The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-02 00:00:00

THE STATE OF POLITICS AND

PARTIES IN UPPER CANADA.

No. 11.

The annual revenue of Upper Canada is about 105,000/.,
of which about 80,0001., derived from the customs and ex-
cise, are subject to the votes of the House of Assembly, and
25,0001., the residue derived from the sale of lands, for-
feitures, &c., and commonly called the Territorial and Ca-
sual Revenues, are subject to the control and management of
the Colonial Government. A part of this sum is applied
towards the increase of the salaries of the Governor and
other public functionaries, beyond what is voted to them by
the House of Assembly. By far the largest part of it,
however, goes in the payment of salaries to the ministers of
the four favourite sects of religion, the English Church, the
Presbyterians, Methodists, and,Roman Catholics. Notwith-
standing the allegation in Viscount Goderich's celebrated
dispatch of the Bth November, 1832, that " showing undue
preference to the Church of England was at variance with the
whole course of colonial policy," the ministers of this Church,
though its members constitute a very small minority of the
people, come in for the lion's share. In the years 1832,
1833, 1834, there were paid to these four churches out of
the provincial chest, without any vote of the legislature,
40,441/. ! Of this sum 15,2841. was paid in the year 1834,
and 9,6021. of it was given to the Church of England. In
the Report on Grievances, it is stated that 1,0001. was paid
to the Methodists in the year 1833, and 611/. in the year
1834, " to be applied to the erection and repairing of
chapels and school-houses, and in defraying the general ex-
penses of their missions." No account of the expenditure
was transmitted to the Government in either of those years,
nor does it appear that any has yet been given. " This
appropriation to the Methodists, as an Ecclesiastical Esta-
blishment," says the CoMmittee, " is very singular." In the
year 1826, the opinion entertained of them by the Execu-
tive is given by Dr. Strachan, who informed the Co-
lonial Minister in England, that the Methodist mi.
nisters acquired their education and formed their opi-
nions in the United , States. And on another °Albion
they received a rebuke of similar import from Sir John
Colborne, in his answer to the address of the Conference,
requesting him to transmit to his Majesty their address
upon the subject of the Clergy Reserves. Since, however,
a share of the public money has been extended to and re-
ceived by them, there seems to have been established a
mutual good understanding. Since this period, the Christian
Advocate, a weekly journal published nt Toronto, under the
' influence of the Methodist Conference, instead of being one
of the most violent opposers of the Government, has become
one of its staunchest and most constant supporters.
It is stated in the Report alluded to that, in the eight

years ensuing the Ist January, 1826, Dr. Strachan, Arch-
deacon of York, and Senior Executive Councillor, received
12,8281. of the monies appropriated to the Church, with a
suggestion that the sum named fell much below his actual
receipts, the House of Assembly having no effectual means
of getting at a full account.

It could hardly be expected that there could be any pub-
lic debt in so recently formed a Province as Upper Canada :
there is however, in point of fact, a public debt of nearly
half a million—a small sum, doubtless, in the estimation of
European politicians, but large with reference to the resources

of Upper Canada, and the circumstances under which it

has been created, Still less would one expect to find a
Pension List in this remote part of the empire. It has
been already stated that a sum of 30,500/. has been paid
in pensions in the short period of eight years. Among the
pensioners is a Sir D. W. Smith, Bart., Northumberland.
For what services this pension was granted is unknown.
It would be needless to dwell here upon the mischievous

purposes to which this power of pensioning may be applied.
One of the worst features of the system as it now works is
the practice in the Colonial Government of making the
Judges dependent upon the Crown for such retiring pensions
as it may see fit to award. Whether any shall be granted,
and when, and to what amount, rests entirely with the
Colonial authorities. The consequences are sufficiently ob-
vious ; and in fact the system produces the fruit which
might be expected. _ _

