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parishes for establishing a composition of tithes, the sum of 149,3927. 138. 64d.; of this sum there has been repaid, by incumbents, 14,9257. 88. 84d., by parishes 28,606l. 158. 44d.; leaving a balance due to the public of 105,8601. 98. 54d.

Metropolitan Police Assessment.-Returns of the annual value of the property in each of the several parishes and extra-parochial places within the Metropolitan Police District, upon which the last Rate for the Relief of the Poor to the 5st of April, 1833, was assessed.

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8852 St. Clement Danes 3663 St. George in the East 125,131 7228 St. Geo., Hanover Sq. 537,604 26,100 St. George, Southwark. 98,280 72,438 St. Giles and St. Geo. 227,532 76,424 St. James, Westminster 232,568 745 St. John, Hampstead . 31,372 21,898 St. John, Southwark . 34,710 122,967 St. John, Wapping

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.20,014 65 St. John, Westminster. 47.718 119,144 St. Katharine 9513 12,739 St. Luke, Middlesex 129,387 28,395 St. Margaret, Westm. 96,968 36,106 St. Martin in the Fields 147,900 30,070 St. Mary, Islington 153,775 160,140 St. Marylebone .727.033 25,935 St. Mary, Newington 109,533 26.208 St. Mary-le-Strand . 11,119 3185 St. Mary, Stratford, Bow 15,009 15.832 St. Mary, Whitechapel 113,319 53,692 St. Nicholas, Deptford 7968 95,071 St. Olave, Southwark 28,843 26,162 St. Pancras, Middlesex 441,244 93.400 St. Paul, Covent Garden 39,536 282,380 St. Paul, Deptford . 27,193 17,860

. 10,799 St. Paul, Shadwell

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9309 St. Saviour, Southwark. 72,240 St. Sepulchre 74,447 St. Thomas, Southwark.

793 Saffron Hill, &c.

97,401 Savoy

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20,152 Shoreditch

23,983 Stoke Newington

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49,300 Streatham

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12.775 Tooting

St. Andrew & St. George 109.343 Tower, Without St. Anne, Limehouse 30,729 Tower, Within St. Anne, Westminster. 58,122 Trinity, Minories St. Botolph, Bishopsgate 33,780 Wandsworth.

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69,635

12,580 3645 32,045

3685 no Return

13,520 20.682

5907 1855

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STAMPED AND UNSTAMPED PUBLICATIONS. A MR. JOSHUA HOBSON, it appears, has been lately convicted at Huddersfield for publishing an unstamped newspaper, entitled The Voice of the West Riding, and not being able, or not choosing, to pay the consequent penalties, has been committed to the Wakefield House of Correction for six months. Upon this event a great outery has been raised by a part of the newspaper press, which is in the habit of boasting loudest both of its honesty and its logic, but which, on the present occasion, has not shown much of

either.

Mr. Hobson and his associates, according to the True Sun, (see that paper for August 13th,) were led to think that they might publish their unstamped newspaper with impunity by the example of the Penny Magazine. It is possible that this assertion may not be a mere rhetorical flourish, or a falsehood. These persons being constantly told by the True Sun, and other oracles professing an equal zeal for the diffusion of truth, that the Penny Magazine was allowed to be published without a stamp merely through the favour of the Government, may have believed that such was really the case. But when the editor of the True Sun goes the Stamp Office," we take leave to tell him that, enon to say," they saw that work established in defiance of lightener of the popular ignorance as he would be thought, he asserts that which is false, and which he well knows to be false-aye, as false (though certainly not quite so indecent) as any of the quack doctors' advertisements, which he also daily serves up for the edification of his readers.

The Penny Magazine is published "in defiance of the Stamp Office," only in the same sense in which it may be said to be published in defiance of the office of the True Sun itself; the Stamp Office has nothing to do with it. It is not a publication coming under any of the statutes which give the Stamp Office a right of interference. It might as well be asserted, that Johnson's Dictionary is published in defiance of the Stamp Office.

