 CHAPTER XIV. The increasing interest which attaches to this noble colony fully justifies me in devoting a chapter to a fuller account of its state and capabilities than has yet been given here. Canada extends from Gaspe, on the gulfs of St. Lawrence, to Lake Superior. Its shores are washed by the lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and by the river St. Lawrence as far as the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. From thence the river flows through the centre of the province to the sea. Canada is bounded on the west and south by the Great Lakes and the United States, to the east by New Brunswick and the ocean, and to the north by the Hudson's Bay Territory, though its limits in this direction are by no means accurately defined. Canada is but a small portion of the vast tract of country known under the name of British America, the area of which is a ninth part of the globe and is considerably larger than that of the United States, being 2,630,163,200 acres. Canada contains 19,939,000 occupied acres of land, only 7,300,000 of which are cultivated, and about 137 million acres are still unoccupied. Nearly the whole of this vast territory was originally covered with forests, and from the more distant lumber districts still forms the most profitable article of export, but wherever the land is cleared it is found to be fertile in an uncommon degree. But in the neighbourhood of Lake Superior, mineral treasures of great value have been discovered to abound. Very erroneous ideas prevail in England on the subject of the Canadian climate. By many persons it is supposed that the country is forever locked in regions of thick ribbed ice, and that skating and slaying are a favourite summer diversions of the inhabitants. Yet on the contrary, lower Canada, or that part of the country nearest to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, has a summer nearly equaling in heat those of tropical climates. Its winter is long and severe, frequently lasting from the beginning of December until April. But if the thermometer stands at 35 degrees below zero in January, it marks 90 degrees in the shade in June. In the neighbourhood of Quebec the cold is not much exceeded by that within the polar circle, but the dryness of the air is so great that it is now strongly recommended for those of consumptive tendencies. I have seen a wonderful effect produced in the early stages of pulmonary disorders by a removal from the damp, variable climate of Europe to the dry, bracing atmosphere of lower Canada. Spring is scarcely known. The transition from winter to summer is very rapid, but the autumn or fall is a long and very delightful season. It is not necessary to dwell further upon the lower Canadian climate, as owing to circumstances hereafter to be explained, few immigrants in any class of life make the lower province more than a temporary resting place. From the eastern coast to the western boundary the variations in climate are very considerable. The peninsula of Canada West enjoys a climate as mild as that of the state of New York. The mean temperature, taken from ten years observation, was 44 degrees, and the thermometer rarely falls lower than 11 degrees below zero while the heat in summer is not oppressive. The peach and vine mature their fruit in the neighbourhood of Lake Ontario, and tobacco is very successfully cultivated in the peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Huron. It seems that Upper Canada, free from the extremes of heat and cold, is intended to receive a European population. Immigrants require to become acclimatised, which they generally are by an attack of ag, more or less severe, but the country is extremely healthy, with the exception of occasional visitations of cholera, epidemic diseases are unknown, and the climate is very favourable to the duration of human life. The capabilities of Canada are only now beginning to be appreciated. It has been principally known for its vast exports of timber, but these constitute a very small part of its wealth. By soil and climate, Upper Canada is calculated to afford a vast and annually increasing field for agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Wheat, barley, potatoes, turnips, maize, hops, and tobacco can all be grown in perfection. Canada already exports large quantities of wheat and flour of a very superior description, and it is stated that in no country of the world is there so much wheat grown in proportion to the population and the area under cultivation, as in that part of the country west of Kingston. The grain-growing district is almost without limit, extending as it does along the St. Lawrence, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario to Windsor, with a vast expanse of country to the north and west. The hops, which are an article of recent cultivation, are of very superior quality, and have hitherto been perfectly free from blight. Fast as are the capabilities of Canada for agricultural pursuits, she also offers great facilities for the employment of capital and manufacturing industry, though it is questionable whether it is desirable to divert labour into these channels in a young country where it is dear and scarce. The streams which intersect the land afford an unlimited and very economical source of power, and have already been used to considerable extent. Lower Canada and the shores of the Ottawa afford enormous supplies of white pine, and the districts about Lake Superior contain apparently inexhaustible quantities of ore, which yields a very large percentage of copper. We have thus in Canada about fourteen hundred miles of territory, perhaps the most fertile and productive ever brought under the hands of the cultivator, and as though Providence had especially marked out this portion of the New World as a field for the enterprise of the European races, its natural facilities for transit and communication are nearly unequaled. The Upper Lakes, the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the Saginae besides many rivers of lesser note, are so many natural highways for the conveyance of produce of every description from the most distant parts of the interior to the Atlantic Ocean. Without these natural facilities Canada could never have progressed to the extraordinary extent which she has already done. Great disease advantages are they have been further increased by British energy and enterprise. By means of ship canals formed to avoid the obstructions to navigation caused by the rapids of the St. Lawrence, Niagara, and the Sault Ste. Marie, small vessels can load at Liverpool and discharge their cargoes on the most distant shores of Lake Superior. On the Welland Canal alone, which connects Lake Geary with Lake Ontario, the tolls taken in 1853 amounted to more than 65,000 pounds. In the same year 19,631 passengers and 1,075,218 tons of shipping passed through it. The traffic on the other canals is in light proportion and is monthly on the increase. But an extensive railway system to facilitate direct communication with the Atlantic at all seasons of the year is paving the way for a further and rapid development of the resources of Canada and for a vast increase in her material prosperity. Already the Great Western Company has formed a line from Windsor opposite Detroit, U.S., to Toronto passing through the important towns of Hamilton, London, and Woodstock. A branch also connects Toronto with Lake Simcoe opening up the very fertile tract of land in that direction. Another railway extends from Fort Erie opposite Buffalo to Goderick on Lake Huron, a distance of 158 miles. A portion of the Grand Trunk Railway has recently