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; 1

32X

PRIZE ESSAY.

THE CANALS OF CANADA:

TREIB

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE.

WBXTTBK FOB A PKEMICM OFFBSEO 8T

HIS EXCELLENCY THE EARL OF ELGIN AND KINCARDINE. K. T.,

OOVBBNOR OEMEBAL OP BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, ETC., ETC., ETC.,

THOS. C. KEEFER, CIVIL ENGINEER.

TORONTO :

ANDREW H. ARMOUR AND CO., KING STREET;

MONTREAL :— ARMOUR AND RAMSAT,

1850.

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TonoNTO ;

I^RIKTED BT LOVBLL AKD OIBSOS,
FBOMX STBEEX.

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INTRODUCTION.

The following Essay was written for a Prize
of Fifty Pounds, offered by the Earl of Elgin
and Kincardine, Governor General of Canada.
His Excellency's intentions in offering this
prize are explained in the extract of a letter
addressed by Major Campbell, Governor's Se-
cretary, to H. Euttan, Esquire, President of the
Upper Canada Agricultural Association, under
date the 8th of August, 1849, given below:

" His Excellency is desirous to oflfer, through you as
President of the Upper Canada Agricultural Association, for
general competition, the following Prize: — 'For the best
Treatise on the hearing of the St. Lawrence and Welland
Canals on the interests of Canada as an Agricultural
Country — £50.' Competitors will send their Treatises on
or before the first day of February, 1850, to the Office of
the Governor's Secretary ; each Treatise to be headed by a
motto, and accompanied by a sealed letter endorsed with
the same motto, containing the name and address of the
writer. The latter will not be opened until the Prize shall
have been awarded.

iv.

INTRODUCTION.

" It is His Excellency's intention to request the Council
of the Association to name two gentlemen to act as judges^
to whom His Excellency will add a third.

" As it is His Excellency's desire that practical informa-
tion on a subject deeply affecting their interests should bo
presented, in clear language and accessible form, to the
farmers of Canada through the medium of the Prize, he
trusts that the competitors in framing their Treatises, and
the judges in pronouncing their award, will keep this object

in view.

»>

Ten Essays were sent in within the pre-
scribed time, and submitted to John Young,
H. Ruttan, and E. W. Thomson, Esquires, who
kindly consented to act as judges on the occa-
sion. The Prize was awarded to the Treatise
which follows ; but several of the others were
highly commended by the judges.

THE CANALS OF CANADA,

TBBIB

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE.

The subject of our Essay, in its more extended sense,
embraces the consideration of the influence of Commerce
upon Agriculture, — ^an influence which can neither be
mistaken nor denied, and is clearly traceable upon the
page of history, from the earliest ages to the present
time. Ever since the " merchant princes'* of Tyre explored
with their ships the coasts of the then known world for
the products of Spain, Britain, India, or Africa,— or tra-
versed the sands of Arabia on camels laden with « myrrh,
spicery, and the bahn of Gilead," for the supply of Egypt
or Persia, — the power, wealth, and intelligence of every
country have been in direct proportion to the exoiiN and
diversity of its commercial intercourse.

Phoenician merchants purchased the obnoxious dreamer
of Canaan from his envious brethren, and " sold him into
Egypt," — a commercial transaction in which a world was
interested : — Tyrian ships carried the knowledge of letters
— ^the " noble art of speaking to the eyes,"-!-.into then bar-
barous Greece, and planted the germs of that civiUzation
which Athens nourished, and which has survived the fall
of Rome. By them the gold of Ophir and the cedars of

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

Lebanon were collected and prepared for the decoration

of the Temple of Jerusalem ; — and to a Tynan worker in

brass did King Solomon entrust "the brazen laver, the

pillars, the chapiter, the pomegranates, and the molten

sea," which adorned the chosen dwelling of Jehovah.

Carthage, the proud rival of the last mistress of the world,

was founded by those fleets of Tyre whose flag first passed

the Pillars of Hercules^— braved the unknown Atlantic,
and gave the earliest idea of commerce to our Parent

Isle, — then the Ultima Thule of the northern world — since^
the acknowledged Ruler of the ocean. The arms of Tyre,
which once withstood Alexander, have long since suc-
cumbed to that superiority in after nations to which her
own arts gave birth ; but the influence of the latter will
be coextensive with population,— coeval with time. The
Mediterranean, a sheltered and tideless sea, was the
natural mother of commerce in those ages when naviga-
tion was in its infancy — ^when Sicily was a land of fable
and of monsters to the Greek — and those celebrated cities
which for so many centuries ruled the destinies of the
Ancient World, owed their power and their glory, chiefly
to this most extensive, protected, and favourably situated
of perennial navigations. And if we, in a later day,
examine the physical characteristics of difierent countries,
we shall find their population, power and wealth, both
proportionate to, and centred upon their navigable rivers,
and favourable water communications.

Britain is indebted for her great power, wealth and
maritime superiority, not only to her coal, minerals, and
insular position, — but also to the comparative magnitude
and navigable qualities of her rivers and harbours. The
growth of cities is limited by the extent of the districts

)

THE OANAiiS or CANADA.

from whioh tFieir supplies are drawn, and to their facilities
for obtaining the latter. London could not have attained
its extraordinary size without the Thames, — ^Paris^vithout
the Seine, — ^New York without the Hudson, and the Erie
Canal,— or New Orleans without the Mississippi : while
Montreal and Quebec would never have existed but for
the St. La\^enoe. The absence of navigable rivers is the
most probable key to the extreme barbarism of Africa, —
Egypt and the coast of the Mediterranean only excepted, —
while their number and magnitude have made Asia a
mother of nations, and Europe the wealthiest and most
enlightened portion of the globe.

Rivers which run in the direction of a meridian, like the
Nile and the Mississippi, are supposed to possess decided
advantages over those having the direction of the parallels
of latitude, such as the Amazon and St. Lawrence, inas-
much as the former traverse a variety of climes, yielding
different productions, and therefore eiyoy greater facilities
for conmiercial exchange. For this reason it is supposed
that the valley of the Mississippi, with its wonderful extent
of unobstructed navigation, will shortly become the seat of
a commerce such as the world has never before seen : — ^the
com, flax, furs, timber, wool and manufactures of the North
being directly exchanged by inland na\4gation, for the
sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, and fruits of the South. There
are, howevedr, considerations of climate which modify the
first view of these prospective advantages, although they
by no means counterbalance them. The enervating and
unhealthy nature of the climate will operate as a constant
check to population and commerce, in such cities as New
Orleans,— -while the unavoidable and unequal dependanoe
upon their customers, for the prime necessary of life, either

8 PB08PECTS AMD INTLUENCE OF

gives a misdirection to labour, or throws an air of uncer-
tainty about the future destiny of luxury-producing coun-
tries. The relative growth of New York and New Orleans,
— and commercial progress of Lake Erie and the Mississip-
pi, — are by no means imfavourable to the North. In conse-
quence of the similarity of productions which must exist
upon the borders of rivers occupying nearly the same
parallels of latitude throughout their course, the exchange
of products by its occupants may not be as extensive as in
the former case, but the identity of interests and feeling
will probably maintain the control of their common high-
way under one jurisdiction : — ^while on the other hand, the
possible diversity of interest, and different temperaments
of a people commanding the Southern outlet of a great
river, may prove prejudicial, if not ruinous, to the com-
merce of the North: — the maintenance of amicable rela-
tions and friendly tariffs being the first great requisite to
commercial advancement.

RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.

The position of the river St. Lawrence with respect to
climate and latitude is one which is calculated at first view
to excite misgiving and dissatisfaction : — ^but upon a full
and fair investigation we must admit, (what indeed ought
to have been assumed,) that when the Almighty Maker of
the Universe "poured the rivers out of the hollow of His
hand,** He gave them that direction which should ultimate-
ly ensure t^ greatest good to the greatest number. Any
other supposition would be contrary both to Reason and to
Faith, and accordingly we find it impossible to propose any
more advantageous position for the St. Lawrence than

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

that which was given it when " the waters were divided
from the waters;" or any embouchure more suitable to
the valley from which it proceeds. We could not secure
an unfrozen outlet north of Virginia ; we could not im-
prove upon the position of the lakes, and we M'ould not
like to abandon the timber of the Ottawa, the coal of Cape
Breton and Nova Scotia, or the fisheries of the Gult. No
other direction could be assigned to this river which would,
<' take it for all in all," afford the same future advantages.
Hereafter we shall notice the alleged inferiority, and
endeavour to ascertain its comparative value.

This great river, — which for commercial purposes may be
said to commence in Lake Superior, the largest body of
fresh water on the globe, — leaves the valuable nunes upon
the coasts of that inland sea, and descending through six
degrees of latitude, embracing an extraordinary extent of
coast and a fresh-water fishery in the Huron Archipelago,
which is only surpassed by the astonishing one at it.s
mouth — penetrates the fruit-bearing zone of Ohio, We.stern
New York and Western Canada, — the garden of North
America for the variety and excellence of its products,
and the seat of a commerce to which no limit can be
assigned. From Lake Eric, this great outlet takes a course
almost in a direct line to the Atlantic Ocean, ascending
to the same latitude from which it took its departure on
the northern shores of Lake Superior. There can be no
doubt of the favourable influence of the great lakes Huron,
Michigan, Erie and Ontario upon the surrounding and
included territory, for we do not find that similar fruits can
be produced in the same parallels in Eastern New York
or New England. It is this northern embouchure of the
St. Lawrence which has thrown discredit upon its capabi •

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

1^:

lities for relieving and supplying those upper districts
which it drains ; and for the commerce, as well as the
water of which, it is the natural outlet.

If we were to seek the causes of the comparative depre-
ciation at which the St. Lawrence route has been held, we
would most probably find them in this expression, " natural
outlet ;" for we have counted too long and too much upon
mere geographical advantages. Hitherto it has been in a
state of nature obstructed by falls and rapids, — ^whilst its
great rival the Mississippi is naturally navigable almost
to its sources ; the opening also of an artificial substitute
from Albany to Buffalo, nearly twenty years before the
improvement of the St. Lawrence was undertaken, has,
vnth the concurrent advantages of greater population and
wealth, aided by a most unwise and exclusive policy on
our part, caused a temporary diversion of Western trade
from its proper channel : a circumstance which, so far from
discouraging, should only teach us that " natural " advan-
tages can be surpassed by national enterprise, and shew us
that the great trade of that portion of the West, north of
Ohio, the " natural outlet " of which is the Mississippi,
may, by proper effort on our part, be attracted through the
St. Lawrence.

CLIMATE.

Much has been advanced in disparagement of the Cana-
dian climate, and there is reason to believe that its incon-
veniences have been exaggerated, while its advantages
have been overlooked; for it is demonstrable that our
commerce, wealth and prosperity, are in a great measure
dependent upon those identical conditions which have been
assumed to militate against us.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

The climate of Canada is undoubtedly colder in winter
and warmer in summer than that of countries between
the same parallels in Continental Europe, but it is at the
same time more constant ; and these extremes, apparently
so objectionable, in reality extend the range of our produc-
tions far beyond those in similar European latitudes. The
strong and steady heat of our summer matures, with
surprising rapidity, the most valuable plants, while the
extreme cold of the winter enables us to combine the
products of the northern with those of southern climes.

The grape, peach, and melon, come to perfection in
Western Canada, but cannot be produced in the damper
climate of England ; while wheat, which cannot be grown
in Norway, ripens in similar latitudes of Eastern Canada.
We are enabled therefore, to embrace the range of pro-
ducts from the tobacco, rice, and fruits of temperate climes,
to the wheat, hemp and hardy grains of the North. The
severity of our winters are unfavourable to grazing, and
increase the consumption of fuel, yet without the ice and
the snow the invaluable timber of our extensive forests
would be worthless : — and inasmuch as we do not find
the fertility of the soil impaired by the frost, we are justi-
fied in assuming that our winters have the same invigor-
ating effect upon the earth, for our peculiar productions,
as that conferred by rest upon the human frame : and that
when the mantle of snow is removed, the soiv "like a
giant refreshed by .sleep," is enabled to send forth that
rapid and luxuriant vegetation which renders a longer
summer unnecessary. Nor are we vdthout encouragement
to persevere, or hope of future amelioration in this res-
pect ; — Gibbon tells us that " in the days of Caesar, the
Rhine and the Danube were frozen over so firmly, as to

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

permit the irruption of the barbarian hordes with their
cavalry and heavy waggons, an event of which there is
no modern instance on record." The reindeer, which is
not now found south of Lapland or Siberia, was then a
native of the Hercynean forest, in Germany and Poland.

" The immense woods which intercepted the rays of the
sun from the earth have been cleared, the morasses
drained, and in proportion as the soil is cultivated the
air has become more temperate. Canada at this day is
an exact picture of ancient Germany. Although situated
in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France
and England, that country experiences the most rigorous
cold. The reindeer (cariboo) are very numerous, the
ground is covered with deep and lasting snow, and the
great river St. Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a season
when the waters of the Seine and Thames are usually
iree from ice.* We should never forget that we owe it
more to our climate than our soil, that we are blessed with
an abundant and certain crop of that most valuable pro-
duction of the earth, — ^wheat, — the great staple of our
commerce, and the prime necessary of civilized life.

Before we attempt to establish the position which we
have assumed for the St. Lawrence, and to consider the
bearing which its being made navigable must have on the
interests of Canada as an agricultural country, we deem
it advisable to examine the character of the navigation as
improved, and also to take a view of the past and present,
before we can safely estimate the future trade of this
river. The subject is extremely comprehensive, — the farm-
ing interests of Canada are the interests of its whole
population, four-fifths of whom are directly engaged in,
and nearly all dependent upon, its agriculture.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

Every consideration therefore, foreign or domestic, which
bears however remotely upon the trade of €anada, must
necessarily affect our Canals, and be of importance to the
agricultural interests of a country, which already produces
a surplus of food, and to which a market for that surplus is
an object of the first importance. The canal policy of the
State of New York has been called, by good authority, the
political history of that State, and well would it now be
for us had commercial advancement been the prominent
object of our political leaders. If a tithe of the praise-
worthy efforts, so perse veringly made for constitutional
government and rotation in office, had been directed to the
abolition of the commercial restrictions, and the develop-
ment of the trade of the St. Lawrence, we would have
long since enjoyed that commercial freedom for which we
are now indebted to the self interest of the English manu-
facturer. Commercial prosperity will bear any amount of
taxation, as in England, but to neglect, is to destroy it.

EARLY IMPROVEMENT OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.

The control of the St. LawTcnce was absolutely in the
hands of Lower Canada until 1822, and virtually so until
the Union in 1841 ; and a mistaken policy for many years
seems to have governed the action of those by whom her
commerce was directed. The Lachine Canal was the
only object of government solicitude, and above £100,000
were advanced by the Legislature for this work between
1822 and 1820. The dimensions were those of a boat
canal, and the extension of a military work on a similar
scale by the Ottawa and Ridcau routes to Kingston, diverted
public attention for some time from the idea of improving
the main channel. The superior wealth and population of

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

the Lower Province should have thrown the initiation of
the great work upon the elder sister, but the possession of
the Rideau route, and those unfortunate "military considera-
tions ■" which have ever been a bar to our advancement, had
nearly succeeded in inducing the belief that the use of our
noble river must be foregone, because the occupants of its
opposite banks might some day destroy their common feeder.
A more unfavorable supposition is, that the grand scale
upon which Upper Canada had constructed the Welland
Canal, and the one she proposed for the St. Lawrence,
induced the Lower Canadian Legislature to discourage a
project which might open the lakes to the ocean, and des-
troy tlie transhipment in the Lower Province. This charge
the Upper Canada Commissioners of 1825 did not hesitate to
advance ; — but without being uncharitable, we may be no
more than just in saying, that Lower Canada both counted
too much upon the necessities of the Upper Province, and
undervalued that growing commerce around the borders
of the Western Lakes, which has not only long since eclipsed
the whole export and import trade of Montreal and Que-
bec, but has exceeded in value the entire foreign export
trade of tlie United States from all her seaports.

The military canals on the Ottawa were commenced
upon a scale similar to that of the canal then building at
Lacliine, and designed for boats of about 100 tons burthen.
After three locks (upon the Grenville section) had been
constructed upon this plan, the scale was enlarged to that
of double the capacity, or for boats of 200 tons burthen, —
and the locks widened for the passage of steamers. Th<?se
three small locks still exist, iclthin a chain of upwards oi
forty larger ones, completely neutralizing all the advan-
tages of the enlargement ; — a standing monument both of

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

Imperial centralization, and the misdirection or impotence
of Colonial influence, — and a vindication, of the subsequent
Provincial expenditure upon the St. Lawrence. Another
prime cause of the failure of the Ottawa and Ridcau
routes, is the necessity for the employment of steam power
in a navigation so absurdly insignificant. The light
draught of water, (four and a half feet) and the size ol"
the Grenville locks necessarily involved transhipment both
at Kingston and Montreal. The absence of a towing path
threw the forwarding in the hands of large companies ;
the descending trade, (by far the greatest proportion) fol-
lowed the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and the returning
craft could only be brought back by steamboat proprie-
tors. This system, requiring extensive arrangements and
large capital, unavoidably gave rise to monopoly, which,
while it enriched the forwarders, rapidly built up the Erie
Canal. If the Rideau Canal had been executed upon a
scale such as would have permitted the passage of craft
navigating the Lakes, or if it had been provided like the
Erie Canal with a towing path, so that every shipjjcr who
could command a pair of horses might go on his way
rejoicing, we should in all probability not have had the
St. Lawrence works at this day. There is however no
cause of regret upon this score ; the money was as well
expended " for military purposes" as it would have been
elsewhere ; — and it is very doubtful whether the route
could long have afforded vater enough to supply an
extended trade.

In 1827, Lower Canada took stock to the extent of
£25,000 in the Welland Canal, then in the course of con-
struction, — a step which reflected equal credit upon the
liberality of the Legislature and the perseverance of the

1«

PROgPECTa AND INFLUENCE OF

applicant; and in 1831 she voted £10,201 "to enable
batteaux and dui'ham-boats to go up the Cascades," &c.
In 1833, when Upper Canada, having overcome the Falls
of Niagara by means of the Welland Canal, was engaged
in removing the only formidable obstacle within her juris-
diction to a junction with the ocean, — by the construction
of the Cornwall Canal — Lower Canada appointed a com-
mission to report upon the propriety of seconding the
eflbrts of the Upper Province — and here the matter ended ;
no money was granted, and the subsequent troubles in
that Province adjourned the subject until the Union.

WELLAND CANAL.

Upper Canada, shortly after the termination of the late
American war, turned her attention to the improvement
of the St. Lawrence, her position and the disputes between
the two Provinces — respecting the apportionment of the
duties on imports by sea — naturally promoting a desire to
break her way out to the seaboard. Between 1818 and
18'i4, the Legislature granted £4,000 for a survey of the
obstructed portions of the St. Lawrence within her juris-
diction, and in the latter year the Welland Canal (Com-
pany was chartered.

This famous undertaking was originated in 1818 by
a few inhabitants of the Niagara district, who levelled
the ridge which divides the waters emptying into the
St. Lawrence above and below < the Falls of Niagara.
There were then present no high official personages,
no celebrated engineers, — distinguished commercial or
political leaders; all but one were inhabitants of the
Township of Thorold, farmers and country traders, —
the recent comrades of the gallant Brock. They had

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

before them no successful precedent; — a people four
times as numerous, and commanding the trade of that
Atlantic which scarce one of these Canadian schemers
had ever seen, were just commencing the Erie Canal.
There was then but one steamer upon Lake Erie ; — Huron
and Michigan were known only to the Indian and the
fur-trader : — Buffalo, a city of 40,000 souls, was then a
village, and Chicago and Milwaulde were yet " in the
womb of time." The whole commerce above Niagara,
upon 50,000 square miles of water with 3000 miles of
coast, employed but forty sail, two only of wliich exceeded
one hundred tons. Yet in that feeble and unostentatious
commencement we trace the origin of that policy which
has since broken down the barriers, interposed by nature,
between the commercial intercourse of central North
America and the world : and the unassuming actors have
lived to see hundreds of floating palaces propelled by
steam, and five hundred sail ploughing "the world of
waters" in the West. They have seen the tonnage of
1818 increased a thousand-fold, — the population around
the lakes thrice doubled, — and an emigration of gold
seekers sailing in a lake-built brig, two-thirds the circuit
of the globe — to colonize the old conquests of Spain.

