Chapter XI: Part 11

One missionary to Indians 45

Schoolmaster at Quebec 100

Schoolmaster at Montreal 50

Schoolmaster at Carlisle, Bay de 25
Chaleurs

Overseers, to prevent fires at Quebec, 60
and to sweep the chimneys of the
poor

Salary of the bishop of Quebec, who is 2,000
bishop of both provinces

The pensions, between January 1794 and January 1795, amounted to £.1,782. 6_s._ 7_d._

* * * * *

A STATEMENT of the Articles subject to Duty on Importation into Canada, and of the Duties payable thereon.

_s._
_d._

Brandy and other spirits, the . 3
manufacture of Great Britain, per
gallon

Rum and other spirits, imported from the . 6
colonies in the West Indies, per
gallon

Brandy and spirits of foreign 1 0
manufacture, imported from Great
Britain, per gallon

Additional duty on the same, per gallon . 3

Rum or spirits manufactured in the 1 0
United States, per gallon

Molasses and Syrups imported in British . 3
shipping, per gallon

Additional duty, per gallon . 3

Molasses or Syrups legally imported in . 6
other than British shipping, per
gallon

Additional duty, per gallon . 3

Madeira wine, per gallon . 6

Other wine . 3

N.B. Wine can be imported directly from Madeira, or from any of the African islands, into Canada; but no European wine or brandy can be imported, except through England.

Loaf or lump sugar, 1
per lb.

Muscovado or clayed ½
sugar

Coffee, per lb. 2

Leaf tobacco, per 2
lb.

Playing cards, per 2
pack

Salt, the minot 4

N.B. The minot is a measure commonly used in Canada, which is to the Winchester bushel, as 100 is to 108,765.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SOIL AND MANUFACTURES.]

The imports into Canada consist of all the various articles which a young country, that does not manufacture much for its own use, can be supposed to stand in need of; such as earthen ware, hardware, and household furniture, except of the coarser kinds; woollen and linen cloths, haberdashery, hosiery, &c.; paper, stationary, leather and manufactures of leather, groceries, wines, spirits, West Indian produce, &c. &c.; cordage of every description, and even the coarser manufactures of iron, are also imported.

The soil of the country is well adapted to the growth of hemp, and great pains have been taken to introduce the culture of it. Handbills, explaining the manner in which it can be raised to the best advantage, have been assiduously circulated amongst the farmers, and posted up at all the public houses. It is a difficult matter, however, to put the French Canadians out of their old ways, so that very little hemp has been raised in consequence of the pains that have been thus taken; and it is not probable that much will be raised for a considerable time to come.

Iron ore has been discovered in various parts of the country; but works for the smelting and manufacturing of it have been erected at one place only, in the neighbourhood of Trois Rivieres. These works were erected by the king of France some time before the conquest: they are now the property of the British government, and are rented out to the persons who hold them at present. When the lease expires, which will be the case about the year 1800, it is thought that no one will be found to carry on the works, as the bank of ore, from whence they are supplied, is nearly exhausted. The works consist of a forge and a foundry: iron stoves are the principal articles manufactured in the latter; but they are not so much esteemed as those from England.

Domestic manufactures are carried on in most parts of Canada, consisting of linen and of coarse woollen cloths; but by far the greater part of these articles used in the country is imported from Great Britain.

The experts from Canada consist of furs and pelts in immense quantities; of wheat, flour, flax-seed, potash, timber, staves, and lumber of all sorts; dried fish, oil, ginseng, and various medicinal drugs.

The trade between Canada and Great Britain employs, it is said, about seven thousand tons of shipping annually.

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+LETTER + XXVI.

_Of the Soil and Productions of Lower Canada.—Observations on the
Manufacture of Sugar from the Maple-tree.—Of the Climate of Lower
Canada.—Amusements of People of all Descriptions during
Winter.—Carioles.—Manner of guarding against the Cold.—Great Hardiness
of the Horses.—State of the River St. Lawrence on the Dissolution of
Winter.—Rapid Progress of Vegetation during Spring.—Agreeableness of
the Summer and Autumn Seasons._

Quebec.

THE eastern part of Lower Canada, between Quebec and the Gulph of St. Lawrence, is mountainous; between Quebec and the mouth of the Utawas River also a few scattered mountains are to be met with; but higher up the River St. Lawrence the face of the country is flat.

The soil, except where small tracts of stony and sandy land intervene, consists principally of a loose dark coloured earth, and of the depth of ten or twelve inches, below which there is a bed of cold clay. This earth towards the surface is extremely fertile, of which there cannot be a greater proof than that it continues to yield plentiful crops, notwithstanding its being worked year after year by the French Canadians, without ever being manured. It is only within a few years back, indeed, that any of the Canadians have begun to manure their lands, and many still continue, from father to son, to work the same fields without intermission, and without ever putting any manure upon them, yet the land is not exhausted, as it would be in the United States. The manure principally made use of by those who are the best farmers is marl, found in prodigious quantities in many places along the shores of the River St. Lawrence.