The law on this subject is contained in the statute 60th Geo. III. chap. 9. That act imposes a stamp duty only upon periodical publications, the successive parts or numbers of which appear at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days, and which treat of matters belonging to church or state. The words of the statute are these: "All pamphlets and papers containing any public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, or upon any matters in Church and State, printed in any part of the United Kingdom for sale, and published periodically, or in parts and numbers, at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days between the publication of any two such pamphlets or papers, parts or numbers, where any of the said pamphlets or papers, parts or numbers respectively, shall not exceed two sheets, or shall be published for sale for a less sum than sixpence, exclusive of the duty by this act imposed thereon, shall be deemed and taken to be newspapers, within the true intent and meaning of several other acts of Parliament now in force relating to newspapers, and be subject to such and the same duties of stamps," &c. The Penny Magazine does not treat of matters in church or state; it does not give public news, intelligence, or occurrences. The law demands a stamp only in the case of newspapers; the Penny Magazine is not a newspaper. It is not the description of publication for which a stamp is necessary; and therefore, and for no other reason, it is published without one.

This appears so simple a matter that, having been stated, it is difficult to conceive that any person should not be able to understand it. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless undeniable, that not only the True Sun, but sundry other newspapers have persisted for a very long time in at least pretending not to see the distinction which we

have just stated. The Examiner and Spectator in particular, in a manner very unworthy of the talent with which they are both conducted, have repeatedly descended to retail to their readers what they must have known to be the absurd imputation, of the Penny Magazine being allowed to be published without a stamp, because it was patronised by certain members of the Government. No refutation of this wretched nonsense ought to have been needed; but it so happens that the matter was some months ago very well and clearly explained in a reply which appeared in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal to a very extraordinary attack by the editor of the Literary Gazette, on the illegality and unfairness of the very thing which that publication had itself been practising for many years. For if the Literary Gazette was allowed to be published without a stamp, as it is, it would certainly puzzle most people to assign a reason why the Penny Magazine should not. But the worthy editor, while penning that strange effusion, seemed to have forgotten his own case altogether. It was not a person rebuking his neighbour for a particular sin, being himself notorious for his addiction to another as bad, or worse; but the very perpetrator of the alleged offence coming forward with apparent unconsciousness, to address the public through an attack on his neighbour, in vehement denouncement of his own conduct. It might be hard to say, indeed, whether the oblivion was real or pretended; but take it either way, the exhibition was an exceedingly rich one. Mr. Chambers will excuse us, if we insert a passage from his remarks on this subject: "For our own part, we most emphatically remonstrate against this system which the London Literary Gazette, and other papers above sixpence in price, have adopted, of denouncing to the stamp laws all literary sheets published below that standard of money. The stamp laws say, as plainly as words can speak, that all sheets which publish news and occurrences, and comment upon matters of church and state, shall pay duty. But the papers above sixpence give another reading to the law, and say, that all sheets published at a cheaper price than theirs shall be liable to impost. We had thought the law severe enough, since it prevented the people from getting news and politics without duty; but the severity of the law is liberality itself to the pseudo-liberal newspapers, which would urge the Government, against its own will, to tax the dissemination of general knowledge also. The case is exactly the same ludicrous one, as if the muslin mercer were to denounce war against the clothier for attracting customers to purchase his more substantial articles, to the neglect of gauzes and crapes. It is a mere commercial war, in which a regard to self has completely blinded the assailing party to those very principles of justice and truth which they affect to advocate zealously in general questions."

us.

the penalty of the law, and must suffer it." Having quoted these words, "Here," exclaims the editor of the True Sun," is a salvo for the tender conscience of the Lord Chancellor! To sell an unstamped penny publication-the Penny Magazine, to wit, or any other periodical to which the society of Useful Knowledge may lend its countenance— is quite legal; but to sell an unstamped Newspaper (mark the distinction, reader) is a palpable violation of Whig law! A publication, in short, according to the Whigs, is not a Newspaper-and, conversely, a Newspaper, is not a publication. Now all this, though eminently in accordance with the genius of Whig logic, does not happen to satisfy us." This, we suppose, is intended for something very severe. If the readers of the True Sun take it for either good sense or honest absurdity, they must be very easily gulled.

