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WAJ JO/6 OC£A/^ LEyCL . yas 7m ■fiWrM9hr,f-ej3}f6fin szs/^ ■ m s9^^-si fi<4:ana.j/.s in of'fralirn. ^>rr /■>//,•<■(■(/ ('a /uiZa /\ U///////////;/ fj/'. W//// J l//^/j ^x^izr yi'iviL^TiarTxc.-^r.^.rriccsri Tc Fav£)-i)U-'XJic . j-.^-jrjr srFjjjuon. I }k'6fiS'/, 6ZS/i ■ m S9liainniliiTai,llH5r>. ,A1i>llli(K-.'^ I, I III . Men I 'till '^ix-<*^<^^J ^^"-Z ^/ :, ,^j --tt. >-/ f f-Z CANADA. AN ESSAY: TO WHICH WAS AWARDED THE FIRST PRIZE BY THE PARI"- EXHIBITION COMMITTEE OF CANADA. BT J. SHERIDAN HOGAN. • • • • • • • • » • • • • • ••. • * ; " • * 1 • • . " • **. »"•• ••• •••• »•. • • •..•, •• ' ■ • ' • . . • • • . • • • • Montreal: PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST NICHOLAS STREET. 1855. ^ \^ ,•« ••• • . • • . • .. . , , , , , , ;,• .•*..••• . . . , . * • * • • « •• • • •• •*. ••• •'• • • •#• •#•» • , >• ' INDEX. Paqb. Ornkuai. lNTRo..tT(TfON.-_WImt tl.,- po,.plo <.f Cnua.Irt Imve to show for tlicir liiUiur, and who were tlio luboiiicrs, p <4|.XH»iiAi'Hi(\r, ANn TopoflRAPiircAi, i)fi«(;aiPTioN of United Cnnuila, and of Imtit Provinces Hvparatoly . , RiVEHs OP Cavaoa, ,, 1 r> Lakes, 21 The rroNKKHs of tiik For ''t— And herein of The Early Settler of : per Canada 24 The Farmer of Upper Canada, ap distinguished from the* Earlr Settler ' .,» The Habitant, or Vrrnch Camulian Farmer of Lower Canada,. ' '. ". a;^ PoPL'i.ATioy,— Tlic growtlj of, and the same cont raided with the United States, g^ Cities and Towns,— The rise of, and the same compared with the United StntoH 3V AonicutTrnK.— Its progress, and the same contrasted with the United States 4'j: Natpral PaonrrTs: — Timber ^« ::::::::::::::::::::::::;::::;;; « Geological Features.— Soil, Ae ' 4h Climate 52 Manukactuues, and Ship-building, 5^; Trade and Commerce, -^1 Revenue and Expendituke g., ^^^•^«' CS Inducements to Emigrants.— Wages, Price of Land, ision of tho Judges appointed to decide upon the merits of the Essays on Canada and its resources, for which prizes were offered by the Committee. liEPtiUT OF THE JUIKJES : The CoramitU* to whoui the Executive Committee on the Paris Es]ul)itiou refemtl the selection of the Prize Essays on Canada submit the following Eeport : Tile (\immitt(H.' liavo i-eceived from the Secretary nineteen Es.says, eighteen cif wliieh liave h^ni ainfully considered, b'^t the nineteenth id .so illegibly written tliat it liiia been quite impossible to decipher it, without an amount of time and pains, wlue.h the several Membei-s of the Committee ha\el)ccn unable to give. Of the eighteen Ks,s;iy.>( tho CommitkH) have selected three with the following triiittoes : " Jjibor onmia vin.' it,"— " .I'ai vu ce que je racoute,"— and " Virtutc ct labore ilnm spiro, spero,"— a.'^ those which in their judgment ore entitled to prizes, but they \\t\\v Ixfn unable to dccidi> upon the order in which they shall stand, as they ai«e equally divided in opinion upon their classification, and they, thwcforc, report them to the Executive Committee sim; ly as pnze- worthy, considering it bottci- not to make particular refcren(« to their notes, as to the i)osition which each Essay should occupy oil the prize list. Iti n,ideau, with a course of 116 miles, and draining an uei- of 1350 square miles; and a mile lower down, from the north, tV » C^ttineau, its greatest tributary, which drains an area of 12,000 £i-,uare miles, and is 420 miles long. The upper course of this I'lVer is unknown, but Bouchetie describes it as being 1000 feet vide 21 Y miles from its mouth. 20 PRIZE ESSAY Eighteen miles lower, from the north, the Ottawa receives the Riviere du Liuvre, in length 260 miles, draining an area of 4100 square miles. Fifteen miles lower down, on either side, the North and South Nation Rivers, the former 95, and the latter 100 miles in length; still lower it receives the Riviere Rouge, 90 miles long, the Riviere du Nord, 160, and just above its mouth, the River Assumption, 130 miles in length.. The Government have already expended £94,3 71 in constructing the timber slides on the Ottawa, and a further sum of £11,000 is required for their completion ; and the canal recently projected and in course of construction between the Lakes des Chats and Chaudiere will render the navigation from Ste. Anne to Portage du Fort, a distance of 164 miles, perfect for vessels of large tonnage. An extract from the Report o^ Mr. Russell, the Government Agent to the Crown Lands Department, furnishes some idea of the wealth of this district. In one item alone, he says: '• On prin- " ciples of calculation admitted by persons of experience to be '' correct, after making deduction for barren ground and future " destruction by fire, it is estimated that there are still standing " on the Ottawa and its tributaries about 45,811,200 tons of tim- '' ber, of the kind and average dimension now taken to market, " and about 183,244,800 tons of a smaller size, though still •' valuable," At the present rate of consumption this would last at least 150 years, without taking into consideration the natural growth during that period. Of the many other rivers in the two Provinces it is impossible to give any description here. Many of them, especially those running into the lakes, are of considerable size, and navigable for many miles from their embouchure. ON CANADA. 21 THE LAKES OF CANADA. The lakes of Canada are almost innumerable, and some of them, esptoially in the Upper Province, may, with truth, be styled Inland Seas, and afford a water communication unrivalled in the world. Laki Superior, the monarch of all fresh water lakes on the globe, is the largest and most elevated of these inland seas. It is 627 feet above the level of the sea, 430 miles long, 160 miles broad, 1200 foat ueep, and 1750 miles in circumference; and it is said that more than 200 rivers and creeks flow into it. Its shores are rock}', with bold promontories, and occasional sandy bays, the most remarkable elevation being the Thunder Mountain, 1200 feet high. it contain? nu.a^rous islands, and its shores are, for the most part, .n ed vn'ii timber. Its waters are discharged into Lake H'u -1 by the Kiver St. Mary, now rendered navigable by a short caiiai for large sized vessels. Lake Huron is 580 feet above the sea, 250 miles long, 220 miles broad, 900 feet deep, with a circumference of 1100 miles, divided by the chain of the Manatoulin Islands ; the northern portion being known by the name of the Georgian Bay. There are many good harbours on the northern coast, but the southern is for the most part flat and shallow ; it receives the waters of many rivers. The great Manatoulin Island is eighty miles long, eighteen broad, with an .m •■ ' about 1500 square miles; it is fertile in some parts and ccntuus x luable timber. It lias two known com- munications wi , i's«! {iver Ottawa, the one through Lake Simcoe and a chain ot iake^ ' he River Madawaska, which falls into the Lake des Chats ; the otiier *ip the French Hiver, through Lake Nii>issing, and down to the Ottawa. This route, either by water or railway, would shorten the communication from the St. Lawrence to the northern Ir.kes to an extent of several hundred miles. The River Severn connects Lake Huron with Lake Simcoe, and the River St. C lalr with Lake Erie. 22 PRIZE ESSAY III |) I IH The third great lake, Erie, unlike Huron and Superior, runs nearly east and west, and the southern shore is exclusively within the tiirritory of the United States. It is about 280 miles long, 63 broad, with an area of 11,000 square miles. Although the navigation of this lake is at times difficult and dangerous, its com- mercial position is highly favorable, being bordered by one of the most fertile regions of North America. The River Niagara having in its course one of the wonders of the world, the Falls, connects this with Lake Ontario, and the obstruction in the navigation is overcome by the Welland Canal. Lake Ontario, the last of the srreai lakes, is 180 miles long, 80 broad, with a oiremaference of Y*. ' ' miles end though interior in size to Lake Erie, is far more pictu. ■., iis outline. It abounds in excellent harbours of great depth o. - . 'ar, and, like the other lakes, is fed by numerous rivers. From this point the St. Law- rence, having wound its course through the great lakes, runs uninterruptedly for TOO miles into the sea. It would be impossible to compute with accuracy the traffic of these inland seas, either present or prospective. It is chiefly made up of the natural productions of the forest, the mineral kingdom, and agricultural produce, to which may be added the fur trade and fisheries. The admirable lectures of Professor Williamson, of the University of Queen's College, Kingston, give some very interesting particulars on the subject, which are freely used in this sketch. The quality of the iron found near Lake Superior is said to be very good. The report of English manufacturers, who have recently submitted it to the test, added to the examination of scientific men, fully corroborate the statement. Its ultimate tenacity in bars has been found to be 89,882 lbs. to the square inch, that of the best Russian being only 79,000. The copper mines on Lakes Superior and Huron appear to be inexhaustible ; I ON CANADA. 23 but their real value has been only recently ascertained, large quantities of this ore having been shipped during the past year. Of all natural productions, however, the traffic in timber appears at present, at least, to equal that of agricultural produce, and far exceeds that of any other description. In 1851 the amount of sawed lumber which reached the Hud- son River was upwards of 1 1 1,000 tons, valued at about £4,000,000 currency. At least three-eighths of this wns brought from the lake country, and is independent of the immense quantity shipped from Canada to various ports in the United States for local consumption. Taking the export timber trade on tho lakes, and to the seaboard by the Hudson, and adding to this the amount exported from Upper Canada by the St. Lawrence to Great Britain and other markets, the export productions of the forest from the lakes in upwards of £2,000,000 annually. The whole through tonnage which arrived at the Hudson, and shipped from the Western States and Canada, by Buffalo and Oswego, in 1851, yielded £6,750,000 currency ; add to this 47,000 tons, a great part of the business of the Now York and Erie Railroad, and it makes a total of £7,500,000. If from this be deducted £1,500,000 as the value of the products of the forest, that of the farms will not be less than £5,500,000 of the remainder ; and if to this is added £500,000 as the value of the agricultural products of the lakes, shipped for the sea-board by way of the St. Lawrence, it leaves, at a very moderate estimate, £6,000,000 for the total value of the agricultural exports of the lake basin. The whole value of the various products, natural and industrial, exported from the area of the great lakes cannot now be less than £10,000,000 of surplus produce, over and above what is required for home consumption. The amount of imports into the area of the lakes is much greater. The value of the merchandize which left the Hudson River for the Western States and Canada in 1861 was £15,500,000, indepen- u PRIZE ESSAY V< dently of that which left by railroad, which would mate the whole £16,000,000. Of this upwards of £2,000,000 were for Western Canada alone. Adding £2,000,000 of imports by the St. Lawrence into Western Canada from Great Britain and other countries, it makes the Upper Canadian imports about £4,000,000, and the whole imports of the lake basin £18,000,000 ; thus the imports into the United States and Canada, by way of the lakes, is equal to one-third of the entire imports of the United States. Hitherto the imports and exports of the lakes have more than doubled every four years, and there is every reason to believe that this rate of advancement will more than continue. The St. Law- rence will probably become the great highway to the Pacific and to the East, and on her waters alone can the western portion of the continent find an outlet for its enormous traffic. The length of the navigation of che lakes is said to be about 1800 miles, and as Professor W^illiamson describes them, they are " innumerable canals in one." Combining these with the net-woik of railways now intersect- ing her shores, Canada may safely boast as fine internal commu- nications as any in the world. THE EA.RLY SETTLER OF UPPER CANADA. Great as has been the prosperity of America, and of the settle- ments which mark the magnificent country just described, yet nature has not been wooed in them without trials, nor have her treasures been won without a struggle worthy of their worth. Those who have been in the habit of passing early clearings in Upper Canada must have been struck with the cheerless and lonely, even desolate appearance of the first settler's little log hut. In the midst of a dense forest, and with a " patch of clearing " ON CANADA. 25 scarcely large enough to let the sun shine in upon him, he looks not unlike a person struggling for existence on a single plank in the middle of an ocean. For weeks, often for months, he sees not the face of a stranger. The same still, and wild, and boundless forest every morning rises up to his view; and his only hope against its shutting him in for life rests in the axe upon his shoulder. A few blades of corn, peeping up be- tween stumps whose very roots interlace, they are so close together, are his sole safe-guards against want; whilst the few potatoe plants, in little far-between " hills," and which struggle for exist- ence against the briar bush and luxuriant underwood, are to form the seeds of his future plenty. Tall pine trees, girdled and blackened by the fires, stand out as grim monuments of the pre- vailing loneliness, whilst the forest itself, like an immense wall round a fortress, seems to say to the settler, — " how can poverty ever expect to escape from such a prison house." Yet there is, happily, a poetry in every man's nature ; and there is no scene in life, how cheerless soever it may seem, where tliat poetry may not spring up ; where it may not gild desolation itself, and cause a few to hope where all the world besides might despair. That little clearing, — for I describe a reality, — which to others might afford such slender guarantee for bare subsistence, was nevertheless a source of bright and cheering dreams to that lonely settler. He looked at it, and instead of thinking of its littleness, it was the foundation of great hopes of a large farm and rich com fields to him. And this very dream, or poetry, or what you will, cheered him at his lonely toil, and made him contented with his rude fire-side. The blades of corn, which you might regard as conveying but a tantalizing idea of human comforts, were associated by him with large stacks and full granaries ; and the very thought nerved his arm, and made him happy. His little lonely hut, into which I saw shrink out of sight his timid children — for they rarely i: 26 PRIZE ESSAY if ever saw a stranger, — was coupled by liim, not with the notion of privations and hardships you might naturally attach to it, but with the proud and manly idea, that it should be Mic place where he should achieve the respectability and indopefidence of those chil- dren. But, besides this, he knew the history of hundreds, nay, thousands of others in Canada, who had gained prosperity against similar odds, and he said in his manliness, that he should go and do likewise. Seven years afterwards I passed that same settler's cottage — it was in the valley of the Grand River in Upper Canada, not far from the present Village of Caledonia. The little log hut was used as a back kitchen to a neat two story frame house, painted white. A largo barn stood near by, with stock of every description in its yard. The stumps, round which the blades of corn, when I last saw the place, had so much difficulty in springing up, had nearly all disappeared. Luxuriant Indian corn had sole possession of the place where the potatoes had so hard a struggle against the briar bushes and the under-wood. Tlie forest — dense, impenetrable though it seemed — had been pushed far back by the energetic arm of man. A garden, bright with flowers, and enclosed in a neat picket fence, fronted the house; a young orchard spread out in rear. I met a farmer, as I was quitting the scene, returning from church with his wife and family. It was on a Sunday, and there was nothing in their appearance, save perhaps a healthy brown colour in their faces, to distinguish them from persons of wealth in cities. The waggon they were in, their horses, harness, dresses, everything about them, in short, indicated comfort and easy circumstances. I enquired of the man who was the owner of the property I have just been describing? "It is mine, sir," he replied ; "I settled on it nine years ago, and have, thauk God, had tolerable success." ON CANADA. 