CHAPTER I.

Land in New Brunswick—Drawbacks on cultivation—Mode of carrying on lumbering—Spoils the farming—Squatters—Canadian regulations on squatting—Wolves in New Brunswick—Defence against them—“Literary pursuits” of a party of wolves—Price of farms—Coal-beds—Quebec and Halifax Railway—Railways and canals the great desiderata for the British North American provinces—Benefits already derived from the latter—Wrong report on the Beauharnois canal—Blindness of railway speculators to their own interests—Forty millions of British capital sunk in railways in the States—Repudiation dreaded—Canada would afford a sure and safe return—Annual estimated increase of capital in Great Britain—People at a loss what to do with surplus capital—Advised to lay it out in Canadian railways—Benefits to both countries hence derivable—Fallacy that Great Britain can be “great” without colonies— VOL. II. B 0016 2 Policy of American Whigs and Democrats respectively towards England—Argument hence derivable in favour of protection—Natural direction of railways traceable on any map of Canada—They can be cheaply constructed—Beechen rails used in the States on new lines and two-thirds cheaper—Erroneous notions as to want of enterprize in Canada—Healthy commercial pulses—Security of banks—English and American honesty—The New Brunswick frontier deception—Indifference of those on both sides of the lines to the American war—Clever device of a store-keeper and of a gentleman not on the best terms with the law.

The government wild land in New Brunswick is extremely cheap, it averaging from half-a-crown to 3 s. an acre. In Nova Scotia the price ranges from 3 s. upwards. It will be found, however, that, as is the case with many so called “bargains,” the cheapest article is not always the best. Whether scrip has been issued for these provinces I cannot say. If it does, of course it will occasion a proportionate deduction in actual price of land to what it does in Canada. The great drawback in cultivating a farm here consists not merely in the expense of hired labour, but in the difficulty owing to the high pay afforded to “lumberers,” * and the fascination which that life seems to exercise over them in getting any assistance at all.

* Cutters of pine and other timber for ship-building, house-fitings, and general purposes of exportation.

A person may lose a day or two in hunting up assistance, and after he has secured it, as he thinks on high terms, the man may not come. In fact 0017 3 this lumbering, though it circulates money in the country, produces certainly the very reverse effect of adding to the steadiness or morality of the population. A man can earn 50 l. in ten months at this work, besides having rations allowed him: so that this pay is, in fact, so much clear gain. During this period his work is hard, but not disagreeable, except in the spring, when it becomes trying from his having to labour a good deal in the water in preparing the timber for rafting down to the ocean. But when he has conveyed it to its temporary destination his toil is over for the season, and if improvident, as is but too generally the case, he then has nothing to do but “enjoy himself” and get through his earnings. He accordingly buys a gay new suit of clothes, seldom forgetting a particularly smart waistcoat, brushes up ad libitum, and “sets up for a gentleman,” too often indulging in a life of low debauchery; till his cash is gone, his health perhaps shaken; he parts with his gay apparel, if it have not been already destroyed in some drunken row, shoulders his axe, and sets off again to the wilderness penniless, if not, moreover, in debt. When a lumber merchant wishes to speculate in this sort of commodity, he takes out a license to cut down timber in a certain tract of country, perhaps 10 miles square; he then engages a party of lumberers, as a master of a vessel engages a crew. These men B 2 0018 4 are divided into parties of perhaps three, and knock up a shanty in the forest, which they provide with pork, flour, tea, coffee, sugar, and molasses. Rum or whisky used to be part of the never-failing “plenishing” of these abodes of the wilderness, and the drinking used in former times to be very heavy, as it was thought that the men could not do the work without such stimulants. Experience, however, has proved that it can not only be done, but much better done without the use of intoxicating liquors; and I am happy to say that many of the lumberers have now nothing of the kind in their camps. After having knocked up a shanty, which these expert axemen will do in a few hours, cutting round logs of even lengths, squaring them at the corners, leaving a space for a door, a hole in the roof for a chimney, and covering in the rest of the top with bark, they then separate for the day, each man working usually by himself, until nightfall warns them to return to their retreat. It is considered a good day's work for a man to cut down a single tree, lop off all the small branches, and hew it square. It has then to be hauled out by ox-teams to the shores of the river, and laid on the ice to be floated down by the spring freshets to the harbour of St. John's or other points, where there are persons set to watch, collect, and tow to a place of safety the different logs, selecting those belonging to 0019 5 each owner by the marks upon them. It occasionally happens, however, that a sudden flood sweeps them out with such violence as that they cannot be stopped, when thousands of pounds' worth of property are drifted out to sea and lost. It is one drawback on purchasing any extent of land in New Brunswick, that the lumberers are some of them unprincipled enough to go off their own beat into any land where they think they can escape detection, and cut down all the valuable timber; and it is to be understood that their doing so does no good whatsoever to the land even in the way of clearing it, as it is not one stick in a hundred, or perhaps a thousand, that possesses the requisite straightness and diameter for their purposes. The church lands with which some parishes are endowed to a considerable extent, are said to be terribly robbed in this way. The retiredness of the situation in the vast primitive forest almost completely debars the possibility of detection. What a blessing it would be could a band of devoted missionaries be found sufficient to penetrate these vast wilds, and bring the word of life to these poor denizens of the forest. Squatters in this province, if warned off lands, are liable to be paid for their improvements; in Canada it is not so. The term “squatter” in these provinces means quite a different thing from what it does in Australia; there it implies a person who 0020 6 takes up a license from government for so much of a tract of country for a sheep-run; in these provinces it signifies one, who without any property on the soil, “squats” or sits down upon it, builds a shanty, and clears as much as he likes for a garden or farm or both. If on government land a regular notice is put up for him to pay or leave, any attention to which, however, he frequently manages to evade, unless the lot upon which he has settled be sold over his head, and the person purchasing eject him. The government, however, are never hard upon squatters, as the improvements which they make are always so much additional benefit to the country; and indeed a person purchasing need scarcely care for their occupancy, unless he were to allow them to keep the spot upon which they had located themselves, without making any claim on them, long enough for them to establish a title to the land itself; otherwise their residence must always benefit his property. I have observed that it is the law of Canada that he should not have to pay them for improvements on ejecting them; and this would seem to be fairer than that of New Brunswick, since any squatter or body of squatters would otherwise have the opportunity of putting a proprietor to an indefinite amount of charges, and if he were unprepared to meet these, they might get possession of the land altogether.

0021 7

The wolves are said to be bolder and more numerous in New Brunswick than in Canada. Their long melancholy howl may be frequently heard in the winter nights about the farm houses, and woe be to any unfortunate sheep or young cattle that are not safely penned up out of the reach of their fangs. They will kill, too, as it would seem, for the mere pleasure of killing, or rather to suck the blood, if they have time; so that, if not scared away, they might destroy a whole flock in a night, if they got admission to the fold. It is found that bells on the cattle have a great effect in frightening them, and even indifferent mongrel dogs will do the same, if they make plenty of noise by barking at night. They are said to be much less likely to follow a sleigh that has bells to it than one not so provided. In Canada, it is a fine of 5 l. to drive without bells in sleighing time, as so many accidents are otherwise likely to happen, from the almost noiseless approach of an equipage, especially if at night. The side to pass another vehicle, in Canada and the States, is what we should call the wrong side in England. It is a very absurd arrangement. The wolves of New Brunswick are often seen travelling on the ice of the St, John's River in winter, when they think proper to make their appearance in public. I suppose they think, from its width and openness, that they have a better chance of seeing 0022 8 and avoiding all ambuscades. I have not heard of their ever destroying any person in that province; though one night they took a fancy to her Majesty's mail sleigh, and so closely pursued it that the driver was compelled, for the security at least of his horses, to go as hard as he could for the nearest dwelling, and had scarce shut up his sleigh and cattle safe in the barn when they appeared in full cry at the door. He was obliged, therefore, to remain all night in his fortress.

A good cleared farm on the St. John's River may be had, according to situation, for from 1 l. to 2 l. an acre. Many, however, of the New Brunswick people are leaving for the States, and others are going to Canada; yet numbers doubtless remain and make a living off their farms. Indeed, I cannot think but what both this province and that of Nova Scotia contain as yet many undeveloped resources; but whilst Nova Scotia and New Brunswick contain such men as Judge Haliburton and the Hon. Mr. Wilmot, the former of whom teaches his countrymen the most important truths, whilst appearing to write for no other object than that of keeping everybody, Canadians, Yankees, and Britishers, on the broad grin; and the other instructs us in the most sober and statesmanlike manner, by his letters in the public prints—I feel like an impertinent intruder in venturing to add anything but a very humble mite 0023 9 indeed to their testimony. There are doubtless enormous beds of coal, and probably of other minerals, in either district; and if wheat crops fail, those of oats might flourish. Then there is the long talked of railway between Quebec and Halifax, the establishing of which would give another sort of stimulus to the country, besides the invaluable boon to the whole of the British provinces of the acceleration of the mails, in entire independence of our neighbours, in the States. Railways, in fact, are the great desiderata for making the English possessions immediately take a start in the march of improvement hitherto unparalleled. Certainly the Nova Scotians are said to take it easy; but in Canada and New Brunswick they cannot be complained of on the score of want of enterprize; and were there such an outlet for farm produce in the latter province as a railway would present, the lumbering might be profitably exchanged for more steady farming operations, and with perhaps incalculable benefit to the country. As it is, it is neither the one thing nor the other. The large profits occasionally realized by lumbering frequently tempt the farmers to dabble in it, to the detriment of their agricultural pursuits; and as lumbering is a precarious means of gain, in which, from sudden freshets, or the having taken up an unproductive block of timbered lands, and other causes, losses may be B 3 0024 10 incurred in one season which may more than counterbalance the profits of many * . But whatever may be the case as regards New Brunswick, Canada, once thoroughly intersected by canals and railways, would bid fair to be one of the most productive countries on the face of the earth. Much has already been done in the way of canals, though too often to little purpose, comparatively, in consequence

* The lumbering districts are sometimes apt to suffer, moreover, from fires accidentally or intentionally lighted. The terrible conflagration of 1825 which devastated the country, commencing from the neighbourhood of Miramichi, must be in the memory of many of my readers. The first intelligence of the dreadful foe that burst forth in the devoted settlements and appeared likely to envelope the whole country in its terrific folds, was given by a tremendous roaring in the woods, followed by the appearance of a “bellying blackness,” † from whence were speedily belched forth, amidst volumes of smoke and ashes, the fiery breath of the devastating element. Only imagine a fire 300 miles long! Rivers were nothing in its career; it overleaped them as though they had been so many threads, swallowing up settlement after settlement in its destructive embrace. In fact I have it on unquestioned authority, that one of these conflagrations of the wilderness has been known to overleap a river a mile in width. The only escape in such cases is to seek the ploughed lands, or, if none such be within reach or it be not the ploughing season, then to fight fire with fire. Light one, that is to leeward of you, and follow it; you thus consume the supplies of the coming foe. The tremendous conflagration of Miramichi extended northwards to the bay of Chaleurs, and southwards to the town of Fredericton, on which it actually seized, greatly endangering the whole of it. In some of the rivers that crossed the course of the fire, the fish, unable to escape, were thrown on the shore dead. Upwards of 500 persons perished or were injured by this fearful calamity, besides a multitude of cattle.

† Thomas Aird's “House of Wold.”

0025 11 of the works not having been properly gone about, or from private interests having been permitted, through underhand proceedings, to supersede the public weal. The locks, for instance, of some of the canals, were made of a totally different gauge from those of others; so that a vessel of a size to pass through some could not pass through all. These smaller ones then had to be reconstructed, at an enormous expense: exactly the same system of ruinous bungling and penny wise and pound foolish policy having been pursued as that which spoiled the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. Every one at all versed in the statistics of that part of the country knows that that noble work, projected on so magnificent a scale in the outset, was made just to stop short of utility, owing to the locks at one end, from a false economy, having been made just too small to admit vessels of paying tonnage, and that consequently the work had to be done nearly all over again, at an expense of several hundreds of thousands of pounds. And so it has been in Canada. This error, however, has been latterly remedied. A more culpable one, however, was committed in the case of one of the canals, where, for a bribe, it is said, of 30,000 l. , a wrong report was made as to the proper course for it, and it was in consequence, contrary to all right reason and common sense, engineered on the south or American side of the 0026 12 St. Lawrence; thus putting our communications by it always at the mercy of an inroad from the States in the event of war, when it would have been just as easy, and far more suitable, both to the exigencies of the country and for defence, to have put the Rapids of the St. Lawrence between this expensive work and a possibility of its being destroyed, or our having our communications through it cut off by an invader. With all these drawbacks, however, the Canadian canals are noble works; and a vessel fit to cross the Atlantic may now load at the Sault St. Marie, at the foot of Lake Superior (where, by the bye, another canal ought to be cut immediately), and never break bulk till she discharges in the port of Liverpool or London.

Knowing as much as I do now of the resources of our own possessions in North America, it is matter of supreme astonishment to me that British capitalists, instead of contenting themselves with investments in the States, or ruining themselves by speculating in impracticable lines to Cape Wrath, John O'Groat's, or Little Peddlington, do not at once form companies for railways out here, with more boldness and energy than they seem to have exhibited hitherto, since Canada is still at least a British province, notwithstanding the manner in which French rebels are enabled for the present to lord it over both their Radical 0027 13 friends and their loyalist opponents. With one line running through New Brunswick, from Halifax to Quebec, and another from thence to Hamilton and Windsor, the traffic would be enormous, as this would meet the great American line at Detroit, and give to Canada the whole of the carrying trade from the west. The rise in value of the surrounding country would likewise be unspeakable; and the return to the pockets of the shareholders would shortly advance to an almost incalculable amount. I believe that it is a notorious fact that one half the United States' railways are run with British capital, to the amount of forty millions; and that they will shortly carry one right through to Oregon and the Pacific admits of not a doubt. There will then be the “overland passage” to China, performed in forty days or little more, from Liverpool to Canton, by connecting lines of steamers across the Atlantic and Pacific. And why should not John Bull help Canada to a share of these immense benefits, and fill his own pockets, moreover, by a steadily increasing rate of interest, from a country which belongs to himself, and where he is not likely therefore, to have his claims “repudiated”? Doubtless, as I have observed, the rebellion put back the confidence of British capitalists in Canada for some years; but notwithstanding Radical misrule, I hope people are coming to a 0028 14 better sense of what is due to the benefit of the country now, and, on the simple principle of the man's cooling down from his Chartism after he had built a couple of cottages, I think that, however they may agitate in other respects, property is too generally diffused even for most Radicals to allow of the crusade against it proposed by the rebels. It is an admitted fact, I believe, in statistics, that in spite of all drawbacks, the annual accumulation of capital in Great Britain is estimated at 65,000,000 l. “Continued during a five years' run of prosperity (the usual limit), this capital would amount to 325,000,000 l. The banks are then overflowing with money. There is an excess of capital, for which there is no demand; but very often, rather than it should be unemployed, long-dated East India bills are accepted. After such an accumulation, the middling classes, not finding employment for their money, have rushed with it into foreign loans and excesses of speculation * .” Now, I distinctly and positively assert, without fear of the possibility of contradiction, that of all safe and paying investments for such surplus capital, that of employing it in Canadian railways, would answer the best, and would do more, in conjunction with good

* “Partnership in commandite; or, Partnership with limited liabilities.”—Effingham Wilson. See an able review of this work in the “Britannia” of October 21, 1848.

0029 15 government, than any other secular thing whatsoever, to cement British and Canadian interests in a bond of indissoluble union. It would likewise make us entirely independent of our neighbours in the States; for our carrying lines, in the event of a war, besides securing a ready conveyance to the interior of our West Indian and other produce; whereas at present the large sum (for a colony) of 750,000 l. goes annually from Canada to the States, for the purchase of the very commodities which our own colonies ought to supply. I am well aware that some amazingly far-sighted statesmen in our own beloved country are fond of maintaining that our “tight little island” could continue to hold her present unparalleled supremacy of position amongst the nations if shorn of her colonies; and such persons would therefore be better pleased than not were they to become so many independent states to-morrow. In fact, it is well known that Mr. Joseph Hume and others of his school were open advocates of the rebellion in Canada. Yet, however such “penny wise and pound foolish” people may dream that ships and commerce would remain to Great Britain when colonies had departed, I happen to know that our shrewd long-headed neighbours in the States are of a very different opinion. I saw it expressly admitted, and indeed asserted, not long ago, in an American paper, that the possession 0030 16 of colonies was worth incalculable millions to the British power. This is a piece of invaluable testimony, coming from such a quarter, and may fairly be deemed entirely conclusive on the subject. Ships will not stay where there are no colonies for them to go to. Look at the Americans; do they sail in British bottoms? Nay, verily; they know better how far the force of a country consists in its marine; and now, as independent States, they can control our commerce, and reply to our sublimely philanthropic (!) experiment of free trade, by returning a ministry pledged to the continuance of a protective system; whereas in our own colonies our interests are all one. In fact, it appears at first sight somewhat singular that the ultra democratic party in the States, when in power, furiously abuse everything English in theory, yet practically favour us by removing restrictions on our commerce. The Whigs, on the other hand, who answer to Tories at home, speak favourably of England and English institutions, respect our Monarchy and Government professedly, but practically inflict a far heavier blow upon us than could be struck by all the verbiage of their democratic antagonists, inasmuch as they never have the opportunity but they lay the heaviest drawbacks on British commercial enterprize. My inference from these facts would be, not that the party are insincere in their professions 0031 17 of a friendly feeling towards England, but that, as wise Conservatives, they very properly consider the interests of their own country their primary care, and adopt a protective line of policy as the safest. In fact, I cannot help thinking, amidst the enormous commercial and fiscal alterations introduced of late years in our own beloved country, that those who brought them about would have done well to have considered that England arrived at her present amazing pitch of greatness, under the good Providence of God, chiefly through a highly Conservative policy, and that any great organic changes, which at least depended for much of their success on the very doubtful reciprocating goodwill of other nations, always more or less jealous of our national greatness, were even for that reason alone most strenuously to be deprecated. Holding these views, I say that a system of railways in Canada, carried out by means of British capital, will add a mighty link to the unspeakably advantageous bond of mutually protective connection. But, even persons inaccessible to this line of argument, would find at any rate, I repeat, that by way of secure investment of capital, Canadian railways present an unrivalled opening (see Appendix); and there is this great advantage connected with them, that persons can hardly be deceived with regard to the lines to be adopted. A glance at the map would 0032 18 show the most unpractised eye that whilst a line must of course run between Halifax and Quebec through New Brunswick, and another from Quebec to Hamilton taking in Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, and other places in its course; that thence one branch must diverge to Windsor, Sandwich and Port Larmia, and another to Owen's Sound or Goderich or both.

The Americans * are willing to assist in the completion of a railway on the British side of Lake Erie, as they would thereby save 100 miles in their communication between Buffalo and Detroit.

* They, however, at least the Buffalo people, want to patronize what is called the Bertie line; this line, however, would not be so advantageous to Canada.

A minor line should also follow the course of Yonge Street, in order to bring the produce of all that tract of country up to Lake Gouchichin, or indeed to Owen's Sound, &c., and, were the Severn rendered navigable, into ready communication with the market below. Other short lines might readily be suggested, such as that from Woodstock to Lake Erie, for which a charter has been already obtained, and which Colonel Light is now in England to forward. Thus (the Woodstock and Erie railway) would pass through a country of about 35 miles in length, almost wholly covered with magnificent pine for lumbering purposes.

Here are already 40 saw-mills along the proposed 0033 19 posed line of route, and the opening up of the railway will speedily bring into operation about 60 more.

Colonel Light's agents are Messrs. Codd, 16, Fludyer Street, Westminster.

As regards the route by Hamilton, it has been surveyed and staked, Sir Allan M'Nab, having gone home in 1846–7 and formed a company for the purpose. The agent in Canada is Mr. Gilkerson of Hamilton.

It is also to be observed that lines in this country can be run with peculiar cheapness, as beech, the indigenous product of the country is capable of being used, in the first instance, instead of iron for the trams. This is not only an immense saving, equal I believe to two-thirds on the whole cost as in England, but it is far from being a mere “ pis aller ,” as it is found, I understand, that there is something in the grain of the beech which holds the wheels as they run, far more kindly than iron, and that they are, consequently, less liable to allow of the carriages getting off the rails. It is not, however, in contemplation to use beech for the Canadian Great Western.

They have now an electric telegraph from Toronto to Hamilton, London, &c., which cost very little at the outset, and when I last heard, was paying the shareholders 8 per cent.

A new and important use of telegraphs I subjoin 0034 20 from a Canadian paper:—“The telegraph now gives notice of storms! For example, the telegraph at Chicago and Toledo now gives notice to shipmasters at Cleveland and Buffalo, and also on Lake Ontario, of the approach of a northwest storm. The result is practically of great importance. A hurricane storm traverses the atmosphere at about the rate of a carrier pigeon, viz., 60 miles an hour. Our north-west winds come apparently from the sources of the lakes, and sweeping over Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Erie, spend themselves in the interior of the country. Our south-west winds come apparently from the Gulf of Mexico, where the force is very great, and pass up the general direction of the Mississippi and Ohio. Commencing at these remote points, it is obvious that if telegraphic offices are established at the extremes of the line, notice of the approach of a violent wind may be given to distant ports from 12 to 20 hours before it will be felt there. The practical effect will be that a vessel in the port of New York, about to sail for New Orleans, may be telegraphed 20 hours in advancing on the coast from the Gulf of Mexico. We are only on the threshold of the real substantial advantages which may be rendered by the electro-telegraph. Already have notices of storms on the lakes been given from Chicago and Toledo to Buffalo.”

0035 21

I have observed that many travellers, even English travellers, are apt to talk in their writings, in either a contemptuous or lugubrious tone, of the little business doing on the Canadian side, in comparison of the goings on in the States. I myself expected, from the books which I had read before I came out, to find an almost entire stagnation prevailing in Canada, as it was even asserted that the difference was perceptible to the mere passing stranger. To my agreeable surprise, however, I discovered that this was very far from being the case: where I expected to see towns and villages in the most soporific state of repose, and all stir and bustle on the American shores, I found in Canada plenty of vessels at the wharfs—waggons, carts, and other conveyances hurrying to and fro, and in fact every appearance of healthy animation in the commercial pulses of this great country. I really think that were the additional impetus given to it that railways, in connection with a system of Government no longer French and anti-British would impart, it would exhibit as great signs of life and activity as any country on the face of the globe. There is this, moreover, especially to be noticed, that while there may be and doubtless is a more feverish pulsation of mercantile existence displayed in the States, the vitality of Canada is, on the whole, healthier. It was astonishing how such a youthful and comparatively 0036 22 poor country, stood the tremendous mercantile crashes that lately shook the parent state to its centre. Such a thing as the breaking of a bank is an unknown occurrence in Canada; and the public honesty is moreover greater than that of the neighbouring republic. With all respect for the innumerable instances of private and individual excellence which one meets in the United States, it is a melancholy fact that public honesty is too frequently wanting. I am not speaking here of the well known “repudiations,” but of a piece of political treachery still more flagrant and more entirely inexcusable. I refer to the settlement of the New Brunswick boundary. When that had to be arranged, it is asserted that they not only pretended to lose a map in which the original settlement of territory was laid down as determined, but actually suborned a number of old people to perjure themselves by declaring that they remembered that such and such were the original limits of the British territory, when they knew their statement to be deliberately got up for the occasion; thereby securing a large accession of land which did not belong to them. But this is not all; they were not content to do the thing in a corner to obtain the “reward of iniquity” and be silent about it, but there were actually not wanting public men—leading politicians of the country, openly to produce the map, which had 0037 23 been purposely kept concealed till after the boundary question was settled, and boast of the manner in which they had gulled John Bull.

I am inclined to think, however, that where advantages are only to be gained on such terms, John Bull would be always rather the deceived than the deceiver, and long may it be so with him.

Let me narrate, however, an interesting circumstance connected with the late war, by way of some little set-off against what is so disagreeable and repugnant to every right feeling. As the boundary in some parts is only a mere air line between New Brunswick and the State of Maine, the people who used to visit from either side, very wisely agreed amongst themselves that there was not the slightest reason why friends and neighbours in the wilderness should quarrel and fight because of the war, and carried on their visiting and trafficking accordingly with the same good feeling as ever, all the time that the two countries were hammering at one another as hard as they could in other places.

A clever fellow has taken advantage of the absence of natural divisions on these lines, to build a house half in the British and half within the American territory; and as he keeps a store, he can supply the commodities of both countries to his customers, without being troubled by the 0038 24 custom-house officers. This puts one in mind of a story which I met with, I think, in Mr. Featherstonhaugh's book, of a fellow in some of the Western States, very much in debt, and otherwise on bad terms with the law, who managed to build his house exactly where four States met, so as to render it next to impossible for the sheriffs to be provided with a warrant that could reach him.

CHAPTER II.

Journey into the States—Obliging custom-house officer; a good example to our own—Gain to a new country from easy custom-house regulations—How to get rid of a troublesome charge—Rochester—Rapid rise of the city—Congress Hall hotel—Splendid performance on the accordion—Genessee falls—English and American railway carriages contrasted—Decided preference in some respect given to the latter—Size of the cars—Comfort of the stove in winter—A train stopped by the snow—Lack of substantial solids at the refreshment stations—Security of luggage—Mode of ticketing it.

When I at first went into the United States for anything like a travel, winter was fast setting in. In fact, I believe that the steamer from Toronto to Rochester was taking about her last trip. She cannot get quite up the river to the city, but lies at the wharf, about 3 miles below. You can always, however, secure a conveyance up. Coming from the British side, we of course had to encounter the custom-house officers; and I am truly happy, in having this opportunity of publicly VOL. II. C 0040 26 expressing my thanks to the gentlemen in charge of the customs at this station. Many travellers are fond of talking of American rudeness and want of manners; but I can only say that, if the conduct of those who meet one on the threshold of a country be a criterion, America leaves us far in the background. Instead of the rude officiousness, the vexatious delaying and general impertinent inquisitiveness, far beyond anything which the security of the public revenue could render necessary (not to speak of the paltry robberies too often perpetrated under the name of “seizures”), to which one is liable to be subjected on landing at a British port from foreign parts, I feel bound in gratitude to say, that the politeness which I met with here could not have been exceeded. I had a good deal of luggage, great part of the weightier and more bulky portion of it consisting of books, which, as it happened, I need not have cumbered myself with at that time; but, upon the principle that “no good general ought to be separated from his baggage,” I preferred carrying mine along with me. It was a raw uncomfortable day; and, to say the least, it would have been a very great bore to have had my whole luggage, recently packed, turned topsy-turvy. The quantity of it attracted some attention; and one of the officers seemed inclined to open it. I assured them, however, that I had nothing for sale, and 0041 27 was merely an Englishman on my travels; when the obliging individual above referred to immediately said to his colleague, “Oh, merely an English gentleman travelling; we need not look at anything;” and in the kindest manner passed everything, refusing even to open those cases of which I offered him the keys. Though this gentleman may have been, and doubtless was, polite to a stranger from personal kindness of disposition (and I only wish I had the pleasure of knowing his name, that I might make honourable mention of it), I found afterwards that civility at the custom-house is the rule in the United States; and herein they are very wise, for even supposing that an article liable to duty did now and then pass in consequence, either accidentally or otherwise, yet the country must on the whole be unspeakably the gainer, from the immense additional numbers of persons who are thus induced to make it their thoroughfare. The only instance which I know of any trouble given at an American custom-house to a private individual was in the case of a friend of mine, a gentleman settler for Canada, coming out viâ New York, where the custom-house authorities wanted to charge him 30 l. duty for the books which he brought with him. As he of course did not admire such a demand, he devised a very excellent plan of getting rid of it. He refused to land his books in the States, sent them C 2 0042 28 back to England, and had them reshipped to Quebec; by which means, and submitting to the delay, he got them out for just 30 s. Here, then, vigilance on the part of the custom-house officers defeated its own object, since they gained not one farthing of duty, and lost the charges of conveyance. But the rule, as I said, of the States, is the reverse of anything savouring of over-strictness; and it would be well if the authorities in the British provinces would take a leaf out of their neighbours' book in this respect, as, to a British subject who may have taken a tour through the States and is returning, such a visitation is particularly annoying. It is due, however, to the officers from Montreal, who first encountered my luggage on my return by Lake Champlain, to say that they very kindly gave me no trouble; but in some parts, as at St. John's New Brunswick, I have actually heard of a carpenter who had been for two months in the States, being charged duty on his return for the tools which he had taken with him when he went thither, contrary, as it appears to me, to all English law, which, as far as I have understood, always allows a person the tools of his trade free.

Rochester is an instance of the manner in which “water privileges” will make a city. There is a picture published of the place as it appeared in 1812, the view consisting of two log-huts, with a 0043 29 person near the door of one, taking a shot at a bear. It now contains a population of 30,000, with churches, meeting-houses, hotels, and factories, ad libitum , besides an air of business in the streets of the most lively character—waggons, carts, and conveyances of all descriptions, continually passing to and fro. The Americans certainly do many things with amazing cheapness, one reason of which is doubtless to be found in the abundant produce of the country. There is a large new hotel, called the Congress Hall Hotel, close to the railway station, which I preferred chiefly for that very reason, as you were ready to pop out and take your place the moment a train arrived. I forget what the exact bill was during my short stay; but I remember the waiter telling me that the charges for more permanent boarding were, to a certain extent, of course, according to the bed-room occupied; but that a bachelor, who could do with the smaller ones at the top of the house, would have this, with board and all other advantages of the establishment, for three dollars and a half a week, and this, be it remembered, with a table which might have been well called luxurious, as it was covered with all manner of delicacies, particularly in the article of pastry, including an excellent dessert. The attendance was also very good. There was a well furnished sitting-room, with newspapers, &c., and everything 0044 30 had a very clean appearance, as far as I could see. In fact, the whole establishment was spick and span new. The house, built of very bright red brick, with very green jalousie-shutters to all the windows, and I think it was four or five stories high, presented altogether the effect of a Brobdignagian toy hotel, just brought in a packing-case for some fair young Miss Glumdalcla.

I paid a visit for an hour or two to another hotel of older standing, where a former fellow passenger by the steamer, an American artist of very great musical talent, had taken up his quarters. His favourite instrument was the accordion (though he played the pianoforte, and I believe the flute, &c). When I first met him, he was exhibiting his vade secum to some of the people in the cabin at breakfast, and being an extremely obliging person, was very easily prevailed upon to favour us with some specimens of his skill. I never before had the remotest idea of the effect which could be produced by such an apparently inefficient instrument when in the hands of a master. The one with which he delighted his admiring auditory appeared certainly to be fitted with every appliance that art could produce to render it as perfect as the principle of its construction admitted; but that all that seemed like “drone,” so common to the instrument in ordinary hands, should have disappeared, was what I 0045 31 could scarcely have deemed credible. As no one else on board seemed, as it happened, to have any notion of compositions of a high order, I ventured to put in my word and request morceau after morceau from the first composers, of course to the great delight of the others, who were glad enough to listen. Our friend, quite pleased to find some one who, without any pretension to science in the matter, at least knew and could appreciate what was first-rate in his art, “came out” in extremely fine style. His manner of producing the effect of a duet for two violins, in a brilliant operatic passage, was quite equal, as far as my humble opinion goes, to a performance of dazzling excellence which I once listened to in London, from those consummate maestros , Camillo Sivori and Blagrove. I may be mistaken; but the effect must have been very fine to interest me at all, since for most profane music I care as little as I do for the screaming of a penny whistle. I found this gentleman in the public sitting-room of an hotel in Rochester, where he was delighting a highly respectable assemblage, chiefly of ladies, his fellow boarders, with specimens of his skill. I believe he intended to give a concert; but on that occasion, as on board of the steamer, his performance was perfectly free. In fact, he seemed to take an unaffected pleasure in ministering to the gratification of his auditory, apart from all feelings of gain. 0046 32 Of course his talents franked his passage everywhere, as is almost the universal custom in the States in favour of those who like to amuse the public with specimens of their talents on board of steamers, &c. The blind also, I believe, are taken free, if paupers, which is a touching trait of humanity in the commanders and owners of these vessels.

The water-power on the Genessee has been the making of Rochester; though the romance of the really beautiful falls is very much spoilt by the numerous factories, which have, moreover, diminished the volume of the principal fall by drawing the water off into ever so many different channels. I think I counted exactly twenty separate lesser falls, gushing from different parts of the western bank of the ravine beyond the main fall.

The effect of this was certainly pretty. You gain admission to the best point of view by going through a “saloon,” as it is called, consisting of a two-roomed hut, kept by a civil Manxman, who seems to be the occupier of the clearing behind it. He franks you through on your taking anything in the shape of refreshment, unless you choose, like the “two teas and a brandy-and-water” at the Vauxhall tea-gardens, to be shabby enough to “jump over the palings without paying.” Whether the member of the three-legged 0047 33 community, * above referred to, would in such case employ his two legs in running after you, I cannot say, as I did not try him.

* The arms of Man—three human legs, with the motto “Quocumque jeceris stabit.”

I understand that the Rochester people are now making a quarry of the stone at these Falls, which will of course tend, I presume, to spoil whatever of the picturesque still remains to them. The railway crosses the river here; and nothing can strike one more than the cheap manner in which the passage is contrived to save expense. Instead of all the cumbrous paraphernalia of tubular tunnels, tremendous piers, &c., incidental to our own dear, wealthy, aristocratic, little island, they simply run the rails over the braces, or string-courses connecting the heads of the piles, which we should consider in England as only the foundation-work of an expensive bridge. The tramways run, moreover, through towns and all, crossed in all directions by the transverse roads and streets, without any protective fence whatsoever; though of course it is scarcely necessary to observe that they run at slackened speed through the cities. In the country, however, where a road crosses, there is simply a notice stuck up, with the words, “Look out for the train when the bell rings;” (though without the additional Irish precaution of telling you what to C 3 0048 34 do if you can't read); and on it dashes, in many places without gateways, policemen, or any other “protectionary measure” whatsoever. I cannot imagine what fault English travellers have to find with American railway travelling. To my mind, at least, it appeared that it would have been difficult to exceed the comfort of the carriages, particularly on a very long journey, and in miserable weather in the latter end of November. Look at an English first-class carriage. * You take your place, we will say at Liverpool, for London. After being properly “ticketed and labelled,” you establish yourself in certainly a tolerably cushioned species of arm-chair, where you are boxed up with from five to seven other “similar and similarly situated figures,” as old Euclid would have it. If you happen, owing to the number of your ticket, to be unfortunately seated with your “back to the horses,” you have no redress. If your next neighbour on either side, or your amiable vis-à-vis , rejoices in the companionship of a squalling, puking baby, look as cross or feel as forbearing as you will, you are an involuntary spectator and auditor of all the dear infant's sallies for that trip. If your feet are chilled to icicles, there is no help for it. If you are ill and

* I am happy to find that the splendour and comfort of the more recently invented first-class carriages in England leaves nothing to be wished for on the score of improvement now.

