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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 filmou beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diograms illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un eeul cliche, il est f iim* A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche it droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m4thod9. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 JO TWO LECTUllES ON NEWFOUNDLAND, DEUVERKD AT ST. BONAVENTURE'S COLLEGE, JANUAEY 25, AND FEllKirAEY 1, 1860, BY THE RIGHT HEV. DR. MULLOCK. Neto F.jrft: JOHN MULLALY, OFFICE OF THE METUOrOLITAN KECOGD, No. 419 BROADWAY. 1860. til la til til til est CO it en hir hia Mc his ers Ion WO] ant one feel me. foui late 6i H FIRST LECTURE. Ladies and Gentlemen,— Tlio subject on whicli I Iiave tlie honor of addressing you this evening is one of particu- lar interest to us-it is the land we live in, Newfoundland, the native or adopted country of all here present. Of all the feelings implanted in the heart of man, next to religion, there is none so strong as patriotism : the duke et decorum est pro patria mori (it is sweet and honorable to die for one's country), is not alone the expression of t!ie pagan moralist, it is the universal feeling of all people in ancient and mod- ern times : nay, more ; we know that our Divine Kedecmcr himself, when foretelling the destruction of the capital of his people, Jerusalem, pointing out from the summit of Mount Olivet the glories of the Temple, the golden vine, his own image sparkling in the setting sun, the lofty tow- ers of the city of David, the massive walls which for so long a i^eriod resisted all the efforts of the Roman power, wept over it, and lamented that the crimes of its inlia1)it- ant? should have provoked the Divine Justice not to leave one stone on another. It is, then, to encourage this sacred feeling of patriotism among the youtli I now see around me, that I have been induced to take the subject of New- foundland in this and the following lecture as most calcu- lated to foster it. It is a great and noble country, a country of untold wealth, of wonderful and unknown re- sources, and the few people who now fringe itrf shore (for 130,000 inhal)itant3 arc b'lt the germ of a future popula- tion of millions), sprung froni the most energetic nations of modern times, English, Irish, and Scotch., possessing in themselves and intermingling the poetic and liorj imagina- tion of the Celt, the steadiness and perseverance of the Saxon, and the enterprise and coolness of the North Brit- ons, arc destined to be the founders of a race which, I believe, will fill an important place hereafter among the hundreds of millions who will inhabit the western l.>emi- sphcres in a few ages. I will, in this lecture, rather con- fine myself to the past of Newfoundland, reserving for another occasion the description in detail of the country and its future prospects. Every country inhabited by man has more or less a history — the more anciently civilized em- pires, the Assyrian, the Grecian, the Roman, have left after them imperishable records of tiieir greatness. The last of the empires, however, the Roman, is the mother of all civilization and polity. Rome moulded all the nations of the West and the civilized people of the East, into a great empire, and from its fragments the modern nations, re-en- forced by the barbaric energy of the northern tribes, have sprung. In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth cen- turies, the people of Southern Europe, the Spaniards, Por- tuguese, and Italians, were not only the most advanced in material and mental progress, in literature, arts, and arms, but also the most enterprising, the most commercial, and the most adventurous of all other nations. In 1492, Columbus, the great Genoese navigator, after hearing Mass, and, together with his crew, receiving the Holy 5 Communion, in tho Franciscan Cliurcli of N". >?. la Holla, in Palos in Andalnsia, from the Lands of liis friend and patron, Fr. John Peres, the guardian of the coiivent, un- furled the golden banner of Spain, crossed the wide n'astc of waters, and gave a new world to Castile and Leon. Only five years after, in 1197, Cabot, another Italian, a Venetian, discovered Newfoundland. Although these two great men arc always called the discoverers of America, still it is certain that at least the northern i)arts of it had been visited, and perhaps partially settled by the North- men of the Middle Ages. There always existed a dim tradition that the western shores of Europe were not tho boundaries of the world. The legend of St. Brandon, tho Bishop of Kerry, in the south of Ireland, sailing across the Atlantic and discovering an island of the blessed, and the Atlantis of Plato, were but the traditional embod' ment of a fact. Columbus visited Iceland to seek the among tJ'c traditions of the natives some clue to the m> tery of the ocean. We know not what an encouragcmcn he may have received there, to persevere in his almost hopeless enterprise, but modern research has proved that the traditions were not without foundation. Tho Society of Northern Antiquaries has done much to c^ear away the mist which obscures that most interesting portion of his- tory. Professor Rafa has collected and translated very many of the songs of the Scalds, or Scandinavian poets recounting the voyages of their countrymen to the west- ern land ; many of them have been translated into English by Mr. Beamish, of Cork, and are most interesting to all early historians of America. We know for certain, that about the year 981 or 982 Erie, called the Red, a Norwe- 6 ginn Viking, discovcreu Grocnluiul, ami that a bishop's SCO wa.s cstahlishod in that inhospitable roj,'ion about the year 1021. A \ht of the bishops of thut remote aco has l)ccii j:rescrvc(l down to 1400, nearly four hundred years, when all romniunication between it and the Mother Coun- try ceased, and the imperfect civilization introduced per- ished. A few ruins of walls, or stone fences now mark the sight of the Norwegian Colony. It is quite natural to suppose that these adventurous marinei's, w!io crossed over to Iceland and Greenland so frequently, woidd not content themselves witliout passinr; the few hundred miles which separated them from the Western twntinent, only about five hundred from tho western seaboard of Greenland. Accordingly we find accounts of voyages to, nnd .-settle- ments in, Ilelluland, Viuland, Markland, and Ireland it Mikla — Ilelluland is supitosed to be the barren and stony land of Labrador, Viidand or Winland Newfoundland ; but then as we have i;o wild vines, many learned men trans- fer the name to some more southern land in the present United States, while others again say that the Northmen looked on the abundance of the raspbvjrry plant as enti- tling the country to the name of Vinland. Markland is supposed to be Nova Scotia, or Main ; and Ireland it Mickla, or great Ireland, the main Continent of America, the present United States. It is very improbable that so many accounts of voyages would be preserved, the names of the discoverers and navigators, the birth of some of their children recorded, the wreck of one of their ships on Keeler Ness, Ke^l Capo or Ship Cape, and the locality marked ou^. now Keels in Boi a, Vista B *y, by the certain but rude way of determining the northern latitude, that IS the length of the longest day in the summer .solstice if It were all a work of in.aginution. i have no doubt but ha these sea.king,s, after establishing o.lonies in CJreen- land and Iceland, visited this country and mado some .et- tle.nents here, but I beli.-ve the fo^v people they brought with then, either perished in their wars with the Skroel- ligers, or Es.jui.naux, or that the ren.nant left the country which thoy could not then hav found very invitin- The real cause, 1 should innigine, of the abandonn.ent of these lands was the invasion of more genial climes and polished i.at.ons , ^ the Nortlnnen. When they obtained possession one of .he finest provinces of Frun.e. now called after thorn Norn>andy, when they settled in x\ortlaunbei-land aud along tue fertile banks of the Shannon, the estuaries' of he L.fley and the Suir, in Lin.erick, AVaterford, Cork iJubl.n, V u'klow, and many other Danish towns in Ire-' land, and when they showed such a capacity for t! ^ re- •na.ns of civilisation lingering in the Iloman Empire as to adoi)t the languages, the arts, and the sciences of the prov- inces they conquered, .ve may naturally imagine that the tide of adventurous emigration would be directed from tl>e frightful shores of Greenland and Iceland, or the J-u?god and uninviting localities of Newfoundland, or Northern Continental America, to the shores of the Seine "1 sminng France, or the rich pastures of Ireland and England. The western land would soon be foro-otto there would bo no inducement to cross a stormy ocean in ships not as large as our western boats, when they could coast along the shores of Europe, and find their country- men settled in the maritime districts of a civilized country. It IS said that a G -^nland lishop, Eric, visited Winland ^t in 1121, to cndea''Or to reconvert his countr3'men to Chris- tianity, which tlicy liacl forgotten in tliose tlien remote and desolate regions — yet all appears buried in obscurity. We know quite enough to excite our curiosity, not to satisfy it, and it is impossible that tlie real history of tlie North- men in America will be ever cleared up. They left no monuments after them ; like all people who have abund- ance of wood, they would not build stone houses, and the only records we have of their existence here, ai'e the songs of the Scalds, or the histories of Adam Bremen or others who lived ages subsequent to their settlement here, and embodied tlie traditions, half fact and half fable, which they found floating in the songs and the legends of the people, in the histories they compiled. We now leave the doubtful region of romance and fable, mingled with some facts, for the sure ground of history. The wonderful discoveries of Columbus had excited, in a degree wc ^nd it difficult to comprehend, the enthusiasm of Europe — a new world appeared, not as a discovery, but almost as a in f creation. Every maritime and commer- cial nation was aroused, and all wished to particip-^te in the glorious inheritance acquired for Spain by the Genoese mariner. In England the Wars of the Roses were now at an end, the regal pretensions of York and Lancaster were united in the person of Henry VII., by his marriage, the ancient aristocracy of the land had almost perished, the crown, as always happens after a civil war, was strengthened, and the people, weary of bloodshed, re- signed in a great measure their liberties into the liands of the Tudor sovereigns, and only looked for repcse. The Italians almost monopolized tlio American discoveries, and 9 two brothers of the name of Gabota, Venetians, resided in Br.