LETTERS ON THE COLONIES—No. VII.
TO VISCOUNT HOWICK, UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLON:ES.
17th February 1831.
MY Loan—But for Mr. WinmoT Honrox's intended emigration
to Ceylon, I should hardly have dared w make any allusion to Canada ; and even though I had been so fortunate as to offer suggestions of value, your Lordship would probably have hesitated to adopt one of them, at the risk of an " interlocutory argument " with the lecturer on political economy at the Mechanics' Institution. For many years past, Mr. HORTON has claimed a sort of property in the management of Canada ; and various Governments have it would appear, allowed the claim, by Abandoning that colony to the right honourable gentleman, as a field for his experiments in the cruel art of pauper. location. At first sight, the claim appears a droll one ; but, upon reflection, your Lordship will per- ceive, that any man, who should get a seat in the House of Commons and make himself troublesome, might easily become the patron and dis- poser of any colony not represented in Parliament. Thus, Mr. GREY BEN:cr.:TT formerly patronized New South Wales; and dire confusion he made of it, with his Mr. Commissioner Bs G —whose Report, with the measures founded thereon, produced that burning jealousy and furious hatred which now divide the colonists as though they were Dutchmen and Belgians. So again, Mr. BAnnow, though without a seat in Parliament, but armed with his quarto book of travels and his Quarterly Review, asserted, and successfully for many years, an exclu- sive right to the promulgation of ideas concerning South Africa. But who cared for these monopolies of interference with the colonies, so long as neither Mr. BENNETT, nor Mr. BAarsow, nor Mr. Hoar oN at- tempted to diminish the patronage of the Colonial Office ?—which, by the way, each of them helped to increase. The unfortunate colonists- " la gent corveable et taillable a merci et misixicorde," governed by the maxim, "si vent Zr gouecrneur, si vent la loi "—were proud and happy that any body here should take any sort of interest in their concerns; and the only wonder is, not that the gentlemen above-named were al- lowed to play tricks with the colonies, but that any body residing in England should trouble his head about those generally despised portions of the empire. Better times, however, are arrived. Canada has, though I admit through mere accident, one excellent representative in Par- liament,—Mr. LABOUCHERE ; whilst the British subjects of South Africa and Australia will not in vain beseech the son of Earl Gear to bestow on them trial by jury and local representation. The very pride of your noble -father, if you inherit it, must incline you to protect those who implore your pity from such oppression as distinguished the reign of a late governor of South Africa, or the more vulgar tyranny of an " Excellency " in New South Wales.
But to return to the waste land of Canada. Mr. Honrox being out of the way, a humble person like myself may venture on his emigration- ground without fear of being treated as a piacher in political economy. In Lower Canada, then, the powcr of the Government to dispose of waste land has been so lamentably abused, that a rational system of colo- nization cannot, to any great extent, be adopted in that province. Though great part of the land remain waste, and the natural fertility of no inconsiderable portion of it have been destroyed, the Government has no longer any power to dispose of it. Take, for example, the still waste island of Prince Edward, the property in which is nearly equally di. vided between the Lords Maisau.r.c and WESTMORELAND. Here no- thing can be done by the judicious use of that element of colonization, the disposal of waste land by the state ; and this is but a sample of the condition of the greater part of the Lower Canada territory. In some
. districts, indeed, the Government still retains portions of waste land;
but it would be dreaming to indulge a hope that such land will be rea- dily sold, even for 5s. per acre, whilst so many millions of acres in the hands of individuals remain open to purchase at a much lower price. We must, therefore, for the present, dismiss Lower Canada from our consi- deration ;—though I intend to take a future opportunity of suggesting to your Lordship a simple' and, I believe, unobjectionable means, for preventing the profusion of past Governments in the disposal of land in the Lower Province, from mischievously interfering with the sale of land in Upper Canada.
Turning to Upper Canada, there is still much to regret on the score of
past profusion ; but the existing disproportion between appropriated ter- ritory and the demand for its use will be easily cured, if time and for- tune should conspire to keep Lord Howten in office, and Mr. Truss out, for two years to come. I mention so short a period on the assumption, however, that the system of universal sale at a fixed minimum price, ktely adopted for New South Wales, will be extended to the Canadas, and that the whole fund obtained by the sale of land will be spent in the cheapest sort of emigration.
It is matter of surprise with some, that the system of selling, instead
of squandering, should not have been applied to the Canadas in the first instance, rather than to New South Wales ;--seeing that, in the imme- diate neighbourhood of the Canadas, the system has been pursued for many years with incalculable advantage to those who had the benefit of it ; whereas, in New South Wales, nothing of the kind was ever con- templated for a moment,—or will be, until the colonists shall receive your Lordship's new Regulations. I allude to the almost universal sale of land at a fixed minimum price in the States'of Maine, New Hamp- shire, Vermont, New York, Ohio, and the Michigan territory, all ad- joining the Canadian provinces. It would be easy to cull from not less than a hundred volumes, instructive accounts of the advantages which the Americans owe to a uniform system in the disposal of new land by theOovernment. I take one at random,—from the book of a plain man, who, though prejudiced in favour of Canada, deserves entire credit for his statements of fact.