0049 35 want to get out, ten to one you are locked in. If you are hurried past the station where you intended to leave, and wish ever so to see the guard, there is a writ of non est inventus against him. If you are travelling with your dearest friend or your lovely and newly-wedded bride, and there are no two seats vacant in one carriage, you are ruthlessly separated, at least for that journey. If, on the other hand, you are a lonely bachelor, and linger somewhat tardily for an extra cup of coffee at the hands of the Houris of Wolverton, you may risk breaking your neck in a rush to find your place again. From all these inconveniences you are perfectly free in an American carriage; the only counterbalancing drawback (if it be one at all to a sensible traveller), consisting in the numbers with whom you are thrown into juxtaposition.

The carriages are of enormous length, something like greatly elongated omnibuses; perhaps each may be thirty-six to fifty feet long. But instead of your sitting on two lengthy seats parallel to the direction of the carriage, as in one of those conveyances where you cannot move without treading upon your neighbour's toes, or pushing your hat into his face to the infinite peril of his proboscis, these carriages are “pewed” down each side with sittings holding two each, and a central “aisle” between. The backs of these seats, 0050 36 moreover, are low, cushioned, and turn over in the arc of a semicircle, upon a hinge, so that, supposing you have a couple of friends in the “pew” immediately behind you, whom you wish to face, you have nothing to do with the approbation of your immediate companion, but to throw the back of your own seat the other way, to turn round and a form a partie quarrée. There is likewise a comfortable stove in winter, so that the whole place is kept agreeably warm—some writers say too warm. I can only say that when I found it so, I simply opened the sash next me for a few moments, no one making any objection, and the air was relieved at once. I never remember anything to exceed the luxury of comfort which I experienced in my first railway trip, from the zest given to the sense of warmth and security within by the external rigour of the elements. We were tearing along through a wild winter's storm, the gale howling around us, and the snow and sleet furiously driven before it, thrashing the windows without mercy, and almost without intermission, as we drove along; yet there we could go, mile after mile, in no cramped position, for one could get up and warm oneself at the stove or move to an unoccupied seat in the further part of the carriage, and read or converse as one chose, or sit and look about with the most entire sense of comfort. If one wanted to say a word 0051 37 to the guard, a very civil personage was ever and anon walking to and fro, stepping from carriage to carriage, with the train at full speed (for the doors are at the ends, and not at the sides, and the platforms join and are railed in), replenishing the fires, and ready to answer any question that one might feel disposed to put. And as far as the amount of expectoration was concerned, for which the Americans have been so much abused, I can only say that I, at least, did not see it prevail to anything like the extent described by some travellers. Perhaps I was fortunate in my companions, but I feel bound in truth to assert that there was nothing, on the whole, in the conduct of any of them essentially different from that of a similar number of quiet and well-conducted people of the middle classes similarly got together in the old country.

At one end of each carriage there is an apartment partitioned off and very conveniently furnished, which any ladies travelling by themselves may retain for their exclusive use if they like. But if none express a particular wish to that effect, their male companions, or indeed others, may pass freely in and out. This apartment is, however, I believe, very properly “tabooed” from smokers, so that any very determined follower of King James, of anti-tobacconist memory, may here find a safe retreat, if the ladies will admit 0052 38 him. But generally I observed that those who wished to smoke stood on the outside of the platform.

The American carriages in snowy weather rig out a set of boards to the height of four or five feet. perpendicular on the nose or shovel, which is always attached to their engines, for the purpose of throwing any accidental obstacle off the rails. It is one of the most beautiful sights imaginable to see an approaching train ploughing its way through a moderate drift of snow; the pure substance curling over in the most exquisite foamy looking flakes, like the crest of a billow. We came, however, to one train which had been fairly stopped till a party of labourers went forward to clear the way for some distance. It was a night-train, and had been detained for some hours, but had evidently pushed very hard to get through, since the incrustation of the snow was half way up the lens of the lantern, or, I suppose, full six feet from the ground, before the power of the engine and momentum of the train were overcome by the resistance presented by the drift into which it had plunged. The stoppage occurred near a station, into which some of the passengers retreated; but others, who did not care even for the exposure to the weather incidental to stepping out, remained very quietly in their places, and dozed away. In fact, so long as their fuel held 0053 39 out, they could hardly have exchanged their position for one of greater comfort.

A circumstance at the refreshment stations struck me as singular, and that was the extremely light character of the eatables offered. Instead of the substantial pork and veal and chicken pies, cuts at solid rounds, or regular set dinners, as at Birmingham, beginning with soup and ending with cheese, there was little else but apple-puffs, cheesecakes, raspberry tarts, and similar trivial fare, by no means adapted to a hungry stomach, or the support necessary to a long journey. Sometimes, however, the more voracious might discover a single joint of roast pork or mutton “looming large” amongst the “musquito fleet” of pastries, like a good-sized transport in the middle of a crowd of fishing boats; and had it not been for the occasional making the acquaintance of some such pièce de resistance , I, who am no great admirer of pastry, should have been occasionally somewhat at a loss for sustenance.

The security of luggage on an American railway is as near as may be to being perfect. We ought certainly to take a hint from them on our English lines in this respect. I conceive it almost impossible for a person to lose his luggage according to their arrangements. When your things are given into the care of the company, a numbered leaden or copper ticket is affixed by a 0054 40 leather strap to every article, and you have then a duplicate of each given you. On the arrival of a train at its destination, the space opposite to the luggage vans is railed off by the guards, and no person but themselves is admitted within the inclosure. The number of the ticket on any article is then called out, and the person presenting the corresponding number has it immediately given up to him. No other individual can possibly obtain it; and the only inconvenience would be, that if you were careless enough to lose your tickets, you could not get at your luggage till, by keys, letters, or description, you could prove your property in it. I knew a gentleman who, by neglecting to provide himself with these tickets, lost all his luggage, containing family plate just brought from England, and other articles, to the value of 100 l. The “touters” for the different hotels will always get your things conveyed to the house free; and the best way to avoid being confused amongst a number, is to fix on your hotel beforehand, from cards or private recommendation.

CHAPTER III.

Boston—Its peninsular situation—The bishop of Massachussets—His friendly reception of Englishmen—Trinity church—Expensive organ—Ecclesiastical pioneering—The church of the Advent and Dr. Crosswell—Nashotah mission—The government dockyard at Charleston—The Rev. Addison Searle—United States' naval chaplains—Dockyard chapel—“Domestics” and “helps”—Rope-walk and block-cutting department—Library and reading-rooms—Uniform room by naval chaplains—Orderly character of Boston—Sailors' home—Mariners' church—Fast and thanksgiving days—A Socinian teacher's doctrine—Only two sins in the world—Neglect of the ecclesiastical year by the authorities—Absurd mistake in consequence, corrected by a clergyman—Unhappy theological differences in families—Moral plague spot of Socinianism—Interesting attitude of the church in America—Her position compared with that of her Anglican mother.

Boston certainly occupies a very striking position. It stands on a perfect peninsula, rising to a considerable elevation at the State House, from the lantern of which you obtain a fine panoramic view of the city and suburbs. Innumerable wharfs run out in every direction into the sea, 0056 42 except on the landward side, where the water is comparatively shallow, and where, with the exception of the road along the narrow isthmus leading to Roxbury, the favourite retreat of many of the citizens of the wealthier class, communication is kept up with the mainland by means of long causeways carried on piles across the shallows. At most of these there is a moderate toll, I think of one cent, for a foot passenger.

On arriving at Boston, one of the first things I did was to pay my respects to the bishop, who is also a rector of Trinity Church, from which he derives an income of 3000 or 4000 dollars a year. The right reverend Martin Eastburn, bishop of Massachusetts, is by birth an Englishman, which he is fond of telling one. He came to the States, however, when quite a child. He is always extremely glad to see his countrymen, and is sure to give them a most courteous reception. There is nothing about his house or its appurtenances beyond the ordinary characteristics of a respectable private residence. It is about as good a house as those of the masters of St. Paul's School, London. He very kindly took me to see his church, which is merely a common parish church, pewed throughout for a congregation. The organ here is said to be the finest in the United States, and was built in England at a cost of 2000 l.

Of course, there being no Church Establishment 0057 43 in America, the parishes are simply conventional divisions for ecclesiastical purposes, agreeably to the internal regulations of the church herself. Bishop Eastburn belongs to what is called the “low-church” party. There are not wanting clergymen, however, in Boston, who carry their views of the church's apostolic claims on the obedience of the people, as well as the notion of her authoritative catholic teaching, to a much higher point than is done by their diocesan.

There is a peculiar idiosyncrasy of many of the American clergy, which marks them no less as specially the pioneers of the wilderness spiritual, than that which makes so many of their lay countrymen the special pioneers of the wilderness literal. It is well known that the action of this peculiar mental constitution in the laity leads them very frequently to forsake a cultivated farm as soon as they have “replenished the earth and subdued it.” Instead of setting down to enjoy the fruit of their labours, and adding improvement to improvement, as soon as they have brought a farm into cultivation from the wildness of the original forest, they will sell out the moment they have brought the place so far to a state of advancement, shoulder the axe, and away again further west to do battle once more against the monarchs of the forest. In like manner a clergyman, who is, perhaps, the esteemed rector of a large and well-attended 0058 44 church in a wealthy neighbourhood, instead of considering himself settled for life, unless promoted, as a man would in England, will sometimes go forth into some destitute district, engage a “large upper room,” and gather there a congregation to form the nucleus of another regularly organized parochial subdivision. Gradually the room is felt to be insufficient; a subscription list is filled, and another ecclesiastical edifice springs up, to the glory of God and the extension of his church.

My highly respected and esteemed friend Dr. Crosswell has done somewhat similarly in Boston. After being for years the rector of a church in another city, he has come to one of the neighbourhoods there where a church was much needed, and secured the whole upper part of a new store for a commencement. He has had this neatly fitted up, with pews open at the ends, and even made an approach to a painted window, in order to give something of a decidedly ecclesiastical character to the place. The device is touchingly simple, as the intended sanctuary is to be called, “the Church of the Advent;” he has got a slight transparency in the window above the communion table, having a cross in the centre, with the words, “Lo I come,” in an are of a circle above. The device struck me as singularly solemn and devotional, purely ecclesiastial in character, yet entirely 0059 45 free from all that savoured of superstition. He has likewise a small æolophon, or seraphine, to assist in the musical part of the service. There is no pulpit, but a simple lectern within the communion rails. * Here it was my privilege to attend divine service every morning at nine o'clock, generally in the company of a highly respectable congregation of worshipping brethren, and amongst them some officers of rank in the navy, having their official residences in the neighbouring dock-yard at Charleston.

* Dr. Crosswell's congregation have since purchased a dissenting chapel holding 1000 persons, where the services are now conducted.

This little band of christian brethren chose thus to begin the day in God's holy house, before going off to their various avocations; and truly I trust we might say “that it was good for us to be there.” The prayers were always a delightful privilege, and on saints' days the worthy doctor usually gave a short and extremely well composed discourse, or at other times ad libitum read some recent missionary intelligence from the far west after the prayers were over. This I thought a useful mode of diversifying the daily service, supposing any variety to be required.

The Nashotah mission, from which he occasionally read private letters replete with intelligence, appears to be conducted after the most 0060 46 truly primitive and apostolic fashion. It is situated in the very heart of the western wilderness, and it is at once a college and place of training for students, and the head-quarters of a band of regularly ordained priests, who spread themselves over the country in their labour of love. They appear, as nearly as possible, to have all things in common, being supported, as it would seem, from a common fund—doing much for the poor settlers around them, and thankfully accepting gifts, either of second-hand books, or cast-off wearing apparel from their richer brethren in the eastern States. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the whole establishment is under the careful superintendence of a missionary bishop.

There is another church (the building in this case completed), in a different part of the town, where there is always service at 6 A.M. and P.M. The clergyman here, the Rev. Mr. Wells, is noted for his devotedness to the cause of charity.

One of my favourite places of resort during my sojourn in the neighbourhood of Boston, was to the dock-yard at Charlestown, under the spiritual superintendence of my very good and most kind friend, the Rev. Addison Searle, senior chaplain of the United States Navy. Here he has a plain building fitted up as a chapel, where he regularly officiates. His official residence is one of a neat row of two-storied cottage-looking buildings within 0061 47 the walls of the establishment, where he keeps about as snug a bachelor's hall—which he is truly delighted to see enlivened with the society of his friends—as any lover of single blessedness need aspire to. His clerical duties here are necessarily light, as there is a separate chaplain for the guardship, the worthy Mr. Chase, who resides at Cambridge, about four miles off, with his interesting young family, and walks in every day to his duties.

The pay of chaplains in the American navy is established on a very respectable scale of liberality. It consists of 800 dollars a year for junior, and 1200 for senior chaplains, besides one ration at sea. They have, however, no retiring allowance, but are always on duty or on furlough. Owing to the absence of an established clergy, they are not all of the church, but I believe she possesses by far the great majority; and even some of those without her pale have the good sense, I understand, to use her liturgy. At the time of my visit, the dock-yard was, happily, entirely under her wing, as not only both the chaplains, but the commodore and colonel of marines (since deceased, I regret to say), to whose gentlemanlike politeness I felt highly indebted, besides, many of the junior officers, were decided and zealous churchmen.

From what I could learn, I hope that much good is doing in the American navy. I can at 0062 48 least bear my testimony that my friends of the clergy were held in universal estimation.

I noticed in the chapel a number of seats, with the words “officers' domestics” painted upon them, which confirmed me in an idea which I had previously entertained, that many of the narratives as to servants only enduring to be called “helps” in America, is, after all, only travellers' talk, and appertain properly rather to the newer districts, where no aristocracy of wealth has been created, than to the whole country.

It was said to be the case, that none but people of colour would accept service in a family as footmen, &c.; but, however that may have been in times past, I can only say, that in Boston, I have just been as quietly and properly waited upon by a respectable white man-servant when at dinner in a private family, as I could have been in London. Some people in the great cities are even taking to liveries.

The suburb of Charleston, in which the dockyard is situated, put me very much in mind of an English country town as regarded the centre of it. Indeed, I believe that its peculiarly English appearance has been frequently remarked upon. The dockyard itself is a fine and extensive enclosure, with very high and solid walls, and as excellent a granite dry dock for line of battleships; as one could wish to see. It appeared a superb piece of masonry.

0063 49

There were one or two beautiful government vessels nearly ready for sea, the principal being a line of battle-ship, carrying her battery upon two decks. I think she was a 92 or 98. I went over her with much pleasure, and could see nothing about her armament or appointments in any way differing from those of an English man-of-war of similar force.

There is a magnificent rope-walk within the dockyard establishment, and of course, various other workshops, in one of which, by the kind permission of Commodore Parker, I was enabled to see the cutting of the sheaves of blocks from extremely hard wood, by means of revolving machinery worked by steam. It was truly beautiful to witness the unerring accuracy and perfect facility and rapidity with which materials of such extreme hardness were moulded to the will of the artificer, as if they had been made of clay or plaster of Paris.

There was a good sprinkle of guns lying about, but on the whole, the yard had an empty appearance to an eye accustomed to the tremendous displays of naval power in the arsenals of the mother-country.

A library and reading-room was connected with the dockyard, to which all the seamen and marines had free access. The walls were hung round with aqua tinta drawings of naval engagements, portraits VOL. II. D 0064 50 of vessels and commanders. There appeared to be nothing exclusively national in the selection—either of the drawings or of the volumes.

The chaplains in the United States navy wear a uniform (only of black cloth instead of blue) like other officers. They seem to like it as giving them an immediately cognisable status as officers in foreign parts. My friend Mr. Searle, however, dressed the same as any other clergyman in Boston. Mr. Chase, whose duties were on board the guardship, usually wore the uniform vest with the navy button (the anchor and eagle), but with black coat and pantaloons.

A stranger might walk in and out of the dockyard during the day unchallenged, but after nine at night an officer must accompany one to the gate and pass one out agreeably to the strict etiquette of the service. The chaplain, of course, as an officer, could do so at all times.

The chaplains of the United States navy have commissions. The schoolmasters are superseded by “professors of mathematics,” who have no commission, but mess in the ward-room or gun-room.

Boston is certainly a remarkably quiet and orderly city. On Sundays the strictness of outward observance was worthy of Scotland: though the Bostonians do not come up to the rigidness of their Puritan ancestors, who inflicted 0065 51 a fine if a man kissed his wife, or a woman paid the like token of affection to her infant on Sundays, they certainly manifest a most praise-worthy degree of decorum. All bars of taverns are very properly closed, and it is a fine to sell liquor to any one. Indeed, an attempt was made to check the indiscriminate sale of spirits at private stores, by making it fineable to sell less than 28 gallons at a time, but those inclined to drink found means of evading this law by purchasing 28 gallons and a glass over, and then selling the larger quantity back again.

There is a sailor's home in Boston conducted on Temperance principles, and I believe well attended by the nautical class of the community. It is not exactly in the style of that admirable institution in Well's Street, London Docks, which, under the superintendence of the excellent Captain Elliott, the founder, has been of such incalculable benefit to our own seamen; but still, this one is likely, I think, to do a great deal of good. The terms of boarding here are only, I believe, two dollars or two and a half a week, and there is a comfortable reading-room well supplied with magazines and newspapers, many of them of a serious character. There are several places of worship specially intended for seamen: the Episcopal Mariner's Church, where the Bethel flag is hoisted on Sundays, is situated in an upper D 2 0066 52 room in a poor part of the town near the shipping. The clergyman, the Rev. H. Robinson, a man of devoted Missionary spirit, is not only a great blessing to the sailors, but likewise to the poor of what was a very spiritually destitute neighbourhood. There is no floating-ship church, I believe, at Boston. * In fact, I question the special utility of one any where, except where a regular sailing vessel, to shift her stations conformably to the wants of a seafaring population, is fitted up as a place of worship—like the Bishop of Newfoundland's visitation schooner, the “Hawk.” Then, I think the arrangement admirable; but otherwise, depend upon it, Jack likes a regular built shore-going church. He says else “it's all ship,” and is not so ready, when in harbour, to attend a service on board a floating hulk as some people might be inclined to imagine.

* They are now introducing actual floating churches, not ships, in the States, as the new Mariners' “Church of the Redeemer,” at Philadelphia.

The number of places of worship belonging to the church, may, I think, in Boston, amount to twelve or fourteen, besides several in the suburbs. Here, as every where else, the church people are most agreeable and kind. In fact, association with them was truly delightful. Their amiable hospitality I can never forget. It may seem invidious to mention one name above another 0067 53 where all were so agreeable, but I cannot help saying that the attention paid me by Dr. Shattuck, junior, * could not have been exceeded. He is a member of Dr. Crosswell's congregation, and a fine specimen of an enlightened and consistent churchman. He likewise possesses a very good library, the want of which on the part of private individuals I have heard remarked upon as a deficiency in the States. His private fortune enables him to entertain liberally, and he seems to keep quite open house for the clergy. This excellent young man is one instance amongst many of a person born and educated a Dissenter, becoming, in course of Providence, from “giving attention to reading,” a devoted son of the church. There is a large place of worship near his house, which was built by his grandfather, and now unhappily in the hands of Socinians. It is customary in the States—where, of course, from there being no establishment, the church's solemn days are taken no note of by the Government—to appoint a fast-day some time in spring, and a thanksgiving day in autumn, for the harvest. On one of these occasions the day not falling on a Sunday, a friend of mine stepping into this identical chapel, to see how they conducted their devotions, (!) found the burden of the preacher's discourse to consist in the highly satisfactory

* Now lecturer on Chemistry at St. James' College, Maryland.

0068 54 doctrine, that there were only two things in the world that were sin, namely, slavery and war! As my friend possessed no slaves, and was not particularly given to fighting, the doctrine, laid down as he observed, was likely to be highly satisfactory to his conscience.

As a specimen, of some at least, of the dissenting preaching in the States, I subjoin the following discourse, which I beg leave respectfully to inscribe to the advocates of “free trade in religion” at home and abroad,—a truly melancholy exhibition it is:—

“ Extra! A brief report of a Sermon, including remarks on Cow-hiding, preached at Phonographic Hall, Boston, Sunday evening April 25, 1847, by Elder Adams.

“‘Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate nor set down in malice.’ So said the Elder, and the request will be remembered.

“Text—Revelations, chap. xiv., verses, 6, 7.—‘And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the face of the earth, and to every kindred, and nation, and tongue, and people,

“‘Saying, with a loud voice, Give glory to God and fear him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven 0069 55 and earth, and sea and the fountains of water.’

“Many people suppose the book of Revelations to be enveloped in mystery,—that nothing satisfactory can be obtained from it. This is a great mistake—nothing mysterious whatever in the book. Every word is intelligible to those disposed to receive the truth. God revealed to John things that were shortly to come to pass, and also things that were to come to pass hereafter. Some predictions were fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, others shortly afterwards; but the more weighty are now about to be fulfilled. These are the last days, and wonderful things are to take place. The true, the everlasting gospel is to be preached to all nations; and the numerous systems of error are ready to crumble to pieces before the mighty power of truth. Truth has been banished from the earth for ages. All religious sects have some truths in their creeds; but their numerous errors have a pernicious tendency. But the hour of God's judgment has come—the nations are in commotion, there are wars and rumours of wars, and the wise can easily discern the signs of the times. God has the means to do all his pleasure.

“He has punished the wicked in times past, and is now inflicting chastisement on his enemies, and on those who villify and slander his servants. 0070 56 One of this kind of ‘Chowder’ got the measure of his iniquity in the length of a cowhide, on Friday last. All liars shall have their portion; some get a taste beforehand. The earth groans beneath the weight of tyranny and oppression, and the cries of God's children have ascended to the heavens, and vengeance is soon to be taken on those whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil. The prophets in olden times saw Christ and conversed with him. Paul saw him, John saw him on the Isle of Patmos, and he has been seen since by all true prophets of the Lord; and God reveals to them his will. God must speak personally to his prophets; nothing short of this will answer. A revelation to another is not a revelation to me. God reveals to his saints his purposes, and thus confirmed revelations to his apostles in the olden times. What are we to understand by the everlasting gospel in the text? Is it hell and damnation? No. Is it devils and damned spirits? No. Is it blasts from the infernal regions? No. Is it the wailings of those who are said to be lost for ever? No. When the everlasting gospel is mentioned, do our thoughts on awful subjects roll? No. The gospel is good news to all sinners,—to the vilest of the vile,—yea, even to the ‘Chowder’ editor. He may repent, and, supplicating mercy on his marrow-bones, obtain it.

0071 57

“‘Not the righteous, but sinners, Jesus came to call.’ God has established his kingdom in the world, and he calls upon all to become subjects of that kingdom, and enjoy the benefits thereof. ‘God is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe.’ Those who will not believe—who walk in the way of the ungodly, never enjoy the privileges of God's people; but live miserably, die miserably, and are punished as long as God thinks best for their good, in the world to come. God calls upon men to believe the everlasting gospel,—to come unto him. He does not advise them to elongate their faces, to go to the altar, to relate a self-reproaching and lengthy experience, enumerating the sins they have committed, or contributing to raise 2000 or 3000 dollars for the benefit of those who howl doleful tidings of dark despair, and who do not preach the gospel. He advises them to come boldly to the throne of grace; and although they may be steeped to the lips in iniquity, to put a cheerful courage on. Such is the language of inspiration. God confers blessings upon sinners in this world, and in the next an eternity of happiness. He is faithful that has promised. The prophets of old were men of similar passions to the rest of the world. Noah got drunk, and committed a worse crime. David committed murder and adultery. Moses slew an Egyptian, and buried him in the D 3 0072 58 sand. Peter cursed and swore, and another disciple drew his sword and cut off an ear of his supposed enemy. Solomon had lots of concubines, and the whole of them had many glaring faults, and yet the Almighty chose such imperfect men to perform his work—to preach the gospel; and if the crimes of these distinguished men detract not from their worth, why should the faults supposed of Elder Adams make null and void his pretensions to an ambassador of heaven? Many priests of the present day consider themselves pinks of purity, and despise others, but they are frequently guilty of great crimes, running after strange women, and performing acts that should only be howled in the desert air. They are not what they are cracked up to be, and it is high time that they should be dealt with according to their deserts. But the period is not far distant, when all hypocritical hirelings will have to scatter, and far better men supply their places; when every temple of error in the world will be demolished, and on their ruins the banner of the cross will be unfurled, and triumphantly wave, whilst reiterated shouts from millions of redeemed souls will proclaim the triumph of the everlasting gospel.

“I would, in conclusion, allude to the cow-hiding affair that came off on Friday last. I never wilfully injured any man, and have been peacefully 0073 59 disposed towards all mankind. Desiring to make a little money by play acting, in order to pay my debts, &c., I resumed the profession in which I am not a novice, and performed a few nights at the National. The caricature in ‘The Public Chowder,’ published by Mr. Eastabrook, was sufficient to excite the anger of a man who had any regard for his reputation. With the exception of the contemptible thing alluded to, no paper in Boston said aught against me, but rather bestowed praise; besides, ‘The Public Chowder’ grossly misrepresented my sermon. The peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, fully justified my giving him a bonâ fide cow-hiding for his folly.

“Paul says, ‘No chastisement for the present is joyous, but grievous; but afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ It is to be hoped Mr, Eastabrook and all other economisers of truth, will take heed unto their ways that they sin not with their tongue,—that they will not injure those who never have injured them. For the falsehoods and ridicule in the newspapers the law affords the aggrieved party but little redress; and if a man who controls a paper is at liberty to say what he pleaseth, without regard to the feelings of another, then it is equally plain that cow-hides, pistols, dirks, fists, and other weapons will come in fashion. But God forbid such results! Jesus Christ once went into the holy temple 0074 60 which the Jews converted into a den of thieves, and with a whip of more cords than one, made the rebels scatter in double quick time. The way they run was a caution to sinners. Served them right. You perceive I am not the first preacher who flogged his enemy. A man is sometimes justified in proceeding to unlawful means to obtain satisfaction for the wrongs he has received. Amen.” [Errors excepted.— Reporter. ]

The church always, of course, with her usual deference to the powers that be, throws open her doors on the appointed occasions of fast and thanksgiving respectively. Many of the Dissenting chapels, however, will not even do this, simply because the State desires it. All are not, however, so contumacious, and in one, where I believe the Socinian heresy was prevalent, the preacher took for his text not a verse of the Bible, but the heading of the proclamation: “God bless the State of Massachusetts.” Talking of texts, it so happened that the said State of Massachusetts, neglecting the calendar, thought proper to appoint the fast-day in Easter week. A clergyman of the author's acquaintance of course had a service on the occasion, as he would have had at any rate considering the season, but took the liberty of rectifying the slight theological mistake made by the authorities, by taking for his text on the fast -day, 0075 61 “Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast. ”

There was one thing that struck me as very lamentable in the States, and that was, from the latitudinarian independence of opinion, which too much prevails,—perhaps from the nature of the constitution of society,—to see families, who ought to have walked together to one common house of prayer, separate at the door, and go, one perhaps to church, another to a Socinian meeting, another to a Baptist chapel, and so on. A friend of mine, himself a zealous churchman, complained sadly to me that his wife and daughters, attracted by the showy qualities of an Unitarian preacher, would often walk off to his place, instead of being contented with the sound, if less brilliant, ministrations of their regular clergyman. He asked me if I knew of any strong but compendious argument against the awful heresy which was ensnaring them, and which is hurrying its tens and hundreds of thousands of immortal souls to perdition throughout the Union, and, indeed, wherever it extends its pestilential upas shade. I could not refer him to any accessible treatise at the moment, and the only thing upon the subject which a well-informed clergyman whom I consulted could refer me to, was a small tract, containing not a powerful assertion of truth against error, but a feeble sort of apology for the 0076 62 church, by way of humble appeal, as it were in her favour to the holders of these God-dishonouring soul-destroying tenets. In fact, it was so feeble that I scarce thought it worth while to recommend it.

Oh, that some champion of the faith, some “eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures,” might be induced to put forth, with the Divine assistance, something powerfully and popularly convincing for cheap circulation, on the controversy. I decidedly think that Socinianism or Unitarianism, as its supporters like it to be called, is one of the great moral plague-spots of the United States, as every where else where it is enabled to take root. With its subtle ministration to the pride of fallen man, its compromise between the desperate wickedness of the heart, and the making a fair show in the flesh,—its Sadducean leaven, its exaltation of unsanctified human reason above the faith of the gospel, and its general ministration to human self-sufficiency, founded on its denial of the Divinity of Christ and His Atonement, it pours a corrupting poison through the vitals of society, ineffably more perilous, I really believe, than is presented by the innovations of Romanism, or the darkness of heathen debasement.

It may admit of considerable question whether the theological writings of a man like Dr. Channing, 0077 63 — owing to his high moral character, their acknowledged ability, and the peculiar subtlety with which they are calculated to take hold on the unwary, are not even more perilous in their influence than the writings of Tom Paine himself. The latter disgusts men of decent refinement by the breadth and nakedness of his blasphemies,—the other deceives more certainly, and therefore more perilously, by “destroying the foundations” in the guise of an Angel of Light * . Against such pestilential influence, the calm unwavering testimony

* It is somewhat remarkable that I should have mentioned the name of Tom Paine in connection with this subject and this city, seeing that since the above was written, and whilst these sheets were receiving their last corrections for the press, I find by the papers that a public salute of thirty guns was fired in Boston in honour of the birthday of the unhappy God-defying wretch just referred to. Hear it, ye lovers of Republics and Republican principles! Hear it, ye opponents of “state-paid establishments!” Hear it, ye supporters of education merely secular! Hear it, and let your ears tingle if ye have any particle of pretension to religion or decency left in ye!

America is a Republic, and America has no “state-paid establishment.” Boston, moreover, is the most pre-eminent of her cities for the diffusion of what is called education, since 40,000 l. or 50,000 l. a year are spent here on educational objects, and what is the result? Why, the awful one, that here in the 19th century—here, not amongst the desperadoes of the West; not amongst the men of the bowie-knife and the seven-barrelled revolver, but in decent, (?) orderly, moral, sober, educated Boston, the birthday of the most horrible infidel that ever blasphemed his Creator is held in honoured remembrance as a sacred thing—a something to be set apart as the subject of demonstrations of public triumph and rejoicing.

Shades of the pilgrim fathers! was it for this that your lonely keel first sought the New England strand? was it with such a prospect as this that ye raised your wild chant when

“The echoing pines of the forest rang To the anthem of the free?”

Alas, Alas! in the fierce exuberance of your enthusiasm ye freed yourselves from apostolical order, and your children worship the memory of the blasphemer and the infidel! Sure I am, however, that there are some righteous there who must mourn heavily in secret over the deep degradation of their city—over an exhibition sufficient, but for the prayers of such mourners, to call down some signal mark of the vengeance of the Most High! The roar of the cannon that did honour to such a festival must have fallen on the cars of each faithful follower of Christ, like the dull booming of minute guns announcing a heavy national calamity.

0078 64 of the church is under God, the only sure safeguard, as it is against all other modes of heresy whatsoever. In the United States, in fact, she occupies, if possible, a more interesting position than she does in any other country. At home, for instance, though her station be one of comparatively more commanding authority, she still appears to the less deeply thinking at least, as only one element of stability amongst many. Our monarchy, our peerage, and our inflexible and incorruptible courts of justice, all come in with such for a distinct share of admiration and esteem; because it is not every one who possesses sufficient power of analysis to refer the compactness of the whole edifice political to the influence of the body ecclesiastical:—an influence nevertheless constant and distinctly traceable, regulating, superintending, modifying, and sanctifying the universal action of 0079 65 state affairs, running through their woof like a golden thread, and crowning the social edifice with a spiritual entablature whose masonry is divine, and whereon is prominently engraven, “Holiness to the Lord.” But in the States the case is different. Here, amidst institutions based upon the ever-shifting sands of the voice of the people,—a voice which we know as regards the Great Founder of the church Himself, was ready at one time to cry “Hosanna,” and at another, “Crucify him,” the church erects her meek but dignified front, at once a witness for truth, and an example of all that is firm and stable, and enduring,—of all that is allied to what is most venerable in time, or most illustrious in eternity,—of all that contains life within it, as the special gift of Christ, himself the alone undying principle of vitality, which the wrath of man cannot reach, and against which even the gates of hell shall not prevail. However, therefore, mere worldly politicians may deny or ridicule the assertion, the fact stands alike unchanged and unchangeable, that with the church in America rests, under God, the hope of America, socially and politically no less than morally. Hence the paramount importance of her mission; hence the requirement incumbent upon her, above all other churches I should have said, were not the duty alike enjoined upon all, of not masking or curtailing one iota of Catholic 0080 66 truth in accordance with the breath of popular opinion: and therefore, with all my love and admiration for her, I cannot help respectfully breathing a tone of regret that, amongst the few alterations which she has considered it necessary to introduce in the liturgy of her beloved Anglican mother, she has thought fit to expunge the Athanasian creed.

Is it not to be feared that there was a little of the fear of man here?

We know how much Dissenters, particularly the more heretical, dislike (to use the mildest expression) the Athanasian creed because of what they are pleased to call its “damnatory clauses!” Now, if these cannot be “proved by most certain warrant of Scripture,” then the sooner the creed is dismissed from its place in the Prayer Book the better. But when it asserts no more, (using the very language of genericism employed by our Lord and his Apostles, when He sent Judas amongst others forth as a sheep amongst wolves, or as when they addressed members of churches in which the grossest irregularities were known to prevail as elect of God, called to be saints)—when it asserts no more, I say, using the language of genericism, and reserving of course all special exceptions under the Divine sovereignty, than Scripture itself does when it says “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be 0081 67 damned;” why should any refuse to unfurl so majestic a standard of truth? Simply because those whose unsoundness is thereby made manifest take refuge in vilifying and proscribing it. I think it is also to be regretted that some of the most touching petitions towards the close of the litany, commencing with “O Christ hear us,” and ending with “As we do put our trust in thee,” should be bracketted off in order that they may be omitted at the discretion of the officiating minister.

In that passage of the majestic Te Deum, “Thine honourable, true, and only Son,” as it occurs in our version, the word “honourable” is altered to “adorable.” Perhaps this may be intended as a species of protest against Socinianism, but the cadence at least suffers severely by the alteration; neither can I at least think such alterations as “who” for “which,” and “those” for “them” an improvement. The fine and noble declaration “Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb,” has been refined into “Thou didst humble thyself to be born of a virgin,” greatly, I venture to think, to the detriment of the real force of the passage, and too much in accordance it may be, with the sickly sentimentality of affected refinement so often commented upon by writers on the States.

The collects are the same as in our own liturgy. The lessons are somewhat altered, and the Apocrypha 0082 68 omitted, except on one or two holy days. One or two sentences only (Hab. ii. 20, Mal. i. 11, and Ps. xix. 14) are prefixed to the commencement of the order of Morning Prayer. The Gloria Patria may be omitted at the end of each of the Psalms, except the concluding one, where the Gloria in Excelsis may be used instead at the discretion of the officiating minister.

In the Apostles' Creed the words “He descended into hell” may be omitted, or “He went into the place of departed spirits,” substituted. The Nicene may be read instead of the Apostles' Creed, at both morning and evening prayer. At the latter, a few verses from Ps. ciii. are put in the room of the “Nunc Dimittis.” The collect for aid against perils is slightly altered.

I should have mentioned also that in the Litany false delicacy would seem to have been at work again to alter that awful petition of dread solemnity “From fornication and all other deadly sin, good Lord deliver us,” into “From all inordinate and sinful affections.”

