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GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OI- IMMIGRATION IN THE HANDS OF THE GOVEUXMENT IN QUEBEC; If 1\iS m I \\ ■■'A .*;'• ••*.j EXPOSED AND ILLUSTRATED By HANS WILHELM MULLSR. , ^ontrral : . "WITNESS" PRINTING HOUSEr 218 & 220 St. James Street, M'l w W y- f I n 9 s y. >V^ 27 r?ue Buade, // ■V,. .,:;___ 7" x:- x- ^ •,■*■' IMMIGRATION IN QUEBEC. We make in Canada much ado about Immigration ; yet, comparatively, a great deal less that we don't get a sight of the real elephant — that is, of the suitable Immigrant, professedly of the stuff we want. We act in this way very much like the easy going man, who don't want to be bothered too much about a thing that does not come easy. Scarcely can we take up any one of our newspapers not containing an article on Immigration, preaching up the necessity of attracting Im- migration, and tendering advice in the matter. In this way the good people of the Canadas have become fully aroused to the importance of Immigrati m, and for receiving a reasonable share of the immense flocks of Immigrants that come every year from the countries across the seas, full winged with fresh inspiring hopes of finding richer fields and larger and freer nestling grounds in the New World. They swarm, almost all, to the far and wide-spreading dominions of cunning Old Uncle Sam; swarming his cities, making them lively with the likely noisy bustle of work shops and manufactories of all kinds ; filling iiis coffers, convert- ing his wildernesses into Edens, adding stars, and powerful brilliancy to his stars, so that the great kings and emperors of the earth come and pay homage and court for mighty, sweet Columbia's smile. Why can we in Canada not keep a fair share of these Immigrants amongst us, and participate in the benefits from their presence? We have here, too, millions and millions of acres of wild land, abundantly sprinl-.led with miles and miles of as good soil for settlement and cultivation, as productive in manifold returns, as may be found in the United States ; lands and lands, richly watered by beautiful rivers and proud streams, that connect us with all the ports in the world j we pos- sess great wealth and mineral stratum ; we can boast of our constitution and laws being the best and freest under the ^an. Our Legislature and Government stand commended by the people to promote by all means the influx of Immigrants for settlement amongst us, and most liberal sub- sidies are granted in furtherance of this object — and why we have so far not succeeded in securing the class of Immigrants we want, and why the enormous sums spent in efforts to bring acttuil settlers amongst us, and why all proWems in this direction have resultel abortively ; to demonstrate these, I have proposed to be the task of this pamphlet. Later on I shall handle " Immigration " in terms of general ap- plication ; but, at the outset, I desire to state that I shall confine myself principally to matters existing in the Immigration system in the Province of Quebec, that part of Caiiada where I have had considerable practice and experience in concerns of Immigration. And at the very start, I don't hesitate in ascribmg the almort total failure in obtaining the desidtratum to the incor^netencyand the absence ot V 2 intellectual and cosmopolitan patriotism in the Immigration Department of the Government of the Province of Quebec. On the asthmatic shoulders of this Government falls all the blame, and not on this good country, blessed witi. free institutions, a flourishing commerce, and a fertile soil. I shall make good my assertion, by passing in review the different Immigra tion plans set in motion and in operation by this iJoverament. It is a well known fact that the Provincial Scheme for bringing out large num- bers of Immigrants from Belgium turned out a complete failure. Great induce- ment were held out to the Belgians, unwittingly or ignorantly, — more than may reasonably be expected to be fulfilled by a country still in a quasi-primitive state ; certain it is, the Government proved its incapacity of fulfilling its promise. The provincial emissaries did not fail in florid oratory, elevated by the application of a little religious gloss, which latter circumstance, however, did more harm tlian good, as it made the disappointed ones less rect^ncilable, in addition that it was an erroneous ignoring of the specialties of the Belgian's character, that he likes first to make certain of his daily bread, with a possible chance for a little sur- plus, before entering on the uncertainties of religious mysteries ; and that, though known for great docility, he becomes pre-eminently obstinate when he considers himself unjustly treated and deceived. In the spring of 1872, when I was employed in the famou. Immigrants' Home, No. 151 .St. Antoine street, under the Agent, C. E. Belle, there arrived a goodly number of Belgians. The great majority of them expressed, right after entering, their eager desire to settle on the Land of Promise at once. Of this land and its situation I was as ignorant as of the localities in the moon ; though my new Bel- gian friends were far from being the first enquirers that wanted information from me on this, to Immigrants, all-important subject ; indeed it's the ideal for wh'ch, solely, so many sacrifice their home and its ever sweet surroundings, and by which alone they could be induced to wander away from all that's dear. I had importuned the Agent, Mr. Belle, with great pressure now and again, as to the imperative necessity of imparting to me some knowledge at least of the position of the vast Government lands, when heralded with such great flourish of trumpets to intending immigrants, in millions of pamphlets, and the countless posters and handbills provided with the signature of the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. L. Archambeault. The Immigrants of other nations, the Scotch in particular, were just as in- quisitive as the Belgians about these lands that have been held up to them with great praise, and promised by the Glasgow Agent, Mr. White, '/ea, ever since I first entered the Immigration Office in the spring of 1870, I beseeched ardently, Mr. Belle, ever and anon, to place me at any rate in a position that would enable me to talk even vaguely on it, to save me from the humiliating and shame- ful role I had to play daily many times over in this part of all absorbing interest to the Immigrant. Mr. Belle would as often commend me to my instructions, which were : to be evasive on the land question, and slip away from this knotty point as best I could ; in case I could by no means get rid of the enquirers, then I might direct them to him. I used to make my escap- by telling them of the great hard- ships and privations to which a pioneer life in the bush was subjected, and to 8 I which a man must become gradually inured ere he could stand it. And they would certainly find my advice to be good : first to hire out with the farmers here, — of whom we had in the book any number of applications for help — in which way they would obtain the required experience, indispensably necessary for the bush, so to say, at the very expense of the country. Moreover, in Cf'se they should learn, the most likely thing, that a partly cleared farm would suit them better, this would afford them the best chances of watching a good opportunity. Any lady readers may well believe me that questions may be popped far more easy and pleasant to answer ihan land questions in my dilemma. ( I generally managed to appease the Immigrant's immediate hunger for land ; of course, if there was no getting over the man's pertinacity, I would shuffle him off to Mr. Belle's office. I have every reason to believe that the land reference, appealed to Mr. Belle, consisted in his referring most favorably to khe soundness of my argument in the matter, with strong advice for adopting my plan. At any rate I am quite positive that the land questioner returned each time not a bit wiser on the point than when he left me, but if not a happier invariably a sadly wiser man on human promises. Really I do firmly believe that Mr. Belle's knowledge of the land and mine were about the same ; namely, that it was lying somewhere ; and I will give him the benefit of my further opinion, that, independent of our total incapacity to act as guides, he was aware — not speaking of the impossibility that likewise existed — of the barbarous cruelty of even attempting to send green settlers into the wilderness, separated from the rest of the human race, without the least sign of the connecting link in roads, to meet sure starvation. When the Belgians commenced to gain insight into the actual state of Imm'- gration affairs in the Province of Quebec, they became loud in their denounce- ment of the whole scheme, and declared it a downright swindle and imposition They used to approach me indignantly, with pamphlet in hand, pointing to the following paragraph : — " Le Gouvernement a reserv6 pour les colons 3,500,000 hectares de terrain qu'il cfede k des prix variant de 2 i\ 6 francs I'hectare, par lots de 40 k 100 hec- tares. On peut acheter moins. mai.