Observations on Emigration. 47 



and fishing, as much as the independence and novelty of the 

 life, have turned their swords into Canadian ploughshares. 

 The first, I opine, will find their prospects poorly realized ; 

 and to the second, I would be very much inclined to say, 

 " Don't ! Do not reverse your social position and aspirations 

 for the doubtful chance of bettering your circumstances at 

 the expense of undoing all that education and refinement 

 your parents may have even stinted their purses to provide 

 for you !" 



No doubt the war one has to wage against nature on the 

 one hand and climate on the other is, as regards New Bruns- 

 wick and like countries, best suited to such as have never 

 been accustomed to a much better state of existence, and 

 whose inclinations are in keeping with the society with which 

 they are destined to associate. I speak entirely of the wilder- 

 ness districts and their reclamation. In the numerous towns 

 and cities of Canada there is ample room for the exercise of 

 the best intelligence and enterprise, but there, as everywhere 

 else, one must know how to proceed.* 



An example of the evils of intermarriage in combination 

 with unsanitary modes of living, such as have been detailed, is 

 shown among the French settlers on the north-eastern frontier 

 of the province. Descended from the early Norman colonists, 

 they speak their mother-tongue and maintain the old religious 

 faith ; indeed, so exclusive are they, that it is rare to hear of 

 any one marrying out of his own sect. Moreover, so closely 

 are they bound by family ties, that in one district (Carraquette) 



* During my peregrinations in New Brunswick I was frequently struck 

 by observing how the national characters of the settlers are displayed in 

 the appearance and management of their farms, even in the second and 

 third generations born in the country. The tidy, well-kept, well-fenced 

 farm of the Englishman and thrifty and canny Scot, and the wretched 

 cabin, the slatternly and dilapidated precincts of the Irish, with the eternal 

 pig roaming about wherever it listed, are so conspicuous that in travelling 

 through forest clearings I could generally guess the nationality of the 



