304 COLONIAL POLICY. 



grants of all descriptions to penetrate into the wilderness in search of 

 locations ; it perhaps arises from the present mode of disposing of the 

 lands ; but whatever the cause may be, it is perfectly an erroneous 

 system. The colony should grow from the parent root, that is to say, 

 the older settlers should make way for those newly arrived ; they 

 generally will be too happy to dispose of their cultivared farms for 

 ready money, and will purchase an uncleared lot in some distant set- 

 tlement ; they then become the pioneers, and are better able to un- 

 dergo the difficulties that must be encountered. 



It is a common custom in America for persons to sell their " bet- 

 terments," (improvements upon a lot of land, comprising the log hut, 

 out-houses, and the ground cleared of trees), and remove to another 

 spot to go through the same work again, and perhaps again sell and 

 remove further into the wilderness, some prefering to reside at a dis- 

 tance from other settlers. I remember hearing of a person of that 

 description in Upper Canada, who actually removed, because settlers 

 were locating themselves within thirty miles of his habitation. 



A great number of officers have settled upon their grants of land, 

 and I am confident, with few exceptions, they would have been wiser 

 to have refused their grants upon the terms of actual residence ; and 

 to have purchased, in preference, small cultivated farms with buildings 

 upon them in a well settled part of the country. In the end it would 

 be a cheaper purchase ; the expense of removing themselves, their 

 baggage, furniture, &c. over miserable roads is very great, and their 

 ignorance of the customs of the country would soon make itself ap- 

 parent in the diminution of their purse. The Canadian back-wood's- 

 man goes f( into the bush," with his axe over his shoulder, with the 

 addition of a barrel of pork, a barrel of biscuit, and some common 

 whisky, and thinks himself well provided ; he contents himself with 

 erecting a shanty * until he can conveniently supply its place by a 

 log-hut ; he then exclusively applies himself to the clearing of the 

 ground. To reverse this picture, and to demonstrate the different 

 mode of proceeding adopted by the officer upon his grant, suffice it 

 to say, I have heard in the back- woods a harp played as divinely as 

 in any drawing-room in England ; the officer and his family are very 

 happy and contented until the first excitement of settling is over ; 

 but then they look around, and find they are, in a measure, cut off 

 from society, and at a great distance from places where can be pro- 

 cured the necessaries and conveniences of life. The church, the 

 doctor, the mill for grinding his corn, the butcher's shambles, toge- 

 ther with many other wants, are not to be procured except at a dis- 

 tance, and withal it has cost him more money to place himself in this 

 inconvenient situation upon his grant, than if he had given it up 

 altogether, and made a purchase of a cultivated farm. But as it is of 

 importance to encourage persons of his situation in life to settle in the 

 colonies, the officer should be entitled to his grant without being 

 obliged to locate himself upon it, provided he binds himself to remain 

 a certain number of years in the colony, and, in that case, should have 



* A shanty is a temporary hut formed with boughs of trees, having the front 

 open, inside of which a blazing fire is kept up to warm the inmates. 