^tol ; they offered their services to Henry Yl[ to make discoveries in the Northern Oeean, and find, perha'ns a passage to India by that route ; the offer was accepted' and on the 20th of June, 1497, Sebastian Gabota, or as h.s name was anglicized, Cabot, discovered Newfoundland and gave the name of Bona Vista, happy sight, or happy' view, to the cape he first sighted, which Italian appclla- t.on It retains to the present day. He returned the same year and brought with him three of the natives of the island,amce which has now been cruelly exterminated. I here pause to say a few words of the aborigines of the country. It was supposed at first that this interesting- people were the descendants of the Northmen of whom I have spc.cen : the science of ethnology, however, proves this not to be the fact-the skulls of those people showed them to belong to the American or Mongolian race and not to the Cai5casian of which the Northmen were a branch ; a semi-eivilized people may become savage, bJt never so change the form of the craniimi as tx) acquire the characteristics of another race, until entirely absorbed by generations of intermarriage. It may be that a little of the northern blood mixed in the aboriginal stream, but all traces of it were soon lost. We know they called them- selves Beoths, that they painted themselves with red ochre as the Britons of old did with woad, and hence, thev were called by the settlers. Red Indians. They were clothed in robes of skin, their arms were the bow and arrow and spear, like those of all uncivilized nations. Thoy lived by hunting and preserved the flesh of the deer by bucan- nmg. They made enormous fences, such as arc used in 10 Ceylon to ciitrai> elephants, sometimes extending as far as thirty miles and converging to a point where the deer in their migration were obliged to pass ; thus tiiey were en- abled to kill large quantities which served them both for food and raiment. Tiicir huts are represented as comfort- able, and capable of lodging several families. Of their religion we know nothing, but something like a carved human head is said to have been found in one of their houses, which would lead us to believe that they practiced a species of idolatry. A Florentine writer, llucellai, in 15G0, in a general atlas of tl.'c world, gives a very imper- fect map of Newfoundland, and a short description of tJjio people. They, he says, arc barbarous, and savage, eat large quantities of the fish called baccaloas, or codfish, raw meat, and even human flesh (which was false, for they were never known to be cannibals) and they adore the sun, the stars, or any thing that strikes their fancy. We see tl;at there was a very erroneous opinion entertained of the Beoths at the time ; the arts of civilization were never tried on them, they were a fierce people and resented tlie intrusion of the English on their salmon fisheries, and of tlie Micmac Indians on their hunting grounds. Tlieir bows and arrows were no match for the musket of the white man and the Indian, and tiie government, too late, were aroused to the iniquity of leaving this interesting ])eople to the cruelty of the Micmacs, and of the whites more cruel than the savage. The entire race, with the ex- ception of a few individuals, had perished, and no trace of them is now to bo found in Newfoundland, unless their graves and the mouldering remains of their huts and their deer fences. I have made every inquiry I possibly could 11 among our own people, and Indians employed by the o-ov- crnment to look out for ti.em. Tl.eir haunts have b^en explored, but their graves alone remain, their fires are ex- tinguished forever, and their fate is a disgrace to the gov- ernment of those days who took no steps for their civiliza- tion or preservation. I have some slight reason to Miink that a remnant of these people remains in the interior of Labrador-a person told me there some time a-o that a party of mountaineer Indians saw at some distance (about fifty miles from the sea-coast) a party of strange Indians clothed m long robes or cassocks of skin, who fled from them ; they lost sight of them in a little time, but on com- ing up to their tracks, they were surprised ^o see the length of their strides, which showed tliem to be men of a large race, and neither Micmac, Mountaineer, nor Esqui- maux. I believe that these were the remains of the Beothio nation, and as they never saw citlier a white or red man but as enemies, it is not to be wondered at that they fled • such IS tiie only trace I could find of the Bcoths We may wonder why England, after such a valuable discoverv d.d not avail herself of the acquisition ; but soon aft;r Henry VIII. commenced the Reformation, as it is called squandered the treasures left by his parsimonious father' Henry Vll.-who munificently rewarded Cabot with the Sinn of ^10 for discovering the JYew Island, which, about lus tune, got the nnmo of Newfoundland, a name so ridicu- lous in itself that nothing but the sanction of a-es can reconcile us to it. No gold was discovered, no silver mines poured tlieir treasures into the exhausted coffers of Henry, and so the Biscayans who are said to ha.- fishoa on the Banks, and to have been aware of the exi.tcace of 12 the island even before or as early as Cabot, tlie Bretons, the Spaniards, and Portuguese, enriched themselves by the inexhaustible mine of tlie fisheries ; wliile Henrv and his nobles were impoverishing themselves by the useless pa- geant of the Field of the Cloth of Gold or the wars in Franco, and endeavoring to repair their shattered fortunes by the plunder of the Church. An English captain wrote a letter to Henry VIII., on the 3d of August, 1527, in which he tells him that in the port of St. John's he found eleven ships from Normandy and three from Britanny en- gaged in the cod fishery. As all Europe was Catholic at tlie time of the discovery of America by Columbus, and of Newfoundland by Cabot, we fi:d that the names imposed by the early navigators were either the names of the saints on whose days the land was discovered, or the names of some localities in thoir own country which it resembled, or names descriptive of some natural feature distinguish- ing the place — a most favorable contrast with the vulgar or trivial names given by subsequent navigators. Thus Ave may imagine the anxiety of Cabot, looking out for land on the western horizon, v\-hon from the lofty mast a sailor cries out, land ! The Italian, perhaps often deceived by fog-banks, sees at length the cape well defined, the surges breaking on the Spillcrs, the dark green of the foi-est, gives expression to his feelings in his own musical tongue, and cries out, Bona Vista ! Oh, happy sight ! Caspar de Cortercale, a valiant and religious Portuguese, especially devoted to the B. Virgin and St. Francis, discovers the great Bay of Conception, and calls it after the great mys- tery of the Immaculate Virgin, Conception Bay, and the cape at its entrance, C. St. Francis ; he also named St. 13 Lewis and St. Francis Bays on tlio Labrador. Go round the shores of the island, and you will sec the Catholic feel- ing which named the bays— Conception, St. Mary's, and Notre Dame Bay, dedicated to the B. Virgin— Trinity Bay, including the harbor of St. Bonaventure, Catalina Bay, or St. Catharine's, Catalina, like Kathleen in L-ish, being the musical Spanish term for Kate or Catharine, St.' Clare's Bay, now SI. George's, St. John's, St. Peter's, St. Jude's. now C. Judy, Trepassey, the Bay of the Trepasses, or All Souls. Again : we have the French recollections of their own smiling land in Audicrne, C. Frechel or Freels, Plaisance or Placentia, on account of its beautiful situa- tion, the Portuguese Fermosa or Ferraeusc beautiful, Hc- news rocky, and numberless others, a most happy contrast certainly with Bay of Despair, Fortune Bay, Gallows Harbor, Pinch Gut, Push Thro', Piper's Hole, Old Shop, Bread and Cheese, Exploits, and many others too trivial and vulgar to mention. In 1534, Jacques Cartier, the great French navigator, visited the island and named many capes and bays, hi 1583, Sir Humphey Gilbert took pos- session of St. John's, put up the queen's arms, Elizabeth's, and established the Book of Common Prayer as the only form of worship to be used forever in the island. The country was now about to commence a new pliase of ex- istence which, however, ended in disappointment. Sir George Calvert, subsequently Lord Baltimore, having ob- tained an Irish peerage, got from King James a Tai-gc grant of land from Bay Bulls to Cape St. Mary's. A zeal- ous Catholic and most enlightened philanthropist, which he proved himself to be by the universal toleration he es- tablished in his now colony of Maryland (the only part of 14 the world in that ago where, as long as Catholics held power, conscience was legally free, and no religious test was required for the enjoyment of citizenship, or office), established a colony in Fcrryland, and laid the foundation of what, but for adverse circumstances, would be a great State at present. As he was thoroughly Catholic and En- glish, he wished to perpetuate the religious memories of the English Church in his new plantation ; accordingly ho gave the name of Avalon to his province. It was a tradi- tion in the early British Church, though it will not stand the test of criticism perhaps, that St. Joseph of Arimatliea, after the passion of our Lord, fled from the persecution of the Jews and took refuge in Britain. lie came, it is said, to Avalon, afterward called Glastonbury, in Somersetshire, und founded there a church, whicli was looked on subse- quently by Britons, Saxons, and Normans, as the cradle of British Christianity. A splendid abbey which covered sixty acres was subsequently erected, but perished in the so-called Reformation, along with the other glories of Catholic England. There is an ancient Roman town, now called from the great abbey subsequently built there, St. Alban's, but in ancient times called Verulam. Tiie proto- rnartyr of Britain, St. Alban, there shed his blood for Christ, and the abbey and town afterward took his name. Calvert, wishing then to revive those Catholic glories of his country, called the province we now inliabit, Avalon, in honor of St. Joseph of Arimathca, and his own town Verulam, in honor of St. Alban. Like most of Ihe for- eign names, French or Spanish, tliis was corrupted into Ferulam first, and next into the modern mamc of Ferr}'- land. Calvert spent over .£30,000, an immense sum in 15 those days, in u,e settlement, but a grant of a more favored temtory on the Chesapeake, the ineursions of Indians, and the attaeks of the Frenel, indueed him to forsake New oundiand, and to establish Maryland, ealled after Charles s queen, and the city of Baltimore, ealled after -s nsh tUle Thus Newfoundland sustained an irrepara- ble loss w ,eh retarded its progress for two centuries, he French on the other side of the peninsula founded the town of Plaeentia-the environing hill, the two arms of t!,e sea with a rapid tidal current reminding the French of the arrowy Rhone in their own land, and the almost total exemption from fog in a bay remarkable for it in- duced them to call it Plaisance, a pleasant place, ilow Placentia. They early saw the importance of the acquisi- •on, and provided for its security by strong fortifications, liicse are now in ruins-they have served as a quarry for the few buildings requiring stone or brick. The ^reat demilune which guarded the entrance of the port is now a shapeless heap of rubbish, its vaulted briek casements have been all destroyed, and the remains of a castle on Creve- ceur Hill are slowly perishing. It is remarkable that several properties are still held in Placentia by virtue of the original French titles, and such importance did the government of Louis XIV., the grand monarch, attach to the possession of the place, that all the grants are si<.ned by the king's own hand, and countersigned by his minister Plulippeau. Nor were the French oblivious of the neces- sity of religion in their new settlement a convent of Fran- ciscans, a branch of the convent of Our Lady of Ano-els of Quebec, was established there in 1689, on the site oflho present Protestant Church and buryi.g ground, and a few 16 ".a. > out tl,c place whore it stoo.l. Most of ti,e Frenoh «n.c„dor or tl,o place by P,.aueo,a„d applied to tl I "em St. YalLc,, ,„a,Ie a vi.sitatiou of Placentia and tl^e ac.gl,bo„„g parts in compa,.y witl, Father Gior^ieu a„d son.eof.ep iscaaco.