Island; and although our present intercourse is not yet sufficiently intimate to enable Europeans to ascertain their exact arrangements in transactions of this kind, being extremely tenacious upon such points, more especially as Emigration is not sanctioned by the Government, yet from all that has been learnt, and from the extensive manner in which it has been conducted, it is evident that it has been through the instrumentality of joint stock companies, who make the advances, the capital required and employed being far too great for individuals.

Their system is a small advance for outfit, and the Emigrant's free passage, for which amount they grant a bond, payable by instalments, after their arrival at their destination, in services as a labourer or mechanic; and the relatives and friends of the Emigrant become responsible to the party, previous to his embarkation in China. A gentleman, recently from that country, has assured me, that he saw a vessel at the mouth of the Yan-Sea-Kean (or Yellow River) bound to Batavia, with upwards of 2,000 Emigrants on board, and that there were many junks similarly employed from the other provinces. In addition to this system amongst the Chinese, the Portuguese at Macao have also adopted it for employing their vessels to the eastern archipelago, and they take Emigrants at £5 sterling, payable in a similar manner, on the arrival of the Emigrants at their destination. The Portuguese, however, did not find it answer so well, from the difficulty they experienced in obtaining security against the Emigrant absconding, which occasionally happened, and which, unless Emigration took place in families, a mixture of age and youth, would be dreaded in Canada, from its proximity to the United States. But there were annually Portuguese vessels despatched from Macao, to Siam, Manilla, and Amboyna, Borneo, and Batavia, Singapore, Malacca, and Prince of Wales Island, each conveying from one to four hundred poor Chinese Emigrants, thousands of whom, by their extraordinary industry and perseverance, have become very wealthy and important, by the facilities afforded them by the guarded and judicious advances made them in the first in

stance. As bearing directly on this interesting subject, I give

1

portions of a communication made to me, by a very intelligent westier in Canada, who has directed his amention for a long period to this matter :—

“The 1.fculties vilch attend Immigrants on arrival here, arie altogether from the hmly,' wilch, although subsequently a source of revenue and prosperity, at first prove only a burthen and a hindrance to the anticipated success. Employ ment for any number of single men can readily be found; but the man with a family has much to struggle with, and the family have much discomfort, and even misery, to undergo for a time.

“To you, who know at how very small cost a primitive Canadian log-hut is put up, it may be matter of surprise that so few farmers (comparatively, are provided with dwellings for labourers' families. Appeal has been made to them on the subject, and, I dare say, with effect; but thousands more are wanting, as well for the relief and comfort of the Immigrant as to benefit the farmer, and, consequently, advance the general prosperity. A little agitation on this subject may, perhaps, open the eyes of the farmers, and induce them to give the subject a due consideration, as one in which their interests are deeply involved.

Employment at public works can very little benefit the Immigrant with a wife and family on his first arrival; as, supposing the most favourable circumstances, early embarkation, quick passage, immediate employment, fine season, uninterrupted health, and the highest wages, the whole amount which could possibly be saved from the earnings of the whole season, would not be more than sufficient to support the family through the long season, when very little, if any, profitable labour can be obtained by a newly-arrived Immigrant. The present winter is an exception to this, a considerable number having been continued at the public works at 2s. a-day. Employment at the public works is beneficial to the poor settler who has once fixed his family on a piece of land (say in a labourer's cottage on a farm), where he can, if necessary, leave them, after having put in a crop of potatoes, &c., and having a place he can call

a home to return to, where every species of economy can be practised, which cannot be in precarious lodgings while employed in public works. A few dollars cash, earned at public works or elsewhere, is a help to a man in such a case, to buy a cow, to give him a start in life, and becomes a nucleus of that capital and the germ of that independence for which he has expatriated himself, and subsequently suffered so much and severe inconvenience. The advantages of labourers' houses on farms would be great indeed, both to the farmer and the labourer : the farmer could always command a ready supply of labour at fair wages; the labourer could afford to pay a small rent to his landlord, and had better earn seven or eight dollars a-month, and be at home, than ten, and be away from his family. Occasionally, when labour on the farm grew slack, he would then betake him to the public works, and reap the benefit as above described. I consider that every labourer's cottage on a farm would be really better to the farmer than a protective duty of five per cent. on agricultural produce, inasmuch as, in bad times, when produce is low, the farmer could thus improve his land cheaply to prepare for better times, raising only sufficient for the supply of his own household, and the additional consumers, the inhabitants of the cottages; and in good times, he would be ready to take advantage of the market, by having the labour at hand to raise that abundance required for the supply. An agricultural protective duty will never be well relished here, where the middling and poorer classes must be the sufferers from such a tax. Until some well-established and judicious plan of Colonization is in operation, the Government works must be looked to for relief, as well to the Immigrant as to the public; otherwise the country would be overrun with paupers, and worse; for they will come, whether the circumstances of the country are such as to invite them or not.

