as most of the hon. gentlemen in this House. I regret that the
hon. member for Montreal West is not in his place in the House,
because I can recollect when he and the Hon. Peter Mitchell -- who
wrote these very pleasing and interesting letters which have engaged
the attention of hon. gentlemen, and in which he speaks in high
terms of the lands in Minnesota -- heard other testimony.

I can recollect five members of this House and myself were on
the train between Winnipeg and St. Paul together, on our return
from Manitoba. We met the emigration agent of the Dominion
Government, and that official, whom I then saw for the first time, on
being asked, "Are any efforts made by the officials of the St. Paul,
Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway to keep back emigrants on their
way to Manitoba?" replied, "Certainly not; on the contrary, every
possible assistance and facilities are afforded these emigrants for
going through to their destination."

Perhaps some other American railway companies acted differ-
ently, but that has nothing to do with the road referred to.

. . . Our instructions to our officials are that no attempt should
be made to keep back these people on their way to Manitoba, but,
on the contrary, to aid and assist them as far as possible, and I
believe that these instructions are honestly carried out. The
settlers, both on the Government and railway lands along the St.
Paul and Manitoba Road, are principally farmers from Wisconsin,
Illinois, Michigan, and other Eastern States, who, having sold their
farms there at good prices, take up wheat lands in Minnesota, and
each, in possession of capital ranging from $1,000 to perhaps $50,000,
contributes immediately to building up the country. These are
Americans, who naturally prefer their own institutions to ours, and
so remain under their own Government; and hon. gentlemen must
be aware that the great majority of Canadians proceeding beyond
St. Paul, who do not go to and remain in Manitoba, become settlers
in the territory of Dakota, and not on the lands of the St. Paul and
Manitoba Company.

No one can say that I have ever put forward the claims of the
United States for emigration in preference to Manitoba and the
North-West Territory. Quite otherwise; and when recently in
England, on the question of resources and development of Canada
being brought forward at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute,
I took occasion there to speak in the most marked terms of the advan-
tage Canada had over the United States in this respect, and in this
superiority I firmly and faithfully believe.

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