been opened and trains now regularly run between Quebec and Montreal, a distance of 186 miles. When this magnificent railway is completed it will connect the cities of Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto where joining the Great Western Scheme the whole of Upper and Lower Canada will be connected with the Great Lakes and the western states of the neighboring Republic. The main line will cross the St. Lawrence, Montreal by a tubular bridge two miles in length. The Grand Trunk Railway will have its eastern terminus at Portland in the state of Maine between which city and Liverpool there will be regular weekly communication. This railway is, however, embarrassed by certain financial difficulties which may retard for a time the completion of the gigantic underdaking. Another railway connects the important city of Ottawa with Prescott on the River St. Lawrence and has its terminus opposite to the Ogdensburg Station of the Boston Railway. Besides these there are numerous branches completed or in course of construction which will open up the industry of the whole of the interior. Some of these lines particularly the Great Western have a large traffic already and promise to be very successful speculations. The facilities for communication and for the transit of produce are among the most important of the advantages which Canada holds out to immigrants but there are others which must not be overlooked. The healthiness of the climate has been already remarked upon but it is an important consideration as the bracing atmosphere and freedom from diseases allow to the hearty adventurer the free exercise of his vigor and strength. Communication with England is becoming increasingly regular. During the summer months screw steamers and sailing vessels ply between Liverpool and Quebec from whence there is a cheap and easy water communication with the district's bordering on the Great Lakes. From Quebec to Windsor a distance of nearly 1,000 miles passengers are conveyed for the sum of 31 shillings and have the advantage of having their baggage under their eyes during the whole journey. The demand for labour in all parts of Canada West is great and increasing. The wages of farm servants are four pounds per month with board. Day labourers can earn from four to five shillings per diem and in harvest ten shillings without board. The wages of carpenters and other skilled workmen vary according to their abilities but they range between seven shillings and twelve shillings six pence per diem taking these as the highest and lowest prices. The cost of living is considerably below that in this country for crockery, cutlery, etc. 50% advance on home retail prices is paid and for clothing 50 to 75% addition on old country prices if the articles are not of Canadian manufacturer. The cost of a comfortable log house with two floors 16 feet by 24 is about 18 pounds but it must be borne in mind that very little expenditure is needed on the part of the settler. His house and barns are generally built by himself with the assistance of his neighbors and a man with the slightest ingenuity or powers of imitation can also fabricate at a most trifling expense the few articles of household furniture needed at first. I have been in several log houses where the bedsteads, tables, and chairs were all the work of the settlers themselves at a cost probably of a few shillings and though the workmanship was rough yet the articles answer perfectly well for all practical purposes. Persons of industrious habits going out as workmen to Canada speedily acquire comfort and independence. I have seen settlers who went out within the last eight years as day laborers now the owners of substantial homesteads with the requisite quantity of farming stock. Canada West is also a most desirable locality for persons of intelligence who are possessed of a small capital. Along the Great Lakes and in the interior there are large tracts of land yet unoccupied. The price of wild land varies from ten shillings to ten pounds per acre according to the locality. Cleared farms with good buildings and the best townships are worth from between ten pounds to fifteen pounds an acre. These prices refer to the lands belonging to the Canada land company. The crowned lands sell at prices varying from four shillings to seven shillings sixpence per acre but the localities of these lands are not so desirable in most instances. The price of clearing wild lands is about four pounds five shillings per acre but in many locations particularly near the railways the sale of the timber covers the expense of clearing. As has been previously observed the soil and climate of Upper Canada are favorable to a great variety of crops. Wheat however is probably the most certain and profitable and with respect to cereals and other crops the produce of the land per acre is not less than an England. In addition to tobacco flags and hemp are occupying the attention of the settlers and as an annually increasing amount of capital is employed in factories these last are likely to prove very profitable. In addition to the capabilities of the soil Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay present extensive resources in the way of fish and their borders are peculiarly desirable locations for the immigrant population of the west of Ireland and the west highlands of Scotland. With such very great advantages it is not surprising that the tide of immigration should set increasingly towards this part of the British Dominions. The following is a statement of the number of persons who landed at Quebec during the last five years. The immigration returns for 1855 will probably show a very considerable increase. 1850, 32,292, 1851, 41,076, 1852, 39,176, 1853, 36,699, 1854, 53,183. It may be believed that the greater number of these persons are now enjoying a plenty many an affluence which their utmost exertions could not have attained for them at home. Wherever a farmstead surrounded by well cleared acres is seen it is more than probable that the occupant is also the owner. The value of land increases so rapidly that persons who originally bought their land in its wild state for four shillings per acre have made handsome fortunes by disposing of it. In Canada the farmer holds a steady and certain position. If he saves money a hundred opportunities will occur for him to make a profitable investment. But if, as is more frequently the case, he is not rich as far as money is concerned, he has all the comforts and luxuries which it could procure. His land is ever increasing in value and in the very worst seasons or under accidental circumstances of an unfavorable nature he can never know real poverty, which is a deficiency in the necessaries of life. But in Canada as in the old world people who wish to attain competence or wealth must toil hard for it. In Canada, with all its capabilities and advantages, there is no royal road to riches, no Midas touch to turn everything into gold. The primal curse still holds good, though softened into mercy and those who emigrate expecting to work less hard for five shillings a day than at home for one shilling sixpence will be miserably disappointed, for where high wages are given hard work is required. Those must also be disappointed who expect to live in style from off the produce of a small Canadian farm, and those whose imaginary dignity revolts from plough, and spade, and hoe, and those who invest borrowed capital in farming operations. The fields of the slothful in Canada bring forth thorns and thistles, as his fields brought them forth in England. Idleness is absolute ruin, and drunkenness carries with it worse