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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de r6duction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, ii est fiimd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. M: ; 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 HI 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., BT THOS. C. KEEFER, CIVIL ENGINEER. TORONTO : ANDREW H. ARMOUR AND CO., KING STREET; MONTREAL :— ARMOUR AND RAMSAT, 1850. of an pr ad cr U TonoNTO ; I^RIKTED BT LOVBLL AKD OIBSOS, FBOMX STBEEX. P] g« 7 C C 01 i\ n tl TV h 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 is 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 • B 10 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF 1^: i 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. 11 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 13 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP If m I 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. 13 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 14 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. The 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 24 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 !s I THE CANALS OF CANADA. 25 P i 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 D 26 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. 27 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 as PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OF i ,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 I THE CANALS OF CANADA. 20 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 30 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. 31 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 Sd 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. I THE CANALS OF CANADA. io 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 34 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP \l 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. 8& 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 M 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 I Cf e) THE CANALH OF CANADA. 3? 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- 88 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. 39 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 40 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. 41 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 42 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- fi'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 64 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. 65 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. * I 66 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. 67 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 68 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. 69 cal and rd- the ulf Yew tt « (I 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 ro 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. 71 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 72 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP i 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. 73 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 74 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP m 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 ; t6 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. tt ^^)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 78 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. 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 80 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 29 135,688 1,192,680 1 131,910 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. 81 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 ^% /. A ^/j 2e 1.0 I.I If 1^ 1^ Sim "^ I us |20 ill 1.8 1.25 1.4 1 1.6 ^ 6" » Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 92 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. 03 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 94 PROSPECTS AND INFLUENCE OP 'i 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 I THE CANALS OF CANADA. 95 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. 06 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. 97 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 N 98 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 i 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 11 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 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 9. 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. w 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 no 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."