27 Such was an early settler of Upper Canada. Such were his hardships, his fortitude, and his success. Uis history is but that of thousands in the same Province. THE FARMER OF UPPER CANADA, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EARLY SETTLER. There is perhaps no class in the world who live better — I mean who have a greater abundfinco of the comforts of life — than men having cleared farms, and who know how to make a proper use of them, in Upper Canada. The imports of the country show that they dress not only well but in many things expensively. You go into a church or meeting-house in any part of the Province, which has been settled for fifteen or twenty years, and you are struck at once with the fabrics, as well as the style of the dresses worn by both sexes, but especially by the young. The same shawls, and bonnets, and gowns which you see in cities, are worn by the women, whilst the coats of the men are undistinguishable from those worn by professional men and merchants in towns. A circumstance which I witnessed some years ago in travelling from Simcoe to Braocford — two towns in the interior of the Province — will serve to convey an idea of the taste as well as the means of enjoyment of these people. At an ordinary Methodist meeting- house in the centre of a rural settlement, and ten miles from a village or town, there were twenty-three pleasure carriages^ double and single, standing in waiting. The occasion was a Quarterly Meeting, and these were the conveyances of the farmers who came to attend it. — Yet twenty years before, and this was a wilderness. — Twenty years before, and many of these people were working as labourers, and were not possessed of a pair of oxen. — Twenty years before, and these things exceeded even their brightest dreams of prosperity. 28 PRIZE ESSAY To persons not practically acquainted with Upper Canada, these evidences, not only of comfort but of considerable refinement may appear extraordinary, because mere rude husbandry, just emerging from a wilderness, could hardly bo expected to produce such results. Wealth in agriculture, like wealth in every other occupation, is usually the offspring of skill and judgment, as well as of labour and perseverance. Uut it is a remarkable fact that the farmers of Upper Canada have opportunities of improvement, and of enlarging and correcting their views, beyond what are enjoyed by many of their class even in England. And this arises from the circumstance of the population being made up of so many varieties. The same neighbourhood has not unfrequently a representative of the best farming skill of Yorkshire ; of the judicious management and agricultural experiences of the Lo- thians, and of the patient industry and perseverance of Flanders. In a country so peopled the benefits of travel are gained without the necessity of going away from home. Other countries, in fact, send their people to teach Canadians, instead of Canadians having to go to other countries to learn. A thousand experiences are brought to their doors, instead of their having to visit a thousand doors to acquire them. Nor is the advantage of this happy admixture of population altogether on the side of the Canadian ; for whilst he gleans from the old countryman his skill and his science, he teaches him, in return, how to rely upon himself in emergencies and difficulties inseparable from a new country, — how to be a carpenter when a storm blows down a door, and there is no carpenter to be had ; and how to bo an un- dismayed wheelright when a waggon breaks down in the midst of a forest, and there is no one either to instruct or to assist him. The one, in short, imparts to a comparatively rude people the know- ledge and skill of an old and highly civilized country : the other teaches skilled labour how to live in a new land. The conse- ON CANADA. quencc is, the old countryman of tact becomes, in all that relates to self-reliance and enterprise, a capital Canadian in a few years ; whilst the Canadian, in all that pertains to skillful industry, b- comes an excellent Englishman. As a natural result of this, there is scarcely an improvement effected in English farming wliich does not find its way into Canada soon after ; nor is there an agricultural implement of value, which can bo adapted to Canadian soil, that is not immediately copied or imported. And Agricultural Societies have sprung up and prospered in the country, to an extent hardly parallelled in any other part of the world. The result is that Durham cattle may be seen at the very verge of civilization in Western Canada ; that there is scarcely a neigbour- hood where may not bo found the descendants of IJorkshire pigs, nor a village that has not horses which exhibit all the fine peculia- rities of the best breeds of England and Scotland. That a country 80 circumstanced, with a fine climate, and with abundance of land for those who had the energy to clear and cultivate it, should have enjoyed great prosperity, is really not so much a wonder as it would be a matter of surprise if it had not had such success. The same causes wnich have produced these results upon agri- culture have also had an eminently beneficial eff'ect upon society. The settler who nobly pushes back the giant wilderness, and hews out for himself a home upon the conquered territory, has necessarily but a bony hand and a rough visage to present to advancing civiliza- tion. His children, too, are timid, and wild, and uncouth. But a stranger comes in ; buys the little improvement on the next lot to him ; has children who are educated, and a wife with refined tastes, — for such people mark, in greater or less numbei-s, every settlement in Upper Canada. The necessities of the new comer soon bring about an acquaintance with the old pioneer. Their families meet — 'timid and awkward enough at first perhaps ; but children know not the conventionalities of society, andj happily, are gov- |i y 30 I'RIZE ESSAY erned by tlioii mnooenc com in their friondsliips. So thoy play togctlicr, cjo to schpol in company ; and thus, imporccptiMy to themselves, ar(f the tastes and manners of the educated imparted to the rudo, and the cner2:y and fortitude of the latter are infused into their more ettcminato companions. Manly but ill-tutored success is thus tauc^lit how to enjoy its gains, whilst respectable poverty is instructed how to better its condition. That pride occasionally puts itself to inconvenience to prevent these pleasant results, my experience of Canada forces me to admit ; and that tin; jealousy and vanity of mere suc(!ess sometimes vi^ws with unkindness the manner and habit of reduced respectability — never perhaps more exactini,' than when it is poorest — I must also acknowledge. But that the great law of progress, and the influence of free institutions, break down these exceptional feelings and prejudices, is patent to every close observer of Canadian society. Where the educated and refined undergo the changes incident to laborious occupations — tor the constant use of the axe and the plough alters men's feelings as well as their appearances, — and where rude industry is also changed by the success Avhich gives it the benefit of education, it is impossible for the two classes not to meet. As the one goes down — at least in its occupations, — it meets the other coming up by reason of its successes, and both eventually occupy the same pedestal. T have seen this social problem worked out over and over again in Upper Canada, and have never known the result different. Pride, in America, must " stoop to conquer ;" rude indus- try rises always. The manner of living of the Upper Canadian farmer may be summed up in few words. He has plenty, and he enjoys it. The native Canadians almost universally, and a large proportion of the old country people, sit at the same table with their servants or labourers. They eat meat twice, and many of them thrice a day : it being apparently more a matter of taste than of economy as to ON CANADA. 51 tlio number of times. Pork is what they r'hiefly consume. Ther** beino; a f,'reat abundance of fruit, scarcely a clearod farm is with- out an orchard ; and it is to bo found preserved in various wayf on every farmer's table. Milk is in •s Total Population,. 4 i i a O if 3 11230 82699 14565 75811 51499 176267 669528 26417 125580 526093 12482 43732 474 3785 480 2634 51 79 47 345 4 106 159 9957 359 1007 28 15 18 57 12 29 8 188 38 209 2 11 118 24 293 131 830 1351 10 168 2446 889 890261 952004 a 93929 90376 227766 695945 651673 56214 4259 3114 130 392 110 10116 1366 43 75 41 196 247 13 142 424 2181 178 3335 1842265 Since this Census was taken, the population has increased to 2,300,000; Upper Canada having increased 308,000, and Lower Canada, 150,000. In Upper Canada the native born Canadians are eleven nine- teenths of the whole population, and the natives of Ireland more than double the number from any other country. In Lower Canada the native born Canadians are as eight to one of the entire population, and the natives of Ireland are four times more numerous than the natives of any other country. In the f i ON CANADA. 39 Counties of Sherbrooko, Stanstead, Shefford, Mcgantic, and Missis- quoi, in this Province, a more than ordinary number of natives of the United States have settled : in Missisquoi there are two thou- sand, and in Stanstead more than three. The inhabitants of French Canadian origin in Upper Canada are most numerous in the Counties of Essex, Prescott, Glengary, and in the City of Ottawa. In Lower Canada there are very few Upper Canadians. The Township of Waterloo, in Upper Canada, contains 523 7 persons of German origin, and it is remarkable for great pros- perity and very fine farms. In the Counties of Ilaldimand, Perth, East York, and Welland, the German population is also numerous and equally prosperous. THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF TOWNS AND CITIES IN CANADA, AND THE SAME COMPARED WITH THE UNITED STATES. The most striking effect of the rapid increase of population in America is the rise and growth of towns and cities. At the head of a lake, or where a stream empties into one of those inland seas, and forms a natural harbour ; or upon the bank of a navigable river which flows through a fertile country, a pioneer of the forest, or an adventurous speculator sets himself down, and says, that " here shall be a city." If his judgment be good, and the country around his imaginary "Thebes or Athens" be inviting, the waves of population which perpetually flow westward, stop for a time at his " location," and actually verify his dream. This is, literally, the history of the foundation of Chicago and Milwaukio in the United States, and of Brantford and London in Upper Canada; and of many other towns and cities in both countrie?. And to 40 PBIZE ESSAY ! ' !■ I ; couvey an idea of the wealth that is created by population being thus suddenly contralised in a comparative wilderness, I have but to name the fact, that within twenty years land was sold for a pound an acre in many cities, towns and villages, in the western part of America, where it is now purchased for twenty-five pounds a foot. There is not an old inhabitant of l^uffalo or of Chicago in the States, or of Toronto or Hamilton in Canada, who cannot recount numerous instances of property, now worth thousands, even tens of thousands of pounds, being bought, twenty years ago, for a cow, or a horse, or a small quantity of goods out of a shop, or a few weeks or months labour of a mechanic. These things form the topics of fireside history in these places. The poor refer to them as foundation for hope. The rich regard them as matters of congratulation. The speculator and the man of enter- prise learns from them how and where to found a town, and to make a bold imsh for a fortune. In this singular and instructive feature of American progress, how does Canada compare with the United States ? The " WorliTs Progress^'' published by Putnam of New York, — a reliable auiliority, — gives the population and increase of the prin- cipal cities in the United States. Boston, between 1840 and 1850, increased forty-five per cent> Toronto, within the same period, increased nincty-jive per cent. New York, the great emporium of the United States, and regarded as the most prosperous city in the world, increased, in the same time, sixty-six per cent., being thirty-five less than Toronto. The cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, which have also expe- rienced extraordinary prosperity, do not compare with Canada any better. In the thirty years preceding 1850, the population of St. Louis increased fifteen times. In the thirty-three years, preceding the same year, Toronto increased eighteen times. And Cincinnati increased, in the same period given to St. Louis, but twelve times. ON CANADA. 41 Hamilton, a beautiful Canadian city at the head of Lake Onta- rio, and founded much more recently than Toronto, has also had almost unexampled prosperity. In 1836 its population was but 2846, in 1854 it was upwards of 20,000. Loudon, still farther west in Upper Canada, and a yet more recently founded city than Hamilton, being surveyed as a wilder- ness little more than twenty-five years ago, has now upwards of ten thousand inhabitants. The City of Ottawa, recently called after the magnificent river of that name, and upon which it is situated, has now above 10,000 inhabitants, although, in 1830, it had but 140 houses, including mere sheds and shanties; and the property upon which it is built was purchased, not many years before, for eighti/ pounds. The Town of Brantford, situated between Hamilton and London, and whoso site was an absolute wilderness twenty-five years ago, has now a population of 6000, and has increased, in ten years upwards of three hundred per cent.; and this without any other stimulant or cause save the business arising from the settlement of a fine country adjacent to it. The Towns of Belleville, Cobourg, "Woodstock, Goderich, St. Catherines, Paris, Stratford, Port Hope, and Dundas, in Upper Canada, show similar prosperity, some of them having increased in a ratio even greater than that of Toronto, and all of them but so many evidences of the improvement of the country, and the growth of business and population around them. That some of the smaller towns in the United States have enjoyed equal prosperity I can readily believe, from the circum- stance of a large population suddenly filling up the country contiguous to them. Bufialo and Chicago, too, as cities, are magnificent and unparallelled examples of the business, the energy, and the progress, of the United States. But that Toronto should ! I PBIZE ESSAY have quietly and unostcntatioiisly increased in population in a greater ratio than New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and that the other cities and towns of Upper Canada should have kept pace with the Capital, is a fact creditable alike to the steady industry and the noiseless enterprise of the Canadian r)oople. Although Lower Canada, from the circumscance already alluded to of the tide of emigration flowing westward, has not advanced so rapidly as her sister Province, yet some of her counties and cities have recently made great progress. In the seven years preceding 1851, the fine County of Megantic, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, and through which the Quebec and Richmond Railroad passes, increased a hundred and sixteen per cent. ; the County of Ottawa eighty-five ; the County of Drummond seventy- eight, and the County of Sherbrooke fifty. The City of Montreal, probably the most substantially built city in America, and cer- tainly one of the most beautiful, has trebled her population in thirty-four years. The ancient City of Quebec has more than doubled her population in the same time, and Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, has increased upwards of four times; showing that Lower Canada with all the disadvantages of a feudal tenure, and of being generally looked upon as less desirable for settlement than the "West, has quietly but justly put in her claim to a portion of the honour awarded to America for her progress. AGRICULTURE AND ITS PROGRESS. THE SAME COMPARED WITH THE UNITED STATES. Canada, but especially the Western Province, is and has been essentially an agricultural country. Acting upon a policy which it is neither necessary to explain, nor to discuss the merits of here, i ) ON CANADA. 