The soil of Lower Canada is particularly suited to the growth of small grain. Tobacco also thrives well in it; it is only raised, however, in small quantities for private use, more than one half of what is used in the country being imported. The Canadian tobacco is of a much milder quality than that grown in Maryland and Virginia: the snuff made from it is held in great estimation.

[Sidenote: VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.]

Culinary vegetables of every description come to the greatest perfection in Canada, as well as most of the European fruits: the currants, gooseberries, and raspberries are in particular very fine; the latter are indigenous, and are found in profusion in the woods; the vine is also indigenous, but the grapes which it produces in its uncultivated state are very poor, sour, and but little larger than fine currants.

The variety of trees found in the forests of Canada is prodigious, and it is supposed that many kinds are still unknown: beech trees, oaks, elms, ashes, pines, sycamores, chesnuts, walnuts, of each of which several different species are commonly met with; the sugar maple tree is also found in almost every part of the country, a tree never seen but upon good ground. There are two kinds of this very valuable tree in Canada; the one called the swamp maple, from its being generally found upon low lands; the other, the mountain or curled maple, from growing upon high dry ground, and from the grain of the wood being very beautifully variegated with little stripes and curls. The former yields a much greater quantity of sap, in proportion to its size, than the other, but this sap does not afford so much sugar as that of the curled maple. A pound of sugar is frequently procured from two or three gallons of the sap of the curled maple, whereas no more than the same quantity can be had from six or seven gallons of that of the swamp.

The most approved method of getting the sap is by piercing a hole with an auger in the side of the tree, of one inch or an inch and a half in diameter, and two or three inches in depth, obliquely upwards; but the most common mode of coming at it is by cutting a large gash in the tree with an axe. In each case a small spout is fixed at the bottom of the wound, and a vessel is placed underneath to receive the liquor as it falls.

A maple tree of the diameter of twenty inches will commonly yield sufficient sap for making five pounds of sugar each year, and instances have been known of trees yielding nearly this quantity annually for a series of thirty years. Trees that have been gashed and mangled with an axe will not last by any means so long as those which have been carefully pierced with an auger; the axe, however, is generally used, because the sap distils much faster from the wound made by it than from that made by an auger, and it is always an object with the farmer, to have the sap brought home, and boiled down as speedily as possible, in order that the making of sugar may not interfere with his other agricultural pursuits. The season for tapping the trees is when the sap begins to rise, at the commencement of spring, which is just the time that the farmer is most busied in making preparations for sowing his grain.

[Sidenote: MAPLE TREES.]

It is a very remarkable fact, that these trees, after having been tapped for six or seven successive years, always yield more sap than they do on being first wounded; this sap, however, is not so rich as that which the trees distil for the first time; but from its coming in an increased portion, as much sugar is generally procured from a single tree on the fifth or sixth year of its being tapped as on the first.

The maple is the only sort of raw sugar made use of in the country parts of Canada; it is very generally used also by the inhabitants of the towns, whither it is brought for sale by the country people who attend the markets, just the same as any other kind of country produce. The most common form in which it is seen is in loaves or thick round cakes, precisely as it comes out of the vessel where it is boiled down from the sap. These cakes are of a very dark colour in general, and very hard; as they are wanted they are scraped down with a knife, and when thus reduced into powder, the sugar appears of a much lighter cast, and not unlike West Indian muscovada or grained sugar. If the maple sugar be carefully boiled with lime, whites of eggs, blood, or any of the other articles usually employed for clarifying sugar, and properly granulated, by the draining off of the molasses, it is by no means inferior, either in point of strength, flavour, or appearance to the eye, to any West Indian sugar whatsoever: simply boiled down into cakes with milk or whites of eggs it is very agreeable to the taste.

The ingenious Dr. Nooth, of Quebec, who is at the head of the general hospital in Canada, has made a variety of experiments upon the manufacture of maple sugar; he has granulated, and also refined it, so as to render it equal to the best lump sugar that is made in England. To convince the Canadians also, who are as incredulous on some points as they are credulous on others, that it was really maple sugar which they saw thus refined, he has contrived to leave large lumps, exhibiting the sugar in its different stages towards refinement, the lower part of the lumps being left hard, similar to the common cakes, the middle part granulated, and the upper part refined.

[Sidenote: MAPLE TREES.]

Dr. Nooth has calculated, that the sale of the molasses alone would be fully adequate to the expence of refining the maple sugar, if a manufactory for that purpose were established. Some attempts have been made to establish one of the kind at Quebec, but they have never succeeded, as the persons by whom they were made were adventurers that had not sufficient capitals for such an undertaking. It ought not, however, to be concluded from this, that a manufactory of the sort would not succeed if conducted by judicious persons that had ample funds for the business; on the contrary, it is highly probable that it would answer.

