and congratulation on their having shaken its
dust for ever from their feet.
In 24 years Canada has lost 1,400,000 most valuable settlers by our
idiotic neglect of the means of colonization by the State. We cannot
without indignation reflect on the self sufficient complacency with which
the Colonial Commissioners announced the transmigration of British
subjects to the States, and the falling off in the Canadian demand for
employment, in a province which has millions upon millions of acres of
the finest land in the world waiting only for labourers to make it fruitful,
the colony great, the mother country happy, by supplies of food in ex-
change for her manufactures. This is not an indifferent matter; the
capital, year by year more considerable, carried by these emigrants, from
the mother country, is by such supineness, lost to our colonies and given
to our rival—useful and valuable colonists are converted into grudging
and active enemies, and worst of all, by settling in the States they turn
the whole tide of emigration thither, and foster among the friends and
relatives they leave at home disaffection to the State, contempt for our institutions, and a determination in intending emigrants to settle, not in
our colonies, but in the States among their connections. We have else-
where shown that Western Canada contains the finest tracts of unre-
claimed land in the world, crying out for culture. In place of sending
our subjects thither, we squeeze them out of these islands, drive them
away from the very soil that clamours to be tilled, and promises abun-
dance, and compel them by neglect and discouragement to throw them-
selves into the arms of a rival power to which common gratitude for
shelter, employment, and final independence, must bind their hearts and
conciliate their best affections. Such a scandalous abdication of the pa-
ternal duties of Government cries shame upon us all; and we call
upon the nation to enforce upon the executive the necessity of adopting
immediate measures for securing to our North American possessions, the
full advantage of that tide of population which alone is wanting to ren-
der them the happy home of our redundant numbers, and the fostering
granary, and best market for the manufactures, of the mother country.
THE UNITED STATES.
As the object of this work is confined to the supply of such informa-
tion as may be necessary to enable intending emigrants to judge of the
eligibility of the various fields of settlement, it is not our purpose to su-
persede the functions of a gazetteer; we shall not therefore give a minute
geographical description of the United States of North America—but,
Referring the reader to the map and to its topographical explanation, we
shall proceed to inform him of what in reference to the selection of a
resting place it may be desirable for him to know.


THE EASTERN, OB NEW ENGLAND STATES 73
GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS.
The Eastern States bordering on the Atlantic, and bounded on the
west by the Alleghanny range, comprise New England, inhabited by the
Yankees proper, the descendants of the English puritans. The Western
States range between the western slope of the Alleghannies, and the east-
ern side of the Rocky Mountains; to the west of these again, on the
western side of the Rocky Mountains is California, the recent acquisition
of the United States, abounding in gold, quicksilver, cattle, and a fertile
soil. The southern or slave states form the southern boundary of the
western and eastern states. To the southern states has lately been an-
nexed the territory of Texas.
THE EASTERN, OR NEW ENGLAND STATES.
We have already seen that the easternmost portions of British America
have the coldest and longest winters, and the fiercest summers, and that
the further west you go to the extreme point of Upper Canada, the cli-
mate gets more temperate, until the winter, which, at Quebec, endures for
six months, is reduced at the westernmost point to little more than six
weeks. Although the eastern states of the neighbouring republic are
further south than Canada, they are quite as far east, and consequently
the winters are rigorous, and the summer heats torrid. They are also
subject to more sudden extremes of temperature, which, combined with
greater atmospherical moisture, render them more productive of con-
sumption and other pulmonary affections. They have been settled for
200 years, and are the oldest and most populous districts of the Union.
With the exception of those located in the aguish districts along the flats
and lakes, the population of New England are nearly as robust as the
inhabitants of Great Britain. The bracing air of its winters fits it well
for manufacturing industry; and persons of European descent there dis-
play more energy and faculty of work than in the West or South. The
regular Yankees of the working classes migrate to other districts where
they may be their own masters, or dispense with manual labour. For the
European labourer or artizan, there is therefore left open an excellent
field of employment in the Atlantic cities and farming districts.
Cobbett, writing from Long Island, New York, states that "from
December to May there is not a speck of green. The frost sweeps all
verdant existence from the face of the earth. Wheat and rye live, but
lose all verdure. In June crop and fruits are as in England, and harvest
is a full month earlier than in the south of England." His weather jour-
nal thus reports. "6th May. Very fine day as in England. 7. Cold, sharp
east wind. 8. Warm day, frosty night. 9. Cold shade and hot sun.
10 Dry, grass grows a little. 11. Thunder and rain. 12. Rain, then
warm and beautiful. 13. Warm fine day. Lettuces, carrots, onions and
parsnips just coming up. 14. Sharp-dry,—travel in great coats. 15.
Warm and fair; Indian corn planting. 16. Dry wind and warm; cherries
u» bloom,—eldei in flower. 17. Warmer than yesterday. 18. Fins.
B


7fi
TRd EASTERN, OR SEW ENGLAND STA ;E8.
emulation which their institutions everywhere present,—the greater diffi-
culty in commanding domestic comforts of house and service than we ex-
perience,—and above all the dietary arrangements of the country. The
abundance and universal accessibility of everything that can provoke the
appetite, the long sauce and short sauce, the preserves and fruits, the
infinite varieties of bread, all baked in a way to lie heavy on the stomach,
the endless array of wines and liquors, the interminable diversities of
meats, taken at least three times every day, acting upon a people whose brain runs away with the nervous energy required by the stomach to di-
gest such high seasoned meals, give the assimilating organs no chance of
fair play at all. Dr. Caldwell tells us that the amount of sheer trash,
swallowed every week by an American, is greater than would be consumed
in a year by an inhabitant of Europe.
Great diversity of opinion exists with reference to the comparative
physical energy of Europeans and Americans. Cobbett, and with him
several others, declare that the latter work much harder and to far better
purpose than the English, while others contend that they are very indif-
ferent labourers, the native Americans generally procuring the services of
Europeans for all their rough hard work. For our part we entertain no
doubt at all on the subject. The native Americans are infinitely better
educated, housed, clothed, paid, and fed, than the inhabitants of Europe.
They have conquered the wilderness with their axe, and made it fruitful
with their spade and plough; they have set their broad mark over half
a continent, and made themselves a great, powerful and wealthy nation.
The very nature of their social system demands from each individual
more self help, fertility of resources, and physical intrepidity than are re-
quired from any other people, and the result is and could be no other
than that they should produce the best labourers and workmen in all the
world. "They are," says Cobbett, "the best labourers I ever saw. They
In addition to the above, the Trenton Mutual Assurance Company of New Jersey
advertises to effect Assurances at 25 per cent. under other offices. Thus, to insure
100 dollars for one year at 25 years of age, the insurer pays 75 cents, instead ofi*7
cents, as in the above table, and so on in proportion.
By comparing these with British Life Insurance Companies, I have found that the
premiums paid on the " yonhger" ages in the American companies are smaller th«u
in the British; and, on the other hand, those on the "older" ages are higher. An-
nexed are the rates of the Royal Insurance Company—[British. J
Extract prom the Rates or Phemidm.
Rates ofKates ofAge.
Premium, with
Rates of
Premium, with-
Rates of
Age .1
Premium, with
Premium, with-
Profits. out Profits. Profits. out Profits.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
15
1 15 3
I 10 11
40
3 4 1
2 18 6
SO
1 19 4
1 14 11
45
3 14 6
3 8 5
25
2 4 2
1 19 7
50
4 8 3
4 I 7
30
2 9 9
2 4 10
55
5 8 6
5 11
3'>
2 16 2
2 110
61
6 14 4
6 6 o
Percy M. Dove, Manager.
Thus, by comparing these two tables, it will be found that, by the American table,
lower premiums are paid until the age of forty, when the British are lower, and con-
tinue so to the end.


THE EASTERN, OR NEW ENGLAND STATES. 77
mow four acres of grain, or two and a half of heavy grass in a day. The
men are tall and well built,—bony rather than fleshy,—and live, as to
food, as well as men can live. Every man can use an axe, a saw, and a
hammer; mend a plough, waggon, or rough carpentering, and kill the
meat. These Yankees are of all men the most active and hardy. They
will race a pig down; are afraid of nothing, and skip over a fence like a
greyhound." His description of the New England labourers will shew
that no skulkers from work are likely to succeed there; but good hands
of any kind, especially agricultural labourers or gardeners, will find
abundant employment at high wages in all the Eastern States, and as to
comfort and luxury, will be surrounded with many more advantages than
they can hope for, either at home or in the unimproved districts of the
Western States. There seems to be a concurrence of opinion that these
are the healthiest regions in the republic; and the more fresh coloured
and fleshy appearance of the inhabitants, coupled with their greater rela-
tive progress in power, intelligence and wealth, than those of the south
or west, form data from which it may be safely inferred that the climate
is more favorable to the physical system there, than in the other terri-
tories. "I never saw," observes Mr. Prentice, writing from Philadel-
phia, "in an assemblage of 300 or 400, so many fine, tall, noble looking
men. It might have seemed that their constituents had chosen them as
the Israelites did Saul, for their stature. One half of the members over-
looked me, although I have not usually need to look up to many. Some
dozen were six feet two,—two or three were six feet four,—and two were
six feet six."
A farm not more than sixty miles distant from the great eastern cities,
with a good farm house, barn, stables, sheds and styes; the land fenced
with post and rail, woodland being one tenth of the whole, with a good
orchard, and the whole in good heart, would cost £13 per acre, or £1,300
for a farm of 100 acres. The house a good deal better than the general
run of farm houses in England. The cattle and implements are cheap.
The wear and tear not half so much as in England; the climate, soil,
docility of the horses and■oxen, the lightness and tough material of the
implements, the simplicity of the harness, and the handiness of the
labourers effect this. Horse shoeing is the most serious expense.
House rent is about the same as in England—wheaten bread one third,
and butcher's meat and poultry one half below the London price. Cheese
excellent and cheap—groceries far less than half our price, candles, soap,
wax tapers, especially. Fish, of which fifty or sixty sorts are seen in
New York market, are hawked round the country, and in cold weather
may be had as low as a farthing per pound, and 3d. in the hottest. No
white person will eat sheep's head or pluck—oxen heads are never sold,
or seldom used at home—calves heads, and whole joints are often, in hot
weather, left on the shambles for anybody to take away. Fruit is delicious
and diet cheap. Strong ale, Is. 2d. per gallon, or less than 4d. per quart.
French wine, brandy, and rum, one-sixth of the English price, and the
common spirits of the country 3s. 6d. per gallon. Wearing apparel
dearer, and furniture cheaper, than here. So far Cobbett.*
* The wa^es of common labour, at New York, are about 50 per cent. higher than
in England, and the price of food one third less. Bent, clothes, and coal, are 50 per,
h3


78 THE EASTERN. OK HEW ENGLAND STATES.
"In America," observes Buckingham, speaking of the Eastern States,
"the occupier of a farm is, almost, invariably the owner, and knows
nothing about conditions of culture, rent raising, ejectments, or clerical
magistrates. No tithes, or poor-rates, workhouses, or jails, exist in the rural districts where there is plenty to eat, and wages are high. The
American country gentry and farmers are much better off, and happier
than the same class in England, scarcely anything ever occurring to ruffle
the serenity.of a country and happy life, ■ in the well settled parts of
America. There is not a single labourer on the farm who receives less
than a dollar a day—and when they are residents on the farm they have
as good living as prosperous tradesmen of the middle classes in England.
Three substantial meals a day, and at harvest time four, with abundance
and variety at each—excellentschools, almost gratuitously, neat little cot-
tages, a plot for gardening. They are well fed, dressed, and educated,
intelligent, and agreeable in manners. On Mr. Delevan's farm (New
York), scarcely a labourer who had not money out at interest. The
deaths do not reach two per cent. per annum, and the ages extend to
eighty and ninety ' ordinarily,' on account of the spread of temperance
principles."
In the Eastern region, the high lands of Pennsylvania iie greatly re-
commended for their salubrity and fertility. The climate is mild, pas-
ture and timber luxuriant, the mineral wealth very great, the population
comparatively dense and settled, and the prices obtained for produce
much higher than in the west. Mr. Emerson describing the level penin-
sula lying between the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay, observes that the
farms have been comparatively deserted, from exhaustion by over crop-
ping, and that as they are to be had cheap, a European farmer, applying
his skill, and a little capital to them would find a more profitable return
for his enterprise, than in the west, from the much higher price given for
every kind of agricultural produce. In Delaware, Maryland, and Vir-
ginia, he knew many European farmers who had grown very prosperous.*
cent. higher, but when a man has scarcely earned more than has kept him in food
the change, by coming here, is decidedly to his advantage. If he earned 3s in Eng-
land, he wilt earn 4s. 6d. here. At home, his food has cost him 12s. a week, and his
rent, clothes, and coal, 6s , absorbing all his wages. Let him live in the same style
here, and he will pay 8s. for his food, and 9s. for his rent, clothes, and coals, leaving
him 10s. a week of clear savings. The misfortune is, whisky is Is. a gallon, very
wretched stuff, but men get drunk for a trifle, and either die or starve, or seek refuge
in the almshouse. Irish labourers, who save a few pounds, enter into some small
street trading, take a store, and their sons become respectable merchants, a process
we never observe in Manchester."—Prkntioc The author has here touched upon
the worst and weakest point of American legislation, their protective system,
by which they actually impose an import duty of 6s. 8d. per quarter on wheat, and
25 per cent. on cloth, raised to 50 per cent. when manufactured into garments.
There are twenty millions of inhabitants in the states—on a moderate computation
they spend at least £4 10s. per head, per annum on clothes, 50 per cent. whereof
protective duty, or 30s. is equal to a tax of no less than £30,000,000 sterling f There
is no such drawback in Canada, which is, in every respect far more lightly taxed
than its neighbour the model republic.
* "In the immediate vicinity of the city (Louisville Kentucky), much of the land
is in market gardens, and sells for, from £20 to £30 an acre. 1 believe that land
might be purchased in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, to pay a large return for
the capital invested. Extensive tracts are to be obtained cheap, and there are in-
stances of great profit for the growth of articles of food. Kentucky is the garden
3f ths republic."-*-r*BENTica.


THE EA8TBHN. OR NEW ENGLAND STATES. 79
In the immediate neighbourhood of Philadelphia, Mr. Sherriff found tha
price of good cleared land in high heart from £20 to £25 per acre. On
the east bank of the Hudson, Mr. Ferguson was offered 350 acres of the
iinest quapty, including 100 of wood, at £7 10s. per acre, returning
about £182 per annum, certainly no very great profit. Another of 275
acres, rented at £63, was offered at £1,300, or about 5 per cent. One
of 106 acres returned £50 clear, and the price was £530, about 9§ per
cent. A fine farm of 118 acres, with good buildings, was offered for
£400, and would give a profit of £40, or 10 per cent. Colonel Grant's
of 300 acres was rented at £67 10s., and was sold for £1,500, or 4j per
cent. In the neighbourhood of Baltimore, rents appear to have been
very high if Mr. Pickering's account be correct—but as a general rule it
is stated that in all parts of America, farms may be had at 16 or 17 years'
purchase on the rental. We have seen that Cobbett states the price of a
fine farm in New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, not more than 60
miles from a populous town, at about £13 per acre, so that a fine cleared
farm of 100 acres, with good house and buildings, would cost £1,300.
Kentucky is universally described as a state of great beauty, fertility,
and comparative salubrity, well settled, and highly fertile, picturesque,
and fitted for pasture. Still more delightful is the climate of the high-
lands of Virginia, where many fine farms may be had cheap, on account
of their being deserted for the regions of the west. In this latter district,
large profits are not to be expected—but the small capitalist of Europe,
desirous of living cheaply on his interest, under a very pleasant climate,
would here find a charming retirement.*
* " Having resided several years in Virginia, though not in the western district,
and having remained a short time in one of the north-western states, and also tra-
velled through some of the other states, [can with confidence recommend Virginia
to intending emigrants to the United States, as a desirable field in all respects, and
far preferable in any part to any of the Western States. Although Virginia
is a slave-holding state, there are very few, if any, slaves in the western districts,
they being in the eastern part only."—E. S. Manchester
**In Western Virginia it is generally healthy, though foreigners and citizens of the
United States who come among us sometimes take the fever and ague, though there
are Englishmen now living in our county, and have for the last ten or twelve years
who have never been sick since they came here.
"A good log-house for dwelling in may be erected and finished in this county, say
thirty feet long by twenty in breadth, two stories high, with stone or brick chimney,
covered with shingles, completely finished for about 300 dollars, or a frame one of
like dimensions, lathed and plastered, for 350 or 400 dollars. Buildings for cattle,
sheep, hogs, &c., may be built for a mere song, as any labouring man can build
such buildings without employing mechanics, as they are generally bnilt of small
logs, and covered cabin fashion, that is, with clap-boards fastened with rib poles.
The clearing of land in this county is from three to ten dollars per acre; it de-
pends upon how you have it cleared; if you take off all the timber, it costs more;
if you deaden the large timber, and remove the small, it costs less. The price of horses here.is from 25 [the pony] to 100 dollars, and respectable
horse-mules are not used in Western Virginia, though they can be got in Kentucky
for from 60 to 100 dollars each; common milch cows can be got from 10 to 15 dollars
caeh—sheep may be got from 75 cents to 1 dol. 50 c. each, the quality varying from
coarse to fine. Corn is now selling at 35 cents per bushel, wheat at 66 cents per ditto;
cheese 6 cents per pound, butter 10 cents per pound.
The present price of clothing is considered cheap here, though I suppose 100 per
cent higher than in England [Judging from my own experience, I should say that
the price of clothing was not more than 50 per cent higher, E. S.] Blankets vary
from 2 to 10 dollars a pair; feathers, 25 cents per pound; metal articles sell low.


80 THE EASTERN, OU NEW ENGLAND STATES.
Although, for labourers without capital, the Western States aro gene-
rally regarded as most desirable for settlement, we are not sure but, that
on the whole, they would do better in the east. Gardeners, well trained
agricultural labourers, good waggoners, would always find full employ-
ment in the east at fair wages, paid in money. They would hare to en-
counter no privations, and run little risk of disease. They would be sur-
rounded with superior comforts, a great security for health, and endure
none of the hardships of inexperienced persons in a new country. A
good house, near markets, medical attendance, and the accessories of
civilization to which they have been accustomed at home, they would be
sure to meet. They would not, indeed, rise to the position of proprietors
of land, easily, or so soon emancipate themselves from service—but ser-
vice is only an evil where it is coupled with dependence and precarious
employment. If they have wives and families even, it may indeed be
true that, ultimately, their children, where their farms were well cleared
in the western states, would be in an independent position—but they
would all have to pass through much privation, the sickness incident to
early hardships in a new country, much present anxiety, and even at the
last they would have fewer of the comforts of European civilization, than
as well paid labourers in the more settled eastern states. Skilful car-
penters, millwrights, blacksmiths, shipwrights, shoemakers, hatters, en-
gineers, tailors, would never have any difficulty in procuring good en-
gagements in the east, and, although, the cost of food and rent is higher
there than in the west, they get money wages, and procure clothing and
many other articles cheaper than in the west. We do not think it de-
sirable to give any detailed account of the amount of wages, because these
fluctuate much, and, nominally, are very different from what they are
really. As a general rule, however, employment is in New England con-
stant, wages fair, and the cost of living a good deal less than in Great
Britain. We learn from Mr. Stuart that women earn 3s. and men 4s. per
day, at farm work. The hours, invariably, are from sunrise to sunset,
with proper intervals for meals—but it is to be remembered that the
hours of daylight are longer in winter, and shorter in summer than in
England.
farming implements cheap: green tea. 1 dollar per pound; coffee, 8 cents per pound;
sugar, brown, first quality, 4J rents per pound; refined sugar. 12$ cents per pound;
flour,4 dollars per barrel; fruit, peaches,peeled, 2 dollars; impeded, I dollar; ap-
ples, 50 cents per bushel; candles, 10 cents per pound; soap, 5 cents per pound;
bacon. 6 cents per pound; beef. 21 to 3 cents per pound; mutton, 2 cents per pound;
potatoes, 25 cents per bushel, generally, though now 50 cents, owing to scarcity.
I think there are farms of 100 or 150 acres with an improvement ot from 30 to 50
acres, with a tolerable house, barn, stable, and outbuildings, and other improvements,
can be g^ot for 1,000 or 1,500 dollars.
A family of ten persons in Guyandotte or its neighbourhood, having the necessary
household and kitchen furniture, might live well and plentiful on 200 dollars a-year,
even if they had to rent the premises. Bread and meat in our country are cheap, as
well as all kind of vegetables; if six acres were judiciously managed, it would
more than supply all needed vegetables; it would go far towards supporting a family
of the size before mentioned. If you lived in Guyandotte, you would use coal, which
can be got for 7 cents a bushel; but, if you lived in the country, you would use wood
which would cost you nothing but having it cut.—William McComas Cabbell, Court-
house, Western Virginia [a land owner].


THE EASTERN, OR NEW ENGLAND STATES. 81
"The New England villages," observes the same writer, " are proverbial
for their neatness and cleanness; in space, freshness, and air of comfort,
they far exceed anything I have seen in any other country. I have
passed in one day six or seven of these beautiful hamlets, for not one of
which have I been able to recollect an equal in all my European travel-
ling." At Boston Mr. Stuart found mild weather till 1st of January, when
the frost became so intense as to freeze ink and oil even beside a great
fire, and to congeal the breath of hautboy players, so that it fell from
their instruments like icicles. It continued cold till the middle of
March.
"It is more advisable," says Mr. Stuart, "for an emigrant to pay high
for land lately cleared, than risk health in clearing; let him not buy land
impoverished by cropping, and which has lost its vegetable mould; en-
quire particularly about the water, which is often bad in New England.
Maize is the first crop (generally very abundant) sown; at the building
of the first log-house, which is superior in accommodation to that of a
farm overseer in Britain, all the neighbours assist, and the permanent
dwelling houses are very superior and comfortable, always placed near
a spring, with an ice-house, ornamental trees of great beauty, an
orchard, and a garden which from the fine climate produces every thing
in perfection. A grave-yard is a very common accessory to every farm;
in the northern part of New York a great deal of land is still uncleared,
and farmers after cropping out their farms, sell them freely at 15 to 30
dollars an acre, and remove to the bush to clear another. After the ve-
getable matter is cropped out, the produce of all grain, except maize, is
nearly a half less than on similar soils in Britain. Hay is easily made
from the fine weather, and the rapidity with which rain dries up. Maize
is an invaluable crop; hay and other crops are never damaged from
bad weather; live stock is much healthier than with us, on account of
the prevalence of dry weather; the pastures are indifferent, except near
rivers, where they are very fine; orchards are extremely productive of
apples (cyder being very profitable,) melons, pumpkins, &c. &c., and silk
worms can be well bred here. Flour averages 5 dollars per 196 lbs.; In-
dian corn, 2s.; oats, Is. 2d.; barley, Is. 6d. per bushel. When land or
pastures are let, it is on the bargain that the landlord shall provide half
the seed or stock, and receive half the produce. Except at the melting
of the snow, the roads are pretty good from the prevailing dryness of the
weather; the expense of turnpikes is trifling; horses and cattle are of
good average quality, never starved, and never over pampered; the meat
is inferior to the very best in England, but there is none of bad quality;
it ranges from 2d. to 5d. per lb.; sheep are little attended to, although,
from the dry climate, they might become excellent; swine and poultry
are excellent, and very cheap, even in New York; eggs a dollar per 100;
good cheese, 4d. per lb.; implements of husbandry are well adapted to
their purposes, and the cheapness of timber brings them within a reason-
able price." •
The wages of mechanics vary from £2 to £2 10s. per week; those of
labourers from 4s. to 5s. per day. In the Atlantic and other larger
cities, there is good demand for foreign workmen; in the country places,
although the wages are a little less, tha ismore than compensated by


82 THE EASTERN, OR NEW ENGLAND STATES.
the cheaper rate of living. In the Southern States the wages are highest
and living is cheap, except in the seaboard cities; but the inferior health-
iness of the climate for a European labourer, renders these states ineligible
for this class of emigrants. Manufactures of all kinds daily increase, espe-
cially in the east, and the factories are models of elegance and comfort, and
distinguished for the good treatment and superior circumstances of the
hands, both men and women. The sexes are separated in the factory, and
nearly all have considerable sums out at interest. In Rhode Island Mr.
Buckingham regards health as superior to what it is in Boston and New
York. For 10s. 6d. per week superior board and lodging can be commanded
by the working man; three meals a day, including at each hot meat and
vegetables, fish, new bread, rolls and butter, poultry, tea and coffee, all
sorts of pies and puddings, fruit, salads, and every variety of sauce. A
large family, sons or daughters, is a fortune rather than a burden to the
parents. Girls from 12 to 14 get from 2s. to 4s. 6d. per week and
board, and boys from 12 to 16 from two to three dollars per week.
Schools are everywhere good and cheap. A journeyman brass founder
writing from Schenectady states, he earns 6s. per day, and pays 16s per
week for board and lodging for self and wife, with meat three times
a day, steaks and chops for breakfast, pork sausages and hot buck-
wheat cakes, with tea and coffee, stewed peaches, apples, pears, wild
honey, and molasses. He is in the highest degree of comfort, and works
from about seven to four o'clock. Mr. Buckingham regards the western
part of New York, Rochester, and Buffalo, as more temperate than on
the seaboard. The breeze from the great lakes reduces the heat ten de-
grees. Mr. Sherriff gives a very unfavourable account of New Jersey,
but speaks in high terms of the country around Philadelphia, both for
beauty and fertility. There, land of fine quality and in high condition,
may be obtained for from 100 to 120 dollars per acre, and the price of all
farm produce is high. Labourers are allowed as much as 2s. per day ir
lieu of board, and yet by the piece they will mow an acre of rye for 3s.
Mr. Sherriff thinks an American may go through more work than an
Englishman in any given day, but not more taking the year through,
the apparent health, strength, and climate of the latter being superior.
The country near Geneva is reported to be highly favourable for sheep
and cattle breeding. A farm of 280 acres, cleared, fenced, subdivided,
with good dwelling house, suitable offices, and a large orchard, was
offered for £7 5s. lOd. per acre, the whole taxes amounting to about 20
dollars a year. The Genessee district is highly spoken of for wheat, and
the flats afford the richest pasture in the world.
The letters of settlers in the eastern states are of one uniform character.
From Albany a voice cries, "This is the finest country in the world, come
by all means; day labourers get 1 dollar a day, mechanics 10s. to 12s.;
America for ever for me!" (J. Parks.) Another from Philadelphia re-
commends Pennsylvania for agriculturists, and Massachussets for manu-
•actures. In the former provisions are reported as cheap, and land near
the capital £10 to £20 per acre, but abundance in the more remote
districts of that state at 5s. per acre.* Although the extremes of heat
• The recent work of Mr. A. Mackay (Western World), describes the mineral
wealth of Pennsylvania as superior to that of England; and he regards the ricliei


THE WESTERN STATES.—OHIO. 83
jmd cold are described by settlers as greater in New than in Old.
England, it is a feature of all their letters, that they either do not speak
of the climate, or notice it without complaint, a circumstance from
which we would draw the inference that it presents no serious incon-
venience to the European constitution. We need not add that emigration
being rarely resorted to by such as have any means of doing well at
home, discontent and prejudice against the country they have left, are apt
rather highly to colour the superior advantages of the country of their
adoption.
From the southern, or slave states, our information is comparatively
scanty; and it is a circumstance significant of their inferior attractions,
that few Europeans settle there. Nevertheless, the institution of slavery
may have decided many without reference to other considerations, and
the superior commercial advantages of the east, and the agricultural fa-
cilities of the west, may have much to do with the avoidance of the
south. It is said the highlands of Virginia open a beautiful country,
and enjoy a very fine climate; cleared land is cheap; living moderate,
and for the small capitalist who can live on the interest of his money, we
incline to think that these regions present a desirable location. Some of
the islands to the north of New Orleans are described as being beautiful,
fertile, and healthy—most desirable places of retirement from the world
for persons of limited means.
THE WESTERN STATES.
The "Western Country," as it is called, embraces the States of Ohio,
Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Of these Ohio is fur-
thest to the east and north, having a rigorous winter of upwards of five
months; while that of Southern Illinois, to the west, does not exceed six
weeks. To Ohio, the best port of debarkation is New York. To Illinois,
New Orleans is the mor.t convenient. The Steam Mail West India Packets
now touch at New Orleans, or Mobile Point, and present great induce-
ments for the preference of the western emigrant who can afford the
higher passage money. These packets sail from Southampton every
month.
OHIO.
Ohio, the longest settled of the Western States, is comparatively popu-
lous, possesses a civilized and orderly society, and an intelligent, religious,
and respectable population. Chiefly devoted to agriculture, its inhabi-
tants partake of the decent, quiet, and honest character, of a rural people,
and they have a great horror at being confounded with Yankees, whom
they regard as we do Yorkshiremen, as somewhat "sharp practitioners."
The state is eminently prosperous, and very productive, although it also
in that state as so grreat, that her bonds are as safe an investment as any securities
in the world. Miners, colliers, and engineers cannot fail to receive great encou-
ragement there.


contains much poor soil. But the summer heats and winter colds are in-
tense, and both approximate somewhat too nearly to the climate of the
western parts of Lower Canada. This, however, is only in the exposed
parts of that great table land which rises from 600 to 1000 feet above the
level of the sea. In the vallies the climate is mild and temperate, evi-
denced by the fact that, on the whole, the state produces more wheat and
of finer quality than any other in the union, and is celebrated for the
number and quality of its sheep. With a good deal of swamp and marsh,
in some districts, it contains extensive, beautiful and fertile prairies, and
abounds in minerals and thriving manufactures in its numerous towns
It is regarded, especially towards the south, as very healthy, and produces
good wine, abundance of silk, and excellent tobacco. It presents all those
advantages of civilization and long settlement which form, to Europeans,
the recommendation of the New England States. Its roads are good,
its rivers, canals and railways conveniently open up easy communication
with the populous parts of the union; its farms and farm buildings are
well cleared and convenient; and it has all the appliances, in the shape of
markets, inns, places of worship and education, which can be reasonably
desired.
These advantages, of course, have their price. The good land, in
favorable situations, is to a great extent occupied, and bears a price cor-
responding to its superior value. The comparative density of the popu-
lation, makes wages not quite so high as they are further west. Towards
the north the winters are long and severe, and the summers are hot and
productive of snakes. To the labouring or operative emigrant, this
state offers abundant employment, in a great variety of occupations.* To
the moderate capitalist, it offers good farms at a not immoderate price.
We have before us now the details of the price of a farm of 150 acres,
with good farm house, 6arns, and offices, situate on an eminence fourteen
miles from Lake Erie and Cleveland City, fronted by the Worcester State
road, containing 100 acres of meadow, 18 under crop, 30 timber, 500
maple sugar trees, orchards, gardens, lawns, wells, and springs, for £600,
or about 19 dollars per acre. We questioned the proprietor, a native of
Middlesex, as to his state of health while in America, and we cannot say
that his answers were altogether satisfactory. Fevers and ague are not, by
any means, strangers to the region, and the oppressive heats of summer,
appeared somewhat to affect the digestive powers. The man himself had
a very sodden and dried up appearance.t
• "In walking out, (at Cincinatti,) we saw a man shovelling out large stones.
'You are from Ireland I hear7' 'Indeed I am!' * Have you any wish to return?*
* Return! Would you have a man go from a dollar a day to 8d.?. I left Ireland
because I was turned out of my little farm for voting against my landlord. I would
not go back, even if I could get my farm again, much less to work at Sd. a day with
dear 'taties and meal.' 'You can live cheap here, I suppose?' '1 pay two dollars a
week, and am well lodged, and get whatever I like to eat.' ' So that after paying for
your meat and lodging, you have 16s. left.' * 11 is 16s. 8d,' 'Can you stand the heat.'
'Indeed I can sir, it gives me no trouble at all. 1 wish it was summer all the year
round, for then I get a dollar a day, and only 3s. 4d. in the winter.' 'Then this is a
rare place for a workingman ? * ''Deed it is sir; a man that can do hard rough
work, and keep from drink, need never look behind him."—Prentice.
+ " Further up still the valley widened, the river becoming a small stream, flowing
through well cultivated fields, with here and there a thriving, well built, cheerful


85
ILLINOIS.
This seems the chief of the Western States, in every thing that relates to
agriculture. More recently settled than Ohio, it possesses fewer of the
advantages of civilization, and is more scantily peopled. But its climate
is far superior, in a six week's winter, a lengthened and beautiful
spring, a productive summer, and a delightful autumn. Less rigorous
and uniformly milder in all its seasons than the neighbouring states, in
these respects it holds out unrivalled advantages; but when we add that
with a superior climate is combined a greater quantity of uniformly fine
soil, of unbounded fertility, than any other territory of the same extent
in the world, and vast prairies of alluvial mould, ready at once for
plough and seed, we have said enough to prove it to be the very best of
locations for the emigrant. The cost of fine land, either cleared, as in the
prairies, alternated with wood and clearings, as in the skirts of the
prairies and the openings, or timbered with wood of fine quality, and of
heavy soil, is so low, from one to four or five dollars per acre, that whe-
ther for the capitalist who can begin at once, or the labourer whose high
wages and very cheap living enable him to purchase an acre of cleared
freehold land with the labour of a day, we can scarcely conceive of a more
desirable place of settlement. Bilious fevers and ague are no doubt com-
mon in unfavorable situations, or under adverse circumstances of excess
in eating and drinking, mental depression from a feeling of loneliness in
a new country, inattention to proper comforts, or absence of the precau-
tion of anticipating the effects of acclimation by a few doses of calomel
or other proper medicine. But if situation is wisely chosen, and a set-
tlement is made in populous and long established districts, we appre-
hend that sickness may, to a great extent, be escaped; and indeed many
travelleis avouch from the testimony of hundreds of settlers, that the
very best health is enjoyed in Illinois. "People," observes Mr. Pren-
tice, "concur in the opinion that the heat is more moderate west of the
Alleghanies than on the Atlantic shores, and that the winters are milder."
In this State, Indian corn, the best food for man, and all kinds of stock
and game, grows with unfailing luxuriance. All descriptions of cattle
roam at large over the unappropriated land, free of charge, brought back
to the owner, whenever he pleases, by his well known cry and its accom-
paniment of feeds of salt. The seasons are so mild that live stock are
never housed, summer or winter, and food is so abundant that they are
always in condition. But without reference to domestic animals, families
may live luxuriously on the abundant game every where to be found, and
little town, amongst which Wanesville and Xenia were the most attractive, lu this
beautiful part of the country 1 found that a farm having the rich alluvial soil all in
a state of cultivation and the woodland partially cleared, with a good substan-
tial farm house, and the necessary farm offices might be had at from £7 to £8
per acre. A well informed farmer was in the train w ith us who said, "If a young
man comes on uncleared land, he is completely worn out before his work is done;
but he escapes almost all the hardships if he begins with a good bit of cleared
land, and has a house to go into, and a shed for his cattle." I asked him what an
English farmer could do who should bring £1000 into such acountryl '• Do?" he
■aid, "Why he could buy and stock a farm of 100 acres of capital land, and live like a
(eullemau. Land partially cleared can frequently be had very cheap.—Preniice.
I


86 ILLINOIS.
the fine fish which crowd the rivers, while the command of the finest
timber renders the rearing of houses and offices cheap and easy. Good
board and lodging can be had for persons even of the middle ranks for
£26 per annum, and the ways and means of life are so inexpensive and
accessible, that with the exception of the fastidious and finical, settlers may
be said to be relieved from all but the merely imaginary cares of life.
We repeat that this work is not intended to supersede a gazetteer, but
to supply the place of a friendly adviser to the stranger and British emi-
grant. We do not, therefore propose to enter into minute details, but to
present a view of the general features of the country which may enable
the reader to judge for himself as to the choice of his destination, leaving
to himself, on his arrival, those enquiries which can only be satisfactorily
answered on the spot.
In the neighbourhood of Springfield and Alton, the emigrant will find
himself amongst his own countrymen, and English habits, modified by
local necessities. The Sangamon territory for health, fine soil, and long
settlement, is much recommended. Peoria is a very fine locality, but the
greatest amount of testimony concurs in fixing on Jacksonville, as in
every respect, the most eligible location in Illinois. For manufacturing
and mechanical pursuits, all the principal towns, of which there are
many, are highly spoken of. For agriculture, the neighbourhood of the
mineral district of Galena promises ready money, large consumption, and
the best prices. But the inhabitants are persons of rude, and even des-
perate character, and this forms, in our opinion, a decisive objection
against this district. In other regions, except near the large towns, money
is scarce—all are sellers of produce, and few buyers. Prices are, there-
fore, very low, and, occasionally, farm produce is unsaleable. Truck is
done by barter with store keepers, who pay little, and charge large pro-
fits. Money fetches as high as 25 per cent. interest, a sure sign of the
low price of other articles. Even labour is more nominally, than real ly
high, as it is mostly paid in truck, or by orders on a storekeeper. But
these very causes make subsistence so cheap and easy, that life is passed
without care, and in the enjoyment of substantial independence. No
man can indeed get rich in mere money under such a system—but he may
and does, easily surround himself with all the primary means of life, food,
a house, plain furniture, coarse, perhaps, but perfectly comfortable cloth-
ing. Even the capitalist can here make money go a far way, and in the
enjoyment of leisure, of nature, and of the pursuits of horticulture, bo-
tany, agriculture, he is assisted by a never failing soil, and a climate which
brings every sort of vegetable production to perfection, without trouble.
The opening o the English market to the unrestricted import of food
will probably raise the price of Illinois products materially, and emanci-
pate the farmer from the exactions of the storekeeper.
• To persons of asthmatical or consumptive tendencies, the whole west-
ern region presents the greatest attactions. The mildness combined with the dryness of the climate, all travellers consider as an effectual cure
of these tendencies, and as making them strangers to natives. A farmer's
wife, an emigrant from Leeds, states, that she had been afflicted with
asthma for twelve years, and, although on her arrival in Illinois, she had
to work hard, to submit to much exposure, and to great hardships, Uer


ILLINOIS. 87
complaint entirely left her, and she and her family enjoyed excellent
health. Mr. J. B. Newhall, indeed, observes that the proportion of
prairie land to wood land, and the great quantity of too level prairie ren-
der Illinois more liable to bilious diseases than Iowa or Wisconsin—but
then the emigrant may find, near Peoria or Jacksonville, a prevailing un-
dulation, and either there, or in the neighbourhood of Springfield, according
to general testimony the situation is declared to be healthy. The geniality
of the climate, undoubtedly, would suggest the propriety of a much more
decidedly oriental system of dietetics than prevails here. Tempted by
the cheapness of all sorts of liquors, the abundance and variety of food,
and the extensive resources of confectionary, preserves, and made dishes,
emigrants accustomed to the regimen of colder climates, continue a diet
unsuited to any, especially, a warm climate. Disease feeds on the poison
of an overfed system. In Turkey and India, wine is forsworn from the
unsuitableness of stimulants to a high state of heat—a populous nation
lives on rice for the same reason—and during the warm season the diet in
Illinois should be of the most temperate description.
"There is no country in the world," observes Mr. Sherriff, an author
rather prone to depreciation,than exaggeration, "where a farmer can com-
mence operations with such a small outlay of money, and so soon obtain
a return as in Illinois. This arises from the cheapness of land, and the
facility with which it is cultivated, and will appear more evident from the
following statement:—Suppose a settler, with sufficient capital to pur-
chase and stock a farm, and maintain himself for six months. The farm
to consist of 200 acres, 35 forest, and the rest prairie. If the purchase
were made in spring, the expense might be thus stated :—
dollars cents.
Purchasing 200 acres at 1 j dollars 250 0
Fencing two fields of 40 acres, with eight rail fence 80 0
Ploughing by contract 80 acres at two dollars 160 0
Seed for 80 acres Indian corn, ten bushels, at 15 cents .... 1 50
Cutting and thrashing Indian corn, at three dollars per acre 240 0
Seed for 80 acres wheat, after Indian corn, 45 bushels at 45
cents 20 25
Harrowing wheat ..... 20 O
Cows, four at eight dollars, young cattle, eight at five dol-
lars, pigs, ten 82 C
Buildings and household furniture 600 0
Maintenance of family six months, vegetables, seeds, potatoes,
and poultry 150 25
Total dollars 1604 0
With an expenditure of £340 17s. sterling, is obtained the dairy produce
of four cows, and the improvement of eight cattle, grazing on the prairie,
and 3,200 bushels of Indian corn, besides vegetables, and the improve-
ment of a lot of pigs and poultry.
"The attention of the settler is supposed to be confined to the cultiva-
tion of vegetables, tending the cows and pigs, and planting and husking
Indian corn.
IS


88 - ILLINOIS.
"In the spring of the second year eighty additional acres would be
fenced, ploughed, planted with Indian corn, and harvested at the same
expense as the first year dollars 481 50 cents
Harvesting 80 acres of wheat at 3 dollars 240 0
Total dollars 721 50 cents
Supposing the Indian corn of the second year equal to the first crop, the
wheat to yield 22| bushels per acre, and cost 2 J bushels in thrashing, the
farmer, in eighteen months, would have expended 2325 dollars 50 cents
or £484 4s. 6d. In the same way he would have reaped 6,400 bushels of
Indian corn, and 1,600 bushels of wheat, and enjoyed abundance of ve-
getables, dairy produce, beef, pork, and poultry. With this produce, and
expenditure, the farmer does not perform any laborious work. The cal-
culation of the produce is much under what Illinois is said to yield, and
the expenses are stated at much higher than an industrious and frugal
occupier need lay out. A person with £130, and his own labour might
be settled in 80 acres, house, furniture, &c., &c., and, besides feeding well,
raise 2,406 bushels of corn, and 675 bushels of wheat. The cost of cul-
tivating an acre is £2 2s. 7d., the profit, £3 10s. 7d., leaving 28s. for
profit, and to meet the cost of fencing, thrashing, and marketing—calcu-
lating the nett profit at 10s. per acre, here is £100 a year on 200 acres,
and food into the bargain, on an outlay altogether of £340 17s. An or-
dinary farm labourer in Illinois, gets the value of 80 acres of land yearly
—in Britain, after deducting his board, one-tenth of an acre; comparing
wages with land, the former is 800 times better off than the latter.
"In Springfield, market butter is worth 4d., beef, l|d., pork, Id. per
lb., and much cheaper by the carcase; eggs, 3d. per dozen, wheat Is. 6Jd.
oats, 9d., corn, 5d. per bushel; good Muscavodo sugar, 5d., coffee, lOd.
per lb. Illinois abounds in all kinds of fruit in perfection. Honey, cot-
ton, wine, castor oil abound. Game of all kinds is in perfection."
We have here given a very meagre account of Mr. SherrifFs detail of
the infinite advantages of Illinois in coal, merchandise, and manufactures.
A most interesting corroboration of his statements has been presented in
"A true picture of Emigration" by the wife of a farmer who emigrated
from Leeds, and settled about fifty miles from the town of Quincey. Placed
in a remote district, they suffered privations, and were reduced by fires and
law suits nearly to beggary. But commencing with £20 they so increased
in substance, that in twelve years they had " a good heuse, abundant fur-
niture, no lack of good food, as beef, pork, butter, fowls, eggs, milk, flour,
and fruits, twenty head of cattle, seven horses, two foals, pigs, sheep; and
poultry innumerable, 360 acres of very productive improved land in three
farms, two of which are let at a dollar an acre per annum. We have seen
a neighbourhood grow up about us, and every convenience of civilized
life come to us and surround us."
This narrative, which combines the truth of history with the tender in-
terest of romance, teaches a most wholesome lesson to European emi-
grants. The worst class of Americans, scouted out of honest society, re-
treat into the remoteness of the back settlements, where the population is
scanty, and where the absence of police, officers of justice, and neighbours,