While many of the most obvious purposes of public
utility, such as providing the means of general education,
constructing roads and bridges in places where they are
urgently wanted are entirely neglected, certain internal im-
provements are conducted upon a scale of magnificence
and at a cost quite unsuited to the requirements, and
little calculated to promote the interests of the
Canadian population. The Welland Canal, for example,
a ship canal connecting the lakes Erie and Ontario, and
designed to avoid the Falls of Niagara, has been constructed
upon a very grand scale, and an enormous sum of money
has been expended upon it. But, to justify the construc-
tion of a work of this kind, there ought to have been a great
traffic carrying on between these two lakes—a single glance
at the map will show that no traffic to the required extent
does or can exist, for many years to come, even under the
most rapid development of the resources of the adjacent
countries. What is the consequence ? Why, that the
canal, so to speak, just completed, has been so much ne-
glected, owing, it is to presumed, to the great expense
necessary to keep it in repair, that it has already got into
such a condition as to be nearly, if not absolutely, im-
passable. Then again, the Rideau Canal from Kingston
to the Ottawa, another splendid work, was constructed,
not because the state of commerce and business required it,
not because it was supposed to be calculated to promote
either to any great extent, but simply as a means of enabling
the British government to transport military stores to Upper
Canada, in the event of the navigation of the St. Lawrence
being harassed or endangered by the enemy in time of war.
Every farthing of money expended by the Canadians on
works like these might, for any good the people get from
them, as well be flung to the bottom of their lakes. It is
impossible to conceive that a local Legislature, having at
heart only the prosperity of Canada, and thoroughly con-
versant with its interests, would ever have embarked in
works like these.

Land being the only wealth of a country like Canada, it is
sufficiently obvious that the resources it affords ought to
be husbanded with the utmost prudence, and the sale of it
should be so managed as at once to yield the greatest possi-
ble aid to the public revenue, and to afford the greatest in-
ducement to the permanent settlement of emigrants.
Yet it is notorious that if there be one department more
defective than another—one which has occasioned more dis-
content among the people, and done more injury to the in-
terests of the Province than another—it is the Land
Granting Department. Some idea may be conceived of its
effects when it is stated that, notwithstanding the great
efforts that have of late years been made from England to
promote emigration to Upper Canada, and, notwithstand-
ing the vast number of emigrants who have apparently gone
to settle there, the population of this Province has not in-
creased beyond the natural rate of a thinly peopled agricul-
tural district. This is not the place to go at length into
details upon the subject, but the sale of the Huron tract to
the Canada Land Company may be shortly adverted to.
This tract, which comprises about 1,200,000 acres of the
finest and best situated land in Upper Canada, was sold to
a non-resident Company of speculators, at the rate of about
half a crown an acre, to be paid in sixteen years in instal-
ments. The only interest which the Canada Land Com-
pany have in this matter is to get as high a price as possible
for the land. For the permanent welfare of the colony, or
the happiness and prosperity of the settlers upon this tract,
they care not a straw. The lands are resold by the Com-
pany at a very high price, three, four, and live dollars an
in
stalments.
By upon a credit of six years, payable in five
By this plan of sale a vast amount of debt is created, which
is no inconsiderable evil. The settler is induced to give
much more for the lands than they are actually woi th, and
thus his scanty resources are expended to increase the pro-
fits of, so to speak, a body of foreign speculators. It
very frisquently happens that before the latter instal-
merits become payable his means are exhausted, and he is
obliged to give up the lands improved by his labour for
several years, and the expenditure of all his little resources

upon them. If he fail to make good his instalments no in-

.._ ...
dulgence is shown him—he has not even the comfort of the
slow, t certain, process, of an ejectment—but he " is
s” eg tract, and ejected without any form of
la';r:Witi‘e wis no other law there but what the
X)vilohnsyVseryintilriake. The Government has all along
Vp .1 ie wtttf:te clipany in enabling them to keep up
~...rici-4 tan4lsi and the consequence has been that
• Le::001131.4 Vaiilgniont's Testimony before a Select Corn-
,eef:ylic }base :9f Assembly on Grievances.
• pT__•Ti_i ' ,-, ,
tNc i--

very great numbers of emigrants who would have settled
in Canada, have passed over to the Stater, where they
could get as good lands at one half, or even one third, of
the price, and many who did settle there have been totally
ruined.

The experience of the United States has long made it
known that land-granting should be managed under the im-
mediate direction of the Government, and not intrusted to
Companies—that the land should be sold at the lowest
possible price, and for ready money, in order that the settler
may start free from incumbrances—and thus be able to de-
vote all his energies and resources to the improvement of
of his purchase. Upon the whole, therefore, it follows that
not only has an improvident bargain been made in the first
instance, but the proceeds are wasted in lavish and useless
expenditure ; and the mode of dealing with their property
is such as not only to frighten away the most industrious
and provident class of emigrants, but to render the progress
of those who actually settle as slow and as uncomfortable
as possible. Colonel Van Egmont, the oldest settler in
this tract, stated before a Select Committee of the House
of Assembly, that in the year 1833 the profits of this Com-
pany were 28,000/., after paying all expenses ; and nearly
the whole of this large sum would be sent out of the coun-
try, as the stockholder's principally reside in England.