The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

New Brunneiel.; wish !Cower Emigrants. By Anasasx
0 ESNlitt, Surgeon.
New Brunswick was 'separated from Nova Scotia,
and made a distinct government, in 1784. The ter-
ritory had been subject to Great Britain since 1760.
At the time it was acquired by this country, the
population consisted of straggling Indian tribes, who
led an unsettled life along the valleys of the great
rivers ; of French settlers, thinly scattered along the
shores of the St. Lawrence and the innermost recess
of the Bay of Fundy; and half-breeds. The first
attempt at an English settlement on the St. John
was made in 1760; but it was not till 1766 that a
number of families from Massachumetts obtained the
grant of a township on that river, and settled in
what is now the county of Sunbury. A short time
after the taking of Quebec, a Mr. AS siker, from Scot-
land, formed a settlement at Bathurst harbour in Bay
Chaleurs. In 1764 Mr. Davidson, also a Scotchman,
established himself at Miramichi, where he was after-
wards joined by Mr. Cart, from Aberdeen. The St.
John's settlement was reinforced at various times
during the American war of independence by emi-
grant loyalists from New England. After the recog-
nition of the United States by Great Britain, several
thousands of disbanded troops were removed from
New England to New Brunswick; considerable num-
bers of loyalist refugees accompanied or followed
them. These were the elements of the population—
in number about 11,500—0 f that colony at the time it
was erected into a province.
In 1840, the population was found, by census, to
have increased to 156,162; in 1815 it was, by estimate,
192,867. This increase has been owing in part to
emigration. Of late years, on an average 6,000
emigrants have arrived in the province annually, of
whom, however, about 2,500 med to the United
States. Irish constitute the largest portion of this
body. The Scotch come next. he preponderating
ingredient in the society of the province, however,
still continues to be the descendants of the old settlers.
The families of the first American settlers and loyal-
ists are chiefly to be found on the banks of the St.
John, in the counties of St. John, King's, Queen's,
Sunbury, York and Carlton, which are crossed in suc-
cession in ascending that river; in the county
of Charlotte, which occupies the triangle in-
closed between those counties, the St. Croix and
the shores of the Bay of Fundy; and in those parts
of Westmoreland (extending along the shores of the
Bay to the eastward and reaching the St. Lawrence)
immediately adjoining St. John's. The descendants
of the Acadian French occupy villages bordering
upon the great marshes of N 1 estmoreland (at its
N.E. corner), and scattered settlements along the
whole northern coast from Bay Verte to the Resti-
gouche; they also occupy the banks of the Upper St.
John at Madawesca. The Indians have village% at
some sixteen different points in the colony, where re-
serves of land have been set apart for them. The
Irish immigrants are to be found in the new and
remote clearings of every part of the country. The
Scotch abound most in those
.parts where settlement
is more advanced; with this limitation, they are also
pretty übiquitous, but their strongholds are along the
north shore, at Miramichi, and on either side of it.
The preponderance of the descendants of the
American loyalists accounts for a circumstance
generally remarked that the customs and
manners of New Brunswick are more similar
to those of the United States than to those of
any other British province. A disposition still lingers
in secluded districts to regard the country as thee'
j inheritance of the loyalists, but it is disap-
peering before the influence of immigration. The
immigrants, however, generally conform to the social
tone of their new habitation—with the exception of
an occasional Irishman too much elated with com-
petence and independence to be able to keep down a
joyous swagger. The descendants of the French
Aeadians cling to the manners of their forefathers.
Except in St. John's, with its 26,000 inhabitants, and
in Fredericton, with its military and civil employes,
and their imitators among the bourgeoisie, the popu-
lation is decidedly rural—rural in its occupations and
amusements. Education is generally diffused, but
manners are primitive, and little of a go-a-bead spirit
prevails. Slight outbreaks there are, it cannot be de-
nied, of jealousy towards their provincial neighbours
and visitors, but there is a large fund of general
kindliness and good-will. It is alleged that the inha-
bitants of the northern coasts are a shade lees
hospitable and courteous than those of the south, and
that the people of Charlotte are most civil to

