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and by the gradual diminution of expense, as the system should be perfected. It is, we presume, pretty evident, that any annual amount of emigration, even from Ireland alone, which should be very far short of these numbers, could not produce the least perceptible benefit to the great mass of the over-crowded and famishing population of that kingdom. The annual removal of four or five thousand souls only, could do no more good than the annual distribution of a sack of potatoes among a whole parish; it would be no more felt in its results, than the abstraction of a few drops of water would diminish the visible tide of the ocean. But the steady operation of an annual and increasing drain of some fifty or sixty thousand souls from the Irish population, must surely be found to act, in process of time, as a very sensible diminution in the oppressive redundancy of numbers. Such a continuous relief must, according to its original measure, increase somewhat in the progressive ratio of a compound interest. Doubtless, in proportion as the abstraction might lighten the pressure, population would have the greater tendency to overgrow again; but this tendency could scarcely keep pace with the uninterrupted and increasing drain of such a large yearly emigration on a well-organized system.

The fondest advocates for emigration are compelled to acknowledge, that the whole of this great annual expense of transporting and locating pauper emigrants must, in the first instance at least, come out of the pockets of the solvent part of the people in the mother country. Supposing the most sanguine expectations realized, that the settlers would in time be enabled to repay the debts incurred in their emigration, and that the whole system would eventually support itself; still the original advance of capital must be made and guaranteed by the public. If repayment is to be insisted upon from the settlers, it would be infinitely preferable that, whatever proceeds should be collected from these reimbursements, should be reserved as a fund for the future maintenance and support of the emigration system; and that the sums originally applied to the service should at once be raised out of the national funds, and abandoned, as so much money consumed, and so much capital usefully sunken.

The most pleasing and satisfactory result of the successful experiment of emigration made by government, is the concurrent and unanimous evidence of the warm and grateful sense expressed by the poor Irish settlers, of the benefits which have been conferred on them by their gratuitous removal to Canada. This is strongly confirmed by the disinterested report of Colonel Talbot, with whose character we are well acquainted, as an English. gentleman of the very highest respectability, and who is well known in all Canada as the enterprising and skilful founder of a flourishing settlement on Lake Erie. He says in a letter:

"I accompanied Sir Peregrine Maitland on a tour of inspection to the new Irish emigrant settlements, about one hundred miles below York. I

was anxious to see how they were getting on, and whether the scheme of transporting the poor of Ireland to this country was likely to prove beneficial or not; and was happy to find them doing admirably. These people were sent out last summer, (1825), about 2,000 souls, and did not get on their land until late in November; all of them, that I saw, had snug log huts, and had chopped each between three and four acres; and I have every reason to think that they will realize a comfortable independence in the course of this year, and be of no further cost to the government; and it was satisfactory to hear them expressing their gratitude for what was done for them.'

It is remarkable, that the absence of religious dissentions and disqualifications in Canada is expressly declared by Mr. Boulton, solicitor-general for Upper Canada, to have been one topic of gratulation among these people; and Mr. Robinson, their superintendant, stated that he saw in all their letters to their friends in Ireland, some allusion to their happiness at being in a country where there were no tythes to a clergy not their own, and no religious distinctions. But this by the way: Mr. Uniacke's opinion on the advantage of this gratuitous settlement of emigrants, is very strong:

I know the gratitude that is felt by a poor man, who is brought from Ireland, and settled down in a country where he is in every respect comfortably provided for; it is a kindness that he will never forget to his latest day; and I consider that this operation of emigration, carried on under a British grant, would be highly beneficial, by its establishing regular places as the beginnings of settlements, which would be rallying points to which the voluntary emigration of the whole country would resort. The first settlers will say, We were established here by the bounty of Great Britain; and they will impress upon the new comers, as well as upon their posterity, an attachment to this country, that it will not be in the power of the world to shake.'-p. 46.

Niuna cosa e' piu breve, niuna ha vita minore che la memoria dei benefizi: that nothing is so short lived as the memory of benefits,' is the caustic remark of the Italian historian; but Guicciardini might have added with greater truth, that nothing lives in more bitter and longer recollection, than real or imaginary injury. We have ourselves been domicilated in Upper Canada in the houses of the descendants of German settlers, who had, in the last century, sought refuge in America from the miseries of their condition in Europe; who in the American war had adhered to the royal cause; and who had, at the peace of 1783, been removed by the bounty of this country into Canada. These poor people, during the last war, were among the most loyal of our Canadian population, and warmly attached to the government which had cherished their parents and themselves: but their hatred to the very name of Germany was excessive. We were curious to learn whether any lingering attachment for the "land of their forefathers" had been preserved among them: we have often questioned the

old people who had left Germany as children, to this purpose, and we never received any other answer, than that they remembered little about the old country, and knew only from the report of their parents, that it was "a wicked land, full of oppression and tyranny." In such a spirit is the bitterness which has passed into the souls of one generation, cherished by their descendants for ages in such manner, too, may the blessings of improved condition fill a whole race with gratitude at the contrast. It is notorious, that the most rancorous enemies of Great Britain, in the United States, during the last war, were the Irish, who had been driven by misery, by crime, and by persecution, from the country of their birth.