Instead of the prayers for the queen and royal family, occurs a petition for all Christian rulers and magistrates. There is a special prayer for the president in the general order of morning and evening prayer.

To the prayers and thanksgiving for particular occasions, several have been added, particularly a 0083 69 prayer for a person going to sea, and thanksgiving for his safe return; likewise prayers for meetings of convention, and malefactors after condemnation.

To the reading of the commandments in the communion service, is added the summary of the Divine law, of love as delivered by our Lord. The collects for the queen's majesty are of course omitted.

At the consecration of the elements, the following form of oblation is annexed:—

“Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make free, before thy Divine majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.” To this is added an invocation chiefly compiled from the first prayer after communicating as used in our service.

The baptismal services are almost exactly the same as our own.

In the Catechism, the godfathers are termed “sponsors.” The word “queen,” in the question on duty to our neighbour, is put “civil 0084 70 authority.” In the answer to the question, “What is the inward part or thing signified (in the Lord's Supper)? the word “spiritually” is substituted for “verily and indeed.” Of course, in each the Catholic (not Romish) doctrine of a real spiritual presence in the elements is asserted—in the American form, perhaps a little more distinctly.

The Matrimonial Service is reduced to the abbreviated form used by many of our clergy, great part of the introductory address and the concluding Psalms and Exhortations being omitted. Also the expression, “With my body I thee worship,” at the placing of the ring. Marriages are either by banns or by license, according to the laws, which are different in different States. Into the Service for the Visitation of the Sick is introduced, on behalf of all present, the following beautiful prayer, which appears to be compiled from some of those in dear Jeremy Taylor's Exercises of Holy Dying, and a blessed compilation it is.

“O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered, make us, we beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let thy Holy Spirit lead us through this vale of misery, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives; that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, 0085 71 we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience, in the communion of the catholic church, in the confidence of a certain faith, in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, in favour with thee our God, and in perfect charity with all the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

In the “Order for the Burial of the Dead,” the 39th and 90th Psalms are combined into one anthem. The same solemnly beautiful lesson from 1 Cor. xv. 20, is read as with us; likewise the sentences at the grave; but at the committal of the body, for the words, “in sure and certain hope,” &c. are substituted the following, “looking for the general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body, according,” &c.

The last petition but one, instead of “for that it hath pleased thee to deliver our brother,” has the words, “we give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours, and we beseech thee that we 0086 72 with all those,” &c. The prayer then concludes similarly to our own.

Altogether we may venture, perhaps, to say that the American church has rendered this solemnly beautiful service singularly free from all liability to deception on any ground whatsoever.

The Prayers to be used at Sea are, with very little alteration, the same as our own.

Then follows a form for the Visitation of Prisoners, taken, I believe, from the Prayer Book of the Church of Ireland. This is succeeded by a thanksgiving to be used on the occasion annually appointed by Government; and what is a most admirable and comfortable thing for members of the church, particularly in a country like America, there are two complete sets of forms subjoined for morning and evening prayer in families.

There are likewise ten Selections of Psalms, to be used instead of the Psalms for the day, at the discretion of the minister. This arrangement is an extremely convenient one in churches where there are three services. A limited discretionary power is allowed the minister in the alteration of both psalms and lessons.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the services of the 5th of November, the Martyrdom of King Charles, &c., are of necessity left out. That the Examination for Ash Wednesday should likewise have been expunged, seems a thing to be regretted. 0087 73 The concluding petitions of that office are, however, annexed for that day to the Litany by the Rubric.

The number of the Articles is retained, though the XXIst, for local reasons, it is alleged, has been omitted.

The reference to the Athanasian Creed is omitted in Article VIII. A clause of reservation is annexed to Article XXXV (in the Homilies). In Article XXXVI, for “time of Edward VI.” is put, “General Convention of this church in 1792.”

Article XXXVII is altered as follows: “The power of the civil magistrate extendeth to all men, as well clergy as laity, in all things temporal, but hath no authority in things purely spiritual. And we hold it to be the duty of all men who are professors of the Gospel, to pay respectful obedience to the civil authority regularly and legitimately constituted.”

The offices for the Consecration of Bishops and Ordaining of Priests and Deacons are the same, with the exception of the administration of the oaths of supremacy and obedience to the Archbishop.

Our friends in the States enjoy the desirable addition to their Prayer Book of an excellent office for the consecration of a church and institution of an incumbent.

The metrical version of the Psalms consists VOL. II. E 0088 74 for the most part, of extracts from our own and other approved models, apparently selected with great judgment.

There is also an authorised collection of about 212 classified hymns adapted to the Fasts and Festivals of the church, free, as far as my humble opinion goes, from all extravagance of thought or diction, and most of them well known in England. This comfortable arrangement obviates the inconvenience so often complained of at home of so many churches and chapels using different collections.

In the diocese of Quebec and Toronto, however, there is an authorised version, to be had at the depositaries of the Church Society and district agents. Perhaps it might be expected that I should say something here on the American pulpit. The fact is, I had no opportunity, during my sojourn in the States, of hearing any preacher of reputed celebrity as such. Dr. Croswell, whose church I almost invariably attended, was clear, calm, and instructive, and his curate appeared to possess a mind of considerable ardency, though I thought somewhat too highly tinged with the leaven of Oxford. Mr. Ingraham Kip, of Albany, enjoys a position of high respectability as a preacher and as a writer. I can only say if you have never read his “Christmas Holydays in Rome,” the sooner you get it and read it the better.

0089 75

The Convention is doubtless a great element in the efficiency of the church in the American States. Its journals are regularly published, I believe, by the respectable and well known firm of Stanford and Swords, of New York, who may be considered the “Rivingtons” of America. The whole history of this important branch of the Catholic Church is also, to be had in one large volume. E 2

CHAPTER IV.

Harvard University, Cambridge—College buildings—Public recitation—Socinian leaven—Auburn cemetery—Monumental dogkennel—Suburb of Roxbury—Pretty villas—Tremont hotel, Boston—A hotel proprietor's politeness to the author—Banyard's panorama of the Mississippi—The artist mistaken for a coiner—Fire-engines in Boston—Circulating libraries—Print shops—Cheap prints of naval engagements—British vessels engaged represented as larger than their antagonists—The reverse notoriously the fact—Hints towards retaining our seamen in our service—Loyalty of those serving in United States' vessels of war—Rejoicings for victories in Mexico.

Harvard University is, of course, an interesting place to visit. The uninitiated at home are sometimes heard to talk of “Cambridge College;” but this may be literally called so, seeing it is a college situated in the suburb of Cambridge, about four miles from Boston. You approach this village by one of the long wooden causeways which connect the city of Boston with the main land. Omnibuses go thither every half hour. They are immensely large and 0091 77 long, hold from about thirty to six-and-thirty people, are set very high, and are driven, some of them, six-in-hand—and extremely well driven too. The college buildings put one a little in mind of Catherine Hall, or some portions of Catherine Hall, with a sprinkle of King's—something like a truncated copy of the celebrated chapel of that college on the banks of Cam, “fixed off” with transepts, doing duty for a library. Here the zeal of our American friends is displayed in a most praiseworthy manner, as it is not long since the former library was destroyed by fire; and yet they have not only collected a new one, but managed to stock it with some 70,000 or 80,000 volumes and pamphlets. They are thankful for all donations, down to that of the humblest magazine. Of course in so novel a collection one could not expect to find many literary curiosities, or works of recondite value; they have, however, a fine copy of Audubon's magnificent work, in splendid condition. One of the sub-librarians, who kindly showed me over the place, was very obliging, but, unhappily for himself, a decided Socinian, and extremely fond of dragging in his religious—or rather his irreligious—conceits and fancies in course of conversation; but having no time to meet his cavils in any way likely to be useful to him, I managed to waive all controversy.

I was present at one of the public recitations, 0092 78 which are held, I believe, three times a year. Mr. Everett, who was formerly ambassador to Great Britain, presided as principal. He wore his university cap and some sort of gown, but I could not tell whether that of an M.A. of Oxford or not. None but the students actually declaiming wore gowns, nor do they on any other occasions. The hall was well filled with a highly respectable-looking assemblage, including a large proportion of the fairer part of creation. The exercises were, on the whole, very creditably delivered; and the Latin and Greek seemed to be good, as far as I had an opportunity of judging. I noticed also, with some surprise, an absence of all exclusive praise of republican institutions in the subjects chosen, which were of the most general character. In fact, everything witnessed at this university might have been considered as of a pleasing character, were it not that here also Socinianism is at work with its rank and deadly leaven. It is due, however, to the authorities to say, that notwithstanding this prevailing taint, they are ready to enforce respect in those of their students who attend on the services of the church. Some young men, who behaved themselves indecorously while my excellent friend Mr. Hoppin was ministering in his church hard by the college, were severely rebuked, and I believe, in one or two instances, rusticated. It is scarcely necessary to say, however, 0093 79 that the attendance of all the young men, on any mode of worship, is purely a voluntary act. Education, without religion, flourishes here in as fatal a luxuriance as the enemies of God and godliness could desire.

Not far from Cambridge is the extensive and handsome cemetery of Auburn, with its fine, lofty, and massive gateway of solid granite. A large chapel is building within for the accommodation of those who may use the burial service. The edifice is lofty and rather striking in its appearance; but I did not much like the aspect of the interior, which was finished with a sort of claret-coloured plaister. Some of the monuments in this cemetery are rather pretty, particularly one in marble of an infant of three or four years old asleep upon a pillow. The effect, however, would, I think, have been better had the drapery been more flowing, the effigy of the child being in a common frock and trowsers. By way of one rather singular ornament for a tombstone, I observed the marble statue of a favourite Newfoundland dog couchant. The animal was sufficiently well carved, but I did not admire his being provided with a neat zinc dog-kennel, painted white, to cover him in bad weather: one might as well put a sentry-box for a marble statue of a man, or better.

Cambridge is a neat village, with its clean-looking 0094 80 detached cottages and villas almost all painted white, with green jalousies; but the suburb of Roxbury is the most pleasing about Boston. Here the wealthy citizens have chosen, in many instances, their suburban retreat, and have vied with one another in the variety and character of their villas and cottages. With much, of course, that even the most friendly observer would call cockneyfied, there are really many beautiful models of residences; and the situations being in some respects highly favoured by nature, consisting of numerous ups and downs amidst a succession of rocky knolls and eminences, admit of great variety both in the selection of sites and the arrangement of the grounds. The unaffected hospitality which I have experienced here, particularly from the excellent clergyman and my respected friend Mr. Wainwright, whose English origin is always a source of affectionate reminiscence to him, will never be effaced from my memory.

Boston is rather a dear city to live in, owing to the wealth, I presume, of so many of its inhabitants. You do not see, however, anything like a great display in private equipages here. The Tremont Hotel is known for its elegance and extent to all visitors to the city. It is situated in Tremont Street, not far from the generally-admired common, which I was surprised, however, 0095 81 to find Dr. Tyng, of Philadelphia, in his work on England, ranking as superior to, I think, Hyde Park. There are also many other hotels, of course, where one can be very well accommodated for about a dollar and a half a day.

One little incident may interest my readers as illustrative of American manners. At the hotel where I abode I had endeavoured to conduc myself as a quiet, decent man best might, and, it seems, had thereby won upon the especial regard of one of the junior proprietors, who, on my taking my leave to go into a private boarding-house (one at three dollars a week will be just barely passable at Boston, but as high as five you may do well), was pleased to say, “We liked your manners very much, sir, while you was in the house; and if you like to come in at the dinner hour any day, and take yours with us, we shall be most happy to see you and not charge you.” Of course I thanked him most cordially for his very kind expressions of good will; but I need scarcely assure my readers that I never availed myself of his obliging invitation, as my English feeling would not, of course, let me dine at an hotel without paying “the lawing,” so long at least as I possessed the means of doing so.

I went during my stay to see Banvard's large panorama of the scenery of the Mississippi, which was then exhibiting at Boston, and, according to E 3 0096 82 the statement of the handbills, was painted on three miles of canvas. It may have been so, for it took two hours and a half in almost continually unrolling. It was very tolerably executed, considering that the author was very young, and had robably had little opportunity of studying artistic effect. He seemed evidently to have improved as he advanced; the view of New Orleans, with which he commenced, being the least well painted (at least as I thought) of the whole; but some of the latter scenes very fairly done indeed. My excellent friend Mr. Searle, who kindly accompanied me, had been a good way up the river, and bore witness to the fidelity of the representation. The work was really a gigantic one for the artist to have undertaken: it occupied him six years in bringing to perfection; and during that time he must necessarily have encountered great perils and displayed much personal courage. He did much of the work among the lone islands of the mighty stream, paddling from one to another in a bark canoe, sleeping in or under trees at night, frequently dependent almost entirely on his gun for subsistence, and attended by no companion save a faithful little dog, who, by its barking at night, give warning of the unpleasant vicinity of any alligators. He has doubtless made his fortune, however, by the work. He was offered, I was told, 50,000 dollars for 0097 83 it very shortly after its completion, but refused it, as he was filling his exhibition room every night at half a dollar a head. He personally attends and enlivens every scene with anecdote. He has also published a full guide to the painting, and, as he very justly observed, your cruize of two hours and a half with him, is better than an actual one up the river, in so far as this, that since the voyage takes three days and nights, you have to be asleep when passing some of the finest scenes of the journey; whereas you see them all here, diversified with dioramic effects of sunset and moonlight.

He relates a humorous story of the first discovery of the work on which he was engaged at the time when its existence was a secret to any human being besides himself. After taking his preliminary sketches, he had chosen St. Louis, I think, as the scene of his final operations in working his sketches on to the canvas. Here he knocked up a wooden edifice, and laboured for some six months in entire seclusion, unknown to, and unvisited by, any one. Some counterfeit money, however, getting into circulation about that time, gave suspicion of a gang of coiners, and the secrecy of his operations directed the myrmidons of public justice to his Trophonian cave as the head-quarters of the supposed transgressors. Accordingly, he found one morning his quarters 0098 84 beat up by these alguazils of the West, and was compelled to prove to them that, instead of counterfeiting the gold of the land, he was only engaged in making a Pactolus to himself of the river.

Mr. Banvard's delineation of the steamers were admirable for their fidelity—particularly that of the Peytona taking in wood by night in one of the concluding views. Persons acquainted with the river are said to recognise every vessel as an actual portrait. The curious hurricane-house, deck, and spider-like upper gear of the engine, and all the other singular paraphernalia of an American steamer, are given with the most accurate fidelity. Revenge is always wrong, and therefore not to be commended; but Mr. B. has taken a somewhat humorous one on the commander of one of these vessels, who made what he considered an overcharge upon him, by placing him last in a race between some of these vessels. Altogether, the lecture, as I may almost term it, with which he accompanied the exhibition in an easy, conversational manner, combined to render it one of the most interesting that I had ever attended, and caused me to regret that I did not meet the artist in private society, since a hospitable friend of mine, who delights in entertaining persons of any literary distinction, and who is intimate with the amiable Audubon, and many other men of science, 0099 85 had, I afterwards found, recently had him at his house, and been much taken with his conversation. As he is now exhibiting in Europe, I should recommend any one who wishes a treat to go and see his performance. The sight of the majestic cathedral rocks in the upper part of the river, with their wonderful ranges of natural arched windows, both of what we should call Gothic and Saxon architecture, are alone worth the visit.

The fire-engines in Boston are very long and large, and are drawn by 100 or 200 people, holding on, two and two, to a protracted tow rope. The fire-brigade here is composed of a number of young men serving in stores and offices. They have, or used to have, a salary of about 30 dollars a year each, and are, I believe, exempt from serving in the militia. I think, however, that our own system of having horses to the engines, who can go to the scene of mischief full gallop, carrying the fireman along with them in the carriage, is far preferable.

Boston contains some very convenient circulating libraries, where cheap reprints of almost every popular work on either side of the water can be had in an interminable series.

I was amused at observing in the print-shops, that in some of the cheap coloured views which professed to pourtray any of the naval actions in the war with Great Britain, the English vessel 0100 86 was represented as a heavy double banked frigate, appearing to uninitiated eyes almost like a two-decker, whilst the American ship was reduced to the size of a very moderate sloop of war or corvette; whereas every body at all conversant with the matter is perfectly aware that the reverse was actually the case, and that many of the so called frigates which took our smaller vessels of that denomination, were, in reality, of very greatly superior force. This fact cannot be kept back, let them conceal their armament as they will. The real credit due to them was, not in their taking our comparatively small and slightly armed vessels, but in their building such heavy ships and calling them frigates; the disparity of force in their favour being frequently to be compared to that of a slight lad against a heavy and full-grown man. For, be it remembered, that whatever be the superior moral equipment of our navy, and however animating to bravery the spirit of loyalty may be, and of course is, yet that where light metal is playing against heavy spars and scantling, whilst a battery of far greater ponderosity is in action against light spars and a comparatively weak hull, all the bravery in the world cannot make up the difference. But we have seen our error of late years, and built heavier frigates. All that is wanting now, under Providence, is that we make it worth the while of our best seamen to remain 0101 87 in our service, by holding out to them the same inducements which the Americans offer to gain them over to theirs, and Britain, as heretofore, must ever, please God, remain mistress of the seas. What we want specially is, more attention to our warrant officers—that most important class of our gallant naval defenders. In the United States service they are not discharged as the ordinary seamen are, when a ship is paid off, but are kept on as a sort of staff, and the nucleus of a fresh ship's company. To the credit, however, of our seamen be it spoken, that when the Oregon question seemed likely to bring on hostilities, the English sailors in the service of the States made a formal declaration, that they were willing to be led against any other foe, but that they could not and would not fire a single shot against their beloved country. Let us hope and pray, however, that the time may soon come, when both nations shall “learn war no more.”

Whilst I was in Boston, the citizens were carrying on a sort of rejoicing for the victories in Mexico. The proceedings did not appear to be of a very enthusiastic character, nor the illuminations extensive, though there was a tolerable display of fire-works from the top of the Custom House, and the people were pleased and orderly in their demeanour. Many Americans, however, highly 0102 88 disapproved of the war; and I have heard one say, that his countrymen had no business to have entered upon it, and that he hoped they would get well punished for their pains.

CHAPTER V.

Leave Boston for Albany—Kind offer of letters of introduction—Summary view of society of the higher classes in the States—Unfair representations by some English travellers—An American's idea of the naval superiority of his country—The author's reply—State of New York and its legislature—Proceedings opened with prayers—Irreverent conduct of one of the members—American Republicans far “ahead” of Canadian Radicals both as to religion and “loyalty”—Readiness of Americans to turn a business hint to profit—The author causes the establishment of an extemporaneous circulating library—Ready access to the public ones—A liberal bookseller's store—Rev. Ingraham Kip's church—An American complains of English churlishness in churches—His mode of revenging himself—The Van Rensellaer manor-house and estate—Wholesale rascality of the tenantry—The executive too weak to enforce the law—Appalling picture of public morals—A decidedly “clever” purchaser—Magnificent river steamers—American boast concerning them well founded—Fitted with bridal state bed-chambers—A wedding trip by them fashionable—Hotels and boarding-houses—Preference given to these last even by some married clergymen—Strange to our English notions—Advantages and disadvantages—Clergymen in the States not ordained on titles—Probable prospects of a young clergyman of talent—Pulpit ability a sure passport to preferment—Quotation from the “Times” on 0104 90 remissness at home in this respect—Tribute to Henry Melvill by an American—His astonishment at this distinguished preacher remaining unpreferred—Neglect of such men an element of weakness in our church—Hopeful promise of better things in this respect—The Bishop of Oxford—Known sentiments of the Archbishop of Canterbury—The Church of England wants to be as eminently a preaching as she is a praying church—She would then infallibly bear down all opposition.

As soon as the weather was sufficiently open in the spring, to admit of travelling by the lakes and canals, I left Boston for Albany, armed by my kind friends with a number of valuable introductions to bishops, and other “men of mark” in the direction in which my journeyings were likely to lead me. These were the more esteemed because entirely unsolicited. In fact, I think I may say, that any Englishman who is fortunate enough to have a good introduction or two at first, and shows himself disposed to take a friendly view of things, and not needlessly to cavil at the institutions of the country, would find himself provided in the States with more introductions than he could well avail himself of.

In the society such as that in which the Author had the pleasure of mixing, everything that is usually reported of by travellers as offensive, will be found entirely to disappear, insomuch that he cannot help thinking, that those who have passed through the land and found little save matter for undiscriminating abuse, must either have been 0105 91 very ill-natured, very much prejudiced, or could not have had access to the best society. There was real attachment to the mother country and her time-honoured institutions, expressed by many of those with whom the Author was happy enough to have associated, as well in Boston as elsewhere. Servants were attentive, obliging, and respectful, and did not expect to sit down at the same table with their masters, and gentlemen did not sit with their coats off and with their heels higher than their heads in the presence of ladies. Indeed, there were many families, where shutting out minor or external concomitants of locality, or neighbourhood, one would not have known that one was not visiting in England.

I am far from saying but what all the more offensive features of society narrated by travellers to the disadvantage of the Americans, may and do occur on the borders of civilization, but in the older portions of the Union, little or nothing of the sort will be met with. As unfair is it in many travellers to speak of the whole country from the state of society on the borders of Texas, for instance, as it would be for an American writer to describe English manners generally from a visit to the miners and weavers of Lancashire or Yorkshire.

I certainly met with a great disposition to enquire into English institutions, but with little or 0106 92 none of the impertinent inquisitiveness usually attributed to the natives of the Union. Neither was there exhibited, at least to me, that overweening conceit of their own superiority above every nation on the globe, so ordinarily attributed to the Americans. Even amidst the accidental companions of my travels, I never remember, except on one occasion, to have encountered any thing like the exhibition of such a feeling. At the time I refer to, I was conversing with a very obliging stranger, who, however took occasion to exhibit the favourite delusion of the nation on the subject of their superiority in naval affairs to Great Britain. Admitting the grandeur and brilliancy of her nautical achievements, he said, apparently quite in a friendly manner, “I cannot think, therefore, how it comes that in the war we invariably gained the victory over the British in naval actions!” With equal good humour I replied, “I am sure I cannot tell either; but Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, might, perhaps, have been able to throw some light on the subject were he alive!” My friend said no more on that point.

The foolish and wicked practice of duelling is not, I would fondly venture to hope, anything like so rife in the Eastern States as it is farther west. Ridicule is one weapon which may perhaps sometimes be wielded with effect against what has of course, moreover, to be condemned on ineffably 0107 93 higher grounds. The following morceat tends, as I venture to think, to place the custom in so exquisitely absurd a light, that its doing so must plead my apology foz introducing this uncoloured account of a coloured duel:—

“A duel between two darkies—a regular built affair, conducted according to the most strict and punctilious provisions of the code of honour—came off one morning last week. The fight took place with pistols of the most approved fashion, at sunrise, on a small branch of the Metairie road. We do not know what the origin of the difficulty was, except that one of the parties, to use the phrase of one of the spectators, ‘was crossed in lub by de oder, and dat him hona must hab satisfacshun.’

“We have learned, from one who was present at the combat, the particulars as they transpired. They were substantially as follows.

“After having taken their stands, one of the seconds noticed that, owing to their positions, the sunbeams set his principal a winking and rolling his eyes. This was sufficient ground for interferfering, and he called out to the other second with—

“‘I say, nigga, I puts my weto on dat posishun. It's agin de rules ob all de codes of hona dat I be eber seen. De frection ob de sun shines rader to 0108 94 severe and makes my principal roll him eye altogeder too much.’

“‘Wy, wy, look here; didn't we chuck up a dollar for de choice ob ground? and didn't I get him myself?’

“‘I Yes, I knows you did; but den fair play's a juba, and I'se no notion ob seein' my fren composed upon, and lose all de adwantage.’

“‘Well, nigga, I'se no notion too; I'se jus as good right to hab no notion as you is, and I 'sists on settlin' the matter jus as we is—and—’

“At this junction, a friendly cloud settled the matter at once, by stepping in between the sun and the belligerents. The two first causes took their position, and all the little preliminaries being seetled, each one took his pistol ready cocked, from his second. Both manifested a tolerable degree of spunk, although a blueish paleness spread itself over their black cheeks. The second who was to give out the fatal order which might send them out of this world now took his ground. Raising his voice, he began—

“‘Gemmen, your time am cum.’

“Both signified their assent.

“‘Is you ready? Fiah! one—two—three.’

“Bang, pop, went both pistols at once, one ball raising the dust in the middle of the road, while the other took a ‘slantindicular’ course in among 0109 95 the bystanders, fortunately without hitting any one.

“It was now time to interpose, and one of the seconds set himself about it. After a little conversation, the challenged darkey stepped forward and said to his antagonist—

“‘Nigga, is you satisfied.?’

“‘I is.’

“‘So is I, and I'se glad to got off so. Next time dey catches dis nigga out on such a foolish exhibition as dis, dey'll hab to fotch me, dat dey will for sartin.’

“‘Dem's my sentiments ezactly,’ retorted the other. ‘When your onmortal instrument of def went off, I declar I thought I was a gone child; but I'se so happy now; let's shake hands, and go back to our abocations.’

“In five minutes' time, all hands—enemies, darkies, friends, whites and all—were on the road home to work, perfectly satisfied with the proceedings of the morning.”

The “coloured gentlemen” of Canada appear to be not a little inclined to follow the example set by their brethren in the States. The following seemed likely to have led to another hostile affair. How it terminated I know not.

0110 96

Copy verbatim et literatim of the Challenge.

“ Toronto April 22 1847

“Mr Mudy I take this oppertunity to write you a few lines to now of you Sir What is it you have nown of my Character that you should undertake to scanderlize my Character for I assure you Sir you and no other man or person on that Boat in the City Can say anything about my moral Character of dishonesty in any shape or form for I stand Sir in defiance of any man to prove or say anything dispecful of my Character more than this I am a man of light passions But Sir I am a poor man has to work for my liveing But Sir if a man Rob me of my Character my alls are gone and should I Sir a man that is brought up with every principle of honest reputation and who has filled occupations of Stuards of som of th finest Ships that ever floated on the Atlantic Ocean and Cone here to Canada to Be Standered By you and should I as a sable son of Africa hue and a British subject to to suffer sh such as that to Be passt onnoticed God forbid no Sir all I require of you to Give me a gentlemen satisfaction I write these lines to you

“answe this as soon as can if you please I am read and willing to give you anni satisfaction when you first thot I may now that they are from your words finish the Bottom of then I entend 0111 97 that you shall prove the them for When my character is lost either By rascality then I am willing to Bare with it But Sir I assure you that I em not ashamed to face the Owners or the Captain with Clear Conscience as far as honesty goes While in his employ now Sir to prove to you that I am not the man that you think I am for if I had I would of made a great eal of disturbance But I always said if I could do no good I would do no harm for let me Write when I will to Mr Bethune I am able to prove every word that I shall write to him for I assure you that I shall make up nothing to make my tale straigth for If you did not want me to go on the Boat you should of honest With me for when you thought you Wer takeing the Bread out of my mouth Be carefull you dont take it out of your own you recollect haymen Built a gallace for mordeca to Be hung on But he was hung on it himself so allway do By your neighbour as you Wish to Be done By “WM HUNTER Cook of the Steamer Admiral ”

One of the most valued and agreeable of those to whom I had the pleasure of an introduction, was the Rev. W. Ingraham Kip, rector of one of the principal churches in Albany, who certainly laboured most abundantly agreeably to the tenor of the epistle commendatory of which I was the VOL II. F 0112 98 bearer, to make my stay agreeable to me. Albany, as is well known, is the seat of government of the important State of New York, and is situated on the Hudson, in the direct line of traffic and travel to the north and west, 160 miles above the latter city. The legislature was sitting at the time of my visit; and I cannot but express my sense of the politeness of those members of it to whom I had the pleasure of being introduced, from the governor downwards. The sittings commence at 10 A.M., and are opened with prayer, the form being left to the person officiating, who is sometimes a clergyman, and at other times a member of some of the sects. All the “ministers” of the city take the duty in a rotation of, I believe, three days each, and receive the sufficiently liberal sum of 6 dollars a day for the duty. As my friend Mr. Kip was the officiating clergyman during part of the time of my stay, I walked up with him to the State House. The prayers did not take up more than five or six minutes, and consisted, as delivered at least by him, of a form selected from the Liturgy. Very few members were assembled, and of those, I was grieved to see at least one behaving in the most undevout and negligent manner, keeping his seat and turning over books and papers even during the very short space allowed for worship. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the New Yorkers set an example to our 0113 99 Canadian legislature, which the latter would do well to follow, as, to their indelible disgrace, be it spoken, our present “liberal” parliament is too much so to spare even five minutes for the worship of God.

Another point, moreover, in which the conduct of nominal subjects of the British crown stands out in most unfavourable contrast to that of our friends in the States, is, that whilst Canadian radicals are trying to rob the Church of her poor remnants of the lands conferred on her by the sovereign, American republicans have carefully confirmed that magnificent edifice, Trinity Church, New York, in the splendid endowments originally granted by a British monarch, and now amounting in value to 2,000,000 dollars, and in rental to about 30,000 dollars a year. Indeed, I believe that they have in like manner confirmed all the royal grants to the Church throughout the Union. Thus American republicans actually “go a-head.” of Canadian radicals in loyalty as well as religion.

A circumstance which I met with in Albany gave me an amusing view of the extreme readiness of the American men of business in turning any hint to profit. I was surprised to find that there were no circulating libraries in Albany, though Boston, as I have mentioned, was as well provided as we could wish in that way. On the first evening of my arrival, and before I had presented my F 2 0114 100 letters of introduction, I went, as I generally do in a strange city, to try to hunt up a library. Going into a likely-looking bookseller's shop, I made the necessary inquiries, and found that there was no such thing to be found. My friend behind the counter, however, desired to know the principle on which they were conducted; and on my informing him that in the case of strangers, all that was necessary was for the person taking a book, to leave a deposit for its value, which was returned to him, deducting the charge for reading it on bringing back the volume. He immediately said, that he thought so well of the plan, that he would commence it at once, and I might take any book I chose on the terms I had mentioned. I did so, and thus I think that I am fairly entitled to the credit, if any, of having established the first circulating library in Albany. But, how long one might have looked before an English bookseller would have made such a start!

No sooner, however, does one become a little acquainted in Albany, than a circulating library is found to be almost unnecessary, so great is the freedom of access to the public ones. That at the State House, for instance, is perfectly free; not even the ceremony being required of a previous introduction. You may just walk in, ask the librarian for the work you want, and read all day 0115 101 if you like; but you may not take any home with you. There is also a large mechanics' institution, where on being introduced, you may go and read free. A bookseller, whose name I am sorry to say I forget, who keeps a very cheerful and respectable establishment at the corner of the street leading up to the State House, with remarkable liberality throws open his store (what we should call “shops” are called “stores” both in the Union and in Canada) to all visitors whether purchasing customers or not, who may like to stroll in and sit down and read anything there. The tables are covered with newspapers and periodicals, English as well as American, and there you may sit and take your fill each. I naturally felt so much delicacy in coolly walking in a perfect stranger without making any purchase, taking possession of a man's place and skimming the cream of his best and newest publications, without even saying “by your leave,” that until assured on the best authority that it was the will and pleasure of the truly liberal proprietor that it should be so, I could not sit down with any comfort. But when I found that numbers of other people were really availing themselves of the privilege, I put on the requisite amount of impudence and did the same, but I certainly felt at first as if I were doing rather a cool thing.

Some of the public buildings in Albany are 0116 102 built of white marble, which has of course a very splendid appearance. I did not however observe any churches of the same solid and magnificent material. My friend Mr. Kip's church was fitted up something like a handsome proprietary chapel in London. The Americans, I believe, are exceedingly kind in offering admission to their pews to any whom they perceive to be strangers. They complain, and with justice, of our English exclusiveness in this respect. One American gentleman of great respectability, who had been boorishly ordered out of a pew, in which he had taken the liberty of ensconcing himself, and which belonged, I believe, to some purse-proud Londoner, took the following clever way of expressing his sense of the treatment which he had met with. Having carefully ascertained the number of the seat, he put the following advertisement into the paper:—“If the occupier of the pew No.—in—church on Sunday the—, who ordered an American gentleman to be turned out of it, should ever come to New York, and inquire for pew No.—in Trinity church in that city, he will find a comfortable seat provided for him!” This was really a well-merited rebuke; for it cannot be denied, that people are very churlish at times in refusing to accommodate strangers in their pews in England, and I have often been grieved to see so exclusive a disposition manifested in the house of God.

0117 103

Near Albany is the manor house of one branch of the great Van Rensellaer family, who enjoy or ought to enjoy the possession of a block of ten miles square, as a grant from the crown when the Union was a British colony, (just as Mr. Kip's ancestors once owned great part of the site of New York). Their property ought of course to be of immense value at present, and would be but for the consummate rascality of the tenantry. Though they and their forefathers have thriven, and thriven well, under the present lord of the manor and his ancestors, those now occupying the estate have come to the honest and honourable conclusion, that they will pay no more rent to the proprietor. This is owing not to poverty, but the vilest of pride. They say that other farmers in the States have their own land and pay no rent, and that neither will they. Thus they are too proud to be honest men. Something like our conscientious dissenters at home, who pretend to too much principle to pay anything, if they could help themselves, to the support of the Church, but have not too much principle to wish to put into their own pockets an amount, the deduction due to which has already been made matter of equitable valuation and adjustment in their rentals or purchases.

As regards the Van Rensellaer tenantry, I am sorry to say, that they have too much of public 0118 104 feeling with them in the States for any court of law to be able to compel them to pay their just debts to the proprietors of the estate. At one time, indeed, it turned a little against them when they followed up their refusal to pay by the murder of two of his collectors; but that feeling has died away, and they remain now, I believe, in almost undisturbed possession, having made some dishonestly cheap compromise, the present representative of the family being quite in reduced circumstances in consequence. When I was told of this, I asked with a feeling akin to indignation, why, for the sake of the honour of public justice the government did not interfere to enforce the authority of the law against these murderous defaulters? I was answered with an expression of regret by the really honourable gentleman to whom I addressed my inquiry, that it was impossible for the executive to act even if willing; for as the refractory tenantry numbered some 3,000 votes among them, they had it in their power to overturn any government that set itself in opposition to their wholesale system of robbery. Of course the remedy would be, in a state determined to maintain the public honour inviolate, to pass a law by which all wilful and therefore dishonest defaulters should ipso facto be disfranchised; but I fear that it would be found impossible thus to vindicate the 0119 105 right in a condition of society where almost universal suffrage prevails. Meantime what an appaling picture of public morals does a state of things present, in which not, on the verge of civilization in those regions of the West, where it shades off into worse than barbarism, but in the very centre of a great amount of civilization, in the heart of the principal State, and at the very head quarters of its government, 3000 individuals having a voice in the franchise of the country,—men who, many of them perhaps attend public worship on a Sunday, and call themselves respectable members of society, should thus be banded together in thievish and dastardly combination to rob an individual on whose lands they and their fathers have fattened. Yet though these things be so, what saith the Scripture? “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.” Among the trafficking part of the community however in America, even where such manifest injustice as that above referred to is not practised, the doing of a “smart thing” is too often a more than sufficient excuse for a palpable piece of rascality, which is perhaps even boasted of and gloried in. Talking of “smart things,” one of the cleverest hits in the way of speculation that I at least every heard of, was made not long ago by a person in the neighbourhood of New F 3 0120 106 York. It could not certainly be called a dishonest transaction, and yet,—I don't know what to say of it—but let it speak for itself. A person who was decidedly a “smart man,” guessed one fine morning that a number of farms near New York would soon come into requisition as the sites of villa residences for the wealthy merchants of that city. There were six of these adjoining each other, of I think 200 acres each, and owned by Dutchmen. Accordingly he put 30 dollars in his pocket, and provided with all fitting evidence, he marches off to the Mynheers, enlarges on the advantages which they would gain by an emigration to the far west, and offers to each of them singly unknown to the others, to buy his farm. The bargain was soon made, five dollars as deposit paid in cash, full payment promised within a limited time, and for his 30 dollars the speculator walks off with the six farms under his thumb. Immediately, to the intense astonishment of the gaping Deutschers, the first farm is offered for sale in building lots as the property of Mr. So and So, with a large setting forth à la Robins, as to “unusually eligible investment—magnificent site—unapproachable opportunity,” &c., &c. The thing took, the lots went off like wildfire; the produce of the first few sales enabled the speculator to pay for the whole of the farms; 0121 107 the Dutchmen had to “travel,” and the ingenious gentleman's fortune was made! a “pretty considerable” result from the outlay of 30 dollars.