There is great reason also to suppose, that a manufactory for making the sugar from the beginning, as well as for refining it, might be established with advantage.

Several acres together are often met with in Canada, entirely covered with maple trees alone; but the trees are most usually found growing mixed with others, in the proportion of from thirty to fifty maple trees to every acre. Thousands and thousands of acres might be procured, within a very short distance of the River St. Lawrence, for less than one shilling an acre, on each of which thirty maple trees would be found; but supposing that only twenty-five trees were found on each acre, then on a track of five thousand acres, supposing each tree to produce five pounds of sugar, 5,580 cwt. 2 qrs. 12 lbs. of sugar might be made annually.

The maple tree attains a growth sufficient for yielding five pounds of sugar annually in the space of twenty years; as the oaks and other kinds of trees, therefore, were cut away for different purposes, maples might be planted in their room, which would be ready to be tapped by the time that the old maple trees failed. Moreover, if these trees were planted out in rows regularly, the trouble of collecting the sap from them would be much less than if they stood widely scattered, as they do in their natural state, and of course the expence of making the sugar would be considerably lessened. Added to this, if young maples were constantly set out in place of the other trees, as they were cut down, the estate, at the end of twenty years, would yield ten times as much sugar as it did originally.

[Sidenote: MAPLE SUGAR.]

It has been asserted, that the difficulty of maintaining horses and men in the woods at the season of the year proper for making the sugar would be so great, as to render every plan for the manufactory of the sugar on an extensive scale abortive. This might be very true, perhaps, in the United States, where the subject has been principally discussed, and where it is that this objection has been made; but it would not hold good in Canada. Many tracks, containing five thousand acres each, of sugar maple land, might be procured in various parts of the country, no part of any of which would be more than six English miles distant from a populous village. The whole labour of boiling in each year would be over in the space of six weeks; the trouble therefore of carrying food during that period, for the men and horses that were wanting for the manufactory, from a village into the woods, would be trifling, and a few huts might be built for their accommodation in the woods at a small expence.

The great labour requisite for conveying the sap from the trees, that grow so far apart, to the boiling house, has been adduced as another objection to the establishment of an extensive sugar manufactory in the woods.

The sap, as I have before observed, is collected by private families, by setting a vessel, into which it drops, under each tree, and from thence carried by hand to the place where it is to be boiled. If a regular manufactory, however, were established, the sap might be conveyed to the boiling house with far less labour; small wooden troughs might be placed under the wounds in each trees, by which means the sap might easily be conveyed to the distance of twenty yards, if it were thought necessary, into reservoirs. Three or four of these reservoirs might be placed on an acre, and avenues opened through the woods, so as to admit carts with proper vessels to pass from one to the other, in order to convey the sap to the boiling houses. Mere sheds would answer for boiling houses, and these might be erected at various different places on the estate, in order to save the trouble of carrying the sap a great way.

The expence of cutting down a few trees, so as to clear an avenue for a cart, would not be much; neither would that of making the spouts, and common tubs for reservoirs, be great in a country abounding with wood; the quantity of labour saved by such means would, however, be very considerable.

When then, it is considered, that private families, who have to carry the sap by hand from each tree to their own houses, and often at a considerable distance from the woods, in order to boil it, can, with all this labour, afford to sell sugar, equally good with that which comes from the West Indies, at a much lower price than what the latter is sold at; when it is considered also, that by going to the small expence, on the first year, of making a few wooden spouts and tubs, a very great portion of labour would be saved, and of course the profits on the sale of the sugar would be far greater; there is good foundation for thinking, that if a manufactory were established on such a plan as I have hinted at, it would answer extremely well, and that maple sugar would in a short time become a principal article of foreign commerce in Canada.

[Sidenote: AIR AND CLIMATE.]

The sap of the maple tree is not only useful in yielding sugar; most excellent vinegar may likewise be made from it. In company with several gentlemen I tasted vinegar made from it by Dr. Nooth, allowed by every one present to be much superior to the best French white wine vinegar; for at the same time that it possessed equal acidity, it had a more delicious flavour.

Good table beer may likewise be made from the sap, which many would mistake for malt liquor.

If distilled, the sap affords a very fine spirit.

The air of Lower Canada is extremely pure, and the climate is deemed uncommonly salubrious, except only in the western parts of the province, high up the River St. Lawrence, where, as is the case in almost every part of the United States south of New England, between the ocean and the mountains, the inhabitants suffer to a great degree from intermittent fevers. From Montreal downwards, the climate resembles very much that of the states of New England; the people live to a good old age, and intermittents are quite unknown. This great difference in the healthiness of the two parts of the province must be attributed to the different aspects of the country; to the east, Lower Canada, like New England, is mountainous, but to the west it is an extended flat.

The extremes of heat and cold in Canada are amazing; in the months of July and August the thermometer, according to Fahrenheit, is often known to rise to 96°, yet a winter scarcely passes over but even the mercury itself freezes. Those very sudden transitions, however, from heat to cold, so common in the United States, and so very injurious to the constitution, are unknown in Canada; the seasons also are much more regular.