ILLINOIS. 8!)
leaves them at liberty to pursue their brutal, violent, and dishonest ten-
dencies without restraint. The innocent and ignorant emigrants from
Europe are without defence against these wretches, who combine the forces
of personal violence, and lawlessness, with a dexterous use of all the quirks
of American law. Both these means of persecution were effectually in-
flicted on this Yorkshire family, and we are convinced that no European
families should settle in thinly peopled districts, but that if they cannot
obtain land cheaply in a well settled neighbourhood, they had far better
hire themselves to employers in fully populated localities, than encounter
the dangers and hardships of the back woods.
Dr. John Thomas, of St. Charles, in Northern Illinois, a learned and
most intelligent writer and physician, observes, "On the streams it is
more or less aguish—on the prairie more healthy than in the woods, but
Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, are as healthy as any country on
earth—more so than the British isles. There is not a more eligible coun-
try than Fox River Valley. It would cost a man three times as much to
improve wild land, as to buy farms of 200 or 300 acres, which are to be
had in abundance, at the bare cost of the improvements. If you know
any likely to purchase a good stock farm, mine is 285 acres, 40 under cul-
tivation, a good frame house 30 feet by 40, a large garden and barn, and
commands a beautiful and extensive view, price £575. It is drier than
in England —warmer in summer, colder in winter. In this prairie coun-
try there is always a refreshing breeze. We have some hot days occa-
sionally, but they do not continue, soon becoming agreeable. In spring,
the weather is very variable—the autumn beautiful—and when the winter
is cold it is invigorating, clear as crystal, and sharp as edge of glass, last-
ing from the 5th of November to the 15th of February. If capitalists
did but know our advantages, they would certainly vest some of their
money in improvements here. Money yields readily 12per cent. on secu-
rity of improved farms, and on which interest, a family may live and en-
joy life undisturbed by taxes.
"This country is distressingly healthy. There is much less ague than
there used to be. I should advise you to come and see for yourself; you
can have respectable board for 7s. a week. About 1,500 dollars would
get you well under weigh." Mr. Newhall gives a detailed account of tho
cost of completely settling in a farm of 80 acres, including a house, family
expenses, implements, stock, and land, from which it appears that a be-
ginner may be well established for £80.
"An European emigrant," observes Mr. Flower, " first comingto Ame-
rica, changes his pounds sterling into dollars, and a dollar in America
goes as far as a pound in England. A cow worth £15 in England, is worth
15 dollars in Western America. Land in the old states is worth as many
dollars as pounds in England. In the Western States land is much
cheaper, clothing and labour dearer, bread, meat, andfuel, much cheaper.
let all who think of emigrating come in time, and not wait till they have
lost their all. Those who have saved £1,000 will find it will count 4,444
dollars, and for all purposes of life will go as far as so many pounds in
England."
This intelligent writer, after twenty years personal experience of the
life of a settler in Albion (Northern Illinois), and an intimate acquaint13


gO ILLINOIS.
ance with the history and circumstances of hundreds of English families
who accompanied or followed him, reports that they have enjoyed a higher
measure of health than they ever did in England, and have, with scarcely
an exception, risen from the narrowest circumstances to comfort, compe-
tency, and independence. For his charming and graphic descriptions oi
the beauties of nature, and the easy minded happiness of prairie life, we
are sorry we cannot find room, but they will well repay perusal. When
Messrs. Birkbeck and Flower had been settled for a few years, their state-
ments fell under the lash of William Cobbett, who, under an affected
friendliness, virtually called them impostors, and their statements an inte-
rested cheat. In the face of thousands of English settlers, witnesses to
his statements, Mr. Flower is enabled, after twenty years experience, to give
even a more flattering account of the stable prosperity, and contentment of
his neighbours than at first; and Mr. Stuart, the factory commissioner, him-
self a large landowner, and one of the most skilful grain and stock farm-
ers in Scotland, in his admirable work on America, more than corrobo-
rates, from minute personal inspection, all that has been said on the sub-
ject. A fact is worth a thousand theories and mere fancies of individuals.
That fact, that 85 per cent of the whole emigrants from Europe at large,
and Great Britain in particular, settle in the United States, and at least
65 per cent. of these in the Western States, is worth all that ever was writ-
ten as evidence of the eligibility of the location. It is by friends and re-
lations writing home, and giving the testimony of witnesses to their con-
dition, that that tide of emigration is produced.
Mr. Stuart went over the Military Tract and Sangamon territory. He
examined the farm of Mr. Wilson, an Englishman, who in ten years had
raised himself to even wealth, on a farm three feet deep in soil, never ma-
nured, never yielding less than eight quarters of wheat to the acre. Mr.
Hillam he found in a farm near Jacksonville, (surrounded by 25 York-
shire families,) in eighteen months made productive and profitable, and
with gardens yielding the finest fruits and vegetables. Messrs. Alisons',
settlers of seven years standing, and the Rev Mr. Brick, from Cheshire,
were already almost wealthy. Mr. Kerr, a journeyman carpenter, from
Edinburgh, was in possession of a fine farm of 500 acres, commanding
every comfort, and all of these settlers enjoyed excellent health. Mrs.
Pritchard, an English quakeress, proprietress of a beautiful estate, reported
that all the companions of Mr. Flower had attained a comfortable inde-
pendence, except such as carried large capital, recklessly spent, with them.
—Mr. David Thompson, a gardener, from East Lothian, had a splendid
farm near Albion.
"I had the pleasure," says Mr. Stuart, "to accompany Mr. Flower over
his farm. He considers May nearly equal in climate and forwardness of
vegetation to the Devonshire June, and considers the changes in England
from wet to dry, as more unhealthy than those from heat to cold in
America. He lends money at 10 per cent. on the best security, which is
lower than the current rate. His family are delighted with their position.
Labourers with a little money to buy a bit of land, mechanics, store-
keepers, and farmers, are pretty much on a level as to rank in society.
Mr. and Mrs. Flower made light of this as an offset against the more
natural state of intercourse which it produced There is perfect freedom


MICHIGAN. 91
from anxiety in this country, so far as regards circumstances in life, and that
feeling makes them happy. He knew every child of his would be well
provided for. He must, indeed, eat with his servants. No one should
emigrate who cannot change his mode of life. Difficulties as to servants
he must be prepared to meet; but in one respect servants are far superior
to British,—there is never any pilfering among them. Improved land
with fences already put up, may be had for four or 5 dollars,(17s. to 21s.) per acre."
MICHIGAN.
This state presents a greater variety of surface than Illinois or any of
the Western States. More than half the area is covered with dense
forests, and the rest is prairie, burr oak openings, marshes, and pine
groves. The north is bold and rocky, broken by mountain and valley.
The centre is marshy. The south has much fine land and abuts on the
Erie canal. There is abundance of game and fish. The immense forests
and swamps of the state give rise to a variety of fevers and miasmatic
and bilious diseases. The charming sketches of Mrs. Kirkland, the
Goldsmith of America, describe this as "a beautiful country, inhabited
by a rude but simple minded people." But fever and ague figure too fre-
quently in her pages, and we consider the state as not well suited to the
British emigrant. "I felt," says Mr. Sherriff, "considerable disap-
pointment at the general aspect of the country, which, with the exception
of about twenty-five miles next Detroit, was found to consist of oak
openings, chiefly sand, and exhibiting few marks of fertility. The sur-
face is gently undulating, and from the thinness of the trees, and fre-
quency of streams, lakes, and prairies, highly picturesque. White Pigeon
is a pretty village, in neatness and comfort resembling those of New
England. An old farmer from New England exclaimed, "Surely this
must have been the place where Adam and Eve resided." It is said
many English farmers are settled here who have good threshing ma-
chines. These prairies are not fully occupied, and land sells at from
3 dollars to 6 dollars per acre." Towards the southern part of the state
Mr. Sherriff indicates a more favorable opinion of the country. Mr.
Fergusson, employed by the Highland Society to survey the states,
gives a more favorable account of Michigan. "The climate is tem-
perate and healthy, with four months of winter, and is more congenial to
the European constitution than the other Western States." He gives
from the experience of settlers the following estimate of a location:
160 acres at 1 j dollars per acre £45
Seed, labour, rail fence for 15 acres at 6 dollars 202 10s.
Harvesting at 2 dollars 67 10s.
Dwelling house, stables, &c 180
Beturas. £495
Produce of 150 acres, at 20 bushels per acre, one dollar
per bushel £675
Profit £180


92 INDIANA,—WISCONSIN.
Detroit, the capital of Michigan, is the Constantinople of the West.
The influx of emigrants is immense. It will be seen from the foregoing
items that the produce of land is only a half what it is in Illinois; but the
price seems to be nearly double. We entertain doubts, however, whether
33s. 4d. per quarter can be long obtainable for wheat, either here or any
where else in America. All are producers,—the consumers are few, the
cost of shipment is great, and the European markets offer grain at a
much lower price.
INDIANA,
Between Michigan and Illinois, is to the south of the former, and to the
north of the latter, which it more resembles in climate and soil. It is
mostly prairie, and is well watered. Mr. Owen's settlement of New Harmony
is in this state, which had been occupied by a colony of Germans, who
moved from it to Illinois. Mr. Flint describes this part of it as high,
healthy, fertile, and in the vicinity of small rich prairies. Mr. Stuart
observes, "Mr. Flint is of opinion that the metropolis of the republic
will be in the Western States. He recommends Europeans to pay great
attention to health, the first season, by the use of repeated doses of calo-
mel, by which they escape bilious diseases, and when acclimated become
healthy. Freedom from consumption, from the great purity and clearness
of the atmosphere, gives them a great advantage." "The soil both of Ohic
and Indiana is highly productive; but as the prairies are not so extensive,
as in Illinois, and the soil in Illinois is certainly the most fertile in the
union, it appeared to me to be unnecessary to make a minute inspection
of any part of the other Western States. Plenty of improved land is to
be had in the neighbourhood of Cincinnati, varying in price according to
distance."*
WISCONSIN.
This territory adjoins Michigan, and is on the northern boundary of
Illinois. It is a uniform level, abounds in prairie, and being to the north
of Illinois, is more healthy and less subject to ague and bilious diseases.
It abounds in small lakes and rivers, and is intersected with creeks. It
commands the navigation of the Mississippi, Lake Michigan, and the
Canadian lakes, is very fertile, and produces wild rice in abundance. It
abounds in coal and other minerals, and is in course of very rapid settle-
ment, being the southern boundary of Upper Canada. Mr. John Cole,
a farmer from Somersetshire, settled in the district of Racine, in this
territory, and his account is fully corroborated by a gentleman who
• "I have heard ample testimony to the healthiness of Indiana. The winter is
not so cold, and the summer not so hot as in Canada. Ague is disappearing;. Avoid-
ing the undrainedprairie, and swampy woodland,the British labourer would greatly
improve his condition by a removal to that state, and with care might become inureu
to the climate without much previous sickness. Much of the illness is from want of
caution, and much from poverty. A decent house, sheds for horses, that they may be
found when wanted, instead of being hunted through the long wet prairie grass,
wouldeave many a fit of ague."—I'kektick.


iowa. 93
arrived from that country in England, in 1843. He says; "It is by far
the best place in the world for the English farmer or rural mechanic,
with small capital. There is now plenty of land near this handsome sea
port, (Racine,) at 5s. an acre, deeds included; and improved farms, with
house, out-buildings, and fenced in, at from 3 dollars to 6 dollars per
acre. The land here is the best I have ever seen; black loam for six
inches to two feet deep, all prairie, with timber in clumps, like a gentle-
man's park, and suited to every crop. Garden vegetables grow in per-
fection, as well as English fruits and flowers. It is the best country in
America for game, fish and water; there is plenty of living water on every
farm: wells can be got anywhere, and every kind of timber. Wild fruits
of all kinds. The crop is thirty to forty bushels wheat, thirty to sixty
Indian corn, forty to sixty oats, and barley, and flax, and buckwheat in
proportion per acre. The best pasturage for cattle and sheep; hay three
tons per acre. No country can be more healthy, being open, high prairies
in a northern latitude. No persons are ill from the climate, only ague in
the swamps. We have a good cash market; hay, 2 dollars to 4 dollars
per ton; working cattle, £8 to £12; cows, 12 dollars; sheep 6s. to 8s.;
flour 5 dollars per bushel; wheat 3s. 4d. per bushel; Indian corn Is. 6d.;
barley, 2s.; oats, Is. 3d.; buckwheat, 2s.; pork, 2d.; beef, 3d.; butter 8d.;
cheese, 4d. The expense of coming to this place from New York to
Buffalo, by canal, 3 dollars in seven days; by rail, 10 dollars in two days;
and by steam boat thence here 6 dollars in four days and a half. Up-
wards of a hundred farmers have come here in consequence of my former
letter; not one has left. We have all conveniences: shops, goods as
cheap as in England, places of worship, saw and flour mills, daily news-
papers, and the New York mail every day. In short, every convenience
you could have near New York; and your produce will sell for nearly as
much, with double the crop on the new land."
IOWA.
This territory, which once formed part of Wisconsin is now separated
from it, and is the frontier territory of the west, and the ultima thule of
civilization. It is very healthy, very beautiful, very fertile, abounding
in fair uplands of alluvial soil. But its population are rude, brutal, and
lawless, and possessing no settled institutions or legislature, it is obvious
that it will be avoided bj all persons of character and orderly habits. Its
miners, like those of Galena, are worse than savages. We may dismiss
our account of this region, for which nature has done everything, and man
nothing, by the assurance that at present it is entirely unfitted for the
settlement of emigrants, except such as
"Leave their country for their country's good."
"He has taken Iowa short," is the American phrase for a rascal who
has made other places " too hot to hold him."


94 COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATES.
COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATES
The climate of these states seems to be modified by two circumstances.
The further south the settler reaches, the longer will he find the spring
and summer, and the greater will he find the tendency to bilious fevers.
The further west he tends, he will discover the cold of the north attem-
pered into greater mildness. The east and north is therefore the coldest
and most extreme region, in point of climate, the west and south the
most genial. Northern Ohio is perhaps too rigid—southern Illinois too
torrid. Yet the winters in Indiana and northern Illinois are extremely
severe, although they are of shorter duration than those of Ohio.
Michigan has the advantage of being bordered on the north, west,
and east by Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, great fresh water seas,
which greatly temper the summer heats with lake breezes—but its ex-
treme northerly situation, and its masses of wood, water, and swamp,
coupled with its semi-insular position, render its winters very severe, and
its summers, but especially "the fall," not very healthy. Its southern
districts are described as the most genial and salubrious, as well as the
most fertile, in point of soil.
Indiana, which is bounded on the north by the southern margin of
Michigan, may therefore be expected to be an improvement upon it in
point of climate; and accounts appear to agree in assigning a preference
to that state in this respect. Not being so far to the west as Illinois,
while it is yet equally far south, it is probably rather less subject to the
febrile complaints of the western region.
Wisconsin is further to the north than Indiana or Illinois, but being
also further to the west, the rigidity is tempered by that circumstance,
and by its boundaries, Lakes Michigan and Superior on the east and
north.
Iowa, formerly a portion of Wisconsin, has recently been severed
from it, and erected into a separate state, with an independent govern-
ment and legislature. To the south and west of these are the frontier
states of Missouri, and Arkansas, but as they are avoided almost univer-
sally by European settlers on account of their insalubrity or lawlessness,
it seems unnecessary here, further to notice their qualifications for the
reception of emigrants.
Iowa and Wisconsin have recently commanded considerable attention
as fields of European settlement—especially for persons of the labouring
or mechanic class. Wisconsin has superior advantages in the shape of
transit from its northern and western boundaries on the great lakes—a
consideration of much importance in the development of its commercial
resources. But Iowa is intersected in great part by the Mississippi, the
highway of the Western Union, by the Monies, and the Iowa, both of
which are navigable. Situated as far west, and further south than Wis-
consin, the state is more temperate and healthy, and also more fertile.
Looking at its geographical position, we should be inclined to expect that
it is better adapted for European settlers in point of salubrity and geniality.
Much useful information has been afforded in reference to these states
by associations in this country, formed to facilitate the settlement of


COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATES. 95
working men _n their most favoured districts; and Mr. George Shepherd,
the editor of the Eastern Counties Herald, who spent several years in
both States, and subjected himself to personal experience of their manner
of life, by roughing it like the natives, supplies intelligent, and we have
no reason to believe, other than trustworthy details on the subject, of
their actual condition, advantages, and drawbacks.
In a fair, and not ungenial, spirit, he takes us to task for the disparag-
ing account, we have not hesitated to give of the state of society in Iowa.
That he has not convinced us that we are in error, does not arise from
any disinclination to retract what we may discover to be wrong. We see
so many grounds of encouragement to settle in these states, from the
nature of the soil and climate, that we are only too willing to be fur-
nished with reasons for justifying a recommendation in their favour.
But we speak from authority in reference to the social condition of
the territory up to the year 1844, and although five years are an age in the mere material progress of a young American State, we are satisfied
that such an interval affords little time for moral or social improvement,
if, indeed, it does not raise a presumption, rather of temporary retrogres-
sion in the ratio of an unnatural influx of population. As a generalrule
it is only daring and desperate men who become the pioneers of civiliza-
tion into frontier states. Nothing but a necessity which amounts to des-
peration, would lead those, who have any hold on the hopes and com-
forts of a civilized community, to tempt the wilderness or the untrodden
prairie. Mr. Shepherd's own admission, that law only began to exist in
Iowa in 1848 is pretty substantial proof that, prior to that time, the peo-
ple had to be a law unto themselves—an experiment for which English-
men in England are unfit—and by which the omnium gatherum which
finds itself a community in Iowa, is still less prepared to abide. The
narrative of the eventful life of the emigrants from Yorkshire, to which
we have before alluded, clearly proves that even iu the well settled state
of Illinois, the absence of police, and of the effectual authority of law,
left the inoffensive settlers a prey to the most lawless brutality, against
which there was scarcely any protection. It is not merely American but
human nature, that the lawless will run to where there is no law—and
there they will make the rule of the strongest reign. Where is an Ame-
rican vagabond so likely to go as to a frontier territorv, in which, even if
he is pursued, he knows he can set retribution at defiance—or, at the
worst, can cross the frontier and there find himself safe among the wilds
and wild beasts. Who in America will work in mines, except to have
large money wages, which he may squander in debauchery, as the gold
finders do in California? There is abundance of land for all for the til-
ling. Who that loves the habits of peaceful industry, would prefer work-
ing under ground, except that he may be supplied with the means of fits
of idleness and dissoluteness. Mining is the chief industrial occupation
of the state, and one of the most demoralizing, everywhere, except amidst
the stringest restraints of an old country, where the bad are compelled
by wholesome fear of the constable, to assume a virtue, if they have it
not. Mr. Shepherd proves little by showing that he slept in houses with-
out bars, and with money, without being robbed. Open theft from a
man's person, or burglary in his house, is not the American way of doing


96 COMPARISON OP WESTERN STATES.
business. "The wise" and the Yankees "convey it call." They keep
the bare law ontheirside by swindling, or promise breaking, in place of
open thieving—and, if they desire to take possession of what is not their
own, or to sicken you out of what is yours, they break down your fences,
lead their horse or cattle among your corn, get up some forged title to
your log hut and clearing, gouge your eye out, or flourish their bowie
knife. Mr. Prentice tells us that his nephew had been murdered just
before his arrival, with the favorite quarrel settler of the West—quarrels
to a great extent, meaning only ruffianly spoliation under the cloak of
the argument which the wolf urged to the lamb. God forbid we should
allege that this is universal. Many, very many, worthy men are to be
found among these wilds, ready to assist the weak and innocent against
the brutal. But it is perfectly obvious from the nature of the case, that
frontier settlements will always be the refuge of the vicious criminal, and
lawless of more orderly communities—and there finding the restraints of
constituted authority, necessarily weaker than where a denser population
can vindicate its power, we are to expect what is invariably found the
hardy, bold, adventurous, but also the violent and dishonest. Doubtless
as the settlement becomes more attractive to persons of orderly habits,
and the increase of population, subjects the actions of all to the eye of
many neighbours, great improvements will take place in this respect.
Even already to the poor and the physically strong, if they live in each
others vicinity the ruffianism of the bad will not present a very formid-
able aspect, and their uneasy neighbourhood may have its compensation
in the advantages of soil, climate, and cheapness. Families migrating
thither in co-operative association can combine against the common enemy
and drive him from the field. But other well ordered districts offer
themselves in so many quarters, that we see no necessity for any one to
betake himself to this pis alter of emigration.
It may be proper, however, before dismissing this subject, which, from
the increasing tendency of associative migration to direct itself to Wis-
consin and Iowa, rises in importance and interest to the reading public
to afford more ample details of the various topics it involves:—
"Iowa," observes Mr. J. Buxton Murray, "is situated at what has
been called 'the fag end of the world,' certainly at the western extremity
of civilization. A considerable portion of its inhabitants are connected
with the extensive lead mines of the West, and for these reasons their
character is far from being that of a polished people. The settler will
therefore be subjected to a great many social inconveniences and dif-
ficulties, common to all frontier countries. But should the mode of
settlement recommended in these pages be adopted, the annoyances of a
frontier life will be less felt, as each party will find companions and
associates in their own friends or relations, and the sooner also will the
character of the country be raised in the scale of moral excellence."
Dr. John Thomas, of St. Charles Dane County Illinois, states:—
"As to the population of Iowa, it is something like that of Texas, the
refuse of the States, and of Europe. The phrase, 'He has taken the
Iowa short' isfamiliar in these parts, for hethat has fled the country for his
crimes. It is a frontier territory, and, like all such, is the ultima Thult
af the civilized world. For myself, I would as soon go into exile at once


€OMPA*IBON OP WESTERN STATBS. 97
as emigrate to Iowa as it !s. A civilized man wants something more in
this life than earth, water, air, and sky: unless he have congenial society,
the best farm is but a dreary waste. I speak from experience.
"As to the health of Iowa, this same rule will apply as to all this
north-western region. On the streams it is more or less aguish, accord-
ing to the bilious predisposition of the settlers. On the open prairie it is
more healthy than in the timber; but, upon the whole, Northern Illinois,
Wisconsin, and Iowa, are as healthy as any country upon earth. There
is less disease, in general, in these countries than in the British Isles;
diseases arising from poverty are unknown. I have not visited the min-
eral district, west of us some eighty miles, but those who have say that the
country is very hilly, and certainly not well adapted to farming purposes
—at least so we believe here, who have a country of fine undulations
and sloping plains. We are no advocates here for ploughing around hills,
or in deep hollows: we consider it too much labour for man and horse."
These extracts will be sufficient to show that we have not been
"speaking without book;" and, as we have shown that, in the very
nature of things, they have every presumption of truth in their favour,
we have not hesitated to adopt them. In that spirit of candid inquiry,
which can alone give any substantial value to a work which we are
anxious to make a safe and authoritative guide to emigrants, we call
into court Mr. Shepherd for the defendant, who thus files his answer to
the bill •—
"Undoubtedly, the general character of the population of the Western
States—Iowa included—exhibits a largo proportion of what our ex-
cessive refinement calls rudeness. They are in the main men who have
had a tough fight with fortune —who have reclaimed forest and prairie
with their own hands, and by their own labour have raised themselves
above want or the fear of want—who, though independent in circum-
stances, are yet strangers to luxurious ease—who have neither leisure
nor inclination to cultivate "the graces of civilization "—and who, in
their intercourse with neighbours or strangers, are not accustomed to
employ needless forms, or to waste time in compliments. They build
houses that are somewhat rough in their exterior, their furniture is
plain and scanty, their garments would shock a London tailor, and a
London epicure might turn with disdain from the homely but abundant
food which forms their daily fare. What is there in all this to terrify an
emigrant, or which an emigrant must not be prepared to encounter, go
where he will'
"Amidst the rudeness of frontier life, there are many redeeming traits.
So far as the north-western region is concerned, I am satisfied that life
and property are more secure than in this country. It is my lot now to
live under the protection of English law, and to share the security which
the legislation and institutions of centuries guarantee to all; soldiers are
in our barracks, ready at a moment's notice to sustain the public peace;
a well-organized police patrol in our towns and villages to guard our
persons and possessions. Even with these advantages neither persons
nor possessions are altogether safe; we feel that, though in England,
there are masses of men who live in utter violation of the law; and we
should as soon think of taking poison, or throwing our purses into tho
s


98 . COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATES.
sea, as of going to bed without previously ascertaining that our windows
and doors are secure."
We need scarcely say that, if with "soldiers in our barracks," and a "well
organized police," we are entirely unsafe, our predicament is not likely
to be improved where these restraints are entirely removed from the
disorderly—and that is just the case we make out against Iowa:—
"I was located," continues Mr. Shepherd, "amongst squatters, within
a few miles of the extreme frontier line, in the immediate neighbourhood
of an Indian settlement, and I have never felt a greater sense of security
than I then enjoyed. One fact will illustrate this: I slept for a con-
siderable period in a log-house which had neither door nor window-
frame, and with no other companion than a small Scotch terrier; people
around were acquainted with the circumstance, and may be supposed
also to have known that, as a recent settler, I was not wholly without
money; other settlers felt equal security, for only in one instance that I
am aware of was a lock or bolt employed; and yet, neither in my case,
nor in any case within my knowledge, was any robbery or outrage
effected or attempted.
"The kindness of the population is as uniform as their honesty. I
could name several instances which came under my own observation
where children deprived of parental protection were at once and without
solicitation taken home by neighbouring settlers, and fed, clothed, and
educated by them with as much care and consideration as though they
had been their own offspring. The highest purposes of a poor-law are
voluntarily fulfilled as a religious duty, and without the degradation
which here attends the acceptance of relief.
"Admitting, then, that in Iowa and Wisconsin, no less than in
England, there are men of ferocious character and lawless habits, I
maintain that the majority of the population are well-principled citizens,
obliging to neighbours, kind-hearted and generous to strangers."
We here leave the evidence to be balanced by the reader, and proceed
to that department of the subject about which there is likely to be less
difference of opinion.
"Supposing the frontier States to have been chosen, the question will
still remain, whether Iowa or Wisconsin is to be preferred.
"Wisconsin has hitherto been the favourite State with British emi-
grants. The Temperance Emigration Society and the Potters' Society
have established settlements there. I travelled over a large portion of it
in 1843, and found numerous parties of old country people everywhere.
In the neighbourhood of Racine, a port on Lake Michigan, a small body
of London mechanics had raised their humble dwellings; and in the in-
terior were various groups of log-houses, tenanted by men who held
some distinctive principle in common. Many of these men had belonged
to Owen's co-operative movement in its palmiest days. The Temperance
Society's location is within a moderate distance of Madison, the capital,
and possesses, in an eminent degree, the important qualifications of sa-
lubrity and fertility, combined with almost unequalled natural beauty.
The Society did not commence operations until after I had left Wis-
consin; but I have a vivid recollection of the delight with which I first
gazed upon the glorious scenery of the district they have chosen. Were


COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATES. • 03
t called upon, however, to advise an emigrant as to his choice of a dis-
trict, I should certainly name that through which the Rock River flows,
as, on the whole, the best farming country I saw in Wisconsin.
"Of the neighbouring State of Iowa, comparatively little is known in
this country; although it is, I think, superior in many respects to all
the other Western States. It is as beautiful as Illinois or Wisconsin, and
more healthy than either; its soil is pronounced, by competent autho-
rities, the richest in the Union. It has apparently great mineral
wealth; it has an admixture of prairie and timbered land, with an abun-
dant supply of water; and it holds out advantages as a pastoral
country.
"■Lee county is one of the most thickly populated, and, commanding
both the Mississippi and Des Monies Rivers, enjoys a good commercial
position. In the interior are many flourishing villages. It is understood
that some caution is necessary in the purchase of land from settlers in
this county, in consequence of certain half-breed (Indian) reservations; but of course no difficulty exists when the purchase is effected at the
government land office. The flourishing town of Burlington, on the
Mississippi, invests Des Monies county with importance in a business
point of view; but its surface is rather too level, and its soil too heavy,
for the general purposes of agriculture. Dubuque—next to Burlington
In population and business—is also on the Mississippi. In Jackson
county, between Dubuque and the Maquoketa River, there is plenty of
timber and water, and prairie farms. Muscatine county is well settled
and well watered; in some tracts it is deficient in timber, and in others
is rather unhealthy. Between this county and the Maquoketa—in-
cluding Scott and Clinton counties—there is a fine and fertile region,
with several rising towns. Devenport, for instance, is in Scott county,
opposite to Rock Island, Illinois. Among the interior counties, Van
Buren is the most deserving of notice, on account of the extent of the
improvements which have been there effected. It is immediately behind
Lee county, and on the Des Monies River. Jefferson county is to the
north of Van Buren, and is handsome, well wooded, and watered by the
Checauque, with numerous tributaries. Linn county, again, is highly
extolled, as having a more desirable proportion of timber and prairie
land than most of its neighbours. The northern part of the State—that
is, above the Iowa River—is, in my judgment, the best adapted at the
present time for settlement by British emigrants. The population is less
than in the southern division, but the soil is much superior. The pre-
cise spot for location cannot with safety be indicated; but I am warranted
in recommending the emigrant to pass Burlington, and land either at
Devenport or Dubuque. The former will readily conduct him to the
choicest parts of Scott and Clinton counties; while Dubuque should be
chosen by those who deserve most easily to reach the picturesque scenery
of the Maquoketa, or who have a fancy for the lead diggings. Those
counties are usually considered the best which are contiguous to the
Mississippi; but it must be borne in mind that the Des Monies and Iowa
Rivers are navigable to some distance by boats of light draught; and
the Wapsipinecon is by many said to be improvoable at a comparatively
small outlay.
k 2


100 COMPARISON OF WESTERN SPATES.
"The aggregate population of the State cannot be much less than
200,000.
"The produce of Iowa is varied and abundant. Wheat and maize are
the crops to which the settler first turns his attention. The remarkable
ease with which maize is cultivated, and the numberless uses to which it
is applicable, renders it a crop of the utmost importance to the emigrant;
beside which it is the best sod crop, that is, the crop grown on the turf
when newly turned by the breaking plough, and before cross-ploughing
has been applied. Wheat, again, thrives amazingly, and is always re-
garded as a cash article. It is customary to speak of it as producing
from 30to 40 bushels to the acre; but though I have no doubt that, with
care and industry, crops of that character may be raised; I am bound to
add, that what I saw of the western country, left a conviction that not
more than twenty bushels are ordinarily obtained. Even that, however,
is a large crop, considering the slovenly character of the farming. In
Wisconsin I planted potatoes with great success, and the soil and climate
of Northern Iowa are, I think, equally favourable for the growth of that
root. Turnips, too, succeeded well, but their importance as winter pro-
vender is lessened by the abundance of pumpkins, which literally require
no care whatever. Oats do well, but except in the immediate vicinity of
towns do not command money. Hemp may be raised in any part of the
State, and in the warmer distriets, tobacco and the castor bean will, in
time, become staple articles of growth. Beet root has been introduced
to some extent in Illinois. Iowa is quite as much adapted for it as Illi-
nois. Beef, pork, hides, lard, and wool, are articles which the Iowa far-
mer may bring into the market with certain profit. There are no natural
pastures in the world to be compared to the prairies of that State. Coarse
as the wiry grass seems to the eye of the stranger, he soonlearns to dis-
cover its fattening qualities, as the food of the horned cattle which roam
almost at will during the spring, summer, and autumn; the pig finds
sustenance in the acorns and wild roots of the timbered lands, and are
fattened at a cost little more than nominal. The sheep carries a capital
care ase, and yields a fleece of more than common excellence.
"Mining must not be forgotten in the enumeration of the pursuits to
which the inhabitants of this region direct their attention. Several thou-
sands of persons are already engaged in digging for lead; and hereafter
coal and iron ore must occupy attention.
"The articles of export for which the settler may obtain more or less
cash, are, then, flour, beef, pork, lard, hides, and wool. I say 'more
or less cash;' and I do so, because, even in regard to these articles, 'trad-
ing,' or barter, largely prevails. A common rule at the store is, half pay-
ment in goods, half in cash; although there are many dealers who pay
all in cash for wheat, pork, and wool. Lead is invariably a cash article;
and hence, both in Iowa and Wisconsin, the mining district is that in
which the most ready money is to be had.
"Dubuque, Davenport, and Burlington are the chief seats of com-
merce in the State. Iowa city, the seat of government, is in Johnson County, on the Iowa River, which is navigable by small steamers. Fort
Madison and Keobuck are relatively important places, and others of a
similar character are rising in different counties. At all of these places


COMPARISON OF WESTERN STATEB. 101
tho emigrant has markets for his produce. The fact that the whole are
not cash markets has given rise to a belief that none but settlers who
have lands within a very moderate distance of the Mississippi can dispose
of what they have to sell. The constant influx of emigrants into the
interior of the country furnishes a demand for grain and meat of great
value to the farmer. I cannot better illustrate this, than by stating that
in Sauk County, Wisconsin, I paid quite as high a price for wheaton
flour as was paid in this country in average years before the repeal of the
corn laws, the article being brought from St. Louis up the Wisconsin
River in a steamer of light burthen.
"An important advantage of a prairie country is, that it offers faci-
lities for the construction of roads not to be found in the eastern states,
or in Canada. No riding can be smoother or easier than over a gently
undulating meadow, which is all that a prairie amounts to; and the
"corduroy roads" which run through the heavily wooded lands are of
comparatively small extent. It is well that they are so; though the an-
noyance they occasion is not greater to the teamster than that which
arises from the marshy districts, where the water often reaches to the axle of the wagon wheel, and hides a somewhat treacherous bottom. On
the main lines of communication, the roads are, generally speaking, ex-
cellent; rough but substantial bridges have been constructed, where
necessary; where rivers are too broad for bridges, ferries are provided;
and these advantages are continually being multiplied and extended, in
proportion to the increase and development of settlements. The settlers
have a habit of helping themselves, when an obstacle is to be removed,
or an easier path to a place of business constructed; and their efforts aro
admirably seconded by the unceasing efforts of the local legislature to
effect public improvements. The liberal provision made throughout the
American Union for the secular education of its people proverbially and
deservedly constitutes one of its most honourable characteristics; and,
next to it must be placed a uniform determination to do all that can be
done for the development of the immense resources of the country, by
rendering rivers more navigable, by forming state roads and canals, and
by assisting in the construction of railroads."
"In reference to the course to be pursued by the moneyed emigrant
on his arrival in Iowa, some diversity of opinion prevails. The mecha-
nic, or unskilled labourer, who wends his way to that distant region to
procure the bread which he cannot earn "at home," and who reaches
Burlington or Dubuque with but few shillings in his pocket, has plainly
no alternative but to seek employment, and accept it at the current rate
of wages; and this task is, happily, easy of accomplishment. But with
the moneyed emigrant the case is different. He has to choose between
settled districts, where improved farms are to be purchased; and unsettled
districts, where the whole work of improvement is to be performed. The
former are usually preferred by men with families, who are anxious to
effect comfortable settlements without loss of time, and to secure advan-
tages only to be obtained in peopled localities—proximity to the resi-
dence of a medical man, a store, a school, or a chapel, or all of them.
They decide upon selecting land already partially under cultivation, with
a house and sheds already built, with a well dug, and with ten, twenty,


102 COMPARISON OP WESTERN STATES.
thirty, or forty acres fenced, ploughed, and in crop. The American set-
tlers are, as a body, prepared at any time to sell their farms, and to com-
mence anew their arduous labours, when the change is profitable. The
amount of profit required depends upon circumstances, which preclude
any attempt to fix the price at which the emigrant may obtain his object.
The needy farmer, struggling with debt and law, enters the market at a
disadvantage, and will often "sell out" at a serious sacrifice. The father
of half-a-dozen boys and girls, rapidly rising into their teens, discovers,
it may be, that the farm to be apportioned amongst them is small, and in
that case he will be content with a moderate sum for the improvements
effected, in additon to the average price of land as enhanced by rising
towns and villages. It is for the emigrant to act with caution, and, if not
aided by the advice of resident friends, to avoid everything like making
an offer until he has formed an idea of the position of the parties he de-
sires to address. If he be ostentatious, and seek to impress those about
him with a sense of his wealth, depend upon it he will pay for his pride,
and pay smartly too. A shrewd man will avoid this, even by seeking
information as an inquirer rather than as a purchaser. Quite as much
depends upon the tact with which this is done as upon the circumstances
of the actual settler. I have known a snug little farm to be purchased
within an easy distance of a good market for one half the price paid for
land, at least 120 miles distant from a similar place. Why was this?
Simply because the buyer in one case knew how to transact business,
while, in the other, he placed confidence in statements which moderate
inquiry would have proved to be groundless. One had acquired western
experience; the other, though not a simpleton, had failed to study the
nature of his position. So far is the latter from being a singular case, that I think it would not be difficult to show that the "great bargains,"
about which we now and then read in the published letters of emigrants,
are few in comparison with the number of errors committed by parties
unduly eager to obtain settlements.
"If asked to state at what price improved farms may be obtained, I
should say that they range from ten dollars per acre in the neighbourhood
of towns to three dollars per acre in less populated districts; houses,
sheds, and fences, being given, as it were. Where land has reached the
higher figure, one half of an eighty acre farm ought to be in cultivation;
in more remote places the proportion will be considerably less; seldom,
indeed, more than twenty acres, often not more than ten. Farms of the
last description are frequently found in districts not actually "in the
market" that is, not yet offered for sale at the government land.office.
The value set upon the improvements by the seller is added by him to
what he deems the worth of his "pre-emption right," which is the term
used to convey the preferential claim of the possessor to the purchase of
the land when ordered by the president to be sold. Having purchased
the pre-emption right, the emigrant will be able, at the proper time,
to buy the freehold at the ordinary rate, namely, a dollar and a quarter
per acre.
"While a single stranger will act wisely in purchasing improved land,
I think it may be proved, that parties of emigrants will, in the main,
consult their interest by settling on wild prairie land, and creating for
themselves all the improvements they require.


MIBDLB AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES. 108
"Autumn is, I think, the best season for the arrival of the emigrant
in Iowa; because, if disposed to labour for others, he is certain of being
able to find work at harvest-time, while, if in better circumstances, he
will have his land 'broken,' preparatory to putting in a good spring crop.
Spring is the cheapest time for arrival for members of emigration socie-
ties, who have intrusted preliminary arrangements to an agont. Certainly,
he should bo there in Autumn, partly because that is the season at
which he can most satisfactorily survey the country before deciding upon
the location; and, in the next place, because he will have the close of
the 'Indian Summer,' with winter and early spring, in which to prepare
for the reception of the party represented by him."
The present prices in Iowa are three to four dollars per bushel for flour,
2s. 6d. for wheat, 9Jd. for maize, 9jd. for oats, Is. 3d. for barley; coals,
6d. per bushel, butter, 5d. per lb., ham, 2jd., cheese, 4|d., chickens 4d.
each; eggs, 2Jd. per dozen; potatoes, Is. 8d. per bushel; beans, Is. 8d.,
apples, 5s., dried peaches, 8s.,
We have here placed the evidence before the reader, and have done
every justice to the statements of Mr. Shepherd. It is not at all un-
likely that persons designing to settle in the Western States may be
induced by the attractions of climate and scenery, to prefer Iowa, to
Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, especially as the former has the reputation of
superior salubrity. Indeed, we entertain a strong conviction, that the tide of western emigration is not likely to stop at Illinois, when Iowa is
to be reached a little further on—because, although some parts of the
older western states are healthy and picturesque, all the best and most
salubrious localities are pretty fully occupied.
MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES.
Cobbett fulminated unmeasured diatribes against Flower and Birk-
beck, for their preference of the Western to the New England States.
Having experience of both, he warned all Europeans against encounter-
ing the perils and hardships of the former. This sentiment we find re-
peated by many persons of intelligence, both American and British.
Indeed, we regard it as a prevailing opinion of Americans of the middle
class, and of English gentlemen who have been long resident in America.
The recent accounts we receive of the middle and south western states,
induce us to entertain the conviction that while the north-eastern states
are too subject to extremes of climate, and to a long and rigid winter, a
compromise may be made between these and the extreme western and
southern states.
A sort of Delta, made by the western slope of the Alleghany
Mountains, the east bank of the Mississippi, and the Ohio river embraces
the, perhaps on the whole, finest region of the United States. In this
triangle are embraced parts of Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, South
Ohio, andTennessee;and to this region we are inclined to assign the
preference, as a place of settlement for British emigrants over all other
regions of the union. This impression has grown upon us from recent


MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES. 106
fitted by inclination and habit to be pioneers to penetrate and subdue
their forests. I would stay nearer home; the Atlantic places me at a
sufficient distance from it without wandering, at cost of time and money,
some thousand miles towards the Rocky Mountains. I have often won-
dered what could have taken so many of my fellow-countrymen away to
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, when they could have done as well in
Pennsylvania. I suppose they knew no better, but were sent thither by
land speculators or their agents.
"My opinion also is, that cleared lands are preferable, for my country-
men, to forest lands. I wish it, however, to be understood, that in saying
this, I express private opinion, though four years practice of farming in
the section of country in which I now reside, and intimate experience,
by residence in the woods, entitle my opinion to some weight.
"Let us first suppose that we have decided on forest land, unimproved
land, as it is here called. It may be purchased for from one to five
dollars per acre, according to the situation. Well, here it is; we are
now in the centre of our farm, consisting of one hundred acres.
How profound the gloom and solitude, you say. Yes, but you hear
the distant sound of an axe. Our neighbours are at work, and we shall
soon change the scene. What trees! Yes, it is heavily timbered, and
therefore good land. It is virgin soil, a plough has never profaned it.
To cut down these trees is our first business. We have brought with us
a good woodsman, for without him we could do but little; he will cut
down a tree while we should be looking round it to see where to begin.
His wages will be half a dollar per day and board. We must, of course,
cut down, first, such trees as are suitable for building our house, and get
that up as quick as we can, for our wives and children have been sleeping
long enough in the wagons and under the tents. When we have logs
enough prepared our neighbours will come and help us build. Let us
work well, and we shall have a good cabin in a day or two. Then we
must put up our outbuilding in the same manner. The next thing is to
prepare rails for our fence. For this purpose we must cut down oak
trees, that will rive well, and cut them into lengths of eleven feet,
split them, and carry them on to the line where the fence is to be. And
now we can go on felling the trees, but let us first select the site of our
permanent dwelling, for we must be careful to leave there some of the
handsomest trees for ornament and shade. We will not do like some of
our neighbours, who make a war of extirpation where they go, and
whose murderous axe does not spare a single tree to shade even their
cottage door. This site must be convenient to a spring, for we shall not
like the labour of digging a well. Yes! here's the place, sufficiently out
of the hollow, to escape the fog that is apt to settle there, and not too
far away to carry water. We must compromise the claims ef labour
and health in this matter. Some of those trees to the north we will
leave; they will shelter us from the winds in winter; a few also must
be left standing to the south, near to where the house will be, to shade
us in summer. And now down with the rest of the lords of the forest;
they have lived and reigned from the creation, but they must now bow
to Inrdier man.
"When a sufficient space is thus cleared, we shall call in our neigh-


106 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WE8TEBN STATES.
bours again to help us. These logs will be rolled up in piles, the
limbs and brush heaped on the top. Then we must put up the fence,
and next go to work to grub up the smaller roots, and divide the larger
ones, cutting off the bark of the stumps to prevent them from vegetating
hereafter. In the spring we shall set fire to these log-piles, and plough,
as well as we can, the ground. A man and stout boy will thus prepare
five or six acres in the course of the winter. The first crop will be
Indian-corn and potatoes, and the next, if the ground is in sufficient
good order, may be wheat, if not, corn, again. We shall probably get
from forty to sixty bushels per acre of corn, and from fifteen to twenty
bushels of wheat. Cultivating a crop among these roots and stumps is
no easy work, as you may judge, to one not used to it, and you will
stand a chance of breaking your plough occasionally, and sometimes,
perhaps, your shins; but they who are used to it make little of it,
and, I suppose, by and by, we shall not mind it either. Let us have
patience, and, in some ten or fifteen years, old father Time will get
them all out of the way for us. Thus we shall go on, year after year,
until we get the whole farm cleared, taking care to reserve a sufficient
quantity of wood land.
"The first year we must, of course, purchase our provisions; and, as
our means are slender, we shall have to make up our minds to suffer
some privations to which we have not been accustomed. Let us see: we
shall cultivate a garden, and thus have sufficient vegetables through the
summer. Our cows will get their living in the woods, with the excep-
tion of four winter months; their calves, kept in, will bring them up
every evening. Our pigs will run at large, and a little corn thrown to
them occasionally, and the slops of the house, will keep them near home.
Then we shall need to purchase corn, flour, pork, potatoes, and, if we
can afford it, coffee, tea, and sugar for ourselves, and corn and fodder
for the stock. Say our two families consist of four persons each, be-
sides one or two littlo ones, then the following will be something like the
probable estimate.
dollars.
100 acres of land, at one dollar per acre 100
Surveying, title deeds, and taxes 12
Stock and implements 250
Wages of hired man one month 20
150 bushels corn, at 40 cents 60
8 barrels flour, at 5 dollars 40
1500 pounds of pork, at four cents 00
Groceries 30
Clothing, mechanic's bill, and extras 30
Hay, and fodder for stock 30
Total 632
Divide this amount by 2, and we have 316 dollars, about £63
sterling.
"Let us now suppose ourselves on cleared land. Wc will imagJM
it to bo an old Virginia farm. Here is a large but dilapidated house,


MIDDLE AND SOtJTH WESTERN STATES. 107
and the buildings around are in the same state. The fences are broken
down and the land is in many places overgrown with blackberry bushes.
How comes it in this state? Why, the kind Of farming it has received,
has exhausted the soil, and the owner has left it to go away into Ken-
tucky or Tennessee, and cut down trees as we have been doing. This is
Virginia, you say, and then we are among slaves! No, there are no
slaves of any consequence in western Virginia. The slaves have gone off
to the new countries, and taken their masters with them, or their mas-
ters have taken them, which is the same thing to us; but they have not
taken the land, though they have used it worse, I'll answer for it, than
they ever did their slaves; indeed if they had used it half as well, it
would never have been in this state.
"But to our farm. I have said that I would rather farm here than
chop down trees and work among the stumps. In the first place, this
open country is generally more healthy, owing to there being a freer cir-
culation of air, and no decaying vegetable matter as in the woods—a
fruitful source of disease.
"In the next place, farming this land will be to us far more pleasant,
and, I believe, quite as profitable. Let us see. Here are six or seven
hundred acres; it may be bought, say for five dollars per acre (in some
instances these farms may be had for nothing, in others for ten dollars
per acre, according to circumstances). It is divided into fifty and hun-
dred acre farms. We will first enclose the whole tract with a good fence,
leaving, for the present, the division-fences, as we propose to adopt the
soiling system, and, consequently, shall not turn out the cattle. Wood
is scarce here, and we cannot build log houses; we must put up shan-
ties. We shall put posts in the ground, plates on the top, set the boards
up perpendicularly, and nail strips over the joints, and put on a board
roof. We have, therefore, to haul the logs to the saw-mill. The cost
of sawing will be about five dollars per thousand feet, and it will take
one thousand feet to build a house eighteen feet square, one story, with a
little shed. Here we must live until we can afford to build a good frame
house. The stable and other out buildings will be of the same kind.
All together will cost us, say fifty dollars. Here, then, instead of fell-
ing trees, and grubbing, and rolling logs, we shall spend our winter
in making manure, First, we must build a lime-kiln: this will be the
joint labour of all the company, and then we must haul the lime-stone
and burn it.* Next get marl, or peat, or mud, as the case may be, for
remember, we do not go upon lands where one or all of these fertilizing
agents cannot be obtained. This we will haul home after it has been
spread out to dry, and put under a shed erected near to the stable, first
digging a pit under the shed, three or four feet deep, sloping at each
end, so that a cart may go in at one end, dump the load, and go out
at the other end. Or if we wish to dispense with the shed, we can
put up the marl or peat into conical heaps, like hay-cocks, and beat
the surface with a shovel, to exclude the rain. We must make as
much manure as we can, with our cattle, and that with as little hay
and corn-stalks as possible, for the provender we shall have to buy,
and we shall, perhaps, have a long way to go for it, so that it will be
* Where marl can be obtained lime will not be needed.


