EMIGRATION—UPPER CANADA.

'THE Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada is the very book we have been long looking out. for. It contains, as far as Upper Canada is concerned, every thing an emigrant needs to know at starting, and probably all that is to be learned with any advan- tage from books—and this within the limits of an eighteenpenny pamphlet. The reason of this superiority is to be found in the fact of the writer pouring out the experience of many years from a full mind, instead of drily compiling and condensing and reducing the varying and contradictory matter of some dozen authors, who have written of this fast-growing country at various distant epochs, and who have seen it under various different aspects, and while in- fluenced by conflicting interests and prejudices. Such are the Emigrants' Guides and \rade Mecums that have been lately pub- lished; which, while it must be granted they contain a supply of facts and information which may be useful, it is yet certain give advice frequently of a contradictory tendency, and which at any time a prudent man would be very cautious in adopting, when he recollects it comes distilled through the mind of a man who knows nothing whatever of the matter from actual observation. The Backwoodsman is, however, entitled to speak ; and speak he does, right out, in a hearty and most intelligible manner. His ac- count is that of a man of spirit and education and activity, whom accident, whim, or other circumstance has led to an extensive ex- amination of a new and most interesting land. The diVe of the Backwoodsman's experience of the Canadas goes back for twenty years. In 1813, 1814, and 1815, he served there during the war ; and since 1826,his principal employment has been "to traverse the country in every direction, and visit nearly every township in it, for the express purpose of obtaining statistical information." The chief end he has in view in employing a few winter evenings in writ- ing a book, is—after the general one of being useful—that he may have one comprehensive answer to give to the great number of let- ters he receives requiring information—that he may say, with the late Mr. ABERNETHY, See my book. The answer would be an efficient one ; and if Mr. Mtraaa.v will contrive that he shall pub- lish a new edition every year, including the rapid changes every -day taking place in a country in such a state of accelerated pro- gress, no person need reqUire any thing more specific, previous to entering the country, for years to come. From this Praise we must except the author's political economy. His ships, colonies, and -commerce nonsense—inclusive of his sneers at the writer he calls Peter M'CuiLocH, than whom few men in this country are entitled to profounder respect or higher estimation—are only further illus- trations of the old proverb, Ne seder ultra cripidam. The Backwoodsman touches upon a kind of emigration we have not seen previously suggested, and which is well worthy of attention -that is, infant emigration. It may be pointedly asked, if we are to send out emigrants, why wait until great expenses have been incurred by their maintenance, and then ship them off, just when, if ever, they are least likely to be burdensome—during the days of their greatest vigour and efficiency. The cost of infant emigra- tion would be trifling compared with that of adults; while the ad- vantage of sending persons to a new country with unformed and pliable habits, may be readily understood. The farmers and others settled in Canada would be but too happy to receive children as apprentices, giving a premium at the end of a term, instead of re- ceiving one at the beginning ; and the laws of the colony are so far favourable to the plan, that all such persons are held by the law in loco parentis. The plan is thus spoken of by the advocate of this excellent idea; for which lie confesses his obligation to Major WILLIAM ROBINSON, of the King's Regiment,—a brave and highly popular officer, intimately acquainted with the province.

From the time I returned to the country, I have consulted many hundreds on the feasibility of the scheme, and, in every instance, have been assured that it was not only practicable, but would be highly beneficial to all concerned. The plan is briefly as follows.

Let a number of parish children, of from six to twelve years of age, be sent out to Canada under a qualified superintendent.

Let there be established in every county, or in every two or three townships, if necessary, a commissioner, or board of commissioners, to receive applications from farmers, mechanics, and tradesmen, wanting apprentices or servants; tak- ing from them, at the same time, a bond with securities that they will teach them their trade, craft, or mystery,—keep them, educate them, and, when their apprenticeship is up, give a small sum (say 25/.) to set up in business those who have been indented apprentices. With younger children, whose work will not at first be equal to their maintenance, it will only be necessary to bind the person taking them to educate them ; for, by a law of the province, parents, or persons standing in loco przrentis, are entitled to the work of their children or wards till they attain the age of majority.

