In the period from 1830 to 1860 Great Britain was flooded with the handbills and prospectuses of shipping companies, emigrant societies, colonial land companies, North American railway companies and state governments, all holding out the attractions of immigration to one locality or another. These advertisements were generally more optimistic than truth could justify. This is a prospectus published in 1832 by the Canada Land Company which was founded 1826 and held over two million acres of good land in what is now Southern Ontario. The Canada Company was as reputable an agent as a prospective emigrant might encounter, but he would have been wise to read the Company's claims with caution.