CANADA

AND

THE CANADIANS. 

BY

SIR RICHARD HENRY BONNYCASTLE, KT. , LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROYAL ENGINEERS AND MILITIA OF CANADA WEST. 

NEW EDITION. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. II. 

LONDON:HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 

1849. 

Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, 51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London. 

CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME. 

CHAPTER X. 

Return to Toronto, after a flight to Lake Superior--Loons naturalDiving Bells--Birds caught with hooks at the bottom of NiagaraRiver--Ice-jam--Affecting story--Trust well placed--Fast Steamer--Tripto Hamilton--Kékéquawkonnaby, alias Peter Jones--John Bull and theOjibbeways--Port Credit, Oakville, Bronte, WellingtonSquare--Burlington Bay and Canal--Hamilton--Ancaster--Immenseexpenditure on Public Works--Value of the Union of Canada withBritain, not likely to lead to a Repeal--Mackenzie's fate--FamilyCompact--Church and Kirk--Free Church and High Church--The VitalPrinciple--The University--President Polk, Oregon, andCanada Page 1

CHAPTER XI. 

Ekfrid and Saxonisms--Greek _unde derivaturs_--The GrandRiver--Brantford--Plaster of Paris--Mohawks--Dutchforgetfulness--George the Third, a Republican King--Church of theIndians--The Five Nations--A good Samaritan denies a drop ofwater--Loafers--Keep your Temper, a story of the Army ofOccupation--Tortoise in trouble--Burford 51

CHAPTER XII. 

Woodstock--Brock District--Little England--Aristocratic Society in theBush--How to settle in Canada as a Gentleman should do--Reader, didyou ever Log?--Life in the Bush--The true Backwoods 75

CHAPTER XIII. 

Beachville--Ingersoll--Dorchester--Plank road--WestminsterHall--London--The great Fire of London--Longwoods--Delaware--ThePious, glorious, and immortal Memory--Moncey--The GermanFlats--Tecumseh--Moravian settlement--Thamesville--The MourningDove--The War, the War--Might against Right--Cigar-smoking and allsorts of curiosity--Young Thames--The Albion--The loyal WesternDistrict--America as it now is 95

CHAPTER XIV. 

Intense Heat--Pigs, the Scavengers of Canada--Dutch Country--MoravianIndians--Young Father Thames--Ague, a cure for Consumption--WildHorses--Immense Marsh 125

CHAPTER XV. 

Why Engineer-officers have little leisure for Book-making--Cautionagainst iced water--Lake St. Clair in a Thunderstorm--A SteamingDinner--Detroit river and town--Windsor--Sandwich--YankeeDriver--Amherstburgh--French Canadian Politeness--Courtesy notcostly--Good effects of the practice of it illustrated--NakedIndians--Origin of the Indians derived from Asia--Piratical attemptand Monument at Amherstburgh--Canadians not disposed to turnYankees--Present state of public opinion in those Provinces--Policy ofthe Government--Loyalty of the People 132

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Thames Steamer--Torrid Night--"The Lady that helped" and herStays--Port Stanley--Buffalo City--Its CommercialProsperity--Newspaper Advertisements--Hatred to England andencouragement of Desertion--General Crispianus--Lake Erie in arage--Benjamin Lett--Auburn Penitentiary--Crime and Vice in theCanadas--Independence of Servants--Penitentiaries unfit for juvenileoffenders--Inefficiency of the Police--Insolence of Cabmen--Carters--English rule of the road reversed--Return to Toronto 168

CHAPTER XVII. 

Equipage for a Canadian Gentleman Farmer--Superiority of certain irontools made in the United States to English--Prices of FarmingImplements and Stock--Prices of Produce--Local and MunicipalAdministration--Courts of Law--Excursion to the River Trent--Bay ofQuinte--Prince Edward's Island--Belleville--Political Parsons--ADemocratic Bible needed--Arrogance of American politicians--TrentPort--Brighton--Murray Canal in embryo--Trent River--Percy and PercyLanding--Forest Road--A Neck-or-nothing Leap--Another perilous leap, and advice about leaping--Life in the Bush exemplified in the Historyof a Settler--Seymour West--Prices of Land near the Trent--System ofBarter--Crow Bay--Wild Rice--Healy'sFalls--Forsaken Dwellings 205

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Prospects of the Emigrant in Canada--Caution against ardent spiritsand excessive smoking--Militia of Canada--Population--The mass of theCanadians soundly British--Rapidly increasing Prosperity of the NorthAmerican Colonies, compared with the United States--Kingston--ItsCommercial Importance--Conclusion 260

CANADA

AND

THE CANADIANS. 

CHAPTER X. 

 Return to Toronto, after a flight to Lake Superior--Loons natural Diving Bells--Birds caught with hooks at the bottom of Niagara River--Ice-jam--Affecting story--Trust well placed--Fast Steamer--Trip to Hamilton--Kékéquawkonnaby, alias Peter Jones--John Bull and the Ojibbeways--Port Credit, Oakville, Bronte, Wellington Square--Burlington Bay and Canal--Hamilton--Ancaster--Immense expenditure on Public Works--Value of the Union of Canada with Britain, not likely to lead to a Repeal--Mackenzie's fate--Family compact--Church and Kirk--Free Church and High Church--The vital principle--The University--President Polk, Oregon, and Canada. 

After a ramble in this very desultory manner, which the reader has, nodoubt, now become accustomed to, I returned to Toronto, having firstobserved that the harvest looked very ill on the Niagara frontier;that the peaches had entirely failed, and that the grass was destroyedby a long drought; that the Indian corn was sickly, and the potatoesvery bad. Cherries alone seemed plentiful; the caterpillars haddestroyed the apples--nay, to such an extent had these insects ravagedthe whole province, that many fruit-trees had few or no leaves uponthem. A remarkable frost on the 30th of May had also passed over allUpper Canada, and had so injured the woods and orchards, that, inJuly, the trees in exposed places, instead of being in full vigour, were crisped, brown, and blasted, and getting a renewal of foliagevery slowly. 

My return to Toronto was caused by duty, as well as by a desire tovisit as many of the districts as I possibly could, in order toobserve the progress they had made since 1837, as well as to employthe mind actively, to prevent the reaction which threatened to assailit from the occurrence of a severe dispensation. 

I heard a very curious fact in natural history, whilst at Niagara, incompany with a medical friend, who took much interest in such matters. 

I had often remarked, when in the habit of shooting, the very greatlength of time that the loon, or northern diver, (_colymbusglacialis_, ) remained under water after being fired at, and fancied hemust be a living diving-bell, endued with some peculiar functionswhich enabled him to obtain a supply of air at great depth; but I wasnot prepared for the circumstance that the fishermen actually catchthem on the hooks of their deepest lines in the Niagara river, whenfishing at the bottom for salmon-trout, &c. Such is, however, thefact. 

An affecting incident at Queenston, whilst we were waiting for theTransit to take us to Toronto, must be related. I have mentioned that, in the spring of 1845, an ice-jam, as it is called here, occurred, which suddenly raised the level of the Niagara between thirty andforty feet above its ordinary floods, and overset or beat down, bythe grinding of mountain masses of ice, all the wharfs and buildingson the adjacent banks. 

The barrack of the Royal Canadian Rifles at Queenston was thusassailed in the darkest hours of the night, and the soldiers hadbarely time to escape, before the strong stone building they inhabitedwas crushed. The next to it, but on higher ground, more than thirtyfeet above the natural level of the river, was a neat wooden cottage, inhabited by a very aged man and his helpless imbecile wife, equallyaged with himself. This man, formerly a soldier, was a cabinet-maker, and amused his declining years by forming very ingenious articles inhis line of business; his house was a model of curious nick-nackeries, and thus he picked up just barely enough in the retrograding villageto keep the wolf from the door; whilst the soldiers helped him out, bysparing from their messes occasionally a little nourishing food. 

That night, the dreadful darkness, the elemental warnings, thesoul-sickening rush of the river, the groaning and grinding of theice, piling itself, layer after layer, upon the banks of the river, assailed the old man with horrors, to which all his ancient campaignshad afforded no parallel. 

He heard the irresistible enemy, slowly, deliberately, anddeterminedly advancing to bury his house in its cold embrace. Hehurried the unmindful sharer of his destiny from her bed, gathered themost precious of his household goods, and knew not how or where tofly. Loudly and oft the angry spirit of the water shrieked: Niagarawas mounting the hill. 

The soldiers, perceiving his imminent peril, ventured down the bank, and shouted to him to fly to them. He moved not; they entreated him, and, knowing his great age and infirmity, and the utter imbecility ofthe poor old dame, insisted upon taking them out. 

But the man withstood them. He looked abroad, and the glimmering nightshowed him nothing but ruin around. 

"I put my trust in Him who never fails, " said the veteran. "He willnot suffer me to perish. "

The soldiers, awed by the wreck of nature, rushed forward, and tookthe ancient pair out by strength of arms; and, no sooner had they doneso, than the waters, which had been so eager for their prey, reachedthe lower floor, and a large wooden building near them was toppledover by waves of solid ice. Much of the poor man's ingeniously-wroughtfurniture was injured; but, although the neighbouring buildings werecrushed, cracked, rent, and turned over, the old man's habitation wasspared, and he still dwells there, waiting in the sunshine for hisappointed time, with the same faith as he displayed in the utterdarkness of the storm. 

He had built his cottage on land belonging to the Crown; and, inconsequence of an act recently passed, he, with many others who hadthus taken possession, had been ordered to remove. But his affectinghistory had gained him friends, and he has now permission to dwellthereon, until he shall be summoned away by another and a higherauthority, by that Power in whom he has his being, and in whom he puthis trust. 

We landed once more at Toronto, at present "The City" of Upper Canada, on the 7th of July, and left it again on the 8th, in the fine and veryfast steamer Eclipse for Hamilton, in the Gore district, at threeo'clock, p. M. The day was fine; and thus we saw to advantage the wholeshore of Ontario, from Toronto to Burlington. 

Our first stopping place was Port Credit, a place remarkable for thesettlement near it of an Indian tribe, to which the half-bred PeterJones, or Kékéquawkonnaby, as he is called, belongs. 

This man, or, rather, this somewhat remarkable person, and, I think, missionary teacher of the Wesleyan Methodists, attained a share ofnotoriety in England a few years ago, by marrying a young Englishwoman of respectable connections, and passed with most people inwonder-loving London as a great Indian Chief, and a remarkableinstance of the development of the Indian mind. He was, or rather is, for I believe he is living, a clever fellow, and had taken some painswith himself; but, like most of the Canadian lions in London, does notpass in his own country for any thing more than what he is known to bethere, and that is, like the village he lives near, of credit enough. It answers certain purposes every now and then to send people torepresent particular interests to England; and, in nearly all thesecases, John Bull receives them with open arms, and, with his nationalgullibility, is often apt to overrate them. 

The O-jibbeway or Chippewa Indians, so lately in vogue, were apleasant instance, and we could name other more important personageswho have made dukes, and lords, and knights of the shire, esquires ofthe body, and simple citizens pay pretty dearly for having confidedtheir consciences or their purse-strings to their keeping. 

Beware, dear brother John Bull, of those who announce their comingwith flourishes of trumpet, and who, when they arrive on your warmhearths, fill every newspaper with your banquetings, addresses, andtalks, not to honour _you_, but to tell the Canadian public whatextraordinary mistakes they have made in not having so readily, as youhave done, found out their superexcellencies. 

These are the men who sometimes, however, find a rotten rung inFortune's ladder, and thus are suddenly hurled to the earth, but who, if they succeed and return safely, become the picked men of company, forget men's names, and, though you be called John, call you Peter. 

The mouth of the little river Credit is called Port Credit, the portbeing made by the parallel piers run out into deep water on cribs, orframes of timber filled with stones, the usual mode of forming piersin Canada West. It is a small place, with some trade, but the Indianscomplain sadly that the mills and encroachments of the Whites havedestroyed their salmon-fishery, which was their chief resource. Wheredo the Whites come in contact with the Red without destroying theirchief resource? Echo answers, Where?

Sixteen miles farther on we touched at Oakville, or Sixteen MileCreek, where again the parallel piers were brought into use, to form aharbour. Oakville is a very pretty little village, exhibiting muchindustry. 

Bronte, or Twelve Mile Creek, is the next village, very small indeed, with a pier, and then Port Milford, which is one mile from WellingtonSquare, a place of greater importance, with parallel piers, asteam-mill, and thriving settlement; near it is the residence of thecelebrated Indian chief Brant, who so distinguished himself in the warof 1812. Here also is still living another chief, who bears thecommission of major in the British army, and is still acknowledged ascaptain and leader of the Five Nations; his name is John Norton, or, more properly, Tey-on-in-ho, ka-ra-wen. 

That which I wished particularly, however, to see, was now close tous, the Canal into Burlington Bay. 

Burlington Bay is a little lake of itself, surrounded by high land inthe richest portion of Canada, and completely enclosed by a bar ofbroad sand and alluvial matter, which runs across its entrance. Indriving along this belt, you are much reminded of England: the oaksstand park-like wide asunder, and here, on tall blasted trees, you mayfrequently see the bald eagle sitting as if asleep, but reallywatching when he can rob the fish-hawk of the fruits of his piscatorytoils. 

The bald eagle is a cunning, bold, bad bird, and does not inspire onewith the respect which his European congeners, the golden or the browneagle, do. He is the vulture of North America rather than the king ofbirds. Why did Franklin, [1] or whoever else did the deed, make him thenational emblem of power? He is decidedly a _mauvais sujet_. 

[Footnote 1: I think, however, I have read that the philosophicprinter gave him a very bad character. ]

The Canal of Burlington Bay is an arduous and very expensiveundertaking. The opening from Lake Ontario was formerly liable togreat changes and fluctuations, and the provincial work, originallyundertaken to _fix_ the entrance more permanently, was soon foundinadequate to the rapid commercial undertakings of the country. Accordingly, a very large sum was granted by the Parliament forrendering it stable and increasing the width, which is now 180 feet, between substantial parallel piers. 

There is a lighthouse at each end on the left side going in, but thework still requires a good deal of dredging, and the steamboat, although passing slowly and steadily, made a very great surge. Infact, it requires good steerage-way and a careful hand at the helm inrough weather. 

The contractors made a railroad for five miles to the mountain, tofetch the stone for filling-in the piers. 

The voyage across Burlington Bay is very pleasant and picturesque, theland being more broken, elevated, and diversified than in the lowerportions of Canada West; and the Burlington Heights, so important aposition in the war of 1812, show to great advantage. Here is one ofthe few attempts at castle-building in Canada called Dundurn Castle, the residence of Sir Allan Macnab. It is beautifully situated, and, although not perhaps very suitable to a new country, it is a greatornament to the vicinity of Hamilton, embowered as it is in thenatural forest. Near it, however, is a vast swamp, in which is Coot'sParadise, so named, it is said, from a gentleman, who was fond ofduck-shooting, or perhaps from the coot or water-hen being there inbliss. 

Hamilton is a thriving town, exhibiting the rapid progress which agood location, as the Americans call it, ensures. The other day it wasin the forest, to-day it is advancing to a city. It has, however, onedisadvantage, and that is the very great distance from its port, whichputs both the traveller and the merchant to inconvenience, causingexpense and delay. How they manage, of a dark night, on the wharf tothread the narrow passage lined with fuel-wood for the steamboat Icannot tell; but, in the open daylight of summer, I saw a vehicleoverturned and sent into the mud below. There is barely room for thestage or omnibus; and thus you must wait your turn amidst all thejostling, swearing, and contention, of cads, runners, agents, drivers, and porters; a very pleasant situation for a female or an invalid, andexpecting every moment to have the pole of some lumber-waggon driventhrough your body. 

Private interest here, as well as in so many other new places andprojects in Canada, has evidently been at work, and a city a mile ortwo from its harbour, without sufficient reason, has been the result. But that will change, and the city will come to the port, for it isextending rapidly. The distance now is one mile and a quarter. 

After great delay and a sharp look-out for carpet-bags and leathertrunks, we arrived at Young's Hotel, a very substantial stonebuilding, on a large scale, where civility and comfort made up fordelay. It was English. 

As it was night before we got settled, although a very fine night, andknowing that I should start before "Charles's Wain was over the newchimney, " I sallied forth, with a very obliging guide, who acted asrepresentative of the commissariat department, to examine the town. 

The streets are at present straggling, but, as in most Canadian newtowns, laid out wide and at right angles. The main street is so widethat it would be quite impracticable to do as they do in Holland, namely, sit at the door and converse, not _sotto voce_, with youropposite neighbour. It is in fact more like a Mall than a street, andshould be planted with a double row of trees, for it requires atelescope to discover the numbers and signs from one row of houses andshops to the other. 

Here the American custom of selling after dark by lamplight waseverywhere visible, and everywhere new stone houses were building. Iwent into Peest's Hotel, now Weeks's, the American Tavern, and theresaw indubitable signs that the men of yore had a pretty sprinkling ofYankees among them. 

Hamilton has 4500 inhabitants, and is a surprising place, which willreach 10, 000 people before two or three years more pass. It hasalready broad plank-walks, but they are not kept in very good repair;in fact, it cannot escape the notice of a traveller from the Old Worldthat there is too magnificent a spirit at work in the commencement ofthis place, and that utility is sacrificed to enlargement. 

Hamilton is beautifully situated on a sloping plane, at the foot of awooded range of hills, called mountains, whence fine stone of verywhite colour in immense blocks is easily procured and brought; and itis very surprising that more of this stone has not been used inToronto, instead of wood. Brick-clay is also plentiful, and excellentwhite and red bricks are made; but, such is the rage for building, that the largest portion of this embryo city is of combustiblepine-wood. 

I left Hamilton in a light waggon on the 9th of July, at half-pastfive o'clock, a. M. , having been detained for horses, and rolledalong very much at my ease, compared to what the travelling on thisroute was seven years ago--I was going to say, on this road, but itwould have been a misnomer, for there was nothing but a miry, muddy, track then: now, there is a fine, but too narrow, macadamized highway, turnpiked--that is to say, having real turnpike gates. 

The view from "the mountain" is exceedingly fine, almost as fine asthat from Queenston heights, embracing a richly-cultivated fruit andgrain country, a splendid succession of wooded heights, and a long, rolling, ridgy vista of forest, field, and fertility, ending in LakeOntario, blue and beautiful. 

We arrived, at a quarter past seven, at Ancaster, a very pretty littlevillage, with two churches, and composed principally of wooden houses. 

The Half-way House is then gained, being about half a mile from theend of the macadamized road, and thirteen and a half from Hamilton. Good bridges, culverts, and cutting, are seen on this section of theline to London. We got to Ancaster at half-past eight, or in about twohours and three quarters, and thence over the line of new road whichwas, what is called in America, graded, that is, ploughed, ditched, and levelled, preparatory to putting on the broken stone, and whichgraded road, in spring and autumn, must be very like the Slough ofDespond. 

At eleven, we reached Maloney's Tavern--most of the taverns on theCanadian new roads are kept by Irish folks--four miles from Brentford. 

The Board of Works have been busily employed here, for a great portionof the road is across a swamp, which has been long known as _the_swamp. This is a pine-country, soil, hard clay or mud, and no stone;and the route is a very expensive one to form, requiring greatbridging and straightening. 

I observe that the estimate for 1845, for Public Works on this road, in the Gore District, for finishing it, is as high as £10, 000currency, and it is to be all planked, and that, to continue it toLondon, £36, 182 15s. 8d. Had been expended up to July, 1844. 

The immense expenditure, since 1839, upon internal improvements inCanada, in canals, harbours, lighthouses, roads, &c. , is almostincredible, as the subjoined list will show:--

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF WORKS, SHOWING THE MONEYS EXPENDED UPON EACH OF THE PUBLIC WORKS, FROM THECOMMENCEMENT OF THE WORK, UP TO THE 1ST JULY, 1844. 

Welland Canal £238, 995 14 10

ST. LAWRENCE CANALS, VIZ. :

Prescott to Dickenson's landing 13, 490 19 4Cornwall (to the time of opening the Canal in June, 1843) 57, 110 4 2Cornwall (to repair breaks in the banks since the above period) 9, 925 16 4Beauharnois 162, 281 19 5Lachine 45, 410 11 2Expenditure on dredge, outfit, &c. , applicable to the foregoing in common 4, 462 16 3Lake St. Peter 32, 893 19 3Burlington Bay Canal 18, 539 11 2Hamilton and Dover Road 30, 044 16 5

NEWCASTLE DISTRICT, VIZ. :

Scugog Lock and Dam 6, 645 8 1Whitlas Lock and Dam 6, 101 7 11Crook's Lock and Dam 7, 849 9 6Heely's Falls 8, 191 5 1Middle Falls 219 2 8Ranney's Falls 228 6 8Chisholm's Rapids 7, 599 14 0Harris's Rapids 1, 591 9 6Removing sundry impediments in the River 185 17 0Port Hope and Rice Lake Road 1, 439 16 4Bobcaygean, Buckhorn, and Crook's Rapids 12 0 0Applicable to the foregoing works generally 6, 674 1 2

HARBOURS, AND LIGHTHOUSES, AND ROADS LEADING THERETO. 

Windsor Harbour 15, 355 18 3Cobourg Harbour 10, 381 6 3Port Dover 3, 121 10 4Long Point Lighthouse and Light-ship 2, 163 8 5Burwell Harbour and Road 136 10 0Scugog Road 1, 202 6 3Port Stanley 16, 242 10 10Rondeau Harbour, Road and Lighthouse 60 4 2Port Stanley Road 24, 385 13 5Expenditure on outfit, &c. Applicable to the foregoing in common 2, 328 13 7River Ottawa 35, 603 16 3Bay of Chaleurs Road 15, 726 16 11Gosford Road 10, 801 10 10Main North Toronto Road 686 19 4Bridges between Montreal and Quebec 20, 860 19 11Cascades Road 13, 287 19 6London and Sarnia Road 19, 837 5 11London and Brantford Road 36, 182 18 5London and Chatham, Sandwich and Amherstburgh Road 12, 789 0 1River Richelieu 92 4 0 --------------

Certified to be a true abstract of the accounts of theBoard of Works. 

 Thomas A. Begly, Sec. Board of Works. 

 Hamilton H. Killarly, President Board of Works. 

 * * * * *

The estimate for 1845 was 125, 200, as may be seen by the followingreport of the Inspector General of Canada, as laid beforeParliament:--

PUBLIC WORKS. 

CANADA WEST. 

For present repairs to the Chatham Bridge £100

For improving the Grand River Swamp Road--total10, 000--required this year 9, 000

For improving Rouge Hill and Bridge, also anotherbridge and hill east of the former--total £6, 500--required this year 5, 000

For Belleville Bridge 1, 500

For the completion of the Dover Road over themountain, to the limits of the town of Hamilton, anderection of toll-gates 5, 500

For the improvement of the road from L'Originalto Bytown, by Hattfield, Gifford, Buckworth, andGreen's Creeks, as surveyed and estimated, togetherwith the building of a bridge across the narrowchannel, at the mouth of the Rideau, on the line ofthe road from Gattineau Ferry to Bytown--totalcost, £5, 930--required this year £3, 000

Owen's Sound Road, comprehending the line fromDundas by Guelph, to Owen's Sound direct (thissum being for the chopping, clearing, drawing, andforming of the portion not yet opened, and towardsthe lowering of hills, or otherwise improving suchbad parts of the line between Nicolet and Dundasas most require it) 4, 000

For opening the road throughout from Lake Ontario, at Windsor Harbour, to Georgius Bay, onLake Huron, this sum being for the opening of theroad from the head of Scugog Road to the Narrow'sbridge 2, 000

For improving Queenston and Grimsby Road, for laying on the metal already delivered, and completingsuch parts left unfinished as are most advanced, and establishing gates 8, 000

(To finish the remainder of this communicationwithin the Niagara district will cost £16, 000, andthat within the Gore district £10, 000. )

For improving the Trent navigation, towards thecompletion of the works now in progress £12, 000--forthis year 6, 000

To cover expense of surveys, examination, preparationof estimates of the cost of improving the MainProvince Road across the ravines of the Twelve andSixteen Mile Creeks between Toronto and Hamilton;opening a road from the main road to Port Credit;opening and completing a road from the Ottawa atBytown, to the St. Lawrence in the most direct line;of opening a road between Kingstown and the Lakedes Allumettes on the Ottawa, with a branch towardsthe head of the Bay of Quinte; of opening aroad from the Rideau, thence by Perth, Bellamy'sMills, Wabe Lake, to fall in with the road proposedfrom Bytown to Sydenham; of completingthe Desjardin's Canal; of constructing the MurrayCanal; of overcoming the impediments to the navigationof the river Trent, between Heely's Falls andthe Bay of Quinte, and also for a survey of theroad from Barrie to Lake Huron, through thetownships of Sunindale and Nottawasaga 2, 000

For improving the Amherstburgh and Sandwichroad 1, 000

For the Cornwall and L'Original road 900 -------- £47, 000

WORKS OF A GENERAL CHARACTER, AS CONNECTED WITHTHE COMMERCE OR REVENUE OF THE COUNTRY. 

To forming a dam across the branch of the Mississisqui, and forming a portage road at the Chats 1, 250

For works upon the Ottawa and roads connectedtherewith, as detailed in the Report of the Boardof Works of 3rd February, 1845, laid before thelegislature--total £21, 600--required this year 8, 500

For building a landing-wharf, with stairs and approachesat the Quarantine Station, Grosse Isle 2, 750

For the extension of piers, and opening innerbasin at Port Stanley harbour--total £6, 000--requiredthis year 1, 200

For dredging at Cobourg harbour 500

For expenses of piers and dredging at Windsorharbour 2, 000

For repairs and erection of Lighthouses--total£7, 900--this year 5, 000

For the formation of a deep water-basin, at theentrance of the Lachine Canal, in the harbour ofMontreal, to admit vessels from sea 15, 000

For the erection of a Custom House at Toronto 2, 500 ------- £39, 700 --------Total currency £125, 200 --------

 W. B. Robinson, Inspector General. 

Thus, from the commencement of the operations of the Board of Works inthe Canadas, or in about six years, there will have been no less anamount than a million and a half expended in opening the resources ofthat "noble province, " as Lord Metcalfe styled it, in his valedictoryaddress. 

This, with the enormous outlay of nearly two millions during therevolt, the cost of the Rideau Canal and fortifications, and themoney spent by an army of from 8 to 10, 000 men, has thrown capitalinto Canada which has caused it to assume a position which the mostsanguine of its well-wishers could never have anticipated ten yearsago. 

Its connection with England, therefore, instead of being a "baneful"one, as a misinformed partizan stated, has been truly a blessing toit, and proves also, beyond a doubt, that, now it is about to have anuninterrupted water-communication from the oceans of Europe, Asia, andAfrica, to the fresh-water seas of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, andSuperior, its resources will speedily develop themselves; and that itspeople are too wise to throw away the advantages they possess, ofbeing an integral portion of the greatest empire the world ever had, for the very uncertain prospects of a union with their unsettledneighbours, although incessant underhand attempts to persuade them tojoin the Union are going on. 

Taxation in Canada is as yet a name, and a hardship seldom heard ofand never felt. Perfect freedom of thought in all the variousrelations of life exists; there is no ecclesiastical domination; notithes. The people know all this, and are not misled by the furiousrhodomontades of party-spirit about rectories, inquisitorial powers, family compacts, and a universal desire for democratic fraternization;got up by persons who, with considerable talents, great perseveranceand ingenuity, ring the changes upon all these subjects, in hopes thatany alteration of the form of government will place them nearer theloaves and fishes, although I verily believe that many of the mostuntiring of them would valiantly fight in case of a war against theUnited States. 

A more remarkable example, I believe, has never been recorded inhistory than the fate of William Lyon Mackenzie, a man possessing anacuteness of mind, powers of reasoning, and great persuasiveness, withindefatigable research and industry, such as rarely fall to obscureand ill-educated men. 

Involving Canada in a civil war, which he basely fled before, as soonas he had lighted its horrid torch; as soon, in fact, as he hadmurdered an old officer, whose services had extended over the world, and who was just on the verge of what he hoped would be a peacefultermination of his toils in his country's cause; as soon as he hadburned the houses of a widow who had never offended him, and of aworthy citizen, whose only crime in his eyes was his loyalty; and assoon as he had robbed the mail, and a poor maidservant travelling init, of her wages. This man fled to the United States, was receivedwith open arms, got a ragged army to invade Canada, then in profoundpeace with the citizens, who protected him. 

His failure at Navy Island is known too well to need repeating. Hewandered from place to place, sometimes self-created President orDictator of the Republic of Canada, sometimes a stump orator, sometimes in prison, sometimes a printer, sometimes an editor, abusing England, abusing Canada, abusing the United States; then aCustom-house officer in the service of that Republic; then again arobber, a plunderer of private letters, left by accident in hisoffice, which he, without scruple, read, and without scruple, forpolitical purposes, published. 

Reader, mark his end. It teaches so strong a lesson to tread in theright path that it shall be given in his own words, in a letter whichhe wrote, on the 11th of November last year, to the "New York Express"newspaper. 

He would be pitied, indeed, were it not that the widow and the orphan, the houseless and the maimed, cry aloud against the remorseless one. How many there are now living in Canada, whose lives have beenrendered miserable, from their losses, or from injured health, duringthe watchings and wardings of 1837, 1838, 1839, during the long winternights of such a climate, during the rains and damps of the spring andof the fall time of the year, and during the heats of an almosttropical summer. Heat, wet, and cold, in all their most terribleforms, were they exposed to. The young became prematurely old. The olddied. Peace to their souls! _Requiescant in pace!_

In the "New York Express" of the 11th November, we find a lettersigned by Mr. Mackenzie, in which he endeavours to justify himself. What has particularly engaged our attention are the followingparagraphs:--

"If an angel from heaven had told me, eight years ago, that the timewould come in which I would find myself an exile, in a foreignland--poor, and with few friends--calumniated, falsely accused, andthe feelings of honest, faithful Republicans artfully excited againstme--and that among the foremost of my traducers and slanderers wouldbe found Edwin Croswell and the 'Argus, ' Thomas Ritchie and hisjournal, Green and the 'Boston Post, ' with the Pennsylvanian and othernewspapers called Democratic; and that these presses and their editorswould eagerly retail any and every untruth that could operate to myprejudice, but be dumb to any explanation I might offer, I could nothave believed it. But if a pamphlet (like mine) had been then written, exhibiting, with unerring accuracy, the true characters of thecombination of unprincipled political managers, among whom you havelong acted a conspicuous part; if a Jesse Hoyt had come forward asstate's evidence to swear to the truth of the pamphlet, while theparties implicated remained silent; and if you and your afflictedpresses had, as you do now with the letters in my pamphlets, _defendedthe real criminals_, declared solemnly that you could see nothingwrong in what they had done, and directed the whole force of yourwidely circulated journal against the innocent person who had warnedhis countrymen against a most dangerous cabal of political hypocritesof the basest class--in other words, had I known you and yourpartnership as well in October, 1837, as I do, by dear-boughtexperience, in November, 1845, I would have hesitated very longindeed, before assuming any share whatever in that responsibilitywhich _might have given you the Canadas_, as an additional theatre forthe exhibition of those peculiar talents, by which this State andUnion, and thousands in other lands, have so severely suffered. Whilereproving gambling and speculation in others, you and your brotherwire-pullers have made the property, the manufactures, the commerce ofAmerica, your tributaries--even the bench of justice, with its awfulsolemnities and responsibilities, has been so prostituted by yourfriends that, when at sea and about to launch three of hisfellow-creatures into eternity, a captain in the American navyhesitated not to avow that he had told one of them 'that for those whohad money and friends in America there was no punishment for the worstof crimes. '--Nor did the court-martial before whom that avowal wasfreely made censure him. 

"Observe how Mr. And Mrs. Butler sneer at poor judges, corrupt judges, pauper judges, partial chancellors, and at the administration ofAmerican justice, though by their own party--and how their leaderpities Marcy, throws him on the Supreme Court bench as a stoppingplace, to save him from ruin. --Look at the bankrupt returns of thisdistrict alone--one hundred and twenty millions of dollars in debt, very little paid or to be paid, many of the creditors beggared, manyof the debtors astonishing the fashionable with their magnificentcarriages and costly horses. No felony in you and your friends, whobrought about the times of 1837-8. Oh, no! All the felony consists inexposing you. Two hundred years ago it was a felony to read the Biblein English. Truth will prevail yet. 

