for a long time before they are embarked in; efforts are rarely made to open fresh markets, or try the chance of exporting unusual cargoes. Something of the habitans' indolent spirit seems to have been infused into the trade of the country: their maxim is to do the same as their ancestors did. In Upper Canada, beef and pork are very much cheaper than at New York, but the Liverpool market receives abundance from the latter and next to none from the former. The shores of Lake Superior are inexhaustibly rich in copper ore, but, till quite lately, not the weight of a penny of it found its way to Canada.

I confidently hope, however, that brighter days are to come; the progress of the last few years has done wonders, and aroused the spirit of adventure; Montreal is beginning to display much speculative activity, and I do not despair of Quebec being even lighted with gas, and supplied with water otherwise than by cart and barrel, before any very great length of time has elapsed.

The fact is that the French population are a dead weight on the activity of this lower portion of the magnificent valley of the St. Lawrence, and whatever has been done in commercial adventure, is due to the comparatively very small number of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races. In matters of general improvement, docks, bridges, &c., they have often to encounter even the opposition of their inert fellow-subjects.

The closing of the ports of the River St. Lawrence by ice for four or five months in the year is, of course, a great drawback from their mercantile advantages, but not so very great as may appear at first sight. During this time the channels of internal transport of goods are also frozen up, but the produce of the lumberers' winter labors is released in the spring; the rich crops of Upper Canada can be readily shipped in the autumn; while the vessels which leave England early in the year carry out what is required for summer use, and those charged with the fruits of the harvest come back laden with goods for the ensuing winter.

To show the rapid increase of the trade of this colony, I shall give the number of vessels which arrived at and cleared from the different sea-ports of the St. Lawrence during certain years.

In the last year upwards of twenty-three thousand seamen were employed, and thus kept in training in one of the best naval schools in the world.

CHAPTER XIII.

Religion-Education-The Press

AMONG the subjects of general observation which suggest themselves in considering the state of any Christian country, the first is that of its religion. The influences which it exercises, even in a temporal point of view, are so important, that, though one were to acknowledge no higher interest than the political state and material prosperity, it forces itself upon the attention.

Thirty years after the cession by France, Canada was formed into a Diocese of the Church of England; in 1839 this was divided into two Sees-the eastern, or the Diocese of Quebec, containing the whole of Lower Canada, is given to the care of the Bishop of Montreal; the western, being all Upper Canada, to that of the Bishop of Toronto. These districts are of enormous size, each extending about six hundred miles in length, and the incomes attached to them are far from sufficient for the expenses which such a charge and rank entail.

In Canada East, or the diocese of Quebec, there are seventyfive clergymen of the Church of England; in that of Toronto, or Canada West, ninety-one. The incomes of many of these gentlemen are miserably small; some have not more than sixty pounds a year, and a large number are allowed no glebe house or other residence. But, though their means are so slender, their duties are most severe and harassing; to convey an idea of their nature, I will give a short extract from the Bishop of Montreal's Visitation journal for the year 1843, printed for the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." Duties of the clergymen of the "Mission" of Masconche-New Glasgow. Sunday morning service throughout the year at Masconche, except on the sacrament days at New Glasgow. Paisley and Kilkenny, four times a year each (as also at Masconche); Sunday afternoon service

at Terrebonne, six miles from Masconche; and New Glasgow, twelve miles; when at the latter, their way is continued to Kilkenny, twelve miles further, on Sunday night, in order to hold service there (fortnightly) on Monday; two miles from the house to the Church, and eleven after service to sleep at Paisley, in preparation for service there on Tuesday, and so back to Masconche. Occasional visits from hence to the Nord, forty miles off. A great portion of the road in summer is of the worst description. Parochial visiting cannot be systematic in such a vast extent of scattered charge.

In the thirty-first year of the reign of George the Third, one seventh of all the waste lands was set apart for, as it was worded, the "Protestant Church;" and every sect not Roman Catholic has claimed a share and receives it. A late Act of Parliament provides for the sale of these "Clergy Reserves" and the distribution of the funds; the Church of England is endeavoring to obtain the grant of their portion of the lands, for the sale at the present time would involve so great a sacrifice as to reduce their already very insufficient portion to a mere nothing. A committee of the Provincial Parliament has reported favorably on this, but as yet the question remains undecided.

Hitherto the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel" has been the chief support of the Church of England in Canada, as well as in the other colonies. The annual income of this society has risen, since 1837, from twelve thousand, to forty-seven thousand pounds; but this increase, large though it be, is quite insufficient to keep pace with the constant new demands for aid. One hundred and fifty missionaries have been added during the last seven years, and on account of these great expenses, the funds of the Society are far from being in a flourishing state.

its

In the year 1843, more than fifteen thousand pounds was given by this most valuable body, to Canada alone. A Church Society was also established in Upper Canada, in 1842; the next year income was eighteen hundred pounds, and now it is little short of three thousand. Last year, notwithstanding the fires, Quebec gave three hundred and seventy pounds to its funds.

As I stated elsewhere, the census has always been taken under great disadvantages, owing to the scattered dwellings of the po

pulation, and to the stupid idea among the lower classes of French Canadians, that it was made with a view of taxation. It is also impossible to arrive correctly at the number of the members of each different sect, as the people employed are supposed in their estimates to have magnified their own at the expense of others. I have before me the attainable statistics such as they are, but they are so confused and contradictory that one can only hope for an approximation to the reality. I believe that the proportion which the members of the Church of England bear to the population of Canada is under one sixth of the whole; or about two hundred and twenty thousand souls.

men.

For the ministry of these people, spread over twelve hundred miles of country, there are only one hundred and sixty-six clergyIt is impossible not to view with anxiety and care such a state of things in this province; it must be acknowledged with pain, that the Colonial office has paid but very little attention to this most vital interest of its government. In Lower Canada especially, the provision made by the old French Laws for the Romish Church, stands out in broad and reproachful contrast to our neglect. In a few instances, indeed, salaries from the government are enjoyed by ecclesiastics, but they are limited to the lives of the present incumbents; at their death this Church of England-Church of the Empire, will be without any peculiar support from the state, and only come in for a paltry share, with the sects of various denominations. To the minister at present entrusted with Colonial affairs, we may look with hope and confidence that, as far as he may have the power, it will be exerted to remedy the deficiencies of the past.

In the various political troubles which have arisen at different times in England and in her colonies, there was one quality in which the members of the Church were always conspicuousthat of loyalty. Wherever they are found, they are as it were a garrison against sedition and rebellion; every holy spire that rises among the dark pine woods of Canada, stands over a stronghold for the British crown; and every minister who labors in his remote and ill-rewarded calling, is a faithful and zealous subject. The feelings and interests of loyalty are vitally interwoven with the system of the Church.