"You have noticed in your letter to Mr. Crawford the case of the Scotch settlers from the Island of Lewis; I am happy to state, that late reports from Bury and Lingwick give a favourable account of the progress of these people; and I beg to mention, that a party of ten families, from the same place, who

came out in 1838, and settled in the same neighbourhood, are in a prosperous state. This party, when they came out, were as poor as those first mentioned, and were relieved and assisted, during their first winter, by the benevolence of the Commissioner of the British American Land Company. Some mention of these people will be found in the 'Memorandum of a Settler,' in the Mercury of the 16th February of last year, chapter 25. The assistance afforded to these persons was by way of loan, not gift. They have repaid the amount thus lent them; and I propose calling the attention of the several National Societies to the great advantage this mode of relief has over that of a charitable donation.

"Much may be effected by small beginnings: even penny weekly societies might, so soon as they collect some £40 or £50, send out one family, who, in course of two, three, and four years, would be able to pay the entire loan by a supply of provisions to a second party, who would, under these circumstances, require only an amount sufficient to pay the passage out, and to carry them to the neighbourhood of their predecessor; the sums so advanced on loan, of course bearing interest, would be continually increasing from this source, as well as by the continued subscriptions at home; and, admitting some losses, by the defection of some and deaths of others, it might fairly be expected that, from the honourable and grateful feelings of others, who might be more than ordinarily successful, voluntary tribute (in produce) would more than make up for deficiencies.

"If the Paisley societies, in like manner, would send out only so many as their funds will enable them to settle and carry through the winter, these, with the similar moderate requirements and industry as the parties from Lewis, would be enabled, by their crops of the second year, to repay some portion of the loan advanced to them, by a supply of part of their produce to the sustenation, through the first winter, of a second party from Paisley. This second party would, in like manner, be able to repay the loan with which they had been assisted, by a supply to a third party, which might, by this time, be con

siderably increased in numbers, as passage-money only would by this time be required. Should this system be carried into effect, and found to work well, as I am confident it may, the people first sent out will soon be able and willing, beside repaying their loans, to offer assistance to their friends and neighbours left behind, by a supply of a part of their crops, on loan direct from themselves, and thus increase the means for augmenting the numbers of Immigrants; but there will be plenty of time to mature further arrangements during the progress of establishment of the first two or three parties.

"I also take the liberty to suggest, for the North American Association, that it would be a great encouragement to a similar hardy race of Emigrants to those from Lewis, as well as others, if the first party sent to each newly unsettled part of the country should be permitted to make the whole of their payments (for land as well as for the necessary assistance which may be afforded them) in produce and labour, supplied for the assistance of the second and third parties: the second party to be allowed to pay four-fifths of their debt in like manner, the third three-fifths, and so on; and, further, that in all cases, where practicable by sufficient funds, it will in the end be found the best economy that a place be prepared beforehand for the reception of the Immigrants, a shanty erected, and three acres cleared, two of which to be sown with oats, the other to be planted with potatoes by the Immigrants, if here by the middle of June. The cost of clearing the three acres and the shanty would not be more than the cost of maintenance through the winter, and till the crop of the second year can be obtained from the ground, and the return of oats and potatoes will be of greater value. The place thus proposed to be provided, not to be the lots whereon the Immigrants are to be located as their future home, but on one or two lots contiguous, where the people could be in close proximity, ready to help each other in case of need, and where none could have more than ten acres, from which they should remove to the lots chosen by themselves in due time for the reception of the next party."