evils than at home, for the practice of it entails a social ostracism, as well as total ruin upon the immigrant and his family. The same conditions of success are required as in England, honesty, sobriety and industry, with these assisted by all the advantages which Canada possesses, although there is always enough of difficulty to moderate the extravagance of exaggerated expectations. The Government of Canada demands a few remarks. Within the last few years the position of this colony with respect to England has been greatly changed by measures which have received the sanction of the Imperial Parliament. In 1847 the Imperial Government abandoned all control over the Canadian tariff, and the colonial legislature now exercises supreme power over customs duties, and all matters of general and local taxation. This was a very important step, and gave a vast impulse to the prosperity of Canada. The colony now has all the advantages, free from a few of the inconveniences of being an independent country. England retains the right of nominating the Governor-General, and the Queen has the power, rarely if ever exercised, of putting a veto upon certain acts of the colonial legislature. England conducts all matters of war and diplomacy, and provides a regular military establishment for the defence of Canada. And though she is neither required to espouse our quarrels, or bear any portion of our burdens, we should be compelled to espouse hers in any question relating to her honour or integrity, at a lavish expenditure of blood and treasure. It appears that the present relations in which Canada stands to England are greatly to her advantage, and there is happily no desire on her part to sever them. The Governor-General is appointed by the Crown, generally for a term of five years, but is paid by the province. He acts as Viceroy, and his assent to the measures of the legislature is required, in order to render them valid. His Executive Council, composed of the ministers of the day, is analogous to our English Cabinet. The Governor, like our own sovereign, must bow to the will of a majority in the legislature, and dismiss his ministers when they lose the confidence of that body. The second estate is the Legislative Council. The Governor, with the advice of his ministry, appoints the members of this body. They are chosen for life, and their number is unrestricted. At present there are about forty members. The functions of this council are very similar to those of our House of Lords, and consist to a great extent in registering the decrees of the lower house. The third estate is denominated the House of Assembly, and consists of one hundred and thirty members, or sixty-five for each province. The qualification for the franchise has been placed tolerably high, and no doubt wisely, as in the absence of a better guarantee for the right use of it, a property qualification, however trifling in amount, has a tendency to elevate the tone of electioneering, and to enhance the value which is attached to a vote. The qualification for electors is a fifty-pound freehold, or an annual rent of seven pounds ten shillings. Contrary to the practice in the states, where large numbers of the more respectable portion of the community abstain from voting, in Canada the votes are nearly all recorded at every election, and the fact that the franchise is within the reach of every sober man gives an added stimulus to industry. The attempt to establish British constitutional government on the soil of the New World is an interesting experiment, and has yet to be tested. There are various disturbing elements in Canada, of which we have little experience in England, the principal one being the difficulty of legislating between what, in spite of the union, are two distinct nations of different races and religions. The impossibility of reconciling the rival and frequently adverse claims of the upper and lower provinces has become a very embarrassing question. The strong social restraints and the generally high tone of public feeling in England, which exercise a powerful control over the minister of the day, do not at present exist in Canada. Neither has the public mind that nice perception of moral truth which might be desired. The population of Upper Canada, more specially, has been gathered for many parts of the earth, and is composed of men, generally speaking, without education, whose sole aim is the acquisition of wealth and who are not cemented by any common ties of nationality. Under these circumstances and bearing in mind the immense political machinery in which the papacy can set to work in Canada, the transfer of British institutions to the colony must at present remain a matter of problematical success. It is admitted that the failure of representative institutions arises from the unworthiness of constituencies, and if the efforts which are made by means of education to elevate the character of the next generation of electors should prove fruitless, it is probable that, with the independence of the colony, American institutions with their objectionable features would follow. At present the great difficulties to be surmounted lie in the undue power possessed by the French Roman Catholic population, and the Romanist influences brought to bear successfully on the government. There is in Canada no direct taxation for national purposes, except a mere trifle for the support of the provincial lunatic asylums, and for some other public buildings. The provincial revenue is derived from customs duties, public works, crown lands, excise, and bank impost. The customs duties last year came into one million one hundred thousand pounds, the revenue from public works to one hundred twenty three thousand pounds, from lands about the same sum, from excise about forty thousand pounds, and from the tax on the current notes of the banks thirty thousand pounds. Every county, township, or town, or incorporated village, elects its own council, and all local objects are provided for by direct taxation through these bodies. In these municipalities the levying of the local taxes is vested, and they administer the monies collected for roads, bridges, schools, and improvements, and the local administration of public justice. According to the census taken in 1851 the population of Upper Canada was nine hundred fifty two thousand, being an increase since 1842 of four hundred sixty five thousand nine hundred forty five. That of Lower Canada amounted to eight hundred ninety thousand, making a total of one million eight hundred forty two thousand, but if to this we add the number of persons who have immigrated within the last four years, we have a population of two million twelve thousand one hundred thirty four. Of the population of Lower Canada, six hundred sixty nine thousand are of French origin. These people speak the French language and profess the Romish faith. The land is divided into signuries, there are feudal customs and antiquated privileges, and the laws are based upon the model of those of old France. The progress of Lower Canada is very tardy. The French have never made good colonists and the Romish religion acts as a drag upon social and national progress. The habitants of the lower province, though moral and amiable, are not ambitious and hold their ancient customs with a tenacity which opposes itself to their advancement. The various changes in the tariff made by the imperial government affected Lower Canada very seriously. On comparing the rate of increase in the population of the two provinces in the same twelve years, we find that for Upper Canada it was one hundred and thirty percent. For Lower Canada only