108 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES.
best to stable our stock; they will eat less than when exposed to the
weather, and we shall make more manure. At the heels of the cows
let us make a gutter, eighteen inches deep, about sixteen wide at the
top, and twelve at the bottom; this we will plank at the sides and
bottom, and fill two-thirds with the marl or peat, adding a little lime.
When the trench is filled up with the droppings of the cows, it must be
cleared out and the contents taken away, and spread upon the land, or
put under cover. The same plan should be adopted in the horse-stable,
omitting, of course, the deep gutter, and also in the hog-pen. I have
said, we must economise feed for the stock; we will therefore cut, not
only the hay and straw, but also the corn-stalks. If we can boil or scald
them—boiling is best—and sprinkle over a little bran or corn-meal with
salt, the cows will eat them readily, and give plenty of milk.
"As early as possible we will plough up five or six acres. With one
horse and three cows we can make manure enough for thus much land
in the course of the winter. How deep we shall plough, will, of course,
depend upon the nature of the soil. We shall probably find that it has
never been ploughed more than four inches deep, and possibly the under
soil may be better than the upper. To do this ploughing, we must borrow
a horse of one of our neighbours, and lend him our's in return. We
will spread the manure as we make it, or pile it up under cover, and give
a second light ploughing in the spring after the manure has been hauled
on. As much land as can be well manured from the stable will be de-
voted to potatoes and Indian corn; to the rest, as far as we are able,
we will give a good coat of marl, or peat, or muck, with as much
lime as it will bear. This we will put in with spring rye for soiling,
and with oats. If any part of our farm appears good enough, without
the application of any kind of manure to take clover, we will sow as
much as we can. As early in the spring as the ground will work, which
will probably be in the latter end of February, we must, of course, put
in our potatoes, and rye, and oats. About the first or second week in
April we may plant corn. The usual method is to plant it in squares,
in hills, as- it is called here, from three to four feet each way; but as we
have a small lot, and wish to make the most of it, we will plant it in
rows three and a half feet apart, with the drilling machine, putting the grains four inches apart in the rows. It must be kept clean by plough-
ing and harrowing between the rows, and between the plants, with the
hand-hoe. If one barrel of guano, one of plaster of Paris, and ten of
well pulverised peat or muck could be scattered by a hand going befoie
the drill, it would materially assist the crop. When the plants have
grown a foot high we may begin to thin them out to a distance of twelve
inches, and these plants will serve for food for our horses and cows. We can hitch a horse to a small truck, narrow enough to go between the
rows, or to a wheelbarrow. In the month of July we will get a piece of
ground well ploughed and manured, and put in half an acre of ruta
baga turnips, and with these we can fatten our hogs and beef. When the corn is fit to cut we will clear it off, plough up the ground, give a slight
dressing of manure, and then put in wheat, and if we have any manure
left, it can be put, with a coat of lime, on the clover.
"In this way let us go on for six years, and then compare notes with


110 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES,
If you are a single man yon can hire yourself to a farmer. You will get
one hundred dollars the first year, board and washing, and one hundred
and twenty the next. If you have a wife and no children, you can both
do the same, and together you will get one hundred and fifty or sixty
dollars. If you have a family, let your children, if they are old enough,
hire out, and you can buy a piece of land; put up, with the assistance of
your neighbours, your house, and work for them three days in the week,
and on your own farm the other three. Steady application will bring
TOu through."
These extracts speak for themselves, but it is only necessary to read the
Work from which they are taken, to be convinced of the christian phi-
lanthropy, the disinterestedness, the intelligence, and reliableness of the
amiable author. It occurred to the association, (a clerical one) of which
he was secretary, that they should recommend emigrants to settle in
South New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware,
and Virginia, and they addressed letters of enquiry to the congregations
of their own denomination in those states, a few of the answers to which
we here insert:—
"The situation of Mercer county must be well known to you. There
is no county in Pennsylvania healthier than it. Its original population
was from the north of Ireland, and from Germany—of late years, from
the eastern counties of Pennsylvania. Many families, from England and
Germany, have recently settled amongst us, as well as some from France
and the south of Ireland. Presbyterians are numerous—those of the
Associate and Reformed Church, and some Roman Catholics, Protestants
from England and Ireland, would be most freely received, especially those
who wish to live by labour. At the present time, some hundreds of men
might find immediate employment at our iron-works and collieries, and
many more at farming. In feet, such as been the call for labourers at the
iron and coal business, that the necessary hands for carrying on fanning cannot be obtained. Female domestics are not to be had at all, and are
much wanted. I mean such as would do housework, live in the family,
and enjoy all the privileges that the families do. Small farms are nume-
rous for sale here, at from five to twenty dollars per acre, according to
the improvements thereon. The terms on which land is usually sold are
one half in hand, the other in two or three annual instalments. The
yield is such as is common to most parts of Pennsylvania; little lime or
manure has yet been used, though limestone abounds. Mills of every
kind are in abundance. You will see by the map, that the Erie Exten-
sion of the Pennsylvania canal, runs through the centre of the county.
Market—Pittsburg, Erie, Philadelphia, or New York, as we may choose.
Mechanics are not so much wanted here as miners, choppers, farm la-
bourers and female domestics, the two latter more than any. For my
own service, I would prefer those from the north of Ireland, the county of Antrim, from which my father came."
"I have in charge a tract of land in the county of Alleghany, N. Y.
its original boundaries were six by nine miles, some 34,000 acres, lying
in the towns of Scio, Independence and Andover—it is all sold and set-
tled, except about 23,000 acres. The owners reside in Philadelphia, viz. —Richard Willing and Joseph Swift, Esquires, and Doctor Charles Wil-


MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES. Ill
ling, to whom I would refer you, as they have maps of the tract, and
will confer with you on the subject, should the following description of
the lands for sale, meet your views of what the emigrants need.
"I. The Genesee river flows through the tract—the lands on the river are all sold, except some six lots, which are mountain lots.
"2. The nearest cash market for produce, is Bath, in Steuben county,
and Dansville, in Livingston county—say average 40 miles.
"3. The facilities of consequence, are now, only by teams. A plank
road company have organized—doubtful if put in operation.
"4. The usual price of produce is one dollar for wheat—50 cents
for corn—oats, 25 cents—potatoes, 20 cents—pork, four dollars to five
dollars per 100—three dollars for beef—hay, four dollars per ton.
"5. The soil is a clay on the high lands—on side hills, mixture of
gravel and sand—this soil is good for wheat and corn—Clay soil produces
good grass, oats, peas, and potatoes.
"6. The surface, after leaving the river, and arriving on the sum-
mit, is rolling land—that which rolls to the south and east, produces
the best—that which rolls to the north and west, is more cold and
less productive.
"7. The land comprising the 23,000 acres, above mentioned, is all in
a state of nature —unimproved.
"8. The timber is of the first growth—beech, maple, hemlock, a few
scattering pine trees, some cherry, basswood, &c
"9. There has not, to my knowledge, any lime or plaster, been
used on this tract by the settlers. I apprehend they consider it un-
necessary at present, the settlement in general, is of a few years and new."!0. The crop of corn, I understand, is from thirty to forty bushels
per acre, without manure, except some leached ashes, a handful put in
the hill at the first hoeing. »
"I!. No lime, marl, or peat, to my knowledge, near by the tract."12. There are two grist mills on the tract, and at convenient distance,
some four miles apart—and four saw mills.
"13. The sum necessary to purchase implements and stock for a small
farm of 50 acres, say ploughs, six dollars—harrows, five dollars—yoke
of oxen, seventy dollars—chains, five dollars—wagon, fifty dollars—
other small implements, say ten dollars—two cows, thirty dollars—
25 sheep, thirty-seven dollars fifty cents. The cost to erect a log house
in that country. 16 by 30 feet, board roof, two floors, windows and doors,
and stone chimney, is called thirty dollars. This work is done there by
inviting the settlers, and they meet, cut the logs, and with the teams they bring with them, draw the logs, and put the building up the same day,
hewing the logs on the inside, outside leave round—stone plenty to build
the chimney, at hand on every lot. This labour is done without charge,
costs only the dinner for the men, leaves the settler to purchase and draw
his lumber, and do the work to finish his house to live in, which cost is
estimated as above stated, at thirty dollars.
"14. Mechanic's wages. All I know, is in regard to carpenters,
which is one dollar per day—the employer boards him. Young men
receive, to work on the farm, from ten to twelvo dollars per month,
found board and washing.
X. 2


112 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES.
"15. The cash price of the land, ranges from three dollars to five dollars per acre, according to quality, location to roads, evenness, &c.
"16. The credit price is some ten per cent. higher, portion of the pur-
chase money in hand, residue in five equal annual instalments, with inte-
rest, after the first year.
"The above statement, I think, is a correct answer to the inquiries
you make, which you are welcome to, if they will aid your duties to
the emigrants. Title, good beyond doubt, incontrovertible, which I can
establish from docum'ntal evidence."
"A gentleman in Prince William county, Va., has written me several
times to aid him in disposing of his lands. He has a tract of about
2,200 acres, which lies in a very convenient manner to be divided up into
small farms, of one, two, or three hundred acres each. It has been cul-
tivated to a considerable extent, as three distinct farms, and has comfort-
able tenements. From his description I should judge that some portions
of the tract must be very good land, worth eight or ten dollars per acre;
other portions worth from three to five dollars an acre. But he is very
anxious to sell, and I have reason to believe he would sell the whole
2,200 acres together at from four to five dollars. These lands are about
thirty-two miles from Alexandria. The turnpike road from Alexandria
to Warrenton, in Fauquier county, runs within from six to eight miles.
The distance to the Potomac river sixteen miles, but the Oceoquan creek
allows vessels to approach within ten miles of a portion of the land.
There is a stream running through the tract, on which mills can be
erected; timber for a saw-mill has been prepared, ready to be put up,
which will go with the land. There is abundance of good oak and pine
timber on these lands, and altogether I should consider it a very desir-
able tract for a company of from ten to twenty families.
"These lands are about five miles from the county seat, Brentville;
and there are many excellent farms in the neighbourhood. All that these
lands need is good cultivation—deep ploughing will bring up a virgin
soil, on which clover grows luxuriantly.
"When it is considered that a market is near, for all kinds of pro-
duce, at prices double and treble those in the western country; that
it is a healthy and delightful climate; short winters, where stock, cat-
tle, and sheep need very little fodder from the stack or barn; the
emigrants must see that these Virginia lands are more to their ad-
vantage than going to the far west."
"Pittsylvania, C. Ho., Virginia, May 7, 1848.
"Gentlemen,—I observed, to-day, your communication in the
* Presbyterian,' relative to emigrants. I have concluded to drop you a
line on the subject, though it will be a hasty one, yet you may rely upon
the statements.
"This county is one of the southern tier of this state, and is forty
miles square, and contains, black and white, a population of 27,000.
Consequently, the population is spare, leaving vast quantities of uncul-
tivated lands, in tracts from 200 to 1,000 acres, much of which can be
purchased at from fifty cents to two dollars per acre; and, although
the county is generally level, yet it is well watered, abounding in water-


MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES. 115
of conduct will ensure perpetual discomfort and serious injury to Lis prospects.
The large farmer of England is advised not to exchange his tenantcy
for an American freehold. For the small farmer with a family the re-
public is described as the most eligible of all places. The farm-labourer
is also invited to emigrate, but to give up the prejudices of English
farming, and to learn with docility the American plans. He is specially
advised to attend only to his master, and not to allow his mind to be
poisoned by his fellow labourer. "Oh," says an American farmer, "he
will do very well when he has learnt, if a native don't whistle in his ear."
The American manufacturers make just the opposite complaint. "We
do not like to have Englishmen in our employ. We have generally
found them amongst the most troublesome of our workmen. They are
disorganizes, the first to express dissatisfaction, and to propose a strike
for wages. They enter into politics, and are noisy and violent ultra de-
mocrats. They are intemperate and immoral, and their example and
influence are decidedly pernicious, and I would not have them if I could
do without them." 'Is it not probable,' I replied, 'that advantage is
taken of their ignorance, and that they are instigated by the native
workmen V 'No, sir,' was the reply; 'on the contrary, they lead on the
natives.'"—This is exactly the language which is held by continental
manufacturers in reference to English workmen; and unless there is an
amendment manifested in this respect, the results may be disastrous to
the prospects of British skilled labourers in America. Not that we have
any sympathy with the complaints of the American manufacturers against
strikes. The English spinner or printer finds the American manu-
facturer running away with exorbitant profits by means of protective
duties which enormously tax his customers, and if the expatriated chartist
agitator has the wit to see that the hands should go snacks in the high
gains of the protected master, he is quite right to show them the
way.
Inferior mechanics are not encouraged to go to America, as the natives
are very superior. Shopmen, clerks, school-teachers, small tradesmen,
literary gentlemen, &c., are also especially discouraged, on account of the
superior qualifications of the natives. Autumn is recommended as the
best season for agricultural settlers to emigrate, as they will have the
winter before them to prepare for the spring. Lads and female servants
are in great request in the cities. The latter are especially advised to
retain their English feelings, deportment, and conduct, and to clear their
heads of the ideas of equality with their mistress, which will only make
their lives unhappy, and themselves shunned. In the country, it is said,
servants are still helps and equals of their mistress—but in the eastern
towns excessive competition has introduced the English relations of
mistress and servant, the latter of whom may lead a happy and respected
life if she will only remain thoroughly English.
It will have been observed that Mr. Thomason extols East Tennessee
as possessing the most equable climate, although it is distant and of
inferior soil. Other authorities which we have consulted lead us to the
conclusion that that region is the most eligible in the union in many
respects. Inferior fertility is only an indication of a smaller proportion


116 MIDDLE AHD SOUTH WESTEKN STATES.
of that decaying vegetable matter which is the source of so much disease
in the New world.
Mr. Robert James, of Cardew, Cumberland, travelled through Canada.
In Ohio he found "some excellent dairy farms, one of which I visited,
that had twenty-seven cows, was producing 100 lbs. of cheese per day,
the selling price 5 and 6 cents per lb.; the average annual produce of
each cow was estimated at 20 dollars. Although in general a good wheat
country, the crop was this season very poor, and injured by the fly, which
last is of common occurrence. The Saxon and Merino sheep are kept
here, but are subject to the "foot rot" and worm in the head; they
have invariably to be housed during the winter, which in this state is also
long and severe, rendering stock-keeping expensive from the heavy con-
sumption of winter fodder.
"In Southern Ohio and the neighbourhood of Cincinnati, the farms
are somewhat better improved than in the north, and the land higher in
price, being worth from 20 to 50 dollars per acre; the Indian corn crops
were good, wheat crops very indifferent, not exceeding seven imperial
bushels per acre, the oat crop was good, and the soil seems to be well
adapted to green crops, although they are not raised to any extent.
"The farms in the neighbourhood of Lexington, in Kentucky, are in a
high state of cultivation and improvement; land in this and some of the
adjoining counties sells at from 40 to 50 dollars per acre. The soil is a
black limestone, on which the blue grass (a fine natural pasturage grass)
grows spontaneously. The Kentuckians, who are well-informed gentle-
manly men, have a very superior breed of horses, mules, cattle, and
hogs. The markets are south and east. From Kentucky, I crossed the
Cumberland Mountains into East Tennessee. The Tennesseans are
slovenly farmers and very indolent; to live an easy life seems with them
to be a leading consideration. The capabilities of the soil and general
advantages of the country are, notwithstanding, unsurpassed by any por-
tion of Canada or the United States which I have visited. Four months
out of twelve will constitute the average amount of labour done by each
farmer; and farm labour in East Tennessee, to support their own popu-
lation, and export what they do, is strong evidence of the fruitfulness of
the soil and genial nature of the climate. If, therefore, four months will
produce so much, what, in the hands of industrious Englishmen, will
twelve months produce! Land is lower in price here than in any state
in the Union; this is accounted for, by its being, hitherto, from its
isolated position, almost unknown to emigrants. The country is now,
however, becoming more known, and rendered so much more accessible
by rail, roads, steamboats, &c., that an advance in the price of land is
confidently expected; its present selling price is from 2 to 10 dollars per
acre, according to its quality and improvement; the best upland cannot
be exceeded, it is a rich chocolate-coloured loam, with a clay basis. Ex-
cellent farms, with good buildings, orchards, &c., can be purchased at
from 4 to 7 dollars per acre. The river bottom farms are the most
valuable, but usually unhealthy; they are worth from 15 to 50 dollars
per acre. Excepting these farms, the country is as healthy as any part
of the world; the climate is delightful, the summer not being so hot as
I found it in Canada and the other states that I visited j it is not unlike


118 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERS STATES.
the dusty "miller" gazing out towards the road, wondering who "that
stranger" can be. And again, at other times passing the newly erected
log building and clearing of a recent settler, with half a dozen hardy,
bare-footed, bare-headed, and all but shirtless urchins playing about the
logs and fences. Whilst you will again occasionally pass the worn and
turned out fields of some of the original settlers, or their less industrious,
or still less thrifty descendants, with the fences removed or rotting down,
and the ground partly grown up with pine, cedar, persimmon, or sassa-
fras, and, mayhap, a few straggling peach trees, yet, withal, pleasing to
the eye, not unfrequently reminding you of the lawns and ornamental
park grounds of England. Add to the general view the lofty range of
the Alleghany Mountains on the south, and the Cumberland range on
the north, which are perceptible in the distance from any part of the
Great Valley, and a tolerably correct conclusion may be drawn of the
general appearance of this interesting section of country.
"The river bottom farms are considered the most valuable, possessing
a rich, alluvial, black soil of several feet in depth. On many of these
farms Indian corn, which is an exhausting crop, has been grown for up-
wards of thirty years in succession, without change of crop, and yet still
produces on an average forty and fifty bushels to the acre; in these
bottoms the corn stalks will be fifteen and sixteen feet high. Above the
lower lands is a second bench, usually termed "second bottom," the soil
of which is not so rich, but yet will average from thirty to thirty-five
bushels to the acre. The first bottom is valued at from 20 to 30 dollars
per acre; the second at from 10 to 15 dollars; and the upland adjoining
at from 4 to 6 dollars per acre, the latter being somewhat more valuable
near the river bottom lands, for rail-timber and firewood than further in
the interior. On these farms there are either hewed log dwellings and
out-buildings, or what are termed frame-buildings, which are of sawed
scantling, weather-boarded outside with half-inch boards, and ceiled
inside with five-eighth inch boards, brick chimneys, &c ; the buildings
are sometimes painted, but more frequently not. These buildings usually
contain two or three rooms below, and the same above; the kitchens and
"smoke" or "meat houses" are always detached. On some farms, of
late years, brick dwellings have been erected; but, from the manner in
which some of these are tenanted and furnished, it reminds you strongly
of Washington Irving's description of the Yankee's "shingle palace"
with its "petticoat windows," store rooms of "pumpkins and potatoes,"
and " festoons of dried apples and peaches:" and, though the good dame
of the house may set her cap a little more trimly, she is evidently as
much out of her element as the snail in the lobster shell; there are, how-
ever, exceptions in these things. The river farms vary in extent, running
from 500 to 1500 acres; and although, as regards productiveness, they
are most desirable, yet I cannot advise uny of my countrymen to settle
upon them; for, except in some localities near the mountains, where
the streams are rapid, they are, in general, more or less subject to fever
and ague.
"A first-rate upland farm, that is, a farm not adjoining the river, say
of 600 acres, and of the best quality of land, generally, in this and the
neighbouring counties, of a deep mulatto colour, with good buildings,


MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTEBK STATES. 119
under good fence, and in other respects what is termed here "in good
repair," is worth from 7 to 10 dollars per acre. The dwelling-house
would probably be either a superior hewed-log frame or brick building
with barn, stables, &c., to match; a good spring near the house, for but
few of our good farms are without, although some have wells, and the
spring, or some other branch, running through a portion of the farm.
Of the 600 acres, perhaps 200 acres will be cleared and in cultivation as
follows: 10 acres orchard, garden, and truck patch, as it is termed, that
is, for raising early corn (for roasting ears), beans, peas, Irish and sweet
potatoes, cabbage, and tobacco, and cotton, for home consumption,
80 acres Indian corn, 30 acres clover, 10 acres meadow, 30 to 40 acres
oats, and 20 to 30 acres wheat, the remaining 400 acres will be woodland,
for rail-timber and firewood. When a farm has more than one half of
its land cleared, it is considered deteriorated, as being in a fair way to
become short of fencing timber, the original settlers having, seemingly,
had no notion that any would come after them, as "none had been
before them," for the leading object of both them and their immediate
descendants seemed to be to supply their immediate wants, reckless at
what sacrifice; for to cut down timber indiscriminately, and get it out
of the way by rolling in heaps and then burning, was, and is even yet
with some, a perfect frolic; in consequence of which many of the old
farms are so short of fencing timber as to be obliged to beg or buy from
their more fortunate neighbours; even now, a Tennessean would say a
man had "queer notions," as the term is, that would leave a handsome
lawn, shade, or timber tree in his clearing. The average yield of the
above-described farm would be from thirty to forty bushels of Indian
corn, eight to ten bushels of wheat, from thirty to forty bushels of oats,
and two tons of hay or clover per acre.
"A second-rate farm, say of 600 acres, with buildings in many in-
stances equal to those of the first-class farms, and indeed generally but
little inferior, but the land, perhaps, naturally thinner or more ex-
hausted—probably the land may be of the best quality, but not lay so
well, or be in so good a locality—would sell at from 4 to 6 dollars per
acre. The cropping would perhaps be similar to the first-class farms,
excepting that there might not be so much clover, but in lieu thereof a
worn-out field grown up with wild grass and sprouts, and used as a
pasture for stock. These farms may be estimated to average from twenty-
five to thirty bushels of Indian corn, twenty to thirty bushels of oats, and
from five to seven bushels of wheat per acre.
"The third class farms usually sell at from two to threedollars per acre.
These have, generally, tolerably comfortable log buildings, orchards, &c.,
but the land thinner or more exhausted, with perhaps a number of turned
out fields, or a scarcity of rail timber. The average crop of such farms
will be from fifteen to twenty bushels of Indian corn, twenty bushels of
oats, and three to four bushels of wheat per acre.
"Wood-land, without any improvements as to buildings, &c., sells at
from two to six dollars per acre, according to the locality and quality.
In Polk and Bradley counties, sixty miles below this, adjoining the Geor-
gia line, woodland can be bought at 50 cents per acre; the soil is, how-
ever, light and gravelly.


MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES. 121
flat boats of considerable tonnage pass Knoxville annually for this mar-
ket and New Orleans; there is also a steam-boat line from Knoxville
to the muscle shoals in Alabama. The bulk of the Indian corn is con-
sumed in fattening hogs, cattle, horses, and mules, or distilled into
whisky and sent down the river. The little wool raised is consumed in
the country. Philadelphia and New York, however, furnish an unli-
mited market, the banks or merchants in this State cashing draughts on
mercantile houses in these cities, and allowing a premium on them of
from one to two per cent. Were some of your skilful sheep farmers
here, nothing could prevent them realizing one hundred percent. per
annum on the capital invested; for, with the little attention paid to them
in East Tennessee, in three instances out of four, not even being fed in
winter, they will yield three pounds of wool to the fleece, which will
bring a dollar, whilst the sheep itself is only worth a dollar—mutton
being but rarely used, some prejudice existing against it; but with the
care and feeding, a practical sheep farmer would bestow, he would, at
least, double the fleece, as well as have an extra increase in lambs; for,
although our winters are not severe, food and shelter must not only be
advantageous, but necessary. The greatest yield of wool that I have
heard of here has been from the Saxony sheep,—as much as six and
seven pounds to the fleece having been obtained where the feeding has
been in some measure attended to. The common wools of the country
are of a good medium quality, being a good deal mixed with the merino,
which were introduced some twenty years ago, and are now again becom-
ing mixed with the Saxony, several hundred of which were brought here
in 1840, from Connecticut; they at first sold for forty dollars the pair,
but can now be bought at from five to ten dollars per pair. The horses
of this country are in general from 'blooded stock,' our farm horses
being usually even lighter than your 'hacks.' They are, in faet, too
light for farm work, and require crossing with some of your heavier
breeds. The mules are much superior to those generally seen in Eng-
land, running from fourteen to sixteen hands high; they are sired by
imported Spanish and Maltese Jacks, which are very valuable, being
worth from five hundred to one thousand dollars each. The cattle are
of a mixed breed; the Durham have been pretty plentifully intro-
duced. I have not, however, seen any of the handsome 'Devons,'
which I think would suit the country better than the Durham, being
lighter and better suited for driving to the southern market than the
heavy and cumbrous Durham. The hogs are crossed with the China,
Berkshire, Irish Grazier, &c. The vegetables raised here are, with some
additions, about the same as the common run of those used in England,
consisting of garden and field peas, Irish and sweet potatoes, French beans,
yams, cabbage, beets, carrots, parsnips, cucumbers, water and cantelope
melons, asparagus, onions, turnips, &c. I believe that, without excep-
tion, they all grow as well as with you, and many of them much bet-
ter—the sweet potatoes, yams, and water melons are very fine. Of
fruits, the strawberry, raspberry, and red currant do well; the black
currant is partially cultivated, but is not liked; the gooseberry grows
and fruits freely, but the fruit is smaller, and sometimes mildews; this
may probably arise from want of pruning and other attention. The


122 MIDDLE AND SOUTH WESTERN STATES.
better kind of grapes, as Hambro', Frontignac, Tokay, &c., are culti-
vated by the upper class of citizens, and do not require any shelter; apri-
cots and nectarines are occasionally met with, but not often, though the
climate is favourable. The Orleans, damson, and blue violet plums are
grown here, but are not plentiful; and the best kind of cherries are en-
tirely neglected, having nothing but a wild sort, not much better than
your 'merry.' The wild fruits are the raspberry, strawberry, vacci-
nium or whortle-berry, service-berry, hack-berry, wild plum, persimmon,
or date plum, black walnut, sweet or Spanish chestnut, butter nut, shell-
barked hickory nut, two or three varieties of the grape vine, and the
pawpaw, or Indian fig.
"The forest growth consists of the different varieties of the oak, yellow
and white, or Weymouth pine, hemlock, spruce, plantanus, or button-
wood, liriodendron, tulip tree, gum, beech, birch, elm, maple, horse
chestnut, hickory, locust tree, mulberry, red cedar, magnolia, &c. The
shrub growth consists of the holly, dogwood, sourwood, red bud or Judas
tree, bird cherry, shumac, sassafras, &c. The herbaceous are too nume-
rous to specify: amongst them, however, are the coreopsis, rudbeckia,
lily, iris, aster, gentiana, lobelia, veronica, spiraea, viola, Ice. The
rhododendron, kalmia, andromoda, azalea, magnolia, hemlock spruce,
&e , are principally confined to the river banks and mountain districts.
"In the great valley, partridges, rabbits, squirrels, and wild ducks are
plentiful; but deer, turkeys, and pheasants are becoming scarce. Rac-
coons and opossums are numerous, and good eating—in my opinion,
far superior to "roasted pig." The red and grey fox are in places too
plentiful, and the black fox is occasionally caught. There are not any
bears or wolves; and the rattlesnake and other venomous kinds of the
species are but rarely seen or heard of in the valley, being principally
confined to the mountains, so that the most timid need not have any
fears on that head. This country is supplied with groceries from
Charlestown and Columbia, (South Carolina,) Augusta and Columbus,
(Georgia), and New Orleans; and with cotton, silk, linen goods, hard-
ware, &.c., from Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
"Coffee and sugar sell for ten and twelve cents per pound, molasses or
'treacle,' at seventy-five cents per gallon. Grey sheeting, thirty-six
inches, ten cents per yard; bleached shirting, twelve and fourteen cents
per yard. Printed calicoes and fancy dry goods are high, the merchants
generally having one hundred per cent. on the original cost. In my
next, I shall give you some account of our manufactures, people, towns,
manners, customs, &c.; and believe me, dear sir, your's truly,
"J. Gray Smith."
"Montvale Springs, Blount County, East Tennessee, April 8, 1847.
"Dear Sir,—To an indifferent observer the latitude of Tennessee
would present a southern climate, but the elevation of the Great Valley
above the low regions of the south, coupled with the altitude of the
immense chain of mountains forming its southern boundary, thus shield"
ing us from the hot sultry winds which blow off the Gulf of Mexico,
as well as those from the low unhealthy swamps along the Atlantic sea-
board, at once account for the temperature and salubrity of our sum mer


124 GENERAL FEATURES OP THR WESTERN STATES
"In Canada, and the Northern and Eastern States, summer follows
quick upon a short spring; here the spring is lengthy, usually com-
mencing the latter end of January, and continuing until the end of May;
our autumn usually commences about the latter end of September, and
(with the exception of now and then a slight frost), may be said to con-
tinue until Christmas; in November we have, what is termed "Indian
summer," when the thermometer will range from 50 to 70 degrees, with
a remarkably mild and genial atmosphere; it is considered by many the
most pleasant and delightful season in the year.
"The slave population of East Tennessee is small, with the exception of
some wealthy planters on the river bottom farms, consisting principally
of house servants; not one farmer in ten throughout the Great Valley
owning any at all. They were formerly more numerous, but the high
prices which they commanded in Mississippi and Lousiana a few years
ago, as much as one thousand and twelve hundred dollars being given for
a young, able-bodied, field negro, tempted the cupidity or necessities of
the majority of the East Tennessee slave holders to sell out; others,
'conscience stricken,' availed themselves of this seeming chance of
'washing their hands' of the 'plague spot,' soothing themselves with
the reflection, that in ceasing to be holders 'they would be clean;' not
considering, or allowing themselves to do so, that they were inflicting a
worse bondage upon the poor negro, by consigning him to the merciless
driver of the South, than he would have endured with them in Tennessee.
Others, again, have held on to their negroes until in the grasp of death,
when, having made all the use of them they could in this world, and
fearing retributive justice in the next, they have kindly determined that
their heirs should have none of their qualms of conscience on the subject,
and, therefore, in their last will and testament, declared their bondmen
and bondswomen to be for ever—' free.'
"I must, injustice, testify to the almost universal kindness with which
the, comparatively few, slaves that remain here are treated; it is true,
they are valuable, and this treatment may emanate from policy, or a
species of 'domestic economy;' with some, this is doubtless the main-
spring of action, but there are others who, I feel assured, act from a more
benevolent motive and feeling, yet, who, like the young man who had
'great possessions,' still prefer treasure on earth to 'treasure in
heaven.' My own impression is, that this stain upon humanity and
Christian nations will, ere many years, be abolished from amongst us, if
not by State enactment, by the voice of popular opinion, and the poor
benighted negro be clothed with the mantle of freedom, and the rights
of citizenship.—Believe me, dear Sir, your's truly,
"J. Gray Smith."
GENERAL FEATURES OF THE WESTERN STATES-
CONCLUSION.
The Western states abound in beautiful flowers, wild fruits, and birds
of every variety, and of the gayest plumage. The glow-worm and fire-
fly, and butterflies of every hue, are common, and the musquitoes in the


135 GENERAL FEATURES Or WESTERN STATES.
Every form of government has its excellences and its dangers. A re-
publican constitution is the only one which was ever practically possible
among a people who are all freeholders of ample lands, and entirely in-
dependent of each other. That which we regard as the peculiar safety of our
institutions, the absence of centralization, and the prevalence of local
self government, operates to even a greater extent in America. The
universal education and intelligence of her people, the deep root which
religion has taken among them, their love, almost conceit of country, and
their reverence for their really great men, j oined with the boundless natural
wealth of their territory, and the comfortable circumstances of all, are
guarantees for the stability and prosperity of her order of society, to be
found nowhere else. Their extraordinary progress in every art of life,
and their superhuman conquest of nature over the amplitudes of a bound-
less territory, mark them out as the greatest nation that ever existed.
Contrasting their history and position with the recent annals of Europe,
it is impossible to doubt that the probabilities in favour of security from
anarchy, violence, and revolution, preponderate in favor of the transat-
lantic republic. United in patriotism, national sympathy, and federa-
tively, the people are yet so divided into independent communities, that
local convulsions do not affect the general tranquillity. The institution of
slavery only affects a portion of the republic, and will gradually sink
before the influence of public opinion, and moral dynamics. Her crav-
ing for war is providentially counterbalanced by regard for the dollars it
will cost, and the discovery of Californian gold, will restore her currency
to a state of health, and mitiifate the evils of truck and barter. Of repu-
diation the settled states Ere ashamed. We do not believe any national
stocks in the world are so safe as those of New York, Pennsylvania, Mas-
sachusetts, Ohio, or Kentucky. The market of England is now opened
for the provisions and grain of the Western States, and we cannot enter-
tain a doubt, that for centuries to come, this great republic must pro-
gress in comfort, security, prosperity, and every good which can make
civilization desirable, and the institution of society, an element of human
happiness.*
• The contradictory accounts given of American character, arise to a great extent
from the prejudices of the writers. Some believe nothing good can come from a
republic,—others that it must be productive of every social excellence. The ten-
dency of the human mind to classify where there is no warrant of resemblance, in-
duces many to attribute to a nation that which is true only of the individuals of
whom the writers have personal experience. If an Englishman is cheated by a
Yankee, he calls all Yankees rogues:—if by an Englishman, he only attributes the
roguery to the individual. Among the vulgar of our own country there exists a
superstitious prejudice against all foreigners, and a clannish combination against
them. Their helpless condition, their ignorance of our laws and customs, make them
the easy prey of our domestic scoundrels. The further you go into our thinly popu-
lated districts, the greater will be found the dislike of Yankees, Frenchmen, or even Irishmen.
So must our emigrants expect to find it among the Americans, especially if they
carry the pride of John Bull and his natural contempt of every body else, on their
backs and in their bearing. Wherever Englishmen go, they grumble at every thing
that rs not English. They abuse their own country at home, and depreciate every other abroad. Is it singular that Americans should be animated by a similar instinct! We ought not to be surprised that the rogues and scoundrels who infest America, as they do our own country, should fasten upon the ignorant foreigner, as their legitimate prey. Their knowledge of the quirks and quibbles of their own law,
will be readily used to cheat the helpless emigrant. But we have scarcely seen an


their circular. "Emigrants are warned that the statements recently cir-
culated, respecting the salubrity of climate, the fertility of soil, and the
richness of the mineral productions of Texas, are reported by authority
to be greatly exaggerated, and that British subjects, who may be induced
to emigrate to that country, are likely to fall into sickness and destitu-.tion." The southern position of Texas, and its capability of raising tro-
pical productions, argue a too torrid climate for a European constitution.
It is comparatively unsettled, it is a border debateable land, betwixt
Mexico an,'. the United States, and it is peopled by the scum and refuse,
the daring, adventurous, and lawless, of all other countries. When fully peopled, well settled, and placed under the vigorous controul of
permanent government, and institutions, its natural capabilities
will render it a desirable place of settlement. It abounds, if we are
to believe Mr. Kennedy- and other more questionable authorities, in
fine land, extensive prauie, game, and fish; it is well calculated for
cattle, sheep, rice, cotton, and other tropical productions. It has scarcely
any winter, and is not subject to the sudden changes or great extremes
of climate which form the defect of the North American continent. Its
proximity to Europe may ultimately make it preferable to the Cape, or
Australia, which, in many respects, it much resembles. But at present
it does not hold out that security for life, property, and the quiet pursuit
of industry which is essential to the happy condition of a colonist, and
even still the Cumanchees, White-feet, half-casts, and trappers, make in-
cursions upon the cattle, and sacrifice the lives, of many settlers who live
in lonely or unprotected districts. Nor can we accept without quali-
fication even the attested panegyrics of the climate. The German settlers speak of its swamps, its desarts, its yellow and intermittent fevers, even
its sudden alternations of temperature, and only except from unmeasured
condemnation, the uplands and mountain tracts. Even the "Practical
Farmer" admits that"towards the west there are vast prairies devoid of
water and timber, and eastward the coast is flat, wet, rushy, and worthless.
The country presents here and there arid and marshy tracts." We cannot,
therefore, recommend it as a field for emigration, exceptto such as all good
citizens would desire to rid the mother country of. "Gone to Texas" has
become the proverb for a scamp. "The Texan stock of Americans,"
observes the New York Tribune, "such as I have seen thrown upon the
surface in this war, so far surpass in brutality and universal scoundrelism
all Mexican examples, as to set at defiance any attempt at comparison.
Rhetoric aside—Texas is a miserable country and its inhabitants a mi-
serable population. Grain, Texas cannot grow to any extent. Her
cotton trade must ever be next to nothing, and her sugar trade literally
nothing. Her grazing facilities are incomparably inferior to those of
the whole Western region north of latitude 36j deg. from the Alleghany
to the Rocky Mountains. :.■-*:c
Except a small patch in Eastern Texas, she has no productive soil,
because she has no seasons. Like most of Mexico, the rains of heaven
are scarcely vouchsafed to her at all, and never in seasonable regularity.
He who sows has no confidence that he will ever be permitted to reap.
Not one season in five is profitably productive to the labourer. Irrigation
can only make the soil yield a sure return; and so small a proportion of


USBOON—VAN COUVBH'8 ISLAND —CALIFORNIA. 189
the whole iB susceptible of this artificial and expensive adjunct, that it is
mere trifling to consider it. The same is true of New Mexico and Cali-
fornia. Texas is hopelessly bad, New Mexico, if possible, worse, and
California worst."
OREGON. VAN COUVER'S ISLAND. CALIFORNIA.
From Texas to Oregon the emigrant would find a fall analagous to
that of, "out of the frying-pan into the fire." The climate and soil are
unobjectionable—but everything else is. Van Couver's Island, under
the protection and dominion of the Hudson's Bay Company, seems to
offer greater advantages to the adventurous. California has a good cli-
mate and soil, admirably adapted for cattle, and not unsuited to cereals.
It is notoriously the region of gold, and also of that most desperate of all
classes of men, gold finders. To the bold and intrepid, to all who are
embued with the spirit of adventure, to that frame of mind which is es-
sentially gipsy, Kalmuck, and Arabian in its desire for a wandering and
restless life, these regions offer the inducement of a climate which admits of
constantly living in the open air, of productiveness which renders rough
subsistence easy with little labour, and of the chances of getting rapidly
rich by the lucky acquisition of the precious metals. We regard them
all however as the destination only of men of desperate fortunes, and as
a certain source of unhappiness to all persons of orderly, industrious,
prudent, and virtuous habits. Their ultimate fate will, in all probability,
be prosperous; and if the new projects for connecting the Pacific with
the Atlantic by canals joining chains of lakes and rivers, or by railways
or aquaducts at the Isthmus of Panama, be speedily realized, they may
become much more rapidly populated and settled than is, with the pre-
sent means, probable.
Perhaps we ought not to dismiss the subject of Oregon without stating
that, for persons already located at the upper end of the Missouri, or
Lake Michigan, and accustomed to the life of migration so common in
those regions, and to the transport of cattle and goods over ranges of
hills and through vallies, and across rivers, a settlement at Vancouver,
the Willamette, or Walhamet, offers the advantage of a very salubrious
climate, fine pasture, a good grain country, and untaxed goods, cheap
and of good quality. The government of the Hudson's Bay Company en-
forces good order, and good faith, offers encouragement, assistance, and
protection to all settlers, and manages its commerce so judiciously as to
surround its subjects with many of the advantages of civilization. As a
mere location, it is regarded by all as greatly superior to California, and the
migration through the Western prairies of America, although tedious and
long, is not accompanied with many difficulties. But a life that may
become easy to Americans on the borders of civilization, would be full of
anxiety and difficulty to a European, and ought not to be encountered
under any circumstances whatever.


