How was this vast scheme to be carried to a successful issue?  A joint-stock company, to be called “The Irish Canadian Company,” was to undertake the entire management of it.  This Company was to be legalised by Act of Parliament, and recognised by the Canadian Government.  It was to transmit to Canada and settle there a million and a half of the Irish people in three years, being at the rate of half a million a year.  To do this, L9,000,000 was to be lent by the Government, at the rate of L3,000,000 each year, on the security of Irish property and an Irish income tax.  This tax was to be one per cent. the first year, two per cent. the second year, three per cent. the third year, and to stand at three per cent. until the first instalment of the loan could be paid, and was, of course, to cease altogether when the last instalment was paid.  Repayment was to be made at the rate of six and a half per cent., per annum, which would extinguish principal and interest in twenty two years.

The L9,000,000 so lent and to be so repaid, was to be expended in this manner:  The passage money of each individual was computed at L3; of this the Government was to advance one pound, the emigrants themselves finding the other two in some way—­to be given by friends—­saved from wages—­obtained from their landlords—­however the L2 was to be found,—­that sum was to be provided by the emigrant.  One pound to each of one million and a-half of emigrants would absorb L1,500,000 of the L9,000,000.  The joint-stock company that was to work the concern must, of course, have profits, and be paid for its labours; it was, therefore, to have a bonus of L5, or a sum of about that amount, for each emigrant it would prove to the satisfaction of Government that it had located in Canada.  It was to have other profits.  It was to be empowered to lend money to the district councils in Canada, to effect local improvements, and the interest of this money was to be a portion of its profits.  All the emigrants were to be settled on the land in Canada; this would be bought in its rude state by the company, and resold at a profit, when it had improved it, and established upon it those “aids to location” enumerated further on.  This bonus of L5 on each, emigrant would amount to L7,500,000, which, together with the L1,500,000 mentioned above, would absorb the L9,000,000.

As already stated, it was a marked characteristic of this systematic emigration, or colonization, that it was to be exclusively Catholic, and that a number of priests, proportioned to the number of emigrants, should be appointed to accompany them and settle down with them.  This Mr. Godley held to be absolutely necessary.  Before the Lords’ Committee on Colonization he is asked:  “Has any mode occurred to you by which a more compacted social organization might be given to emigration, carrying with it more of the characteristics and elements of improved civilization than at present exists?” He answers:  “Yes.