thirty four percent. The disparity between the population and the wealth of the two provinces is annually on the increase. The progress of Upper Canada is something perfectly astonishing and bids fair to rival if not exceed that of her gigantic neighbor. Her communication between the Lake District and the Atlantic is practically more economical, taking the whole of the year, and as British emigration has tended chiefly to the upper province, the population is of a more homogenous character than that of the state. The climate also is more favourable than that of Lower Canada. These circumstances, combined with the inherent energy of the Anglo-Saxon races which have principally colonised it, account in great measure for the vast increase in the material prosperity of the upper province as compared with the lower. In eighteen-thirty the population of Upper Canada was two hundred ten thousand souls. In eighteen-forty-two, four hundred eighty-six thousand, and in eighteen-fifty one it had reached nine hundred fifty-two thousand. Its population is now supposed to exceed that of Lower Canada by three hundred thousand. It increased in nine years about one hundred percent. In addition to the large number of emigrants who have arrived by way of Quebec, it has received a considerable accession of population from the United States. Seven thousand persons crossed the frontier in eighteen-fifty-four. The increase of its wealth is far more than commensurate with that of its population. The first returns of the accessible property of Upper Canada were taken in eighteen-twenty-five, and its amount was estimated at one million eight hundred fifty-five thousand pounds. In eighteen-forty-five it was estimated at six million three hundred ninety-three thousand pounds, but in seven years after this in eighteen-fifty-two it presents a astonishing amount of thirty-seven million six hundred ninety-six thousand pound. The wheat crop of Upper Canada in eighteen-forty-one was three million two hundred twenty-two thousand bushels, and in eighteen-fifty-one it was twelve million six hundred ninety three thousand, but the present year eighteen-fifty-five will show a startling and almost incredible increase. In addition to the wealth gained in the cultivation of the soil the settlers are seizing upon the vast water power which the country affords and are turning it to the most profitable purposes. Sawmills, grist mills, and woollen mills start up in every direction in addition to tool and machinery factories, iron foundries, asheries, and tanneries. Towns are everywhere springing up as if by magic along the new lines of railway and canal, and the very villages of Upper Canada are connected by the electric telegraph. The value of land is everywhere increasing as new lines of communication are formed. The town of London in Upper Canada presents a very remarkable instance of rapid growth. It is surrounded by a very rich agricultural district and the great western railway passes through it. Seven years ago this place was a miserable looking town of between two and three thousand inhabitants. Now it is a flourishing town, alive with business and has a population of thirteen thousand souls. The increase in the value of property in its vicinity will appear almost incredible to English readers, but it is stated on the best authority, a building site sold in September 1855 for one hundred and fifty pounds per foot, which ten years ago could have been bought for that price per acre, and ten years earlier for as many pence. In Upper Canada there appears to be at the present time very little of that state of society which is marked by hard struggles and lawless excesses. In every part of my travels west of Toronto I found a high degree of cultural comfort, security, to life and property, the means for education and religious worship and all the accessories of a high state of civilization, which are the advances brought into every locality almost simultaneously with the clearing of the land. Yet it is very apparent, even to the casual visitor that the progress of Canada west has only just begun. No limits can be assigned to its future prosperity and as its capabilities become more known increasing the numbers of stout hearts and strong arms will be attracted towards it. The immense resources of the soil under cultivation have not yet been developed. The settlers are prodigal of land and a great portion of the occupied territory, destined to bear the most luxuriant crops is still in bush. The magnificent districts adjoining Lake Huron, the Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe are only just being brought into notice and of the fertile valley of the Ottawa which it is estimated would support a population of nine millions, very little is known. Every circumstance that can be brought forward combines to show that Upper Canada is destined to become a great, a wealthy and a prosperous country. The census gives some interesting tables relating to the origins of the inhabitants of Canada. I wish that I had space to present my readers with the whole instead of with this brief extract. Canadians, French origin 695,000. Canadians, English origin 651,000. England and Wales 93,000. Scotland 90,000. Ireland 227,000. United States 56,000. Germany 10,000. Besides these there are 8,000 coloured persons and 14,000 Indians in Canada and immigrants from every civilised country in the world. As far as regards the Church of England, Canada is divided into three dioceses, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, with a prospect of the creation of a fourth, that of Kingston. The clergy whose duties are very arduous and ill- requited have been paid by the society for propagating the Gospel and out of the proceeds of the clergy reserves. The society has in great measure withdrawn its support and recent legislative enactments have a tendency to place the Church of England in Canada to some extent on the voluntary system. The inhabitants of Canada are fully able to support any form of worship to which they may choose to attach themselves. Trinity College at Toronto is in close connection with the Church of England. The Roman Catholics have enormous endowments, including a great part of the island of Montreal and several valuable seniories. Very large sums are also received by them from those who enter the convents and for baptism, spirals and masses for the dead. The enslaving, intervading and retarding effects of Roman Catholicism are nowhere better seen than in Lower Canada where the priests exercised a spotic authority. They have numerous and wealthy conventional establishments both at Quebec and Montreal and several Jesuit and other seminaries. The Irish immigrants constitute the great body of Romanists in Upper Canada. In the Lower Province there are more than 746,000 adherents to this faith. The Presbyterians are a very respectable, influential and important body in Canada, bound firmly together by their uniformity of worship and doctrine. Through an Episcopalian form of church government and a form of worship are as obnoxious to them as at home, their opposition seldom amounts to hostility. Generally speaking, they are very friendly in their intercourse with the zealous and hardworking clergy of the Church of England, and, indeed, the comparative absence of sectarian feeling and the way in which the ministers of all denominations act in harmonious combination for the general good is one of the most pleasing features that are connected with religion in Canada. In Upper Canada there are 1559 churches for 952,000 adherents, being one place of worship for every 612 inhabitants. Of these, 226 are