The snow generally begins to fall in November; but sometimes it comes down as early as the latter end of October. This is the most disagreeable part of the whole year; the air is then cold and raw, and the sky dark and gloomy; two days seldom pass over together without a fall either of snow or sleet. By the end of the first or second week, however, in December, the clouds are generally dissolved, the frost sets in, the sky assumes a bright and azure hue, and for weeks together it continues the same, without being obscured by a single cloud.

[Sidenote: WINTER AMUSEMENTS.]

The greatest degree of cold which they experience in Canada, is in the month of January, when for a few days it is sometimes so intense, that it is impossible for a human being to remain out of doors for any considerable time, without evident danger of being frost bitten. These very cold days, however, do not come altogether, but intervene generally at some little distance from each other; and between them, in the depth of winter, the air is sometimes so warm that people in exercise, in the middle of the day, feel disposed to lay aside the thick fur cloaks usually worn out of doors.

Those who have ever passed a winter in Canada, have by no means that dread of its severity, which some would have who have never experienced a greater degree of cold than what is commonly felt in Great Britain; and as for the Canadians themselves, they prefer the winter to every other season; indeed I never met with a Canadian, rich or poor, male or female, but what was of that opinion; nor ought this to excite our surprise, when it is considered that they pass the winter so very differently from what we do. If a Canadian were doomed to spend but six weeks only in the country parts of England, when the ground was covered with snow, I dare venture to say that he would be as heartily tired of the sameness which then pervaded the face of nature, and as desirous of beholding a green field once more, as any one of us.

Winter in Canada is the season of general amusement. The clear frosty weather no sooner commences, than all thoughts about business are laid aside, and every one devotes himself to pleasure. The inhabitants meet in convivial parties at each other’s houses, and pass the day with music, dancing, card-playing, and every social entertainment that can beguile the time. At Montreal, in particular, such a constant and friendly intercourse is kept up amongst the inhabitants, that, as I have often heard it mentioned, it appears then as if the town were inhabited but by one large family.

[Sidenote: WINTER TRAVELLING.]

By means of their carioles or sledges, the Canadians transport themselves over the snow, from place to place, in the most agreeable manner, and with a degree of swiftness that appears almost incredible; for with the same horse it is possible to go eighty miles in a day, so light is the draft of one of these carriages, and so favourable is the snow to the feet of the horse. The Canadian cariole or sledge is calculated to hold two persons and a driver; it is usually drawn by one horse; if two horses are made use of, they are put one before the other, as the track in the roads will not admit of their going abreast. The shape of the carriage is varied according to fancy, and it is a matter of emulation amongst the gentlemen, who shall have the handsomest one. There are two distinct kinds, however, of carioles, the open and the covered. The former is commonly somewhat like the body of a capriole, put upon two iron runners or slides, similar in shape to the irons of a pair of skates; the latter consists of the body of a chariot put on runners in the same manner, and covered entirely over with furs, which are found by experience to keep out the cold much better than any other covering whatsoever. Covered carioles are not much liked, except for the purpose of going to a party in the evening; for the great pleasure of carioling consists in seeing and being seen, and the ladies always go out in most superb dresses of furs. The carioles glide over the snow with great smoothness, and so little noise do they make in sliding along, that it is necessary to have a number of bells attached to the harness, or a person continually sounding a horn to guard against accidents. The rapidity of the motion, with the sound of these bells and horns, appears to be very conducive to cheerfulness, for you seldom see a dull face in a cariole. The Canadians always take advantage of the winter season to visit their friends who live at a distance, as travelling is then so very expeditious; and this is another circumstance which contributes, probably not a little, to render the winter so extremely agreeable in their eyes.

Though the cold is so very intense in Canada, yet the inhabitants never suffer from it, constant experience having taught them how to guard against it effectually.

[Sidenote: DOMESTIC ANIMALS.]