™. 0, Is of tl,o fo,uKlal,„„ of tl,o convert and of the episco- P^l v,s,tat.onare in the archiepiscopal archives of qTc 1ln^^yo see two great and ,,owerf„I nations established : ": f ""■"".' ^^'«"■'■".".y ,var, were obliged to . OMgn al clann to Newfonndland, to evacuate St. John's Ineh they held for Ave years prcvio.ly and were strongly foU,fy,ng, retaining only the sn.all island of St. Pie™ and «,,„„„„,„„, y,„ ,i„„„f „,. ^_.^,^ oa K gland now obtained the dominion of the entire 1 Ibn had no .ntention of colonizing it. She wished to .eta,n rt as the French do the north and west shores at P-ent as a nur.sory for her seamen, and to n,a til . ches of the deep in Newfoundland contribute .„ s.re„gth and to the wealth of England. Freedon, o Cathohe worsh.p w.s by treuy allowed to the French 17 jMonts but with the «i„i.,to.. provLso, -. „, „„• as .l,o laws of E,,. an., pon„it." G„von,„,. Edward,, taking a.lvant- "? "f tin, gave sue, annoyance to t„c FrcnC. Catl.olic, and tl,o„. c,e,.«. tl.at al,no,t ail of tl,o,„ sold tl.oir proper- .OS and loft tl,e island ; tl,„s a body of usefnl eiti.Cs were lost to i,e eolony tl.rongl, tl.ese bigoted proeocdings. but wo mnst ,„ justice „,aUc a.iowanee for the prejudices of t„o a 0. In t ,c rc,gn of King William in., by an e.traordi- ary statute, a for,„ of n.isrule was established teudin. ,o d.scou,.agc settlement and cr.ate interminable conrusio;_ the three first r.sbiug captains arriving i„ the island c eh summer, took the names of admiral, viecadmiral, and rear- a.b„,ral, and without any qualification, except the priority " rr.val, became u,agisirates, e.npowered to decide al st :7i:" :, ""' ^'■" ""°'- ''" ™^ =™s'-- -i-t so. t of aws these men would deal out to their servant, and to , e poor inhabitants whom they in general looked on as mtruders. Sou.ething like a regular census of the populafon wa, take,, in 175.3, but niuetyseveu yea,., a.„ ■ he „.hab,ta„ts returned then wc-e 13,112-4795 CathoHcs' and 8317 Protestants. The fi.xed inhabitants, however we,-e csfmated at only 7500, the rest being su.nmcr resi' dents, but returning home eve,-y winte,-. The state of the pop..I.at,o„ was miserable in the extreme ; no law, no see,,- m; the uucontrollod will of the ignoi^ant fishing ad,ni,.,.ls bo.ng the only rule. Accordingly, Lc-d Vere BeaucW who eon „„„, , ,,„ „,,.„, ^^_,^^ ,^^^.^^ ^^ ^ ,^ ,_ mont Of a t,tu ar govc,™,-, and i„ ,709, Captain Osborne w s nom,„ated a, the fl.t governor. The fi.,hing ad.ni! rals, however, and the merchants would not .asiiv yield 18 up the power tliey possessed and misused, and though tlic appointment of a local governor, even for the sunnner mouths, was a recoguition of the population of tlic island, still ho found him 'elf almost powerless. The only law known in the colony for a long series of years after was the proclamation of the governors ; and without their sanction, until within the recollection of many now living in St. Jolin's, a house could not be built or even thoroughly re- paired. I should only tire your patience by recounting the tyrannical acts of persecution embodied in the proc- lamations of tliesc, ijerhaps honest, but bigoted men— wc therefore hasten over this dreary period, and come to the comparatively ^appy epoch of 1784. On the 24th of Oc- tober, tnat year, a proclamation was published, pursuant to tiie instructions of Ilia Majesty George III., to the governor, justice of peace, and magistrates of the island, whereby liberty of conscience was allowed to all persons in Newfoundland, and the free exercise of such modes of religious worsliip as are not prohilnted by law, provided people be contented with a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, without giving offense or scandal to govern- ment — thus Catholicity was permitted, and the days of open persecution were happily at an end. It may be interesting, especially to Catholics, to know the state of the Church here before that time— Pvotestant- ism being the established religion, m'nisters were stationed in the principal settlements, but the few priests in the island had no fixed abode— tliey usually came out dis- guised in the fishing vessels, seldom staid long, and had no regular missions, as the surveillance of the Local Gov- ernment -was too strict. In the same year of toleration. 10 1784, Dr. O'DonnclI, the foundor and fatl.or of the cIimTl, of Newfoundland, landed in the island. Born in 17:57 i„ Tipperary, he spent a !aratter of the most vital importance, but, like every thing else in Newfoundland, was most scandalously conducted ])v fi.h- ■ ing admirals, arbitrary governors, magistrates without ed- ucation, and surrogates, until after a great deal of opposi- tion and delay, tlie Supreme Court was finally organized m 1792, and Mr. Reeves appointed Chief Justice Thus another great boon was won for xYewfoundland, and the subject could always obtain a regular hearing of his cause and legal decision. Mr. Reeves appears to have been a gentleman well qualified for his station, and it was a Her culean task to clear away abuses and abolish practices winch existed for ages. In 1807, another step in advance was made by the introduction o^ the press. In August that year the first newspaper in the colony, the iJ.^a/ Gazette and JYeufoundland Advertiser, was published, and two years after,^ in 1809, a post-office was first established in St John s. Thus, by degrees, were improvements slowly intro- duced, and the English government tacitlv recognised the population of Newfoundland as having bright to li e in the land they had chosen. In the mean time, Dr. O'Don- nell was laboring in his arduous mission-he had obtained leave from the Local Government to take a piece of land ata eascofuincty-nine years, and begun the old chapel winch was very small at first. He made several visita- tions to the out-ports of the island, encouraging, as far as lie could, education ; we believe he was guilty of the charge mad. against him by Governor Milbank, of encour- ag.ng the Iri«h to winter in the country, and we feel no doubt but that he gave them absolution when they applied for It, and even more n-equently than every «ccond or third 24 ■ year, as accused by the wortliy governor. Durin<; Dr. O'Donncll's episcopacy, the population was almost Irish. English, or Scotch. The Catiiolic district of St. John's, for it could not be called a parish, comprised the south shore of Conception Bay, and the south shore as far as La Manche toward Ferryland, and still the marriages were, on an average, only about seventeen or eighteen a year among the Catholic population— now the average of the same district gives about two hundred and sixty marriages. Both Protestants and Catholics complained at that time of the spread of infidel opinions in this country. " Paine's Age of Reason," denying all revelation, was very extens- ively read, trade was most flourishing, money abundant, and vice of all kinds prevalent. Protestant ministers in the principal towns, St. John's, Harbor, Grace, Trinity, and Ferryland, took charge of their own people ; priests were stationed wherever there was adequate support for them, when the bishop could procure their services. The Prot- estant clergy combated infidelity, principally by means , of the publications of tlie Tract Society, but the Catholic always trusts more to the living word than to the dead letter. The mission was a laborious and rude one, and, accordingly. Dr. O'Donnell, in the seventieth year of his age, resigned his charge to younger hands, in the person of Dr. Lambert, and sought repose in his native land, where he died four years afterward, and was buried in the old parish chapel of Clonrael— he had fought tiie good fight in days of darkness, of danger, and of difficulty, and we hope he received the crown of justice. Having now given a rapid sketch of our scanty history from what we may call the fabulous times, until the death of the founder of the 25 Catholic Church in the country, I pause to make a few re- flections which, in a Catholic college, and addressing a Catholic audience, the majority of whom look to Ireland with affection, as the land of their forefothers, may be inter- esting. History, as well as faith, teaches us that n.an can do nothing of himself, that human power, energy, talents or wealth are of no avail, unless God wills that a thino^ should come to pass. " Unless the Lord buildeth the liouse, m vain do they labor," the psalmist says, " who build it." The history of the Catholic Church in New- foundland most strikingly shows this. Twice under the most favorable auspices was the Catholic Church planted in this island-twice it failed to take root. Sir George Calvert, in Ferryland, intended this country, and particu- larly in this province of Avalon, to bo a city of refu-e to Ins coreligionists-what the Puritans did in New England l>e intended, though with more enlightened and Christian sentiments, to accomplish in Newfoundland. The Catholic glories of ancient Yerulam were to be renewed Vrvo and the ancient British faith of Avalon and Glastonbury was to flourish with renewed vigor-all ended in disappointment, and the English branch of the Catholic Church never took i-oot. The most powerful monarch of Europe, Louis XIV justly called Louis the Grand, established, as he thouo-ht' Ca.fiolicity firmly in Placentia-founded a convent%f Franciscans, the apostles of the New World, and laid, as he imagined, the foundations of our faith, broad and diep. Again a failure-tho lily of France never throve on the soil, and with the departure of the last French governor the Catholic faith died away. The very churches were transferred to the professors of another creed. Well, the 26 Irish laborers came out to earn a subsistence by braving the dangers of the ocean ; they were not of the class of men who generally succeeded in establishing a church. Their faith, bitterly persecuted in their own country, was strictly prohibited in Newfoundland — the house where Mass was said was burned down by orders of the govern- ment — they had not wealth, nor education, nor any of those human gifts which would give them influence in the land ; still the hidden seed germinated, liberty of conscience was granted, they were grudgingly allowed to raise an humble wooden chapel here and there — the successor of St. Peter looks to this impoverished portion of his flock and gives them a pastor in the person of Dr. O'Donnell — the weakly plant, trampled on, cut down whenever it showed itself, now begins to throw out vigorous shoots, and we sec at present, thank God, that it flourishes like a tree planted by +he running water. This is the work of God (mind, of God alone), and it is wonderful in our eyes. Calvert failed. Louis failed, but the poor persecuted Irish fisher- men succeeded, and the proud monument of his or his chil- dren's faith— the Cathedral — crowns the culminating point of the capital of the island. I fear I might tire you by continuing