I went, while at Albany, to see some of the magnificent river steamers plying nightly between that city and New York. The Americans boast that fifteen of their steamers make a mile, and they have a right to say so, as these superb vessels are about 345 feet long. There being, I believe, no second cabin, you see down the whole vista of an apparently interminable saloon furnished like some fairy toy raised by the gilded wand of an enchantress. The sleeping-berths on board of those which I saw, and I saw the two finest, the Hendrick Hudson and the Isaac Newton, are perfectly astonishing from the variety no less than the elegance of their fittings. Not only did japanning and gilding abound, but for a considerable range there were no two berths alike, One would be all crimson and gold, another green and or molu, a third blue and silver, and so on. The ordinary charge for the steamers is 25 cents, or about a 1 s. English, for the bare passage of 160 miles, which is run in a night, the speed being 17 to 20 miles an hour; but this does not include a berth. If you want one, you pay half-a dollar extra, and for meals at a reasonable rate. I have been told that it was thought that it would pay the proprietors even to charge nothing for the 0122 108 passage, keeping them merely as floating hotels, as so many would make the trip for the mere sake of going, and the refreshments which they would call for would amply pay expenses, as may well be supposed, seeing that they frequently take down 1000 passengers in a night. The steamers are fitted, moreover, with superb bridal state bed-chambers, which let according to the demand sometimes as high as thirty dollars a-night, it being a sort of fashion with wedding-parties to make this run, and of course to secure the state berth. With the first commencement of spring, and the least appearance of the “giving way” of the ice on the Hudson, the glassy barrier is forced by means of powerful steamers with bows of enormous strength, expressly intended for the purpose, which rush against the edge of the field with full steam on,—shatter a portion by the shock, then back their paddles and return to the charge like so many aquatic battering rams, till they succeed in crashing through. I almost wonder that so enterprising a nation do not try to keep the communications open all the winter, by means of a constant succession of steamers running up and down day and night for the express purpose, (besides carrying passengers), and keeping the water in such a continual state of agitation, as to render it impossible that it should freeze. I presume, however, that continual accumulations 0123 109 from above might render this difficult, if not impracticable.

There are some very large hotels in Albany, and some highly respectable boarding-houses, which of course reap a considerable harvest during the sitting of the senators. One of the former class of establishments is an immense edifice, not very unlike in architecture and general external appearance to the Reform Club House in London. This was built, however, of either some stone of a dark-red colour, or else was painted over. It had cost already upwards of 40,000 dollars, and was intended to be conducted on strictly temperance principles, no intoxicating liquors being to be had in the house. It was erected, I believe, by a company of gentlemen, who retain it in their own hands, and put in a person as manager or hotel-keeper, at a regular salary.

Amongst the boarding-houses, that presided over by Miss Fitch, near the State House, is considered one of the most respectable. I think the charge here is about twelve (York) shillings a-day. You require an introduction to this lady before you can become an inmate of her mansion, but once obtain admittance and she will make you very comfortable. You will meet also here some of the most respectable members of society in Albany, and also from the country when the Legislature is sitting. It is singular that in the 0124 110 States, even married clergymen of the highest respectability, in some cases prefer the boarding house system to that of having a house of their own. Such, of course, have their private sitting-room, and it may be, also, a study to themselves—yet still, to our English feelings there is something uncomfortable in the idea of having to take every meal in public as it were. One great advantage of the plan of boarding in this manner is, that like the club system in England, it enables individuals, and here, even families, on the principle of combination, to obtain luxuries and comforts at a much cheaper rate than they could in a house of their own, besides altogether obviating the necessity of entertaining, and doing away with all difficulty and expense as regards servants: whether these advantages be sufficient to counterbalance to the loss on the score of domestic privacy, especially where there is a young family involved, may admit of some question; on the score of economy, there can be no doubt that the advantage is in favour of boarding. A person here can calculate his expenditure almost to a fraction; that for a clergyman and his wife and their child, with three private rooms, viz., bed-room, study and sitting-room, would amount, including everything, to somewhere about 150 l. a-year, leaving, no doubt, a more comfortable margin than would the renting a house and keeping up a 0125 111 distinct establishment,—on an income of, perhaps, scarce 400 l. a-year, which may be the amount clear to the clergy from some of the churches in this city.

In the American Church a clergyman is not ordained on a curacy as a title to orders, as is the case with us at home. After completing his terms at college, and passing his examination before the bishop, he is ordained and left to his own resources to seek employment as best he may; much as Presbyterian licentiates, after “passing their trials” before the presbytery, are licensed to preach and then allowed to seek a livelihood as best they may till they can get “a call sustained to a charge.” This practice may not appear so safe as that of ourselves in England, where every young man, except he be a fellow of his college, on entering the first grade of his introduction to his high and solemn calling, invariably finds himself placed with one who is presumed to stand related to him in some degree in the light of a spiritual parent, by whose experience and counsels he may gradually get safely initiated into his arduous and responsible duties, and by whose gravity and authoritative position, any tendency to headstrong impetuosity is likely to be at the same time restrained. The junior American clergy, however, are seldom long without an appointment, and in the cities at least, the church people have 0126 112 the character of being kind and liberal to their clergy. Though, I believe, the heavy complaint is in too many of the country districts, that people do not pay their pew-rents, &c., agreeably to their engagements.

A very young man, if possessed of any ability, will readily find himself installed into an appointment which will produce him 800 dollars (about 200 l. ) a-year, and in a cheap country he can marry and live upon this, if his income be really forthcoming.

Accordingly, in the States, one finds the clergy, I think, married at a much earlier age than that at which their compeers, amongst ourselves, are usually able to venture upon matrimony, a circumstance which, doubtless, contributes largely to their own comfort, and is not, perhaps, without a favourable effect upon society. There is one point in which the church in America is wise in her generation, continually strengthening her position by the consolidation of a mighty element of strength, unhappily too much disregarded by her Anglican mother.

I refer to the manner in which distinguished pulpit ability is made ( cæteris paribus ) a certain passport to preferment amongst her clergy. Her bishops, especially, are many of them, such as Dr. M'Coskry, the excellent diocesan of Michigan, for instance, men in their prime, who have been 0127 113 elevated to the episcopate from a special regard to this most important qualification.

No young man of striking ability as a preacher need here weary out his overtasked mind, treated merely with common-place civility by his seniors, and perhaps even a mark for the jealousy of his incumbent, amidst all the heart-sickening anxieties of hope deferred, while the order of scripture is reversed in his case, and “the labourer” is not considered “worthy of his hire.” If his character correspond with his talents, he is sure to be brought forward and placed in a position of independence.

In America, as regards advancement in the church, it is happily not the case (to quote the language of an able leader in The Times , of some three or more years back, which very properly called public attention to the subject) that “to be neglected it is only necessary to be brilliant;” nor would “the greatest preacher of this, or perhaps, any other age” (as regards the uniformly sustained style of his eloquence), be left actually “to retire on a civil appointment obtained by private interest,” because the Church of England had none of her dignities—not even a comfortable rectory to bestow on him after exhausting his vital powers in the mental struggles incidental to nearly twenty years of labour, in a crowded proprietary chapel!

0128 114

“Oh,” said some of my American friends to me, with a warmth which the importance of the subject rendered truly becoming, “if we had your Henry Melvill, we should not have left him to seek a situation from a company of merchants. We should have made him a bishop long ago.” And, indeed, some of them went the length of intimating that if he were even to come out to them now, he would have his choice of the best things to be offered in the States,—most probably a bishopric with a salary of some 5000 dollars per annum. If they could not offer more, it was because they had not more to offer. But what has the Church of England ever done for her distinguished son?

It is to be hoped, however, that the time is rapidly passing by, when the merely having been chaplain or son-in-law to a great man, or the master of a public school, or secretary to a society, shall have been considered sufficient warrant for placing men of no oratorial power whatsoever (who, if they have deserved well, might be otherwise provided for) in positions where masters in Israel—eloquent men and mighty—are needed to fill our churches. We want men preferred who are able to assume a commanding attitude in our pulpits; men who are fitted to fill the public eye and lead the public mind; men who will show to the world that the Church of England is determined 0129 115 to fulfil to the uttermost the solemn duty incumbent upon her of “preaching the word,” no less than that of administering the sacraments; remembering that the great apostle of the Gentiles openly magnified his commission to preach Jesus Christ above his commission to baptize, and that it is “ the word ” preached “with power” that is to be the prime element in the work of evangelising the nations and preparing the world for the solemnities of the approaching advent.

I do hope and trust, however, that the Church of England is even now beginning to awake to her high mission in this respect.

In the good providence of God men of distinguished pulpit ability, though owing their advancement to other causes, are beginning to occupy the church's high places; and, surely, when advanced, they cannot help feeling sympathy for those of their gifted brethren struggling hard in the vale against poverty, want of interest, and the almost crushing difficulties attendant on a subordinate position as curates—perhaps to men entirely their intellectual inferiors, and sometimes even their jealous hinderers and opponents. The Bishop of Oxford, for instance, himself a preacher of commanding ability, can hardly look with cold indifference on similar talent to his own, languishing unsupported—and last, dearest and most 0130 116 delightful fact of all, the present incomparable Primate is known to show the highest consideration for great pulpit ability in his clergy.

Many, of course, will be found to say that clergymen should be above motives of worldly aggrandisement or the expectation of temporal advancement as the result of their ministrations. So they should, and so are the class of whom we speak, namely, able men of the pulpit, perhaps more than most others of their brethren; for theirs are the visitations of celestial imaginings, theirs the nearer converse with all that is most elevating in thought or most majestic in expression, theirs consequently the privilege of living in more especial communion with the great things of the Gospel, and the things new and old from the rich treasure-houses of eternity. Least of all men, therefore, are they likely to be swayed by motives merely secular. Nevertheless, be it remembered that the highest authority had declared that “the labourer is worthy of his hire,” and that agreeably to the whole order of things pertaining to a condition in which spirit is allied to matter, it is but just that even under the self-denying view which is the right one, in the clerical profession of all others, distinguished and sanctified ability should still have its fair claim on superior reward. Meanwhile the church herself would speedily reap the benefit of such an improved state of things 0131 117 throughout her borders. Let the Church of England only once attain thus far, that she add to her learning, her purity and her soundness of discipline and doctrine, the lofty characteristic of being eminently a preaching church, and with the ordinary blessing of Providence she will be more than a match for the whole array of opposition that the forces of anarchy, infidelity, popery, and dissent of every shape and name can array against her. And may not an opinion be hazarded that, in order to this end, the studies of her candidates for the ministry might with great advantage be pursued with a more direct reference to composition for the pulpit?

Men of the ultra-tractarian school may coldly sneer at all this, and no doubt will; but the result will, nevertheless, be sure, as it everywhere is when an opportunity of its exhibition has been given; that whilst the favourite panaceas for mere rubrical accuracy, or the revival of the daily service, (both excellent things in their way) have failed of themselves of filling the churches, but as in too many instances, from the operation of a certain leaven, have rather tended the contrary way; a powerful ministration from the pulpit with or without the other concomitants, wherever it had free course, has invariably swept before it all opposition, and crowded the house of the sanctuary.

CHAPTER VI.

Troy—Starting place of canal boats for Lake Champlain—Horse ferry—The Warren family—Their admirable churchmanship—“Making friends of the mammon of unrighteousness”—The Church of the Crucifixion—Delightful services—Well-organized charity school—All the work of the Warrens—Their kindness to the author under circumstances trying to themselves—Canal track boats—Singularly low charge—Sleeping arrangements—Dangerous-looking passage of a river—Arrival at Whitehall—Scenery of Lake Champlain—Defeat of American Commodore by Lord Exmouth when a midshipman—Burlington—Height of the waters of the lake—Burlington College and Bishop Doane—Arrive at the British lines—The flag of England once more—Return to Montreal.

Troy is six miles from Albany further up the Hudson, and is the place from whence the canal boats start for Whitehall, the southern terminus of the route of the steamers on Lake Champlain. You cross from the Albany side of the river by a curious horseferry, on which, four horses, working two and two, tandem fashion, in a couple of boxes just capable of holding them placed one at each 0133 119 side of the vessel, by the action of their feet I think, on a horizontally revolving platform below the level of the deck, turn the paddle-wheels without ever advancing themselves, by a motion taken off from the horizontal one. When I crossed there were, I think, nine vehicles, besides the stage we were on, crowded on to the deck; yet, notwithstanding, this great load and the strength of the current, which I thought at one time must have swept us below the landing-places, we were ferried over in perfect security.

My kind friends had provided me with letters of introduction hither also, but I really needed none, as I went in company with Mr. Ingraham Kip, whose cousin, Mr. Carter, a very young clergyman, is rector of one of the churches in this city, and who received us with the most brotherly kindness.

Any churchman who longs to have his heart and mind refreshed in passing through a country new to him, by finding the all-pervading spirit of a belief in “one catholic and apostolic church” in vital existence and action around him, should pay a visit to Troy and get if possible an introduction to some of the Warren family; or failing that, he should visit at least the Church of the Crucifixion, where he will have an opportunity of attending service at half-past 8 every morning. If his spirit be not cheered, and he do not leave 0134 120 the place a more loving Catholic than he entered it, and yet, start not ye men of lax phraseology—and yet I say, a no less zealous and delighted Protestant, I do not envy him his churchmanship!

The admirable family whom I have just referred to, were the founders of Troy. They came in some 30 years ago no richer than many of their neighbours, but happened to become possessors of the land on the most of which this flourishing city is built. The consequence is, that by judiciously disposing of the land in building lots, they have grown with the growth of the city, and become extremely wealthy. But oh, what sanctified wealth it is! and what a lesson do they exhibit to the mere amassers of worldly gain as to how men may sometimes grow rich, and grow rich in the fear of God. How well they have “made friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,” let their manifold labours of love in this favoured city attest. Church after church, with spire heaven-pointing, bears silent but unmistakeable testimony not only to the munificence which assisted on its erection from its first beginnings, but to the steady and thoroughly disciplined energy with which the work has been carried on from first to last. Theirs has not been the hasty zeal which might have expended itself in showy efforts to get up a place of worship and keep it filled for a time by a successive series of spiritual excitements, but the 0135 121 calm enduring diligence that has raised church after church, supplied each in succession with a faithful and zealous ministry, and done all things in a word not so as to captivate with their transitory glitter, but to attract by the elements of steady permanence which they involve.

Should any conceive that the attractive nature of the services at the Church of the Crucifixion, the last favourite gem which shines pre-eminently conspicuous amidst the constellation of their good works, presents something like an exception to what I have said as to the absence of display which characterizes their labours of love, I can only beg such an objector to consider that nothing is done here beyond the bringing out the church's services in the full harmony of their choral beauty. “With harp” (or organ at least) “and voice of Psalms, they have shown themselves joyful before the Lord the King.”

On a first view of the outside of this delightful place of worship, the admirer of ecclesiastical architecture is led to wish that its excellent founders had gone to some choice models of mediæval art when planning the external portion of that which may be said to be “all glorious within;” but once having entered the door of the sanctuary and mingled in the services, all external deficiencies are forgotten. The place is about the size of a “small college” chapel at Oxford or Cambridge, say VOL. II. G 0136 122 Peterhouse, or it may be a size less. It is provided with an admirable organ, and furnished with open rail sittings of a thoroughly ecclesiastical character; whilst the subject of the picture forming the altar-piece—the cross, standing lonely and divested of its late awful occupant—the bruised serpent gliding away in the rocky foreground, seen by the dim religious light in almost as much depth of shadow as hovers over some of the pictures of Leonardo di Vinci, at once carries the mind to the completion of the dread mystery of human redemption.

With rare felicity of selection, the estimable founders have obtained the services of a clergyman, (I hope I shall not make my dear friend vain) who in personal qualifications as well as mental, is singularly in keeping with the scene of his ministrations. With a head that put me in mind of what one might imagine a likeness of a youthful St. John, a powerful deep bass voice, and an enthusiastic love for choral music, which he seems to have studied thoroughly, he appeared exactly the individual most qualified by nature and education to occupy the situation for which he has been chosen.

Mr. Tucker has studied sacred music in England, is well acquainted with our cathedral and college services, and has succeeded in organizing a choir such as the most venerable of those 0137 123 of our establishments at home need not be ashamed of.

But the most remarkable and certainly not the least interesting feature of the whole establishment is, that attached to this church is a large charity school, in which the children, about 120 in number, actually wear a uniform dress of a very pleasing appearance, and as regularly attend the church's services as they might do in Old England; and not only so, but being taught sacred music scientifically, the elder children, to the number of perhaps eighty, fill up the leading parts with a pleasing combination of trebles. I was perfectly surprised to find, in a country like America, that the attendance of these children could be thus secured, and the more so when I was informed that many of them were the offspring of some of the most respectable tradesmen of the town. One of two things must be certain—either that in Troy the mildly pervading influence of the church has taught men to be “clothed with humility,” or else that the education provided by this admirable family is felt to be of so valuable a character that even republican pride will stoop to accept of it. Perhaps both causes may have to do with the matter.

I went, after attending a week-day service, to visit this school, where everything seemed to be conducted on the most approved principles of G 2 0138 124 instruction, as in similar institutions under the wing of the church in England. It appears to me that even in the behaviour of the children there was a delightful similarity of resemblance to home manners traceable. There was much of that affectionate looking up to their teachers, and modest gratification at the visits and notice of the clergy and their friends, which is so gracefully evident in children brought up under the church's wing at home. In most refreshing contrast did it stand out from the sad conceit of presumptuous self-dependence, the constant expression, in manner at least, of the feeling, “Truly we are the people! who is lord over?” that so sadly characterizes too many of the rising youth of America—a feeling unhappily promoted and encouraged, at least in many of the States, under the miserably erroneous notion that the highest degree of moral force is derivable from the largest amount of self-sufficiency; whereas the Christian knows that never is man so morally powerful as when he most repudiates all might of his own.

The Warrens are not fond of letting their friends walk, if they can help it; and accordingly, on leaving the church and school, we found one of their carriages waiting to convey us, though the distance was scarcely a quarter of a mile, to an elegant villa which they have erected on a hill overlooking the town. This pleasing abode was 0139 125 well worth a visit, and everything without and within spoke of refinement of taste and manners. The attention paid by this estimable family to one so recently a perfect stranger was the more interesting and remarkable, since one of the heads of it was considered at the time to be in dying circumstances; which might well have warranted them, had they excused themselves at such a time, from showing any attention at all to a visitor.

There were some of the junior members of this family who were on a visit to our English philosophic poet, Martin Farquhar Tupper, Esq., at his seat at Albury, when he wrote that pleasing composition, “A loving Ballad to Brother Jonathan,” so agreeably recited by Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, at the Commemoration of Independence, at Burlington, in 1848.

It may be imagined that from such kind friends I took my leave with great regret; but the advancing state of the season was urging my return to Canada, and I determined, for this part of the trip, to make trial of the canal-boats as far as Whitehall, 70 miles. This distance one company carries you over for the astonishingly low sum of a York shilling—the value of an English sixpence. How they manage to do it I know not; but this I know, that I paid the money and travelled the distance. And what is still more remarkable is, that a rival company, which charges three-fourths 0140 126 of a dollar, did not seem to have better boats, or accommodation, in fact, in any way superior. These vessels are very much like the passenger track-boats which used to run on the canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow, only they are roomier. They are drawn by three horses in a string, and travel at tolerable speed, except when impeded by the locks, which are numerous. They did not seem, however, to keep at all so close to the time named for starting as public conveyances do in England; and, as we could not tell the minute of their going off, my kind clerical friends, three or four in number, who had accompanied me to the vessel, refused to leave me till she was just shoving off from the shore. There are sufficiently comfortable meals provided on board these vessels, at about a quarter of a dollar a head, and all ordinary refreshments to be bad on board. But the cleverest thing was the rigging out the sleeping berths for so many passengers. Three tiers of hammocks were slung one above another, like so many rows of book-shelves, into which we crept snugly enough; the hammocks not being, like those of sailors, gathered up to grummetts at the ends, but composed of canvas sacking, stretched out on slight wooden frames. The fairer portion of the community were of course in a separate division, partitioned off; and notwithstanding the number of reasoning bipeds stowed away in so 0141 127 small a space, I must say that I slept very comfortably, greatly admiring the cleverness of Brother Jonathan's packing. The whole voyage was pleasing enough, and of course perfectly safe, except at one queer place, where you came out of a lock and crossed the main river, a little above a weir or fall of small elevation. The water was running very strong here; and the power of the stream on the long broadside of our vessel, as it gave her a wide sheer out into the middle, gave me for the moment an uncomfortable notion of the possibility of the tow-ropes giving way, or of the horses being overpowered (they crossing the opposing stream on a narrow causeway), in which case running the gauntlet among the rapids, or a tumble over at the falls, appeared inevitable. Most thankful, however, am I to say that we passed without accident, and arrived at an early hour, in a fine spring morning, at Whitehall (where I was charged 1 s. 6 d. for luggage), in time for the steamer up Lake Champlain.

The scenery about Whitehall is rather picturesque, and so bold as to be almost mountainous. The lake is extremely narrow at the lower extremity, so much so that a large steamer has only just bare space to turn. The neighbouring hills have a rugged and wild appearance, and are said to abound with rattlesnakes. The steamers on this lake are celebrated for the excellence of their 0142 128 accommodations and the urbanity of their commanders. It is certainly a splendid sheet of water, well worthy a visit, if only for its natural beauties. It was, as is well known, the scene of many of the most important events in the unhappy war. I think it was on this lake that an English mid-shipman, of only four years' standing, in a small schooner, made good his defence against the American Commodore and a flotilla of thirteen vessels (which had furiously attacked the British), sinking or otherwise disabling one or two of them, and bringing off his own little craft in triumph. For this heroic act, he was deservedly promoted to his lieutenancy, by order in Council, before his mid-shipman's time was expired, being one of the very few on whom so distinguished an honour has been conferred; but then the service was no less distinguished. The midshipman was Mr. Pellew, afterwards Lord Exmouth.

About half way up the lake, on its eastern shore, in the State of Vermont, so called from its numerous green mountains, we touched at the interesting city of Burlington, which looks very well from the water. The lake was at this time so high, partly from the melting of the snow, that the omnibuses and other vehicles on the wharf were in one part for several yards ancle-deep in water.

There is no accounting for the high level to 0143 129 which the waters in all the great American lakes will rise at one time, and their low decadence at another. The periodical rise and fall is considered to average about seven years between its maximum and minimum. There is also a peculiarity about them to a stranger, which is, however, in reality, more easily accounted for; and that is, that the rivers have frequently what appears like a tide in them, as the current may sometimes be seen setting upwards from their mouths with considerable force. This, however, is simply owing to prevailing winds having raised the waters in certain parts of the lake above the ordinary level for a time.

Burlington is the seat of a college, which is, I am happy to say, entirely an establishment belonging to the church. This is ably presided over by the amiable and eloquent right reverend George Washington Doane, D.D., bishop of New Jersey; the same estimable prelate who preached the sermon on the opening of Dr. Hook's new church at Leeds. The style of this right reverend gentleman is one of singular terseness; remarkable for the brevity of its periods. I only regret that I had not time and opportunity to visit this institution, and paying my respects to its excellent and venerable head.

Like all other matters connected with the church in this interesting country, it forms one of the nuclei around which are gathered the fairest G 3 0144 130 hopes of America, hopes not indeed so much of this earth, as of that world to come where the trees of immortality, trained in the garden of the Lord below, are destined to flourish in immortal verdure, and “put on those honours that are not to fade.” *

* Isaac Taylor.

But Burlington is left behind; the steamer rushes gallantly along her watery way with a roar and a splash, and a whiz, and a roar again. And now a flag is seen streaming on the breeze. Surely that flag bears not on its broad field the stripes and stars that have waved so long over the scenery of my wanderings! No! for there gleam the bright cross of St. George, and, saltire-wise, the cross of bold St. Andrew. ‘Tis the meteor flag of England that flouts the gale! and a boat has put off from the fort, and red-coats have leaped up the side, and knapsacks and accoutrements, with V. R. emblazoned upon them, are piled in a heap upon the deck, and my heart bounds with a Briton's exultation as I find myself in the territories of our gracious sovereign. once more. I return full of all warm and loving reminiscences of a grateful heart for kindnesses received in the Union from brethren affectionately mindful of a common stock, and yet more so, I trust, of a loftier, holier band of brotherhood than any of which the records of earth can tell. But I am yet more grateful that I am in a British 0145 131 colony once more; and beneath the cross-bearing banner of my glorious country do I propose to set up my staff during most of the remnant of my pilgrimage below.

Stepping from the steamer, a railway of a few miles in length rapidly conveyed me to the steam ferry, which speedily shot across the St. Lawrence, and landed me once more, through mercy, safely in Montreal.

And now, dear reader, if I have not tired you out, I will take up the rest of these pages with giving you a few practical hints for your benefit and aid, if you have a fancy to visit the land of the canoe and the mocassin.

CHAPTER VII.

Romance of voyageurs and Canadian boat-songs rapidly dying away—The reason of this—Sir George Simpson and his boat's crew—The Bishop of Montreal's visit to Red River—Endurance of Canadian canoe men—A canoe voyage still to be had—Who ought to emigrate?—What are you to do when you have done so?—The author promises honest answers to all classes—Advice to emigrant clergymen—The poorly beneficed—The man with a heavy family—The lonely curate—What will clergyman do on first arriving?—Plenty of room for spiritual labourers—The Bishop of Toronto likes those who will endure hardness—Duty in Canada less trying than in crowded districts at home—Ordinary routine of a clergyman's duty in Canada—Mode of conciliating the people—Importance of preaching the gospel on Church principles—Necessity of instructing people in them—Outcry against Popery and “Puseyism”—Possibility of obtaining pupils—Terms of taking them—What a clergyman can do on 200 l. a year—A comfortable churchwarden.

Talking of canoes, by the way, those who contemplate Canada from afar, under the air of romance thrown over it by strains like those of the “Canadian boat-song,” will be sorry to learn that the occupation of the gay voyageurs who were 0147 133 wont to make the “Ottawa tide” resound with their choral ditties, is almost now amongst the things that have been. The merry craftsmen of the lake and the river have fled at the hoarse voice and fierce whistle of the giant steam-king.

These people were all, until lately, in the service of the North-West Fur Compauy, who conveyed their peltries in canoes by Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa; but after they ceased their feud with the Hudson's Bay Company and joined interests, their demand for these voyageurs has ceased. All the traffic on the Ottawa is now done by the steamers—at least with the exception, of course, of the timber by means of lumber-rafts. This business, however, by the new-fangled free-trade notions of the mother country, is in a fair way of being ruined. The rafts that came down used to be a peculiar feature of the St. Lawrence, acres and acres of floating timber with small dwellings erected upon it, and from twelve to twenty masts, each with its long sails and frequently whole rows of boards supported on end, to propel it when the wind was fair, otherwise it depended on the current alone.

The timber suitable for lumbering purposes has been so cleared away from the lower parts of the course of the Ottawa, that the lumberers, or men employed in cutting and rafting it, have latterly gone as high as Lake Temiscameng, about lat. 45, 0148 134 between 400 and 500 miles from Montreal, though it is a two years' expedition to go up so high, and float the timber down. They prefer this, however, to the labour and expense of dragging the logs several miles through the woods by means of oxen.

The Hudson's Bay Company convey their wares to England by means of an annual ship which touches at the gulf which gives its name to this enterprising body of traders.

The only crew of voyageurs still retained is that for the use of sir George Simpson, the governor of the Company's territories, who resides at Lachine, about nine miles from Montreal, and makes a yearly progress up the country in a sort of wild state, which is well described in his “Overland Journey round the World.” The bishop of Montreal likewise travelled after this fashion in his interesting tour of visitation to Rupert's Land and Red River (see his delightful little journal already referred to, published in England for the benefit of those missions).

The crews of sir George Simpson's canoes are all Indians of the Irequois tribe (a branch of the Mohawk nation), save one or two, who are French Canadians. Their uniform is pleasing, and consists of a light hat adorned with an immense quantity of feathers and tinsel, and a capote, or blue coat, with red belt or sash. They are not 0149 135 kept, I believe, in the regular pay of the Company, but live opposite Lachine, near sir George's residence, at their village of Kaughnawasa, doing odd jobs for a livelihood, only they are understood to be always at his call.

They differ from many of the Indians, who are by no means fond of work, or indeed of any exertion, save that undergone in hunting (though the civilized tribes are beginning to improve in this respect). But these people exercise powers of endurance with perfect good humour, and without any apparent prostration of strength, that are truly wonderful. They will work day after day for weeks together, 18 hours out of the 24. One A.M. is their hour of starting, however late on the previous night they may have arrived at the end of their stage for the day, and very little time allowed for any meal but that of supper, on their reaching their halting place for the night. They will work all day long, either paddling to the tune of some of their chaunts, or poling, sometimes up to the middle in water, which is excessively trying in early spring, when it comes down of an icy coldness from the polar regions to the northward. At other times, they will have to carry canoes, baggage, and all, over long and difficult postages, where each man will frequently have to return two or three times for the different portions of 0150 136 his load. Add to which, wherever the shores are marshy, as is often the case, the duty devolves on them of carrying the gentlemen passengers to terra firma—a service which they perform with most perfect good humour, the smallest of them frequently delighting to show his prowess by taking merrily on his shoulders the most rotund passenger of the party, whom, with inimitable sure-footedness, he generally conveys to the shore amidst the cheers of his “ryghte merrie” companions, in perfect security. Though the occupation, as I say, of this interesting class of people is rapidly passing away, I may nevertheless inform the lovers of the romantic, that on Lake Huron at least, and probably elsewhere, he will find no difficulty in taking a cruise in a birch-bark canoe.

When the author came to Sturgeon Bay, the steamer not being ready, two naval officers, who were going up to Penetanguishine on a visit to some of their brother blue-jackets at the naval station, engaged a canoe for, I think, some four or five dollars, to go the seventeen miles. They kindly offered him a passage, but for one thing, between themselves and their portmanteaus, and the hands at the paddles, the tiny egg-shell of a craft was already almost over-crowded, and for another thing, he did not like to be separated so entirely from his luggage, knowing how much 0151 137 more easily packages are lost than recovered in the wilderness, so he declined their kind offer. All this, however, is only by the way.

I go into the far more important questions to intending emigrants, as to the oft mooted consideration or inquiry, in the first place, as to who ought to emigrate? and in the second, as to what they are to do when they have emigrated? In answer to the first question, who ought to emigrate? I say, every industrious, well-disposed person who cannot make both ends meet comfortably in the old country. If you can do this, I say most seriously, think twice before you stir. Do not let notions of romance lead you away. It were very easy indeed to write a book picturing Canada in so engaging a light, concealing all the drawbacks, and painting all that is really desirable so much couleur de rose as to induce people, perhaps, to try emigration very much for the romance of the thing, who had much better have stayed at home. But I am far from wishing to do this; what I rather desire is, to point out to the anxious, the eager, the distressed, and the embarrassed; to those who have either had their worldly resources cut off or diminished, or who are struggling with the care of a heavy family, and know not how to provide for them in life after having reared and maintained them; to fond lovers anxious to be made one, whilst the res angusta domi forbids the 0152 138 banns; to harassed professional men, struggling amidst crowds for an existence; or again, to younger sons of good families, who at home wish to appear, of course, according to their rank, and have not the wherewithal—to all and each of these classes, as well as to the hardy yeoman and the respectable house-servant or labourer, I wish to point out, to the best of my knowledge and ability, what each may expect from a determination to make Canada their future home.

And first, as in duty bound, I address myself to the clergy. There will be two leading motives which will induce my reverend friends to emigrate. First and foremost, of course, the high and holy one of seeking the salvation of souls in the comparatively destitute districts of the West. But lower, and yet not unworthy ones, may likewise be allowed to come into play.

The clergyman who is struggling in vain to bring up and educate a large family upon a pittance which is less than would be accorded to the squire's butler; or the sighing lonely curate, engaged ever since he was at college to his dear sweet cousin, yet not daring to “commit matrimony” on his valuable preferment of 80 l. a-year, may be excused if he cast a longing eye to the far regions of the West, as presenting a field where he may be no less usefully occupied in the vineyard of his master, but, humanly speaking, 0153 139 with far more numerous elements of comfort and domestic happiness at command than any which he could hope to reach in his own country.

I do not, of course, mean to say that he will expect to attain to these because the livings in Canada are rich, but because a little money goes so much farther in Canada, and because independence of position, and many of the concomitants of comfort in domestic life, may be secured at so much readier a rate than in the country he has left. Now, assuming the soundness of his motives in coming, let us see what my clerical friend will do on his arrival.

In the first place, you arm yourself, of course, with all the testimonials as to character and qualification that you may think it desirable to be provided with, for I am, of course, assuming now that you do not come out at the orders of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but, as it were, on your own footing, and that you bring, perhaps, some little means with you which you would like to invest in the country of your adoption. After having taken into consideration the balanced advantages of the different British provinces, as I have endeavoured to exhibit them in another part of this work, you determine on which you will come to, and decide, we will say, on Canada West.

Accordingly, you make the best of your way to 0154 140 Toronto, and lose no time, after your arrival, in communicating with the Lord Bishop. You will be sure of a kind and courteous reply from his lordship, who will appoint an early day when you may wait upon him. On your presenting yourself, he will, of course, look carefully at your testimonials and recommendations, and, if these be satisfactory, will enter with truly paternal kindness into all your views and wishes. He will tell you, and so would any of the other bishops, that the demands upon him for additional clergymen are such, that he could at any time immediately appoint twenty fresh ones at least to different places, if they came out in a body. He will most kindly allow you to advise with him, moreover, as to the investment of any property which you may bring; and let me most strongly recommend you to abide implicitly by any directions on this score which his lordship is pleased to give. He knows the province so thoroughly, so much about the temporals, as well as spirituals, of every place and almost of every person of any note in it, that if you go upon your own fancies, or the advice of others, however well they may appear to be qualified, ten to one you will regret it.