48 England has always desired to make Canada, and indeed all her North American colonies, marts for the consumption of her manu- factures. The consequence is, that Canada's energy has been chiefly directed to agricultVire. It is true that she has valuable minenalsi but it is only recently that public attention has been directed to them, and that capital has been applied to their production. Whatever prosperity the Canadian people enjoy, it is emphatically to the soil, the use they have made of it, and the timber they found upon it, that they owe it. To follow the plough, there- fore, is to follow what has led to Canada's wealth. To count her stacks of corn is to tell what she has to show for her labour. The statistics which mark her annual production are the mile-stones on her road to prosperity; and if the reader has a fancy for well-stored granaries, rich harvest fields, farm yards teeming with plenty, and beautiful animals — for they are not the less so for being domestic and useful, — I would invite him to take a short excursioii upon this pleasant road of Canadian prosperity. The value of all the vegetable productions of Canada in 1851 was estimated at £9,200,000, — grain being £5,^30,000, other products £3,570,000. The wheat crop of that year in Upper Canada was 12,682,550 bushels, or nearly 13J bushels for every inhabitant, while that of the United States in the same year gave only about 4^ bushels to each inhabitant. It would exceed the limits of an Essay to trace the large increase in the vegetable productions of Canada. The progress of the American States, unexampled perhaps in the history of the world, afford, by contrast, the best proofs of the agricultural advancement of Canada. Ohio, the best of these States for agricultural purposes, and where land is held, on an average, at double the price of that of the whole Union, produces, with nearly acre for acre under wheat cultivation, one-seventh less in quantity than Upper Canada, there being one and a-half bushels less to each inhabitant. 44 PRIZE ESSAT In tlio last ten yonrs the prowth of wheat in the whole United States increased 48 per cent., and that of Canada, in the same period, increased 400 per cent. Even in Indian corn the pro- duction of Canada compares most favorably with the States, the increase in the States, for a period often years, up to 1851, being 66 per cent. ; and for nine years, up to the same period, that of (Canada was 163 per cent. Of oats, the growth in Ui)per Canada has, in nine years, increased 133 per cent., and in Lower, seventy, against 17 per cent, during the same period in the United States. The amount of live stock is justly considered one of the most important features in agriculture, and one of primary consideration in good farming, as without it the properties of the soil could not be sustained, the expense and diflSculty of introducing Guano, Nitrate of Soda, and other costly manures pressing too heavily upon the farmer in a young country. In addition to this, stock is a source of wealth, as affording butter, cheese, wool, and other marketable produce. In 1851, Canada possessed 502,622 milch cows, being two to every 6^ persons, and 46,939 more than the State of Ohio, which had in this year about an equal number of inhabitants. In sheep, Upper Canada had ten, and Lower Canada eight to every one hundred inhabitants, whilst the whole United States had 7^. In ten years the increase in the States of the latter animals was equal to 10 per cent., and in the weight of their fleece 32 per cent. In Canada, for the same period, the increase in animals was 35 per cent., and in wool 64, the quality of Canadian wool being declared, at the Great Exhibition, to be nearly equal to the finest samples of German. Canada possesses one horse to every five inhabitants, and the increase in ten years has been 50 per cent. The best cattle increased 64 per cent, in six years, and the total livestock, accord- ON CANADA. 45 Ing to tho Census, in 1851, wfts 4,249,314 hoatl. The increase ninco tlmt poriod must have been very largo ; and the impcTtation of tho finest European breeds, carefully selected, has ennMed the Canadian farmer to compete, in stock, with any part of the world. From a summary of tho facts elucidated by the last Census of Canada and tho United States, taken within a year of each other, it appears that Canada far exceeds tho most productive State of the Union in wheat, peas, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, hay, hemp, flax, hops, maple sugar, and potatoes ; Ohio largely exceeding Canada in butter, cheese, grass seed, wool, tobacco, beef and pork ; and if tho produce of the forest be added, of which Canada exported in 1851 to tho value of upwards of a million and a-half of pounds, the relative wealth is greatly in favor of Canada. Already the population of Canada is more than one-thirteenth of the United States, the area in square miles, exclusive of territories, being one-sixth; her growth of wheat is one-sixth that of the American Union, and possessing, as she does, the great highway of the St. Lawrence to the West, her resources present an unrivalled field for energy ivnd enterprise. As a wheat exporting country Canada has made great progress ; and as the improved methods of agriculture are more generally adopted, and her rich territories in the west become better settled, her exports of breadstuff's will be immense. It would appear that the United States, on the contrary, during the last twenty years, have been unable, even with the temptation of famine prices, to increase their export, for in 1831 their export of wheat and flour was equal to 9,441,091 bushels, and the value $10,461,715. In 1851 the export was 11,028,397 bushels, the value 111,543,063, tho increase in twenty years being only 1,587,306 bushels. In 1838 Canada exported 296,020 bushels of wheat, and, in ''852, 6,496,718 bushels, thus increasing eighteen times. Her exports in grain have doubled four times iu fifteen years, or more 46 PBIZE ESSAY H than once in every four years. They are now equal to one-half the entire exports of the United States. There are, however, two articles which, until lately, occupied little attf-.ntion in Canada, namely, hops and flax. Of the former a considerable amount has been already exported, and the quality was considered fulilv equal to the British at the Great Exhibition. The growth of ilax is likely to become a very important feature in Can- adian indnstri&l wealth, for the soil and climate of Canada are reing £620,187. Of the timber, £1,682,125 was exported to Great Britain, £11,000 to the British Colonies, and £652,544 to the United States. The white and red pine, oak and elm, form the most important items in this amount. The export of pot and pearl ashes was £157,000, and of furs and skins £32,000. The timber exported, however, forms a very small proportion of the forest-wealth, as the home-consumption, for domestic purposes, for building, and for the construction of wharves, railways, fences, &c., is valued at considerably more than £2,000,000, and this would give the total value of the produce of the forest, in 1853, at about £4,532,000. ON CANADA. 4 It k said that three times the amount of timber reaches England from the Baltic, since the reduction of duties ; and it was thought for a time that the Canadian export would be seriously injured by the change. It is, however, found that both Baltic and American timber are required for different portions of house and ship building, and thus an increase in the consumption of the one benefits equally the other. Canada possesses almost every variety of ornamental timber, and her black walnut surpasses, in durability and exquisite graining, the mahogany and rosewood so extensively used in Europe. In sawed lumber the increase has been very great, as ajpears by a comparison of the quantities exported during the last three years. Of this the year 1851 produced 120,l'i5,560 feet, and 1853, 218,480,000 feet, and added to eight millions for the broken item of planks and deal ends, and 38,'740,168 cubic feet of squared timber, the total would be 727,188,010 feet of board measure, which is equal to 61,265,667 cubic feet of timber. The returno, however, from the nature of the business, and the vast extent of country it is spread over, arc no doubt far under the mark. FISHERIES. The fisheries in the Gulf of the River St. Lawrence, the mouths of the Saguenay, and other large rivers, and in the great lak«s, give occupation to several thousand persons. The Gulf fisheries are of great value, but in these Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are equally interested, and by the recent Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, they have free admission to these waters. The principal stations immediately appertaining to Canada are those of the Magdalen Islands, Gaspe and the Bay of Chaleurs, and on Lakes Huron and Ontario. The '« 48 FRIZB ISSAY •• I produce of this trade in 1853 was about 110,000 barrels, and of these were exported to the value of £85,000: £18,355 being exported to the United States, £15,072 to British North American Colonies, £8801 to Great Britain, and £42,110 to foreign countries. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES AND SOIL. The general features of Canada exhibit a granitic country, witli occasional calcareous rocks, of a soft texture, and in horizontal strata. The calcareous region extends in a line north-west beyond Lake Michigan, as far as the sources of the Mississippi, and thence to the great range of the Rocky Mountains. All the great lakes are placed in the line of contact between two vast chains of granite and limestone. At the narrowest part of Lake Winnipeg, where it is not more than two miles broad, the western shore is skirted by calcareous rocks, while on the oppo- site shore there are still higher rocks, of a dull grey granite. In the Lower Province, particularly, the granite prevails, with clay and limestone occasionally. The north shore of the St. Lawrence offers a rich field for the mineralogist, and at the Falls of Mont- morenci there is a dense bed of limestone, exhibiting deep fissures, which appear to confirm the account of the earthquake in 1063, of which so many traces are visible. The granite is invariably found in strata more or less inclined to the horizon, but never parallel with it. From Quebec to Niagara the red slate is perhaps the prevailing rock. The sub- soil around Lake Ontario is limestone on granite, real granite being seldom seen. On Lake Erie the strata are limestone, slate* and sandstone ; and at Niagara the stratum of slate is nearly forty feet thick, and almost as fragile as shale, — so much so, indeed, as to sink the superincumbent limestone, and thus verifying, to :k I ^1 il ON CANADA. 49 some extent, the opinion that a retrocession of the falls has been going on for ages. On Lake Huron limestone is found with detached blocks of granite and other primitive rocks. On the south shore of Lake Superior are sandstone, resting on granite, chal- cedony, cornelian, jasper, opal, agate, sardonyx, zeolith, and ser- pentine, with iron, lead, and copper imbedded. The north shore is of older formation, with vast beds of granite, and mines of copper. An elaborate and highly interesting report, recently presented by Mr. Logan, the Provincial Geologist, to His Excellency the Governor General, furnishes much valuable descriptive detail of the country between Montreal and Cap Tourmente, thirty miles below Quebec, having a length of about two hundred miles, gradually widening from Cap Tourmente, and having an area of of about 3000 square miles. "It presents a general flat surface, rising in many places by " abrupt steps, (the marks of ancient sea margins,) i^^to successive " terraces, some of which are from 200 to 300 feet above the level *' of the river, and the whole have a general parallellism with it. " These terraces are occupied by extensive beds of clay and sand." The economic materials of this district, traversed by the St. Maurice and other large rivers, appears to be those of bog iron ore, of which the largest fields appear in the country between St. Maurice and Batiscan ; and in the same localities, especially in the St. Nicholas range of Pointe du Lac, iron ochre is extensively found, occupy- ing, it is said, an area of about 400 acres, with a depth ranging from four to six feet, and aflfording eight varieties in colour. Iron sand, wad, and bog manganese are also found, and clay for pottery, bricks, and roofing tiles, to an extent which enables them to he manufact'ired in almost any locality where wanted ; and the white sandstone, although harder than most building stone, pos- sesses, as Mr. Logan remarks, the valuable property of resisting 50 PRIZE ESSAY *"■ tire. This, with limestone and the yellow calcareous stone, called the " Deschambault stone," and the millstones over the Potsdam beds, fit for flagging, are in beds from one to two feet thick. Marble of various colours, and susceptible of the highest polish, is found, and peat has been turned by the habitants to excellent iiccount, for when burned, and combined with the surface beneath, it becomes a very fruitful soil. The conflagrations which have destroyed so large a portion of the two principal cities in Canada have naturally called public attention to the roofing of the houses, and several slate quarries in the Townships of Kingsey and Elzear are now in operation. Their specific gravity and chemical composition are said to resemble the finest Welsh slate. In the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada clay slates have been extensively discovered. Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Logan have declared — and it is feared with too much truth — that from the geological structure of Canada coal cannot exist. If Canada, however, has not coal she is conveniently situated to it : on the north-west are the immense coal fields of the Michigan Territory, and on the south-east is the still greater coal field of ,\ppalachia, the one with a supposed surface of 12,000, and the other of 60,000 square miles, and said to bo the largest known car- boniferous tracts in the world. But little copper has been found in Lower Canada. On the River L' Assomption and other places where it has been discovered the lode is said to be of trifling value. Mr. Logan has devoted much attention to the discovery and distribution of gold. The auriferous tract is clearly shown to exist over 10,000 square miles on the south side of the St. Lawrence, especially in the Eastern Townships, in the valley of the St. Francis, from Richmond to Salmon River, and on the Magog River above Sherbrooke ; but he remarks " that the deposit will not, in general, ON CANADA 51 " remunerate unskilled labour, and that agriculturists, artisans, and " others engaged in the ordinary occupations of the country, would " only lose their labour by turning gold hunters." The Report of Mr. Logan on the Upper Province is accompa- nied by one by Mr. Murray, the Assistant Geologist, who especially refers to the district between Kingston and the River Severn, connecting Lake Simcoe with the Georgian Bay. The economic materials met with in this district are magnetic and specular iron ore, which exists chiefly in the Township of Bedford in the County of FrontenaCjMadoc and Marmora in Hastings, Belmont in Victoria, and Seymour in Northumberland ; and of these Mr. Murray thinks the deposits in Madoc, Marmora and Belmont will become of great commercial importance. The Marmora mines are now worked by an English Company with large capital, £,.id every modern improve- ment in machinery. They are situated on a rocky flat, and the iron ore is said to be rich in the extreme, yielding sometimes ninety per cent. It is found chiefly on the surface, or in its immediate vicinity. The Company owning them also possess extensive beds of marble and lithographic stone. In the same district are found galena and plumbago ; and the Potsdam formation yields grindstones and flagging stones ; clay producing the red and white brick is also abundant. The copper on Lakes Superior aP'^' Huron is becoming an important article of national wealth, and is foimd occasionally in masses of 2000 pounds weight in a pure and malleable state. Canada abounds in mineral springs, and the Caxton, Planta- genet, St. Leon and St. Catherines waters have acquired great celebrity. The soil of Canada is generally extremely fertile, and consists principally of yellow loam on a sub-stratum of limestone. It greatly improves to the westward, and its quality, when unculti- vated, is easily ascertained by the timber it produces, the TT m id PillZE ESSAY I 11 larger and heavier kinds growing on the best soil. In Upper Canada the brown clay and loam, intermingled with marl, pre- dominates in the district between the St. Lawrence, and the Ottawa ; but further wefit, and north of Lakes Ontario and Erie, the soil becomes more clayey and far more productive. The virgin soil is rich beyond measure, and the deposit of vegetable matter for ages, improved by the ashes of the fires which sometimes sweep the forest, render it abundantly productive for several years without extraneous help. CLIMATE. The acknowledged influence of the atmosphere, not only upon the productiveness of the soil of a country, but upon the temper, habits, and industry of its inhabitants, renders an enquiry into the climate of Canada a subject of great importance. Her inland seas, with an area of 100,000 square miles, and a supposed content of 11,000,000 cubic miles of water — far exceed- ing half the fresh water in all the lakes in the world, — exercise a powerful influence in modifying the two extremes of heat and cold. The uniformity of temperature thus produced, although low, is found to be highly favorable to animal and vegetable life. It is therefore found that in the neighbourhood of the lakes the most delicate fruits are reared without injury, whilst in places four or five degrees farther south they are destroyed by the early frosts. The quantity of rain, which for the most part falls in summer and early autumn, is no doubt greatly increased by evapo- ration from these immense bodies of water. The winds are most variable, and rarely continue for more than two or three days in the same quarter. This has the effect of preserving the equilibrium and renders the occurrance of disastrous storms less frequent. Tlie I ON CANADA. 