In 1833, — after having extended the navigation of the
St. Lawrence nearly 1000 miles into the interior by the
opening of the Welland Canal, — Upper Canada voted
£70,000 for the improvement of the River between Pres-
cott and the eastern boundary of the Province ; this being
an object, " highly important to the agricultural and
commercial interests of tliis Province," as stated in the
preamble to the Act; and in 1834 the Legislature autho-
rized a loan of the munificent sum of £350,000 for this

PR0SPE0T8 AND INFLUENCE OF

purpose, and dictated the grand dimensions of 200 feet by
55 feet breadth for the locks, with not less than nine feet
of water. In 1837 the canal mania reached its height in
the Upper Province; £245,000 additional stock was autho-
rized for the permanent completion of the Welland Canal,
the wooden locks of which were rapidly giving way : —
and in the session of that year the enormous sum of
£930,000 was voted by Upper Canada, for internal im-
provements. These magnificent "resolves" were rendered
in a great measure nugatory by the political crisis which
followed shortly after.

Upon the Union of the Provinces in 1841, at the first
session, £1,319,182 sterling was voted for the St. Law-
rence and Welland Canals, Burlington Bay Canal and
harbours upon the lakes, and upwards of £350,000 sterling
for other internal improvements. The favourable report of
the committee, — ^in which the grant* for the improvement
of the St. La\vrence was contained, — was secured by the

'*' Mr. Harrison, ia 1841, after providing j£844,000 for canals, harbours,
slides, light-houses, and roads, moved the following "goby" for the St.
Lawrence : —

Resolved— that so soon as a loan of not less than £500,000 can be
negociated and obtained by the Government of this Province from any
private company or companies, at a reduced rate of interest, the improve-
ment of the navigation of the Biver St. Lawrence should also be undertaken
end completed.

Mr. Merritt proposed the following resolutions : —

Resolved — That the Great Lakes of Canada and the Biver St. Lawrence
form the natural outlet to the Ocean for the countries situated on their
waters, and aiford great advantages for commercial communication with
distant countries.

Resolved — That the completion of this canal (St. Lawrence) would confer
the greatest advantages on the greatest number of the inhabitants of
Canada, and would be mutually beneficial to all ', and it is therefore the
opinion of this House that a loan of £500,000 bo authorized to be raised
by Debentures payable in twenty years, bearing an interest not exceeding
fire per cent, payable half-yearly in London."

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

leader of that party who — ^upon the Thorold ridge upwards
of twenty years before, had projected the commercial
obliteration of the Falls of Niagara. The grant for the
continuation of the St. Lawrence Canals had been left out
of the above appropriation, and the fate of that navigation
then hung upon a single vote and that at first was adverse ;
although the Journals present no record of the struggle,
a battle was fought in committee over prostrate Canadian
commerce with varying success, and was eventually won
after more than one repulse, by that same indomitable
energy, patience, and perseverance, which carried to suc-
cessful completion the Welland Canal. The resolutions
offered, rejected, amended and re-offered, in that committee
were the " resolutions of 1841 " although not those to which
only political training has directed the public mind to the
exclusion of more practical subjects ; and which, however
excellent in themselves, give stones where the people want
bread, — more government instead of facilities of inter-
course — political fictions instead of matter of fact markets.
That great measure which was to connect Cleveland
with California was then, and has been since, apparently
a matter of less moment than the political gladiatorship
of rival lawyers, who can shelve their differences nowhere
but upon the millenial bench : — for, while the contents of
the Provincial treasury have been poured out like water,
for " political considerations," the completion of our canals
has, by rival administrations, been unnecessarily and
criminally postponed from year to year.

CHARACTER OP THE ST. LAWRENCE NAVIGATION.

It is well known that there exists a broad difference
between the scale of the improvements which connect

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

Prescott and Montreal and those between Lakes Erie and
Ontario. The locks upon the Welland Canal are 150 feet
in length of chamber, by a width of 26^ feet, while those
upon the St. Lawrence Canals have 200 feet length of
chamber, and a width not less than 45 feet : — ^the available
draught of water in both navigations may be taken at nine
feet. This difference has been the cause of some criticism,
and regrets have been expressed that the locks upon the
Welland had not been constructed upon a scale of equal
magnitude with those on the St. Lawrence Canals. These
regrets we venture to say are premature ; nor, with the
experience of subsequent years, can any important im-
provement in this respect be now suggested. The locks
upon the Cornwall Canal are fifty-five feet wide : — after
the Union, this width for the other works A^as very properly
reduced by ten feet ; because every additional foot in width
adds to the weakness, expense, and difficulty of management
of the gates, besides delay in filling and passing the lock ;
while it also involves a corresponding increase of sectional
area throughout the trunk of the canal. Upon the Wel-
land Canal there is a towing path for the employment of
horse power, but upon the St. Lawrence the use of steam
between the different canals became indispensable, on
account of the current, and the distance of the channel
(caused by the occasional intervention of islands and shoals)
from the shore. A lock therefore which admits a ser-
viceable tug-boat, of a sufficient size to afford space for
engine and boilers, and reasonable proportion of freight
and passengers, will fUlfil the conditions required upon
this route; and for this purpose we believe the present
provision to be ample. To have proposed a navigation
which should embrace all the requirements of perfected

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

steam transportation, would have been as preposterous as
vain. The model of the swiftest steamer is a problem yet
unsolved in naval architecture ; the dimensions have already
exceeded 400 I'eet in length by seventy feet beam, and the
extension seems limited only by the breadth of the waters
on which they turn. In a few years Railroads will have
superseded steamers for the transportation of mails, — and
with the exception of a pleasure ride through the Rapids,
the locomotive will have left nothing but emigrants, pork,
flour, and lumber to the River.

The dimensions of the locks upon the Welland Canal
are admirably adapted to the class of vessels most suitable
and profitable for the Western Lakes. They will easily
pass the best models of the Buflalo and Chicago traders,
a description of craft which had been adopted as best suited
to the lake navigation without any reference to this canal.
Larger sailing craft cannot always obtain full freight or be
conveniently worked in all places upon the lakes ; while
the expense of construction, management and interest,
while laid up or partially freighted, is proportionally
greater. These locks are also adapted to a very efficient
class of propellers, and a kind of paddle-wheel steamers,
for freighting and immigrant passengers, known by the
inelegant but descriptive name of " polly-wogs." There
does not here exist the same necessity for the use of power-
ful steamers and large locks as upon the St. Lawrence ;
and inasmuch as the lockage of the Welland Canal is
upwards of one hundred feet greater than that upon all
the St. Lawrence Canals combined, it would have been
impolitic and extravagant to have constructed unwieldy
steamboat locks, for a trade nine tenths of which will
be carried on in craft which would not have half filled

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

i»

those locks. By reason of the great lockage (three
luindrrd and thirty feet) the time now required, would, in
filling and managing steamboat locks, have been doubled;
while the confusion caused amongst so many smaller craft
by the passage ol' these leviathans, and the precedence
claimed by them, would be a standing nuisance to the
navigation. The expense of gates, foundations, bridges,
aqueducts, culverts, deep cuttings, and the whole excavated
portion of the canal, would have been enhanced to an
amount beyond our utmost means in order to obtain a
navigation practically inferior to the existing one. Neither
passengers nor expensive steamers could long have afforded
one or two days detention in the twenty-eight miles of
canal between the lakes ; and the result would have been,
what will now take place whenever it may become
desirable to employ steam generally for freighting busi-
ness, — viz., the sailing craft will be towed to the termini
of the canal, and thence be transferred from lake to lake
by horse power. The steamers would not enter, because
they are not profitable carriers of freight in a canal;
nevertheless they will tow ten barrels where they only
carry one.

The depth of water provided for in the St. Lawrence
and Welland Canals is ample, being more than is afforded
in many of the harbours upon the upper lakes, more than
there is over the St Clair flats, and as much as the general
features of the St. Lawrence navigation will warrant

EARLY TRADE OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.

Having taken an imperfect but indispensable glance at
the progress and character of our artificial navigation, we
proceed to review the early trade of the St. Lawrence, its

THE CANALS OE CANADA.

conduct and vicissitudes and the commercial policy under
which it flourished, flagiHfed or receded, — before we can
hope to present anything liito a cloai' vi*^w of the causes
which have led to its present apporent inferiority, or l^>e
able to determine its futun prospects.

A wise and liberal policy was adopted with regard to
our exports previous to 1822 : — the products of eitiier bank
of the St. Lawrence were indiflerently exported to the
sister colonies as if of Canadian origin, and those markets
received not only our own, but a large share of American
breadstufTs and provisions. Our timber was not only
admitted freely into the British markets, but excessive and
almost prohibitoi-y duties were imposed upon importations
of this article from the Baltic, for the purpose of Ibstering
Canadian trade and British sliipping. The British market
was closed by prohibition against our wheat until 1814,
which was then only admitted when the price in England
rose to about two dollars per bushel, — a privilege in a
great measure nugatory ; but the West hidies and Lower
Provinces gave a suflicient demand so long as the free
export of American produce was permitted by this route.
As early as 1793 our exports of flour and wheat, by the St.
Lawrence, were as high as 100,000 barrels, and rose in
1802 to 230,000 barrels. The Berlin and Milan decrees
and English Orders in Council thereon, of 1807, — President
Jefferson's embargo of 1808, — with increased duties levied
upon Baltic timber, gave an impulse to the trade of the St.
Lawrence, so that the tonnage arriving at Quebec in 1810
was more than 1000 per cent greater than in 1800. The
war of 1812 and 1815 naturally checked a commerce so
much dependant upon the Americans, and we therefore
find but little increase of the tonnage arrived in 1820, over

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

that of 1810. In 1823, the Canada Trade Acts of the Im-
perial Parliameijt, by imposing a duty upon American agri-
cultural produce entering the British American Colonies
and the West Indies, destroyed one-half of the export trade
of the St. Lawrence ; and the simultaneous abundance of
the English harvest forbade our exports thither.

As a recompense for the damage done by the Trade Act
of 1822, our flour and wheat, in 1825, were admitted
into the United Kingdom at a fixed duty of five shillings
sterling per quarter. The opening of the Erie and Cham-
plain Canals, at this critical juncture, gave a permanent
direction to those American exports which had before
sought Quebec, and an amount of injury was inflicted
upon the St. Lawrence, which would not have been
reached, had the British action of 1825 preceded that of
1822. The accidental advantages, resulting from the
differences which arose between the United States and
Britain, on the score of reciprocal navigation (which
differences led to the interdiction of the United States
export trade to the West Indies, and reduced it from a
value of £500,000 in 1826, to less than £500 in 1830,)
restored for a time our ancient commerce. The trade of
the St. Lawrence was also assisted by the reafhnission,/ret',
in 1826, (after four years exclusion) of American timber
and ashes for the British market, and by the reduction of
the duty upon our flour, for the West India market, and
therefore rapidly recovered, and in 1830, far surpassed
its position of 1820.

In 1831, there was a complete return to the policy,
which existed previous to 1822. United States products
of the forests and agriculture, were admitted into Canada
/ree, and could be exported thence as Canadian produce

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

to all countries, except the United Kingdom : and an
additional advantage was conferred by the imposition of a
differential duty, in our favour, upon foreign lumber entering
the West Indian and South American possessions. Our
exports of flour and w^heat by sea in that year, were about
400,000 barrels, — chiefly to Britain where a scarcity then
existed — and for the first time exceeding the flour export
of 1802 : this amount, in consequence of a demand nearer
home and the ravages of the fly in Lower Canada, was
not again exceeded until 1844. Between 1832 and 1839,
a scarcity and great demand for bread-stuffs arose in the
United States, — and the crops in England being unusually
abundant between 1831 and 1836, the order of things in the
St. Lawrence was reversed, so that in 1833 wheat was
shipped from Britain to Quebec. A further supply came
also from Archangel. These imports, in 1835 and 1836
amounted to about 800,000 bushels : — a similar demand in
1829, had turned our exportation of bread-stuffs inland, to
a very large amount ;— ^yet notwithstanding these fluctua-
tions of our exports, the shipping and commerce of the
St. Lawrence rapidly increased in importance and value
with no continued relapse down to the year 1842. The
revulsion in 1842 was general, being one of those periodi-
cal crises wliich affect commerce, but was aggravated in
Canada by a repetition of the measures of 1822, not con-
fined this time to the provision trade only, but attacking the
great. staple of Quebec — timber. The duties on Baltic
timber, in Britain, were reduced — the free importation of
American flour vi^as stopped by the imposition of a duty
thereon, and our trade with the West Indies annihilated
by the reduction of the duty upon American flour brought
into those islands. By imposing a duty of two shillings

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

r. .

sterling per barrel, upon American flour imported into
Canada, and reducing it in the West Indies from five to two
shillings, an improvement equal to five shillings sterling
per barrel, was made in the new position of American
flour exported from the Mississippi, Baltimore, and New
York. The value of our trade with the West Indies in
1830 (during the exclusion of the Americans) amounted to
£226,500, and in 1846, it was £1,010 !

Our export to the Lower Provinces, (Nova Scotia New
Brunswick, Cape Breton, &c.,) was at its highest point in
1830, since which time it has fluctuated, but never reached
its position of that year. It will be remembered that at
that time the Americans were importing breadstuff's and
could not therefore compete with Quebec in the supply of
these Provinces. The Act of 1842 was nearly as destruc-
tive to oiu* trade with the Gulf Provinces as with the
West Indies, but since the opening of our canals, there is a
marked increase in this trade. In 1841, (before the passing
of the Gladstone Act) our export* trade with the Lower
Provinces was worth £114,000 annually, which amount
fell off" to £51,000 in 1844. In 1845 the enlarged Welland
and Beauharnois Canals were opened, and since that period
it has gradually recovered, so that since the opening of the
enlarged Lachine Canal it has exceeded its position of
1841, and is now increasing every year. As the interrup-
tion of our trade with the West Indies by the Canada Trade
Act, in 1822, was followed in 1825, by the permanent
admission of our breadstuff's into the British market, and
by the concessions in 1826, — so its second interruption, or
rather destruction, in 1842, was succeeded in 1843, by the
important privilege of exporting American wheat, received
under a comparatively nominal duty, as Canadian without

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

proof of origin, to the British market. This measure was a
virtual premium of about six shillings sterling per quarter
upon American exports to Britain through the St. Lawrence,
but inasmuch as it was an indirect blow at the English
Corn Laws, it contained — like a bomb-shell, — the elements
of its own destruction, and was " too good to last." This
very partial measure rapidly swelled our exports of flour
and wheat, so that in 1846, over half a million of barrels
and as many bushels of these two staples were shipped
from Canada by Sea.

The injury threatened to the timber trade of the St.
Lawrence, by the Act of 1 842, was averted by the subsequent
railway demand in England, so that our exports of this
article have been greater since that period than before.

In 184G, steps were taken in the British Legislature which
led to the withdrawal of that preference, which the St.
Lawrence had so fitfully enjoyed as the route for Ame-
rican exports to England ; and the new system came
into full operation in 1849. The intermediate demand,
resulting from the failure of the potato crop, has thrown
much uncertainty upon the final tendency of this important
change in our relations \A'ith the Mother Country ; and as
a necessary consequence the ancieiit system of "Ships,
Colonies and Commerce," has fallen to the ground. In
1847, the control of our Customs was abandoned by the
Imperial Legislature, and the last and most important
measure, which has relieved us from the baneful effects of
the British Navigation Laws, came into operation with the
commencement of the present year.

"We now, in common with all foreigners, pay one shilling
sterling, per quarter of eight bushels, upon all wheat and
flour we export to England, and twenty per cent upon

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

,f*t

that which goes to the United States; thus assailed by
" a fire in front and rear," we must go manfully into the
markets of the world, through the St. Lawrence, and make
our custom valuable by forcing our customers to follow it.
The " nominal " duty in the British market is greater than
was the whole freight of a barrel of flour from New York
to Liverpool in October last — greater than all our canal
tolls levied from Chicago to the Ocean, and within one
penny of the estimated freight of a barrel from Buffalo to
New York through the enlarged Erie Canal. If it should
should become part of the new order of things to admit
the produce of colonies free into the markets of the United
Kingdom, this privilege would, since the abrogation of the
Navigation Laws and the opening of our canals, be almost
as decided a premium upon the St. Lawrence route as
the tariff of 1845 : — but if it were to restore our ancient
lethargy, it would be of very questionable importance,
and it could only now be occasionally valuable, on account
of the comparatively light duties and the lighter ft'eights
on supplies from Continental Europe.

It has been our misfortune in these commercial vicissi-
tudes, to have been in every case the subjects of cure
rather than of prevention ; and it is not difficult to imagine
the effect • . Iiich the circulating policy of the Imperial Par-
liament, in the Acts of 1822, 1825, 1826, 1828, 1831, 1833,
1842, 1845, 1846 and 1849, must have had upon the many
who have been twenty-five years in business, and have
witnessed all these changes. Could any permanent invest-
ment in Canadian trade or commerce be expected ? And
thus, after half a century of exportation, we find ourselves —
free indeed of the many injurious commercial trammels,
yet with scarcely any Canadian shipping, and our trade

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

conducted by branches of transatlantic houses: — we are
discharged from the custody of the Navigation Laws, and
the false security of protection, and now enjoy that empty
liberty which the pauper feels when driven away from the
workhouse door. Had our commercial freedom preceded
our commercial abandonment — had we enjoyed, for a few
years, an unfettered commerce before protection expired,
men's minds would not have been so unhinged as they now
seem to be ; but on looking back upon what we have
passed through, and liow we have passed through it, we
will venture the assertion, that few reflecting men, of what-
ever shade of i)olitical feeling, will desire the return of the
old system of .alternat(i protection and restriction, attraction
and rei)ulsion, and vacillating legislation. The Naviga-
tion Laws and the British Possessions Acts regulated our
trade, by confining it to British bottoms, whereof the mas-
ter and three-fourths of the crew must be British subjects.
Trade with Asia and the Cape of Good Hope was inter-
dicted for the benefit of the East India Company. We
could not send our salted provisions into any British pos-
session. We could not Innng from any foreign country
tea, sugar, coflee, or manufactured articles. No foreign
ship could bring us a cargo unless that ship were built in,
owned in, and sailed by a master and three-fourths of a
crew, the subjects of that country — proof of all which was
exacted : neither could any foreign ship take a cargo from
us, unless owned, built and sailed as above, and unless a
bond and sureties were given that the cargo would be
taken directly to the country to which the ship belonged,
and not landed, increased, or diminished on the voyage.
The same restrictions were placed upon our trade in Bri-
tish ships to foreign Europe and Africa. Goods imported

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

m'.'-

in foreign vessels were liable to increased duties, and our
importations from foreign countries were confined to a
schedule of enumerated articles, from which tea, coflfee,
sugar, salted meats and fish, wines, spirits, spices, silks,
leather, salt, molasses, iron and hardware, crockery, coal,
glass and glassware, rigging, machinery, books, butter,
cheese, lard, steel, metal, and minerals, types, paints and
oil, tools and furniture even, the property of immigrants,
and manufactures of all kinds whether of cotton, linen or
wool, iron, earth or wood, were rigorously excluded. —
British coal, brought as ballast to Quebec, was not per-
mitted to be reexported. In 1 825, some relaxation in this
respect was made, but as a set off, an abatement of ten per
cent of duty was allowed in favour of foreign articles
imported from the British Warehouses ; other concessions
were made from time to time, but the principal restrictions
remained in full force doAvn to the Act of 1842. It is mar-
vellous that any amount of protection, or any ingenuity in
legislation, could keep in existence a trade so hampered.
Yet the past commerce of the St. Lawrence presents a
steady and satisfactory progress in the face of disadvantages
which have perhaps more than counterbalanced its eccentric
protection. Reviewing its trade since the maintenance of
peace, we find that in 1820 the tonnage entering the river
amounted to 150,000. Between 1820 and 1830, the opera-
tion of the Trade Acts, — the imposition of a duty of ten
shillings sterling per load upon our timber, and a reduction
of thirteen shillings sterling per load upon that from the
Baltic, — the opening of the Erie and Champlain Cit nals,
and a bad harvest in 1823, were all against our commerce ;
yet the tonnage increased fifty per cent, while the corres-
ponding increase at New York, in this period, was fifty-

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

eight per cent. Between 1830 and 1840, the ravages of
the wheat-fly in Lower Canada, the rc-admission of the
Americans into the West India markets, the unusually
abundant crops in England, between 1831 and 1830, the
scarcity and non-export of American produce between
1832 and 1839, and our own political troubles, operated
against the trade of the St. Lawrence ; yet the increase of
tonnage was nearly one hundred per cent against less than
sixty per cent at New York. Since 1840, our staples of
flour and timber have received the finishing touches of
Imperial legislation, yet we do not doubt that the returns
of 1850 will shew a decided increase over our position in
1840 ; and having happily for the future no contingencies
of convulsive legislation to fright or ruin us, we may settle
down upon a system of sound and enduring prosperity, as
lasting as the fertility of our soil and the perseverance of
intelligent, self-controlled industry.