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These attacks upon the penny publications, and demands that the arm of the law should be stretched out to put them down, seem to come with no very good grace from the quarters where they have been most eagerly urged-from the newspapers that are most in the habit of obtruding upon the public their anxiety for the diffusion of knowledge of all kinds among the people. We should rather expect to find such newspapers expressing their satisfaction, that the law permitted so much information to be dispensed at a rate at which the people could afford to purchase it. What should we think of those who objected to the, prohibition against the importation of foreign corn free from duty, on the ground that it diminished the supply of bread, were they to clamour incessantly for a tax upon the importation of foreign beef, if that also were an article of large consumption among the people? Would not their conduct appear to be rather inconsistent, and hardly to be explained upon any other supposition, except that they had some private interests of their own to serve, for the sake of which they were willing enough that a blow, no matter how heavy, should be given to those of the public? The newspapers which profess to wish for the diffusion of knowledge, and yet desire a law to put down the cheap non-political publications, are equally inconsistent. The people at prosent are not allowed to have political information without a tax, unless they receive it in the way in which our own work supplies it-at an interval of a month. If this be an evil, it is surely some mitigation rather than an aggravation of it, that they may have all other knowledge duty-free. This is something for patriots and philanthropists to rejoice in, not to rail against. But both philanthropy and patriotism are sometimes apt strangely to forget themselves.

It appears that the greater number of informations against the dealers in unstamped newspapers have been laid by common informers for the penalties. This, we should apprehend, would be decisive upon the question of liability to Unstamped periodicals, however, are no new thing among prosecution to any but the most prejudiced. The unstamped We have had many others, besides the Literary newspapers are clandestinely sold by very humble shopGazette, for years past. This being considered, it does seem keepers. The Penny Magazine, and similar publications, extraordinary that the outcry should have been raised such as the Saturday Magazine, and Chambers Journal, are on the subject which we have recently heard. Why, what- sold not only by hawkers and small dealers, but by the most ever the above-mentioned newspapers may pretend, they, respectable booksellers in the metropolis and every provinand all the world, must have known perfectly well long ago, cial town. If their sale were any violation of the law, why that periodical works, not giving news, nor discussing matters are the persons who can pay the penalties not informed in church or state, might be published by any body without against? Informers are in general a sharp-sighted race. a stamp. Has not the well-known little work called The But we have a word to add upon this matter. We comMirror, for instance, been so published for many years? plain not that the Government has been too severe with the Had we not The Olio, The Casket, and dozens of other dealers in unstamped newspapers, but that they have not similar unstamped publications, long before the Penny been severe enough. We complain that they have left the Magazine was ever heard of? Were these all specially matter too much in the hands of informers. As long as the protected by their connexion with his Majesty's Ministers; law exists imposing a stamp of fourpence upon "pamphlets or would not any body in those days have been laughed at and papers containing any public news," that law should be for asserting that such either was or possibly could be the rigidly enforced. Our own opinions have been already excase? Yet, now we have our public instructors gravely pre-pressed as to the impolicy of that law. Its evasion, howtending not to be able to account on any other except such a monstrous and perfectly ridiculous supposition, for the impunity of the unstamped Penny Magazine. They never before heard of such a thing, forsooth, as a publication of that cost issued without a stamp-and they cannot conceive how it can be done in the present case, except in the way that has been mentioned.

When the case of Hobson was mentioned in the House of Commons, the Solicitor General explained the law just as we have stated it. He said, "that if the man had been imprisoned merely for selling an unstamped penny publication, then undoubtedly the punishment was illegal, but if the offence was the selling of an unstamped newspaper, he had incurred

ever, by the publishers of unstamped newspapers lets loose upon us a great many of the evils that some persons dread from the licentiousness of the press, without any of the advantages of the cheaper, and therefore more extended, diffusion of political knowledge.

LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE STREET, AND 13, PALL-MALL EAST.

Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Duke-street, Lambeth,

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LAST YEAR'S EMIGRATION TO THE

CANADAS.