53 S. W., the most prevalent wind, is generally moderate, with clear skies. The N. E. and E. bring continued rains in summer and early autumn, and the N. W., springing from the regions of ice, is invariably dry, elastic, and invigorating. Since 1818 the climate has greatly changed, owing principally, it is supposed, to the large clearings of the primeval forests. The salubrity of the Province is suflBciently proved by its cloudless skies, its elastic air, and almost entire absence of fogs. The lightness of the atmosphere has a most invigorating eflfect upon the spirits. The winter frosts are severe and steady, and the summer suns are hot, and bring on vegetation with wonderful rapidity. It is true that the spring of Canada differs much from the spring of many parts of Europe ; but after her long winter the crops start up as if by magic, and reconcile her inhabitants to the loss of that which, elsewhere, is often the sweetest season of the year. If, however, Canada has but a short spring, she can boast of an autumn deliciously mild, and often lingering on, with its "Indian summer" and golden sunsets, until the month of December. A Canadian winter, the mention of which, some years ago, in Europe, conveyed almost a sensation of misery, is hailed rather as a season of increased enjoyment than of privation and discomfort by the people. Instead of alternate rain, snow, sleet and fog, with broken up and impassable roads, the Canadian has clear skies, a fine bracing atmosphere, with the rivers and many of the smaller lakes frozen, and the inequalities in the rude tracks through the woods made smooth by snow — the whole face of the country being literally Macadamized by nature for a people as yet unable to Macadamize for themselves. It must not be supposed that the length of this season is neces- sarily prejudicial to the farmer, for mild winters are generally found to be injurious to fall crops of wheat, and a serious hindrance to !i 'il !:11 I,* 54 PRIZE ESSAY : 1 II '4 business and travelling. The summer, short and eminently fruc- tifying, occupies the whole of the farmer's time. It is in winter that the land is cleared of timber, the firewood dragged home from the woods on sleighs over ground impassable by wheel carriages, and that the farmer disposes of his produce, and lays in his supplies for the future. The snow forms a covering for his crops, and a road to his market. On the arrival of winter the care of his fat stock ceases, for the whole is killed, freezes, and can be disposed of as the state of the markets suggests. Comparing the two Provinces, it is admitted that the cli- mate of Upper Canada is the most favorable for agiicultural purposes, the winter being shorter, and the temperature less severe ; but the brilliant sky, the pure elastic air, and uninter- rupted frost of Lower Canada, though perhaps lingering too long, are far more exhilarating, and render out-door exercise much more agreeable. Few who have enjoyed the merry winters of Quebec and Montreal, with the noble hospitality and charming society of these cities, their sleigh drives and their pic-nics, can ever for- get the many attractions of a winter in Lower Canada. It would indeed be strange if some did not complain that the climate of Canada was too hot, without reflecting how neces- sary and how valuable this occasional extreme may be. Although the summer season is short it is highly favorable for the growth of hay, mangel wurtzel, turnips, and other roots, which enable the farmer to fatten his cattle before the arrival of winter ; and in a country where labour is not only high, but often difficult to be had, the heat is of incalculable value. The average amount of harvest labour in England is said to be about 13s. sterling per acre, whilst in Canada it does not amount to more than 6s. or 6s. 6d. This arises from various causes. The Canadian harvest ripens earlier, and is generally much less injured by weather than in England, and when cut, can, for the most part, be bound at once, (ifi ON CANADA. 55 and carried to the bam. The climate is so favorable that there i^* little or no trouble in " making " either grain or grass. Add to this the very general use of reaping and mowing machines, induced, no doubt, by the difficulty of obtaining hands. It will be found, on an average, that the crops are housed in half the time and with half the labour and expense that they are in England ; and, notwithstanding the length of the winter in Canada, the har- vest of Upper Canada is generally garnered by the first or second week in August, the farmers thus having longer days for labour. There is still another advantage arising from the summer heat, namely, that of cleaning the land, killing all noxious weeds, and preparing it for green crops. Of the general salubrity of the Province, its vital statistics, as compared with those of other countries, afford satisfactory evidence; and the following table, communicated by Professor Guy, is not devoid of interest, as shewing the proportion of deaths to the population in various countries : Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Norway and Sweden, Portugal, Prussia, Russia in Europe, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, Upper Canada, Lower Canada, All Canada, I 1 in 40 1 " 43 1 " 45 1 " 46 1 " 42 1 " 41 1 " 40 1 " 39 1 " 44 .1 " 40 1 " 40 1 " 30 1 " 74 1 » 102 1 " 92 1 " 98 i! il El 56 PRIZE ess;. MANUFACTURES AND SHIP BUILDING. Bi i ^1 As a manufacturing country Canada is only beginning to be important. English Canada is more than a century younger than the United States, and until recently her population was almost exclusively occupied in the pursuits of husbandry. She has, however, within the last few years, made considerable progress in manufactures, many of her articles having obtained prizes at the Great Exhibition in London, and several of them receiving favor- able notice. Of all manufactures in timbers the most important is that of ship building, and this is carried on chiefly at Quebec. The increase in the trade has been very great, not only from the extensive demand for vessels, but because of the high reputation Canadian built ships have acquired for symmetry, solidity, and speed. In the year 1853 forty-eight ships, with a tonnage of 49,000 tons, were built at Quebec, valued at £500,000, being an increase in one year, of twenty-two ships, and of value £340,000. A great number of these ranged from 1000 to 1800 tons, and some of them have made remarkably short passages. The " Boomerang" made one of the best passages ever made by a sailing vessel to and from Australia, beating the fastest American ship then on the ocean. The " Shooting ^tar," 1520 tons, and the ^^ Arthur the Great" 1600 tons, built in 1853 by Mr. Lee, a French Cana- dian of Quebec, are among the finest ships now in Her Majesty's transport service ; ©ne of them, the " Shooting Star" having made the fastest passage on record from Plymouth to Malta. Many of these ships were sold at £13 lOs. per ton ; and notwithstanding the depression in the trade, the keels of thirty ships, of from 800 to 2000 tons burthen, were laid down in the past winter. Of the increase in ship building in the inland waters, it would be impossible here to give any description. In 1817 two steamers ON CANADA. 57 were built on Lake Ontario, and in the following year one wa« launched in Lake Erie. At the present time thousands of vessels, steam and sailing, traverse the waters of the five great lakes and the River St. Lawrence, and of the former many are decorated in a style which fully entitles them to the name of floating palaces. After a season of apathy and mismanagement, the manufactures of iron and copper have assumed a healthy condition. The Mar- mora works, in the County of Hastings, possessing singular advan- tages, have, as already remarked, passed into the hands of an English Company, with large capital and every improvement in machinery. The bed is easily mined, and the ores are of excellent quality. The Three Rivers mines, on the River St. Maurice, have been many years in operation, and at this time employ about 300 hands. The proprietor obtained a prize medal at the Great Exhibition. The exports of this branch of Canadian industry, destined to become so important, have been hitherto triflin^-. The magnetic iron on Lake Superior and elsewhere has been recently examined by scientific men from England, whose report is highly favorable, and the general quality of the bar iron is said to equal the best Swedish in toughness and ductility. Some of the iron from Lake Superior has been pronounced superior to any in the world, its ultimate tenacity being nearly 90,000 lbs. to the square inch, and that of the best Russian being only 79,000 lbs. If, however, Canada produces at the present moment but little iron, her consumption of it is very large. She manufactures railway locomotives of the most approved construction, and every variety of castings, with land and marine steam engines, and fittings for all kinds of machinery. Her fire engines equal those of any other country, and gained the first prize at the Great Exhibition. She manufactures railway carriages and waggons ; and her pleasure carriages are not surpassed, for elegance of design, durability, and finish, by any in the world. She makes edge tools of every variety, <^ •I 68 PRIZE ESSAY ! I I' ; and many of thorn are sought by tbo artisan and backwoodsman in preference to those of European manufacture. Agricultural machines and implements are extensively made in the Province ; and Upper Canada stands almost unrivalled in the manufacture of cooking and ornamental stoves. Even in printing types, and stereotype plates, in philosophical and surgical instruments, and in piano-fortes and other musical instruments, she competes most creditably with other countries. In cotton fabrics Canada has made but little progress, but in woollen goods and mixed fabrics she is a large producer, and of a quality so good as to have taken prizes at the New York and London Exhibitions. In the manufacture of furs, and other articles for which her northern territory affords peculiar advantages, she is unrivalled ; and the exquisite graining of her timber for cabinet work, especially that of the black walnut, has lately created a great demand for it in the European markets. Passing over the less important manufactures, there remain the grist and saw mills of the Province, which minister to the first wants of the pioneer of the wilderness, and produce the staple exports of the colony. Of the latter, especially those on the river Ottawa and Saguenay, Canada has perhaps the largest in the world. The returns of the Census of 1861, though very imperfect, give 158 steam and 1473 mills worked by water-power, producing 7'72,612,'770 feet of lumber per annum, exclusive of 4,690,000 planks. There were 1163 grist mills returned, of which 46 were steam power, employing a capital of over £1,000,000. Several counties, however, made no return ; and the statistics generally bearing upon this important branch of industry and capital are very imperfect in the public returns, the only sources of informa- tion open to the writer. ! ■ ON CANADA. 5g TRADE AND COMMERCE. The mercantilo progress of Canada has been, at least, equal to that of her population. Of this the trade and navigation returns afford a striking confirmation. In 1834 her imports amounted to £1,003,645, and her export* to jC1,0 18,022. It would be tedious to trace the progress of the colony in these items, for they have naturally grown with her growth. I will, therefore, deal with the present. The increase in her commerce in one year, from 1852 to 1853, — the latest period at which we have the Government returns, — was £5,047,160, or 67 per cent., the total value of imports and exports in 1863 being £13,046,684 against £8,808,624 in 1852. Of goods paying specific and ad valorem duties there were imported in 1853 £7,906,350, and of free goods £443,077, the largest items being those of cotton goods, £1,315,685; woollen, £1,264,255 ; silk, £360,330 ; linen, £133,414 ; iron, manufactured and unmanufactured, £1,385,626; tea, £390,105 ; sugar, £207,068 and earthenware, £36,570 ; and of the whole she imported From Great Britian £4,622,280 3 10 " B. N. A. Colonies 159,034 13 3 " the United States 2,945,530 17 '♦ other foreign countries 268,507 7 The total imports divided among the whole population, as it stood on the Ist January, 1854, give £3 14s. lOd. to each individual. The imports of the United States for the same period give only £2 78. to each individual. The exports of Canada in the year 1863 amounted to £6,960,326, consisting of : Produce of the mines, Je27,339 3 2 " " sea, 86,000 13 8 " " forest, 2,365,265 2 2 Animals and their produce, 842,631 7 1 w 60 FRIZE E8SAT Vegetable food £1,995,004 15 9 Other agricultural products, 26,61 8 17 11 Manufactures, 35,106 9 Other articles, 15,823 11 3 to which must be added the value of ships built at Quebec, £620,187 IDs., and twenty per cent, to the inland ports, *£447,268, 5s. 5d. The total experts di^-ided into the whole population, on the Ist January, 1854, gives i;2 15s. to each individual. The exports of the United States give £2 79. 2d. per individual. In six years the imports of Canada have quadrupled, and the exportfi have increased in an equal ratio. The total customs receipts of the United States, for the year 1849, (vide Boston Almanac for 1851,) amounted to 828,346,738, exceeding but little over eleven times those of Canada, although their population was more than fifteen times greater. The value of their exports for the same year was $132,666,955, being but thirteen times more than those of Canada. The great importance to Great Britain of the British North American trade, even over that to the United States, valuable as the latter unquestionably is, may be gathered from the fact, that she exported to the States, in 1853, to the value of £23,461,971, being little over one pound to each individual, whilst her exports to Canada were £4,922,280, being equivalent to £2 6s. 7jd. io each inhabiiant. It may be remarked that the Canadian tariff contr usts most favorably with that of the United States, the duty on all manufactured articles being considerably less. Canada's whole consumption, at the United States' tariff, would cost her £500,000 per annum more than she now pays. * This addition has been made for years in the Trade aod Navigation ReprrtB, it being found that the inland ports are undervaiued. ON CANADA. 