Description

The Cornish-born traveller and writer James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) campaigned energetically for social reform while a Member of Parliament during the 1830s. He later spent four years in North America, and in 1839 travelled on to Canada to investigate its social and economic landscape. In this revealing account, first published in 1843, Buckingham recalls his experiences in the Eastern provinces. He found the Canadians to be civilized, hospitable, hard working and unfailingly loyal to Britain (unlike the independent Americans, who he reports they despised). He also encountered evidence of widespread poverty, and argues that in order to advance Canada's economy and, in turn, that of Britain, new emigrants needed better financial support from the British government. He concludes by calling for a new system whereby land, labour, skill and capital would be optimally utilized, in a pioneering proposal that he expected to prove controversial.