> pas plus de 'oo hectares ; cependant un pfere de famille peut acqu6rir des lots en plus pour chacun de ses fils ayant atteint I'&ge de dix-huit ans," etc., etc. They would then reproach me with the barefaced lie of the statement, when nobody could give them any information about the land — Mr. Belle, they said, no more than myself ; that it was adding insult to injury to see him about it. Nothing exasperated the Belgians so much as the deception practiced upon them in land. What I found very strange was the reluctance displayed by Mr. Belle of directing any Belgians to the Belgian settlement in the County of Suffolk, near the Ottawa ; yea, I had instructions that it was not in my business to talk upon, either good or bad. The undeniable fact stands — truth is stranger than fiction — the Belgians of my period have mostly all vanished again from this Province. Most of the owners of the nam>^ paraded in the " Rapport General du Commissaire de r Agriculture," as prominent among the Belgian stttlers for means, culture and WPWI ! -,. :■* . position, are no more to be found in the Province of Quebec ; and for the very reason that a number of the Belgians were possessed of considerable means, and as a nation making firstrate settlers from their peaceable and industrious disposi- tion, the more aggravating is the circumstance that the Government has been found wanting in faithfulness and competency to insure their stay here. Instead, this Province has to grieve that the prospect of securing the estimable settlers from Belgium has been blighted in the bud ; the sums squandered in the scheme are of lesser account. In connection with the agitation caused by the land question amongst the Bel- gians, I may mention a few incidents of many :— Concerning the promised land, we had three very obstinate Belgian Immi- grants at the Home. One was married, and had his wife and small family with him ; the other two were single, I believe, and had left their families at home. My old we!i-niglv grinded out story would not go down with them. I offered to find immediate work for them ; all my sugar-coated prescriptions againsv the land-sick- ness were fruitlessly applied. They would eternally retort that they had come here for nothing but the land that was promised, and not to work here as day laborers, what they could have done at home ; land they would have — bound to see if this land was in existence at all, or if they had been imposed upon altogether. Mr, Belle stepped in to my rescue, and warmly he advocated the acceptance of my proposals. At last, Mr. Belle got somewhat angiy, and closed his argument in submitting to them Hobson's choice, that was in the premises, either go to work here at once, or leave the Home forthwith. Much displeased, they adhered to their resolution to find the land ; for which purpose they would return to Quebec, bag and baggage, and there look up the land. Some, thay thought, could be found near the Trapplst settlements. The uncertainty that existed about it led to another controversy with Mr. Belle, when, as it was going on, another Immi- gration Agent stepped in accidentally and naturally evinced his interest in the mat- ter. During the side conversation carried on in English between the two Agents, I learned that the gentlemen were no better posted than the immigrants. One thought the Trappist Fathers had broken up their establishments there and left ; the other confessed himself at sea — if they were there or not, was moie than he knew. Finally the wordy uncertainty ended in an open declaration of hostilities on the part of Mr. Belle, who issued his peremptory orders to me that those people must leave the Home forthwith; if for Quebec, as they intended, I received warn- ing to furnish them with no Fru Tickets. And for Quebec they did set sail. About a fortnight after I was startled — was it shadow or reality? — it was the reality — this same crowd marched in again to the Home, down-looking and crest- fallen. " Well, what about the land?" was my salutation. " Just nothing at all," was the reply. " It's all humbug about the land ; if we had taken your advice, we might be wiser of our money ; that's a hard loss for us." The two single men merely accompanied the married couple to tht Home, which they again left right after, and for parts unknown to me. The remaining married man now demanded of me immediate employment to recuperate his loss, and asked for leave to stay with his family until they would find cheap lodgings, to which I agreed. The woman gave a willing assisting hand to the work at the Home, fully earning her board ; but her mind was embittered, and when once again treated with insolenceby Miss Leonie, the housekeeper's proud daughter, this land-woman threw the soup in her face, broke the plate on her head, and out of the kitchen she pitched Miss Leonie, who attained afterwards to fame under the nom de plume of "the young lady of Ste. Pelagie." Mr. Achille Belle, nephew of the Agent, happened to be present at the Home when this grand battle took place. This last round was the land-settler. I overcome the fear of going too much into detail, knowing that sometimes the smallest details contain interesting matter to the man watchful of his country. Almost contemporary arrived at the Home a very respectable-looking man, a Belgian fanner, Mr. Dereze, accompanied by his wife and numerous family, — all of them well dressed and well rigged out, and Mr. Dereze had about 3,000 francs in his pockeH The money passed through my own hands when Mr. Dereze made a loan of 2,000 francs to one of the Belgian Counts in Quebec. The brilliant panorama of the Province of Quebec, that had been unrolled before his eyes, and the equally brilliant promises on the part of a great, generous Government, cried out by the panorama man, had its effect in enchanting him away from a good position, manager of a nobleman's farming estate, end, of course, out of a very comfortable home. The very flattering view also displayed before him, that he was wanted as a star farmer, accomplished the enticer's work, — that here, in the very primitive antediluvian state of mind in agriculture, his light would become of great lustre, and he would be laurelled as the farmers' King, for sure, for sure. But when Mr. Dereze actually did put in his appearance in Quebec, he found the great, good, and wise Government in the perplexity of the man who won the ele- phant. Mr. Dereze, to his credit, and no blame, was smart enough to throw him- self, forsome t'me, entirely on the shoulders of the Government. Here wasa sticker, neither any available, ready, accessible, good limits of land on hand, nor any detection of any outway what to do with him, in the limits of their craniums. There, of course, remained but the old and ever practiced expedient of immediate .iddance in expediting to Montreal, and Mr. Dereze and family arrived in due time at the Immigrants' Home, 151 St. Antoine street. Then and there I heard it admitted by Immigrant Agents themselves that wrong had been committed by inducing this man to forsake a good position and comfortable home to come out here. However, it must be said that much concern was expressed, and a great deal done for him. Mr. Dereze was encouraged to visit different places, as Ver- chferes, Terrebonne, etc., all at the expense of the Government, and even he re- ceived presents of money to keep him in humor. In the perplexity, what to do with the elephant, Mr. Dereze and family were carried back and forward, and_^ up and down between Quebec and Montreal, like kittens by the cat. At last, somewhat tired of the shuttlecock play, Mr. Dereze placed himself, of his owo accord, with a gentleman in Montreal, as manager of his farm near by. In consequence of mutual disappointments, he quitted this engagement after the short stay of only a few weeks, and with his family took aboue again at the Immi- ^I_t^ - "ili>gfi^ .*■ fjrants' Home, till arrangements were completed to place him finilly with Mr. Beaubicn, M. P., as manager of his farm below Quebec. In every instance all his travelling expenses, and those of his numerous family, were defrayed by the Government. All this represents most painful imbecility and cause of bitter reflec- tion on the children of the soil, to the father and mother, the brother and the sister, who sigh for the dear absent ones, expatriated in hopes of gaining their bread in foreign lands, and whose embrace they may never enjoy again. It wouii. really be interesting to know what this single immigrant, Dereze, has cost the Province of Quebec, — merely at last, as it appears, to secure his services to M.-. Beaubien, M. P. Happy men are the Beaubiens — one of them is the now cele- brated men>ber who ran for, and came in the winner of, the $7,000 purse. Praise up, ye organs, iiibmissive spaniel-lickers of the greasy paw, praise up the wisdom and patriotism of your Government in bringing or.t for the country this star farmer ! Praise up its fostering care in the importation of a single immi- grant at such enormous exj^ense ! Ye most obedient slaves to filthy lucre ; ye ever smiling knaves for gold, of affi- davit plus,$4,oc)0 celebrity, praise up the fatherly care of your Government, which tender provision has provided the country still with another kind of emissaries, an entirely novel sat of immigration officers, unique amongst the nations of the earth. Hold up to gratefulness the emissaries whose sole purpose is to go in pur- suit of the wayward brethren and sisters who have strayed in such alarmingly large numbers into the neighboring Republic in search of fields and pastures new. Indeed, emissaries who certainly deserve credit, in that they try wiili all their powers of eloquence in illustration and fiction, to effect the return of the strayed sheep to the lovely, peaceful hills and dales of their own dear country that gave them birth, where, though the hurdles were drawn somewhat narrower and closer yet they were highly preferable for their much greater safety against the wolves and wild beasts that go about preying on their present and future lives. But alas! "Des Menschen Wille ist sein Himmelreich," says that great poet Schiller, and the emissaries will no doubt have learned by this the full truth of this poetically-clad reality. The reasons why French-Canadians forsook their paternal and maternal hearths are good reasons. Many times have I listened to them from their own lips. And as it has always proved futile to the best laid plans to remove reasoning from reason, so the mission of these strange and novel missionaries will ever be futile, and remain sterile in results, till the natural causes for the exodus are searched up and remedied at home, and the covetousness of the foreigner's eas- wealth and luxuries are lessened by fair competition. The present periodical, and this time ter- rible, depression in capital, commerce and manufacture amongst our neighbors is illustrative of all this, as well as of the inherent and inextinguishable love and attachment of the French-Canadians to their native soil, clearly detr mstrating in the return of large numbers, that it was not for a phantom they expat iated them- selves, nor do they mean to remain for a phantom. The moment the cliarm of the stimulus for leaving home is broken abroad, we see them returning by thousands, to find, however, what? — the same old monotony ; no earthly change whatever since they left, if anything