The objection that would strike an Englishman most forcibly to such an ar- rangement, would be the possibility of the children being ill-treated; but this

is hardly a supposable case in this country. Their labour is Mo valuable for their master lightly to risk the joss of it by ill-usage, when the boy could so easily abscond ; and, in this country, the fault of fathers and masters Inns more • to the side of a total disregard of King Solomon's advice as to the propriety of using the rod for the purpose of promoting Infantile morality, than au over- zealous conformity with the dicta of the inspired writer. Besides, public opi- nion would always side with the child ; and as, if this plan were to be carried into effect, the children must, in some degree, be considered as wards of the King; the Legislature could easily provide some simple and summary means, whereby any injustice or infraction of agreement might be punished promptly and efficaciously. The advantages of this system must be apparent to all. Parishes would get rid of young paupers, who, in the course of time, grow up, and, perhaps, be- come a heavier burden on the parish by the addition of a family ; and would get quit of them too at an expense not exceeding one-fourth of what an adult could be removed for,—seeing that. 4/. would be the maximum for which they could be conveyed to Canada. And here we should get settlers at an age when they could easily be habituated to the work, the climate, and the ways of the country..

Agriculture is of course the staple employment of the labourer in Canada ; and manufacturers and others, who stiffer most from distress here, have nothing to expect in the way of the occupation - to which they have been bred. It is, therefore, gratifyine.i' to find, . that weavers and persons brought up to other sedentary trades, do not make the worse farmers for being ignorant of rural life at .

home. They are even preferred by some: and their success is con- sidered more sure in farming in Canada, inasmuch as they are exempt from prejudices, which it is difficult to eradicate, and which often prove saclobstacles in the way of a man's progress. In a tho- roughly new country, the plan of procedure found most useful .

varies so utterly from the usages of a well-established farm in a thickly populated country, that a man had better never have learned to rejoice in a universally approved routine. It is singular enough, that the linen-weavers from the North of Ireland shon.;.d make better settlers than any other labourers. Being accustomed to throw the shuttle with both hands, they are ambidexter ; and when tired of chopping with the right hand, they turn the.axe over to the left, to the great relief of the frame and the considerable increase of the day's work. Of trades to be pursued in the new. country, the best are those of the blacksmith, the tailor, the shoemaker, and the tanner. Of the blacksmith, the author says, that if there were in nature such a being as a sober blacksmith, he might make a fortune. Sober blacksmiths are not rare in this country; but in Canada, it must be remembered, whisky is about as cheap as an equal quantity of strong beer at home. The account of the Climate is the best and the most inviting we have met with in any report. The thermometer is no guide in Canada : when it indicates intense cold, the weather is still and mild to the feelings, and such that a person can neither walk far nor work long with his coat on. This arises from the extreme dryness of the atmosphere ; a proof of which may be seen in the tinned iron, which is there exposed for half a century without losing a particle of its brightness. Pulmonary complaints are consequently rare; and the climate might possibly be beneficial, in incipient cases of this dreadful disorder.

It is curious enough, and to be learned both from the Back- woodsman and Mr. FERGUSON'S Notes, as published in Blackwood's Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, that the most notorious poachers in England, after their arrival in Canada, rarely take up a gun : they lose all relish for the sport,—" because," said one, "there is no one to forbid us ; " which, if it were the true reason, would be a curious indication of the bent of the human mind. We, however, attribute the ceasing of the poacher from his dangerous and fa- tiguing occupation, after his arrival in Canada, to other causes. Sporting at home is an aristocratic amusement ; it is a mark of the gentleman,—and consequently, by universal consent, classed among the greatest luxuries. It is forbidden to the poor, while it courts them at the very door of their cottages. Other luxuries are removed from the apprehension of persons who cannot indulge in them ; but in the case of game, this temptation is, like that of Tantalus, ever flying in the face of the poor man. The bitterness of the trial is multiplied a hundredfold by the scarcity of provisions at home—the grumbling of wife, the crying and roaring of starving brats. In Canada, there is no aristocratic prejudice in favour of game, and there is .abundant subsistence for those who will labour: thus, game-pursuing assumes its natural station, and comes to be held an uncertain and fatiguing mode of procuring a livelihood.

