_help_, absent whenever it pleases her, often with no medical advice
within reach, a damp and cold house half furnished, an uncertain
supply of even common necessaries, and a total absence of all
luxuries, it is really surprising that recovery takes place at all.
Now, it unfortunately happens, that the previous education of all
these emigrants has been directly adverse to that which would have
been desirable for such an after-life. Young ladies and gentlemen are
taught dependence as a duty of civilised life. Children are naturally
independent and active, and would gladly use their activity in helping
themselves. How proud is a child to be allowed to do any of the
servant's work! and how awful the rebuke that follows the attempt;
till at last, poor human nature is cramped, shackled, and gagged.

Hard, then, seems the destiny that removes these pampered children of
European society from their luxurious necessaries--the valet, the
lady's-maid, and all the other appendages--and leaves them wholly to
their own resources, with their self-inflicted ignorance, and their
blundering attempts to remedy it.

I have, therefore, to propose to all who intend to emigrate, that they
should--before taking a step involving so great an outlay, and the
breaking-up of their life here--submit themselves to an ordeal of six
or twelve months, in order to ascertain whether, in truth, their
bodies and minds are fitted for the situation they are entering upon.
Let any gentleman who is thinking of settling in Canada or Australia,
take a _labourer's_ cottage in a distant county--a few pounds will
supply one infinitely superior in comfort and healthfulness to the
log-cabin of the bush that is to be his ultimate destination--let him
take a little land and a bit of garden in a good farming county;
engage one farm-servant (unless he has sons able to take his place),