these dry details any longer. On this day week, please God, the present state and future development of our country will be the subject cf the lecture. I thank you most cordially for the attention you have given, and if I have succeeded in making you in any way better acquaint- ed with the by-gone times of the land we live in, and ex- citing in the generous young hearts I sec around me an enlightened love of their native land, I am more than am- ply repaid. I considered it necessary to give this prcpar- 27 atory lecture as an introduction to ilie descriptive one I shall liave the honor of giving this day week. As I have rapidly sketched the history of the country from the ear- liest records I could find down to the period witliin the memory of thousands in St. Joiin's, I will principally con- fine myself in the next lecture to the physical description of the country, its capabilities for the support of a large population; and what I conceive to be the best means of developing them. Newfoundland has more claims on us than any other part of the world. If it is not the native country of most of you, it is the native country of your children, and 1 am sure that every one who has adopted the country as his home, and es^.ecially those wJio have brought up a fomily in it, loves it with a sincere, though not perhaps as tender an affection as if it were the land of his birtii. If the ashes of his ancestors repose in the old land and his cradle was rocked thero-his tomb will be here, and his children here will venerate and hallow his memory. Again thanking you for your attention, I remain, ladies and gentlemen, an ardent friend of the land we live in— Newfoundland. tc ftl of 01 fa J)C th to an ins tic Sc at( sat fou Pr^ Vi: Gr tlic the pec if] SECOND LECTURE. Ladies and Gentlemen,-! have, in my last introauc- tory lecture, sketched the outlines of our scanty history as for as I could find materials, for our records arc only those of an infant people, few and uninteresting to any one Lut ourselves and posterity. I need not recount the recent facts in the recollection of most of us, they are most im- portant for the future historian of the country, but for us they are matters of recollection, not of record-I allude to the introduction of Representative Government first, and recently of that more perfect form of representative institutions called Responsible Government ; the nomina- tion of Dr. Lambert as successor to Dr. O'Donnoll, of Dr. Scallan, whom so many of you have known, of my immedi- ate venerated predecessor, Dr. Fleming, all three of tlio same institute as Dr. O'Donnell. I will not speak of the foundation of the Cathedral, of the establishment of a Protestant bishoprick in the island by Iler Majesty Queen Victoria, or of a second Catliolic bishoprick in Harbor Grace-all these .natters are of too recent a date, and tlierefore I will pass at once to the physical description of the country, its climate, its capabilities, its future pros- pects. With politics or parties, I have nothing to do, and if I make any suggestions for what appears to me to be 80 tlio iniprovcrncnt of the country, I hope all will esteem them as dictated solely by a love of Newfoundland and its peoi)lo. The island of Newfoundland, as you may per- ceive by the map, is the greatest in North America, nearly four hundred miles long from Cape Ray (Raye) or Split Cape, as called by the French, from its appearance at sea, to Quirpon on the northeast, and about three hundred miles wide from Cape Race (Ra/e) on t!ic east coast again to Cape Ray on the west. It contains, it is calculated, about 35,000 square miles, or 22,720,000 acres. This, however, is only an approximate calculation, as the country has not been exi>lored, much less surveyed. It is of a tri- angular form, very narrow toward the north, hence called by the French "Petit Nord," very wide at the southern base, and having attached to it, as it were, the great pen- insula of Avalon, separated from the great island by the Bays of Placentia and Trinity, and joined to it by an isthmus of only two or three miles, and this province is again divided by the two noble bays of St. Mary's and Conception. In no other part of the world are there more noble bays and harbors than in Newfoundland. Eighty and ninety miles the ocean penetrates by those great arms into the land, conveying to the doors of its in- habitants the treasures of the deep, and affording them a cheap means of couA^eying their produce to market, such as a hundred millions spent in railways could not procure. It is most providential that every thing required to carry out the great industry of liie country, the Fisiiery, is found here better than in any other part of the world— the bays and harbors, the vicinity of the ^reat breeding grounds, the abundonce of wood adapted fr r boat-building, cooper- 81 age, flakes, and stages, the bracing winds and absence of a burning sun for drying, -the rocky ledges the fcedin^r ground of the cod, and above all, the Imrdy darin.^ son^s of the soil, men nurtured in danger, rocked in the tempest men to whom the severest hardships arc only sport, who know no danger, who tread the frozen ocean with as firm a step as their native soil, and yearly undergo without a murmur more danger than usually falls to the lot of the most daring through their entire lives. You perceive that the capital, St. John's, is placed almost in the centre of the great peninsula of Avalon, on the nearest point to Europe, with a port the most secure perhaps in the world fortified by nature and only requiring a very moderate outlay, and a few thousand brave soldiers to make it, I may say, impregnable-the Gibraltar or Sebastopol of tlie North Atlantic. A fleet of war steamers stationed in St. John's, sheltered ! y the guns of Signal Hill and South-side l)attenes would give the command of the North Atlantic to Groat Britain, and, with Bermuda, paralvze the com- merce of the entire sea-board of the neighboring continent I consider St. John's and Bermuda as the two great bas- tions of North America, but I leave the subject to be dis- cussed by military men. It has been said that the trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world, and unless some extraordinary change takes place in naval afi^airs, like the introduction of gunpowder into modern warfare, the say- ing has hitherto held and will hold good. See tlie im- mense importance of Newfoundland : between French, •English, and Americans there arc now, I suppose, from 50,000 to 70,000 men employed in the Fisheries, amid ice, %, and storm. If tlie Fislicries were fully developed, as 82 tlicy will he in future times when the population incroasca and extends all along t^ c shores and into the interior, this number will be doubled. The gulf and river of St. Law- rence depend altogether on Newfoundland — the possessor of this country holds the keys of the gulf. The Labrador, which will in time become a country like Norway, will pwcll the contingent of seamen. The Fisheries then Avill not be confined to the shores, but our mariners will each summer explore the recesses of Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, and probably follow the seal to Greenland. Now, a mari- time po})ulation like this must have a great influence in the affairs of tlie world hereafter, and hold a place of the highest importance among the hundreds of millions who in two or three centuries hence will people those northern lands from the frontiers cf Mexico to the shores of Hud- son's Bay. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not a sketch of imagination, for as sure as the rivulet swells to a mighty river in its course and bears tlic fleets of nations, so sure, according to the laws of nature, will the wonderful devel- opment of these countries take place. Wars or pestilence may check it for a time, but nothing will stop it. The island, as "ou see, is trending, if I may use the expression, northeast and soutliwest. All our great bays, witli the remarkable exception of the Bay of Islands, Bonne Bay, and Ligornachoix Bay, on the western or gulf side, follow the same direction as do the mountain ridges and the great lakes which fill up the valleys of the interior. It would appear as if the whole island was in a fluid state when the hills and mountains took this direction. The country is for the most part, geologically speaking, of primitive form- ation, granite, slate, old red sandstone, indeed I may dc- 38 scribo it as a groat skeleto,, poorly furnished wi.I, flch Wo have ■„ the uoighborLood of Concop.io,, n'ilt ua.b.o quarrio, of .i„„i.„ „,. „, g,,„„.^„''_ ^,_^ ^ -- the Presentation Convent is builf nP i^ • " t..o..ghitba,„otboo„,„ar-e::b:;o; ir:^^^ bo. or, o„ t„o .rfaeo. it is i^perisl.aMo. m" t^^^ ocahly 1 have soon on tl,c road and in the garden fonol — :,f tritir?'^' r- "■ "- --;ponino Ctr?.:rtllCL^ and tho high poiish Of .ho .ariogatod „,: I, t," T woen tins and Holyrood, at tho head of Concopr„ IW and palaoos of tho world. It will, howovor, bo lonl be ^^aco.if.onghtL^::,r— ---^^ » ur .n,„od,ate neighborhood. Ti.at ™o3t nsoL : e ■ "I. l.mo, ,s mo.t abundant in the north and northwest • t ,o sboro about Forroll, in the Straits of Bdlisle iln ! entireiyeo,nposod„fit,iti3p,entif„,TrCa3 Bay, and lately deposit have boon found i„ n,a„y ott P.^ces-I reeently saw a quarry in the harbor of bL n „ be s, of a oliff. Cod Roy wonid furnish plaster o^, or II tho purposes of building and agrionltnre, and n of the most beautiful sea vio.s I know of is the painted plaster cliffs near Cod Ror I- fl t> r - ^ ^ou noy. i„ the Bay of Kjploits, re- I 84 markablc for its fine timber and scenery, fine-grained red sandstone, a beautiful material for building, is found ; 'tis said that good white marble is got in the Huniber River ; coal is said (and though I have not seen it, I have good reason to believe it) to exist in the upper part of Cod Roy River. The coarse building stone of St. John's is a fine material for rough work, and the Cathedral shows wliat can be don( with the fine sandstone of Kelly's Island. The miiicral resources of the country have not been, as yet, turned to much account. Rich copper ore is found in many places in Conception Bay, Placentia Bay, and White Bay. If the country were explored and capital invested in mining, under judicious management, there is no doubt but that the enterprise would be a great source of wealth for centuries, perhaps as great as the Fishery is at present ; but when wo consider that only a small portion of the country has been hitherto explored, and only on the sea- coast, that whatever mining operations have been under- taken, except at Lz. Manche, have been of the most super- ficial character, merely, I may say, surface works, and that it was only very recently that any attention at all has been paid to mining, the sea being naturally considered by a maritime and fishing population as the only mine worth exploring — a mine richer, in reality, than all the silver mines '"f Mexico, producing millions for the last three cen- turies, and inexhaustible, we ought to rest satisfied with what has been done as an earnest of what will be done hereafter. I regret, indeed, that the lead mine of La Manche has been, not abandoned, but the Avork suspended for a time, I heard from Mr. Crocket, one of the superintend- ents there, two years ago, that there was then as much lead B5 .n^covo,.cd as „ .,„„.„a „e„ e„„,„ „ot .o„.„vo i„ twenty car,. -,„«,,,,,„„ ,,t„ „,^.