Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

394 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
on the other hand was there any hesitation in adversely criticising and
condemning what, in the correspondent's opinion, was Avrong or faulty.
If the truth and nothing but the truth be told about Canada, and by per-
sons whose words carry weight to those to whom they are addressed, the
Canadian people are ready to abide by the verdict of their friends at
home. Mr Mackenzie told the sober facts, . . . but he must excuse
me if I dili'er from him, as I frankly told him I did, in connection with
one or two conclusions at which he has arrived."
These conclusions refer to my criticism on the Government policy in
only encouraging people with money to emigrate, and on their having in
the past extended greater encouragement to Kussian Mennonites and Ice-
landers than to their own Highland countrymen. It is not my intention
at present to discuss these questions further than I have already done,
but although this is to be the last of the present series, it is my intention
to write occasional articles from time to time on the Dominion, it advan-
tages as a field of emigration, and the various aspects in which the place,
its people, and institutions have presented themselves to my mind.
Since my return home I had numerous enquiries, personally and by
letter, for information regarding Canada as a field for emigration and its
attractions generally ; but I invariably declined to give any beyond what
I have akeady given in the Free Press and in the Celtic Magazine. This
apparently uncivil resolve it is my purpose to maintain ; for I do not
intend to incur blame for the non-success of people who will fail to
get on in Canada, as they wQl everywhere else, in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred, entirely through faults of their own. The Government
have their regularly appointed and paid agents, ready to give othcial in-
formation, and to these I must respectfully refer all intending emigrants
to the Dominion.
Leaving Niagara in the evening, I passed over to the American side
of the river, where I had my luggage examined by the Custom-House
officials, a duty which they performed in the most polite manner and with
as Little inconvenience as possible. This is more than I can say of the
Canadian officials of the same class. On my first arrival on Canadian
soil, at Saint John, New Brunswick, I found the Custom-House officers a
most uncivil, troublesome lot, though I had nothing dutiable in my pos-
session. This was almost a miracle, for nearly everything is taxed in
Canada but the fresh air. i'rom Niagara I took the Hudson River route,
touching at Buftalo, on Lake Erie, and at Albany, the Capital of the State
of New York, on my way. At both these places Ave had to change carriages,
an inconvenience in the middle of the night such as one seldom meets with
on any of the through lines on the American Continent, and one which, I
was afterwards told, I might have avoided, had I taken the Erie Railroad.
The run along the noble Hudson, after passing Albany next morning, was,
however, worth a good deal of inconvenience ; surrounded as it is with
some of the most magnificent scenery on the American Continent ; and
having travelled nearly 600 miles Ave arrived at
New York City
at ten a.m., where, among some very genuine Scots, I remained for six
days specially to get home in the State of Nevada, Avhich I found Avas to
sail on the following Thursday, Avith Captain Braes and hi§ officers, who