Price 2d.

make it the most attractive of all our colonial dependencies for the great mass of emigrants. If it be compared, for instance, with New Holland or Van Diemen's Land, the demand for labourers may be as great in the two latter settlements; but, being so much more distant than the Canadas, they must, on that account alone, fail to draw anything like an equal share of the general emigration from the mother country. If the Canadas did not exist, the Australian colonies would be much sooner peopled. The former may be regarded as a station placed half way on the road to the latter, which intercepts nearly all that might otherwise have passed on.

In the course of the late Session of Parliament a paper was printed by order of the House of Commons, consisting of Copies or Extracts of the Correspondence between the Se- For this reason, in fact, until the Canadas shall have recretary of State for the Colonial Department, and the Go-ceived nearly all of our surplus population which they can vernors or Lieutenant-Governors of the British Colonies in absorb, there can be no voluntary and unaided emigration North America and Australia, since the last returns, in as to Australia on an extensive scale. Our colonies in that far as relates to the question of Emigration. We propose, quarter can only be supplied with labourers by the employin the present article, to lay before our readers some of the ment of some extraordinary stimulus to force emigration; most interesting facts communicated in this document, with such as the banishment thither of certain descriptions of a few such remarks as the subject suggests, or seems to criminals, or the bribing of persons to go out, by the colony or the government undertaking to defray the expenses of Emigration, conducted properly and in the most advan- the voyage, or to make them grants of land, or to secure tageous circumstances, dispenses its benefits at once in three them some other similar advantage. Now such encouragedirections. It improves the condition of the emigrant him-ments, it is sufficiently obvious, never can be applied except self, of the country from which he is removed, and of the to a very limited extent. It is not to be imagined that we other country in which he settles. It is a process, therefore, ever shall be able to draft off in this way such considerable which each of these three parties is interested in promoting, numbers of our surplus labourers as shall sensibly ease the and it may be often worth while that it should be carried on pressure occasioned by their excess. The subject of Ausby the co-operation of them all. tralian emigration, therefore, is one of quite a different description from that of emigration to the Canadas. It is one in which we in this country are comparatively but little interested, except only in so far as the prosperity of our Australian colonies may be interesting to us. It is in the main their concern, not ours. New Holland and Van Diemen's Land may be benefited by the few hundreds of British labourers that may by any means be annually induced to resort to them; but neither will the condition of the great body of British labourers be at all bettered by this slight diminution of their numbers, nor can any relief be thence looked for to the general community of this country.

A case of this description, in all respects, seems to present itself in the relative circumstances of two countries so situated as Great Britain on the one part and Canada on the other. In the former, at present, we have a superabundant labouring population, with the natural consequences of that state of things-a general depression of the wages of labour, and a wide-spread and most burthensome pauperism. In the latter there is a scarcity of labourers, with a consequent high price of labour, and plenty of employment for all who want it. The transference of a portion of our population to Canada would at once, to a certain extent, adjust and rectify all these inconveniences. The persons so transferred would exchange a scanty and precarious subsistence, or a degrading dependence upon public charity, for bread enough and to spare, made sweet by the reflection that they had worked for whatever they consumed, and been liberally rewarded for their work. Instead of pining and withering away in an overstocked or exhausted soil, they would go to strike root and flourish in one full of nourishment, and where there was ample room for all. The market of labour in England would be relieved from part of the pressure that now keeps it down, the situation of the body of labourers who remained at home would be made more comfortable, and the weight of the poor-rates upon the rest of the community would be lightened. In Canada the woods would be cut down; the ground would be tilled and sown; towns and villages would be enlarged and multiplied; civilization would be carried out over many parts that are now uninhabited wastes; arts and manufactures would be gradually introduced; the wealth of the colony, and of all classes in it, would be increased; and along with that both its value to the mother country, and its power of maintaining its rights against attacks, whether from thence or from any other quarter. In short, what is a load upon us would be a support to it, and it would derive its best strength from what is a source of weakness to us.

