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of things, fast passing into oblivion :—for the feudal state of Fort William is at an end : its council chamber is silent and deserted : its banquet hall no longer echoes to the burst of loyalty, or the ' auld warld’ ditty: the lords of the lakes and the forests have passed away; and the hospitable Magnates of Montreal-where are they*?"

We cannot close this brief record of the “ Great NorthWesters”, without a passing notice of a class of persons who were almost called into existence by their commercial enterprise. We quote again the graphic words of Washington Irving, who writes of the Land of Lake and Forest with an accuracy of description and a truth of feeling, which proclaim him native-born.

“The 'Voyageurs' form a kind of confraternity in the Canadas, like the arrieros or carriers of Spain, and like them are employed in long internal expeditions of travel and traffics.

“The dress of these people is generally half civilized, half savage. They wear a capot or surcoat, made of a blanket, a striped cotton shirt, cloth trousers, or leather legging, and a belt of variegated worsted, from which are suspended the knife, tobacco-pouch, and other implements. Their language is of the same pie-bald character, being a French patois, embroidered with Indian and English words and phrases.

“No men are more submissive to their leaders and employers, more capable of enduring hardship, or more submissive under privations. Never are they so happy as when on long and rough expeditions, toiling up rivers, and coasting lakes; encamping at night on the borders, gossiping round their fires, and bivouacking in the open air. They are dexterous boatmen, vigorous and adroit with the oar and paddle, and will row from morning until night without a murmur. The steersman often sings an old traditionary French song, with some regular burden in which they all join, keeping time with their oars; if at any time they flag in spirits or relax in execution, it is only necessary to strike up a song of the kind, to put them all in fresh spirits and activity. The Canadian waters are vocal with these little French chansons, that have been echoed from mouth to mouth, and transmitted from father to son, from the earliest days of

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* The competition and success of the North-West Company roused the dormant energies of the Hudson's Bay Company. The conflicting interests and pretensions of the two companies were naturally productive of much ill-will. Under the auspices of the late Earl of Selkirk, who was, for a considerable period, at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company, a colony was projected and formed on the Red River, which runs into Lake Winnipec. The North-West Company regarded this establishment as an encroachment upon their peculiar rights; and the animosities thence arising led to the most violent proceedings on the part of the servants of both companies. At length, however, the more moderate individuals of each party began to perceive that their interests were not materially different ; and the rival companies, wearied and impoverished by their dissensions, ultimately united under the name of the “ Hudson's Bay Company,” which at present engrosses most of the fur trade of British North America.-M.Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce, Art. Fur Traile.

the colony; and it has a pleasing effect in a still, golden, summer evening, to see a batteau' gliding across the bosom of a lake, and dipping its oars to the cadence of these quaint old ditties, or sweeping in full chorus on a bright sunny morning down the transparent current of one of the Canadian rivers.

"But we are talking of things that are fast fading away! The march of mechanical invention is driving everything poetical before it. The steamboats which are fast dispelling the wildness and romance of our lakes and rivers, and aiding to subdue the world into common-place, are proving as fatal to the race of Canadian ‘voyageurs' as they have been to that of the boatmen on the Mississippi. Their glory is departed. They are no longer the lords of our internal seas, and the great navigators of the wilderness. Some of them may still occasionally be seen, coasting the lower lakes with their frail barks, and pitching their camps and lighting their fires on the shores; but their range is fast contracting to those remote waters, and shallow and obstructed rivers, unvisited by the steamboat. "In the course of years they will gradually disappear; their songs will die away like the echoes they once awakened, and the Canadian voyageurs' will become a forgotten race, or be remembered like their associates, the Indians, among the poetical images of past times, and as themes for local and romantic associations."

The merchants engaged in the timber trade constitute the other great commercial interest in the colony. It was subsequently to 1808, when events seriously threatened our relations with the Baltic, that Mr. Vansittart, in pursuance of his favourite policy, imposed the present heavy duties on European timber; and the following comparative table will show to what an extent a preference for our colonies has been carried.

An Account of the rates of Duty payable in Great Britain on the principal Articles of Wood*.

Timber.

Of
Foreign
Countries.

Of the British Plantations in America.

6, and not above 16 feet long, and not exceed

ing 3, inches thick, per 120. 16, and not exceeding 21 feet long, and not

exceeding 34 inches thick, per 120 21, and not 45 feet long, and uot exceeding

34 inches thick, per 120 ... Exceeding 45 feet long, or above 34 inches

thick, (not being timber 8 inches square or

upwards,) the load containing 50 cubic feet. And further, the 120 .. N.B.-There is no class of deals brought

from the colonies of the same dimensions as the two previous classes; but the preference of those that do come corresponds to its amount on other articles.

(See Tariff.) DEAL-Ends under 6 feet long, and not exceed

ing 3 inches thick, per 120 And exceeding 34 inches thick, per 120 LATHWOCD, in pieces under 5 feet long, per

fathom .. 5, and under 8 feet long. 8, and uuder 12 feet long. 12 feet long and upwards .. Masts, 6 and under 8 inches in diameter, each 8 and under 12 inches in diameter, each 12 inches in diameter and upwards, per load . OAK PLANK, 2 inches thick or upwards . . Spars, under 4 inches in diameter, and under

22 feet long, per 120 ... And 22 feet long or upwards, per 120. 4 and under 6 inches in diameter . Staves, not exceeding 36 inches long. Above 36 and not exceeding 50 inches long,

per 120

Above 50 and not exceeding 60 inches long,

per 120

Above 60, and not exceeding 72 inches long,

per 120

Above 72 inches long
N.B.-Staves of the United States of America,

of Florida, of the Ionian Isles, or of the Bri-
tish Colonies, and not exceeding 1} inch in
thickness, are chargeable with one-third part

only of the above rates.
Fir, 8 inches square or upwards, per load..
ОАК, ditto ditto
Unenumerated ...
Wainscot-Logs, 8 inches square or upwards,

per load.

