of his profession; † and cannot, in that respect, be better described than in the words of our admirable lyric bard: No bright remembrance o'er the fancy plays; That relic of its light so soft and clear, Which gilds and hallows e'en the rudest scene, Upper Canada is a level country, and its general appearance is sombre and uninviting. From Kingston, as far as the Western extremity of the Province, one or two places excepted, you travel through a continued forest; the prospect is in consequence never extensive, but commonly confined within the limits of a single mile. But TIME and INDUSTRY, the mighty two, may very soon effect a considerable change,- + Though this is actually the case, yet after all my veneration for antiquity, I heartily accord with the following just sentiment, expressed in the Preface to Professor Dwight's Travels:-" A forest,-changed within a short period into fruitful fields, covered with houses, schools, and churches, and filled with inhabitants, possessing not only the necessaries and comforts, but also the conveniences of life, and devoted to the worship of Jehovah,when seen only in prophetic vision, enraptured the mind even of Isaiah; and, when realized, can hardly fail to delight that of a spectator. At least, it may compensate the want of ancient castles, ruined abbeys, and fine pictures." although YEARS have rolled on and found it the same, and INDUSTRY-Canadian industry, I meanhas in many instances left it so; for no marked visible change has been effected in the aspect of this highly favoured Province. Blessed with the most fertile soil upon the face of the earth, its lazy occupants seem satisfied if they derive from its productiveness the mere necessaries of life,-the bare supports of animal existence. These, as well as the comforts of life, it yields them almost spontaneously; and, in the midst of this plenty, they never think of ornamenting, or even properly cultivating, their fertile estates. In many parts which I could point out, the soil is so exuberant, and the seasons so propitious, both to the growth and the preservation of crops, that the life of its inhabitants is literally that of Cowper's happy pair : They eat, and drink, and sleep,-what then? To the scientific traveller, however, this province can afford but little pleasure, if we except the Falls of Niagara, and a few other natural curiosities. It exhibits little but immeasurable forests, the dreary abodes of wolves and bears, — log-huts, which, though always clean and comfortable within, have a most gloomy and sepulchral appearance from without, and wretchedly-cultivated fields, studded with the stumps of trees, and fenced round with split rails; a mode of enclosure with which I can never associate any other idea, than that of sheep eating turnips. The roads, if roads they may be called, are yet so very bad, that any attempt to describe them to you would, I fear, be altogether fruitless. In a single day's journey of thirty or forty miles, you are generally necessitated to perform the greater part of it over miserable causeways, composed of the trunks of trees from nine inches to two feet in diameter. These logs are placed across the roads, in all moist and swampy places; and, with very few exceptions, they are the only materials which are used in the formation of our dangerous bridges. As these logs are neither square nor flattened, and not always even perfectly straight, they frequently lie so far apart, that horses, cows, and oxen are continually in danger of breaking their limbs in passing over. Fewer acoidents, however, occur in this way, than might be expected. Cattle of all kinds in this country are so accustomed thus to dance upon beech and maple, that, before they attain their second year, they acquire such a proficiency in the art of logwalking, that I should not be at all surprised to hear of an American horse or bull becoming a rope-dancer. Nature has probably done more for Upper Canada, than for any other tract of country of equal extent; and art seems to conduct herself upon the modest principle, that it would be an act of unpardonable presumption in her, to attempt the further improvement of a country so greatly indebted to the kind indulgence of her elder sister. Here is the finest field for the exercise of human industry and ingenuity;-a soil not only capable of producing in abundance all the necessaries of life, but equal to the culture of its greatest luxuries;—a climate, not only favourable to the human constitution, but also eminently calculated for the cultivation of every species of grain and fruit. And yet, so great is the delusion under which many Europeans still labour with respect to the real character of this fine country, that most of those who have not seen it compare it in imagination with the deserts of Siberia; and receive all that travellers relate in its favour with no more candour than can be expected from persons who evince no wish to be undeceived. Its real advantages, however, are now becoming so well appreciated by the inhabitants of Great Britain, that, on a moderate calculation, it annually receives an accession of 8,000 European settlers, in addition to those who pass over from the American confines. Lower Canada is not only a more picturesque country than the sister Province, but, having been much longer settled, the roads are greatly superior and the population more condensed. The principal road runs along the North bank of the St. Lawrence, which, as well as the Southern bank, is thickly settled. The farm-houses stand very close to each other, a circumstance from which the French writers, in their exaggerated accounts of the country, have derived the romantic idea of villages 50 miles in extent. The land along the whole course of this noble river, from the point where it discharges itself into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to within about thirty miles above Montreal, was divided, by order of the French King, into a certain number of Seigniories, or Lordships, which were granted to such enterprising characters as were desirous of seeking their fortunes in the Trans-atlantic forests. These Seigneurs, or Lords of Manor, were bound to concede their possessions, in lots of about 200 acres, to such of the peasantry in the country as might be able to back their applications for land with respectable testimonials of their loyalty and good character. On obtaining farms, the peasantry were bound to become actual settlers, to clear, within a certain period, a specific portion of each lot, to keep open the public road, and to fulfil certain other conditions which will hereafter be detailed. Each of the lots runs along the course of the river about 38 English perches, and stretches backwards into the country about 1018. When the land which fronted the river was settled, the Seigneurs formed other concessions in the rear of the former, which, in their turn, also became settled: But as it is usual in every part of the Canadas, to clear only the front of each lot, leaving 40 or 50 acres of wood in the rear for fuel and other domestic purposes, a stranger would hardly suppose that any settlements existed beyond the visible boundaries of the cleared lands. This custom affords a good reason why the country still |