64 Benjamin Franklin [1760
of the nature of population in new countries. When
we first began to colonize in America, it was neces-
sary to send people, and to send seed-corn; but it is
not now necessary that we should furnish, for a new
colony, either the one or the other. The annual in-
crement alone of our present colonies, without dimin-
ishing their numbers, or requiring a man from hence,
is sufficient in ten years to fill Canada with double
the number of English that it now has of French
inhabitants. Those who are Protestants among the
French will probably choose to remain under the
English government; many will choose to remove,
if they can be allowed to sell their lands, improve-
ments, and effects; the rest in that thin-settled
country will in less than half a century, from the
crowds of English settling round and among them,
be blended and incorporated with our people both in
language and manners.
8. The Merits of Guadaloupe to Great Britain over-
valued, yet likely to be paid much dearer for, than
Canada.
In Guadaloupe the case is somewhat different; and
though I am far from thinking * we have sugar-land
enough,® I cannot think Guadaloupe is so desirable
1 In fact, there have not gone from Britain itself to our colonies,
these twenty years past, to settle there, so many as ten families a year;
the new settlers are either the offspring of the old, or emigrants from
Germany or the north of Ireland.
2 Remarks, pp. 39, 34-
3 Tt is often said, we have plenty of sugar-land still unemployed in
Jamaica; but those who are well acquainted with that island know
that the remaining vacant land in it is generally situated among moun-
tains. rocks. and gullies, that make carriage impracticable, so that no
: 1
[= B