130
APPENDIX.
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.
PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.
Wages of labourers are 3s. Mr. Cunard holds an estate in this island; he
extends roads through his waste lands, and lays out lots of fifty acres each along
the sides. He lets each of these farms to any respectable man, on a lease ot
999 years, paying no rent for the first three years, then 3d., then 6d., then 9cL,
and then Is. an acre, enabling the tenant at any time to purchase the freehold
at twenty years' purchase, with all the improvements. Instead of taking the
rent in money, he employs his tenants in making the roads; thus receiving pay-
ment in labour, and improving the estate of the labourer. It answers the emi-
grant's purpose better to take his land than to receive a free grant, because, in
the one case, he would have to go into the wilderness to look for his grant, and
find it surrounded by wild land; while, in the other the roads to a market are made, and he can select his land from a plan.
Mr. Cunard remarks,—
"Settlers are very apt to endeavour to get large tracts of land; but I have
lately prohibited that on my lots; and when a poor man comes, I say, ' Fifty
acres is quite enough for you, because I retain the adjoining lot for you to
increase your farm when your family gets up, and you can increase your farm
behind.' Within fifteen or twenty years they generally choose to purchase, un-
less a man is very fortunate in making some speculation, and then he is able to
purchase sooner; but as I only charge five per cent. interest on the money, and
six per cent. is the rate of interest in the country, they are not disposed to pur-
chase. I cannot take it from them as long as they pay the rent; I think if a
man is sure of getting his fee-simple by-and-by, he works with more cheerful-
ness and spirit. I have been able to note the progress of many settlers from the time of their taking the land, and have never known an industrious sober man
who has not succeeded. I would give land to 1,000 men at that price, if they
had £10 or £15 a piece. I should ask for none of it myself, but it would be a
kind of security that those men would not become burdensome the first year; I
mean taking the average of the family of each man with £10 at five indivi-
duals. I would not take paupers; I require men of good character. In harvest
time there is some labour to do; but I think a man with a few pounds would go
on his lot of land almost immediately. He would get some of his neighbours to
assist him in cutting down logs and erecting a log-house, sufficient for the fa-
mily till he is enabled to replace it with a good house. The price of provisions
is extremely low, and a sober man will always get a little credit to enable him
to go on."
Mr. Cunard further stated, that he believed the island would, if cultivated, support ten times its present population, and that he had seen as many as seventy
vessels from the United States engaged in fishing round the island, lying in the
harbour at one time. He remarks, "the climate is healthy, the soil good, the
production good; it is a beautiful spot, no one can visit it without admiring it."
— Emigrant Journal.
The following extract from a work, published some years since, affords a good
account of the seasons:—
"After a serene and usually dry October, the weather begins to get more an
steady in the early part of November, and sometimes a sharp frost, with
showers of snow, takes place before the middle of that month; but, when this occurs, the October weather returns again, and commonly lasts about ton davn
or a fortnight . This short interval is called the 'Indian Summer.' When "ii


APPENDIX. j^.
occurs, the frost does not generally set in before the beginning of December;
but the cold weather more commonly begins about the 20th of November, aud
gradually increases, until the ground resists the plough, which is ordinarily
about the second week in December. The cold now increases rapidly, and the
ground becomes covered with snow; and about Christmas the frost is as intense
as that experienced during the severest winters in England.
"During the months of January and February, the weather is usually steady,
with the thermometer very frequently below zero of Fahrenheit. But sometimes
a thaw takes place, and by laying the ground bare of its winter covering, occa-
sions great inconveniences.
"The weather is not so cold as to interfere with any outdoor occupations,
and the length of day at the winter solstice, by reason of the difference of lati-
tude, is about an hour longer at Charlotte Town than at London.
"March, as in Europe, is a windy month, and is throughout very changeable.
Vbout the close of this month, the snow rapidly melts, and the ice in the rivers
and bays gets rotten and dangerous to pass; and wholly disappears, except in a
late season, about the second week in April. Strong southerly winds now com-
mence, and the last vestiges of frost vanish. Ploughing generally commences
about the third week of this month; and before the middle of the next, un-
less the season be unusually late, the greater part of the seed is committed
to the ground.
"The spring is short; and during the month of May the mean temperature is
little lower than is common during the same month in England, though there
are occasionally very cold and raw easterly winds. But towards the end of
this month steady*weather is generally established.
"In the beginning of June the summer bursts forth; and the natural forest,
presenting to the eye every variety of vegetation, and filling the air with the
fragrant perfumes of the native herbs of the island, gives abundant evidence if
the fertility of the soil.
"The brilliancy of a summer night in the vicinity of the bays cannot be sur-
passed by that which the finest climates under heaven exhibit. The wind is
usually still, and the smooth surface of the water reflects the splendid lights of
the firmament; and wherever the current runs, the fishes are heard sporting in
the stream; and on the shore, whole acres are sometimes illuminated by the fire
flies, which emit flashes of light as they sport in the air; and now and then a
torch is seen displayed at the bow of the canoe of some Indian engaged in
spearing the eels.
"From this time, until the middle or the end of September, the climate re-
sembles that of the southern coast of England. The thermometer, occasionally,
during calm weather, shovs a greater degree of heat than we experience in
this country; but the sea breeze seldom fails to lower the temperature by the
time the sun reaches the zenith, so that no inconvenience thence arises. But
during the prevalence of the south-west winds, throughout the greater part of
July, August, and September, the thermometer stands pretty steadily at from
75 to 80 degrees of Fahrenheit during the mid-hours of the day; and at night
the air is soft, wholesome, and agreeable.
"The hay harvest commences about the middle of July; and the white crops
are usually cut between the middle and the last of August.
"About the middle of September, the evenings begin to get [out, and the au-
tumn properly commences. Nothing can exceed the beauty or the healthiness
of this season of the year. The atmosphere is exceedingly rarefied, the forest
presents scenery unsurpassed in beauty, or in the hopes of future plenty, by
anything to be met with in the old or new world."
The intermittent fevers of the States are unknown, and the country people are
long lived. The general character of the soil is that of an unctuous loamy
mould. The ground isererywhere easily worked. Sometimesthe settlers plough
■with a pair of bullocks or one horse, and it is rarely necessary to use more
than a pair of light horses.
CANADA.
Climate.—The official records show, that in the last eight years, 1840 to 1847,
there were, in West Canada, 770 days on which there was rain, 400 days on which
there was snow, and 1752 perfectly dry days■, showing a yearly average of 964


132 APPENDIX.
rainy days, of 50 snowy days, of 219 perfectly dry days, wherein there was
neither snow nor rain. If a particle of snow or rain falls during the twenty- four hours, the day is respectively considered at the Observatory as a rainy or
snowy day.
Western Canada.—I had daily offers of beautiful farms, more or less im-
proved, some as low as 10s. per acre, up to £5. and £10. an acre, whilst £20.
per acre was asked for some suburban spots on the plank road. The buildings
about the towns and along the roads all seemed warm and substantial. The
field of enterprise, being so unlimited in Western Canada, there is no doubt our
English emigrants will prefer that country.—Rurio's Ramrles.
Price of Land in Canada.—We extract the following from a Canadian ad-
vertisement, as the best price current of land cleared and uncleared. 254 acres, 165 cleared; large frame house, frame barn and out-houses, orchard, &c, situated
on the bank of the Grand River, four miles from Brantwood, and two from
Paris. Price £7 10s. per acre—145 acres, 135 cleared; very good log buildings,
six miles from Brantford, and within one mile of the plank road to London;
well fenced, and in good cultivation. Price £5 10s. per acre. 185 acres, 160 cleared, on the White Man's Creek, about six miles from Brantford; frame
house, and barn. The farm is well cleared, and in a good vicinity. Price £1200.
350 acres, 270 cleared, frame and log house (containing six rooms and stone
cellar), two log houses, large frame barn, with mill shed attached, &c., &c.
Within three miles of Brantford, with a large frontage on the plank road to
London, price £2000, and terms accommodating. 100 acres, cleared; frame
house, barn, &c., six miles from Brantford, £625. 100 acres, 60 cleared; with
good log buildings, situated in the west part of Burford. An excellent lot of
hard-wood land, well cleared and fenced; in a good neighbourhood,—£350.,
half cash. 100 acres, 54 cleared; frame house, frame barn, and sheds, and a
large bearing orchard,—situated on the Old Oxford Road, 17 miles from Brant-
ford, good land. £5 per acre. 3 acres, with a good frame house and barn, and
a large orchard, situated in Dumfries, about half way between Brantford and
St. George, and about five miles from Paris. This is a desirable little property,
and would suit a doctor or other professional person wishing to reside in the country. Price £125. 280 acres, 30 cleared ; no buildings; frontage on the river
Thames, in North Dorchester. 6 dollars per acre. 100 acres, 35 cleared; log
house, frame barn, orchard, &c., situated in Bayham, about six miles west of
Richmond. £200 cash.—Emigrant's Journal.
Irish Emigration to Canada.—The "Tee-total Settlement" was formed in
1842, by destitute emigrants from the south of Ireland. In a Report from the
Commissioners, dated 25th January, 1844, it is thus stated:—"Where, but two
years ago, stood a dense forest, there have been gathered by thirty-five settlers,
during the past autumn, 7,236 bushels of grain, potatoes, and turnips. The ac-
companying return shows an estimated value of £1,137 in buildings and clear-
ings; and when there is added to this, the market value of the crop, exceeding
£800, we have about £2,000 return (exclusive of the making four and a quarter
miles of road.) The north-eastern section of New Brunswick contains land
which seems to be better adapted for the growth of wheat than almost any other portion of the province. In the county of Restigouch, which is the ex-
treme northern county of New Brunswick, premiums for wheat were awarded
in 1844, to several parcels weighing 64 and 65 lbs. and upwards, the Winchester
bushel; the barley was from 52 to 56 lbs. a bushel, and the best Siberian wheat
63 lbs. a bushel; the best black oats, 42 lbs., and the best white oats 47 lbs. a
bushel.—Mr. M. H. Perley.


APPENDTX. 133
THE UNITED STATES.
A REPUBLIC AND A MONARCHY.
Bo not be misled as to the advantages of a republic; I have been a close
observer of men and things in the political atmosphere of this country for
years, and the advantages arising are "few, and far between." Except your
tithe system, the incumbrance of your National Debt, the heavy taxation for the
support of government, and the enormous outlay for the royal family, I do not
see in what respect we have the advantage. Since the passing of the Reform
Bill, your representation is perhaps as much equalized as John Bull's turbulent
and fractious disposition will bear, your rotten and corrupt boroughs are al-
ready or gradually becoming annihilated, your laws are more rigidly and
rapidly executed, your magistracy is composed of a more intelligent and incor-
ruptible body of men, and the majority of your members of legislature are per-
haps the most honourable, high minded, and patriotic that the world can pro-
duce: the good of their country, and the ambition to distinguish themselves
in their own era, as well as on the pages of history, is their highest aim and
object. Here it is not as yet ro: too many of our members, both of the State
Legislature and Congress, serve for pay; the former receiving four dollars, the
latter eight dollars per day, during the session; hence, the greater part of our
members are needy adventurers, consisting of half-educated briefless lawyers,
and broken-down politicians, with nothing to lose either in character or pro-
perty, and, on the contrary, everything to gain; this class of men too often
drive our more talented and honourable citizens out of the field, it being custo-
mary for the candidates to go through the country or congressional district
"stump speaking." when he who is the greatest adept to buffoonery and per-
sonal abuse, "who is quickest with the tale and readiest with the lie," and can
the soonest use up the character of his opponent, is set down by the mass (the
word "mob" is not acknowledged here) as the greatest Statesman; the conse-
quence is, that it is but seldom that men of standing and character can be in-
duced to "pit" themselves against such demagogues, knowing that they can-
not touch pitch, without being defiled. This evil will, however, decrease, as the
intelligence of the country increases, for mind must eventually rule the mass, as
ethereal the material.—Brief iteport by J. Gray Smith.
American Manners.—I do not think that democracy is marked upon the
features of the lower classes in the United States; there is no arrogant bearing
in them, as might be supposed from the despotism of the majority; on the con-
trary, 1 should say that their lower classes are much more civil than our own.
—MajTvat.
"For intelligence and correct deportment I unhesitatingly assert that
the settlers, as a body, of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, are not sur-
passed by any equal number of people of any country in the world."—
Newhall.
"Affability, kindness, and good temper, are prevailing characteristics of the
Americans in every part of the Union. The rough backwoodsman possesses
these estimable qualities in as high a degree as a citizen of the Eastern
States."
"Consideration and kindness for the helplessness of infancy, and the bereave-
ment of widowhood, is one of the most pleasing traits of the American cha-
racter."—Flower.
"I found good breeding, politeness, frank hospitality, and every generous
feeling prevailing amongst them. I saw none of those open displays of depra-
vity which disfigure our large towns.


134 APPENDIX.
"Every man, rich or poor, seems on all occasions sedulously to give place
aud precedence to females, and the meanest of them are exempt from those
masculine and laborious tasks which are assigned to the sex in our own coun-
try."—Captain Barclay.
AN EXTRACT PROM A LETTER FROM THOMAS THORLEY, BLACK-
SMITH, CREWE.
"Cirkland, Ohio, 25th December, 1848.
This is the healthiest place I was ever in. We all enjoy good health here, thank my God? We love this country well. I will give you the
prices of various articles of food in English money, that you may un-
derstand it better; beef, 1 id. per lb., mutton, l$d. per lb., pork, l$d. per
lb., Teal, Ud. per lb..flour, 20s. per barrel, Indian corn, first-rate, Ip.
6d. per measure, a turkey, Is. 6d., hens, 6d. each, sugar, 3.}d. per lb,
and lump, 5d, per lb., tea, 2s. per lb., coffee. 5£d. per lb., butter, 6d. per lb.,
currants, and raisins, about as with you. Clothing, both men's and women's,
much the same as at home. Farms of about thirty acres, with house and pre-
mises upon it, for £»0 or £90. Apples, as many as you like to gather for no-
thing, we have had given to us; and hundreds of bushels lay beneath the
trees now rotting close by us. I might add, for information, that the amount
of wages I had to start with was 150 cents, or 6s. 3d. per day, and had the
promise of more if I would stop. Of course, at the above price of food, two
day's work per week would keep my family; milk also we can have here for
fetching, as much as we like. With reference to my own prospects, one thought
pays me for all my trials, viz., I have lost the fear of ever wanting t or my
children! There is plenty in abundance; take a case. We have been here, at
this house, seven weeks, during that time one quarter of veal, three quarters
of a sheep, two pigs, the one weighing 18 score 9 lbs., the other small, about 40
lbs., so much for starvation! nearly all this is for work done. And then there
is liberty. I can take my rifle down, and fetch in a brace of large squirrels to
make a first-rate pie, or "a wild duck; these I fetched in ten minutes! There
are also rabbits and quails, these I have never tasted yet, but menu to do the
first opportunity.
Thomas Thorlit.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Venango County, Pine Grove Township, 20th October, 1848.
Dear H.—My farm consists of ninety-four acres, sixty fenced with high timber
fences, sixteen of oats, two of wheat, ten tons of hay, sixteen acres in clover for
next year, fourteen of good meadow land, and forty of good timber, enough for
firing for many years, and enough to fence the farm for twenty years. The
house is well and warmly built. House-building costs nothing here: you only
have to give notice to neighbours round that you intend to raise a house on a
certain day, they all come, bring their tools with them, some a span of horses,
some a yoke of cattle, and they will set to work, fifty or sixty of them, or a hun-
dred, if you require a large house; they go to work and get it up in a day,
when they have put the roof on; you have to kill a sheep, which costs a dollar,
provide bread, and a few gallons of whisky for them (whisky twenty-five cents
per gallon), and you are expected to turn out and help when anybody else re-
quires a house or barn built.
I have a large barn, with mow large enough to hold 5,000 sheaves of corn,
thrashing floor, stables, cow-houses, pig-styes, blacksmith's shop, with stone-
built forge and chimney. Steve and Henry cut the hay, and we made it amongst
us, earned it with a pair of Richard's oxen; the boys then set about cutting
the sixteen. acres of oats, which they got through; we all raked ana Douna
them into sheaves, shocked them into dozens in the field, and then with the
oxen drew them into the barn. There are 420 dozen sheaves; each dozen will


APPENDIX. 135
yield over ft oushel of oats, so that when thrashed, which we shall begin soon,
we shall have over 450 bushels of oats, and about sixteen tons of straw. I've
sold 100 bushels of oats, at twenty-five cents per bushel, and one ton of straw
at eight dollars per ton, to be sent in before Christmas." This farm property,
including all I have mentioned, such as ninety-four acres fencing, timber, out-
crop, hay, wheat, barn, stables, &c., blacksmith's shop, house, springs of running
water, &c. &c., for 600 dollars. Everything is very cheap here but labour, and
a few foreign goods, on which are placed a protective duty. I bought a cow and
calf when I came here for twenty dollars, equal to about £4 6s. 8d. English, a
bow and five pigs for three dollars, seven hens and one cock for one dollar. The
prices of things here are as follows:—Beautiful horses, such as would cost in
England fifty guineas, are here fifty dollars; cows and calves, fourteen dollars;
sheep, one dollar each; cheese, six cents the pound; butter, ten cents; chickens,
eight for one dollar; geese, two for one dollar; turkeys, two for one dollar;
beef, three and four cents the pound; whisky, twenty-five cents a gallon; to-
bacco, from ten to eighteen cents per pound; best French brandy, twenty-five
cents a pint; coffee, twelve pounds for a dollar, or equal to fourpence English
the pound; and very good sugar, six cents a pound. I bought forty bushels of
Indian corn the last time I was in Franklin, at 37£ cents the bushel. Peaches
are twenty-five cents a bushel; potatoes the same. We are going on Monday
about twenty miles off for forty bushels of apples; they are selling them there
at eight and ten cents a bushel; this is an article of food on table at every
house at every meal in the day throughout the year. Peaches are also much
used, and as well as apples are served up in many various ways.
Generally speaking, you never see a dish on a table at any house, but every
thing is put on in plates. The middle of the table is covered with perhaps a
dozen, which are poked on without any order whatever, and containing the
most promiscuous collection of eatables you can imagine. I could not get over
the admixtures for a long time; stewed peaches, salt fish, honey in the comb,
fried potatoes, butter, preserved plums, frizzled pork, apples in molasses, cu-
cumbers in vinegar, fried mutton, tomato jelly, biscuits, coffee, corn cakes, and
musk. I've seen some people take some of all these things on to their plates at
one time. The people are very unconcerned about their ordinary dress; some
of the wealthiest will wear many patches of different colours on their clothes;
on Sundays some few will dress as well as English farmers. The people are
inclined to be very sociable, constantly visiting and walking in and out of one
another's houses without hesitation. The houses usually being not nearer to
each other than half a mile, if you should stay to supper, you are invariably
pressed to stay all night. I like the people very much; we have a few very
choice families in our neighbourhood; intelligent, industrious, benevolent, hos-
pitable, and sociable. One case happened in the middle of harvest: an English-
man who had been out here about a dozen years, was taken suddenly ill; the
neighbours all collected together, nearly thirty of them, and in two days got all
his corn into his barn for him. Politics engross much of their thoughts and
conversation, but they don't often get excited. I was at the election yesterday,
which for this township is carried on at Richard's house. He is town clerk,
and also holds several other official appointments. The face of the country and
the climate is fine; the foliage is grand; the flowers in the woods are beautiful;
our woods are teeming with game; our boyB are shooting pheasants every
day; partridges are plentiful, deer numerous, though the season is too early to
get at them. Of wild, offensive animals, we are in no way short of—bears, ra-
coons, wolves, opossums, porcupines, and rattlesnakes; we have killed some of
each of the three last animals when we came over; at least Arthur killed two
rattlesnakes and one porcupine, and Richard one opossum. The old settlers
seem never to think of rattlesnakes when going through the woods, for they
wear a sort of shoes only to the ankle, and loose trousers; new settlers, being
more timid, wear strong leather boots up to the knee nearly; there is then no
fear, even if trod on, for they would snap low, and they cannot bite through a
strong boot; they could through a thin one such as is used in London.—Emi-
grant's Journal.
"Buffalo, Sept. 31, 18iS
My Bear Wife,—I am receiving 12s. a week, and pay 8s. for my board so
that I have 4s. a week left . This is not the whole of my earni^r. "The r«M 2


136 APPENDIX.
mainder runs up till December, when they pay us off." Some say December M
the best time to come, for there are not so many coming in the winter as in the summer. You can, in consequence, come much more comfortably. When there
are so many coming, it is very unpleasant . People are very apt, in crowded
ships, to have the ship fever. Then, again, you can come for one half the money,
and be better looked to than when there are so many coming. If I were coming
over again, I would start about January; for there are worse storms in t he
spring than in January.
I can buy as good land as any there is in England for 5s. an acre, with the
trees on it; and the timber on the ground will pay for the clearing and smooth-
ing over. And the land will want no manure for twelve years. I shouldnever
want to come to England again, if it were not to see my relations. Though the
trade is worse in America just now than ever it was known before, yet there are
plenty of chances to do well in America. I am getting 6s. 3d. a day, English
money. When traffic is good, the wages run about two dollars a day, or 8s. 4d.
English money.
It would not take more to keep us both in living than it does to keep myself.
You can have a fat sheep for about 3s., and you can buy as nice a fat pig for
Id. a pound as ever you saw. You can buy a goose, eighteen pounds weight,
for 2d. A turkey, about twenty-eight pounds, for 2s. The price of meat varies
from Id. to 2d. a pound. It is considered dear this year. You can buy cheese
a whole one at a time, as good as any I ever tasted, for Id. a pound. But but-
ter runs from 2d. to 3d. a pound. Tea runs from 2s. to 3s. a pound. Sugarruns
from 2d. a pound upwards. The best sugar is 4d. apound. It is a fine country
for tea drinkers. There is scarcely a man to be seen drunk. In America
drunkards are looked upon like dogs. Malt runs from 2s. to 2s. 6d. a bushel.
Hops are 3d. a pound. You can buy the drink for a Id. aquart from the brew-
ery. Cider sells for 2s. a barrel. Whisky, 10s. a barrel. There are thirty-two
gallons in a barrel. All other liquors are about the same, except brandy, which
is dearer. So that a man can get drunk for a little money. Tobacco is 6d. a
pound. Cigars from 3d. to 6d. a dozen. I have been a teetotaller these three
weeks. And I have had no tobacco yet. I think I shall be a teetotaller, for tee-
totallers are looked on well. Men are not kept under here as they are in Eng-
land. The masters talk to them like talking to one another.
You can buy potatoes for 6d. a bushel: and apples for 9d. a bushel. Peaches
can be got for 2s. a bushel. Flour is 20s. a barrel just now. It is rather dear;
but it will be down next week to 16s. a barrel- They are bringing it into Buf-
falo by thousands of barrels a week.
The table at which I sit, is set off like gentlemen's tables in England. There
are fowl, cheese, butter, pies, rice puddings, peaches, and apple sauce and ice
creams. There are so many dishes that you cannot taste of all of them. It is
in general, as I like it to be. You have "beef steak and potatoes for breakfast
and supper, as well as to dinner.—C. Jones.
FROM A CHARTIST.
Pittsburg, July 24th, 1848.
Dear Sir,—You know by Ann's letters that we live In Pensylvenia, we Kke
america first-rate; We find It all and more than all we expected; Wages high
and living cheap. A beautyful and healthy country, perfect security to life and
property, honest and Inteligent persons for neighbours and associates, plenty of
trade for all who are willing to work, In fact, the United States Is the most
prosperous and flourishing country In the world where All the Inhabitants have
enough to eat, A fact that does not admit of contradiction. No begers disfigure
our streets, this is the land of plenty, Where Industry Is rewarded, And all
fiersons has to earn their livelyhood each one for himself, And not as In Eng-
and, where some role In luxury, while others Starve. The working man here
Is not robed of half his earning by taxation, here all men are equal No here-
ditary titles and distinctions, Such as lords dukes, and other nick-names have
existance here; no fat Bishops and State Church, to supply the rich gentry and
fag-end of nobility with large sallaries and nothing to do for It, unless it Is to
domineer over the working clurgy. I like the americans verry much, they are
agreeable kind of people; their politeness Is seen more In their actions than
words, there Is nothing artificial about them. I don't see scarcely any different


APPENDIX. 137
In the appearance of things here and In England. It is much warmer here in
Burner and less rain, bright sun shiney days, without fog or clouds continually.
A summer day here is 2 hours shorter than in england. The cenery round pitta-
burg Is beautyful, Shut in by hills that slopes to the edge of the river, covered
with trees, looks charming from the smokey city. You would be surprised what
quantitys of steam boats you can see here, many of them 700 ton burden. They
run down to New Orleans and Intermediate towns and citys. There Is several
large cotton factorys here, And Iron works, Glass works, &c., Similar In Its
Sroductions to the English Birmingham. House rent Is as dear here as In London, and an empty house Is not to be seen or found.
Some things are cheap here; ham, 3d. per pound, as good as the best you could
jrej'in London, and beter; Beef, 3d., have It cut from any part of the beast.
Get A fowl for 9d.; mutton, Sjd;; veal,3d.; Butter, 7d.per pound; sugar, moist,
3d-; white, 5d.; treacle, 3d. per quart; Tea, 3s. per pound, as good as you can
get In London for 6s., no duty on it here; Coffee, 6d. per pound; milk, 2d. per
quart; vedgetables, much as the same as London market; Gardening is good
business here; I think Ann and John would do well here, the strawbereyes used
here Is enormous for making strawbereyes and cream, the reason whv so much
Is used Is, All the Inhabitants can afford to have some. Fruit of all kind Is
abundant, not verry cheap, the cittisons buy so much. Servants girls get 6s. a
week, And sometimes more. Servant Is a word never used here, nor master,
you can't tell which are lady's here, the women dress so fine, all of them, and
they literally hoop their fingers with rings and signets. Wages Is about 6s. a
a day for mechanics, 4s. for labourers. Flour 4s. and 7d. per bushel, things are
dear now. So the Inhabitants say, the Americans drink verry little Ale or
Spirrits, we don't have any ourselves It Is to hot here without that, water does
better.—Jem and Jane Powell.
IOWA—ILLINOIS—WISCONSIN.
The state of Iowa contains a white population little if any short of 200,000
persons. The number is regularly increased at the rate of 12,000 a year. Three-
fourths of the whole state may be said to be quite ready for the plough, being
clear, and without tress. At the same time, in all districts, a sufficient quantity
of timber is found for every necessary purpose. The growth of grass is luxuri-
ant. Mr. Bradford states that during a residence of six years in the state, he
scarcely ever ate butter that was not superior to the choicest that is to be pur-
chased in any of the eastern states. The mere up-turning of the plough, with
the most careless after tillage, is only needed to convert nearly the whole terri-
tory into a fruitful garden, Coal, lead, and copper are, in different districts,
found in immense beds, and in connection with ample water-power, mark the
future greatness of Iowa not less for manufacturing than for agricultural wealth.
The climate is as propitious to health as that of almost any country in the world.
Its remoteness from the ocean secures it from those insalubrious winds which
carry with them a host of pulmonary disorders on the northern sea-board;
while its high and dry soil, and pure atmosphere, preserve it from the fatal fevers
to which the flatter surface and the fervid sun of the Lower Mississippi often
subject the denizens of the south. The winter—extending from December to
March—is cold, but dry, bracing, and clear; the heat of summer is tempered by
genial breezes and refreshing showers; and the autumn is peculiar for its beauty
and serenity—the mellow softness of the climate, the beauty and grandeur of
the foliage, the balmy fragrance of the atmosphere, the serene sky, all combined,
form a picture calculated to excite the most pleasurable feelings.
The general aspect of Illinois and Wisconsin in many respects resembles Iowa
to which, however, both are decidedly inferior. Illinois is deficient in its pro-
portion of timber to prairie, and, as a whole, cannot honestly be described as
equal to the desired standard in the item of health. Wisconsin, again, is colder
and has less water than Iowa, with more inferior land.
Newhall, a resident in the state, shows, by a simple calculation, that, with
£80 on his arrival, an emigrant, with a moderately-sized family, will start with
a good prospect of success. The experience of the* British Temperance Emigra-
tion Society has led its agents to name a similar sum. Marshall, another settler
in the Far West, shows, in his "Farmer's and Emigrant's Hand-book," that
with 200 dollars (£40), and with a team, farming tools, and household furniture,
a man may confidently commence his struggle with the world. "Many a man
X 3


]36 APPENDIX.
in the -west is now comparatively rich, who commenced with a less sum, AH
that is wanted is courage and industry—some would say luck, but luck almost
always follows industry." Our own opinion is, that £106 in sterling money,
well expended, and tended with industry, will be found sufficient for making a
good commencement, even if the emigrant has not been accustomed to agricul-
tural labour.—Eastern Counties Herald.—From a late resident.
IOWA—WISCONSIN, WESTERN STATES. Average prices of cattle and farming implements for a beginner—
M % d.
Good milch cows, 10 to 15 dollars; yoke of oxen, 15 dollars 10 9 0
Sheep, 87 cents to 1 dollar per head, 42 sheep 2 0 0
Farm waggon, 50 dollars 10 0 0
Harrow, 14 dollars,scythe, pitchfork,rake, shovel, chains, &c., 32 dollars 2 6 0
Double Log Cabin £15, seed corn 10 acres, potatoes, turnips, garden
seed, £1 16 0 Q
Poultry and a young pig, 12s., family expenses, three to five of a fa-
mily, 6s. per week, for 30 weeks, £10 10 12 0
80 acres prairie land, 5s. per acre, £20; horse, £10 30 0 0
Total 80 18 0
For £80 the emigrant can be comfortably settled on his 80 acre tract, furnished
with every necessary, and 30 weeks provisions. If you do not happen to have a
home-sick wife, I can see no reason why, with patience and perseverance, vou
should not prosper equal to your utmost expectations. If you have £20 left— keep it. It is the error of emigrants to spend their last dollar for the acres a
the outset If you have £500, purchase 320 acres, a half section.—Nuwhill.
THS FAINT-HBARTED—THE HOPEFUL.
A recently came to this port from England with a wife and three small
children. He was connected with a Baptist church in his own country, and
from all that I can learn, he is a very worthy man. Several years ago he en-
tered upon a farm with several hundred pounds capital. The rent was too high, and, in spite of all his industry and frugality, he sunk money, and at last
failed. His friends furnished him with a few pounds to bring him out to this
country. He came ashore with twenty dollars in his pocket. One of his chil-
dren was ill, and in a few days died. His money was, of course, soon gone, and
his efforts to obtain a situation, either as a superintendent of a farm, or as as-
sistant in a store, failed; his expectations so sanguine, by the accounts he had
heard of America before he left home, thus disappointed, left him broken
hearted. He is now on a sick bed, and kept from the almshouse only by the
charity of his countrymen. This is no solitary case. I give it as an example;
B was also an English emigrant, but he nad left his family behind. Fail-
ing, as in the other instance, to find employment in the city, he must either get a
place in the almshouse, or beg his way in the country, until he found employ-
ment. He wisely chose the latter. He travelled, begging and working on his
way, several hundred miles, until he came to a new settlement. He met there
with a landowner, who offered him land at one dollar an acre, to be paid for
when he was able. He purchased fifty acres. He called on a neighbouring
farmer, and told him he had bought some land, but he had not a single imple-
ment of husbandry, and not a cent in his pocket. "Well, never mind," said
his generous friend, "I guess we can help you along. Hold on till I come back."
He soon returned with a few of his neighbours, each one with an axe. They se t
to work on the land of their new neighbour, cut down some trees, built up a log
house, turned up, or rather scratched up the ground, between the stumps, and
planted it with corn. One brought him a cow, another a pig, another some
poultry. All this, the work of three days only, was done with the understand-
ing that he was to help them in return, and pay them back what they had lent
him when he was able. In two years from this time, the man had his family
about him, in a comfortable log house, a good part of his farm cleared, and was
as happy as independence and competence could make him.—Hints to Emigrants.


APPENDIX. 130
t
The United States occupy by far the most valuable and the most temperate
portion of North America. Confined originally to the shores of the Atlantic
Ocean, this great confederacy of republics has extended its empire over the
whole region, spreading westward to the Pacific, and surpasses in internal re-
sources, and the means of developing its natural wealth, the capacities of any
of the empires of the old world. To the miner, the artisan, the manufacturer,
merchant or agriculturist, it offers the most unbounded inducements. In staples
inexhaustible, in mechanical power efficient, in means of transportation unex-
ceptionable, in matter and mind not surpassed, the prospects of the American
Union are pre-eminently brilliant. The commerce, the internal trade, mecha-
nical skill and agricultural industry of the United States, are second, indeed,
to those of no other nation, except in the aggregate amount of commercial
transactions, in which it is surpassed by Great Britain alone.
The progressive increase of the dimensions of this country by conquest and
cession has been rapid. At the termination of the revolution, in 1783, it was confined to the territories east of the Mississippi, and south of the Canadas. In
1803 it was augmented by the purchase from France of Lousiana, a country now
occupied by the thriving states of Lousiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and
several territories extending over many hundreds of thousands of square
miles Florida was purchased in 1819, and at the same time the Spanish claim
to the * Oregon' was transferred to the republic In 1S45 Texas voluntarily an-
nexed itself to the Union; and by the treaty of 2nd of February, 1848, the
-whole territories of New Mexico and California were ceded by the republic of
Mexico.
The present limits of the United States are bounded north by the Canadas,
and the 49th parallel of north latitude; east by the Atlantic Ocean; south by
the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande, and the Rio Gila, which separates it from
the Mexican States of Chihuahua, Sonora, &c., and on the west by the Pacific
Ocean. This vast country measures in extreme length from east to west, 2,800
miles, and from north to south, 1,360 miles, with an estimated superficial area
of about 3,200,000 square miles, an extent of surface little inferior to that of the
whole of Europe, and a population counting from 21,000,000 to 22,000,000 of
souls.
The United States comprises three essentially different geographical regions:
—the slope from the Alleghany Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, which com.
prises the oldest settlements; the valley of the Mississippi, or, great central
plain, now in the process of settlement; and the slope from the Cordilleras of
New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Such are the great natural divisions. Usually the country is divided into what
are termed northern and southern, or free and slave states, in which the cli-
mate and habits of the people differ materially. It is chiefly, if not entirely, to
the non-slaveholding states that the immigrants, those from Great Britain es-
pecially, direct their attention, because there they can enjoy a strictly healthy
climate, and associate with neighbours of kindred opinions and habits of life.
Greater scope is likewise afforded in these regions for their industry in agricul-
tural and mechanical employments. The slave states, especially those in the ex-
treme south, or below the line of 36 deg. 30 sec. north latitude, offer inducements
only to the capitalist who has sufficient to purchase both lands and slaves.
There the climate is unsuited to the European constitution. Neither are the
soil or staples of agriculture there grown, such as the European has been ac-
customed to. To raise cotton, tobacco, sugar, and other tropical products, is the
peculiar employment of the African, and could not be attempted by those indi-
genous to temperate regions.
There are now in the Union thirty separate and independent states, and a
number of territories which are as yet but thinly settled.
The states have also separate and distinct governments, and have uncontrolled
surveillance over all their own institutions, and form their own laws and mu-
nicipal regulations. The whole states, however, are bound together as a confe-
deracy, and are subject to the constitution of the United States. The state con-
stitutions are mostly of a similar form, and only differ from the confederation
in being integral republics. The territories are under the immediate control of
the President and Congress of the United States.
The following table will exhibit the name, extent, population, &c., of each
state, and the chief town or seat of government:—


140
APPENDIX.
Name.
North-East States.
Maine
New Hampshire . .
Vermont
Massachusetts . . .
Rhode Island . . .
Connecticut ....
Middle States,
New York . .
New Jersey .
Pennsylvania
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Southern States.
Virginia . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia. . .
Florida . . .
"Western States.
Extent.
Population.
Sq. miles. Censos ,
810.
Estimate
1848.
Ohio . . .
Indiana . .
Illinois . .
Michigan .
Wisconsin .
Iowa. . .
Missouri
Kentucky
South-Western States.
Tennessee ... . .
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana •
Texas ....*..
Arkansas
District of Columbia . .
32,628
9,411
10,212
7,500
1,340
4,764
46,085
8,320
44,000
2,120
13,950
64,000
48,000
28,000
62,000
45,000
Territories.
39,128
37,000
52,000
60,090
64,0110
50,600
63,000
42,000
40,000
46,000
45,760
48,2J0
20,000
55,000
100
•g ri f Minesota . .
*s j2 ) Western . .
°fl] Nebraska . . g o (Indian . . .
501,793
284,574
291,918
737,699
108,830
309,973
2,428,921
873,306
1,724,033
78,085
470,019
1,239,797
753,419
594,398
691,392
54,477
1,519,467
685,866
476,183
212,267
30,945
43,102
383,702
779,828
829,210
590,756
375,651
352,411
120,000
97,574
43,712
600,000
300,000
302,000
850,0.0
130,000
330,000
2,780,000
406,000
2,125,000
80,000
495,000
1,270,000
765,000
605,000
800,000
Capital.
Augusta.
Concord.
Montpelier.
Boston.
( Providence
1 & Newport.
I Hartford and
) N. Haven.
Albany.
Trenton.
Harrisburg.
Dover.
Annapolis.
Richmond.
Raleigh.
Columbia.
Milledgeville.
75,000 Tallahassee.
1,850,000
960,000
7:i5,000
370,000
215,000
130,000
600,000
855,000
950,000
690,000
640,000
470,000
149,000
152,400
46,000
Columbus.
Indianapolis.
Springfield.
Lansing.
Madison.
Iowa City.
Jefferson.
Frankfort.
Nashville.
Montgomery.
Jackson.
Baton Rogue.
Austin.
Little Rock.
Washington.
60,000 J 1
460,000 ( Inhabited by Indian J
120,000 (
90,000)
Tribes.
Fort Snelling.
Fort Leavenworth.
Fort Gibson.
S 'a I New Mexico .
Z n ) California . .
g | I Oregon . . .
70,000 I
350,000 >
400,000 I
80,000
70,000
20,000
Santa Ft.
Puebla de los Angelos. Astoria.
The Emigrant's Hand-Book.—Cotton. N. Y.


APPENDIX. 141
FARMING IN THE PRAIRIES.
The farms in Illinois are generally made in the prairie near to the timber.
The abundance of grass growing in the prairie, and the quantity of wild vege-
table food for animals, offers an ample subsistence for horses and cattle, sheep
and hogs, during the summer months.
The number of these animals that a farmer keeps, is only limited by the amount
of winter food which he can raise on his farm. The farm, on enclosed field, is
for the sole purpose of growing the grain, or grass for hay; but not for sum-
mer pasturage.
The great pasture is all outside open to everybody, and to everybody's cattle,
and the abundance and extent of the range is one of the resources of a new
country. The cattle thus let loose in the wide world dc not run away, as people
who have kept them only in houses and enclosures are apt to suppose.
Why should they? there is abundance of food everywhere.
It is true they show a preference to certain spots, and in the autumn of the
year, when the grass in the prairie gets dry, they will wander into the woods
in search of more succulent plants; and as winter approaches, go further into
the fiat lands of rivers and creeks, where grass is yet green, and keeps so all
the winter.
The animals like to come to their home where they have been wintered ; and a
little salt given to them every time they return, will generally circumscribe
their range within a mile or two from home.
In the autumn, or early winter, we bring them into the farms, and feed them
night and morning. In the day, during the moderate weather of winter, they
browse about the woods and the skirts of the prairie. Thus are cattle and horses
raised in great numbers. We should let them procure their own food in the
winter in the river flats, but for the danger from the water.
The flats are frequently a little lower towards the bluff highlands, than
towards the bank of the river. A rise of the river encircles the cattle with
water, by which they are penned up on the highest spots of ground, in the mid-
dle of the flat; and if the river rises very high, the water overflows the whole
of the flats, and the cattle are all drowned.
Hence the danger of letting cattle run unattended, in cane breaks and river
bottoms. But much of the stock of these settlers, who live on the margins of the
flats, do get their living there, and are perfectly safe, the owners having an eye
upon them when the water rises.
Though great quantities of cattle are thus cheaply raised, the system of range
farming is destructive of all excellence in the breed of cattle. Your own and
your neighbour's cattle, of all sorts and sizes, ages and qualities, mingle, browse,
and breed together.
The keeping of sheep is not so easy. They are not strong enough to protect
themselves from the wolf, as are the cattle; they must be brought home every
night, they are not safe even in the fields at night. Hogs are better able to
take care of themselves; yet the wolf has usually a large share of pigs in the
range.
Maze, or Indian corn, is more universally cultivated than any other grain;
it has peculiar qualities that suit the country and climate. It likes rich land and
great heart: it has both. But the peculiar quality for which it is valued by a
people who have very few labouring hands, is its indestructability from wea-
ther after it has ripened. It may be left in the field without injury for weeks
and months after it is ripe. All other grains, when ripe, shell out, and if not
harvested would soon be lost.
In a country short of labour, the quantity of small grain sown must be regu-
lated by the power of harvest help at command. Not so with Indian corn. All that can be cultivated to perfect growth may be planted. Its cultivation is the
Tull, or horse-hoe system of husbandry, drill andhorse-hoe.
After the land is ploughed in April it is marked off; that is, a plough makes a
slight furrow or mark every four feet both ways, the whole length and breadth
of the field. At the intersecting angles of the furrows, three or four grains of
corn are dropped by a child, and lightly covered with an hoe by an older child
or a man. Three plants are suffered to remain upon each hill; the corn and
weeds start together.


142 APPENDIX.
When the blade of the corn is about four inches high, we run a one-horse
plough down the rows, passing as close to the corn as possible, throwing the
earth into the middle of the interval. When the whole field is gone over once
in this manner, run the plough into the middle of the interval, and throw
the earth back. to the corn. Thus the corn grows rapidly, and the weeds are
killed.
The last ploughing is generally given in July. It is ripe and hard in Oc-
tober.
There are two modes of harvesting corn. One mode is to cut up the plants
with a short sword about six inches from the ground, and set them up on end
in large circular shocks all over the field. This operation is performed when
the plant is yet green in leaf and stem, and when the kernels of the ear, though
perfectly formed, are yet soft. There is sap enough in the stem to perfect the
ear. The leaf and stem thus preserved is excellent winter food for cattle; it is
called fodder, in distinction to hay. In the early part of November each stalk
is stripped of its ripe and hard ears, which are put into a corn crib, and the
fodder is left standing to be fed away to cattle in the winter.
But the most common way is to let the corn mature on the stalk in the field;
when it is hard the corn is gathered, and the dried stalks with their dried
leaves left standing, and the cattle, during a snow or frost, are turned into the
field, to eat as much of them as they will, which is all the blades and half of
the stalks.
Corn affords good food for both man and beast . It is most excellent for fat-
tening hogs. A man with no other help than his own little family, can, at his
leisure, gather his crop of corn, even if the gathering time is prolonged for
weeks or months. It is bad economy, however, to let the corn stand all the
winter, as the deer, racoons, and squirrels, are apt then to make depredations
upon it.
Englishmen must remember that corn, in America, means maze or Indian
corn. The term is not applied to wheat, barley, and oats, which are called,
"small grain," but never corn.
The hunter, when he first settles in the forest, cultivates a small field of corn,
enough tofeedhis few horses, cattle, and hogs. The cultivation of the cornlasts
from May to July. His farming is then all done, and he pursues his favourite
occupation of hunting all the rest of the year.
The next settler in succession that buys him out, adds another field, and cul-
tivates, besides corn, a little wheat, and some oats. He hunts less, keeps more
hogs and cattle, and digs a well. The third is, perhaps, a Pennsylvania farmer,
a Yankee, or, perchance, an Englishman. He enlarges his fields, lays down
broad meadows of grass, and plants an orchard, then permanent settlements
begin, and a new aspect of extended and permanent comfort is visible in house
and lands. Then towns grow up and useful institutions of every sort arise. The
preceding pioneers all move on further westward, and are supplanted by more
permanent and substantial men.
Tallyrand said a man plants his patriotism with his trees. I believe it. The
choppers and destroyers have no local attachments. Their pleasures are of ano-
ther kind and derived from other sources; fewness of wants, absence of care,
lightness of labour, and variety of scene.
We have, in Illinois, no system of agriculture, properly so called, yet there are
certain parties that follow in regular succession, suited to anew country, where
land is cheap and plenty, and where labour is scarce, It is a system, if system
it may be called, arising from circumstances and not from any preconcerted
theory.
We first use such spontaneous productions as the earth yields. The grass, the
fruits of the forest, the meat of wild animals, such as deer, turkey, &c, &c
.
The first crop is produced by the fertility of the soil with very imperfect culti-
vation. We plant and sow on the same piece of ground until its virgin strength
is exhausted. We seek not to retain its fertility, but receive from it all that it
will give, and then go to another piece and do the like.
Land is cheap, and labour dear, we therefore use land plentifully, and labour
sparingly.
The English farmers do not carry this system to the same extent as the natives,
but sow grass seeds on the exhausted soil, and allow the land to recruit its strength under a few years of pasturage.


APPENDIX. 143
The scarcity of labour induces us to do that only which we are compelled to
do. Everything that can be deferred is put off; all operations which time and
weather can perform, are left to them; everything is left that can be done with-
out. This gives to the exterior of our farms and farm buildings, a very slovenly
appearance. The weeds are suffered to take possession of the garden, which
has yielded its abundant crop of vegetables. The old and abandoned building
is suffered to drop to pieces for want of time to take it down.—Flower.
AMERICAN CUSTOMS.
There is no error more palpable, none so generally admitted, yet none so
universally committed, as that which calls up hasty expressions of disapproba-
tion and feelings of dislike, when we first encounter national customs, dissi-
milar and opposite to our own. Englishmen, with all their good qualities, are
essentially a most obstinate and opiniated people. Without waiting to examine
the cause or the effect of the customs objected to, they are apt, at once, to con-
demn and reject them. This conduct is particularly unreasonable when they
voluntarily enter a new, and, to them, a foreign country. Many customs prevail
in America, so generally, that they may be set down as national characteristics,
some highly beneficial and agreeable, others, the reverse. A custom prevails
among the females of America, so highly beneficial in its influences, and strik-
ingly agreeable, as to be worthy of universal example. It is, that when per-
forming any kind of work, whether in the manufactory, the shop, or in the
office of domestic drudgery, American ladies are, then, generally attired with
additional care. On many such occasions I have observed with admiration, a
union of neatness and simplicity in their dress, approaching to the perfection of
rood taste.
The American women have a happy knack of rendering a very disagreeable
job, (or which is rendered so by the old mode of doing it), oftentimes a very
agreeable employment; and,in none is it more strikingly displayed than in
their mode of getting through with the labour of the wash. Disarray among
the females, and dismay among the men, combine against all comfort on the
awful day, of an English six week's wash. Here the whole thing is differently
performed. The accumulation is not suffered to be so large. Here it is taken little by little, and the mode of attack is very different. The American lady,
before she begins her morning's wash, first dresses and adorns herself with
more than usual care and grace, yielding to the head and hair a little more
than ordinary elegance. If a sudden call is made for her appearance in the
parlour, no more time is needed than is necessary to dry her hands. Thus armed
there is no danger of being caught; indeed, in this case, the catching is apt to be
the other way. American females have a sleight of hand in getting through
house-work of all kinds, without apparent labour.
The general inquisitiveness of Americans is very surprising to an English-
man on his first arrival. This inquisitiveness is but a feature of a great na-
tional characteristic.
Englishmen have a great reserve in all personal matters, and in the minor af-
fairs of life generally. A reserve, by which they fail to acquire much informa-
tion, and, in truth, lose much enjoyment.
There is a sort of community of feeling in America, of all men and women's
affairs and motives. The fact is, or ought to be, known, that from the moment
of your landing in America, to the latest moment of your stay, you are in a
house of glass. There is no point so distant, no place so retired, but the all-see-
ing eye of your neighbour, for the time being, is upon you: it is perfectly vain
to attempt to conceal word or action; and some practice in American society is
requisite to prevent the ready divination of the thoughts also. This is a por-
tion which you have hitherto enjoyed in private, but now you are required to
throw it into the common stock of information, and, in return, you may amuse
yourself with all the actions and schemes of your neighbours, and with those of
every other person with whom you may come in contact.
This does not altogether arise from individual curiosity. The erratic and gre-
garious habits of the people, throw large masses of them in continual com-
panionship.