For the present, therefore, we propose to confine our attention to that portion of the returns before us which relates to the emigration that has recently taken place to the British colonies in North America. The information which is presented upon this subject is chiefly contained in a report addressed to Lord Aylmer, the governor of Canada, by Mr. Buchanan, chief agent for the superintendence of emigrants in that colony, and in various documents forming an appendix to that communication. We shall endeavour to comprise, under a few distinct heads, the principal facts to be collected from these statements.

It appears that the number of the emigrants who arrived in Canada from all parts (except the United States) in the course of the last year, was 51,746. The arrivals take place during the seven months from about the beginning of May to the end of November, being the season during which the navigation of the St. Lawrence is open; but they are very few in number after the middle of October. Last year, in the week ending the 19th of May, there were 6072 arrivals, and in that ending the 9th of June there were 10,599. Of the whole number, 46,246, or more than eight-ninths, had taken place by the 11th of August, or in the first fourteen of the twenty-eight weeks of which the season consists. The advantage to the emigrant of arriving in the country with a considerable part of the summer before him, instead of at the commencement of the inclement winter of that climate, is sufficiently obvious. Mr. Buchanan remarks, in one of the weekly notices appended to his general report, that the emigrants who come out even so late as towards the end of July and August, generally belong to a poorer class than those who make their appearance earlier. All who have [WILLIAM CLOWES, Printer, Duke Street, Lambeth.]

Two incidental advantages which Canada holds out as a receptacle for the surplus population of Great Britain, are the identity of the language generally spoken there with our own, and the comparative shortness of the voyage which takes an emigrant to its shores from ours. It is the latter of these circumstances which must, for a long time to come, VOL. I.

L

sufficient command of resources to enable them to make the voyage when they please, instead of being obliged to wait till they can, will of course time their movements so as to secure the greatest advantages.

grants into Upper Canada, who come by way of New York and Philadelphia;" so that "it will be found that the number of emigrants arrived this year, and actually settled in the Canadas, will vary little from 55,000." Of the 51,746 who came from other places than the United States, 19,830 were grown up males, 17,052 were grown up females, and 14,864 were children under fourteen years of age.

The next important point of inquiry is, to what description of persons the emigrants generally belong, and whether those of last year appear to have been of a class inferior or superior to those of preceding years. In the first place, of the whole number, 4988 were persons who had obtained the means of emigrating from their landlords or their parishes. These pauper emigrants, as they may be designated, were chiefly from the counties of York, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedford, Northampton, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Somerset, and Gloureceive their allowances of money previous to their embarkation, occasionally squander it on board the ship, or avail themselves of it after they have landed, to enable them to live for a short time at Quebec or Montreal, in idleness, instead of immediately exerting themselves to procure employment. He suggests therefore that, instead of its being, as at present, left optional with the parish authorities, it should be made compulsory upon them to adopt the plan of transmitting funds for the use of their emigrants_recommended by the Commissioners for Emigration in London, according to which, while the paupers have their necessary expenses paid, up to their arrival at the place of their ultimate destination, they are not allowed to have the disbursement of any money themselves until they are fairly located. The late Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Goderich (now Earl of Ripon), however, we observe, expresses himself as opposed to this suggestion, chiefly on the ground that its adoption "would create a responsibility and multiplication of duties, which no establishment that the government could conveniently support would be adequate to meet." It would appear, therefore, that this which the Commissioners have recommended as the best plan, is, after all, one which it is wished should be followed in as few instances as possible. It seems to us that government either ought not to undertake the business of managing this matter at all, or ought to be prepared to perform to its full extent the task it has imposed on itself. But we do not imagine that there would be required for this purpose any such considerable extension of existing establishments as Lord Goderich appears to have apprehended. The funds required for the use of all these pauper emigrants, while proceeding to their new settlements, might probably be transmitted through the government offices without giving much more trouble than is occasioned by the partial transmission which takes place at present.

