282 VETERANS IN CANADA. 



the great lakes and St. Lawrence to the barriers 

 that form the northern boundary ; have visited and 

 re- visited it time after time, lived for months in suc- 

 cession in different parts of it, and therefore do not 

 make statements without having had sufficient ex- 

 perience to justify me. 



Between thirty and forty years ago, our govern- 

 ment, desirous of introducing fresh and loyal blood 

 into a disaffected colony (through grants of land 

 and flowery descriptions of the productiveness of 

 the soil, and statements of the facility with which 

 all could soon become possessed of beautiful and 

 productive farms, handsome dwellings, and immense 

 herds of cattle), encouraged a great number of 

 veterans who had served under the ' Duke ' in France 

 and Spain, and who had been placed on half-pay 

 through the reduction of the army, to emigrate 

 to the lands lying to the north of Toronto. Those 

 who had private means were able to subsist, but 

 those who had none relapsed into a state of destitu- 

 tion and drunkenness, cursing the deceivers who had 

 been instrumental in causing them to leave their 

 own country ; and hoping against hope that some 

 unknown combination of circumstances might bring 

 them the means once more to visit the resting-place 

 of their fathers. Nearly all these were married men. 

 What then has become of their sons and daughters ? 

 They will be found, with few exceptions, in the 

 lowest grades of society, broken-spirited, unhappy, 

 useless members of the community, who never fail 