^^,f .^ appeared a„acoou„. able lM.t I hope, ,„ tl,o spring, operations will be eonnnen a new „„ s,,el, a souree of wealti, not allowed to lie I,,' Miver IS found in several of thr* i^^,t BcvLnu 01 tlic lead specimens I Unvn 0. and I have ,ec„ ,„i„„to threads of native silver io ones taken from a well d„, i„ the neighborhood of t Io.p, al of St. John's. Tin.e will tell whether, like U»on,a„ M,ne, sung ly Moore, these iadicationsaro o l" ,-ngIed over the surface, bnt I have not the least doubl hat eopper and lead are n,ost abundant, and will hereafter bo an enormous sonreo of wealth to the eonnfry. Ofna- U>e gold though the most generally distributed of ail raotals, I have not seen a speeiu,en but one, with some mi- croseop,c partieles glistening 1„ the quartz; the person -i.o had t told me he would eall again and tell m t „ ■oeal.ty of his discovery, but never did so. It would be ' easy to try by amalgamation whether the spangles were gold or not. The gold matrix, as described by Humboldt and others, eerta.nly exists, but the attention of the people has never been called to it. It is remarkable, that tl.e fehe men n> the lower part of Placeutia Bay used to go to La Maneue, take the pure galena, smelt it, and run iir„ers out of .t and still the existence of the mine, though ataost every pebble on the shore had specks of lead in it, was either unknown or disregarded. This shows how much je require that the country should be explored by compe- tont persons. Since the discovery, three or four years a.o ■ ' "''"'^' i**""""" 0' load have been shipped off. I 3G I Once, while I was there, sixty-five tor^, valued at X15 a ton, was shipped off, and another time I saw several, per- haps one Imndred, tons of dressed ore in barrels, prepared for exportation ; and still so little knowledge did the peo- ple possess of the treasure existing in their midst, that for generations the only use made of it was to dig out a bit to make a jigger. Before I speak of the great industry of the country, the Fisheries, and of our limited agriculture, and its future development, I have a few words to say of the climate. Climates in all countries, though principally depending on the distance from the equator, are still gov- erned by other laws— elevation, direction of prevailing winds, but above all, by the currents of the ocean, and the proximity of the country to those marine influences. Con- fining myself at present to Newfoundland, wo find St. John's in 47.30 north latitude ; well, this same parallel in- tersects some of the finest wine-growing districts in France. Ireland, the Emerald Isle, is clothed with perpetual verdnrC; and flowing with milk and honey, while the corresponding rco-iou in Labrador is bound in the icy chains of almost perennial frost. The Gulf Stream, that great oceanic cur- rent, is the cause of the warmth of one region, and tho great northern current, together with the diurnal revolu- tion of the earth, of the cold of the other. You perceive that Cape St. Roquc, on the Brazil coast, as I mark it for you, approaches so nGuv to the African continent as to form a great basin, widening out to the north of the equator. Now, the almost vertical mn heats to an enormous degree this Immense basin or cauldron of water in the Atlantic. All water heated increases in bulk, as every housewife knows who places a kettle too full on the fire ; the water, 37 when heated, begins to flow over ; msv the very same thine, happens to the enormous cauldron of hot water between Africa and Brazil, the water so highly heated flows over toward the north ; it enters into the Gulf of Mexico, heated to the highest pitch, seeks its exit through the nar- row passage round Cuba and through tlie West India Islands, and, following the direction it gets from the set of the coast and the diurnal motion of the earth, it flows on. widening out like a fan every mile it travels, till it reaches the shores of Europe, envelops Ireland in its tepid em- braces, bathes tlie coasts of Franco, passes round England, and washes the shores of Belgium, Holland, Germanj^evon in Norway prevents the harbors from freezing, and en- ables the Laplander to ripen barley under the Arctic Cir- cle. But why does it not go directly north and bathe the shores of Newfoundland ? One great cause is the diurnal movement of the earth. If it were possible to fire an Arm- strong gun, for example, from the equator to the pole at the source of the Gulf Stream, the bullet would not, as we imagine, go straight, it would tend every instant to the riglit, describing a curve, and strike somewhere about the coast of Ireland. It is a curious fact that a railway train, going at a high velocity due north and south, always ex- hibits a strange tendency to fly off at the right hand. I beg you to remember this, for here is the secret of the climate in a great measure. The Gulf Stream, going north, curves off to tlic right hand, strikes the shores of Europe, rushes on to the great polar basin, the region of perpetual frost ; cooled there, the great basin overflows and sends down the' gelid or arctic current to fill up the place in tlie equato- rial seas left vacant by the overflow of the Gulf Stream, 88 which, I may remark, distributes daily as much heat in its course as would melt thousands of tons of iron if concen- trated. The cold current then rushes down by Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, and, as I remarked, on account of the diurn- al movement of the earth coming from the north, tends to the right hand, consequently hugs the American shore, bringing with it tlie floating ice and the cold winds of the polar basin. Thus we > ee the huge icebergs sailing majes- tically along the shores of Labrador and Newfoundland, resting on the ledges, and going forth again till they meet the Gulf Stream, and are finally melted in its tepid waters. The European coasts are, therefore, warmed by the hot water of the equatorial basin, sent to them by the Gulf Stream. Newfoundland and the North America shores are cooled by the cold water of the polar basin, coming from the north, and consequently having a continual tendency to hug the right or American shore. Let no one say, how- ever, that Providence has not given a compensation for every thing ; the abundant pastures of Ireland are com- pensated by rich sea pastures of Newfoundland. The cod- fish, the great sovrce of our wealth, would not flourish among us if we had the hot and vapory waters of the Gulf Stream bathing our shores. The painted fishes, which in- habit the tropical and warm seas, have no flavor, can not be preserved and never would form an article of commerce like our cod, the king of all fish. The Gulf Strer i gets its greatest deflection perhaps from the great submarine island, the great Bank of Newfoundland, the greatest submarine deposit on the face of the earth. Here the arctic and the equatorial currents meet and produce, by the intermingling of hot and cold water, " the fog on the banks." This groat 39 submarine island, tlic great bank, is, as far as wc can define It, of an irregular oval shape, surroun 'ed by the smaller banks which extend many hundred miles on every side. A great submarine island at first, it has for thousands of years been receiving deposits from both currents, north and south. The Gulf Stream has deposited the mfusoria of the tropical seas ; the deposit, as proved by the deep sea soundings of Captain Be/ryman, extends all alontr the course of the stream to Ireland, but from the nature of the obstacles it meets in the southern portion of the bank, tho greatest quantity must necessarily be deposited there. Then we have those great carriers of nature, the icebergs, bringing from their polar home millions of tons of rock for thousands of years, and depositing them all over the banks when they ground. Thus nature has created and enriched this extraordinary submarine region which forms the great breeding and feeding ground of the cod species, and has such an extraordinary influence on our climate and our- selves. Tory beautiful specimens of coral and pebbles are sometimes fished up by the French bankers ; for the French, as we know, follow the bank fishery to a great extent, and! those who have been in the habit of crossing the banks, on their voyage to Europe, must have been surprised to see the number of French ships riding at anchor by their hempen cables, better adapted than chains for the contin- ual and short pitch of that sea, and tho hardy fislierm.-n passing along in their large boats, hauling their bultows— the most ruinous mode of fishing ever practiced. The bank fishery, as you all know, is confined to the French and the Americans, as we can not compete with their bounties, and there is not a single British ship on the banks. It is a 40 dreary locality, the almost constant fog and drizzling rain, the doleful sound of the fog-horn or the ships' guns calling their crews, the troubled ocean, the ships rolling almost under the waves, steadied by their main or try-sails in ad- dition to their moorings ; all these make an impression on a stranger the first time he passes the banks in summer which he never after forgets. From this, also, most per- sons receive an erroneous idea of the climate of the island, which they imagine to be the same as that on the banks, and coming themselves from the cloudy though genial at- mosphere of England or Ireland, can not believe that we are all the while enjoying a clear, bright sky, beautiful as that of Italy, and breathing an air dry and pure, never felt in the humid region of the Gulf Stream. What an awful climate, they will say, you have in Newfoundland ; how can you live there without sun in a continual fog ? Have you been there you ask them ? No ! tliey say ; but we have crossed the Banks of Newfoundland, flow surprised, they are then when you tell them that, for ten months at least in the year, all the fog and damp of the banks goes over to their side and descends in rain there with the southwesterly winds, while we never have the benefit of it, unless when what we call the out-winds blow. In fact, the geography of America is very little known, even by intel- ligent writers at home, and the mistakes made in our lead- ing periodicals are frequently very amusing. I received a letter from a most intelligent friend of mine some time since, in which he speaks of the hyperborean region of Newfoundland ; in my reply, I dated my letter from St. John's, north latitude 47° 30", and directed it to Mr. So and So, north latitude 52°. 