Church of England, 135 to Roman Catholics, 148 to the Presbyterians, and 471 to the Methodists. In Lower Canada there are 610 churches for 890,000 adherents, 746,000 of whom are Roman Catholics. There is therefore in the Lower Province one place of worship for every 1459 inhabitants. These religious statistics furnish additional proof of the progress of Upper Canada. The numbers adhering to the five most important denominations are as follows. Roman Catholics 914,000. Episcopalians 268,000. Presbyterians 237,000. Methodists 183,000. Baptists 49,000. Besides these there are more than 20 sects, some of them holding the most extravagant and fanatical tenants. In the Lower Province there are 45,000 persons belonging to the Church of England, 33,000 are Presbyterians, and 746,000 are Roman Catholics. With this vast number of Romanists in Canada it is not surprising that under the present system of representation which gives an equal number of representatives to each province, irrespective of population, the Roman Catholics should exercise a very powerful influence on the colonial parliament. More importance is attached generally to education in Upper Canada than might have been supposed from the extreme deficiencies of the first settlers. A national system of education on a most liberal scale has been organized by the legislature which presents in unfavorable contrast the feeble and isolated efforts acting on the principle that the first duty of government is to provide for the education of its subjects a uniform and universal educational system has been put into force in Canada. This system of public instruction is founded on the cooperation of the executive government with the local municipalities. The members of these cooperations are elected by the freeholders and householders. The system therefore is strictly popular and national as the people voluntarily tax themselves for its support and through their elected trustees manage the schools themselves. It is probable that the working of this plan may exercise a beneficial influence on the minds of the people in training them to thought for their offspring as regards their best interest. No compulsion whatever is exercised by the legislature over the proceedings of the local municipalities. It merely offers a pecuniary grant on the condition of local exertion. The children of every class of the population have equal access to these schools and there is no compulsion upon the religious space of any. There are in Upper Canada 3,127 common schools about 1,800 of which are free or partially free. The total amount available for school purposes in 1853 amounted to nearly 200,000 pounds a magnificent sum considering the youth and comparatively thin population of the country. The total number in the same year was 194,000. But though this number appears large the painful fact must also be stated that there were 79,000 children destitute of the blessings of education of any kind. The whole number of teachers at the same period was 3,539. The inspection of schools which is severe and systematic is conducted by local superintendents appointed by the different municipalities. There is a board of public instruction in each county for the examination and licensing of teachers. The standard of their qualifications is fixed by provincial authority. At the head of the whole are a council public instruction and a chief commissioner of schools both appointed by the crown. There are several colleges very much on the system of the Scotch universities including Trinity College at Toronto in connection with the Church of England and Noxus College a Presbyterian theological seminary. There are also medical colleges both in Upper Canada and a chair of agriculture has been established at University College Toronto. From these statements it will be seen that from the ample provision made a good education can be obtained at a very small cost. There are in Lower Canada upwards of 1100 schools. Every town and I believe I may with truth write every village has its daily and weekly papers advocating all shades of political opinion. The press in Canada is the medium people receive first by telegraphic dispatch and later in full every item of English intelligence brought by the bi-weekly males. Taking the newspapers as a whole they are far more gentlemanly in their tone than those of the neighbouring republic and perhaps are not more abusive and personal than some of our English provincial papers. There is however very great room for improvement and no doubt as the national pallet becomes improved by education the morsels presented to it will be more choice. Quebec, Montreal and Toronto have each of them several daily papers but as far as I am aware no paper openly pervesses republicanism or annexationist views and some of the journals advocate in the strongest manner an attachment to British institutions. The prices of these papers vary from a penny to three pence each and a workman would as soon think of depriving himself of his breakfast as of his morning journal. It is stated that thousands of the newspapers to the newspapers are so illiterate as to depend upon their children from knowledge of their contents. At present few people comparatively speaking are more than half educated. The knowledge of this fact lowers the tone of the press and circumscribes both authors and speakers as any allusions to history or general literature would be very imperfectly if at all understood. The merchants and lawyers of Canada have if of British extraction generally received a sound and useful education which together with the admirable way in which they keep paced with the politics and literature of Europe enables them to pass very creditably in any society. There are very good bookstores in Canada particularly at Toronto where the best English works are to be purchased for little more than half the price which is paid for them at home and these are largely read by the educated Canadians who frequently possess excellent libraries. Cheap American novels often of a very objectionable tendency are largely circulated among the lower classes but to provide them with literature of a better character large libraries have been formed by local efforts. Assisted by government grants Canada as yet possesses no literature of her own and the literary man is surrounded by difficulties independently of the heavy task of addressing himself to uneducated minds unable to appreciate depth of thought and beauty of language it is not likely that where the absorbing passion is the acquisition of wealth much encouragement would be given to the struggles of native talent. Canada young as she is has made great progress in the mechanical arts and some of her machinery and productions make a very creditable show at the Paris exhibition but it must be born in mind that this is due to the government rather than to the enterprise of private exhibitors. Taken together there is perhaps no country in the world so prosperous Canada after giving full weight to the disadvantages which she possesses in an unsettled state of society and a mixed and imperfectly educated people. It is the freest land under the sun acknowledging neither a despotic sovereign nor a tyrant populace life and property are alike secure liberty has not yet degenerated into lawlessness the constitution combines the advantages of the monarchical and republican forms of government the legislative assembly to a great extent represents the people religious toleration is enjoyed in the fullest degree taxation and debt which cripple the energies and excite the desaffectation of older communities are unfelt the slave flying from