ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the industrious and frugal labourer would become a freeholder and a capitalist in the colonies; and two-thirds of the freeholders of Upper Canada, originally possessed no other capital than the axe. As it was, in less than half a century, nearly two millions of acres had been rescued from the wilderness, and were in the highest state of cultivation. Lord Seaton, a name gratefully embalmed in the hearts of every British subject in Canada, had assured me, that these provinces could profitably receive and employ a hundred thousand emigrants annually for the next ten years. I concluded as follows:-" In the soil of Upper Canada, my Lord Duke, lies the germ of future national greatness and prosperity, and it wants but that the value of her natural resources should be properly appreciated, so that they may be used with success to provide in the country productive labour sufficient to employ nearly a thousand times the number of its present population. How much such a state of things would add to individual prosperity, and the revenue of the country, may be imagined. It is true that the able-bodied emigrant has been but too frequently bereft of means to enable him to proceed from the old and closely packed country to the comparatively empty land he would adopt, and to which he would cheerfully wend his way but selfish indeed, my Lord Duke, must be the wealthy proprietors of the soil and the rich inhabitants of the parent state,-blind must be the government and the legislature,—dull must be the prophetic spirit of all,—reckless must be the proper and legally-constituted guardians of the poor, and in Scotland their natural guardians,-if the funds which are ever at hand to gratify ostentation, cannot also be supplied to give assistance to the industrious poor, to enable them to remove to a new and ample stage, where they will be enabled to act, and to reap the profits and honour of their exertions. Many patriotic and distinguished individuals have manifested great, laudable, and the most humane interest, in this important subject; and I now fearlessly and publicly invite your Grace, as a peer of high and noble lineage, deeply alive to the national honour, warmly interested for the people,

untrammelled by party influence, and, as you stated from the chair at the recent meeting, a warin friend to the labouring classes, to lend the aid and co-operation of your name and influence to rescue from destruction a large and interesting portion of Her Majesty's subjects, by enabling them to transplant themselves to a colony, where they will become individually and generally happy, and add much to the stability, security, and integrity of this mighty empire.

'So many are

The sufferings which no human aid can reach,

It needs must be a duty doubly sweet

To heal the few we can.""

Leaving Inverness, after having discussed with many leading members of the Highland Society the object of my visit to the United Kingdom, I proceeded on to Glasgow, and had the pleasure, en route, to form the valuable acquaintances of Sir John Orde, Bart., Kilmorey; Mr. Malcolm, of Poltalloch; and Mr. Stewart, of Baillhulish. On my arrival in Glasgow, I was visited by many of the leading merchants of that noble city, and the following requisition was sent, within a few days, to the Lord Provost :

“To the Honourable Henry Dunlop, Lord Provost of the City of Glasgow.

"MY LORD,—In furtherance of the resolutions adopted by the House of Assembly in Upper Canada, in 1836, viz:- That persons be sent to Great Britain, whose business it should be to endeavour to remove the erroneous impressions there entertained, in order that Emigration and capital might flow into the province as heretofore;' and which resolution, owing to the unsettled state of the country, caused by repeated and formidable invasions from the United States, it has been impossible, until the present period, to carry into effect; and as one of the gentlemen, then contemplated by the legislature, viz. Dr. Thos. Rolph, of Ancaster, in company with the Bishop of Kingston, is now in this city, and for that express object, as well as to advocate the firm maintenance of our Colonial empire; and as they have both been in communication with some of the High

land proprietors on the subject, we, the undersigned, request that your Lordship will call a public meeting as soon as possible, and that those gentlemen be invited to lay before it the state and condition of Canada, and the importance of a systematic colonization of it, from Great Britain and Ireland, with a view of strengthening that province against the designs of hostile neighbours, and as a means of preserving inviolate and entire our Colonial possessions in British North America, which if lost, must necessarily be followed by those of our other valuable dominions in the western hemisphere.

We are, my Lord,

Your Lordship's obedient servants,

"Pollock, Gilmour, & Co.
James Ewing & Co.
Gilkison and Brown,
R. Monteith, Carstairs,
J. & G. Pattison & Co.
Bell, Bogle, & Co.
Thos. Buchanan, Jr.

James Pinkerton, Sen.

Stirling, Gordon, & Co.