41 The summer here is remarkable for fog. on tlie southern and southwestern coast especially, not on the northern or eastern side ; the reason of this is the more northerly set of the Gulf Stream in summer. During the winter months the northern or arctic current is stronger, and pushes the equatorial current to the south, consequently, as we have very little intermingling of warm watov with our gelid sea, we have little or no fog. But in summer the water is not so cold ; the Gulf Stream pushes its warm current over the banks, throws a supply to the south and south- west of the island toward St. Mary's, Placentia, and For- tune Bays, and Burgeo. and the harbors on the southern shore by Rameo. St. Peter's Banks, and all the shallow seas about, begin to send off steam. The Bay of Fundy is clouded, the steamers are frequently a day waiting to grope their way into Halifax Harbor, and tlie dense fog, as far north as St. John's, is seen like a great wall at sea, though in general it does not penetrate far inland, as the people say, " the shore eats up the fog." The Gulf Stream, then, lias to answer for the fogs of Newfoundland as well as for the huraidi^-^ of Ireland, and though it does not bathe our shores, still a large portion of heat is thrown off by it which accounts for the mildness of our climate in compari' son with that of the neighboring continent. Wo never have the thermometer down to zero, unless once or twice a year, and then only for a few hours, and for a few de- grees, three, four, or perhaps ten, while we hear of the temperature of ten and twenty below zero in Canada and New Brunswick, and this life-destroying cold continuing for days, perhaps weeks. Then see another effect of this -the Canadian and other North Americans of the same Hi 42 latitude arc obliged to keep up hot stoves continually al- most in their houses, while we have open fireplaces, or at most Franklins ; our children, I may say, as liglitly clad as in summer, spend a large portion of their time in the open air ; and thus, while our neighbors have the sallow hue of f ^.-.finoment tinging their cheeks, and their children look CO i\ J .ratively pale and delicate, our youngsters are blooming with the rosy hue of health, developing their energies by air and exercise and i^reparing themselves for the battle of life hereafter, either as hardy mariners or healthy matrons— the blooming mothers of a powerful race. Thus the Gulf Stream, wliich clouds our skies, paints the cheek, invigorates the population, pours out to us in its return from the northern basin— the arctic cur- rent, which enriches our seas with fish, and enables us to furnish this luxurious and necessary article of food to the languid intertropical nations, for no food is so wholesome or so agreeable to the inhabitants of warm countries, whose diet is mostly vegetable, as the dried codfish of Newfoundland. I may remark, that by the climate table furnislied me by Mr. Dclancy, I find that the higliest tem- perature was 96° on the 3d of July ; 8° on the 3d of March, and the mean temperature of the year (1859) 44° ; mean max. pres. of barometer, 29-74 inch ; rain 63-920 for the year ; max. quan. in twenty-four hours 2.098 inch ; Wind N.N.W. and W.N.W., two hundred days ; N.E. twenty-five days; W. and W.S.W. thirty-eiglit days; S.S.W. and S.E. one hundred and two days ; rain fell on one hundred and ton days ; snow fifty-four days ; thunder and lightning five days. We have all the advantages of an insular climate, a mild temperature Avith its disadvant- 48 ago „„cortai„ weather. I may remark, likewise, what Ahbe llaynal recorded already, that the climate of New- foundland i. considered the most invigorating and salubri- ons m the world, and that we have no indigenous disease. It follows, naturally, that I should, in connection with onr c hmate, speak o, our limited agriculture. Besides the shallow nature of our soil i„ most parts of the island, we I'ave, on account of the set of the arctic current, carry ■ngits floating ice and icebergs along our shores, a late and uncertain spring; herbage will not, at least within he influence of the cold winds, spring up as soon as our latitude would entitle u, to; we maybe perhaps three weeks late, but then see the compensation we reap from those fields of ice, a crop which, I suppose, altogether re- a «es a million sterling in the European market ; I mean he 0,1 and skins of the scal_a crop which we do not sow, but the reaping of which euc.nrages ship-building, rears «P the hardiest mariners in the world, and throws hund- reds of thousands of pounds into circulation, at a season which m all other northern countries is one of comparative Idleness. The prosecution of the seal fishery does not in- terfere with the summer cod fishery, the winter herrin. flsLory, or farming operations. Thus we have a great blessing bestowed on us by Divine Providence, a wonder- ful source of wealth coming in just at the time that, but for It, we should have nothing else to do ; for this we may thank the great northern current, which retards our spring, but sends us .-ich harvest, and one which no gov- ernment bounty or encouragement could create elsewhere A doubt has been expressed by many whether the seal fishery will last— thcv feor M'lt fl-f -.—•• ij . • — -Y .i„.i .,,„([ jj,e cuiitmuai destruction 44 of both young and old seals will exterminate the breed and destroy the fishery, as was the case with the Greenland whale fishery. I can not agree with this opinion, and I will state my rcasons-'Tis true the seal, phoca cristata or barhata, is one of the mammalia, bringing forth but one at a time and that unnually— it can not multiply like the cod- fish with two millions of eggs. If we could get at the seals, then, I have no doubt, but that in a few years, like the Greenland whale, they would be almost all destroyed. This has hajipened elsewhere. In the great work of St. Bazil, the Hexamcron, I find a description of seal-fishing in the Mediterranean, or perhaps in the Dardanelles or Black Sea ; the seal, he says, is speared with a harpoon to which is P ached an inflated skin, so that, once struck, it can not sink, and is, therefore, easily dispatched. Nq,^^ j^. is remarkable that the Esquimauv and Greenlanders of the present day use the same means to kill seals. Well, the seals in the Mediterranean may be considered as exter- minated, being now extremely rare ; but here, fortunately for ourselves, we can not kill the goose with the goldeu a^g. See the great breeding and feeding ground of the seal, the polar basin, Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, the Northern Labrador-all these places are inaccessible to us ; we can not in the winter or the spring advance further than the outskirts of the great seal field— we kill hundreds of thousands, we can not reach the millions behind them ; we must wait till Providence sends us a share, for if man's cupidity had full play, he would rush at once to the arctic solitudes, kill all the seals he could find, and the North Atlantic would in a few years become like the Mediterra- nean— a comparative waste of barren water. To return, 46 however, to our agricultural capabilities : first, we have the means of raising on our wild pastures, millions of that most useful animal to man-tho sheep. On the southern and western shore, indeed cverywhero in the island I have sc the finest sheep walk ; and what is better the droppings of the sheep in this country induce a most'lux- uriant crop of white clover, and prevent the spread of bog plants. If sheep were encouraged, we should have fresh meat in abundance, and their fleece would furnish warm clothing in the winter for our people of a better quality than the stuff they now buy " half waddy and devil's dust " and which impoverishes them to procure it. Domestic manufactures would be encouraged, the people would be- come indus.rious and comfortable, and every housewife in our out-harbors would realize, in some sort, that sublime description ofa valiant woman by Solomon, Prov., xxxi " she hat' put out her hands to strong things, and her fin- gers have taken hold of the spindle ; she has sought wool and flax and hath wrought by tlie counsel of her hands • she shall not fear for her house in the cold of snow, for all her domestics are clothed with double garments ; slie hath looked well to the paths of her house and hath not eaten her bread idle ; her children rose up and called her blessed ; her husband had praised her." But, unfortu- nately, this great blessing of sheep pasture is marred by one curse, and idleness and poverty are too often the ac- companiments of the poor man's fireside in the long winter -as long as a vicious herd of dogs are allowed to be kept m the country, so long will poverty be the winter portion of the poor. In no other part of the world would such an iniquity be permitted There is a law offering £5 for the 46 destruction of a wolf, and I never have lieard of jGS worth of mutton being destroyed by wolves since the days of Cabot ; but why do not our legislators, if they have tho interest of the people at heart (and according to their elec- tion speeches, every member is actuated by the most phil- anthropic and patriotic motives), pass and enforce a law against dogs, which devour every sheep they can find, and have almost exterminated tho breed altogetlier ; for no one will keep sheep while his neighbor is allowed to keep wolves. I will read you a list of certified losses, furnished to me by the Rev. M. Brown, of Bona Vista, all of which took place last year in that small locality. (Read a list of twelve milch cows, value ^£96 lOs. ; of sixty-two sheep and fifteen goats, all destroyed in Bona Vista in the year, by dogs.) I hope the government will at last see the neces- sity of putting a stop to this state of things, which would not be permitted by a Turkish pasha in his province ; but then the pasha, perhaps, has not an eye to the next elec- tion. Nowhere can be seen a more distressing spectacle than a stalwart man yoked in with a couple of dogs draw- ing a load of firewood, losing his whole winter, tearing the poor clothes ho is obliged to buy and which his wife ought to spin and weave (spinning and weaving are taught in the convents, but we can't get the children to learn the art), and brutalizing his children by keeping them from school, because, as the usual e^'iuse is, they have to go to the woods. One horse wouli" he work of one hundred dogs and be always useful, and the man who could not keep a horse, could hire his neighbor's for a few days at an expense less than what he even wastes in boots and clothes. These observations may be unpalatable to some, but I have 47 the interest, of the people leo much at heart to conceal my sent„„e„ts on a subject of such vital importance to thcr and rel,.M„„, education, civilisation arc all snffcrin. from th., cu,.so of dogs, worse than all the plagues o." fi'vpt to 1..S un ortunate country. I„ Canada, Net Brunswll c any of the other northern provinces, such a thing would no beallowed-hutthcro the people have not the spri,,. »cal fishery or summer eod fishery, and are, therefore" , obi ged to preserve their sheep and cattle. Cattle of the best breed tbrive here, and both our beef and mutton are found to be of superior flavor to those imported from the ne,gh bonng provinces. I have several times suggested the estabbshmcnt of a cattle fair at Ilolyrood, at the head of Conception Bay, where the people of the great cattle- producing districts of the cape shore, Plaeentia, St. Mary', and Salraon,er, might find a market for their surplus stock' though to tell the truth, they have hitherto made very little use of their fine pastures. The populous districts of Con- cept,on Bay and St. John's would then be supplied • farm- ers and vietualers would know where and when to obtain stock, and an impulse would be given to cattlc-breedin.