The Navigation Laws and Possessions Acts, by the res-
trictions imposed upon Colonial trade, of course discouraged
Colonial shipping ; and by confining our imports and
exports to a certain class of vessels — not one of which
were within the St. Lawrence between the first of January
and the first of May, gave a monopoly of our freights to a
limited number of vessels engaged in our trade. Secure of
our freights, these vessels did not seek cargoes elsewhere,
and as they could only make two voyages in the season,
they placed the annual expense and profits of their shipping
upon the two Canadian cargoes home. So long however
as our imports were limited to our own consumption, it
was plain that our timber and flour had to pay four-fiftlis
of the expense of the voyage out and home. The admis-
sion of foreign vessels would have afforded occasional

TROSPECTS AND INLLUENCE OP

. 1 1

hi M

relief; but, in the unimproved state of the river above
jMoiitreal, tliis disjidvantagc must have continued to keep
up our freights and reduce our exports. A very diflerent
state of tilings now exists : — that marlcet, and that desti-
nation, whicli bring many of the goods and the passen-
gers of European countries to the shores of America, lie
within the valley, and upon the Western confines of the
St. Lawrence ; and since the opening of our canals can
be approached more easily and cheaply by Quebec, than
through any other quarter: — and it is only necessary to
refer to the arrival of seven Bremen vessels in the St.
Lawrence, during the temporary suspension of the Navi-
gation Laws in 1847, to perceive in what direction Euro-
pean emigration will hereafter approach the West.

,: £

Our view of the commerce of the St. Lawrence has been
hitherto confined to the efiect produced upon it by Impe-
rial legislation. As the nature of our commercial rela-
tions with the United States exerted an important influence
on the trade of the St. Lawrence, we will glance at its
progress and fluctuations, and our Colonial legislation
thereon. Our regular trade with the United States origi-
nated in the treaty signed at London in 1794 : and in 1801
a uniform tariff was necessarily adopted by our two legis-
latures. This trade was confined to the natural produc-
tions of the United States — the " Possessions" and " Trade"
Acts for a long time prohibiting tea, and many other
articles, by importation inland. To encourage exports of
United States products through the St. Lawi-enci;, free
importation of these articles was permitted, without any
regulations or restrictions, until the Canada Trade Act of
the hnperial Parliament, in 1822, imposed duties thereon.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

In 1820, however, Upper Canada imprudently placed a
Iiigh protective duty on United States products, except for
exportation, and a very onerous tonnage duty of one shil-
ling on American vessels, at the same time relieving British
vessels of a light house tonnage duty of only threepence. This
latter imposition was removed by the Imperial Government
in 1825, when tonnage duties were made reciprocal ; and in
the same year, inland importation was permitted of all
goods which might be imported by sea from foreign coun-
tries — that is of the "enumerated" articles. After free im-
portation of the produce of the forest and bread-stuffs was
again permittexl in 1831, the local legislatures, taught by
exj)erience, did not again place any checks upon the St.
Lawrence trade until after the Union, — when the Imperial
Act of 1842 imposed a duty on United States produce,
which we imitated in the next year " for the protection of
agriculture," — flour and wheat excepted ; and both in the
tariffs of 1847 and 1849 this principal is adopted, and we
liave now imposed a duty of about twenty per cent upon
United States agricultural products, — wheat and corn only
excepted.

AGRICULTURAL PROTECTION.

This agricultural protection in Canada is, we fear, a
dangerous error. The object of protection is to encourage
the production of any article of which we have a deficient
supply. Coals do not require protection in Newcastle, or
cod in Newfoundland. If protection would raise the price
of our flour in British or foreign markets, then would it be
most desirable, but inasmuch as it will surely raise the
oost of transport of our own produce to those markets, —
by driving American exports from the St. Lawrence, — it

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

will, by just so much, reduce its value here. We produce a
great deal more breadstuffs than we consume ; this surplus
thrown upon our market establishes the price of x\\ that is
consumed, and no amount of protection can vary this unless
a demand for export arises, under which there will be no
importation, and no need of protection. If we have a
famine in Canada, — the only case in which protection
could take effect, — as the agriculturists form four-fifths
of the population, it is not to be supposed that they would
be exempt from the visitation ; or that custom regulations,
Under such circumstances, could (with our frontier) be
efHcient. We have no desire to view the question upon
"general principles," but as a local one. In all human
})robability, for the average of many years to come, we
shall have a large amount of breadstuffs for sale, and the
question is, where and how can we sell it to the best
advantage? The St. Lawrence offers us access to the
markets of the world since our canals ha\e been con-
structed ; but, from the lingering effect of commercial mal-
treatment, the superior facilities of wealthier and better
supported routes, and some disadvantages on the score of
winter shipments, our own limited commerce is insuffi-
cient to keep open this mighty highway. The regular
trader, which arrives at Montreal, brings the property of
many shippers, who, by combining together, get their goods
brought out at a much less expense than if only part of
a cargo could be found; the more of these ships which
arrive, the greater competition will there be in the carriage
of our surplus produce to its markets ; — and the greater
the amount of produce the larger will be the number of
arrivals, as the ships will be more certain of a return
cargo. With the increase of shipping, additional light-

THE CAXAL8 OF CANADA.

houses, tug-boats, and buoys will follow, and thus insuran-
ces will be reduced, delays diminished, and greater safety
ensured. The larger the trade, the greater will be the
employment of a steam power, in which feature the St.
Lawrence must distance all her rivals. It is evident that
this great highway cannot be "kept in repair" by our trade
alone. It was never designed by nature for this selfish end ;
our canals were not built for Canada, but for the valley of
the St. Lawrence; we ought therefore to "club together"
with our neighbours, o)i the opposite side in order to place
tliis noble outlet in the most efficient state, by giving it as
large a support as possible. Free admission of American
produce for exportation only, will not attract it from a
route where no custom house nuisances, and no delay on
this score exist. An exclusive policy will certainly recoil
upon ourselves, for we are too poor in capital to purchase
a tithe of what is needed to " stock " the St. Lawrence and
control the business of the North and West.

Our agriculture has long since outgrown protection — it
is a dominant, instead of a sul)ordinate interest ; yet by an
apparent contradiction, in becoming so, it has become
dependent upon another interest yet in its infancy — that
of our commerce, — the destiny of which is in the hands of
oui' agriculturists. The "liome" price and the export
demand are to be established by our canals and our
shipping ; and it remains for those most interested in that
price and that demand, to say whether the efficiency of
their recently improved and only national highway, is to
be impaired by hampering any of its furniture. • : i

Whilst we were a colony in the commercial sense, the
superior value of our flour and the demand for all our
surplus in the British market, kept up the price for home

PROflPECTS AVD INFLUENCE OF

consumption here at the highest point. There were, there-
fore, many occasions in which the free importation of
American produce might have reduced our prices, if there
had not been the English demand for more than all im-
ported ; yet wc have seen, that, as a people, we have flourish-
ed most from that policy under which the least restrictions
between the commerce of the two sides of the St. Law-
rence were interposed. American produce, for years to
come, will not again seek Canada, unless en route for some
better market, and a high future price of breadstuffs in
this country, will be the result only of scarcity; or of
our connecton with other and more eastern markets.

As our present position is a peculiar and critical one —
struggling, with great natural facilities, against a powerful
rival — " general principles," or theories, should be avoided ;
general protection, therefore, however desirable it might
become, when the commerce of the St. Lawrence is estab-
lished, and our complete independence of the New York
canals achieved, — would now produce general prostration.
The building up of a home market must be the work of
years, and during its infancy abundance and cheapness
of food will be indispensable. Our own market is too
limited to indulge the expectation, that any protective
inducements we could offer, would soon bring about any
considerable immigration of operatives and consumers ; and
protection, without this result, would only have the effect of
reducing our production, or of maintaining us in the position
of tribute-payers to the Erie Canal. General protection
must include our marine, and it would, incidentally, so affect
foreign goods in transitu, as to perpetuate the present
aversion to the St. Lawrence route. Let not our farmers
therefore be inveigled into any. " general "^ system, to which

THE CANALH OF CANADA.

they, forming four-fil'tlis of tho body politic, arc sure to
become the victims.

We have advocated a free comrneroial system with
regard to our exports and intercourse with tlie opi)osite
l)auk of the St. I> .wrence, upon special grounds, and not
from any sym|)athy with those rxtrc^ne principles of some

I commercial jjhilosophers, — that commercial comuuinhwr

which would tax civilization for the support of barbarism
— which would draw no distinction betwec^i the bondmen
and the I'ree, and drive our sons and our daughters to seek
employment in Iowa, Oregon and Califoniia.

P Fortunately, " i'ree trade " and " protection " have not yet

become in Canada war-cries, to gull electors and fatten
the elected: and we trust that patriotism, and the mutual
respect of parties, will dictate that spirit of eomi)romise
which is the heaven of all good government. We believe
there is a freedom of commercial intercourse which need
not be unlicensed, and an encouragement of native indus-
try, when judicioushj directed, not incompatible with each
other,or with the " interests of Canada, as an agricultural
country." Whatever disinterested advice we may receive
from the philosophers of the Manchester school, w(^ cannot
fail to perceive that we are already a surplus /«o^7 j)rodu-
cing people, that our most (Easily cultivated lands are taken
up- t.' lat the want of a local market and superabundant
capital forbids the cultivation of the richer and more
expensively tilled soils — that our most valuable i)opulation,
the native-born adults of both soxes, are w^andering off
where good land is more plenty and cheaper, or hard labour
better rewarded. By industry and thrift we may recover
from the effects of temporary calamities, but when the
young and vigorous, the enterprising, intelligent, and ini-

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

I ..>

i.-i^

■n

.1 :%

tinted portion of our population abandon the country they
have been reared in, and which they are the best qualified
to develop, she is indeed bereaved. Any policy, therefore,
wliich offers a reasonable prospect of extending the variety
of our occuj.)ations, should be received upon its own merits,
without reference to its clashing with a " principle ;" — but
the utmost caution is required to prevent our defeating
the object we have in view.

MANUFACTURING AND HOME MARKET.

If we had commenced a system of general protection
befoj'e we became exporters of food, then might we have
been now our own manufacturers, although we should
have paid dearly for our patriotism ; because, with a
limited market and imperfect commercial facilities, we
would have been badly supplied at extortionate rates.
But as colonists, we could not become general manufac-
turers, nor as Canadians can we now become so, until we
have greater commercial facilities, — railroads, and an efli-
cient foreign and coasting marine, either of our own, or at
our disposal. Manufactures cannot be profitably carried
on upon a small scale ; neither can the supply be so closely
assimilated to the demand in any community, but that
large accumulations will periodically occur, for which
a safety-valve must be provided, in the shape of a foreign
market. Therefore, if the commerce of the St. Lawrence
is placed upon such a footing, that we can contest with
the Americans, the supply with breadstufFs of the Gulf
Provinces, the West" Indies and South America, we may,
hereaftrr, fill out our cargoes with manufactures from the
St. LawTcnce for the same destination. Then would our
returning vessels bring back the drugs, dyes, and chemi-

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

cals required by the manufacturer, the raw hides from the
Pampas, and the rare woods of the tropics ; and thus plfice
us in a position to engage in those undertakings \\ith
similar facihtics to those enjoyed ])y England and the United
States. But it may be said that we can never compete
with these nations : because in the first labour is clieaper —
and in the second, it is " protected." We would first observe
that, althougli nothing could be more fatal to us than the
present adoption of what is understood l)y a general pro-
tective policy' — yet, for those peculiar articles, in the manu-
facture of which we could now profitably engage, it may
become advisable to make such provision, as in the event
of any of those revulsions which periodically overtake
the commerce of every country, would prevent the annihila-
tion of our growing manufactures. No excessive or prohi-
bitory tariflT, for the purpose of protection, could be of any
avail upon a frontier like our own. A moderate, and
therefore permanent, encouragement — for those manuiac-
tures only which require little manual labour, and of which
we produce the raw material, — is all that could be attempted
and would tend most to the manufacturers' true interest ;
because high tariffs produce ruinous local competition,
and invite attacks which are sure to be made, and a crisis
must then ensue. In England, when a manufacturing
crisis occurs, the accumulated stocks are forced out sud-
denly upon the markets of the world, and in such quanti-
ties, that in young and weak systems of new countries
like this, the ruin of incipient manufactures would be
inevitable. This might not be alone confined to the
chances of trade, — for a deliberate policy would see, that
a certain loss, occasionally submitted to by a combination
of manufacturers, would be profitably incurred, if thereby

PROSPECTS AXD INFLUENCE OF

our market were continued at their mercy. Accordingly,
after opposition lias been thus nipped in the bud, upon
returning prosperity, and a full demand, such prices would
be dictated, to all dependent consumers, as would more
than compensate for the loss by the former clever invest-
ment. This is no fictitious case. We have seen iron range
from £4 10s. to £lC, between 1842 and 1845, and English
goods hav(5 been flooded, at prices below cost, upon the
American markets, thereby checking the extension of ma-
nufactures in that country. That there are certain Classes
of manufactures, which we can profitably carry on, not-
withstanding all that has been said about the superior
cheapness of transatlantic labour, must l>c admitted, on
looking at the many excellent cloth mills, tanneries,
furnaces and foundries, the asheries, breweries and distil-
leries, soap, nail, chair, and pail factories, oil and paper
mills, potteries, machine shops, and many other estab-
lishments, which have sprung up without any other
encouragement than those most important ones, which
we offer to every branch of manufactures, viz : abundance
of cheap food and water power, a local market, low rents,
and a healthy and invigorating climate. And there are
many more which we could have at once, were we in
possession of the requisite enterprise, such as rope walks,
wire works, copper manufactures, white lead and paint
works, and an extension of our oil mills, candle factories,
&c., and more particularly all mai^ifactures of wood, —
cabinet ware and turners' work, — and lastly, ice. The
quality of our iron and the cheapness of carcoal offer
every facility for the manufacture of steel. These manu-
factures flourish here because we produce the raw material,
and because the expense of transportation and the oppor-

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

tunity for barter are in themselves a protection and an
advantage over foreign supplies. Iron we could advan-
tageously produce; our ores are of the finest description,
and as we must now use charcoal, the quality would be
equal to Swedes'; the inferior though cheaper English
article would not come into competition with it, because,
in iron the better article is generally the cheaper.

Cotton we could procure either from Tennessee, by contin-
uous water conmiunication through Cincinnati and Cleve-
land, or from South Carolina by Quebec or New York;
and it could be laid down on any part of the St. Lawrence
as cheap as at the mills in New England. The coarser
manufactures of this article we might profitably engage
in, for in these but a small proportion of labour enters
into the cost, the water power and machinery doing the
most of the work. In this description of goods the Ame-
ricans have supplanted the English in India; and British
ofiicers serving there, now wear the Yankee drills.

We need not envy the coal of England or Pennsylvania,
the chief use of which iri. manufactures is to produce steam
power, because we have a cheaper and more regular power
in the countless falls and rapids of our many rivers ; and
for the manufacture of iron, in the composition of which
coal enters so largely, we have seen that with our bound-
less forests we have a supply of charcoal which is far
more valuable for this purpose. The pig-iron manufac-
tured upon the Ohio river, where mineral coal is cheaper
than wood, is, for the reasons above mentioned, made from
charcoal where it can be obtained.

We have a population in Eastern Canada naturally in-
telligent and easily controlled, but who are, for one-half of
the year, eating almost the bread of idleness: — and we

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

cannot expect to attain the same wealth and prosperity as
our neighbours, unless we rise as early, work as hard,
and husband our resources as carefully as they do. With
an increasing population, who have long since commenced
to emigrate, with abundant food, unlimited water power,
the noblest river and the finest canals in the world, Can-
ada, commanding the seaboard, must become the commer-
cial factor for an important portion of interior America,
and in due time a manufacturing country, — ^but we trust
never one in which the agricultural interest shall be sub-
ordinate ; where the husbandman, struggling in that voca-
tion to which Providence has called him, — ^the first and
most natural employment of man, — shall be told that his
efforts must he misdirected. This is " an axiom" as difficult
of adoption as the undisputed, but unnoticed, Golden Rule
of Christianity ; and as irrefutable by a minority, as the ar-
guments we have employed when we took from the Indian
his hunting grounds, and proved (to our own satisfaction,)
that he would be a happier man if he forsook his vagabond
propensities and tilled the soil.

We have at this stage noticed the manufacturing posi-
tion of Canada, both because we feel it impossible, in con-
f<idering the future progress of our country, to separate the
three sisters, — Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce ;
and because there is an opinion extant, that the navigation
of the St. Lawrence is of less importance to us than the
immediate establishment of a home market, by adopting a
stringent protective policy. It will be seen that it is in no
spirit of opposition to this home market, that we have taken
ground against the mode only, by which it is proposed to
be obtained. If our geographical position were that of
Cuba, (or perhaps even of Nova Scotia,) so that our com-

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

merce could be uninterrupted, we would confidently rely
upon its accumulations and facilities to produce in due
time the requisite manufactures. But since it has pleased
Providence to lay an embargo upon the former from De-
cember until May — thereby rendering it to a certain extent
chronic — we foresee a future gradual resort to manufac-
tures, in order to employ the idle months, as well as to
support our commerce. The one cannot long flourish
without the other — but as we must have Commerce before
we can have Manufactures — all restrictions upon the
infancy o^ that commerce, by needless and premature
legislation, should be avoided.

This influence of position, man in pursuing his own inte-
rest must acknowledge and succumb to : — unintentionally,
and almost insensibly, mutual commercial interests com-

j bine, and render obsolete paper systems of political Gama-

liels, while yet the latter are chafTering over them. 1 ne
drover, the pedler, the produce-dealer and the forwarder —

I unimportant parties in the eyes of the common politician

— in seeking their own interests, do not look at the political
tendency of their operations, but rear up unconsciously,
quietly, but surely, a new system — as the coral insect,
unheeded and unseen, builds up her submarine moun-
tains, on which they who sail by old charts are cast away.
Capital is not here sufliciently abundant or powerful to
control labour ; — a practical people will therefore deal with
all questions in a practical manner. That charity which
begins at home, oflfers the first sacrifice upon the domestic
altar, adopts that policy which gives the greatest material
or present good, which supplies or appears to supply the
greatest number of wants — shelters and suj ports the wife,
clothes and educates the cliild, and provides against that

44 PROSPECTS AND INPLUENCE OF

night of old age in which none can work. Such a " prin-
ciple" must ultimately supersede any theory, sentiment,
passion or prejudice whatever.

COMMERCIAL PROGRESS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.

We have seen a rapid and substantial progress in the
trade of the St. Lawrence, in the twenty years ending with
1840. In the six years following this, we exported more
timber than in any previous ten ; and up to the present
time we have shipped by sea, since 1840, four and a
quarter millions of barrels of wheat and flour — a quantity
which exceeds, by more than one million of barrels, the
total export of flour and wheat from the St. Lawrence, by
sea, between the years 1800 and 1840. Notwithstanding,
therefore, the loss of a portion of the protection upon our
timber in 1842, and the whole of that upon our flour a few
years later, we have no reason to be dissatisfied with the
trade of the St. Lawrence for the decade ending in 1850.
The great falling off", as it was called, in 1848, in our ex-
ports of flour and wheat, was little more than a natural
reaction after the unparalleled exports of 1847, and need
not be looked upon as alarming, since the exports of 1848
are greater than those in any year previous to 1844, with
the single exception of 1841. That the decrease in 1848
was not permanent, is seen from the Montreal exports of
1844, which exhibit a satisfactory increase on the preced-
ing year. The following shews the progress of the com-
merce of the St. Lawrence compared with New York :

Tonnage arrived at Quebec and New York, in

1819 100,000 266,840

1829 236,565 417,961

1839 382,861 655,927

1349 489,861 (in 1846.. .628,425) Not known.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

Compared with the commercial emporium of America this
is a gratifying view, as the years taken arc those unaffected
by the stimulants or revulsions of trade, and give a fair
average of the progress.