 "I confess my fears that, as I have now no press of my own, nor the means to get one, and am persecuted, calumniated, harassed with lawsuits, threatened with personal violence, saying nothing of the steady vindictiveness of your artful colleague, nor of the judges chosen by Mr. Van Buren and his friends, whom the 'Globe Democratic Review' and 'Evening Post' denounced in 1840, and declared to be independent of common justice and honesty, you may succeed in embittering the cup of misery I have drunk almost to the dregs. The Swedish Chancellor, Count Axel Oxenstiern, wrote to one of his children, 'You do not know yet, my son, how little wisdom is exhibited in ruling mankind. ' I think that Mr. Butler cannot be a pure politician, and yet the corrupt individual whose dishonesty I have so clearly shown. --Perhaps the United States government may justify him, and the laws punish me for exhibiting him in his true colours. Be it so--I had for many years an overflow of popularity; and if it is now to be my lot to be overwhelmed with obloquy, hatred, and ceaseless slander, I am quite prepared for it, or even for worse treatment. Being old, and not likely at any future time to be a candidate for office, it is of very little consequence to society what may become of me--but I have a lively satisfaction that I was an humble instrument selected, at a fortunate moment, to prove, by their own admission in 1845, every charge I had made against you and your friends through the 'New York Examiner, ' before I left the service of the Mechanics' Institute here, in 1845. 

 "W. L. Mackenzie. "

The Upper Canadians should follow the example of the good people ofAmherstburgh, and erect a monument in the capital of Upper Canada tothe memory of those who died in consequence of the folly, thehardihood, and the presumption of this man. 

There may have been some excuse pleaded for the Canadian French. Misled by designing men, these excellent people of course fanciedthat, contrary to all possible reason and analogy, a population ofabout half a million was strong enough to combat with Britishdominion. Their language, laws, and religion, they were told, were indanger. 

But what excuse could the Upper Canadians have--men of British birth, or direct descent, who had grievances, to be sure, but whichgrievances resolved themselves into the narrow compass of the FamilyCompact and the thirty-seven Rectories? Quiet farmers, reposing inperfect security under the Ægis of Britain, were the mass of UpperCanadians. 

The "Family Compact" is still the war-cry of a party in Upper Canada;and one person of respectability has published a letter to Sir AllanMacnab, in which he states that, so long as the Chief Justice and theBishop of Toronto continue to force Episcopalianism down the throatsof the people, so long will Canada be in danger. This gentleman, aninfluential Scotch merchant of Toronto, in his letter dated Hamilton, C. West, 18th November, 1846, says, that the Family Compact, or Churchof England tory faction, whose usurpations were the cause of the lastrebellion, will be the cause of a future and more successful one, "ifthey are not checked;" and, while he fears rebellion, he dreads that, in case of a war, his countrymen, "the Scotch, could not, on theirprinciples, defend the British government, which suffers theirdegradation in the colony. "

This plainly shows to what an extent party spirit is carried inCanada, when it suffers a man of respectability and loyalty coolly tolook rebellion in the face as an alternative between his own churchand another. 

A Church of England man, totally unconnected with colonial interestsand with colonial parties, is a better judge of these matters than aChurch of Scotland man, or a Free Church man, who believes, with hiseyes shut, that Calvinism is to be thrust bodily out of the land bythe influence of Dr. Strachan or Chief Justice Robinson. 

It is obvious to common sense that any attempt on the part of theclergy or the laity of Upper Canada to crush the free exercise ofreligious belief, would be met not only with difficulties absolutelyinsurmountable, but by the withdrawal of all support from the homegovernment; for, as the Queen of England is alike queen of thePresbyterian and of the Churchman, and is forbidden by theconstitution to exercise power over the consciences of her subjectsthroughout her vast dominions; so it would be absurd to suppose for amoment that the limited influence in a small portion of Canada of achief justice or a bishop, even supposing them mad or foolish enoughto urge it, could plunge their country into a war for the purposes ofrendering one creed dominant. 

The Church of England is, moreover, not by any means the strongest, ina physical sense, in Upper Canada, neither is the Church of Scotland;nor is it likely, as the writer quoted observes, that it would be atlength necessary to sweep the former off the face of the country, inorder to secure freedom for the latter. 

The Kirk itself is wofully divided, in Canada, by the late wide-spreaddissent, under the somewhat novel designation of the Free Church. Oneneed but visit any large town or village to observe this; for it wouldseem usually that the Free Church minister has a larger congregationthan the regularly-called minister of the ancient faith of Caledonia. Now, the members of the Free Church have no such holy horror of Dr. Strachan, Chief Justice Robinson, or Sir Allan Macnab, as thatexhibited in the above-mentioned letter; nor is it believed that theChurch of England would presume to denounce and wage internecional waragainst their popular institution. But a person who has lived a greatpart of his life in Canada will take all this _cum grano salis_. 

The Scotch in Upper Canada are not and will not be disloyal. On thecontrary, if I held a militia command again, I should be very glad, asan Englishman, that it should consist of a very fair proportion ofHighlanders and of Lowlanders. 

The British public must not be misled by the hard-sounding languageand the vast expenditure of words it may have to receive, in theperusal of either the High Church, or the Presbyterian fulminators inCanada West. 

The whole hinges on what the writer calls "the vital question, "namely, upon the university of Canada at Toronto being a free or aclose borough. 

The High Church party contend that this institution was formed for theChurch of England only, and endowed with an immense resource in landsaccordingly. 

The Church of Scotland, "as by law established, " for I do not includethe Free Church, has strenuously opposed this for a long series ofyears, and contends that it has equal rights and equal privileges inthe institution. [1]

It would consume too much space to enter into argument upon argumentanent a question which, ever since the rebellion, has grown from theseeds so profusely scattered in the grounds of dispute on both sides. 

The home government, foreseeing clearly that this vexed question isone of paramount importance, has declared itself not neuter, butpassive; has given at large its opinion, favourable to generaleducation, conducted upon the most liberal acceptance of the charter;and has left it to the wisdom of the Canadian Parliament to decide. 

[Footnote 1: A large public meeting of Roman Catholics upon thesubject of the University question took place lately at Toronto, wherea temperate spirit prevailed. ]

An eminent lawyer was employed to carry out Lord Metcalfe'sconciliatory views, in accordance with the spirit of the instructionsfrom the queen. This gentleman, who had previously been accused by thereform party of belonging to the Family Compact before he acceptedhigh legal office under the colonial government, had been employedalso on the part of the Church of England as counsel before the bar ofthe House, to advocate its claims, and in a singularly clever andlucid speech, of immense length, certainly made the cause a mostexcellent one. But

 "how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration!"

He was lauded to the skies, and deemed to have achieved the great endsought by the High Church party. 

Mark the reverse:

They forgot wholly that, in his capacity of barrister, he did, asevery barrister is bound to do, his very best for his employers, andno doubt conscientiously desiring that the rights of the Church ofEngland should be upheld; but no sooner was he employed as a ministerof the Crown to pacify the discontent which the Presbyterians, theMethodists, and the Roman Catholics had expressed very openly, and nosooner did he, by an equal exertion of his intellect, point put themost feasible method of solving the difficulty, than a storm of abusemost lavishly bespattered him, and he was called a seceder from theHigh Church principles, an abandoner of the High Canadian Tory ranks, or anything else the reader may fancy. Now, those who know thisgentleman best are of opinion that he never was a very violentpartizan either in politics or in religious matters, and that to hismoderation much of the good that has unquestionably resulted from LordMetcalfe's government may be ascribed. 

The chief justice and the bishop, against whom the tirade of therevolutionary press is constantly aimed, may both have once, by theirposition in the Upper House, had much to do with political matters, but that either of them has ever had in view so absurd a notion asthat of governing Canada by their local influence, and of thusoverawing the Crown, is too ridiculous to be believed. 

The chief justices and the bishops, in all our colonial possessions, are now most wisely debarred from exercising political sway in thelegislative council, over which, some years ago, they no doubtpossessed very great influence in many of the colonies. 

In Canada, where one half and even more of the population is RomanCatholic, it cannot be believed that a Protestant bishop, or aProtestant head of the civil law, can exercise any other powers thanthose which their offices permit them to do; and by the Britishconstitution it is very clear that any attempts to subvert theestablished order of things on their parts would inevitably lead todeprivation and impeachment. 

If, therefore, they were really guilty of an endeavour to rule bytheir family connections, is it probable that 600, 000 Roman Catholics, and a vastly preponderating mass of Presbyterians, Methodists, Unitarians, and the endless roll of Canadian dissenters from theChurch, would permit it?

That the bishop and the chief justice possess a considerable share ofpersonal influence in Upper Canada, there can be no question whatever;but, after the statement of the former, in his annual visitationpublished in 1841, that out of a population of half a million therewere only ninety-five clergymen and missionaries, where there shouldbe six hundred and thirty-six, if the country was fully settled, it isa fanciful picture that the reformers have drawn of their power andresources--power which is really derived only from intermarriagesamong the few remnants of the earliest loyalist settlers, or fromadmiration of their private conduct and abilities. In short, "thefamily compact" is a useful bugbear; it is kept up constantly beforethe Canadians, to deter them from looking too closely into othercompacts, which, to say the truth, are sometimes neither so national, so loyal, nor so easily explained. 

Canada is, at this juncture, without question, the most free and thehappiest country in the whole world; not that it resembles Utopia, orthe happy valley of Rasselas, but because it has no grievances thatmay not be remedied by its own parliament--because it has notaxation--because its government is busied in developing its splendidinternal resources--and because the Mother Country expends annuallyenormous sums within its boundaries or in protecting its commerce. 

Why does England desire that the banner of the Three Crosses shallfloat on the citadels of Quebec and Kingston? why does she desire tosee that flag pre-eminent on the waters of Lake Superior or in theports of Oregon? Is it because Canada is better governed as anappanage of the Crown of Victoria than it possibly could be by Mr. Polk? Is it from a mere desire for territory that the mistress of theseas throws her broad shield over the northern portion of NorthAmerica? or is it because the treasury of England has millions of barsof gold and of silver, deposited in its vaults by the subjects ofCanada?

No, it is from none of these motives: Canada is a burthen rather thana mine of wealth to England, which has flourished a thousand-foldmore since Washington was the first president, than she ever did withthe thirteen colonies of the West. 

Is it because the St. Lawrence trade affords a nursery for her seamen, or that Newfoundland is the naval school? No; about three or fourBritish vessels now fish on the grand banks, where hundreds once castanchor. The fisheries are boat-fisheries on the shores instead of atsea, and the timber trade would engage British shipping and Britishsailors just as largely if Quebec had the beaver emblazoned on theflag of its fortress as if the flag of a thousand years floated overits walls. 

The resources of England are inconceivable; if one source dries up, another opens. China is replacing Africa. 

The London Economist estimates the increase of capital in England from1834, or just before the troubles in Canada, which cost her twomillions sterling, to 1844, in ten years only, at the rate offorty-five millions sterling annually--four-hundred and fiftymillions, in ten years, in personal property only! What was theincrease in real estate during those ten years? and what empire, orwhat combination of empires, can show such wealth?

Thus, while Canada has been a drag-chain upon the chariot-wheel ofBritish accumulation, did the prosperity of the empire suffer, or isit likely to suffer, by war with the United States, or by separationfrom England?

The interests of the United States and the interests of England wouldno doubt mutually suffer, but the former power, if it annexed Canada, would most severely feel the result. England would then close theports of the St. Lawrence, as well as those of the seaboard fromQuebec to Galveston; nor would the Nova Scotian and New Brunswickprovinces be conquered until after a bloody and most costly struggle;for they, being essentially maritime, would the less readily abandonthe connexion with that power which must for ages yet to come bepreponderant at sea. The Ocean is the real English colony. By similarnatural laws, the United States has other advantages and other mattersto control in its vast interior. 

I forget what writer it is who says--perhaps it was Burke--that anynation which can bring 50, 000 men in arms into the field, whatever maybe its local disadvantages of position, can never be conquered, if itssons are warlike and courageous. 

Canada can bring double that number with ease; and whilst itsinterests are as inseparable from those of England as they now are, itis not to be supposed that a Texian annexation will dissolve the bond. 

We have been greatly amused in Canada during the winter of 1845, afterMr. Polk's "all Oregon or none of it, " to find in the neighbouringrepublic a force of brave militia-men or volunteers turn out for afield day with CANADA and OREGON painted on theircartouche-boxes. --Mr. Polk did not go quite so far, it is true; but agreat mass of the people in the United States prophesy that, if warlasts, all the North American Continent, from the Polar seas to theIsthmus of Darien, will have the tricoloured stripes and the galaxy ofstars for its national flag. 

This is all-natural enough; no one blames the people of the republicfor desiring extended fame and empire; but is it to be extended by theCæsaric mode, _Veni, vidi, vici_, or by deluging two-thirds of thatcontinent with the blood of man?

A calm view of antecedent human affairs tells us another tale. 

A black population in the south and in the vast Island of Hayti, inJamaica and in the West Indies; a brave and enterprising mixed race inCuba; the remorseless Indian of the West, whose tribes are countlessand driven to desperation; the multitudinous Irish, equally ready forfighting as for vengeance for their insulted church; the Anglo-Saxonblood on the northern borders, combined with the Norman Catholics ofthe St. Lawrence; innumerable steam-vessels pouring from every partof Europe and of Asia--are these nothing in the scale? Are thefeelings of the wealthy, the intelligent, and the peaceful in theUnited States not to be taken into account?

Is the total annihilation for a long period of all external commercenothing? Are blazing cities, beleaguered harbours, internaldiscontent, servile war, nothing in the scale of aggrandizement? Isthe great possibility of the European powers interfering as nothing?Will not Russia, aware now of the value of her North Americanpossessions, look with a jealous eye upon the Bald Eagle's attempt ata too close investigation of her eaglets' nest in the north? Would notFrance, just beginning to colonize largely, like a share in thespoils?

To avoid all this, is the reason that England clings to Canada, thatCanada _must not_ be sold or given away. Canada is in short theimportant State which holds the balance of power on the North AmericanContinent; and, when her Eagle is strong enough to fly alone, it willnot be either from having false wings, or without the previousnursing and tender care of her European mother, who will launch hersafely from the pinnacle of glory into the clear sky of powers andprincipalities. 

CHAPTER XI. 

 Ekfrid and Saxonisms--Greek _unde derivaturs_--The Grand River--Brantford--Plaster of Paris--Mohawks--Dutch forgetfulness--George the Third, a Republican King--Church of the Indians--The Five Nations--A good Samaritan denies a drop of water--Loafers--Keep your Temper, a story of the Army of Occupation--Tortoise in trouble--Burford. 

But to resume the journey. We passed the Ekfrid Hotel. Saxon namescreep steadily over Canada, whilst barbarous adaptations of Greek andLatin find favour in the United States. A little learning is adangerous thing. Cicero and Pompey never dreamed or desired that awhite and green wooden village in a wilderness, where patent pails andpatent ploughs are the staple, should be dignified thus; but, as theFrench say, _chacun à son goût_. 

The first good view of the Grand River was attained three miles fromBrantford, and, although the name is rather too sounding, the GrandRiver is a very fine stream. It put me singularly in mind, with itsoak-forested banks, its tall poplars, and its meandering clear waters, of the Thames about Marlow, where I remember, when I was a boy at theMilitary College, seeing the fish at the bottom on a fine day, soplain that I longed to put a little salt on their tails. 

You look down near the Union Inn, Carr's, on a most beautiful woodlandview, undulating, rich, and varied. This part of the country is asandy soil, and is called the Oak Plains. Here once flourished theIndian. His wars, his glory, his people--where are they? Gone! TheSaxon and the Celt have swept off the race, and their memory is as acloud in a summer's sky, beautiful but dissolving. 

Brantford is a very long village, with four churches or chapels, oneof them a handsome building, and with fine prospects of the country, through which runs the Grand River. The houses are mostly of wood, afew of brick, with some good shops, or stores, as they are universallycalled in America and Canada, where every thing, from a pin to asix-point blanket, may be obtained for dollars, country produce, or_approved_ bills of exchange--chiefly however by barter, that trueuniversal medium in a new country, as may be gleaned from any Canadiannewspaper about Christmas time, when the subscribers are usuallyreminded that wood for warming the printer will be very acceptable. 

Plank side-walks, a new feature in Canadian towns, are rapidlyextending in Brantford, which is just starting into importance; as thegovernment, though it is so far inland, intend to make a port of it, by thoroughly opening the navigation of the Grand River from its mouthin Lake Erie. The works are near completion, and a steamboat, theBrantford, plies regularly in summer. Thus an immense country, probably the finest wheat-land in the world, will be opened tocommerce, and the great plaster of Paris quarries of the river find amarket, for increasing the fertility of the poorer lands of the lowerpart of the province. 

Brantford is named after Brant, the celebrated Indian warrior chief, and here the Mohawk tribe of the Five Nations have their principalseat. This excellent race, for their adhesion to British principles inthe war of the Revolution, lost their territory in the United States, consisting of an immense tract in the fair and fertile valley of theMohawk river, in the State of New York, through which the Erie Canaland railroad now run, and possessed by a flourishing race of farmers. 

I remember being told a curious story of the Dutch, who have theirhomesteads on the Mohawk Flats, the richest pasture land in New York. These simple colonists, preserving their ancient habits, pipes, breeches, and phlegm, looked with astonishment at the progress oftheir Yankee neighbours, and predicted that so much haste and actionwould soon expend itself. At last came surveyors and engineers, thoseodious disturbers of antiquity and quiet rural enjoyments: theypointed their spirit-levels, they stretched their chains across thefair fields of the quiet slumbering valley of these smoking Dutchmen. The very cows looked bewildered, and Mynheer, taking his meerschaumfrom his lips, sighed deeply. 

They told him that a railroad was projected across his acres; he wouldnot have minded a canal. He had survived the wars of the Indians; hehad forgotten Sir William Johnson and his neighbouring castle; he hadgone through the rebellion of Washington without being despoiled; andhad finally, as he thought, settled down in the lovely valley of themeandering Mohawk, in a flat very like what his ancestors representedto him as the pictured reality of Sluys or Scheldtland. He had smokedand dozed through all this excitement, and was just beginning tounderstand English. The American character was above hiscomprehension. He remembered George the Third with respect, becausehis great grandfather was a Dutchman, who had ascended the Britishthrone, and had proclaimed Protestantism and _Orange boven_ as the lawof the colonies. He still thought George the Third his ruler; andnever knew that George Washington had, Cromwell-like, ousted themonarch from his fair patrimony, on pretence that tea was not taxabletrans-atlantically. 

The railroad came: Acts of Congress or of Assembly passed; and fireand iron rushed through the happy valley. The patriarchs lifted uptheir hands and their pipes in utter dismay. 

"Ten thousand duyvels!" exclaimed one old Van Winkle; "vat is dis?--itis too ped! King Jorje is forget himsel. I should not vonder we shallhab a rebublic next. "

"I dink ve shall, " was the universal response from amidst a densecloud of tobacco vapour. 

The Mohawks, or Kan-ye-a-ke-ha-ka, as they style themselves, are nowonly a dispersed remnant of a once powerful tribe of the Five Nations. They received several grants of land in Canada for their loyalty, andamong others, 160, 000 acres of the best part of the province in whichwe are now travelling, but it is probable that their numbersaltogether do not now exceed 3000. Two thousand two hundred dwell nearthe Grand River, and a large body near Kingston. The Kingston branchare chiefly Church of England men, and an affecting memorial of theiradhesion to Britain exists in the altar-cloth and communion-platewhich they brought from the valley of the Mohawk, where it had beengiven to them in the days of Queen Anne. 

A church has recently been erected by them on the banks of the Bay ofQuinte, in the township of Tyendinaga, or the Indian woods. It is ofstone, with a handsome tin-covered spire, and replaces the originalwooden edifice they had erected on their first landing, the firstaltar of their pilgrimage, which was in complete decay. 

They held a council, and the chief made this remarkable speech, afterhaving heard all the ways and means discussed:--"If we attempt tobuild this church by ourselves, it will never be done: let ustherefore ask our father, the Governor, to build it for us, and itwill be done at once. "

It was not want of funds, but want of experience, he meant; for thefunds were to be derived from the sale of Indian lands. The Governor, the late Sir Charles Bagot, was petitioned accordingly, and the churchnow stands a most conspicuous ornament of the most beautiful Bay ofQuinte. 

They raised one thousand pounds for this purpose; and, properarchitects being employed, a contract was entered into for £1037, andwas duly accepted. How well it would be if this amount could berefunded to this loyal and moral people from England! What a mite itwould take from the pockets of churchmen!

The first stone was laid by S. P. Jarvis, Esq. , Chief Superintendentof Indians in Canada; and the Archdeacon of Kingston, the trulyvenerable G. O. Stuart, conducted the usual service, which waspreceded by a procession of the Indians, who, singing a hymn, led theway from the wharf where the clergy and visitors had landed from thesteamers, past the old church, through the grounds appropriated fortheir clergyman's house, and then, ascending the hill westward, theycrossed the Indian Graves, and reached the site of their new temple. _Te Deum_ and the Hundredth Psalm were then sung, and the Archdeacon, offering up a suitable prayer, the stone was lowered into its place. The following inscription was placed in this stone:--

 To The Glory of God and Saviour The remnant of the Tribe Kanyeakehaka, In token of their preservation by the Divine Mercy, through Christ Jesus, In the Sixth Year of our Mother Queen Victoria, Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, G. C. B. Being Governor-General of British North America, The Right Reverend J. Strachan, D. D. And LL. D. , being Bishop of Toronto, and the Reverend Saltern Givins, being in the 13th year of his Incumbency, The old wooden fabric having answered its end, This Corner Stone of Christ's Church, Tyendinaga, was laid in the presence of The Venerable George Okill Stuart, LL. D. , Archdeacon of Kingston, By Samuel Peters Jarvis, Chief Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Canada, Assisted by various members of the Church, On Tuesday, May 30th, A. D. 1843. James Howard of Toronto, Architect; George Brown of Kingston, Architect, having undertaken the Supervision of the work, and John D. Pringle being the Contractor. 

A hymn was sung by the Indians and Indian children of the school; theRev. William Macauley, of Picton, delivered an address, which wasfollowed by a prayer from the Rev. Mr. Deacon, and Collects, afterwhich the Archdeacon pronounced the blessing. 

I have recited this because I feel that it will interest a very largebody of my countrymen in England, and trust that those who can affordto consider it will not forget the Mohawks of Tyendinaga, in whom Itake the more interest from having had them under my command duringthe troubles of 1838, and of whose loyalty and excellent conduct thenI have already informed the reader. 

I saw this edifice lately; it is Gothic, with four lancet windows oneach side, and buttressed regularly. Its space is 60 feet by 40, witha front tower projecting; and the spire, very pointed and covered withglittering tin, rises out of the dark surrounding woods from a loftyeminence of 107 feet. It is certainly the most interesting publicbuilding in Canada West. 

I wish some excellent lady would embroider a royal standard or silkunion-jack, that the Indians might display it on their tower on highdays and holidays. Depend upon it they would cherish it as they havedone the ancient memorials of their faith, which date from Queen Anne. 

The Indian village near Brantford also boasts of its place of worship;but, although it has its ritual from the Church of England, theclergyman comes from the United States and is paid by the society, called the New England Society. He has lived many years among hisflock, and is said to be an excellent man. The Indians are to a man asloyal as those of Tyendinaga. The Society has a school which itsupports also, where from forty to fifty Indian children are taughtand have various trades to work at. 

They are very moral and temperate, and here may be seen the strangespectacle, elsewhere in the neighbourhood of the white man so rare--ofunmixed blood. But the Whites amongst them nevertheless are not of thebest sample of the race, as a great number of restless Americanborderers have fixed their tents near the Grand River, and they havemanaged to get a good deal of their property and lands, although inCanada it is illegal to purchase land from the Indian races. Asuperintendent, an old officer in the British army, is stationed withthe Five Nations purposely to protect them; yet it is impossible forany one to be aware or to guard against the ruffianly practices ofthose who think that the Red Man has no longer a right to cumber theearth. 

The Five Nations are settling; and it is observed that, whenever theycease to be nomadic, and steadily pursue agriculture and the usefularts, the decrease, so apparent in their numbers before, begins tolessen. 

The public works, the great high road to London, and the opening ofthe navigation of the Grand River, have greatly enhanced the value oftheir property, whilst at the same time it has brought dangers withthose conscienceless adventurers from the bordering States, and fromthe reckless turbulent Irish canal men, who keep the country inconstant excitement, and who, owing no allegiance to Britain or to theAmerican Union, cross over from the States to Canada, or _vice versa_, as work or whim dictates, carrying uneasiness and dismay wherever theygo. 

Latterly, however, these worse than savages have been kept in somecontrol by the establishment of a mounted or foot police, and bystationing parties of the Royal Canadian Regiment on their flanks. Themilitary alone can keep them in awe, though they cannot alwaysprevent midnight burnings and atrocities. The French Canadians and theIndians cordially detest these canallers. 

I was told a story in passing through Brantford, which shows how thespirit of the lower class of American settlers in this portion ofCanada is kept up, since they first openly showed it during therebellion. 

A regiment of infantry, I think the 81st, was marching to relieveanother at London, and, on arriving here, weary of the deep sandy ormiry roads, the men naturally sought the pumps and wells of thevillage. A fellow who keeps a large tavern, called Bradley's Inn, hated the sight of the British soldier to that degree, that he lockedup his pump of good drinking water and left another open, which wasunfit for any purpose. 

Lately, I see by the papers, this good Samaritan, who could not findit in his heart to assuage the thirst of a parched throat, or to giveeven a drop of water to the weary, had his house burnt down byaccident. It is a wonder that he had not tried to place it to theaccount of the soldiers; but, perhaps, he was ashamed, and perhaps, they being at so great a distance as London is, he thought that suchan impossibility would not go down. There was, it appears, no water toquench his devouring flame. _Fiat justitia!_

This part of Canada, and about London, has been a chosen region forAmerican settlers, and also for loafers from the borders of theRepublic; and accordingly you observe that which is not obvious in anypart of the United States, twenty miles from the St. Lawrence, or thelakes, great pretension to independence and rough rudeness of manner, contrasted by the real independence and quiet bearing of the sons ofBritain. 

The refugees, or whatever the American border-settlers or adventurersin Canada may be called, are invariably insolent, vulgar, andunbearable in their manners; whilst, away from the frontier, in theUnited States, the traveller observes no ostentatious display ofRepublicanism, no vulgar insolence to strangers, unless it be in thebar-room of some wayside tavern, where one is sometimes obliged, aselsewhere, to rest awhile, and where the frequenters may be expectedto be not either polite or polished. 

The Americans may be said to live at the bar; and yet, in all greatcities, the bar of the hotels seldom exhibits anything to offend atraveller, who has seen a good deal of the world; nor do I think thatpurposed insult or annoyance would be tolerated towards any foreignerwho keeps his temper. 

So it is all over the world. I remember, as a young man, in the armyof Occupation in France, when the soul of the nation was ground todespair, at seeing foreign soldiers lording it in _la belle France_, that, at Valenciennes, St. Omers, Cambray, and all great towns, constant collisions and duels occurred from the impetuous temper ofthe half-pay French officers, and yet, in many instances, good senseand firmness avoided fatal results. 

I know an officer, who was billeted, the night before one of the greatreviews of the allied troops, in a small country tavern, where anEnglishman had never before been seen, and he found the house full asit could hold of half-pay Napoleonists. The hostess had but one roomwhere the guests could dine, and even that had a bed in it; and thisbed was his billet. 

He arrived late, and found it occupied by moustached heroes of theguard, Napoleon's cavalry and infantry _demi-soldes_, who had restedthere to see the review next day, where the battle of Denain wasfought over again with blank cartridge. 

They were at supper and very boisterous, but, with the innate_politesse_ of Frenchmen, rose and apologized for occupying hisbedroom. To go to bed was of course not to be thought of, so he askedto be permitted to join the table; and, after eating and drinking, hefound some of the youngest very much disposed to insult him. Hewatched quietly; at last, toasts were proposed, and they desired himto fill to the brim. The toast they said, after a great deal ofimprovising, was to the health of the greatest man and the greatestsoldier, _Napoléon le Grand!--De tout mon coeur, Napoléon le Grand!_

This took them by surprise; they had no idea that an Englishman couldsee any merit in Napoleon. 

"Fill your glasses, gentlemen, " said the officer, "to the brim, as Ifilled mine. "

They did so, and he said "_A la santé de Napoléon deux_, " which wasthen a favourite way with the French Imperialists of toasting his son. 

The effect was electric. The most insolent and violent of the _vieuxmoustaches_ took up the stool he was sitting upon and threw it throughthe window; the glasses followed; and then he went round and embracedthe proposer. 

"Brave Anglais!" was shouted from many heated lungs; and the eveningnot only concluded in harmony, but they caused the hostess to make herunwelcome visitor as comfortably lodged for the night as the resourcesof her house would admit. 

Thus it is all over the world; firmness and prudence carry thetraveller through among strange people and stranger scenes; and, believe me, none but bullies, sharpers, or the dregs of the populacein any Christian country will insult a stranger. 

All the stories about spitting, and "I guess I can clear you, mister, "as the man said when he spat across some stage-coach traveller out ofthe opposite window, are very far-fetched. The Americans certainly dospit a great deal too much for their own health and for other people'sideas of comfort, but it arises from habit, and the too free practiceof chewing tobacco. I never saw an American of any class, or, as theyterm it, of any grade, do it offensively, or on purpose to annoy astranger. They do it unconsciously, just as a Frenchman of the oldschool blows his nose at dinner, or as an Englishman turns up hiscoat-tails and occupies a fireplace, to the exclusion of the rest ofthe company. 

An Englishman should not form his notions of America from the works ofprofessed tourists--men and women who go to the United States, aperfectly new country, for the express purpose of making a marketablebook: these are not the safest of guides. One class goes to depreciateRepublican institutions, the other to praise them. It is the casualand unbiassed traveller who comes nearest to the truth. 

Monsieur de Tocqueville was as much prepossesed by his own peculiarviews of the nature of human society as Mrs. Trollope. Extremes meet;but truth lies usually in the centre. It is found at the bottom of thewell, where it never intrudes itself on general observation. 

The Americans have no fixed character as a nation, and how can they?The slave-holding cavaliers of the South have little in common withthe mercantile North; the cultivators and hewers of the westernforests are wholly dissimilar from the enterprising traders of theeastern coast; republicanism is not always democracy, and democracy isnot always locofocoism; a gentleman is not always a loafer, althoughcertainly a loafer is never a gentleman. A cockney, who never wentbeyond Margate, or a sea-sick trip to Boulogne, that paradise ofprodigals, always fancies that all Americans are Yankees, allclock-makers, all spitters, all below his level. He never sees orconverses with American gentlemen, and his inferences are drawn fromcheap editions of miserable travels, the stage, or in the liners inSt. Katherine's Docks, after the company of the cabin has dispersed. 

The American educated people are as superior to the Americanuneducated as is the case all over Christendom; and John Bull beginsto find that out; for steam has brought very different travellers tothe United States from the bagmen and adventurers, the penny-a-liners, and the _miserables_ whose travels put pence into their pockets, andwho saw as little of real society in America as the poor Vicar ofWakefield's family, before they knew Mr. Burchell. 

The Americans you meet with in Canada are, with some exceptions, adventurers of the lowest classes, who, with the dogmatism ofignorant intolerance, hate monarchy because they were taught frominfancy that it was naught. Such are the people who lock up theirpumps; but they are not all alike. There are many, many, verydifferent, who have emigrated to Canada, because they dislike mobinfluence, because they live unmolested and without taxation, andbecause they are not liable every moment to agrarian aggression. 

In this part of the Canadas, the runaway slaves from the SouthernStates are very numerous. 

There is an excellent covered bridge over the Grand River atBrantford; and, on crossing this in the waggon, we saw a good-heartedIrishman do what Mr. Bradley refused to do, that is, give drink to awayfarer. This wayfarer resembled the Red Coat that Mr. Bradley hatedso in one particular--he had his armour on. It was a huge mud turtle, which had most inadvertently attempted to cross the road from theriver into the low grounds, and a waggon had gone over it; but thearmour was proof, and it was only frightened. So the old Irishlabourer, after examining the great curiosity at all points, took itup carefully and restored it to the element it so greatlyneeded--water. Was he not the Good Samaritan?

Whilst here, we were told that at Alnwick, in the Newcastle district, the government has located an Indian settlement on the Rice Lake verycarefully. Each Indian has twenty-five acres of land, and a fine creekruns through the place, on the banks of which the Indian houses havebeen built so judiciously, that the inhabitants have access to it onboth sides. 

The Mohawk language is pronounced without opening and shutting thelips, labials being unknown. Some call the real name of the tribeKan-ye-ha-ke-ha-ka, others Can-na-ha-hawk, whence Mohawk bycorruption. 

After staying a short time at Clement's Inn, which is a very good one, we left Brantford at half-past one, and were much pleased with theneatness of the place, and particularly with the view near the bridgeof the river. The Indian village and its church are down the stream tothe left, about two miles from the town, and embowered in woods. 