things worse than ever before ; they will find more than before, run for one place, and do the work cheaper still, through the influence of the sui- ! ^m^iw. cidftl course of their own (iovemmenl. Once imbued wiutliie wideawake spirit tlicy will demur afresh, remaining deaf to empty-handed, sickly, sentimental sophistry, and at the first plad tidings of the revival of things on the other side, spread will the wings and fly will the chickens, off and away again. The well known vitality and energy of our neighbors may lead us to expect the crisis of short duration. . '8 Meanwhile, the " immigration mill " in France is still fed and kept going, at great expense to the Province. "Money makes the mare go, and runs many a mill." It is not from success, — not even from the ghost of such a thing ; — it is by sheer money and insatiable slaves in its service that ^he French immigration mill retains so far some sparks of languishing life, and gi inds out still its occasional quota of immigrants to the Province of Quebec, heralded puffingly in advance in the shape of a so-called Etat nominatifhy the French Immigration Agent, Mr. Bossange, in Pans. What's in a name! The " what " is greatly appreciated by Mr. Bossange, for his Etat no minaii/ contains the highest flights in technical cognominations of the ordinary industrial professions and trades in the common walks of life. Mr. Bossange's Etat nominatif, though mdeed purely nominative, is a highly French- scented document. It very often occurred, what Mr. Achille Belle wanted to make a point in favor of his uncle, attempted in wrongful excuse, wrongfully blaming the immigrant for Mr. Bossange's false statements in his Eta, nominatif, namely, that, what Mr. Bossange denominated ** cultivateur de terre," — farmer, lic, — might b;* a man that did knoM' the plough from sight, not from ploughing ; the meadow from the grass, not from mowing. His "conduc- teur de ferme " might be a man who could conduct himself tolerably well over a farm, but no ^o handy v-nth a Canadian farmer's team in hand. Some of the farmers about St. Laurent would bear me out with great humor. It is no use to call a thing by another name than its own. Romance has left me, and I shall not fall into this Don Quixotic error. Not muchly, if I knov my- self. Windmill I shall call windmill, and treat as windmill, and the Govem- ment-Bossange scheme I shall call the French Immigration Windmill, run with French-Canadian grist, that they should rather retain for their own mills, which are idle and wanting grist. The list of immigrants forwarded by Mr. Bossange to the Province of Que- bec form a stupendous piece of imbecil'*^' Of the actual farmer elements, of whi ft alone we stand in any need, Bossange does not, or cannot, furnish immigrants jf the genuine stuff ; hardly any at all come forward from him. His lists bring up a few gardeners, with high scien- tific affixions ; but the chosen ones for good common Canadian use, are scarce too, Over fifty per cent, of the Bossange immigrants consist of trades and professions that are either not much called for here, or not at all, with a pitiably large admix- ture of clerks, office-seekers, " conducteurs " for every imaginable conducting : — •' Conducteur de ferme," *' conducteurs des chemins de fer et d'equipe," etc., " conducteur des chemins et des travaux public," *' chefs de station," etc., etc., etc. I used to exclaim, ** For God's sake ! how can you conduct that of which you know nothing, of which you have first to learn the Canadian alphabet ? Did this not occur to you before ! Is it possible that Mr. Bossange is acting in such p IT II ii I' |i '.: i I blind ignorance and disregard of all that is Canadian?" Withal, the charitable side cannot be denied to Mr. Bossange. Besides the muv'^h-neeiled " conduc- teurs et chcfr de station," he also directed here the destitute invalids and the aged f" 'stressed of both sexes in such numbers at one time as to cause serious protest on the part of Mr. Belle, against this sort of immigrants, from the endl' is pains and troubles caused in placement and riddance of the ui .'ortunates. Perhaps it did not occur to Mr. Belle that the acts of Mr. Bossange could hardly be amen> able to his censure, when we read high prafs? bestowed upon the grandly success- fui ->perations of Mr. Bossange, page xx. in the '■ Rapport General du Commis- saire de 1' Agriculture," in the following sensational announcement and puff : — *' M. Gu.<;tave Bossange, de Paris, nous k expfedi^ k iui seul au-dessus de " sept cents 6migrants, venant des differentes parties de la France, et des pro* " vmces de la Lorraine et de 1' Alsace. II a fet6 habilement second6 dans sa " propagande en France et en Alsace par M. Provencher, nomm^ agent g^n^ral *' pour le continent depuis le mois de juin dernier." And in the same " Rapport General du Commissaire, de 1' Agriculture," we find an endorsatior of Mr. Bossange's exploits, when he unites charity with busi- ness, vide page xiii., which reads : — -. " M. Bossange, qui avait tout a fait pris k coeur de diriger I'dmigration fran- " ^aise vers le Canada, et qui venait de publier k cent i.-.ille exemplaires, une bro- " chure trfes-bien, t(iuch^e, intitul^e ' La Nouvelle France,* le ' Canada,' appel aux *' classes nfecessiteuses ue France." We shudder at the horrible barbarous cruelties inflicted by Nero en the I Romans, — Nero fiddling and feasting in high carnival and Rome in flames, its devastation and the agonies of its inhabitants, his own devilish handiwork ; and we might as well shudder at the heinousness of the horrible blunder of our rulers, that calls in the c/asses nicessiteuses of a foreign country to increase the sufferings of our own classes nicessiteuses, and thus compel additional thousands to diink the bitter chalice of expatriation, — and incredible, if it was not the ter- rible fact, waste the life blood of the nation in the damnable operation, necessita- ting the eraployment of expensive charlatans, for an bone;,t man v-ll not continue to hid for immigrants when he becomes "ware that they will be v.jtimized. Jii the official meddling, subsidizing, and puffing, the speculation and placard and all the other devices by which the £tat nomm f, dr»<-., may be filled, I con. cede high efficiency to the French ^Vgent. In illustration of the illusions practiced I shall insert here verbatim contents jf two minute copies I secured a^ samples of the kind of letters with which the unfortunate members of the classes tticessu'euses have been deluded and con.e accompanied :— " Paris, 36 juin, 1872. •' Monsieur C. E. Bdle, Montreal. " Le porteur de ces lignes, Monsieur Louis Sellie*- »e rend au Canada dans " I'espirance d'y trouver un emploi dans les chemins de fcr, comme Conduct eur " de Trains, Chef de Station, Chef d'Equipe, etc. Je Iui ai promis que vous vous " int6resseriez k Iui et que le Gouveniement Iui accorderait noumture et logement 9 ...V-' "jusqu' kemploi. Je comptc sur votre birnveillance, cher monsieur, et je vous , " rfeit^re mes sincire? salutations. " GUSTAVE BOSSANGE, " Agent du Gouvernement Canadun" When this man was offered, as a last resort, to work as a common laborer for $1.25 per day, and nothing else for him in the gift of the City of Montreal, well then r!escribe the srate of his mind, — I can't; but with this case I have presented to the public a life-like, full-sized picture of Government Bossange Immigration. The reading of my next copy runs as follows : — '■' Hureau a' Emigration du Gauvernevient Canadien^ " Paris, le 27 juin 1872. " M. Archidet, Victor-Jean-Pierre, et sa dame, sujetsfrancais ; age, 30 ans et " 20 ans ; profession, ebeniste, et Madame couturifere. " Le porteur de cetts lettre d'introduction se decide k fimigrerau Canada poUi " y trouver du travail et un avenir aisfe. Je lui ai donnfe 1' assurance qu'il serait " nourri et'.oge aux frais du Gouvernement jusqu'k ce que vous rfeussissiez k lui " trouver de 1' emploi, et qu'il serait transport^ gratuitement de Qufebecau point " ou U sera occupi. Je ne douto pas que mon recommandfe ne trouve auprds de '* vous bon uccueil et protection, et je compfe qu'il se montrera digne de la bien- " veillance du Gouvernement. " J'ai I'honneur de vous saluer, " L' Agent du Gouvernement Canadien, " Gustave Bossange.'' A Monsieur Simion Lesage, Asst.-Commissaire , d' Agriculture ei des Travaux Publics, Quibec. This kind of letters is lithographed, only the signature of Mr. Bossange is written in his own hand; and shows that the promise of v// would learn its heartrending magnitude. The sting could soon be taken out of Mr. Bossange by confining him imperatively to truths, facts, and wants as exist- ing in Canada, by putting strictly down for him that the Province cannot afford indiscriminate hospitality to indiscriminately forwarded immigrants, and that it will henceforth act in sharp demarcation, that but the really deserving will come in lor its hospitality. It will ever be injudicious to give board and lodgUig to the immigrant of me- chanical trade or good hand of labor, with enough money yet in his pocket, and who can shift for himself till he earns the country's money. The quicker he emancipates himself in the new land and stands on his own pins, the sooner he becomes useful to the country and consequently to himself. The present system of indiscriminate hospitality is in very many cases but a lift for the United States, and affords the luxury of a glass of beer or something stronger if need be ; it is the most absurd idea that free homes have the slightest influence for retaining the immigrant if the natural advantages of the country don't. False pretences and false promises for decoying immigrants, ever the most detestable, criminal charlatanry, the illusive representations in great card-pros- pectuses, held out by the Government of Quebec, are also abominably stupid ; since they serve but to attract here ths sort of immigrants that are not needed at all, when its total shortcomings in the fulfilment of one and all land promises, operate fatally in causing to drive and keep away the really and only required class of land-seUlers and farm-helpers. The germ of immigration is laid by all European nations in the great pros- pects of cheap, easy obtainable, wild land in America. The figures sound fabu- lously