When we consider that, in addition to this position of
our trade by the St. Lawrence, the inland commercial
intercourse with the United States, in 1848 and 1S4D, has
far exceeded that of former years — that in the last year
we have shipped over a million and a half of bushels
of wheat and flour to Oswego alone — we have reason to
congratulate ourselves upon our ability to supply a
foreign market ; and at the same time to be somewhat
solicitous about the future destination of this great and
increasing surplus.

So long as flour, shipped from the St. Lawrence, enjoyed
a preference in the English market of about one dollar per
barrel over the same article when shipped from New York,
this premium was sufRcient to counterbalance the high
freights which the exclusion of foreign vessels on the
Atlantic, and the want of better communications and
efficient competition on the river, had produced. This
protection being withdrawn before the repeal of the navi-
gation restrictions, and before the completion of our canals
our Western produce naturally tended toward New York,
where prices were better than in Montreal, both on account
of the diminished demand, (the effect of the glutted condition
of the English markets after the famine of 1847, which
made New York a better market,) and because the whole
cost of sending a barrel of flour, from Western Canada to
Liverpool, has hitherto been less via New York, than
Montreal. This tendency of our wheat to the United
States, in 1848 and 1849, ha.? given rise to various specu-

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

ir I

lations as to the future course of our trade ; and it cannot
be concealed, that serious misgivings are entertained res-
pecting the value of our St. Lawrence Canals. Political
opinions have been subverted by it — and we now appear
in the humiliating condition of petitioners for reciprocity
with the United States.

RECIPROCITY.

The advantages of a free access to the American market
need no demonstration, but the readiest mode of obtaining
it is a subject of much discussion. That it will become
the interest of the United States to yield this privilege, we
have no doubt — but that they will be brought to do so by
argument, instead of by action, is we fear scarcely to be
expected.

Canada is in a position to compel the Americans to open
their ports to her produce, — and to exact tribute from the
trade of the Western States ; and she owes this position
wholly to the improvement of the St. Lawrence. Without
her canals, she would be compelled to do, what Ohio,
Michigan, Wisconsin and other Western States are now
doing, — contribute to the support of the government and
improvements of the State of New York ; with this addi-
tional disadvantage, that she would at all times have twenty
per cent to pay toward the support of the general govern-
ment of the United States. Our canals, by giving us an
outlet to the ocean, will enable our flour to enter the same
markets that are sought by the American article, — the
export of wliich establishes the price for home consumption
in that country and has hitherto given the preference to
New York over the St. lawrence. Under our colonial
system, we were the sport of English seasons, and were

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

compelled to take the terms offered in the British market
alone. The Americans, on the contrary, sent flour to
England only when a paying price was obtained there.
In 1845, they exported only 35,000 barrels of flour to
England; 47,000 to Cuba; 53,000 to Ilayti; 54,000 to the
Danish West Indies; 200,000 to Brazil; 281,000 to the
British West Indies; and 287,000 to the British North
American Colonies. They also exported to the East Indies,
China, Gibraltar, Cape of Good Hope, and the Pacific, and
to nearly all the South American Provinces, and the Islands
in the Caribbean sea.

The annual value of the American exports of breadstuffs,
to other countries than Great Britain, is about fB 10,000,000 ;
nearly one-third of which is sent, as it were, under our
noses, to the British Provinces at the mouth of the St.
Lawrence. This latter trade the St. Lawrence Canals
must at once transfer to Canada, as far as she is able to
supply it, unless legislation forbids. The Nova Scotians
are large ship-owners, — Halifax most favourably situated
for an entrepdt, and our canals must release a large amount
of capital, now locked up in winter, in the sailing marine
of the lakes. It is not probable, therefore, that the Ame-
ricans can long continue to exact twenty per cent discount
upon the agricultural produce of Canada. If we do not carry
on a direct trade ourselves with the Southern countries we
have mentioned, the Blue-noses will do it for us, and — as
a necessary consequence — they will supply us with the
groceries and West India protluce we now receive through
the States. Where we sell there will we buy. As far as
w^e require English goods we will export timber and flour
to pay for them, and as much more as we can sell there ;
and the Americans will soon see, that to retain the portion

I'RO.SI'ECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

of our trade wliich they now possess, tliey must give U8
facilities for srlliau; as well as for buying in their markets.

A war of tariffs or trade regulations we cannot now af-
ford; — and u confession of weakness isnot likely to further
our object. We th(;refore believe that the speedy comple
tion of our canals and perfecting of tlie river navigation, with
a liberal commercial policy in at least the infancy of our
trade, will be the readiest method of obtaining reciprocity,
and of rendering us independent of it. The privilege of
exporting through the United States, in bond, has given rise
to unfavourable speculations with regard to the value of
our canals; — but it should be remembered, that this privi-
lege was not granted until we had commenced the improve-
ment of the 8t. Lawrence ; and never would have been
conceded but for the j)urposc of weakening our efforts to-
ward commercial self-emancipation. Its value to us is
very problematical. Of the 200,000 barrels of Canadian
flour sent in 1 840 to Oswego, only five hundred were sold
there, the remainder being bonded; and of the 020,000
bushels of wheat, 380,000 were bonded. Now if there
were any real value to our farmers in tlus privilege of
exporting in bond, we should have received very nearly as
much for our flour and wheat at Toronto and Hamilton as
was paid at Buffalo and Cleveland. But we got no more
for it than if this privilege had not existed; — we were at
the mercy of the American speculator ; our good article of
Canadian wheat was bonded, and an inferior article of
Western wheat was substituted and exported as Canadian
produce, whilst our finer grain was employed to improve
the character of American brands.

The fear t f a reaction in the English markets while pro-
duce is in transitu, will always tend to make the buyer pur-

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

chase at rates which will, in such case, permit him to fall
back upon the American market by paying the duty. The
customs regulations, trifling as they may at first appear, will
be sufficient to check competition and send eastern pur-
chasers to Ohio. From the experience of last year we
should learn that any restrictions, however light, upon the
free admission and transit of those articles which we our-
selves export, will be sufficient to send them through other
channels, and increase the cost of transport to our own.

Whether we obtain reciprocity or not, and whatever be
our future commercial position with regard to the United
States, our policy is the same, viz. to render ourselves
speedily and permanently independent of all other routes,
so long as we h'<,ve one (under the control of our own le-
gislation) which admits of being used. If the withholding
of this concession on the part of the United States, for two
or tliree yt irs longer, should have the effect of arousing
us to a proper sense of our position, — whatever pecuniary
loss we might in the interval undergo would be a most
valuable investment. If however we had the entre of the
American markets to-morrow, the attendant advantages
would be but imperfectly enjoyed without our St. Lawrence
canals. If, as in 1847, a good demand existed on the sea-
board, we would be the victims of an expensive and limited
means of export, and nearly all the profit of that demand
would go to the forwarders and the State of New York. In
that year the cost of transport from Buffalo to Albany rose
to two dollars per barrel, owing to the want of capacity
in the Erie Canal.

Of the produce coming from, and merchandize going to
Western States by the route of Syracuse, about one-third
now goes by the way of the Welland Canal and Oswego ;

PR08PEUT.S AND INFLUENCE OF

the othor two-thirds hy the way of nuffalo. Oswego

ipidly

Buffalo in the strife for the

gaining so rapiuiy upon liuiraio m tnc striie tor tnc wes-
tern trade, as to leave very little room for doubting, that in
a few years the greater part upward and downward would
take the Oswego route, — if sujjicicnt fdcilities cotild he off or-
dad. it on that mute. A most significant fact is, that of the
salt leaving Syracuse (the point of junction of the Oswego
and Erie Canals) for the West, 50,000 tons went last year
by the Oswer^o and Welland Canals, and only 10,000 by
Buflalo. Had the remainder of the up freight started for
the West, from Syracuse, (instead of from Albany in Buf-
falo hofits) a greater portion of it would undoubtedly have
gone by the Welland Canal. In 1840, Oswego had only one-
sixth of the Western and Canada trade itp, and one-seventh
down. These proportions have now increased to one-half
and one-fourth respectively ; the receipts of western produce
being greater now than they were at Buffalo in 1840;
and, although in 1848 (after the enormous export of 1847)
there was a decrease in those receipts at Buffalo, of 167,000
tons — there was at the same time an increase of 5,000 tons
at Oswego.*

* The Auditor of the New York Canal Department, in tlio " Toll*.
Trade and Tonnage" Report, published April 1850, says : —

"The tonnage of 1849 exceeds that of 1847 by 04,922 tons,— but the

Tolls are $366,716 less " much the most important considtration in

connection with this subject, is the rapid diversion of Western trade, from
Buffalo to Oswego. In the tonnage of 1849, there is a falling oft*, through
Buffalo, of 124,880 tons, from that of 1847, — and at the same time an
increase of 80,709 tons, at Oswego.

[The Western tonnage would rate the same, whether entered at Butfalo
or Oswego — but in the latter case, the tolls would be less, by more than
the amount charged upon the Welland Canal. The above increase at
Oswego, arises chiefly from our Lake Ontario exports : — but the decrease
through Buffalo, is nearly three times as great as that through the Wellaud
Canal.]

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

Tolb,

Xovv if the Welland Canal, substituting twenty-ciglit miles
of ship navigation for 154 of boating on the Eric, has pro-
duced the cfll'ct we have shewn upon the Western trade,
what would it be if we could take the cargo wliich lias passed
the Welland, to Wliitehall on Lake Champlain ? thus substi-
tuting say twenty or forty miles more of ship navigation for
about 130 of boating; — leaving only a boat navigation of
less than seventy mile?;, v/ith but fifty-five feet elevation to
the summit above Ci amplain, — to reach tide water at the
Hudson. Would w(5 not inevitably secure to the St. Law-
rence canals the same western trade of the Atmricans whicli
now moves through the Welland Canal ? Would not that
Hour which now passes through the Erie Canal and is carried
by railway from Albany to Boston, pass down tlirough the St.
Lawrence canals to Burlington, and thence take the two rival
railroads into the best market for bnnulstufTs upon this con-
tinent — the manufacturing (Ustricts of New England ? The
manufactures of tlios(? districts would then go West tlirough
our canals ; and our vessels by thus going down,would draw
up freights from Quebec and Montreal, New York and
Boston, the whole of New England, and the manufacturing
counties of Northern New York. The immediate construc-
tion of a canal from Lake Chamj)lain to the St. Lawrence,
the cost of which would not exceed £500,000, is an object
of the most vital importance to us, as the proprietors of
the St. Lawrence and Welland Canals, for it would secure
the payment for, and support of our magnificent artificial
navigation, chiefly by the transit of foreign trade ; and
leave us wholly independent of the result of the respective
capabilities of, or rivalry between New York and Quebec.
To us as agriculturists, it will become an object of far
greater importance.

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

Lake Champlain, with a navigable communication of
about 150 miles running due south, approaches within a
short distance of the heart of New England, Troy and Al-
bany. Northward its navigable waters are within twenty
miles of the St. LawTcnce — to the eastward, westward, and
south as far as the Mohawk, and the Sound, lies a country
of indifferent agricultural resources, but rich in manufac-
turing, commercial and mineral wealth, in water power
and wool-growing facilities. In this region there is more
consumption of our staple — wheat — more population, man-
ufactures, commerce and wealth, than in any territory of
equal extent in America. In that market Canada has no
nearer rival than Western New York — a State which
produces about as much wheat as she; consumes, and
whose consumption, in all probability, will keep pace with
her production of this article. Upper Canada, on the con-
trary, produces twice as much as she consumes, and so
will Lower Canada, if her farmers recovel* the confidence
destroyed by the fly. More than one million of barrels
of imported flour were retained for consumption in Boston,
for the year ending August, 1849: — the greatest amount
from one place being 3'23,318 barrels, from New Orleans.
Besides this a large amount was left by the Western rail-
road between Albany and Boston ; — there are also the im-
ports at the other New England ports, so that New England
takes more flour from the Western farmer, in the average
of years, than Old England does. The population we would
liave for customers would be about three millions ; by allow-
ing a barrel of flour for the consumption of each individual,
and deducting one million of barrels for their own produc-
tion, (New England does not produce half a million), and
for the substitution of corn, — we have here, a near " home "

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

market for two millions of barrels of flour, or nine millions
bushels of wheat. Canada, with good harvests, could
supply half of this amount, and with a canal to Lake
Champlain, would receive the lulls (and the reduced trans-
portation) for the greater part of it. But the great advan-
tage of this market to us, and of our position respecting
it, arises from its proximity and the rapidity and capacity
of our communicat^'-^.n with it, whereby we could pour in
our supplies before any other party. We look upon this
canal as a matter of greater importance to us than any
measure which can be adopted, cither for the interests of
our agriculture or our treasury, and trust no effort will be
spared to bring it into speedy operation. It lies in Cana-
dian territory, and should be a Canadian work under
uniform control with the St. Lawrence and Welland
Canals, — the indispensable continuation of which works it
has now become. The navigation of Lake Champlain,
although lying wholly in American territory, is secured to
us by treaty.

Only two years since our exports to the United States,
by Lake Champlain, were unworthy of notice. The Cham-
bly Canal was an annual charge upon the revenues. The
construction of the St. Lawrence Canals has given rise to
importations from Western States into Vermont, — and the
St. Lawrence route has been proved to be sixpence per
bushel cheaper for wheat, and a saving of at least a week
in time. A communication between the St. Lawrence and
Lake Champlain, upon the same scale with our canals, is
only needed to make the former the favourite route of the
American trade. We dare not rest content with the pre-
sent commerce of the Welland Canal : in two or three years
the enlarged Erie Canal will be opened from Albany to

54 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

Buffalo — and Oswego can then no longer maintain her
position unless her canal be enlarged. That our present
cominunication with Lake Champlain is wholly unsuited
to our wants, will be seen by inspecting the freighting
business done upon the St. Lawrence and Champlain Kail-
road, a portage of fifteen' miles with transhipment at both
ends.

The follo\ving is a list of the principal articles which
have been exported to the United States, in 1849, by the
i-outcs of the Chambly Canal and the St John's railroad :

By Railroad from Laprairie. By Canal.

Ashes,. ..barrels.... 9,427

Reef, do 1,342

Egi^s, do 2,050

Fiour, do *52,815 11,500

Linseed, do 4,021 .w

Do ...bushels... 4,653

Indian corn do 12,802 13,012

Oats, do 29,289

Peas,. do 11,175 137,019

Do ...barrels.... 6,348

Wheat,. ..bushels... 32,400 88,691

Lumber 5,370,905 feet, 14,385,000-

Square timber, 1,179,140 feet.

Salt, ...bushels 00,829

As the State of New York, from obvious motives, will be
in no hurry to enlarge the Oswego Canal, and thereby reduce
hor canal revenues — so it may at first be supposed that
she would not enlarge the sixty-six miles of canal between
Lake Champlain and tide water on the Hudson. But as
certainly as we see above that fivf -sixths of the flour export
to Lake Champlain, in 1840, went by the speedier route of
the railroad, (although there was a canal route, larger than
the enlarged Erie, which might have been employed,) — so

* This is an increase of 500 per cent upon 1848.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

when we have once broken our way into Lake Champlaiii,
with our 500 ton vessels, will the railroads from Burlington
carry down Western produce from Cleveland or Chicago,
which will reach Boston cheaper, and six days sooner than
it would if sent by the Erie Canal ; the point of tranship-
ment will simply be transferred from Buffalo to Burling-
ton. Thus the City of New Fo?7c would be compelled to
enlarge the Northern Canal, and we would then have
Boston, New York, and New England regular contributors
to the trade of St. Lawrence.

One of the most important advantages to be anticipated
from the connection of the St. Lawrence, with Boston,
through Lake Champlain and the Burlington Railroads, is —
the influence which the capital and connections of that
enterpri''ng city will exert over the Western trade, in favour
of the r ; (iiin route. The importance of the railroad
portion '" ' iiS route will be seen on reflecting that the
number of barrels of flour carried over the Western Rail-
road in 1849, exceeded by 200,000 the total export from
Canada by sea in the same year.

We have thus endeavoured to illustrate the bearing of
our canals upon the agricultural interests of Canada, by
shewing, first : that they enable us to take advantage of
any foreign demand 7ipo7i our own (tccount, and thus evade
the tax, which, since our protection has ceased in the Brit-
ish markets, must be constantly levied upon us if we had no
egress but by New York, or if the unimproved state of the
St. Lawrence had continued to make the American duty-
less burdensome than the cost of transport by Quebec.

And secondly : that by giving us a connection with Lake
Champlain, they not only permit us to pour Canada bread-
stuflis into the heart of the best market in America,

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

before supplies can come from any other quarter, but also
so reduce the cost of transport into this market that, — with
the duty exacted, — our farmers will receive a higher price
for their wheat, than the}", without a foreign demand, could
otherwise obtain — while as the proprietors of the St.
Lawrence canals, they may exact from the necessities of the
Americans — not only the cost of their public works but the
expense of their civil government.

I i

nil

GENERAL TRADE OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.

We now propose to take a more general view of the
influence of our canals upon the agriculture of Canada,
by considering the future trade of the Valley of the St.
Lawrence. The superiority of the St. Lawrence route, as
a means of communication between tide water and the West,
is too generally admitted to require extended notice in this
place. But in consequence of the greater expense of com-
munication, which has hitherto existed, between the sea-
ports of the St. Lawrence and countries beyond the gulf,
unfavorable and desponding conclusions with respect to
the efficiency of this route as a whok, have been
indulged in, — from our natural prospensity to look back
and falter, and from the too recent removal of the swad-
dling bands of the old colonial system.

The effect of the removal of the restrictions upon our sea

commerce, by the late Imperial Navigation Act, has already
been experienced. Norwegian vessels sailed from Quebec
in October, laden with timber destined for the English mar-
ket, but which was taken to Cherbourg in France, there to
await the commencement of the new order of things in
January. It is needless to enlarge upon this head, for if
we have seen flour taken from New York to Liverpool, in

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

October last, for six-pence sterling per barrel, it will hardly
be denied that an offer, of at most one shilling more, would
have brought round any required number of foreign vessels
lO Quebec — a step whi?h can now be taken, but which our
laws then forbade. A change in the price of freights, and
an " assortment " of flags, will this year be exhibited at Que-
bec, for which few are prepared. We could not have a
more favourable time for the debut of the St Lawrence.
The great deniand for shipping which arose out of the
famine of 1847, gave such an impulse to ship-building in
the American ports, that in 1847 and 1848, more than half a
million of tons were added to the commercial marine of
the United States. It was the competition amongst these
vessels which reduced freights to six pence in October last,
— while at Quebec they were four shillings, and protected
from competition and reduction, by the scarcity of vessels,
and the abundance of freights in the Timber Coves.

The Rapids of the St. Lawrence, between Prescott and
Lachinc, are susceptible of improvement — at a compara-
tively trifling cost, — so as to permit the descent by the river,
of vessels drawing nine feet water. This important feature
in the St. Lawrence cannot be over estimated. The great
river compensates us for the shortness of the business
season, by giving a navigation not only capacious, but so
rapid as to enable us to exhaust the surplus of the " great
West " in the few months of the business season which
are left to us after harvest. A provident and kind Hand
has so apportioned the tumbling waters, and curbed their
licentious speed, that the maximum of effect is secured
\vith the minimum expenditure of time and power. A
continuous navigable rapid from Prescott to Montreal
would not, on the whole, be as beneticial as the present

PROSPECTiS AND INFLUENCE OF

It '''^

(i
if

distribution of the river into rapids and lakes, because in
that case we would require a continuous canal in ascending
from Montreal.

When, in 1811, it was proposed to bring the Erie Canal
around the Falls of Niagara, and by Oswego, in order to
embrace the trade of Lake Ontario en route to New York,
that sagacious and enlightened statesman, Dewitt Clinton,
rejected the proposition in these memorable words : " It is
sufficient to say that articles for exportation when once
afloat on Lake Ontario, will, generally speaking, go to
Montreal, unless our Britisli neighbours are blind to their
own interests : a charge which ought not lightly to be
made against a commercial nation."

The average freight in stea?n vessels, from Toronto to
Quebec, in 1849, was Is. Cd. per barrel : now a barrel of
flour could not be sent from Toronto to New York for less
than 2s. 6d. ; we have, therefore, one shilling in price in
favour of Quebec — we do not ask any more. The time
required to reach Quebec, say four days ; to New York,
fourteen days : — to New York, two transhipments ; to
Quebec, none. We need not enlarge upon the importance
of speed to our farmers, in the three months which inter-
vene between the harvest and the close of the navigation,
— or to our buyers, whose prices are regulated by weekly
advices from Europe, and who, with the assistance of the
telegraph, the rapids and steamers of the St. Lawrence,
will be enabled to fulfil an order before a reaction in the
markets takes place. If then, as must be admitted, the
inland portion of the St. Lawrence be incomparably the
superior line of communication between the country around
the Western Lakes and tide water, the question is, whether
this superiority is sufficient to counterbalance the known

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

use in
nding

Canal
der to
York,
inton,
" It is
once

go to

disadvantages of the sea route, and the preeminence which
greater wealth, more extensive connections, and larger
markets give to New York.

