Emigration.
The increased population of this country, as well as the great difficult to which the middling classes of society are exposed in their efforts to procure the ordinary means of sustenance, has given rise to the formation of little copartnerships, or joint stock companies of individuals, who, being unable to command capital enough singly, to encounter the expences of a new settlement, have put their little funds together, with a determination to sail for America, and there jointly to labour for the general good of the whole, until fortune shall so far favour their efforts as to enable them to become independent of each other. By this means much less than the hundred pounds stipulated by Mr Birkbeck as the proper stock for an emigrant to begin with, will be sufficient ; and thus a new impetus will be given to that tide of huma beings which is constantly flowing towards the new world. Would it not be policy to give encouragement to these industrious swarms to settle in our own colonies? We have heard with some pleasure in rumour that several parishes have taken into their serious consideration the prudence of establishing a fund for the encouragement of those poor persons who may be dispoed to seek a means of occupation in Canada ; in furtherance of which laudable design, an application is to be made to Government for grants of land in desirable siutations, especially in Upper Canada, where the climate is described to be of the finest description. There is no doubt that many who are now pining in workhouses would gladly accept of such an alternative, and who, instead of being, as at present, a burthen to themselves and to society, would, by their exertions, be adding to the importance and stability of our possessions in that quarter, as well as opening a new source for the consumption of our manufactures.
Citation: Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, United Kingdom), 28 June 1819, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/145.