bondage in the south knows no sense of liberty or security till he finds both on the banks of the St. Lawrence under the shadow of the British flag free from the curse of slavery Canada has started untrammeled in the race of nations and her progress already bids fair to outstrip in rapidity that of her older and gigantic neighbor labor is what she requires and as if to meet that requirement circumstances have directed the attention of immigrants towards her the young the enterprising and the vigorous are daily leaving the wasted shores of Scotland in Ireland for her fertile soil where the laws of England shall protect them and her flag shall still wave over them large numbers of persons are now leaving the northeast of Scotland for Canada and these are among the most valuable of the immigrants who seek her shores they carry with them the high moral sense the integrity and the loyalty which characterize them at home and in many cases more than this the religious principle and godliness which has the promise of life which now is and of that which is to come taken as a whole the inhabitants of both provinces are attached to England and England's rule they receive the news of our reverses with sorrow and our victories create bursts of enthusiasm from the shores of the St Lawrence to those of Lake Superior as might be expected the Anglo-French alliance is extremely popular to show the sympathy of Canada the legislature made the munificent grant of twenty thousand pounds to be divided between the patriotic funds of both nations and every township and village has contributed to swell a further sum of thirty thousand pounds to be applied to the same object the imperial garrisons in Canada have recently been considerably diminished and with perfect safety the efforts of agitators to produce de-saffectation have signally failed and it is stated by those best acquainted with the temper of the people that Canada will not become a separate country except by England's Voluntary Act at present every obstacle to her further development seems to be removed her constitution has been remodeled within the last few years on an enlarged and liberal basis her religious endowments have been placed on a permanent footing all the points likely to cause a rupture with the United States have been amicably settled and important commercial advantages have been obtained the sun of prosperity shines upon her from the Gulf of St Lawrence to the distant shores of the Ottawa and the western lakes she requires only for the future the blessings of God so freely accorded to the nations which honor him to make her great and powerful the future of nations as of individuals is specifically veiled in mystery we can trace the rise and progress of empires but we know not the time when they shall droop and decay when the wealthy and populous cities of the present shall be numbered with the Nineveh and Babylon of the past it may be that in future years our mighty nations shall go the way of all that have been before it but whether the wise decrees of providence doom it to flourish or decline we can still look with confident hope to this noble colony in the new world our enlightened and happy shores under the influence of beneficent institutions and of a scriptural faith the Anglo-Saxon race may renew the vigour of its youth and realize in time to come the brightest hopes which have been formed of England in the new world. CHAPTER XV It has been truly observed that a reliable book on the United States yet remains to be written. The writer of such a volume must neither be a tourist nor a temporary resident. He must spend years in the different states nicely estimating the different characteristics of each as well as the broadly marked shades of difference between east, west, and south. He must trace the effect of republican principles upon the various races which form this vast community and while analyzing the prosperity of the country he must carefully distinguish between the real, the fictitious and the speculative. In England we speak of America as Brother Jonathan in the singular number without any fraternal feeling, however, and consider it as one nation possessing uniform distinguishing characteristics. I saw less difference between Edinburgh and Boston than between Boston and Chicago. The dark haired Celts of the west of Scotland and the stirring artisans of our manufacturing cities have more in common than the descendants of the Puritans in New England and the reckless, lawless inhabitants of the newly settled territories west of the Mississippi. It must not be forgotten that the thirty-two states of which the Union is composed may be considered in some degree as separate countries, each possessing its Governor and Assembly and framing to a considerable extent its own laws. Beyond the voice which each state possesses in the Congress and Senate at Washington, there is apparently little to bind this vast community together. There is no national form of religion or state endowed church. Unitarianism may be the prevailing faith in one state, Presbyterianism in another, and Universalism in a third, while between the northern and southern states there is as wide a difference as between England and Russia, a difference stamped on the very soil itself and which, in the opinion of some, threatens a disseverance of the Union. Other causes also produce highly distinctive features in the inhabitants. In the long settled districts bordering upon the Atlantic, all the accomplishments and appliances of civilization may be met with, and a comparatively stationary, refined and intellectual condition of society. Travel for forty hours to the westward and everything is in a transitional state. There are rough roads and unfinished railroads, foundations of cities laid in soil scarcely cleared from the forest. Splendid hotels within sound of the hunter's rifle and the lumberer's axe, while the elements of society are more chaotic than the features of the country. Every year a tide of immigration rolls westward, not from Europe only, but from the crowded eastern cities, forming a tangled web of races, manners and religions which the hasty observer cannot attempt to disentangle. Yet there are many external features of uniformity which the traveler cannot fail to lay hold and which go under the general name of Americanisms. These are peculiarities of dress, manners and phraseology, and to some extent of opinion, and may be partly produced by the locomotive life which the American leads, and the way in which all classes are brought into contact in traveling. These peculiarities are not to be found among the highest or the highly educated classes, but they force themselves upon the tourists to a remarkable and frequently to a repulsive extent, and it is safer for him to narrate facts and comment upon externals, though in doing so he presents a very partial and superficial view of the people, than to present his readers with general inferences, drawn from partial premises, or with conclusions based upon imperfect and often erroneous data. An entire revolution had been affected in my way of looking at things since I landed on the shores of the New World. I had ceased to look for vestiges of the past, or for relics of ancient magnificence, and in place of these I now contemplated vast resources in a state of progressive and almost feverish development, and having become accustomed to a general absence of the picturesque had learned to look at the practical and the utilitarian with a high degree of interest and pleasure. The change from the lethargy and feudalism of lower Canada and the gaiety of Quebec to the activity of the