We drove along for eight miles to the Chequered Sheds, a small villageso called; at twenty minutes to four reached Burford, two milesfurther on, which is another small place on Burford Plains, with achurch; and at a quarter past four reached a very neat establishment, a short distance beyond a small creek, and called the Burford ExchangeInn. The country is well settled, with good houses and farms. 

We stopped a short time at Phelan's Inn, four miles and a half on, just beyond which the macadamized road commences again; but thecountry is not much settled between the Exchange and Phelan's Inn. 

CHAPTER XII. 

 Woodstock--Brock District--Little England--Aristocratic Society in the Bush--How to settle in Canada as a Gentleman should do--Reader, did you ever Log?--Life in the Bush--The true Backwoods. 

We arrived at Woodstock at eight p. M. , and were delighted with therich appearance of the settlement and country, resembling some of thebest parts of England, and possessing a good road macadamized fromgranite boulders. 

Woodstock is a long village, neatly and chiefly built of wood, fiftythree miles from Hamilton. It is the county town of the Brockdistrict; and here numbers of gentlemen of small fortunes have settledthemselves from England and Ireland. It is a thriving place, and theircottages and country houses are chiefly built, and their grounds laidout, in the English style, with park palings. Sir John Colborne hasthe merit of settling this loyal population in the centre of thewestern part of Canada. 

The old road went through a place called absurdly enough Paris, fromthe quantity of gypsum with which the neighbourhood abounds; and finespecimens of silurian fossils of the trilobite family and ofmadrepores, millepores, and corallics, are found here. Love's Hotel isthe best in the village, and a good one it is. 

What with the truly English scenery of the Oak Plains, the good road, and the British style of settlement, Woodstock would appear to be thespot at which a man tired of war's alarms should pitch his tent; andaccordingly there are many old officers here; but the land is dear anddifficult now to obtain. A recent traveller says it is the mostaristocratic settlement in the province, and contains, within tenmiles round, scions of the best English and Irish families; and thatthe society is quite as good as that of an average countryneighbourhood at home. The price of land he quotes at £4 sterling anacre for cleared, and from £1 to £1 10s. For wild land. A friend ofhis gave £480 for sixty cleared and one hundred uncleared acres, witha log house, barn, and fences. 

He moreover gives this useful information, that very few gentlemenfarmers do more than make their farms keep their families, and neverrealize profit: thus, he says, a single man going to Woodstock tosettle ought to have at least one hundred pounds a year income quiteclear, after paying for his land, house, and improvements. 

I have seen a good deal of farming and of farmers in Canada. Farmingthere is by no means a life of pleasure; but, if a young man goes intothe Bush with a thorough determination to chop, to log, to plough, todig, to delve, to make his own candles, kill his own hogs and sheep, attend to his horses and his oxen, and "bring in firing at requiring, "and abstains from whiskey, it signifies very little whether he isgentle or simple, an honourable or a homespun, he will get on. Life inthe Bush is, however, no joke, not even a practical one. It involvesserious results, with an absence of cultivated manners and matters, toil, hardship, and the effects of seasoning, including ague andfever. 

_Recipe. _--First buy your land in as fine a part of the province aspossible, then build your log-hut, and a good barn and stable, withpig and sheep-pens. Then commence with a hired hand, whom you must notexpect to treat you _en seigneur_, and who will either go shares withyou in the crops, or require £30 currency a year, and his board andlodging. 

Begin hewing and hacking till you have cleared two or three acres forwheat, oats, and grass, with a plot for potatoes and Indian corn. 

When you have cut down the giant trees, then comes the logging. Reader, did you ever log? It is precious work! Fancy yourself in asmock-frock, the best of all working dresses, having cut the hugetrees into lengths of a few feet, rolling these lengths up into apile, and ranging the branches and brush-wood for convenientcombustion; then waiting for a favourable wind, setting fire to allyour heaps, and burying yourself in grime and smoke; then rolling upthese half-consumed enormous logs, till, after painful toil, you getthem to burn to potash. 

Wearied and exhausted with labour and heat, you return to your cabinat night, and take a peep in your shaving-glass. You start back, for, instead of the countenance you were charmed to meet at the weeklybeard reckoning, you see a collier's face, a collier's hands, and yoursmock-frock converted into a charcoal-burner's blouse. 

Cutting down the forest is hard labour enough until practice makes youperfect; chopping is hard work also; but logging, logging--nobodylikes logging. 

Then, when you plough afterwards, or dig between the black stumps, what a pleasure! Every minute bump goes the ploughshare against astone or a root, and your clothes carry off charcoal at a railroadpace. 

It takes thirty years for pine-stumps to decay, five or six for thehard woods; and it is of no use to burn the pine-roots, for it onlymakes them more iron-like; but then the neighbours, if you have any, are usually kind: they help you to log, and to build your log-hut. 

Your food too is very spicy and gentlemanlike in the Bush: barrels offlour, barrels of pork, fat as butter and salt as brine, with tea, sugar--maple-sugar, mind, which tastes very like candiedhorehound--and a little whiskey, country whiskey, a sort ofnon-descript mixture of bad kirschwasser with tepid water, and not ofthe purest _goût_. Behold your _carte_. If you have a gun, which youmust have in the Bush, and a dog, which you may have, just to keep youcompany and to talk to, you may now and then kill a Canada pheasant, ycleped partridge, or a wild duck, or mayhap a deer; but do not thinkof bringing a hound or hounds, for you can kill a deer just as wellwithout them, and I never remember to have heard of a young settlerwith hounds coming to much good. Moreover, the old proverb says, a manmay be known by his followers: and it is as absurd for a poor fellow, without money, to have great ban-dogs at his heels, as it would be fora rich nobleman to live in his garret upon bread and water. Moreover, in Canada, most sportsmen are mere idlers, and generally neglectfuleither of their professions or of their farms. Many a fine youngfellow has been ruined in Canada, by fancying it very fine to copy theofficers of the army in their sportsmanship, forgetting that theseofficers could afford both in time and money what they could not. 

Keep your house, and your house will keep you. Almost all settlers toohave mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, cousins, to assist them, or toprovide for; and, if they are industrious, a few years make them happyand independent. 

Even £50 a year of clear income in the Bush is a very pretty sum, and£100 per annum places you on the top of the tree--a magnate, amagistrate, a major of militia. 

I know many, many worthy families, who live well with their pensionsor their half-pay. 

What a luxury to have your own land, two hundred acres!--to livewithout the chandler, the butcher, the baker, the huxter, and thegrocer! Tea, a little sugar and coffee, these are your real luxuries. 

Soap you make out of the ley of your own potash; fat you get from yourpigs or your sheep, which supply you with candles and food; and by andby the good ox and the fatted calf, the turkey, the goose, and thechicken, give your frugal board an air of gourmandism; whilst in thisclimate all the English garden vegetables and common fruits requireonly a little care to bring them to perfection. Indian corn andbuckwheat make excellent cakes and hominy; and you take your own wheatto be ground at the nearest mill, where the miller requires no money, but only grist. In like manner, the boards for your house are to behad at the sawmill for logs, for potash, for wheat, for oats. 

Keep a few choice books for an evening, and provide yourself withstout boots and shoes, a good coat, and etceteras, besides yoursmock-frock and shooting-jacket of fustian, and its continuations, andlet the rest follow; for you will at last take to wear countryhomespun, when occasions of state do not require it otherwise, such aschurch and tea-parties of more than ordinary interest. 

People talk about life in the Bush as they do about life in London, without knowing very much about either. Backwoods and backwoodsmen arenovelties which amuse for the moment. A backwoodsman, who never workedat a farm, although he may be much in the habit of seeing farmers, hasnot always just conceptions. He must not live in a village newly made, but actually reside in a log-hut, just erecting, to know what life inthe Bush is. Gentlemen and lady travellers are the worst judgespossible, because, even if they go and visit their friends, the bestfoot is always put foremost to receive them, and vanity or loveinduces every sacrifice to make them comfortable. 

They see nothing of the labours of the seven months' winter, of theaguish wet autumn, of the uncertain spring, of the tropical summer, ofice, of frost, of musquitoes and black flies, of mud and mire, ofswamp and rock, of all the innumerable drawbacks with which the spiritof the settler has to contend, or the very coarse and scanty fare tosolace him after his toils of the day. 

See a young pair of brothers, sons of an officer of high rank, whosefather dying left them but partially provided for, with a mother andseveral grown-up daughters. 

They fly to France to live. This resource might, by a war, be soonbroken up. The sons collect what remains of money--they arrive inCanada. They purchase cheap land far in the interior, miles away fromany town. They build a log-hut, clear their land, and accumulategradually the furniture and household goods. Toil, toil, toil. Thelog-hut is enlarged. The mother and daughters are invited from home tojoin their "life in the Bush. " They are expected. Everything is madecomfortable for them. The brothers are chopping in the woods--nightapproaches. They return--return to find their log-house, furniture, wardrobe, books, linen--every thing consumed. They are wanderers inthe wilderness. Do they despair? Yes, because one brother, thestrongest, takes cold--he lingers, he dies. 

The survivor, indomitable, yet bowing under his accumulatedafflictions, assisted by his neighbours, builds another log-house. Hismother and sisters arrive, are dispersed among the nearest neighbours, get the ague. Struggle, struggle, struggle! on, on, on! The pensionhere is of service. The girls, brought up in luxury, scions of a goodrace, turn their hands cheerfully to do every thing. Their conduct isadmired. Other settlers from the gentry at home arrive with somecapital. The locality turns out good. The girls marry well. Thesurviving son, ten years afterwards, has four hundred acres of hisown--thinks of building a house fit for a gentleman farmer to live in, and is surrounded by broad acres of wheat, without a stump to be seen, with a large flock of sheep grazing peacefully on his green meadows, and cattle enough to secure him from want. 

This is one case, under my own eye, and the moral of it is, neither ofthe sons drank whiskey. 

Look at another picture. An officer of respectable rank, young andtired of the service, where promotion is not even in prospect, settlesin Canada--he has money. He buys at once a fine tract of forest, converts it by his money into a fertile farm, builds an excellenthouse, furnishes it, marries. 

Knowing nothing of farming, fond of his dogs and his gun, delighted ina canoe and duck-shooting, absent day after day in the deer-tracks, occasionally killing a wolf or a bear, absorbed in sport, he leaveshis farm to the sole care of an industrious man, who receives halfthe crops. He is cheated at every turn; the man buys with the profitsland for himself, and leaves him abruptly. 

The fine house requires repairs, the fences get out of order, thecattle and the pigs roam wherever they like. Money, too much money, has been laid out. The fine young man perhaps becomes a confirmeddrunkard. _Voilà le fin!_

This is another case under my own observation, and I very much regretindeed to say that, of the class of gentlemen settlers, it is by farmore frequent and observable than the first. Habits of shooting begethabits of drinking and smoking; and it is not at all uncommon in thebackwoods to see a man whom you have known on the sunny side of St. James's, dressed in the height of fashion, and of most elegantmanners, walking along with his pointer and his gun in a smock-frockor blouse, a pipe, a clay-pipe stuck in the ribbon of his hat, andwith evident tokens of whiskey upon him. 

If he works at his farm, which all who are not overburthened withriches must do, and those that are usually remain in England, he workshard; and then reflect, reader, that chopping and logging, thatcradling wheat and ploughing land, are not mere amusements, but entailthe original ban, the sweat of the brow--he must every now and thendrink, drink, drink. I have seen a man who would otherwise have been ahigh ornament to society, whose acquirements were very great, and whobrought out an excellent library, abandon literature and his armymanners, and drink whiskey, not by the glass but by the tumbler. Andwhat is it, you will naturally ask, that can induce a reasoning soulto do thus? Why!--lack of society, want of current information, thelong and tedious winter, and the labours of spring and of autumn. Infact, it is "the backwoods, " the listlessness of the backwoods, which, like the opposite extreme, the fatuity and _blasé_ life of a greatmetropolis, causes men to rush into insane extremes to avoidreflection. The mind is dulled and blunted. 

The following facts, translated from an interesting article in the"_Mélanges Religieux_, " a Roman Catholic periodical, published inMontreal, in the French language, may be relied on, to show hownarrowed the ideas of a man constantly residing in the woods are:--

 "There arrived in Montreal, on Wednesday last, a young man about twenty years of age, who had come down from Hudson's Bay, without having, during his long journey, stopped in any town, village, or civilized settlement; so that he stumbled into Montreal with as little idea of a town or of civilization as if he had fallen from the moon, for he had lived on the northern shores of the bay, and had but seldom visited the fur-trading establishments. He had only last spring seen, at Abbititi, Messieurs Moreau and Durauquet, the Roman Catholic Missionaries. He was born of Roman Catholic parents, his father being Scotch, his mother Irish. But he had never left the woods nor the life in the wilds, and had never seen a priest before last spring. How strange must have been the emotions in the breast of this young man on finding himself thus suddenly cast into the midst of this large town, as one would throw a bale of furs! He expressed his feelings at the time as partaking more of stupor than of admiration. 

 "When he had recovered from the confusion of his ideas consequent upon the novelty of his situation, he sought the Bishop's residence, according to the instructions of his father; and at length found himself more at ease, for, understanding his singular position, those he there met with assisted him to collect his scattered thoughts. In answer to the questions addressed to him (he speaks English, and can read and write), he replied that he could not consent to live in such a place; that the noise deafened him, while the crowds of people, running in all directions, agitated and astonished him in a manner he could not explain. He experienced a sensation of suffocation on finding himself enclosed, as it were, in streets of lofty houses; he saw and admired nothing, being every moment in dread of losing himself in the labyrinth of streets, more difficult for him to recognize than the scarcely marked pathways of his native forests. He was not curious to see any thing, and felt only the desire to fly at once, and again to breathe freely, away from what he felt to be the restraints of civilization. He was taken to the cathedral, where he saw the pictures, the paintings on the roof, and all the ornaments of the church--they were explained to him, and he prayed before the high altar and that of the Holy Virgin. He believed all the instructions of the Church, and was sufficiently informed to receive baptism. During his visit to the church, the organ was played, and an explanation was given him of its harmony. In the midst of all these to him surprising novelties, he was asked what was the predominant sensation in his mind; he answered fear, and that his other feelings he was unable to explain. 

 "This simple child of nature, the _naïveté_ of whose language, emotions, and habits so strongly contrasted with the surrounding artificial civilization, afforded a singular study to those present. However humiliating to our self-love, the conduct of this young man abundantly proved that the civilization of which we are so proud, our buildings, our wealth, our industry, all our activity and noise, do not fill with the admiration we expect those who are brought up far from our opulent cities and our artificial manners. Nature, in these immense solitudes, in these primitive manners, has then charms unknown to us, to be preferred to those which, in our existing state, we find so incomparable. We must here close our reflections, for fear of falling into paradoxes difficult to be avoided in questions of this nature. 

 "This young man has departed, without regret, and has gone to the township of Raudon, where he has relations. There he will again find forests, and will be able to breathe freely, without fearing that the lofty dwellings of the city will intercept his view of the blue sky and the bright sun which he loves. "

Even near population, the settler has, in his way to town and market, to bait his cattle at roadside taverns, where the bar is the place ofbusiness, where he meets neighbours, and hears the news of the marketand of the world; and the facility with which, throughout UpperCanada, these grog-shops obtain licenses from the magistrates is sogreat that the evil every day increases. 

In towns, this is most particularly observed, and also that, under thedesignation of "beer-licenses" the most infamous houses for drinkingand vice are suffered to exist. It is full time that the parliamentinterfered with these license-granters, who increase intemperanceinstead of using their magisterial office to put a stop to it. FatherMatthew's principles are much wanted in Canada West. 

In Eastern Canada, or, as it is better known, Lower Canada, thecontrary is the case. The Canadian French, as a people, are temperate, although the canoe and batteaux men, lumberers and voyageurs, fromthe lonely and hard lives they lead, drink to excess; yet the Canadianis a sober character. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

 Beachville--Ingersoll--Dorchester--Plank road--Westminster Hall--London--The great Fire of London--Longwoods--Delaware--The Pious, glorious, and immortal Memory--Moncey--The German Flats--Tecumseh--Moravian settlement--Thamesville--The Mourning Dove--The War, the War--Might against Right--Cigar-smoking and all sorts of curiosity--Young Thames--The Albion--The loyal Western District--America as it now is. 

I was detained at Woodstock for some time by the sickness of one ofthe horses. The animal had dropped in his stable after our arrival, and refused to feed; consequently, our driver had to look for another;and a miserable one, at a large price, he got. The intense heat hadoverpowered the horse. 

We departed, however, at half-past six in the morning, on the 10thJuly, and reached Beachville, five miles westward. 

Beachville is a small country village, beautifully situated, and thecountry between is undulating and rich. The driver pointed out Mr. John Vansittart's house, an English looking residence, with extensivegrounds. 

A creek, called Hard Creek, runs along the road with severalmill-sites on it. It loses itself every now and then in deep woods;and altogether this is the prettiest country I have ever seen inCanada. The land also appears good. 

At Beachville are saw, grist, and water-mills on an extensive scale, the best in the country, owned and worked by Scotch people. 

The creek called Little Thames is seen also, which runs through theCanada Company's lands to the Forks of the Thames at London. This is asettlement forty years old; consequently, every thing is forward init. 

We then came through an equally fine, old-settled country, toIngersoll, five miles farther. This is a straggling place of about thesame age, with mills and creeks, and a large inn, called the MansionHouse (Hoffman's). 

We drove on to Dorchester, a small settlement and an old mill-site, about eighteen miles from London, where we stopped to recruit ourwretched horse, at half-past ten. Here we breakfasted at a roadsideinn, not very good nor very comfortable, but were glad to observe thatthe plank road commenced again. 

A plank road in England would be a curiosity indeed: here it is none:fancy rolling along a floor of thick boards through field and forestfor a hundred miles. The boards are covered with earth, or gravel, ifit can be had, and this deadens the noise and prevents the wear andtear, so that you glide along pretty much the same as a child'sgo-cart goes over the carpet. But this will only do where wood isplentiful, and thus the time must come, even in Canada, when gravelledroads or iron rails will supersede it. 

The country was poorer in this section, being very sandy, until nearthe tavern called Westminster Hall; what a name! But the beautifullittle river was occasionally in sight in a hollow of woods of therichest foliage. At one place we saw a party of Indians with poniesand goods, going down to a ford, where no doubt their canoes awaitedthem. Their appearance as they descended was very picturesque, armedas they were with rifles and fowling-pieces, very Salvator Rosaish. 

Westminster Hall, where we arrived at ten minutes to two o'clock, andstaid an hour to bait, is six miles and a half from London. Cockneyland everywhere. 

On our approaching the new capital of the London District, we sawevident signs of recent exertions. Fine turnpike-gates, excellentroads, arbours for pic-nic parties, and before us, at a distance, alarge wide-spread clearance, in which spires and extensive buildingslifted their heads. 

London is a perfectly new city; it was nothing but a mere forestsettlement before 1838, and is now a very large, well laid out town. We arrived at five p. M. , and put up at a very indifferent inn, thebest however which the great fire of London had spared. The town islaid out at right angles, each street being very wide and very sandy, and where the fire had burnt the wooden squares of houses we saw brickones rising up rapidly. There is now a splendid hotel, (O'Neill's andHackstaff's) where you may really meet with luxury as well as comfort, for I see, _mirabile dictu_, that fresh lobsters and oysters areadvertised for every day in the season. These come from the Atlanticcoast of the United States, some thousand miles or so; but what willnot steam and railroad do! We saw a stone church erecting; and thereis an immense barrack, containing the 81st regiment of infantry and amounted company, or, as it is called in military parlance, a batteryof artillery. 

London was so thickly beset with disaffected Americans during therebellion, that it was deemed necessary to check them by stationingthis force in the heart of the district; and since then the militaryexpenditure and the excellent situation of the place has created atown, and will soon create a large city. 

The adjacent country is very beautiful, particularly along themeandering banks of the Thames. I saw some excellent stores, orgeneral shops; and, although the houses, excepting in the main street, are at present scattered, and there is nothing but oceans of sand inthe middle, it wants only time to become a very important place. General Simcoe, when he first settled Upper Canada, thought of makingit the metropolis, but it is not well situated for that purpose, beingtoo accessible from the United States. 

I staid here all night and part of next day; and here I found thedisadvantages of an education for the bar; for my bedroom wasimmediately over it, and it was open the greatest part of the night. Drinking, smoking, smoking, drinking, incessant, with concomitantnoise and bad language; which, combined with a necessity for keepingthe window open on account of the heat, rendered sleep impossible. Ihave slept from sheer fatigue under a cannon, or rather very near it, when it was firing, but Vauban himself could not have slept with thethermometer at 100° Fahrenheit over a Canadian tap-room. 

I was glad to leave London in Canada West for that reason, anddeparted the next day in a fresh waggon at half-past five p. M. , arriving at the Corners, six miles off, where a bran-new settlementand bran-new toll-gate appeared with a fine cross road, that to theright leading to Westminster, that to the left to Lake Erie. I wassorry that the plank road was finished only to this place; but we hadfine settlements all the way. 

Then begins a new country, and that most dreary and monotonous ofCanadian landscape scenery--the Long Woods. This lasts to Delaware, where we stopped at eight o'clock, on a fine evening, having travelledtwelve miles from the Corners. 

Here the road suddenly turns from the river to the right; and we drovepast Buller's New House, which he is building, to his old stand. Itwas ancient enough, but respectable; and if the rats and mice andother small deer could only have been persuaded that one had had nosleep the night before and that the weather was intensely hot, weshould have done well enough; although some soldiers on a look-outparty for deserters, and some travellers, were not at all inclined tosleep themselves, or to let others enjoy the blessings of repose. 

Delaware is a very pretty village, and the Indians are settled someseven miles from it. It has a very large and very long bridge over theThames. 

We started, most militarily, at four in the morning of Friday the 12thof July, without recollecting King William, or the Pious, Glorious, and Immortal Memory. But we were to be reminded of it. 

Here we saw the labours of the Board of Works in the Great WesternRoad to much advantage, in deep cuttings and embankments, fineculverts and bridges, with lots of the sons of green Erin--"firstflower of the earth, and first gem of the sea"--and their cabins alongthe line of works, preparing the level for planking. 

The country is flat, but very fine and well settled. Quails amusedthemselves along the road, looking at us from the wooden rail fences, and did not leave their perches without persuasion. The rascals lookedknowing, too, as if they were aware that waggoners did not carry guns. 

I heard the real whip-poor-will or night-jar last night frequently, sighing his melancholy ditty along the banks of the beautiful Thames. The cry of the Canada quail, which is a very small partridge-likebird, is very plaintive. As we passed them, they gave it outheartily--Phu--Phoo-iey. We arrived at Smith's tavern, seventeenmiles, at half-past seven, breakfasted, and stayed until ten, at thatmiserable place. 

We then drove on, and passed Moncey in Caradoc, so named from anIndian tribe. It is a pretty village, where they had just finished achurch, whereon banners were flying, which showed us, that if we hadforgotten King William, some folks here had not; and, out of bravado, a refugee American had stuck a pocket-handkerchief flag of the Starsand Stripes up at his shop-door, which we prophesied, as eveningcame, would be pulled down, because orange, blue, and red flagsflourished near it. This is an Indian village, into which theAmericans and other white traders and adventurers have set foot. 

I was charmed with the scenery, consisting of fertile fields, richwoods, the ever-winding Thames and undulating mammillated hills, covered with verdure. Happy Indians, if unhappy Whites were notthrusting you out!

We arrived at one o'clock at Fleming's Inn, much better than the last, twelve miles. Here we rested awhile. --Starting again, the country wasfound but very little settled, with long tiresome woods, but stillbeautiful, all nearly oak. We halted at the German Flats, not to getout, for there was no abiding-place, but to look at the ground, wherethe battle in the last American war took place, in which Tecumseh, thegreat Tecumseh, met his death, and where Kentucky heroes maderazor-straps of his skin. 

Seven miles after leaving these immense woods, the valley of theThames opens most magnificently in a gorge below, and spreads intorich flats to the left, embowered with the most beautiful forestscenery, in which, about a mile off, stand the Moravian church, school, and Indian village. A more lovely spot could not have beenselected. There is a large Indian settlement of old date here; and, aswe drove along, we passed through two deserted orchards; the road hadrendered them useless; and, from which and its neighbourhood, theIndians had retired into their settled village below. Here the forestwas gradually regaining the mastery: fruit-trees had become wild, andthe Thames ran in a deep bold ravine far below, clothed with aged andsolemn trees, willows and poplars, intermixed with oak, beech, ash, and altogether English and park-like. It put me in mind of the openingchapter of "Ivanhoe. "

The road was a deep sand; and we stopped a little at Smith's Inn, three miles and a half from our night's halt. Here the soil changes toclay, and the country is not much settled, but is beginning to be so. We saw bevies of quail on the roadside, which the driver cut at withhis whip, but they were not disposed to fly. We arrived at Freeman'sInn at half-past six p. M. , twelve miles, and brought up for the nightat Thamesville, where there is a dam and an extensive bridge, andaltogether the preparation for the plank road is a very extraordinarywork, embracing much deep cutting. Here all is sand again, but theoccasional glimpses of the Thames, as you approach this village, arevery fine and picturesque. Squirrels, particularly the ground species, or chippemunk, amused us a good deal by their gambols as we drovealong. The village of Thamesville is very small. 

Oh, Father Thames, did you ever dream of having _ville_ tacked to yourvenerable name? But, as the Nevilles have it, _ne vile velis_. 

I amused myself here on a scorching evening with looking about me, aswell as the heat would permit; and here I first heard and first sawthat curious little Canadian bird, the mourning dove. It came hoppingalong the ground close to the inn, but the evening was not lightenough for me to distinguish more than that it was very small, not sobig as a quail, and dark-coloured. It seemed to prefer the sandy road;and, as it had probably never been molested, picked up the oats orgrain left in feeding the horses. It became so far domesticated as toapproach mankind, although the slightest advance towards it sent itaway. My host, a very intelligent man, told me that it always camethus on the hot summer nights; and we soon heard at various distancesits soft but exceedingly melancholy call. It appears peculiar to thispart of Canada, and is the smallest of the dove kind. I know ofnothing to compare with its soft, cadenced, and plaintive cry; italmost makes one weep to hear it, and is totally different from thecoo of the turtle dove. When it begins, and the whip-poor-will joinsthe concert, one is apt to fancy there is a lament among the featheredkind for some general loss, in the stillness and solemnity of asummer's night, when the leaves of the vast and obscure forest areunruffled, when the river is just murmuring in the distance, and themoon emerging from and re-entering the drifting night-cloud, in a landof the mere remnant of the Indian tribes gone to their eternal rest. 

This in a contemplative mood forcibly reminds us of that sublimepassage of holy writ, wherein that thrilling command is embodied, to"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, when he shall riseup at the voice of the bird. "

The cruel treatment of the aborigines of that half of the worlddiscovered by Columbus rises, on such an occasion, to the memory, withall its force. Here we stood on that soil, a small portion of whichhas been doled out to them in return for an empire; and here we couldnot avoid reflecting upon the injustice which has been so unsparinglydealt out to the Indian in that neighbouring Republic instituted tosecure freedom and impartial government to all men. 

Yes, a nation claiming to be the most powerful under the sun, claiminga common origin, quarrelled for self-government; the mild sway of alimited monarchy was tyranny and bigotry; established laws and a statereligion were swept away under a feeling that the child was strongenough to defy the parent. A more perfect form of government wasnecessary to the welfare of the human race: Washington arose, and aRepublic was created. Did it continue in unison with the aspirationsand views of that great man? did he think it requisite to extirpatethe Red Men? did he forbid the Catholic to exercise the rights ofconscience? did he intend that the Conscript Fathers should breaktheir ivory wands, and bow to the dust before plebeian rule? did heimagine, in declaring all men equal, that mind was to succumb beforemere matter, that intelligence was to be ground under the foot ofphysical force?

The Englishman, the true Englishman, and by that word I mean a citizenof England, a Canadian, as well as he born in Britain or Ireland, judges differently; he acknowledges all men equal, and that all havean equal right inherent in them to receive equal protection; but herenders to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and as he loves his ownself, so loves he the representative of every soul bearing the proudname of a British subject. 

He well knows, from the experience of all history, sacred and profane, that it is by maintaining order, in the institution of divers ranks insociety and in government, that the true balance of power is found;and he feels that, if once that power is obtained by either extreme ofthe scale, his liberty, both of mind and of body, is at an end. 

The manner in which Indian rights are treated in America is soglaring, that the philanthropist shudders. Protocols pass; the countrywest of the Mississippi is declared to belong first to Mexico, then toSpain, then to France, then to England, then to the United States. Atlast, the United States, strong enough to play a new game, a much morelofty one than the Tea Tragedy, defies the whole world, issues adecree irrevocable as those famous ones of the Medes and thePersians, and, perhaps, equally to pass into oblivion, that all theNew World is to be the property of the descendants of theAnglo-Saxons--all the New World, never mind whether it be MonarchicalEngland's, Imperial Brazil, Republican Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, &c. --allis to be guided by the banner of the Stars and Stripes. 

Who among the statesmen ever dreams that the Red Man has any rights, who ever cares about his property in the wilds of the Prairies, of theRocky Mountains, of the unknown lands of the Pacific! The UnitedStates declares that all Northern America is hers from the Atlantic tothe Pacific, and the bloody flag of war is unfurled to obtain thecommencement of this crusade against right and against reason, although the United States has ten times as much land already as tentimes its present population can fill or cultivate, and then, Oregonis the war cry, "Truly to speak it, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name; To pay five _dollars_, five, I would not farm it; Two thousand souls and twenty _million dollars_ Will not debate the question of this straw; This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies--"

and then, in case Oregon should fail, advantage is taken of Mexico'sdistractions to negotiate for California. 

The Red Man, the poor Red Man, may however have a voice in all this, that may speak in thunder. He is neither so powerless, nor so utterlycontemptible as is supposed. In the wilds of the West, it is said, including the roaming horsemen of Mexico, 100, 000 warriors exist. Evenagainst 20, 000, what army entangled in the forest, hidden in thePrairie grass, lost in the wilderness defiles of the vast Andes of thenorth, could also exist? and can the American government afford todetach regular troops for such a dreadful warfare? will the militiaundertake it? Can an American fleet of sufficient power and resourcesbe kept in the Pacific to counteract and send supplies? He who knowsthe western wilds well knows that once concentrate Indian warfare, andit would be impossible to keep together or to supply such an army asthat of the Republic, unsupported, as it must necessarily be, by afleet. 

The time is coming, and that rapidly, there can be no doubt, when thewhite man will possess exclusively the Pacific coast; but this is tobe achieved by the commercial and not by the physical power, and thatit is yet very distant when any one nation will obtain it is thebelief of all reasoning people; for even should the Americans forceMexico from its proper station, should they obtain California andOregon, will Russia look quite quietly on, will France see her greatscheme of Pacific colonization in danger, and will England tamelysubmit to have her eastern territories and the new trade with Chinaput in jeopardy?

I think not, and also conceive that it is as impossible for the UnitedStates to support a lengthened war with any great European power asit is for any great European power to conquer or to subdue any portionof the United States. 

Spain too is gradually recovering from the shock, which the loss ofher Ophir inflicted on her; more liberal notions are gaining ground inIberia; and it is by no means impossible, that, backed by France, shemay yet resume her power in America. Look at the tenacity with which, amidst all her reverses, she has held on to Cuba. 

There is, in fact, no surmising the results of a mad war on the partof America. 

But, in all their profound calculations, the Indian, the poor despisedIndian, is forgotten. How he is to live, how he is to die, are alikematters of indifference. 

Well may the mourning dove haunt the villages of the Five Nations!

Thamesville--how I detest the combination! it must have been named inthe very spirit of gin-sling--is a place very likely to become ofimportance when the great western road is quite completed. 

I was listening to the mourning dove, which then gave a balm to mywounded spirit, when I observed on the bench under the verandah, or_stoup_, as the Dutch settlers call it, of the inn, on the seat nearme, a mass of black mud, or some such substance. Always curious--aphrenologic doctor told me I had the bump of wonder--I took hold ofit, and found it to be adherent. It smelt strongly of bitumen. Thelandlord seeing me examining it chimed in, and said that the Indianshad brought it to him from thirteen miles beyond Cornwall's Creek, where there was an immense deposit of the same kind. It was, in fact, soft asphalte, or petroleum, or bitumen, or whatever the learned mayplease to designate it, in a state of coherence. 