It had, it seems, been the general opinion in the colony that the arrivals of 1832 would very greatly exceed in number those of the preceding year. It was thought they might probably amount to 80,000. Mr. Buchanan, however, states that he always expressed his opinion that this would be found a fallacious calculation; his conclusion being "principally," as he says, "drawn from the fact, that great pains were taken by some persons opposed to the introduction of British emigrants into the Canadas, to circulate unfounded reports respecting the extent of distress endured by them on arrival, and of a general want of employment in every part of the country." It turned out that the increase upon the number of the preceding year was very insignifi-cester. Mr. Buchanan intimates, that those of them who cant. In 1829 the arrivals were 15,945; in 1830, 28,000; and, in 1831, 50,254; but here the progressive increase stopped, or at least was reduced to little more than onethirtieth of its former rate, the actual increase on the year, as already stated, being not quite 1500. In the arrivals from Ireland there was a great falling off, the number for 1831 having been 34,133, while that for 1832 was only 28,204. Of this difference, however, by far the smallest portion was occasioned by the declension of emigration from the most civilized parts of the island. The ports of Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, and Newry, which sent out 19,579 emigrants in 1831, still sent out 17,402 in 1832, exhibiting a decrease of only about eleven per cent.; while the decrease from the ports of Waterford, Ross, Cork, Limerick, and Sligo, was from 11,948 to 8440, or very nearly thirty per cent. From the whole of Scotland there was a small increase of 144; the number for 1831 having been 5356, while that for 1832 was 5500. The sources of the emigration, however, from that part of the island, had shifted considerably. From Greenock, for instance, there only arrived 1716 persons in 1832, instead of 2988, which was the number the preceding year; and from the ports of Dumfries, Ayr, Inverness, and Grangemouth, which in 1831 sent out 644, there were no arrivals at all in 1832. On the other hand, those from Leith had increased from 664 to 1145; those from Dundee from 249 to 439; those from Aberdeen from 158 to 478; and there were 906 persons from Campbelton, Stranraer (that, we suppose, is what is meant by Strancour), Isla, Annan (if that be the Aunon of the list), Alloa, Leven, and Irvine, from none of which places were there any arrivals the preceding year. But although the emigrants sailed from new ports, it does not follow that there was a change to the same extent in the districts from which they came. From England the number of arrivals in 1831 was 10,343, and 17,481 in 1832. Hull is the only port from which the numbers for the two successive years exhibit any considerable decrease on the second, the arrivals thence in 1831 having been 2780, and only 1288 in 1832. From Liverpool there was 2261 the former year, and 2217 the latter; the only other ports, the successive numbers from which exhibit a decrease, are Southampton, Gloucester and Frome, Carmarthen, Worthington, and Whitby, the aggregate amount of arrivals from these places having been 925 in 1831, and the following year only 482. From London, in 1831, there were 1135, and in 1832, 4150; from Plymouth, 474 the former year, and 1398 the latter; from Bristol the numbers were successively 764 and 1836; from Whitehaven, 138 and 795; from Maryport, 421 and 884; from Sunderland, 86 and 206; from Yarmouth, 514 and 793; and from Shoreham, Portsmouth, Newport, Dartmouth, Torquay, Exeter, Padstow, Milford, Swansea, Aberystwith, Llanelly, Scarborough, Stockton, Colchester, and Lynn, from all of which together only 30 persons came in 1831, there came no fewer than 2396 in 1832. In the latter year there were 9 arrivals from Hamburgh and Gibraltar, 6 from Demerara, and 546 from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick, from none of which places had there been any in 1831. Mr. Buchanan, however, states "that although the recorded number of persons arrived this year (1832) exceeds that of last by 1492, yet owing to the abuses in violation of the Passenger Act last year, by some shipmasters, in making short reports of the number on board, the total number of emigrants by the St. Lawrence, arrrived in the Canadas in 1831, have exceeded that of the present season by about 5000." But "the excess," he adds, "will be more than counterbalanced by the influx of British and German emi

Another division of the emigrants are those who pass under the denomination of Commuted Pensioners, being old soldiers who have been induced to resign their pensions for a

grant of land in the colony. From their previous habits, and also from their time of life, this class of persons are in general, it may be apprehended, by no means the best suited for making their way in a new country, or engaging in an enterprize in which industry, sobriety, and prudence, together with health and vigour of body, are indispensable to success. They are not likely, in general, to benefit either the colony or themselves. The experiment of sending out these pensioners, accordingly, may, we believe, be considered as having failed, both in Canada and elsewhere. The number sent to Canada in 1832 was 1700; and Lord Goderich, in his letter to the governor, states, that probably no more will be sent out.

