cohn. — Progress of Cultivation* ' 131 



The Government might then have taken what 

 was thus detached in shape of rent in the richest 

 soils, and a decreasing pro port inn of what might have 

 been separated on all lands of.au inferior description, 

 down to the land which merely returned the costs of 

 cultivating it ; and could not therefore, until highly 

 improved, afford to pay any rent, Such a moderate 

 rate pf rent would, if not counteracted by external 

 circumstances, have stimulated rather than impeded 

 industry and population. 



As it happened, the mass of the emigrant population 

 were pressed for the means of subsistence, and the 

 question of rent was hardly attended to by the in. 

 They would have gladly, at least for a while, have 

 cultivated the land on such conditions alone as Mould 

 have allowed them nothing" but a bare subsistence. 



But altho' the power existed, it might not have been 

 deemed prudent, by too early an attachment of rent, 

 to run the risk of discouraging a people* wbo were 

 in w to our customs and laws, or of checking those 

 first and ardent agricultural endeavours which could 

 alone generate a capital on the soil and keep up the 

 stimulus for the future. The backwardness of eultU 

 ration, previous to the period in question, was not so 

 much owing to a want of capital as of inclination to 

 detach it from the more lucrative paths of commerce. 

 The new cultivators were located on certain conditi- 

 ons, the chief of which were, that they should clear 

 and cultivate within a given period, generally hvo 

 years ; and after this, receive a grant in perpetuity 

 at a quit-rent to l>e fixed by the Government. 



Thus the humane intentions of the State were se- 

 conded by the confiding disposition of the people. 



Many of the lands so located were subsequently for 

 a while granted to the occupiers at the nominal rent; 

 or quit-rent," of 20 cents of a dollar, which could not 