61 I Of the whole exports and imports of 1853, the value of £8,085,425 was conveyed by the way of the River St. Lavrence; and the total amount of duties collected in that year was £1,028,676, being an increase of nearly five times in ten years. In the year 1805, 146 vessels, with a tonnage of 25,136 tons, arrived at Quebec. In 1854 there arrived at the same port 1315 vessels, with a tonnage of 580,323 tons. In addition to this there Avere numerous vessels entered at the Ports of Amherst, Gaspe, and New Carlisle. The coasting traflSc, and that of the inland waters, between Canada and the United States, employed, of British ships, steam and sail, inwards and outwards, 4, .051,313 tons, and of American vessels 2,518,999, or a total of 7,470,312 tons. The ports of Canada take rank thus in the value of their exports and imports in 1854: — In exports — Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Coaticook, Dalhousie, Kingston, St. Johns and Whitby. In imports — Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, Stamford, Prescott and Stanley. In exports Quebec has made the largest absolute, .ind Toronto the largest relative advance. In imports Montreal has made the largest advance absolutely, and Hamilton relatively. The importance of the trade of the St. Lawrence with other countries should be estimated more by the nature of the commo- dities exchanged than by their intrinsic value, as Canadian exports, being largely made up of ti'^bcr, ^oquire an immense bulk of shipping, and consequent)}' give employment to a great number of the best sailors. Aa '.Mik i 62 PRIZE ESSAY I iff l»'L. hi REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. lu 1843 the revenue of Canada was £445,578, and its expendi- ture jE836,754. In 1853 the former amounted to £1,714,350, and the latter to £834,668, giving a balance to the credit of the Con- solidated Fund of £834,668, having increased four-fold in ten years. Of the revenue £1,029,782 were derived from the customs, £123,002 from public works, £93,770 territorial, and £15,006 casual vevenue. Of the customs revenue the sura of £986,597 was net, after deducting salaries and all other expenses. The revenue for 1854 is estimated at £1,423,520, and the expenditure at £939,595, or at the rate of 8s. 2d. for each inhab- itant. Ihe Boston Almanac gives the expenditure of the United States at £12,939,876, which, divided into the population, makes lis. Id. per individual, or thirty-seven per cent, higher than the indirect taxes of Canada ; but this includes 3,204,067 slaves, or nearly one-seventh of the whole population, who are not taxed ; deducting these it would add fifteen per cent, per individual to the tax on the free inhabitants of the States. From a table recently compiled in England it appears that the sum contributecl by the inhabitants of Canada to the revenue is considerably less than that contributed by any other British Colony. The inhabitants of the Australian Colonies contribute two pounds per head, the West India Islands one pound, and the other British North American Provinces ten shillings. Canada contributes eight shillings and two pence. From the expenditure of the Province about twenty per cent, may, however, be fairly deducted, as it is given back to the several counties for local purposes; being for the support of common •chools, the administration of justice, the payment of the salaries of public officers, and the grants to agricultural societies and me- chanics' institutes, to both of which the Government is very liberal. 1; ON CANADA. The only direct taxation in Canada is for municipal pur- poses, and this is returned many-fold to the inhabitants by the construction of roads and bridges and other local expenditures, which not only improve the means of communication, but mate- rially add to the value of property. It may be also remarked that there are no paupers in Canada, and distress is rarely or ever seen, save in the cities and large towns, arising too frequently from intemperance, or from sickness or other misfortunes to the poorer classes of emigrants. It appears from the last Census Report of the United States, that the sum of $2,954,806 was expended in 1851 for the relief of pau- pers. The total expenditure on the poor in England and Ireland in 1848 amounted to $42,750,000; and even this, added to a large amount of private contributions, was insufficient to relieve their wants. The expense of the organized benevolent institutions in Frauce, in th'' I'fme year, was 52,000,000 francs, and it is said that an aVera '< o!" 450,000 persons are relieved annually. A report of M. Ducliatel, the Minister of Commerce, declares that 695,932 persons received alms at their own houses. The ^Netherlands, with a population of 6,167,000, in the same year, contributed to the support of 1/214,055 persona, or about one -fifth of the entire population. It would, therefore, appear that though Canada cannot boast of the extreme wealth of older nations, she is wholly free from the other extreme of pauperism and its painful and debasing concomir tants, ignorance, want, disease, and crime. 64 PRIZE ESSAT BANKS, Ao. The monetary system of Canada is carried on by means of incor- porated banks, and if proof were required of how wisely these have been conducted, and how healthy the mercantile interests of the colony are under them, the fact that for a period of nineteen years there has not been a single bank failure, sufficiently affords it. As a contrast to this, the American newspapers of last fall advertised a list of 367 banks which had recently suspended pay- ment, or whose notes were pronounced worthless. The late exten- sion of the bank charters in Canada shews that the requirements of the trade of the country are greatly increasing ; and without venturing further remarks upon a subject which requires so much more space than could be devotr J to it here, a table is annexed, shewing the present and prospective capitals of the principal banks in the two Provinces : Present Capital, Increase. Montreal Bank £1,000,000 £500,000 Upper Canada Bank 500,000 600,000 City Bank 225,000 75,000 Pcople'sBank 200,000 100,000 QuebeeBank 260,000 250,000 Bank of British North America 1,000,000 Commercial Bank 600,100 250,000 Or an increase of JEl ,675,000 All these banks have agencies in the principal towns of th« Province, in England, Ireland and Scotland, and in many of th« commercial cities of France, Germany, and Holland. '4 ft I ON CANADA. 66 INDUCEMENTS TO EMIGRANTS,— WAGES, PRICE OF LAND, Ac. The flow of emigration to Canada has been greatly impeded by the want of sound and practical information upon the Colony in Great Britain. It is one of her nearest colonies, has a healthy and bracing climate, a soil producing the finest crops, and land so cheap and easily attainable that every industrious person may, in a short time, become a freeholder. The man of limited means can, in Canada, give his son an education second only to that of an English university. There is the most perfect freedom in reli- gious opinion ; and there is not a neighbourhood without it» church, chapel, and school. Taxation, too, is about eighty -five per cant, less than in (Jreat Britain and Ireland. To the industrial classes the points of greatest interest are the rates of wages, the price of provisions, and the cost of voyage. On these subjects recent Farliamentary papers, accompanied by Roports of the Emigration Agents, contain much valuable and reliable information. The number of emigrants who arrived at Quebec in the six months from May to November, 1854, was 36,699, and Mr. Buchanan, the Emigration Agent, reports in December, that mechanics of all descriptions, labourers and Bflrvants, were still in request. He adds : " the emigrants who " arrived during the last quarter all found immediate employ- " ment on landing, and a great scarcity of labour still exists " on the public works. All those who went to the west were " seldom more than a few hours unemployed after landing, '* and I have received applications from almost every setition " of the Province, complaining of the scarcity of female servants, " and of this class several thousands could be absorbed annually " in this Province." The average rates of wages for Lower Canada have been Gs. per day for bakers, butchers, brickmakers, carpenters, cabinet makers. ^w 66 FBIZE ESSAT li t' and most other trades ; stono cutters received Ys., and bricklayers and stone masons Ts. 6d. Agents from Upper Canada, and the Western States, guaranteed steady employment for unskilled labour at 68. 3d., and bricklayers and stone masons from lOs. to 12s. 6d. a day; farm labourers from 10 to 18 dollars per month. In Upper Canada the mechanics and labourers are generally lodged and boarded by their employers, and the table of a Cana- dian farmer is sumptuousness itself, compared with the scanty fare obtained by the labourers in the English agricultural districts. At this time a large number of labourers and mechanics are required for the numerous railways now in course of construction in the country, and also for the lumber trade, — the Ottawa, and other districts, offering great advantages to the settler in respect to high wages and the cheapness of land, the poor man, in a very short time, being able to become a prosperous freeholder. The rate of wages given has, during the past year, in many instances, been more than doubled, owing to the great demand for labour. Female servants get from $4 to |6 per month. Land is as easily obtainable in Canada as in any other British colony: the Crown Lands may be purchased at from Is. to 4s. per acre in Lower Canada, and in Upper Canada from 4s. to 20s. per acre, the value being regulated by their situation. In the former the purchase money is payable in five, and in the latter in ten, years. The Government seldom sell less than 100 or more than 200 acres to an individual, and these are, by a regulation of the Crown Lands Department, for actual settlement. The town plots, however, especially those possessing the advantages of water power, are sold in small lots at from £10 to £15 per acre, and th.' purchaser is required to give security for the erection of such a saw and flour mill as will suffice for the wants of the community. There are Crown Land Agents in every county, from whom information and advice can be readily obtained. ON CANADA. 67 Indepeudently of public lands there are, it is supposed, above 2,000,000 acres in the hands of private individuals, improved and unimproved, and sold from 5s. and upwards per acre. Im- proved farms, according to their intrinsic value and the outlay in houses, barns, stables, orchards, and fences upon them, are sold at from £2 to £20 per acre. Many private holders dispose of their lands at a credit of twenty years, the tenant paying yearly interest, with the power of completing his purchase at any time. There is still another mode adopted by the Government in Lower Canada, viz., that of allotting lands to individuals of twenty-one years of age and upwards, to the extent of fifty acres without pur- chase, on condition that they satisfy the commissioner, or his agent, that they can support themselves until a crop can be raised. The British American Land Company sell their lands in Lower Canada at from 8s. to 12s. per acre, requiring interest only for the first four years, and then allowing four years for the payment of the principal : the emigrant thus gets 100 acres of land by an annual payment of from £3 to £4 10s. The Canada Company possess large tracts of land in various parts of the Upper Province, but principally on the south-east shore of Lake Huron, The price of their lands varies from 2s. to £2 10s. per acre, increasing as the settler approaches the Huron tract. Those who cannot purchase may lease these lands for ton years, paying ordinary interest, with the right of converting their leases into freehold at any time. Besides the valuable Huron tract this Company possesses more than 300,000 acres of land in other counties. The assessed value ' land in Upper Canada is wiiolly depen- dent on the locality, m the wealthy Counties of York, Ontario and Peel it is £3 18s. 6d. sterling per acre. In Nortlmmberland and Durham £3 3s. 5d. In Oxford and Norfolk £2 10s., and the average of all occupied land is £3 per acre, including culti- vated and uncultivated. 68 PRIZE ESSAY |,. i 1 iip There has been no assessment of Lower Canada, save in a few districts and for school purposes, but according to the best estimate it would be about £2 per acre for cultivated land. It is, however, not to the laborer and mechanic alone that Canada presents so many advantages, but to young men of edu- cation and moderate means who now crowd the professions, and to married men of small fortunes and large families, with hardly the means of educating them well, and but a doubtful prospect of providing for their future. To these the country affords every inducement to emigrate, possessing as it does a magnificentsoil and climate, institutions similar to their own, a people universally loyal, a high tone of intelligence, and ample provisions for educa- tion, and the maintenance and diffusion of religious knowledge. It is a matter of wonder why so many should struggle in poverty elsewhere with the certainty of comfort and even affluence held out to them in Canada. The establishment of a direct line of steamei-s from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, — alluded to more fully in speaking of the St. Lawrence, — has been already beneficially felt in the increase of cabin passengers, and these are now conveyed in first-class screw steam vessels for 20 guineas, second-class for 13 guineas, and third-class for Y guineas. The rates of steerage passage in sailing vessels, during the season of 1854, were, from Liverpool, £4 to £5 sterling; from Cork, £3 15s. to £4 5s. ; from Limerick, Gal way, and London- derry, £3 5s. to £4 ; Dublin, £2 158. to £3 lOs., and Glasgow, £3 10s. to £4 lOs. ON CANADA. EDUCATION AND MORAL PROGRESS. i Having shewn the rapid advance of Canada in population, in wealth, and in all the various arts which can minister to man's material enjoyments, it seems right to consider whether equal advances have been made in her moral condition and the general tone of society. She can boast then, with truth, that while wealth has been accumulated, and luxuries multiplied, she has faithfully discharged the higher duties imposed upon her, of promoting with unremitting care the progress of Religion and Education. Of the social benefits to be derived by a nation, from the general spread of intelligence, Canada has been fully aware ; and there is not a child in the Province without the means of receiving instruction combined with moral training. In fact, the system of education now established in Canada far exceeds, in its compre- hensivo details, anything of the kind in Great Britain. The manner in which this great question of elementary edu- cation has been dealt with is worthy of attention, not only from the results produced in the Colony, but from its general interest. The gradation of the school system has been found superior to the establishments in England and Scotland, the Normal and Model Schools having been found of the greatest value. Speaking of the spirit and unanimity of the people of Upper Canada upon this subject, the Reverend Dr. Ryerson, the Chief Superinten- dent of Schools in Upper Canada, on the occasion of laying the first stone of the Normal and Model Schools, said : "There arc four circumstances which encourage the most san- " guine anticipation in regard to our educational future : The first " is the avowed and entire absence of all party spirit in the school " affairs of our country, from the Provincial Legislature down to " the smallest Municipality. The second is the precedence which " our Legislature has taken of all others on the western side of i i 70 PRIZE ESSAT vi i. «( " the Atlantic, in providing for Normal School instruction, and in aiding teachers to avail themselves of its advantages. The *' third is, that the people of Upper Canada have voluntarily " taxed themselves for the salaries of teachers, in a larger sum " in proportion to their numbers, and have kept open their schools " on an average, more months than the neighboring citizens of *' the great State of New York. The fourth is that the essential ** requisites of suitable and excellent text books have been intro- " duoed into our schools, and adopted almost by general accla- " mation ; and that the facilities for furnishing all our schools with " the necessary books, maps, and apparatus, will soon bo in advance " of those of any other country." In 1842 the number of Common Schools in Upper Canada was 1'721, attended by 65,978 pupils, and in 1853 the number had increased to 3127 schools and 104,736 pupils. There are now, in the Upper Province, in addition to the above, 8 Colleges, 79 County Grammar Schools, 174 Private and 3 Normal and Model Schools, forming a total of educational establishments in operation in Upper Canada of 3391, and of students and pupils 203,986. A careful comparison of the school system of Upper Canada with that of the adjacent States of the American Union, both in regard to the number of schools, the scholars attending them, and the amount paid for their support, shows that the colony has un- questionably the advantage. Ohio, with a population largely exceeding that of "Western Canada, and with double the number of schools, had less than two-thirds of the pupils attending them in 1850, and paid £11,706 less for their support. Illinois, with a population one-fourth greater, had, in 1848, 271 schools less; and, in 1850, she had but one-third of the pupils, with 742 fewer «chools. In tiie State of New York, too, it is found that the sum expended on education is three and one-fourth times less than that spent on education in Upper Canada, taking population into Account, i , , > 1 ON CANADA. 