low to the European, so long as he is not initiated in the hard realities connected with the first clearance in the bush. It may not be in the interest of the immigrant hunter to dispel the romantic ideas generally entertained by the European about these bush-lands, but honor demands of any government respect of the promises made through its authorized agents. The French immi- grants, as well as the Belgians and all others, ha ire been attracted hither by the promises of land held out by the Goverument of the Province of Quebec, and that every facility would be afforded by the authorities to the intending settler, in the utilization of this land. Now, there is not, to my knowledge, one French immigrant arrived in this Province that has been gratified with a sight of this land, or in any way encouraged to settle on it. Amongst the French, I believe the Alsatians and Lorraines the best adapted settlers for this country ; yet they are the most eager for land, and therefore the least inclinv^d to stay in this Prov- ince, the reason we see so very few amongst us or hardly any at all. Amongst the Belgians. I consider the Wallons best adapted to this country ; at any rate, as the most devoted sons of the Church of Rome. The French artisan immigrant also learns very soon to his chagrin, that he is not so much wanted here as he has been told by the Agent in France ; in- deed, he cannot but help convincing himself that we have here no idle spindles for the want of operatives, but idle hands in surplus to depart and run the spin- dles elsewhere ; that we stand in first and foremost urgency for increase of spin- dles, and ithat the subsequent finding of increase in hands will be the easiest thing in the world. I believe my opinion will be found to hold good, that it is not the subsidizing Government grant of reduced ocean fares, nor the head money of six dollars, that will settle the country ; that it is not the free ticket even that will contribute in the least to retain the settler, if the natural advantages of the country cannot. The best settler is the immigrant able and ready to pay his way. My hippogriff carries me suddenly to Glasgow, in Scotland, where the Pro- vince of Quebec also entertains an Immigration Agency. There Mr, White is the Agent. To him I will concede at once the palm of being the most self-conceited Immigration Agent extant.; his egotism is unmeasurable, and acts like the burning glass in sole concentration on hisV^tf and ergo ego. Merciless gratification of vanity is injurious to immigration. Of the highest regret will be damage to immigration prospects in Scotland, one of the most important immigration fields that furnishes the most welcome and most valuable settlers — Scotchmen. I can well imagine that Mr. White is throwing at me great big mouthfuls of immigration phrases, his force /wr excellence ; bui I fhall not mind and, sans ctrdmo- nUt proceed to businesc, and that's what I mean. 14 n 1 have to bring very grave charges to the door of Mr. White, the Provincial Immigration Agent in Glasgow, Scotland, that constitute gross misdemeanor in an Immigration Agent, if established : — In the early part of the summer season, in 1872, sitting in my office chair in the Immigrants' Home, 151 St. Antoine street, there appeared at the bar of the office, some twenty odd Scotch immigrants, as fine a lot of men, in every respect, as ever entered an Immigration office — in splendid physique, few of them under six feet, and substantially dressed. One of them handed me a letter from Mr. James Thom, Provincial Immigration Agent in Quebec, informing me that the whole gang had been engaged per advance by Mr. White in Glasgow, for the Grand Trunk Works ir. Point St. Charles, and all that I had to do was to direct the whole batch to Richard Eaton, Esquire, then the Mechanical Superintendent G. T. Works, Point St. Charles. What good news ! All of which was verbally corroborated by the immigrants, who related to me how they had been attracted by the announcement of Mr. White, the Agent in Glasgow, that he wanted to pro- cure hands for the Grand Trunk, which was much in need of them. Upon inter*' view with Mr. White, they made up their minds, at once, to give up their places y\ forcomingouthere, leaving, meanwhile, their families at home, for whom they would write as soon as they would settle down. All right, everything very satisfactory. I gave the men the desired direction to Point St. Charles, accompanied with a letter of mine to Mr. Richard Eaton, congratulating him on this fine lot of men, and the pleasure it affi)rded me to direct such fine men to him. But describe my astonishment when they came back, — I can't. I was thunderstruck on learning from » . them, in tones of the utmost indignation, that Mr. Eaton had informed them that he required no liands whatsoever in anyone branch ; that he was if anything overstocked , with men, and it was idle to say that any instructions were given to Mr. White, or any ;- other party, that help was wanted. Seeing what fine men they were, Mr. Eaton took pity and proposed to them that he might distribute as many of them as he could amongst thedifferent Grand Trunk Works in'Ontario, and some others might be pro- vided for about the depots in Point St. Charles, to work as laborers of all work till he could find call for their respective specialties. The whole gang was composed of professional operatives in railway plant, engine fitters, engineers, engine drivers and feeders. They were fearfully embittered by the sell. There were their wives left behind with very little on hand, and they wanted remittances at the earliest, and endless other lamentations. The whole presented a madden- ing picture of the mcit unjustifiable blunder. At last, — there was no help for it, — they settled down to the resolution to accept Mr. Eaton's prepositions, though many of them wouhi have to work out of their calling, and at :omn;on laborers* wages, in the interim. The few that remained on my har.ds I succeeded in placing in workshops in the city. Mr. Belle, if he likes, is at. cognizant of all the details of the case ss myself, and I would be doing him an injustice not to say that he condemned such practice severely. Surely, I thought, that was enough for the nonce ; but no I In a few weeks after arrived, to our consternation, a second lot of deluded Scotch immigrants, engaged in the same manner, per advance, by Mr. White, for the Grand Trunk, and to be directed to R. Eaton, Esq., — of course in all its bitter coasequences the disgusting /ac simile of the case before related ; and there is the Daily WUness which contained in one of its issues in the iif course of this summer a numerously-signed complaint of Scotch immigrants, stat- ing that they had been badly sold by Mr. White with the identically same false representations. Mr. White stands up to the present day under indictment of these grave charges, and not a few others of a similar nature ; yet not one has been refuted by him so far. Indeed, he keeps shy of the task, and, during his late visit to Montreal, he took care to slip away from these charges as noiselessly as possible by inserting a short paragraph in the Daily Witness, setting forth that he had learned of complaints by Scotch immigrants having appeared against him in one of the issues of the same paper, and that he would invite all those entertaining any complaints against him to a Durbar in the Immigrants' Home, Craig street, at a certain day and hour. Not only did he not, and could he not, bring forth any tes- timony in rebuttal, but committed himself clumsily in giving out that it had come to his ears that some of the signers \A the complaint in the Daily Witness had only been common laborers, as if that could bear in the faintest to make unsold and untold the sell. Add we to all that Mr. White's extravagant flights in praise of the great lands held in store for the immigrants by the Government of Quebec, which he must have known, or ought to have known, were not tc l)e ajof, and he has played sad havoc with Scotch immigration to this Province. \ ave seen leaving, sorely disappointed on land, many Scotch immigrants directed i ' him to the Immigrants* Home, for the land of his promise, that could not be sighted for love or money. That's enough to inflict almost irreparable .uin to Immigration from where the false representations have been made. I pray Mr. White, for goodness' sake ! to bear in mind that land is a substance of hard reality, and po- tatoes are not phantoms ; and I pray Mr. White, when he shows his fine samples of products and cereals of this Province, not to neglect to impress on his listeners the necessity ot hard labor in the sweat of the brow, of stern perseverance, of bitter privations that must be borne, before arriving at the comfort that is accomplished with the ultimate realization of his fine samples. In the face of Mr. White's vain fondness of parading his immense mileage, almost long enough lo encircle the globe, and for all I know more costly than a sail round the world ; in the face of his boasted magnitude of correspondence, greater than the chancellor's of a great en.