The narrative of a voyage to the Swan River/Appendix section I
SECTION I.
On the Choice of Country
From these preliminary observations, we are now led to seek a proper choice of country, a choice which ought to be made with impartial and cautious deliberation. The removal of a family, even to a far distant country, is a matter of no trivial moment, when connected with the permanent establishment of that family in an advantageous or disadvantageous situation. There can be no retreat but at a calamitous loss, when the capital has been invested in an unpropitious allotment, or in a country whose manners and laws are quite at variance with the habits and native jurisprudence of the settler; therefore, it may not be unadviseable to notice the places to which our countrymen have generally been invited, or partially induced to settle.
A few years since the Editor met with a tract, which, in no high-flown panegyric, communicated the great advantages which were attendant upon an emigration to Poland, where excellent land was stated to be rented at 7s. an acre, in a fine and fruitful climate, where the Government held forth such encouraging terms to the stranger as to promise that himself and his grandchildren should be exempted from military duty, and the payment of taxes to the State. These unquestionably were great inducements and liberal offers; but, on the other hand, we must not forget that this excellent land is situated at a great distance from any market for the purchase of necessary articles, or for the disposal of its produce. That the climate is singularly healthy will not be denied, but a foreign language, difficult to learn, is spoken in the country, and the hatred of the Poles to the Government of Russia renders it more than probable that, as soon as an opportunity occurs, they will endeavour to throw off that yoke which they consider so galling and degrading;—and then—in the miseries and commotions of civil war, agriculture cannot flourish, nor the property of individuals remain secure; and if the Poles should ever succeed in their hopes of once more being an independent nation, has the stranger any security that the immunity from taxes and conscription, promised by the Russians, will be respected and confirmed by the Poles?
An investment of property in France for agricultural pursuits, has been very warmly recommended by some, who, it is more than probable, have never lived in that country, and are strangers to its manners, its views, and its laws; for it is unlikely that an Englishman can be pleased with the effeminate manners which so peculiarly distinguish a native of France, or that he who properly estimates his rights, his privileges, and his liberty, can, even in imagination, consent to live in a country, where he cannot travel from one town to another without a passport. But, if a person can willingly submit to those restrictions upon his liberty, I would most seriously ask him, whether, either as a religious or moral man, he can wish to reside in a country, where marriage is by many considered as the signal and passport for adultery—where infidelity is avowed without a blush, and true religion is scarcely known? There have been many •who, from an idea of the cheapness of living, have for a while taken up their abode there; but what must be their distress, when, in the unstable state of that country, revolutions suddenly spring up?—and fresh commotions are daily expected.
The Editor is not in possession of any satisfactory information relative to South Spanish Amemerica, and, consequently, he will not presume to form a judgment of the advantages which that exclusive country offers to the English emigrant, but he begs to remind the reader, that its various governments are in a very precarious and fluctuating state; that the country itself has not yet recovered from the ravages of a protracted and sanguinary war, in which all the evil passions of mankind were indulged without restraint. He need not remind the Protestant, that the Roman Catholic religion, in its greatest ignorance and most blinded superstition, flourishes there; and that, in one of the various governments in that vast country, an ordinance has been published, to declare that the Roman Catholic religion alone would be tolerated. And he would ask the sincere Christian—in what part of South Spanish America does he expect to receive the benefit of spiritual consolation and advice, from a minister of the pure and reformed religion to which he thinks it a blessing to belong.
With respect to the Cape of Good Hope, it cannot be denied that it holds forth many advantages to the settler from England, for it is under a British Government, and has a considerable English population. At the Cape, also, commerce flourishes, and a free and frequent intercourse is carried on with all parts of the world. But though the tradesman and merchant may here successfully invest their capital, and apply their experience in business, the farmer would be out of his element. In consequence of the warmth of the climate in the interior, and the dryness of the soil, corn cannot be cultivated with success, except on those small spots on the banks of streams which have the benefit of irrigation; so that few situations can be found, in which the husbandman can grow more corn than what is required for the subsistence of his family. The land is covered with a coarse, dry grass upon which the sheep and cattle of the country are depastured in great numbers under the care of shepherds, as in the days of the Patriarchs of old; but these cattle are profitable only for their skins, for which they are usually killed. So here we find no opportunity for the farmer to acquire land, which British experience and capital can drain or improve—no rich pastures, in which the Herefords and Leicesters may supply the shipping at the port and the clothier at home. Land is not to be obtained on such easy terms as is usually supposed in the neighbourhood of the Cape; and before the occupant endeavours to obtain it on cheaper terms, (which he may do by going very far up the country) I would advise him by all means, beforehand, to inquire from an eye-witness the particulars of an engagement, in which it is reported that 15,000 Caffrees attacked a camp, hastily formed by English settlers, and for six hours made repeated attempts to take it by assault, in which they would certainly have succeeded, if a field-piece had not, like "the chivalry of the marches," been brought up to the relief of the "garde doloreuse,"[1]
At the present period, when the United States of America are considered by many as the best and happiest portion of the globe, where the departing emigrant either in his sanguine expectations overlooks the dark part of the prospect, or, in his ignorance of the laws and real state of this extensive country, is not aware of their hardships and defects, it may be of importance to call the attention of the reader to some matters which will probably excite his surprise, notwithstanding they are true, and, perhaps, convince him, that the Republic of North America is neither that scene of bliss, nor that land of liberty, which it is so generally supposed to be.