Mr. JOSEPH PrcirEtarre, late of .Fenny Stratford, in his Narrative of a Sojourn in America from 1824 to-1830, saYs„at.page 37—" Lam once again under the jurisdiction of the British Government and laws, and therefore feel myself no longer an alien. Though the Americans in general are civil and friendly, still an Englishman, himself a stranger amongst them, is annoyed and disgusted by their vaunts of prowess in the late puny war, and superiority over all other nations ; and they assume it as a self-evident fact, that the Americans surpass all others in virtue, wisdom, valour, liberty, government, and every other excellence. Yet* much as the Americans deserve ridicule for this foible, still I admire the energy and enterprize everywhere exhibited, and regret the apathy oi the British Government with regard to the improvement of this pro. vince. A single glance down the banks of the Niagara tells on which side the most efficient government has resided. On the United States side, large towns springing up; the numerous shipping with piers to pro- tect them in harbour ; coaches rattling along the road; and trade evidence by waggons, carts, horses, and people on foot in various directions. On the Canadian side, although in the immediate vicinity, an older settle- ment, and apparently better land, there are only two or three stores, a tavern or two, a natural harbour without piers, but few vessels, and twO temporary landing-places." To what is this most striking difference between the progress of American and of Canadian colonization to be attributed ? In some measure, no doubt, to the fact, that a great portion of the Americans who migrate from the Eastern coast to settle on the outskirts of civilize. tion in the West, are young couples, in the highest vigour of mind and body, and impelled to the greatest exertions, by that desire for reaching an improved condition and obtaining the means of supporting future oft: spring, which distinguishes the time of marriage. But the difference between American and Canadian settlers in this respect, will by no means account for the superior progress of the Americans. Nor is it explained by their greater skill in handling the axe, their speculative turn, or their democratic institutions. It is owing to this—that, with them, the appropriation of new land is a perfectly curs TRA»E, secured by law ; every one having a right to appropriate as much land as he de- sires, on giving for it a price high enough to prevent him from leaving his property in a desert state, to the injury of others ; whilst, in Canada, the appropriation of new land has proceeded in twenty different ways at the same time ; by purchase ; by engaging to make roads and pay quit- rents, neither of which were made or paid, unless the governor or one of his officers had a spite against the grantee ; by " Crown Reserves" and " Clergy Reserves ;" by gift to disbanded soldiers, American royalists, English lords, and the Governor's parasites ; by profusion here, parsi- mony there, and corruption in a third place ; by the mere pleasure, in a word, of his Excellency Sir John at one time ; and, what makes the case worse, by the perhaps opposite pleasure of his Excellency Sir Thomas at another. The statements of Mr. PICKERING are hereby abundantly explained. Nay, we may presume, that if the appropriation of land by individuals did not take the land in some measure out of the Governor's control, Upper Canada would have languished like the Lower Province, where the seigneurs, each of whom being a "governor" of his own extensive seigneurie, were forbidden to alienate their mis. chievous power over the land. True it is, that the governor of Upper Canada does exercise some very injurious control as to the value of ap. propricitcd lain], by determining, according to his mere whim, the sites of towns, for example, the direction of roads, the situation of other publia works, and the districts in which, and the extent to which, future appro. priation shall take place. But though his Excellency (I speak not in particular of the present Governor, with whose name I am unacquainted) does thus occasion the most curious, and to some not less fatal, as to others not less fortunate, variations, fluctuations, or convulsions, in the value of the land, capital, and labour of certain districts,—still, as the Colonists have some power of managing their own affairs in their own way, the interference in question is not very hurtful, when compared with that which the Governor exercises in the appropriation of new, land generally. This last is the grand curse of Upper Canada ; as it has been that of all modern colonies, excepting only the Western settle- ments of America, which are, in every sense of the word, colonies of the older settlements in the East.
Can your Lordship hesitate about bestowing upon Canada the great blessing of a national, fixed, and uniform system in the disposal of waste land ? I shall listen with extreme curiosity and interest to the observa- tions with which you may, on Tuesday next, introduce "a Bill for the purpose of facilitating Settlements in his Majesty's Foreign Possessions." The House of Commons will, probably, turn a deaf ear to your Lord- ship's speech ; unless, indeed, you should propose some extension of Parliamentary patronage, or some taxation of the landed interest for the benefit of the miserable and debased peasantry. In the former case, you will be greeted with "loud cheers ;" in the latter, you will be treated as a bore, and called WILMOT llorcroN the Second. But, at all events, you will not labour under the disadvantage which constantly attended Mr. HORTON,—that of profound ignorance on his own favourite and peculiar subject. And I make a false estimate of your talents, knowledge, and intentions, if your proposal be not conveyed, through the gallery, to three New Britains in America, Africa, and the Pacific, and there received with transport; returning, by-and-by, when your system of Colonization shall be perfected, to obtain for you the grad tude of millions here.
I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
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