Pictures of Canadian Life: A Record of Actual ExperiencesRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
History
Pictures of Canadian Life: A Record of Actual Experiences
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Emigration and immigration
But this is no subject to trifle about; day by day the poor are becoming
poorer, and the middle-classes and the rich also. The leaders of the
coming democracy seem unwilling to recognise that fact, and are angry
when I tell them it is better to emigrate than to agitate in the old
country for the ruin of the capitalist, the destruction of our trade, the
abolition of the landlord, the advent of the working man’s candidate, and
the rights of man. Are they the friends of the poor who bid him stay
where he is to cheapen the labour market, already overstocked; to crowd
the cities with an unwholesome pauperism; to see his sons ripen into
thieves, and his daughters cast on the streets; and to look forward to
the workhouse as the refuge of his old age? Even if we had a revolution
as complete as that of France, what then? Over-population will breed
sorrow and sickness and want and despair all the same. In Canada, the
man who cares to work is sure of his reward; he has a future before him
and his.
I am glad to find, since the above was written, there has been formed by
the Congregational Union a special emigration scheme, of which the Rev.
Andrew Mearns, of the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, is Secretary, and
that they have already sent out over a hundred qualified emigrants. The
outfit and passage money of each man costs £7, and it is proposed to give
each £2 when he arrives in Canada. The men to be selected are drawn from
the ranks of the unemployed who are brought together at the various
Mission Halls. The case of each applicant is fully examined, and the men
themselves are thoroughly tested as to their honest desire and ability to
work. The men having been approved and their record found satisfactory,
they are sent to the emigration agent of the colony, who also examines
into the cases of the various applicants. This acceptance having been
notified, the next and, perhaps, the greatest difficulty is to provide a
temporary home for them in the colony to which they are to be sent. As
the result of much labour, each man will be sent to the care of some
gentleman in the colony, who will see that he is properly provided for,
and started in a fair way to obtain work. They are thus going to various
towns in the Dominion, such as Kingston, Ontario, Ottawa, Hamilton,
London, Toronto, St. Thomas’s, Bellville, and Guelph. Among those to
whom introduction has been given are directors of railways, officers of
Christian Associations, gardeners, farmers, merchants, and various
ministers of influence. It is almost unnecessary to add that the
spiritual needs of the men have not been forgotten, and in the kit of
each one have been packed a Bible, supplied by the kindness of the Bible
Society—who have intimated their willingness to make a similar
presentation to every man the Union sends out—and an assortment of
suitable and practical religious literature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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