Admitting, for the moment, that the soil is most grateful to the husbandman, and the climate congenial to a native of England, still it cannot be denied that laws and regulations may exist, so irksome in their nature and so partial in their probable consequences, as not to be counterbalanced by fertility of soil or salubrity of atmosphere.
It is not generally known, that although every stranger in America receives the protection of its Government, let his crimes in the country he has fled from be ever so atrocious, still he cannot be naturalized till after the expiration of a four years' residence in it; and if, in the mean time, a War should break out between his own country and the United States, he will be considered as an alien; and however he may have invested his capital, or how lucrative soever his business may be, in all probability he will be obliged to depart instantly into the interior of the country, forty miles above tide-water, and there remain during the war, in order to prevent the possibility of any communication with the enemy; and if he should disobey the mandate of the Marshal of the district in which he resides, he will immediately provide him with a place under Government, in some neighbouring jail, where he may ruminate upon the luxury of living in a land, where kings cannot tyrannize, and all men are free. Thus situated, should he have property in the American funds, or even debts owing to him from individuals, the same may be sequestered, and, perchance, eventually confiscated, not for his advantage, but for the exclusive benefit of the State; and it may be said that he is half dead in law, as he may be sued for any debt which he may have contracted, but cannot recover property owing to him; as, in time of war, the courts of law are closed against the claim of the subjects of any power with whom they are at war. From these circumstances, I leave every reflecting reader to draw his own conclusions.
It has been stated that little or no taxation is imposed upon the inhabitants of the United States; but those among them who are possessed of property can prove that is contrary to the fact. It is too commonly supposed that taxation in the United States is little more than nominal, when compared with those of other governments; but this is a mistake originating from a comparison of the revenues with the extent of country, rather than with the number of inhabitants from whom they are collected. It will be unnecessary in this work to enter into a statistical view of the revenues and commerce of the United States, but plainly to state, that although in their newspapers we do not read of a Chancellor of the Exchequer opening his budget, yet let the emigrant set himself down in any part of the United States, if in a corporate town, he may be liable to corporation tax, a county tax, and a state tax, upon every such article as the legislature of each state shall deem expedient to levy for the exigencies of its government, varying in the different states, whether it be a tax on the individual, his land, on his slave, his house, his carriage, or his dog. This must be considered as a trifling burden in peaceable times ; but let a war break out, as it did with England in 1812, then it is that the fiscal yoke becomes galling to the settler who may have obtained his domicile under that wonderful government, which some fanciful writers would compare to the cameleon, subsisting on air. The truth of this observation was manifest in the late war between this country and the United States, which lasted not quite three years in 1812, 1813 and 1814, when to support it every measure was resorted to to raise the supplies; that every musical instrument, and every picture and print hung up in a house, helped to carry on the war; so that to look on the miniature of a friend, whose likeness one would wish to bear in memory, a dollar per annum was the permission ticket : indeed, most persons removed their pianos and pictures to an apartment under ground until the war was over. It will likewise be a matter of no small consideration to notice, that the article of clothing is not the least difficulty which a settler has to surmount; for, unless he bring his mind to wear the cotton cloth of the country, the high ad valorem duty imposed upon all articles of British manufacture makes wearing apparel of every description extravagantly dear. True it is that great wages are offered to the English mechanic and artizan, to supply the markets of America with articles of native manufacture; but if once any compromise takes place between the English and the American governments, and a tariff formed so that the present high duties may be reduced, the unlimited capital and the astonishing power of machinery would enable the English merchant to undersell the American in his own market: and then the persons who may have deluded themselves with the hope of finding great wages and increasing employment for a permanency, will be reduced to beggary and starvation, unless they resort to a claim on the poor-rates. Yes, reader, notwithstanding what the disaffected in this country may urge to the contrary, and those who are willingly blinded by false statements and reports may believo, unhappily for that country, the state of pauperism is very great; but honored be the government of America and its laws, for instituting such a system of humanity and Christian charity." Their laws provide effectually for the comfortable maintenance of the poor, who are inhabitants so long as they remain with them—of poor strangers in whatever country they were born, and when they are sick supply them with physicians, nurses and attendants."