Clergymen of experience, men of the world, (though not worldly men) who came out to Canada with considerable means, have told me that wherever they had deviated from the bishop's 0155 141 kind recommendation as to what to do with their property, they had found reason to repent it.

When the bishop has satisfied himself as to your qualifications, the probability is, that he will hospitably ask you to dinner, introduce you to some of the clergy at Toronto, and, after keeping you near him for a time, and allowing you to officiate in the cathedral and other churches, that he will allot you some parish or mission, from whence you will draw at least 100 l. a-year, paid either by the Church Society or the Society at home, and you will be fairly afloat in your new field of labour.

To Dr. Lett, who came out lately, he very soon allotted the beautiful church of St. George, Toronto, which happened to be vacant at the time. His lordship is known, cæteris paribus , to esteem an able preacher, and, accustomed to face all hardship, and expose himself, he naturally likes men who will “endure hardness.” He by no means admires a clergyman making a long story in his journal about an accidental upset in a mudhole, or any other trifling incident of his journeyings. I have seen a clergyman's horse fall with him, and roll over him on a hard road, himself miraculously escaping almost without injury, and scarcely saying anything about it. But he was of a Highland extraction, and that breed is said to be difficult to kill. In fact, if you never have been 0156 142 accustomed to horsemanship or charioteering, you will soon have to learn both, if you are to be an active parish priest or missionary in the British provinces of North America. If you are located in any of the large towns, your duties will not differ much from what they would consist of in towns at home. But if you are in some of the country villages with a surrounding mission, depend upon it you will have to ride or drive for it in summer, or sleigh it in winter, to some purpose.

But what of all this? Not only is all labour delightful to a man whose heart is in his work, but moreover I do most advisedly declare, that a man will have calls for the exercise of far greater self-denial, for far greater trials to his feelings, and even perhaps his constitution, in close and determined district visiting, in the squalid abodes of misery with which our great towns abound in England; and that combined with very little, if anything at all, that is cheering or alleviating in its character, than he would have to meet with in a whole twelvemonth of Canadian missionary labours; always excepting the work of those whose duty calls them to visit the emigrant sheds in a sickly season. There, indeed, every qualification of the faithful Christian warrior will be tried to the utmost. Thither, indeed, he will have to go, “counting not his life dear unto 0157 143 himself,” with few or none of the alleviating elements of which I am about to speak entering into his labours of love and self-denial. Then, of course, occasional perilous accidents will occur, just as they will in any other country. One of the most serious of these happened some few years ago to the Rev. R. Flood, clergyman of Delaware and Caradoc, below London. This gentleman's narrative is so simply touching, and so much to the point, that I cannot do better than let him tell his own story, almost in the words in which he kindly communicated the incident to me.

“The old bridge which crossed the river Thames at the village of Delaware, was swept away by a remarkable flood which prevailed in the early spring of 1843, caused by the rapid action of the sun upon the snow, which lay deep on the ground, and therefore all communication from either side of the river was cut off, until a scow, clumsily put together, was brought into requisition. Into this frail bark I committed myself on the Easter Sunday morning of the above year, accompanied by some of the congregation of the township of Caradoc and two Indian chiefs, as I could not not think of disappointing the people on the opposite side of the river, where the church is situated, on such an occasion, being a chief festival of the church, although everything else 0158 144 seemed to warn me against passing over. The awful appearance of the raging waters, which extended over the flats, and covered them to the depth of ten feet,—add to which the shapeless build of our craft, were circumstances of themselves sufficiently discouraging.

“It was on our return in the afternoon about three o'clock, that the frightful scene was enacted. The men who had the management of the scow put off with the view of making a straight passage; but when we got into one of the eddies of the river, the oarsmen could not stem the torrent with their greatest exertion; and so we were whirled along at the mercy of the torrent, which was running at the rate of eight miles an hour, until the scow was about to strike with great violence against a large willow-tree, which grew in a horizontal position out of the waters on the bank of the river, and which would have struck us all off if we had not instantaneously laid hold of it; when the scow was upset by coming in contact with it. The passengers were in number fourteen, some of whom happened to throw themselves on the strong branches of this tree; while others had only time to seize with both hands the trunk, which now, with the superincumbent weigat, became level with the water: the latter were immersed to their necks. My position was rendered peculiarly trying, as I had to sustain the entire weight of one 0159 145 of the Indian chiefs, who held me round the shoulders, and I had only a small branch to depend upon, which I held with both hands, my feet resting on a bed of wild vines which grew round the stem of the tree, with the water reaching above my waist; yet was I enabled, through the Divine mercy, to lift up my voice, as a dying man to dying men, to put their only hope of pardon and of life in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only refuge from the wrath to come. I entreated them to take no advantage one of the other in their critical and awful position by contending for a better place or a more secure hold; and I can truly say, that a murmur did not escape their lips for the time we remained in this frightful position, except an occasional ejaculation, ‘The Lord have mercy upon us!’ The water was intensely cold, consisting chiefly of melted snow and ice. Four who were immersed to their necks, perished; the remainder were not taken off until the inhabitants of the neighbourhood sent for a canoe a distance of six miles, so that we were fully three hours or more in the water. I prevailed on the Indian who rested on me shortly after the accident, to swim to a tree about forty feet from us, which he did—indeed at the peril of his own life; and thus I was enabled to hold out the longer. The other Indian chief also swam VOL. II. H 0160 146 to another tree, and reached it in safety long before the canoe came to our rescue.”

It was sunset before the frail vessel which saved the survivors arrived at the scene of death and suffering. The names of the persons who perished were Major Somers, James Rawlings, George Robinson, and William Edmonds, all natives of England.

Mr. Somers was a highly respectable and well-educated gentleman, and was connected with the 5th regiment of Middlesex Militia, and during the rebellion was a very efficient and zealous officer in the discharge of his duty. He left a wife and amiable family of young ladies and gentlemen to lament the tragical end of a kind husband and affectionate parent. George Robinson, well known as one of the best stage drivers on the western route, left a wife to mourn his untimely fate. The other two unhappy sufferers were single men. The greatest credit was due to Mr. Francis Carey, of the village of Kilworth, for his exertion in obtaining a canoe from his residence, with as much despatch as possible; otherwise the calamity must have been much more extensive and frightful.

This catastrophe is, of course, not to be taken as any example of the ordinary perils attendant on a clergyman's labours. Take the case of 0161 147 ordinary missionary work, and really there is much in it that is decidedly cheering and elevating to the spirits, the very obstacles to be overcome only lending a greater zest to the intervals of repose. We will say that on Sunday a clergyman has his school to attend, and one full service in the morning in the town or village where he resides. Well, then, as soon as he has taken some refreshment, he mounts his horse or gets into his buggy or sleigh, according to the season, and sets off to some of the back lines from four to six miles distant to some school-house or small wooden church, to an afternoon service; and in the evening he either returns home to rest, or else comes back to an evening service in the same church as that where he officiated in the morning, or some other. It may be thought that this is very laborious; so it is rather; and much will of course depend on the physical and mental organization of the individual, as regards both the amount of the work to be done, and the way in which it will tell upon a man. But then there is at least this to be considered, that what with the usual moderate size of the churches, and their being for the most part built of wood, two services in such as these, do not involve very much more labour than would be undergone in the performance of a single service in the one of huge brick or stone edifices of England. Then, on week days, your H 2 0162 148 visits to the sick, and your week-day lectures in private houses or school-houses, are almost always enlivened by the cheerful health-inspiring ride or drive, or (as it may be if you are near the great lakes or rivers) by an occasional journey in a boat or canoe. So, also, in collecting for the Church Society—that great stay and hope, under God, of the best interests of religion in Canada and the other provinces—though you may be occasionally annoyed by the lukewarmness of some, the absolute indifference or meanness of others,—besides, perhaps, experiencing occasional brunts from dissenters—yet your spirit, on the other hand, is occasionally refreshed by meeting with the noble-minded, the affectionate, and the true-hearted; and I will say this for Canada, above all countries I have ever visited, that let a clergyman show himself only affectionate and friendly, let him visit extensively among the people, and, in his sermons and private intercourse, especially towards “those that are without,” maintain christian charity without compromising principle—and he will find very few dissenters so bigoted (especially if he possess ability as a preacher) as to refuse to attend upon his ministrations. And if he begin by letting the people see that he is determined to preach what all must admit to be the gospel, as distinguished from latitudinarian tendencies to antinomianism on the one hand, and a mere 0163 149 barren system of legality on the other; holding up the grand doctrines of the Cross, and salvation by grace, as taught and held by the church; showing himself thus in his teaching a pattern of sound doctrine ,—he may gradually and safely introduce instruction on the subject of discipline. He may then go on to show that it is necessary to maintain the fellowship as well as the teaching of primitive apostolicity; and thus, not do as some well-meaning but mistaken clergymen have done, form a congregation, and leave them ignorant as to whether they were churchmen or dissenters, ready to fall at his departure an easy prey to every propounder of novelties without the church's pale who may come across their path; but by gradually moulding the people into her spirit, and accustoming them to her tone, much of which may be done by friendly conversations in private, and likewise by frequent catechizing in public—he will build upon a sure and apostolical foundation. He will then leave an edifice founded upon a rock, from whence no storms of heresy, and no allurements of unauthorized teachers, shall be able to shake it. Thus, “being crafty, he may catch men with guile.” Finding the bulk of them comparatively ignorant, he may make them well-versed, not merely in the directly saving truths of the gospel, but likewise in those questions of apostolical order involved in the holding communion 0164 150 with the catholic church, regarding which such an astonishing amount of ignorance prevails even amongst many of the laity in other repects well-informed. For I need scarcely tell my readers, that in Canada, as elsewhere, people calling themselves churchmen, and really well versed in most topics of ordinary conversation, will be continually found to commit the misnomers of “dissenting churches ,” and “ catholic chapels,”—meaning, of course, thereby the meeting-houses of the wanderers from apostolic discipline, as the Protestant sects—or those of the innovators on apostolic doctrine , as the members of the Romish communion. Many, again, will be quite shocked if the offertory be read at the conclusion of the morning service, and if the apostolic precept be complied with on the occasion of “each man on the first day of the week offering as God hath given him opportunity.” With such, if a church be decorated with green boughs, agreeably to primitive practice, it is Popery. If a clergyman preach in his surplice, it is “Puseyism.” In making these remarks, I am far from saying, of course, that it might be always “expedient” either to read the offertory or to preach in a surplice; and, indeed, on some grounds, I perhaps rather prefer to see a black gown in the pulpit myself. But these people ought to be taught that it is a man's doctrine that they should look to, and that 0165 151 they ought not to presume to pass a hasty judgment on his introduction of alterations for which he may be able to give a very good reason, without being at all a “Puseyite” (according to the vulgar nomenclature), much less a “papist” in disguise. Clergymen who, I am sure, know and love the gospel, adopt both modes in Canada; some using the surplice and offertory, others the gown, without being interfered with by their judicious diocesan. Some also use written, and others unwritten, or (as they are frequently miscalled) extemporaneous discourses, with similar freedom of private judgment.

In some of the towns the livings are of tolerable value, though clergymen are often obliged to take pupils to eke out their income, which none more deeply regret having to do than they themselves. The necessity of supporting and educating large families of their own, however, impels them. Sixty pounds a year are about the highest terms which may be obtained for the board and education of youths to be prepared for college, and they seldom read very high before they go up. So much depends on habits of personal economy, that I can hardly tell what a clergyman could actually live on in all cases in Canada, but I only know this, that an amiable young friend of mine in the Church, who had a large parochial district which generally required his travelling eighteen miles on 0166 152 Sundays, as his two churches were nine miles apart, had a very pretty little Gothic villa residence (his own), and there dwelt with his lady and two children, keeping three servants, namely, two young girls and a lad. He had, moreover, two horses, right good ones too, a cow or so, and I suppose sundry pigs and fowls, a plain phaeton, light travelling waggon, and sleigh, and kept himself, moreover, always able to entertain a friend with a modest hospitality; and he told me that all this was done for 200 l. a year. He had about three acres of land attached to his house; and he said, that could he have occupied about fifty acres, either by purchase or as glebe, so as to be able to keep a third horse, and a man to work the little farm regularly, it would have been worth 100 l. a year additional to him; but he had the advantage of being within an easy drive of a large city, and with excellent roads and markets. One of his churchwardens, whose farm was hard by his principal church, came about sixteen years ago to the country a poor man. In fact, when he landed he had just half-a-crown in his pocket, but by working about as a labourer and saving money, he gradually accumulated the means of purchasing land for himself, and has now a fine cleared farm of 100 acres, well worth 15 l. an acre, with excellent dwelling-house, offices, orchard, and garden; and on this he supports his family, and frequently lays 0167 153 by 300 l. a year in cash; but then he does all his work, or almost all, within himself. If he had to hire labour, much of his profits would be swallowed up. And it must be also remembered, that his manner of living is such as to entail no expense upon him. As regards the clergy, one thing is certain, that though poorly paid, they all manage to keep their horse or horses, (in fact, they are obliged to do so, for they could not get through their work without them,) and to maintain an unpretending hospitality. Many of them, doubtless, brought more or less private means with them to the country, but others are entirely dependent on their profession.

CHAPTER VIII.

Ecclesiastical appointments—In whose gift—Farms rented or purchased by clergymen—A mathematician in the bush—A clergyman “ supported by voluntary contributions”—Minimum income of a clergyman aimed at by the Bishop—Necessity of some decent provision for men of education and talent—Comparative worldly advantage of following the legal profession—Poor gentlemen, what can they do? Better than they could at home—Adventures of a Cantab—A different case—Too much money and too little wit—Grumblers and growlers—Manage your property yourself—The Author sustains a loss—A medical gentleman's fortune “got through with”—Medical men may farm with advantage—Lawyers—A Yankee orator cut short.

The whole of the ecclesiastical appointments in Upper Canada, or Canada West as it is now called, are virtually in the gift of the bishop of Toronto. The missions and incumbencies entirely so. The rectories are nominally at the disposal of the Government, but the bishop's recommendation is always attended to as a matter of course. Clergymen sometimes come out and rent or purchase 0169 155 farms, on which they remain some time without applying to the bishop for duty. Except however in cases where the state of a person's health may be such as not to admit of his being employed on active service, or may at least require him to lie by for a time, I cannot myself see, without wishing at all to judge brethren, how a man who is himself alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and has his heart as he must have it if that be the case, earnestly awake to his Master's work, can wish to lie by for a moment unless under the circumstances which I have supposed.

Strange to say, a first-rate mathematician, a high wrangler of Cambridge, who came out to be professor of mathematics in a Canadian university, was so smitten with the love of bush farming, that he threw up his professorship to which a handsome salary was attached, and went into the wild wilderness, where, for aught I know to the contrary, he is ploughing, and chopping, and rearing fat cattle to this hour.

The admirers of the voluntary system may perhaps approve of the following anecdote with regard to an eminent clergyman. An excellent man, imbued with a thorough missionary spirit, and deep anxiety to be employed in his Master's cause, proposed to test the working of the voluntary principle in his own person, by offering to the bishop to go into a spiritually destitute district, and seek no support 0170 156 save what he might derive from the voluntary contributions of the people. The bishop, whilst of course greatly delighted with his self-denying ardour, clearly gave him to understand, that there were too many, alas! who, notwithstanding their independant position, and the large way in which Providence had blessed them in worldly circumstances, even exceeding abundantly above anything that they could have looked for in the old country, yet grudged nothing so much as a contribution to their church. The good man went however, nevertheless, with the love of souls in his heart, and fully satisfied that ministering to them in spiritual things, he should reap sufficient of their carnal things to enable him to rub along if with a rigid economy, at least in moderate comfort. But time passed on; the people were pleased with his ministrations; knew he had no salary, and yet made no offer of support. At length one of the shrewdest and most open-hearted of them came to him, to his great delight, for now he was sure that all his sanguine hopes of the readiness of the people to contribute were entirely to be consummated and crowned with a rich harvest, when his worthy hearer said to him, “We've been a thinking, you see, that you must have something to live upon; that it wont do for you to work among us for nothing.” “Right, my dear sir,” said the worthy priest. “I always 0171 157 thought the people would, sooner or later, come to a feeling of that.” “So we has, sir; so, you see, I and two or three others laid our heads together, and we think you can do this,—you can get a good large bag and carry it round among us, and then one can give you a lump of butter, another a loaf, another a piece of meat to put into it, and so you'll get on quite nicely among us!” In fact, they wanted to turn their clergyman, who had freely accorded to them his labours of love, into a regular gaberlunzie man, going from door to door with a wallet on his back. The same day, in further exemplification of their new-born liberality, as he and his wife were about sitting down to their frugal meal, scarcely knowing, humanly speaking, where many more were to come from, the young daughter of a substantial farmer in the neighbourhood came trotting across the road with an uncovered plate in her hand on which lay the solitary leg of a turkey, on the remainder of which the family had been feasting, and pushes it in at the door, bawling out at the same time, “Here, mother sent this for your dinner.”

It is scarce necessary to say, that the bishop found it requisite to remove this gentleman from this liberal neighbourhood, where the people thus miserably mean and ignorant of all that was due to a priest,—a scholar and a gentleman, would have 0172 158 turned him into a beggarman with a wallet at his back, going round from door to door, when they had ample means of placing him in a position of comfortable independence, without ever inconveniencing themselves in a worldly point of view. Had they really been miserably poor, they would have been to be pitied. As it was, they lost an admirable opportunity through their wretched niggardliness; and the clergyman whose services they valued at so low a rate, was removed to some neighbourhood more capable of appreciating them.

The opinion, I believe, of the Bishop of Toronto is, that, considering the nature of the climate and expense of horses, &c., attendant on serving a charge in Canada, no clergyman ought to have less than 100 l. a-year, in addition to what he may have subscribed by his people. That from that as a minimum the incomes should rise to between 200 l. and 300 l. The people, however, will have to put a firm and energetic hand to the work to do this, since even if the church should not be robbed of the clergy reserves, the estimated maximum of the proceeds from the whole of them, if disposed of according to the present ruinous system, will not furnish more than 20 l. a-year each to all the parishes that will be required in the diocese. The sum of 200 l. or 250 l. a-year is certainly far from being too much, either as a 0173 159 necessary remuneration for the time and expenses of a clergyman viewed merely as a professional man, or indeed as tending to secure to the church the services of men of ability. For let the world talk as it will about “grasping clergy,” &c., or employ all the other vulgar common-place phrases of those whom seem to think that because a man has chosen an unworldly profession, he is therefore to live upon air, we know that at least on the outset of life, when men are engaged in choosing a profession, it is not to be wondered at, if the ardent and the aspiring, if finding themselves to be moreover the gifted, should select one that ensures some more certain provision both as a reward for their own labours, and a support for their families, if they have them, than any which legislative “liberalism” holds out in the present day, to the very men who are of all others the pillars of the land—the intercessors for it through the one Mediator before the throne of grace, and the salt, at the same time, of society, which preserves the mass from corruption. Of two brothers, of perhaps equal ability, who emigrated some years ago, the one a clergyman, the other a lawyer, the priest is receiving perhaps 200 l. a-year, the man of the law considerably upwards of 2000 l. !

I have noticed in many, if not most works on Canada, that writers speak with hesitation on advising men this or that class or profession to 0174 160 come out. As regards any recommendation which I may have to offer, I can only repeat what I have said before. If you can do at all in the old country, stay where you are by all means. But if you are unable to get on, and distressed with the heart sickening anxieties of hope deferred, come to Canada, whatever your profession, or if you have none. An esteemed friend of mine, conversing about this work, said to me one day, “But what in the world, my dear sir, can you advise men to do who are gentlemen, perhaps men of family and education, but younger brothers, or from untoward circumstances, possessed of nothing in the world but some 200 l. or 300 l. to call their own,—what are you to tell such to do in Canada?” “Allow me,” I replied, “my good friend, Scotch fashion, to answer that question with another. What would you advise such to do at home? ” The fact is, and I appeal to the sufferers themselves, if I am not speaking the severe truth,—those so circumstanced can do nothing now in the old country, whilst “the governor” is alive, it may be all very well; or you may have a kind elder brother in possession of the estate who allows you the run of the house and stable, and a constant seat at the dinner-table if the sister-in-law be pleased to smile. And now and then you may pick up an odd 20 l. note from a, maiden aunt, or it may be a 50 l. from a dowager 0175 161 mamma or grand-mamma, and thus you may rub along in a most uncomfortable position of dependence, unless some cousin in parliament, by superhuman exertion gets you perhaps an under-clerkship in the neigbourhood of Downing Street, where “vosper blagarodie” (your nobility), as the Russians have it, will have the most of the work with the least possible pickings of the pay. Or it may be, some copper-faced nabob of a granduncle, who hath much stock in trust with their majesties of Leadenhall Street, may get you a chance to go to India, where the pagoda tree has long been too heartily shaken for you to make much of it, and whence, if you are happy enough to escape the climate—the Sikhs—the Bengal tigers, and the perils consequent upon too high a rate of living, you may return after 21 years' expatriation, with a trifle of rupees, an embrowned physiognomy and a “paté de foie gras” sort of liver, to invalid at Cheltenham a stranger among your own kindred. If you can get these things, and like this sort of prospect, of course I have no more to say; but if you have no probability of attaining to them, then I say come to Canada. True, you are a gentleman, and you are poor: you have little or no ready money to begin with, and no permanent income whatsoever to go on or conclude with. Never mind, come to Canada. Why? because in Canada a gentleman can put his hand to things 0176 162 which he would be afraid of losing caste were he seen to touch in the mother country. There was an interesting custom of Old Spain, by which if an hidalgo had fallen into decay, he might go to the authorities of his native city, or the Herald's College, I forget which, and there deposit his sword and other tokens of his nobility. He might then go into trade, or do any thing for an honourable livelihood without offending his order, and if successful in realizing an adequate fortune, he might return, claim his sword, and resume his rank. Now, you will not even have any thing like this, I mean of course, figuratively speaking, to do in Canada. Only be sober, economical, industrious, and by Divine grace religious,—in a word, behave as a gentleman and a Christian, and no matter what you do, you will not and cannot be looked down upon. You may be driving a team, you may be upon a vessel on the lakes, you may be working on a farm, you may be teaching a school, or chopping card-wood in the bush, and living in a shanty one year, and a few years after you may be a member of the provincial parliament. At least that unfortunately is not so likely to be the case at present, because if you are a gentlemen you will most probably be a Conservative; and Radicalism, truth to tell, has rather the best of it just now; but still nil desperandum , let us hope for better days. At any rate, you may 0177 163 live and do well. You cannot starve, you will always get the bite and the sup,—you cannot permanently lose caste while you conduct yourself well; and if Providence smile on your labours you have always the prospect of rising to be any thing. I have known of a gentleman whose brother was a member of parliament in England, at work in a gravel pit, shovelling gravel into a cart; and the general of the district, with a dashing staff at his heels, to ride into the pit, with “Ah, D., how d'ye do?” (Mr. D.'s coat off, red flannel shirt on, sleeves rolled up to the elbows perhaps), “hard at work as usual; come along, just going to have lunch up at the inn; come and make one of us.” So you see there is nothing to fear, as I say, in the score of losing caste. Just to show how a man of spirit may get at least a livelihood if he emigrate, even after having been broken by misfortune at home, I may mention a case with which I am tolerably well acquainted, by way of one example amongst many. I do not mean to say that the individual I refer to has at all done what the world calls “great things” yet, but he has paid his way and kept himself respectable, and got a good situation, and that of itself is no small thing in these hard times. Besides, as he is still quite a young man, he has abundant prospect before him yet.

The gentleman whom I refer to was a member 0178 164 of one of our great universities at home, and had very fair not to say high expectations, when in an evil hour he was overtaken by one of those blighting calamities, the result of a momentary indiscretion that will occasionally destroy the fairest promise like a crashing thunder and hail storm, upon the ripening grain of harvest. It is not necessary to enter into the nature of his offence, suffice it to say that it was one which was so gravely looked upon, as to compromise as he feared all his prospects in England. Whether he took too dark a view of the matter, I cannot say; but at any rate he came to America, and though he could not come provided with the exact testimonials which he could have wished, he had letters with him which abundantly proved that he had at least done nothing which could compromise his honour as a gentleman, or his honesty as a man.

In the States he was unfortunate enough to lose his trunk containing most of his wearing apparel and a considerable sum of money; but was happy enough to retain his letters, which he carried about his person, and what pecuniary means he had bestowed in a similar manner. As his views were doubtless modified by the loss of his cash, he determined in the first instance on an independent excursion to Texas, more, I believe, with a view of seeing the country than of settling down there.

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In the route which he chose, he had to cross seven considerable rivers, and to be chiefly dependant on his gun for his support, as the country through which he was to pass was entirely uninhabited.

On the borders of one of the southern States, he made the following preparations:—He provided himself with an Indian horse and a long grass rope, or larriette as it is called, wherewith to picquet the animal on camping out. He had, moreover, a good knife, two calabashes, with a quantity of rice and coffee, a kettle and blanket, and his gun and ammunition. Thus accoutred, he started off on his wild expedition. At night he would camp on the open prairie, tether his steed, cook some coffee, and part of whatever he had shot during the day, take his supper, commend himself to Providence, roll himself in his blanket, and go to rest like Jacob, with the heavens for his roof, the clouds for his curtains, and the horizon for the limits of his bed-chamber. On waking in the morning, he would find the “wild cows” and deer frequently grazing within easy distance of him—would prepare his breakfast of the same materials as his supper, mount his horse and journey on. When he came to a river he would fearlessly plunge in and swim himself and his horse across; but after two successful attempts he was so nearly carried down, or at least getting all 0180 166 his powder spoilt in the third, that after that he preferred taking a little more time and looking for a ford. Thus he arrived in safety once more at he abodes of man, but seeing nothing in Texas to his liking, or having gratified his curiosity, or finding his little cash failing, he made another march for the older settled States of the Union, and was fortunate enough to come upon a planter, one of the first persons whom he accosted, who on looking at his letters, gladly made him tutor to his children at a salary of 300 dollars a-year, and all extras found him. Here he remained very comfortably six months, but wishing to push on to Canada, after having recruited his purse, and perhaps dreading the climate of the southern States, he proposed taking his leave, greatly to the concern of his kind friend and patron, who had become warmly attached to him, and quite treated him as a son. In fact he offered to double his salary and give him 600 dollars a-year if he would remain.

He, however, had decided to depart, and started for Canada, where he safely arrived after meeting with several adventures, in one of which he killed a bear with a knife, as I have before related, and in another he was fired at when with a company of traders and others on the prairies by a party of ambushed Indians, and wounded by slugs in the leg.

On reaching Canada and finding his funds once 0181 167 more getting low, he began to cast about what to do, when stopping to rest himself he heard some people talking about the want of a schoolmaster in a neighbouring township. “Schoolmaster!” thought he, “that would just suit me;” accordingly he made up to the men, found out who the trustees were, they being the clergyman and one or two magistrates. To these then he went, and presenting his letters, and communicating, in confidence, to the clerical gentleman in question the circumstances connected with his leaving England, he was duly elected.

There happened to be a small house or shanty for the schoolmaster, in which he was installed forthwith, and there he was lying by, quietly paying his way, earning golden opinions from all classes, by his talents, his assiduity, and probity, and ready of course to take advantage of any favourable opening which might occur of bettering himself on some future occasion. He has since been promoted to a situation of high respectability and some emolument, which I only do not indicate more clearly, lest I should bring the gentleman's name forward more distinctly than is congenial to his feelings.

Here was a case where a young man under very adverse circumstances, by keeping sobriety and rectitude, was not to be driven to the wall. Perhaps there was a little of the love of travel and 0182 168 adventure intermingled with his first start, but this was, to say the least, very excusable; as he wanted to see as much of the country as he could before settling down. On the other hand, to show how by pursuing a different course, a young man originally well provided with all appliances and means for making an advantageous settlement, has shipwrecked himself it may be for life, I shall mention a narrative of a totally opposite character, abstaining of course from all such references to names and localities as might identify the individual whose history is after all more or less only that of a number of others who come out and act improvidently.

This. young man's father was well off, but thought that his son might do better in Canada than he could at home, and accordingly sent him out provided with 800 l. in cash or letters of credit, and a promise of three or four hundred more after he had got settled. Instead, however, of taking a farm or purchasing land, or doing something to husband his resources, he staid very comfortably at an hotel at one of the larger cities, spending his precious time and cash in billiard-playing, dinner-giving, drinking expensive wines, riding, tandemizing, sleigh-driving, &c. This was all very entertaining so long as the money lasted, but at length “a change came over the spirit of the dream.” He found that his 800 l. had, as might 0183 169 have been expected, “made to themselves wings” and flown away. Hereupon he wrote a pathetic letter to his father, giving a deplorable description of the state of things (!) in Canada, and of how much it must take a man in outlay before he could look to be settled. Hereupon the old gentleman kindly sent him 400 l. more, with a caution. Armed with this he took a trip through the provinces, fell in with a girl who struck his fancy, and married her on a brief courtship. Instead now of at least bestiring himself to do something for a livelihood, the infatuated young man actually brought up his wife and her whole family to the same hotel as that where he had been playing his games all along, and kept them there in the same extravagant manner at his expense, till the extra 400 l. was among the things that had been. Once more he appeals to his father, tells him of his marriage, and implores further succour. The old gentleman, now seriously irate, after some demur sent him 300 l. more, with a decided assurance that he had now received the last farthing that he ever was to expect from him. Of this his respectable father-in-law borrowed 200 l. , with which he purchased to himself and the rest of his family a comfortable farm at a distance, on which he has since lived, never, it is to feared, intending to repay one farthing. There being only 100 l. left, the poor youth thought it was really time to do VOL. II. I. 0184 170 something, but, devoid of energy, devoid moreover of capital, and the time which he might have employed in acquiring an useful knowledge of the country and its resources frittered away in Sybaritic luxury without land or the means of purchasing any, his solitary hundred pounds, which, in the hands of some men, would have been the nucleus of a fortune, was soon frittered away, and he is now or was, when I last heard of him, living as a squatter on the borders of one of the lakes, which happily supplies him pretty liberally with fish, with three or four poor children running about like wild colts, and no ostensible means of living, just “loafing about,” as it is called—rubbing along recklessly in any way that he can.

Yet such, and it is to be feared that they are too many, come to Canada thus, spend their money, and live as he does, or return, if their friends will receive them, to a condition of abject dependence, with all their recourses gone, and bring back an evil report of the land that might have offered them the means of living, if not in expensive elegance, at least in quiet plenty.

A gentleman in England, with whom I was acquainted, had come to a firm determination not to hear of Canada as a place of residence and settlement for any of his younger sons (though one of them, from his love of agricultural pursuits, would probably have been just the man for the 0185 171 country), because he had got hold of some story of two young men, brothers, who had been sent out with a thousand pounds by their father, and who came home in a twelvemonth penniless,—of course laying all their destitution to the charge of the country, when it was most probably owing to their own weakness or extravagance, or both. They succeeded, however, in giving the impression to their friends that Canada was a shocking country to come to.

The probability is that they would equally have failed any where else. Of course, I am far from saying but that people occasionally are unfortunate in Canada, in consequence of a succession of adverse circumstances over which they have no control. But this is only saying that a residence there by no means confers exemption from the common lot, which so frequently, alas, pours disappointment and trial into our cup. But speaking upon the broad view of the matter, I think that the country presents, humanly speaking, fewer chances of failure than most others, if measures were properly taken from the commencement to ensure success. Those who have signally failed may almost invariably trace the mishap to some mismanagement of their own.

There are, also, in Canada, as in most other places, a set of discontented grumblers and growlers whom nothing will please, and who I 2 0186 172 would, probably, carry the same disposition into any station, however high and replete with the agrémens of life. These either remain, dissatisfied with everything they meet, abusing alternately the climate, the people, the soil, the mode of living, or anything else that comes uppermost, or otherwise they go home setting everybody against the country with whom they come in contact, and who is foolish enough to be guided by them.

But how entirely do such complainers forget the numberless solid benefits with which a settler finds himself surrounded. True he gives up something, so must we all frequently, with a view to prospective benefit. He gives up some of the society which he may have been accustomed to, with many of the sweet scenes of the mother-country, to which a fond heart, enamoured of home, will naturally oftentimes recur with a feeling of chastened regret; but what does he gain in return? He may secure, in the first place, to himself and his children's children, a property to any amount in fee simple, for a less sum than he would pay in rent for the mere occupation of any thing like the same quantity at home. He gains a settlement in a country on the whole healthy, where a little ready money goes three or four times as far as it could in England. He enjoys, moreover, the comfort of knowing that there are openings in every branch of life for his 0187 173 children if they are only diligent and tolerably educated. So that, instead of looking on the young olive plants round his table, as he often must at home, if a poor man, with something like a feeling of dread, he may be sure that, while there is always enough for them to eat whilst they are young, there are always openings enough for them in the professions if he be a gentleman—whilst, if he be a poor man or in any case if addicted to farming, they are a positive fortune to him. Then taxes are far lighter than in the old country, and land is subject to neither poor's rate nor tithe. The farmer can prepare his own malt, brew his own beer, make his own soap, candles, and sugar—in fact, provide himself with any ordinary article of domestic economy without ever being troubled with a visit from the tax-gatherer. He requires no game certificate for shooting, pays no window-tax, and can drive, as he frequently, indeed, does, a couple of horses in his buggy,—fit either for plough, waggon, or carriage.

I have recently been conversing with a gentleman on a farm of 140 acres, with an excellent house, and an ample supply of stock, whose whole annual taxation—land-tax included, is under two pounds sterling. This same gentleman's taxes at home amounted to a hundred and fifty pounds a-year.

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Surely, these are points of no small advantage; and, possessing them, wherefore should men growl?

One very common cause of loss in Canada, as any where else, is from people's entrusting their property, or the management of it, to others. I was sadly bitten in this way myself, not long after I came out. After making a considerable purchase in land, I had still a sum of money left, which I wished to keep ready for other purposes. I was advised to put this into bank stock, as offering one of the surest investments in the country, and paying about seven per cent. With this view I placed the money in the hands of the solicitor to the said bank, whose name stood excessively high, taking the receipt, pro tempore , of one of the partners, and requesting him, on the earliest opportunity, to secure me the desired stock. I have since ascertained that he could, if he chose, have got the investment desired at half an hour's notice; but he put me off with various excuses, saying that stock could not always be got, but that while I left the money in his hands, he would allow me six per cent for it. I did not want to do this, but as I resided at a distance, I could not well help myself. Happily, I had withdrawn a good deal from his hands for another investment, when, just as I was about to draw on him for the remainder, crash went the firm one morning, for 0189 175 the sum of 40,000 l. ; a number of poor folks, like myself, whose money had been held in trust, and, doubtless, wildly speculated with, if not actually gambled away, having been the sufferers by their suddenly bolting after this fashion.

It is said that the firm had secured themselves by settling [their property upon fathers-in-law, &c., and when a friend last made enquiry, there seemed to be no assets, yet one of these bankrupts, I understand, is driving his carriage and giving his dinner parties, just the same as if nothing had happened. The other partner, I thought at one time, was making an attempt to behave like a man of honour, and he did, in fact, honour a small draft upon him after the crash. But since then, alas, I can hear no more, at least for the present, of the balance which I can ill afford to spare, He says he will pay me, and I can only say that I most sincerely hope he will.