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The great body of the emigrants of last year, according to Mr. Buchanan, were of a description above the average of preceding years. Many respectable and wealthy families," he says, came from all parts of the United Kingdom; and the extent of property and actual specie brought into the country by them has been exceedingly great, fully amounting to from 600,000l. to 700,000l. sterling." He afterwards speaks of one gentleman who had brought with him 40007.; and of another who had a credit at the Quebec bank from a London banking house to the extent of 16,000. Of those who had no such wealth as this the majority seem to have been in easy circumstances.

We will now proceed to state the manner in which the emigrants were disposed of after their arrival. A circumstance which last year occasioned extraordinary difficulties both to the emigrants themselves, and to the authorities

appointed to superintend their distribution and settlement, was the appearance in the colony of the cholera, early in June. The first cases having occurred among the emigrants, the inhabitants not unnaturally looked upon them as the importers and propagators of the disease, and for some time could hardly he persuaded by any inducement to afford them a night's shelter. On this account many of the unhappy strangers were exposed to the greatest privations, and they fell victims to the scourge in considerable numbers. There were 2350 of them in all carried off. The loss of their natural protectors made it necessary for a good many widows and orphans to be sent back to England. The number of persons thus returned upon the mother country, including about a hundred of the pensioners, and a few lazy characters, of whom nothing could be made, was 850. To these deductions are to be added 3346 individuals who went to the United States. The remaining 45,200 settled in the Canadas; but in very unequal portions in the two great divisions of the country; 35,000 having proceeded to Upper Canada, and only 10,200 having remained in the lower province. Of the latter, the city and district of Quebec absorbed 4500, and Montreal 4000.

Mr. Buchanan's report, and the documents by which it is accompanied, are extremely interesting and valuable on account of the authentic information they supply respecting the rates of wages in the colony, and other particulars intimately affecting the prospects of the settlers. In Upper Canada, particularly, the labourers who went out last year are stated to have received from all classes a hearty welcome. All the information, Mr. Buchanan says, that he has received from the several districts to which they principally proceeded, speaks loudly in favour of their prosperous condition. He adds, "The demand for all classes of working people has never been exceeded in the Canadas, particularly since the abatement of the cholera, and I can assure your Lordship, that during my late tour through the districts and settlements in Upper Canada, I did not meet an industrious emigrant who could not meet with employment; the number of that class arrived this year is not adequate to supply the demand created by the more wealthy emigrants. This was particularly felt in the western and London districts of the upper province; where the want of labourers was so great, that it was found necessary to encourage a number to come over from Ohio and Pennsylvania." The settlement of almost every portion of Upper Canada, indeed, is stated to be going on with great rapidity; villages rising, and buildings extending, in all directions. It is the simultaneous influx of labour and capital that is thus turning the wilderness into the home of civilization and busy industry. Either alone would be equally inefficient to produce the change. Without capital, which is merely the accumulated results of past labour, the present labour that is necessary to operate the transformation could not be procured or sustained. If there were no such thing as capital to do its part in the process, such a country as Canada, it may be safely affirmed, would remain uncultivated to the end of time. In climates where the earth yields its increase almost spontaneously, or with comparatively slight solicitation, labour may begin its work, and carry it on for some time, without the aid of capital created by previous labour; but in these rugged and inhospitable regions, the tiller of the ground would perish before the seed he had sown had begun to germinate, if his only dependence, in the meanwhile, were upon the proffered bounty of nature. In other words, the labourer would be as helpless without the capitalist, as the capitalist would be without the labourer.