—Sadler's Ireland. And may this charity never be so perverted and defrauded as is too frequently the case in this country, to the support of the idle and the extravagant, who when fed, clothed and comfortably lodged, instead of being grateful to God and man for the maintenance they receive, spurn at the hand which feeds them, and sinfully and violently exclaim, that they are an oppressed people, and none so hardly used as themselves. An extract from that excellent work, (Mr. Sadler's Ireland) may not be considered out of place here, and the length of the quotation will be excusable when it it will appear so applicable to the subject. " A late (American) writer in the Edinburgh Review says, we have no poor-rates. I wish he was correct. My poor-rates last year amounted to ten dollars, although this township and the adjoining one have a workhouse, with a farm of 200 acres and more for the employment and support of the paupers. This, considering the high rate of wages, the. cheapness of food, and full employment for every one, is higher than any poor-rates in England. There are sometimes from 1200 to 1500 persons in the workhouse at Philadelphia, and as many in that of New York. They cost in Philadelphia 100,000 dollars per annum, and the whole system is miserably conducted. In the somewhat larger city of New York, the annual expence of maintaining the poor, we learn, on the decisive testimony of Dr. Dwight, amounted in the year 1811 to 154,388 80⁄100 dollars; that there were 2814 paupers admitted into the alms-house from the 1st of April, 1812, to the 1st of April, 1813. The number of poor has since greatly increased, for we learn from Bristed, that a memorial addressed to the state legislature in the month of March, J817, stated, that during the last winter 15,000 paupers, that is to say one seventh of the population received alms. In addition to which, it appears that there are humane and charitable establishments in that city, forty in number, which are supported with spirit. The expence of one of these, in 1816, is stated by Warden to have amounted to 39,053 dollars."
Amongst other things which should engage the attention of an Englishman, who may meditate a settlement in the United Stales, the least, perhaps, is that, it ought not to be forgotten, the Americans look with no kindly feeling upon the subjects of Great Britain. They have not yet forgiven, and never will forget, her vigorous endeavours to reduce them to obedience in the first revolutionary war, nor their own defeats and privations in the last. Should a war break out, experience proves that no previous habits and long residence—no rights of citizenship, can naturalize an Englishman in their estimation. "A drop of tar will always be found at the bottom of the bucket, and a brush at hand to apply it." In the year 1806, when the British ship Leopard fired into the American frigate, "Chesapeake," and brought her to, to search for deserters, the United States was convulsed from one end to the other; a venerable citizen narrowly escaped being tarred and feathered by the populace at the city of Washington, because he had the misfortune to be born in England, and had not resided among them, expending his substance, more than fifty years. But surely no person who is sincerely attached to this country, and consequently wishes that its sources should be extended, that its trade should flourish and its strength encrease, can willingly deprive it of his support and prospects, however trifling they may be, much less will he apply them to promote the prosperity and capital of a nation which attempts to be the rival of England and boasts of soon equalling her in commerce and in ships; and what must be his feelings in the event of a war between his native and his adopted country. How reluctantly must he pay the taxes to afford the means of resisting and defeating his own countrymen : and if obliged to take up arms, what would be his feelings on meeting that army, which was once his glory and still is his pride. He sees his country's banner—he exultingly remembers it displayed its triumphant defiance to the world:—he hears the spirit-stirring march and the national anthem—his breast once more kindles with patriotism—it is warmed with the pure flame of loyalty again, and he feels that, though years have elapsed since he left Great Britain, his heart is English still.