In the first place, by means of stoves they keep their habitations as warm and comfortable as can be desired. In large houses they generally have four or five stoves placed in the hall, and in the apartments on the ground floor, from whence flues pass in different directions through the upper rooms. Besides these stoves, they likewise frequently have open fires in the lower apartments; it is more, however, on account of the cheerful appearance they give to the room, than for the sake of the warmth they communicate, as by the stoves the rooms can be heated to any degree. Lest any cold blasts should penetrate from without, they have also double doors, and if the house stands exposed, even double windows, about six inches apart. The windows are made to open lengthwise in the middle, on hinges, like folding doors, and where they meet they lock together in a deep groove; windows of this description, when closed, are found to keep out the cold air much better than the common sashes, and in warm weather they are more agreeable than any other sort, as they admit more air when opened. Nor do the inhabitants suffer from cold when they go abroad; for they never stir out without first wrapping themselves up in furs from head to foot. Their caps entirely cover the ears, the back of the neck, and the greatest part of the face, leaving nothing exposed except the eyes and nose; and their large and thick cloaks effectually secure the body; besides which they wear fur gloves, muffs, and shoes. It is surprising to see how well the Canadian horses support the cold; after standing for hours together in the open air at a time when spirits will freeze, they set off as alertly as if it were summer. The French Canadians make no scruple to leave their horses standing at the door of a house, without any covering, in the coldest weather, while they are themselves taking their pleasure. None of the other domestic animals are as indifferent to the cold as the horses. During winter all the domestic animals, not excepting the poultry, are lodged together in one large stable, that they may keep each other warm; but in order to avoid the expence of feeding many through the winter, as soon as the frost sets in they generally kill cattle and poultry sufficient to last them till the return of spring. The carcases are buried in the ground, and covered with a heap of snow, and as they are wanted they are dug up; vegetables are laid up in the same manner, and they continue very good throughout the whole winter. The markets in the towns are always supplied best at this season, and provisions are then also the cheapest; for the farmers having nothing else to engage them, and having a quantity of meat on hand, that is never injured from being sent to market, flock to the towns in their carioles in great numbers, and always well supplied.

The winter generally continues till the latter end of April, and sometimes even till May, when a thaw comes on very suddenly. The snow soon disappears; but it is a long time before the immense bodies of ice in the rivers are dissolved. The scene which presents itself on the St. Lawrence at this season is most tremendous. The ice first begins to crack from side to side, with a report as loud as that of a cannon. Afterwards, as the waters become swollen by the melting of the snow, it is broken into pieces, and hurried down the stream with prodigious impetuosity; but its course is often interrupted by the islands and shallow places in the river; one large piece is perhaps first stopped, other pieces come drifting upon that, and at length prodigious heaps are accumulated, in some places rising several yards above the level of the water. Sometimes these mounds of ice are driven from the islands or rocks, upon which they have accumulated, by the wind, and are floated down to the sea in one entire body: if in going down they happen to strike against any of the rocks along the shore, the crash is horrible: at other times they remain in the same spot where they were first formed, and continue to obstruct the navigation of the river for weeks after every appearance of frost is banished on shore; so very widely also do they frequently extend in particular parts of the river, and so solid are they at the same time, that in crossing from shore to shore, the people, instead of being at the trouble of going round them, make directly for the ice, disembark upon it, drag their bateaux or canoes across, and launch them again on the opposite side. As long as the ice remains in the St. Lawrence, no ships attempt to pass up or down; for one of these large bodies of ice is equally dangerous with a rock.

[Sidenote: THAW.]

The rapid progress of vegetation in Canada, as soon as the winter is over, is most astonishing. Spring has scarcely appeared, when you find it is summer. In a few days the fields are clothed with the richest verdure, and the trees obtain their foliage. The various productions of the garden come in after each other in quick succession, and the grain sown in May affords a rich harvest by the latter end of July. This part of the year, in which spring and summer are so happily blended together, is delightful beyond description; nature then puts on her gayest attire; at the same time the heat is never found oppressive; it is seldom that the mercury in Fahrenheit’s thermometer then rises above 84°: in July and August the weather becomes warmer, and a few days often intervene when the heat is overcoming; during these months the mercury sometimes rises to 96°. There is a great difference, however, in the weather at this season in different years: during the whole of the time that I was in the country, I never observed the thermometer higher than 88°; for the greater part of the months of July and August it was not higher than 80°, and for many days together it did not rise beyond 65°, between Quebec and Montreal.

The fall of the year is a most agreeable season in Canada, as well as the summer.

It is observed, that there is in general a difference of about three weeks in the length of the winter at Montreal and at Quebec, and of course in the other seasons. When green peas, strawberries, &c. were entirely gone at Montreal, we met with them in full season at Quebec.

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+LETTER + XXVII.

_Inhabitants of Lower Canada.—Of the Tenures by which Lands are
held.—Not favourable to the Improvement of the Country.—Some
Observations thereon.—Advantages of settling in Canada and the United
States compared.—Why Emigrations to the latter Country are more
general.—Description of a journey to Stoneham Township near
Quebec—Description of the River St. Charles—Of Lake St. Charles—Of
Stoneham Township._

Quebec.

ABOUT five-sixths of the inhabitants of Lower Canada are of French extraction, the bulk of whom are peasants, living upon the lands of the seigniors. Amongst the English inhabitants devoted to agriculture, but few, however, are to be found occupying land under seigniors, not withstanding that several of the seigniories have fallen into the hands of Englishmen; the great majority of them hold the lands which they cultivate by virtue of certificates from the governor, and these people for the most part reside in the western parts of the province, bordering upon the upper parts of the river St. Lawrence.

The seigniors, both French and English, live in a plain simple style; for although the seigniories in general are extensive, but few of them afford a very large income to the proprietors.

