Star.
London, England, 1831-04-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Observations on the proposed eilisratios of the Tisober.Thitiss, rat
remarks on the passpiski qj Sir Howard Dosyles. By Jour
RIVAIIB.-111. 6d.

Mr. REVANS informs us that he has been many years
connected, by trade, with the Canadas, and in writing this
tract has had the assistance of a brother long resident is
those countries. His brother has travelled through the
greater portion of these colonies, with the express object
collecting facts relative to their productions, the habits
the people, &c. for the purposes of private trading. He has;
moreover received assistance from several friends, who
have resided in the Canadas, and have been personally es.
gaged in agriculture. The facts which ho has established
are new and instructive, and we venture to assert that
they had been generally known, during the late disessaiosss
the result would have been very different. The pills
appear to have been duped by interested clamours.
By the existing law, what is called a protecting duty is levied es
Baltic timber. Baltic timber is better in quality, and is cheaper, Ass
colonial timber ; but, in order to force the people of this country to bay
the bad and dear commodity furnished by the North American Colo-
nies, Parliament in its wisi.om levies so high a duty on the imports-
tion of good and cheap timber from the Baltic that the latter has, to a
great extent, been excluded from the English Market. This
is termed protecting the colonial timber trades and the consequence
the law, as regards the trade, hair been to direct the capital of 11111
colonies in North America to the preparing of timber firs ode b the
mother country.
The following is a table of the duties
Canada. Foreign.