The bank itself was, I understand, a loser of 17,000 l. by these gentlemen; so that I could not at any rate blame myself with having acted very hastily or rashly in trusting them, as their names stood so high.

I knew of a gentleman, a professional man of a very good Irish family, who brought out 7000 l. with him, and ought to have been quite in a position of comparative affluence. Not being a business man himself, he thought that he would 0190 176 quietly follow his profession (the medical), and in an evil hour entrusted his capital to two young men of, I believe, good connections, but no management, in order to the working of a farm which he had purchased. They might have been honest as far as the letter of the term goes, and most probably would have disdained to have been called otherwise; but such reckless squandering of another's property as they rushed into when armed with these funds, spoke little, I fear, for any high elevation of principle. At one time, I understand, that amongst other extravagancies, they had nineteen horses kept on the farm, and they would go to work in some such way as this. They would get a cord of wood chopped, put it on a sledge, and as they said, not being proud, would drive it four-in-hand into Toronto, and sell it for may be three or four dollars.

All very well (barring the leaders) if they had driven quietly out again. But after having disposed of their wonderful mercantile transaction, off my gentlemen would scamper to the “North American,” where cigars, port wine (if not something more expensive), and billiards, were the order of the day, during the remainder of it.

It may well be imagined, therefore, that by the time this entertainment, with that for four horses, came to be paid for, little would be left out of the three dollars or so, or rather, that a considerable 0191 177 per contra would be added. It was not, therefore, to be wondered at that, after a year or two of this sort of work, and much more of a similar kind, the poor old gentleman found all his bright hopes disappointed, and himself left penniless, save from the hard-won earnings of a profession, which with his original fortune was, in Canada, amply sufficient to have kept him independent of altogether. In fact, to persons who bring out any means with them, my first and chief advice would be threefold, in similar guise to that of the philosopher of old, and it would run in these words, “Take care of your money!” “Take care of your money!!” “Take care of your money!!!” You will meet with all manner of plausible offers for investment, besides would-be borrowers, as you you may be sure, by the hundred; but take my advice. Keep fast with your cash, and look cautiously about you. How you may best do both I will endeavour to show you in another chapter. But meantime let me assure you, that almost the invariable cry is, if you talk to a gentleman settler, even of those who may be said to have been moderately successful, and who are now, at least, making a bonâ fide living off their properties, “Oh, if I had known as much as I do now about what to do with my money, I would not have parted with it so hastily.” I can only say for myself, that if I had carefully followed the I 3 0192 178 advice which I am giving to my readers, I should have been much better off than I am at this moment. Specially be not in too great a hurry to make purchases. You can buy at any moment. But as for selling, if you are saddled with a property you do not like, that is another guess sort of an affair. And if you do get a sale for it, you may be years before you realize your cash again. Meantime other and far superior investments may slip by, even if you are not involved in any greater difficulty.

A clever medical man will, I think, hardly fail to do well in Canada. There are so many new settlements continually going forward, that fresh openings are everywhere presented; and, indeed, in the older towns, there is often room for improved investment. If you have sons, you may combine farming profitably with your profession; at least, I am acquainted with those who are doing so; but get in or near a town if you can. A country practitioner's life is one frequently of hard riding and considerable harassment, whilst much time is taken up in proportion to the money earned. Country practitioners complain, moreover, of a great difficulty in getting paid, and of having sometimes to wait from four or five years for their money. You can take your fees out, however, very much in kind, by which you will come to a readier settlement. Thus one patient 0193 179 will bring you so much beef, which may be worth 2½d. a pound, for cash somewhat less; another half a porker, worth much the same price; a third so many loads of cord-wood, and so on. Hay and oats too you can get in like manner for your cattle; the former reckoned at 8 dollars a ton, the latter at 1 s. a bushel; and so you may rub on. I should think that a gentleman-like and clever practitioner would settle in few situations at all worth going to where he might not soon realize his 300 to 500 l. a-year, I mean, of course, after a time. A special familiarity with the treatment of colliquative diarrhœa, fever, and ague (for some districts); and in surgery, with the management of cases of wounds from the axe, or injuries from falling timber, would be found amongst the most useful accomplishments of a doctor.

As regards lawyers, I hardly know what to say. Clever men, I am sure, might do well and get on, they having, moreover, the advantage of a chance of access to the highest offices of State. A good pleader, I should think, would soon work himself into employment, there being a general complaint of a want of extraordinary forensic ability on the part of the bar. A lawyer emigrating, however, cannot practise unless he can obtain a special act of parliament to enable him, or keep his law terms five years if not from an English college, and 0194 180 three if he have an English university degree. The uneducated in Canada, as elsewhere, are too apt at present very much to estimate the value of a speech by its lengthiness; not so, however, with the steady-going Deutschers. A young American orator having occasion to state some case connected with damages done to a sheep, opened it somewhat thus:

“May it please your worship and this honourable court,—In this glorious land of immortal freedom, where the majestic emblem of our country, the bird of Jove, dips one mighty tip of his wide-extending pinions in the tremendous waves of the Atlantic ocean, whilst the other—”

Dutch Magistrate. —“Vat has dat got to do mit de gase?”

Pleader. —“I beg pardon of this honourable court, as I was saying, whilst the other laves itself in the boundless surges of the vast Pacific, and strikes his giant talons—”

Magistrate. —“Dush he shtrike dem into de sheep?”

Pleader. —“No, certainly, a hem—I beg I may not be interrupted—as I had just observed,—”

Magistrate. —“Vat is de damiches glaimed?”

“They are 9 s. 6 d. your worship—but as I was about to observe,—”

“Dat is quite enough, he shall pay 9 s. 6 d. mid 0195 181 costs, so dat is settle. We shall have no more gase to day. De Goart vill adjourn to Bill Gilkerson's to drink!”

A sad nip in the bud here to the first flourishing sprouts of genius.

It is customary in Canada to unite the professions of barrister, solicitor, attorney, and conveyancer all in one. Men of considerable standing, moreover, do not think it at all derogatory to keep a constant advertisement in the columns of the newspapers as to their whereabouts and profession. Medical men also unite all branches of their profession, and do the same.

CHAPTER IX.

Merchants and store-keepers—Their probabilities of success—Can a store-keeper do with a farm?—He might purchase town lots with advantage—Artisans, mechanics, weavers, &c. can scarcely fail of doing well—An apology to the ladies, governesses, housekeepers, &c.—Canada the paradise of the labouring classes—May be made one for the poorer gentry—What you may do with 6000 l. , with a farm or without—Rent of cleared land—Best mode of collecting it—Agricultural improvement—Experiment with wheat crops.

Merchants and store-keepers (or shop-keepers as they are called at home), I cannot pretend to advise to any great extent. I can only say that I see many rise rapidly. Great fortunes can scarcely be expected to be made in a new country, where cash is often scarce at the best, and where money payments are at times very difficult to be obtained. I certainly think that a store-keeper should endeavour, in a new settlement, to be able to carry on for a year or two, or even three, if possible, without expecting much from his business. 0197 183 Could he keep his head above water for that time, so as to be able to afford to sell on long credits, I should think that his success would be almost certain; but if he obtained part of his goods on credit from a wholesale house, he might be swamped by the necessity of paying for these before sufficient return came in from his retail trade.

A person starting in business in Canada, without some previous apprenticeship in the country, would, I should think, be very liable to be taken in. That persons, however, do start in new settlements with very small means, rise with the places and do well, is however unquestionable. I doubt much, generally speaking, whether a store-keeper would find it to his advantage to have a farm also, unless he had sons capable of working it. In such a case I have known both concerns carried on with success; but where a man had only his own exertions to depend upon, he could scarcely divide himself sufficiently to attend to both concerns, and might fritter away his capital, moreover, in the attempt to keep, as it is vulgarly called, “too many irons in the fire.” If his business increased, however, and he wanted investments, he might advantageously purchase town lots and build upon them. The house-rents which he would obtain would probably yield him from 10 to 30 per cent. for his money.

0198 184

House rent is generally pretty high, especially in the larger cities. Indeed, in Toronto, in the principal business streets, a ground rent of 100 l. a year is frequently obtainable from a plot of not more perhaps than 50 to 60 feet frontage with 150 of depth. As regards mechanics, artisans, and indeed labourers of all kinds, they cannot well go wrong if only sober and industrious, more especially if they do not fall into the error committed by too many at first, of an over greediness, if journeymen, on the score of wages. Emigrants of the working class ought to be aware, that from the modifications introduced by the nature of the country, the climate, &c., there are very few but have something to learn when they come out, which makes their labour of proportionately less value at first. Yet I have known an Irish emigrant stand the whole day idly chucking stones into a river, and living anyhow in a miserable shanty beside it, because he would not take work offered him at 2s. a day and perhaps rations found him. In fact, it unfortunately too often happens here as elsewhere, that those who were in the poorest circumstances at home, on getting a little up in the world in a colony, become idle, insolent, ungrateful, and rebellious. So truly saith the Scripture, “When Jeshururi waxed fat he kicked.”

A well-disposed operative who comes out, need not be afraid if he find no immediate call in his 0199 185 own business or handicraft, whatsoever that may be, as he can always find something to turn his hand to until he gets suited, especially if he can read and write. It has been remarked, I think, by the late talented author of “The Backwoodsman,” that handloom weavers, for instance, make excellent choppers, as they generally are able to cut either right or left-handed. He attributes this to their habit of throwing the shuttle.

Men and women servants will find little difficulty in the towns in obtaining engagements. The wages of the former will be from 25 l. to 30 l. currency a year, and of the latter from 9 l. to 12 l. , including of course their board. The services of very young persons may of course be had for much less.

It just occurs to me to speak a few words to intending lady emigrants, such as governesses for instance. Indeed, I ought to apologize to that interesting, but often much tried class of society, for bringing them in amongst mechanics, labourers, and house servants. Yet many, I fear, will smile sadly and think, that judging by the treatment which they too often experience in the families of the little great at home, my putting them with servants, is not so much classing them out of place. Well, then, ladies all, having made my bow and my apology, allow me to say to all of you fair spinsters, who may wish to derive a livelihood 0200 186 from your talents and education, that a young lady well recommended, may find many a happy home in Canada; and that, moreover, as far as my observation has gone, you will not be made to occupy the miserably subordinate position, which those who are your superiors in nothing but the length of their pockets, your inferiors most probably in birth, education, and every other good quality, are too fond of forcing you into in England. You will almost always dine, if you choose, with the family, be in the drawing-room when parties are given, &c.; in a word, be treated just like one of themselves. The salary of a governess may range from 30 l. to 100 l. a year.

Widows or maiden ladies wishing to take charge of a household, will often find opportunities. Perhaps they might receive 20 l. to 50 l. a year. And my fair friends will allow me to inform them, that should they incline matrimonially, the cheapness of living is frequently a means of bringing sighing swains to their feet, who must have lugubriously kept aloof in a land, where it is more necessary to consider the amount of the per annum. A lady of genuine accomplishment would probably find no difficulty in filling a boarding school with pupils. Cities of only third and fourth rate rank, contain frequently as many as half-a-dozen, even where those conducting them have themselves possessed very inferior advantages 0201 187 of preparation. At a pretty good school the charge for board including all extras, would vary from 30 l. to 50 l. a year. Young ladies who, from distressed circumstances, may have been driven to seek a livelihood by their needles, can also find work perhaps on better terms than in England, where I know their situation is often truly distressing.

In Canada, young persons who go out to work, will receive a quarter of a dollar a day; and often, especially in the farming districts, be quite associated with the family at meals, &c. In the few cases however where those who have known better days, and been gentlewomen born, have had to resort to such a means of living in this country, truth, I fear, compels me to say, that the “uppish sort” of people in the towns do not always treat them with the respect which their previous station and their misfortunes might claim for them. This however is only saying, that unrenewed human nature is the same everywhere.

I need not say much, however, about young persons being unduly kept down, because the tendencies are more often the other way; servants, in newly settled districts particularly, pretending to claim a right to dine with the family. This however need never be permitted. I heard of a girl in a place where servants were difficult to be procured, insisting upon this privilege, which the 0202 188 master of the house, by way of a joke, conceded; but paid her so much mock polite attention—asking her to take wine, helping her first, &c., that the poor silly thing was glad enough to retreat to the kitchen overwhelmed with confusion. This one however, at any rate, showed some modesty of feeling, and a disposition capable of being worked upon, since had she been one of the bolder sort, she would most probably have brazened it out. Ladies must not be disappointed on first coming to Canada, if they have to change several times before they can get suited. I have known of girls leaving on the most frivolous pretences, and of one lady, indeed, who had three in one day. A girl who insisted on dining with the family in a bush district, was amazingly put out on one occasion by her finding herself the only person at dinner when she had set it down at 1 o'clock, her mistress assuring her, that she always made it a rule to dine after her servants. The foolish young woman did not know what to make of this, and was, I believe, also shamed into giving up her point. In most districts, however, you can now get your choice; and if servants demand unreasonable conditions, the best way is to have nothing to do with them. Many respectable families in the country, greatly on account of this sort of assumption, keep no servants at all, but do all their work within themselves. Washer-women 0203 189 going out will earn from three (York) shillings to half-a-dollar a day. Charwomen the same.

Canada, take it all in all, is certainly the paradise of labouring men; but I think that I may moreover add, what has perhaps been less set before the British public, that in some respects, it may be made that moreover of poor gentlemen. And when I speak of such, I am not now referring to penniless bachelors. I have shown them already how they may rub along. But I mean, that I do not think that it has been ever fully set before, what I may call the minor gentry of the three kingdoms, how very much and safely they might improve their circumstances by coming to Canada. I hear that many of the Irish gentry are going to the States. They will probably come by and bye creeping across the lines to us, wiser but poorer, after having lost most of their cash, to brother Jonathan. I will suppose that you are a gentleman worth 6000 l. , and that you have a small family, and are living in some of the country towns of England on the interest of this sum in the 3 per cents., which will be 180 l. a year. Now, here you are set down. You can never get richer, without endangering your substance by speculative risks. You have a rising family, moreover; and before you pass from the world you wish to see them in some hopeful way. We will say that you have no turn for farming,—that 0204 190 you have been brought up without a profession, and have just quietly lived upon your little patrimony,—the extent of your out-door occupation amounting perhaps to a little weeding or trimming in your garden. I do not say, of course, that this sort of life has been best for either body or soul, since one of more active utility is likelier to benefit both; but we will say that has been your life, and so far an innocent one. But you wish to better your circumstances. Your family begins to pinch you, so you come to Canada. Now, what will you do when you get there? In the first place, after having sold out your stock in the bank, you cannot better transfer it to the country of your adoption, than by placing it in charge of the Canada Company. Their office is at the “Canada House,” St. Helen's Place, Bishopsgate. On your paying in your money here, they will of course give you a receipt for it, and a letter of credit on their office in Toronto. They allow 4 per cent. for any monies left in their hands for a longer period than ninety days. I only wish I had kept my ready cash with them, as then I should not have lost it. Though you may also transfer your money through the banks, by which you will realize perhaps 1 or 1½ per cent. more on the exchange. I knew a gentleman, whose brother mistrusting the banks, brought 750 l. with him in his trunk in sovereigns. He had however 0205 191 the pleasure of seeing it thrown or washed over board in a violent gale of wind, and landed himself in New York with his patrimony, poor fellow! reduced to 7 l. , which he happened to have in his pocket. So much for being over cautious!

Whatever loose money you choose to bring with you, you had better bring in the form of sovereigns, for every one of which you will be allowed about 24 s. 6 d. currency in Canada. Every English shilling is worth 15 d. , or, as it is called, a quarter of a dollar here. But as regards the solid mass of your capital, let us see what you will do with it when you are arrived. For every 100 l. sterling which you deposit with the company, you will receive in Canada 120 l. , or it may be somewhat more. I think I am safe in saying, that you may at all times calculate on increasing your means at least 20 per cent. to begin with by the mere fact of coming out. But then the legal interest of the province is 6 per cent., and from bank-stock you may often realize 7. The Electric Telegraph Company, as I have stated already, was paying 8. There are also building societies, which seem to be a safe investment, and to realize very high per centages.

District Debentures are said also to afford a very safe investment. They consist of acknowledgments for monies borrowed by the several Councils for local improvements. They realize 0206 192 6 per cent., and the capital lent is either borrowed for a specified time, or is returnable to the lender at a twelvemonth's notice. They cannot fail of being safe, as the lender has the security of all the real and personal property in the district. These are worth the attention of people at home even if they do not think fit to emigrate. They tend to improve the province, and would yield a far larger income than any securities that would be so safe could offer at home, or in the United States, (the districts here possessing much of the character of separate States in the Union. To a person resident in the country, they labour only under this drawback—that they do not increase in value with the increasing wealth of the country as other property has a tendency to do. They are marketable, however, like the public securities of the political divisions of the neighbouring republic.

But say you keep your money quietly in the bank, by purchasing stock, which is perhaps one of the safest investments, as the Canadian banks are so carefully conducted on the principle of what are called double securities, that they have stood all the tremendous commercial crises of the mother country. You will perhaps realize 6 per cent on your stock, besides a half yearly bonus. At least you will from the banks of Upper Canada or Montreal, which I think is the safest of all. 0207 193 That of British America depends on houses in England, and perhaps for that reason only pays 4 per cent. This is, however, the best one to have an order from if you wish to travel much, as they have branch connexions in all the other provinces, and I think in the States.

But say that by way of a permanency, you purchase stock in the bank of Upper Canada. The old stock is not to be got every day, but the new, which is of somewhat less value for the present, having suffered by the same parties through whom I lost part of my humble pittance, and been for the moment depreciated by them to the amount of 12 per cent. I doubt not, however, but what it will soon recover itself. Some people will tell you that you will not certainly receive 7 per cent. from your bank stock. But were it not so, you have many other legitimate ways of getting a good rate of interest; for, as I have already observed, the legal terms of the province are now 6 per cent., and they are attempting to do away with the usury laws, * money being felt to be of VOL. II. K

* The Usury Laws had frequently excited discussion in the council, and a committee was at length appointed to enquire whether it would be advisable or otherwise that these should be repealed in this colony. The report of this committee was unanimously adopted, and a copy of it was submitted to his excellency the Governor-General. The grounds on which the council recommended the repeal of these laws are as follows:—

1st. Because there is virtually no distinction between lending money and lending or selling any other commodity.

2nd. Because the principal of restricting by law the profit to be taken by the lender of money for its use is opposed to the best interests of the country, inasmuch as it opposes the tendency of capital, as of every other marketable commodity, to find its natural level, thereby discouraging the industry and enterprise of the people of this colony.

3rd. Because the principle of competition amongst capitalists would unquestionably tend to keep the market rate of interest moderate and steady.

4th. Because Usury Laws have not the effect which was sought by the legislature of protecting the humble borrower against what may be termed the exactions of the rich, &c. &c.— From a Provincial Paper.

0208 194 greater marketable value than those laws admit of your receiving. But say you get only 6 per cent. (and you need never get less) what is your new condition? You leave a dear and heavily taxed country where you had 180 l. a year; you come to a cheap and lightly taxed one, where I am certain that cash, properly managed, goes three times as far as in the mother country (indeed I don't know how it is, but this I am sure of, that though I kept no horse latterly in England, a dollar in Canada stays with me longer than a sovereign used to do at home); indeed a man never will know how to take care of his money in Canada till he learns to value a dollar as he would a sovereign at home. The fact of your coming out, if you have 6000 l. pounds, makes you immediately worth at 0209 195 least 7200 l. , as you gain at least 200 l. on every 1000 l. , and it may be 225 l. or more, and your income, on the lowest computation, is 432 l. currency. And if you don't, with common management, find yourself a little nabob with that income in hard cash, say that your friendly pioneer, as I fain would prove to you, has marked out a false path for you. But if, instead of doing nothing, you choose to buy a farm of—say 200 acres; if there be a good house and offices on it, with, it may be, 60 or 70 acres cleared, and it be situated within a reasonable distance of a city, commanding therefore, of course, mills and markets, you may, I think, by looking out for sherriffs' sales, &c., get such a place for 1000 l. ; of course, however, if you take a fancy to a particular place, which the owner is in no hurry to quit, or if the situation be pre-eminent, you may have to pay 2000 l. or 3000 l. ; but say you get a place, and you may get a very good one for 1000 l. , or even less. And I advise you, if possible, however tempting the allurement of credit may be, to pay cash for it right down, and get out of all debt at once. Well, suppose you know nothing of farming, but having taken care that the place which you buy has not been exhausted by over wheat cropping, just follow the example of your neighbours, who will almost invariably be ready to give you every friendly K 2 0210 196 hint, and you cannot go far wrong, if you exercise, of course, at the same time, a certain amount of discretion; but be not over-suspicious in anything but lending money. Say, moreover, that you employ your extra 200 l. in furnishing and stocking, purchasing a waggon and various implements of agriculture; you must be a very bad manager by the time you know anything of the country, if you cannot at least get your farm to pay its own expenses; finding your household in all necessaries for the table, besides paying your servants, if you are economical in hired labour, and have—say one or two house servants, and a man for out-door work.

Suppose, then, that your farm only just pays its expenses, and finds you in what I have stated, you have then a valuable improving property, on which, if you wish to clear more, every stick you cut will sell in the neighbouring town as cord-wood, so as more than to pay for the reclaiming of fresh land; and, in addition to all this, you have still a reserve income of 360 l. per annum. And if you cannot contrive to keep your horses, your phaeton, or light waggon, and sleigh upon this, see your friends now and and then, and comfortably educate your children, you must have to learn small lessons of economy from your former screwing in 180 l. If you do not choose to farm 0211 197 it yourself, or are afraid to try at first, you can easily let your land, either entirely or “on shares.” reserving to yourself, of course, the dwelling-house, offices, garden, and as much pasture for your horses and cows as you think fit. I may mention, if you are fond of gardening, that almost any ordinary garden produce that is grown in England will answer in Canada.

If you let your place altogether, the average rent which you will receive will be about, if paid in cash, you finding nothing, which is, perhaps, the most satisfactory way—at the rate of from 7 s. 6 d. to 2 dollars an acre for the cleared land, except near the great cities, where it will amount to 3 dollars. If you take payment in kind, you will receive as rental one-third of the crop, if you find nothing; if you supply seed and implements, you will receive exactly half the produce.

A clergyman, a friend of mine, who has a glebe of 60 acres, finds it a very good way of avoiding all dispute and uncomfortable feeling, to take his hay, corn, &c., of the tenant all the year round at a fair average rate. Thus the occupier is never annoyed, at whatever time the rector sends for what may be due, whether the prices be high or low. For instance, say that oats are at one time as high as a quarter of a dollar, i. e. 1 s. 3 d. currency, 0212 198 and at another down to 10 d. a bushel. He offers to take them all the year round at the rate of 1 s. currency, which the tenant is very well pleased with. It is no matter then what time of the year he desires them to be delivered. So with hay, which is sometimes 10 or 12 dollars, and sometimes 6 or 8 dollars, a ton; he takes the average at 8 or 9 dollars, and the arrangement is satisfactory to both parties.

In making an agreement as to payment of rent in kind, it is necessary, of course, to have a distinct understanding in writing, properly attested, as to whether you are to have your produce carted to the barn, the grain portion thrashed or unthrashed, &c,; likewise as to whether you or the tenant pays the land tax. I believe it is generally paid by the proprietor.

It is usual, when wild land is cleared, to begin with a wheat crop for three, four, or five successive seasons, until the great strength is taken out of the land. The usual English four years' rotation is then generally adopted, with some modification, however, as regards the raising of the most marketable kinds of crops, as every species of farm produce does not meet with so ready a sale as it does in England.

The farming in Canada used to be of the most miserable description, the settlers trusting entirely 0213 199 to the richness of the soil; cropping the same spots with wheat for fifteen or twenty years in succession, abhorring all notions of fallows; and if the manure heap about the barn became an inconvenience from its size, simply dragging the barn itself away by means of oxen, and leaving the invaluable material to decompose upon the spot. I heard of a person who purchased a farm, where he found 900 loads of manure near the site of the barn. This system is altering every day. There is some magnificent farming now in Canada West especially.

In the districts where lighter soils are prevalent, agricultural chemistry is now studied to a great extent, and with proportionate success. It is said to have been recently discovered that even wheat may now be kept in the ground like meadow crop for three successive seasons at least, by giving the field repeated mowings in the early part of the year, and of course long before the ear forms. By manuring in the fall, a fresh crop will start from the old roots for three seasons or so, without fresh ploughing and sowing. If this experiment were tried, however, I should recommend its being done on a very limited scale, till its safety was well tested. Fall wheat is found to be a much more paying crop than spring wheat, and the bread made from it is also not liable to turn sour. It 0214 200 has, moreover, this advantage, that if from an open winter, or any untoward circumstances, it shows signs of failure, you can always plough up the field, and put in spring wheat as a dernier ressort.

CHAPTER X.

Can one form a landed estate in Canada?—Probable cost and return of a property consisting of ten cleared farms—Another estimate for wild land—Clearing land by way of rental—Advantages in Canada to persons of considerable income colonizing a township—Never pay the passage of your tenantry without security if you bring any out—You may sometimes give land away with advantage.

Speaking at present to those whom I should call persons of large capital (for Canada) that is to say, people possessed of 5000 l. and upwards; and I suspect that very few indeed come out any thing like so well provided, perhaps I ought to say something as to the possibilty of their forming an estate. That is to say, I mean a regular landed property as in Great Britain, in which one's income is chiefly derivable from the rent of the farms on it. Now that you may certainly do so, there can be no question, but at the same time I decidedly think that you can do far better with your means. The late Admiral Vansittart, who brought 45,000 l. K 3 0216 202 with him to the country,—an enormous sum here for a private individual, certainly did so; and Eastwood, as it is called, is a pretty property, but then he had so much money that he could afford to waste some upon a hobby. I came out in my small way with a somewhat similar idea of forming an estate myself; and did purchase about two square miles of first rate land, which I thought of making into about twelve farms, to be leased in the usual way to tenants. But I have since offered the whole of it for sale, as purchasers may present themselves. The fact is, that Canada is scarcely in a sufficiently advanced state for a gentleman's sitting down upon his landed property as he might at home. Moreover, there is not the same “home feeling” as that which attaches so strongly to particular localities as in England. The country is too young for it, and the genius of the people is against it. Perhaps it would be better were there more of the feeling of attachment to particular spots, it being one nearly allied to those the sacred domestic charities which must adorn and dignify the social hearth. Howbeit, as most people need all their means when they come to Canada, of course the mode which most readily tends to their honest improvement, must naturally be the one most affected by the emigrant. And as a general rule, I say that to invest money in an estate by 0217 203 way of deriving a rental, is by no means the most expeditious way of improving your capital, or the mode of procuring the best return for it by way of interest. One farm you may have to live upon, as I have already shown, and if you do not choose to cultivate it yourself, you may rent it, or work it “on shares,” as you have then at least your house, &c., rent free. But say you bring 5000 l. with you, and choose to invest it in land. You buy, we will suppose, ten farms with this sum, and if you look out you might easily buy them (though scarcely adjoining ones, as they will make you pay for them as they did the Admiral, when they find out your design). But by looking about, you may buy ten farms near rising cities, and furnished with habitable houses and offices in serviceable repair, of about 100 acres each, with 60 or 70 cleared. Indeed, you may often get them for less; but I am speaking of what I know you can do with ease and a little bargaining. We will suppose then, and this is a most important point, that you have taken due care to ascertain whether the titles are good, the properties otherwise free of incumberance, and the lands in good heart. Out of your 1000 acres of property, you have, we will say, 650 cleared. Now the rent of this being two dollars an acre, your income from your investment, supposing you to keep all your farms let, and to have no trouble with your 0218 204 tenants on the score of payment, (a very doubtful case,) will be just 1300 dollars, or about 325 l. a-year; and it is certainly to be admitted that your property has a tendency to improve in value. Thus you get about 6 per cent. for your money, or a little more; but as a drawback, your capital is all tied up, and you are subject to all such hindrances as those I have already referred to. In fact, whatever you do with your money, I should decidedly recommend you never to tie up the whole in any single investment whatsoever. Perhaps the way of purchasing cleared farms may be the best, if you are decidedly bent upon a landed investment; but you may wish to make your capital go further in point of securing extent of territory; and in order to this, you will have to buy wild land. If you purchase of the government, the usual upset price is 8 s. an acre, save for mill privileges and town lots, (though I have known a mill privilege with a valuable pine grove near it, and a hard-wood (beech and maple) country, go for the common rate of wild land, or nearly so, and would have bought it myself had not a friend wanted it). If you buy of the Canada company, you will pay from 7 s. 6 d. to 35 s. an acre, according to situation. But say you buy of the government, for scrip from its nature will not avail you with the company. You will get your land then for about 6 s. to 7 s. an acre, scrip now ranging 0219 205 from 32 to 33 for 40, i.e. from 7 to 8 below par. Now, as you can pay (and must for the government gives no credit), in cash, that is in scrip, and there are many who wish to settle, who cannot secure government land from want of means to purchase scrip, you may bestow your purchase thus: By giving four or five years credit, you will readily obtain 10 s. an acre, for what has cost you 6 s. , thus “progressing at once two-thirds on the road to doubling your capital. You will get one-fourth of the money paid down, (or if you do not, you will make of course proportionably higher terms,) and the rest will remain at 6 per cent. secured on the property itself, and payable by three or four yearly instalments. You give a deed when the last payment is completed. Thus then, say you buy 1000 acres of wild land with this view, this in scrip at 6 s. an acre, (but I suspect that you will have to pay rather more now), will cost 6000 s. , or 300 l. currency—about 250 l. sterling. For this you receive one quarter down on the advanced rate of 10 s. , or 2 dollars an acre, with 6 per cent. on the remainder. Your whole purchase thus becomes immediately worth 10,000 s. or 500 l. , of which you receive immediately one-quarter, viz. 125 l. , and interest on 375 l. , 22 l. 10 s. diminishing every year at the rate of one-fourth, as the debt is being paid off, whilst at the same time you are turning your cash for the making 0220 206 new purchases ad libitum. Meanwhile, in addition to your receiving back immediately within 25 l. of half your original outlay, you are obtaining more than 7 per cent. upon that outlay, or nearly 13 per cent. on the outstanding part of it. For that outstanding balance is 175 l. , I mean as regards what you actually paid, and this is bringing you in 22 l. 10 s. , by way of a thoroughly secured income. Of course, if those who take up the land cannot or will not pay the balance, they are liable to forfeit what they have paid, with all the improvements. You may often do better even than I have said.

I lately sold 200 acres at 14 s. an acre, for which I had given 6 s. , a year and a quarter previously; and of the purchase money I received 100 l. down,—the rest payable in six months. This, however, was a very beautiful lot of land, and well watered, which is a most important point to attend to in making a purchase. I could previously have sold it over and over again, but declined throwing it into the market until my affairs became embarrassed, partly owing to reasons which I have mentioned further back. Against the greater price, however, which you may sometimes obtain by holding on, are to be set the drawbacks of your not being always able to sell your wild land at once; and likewise the expense of the land-tax of 1 d. an acre, which was specially 0221 207 put on to deter speculators from holding large tracts of land in an unproductive state, whilst they themselves resided at a distance, and left them to improve in value by the exertions of their neighbours who were bonâ fide settlers. You may likewise frequently dispose of your wild land by exchanging it for cleared farms or city property in the more settled parts of the country at a fair reciprocal valuation. The reason of the facility for doing so, arises from the continual internal emigration to the more western parts of the province, which is going on in Canada as well as in the States, though not to a similar extent.

A farmer in the older settled parts of the country perhaps finds his family increasing, tall sons getting up about his hand, for whom he wants a larger provision than the original patrimony of may be 100 acres can afford. In a word he begins to have more of the material in bone and sinew than he has elbow-room for. So that say his farm is worth 4 l. an acre, he will gladly exchange this 100 acres for 800 of your wild land at 10 s. an acre. And as you paid 6 s. for it, you are thus also a considerable gainer by the transaction. I exchanged part of my wild land for a cleared farm with buildings upon it, where the farm was valued to me at 3 l. per acre (cleared and uncleared), and my wild land at 15 s. This also was a very fine lot, so I fear that I had 0222 208 rather the worst of the bargain. You may sometimes also give people a ten years' occupancy of your wild land, on condition of their clearing so much annually, say seven acres a-year to each hundred, they of course making what profit they can of the produce. Chief-Justice Robinson did so in East Gwillumbury, I believe with success—and I had some thoughts of trying the same plan with some of my wild land, and am ready to do so with any of the portions remaining unsold or unexchanged. Thus, you may gradually carve an estate out of the wilderness without any expense beyond that of the original purchase, or you may lease your land on the same terms as those of the Canada Company, which you can easily ascertain from any of their published advertisements.

Whatever you do you should not allow your land to lie unimproved. Business men say that the less time you keep any land in your hand the better; and so it is of course on the principle of a quick turning over of your capital.

I know a gentleman, a member of the Upper House of Assembly, who has made within these few years well on to 1000 l. off one town lot in one of the cities, by purchasing, selling, and repurchasing. I believe that he bought it the first time for 25 l. , and has since, after several intermediate sales, repurchased it for 250 l. and sold it again for 500 l. He could not have made anything like so 0223 209 much of it by keeping it on hand all the time. The chief-justice, when he let his land be occupied for the clearing in the way which I have stated, would not be responsible for payment for any improvement which the tenant might choose to make in the way of farm-buildings. They put on whatever they chose, however humble, and when they left, everything remained the property of the landlord. Of course, had he done otherwise, they might have gone to extravagant expense in houses and offices, and then charged them on him.

It will be observed, that allowing the expense of clearing and fencing land to be 3 l. 10 s. per acre, the tenant was paying him a rent if he cleared seven acres for every 100, beginning from 24 l. 10 s. per annum in improvements. People are somewhat unwilling I think to go on land on these terms, as each is naturally anxious to occupy land of his own. Yet, for an emigrant labourer of the farming class, who wished to be somewhat independent, I cannot think but what the arrangement is a very good one if he cannot get a free grant, and has little or no money. The seven acres per hundred which he has to clear by way of rental, will occupy him but little of his year; in fact, for his own benefit, he would, I think, do more at any rate so as to have his engagement sooner off his hands, and more land to obtain crops from. 0224 210 During the rest of his time he could be adding to his means by “doing chores” about the country, in assisting other farmers; meantime he would have always a fixed home—no cash outlay for rent, and thus be gradually accumulating the means of purchasing a place of his own. One of the best modes of investment in land is by the purchase of town lots in a rising settlement.