But it will be argued, and with reason perhaps, that in the present financial depression of the mother country, the annual outlay of a million of capital on emigration, would be wholly inexpedient and unjustifiable. There is doubtless great force in the objection: but this we will say, if the legislature cannot afford a million, or half a million, yet let it grant what it can. Upon this part of the question there is, as may be supposed, a great deal of information in the report before us, that may be usefully applied. It appears that, in some districts in Kent and Sussex, parishes have already encouraged their paupers to emigrate, paying their expenses for them out of the poor rates. There is no reason to doubt that, if encouraged and partly assisted with funds by the legislature, parishes throughout this kingdom, where the population is redundant, and the poor rates therefore high, would be but too happy to adopt the same course. With respect to Scotland and Ireland, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that the cases of those kingdoms differ widely from that of England. In Scotland, a poor rate exists, though,' says the report, so modified by local circumstances in its practical execution, as to make it very doubtful, whether it could be made applicable in the same manner as the English poor rate for such repayment. In Ireland the case is entirely different; nothing in the nature of a poor rate exists by law; and, therefore, voluntary consent on the part of the proprietors of land towards any contribution for the purpose of emigration, must there, as well as in Scotland, be indispensable.'-p. 8.

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The fair principle of contribution, certainly, would be, that the country should divide the expense with parishes, and local subscribers. The benefit to the whole empire is to be considered a general one: the particular relief would be to the several districts. In the cases of Ireland and Scotland, where provisions most suitable for the voyage, and to the previous habits of the emigrants, would be of a cheaper quality than those of English settlers, the local contributors might be left to arrange with the emigrants themselves for the victualling receiving fair credit in the account for this outlay in kind. And thus, altogether, a parliamentary grant of even 250,000l. per annum, with an equal amount of parochial and local

contribution, would ensure the emigration of from twenty-five to thirty thousand souls yearly, while parishes would rid themselves of each pauper at an expense to them, of only ten pounds at the utmost.

On the direction which should be given to the stream of emigration, we are surprised that a doubt should ever for an instant have been entertained. The geographical position, the advantages and the wants, of our North American provinces, at once determine this part of the question. That they abound almost without limits in unsettled lands of sufficient fertility, and that the climate is admirably suited to the British temperament, no one has had the boldness to deny. Nova Scotia is open to the Atlantic, and the voyage out is brief and safe. New Brunswick connects that peninsula with Canada, by the southern bank of the St. Lawrence; and here a densely seated population would be the best foundation for the future securities of the Canadas. Into all calculations for the maintenance of our North American possessions, the contingency of war with the United States, must of course primarily enter. For six months of the year, the only military communication between the mothercountry and the Canadas must traverse New Brunswick; which is therefore the natural point d'appui for the vast line of the St. Lawrence. During the late war, the winter march of a British regiment from Halifax, through the wilds of New Brunswick, to reinforce the Canadian army, was necessarily attempted, and accomplished as an extraordinary feat of privation and fatigue. The thick settlement of those wilds would open an easy route for supplies and men, would afford a formidable military force for the cominon defence, and would form a geographical support for the Canadas, and a curb upon the northern states of the American Union.

In Canada itself, the only inhabited line of communication between the lower and the upper provinces, has hitherto been along the bank of the St. Lawrence. For full a hundred miles that river forms the sole barrier against the States, and when frozen in winter, becomes no barrier at all. Yet along this open route, every gun, every cable, and anchor for our fleets on the lakes, was passed during the winters of the war, under the very eyes of the Americans; and their want of enterprise, in never having attempted to interrupt the communication, was only equalled by the previous lethargy of our colonial government, in not having formed a back route through the interior. The rivers and fall of the country, have marked such a secure route to the most unmilitary eye. The course of the Uttawa, and of the smaller river Rideau, designates the track for communication through the back country from Montreal to Lake Ontario. That line it is now contemplated to fill with an emigrant population; and a wiser plan could not be devised. In like manner will the back country between York and our naval depôt on Lake Huron, be advantageously occupied. It

is incalculable how greatly such settlements will consolidate the strength of the Canadas; while their position will separate the settlers from all dangerous contact with the United States. As much, on the contrary, should it be avoided to break down the forest barrier which covers Lower Canada from Lake Champlain. In that quarter, the southern bank of the St. Lawrence should not be settled. During the last war, it was impervious to any invading force with artillery; and we observe with regret, from some of the evidence of this report, that its strength has already been impaired by partial cultivation.

The legislative measures suggested by the committee, are few, of simple construction, and easy operation; to these must of course be added, much detail of arrangement and regulation for the process of emigration. For example, it would be adviseable to adopt a modified system for facilitating the wishes of artisans and cultivators of some little capital, who should desire to emigrate to any of the colonies. Whether to America, the Cape, New South Wales, or Van Diemen's land, it would be probably adviseable to offer the assistance of a free passage barely, to any body of such persons. who should agree, in sufficient number to fill a vessel, to go out together, and bring their own provisions. A variety of such modifications of the pauper system of colonization would, and must, doubtless arise: but the object would be, for the legislature to give the main impetus to the general plan, and trust more or less to its being worked, and working itself, advantageously, under the influence of the acknowledged probity, zeal, and wisdom of the executive government.

ART. II.

Tales by the O'Hara Family.

Second Series. Comprising the Nowlans, and Peter of the Castle. 3 vols. post 8vo. 31s. 6d. London. Colburn. 1826.

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MR. BANIM, in whose single identity the whole of The O'Hara Family' are well understood to be concentrated, is a gentleman of considerable talents and acquirements. Of his qualifications as a novelist, we have already found some reason to speak in terms of commendation. We attributed to him great occasional power in the display of the passions, though he has always succeeded worst in pathos; we gave him credit for a shrewd insight into human nature generally, and a perfect acquaintance with the eccentricities of the Irish character in particular; and we did not hesitate to declare, that there are few of his compeers who can, upon an effort, imagine and throw off a scene of strife or terror with a bolder or more vigorous pencil. But from this measure of praise we made a fair deduction in the aggregate, for the improbabilities and the extravagance which abound in his plots, for his

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