71 These facts serve to show the rapid progress that lias been made in Western Canada in providing institutions for the education of the people. The common school system of that Province, which has so largely contributed to these results, cuts up every inhabited township into small divisions somewhat resembling the squares on a chess board. These divisions are designated "school sections," and average an area of five square miles, each having its elective corporation of trustees for its management, with a library of standard literature for the general use of the school and the inhabitants. The school houses are generally well supplied with maps, standard school books, geological specimens, philosophical appar- atus, and other necessary educational appliances. In some sec- tions the schools are free ; that is, they are open to all children between the ages of five and sixteen, without charge. But in tlie greater proportion, a tuition fee of a quarter of a dollar, or a shilling sterling, a month, is charged ; and this is the highest amount allowed to be imposed by law. In these schools, — rarely not more than a mile and a-half from the most remote of the settlers in the district, — the children receive a sound an I useful English education, (piite adequate to all the ordinary avocations of life. In some sections, however, where the school fees already mentioned are paid, the higher branches are taught, and masters of considerable attainments aro employed. A large proportion of the teachers of the common schools in Upper Canada are trained at the Normal Schools in Toronto, and the funds for the payment of their salaries are derived from tlie following sources : — First, a sum is appropriated by the Legisla- ture from the general revenue, and this is exactly proportioned to a sum the county — which is an aggregation of school districts — may raise for the same purpose, — the Legislature thus measuring 1 1 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V "^ ^ // // / s^ ///// (P.- &/ Va fA 1.0 I.I 1.25 «M 1^ 2.5 IIIIIM i^ "^ 2.0 1.4 1.8 1.6 <« V W^ %. / '^A e ^a c*l iV S^ ^ \\ 6^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER. NY. 14580 (7U., 972-4503 "^h ^^ .^ :& C^- &>/ 72 PRIZE ESSAY ■I its liberality by the educational spirit of the people themselves. The residue is made up of the quarter dollar tuition fees already alluded to, and of any additional sum the inhabitants in each section, at their annual school meetings, may determine upon, or require. In most of tiie schools in Upper Canada the Bible is read as a school book. The Irish National Series are the books universally used ; and no religious instruction of a denominational character is permitted. Permission is granted to Roman Catholics by the Legislature to have separate schools, — a privilege which has been rarely exercised in rural districts, though not unfrequently in cities and towns. Under the existing laws the child of the poorest labourer, who distinguishes himself as a successful competitor for a free scliolar- «hip in a common school, has the advantage of attending one of the county grammar schools. Here again he has open to him another free scholarship in the highest educational institutions of the country, if his merits entitle him to that distinction. Thus an educational ladder has been erected by the Legislature, by which the child of the humblest inhabitant may ascend to the highest point of sciiolastic eminence, and with, at the same time, the children of the wealthy and the most respectable in hi^ neighbourhood as his competitors. As an evidence of the great desire that prevails in Upper Canada generally to educate the masses, I may mention, that the people have voluntarily taxed themselves, in a single year, upwards of ten ikousand 2^ounds for school libraries, — a fact as creditable to their intelligence as it is a substantial proof that they are turning their great prosperity to a huni?ne and generous account. The amount given by the Government for educational purposes in Upper Canada in 1853 was £55,512, and in Lower Canada i>4.'>,823, making a total of £101,335. The whole amount available ON CANADA. 73 for school purposes in Upper Canada, in that year, was £199,674, and in Lower Canada £68,896, the aggregate sum raised in the Upper Province being no less than £130,039, the whole amount raised for educational purposes being an increase on any preceding year of £23,598. In Lower Canada there are 1556 school houses, 2352 schools in operation, and 108,284 pupils, the whole Province possessing 5479 schools, attended by 303,020 students and pupils. The Universities and Colleges in Upper Canada are conducted on the English principle, and the chairs of the various departments are filled by Professors selected from Cambridge, Oxford, Trinity College Dublin, and the Continent. The Seminaries of Quebec and Montreal are richly endowed, and the grants to the former consist of more than a thousand square miles of land, together vnth property in the city of immense value : those of Montreal alone exceed ten thousand pounds a-year, and the estates of the Jesuits, though greatly reduced, still produce a very large revenue. In the Province of Lower Canada there are numerous amply endowed Nunneries, aflFording instruction to the young female po- pulation ; and it is worthy of remark that the pupils are of every creed and nation, are received without any distinction or partiality, and wholly exempted from attending religious duties hostile to their faith. The Census of Great Britain gives the number of scholars attend- ing public and private day schools, (including those attending schools of which no return was obtainable, but assumed, on an average, as in those making returns,) at 2,144,377, or a proportion to the population of about one in eight and a-half. The Census of Canada gives one in six and four-fifths. 74 PRIZE ESSAY REIJGION. M: I M: The most important subject that can suggest itself, in consid- ering the state of a Christian nation, is its religion, and the influ- ence it exercises on the people. On this foundation, as on a rock, is ever built the permanent advancement of a country, — its reputation and its happiness. And Canada may well thank those noble hearts, who, pioneers in the wilderness, and struggling with all its difliculties and dangers, maintained, with courage and devotion, the faith and habits of their fathers. All denominations and sects in Canada are marked by earnest- ness and zeal in their religious duties. Clergymen often travel dis- tances, and over roads which would utterly appal the residents of cities and towns in England, to do duty, frequently two and three times a day; whilst the settlers in the more remote and poor districts may be seen, winter or summer, wet or dry, walking ten and fifteen miles to the place of worship. This is not unfrequently a barn, a school house, or the largest room in the dwelling of a farmer. The traveller through the back woods of Canada often recognises the clergyman, not by the habiliments common to his calling, but by the weather-beaten and mud-bespattered look of one who travels far over the rough Avays of the earth, to visit and to bring consolation to the poor and the lowly. The most sublime sermon the writer ever heard in his life he heard in the little Church in the Village of Caledonia, on the Grand River, in "Western Canada, when the clergyman was dripping with rain, and bespattered with mud, and when he had thirty miles to travel, and two services more to perform, that day. And the same may be said of the religious teachers of every creed in the country. All denomina- tions being equally protected by the law, none having privileges over others, there is happily a kindly and tolerant feeling subsist- ing between them. As, indeed, there could be no more effectual p ON CANADA. 75 way of destroying its influence with the people generally, than for any denomination to exhibit a spirit of turbulence or intolerance discretion and Christian charity alike dictate moderation and kindly feeling on the part of all. Qf the various religious denominations the recent Census affords the most accurate iaformatlon, but it must be remarked that the ordinary laws of increase, which obtain in other countries, are, especially in Canada West, wholly inapplicable. The tide of emigration from other countries naturally exercises a material influence on both the origins and religions of the population. The table below, giving the numbers of the various creeds, shows the following result : — Of the whole population, Onc-lialf are " Roman Catholics," and of these the greater part are French Canadians, the remainder being for the most part Irish or their descendante. One-seventh are " Church of England." One-eighth are " Methodists," and of these the Wesleyans form one-fifteenth of the population. One-tenth are " Presbyterians," one- twenty-fourth being of the Scotch Church. One-thirty-seventh are "Baptists." The next are "Protestants," not classified, numbering 12,208 "Lutherans," " 12,107 and " Congregationallsts," " 11,6'74 The Church of England possesses 344 places of worship. The Church of Rome " 466 " The Methodists " 455 « The Presbyterians " 246 " The Baptists "136 " The Congregationallsts " 63 " Besides the creeds classed in the Census of Canada, there werf, many others unclassed, but with distinguishing names. The total number of places of worship in Upper Canada was 1747, and in Lower Canada 660, in the year 1851. !' 70 PRIZE ESSAY TABLE OF RELIGI0K8 IN CANADA. ! i If . Church of England,. . , Church of Scotland, Church of Rome, Free Presbyterians, Other Presbyterianfl, Wesleyan Methodists,. .... Episcopal Methodists New Connexion Methodists,., All other Methodists , Baptists, Lutherans, Congregatioualists, Quakers Bible Christians, Chriatian Church, Second Adventists, Protestants, ., Disciples, Jews, Menonists and Tunkers, ITniversalipts, ITnitarians, Mormons, Oreed not known No creed giren, All other creeds not classed, , Total population in 1861, Canada East. 45402 4047 746866 267 29221 5799 7 8442 11935 4493 18 3927 163 16 10 1369 10475 848 3450 349 12 890 4521 13834 890261 Canada West. 223190 71640 167695 79096 53512 109040 49686 8666 40514 46353 12089 7747 7460 5726 409 668 1733 2064 103 8230 2684 634 247 6744 36740 7805 962004 Total. 268592 75587 914561 98385 82733 114839 49443 12108 62449 49846 12107 11674 7623 5742 4103 2032 12208 2064 451 8230 6144 1183 259 7134 42261 21639 1842265 ON CANADA. 77 Total, 268592 75687 914661 93385 82733 114839 49443 12108 52449 49846 12107 11674 7623 6742 4103 2032 12208 2064 451 8230 6144 1183 259 7134 42261 21639 INTERNAL COMMUNICATION. The St. Laweknce.— Its Thousand Islands and Rapids.— Theie Naviga- tion. — The magnitude of the Canals and Locks constiiucted to avoid the Rapids on the passage up.— The Well and Canal as the completing link OF the entire navigation of the St. Lawrence.— This Rivee considered AS the great outlet to the Sea from the West and North-west. Ire MAGNITUDE AND ADAPTATION TO THE COMMERCIAL WANTS OF THE VALLEYS AND SLOPES IT WATERS. ThE SAME CONTRASTED WITH THE EeIE CaNAL, ITS BIVAL FOR THE BUSINESS OF THE WeST.— ThE ErIE CaNAL MADE LITTLE BY THE feoqress OF America, and its future still greater inefficiency con- sidered. —New ENTERPRISE OF THE CHICAGO MERCHANTS, AND OcEAN StEAM Navigation to Quebec. — Its effect upon the passenger trade to America. — The advantages of taking the Quebec route to the West and interioe of America.— The two thousand miles of interior navigation bv the St. Lawrence. — Features of interest by the way. — River passes through THE very garden OF AMERICA. CHEAPNESS AND CONVENIENCE TO EMIGRANTS OF TAilNGIT. The DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING THE Q ULF NAVIGATION REMOVED. How LONG THE St. Lawrence is open for navigation. — ^The same con- trasted WITH THE Erik Canal and Hudson Rivee. To appreciate the magnitude of the canals and their locks on the St. Lawrence, it is necessary to glance at the splendid river, of whose nearly two thousand miles of navigation they form the com- pleting linlcs. Let me conduct the reader then to where the steamer, destined to " shoot the rapids," first winds in amongst the Thousand Islands. It is between Kingston and Brockville, and usually just after sun-rise. The scene here, of a bright morning — and mornings are seldom otherwise in Canada — is magnificent beyond description. You pass close by, near enough often to cast a pebble from the deck of the steamer upon them — cluster after cluster of beautiful little circular islands, whose trees, per- petually moistened by the river, have a most luxuriant and exquisitely tinted foliage, their branches over-hanging the water. Again you pass little winding passages and bays between the islands, the trees on their margins interlacing above them, and forming here and there natural bowers ; yet are the waters of these l 78 PRIZE ESSAT bays so deep that steamers of considerable size might pass under the interlacing trees. Then opens up before you a magnificent sheet of waier, many miles wide, with a large island apparently in the distance dividing it into two great rivers. But as you approach this, you discover that it is but a group of small islands, the river being divided into many parts, and looking like silver threads thrown carelessly over a large green cloth. Your steamer enters one of tho . bright passages, and you begin at length to feel that in the multitude of ways there must be great danger ; for your half embowered and winding river comes to an abrupt termination four or five hundred yards in advance -^f you. But as you are approaching at headlong speed the threatening rocks in front, a channel suddenly opens upon your right: you are whirled into it like the wind ; and the next second a magnificent amphitheatre of lake opens out before you. This again is bound- ed, to all appearance, by a dark groen bank, but at your approach the mass is moved as if in a Kaleidoscope, and lo a hundred beautiful little islands make their appearance ! And such, for seventy miles, and till you reach the rapids, is the scenery which you glide through. It is impossible, even for those whose habits and occupations naturally wean them from the pleasures derivable from such scenery, to avoid feelings akin to poetry while winding through the Thmtsand Islands. You feel, indeed, long after they havo been passed, as if you had been awakened out of a blissful dream. Your memory brings up, again and again, the pictures of the clusters of islands rising out of the clear cool water. You think of the little bays and winding passages embowered in trees ; and, recurring to the din, and dust, and heat, and strife of the city you have left, or the city you are going to, you wish in your heart that you had seen more of nature and less of business. These may be but dreams — perhaps they are so, — ^but they are good and ON CANADA. 79 they are useful dreams ; for they break in, for the moment, upon the dull monotony of our all-absorbing selfishness ; they let in a few rays of light upon the poetry and purity of sentiment which seem likely to die of perpetual confinement in the dark prison house of modern avarice. The smaller rapids, and the first you arrive at, are the Galops^ Point Cardinal, and some others. The great rapids are the Long Sault, the Coteau, the Cedars, the Cascades, and the Lac/line. The first of these is the most magnificent, the highest waves rising in the lost, or north channel. The last is the most dangerous, extensive, and difficult of navigation. The thrilling and sublime excitement of " shooting them " is greatly heightened by contrast. Before you reach them there is usually hardly a breath of air stirring : everything is calm and quiet, and your steamer glides as noiselessly and gently down the river as she would down an ordinary canal. But suddenly a scene of wild grandeur breaks upon you : waves are lashed into spray and into breakers of a thousand forms by the dark rocks they are dashed against in the headlong impetuosity of the river. Whirl- pools, — narrow passages beset with rocks, — a storm-lashed sea, — all mingle their sublime terrors in a single rapid. In an instant you are in the midst of them ! Now passing with lightning speed within a few yards of rocks, which, did your vessel but touch them, would reduce her to an utter wreck before the sound of the crash could die upon the air. Again, shooting forward like an arrow towards a rocky island, which your bark avoids by a turn almost as rapid as the movement of a bird. Then, from the crests of great waves rushing down precipices, she is flung upon the crests of others receding, and she trembles to her very keel from the shock, and the spray is thrown far in upon her decks. Now she enters a narrow channel, hemmed in by threatening rocks, with white breakers leaping over them ; yet she dashes through ! 80 PRIZE ESSAY i: '') ,111; them in her lightning way, and spurns the countless whirlpools beneath her. Forward is an absolute precipice of waters ; on every side of it breakers, like pyramids, are thrown high into the air. Where shall she go ? Ere the thought has come and gone, she mounts the wall of wave and foam like a bird, and glorious, sub- lime science, lands you a second afterwards upon the calm, unruf- fled bosom of a gentle river! Such is '■'' shooting the rapids?