(jire ; in the face of his grande armte of enquirers that beleaguer his door, — in the face of all this, the result of his grand labors plays a most humiliating figure vis-a-vis the grand blown up number of immigrants as directed by him here, that he is wont to boast up in so mpny souls, yes souls ! Mr. White. The humiliating result is that hardly ten per cent, of all the immigrants ever directed by him here, will be found within the boundary of this Province, and his grand summing up of the total capital brought by the num- bers total of his immigrants into the Province to his great credit must be dis- counted down in the same humiliating proportion as his immigrants total ; and since we are talking of Scotchmen, I pray him, for goodness, not to think for a moment that they left their capital behind. Of many I would consider it my* most foolish act in choice between capital of Mr. White's costs, or capital of his immigrants to the Province, to hesitate one moment in jumping at capital — sum of his costs. Finally, in reply to Mr. White, concerning his swagger in the Star that he would send next spring two thousand immigrants to the £astern Townships, I 16 r m give him my opinion fixed by experience, that the Immigration Agent who counts his merits in the figuratively great numbers of promiscuous immigrants directed here, knows no more of the requireme.its of this Province than that its Govern- ment is required to pay him. We have lilcewise very few English immigrants coming amongst us ; what comes don't stick, — their hopes are concentrated in the Province of Ontario and the United States ; we have too many elements uncongenial to the Englishman. And a very strange phenomenon it is that we have no Irish immigration, almost none at all directly from this land of Immigration />ar excellence, that by the exodus of its people has peopled the New World. The more astonishing that we can't attract more the Irishman to this country, for which he is exceed- ingly well adapted in every respect, and where his great Church is alike triumph- ant as his race in worldly success. The Irish name appears here in the highest walks of office andhonor, is represented in the leading firms of commerce and manufac. ture, and the world can be defied to show where the Irishman has done as well in proportion as in Canada. And yet it is perfectly correct what one of the leading Irish citizens remarked, at a public meeting, the only Irish immigration coming to us is from the United States. Much the same may be stated in regard to immigration from Germany ; its numerous immigiants are passing by and not alighting here. The Agents pre- sently employed there by the Provincial Govemme nt can only conduce to make matters worse. The German Government makes short work with eccentric per- sons and cracked fools of Immigration Agents, at the least suspicion of seeing a swindling Immigration game riayed with their subjects, as they have a right to do, as long as it is one of the main duties of any Government to protect its subjects, and foremost against public impostors. Thistles are not grapes, and grapes are not thistles, and in this way run t\\ the Immigration epistles in the Province of Quebec. What scornful mockery this soul-grieving and mind-depressing spectacle of im- migration presented to me on my chair in the Immigrants' Home I Here they bring out, and that only by dint of enormous waste of money, by dint of the most unwarrantable pretences and promises, thousands of immigrants, and when they do realize the actual sight of them, it is but to find themselves in the idiotic perplexity not to know what to do or make of them, verily because the country don't waiit what they, in stupid ignorance of the country's wants, bar- gained for. In Quebec they were heaving and laboring heavily under the hard plight of the over-burdened ass, to effect riddance by rubbing and kicking the immigrants away in all directions and at all hazards, with the difference of having been short of the wisdom of the ass, that don't overburden himself. Each arrival of a large convoy of immigrants threw the Quebeccrs into a terrible state of agitation where to stow away the living mass ; and then, that the public shan't see they brought si. "h quantities of the unsalable kind, and moreover shan't see that they were so dreadfully short of storage for the unmarketable goods, they used invariably the expedient of forwarding on to Montreal the bulk of the immigrants. And here it was considered the great feat of cleverness and efficiency, the point of the points in the acting officer, to disperse again this bulk of immigrants with lightning speed to the four quarters of the globe, indifferent on what coast the stormy sea of Life might wreck them. » Beii.fj naturally ambitious, my old Boss, though a little at loggerheads as we are, would be constrained to admit that 1 attained great efficiency and laudable coming up to the dtsired mark. Dear existence at stake, I worked day and night, and I did effect the clearing out of the crowd. What fresh expenses were incur- red in the riddance was of least consideration ; even connivance in the exit to for- eign parts regardless of additional expenses to this Province was practiced, and that everytiiing went on swimmingly, immigrants and all, a grand bulletin would an- nounce to an interrested and admiring public. But for the initiated, wi*h the smallest dose of feeling, with but a spark of the heavenly light of reason, with only faint existence of honesty, what odious picture of official heinousness did this present, and the more revolting by the next glance at his woful match. One of my duties was to pay dauy visits to the Bonaventurt Stationin looking 1 up and receiving European immigrants arriving by the ordinary Quebec train. There I found another class of immigrants in great numbers, so great that I would not believe hearsay, but my own eyes. And these were the very children born in the country, in the very act of hid ling bitter farewell to " Home, sweet Home," to beloved relations and all that's dear, just at the momentous point in life of immigration, and that to the United States. Studiously I kept away from them, any of my new arrivals, to save me from the most perplexing questions, and studiously when at leisure I wovdd enter into conversation with the \ynn- children of the soil to learn the causes of their lamentable exodus in such alarmingly large numbers. I have seen parting the flower of the French Canadian population of the back countries, just their smartest children, fine, able boys, and vivacious, pleasant, sprightly girls, whereof one was worth more than a baker's dozen of my new arrivals with most absurd ideas planted in their heails by false Immigration Apostles, The causes for the French Canadian exodus may be shortly summed up. It is the absence of abundance of work ; it is the scarcity of remunerative work ; it is in a degree the actual want of constant employment for all the hands ; it is the absence of room in our limited and unprotected industrial manufactories ; it is the existing laws of mtdi^eval age, oppressive in the awaking spirit of the present times, in its antiquated, mouldy nature of minister feudal tyranny, suppressing just these powers in body and mind, free action of the God-given soul, now-a-days so much required for enterprise and competition. Feudal usages will always operate "" injuriously to growth in body politic, to intellectual development and national wealth. Vide the book of life and the history of the nations on earth. It is the China-like stand still in the French Canadian back countries, where they offer still but from $2.00 to $4.0x3 for an able female farm servant, for an able male farm hand from $8.00 to $10.00, in winter often only $5.00 ; in winter hard to find work at all, only in the pressure of the harvest time is the short spell of higher wages, and all this that my parting Canadian friends stated to me I found fully corroborated in my experience at the Immigrants' Home. 18 I - li It is the exceedingly good news brought home by the letters of relatives gone on before ; the good letter is better than all Immigration Agents. « The law of {jravitation is all potent, even in immigration, where it will show its irresistible influence, in causing an all-powerful inclination towards fields of richer substance, and which will continue or abate in proportion to its greater unevenness, or less separating evenness. The cure of this evil of French Canadian immigration will only be found in active strides of concurrence with the United Slates, and not in preaching ; as the farmer said, "Prayer may do good to the field, but it wants manuring." Awake, my French Canadian friends, from the stupor of living so long in the satrapy of Cabalists, who will sacrifice yourselves and children, your lands and chattels, for the retention of power and its emoluments, in marked contrast with the genuine statesman, who, though he may be an out-and-out party man, eminently gifted with the talent of Cabale, one of the apparently inseparable qualities, yet, , who will sacrifice himself and his heaven, ere giving away a single leaf from the national tree, in whose growth to power and greatness his whole soul is concen- trated. Awake ! Insist imperatively on your representatives in Parliament taking your Government to task for giving a full account of their stewardship in immigra- tion, with minute details how the enormous sums have been spent in its working of fatal results. Insist on the earliest stoppage of the cruel practice of increasing the number of destitutes in your large cities m this inclement season, hf throwing still further destitute French immigrants at the cold door of the grim personage, "Canadian Winter." The French Vice-Consul might second your prayerful motion. Ardently do I plead to humanity for opposing this Government-Bossange immigration scheme in its continuance of cruelly dispatching poor immigrants in not inconsiderable numbers by each steamer, into the cold embrace of hard-featured Winter, where least chances exist of finding employment, where charity is already as it is greatly exercised. Really there is great suffering amongst immigrants here in the present winter season, amongst the French-speaking in particular. I know fai'hers of families for weeks and weeks and months out of work. Work with might and main to purify your electoral franchise, and for more efficiency, and higher standard in morals and patriotism, amongst your oflicers in the Executive Administration, whose delinquencies are proverbial, and seem only to qualify them the better for another and higher office. Keep watchful of your Public Officers, that they will be more constrained to observe public decency and what appertains- to respectful position in the eyes of other nations, that public scandals may become of less frequent occurrence. F'rown down upon unseemly conduct on the part of your public officers ; permit it not without censure, when one of them, still under accusation, will treat with public disdain your highly esteemed officers of^National Societies, speaking of them as mere individuals, and making use of disrespectful language towards them for having incurred his displeasure, by simply acting upon their fundamen- tal, constitutional duties. 