410 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA: 
expedient to admit them, and were such mea¬ 
sures necessary to keep then! in due subjection, 
it seems bard that the same measures should 
be adopted in regard to the inhabitants of the 
province, who stood firm to the British go¬ 
vernment, even at the time when the people in 
every other part of the continent revolted. 
For whatever reason this, system of not 
granting unexceptionable titles with the land, 
which the crown voluntarily bestows on its 
faithful subjects, has been adopted, one thing 
appeal’s evident, namely, that it has very con¬ 
siderably retarded the improvement of -both 
the provinces ; and indeed, as long as it is 
continued, they must both remain very back¬ 
ward countries, compared with any of the ad¬ 
joining states. Were an opposite system, how- 
ever, pursued, and the lands granted merely 
with such restrictions as were found abso¬ 
lutely necessary, in order to prevent jobbing, 
the happy effects of a measure of that nature 
would • soon become visible; the face of the 
country would be quickly meliorated, and it is 
probable that there would not be any part of 
North America, where they would, after a short 
period, be able to boast that improvement had 
taken place more rapidly. 
It is very certain, that were the lands granted 
in this manner, many more people would an¬ 
nually emigrate into Canada from the United 
States than at present;, for there are numbers 
