Roughing it in the Bush | Page 5

settlement in the Backwoods of Canada; while they
carefully concealed the toil and hardship to be endured in order to
secure these advantages. They told of lands yielding forty bushels to
the acre, but they said nothing of the years when these lands, with the
most careful cultivation, would barely return fifteen; when rust and
smut, engendered by the vicinity of damp over-hanging woods, would
blast the fruits of the poor emigrant's labour, and almost deprive him of
bread. They talked of log houses to be raised in a single day, by the
generous exertions of friends and neighbours, but they never ventured
upon a picture of the disgusting scenes of riot and low debauchery

exhibited during the raising, or upon a description of the dwellings
when raised--dens of dirt and misery, which would, in many instances,
be shamed by an English pig-sty. The necessaries of life were described
as inestimably cheap; but they forgot to add that in remote bush
settlements, often twenty miles from a market town, and some of them
even that distance from the nearest dwelling, the necessaries of life
which would be deemed indispensable to the European, could not be
procured at all, or, if obtained, could only be so by sending a man and
team through a blazed forest road,--a process far too expensive for
frequent repetition.
Oh, ye dealers in wild lands--ye speculators in the folly and credulity of
your fellow men--what a mass of misery, and of misrepresentation
productive of that misery, have ye not to answer for! You had your
acres to sell, and what to you were the worn-down frames and broken
hearts of the infatuated purchasers? The public believed the plausible
statements you made with such earnestness, and men of all grades
rushed to hear your hired orators declaim upon the blessings to be
obtained by the clearers of the wilderness.
Men who had been hopeless of supporting their families in comfort and
independence at home, thought that they had only to come out to
Canada to make their fortunes; almost even to realise the story told in
the nursery, of the sheep and oxen that ran about the streets, ready
roasted, and with knives and forks upon their backs. They were made to
believe that if it did not actually rain gold, that precious metal could be
obtained, as is now stated of California and Australia, by stooping to
pick it up.
The infection became general. A Canada mania pervaded the middle
ranks of British society; thousands and tens of thousands for the space
of three or four years landed upon these shores. A large majority of the
higher class were officers of the army and navy, with their families--a
class perfectly unfitted by their previous habits and education for
contending with the stern realities of emigrant life. The hand that has
long held the sword, and been accustomed to receive implicit obedience
from those under its control, is seldom adapted to wield the spade and

guide the plough, or try its strength against the stubborn trees of the
forest. Nor will such persons submit cheerfully to the saucy familiarity
of servants, who, republicans in spirit, think themselves as good as their
employers. Too many of these brave and honourable men were easy
dupes to the designing land-speculators. Not having counted the cost,
but only looked upon the bright side of the picture held up to their
admiring gaze, they fell easily into the snares of their artful seducers.
To prove their zeal as colonists, they were induced to purchase large
tracts of wild land in remote and unfavourable situations. This, while it
impoverished and often proved the ruin of the unfortunate immigrant,
possessed a double advantage to the seller. He obtained an exorbitant
price for the land which he actually sold, while the residence of a
respectable settler upon the spot greatly enhanced the value and price of
all other lands in the neighbourhood.
It is not by such instruments as those I have just mentioned, that
Providence works when it would reclaim the waste places of the earth,
and make them subservient to the wants and happiness of its creatures.
The Great Father of the souls and bodies of men knows the arm which
wholesome labour from infancy has made strong, the nerves which
have become iron by patient endurance, by exposure to weather, coarse
fare, and rude shelter; and He chooses such, to send forth into the forest
to hew out the rough paths for the advance of civilization. These men
become wealthy and prosperous, and form the bones and sinews of a
great and rising country. Their labour is wealth, not exhaustion; its
produce independence and content, not home-sickness and despair.
What the Backwoods of Canada are to the industrious and
ever-to-be-honoured sons of honest poverty,