King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the EmpireDawe, C. S. (Charles Sherwill)
History
King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the Empire
Dawe, C. S. (Charles Sherwill)
Great Britain -- History
2. On the conclusion of the war that gave the American colonies
their independence (1783), thousands of the "Loyalists" came
streaming across the Canadian frontier, leaving behind them the bulk
of their property, and forced to starve and struggle for years before
they could carve comfortable homes out of the Canadian forests. Many
of them migrated to Nova Scotia, others found rest in the beautiful
valley of the St. John river, and founded the province of New
Brunswick, whilst others toiled up the St. Lawrence to create the
fertile and busy province of Ontario, thus building up a British
colony in Upper Canada by the side of the old French colony in Lower
Canada.
3. The inrush of loyalist refugees from the lost colonies was
followed by a large immigration from the mother-country, and
especially from Scotland. Of the Scotch peasants who emigrated many
came from the same district, and held together in the new country.
On the downfall of Napoleon the tide of emigration flowed more
strongly than ever. We hear of four hundred discharged Irish
soldiers coming over in a body with their old regimental officers at
their head, and forming a regular military camp in the backwoods,
till their united efforts had cut out the roads and fields, and built
the houses required for the settlement. We find, in fact, that a
large proportion of the early settlers were old soldiers, and they
handled the pruning-hook none the worse for having once handled the
sword. While the silence of the desert spread over the barren moors
and hillsides of Scotland and Ireland, the Canadian woods were
ringing with the settler's axe.
4. Emigration to Canada has gone on ever since, though at a slower
rate than in those early years when 160,000 emigrants landed on
Canadian soil in the space of four years. One of the most
interesting experiments in Canadian emigration has been made in our
own day. During the last ten or a dozen years about ten thousand
picked boys and girls, from the homes of the "National Waifs'
Association," have been settled by Dr. Barnardo on a large estate in
Manitoba, or placed out as labourers and servants on Canadian farms,
with the happiest results.
5. Canada has not seen much war since the days of Wolfe, though she
has not been left wholly at peace. During the great French war a
dispute arose between Britain and the United States, which foolishly
led to a half-hearted war between the two nations, and to the
invasion of Canada by American troops. After three campaigns, in
which the British and French Canadians fought side by side, the war
ended without the loss of an inch of their territory. The only
result was, to create a feeling of mutual sympathy and respect
between the two races that shared Canada between them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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