Before we can profitably consider the future prospects
of the ocean commerce of the St. Lawrence, it will be
well to examine some of the alleged evils of the gulf
route — and first, that favourite one of the panic makers,
viz : that the St. Lawrence is frozen up " for six months
in the year."

If we take the average of the arrivals of the first ships
at Quebec for the last twenty years, we will find the date
to have been the 30th of April or 1st of May. So quickly
does the ice disappear, that it not unfrequently happens,
that the first ship from sea and the first steamer from
IMontreal, arrive at Quebec upon the same day. For the
last twenty years, the average of the first arrival at Que-
bec from Montreal is the 25th of April. The average date
of the opening of the Erie Canal for the same period is
the 21st of April, but for the last three years it has been
the first of May, although during these same years ships
have arrived from Britain at Quebec on the 24th of April,
and steamers from Montreal on the 17th of that month.
The great length of the Erie Canal, the time required to
fill it with water, and the preparation necessary after the
frost and snow have disappeared, make it difficult to open
it for navigation in any season before the first of May.
This difiiculty will not be diminished by the e.dargement
of that canal, or increase of business, and we may safely
assume the first of May as the future date of the opening
of navigation upon the Erie Canal, and practically, the
same date for the Hudson River. In point of time, then,
the commencement of navigation is equalized at both

TROSrECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

i:-

, I'

points; but inasmuch as the Erie Canal is not open at
Buffalo, until the first of May, a cargo of flour \\ ill not
reach Albany until ten or twelve clays later, while one
which leaves Lake Erie by the St. Lawrence will, upon
the average of years, arrive at Quebec on the first of May,
and find ships there ready to take it to England, or can be
sent on in the same craft to Halifax. We have nothing
to fear, then, from competition by the Erie Canal in this
respect. New Orleans and the Mississippi have an ad-
vantage over us in the winter months, but as the food
districts are in the north, upon the tributaries of the Ohio
and Mississippi, which are closed in winter, there also our
positions are nearly equal. The Erie Canal has been
closed, on the average of twenty years past, before the fifth
of December, on and after which date vessels may every
year leave Quebec, the only objections to sailing late
arising from cold weather and snow storms, causmg difli-
culty in managing the rigging,— an evil to which all
vessels are subject upon a European voyage at this season
of the year : — and one which, in the St. Lawrence, could
be in a great measure neutralized by a harbour of refuge.
Many captains consider that the snow storms are more
frequent in October and November than in December, in
which latter month the weather is more settled. We
eaimot see, then, that the St. Lawrence need have one day
less of navigation than the Erie Canal. It is true that
very few ships have remained in this river after the first
of November, but this did not arise from any fear of
imprisonment, but out of the exclusive system which has
hitherto confined this navigation to a certain number of
traders, which, as they only make two trips in the year,
arrive chiefly in May and September, and are under no

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

necessity of remaining later than November. But, if there
be freights, we will hereafter have plenty of arrivals from
sea in November, and departures in December.

GULP NAVIGATION.

The difficulties and dangers of the gulf navigation have
been greatly overrated: — a nobler navigation, in ordinary
weather cannot be desired. The gulf has three openings to
the Atlantic, — the Northern one by the Straits of Bellisle,
ten miles wide, which if lighted would form the shortest
and safest route for the Fall trade with Europe, because
the heavy fogs which overhang the Southern routes arc
seldom encountered in the Northern channel. The middle
passage, fifty miles wide, divides Newfoundland and
Cape Breton, and the third outlet, which is called the
Gut of Canso, affords to us a short and sheltered com-
munication with Halifax. From the Atlantic to the pilot
ground at Bic, (153 miles below Quebec), the channel is
nowhere less than twenty-five miles wide, and generally
from fifty to seventy miles, and without anchorage.
Between the anchorage at the pilot ground and the
Atlantic, some "half-way house" or stojjping place, —
where a vessel which had left the anchorage could put
in for refuge if overtaken by an easterly gale before she
had cleared the Gulf — is much wanted. Easterly winds
bring fog, or " thick weather," and there being no sheltered
anchorage or harbour of refuge, a vessel near Anticosti
must take her chance of running back — several hundred
miles — through the fog, to where she started from, against
a current drawing on the south shore, — or beat about
until she is, perhaps, brought up upon Cape Rosier.

PROSrECTd AND INFLUENCE OP

The gulf strram, running from Florida parallel with the
Atlantic coast, with a velocity ol' several miles per hour, and
widening in its course, touches the banks of Newfoundland,
and sweeps otf to tho Eastward : — following the direction
thus given, the waters of the St. Lawrence pour out of the
centre channel between Newfoundland and Cape Breton,
and a Northern current is drawn into the gulf through the
Straits of Belleisle, bringing field ice, seal, and iceaergs in
the spring. Notwithstanding the tide, there is a current
always doicn in the gulf, below Father Point. The deflec-
tion given by Anticosti to the river stream, and the Northern
current coming in through Belleisle, cause a "set" upon
Eastern Gaspe, at Cape Rosier. Here therefore, the "going
ashore " takes place ; but as the causes are constant, and
the elfect ascertainable, the currents of the gulf present :,o
impediment to good seamanship. Fogs have been so dense
that the bowsprit could not be seen from the stern of a
ship, and so lasting, that a vessel has sailed from the Atlan-
tic to Cape Des Monts, — five hundred miles — by the "dead
reckoning" — allowing for the currents, — without being able
to take an observation. Had the apparent course been fol-
lowed, — as too many captains have done without allowing
for the current, — the vessel would inevitably have been
ashore ; but the' width of the channel enables an intelligent
captain to keep on his course through fog or darkness.
Fogs are therefore no more insuperable obstacles than
dark nights, in which the sailor does not slack his course ;
and collisions can be avoided by care as well in the one as
the other ; — unless indeed it be true, (as stated by some
Captains in explaining their log,) that togs effect the com-
pass ! These fogs are caused by the meeting of two currents
of air of different temperatures, and infest the mouth of

THE CANAL3 OP CAVADA.

1 tlie
I, and

land,
lotion
>i'the
^('ton,
Ih the
gs in
[rrcnt
ifiec-
them
upon

tlio Mississippi, as well as the 8t. Lawrence. The last
danger to be encountered in th(? St. Lawrence, is from
floating fields of ice in the spring and summer montlis,
which can be a\ oided in many instances by the simple pre-
caution ol* keeping out of it. The disasters from this
cause are confined almost wholly to the Montreal traders
who, in the struggle to get the first cargo in, leave Britain
about the 20th of March, and are hovering off and on,
striving to evade the ice, and gain a few days of the
spring markets in Montreal. The greatest niiml)er of
disasters (which reached between forty and lift y in one year
out of about 1,500 arrivals or 3,000 voyages in and out)
occurred from this cause; but of late years they have
almost disappeared, not having reached five in nearly the
same number of voyages. That the navigation is not
unavoidably hazardous must be acknouledged u])on in-
specting the class of vessels engnged in the coasting trade
between Quebec, the Lower ports, and the gulf Provinces ;
for more crazy looking craft are hardly to be Ibund on any
waters. They escape however, because they know the. route,
and their tonnage being light, they can take shelter in many
of the bays where there is not water enough for sea-going
vessels. Another cause of disasters — which has now hap-
pily ceased, — is to be found in the character of the vessels
which have been engaged in the timber trade. Formerly
it was supposed that almost anything was good enough to
carry timber in, as the cargo could not sink. So upon
the Welland Canal, a few years since, it was thought that
any horse was good enough for towing ; the old, the poor,
the halt, and the blind were therefore procured for this
purpose, and as they were killed by the work in a few M'eeks,
it was soon found to be true economy to pay £30 and £40

mosPFXTS AND INFLUENCE OF

each for the best which could be procured, and the class
of animals now einiiloyed for this purpose arc not to be
surpassed anpvhcrc. These crazy old tiniber crall were
unfit to carry out merchandize to Quebec (for they could
not be insured) and thus tliis traflic has been confined to the
racing Montreal traders, at high freights, calculated to
cover contingencies of a collision with the ice. A poor
ship would, of course, have a poor captain and poorer
crew; thus no precaution was omitted for scaling her
fate : but this system is fast vanishing, and many of the
vessels at present engaged in the trade, are as fine ships
and as well manned as any in the British marine, and are
employed in the cotton and South American trade during
the winter monihs.

The higher rates of insurance, from Quebec than from
]\ew York, have assisted in giving an exaggerated colour
to the dangers of the gulf navigation. It has been asserted
that the only local insurance company which existed
was ruined by the Gulf route, but the real cause of the
failure is to be attributed to its meddling in West India
risks, and it was by the evils of the Mississippi outlet^ — the
Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, that
they were overcome. Since the failure of that company,
insurances applied for in England were done at very high
rates for late shipments, but the competition of A^ew York
companies has checked this extortion ; the latter compa-
nies are nearer, and know the nature of the season. The
rates of insurance for the summer months arc nearly the
same as at New York, — from one and a quarter to one
and a half per cent, — and range from three to six per
cent on Fall shipments. In short, if it were not that the
St. Lawrence is the only approach to Canada from sea,

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

lass
be

ere
ouUl

the
(1 to
)oor
|)orer

her

the

we would not notice the disasters in tiie Gulf. They have
scarcely excerded one quarter |)f'r cent of the arrivals of tlie
last few years. The number of wrecks of United States
vessels alone, in one year, ending in 1848, was .'iSS ; lives
lost 477 ; property $4,52.3,170. The largest number lost
at one place was twenty, on the Florida reef'* : — so much
for the Mississippi versus the St. Lawrence route. In 1848,
501 sailing vessels, and thirteen steamers, belonging to
Great Britain, were wrecked — the tonnage of which was
D0,i)20. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, we believe to be
naturally a much less dangerous route than either the
British or Irish channels, and if half as well lighted and
lurnished, would, with only occasional exceptions, be .•»
safe, speedy and well sii])ported navigation. The dis-
advantages arc such as human ingenuity and persever-
ance can cope with and alleviate : — A harbour of refuge
near INIatane, and a light and fog whistle upon Cape
Rosier, arc the most important requirements. More
steamers, lights, buoys, harbours and relief stations,
will soon add the Gulf route to the many examj)les of
successful commercial intelligence, and perseverance. —
Lastly, we will notice the too general and hastily formed
conclusion, upon the circuitous length of the St. Lawrence
sea route, and its apparent inferiority to New York in this
respect.

Most persons accustomed to the view ot i\iaps and
charts upon Mercator's projection, or upon the plane sur-
face of the Atlas, are apt to complain of the great detour
the St. Lawrence makes to reach the Ocean, and imagine

* The wrecks " off the coast of Florida " for the last five years have
averaged thirty-six aQnually.— In 1848 they were forty-one, and iu 1849,
forty-eight. *

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

that there is a great additional length of voyage to be
made, by a ship starting from Quebec or Montreal for
Britain, over one from New York. Quebec is some hundreds
of miles nearer to Liverpool by navigable routes than New
York. To persons accustomed to these charts, and who
have been taught to believe that a straight line is the
shortest distance between two points, it would appear that
the nearest route to the British channel — say from Lake
Erie — would be in a direct line, and therefore would leave
at Buffalo and pass South of Halifax. They would also sup
pose that New York was particularly favoured in having a
straight course, over the open Ocean, to the British chan-
nel ; whilst Montreal could not " strike a straight line " to
that point without running on Gaspe and Newfoundland.
Inasmuch as a straight line between Quebec and Liver-
pool would pass some hundreds of miles beneath the surface
of the Atlantic (as it would be the chord of an arc upon
the earth's surface) it is clear that, although the shortest
line, it is not the most convenient way of getting there. If
a thread be stretched upon a globe, from any point in the
British channel to Toledo on Lake Erie, and arranged so
as to lie upon the shortest line it will be found to run
nearly throughout America, within the waters of the St.
LawTcnce, not deviating at any point more than 30 miles>
and if the eastern end of the thread be shifted to Glasgow
or the North of England its shortest position will be found
rn the Straits of Belleisle, between Newfoundland and
the Labrador coast. If this thread be now placed with
one end at New York, and the other at Liverpool, in its
shortest possible position, it will be found resting upon the
Island of Newfoundland ; although upon the JIat charts this
Island appears as much out of the way as Greenland.

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

be
for

>^cds
New
who
the
that
iake
'ave
sujv

"to

Kingston is as near to Liverpool and Hamilton as near
Glasgow, as New York is to either by a sailing route. The
false idea given to persons by Mercator's projection, arises
from the circumstance, that the meridian lines are drawn
parallel to each other ; thus a degree of longitude at the
North Pole, where it is nothing, is drawn as great as at the
Equator, where it is seventy miles : again, on those charts
the parallels of latitude, at all latitudes, appear to be the
shortest routes between two points in the same latitude,
thus the semi-circumference of the artic circle seems a less
distance than the spherical diameter of the same.

The coast of British America is more than 1,000 miles
nearer to Britain, than New York, because every degree of
longitude contains a less number of miles as we approach
the poles. Canada has sullered not a little, in the estima-
tion of the world, from the conception of Mercator. When
wc stretch a thread from the great food-producing region of
America, at Lake Erie, to the great food-consuming country
ol' Europe — Britain, and find that the St. Lawrence runs
almost upon the line of a great circle, the shortest possible
distance, with tlie most capacious, speedy, and economical
mode of communication, we cannot fail to be struck with
this remarkably direct cliannel between the parent and the
^jfispring of the most favored race of men.

Most seamen's charts being upon Mercator's projections,
and all charts being plane surfaces, very few navigators
take the shortest route by which they could sail. »Such is
the preconception established by those charts, that they
cannot understand why they should sail above- 50° North
latitude, in going and returning between ports in Europe and
Americji, both of which arc under 50° : — the really shortest
line appears a curve on the plane surface of a map, and

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

all the problems in sailing must be worked out by spherical
trigonometry. The northern route, between New York and
Liverpool, is the preferable one on account of its afford-
ing a smoother passage. The most stormy part of the
Atlantic is found where the easterly gales meet the Gulf
Stream, south of Sable island, on the course between New
York and Liverpool; there it was the "Great Western"
was nearly lost — there the " President " was last heard of.
" The current of the gulf-stream running with great vio-
lence against the force of an equinoctial gale, produces
a heavy broken sea, which strains and impedes a vessel
in its progress ; and it has often happened, that on com-
parison of the logs of two vessels sailing at the same
time, (from New York) that which has taken a northern
route, passing near the Nova Scotia coast, has gone
smoothly on her way, — while the other, after a tumul-
tuous struggle with the elements, has come out strained
and damaged, and obliged to put into some transient
port to refit, before proceeding on her voyage." The
gulf stream is turned eastward at the Banks of New Found-
land, and flows toward the Mediterranean ; the St. Law-
rence route therefore is not injuriously affected by it. The
Cunard steamers take the northern route we have spoken
of, and hence the secret of their quick passages.

The following are approximate sailing distances to
different points, from the three rivals in the western trade,
Quebec, New York, .ind New Orleans: — although not
strictly correct, they will be found comparatively so.

To Liverpool jrom N. Orleans, 5300 miles.

" " New York, 3475 "

" " Quebec, 3300 " by St. Paul.

" •• " 3000 *' by Straits of BcUeisle and

-the North of Ireland.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

cal
and
rd-
the
ulf
Yew

Quebec is nearer to any port in Europe, Africa, or the

Indian Ocean, than New York or New Orleans.

To the
Mediterranean from N. Orleans, '5230 nulcs.
New York, 3690 ♦'

Quebec. 3550 " by Cape Ray and St. Paul.
" ^ 3475 «' by Straits of Belleisle.

Quebec is about 500 miles farther from Cape Horn, and

200 miles nearer the Cape of Good Hope than New York,

and 350 nearer to the latter Cape, than New Orleans. A

vessel sailing li-om the Equator (in the Atlantic) will get

into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the same sailing distance

as by running to New York.

LUMBER TRADE.

The timber coves of Quebec, under the free admission
of foreign vessels, give resources to the St. Lawrence,
which neither New York nor New Orleans is, or can be
possessed of. The stock of lumber in Quebec in 1840
would have freighted shipping to the extent of 1,000,000
tons, and its value could not have been less than £1,500,000.
The tonnage which arrived at Montreal and Quebec in that
year was ()'28,425 tons, employing about 25,000 men ; and
was greater than that which arrived at New York in 1840,
although the commerce of the latter city was open to all
the world. Our exports of lumber by sea, ibr the last five
years, have averaged about half a million of tons annually.
This ability to furnish freights to returning vessels must
exercise a powerful influence upon immigration and im-
ports by the St. Lawrence. We now pay as much extra
freight upon every foot of timber we export to Britain
as our protection on this article in her ports amounts to.
The passenger trade, the most profitable of freights, will

TROSrECTS .VXD "INFLUENCE OF

find the Saint Lawrence tiie cheapest and most conve-
nient route for reaching the general destination of emi-
grants, — the West ; and under the new Navigation Act
the returning vessels of whatever country, will carry our
timber to Britain, — at greatly reduced freights. This staple
will be therefore cheapened in^ that country, and its con-
sumption increased, and we can see no reason why our
market for it should be confined to Britain. Of the im-
mense quantities annually exported from the Ottawa and
Eastern Canada, that portion only of the sawed lumber
shipped from Bytown — by Lachine and Chambly direct
to the Hudson river — passes through any of the St.
Lawrence canals. In 1848, about fortv millions of sawed
lumber were sent from the Canada shores of lakes Eric
and Ontario to the Hudson river by way of Oswego
and Buffalo ; this quantity, in 1849, was more than
doubled, and with a ship canfil from the St. Lawrence
to lake Champlain, the whole would take that route so
long as Upper Canada exported in that direction. But
the growing market in the W est, where from the immigra-
tion, absence of stone, and habits of the people, vast quan-
tities of lumber are required, must ere long give another
direction to the movement of this indispensable article.
Tiie West is dependent upon ^Michigan and the adjacent
shores of Canada for this useful and necessary product ; —
both of which districts, irom their own rapid progress and
consumption, as well as from the stimulus given by the
extent and excellence oi their markets, cannot long con-
tinue to riicet the demands upon them. Then the cheap
transport of returning brigs will bring up the products of
the Eastern forests through our capacious canals, and the
pine of the Ottawa, the Saguenay, and perhaps of the St.

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

onve-

emi-

II Act
>

y our
.staple
;s con-
ly our
e im-
a and

Jumbcr
direct

le St.

sawed

s Eric

John, will be exchanged for the products of Illinois and
Wisconsin. Tn 1848, Chicago imported seven millions; in
1844, nineteen millions ; in 1847, thirtj-tAvo millions ; and in
1848, sixty millions of feet board measure of lumber, twenty
millions of shingles, and ton millions feet lath. In 1840, the
value of the lumber prodiurd in Michigan was less than
£100,000; in 1848, her e.i^orts of this article were valued
at twice this amount: — her exports in 1847, Mere seventy-
four millions of sawed lumber, twenty-seven millions of
shingles, and $12.5,000 worth of lath, timber, staves, &c.
Cleveland imports about three millions of Canada lumber ;
Buffalo, in 1847, imported twenty-five millions, and in 1848
twenty-eight millions; Oswego, in 184.5, eighteen millions :
in 1848, twenty-one millions of sawed lumber, chiedy from
Canada. In 1840, the amount of lumber imported at Os-
wego was fifty-one millions (forty-four millions from Can-
ada,) and at Butfalo and Hlnek Rock, forty-three millions, of
which twenty-three millions w(>re from Canada, These
heavy exports from Canada AVest and Michigan, — the great
demand for the Hudson river market, — requiring three
hundred millions annually, — and the astonishing increase
of imports at Chicago (which seem to mark this city at no
very distant day a rival to the Hudson river in the demand
for lumber,) must ere long place this article amongst the
list of up-cargoes upon the 8t. Lawrence. The iinjiovtance
of the lumber trade in giving toiniage to our canals, may
be inferred from the fact, that in 1848, the products of the
forest formed forty-four per cent of the total movement of
tons on the Erie Canal ; and tliev are about six-sevenths of
that upon the St. Lawrence.