A. G. Kidston,

Henry Monteith & Co.
Richard Kidston,
John Urie,

R. Rodger & Co.

Peter Buchanan & Co."

"In compliance with the above requisition, and for the purpose therein stated, I hereby call a Public Meeting of the bankers, merchants, manufacturers, and shipowners, of this City, to be held in the Town Hall, on Friday, the 18th current, at one o'clock.

"HENRY DUNLOP, Provost.

"N.B.-The chair will be taken by the Honourable the Lord Provost at one o'clock precisely."

The meeting thus convened was very numerously attended; the Lord Provost took the chair; and before addressing the meeting, I read a letter from Dr. Macdonell, the Bishop of Kingston, expressive of his regret at being unable to attend.

Having thanked the Lord Provost for calling together a body of such wealth, intelligence, enterprise, and importance, as the bankers, merchants, ship-owners, and manufacturers of

that great and flourishing city, to receive from me an account of Canada, and the imperious necessity which exists for a systematic colonization of it, I proceeded to state, that that vast and fertile region had been heretofore so much a terra incognita to the great majority of the people of the United Kingdom, that it was but little wonder a profound ignorance of almost every thing relating to its internal condition and affairs generally should have prevailed in the mother country, at a period when, above all others, a correct and comprehensive knowledge of them was most necessary and desirable. Whatever might be the degree of interest positively felt for this remote colony, the manifestation of that interest was exclusively confined to those who were immediately connected, or had dealings with it. The many remembered it merely as the frequent battle-ground of hostile tribes of Indians, and of France and England, finally commemorated by Wolfe's exploits, or thought of with a shuddering at the descriptions given of its terrific winters; they pictured it to themselves as a desolate and dreary region, scarce fitted for the abode of man, and though inhabited, yet by a race withal as rude and inhospitable as its climate. On the other hand, the few were conscious, that if the winters were inclement, and monopolized a good portion of the year, there were furs and fuel in abundance to modify their rigour; that if the country were desolate and dreary, it was susceptible of a very high degree of cultivation, and possessed immense natural resources, requiring but developement; and lastly, that if its inhabitants were such as they were supposed or represented, the amelioration of their condition was readily to be effected by the gradual extension of their social relations with the mother country, the introduction of capital, and the promotion of Emigration.

After dwelling at great length, and denouncing those debasing and treasonable sentiments which had been expressed in England relative to the abandonment of the Colonies, I proceeded to prove, by a vast host of American authorities, the unquenchable desire felt by the citizens of the United States to seize the British possessions in North America, and annex them

to their own; and I concluded that portion of my address in the following terms:-" Before I proceed, my Lord Provost, to speak of the means necessary to ensure the permanent pacification, improvement, and happiness of Canada, I must again revert to that pernicious idea relative to the abandonment of the Colonies. I say boldly, Great Britain cannot do it. We who have settled in that province, hold the preservation of British liberty as inalienably our right, as if we lived in Glasgow or in London; and look with contempt on that description of political economists, who talk as coolly of the dismemberment of the empire, as if it were a circumstance as equally unimportant as the adjustment of a balance or the cast of a die. There is no more evident sign of decay of that national feeling which was once our boast, than the fact, that by a certain body the retention or abandonment of the North American Colonies is seldom regarded as any other than a question of mere expediency -one, the merits of which are to be tried by the rule of three. The honour of the British nation is pledged to every one who has adopted those countries as his own, that that home of his adoption shall not be lost or given away.' There is the same virtual compact subsisting between the British Government and the people of Canada, as between it and the people of England, and it has no more right to make merchandize of Canada to the Americans, without the consent of its people, than it has to sell or cede England to the Czar of Russia. We hold our title as British subjects by no doubtful charter; no conventional treaty with another party can annul or modify it,—no daysman can come between us and that crown to which our allegiance belongs. The altar of British freedom which has been erected in Canada may indeed be levelled in the dust; but the dead bodies of half a million of Britons who will have scorned to participate in the dishonour brought on the name, will be the mound to mark where that altar stood.-But the national faith is not to be held as lightly as a 'dicer's oath;' and once more I repeat, Great Britain cannot afford to repudiate us, and dares not incur the guilt-even if expediency required the sacrifice." I expatiated fully on the great and increasing value of our