564 Our North Land. 



ceased to be a problem, and was at the present time in process of 

 becoming an accomplished fact. What was wanted there, as elsewhere, 

 was more light all round, and a far more accurate knowledge, espe- 

 cially among the working-classes, as to what our colonies really were. 



The doctor's remarks were very timely, and his references to the 

 duty of the Imperial Government in respect of emigration were in 

 the right direction. But he is above all correct when he calls for 

 more light. And when it dawns upon him and his people it will 

 be in the way of assurances of the establishment of the Hudson's 

 Bay route. The light required is as to how the great expense of 

 transporting emigrants can be overcome. It will be seen that the 

 speaker referred to, regarded the expenses attending a removal from 

 Europe to America as one of the greatest draw-backs to immigration, 

 and from what I have already shown, it must be plain to the reader 

 that the establishment of a route of transportation via Hudson's 

 Strait, will almost entirely abolish this obstacle. 



Professor Ramsay, one of the speakers at the same meeting, 

 referring to those whom Lady Gordon Cathcart had so generously 

 assisted to a new life in Canada, and others, said he had found them 

 all prosperous and contented with their lot, especially those who 

 had been out for a whole year, or rather eighteen months. As to 

 the climate, one and all had spoken of the immense superiority of 

 the climate in winter to that of this country, in consequence of the 

 absence of damp. These cases, however, they might feel to be 

 exceptional cases ; but there was another side to the picture It 

 might very well be that the crofters would succeed, and that the 

 poor who went forth from the alleys and dens of our cities might 

 be entirely unable to hold their own. He was offering to show 

 what was the lot attending the emigration of different classes of 

 colonists to Canada. Besides crofter colonists, there had been 

 planted last year a colony in the north-west of Canada of emigrants 

 from the densest part of London, assisted by a number of philan- 

 thropic persons in London. A set of people less likely to do as 

 farmers could not be conceived, yet, although there had been many 

 difficulties to overcome, he had no doubt it might be said of the 

 whole lot that they were doing well. 