My researches did not stop here: I had had specimens of all theCanadian woods to send officially for transmission to England, andamongst others I had observed a very curious one, called white wood, which was certainly neither pine, nor any thing approaching to the firkind. It was very light, very tenacious, and is extensively employedin this portion of Canada, where fir and pine are not common, for thepurposes of flooring and building, making an extremely delicate andornamental board. 

In travelling along I had asked the name of every strange tree, and sofrequently had received the words white wood for answer, that I atlast found it was a Canadian poplar, which grows in the western andLondon districts to an enormous size. 

The cotton wood is also another species of western poplar, and bothwould form a useful and an ornamental addition to our park scenery athome. 

The white wood, the cotton wood, and the yellow white wood, are usedin this part of Canada for all building purposes, wherein pine isemployed elsewhere, and the last named makes the best flooring. Ishould think, from its lightness and beauty, that it might be usedwith great advantage in Tunbridge ware. 

The quaking asp is also another poplar of western West Canada, and isa variety of the aspen. 

Here too I began to observe gigantic walnut-trees, from which such alarge proportion of household furniture throughout Canada ismanufactured, but regretted to find that it is much wasted in beingsplit up into rails for fences by the farmers, on account of itsdurability. They are, however, beginning to be sensible of its value, for it is now largely exported to England and elsewhere. The size ofthe black walnut and of the cotton wood is inconceivable: of thelatter curbs for the mouths of large wells are often made, by merelyhollowing out the trunk. 

Vegetation in the western district is, in fact, extraordinary, andaltogether it is undoubtedly the garden of Canada. Tobacco grows wellin some portions of it, and is largely cultivated near the shores ofLake Erie. I believe most of the Havana cigars smoked in Canada, particularly at Montreal, are Canadian tobacco. So much the better;for if a man must put an enemy to his digestive organs into hismouth, it is better that that enemy should be the produce of the soilof which he is a native or denizen, as he derives some benefit fromthe consumption, although consumption of another sort may accrue. 

I have long and earnestly thought upon the subject of _the weed_, andhave come to the conclusion that, as a necessary of life, it is aboutupon a par with opium. Men of the lower classes, I mean labouringpeople, who leave off drinking either from religious motives or fromfear, usually take to smoking, and in general their constitutions areas much injured by the one as by the other. Cigar-smoking is a sort ofdevil-may-care imitation of the vulgar by gentlemen, and is no morerequisite for health or amusement than whiskey, dice, or cards. It isamusing in the extreme to see old fellows aping extreme juvenility, and professing to smoke before breakfast; and it is ridiculous to seeyoung gentlemen, very young and very green, cigar in mouth, fancyingit very manly and very independent to imitate a rough, weather-beatensailor or soldier, who, not being able to smoke a cigar, sticks to thepipe. That it stupifies is certain, that it is very vulgar is morecertain, and that it injures health is more certain still. I wonder ifFather Matthew smokes--almost all priests do: they have very littleother solace. 

The approach to Chatham is very pretty. Young Thames, for I do not seewhy there should not be Young Thames as well as Young England, thatmost absurd of all D'Israelisms, looks enchanting in a country wherelakes as flat on their shores as a pancake take the lead, and whererivers are creeks, and creeks are--nothing. 

We crossed a long whitewashed bridge, much out of repair, and saw anenormous American flag upon a very little American schooner, which hadpenetrated thus far into the bowels of the land. Bunting cannot bedear in the United States, and English Manchester must drive a prettygood trade in this article. 

The town of Chatham is situated on the banks of the Thames and of alarge creek; and, being a Kentish man, I should have felt quite athome but for three things, videlicet, that enormous American flag; thename of the creek, which was Mac Gill or Mac something; and athermometer pointing to somewhere about 101° Fahrenheit at nine a. M. Besides this, the town is a wooden one, and has a wooden little fort, which divides Scotland from Kent, or the river from the creek, nicelypicketed in, and kept in the most perfect order by a worthy barrackserjeant, its sole tenant, whose room was hung round with prints ofthe Queen, Windsor Castle, the Duke of Wellington, and LordNelson--all in frames, and excellently well engraved, from the"Albion" newspaper. 

The Albion newspaper is no ordinary hebdomadal; it has disseminatedloyalty throughout America for years, and, as a gift on each 1st ofJanuary, has been in the habit of publishing a print of large size, engraved in exceedingly brilliant style, which is presented to itssubscribers. The Queen, the Duke, the Conqueror of the Seas, WalterScott, and his Monument at Edinburgh, &c. , are the fruits; and theseplates would sell in England for at least half a guinea, or a guineaeach. 

The Albion, moreover, gives extracts at length from the currentliterature of England; and thus science, art, politics, agriculture, find admirers and readers in every corner of the backwoods. 

Dr. Bartlett, its editor, at New York, deserves much more than thisephemeral encomium, for he has done more than all the orators uponloyalty in the Canadas towards keeping up a true British spirit in it. The Albion, in fact, in Canada is a _Times_ as far as influence andsound feeling go; and although, like that autocrat of newspapers, itdiffers often from the powers that be, John Bull's, Paddy's, andSawney's real interests are at the bottom, and the bottom is basedupon the imperishable rock of real liberty. It steers a medium coursebetween the _extrême droit_ of the so-called Family Compact, and the_extrême gauche_ of the Baldwin opposition. 

Political feeling ran very high in the section of country throughwhich we are travelling, both in the war of 1812 and in the rebellionof 1837; and, from the vicinity of the Western district to the UnitedStates, in both instances it was inferred by the American people thatan easy conquest was certain. Proclamations followed uponproclamations, and attacks upon attacks, but the people loved theirsoil, and the invaders were driven back. So it will be again, if, unhappily, war should follow the mad courses now pursuing. TheCanadians at heart are sound, and nowhere is this soundness moreapparent than in the western district. It is not the mere name ofliberty which can tempt thinking men to abandon the reality. 

It has fallen to my lot to be acquainted with many leaders of faction, both in the Old and in the New World, and I never yet knew one whosepersonal ambition or whose private hatred had not stimulated him toendeavour to overturn all order, all rule. The patriot, whose soleaim is to amend and not to destroy, is now-a-days a _rara avis_, particularly if he is needy. One has only to read with attention thedetails of the horrors of the French revolution to be fully impressedwith this fact. Where was patriotism then? and was not Napoleon thereal patriot when he said, "two or three six-pounders would havesettled the _canaille_ of Paris!" I by no means advocate the _ultimaratio regum_ being resorted to in popular commotions, in saying this;but France would have been happier had the little corporal beenpermitted to use his artillerymen. It has often surprised me, inreading the history of the American revolution, assisted as theAmericans were by the demoralised French of that day, that thatrevolution was so bloodless a one; a fact only to be accounted for bythe agricultural and pastoral character of the people who engaged init, and by the unwillingness, even at the last moment, to sever allties between the parent and the child. The character of thatpopulation has greatly altered since; generations have been born onthe soil, whose recollections of their progenitors across the Atlantichave dwindled to the smallest span; and the intermixture of races hassince done everything but destroy all filial feeling, has in factdestroyed nearly all but the common language, whilst ultra-democracyhas been steadily at work upon the young idea to inculcate hatred tomonarchy, and, above all, to the limited monarchy of England. Will theresult be less harmless than the Tea Triumph? The world, it is to befeared, will yet see two nations, the most free in the world, speakingthe same tongue, educated from the same sources, embruing their handsin each other's blood, to build up a new universal system, impossiblein its very nature, or to support that which the experience of ageshas perfected, and which three estates so continually watch over eachother to guard. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

 Intense Heat--Pigs, the Scavengers of Canada--Dutch Country--Moravian Indians--Young Father Thames--Ague, a cure for Consumption--Wild Horses--Immense Marsh. 

I never remember so hot a day as the 13th of July; people in Englandcan have no idea of the heat in Canada, which they always figure tothemselves as an hyperborean region. On our journey from Thamesville, when near Louisville, a neat hamlet by the wayside, in a beautifulcountry, settled by old Dutch families, on a fine bend of the Thames, we passed in the woods a dead horse, and found some friends atChatham, who told us that it had dropped down from the intense heat. Those scavengers of Canada, the pigs, were like certain politic wormsalready busily at work on the carcase, in which indeed one had burieditself. 

In this Dutch country, you find the new road to Lake Erie, to theRondeau from Chatham _graded_, or ready for planking, for twenty-sixmiles, and the new road to Windsor is also nearly finished; so thatChatham will now have an excellent land route to the Detroit river, aswell as to Lake Erie; and as the Rondeau, a remarkable round littorallake, is also converting into an excellent harbour, all this portionof Canada, the fairest as well as the most fertile, will progressamazingly. 

I saw the chief of the Moravian Indians near Thamesville, and had someconversation with him. He is a modest, middle-aged man, and rules overabout two hundred and fifty well-behaved people. The government havegiven him two hundred acres of land in sight of the Moravian village, and there he dwells in patriarchal simplicity. 

Their spiritual and temporal concerns are under the supervision of thebrethren at Bethlehem, the principal settlement of the Moravianfraternity in the United States; and they have a neat chapel andschool, conducted with the decorum and good results for which thatsect are noted. 

Petrolean springs and mineral oil fountains are frequent near thisvillage, and the whole country here appears bituminous, the bed of theThames being composed of shales highly impregnated with it. Salt ismanufactured in small quantities by the Indians from brine-springshere. 

We saw the remarkable harvest of 1845 in all its glory on this route, as the Dutch farmers were every where at this early period cutting thewheat, and heard that on Willett's farm on the Thames it had been cutas early as the 10th of July. 

My _compagnon de voyage_ I had taken up in the morning, on account ofthe intelligence which he displayed, and in return for the ride hegave me much information. 

The banks of Young Father Thames, after leaving Chatham, and about it, are very low and flat, consequently, fever and ague are by no meansrare visitors. He described the ague as being beyond a common Canadaone; and, as he was of Yankee origin, the reader will readilyunderstand his description of it. I asked him if he had ever had it. "Had it, I guess I have; I had it last fall, and it would have takenthree fellows with such a fit as mine was to have made a shadow; why, my nose and ears were isinglass, and I shook the bedposts out of theperpendicular. "

I queried whether the country was subject to any other diseases, suchas consumption. 

"If you have any friend with a consumption, " said he, "send him toThamesville; consumption would walk off slick as soon as he got theague. No disorder is guilty of coming on before it, and it leaves nonebehind. "

We left Chatham in the steamboat Brothers for Windsor at three o'clockp. M. , after having had a very good dinner at Captain Ebbert's inn, theRoyal Exchange, which would do credit to any town. 

The Thames rolls for some miles, broad and deep, through a successionof corn-fields and meadows, with fine settlements, and, after passingthrough the great western marshes, enters Lake St. Clair, at twentymiles from Chatham. The rest of the route is across the lake by itssouthern shore, twenty miles more, and into the Detroit river foreleven miles to Windsor, on the Canada shore, and the city of Detroit, on the American side. 

The Thames keeps up its English character well, for it passes throughthe townships of Chatham, Dover, Harwich, Raleigh, and Tilbury, beforeit reaches Lake St. Clair, and then we coast Rochester, Maidstone, andSandwich. 

The most curious thing on this route is the sinuosity of the river andthe immense marsh, where the grasses are so luxuriant, that itsappearance is that of the Pampas of South America, or of one unbrokensea of verdure. Nor is the grass, in its luxuriance, the onlyreminiscence of those vast meadows. Three hundred thousand acres, wholly unreclaimed on both sides of the river, are filled, particularly on the south side, with droves of wild horses andcattle--the former so numerous, that strings of them may be seen asfar as the eye can reach; nor can you see the whole even near you fromthe deck of the vessel, as the grass is so high that sometimes theyare hidden, and frequently you observe only their backs. They livehere both in summer and in winter, but in very severe weather are saidto go ashore, or into the higher lands, in search of the bark of thered elm. The owners brand them on the shoulder, and they are caught, when any are wanted, by snaring them with a noose. 

These horses are small, and usually dark-coloured; and a good one isvalued at fifty dollars, or twelve pounds ten shillings currency, about ten pounds English money. Hardy, patient, and excellent littleanimals they are. 

I thought of the worthy lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, SirFrancis Bond Head, when these wild horses of Canada first met mysight, as I saw, on a small scale, that which he has so vividlyrepresented on so splendid a one in South America. 

It is said that this immense prairie may be drained by lowering theSt. Clair Lake, and some attempts have been ineffectually made tocultivate small portions of it near the mouth of the river, wherethere is a lighthouse. There were two huts, and people residing inthem, with small garden patches of potatoes and peas. Forty acres hadbeen ploughed by a settler, Mr. Thompson, of Chatham; but, althoughthe soil is excellent, such is the vigorous growth of the grass, andthe difficulty of getting rid of its roots, that it soon recovered itsancient domain. In fact, the wind spreads the seed rapidly; and as thekind is chiefly the blue-joint, it is almost impossible ever to getrid of it, unless the water-level is lowered, which is not veryprobable at present. 

CHAPTER XV. 

 Engineer-officers have little leisure for Book-making--Caution against iced water--Lake St. Clair in a Thunderstorm--A Steaming-dinner--Detroit river and town--Windsor--Sandwich--Yankee Driver--Amherstburgh--French Canadian Politeness--Courtesy not costly--Good effects of the practice of it illustrated--Naked Indians--Origin of the Indians derived from Asia--Piratical attempt and Monument at Amherstburgh--Canadians not disposed to turn Yankees--Present state of public opinion in those Provinces--Policy of the Government--Loyalty of the People. 

A person employed actively in public life is a very bad hand to engagein book-making. I often wonder whether this trifle, now intended as anoffering to the reading people, will ever get into print. A littlememorandum-book supplies the _matériel_, and a tolerable memory theembellishment. An engineer-officer, of all other functionaries, needsa memory; settling at one moment the expenditure of vast sums; atanother, looking into the merits of a barrack damage worth sixpence;then, field-officer of the day inspecting guards--next, makingexperiments on the destructive effects of gunpowder, commencing with apercussion-pistol, and ending with a mine; buying land, takingaltitudes of the sun and of the moon, examining a Gunter's chain or atheodolite, sitting as member of a court-martial, or of a board ofrespective officers, or counting the gold and silver in the militarychest; superintending a fortification of the most intricate Vaubanism;regulating the dip of the needle, or the density of the earth; puttingan awkward squad through the most approved manoeuvres; studying theintegral calculus, or the catenarian curve; bothered by Newton or LaPlace; reading German or Spanish; exploring Oregon, or any other terraincognita; building docks, supervising railways, surveying Ireland, governing a colony, conducting a siege, leading a forlorn hope; anIndian chief, or commanding an army (both the latter rather rare);well may his motto be, as that of his corps is, _Ubique_. So, gentlereader, if there is wandering in the matter of these pages, put itdown, not to the want of method or manners, but to the want of time;for, even in a dull Canadian winter, it is only by fits and snatchesthat the mysteries of book-making can be practised. The intervals areuncertain, the opportunities few. At one hour, one is drawing one'ssword; at the next, in one of the two drawing-rooms, namely, thatwhere ladies congregate, and that in which steel-pens chiefly shine. 

But it is necessary, nevertheless, to go on with any thing oneseriously begins; and, although the "art and practique part" ofbook-making is, considering the requisite labour of bad penmanship, rather disgusting, yet the giving "a local habitation and a name" tothe ideas floating on the sensorium is pleasant enough. It would bebetter if one had a steam-pen, for I always find my ideas much morerapid than consists with a goose quill. The unbending of the mind in atrifle like the present is also agreeable; and if the reader onlylikes it, as much as it amuses me and it whiles away graver cares, andthe every-day monotony of a matter-of-fact existence, so much thebetter. An engineer-officer has no time to become a _blasé_, but everybody else is not in his position, and thus this "little boke" may betaken up with the morning paper, and your man of the world may beinduced to go so far as to say, "Wild horses in Canada! I never heardof them before; I will positively read a page or two more some rainymorning. "

_Blasé_, dear _blasé_, if ever you should muster up courage to go toCanada for relief, and want to see the wild horses, pray do not gotowards the end of July; and if you do, don't drink iced water onboard the Brothers, with the thermometer at 100° Fahrenheit, as I did, from very exhaustion. An old farmer on board cautioned me, but I wasproud and thirsty, and did the deed. Sorely was it repented of; for, when we landed at night, I was seized with a violent pain in the heartregion, accompanied by great uneasiness and lassitude; and, it wasnot until after lying down quietly for several hours that the symptomsabated. I was, however, very well the next day, but will not drinkiced water in the dog-days any more in Canada West. Yet the Yankees doit with impunity. 

We entered Lake St. Clair in a thunderstorm at half-past five, but, fortunately for us, in this shallow lake, averaging only three fathomsor eighteen feet in depth, the storm, which in other places was atornado, did nothing but frighten us at a distance. 

It tore large trees up by the roots, and unroofed houses not manymiles off; and, had it caught us with so much top-hamper as thesteamboat had, perhaps we should have sounded the lake _in propriápersoná_, without being witnesses as to its actual mysteriesafterwards. 

We steamed on, however, near the south shore for twenty miles, andentered the Detroit, or Narrow St. Lawrence, before the light of dayhad vanished, observing islands, &c. , and arrived safely at Windsor, at Iron's Inn, at ten p. M. , having experienced the pleasures of anadverse gale and intense heat. 

The dinner on board was by no means a luxury, for, although very good, the company was numerous, the cabin near the boiler, all the dishessmoking, the room low and small, and the thermometer as aforesaid ondeck, so that we literally were steaming, for it must have been closeto the boiling point. 

Thursday morning, the 14th of July, was as hot as ever; and if Icould, I would not have crossed over to the United States, where thefamous city of Detroit stared me in the face on the other side of theriver, about as broad as the Thames just below bridge. 

It was, like all recent American cities, very staring and veryjuvenile, with large piles of brick buildings scattered amidst whitepainted wooden ones, and covered an immense space, with many churches, looking very fine at a distance, an immense crowd of very large, bright, white, and green, coarsely painted and loosely builtsteam-vessels at the wharfs, and small, dirty, steam ferry-boats, constantly plying to and from the British shore. 

Windsor is a small village, scattered, as most Canadian villages are, with a little barrack, in which a detachment of the Royal CanadianRifle corps is stationed, to watch the frontier. The Americans are nowbuilding a large fort on the opposite side. 

I left Windsor at nine a. M. , in a light waggon and pair, and rolledalong the bank of the river to Sandwich, the county or district town, two miles from Windsor, opposite to which the Americans are building afortification of some size, but apparently only an extensiveearth-work. 

It is a very pleasant drive along the banks of the Straitened River, or Detroit, close to the water, and occasionally in it, to refresh thehorses. The population, chiefly French Canadians and Indians, occupythe roadside in detached farms; the Canadian huts and houses being, asin Lower Canada, invariably whitewashed and planted at shortintervals. 

We saw the Indians both industrious and idle: some were hoeing maize, others harvesting wheat, and the _habitants_ were also very busy inthe fields. 

The idle Indians, the most numerous, were lounging along the banks, under the shade of melancholy boughs, as naked as they were born, bathing, smoking, or making baskets. In the intense heat I enviedthem, and thought of the days of Paradise when tailors were not. 

We stopped in this intense heat at Maître Samondon's tavern, havingpassed Sandwich, which has church, chapel, jail, and court-house, andis plentifully inhabited by French, whose domiciles evidently datefrom its first settlement. I saw some of the largest pear-trees herethat I had ever seen; they were as big as good-sized walnut-trees inEngland. 

We had a Yankee driver, a young fellow, whose ease and good-temperamused me very much. He had good horses, drove well, and had been inhis time all sorts of things; the last trade, that of a mail-driver onthe opposite shores, where, he said, the republic were going aheadfast, for they were copying Europeans, and had taken to robbing themail by way of raising the wind; so that, in some place he mentionedin Pennsylvania, it was a service of danger to drive, for they firedout of the Bush and killed the horses occasionally. He told us severalfeats of his own against these robbers, but concluded by guessing thathe should not have to carry a six-barrel Colt's revolver in Canaday;for "them French" never robbed mails. 

He drove us to Amherstburgh, through a rich and beautiful graincountry, in four hours, eighteen miles, and we stopped an hour atSamondon's, where nothing but French was spoken, and a long discourseheld upon the crops and the state of the country. As I had an orderlywith me, and as red coats had not been seen in that part of the worldsince the rebellion, we caused some emotion and conversation on theroad. A very old, garrulous French Canadian, who was smoking his pipein the "kitchen and parlour and hall, " came and sat by me, and, afterbeating about the bush a long time with all the "_politessepossible_, " at length asked me who I was, and if the army was comingback among them. I told him who I was, a lieutenant-colonel ofengineers; and the old Jean Jacques, after looking at me a minute orso, got up and fetched a small glass of whiskey and water, and withthe best grace in the world presented it, with a cigar, taking anotherof both himself, and, touching his glass to mine in true French style, bowed and said, "_A votre santé, mon colonel_; you have got a devilishgood place of it!" The French Canadians on the Detroit river were allloyal during the rebellion, and this old farmer was a sample of them. 

When the horses were fed, and I had, as is customary, treated thedriver, we departed amidst the pleasing sounds of _Bien obligé, bonvoyage_. If they had cheated me, I should have been content, so muchis politeness worth; and the Canadian French peasant is a primitivebeing, and as polite as a baron of the _ancien régime_. It was quiterefreshing in such hot weather to meet with a little civilization, after being occasionally witness to the reverse from the newest peoplein the world. _Il coute si peu. _

How shocking, a sensitive _parvenu_ will say, to sit down in a commonkitchen, and drink a glass of whiskey and water with peasants! It putsme in mind of a very fine young lady, whose grandfather had been abutcher, and her father none of the richest; who, being met in thestreets with some threadpapers or small package of lace in her handearly on a cold day, said, to a gentleman who stopped to ask her howshe did, "I am very well, I thank you; but this parcel makes my handso cold!" Or, for a still finer illustration, I knew a _nouvelleriche_ who, not being addressed by a tradesman in a little town in hisbill by a factitious title, to which she imagined that she had aright, sent back his letter open to the post-office, with anintimation to the postmaster that letters so improperly addressedwould not be received. 

I have always perceived that a fuss about family and nobleconnections betrays either that the fuss-maker is naturally a vulgarsoul, or that it is deemed necessary, from an excess of weakness, tosupport a position of an equivocal nature. A gentleman never derogatesfrom his true position, let him be placed in whatever circumstances hemay; and an over-fastidious traveller, or a pretender to greatimportance in a new country, is the most foolish of all foolish folks. 

I remember travelling once in the wild Bush with a person, who, fromlong-established military habits of command, thought that he couldorder everything as he liked. We were benighted at a farm-house, wherethe old lady proprietress eked out her livelihood by receiving casualvisitors, but disdained the thought of "keeping tavern, " as it iscalled, in the backwoods of Canada West. He ordered, ratherperemptorily, supper and beds for two--it would have been better thathe had ordered pistols and coffee for the same number, for then thedame would have looked upon him as simply mad. No notice whatever wastaken of his demands, but I saw her choler rising; fortunately, I knewher character. We were many miles from any habitation: and the horsesjaded out as well as ourselves; so I took no notice either; but, observing the dame take her seat in the old-fashioned ample chimney, Itook another opposite to her, and, observing her commence lighting herpipe, asked her for one, and we puffed out volumes of smoke--thosewere my smoking days--for a long time at each other in perfectsilence. At last, I broke the ice. 

"Mrs. Craig, your tobacco is bad; next time I come by, I will bringyou some excellent. "--A gracious nod!--We smoked on, and every now andthen she condescended to speak upon indifferent subjects. At last, shegot up and went into another room. I followed her; for I saw shewanted to speak to me without my friend. --"Who is that man?" quoth thedame. --"Colonel So and so, " responded I. --"I don't care whether he bea colonel or a general; all I can say is, that he has got no manners;and the devil a supper or a bed shall he get here!"--"Oh, my goodlady, " said I, "he is not used to travel in the Bush, and is astranger, and not over-young, as you see; besides, he is regularlytired out. Let me give him half my supper, and perhaps he can sleep inthe chimney-corner. I don't care about a bed myself; pine brancheswill do for me, and an old buffalo robe, which I have in the waggon. "

She said nothing, but, returning to the kitchen, which is the commonreception-room in country places, put a few eggs into the pot over thefire, and got the tea-pot. I saw several fine hams hanging to therafters, so I took one down, got a knife, and was about to cut someslices to broil, when she stopped me. "You haven't got the best, " saysthe old dame; "I shall cut you one myself. " And so she did, spread thecloth, set two tea-cups, &c. , and a capital supper we had, for a finefowl was spitchcocked. 

After supper, Mother Craig asked me to smoke another pipe with her andher good man, who was lame and unable to work, and some of her sons, &c. Came in from the fields. I missed her soon afterwards; but, aftera quarter of an hour, she came in again, whispered that she wanted me, and I followed her. "It is time, " said the dame, "for you to go tobed; for you must be up by candlelight to-morrow morning, as yourjourney is a long one; see if this will do. " In an inner chamber weretwo beds; one a feather bed, the other a pine-branch one, with cleanblankets, snow-white sheets, a night-cap of the best, water, &c. "That's your bed, " said Mrs. Craig; "the other is for the colonel, asyou call him. Good night; I will call you in the morning--take care, and put your candle out. " I laughed in my sleeve, went out, called thecolonel, who would have been otherwise left in the dark, for thefamily soon retired for the night, and I need not say gave him thebest bed, as he thought; the best, however, I kept myself, for a bedof fresh pine shoots to a weary traveller in Canada is better than allthe feather beds in the world, particularly in the New World. 

So much for life in the Bush; and I was then not quite so old as atpresent; but, even in youth, experience had taught me the utility oftaking the world easy. My friend the colonel, next morning, after asound sleep, said, "Whenever I am obliged to travel in the Bush, Iwish you may be with me;" and old mother Craig, who is now no longerin this world, thought the next morning, as she afterwards said, that, after all, the colonel was not so bad as she had imagined. 

This is, for one may as well deprecate a little in talking aboutfastidiousness, not told by way of evincing superior knowledge of theworld, but just to show you, gentle or simple reader, whichever youmay be, that, in a sentimental journey through Canada, you mustaccommodate yourself a little to the manners and customs of thepopulation, if you expect to get along quietly, and to form any justopinion of the country. 

When we saw the naked Indians under the wide-spreading trees, literally taking their ease, _sub tegmine fagi_, I thought that, if aCockney could be transported in a balloon from Temple Bar right downhere, what a barbarous land he would say Canada was, and his note-bookwould run thus: "Landed on the banks of a river twice as broad as theThames, and saw the inhabitants burnt brown, and stark naked, underthe trees. Oh, fie!"

Really, however, there is nothing very startling in seeing a nakedIndian, whether it is that the bronze colour of his red skin looks soartificial, or that white flesh is so rarely observed, except infashionable ball-rooms, I do not know; but I do know that I shouldmost unequivocally feel queer, if I suddenly saw twenty or thirtynaked Cockneys squatting and smoking under the trees on the banks ofthe Serpentine River, even if the thermometer was at 110° at themoment. Such is custom. A naked Indian looks natural, and a nakedCockney would look _contra bonos mores_, to say the least of it. 

The Indian, whether dressed or undressed, is a modest man--not soalways the Cockney; and there is an air of grandeur and naturalfreedom about the savage, which civilized man wants, or which moderncoats, waistcoats, trowsers, and hats, are unquestionably notcalculated to inspire. 

Look at the statue of a Roman Consul, or at Apollo Belvidere, in hisscanty clothing, and then you will understand what I mean; or, what isbetter, look at your grandmother's picture, with her hair powdered, stomacher, and farthingale, and then at the Venus de Medicis, and youwill know better, if you are a man of taste. How the American ladies, who do not admit such words as _naked_ or _legs_ into theirvocabulary, there being an especial act of Congress forbidding femalesto use them, get over the difficulty of Indians in their war costume, has puzzled me not a little. To draw a curtain before an Indian chiefwould be rather a venturous affair, as he is a little sensitive; and, when well painted, thinks himself extremely _comme il faut_, and verywell dressed. But _de gustibus non est disputandum_, and so forth. 

It is a queer country, this Amherstburgh country: French Canadians asprimitive as Père Adam and Mère Eve; Indians of the old stock and ofthe new stock, that is to say, very few of the former, but a good manyof the latter; owning both to French and to British half parentage;negroes in abundance; runaway slaves and their descendants, a mixtureof all three; and plenty of loafers from the United States. In fact, it would seem as though Shem, Ham, and Japhet, had all representativeshere, for Europeans and Americans of every possible caste areexhibited along this frontier, only I did not either see or hear of anIsraelite; but some antiquarians contend that the Indians are aportion of the lost tribes. Their Asiatic origin is more decided. Thefeather of an eagle stuck in the warrior's hair is nothing more thanthe peacock's plume in a Tartar's bonnet. Then there is thepatriarchal mode of government in the nations. Polybius says that theCarthaginians (Africans, by the way) scalped their enemies. TheKalmucks pluck out their beards, so do the Indians. ThePottawotamies, and most of the more savage tribes, like the Asiatics, look upon women as inferior in the scale of creation. White is asacred colour, as in many parts of Asia. An Indian never eats with hisguest, but serves him. Their nomadic life, their choice of war-chiefs, the difficulty of pronouncing labials, the use of the battleaxe ortomahawk, which is absolutely Tartarian, the worship of the Good andthe Evil Spirit, form other points of resemblance. West says, that theemblems of the Indian nations are similar to those of the Israelitishtribes, and the Tartars fight under _totems_ of the wolf, the snake, the bear, &c. , in the same way. The belief in a future state and intransmigration is similar, and the use of charms or amulets common toboth Asiatics and Indians of America. The cross-legged sittingposture, and the Tartarian contour of the face and head, are veryremarkable. I once saw an Indian chief, whose countenance wasperfectly and purely Asiatic, and that of the Ganges rather thanMongolian. The shaven crown and single lock of hair are Asiatic andChinese; and tattooing is common to both sides of the Pacific. Athousand other instances may be cited; but the strongest proof of allis the discovery of vast ruins in Mexico, which, as it is well known, contain indubitable proofs of a common origin of the people who builtthem with the Asiatics, and these ruins extend in a line through thatcountry from Guatemala as far almost as the Colombia River; whilstSouth America produces edifices, not so extraordinary perhaps, butequally evincing that the worshippers of the Sun might claim descentfrom the Guebres and the Parsees. 

But to pursue this subject would lead me into a research which wouldconsume both time and paper, and can only be adequately entered uponwith great leisure. I have collected much upon this interestingsubject, and, having bestowed great attention upon it, have not muchdoubt upon the matter. 

Singular discoveries are occasionally made in opening the Canadianforests, though it would seem that ancient civilization had beenchiefly confined to the western shores of the Andean chain, exclusiveof Mexico only. In a former volume was described a vase of Etruscanshape, which was discovered during the operations of the CanadaCompany, near the shores of Lake Huron, and vast quantities of brokenpottery, of beautiful forms, are often turned up by the plough. I havea specimen, of large size, of an emerald green glassy substance, whichwas unfortunately broken when sent to me, but described as presentinga regular polygonal figure: two of the faces, measuring some inches, are yet perfect. It is a work of art, and was found in the virginforest in digging. 

But we are at Amherstburgh, otherwise called Malden, a small town oftwo parallel streets and divergencies, famous for a miserable fort, for Negroes, Indians, fine straw hats, wild turkeys, rattlesnakes, andloyalty. 

I shall never forget the heat of this place, having had the exceedingluxury of a sitting-room to myself, quite large enough to turn roundin, with one door and one window, and a bed-closet off it, without thelatter. If ever a mortal was fried without a gridiron, it was theinhabitant of that bed-closet; and right glad was I the next day toget into a gallant row-boat, belonging to the commandant of theCanadian riflemen, rowed by a gallant crew, and take the air on theRiver Detroit, as well as the breezes on Bois Blanc Island. Boisblanc, in Western Canadian parlance, is the white wood tree, withwhich this island formerly abounded, and now converted into severalblockhouses for its defence. 

Amherstburgh was the scene of piratical exploit during the rebellion, and bravely did the militia beat off the _soi-disant+ general and hissympathizing vagabond patriots; but this is a page of Canadian historyfor hereafter, and need not be repeated here. The sufferers have had amonument erected to their memory in these words by the spiritedinhabitants:--

 This Monument is erected by the Inhabitants of Amherstburgh, in memory of

 Thomas Mac Cartan, Samuel Holmes, Edwin Millar, Thomas Symonds, of H. M. 32nd Regiment of Foot, and of Thomas Parish, of the St. Thomas Volunteer Cavalry, who gloriously fell in repelling a band of Brigands from Pelé Island, on the 3rd March, 1838. 

Many of those who escaped from this villanous aggression upon a peopleat peace with the United States afterwards lost their lives fromexposure to cold at such a season, the coldest portion of a Canadianwinter, and misery and distress were brought home to the bosom of manya sorrowing family. 

