34 



la the report of a Special Cumniittee of the Le<;i.slulive 

 Assembly of Canada in January 1H43, art* tiio ('utIovviii<; 

 statement!^. Wheat must command 4s. (id. .sterling- per 

 bushel, to remunerate the Canadian growers — Flour must 

 command in Britain !33s. per harrel Co ensure the Canadian 

 growers a remunerating* price* — If grain cainiot be exported 

 tu England at a profit to the Canadian growers unless flour 

 reaches 33s. per bushel, and V\ heat (JOs, to (Jls. per qr., 

 the transit of Western Flour will be diverted through the 

 Erie Canal, und it follows that unless prices in England 

 steadily range from 55s. to 01s. per quarter, Canadian 

 growers cannot benefit by the home market, and their carry- 

 ing trade will become so uncertain that few if any will 

 embark in it — One gentleman giving evidence before the 

 Legislative Assembly in September 184*i, said, the averages 

 HI England must be GOs, per quarter to ensure tlio trade by 

 the St. Lawrence, and that when it isover that, the Americans 

 can send their own Wheat more advantageously to England 

 via New York.f 



We now come to the question of the facilities and ex- 

 pence of transit. On this, as was said by Colonel liushbrooke, 

 in the House of Commons, the statements are so various 

 that it is dilBcnlt to arrive at the truth. The Editor of the 

 Farmers' Magazine says " From Ohio, and other Western 

 Stales' the most productive districts in the American Union, 

 the water distance to Montreal is considerably shorter than 

 is that to New York, and the expence of transit through 

 the Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, (now we may say 

 rendered one by means of the Welland Canal) is in com- 

 parison much cheaper than to any port of shipment within 

 the United States. Mc Culloch, p. 42C, says the cost of im- 

 portation from the United States to this country, is from L'3s. 

 to I4s. per quarter for Wheat; in p. 428, he says the price 

 of carriage and warehousing of Wheat exported from Canada 

 to Liverpool, is 13s. In the Farmers' Magazine of Feb. 1844, 

 is the following announcement, " By the Hibernian steam 

 packet we learn that a ship had been actually loaded at the 

 head of Lake Huron itself, with Wheat, and had sailed 

 direct for London by way of the Welland Canal. Thus the 

 Canadian Corn Bill is scarcely made public when a cargo 

 of Wheat, most probably from Ohio, Michigan, or some 

 other of the Western Provinces' of the United Stales, is 

 shipped direct to London from that part of our possessions, 

 which is nearest to those of our own Transatlantic brethren 

 in those regions." On the other hand. Dr. Mc Culloch says, 

 •The price of Canadian Flour in tlie London market has for some lime been 



only from 25s. to 28s. per barrel of 196 lbs. 

 tin several of our pages we quote from Papers furnished by the Canadians to 

 the British Government, but we recommend our readers to consider how the 