- at an expense of less than XIO a year to the governme,;;' lor printing the proclamations and paying a toll clerk wine,., ■ ■ a few years, would highly improve those grazing' districts. Goats form a very important item in the ^^^t cultural riches of other countries; with a large space" of thm barren land like Newfomidland, they genemlly forage for themselves for a great part of the year ; their milk is most wholesome, and goat's cheese is not a bad addition to a poor man's meal. Kid's flesh is a delicacy, and in Rome eapetto, or kid, is one of the cheapest, most abundant, and 48 most (loliciousof meats while it is in season. It is a shame that, even in feu John's, wo have little chance of a turkey till the Halifax steamer comes in, and the goose, the most nutritious, the most useful, and the most easily kept of all fowl in a northern country like this, is just to scarce. In the north of Europe you get goose almost every day ; and a good roast goose for dinner, and a feather l)ed to rest on, arc not to be despised ; and here is the very habitat of the goose, the very climate of all others where the bird could be brouglit to the greatest perfection, and the wild goose, which I'l oeds in enormous numbers, is the most delicate of our wild fowl, we get our geese from Nova Scotia, and our feather beds from Ireland or Hamburg. All garden vege- tables, cabbages, carrots, turnips, salads, etc., arc brou'^ht to the highest perfection, and the climate appears especial- ly adapted to impart succulcncy to them. The potato, you all know, before the rot, was of the finest quality. It is now nearly recovered, but I regret to sc^ in many of the out-ports the potato-field reverting to a state of nature — people prefer the hard and unwholesome Hamburg bread, American pork, and Danish butter, to the fresh and nutri- tious food they coidd raipc themselves — in a great measure trustiLg to a supply of meal from the government, if the Fishery is short, or to the eleemosynary relief distributed in the fall under t^.e name of road-money, instead of improv- ing every spu.e hour and every leeward day in clearing and improving a plot of ground. We have not hands enough even for the Fislicry, and thus we see (unless in the populous and industrious districts of Harbor Main, Brigus, and the River Head of Harbor Grace, and perhaps a few more exceptional localities), that the land 1 '-ought into cul- 40 tivation is ratlicr diminishing than extending, and wo arc obliged even to import largo quantities of huy from tho States, where labor is so high and land so dear, while mil- lions of acres are lying waste about us. Cereal crops do- mand a special notice— wheat will ripen very well, espe- cially if the proper variety of seed adapted for a northern country bo procured ; but as lo.ig as wo have tho great grain country of tho Unite States at our doors, m ono will take much trouble ab. ^uch an unprofitable crop. I have never seen Hner barley th:.n the growth of New- foundland, and all persons who have bouglit, as I havo done, Newfoundland oats, at nearly double tlio price of tho husky grain imported here, will find that ho has gained by his purchase. Hops are most luxuriant, and so are straw- berries, currants, gooseberries, cherries, and many otlier species of f,-uit. The hawthorn flourishes here, when planted, and I have seen as fine hedges of it laden with haws here as in the homo country ; and I mention this as a proof of the comparative mildness of our climate, for I find in Russia, as far south as Moscow, it is a hot-house plant. My estimate, then, of the agricultural capabilities of Newfoundland, comparing it with what I have seen in the north of Europe, is, that if we had a large agricultural population, we could support them in comfort, and that as population increases, we must attend more to tlio land, and then more general wealth and comfort will bo diffused a hundred-fold, than now, .rhen our population is, I may say, wholly maritime, and we depend almost altogether on other countries for our food. My earnest advice would be, kill the dogs, introduce settlers, encoura-e domestic manufactures, home-made linen and home-spun cloth, and 50 Newfoundland will become the Paradise of the industrious man. The soil, in general, is thin, but kind, easily cleared, and besides the legitimate manure of the farm-yard, can always bo enriched near the sea by searack and fish oflal ; tlie climate is comparatively mild, and all we want arc' hands and industry. Tiie Fishery, however, of Xewfound- land is tlic great and grand industry of the country. Other lands may surpass us in every thing else, but here wo arc without a rival ; the natural ]n-oductions of one country may not only be raised in another, but even improve by transplanting, as the Peruvian potato did in Ireland, and the East India ginger in Jamaica. Tea may be cultivated out of China ; but the noble codfish— this is beyond man's control, this is the gift of nature to those northern seas, and as long as the world lasts, Newfoundland will be the great fish-pro' ' cing country. Tiie codfish, the chief of the family of the i^adacece, inho/oits, in general, the North At- lantic, between the fortieth and sixtieth degrees of latitude on the European coast, but extends further south on the American side. In another country, the description of the capture and curing of cod would furnish materials for a very interesting lecture, but here it is superHuous to say any thing on that subject. Tiie grand bank appears to be the great breeding ground of tlio species, and the finest fish are caught there. In the Lafoden Islands in Norway, under the Arctic Circle, a great cod fishery is carried on, but, as far as I could learn, the catch is under 100,000 quintals. " The fishers tliere pay great attention to the curing ; the fish is nicely packed in boxes, the fins trimmed ofl", and though in reality not as good fish as that of Newfoundland, bri igs a higher price, as a fancy fisli, among tno Spaniards 51 and CuLans. I will not offer an opinion on tl.o use or abuse ^. cod seines, the improvements in curing or catch- in-, for our people know more about these matters tlian any other race on the face of the earth. I may remark, however, that the want of a population in many of the out- ports, causes a loss of a great quantity of the most nutritious and delicate food, the air-bladder, or as wo call it, cod's sounds, which consists almost altogether of pure gelatine, and sells at a high rate in any market into which it has been introduced. The me.iicinal qualities of the fresh liver oil have been fully proved, and the manuf-icture of that articln has brought a great increase of wealth to the coun- try. Like all good things, however, it is easily imitated • the common cod oil, made by the putrifying process, has been refined at home by animal charcoal, filtered so as (o deprive it of all bad smell, being already deprived, by pu- trefaction in the manufacture, of iodine and all other me- dicinal qualities, and po,wned oiT by dishonest dealers as the genuine article. It would bo well, therefore, for tlie credit of the article and the advantage of those who re- quire to use it, if some particular seal or mark was fixed on the bottles or vessels here, which would, in some sort, serve as a guarantee of its purity in Europe. We have not only, I may say, a monopoly of the cod fishery in New- foundland (of course, I no^v include the French), but wc see the market every day increasing. See what a prodig- ious expansion the Brazil trade has taken within the last few years ; what will it be in future ages when Brazil will count its population by hundreds of millions, when Cuba will increase ten-ibld ? All tropical people like codfish, and must have it ; and, thei-^fore, if wo could produce one 52 liuiidred millions of quintals, we could not supply the de- maud in future ages. The roc of a cod contains two mil- lions of eggs, and if all these came to maturity, one cod would fill the ocean in a few years ; but though countless millions perish, we know that, if we do not violate the law of nature by destroying the mother or breeding fish, we can not lessen the species. There is another fish, liowever, the salmom which requires strict legislative protection, as it comes to spawn in the river, and is therefore easily de- stroyed by the cupidity of man. It is the duty of the gov- ernment, as the guardians of tlie public interest, to look to this, to appoint a committee to investigate the laws made for the preservation of salmon in Great Britain and Ire- laud, and to use the most stringent measures, both here and in the Labrador, to prevent any wanton destruction of the fisli, or any annoyance to it in the breeding season. We know that through ignorance or carelessness, this rich fish has been almost annihilated in some of the home rivers, and it costs a series of years and the strictest precautions to nurse up the remnant and re-establish the breed once more ; for by an extraordinary law of nature, tliis fish always returns to the place where it was spawned, and if disturbed, disappears forever. There is another delicious fish, which is now only hauled for bait and manure, for the little cured is of no consequence, but which will hereafter become a great source of wealth— tliis is the caplin, or, as naturalists call it, the Sahio articus. We see wha t a source of profit the sardines and anchovies are to the people of the Mediterranean. Now, I am quite sure, tliat if we had hands enougli to cure this delicious fish, it would take rank witli these delicacies, and, like the codfish, the supply of 53 caplin IS inexliaustiblc. I am quite sure that the habit of talang large quantities for manure from the spawning beaches, has, in some cases, chased away tlie lish, for in- stinct IS so strong in all fishes, that if impeded in the oper- ation of spawning they generally seek other localities Indeed, I never cou. believe tliat the use of this delicious fish for manure is legitimate. If they were merely pickled and dried, a simple operation which could be performed by children, tliey would be worth at least a dollar a bar- rel, and a million of barrels would find a market, if intro- duced into fisli-cating countries, and not sensibly lessen the quantity which every summer swarms in every bay and creek of tlie Island and Labrador. I have no doubt but that hereafter they will be preserved in various ways and ' HI extraordinary quantities ; but at present, coming as tlicy do in the height of the fishing season, we have no hands to cure them at that busy time. A great mine of wealth wo possess, and which is only partially worked or turned to account, is the herring fishery. In no part of the wo.ld is the herring finer, or, I believe, so abundant, and all it re- quires is to be properly cured. The Dutch became a great nation, it is said, principally by the herring fishery, and Amsterdam, they say, is built on a foundation of herrino- bones. Even at present, the Dutch herrings, though cau-irt on the same ground as the English or Scotch, bear a higher price than any other in tlie world, and are eaten raw as a relish in Holland and Germany. The first barrel of new licrring that is taken, is forwarded to the king at the Hague. It is carried in procession with banners and mili- tary music-the day is one of public rejoicing, and a fow of the new herrings are sent as presents to the nobles ol 54 the land. I understand that the Dutch bleed each herrino:, use the best quality of salt, and take the greatest care in their manipulation. If they had the rich herring of Lab- rador, it would be worth the gold mines of Australia to them. A movement was made to procure instructors in curing, some time ago, but I know not from what cause it failed. I believe the Dutch prohibit their herring curcrs from engaging with foreigners, but Scotland could furnish us with many nearly as good, and thus hundreds of thou- sands of pounds would be yearly gained to the country, and the gifts of Providence would not be abused. One great step for the preservation of the herring on the western shore, has been made by passing Mr. Bcnning's bill. I have been informed, on good authority, that the waste of herring for supplying bait to the French was awful, and that one year 20,000 barrels, for which there was no sale, were cast back into the sea. No fishery then, I think, re- quires the watchful care of government more than this, and if properly preserved and managed, it will be nearly as great a source of wealth as the cod fishery, and more secure than the seal fishery. The whale fishery was form- erly prosecuted to some extent in the Bay of Despair, but the whale, as we know, is easily exterminated, and though the fishery is yet followed to some extent, it is one wo can not expect to continue — still H will be always more or less an addition to our resources. Allow me to say a few words of my experience of the people : I have found them in all parts of the island, hospitable, generous, and oblig- ing ; Catholics and Protestants live together in the great- est harmony, and it is only in print we find any thing ex- cept on extraordinary occasions, like disunion among them. 65 X Lave ak-ap, ,„ t,,e „o3t p,,t,,t,„, ,,,.