The annexation of Canada was contemplated by these hordes ofsemi-barbarians, the offscouring of society, bred in bar-rooms. Alas!for poor human nature, should this scum ever overlay the surface ofAmerican freedom! It would indeed be the nightmare of intellect, theincubus of morality. A commonwealth well managed may be a decentgovernment for an honest man to exist under, but a _loaferism_, to usea Yankee term, would indeed be frightful. The recklessness of lifeamong the least civilized portions of the States is quite sufficientalready, without its assuming a power and a place. 

That there is at present but little prospect for American dominiontaking root in Canada, is evident to every person well acquainted withthe country, although dislike to British rule and "the banefuldomination" is also obvious enough among a large class of inhabitants, who are swayed by a small portion of the press, and by disappointedspeculators in politics--men who have lost high offices, for whichthey were never fitted, either by capacity or connection with the bestinterests of the people, and who allied themselves to the FrenchCanadian party merely to accomplish their own ends. 

The real substance, or, as Cobbett called it, the bone and marrow ofCanada, is not composed of needy politicians or of recklessadventurers, caring not whether they plunge their adopted country intoall the horrors of revolution or of anarchy. 

A man possessing a few hundred acres of land, with every comfortabout him, paying no taxes but those for the improvement of hisproperty, feeling the government rein only as a salutary check tolawlessness, and looking stedfastly abroad, is not very likely, forabstract notions of right and equality, to sacrifice reality, or tosuppose that Mr. Baldwin, amiable as he is, is infallible: whilst Mr. Baldwin himself, the ostensible, but not the real leader of theout-and-out reformers, will pause before he even dreams of alienatingthe country in which he, from being a very poor man originally, has, through the industry and talent of his father, and a fortuitous trainof circumstances, connected with the rise and progress of the city ofToronto, and the rise of the price of land as Canada advances inpopulation and wealth, become a great land-holder. 

I have no idea that this Corypheus of Canadian reform has the mostremote idea of annexing Canada to the United States, or that he ismentally fighting for anything more than an Utopia similar to that ofO'Connell in Ireland. In short, the grand struggle of the radicalreform party of Upper Canada has been, and for which they joined theFrench Canadian party, to have a repeal of the union as far as controlover the provincial funds and offices exists, on the side of England. 

They would have no objection to see a British prince on the Canadianthrone, or a British viceroy sitting at the council board of Montreal, but they want to be governed without the intervention of the colonialoffice; and perhaps, rather than not have the loaves and fishes attheir own entire disposal, they would in the end go so far as todesire entire separation from the Mother Country, and seek the armedprotection of that enormous power which is so rapidly rising intonotice on their borders. 

But then they calculate--for there is a good sprinkling of Jonathanismin their ranks--that that enormous power is grasping at too muchalready, defying the whole world, and seeking to establish a perfectlydespotic dominion itself over the whole continent which Columbus andCabot discovered, and not excluding the archipelago of the WesternIndies. 

They live too near the littorale of the Republic, or rather thedemocracy of America, not to see hourly the effects of Lynch law andmob rule; and, however some of the most daring or reckless among themmay occasionally employ that very mob rule to intimidate and carryelections, they very well know that the peaceable inhabitants of bothCanadas are too respectable and too numerous to permit such courses toarrive at a head. Once rouse the yeomanry of Canada West, and theirenergies would soon manifest themselves in truly British honesty andBritish feeling. John Bull is not enamoured of the tender mercies ofcanallers and loafers, and the French Canadian peasantry and smallfarmers are innocent of the desire to imitate the heroes ofPoissardism. 

No person in public life can judge better of the feelings of thepeople as a mass, in Canada, than those who have commanded largebodies of the militia. Put the query to any officer in the army whohas had such a charge, and the universal answer will be: "The militiaof Canada are loyal to Britain, without vapouring or boasting of thatloyalty; for they are not by natural constitution a very speakingrace, or given at every moment to magnify; but they will fight, shouldneed be, for Victoria, her crown, and dignity. "

It may be said that an officer in the army is not the best judge ofthe feelings of the people, as they would not express them in hispresence; but when an officer has been intimately mingled with them bysuch events as those of the troubles of 1837 and 1838, and has so longknown the country, the case is altered; he comes to have a personal aswell as a general knowledge of all ranks, degrees, and classes, andcan weigh the ultimate objects of popular expression. I have nohesitation in saying, possessed as I have been of this knowledge, that_the people_ of Canada have not a desire to become independent now, any more than they have a desire to be annexed to and fraternize withthe United States. 

Many years ago, on my first visit to Canada, in 1826, when such athing as expressions of disloyalty was almost unknown, and long beforeMackenzie's folly, I remember being struck with the speech at aprivate dinner party of a person who has since held high office, respecting the independence of Canada: he observed that it mustultimately be brought about. The colony then was in its mere infancy, and this person no doubt had dreams of glory, although in outward lifehe was one of the most uncompromising of the colonial ultra-tories. 

Just before the rebellion broke out, I was conversing with anotherperson, now no more, of a similar stamp, but possessing much moreinfluence, who began to be alarmed for his extensive lands, all ofwhich he had obtained by grants from the Crown, and he feared that thetime specified by the first-mentioned person had arrived. Hisobservations to me were revelations of an astounding nature; for hethought that we were too near a republic to continue long under amonarchy, and that, in fact, absurd titles, such as those borne by thethen governor, Sir Francis Head, alluding to his being merely a knightbachelor, were likely to create contempt in Canada, instead ofaffection. My friend, who, like the first-mentioned, was rather weak, although acute enough when self-interest was concerned, was evidentlycasting about in his mind's eye for a new order of things, in which tosecure _his_ property and _his_ official influence. 

Lord Sydenham and Lord Durham saw and knew a great deal of thisvacillation among all parties in Canada. They saw that the great gameof the leaders was office, office, office; and when Lord Metcalfe hadhad sufficient time to discover the real state of the country, he sawit too. Hence arose the absolute necessity for removing the seat ofgovernment from Toronto to Kingston. The ultra-tories were just astroublesome as the ultra-levellers, and it was requisite to neutralizeboth, by getting out of the sphere of their hourly influence. Theinhabitants of Kingston, a naval and military town, whose revenues hadbeen chiefly derived from those sources, were loyal, withoutconsidering it of the utmost consequence that their loyalty shouldform the basis of every government, or that the governor was not toopen his mouth, or use his pen, unless by permission. They were thetrue medium party. 

Then arose the desire to do justice to the Gallo-Canadians, who hadbefore been wholly neglected, and looked upon as too insignificant tohave any voice in public affairs, whilst they were mistrusted also, owing to the Papineau demonstration. 

The British government, superior to all these petty colonialinterests, saw at once that to ensure loyalty it was only proper toadminister justice impartially to all creeds and to all classes, andthat the French Canadians, whose numbers were at least equal to theBritish Canadians, had a positive right to be heard and a positiveclaim to be equitably treated. 

There was no actual innate desire in the Canadian mind to shake offthe British domination for that of the democracy of the United States. An absurd notion had gathered strength in 1837 that they were at lastpowerful enough to set up for themselves, to constitute _la NationCanadienne_, forgetting that Great Britain could swallow them up at amouthful, and that the Americans would, if John Bull did not. Theproclamation of General Nelson or Brown, or some such patriot, set theaffair in its true point of view. No longer any religion was to bepredominant; the feudal laws were to be abolished; and the celebratedninety-two resolutions, which had cost Papineau and his legion so muchcare and anxiety, were swept away as if they were dust. A Jack Cadehad started up, whose laws were to be administered at the point of thebayonet. 

The eyes of the leading French Canadians, gentlemen of education, weresoon opened, and the vision of glory evaporated into thin air. Butstill they felt themselves oppressed, they enjoyed not the covetedrights of subjects of England; and accordingly the successivegovernments of Lord Durham, Lord Sydenham, and Sir Charles Bagot wereeras of political struggles to obtain it. 

Lord Metcalfe had had experience in colonies of long standing, hadbeen successful, bore the character of a just, patient, and decidedman, and had wealth enough to cause his independence to be respected. 

The fight for supremacy between the ultra-tory and ultra-radicalparties became fiercer and more fierce, and it was dolefully auguredthat the province was lost to England, as he would not yield to thehaughty demands of the first, nor to the threats and menaces of thelatter. 

When the Baldwin ministry was dismissed, even cautious people wereheard to say, that new troubles were at hand; and the ultra-tories didnot scruple to avow that the country was in danger, unless they werereadmitted to power. 

Placed between these belligerents, Lord Metcalfe, who kept his owncounsel to the last secret and undivulged, steered a course which hashitherto worked well. He chose a medium party, and removed the seat ofgovernment to Montreal, not in the heart of French Canada, as it issupposed in England, but within a few miles of British Canada andclose to the eastern townships, where a British population isdominant, whilst in the city itself British interests surpass allothers; it being the heart and lungs of the Canadian mercantile world, whilst it has the advantage of easy steam communication with Quebec, the seat of military power, and with Upper Canada, both by the St. Lawrence and the Rideau Canals. 

The French, no longer neglected and seeing the seat of governmentpermanently located in their country, seeing also that they had beenadmitted to share power and office, have been tranquillized; and theresult of the elections placed Lord Metcalfe comparatively at ease, and rendered the task of his successor less onerous. Had his healthbeen spared, the blessing of his wise rule would long have been felt. He is deeply and universally regretted throughout Canada. 

As a proof of the loyalty of the Canadians, it is right to mentionthat, whilst I am penning these pages, the press is teeming with callsto the volunteers and militia to sustain Britain in the Oregon war;and, because the militia is not prematurely called out, theadministrator of the government is attacked on all sides. Whilst I amwriting, the Hibernian Society, in an immense Roman Catholicprocession, passes by. There are four banners. The first is St. Patrick, the second Queen Victoria, the third Father Matthew, thefourth the glorious Union flag. Reader, it is the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day, and the band plays God save the Queen!

CHAPTER XVI. 

 The Thames Steamer--Torrid Night--"The Lady that helped" and her Stays--Port Stanley--Buffalo City--Its Commercial Prosperity--Newspaper Advertisements--Hatred to England and encouragement of Desertion--General Crispianus--Lake Erie in a rage--Benjamin Lett--Auburn Penitentiary--Crime and Vice in the Canadas--Independence of Servants--Penitentiaries unfit for juvenile offenders--Inefficiency of the Police--Insolence of Cabmen--Carters--English rule of the road reversed--Return to Toronto. 

The heat at Amherstburgh was so desiccating, that I was glad to leaveeven my urbane host, serjeant-major as he had been of a royalregiment, and his crowded though clean and comfortable inn, for thespacious deck of the splendid Canadian steamer Thames, Captain VanAllan, on board of which was to be enjoyed the absolute luxury of aspacious state-room upon deck. Alas for the roomy state-room! even inits commodious berth, rest could not be enjoyed, for the night was atorrid one; nothing in the Western Indies could beat it, only therewas no yellow fever, although plenty of yellow countenances presentedthemselves on the shoulders of Americans from the South, and colouredwaiters; but that which actually at last put me in a fever was thesight of the female attendant of the ladies' cabin, whose form was sobuckled up in stays of the most rigid order, that the heat, American-bred as she was, appeared to have rendered her a Niobe, forshe was tall and as straight as a poplar-tree, and much of the colourof its inner rind. Oh! the heat, the intolerable heat, on Lake Eriethat night! The worthy captain declared he had never experienced itslike, and that as for rest it was impracticable. If the lady's-maid, or "the lady that helped" in the ladies' cabin, as she is called inAmerican boats, kept her stays on that night, Heaven help her! Shemust have been in a greater state of despair than the man in armouron Lord Mayor's day, who requires to go to bed after a warm bath, themoment he takes his stays off. 

But we steamed on, and the boilers themselves were not a whit hotterthan we were. How the stokers stood it is a marvel to this day. Isuffered dreadfully with the prickly heat, as if in the West Indies. 

The Thames is the most splendid boat on Lake Erie, and that is sayinga good deal; for the Americans have so many, and several so muchlarger than this Britisher, that it is a matter of surprise that sheshould beat them all in convenience, build, and speed; and yet, according to received opinion, the Yankee builders of vessels excel us"by a long chalk, " to use a Yankee figure of speech. It is so, however, and is so acknowledged on both sides of the water, that theThames, Captain Van Allan, takes the shine out of them all. 

We started from Amherstburgh, where she called on her way fromDetroit, and left Bullock's inn for the steamer which was close athand, at nine o'clock p. M. , and got under steam and travelled allnight at a most rapid rate, nor stopped until eight a. M. , the nextmorning, at Port Stanley, formerly called Kettle Creek, a smallvillage with a fine parallel pier harbour, which, unlike Amherstburgh, has thriven amazingly during the past seven years, before which Irecollect it to have consisted of about three or four houses. It isnow a thriving village; and, as it has a planked road reaching farinto the interior, is every day going ahead. The plank road leads toLondon, twenty-six miles distant. The piers of this artificial harbourare much too narrow, consequently it is dangerous to approach instormy weather; and, as Lake Erie is a very turbulent little ocean, they must be modified some day or other, whenever the Board of Worksis rich enough. 

We took in several passengers here, mostly Americans touring, and thevessel was now full, for we had a large proportion of the same classfrom Detroit. They were chiefly people from the hotter regions of theStates, and resembled each other remarkably; sallow, sharp-angled, acute-looking physiognomies: the men tall and loosely jointed; thewomen prematurely old, and not very handsome. They were quiet andrespectable in their manners and demeanour; in fact, too quiet, contrasting strongly in this respect with the real, genuine Yankee. 

We reached Buffalo at seven in the evening, after encountering athunderstorm, which appeared to be very severe towards the shores ofthe American side of Lake Erie. 

Such a mob as poured on board the vessel, after she had with muchdifficulty threaded the inconvenient, narrow, muddy creek on whichBuffalo is located, I never beheld before: blacks and whites, brownsand yellows, cabmen and carters, porters and tavern-scouts, pickpockets and free and enlightened citizens. 

How the passengers got their baggage conveyed to their hotels, ordwellings, is beyond my art to imagine. Insolent and daring, if thesebe a pattern mob, Heaven defend us Britishers from democracy! forfreedom reigns at Buffalo in a pattern of the newest, which theseldomer copied the better. But one must not judge the money-gettingcitizens of this fine town by the scenes in the Wapping part of it;for, if one did, it would necessarily be said that they were not anenviable race. 

Buffalo, a mere wooden village, burnt during the war of 1812, is now alarge and flourishing city, containing 30, 000 inhabitants; and, if ithad a good harbour, would soon rival New York. To prove this, I begthe reader to take the trouble to peruse the accompanying statement ofthe present commerce of that city, from the Buffalo CommercialAdvertiser of January 10, 1846, by which it will be seen that in theyear 1845 the increase of vessels trading with it was enormous, andthat by the Welland Canal, or an American ship canal, round the Fallsof Niagara, they already contemplate a direct trade with Europe inBritish bottoms. 

"There has been a prodigious accession to the Lake marine during thepast season--no less than sixty vessels, whose aggregate tonnage isover 13, 000 tons, and at an outlay of 825, 000 dollars. Had we not theevidence before us, the assertion would stagger belief. 

"More than usual pains were taken by us, during the past season, toprocure information on this head and others touching thereto, theresult of which we now present in our annual list of new vessels. Thisseason we have ventured beyond the immediate margin of Lake Erie, andthose other broad lakes beyond, to Lake Ontario, a knowledge of whosemarine is now deemed essential to a thorough understanding of our lakematters. 

NUMBER, TONNAGE, AND ESTIMATED COST OF NEW VESSELSBUILT IN 1845, FROM THIS CITY WESTWARD TO CHICAGO. 

Name. Class. Tons. Where built. Dollars. Niagara steamer 1, 075 Buffalo 95, 000Oregon . .. 781 Newport, Michigan 55, 000Boston . .. 775 Detroit 55, 000Superior . .. 567 Perrysburg, O. 45, 000Troy . .. 547 Maumee City, O. 40, 000London . .. 456 Chippewa, C. W. 46, 000Helen Strong . .. 253 Monroe, Michigan 22, 000John Owen . .. 205 Truago, do. 20, 000Romeo . .. 180 Detroit, do. 12, 000Enterprise . .. 100 Green Bay, W. T. 8, 000Empire, 2nd steamer 100 Grand Rapids, Mic. 8, 000Algomah . .. 100 St. Joseph River, do. 8, 000Pilot . .. 80 Union City, do. 5, 000Princeton propeller 456 Perrysburg, O. 40, 000Oregon . .. 313 Cleveland, O. 18, 000Phoenix . .. 305 ditto 22, 000Detroit . .. 290 Detroit, Michigan 15, 000Odd Fellow brig 225 Cleveland, O. 9, 000Enterprise . .. 267 Grand Rapids, Mich. 8, 000Wing-and-wing schooner 228 Cleveland, O. 9, 000Magnolia . .. 200 Charlestown, O. 2, 000Scotland . .. 300 Perrysburg, O. 8, 000J. Y. Seammon . .. 134 Chicago, Ill. 8, 000Napoleon . .. 250 Sault Ste Marie 8, 000Freeman . .. 190 Charleston, O. 7, 500Eagle . .. 180 Sandusky, O. 7, 000Bonesteel . .. 150 Milwaukie, W. T. 6, 000Sheppardson . .. 130 ditto 5, 000Rockwell . .. 120 ditto 5, 000E. Henderson . .. 110 ditto 4, 500Rainbow . .. 117 Sheboygan 4, 000C. Howard . .. 103 Huron, O. 4, 000J. Irwin . .. 101 Cleveland, O. 4, 000Avenger . .. 78 Cottesville, Michigan 3, 000Flying Dutchman . .. 74 Madison, O. 4, 000Cadet . .. 72 Cleveland, O. 3, 500W. A. Adair . .. 61 ditto 3, 000Elbe . .. 57 ditto 3, 000Planet . .. 24 ditto 3, 000Albany . .. 148 Raised and re-rigged 2, 503Pilot . .. 50 Milwaukie, W. T. 2, 500Mary Anne schooner 60 Milwaukie, W. T. 1, 000Marinda . .. 60 Lexington, Michigan 3, 000Sparrow . .. 50 Chora, ditto 2, 500Big B. . .. 60 18 mile creek, 2, 500Hard Times . .. 45 ditto 1, 500Friendship sloop 45 Sheboygan, W. T. 2, 000Buffalo . .. 30 New Buffalo, Mich. 1, 000 ------ ------- Total, 48 vessels 10, 207 659, 000

"During the past season we stated that there was employed on the lakesa marine equal to 80, 000 tons; we have assurance now that even thatlarge estimate was below the reality. The latest returns to Congress, in 1843, gave 60, 000 tons; but, as those documents are always a yearor two behind the reality, and embrace dead as well as living vessels, they are of very little consequence. The existing and employed tonnageis what is most desired. The subjoined shows the number, class, tonnage, and cost of vessels built on this and the other upper lakesduring the past five seasons. By adding the cost of annual repairs andmoney expended in enlarging and re-modelling vessels, the sum wouldreach 2, 500, 000 dollars. The total number of vessels built duringthat period is 179. 

 Steamers. Prop'rs. Sail. Tons. Dollars. 1845 13 4 32 10, 207 659, 0001844 9 none 34 9, 145 548, 0001843 6 4 23 4, 830 336, 0001842 2 none 23 3, 000 164, 0001841 1 none 28 3, 530 173, 000 -- ---- --- ------ ---------Total 31 8 140 30, 302 1, 880, 000

"The whole of the above vessels were built above the Falls, at placesbetween this port and Chicago, by capital drawn from the many sourceslegitimately pertaining to the lake business, and designed as apermanent investment. What has been done below Niagara, in the samefield, during the past season, may be seen in the subjoined list of

VESSELS BUILT ON LAKE ONTARIO, 1845. 

Syracuse propeller 315 Oswego, N. Y. H. Clay . .. 300 Dexter, do. Hampton brig 300 Pt. Peninsula, do. T. Wyman . .. 258 Oswego, do. Algomah . .. 335 Cape Vincent, do. Wabash . .. 314 Sack. Harbour, do. Crispin . .. 151 dittoLiverpool . .. 350 Garden Is. , C. W. Quebec brig 280 Long Island, do. H. H. Sizer schooner 242 Pillar Point, N. Y. Maid of the Mill . .. 200 Oswego, do. Milan . .. 147 Pt. Peninsula, do. H. Wheaton . .. 200 Oswego, do. Welland . .. 220 dittoJosephine . .. 175 ditto ---Total 15 vessels, 3, 787 tons. 

"To which must be added the schooner J. S. Weeks, rebuilt and enlargedat Point Peninsula, at a heavy outlay; and also the schooner GeorgianaJenia, at St. Catharine's, which was cut in two, and rebuilt. TheJosephine and Wyman are rebuilds, but so thoroughly as almost to fallwithin the denomination of new craft. The Wyman is polacca-rigged, theonly one in service, we think. The Algomah is full rigged, and, likethe others, very strongly built. The Quebec and Liverpool are alsowell ironed, and designed for Atlantic service, when the St. Lawrencelocks will admit of a free passage. 

"There have been built on the lower lake other vessels than thoseembraced in the above list, including some steamers; and, in order togive our exchanges an opportunity to present the entire number andamount of expense, we omit any estimate of the cost and general outlayof the vessels named above. Applying our data, however, we make theoutlay 25, 000 dollars each, for the two propellers, and 127, 000dollars for the fifteen sail vessels, being a total of 177, 000dollars. 

"Of some sixty steamers now owned on the lake (Erie), there arerequired for the several lines, when the consolidation exists, aboutthirty boats. There are also used, at the same time, some ten moresmall boats, between intermediate ports, for towing, &c. , to which wealso add the London and four others, belonging to and owned in Canada. There are also fourteen propellers, and ten more to be added on theopening of navigation in the spring, with fifty brigs and two hundredand seventy schooners, known to be in commission, giving the annexedsummary of lake tonnage:--

 Tons. Dollars. Steamers 60 21, 500 1, 500, 000Propellers 20 6, 000 350, 000Brigs 50 11, 000 }Schooners 270 42, 000 } 2, 000, 000 --- ------ --------- Total 400 80, 000 4, 050, 000

"In this we enumerate the seven Oswego propellers, and such sail craftbelonging to Lake Ontario only as we know participate in the businessof the upper lakes. 

"_On the stocks. _--The desire to invest farther capital in vessels isseen in the number of new craft now on the stocks at various placesthroughout the whole range of the lakes. At this early day, we hear ofthe following to be rapidly pushed towards completion:

"At this port, a steamer of 750 tons, for Mr. Reed, the iron steamerDallas, of 370 tons, for government, and three propellers of largesize; at Chippewa, C. W. , a large steamer; at Euclid, O. , a brig of290 tons; at Conneaut, O. , a brig of 300 tons; at Cleveland, O. , asteamer of 700 tons, three propellers of 350 tons each, a brig of 280tons, a schooner of 230 tons, and another of 70 tons, all to be outearly; at Charleston, O. , a steamer of 800 tons, a propeller of 350tons, and a schooner of 200 tons. An Oswego house has an interest inthe propeller: at Maumee City, O. , two propellers of 350 tons each; atTruago, Michigan, a large steamer of 225 feet keel, for CaptainWhitaker; at Detroit, a large steamer for Mr. Newbury, another forCaptain Gager, and a third, of the largest class, for Captain Randall;at Palmer, Michigan, a propeller for Captain Easterbrooks; at Newport, Michigan, a steamer for the Messrs. Wards, and the frame of anotherbut smaller boat, for the same firm, to run between Detroit and PortHuron. 

"At Goderich, C. W. , or vicinity, a propeller; at Milwaukie, a barqueand brig, of large tonnage, 300 each. One of these vessels is nearlyplanked up already, and will be down with a cargo of wheat as soon asthe straits are navigable; at Depere, W. T. , a large-sized schooner, and a yacht of 70 tons; at Chicago, a large brig, or schooner, forCaptain Parker, late of the Indiana; at St. Catherine's, C. W. , abrig; and at the mouth of the Genesee River a propeller, for aRochester company, making, in all, ten steamers, twelve propellers, and twelve sail vessels--thirty-four in all. "

Another American paper, in its remarks on the preceding article, furnishes some additional information. 

"The introduction of steam upon the lakes was gradual, yetcommensurate with our wants. From the building of the second boat, in1822, to the launch of the Sheldon Thompson, at Huron, in 1830, six orseven small steamers had only been put in commission, and for theensuing four years a press of business kept in advance of thefacilities. But the zeal and extended desire to invest capital in newsteamers was reached in 1837-8, when no less than thirty-three boats, with an aggregate of 11, 000 tons, were built at an outlay of 1, 000, 000dollars. This period points to the maximum, and then came thereaction. In 1840, only one steamer came off the stocks, and the sameprostration and dearth in this department continued for three years, when it again received a new and fresh impulse, and now presents oneof the leading characteristics of investment in our inland trade. Thesum of 1, 000, 000 dollars has been diverted from other channels ofbusiness to this branch within the past two years, in addition to avery large outlay in sail vessels; and as the wants of commercedevelop, some marked changes may be observed. The small, ormedium-sized boats, into which the merchant farmer and foreignimmigrant were indiscriminately huddled, have given place tocapacious, swift, and stately vessels, in which are to be found aconcentration of all that is desirable in water conveyance. Such isnow the characteristic of steamboat building on the western lake. 

"The following is the number and value of vessels owned andexclusively engaged in the trade of Upper Canada in 1844:--

 Dollars. 51 Steamers valued at 1, 220, 000 5 Propellers 46, 00080 Sail Vessels 114, 000 --------- Total, 136 Vessels 1, 380, 000

 Having employed thereon 3, 000 men. 

"The whole number of men employed between Buffalo and Chicago isestimated at about 5, 000. During the season of non-navigation, half ofthese are employed upon farms in Ohio. 

"Demonstrable evidence from many sources is at command to show theprogressive change and accumulative power of the lake trade. In 1827, a steamer first visited Green Bay, for government purposes, and theBlack Hawk war in 1832 drew two boats to Chicago for the first time. Now the trade of the latter place, in connexion with the businessgrowing out of the rapid settlement of Wisconsin, sustains a dailyline. A glance at the trade of Chicago for last year will illustratethe change that has taken place there. 

"The gross tonnage of the lakes above the Falls, in 1845, was 100vessels and 80, 000 tons. This spring it will be found to haveaugmented from 5, 000 to 10, 000 tons. 

"In 1845, the whole number of arrivals at the port of Buffalo was1, 700. Last season, 1, 320 entries were made at Chicago. The entriesat the port of Buffalo for 1845 were--

Steamers 42 tons 18, 000 Arriv. 1, 000 Ag. Ton. 385, 167Propellers 9 2, 550 . .. 76 . .. 23, 477Brigs 46 10, 000 . .. } . .. Schooners 211 40, 000 . .. } 1, 625 . .. 50, 818 --- ------ -------Total 308 70, 550 611, 235

"From a valuable table given by the "Commercial Advertiser, " we learnthat the _available_ steam marine of the lakes is 60 steamers, and atonnage of 30, 000 tons. This is irrespective of 20 propellers. "

If the spirit of trade _locates_ any where on this earth of ours, itdoes so specially at Buffalo, where dollars and cents, cents anddollars, occupy almost every thought of almost every mind. It is veryamusing to look at the advertisements in a Buffalo paper. I shall givetwo or three as specimens. 

 Another Lot of those worsted dress goods, at one dollar a pattern, received this morning. 

 A. Wattles. 

 French Corded Skirts. Another lot of those French corded skirts just received, and for sale at

 J. G. Latimer's, 216, Main Street. 

 Crash, Crash. Pure linen crash, slightly damaged, at half price at

 Wattles' Cheap Store. 

 What kind of goods do you want? Ladies and gentlemen can find every kind of goods they may wish, in the dry goods line, at Garbutt's, plain or fanciful, any kind of dress you are in want of. Call at the Big Window, 204, Main Street. 

 Running off again. After Friday next, I shall commence running off my beautiful stock of Paris muslins and Balzorines, at great reduction. 

 N. B. Palmer, 194, Main Street. 

 History of Oregon, by George Wilkes, 25 cents. 

 T. S. Hawkes. 

 Gaiter Pants made to order, No. 11, Pearl Street. 

 E. W. Smith. 

 Voice of the People. Need not force them down. Sugar-coated Indian vegetable pills. 

 G. B. Smith. 

Illustrations of the most ridiculous kinds show that newspaperadvertisements must be very cheap indeed, for everything literally, from a washing-tub to a steamboat, is advertised daily for sale atBuffalo. 

Buffalo is a sample city of the lake frontier of the United States, better than Rochester, a more manufacturing mill-power place; aspecimen of what enterprise, energy, and paper money credit can do: aspecimen of the border population, where hatred to England reignssupreme among the lower classes, and where a residence of six monthswould quite cure any English ultra-radical destructive of goodeducation; an ultra-radical destructive of no education, or halfeducated, would, however, be vastly improved. 

I had a soldier with me, and he asked leave to go on shore, which Ifreely granted, convinced, from what I knew of him, that he was proofagainst Buffalonian eloquence. He had scarcely stepped out of thevessel, on the wharf, in plain clothes, before he was hailed by adeserter, who was doing duty as a porter to some shopkeeper, and toldof the delights of liberty and independence; but the porter had leftthe regiment for a little false estimate of the words _meum_ and_tuum_, and therefore the old soldier declined turning from thecarrying of Brown Bess[1] to being a beast of burden. He was thenassailed by a sergeant, who had been obliged to desert for misconductin a pecuniary point of view, and shown into a little grog-shop onthe quay, that he was keeping; but appearances were here not veryflattering either: in short, the deserter is not at a premium in theUnited States, for he is always suspected. Strange to say, these menare occasionally enlisted in the regular American army; a proof ofwhich was witnessed last winter at Sackett's Harbour, where some ofour officers from Kingston saw a man who had been received, and whohad deceived all the American officers, except the surgeon. Thisgentleman, suspecting he was not a free and enlightened citizen, although he assumed the drawl and guess, suddenly said to him, "Attention!" upon which the deserter immediately dropped his handsstraight, and stood, confessed, a soldier. 

[Footnote 1: Brown Bess, a musket--_vide Infantry Dictionary. _]

It would appear that in peace-time deserters should not be receivedinto the ranks of a friendly power. Even in war, they are received byEuropean nations with difficulty and distrust; for a man who oncevoluntarily breaks his oath and casts off his allegiance is verylikely to be a double traitor. 

The deserters from the regiments stationed in Canada frequently applyto be received back, but it is a rule to refuse them; and veryproperly so. 

It is incredible what pains are taken on the frontier, by the loafingpopulation from the States, to persuade the young soldiers to desert;and that, too, without any adequate prospect of benefit, but merelyout of hatred, intense hatred, to England; for they soon leave theunfortunate men, who usually are plied with liquor, to their fate, when once in the land of liberty; and this fate is almost invariably avery miserable one. 

The soldier I had with me told me that, while we were at the Falls, aman made up to him at the hotel, for he was then in uniform, being onthe British side, and introduced himself as a general, saying that hewas surprised he could remain in such a service, and volunteered toplace him in their army, which he laughed at, and told him hepreferred Queen Victoria's. This man he described to me as agentleman, in his dress and manner; but, if he was a general, he wascertainly a militia one, for the regular generals are not very plenty;and, from what I have heard of them, are above such meanness. 

We had a military general, who is, I believe, a shoemaker of Buffaloor of New York, at Kingston last winter, who gave out that he hadcrossed over the ice to see if it was true that fortifications wereactually in progress at Kingston. He met a keen young gentleman, whowas determined to have a little fun with General Crispianus, who wasattired in a fine furred, frogged, winter coat, and pointed Astracancap, with a heavy tassel of silk. 

"So you are at work here, I guess?"

"Yes, " said the young gentleman, "we are. "

"Well, I do hope you will be prepared in Kanaday, for though we don'tapprove some of our president's notions, we shall sustain him to aman; and, as soon as ever war is declared, we shall pour two or threehundred thousand men into your country and annex it. "

"Oh, is that all!" replied the youth; "I advise you then, general, totake care of yourself, for we expect sixty thousand regulars fromEngland. "

"I didn't hear that before, " said General Crispianus; and no doubt hereturned to his last somewhat discomfited. _Ne sutor ultra crepidam. _

Before his departure, however, he went to see a newly inventedpile-driver, which was at work, and, after looking at the _monkey_ forsome time, which was raised and lowered by two horses, and drove thepiles very quickly, with enormous power, he said to his friendsuddenly, "Waal, I swar, that does act sassy. "

So much for General Crispianus. 