New England population was very startling. It was not less so from the boastful manners and gentlemanly appearance of the English Canadians, and the vivacity and politeness of the French to Yankee dress, twang, and peculiarities. These appeared as the Americans say in full blast during the few hours which I spent on Lake Champlain. There were about a hundred passengers, including a sprinkling of the fairer sex. The amusements were storytelling, whittling, and smoking. Fully half the stories told began with, there was acute coon down east, and the burden of nearly all was some clever act of cheating, sucking a green horn as the phrase is. There were occasional anecdotes of bustings up on the southern rivers, making tracks from important creditors of practical jokes and glaring in positions. There was a great deal of liquoring up going on the whole time. The best storyteller was repeatedly called upon to liquor some, which was accordingly done by copious drafts of ginsling, but at last he declared he was a gone coon fairly stumped, by which he meant to express that he was tired and could do no more. This assertion was met by encouragements to pile on upon which the individual declared that he couldn't get his steam up, he was tired some. This word some is synonymous in its youth with our word rather, or its Yankee equivalent, kinder. On this occasion some one applied it to the boat, which he declared was all mighty dirty and shaky some—a great libel, by the way. The dress of these individuals somewhat amused me. The prevailing costumes of the gentlemen were straw hats, black dress coats remarkably shiny, tight pantalons, and pumps. These were worn by the salo narrators of the tales of successful roguery. There were a few hardy western men, habited in scarlet flannel shirts, and trousers tucked into high boots. Their garments supported by stout leather and belts, with dependent bowy knives. These told yarns of adventures and dangers from Indians, in the style of Colonel Crockett. The ladies wore their satin or kids' shoes of various colors, of which the mud had made woeful habit. The stories, which called forth the applause of the company in exact proportion to the bare-faced roguery and utter want of principle displayed in each, would not have been worth listening to had it not been from the extraordinary vernacular in which they were clothed, and the racy and emphatic manner of the narrators. Some of these voted three legs of their sluice, and balanced themselves on the fourth, while others hooked their feet on the top of the windows, and balanced themselves on the back legs of their chairs in a position strongly suggestive of hanging by the heels. One of the stories, which excited the most amusement, reads very tamely divested of the slang and manner of the storyteller. A cute chap down east had a two fifty black mare, one which could perform a mile in two minutes and fifty seconds, and being about to make tracks, he sold to a gentleman for three hundred and fifty dollars. In the night he stole her, cut her tail, painted her legs white, gave her a blaze on the face, sold her for a hundred dollars, and decamped, sending a note to the first purchaser acquainting him with the particulars of the transaction. Cute chap that, a wide-awake feller, that coon had cut his I.T., a smart sell that, where the comments made on this roguish transaction, all the sympathy of the listeners being on the side of the rogue. I have heard men openly boast before a miscellaneous company of acts of dishonesty which in England would have procured him transportation for them. Mammon is the idol which the people worship. The one desire is the acquisition of money. The most nefarious trickery and bold dishonesty are invested with a spurious dignity if they act as aids to the ear. Mammon is the idol which the people worship. The one desire is the acquisition of money. The most nefarious trickery and bold dishonesty are invested with a spurious dignity if they act as aids to the attainment of this object. Children from their earliest years imbibe the idea that sin is sin only when found out. The breakfast bell rang and a general rush took place and I was left alone with two young ladies who had just become acquainted and were resolutely bent upon finding out each other's likes and dislikes with the intention of vowing an eternal friendship. A gentleman who looked as if he had come out of a ballroom came up and with the girls addressed them, or the prettiest of them, thus. Miss, it's feeding time, I guess. What will you eat? You're very polite. What's the ticket? Chicken and corn fixings and pork with onion fixings. Well, I'm hungry some. I'll have some pig and fixings. The swain retired and brought a perfusion of viance which elicited the remark. Well, I guess that's substantial anyhow. The young lady's appetite seemed to be very good, for I heard the observation, well, you eat full blast, I guess. Guess I am, it's all fired cold, and I have been an everlasting long time off my feed. A long undertone conversation followed this interchange of civilities. When I heard the lady say, in rather elevated tones, you're trying to rile me some, you're piling it on a trifle too high. Well, I did want to put up your dander. Do tell now where was you raised? In Kentucky. I could have guessed that, wherever I sees a splendiferous gal, a kinder gentler goer, and a high stepper, I says to myself, that gal's from old Kentuck and no mistake. This couple carried on a long conversation in the same style of graceful bandage, but I have given enough of it. Lake Champlain is extremely pretty, though it is on rather too large a scale to please an English eye, being about one hundred and fifty miles long. The shores are gentle slopes, wooded and cultivated, with the green mountains of Vermont in the background. There was water, and the morning was so warm and showery, that I could have believed it to be an April day, had not the leafless trees told another tale. Whatever the boasted beauties of Lake Champlain were, they veiled themselves from English eyes in a thick fog, through which we steamed at half-speed, with a dismal fog-bell incessantly tolling. I landed at Burlington, a thriving modern town, prettily situated below some wooded hills, on a bay the margin of which is pure white sand. Here, as at nearly every town, great and small in the United States, there was an excellent hotel. No people have such confidence in the future as the Americans. You frequently find a splendid hotel surrounded by a few clapbird houses, and may feel inclined to smile at the incongruity. The builder looks into futurity and sees that in two years a thriving city will need hotel accommodation and seldom is he wrong. The American is a gregarious animal and it is not impossible that a hotel with a tabled oat may act as a magnet. Here I joined Mr. and Mrs. Alderson and traveled with them to Albany, through Vermont and New York. The country was hilly and more suited for sheep farming than for corn. Water privileges were abundant in the shape of picturesque torrents, and numerous mills turned their capabilities to profitable account. Our companions were rather of a low description, many of them Germans and desperate tobacco-chewers. The whole floor of the car was covered by a bunch of tobacco juice, apple cores, grape skins, and chestnut husks. We crossed the Hudson River and spent the night at DeLavals at Albany. The great peculiarity of this most comfortable hotel is that the fifty waiters are Irish girls, neatly and simply dressed. They are under a colored manager and their civility and alacrity made me wonder that the highly-paid