Emigration — as we have already hinted — may be rea-
sonably looked to as an important source of future wealth

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

to the trade of the St. Lawrence, and its canals. The
annual immigration into America is now above 300,000. In
the ten years ending with 1849, above 1,000,000 landed at
New York, and in the last four years about 200,000 arrived
at Quebec.

The arrivals in 1848 were at Quebec 28,261
1849 . 38,494

An increase of thirty-five per cent ; and it is well known
that the late arrivals were of a superior class : — both these
circumstances, the superior quality and increased number,
we may fairly ascribe to our canals.

TRADE WITH THE GULP PROVINCES.

• These provinces. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and
Newfoundland, are engaged in lumbering, fishiiig, and
navigation, and are all importers of food. Our trade with
them is now increasing, but still limited. It will be best
appreciated by the following statement of the departures
for these provinces from Quebec, for the last five years :

1845 73 vessels 4056 tons.

1846 121 do 6558 do.

1847 137 do 7881 do.

1848 138 do 7658 do.

1849 153 do 8728 do.

Previous to 1842, much of the supplies for these markets
went from the St. Lawrence, but the act of that year im-
posing a duty upon American produce shipped from Canada,
threw the supply into the hands of the Americans from
Boston and New York. Our navigation restrictions and
limited shipping led to high freights, and the return cargo
we received being limited by the Canadian demand, there
was not trade enough to enable us to compete with the
Americans, whose empty vessels going to Nova Scotia for

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

The
[0. In
led at
(•rived

mown

these

Jmbcr,

plaster and coal, could take out provisions at nominal rates.
If we can take the coal and plaster up the St. Lawrence,
and find a market for it, we can bring the flour down to
greater advantage than it could be brought from any other
quarter. The population of Halifax is 25,000, and the
value of its exports and imports £2,500,000 ; which is
greater than those of Montreal with twice its population ;
this arises from its favourable position for commercial pur-
suits, it being an enfrepdt for carrying on the trade with
the West Indies. As the United States send about 300,000
barrels of flour direct to the British AVest Indies and Guiana,
and nearly as much more to i^ova Scotia and New Bruns-
wick, most of which comes from the borders of the lakes,
there is no reason why {if they must do it) they should not
be allowed to take it from Cleveland direct to Halifax, and
exchange it there for the West India produce and fish for
the Lake ma.vkeX%,paying us tolls each way. The population
of these provinces is about half a million : — New Bruns-
wick has coal, iron, fish, plaster, grindstones, and timber,
which latter article she turns into money in England, and
purchases her provisions chiefly with the cash. In 1846 New
Brunswick paid the United States £216,000 stg., for pro-
visions, and only sold them £11, 000 worth of coals and fish.
Nova Scotia has grindstones, iron ore, and coal of the finest
quality, most abundant and easy of access, but it is unfor-
tunately at present in the hands of a monopoly, who have
the exclusive right of mining, so that although large beds
of valuable coal are unopened in Chignecto Bay, the
steamers plying over them burn English coal. For this
reason, and on account of the number of vessels arriving in
ballast, Liverpool coal has been furnished cheaper at Que-
bec and Montreal, than that of Nova Scotia. This position

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

of affairs cannot continue long. The Nova Scotians send
both coal and plaster to New York and pay the duty, and
it is probable, when a demand is opened for it by the St.
Lawrence, they can supply lakes Ontario and Champlain
with a better and cheaper article than can be obtained
from lake Erie, because the up freights will be cheaper
than those down. Already cargoes of this coal have been
laid down in Montreal at 16s. 3d. per ton, which price will
be reduced on an increased demand. English coal, also,
in 1849, was by means of the St. Lawi*ence canals laid
down at Kingston at $5 per ton, and could soon drive the
American article off lake Ontario.

An immense volume of water, driven by the trade winds
from the coast of Africa, has for ages dashed against the
iron-bound coast of Nova Scotia, producing the " Bore " or
a perpendicular tide of sixty or seventy feet up the bay of
Fundy, and, surging up into every inlet and stream, has
scooped out harbours, in number and extent unrivalled in
the world. Between Halifax and Cape Canseau, are twelve
harbours, capable of receiving ships of the line, and four-
teen others of sufficient depth for merchantmen. The ship-
ping of these provinces exceeds 100,000 tons, and will be
of invaluable service to the St. Lawrence route, in the
infancy of the Canadian sea-going marine. The extension
of the trade of Nova Scotia, — the development of her
abundant resources, which must follow her connexion with
the interior of America, can scarcely be overrated.

NEWFOUNDLAND.

But all the developed resources of the Gulf sink into
insignificance, when we contemplate that inexhaustible
mine of the deep — ^the fisheries of Newfoundland. A dreary

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

and inhospitable island, the terror of the shipwrecked ma-
riner — apparently uninhabited and barren — and enveloped
in almost perpetual fog, divides the Gulf of St. Law-
rence from the wide Atlantic. Its cold and desolate shores
have been battered and jagged into the most fantastic lines,
by the surrounding sea, beneath whose waters is stretched
that extraordinary bank, six hundred miles in length and
two hundred in breadth. " The ocean flowing over this
vast submarine mountain contains, perhaps, as much of hu-
man food as could be afforded by an equal extent of land
territory. The same productive character distinguishes
the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is remark-
able, that while the whale fishery, which ranks next in
importance, can be pursued with success in any one place
only for a limited time — here, the nations of Europe and
America have, for several centuries, laboured indefatigably
with nets, lines, and every process that can be contrived
or imagined, and yet not the slightest diminution of fruit-
fulness has ever been observed."

From the arctic shores large fields of ice are annually
floated down in tlie neighborhood of this island ; on their
surface are conveyed herds of seals, which are taken by
the adventurous seamen for their skins and oil.

The French have 25,000 men and 500 large vessels ;
the Americans, 37,000 men and two thousand schooners,
from thirty to one hundred and twenty tons ; the British
have 25,000 men, five hundred and twenty sealing vessels,
trom one hundred to one hundi'ed and eighty tons, and ten
thousand and eighty-two open boats.

The Americans take 1,500,000 cwts. of fish, and the
French and British 1,000,000 cwts. each ; in all, three and
a half millions of cwts. or 175,000 tons of fish annually ;

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

i- \

11'*

which, at £12 10s. cy. per ton, amounts to £2,187,500
currency, or eight and three quarter millions of dollars ;
the seal fishery and oil are probably about £125,000 more.
The Canadian fishery at Gaspe is important, the value of
the exports for 1848 being £91,252 15s. 8d. ; but our more
active neighbours take the fish from the sleepy Canadian,
by surrounding the " schools" before the latter turns out
from his hammock. The lower coasts of the St. Lawrence,
at Gaspe and the Bay of Chaleurs, arc alive with fish, —
they are used as manure, the land is phistered, the air ren-
dered noisome, while the waters appear from the shores
black with the " riches of the deep."

With respect to the West Indies, inasmuch as their pro-
ductions must be extensively consu !ned upon the borders
of the St. Lawrence and its lakes, and seeing that their
provisions come chiefly from tlj' West, we believe that the
route which supplies the one will bring back the other. —
The St. Lawrence and Welland Canals oflTer an unbroken
communication between Chicago and the Caribbean sea ;
an advantage not possessed by the Hudson River or Missis-
sippi routes, and therefore we think we arc borne out in
counting upon a large portion of this trade for the St.
Lawrence.

TRADE WITH THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The altered position of our relations with the mother
country, consequent upon the recent sweeping changes in
her commercial policy, has produced an extensive revo-
lution in our political and conmiercial feelings toward our
transatlantic brethren in Britain; feelings which would
never have reached their present intensity but for the
inverted order of commercial progression. Had the older

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

^^)00

|lars ;
lore.

be of

more
idian,
Is out
rence,
fsh,-

rcn-
hores

and stronger party first romovotl the restrictions upon tiie
younger one, a gradual relaxjition of the mutual ties (con-
sequent upon a just appreciation of relative positions) would
have taken place, without actual shock or injury. We
have received great favours which should be heartily ac-
knowledged, and for the good intended we hope that we
are grti^eful ; if wc have suficred from the vacillating
legislation of those by whom our destiny has hitherto been
controlled — wc have alluded to it rather as an apology for
our j)osition, than as a ground of complaint against her we
have loved — perhaps with morr^ fervour than wisdom. To
mourn over by-gone days of colonial i)upillage, — to sigh for
the "llesh-pots" of protection, — to commit political suicide
by rearing parties here to attack or defend Evglish policy ; —
to propose taxation on millions in Britain, in order to bene-
fit thousands in Canada, — or to retard and impoverish our-
selves for the purpose of making the rich richer, would be
to play the part of " sturdy beggars," — of simpletons, or of
political coxcombs.

Old England requires for her own consumption, upon
the average of years, somewhere about 10,000,000 bushels
of wheat more than she produces, or 2,000,000 barrels of
flour, and therefore, as a market, ranks upon a par with
New England. The average annual entries of foreign
wheat for consumption in tlur United Kingdom, for the six-
teen years ending with 1815, were life under nine and a
half millions of bushels. Inasmuch as the average number
of acres in wheat crop were, in 1840, about 4,()00,000— the
average produce 142,200,000 bushels, or over thirty bushels
to the acre — an improvement in the harvest to the extent
of two bushels per acre will destroy the demand, and a
deficiency to that extent will double it. Now, as there is

PROSPECTS^ AND INFUENCE OP

an availablt^ ssurplus at the lu-igbourin^^ ports in Europe,
in the Baltic and the Jilack Sea, ol' about 18,000,000 of
bushels only, the value of vvliich laid on board at the ship-
ping port is about one dollar per bushel — the quality about
equal to the best Canadian, Ohio or Genesee wheat, and
the freights .about the same as from America — whenever
there is a demand, for home consumption, for say 20,000,000
bushels, as was the case in each of the five years from
1838 to 1843, large shipments from America will take
place ; but whenever there are good harvests, as in the
six years from 1831 to 1837, in which the deficiency only
ranged from 230,000 to 1,000,000 bushels, the trade is not
worth notice. It must be remarked, however, that in a
country like Britain, where capital is abundant, consump-
tion great, speculation rife, the harvest so uncertain and
the stake so great that a cloudy day transfers thousands
from one broker to another, the importation cannot be
closely assimilated to the actual wants of the country. —
Wheat is only profitably shipped to England, when the
quality gi-own there is inferior — when good, or drier wheat
is required for mixing ; it is a dangerous cargo, being very
apt to "heat,*' and comparatively little therefore is shipped
from America. Our facilities for grinding, the value of the
offal hei-e, and th(} cheaper, safer and more convenient cargo
of flour, give us a decided advantage in the English mar-
ket when there is a sudden demand for consumption. The
continental growers are too much impoverished by the
gambling character (under the old corn laws,) of the mar-
ket upon which they were wholly dependent, to become at
once manufacturers of flour ; and, despite the doubtful ad-
vantages of serf labour, cheap ships, and prison-fed sailors,
the unequalled character of our inland communications,

hope,

[) of
fchip-
Ibout

THE CANALS OF CANADA. 7»>

and the rapidly incrnasin^ iiitorcourse botwecn Biitain and
America, with the advantaic^rs abovenanied, will, wc be-
lieve, give the latter the oojiimand of fho l-'wicjlish inarkof,
in flow-, whenever she fiivls it profitMble to send there.
Thus, although in 1843(Jreat Hritain imported flour and
wheat in the relative proportions of one barrel of the
former to tliirhj busln-ls of the latter — in 1847 (when the
famine demand was trreat.) the proportion of imports was
one barrel of flour to sit: bushels of wheat. Of the
3,000,000 barrels of flour iinj>ortiMl into th<^ United Kinu;'
dom in 1847, the United States sent a.487,0H<i and Canada
about 500,000 ; no doubt the greater part of the remainder
came indirectly from America, through IIalifax,St.John and
other ports; but of the 21,000,000 bushels of whfot which
England imported in the same yenr, only about 3,000,000
were sent from America. Although the imports of ir/ifttf,
in 1848, varied but little from those of the previous year,
flour fell off to 1,000,000 barrels, jind the United States
sent only about the otie-twejitielli part of the floui" and on*^-
tcnth of the wheat, which they exported to Britain in 1847,
viz: about 180,000 barrels flour and '250,000 bushels of
wheat. In the year ending 1st September, 1840, this ex-
port rose again to about 1.000.000 barrels and 1,000,000
bushels. Of the flour imported into the United Kingdom
in the year ending August, 1840, the United States sent
eleven-sixteenths and Canada nearly the whole of the
remainder. In 184.''>. England was supplied with flour
almost wholly from the St. Lawrence. Thus the United
States sent to Great Britain in the years ending September

1845 35,3.'5.'5 bbls. flour, 2,010 bus. wheat.

1847 3,150,tJ8}> 4,015,134

"1848 ]S^,r>:ii -251,022

1849 1. 118,1 ir. 1,091,.'?8.5

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

■.;i
I Jj

i.'i

Take the three leading articles of United States bread-
stuffs, and we f. J the export as follows :

Flour, bbls.

Wheat, bus.

Corn, bus.

Corn meal, bbis.

1846.. .2,289,476

1,313,795

1,828,063

298,790

1847... 4,382,496

4,399,951

16,326,050

948,060

1848. ..2,119,393

2,034,704

5,817,634

582,339

There is much difficulty in comparing British receipts
with American shipments, on account of the different pe-
riods, January and July, at which the annual statements
are made up. Nearly four millions of bushels of Indian
corn and 300,000 barrels of corn meal are exported from
the United States to the West Indies and other foreign
markets. The United States export of Indian corn to
Great Britain commenced in 1844; its progress and the
proportion it forms of the total imports into the United
Kiniifdom beinsr as follows; —

Sent hy United States.
Corn, bus. Meal, bbls.

105

89,073

135,688
1,192,680

131,910

50,165

1,448,837

15,526,525

713,083

234,114

4,581,367

105,350 bushels

ot known.

12,729,626

86,058 do.

Total Imports into the United Kingdom
Corn, bus. Meal, cwt.
1844... 296,512
1845... 443,024
1846... 5,694,888
1847. ..28,806,496
1848... 12,694,108
1849. ..18,298,264

The falling off in the importation of corn into Great Bri-
tain in 1848, no doubt arose from the immense quantities im-
ported in 1847, and the position it has assumed in 1840 —
while there is a relapse in flour and wheat even below
the imports of the year previous to the famine — prove the
great effect which the introduction of corn will hi..v^e upon
the consumption of wheat in England.

That the United States could export 0,000,000 bushels
wheat and its equivalent in flour in 1845, 13,000,000 in
184(3, 20,000,000 in 184T ; and then fall back to 13,000,000

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

ad-

pts
pe-

nts

ion

roni

;ign

in 1848, and to 6,000,000 in 1849, with their production of
wheat constantly increasing throughout this period, shews
a wonderful elasticity, and extensive home market. If the
price of wheat is higher in proportion than for corn, the
Americans' export the former and consume the latter ; if
the demand for corn be also great, they kill their hogs and
export corn, for the pork will keep. If there be no great
tlemand for either, they eat their surplus wheat, feed their
hogs with the corn, and export pork as having the greatest
value in the least bulk. This will be seen on comparing
the export oi" these two articles, in two years of heavy and
light demand respectively.

Receipts of corn and pork, at New Orleans, in 1847 and
1 848 :

Shelled corn in sacks.

1847 -2,386,510

1S4S 1,083,465

Corn in ear. Meal bbls.
619,756 88,159
500,583 47,543

r.jrk lbs.
8,450,700
13,564,430

The United States produce about 120 millions of bushels
of wheat, find nearly COO millions of bushels of corn.
Their surplus of wheat for export, may be taken at iwenty
millions bushels, and of corn, an almost unlimited quantity.
They export about one and a quarter millions of barrels of
Hour and about one million of bushels of wheat,to other mar-
kets beaiiles those of Great Britain or her North American
colonies, viz. to Europe, Asia, Africa, the West Indies and
South Americji, an<l to the isles of the Ocean ; and inasmuch
as manufactii -ed Hour is the article required for these latter
markets, we believe tliat the principal export of this article
iiom New York, New Orleans and the St. Lawrence, will
oiten be to other markets than Britain ; and we have brought
forward these tables to shew that American flour is not
compelled to seek a market in England, but remains here

PROSPEOTS AND INFLUENCE OF

until a demand is made ; and that there are markets open
to Canadian enterprise if we but seek them.

We incline therefore to the opinion that Britain will not
regularly require a greatly increased supply of flour from
America; that her millers will prefer supplying them-
selves with wheat from the continent; that the use of
Indian corn will render unnecessary a largely increased
supply of wheat, and that England will grow almost her
own supply of this article ; that large and increasing
quantities of Indian corn, in bulk, will be sent thither from
America, and that the shipment will take place chiefly by
the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, instead of New York,
as there will be only one transhipment, and lower freights ;
both important considerations to a bulky and cheap article.
In a commercial point of view, we believe the Indian corn
trade to Britain will be more important to our canals than
that of all other American bread-stufls and provisions to
that country.

The effects of a famine are not confined to the year in
which it occurs, but a reduced production follows from the
loss of confidence: in the earth, and the loss of means by
the sufferers to till it. We can therefore place no con-
fidence in the continuance of the present demand in En-
gland for bread-stuffs ; which, though it has fallen off"
heavily, has yet exceeded the average of the period pre-
ceding this famine ; undoubtedly the repeal of the corn
laws will increase the consumption, but it must also in-
crease the production — or woe to England !

Whether the uncertain climate of that Island will be able
to compete with the agriculture of more favoured countries,
or with lighter taxed lands and labour, is a problem yet to
be solved, and one of interest to us for a time to ccme. It

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

is scarcely possible that with capital and labour abundant
and cheap, agriculture should recede in a kingdom where
it has lately made such extraordinary advances. There
are millions of arable acres yet uncultivated — Ireland, if
half tilled, would render England independent of the world.
There has, in England, been a struggle of interests, in which
the selfishness of the landlord has brought a just retribution
upon his head, — and incidental emancipation to the com-
merce of the colonies. Protectionists might have secured
five or six s. per qr., which would have given steadiness
to the market, contentment for a few years longer to the
Canadians, and would have been chiefly paid by the pro-
ducer ; but they played for all, and lost all. If rents are
lowered, taxes must follow, and what else will follow it is
not in human ken to foresee. If England is fortunate, —
if Ireland is regenerated, and Scotland does not become
another Manchester, Britain will not be long depei dent
upon strangers for food : she cannot long continue so — for
melancholy indeed will be the fate of that country, in
which the culture of the soil, the first destiny of man,
becomes a subordinate employment. From the census of
1841, it appears that one and a half millions were engaged
in agriculture and above three millions in trade : allowing
for those mechanics and traders employed wholly by agri-
culturists, there seems a large majority against the tillers
of the soil : millions who do not, and cannot, literally,
produce their owii food, and whose further wants, if any,
must lor years bo supplied from abroad ; for we look upon
it, that the plethora of food which has poured into England
since the famine, and produced the present low prices, will
also bring an agricultural panic ; and that thus the tiatural
diminution of production which follows a loss of confidence

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

in the earth, will be increased by loss of confidence in the
markets. But prices should not long be as low as they no\\-
are, because foreign supplies, which have been stimulated
by the prospect of continued scarcity, will slacken ; but
in the meantime the tenant-farmer in England may be
ruined, and years will be required to replace him upon a
better system. The ordinary yield of grain in the United
Kingdom, after deductions for seed, is about 400,000,000
bushels, and as nearly 100,000,000 bushels of gfain and
meal were imported in 1847, there must have been a
general deficiency of nearly twenty-five per cent. Before
the famine, the imports seldom reached twenty millions
of bushels of gi-ain and meals of all kinds. In 1848, the
imports were about sixty millions, and in 1840, eighty-
nine millions, with good wheat harv'ests; — showing the
great shock received, and the slowness of recovery. Not-
withstanding therefore the largely increased demand in
Britain, at present, we should not neglect set*^ing our house
in order for a change, and take time by the forelock in
order to establish mor«' numerous and certain markets for
our produce.

We have gone thus largely into the consideration of
the British corn market, in order to show how unsafe and
reprehensible it would be for us to place our dependence
upon that market which as colonists we have hitherto
considered ample for all our wants. We believe the
repeal of the high protection of the Corn Laws to be a
public benefit ; to it we owe that of the Navigation Laws.
We never fek sure of the continuance of protection. —
and as confidence is the basis of trad(\ it is better the
St. La' fence should be fairly tested, without any artifi-
cial advantages, and its exact value ascertained, rather

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

than have continued in a system which gave rise to
gambling, commercial intoxication, and the inevitabh^
reaction.