We passed the night aboard of the Thames, preferring her spaciousaccommodations to those of the hotels in such a hot season, when therain poured in torrents; but sleep was out of the question, for theclimate of Sierra Leone could scarcely be more insufferable than theatmosphere then and there. 

The rain cleared away in the morning, and a prospect of Lake Erie ina rage presented itself; so we could not quit the miserable apologyfor a harbour which Buffalo Creek affords, crowded, narrow, and nasty, until half past nine, and then, with great difficulty, on board theEmerald, a small Canadian steamboat, worked out amidst a string ormaze of all sorts of merchant-craft. 

Lake Erie presented an appearance exactly like the shallow sea, greenand foamy, and very angry; and, in passing the shoals at the entranceof the Niagara river, it rolled the boat so that there was somedanger; and one old lady vowed that she would never quit the UnitedStates any more. 

A nice comfortable-looking Massachusetts farmer, the very type of aBuckinghamshire grazier of the year 1800, who was her husband, took afancy to me because I was endeavouring to assure his old dame that shewas not in real danger, and told me various stories, for he was veryloquacious. 

Among other things, he said it was very disgraceful to theBuffalonians to allow such a miscreant as Benjamin Lett, whom we sawon the wharf, be at large, as he boasted of having blown up Brock'smonument, and of shooting Captain Ussher in cool blood at his own doorin the night, long after all the disturbances of the insurrection wereover. Lett seemed to glory in his villanies, and was adisgusting-looking loafer, for whose punishment the laws of the UnitedStates have proved either too lenient or totally inadequate. Thisfellow escaped when heavily ironed by jumping out of a rail car on hisway to the Auburn Penitentiary, and no doubt has many admirers. 

The good farmer told me that he had been to see Auburn, and that therewas a little boy confined there for setting fire to a barn. He wasonly eleven years of age, and had been hired for half a dollar by aruffian to do the deed. 

But Auburn (what a misnomer for a penitentiary establishment, enoughto make poor Goldsmith shiver in his shroud!) is not the onlypenitentiary in America where children expiate crime. Kingston inCanada can show several examples, among others, three brothers; and itappears to me that a better system is required in both countries. Ahouse of correction for such juvenile offenders would surely be betterthan to mix them in labour with the hardened villains of apenitentiary. It is, in fact, punishing thought before it has time todiscriminate, and the consequence is that these children return youthsto the same place, and when they again leave it as youths, they returnas men, for their minds are then callous. 

The penitentiary system in Canada is undergoing a strict trial. 

It will surprise my readers to state that, in an agricultural country, where the manners of the people are still very primitive, whereeducation is still backward, and civilization slowly advancing, out ofa population of about 1, 200, 000, scattered widely in the woods, thereshould be so large a proportion as twenty women, and five hundred men, in the Kingston Penitentiary; for, as education and civilizationadvance, and large towns grow up, new wants arise, and evilcommunication corrupts good manners, so that the proportion of greatcrimes between an old and a new country is much in favour always ofthe latter. 

Recent discoveries of the police in Montreal have shown that _hells_of the most atrocious character, and one in imitation of Crockford's, as far as its inferior means would go, have been found out. 

At Kingston a most wretched establishment of the same nature hasrecently been broken up, and at Toronto great incentives to vice inthe very young exist. 

Clerks in banks have gambled away the property of their employers inthese places to the amount of several thousands, and, the frontier ofthe United States being so near, they have fled as soon as discoverywas apprehended, but, owing to the international arrangements for thearrest of such criminals, have hitherto been detected, and consignedto the laws of their offended country. 

The spirit of insubordination, which so forcibly operates inuneducated minds, where the constant example of the excess of freedomin the neighbouring States is ever present, has much changed theaspect of society in all the large towns and villages of WesternCanada. There is no longer that honest independence of the working andlabouring classes which existed fifteen years ago; but impudentassumption has forced its way very generally, and among servants moreparticularly. If they are not permitted to make the kitchen arendezvous for their friends, to go out whenever they like, and infact to be masters and mistresses of the habitation, they immediately, and without warning, leave, and no laws exist to prevent the growingevil: the consequence is that household economy is every wherederanged, and a _place_, as it is called, is only good where high lifebelow stairs is freely permitted. 

The servants too are chiefly Irish, who have neither means norinclination for settling in the forest, and consequently there islittle or no competition, while they are so well known to each other, and so banded in a sort of Carbonari system, that it is extremelydifficult to replace bad ones, even by worse. 

The women servants are the worst. I saw an instance lately however ofa precocious young villain of twelve, who was footboy in a gentleman'sfamily, and his young sister, not fourteen, under-housemaid. Hismother, a widow in infirm health, recently imported from Dublin, hadbrought up her children well, as far as reading and writing went, buthad indulged them too much, and beat them so much, that they neitherloved nor feared her. The little boy, only twelve, got into badcompany, and ran away from his place, where he was well fed, wellclothed, and kindly treated, and took his livery with him. He wasbrought back, after being partially frost-bitten, by his uncle, andreceived again from mistaken kindness. A cook of bad habits and worsetemper got hold of him, and, after staying a short time, he againdeserted with all the clothes and things he could carry. A young ladyin the family had previously told him that her father would one daytake him to the penitentiary to show him what bad boys came to. "Thatis the very place I want to get into, " said the young ruffian, "for Ihear there is fine fun there; I will steal something by and by, andthen they will send me there. "

Accordingly, he did steal, and took French leave one fine morning withMadam Cookey, having previously strangled the young lady's favouritecat, just about to kitten, and having the night before he abscondedtold the young lady he had made a famous nest for pussy to kitten in, and that if she went to the cellar in the morning, she would find thecat on her nest. 

The young lady thought nothing of what he said at the moment, but, after finding when the family got up that the cook and boy were off, she went to look at her kittens, found the cat strangled, frozen, andplaced on the nest. A day or two afterwards, the little sisterdecamped with three suits of dresses. Now what use would there be inputting such a boy or such a girl at so tender an age, and with suchprinciples, into a penitentiary?

Penitentiaries are not proper receptacles for infant villains. Thevery contagion of working with murderers, coiners, horse-stealers, andscoundrels of the deepest dye is enough alone to confirm their habitsand inclinations; and I am not aware of any instance of an infant boyor girl coming out of the Kingston Penitentiary subdued or improved. They are more marked characters when they again join their formerfriends; for they seldom avoid their former haunts and those whoseexample first led them astray, but plunge again and again deeper intocrime. 

It is the same with beating a child to excess; spare the rod and spoilthe child, says the Jewish lawgiver; but where slavery does not exist, the rod is not to be used to that extent, and it does not improve evenslaves. No; as in the army and in the navy, it hardens culprits, andvery seldom indeed acts upon their consciences. 

Border population is usually of a low character, and I cannot thinkit can be worse anywhere than where the maritime, or rather_laculine_, if such a word is admissible, preponderates, and wherethat race are unemployed for at least five months of the Borealwinters of Canada. It is only a wonder that serious crime is soinfrequent. Burglary was almost unknown, as well as highway robbery, until last year; but instances of both occurred near Toronto, and theformer twice at Kingston. The only use to such a class that a warcould be of would be to employ them; but it is to be predicted, ifpeace exists much longer, that the civil and criminal jurisprudence oftowns and cities bordering on the great lakes must undergo very greatrevision, and a suitable police be employed in them. 

Nothing can, by any possibility, be more eminently absurd than thepolice of Kingston as at present constituted. These men are dressedlike officers in the army; and, instead of being in the streets toprevent accident or crime, are employed, as they say, hard at work, detecting the latter. How they do now and then, at intervals few andfar between, succeed in detecting an unhappy loafer is a mystery toeverybody, for they are usually observed on the steps of the TownHall, or carrying home provisions from the market, with a fine dogfollowing them, or else jaunting about in cabs or sleighs. 

London is said to have suffered much by the policemen finding theirway down the area steps of houses, and amusing themselves in cupboardcourtships with the lady-cooks, housemaids, and scullions; but Iverily believe Kingston has not arrived at that perfection of adomestic police, for most of the men are middle-aged and married. 

The cabmen and carters of Kingston, it is said, elect the Aldermen andCommon Council. Whether this be true or false, I cannot pretend tosay, but it is very certain that a more insolent, ungoverned race thanthe cabmen do not exist anywhere. The best position of the bestpromenade is occupied by these fellows; and no respectable female ortimid man dares to pass them without receiving coarse insult; and, ifcomplaint is made, they mark the complainant; and, if they keep asleigh or carriage, make a point of running races near them, andcracking heavy whips to frighten their horses. One of these ruffiansfrightened a gentleman's horse last winter, and threw him, his wife, and daughter on the pavement, in consequence of the animal runningaway, and overturning the vehicle they were in. They know all thegrooms and servants, and act according as they like or dislike them, caring very little what their masters hear or see. The carters aresomewhat better, as there are decent men among them; but many of thatbody care very little about the laws of the road, which, by the by, are different here from those at home. 

 If you go left you go right, If you go right, you go wrong, is reversed in Canada, the right side of the road being always thedriving side in both provinces; thus, if you go right, you do not gowrong; although such a manifest advantage in ethics, it will appearthat right is not always right in Canada, but that cabmen's right andcarters' right confer degrees in the Corporation College, which ensurea large share of wrong to the public. 

But they are going to change all this, and bring in an Act ofParliament to alter the constitution of the fathers of the city ofRegiopolis, who, it appears, have not hitherto rendered any account oftheir stewardship. 

I shall not now enter into any further recapitulation of the journeyfrom the Falls of Niagara to Toronto, or from Toronto to Kingston, save to say that some very intelligent citizens of the United Statesfrom Philadelphia were my companions on board the splendid Britishmail-packet, City of Toronto. The ex-Mayor of Philadelphia and his twoamiable daughters were of the party, and I much question whether wecould have had a more pleasant voyage than that which terminated onthe seventeenth day of July. I omitted to observe, that voyage fromBuffalo to Toronto was performed in eight hours and a quarter, asfollows: Buffalo to Chippewa, by Emerald steamer, one hour and a half;Chippewa, by horse-car railway, to Queenston, one hour and a quarter;Queenston, by Transit steamer, to Toronto, four hours and a half, including all stoppages and detentions, among which was that ofupwards of an hour at Queenston, waiting for the boat. The distance isabout seventy miles; and the actual rate of going, for none of theconveyances are very rapid ones, is about ten miles an hour. 

Kingston is one hundred and eighty-nine miles from Toronto by land, and one hundred and eighty by water; and the journey is performed inthe mail-packets, which stop at several places occasionally, ineighteen hours, or about ten miles an hour, with detention for takingin wood, the speed averaging eleven. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

 Equipage for a Canadian Gentleman Farmer--Superiority of certain iron tools made in the United States to English--Prices of Farming Implements and Stock--Prices of Produce--Local and Municipal Administration--Courts of Law--Excursion to the River Trent--Bay of Quint--Prince Edward's Island--Belleville--Political Parsons--A Democratic Bible needed--Arrogance of American politicians--Trent Port--Brighton--Murray Canal in embryo--Trent River--Percy and Percy Landing--Forest Road--A Neck or nothing Leap--Another perilous leap, and advice about leaping--Life in the Bush exemplified in the History of a Settler--Seymour West--Prices of Land near the Trent--System of Barter--Crow Bay--Wild Rice--Healy's Falls--Forsaken Dwellings. 

"A truant disposition" took me into another district on my return toKingston, as I was thoroughly determined to see a thoroughly newCanadian settlement, and therefore prepared, by purchasing a newwaggon and a new pair of horses, to start for Seymour West, in theNewcastle district, some 120 miles north-west, and upwards of twentymiles in the Bush from the main stream of settlement, where a youngfriend was beginning life, for whom the horses, waggon, and sundryconveniences for farming and a few little luxuries were intended. 

A waggon, dear settling reader, in Canada, is not a great lumberingwooden edifice upon four wheels, whose broad circumferences occupyabout four feet of the road, and contain some ton or two of iron, asour dear Kentish hop-waggons are wont to show in the Borough ofSouthwark, or throughout lordly London, those carrying coals. No, itis a long box, painted green or red, a perfect parallelogram, with twoseats in it, composed of single boards, and occasionally the luxury ofan open-work back to lean against; which boards are fastened to an ashframe on each side, thus affording an apology for a spring seat. Thisis the body; the soul, or carriage, by which said body is moved, consists of four narrow wheels, the fore pair traversing by aprimitive pin under the body, the hind pair attached to the vehicleitself. A pole, or, as it is called, a tongue, projects from thefront, and can be easily detached; _et voilà tout_! The expense issixteen pounds currency, or about twelve sterling for a first-ratearticle, with swingle bars, or, as they are always called here, "whipple-trees, " to attach the traces to. A set of double harness issix pounds, and two very good horses may be obtained for thirty more, making in all fifty-two pounds Canada money, or a little more thanforty sterling, for an equipage fit for a gentleman farmer's all work, namely, to carry a field, or to ride to church and market in. 

There are two or three other things requisite, and among the foremosta first-rate axe. No man should ever travel in Canada without an axe, for you never know, even on the great main roads, when you may want itto remove a fallen tree, or to mend your waggon with. A first-rate axewill cost you, handle and all, seven shillings and sixpence currency, but then it is a treasure afterwards; whereas, a cheap article willsoon wear out or break. Strange to say, Sheffield and Birmingham donot produce coarse cutting tools for the Canada market, that cancompete with the American. It has been remarked, of late years, thateven all carpenters' tools, and spades, pickaxes, shovels, _et idgenus omne_, are all cheaper, better, and more durable from theStates, than those imported from England. Let our manufacturers athome look to this in time, and, eschewing the spirit of gain, cease tomake cutting tools like Peter Pindar's razors. In the finerdepartments, such as surgical and other scientific instruments, Jonathan is as far astern; and, although he may use a sword-blade verywell, he has not yet made one like Prosser's. 

In heavy ironwork Jonathan is advancing with rapid strides; and eventhe Canadian, whom he looks down upon with some contempt, is competingwith him in the forging and casting of steam-engines. There are veryrespectable foundries at Kingston, Toronto, Niagara, and Montreal. Theonly difficulty I have yet heard of is in making large shafts. Everyother kind of heavy iron or steel manufacture can now be rapidly andbetter done in Canada than in the United States--I say advisedly_better_ done, because the boilers made in Canada do not burst, nor dothe engines break, as they do in the charming mud valley of theMississippi. For one accident in Canada there are five hundred in theStates; in fact, I remember only one by which lives were lost, andthat happened to a small steamer near Montreal, about four years ago;whereas, they go to smash in the Union with the same go-ahead velocityas they go to caucus, and seem to care as little about the matter. John Bull often calculates much more sedately and to the purpose thanhis restless offspring, who seem to hold it as a first principle ofthe declaration of independence that a man has a right to be blown upor scalded to death. 

They are as national in this as in naming new cities. What names, bythe by, they do give them!--think of _Alphadelphia_ in Michigan, Buc_y_rus in Ohio, _Cass_-opolis, from, I suppose, General Cass, inMichigan, Juliet in Illinois, Kalida (it ought to be Rowland Kalydor)in Ohio, Milan in Ohio, Massilon in Ohio, Peru in Iowa, Racine inWisconsin, Tiffin in Ohio, and Ypsilanti in Michigan. Cæsar, Pompey, Cassius, Brutus, Homer, Virgil, and all the heathen gods, goddesses, demi-gods, and republicans, are sown as thick as leaves inVallombrosa. 

But to return to farming. You may have a plough, of the hundred newYankee inventions, or of a good substantial Canadian cut, for sixdollars, a wheat cradle scythe for the same, complete, a common scythefor ten shillings, or less; and thus for less than one hundred pounds, the farm may be stocked with two horses, two bullocks, two cows, (agood cow is worth five pounds) pigs, and poultry. Sheep you must notattempt, until a sufficient clearance of grazing ground is completed, but you can buy as many there as you want, of the very best kind, forthree or four dollars a head. A good ram, bull, or boar, is, however, scarce, and proportionably dear, but most of the districts now haveagricultural societies, at whose meetings prizes are given for everykind of stock, and the farmers are devoting much more of theirattention to rearing horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, than was thecase ten years ago, when almost all the markets were supplied from theUnited States. Kingston and Toronto now are supplied from their ownbulk; and, as it will interest an emigrant intending to settle, Ishall give the market prices of both cities, premising only that, incountry towns, provision of all kinds is much cheaper. 

 Toronto, January 2, 1846. S. D. S. D. Flour, per barrel, 196 lb 25 0 @ 28 0Oatmeal, per barrel, 196 lb 17 6 . .. 20 0Wheat, per bushel, 60 lb 4 9 . .. 5 3Rye, per bushel, 56 lb 2 9 . .. 3 0Barley, per bushel, 48 lb 2 4 . .. 2 9Oats, per bushel, 34 lb 1 10 . .. 2 2Peas, per bushel, 60 lb 2 6 . .. 3 0Timothy, per bushel, 60 lb 4 0 . .. 5 0Beef, farmers', per 100 lb 12 6 . .. 17 6Beef, per lb 0 3 . .. 0 4Pork, farmers', per 100 lb 21 3 . .. 27 6Bacon, per lb 0 4 . .. 0 6Mutton, by the quarter, per lb 0 2 . .. 0 3Veal, by the quarter, per lb 0 2 . .. 0 4Butter, in roll, per lb 0 8 . .. 0 10Butter, in tub, per lb 0 7 . .. 0 9Turkeys, each 1 3 . .. 3 9Geese, each 1 3 . .. 1 6Ducks, per couple 0 10 . .. 1 3Chickens, per pair 0 10 . .. 1 3Eggs, per dozen 1 3 . .. 1 3Potatoes, per bushel 3 0 . .. 2 3Hay, per ton 70 0 . .. 90 0Straw, per ton 40 0 . .. 50 0

 Kingston, January 31, 1846. S. D. S. D. Flour, per 112 lb 14 0 @ 14 6Oatmeal, per 112 lb 14 6 . .. 0 0Wheat, per bushel 5 0 . .. 5 6Barley, ditto 3 0 . .. 3 3Hay, per ton 47 6 . .. 52 6Straw, ditto 25 0 . .. 30 0Potatoes, per bushel 2 0 . .. 2 3Beef, per hundred 20 0 . .. 22 6Veal, per lb 0 3 . .. 0 4Mutton, ditto 0 3 . .. 0 4Butter, in roll 0 9 . .. 0 10Eggs, per dozen 0 9 . .. 0 10Turkeys, per couple 5 0 . .. 7 6Partridges, per pair 5 0 . .. 0 0Ducks, per couple 1 8 . .. 2 0

The standard weights of grain and pulse, in Canada West, wereregulated by Act of Parliament in 1835. 

 lbs. Wheat 60Rye 56Peas 60Barley 48Oats 34Beans 50Indian Corn 56Equal to a Winchester bushel. 

The price of keeping one horse in Kingston is about sixpence per day, in Toronto a shilling, but much less in all country places. 

The affairs of the districts into which Canada is divided are managedby a warden and councillors in each district, and two councillors areelected for each township, having above 300 qualified voters, and onefor each having a less number. The improvement of the district roads, bridges, schools, jails, court-houses, and all public mattersrequiring expenditure of the taxes raised within the district, arearranged by this Board. Some very useful information for settlers iscontained in the following:--

Statute Labour. --Every male inhabitant, from twenty-one to sixty, notrated on the Assessment Roll, is liable to work on the highways fortwo days. 

Every assessed inhabitant is, in proportion to the estimate of hisreal and personal property on the Roll, liable to work on thehighways, as follows:--Under £25 two days; under £50 three days; fromthat to £75 four days; from that to £100 five days; and

For every £50 above £100, up to £500, one day; " 100 " 500, " 1000, " " 200 " 1000, " 2000, " " 300 " 2000, " 3500, " " 500 " 3500, one day;

the fractional part between the different sums being always reckonedas a whole, and giving one day. 

Every person possessed of a waggon, cart, or team of horses, [1] oxen, or beasts of burthen or draft, used to draw the same, is liable towork three days. 

Indigent persons, oppressed by sickness, age, or having a largefamily, can be exempted at the discretion of the town warden. 

Any person liable can commute at 2s. 6d. Per day, if he thinksproper. 

[Footnote 1: Team is called in Canada and in the States a span ofhorses, and means two. ]

THE GENERAL ASSESSMENT. 

 By the 59th Geo. III. , chap. 7, sect. 2nd, the following is deemed rateable property at the given valuation:--

 Every town-lot in Toronto, Kingston, Niagara, and Queenston, £50; every town-lot in Cornwall, Sandwich, Johnstown, and Belleville, £25; every town-lot on which a dwelling is erected in Brockville, £30; do. In Bath, £20; every acre of arable, pasture, or meadow land, 20s. ; every acre of uncultivated land, 4s. ; every house built with timber, squared or hewed on two sides, of one story in height, and not two stories, with not more than two fireplaces, £20; for every additional fireplace, £4; every dwelling-house built of squared or flatted timber on two sides, of two stories in height, with not more than two fireplaces, £30, and for every additional fireplace, £8; every framed house under two stories in height, with not more than two fireplaces, £35, and for every additional fireplace £5; every brick or stone house of one story in height, and not more than two fireplaces, £40; every additional fireplace, £10; every framed, brick, or stone house, of two stories in height, and not more than two fireplaces, £60; every additional fireplace, £10; every grist-mill wrought by water, with one pair of stones, £150; every additional pair, £50; every sawmill, £100; every merchant's shop, £200; every storehouse owned or occupied for the receiving and forwarding of goods, wares, or merchandize, for hire or gain, £200; every stud-horse, kept for hire or gain, £100; every horse of the age of three years and upwards, £8; oxen of the age of four years and upwards, per head, £4; milch cows, per head, £3; horned cattle, from the age of two years to four years, per head, £1; every close carriage with four wheels, kept for pleasure, £100; every phaeton, or other open carriage, with four wheels, kept for pleasure only, £25; every curricle, gig, or other carriage, with two wheels, kept for pleasure only, £20; every waggon kept for pleasure only £15; every stove in a room where there is no fireplace to be considered a fireplace. 

 All lands are rateable, held in fee-simple, or promise of fee-simple, by the land board certificate, order of council, or certificate of any governor of Canada, or by lease. The sum levied in no case to be greater than one penny in the pound for any one year. 

 The Queen, should she be possessed of, or in occupation of any property in the province, is exempted from the payment of taxes. 

Each township of a district elects its own officers; at meetings heldannually, on the first Monday in January, and called by the townshipclerk, after he has obtained a warrant from two or more justices ofthe peace. All freeholders above twenty-one years of age are entitledto a vote, and choose the undermentioned officers, viz. --one assessorand a collector, with pound-keepers and path-masters, or overseers ofhighways, three town-wardens, and from three to eighteenfence-viewers, whose duty it is to regulate fences. Thesetown-officers are liable to penalty for refusing to serve, but cannotbe elected oftener than once in three years: they have cognizance ofall matters relating to cattle, height and nature of enclosures, andnuisances. Their duties are regulated by the district council'sby-laws. 

Each district has an inspector of licenses, deputy clerk of the crown, judge and clerk of District Court, a judge and a registrar of theSurrogate Court, and one or two registrars for deeds, with coroners, according to the extent, at all the principal towns or villages. 

In each district is also a sheriff, a clerk of the peace, a treasurer, and, in some of the district towns, a board of police, with president, clerk, treasurer, and street-surveyor. 

The officers of the incorporated cities or towns are similar to thoseat home. 

Justice is administered by the courts of Queen's Bench, Quarter-Sessions, District Courts, and the Town Court, with DivisionCourts. 

The terms of the Court of Queen's Bench are four; and in WesternCanada, at these times, the judges sit at Toronto to hear counsel onlaw questions. 

Easter term commences on the first Monday in February, and ends on theSaturday of the following week. 

Trinity term, second Monday in June, and ends Saturday of thefollowing week. 

Michaelmas term, first Monday in August, until Saturday of thefollowing week. 

Hilary, first Monday in November, until Saturday, as before. 

The Quarter Sessions are held throughout the province on the 7th ofJanuary, 1st of April, 1st of July, and 18th of November. 

The District Courts are held at the same time as the Quarter Sessions. This court has jurisdiction in all matters of contract from 40s. To£15; and, when the amount is liquidated or ascertained, either by theact of the parties, or the nature of the transaction, to £40. Thus apromissory note under £40 can be sued in this court before thedistrict judge, who is usually a barrister: and an open or unsettledaccount under £15, but none above that amount; also, all matters ofwrong, or, as the lawyers please to call it, _tort_, respectingpersonal chattels, when title to land is not brought in question, andthe damages are under £15. The judge of the District Court, by a lateAct, presides also at Quarter Session. 

The ordinary costs of a suit before him are from £5 to £10; and in theQueen's Bench, before a _real_ judge, from £10 to £30. 

The Division Courts are a sort of non-descript Courts of Consciencefor recovery of small debts under £10; and here the district judge hashis hands full, for he comes into play as president again, and has tohold courts in six divisions of his district once in two months. 

The Court of Chancery is the _summum bonum_; its costs are, of course, very great, and its decisions, though not quite so protracted as thoseof England, nor involving such stakes, plague many a poor suitor whocomes to _equity_, when he can no longer get justice. I should moststrongly advise him to ponder deeply, after wading through Division, District, and Queen's Bench, through judges without a wig and gown tojudges in full paraphernalia, and barristers and attorneys withoutend, before he encounters a Master in Chancery. It may be such alesson as he will never forget, for Canada is rather a litigiouscountry--it is too near the States to be otherwise, and lawyers, aswell as all other trades and professions, must live. Young settler, stick to your farm, get a clear title to your land, and never get intodebt. 

I left Kingston in autumn, as aforesaid, with the farm stock andimplements, and embarked on board the Prince Edward steamboat, Captain Bouter, for the mouth of the river Trent, in the Bay ofQuinte. 

First you steam along the front of the famous city of Kingston, whichnow presents something of an imposing front, from the waters of theSt. Lawrence, which here leave Lake Ontario and contract into twochannels between which are Long Island and some others. The channelnearest to the United States is very narrow, or about a mile; that onthe Canada side is very broad, being from three to five or six, withan islet or rock in the centre of the mouth or opening of LakeOntario, called Snake Island, having one tree upon it, and visiblefrom a great distance. 

A few miles above Kingston, you enter the Bay of Quinte by passingbetween the main land and Amherst Isle, or the Isle of Tanti, owned byLord Mountcashell, on which are now extensive and flourishing farms. At the east end of the Isle of Tanti are the Lower Gap and theBrothers, two rocky islets famous for black bass fishing and for adeep rolling sea, which makes a landsman very sick indeed in a gale ofwind. After passing this Scylla, the bay, an arm rather of LakeOntario, becomes very smooth and peaceable for several miles, untilyou leave the pleasant little village of Bath, where is one of thefirst churches erected by the English settlers in Western Canada, andthe beginning of the granary of the Canadas. 

After passing Bath, the Upper Gap Charybdis gives you anothertremendous rolling in blowing weather, and the expanse of Lake Ontariois seen to the left, with the tortuous bay of Quinte again to theright; this arm of the lake being made for fifty or sixty miles moreby the fertile district of Prince Edward, an island of great extent, and one of the oldest of the British settlements in Upper Canada, where Pomona and Ceres reign paramount; for all is fertility. 

The Bay of Quinte, in fact, on both the main shore and on PrinceEdward, is one unvaried scene of the labours of the husbandman; forthe forest is rapidly disappearing there, and the luxuriance of thescenery in harvest can only be compared with the best parts ofEngland. It is indeed a glad and a rich country. 

The Lake of the Mountain and the Indian village of Tyandinaga are thelions of this route: the former, a singular crater full of the purestwater, on the summit of a hill of some altitude, without any apparentsource, but overflowing in a stream sufficient for mill purposes andvery deep; the latter the seat of a portion of the Mohawks alreadymentioned. 

The vessel calls at several small settlements, and stops for the nightat Hallowell or Picton, for the village has both names. This is a mostpicturesque locality, in a nook of the bay, with undulating hills andsharp ravines, a handsome church and other public edifices, and alarge and thriving population. But we must for the present keep onboard the steamer, and, after sleeping there, go on to Belleville, leaving Fredericksburgh, Adolphus Town, and many others in theMidland, to coast the Victoria district, and enter the charming littleretreats in this pleasant bay to be described more at leisure. 

Belleville, the county town of the Victoria district, is situated onthe shores of this bay, and, from an insignificant village in 1837, has risen in 1846 to the rank of a large and flourishing town, themain street of which surprised me not a little by its extent, thebeauty of its buildings, and the display of its shops. I mounted thehill-side which overlooks it, and there saw three fine churches, theEnglish, Roman Catholic, and Scotch places of worship, a large wellbuilt court-house and jail, and some pretty country-houses. I shouldthink that Belleville has nearly four thousand inhabitants; and, as itis the outlet of a rich back country, and on the main road fromKingston to Toronto, it will increase most rapidly. The worst featureabout Belleville in 1837 was that it was the focus of Americansaddle-bag preachers, teachers, and rebelliously disposed folks; but Iam told that most of these uneasy loafers have left it, and that itscharacter has improved wonderfully. What a nuisance are peddling, meddling, politicians of the lowest grade? Wherever they plant theirfeet, a moral pestilence follows. These fellows won't work, for thevoluntary principle in preaching or teaching pays better, and does notcost so much trouble. It is surprising with what facility, in England, as well as in Canada, a saddle-bag doctor of divinity takes hisdegree, and becomes possessor of the secrets and director of theconsciences and household of the small farmer. I once knew a family, amost respectable family of yeomen, of ancient descent and of excellenthearts, devoured by a locust of this kind in Buckinghamshire. InCanada they are devoured every day, and not unfrequently made disloyalinto the bargain, although deriving their lands and support originallyfrom the British government. 

They travel to the most remote settlements, where no suchopportunities as church or chapel of any kind exist for publicworship; and, after gaining the good opinion of the simple settler byan exterior sanctity and a snuffling expression of it, they soon slideinto the recommendation of the superior chances of salvation thatoffer themselves, by forgetting the Divine command of "Render untoCæsar the things that are Cæsar's, " and of the Apostolic doctrine of"Honour the King. " I have always been surprised that a democraticBible retains such highly improper translations of the originaltongue, as _prince_, _king_, _queen_, and conceive that there shouldbe a special Act of Congress to declare that henceforward the words ofthe English language should be abolished and the American tonguesubstituted, under pains and penalties, omitting the aforesaid and allother similar _obnoxiosities_ from dictionary, grammar, and book. TheAmericans have just discovered that they have a prior claim to Oregon, and therefore must be an older nation than the British, the separationbeing a mere trifle, and the sway of England over the thirteencolonies and her ancient settlement of America a dream; ergo, theAmerican language is the primitive tongue. A very excellent worthygentleman of New York wrote to a friend in Kingston lately, statingthat he was sorry that England was going to such an expense infortifying that town, as it and all Canada would soon be American, andthen the money thrown away would be missed. [1]

[Footnote 1: In crossing the Atlantic in an American packet with ahighly-gifted American, he told me one day that he was really glad toobserve that such excellent dockyards were making at Bermuda, as in afew years they would no doubt belong to the Union. This was not saidboastingly, but seriously. ]

It is actually astonishing, and will scarcely be credited at home, that all except the most reflecting people in the United States have, within the last five years, become really and seriously impressed withthe notion that the whole continent of the New World is a part oftheir birthright, and that it is about to pass under their dominion, as a matter of course, as well as that all the powers of the Old Worldcannot hinder this consummation one day, or even exist themselves muchlonger, as a political millennium is speedily coming on. 

As an example of the self-sufficiency of this feeling, I quote aletter from a governor of a State, lately written to his constituents, perhaps on the strength of re-election, but really developing thenational notion. In reply to a letter addressed to him by the whigs ofChautauque county, desiring his consent to stand as one of theircandidates for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, ex-Governor Seward wrote a reply of which the following is anextract:--

"I want no war--I want no enlargement of territory sooner than itwould come if we were contented with a masterly inactivity. I abhorwar, as I detest slavery. I would not give one human life for all thecontinent that remains to be _annexed_. 

"But I cannot exclude the conviction that the popular passion forterritorial aggrandizement is irresistible. Prudence, justice, cowardice, may check it for a season, but it will gain strength by itssubjugation. An American navy is hovering over Vera Cruz. An Americanarmy is at the heart of what was Mexico. Let the Oregon question besettled when it may, it will, nevertheless, come back again. Ourpopulation is destined to roll its resistless waves to the icybarriers of the north, and to encounter oriental civilization on theshores of the Pacific. The monarchs of Europe are to have no rest, while they have a colony remaining on this continent. France hasalready sold out. Spain has sold out. We shall see how long beforeEngland inclines to follow their example. It behoves us then toqualify ourselves for our mission. We must dare our destiny. We can dothis, and can only do it by early measures which shall effect theabolition of slavery, without precipitancy, without oppression, without injustice to slaveholders, without civil war, with the consentof mankind, and the approbation of Heaven. The restoration of theright of suffrage to free men is the first act, and will draw after itin due time the sublime catastrophe of emancipation. "

It is with nations as it is with individuals; a boy very soon fancieshimself a man; he takes a switch in his hand, rides a muck againstthistles and stinging nettles, cuts off their heads, might and main, and then fancies himself a Wellington or a Nelson. Young nations havethe same notions, and age tames both the one and the other. 