Timber, pet load . .
- ditto

4010 • 42 15- 0

Plank,
Pipe, Staves, per 100
Deals, per 100, of 6 to 16 feet long, and
3g inches thick
The grand point in debate between the supporters and if
the pregame proposed plan is, whether the benefit whiaflltr7 be ess.
(erred on the community at large by the employment of a cheap and
excellent commodity, be counterbalanced by any evils arising from the
measure which confers the benefit t whether the alteration of the trade
be attended by mischiefs greater than the goud, which by all it le
allowed to produce.
To those who are ncquainted with the colonies of North America, k
is well known that the chief business of the inhabitants is agticultures
They have a fertile roil, a climate well fitted to the production of apt.
cultural produce, and their superiority, as compared with the eameedes
of Europe, lies in their capability of furnishing this produce. The Ca-
oath's, Which are the great object of interest in this matter, have it is
well known, already employed &portion of their capital in the praduc-
don of wheat for this country. This wheat has, eves with a five shilling
duty, paid the producer;—it has, in other words, WU tat a remaaerare
ing price; and I can assert, without fear of refit that ilea emphal
of the colonies can be employed in the production ef Aso, use km*
with advantage equal to that derived from its SD the pad..
don of timber, but with advantage, far a soy whisk theta*.
chimes trade can possibly confer.
isato
A vague and general declamation is Indulged I% anode=
respecting commercial operations are constantkp t dues is
no detailed inquiry into the actual working of the law es Is
the points which I here have brought forward. To an oho know the
country, that is, who know more than the mere outside el things, who
have lived among the people, who have been made acquainted with their
habits and manners by constant and familiar intercourse—to these men
I fearlessly appeal for support to my assertion when I declare that the
lumber-trade is carried on by the most vicious portion of the
don; made and kept vicious by the very trade by which thePyltleb;
and I am equally confident of their support when I say that the
capital thus employed might, for the welfare of the colony, be far
more advantageously employed in the business of agriculture.
I have gone carefully through Sir Howard Douglas's work, with the
most sincere desire to find something which would bear upon the capa-
bility of the colonies to furnish other produce than timber: in other
words, to team from him how the colonists would be injured, but I
must own, that I have found nothing beyond bare assertion, except the
following passage, viz. that the operation of lumbering is a necessary
accompaniment to the labours of the farmer. The passage is as fol.
lows :—" The pursuits of the emigrant are, it is true, essentially sgri.
cultural; but let it not be overlooked that agricultural operations, in a
country covered with forests, must commence and be accompanied by
the operations of the lumberer. The poor emigrant begins his labour
with the axe, and his greatest, his chief resource in reining money,
wherewith to buy what hit wants, is in manufacturing shingles or stave',
or felling timber." (p. 19 )
This passage, the only one containing a statement connected with the
operatics. of the supposed change on the welfare of the colonists, struck
me as containing an egregious blunder. To satisfy myself, I applied to
a friend who has resided many years in Canada, and the following are
the observations he sent me on the passage :
" You know full well that I resided many years in Canada—that I
was occupied while there in forming operations, and that few persons,
from the various situations in which I was plated, had so many oppor-
tunities of judging of the people's pursuits, habits, and Ina:iers, as
myself. I have handled the axe and the plough; I have been initiated
in the mysteries of lumbering, of squaring timber, splitting sieves and
shingles; have dwelled in a shanty, and floated down the St. Llwretce on
a raft: in short, I know something of these things, and can fairly place
my opinion, *aped from ac sal experience, against that of Sir H.
Douglas. Now, I assert, and that boldly, that the man who wrote the
pass e you sent me, knows nothing of the manner about which he pra-
t* give an opinion-- I can make this clear to you. We will sup.
pose as emigrant to be settled in his location of, say, one hundred saes.
It is tan chasm to one that these one hundred saes contain not one
stick of timbir fit for sale. Supposing, however, that they do contain
some half deem, and then imagine the aid the emigrant will receive in
clearing his Lind by cutting down half a dozen trees out of some thou-
sands. Besides, cutting down the timber is but a small part of the la-
bour required. It must be squared or split into staves, must be carried
to the rivers, and floated down to the market. All this mkt@ time, and
when the emigrant returns to his farm, he has not forwarded one step
the clearing of his land. The truth is, the lumberer is a person totally
distinct froma settler. The lumberer wanders over millions Owes in
search of timber, and so far front aiding the real clearer. he seriously
obstructs his operations. He leaves brushwood, tops of trees, At.
lying about in disordered heaps, and, by making small gaps la the
woods. permits brambles and underwood to spring up. The farmer
never wishes to see the lumberer in his woods. And when Sir H.
Douglas asserts that the operations of the lumberer must accompany
those of the farmer, he proves at once, to my complete satisfaction, that
his stay in New Brunswick has taught him little of the affairs of that
country.
" He may, perhaps, say that • the poor emigrant having no capital
cannot go on his farm to commence clearing it ; he must live while
be is preparing the land for the reception of the crops, and that to get
this money he turns lumberer. Let it be observed, however, that this
does not clear his land, and that if it enables him aGsawasi le deer it,
it is by putting him in possession of a small capital, set by yeelerming
the work. But the truth is, that many, most of the poor ooftrants be.
come agricultural labourers to the persons ahead sank* ea
wherewith to amble them aftswerde to settle he trorri
the capital new espesdedi le paying the trope et lerabsdag uses wise
drectetl'ks fanaegaries, the emigrant wadi alive mesh
benefit from dace dies,
hi ass dere. The truth bell& is:
European emir's' a very bad tearer *sash a very rig Illula.
servant.. Chapping and equating timber, Ea. is an en which inn
peer toss de net knew, and *fry ere, ouch km useful then
the people of the sevoiy. in seataste. Dos Asterism It
worth is-dessn Ida labseeetaten4 oneeei, a very small peaks
of the emigraps am esie'ensployed as rnws, and never Whelp
own advantage. They are mini in Malik end habits by this shitsh.
liable trade. lf, however, you ask than togestio dig, to seet:ti
sow, to thresh, and mow, you ask than to with whisk
are conversant, and fee the tieing of wbkb they be well reward .

This is kit and acted on at preset, the chW employmeat of
the newly arrived emigrant befog to act as hem serums to the far-
mers if the country. I think 1 need say oo mere is answer to this
manse of Sir Howard Dettgles."
The relsdve km between the value of the Azad and floating
capital in the trade may be gathered front the table :
alwo of exports front Canada and the lower ports.
Oak, 10,000 beds, at $t .. .. ...
Pinot 354.011 at Ids ••• ..
• •
Other mare weeds, 611,0911, at ...
Staves, ed. 10,000 r. bd. at 31 per ISM ..
Ditto, Welt India, 30,000 gt. hd. at 101. per 1106

,7so
460,000
60,000

30,000
£450,750