It is a prevalent notion that, in the United States, land can be purchased at a nominal price, and that labourers and mechanics are anxiously sought for at very high prices, while provisions are obtained at a third of what they cost here. As common sense has not yet universally refuted these absurd opinions, let truth assure the reader, that the United States of America, on the seaboard from Maine to the Floridas, is so saturated with population, that many families, for economy, have quitted the soil inherited from their ancestors, and have emigrated to the more Western settlements, distant 1000 miles or more, there is, therefore, no room or temptation for an emigrant to settle there. This was proved in the year 1817, when the spirit of emigration from this country was at a high pitch; but so disappointed were many, and reduced to such wretchedness, that in the month of July, in that year, no less than 1700 poor deluded wretches, in a state of lamentable misery, supplicated Mr. Buchanan, the British Consul at New York, to find them either a passage to return to their native country, or to send them to the British dominions in Canada. The Consul complied with their prayer, chartered vessels, and returned them to the soil they had so lately deserted and depreciated. Land, indeed, may be purchased very far in the interior, in the Congressional districts, at two dollars an acre, but not in less quantity than a section of 200 acres ; but this is in a situation in the very wilds of America, where, perhaps, the foot of man never before trod, perhaps a hundred miles from a neighbour, and double that distance from any place where the necessaries of life are exchanged or sold. Mr. Birkbeck, as well as many others, can easily vouch for the truth of this assertion. The labourer or mechanic will be wofully disappointed, if he expects that, as soon as he lands in New York, he can readily obtain employment without a moment's delay; but should he, as a mason, bricklayer, or carpenter, be so fortunate as to procure employment, he will find that the Winters are so long, lodgings so high, and fuel and provisions so dear, that the greatest industry and economy in the Summer months will scarcely enable him to maintain himself, much less a family, throughout the year: but if he has funds to enable him to travel several hundred miles to the interior of the country, he may obtain employment, provided he is skilful, able-bodied, and willing to work. We do, indeed, sometimes hear of the exorbitant wages which some persons obtain, but we must remember, in most cases, these wages are great, in consequence of the currency of the district, for there are, I understand, some parts of the United States in which the dollar passes for more than its coined value; but then, if a labourer is paid at a very high nominal rate, there is reason to believe that articles of provision, and other necessaries, must be selling at high prices also.
It is presumed that enough has been written to prove, that there are many more disadvantages attendant upon an emigration to the United States than is commonly supposed. What is contained in these pages does not originate from any ill feeling towards that country, but solely from a wish to prevent the ignorant and unsuspecting from deluding themselves to their ruin by false hopes and expectations—from being drawn away by the artful representations of the enemies to England, who represent this country as a scene of tyranny, injustice, taxation, and distress ; or by the partial statements of those, whose repeated apostacy of their avowed principles renders them unworthy of credit, though they may express themselves with plausibility, and appear to the unwary to argue with force.
Having made these observations upon the inexpediency of settling in the United States, we are naturally led to inquire, how far it may be advisable to turn the attention of the "determined emigrant" to those provinces in America which belong to His Britannic Majesty. Many of the disadvantages which have 'been represented as existing in other countries, and their polities do not exist here. The inhabitants of North British America have the happiness of being under that mild and paternal government which rules over us at home: they have the advantage of regular and frequent communication with the mother country, with which a very considerable export and import trade is carried on. A liberal encouragement is here afforded to the settler by the official regulations; and, however some may undervalue or deride them, the true member of the Church of England, conscientiously attached to the good old forms, and hence not meddling with them that are given to change—rejoices that the religion and creed in which he was brought up flourish here. And how consoling it must be to the pious man, whom circumstances have compelled to leave his own village for ever, and to take a last and sad farewell of his relatives and friends, and to place the ocean between him and his native land—how cheering it must be to him in moments of sorrow or despondency, to hear the duties of patience and resignation enforced by a minister of that Church in which he was dedicated to God by his parents in infancy; in which, when reason dawned on his mind, he was taught he had a God to serve and a soul to save. And how peaceful and happy his last moments will be:—no crucifix will be waved "before his darkening eye"—no ointment rubbed upon his perishing body—no prayers offered for him in an unknown tongue; but a native of his own country, a priest of his own communion, will exhort him to lift the eye of faith to the cross of Calvary—will anoint his soul with hope, and will pray with him in the language of his own country, and the forms of his own Church. Greatly, indeed, as the colonies of North British America abound with temporal and spiritual advantages, it is submitted that they are, in the former case, greatly inferior, and, in the latter case, not superior to the settlement in Western Australia. Let it not be forgotten, that the Winter in our North American Colonies is very severe, and though that season is by no means unhealthy, the labours of the agriculturist are for several months altogether impeded by frost and snow. Land cannot be cleared or ploughed ; and without these operations, so indispensible to the cultivation of the soil, the occupier, instead of having twelve months to devote in each year to those duties, has not more than six months, and can only perform half the work which may be done in a milder climate.[2]