Emigration to Canada.

About ten days ago an emigrant arrived from Canada, to Paisley, and brings very favourable intelligence from that country. He is a native of Scotland ; was some time in the army ; and is going home again, as he calls it, early in the spring. This person gives the most satisfactory and cheering account of the place, and says his chief complaint was the want of society to share in his felicities, to be companion of his joys, and to exult in his abundance. He adds that one of his principal reasons for coming here at present was hearing of our distressed condition, and that he might be able to persuade others to follow his example ; anxious to be surrounded by happy, intelligent, and social neighbours. His arrival and narrations, combined with other circumstances, have been the subject of considerable discussion the whole of last week. A strong desire for emigration has been manifested, and about 300 have already subscribed their names, as a testimony of their ardour to go away. A petition is immediately to be forwarded to his Majesty’s Ministers, imploring their assistance by way of loan or donation, to enable them to carry their wishes into execution. This petition, it is said, is to be supported by the principal gentlemen of the county, and the utmost anxiety will doubtless prevail concerning its success. – Let us hope that Government will see the necessity of attending to the supplications of these people. The Sheriff Depute has been memorialized upon the subject, to give his counsel and support in behalf of the measure, and it is much to his honour that he has evinced a great disposition to favour the object in view. His office has been appointed for the reception of signatures, where the persons experience the greatest kindness in every possible way. It is proper, at the same time, to mention, that a number who were wishing to subscribe as desirous to emigrate, have been rejected ; as their circumstances were not of that despairing nature as to warrant an interposition of this kind in their favour. It cannot be expected that those who enjoy a considerable degree of comfort at home, or who have sufficient means of their own to emigrate without public aid, ought to be included among that number destined to participate in this salutary and benevolent proposition. Some of the fiercer radicals, with their accustomed zeal and spleen, are busily employed in jeering and deprecating the idea of emigration and telling the ” people to stay and help” in the recovery of their rights. They declare the whole scheme to be a mere farce, intended to be played against them, in order to destroy the unanimity which they say exists in the nation concerning their grand object. These querulous politicians complain of the climate of Canada, and it must be granted that it resembles Italy more than Scotland, being hotter in summer and coller in winter than our own island but the country is healthy, the soil is fruitful and strong constitutions and longevity are as common there as in any other part of the globe. The same manners, language, and regulations prevail in Upper Canada as in Scotland, and when people have plenty of provisions, fuel and warm clothing to resist the effects of heavy snows and intense frosts, the objection of cold is less worthy of consideration. – Glasgow Chronicle.


Citation: Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, United Kingdom), 13 January 1820, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/158.