19 And yet everything concerning Immigration is commanding the highest in* tcrest everywhere, and it should form the most serious subject for contemplation of the whole population of the Province of Quebec, where it is evident that causes exist for depopulating the French Canadian Districts, in such alarming extent, that the local representative of Quebec should have nothing as much at heart as to find ways and means to stop this deplorable exodus, and in connection there- with it will, of course, become of imperative necessity to subject to most rigid investigation the Immigration Policy of the Administration in Quebec as pre- sently practised for attracting and importing immigrants from foreign countries at great expense. Nothing can lay nearer to the representative of this Province ai that he should accjuire a full knowledge of the present procedure in Immigration, how far it is beneficial, and where it is injurious ; that he should gain the lullest insight in all that concerns Immigration and its management, on which is depend* ing the weal and woe of this Province. Impress on your representatives as of the highest importance, to demnnd of the Administration minutely specified plans of the wild Government lands ; that the greatest publicity will be afforded where and how these lands are situated ; that careful and honest reports are prepared and published to what extent these lands are fit fur cultivation, and practicable to be occupied by Immigrants, Demand and do demand of your legislators to provide you with a TarifT of Duties in protection, that your existing factories increase and multiply, and that will create the introduction of new industrial branches, which alone will keep your children more at home, and at the same time make the country more attrac- tive to strangers. Awake from your Rip Van Winkle sleep and arise, if you don't want to live and die the fate of a satrapy, which falls inevitably to the sword of the lucLy General, yet with all the elements at your feet of becoming a nation amongst n?- tions, with all the resources to build up an empire powerful and respected. I find it natural that nationalism of race seeks vitality in drawing nourishment from congenial elements ; but your Government could not even come that, from impotency of profiting of the events in France by gaining over a large number of the dissatisfied Alsatians and Lorrainers, of firstrate stuff for settlers, as their ad- vent' of coming would have been but adding blunder to blunder, and would have but wronged the self-expatriated people. Neither have I any hopes that Govern- ment will profit by the crisis in the United States, that refloods the country with the returning exiles, in any adequate measures, and management for securing their stay at home. We will continue to create more stalls for officers, and more boxes for collections, when within a few days our smart neighbor can send word " Come back, we are all right again," and of course there is no choice given but to return. Nothing can come more under the unalterable laws of nature and life in the truthfulness and bearings as existing than immigration ; nothing is more ironhanded regulated and conditioned in success and all its concerns, than immigration is, by the realities of life and actualities in the land of promise. It is the transplantation and plantation of mankind, the masterpiece of crea- tion and gifted with divine reason, who won't stick and remain in the ground. 20 whero l)y his rcason-guuleil will, ho will not. No artifice of trumpery, no moun- tchauk tricks of the olficial goM-huiitcr, can stupefy Iii; reason, or senses of sijjht an 1 taste, into the belief that the pineapple yrows on the (<|uel)cc pine tree, where it don't, and the fig on the Quebec maple, where it don't. On the other hand the alarming exoilu-i of the r'rench Canad ian race furnishes proofs that not artificial training watched over with the greatest study and care, not the dearest ties of blood and birthplace, no sentimentalities of any kiiul, nothing of the sort, can hold back the French Canadian, since the conviction has been brought home to his reason that he can li\e and do better elsewhere, accompanied as reason is with the strong animal instinct, to run for richer pastures. lUockheads or knaves that profess or dissimulate to l)e troubled in the search of the causes of this exodus, where is but needed to open the eyes and see what is going on in the outlying French (.'aiuidian counties, where the young man and maiden, that had the misfortune of having been born of poor parents, must make up their minds in gaining bare life's existence with slavinr labor ; if they won't — emigrate they must. J^nd still harder and nearer causes operate in the cities in the same dircctiol^. Even China and Jr.;>an, who it must be remembered count the age of eternal insliiudons and government not only by hundreds but by thousands of years, are forced to open their anciont gates of antediluvian antiquity to the progressive spirit of the age, indeed more, it appears, than the Province of Quebec. I don't know If either in China or Japan an official document would be treated with the same submissive and passive non-challenge as the official empty-handeench immigrants lon^ before the chickens are hatched. Everybody is fully awr.re that nothing came out of fhe rotten egg *' de la rubanerie " St. Hyacinthc. One French immigrant made mc aware fhat he was badly sold by this rotten egg. I fell in accidentally with this immigrant on his way to the office of the Ocean Steamship Company. Me was very communicative, as immigrants are wont to be, and told me that he was going to buy a return ticket to France ; that he had been b" I'ly sold by the Immigration Office, where he was directed to proceed to St. Ilyacinthe, sure to find employment there in the Riband P'actory, which would come into immediate operation. After an idle sojourn of abouf six weeks, that threatened to consume his funds, lie was at last made aware that the whole Riband Factory in St. Hyacinthe was a rotten piece of business from beginning to end, and in all i)robabi]ity would never come to anything. He further related that he was by actual professitm a velvet manufacturer, but also understood to work at ribands. Bitterly as he denounced the whole Immigration Department, and its agents as impostors, he was still favorably impressed with the country, •and expressed his determination, if he could succeed in making all his fund., ready available, to return soon again, as he had learned that many of the indus- tries of France might be very protitably transplanted to here. It is a proof in point that labor does not best capital. Wherefore, I pray to goodness, calling by, in this state of affairs, any number of poor immigrants, no matter how pro- miscuously comjjosed. It is the cry of immigrant in the vocative, to keep to office and 1 joney in the superlative. One and all of the publisheil official reports on Immigration, of both the De- partment and its agents, are documents highly inflated with the gas of humbug, . and they were obeyed with great assiduity and punctuality, — the only way for show- ing up hancisome figures. The immigrant who stopped in St. George's Home, St. Andrew's Home, hotels, or with relatives, or mere temporary in the station till the train should start to bring hin'. away, if paying a visit to the Home, down in the book would be written his nc^me, in spite of all his expostulations that he merely had come on a visit, merely to ask a question, t know of immi- grants, professedly en route to New York, who were persuaded — with a view of making them remain here — merely to come and pay a visit to the Home, and who were entered in this way. And in this way the statement that 3,013 immigrants were received at the Homt was blown up to its soap-bubble dimensions. And the statement that the 2,013 immigrants were placed by Mr. Belle in the city and environs would be simply ridiculous, if it was not worse. I^'ot half of the number was actually placed by the officers of the Home, but the rubric, where placedi woul be filled up anyhow, somehow, with "left for the country," or in some style. Since Mr. Belle is of leading cognizance of the modus uperandi, his statement that he placed 2,013 immigrants in the city and environs is not a truth, but an illusion. And since all acting immigration officers here know what assiduous and- sometimes very hard work il is to make out any places at a . in many cases, and particularly at certain seasons, it is perfectly uncalled for to put the seductive attraction in these overblown figures. The figures I shall now give to the public are much more tnithful, namely, that of the 6,000 immigrants in this way received and reported by Mr. Belle, placing the arrivals in the years 1870, 1871 and 1872 in this one total figure, that of this total hardly more than 200 adults will be found within the boundary of the Province of Quebec. Not more than what I saw of French Canadians leav- ing ',n one day. I know of a single day on which ioo French Canadians left the District of Montreal. All my statements are made from carefully collected notes ; and what is most vexatious in all of this is, that the country cannot be blamed for it. * When these grand official icporti, on immigration are given out, an ever-com- placent Press will quickly take up the big trumpet and blow in 'fullest ex- tension of cheek.s, "Thanks to your great good Government, the manna of life is showering on you, in the thousands of immigrants brought amongst you ; they have come, and still they are coming; play fiddle, fife and drum, and bagpipes. So-and so, Esq., Provincial Immigration Agent, has received over two thou- ' sand immigrants. All are placed in Montreal and environs. So-and-so, Esq., the Dominion Agent, has placed only in the city of Montreal and the Eastern Vt^l 23 Townships over fifteen hundred immigrants." just so could it be read, at one time, 1 remember, in certain newspapers here ; yet if the Lantern of Diogenes would have been brought into requisition, it "could not see it." A knowing one and myself observed smilingly the ominous silence of the goldsmith's apprentice, who obstinately refused to say what he thought about his boss and his customers, but when picssed very hard, it was .squeezed out of hiiu that he thought his boss was a rogue and his customers were fools. If the political Jackbox pops up a new immigration agent, all the complacent Press cries out with one voice, Perfection that's he, what wisdom in the choice, so , eminently gifted in all Apostle qualities is he ! The life of the Canadian immigration agent is the ror.