a

could urge in favour of this vital question is expressed in the following forcible words :-“ The effects produced by Public “ Works appear to have been, extended cultivation, improved “ habits of industry, the re-establishment of peace and tran

quillity in the disturbed districts, a domestic colonization of

a population in excess in certain districts, a diminution of il“ licit distillation, and a very considerable increase of revenue.” With such fruits springing from a judicious outlay of the national funds, it is surely only acting in the true spirit of the professions of the government, and in the strict letter of its duty, to propose to devote a portion of the revenue drawn

, from the labour and industry of Ireland—and on no sordid or narrow scale—to this great national object. It requires no great political sagacity or depth of observation, to see that want of employment is the immediate cause of the distress and turbulence which has so long existed in that country; and there is now abundant evidence to show how the people can be employed with advantage to the state. “We further beg leave," say the Commissioners of Public Works, in their report to the Treasury which we have placed at the head of this article, “ to urge on your Lordships the propriety of placing addi“ tional grant-funds at our disposal, as probably after the “ next assizes the present balance will be exhausted.” The Railway Commissioners, in their eloquent appeal, which we have already quoted, urge that public assistance is a beneficial expenditure of capital, independent of other considerations more worthy a great nation,—“ considerations of “ justice, of generosity, of a liberal concern for the improve“ ment and civilization of our countrymen.” We cannot entertain the idea that the government will hesitate to adopt recommendations coming from such a quarter, and we think that we may congratulate the country on the prospect of Ministers coming forward in a liberal spirit to give the requisite encouragement to public works in Ireland, not as an act of grace or benevolence, but as one of justice and sound policy.

ARTICLE VIII.

The Canadas.

In a former number* we endeavoured to show that Mr. Roebuck, and the members of parliament who adopted his opinions, were in error, when they asserted the similarity of thought and feeling of the French Canadian on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and of the Anglo-American on the Hudson and Connecticut. It was not, however, our intention, to lead our readers to infer, that a perfect resemblance existed between the Puritans of New England and the first British colonists in Canada. They were of the same race, spoke the same language, and had a common love of constitutional liberty; but years had rolled on since the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, and those years were fraught with mighty changes in the social and political state of the mother country. The doctrines of the Commonwealth had been discarded, as false maxims condemned by experience,—the despotic government of Cromwell was referred to only as another example, afforded by history, of the inevitable fate of democracies, and the inefficiency of popular power to give security to rational freedom,--the constitutional principles of the revolution of 1688, loyalty to the House of Hanover, and hostility to the exiled royal family, had become the received and orthodox opinions of the majority,--the people cheerfully submitted to the real power of an aristocracy, sufficiently identified with them to promote the leading interests of the country, while the national pride was soothed with the theory of a mixed form of government, and the national vanity gratified with the discovery of a constitution, assumed to be as nearly perfect as the imperfection of human institutions would permit. Considered, therefore, as social beings, the Englishmen who landed on the shores of Massachussets in the year 1620, and the British settlers in Canada, after the conquest of the colony, differed in many important attributes.

The first British settlers were a portion of the army, by whose gallantry the enemy had been defeated on the plains of

a

Abraham. The military appointments of the newly-acquired colony were open to the officers; others preferred the rude, but easy and independent life of a Canadian proprietor, to the partial patronage and doubtful promotion of the royal army; and instances were not wanting of individuals who discovered a charm in the life of a Backwoodsman, which neither the force of habit, nor the allurements of society, nor all the ties and feelings associated with the name of Home, could break. Independently of these, a supply of civil servants, judicial, fiscal, and administrative, were not slow in arriving, and the two staple productions of the country, fur and timber, soon attracted the attention of the capitalists of London. After the American revolution of 1776, some “Loyalists” from the United States, attached by interest or principle to the British government, sought a refuge in the colony, and many American citizens took up their abode in the border townships; but it was not till of late years, that the immigration of an agricultural and labouring population from the United Kingdom, reached any considerable amount.

The British inhabitants of the Canadas, at the present day, are composed of these various classes and of their descendants, the Anglo-Canadians by birth. In the two co. lonies they nearly equal the French Canadians, who are confined to the Lower Province. From the combined effect of immigration, and the natural increase of population, their numbers advance in a much more rapid ratio,—they are besides more intelligent and enterprising, and derive advantages from a community of language and ties of relationship with the parent state, from which their Gallic brethren are excluded. Thus united by a common language and a similarity of manners, customs, and pursuits, they almost unanimously supported the colonial government during the late disturbances; yet within this British circle many jarring opinions,-many conflicting interests and feelings are to be found; and it is only injustice that can allege, and ignorance that can believe, it to be composed exclusively of an "aristocratic party," or an official tribe.”

