Thus, in case of a great invasion from the United States, Canada, with any assistance Great Britain could afford her, must have 150,000 men ready for action. What prospect there is of this, may best be learned from a consideration, not so much of the resources of Canada, as of the willingness of the people to use them. CHAPTER XIV. Rapid Increase of Population--Mineral Wealth--Cereals--Imports and Exports--Climate--Agriculture--A Settler’s Life--Reciprocity Treaty--Report of the Committee of the Executive Council--Mr. Galt--Senator Douglas--A Zollverein--Terms of the Convention--Free Trade, and what is meant by it--Mr. Galt’s opinion on the subject--Canadian Imports and Exports. The rapid increase of population and settlements in Canada, and the growth of cities and towns, are among the great marvels of the last and of the present century, so rich in wonders of the kind. It is not too much to say, that any approximation to a similar rate of increase will make British North America a great power in the world. The direction of emigration has not been favourable. The Germans and the Irish have rather sought the United States. The emigrating powers of Scotland are rapidly decreasing, and the few English who emigrate prefer Australia, New Zealand, even the States of the Union, to a country which suffers from the early neglect of the home government, the studied aspersions and misrepresentations of powerful agencies, and the ignorance of the poorer classes who seek to improve their condition by going forth in search of new homes. Mr. Sheridan Hogan, the writer of a prize essay on Canada of no ordinary excellence, has devoted some of his pages to show that the growth of Canada in population has been overlooked in the scope of the wondering gaze which Europe has fixed on the development of the United States, although, in fact, the increase of Canadians in the land has been quite as astonishing as that of Americans south of the St. Lawrence. In 1800, he says the population of the United States was 5,305,925. In 1850 it was 20,250,000. The increase was therefore 300 per cent. nearly. In 1811 the population of Upper Canada was 77,000, and in 1851 it was 952,000, an increase of over 1100 per cent. in forty years. Within the decade up to 1855 the rate of increase in the United States was 13·20 per cent. In Upper Canada it was 104 per cent. from 1841 to 1851. Upper Canada exhibited in forty years nearly four times the increase of the United States in fifty years. Even the population of Lower Canada increased 90 per cent. from 1829 to 1854. In a table in the same work it appears that the Irish in Lower Canada were more than double the English and Scotch together, and that they equalled both in Upper Canada. The writer says:--