I have already given instances as to their increase in value, and considering that there must be many quiet persons, such as the clergy and others, who would wish to make investments without exposing themselves to the continual excitements incidental to buying and selling, perhaps the possession of one or two good farms and a few town lots whereever they settle, may present one of the quietest modes of sitting down upon a property. Your means will not increase so rapidly as if you kept bargaining backwards and forwards, but still they will be almost invariably increasing. Doubtless there are places in Canada, as elsewhere, where land has been by various means forced up for a time to what may be called a “fancy price,” from which it has since receded; but unquestionably the tendency of the land on the whole is to increase in value, and that largely. If you buy town lots, you can put on them a habitable-sized loghouse about 26 feet by 20, from 20 l. to 25 l. and a frame, one of similar size, from 40 l. to 60 l. 0225 211 These will easily rent in many places from 10 l. to 15 l. a-year, payable in advance; and if you get the lot for scrip, it may cost you in a new settlement like that at Owen's Sound, from 3 l. 15 s. to 15 l. ; the upset nominal prices being 5 l. to 20 l. respectively, according to situation. Park lots or small farm lots of from 12 to 50 acres, are generally reserved around the town surveys of new settlements, in districts belonging to the crown. These are sold by auction like the rest, and average of course a lower price than the town portions, and a higher than the wild land in the 200 acre lots through the country. You may get them, perhaps, at the sale of a new survey for from 10 s. to 1 l. an acre; they will generally be found a good investment, as they are apt to rise rapidly in value. On these, however, some settlement duty has to be done. You cannot receive your deeds before you clear half the road in front of them, and likewise chop some portion of the lots themselves.

I have now endeavoured, to the best of my ability, and with what accuracy I may be master of, to let people with considerable capital know what they can expect to do in Canada. And I have only to say to persons possessed of a larger amount than the sums on which I have based my calculations; to gentlemen possessed, we will say of from 1000 l. to 1500 l. a-year, that though I do 0226 212 not absolutely advise them to come out, yet by doing in a similar way, they may live really en prince in Canada. That a lay churchman, possessed of anything like such means, may if he choose, be extremely happy, and do an incalculable amount of good, there can be, I think, not the shadow of a doubt. Nay, where funds are so large as that, he may certainly bring his own clergyman with him, and find the bishop happy enough to facilitate his arrangements. And though I am far from advising persons of moderate means from bringing any one soever out with them—not even a servant, unless a nurse be absolutely necessary; yet I am by no means certain but that a gentleman who had ample means of colonizing, we will say a township or a large part of one, on any of the principles which I have been endeavouring to exhibit, might, in such a case, place some of his tenantry from home upon it with mutual advantage. But this advice I would give very guardedly indeed, and in any case it would be best to come out one's self first and know something of the country before the experiment were tried of bringing out any tenantry: and even were this done, though the offer of land might be held forth as an inducement for them to come out and settle upon it, and you could not go far wrong if you did induce them to do so on their own resources. I should by no means advise you doing anything 0227 213 like paying the passage of a number of persons, or indeed of any who you were not convinced were actuated by high religious principle. Mere common worldly principle will too often be found to be at fault here, it will be too severely tested.

If you brought persons out under ever so stringent written agreements as to their doing, we will say for instance, a certain amount of clearings for you on condition of your paying their passage money and outfit, there will be plenty of evil-disposed designing persons found who will be too ready to tell them that they are “white slaves,”—that this is a land of freedom where “Jack is as good as his master,” &c.—the ideas which such persons entertain of freedom, consisting in their being at liberty to insult their betters as they may find opportunity, take every unjust advantage, show every possible amount of ingratitude, and violate every engagement however sacred.

The poison once instilled you will find it work, either till the people whom you have served become unbearable, and you are obliged to have done with them at whatever cost to yourself, or until they make themselves scarce, break their engagement with you and go off to shift for themselves, which, if they choose to do, the vastness of the country, and the contiguity to the States, and the consequent difficulty of apprehending and punishing 0228 214 offenders on the score of breaches of contract, gives them unfortunately but too much opportunity of doing. But, of course, if you merely put people on land on any of the terms which I have mentioned, without having incurred any previous expense for them, your only business will be to see that they fulfil the conditions of their agreement, and that you retain the power of ejecting them in the event of their neglecting to do so. I have heard it asserted, that if a person was to take up from Government a whole township, consisting, we will say, of 60,000 acres, and settle it partly from England, and partly from internal immigration (not to have raw hands altogether), it would be worth his while to give away every other lot, or at least every third, as a free grant, because of the increase of value in the remainder, as a township so settled would fill up with extraordinary rapidity, and a proprietor could then largely command his own arrangements, in the way of choice of site for himself, putting those near him whom he might wish to see settled round him, &c. Such a tract would probably contain mill and other privileges likewise, on all of which considerable profit might be expected.

Where land was either granted or exchanged, special privileges might also be reserved to the original proprietor. Thus, when I exchanged 0229 215 some wild land for a cleared farm, there was some magnificent white oak (which is valuable here for barrel staves and building purposes,) upon the former lot. This I specially reserved to my own use in the deed of exchange.

CHAPTER XI.

Advice to persons with 2000 l. down to 500 l. —Misstatements of Mr. Birkbeck and his critic, William Cobbett—Price of a farm 10 miles from a city—Stocking and settling on 500 l. and upwards—Going on wild land—Concessions and lots—How to choose your land—Beware of pine land—Raising a house by means of a “bee”—Clear the wood well from round the house—No ploughing required for the first crop—Ornamental clearings—Common objection to them answered—First year's operations in the bush—Best way of keeping cattle from straying—Risk of being lost in the bush—Disappearance of a woman—Another recovered—Signs to attend to if lost—The Author's visit to his own property—Hardy backwoodsmen—Night bivouac—Group for Salvator—How to warm a shanty.

Thus far, as regards men of large capital. I come now to speak to those of less means, who bring with them, we will say, from 500 l. to 2000 l. And this latter sum even may be made a very pretty provision in Canada for a large family, if care and judgment be exhibited in the first outlay. So far as saying that a person might comfortably settle on that sum, Mr. Birkbeck's letters 0231 217 from the States, that made so much noise many years ago, were correct.

His error lay, perhaps, in his details—in his leading people, with such means to grasp at the occupancy of too large an extent of land, thus inducing them to sink all their capital at once, and directing them to a part of the country without a sufficient market, and where fever and ague are said to be fearfully rife. Cobbett's critique on him, on the other hand, amidst some really sound remarks, which none knew better how to intersperse with effect, contains statements, as I venture to think, even more calculated to delude the emigrant than Mr. Birkbeck's own. Thus his magniloquent estimate for the settlement of his own family on “Bolting House prairie,” however fairly he may seem to set it out upon paper, where he would make one believe that no less a sum than 5000 l. to 6000 l. is necessary, in order to sit down in anything like decent comfort, I venture to characterize as nothing more nor less than just so much arrant humbug.

My own opinion is, that his chief object was to shew, by a side-winded sort of demonstration, how great a man he, William Cobbet, was. Whatever his estimate of his own “fittings and fixings” may run to, every person at all acquainted with the reality of things in Canada, will bear testimony, I am sure, that 5000 l. or 6000 l. is a VOL. II. L 0232 218 very large sum in this comparatively cheap country; and how it may be bestowed, I have already endeavoured to shew, certainly not in the manner which Cobbett would propose.

If you want a good large farm, say of 200 acres, with but moderate means of purchasing, you will have to go, of course, proportionably further back from the cities, where you will materially reduce the cost of your proposed property. You should not go further away, however, from a town than that your teams can go and return the same day; for night stoppages make sad work with profits, not to speak of the temptations to dangerous conviviality, &c. incidental to them, besides neglect involved of matters at home. As a general rule, for every dollar you make fifty miles from a city, you can make four close to a town.

Ten or twelve years ago, when Toronto was less advanced, the majority of the farmers in all directions around were heavily in debt, mortgaged up to the eyes, and almost compelled to part with their farms. Of late years, from the increase of prices, and the readier circulation of cash in the neighbourhood of so rising a city, and the consequent advantages attendant on a command of cash capital, they are now not only clear of debt, but independent.

Roads are, of course, a most important item where questions of distance are concerned; but 0233 219 say you go back ten miles—and you need not go back so far to get a good farm frequently at a very moderate price. At this distance you may certainly obtain one of 200 acres, about half cleared, with suitable house and offices, by watching your opportunity, for, say, 500 l. to 750 l. Say that you come out, go upon it, and stock it, all for 1000 l. currency, and this you may certainly do. Then, if you have 2000 l. sterling to begin, it becomes 2,400 l. , we will say, by the exchange; thus you have 1,400 l. currency to invest by way of permanent income, at 6 or 7 per cent., in addition to your farm. And if, with such a property as I have described, and 84 l. or more of regular income in addition, you do not find yourself in extremely comfortable circumstances, yea, able to lay something by from your income towards other investments, you must be a very bad manager, or have a very extravagant wife and daughters, that's all I can say.

But now, suppose you bring a much smaller capital with you; you have, we will say, not more than 500 l. In that case, perhaps, you had better not look to more than a farm of 100 acres. Your 500 l. becomes 600 l. by exchange. Well, say your farm costs you 400 l. , your stocking and setting down 100 more, and this will then be a large allowance, perhaps we had better say 75 (I am still supposing you: to go on a cleared farm L 2 0234 220 near a town). You are on your farm, and have it stocked, and your house furnished for, say, 475 l. You have then 125 l. remaining for contingencies to invest at 6 per cent. And, believe me, even the 7 l. or 8 l. a-year which this will produce, you will find come in very conveniently indeed, in addition to what you can make off your farm. If you bring any sum much less than this last-assumed amount, unless you make up your mind to go on wild land, or land with a very small amount of clearings upon it, determined to rough it entirely, I decidedly say, keep all your money in the bank, or with the Canada Company, at least for a time, though you only get 4 per cent., and rent a farm till you find an opportunity of making an eligible purchase.

But, say you determine to go on wild land, I am far from advising this, especially if you have never been accustomed to hard manual labour. Yet, as the lowness of the price is certainly an inducement, if you will have it so, I will tell you how to go to work. You first, of course, secure your lot of, say, 200 acres; indeed, I believe that you must generally take this amount, if you purchase of Government.

The townships are divided into parallel strips of land called concessions. Each concession is generally three-quarters of a mile in depth, with a road allowance between it and its neighbour. 0235 221 These are again sub-divided into lots of about half a mile in frontage, and extending the depth of the concession, and will be found to contain about 200 acres. The concessions are numbered, and so are the lots. The Crown agent will point out to you on the map those which are unsold, when you can tell at a glance their distance from a settlement, and their general position. You take down the number of several; say you put down lot 8, concession V, township of Derby; lot 1, concession I, Holland, and so on, supposing these not to be taken up. You had then better go over the land before settling for it with the agent. If a novice in the country, you will be too confused at first amongst the vast masses of the forest to form anything like a sound judgment in all respects, and even to find the spot, if at all back in the bush; but at the nearest settlement you may always secure the services of a guide at from a dollar to a dollar and a half a-day, sometimes a young man of considerable respectability.

At Owen's Sound, for instance, the individual whom you would be sure to hear of as a guide is a gentleman's son, whose father has filled the office of sheriff of one of the other districts.

Accompanied, then, by your guide, you start forth to make a day of it in the wilderness, or even to camp out, should you find occasion; 0236 222 though it is generally possible to reach the abode of some previous settler, where you will be sure to have shelter for the night, and to have cheerfully extended to you the hospitality of the wilderness; and very superior people you will often come upon in these forest fastnesses. Of course for your direction you must depend on your guide, who will discover by the “blaze” (cuts made with an axe in the bark of the trees, to mark a surveyor's line where no path exists), and by the numbered posts at the angles of each lot, the piece of land you are in search of. When you are upon it, see that it is chiefly covered with hardwood, such as beech and maple, and beware of pine, unless you want it for a saw-mill; otherwise pine land is always very severe land to clear, the stumps an interminable time in rotting out, desperately hard to grub up, and the land sometimes miserably poor when you have done all. It is but fair to say, however, that excellent wheat crops are sometimes produced on pine land, when judiciously cultivated and thoroughly subdued. Hardwood land, on the other hand, is easier to clear, is sure to contain good soil, and the stumps may be got out, if you like to go to the expense, with a machine in five or six years, or will so far rot in eight or nine that, with a little lever work and grubbing, a yoke of oxen attached to them by a chain will haul them out without difficulty.

0237 223

The “stump extractor” is now coming into such general use in Canada, that the unsightly appearance of the country, and the hindrances to the plough from the continuance of the stumps and roots in the ground, are daily diminishing under its powerful influence. A man will come with his apparatus, and for a few dollars, perhaps, clear you a whole field. This operation is also important, as, besides the general drawback which they present to your labours, the stumps are reckoned to deduct one-fourth from the available superficial area of the cleared land. This instrument is also of importance, through its bringing forest-covered Canada more on a par, as regards agriculture, with the plains of Australia or the prairies of the States. It will likewise be readily perceived that every field thus cleared affords an increase to your means of removing all obstacles from the remainder.

You must attend to have a stream or creek, as it is called, either on your lot or within an easy reach of it. Look out also if it contain much rock, as it will then give you trouble. A few stones, however, are no objection, and a beaver meadow, and even a cedar swale, if not much exceeding a tithe of the whole, rather an advantage, as the meadow, when the natural grass is burnt off (which makes somewhat unnutritious hay), presents you with a fine clearing free of cost, 0238 224 generally with a small lake or stream in the centre, and which you have only to fence to have a pretty place at once. Cedar swamps also, when cleared and drained, are highly productive; and in older settlements the timber in them is becoming valuable for rail fences. Land of this sort is selling in Waterloo, for this purpose, at 70 dollars an acre. Having ascertained these points, arid especially the facilities for a chopped bush-road, besides the distance from church and school, mill and market, and whether any intervening heavy swamps will require much expense in laying logs across them to render them passable, you return to the agent, having left your family, we will suppose, at the nearest tavern (or farm-house, if you can so arrange it), and secure the spot you have fixed on. The 200 acres, at the rate of scrip which I have before named, will cost you, we will say, 65 l. to 70 l. On paying for your land, you will receive a receipt, which will be quite sufficient to prove your right to the property, till your title-deeds are sent you from the Crown Office, which may be for some months; but in land which you have paid for, you have no settlement duty to do before you obtain them (as on free grants), except, as I have shown you, in the case of park and town lots. You return then to your land; and the first thing you do is to get up a “bee” to clear a space for a dwelling and knock up a shanty. The neighbours 0239

Forest & Cedar Swamp

0240 0241 225 will most cheerfully assemble for the purpose, only expecting you to find them in provisions for the day, and, I am sorry to say, looking forward in general to the consumption of some three gallons of whisky. Save and excepting that , all is agreeable and admirable. The work speeds merrily on; the axe goes crashing into the living trees; a hole is speedily made in the forest; trees (or logs, as they are called) are cut the proper length; the corners are squared and fitted; the “raising” goes on the “corner men” do their duty bravely; the roof is completed with lighter logs and bark; a rough door is knocked together, a space cut for a window, and by nightfall you are possessed of a local habitation; when the party generally adjourn to the nearest convenient abode, to finish the evening, it might be well and harmlessly enough so far, were tea and coffee the only beverages on the occasion.

When installed in your new domicile, the first thing to attend to is to clear the remaining wood immediately from around your house, as when once a gap has been made in the forest, other trees are very apt to fall of their own accord, or be blown down by the first gale of wind, to the imminent peril of yourself and your habitation. I know a family of Irish settlers, where a tree thus fell in the night, which had been incautiously left near the shanty, and in its ruinous descent L 3 0242 226 crushed in a part of the dwelling, killing one daughter on the spot in her bed, and breaking the leg of another.

When you are fairly installed in your new dwelling, of course you will go on to make improvements as fast as you can. I need not, however, enter into the mysteries of “under-brushing,” girdling, logging, rail-splitting, and fencing; because one week's initiation, with a little assistance from your neighbours, will do more to teach you how to manage all these necessary operations than I could do, perhaps, if I were to write for a twelvemonth. With a little care at first, you will soon learn to hit true with the axe, and to gain the full advantage of the power and force of the weapon, without toiling yourself to death.

Some people, of course, let out the job of clearing and fencing their land entirely. They will get this done for from 3 l. to 4 l. an acre, or, including putting in the crops and price of seed, for about 10 s. an acre additional, when the land has not got to be ploughed. If ploughed, the cost will be about 10 s. more per acre.

The whole operation (if let out) of chopping, logging, burning, fencing, ploughing, and sowing, may be completed, according to soil, timber, and locality, for from 4 l. to 5 l. an acre.

If you come out with a number of sons able to work, and only requiring to be shown the way, 0243 227 perhaps your best plan will be to engage the services of an experienced chopper as your assistant on your farm, which you can procure for from 8 to 10 dollars a month and his board. With his directions, you will have all you need for the leading your own family forces into the field with effect. Even if you let the work out, the first crop of wheat will frequently pay the whole expense of the labour, and sometimes even of the first cost of the land.

Care must be taken not to be too late in putting in your wheat crop, which is generally grown as the maiden crop. The spring wheat should he sown as early as the weather will admit, which is generally in April or early in May for Canada West. The fall wheat should not be later than from the 1st to the 20th of September, according to location.

For your comfort, I may tell you that at the first, on some soils, you will require, no ploughing. The ground, first scratched with a harrow, and the seed thrown loosely on it, at the rate of a bushel and a half to an acre, and then harrowed again, will produce you as good a crop as if you went to ever so much expense about the matter. Some merely drag a branch of a tree over; but this is a rough way, and likely to result in less produce.

A word, however, as to ornamental clearings. I think it a great pity that, whilst acknowledging 0244 228 the necessity of cutting away the wood for at least a tree's length immediately around the house, settlers should almost invariably carve away at the face of the forest as if they were digging in a quarry, leaving a great bare space about them utterly devoid at the most distant approach to the ornamental. Gentlemen of the fortune might easily study such an arrangement from the first. That is at least clear. But I cannot see why even the small settler might not display some little taste in this respect, without throwing away his labour or too much separating his clearings.

I know the common objection made to this by the uneducated even amongst otherwise experienced settlers. The answer is, when you are urge the doing so upon them, that the wood which you so leave will blow down or fall of its own accord. So it may, I answer, here and there; but leave it in sufficient masses, and it is safe enough to stand. I know a gentleman near Guelph who has done so with some of his timber, having moreover underbrushed it (that is, removed the underwood), and thus made quite a little park about his residence, which renders it the ornament of the neighbourhood.

The way to clear thus with advantage would be to take a sheet of paper, mark out the proportions of your farm, and try with a pencil the effect of leaving such and such masses, of course likewise 0245 229 with a proper view to economy in the arrangement of your clearings; and I will be bound to say that, with the exercise of a very little taste, you will make a pretty thing of it. And if Providence smile on you, and you get on in the world so as to have a better house after a few years, try to get hold of some pretty model, over which you may easily train some of the flowering parasitical plants of the country, of which there are numbers; and thus you may soon have a park and a cottage ornée at a very cheap rate.

Certain I am that people too much in general undervalue timber as a material in building their first residence. How very easy it would be to give quite a character of elegant rusticity to a common log cottage—to have, in fact, a place such as a nobleman might be proud to see in his park, and that out of the very same materials from whence we see produced the present bold unsightly constructions that everywhere disfigure the face of the country, only to be replaced by the no less staring “frame” or red brick horror, in an entirely naked clearing, without a shadow of elegance or design about it.

The question of a more careful clearing of the timber near the towns becomes, moreover, not one of mere decorations, but of actual importance in an economical point of view; since in the older settled neighbourhoods, a serious deficiency is 0246 230 likely to take place ere many years are gone by, in timber, as an article of fuel, &c.; when, had the cutting of it been conducted with a proper regard to the future, a supply from the second growths, of a character at once useful and ornamental, might readily have been kept up. As regards the merely decorative part of the matter, I acknowledge it to be a hobby of my own, which you are welcome therefore to take cum grano salis; and I know that some who consider themselves vastly practical men, will smile at it as an impracticable sort of conceit; but certain I am nevertheless, that within proper limits, attention to the subject might be not only practically bestowed, but produce results important to the welfare of the country.

For the first year, of course, you will have to provision your shanty, unless you are on your land early enough to put in some spring wheat for sale in the fall, besides a few potatoes for home use. Some flour and pork will not, however, cost you much;—perhaps an outlay of 30 l. in these articles will be sufficient for the support of your family, if consisting of five persons: many have to do with much less. Any cattle you may have will easily pick up a living in the bush; but you had better not get many at first, both because they are apt to stray in a most tiresome manner, when you will have to worry the life out of yourself 0247 231 hunting them up, besides incurring the risk—a very serious one to a new comer—of being lost yourself in seeking them. A bell attached to the neck of one or two, and a good lump of rock salt within their reach near the house, in addition to “slopping them,” or giving them a little meal or bran mash, or a few roots at milking time, are generally amongst the best means of securing their regular and respectful attendance.

To diminish the risk of losing yourself, one of the first things that you should do is to learn to go by a blaze—to ascertain the general direction of the creeks (streams) in your part of the country, and the diurnal motion of the sun with regard to the position of your dwelling. I was nearly lost once by being misdirected through a swamp; but by keeping the sun on my left shoulder, I, through mercy, got out again, after considerable fatigue and some little anxiety. I had entered upon an unbroken forest, where there was nothing but 100 miles of wilderness between me and Goderich, whither my steps were unintentionally tending. A young woman, recently married, was lost last summer in the township of Egremont, in the Wellington district, under very distressing circumstances. She went into the bush only a few stones' throw from her house, to look for her cow, and has never since been heard of. This is the more extraordinary as a hundred 0248 232 experienced backwoodsmen went from day to day to assist her distracted husband in the search for her; yet, though they took to the forest at the spot where some boys had seen her enter it, and beat it upon an arranged plan, assisted by dogs, keeping within immediate hail of each other, and searching so closely that one would have thought that not a squirrel or chipmunk (an animal of the squirrel tribe) could have escaped them; yet they never discovered a vestige of her. Another young woman, similarly lost, was providentially recovered after several days. She had gone to look for cattle, and followed the direction of a cow bell till she lost herself. She came up to a cow, however, which was not her own, and milked it for sustenance. Had she remained by it, she would have been at least sure of some support; but coming upon some stray oxen, she determined on remaining by them, as thinking that they would probably lead her soonest out of the bush. They did not however, as it happened; whereas the cow found its way home several days before she was discovered. Meanwhile she contrived to subsist upon berries, &c.—cow cabbage, as it is called, makes excellent food, and grows largely in the wilderness: people should learn to know it. At night she partly sheltered herself under fallen trees, and managed to slumber a little. About the fourth or fifth day, a dog which she had with her 0249 233 left her; and on its return home, people gave her up for lost: it must have been a useless cur, or it would have guided them to her. She was at length found, humanly speaking, by accident, by two young men who happened to be traversing a generally unfrequented part of the forest, at a distance of seven or eight miles from where the search for her was going on, so far had she wandered. They thought they saw something of unusual appearance near a log, and were at first a little alarmed; but making boldly up to it, they discovered her in a state of semi-exhaustion, just barely able to speak. A rude litter was soon prepared for her by the rough handed, but tender hearted sons of the wilderness, on which they managed, in a few hours, to convey her in safety to her distracted family. She said that she had repeatedly thought to give up, and lie down and die, when the thought of her infant nerved her to fresh exertion.

Those acquainted with the forest are often able to tell the direction in which they are going, after having missed their way, by looking at the moss upon the trees—which will be found invariably on the north side—the tree seeming to clothe itself with this covering towards the position of the compass on which it is most exposed. The general bend of the trees is also from the north; but it 0250 234 requires an experienced eye to make use of these signs. A person unaccustomed to the forest might almost as well be in the trackless deserts of Arabia, for any chance that he has of finding his way;—and, indeed, better, for there he could, at least, see as far as the horizon; whereas in the wilderness he can see nothing beyond the few trees immediately around him, and, it may be, an inch or two of sky.

I went over my land after having completed my purchase (as it was bought off the private field-notes of one of the surveyors, I had comparatively less occasion to go over it beforehand). But having made my purchase, I set out to take a survey of it, accompanied by six or seven hardy fellows, who went with me partly from sheer good will, partly from curiosity, as they had heard so high a character of that survey, and partly with a view to their obtaining, it may be, some land afterwards for themselves. As my purchase was made in detached 200 acre lots, scattered over two concessions of the township, we had a considerable extent of ground to cover in order to look over it all. Accordingly, night overtook us during our expedition, and we had to “camp” in the bush. This, however, we thought nothing of, as we were well prepared for so doing. The only error committed was in 0251 235 the neglecting to secure proximity to a stream before nightfall; after which it becomes well nigh impossible to travel the woods except by compass, or occasional glimpses of the stars. Luckily, I had insisted on the kettle's being filled at a creek as it was getting dusk; and this small quantity of water amongst seven people was our only dependence, being far too little to make a comfortable cup of tea, as most of it had been drunk before we halted. We lighted a magnificent fire, however, in a rotten tree; pulled hemlock boughs sufficient for a couch; ate a little bread and a partridge, which one of the party had shot; and, after evening devotion, lay down with our feet to the fire. Considering the fatigues of the day—for it is very hard work to a beginner travelling the bush; the number of fallen trees, tangled underwood, &c., making a few miles of this sort of work far severer than a day's grouse shooting over a Highland moor—I thought I was remarkably free from thirst. Sucking the under-done leg of a partridge helped me amazingly, and I lay down pretty comfortably.

The novelty and excitement of the scene, however, kept me in a great measure from sleeping; but sense of insecurity there was none. It was a lovely summer's night,—the air extremely soft, and the sky clear, though dark. No evil, humanly 0252 236 speaking, could come nigh us; for even had a rambling bear thought proper to pay us a visit, we had plenty of dogs to give us warning, and plenty of fire-arms lying ready to our hands. And when the upright part of the tree where our fire was, and which might have been some seven feet in height, and hollow withal, caught the flames and blazed like a pharos, bringing out into strong relief the manly forms of the hardy backwoodsmen who lay, for the most part, buried in sleep around me, I thought that we might well have sat (or lain rather) to Salvator for a group of forest banditti; or done duty very respectably, “barring” the bows and arrows, for Robin Hood and a party of his merry men. I wonder on what principles it can be accounted for that one never catches cold or rheumatism if sleeping on the boughs of the hemlock. We camped on that occasion with nothing over our heads but the natural forest canopy; but had it happened to rain, my hardy coadjutors would soon have knocked up a shanty, covered the roof and weather sides with bark, and lighted a fire, not inside to smother us with smoke, but in the open air exactly in front of the unenclosed side of the little dwelling, thus throwing all the heat in without any inconvenience. I like, also, sleeping in a canvas tent very much, there is something amazingly snug 0253 237 about it, especially with a good fire opposite the entrance.

Now, having set you a-going on a farm, and done all that I otherwise can do for you in Canada, it is time, I think, to offer a chapter on the best mode of coming out.

CHAPTER XII.

Directions for coming out—Choice of shipping port and vessel—Preventives against sea-sickness—Cost of a cabin passage—See emigration agent—Intermediate and steerage passage—Don't find your own provisions if you can help it—What to take with you—Beware of most “outfitting” establishments—Bring furs by all means if you have any—The author's mistake in this respect—A few books and a little music no harm—Reviews and magazines to be got cheap (as reprints) in Canada—Book Clubs—Bring cheap religious and loyal prints for distribution or sale—Workmen may bring such tools as they have.

The first thing, of course, to be considered is as regards the chice of a ship and shipping port. If you are near London, sail from London. Some people will tell you to go to Liverpool. Of course you will please yourself, but I think that, especially if you have a family to transport, you will decidedly save by putting yourself, your larger fraction, youngsters, bag, baggage, and all, snugly on board in the Docks, than by dragging the whole off to a distant port, and 0255 239 increasing perhaps the expense of lodging, merely because said port happens to be on the western side of the country. The difference of the English Channel is comparatively trifling in a voyage of 3000 miles, and, for my own part, I candidly say, I like the sail. But then, I am thankful to add, I am none of the sea-sick sort, a most important consideration. By the way, as regards sea-sickness, a vast deal, under ordinary circumstances, depends on keeping up a good heart. Try not to be afraid of it, and eat and drink as much as you can in moderation, and that is half the battle.

I remember once going to Scotland in a steamer, accompanied by a young friend, who somewhat looked up to me in nautical and other matters. He had always suffered from sea-sickness, and on this occasion I was called in to decide on his regimen on every occasion, like Sancho Panza's physician at the isle of Barataria, only that I adopted a totally different mode of treatment from that exhibited towards the above paragon of esquires. It was, (mind I was not a temperance man then,) “May I take a little bread and cheese and porter?” “Certainly, if you wish it.” Bread and cheese, &c., ordered and “assimilated” forthwith. “May I smoke a cigar?” “By all means, if you feel inclined.” Cigar fumiferated “incontinent.” “May I venture down to dinner?” 0256 240 “Of course, unless you mean to go without;” dinner dispatched accordingly. And thus, to the astonishment of my hopeful patient, he for once entirely escaped sickness, whereas, on other occasions he had reduced himself by fasting, departed from his ordinary mode of living, got into low spirits, and soon became really unwell. Certain it is, however, that no absolute remedy can be prescribed against the distressing inconvenience, from which, however, some persons, not sailors, are constitutionally free. I remember on one occasion, in a steamer, during an uncomfortable gale of wind, the only passenger besides myself who sat down to dinner with the commander, was a youngster who had never seen blue water before, Some recommend wearing opium bags at the stomach. I think, however, that keeping as much as possible on deck, remaining in a recumbent position if you begin to feel giddy, avoiding looking at the yeasty waves, and eating and drinking as much as you reasonably can, are amongst the best safeguards. You will find a stock of good thick cake gingerbread, gingerbread nuts, and oranges and apples, a very good thing at sea. You can sometimes swallow a nut, or suck an orange, or take a bite at an apple, when you would turn in disgust from anything else. Ginger tea, too, acts very kindly on a distressed stomach. But I am rather anticipating, as I am 0257 241 doctering you for sea-sickness before I have fairly got you afloat.

If you are in Scotland, Greenock is a very good port to sail from. In Ireland, Londonderry, Cork, Belfast, &c., have all emigrant agents attached to them.

The vessels in which you will take your passage may be named under three divisions; those which take only cabin passengers; those which take intermediate and steerage ones in addition; and those which are regularly fitted for emigrants for the humblest class. Of course, if you are possessed of tolerable means, you will prefer coming in a ship which carries only cabin passengers. You will pay 20 l. to Montreal, including everything. But if you eschew strong drink, you will come out in ships where you may get your cabin passage for 12 l. But, whatever the sort of vessel you fix upon, before you finally commit yourself to her, you had better wait on the Government emigration agent, whose name you will find in the Directory, and who is, I believe, always a lieutenant in the navy, and ask him the character of the ship and her captain. I have heard it said that some of the Government emigration agents are very careless; I can only say, that when I applied at Lieutenant Lean's office in Upper Thames Street, I did not find it so there, for VOL. II. M 0258 242 they were very civil, and the information they gave me turned out perfectly correct. I hope, therefore, that these gentlemen have been belied.

Well, say you have suited yourself with a ship. Choose then, if you can, a lower berth as far forward as possible, if you are a cabin passenger, or aft if a steerage one; because you will thus be nearest to the centre of motion of the vessel, and so feel least of the pitching. The only thing to be attended to in taking the lower berth is, if possible, to avoid having a very sea-sick or awkward companion in the berth above you, or you may come in occasionally for a share of more benefits than you bargained for. If you have a family, however, perhaps you had better engage, if possible, the whole of the after cabin, where, if you have more pitching, you will have more privacy, besides the advantage of the air and look out from the after ports. Take care to have your luggage so divided that all that you do not want on the voyage may be comfortably lowered into the after hold out of the way, and cumber yourself in any case with as little as possible. Writing and drawing materials; a few books, especially those of comprehensive information, you should, of course, keep at hand. People used to be advised to take medicines with them, but as every vessel, at least of the class you would sail in, is now obliged by law to have a competent medicine 0259 243 chest, and book of directions, you need scarcely trouble about any. Should you require a mild aperient shortly after sailing, take one by all means, as it may help to stave off or carry away sea-sickness; but by no means make an apothecary's shop of your interior if you can help it. If you are possessed of pretty good means, you will, of course, take a cabin passage as I have said, but if every pound be a matter of serious object, then, by all means, take an intermediate one. I knew a very respectable family, in which there were several agreeable young ladies, who even took the next thing to a steerage passage—a portion being parted off for their special accommodation. They thus came out for about 6 l. each, finding themselves in provisions, which cost them, one with another, 3 l. additional. In fact, 10 l. each brought them to their destination.

The ship, in all cases, is compelled to provide for emigrants fresh water, fuel and cooking accommodation. My decided advice to you, however is, unless you are so miserably poor that you cannot raise the passage-money, to let the ship find you in everything if possible. I question even whether you will save much by finding yourself; and if perhaps you are sea-sick, or in a gale of wind too helpless and too utterly prostrated to take care of your provisions, you may get a large portion of M 2 0260 244 them stolen or destroyed. Besides, you are liable to the continual vexation of waiting for your turn at the fireplace. If you do bring provisions, you should have them in harness-casks with lids and padlocks, or you are never sure of their being safe. The emigrant agent will give you accurate directions as to quantity. A canister of rusks, by-the-bye, is no bad thing at sea; and very good things they are to give to a youngster to chump on occasion. You might if you choose, take with you, according to your numbers, a few fathoms of line and hooks for the chance of a little fishing if becalmed on the banks of Newfoundland, because line and hooks can scarcely be a loss any where, but even these are hardly necessary, as you may run over the banks with a stiff breeze. I have known a writer of considerable experience recommend people to bring out a seine for lake fishing. Begging the gentleman's pardon for differing with him, I say bring no such thing—keep all the cash you possibly can in your own pocket, as that will be by far your best friend in Canada as in most other places. If you want a net after you have come out, you can soon buy some twine and learn to make one.

Specially beware of advertising outfitting houses for emigrants—at least for Canada—for Australia, &c., I am not qualified to say, though I am inclined to suspect that the same advice would 0261 245 hold good in that case likewise. All pretty-looking tents, camp-beds, sets of fishing tackle, and articles of hardware of fanciful invention, are just so many traps to catch your stray sovereigns, which you will find far ampler use for when you come out. Take my advice, then, and keep them in your pocket—beware of amiable warehousemen, fascinating clerks, and elegant young gentlemen armed with white neckcloths and entrenched behind counters—listen not to their seductive blandishments or you will rue it.

You cannot know what you will want for the country till you come to the country, and ten to one you get it cheaper and better out there than you would at home—cheaper, that is if not in actual cost—and sometimes even in that, but certainly in point of suitableness. Specially eschew bringing all kinds of agricultural implements whatsoever. * Most probably they would not suit the country after you brought them.

* Fifteen years ago the case was entirely different. My present advice is founded on the improved state of manufactures in Canada.

To bachelors chiefly I say, have one good suit or so of clothes if you like, a comfortable pilot coat or two, linen enough to keep you clean for six or seven weeks, a fair supply of boots and shoes, and especially slippers (for they are dear in Canada), and you are well enough set up. I would not recommend you to bring furniture of 0262 246 any kind—you can get it very good when you come out, whatever your means, and if they be comparatively small, chairs at half a dollar each, and tables at 2 or 3 dollars will answer your purpose admirably if you even require them. If you have any furs, however, bring them by all means. I made a great mistake in this respect. I had some rare and beautiful ones, and left them for sale in England, thinking it was carrying coals to Newcastle to bring them to a fur country, judge then my surprise when I found that even the best dressed buffalo robes for the sleighs all go home to England and are reimported. There is, however, now a fur-dressing establishment at Kingston.