144 APPENDIX.
Travelling in steam boats and railroad oars, meeting and eating together in
large hotels and boarding houses all tend to publicity. The habit of register-
ing name, residence, and destination at every tavern is as efficient a clue, as
the official records of the French police.
Nothing is more common than when you are on the eve of starting on a jour-
ney a person with whom you are but slightly acquainted, asks you where you
are going. "To Baltimore, perhaps." "How long do you think of staying f"
"Three weeks, perhaps." He accosts the next person he meets with, "A has
?one to Baltimore ! wonder what he's gone for. Oh? he's gone for so and so."
hus its all known in less time than I have been writing about it. This general
publicity gives great tact in keeping secret, or veiling a motive where it is ne-
cessary so to do.
The merchant's counting house, or the public offices in America, have nothing
of the brief despatch, abrupt question and reply of the like places in England.
In England you are not generally admitted until the other, who is in, has finished
his business. On entering, you state your business standing, receive your an-
swer and go out. If, indeed, it is something more of a consultation than is
usual, perhaps you recline one elbow on the desk, whilst conversing with the oc-
cupant who either quits his stool or pen until you have finished, a nod is all the
ceremony in parting. In America a courteous reception, invitation to a seat,
enquiries of your health and that of your friends, precede the most pressing
business. If half a dozen people are present, you are introduced to them all,
and no feeling exists about speaking of your business before the whole company.
You are ushered into the apartment of a public man, who is engaged in
writing an important state paper, he turns round immediately, converses most
freely, resumes his pen when you are gone, without a single expression of vex-
ation at the interruption. In this way you become acquainted with everybody, know everything, and hear all that is going on.
It takes some years of experience before an Englishman, asks himself, Why
do I want to be alone? what.have I got to conceal? America is a social gossip-
ing country. I incline to prefer these social habits of intercourse of the Ameri-
cans, to the greater reserve of the English. It creates a kindly feeling in the
community. It is not an easy matter for an emigrant to attain to the perfection
of this social talent, for talent it certainly is. He may have lost all hostility to
the practice of free and open intercourse at all times and seasons. He may be
on excellent terms with his neighbours, but if he will stay at home and only
mind his own business, he can never be a decidedly popular man. In this
country where freedom of intercourse is almost unrestrained, as to time and
place, a retirement or seclusion, is a species of neglect, if not offence, which is
decidedly felt, though it may not be expressed. You may sin and be wicked in
many ways, and in the tolerant circle of American society receive a full
and generous pardon. But this one sin can never be pardoned, and if you would be elected constable, squire, or president, be sure you never commit it
.
It is an error to suppose that freedom of speech is greater in America than in
England. Freedom of expression and unreserved speech is not universal in
America. Common conversation is conducted with more courtesy than in Eng-
land. The energetic and fierce reply, and flat contradiction, is never heard in
the commonest tavern, or stage coach. This may be accounted for. At a court,
manners and speech are courteous. In America we are always in presence of
the sovereign people. Motives of policy constantly predominate. The unpre-
meditated thought is seldom expressed. But what is proper and expedient for
the occasion is expressed in courteous and guarded phraseology. In questions
of domestic policy, American statesmen are, what may be termed compromising
politicians. Striking and eminent examples to the contrary exist among the
most distinguished statesmen of America.
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, though in most
particulars directly opposite to each other, and of two distinct political parties,
are, nevertheless, consistent. and uncompromising politicians in the course of po-
litics which they severally pursue.—Flower.


PART TWO.
WHETHER TO GO, AND WHITHER?
THIS CAPE OF gOOD HOPS. PORT NATAL. NEW ZEALAND. NEW SOUTH WALES. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. AUSTRALIA FELIX. WESTERN AUSTRALIA. VAN DIEMAN'S LAND. AUCKLAND ISLAND. FALKLAND ISLANDS, AND REMAINING BRITISH COLONIES.





INTRODUCTION.
It is a " great fact" which strikes those who prefer to rely upon cir-
cumstantial evidence rather than to trust to the conflict of human testi-
mony, which at every step confuses and confounds the enquirer into the
subject of emigration, that the great mass of persons who leave Europe
for America, give a direct preference to the United States as a place of
settlement. It is still more worthy of observation, that of those whose
original destination has been the British American provinces, upwards of
sixty per cent. remove ultimately to the neighbouring republic. No sta-
tistics, no interesting narratives of "Life in Canada," no geological sur-
veys of strata and soils, no unsophisticated letters of primitive settlers to
their " dear parents," or " Friends at Home," are half so significant as
this. It amounts to the testimony of some 150,000 witnesses yearly, in
the shape, not of words, but of acts, and personal experience, in favor of
the superior advantages of the States. The winter in Canada, long and
severe, the absence of spring, the difficulty of bringing Indian Corn to
perfection, except in a mere per centage of seasons, the additional ex-
pences of clothing, fuel, housing for men and cattle, the encreased labour
and cost of house-feeding through a long winter, and the consequent ac-
cumulated obstacles to the easy acquisition of subsistence and enjoyment of
life, are doubtless all strong arguments in favour of a preference for the
western and some of the southern states of the Union. Their self-gov-
ernment, whatever other effectsit may produce, has universally a tendency
to energize a people, and to increase the activity, enterprise, and asso-
ciative power of nations. But, added to these motives for the avoidance
of Canada, or for transmigration from British America, is the absence
b 


IT INTRODUCTION.
there of that which is generally the redeeming feature of a monarchical
government—stability and strength of the ruling power. The recent his-
tory of Canada has been that of organic changes effected by the govern
ment itself, and rebellions and insurrections on the part of the people.
The influence of the mother country has every year become weaker. A
difference of race in the population, has rendered the elements of society
incoherent. A newspaper, recently established, and conducted with much
ability, and even temperance of spirit, proposes for its object, separation
from the mother country, and annexation to the neighbouring republic.
These principles find favor even with many British settlers, and persons
of substance and standing. The most sanguine cannot escape the con-
viction, that a long career of convulsion, agitation, and disorder is before
them, the source of insecurity, obstruction to the successful pursuit of
industry and commercial enterprise, and that social distraction, under
which no people can flourish.
Removed to the United States, the first step towards citizenship is an
express renunciation of allegiance to the British Crown. It is true that
strangers may settle in the country without becoming citizens. But
"Britishers" will find that, until they have become citizens of the United
States, the country is no place for them. They will be universally ta-
booed by the natives. A system of petty, but very effectual, persecution,
will prove to them that they " cannot serve two masters;" and that the
last thing Americans can tolerate is the practical assertion that any rule,
or country, can be superior, or even equal to their own. Strange, as it
may appear, too, this is really a providential element in their character,
because their constitutional system is naturally so incohesive, that nothing
but a passionate patriotism could hold it together. Do as Rome does,
and the settler will be kindly treated, and generously helped. To "Sit at
Rome and strive with the Pope," will speedily be discovered to be an im-
possible effort. The Americans, by whom we mean the masses of the
Union, are essentially a vain, arrogant, conceited people. Like all vain
men they cannot rest contented with the self conviction of their great-
ness, for which their own wonderful deeds give them ample warrant.
They live, feast, and gorge upon the praise and admiration of others.
John Bull is too proud to be vain. Brother Jonathan is too vain to b(


INTRODUCTION. V
proud. He cannot wrap himseif up in his own self-sufficiency. Applause,
adulation, the assurance of others that he is a wonderful man, is essential
to his happiness. He is a glutton of admiration—and like all such, feed
him with grounds for self satisfaction, and he will prove himself good
natured, kindly, and generous. This is not American, but human nature.
All men, who are to a great extent the self creators of all that surrounds
them, magnify the work of their own hands to a bulk far beyond its real
proportions. There are many of the inhabitants of our own remote
towns who seriously believe that in all substantial respects, they and their
"Little Peddlington" are far superior to London, and that their country
balls or races, beat Almack's and Ascot hollow. The denizens of Aber-
deen pride themselves upon being the best speakers of English; and the
worthy pastor of the parish, which embraces two small islands off the
coast of Ayr, was in the regular habit of praying for "the islands of the
Cumrass, and the islands of Great Britain and Ireland thereto adjoining."
Nothing is more certain than that—
"Home keeping youth, have ever homely wits."
The provincial mind is essentially provincial in its habits of thought; and
whether in Cornwall, or Springfield, at Glamorgan or Cincinnati, it will
be found that local poetasters or native Boanergeses, are reckoned far su-
perior to Wordsworth or Macaulay. The dress of the Americans, espe-
cially of the women, gaudy, conspicuous, expensive, eccentric, is evidently
devised to attract external attention, and forms as striking a contrast to
the quiet good taste of English costume, as the silent consciousness of
superiority of the Englishman, which neither courts nor almost accepts
admiration, is opposed to the uneasy, restless curiosity of the American,
to know "what Mrs. Grundy says."
A wise man, to whom the frailties of human nature are an interesting
study, rather than an abomination which grates upon his own prejudices,
"Can look and laugh at all that."
He will soon penetrate beneath the offensive vanity of the American cha-
racter! to its many solid qualities, and real excellences. He will at once
assume and take for granted, that its foibles must be patiently borne with,


Vi INTRODUCTION.
and not rudely insulted. He will remember that no man is so manage-
able, even so kindly, as the vain, if you do not offend his self-love, or
wound his opinion of his own perfections. He will detect the substratum
of good sense and broad reason, which lurks beneath this worthless su-
persoil, and at last succeed in bringing Brother Jonathan to laugh at his
own failings, and to amend them.
But this is what many an Englishman cannot do. He is quite as
proud as other men are vain. He does not say, or show that he thinks
all other men are immeasurably inferior to him—but he certainly feels
it, and the loud complaints which reach this country from settlers in the
States, have their origin in the obstinacy with which our countrymen re-
fuse to concede equality of character or position to the inhabitants of the
States, and the pertinacity with which they sneer at the pretensions, and
wound the sensitive vanity, of an excitable and self-glorifying people.
For those who cannot make up their minds to " answer a fool accord-
ing to his folly," but who pertinaciously insist upon adding one to the
fools of the company, America is no proper place of settlement. Our
women, especially, who cannot accommodate themselves without
many wry faces, to the new domestic habits which they may find,
even by a removal from Penzance to Manchester, or from Edinburgh to
London, find the United States often a miserable resting place, and are
generally clamorous in their complaints of habits, which are no otherwise,
objectionable, than simply that they are strange. However little they
may think of their own country while they are in it, they invariably mag-
nify its superiority the moment they are called upon to contrast it with
that of others—like the widow who lived a cat and dog life with her hus-
band; but found that he was a paragon of perfection the moment he was
taken away from her. ■' •
Persons of such tendencies are more and more turning their attention
to our southern colonies. In these they find British rule and British
feelings in their full vigour. The whole inhabitants, with few exceptions) are emigrants like themselves. The regions are British realms—their
praises are congenial to all, because all take them to themselves.
They are at home in a foreign land, because the people there are
their own countrymen, and fellow subiects. The union jack waivts


INTRODUCTION. Til
over them, loyalty to Queen Victoria is universal, the whole strength,
power, and genius of the greatest empire in the world, overshadow
them. They are still British, in a wide outlying English province.
Annexation, disorder, disaffection, rebellion, are unknown in the south.
No sympathizing neighbour fosters treason, or threatens invasion and
conquest. The arts of peace, the pursuits of industry, are not rendered
insecure by treason, uncertainty, or feebleness in the governing power.
But more than this, the southern settlers are entirely removed from all
the vicissitudes of European or transatlantic politics. Society begins
anew amid the profoundest tranquillity. Our people have a whole he-
misphere to themselves, thirteen thousand miles away from the fierce
conflict of sophisticated humanity, and are placed in a state of entire in-
dependence upon any other resources than their own.
"They are monarchs of all they survey.
Their right there is none to dispute,
From the centre all round to the sea,
They are lord of the fowl and the brute."
They are the founders of a new empire, with the fifth part of the world,
and that the finest and richest, for a dominion. Ages may come before
the tranquil solitude of their quiet reign can be marred by the strife and
worry of rival powers or competitive humanity. The problem of social
questions they need not be called upon to solve for a thousand years.
The tempestuous sea of human life, and political passion, rages thousands
of miles off, while they repose upon the great emerald of the South, be-
calmed in the profound repose of the placid Pacific. To the fabric of
their laws they bring the experience of the jurisprudence of an ancient
kingdom, and may, by a knowledge of the errors and evils which have
cursed our European systems, lay deep in the foundations of official
aptitude and ample information, the basis of a stable constitution and
the wisest legislation. The rich treasures of Bentham are open to them.
Let them sagaciously apply them, and they will not be far from the
realization of a workable Utopia.
The conviction deepens itself into our mind, that colonization is stiil
but in its infancy. We do not believe that the population of the vast


INTRODUCTION IX
own position with that of earth's other animals. He will see that every
year nature produces for his use a thousand times more than the whole
race can consume, and yet that there are millions who never know what
it is to have enough to eat. He will find that, in the most civilized
countries in the world, the fearfullest contrasts of wealth and poverty
are the greatest; that even in Great Britain, tens of thousands of fellow-
creatures perish yearly of absolute want—that those who toil hardest are
the worst supplied—that vice and crime increase faster than wealth and
intelligence, and that the idlest are the best fed.
Civilization! What a mockery! Ragged Paupers by the million—
millions more who work, worse fed, clothed, and lodged, than the
lazzaroni who do nothing. "In the sweat of thy brow," said the pri-
mceval curse, "shalt thou eat bread." "Thy brow shall sweat," saith
our smug civilization, "and when thou askest for bread, we shall give
thee a stone." Mothers shall poison children for the burial fees, starving
wives shall be beaten black and blue from the gin palace door, that hus-
bands may drink up the Saturday night's weekly wages by the Sunday
morning. Children shall be famished, women abused and degraded into
the habits and thoughts of brutes, and man, battered and sucked dry of
the very substance of his bones by overlaboured and unrequited toil, will
envy the ox that draws his plough, and find himself worse housed and
nourished than the horse that he drives.
It never was, it never could be the intention of the kind Father of the
universe, that "the paragon of animals and the beauty of the world,"
should be the meanest and most abject thing in it. It is impossible to
conceive that the end of human existence should be what our mere
varnished and bespangled barbarism has made it. To break stones on
the highway, from years' end to years' end, and sunrise to sunset, with-
out any intermission; and to account it the greatest calamity when want
of employment shall force him to pretermit this degrading task—to
stitch shirts in a garret at threehalfpence per six hours—to begin life at
nine years old in shutting and opening doors in a coal pit, and go on to
the verge of existence glad that there are always coals to pick—to scavenge
through our gutters and cesspools, and get up a riot against those who


INTRODUCTION. Xl
scavengers in the exercise of his calhng, remarked to me that the time
would come when such degrading offices must be performed by the aid
of machinery, or that it would be necessary to bribe a man to the task,
by pay equal to that of a minister of state."—Helots and serfs long ago,
were no other than what our hewers of wood and drawers of water are
now. They are slaves as they were slaves, by whatever fine name we
may choose to call them. No man who respects his own nature can
wrap himself in the cuticle of a moral rhinoceros, and gaze with unconcern
on the tide of life which flows past him turgid, muddy, stormful, saying
calmly, "flow thou on to the dead sea of eternity, and there lose thyself
in the indistinguishable immensity of waters." It is not permitted to the
Christian to see humanity degraded into professional kennel raking, or
to the condition of the gin-horse —
"Dragging sand, till the sand in his hour glass stands still."
The hell of thousands of our labouring families, with their dirty drunken
drabs, their brutal husbands, debased by toil, misery, insult, and the
most abject functions; their savage lying, thieving children, all churned
up into one chorus of oaths, obscenity, incest, and murderous blows;—
does not the heart sicken at it, and bid humanity "take any shape but
that 1" Look abroad over God's fair earth, his smiling skies, his genial
climes, his fair uplands, his peaceful groves and fertile vallies,—contrast
what nature offers and what sophisticated man provides, and who can
believe that starvation, endless unendurable toil, wretched, slavish de-
pendence, and functions assigned to the lords of creation to which the
Creator does not condemn the meanest reptile, are normal dispensations
of providence? Industry is a virtue, but not labour. To be useful is a
duty,—to submit to be a drudge is to abuse the purpose for which man
was designed by his Maker. The slaves in the West Indies ceased to toil
the moment they were declared free. The planters called them lazy,—
we call them wise, for having made labour the means to live, rather than
making life the mere means of labour. Call us revolutionary, accuse us
of being disorganisers as men may, we will not stand idly by and see the
mass of our fellow men degraded to the vilest offices, and debased to be the
instrument of the mere convenience of others, without protesting against


INTRODUCTION. XU1
republic. All the Trollopes, and Halls, and Marryatts, and other flunkey-
hood of literature, who go through a country like moles burrowing for
its worms, when they should be looking abroad over its sunlight, and
who have no more conception of the real significancy of the social organ-
ism of a nation, than so many Jeameses and Jenkinses, will not, by mere
book-making buffoonery, rail this broad fact away, that humanity receives
and enforces more respect, and enjoys more substantial comfort and in-
dependence there, than it commands in any other country. True civili-
zation is only to be found where the masses of a people are, or, atleast, if
they will, may be, happy, reverence themselves, and receive the treatment
and deference befitting our common spiritual immortal nature. Better
that service should be less obsequious, the rich less able to command
menial obedience, rank be less worshipped, and the upper classes be
rudely jostled by the herd, than that the dignity of man should fall be-
fore the Moloch of Mammon, and the image and superscription of God be
obliterated by the desecration by which our sophistication dishonours it.
To ourselves, indeed, it is infinitely convenient that we can get intelli-
gent and reasonable beings, ingenious, docile, cheap, to scrape our soles>
lick our dirty platters, scrub our gutters, and,
"Born for our use, to live but to obey us,"
But to the shoe black, the scullion, the nightman, it is not so convenient.
We would sooner see the fine ladies of America continue to be obliged to
serve themselves because their " helps had taken themselves off just when
they had company,"—we would infinitely prefer to be compelled to sub-
mit to the company of our Abigails in the parlour, or to sit down with
the waiters in the ordinary, than to perpetuate the slavery of our
wretched maids of all work, the insult, drudgery, and pollution of our
lodging house girls, or the buffotings of our poor governesses, and
"the spurns,
That patient merit of the unworthy takes.'*
The wall of China is a grand work, but at what a cost of oppression
and life! The pyramids are a noble achievement, but how many were
robbed and worked to death to build them! And so the luxuries and


.IV INTRODUCTION.
splendours of civilization are exquisitely tasteful and elegant, delightful
in enjoyment, and satisfying to our highest conceptions of fitness, inge-
nuity, thought, and enjoyment. But the ministers to that enjoyment,
the producers of these luxuries, the labourers by whose toil those fancies
and that taste are indulged and gratified,—look down into the pande-
monium in which they swelter, and say if all is not dearly purchased at
such a cost. Could we, as we scatter our Carnival bon bons, or trifle
with our confections of sweets, but raise the hatches of the slave ship,
and gaze upon the horrors of the middle passage, would we suck our
sugar plums, squeezed out of these black muscles, with so careless a
complacency, or think them still so sweet?
For our part we would rather be less civilized and more human, if in-
deed mere barbaric splendour, mere abstract national greatness, and in-
dividual concrete personal misery, ignorance, and squalor, can have any
pretensions to be called civilized at all. Men are beginning to find this
out, and to take themselves off to the backwoods, or the cattle station.
The clerk, who wields the pen, and has daily, for bare life, to bear the
snubbings of his master, discovers that the spade and the crook are more
honourable, where all dig or herd like himself. The dependant who daily
hears that England is the rich man's paradise, but the poor man's pan-
demonium, take the proverb at its word;—the poor leave England to the
rich, and go out of the pandemonium. Common sense asks itself,
"Why do I stand or wear my heart out in this mud-fog island, where,
vuch as I own no more land than will bury us, when the finest climate,
the sunniest sky, the most fertile plains in the world ask me only to take
possession of and till them in fee simple, without rent, tithe, or taxes 1"
And thus emigration spreads, and colonization becomes a great outlet of
our redundant numbers. On the Australian cattle runs, in the New Zea-
land valley, on the Tasmanian green hill, common life is found to be
equal in ease, comfort, and enjoyment, to that of the idle rich in the
mother country. All are land holders; all may hunt, and shoot, and fish •
all may take the world at their leisure, and subsist without effort or
anxiety, and live amid the beauties, the bounties, the enjoyment of na-
ture, as only the priviliged few can do in Europe. We sit here, en-
chanted by the paralyzing sorcery of sophistication, while time runs on,


INTRODUCTION. XV
and we never enjoy it. We know not what existence really is, who drag
it out in populous cities. The most polished and intelligent men ack-
nowledge that the highest reach of happi ness is to be found in savage
life, dwelling unconstrained amidst the freedom of nature. Of one such.
who had hunted for a summer with the Texan trappers, and who, after
years of city luxury and refinement, had been asked by these wild men
again to come among them, Mr. Sidney observes, "He looked upon the
western plains, and the strange, insatiable longing which fills men's minds
when they have once tasted of savage life, came over him. He struggled against this wild mystic feeling, pictured to himself the advantages
he would sacrifice by indulging it; the luxuries of civilization, the society,
the intellectual life, the friends of his youth, the prospects of a successful
and useful career, all to be relinquished; but the temptation was too
strong, a power that seemed stronger than his will drew him on: he
threw behind him all that men have accumulated and acquired by long
centuries of mental and physical toil, and went forth to live the life of
the savage." "Of the inspiring character of the upper mountain air,
where men seem intoxicated and joyous without cause, he spoke with a
degree of enthusiasm." Alexander Selkirk, when restored to Largo and
his friends, wept for his "beloved island." Ruxton, one of the most
elegant and intelligent of our modern writers confesses to the same de-
cided preference for savage over city life, and we question whether the
stockmen of Australia would exchange the bush and the cattle run, free
and unencumbered by convention, devoid of care, and joyous with the
pure air around them, for the most courtly blandishments of populous
and conventional society. Men awaken to the consciousness that the
citizen denies himself the chiefest enjoyments to which his being was
destined, that a town life cannot be a natural, or the happiest kind of
life; that God never made green fields, garden fruits and flowers,
mountain air, the valley and the waterfall, that men should run away
from them to lanes and bricks and mortar. The question ceases to be
"Whether to go," and resolves itself into " Whither V
We have partly answered this query already, and in the following pages
will be found an exhaustion of the subject, in so far as it can be interesting
to the general enquirer. Since the work was first given to the public, a
e 


XVi INTRODUCTION.
criticism has boen passed upon it, which it may be useful to notice. 11 is
objected that it does not enable the intending emigrant, very satisfactorily
to fix his future destination. In short, it is complained that the author
does not make up the reader's mind for him, but only gives him mate-
rials for determining his own mind.
This is a defect, perhaps inherent in the very nature of the subject.
In no department of certain knowledge is the fallibility of human testi-
mony so striking as in that of emigration. The witnesses are absolutely
as antipodal as the southern colonies are to the mother country. There
is not a single district in reference to which respectable testimony might
not be quoted, which is mutually destructive. Eye and ear witnesses to
the same fact, give a directly opposite account of it. Mr. Sidney pub-
lishes "The truth about New Zealand," and presents a melancholy picture
of its soil and prospects. Mr. Terry is loud in his depreciation of it.
Mr. Power describes it as an impracticable and ungenial swamp. Captain
Cook on the contrary, Mr. Earp, Mr. Ward, Mr. Wakefield, assign to it
the character of an earthly paradise. Mr. Mathew calls New
South Wales a tropical desert, while Mr. Sidney regards it as an el
dorado.
The first alarm excited by the New Zealand earthquakes has died
away. Enquiry of the natives has satisfied the general mind, that these
visitants are, in any formidable degree, scarcely less accidental than the
great one at Lisbon. They were also partial in their range, and seem
to have been confined only to a portion of one island. We are not dis-
posed to assign too much importance to their occurrence; and, except,
for their existence, we cannot hesitate to assign a preference to New Zealand over all the Southern colonies. The writers who depreciate it,
have been little better than birds of passage, travelling from Dan hur-
riedly to Beersheba, and, at a glance, declaring that all is barren. Those
who praise it, are persons who have fortified their opinions by a pro-
longed residence in the colony. "No one," observes the Bishop.
"knows what the climate is, till he has basked in the almost perpetual
sunshine of Tasman's Gulf, with a frame, braced and invigorated to the
full enjoyment of heat by the wholesome frost, or cool snowy breeze of
the night before. And no one can speak of the soil or scenery of Now


INTKODUCTION. XV41
Zealand, till he has seen both the natural beauties, and ripening harvests
of Taranaki."
Mr. Earp's new volume is well worth a careful study. He bears tes-
timony to the ease with which existence may be rendered comfortable in
New Zealand— to the satisfaction which even aristocratic families express
at their new condition, and to the social refinements which all may com-
mand. He warns voyagers of the tricks by which ship owners disap-
point them, and counsels them to contract only with the vessels of the
New Zealand Company. The emigrant is advised to take out a wooden
house with him, which may be had in London, at from £40 to £120
complete. The cottage gardens of New Zealand are described as far su-
perior to any in England, and spade husbandry used in small farms, is
pronounced to be eminently successful. It is affirmed that money in-
vested in cattle or sheep, doubles itself every third year in the colony,
where stock is subject to none of the diseases which, as Mr. Earp says,
reduce an owner worth 20,000 sheep in the morning, to 200 at night. Settlers are advised to set themselves down in the immediate vicinity of
native tribes who are vouched for, as peaceable neighbours, and valuable
and cheap labourers. It is certainly a somewhat significant fact noticed
by the writer, that many Scotch have re-emigratod from Australia to
Otago—it is a better testimony to the superiority of the latter, than the
"tales of travellers."
Mr. Earp talks the usual description of nonsense which is all that
Wakefield worshippers have got to say for themselves. It is satisfactory,
however, to find that he ably refutes himself. He admits that the soil of
New South Wales is dear at a penny an acre, and considers that of New
Zealand, as worth fifty times as much. He also concedes that of the 20s.
the purchaser pays for land, in the latter colony, only 5s. is paid for the
acre, whileall the rest—15s. is paid for the immigration of labourers.
He also goes so far as to say that £5 should be charged for the 5s. worth
of soil, that abundance of labourers may add value to New Zealand acres.
But when this intelligent crotcheteer comes to treat of population, he is
brought to the naive confession that, although the unhappy proprietors
of Nelson for example, have paid £18,740 for emigrant labourers, there
are fewer labourers in the settlement now, chan there Were when it was


INTRODUCTION. XIX
proposed has entirely failed. Men will not labour for others when any
chance exists, by hook or by crook, of their getting land of their own, which never can be effectually prevented, when the supply amounts toamil-
lion times the demand. Bankrupt properties come into the market, and
bring the value of land to its level. If it is not to be had in one place,
the labourers, paid for by the resident capitalist, re-emigrate to where it
is to be had. "A very large proportion," confesses Mr. Earp, "of the
labouring class now live entirely on the produce of their own land and
stock, and have ceased altogether to labour for hire. Others work for
hire occasionally, employing themselves in the interval on their own
grounds. Mechanics, who have not full employment in their trade, gene-
rally cultivate an acre or two in the town, in their spare time, though
many of this class, have abandoned their old calling entirely, and adopted
a country life." This is as much as to say that they have taken the money of the capitalist to buy his own land with, and to enable them to refuse to
supply him with the very labour which he paid to procure. Mr. Earp
further avers that these labourers, who have frustrated the whole purposes
of his pet system are the most successful colonists of all, and rise from
acre to acre gradually until they become large proprietors. In truth,
they are the back bone of every colony—the stimulus of wages is inade-
quate to evoke their real energies, and it should be the aim of wise
rulers to make them freeholders at once, even if they gave them land for
nothing. The idea that capital is necessary to concentrate labour, is op-
posed to the fact. It isolates families by setting them in the middle Oi
large tracts of land at a distance from each other. In the United States,
whenever a settler places himself on a location, another joins him. Ano-
ther follows, until the solitary hut swells into a village, and all on the
plan of charging 5s. 8d. per acre, for land as fertile as that of New Zea-
land.
Mr. Earp enables us to announce that the site of Canterbury is fixed
at Port Cooper—and we venture to predict that further than the fixing
of the site it will not go. A more impudent and execrable imposture
never insulted the penetration of the public. Its projectors propose to
purchase of the New Zealand Company 1,000,000 acres of land. For
this they are to pay "JJ* an acre, or £250,000 more than the block is


INTRODUCTION. XX!
which the Canterbury speculators are deceived into the idea of its excel-
lence. But as a commercial scheme we emphatically denounce it as a
bubble, phlebotomising the poor, and blistering the rich simple-
tons who listen to the project for one moment. We earnestly advise
all colonists to guard the issues of taxation. Let them not submit
to be taxed and burdened before hand, and unconsciously to saddle
themselves with an extravagant established church, rendered by their
own folly entirely independent of all popular control. Have nothing
to do with this Canterbury. Its beginning is radically unsound, and
it will end in failure and folly. Bishops, archdeacons, and parsons
are not settlers. After they have amassed a competency, they will
carry it away from the colony. They are not improvers. They will
produce nothing. The profit is to be altogether overlaid by the cost, and can end only in the ruin of the bladders whom it squeezes.
Our anticipations have been realized by the results of the experi-
ment of sending pensioners to the colony. Their presence overawes
the natives, gives confidence to the settlers, and raises the value of
property. The system should be largely extended, to the great advan-
tage of the mother country and the settlers.
Natal attracts increased attention, and emigrants thither advance in
numbers. Sir Harry Smith has induced great numbers of the Dutch
boers to retrace their steps, and return to the settlement. Still we
are not prepared to modify our opinion of the present undesirableness
of the colony as a place of settlement, although, ultimately, its fine
soil and climate, and its proximity to England must give it the prece-
dence of all the Southern colonies.
Van Diemen's Land we continue to regard as not second even to
New Zealand, in advantages. It steadily flourishes; and being fully
settled, labour is reasonable in price, and not difficult to procure.
Ship building is also pursued with great success, owing to the har-
bourage facilities, and the superior native timber.
The report for New South Wales, although, upon the whole, en-
couraging, still bears evidence of the absurdity of the land regulations.
While 322 town lots have been sold, and 59 suburban lots, only 13 per-
sons have, in 1847, pushed their way into the country to purchase


XjjJ INTRODUCTION.
farms. In Fort Philip there are only 48 new farms, while for sub-
urban lots of ten acres, 181 purchasers have been found, and for quar-
ter-acre town lots, 328. The whole quantity of cultivated land is
equal only to four-fifths of an acre per head of the population, against
three acres and four-fifths per head in Canada.
In the district of Western Australia, a new tract of 180,000 acres of
superior pasture land, has been discovered on the banks of the Bowes
river—and a valuable vein of lead ore, of good quality, in the bed
and on the banks of the Murchison.
Mr. Harris's work on Port Stephen corroborates all the objections we
have made to Australia as a pastoral district. He quite concurs with Mr.
Sidney in the opinion, that £5,000 are required to commence sheep farm-
ing, with any certainty of being insured against the contingences arising
from catarrh, rot. and scab. It seems, therefore, to be a point to be
assumed by intending emigrants, that if their capital be limited, they
ought to dismiss the idea of starting as sheep farmers. What temptation
there can be, for a man possessed of £5,000 to emigrate at all, or to
convert it into live stock, liable, yearly, to annihilation, when he can get
ten per cent interest in the colony, on undoubted security, it is for the
capitalist, himself, to discover. For our part, we should much prefer
£500 a year certain, in a fine country, to the chances of losing all, in the
hope oi turning £5,000 into £20,000.
To persons of moderate means a new arrangement of transport, offers
advantages. Ships now proceed to Australia with only one class of pas-
sengers, charged at the moderate fare of twenty guineas uniformly. To
families of the middle classes, who object to go in the steerage, and yet
hesitate to pay the high rates of cabin passage, this arrangement pre-
sents many recommendations.
We observe that the commissioners state the steerage passage from
London to New York, 3,800 miles, at £'i 15s. per male adult, and
from London to New South Wales, 13,000 miles, at £14, and £5 for
outfit, in all £19. Now the length of the voyage to the latter colony
is less than three times as much as that to the former, while the
freight, is more than five times as much. Is it not to be suspected that
the tax upon the south lands charged to carry out emigrants, has only


introduction. xxiii
the effect of exorbitantly raising freights 1 Tho emigration to the
United States is altogether unaided, except by the voluntary remit-
tances of settlers. Yet it amounted to 188,000 in 1847, against 23,000
to the southern colonies, and was aided by spontaneous gifts from set-
tled relatives in America to persons in England, of £460,000, besides
large sums sent through Baring of Liverpool, of which no account
has been received.
A highly eulogistic report of the council of New Brunswick, of the
capabilities of that colony, states that it has 500 parishes, besides other
schools, 200 churches, excellent and abundant roads, every kind of
field and garden crops as in England, besides Indian corn. It avers
that more persons die of cold in proportion to the population in the
mother country, than in the colony—that its salubrity is pre-eminent in
fertility—that winter endures from November to April—that the pro-
duce per acre is 40 bushels, wheat (some 681bs. to the bushel), 40 bar-
ley, 60 oats, 75 Indian corn, 75 buckwheat, 40 peas, 1,000 tur-
nips, 800 potatoes, 30 tons carrots, 30 mangle wurtzel. But all will
not do. The whole immigrants of the year, and 5,000 of the settled
inhabitants, have cut and run to the United States, and Mr. Buchanan
has no better account to give of Canada. These circumstances pro-
bably account, to some extent, for the encreased emigration to the
southern colonies—and if not discouraged by imprudent obstructions
in reference to land sales, the tide may flow more rapidly and with a
larger swell.
But Mr. Earp gives some particulars of the fees paid to government
on the transfer and completed titles of land in New Zealand, which indi-
cate some gross abuses introduced by the ruling power, and shameful
impositions upon the colonists, which, probably, nothing but self-govern-
ment will correct. Mr. Graham, as part of an estimate of the cost of
cultivating land in New Zealand, states, as items in the purchase of 80
acres of land, the fee simple of which was £80, "Government fees on
ditto, £14 lis. 8d., surveying, £8," or, in all, £22 lis. 8d., of mere
official cabbage, being 28 per cent on the purchase. Mr. Dilworth, on
30 acres, had to pay £15 of preemption fees, besides the purchase money
of £30; a tax of 50 per cent. "They manage these things better in


jt^vi INTRODUCTION.
the south; and will be, ultimately the masters and teachers of the east' Let them then "rise to the height of this great argument," show them-
selves worthy of the stock from which they spring, and prove that the Saxon race are to be, not merely the rulers of the world, but the bene-
factors of mankind.


2 CAFE OF GOOD HOPE.
colony is performed by the coloured population, which is annually in-
creased by considerable importations of captured slaves. Labourers get
from 2s. to 3s.; mechanics, 5s. to 7s. per day; overseers, £25 to £40;
shepherds, £20 to £30; farm servants, £15 to £25; female servants,
£10 to £18; male ditto, j£20 to j£30 per annum and their food. The upset
price of government land in this colony and Natal, is 2s. an acre, 10 per
cent. down, and the rest in a month from the purchase. For every £100
paid for land, the purchaser will be entitled to free steerage passages for
seven persons of the class of farm labourers, mechanics, and small farm-
ers, or skilled labourers.
The captivating work of Mr. Pringle, descriptive of the country, the
people, and the life of the colonist, has induced many to migrate thither.
The account he gives of his father's settlement is certainly very en-
couraging. The air is so clear that it is quite easy to read books by
moonlight, the nature of the country admits of delightful scampers on
horseback over the plains, and the climate is so pleasant and genial that
Europeans newly arrived bivo'iac in the open air for weeks together
without injury. In the settlement where Mr. Pringle's friends and rela-
tions were located, there were only three deaths in seventeen years, and
although none of them became rich, they enjoy freedom from care and
an easy acquisition of abundance of the necessaries of life. The Dutch
settlers are rough and unlettered, but substantially kind and hospitable.
They have as yet however surrounded themselves with few of the acces-
sories of European civilization, and although business is honestly con-
ducted everywhere, the European, especially the British population, is
too scanty, in comparison to the masses of the coloured races, to make
society or commerce very promising. Pauper migrations from the agri-
cultural districts of England have been more successful in a real im-
provement of condition than those of persons of capital or superior
prospects. Many of the former have risen to comparative comfort and
independence. Internal communication is very defective, as no navigable
rivers or lakes intersect and connect the different portions of the country;
water is nearly everywhere scanty; it is by the sea coast alone that traffic
can be carried on, and harbours are few and generally bad. Irrigation,
which may be usefully applied in the densely populated countries of
Europe, where labour is cheap and markets at the door, can yield small
profit where wages are high and settlements scanty. Periodical droughts
carry off great numbers of sheep and cattle, and fierce, resolute, and un-
tameable savages disturb industry, distract the colonists from their proper
avocations, and induce an unsettled and violent spirit among all. It is
not to be forgotten, that a chief source of the profits of the scanty emi-
grant population has been derived from the large sums spent by the
government in the colony. The costs of the Caffre war, although exor-
bitant, found their way into the pockets of the settlers. But a firm de-
termination exists on the part of the people of England to compel their
dependencies to become self-supporting, and the large custom hitherto
afforded to the inhabitants of the Cape through British money, will no
longer accrue to them. We regard the immediate future prospects of
mechanics, tradesmen, and store-keepers in this colony therefore as in no
degree promising, and should not recommend settlement there to such


classes. To shepherds and persons accustomed to the care of cattle, it
offers greater inducements. Its fine climate, its pastoral character, and
the abundance of stock, joined with its greater proximity to European
markets than the cognate colonies of Australia, may, under the free trade
system, open good markets for the butter, cheese, and salted meat and
fish, of which this region is so productive. Farm labourers may most
advantageously be removed from 9s. a week in Dorsetshire to the agri-
cultural districts of the Cape. They will be freeholders of a weather-
tight house, and abundance of land, and need never know what it is to
want a bellyful. We cannot say much for its promises to any other
class. We should add, that the titles to land in the Cape are very clear
and sound.
Although the general salubrity of the climate is undoubted, it is pro-
per to state that bilious fevers, and other serious epidemics, occur at
intervals, a» ". are very mortal in their character. "The climate," ob-
serves Mr. Mathew, "is also advantageous to people liable to pulmonary
disease, none of the native race, it is said, having ever been known to
cough. As a balance, inflammatory attacks and diseases, measles, small-
pox, and other cutaneous affections, are very infectious and dangerous.
The descendants of the Dutch colonists (Africaners) are a fine luxuriant
race; the men tall and large bodied, the females pretty and round."
"The heat of the climate, and perhaps the abundance of animal food, has
also the effect to bring life to what we consider a premature close, and it
is said few burial grounds afford memorials of Africaners exceeding fifty
years of age."
NATAL.
Natal, recently erected into an independent British colony, is to the
north-east of the Cape of Good Hope, extending 170 miles in length, and
130 in width, and contains an area equal to that of Scotland, or eleven
millions of acres. Its western boundary consists of high inaccessible
mountains, which form a natural wall on that side, and it falls along its
whole extent towards the Indian Ocean which bounds it on the east. On
the north and south it is flanked by two considerable rivers. It is there-
fore compact and well entrenched, being admirably sheltered from the
west, and well exposed to the rising sun. It is within ten days' sail of
the Mauritius, where there is an exhaustless market for all that Natal
can produce in the shape of fish, meat, rice, corn, vegetables, butter,
cheese, and ultimately coal. Cod fishing off the neighbouring sand
banks, promises a fine field of profitable maritime exertion.
A careful examination of all the testimony, official and private, which
has been adduced in reference to this colony, convinces us that its natural
advantages, as a field of settlement, are literally without a rival. It is
the most salubrious climate in the world. Uniformly mild,—subject to
no extremes of temperature,—with all the equability and none of the
atmospherical moisture of New Zealand, it is nearly as abundantly
watered, of far richer soil, and within half the distance of Europe. Its
productions, indeed, of coffee, rice, cotton, indigo, sugar aniseed, indi-
6 n 2


cate a somewhat warmer temperature than the former, but it is conceded
on all hands, that the heat is never excessive, or calculated to render field
labour very oppressive. Pulmonary and scrofulous diseases are quickly
cured by a residence in the district, and ague is entirely unknown. The
soil is capable of producing most of the vegetable treasures of the tropics,
and all those of the temperate zone in abundance, and of the finest
quality, particularly the cereals which flourish best in Egypt. Grass is so thick and luxuriant, that it fattens cattle rapidly, and grows up to the
horse's shoulder. In the numerous clefts of the mountain streams and
gullies, fine timber is to be had. It produces cotton of the best quality,
and its cultivation is accompanied with unrivalled success. In short, it
seems to combine every advantage of New Zealand and Australasia, with
much greater proximity to England. The government surveyor-general
becomes perfectly eloquent in describingits character and excellences. The successive governors of the Cape are equally emphatic in their praises;
public companies, both in England and Germany, endorse these
favorable opinions; and, to sum up all, merchants have largely ventured
their money in establishing settlers in its most eligible localities, andpro-
moting its culture of cotton. A Natal Emigration Association has been
established in London, offering for £25 to carry a labouring man to the
colony, transport himself and baggage to his place of location, give him
thirty acres of land, and maintain him for six months. Married couples
will, for £45, receive these advantages, and sixty acres of land, their
families being taken at £7 10s. and £5 each individual. Persons possessed
of £100 will receive from 50 to 200 acres of land. A fat ox costs £2 10s.;
working bullocks and milch cows, from £2 to £4; horses, £10; sheep,
6s. Provisions are at all times remarkably abundant and cheap.
With such advantages it may well excite surprise that they have not
as yet tempted the enterprise of Europe. It is very important to know
that this region was very fully settled by the descendants of the Dutch,
called Boers,—a clear indication of its agricultural excellences. Jealous
of our supremacy at the Cape, they emigrated in thousands to this su-
perior region, and here they would have permanently settled, but for
their detestation of foreign, and particularly British rule. Men of pow-
erful frames, of resolute character, and intrepidity; highly fed and little
worked, they were little educated, and of stubborn, proud, and daring
dispositions. They resisted our supremacy over their new home, as long
as they could, and when they were worsted, they abandoned the district,
and removed their whole population and establishments to the frontier,
beyond our territory. The first objection to the colony is, that it is
therefore depopulated of Europeans.
But the second, and more serious drawback is, that the colony is
surrounded by hostile, savage tribes, who maintained a constant and deadly
warfare with the Dutch settlers, and stole and burned their property and
dwellings, whenever they had an opportunity. These savages amount to
at least 100,000. Besides these, the colony swarms with refugees from
the tyranny and cruelty of the native chiefs. It may almost be said to be
occupied with escaped savages to an extent to outnumber, enormously,
any amount of white emigration likely to take place for a great many
years. A strong military force will be required for a great length of