The revenues of a seigniory arise from certain fines called lods and vents, which are paid by the vassals on the alienation of property, as when a farm, or any part of it, is divided by a vassal, during his lifetime, amongst his sons, or when any other than the immediate issue of a vassal succeeds to his estate, &c. &c. The revenues arise also from certain fines paid on the granting of fresh lands to the vassals, and from the profits of the mills of the seignior, to which the vassals are bound to send all their corn to be ground.

This last obligation is sometimes extremely irksome to the vassal, when, for instance, on a large seigniory there is not more than one mill; for although it should be ten miles distant from his habitation, and he could get his corn ground on better terms close to his own door, yet he cannot send it to any other mill than that belonging to the seignior, under a heavy penalty.

[Sidenote: SEIGNIORIES.]

The extent of seigniorial rights in Canada, particularly in what relates to the levying of the lods and vents, seems to be by no means clearly ascertained, so that where the seignior happens to be a man of a rapacious disposition, the vassal is sometimes compelled to pay fines, which, in strict justice perhaps, ought not to be demanded. In the first provincial assembly that was called, this business was brought forward, and the equity and policy was strongly urged by some of the English members that possessed considerable abilities, of having proper bounds fixed to the power of the seigniors, and of having all the fines and services due from their vassals accurately ascertained, and made generally known: but the French members, a great number of whom were themselves seigniors, being strongly attached to old habits, and thinking that it was conducive to their interest that their authority should still continue undefined, opposed the measure with great warmth; and nothing was done.

Nearly all those parts of Canada which were inhabited when the country was under French government, as well as the unoccupied lands granted to individuals during the same period, are comprized under different seigniories, and these, with all the usages and customs thereto formerly pertaining, were confirmed to the proprietaries by the Quebec bill, which began to be in force in May 1775; these lands, therefore, are held by unquestionable titles. All the waste lands, however, of the crown, that have been allotted since the conquest, have been granted simply by certificates of occupation, or licences, from the governor, giving permission to persons who applied for these lands to settle upon them, no patents, conveying a clear possession of them, have ever been made out; it is merely by courtesy that they are held; and if a governor thought proper to reclaim them on the part of the crown, he has only to say the word, and the titles of the occupiers sink into air. Thus it is, that although several persons have expended large sums of money in procuring, and afterwards improving townships[34], none of them are yet enabled to sell a single acre as an indemnification for these expences; at least no title can be given with what is offered for sale, and it is not therefore to be supposed, that purchasers of such property will easily be found. It is true, indeed, that the different proprietaries of these townships have been assured, on the part of government, that patents shall be granted to every one of them, and they are fully persuaded that these will be made out some time or other; but they have in vain waited for them for three years, and they are anxiously waiting for them still[35].

Footnote 34:

Tracts of waste land, usually ten miles square.

Footnote 35:

I received a letter, dated early in the year 1796, from a gentleman in
Canada, who has taken up one of these townships, which contains the
following paragraph: “At present the matter remains in an unsettled
state, although every step has been taken on my part to accelerate the
completion of the business. Mr. D——’s patent, which was sent home as a
model, is not yet returned. I received a letter lately from Mr.
Secretary R——, in which he informs me, that Mr. G—— is again returned
to the surveyor’s office, and he assures me, that in conjunction with
him, he will do every thing in his power to expedite my obtaining a
patent. The governor, he says, means that the land business should go
forward.”

[Sidenote: SPECULATIONS.]

Different motives have been assigned for this conduct on the part of the British government. In the first place it has been alledged, that the titles are withheld, in order to prevent speculation and land-jobbing from rising to the same height in Canada as they have done in the United States.

It is a notorious fact, that in the United States land-jobbing has led to a series of the most nefarious practices, whereby numbers have already suffered, and by which still greater numbers must suffer hereafter. By the machinations of a few interested individuals, who have contrived by various methods to get immense tracts[36] of waste land into their possession, fictitious demands have been created in the market for land, the price of it has consequently been enhanced much beyond its intrinsic worth, and these persons have then taken the opportunity of selling what they had on hand at an enormous profit. The wealth that has been accumulated by particular persons in the United States, in this manner, is prodigious; and numberless others, witnesses to their prosperity, have been tempted to make purchases of land, in hopes of realizing fortunes in a similar way, by selling out small portions at an advanced price. Thus it is that the nominal value of waste land has been raised so suddenly in the United States; for large tracts, which ten years before were selling for a few pence per acre, have sold in numberless instances, lately, for dollars per acre, an augmentation in price which the increase of population alone would by no means have occasioned. Estates, like articles of merchandize, have passed, before they have ever been improved, through the hands of dozens of people, who never perhaps were within five hundred miles of them, and the consumer or farmer, in consequence of the profits laid on by these people, to whom they have severally belonged, has had frequently to pay a most exorbitant price for the little spot which he has purchased[37].

Footnote 36:

There have been many instances in the United States of a single
individual’s holding upwards of three millions of acres at one time,
and some few individuals have been known to hold even twice that
quantity at once.