^ But no words can convey a just idea of the thrilling excitement that is felt during the few moments you take in passing over them. It is one of the sublime experiences which can never be forgotten, though never adequately described. It is in the highest degree creditablj to the naval skill and care of the Canadians, that for the thirteen years the rapids have been navigated by steamers, there has not an accident of any conse- quence occurred, nor has a single life been lost. And the travel down the St. Lawrence, — largely made up, as might naturally be expected, of persons in search of health and pleasure, — ^has been very great. For several years past two daily lines of large and magnificent steamers, fitted up with saloons and state rooms abso- lutely rivalling the gorgeous trappings of the best hotels in the principal cities and towns in the States and in Canada, have been navigating them, the one owned by United States people, and the other by Canadians. One of the British or Royal Mail steamers leaves Prescott every morning in time to " shoot the rapids " during the day, and reach Montreal at six o'clock in the evening, making the entire distance ot 125 miles in about nine hours. The American or United States steamer leaves Ogdensburgh, opposite Prescott, at the same hour, and both boats thus " shoot the rapids" in company. As the one leaves a rapid, the other usually enters it, and the passengers enjoy the double excitement and pleasure of literally leaping over them themselves, and seeing another steamer cresting their waves, and winding through their breakers and rocks. ON CANADA. 81 These steamers, ns the absence of caccidents proves, are among the best managed in the world. The skill and coolness and presence of mind exhibited by their commanders and pilots, in a navigation beset with a thousand difficulties and dangers in almost as many seconds, are absolutely above all mere words of praise. That these and the hundred other steamers, and sailing craft, which pass from the upper lakes down to Montreal and Quebec, and indeed to all the world— for I perceive that a Lake Erie ship is now engaged in the Australian trade,— might be able to return again to the lakes, the St. Lawrence ^anals, and their magnificent locks, were constructed. As early as 1841, when the population of Upper Canada was but 405,35V, and of United Canada only 1,114,857, and when their entire annual revenue did not exc ed £347,000, their Legislature had the courage to make an appropria- tion of half a million pounds for these works. As a consequence, locks among the finest and largest in the world have been con- structed, and divide admiration with the splendid river they ren- der more available for the uses of all America. The passenger, as he returns by the canals, finds it indeed difficult to tell which to admire more, the works which have been the ofl'spring of enter- prise and intellect, or the St. Lawrence River. The chambers of these locks are two hundred feet long by a width of forty-five feet and they are so superbly constructed that they will stand for ages as monuments to the spirited little Legislature which conceived and secured their completion. The remaining link of canal—for I may as well speak of it in this connection — between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the head of Lake Superior, is the Welland, which unites Lakes Erie and Ontario, and avoids the Falls of Niagara. Its locks are little less capacious than those on the St. Lawrence canals, but are equally well built. They have chambers a hundred and fifty feet long by twenty-six and a-half feet wide, and the available depth of water in both is between nine and ten feet. If I 89 PRIZE ESSAY I ■I J, 'f 1 1 ' i 'i The contcmpliition of tbeso caruils, as works of enteriirlso and skill, niUurally loads to thoir contemplation as works of utility and enlaigod public value. Tf the ii<"-fjUi wlio now occupy the vast valley of tlio St. Lawrence, and the plains and slopes which are loss conveniently situated to other great channels of communi- cation to the ocean, than to it, were to use it solely, would they ho acting wisely and well ? Or if the tens of thousands from Europe, who aimually seek this valley and these plains and slopes, with the view of occupying them, were to follow up this chain of navigation, would they be doing the best they could for themselves ? These enquiries are of singular interest, and I shall devote all the space ti) them that the limits of this essay, and the other important matters treated of, j)ermit. The experiences of America iu relation to public communica- tions prove, beyond perhaps the experiences of any other part of the world, the fact, that the speediest, cheapest, and most conve- nient routes from one great source of business to another will in the end be adopted. There is hardly a State iu the American Union which does not furnish more or less examples of the short- sightedness of Legislatures in providing for the wants of the future. Railroads have been projected and made, time and again, to meet the wants of thousands. Before they were ten years in operation millions required railroad facilities. Local interests and local ignorance have almost everywhere caused roads to wind round to one out-of-the-way place, or to take an unnatural route to another. But the waves of population, directed by a higher sagacity, moved in the direction of the rich lands and the fertile country, and left the petty roads to be but a reproach to their concoctors, or a burthen upon the people. As a general rule, a really great work, something that American progress justified, — no matter how it might have been underrated in the begin- ning — has been certain to prevail in the end. Whilst what- ON CANADA 83 over could 1)0 cftst in the shade by bolder cntorpriscs, or aimed at mouldiiitj the interests and the business of millions to servo the avaricious designs of thou8i»..ls, has been certain of exposure and equally certain of ubandoiunent. As a curious consequence of this, men who have linked their reputations to great enterprises in America liavo not had to look to posterity to do them justice. Progress anticipated the verdict of truth. Great public necessities sprung up to vindicate their genius. Their fame became identified with the good and the happiness of their own generation. Measuring the St. Lawrence, then, as a highway to tho ocean, by the standard, that if it can be 8Uj,i i^oded by rapider, cheaper, or more convenient routes, it cannot be Hicoessful, if it does not fall into disuse, what are its future 'vospects? The first thinj that strikes c.ie, in conto-iplating it, is its adaptation, in point of immjnsity, to i,I. ■ vast regions it waters. Whilst the business neossities of Iho West, and those portions of America which are universally admitted to be, both by thoir relative position to other rivers and to it, its natural iocders. have literally shamed the enterprises tha* were intended to provide fof them, its magnitude and its value are being but discovered by the contrast. The Erie Canal, highly valuable as a work, and successful beyond comparison, has been made little hij pror/rcss. The St. Lawrence, on the contrary, only requires enormous use to test its greatness. It is impossible, indeed, to contemplate this river, in connection with the canal which was made to rival it, without being struck with the inadequacy of tho one and the amplitude of the other. The valleys and plains watered by the St. Lawrence, being largely in tho United States, have chiefly contributed to the Erie Canal's business. Their fruits were literally wooed away from their natural channel to minister to its prosperity. The St. Lawrence, in so far as American policy, and great restrictions upon commerce. 84 PRIZE ESSAT c<'Uld affect it, has been sacrificed to the Erie Canal. Nature's outlet had navigation laws, which drove commerce away from it, to contend against. The Erie Canal had all these disadvantages to the river converted into so many advantages in its favor. Yet the laws of progress, which have swept away the obnoxious navi- gation restrictions, have, at the same time, established the failure of the Erie Canal. Not that it is unprosperous as an enterprise, nor that, as a local work, it is not unsurpassed as a speculation, but that, for the great purposes of its construction, namely, to convey to the ocean the fruits and productions of the West and North-west, it is emphatically a failure, — because progress has completely over-hurthened it ; it is literally surfeited by its own prosperity. And it matters not to him, — an individual, in such a case, being the nation, — who has boards or flour to send eastward by it, whether they are stopped by reason of starvation, or because of a surfeit. The impediment to his business is the all-important question with him. And though the Erie Canal paid larger profits than any other work in the world, yet, in a national point of view, if it afforded not adequate facilities for business, or stopped it in its course, it might, by drawing to it what it could not do, be the means of wide-spread evil, instead of general good. And that this is, to a great extent, the present position of the Erie Canal, is universally admitted. To obviate these difficulties, enterprise has again undertaken to swell its dimensions to meet the enormous demands of progress. But in view of the vast regions which are common alike to it and the St. Lawrence, and which are as yet but in the infancy of their population and business, is it not probable; nay, is it not certain, judging by the past, that twenty years hence will find the Erie Canal again choked up with business; again made little by progress ? When the magnificent tracts of country embraced in Michigan, Wisconsin, the northern portions of Ohio and Indiana, Illinois, ON CANADA. 85 Iowa, Minnesota, and the west and north-western portions of the State of New York, which nor wholly or largely use the Erie Canal as a highway to the ocean, come to be settled up, and to have, instead of some five or six millions of inhabitants, at least eighteen or twenty, what mere canal, with its hundred locks, and its hundred other impediments, will be equal to their vast business necessities ? will be in keeping with their splendid progress ? will satisfy their craving for rapidity, magnitude and commercial con- venience ? Will not the Erie Canal then, enlarged though it be, be but another added to the numerous examples in America, of progress utterly distancing enterprise, and prosperity shaming the calculations even of talent ? Whether the commercial mind of the United States has so far passed the ruhicon of present practical results as to view the trade and commerce of the West and North-west in this light, I know not. But looking at the St. Lawrence in connection with the regions which I have named— and of which it is the admitted natural outlet to the ocean— it is impossible not to see that nature has apportioned its magnitude to the necessities of the vast terri- tories it waters, and which directly and naturally lead into it. Nature indeed would seem to have said, through the experiences of the last fifteen years,—" You have endeavoured to wean from my highway the fruits of its own valleys and plains. But their abundance has crushed beneath it every expedient of yours for its removal. You may learn from this what mut^t be the result when these valleys and plains come to be fully occupied." The problem, however, of the success of the St. Lawrence and Welland Canals, and, necessarily, of the enlarged use of the inland seas which they connect together, may be said to be now worked out. The Welland Canal— the connecting navigable link between Lakes Erie and Ontario— is, as its position indicates, perhaps the most advantugeously situated canal in the world, and is rapidly ; 86 PRIZE ESSAY ' Ji becoming one of the most profitable. Through it the entire pro- ductions and minerals of the British possessions bordering on Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie, have to pass on their way to the ocean. Through it the produce, timber and minerals of the great West and North'weat, already alluded to, which either cannot be con- veniently or profitably deposited upon the Erie Canal at Buff'alo, must likewise pass, on their way to tide water either by the St. Lawrence, or by the Oswego Canal, or the Ogdensburgh Railroad to New York or Boston. The annual Report of the State Engineer of New York, transmitted to the Legislature of that State in February, 1854, speaking of this trade, says : " The tonnage from other states (Western,) shipped in 1852 at Oswego, amounted to 600,000 tons, the tolls on which are estimated to have been over half a million dollars." And, as a reason for this, the same Report shows that the cost of conveying a ton to New York by this route was nine cents, or about six pence currency less than by way of Buifalo, the advantage, of course, being attributable to the Welland Canal. But the rapidity and certainty of the movements of the propellers and steamers and other vessels engaged in this trade on the lakes was even of far greater consequence than the saving. Large cargoes, without transhipment or breaking bulk, were con- veyed some two hundred miles nearer to tide water by taking Oswego and Ogdensburgh than by way of Buffalo. And such has been the effect of this trade, that Oswego is chiefly indebted to it for its great commercial prosperity, and the Ogdensburgh and Boston Railroad was constructed mainly with a view to it. Thus, notwithstanding the operation of singularly restrictive and crippling navigation laws, and the universal desire of the peo- ple of the United States to foster their own enterprises, even at a disadvantage, the Welland Canal has grown into appreciation and use, and must eventually — as indeed is already partially the case ' — have one continuous awning of sails from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, 1-: ON CANADA. 87 Its success, since 1849, is thus indicated in the last Report of the Commissioner of the Board of Works of Canada : la 1849 the gross revenue from tolls amounted to £34,741 18 8 1850 do do 37,925 17 7 1851 do do 60.460 6 8 1852 do do 68,273 7 7 1853 do do 65,002 14 8| If to this latter amoimt be added thcf sum of £1865 18 1, being the amount of the Hydraulic Rents, the groHs revenue from this Canal for the year 1853 would be £66,868 12 9^ But it is between the St. Lawrence River and Canals, from the Falls of Niagara to Montreal, and the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany, that the chief competition in trade now exists, and must continue to arise. They run parallel. The business of the great West and North-west must take either the one route or the other, or both, to the ocean. What are their comparative advan- tages then ? And how, with a clear stage, and free navigation to the world, does the St. Lawrence measure lengths with its southern rival ? Like the great lakes, the first thing that strikes one, in consid- ering the river, is its magnitude, and its adaptation to the burthens nature intends should reach the ocean from the West. And when a canal, no matter how capacious, with all its locks and its " dead locks" — for it often has many of both, — its towages, its tolls, its expenditure of labor in various ways, and its inevitable slowness, is placed in competition with a river, in which the highest speed by steam is attainable, the greatest possible room is enjoyed, the largest ves ^els may be used, and there is neither let, hindrance, nor delay in its entire navigation, the question of superiority would seem to bo decided by the contrast. The more minutely, too, the relative facilities of both modes of communication are considered, the more palpable appear the advantages of the one over the other. For the canal, to meet its increase of business, requires au increase h 88 PEIZE ESSAY il M! h : I in the size of its locks ; and these, from the larger body of water required to fill them, and the weight and size of their gates, occasion delay, and the accumulation of boats at particular points, which, in turn, delay each other. So that the very augmentation of business becomes a drawback upon eflSciency ; because time is not only lost, but capital is rendered unproductive during the stoppages. And when boats come to be counted by thousands, and their cargoes esti- mated by millions, this rises into a vast consideration. The river, on the contrary, as it increases its business, will acquire greater facilities for doing it more rapidly and cheaply. For the fastest class of vessels are sure to follow plenty to do, and improvements in the navigation of a river are but the natural offspring of its success. The results of several yeai-s' business on both these routes, — although the St. Lawrence has labored under the great disadvan- tage of being but partially employed, whilst the Erie Canal has had as much, or more than it could do, — entirely bear out these deductions. For the last five years the average cost of conveying a ton of railroad iron from Albany to Buffalo was six dollars and thirty- two cents, or £l lis. 7d. Canadian currency. For the purpose of contrast with Canada, the American ton is raised to the standard of the English, namely, to 2240 lbs., and twenty per cent, is allowed as the difierence between railroad iron and ordinary merchandise. For two years past, or since railroad iron has been largely imported by way of the St. Lawrence, the average cost of transport from Quebec to Toronto and Hamilton, — a greater distance than from New York to Buffalo, and requiring the passage of all the St. Lawrence Canals round the Rapids, — was twenty shillings, or four dollars ; from Quebec to Kingston and Cobourg it was seventeen shillings and six pence, or three dollars and fifty cents ; from the same port to Cleveland and Toledo, on Lake Erie, it was four ON CANADA. 