AGRICULTURE-THE BASIS OF COLONIAL PROSPERITY.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 124, 28 December 1858, Page 3

AGRICULTURE-THE BASIS OF COLONIAL PROSPERITY.

We do not expect that the bulk of those who j have emigrated hither"should he versed in tlie science of'politicale'con'oniy, or even conversant with its fundamental propositions, but the natives of a kingdom Which gave birth to Daniel Defoe, and in which " Robinson Crusoe" finds almost as many readers as the Scriptures, have no excuse for their ignorance of the practical application of that science, and of the qualities requisite in a colonist, as well as ofthe direction to which his industrial efforts should naturally tend, both for his present sustentation, and in order to lay the foundations of future wealth. These were commenced when the immortal mariner committed his first seed-corn to the prolific earth, and were securely perfected when he gathered in the first fruits of his libor. His native good sense told him that there was no investment so safe and reproductive as that of industry in the cultivation of the soil, and when by this process his means of subsistence grew to be in excess of his wants, he enjoyed the leisure requisite for the product of other commodities, thus multiplying his comforts, and increasing his command of those instruments of production which facilitate and abridge lab)r and create wealth; for wealthy he eventually became in the truest sense of the word, wealthier than if the island he inhabited hadbeen one vast quartzreef, and its valleys were shining with golden sands. It would require but a very moderate amount of ingenuity to convert this story into an allegory, and to discover a close similitude between the career of this isolated individual aid that of a colony basing its prosperity upon agriculture, -—struggling with an invincible purpose.and an indomitable self-reliance to become self-aupport-ing, and compelling success by sheer force of character and inexhaustible fertility of resource. Nor would it be difficult to find in the narrative of another of Defoe"s adventurers, Captain Singleton, the gold-seeker, or the Englishman he encountered in the heart of Africa, destitute in the midst of tons of gold dust, an allegorical representation of a colony in the anomalous position of our own. We refer thus pointedly to this author and his works because he was one of the soundest, and perhaps the most sagacious politicians of his age, and was in many respects a century in advance of his epoch; and because, in the familiar story above alluded to, the laws which govern the production and accumulation of wealth, are exhibited in operation in a peculiarly instructive and impressive form, while the most valuable, and, at the same time, thoroughly practical lessons of political economy are embellisheM; with the charms of fiction, and illustrated by the most felicitous and obvious example. The history of this imaginary islander, is it not also the history of ten thousand hardy adventurers who have penetrated the western forests of Canada and the United States, discovered or cleared for themselves a little island of open country in the midst of a sea of waving foliage, and have repeated in that remote solitude the labors, the self-denial, the self reliance, the perseverance, the cheerful adaptability to circumstances, the thrift, the forethought, the ingenuity, and patient pluck of our old friend Robinson? These western pioneers, in many instances/have had no access—or, at the best, a very difficult, costly, and laborious access—to a market for their produce. They have "risen up early, lalie taken rest, and eaten the bread of carefulness." External resources, they had few or none. Labor was in : casual and uncertain supply, and they were- fortunate if their "locations'" happened to be within "a-few miles of. those; of other backwoodsmen, so that in cases of special emergency, they could organise "a bee," and so erect a home-j stead, or perform the duties of seedtime and harvest. But, in spite of all these drawbacks —-in sprite of the-circumstance, that the cost of clearing thebsoil of timber was equivalent to a good round sum per acre—these men almost uniformly prospered. They accumulated wealth, and when the first waves of the ever-encroach* ing tide of population touched the margins of tlieir clearings, these Crusoes of the wilderness \ obtained a handsome price for their farms, and \ pushed still farther westward with the proceeds,; there to found new homes in fresli solitudes, and renew with undiminished vigor and enlarged resources the work of settlement and cultivation. Everywhere, and at all times, we find these men imitating their great prototype, -r-going back to first principles as the only safe rule of conduct, and advancing steadily, step by step, by diligent industry, from a condition of comparative indigence to a state of competence, of plenty, and frequently of opulence. Thus has the province of Upper Canada grown great, nnd thus must any colony advance to solid and permanent prosperity.— Melbourne Argus.