Footnote 37:

In the beginning of the year 1796, this traffic was at its highest
pitch, and at this time General Washington, so eminently distinguished
for his prudence and foresight, perceiving that land had risen beyond
its actual value, and persuaded that it could not rise higher for some
years to come, advertised for sale every acre of which he was
possessed, except the farms of Mount Vernon. The event shewed how
accurate his judgment was. In the close of the year, one of the great
land-jobbers, disappointed in his calculations, was obliged to
abscond; the land trade was shaken to its very foundation;
bankruptcies spread like wildfire from one great city to another, and
men that had begun to build palaces found themselves likely to have no
better habitation for a time than the common gaol.

[Sidenote: LAND-JOBBING.]

Speculation and land-jobbing carried to such a pitch cannot but be deemed great evils in the community; and to prevent them from extending into Canada appears to be an object well worthy the attention of government; but it seems unnecessary to have recourse for that purpose to the very exceptionable measure of withholding a good title to all lands granted by the crown, a measure disabling the landholder from taking the proper steps to improve his estate, which gives rise to distrust and suspicion, and materially impedes the growing prosperity of the country.

It appears to me, that land-jobbing could never arrive at such a height in Canada as to be productive of similar evils to those already sprung up from it in the United States, or similar to those further ones with which the country is threatened, if no more land were granted by the crown, to any one individual, than a township of ten thousand acres; or should it be thought that grants of such an extent even opened too wide a field for speculation, certain restrictions might be laid upon the grantee; he might be bound to improve his township by a clause in the patent, invalidating the sale of more than a fourth or fifth of it unless to actual settlers, until a certain number of people should be resident thereon[38]. Such a clause would effectually prevent the evil; for it is the granting of very extensive tracts of waste lands to individuals, without binding them in any way to improve them, which gives rise to speculation and land-jobbing.

Footnote 38:

The plan of binding every person that should take up a township to
improve it, by providing a certain number of settlers, has not wholly
escaped the notice of government; for in the licences of occupation,
by which each township is allotted, it is stipulated, that every
person shall provide forty settlers for his township; but as no given
time is mentioned for the procuring of these settlers, the stipulation
becomes nugatory.

By others it is imagined, that the withholding of clear titles to the lands is a measure adopted merely for the purpose of preventing a diminution of the inhabitants from taking place by emigration.

[Sidenote: EMIGRATION.]

Not only townships have been granted by certificates of occupation, but also numberless small portions of land, from one hundred acres upwards, particularly in Upper Canada, to royalists and others, who have at different periods emigrated from the United States. These people have all of them improved their several allotments. By withholding any better title, therefore, than that of a certificate, they are completely tied down to their farms, unless, indeed, they think proper to abandon them, together with the fruits of many years labour, without receiving any compensation whatsoever for so doing.

It is not probable, however, that these people, if they had a clear title to their lands, would return back to the United States; the royalists, who were driven out of the country by the ill treatment of the other inhabitants, certainly would not; nor would the others, who have voluntarily quitted the country, return, whilst self-interest, which led them originally to come into Canada, operated in favour of their remaining there. It was the prospect of getting land on advantageous terms which induced them to emigrate; land is still a cheaper article in Canada than in the United States; and as there is much more waste land in the former, than in the latter country, in proportion to the number of the inhabitants, it will probably continue so for a length of time to come. In the United States, at present, it is impossible to get land without paying for it; and in parts of the country where the soil is rich, and where some settlements are already made, a tract of land, sufficient for a moderate farm, is scarcely to be procured under hundreds of dollars. In Canada, however, a man has only to make application to government, and on his taking the oath of allegiance, he immediately gets one hundred acres of excellent uncleared land, in the neighbourhood of other settlements, gratis; and if able to improve it directly, he can get even a larger quantity. But it is a fact worthy of notice, which banishes every suspicion relative to a diminution of the inhabitants taking place by emigrations into the States, that great numbers of people from the States actually emigrate into Canada annually, whilst none of the Canadians, who have it in their power to dispose of their property, emigrate into the United States, except, indeed, a very few of those who have resided in the towns.

[Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS.]

According to the opinion of others again, it is not for either of the purposes already mentioned, that clear titles are withheld to the lands granted by the crown, but for that of binding down to their good behaviour the people of each province, more particularly the Americans that have emigrated from the States lately, who are regarded by many with an eye of suspicion, notwithstanding they have taken the oaths of allegiance to the crown. It is very unfair, however, to imagine that these people would be ready to revolt a second time from Great Britain, if they were made still more independent than they are now, merely because they did so on a former occasion, when their liberties and rights as men and as subjects of the British empire were so shamefully disregarded; on the contrary, were clear titles granted with the lands bestowed by the crown on them, and the other subjects of the province, instead of giving rise to disaffection, there is every reason to think it would make them still more loyal, and more attached to the British government, as no invidious distinction could then be drawn between the condition of the landholders in the States and those in Canada. The material rights and liberties of the people would then be full as extensive in the one country as in the other; and as no positive advantage could be gained by a revolt, it is not likely that Americans, of all people in the world the most devoted to self-interest, would expose their persons and properties in such an attempt.