If any one doubted the doctrine of original sin and the innate perverseness of mankind, the conduct of the English emigrants arriving in this country would go a good way to convert him to a more orthodox way of thinking. There have arrived in the province, within these last three years, perhaps 15,000 English agricultural labourers ; and it is no very great stretch of the imagination to sup- pose, that every twentieth man of them, when at home, was a poacher, or at least had some practical knowkdge of the use of a fowling-piece, and had in his days infringed on the laws of the land, in defiance of the wrath and displeasure of the squire, the denunciations of the parson, the terrors of the gaol, the tread- mill, the hulks, and Botany Bay, and the disgrace which attaches to one whose life is an habitual war with the laws. Yet, when these fellows have been a few months in Canada, they no more think of shooting than if they were Cockneys. And why ? Because here it would be not only a harmless amusement, but -an honest, respectable, and useful mode of making the two ends of the year meet ; while there it was fraught with danger to both life and character. Accordingly we find, that York, on the banks of a lake, and surrounded by a forest, is not to say indifferently supplied, but positively without any thing like a regular sup- ply of fish or game ; and when you do by accident stumble on a brace of par- tndges or a couple of wild ducks, you pay more for them than you would in almost any part of Great Britain, 'London excepted. . In fact, unless a man is himself a sportsman' or has friends who are so, and who send him game, be may live seven years in York, and, with the exception of an occasional haunch or saddle of venison, may never see game on his table. I wonder, would a total repeal of the Game-laws produce any thing of a similar effect at home? The district preferred by the Backwoodsman, and to which he would recommend the emigrant, is the Huron district of the Ca- nada Company ; of which he gives a very favourable report. The prospects of this country are indeed dazzling. We will extract a portion of the report; the rather, that in Messrs. PicitErt and GALT'S work, a detailed description of this country is omitted, owing to some alleged uncourteousness of the Canada Company. would pay no one for the trouble of pursuing it; after which, it would have a respite, and probably increase again, more particu- larly on the estates of persons who still retained a love of sport. And what then ?—better that the genus perdrix were extinct, than that eighty or a hundred men should be committed to gaol for poaching—the fruitful mother of crime and misery—in three months, in one county town, as was last year seen at Winchester.

If you have no particular motives to induce you to settle in one part of the province more than another, I would recommend to you the Canada Company's .Huron Tract, and for the following reasons:- 1st. The land, as I shall have occasion to show, is equal to any in the pro- vince, and superior to much the greater part of it. 2d. The very great extent of land (nearly eleven hundred thousand acres) gives the settler an extensive power of selection, which he does not possess in any other part of the province ; and when a community, however numerous, comes out, they are enabled to settle together, without any other party interfer- ing with them.

ad. It possesses numerous streams capable of driving any given quantity of machinery, whether for mills, manufactories, or farming purposes; and it has water-conveyance to carry away produce.

4th. Being from one hundred and twenty to four hundred feet above the level of Lake Huron, it is healthy; and the prevalent winds, the north-west, west, and south-west, blowing over the lake, which from its depth never freezes, temper the rigour of the winter frost and summer heat ; and the snow, which has always hitherto fallen in sufficient quantity to afford good winter roads, prevents the frost from getting into the ground ; so that the moment it melts the spring com- mences, and the cattle have pasture in the woods fully three weeks sooner than in the same parallel of latitude on the shores of Lake Ontario,—a great advan- tage to the farmer under any circumstances, but an invaluable privilege to a new aettler, whose chief difficulty is to procure feeding for his stock during winter. 5th. Crown and clergy reserves have long been a bar to the settlement and improvement of the province, though the nuisance is now, to a certain extent, abating by their sale on fair terms ; but no legislative enactment can secure the

people against absentee proprietors—that is, persons about the Government, who lave received large grants of land, or others who have purchased from these, and

who hold them, till, by the labour of their neighbours, roads are cut, and their

value increased. Now, in the Huron tract there are no reserves of any kind ; and as for absentee proprietors, the Company's regulations compel all its settlers

to clear about three and a half per cent, of their laud annually for the first seven years. This is no hardship ; for a man, if he means to do good, will clear much more of his own accord ; and if he has no such intention, it is only fair to pre-

vent him from injuring his neighbour. The Company has made good roads through the tract ; and this regulation, by making every farm be opened to- wards the road, not only keeps them so, from letting in the sun and air upon them, but secures the residence of eight families on every mile of the road, by whose statute labour it can be kept in the very 1.it repair. It has been objected by some, that this tract of country is out of the world. But no place can be considered in that light to which a steam-boat can come; and on this continent, if you find a tract of good land, and open it for sale, the

world will very soon come to you. Sixteen years ago, the town of Rochester consisted of a tavern and a blacksmith's shop: it is now a town containing up- wards of 16,000 inhabitants.

The first time the Huron tract was ever trod by the foot of a white man, was in the summer of 1827; next summer, a road was commenced ; and that winter and in the ensuing spring of 1829, a few individuals made a Judgment: now it contains upwards of six hundred inhabitants, with taverns, shops, stores, grist and saw mills, and every kind of convenience that a new settler can require; and if the tide of emigration continues to set in as strongly as it has done, in ten years from this date it may be as thickly settled as any part of America,—for Goderich has water-powers quite equal to Rochester, and the surrounding coun- try possesses much superior soil.

The chapter on the Field Sports of Canada is very amusing, and will well repay perusal. The chapter on the Soil of Upper Canada, and that called Odds and Ends, are full of information. We repeat, that a judicious emigrant immediately ought to possess himself of this little work.