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The opening of roads in a new settlement is always attended with trouble and
expense. This is well known to the people in the county of Carleton; but
their difficulties would have been much greater had it not been for the
liberal assistance they have received from government. The first settlers at
Perth had to open a road about twenty miles into the woods for themselves;
but they received rations while they were so employed. One part of it was
opened by a contractor, who received fifty pounds from Government for his
trouble. But all that was done at that time was merely making an opening
through the woods wide enough to let a waggon pass. The legislature, two
years afterwards, voted the sum of £500 to improve the same road, and
clear it to the full width of sixty feet. But this grant, liberal as it was,
made but little appearance when laid out upon a road covered with heavy
timber, and crossed by numerous creeks. |
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In 1820, when the first emigrants on the Government grant arrived from
Glasgow, it became necessary to open a road from Perth to the new settlement
at Lanark. This cost the sum of £200, and the expense was defrayed by
the Commander of the Forces out of the military chest. About the same time,
when the military road began to be opened from the Grand River to Kingston,
through Richmond and Perth, his Excellency granted £400 toward this
undertaking, and the Legislature granted £200 more. Thus, in the course
of a very few years, £1350 of public money, besides the statute labour
of a great number of men and oxen, have been expended on these roads, and yet
a great deal more must be done before they are good. |
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In an extensive but thinly inhabited country like Canada, the postage of
letters comes to be very heavy. They were, till lately, charged as high and
sometimes higher than they are in Britain; but in 1822 a reduction took
place. In the parliament of 1821 it was determined that all matters to or
from the members during the future sessions should be paid by the clerk, and
charged in his account of contingent expenses. Previous to that time, members
of Parliament and their correspondents had to pay the postage of their
letters the same as others. This sometimes came to be very heavy, especially
upon the members who are not in general wealthy. |
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During the last war, when the American army invaded Canada, it destroyed a
great deal of property, both public and private, especially on the Niagara
frontier. Those who had lost private property petitioned Government for
compensation, and steps were taken to afford them redress. Commissioners were
appointed to ascertain the amount of their losses. The demands of some
individuals appeared extravagant, and the amount of their claims was so
great that it was difficult to determine how they could be all satisfied.
The first means employed was to sell all the forfeited estates of the
traitors who had gone over to the enemy, and to employ the proceeds in
compensating those who had suffered by the war. The produce of the sales,
however, did not amount to fifteen thousand pounds, which was not a tenth
part of the claims put in. The Parliament of Great Britain has since taken
notice of the delay, and steps are now taking to make good the losses by
instalments. Five shillings in the pound will be paid in the summer of 1823.
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In 1821, the merchants in Canada were alarmed by a report that His Majesty's
Government intended to lay a duty upon timber from the British colonies in
North America, or to reduce the duty upon that from the Baltic. Either of
these would be ruinous to the trade of Canada, and numerous and strong
remonstrances were sent home on the subject. The evil was averted for the
present, but for how long we know not. The produce of our forests is almost
the only article we have to pay for our imports from Britain, and the price
is at present so low as barely to defray the expense of bringing it to
market. But should a duty be imposed, ruin to the trade, and consequently to
Canada, would be the consequence. Nor would the mother country herself be
uninjured. A market for her manufactures would be lost, and many of her ships
and seamen would be thrown out of employment. |
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No country stands more in need of inland navigation, or offers greater
facilities for carrying it into effect, than Upper Canada. The St. Lawrence
has hitherto been the principal highway to the province. But it contains many
rapids which are difficult to ascend. And, besides, being the boundary
between Upper Canada and the United States, whenever a war takes place, the
enemy have it in their power to capture any supplies that may pass that way:
hence the necessity of a navigation by some other route less exposed. This
has long been an object both with Government and the colonists; the one to
convey stores in time of war, and the other to convey their produce to
market. With a view to effect this desirable object, the House of Assembly,
in 1822, appointed commissioners to explore and survey the internal
communications of the province, to prepare plans and estimates for the
improvement of the inland navigation, and to report their opinions as to the
most eligible and practicable routes for effecting the same. They also voted
the sum of three thousand pounds to defray the expense of the plans, surveys,
&c. The proposed canal is to connect the Grand River with Lake Ontario near
Kingston. It will be more than a hundred miles in length, and it is expected
will pass through some part of Perth settlement. When it is completed, boats
may pass between the upper and lower province with produce or stores, without
being exposed to the frontiers of the United States. Another canal has been
proposed to connect Lakes Ontario and Erie, so as to avoid the falls of
Niagara. The distance between these lakes is said to be about thirty miles,
and many locks will be wanted to enable boats to pass from the one to the
other. By the report of the American Canal Commissioners, it appears that the
Great Western Canal, which is to connect the waters of Lake Erie with those
of the Hudson at Albany, is about 353 miles in length. Its width on the
surface of the water is forty feet, at the bottom twenty-eight, and its depth
four feet. The length of the locks is ninety, and the width is twelve feet.
The estimate of the total expense of completing the canal is 4,881,738
dollars; or at the average rate, including the expense of constructing 77
locks, of about 13,830, or a little more than £3000 Sterling per mile.
Should the canal, to connect Lake Erie with Montreal, be of the same
dimensions, this will enable us pretty nearly to estimate the expense.
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The population of Upper Canada has been rapidly increasing ever since the
termination of the late war. The average of emigrants from Great Britain and
Ireland arriving at Quebec for a number of years past, is about 10,000
annually. A great proportion of these, perhaps one half, go afterwards to the
United States, but the half that remains will go far to settle seven or
eight entire townships ten miles square. For it must be remembered that the
clergy reserves in every township occupy one seventh of the whole surface and
there is generally another seventh of water, rock, and swamp, on which no
settlement can be made. But the number of emigrants who have come, need not
deter others who intend to come, for there are still vast tracts of forest
land unoccupied. Almost every year from ten to twenty new townships are
surveyed and laid open for location. Most of the new townships are ten miles
square, and contain 66,000 acres, including roads. Formerly the surveying of
these lands was attended with a considerable expense to government, but a new
plan has been adopted, which saves the expense. The surveyor receives for his
work a part of the land surveyed, commonly about one per cent. The greatest
evil attending the land granted by government, is its distance from markets
and good roads. This circumstance induces many of the new settlers who have
money, to purchase cultivated land, which they can always do at a very
moderate rate. The north bank of the St. Lawrence, and of the lakes from
whence it flows, were the places first settled, and they are still called the
front or the old settlements. In the lower parts of the province these are
occupied by loyalists or discharged soldiers. But in the upper part of the
province emigrants from the United States are more numerous, who have been
tempted to settle in Canada by the cheapness of the land and the fertility of
the soil. The British and Irish emigrants are settled in the towns along the
frontier, as merchants, mechanics, &c. on farms they have purchased from
older settlers, or back in the woods from thirty to sixty miles, upon lands
granted to them by government. They are generally hardy, industrious people,
and are warmly attached to the British government, though it is said some of
them held radical principles before they left their native country.
Government could never do better with disaffected persons than send them to
the colonies, where they would have plenty of work and few taxes. In Canada
the settlers have too much work in rooting up trees, to trouble themselves
with the cares of government. Indeed, the liberality of government has been
so great, that all their complaints are removed, and no room left for any
feeling but gratitude. |
END OF LETTER XXIV. BACK TO START OF LETTER
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