Texas was easily tampered with; it was peopled only to be thePeople's: but Mexico may be a harder bone to pick. Already is anewspaper published there, named _El Tiemps, The Times_, to advocate areturn to monarchy, in order to save the Spanish race from the Starsand the Stripes; and the besotted and wretched Republics of the South, conceived in folly, and born of the splendid dream of Canning, arefalling to pieces from internal wars. Will his Ophirian Majesty, theEmperor of Brazil, humbly lay his crown at the feet of the Eagle, andare all our West India islands to be sipped up in the spoon of thePresident?

Let the United States be a great, a free, and an enlightened Republic;no one in England desires otherwise. Let it hold the balance, to curbthe semi-barbarous States of South America, and let it spread thegospel of peace, and the literature and laws of Britain to theuttermost parts of that benighted region; but also let it curb itselfin time, before it seeks to overthrow all order, all rule, all right, and all reason, under the feet of its mere fancied might. 

There is not in England that hatred of its American offspring, whichexists so largely towards the Parent State in the Union; on thecontrary, there is an earnest, a sincere desire for the well-being andadvancement of its best interests; but it is useless to conceal, andit would be unmanly also to attempt to do so, that the British pulsedoes not beat in unison with Lynch law, or with mob-rule, any morethan it would with the tyranny of a despotism; neither will the honestpride of the English, the Irish, or the Scotch, permit that mobdominion, the might of the mass, to dictate a line of conduct upon anyquestion, territorial or gubernative. Many master-minds at home admirethe principles of the American constitution, as established byWashington; but they deeply regret the gulf that has opened since theera of that lawgiver; and there are few indeed who would dream evenof exchanging the freedom of England for the freedom of the UnitedStates. 

The Reformers of British origin in Canada are, no doubt, verynumerous; and, owing to misconception and other causes, with whichthe public are now acquainted, were once desirous of hoisting a newflag; but time and reflection have been at work since, and the termreformer in Canada is no longer one with which a word of fewersyllables is synonymous. Even during the rebellion, as it was called, of 1837, but which more properly should be called the border troubles, there were very few Upper or Western Canadians concerned, as thebrigands were chiefly American borderers; the real rebellion beingconfined to Lower Canada. I commanded a very large body of militia, much of which had been gathered from the districts and counties wherethe Reformers had their strongholds, and in the ranks there were fullas many Reformers as there were Tories, as the other party were thencalled. 

These subjects force themselves upon my attention, from the voyagenear the shores of Sydney, Thurlow, and other townships, whereReformers and the really disaffected were very numerous in 1837; but, notwithstanding all this, it may be freely and fairly asserted againand again, that, let an invading force appear on their soil, thepeople of Canada will fight for home, for liberty, and for QueenVictoria. 

We steamed on to the Trent river through a glorious corn and applecountry, and arrived there in time to meet my young friend, and toproceed in our waggon to Brighton, a few miles westward on the Torontoroad, where we slept. 

Trent Port, or Trent village, is situated on both banks of the exitusof the Trent river into the Bay of Quinte, and is remarkable for twothings: as being the intended outlet of one of the finest backcountries in Canada, by a gigantic canal, which was to open Lake Huronto Ontario, through a succession of inland lakes and rivers, but whichnoble scheme was nipped in the bud after several of the locks had beenexcavated, and very many thousands of pounds expended. It is nowremarkable only for its long, covered wooden bridge, and the quantityof lumber, _i. E. _, in the new American Dictionary, deals, plank, staves, square timber, and logs floating on the tranquil water forexportation. 

Brighton is a little pleasant high-road hamlet, with two inns, and noouts, as it is not a place of trade, excepting as far as a smallsawmill is concerned; but this will change, for it is nearPresqu'ile, the only natural harbour on Lake Ontario's Canada shore, from Toronto to Kingston, or from one end to the other. Here the Bayof Quinte approaches the lake so close, that a canal of four or fivemiles only is requisite, through a natural level, in order to have asafe and sheltered voyage from Kingston without going at all into thereal and dangerous lake, which is every where beset with "ducks anddrakes, " as its rocky and treacherous islets are called. 

This canal, which may be constructed easily for about five and twentythousand pounds, must soon be made, and the bar of Presqu'ile Harbourdeepened, so as to ensure a shelter for vessels in the furious galesof October and November. 

The canal is always traced on maps, and called Murray Canal, Ipresume, after the late Master-General of the Ordnance, during hisgovernment of the province. It is, without doubt, one of the mostimportant and necessary works in Canada West; and, as it will leadinto the Trent navigation, when that shall be finished, will be themeans of adding some millions of inhabitants to the fairest portion ofthe land, now known only to wretched lumbermen. 

The River Trent is a large stream, full of shallows, and rapids, andbeautiful lakes, taking its rise north of the township of Somerville, in the Colborne District, not very far from a chain of lakes, whichreach the Ottawa on the east, and the Black River, a feeder of LakeSimcoe, and a tributary of Huron and the Severn, on the west. 

The river Trent is strangely tortuous, but keeps almost entirelywithin the Colborne district, named after Lord Seaton, and at RiceLake afforded a site for the Colonial Office to establish aflourishing colony a few years ago at Peterborough, and to open anentirely new and very rich portion of Canada West. 

This river, placed, as it were, by Nature as the connecting link of agreat chain of inland navigation, embracing the expanse of Huron, Ontario, and the Ottawa, opens a field of research both to theagriculturist and the forester. The woods abound with the finest kindof untouched timber; the land is fertile in the extreme; and therivers, streams, and lakes abound with fish. In short, had the TrentCanal been finished, instead of the miserable and decayingtimber-slides, which now encumber that noble river, another million ofinhabitants would, in ten years more, have filled up the forests, which are now only penetrated by the Indian or the seeker aftertimber. 

A private individual has, however, put a steamboat upon the centre ofthe river's course; and Mr. Weller, no doubt, finds that it pays himwell, for the portion of Colborne district near Rice Lake is settlingrapidly. 

The Trent Canal, or a railroad, in the same direction, would lead tothe Georgian Bay of Huron, and thus render a journey to the far Westeasy of accomplishment, as it is the most direct route from Oswego andNew York. 

But I must journey on, and, after resting at Brighton, start bydaylight, and penetrate into the bowels of the land by a sandy road, which, after passing that village, stretches into the forest duenorth. 

Away the waggon went, not at a hand-gallop, for the sand was too deepfor that, and, passing through woods by a tolerably good road for sonew a settlement, we, every now and then, at intervals few and farbetween, saw a new farm or a new log-hut. 

The day was fine, and so, having carried our provision with us, wehalted in the deep woods, upon the muddy banks of the Cold Creek, tobreakfast. A Tartar camp was visited by an English traveller somewherein the dominions of the Grand Lama, and he was treated to Londonporter. So were we in the deep forest of Central Canada, for Londonporter appears to travel everywhere; and, discussing it with muchrelish, we fed the horses, and gave them what they liked much better, clear and pure water--which indeed I now think would have been quiteas good for us--and waggoned on, until we came to a surprising newsettlement in the Bush, the villages of Percy and Percy Landing, where, there being mill "privileges, " as a sharp running water-streamis called in the United States, flour and saw-mills have beenestablished, and a very thriving population is rising both in numbersand in means. Here we dined in a new inn, or rather tavern, kept by aFrench Canadian, and then pursued our journey for a few miles on adecent new road, amidst fine settlements and good farms, and, crossinga beautiful stream, plunged into the undisturbed forest by a road inwhich every rut was a canal, and every stone as big as a bomb-shell atthe very least. How the waggon stood it, and the roots and stumps ofthe trees with which these boulders were diversified, I am stillunable to explain; for my part, I walked the greater part of it, forthe bones of my body seemed as if they were very likely, after a shorttrial, to part company with each other. 

At length, after jolting, jumping, complaining, and comforting, wecame to a bridge near Myer's Mills. Our _conducteur_, my young friendaforesaid, who was more used to the road, saw at a glance thatsomething had gone wrong with the said bridge; for it exhibited a verydisorderly, drunken sort of devil-may-care aspect. 

He was too far advanced upon it to retreat, when he discovered that abeam or two had departed into the lively current below. With truebackwoodsman's energy, he pulled his horses up sharp, reined them wellup, and then, with a tremendous shout, applied the whip, and actuallyleaped horses, waggon, and passengers over the chasm, the remainder ofthe bridge groaning, and saying most plainly, "I will not bear thisany longer. " Next morning, we heard that the whole structure hadfallen in and disappeared. 

I have been in some danger in the course of my life; but a visitafterwards to this spot convinced me that one's existence is often asort of size-ace throw; and whether the six or the one comes up orgoes down, is a miracle. I never had a nearer leap for clearing Styxthan this, excepting one shortly afterwards upon the timber-slides ofthe Trent, at Healy's Falls. 

A vast timber canal or way had been constructed here by the Board ofWorks, to convey timber down a rapid without danger, the slide beingalongside of that rapid. It was an interesting work; and, with myyoung friend and two naval officers, settled in Seymour, I went toexamine it. At the sluice-way, or timber-dam, was a sort of bridge, composed of parallel pieces of heavy square joists and a platform; wewalked along this Mahomet's railway, where Azrael seemed to haveestablished pretty much the same sentry as Cerberus, having two orthree mouths ready to devour the adventurous passenger. 

The parallel pieces were about two feet distant from each other; Iwalked on one, and my companions on the other, until a good view ofthe whole work and the splendid rapids was attained. Under our feet, at some distance, was the water of the slide running on an inclinedplane of woodwork, at a great angle, and with enormous power andvelocity into a pitch or cauldron far below. 

The day was bright, and the shadow of the parallel logs left betweenthe space no view of the water underneath. They called me suddenly tolook at the rapid. I jumped, as I thought, over the space between us;but my jump was into the shadow. One of the naval officers, a powerfulman, six feet and more in height, saw me jump; and, just as I wasdisappearing between the timbers, caught me by the arm, and, by sheermuscle and strength, held me in mid-air. The other immediatelyassisted him, but my young friend became deadly pale and sick. I didnot visit either the slide or the cauldron; in either, instantaneousand suffocating death was inevitable. Reader, never leap in darkplaces, and look before you leap. My young friend looked before heleaped over the bridge with his span of horses, and, like a gallant_auriga_, guided his van without fear; but he told me afterwards thatthe cold sweat sat on his brow, when the chasm was cleared, as much onthe bridge as it did at my Quintus Curtius venture. By the by, didQuinte Curce, as the French so adroitly call him, ever leap--I doubtthe fact--into the chasm which closed over him?

After passing this bridge, and a slough of despond beyond it, we againplunged into the woods, and, mounting over boulders, sinking intobog-holes, and fairly jolted to jelly, on a sudden turned into an openspace of near a hundred acres, round which the solemn and statelyforest kept eternal guard. Here, in the space of ten or twelve years, our pioneer friends had laboured through weal and through woe, throughSiberian winters and West Indian summers, through ague and fever, tocreate a little modern paradise. 

My young friend commenced in this secluded region, where the outerbarbarian was never seen and seldom heard of, where even the troublesof 1837-8 never showed themselves, his location upon one hundredacres. He had received the very best education which a publicinstitution in England could afford; but circumstances obliged him, atthe early age of twenty-five, to turn his thoughts, with a young wife, to "life in the Bush, " as a sole provision. The partner of his cares, equally well educated, and of an ancient family, by the death of herfather, who was high in office in his country's service, was leftequally unprovided for. 

With youth and good constitutions, a determination to make their ownway in life spurred them on to the most disheartening task, a taskwhich thousands of young people from Britain have, however, daily toencounter in Canada, and the progress of which I relate simply from adesire to show that "life in the Bush" is not to be entered intowithout solemn and serious reflection. 

Their first undertaking was to clear an acre or two of the forest, andcrop it with grain and potatoes; then to build a log-house. In allthis they were assisted by friends and neighbours as far as thelimited means of those friends and neighbours, who were all similarlyengaged, and the settlement containing not more than four or fivefamilies, would admit of. 

My young friend really set his shoulder to the wheel, and did not callupon Hercules whiningly. He had a fondness for carpenter's work, and, having cut down the huge pine trees on his _lot_, for so a property iscalled in Canada West, he hewed them, squared them, and dovetailedthem; he quarried stone with infinite toil, burnt lime, and in theshort space of two years had a decent log-palace, consisting of twolarge rooms, and a kitchen and cellar, with an excellent chimney, awell which he dug himself, and a very large framed barn, which hebuilt himself, the only outlay being for nails, shingles to cover hisroofs, and boards. These he had to bring with oxen and a waggon fromthe saw-mills at Percy, many miles off, and by the most hideous road Iever saw, even in Canada. He split his own rails, made his own fences, and cleared his own forest. This first settlement was commenced in1840, and, when I saw it in 1845, he had nearly thirty acres cleared, and this clearance and his really good house let to a settler justarrived. 

By one of those freaks of fortune unforeseen and unaccountable, aconnexion, who occupied the adjacent farm of two hundred acres, andhad had the command of money, died, and his property was left to theyoung couple. 

This gentleman, in the course of six or seven years, from the firstsettlement of this portion of Canada, had built an excellent house, had cleared a hundred acres, had a good garden, and everything which asettler could desire, with a well-stocked farm-yard, and awell-furnished house, into which my young friend stepped from hislog-palace and became monarch of all he surveyed. 

But money, the sinews of war, was wanted; for, although the land, house, goods, and chattels became his, the funds went to anotherperson, all but a trifling annual sum. 

The young couple had now a family growing about them, and, as theywere very old friends of mine, they asked me to come and see "life inthe Bush. "

Farmer Harry, as we will call my young friend, had now three insteadof two hundred acres to attend to, but he had a flock of sheep, a pairof oxen, the _span_ of horses I brought for him, several cows, muchpoultry, and a whole drove of pigs, with barns full of wheat, peas, hay, and oats; an excellent garden, a fine little brook full of troutat his door, plenty of meadow, and his harvest just over. 

To help him, he had a hired man, who drove the oxen and assisted inploughing; and to bring in his harvest there were three hiredlabourers, at two shillings and sixpence a day each, and their foodand beds, with two maid-servants, one to assist in the dairy. Labour, constant and toilsome labour, was still necessary in order to make thefarm pay; for there is no market near, and everything is to be boughtby barter. 

Salt, tea, sugar, and all the little luxuries must be had by givingwheat, peas, timber, oats, barley, the fleeces of the sheep, saltedpork, or any other exchangeable property; and thus constant care andconstant supervision of the employed, as well as constant personallabour, are requisite in Canada on a farm for very many years, beforeits owner can sit down and say, "I will now take mine ease. "

The female part of the family must spin, weave, make homespun cloth, candles, salt the pork, make butter for sale, and even sell poultryand eggs whenever required; in short, they must, however delicatelybrought up, turn their hands to every thing, to keep the house warm. 

The labour of bringing home logs for fuel in winter is not one of theleast in a farm, and then these logs have to be sawed and split intoconvenient lengths for the fireplaces and stoves. 

But all this may be achieved, if done cheerfully; and, to show that itcan, I will add that, amidst all this labour, my young friend wasbuilding himself a dam, where the beavers, in times when that politicand hard-working little trowel-tailed race owned his property, hadseen the value of collecting the waters of the brook. He was repairingtheir decayed labours, for the purpose of washing his sheep, ofgetting a good fish-pond, and of keeping a bath always full for thecomfort of his family. 

What a change in ten years! The forest, which had been silent anduntrodden since the beavers first heard afar off the sound of thewhite men's axes, was now converted into a smiling region, in which aprattling brook ran meandering at the foot of gently swellinghill-sides, on which the snowy sheep were browsing, and the cattlelowing. 

A field of Indian corn was rustling its broad and vivid green flaggyleaves, whilst its fruit, topped by long silky pennons, waving in thebreeze, seemed to say to me, "Good Englishman, why do your countrymendespise my golden spikes? do they think, as they do of my ugly, prickly friend the oat, that I am not good enough for man, and fitonly for the horse or the negro? You know better, and you have ofteneaten of a pound-cake made of my flour, which you said was sweeter andbetter than that of wheat. You have often tasted my puddings; comenow, Mr. John Bull, were they not very good?"

"Certainly they were, Mr. Maize, and hominy and hoe-cake and all thatsort of thing are good too; but pray don't ask me to devour you in theshape of mush, molasses and butter. Take any shape but that, and myfirm nerves will never tremble. "

Jesting apart, the flour of Indian corn, or maize, is as muchsuperior, as nutritive food, to potatoes, as wheat flour is to Indiancorn. I wish the poor Irish had plenty of it. 

The farmers in Upper Canada use it much, but in that wheat country itcannot of course be expected that it supersedes flour, properly socalled. They also use buckwheat flour largely in the shape ofpancakes, and a most excellent thing it is. 

My friend's life was diversified; for, during the season that thecrops are ripening, he had time to spare to go out on fishing andshooting excursions on the Trent, and occasionally in winter a littledeer-hunting, with, _longo intervallo_, a bear-killing event. 

I went to a combined fishing and shooting pic-nickery, and travelledfrom Rainey's mills and Falls all along the valley of the Trent toHealy's Falls. 

The Trent is a beautiful and most picturesque river, rushing androaring along over a series of falls and rapids for miles together, and expanding in noble reaches and little lakes. 

Rainey's Falls I have faintly sketched, to show the soft beauty ofsome parts of this river; at Healy's Falls it is more broken. 

We went to Crow Bay, just above which the Crow River, from the ironmine country of Marmora, runs into the Trent. Here we found twofriends, brothers, settled in great comfort. They had been about tenyears in the "Bush, " and had excellent farms and houses equal to any Ihave seen so far in the interior, with every comfort around them. Inone of their pleasure-boats, we embarked for the junction of therivers, on which it is intended to place a town when the countrybecomes more settled. 

All is now forest, excepting a very extensive and very flourishingsettlement of twelve hundred acres, undertaken by a retiredfield-officer in the army, which was a grant about ten years ago forhis services, and is now worth two thousand pounds, or perhaps more, since a bridge has been built by the provincial legislature over theTrent, in order to connect the mail route between the townships ofSeymour-East and Seymour-West, as both are filling up rapidly, andland becomes consequently dear and scarce. 

The price of land in Seymour at present is, improved farm, if a goodhouse and barns are on it, at least two pounds an acre, includingclearance and forest; Canada Company's land, from fifteen to twentyshillings an acre; wild land, in lots of one hundred or two hundredacres; Clergy Reserve, or College land, called School land, accordingto situation, from twenty-five shillings an acre upwards to thirty, all wild land. Private Proprietors' wild land, in good situations, twenty shillings an acre, and very little for less. Along theriver-banks, none, I believe, is to be had, unless at very highprices. 

It is intended, no doubt, to complete the navigation of this splendidriver by and by, and thus holders of land are not very anxious to sellat a cheap rate; and as the Board of Works has constructed, at anexpenditure of upwards of twenty thousand pounds, timber slides, alongall the worst rapids by which the lumber is taken to the mouth of theTrent, a certain importance is now attained for this river which didnot before exist; but this is of very little use to Seymour, in which, new as the township is, all the best pine has already been culled andcut down by the lawless hordes of lumberers, who, of course, nolonger consume any of the farm produce; yet it adds to the importanceof the river generally. 

The first settlers in Seymour were lumber merchants, who, seeing thewealth of the country in pine, and oak, and ash, the great fertilityof the soil, and the facilities afforded everywhere for erectingmills, established themselves permanently, and, before theagriculturists were induced to think of it, had removed from all landwithin miles of the river the only valuable timber that the townshipcontained. Thus one source of profit, and that a very great one to thefarming settler, has been destroyed, and the enterprisingtimber-merchant has established at convenient distances severalsaw-mills, where his lumber is converted into plank and boards for thelower markets, and where he is at all times ready to saw whatevertimber the farmer has left into boards and planks for him, receivingso many feet of timber, and giving so many feet of lumber, as sawedtimber is called, taking care of himself, of course, in the exchange. 

The flour-mills at Percy proceed upon the same principle: a farmerbrings sacks of grain and receives sacks of flour in exchange, saidexchange being of course three to one, or more, against him. 

Throughout Canada is this truck or barter system pursued, and verylittle money finds its way either into or out of the back townships, unless it be the receipts of the lumber-merchant from Quebec or thelakes. The lumber-merchant is, therefore, the lord of the Trent, or ofany other great internal river, whereon are new settlements; and manyof them have amassed large fortunes. 

Thus came timber-slides, instead of canal, upon this splendid river, which must, as soon as the Murray Canal, on the Bay of Quinte, isundertaken, be also opened to navigation, as by it the richest part ofWestern Canada, both in soil and in minerals, will be reached, and adirect communication had in war-time from Kingston, the great navalkey of the lakes, with Penetangueshene, and Lakes Huron and Superior. 

I have not time now, nor would it amuse the reader, to give a detailof the project for canalling the Trent, part of which was wellexecuted before the troubles of 1837; but the money was voted, and isnot so enormous as to justify the non-performance of so important apublic work. The timber-slides I look upon as mere temporaryexpedients. 

But let us launch upon Crow Bay, and, stealing silently along, getnear the wild rice which grows so plentifully on its shallows, andwhere is found the favourite food of the wild duck, which, by the by, is no inconsiderable addition to a Canadian dinner-table in the Bush. I do not mean, reader, the wild duck, but the wild rice, which saidduck eats; for, when well made into a rice pudding, I prefer it, andso do many who are greater epicures, to either Carolina or East Indiarice. 

The wild ducks suffered not from me, for I had no gun, and, aftercrossing the rapid current of the junction of the rivers, we landedon the isthmus formed by them, where, striking a light, and making afire, we bivouacked, and one of the party went in search of a deer, whose tracks were seen. This is a singular place, covered with dwarfoaks, on a sandy soil, and looking for all the world like an Englishpark in Chancery. 

Almost every oak bore the marks of bears' claws, as it was a favouriteplace for those hermits, who live on acorns, blackberries, wildgooseberries and currants, and I dare say raspberries, strawberries, and whortle-berries, with which the place abounds in their seasons. The boughs of the oaks were also broken by the repeated climbings ofBruin, and it must be somewhat dangerous, when he is very hungry, toland here and traverse the Bush alone: but we saw none, although wewalked through it, admiring the rushing river, and occasionally goingdown the steep banks to fish in the rapids for black bass, of whichseveral were caught, and, with several wild ducks, formed the day'ssport, which day's sport was twice or thrice repeated, until I hadseen as much of the beauty of the wild river and the nature of thesoil and country as was desirable. 

It was somewhat melancholy, on reaching Healy's Falls, which areturbulent rapids of the most picturesque character, with an immensetimber-slide, or broad wooden sloping canal alongside of them, to seethe clearance in this far solitude formed by the workmen. They hadbuilt houses, shanties, and sheds, and had lived and loved togetherfor many a month, with their families, on this charming spot. Nothingwas in ruin: all was new, even to the window-glass; and when ourparty, after toiling away through the forest, reached the opening, andsaw below us the foaming rapids, the grand forest, the rugged banks, the timber-slide, and the little wooden town, we thought, here atleast, is a well chosen hamlet, at which we may rest awhile. 

No smoke rose from the chimneys; not a soul appeared to greet us; theeagle soared above; the cunning fox, or the murderous wolf, the snakeand the toad, alone found shelter, where so many human beings had sorecently congregated, where, from morn till dewy eve, the hum of humanvoices had been incessant, and where toil and labour had won supportfor so many. 

Occasionally, the rude and reckless lumberman halts here, whilst histimber is passing the slide; the coarse jest and the coarser oath arealone heard at the falls of the Trent, save when the neighbouringfarmer visits them, to procure a day's relaxation from his toils, andto view the grandeur of creation, and, we trust, to be thankful forthe dispensation which has cast his lot in strange places. What mustbe the occasional thoughts of a man educated tenderly and luxuriouslyin England, when he reflects upon the changes and the chances whichhave brought him into contact with the domain of the bear, of thesnake, and of the lumberer? Dear, dear England, thy green glades, thypeaceful villages, thy thousand comforts, the scenes of youth, thefriends, the parents, who have gone to the land of promise--willthese memories not intrude? No where in this wonderful world do theycome upon the mind with more solemn impressiveness than in the wildwoods of Canada. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

 Prospects of the Emigrant in Canada--Caution against Ardent Spirits and excessive Smoking--Militia of Canada--Population--The mass of the Canadians soundly British--Rapidly increasing prosperity of the North American Colonies, compared with the United States--Kingston--Its commercial importance--Conclusion. 

It is time to take leave of the reader, and to say again some fewparting words about the prospects which an emigrant will have beforehim in leaving the sacred homes of Britain, hallowed by the memoriesof ages, for a world and a country so new as Western Canada. 

If the well-educated emigrant is determined to try his fortunes inCanada, let him choose either the eastern townships, in Lower Canada, or almost any portions of Canada West. I premise that he must have alittle money at command; and, if possible, that either he, or somemember of his family, have an annual income of at least fifty pounds, and that the young are healthy, and determined not to drink whiskey. 

Drink not ardent spirits, for it is not necessary to strengthen orcheer you in labouring in the Bush. I am not an advocate for aneducated man joining Temperance Societies, and look upon them as verygreat humbugs in many instances; but, with the uneducated, it isanother affair altogether. If an educated man has not sufficientconfidence in himself, and wishes to reduce himself to the degradedcondition of an habitual drunkard, all the temperance pledges andsanctimonious tea-parties in the world will not eventually prevent himfrom wallowing in the mire. Father Matthew deserves canonizing for hisbringing the Irish peasantry into the condition of a temperate people, but there religion is the vehicle; with Protestants such a vehicleshould never be attempted, unless the clergy once more are thedirectors of conscience and of action, and could conscientiouslyabsolve the taker of the pledge, should he fail. With the diversityof sects now existing in Protestantism, this would be obviouslyimpracticable, and the attempt lead to a result one can hardly imaginewithout horror. No oath ought to be administered to a Protestant onsuch a subject; as, if a believer of that class of Christians shouldvoluntarily take one and then break it, how much greater would his sinbe than the sin of one who really and truly is convinced that a humanbeing could pardon him, should he perjure himself!

The effects of drinking spirits in Canada are beyond anything I hadimagined, until the report of the census of the Lower province for1843, and that of Dr. Rees upon the lunatic asylum at Toronto, in theUpper, were published. The population of Lower Canada was 693, 649, ofwhich there were--

 Males. Females. Total. Deaf and dumb 447 278 725Blind 273 250 523Idiots 478 472 950Lunatics 156 152 308 ---- ---- ----Total 1354 1152 2506

The proportion of deaf and dumb to the whole population is as 1 toabout 957: a greater proportion than prevails throughout all Europe (1to 1537), United States (1 in 2000), or the whole world throughout (1in 1556. )

The census of Upper Canada, taken a year before, gives the totalpopulation as 506, 505. Of these there were--

 Males. Females. Total. Deaf and dumb 222 132 354Blind 114 89 203Idiots 221 178 393Lunatics 241 478 719 ---- ---- ---- Total 798 877 1669

Thus, of a total population of 1, 200, 154, in 1833, there were 1027persons confined in the provincial lunatic asylums, and perhaps agreat many more out of them, as they have only just come intooperation, and are still very inefficient. The idiots, it will appear, amounted to 1349. 

In the whole North American continent, Canada is only exceeded by theStates of New Hampshire and Connecticut, in the lists of insanity;and, to show that intemperance as well as climate has something to dowith this melancholy result, I shall only state, without entering intodetails, that a well-informed resident has calculated that, when theprovince contained the above number of inhabitants, the consumption ofalcoholic liquors, chiefly whiskey, was, excluding children underfifteen years of age, five gallons a year for every inhabitant;whilst, in 1843, in England and Wales, where the most accurate returnsof the Excise prove the fact, it is only 0. 69 of a gallon; inScotland, 2. 16; in Ireland, 0. 64; and the total consumed by eachindividual, not excluding those under fifteen, is only 0. 82 per annumfor the three kingdoms. If the children under fifteen in Canada are tobe included, still the consumption of spirit is awful, being 2-3/4gallons for each; but it must be much higher, since the Excise is notregulated as at home. 

That such excessive drinking prevails in Canada may be attributedpartly to the cheapness of a vile mixture, called Canadian whiskey, and partly to climate, with a thermometer ranging to 120°, and withsuch rapid alternations. In Canada, also, man really conquers theearth by the sweat of his brow; for there is no harder labour than thepreparation of timber, and the subduing of a primeval forest in acountry of lakes and swamps. 

I have an instance of the effect of excessive drinking daily before mydoor, in the person of a man of respectable family and of excellenttalents, who, after habitually indulging himself with at last themoderate quantum of _sixty_ glasses of spirits and water a day, nowroams the streets a confirmed idiot, but, strange to say, nevertouches the cause of his malady. Are, therefore, not idiocy, madness, and perhaps two-thirds of the dreadful calamities to which humannature is subject here, owing to whiskey? I have seen an Irishlabourer on the works take off at a draught a tumbler of raw whiskey, made from Indian corn or oats, to refresh himself; this would killmost men unaccustomed to it; but a corroded stomach it onlystimulates. 

Canada is a fine place for drunkards; it is their paradise--"Get drunkfor a penny; clean straw for nothing" there. Think, my dear reader, ofwhiskey at tenpence a gallon--cheaper than water from the New River inLondon. Father Matthew, your principles are much wanted on this sideof Great Britain. 

Then, smoking to excess is another source of immense evil in theBackwoods. A man accustomed only to a cigar gets at last accustomed tothe lowest and vilest of tobacco. I used to laugh at some of myfriends in Seymour, when I saw them with a broken tobacco-pipe stuckin the ribbon of their straw hats. These were men who had paraded intheir day the shady side of Pall Mall. They found a pipe a solace, andcigars were not to be had for love or money. "Why do you not put yourpipe at least out of sight?" said I. 

"It is the Seymour Arms' crest, " responded my good-natured gentlemenfarmers, "and we wear it accordingly. "

Smoking all day, from the hour of rising, is, I actually believe, moreinjurious to the nerves than hard drinking. It paralyzes exertion. Inever saw an Irish labourer, with his hod and his pipe, mounting aladder, but I was sure to discover that he was an idler. I never had agroom that smoked much who took proper care of my horses; and I neverknew a gentleman seriously addicted to smoking, who cared much for anything beyond self. A Father Matthew pledge against the excessive useof tobacco would be of much more benefit among the labouring Irishthan King James his Counterblast proved among the English. 

The emigrant of education will naturally inquire, if, in case of war, he will be under the necessity of leaving his farm for the defence ofthe country. 

The militia laws are now undergoing revision, in order to create anefficient force. 

The militia of Western Canada are well composed, and have become amost formidable body of 80, 000 men, [1] and are not to be classed withrude and undisciplined masses. In 1837, they rushed to the defence oftheir soil; and, so eager were they to attain a knowledge of theduties of a soldier, that, in the course of four months, manydivisions were able to go through field-days with the regulars; andthe embodied regiments, being clothed in scarlet, were always supposedby American visitors to be of the line. 

There is a military spirit in this people, which only requiresdevelopment and a good system of officer and sub-officer to make itshine. Any attempt to create partizan officers must be repressed, andmerit and stake in the country alone attended to. 

The population of the British provinces cannot now be less than nearlytwo millions; and it only requires judgment to bring forward theCanadian French to insure their acting against an enemy daring toinvade the country, as they so nobly did in 1812. I subjoin the latestcorrect census, 1844, of the Franco-Canadian race, as it will now beinteresting in a high degree to the reader in Europe. 

[Footnote 1: Eastern and Western Canada comprise an able-bodiedmilitia of 160, 000. ]

It is taken from a French Canadian journal of talent and resources, and agrees with the published authorities on this subject. 

_Population of Lower Canada in 1831 and 1844. _--The following table ofthe comparative population of Lower Canada at the periodsabove-mentioned first appeared in the _Canadien_. 