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It is well observed by Mr. M'Culloch, that “so long as a “ foreigner can lay his finger on such a table as this, it will not “ be easy to convince him that our commercial system has 6 lost much of its exclusive character.” But we insert this table for other purposes. It is obvious that the excessive advantages secured to our colonial timber,* must attract a power

* It is not within the scope of this article to discuss the question of the timber trade; but the following observations by Mr. M'Culloch will not, we are persuaded, be considered impertinent, when we are touching upon this branch of the subject.

“It is objected to the abolition of the discriminating duties on timber, that it would be injurious to Canada and the shipping interest. We believe, however, that the injury would not be nearly so great as has been represented; that it would in fact be quite inconsiderable. So far from the 'lumber trade,' or the trade of felling wood, squaring it, and floating it down the rivers to the shipping ports, being advantageous to a colony, it is quite the reverse. The habits which it generates are quite subversive of that sober, steady spirit of industry so essential to a settler in a rude country; to such a degree, indeed, is this the case, that lumberers have been described as the pests of the colony, 'made and kept vicious by the very trade on which they live.''

“Mr. Richards, who was sent out by government to report on the influence of the lumber trade, represents it as most unfavourable; and observes, that when time or chance shall compel the inhabitants to desist from this employment, agriculture will begin to raise its head.' p. 52. The statements of Captain Moorsoom, in his Letters from Novoscotia, are exactly similar. He considers the depression of the timber market, although a severe loss to individuals, a decided gain to the colony,' from the check it has given to the ‘lumbering mania.'

“ The ship-owners would undoubtedly have more cause to complain of injury from the equalization of the duties; but even as respects them, it would not be nearly so great as is commonly supposed. The statement usually put forth by those who represent the timber trade to North America as of vital importance to the shipping interest, is that it employs 1800 ships of 470,000 tons, navigated by 20,000 sailors. The entries inwards of British ships, from our possessions in North America, correspond with the sums now stated; but at an average every ship employed in the trade makes 13 voyages a year, so that in point of fact only 1028 ships, of 270,000 tons and 11,427 men, are employed in the trade. From this latter number must, however, be struck off ships employed in other branches of trade; for no one pretends that the only trade we carry on with North America is in the importation of timber. We believe that the number so to be struck off may be estimated at 200 ships of 54,000 tons, and 2200 men, leaving about 800 ships of 216,000 tons and 9200 men to be affected by the change. Inasmuch, however, as about one-third part of the timber now brought from Canada would continue to be brought, for the purposes already referred to, were the duties equalized, only 544 ships of 144000 tons and 6134 men would be forced to change their employments. Now of these at least a half would be employed in bringing from the Baltic the same quantity of timber that is brought from America ; and as the price of timber would be materially lowered by the reduction of the duty, the demand for it would no doubt materially increase'; so that it is abundantly plain that very few if any ships would be thrown out of employment by the abolition of the discriminating duties. It is material to observe, too, that whatever temporary inconvenience the shipping interest might sustain from the change, its future consequences would be singularly advantageous to it. The high price of timber employed in building ships is, at present, the heaviest drawback on the British ship-owners; but the equalization of the duties would materially reduce this price; and we have the authority of the best practical judges for affirming, that were the duty, as it ought to be, entirely repealed, ships would be built decidedly cheaper in England than in any part of the world.”—M*Culloch's Commercial Dict., .lrt. Timber Trade, pp. 1155—1157.

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ful and wealthy class of individuals to the colony, whose influence, both in Canada and in England, cannot fail to exercise a considerable influence on its welfare; and, if any portion of the Anglo-Canadian population could, with an approach to truth, be said to afford materials for the formation of a local aristocracy, such an aristocracy would be found in the commercial circles of the fur and timber trade. It would, however, be hypercritical, if not invidious, to inquire what attributes—beyond the possession of comparative wealth in a poor country, or the skill and industry necessary to acquire itthese individuals possess, to entitle them to a social distinction over their fellow-citizens; and a fatal objection to such a plan exists in the fact, that they are not, for the most part, identified with the permanent interests of the colony. A few members of the North-West Company, from a long residence in the interior, have imbibed an attachment to Canadian habits, which has induced them to become landed proprietors; but the vast majority of the “mercantile interest,” look upon the Canadian provinces, merely as a place where, by act of parliament, an opportunity has been afforded them of amassing money. No feelings of Anglo-Canadian nationality ever obtrude themselves upon their utilitarian projects. The huge mis-shapen raft of wood, dotted over with temporary huts, and impelled by a motley display of canvass, of various hues and of every imaginable shape, excites an interest in their minds paramount to every other consideration, as it floats heavily down the St. Lawrence, towards the vessels that are destined to bear it to the markets of England. The gains of each year are anxiously counted, as the only means by which a painful period of banishment can be shortened ; and the hoped-for retirement of Harley Street, or of a “ fashionable watering-place," possesses a charm in the distance, which the wild beauties of the surrounding lakes and rivers cannot break.

Assuming, therefore, that the manners and customs which must necessarily prevail in a new country, as yet unsubdued by the industry of man, did not militate against such a scheme, --that the rooted prejudices of the people in favour of an equal partition of landed property did not forbid it,—that the example of the neighbouring United States did not render it impracticable,—the establishment of a colonial aristocracy,