services of male waiters were not more frequently dispensed with. The railway ran along the street and was situated. From my bedroom window I looked down into the funnel of a locomotive and all night long was serenaded with screams, ringing of bells and cries of all aboard and go ahead. Albany, the capital of the State of New York, is one of the prettiest towns in the Union. The slope on which it is built faces the Hudson and is crowned by a large State House, the place of meeting for the legislature of the Empire State. The Americans repudiate the principle and for wise reasons, of which the Irish form a considerable number, they almost invariably locate the government of each State, not at the most important or populist town, but at some inconsiderable place, where the learned legislatures are not in danger of having their embarrassments increased by deliberating under the coercion of a turbulent urban population. Albany has several public buildings and a number of conspicuous churches and is a very thriving place. The traffic on the river between it and New York is enormous. There is a perpetual stream of small vessels up and down. The Empire City receives its daily supplies of vegetables, meat, butter and eggs from its neighborhood. The eerie and Champlain canals here meet the Hudson and, through the former, the produce of the teaming west pours into the Atlantic. The traffic is carried in small sailing sloops and steamers. Sometimes a little screw vessel of fifteen or twenty tons may be seen to hurry, puffing and panting up to a large vessel and drag it down to the sea, but generally one paddle-tug takes six vessels down, four being towed behind and one or two lashed on either side. As both steamers and sloops are painted white and the sails are perfectly dazzling in their purity and twenty, thirty and forty of these flotillas may be seen in the course of a morning, the Hudson River presents a very animated and unique story. It is said that everybody loses a portmanteau at Albany, I was more fortunate and left it without having experienced the slightest annoyance. On the other side of the ferry a very undignified scramble takes place for the seats on the right side of the cars, as the scenery for one hundred and thirty miles is perfectly magnificent. Go ahead, rapidly succeeded all aboard, and we whizzed along this most extraordinary line of railway, so prolific an accident their friends frequently request them to notify their safe arrival at their destination. It runs along the very verge of the river, below a steep cliff, but often is supported just above the surface of the water upon a wooden platform. Guidebooks inform us that the trains which run on this line and the steamers which ply on the Hudson are equally unsafe, the former from collisions and upsets, the latter from busting us up, but most people prefer the boats from the advantage of seeing both the river. The sun of a November morning had just risen as I left Albany, and in a short time beaming upon swelling hills, green savannas and waving woods fringing the margin of the Hudson. At Coxsackie the river expands into a small lake, and the majestic Catskill Mountains rise abruptly from the western side. The scenery among these mountains is very grand and varied. Its silence and rugged sublimity recall the old world. It has rocky pinnacles and desert grasses, inaccessible eminences and yawning chasms. The world might grow populous at the feet of the Catskills, but it would leave them untouched and unperfamed in their stern majesty. From this point for a hundred miles the eyes of the traveller are perfectly steeped in beauty, which gathering and increasing culminates at West Point, a lofty eminence jutting upon a lake apparently without any outlet. The spurs of mountain ranges which meet here project in precipices from 1,500 feet in height. Trees find a place for their roots in every rift among the rocks, festoons of clematis and wild vine hanging in graceful drapery from base to summit, and the dark mountain shadows loom over the lake-like expanse below. The hand wearies of riding the loveliness of this river. I saw it on a perfect day. The Indian summer lingered, as though unwilling, that chilly blasts of winter should blight the loveliness of this beauty as seen. The river of autumn was not there, but its glories were on every leaf and twig. The bright scarlet of the maple vied with the brilliant berries of the rowan, and from among the tendrils of the creepers, which were waving in the size of the west wind, peeped forth the deep crimson of the sumac. There were very few signs of cultivation. The banks of the Hudson are barren in all but beauty. The river is a secession of small wild lakes, connected by narrow reaches, bound forever between abrupt precipices. There are lakes more beautyous than Loc Catrine, softer in their features than Loc Accre, though, like both, or like the waters which glitter beneath the blue sky of Italy. Along their margins the woods hung in scarlet and gold. High above towered the purple peaks. The blue waters flashed back the rays of a sun shining from an unclouded sky. The air was warm, like June, and, I think, the sunbeams of that day scarcely shown upon a sea scene. At midday the Highlands of Hudson were left behind. The mountains melted into hills. The river expanded into a noble stream about a mile wide. The scarlet woods, the silvery lakes, and the majestic Catskills faded away in the distance, and with a whoop and a roar and a clatter the cars entered into and proceeded at slack and speed down a long street called Tenth Avenue, among carts, children, and pigs. True enough we were in New York, a western receptacle not only of the traveler and the energetic merchant, but of the destitute, the friendless, the vagabond, and in short of all the outpourings of Europe, who here form a conglomerate mass of evil making America responsible for their vices and their crimes. Yet the usual signs of approach to an enormous city were awanting, dwarfed trees, market gardens, cockney arbors in which citizens smoked their pipes in the evening, and imagined themselves in Arcadia, rows of small houses, and a murky canopy of smoke. We had steamed down Tenth Avenue for two or three miles when we came to a stand still where several streets meet. The train was taken to pieces and to each car four horses or mules were attached, which took us for some distance into the very heart of the town, racing apparently with omnibuses and carriages till at last we were deposited in Chambers Street, not in a station or even under cover, be it observed. My baggage, or plunder as it is termed, had been previously disposed of, but while waiting with my head disagreeably near to a horse's nose I saw people making distracted attempts and futile ones, as it appeared, to preserve their effects from the clutches of numerous porters, many of them probably thieves. To judge from appearances many people would mourn the loss of their portmanteaus that night. New York deserves the name applied to Washington, the city of magnificent distances. I drove in a hack for three miles to my destination along crowded, handsome streets, but I believed that I only traversed a third part of the city. It possesses the features of many different lands, but it has characteristics peculiarly its own, and as with suburbs it may almost bear the name of the million-peopled city, and its growing influence and importance have earned it the name of the Empire City. I need not apologize for dwelling at some length upon it in the leading chapter. End of Chapter 15. Read by Cibela Denton. For more information please visit LibriVox.org