great effects in England, and much greater in her western dependencies. The immigrants will form a populous and powerful state,—as unlike as can well be to the Canada which till now has expected to be nursed and protected by England, and been accustomed to insulting menaces or invitations from the adjoining republic. If the new treasure makes our territory more tempting to filibusters, it will at the same time make it stronger to resist intrusion and repel menace. If a populous and strong group of colonies can live in profitable and amicable commercial connection with their republican neighbour, so much the better for everybody. If this should not be practicable, there is no advantage that the United States have hitherto enjoyed which will not henceforth be equally at the command of the adjoining colonies. The stream of emigration will flow into the Hudson’s Bay territories, in preference to all other American soil, from the day when the new gold shall have caused the peopling and enrichment of the country to begin. The imagination may then mourn the solemn quiet which will have passed away; but the reason and the heart ought to rejoice that a new portion of the earth’s surface is, as it were, given to our people in which to live and flourish, strong in their numbers and power of self-government, and rich in the diligence of their own hands.
The other great approaching change in that part of our world which I am thinking of in connection with the gold discoveries, shows us, as distinctly as we could wish, what the development of our territory will be like. We have so strong an interest in the proposed enterprise, that it may hardly occur to us at first to look at it as yielding a prophecy to our colonists; but it is worth while to glance back for a moment, to see how it is so. At a moment when the great granary of the West is likely to be freely opened to us, we may well inquire whether the creation of that granary is a promise that we shall have something like it from the same causes.
Seventeen years since, an event took place which should have its place in the history of the Western continent, and which may appear hereafter worth mention in connection with the history of the working classes of England. In the summer of 1836, the first ship traversed the lakes which divide Canada and the United States. There had been intercourse by water before,—missionaries and pioneer settlers passing westwards by boats and small steamers; and of late, land speculators and agents, and the hands necessary for building towns. The settlers had tilled the soil, and raised cattle on the prairies; the speculators had made wharves and built stores at the foot of Lake Michigan to receive the new produce; and now the time seemed to have arrived for shipping to show itself, to convey the produce to some populous region where it would sell well. It was true, the lakes had not been properly surveyed, so as to make the voyage safe: there were no stations prepared on shore, no accommodations on board for the convenience of trade or travellers: the thing was an experiment: but it was one of such significance and importance that I have rejoiced ever since that I was a passenger in the first ship which sailed through the chain of lakes from Chicago to Buffalo.
At Chicago, in those days, it was truly the pursuit of commerce under difficulties. The canal was planned, and lots on its banks were selling at vast prices; but not a sod of it was raised. Scattered settlers sent their corn, and beef, and pickled pork, in single waggons over the prairie; and the sales were hap-hazard: but the pork trade of Cincinnati afforded a hint of what the corn and provision trade of Chicago ought to be, with its facilities for water-carriage. So this ship opened the new game; and I, as a passenger, can compare the facilities for water-carriage then, with those which are to give our working-classes cheaper corn than they have ever had yet.
The Milwaukie sailed from Chicago on Monday, June 28th, 1836. She was crowded with roughs for the first eighty miles, the gentry of that description who had been hanging about the land-auctions at Chicago being on their return to the still rawer settlement of Milwaukie. We had to put up with them till mid-day on the 30th, when they tumbled ashore, among the woods. Seven young women came on board to see the ship—the total female population of Milwaukie at that day! A printing press had arrived that morning; and a newspaper would soon bring more settlers, and they would make more commerce for the ship. Already there were apple-pies, cheese, and ale to be had; and orchards, dairies, and corn-fields would rapidly spread back on the prairie. We had but too much opportunity for hearing all about this: for our captain, never having navigated this lake before, and having no proper charts, had got aground on a sand-bar, and we could not get off till the cargo was removed.
Next day came bad weather; and we lay on a leaden sea, under a leaden sky, eating the toughest of salt meat, and with no chance of getting on. When the wind and rain ceased the fog came, and we were at the very base of the high hard Michigan shore, after sunset, when a chance opening in the fog showed us our danger. Next, before sunrise on the 4th of July, we passed the Sacred Isles of the Indians—the Manitou Isles—where the spirits of their dead were believed to dwell. That evening, just in time to see the flags floating, and to hear the last guns firing for the great Fourth, we found ourselves before Machilimackinack—more practically called Mackinaw. The wigwams and bark-roofed huts, the Indians on the shore, and the half-breeds on and in the water, gave the place a wild appearance, though civilised dwellings were visible about the fort. The scene was incomparably beautiful, both evening and morning, and as unlike a trading station as could well be conceived; but a great traffic in furs went on here, at this central position among the great lakes. It is an island nine miles in circumference, lying in the strait between Lakes Michigan and Huron, and communicating with Lake Superior to the north.
We had now, I beg my readers to observe, sailed northwards for nearly 400 miles: and we were about to sail about as far south along Lake Huron. We were making a vast circuit north and south, in order to make another afterwards to