geny-philosophising on the most approved method of increasing the population — or inquiring into the origin of the passions,-I am not competent to say. Ône thing, however, is certain: An adjournment for a short time always takes place; and our hero goes home to pursue his usual avocations, promising to return at a particular time, provided they have been mutually satisfied with each other's conduct during the preceding night.

At the first meeting of this kind, inquiry is made by the gentleman respecting the character and number of the lady's former lovers, and also concerning the causes which prevented her union with any of them. If he is satisfied on these matters, another evening is appointed for the second meeting; but if the cause of dissatisfaction originates with the lady, she candidly informs him, that she cannot think of receiving him again in the capacity of a suitor. A different and more cruel line of conduct is pursued by the gentleman; for if he is determined on visiting her no more, he departs without communicating his sentiments, resolved "to play least in sight" for the future.

If there is a mutual agreement between them, they have two or three further meetings of this kind; after which, if their love increases, he acquaints a neighbouring magistrate with his intention of leading his beloved to the altar: The magistrate signifies the same " to all whom it may concern, "to by fixing a written publication on the doors of all public places in their respective townships, pro

vided no minister of the Church of England resides within eighteen miles of either of the parties. This publication, or "publishment," as the Americans call it, continues placarded for three successive weeks; at the expiration of which, if no person comes forward to make known any just cause or impediment why the parties may not be lawfully joined together in holy matrimony, they are solemnly declared man and wife.

From the preceding remarks on the conduct and character of the females of Canada, it is altogether likely that you will consider virtue as wholly extinct on this side of the Western Ocean; but you must regard me as speaking only generally, and not particularly. I think I have known many respectable females in this country, who, if they would not add lustre to the first circles in Europe, certainly would not derogate either from the intellectual or moral character of those who now move in such circles. The influence of climate may unquestionably have some effect in forming the character, and determining the conduct, of women as well as of men. I am at the same time confident, that the circumstances in which we are placed, and the examples of those by whom we are surrounded, have a still more powerful tendency to render us either virtuous or vicious. I see this strikingly exemplified, whenever I contrast the females of Ireland with those of Canada. In the former country, female virtue is estimated

It is valued

above every earthly consideration. above the world's worth, above all dignity and rank, and all extrinsic excellence; and she who is found without it, though laden with princely titles and with princely wealth, and graced with all the charms of wit and beauty, is compelled to seclude herself for life from all honourable society, to veil her face and hang down her head even in the presence of her own family, and, in a word, to relinquish all claims to private attention and public esteem, to present favour and future fame. And what are the consequences? The Irish ladies are such as might naturally be expected,—such as have stamped a high and exalted character on the domestic economy of our country, and have rendered her in this respect the envy and admiration of the world. In Europe and America, and in every place where they are known, the daughters of Hibernia are regarded as the LUCRETIAS of modern times, as the proud and honourable exemplifications of the wise man's proverb: "She will do her husband good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness."

Alas! what a melancholy contrast to this delightful picture does Canada present! Here we find females who are destitute of virtue, as much respected, and as likely to make respectable alliances in the world, as if they were not merely its proud possessors, but its chaste and attentive guardians.

On this subject, as well as on many others, they differ widely from our inimitable poet :

When lovely woman stoops to folly,

And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy?
What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,

To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,

And wring his bosom, is-to die.

Such a sentiment as this would in Canada be regarded merely as the wild effusion of some moralizing enthusiast, who paid more attention to the harmony of his numbers than to the calm consideration of his subject. It would in fact be esteemed as a senseless chimera, the creation of a disordered brain. It is to the prevalence of such opinions, more than to any overweening depravity of heart or influence of climate, that I am disposed to attribute the almost universal demoralization of the Canadian females in this class of society. I should be sorry, as I have already observed, to insinuate, that there are no women of virtue on this side of the Atlantic; but if there be a country in the universe, to which the too severe couplet of Pope is applicable even in a modified sense, it is Canada:

Men some to business, some to pleasure take,
But every woman is at heart a rake.

It is not likely, if at all possible, that virtue can abound in any country in which the violation

of chastity is not considered a crime of the first magnitude. And so far is this from being the case in Upper Canada or in the United States, that an unmarried female with a baby in her arms is as much respected, and as little obnoxious to public animadversion, as she would be, had she preserved her virtue with a Vestal's fidelity. Every man in the country looks on women in the same point of view as the Poet did when he wrote the poem from which I have taken the above lines; and the women being conscious in what light they are viewed, not unfrequently resolve to maintain the consistency of their established character. You will be inclined to doubt it; but it is nevertheless an indubitable fact, that a Canadian female, particularly in the New Settlements, with two or three young, ones, ready reared, is much more likely to form an advantageous alliance, than she who has had but one; and that if her matrimonial prospects be compared with those

of

a poor solitary girl, who has no such strong title to the appellation of "mother," they will be found greatly superior. This, I believe, is principally owing to the high price of labour. A man who has the good fortune to meet with a wife, who, on the morning of her marriage, presents him with a pair of thumping boys, considers that in a few years' time they will amply compensate him by their labours for the sacrifice which he makes of "a few mistaken and absurd notions imported from some European Nunnery.”

誓

It is a general maxim in Europe, that if a man