-antic of romance. One of the gentlemen of immigration, on occasion of a pleasant little visit to the land of his pays, had the honor of being admitted into the presence of HLs Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Dufferin. To improve the auspicious moment, the immigration gentleman delivered himself of a most interesting story of the romantic island of Iceland, the icy silvery gem of the arctic regions. No more romantic spot could he select for his theme. The land so great in the minstrelsy of the North, and in wild ballads of ihe daring Wikinger's great deeds of valor in combat with giants and sea monsters; of sweet Ingeborg, the proud king's sister, the sweetest and most beautiful rose that ever blossomed in the North, how she was wooed and won by Frithjof, though bondsman, the Wikinger bold, whose head waved in battle as defiant as the crown of the oak against the howling storms of the earth. Its poetry sings yei of Walhalla and tlie gieat gods of the North, Oden and Thor ; of the heavenly beauty of Frtja, the goddess of love. The hero ot immigration nutrated to His Excellency, with Walhalla-inspired eloquence, how the ancient V/ikinger's spirit of love for wild, seafaring life and adventurous invasion of foreign coasts, had once more suddenly revived with such force amongst its descendants, the Icelanders, as to seize the whole nation ; how they were on the very brink, the whole nation, to fly on their sea-dragons over the ocean waste, and would never stop till landing in Canada their chosen land. His Excellency listened naturally with the deepest interest, and was delighted with the grand hopes ; so complacent newspapers said. At any rate it is highly suggestive the immigration gentleman should make at the earliest a trip to the romantic island, and as a little information for the road is never altogether despisable, even from lowly people, I tender it humbly, namely : that the 'ce there is very cold and icy, as plentiful as it is beautiful, wherefrom the island has derived its name ; the mountain tops look for all the world like iced cakes ; when the hot water nfns out in the keitle, he'll find it there spouting forthf boiling, right out of the mouth of good old Mother Earth, and, Amused will he be By the wild roaring sea, And in thundering c'lorus By the horrible Volcanus, Such is intnigration in high life. — S5 lands — that is, by the enticement of imniigrf.nts of mechanical professions out of comfortable, fairly remunerative places at home, with phantoms of the Eastern Townships, vvho, upon arriving there, will, as a matter of course, find rather the absence than the abundance of demand for their peculiar calling in advanced me- chanism, and they will consequently turn their backs on Canada in disgust. It can- rot be expected otherwise than that they'll speak bad of the country, of which they know no more tnan what they experienced therr.selves ; and if the injury accruing therefrom to the country is saddled on t]}e light horse, it will fall on the back of the ass of nn immigration d^ent. I beg the St. Andrew's Soc'';ty in Montreal to take this chapter into their serious consideration. The proofs of this execrable practice are not wanting, forming identically the open-hand proofs of injury to Scotch immigra;'-'!, acknowledged to be so desirable and valuable, and all this merely for parading great figurative numbers of immigrants. In connection with Colonization Societies, I must call attention to a very damag- ing practice amongst farmers, that I found of too much frequency — that is, of engaging immigrants in spring and ' summer at most liberal wages, which they oromise for the year round ; yet as soon as the leaves begin to wither, they find some wny of breaking the agreement, offer for any possible continuance much smaller wages than the good man will work for ; snd the really good .'arm- hand, the only desirable immigrant, now makes up his mind at once, and speeds double quick to the United States. This really occurs too often, and is one of the self-blamable causes of the scarcity of help under which our farmers suffer. There should be a stringent provision made in the Immigration Office in prevention of this damaging practice as much as possible, and in protection of the immigrant. Instead of following the ruinous methcxl of enlisting immigrants through deceptive and false representations and false promises, why not go coolly to work amongst the ready-made immigrnnt population that i.~. so numerously to be found in many territories of the Old World. And all this could be done with strict observance of a-, ing like the keen merchant, who will only select from the foreign market what he Knows meets with the most ready demand and quickest sale in his respective mart, and who will rather do without if he can't exactly get what he wants. Ready-made immigrants I call those that recruit themselves without any agent, out of the following classes : — 1. From the right-good steady-habited hard-working common class of laborers that can work on the road and train, or on the farm; from factory hands, in country places, where they can generally work off ard on in the field, that gives them a notion for the cheap land in America; from factory hands in large cities, which it will ever be best to leave to themselves as regards Canada ; from mechanics of all trades, and moderate wages ; from the regular farm servant-man in the rural d'stricts, where the self-acquisition of land is next to impossible to him ; from farmers' sons, that don't see much chance of getting a piece of land of their own. Amongst these rubrics are plenty of men whose uttentiou has been long directed to America, through letters, books, and talk on public places, laying the germ of • 24 To change the subject —" well, then, let me turn to the tapestry." It is (Tenerally admitted that the Colonization Societies are to no purpose in the realization, not even in the smallest degree, of what is expected from them, and in all likelihood never will come to rnything. The all impd^tant land question should be dealt with directly by the Governments and with the greatest solicitude. The Country Laird is generally a most estimable and respectable personage, but his periphery is not unfrequently limited to the horizon of this village and its special interest. However, that nothing as yet has been accomplished by the Colonization SpcieUes is a fact that needs no comment but abolishment. Xl'hat good I have seen is not of the Colonization Societies, but of their secre- taries, which consisted in the mailing of certain immigrants, postage paid, from one place to the other, till they made the round through the Eastern Townships, when they were 6nally directed and addressed to the Immigrants' offire in Montreal, accompanied with letter, in which the good secretary owns up the corn. A copy, which I took care to keep of many of such letters, will speak for itself. Here it is verbatim : Shkrbrooke, Aug. i^, 1872. C. E. Belle, Esq, Dear Sir. The bearers, Carlisle and Mahan, were sent to me by Mr. Thorn, with instruc- tions to forward them to you as a last resort, if I failed in placing them. I have been unable to find suitable places for them here, and feel obliged to send them to you. Hope you will be able to suit them. \ours truly, H. HUBHARO, Secretary Colonization Society. This is the sort of immigrants our great Immigration Agents pick for us, who are of such hard suitable propensities, and fastidious taste in palate and other- wise, stocked with such un 'arthly nonsense by false immigration apostles that they'll find no country i. the world suitable to their exaggerate] n )ii()Ps, and make themselves alike unsuitable to the country. If the same men would have " been able farmhands, imbued with the common sense that they would have fir,t. to adapt themselves to the country of their adoption, before the> can think df realizing '' un cwcnir aise," why, it would have been but a pleasure to Mr. Hubbard to place them in the easiest facilities existing in ' fie Fastern Town- ships, to do so, where good farmhands are so much in demand and so welcome. I hav6 not the honor to be personally acquainted with Mr. Hubbard, but from what I have heard of him I have every reason to hold him in respect as a gentleman who will not keep shy even of going to trouble in anything whereby he thinks he can benefit his country ; and I beware of the construction of mean- ing anything derogatory to Mr. Hubbard by this particular citation. The cleverest of the clever, the light of the lights in immigration, Mr. White, in Glasgow, is in the habit of making use of the Eastern Townships, really con- stituting the pearl \n the coronet of the Province of Quebec, in the same deceit- ful manner as of the Grand Tnmk Works, and of unapproachable Government ^i 26 dissatisfaction, and when once well taken by thf iininigrntion fever, will not rest till they find themselves en route to the great land. 2. From the under stratum of tradesmen of all colors working on their own hook ; from small fapners and gardeners, in the rural districts, that work them- selves nearly to death to extract a livin'j; out of a small piece of land, America is working long since in their mind. Whatever fate may have in store for this my second as for my first mentioned class of ready-made stuff, it is not, and can't, he much worse than what they left behind, and they'll be easily satisfied. 3. From the middle and better classes of farmers, tradesmen and rnerchants, and running up to aristocratic land-owners and officers who think only on leaving for America in consequence of family scandals, troubles with the Government by too great liberalism, misfortunes of some kind that limits their way of living. All men of more or less means. 