^j, .^^^^ experienced todncss and eonsideration-I .peak not only of tl.e agent. of the mereantile Leases, wl,o are remarkable for tl.eir 0^. ahty and attention to all visitors, or of ,„agistrates, nke Mr. Gadea, of Harbor Briton, or Mr. Peyten, o Twdhngate, ,vhose guest I was, but tl,e Protestant n.sl.er- men were always ready to join Catl.olies in manning a boa w,.en I required it, and I a,„ happy to .ay that tl.e Cathohes have aeted likewise to tl.eir elergymen. It is a pIoas„,g refleetiou that thougl. we are not immaculate, and o> er 130,000, we have rarely more than eight or ten prison- oryn ja,l, and grievous erimes, are, happily, most rare, eap- .tal offenses seareely heard of. I will now ask you to aecom- pa..y me round the coast. Leaving St. John's a few miles bnngs us to Bay Bull's in the southern district, a fine har- bor of refuge for St. John's, along to Ferryland, the ancient but huherto neglected capital of the district, by Oano Broyle, Fermeuse, and on to Cape Eace. All this district has fine land, magnificent harbors, a great fishery, and only wants a large population. On round the eape to Tre- passey with a spare popnlation, less than 800, where thou- sands eonid find a comfortable living ; on to the fine Bay of S . Mary's, with the richest fishing grounds in the island, Kcellent land, and the rich and beautiful arm of Salmon- ler, extending far up into the country, well timbered, and adapted for the seat of a rich agricultural, as well as a mantime population. I am happy to say that settlers are now coming there in numbers, and in twenty vears it will be one of the finest districts in the island. The lover of scenery and field-sports could nowhere spend a pleasanter 56 week than in Colinct. We hurry on round the Cape St. Mary's to the great Bay of Placcntia, sixty miles wide, ninety miles long, rich in fisheries and minerals— copper at Mahony's Cove, lead at La Manche, studded with beautiful islands, some of them, like Meraslnen, twenty miles long. It will hereafter be the most important district in New- foundland, but as yet, the small population of the bay, in- cluding Burin, perhaps not more than 13,000, hinders its development. Fortune Bay has tlie most beautiful scen- ery, rich fisheries, and especiaHy of herring, and several great arms— Connaigre Bay, Hermitage, and the Bay of Despair, all waiting to be filled up with a population. Be- tween the two great bays of Fortune and Placentia we find the French colony of St. Pierrcs and Miquelon— the only remnant of the immense empire France once possessed in Nortli America. The small rocky island of St. Peter contains in the town perhaps 2000 fixed inhabitants; it is a place of great trade; the church is very handsome, though a wooden one ; the great liospital, served by six Sisters of Charity, is a noble establishment. A prefect apostolic. Very Revd. Pere Le Helloco, and two assistant priests, look after the spiritual interests of the inhabitants, and Christian broth- ers teach the boys, as nuns do the girls. The government authorities are remarkable for their courtesy to strangers, and I never can be grateful enougli for all the kind'iiess and attention I always received from the governor and officials, the naval authorities (for there are no military stationed in the island), and the prefect apostolic and liis clergy. The southern shore, from St. Peter's by the Burgeo Islands, the seat of a largo fislring population, is indented 57 with fine harbors ; l,ut tlie land, as far I saw it, is covered with moss and the population thin. It is the least devel- oped district in Newfoundland. We now pass round Cape Ray into tlie Gulf of St. Lawrence, and enter on what is called the Frcncli Shore, which extends to Cape John on the northeast side. Cod Roy is rich in agricultural capa- bilities. St. George's Bay, though deficient in ports, has a fine herring fishery ; and small as the population is, it consists of four races, who speak four languages: English, French, Gaelic, and Micmac Indian. The fishery in the gulf is what the French call a nomade fishery, they follow the cod in its migrations. We turn round Cape Norman from the dangerous Bay of Pistolet, by Quirpon, on to Croque, a fine harbor, the headquarters of the French navy, till we come to the French limits at Cape St. John. The country is very thinly inhabited all along this line, as the fixed population is, I may say, not recognized by either power. Some copper mines are opened there, wliich will, it is expected, turn out most valuable. Notre Dame Bay,' the Bay of Exploits, and all the surrounding arms are' rich in fine timber, good land, and productive fisheries. I may make the same remark of Bona Vista Bay, especially in the rich timbered arms. Passing the old Cape of Bona Vista, the first discovered part of Newfoundland, we enter the great Bay of Trinity, pass the fine harbor of Catalina, and soon come to the beautiful Swiss-looking town of Trinity, seated in one of the finest harbors of the world, on to Bay Bulls Arm, the terminus of the Atlantic Tele- graph. We return to Baccalieu Island, so called from the Beothic name of the codfish, and enter the great Bay of Conception, with its fine town of Harbor Grace, the seat 58 of- a Catliolic bislioprick ; its rich population of nearly 40,000 inhabitants ; its great sealing fleet ; populous towns and villages, telegraphs, agriculture, in fact, every thing that a large civilized community requires. We return to Topsail or Portugal Cove where a railway to St. John's ought to convey us ; and I hope that in a very few years a railway and a lino of good steamers will connect the Conception Bay and St. John's trading communities, and be most highly advantageous to both. I regret that I can not take you into the unexplored interior— to the Big Pond, seventy miles long, the future seat of a great popula- tion ; to Indian Pond, and the other great lakes and rivers which beautify the country. (This is only an outline of the description of the country, which, with the explana- tions on the map, occupied more than an hour.) The in- terior appears to be a country such as Britain was an- ciently, marshy, but easily reclaimed ; there being every- where a fall into the great lake or by the rivers lo the sea. When we know what the state of tlie North of Europe was eighteen hundred years ago, and what a great change it has undergone since, we may reasonably hope that the climate of the interior of Newfoundland will, by cultiva- tion, drainage, and reclamation of bog land, undergo a great change. The coast climate will always depend on the oceanic current, but the interior climate will, under those influences, be modified. I know many persons imagine that the interior will never be inhabited, but they have not studied the subject. I see the sandy and barren shores of the Baltic, with a climate and soil far worse than Newfoundland, and without any great maritime or fishery resources, as we have, the seat of a large population. 69 Why ? Because the people of Courland, Finland, Estho- nia, Prussia Proper, Mecklenburg, and all the^o other northern regions have no other place to go to. They can not, as of old, follow their chiefs from their forests^, and carve out for themselves homes in the genial climes of Southern Europe. Suppose America to be the old country and Europe the new, and that the tide of emigration set eastward, it would naturally be directed to the banks of the Garonne, tiie Tagus, the Gaudalquiver, or to the shores of Italy or Sicily, not to the Elbe or the Baltic. Such is the case with us at present— the tide of European emigra- tion sets toward tiie broad rich lands of the United States. But let these get filled in another couple of centuries, when laud now sold at $1 an acre will be paying an annual rent of $5 or $6, and it will be as difficult to get a living there as now in the crowded countries of Europe : when taxa- tion will be increased, perhaps large standing armies kept on foot ; then the people of these northern regions, in- creasing and multiplying, will cultivate their now waste lands, as the Swedes, the Danes, the Russians, and Prus- sians have done, when there was no outlet for them, and Newfoundland will count its population, not by thousands, but by millions. The increase at present, independent of any emigration, is thirty-three per cent, at least every ten years. Take the present population at say 130,000, and that is a very low estimate, and see then what it will amount to in even another century— over two millions ! I do not mean to say that the increase will be so constantly progressive, but it must be at least ten-fold— 1,300,000. The present generation of Newfoundland then leaves a mighty inheritance to tlieir children, and we are now form !l! ^ ill i I I'r ii 60 ing the character of a future nation. The de-elopn.cnt of the people is certain. Religion, education, and industry are indispensable to make them a great people. Consider what xNowfoundland was fifty years ago, and then you may imagine what it will be a century hence. I hope, then I have drawn your attention to the past and present state of the country in this and my former lecture, and excited your hopes for its future prosperity. I hove merely glanced at the subjects 1 treated of-to take them up in detail would require many lectures longer then the present greater abilities than I possess, and deeper research than I could afford to give to the subject. However, the man who brings only a single .tone to an edifice contributes to Its erection. Before I close, I consider it due to one In- stitute to make special mention of it~I mean that Society of Religious Ladies, the Nuns, who are now engaged in the great work of female education, in moulding the char- acters of generations yet unborn, instructing in religion industry, and refinement the future mothers of the peoplJ of Newfoundland. We may look with confidence to those • who come after us when such a religious foundation is laid I thank you sincerely, ladies and gentlemen, for the atten* tion you have shown to this long lecture, assuring you in all sincerity, that whatever observations I made in 'the course of it were dictated solely by a love for our native or adopted country— Newfoundland.