IMMIGRATION TO NEW BRUNSWICK. 203 



winter, and until the crops on their new land are 

 ripe. 



Bodies of emigrants from the same county or neigh 

 bourhood, going out as a single party, would work 

 pleasantly together, and be good company and agreeable 

 neighbours to each other, as those of the Harvey Settle 

 ment have been. I believe there is at this moment 

 scarcely a county in Great Britain, in which, if the case 

 were fairly stated, and cheap provision made for carrying 

 the intending emigrants directly to a destination pre 

 pared for them, a band of thirty or forty stout-hearted 

 men would not be found willing, with their families, to 

 engage on such terms to embark for a new country, in 

 which, after two years hard labour, and some privation, 

 independence and future comfort awaited them. 



The immigration into New Brunswick has fallen off 

 during the last two years. St John, St Andrews, and 

 Miramichi are the three ports at which immigrant ships 

 arrive, but much the greatest number lands at St John. 

 The arrivals during the three last years have been : 



1847 1848 1849 Average 



16,251 4020 2390 7550 



The exact causes of this decrease during the last two 

 years I cannot confidently specify, but I believe it to be 

 ascribed mainly to the depressed state of commerce, and 

 to the failure of the potato and wheat crops causes, 

 the pressure of which is in some measure alleviated, and 

 which will hereafter allow the tide of immigration again 

 to reach or exceed its former limit. 



The spot to which the intending emigrant directs his 

 steps is, in the majority of cases, determined less by con 

 siderations or representations presented to him at home, 

 than by those which come from abroad. In various 

 parts of North America, both in the States and in the pro 

 vinces, I heard, as I passed through, of single letters com- 