6 It was, however, the fur-trade that first gave vitality to the Canadian provinces. Destitute of the precious metals which attracted so many adventurers to America, they nevertheless possessed sources of wealth that might almost rival the mines of Mexico and Peru. The Indians, unacquainted with the artificial value given to some descriptions of furs in European society, bartered away quantities for trinkets and cheap commodities ; immense profits were thus made by the early French traders, and the traffic was pursued with avidity. After the conquest this trade was contracted within very narrow limits; it was soon, however, revived with much emulation, by individual merchants and adventurers. To put an end to the ruinous jealousies and rivalships which necessarily ensued, several of the principal merchants of Montreal entered into a partnership, in the year 1783, which was augmented by amalgamation with a rival company in 1787. We borrow a notice of their extensive confederation from the introduction to the romantic history of Astoria.

“ Thus was created the famous ‘North-west Company,' which for a time held a lordly sway over the wintry lakes and boundless forests of the Canadas, almost equal to that of the East India Company over the voluptuous climes, and magnificent realms of the Orient. The company consisted of twenty-three shareholders or partners; but held in its employ about two thousand persons as clerks, guides, interpreters, and' voyageurs ' or boatmen. These were distributed at various tradingports, established far and wide in the interior lakes and rivers, at immense distances from each other, and in the heart of trackless countries and savage tribes.

“ As to the principal partners or agents, who resided in Montreal and Quebec, they formed a kind of commercial aristocracy, living in lordly and hospitable style. Their early associations, when clerks at the remote trading ports, and the pleasures, dangers, adventures, and mishaps which they had shared together in their wild wood life, had linked them heartily to each other, so that they formed a convivial fraternity. Few travellers that visited Canada some thirty years since, in the days of the M'Tavishes, the M‘Gillivrays, the M'Kenzies, the Frobishers, and the other magnates of the North-West, when the Company was in all its glory, but must remember the round of feasting and revelry kept up amongst these hyperborean nabobs. Sometimes one or two partners, recently from the interior ports, would make their appearance in New York in the course of a tour of pleasure and curiosity. On these occasions there was always a degree of magnificence of the purse about them, and a peculiar propensity to expenditure at the goldsmiths and jewellers for rings, chains, brooches, necklaces, jewelled watches, and other rich trinkets, partly for their own wear, and partly for presents to their female acquaintances; a gorgeous prodigality, such as was often noticed in former times in Southern Planters and West Indian Creoles, when flush with the profits of their

plantations. To behold the North-West Company in all its state and grandeur, however, it was necessary to witness an annual gathering at the great interior place of conference established at Fort-William, near to what is called the Grand Portage, on Lake Superior.

“On these occasions might be seen the change since the unceremonious times of the old French traders; how the aristocratical character of the Briton shone forth magnificently, or rather the feudal spirit of the Highlander.

“ The partners from Montreal, however, were the lords of the ascend. ant; coming from the midst of luxurious and ostentatious life, they quite eclipsed their compeers from the woods, whose forms and faces had been battered and hardened by hard living and hard service, and whose garments and equipments were all the worse for wear. Indeed, the partners from below considered the whole dignity of the Company as represented. in their persons, and conducted themselves in suitable style. They ascended the rivers in great state, like sovereigns making a progress, or rather like Highland chieftains navigating their subject lakes. They were wrapped in rich furs, their huge canoes freighted with every convenience and luxury, and manned by Canadian 'voyageurs' as obedient as Highland clansmen. They carried up with them cooks and bakers, together with delicacies of every kind, and abundance of choice wines for the banquet which attended this great convocation. Happy were they, too, if they could meet with some distinguished stranger,-above all, some titled member of the British nobility, to accompany them on this stately occasion, and grace their high solemnities. Fort William, the scene of this important annual meeting, was a considerable village on the banks of Lake Superior. Here, in an immense wooden building, was the great Council Hall, as also the banqueting chamber, decorated with Indian arms and accoutrements, and the trophies of the fur-trade.

· These grave and weighty councils were alternated by huge feasts and revels, like some of the old feasts described in Highland castles. The tables in the great banqueting rooms groaned under the weight of game of all kinds; of venison from the woods ; of fish from the lakes, with hunters' delicacies, such as buffaloes' tongues and beavers' tails, and various luxuries from Montreal, all served up by experienced cooks brought up for the purpose. There was no stint of generous wine, for it was a hard drinking period, - a time of loyal toasts and bacchanalian songs, and brimming bumpers.

“ Such was the North-West Company in its powerful and prosperous days, when it held a kind of feudal sway over a vast domain of lake and forest! We are dwelling too long, perhaps, upon these individual pictures, endeared to us by the associations of early life, when, as yet a stripling youth, we have sat at the board of the · Mighty North-Westers,' then lords of the ascendant at Montreal, and gazed with wondering and inexperienced eye at their baronial wassailing, and listened with astonished ear to their tales of hardships and adventures. It is one object of our task, however, to present the scenes of the rough life of the wilderness, and we are tempted to fix these few memorials of a transient state

VOL. VIII.-No XV:

U