Of course it must be evident that no directions can well be given equally applicable to all classes as to what to bring or not to bring, but as a general rule I should say if you are a bachelor bring as much cash as you can, and as little of everything else as possible. If you are a farmer with a family, and have some first rate stock on hand, and intend to go immediately on land, you will find it no loss to bring a Cleveland bay stallion and brood mares. They will always pay you to breed from. A good Durham bull and cows will also prove highly advantageous: no cattle fetch so high a price either in Canada or the States. The Ayrshire breed are valued, but do 0263 247 not fetch anything like so much as the Durhams, neither do the Hereford and Devons, though they have their supporters. Southdown and Leicester sheep are worth bringing. Pigs of the Berkshire and Chinese breeds, with any other good kinds, such as the Yorkshire and Leicester, can be no loss. Unless, however, all these animals are highly bred, you had better leave them at home; as there is an abundance of the mixed blood in the country already. If you have not any of this stock by you on giving up farming in England, it will be a question whether you would be wise in purchasing them expressly to bring or not. This you must decide on for yourself: in any case you should have them insured against sea risks.

In the case of a gentleman's family where an establishment has to be broken up, you had better bring of course a good supply of clothing, particularly warm clothing for the winter—no bulky furniture, unless the ladies may have a favourite pianoforte. But curtains, carpets, plate, glass and crockery, and especially bed and table linen, and blanketing, &c. may be brought, not only without detriment, but even with positive advantage; some of the latter commodities especially, being for the most part dearer out here and not so good. Boots and shoes cut out but not sewn, would be useful. The English leather is best, but they fasten them 0264 248 with pegs here, as thread rots; you can pay a man to peg them when you have come out. Books you certainly might bring, but it depends on your circumstances as to whether you would retain an expensive library if you had one. If you could realize a tolerable sum for them, you had better part with the bulk of them. If you are musical, a little good music is always desirable, especially sacred music well set, for I do not at all admire the style of printing of a great deal that is imported from the States; but as for magazines, reviews, &c. in the leading cities, you can join a book club, where you will get the reviews and magazines on payment of a moderate subscription. American reprints of Blackwood and Fraser may be had for 22 s. 6 d. currency per annum; the Quarterly and Colonial ditto in like manner for 3 dollars. It is really wonderful how cheaply they manage to reprint valuable English works in the States: I myself purchased Mrs. Somerville's “Connexion of the Physical Sciences,” bound in cloth, gilt lettered, and hot-pressed, with the diagrams well executed, altogether a very creditable-looking volume, new for 40 cents, equal to 20 d. English!

But if you wish to do good, by all means bring out, either for gratuitous distribution or for sale at a cheap rate, a lot of religious and loyal prints—coloured Scriptural subjects with texts attached, 0265 249 home scenery of school and village churches, portraits of her Majesty, Prince Albert, and the royal children, Wellington and Nelson, views of Windsor Castle, the Houses of Parliament, our cathedrals, our wooden walls, and such like, are greatly wanted to be largely disseminated in Canada to supplant, as far as possible, the influx of tawdry sheets pourtraying “The Signing the Declaration of Independence,” portraits of Washington and General Taylor, the Capitol, the Mexican battles, &c., all well enough, perhaps, for our friends to the south of the St. Lawrence, but anything but calculated to instil sentiments of either religion or loyalty into the minds of the rising youth and backwood population of Canada. As a society has recently been organized at home for the publication of such prints as I refer to, you can find no difficulty in suitably providing yourself at a moderate rate. Ordinary school-books are for the most part easily procurable in Canada, so are books for Sunday-schools at the Church Society's depository in Toronto, which really presents for sale an excellent collection of works on divinity, history, &c., most of them cheap reprints. Mr. Rowsell, in Toronto, has also a very good circulating library, to which the subscription is moderate.

If you are a mechanic and have your tools, you may of course bring them, but buy nothing new. M 3 0266 250 The very axe used for chopping in Canada is entirely different in shape to any that you have been used to see in England; other tools, however, such as saws, planes, adzes, and so on, are exactly similar. Edge tools generally can be got better in Canada, from a particular portion of the States than they can in England.

CHAPTER XIII.

Best to take passage for Montreal—You will waste much loose cash in the States—A word to those who might think of settling in the Union—The author “repudiates” them—English specie depreciated in the States—Highly rated in Canada—If you have a family bargain for a lower rate of passage—Have an agreement in writing—Push rapidly for some fixed point of destination on landing—Men without a family had better not go on farms at first—Emigrant sheds for the poorer class—Visited by clergy and medical officers—Advice on seeking free grants—You may place your money in a savings' bank—Meantime you can take work till you feel your footing—Little still known of Canada in England—People have no idea of the extent of its manufactures—Examples in point—Gooderham's mills—Manufactories at Gananoque.

I Strongly recommend you to take your passage direct for Montreal; of course you can come by New York or Boston if you like, and will then have the advantage of seeing something of the States and the scenery of the Hudson. Some prefer this route for Canada West, as thinking it 0268 252 the more direct one, but when you put into the other scale the advantage which you enjoy of seeing the scenery of the St. Lawrence all the way up, that is if the occasional fogs at its mouth will let you, and that you have neither trouble, expense, nor risk in change of vessels, &c. (which I consider a very great point), have moreover no difficulty with the customs or the currency, and ample conveyance without tiresome land carriage, saving the little distance to Lachine for proceeding ing to any of the more western points, direct by steam at a very cheap rate, I think that you will be very foolish if you go putting yourself to extra trouble and scattering your loose cash in a travel up the Hudson.

As regards the question of settling in the United States in preference to the Canadas, I think it to be one which ought scarcely to trouble a loyal churchman for a moment. I have such a nervous horror of the bare idea of forswearing my allegiance, that I think it scarcely worth while to say a word to those who might let the having to do so enter at all into their calculations. True, I believe, you may now hold property in the States without resigning your fealty to the British Crown. Yet with all my strong sense of the kindness shown me in various parts of the Union, give me I say the cross-emblazoned flag of my glorious 0269 253 country for my banner,—and the mild sway of my gracious liege lady Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria for my government, or I cannot be content; and I think he who prefers the “stars,” richly deserves to have the “stripes” into the bargain. Even on the low ground of pecuniary consideration, be it remembered that Canada is a more lightly taxed country than the Union, were it only for this simple reason, that you have double government taxes to pay in the States; as each separate portion of the Union has its entire machinery of government within itself to be supported,—and then Congress comes upon you in addition for the general monetary demands of the Republic.

If you come through the States, you will find your English specie depreciated: 1 s. English will be only valued at 10 d. ; and a sovereign allowed for at less than its Canadian value. I have shown you already that in Canada your ls. is worth 15d., and your sovereign 24 s. 6 d. , and sometimes over 25 s. currency. Come, then, direct to Montreal; and if you engage your passage thither, do not be deceived by any attempt to force you to land at Quebec or elsewhere, as I have known tried. Any master of a vessel is liable to a heavy fine, recoverable on a summary conviction before the nearest magistrate, who 0270 254 offers to put a passenger ashore at any other place than that to which the vessel is advertised or bound for. You have a legal right, moreover, to retain your berth and keep your luggage on board the vessel for forty-eight hours after your arrival. If you have a family, and have made a bargain as to your passage-money at a proportionably lower rate than the ordinary sum as advertised, by all means have an agreement to that effect in writing, properly attested, to avoid all disputes afterwards. On landing, unless you have plenty of money, and choose to go lionizing, in which case I hand you over to the guide-books, you had better lose as little time as possible in proceeding to your ultimate destination, or the nearest place to the location you may have in view, as time is money in the literal sense of the word in such a case as this. If you have a family with you, a very few weeks loitered away in a city will sweep a great deal of hard cash that would have helped you materially after getting settled. In a private boarding-house, however, you may live economically, and be maturing your plans, and getting some insight into the country. As I strenuously advise you, if possible, to have nothing to do with making purchases till you have been out a year at least, your readiest way will be to take a farm in some likely locality, by which means you will at 0271 255 once commence doing something, and possess at least a temporary habitation, which you can victual and stock at a moderate rate, and so commence at once living economically, thus saving of course a great deal from the first, by not keeping your family at so much a head per diem at a boarding-house or hotel for any lengthy period. Again, if you are a bachelor with little or no means, and no decided intention of farming, or even if you have, and do not contemplate going on land at least at first, go in that case at once to the offices and stores, and get into something as fast as ever you can. You need not tie yourself up for any lengthy period, and you will be always in the way of hearing of something else if you do not like your first engagement. If you are provided with introductions to the clergy or others, so much the better, as if they cannot command a situation for you, they can often give you hints that may lead to your much more readily obtaining one, than if you were left to your own unaided efforts. If you are of the poorest class of emigrants, the emigrant sheds are open for your reception, and a very little inquiry will direct you to the emigrant agent, to whom you can apply on the subject of all matters connected with your coming out. At the sheds you will here receive the visits of the clergy, and, if you are sick, of the medical officers. 0272 256 Any of these gentlemen, particularly those of the former class, will always be ready to help you with their advice and information. But let me intreat you, whatever you do, to tell the plain truth as to your circumstances, as far as you think it necessary to disclose them. Depend upon it, honesty is the best policy, as well for this world as for that which is to come. I grieve to say that too many emigrants have died in those sheds with a lie in their right hand. One old man in particular, had pleaded intense poverty, in order to get the government allowance for destitute emigrants,—when, after his death, 345 l. sterling were found on his person!—quite a little fortune in Canada. If you wish to obtain a free grant of land, supposing any to be given out at the time of your arrival, you will of course apply with the least possible delay to the agent, whose name you will see in the advertisements, who will put you on the right track, both for making application for it, and for going up to occupy it.

If you can go upon land thus—well. Take it of course if you can get it, as your manual labour will be always improving it, and rendering it more saleable, should you at any time wish to part with it. But if you cannot get a free grant, and have a little money with you, as I have repeatedly said, be not in too great a hurry to purchase. If you 0273 257 have deposited your means with the Canada Company in London, and brought a letter of credit upon them in Toronto, they will allow you to deposit your cash in their savings' bank till such time as you want the whole, or any part of it, and during the time it is there they will allow you 6 per cent.

Your best plan is to accept work cheerfully, and for moderate wages, say 2 s. per day, and rations, (unless you belong to some of the higher sort of handicrafts, when you may reasonably claim more,) until you obtain some insight into the nature of the country. You can then better decide as to what to do, and where to fix for a permanency.

To show you what clever folks we have already, and that you may see that we “know what's o'clock” as well as our neighbours, I may quote the following account of a curious piece of clock-work. An ingenious Canadian mechanic of Quebec, named Rousseau, has manufactured a very curious piece of machinery, which is now being exhibited in that city. It is thus described in the newspapers:

“It is a clock with five dials, four of which will show the time outside, and one in the interior.—These dials are four feet in diameter, except the inside one, which is two feet. It will strike the hours, half hours, and quarters, and before striking will play tunes. It will of itself ring the Angelus 0274 258 at the prescribed hours, as the church bells. It will also strike correctly the day of the month, and will ring an alarm bell when required, in case of fire in the city or suburbs. The mechanism is six feet long, by three and a half broad, and five and a half high. It weighs 750 pounds, and the weights 850. It contains nine bells, weighing together 86 pounds. It will go forty days without being wound up.”

In a new country like Canada, it may be said that every day opens up fresh opportunities and means of living to the sober and the industrious, whatever their trade, business, or avocation. In England, where they know for the most part as little about Canada as they do about the mountains in the moon, (and perhaps less in the case of the fortunate persons who may have enjoyed the pleasure of a peep through Lord Rosse's telescope,) notwithstanding all the books that have been written on the subject; people are apt to fancy that, though there may be a little farming going on, arts, sciences, and manufactures are things absolutely unknown. I wish such persons could, for an hour or two, pay a visit, we will say, only to the steam-mills of my worthy friend Mr. Gooderham, of Toronto,—and, I am happy to say, a right sound churchman. They would there find a business carried on to the amount of one hundred thousand pounds a-year.

0275 259

This gentleman came out in 1832 or 1833, comparatively a poor man—so poor that, when he first started his mill as a wind-mill, and the sails were blown away one stormy night, he knew not where to turn to replace them. Providence, however, has since smiled upon his labours, and he has now a steam-engine going which does the whole work of an extensive establishment—packing flour, &c., into barrels, and, I believe, doing everything but hooping and heading up the casks. He has attached to this establishment from 150 to 200 stall-fed beasts, to whose feeding reservoirs the engine, by a simple contrivance, is continually pouring in a regulated supply of the best of food of various kinds. These animals are kept in their stalls for four months each at an average, except the finest of the milch kine, which are retained longer. The others are fattened up and sold off for beef, yielding thus, doubtless, a large and steady return.

Mr. G's son has similar mills about 33 miles up the country—for the rental of which alone he pays 300 l. a-year; and a multitude of similar instances might be added.

Lest I should be suspected of writing at all partially, I quote from one of the papers a notice of the solitary village of Gananoque, which may give people some little idea of what is doing in Canada.

0276 260

“Few villages in Western Canada are so little known as the manufacturing village of Gananoque. Situated 18 miles below Kingston on the St. Lawrence, at the mouth of a navigable creek, with water power inexhaustible, it bids fair, at no distant date, to become the Lowell of British North America. It is now a town of some small importance. A week ago, the writer paid a short visit to this place, and much as he thought himself acquainted with the growth of Gananoque, he was greatly surprised at the extent and variety of the manufactures actually carried on.

“In the first place, there are the extensive and well-known ‘M'Donalds’ flouring mills,' a grist mill for custom work, an oatmeal mill, several large saw mills, and many other matters connected with the business of the Messrs. M'Donald. Carried on by other parties, are a nail factory, with fulling and carding mills (by Smith and Davis), a pail manufactory, a rake and broom factory (by Mr. Brough), a boot and shoe last factory, a shingle mill, a stave factory, a ship block factory, and probably others which the writer had no opportunity to see. The times being wretched, all these factories are not in full work; but all are doing a little, and waiting for better days. Independent of these which are carried on by water power, the two largest cheese 0277 261 factories in the whole province are located at Gananoque. The farm of 800 acres belonging to the Hon. John Macdonald (farmed by two Scotsmen), is remarkably well stocked with the best kine in Canada, as the next provincial show will tell: and the equally large farm of Mr. J. L. M'Donald (farmed in conjunction with M. Havens), is quite as large, and equally well stocked. These dairy farms are a credit to Leeds, and prove the value of the land in the eastern section of Western Canada, when properly occupied and tilled. The very large quantity of cheese made here is mostly exported to Liverpool, where it enters into full competition with the finest quality of American cheese.”

Again, look at Toronto itself. The following passages are well worth consideration, of which I make a casual selection from the columns of the “Provincial Advertiser.”

“When we reflect that the first European settler planted his footstep on the beach of our spacious harbour fifty-two years since, and compare the state of the colony then with its present condition, we are led to stretch the mind forward to the same given time in futurity, and imagine what will be the result! We see her peopled with a population of 100,000 inhabitants; a large share of whom are intelligent and industrious manufacturers and 0278 262 tradesmen, and her educational institutions which are now being based upon a wholesome and substantial foundation, will then become second to none on this continent. It is not too much to expect that in fifty years hence the population of Toronto will be five times as great as it is at present. Let us, for the sake of argument, compare the advantages that the emigrants now have to what they had fifty years ago. Then the settler in the Home District had to get into an open boat and row by hand, around to the Niagara Frontier, to the “Grimsby Mills,” as they were then termed, and there purchase a few bags of very inferior flour at an enormous high price; and after he had returned, which would occupy a space of a fortnight, especially at that season when the lake was rough, he would then have to shoulder his bag and carry it from twenty to thirty miles on his back through a dense forest, and with only an Indian foot path, and a few blazed trees to direct his course to his log shanty.

“The Home and Simcoe districts are capable of maintaining an agricultural population of more than 1,000,000 of souls; and we look forward with pleasing anticipations to the day when the vast tracts of unoccupied lands in the northern and middle townships will be owned by an industrious and enterprising class of settlers, and 0279 263 when the present system of cultivating the soil will give way to a more enlightened and profitable mode. Vast improvements are being introduced in husbandry in Western Canada, and we have the greatest confidence that, independent of any benefit received from emigration, that the present agricultural population is capable of doubling the productions of the soil in periods of from three to four years, from which source alone Toronto will be able to maintain her position, and her population will be warranted in extending improvements in the same increased ratio as have been done for the past seven years.

“The Toronto harbour is the best on Lake Ontario, and its importance in a commercial point of view cannot well be over estimated. The city itself is a little upwards of two miles long, and one broad, and the streets are broad and laid out in right angles. Probably no city in America is more beautifully intersected with straight and broad streets than this. The principal business streets are King, Younge, and Queen Streets. King Street extends east in almost a straight line for forty miles, and leads direct to Kingston. Younge Street extends in a perfectly straight line to the Holland Landing, or village of Beverly, being a distance of thirty-five miles. Queen Street extends west to Hamilton. The most important 0280 264 business street is the former. It may be safely said, that a more magnificent street than King Street is not to be met with in any of the cities in British America. It is very rare that a respectable mercantile house can be had, at even a fair rental; and although the rents would seem exorbitantly high, it is seldom that any stores are seen unoccupied.

“In most towns and cities periods of considerable depression of business often occurs; but as a proof that Toronto does not suffer very materially from fluctuations of this kind, it is only necessary to state that, at no period sales of freehold property are made to any considerable extent at ruinous or even low prices. In fact, bargains of land, from forced or voluntary sales, cannot be had without paying nearly about its full value. Persons who have invested their money in lots, even in the back streets and suburbs, obtain full 10 per cent. per annum for the amount invested, if the outlay in making the improvements has been judiciously expended. Many instances are to be met with, in which parties have bought up lots of land, and have not, during a lapse of ten or fifteen years, laid out a sixpence of expense upon the land, except paying the taxes, which have increased in value at the rate of 15 per cent. per annum on the investment. A freehold which in 1830 cost 100 l. , 0281 265 could not now be purchased for less than 500 l. In the opinion of the writer, a property that is worth, in the city of Toronto, at the present time 500 l. , will be worth eight years hence 1000 l. It is not saying too much in favour of this city, when we state, that every stranger who visits it is astonished at the healthy business appearance that is everywhere to be met with; and only wonder how the taste and grandeur of so large and respectable a portion of its inhabitants can be sustained in so new a place. It might not be out of place to state here, that the prosperity of Toronto at present mainly depends on the agricultural industry of the surrounding back country, and from this source alone her present position as the first city in Western Canada, may without any difficulty be creditably sustained.

“It is not sufficient, in our opinion, that Toronto should be viewed only in the light of an important commercial city. It is possible to earn for her a character of a manufacturing town also, and with no small degree of delight the conductor of this paper will from time to time endeavour to point out feasible plans to bring about this important result. Manufacturing operations have only to a very limited extent been engaged in, but it is flattering to see that in almost every instance where an experiment has been properly made, the VOL, II. N 0282 266 parties conducting them have succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations. Few, if any, have failed, and on the contrary, nearly all who have engaged in manufacturing such articles as were formerly imported into the country, have earned for themselves a great increase of property, besides a very comfortable and respectable livelihood. It is the purpose of the writer, occasionally to point out instances where branches of manufacturing operations are carried on with a spirit and energy that would appear in keeping with the modern genius of enterprise, therefore it would be unnecessary at this time to enumerate many particular cases to prove the importance of devoting more attention to the encouragement of branches of industry of this kind.

“For the sake of illustration we shall mention one case, the particulars of which lately came under our notice, and shall then point out two or three instances in the United States where whole towns have been built up in a very short space of time from manufacturing operations alone. Goodherham and Wort's steam-mills give regular employment to upwards of thirty families. This one establishment shipped last autumn 55,000 bushels of wheat, and 25,000 barrels of flour to Montreal. The whole of this vast quantity of flour was ground at those mills. A few such establishments 0283 267 would add greatly to the prosperity of this city. A new steam-mill has been very recently put in operation near the Market Buildings by our enterprising townsman, D. Cleak. A thirty horse-power engine is employed in this mill, which is constructed on entirely new principles, being the invention of the proprietor. The great merits of this engine claimed by Mr. Cleak are a a total want of intricacy in its operation—a saving of 50 per cent. of fuel on what is required by other steam-engines, and a certain and infallible proof against fire. The inventor is so sanguine that the improvements he has made in the steam boiler and other parts of the engine will equal his most sanguine expectations, and, in fact, almost create a revolution in the country, in the mode of employing power to propel machinery, that he has secured letters patent for the sole right of manufacturing them in the provinces; and we are informed that proper steps have been taken to secure letters patent for the same purpose in the United States and Great Britain. If the improvement under consideration should equal the high expectations that are anticipated by Mr. Cleal, the powerful agent of steam will doubtless be extensively employed in Toronto in manufacturing flour for the British markets, so that the entire exportation of bread-stuffs of the N 2 0284 268 district will be made in flour instead of wheat. We mean to be understood, that when these mills are in operation, instead of shipping wheat from the port of Toronto, as was the case the past season, it will be ground into flour and transported across the Atlantic in that state, thus leaving in the country some thousands of pounds, besides a saving in costs of shipment.

“It is no small degree of satisfaction to us to see or hear of contemplated improvements. A move of this kind in the right direction has lately been made in this city by the organization of a Marine Railway Company. The proposed capital of this company is 12,000 l. , and as such an enterprise under the control of practical men can scarcely fail in succeeding, we have great hopes that it will answer so well that a great increase of capital will ultimately be required to build the largest class of steam propellers and vessels for the trade of the inland lakes, and even West India trade.

CHAPTER XIV.

Unaccountable preference for Australasian colonies on the part of the mother country—Absurdity of paying government “touters” for Australian emigrants—Proposed plan for a government system of emigration to Canada—The ships of the navy “in ordinary” might be fitted for the purpose—Three-fold classification of emigrants—All must be required to pay something— Reduction of expense by this arrangement—Other advantages likely to accrue—Fixed occupation (as on railways) must be provided for the destitute—The old systems of settling them on free grants will fail and must be receded from—The reason why—Missionary chaplains should be appointed to emigrants on railways—Proposed plan for dealing with poachers; and the erring through misfortune.

Considering the nearness of British North America to England, its immense extent of still unoccupied territory, its vast water power and territorial resources—all calculated to make it one of the finest appendages of the British empire, together with the pressure of population at home and the extreme cheapness of conveyance over I cannot help, for my part, feeling utterly surprised 0286 270 that the Government should be at costly expense in giving free passages to emigrants to the ends of the earth, as Australia, &c., when the same sum that sends out one individual thither would go far towards sending a dozen to Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick. And the most absurd thing seems to be, that whilst the people are most anxious to emigrate, and would be inclined to besiege the Government offices for passages to Canada, if informed how and where to apply by means of cheap hand-bills, which might be sent postage free to the clergyman of every parish for distribution, the Home Government are actually employing a sort of “touters” or agents, to persuade people to emigrate, who are receiving thirty shillings a pair for every couple whom they induce to make application, as if they were so many recruits for the army.

Now, if the mother-country really wants to be relieved of her surplus population by emigration, surely in a season of pressure she ought to seek to do so at the cheapest possible rate. And I cannot help thinking that when the British North American provinces, which are just at her doors, are filled up, it will be time enough to think of the more distant colonies to which the expense of conveyance is so very much greater.

Suppose some such plan as this were adopted. 0287 271 We have a number of fine ships of the navy lying in ordinary, which, with others already in commission, might be readily fitted according to class for the conveyance of from three hundred to a thousand or more of emigrants in each. They might be commissioned pro tempore by a commander or lieutenant-commander, and a sufficient crew drafted on board from other ships, or enough from those paying off, be encouraged to join, to man them, if not with their full war complement, at any rate with a sufficient number of hands, for their safety. They might sail either with or without any armament (except a gun or two for signals) as might be deemed most expedient; or, in case of ships actually in commission at the time of their being ordered on this service, the lighter ones might be armed en flute , and the heavy ones have their lower-deck-guns taken out. That gun-deck might then be fitted for passengers, and even the expense of much carpenter's work might be saved, as if the sexes were properly separated, berths could be screened off for the unmarried women, hammocks might be served to all the unmarried, and the married couples have sleeping places with canvas screens allotted to each pair between decks, such as they have now in the navy.

It may perhaps be argued that a Government 0288 272 scheme of emigration could not only be of no benefit, but be productive of actual injury, as well to private enterprize as to Canada at large. It might be said, first, that the trans-shipment of our population may safely, in the first place, be left to our merchants, owners, and shipping agents; and secondly, that Canada could not absorb or employ the quantity who would come out. The former question may admit of being left an open one; on the latter, I think there ought not to be two opinions. Canada certainly does not want a fever-stricken population; and nothing tends to produce such more than the crowding of ill-regulated emigrant vessels. The order and discipline of a man-of-war is just the thing that is wanted to rectify this state of things. But, especially if public works be largely carried on—and Canadian railways would pay as no Irish ones could be expected to pay—Canada could amply absorb any amount that could be sent her. I think I can understand the feeble tone of the recent despatches to the Home Government on the subject of Canadian emigration. Those who probably had most to do with the preparation of those despatches dare not speak , for fear of their French masters. The French party naturally dread a large emigration to Canada West, lest they should be gradually outvoted in the House by its probable results, and 0289 273 their Radical servants and supporters dare not therefore speak, except very feebly indeed, upon the subject. Canada could soon absorb millions, and the addition never be felt save in the practical benefit to the country. As for Earl Grey's talking about a surplus going to the States, I venture to think, with all due deference to that Right Honourable Peer, that none but a Whig legislator would have so coolly spoken of throwing the bone and muscle of our Empire into the arms of a not always friendly republic.

Admitting, then, that a system of emigration to any extent may be successfully pursued with reference to Canada, the next question is, how is this best to be carried out? Much, of course, will be done by private enterprize. Burial societies, associations of oddfellows, and others, should club their funds for the purpose, or at least a large portion of such funds, instead of spending all on their present objects.

Sheets of rules and regulations, with regard to terms of passage to Toronto or Hamilton, and settlement of wild lands, with prices and rates of payment, should be forwarded to every clergyman and put up in every shipping office throughout the United Kingdom.

If the navy were employed, a threefold mode of classification might be adopted as regards emigrants, N 3 0290 274 viz., of first-class, intermediate, and steer-age passengers, similar to that which already obtains in private vessels.

I think that the principle of taking some payment , at least for the passage of all three classes, an important one to be carried out on every account—as not only do people always value more what they pay for, not only would a greater degree of general respectability be secured on the part of the emigrants, not only would many be thereby prevented from merely going at the public expense to the States, but a larger proportionate number could be assisted for the same outlay on the part of the Government.

Emigrants could, probably, thus be conveyed to Quebec at an average expense to the Government of perhaps not more than a-head including even what provisions were found them. It may be said that then the poorest could not come. To which I reply, then do not send them. For every one that does come, you will be all the better able to support the remaining paupers at home.

If out of the fourteen millions sunk in supplying the wants of the starving population of Ireland—a population just as likely, after the momentary relief, to relapse into their former state of destitution, had been thus expended in assisting a large 0291 275 portion of them to emigrate, and in employing them on various public works of importance—such as canals and railways after they had been sent out, some really permanent good might, under the Divine blessing, have been looked for, and the hopelessly destitute pauper of the mother country have been gradually converted into the thriving producer and customer, and there would be little talk of annexation if Canadian produce were protected.

It ought never to be left out of sight for a moment, however, that every Government plan of emigration to be at all effective, must include the notion of providing a fixed occupation for all emigrants, who have no means of supporting themselves on their arrival. It will not do even to give them free grants of wild land, and put them upon them with an allowance of agricultural implements and provisions for a twelvemonth. Most experiments hitherto tried upon that plan, feasible as it appears at first sight, have failed. To a person who knows anything of the country, and of the character of the great majority of the intended settlers, who are probably destitute Irish, the reason of the failure is clear. Newly arrived immigrants, placed together in large numbers on a new and wild block of land, are nearly as helpless as the babes in the wood. They are entirely 0292 276 unacquainted with the varied resources of the wilderness, and utterly unable to advise one another. And from the depressing influences of these causes, combined with the natural indifference to the future, which forms so unfortunate a component part of the character especially of the lower order of Irish, they will relapse into careless indifference, do little or nothing while their provisions last—perhaps even use as food, or scatter and waste, what should be the seed for future crops, and thus fall into destitution, and, too often, into crime.

It is a good thing, of course, occasionally to give out a number of free grants; but one valuable element which is introduced into a district of country thus settled, consists partly in the self-relying qualifications possessed by a large proportion of the settlers, in consequence of their being persons already used to the country, and not sent out raw from home. The new bands then clustering near and around them, enjoy the advantage from the first of the advice and association of a number of experienced guides, who can both tell them what to do, stimulate them by their example, and encourage them by occasional aid in the way of “bees,” &c., which the new comers soon learn to repay in kind: for when a bee is made to assist a settler, it is always expected (and with justice) 0293 277 that he either in his own person, or by paying a substitute, supply as much assistance when called upon, as he has received. The principles of combination and reciprocation of labour are thus brought into active and healthy application. No settlement can well thrive which does not contain a sprinkling of experienced hands to inoculate the others. Where people are not conveyed to a settlement from the old country en masse, this salutary leavening will always have a tendency to be in operation in Canada, in consequence of the constant inter-colonial or inter-provincial immigration movement to which I have more than once already referred, and to which public attention has scarcely, perhaps, heretofore been sufficiently directed.

As free grants, when distributed, are now very wisely given to all applicants who bring certificates as to respectability of character, without reference to what means they may possess, persons of experience in the country are thereby induced to sell out from the more settled parts, and to come upon the free grants, bringing their means with them. And it is no loss, but the contrary, however it may appear at first sight a throwing away of land, to grant it to such; for depend upon it, every person, whatever his means, who feels it worth his while to go and be an actual settler, on a free 0294 278 grant of land, is, if of good character, a valuable person there; and the more he brings with him, the better he is worth having.

This view of the matter introduces another consideration, which ought to be attended to in the settlement of land by the system of free grants; and it is this:—that persons who have enough of their own in provisions, or money, or both, to keep themselves for a twelvemonth, will be far more likely, from causes which I have stated above, to bring them into productive order, than those who have had everything found for them. It seems a principle in human nature to undervalue, and therefore not to profit by what costs us nothing in the attainment. If emigrants then, be sent out on a large scale, after the mode on which I have ventured to throw out some suggestions, those who have no private means ought to be sent directly to work, ready prepared for them of some sort or other, and not be left either to make a series of miserable failures on free grants, or otherwise spread themselves over the country a helpless burden, if idle and improvident, on the resources of the older settlers.

The class who bring means with them, or who pay the whole cost of their passage, would, of course, be allowed a greater latitude of choice; but the absolute pauper, I say, should be immediately 0295 279 set to work. This can only be done, either by the Government taking the matter of railways into its own hands, or by arranging with the companies so as that they should be ready immediately to receive and employ the emigrants so sent out. And there is one important point as regards Canada, which cannot obtain at home, and that is, that even supposing these great public works to have been completed, and the hands upon them to be no longer wanted, instead of falling back—as too often in the mother country—a hopeless burden on their parishes, they will, by that time, have learnt enough of life in the province to throw themselves for a livelihood upon the general labour market, and that with great benefit to the farmers, who might then be enabled to employ more hands, and bring more land into cultivation at remunerating rates of wages, than they can do at present.

If, as regards all this proposed arrangement, my own objection be quoted against me, as when I have said that it was usually a fatal measure on the part of individuals to bring out emigrants with a view of availing themselves of their services, I can only reply, that the Government has means at its disposal of holding persons so brought out to their engagements, which private individuals have not; and that much will depend on the 0296 280 labourers being officered by competent over-lookers, who ought to be men well acquainted with the country. Missionary chaplains, besides catechists and schoolmasters, ought likewise to be appointed to the railways, who might seek out, encourage, and instruct all those amongst the labourers who were willing to avail themselves of their instructions. Of course it must be expected, that amongst the Irish there would be a considerable proportion of members of the Romish communion; but that, I suppose, is an unavoidable circumstance, which must ever connect itself with emigration or anything of a large scale from Ireland. In any case, they would probably be better placed on a railway, where they would be subject to organization, control, and admixture, than set down in the mass in some part of the country by themselves.

It has likewise occurred to me very forcibly, that an unspeakable amount of good might be done, and an unspeakable amount of crime, with all its sad train of consequences in the sufferings of the offenders, and the bad example in the country, besides the actual cost of prosecutions, might be saved, humanly speaking, by a limited plan of emigration, in part compulsory, especially with reference to offences against the game-laws. I am not going to argue for a moment about their 0297 281 expediency or inexpediency as part and parcel of the law of the land. But this one thing I am sure of, that many a young man, otherwise respectable, who would look with horror on the bare notion of stealing a duck or a fowl from a farm-yard, cannot be got to see that he is involving himself in any crime if he ventures to knock down a hare or a pheasant if it happen to cross his path. He begins, perhaps, by some such act, is taken, convicted, and sent to prison. Upon this he too often loses all heart and self-respect. He feels himself a marked man. He becomes reckless, transgresses again, under aggravated circumstances, is again committed for a longer period, and goes out once more—too often, it is to be feared, a hardened and desperate man—to offend, perhaps, a third time, in a way which may bring him to the gallows, or consign him at least for life to the tender domesticities of Norfolk Island. Now, it strikes me that it would be very easy, where a young man was otherwise of good character, to dismiss him for the first offence with a simple reprimand; for the second, to make his emigration to Canada compulsory in the outset, with the understanding, that if he returned before from five to seven years were expired, he would be liable to be sent to a penal settlement; but that, in all other respects, he should be free in Canada, and after that time 0298 282 entirely so, even to return, if he chose. To save his character, he should be sent out without his circumstances being known to any but the proper officers; and, depend on it, that, so far from his wishing to come back after he had been out for a time, in nineteen cases out of twenty, the same individual who might have been the embryo desperado and murderer, is turned into a thriving and useful subject. He cannot poach in Canada according to the English acceptation of the term; and I have heard of cases where those who had been notorious poachers at home, turned out steady farmers, and scarcely cared to take up the gun, simply because there was no one to hinder them from doing so. Besides the benefit to the individual, look at the saving to the county rates from such an arrangement. Of course very great discretion would have to be exercised in its application; and to prevent parties from committing offences in order to get a free passage out, the laws against wilful, incorrigible, and intentional offenders, might be made even more stringent than they are now.

With such precautions might not a similar leniency be sometimes extended towards other not wilful offenders, but offenders in some degree through destitution and distress, and whom perhaps a first, and comparatively slight offence too-severely 0299 283 visited, might have driven into deeper abysses of crime.

I hope that, for making these suggestions, my friends in Canada will not accuse me of wishing to turn it into a penal colony, and to inundate the country with felons. My object is simply to point out one door, by the opening of which in a merciful spirit of discretion, many, not sunk in sin, might be reclaimed to the paths of virtue.

After some such manner, perhaps the problem might also be solved, as to what to do with sincerely penitent offenders, who, after their term of punishment is expired, appears desirous of walking in the paths of honesty and virtue.