Amid this numerous body of complainers, some of whose grievances were real, some insignificant, and others imaginary, there were happily men who had more enlarged views, and who were able to urge on the government[263] to take effectual steps to extend the foreign trade, and to devote more attention than heretofore to the colonial and especially to the West India business, in which large commercial fortunes were soon afterwards realised. The trade of the Mediterranean was proposed by them to be cultivated and re-established, as a course of business likely to give vast employment to her shipping, and to secure for England a predominating power and influence over other nations. With this view the establishment of well-qualified agents, versed in commercial affairs, in various ports of that sea was strongly advocated. [Sidenote: and to encourage emigration to Canada.] [Sidenote: Value of the Canadian trade.] But perhaps the most important point of policy pressed upon the attention of the government in connection with shipping was the expediency of encouraging emigration to Canada, with a view to the cultivation of hemp, timber, and other naval stores, so as thus to render England independent of Russia and of the other Northern powers. Far-seeing politicians, and especially Mr. Pitt, had already perceived that the ultimate objects of Russia were to unite the Baltic and the Mediterranean, to secure the trade of the south by the naval stores of the north, and eventually to dispossess England of the trade of the Levant; and this judgment was confirmed by the fact that at this juncture Russia held back and allowed Napoleon to prosecute his schemes of conquest unchecked. It was, therefore, deemed sound policy on the part of England to take every means in her power to enlarge her shipping business with her own colonies. The timber trade alone sufficed to tempt many enterprising Englishmen to strain every effort to open out the vast regions comprised under the names of Upper and Lower Canada. They soon discovered that in those colonies there were nine or ten different indigenous species of oak; that among these the live oak, a very superior description of timber, was of most use for ship-building; that firs and pines abounded in great variety; that the uncultivated parts of the country contained the most extensive forests in the world; and that the white Canadian pine was better adapted than any wood to be found in the Baltic for masts of the largest and best description.