NEW ZEALAND.
producers in the fine climate and soil of Natal, would require a further
outlay of £150,000. For this advance out of the poor rates, a flou-
rishing colony might be established which would quickly send us valuable
produce, and become profitable consumers of our manufactures. A like
consignment continued for five years, would establish a British popula-
tion in Natal of 100,000 souls, emigration would then, of itself, succeed
colonization, and become perfectly self supporting. In the absence of
any directing bias on the part of our government 188,233 emigrants found
their way to the United States in the year 1848 alone, and in the last 24
years no fewer than 1040,797 all at their own expense, and most of them
with capital more or less. Had the poor law unions, and the colonial de-
partment of the government organized any well settled plan of coloniza-
tion, most of these persons might have found their way to Natal, and by
this time established a great Africo-British empire on the halfway road to
India. From the Boers and savages any quantity of cattle might be
cheaply procured to stock the farms of the settlers, and the land requires
nothing but the plough to yield up its tribute to skilful industry. It is
perfectly clear to our mind that it is only by a wholesale plan of coloni-
zation, that it will ever become practicable to establish a flourishing settle-
ment at Natal, and until this can be arranged, we can advise none of our
readers to fix that district for their destination. We have shown that no
scheme can be so economical. No money is wanted from government.
The saving in poor rates would far more than compensate for the outlay,
and our navy is more beneficially employed in extending our colonial
empire, than by losing its seamanship and discipline, by nursing idle and
featherbed sailors in our depots and harbours at home.
NEW ZEALAND
At the antipodes of Great Britain, in the Southern Ocean, extending
from the 34th to the 48th degree of south latitude, and from the 166th
to 178th degree of east longitude, are three islands, New Ulster, the
northern, New Munster, the middle, and New Leinster, the southern,
comprehended under the general name of New Zealand. They have
3,000 miles of coast line, an area of 71,000,000 of acres (31, 46, and 1),
being one million more than that of Great Britain and Ireland (37, 19,
and 21.) "Estimating," says Mr. Matthew, "the advantagesof position,
extent, climate, fertility, adaptation for trade—all the causes which have
tended to render Britain the emporium of the world, we can observe only
one other spot on the earth, equally, if not more, favoured by nature, and
that is New Zealand. Serrated with harbours securely insulated, hav-
ing a climate temperated by surrounding ocean, of such extent and fer-
tility as to support a population sufficiently numerous to defend its
shores against any possible invading force, it, like Great Britain, also pos-
sesses a large neighbouring continent (Australia), from which it will draw
resources, and to which it bears the relation of a rich homestead with a
vast extent of outfield pasturage. In these advantages it equals Britain,
while it is superior to Britain, in having the weather gauge of an immense commercial field—the rich islands of the Pacific—the cold and


8 NSW ZEALAND.
silver regions of Western America, the vast accumulations of China and
Japan, all within a few weeks' sail.
"The south temperate zone, from the excess of ocean, has a much
more equable temperature throughout the year than the north. New
Zealand participates in this oceanic quality, in an extraordinary degree,
and enjoys a finer, more temperate climate than any other in the world,
trees being only biennially deciduous, and presenting, as well as herb-
age, a never failing verdure. The back bone ridge of New Zealand at-
tracting the clouds and vapour of the southern ocean, affords a constant
source of showers, and irrigation, and freshness to the lower country,
which under the most balmy atmosphere, and the generative influence of
a sun brilliant as that of Italy, produces an exuberance of vegetation
surpassing that of any other temperate country—the richness and mag-
nificence of the forest scenery, being only equalled by that of the islands
of the eastern tropical archipelago. The stupendous mountains, with in-
numerable rills pouring down their verdant slopes—their great valleys
occupied by the most beautiful rivers, their feet washed by the ceaseless
south sea swell, their flanks clothed with the grandest of primaeval forests,
and their rocky and icy scalps, piercing the clear azure heaven, must go
to stamp a poetical character on the inhabitants. The small portion
under cultivation, yields in luxuriant abundance and perfection all the
valuable fruits and grain of Europe, and stock of all descriptions fatten
in this favoured region at all seasons, upon the spontaneous produce of the
wilderness. The climate is most favourable to the development of the
human species. Of ninety individuals (missionaries and their families),
only one died in twenty-three years. "Invalids," observes the Rev. W.
Yate, "become well, the healthy robust, the robust fat. It has a perpetual
spring, the whole atmosphere seems impregnated with perfumes, and
every breath inhaled, stimulates the system." The " water privileges"
are great, the timber admirably adapted for naval and house building
purposes, being so workable and yielding the finest spars—the flax is of
the finest quality, and fishing, from the mackarel to the whale, has al-
ready attracted whalers from all parts of the world, and established the
islands as the head quarters of the South Sea fishery. The country is
destined also to become the granary of Australia and New South Wales,
where periodical exterminating droughts, occasionally reduce them to
the extremities of scarcity. There are no predatory animals, no reptiles,
not even venomous insects in the islands. While the number of rainy
days in London is 178, in Wellington it is only 128, and by Justice Chap-
man's register, it appears the number of fine days is 222. "I have,"
says the chief surveyor at New Plymouth, "seldom or never suffered
from cold. I have been up to my middle in water in the swamps, and
laid down in the same clothes for several nights, and have never ex-
perienced any injury." Colonel Wakefield says, "The bivouacking in
the end of winter, during eleven nights, had no bad effects on any of the
party. The night air, however humid, has not the same effects on the
lungs and limbs as in most parts of Europe."
The soil of New Zealand, although more variable, is not less excellent
than the climate. With the assistance of the latter, even poor land pro-
duces abundantly, and the rich, of which there is a very large quantity


NEW ZEALANB 9
4s, in New Plymouth, in the Valley of the Hutt, and other distriets, four
and five feet deep. Nothing so well indicates the adaptation of a colony
to the British constitution as the nature and quality of its vegetable pro-
ductions. "Grain," observes ' a Late Resident,' "of all kinds, fruits, and
vegetables, grow luxuriantly. To an English farmer, it will be praise
sufficient to say, that turnips, the mainstay of British husbandry, grow
with a vigour unsurpassed anywhere, and that beans, peas, and other
leguminous plants are equally successful. He will have nothing to un-
learn. His old familiar crops will be the crops of his new country, but
increased in luxuriance; his husbandry maxims will scarcely require
variation, except in the transposal of his seed time and harvest; the
gooseberries and currants of his garden, the apples and cherries
of his orchard, the hum of his bees, will all reproduce to his mind his
native country, endowed with a softer climate and a more bountiful soil."
These facts, we apprehend, present circumstantial evidence of the per-
fectly British character of the islands, in all its best features, far more
reliable than the abstract panegyrics of witnesses, and stamp the country
as without exception, the most eligible for the location of English emi-
grants of any on the globe. The greater equability of temperature, and
prevailing mildness, may be said to double the value of labour, land, and
produce. In New Zealand it is quite practicable to raise two crops on
the same soil within the year, and in the garden, not a square inch of
ground need remain idle for any portion of time. As if but to remind
an Englishman of the country he has left, snow and frost occasionally
occur during the winter, and a little more frequently in the southern
(answering to our northern) island, especially about Otogo. High winds
occur regularly at the change of every moon, and there is, generally, a
moisture in the atmosphere, which continues the resemblance to the mo-
ther country. The islands, being of volcanic origin, sometimes experi-
ence slight earthquake shocks, which however seem so little appreciable
that they are not observed or recorded by ordinary settlers, and are re-
cognised by the scientific, rather by being watched, than very palpably
felt. Mr. Justice Chapman noticed 24 in 1846, and 16 in 1847, at Kaori,
Wellington.*
• Recent information renders it necessary that we should materially modify
this observation. Geologists have found the islands of New Zealand to be of
volcanic origin. Extinct craters have been detected in various localities. Hot
springs indicate a considerable intensity of internal heat, the water being warm
enough to boil eggs. In December last the district of Wellington, where Justice
Chapman had made his observations, experienced a protracted series of violent
shocks of earthquakes, producing great undulations of and rents in the earth,
overturning trees, houses, and other buildings, and swallowing up a family
consisting of a man aud his daughter. A vessel sixty miles from the shore, about
half way betwixt Auckland and Wellington, also distinctly felt the shocks, and
they were faintly perceived at the former town. We should not regard this
single occurrence as in itself any more significant than the earthquake at Lis-
bon, or the activity of the crater of Vesuvius. It might only occur once in cen-
turies, were it isolated, but taken in connection with Justice Chapman's ob-
servations, of slighter shocks to the number, on an average, of twenty in a
year, in the very same district, its manifest liability to casualties of tbis kind,
of greater or less severity, must be held to form a material deduction from the
advantages of the island, and its eligibility as a place of settlement. Tradition
ujnong the natives does not seem to have recorded any striking prior instances
of earthquakes. In the Waikato district, and the southern island, there are


10 HEW ZEALAND.
Minerals of all kinds seem to be every where abundant, and compara-
tively easy of access. Coal, copper, tin, magnanese, lead, iron, and we
are afraid to say how many beside, are found almost on the surface.
Sulphur, alum, rock salt, cobalt, ochre, fuller's earth, &c., are very
generally distributed, marble and brick earth are abundant, and we have
already mentioned the great variety and excellence of the wood, bark,
and ligneous dyes.
Such a climate and soil present all the best qualifications of a pastoral
country, and both sheep and cattle thrive and multiply in this favoured
region with surprising rapidity. Wool, flax, ropes, and cordage, besides
whale oil, are in course of rapid production and export. Dressed timber
is also become an article of the commerce of the country, and the ale of
Nelson is excellent, a pretty good indication, by the way, of the adap-
tation of the country to the people who in all probability invented that
Saxon beverage.
The finest springs of cold, tepid, warm, hot, and boiling water in the
world, arefound in thenorth island, and the time will come when invalided
Europeans from India, will recruit here, instead of proceeding home, and
when the population of those islands will become, practically, the govern-
ors of Hindostan.
The European population of the three islands, does not probably ex-
ceed 14,000 souls. That of the natives is said to fall short of 110,000,
diminished every year by European diseases and the contamination and
vices of civilization. A chief source of the slow settlement of these
islands has been, as usual, the mismanagement of the home government,
and especially the tedious and intolerable delays offered by the survey-
ors in making such surveys and registers of the territory as would enable
colonists to settle on their locations, and confer upon them clear titles to
their property. Many of these difficulties have, no doubt, arisen from
the natives, at the convenience of the settlers, having been treated alter-
nately as civilized men capable of legal consent, and fully aware of the
nature and obligations of all contracts, and as barbarians whose property
could be seized without offending any civil obligations. The missionaries
voleanos in active operation: at the northern extremity of the northern islands
there are several extinct craters, and on the banks of the Thames, embraced in
the Auckland district, Mr. Williams observed indications of superficial undu-
lation, and violent sinkings of the soil, to the depth of 150 feet, which were
symptomatic of an earthquake at some remote period. The hot springs of Ro-
torua are in the centre of the northern island, at no very great distance from
Auckland. Although we have no desire to magnify the significancy of these
facts, and may set against them the silence of the natives on the subject, as pretty conclusive evidence that for a considerable period, at least, there have
been no important geological convulsions, we think the recent shock is a reason
for, at least, other things being equal, fixing upon some other than the Welling-
ton district in determining the choice of a settlement. The New Zealand pa-
pers, make as light as possible of these shocks; but the recent speeches of the Gov-
ernor General treat them with yery great concern, and lay much emphasis upon
the alarm which continued^ among the inhabitants, up to the date of tb.3 latest
advices, and upon the continued suspension of business which they caused. It
has been observed that wooden houses stood the shocks, while brick building*
were thrown down. We are given to understand that Crieff and Comrie in Scotland, experience shocks whenever there is an eruption of Vesuvius and
that the latter town is nearly deserted, from the feeling of insecurity experi-
enced by the late inhabitants. r^


LOCALITIES AND SETTLEMENTS. 17
would have at once a means of doing well, were they tempted by the
union of great cheapness and abundance, with the prospect of being
enabled to hire labour at a price which would leave them some profit on
the outlay of capital.
LOCALITIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
At the antipodes of course everything is the reverse in nature of what
it is here. The compass veers round and points to the south. June
is midwinter, January midsummer. The north is the warmest, the
south the coldest point, and the south-west wind answers in character to
our nor'-westers. The south island of New Zealand is uninhabited, the
middle island is the coldest of the two settled islands, and the north is the
warmest and most genial. From the fact of the New Zealand Company
having made choice of the middle island for their settlements, it might
be inferred that that was the preferable territory, if they made a judicious
choice. But that Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Otago, and other
places, should exhibit greater population, more trade, more extended
cultivation than the independent settlements, is only a proof that a
powerful and wealthy company fostered the former, and left the latter to
their own resources. The fact that that Company has not commercially
prospered is rather a proof that they have not made the wisest choice of
places of settlement. On the other hand, it is to be remembered, that
the seat of government, and of the chief government expenditure, is
Auckland, the independent settlement on the north island; and, consi-
dering the smallness of the population there, and its slow progress, it is
rather to be inferred that when the money of the mother country is with-
drawn from it as it will be, it is doubtful whether, for a long time at least,
it will be a self-sustaining settlement.
The census of the Nelson settlement for the five years, 1843-4-5-6 and
7, brings out this result:—
Births 766
Deaths in an average population of 2,940 in five years 6!)
Excess of births 697
Or, an average of 14 per annum, being less than a half per cent.
Yet the population in 1843 was 2,492, and in 1847 only
2,947; from which, deducting the increment by nett births,
it will be seen the population has decreased 692 in five years,
or about 23 per cent.
For the whole settlement we have only the returns for 1845 and 1846:—
c The white population in 1845 was 13,242 „ 1846 „ 12,788
Being a decrement, in face of large increase by births, of 454
The census may have been erroneously taken, but if not, the result is
symptomatic of dissatisfaction with the prospects of the colony. If the
■fchths increased in the ratio of those of Nelson, or 5 per cent. per an-
c c 3


18 LOCALITIES AlfD SETTLBMEST3. ■
num=660, and there was any material importation of settlers, it is obvious that a considerable migration must have taken place to Australia
or other places, to account for the decrease of numbers. This conclusion
is however certainly not warranted by the census of the productive pro-
gress of the colony, at least so far as regards Wellington and Nelson, of
which settlements alone we have the returns, because, while in 1843, the
number of acres under crop was 1305
In 1847 they had increased to 5137
Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Goats. 1843, 212 2484 10,005 408 1847, J794 7715 52,802 3131
Increase 582 5123 42,797 2723
Auckland, situated at the head of the frith of the Thames, about the
centre of the eastern shore of North Island, has a good harbour, and is
beautifully land-locked by small islands a short distance from the mouth of the harbour. It boasts the finest and most genial climate of all the
settlements, and as the seat of government commands the best society in
the colony. The surrounding scenery of gently undulating plains is very
beautiful, presenting much of the appearance of a gentleman's park.
For botanical and horticultural pursuits, its superior geniality must give
it an advantage over other places. The wind there, although high, has
no gullies as in other districts to concentrate its force, and produce
serious annoyance or material damage. The absence of great superficial
irregularity, and the nature of the soil, facilitate the making of roads,
transit, and the reclamation of the land. The soil is said not to be quite
so productive as at New Plymouth or Nelson. At no great distance is the
Bay of Islands, nearly at the northern extremity of the island, where a con-
siderable number of natives are congregated, and the chief whaling station
of the colony is established. But the natives have ceased to present any
reasonable ground for alarm to the settlers, while the great number of ships from all quarters, constantly stationed at Bay of Islands, afford a
large demand for agricultural produce, and for all the commodities kept
at the Auckland stores, much to the profit of the townspeople. To per-
sons emigrating with no view to farming or business, we think Auckland
much to be preferred to any other district from the society it affords, the
settled institutions it already enjoys, and the comparative abundance in
which it possesses the appliances of European civilized life. The recent advertisements which have appeared in its only newspaper, the Southern Cross, inform us, that cultivated farms are for sale in the neighbourhood
at very cheap rates, and some lots of land at so low a figure as 2s. per acre.
It is obvious, therefore, that ample means are presented to all to raise
their own produce in great variety and profusion, and that after the first
twelve months it matters little to persons of some little annual income
what the price of provisions is there, as they have the remedy of self-
supply at hand. Every emigrant should take out with him flower and
fruit plants, and garden seeds of the best kind, packed by nursery and
seedsmen. They will all grow luxuriantly at Auckland, and be a benefac-
tion to the district. Do not forget hawthorn and holly. A living fence
is the best, the most picturesque, the most English. Whenever a climate,


LOCALITIES AND SETTLEMENTS. 19
as■ in New Zealand, combines geniality with moisture, scenting flowers,
and song birds will thrive to perfection. Let these, the sweetest remem-
brances of England, be transferred to your new home. Captain Cook's
description of his matin concert of the birds which saluted him before the
dawn, rises to the passion of poetry.
Oil is very cheap. There is abundance of fern, scrub, brushwood, and
timber; and coal raised near Nelson, sells there at 20s. per ton. As grain
is or rather may be abundant, and grapes prolific, it will be seen that corn,
wine, and oil, food, light, and fuel, are well provided at Auckland. A
lawyer of character and ability would find a good field there. All soli-
citors admitted to practice in the superior courts of England, Scot-
land, or Ireland, are entitled to carry on business in the New Zealand
Courts as barristers and attornies. The English law prevails. The News-
paper advertisements indicate that a considerable business is transacted at
Auckland in auctions of all sorts of goods on commission, and that stores
are very profitable. We have already noticed the chief defect in the
prospects of the place, that they are founded upon the expenditure of the
government money of the mother country. But it has sufficient natu-
ral advantages to enable it to recover the effects of the prospective loss of
that adventitious prop. Besides a fair proportion of ships from Europe,
Auckland keeps up a communication with the other settlements, and Aus-
tralia, by coasters which rapidly increase in tonnage and numbers. The
newspaper advertisements of Auckland afford a good idea of the manner
of life of the inhabitants. Our esteemed friend Mr. W. Brown, has
favoured us with the files of the Southern Cross, of which he is pro-
prietor, and from the latest number, December 16, 1848, we observe the
advertisements of the sailing of ships for Hobart Town, of the sale of
paints, leather, shoes, stationery, paper hangings, wine, and beer; of the
announcements of tavern keepers, inns to let, posts, rails, cups and
saucers, lime to be disposed of, grocers, butchers, blacksmiths, brewers,
auctioneers, puffs, and the vending of coals, printing, and crown glass.
The Auckland races are announced, the theatre entertainments given,
the agricultural society's resolutions issued. Natives advertise in their
own tongue. Money to lend, houses and lands, and farms, given out for
lease or sale, building lots offered, strays proclaimed, and all the ordinarj
si otis of society and business are indicated.
Aiaroa.-Is a French settlement at Bank's Peninsula, about the centre
of the eastern shore of Middle Island, and need not be further noticed, as
British em.grants will certainly prefer the vicinity of their own country-
nicu.
New Plymouth, at the western extremity of the northern shore of
Cook's Strait, is a settlement of the New Zealand Company, and by uni-
versal testimony is admitted to be the garden, or rather, perhaps the
granary of New Zealand. It produces finer and more certain grain crops
than any other, yielding an excess greatly beyond the local consumption.
It exports flour to Wellington and Auckland. It possesses an in-
clifferent access from the sea, and a poor harbour. Persons in pursuit
of commercial occupation are unfitted for it, but it is the best of all the
districts as a location for the mere farmer. The soil is deep and strong,
there is abundance of fern land and timber land, well adapted to the fat-


20 LOCALITIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
lening of cattle, but not so favourable for the rearing of sheep. In
short, it is better adapted for agricultural than for pastoral pursuits, and
its produce is more in excess of its consumption than that of any other
district, being exported largely to the less fertile settlements. The dis-
trict is not too far southward, and is considered as less objectionable for
high winds than some other settlements. Coal easily accessible and of
good quality and thickness, is found in the neighbourhood; and, although
the sea harbour is inconvenient, the river Waitera running through the
settlement is accessible from the sea by vessels of moderate burden, and
navigable a considerable way up the country, which is also well watered
by the Huatoki and the Emui. "The soil," says Mr. Palmer, "is a
black vegetable mould four or six feet deep, the subsoil a yellow clay.
Wheat and Indian corn are finer here than in any other part of New
Zealand, as also potatoes." Captain Liardet corroborates this statement,
and dwells upon the beauty of the scenery, and the great command of
water power. He mentions also a bridle road, connecting the settle-
ment with Auckland; and that the cost of clearing forest land was
£27 per acre. "Many persons," observes a settler at Port Nicholson,
"are going into the bush with cattle; this is what they should have
done at first, for a settlement of merchants and shopkeepers can never
stand long. To raise the common necessaries of life is the great object.
If capital be continually going out of the colony for the necessaries of life,
there must be a break down. All we require is to raise the loaf, for then
nothing can stop us. With such a climate, and land, no place out of New
Zealand can keep pace with us." The same writer states that fern land
may be cleared for less than £5 per acre, and although it is not pro-
ductive the first year, it yields well the second. Bush land is so
strong that he had to cut down his wheat twice before it would stand
up. He produced oats seven feet high, and peas, the pods of which grew
above his reach. His land was groaning with the finest green crops of
all kinds, and in the bush, cattle become very fat. Sheep breed twice in
the year, and from four goats he had twenty-five in less than two years.
He announces an excellent road, twelve miles long, from the town to the
Waitera river. Slugs and caterpillars are somewhat destructive occa-
sionally, but do not appear as yet to amount to a serious inconvenience."It is a land," writes a Tourist," of rich mould, luxuriant wood, full clear
streams leaping to the sea. There are cottages after cottages with tasty gardens trees and ferns left here and there to throw their shadows across
the thatch and neat gates, and compact fences; and you mee i with all
the little civilities and kindly greetings of the west country peasantry.
We looked from a cliff over a huge hollow filled with the richest wood of
every shade and colour—a blue stream rushing and winding through the
midst, and beyond the clear dazzling cone of Mount Egmont. Then
came up the piping, gushing, and thrilling of birds."
We are satisfied from the facts above stated, and the conversation of travellers in New Zealand, that New Plymouth is at present the most eli-
gible locality for an agricultural settler. The only drawback arises from
its too great proximity to the scene of the recent earthquakes. "The
natives" says the 'Times,' "state that they have no recollection of any
previous earthquakes of such violence or duration, and this, coupled


KELSON. SI
With the universal immunity of the wooden buildings, and the circum-
stance, that the most severe shocks had been preceded by minor one?
which had given timely warning, had contributed greatly to promote a
return of confidence." It has, fortunately, too bad a harbour to tempt
its inhabitants to abandon agriculture for any other pursuit; they are,
therefore, forced to devote their energies to tilling and cattle raising, and
facilities are thereby presented to a settler in the shape of cheaper food,
stock, and labour, than probably any other district can furnish. The soil
also is generous, and the climate entirely unexceptionable. We observe
that the proportion of wheat crop to the population, and the laud under
tillage, are much greater here than in any other settlements.
NELSON.
Of this settlement we have recent authentic and well digestic accounts
by Mr. W. Fox, the late President, Agent of the New Zealand Company.
His report is candid and trustworthy.
Nelson is at the head of Tasman's Gulf, on the southern side of Cook's
Strait, and, consequently, on Middle Island. The harbour, which is at
the top of Blind Bay, "has always abundance of water for vessels of 500
or 600 tons, perfect shelter in every wind, and excellent holding ground."
In this settlement are included three districts, not very naturally con-
nected with, or accessible from each other. Blind Bay, the seat of Nel-
son proper, consists of 60,000 acres of tolerably level land, whereof
scarcely one half is arable. Scarce of timber it is covered with fern, and
towards the sea with flax, which, it is now discovered, is indicative of a
very superior soil. Where the fern grows strong and high it also intimates
the presence of fine land; and although that production is an effectual
exterminator of pasture, cattle and sheep are no sooner put upon it than
grass begins to appear, and ultimately in great luxuriance. On this ac-
count the rapidity with which stock has here increased, has given a great
impetus to breeding and store farming.
Massacre Bay, about fifty miles from Nelson, is remarkable for the
beauty of its scenery, is heavily timbered, and possesses, out of 45,000
acres, about 25,000 of the finest quality of soil. It also abounds with
coal and lime easily workable, but is very defective in harbourage, except
for small craft, navigable up some of its rivers.
Cloudy Bay, with the Wairau plain and valley, and Wakefield downs,
is 110 miles south of Blind Bay, and contains upwards of 250,000 acres
of, for the most part, level land of fine pasture through its whole extent,
and perhaps the finest sheep runs in the world. It also possesses much
rich soil, eminently fitted for the production of grain, and is not only
the most extensive, but destined to become, by its splendid pastoral
qualities, the most valuable district in the settlement.
"No heavy clays," observes Mr. Fox, "or stiff marls are met with,
but the light lands break up as fine as garden ground.
"The average produce of the settlement, under inferior management,
is 24 bushels wheat, 25 barley, 21 oats, 6 tons potatoes, 24 tons turnips
per acre. The flax, and soino of the fern land, will yield about five


23 MELSOJf.
quarters per acre of wheat. Except the wire worm in wet grounds, no
other destructive animal has affected the crops."
The climate is said to be the best in New Zealand, and the wind
gives less annoyance than in the other settlements. The temperature is so
mild that flocks lamb in mid-winter, which is never so severe as to check
the blossoming of geraniums, fuschias, and other English summer flow-
ers; while in spring and summer, " days and weeks, occur of almost per-
fect calm, with brilliant sunshine by day, and magnificent moonlight by
night."
But for the operation of the Wakefield system, this settlement would
have progressed much more rapidly than it has done. To describe it in
little it is an artificial and forcing system. In place of allowing coloniza-
tion to take its natural course, and the balance of capital, labour, and
land, to adjust itself by the ordinary laws of social distribution, it made
land dear to prevent labourers from becoming owners. It paid for their
introduction to the colony by gratuitous conveyance; it made an arbitary
proportion betwixt capital and labour, founded upon mere theory, in
place of the real circumstances of society; and it supplied employment
and wages out of the funds of a wealthy company, in place of waiting
for the natural development of local wants and resources. The conse-
quence was, fits and starts of prosperity and adversity, and at last vio-
lence and disorder among the labourers. Nature's cure has at last pre-
vailed. The labourers have become landholders, discontent has disap-
peared, and the settlement is now in a state of slow but certain progres-
sion.
The statistics of the settlement do not indicate a very flattering state
of things as regards population, which actually appears to have decreased,
and this in the face of a considerable increase of tillage, live stock, and
grain. The prices of all necessaries are ridiculously high, and until they
are much lower it is impossible that much substantial prosperity can
exist. That population, or in other words consumption, should fall off,
production increase, and prices remain high, is an anomaly in econo-
mics, only to be accounted for by the assumption of gross blunders in
the statistical returns. The preponderance of evidence would tend to
shew that there must be considerable exaggeration in the accounts given
of the increase of production, population having retrograded, and prices
having continued comparatively exorbitant. Much of this has doubt-
less arisen from the absurd policy of the New Zealand Company, which
has discouraged the settlement of labourers upon the land, by maintain-
ing it at an artificial price, and by diverting labour from the cultivation
of the soil, to engage it in the execution of public works. The diminu-
tion of the population, in the face of considerable immigrations from the
mother country, is a ludicrous commentary upon the Wakefield theory.
It shows that while capitalists have been paying large sums in the shape
of a high price of land to supply themselves with labourers, the inac-
cessibility of that land to the labourers ha3 induced them to leave the
capitalists without hands, which they had paid a large sum to command.
It also shows that the only tie, which will bind labourers to a district,
that of the possession of a freehold of their own, having been systemati-
cally withheld, the labourers become migratory, and wander from plae»


23
to place according as they are tempted by wages. Had labourers at once
been made freeholders, their families would have been attached to the
district, and in due time supplied labour to the capitalists.
From the excellence of the barley and hops, the purity of the water
and the adaptation of the temperature of Nelson for brewing, ale of the
finest quality is manufactured here.
The natives amount to 615, are peaceable, well disposed, ingenious
and industrious.
Mr. Tuckett, the company's surveyor, complains of the enormous
number and fecundity of the rats in the settlement; a characteristic
however not confined to vermin, since while rats produced seventeen at a
birth, goats produced five kids, and sheep four lambs, and sometimes
more within the year.
We have carefully perused a great number of letters from Nelson
settlers in all conditions of life, and from these we learn,
1.—That the climate is most unexceptionable, the weather not being
accompanied, generally, with the very high winds which form the annoy-
ance of some other places.
8.—That there is rather a large proportion of swamp, (easily drainable
■however,) and a deficiency of timber.
3.—That in Massacre Bay there is an excellent whale fishing station. 4.—That there is an abundance of wild fowl for the table, a good sup-
ply of sea, and a fair supply of river, fish.
5.—That the climate is in the highest degree conducive to health, mental elasticity, and bodily vigour, recovery of appetite, and the con-
valescence of the infirm.
6.—That the great curse of the country is not the want, but the super-
abundance of capital, artificially aggravated by the absurd and proms,
outlay of the New Zealand Company. Indeed we are irresistibly led to
the conclusion that the whole economical theory of the colony induces the
speedy transfer of the whole of the money of the capitalist from its
owner to those who have none, to the encouragement of idleness and
stagnation. When we read of the Western States of America raising
produce so abundantly that wheat may be had for 2s., corn for Is and
oats for Is. 3d. per bushel,—the most fertile land for 4s. 6d. per acre —
a good log hut for £5,—a frame house for £20, and every man prosper-
ous and independent, but eminently industrious, we turn with contempt
and disgust to those letters, which tell us of butter at 2s 6d per lb.,—a
quarter of an acre sellingat £200(what idiot boughtit ?) -of athree roomed
mud house costing from £200 to £400,—of all sorts of food at rather
more than London prices, and of wages of men—botchers and bunglers,
the refuse of our towns,—screwing out of capital from 7s. to Us oer
diem, for little more than half a day's work. All this is the sheerest
gambling and plunder, destructive alike to rich and poor, and entirely
incompatible with success. We find that even rent is forced up almost
to an English price, and that speculation, and the most reckless pur-
chases, equal to any of the stag transactions of Capel Court, disturb the
whole natural progress of society, and productive industry. We
maintain that capitalists can only be ruined by such a system,
and that labourers should be placed, at once, not in employment


24 WBLLIlfGTOST.
out upon the soil, to cultivate it to the utmost point of produc-
tiveness.
All the letters, from every settlement, concur in this most favorable
point, that the voyage is a most pleasant and safe one. The number of
non-seafaring persons who not merely go out to the colony, but return to
Europe temporarily, and go back again, is surprising. Even women
"*ake light of the expedition, and frequently go and return two or three
times. In fact it is understood that fewer wrecks have occurred on this
line than even on the short trip to North America.
WELLINGTON.
This settlement of the New Zealand Company, is at the southern ex-
tremity of North Island, having Port Nicholson for its harbour, a safe and commodious one, with good wharves, and affording a considerable
stimulus to commercial pursuits.
The longest settled, wealthiest, and most populous of all the settle-
ments, it also possesses, by far the largest number of live stock, having
4,381 settlers, 4,850 cattle, 24,352 sheep, 496 horses, 20 mules, and 911
pigs. But in agriculture it is far behind, having only 1674 acres under
crop, while Nelson has 3,355, and Auckland, by a much earlier return,
(1845), 1,844. Wellington includes the districts of Porirua, Karori,
Loury Bay, Wainuiomata, Wanganui, and Petre. The vicinity of the
town has the advantage of abundance of fine timber, and although the
Hurt valley is a mere funnel for increasing the force of the very high
winds which form the drawback of the settlement, it is very rich in pas-
turing qualities. The roads leading from the town to the various tribu-
tary districts, are reported as excellent, and, as a means of communica
tion, of the utmost value.
The defect of the social and economical system of this district is an
exaggeration of the error committed in the rest. By artificial interier
ence with the natural order of settlement, the attention, capital, and in-
dustry of the people have been diverted from their first duty and proper
sphere, the cultivation of the soil, to mercantile pursuits; all the neces-
saries of life are scarce and dear, wages are ridiculously high, and capi-
talists have been ruined. The only persons who seem really to have
prospered under so foolish an arrangement, are the hard working labour-
ers, who have managed to make capitalists " buy gold too dear." But
indeed the great error of most settlers, in all new countries, appears to
be to loiter about towns and to keep near the coast, in place of boldly going back into the bush.
Mr. Bradey states that doctors, for want of patients, become farmers or
publicans. "Any man," he continues, "with two or three hundred
pounds, may buy a snug freehold farm; become a proprietor, and leave
his children independent. There are fine pickings for the capitalist, either in the sale of land or merchandise, making frequently 150 per
cent. A great deal may be made upon loans on the best security."
"People," observes a gentleman settler, "have land, but little money,
and are leading useless lives, because they have not enough to start.
We have not the class that go to Canada, who put before themselves the


■WELLINGTON. 25
task of working in the bush. Life is too easily maintained here, and
even the fine climate wont tempt them."
Mr. Wait speaks of an acre of land in Wellington which sold by
auction for £700!—of land letting at 5s. to 7s. 6d. per foot of frontage!
—and acres cut up so as to realize very large rents; and these prices,
greater than are given for the best situations in Surrey, Middlesex,
Essex or Kent, are paid in a wild settlement where people are continually
complaining of want of capital to till the soil!
"Two fine districts," says Mr. Tiffin, "are now opening, Manewatu
and Wanganui, each containing 60,000 acres on the borders of two fine
rivers, navigable by coasting schooners."
The settlement of the Wanganui River (Petre) is described as admitting
vessels of 340 tons; to be "as beautiful as valuable; six or seven fathoms
water in the river all along; fine clay for bricks and pottery; the river
lull of fish; wild duck and teal abundant; and the climate not subject to
the high winds which prevail at Wellington, from which it is distant
about five days' walking journey. Warepara on the other (south) side of
Wellington, is highly extolled as a grazing country.
An intelligent settler avers that 20 per cent. is easily to be had for
loans on first rate security.
On the Manewatu, a river between Wellington and Wanganui, it is
said there is abundance of fine land, and the best natural arrangements
for water power.
Many letters complain that the want of roads, the delay in giving out
sections, and the aversion to the bush life, "have turned many a good
farmer into a bad storekeeper." "I am sorry to say," observes William
Dew, "there are but few who support cultivation; they seem to be
afraid of the bush, which is not half so fierce as it is represented." And
we are satisfied that, so long as there are frequent new arrivals of green-
horn capitalists, with more money than wit, who will submit to be fleeced
by the old settlers in the way they have been, labourers who can get 10s.
for soleing a pair of shoes, which could be had new in England for 5s. or
10s., and the same sum for a short days' lazy work at carpentering,
watch-mending, or sawing, will not be in a hurry to lose their aversion
to the bush. "Our town," bleats out W. Dew, "is in a flourishing
condition; we have a great deal imported, but nothing exported, which
robs us of all the ready money. We want the cultivation to go
a-head."
Dr. George Rees describes Wanganui as midway between Port Nichol-
son and New Plymouth, communicating with them, Manewatu, Otaki,
Porirua, by means of roads, and with Auckland, Bay of Islands, &c.
by the river. The farms of the district are of the finest description, and
white bait, eels, baracouta, karwi, plaice, soles, oysters, and harbouka
(the king of fish) abound. "At the heads of our river you can see fish
weighing 1 cwt. each, in such quantities, that it is impossible to count
them. We have hanging in our smoking-room, hams, German sausages,
bacon, saveloys, fish, &c. In our salting-tub, pork,—we get pigeons,
ducks, snipes, &c. for shooting—to these we add from our own stock
poultry and eggs. In my own garden are peaches, apricots, plums, me-
lons, strawberries, cabbage, peas, beans, brocoli, carrots, cauliflowers,
da


turnips, sweet herbs, &c. &c. In short I can only say, 'Here one can
live in ease, without care or trouble, in one of the most genial and healthy
climates in the world, and where it only requires the hand of man to
make a paradise.""Cultivation," well observes J. White, "goes on very spare: the
reason is that most of the landholders are gentlemen's sons, and know
nothing about farming; two old English farmers would do more than
twenty of them. The land produces fine crops of corn, the worst
of it."
A small Devonshire farmer at Patoni, Port Nicholson "has no doubt
about the land being very superior to that of Devon—two crops in the
year—wheat 60 bushels an acre, potatoes 16 tons; wages 30s. a week;
provisions little dearer than in the old country; a labourer better off
than a Devonshire farmer who pays £100 rent.
The evidence seems contradictory as to the qualities of the valley of
the Hutt, but on the whole we suspect it to be a very inferior place of
settlement.
OTAGO.
This is the youngest and the most southern of the European settle-
ments of New Zealand. It belongs to the Company, and is colonized
chiefly by 650 Scotch, promoted by the Free Church of Scotland. A
good number of English have also joined the adventure, and we know of
two gentlemen of large fortune who, for the sake of the climate for
themselves and families, have ventured their life and happiness in the
colony.
We have said that Otago is the southernmost point of settlement. It
is consequently the least genial and the most inclement. At times it is
extremely cold, and has by its detractors been said to be more unkindly
than the climate of Scotland itself. Mr. George Rennie observes, "Al-
though the winter at Otago may never be severe, there may not be
sufficient sun and dry weather to produce a fine quality of corn." An
Auckland correspondent of our own writes to us to "expose the Otago
scheme—the place is wretchedly cold." This gentleman merely speaks
however from hearsay, and from the presumption, that a point so far
south should be cold. We can more safely trust to the testimony given
on the subject of Otago than on that of any other settlement. There was
no object in the Free Church of Scotland making choice of that district
in preference to any other, except its real advantages. The committee
are men of the greatest prudence, great intelligence, and first-rate
business habits, whom it was not possible to deceive, and who were not
at all likely to proceed without ample inquiry and satisfactory evidence.
The letters from all the settlers are, upon the subject of climate, unani-
mously most favorable. Dr. Munro, Mr. Tuckett the Company's, and
Mr. Symonds, the government surveyor, Major Bunbury and Captain
Smith, and Messrs. Dean the extensive graziers, claim "a superiority
for the east coast of the middle over the north island, in that it is greatly
less wet and windy. In the wet season the continuous heavy rains in the


800 for the New Zealand Company. The price is 40s. an acre, or £289,300,
whereof, £108,750 are appropriated to Emigration and labour; £72,000 to
surveys, roads, bridges, improvements, and steam-boats; £36,150 to
religion and education; £72,300 to the New Zealand Company. 250,0"^
acres more are to be yielded on the same terms when required. Fo:
£120, 10s., each purchaser is to have a town quarter acre, 10 suburban
acres, and 50 rural acres. For each property purchased an emigrant
may take out as steerage passengers, including full rations, three adults,
or two adults and two children. If he desires to apply the allowance tc
himself, £15, for each property purchased, will be deducted from the chiet cabin passage money of forty-five guineas. Besides their lots, purchasers
have the privilege of pasturing their cattle and sheep upon the whole un-
sold land of the Company. It is with much satisfaction we observe
that the New Zealand Company, both with regard to this, and their
other settlements, have so far modified their original plan, as better to meet
the wants of the poorer classes of settlers. They are now prepared to dis-
pose of land in lots of 25 acres, accompanied with proportionate advan-
tages in the shape of allowances for passage money and free pasturage. This is the way to keep labourers after they have got them. The vessels are of the
first class, admirably arranged for comfort and convenience, full manned,
excellently officered, with an experienced surgeon, a cow for milk to the
children, half a ton of free luggage to each passenger, and a first-rate dietary.
Extra freight, 50s. per ton. Judicious rules, binding on passengers, officers,
and crew, are strictly enjoined and enforced. All concur in stating that the
voyage is remarkably pleasant, little subject to sea perils, and very seldom
accompanied with accident. By sailing from Milford Haven the perils of
the Channel are avoided. The best time for starting is in the end of
July or August, as these are the calmest months in the northern hemis-
phere, while October and November, the months of arrival, are the early
summer at Otago. Money may be insured at 3 per cent. in the marine
insurance offices, or transmitted through the Union Bank of Australia,
38, Old Broad Street, to its Wellington Branch, or the New Zealand
Company by letters of credit on the Branches in the settlement at two
per cent. As from 3 to 4 per cent. is allowed in the colony on the ex-
change, the cost of transmission is thus more than covered. The passage
of the first two vessels occupied 93 and 115 days respectively, from land
to land, and 99 and 117 from port to port—the average being 120 days,
or 17 weeks. Persons who have made voyages to New York and to
Wellington, state they infinitely prefer the latter, notwithstanding its
greater length.
We regard it as of great promise to the success of the settlement, that
every pastor and flock of the free church of Scotland become interested in
it as a field of emigration. The " minister" is the family adviser of all
his congregation, and, consulted on the subject of emigration, will give
Otago the preference.
The scheme suggests that if three persons contributed £40 18s. 4d.
each, they would get a free passage, and an entire section of land. They
are also housed and fed for one month after their arrival in the colony.
The Scotch being the best colonists in Europe, and this scheme having
embraced the sending out of many thinking and energetic men, we hope


OIAGO. 29
much for the comfort and assistance of future emigrants from the fore-
thought of those who have preceded them. They have a genius for gar-
dening and agriculture, which will find ample scope in their adopted
country.
The Otago block of 400,000 acres, is bounded on the north by the Otago
harbour, and on the south by the Matou or Molyneux rivers. It has
abundance of untimbered fertile land, and open grassy pastures, inter-
spersed with an adequate supply of wood, a navigable inland communi-
cation, runs up its entire centre. It has ample fields of coal, easily
workable j an unbounded sheep-walk towards its mountains, and sixty
miles of sea line. Puerua, Koau, and many smaller streams, are more
or less navigable, the former by vessels of considerable burden.
Otago harbour is thirteen miles long, 2 miles wide, 6 fathoms deep, for
seven miles, and three fathoms up to the very head, perfectly sheltered,
and with a tide run of three knots an hour. The access and egress for
vessels is safe and easy. Along the shores, and for some distance inland,
there is abundance of fine timber. The harbour teems with the finest
fish, and the coast is an excellent whaling station, whalers of 600 tons
often lying in the harbour.
The Clutha, as the Matou, or Molyneux river is now termed, is a
quarter of a mile broad, and six fathoms deep, retaining these dimensions
for 60 miles up, as the crow flies. Its banks are singularly fertile, liable
in portions to be overflowed. Many extensive lagoons, lakes, and
streams, intersect the country in every direction, which will, ultimately,
be connected by canal, and afford a perfect internal communication.
Few topographieal difficulties present themselves to the connection of the
various districts by means of roads.
The stock fed only on the natural pastures, produces beef and mutton
of a quality which we are assured is quite unrivalled, even in England,
and is fattened with great rapidity, and to an extraordinary size. The
quality of the cereals is also stated to be very superior, and this is quite
what we should be led to expect from the nature of the climate.
It appears unnecessary to enter into a minute detail of the various lo-
cations, and of the aspect of the country. It seems enough to say that
in some districts it is deficient in wood, compensated by abundance of
coal, and by clear, open pasture, requiring no expense to subdue it to the
profitable purpose of store farming, for which the whole region seems
eminently adapted, and which presents a great advantage to the capital-
ist, from whose profits the high wages of the colony form a heavy de-
duction. Wages for artizans are fixed at 5s. per day, and the labourer
has 18s. per week, with a free house, fuel, and pasture for a cow.
The following extracts from the letters of settlers, are full of interest
and information. They are all dated from Otago, and the earliest is so
recent as April, 1848.
"The voyage most agreeably disappointed our expectations, so much
so, that at the close of it we said, were it to become a matter of necessity
that we should do so, we should not shrink from facing about and making
the same voyage back again. We were favoured with a great deal of very
fine weather, and to this we were indebted for the good health enjoyed
by the great proportion of the passengers. We had 87 children under
d 3