If we cultivate Indian corn, we may become the nearest
corn exporting part of America, and find a steady market
in Britain — where the dampness of the climate i:, unfa-
vourable to its growth. Provisions and products of the
dairy would Ibllow as a matter of course, and for our
great staple — flour, — we should make an elFort in the mar-
kets supplied by our American neighbours, or wherever
our ships may wish to cruise in the winter months. In
the New England market we can generally get a roini:-
neraling price, unless the dutit^s be increased ; our position
and cheap transportation reducing the drawback of the lariif.
The state of the llio do la Plata .sh<juld teach us that,
however numerous the would-be masters of a river, it should
have brt one commerce. We now pursue a churl isii
policy: — iiaving fortuitous possession of the lower half
of the valley of a river which is the outlet of a great
part of North America, we iv'fuse to allow the ])roduce
of lands, watered by the same cloud, to descend to a com-
mon market, and by thus doing liave so impovcrislKxl this
lower half nnd kepi it so naked of shipping, that the exports
from our own upj)»'i' portion have leaped the barriei-s, and
.seek their way through the numei'ous and better sup-
plied channels, which our more active neighbours have,
in self defence, carried down to the sea-board. Without
either shipping or freight sufficiiMit to sup])ort our canals,
or mark out the channels in our mighty river, we pursue?
the " dog in the manger " policy of monopolizing what
we cannot use. This policy has built up New York and
the Erie Canal, and prevented Quebec from being the

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

K' :

first ship building port in the world. Large exports and
imports alone can produce low freights, and by restricting
the highway for a world to the trade of a province, we
have forced the flour supplies of Pictou through New
York, and the coal supplies of Quebec through Liverpool.
The great St. Lawrence, as the outlet of one Province, has
been left behind by the smaller Hudson — the outlet for
many States. We must ^ive the transit of the St. Law-
rence free to all who inhabit its shores ; for, as colonists,
our imports from Britain are too insignificant to cheapen
the freiglit hrnoc; whereas the trade of the Valley of the
St. Lawrence — without national distinction — with Britain,
wirh the Gulf Provinces, the Indies and the world, will be
tb 1 t'^adc :•{' an empire, and second to none on this con-
tii :-nt.

Tluit traae we now propose to notice:

fi:ti're trade of thf, st. lawrence.

The valley of the St. Lawrence differs from those of
Rivers generally, in being Jilmost imilaleral. It is the
natural outlet for Canada — that part of Vermont, west
of the Green Mountains — Northern and Western New
York — Northern Ohio — ^Michigan, and a portion of Illinois
and Wisconsin. In the more Southern portion of the
valley, at Lakes JMichigan and Superior, the waters
M'hich flow into the Gulf of Mexico approach within
a few miles of the Great Lakes themselves: so that ot
the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Wisconsin, which touch the navigable waters of the St.
Lawrence, — an important portion of Ohio only forms a
part of the valley of this river. But. — with the exception
of ^'ermont, the Eastern portion of Northern New York,

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

and a part oi Pennsylvania, — there are no chains of moun-
tains, or broad tracts which divide the countries drained
by the St. Lawrence from those drained by the Mississippi,
Hudson, and Connecticut Rivers. Tht^re are not, there-
(bre, those decided geographical distinctions, — mountainous
boundaries, — ^vi'hich in many countries govern the trade of
particular districts ; and the great plain of the West between
the Ohio, the Mississippi and the lakes, is easily accessible
from both the Gulfs of St. Lawrence and Mexico, and also
from tide water on the Hudson. The want of extensive
branches penetrating rich tracts of land, as is the case
East and West of the Mississippi, is in a great measure
compensated, for by the magnificent expansion of the St.
Lawrence into the navigable lakes Superior, Huron, Michi-
gan, St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario, — by Lake Champlain,
and by those noble tributaries, — the Ottawa and the Sa-
guenay. The lakes present a coast of upwai-ds of 5000
miles, and the A'alley of the St. Lawrence proper, possesses
a population of at least 4,000,000. The products of this
great plain, in descending to tide water at the three points.wii I
be governed by the respective demand at those places, the
time, expense and character oi' the routes. Taking Chicago
as a central point in the plain, the distances from thence to
New (~)rleans, New York and Montreal, do not vary very
much; but l/ie time of transjwrt, and the charac^- r of the
routes, are widely marked From the returns ot transport
upon the Erie Canal, we find that the States of Ohio, lm.li-
ana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with a portion of
Northwest Pennsylvania, made most of their imports and
exports by lakes Eric and Ontario. In add'tion to these,
Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Iowa make impor-
tations by the Northern route, i)robably on account of the

■v^-V'#

PRO^iFECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

! '

f xpense of ascending the ^Mississippi. By the Northern route
they export all manner of agricultural produce, cotton,
tobacco, domestic spirits, leather and lead, and import fur-
niiure, dry gooils, ci-ockery and hardware, fish, sugars, tea,
and all kinds of groceries. The population, whose com-
merce is centered upon the St. Lawrence, cannot now be
less than five millions of souls, whose increase in numbers,
in agricultural and connnercial wealth, is unprecedented
in the history of the world. We fear to estimate their
future progress, for natural incredulity will here reject
calculations lor the future, — though founded on the jiast, —
as certainly, as that the follies of youth will be repeated in
every generation, notwithstanding the accunmlated expe-
rience of centuries; because the proportion of those who
walk by faith, to those with whom "seeing is believing,"
is n< small in tlie commercial, as in the moral world.

TflK \VE.<T,

In the ten years between ISoO and 1840, the population
of Ohio increased fifty per cent ; Indiana, one hundred per
cent; Illinois, three hundred per cent; Michigan, seven
iiundred per cent; Wisconsin was not known in 18.30, in
1840, Her population was 30,94.3, and at the next census,
{ill 18.j0) it will shew not less than one thousand percent,
ratio of increase. While this has been the progress of
whole States, that of their commercial towns is not less
remarkable. Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit, have doubled
their population b(;tween 1840 and 1848^ Chicago trebled
hers; and Milwaukic rose from two thousand to fifteen
thousand in eight years. Cincinnati (on the axerage of fifty
years) has doubled her population every seven years : — in
?800 it was seven hundred and fil'ty: in 18:j5, 24,000; 1842,

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

48,000; 1840, 06,000. The average growth of these cities,
in the last eight years, with St. Louis, Louisville, Pitts-
burgh, Oswego, Rochester, Columbus, and Dayton, has —
taken together — exceeded one hundred and fifteen per cent,
while the Atlantic cities, New York, Philadelphia, Balti-
more, Boston, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,
Brooklyn and Portland have — taken together — increased
only thirty-eight ])er cent, in the same period of time, in
1841, the whole American commerce of the Lakes — the
value of the export and import, exclusive of the passenger,
trade, — was $05,825,082, and in 1840, it was valued at
|« 1 23,487,02 1 ; the ratio of increase being about eighteen
per cent per annum. In 1S47, the value of the imports
and ex})orts of Clucago was under 5,000,000 of dollars ; in
1848, it was over 10,000,000 of dollars; the enrolled and
licensed tonnage in 1»47, 3,051; in 1848, 10,488.

THE MISSIPSirPI ROUTE.

The Mississippi, with its branciies, has a total length of
forty-seven thousand miles ; sixteen thousand six hundred
of which are steamboat navigation. It drains 1,300,000
square miles, or 785,200,000 acres ; which valley, ii' peo-
pled as densely as England, would contain 500,000,000 of
souls ; it now contains a population of 1 0,000,000, increasing
at the rate we have just described. In 1817, the first steam-
boat was built ; in 1834 there were two hundred and thirty ;
in 1842, four hundred and fifty; in 1843, one hundred and
twenty-six were built, and 1840 one hundred and eight
more were built. "There are now live hundred and
seventy-two, having a tonnage of 118,655 tons, valued at
$5,180,170 ; yearly outlay $19,015,753, and annual earnings
$17,428,840 ; the largest nmuber of all the boats now run-

PROSPECT.- AND INFLUENCE OF

ning lose money ; and the entire capitnl is exhausted every
four years. Above one hundred of these steamboats arc-
destroyed, and as many are built every year."

The Mississippi river, a deep and narrow stream flowing'
with a uniform current of about three miles per hour, is
a dangerous navigation on account of its ** snags" and
" sawj'ers" — trees and logs which — boriio down l)y the an-
nual freshets from many thousand miles of forest ^rovntJ —
and arc rapidly embedded in the alluvion, one end ridine
in the current. Steamers coming up keep near the shore
to avoid the curreiu, and thus run upon these " snags" and
go down ; these obstructions are constantly changing their
positions, and cannot be guarded agninst by any })re\'ioUM
knowledge of the navigation. The annual losses exceed
1,000.000 of dollars, and insurances range from Iwflvo to
eighteen per cent. We should not, therefore, complain of
five per cent in November on the St. Lawrence.

Tlie Ohio river ranges sixty-three feet between its highot
and lowest water mnrl^s, nnd its na\ngation is of course^
materially affected by i lie lo\el of water. The depth in the
bed of the stream, — which is at times reduced to two feet
at Pittsburg, — and the extent to which its tributaries are at
different times navigal)le, produce a fluctuation and un-
certainty both in shipments and in the price of freiglit.
Freights are therefore affected by the depth of water in the
river, as well as by the supply of boats at hand. Trans-
port to the New Orleans market is most economicallv
made in " flat-boats,** usually built at the wharf — and
steam saw-mills are engaged in sawing lumber for this
purpose ; as these boats cost but little, have a light draught,
take but few men and are built where the produce is col-
lected—a rise of water covers the river with flat boats, and

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

»1

ihe rapid current conveys thern speedily and clieaply to
New Orleans. Tlicre tliu boats are sold, and the men
ieturn on steamers wliieh are the only craft which ascend
the Mississippi and Ohio. Fjviglits are thus very cheap
(hwnwards, and liour irom Cincinnati may be taken lor
about 2s. ()d. per barrel to New Orleans, a distance oi' fit-
feen huntbed miles. But the increased number and exjiense
oi' these Hat boats, as the timber disappears aiv.l produce
multiplies, nmst have a tendency to raise the price of trans-
portation instead ol' diminishing it; and as it is not probable
that empty barges can be cheaply towed from fifteen hun-
dred to two thousand miles against a constant irent
transportation will be carried on chielly in steam vesscils,
the number of which must be greatly increased, their suc-
cess more doubtful than it n(»w is, and their capacity limited
by the engine, I'uel, and depth of water, which is lowest
generally during the season of lake navigation. At this
time, thcrelbre, much ol" the produce of the Ohio valley is
sent northward by tlie lakes. There aj'e oth^r o})jections
to the New Orleans route, for western shipments to Europe,
i'ounded upon the elimate, charges, and fiiictiiating com-
/nerce of that port. Tobacco, Hour, pork, bacon, lard, but-
ter, cheese, &c., are in.jured by passing through a warm
climate, and the charges for drayage, fire insurance and
commission, are exorbitant, because men will not work in
a climate like New Orleans for Northern rates of profit. —
Freights from New Orleans are very uncertain, but may
generally be stated at fifty per cent liigher than at Atlantic
ports. For tliese reasons, respectable Atlantic buyers have
^iven their preference to the Northern or inland route, at
ordinary rates, rather than receive the articles we have
.•nentioned, at New Orleans free of all transportation to

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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

PROSPECTS AND INFLUEXCE OP

that point. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida
reefs and currents, with the islands and shoals of the West
Indies, and the fogs on the lower part of the river, render
the Mississippi and its outlet at least as objectionable as
the St. Lawrence ; while the bar at the mouth of the river,
giving only twelve feet water, makes New Orleans as a
shipping port, far inferior to Quebec.

From Columbus in Ohio, Indianapolis, and Peoria,
Illinois (about halfway between Lake Michigan and the
Ohio river,) — central points in the West, equally accessi-
ble to the St. Lawrence and Mississippi routes, — we
think it may be safely asserted that Western produce can
be taken to Europe by the St. Lawrence, cheaper,
quicker, and in better order than by New Orleans. The
great demand of 1847, for provisions and bread-stuffs,
has given an impulse to the Mississippi experts by New
Orleans, and a comparative position, which we cannot con-
sider permanent — although great increase of business at
that port must of course be looked for, with the progress
of the valley of the " Father of Waters." Of the exports of
corn, — which article is almost wholly the produce of the
valley of the Mississippi, — 5,000,000 bushels came to the
Hudson river through the Erie canal in 1849; and of the
exports to Great Britain, since the 1 st of September last,
.303,377 bushels are from New York, and only 84,084
from New Orleans. The exports of flour from New Or-
leans under the light demand of 1848, were only one-third
those of 1847; while the arrivals at the Hudson only fell
off" thirty per cent; there being a difference in the decrease
of three hundred, as compared with thirty per cent. The
receipts of bread-stuff's at the Hudson, by the New York
canals, are generally three or four times greater than those

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

by the Mississippi, at New Orleans. The value of the
flour which arrived at the Hudson in 1848,was $17,500,000 ;
at New Orleans, i$3,500,000 ; of wheat, Hudson, $3,500,000 ;
New Orleans, $250,000; corn, 81,800,000 to $1,750,000;
butter, $3,333,000 to $250,000 ; wool, $2,500,000, to none
at New Orleans. The great monied value of the com-
merce of New Orleans is owing chiefly to her sugar,
molasses, cotton and tobacco; she cannot compare with
the North in export of food. The large amount of produce
which has taken both routes proves the necessity for both,
and the preference obtained lor the articles in the Northern
route proves the necessity for another and more capacious
Northern route than the Erie Canal — to the crowded state
of which, for the last few years, the increased export of the
Mississippi is in a great measure to be ascribed. But the
most decisive indication of the relative value of the two
routes is to be found in the Report of the Ohio State Board
of Agriculture for 1849, in which the prices of agricultural
products in the different counties of the State are given,
viz : in the northern or Lake counties, the central counties,
and the southern counties bordering on the Ohio river.

The average is as follows:

Wheat. Corn.
Northern Counties on the St. Lawrence, 94 cents. 33 cents.

Central Counties 79 do. 26 do.

Southern or Mississippi Counties TO^ do. 24 do.

Shewing a difference of Is. 2d. per bushel on wheat and
5|d. per bushel for corn, or about tWenty-five per cent in
favour of the Northern markets. Now it matters not
whether this difference be the result of the Eastern markets
at the North being better than the European ones, because,
if the Northern route can transport to New York or Boston
cheaper than the Mississippi can, it can transport to Europe

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

cheaper. Any part of Ohio is nearer in miles to Quebec
than to New Orleans.

Taking the produce of the Western States and Canada,
which entered the New Yorli canals by Buffalo, Black Rock
and Oswego, and arrived at tide water, we find that this
Western export of surplus for Eastern and Foreign markets
doubles in every four years. Assuming it to be 800,000 tons
for the Northern route in 1840, including the St. Lawrence,
— which is below the mark, — in 1801 we may look for
<>,000,000 tons of this produce seeking a market eastward ;
and there are as good reasons to believe that it will find
that market as there were in 1S3G, to suppose that the
50,000 tons which then found a market, could in 1840
be extended to .'>00,000, and meet a ready sale. The pro-
gress has been as follows :

At this rate, it would be in

185-2 1,300,000

1856 2,600,000

1860 5,200,000

agri-

1836 54,219

1840 121,671

1844 308,025

1848 650,154

Of this tonnage three-fourths arc the products of

culture.

But it is vain to attempt a future for the West — '' The

Great West" — a term as hackneyed as "Anglo-Saxon" and

equally as uudcfinable. It is impossible to estimate

the effect of that emigration, or rather transplantation of

population and capital, which is flying from anarchy or

misrule in Europe, and which is adding one-third of a

million to the population of America annually. When Mr.

Ruggles, in 183S, ventured to express the opinion i)iat if the

Erie canal were enlarged, at the then rate of tolls the

receipts — which in 1838 were about 1,500,000 dollars —

would at the close of navigation in 1849 reach 3,000,000

dollars, — the most unbounded abuse and merriment folloM^ed

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

agri-

and

this declaration. The "Glorification Report," as it was
called, was scouted, and its alleged absurdities were suc-
cessfully urged in obtaining a chnnge in the political con-
trol of the canals. Yet, in 184G, without the enlargement
and with reduced rates, the tolls exceeded 3,r)00,000
dollars; — and while the arrival of tonnage at tide water
from the State of New York — which is now about half of
the total arrival — has increased since 1837, not quite fifty
per cent, that from the Western States has increased one
thousand per cent. Instead of looking forward to any
diminution in the proportional hicrease of Western imports —
the fact that but a limited portion of the soil is cultivated —
that there is room for thousands where there are now hun-
dreds, and that each successive year increases not only
the number of exporters but Ihcnr ability to export — we
ought, strictly speaking, to count npon a largely increased
rate of progressive exportaHon,asthe result of the increased
facilities oflercd oy the St. Lawrence improvements and
the enlarged Erie Canal. The jMississippi route is one that
docs not admit of improvement ; on the contrary, with the
increased expense of flat-boats and more general resort to
steam, the cost of transport may rise instead of fall; while
the certainty of a cheaper import into the Ohio and Northern
Mississippi districts, will reduce its ability to comj)ele with
the lake communications — and perhaps turn part of their
export Northward. The naAigation of the Northern routes
might, if necessary, be enlarged and rendered perfectly slack
water for ascending craft, but the Mississippi Avill be able
to take no difllsrent class of boat a hundred years hence,
than can now be used ; and the power of steam must be
constantly employed, throughout all time, in order to ascend
her strong current.

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

If then there is every probability that in a few years, —
in less than ten, — additional millions of tons of human ibod
and human necessaries will be poured out from the " garden
of America," how can we despair of the St. Lawrence ?
And, as year after year the mighty tide rolls on, what route
possessed of ordinary facilities can lie idle ? By what route
are all these millions of tons to find their way to the sea-
board, — the natural seat of foreign commerce, of mountain
waterfalls and manufactures? They will block up the en-
larged and reenhirged excavations, — they will ground upon
the shallow tributaries of the Ohio — they will blockade
the narrow outlet of the Mississippi at New Orleans, and
then they ?nust overflow ; then the animal increase will fill
the Pennsylvania and Virginia ditches, and groan over the
the New York and Erie, the fialtimore and Ohio, the Penn-
sylvania, Ogdensburgh, and Portland railways.*

Upon what do the railroads which look out upon the St.
Lawrence at Longueuil, Ogdensburgh, Oswego, Bufl'alo, and
Dunkirk, found their estimates of future support ? Is it not
for this gigantic trade, looming in the Western distance, that
so many millions have been expended in the canals and rail-
roads which cross the AUeghanies ? Would the Ogdens-
burgh railroad ever have been undertaken but for the
Welland Canal? And if these roads are to be sup-
ported by a tonnage which must first float upon the waters
of the St. Lawrence, can it be possible that the " main
body" of Western exports will leave the broad bosom of

* In the Tolls:, Trade and Tonnage Report of the New York Canals,
published April 1850, the Auditor says : —

" The business of th« West outgrows the rapidity of change in the

avenues of the trade.... . its unlimited productiro capacity seems destined
to flood our canals with its abundant commerce, through every channel of
communication with the Lakes."

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

our river to climb over the table lauds of New York, or
to be confined within the narrow limits of 4 feet 8^ inches
of iron rail ? Then, the first great featm-e of comparison,
will be capacity. Granting for the moment that Quebec
may not compete with New York, — Burlington and White-
hall must successfully do so with Albany and Oswego. —
And can any one believe — if Lake Champlain becomes, as
it must become, a principal medium of communication
between Eastern and Central North America, — ^that a res-
pectable portion of the great trade thus directed, will not
exude through the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Even the lesser
portion will suffice, but it is scarcely to be supposed that
the greater one will, after brushing as it were the borders
of tide water, pass downwards and clamber over the
Green Mountains to reach the seaboard.

When we consider that the consumption of wheat in the
United States is now over 100,000,000 bushels, and that
the Eastern States are larger regular customers than any
foreign country, it may not be premature to imagine the
effect of a partial failure of the wheat crop in this part of
the world. If the scarcity of 1829 or 1837 should again
make ffour worth ten dollars per barrel in New York,
there must be a corresponding rise in the markets supplied
from that city, and Canada, through the St. Lawrence,
may avail herself of this rise. It is not an improbable sup-
position for the wheat crop in Canada, as in 1848, to be
good, while that of the United States is, in the same year, a
partial failure ; but in the event of a general failure, how
stands the commercial position of the St. Lawi'ence ? The
price at New York would then, as now, govern that in the
interior along the St. Lawrence — and as this would be
a price for home consumption, it would be higher inland

PR0SPECT3 AND INFLUENCE OF

than at the sea-ports. Importation for the American mar-
kets at Lakes Champlain, Ontario and Erie, would then
take place from the Baltic or Britain, — as in 1835 — by the
nearest route, through the St. Lawrence, which under those
circumstances could alone furnish a return freight to
foreign vessels, by means of her thnber.