In 1832, at Quebec, the wages per day of masons are stated to have been from 3s. 6d. to 68.; those of carpenters, for whom there was a great demand, and whose wages rose accordingly, from 4s. to 5s.; those of smiths, from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d.; and those of miners, and common labourers, from 28. to 2s. 6d. Labourers at the cove, had from 3s. 6d. to 58.; boom men, 5s.; broad-axe men, from 5s. to 7s. 6d.; narrow-axe men, from 4s. 6d. to 58.; and sawyers, 68. 6d. Labourers on board of ships had from 38. 6d. to 58. per day, and were found on board with the best of every thing. In Quebec, Mr. Buchanan states, at no time throughout the year, was the slightest inconvenience felt from the increase of numbers, or the accumulation of emigrant labourers and artificers; but, on the contrary, a very general difficulty was experienced by master tradesmen and contractors, in getting hands to carry on their work, at an advanced rate of wages. He mentions several buildings,

the progress of which was interrupted by the want of artificers and other labourers. Another fact which is noticed is very gratifying. "A very considerable number of labourers, servants, and mechanics," says Mr. Buchanan, "found profitable employment in Quebec and Montreal, and the accumulation of wealth by them, in general, is a certain proof that their industry has met a fair reward; and I have latterly witnessed a very great disposition among the working emigrants of last, and the preceding seasons, to find opportunities to get transmitted their little earnings to the United Kingdom, to aid their friends coming out to join them." There cannot be desired any better proof than this of the improved circumstances in which these persons find themselves in their new country. Comparing their previous with their present condition, they are so completely convinced of the superiority of the latter, that they not only wish their friends to join them, but are even willing to advance the funds necessary to enable them to make the adventure. It is a proof that the earnings of the settlers are more than sufficient for their support, that they are able to spare a portion of them for this purpose. Their willingness to make the loan, also, shews how perfectly satisfied they are that those by whom the money is accepted, should they come out, will soon be able to pay it back. The facts that have been stated, we think, completely make out the advantages that are within the reach of those of our labouring population who are willing to emigrate to Canada, and whose steadiness and enterprize, as well as their time of life, fit them to make their way in a new country. The evidence also that we have of the capabilities of this colony to receive annually large importations of new comers without inconvenience, derived from the numbers which it has already absorbed, is exceedingly encouraging to the scheme of relieving our own overstocked market of labour by sending a portion of the commodity thither, where it is so much more in request. A letter from an inhabitant of Quebec, which is appended to Mr. Buchanan's Report, says, "The demand for labourers and mechanics is much greater here than it is in Europe. The emigrant Irish population of Quebec, and the townships in the immediate neighbourhood, I should incline to estimate, at present, about 13,000. In my opinion there are fewer pauper emigrants in Quebec and the province now than in former years. The greater the emigration, the more cleared the country will become; markets thereby will be better supplied, and less chance will there then be for bad harvests or scarcity of provisions. The prospect for able-bodied labourers and mechanics cannot be better, if we but a moment consider the various improvements taking place in the cities and country parishes. As long as the trade of the Canadas is not impeded or interfered with, by restrictive policy in the mother country, the accommodations of the ports of Quebec and Montreal must become more enlarged every year; the revenue consequently must increase, and the internal improvements, both in town and country, be carried on on a more enlarged scale, thereby affording the emigrant on his arrival immediate employment-his grand, and it ought to be impressed upon him, his only protection against poverty in the winter." And other accounts speak in equally unqualified terms of the certainty that the colony for many years to come will continue able to receive large annual additions to its population from the mother country. On its part, however, the latter may do much to assist and accelerate a process in which it has so deep an interest. Parishes may apply the money that maintains their paupers at home in idleness to pay their passage to America, and by so doing get rid of them for ever. Of course, the emigration in all cases must be voluntary. No individual must be sent away without his own consent. It is one of the dishonest cries (for it could hardly have been raised in mere ignorance) by which it has been attempted to throw discredit upon pauper emigration, to assert that it was proposed to force the paupers to leave their native country whether they wished to do so or not. There never was a more unfounded calumny. Such a course was never suggested or thought of. The simple ground on which the supporters of the plan have rested their expectations of its success has been, that the pauper, convinced that he was likely to be a gainer by the change, would, in a great many cases, be willing and desirous to emigrate if the parish would supply him with the means. In such cases only has it been proposed that parishes should relieve themselves from their paupers by sending them out of the country. The amount of the pro

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