90 OTAGO.
fourteen, and some of the very young amongst them suffered a good deal; and to our sore affliction four little infants died. These were all
the deaths that occurred, and these from children's complaints, mostly
cutting of teeth. But in regard to nearly all the rest of the children,
they thrived prodigiously, and exhibited the most joyous spirits, causing
the deck to resound during the fine sunny afternoons and evenings with
their obstreporous glee. Every week day, except Saturday, we had a school,
forenoon and afternoon, of six or eight different classes: six or eight of
the passengers taught them, the schoolmaster superintending. I had
two classes for religious instruction, which I took charge of myself, one
for young men, the other for young women, and I made one ministerial
visitation of the whole ship." "The harbour, throughout the entire 14
miles to which it extends, is one uninterrupted scene of most romantic
beauty. As we sailed up to the anchorage, some of our people exclaimed,
"How like this is to the Trosachs and Lake Katrine." The difference
is that Otago is on a larger scale, and of a blander character. Up at
Dunedin, at the head of the harbour, the country opens out into untim- bered land, and continues of the same description of open grassy land
across to the foot of the snowy mountains running along the west coast. The large river Clutha, (Molyneux of the maps,) rises out of three very
large lakes, situated near the foot of these mountains to the north west
of Dunedin, and so soon as it issues from the lakes, becomes at once a
very large stream, flowing through a widely expanded valley of grass
land, interspersed with timber blocks, admirably adapted for sheep
grazing. As to the present productions of the place, all our party can
bear most laudatory testimony in favour of the beef, mutton, and pota-
toes, the growth of the wilderness, and also as to the abundant supply of
fish of excellent quality. It only requires a sufficient supply of capital
and labonr to convert this into a very rich agricultural country. Such
are my first impressions from all the information I have been able to
gather from some of the oldest settlers, and from my own observation.
"My wife has stood the voyage remarkably well. The children have
improved in health and looks, greatly. We are all now in the enjoy-
ment of the best health and spirits, and delighted with Otago. Nothing
can surpass the romantic beauty of the views from the site of the port. The whole harbour, from the Heads to Dunedin, 14 miles in length, is
bounded on each side by a succession of headlands, projecting a little
way into the water, forming little bays with a beach of hard dry sand.
The headlands rise up at once to a height of from 300 to 5000 or 6000 feet,
and are wooded from the water's edge to the very summit. It is a re-
markable fact that whilst the soil on these hills, and all around generally,
is remarkably rich, consisting of dark vegetable mould, varying from
1, 11 to 2 and 3, and in certain places to 6 and 7 feet deep, if you ascend
to the tops of these hills, instead of finding, as you would in Scot-
land, little else than rocks and heath, you have here the same soil
as at the bottom of the hills, viz. black earthy mould with a sub-
soil of good strong clay. In some of the streams running into the
harbour there is solid freestone of good quality, through which the stream
has worn a channel for itself. A party of settlers are prepared to com-
mence brick-making immediately. They are well satisfied with the clay
*


OTAGO.
in horse flesh for some time. Mr. B. and Captain Cargill thinks there
will be a great demand for them so soon as the road is opened up between
the town and country sections. Provisions are not very dear; the Com-
pany have a store, and sell meal at 2s. 6d. per stone; flour at 3s. per
stone; tea at Is. 3d. per lb.; sugar at 3jd. per lb. The wages to labourers are 3s. per day; mechanics, 5s. per day."
James Williamson states that—"We all had to build houses of some
sort, but from my weakly state I was not able, and rent one from a Mr.
A., at about 5s. per week for the winter, and then we will get to our sub-
urban section and put up a house there for myself. This Mr. A. is a
brother to Mr. A., George Street, the fishmonger, he and his wife are
very kindly people. By his help I have made a very fortunate choice of
my Town Site. The original price was only 10s., and I believe if I were
to sell it I would get £100 for it; this is turning the money. Our sub-
urban sections will not be fixed for choice for perhaps a month yet. We
mean to go there to reside, and clear what we can for the coming year's
crop of potatoes, which will about doubly pay the clearing,—so you see
it is soon brought to render a profit. The ground is very fertile; for in-
stance, from one seed or cut of potatoes, there will be an average produce
of about 55 to 58 potatoes, and large, many of them weighing upwards
of a pound English. Nothing like this could be produced in Scotland,
and they sell just now at £4 10s. per ton, an acre producing about four-
teen tons.
"When I make choice of my suburban section, which will be very soon
now, I intend to put up a good house, built from the wood of my own
property, but for this I must wait till my funds increase, as it will cost
me perhaps about £60, and this is more than I can spare at present. I
have too little to work upon just now, which deprives me of many advan-
tages, and I can get no return of money till I get it from the produce of
my ground. Please to send me in the place of cash, the following goods
which I can sell readily here for nearly cent. per cent. of profit:—very
strong boots, laced in front, such as the railway workers wear; they can
be made in Scotland for about 10s. a pair, perhaps by contract cheaper,
but they must be stout and well made, and filled with small tackets and
shod on heels and toes with iron; they sell here at from 18s. to 20s. a
pair. There is 10 per cent. now laid upon all British goods, and the
freight, 50s. per ton, dead weight, but notwithstanding there will be a
good profit. Cheese will pay well; it is selling here just now at 14d. to
18d. per pound. You could buy a lot of old Ayrshire cheese at perhaps
less than 6d. per lb., when bought in a lot in Scotland, and I could sell
them here wholesale to the stores for about Is. per lb., and perhaps
more. The prices are expected to rise as the other settlers arrive. You
must select them old, but whole and sound, as new cheese does not stand
the voyage so well as old, and they must be put into air-tight tin cases,
packed into a large wooden box; they must not be of the very large sizes, just about a medium size, running about 25 lbs. each; these take whole
readily. Blankets, common, bring about 26s. a pair. Blue bonnets or
caps, such as the boys wear in Scotland, not the dandy kind with tassels,
but just a stout wool cap, take well and give a high price here, as nothing
else is worn. Hats are not worn at all. You will get the caps perhaps


OTAGO. 39
fcr about Is. 9d. to 2s. as in quality, by taking a lot of them; they will
bring more than double here. Tartan dresses for ladies will sell well;
the prices of them run about 5s. to 7s., and I think they can be got in
Scotland at about Is. 2d. to 2s. or 2s. 6d. Then again, moleskins and
fustians for gentlemen's common dresses, and for better dresses, doeskins,
woollen cloths, tweeds, &c. All these things pay remarkably well and
would turn a little money to double account. Carbonate of soda is a
dear article here; the price of it is 5s. per lb. It is now a good deal
used in baking, and will be more so as the population increases, and may
return an excellent profit. A storekeeper is particularly anxious that I
should send home for a few casks of cabin biscuit; they should be well
fired, rather brown, and put into air-tight casks. Salt butter would do
well; it is at Is. 6d. per lb., and not to be had, and will always give a
good price. Also oatmeal, it is at about 4d. per lb., and sells readily.
Oats are grown in the country, but there are no mills to make meal. The
other ship brought a lot out, and it is all away already, and the want of
it is much felt."
Mr. Mercer informs his father that "no cloth-merchant or clerk need
come out here with the intention of doing no other thing than standing
at the back of a counter, or sitting at a desk. They must be able to use
other instruments than scissors or pens. Nor must they come with the
intention of sporting jewellery or good clothes, but must come out steady
and ready to do what is going, unless they have plenty of means to carry
the gentleman out. All must work hard here to get on. I never wrought
so hard in my life as what I have done since I came here, but I hope to
be repaid for it yet. We will very soon be proprietors of a good house.
We are nearly finished with a house or shop 24 feet long and 12 broad,
with a division for the room off the shop for the man and wife. We
have engaged a carpenter and cabinet maker to work; we are going to
stop with them. We have very good prospects. I have got a great deal
of orders for furniture and joiner work. I really do not know what to do
first after the house is finished. I am like yourself, too anxious; I am
never idle. We have given in estimates for a church and school. We
have also given in an estimate for a boat that is to be built by the com-
pany, 36 feet long; these matters are not yet settled. If one thing will
not do I will try another. I am determined to make my own of this
place, and I would be quite happy here if I only had my father, mother,
and friends out beside me. I am very well now. This is a country
where people will thrive."
Mr. Edward Atkinson thus addresses his brother and sisters:—"I
shall name a few things that actually attract one's attention on the voy-
age.—viz.:—Flying fish, which are more like a flock of swallows than
anything I know, dolphins, porpoises, whales, sharks. We kept a
harpoon always on the fore-chains for the albacco and porpoise, and on
one occasion I went out to get it to strike an albacco, but when I was on
the point of seizing hold of it, a large shark floated on the surface of
the water like a log of wood; it was about ten feet long and not more
than four feet from my shanks, so you may be sure I was not long in getting off, for I thought he might skulk under the ship and watch his
opportunity '-> it a mouthful. The birds are very scarce. The alba-


36 OTAGO.
tross and cape pigeon are the only ones of any Importance I brought
down with the long range; we sometimes caught them with the line
and hook and a piece of pork; we had ten or twelve on deck at one
time, some of them ten feet from tip to tip of the wings. We hove
anchor and sailed right up the harbour to Port Chalmers. Ships from
six to eight hundred tons can anchor close to the shore: the 'John
Wickliffe,' nearly seven hundred tons, lay th6ro. The government
steamer Inflexible anchored opposite Musselburgh within the heads, and
she is from twelve to fourteen hundred tons. After we had been there
a day or two, the doctor, a few others, and I went out to shoot pigeons;
we met Old Fire, the Chief, and half a dozen of his tribe, sitting round
a fire, dressed in European clothes; he made a bow, which we returned,
and passed on. We got into the bush as they call it, but bush means
forest, and came upon two natives sitting round a fire, roasting fish and
potatoes. Feeling hungry we sat down and joined them, and in return
gave them bread and cheese. They have no idea of fighting, and are
frightened at the sight of a gun. I have never seen a weapon in their
hands since I came. They are all dressed in European clothing, and
are very anxious to get work; their wages are 2s. 6d. per day to the
company, and 3s. to settlers. They were very handy in getting up
houses, Sec., for the emigrants when we first came; they know the
talue of money well; they come into the store for food, and speak
good English considering. I know that many parties in Britain are
frightened for the natives, but that ought to be the last thing they
should bother their heads about, for I would rather go from Dune-
din to Molyneux than through the streets of Edinburgh at night; if
you believe me the white men are more to be dreaded in New Zea-
land, for their bad principles and trickery, than the blacks. The land
has not been made for the New Zealander I think, but for the white
man, for the former is fast disappearing from its surface. The cli-
mate of the country is certainly very fine, beyond all doubt, for European
constitutions; for my own part, if I had suffered the same privations
in Britain, as I have done in New Zealand, it must have been my death,
what with sleeping in the bush, and wet nearly up to the middle for
six or eight hours at a time, and yet without the slightest injury to
my health; let the labour be what it may through the day, you get up
next morning quite invigorated; in fact, I thought the voyage was a
great means of restoring my health. To parties not strong, the air here
is pleasant, and there is something light and exhilarating in it; it does
not create that tickling sensation in the throat you experience in Britain,
which, I think, is often the means of bringing on consumption and other
diseases. This is the winter season, and we can sit in the house with the
door open. In the morning I have often gone out with nothing but trousers and boots on, and gun over my shoulder, to get a shot at the
ducks. Milch cows and calves are out winter and summer in the bush, without any effect on either; no turnips or any artificial means to keep
the cattle here; in winter no byres, the only thing required is a stock
yard to drive them into to milk. Horses are treated the same as the
cows, wintei and summer. Pigs thrive well from the great quantity of
fern root they eat; they are never put in styes, but allowed to roam about;


OTA.QO. 87
we very much want a good breed of English pigs; they are quite easily
brought out, and should have plenty of water on board ship. On board
of ship, you have every thing you require, but you may take some pre-
serves and pickles if convenient, two good pillows and a mattress, as the
ship's ones are too thin, sheets and blankets, a tin washhand basin, a little
frying-pan and goblet, cinnamon, arrow-root and sago, and a few cabin
biscuits; mine were put below and only got at on arrival, but I sold them
for 7s. per stone, cost 3s. 6d.; also take a little oatmeal, you will find a
relish for it. Be sure and take care with whom you associate; be atten-
tive and clean; keep near you some books, as well as your brush and
comb, knives, forks, and spoons; and purchase marine or salt water soap."
Robert Donaldson states that,—" Birds of every description are plen-
tiful; there are great varieties. There are, Ist. Five or six different sorts
of hawks, very numerous; 2nd. Touis, a bird like our blackbird, but
with two tufts of white hair under its throat, like a minister's band, hence
it is called the parson's bird; 3rd. Robin Redbreasts, just like our robins
at home, only jet black with pure white breasts, shape and whistle alike;
4th. Pigeons, same as at home, but larger; 5th. Parrots in great variety,
splendid eating; I eat one to day; 6th. Wild Ducks, called "Paradise
Ducks," nearly as large as a goose, splendid eating; 7th. Quails in great
abundance, delicious eating. I could tell you of a great many varieties,
but I don't know their names. We are surrounded by mountains round
and round, abounding in wild boars and pigs. I have not been so fortu-
nate, or perhaps unfortunate, as to meet any yet, but the old shepherd
met one in the swamp about three miles off, which gave him chace, and
he had to run for it. He proved to be an old foe known about this place
for a great many years; he has lost an ear, and is nearly as large as a
good sized donkey. They are very large and fierce some of the boars."
Captain Cargill announces that,—" The Schooner Eagle arrived within
the heads on the 30th ult„ her principal cargo being 30,000 feet of sawn
timber, but too late for the supply of our more urgent wants, grass and
clay houses having been already got up, with much delay, and at great
expense as regards their short duration. A few thousand feet have, how-
ever, been bought at 20s. per hundred; but as we have now five saws
established on the margins of the harbour, we shall soon have an abun-
dant supply of our own at moderate prices. And I have also established
an experienced quarryman, with one labourer, to turn out freestone on
the bank of the water, and within a mile and a quarter of our landing
place; whilst other parties are making brick and tile to bring to market
on their own account. I have therefore every confidence that my next
report will be of a more cheering and agreeable character than at one
time I could have anticipated, until the winter shall be over."
In a letter from Mr. John Hutchinson, to the Secretary of the Asso-
ciation, he states that—"The crops of the Middle Island, whether we
take the 'grain' or the 'green,' are excellent and abundant; while the
grasses are rich and luxuriant, enabling the dairyman to produce butter,
better than any I have eaten in Ayrshire.
"As to the provision made in support of religion and education by the
Otago Association, it is only necessary to refer to the scheme, as published
in your Journals, to insure at once hearty commendation.
« E


CANTERBURY. 39
give the preference to either country as a place of settlement; and haying placed the condition of each candidly before the reader, he must be
left to his own decision. As to the sea voyage, that to America, if reached
by steam is easy and quick—but by sailing vessels it occupies from seven
to ten weeks, through much bad weather, and includes a long inland
journey to the Western States, both tedious and somewhat expensive.
The number of shipwrecks is much greater of American emigrant ships
than of Australian vessels—not perhaps, however, in proportion to the
greater number which undertake the voyage. We are bound also to add,
that these shipwrecks seldom occur from the mere bad weather, but are
generally the result of ignorance of the Channel, or of mistakes in
soundings, as it is not at sea that the accidents occur, but generally
near the coast, either in setting out, or on the approach to British
America. New Zealand is often reached without any weather worse than
a breeze.
Perfect candour and impartiality call upon us to observe, that opinion
is not absolutely unanimous on the subject of the excellence of New
Zealand. A friend of ours who resides at, and speaks in the highest terms
of the district of Auckland, considers the climate and capabilities of
Otago as very inferior. Mr. Terry, and others, denounce the whole
island as made up but of precipitous mountains, impenetrable scrub,
deep gullies in the place of vallies, and morass in the place of plains.
Among the foremost of its detractors is the editor of the Emigrant's
Journal, who speaks authoritatively from personal observation, and
whose great literary talents, and thorough acquaintance with the whole
subject, entitle his opinions to respect and attention. At the same time
we have observed a tendency in his Journal to one indiscriminate con-
demnation of every colony, except that of New South Wales, in which he
was, and, so far as we know still is, a large stock and land holder. At
all events, it is impossible to be a regular reader of his Journal without
being satisfied that its tendency, if not its object, is to applaud New
South Wales, and to depreciate the United States, the Cape, New Zealand,
and Canada, and to pass over Van Dieman's Land in silence. We con-
fess to being one of the "stay-at-home" writers on the Colonies, of
whom he expresses his contempt; but on that very account we consider
that we are more competent to marshal the testimony upon which the
decision of intending emigrants should be founded, than one who, after
all, is but one witness among many, and whose evidence, like that
of others, must be weighed with the rest. Had we ourselves been a tra-
veller to any one of the Colonies, we could to the emigrating public have
been no more than one voucher, more or less, for facts about which such
discrepancies of statement occur among personal observers, that it would
still have been necessary that we should quote the authorities which can
be cited from our colonial literature; and by individual inspection we
could have placed the public in little better a position to choose between
the whole fields of settlement, than if we had never seen any of them.
The intending emigrant has himself never been abroad; and he must
judge from a review of the whole evidence which can be procured. We
have endeavoured to place him in the position in which that judgment
can most safely be made.
e k 2


42 GENERAL INFORMATION.
own food; and if you want to fatten them, put them up and give them
some Indian corn for fire or six weeks. Be sure and attend to your cow
after she has calved; for, if all is attended to as should be, she will have
another calf in twelve months; so that, in twelve months, the increase
from one cow would make up £19;—that is, the cow £12, one calf twelve months old, £5, and one calf five days old. £2 —all this in addition to the
butter and milk—therefore keep your eye on the cattle.
June, July, and August is the time to sow wheat. Get an acre of land
cleared as soon as you can; dig up the flax, cut and burn the fern, and
get a farmer to plough it for you if you can. It will cost £1 an acre to
get it ploughed ; but, if you have not got the money, make an agreement
with the farmer to do so many yards of fencing for him, or work for him
ten days or a fortnight; that may suit you both—it would be quicker
than you can dig it up yourself. Try all you can to get in an acre of
wheat the first year; when your wheat is in, set to work again directly,
and try to get in an acre of barley. Of course, once ploughing will not
do; you must dig it and rake it about, and you will be sure to get a good
crop. Barley will do, if sown before Christmas, but the best time is July
or August. Potatoes must be set in November or December, but early
potatoes may be set in August. Turnips, onions, cabbages, and those kind
of things may be set all the year round. When all your crops are in—
which they ought to be by the Ist of January—set to work again, and get
some more ground ready to sow wheat in May; so that the second year
you will be able to sow double the quantity you did the first, and your
expenses will not be half so much when you grow all your own food. By
the end of the second year, you will have some steers grown up fit to
work, or that you will have to look out for a plough and arrows, &c.; and
in a little time, if you persevere, you will soon want to increase the size
of your farm. Take out a few tools with you, such as hammer, saw,
gimlet, reaphooks, rubbers, and choppers to cut wood. My object in
writing this is to give an industrious man going out to New Zealand
such advice that he may profit by my own experience and information.
"If you have not already made up your mind to go to New Zealand,
consider the matter over calmly, do nothing important in haste; in the
first place, consider your present place and prospects where you are; if
you are well off, and comfortable, stop where you are, for New Zealand
is a long way off, and there are some difficulties to encounter; but if
your prospects are bad—if you cannot see your way clear without slavery
and starvation, then I can safely say you would be ten times better off in
New Zealand, where, if you are able and willing to work, to keep your-
self sober, you would, in a little time be surrounded with abundance of
bacon and eggs, bread, butter, milk and cream, puddings, fowls, and all
kinds of vegetables. There is no stinting there, 'cut and come again' is
the order of the day; this, I can assure you, is an absolute fact. I know
plenty of men in Nelson, who came out as labourers, without a penny,
who are now very well off; some of them have twelve or fourteen head
of cattle, worth on the average £7 or £8 a head, and a fifty-acre farm,
not their own (that is, only leased), with a great part under cultivation;
they use their own cart, plough, harrows, and other farming implements.
1 saw in one man's house, six great sides of bacon, and fourteen hams;


44 AVSTBALIA.
AUSTRALIA.
We are addressing, and our counsel is intended for, Europeans. To emi-
grants, adaptation of climate is the first and most essential consideration.
For the absence of health, physical comfort, and mental elasticity, no ad-
vantages of gain-getting can compensate. To persons born and bred in
the temperate zone, a temperate climate is indispensable. Indeed, the
human constitution of all regions is best preserved by weather in which
extremes are small, and sudden alternations infrequent. The countries
at the antipodes are naturally much warmer than those of the north of
Europe— many of the southern regions are absolutely tropical. We have
already explained that on the other side of the globe, time, seasons,
nature, are reversed—the needle points to the south. June is midwinter,
and the west answers to our east wind. Hence it follows that there, as
the traveller proceeds northward, or furthest from the nearest pole, he
goes towards greater heat, and as he goes south, he comes upon more
temperate and colder seasons. Aridity will be the natural character of
the northernmost parts of the antipodal regions, and greater moisture, be-
cause less power of sun will exhibit itself, the nearer he goes to the south
pole.
It is on this account, if on no other, that we consider it advisable for
the British emigrant who makes choice of Australia, to fix upon its most
southern settlements, and that scarcely any consideration should induce
him to establish himself at its northern extremities. Van Dieman's Land
which is insulated at the southern extremity of Australia, appears to us
on that account still more eligible, and in proportion as the settler goes
further north, we think he deteriorates his condition in reference to
health, and physical comfort, and thereby, on a fir sighted view, his
worldly prospects; because, where health is highest, human energy will
be greatest, and ultimately produce the greatest social results.
Australia is the largest island in the world. Its size is variously esti-
mated at from 3,000 to 2,000 miles long from east to west, and from
2,000 to 1,700 broad from north to south, lying between the 9 deg. and
38 deg. of south latitude, and 112 deg. to 153 deg. east longitude, con-
taining an area of 3,000,000 square miles, and being 16,000 nautical
miles distant from Great Britain. It has a coast line of 8,000 miles.
The general geological character of the country is that of immense level
plain, low ridges of hills, open forest, and in some places rich vallies,
scantily timbered, and spare in its verdure. Its rivers, great and small,
are liable to extensive inundations and droughts which dry them com-
pletely up, or leave only a few scanty pools. The grass, although bare
and coarse, is very nutritious. The soil, generally very thin, is either a
red, sandy loam, or a coarse white sand, producing little vegetation, and
a little stunted timber. There are few quadrupeds, except the kangaroo,
opussum, and wild dog—no great variety of birds—very fine bees pro-
ducing the richest honey—some dangerous snakes, a few musquitoes, and
a rich assortment of populous fleas. Aquatic birds, including black
swans, frequent the rivers, which teem with cod, shrimps, mussels, and


ifj AUSTRALIA.
any value for annual superficial accumulation. In all the northern parts
of the settled districts, pastoral are the only practicable pursuits, from
the scantiness of the herbage, the long intervals of any available supply
of water, and the bareness of the burnt up soil. Population from the
necessity of the case must live very far apart. The great extent of
country over which a single sheep run, must spread, in order to sustain
even one flock, and the necessity of keeping it within the bounds to pre-
vent waifs and strays, require that the shepherds should be on horseback
from morning to night, leaving no time for the cultivation of the croft or
homestead. The great scarcity of females, from causes to be subsequently
noticed, renders home comforts and civilized offices impracticable, and
the desire for them to cease; and we cannot avoid the conclusion that,
except in the near vicinity of the chief towns, the Australians are very
little better than the Mexican la-so throwers, and not much more civilized than the Cumanchees. A purely pastoral life, the most primitive and
least removed from that of the mere hunter, is essentially wild, unsettled,
and rude, producing such men as the Dutch boors of the Cape, com-
petent indeed to cope with wild bulls and wilder Caffres, but only by
partaking of the wildness they encounter. To those who like the wild,
adventurous, exciting, and exhilarating life afforded by a good climate,
boundless space, an open country, and physical exertion without plodding
labour, the northern parts of settled Australia present a field for their
gratification, not perhaps however much more eligible than the Cape at
half the distance. But to men who affect settled life and civilized tastes,
and plodding, orderly habits, we consider the region to be imperfectly
adapted. With reference to the whole of this island, it is our deliberate
opinion, that, except in the near vicinity of towns, that portion of terri-
tory which will not permit of the combination profitably of agricultural
with pastoral pursuits, is entirely undesirable for any description of emi-
grant whatever, except the wild and adventurous. A man with large
capital ought not to emigrate at all, as England is the paradise of the
rich—a man with moderate capital can command many sufficiently pro-
fitable ways of applying it without subjecting himself to the privations
and barbarisms of the bush—and the man with no capital will seldom or
never do any good for himself in the servitude of a mere shepherd, in a
country where he cannot get less than 650 acres of land at 20s. an acre,
and where the scab or the drought may so reduce a small■flock as to
sweep away his whole gains, and even so to destroy a large one as to ruin
even a capitalist. Mr. Sidney, himself a flockmaster, expresses the
opinion, that £2,000 is the smallest sum that can enable even a skilful
breeder to conduct the business to profit; and the author of "Three
Years of a Settler's Life," states, that "In the first place, £300 is but a
drop in the bucket to commence settling with." He indeed advises the
possessor of such a pittance to hire himself out to some other person, buy
300 ewes, and hand them (his all) over to some careful shepherd who
will look after them for one-third of the produce, promising him 895, and £192 of profit at the end of three years. But disease, or the sun, may sweep off his entire stock, his shepherd may be dishonest or unskil-
ful, failures of floekmasters may annihilate the value of the flocks. At
this moment flocks bought at from 6s. to 8s. per head do not realize 3s.,


AUSTRALIA. 47
owing to a depression of the price of wool; and to convert them into tallow,
Mr. Sidney considers as perfectly ruinous. In short the trade seems
altogether a precarious one, as we hear every day of many men reduced
and elevated from immense nominal wealth to nothing, and vice versa,
and of not a few coming back to Europe penniless. It is very certain
that Australia is eminently favourable to the growth of wool of the very
finest quality. The increment of flocks is also very great, and pro-
ductive of great and rapid fortunes. The absence of roads is much less
felt in pastoral than in agricultural pursuits, and either wool or sheep
are more portable than agricultural produce. A greater value in com-
parison to bulk and weight can be transported of wool than of grain;
and the demand for the former, and the price, as a general rule, will in
Europe be less variable than for the latter. By the large quantity of ex-
portable material supplied by wool, tallow, and hides. It is obvious also
that the imports will be paid for in produce, and the money of the colony
kept within it. These advantages unquestionably are favourable to the
mere abstract commercial prospects of the colony. But it is quite evi-
dent that no man with small capital can ever be assured of permanent
success in pastoral pursuits in Australia, that the man who has none
must be contented to remain a shepherd, and that the man who has
much, could do better with it, than to barbarise himself in the bush. If
persons of these classes, however, affect the bush life, and make light of
the privation of the accessories of civilization to which they must submit,
and of the occasional torridity of the climate, they will always be secured
in the possession of plenty of beef and mutton, tea, and tobacco, and in
the enjoyment of exhilarating activity rather than hard labour. If they
are often left without flour, have neither butter, milk, nor cheese,
notwithstanding their vast herds, and never taste vegetables, it is only
because they regard cultivation of land and the milking of cows, as not
worth the while—a very savage conclusion, in which perhaps Cherokees
and Cumanchees but few other human beings would concur with them.
It must be conceded, however, that these views do not appear to be
very generally entertained. The increase of population in the island has
been rapid—the exports have largely advanced—the proceeds from the
sale of lands have been very considerable, and the revenue is healthy,
and by no means contemptible. To feed increasing numbers, and to
supply the various wants of communities rapidly acquiring wealth, great
encouragement is presented to agriculturists, mechanics, tradesmen, and
labourers. Nor ought it to pass unobserved, that some parts of the
territory must be well adapted for the farmer, because they are enabled
from their surplus, to spare a not insignificant proportion of grain for
exportation. If the rapidity with which money has been acquired and
lost, the reckless habits of the pastoral population, the wild life of the
bush, and the large proportion of the population branded with crime, or
their descendants, have much degraded the tone of society, it may be
hoped that ultimately, from the discontinuance of transportation to the
island, a better order of things may arise. But it will probably be a long
time before the population will recover from the demoralizing influences
which have resulted from the great disproportion of the sexes, which has too long prevailed.


49 KEW SOUTH WALKS PROPER.
NEW SOUTH WALES PROPER.
This penal colony, embracing 860 miles of seaboard, and of no great
extent inland, is the southernmost and therefore the least temperate of
the settled districts. It embraces a population of 196,404 souls, whereof
about one-third, or 50,000, inhabit Sydney the capital. We apprehend
that it owes its prosperity mainly to the fact that it commenced with a
forced population of convicts, and has been chiefly maintained by the
expenditure of a great annual amount of money supplied by the govern-
ment of the mother country, to meet the expenses of the penal ad- ■ministration. Its stimulus to the settlement of free emigrants consisted,
to some extent, of the government expenditure; and in a greater degree
of the abundant and cheap supply of labour from the assignment of con-
victs as servants and labourers to the settlers, in any number, at merely
nominal wages, made to all intents and purposes slaves by the power
of punishment conferred upon the master, and by the severity with which
insubordination was visited by the executive. The receptacle for.all the
unhanged capital criminals of Great Britain, brutalized by drink, and de-
praved to the utmost degree by a disproportion of the sexes, to such an
extent that, in 1828, there were only 8,987 females in a colony of 27,611
males, and even in 1847 there were 118,927 males to 77,777 females,
some conception may be formed of the character of the population.
Transportation to New South Wales ceased In 1840, at which time there
were 26,977 convicts undergoing their sentence. It is said that those
have now diminished to 3,000, by the expiry of the various sentences,
and the consequent absorption of prisoners into the general society of the
colony. (The government return for 1845, gives 16,429 convicts.)
The escaped convicts fled to the wilderness, and became what is
called b'ishrangers, whose "hand was against every man," and formed,
along with the savages, the terror of the country. We have already
noticed the character of the free colonists who follow pastoral pursuits,
and it must be confessed that a colony made up of such elements of po-
pulation, does not present any great inducements to the emigrant in the
shape of society. Mr. Sidney indeed assures us, that "there are no taxes to pay—liberty exists in the most perfect sense of the term. Lynch-law, bowie knives, and the brutalities of the backwoods, are unknown; the
climate is the most healthy in the world; and our population will find it
infinitely more to their advantage to settle among their own countrymen
than among the brutal population, and ague-begetting backwoods and
plains of the United States, where only land is to be obtained." But we
must take leave to draw inferences which are inevitable from facts which
are incontrovertible, and to state our opinion that this attempt to cry up
the superiority of the white Cumanchees of the bush, and the felonry of
the city, above the educated and moral population of Ohio or Illinois, is
absolutely ludicrous, and will be entirely abortive. We know men who
have fought for their lives in the bush with these Australian desperadoes,
and the cases are not few in which masters of flocks have been got rid of
by their shepherd, and their disappearance accounted for by the state-
ment that they had gone to Europe. How, indeed, can it be otherwise


NEW SOUTH WALE9 FBOPBR. 49
hi a country so barren, parched, and scarce of water, that It is only fit
for rearing sheep in the proportion of one to every two or three acres,
flocks and stations being necessarily at great distances from each other,
and their occupiers being entirely removed from the face of men for life,
except at half yearly intervals of a week, when they sell their fleeces, and
buy their supplies at the chief depot. "I lived," says Mr. Sidney, "in
the far interior—the nearest of my stations being 300 miles from the
settled districts. I saw the Barwen change from a Savannah, well
watered by a broad and rapid river, to an arid desert through which
trickled a thin thread of water." "I have encountered hundreds of wild
blacks—raced and fought for my life with them."—"I have been three
days in nine days without drinking— privation under which one of my
stockmen, and two black guides, died of thirst."—" I have had four men
killed by my side in fights with the blacks, and on the Macintyre alone
I read the burial service over twelve who, at different times, were as-
sassinated by the Aborigines." We prefer to rely upon these facta rather
than on the writer's mere opinion, and it must be conceded that they do
not present the bright picture of "Life in Australia" he designs to
pourtray.
As to the salubrity of the climate, the testimony is conflicting. "I
rode," says Mr. Breton," 50 miles a day in a hot wind without more in-
convenience than I felt in England; and at night I have slept in the
open air, the breeze balmy, the sky cloudless, and I question whether
any thing is to be feared from night exposure." Dr. Lang regards ■■ ■
expectation of life as higher in the colony than in England. A woman
at the age of 125 was still able to work. Mr. Butler saw several persons
upwards of 100. Out of 1200 convicts and soldiers at Moreton Bay, only
one was in the hospital in six months. In Bathurst district, 2,100 feet
above the level of the sea, only two persons are said to have died in
12 years. But against this evidence we must place the fact that the
region of Sydney grows tropical plants, such as cotton, that the hot
winds rise to the intensity of the simoom, burning every thing up, drying
in the largest and most rapid rivers, and producing periodical famines
for two or three seasons every twelve years. Dysentery is by no means
uncommon, and an intimate friend of our own, writing from Adelaide,
states that Dr. Bright, an experienced physician, and other settlers, emi-
grated on account of their conviction of the unhealthiness of that district
to New Zealand; that he himself is perfectly satisfied, that for Europeans
to pass the unwholesome Australian nights in the open air would be little
short of suicide, that he has no hesitation in pronouncing the glowing
accounts he had read in Europe of the climate to be perfectly false, and
that the sudden and extreme variations of temperature he had ex-
perienced, amounting to as much as 30 deg. in the course of one day,
were not compatible with these flattering statements. "Dr. Bright,"
observes our correspondent, "considers the climate decidedly unfavour-
able to British constitutions. One thing is certain, the heat of summer
is very oppressive, the thermometer rising to 90 deg., and sometimes to
112 deg. during the day, although it is always cool in the evening. The
thermometer ranges betwixt morning and evening, not less than 20 deg.,
generally 30 deg., and occasionally 40 deg. The skin and interna]
/ *


SO NEW SOUTH WALES PROPER.
organs therefore become highly susceptible, and the least exposure to
cold produces dysentery. There are also many cases of fever, both com-
mon and typhus, opthalmia, erysipelas. The liver is extremely liable to
derangement, and glandular swellings of the neck and knees continue for
a month, and occasion great pain. The slightest abrasion of the skin,
which in England would heal in three days, continues a sore for a month
or six weeks." We should addthat this letter was written during one of
the cycles of drought, when half a carrot in Adelaide cost 6d., a single
egg 5d., turnips the size of a walnut 2d., milk 5d. a quart, and that his
description may not represent the normal state of the climate. We should
add that, he perfectly ridicules the idea of Europeans, as a general rule,
sleeping in the open air with impunity, and states his confident opinion,
that in nine cases out of ten such a practice would be accompanied with
serious consequences.
Mr. Sidney calculates that of the whole island of Australia not more
than one fourth is fit for cultivation or corn grazing. As it maintains
300,000 souls, 2,000,000 cattle, 12,000,000 sheep, and 150,000 horses, it
obviously affords the means of considerable exports.
In New South Wales Proper there are 5,000,000 of sheep, 1,100,000
head of cattle, and a large number of horses. But the nature of the soil
may be gathered from the fact, that although it is the oldest settled of the
colonies, and contains upwards of one half of their whole population, it
is not yet able to feed itself; but besides large supplies of potatoes from
the neighbouring settlements, it has annually to import from £60,000 to
£250,000 worth of grain. The balance of trade is still against the
colony, the imports in 1846 being £1,630,522, against £1,481,539 of ex-
ports, and exhibiting an annual drain of £148,983. This, however, is
perhaps to be expected in a country where the number of immigrants
constantly arriving, bears a not insignificant proportion to the whole
population.
As, propably, at least one third of the population are dependent upon
foreign imports for their supplies of grain, it is obvious that New South
Wales is essentially a non-agricultural country; a result, indeed, to be
anticipated from the fact that it is the settlement lying nearest to the
tropics. Its people, therefore, consist of the inhabitants of the towns,
and of the stockmen, shepherds, and bushmen of the interior. Of the
former, the majority consist necessarily of convicts, free, or undergoing
sentence, and their descendants. We are informed that too many of the
inhabitants of all the towns of the island are characterized by a more
than Yankee sharpness in all their dealings, and, altogether a very lax
commercial morality. They are dexterous in trade, and very "wide
awake" in all their transactions, partaking too much of the nature of the
"smart man" on the windy side of the law. As there are no manufac-
tures of any kind in the towns, it is obvious that the only pursuits are
those connected, not with production, or industry, but with exchange and
ingenuity. "Sydney," says Mr. Byrne, " is overrun with young and old
clerks and professional men, who are a complete burden to the commu-
nity." It has a splendid harbour, and all the most desirable qualities of
» large shipping port—surrounded on three sides by water in the estuary
of Port Jackson, where hundreds of vessels of the largest tonnage lie in


NEW SOUTH WALES PHOPER. 51
safety at the ousy wharves, and are amply supplied with docks, stores
and warehouses.
The wages of shepherds and farm labourers range from £18 to £25 a
year, with 10 lbs. of flour, 10 lbs. of best meat, 2 lbs. of sugar, 4 ounces
of tea per week, and a hut. Domestic servants £15 to £20, married
couples £30 to £35, with house and rations. Artizans, for whom it is
right to say the demand is limited, from 5s. to 7s. per day. According
to the recent quotations of the Sydney newspapers, butter is 8jd.,
cheese, 4d., hams 4§d. per lb.; eggs, 6d. per dozen; beef, 2d. to 3d.,
mutton, l|d. per lb.; bread. 5d. per quartern; rum, 3s. 6d. per gallon;
tea, Is. 9d., coffee, 10d., sugar, 2Jd. per lb. With wages so high,
living so cheap, and convicts or their descendants so numerous, it was to be
expected that vice would, in Sydney, be of the most rampant kind.
Another reason is even more cogent. The pastoral population resort
once, or at most, only twice in the year to Sydney to sell their wool, get
the profits of a whole year's labour and produce paid at once, lay in a
return load of necessaries to take back again, and are entrapped by every
stratagem which cunning can suggest, to spend their whole earnings in
the capital, leaving them nothing to take home. The number of grog
shops is, accordingly, perfectly appalling, and the drunkenness both of
men and women frightful. It is an occurrence of every day for stock-
men to place .£40 or j£50 in the hands of the proprietor of a gin palace,
and direct him to supply them with all the liquor they and their friends
may call for, until the whole is spent.
Mr. Sidney quotes rent at £40 for a good house for a private family,
and the taxes trifling. Genteel board and lodging, 21s. per week—for
mechanics, including washing, 12s. He states the price of beef and
mutton at only Id. per lb., whole legs of mutton 6d., ox tongues the same.
Flour, £10 per ton, wheat, 3s. 6d. per bushel, of 63 lbs.
Fortunes have been so rapidly lost and won in Australia, the colony
has been at one time in such high prosperity, and at another so entirely
ruined, that we suspect much of its apparent substance has been merely
nominal and artificial, as indeed was rather to be expected from a town
which produced nothing, but only exchanged and distributed, and a back
country which could not feed itself, without considerable importations.
We have reason to believe, that for some time to come, at least, how-
ever, considerable profits are to be made by stores in Sydney of goods of
all kinds well bought in the mother country. Clothing of antiquated
pattern, shape, and material, if of fair material, may be still new and
attractive to the bush population. Articles of an exploded construction,
or which are unsaleable in the mother country, from having been super-
seded by newer devices or inventions, stocks of books which have had
their hour's run in English circulating libraries, while the surplus copies
hang a waste paper burden on the bookseller's shelves—in all these com-
modities money is still to be made if the purchases have been very cheap
in Britain, and the Sydney market do not happen to be glutted by too
many having made consignments of the same description of merchan-
dise at the same time; a contingency too likely, when the customers do
not, at the outside, amount to above 40,000 male adults.
The disproportion betwixt the numbers of the sexes in Australia, / v a


33 NEW SOUTH WALES PROPBR.
although gradually adjusting Itself, is still very great, and without any
intentional offence to delicacy, we trust we may venture to state, that
respectable females, having no means of maintenance or protection in the
mother country, would find themselves at once comfortably provided for
in Australia, and greatly benefit the manners and morals of the colony,
by their settlement there. The greatest precautions should, in the first
place, be made by them to take out with them testimony as to their his-
tory and character, to place themselves under proper protection in the
ship, and to consign themselves to the care of persons of known respect-
ability in the colony. Bachelors of proper character, and, especially,
among the pastoral population in the bush, have a wholesome self-respect and are fastidious in the choice of wives, so far as respectability is con-
cerned. The father of a family of helpless daughters would greatly con-
sult their independence, and his own, by taking them to Australia, where
they might get well married, and where by such connections he might be
assisted in his own views. So great is the demand for wives, and so es-
sential are they to the comfort and happiness of the bushmen and flock-
masters, that every emigrant ship is met at some distance from Port
Jackson by bachelors in boats who come to place themselves first in the
good graces of the female passengers.
The imports of British manufacture amount to £5 15s. per head of the
population, and £10 per head is the aggregate import, against £8 of ex-
ports per head, certainly a considerable amount for such limited numbers.
Within the boundaries of the crown territory and settled districts, are
twenty-one counties, but a great many stockmen squat beyond these
limits. We have stated that only about one fourth of the whole territory
is fitted for grazing, and a very much smaller portion is capable of agri-
culture. Of course, for the raising of crops, a sufficiency of water is
indispensable, and the farming districts are chiefly to be found at Hunter's
River and Hawkesberry to the north, and at Illawarra to the south of
Sydney, the territory about the capital being wretched. But nearly all
the good arable lands within the settlement are already sold and occu-
pied, or possessed under free grant of the crown by large freeholders.
Besides grain, the colony produces cotton and silk, but is likely, ulti-
mately, to be still more distinguished for its wines and brandy, which are
said even now to be of a superior quality.
The cattle run wild in the bush, and are collected once or twice a year
for counting, drawing the fat stock for market, and branding the calves.
Stockmen cannot be at the trouble of even milking a cow for butter,
cheese, or milk for tea, and the calves get all the cow has to spare. The
profits of stock can spare nothing for enclosures; but cattle, when herded,
soon attach themselves to a run of country, especially, if in the vicinity
of water. The branding of the cattle does not prevent serious depreda-
tions. Sheep are herded by shepherds by day, and by watchmen by night,
to guard them from the attacks of the native dog. Besides the shep-
herds, there is at each grazing station a hut keeper to cook, move the
sheep hurdles, sweep the yards, and watch the homestead. Where a
proprietor has large possessions, he fixes a home station for his own resi-
dence, his stores, rations, and the cultivation of grain for the whole.
Stockmen cannot be at the trouble to cultivate vegetables even where


SEW SOUTH WALES PROPER. 53
the land is good, but live on mutton or beef, green tea, and what in Scot-
land is known by the name of scones, being unleavened flour dough rolled
thin, and baked in the ashes. Sheep runs are let by the crown on lease
at a low rent, not being worth a tenth part of the price put upon them
by the Wakefield system. The increase of breeding ewes is said, by Mr.
Byrne, to be over 100 per cent. per annum, and of black cattle to ave-
rage, perhaps, half that proportion. The Australian breed of horses is
excellent, many travelling sixty miles a day for hundreds of miles, fed
only by the pasture on the way. They are highly prized in our Indian
market.
When stock is sold, the price generally includes the pasture and the
lambs under six months' old. With station the price averages 8s., and
without it 6s. per head. Fat sheep average 62 lbs. weight, and fat
cattle bring 10s. per cwt. in Sydney. Milch cows from £2 to £4, work-
ing bullocks £6 to £10 per pair, herds of cattle, (the calves under six
months given in,) 25s. to 35s. per head. Draught horses £20, hacks £16.
Stock horses £10 per head.
We have already stated that, in obedience to the quackery of the
Wakefield system, the lowest price for land is 20s. an acre, and the
smallest quantity sold 640 acres. Another regulation of the colony is
that a free passage shall be given out of the land fund only to shepherds
or farm labourers, and persons accustomed to rural employments. That
valuable class of men who would bring into cultivation small grain farms,
is thus practically suppressed, and entire discouragement presented to
cultivators. Two classes are thus only possible in the colony, men of
large capital, and servants who have none, and no means of getting prop-
erty, except that slow, lingering process of protracted thrift, the tedium
of which induces the mass of labourers never to strive after indepen-
dence, but to squander their savings in the bush, by dissipation and vice
in Sydney, and to whom the best thing that can happen is that they
should quickly run through it, and turn home again. The scarcity of
women, rendering domestic happiness rare, adds to this recklessness.
Government servants even, have married convicts and blacks; and for
300 miles along the Barwen, Mr. Sidney avers there was not one white
woman, although, according to the same authority, bushmen make ex-
cellent husbands and fathers,—a fact we can easily believe from their iso-
lated and dependant state.
Although the demand for mechanics, as such, is very limited, there is
abundant employment for them in the leading pursuit of the colony.
They are said to be quite as capable of making good shepherds or hut-
men as farm labourers or shepherds properly so called, and they have
but on arriving at Sydney, to go out in any direction, to meet with a
hearty welcome, hospitable entertainment, and an immediate engage-
ment. Even young boys can be extremely useful in the care of stock,
and early become a source of profit to their parents. But under the
existing arrangements of the colony, if Mr. Sidney is to be trusted, the
acquisition of small arable farms for the raising of cereals, is beyond the
reach of the labouring class, while successful sheep farming requires
large capital, and cattle or horse breeding brings a very slow return. We
are inclined to concur in his opinion, that the culture of cotton, the
/ i3


56 HEW SOOTH WALES PROPER.
of this kind. Daylight of another day finds him resuming the same rou-
tine of the preceding one, and again he starts with his dogs for his com-
panions and assistants. Wet or fair,—summer or winter—hot or cold,
makes no difference: day after day, week after week, and month after
month, it is the same thing over and over again."
The various perils of the stockman, and his many trials, can only be
known by experience. Cattle are so frequently stolen and falsely branded,
that the purchaser of a herd may find them strangers to each other and
to the run, as wild and scattered as so many beasts of prey. Sheep may
be all tainted with incipient disease. Rushed by the native dogs, or
taken with an erratic fit, whole herds or flocks may irreclaimably dis-
appear in a single night. To bring them back, to count them, to keep
them within the run, are arduous duties, requiring unremitting exertion.
A paddock of 300 acres is required for a 10,000 sheep station, "to
have five or six horses," (Sidney,) " ready at a moment's notice, in
case of a flock being lost. I have known many hundred sheep, irre-
trievably lost through the horses being away feeding, when they were
first missed."
The following advertisement of the Australian Agricultural Company,
it will be seen obviates the obstructions which the Wakefield system pre-
sents to the settlement of small capitalists; still it charges perhaps more
for the land than it is in reality worth, and as it will ultimately fetch.
"The Australian Agricultural Company, after having for the last 20
years confined its operations to cultivating and grazing estates (compris-
ing 1,000,000 acres,) which were selected with great care in New South
Wales, has determined on offering for sale or lease, all that portion con-
taining 500,000 acres, situated near the excellent harbour of Port Ste-
phen, (100 miles from Sydney and its 50,000 inhabitants). This estate is
bounded by the river Manning, intersected by other streams, and pro-
vided with roads and bridges, which have been constructed by the com-
pany at a cost of many thousand pounds. Also churches and schools.
A resident clergyman, school master and surgeon are paid by the com-
pany for the benefit of their servants. Farms and vineyards which have
been long in cultivation, with excellent homesteads attached will be
offered for sale at twenty years' purchase, on the estimated annual value.
The uncultivated land will be sold in lots of fifty acres and upwards, at
£1 per acre; each £50 paid in England entitling the purchaser to a
choice, and a free passage in one of the company's ships to Port Stephen.
Each lot will include a right of pasturage for stock on adjoining land at
a low poll tax. The company are willing to lease land for ten years,
with a right of purchase, at £1 per acre, during that term. They are
also able to offer cattle, horses, and fine woolled sheep, of the purest
breeds on advantageous terms. Cuttings, plants, and seeds may be ob-
tained from the company's gardens, orchards, and vineyards, Purcha-
sers, immediately on landing at Port Stephen, will be received by the
agents of the company, forwarded to the agricultural district, about twenty
miles—and allowed to occupy buildings belonging to the company, at a
trifling"rent, for a reasonable period. Further information may be ob-
tained on application to the Secretary, George Engstrom, Esq., 12, Kind's
Arms-yard, London."


