From Restriction to Encouragement: Britain’s Shifting Immigration Policy

When Britain first acquired its North American colonies, including what would become Canada, the government actively discouraged emigration from the homeland. British officials feared that population loss would weaken national strength – a view famously expressed in 1787 by Chief Justice William Smith of Canada who declared “it is people, not trees, that constitute the wealth of a country.” This philosophy led to policies like the 1749 settlement of Halifax using German Protestants rather than English farmers, or offering land grants to demobilized soldiers to keep them in America rather than returning home.

The tide began turning in the late 18th century as economic pressures mounted in Britain. Rising rents pushed about 1,000 Yorkshire farmers to migrate to Nova Scotia in the 1770s to work lands owned by official Michael Franklin. Earlier, speculator Alexander McNutt’s transportation of 600 Irish country folk to Nova Scotia had sparked protests about depopulating Ireland, leading to renewed restrictions. Yet small numbers of Irish and Scots continued arriving, particularly in Newfoundland’s fisheries and along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Industrial Revolution’s Demographic Impact

Britain’s industrial transformation created the perfect storm that would drive mass migration to Canada. Between 1780 and 1831, the population nearly doubled from under 13 million to over 24 million. Thomas Malthus’s 1798 “Essay on the Principle of Population” captured contemporary anxieties about geometric population growth outstripping food production.

The Industrial Revolution’s disruptive effects compounded these pressures. In England, enclosure movements eliminated common lands and tenant farming. Scottish highland clearances transformed clan territories into sheep pastures. In Ireland, subdivided farms and potato-dependent subsistence created Europe’s densest rural poverty. By 1815, with the Napoleonic Wars ending and soldiers returning to scarce jobs, nearly 15% of Britons lived in destitution.

Social thinkers like Patrick Colquhoun proposed emigration as the solution. His 1814 treatise argued colonies could absorb Britain’s surplus population while creating markets for manufactured goods. This philosophy gained official endorsement when Britain published its first pro-emigration notice in February 1815 – marking a complete reversal of previous restrictive policies.

Organized Settlement Schemes

Post-1815 immigration to Canada became systematic. About 6,500 demobilized soldiers, unemployed Scottish weavers, and impoverished Irish Catholics were settled in eastern Ontario’s Peterborough, Perth, and Rideau River areas with government-assisted passage and land grants.

The most ambitious efforts came through chartered land companies. The 1825 Canada Company acquired 2.5 million acres around Lake Huron, establishing settlements that grew into cities like Guelph. Similar companies operated in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec’s Eastern Townships, maintaining agents in British ports who distributed maps and promotional literature.

Religious and charitable organizations also sponsored migrants. During the 1830s “Captain Swing” rural riots – England’s agricultural counterpart to the Luddite movement – parishes assisted about 20,000 impoverished farm laborers to emigrate before the 1837 rebellions interrupted the program. The Petworth Emigration Committee alone relocated 1,800 Sussex residents between 1832-1837.

Chain migration played a significant role, with earlier settlers sending money and letters encouraging relatives to join them. One typical letter boasted of “abundant timber,” “plenty of good food and drink,” and opportunities unavailable in overcrowded England. Between 1815-1850, official records show nearly one million immigrants arrived, over 60% before 1842.

The Harrowing Atlantic Crossing

The journey to Canada tested migrants’ endurance. Few ships made the transatlantic passage in under 30 days. Charles Dickens, visiting Montreal in 1842, described “hundreds of emigrants huddled on public wharfs surrounded by scattered luggage.”

Early migrants traveled in converted timber ships under appalling conditions. Until 1835 regulations improved standards, passengers endured 11-12 week voyages in dark, unventilated holds with minimal rations of water, hardtack, and oatmeal. An agent’s report described “filthy bedding,” “foul stench,” and “hundreds packed together.” The James, a typical timber ship, left Waterford with 160 passengers but arrived in Halifax with 5 dead at sea, 35 debilitated passengers left in Newfoundland, and the rest stricken with typhus.

Disease outbreaks were common. The 1832 cholera epidemic ravaged immigrant ships quarantined at Grosse Isle near Quebec. By September, the plague had killed nearly 3,500 in Quebec City and 2,000 in Montreal, with hundreds more dying across Upper Canada and the Maritimes. A Montreal merchant described bodies passing his house daily, with schools and shops closed except for coffin makers.

Demographic Transformation

Britain’s 1759 conquest of Quebec found 60,000 French Canadians. The American Revolution’s Loyalist exodus brought 50,000 British subjects north by 1783 – 35,000 to Nova Scotia and 14,000 to New Brunswick, with another 7,000 settling along the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes. By 1812, Upper Canada’s population reached 80,000, mostly Americans.

The real demographic shift came from British immigration. Between 1760-1841, Canada’s population grew sixteen-fold to 1.5 million. The post-1815 period saw particularly rapid growth, with 500,000 arrivals boosting numbers to 2 million. High birthrates among young immigrant families sustained this growth. A New Brunswick missionary recorded 48 weddings, 295 baptisms, but only 17 funerals between 1795-1800.

Regional settlement patterns emerged. Newfoundland attracted fishermen from England’s West Country and southeast Ireland, creating culturally distinct enclaves that persisted into the 20th century. Upper Canada developed more religious and ethnic diversity, lacking the homogeneous communities found elsewhere.

Political Structures and Corruption

The 1791 Constitutional Act divided Canada into French-majority Lower Canada and English Upper Canada, maintaining authoritarian elements from the 1774 Quebec Act. Power rested with appointed councils rather than elected assemblies, breeding corruption.

Colonial governance was chaotic until the 1815 Colonial Office creation. Governors, serving 5-7 year terms, often deferred to permanent local elites on executive councils. By the 1830s, Nova Scotia’s council was controlled by 4-5 intermarried families. Upper Canada’s “Family Compact,” Lower Canada’s “Château Clique,” and Nova Scotia’s “Council of Twelve” dominated patronage networks. As reformer Joseph Howe noted in 1839, governors became “caged birds” constrained by these oligarchies.

Land distribution epitomized the corruption. Unlike Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe’s visionary 1790s plans for orderly settlement and infrastructure, most officials granted lands to cronies for speculation rather than actual settlers. Simcoe’s “chequered plan” of standardized townships with reserved clergy and crown lands became distorted, pricing out ordinary immigrants.

The Reform Movement and 1837 Rebellions

Immigrants brought democratic expectations that clashed with Canada’s oligarchic rule. In Upper Canada, Scottish-born William Lyon Mackenzie’s Colonial Advocate exposed Family Compact abuses, leading to his 1826 election to the assembly. The 1831 revenue control crisis galvanized reformers demanding American-style elected councils.

Lower Canada’s Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Parti Canadien, defending French Canadian identity against British assimilation. His 1834 Ninety-Two Resolutions demanded legislative control over finances and elected councils. Nova Scotia’s Joseph Howe pursued more moderate reforms toward responsible government.

Britain’s 1837 rejection of reforms sparked rebellions. In Lower Canada, Papineau’s followers briefly held rural areas before being crushed at St. Denis and St. Eustache, with hundreds casualties and leaders exiled. In Upper Canada, Mackenzie’s disorganized march on Toronto collapsed, sending him fleeing to the U.S. Both uprisings revealed deep discontent but lacked broad support or military capacity.

The failed rebellions nonetheless forced Britain to reassess colonial governance, setting the stage for the 1840 Act of Union and eventual responsible government – proving that while the migrants’ Atlantic crossing ended at Canada’s shores, their political ideals continued shaping the nation’s development.