 1831. 1844. Saguenay 8, 385 13, 445Montmorency (1) 8, 089 8, 434Quebec 36, 173 45, 676Portneuf 13, 656 15, 922Champlain 6, 991 10, 404St. Maurice 16, 909 20, 594Berthier 20, 225 26, 700Leinster (2) 22, 122 25, 300Terrebonne 16, 623 20, 646Deux Montagnes 20, 905 26, 835Outaouais 4, 786 11, 340Montreal 43, 773 64, 306Vaudreuil 13, 111 16, 616Beauharnois 16, 859 28, 580Huntingdon (3) 29, 916 36, 204Rouville 18, 115 20, 098Chambly 15, 483 17, 171Vercheres 12, 819 12, 968Richelieu 16, 146 20, 983St. Hyacinthe 13, 366 21, 734Shefford 5, 087 9, 996Missisqoui 8, 801 10, 875Stanstead 10, 306 11, 846Sherbrooke 7, 104 13, 302Drummond 3, 566 9, 374Vamaska 9, 495 11, 645Nicolet 12, 509 16, 280Lothiniere 9, 191 13, 697Megantic 2, 283 6, 730Dorchester (4) 23, 816 34, 826Bellechasse 13, 529 14, 540L'Islet 13, 518 16, 990Kamouraska 14, 557 17, 465Rimouski 10, 061 17, 577Gaspé 5, 003 7, 458Bonaventure 8, 109 8, 230 _______ _______ Total 511, 919 678, 590In 1844 678, 590In 1831 511, 919 _______Augmentation in 13 years 166, 671

The increase during the interval between the years cited is about32-1/2 per cent. It would no doubt have been more considerable butfor the cholera, which in 1832 and 1834 decimated the population. Thetroubles of 1837-8 likewise contributed to check any increase; as, atthose periods, numbers emigrated from this province to the UnitedStates, and the usual immigration from Europe hither was alsomaterially interfered with. 

Assuming 1, 500, 000 as the present actual population of the Canadas, weshall examine the strength of British North America from publishedreturns in 1845, or the best authorities. 

 CHIEF CITIES. POPULATION POPULATION, 1845. OF 1845. 

Canada 1, 500, 000 {Montreal 60, 000 {Quebec 30, 000 {Kingston 12, 000 {Toronto 20, 000

New Brunswick 200, 000 {Fredericton 6, 000 {St. John 31, 000

Nova Scotia, } 250, 000 {Halifax 16, 000 including} {Sydney ------ Cape Breton}

Newfoundland 100, 000 St. John's 20, 000

Prince Edward's} Island and the} 45, 000 Charlotte Town ------ Magdalen Isles} ---------Total Population 2, 095, 000. 

A serviceable militia of 80, 000 young men may, therefore, withoutdistressing the population, be easily raised in British North America, with a reserve sufficient to keep an army of 40, 000 able-bodiedsoldiers in Canada always in the field; and, if necessary, 100, 000could be assembled at any point, for any given purpose. 

The Great Gustavus said that he would not desire a larger militaryforce for defensive purposes than 40, 000 men fit for actual service, to accomplish any military object, as such a force would always enablehim to choose his positions. Two such armies of effective men could beeasily maintained in the two Canadas, and concentrated rapidly andwith certainty upon any given point, notwithstanding the extent offrontier; and the Canadians are much more essentially soldiers thanthe people of the United States, without any reference to valour orcontempt of danger: whilst they would be fighting for everything dearto them, and the aggressors for mere extension of territory, and toaccomplish the fixed object of destroying all monarchicalinstitutions. 

I have already said that there is no sympathy of the Irish settlers inCanada with the native Americans, and the best proof of this is thepublic demonstrations upon St. Patrick's day at Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, where the two parties, Protestant and Catholic, exhibitedno party emblems, no flags but loyal ones, and where the ancientenmity between the rival houses of Capulet and Montague, the Green andthe Orange, appeared to have vanished before the approaching arrogantdemands of a newly-erected Imperium. 

Independence may exist to a great extent in Canada. Gourlay figuredit, twenty years ago, by placing the word in capitals on the archformed by the prismatic hues of the cloud-spray of Niagara. He couldget no better ground than a fog-bank to hoist his flag upon, and thevision and the visionary have alike been swallowed up in oblivion. 

Canada does not hate democracy so very totally and unequivocally as myexcellent friend, Sir Francis Head, so tersely observed, but Canadarepudiates annexation. 

That a great portion of the population of this rapidly advancingcolony feel a vast pride in imagining themselves about to becomeranked among the nations of the world, I entertain not the shadow of adoubt; but that the physical and moral strength of Canada desireimmediate separation from England, or annexation to the republicpresided over by President Polk, is about as absurd a chimera as thatof Gourlay and the spray of Niagara. The rainbow there, splendid as itis, owes its colours to the sun. 

The mass in Canada is soundly British; and, having weighed therelative advantages and disadvantages of British principles and lawswith those of the United States, the beam of the latter has mountedinto the thin air of Mr. Gourlay's vision. The greatest absurdity atpresent discoverable is in the ideas of unfortunate individuals, whoimagine themselves placed near the pivot desired by the philosopher, and that they possess the lever which is to move the solid globe toany position into which it may suit them to upheave it. 

A poor man by origin, and with some talent, suddenly becomes the SirOracle of his village; and, because the Governor-General does notadvance his _protégé_ or connexions, or because he does not imaginethat the welfare of the province hinges upon his support, turns sulky, and obtaining, by very easy means, a seat in the Assembly, becomes allat once an ultra on the opposite side of the question. 

In all new countries ambition gets the better of discretion, butfortunately soon finds its natural level: the violent ultra-tory, andthe violent ultra-demagogue sink alike, after a few years ofexcitement, into the moth-eaten receptacle of newspaper renown, alikeunheeded, and alike forgotten, by a newer and more enlightenedgeneration, who find that, to the cost of the real interest of thepeople, the mouthing orator, the agitator, the exciter, is not thepatriot. 

Canada, although emphatically a new country, is rapidly becoming amost important one, and increasing with a vigour not contemplated inEngland. It is proved, by ample statistical details, that the UnitedStates is behind-hand, _ceteris paribus_, in the race. 

The thirteen colonies declared their independence in 1783, now onlysixty-three years, and amply within the memory of men. The followingdata for 1784 may be compared to 1836:--

 1784. 

 Imports. Exports. Population. Shipping Tons. Nova Scotia }Cape Breton }St. John's } £75, 000 £3, 500 32, 000 12, 000Prince Edward's } Island }Canada 500, 000 150, 000 113, 000 95, 000Newfoundland 80, 000 70, 000 20, 000 20, 000 -------- -------- ------- ------- Total £655, 000 £223, 500 165, 000 127, 000

 1836. 

_Or just before the disturbances in Canada, and before the Union. _

 Imports. Exports. Population. Shipping Tons. Nova Scotia £1, 245, 000 £935, 000 150, 000 374, 000Canada 2, 580, 000 1, 321, 750 1, 200, 000 348, 000Newfoundland 632, 576 850, 344 70, 000 98, 000Cape Breton 80, 000 90, 000 35, 000 70, 000Prince Edward's Island 46, 000 90, 000 32, 000 23, 800New Brunswick 250, 000 700, 000 164, 000 347, 000 --------- ---------- --------- --------- Total £4, 833, 576 £3, 987, 094 1, 651, 000 1, 260, 800

THE UNITED STATES. 

 Imports. Exports. Population. Shipping Tons. 1784 £4, 250, 000 £1, 000, 000 3, 000, 000 500, 0001836 162, 000, 000 121, 000, 000 15, 000, 000 2, 000, 000

Thus the increase in shipping alone to the North American colonies, compared with the United States, was as _ten_ to _four_, and theincrease of population as _ten_ to _three_. 

In imports, the United States, compared with the colonies in thatperiod, increased as 40 to 9, exports 120 to 19; but then theAmericans had the whole world for customers, and the colonies GreatBritain only, until very lately, and then, even in the West Indiatrade, they could scarcely compete with their rivals; whereas theAmericans started with four times the shipping, nearly double thepopulation, six times the import, and four times the export trade, andthe people of the republic had already occupied at least ten greatcommercial ports, whilst Quebec, Halifax, and St. John, were yet ininfancy as mercantile _entrepôts_. 

Passing over all but Western Canada, we shall examine the state ofthat province after the rebellion of 1839, when Lord Durham informedus that

The population was 513, 000, Value of fixed and } }An increase of two assessed property } £5, 043, 253 }millions and a }quarter }in ten years. Cultivated acres 1, 738, 500Grist-mills 678Saw-mills 933Cattle 400, 000

and yet Upper Canada was only a howling wilderness in 1784. 

It is now supposed, upon competent authority, that the Britishpossessions north of New York contain not fewer than two millions anda quarter of inhabitants, a fixed and floating capital of seventy-fivemillion pounds, a public revenue of a million and a quarter, with atonnage of not less than two millions and a quarter, manned, includingthe lake craft, steam-boats, and fishing-vessels, by one hundred andfifty thousand sailors; and this Western Britain consumes annuallyseven millions of pounds sterling of British goods. 

The Inspector-General of Revenue for Canada alone gives us thefollowing data:--

1845. 

Revenue of Canada £524, 637Expenditure 500, 839. 

Now let us see what the Standing Army and Militia of the United Statesare in 1845:

 Standing Army--7, 590 officers and men, including all ranks. 

 Militia--627 Generals, 2, 670 Staff-officers, 13, 813 Field-officers, 44, 938 Company-officers, and 1, 385, 645 men. 

 Naval Force--11 ships of the line, 14 first-class frigates, 17 sloops-of-war, 8 brigs, 9 schooners, 6 steamers: with 67 captains, 94 commanders, 324 lieutenants, 133 passed midshipmen, 416 midshipmen, and 31 masters. 

The crews being formed of European sailors chiefly, no estimate isgiven of sufficient authenticity to depend upon as to the nativecitizens employed afloat in the services of the State. 

The Militia appears a fearful Xerxian force, but it is really of noconsequence whatever except as a protective one for the purposes ofinvasion, being quite met by the militia of the British provinces, asno larger army than 20, 000 men can be effectually moved or subsistedon such an extensive frontier as Canada, and that only by an immensesacrifice of money. 

Having thus given a glimpse at the state of affairs, I must leave myreaders for the present, after a little talk about the city ofKingston. 

Kingston, instead of suffering, as predicted, by the removal of theseat of government, having been thrown on her own resources, is risingfast. 

Her naval and commercial harbours are being strongly fortified. Thepublic buildings are important and handsome. 

The Town Hall is probably the finest edifice of the kind on thecontinent of America, and cost £30, 000, containing two splendid roomsof vast size, Post-office, Custom-house, Commercial Newsroom, shops, and a complete Market Place, with Mayor's Court and Policeoffice, anda lofty cupola, commanding a view of immense extent. 

There are three English churches, built of stone, a Scots church ofthe same material, several dissenting places of worship, and amagnificent cathedral, almost equal in size to that at Montreal, forRoman Catholics, with a smaller church attached, a seminary foreducating the priests, a nunnery, and an Hotel Dieu, conducted bySisters of Charity; also an immense building for a public hospital, extensive barracks for troops, and several private houses of inferiorimportance, with four banks. 

There are ten daily first-class steamers running to and from Kingston, and about thirty smaller steamers and propellers, with a fleet of twohundred schooners and sailing barges. The navigation is open from the1st of April until late in November. 

To show the trade of this rising city, now containing near twelvethousand inhabitants, I append a table of its Exports and Imports, for1845. 

IMPORTS AND DUTIES, AT KINGSTON, FOR 1845. 

-----------------------+----------+---------------+--------------+-------------- Articles Imported. | Number | Value at the | Amount of | Remarks. | or | place of | all Duties, | | quantity. | importation, | Currency. | | | Currency. | |-----------------------+----------+---------------+--------------+-------------- | | £ s. D. | £ s. D. |Animals--Cows and | | | | Heifers No. | 12 | 54 10 0 | 14 12 0 | Horses, Mares, } " | | | | Geldings, } " | 13 | 231 5 0 | 23 14 6 | Colts, Fillies &} " | | | | Foals } | 21 | 222 10 0 | . . . |Of travellers. Lambs " | 70 | 16 0 0 | 3 5 2 | Oxen, Bulls, Steers | 262 | 1, 514 0 0 | 406 19 6 | Pigs (sucking) " | 1 | 0 5 0 | 0 0 7 | Swine and Hogs " | 1, 212 | 3, 474 10 2 | 368 13 0 | Sheep " | 337 | 90 8 9 | 41 0 0 |Anchovies and Sardines, | | | | in oil | . | 3 0 6 | 0 7 10 |Ashes barrels| 67 | 279 7 9 | 13 9 8 |Bark | . | 99 16 0 | 4 17 8 |Berries, Nuts, | | | | Vegetables, for dying | . | 156 16 5 | 12 13 9 |Biscuit and Crackers | . | 111 11 10 | 10 4 5 |Books | . | 1, 329 6 1 | 150 12 9 |Private Do. | . | 20 0 0 | . . . | libraryCandles--Sperm lb. | 3, 770 | 310 6 10 | 84 13 3 | from Europe. Wax " | 3, 457 | 163 11 10 | 28 19 3 |Bonded for Other kinds " | 13, 800 | 856 11 3 | . . . | lower ports. Carriages, Vehicles No. | 28 | 220 0 0 | 18 13 5 |Of travellers. Do. | 20 | 256 5 0 | . . . |Clocks and Watches | . | 1, 046 7 1 | 167 7 2 |Coals tons. | 373 0 76| 514 12 11 | 23 17 1 |Cocoa cwt. | 1 20| 1 16 0 | 0 2 11 |Coffee--Green cwt. {| 288 8 1| 625 17 10 | 247 2 4 |Remov'd under {| 27 1 9| 66 0 0 | . . . | bond to Roasted " | 13 1 1| 30 10 10 | 19 1 11 | Hamilton. Ground " | 8 0 20| 15 19 9 | 21 1 8 |Coin and Bullion | . |22, 500 0 0 | . . . |Cordage " | 193 0 13| 535 6 8 | 61 16 1 |Corks gross| 1086 | 80 11 8 | 9 6 0 |Cotton Manufactures | . | 1, 728 16 1 | 200 1 0 |Cotton Wool | . | 236 0 0 | 11 16 0 |Drugs | . | 327 13 6 | 17 0 10 |Extracts, Essences and | | | | Perfumery | . | 92 1 3 | 12 0 0 |Fanning and Bark Mills | 10 | 33 16 6 | 4 18 11 |Fins and Skins, the | | | | produce of creatures | | | | living in the sea | . | 33 13 9 | 7 11 0 |Fish--Fresh, not | | | | described | . | 260 11 3 | 6 11 7 | Oysters, Lobsters and | | | | Turtles | . | 1, 100 14 9 | 7 11 0 | Salted or dried cwt. | 154 0 19| 127 4 0 | 20 1 4 | Pickled barls. | 30 | 54 11 4 | 7 16 11 |Flour, Wheat, {| 8, 396-1/2| 9, 296 18 3 |1, 276 16 9 |Supplied barrels {| 204 | 224 8 0 | 6 4 1 | H. M. Of 196 lb. {| 44, 151 |54, 919 7 6 | . . . | Commissariat. Fruit, Almonds " | 15, 115 | 137 17 6 | 31 8 7 | Apples bushels|13, 966-1/2| 1, 300 3 7 | 424 16 7 | Do. Dried " | 163 | 36 14 7 | 11 7 4 | Currants cwt. | 47 3 2 4| 105 10 9 | 18 2 1 | Figs " | 20 2 20 | 53 7 2 | 8 8 1 | Nuts lb. {| 9, 421 | 140 17 1 | 29 10 4 | {| 610 | 6 2 0 | . . . |Bonded for Pears bushels| 421-3/4| 59 12 8 | 25 12 6 | removal to Prunes lb. | 543 | 20 12 6 | 3 11 6 | Hamilton. Raisins in boxes " | 34, 411 | 788 9 8 | 205 19 6 | Do. , otherwise than | | | | in boxes lb. | 7, 990 | 127 6 6 | 25 7 10 | Unenumerated " | . | 999 12 7 | 95 18 9 |Fur Skins, or Peltries, | | | | undressed | . | 22 16 6 | 1 2 5 |Glass Manufactures | . | 860 3 11 | 168 0 1 |Grain, &c. --Barley qrs. | 373-3/4| 369 4 9 | 68 4 2 | Maize, or Ind. Corn, | | | | quarters, 480 lb. | 2, 617-1/2| 2, 717 13 9 | 477 15 9 | Oats quarters| 87-1/2| 43 13 9 | 10 12 11-1/2| Rye " | 69-3/4| 51 19 7 | 12 13 6-1/2| Beans " | 2 | 4 8 0 | 0 7 3 | Meal of the above grs. | | | | and of Wheat not | | | | bolted, per 196 lb. | 10-1/2| 4 10 0 | . 15 6 | Wheat quarters| 2, 597-1/4| 4, 647 17 4 | 474 0 0 | Bran & Shorts cwt. | 4 0 0| 3 7 3 | 0 1 3 |Gums and Resins | . | 181 1 5 | 9 3 3 |Hardware | . | 3, 883 2 10 | 466 11 4 |Hay tons| 34-1/2| 56 1 3 | 12 11 10 |Hemp, Flax, & Tow {|4, 879 1 18| 2, 188 12 7 | 21 17 9 | cwt. {|1, 540 2 0| 838 10 0 | . . . |Bonded forHides, Raw No. | 755 | 338 3 9 | 3 7 8 | lower ports. Hops lb. | 936 | 26 0 6 | 15 5 6 |India Rubber Boots & | | | | Shoes pairs| 1, 197 | 218 1 7 | 45 6 6 |Leather--Goat Skins, | | | | tanned, or in any | | | | way dressed doz. | 4 | 6 12 0 | 1 9 7 | Lamb and Sheep | | | | Skins doz. | 172 | 117 9 10 | 30 19 8 | Calf Skins, do. Lb. | 857-1/4| 90 18 5 | 29 13 10 | Kid Skins, do. " | 1, 024 | 92 18 9 | 10 6 11 | Harness Leather " |12, 641-1/2| 347 1 0 | 141 18 3 | Upper Leather " | 4, 109-3/4| 271 7 11 | 51 9 3 | Sole Leather " |74, 931 | 2, 561 5 3 | 672 4 6 | Leather not described | | 334 16 5 | 28 17 6 |Leather Manufactures | | | |Boots, Shoes, Calashes | | | | Women's Boots, | | | | Shoes, & Calashes | | | | of Leather doz. Prs. | 52-1/2| 116 1 3 | 29 12 9 | Girls' Boots, Shoes, | | | | and Calashes, under | | | | 7 in. In length. | | | | of Leather doz. Prs. | 38 | 38 12 3 | 8 14 6 | Girls' Boots & Shoes | | | | of Silk, Satin, Jean | | | | or other stuff, Kid, | | | | Morocco doz. Prs. | 14 | 20 14 7 | 3 12 2 | Men's Boots of Leather| | | | pairs| 2, 047 | 494 15 7 | 109 14 6 | Men's Shoes, do. " | 161 | 29 7 1 | 11 18 2 | Boys' Boots under 8 | | | | inches long pairs| 38 | 7 0 0 | 3 6 3 | Boys' Shoes, do. " | 28 | 5 8 7 | 1 13 1 |Leather Manufactures | | | | not described | | 330 19 2 | 38 4 6 |Linen Manufactures | | 82 6 0 | 9 9 11 |Liquids--Cider and | | | | Perry gallons | 5, 679 | 61 15 5 | 32 1 7 | Vinegar " | 2, 670 | 87 2 2 | 44 4 0 |Maccaroni and | | | | Vermicelli lb. | 493 | 13 18 2 | 3 1 1 |Machinery | | 1, 478 14 7 | 225 11 0 |Mahogany and Hardwood, | | | | unmanufactured | | | | for Furniture | | 144 19 5 | 1 9 2 |Manures of all kinds | | 29 12 6 | 0 1 0 |Medicines | | 642 1 6 | 55 6 4 |Molasses & Treacle cwt | 193 2 8 | 141 10 6 | 47 1 7 |Oakum " | 0 22 | 1 4 9 | 0 1 9 |Oils--Olive, in casks | | | | gallons | 700 | 142 9 0 | 19 17 11 | Do. In jars and | | | | bottles gallons | 56-1/2| 24 2 1 | 4 8 1 | Lard " | 690 | 130 9 4 | 19 4 2 | Linseed, raw or | | | | boiled " | 2, 367 | 329 2 5 | 37 3 4 | Oils, Vegetable, | | | | Volatile, Chemical, | | | | and essential gallons| 131 | 58 18 3 | 6 9 9 | Palm " | 150 | 23 6 6 | 1 2 11 | The produce of Fish | | | | and creatures living | | | | in the sea gals. | 8, 196-1/2| 1, 941 12 7 | 309 16 2 | Unenumerated " | 2, 957-1/4| 460 7 2 | 52 16 6 |Paper Manufactures, | | | | other than Books & | | | | Playing Cards | . | 892 12 2 | 101 19 2 |Pickles and Sauces | . | 12 8 10 | 1 12 4 |Playing Cards packs| . | 8 7 7 | 1 7 0 |Potatoes bushels| 172-1/2| 12 5 3 | 2 12 6 |Poultry and Game, live | . | 9 1 0 | 0 18 1 | Ditto, dead | . | 63 2 4 | 8 9 9 |Provisions--Butter cwt. | 3 3 9| 13 1 3 | 2 16 11 | Cheese | 248 2 22| 400 9 3 | 113 9 3 | Eggs dozen| 236 | 5 18 0 | 0 16 6 | Lard cwt. | 40 1 18| 80 18 0 | 3 19 5 | Meats--Bacon and | | | | Hams cwt. | 47 2 17| 78 18 13 | 23 2 8-1/2| Ditto, other Meats, | | | | salted, &c. Cwt. |14, 035 2 3|25, 137 11 6 |4, 274 9 7 | Ditto " |4, 237 2 20| 5, 656 0 0 | . . . | Ditto, Fresh " | 261 3 15| 264 14 9 | 63 14 0 |Bonded-for Rice " | 282 2 0| 350 17 4 | 17 9 2 |lower ports Salt barls of 280 lb. | 975 | 255 14 2 | 148 5 8 | Sausages & Puddings | . | 0 3 4 | 0 0 6 |Seeds cwt. | . | 123 15 3 | 10 10 1 |Silk Manufactures | . | 136 9 10 | 26 13 4 |Soap cwt. | 36 2 25| 131 5 9 | 14 15 7 |Spices--Cassia lb. | 305-1/2| 17 9 0 | 3 15 9 | Cinnamon " | 160 | 9 18 6 | 2 0 3 | Cloves " | 46 | 3 11 10 | 0 11 9 | Nutmegs " | 2 | 0 13 9 | 0 1 4 | Pepper of all kinds " | 1, 254 | 34 1 4 | 4 10 9 |Spirits and cordials, | | | | except Rum-- | | | | Not exceeding proof, | | | | gallons| 32 | 4 10 0 | 4 7 7 | Over proof " | 16 | 2 5 0 | 2 3 9 | Sweetened or mixed | 7 | 10 17 6 | 1 5 6 |Sugar--Refined cwt. |55 2 6-1/2| 164 3 9 | 95 18 3 | Unrefined & Bastard |2, 520 0 16| 3, 698 0 8 |2, 199 4 6 |Syrups | 137 | 45 4 6 | 7 9 2 |Do. Stearine lb. | 3, 681 | 184 1 0 | . . . |Tallow cwt. |3, 086 1 6-1/2 5, 385 17 6| 53 1 3 |Tea lb. |196, 268 |18, 110 9 8 |1, 999 16 8 |Tobacco | | | | --Unmanufactured " | 1, 923 | 222 18 9 | . . . | Do. | 357 | 13 2 2 | 2 7 2 | Manufactured " |202, 508-1/2 4, 291 13 0 |1, 205 8 11 | Segars " | 1, 627 | 550 12 10 | 235 12 11 | Snuff " | 1, 981 | 87 19 7 | 46 6 8 |Trees, Shrubs, Plants, | | | | and Roots | . | 222 0 11 | 8 17 6 |Settlers' Goods lots| 3 | 26 5 0 | . . . |Vegetables, except | | | | potatoes, fresh | . | 334 6 6 | 36 13 4 |Wines doz. Gallons|1, 162-1/4 | 419 4 9 | 112 16 11 |Wood, except Saw Logs | | | | & Mahogany. Pine, | | | | White cubic feet| 11, 750 | 147 12 7 | 17 17 3 | Oak " | 1, 497 | 25 0 0 | 5 0 5 | Staves, Puncheon, or | | | | W. I. Standard| | | | std. M. " | 57 | 609 13 5 | 86 7 0 | White Oak " | 435 | 1, 442 3 2 | 263 0 1 | Handspikes doz. | 5 | 1 17 6 | 0 1 6 | Oars pairs| 17 | 3 14 3 | 0 5 5 | Planks, Boards, sawed | | | | Lumber feet| 48, 475 | 89 4 0 | 17 13 0 |Woollen Manufactures | . | 1, 097 12 10 | 124 7 7 |Wood. Firewood, cords| 397-1/2 | 66 12 3 | 3 6 0 |All other articles not | | | | included under any of | | | | the foregoing heads | . | 6, 502 12 3 | 555 7 1 | | +---------------+--------------+-------------- Totals, Currency | |211, 705 0 11 |19, 917 17 0 |

[Amount of duty on Imports bonded for lower ports - £8036 0 8]

Below, we give a return of the amount and value of goods imported atthis Port through the United States, for the benefit of drawback. Theimportations under this law have not been large, but the return showsthat a material saving has been effected under this operation. For thereturn we are indebted to the politeness of the late collector, Mr. Kirkpatrick. 

AGGREGATE OF IMPORTS INTO KINGSTON FOR BENEFITOF DRAWBACK. 

--------------+------------------------+-------------+-------------+------------ Articles. |Quantity in Weight, &c. | Value. | Duties. | Drawback. --------------+------------------------+-------------+-------------+------------ | | £ s. D. | £ s. D. | Dollars. Cigars | 1, 281 lbs. | 404 8 4 | 184 3 3 | 502 43Almonds | 5, 964 " | 101 19 4 | 41 1 3 | 159 75Currants | 5, 259 " | 105 10 9 | 18 12 1 | 120 81Raisins |39, 216 " | 844 11 4 | 217 18 1 | 1, 059 86Molasses | 147 cwt. 3 qr. 4 lb. | 109 3 0 | 35 19 18 | 72 66Olive Oil | 700 gallons | 142 9 0 | 19 17 10 | 136 50Linseed Oil | 2, 100 " | 282 19 6 | 32 12 2 | 511 88Raw Sugar | 2, 168 cwt. 2 qr. 8 lb. | 3, 169 6 3 | 1, 889 13 10 | 5, 899 74Refined Sugar | 6, 020 lbs. | 157 5 6 | 92 9 9 | 205 44Wine | 400 gallons | 240 7 0 | 54 17 11 | 245 81 | | | +------------ | | | | 8, 914 91 | +-------------+-------------+------------ | | 5, 558 0 0 | 2, 587 5 10 |£2, 228 14 6

We have also been favoured with a return of the shipping, which, during the season of 1845, has entered this port. The reports to theCustom House embrace 388, 788. This return includes the steamersemployed on the Bay and Lake, when carrying merchandize; but, as thelaw requiring vessels to report only came into force several weeksafter the opening of the navigation, and as it has not in allinstances been obeyed, the return is not quite as full as it mighthave been under other circumstances. As much as 15, 000 or 20, 000 tonshave in this way entered without reporting. The amount of tonnage for1845, stated above, is likewise exclusive of all that engaged n tradeon the canal and river, and which is very nearly equal in amount. 

The Provincial Revenue returns for 1845 are said to exceed those of1844 by £55, 000. 

Kingston is, in fact, the key of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence andthe Rideau Canal being their outlets for commerce; but, unlessrailroads are established between the Atlantic at Halifax and theseLakes, the prosperity of this and many other inland towns will bematerially affected, as by the enlargement of the Rideau branches atGrenville, &c. And the La Chine Canal to the required ship navigationsize, Kingston must no longer hope for the unshipment of bulky goodsand the forwarding trade on which she so mainly depends; a glance atthe forwarding business done by the Erie Canal to New York on theAmerican side, and that by the Welland, St. Lawrence, and Rideau onthe Canadian, being quite sufficient to prove that all the energies ofthe Canadians are required to compete with their rivals. And for thispurpose I cite an extract from a circular put forth by the Free TradeAssociation of Montreal, which contains a good deal of sound reasoningon this subject, amidst, of course, much party feeling on the FreeTrade principle. 

"We now proceed, in the development of our plan, to show theincalculable advantages that will result to Canadian commerce and thecarrying trade, by removing all duties and restrictions from Americanproduce. 

"First, we shall show the amount of produce collected annually on theshores of our great island waters, and brought to this city fordistribution to the various markets of consumption; next, the vastquantity that passes through the Erie Canal, seeking a market at NewYork and other American ports; and, lastly, we shall show that it isin the power of Canada to divert a large share of this latter tradethrough her own waters, if her people and legislature will promptlygive effect to the liberal and enlarged policy which it is the objectof this Association to advocate and urge. 

 "NO. 1. --SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF PRODUCE BROUGHT BY THE ST. LAWRENCE TO THE CITY OF MONTREAL, IN THE YEAR 1845:--

 "Pork, 6, 109 barrels; beef, 723 barrels; lard, 460 kegs; flour, 590, 305 barrels; wheat, 450, 209 bushels; other grain, 40, 781 bushels; ashes, 33, 000 barrels; butter, 8, 112 kegs. 

 "NO. 2. --SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF PRODUCE CARRIED THROUGH THE ERIE CANAL IN THE YEAR 1844:--

 "Pork, 63, 646 barrels; beef, 7, 699 barrels; lard, 3, 064, 800 lbs. ; flour, 2, 517, 250 barrels; wheat, 1, 620, 033 bushels; corn, 35, 803 bushels; flax-seed, 8, 303, 960 lbs. ; ashes, 80, 646 barrels. 

"From the foregoing statements it will be seen that the quantitycarried through the latter channel is enormous as compared with theformer. It becomes then a question of vital importance whether aportion of this trade can be attracted through the St. Lawrence. Webelieve that it can, because the cheapest conveyance to the seaboardand to the manufacturing districts of New England must win the prize;and who will deny that the securing of this prize is not worth bothour best and united exertions?

"The cheapening of the means of transit is the great object to beobtained; and our best practical authorities are firmly of opinionthat the St. Lawrence will be made the cheapest route, as soon as ourchain of inland improvements is rendered complete. They affirm thatthe cost of transporting a barrel of flour from Detroit to Montrealwill not exceed 1s. 6d. To 1s. 9d. The difficulty will then beto secure a port of constant access to the sea, and that difficultywill be overcome by the early completion of the projected Portlandrailway: a road that will place us within a day's journey of thatcity, the harbour of which may be made the safest and cheapest on thecontinent of America. By that route we shall avoid the occasionaldangers and inconveniencies of the St. Lawrence, from Montrealoutwards, practically secure a long season for trade in the fall ofthe year, and safely reckon on freights to Liverpool as low as thosefrom New York. But what is equally important to the transit trade toEngland is this: that by rendering our charges cheaper than thosethrough the Erie Canal to Boston, we shall secure the transit trade tothat great city, and all other eastern markets, as well as thesupplying of our sister colonies, commonly known as the Lower Ports. This picture may appear too flattering to those who have notinvestigated the subject; but to such we say, examination willconvince them that, with the St. Lawrence as a highway, and Portlandas an outlet to the sea, we shall be enabled, successfully, tostruggle for the mighty trade of the West, and bid defiance tocompetition on the more artificial route of the Erie Canal. But thereis no time for slumbering; inactivity, at this crisis, would be fatalto our hopes; even the very produce of Western Canada may be carried, in spite of us, through American channels, unless we immediately carryout the completion of our own. 

"We may here also remind the Canadian farmer, at whatever place he maybe situated, that every saving effected in the means of bringing hisproduce to market adds in the same degree to the value of his wheatand every other marketable product of the soil he cultivates. --Andhere it may not be out of place to add that, repudiating all sectionalproceedings, we seek no advantage for classes, no peculiar advantagefor Montreal over other parts of the province; we advocate, on thecontrary, the general interests of producers and consumers--thegeneral welfare of the community. "

People of enlarged views in Canada do not, however, fancy, with theanti-free-traders, that Sir Robert Peel's measures will prove so verydestructive to colonial interests; on the contrary, they clearly seethat new energies will be called into operation, and that Canada willbe opened by railroads, and no longer monopolized by extensivelandholders of waste and unprofitable forests. 

Having now arrived at the termination of this volume, I have only toadd that, if a war is forced upon Great Britain by the United States, the British dominion here will be sustained without flinching; andthat the old English aspiration of the militia will be

 FOR THE HONOUR AND GLORY OF BRITAIN, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

THE END. 

F. Shoberl, Jun. , Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, 51, Rupert Street, Haymarket.