NEW SOTTTH WALBS PROPER. 61
We work bullocks about eight hours a day at plough, and never give them
food till they have done their day's work.
"Australia could well supply Europe with wheat; for the droughts in
this country, are only partial, and, when one part of the colony is suffer-
ing from drought, another will be perfectly flourishing; but there are
millions of acres where no drought has ever been known, beautifully
watered by springs and rivers, capable of furnishing millions of quarters
of wheat and Indian corn. Such is all the neighbourhood of Frederick-s Valley, King's Plains, Pretty Plains, the Cornish Settlement, Blackman's
Swamp, Emu Swamp, all near Bathurst, embracing an area of thirty
square miles at least. Then there is the whole of New England near the
Peel's river. Here you have boundless acres well watered with rivers and
springs; both these districts have a climate like the south of England;
the winter not quite so cold, the summer rather warmer. Then, again,
you have the whole of the district in the neighbourhood of Goulbourn;
beyond this, Yass, the Port Philip district, Australia Felix, Gipps Land,
these districts are all wheat-growing districts, and occupy an area of
country larger than the United Kingdom. There are also hundreds of
millions of acres where wheat will not grow, or only in the most favour-
able seasons; such are the Macquarrie, the Darling, tht Castlereagh, the
Barwen, the Narran, the Cookeraine, Mooni, Namoy, and many other
rivers; but these districts are invaluable as sheep and cattle rivers, and
though rain did not fall for two years, and not a blade of grass was to be
seen, you would find the sheep and cattle rolling in fat, feeding entirely on
the Myal bush, or trees, which makes the best beef and mutton in the
world, so bountifully has nature supplied these regions with the means of
subsistence to animal life."
The position of the farmer struggling with his earliest difficulties, is
truthfully embodied in the following letter, which we quote from the
Journal:— "New South Wales, 1847.
"Honoured Sir,—In accordance with my promise I write to let you
know how we get on. We went to the gentleman you told us of near
Bathurst, and found the land better than any we ever saw in our lives.
He let us have one hundred acres on lease, rent free, for seven years, in
consideration of our fencing it in with a three rail fence, building a barn
and a hut. Out of the one hundred there was about twenty acres without
a tree on it—a black loam—so we determined to take in thirty acres the
first. Father bought six bullocks, old workers, for £12., and borrowed
a plough from a neighbour. The people are very obliging; they will
lend you anything if you will do the same. Father and Tom then set
to work to plough the twenty acres, and right tough work it was. He
found we could not turn up more than half an acre a day, and work hard
at it. We hired an old fencer at 10s. a week and his grub, and in one
week with the cross-cut saw we felled all the trees on the ten acre
piece; so we found the land not at all heavily timbered—just a tree here
and there.
"Father and I and Tom then set to work after ploughing of an evening to cut all the trees into smaller pieces, and then put them together, the old fencer showed us how, and burned some off. We made large bonfires all over the ten acre piece. one of us used to keep watch at 9 o


02 KEW SOUTH WALES FHOPrfR.
night and keep the fires In, so that the logs never stopped burning
till they were all wasted away. When this was done we coaxed the
old fencer to hold the plough for a day or two, and show us how to
plough between the stumps; it was very easy when once you got into it,
but very liable to smash the plough all to pieces if you have not got the
nack of stopping the bullocks, and lifting the plough out directly you
come to a stump.
"It took us about three months to get the land all cleared and ploughed
twice over. We then sowed it all with wheat, but we had no harrow, sc
we were obliged to use a colonial method of harrowing. Billy, the fencer,
saw us in a fix about the harrow, so he said, " Never you mind; just you
sow it, and I'll get it harrowed for you for a bit of negrohead tobacco."
So when it was all sowed, at night Billy said he would go and sleep away
to-night, and fetch the harrow in the morning. So off he went, and
next morning, about two hours after sunrise, we heard a great shouting
and barking and baaing on the hill; down comes a great flock of sheep,
with Billy, the shepherd, and four or five dogs behind them. They
rushed the sheep over the paddock, dogging them backwards and for-
wards for an hour, when Billy, the fencer, came to inquire what we
thought of his patent harrow; we then gave the shepherd a little tea and
tobacco for his trouble, and this was the way we got our first crop in.
The next job was to fence it in. Fences in this country are all made with
three or four rails. Fourteen miles from here, near the Connoboly
mountains, there is a fine vein of stringy bark, the best wood in the
colony for fencing or building. Billy and father went out there with
some rations, wedges, a maul and a cross-cut saw, and they commenced
getting fencing stuff for the paddock. Tom used to carry the rations to
them, and father sent me to Bathurst to look for a dray. I bought one
there, and two bullocks, from a man who was on the spree as they call it,
which means getting drunk and spending all their money, often selling
everything they have got. This man had sold fifty head of cattle for
£25, and a good mare and foal for £8, and spent the money; he wanted
me to buy the team of ten bullocks and dray, but I had not got money
enough, though I sorely wanted to have them. He offered them to me
for £18, which was only what the dray was worth, so at last I bought the
dray and two bullocks of him for £8; he was so pleased to get real
English sovereigns, he said he had given the dray away, which was really
almost true. I got the dray, a new tarpaulin, or dray cover, worth £5,
and yokes and bows for eight bullocks, for £8. I left my purchase at
Bathurst, and went home thirty miles to fetch the bullocks to bring it
home. Father was delighted, and the old fencer said "hean't new chummed
yet anyhow, young one." Tom and I now commenced to draw in the
stuff, and to lay it round the paddock exactly as it was wanted, and when
it was all got, the old man, and father, and Tom, came home, and put it
up. They digged holes eighteen inches in the ground, and put the posts
in them, ramming them tight with a rammer. All this time mother was
very uncomfortable. We were living, rather sleeping, in a bark gunnyer,
that is to say, we slept in a place made of bark, like a large dog kennel
in England, and used to cook, wash, and live, in the open air, but when
it rained it was very uncomfortable."


S0U1H AUSTRALIA. 63
Cattle and horse breeding seems to be accompanied with fewer risks,
but also with smaller profits than wool growing. Cattle and horses are
not so liable to disease as sheep, but at the same time they require closer
and better pasture to keep them in condition. For dairy purposes the
scantiness of the herbage renders cattle-keeping in New South Wales
impracticable. We suspect, too, the meat on account of the great heat,
cannot be salted for export; and that the only way in which the cattle
can be made available is by temporary exports of live stock to other
colonies, until they can breed for themselves, by boiling up the tallow,
and by extracting the concentrated essence of the meat as a jelly. There
are no tan barks available for the hides nearer than New Zealand. It is
obvious that, as it takes two or three years before a cow or ox can be
made commercially available, as the time of gestation is very protracted,
as the produce is scarcely ever double, and the risks of parturition in-
crease in proportion to the size of the animal and the difficulty of pro-
ducing milk from a spare herbage, the profits are not such as to offer
great inducements for embarking in the laborious and often hazardous
business of cattle rearing. Where food is so scanty, cattle must be very
wild to gather a subsistence, and must therefore be very troublesome.
The dairy cannot be attempted without heavy outlay for buildings, uten-
sils, and wages, and also without the presence of rich pasture land to
a considerable extent immediately round the location.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
We pass on to the description of this province, because the observations
which apply to New South Wales may be also extended to it.
This colony is to the west of New South Wales, and is bounded on the
west by Swan River settlement. It has an area of 300,000 square miles,
or 192,000,000 acres, reaching to the tropic of Capricorn on the north
and bounded by the sea to the south. The Murray bounds it on the east
and Gulf St. Vincent on the west. Its capital Port Adelaide, is by sea
distant about 500 miles from Port Philip, 700 from Launceston, 800 from
Hobart Town, 1,100 from Sydney, and 2,000 from New Zealand. 37,000
acres were under cultivation in 1847, 95,000 enclosed, the population
amounted to 33,587, whereof the proportion of females was 25 per cent.
below that of males. The imports of 1847 reached £410,825, and the
exports £350,348.
It says much for the capabilities of this colony, that it has survived
the grossest mismanagement; that its income exceeds its expenditure,
and that it is the only self supporting colony connected with Great
Britain. It also is significant of the fertility of the soil, that it not only
feeds the population but spares an expert of grain and flour to the value of
upwards of £40,000 per annum. Two causes have conspired to promote its
prosperity;—it is not a penal settlement, and it possesses the richest
copper mines in the world, offering wealth to the capitalist, and well paid
customers to the farmer.
The land is sold at an upset price of 20s. per acre. The South Aus-
tralian Company lease their lands for 21 years for 4s. per acre yearly tor
g g 2


68 SOtJTH AUSTRALIA.
of the best may be readily procured. Butchers' meat is abundant and
sells for 2d. or 3d. per lb., and we often give more to the blacks and dogs
than many families consume in Cornwall in a week. In fact, everything
is cheap and good. Flour is 12s. to 15s. per hundred; tea 2s. per lb.;
coffee Is.; sugar 4d.; and most vegetables may be procured for a trifle
in the winter. We have only two seasons. Summer begins about
October, and winter in May. In summer it is extremely hot, and at
times hot winds prevail, which do a great deal of damage to the corn,
and now and then swarms of locusts descend and devour all within
their reach.
"In summer, too, clouds of very fine dust darken the atmosphere for
miles, and swarms of flies, fleas, bugs, and mosquitoes are then very pre-
valent. The winter brings with it torrents of rain and abundance of
mud, often knee deep. Yet we soon get used to all these things and think
nothing of them, and we never hear of any one wishing to go back
home."
The prospects of general operative emigrants seem sufficiently in-
dicated in the letter of Robert Walden :—
Dear uncle,—" I hope that some of my cousins will come here as soon
as possible; for, if they are industrious, they may have sufficient to live
on in their old days. Farmers' labourers get from 12s. to 15s. per week,
and their house-rent and firing, and twelve pounds of flour, twelve of
mutton or beef, two pounds of sugar, and half a pound of tea. Besides,
it is a free country; we have no tithes, taxes, nor rates of any kind. I
do not know of any licence for any one thing but beer and spirits, and
that I have not tasted since we came into the colony, and I hope that
God will keep us from it while we live. This is a beautiful country, and
about 3,000 miles across it; while England is hardly 300. We have bat
one prison in the colony. We have no unions, nor yet any one going
about asking charity, for all are at work and are well paid for it. Trade
is increasing very rapidly, as there are a great many emigrants from
nearly all parts. We have no snow here, only a little rime frost. This
is now the middle of winter with us, and I have not seen any ice at all
since I left England. Our gardens grow green peas all the year round,
and cucumbers about nine months in the year. You may grow two crops
of potatoes and turnips a year. Onions and cabbages, turnips and po-
tatoes, the best I ever saw, and plenty of grapes, oranges and figs, almonds
and peaches in abundance, all grow in the open gardens.
"If any of you intend emigrating out here, make no delay. All that
come bring plenty of pots and kettles, earthenware, and such things as
you want in a house; such as you can well pack in your boxes. Bring
all the tools you possibly can, for they are very expensive here. Bring
plenty of hatchet handles and hammer handles; or for any tools that
may want handles. You will want them, as our wood will not suit for
that purpose, it splinters very much, a good riving hatchet, or as many
as you can get, you will find very useful, as they are very expensive
here: all tools are. You need not fear the passage, for it is a pleasant
one. If you were to send me a hundred pounds, and give me a house to
live in when I landed, I would not come back. •%
"lam earning between £2 and £3 weekly, and out of that I alio*


70 SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
will be quite unsuited for capitalists, or persons of the middle ranks.
These publications teem with exclamations of self-gratulation from work-
ing men on the happy change in their condition. Bullock drivers rejoice
in earning £10 or £20 a week—charwomen 5s. a day, and full rations
—all kinds of labour in the same proportion. Now this is very paradi-
saical for those Who receive the money, but in the same proportion it
must be ruinous to those who pay it. A farmer who gets only 32s. a
quarter for the best wheat, a grazier who has to part with fat bullocks at
Id. per lb., a fiockinaster who has paid 20s. a head for ewes, and has to
sell them for 6s., has a very different story to tell. We can find no letters
from capitalists in all this epistolary glorification. The land, indeed,
flows with milk and honey, but it flows from a pocket which the stream
empties to another which it fills. It might, indeed, be assumed, that a
country must be very productive to afford such high remuneration for
labour. But it is not Australia but England, which affords it. Stop the
current of British capital into the "Great South Land" to-morrow, and
then it would be proved that its trade was not carried on at a profit—
wages would fall to their level, and a different story would have to be
told. It is impossible that any trade can afford such extravagant wages
as appear to rule in the colony; and we cannot avoid the conviction that
Australia is a place where a man who has any money goes to be stripped
of it by his labourers, unless he makes up his mind to descend to the class
of labourers himself. The lady must become charwoman herself, unless she makes up her mind to pay to her substitute a sum, which with ra-
tions, is equivalent to a captain's pay in the British army! The gentleman
must squat on land where it is cheaper to buy bread than to raise it, invest
all his money in living creatures, liable to infinite accidents and fatal dis-
eases, and look to very uncertain profits to pay the wages and rations of
his hands—with this alternative, that he can only dispense with them by
becoming a journeyman himself, and must be content with the small
profits which his own single labour can alone afford. Exorbitant wages
for labour, which is not very productive, is not the only evil. The
greatest is, that a moderate outlay will yield a very small, if any, return,
and that the investment of a large capital is scarcely prudent upon a pre-
carious commodity, such as sheep on a barren soil, subject to dangerous
droughts. The Wakefield system, which fixes so high a price for land,
and precludes the acquisition of small portions, renders it difficult for
labourers, who have saved a little money, to settle as farmers on their own
account, and they therefore continue to pursue any kind of calling in
and about the towns, rather than devote themselves to the first great es-
sential in a new country, the settlement of the rural districts, and the
pursuit of agriculture. We are satisfied that the profits of sheep farming
are most grossly exaggerated. The value of the increase is calculated as
high as the original stock, while it is quite evident that the very fact of
the greatness and rapidity of the increase is destructive of its money
value. For a time, it would be better that-there were neither large capi-
talists nor extensive stockmasters in Australia. Let every shepherd get
a grant of as much land as will graze fifty sheep, with the right of pas-
ture over the neighbouring run. With his hut, his fleeces, a cow, and
his annual increase, he could keep all his family comfortably, and devote


SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 71
himself to his little store until he could make it bigger. Careful tending,
nightly folding, would keep them healthy, and the hurdle placed near the
hut would raise luxuriant crops of grain and vegetables. Population
would be kept closer together—the crowds of the towns would spread
themselves over the country, and capitalists would devote themselves to
town speculations when wages became moderate.
At a future period, when the supply of labour becomes abundant and
cheap, we do not doubt that much may be done in New South Wales and
South Australia by irrigation. In the latter, the rain falls in torrents,
and produces the most perilous inundations, raising the water at the
flooding season 90 feet above its natural level, and rendering the country
as muddy as Egypt at the overflow of the Nile. It only needs that these
torrents should be preserved in vast tanks and reservoirs, and let out to
irrigate the soil at convenient seasons, to produce a high amount of fer-
tility, and to gather vegetative power sufficient to resist the action of the
heat, and to retain moisture when received. The Earl of Leicester was
enabled to create a vegetable mould on his sandy Norfolk acres by '• high
farming," and by retaining them in grass after they had been once laid
down. Australia may be gradually fertilized by irrigation and manuring,
and to this end nothing would be more conducive than the encourage-
ment of small farms and settlers of small means.
From the report of Mr. Chauncey, it would appear that all kinds of
European fruits and vegetables grow in perfection in Australia, except the
currant, gooseberry, strawberry, and raspberry. Besides these, the almond,
orange, lemon, fig, guava, melon, pine apple, olive, pomegranate, flourish
luxuriantly, and all fruit trees grow with great rapidity. It is probable
that at no distant date fruit and wine will become important articles of
export.
The progress of the colony in agriculture, stock, and population, has
been undoubtedly rapid. The population of Adelaide, the capital, cannot
now be less than 10,000. The town, which is symmetrically laid out, is
divided by the Torrens, "a chain of ponds in summer, a rapid torrent in
winter." Holdfast Bay, a fine land-locked harbour, capable of receiving
vessels of considerable tonnage, is the port, and is situated about seven
miles below the town. The Murray is described to be, for 200 miles of its
course, as broad and deep as the Thames at London Bridge. Extensive
and fertile flats are on its banks, and both on the course of this river, the
Torrens, and other streams, irrigation might be successfully and most
profitably pursued, by damming up the streams at a comparatively small
cost.
It is a great drawback to New South Wales and South Australia, that
neither can be called an agricultural country; and we incline to the lm pression that so long as there is room in more productive and fertile set-
tlements, it is not desirable to squat in the first mentioned localities. In-
deed, we very much question whether they have been self-supporting;
and are induced to believe that the continued incursion of capitalists into
other locations, and the unnatural demand thereby created for stock for
New Zealand and other places, have raised prices to a point which is not
at all likely to be sustained. Mr. Carr, for^xample, gives the following
estimate of the profit on a small flock of sneep.


Cc*t and expenses of a flock of Sheep during
two vearB and a hall.
400 Ewes at 23s.
6 Merino Rams £15
Expense of one^
Shepherd for six
months at £50
per annum.
3 Merino Rams £15.
Expense of two'
Shepherds
Expense of two
Shepherds

State and value of the Flock at the end of
two fenn and a halt.
at 21s
original
ewes
two year i 1st cross
ewes ) at 25s
two year \ 1st cross
wethers j at 20s
one year j 1st cross
ewes ) at 25s
one year \ 1st cross
wethers ) at 15s
ewe \ 1st cross
lambs ) at 15s
ewe \ 2d cross
lambs S 17s 6d
wether 1 1st cross
lambs J at '"
wether 1 2d cross
lambs j at 10s
original ) at £1-_
rams J
£ s. d
399 0 0
237 10 0
190 0 0
231 5 0
138 15 0
135 0 0
78 15 0
90 0 0
45 9 0
108 0 0
Number of
Fleeces.
700 at Is 3d
760 at Is 9d
370 at Is 9d
1653 5 0
153 2 6
Currency £1806 7 6
27 at 5s Od
£ s. d
74 10 0
66 10 0
32 10 6
6 15 0
Proceeds of Wool £153 2 6
Total.


74 ADsinAi.il Mil.IX.
AUSTRALIA FELIX.
Port Philip is bounded on the north by the rivers Murray and
Hurne, Mount Kosciusko, and Cape Horne, and on the east and south by the Pacific. It includes an area of upwards of an hundred thou-
sand miles.
The settlement is divided into three counties—Ist, Bourke, embracing
Melbourne, the capital, which is on the banks of the Yarra Yarra, eight
miles from which is the port of William's Town, at which large vessels
may lie. The population of the capital exceeds 13,000 souls. 2nd.
Grant, in which is the rising town of Geelong, 45 miles from Mel-
bourne, on Port Philip Bay. 3rd. Normanby, which includes the har-
bour of Portland. Beyond the settled portions are Western Port, Mur-
ray, and Gipps's Land, Districts. The total population is, at present,
nearly 40,000.
Port Philip is somewhat further to the south than any other part of
Australia, and, therefore, much nearer to the nearest, (which is the south,)
pole. The defect of Australia being its aridity and excessive heat, it fol-
lows that that portion of it which is nearest to the pole, and furthest from
the tropics, partakes in the smallest degree of the defects of the island.
Accordingly Port Philip possesses a much more temperate, or Euro-
pean climate, than any other part of Australia. The fall of rain is
abundant, and at more continuous intervals than in the other districts.
—the quantity of lake, river, and surface water, is much greater—the
cold, morning and evening, in winter, is sensibly felt, while the mildness
of the day is pleasant, and a boundless extent of rich and arable soil fit
for the plough, and adapted, not for sheep runs alone, but for the best
cereal agriculture, may every where be found, especially for about 200
miles on Lake Colac, along Glenelg river, and around Portland and
Port Fairy. Abundance, over abundance, of fine timber is found all
through the settlement, a never failing sign both of fertility and moisture;
and gentlemen well acquainted with both England and Australia Felix,
regard the corn lands of the latter, and the crops, as quite as fertile and
luxuriant as those of Kent and Essex. At least 30,000 acres are at pre-
sent enclosed and under the plough, and the colony, in 1847, possessed
11,400 horses, 290,439 cattle, 5,867 pigs, and 2,996,992 sheep, an amount
of produce, which, considering that the first land sale only took plact
ten years before, exhibits a progress totally without parallel. A large
export of grain to New South Wales and New Zealand is carried on,
and the exports vary from £130,000 to £180,000, while the import* range from £250,000 to £400,000. Port Philip is a self supporting
colony; indeed, there is a balance in the treasury of £40,000.
We regard the prospects of this settlement as far superior to those of
the other colonies of this island. Its superior capabilities for maintain-
ing a large population upon a limited territory, by a soil and climate
which will enable farmers to cultivate grain rather than stock, and to
live in immediate contiguity with each other, affording the unity es-
sential to strength, are advantages which are already establishing the
pre-eminence of the district. We entertain no doubt that not only the


78 WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
by a large branch of a tree falling as I was crossing the paddock, for the
wind tears the trees up by the roots very often; it has blown me down
twice when I have been on high ground, it is so powerful. The cold
weather is not yet gone, and it is now the middle of August: this is only
our spring."
Port Philip is about to be separated from New South Wales, and erected
into the independant colony of Victoria.
In concluding our account of the province, it is desirable to observe
with reference to all the settlements, that females should be especially
cautious with whom they engage, either as servants or as wives. Em-
ployment is so easily obtained everywhere, that character is of compara-
tively small importance to any settler who has a mind to set good con-
duct at defiance. He has but to shift his quarters whenever he is found
out in misconduct, and thousands are ready to engage him. "Though
girls," says the lady's maid, "get married here immediately, I may say
still, there are a great many villains in this place, and many have left
their wives and married again, and taken their wives to the bush for a
time; if found out they run away, and nothing more is heard of them."
At all the chief ports, committees of ladies have kindly undertaken, in
co-operation with the governor, to protect and encourage respectable
young women, provide rooms for their accommodation, and assist to pro-
cure them desirable situations.
Some interesting and instructive letters have been published by Messrs.
Chambers, regarding this colony, which fully bear out all that has
been said by other writers with reference to the impracticability of carry-
ing on stock farming to a profit on a small capital. With £500 the writers
found that nothing could be saved, and had to club stocks with two ac-
quaintances, so as to enable them to begin business with 1,000 ewes, for
which they paid 21s. each. Even then they had to do all the work them-
selves (four persons) and at the end of the third year only, they had paid
their expenses by the wool, having 2,000 lambs of increase for the profit
at 20s. each. It has to be borne in mind, however, that lambs fell to
about 5s. a head, which upon a stock of 3,000 head, would leave them
£300 behind the original cost of the first thousand they purchased
After they commenced the bush life, their letters are full of complaints
of the climate, the fleas, the wild dogs, snakes, wretched huts, and rude
solitary existence; but subsequently, when they had become accustomed
to their pastoral duties, they write in high spirits, and with sanguine
hope.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA■
SWAN RIVER, KIKG GEORGE'S SOUND, PORT ESSINGTON,
KANGAROO ISLAND.
Western Australia, better known as Swan River, and including Aus-
tralind, occupies the south western portion of the great island of Austral-
asia, extending 1,280 miles from north to south, and 800 miles from
east to west. It is twenty days sail nearer England than Sydney, and a


WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 79
the nearest point of the land to the East Indies. A considerable portion
of it being further south than New South Wales, and South Australia,
the temperature is more moderate always, and is often even cold. Its
entire exposure to the west and south winds of the Pacific, affords it a
more frequent and regular supply of rain than the former mentioned
settlements. We have carefully examined the exploring journals of
Captain Grey and others, and are inclined to conclude, from these and
other sources of information, that the colony enjoys a greater share of
surface, river, and spring water, than the others. Being of granitic for-
mation, the soil is also more fertile and moist than that above sandstone,
the geological attribute of its rival settlements. Its dews are exceedingly
heavy, its grasses very various and nutritious, and the great abundance of
wood, brush and scrub, every where to be found, are evidences, not only
of a richer and more retentive soil, but also of the existence of material
for attracting and retaining rains. A number of rivers which, however,
are not navigable and of no great size, intersect the settlement, and good
wheat is raised in many places, besides extensive and prolific flocks of
fine wooled sheep. An experience of twelve years, enables the agricul-
tural society of the colony to report that they have never suffered from
those droughts which periodically scourge the more eastern and northern
portions of the island. The best whale fishing stations of Australia, are
found in this settlement.
The climate is on all hands acknowledged to be excellent and agreeable.
Nowhere is health more thoroughly enjoyed, or does the physical system
experience more comfort and agreeable sensations. For consumption,
asthma, dyspepsia, and nervous diseases, the region appears to be quite a
specific.
"Mornings and evenings," observes Mr Hutt, "sunrise and sunset,
are peculiarly calm, hushed, and beautiful. Distant objects appear actually
painted on the horizon, and their edges Saem more sharply carved out
than I ever noticed in Italy. 30th May, my gardener tells me there was
ice in the garden early this morning. I found it cold enough for fires all
day, in rooms not exposed to the sun. Winter clothing is comfortable.
The duration of hot and cold weather is pretty nearly as in England.
Many persons wish a feather bed and blankets at night." Harvest season
commences in April, increasing through May, June, and July, and rece-
ding until they cease in November. Land and sea breezes blow with
great regularity through the summer, and the west wind is always charged
with moisture. The atmosphere in the summer season retains so little
moisture that none but hardy and fibrous plants can withstand the drought.
The thermometer occasionally reaches 105 deg. in the shade, but the nights
are always cool."
This colony is much neglected: scarcely any body writes about it.
No jobbers, speculators, agents, or companies, agitate its claims, or re-
port upon its qualities. It made an unfortunate start under Colonel Peel,
and its distance from the older and more populated district, has retarded
immigration from thence. It is not a pushing colony. The settlers are
quiet, good easy souls, who take life smoothly, and wont put themselves
about, to make fortunes. "The society," observes Mr. Sidney," of Swan
River, is said to be rather superior, and the mode of life quiet and care-


TASMANIA. S7
will farther illustrate the nature of the country and the mode of life ot
the settlers.
"January.—Warm weather and strong sea breezes near the coast.
Turnip seeds should be sown early, cauliflower, cabbage, and salad seeds.
Bud fruit trees. Sheep shearing over. Wheat harvest general.
"February.—Dry weather, with occasional showers, gather garden
seeds, and seeds of plants, and shrubs in the bush.
"March.—Dry weather, with alternate sea and land breezes. All
vegetable productions are now in perfection and plenty.
"April.—As frequent showers and heavy rains fall, take up and
store potatoes, carrots, &c. Sow wheat and barley in this month and
the next.
"May.—This and the month of June are the depth of winter in Van
Diemen's Land. Thrash out the corn, feed pigs and poultry, and make
use of the plough.
"June.—Break up new ground. Plant out shrubs and trees. The
height of the lambing season. Black whale fishery is now in full force
and activity.
"July.—The average temperature of this month is 40 deg. of Fahren-
heit. The weather is occasionally wet, but the operations of the farm
may be carried on.
"August.—The beginning of spring. Keep the plough and harrow
at work. Collect manure, and refresh the pastures.
"September.—The most laborious month in the whole year with the
farmer and gardener. Every description of seed should now be in the
ground. For grass land, barley should first be sown, and as soon as it has
put on its first blade, the grass seed should be sown, well mixed.
"October.—This month resembles April in England. Plant pota-
toes. Sow Swede turnips.
"November.—Vegetation is now very rapid. Plant out cabbages,
&c.; young peas, potatoes, gooseberries, and straw-berries, are now in
season. Sheep shearing is at its height.
"December.—Hay harvest general, and barley harvest begins at the
end of the month. Prepare the soil, manure and sow turnip land, thin
and hoe Swede turnips, and mangel wurzel. Hoe potatoes, cabbages,
&c. Clip hedges."
These quotations speak volumes. They indicate an English climate in
all its best features, a thoroughly agricultural and well settled population,
a soil of the richest quality, abundance of moisture, and a temperature in
the highest degree favourable to the European constitution. Abundant
workable timber, every where accessible; wheat forty bushels,(five quar-
ters) to the acre, good roads, and substantial brick houses, are facts,—and
great ones too. Nothing proves the industrious, settled, and civilized
character of the population more than the habitual use of manure on the
farms, the successful cultivation of artificial grasses, the systematic atten-
tion to green crops, and canonical rotation of crops, as also the extent to
which barley is cultivated. Wise men see the advantage of rather raising
forty bushels on one acre, than twenty on two; of high farming on
a small holding, where soil and climate will admit of it, rather than bar-
barous scratching of the ground over a large surface; of rather having
» 12


TASMANIA. 80
is embosomed amid groves and a fine amphitheatre of hills, and displays,
besides fine streets, many elegant suburban villas. Launceston, on the
north side of the island, is connected with Hobart Town by a fine road
121 miles long, and is situate forty-five miles up the Tamar, at the con-
fluence of the north and south Esk. It is in the midst of the finest land
in the island, and possesses an excellent harbour, capable of admitting
vessels of 400 tons burden.
It is one of the drawbacks of this colony that all the best land in it is
already appropriated. But the Van Diemen's Land Company dispose of
lots of eighty acres, or even less at 40s. an acre in fine districts, and af-
ford every assistance to the settler in supplying him with stock, imple-
ments, seed, &c., at a reasonable rate. One half of the purchase money
must be paid down, with an allowance out of it of £20 for a passage to
the colony, the rest by instalments, spread over seven years. There are
no convicts employed on the company's lands, nor within 150 miles, and
the aboriginal natives were entirely removed from the island in 1830.
That Tasmania is a penal colony must always operate as an objection,
from the inferior morality attaching to such a class, and from the dispro-
portion of the sexes, which is its invariable accompaniment. But it is
not wise to exaggerate this disadvantage which the settlement of free emi-
grants is daily diminishing, and it affords an additional supply of labour,
and induces the expenditure of government money in the island.
The statistics of the island are somewhat meagre. The population in
1847, was 57,420. In 1841, the exports of wool to the United Kingdom
were 8,597,531 lbs. In 1840, the imports amounted, according to
M'Culloch, to £988,356, and the exports to £867,607. Tonnage out-
wards and inwards to 171,782. Produce of corn in 1838,970,000 bushels;
sheep, 1,214,000 head; 75,000 cattle; 9,650 horses; 2,409 goats. Re-
venue, £138,501; expenditure, £133,681. The upset price of land at
the public sales is 12s. an acre. The island is from six to eight days sail
nearer England than Sydney (800 miles), and freights and passage
money are proportionably less.
If the foregoing statistics by M'Culloch are to be relied on, the exports
appear to have sustained a diminution, as they only amounted to
£582,585 in 1846. No less than £150,045 worth of corn was that year
exported to England and the neighbouring colonies. Only eight emi-
grants arrived in the colony in 1847, while 2,751 went from thence to
Port Philip in that year, a rather unfavourable symptom of the colony.
The average price of land was 22s. an acre, and of wheat 4s. 6d. a bushel. From the limited size of the island, its comparatively long settlement,
its mountainous character, and the fact that a considerable proportion of
it is unfit for cultivation, land, in eligible districts, is proportionately
high in price, and farms, in good situations, are scarcely to be had at a
moderate cost. But we consider property here, worth all the difference
of the money which it costs on the main island, and as it may be had in
small parcels to suit the most moderate capital, we have no doubt that an
industrious labourer might raise as much on ten acres in Tasmania, as on
fifty in New South Wales. He will also be, generally, sure of fair prices
in consequence of the demand for cattle and grain in the less favored
neighbouring continent, the natural effect of Australian droughts, barrcni 3


9i THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS
Auckland Islands twenty-two days. He describes Laurie Harbour as
perfectly land-locked, and a steep beach on the southern shore as afford-
ing great facility for clearing and reloading vessels requiring to be heaved
down for any extensive repair.
No species of animal is found on the Aucklands, except the domestic
introduced some years ago; goats and rabbits, all which find ample
food on a curious vegetable. The climate is healthy and favourable to
vegetation. The Colonization of the Islands will be contingent on
the success of the fishery; every acre of land will be put in requisition
for supplies for the ships of the Company and others touching at the
Island; consequently the Company will carefully reject all offers to pur-
chase land coming from persons who do not engage to bring it into im-
mediate use for the required purposes.
Mr. Enderby calculates that the annual expenditure of the Southern
Whale Fishery Company at the Auckland Islands, for the establishment
and for the re-equipment of thirty vessels for the fishery, cannot fall
much short of £40,000. "This sum will embrace the salaries to the
Company's officers and servants, and wages to sundry mechanics and
labourers employed in laying out roads, constructing wharves, storehouses,
houses, cottages, &c., together with the expenses incidental to the fishery,
such as for the capture of whales coming, into the bays, boiling out the
oil, discharging the cargoes of the ships, storing, filling up, searching,
and coopering the oil, cleansing whalebone, and reshipping the whole on
board freighting vessels; setting up and coopering the casks intended to
replace those filled; repairing, when necessary, the hull, masts, rigging,
and sails of the whaling ships, and also the stores; purchasing 900 tierces
of beef and pork, ISO tons of potatoes, 100 tons of biscuit, 50 tons of flour
and other stores, fresh meat, poultry, vegetables, grocery, cheese, butter,
&c. The above expenses may be estimated at £20,000., and if we add
the wages of 700 seamen, estimated at £20,000 per annum more, the
amount will be, as before stated, £40,000, the whole or greater part of
which will probably be expended on the island. Such a colony must
hold out a reasonable expectation to settlers that they will find there an
extensive and profitable demand for their labour and produce."
In addition to this fixed expenditure, all the ports of the island will be
free to the whole world, and numerous vessels will find it profitable
to visit, and, consequently, to employ and spend money amongst the
Auckland islanders.
It is obvious from the foregoing description that these islands open a
very limited, but at the same time a somewhat eligible field of emigra-
tion. Climate, soil, water, harbours, access, markets, are entirely un-
exceptionable. Indeed, in regard to markets, they must be the best in
the world as the demand and consumption of agricultural produce, must
always and progressively exceed the possible supply. To Orkney, Shet-
land, and West, highlanders, inured at home to combine farming with
fishing, the settlement presents the greatest attractions, and it is evident
that emigrants from these localities must be very valuable settlers.
Mr. Enderbey, who discovered the islands in 1806, and received a grant
of them from the crown, has ceded them to a company in the view of
applying capital to their settlement, and the pursuit of the black and


APPENDIX 101
"* The Show Garden' of the district, (Illawarra,) is the property of an enter-
prising man, who was long the master of a trading vessel. Sailors always
make good settlers. This garden is situate in a warm hollow; and the approach
to it is by means of a rustic bridge, thrown over a clear and rapid stream, into
which droop the branches of a fine weeping willow. Passing the bridge we
enter an arbour covered with fuschias, the double white moss rose, and the
bignonia. The garden hedge is of lemon, laid and trimmed like a holly hedge.
On each side the middle walk, and fronting the visitor as he enters, is a mass of
plaintain stems. (here called the banana) full thirty feet in circumference, and,
in the season, laden with fruit. The stems are about twelve feet in height, and
from them depend the beautiful purple sheaths of the younyer fruit. There are
many plots of them about the garden; and a bunch of the fruit sells in Sydney
for nalf-a-crown. On the sides of some of the walks are orange, lemon and
shaddock trees, the citron and the flowering almond; and on the sides of others,
standard peaches and apricots, and weeping nectarines, with occasionally mul-
berries, and the finest varieties of pears. The squares are filled with plum,
apple, cherry, and medlar trees. There are two very fine walnut trees, being
amongst the first that have borne in the colony. Other squares between the
walks, to the extent of three acres, are filled with vines in full bearing. Some
of the orange, lemon, and citron trees are from eighteen to twenty feet in height,
and have always two crops hanging on them, and often three. At eight or ten
years of age, each of these trees produce, in the course of the year, from 100 to
300 dozen. The pomegranates are in high perfection; and the'hops are said to
vie with the finest from Farnham. The ground is covered with melons in every
variety; while the asparagus beds would bear a comparison with those of
Battersea, Fulham, or Putney. I must not forget to mention the loquat rasp-
berries, cape-gooseberries, and filberts. In one corner of the garden, in a damp
spot, grow the osiers in which they make baskets for packing the fruit. Every
fruit is superior of its kind ; and it appears that in this district, in the open air,
can be grown all the fruits of England, with all those of a tropical climate, the
pine apple excepted; but this succeeds in the open air, at Moreton Bay. I
must also except currants and gooseberries, which do not generally succeed in
the colony, except on high table-land. In the stream is English watercress;
and the hawthorn is grown in the garden as a memento of old England and her
green lanes. The walnut here bears in the tenth year, and the mulberry in the
third. Another settler has the following succession of peaches, bearing from
January to June, both inclusive:—'The early Newington,' 'The Noblesse,' 'The
Roman,' and the * Late June,' which corresponds with the October peach in
England, and is here a delicious table-fruit, being highly improved in flavour,
by the effects of climate. He has 'The Moor Park' apricot, and 'The Blood
Nectarine,* (a colonial variety),' The Weeping Nectarine,' and the double-flow-
ering Chinese Nectarine,'which perfects its fruit here."■—Ramrles in New South
Wales.
As to No. 1, we again quote from Count Strzelecki's work.—
"That portion of the country which, from its system of working, and range of
tillable land, deserves to be included within the agricultural district, is confined
to the valley of the Kama, which is limited in the extent of its cultivated, but
not of its cultivable land, and of which the best tracts are in the possession of
the Australian Agricultural Company, to the valley of the Hunter, composed of
the confluent valleys of the Goulbourn, Pages, Patterson, and Williams Rivers,
&c.: the valley of the Paramatta ... In these localities a good many farms are
in a very forward state; many exhibit remarkable improvments, and some dis-
play only partial Attempts, all of which are, however, in the right direction.
The farms of the Australian Agricultural Company, at Stroud and Booral, the
most northern farms of the colony, may be regarded as the first in the rank
of improvments. The farm buildings are of the best construction; the tilled
lands are almost entirely clear of timber and stumps, well fenced in, well
ploughed and worked, and presenting, on the whole, gratifying proofs of well
bestowed capital and labour.
"The orchards and vineyards of the company at Tahlee, (Port Stephens),
which produce the choicest grapes, oranges, and lemons, are not less worthy of
notice. It is this orchard which shows most forcibly the extensive range which
the beautiful climate of New South Wales embraces in isothermal lines; as there
the English oak is seen flourishing by the side of the banana, which is again


102 APPENDIX,
surrounded bj vines, lemon, and orange trees of luxurious growth. To the
southward of Port Stephen are a series of thriving farms, spread along the
Goulbourn, Pages, Hunter's, Patterson, and Williams Rivers, which comprise an
agricultural district of 2,000 square miles in extent. The excellent harbour of
Newcastle, good water and tolerable roads, a coal mine, a soil well adapted for
wheat, barley, turnips; the vine and European fruits, and a situation the most
favourable to the application of irrigation, renders this district one of the rich-
est and most important in the colony. . . . On crossing the Nepean to Camden
and Argyleshire, the farming, with some exceptions, does not improve. In the
list of exceptions, the estate of Camden, the property of Messrs. James and
William M'Arthur, stands prominently, being only surpassed by the farms of
the Australian Agricultural Company.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
The excellent work of Mr. Wilkinson on South Australia, is what its title im-
ports, a Working Man's Hand-Book. His description of Adelaide and its various
vicinities, would induce the conclusion that it is exceedingly eligible for all
emigrants, especially for those who desire, on a small capital, to enjoy some-
what of the description of life which they command in the mother country.
Parks, hotels, stage coaches, good roads, pretty suburban villas, fine views, and
neat farm houses, promise to renew at the antipodes the associations of home.
Ten per cent. is the current rate of interest on good freehold security, so that
£1000 would yield £100 a year in a settlement where food is at a very moderate
Erice, and fruit and vegetables abundant, and of the finest sorts. Mr. Wilkinson
as agreeably surprised us in his description of the adaptation of the district
for agriculture, and of the number of smiling farming homesteads everywhere
to be found on the main roads within twenty miles of Adelaide. This looks
something like stability and productiveness, and forms the best guarantee for
the future steady prosperity of the colony. It affords an excellent opening for
the small farmer or ploughman; wages being high, roads good, and fine land
30s. an acre, the labourer being enabled to procure the smallest quantity of land
which will suit the state of his purse, is presented with a much more secure
means of independence than even his richer neighbour in the bush. We gladly
make room for the following extracts:—
"Buy your land on or near a public road, and in a district where farming is
general; for instance, at Mount Barker, or the Southern District. Choose more
than one section, and advertise those selected for sale through the government,
so that if any person bids higher for one section than you like, you may have
the other to fall back upon: by this mode there will be very little difficulty in
obtaining good land at a moderate price; for observe that all lands fit for grow-
ing good wheat, are well worth £1 per acre.
"Having bought your land, and fixed upon the size of house that you require,
you agree with some party to build it for you, if you have a family; if not, at
once get upon your land, and, with a couple of men, knock up a hut of slabs,
to last until you have time and funds to build a better. This will serve for a
single man, but a wife requires a comfortable house of brick or stone, but
which need not cost more than £40 for one with six good rooms, or more than
two months to build. All this time, the family, living in town, will run away
with a good sum of money for board and lodging; but when the house is up,
the children will soon become useful, and compensate for the expense they have
put you to. You will have bought a good dray for £10; four bullocks for £20;
also tackle for the cattle, and a plough and harrow for £8; two cows and calves
£10; pigs and fowls, £4; a box of strong tools, £5; seed wheat, £10; and stuff
for fencing, £20;. a broodmare, £20; twelve months'provisions, £30; amounting
in all, to £137. The land may cost £100 for eighty acres, and the hire of two
men for the first twelve months and their provisions, £70 more. Lodging in
town for a family, £20, and the house at the farm, £40; furniture, crockery, and
cartage, £30; in all about £400: this will leave the £500 man with £100 clear,
which money should be placed in the bank, at interest, until wanted.
"Being now fairly on the land, ploughing must be at once commenced, if the
season suit; if not the fence must be put up, and an acre or so divided off, for
a garden. All this the labourers will do. It requires but little care or know-
ledge to put up a strong fence; only make the rails fit well in the mortises of the