89 dollars and fifty cents, or twenty-two shillings and six pence ; and to Chicago and Milwaukie, it was six dollars and fifty cents, or thirty-two shillings and six pence currency. A still greater difference appears in the cost of transporting produce downwards. The average cost, for five years past, of a barrel of flour from Buffalo to Albany was fifty-four cents, or two shillings and eight pence currency. The average cost from Toronto to Montreal, an analogous distance, was Ihirty-lwo cents, or one shilling and seven pence currency. The tolls alone on the Erie Canal reached within a few cents of the entire cost of trans- port by the St. Lawrence ; and had the business of the two routes been at all equal, there is no doubt these tolls would have even exceeded the St. Lawrence cost of transport But what is of greater consequence, especially to a people pro- verbially impatient of delay, and never even satisfied with success, unless it comes rapidly, is the time occupied in transporting the flour to tide water. By the St. Lawrence it was three and a-half days, and was conveyed in steamers and propellers carrying some 4000 barrels; whilst, on the Erie Canal, it was winding its way through the locks and levels some fourteen days, and in comparatively small quantities at that. In view of these results it is not surprising that the Americans should have shewn so great a desire for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence. And as one of the early consequences of the res- trictive and withering navigation laws being swept away from the inland seas of America, I perceive that in the single article of Indian corn, the importations at Montreal last fall exceeded those of the entire previous year by 567,728 bushels, being 651,149 bushels in 1854 to 83,421 in 1853; and that in Buffalo' the decrease was proportionate. In Chicago, too, an enterprise, the most comprehensive and important ever mooted in Western o^ r' ' M > Itil HM § In, n 90 FRIZB ESSAY America, has been the result of the removal of the restrictions upon commerce ; I mean the projection of a line of steamers to run from that port, by the St. Lawrence, to London and Liverpool direct, or indeed to any other part of the world where there is a navigable sea. If this enterprise should turn out successful — and there is no reason why it should not, although first attempts are always liable to miscarriages — there is no computing what may be its effects upon the navigation of the river. Or if, which would be a more feasible enterprise still — because lake craft and lake sailors are never perfectly adapted to the sea, — a line of pro- pellers or steamers were built in Chicago, to run in connection with the present line of steamers to Quebec, or with any other line that might be established, a complete revolution would be effected in the trade and commerce of the West. Milwaukie, Cleveland and Toledo would follow the example of Chicago. They would, in fact, if this enterprise should succeed, be forced into the current that led to their own good fortune. Grain and pork would then be shipped in the very centre of Western America for the remotest parts of Europe ; and the goods and manufac- tures of their consumers could be laid down at the thresholds of their producers. Whilst the best class of emigrants, — always an invaluable cargo, — might be taken up by these steamers, almost at their own doors, and be conveyed to the very places they desired to settle in, in the West, — an advantage that would be of the highest importance to the emigrant, saving him from the incon- veniences, delays and impositions which now too often attend his journey westward. What may be said in favor of the St. Lawrence, as an outlet from the great West, may, for all purposes of business and settlement, be urged for it as an inlet from the ocean. In its two thousand miles of navigation inwards it waters valleys and slopes, in which ON CANADA. 91 at least thirty millions of additional inhabitants might prosper and enjoy all the comforts of life. The lands in its entire valley are, for agricultural purposes, among the finest in the world. Cop- per mines, unequalled in extent, are upon its very banks. Timber, which cannot be exhausted in centuries, overshadows its waters and those of the many rivers which lead into it. To the emigrant in search of a home I can fancy no route in America equal to it. It is a vast map of all he wants to see and to know, reduced to a reality. To the capitalist, the tourist, the pleasure-seeker, and the man of science, its magnitude and its grandeur invest it with singular attractions. There is not perhaps in the world two thou- sand miles of navigation which afford so many objects of interest to the poor man, or so many subjects of pleasurable contemplation to the ^ood one, as the St. Lawrence and the Lakes from the Gulf to the City of Chicago. Such advantages, however, are rarely or ever conferred by nature without their being coupled with what both taxes skill, and calls for the exercise of energy and judgment. It is so with the navi- gation of the St. Lawrence. In former years the employment of a wretched class of vessels — for anything was thought good enouwh to carry timber which could not sink — was attended with a more than ordinary amount of disasters. Pictures of difficult and dan- gerous navigation were found, in these cases, much more profitable than accurate descriptions of ill-constructed, ill-managed, and unseaworthy ships. The consequence was, that the underwriters and the navigation both suffered together. But of late years very fine vessels have been employed in this trade ; and skill in navigation, as in everything else, is made the companion of valuable property. The Montreal traders, therefore, — which are now but a fair aver- age of the ships employed — are among the most fortunate and successful vessels in the world, although they rarely or ever miss making two trips a season, and are the first ships out in the spring, TT 92 FRIZB ESSAT |( N' The same enterprise, too, which projected and completed the splendid locks on the St. Lawrence has extended down into the gulf, and light houses here and there make it look like a sort of navi- gable street lit with lamps. The Legislature, too, has made provision for tug boats upon a large scale, and for piers and harbours of refuge. These enter- prises and improvements, but more than all, good ships and skilful navigators, have had the effect of reducing the rates of insurance upon Quebec traders, during the average season of navigation, as low as upon ships from New York or Boston, and lower than those in the Mississippi trade. There is but another matter to allude to before concluding the contrast between the two great northern outlets to the ocean, the Erie Canal and Hudson River, and the St. Lawrence ; that is, the time they are closed up by the ice. This may, however, be dismissed in few words. The Erie Canal is opened at Buffalo on the first of May. The St. Lawrence, for an average of twenty-five years, has been clear of ice on the twenty-ninth of April ; and the average arrival of the first ships from sea, for the same period, was the first of May. Of late years, especially since the repeal of the navigation laws has induced greater competition, ships have left in numbers larger or certainly quite as large in the middle of November as about the first ; and in some seasons they have left as late as the twentieth, and even up to, and after, the 1st of Decem- ber. But the Erie Canal, being a shallow and a small body of water, freezes much sooner than a great and rapid river, and it is wholly unavailable as a means of communication after a severe frost, which often occurs in the middle of November. In such an event, too, immense inconvenience and losses are suffered, through whole fleets of boats being frozen in on their way westward with merchandise, and usually an equal number on their way eastward with produce and lumber. So that, for all purposes of reliable and ON CANADA. profitable commerce, the St. Lawrence has by no means a shorter, if it lias not in fact a longer, season. And if the statistics of losses, on account of the vast property that is often locked up on the Erie Canal by the boats being frozen in, could be got at, they would exhibit an amount utterly astounding to those unacquainted with the business. Without vauntingly claiming an advantafre for the St. Lawrence, it would certainly be doing nature's grandest outlet to the ocean an injustice, to admit that it suffered in the slightest degree by a comparison with the Erie Canal in the time it may be used. From these observations the emigrant or the capitalist, on his way to the west, may form an idea as to his best route. From the circumstance of continuous water communication, the St. Law- rence has the advantage in cheapness, whilst the United States routes, being partly by rail, have the advantage in speed. By the St. Lawrence route the emigrant's baggage costs him nothing ; and the steamer or propeller, which he takes at Quebec or Montreal, often conveys him the entire distance to Chicago or other ports without removal. He thus avoids the expense, harrassments and privations incident to being cast forth with his children and his effects upon wharves and quays, and at railway stations, where exposure subjects his family to disease, and every removal of them and his effects is attended with cost, and not unfrequently with exactions and frauds. The fare by the New York and Boston routes to Chicago is fixed, to emigrants, at eleven dollars, or forty- four shillings sterling, with two dollars and fifty cents extra for every one hundred pounds weight of baggage. By Cincinnati it is ten dollars, or forty shillings sterling, with the same charge for baggage, where the emigrant travels by rail. By the St. Lawrence route it is eight dollars, or thirty-two shillings sterling ; and the charges are proportionate to intermediate ports, such as to Cleveland or Toledo, on Lake Erie in the States, or to Toronto or Hamilton in li 1 I h 94 PRIZE ESSAY Canada. I subjoin, in a note,* tlic excellent instructions of Mr. Buchanan, the Emigrant Agent at Quebec, to the settlor. Tltey are at once reliable and valuable. •Fott THE INFORMATION OF EMKiiiANTs. — PiisseHf^ers are particularly cautioned not to part with their Ship Tirhet. There is nothing of more importiujcc to cniigrantB, on arrival at Quebec, than correct information on the leading points connected with their future pursuits. Many, especially single females, and unprotected persons in general, hare suffered much from a want of caution, and from listening to the opinions of interested and designing characters who frequently offer their advice unsolicited. To guard emigrants from falling into such errors, they should, immediately on their arrival at Quebec, proceed to the Office of the Chief Agent Fon Emigbants, -where persons desirous of proceeding to any part of Canada will receive every information relative to the lands open for settlement, routes, distances, and expenses of conveyance ; where also laborers, artisans, or mechanics, will bo furnished, on application, with the best directions in respect to employment, the places at which it is to bo had, and the rates of wages. Emigrants should avoid as much as possible drinking the water of the River St. Lawrence, which has a strong tendency to produce bowel com- plaints in strangers. Tliey should also be careful to avoid exposure to the intense heat of the sun by day, and the dews and noxious vapours of night. And when in want of any advice or direction they should apply at once to the Government Emigration Agents who will give every infornution required gratis. Emigrants are entitled by law to remain on board the ship 48 houre after arrival ; nor can they be deprived of any of their usual accomodations and berthing during that period, and the Master of the ship is bound to disembark them and their baggage free of expense, at the usual landing- place, and at reasonable hours, as may be seen by the ibllowing extract from the Provincial Passenger Act : Notice to Captains of Passengeu Vessels. — " And whereas incon- venience and expense are occasioned by the practice of Masters of sliipe carrying passengers, anchoring at great distances from the usual landing- places in the Port of Quebec, and landing their passengers at unreasonable hours : Be it therefore enacted, Tliat all Masters of ships having passen- gers on board shall bo held and they are hereby required to land their passen- gers and their baggage free of expense to the ship passengers, at the usual public landing-places in the said Port of Quebec, and at reasonable hours, not earlier than six of the clock in the morning, and not later than foub of the clock in the afteenoon, and such ships shall, for the purpose of landing their passengers and baggage, be anchored witliin the following limits in the said Port, to wit: The whole space of the River St. Lawrence, ON CANADA. 95 Tho ocean lino of steamers to Quebec, and to which the Canadiai. Goveinnient has behaved with a liberality worthy of the enterprise, is likely to produce a great change in tho passenger trade to from tie mouth of the River St. Charles to a lino drawn across the said River St. Lawrence, from tho Flog-stafF on tho Citadel on Cape Diamond, at right angles to the course of the said river, under a penalty of ten pounds currency for any offence against the provisions of this section." Any offence against this section will be rigidly enforced. GovKttNMKNr EMicittATioN OKKicEa.s.— At Montreal, Mr. A. Conlan, Sulh Agent; at Toronto, Mr. A. B. Ilawke, Chief Agent for Western Canada, at Hamilton, Mr. Willen Frehauf, who will furnish emigrants, on applica tion, witli advice as to the routes, distances and rates of conveyance, also respecting the Crown and other lands for sale, and will direct eniigrantF in want of employment to where it may be procured. A large number of laborers and mechanics are now required on the several railroads in course of construction in tliis Province: Laborers 48. 6d. to ^1 ) , Mechanics Vs. 6d. to $2 J P*^"" ""^y- DOUE8TIC SEaVANTS. Housemaids 15s. to SOs. ) .. Cooks 26s. to 308. fP^'"'"""*''- Emigrants should remain about the towns as short a time as possible after arri .'al. By their proceeding at once into the agricultural districts, they will be certain of meeting with employment more suitable to their habits : those with families will also more easily procure the necessaries of life, and avoid the hardships and distress which are experienced by a large portion of the poor inhabitants in the large cities, during the winter season. The Chief Agent will consider such persons as may loiter about the ports of landing to have no further claims ou the protection of Her Majesty's Agents, unless they have been detained by sickness or some other satisfactory cause. Wild Lands and Cleared Farms. — Emigrants desirous of purchasing wild lands or homesteads, will be furnished at this OfBce with every infor- mation regarding the prices of lands in the different districts, the names of the Agents, as also other parties offering improved farms for sale, k after and to proviile for. Uut tliose chiMrcM ding around their grandfather ririUiin'rt knoe. They hoar his Uih-s of his glory, and they arc made manly. They drink in his lessons of wisdom, t\ui\ they aro made good. They are warmed with iiis and tJieir own forefathers' patriotism, and they an; prepared, as on a rtjcent 'Kvjision, to Lavish their treasures in his support, and to shed their hiKirts blood, if needs bo, to maintain his frcvMhim, and to bear aloft Ills honour! Such a people, in a rich and magnifii-ent country, cannot but have a great and a i^lorioua ilestinv. ! ■■< lM:f ' Ji m ill :'i| if l' s i' u ' \M 1:1 III 1 i ; 1 )r. Ill, 111 oft, Jilt, J|J y»:^ m.i6« ;.3f' r *i dM,j ~^^ V J . 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