strangers. -
The 192,867 inhabitants of New Brunswick occupy
a territory of 18,500,000 acres. The population does
not amount to one-tenth of that of London. The valley
of the St. John alone contains more, and more natu-
rally, fertile, land than the valley of the Thames. Its
cultivators have great and increasing markets for
their agricultural produce, of easy access. By sea,
they are within short distance of the manufacturing
districts of the United States. Since the Ashburton
treaty, the United States territory on the Upper St.
John has been rapidly filling up; and, at present,
difficulty is experienced in collecting adequate sup-
plies of food for the lumberers, and the tradesmen to
when they give employment.
The climate of New Brunswick is sufficiently
favourable to agricultural enterprise. It differs little
from the climate which prevails in Maine, Lower
Canada, and part of Michigan. Except on the shores
of the Bay of Fundy, where thick fogs prevail
during mummer, wheat comes to perfect maturity and
good quality. Even the fog-lands, especially the
Westmoreland marshes, are admirably adapted for
the growth of vegetables, and dairy farming. The
dairy produce finds ready markets at St. John's, in
the mining districts of Neva Scotia, and in the New
England states. The analogy between the marsh
region and the fertile districts of West Friesland
is striking. Up the valley of the St. John, and
along its numerous tributaries, all the cereals thrive.
Thinly though the province is peopled, the progress
of clearing has already ameliorated the climate

When the Loyalists landed in 1783, snow was lying
on the coast in June : such a phenomenon has not
been witnessed of late years, with the exceptional
case of 1816. Even on the shores of the Bay of
Fundy, pulmonary consumption—moat to be dreaded
in such a climate—is not more frequent than at New
York ; while intermittent fever, tho scourge of the
backwoods, is unknown in the province.
Here, then, is a province still all but unoccupied—
in nowise differing, so far as amenity of climate and
fertility are concerned, from territories where the An glo-
Sax^n race have founded prosperous states—belong-
ing to Great Britain, and within a fortniAlit's voyage
lof our shores. In it the small capitals which can-
not find profitable investment, and the labourers who
cannot find remunerative employment, in the mother
I country, may find both awaiting their acceptance.
Almost the only unaccustomed difficulty that the
British agriculturist has to encounter in transplanting
himself to New Brunswick, is the flooding of the
country when the ice breaks up. The most fertile
soils are the " intervales," or alluvial bottoms. These,
when "ice-jams" obstruct the rivers, are overflowed,
and the inhabitants obliged to betake themselves to
the higher grounds, or to small eminences islanded in
the flood. But the danger and inconvenience are
not greater than are experienced at the breaking up of
the ice by the inhabitants of the valley of the Rhine,
or any other great river of middle and northern con-
tinental Europe. When the occurrence is known and
anticipated, provision is made to meet it, and the fer-
tility which the overflowing rivers deposit, like the
Nile, is an ample compensation.
One disadvantage with which the new settler will
have for a time to struggle is the result of human mis-
management. Out of 16,500,000 acres, according to
Dr. Cleaner, 6,000,000 have been granted, 10,500,000
remain ungranted ; and of these, 9,000,000 are fit for
cultivation. But he nowhere informs us what pro- ,
portion of the granted lands remains unreclaimed.
Yet this is an essential question. "The Harvey
settlement," eays Dr. Gesner, in his special notice
of the county of York, " borders upon a fine tract of
hard woodland of good quality; but it is owned by
absentees and rich land proprietors, who will, doubt-
less, let it remain in its present state until its value is
increased fourfold by the roads and surrounding
clearings of the poor backwoodsmen." These " dogs
in the manger," who have obtained large grants of
land, which they allow to lie waste until the clearing
of the surrounding district gives them a value, are
the bane of a colony. They obstruct the opening of
roads, the facility of communication, and the natural
progress of settlement. Land regulations, to prevent
individuals from acquiring property in lands they do
not intend to use immediately, are requisite for the
future; and, to ameliorate the evil already done, a
swingeing tax on waste lands the property of private
persons, is probably the best lenitive.
We are anxious to call attention to this part of the
British territory so near at hand, offering such an
asylum for our enterprising surplus population. In
the work of Dr. Gesner they will find, not perhaps
the best possible account of the country and its capa-
bilities, but the best that has been published. The
doctor, too, has seen and closely examined much of
the country in person, and has had access to the most
authentic sources of information. In stating this, we
reply to a number of letters which have flowed in
upon us since the publication of the communication
relating to New Brunswick, received by last mail,
which appeared in the Express of the 18th inst.