4. From tht' restless ektmenls of all classes, from the beggar to the nobleman, shiftless characters principally found abcut large cities, mechanics imbued with absurd ideas of liberty, high wages by great self-importance, and short hours of labor, &c. And it is from the latter class of immigrants that the Province of Quebec has so far been principally supplied with immigrants, brought out and fed here with great expense, the class with which no honest Immigration Agent will meddle, as they cannot be much or any benefit to any country; they will shift best for themselves. Of course they snap quick fit a change held out to them in great promises of being so much wanted heiR, and most hospitably found in everything till they would " suit" themselves.. Whoever thinks that I am going too far in this my assertion I shall refer to Kev, Mr. Slick, Rural Dean of Bedford, E. T., and to Messrs. Cameron and Kdwards in Thurso, on the Ottawa, who have seen, assisted, treat- ed and tried cur sort of immigrants by the hundred. I have never spoken with either of the.se gentlemen on the subject, yet will and must abide by whatever judgment they pronounce, if the case is submitted to them. The importation of the last-mentioned stock, and consisting of promiscuous mechanics in majority, at such great expense, amouuis to mad frenzy in office, in a country whose wants in immigration are so plain in demarcation, so sharply restricted to only but the tillers of the soil and its connecting help, and sensible servant girls, if they can b^ got. It amounts to the height of brainless madness in a country whose own chil- dren are leaving for scarcity of room in the narrow, limited industrial manufac- tures, that languish for the want of wise protecl'cn in a patriotic tariff of duties, whose own children are leaving for the very want of abundance of work in work- shops and factories. An overcrowded labor market is ever injurious to any countiy, and is the more so to Canada, where we must admit that the laborer not only needs to be enabled to lay a little by for a possible rainy day, but for a certain snow-drifting day. Abundance of work at fair wages is conditional to the growth of this country, and since the circumstances of clime are not so inexorable that the intelligence of man canrot easily overcome its difficult'es in the way of work the year round, well let all set to with a will and overcome them. Our Press I blame for many things, though boldly headed in their sanctum with the greai and free omblem of the Phrygian cap ; yet many of its organs d«- 27 scend to greater servility than the Press does actually in despotic realms under the iron hand of the Autocrat. If the government there has made a visible faux- pas, the press knows nothing at all about it, or only cries hush ! hush ! Hehe the Press v.'ill break out in hallelujahs in praise of the blunderers to hush up the gross blunders ; nay, the catlike flattering f^austus in gc /emmental sunshine, puts right out his claws and spits terribly at the reforming dissenter. So, when the station for the Dominion Immigration Agencv was erected near Tate's Dock, it was admirable in situation, perfection in its interior arrangements, only for the fas i progressive age, it was found impracticable in avenue, before it received its finishing touch. Next the Dominion Agency was transferred to the Tannery Station ; now this was the very spot could not be beat, uniti.ig so pre- eminently all the advantages, easiness of access, and same time placed far from the city, to keep the immigrants in safe distance from the dangers and spoliations In- herent to great cities. A novel argument, indeed, to keep the guests shy of the host ; the immigrant from coming in contact with the people of our city, still not enough isolated from immigration, it appears. I beg to tell this writer that there is not a city on the Continent of all America, of the same size, to which the immi- grant can be as safely entrusted as to the City of Montreal, regarding harm from it.s citizens ; nor another city where the immigrant enjoys such kindly care and pro- tection from the entire Police Force to a man as here. I know of one officer in the force, the immigrants' philanthropist, who has done more in kind acts towards immigiants than any other man in the whole Province — I except not in the force, Detective Lafon, whom I found ever ready with laudable promptness at all hours to give his clever hand of help to the distressed immigrants. Business is business in these days, and t forgive him his little escapade in the wrong direction for the once, when he changed his wonted side for that with the amorous Immigration Agent ; but then he has been most signally defeated, and will have enriched the leaves of his book with an everlasting lesson, that it makes all the difference in the world on which side a man fights. Again I have mounted a war 1. irse, with lance in rest, a la mart snns ^race, in defence of immigration and immigrants, against the deceivers and their heartrending deceptions ; and alllioui^h my battle charger may look of despicable condition, being very poor and jaded, yet he is well bred, of highly seasoned metal, and fiery, that will deceive the deceivers. To keep immigrants by any human precaution from coming in contact ^i t'l the new, strange people they have come expressly to see, and they are the most eager to see, is tantamount to preventing the St. Lawrence from coming in con- tact with the sea. If prevented from seeing the people here, the more they search 'lie acquaintance at other places. It is as if all the powers in immigration were leagued against the City of Montreal ; even the very immigrants, headed from the start for Montreal, the pre- determined place of destination, amongst whom I always observed a goodly num- ber to join relatives and friends here — these very Montreal immigrants are tor- mented as long as possible before they can reach the city. After a tedious voyage from Quebec of from fifteen to thirty hours' duration, they are kept from reaching the city up to four and six hours at the Tannery Station, till the pilot-engine takes the pity on them that appears for them nol to exist in the hnman heart. fca 28 1.;^ Here I must pause, to tell what of good news I have for the city. It was my duty to post myself sharp to /time at the Bonavcnture Station when a convoy of immigrants for Montreal was expected, and never was I so there withom en- countering from half a dozen to more persons, residing in the city, who expected relatives and friends amongst the to-day's incoming immigrants ; and for hours did we pace up and down togeth sr in waiting ft)r the Montreal immigrants that we did know had arrived so near as the Tannery Station. And this is the only immigration which Montreal actually does receive ; and this is the nicest kind of immig"2tion coming by this the most healthy channel. Yet for making every- thing nice to the immigrants hound in majority to the United States, the poor relatives and friends of the Montreal immigrants must wait their feet away it: the Bonaventure Station, till they come in contact with an embrace from father/' mother, brother and sister. I would say, if Uncle Sam were not such a merciless shark in anything that's connected with l)usiness, the Canadian Government should call on him, ear- nestly, for a handsome subsidy, for the active part they play in procuring him large nuiYibers of immigrants, and entertaining an I feeding them so well on the road through Canadian territory, and all at such great trouble and expense to themselves ; for instance, like at the Tannery Station. Otherwise, for the city of Montreal the T.inaeiy Statif>n is of no earthly benefit whatsoever. T^^e clever writer of the article in praise of this s pot, and who is also a luminary in immigra- tion, mivj'it have found by a deeper peep, if he'liked, that it is neither more nor less thava lucrative appendage to the Express Hotel, kept by Mr. McClanigan, and whj is attached in some official capacity to Mr. Daly, the Dominion Agent. It operates l.ike a superb mill in connection with the bar-room of the Express Hotel, which, it seems, is like the bond fide Dominion Immigration Office, for the Montreal immigrints. Such scenes are not of rare occurrence that the Hotel or Immigration Runner, who 's hardly distinguishal)le, takes possession, willi ex- clusive sway, of a gang of immigrants from fifteen to thirty and more heads, and guides them in a solid phalanx, impenetrable by the other hotel runners, into the bar-room of the Express Hotel, where, as he assured them, and what operated as the magic charm, they would find the Immigration Agent. Afterwards might be seen the still more repulsive scenes, of bemuddled immigrants quasi under the pale of iinmigration ; and the most sinister of all, in its possible consequences, is that of a poor immigrant girl in quest of information and direction, being received in the hotel passage in full view of the bar-room, where an accidental cupidious visitor might espy a fine chance of following the poor girl, and in her bewilder- ment and ignorance of the new place, easily accomplish any vile ends. Dark as the picture is, there it is, drawn with the firm hand that knows the strenj.th of his single arm against a whole band fjf greedy and helpless retainers, rests in facts, the stubborn. It will do me great wrong if this is construed into an attack from any personal nnfotiyes or personal illfeelings; I can't have them, as I have always been treated in the most friendly spirit 'oy both Mr, Daly and Mr. McClanigan,- nay, I desire to bear testimony that I found Mr. Duly a most kind-hearted man, of am;able and accommodating disposition toward immigrants, highly qualifying him for Jiis posi- 2d tion, which consists principally to act as adviser to the onward stream of immi- grants. Mr. McClanigan is a well known business man ofgre.it tact, of strict sobriety and a hard worker, and well qualified as caterer to tlie inunigraiils, than whom no better. And if he makes the best use of a good thing, well that's the order of the day. But, nevertheless, in the interest of iminigritiwn and immigrant, and of the reputation of the Dominion Agent even himself, ! shall strenuously advocate tliat the existing domineering inlluence of the Kxprcss-llotel over immigration and immigrant shall bp cut off with the sliarpness of the razor. Indeed tiie innnigranl can find the road to the liar-room quick enough himself, which, if curse it i.s, is of still more danger to the verda it stranger. This Dominion Station at the Tannery is a wonderiul mill in its workini^s. Verily it is verifying the fable-tale where the buck hire