We should not judge of the future from the deficiencies
of the past ; — ^the St. Lawrence has been hitherto singu-
larly unfortunate, for the American export had no sooner
become important, after the Peace of 1815, than it was
destroyed by the Act of 1 8*22, and was only brought back
in time to be rendered nugatory by the commencement of
the seven years* scarcity of wheat in that country. When
in 1840 and 1841 — after our political troubles were over —
it again commenced to descend the St. Lawrence, it was
strangled by the Gladstone Act of 1842. Its revival under
the golden prospects of the Wheat Act of 1 843, was short
lived, and the subsequent warnings from Britain effectually
prevented our reaping any permanent results therefrom,
before the repeal of the Corn Laws.

THE ERIE CANAL.

Believing as we do that the future commerce of interior
America will require all the avenues which approach from
the seaboard, and more than all, — for every additional
facility is an additional stimulant, — ^we would not in any
narrow spirit of rivalry enter into a consideration of the
respective merits of the principal competing routes for this
commerce.

The Erie Canal is the most formidable competitor with
the St. Lawrence for the trade of the West. The number
of tons which arrived at tide water by this Canal, and th«

THE CANALS OF CANADA. 00

proportion thereof which came from the Western States,
are as follows :

From From

Total tuns. Western States. Now York State.

1844 799,81^ 308,025 491,791

1845 959,550 304,551 (155,039

1846 1,107,270 500,830 600,440

1847 1,431,252 812,840 618,412

1848 1,184,337 650,154 534,183

This statement is confined to the Erie Canal alone, and
shews that the internal trade of the State furnished the
greater part of the down tonnage, until the year 1847. The
decrease in the exports from the State has been ascribed
to the gradual disappearance of lumber, which forms a
large percentage of the State tonnage. We will therefore
compare the products of agriculture alone :

From From

Total tons. Western States. New York State.

1844 371,326 236,155 135,171

1845 430,454 206,422 224,032

1846 612,585 410,111 202,474

1847 875,365 683,138 192,227

1848 674,194 489,478 184,716

We will now look at the movement upwar! from tide

water — distinguishing .shipments for the West :

Total leaving tide water For Left in
by Erie Canal alone. Western States. New York State.

1844 120,972 42,415 78,557

1845 127,501 49,618 77,883

1846 143,912 58,330 85,582

1847 191,670 75,883 115,787

1848 209,768 84,872 124,896

These tables shew a decrease in the exports of the
State, and an increase in her imports, which indicates an
increased consimiption of bread-stuffs by the commercial
and manufacturing towns in the Western part of the State,
and the rapid formation of a home market. The capacity

100

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

of the old Erie Canal was almost exhausted in 1847. For
the whole of one month the lockages, at one of the locks,
averaged one in less than six minutes, working night and
day, or 7403 in thirty-one days. The enlarged locks will
probably be brought into operation in 1851, but several
years must elapse before a sufficient depth of water can
be obtained. The boats on that canal are loaded to three
and a half feet draught of water, and with the enlarged
locks will be able to carry about one-third of the cargo
which can be accommodated by the locks upon the Wet-
land Canal. The transport of emigrants and passengers,
upon the freight boats of this canal, has been a source of
profit through which they have been enabled to carry car-
goes at lower rates than otherwise. This resource will
soon be cut off; railways can carry in one-tenth the time,
and may receive, in addition to the canal prices, the cost
of a week or ten days board.* The enlarged Erie Canal,
although it will cheapen the cost, will increase instead of
diminishing the time of transport ; and it is very question-
able, (supposing that the enlargement prolongs for several
years the capacity of the canal to do the Western business,)
whether a check may not be received from a more serious
quarter, viz. from a deficiency of water to supply the
enlarged locks. Not only does improvement of a new
country increase the evaporation, but the winter accu-
mulations are thrown more rapidly off by cleared lands, —
producing the double evil of a rapid exhaustion of the former

* This opinion is confirmed by the Report of the Auditor of the Canal
Department of New York, published in April 1850, who says : — " The toll
on passengers and packet-boats is rapidly diminishing under the competition
of railways, v, aich, with their more frequent trains, increased speed, and
reduced fare, ai a drawing this important source of commerce away from
the canals."

ifu.

THE CANALS OF CANADA,

101

reservoirs, and more violent freshets to threaten the works.
But without speculating upon other causes, there is little
reason to doubt that the increase of local business through-
out the length of that canal, superadded to a Western
trade increasing at the rate of about twenty per cent per
annum, — if it does not very shortly overstock it, will tend
to keep up freights and force exports and imports through
the St. Lawrence. If it be beyond dispute — as the present
year will demonstrate — that flour can reach Boston, at least
as cheaphj by Lake Champlain, and ten days sooner than
by the Erie Canal, there can be no question about the
route it will take.

A comparison of probable future rates of freight to
Quebec, Burlington or Whitehall, by the St. Lawrence, —
and to New York by the Erie Canal, is unimportant when
the probable diflerencc of cost upon the two routes is con-
sidered in connection with the extent of business open to
them. We have seen the cost of a barrel of flour from
Buffalo to Albany, rise in 1847 to two dollars : — when there
is a brisk demand all routes will be dear ; and then the
quickest and most capacious one must tell. Unless our
Government had taken the prudent stop of furnishing tug-
boats upon the St. Lawrence, our forwarders would have
preferred a monopoly of the Canadian trade until it had dis-
appeared through Oswego. And if now the American lake
marine be not permitted to pass down from Lake Erie to
Burlington, prices will be kept up by the limited shipping
of the St. Lawrence, so as to continue the direction of
Western trade through Buffalo and Oswego.

Freight must therefore be governed by the amount of
traffic and the supply of the means of transport ; but in
order to shew the capacity of the St. Lawrence, we submit

102

PROHPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

an estimate of possible rates as a hasis of comparison with
the Erie Canal or any otlier route. Wo assume the most
extreme eases, — all tolls to be abolished on both routes,
and lull I'reights to be obtained each way. The Erie Canal,
when enlarged, will pass boats carrying 1500 barrels ol*
Hour. We will not go into a calculation ol' expenses, but
will take the estimate of John B. Jervis, the engineer of
the Croton Aqueduct, and Hudson lliver railway, who says,
that after the enlargement a barrel of Hour can be carried
from liufTalo to New York exclusive ol' tolls lor fifteen
cents (ninepence currency.) No one has made a lower
estimate. The average cost for the last nineteen years has
been thirty-eight cents, or one shilling and elevenpence, to
Alljany for freight alone, and from six to ten cents more
to New York. Starting from Cleveland we will allow five
cents as the freight to Buffalo, and we have the bare cost
of carriage, excluding tolls, insurance, commission, tran-
shipment, &c., at twenty cents from Cleveland to New
York, by the enlarged Erie Caiial, or one shilling currency.
A brig, built to fill the Welland Canal locks, will carry
4000 barrels of flour, cost £3500, and should pay for her-
self in four years. Her net earnings per annum, therefore,
should ))e £875, and as her annual expenses wdll be £750,
her gross earnings should be £lG25 per annum. The
navigation opens on the Welland Canal not later than the
1 5th April, and will not close on the St. Lawrence before
20th November ; she has therefore seven months at least
of a navigable season, in which time she will make
seven trips between Cleveland and Quebec, Burlington
or Whitehall. For up freights we will allow her 350
tons of coal, salt, or equivalent of measurement goods ;
she will therefore transport in the season 28,000 barrels

THE CANALH OF CANADA.

103

flour (irmn^ which at ten tr/i/.v," (or .sixpi^nco currciic})

would give £ 700

and 2450 tons goods vp, which ;it two dollars {f'-ii

all illings cuvriiiicy) would give V2'i7>

Cross earnings roquirrd i r)->">

The surplus is an»])lo to cover all extras including towage.

This w(^ submit as a lair relalivi; position ol' the respec-
tive powers of the two eonmnniieations. We l)eli(!ve Ihat
Hour and merchandizr! will be transported, in less than two
years, betwjsen Lake Erie and (^uelxic at a cost, including
all charges, which will be little more than the tolls how
charged upon those articles between Bullalo and Albany.
The Erie Canal toll upon Hour is thirty-one cents, which is
greater than the average total cost I'rom Toronto to Quebec
in 1841) ; and the /o//upon merchandize is twenty-nine shil-
lings per net ton from Albany to BulHilo, and upon iron
fourteen shillings and sixj)ence j)er net ton. Railroad iron
was taken from Qu(>bec to Cleveland, in 1849, for twenty-
two shillings and sixpence per ton — covering all charges.

The inHuencc of the St. Lawrence upon up frciglits is
already felt on the Eric Canal. The following table sht \vs
the arrival of light and " heavy goods" for the West, at
Buffalo by the Erie Canal, for a series of years :

Lbs. '■• Lislit." Lbs. " Heavy."

1843 50,727,218 32,o68,81«

1844 5f),34!>,890 34,328,816

1845 b3,920,758 36,972,070

1846 73,625,207 42,522,828

1847 92,788,433 59,602,867

1848 101,330,222 64,346,841

1849 108,125,789 56,580,919

* Flour has been carried from Cliicngo to Buffalo for ten cents per barrel : —
twenty-five cents (one shilling and threepence currency) is a paying rate —
di tance, over 1000 miles.

104

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF

It will be seen that there has been a constant and

important increase until 1849, when "heavy goods" fell

oft' below the standard of 1847. This is explained by

examining the St. Lawrence up freights for 1849 :

Up Freights via St. Lawrence Canals, 1848 and 1849.

Tons in 1848. Tons in 1849.

Railroad and pig iron 1,870

Earthenware 473

Liquors 537

Sugar and molasses 627

Castings, bar and wrought iron 4,225

Furniture and baggage 620

Salt and coal 4,863

Merchandize 9,864

Oil 375

Brick, stone, cement, sand and lime... 76

11,439

1,047

945

990
5,565

918

6,141

12,851

427

415

■ I

Total tons 23,530 40,738

Passengers 16,040 20,814

Vessels 2,890 2,763

Tolls collected upon the Welland, Lacldnc and Chamhhj Canals in

1848. 1849.

Welland je29,064 £34,573

Lachine 11,661 15,740

Charably 436 1,644

Rate of increase on the Wellard, nineteen, on the St,
Lawrence, thirty-four, and on the Chambly 375 per cent.

On view of the foregoing we see no reason to believe
that the trade of Canada will leave the St. Lawrence for
the American routes.

During the year 1849, we have exported to and through

the United States, amongst others the following articles :

Lumber, 96,000 millions of feet, B.M. value, £240,000

Flour, 260,000 barrels 260,000

Wheat, 800,000 bushels 160,000

Oats, peas, beans 25,000

Other Agricultural produce 50,000

Ashes ^ 90,000

Timber, staves, saw logs, railroad sleepers, shingles, &c. 75,000

THE CANALS OF CANADA.

105

nt and
is" fell
ned by

in 1849.

,439

,047

945

990
>,565

918
5,141
2,851

427

415

0,738
0,814
2,763

Canals in

the St.
jr cent.

believe
knee for

through

bticles :

>40,000
>60,000
|1 60,000
25,000
50,000
90,000
75,000

It is probable that the greater portion of the Canadian
flour and wheat, which was bonded at Oswego, was taken
cut of the custom house at New York, by payment of the
duty ; as we find £75,000 have been collected upon our
exports at that place. The total value of ouf exports
to American ports, for 1849, will probably exceed
£1,000,000. The United States collections of duties on
Lake Champlain were, in

1848, 114,826 93

1849, 48,663 70

— a rate of increase which indicates that our exports to
the United States will seek that route.

We have paid to the United States about £125,000 in
duties upon our exports, and to the State of New York
£30,000 in canal tolls and a larger sum to her forwarders.

If we had been in possession of a ship canal, con-
necting the St. Lawr-^nce with Lake Champlain, un-
doubtedly the greater portion or nearly all of those of our
exports which went to Oswego, — valued at $2,214,447, —
would have passed down through the St. Lawrence
canals, to Burlington or Whitehall.

The American market being better than the English we
sold largely to the United States, but have supnlied our-
selves chiefly by the St. Lawrence ; a state of things
certainly not to be regretted, especially when we are con-
vinced that the temporary loss of tolls upon our canals
below Prescott can be remedied, through Lake Champlaiiv
without any change of markets.

But supposing the United States markets to continue
better than those of Britain, we have a market now sup-
plied by the former which will not only take our surplus
export but give tolls to our canals. The United States

106

PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP

exported to the Gulf Provinces, in the year ending June,

1849, the following bread stuffs:

Wheat 305,383 bushels, value $ 332,765

Flour 294,891 barrels, " 1,518,922

Corn meal ... 153,971 " " 434,109

Indian corn... 221,442 bushels, " 126,793

$2,412,589

And other articles valued at 1,199,194

Total value of exports $3,611,783

That we are regaining this market, is shewn by the
exports from Montreal to the Gulf Provinces, in

1848 ^27,474

1849 - 44,361

The value of the imports at Montreal in 1849, exceeds
that of 1848 by £138,000,— -and the exports by £80,000.
The value of the export trade of New York for 1849, is
$5,672,000 less than in 1848.

Although less flour and wheat descended the St. Law-
rence canals in 1849, than in 1848 — on account of the
export to Oswego— -the amount exported from Montreal
exceeded the quantity of 1848, — probably from an improve-
ment in the agriculture of Lower Canada.

That the decline in the trade of the St. Lawrence, in
1848, did not proceed from any general abandonment of
the river for the inland ports and for the overland trade
by New York, may be seen by comparing the duties
received at sea and inland ports, in 1847 and 1848 :

Montreal and Quebec. Inland Ports.

1847 £242,117 £172,616

1848 203,825 130,204

1849 256,739 186,597

The falling off at the inland ports, in 1848, was greater
in proportion than at Montreal and Quebec. The collec-
tions at inland ports for 1849, shew a greater proportional
increase, as the natural result of our heavy exports in that

THE CANALS OP CANADA.

107

g June,

,589
,194

,783
by the

exceeds
S80,000.
1849, is

It. Law-

of the

lontreal

nprove-

ence, in
ment of
d trade
duties

greater
collec-

jrtional
in that

direction ; but we think the comparative statement of up
freights we have given through the St. Lawrence canals,
should banish all fears of our becoming tributaries to the
Erie Canal for our imports. If this was our position with
the restrictions of the Navigation Laws in full force, we
can have no fears for the future.

In 1825, the cost of bringing a barrel of salt from Lachine
to Kingston was eighteen shillings and ninepence cur-
rency. It is now brought from Montreal to Toronto for
one shilling and threepence. In 1825, a barrel of Ame-
rican salt in Western Canada cost fifteen shillings ; —
the value of the same quantity in Montreal, at that time,
was six shillings and three-pence; Upper Canada then
paid about £2,000, per annum, of a salt duty to the Erie
Canal fund : — thus, while we had a better article at less
than half price in Montreal — from the unimproved state
of the river navigation we were contributing towards the
construction and maintenance of the most formidable com-
j^titor with our own route. In 1840, the cost of a ton of
merchandize from Montreal to Kingston was three pounds
two shillings and sixpence: — in 1849, railroad iron was
taken from Quebec to Cleveland for one pound two shil-
lings and sixpence. It is but a few years since the cost of
taking a barrel of flour from Kingston to Montreal was
two shillings: — in 1849, it was taken from Toronto to
Quebec for one shilling and sixpence. Indeed, such has
been the effect produced by our canals upon freights, that
as a general rule it may be assumed, that in the transport
of tons, dollars now supply the place of pounds of former
years, and that flour and salt in barrel are carried down-
ward and upward at a rate per mile cheaper than a
" single" letter through the post office.

CONCLUSION.

We have, in the foregoing pages, endeavoured to illustrate
the bearing of our Canals upon our Agriculture, — without
assuming, as their influence, the whole of the reduction of
prices and increase of population and wealth in recent
years ; because we feel that while so large a proportion of
our exports and imports have been made through the New
York Canals, we would not be justified in ascribing too
many ameliorations to a navigation which we appear to
have partially deserted. All the great enterprises of
the western world are prospective, and in this light we have
viewed the St. Lawrence ; and our desire has been to vin-
dicate the policy which has projected, and so far accom-
plished the conmiercial connection of the Atlantic with the
future seat of empire on this continent, — the Upper Basin of
the St. Lawrence ; and to shew that, — however insignifi-
cant the present results of this policy may appear — neither
our politics nor our finances are likely to permit the com-
pletion of oui' canals before the overflowing of that inevi-
table Western Trade, will, in spite of prejudice, opposition
or national associations, have called into requisition the
incomparable powers of the River St. Lawrence. While
that darkness which precedes the dawn of a day of com-
mercial brightness, is apparently deepening around them,
we would point out to our farmers, that although they have
expended $10,000,000 upon the implied continuance of a

CONCLUSION.

100

policy which was intended to draw Western American
exports through the St. Lawrence, and although they have
seen these prospects swept from their sight ere any results
could have been obtained from such sacrifices — yet,
resources there are — open to their own exertions and their
own legislation — far more valuable, permanent, and com-
prehensive, than any which could have been obtained under
the dependent conditions of the " nursery" system. We
know that, — however it may be magnified or underrated
for "political considerations,"' — there is a feeling of despon-
dency in the mind of the Canadian farmer, which has not
wholly arisen from the withdrawal of protection — for he
does not desire to be enriched at the expense of a less for-
tunate and more heavily burthened people. If he has com-
plained, that while that market — for the supply of which
he has been induced to neglect the formation of a nearer
and more certain one, and to engage in enterprises suited
rather to the treasury oi' an Empire, than of a Colony, —
has been thrown open to his rival, — it has been because this
was done without any stipulation in behalf of the Cana-
dian for similar consideration at the hands of that rival, in
return for the favors so freely granted to the American.
Under this sweeping revolution in our commercial position,
we have felt it necessary to lay before our farmers, — as far
as we are competent — the opening prospects of a new order
of things, and to take that latitude of discussion which the
title of this essay may not appear to warrant, but which
our altered, and now ch?'i/saUs position, may, we hope,
excuse. We have, as far as possible, avoided controverted
([uestions and endeavoured to present with fairness the
relative merits of rival communications, and rival political
nostrums ; and so far as we have referred to the latter, we

COXCLUSION.

have endeavoured to view them in a purely Canadian
light — appropriating that which appears to be for our inter-
ests, and rejecting what does not, whether it forms part of
a " harmonious whole" or otherwise : and we have done so
without fear of being charged with an apparent inconsis-
tency — without favor to the political parties who ride into
power and place upon the passions, the prejudices, and the
ignorance of an unsuspicious and careless people — and
without an unweaned affection for things unseen, or a vain
attempt to evade or reconcile the altered conditions of our
commercial position. If we have not evinced a sufficient
respect for the great theories of the day — it is because we
believe that systems, and theories, and laws, can do little
more for an over-legislated people — that it is not the institu-
tions of a country which make the people — but that those
institutions spring from the people — that all monarchies are
not like England — nor all Republics like that of North
America — and that there is nothing in the soil, the climate,
the commercial and geographical position of Canada,
which, — if the people are but true to themselves — should
render her inferior to, or as a home less desirable than, —
any other portion of the earth.

Lastly — if our farmers but shake off that apathy and
indifference to the control of their own and their children's
destinies which has been produced by bad Colonial training
— by absence of adversity — and by a distaste for strife,
which may become political cowardice, — if they escape
from the generous exertions of demagogues and " friends
of the people," and bear aloft above all political differences
and all religious dissensions, the neutral and pre-eminent
{[uestion of their common prosperity — do as a people, what
they would have each other do — give their own attention to

CONCLUSION.

Ill

their own affairs— « be sober, be vigilant," an honest, non-
repudiating, God-fearing people— they cannot failto secure
those blessings which have been transferred from the dis-
obedient Jew to the believing Gentile ; « their sons growincr
up as the young plants— their daughters as the polished
corners of the temple— their garners full and plenteous
with all manner of store,— their flocks and herds multi-
plying—their oxen strong to labor— no decay, no leading
into captivity, and no complaining in the streets."