If, however, the Americans from the States are people that would abuse such favours from the crown, why were they admitted into the province at all? The government might easily have kept them out, by refusing to them any grants of lands; but at any rate, were it thought expedient to admit them, and were such measures necessary to keep them in due subjection, it seems hard that the same measures should be adopted in regard to the inhabitants of the province, who stood firm to the British government, even at the time when the people in every other part of the continent revolted.

For whatever reason this system of not granting unexceptionable titles with the land, which the crown voluntarily bestows on its faithful subjects, has been adopted, one thing appears evident, namely, that it has very considerably retarded the improvement of both the provinces; and indeed, as long as it is continued, they must both remain very backward countries, compared with any of the adjoining states. Were an opposite system, however, pursued, and the lands granted merely with such restrictions as were found absolutely necessary, in order to prevent jobbing, the happy effects of a measure of that nature would soon become visible; the face of the country would be quickly meliorated, and it is probable that there would not be any part of North America, where they would, after a short period, be able to boast that improvement had taken place more rapidly.

[Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS.]

It is very certain, that were the lands granted in this manner, many more people would annually emigrate into Canada from the United States than at present; for there are numbers who come yearly into the country to “explore it,” that return back solely because they cannot get lands with an indisputable title; I have repeatedly met with these people myself in Upper Canada, and have heard them express the utmost disappointment at not being able to get lands on such terms even for money; I have heard others in the States also speak to the same purport after they had been in Canada; it is highly probable, moreover, that many of the people, who leave Great Britain and Ireland for America, would then be induced to settle in Canada instead of the United States, and the British empire would not, in that case, lose, as it does now, thousands of valuable citizens every year.

What are the general inducements, may here be asked, to people to quit Great Britain for the United States? They have been summed up by Mr. Cooper[39], in his letters published in 1794, on the subject of emigrating to America; and we cannot have recourse, _on the whole_, to better authority.

Footnote 39:

Mr. Cooper, late of Manchester, who emigrated to America with all his
family, and whose authority has been very generally quoted by the
Americans who have since written on the subject of emigration.

[Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS.]

“In my mind,” he says, “the first and principal inducement to a person to quit England for America is, _the total absence of anxiety respecting the future success of a family_. There is little fault to find with the government of America, that is, of the United States, either in principle or practice. There are few taxes to pay, and those are of acknowledged necessity, and moderate in amount. There are no animosities about religion, and it is a subject about which few questions are asked; there are few respecting political men or political measures; the present irritation of men’s minds in Great Britain, and the discordant state of society on political accounts, is not known there. The government is the government of the people, and for the people. There are no tythes nor game laws; and excise laws upon spirits only, and similar to the British only in name. There are no great men of rank, nor many of great riches; nor have the rich the power of oppressing the less rich, for poverty is almost unknown; nor are the streets crowded with beggars. You see no where the disgusting and melancholy contrast, so common in Europe, of vice and filth, and rags and wretchedness, in the immediate neighbourhood of the most wanton extravagance, and the most useless and luxurious parade; nor are the common people so depraved as in Great Britain. Quarrels are uncommon, and boxing matches unknown in the streets. There are no military to keep the people in awe. Robberies are very rare. All these are real advantages; but great as they are, they do not weigh with me so much as the single consideration first mentioned.”

Any person that has travelled generally through the United States must acknowledge, that Mr. Cooper has here spoken with great partiality; for as to the morality and good order that prevails amongst the people, he has applied to all of them what only holds true with respect to those who live in the most improved parts of the country.

He is extremely inaccurate also, in representing the people of the States as free from all animosities about political measures; on the contrary, there is no country on the face of the globe, perhaps, where party spirit runs higher, where political subjects are more frequently the topic of conversation amongst all classes, and where such subjects are more frequently the cause of rancorous disputations and lasting differences amongst the people. I have repeatedly been in towns where one half of the inhabitants would scarcely deign to speak to the other half, on account of the difference of their political opinions; and it is scarcely possible, in any part of the country, to remain for a few hours in a mixed company of men, without witnessing some acrimonious dispute from the same cause.

Let us, however, compare the inducements which he holds out to people in England to leave that country for America, that is, for the United States, with the inducements there would be to settle in Canada, under the premised supposition, that the land was there granted in an unexceptionable manner.

From the land being plentiful in Canada, and consequently at a very low price, but likely to increase in value, whilst in the States, on the contrary, it has risen to an exorbitant value, beyond which it is not likely to rise for some time to come, there can be no doubt but that a man of moderate property could provide for his family with much more ease in Canada than in the United States, as far as land were his object.

[Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS.]