306 COLONIAL POLICY. 



will become eligible for settlement, but I consider the present period 

 premature. Numbers of persons have supported the formation of 

 this company with the object of rendering their own lands, situated 

 between the company's tract and the St. Lawrence, more valuable ; a 

 great quantity of land might have been purchased prior to the for- 

 mation of the company, at half a dollar per acre. I now perceive the 

 company's minimum price is one dollar and a half; consequently pri- 

 vate individuals, I have no doubt, have raised the price of their lands 

 accordingly. I can without hesitation remark, that if a company can 

 afford to speculate in the improvement of a remote district, it would 

 be equally advantageous for the government to do so, and at the 

 same time might more effectually concentrate the population. 



In order to assist upon an extensive scale the redundant population 

 of the empire in emigrating to our North American colonies, I pro- 

 pose that a portion of the cost of their passage be defrayed by the 

 government. Passages from Liverpool and Belfast to Quebec or 

 Montreal, are procurable for thirty shillings ; therefore, if twenty 

 shillings were paid to the owners of vessels for every emigrant above 

 ten years of age, and ten shillings for every child under that age 

 who shall be actually landed in any British port in North America, 

 many poor persons wishing to emigrate, would be enabled to pay the 

 difference, and provide themselves with food for the passage. 



- To guard against persons who might endeavour to escape from 

 justice by availing themselves of this assistance, it would be necessary 

 that the government agent for emigrants at the port of embarkation 

 should require a certificate from the officers of the parish (to which 

 each person applying for this assistance in procuring a passage may 

 belong), stating that the applicant is not suspected of having com- 

 mitted any offence against the law, and that he or she has notified to 

 them his or her intention to emigrate fourteen days previous to the 

 date of their certificate. Upon which the agent would deliver to the 

 applicant a passport, which would be a sufficient warrant for the 

 commander of the vessel in which the emigrant embarks, to procure 

 at the port of disembarkation an order upon the treasury for the 

 amount ; provided, however, that the regulations regarding the treat- 

 ment and accommodation of the emigrants on board shall have been 

 strictly complied with. It is preferable that the government should 

 only defray a part of the expense ; otherwise, the emigrant would not 

 sufficiently estimate the advantage afforded ; he might embark with- 

 out sufficient reflection, and afterwards might blame the government 

 for having encouraged him to leave his native country. Very few 

 would return; the industrious would soon feel the benefit of the 

 change the idle and dissipated would not have it in their power to 

 procure a passage back. 



In a colony it is almost impossible to undertake any public im- 

 provement, if proper judgment be used, without receiving a hand- 

 some return for the capital expended ; and it is of importance that the 

 indigent emigrants upon arrival should be accommodated with im- 

 mediate employment upon government works as contiguous to the 

 port of disembarkation as possible, but at a rate of wages under the 

 average rate of the country ; this would oblige them to lose no time 



