that which they originally designed and estab→ lished.

It is not the fertility of soil, the salubrity of climate, the superiority of position, the amount of subterranean wealth, or any other advantage which a country may possess, that will ensure its advance in the scale of nations, but such a distribution of them as shall stimulate, while it demands the energies of its inhabitants. And as this balance of advantages has been the means of extending the effects of the natural energies of our race in the United States, so must it in the present British possessions in North America; and it is not too much to say, that they present capabilities sufficient to enable them at no distant period to reach a position as high as that occupied by their elder sister, if they are permitted to derive from the ever-increasing population of the mother country the only requisite for their development. Other countries may have a richer soil; other lands may dazzle with the precious products of their mines; the climate of other countries may be more favourable to the development of animal or vegetable life,

but in none shall we find a more desirable union of all, and certainly in none a more perfect facility of rendering all fully available, whether by domestic or foreign intercourse.

Nor is evidence of this wanting; although colonized by Europeans as early as the more southern portion of the continent, it is not much more than half a century since they have been the home of the British, and already have 2,000,000 of our countrymen spread themselves over their widely extended surface; and with ardour unchilled by the severity of the winters, they have superseded the earlier colonists, prosecuting the trade with the natives until their establishments have reached across the continent to the Pacific.

It may with truth be said, that no colony has afforded a more favourable development of the energies inherent in the British races; so that whether we contemplate its progress hitherto, or consider the prospect afforded for further advancement, we cannot but be stimulated to lend our aid, in however feeble or indirect a manner, to forward the work, and find both instruction and amusement in

tracing the means, whether individual or national, by which it has been or is to be accomplished.

A general view of the whole territory will materially assist us in obtaining a correct estimation of them.

The British dominions in North America extend from the Arctic Sea on the north, to the line of the great lakes on the south, and across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; their most southern limit reaches 41° N. lat.; their northern is lost in the eternal frosts which surround the Pole; while in breadth, they extend 90° of longitude. This vast expanse of country, comprising upwards of 4,000,000 square miles, if its position and capabilities be duly considered, will yield in importance to none of the younger members of the family of nations.

It may be divided naturally into four parts. 1. The country west of the Rocky Moun tains, now probably best designated as New Caledonia, which is divided from the territories belonging to the United States, by the 49th parallel of north latitude, and the straits of Juan de Fuca, and from the Russian do

minions, by a line extending from an indentation of the coast, in latitude 54° 40′, at 10 leagues distance from it to the 60th parallel, where it is carried along the 141st meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, to the Arctic Ocean.*

2. The territories under the jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company, extending from the Rocky Mountains on the west, to Hudson's Bay, and the great lakes. These are divided from the United States by a line carried along the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the southern extremity of the Lake of the Woods, through the adjacent waters and Rainy Lake, and thence down the channel of Pigeon River to Lake Superior.

*The western coast, between lat. 45° and 50°, was taken possession of by Vancouver in 1792, in the name of King George III., and called after him New Georgia, as that part lying between parallels 38° and 45° north had been by Sir F. Drake, and which he termed New Albion; as, however, all the territory south of the 49° parallel has been conceded to the United States, and the country about Fraser's River has been long known as New Caledonia, that name is considered most applicable to the territory now remaining to Great Britain.-See Vancouver's and Hakluyt's Voyages.

3. The countries as yet imperfectly discovered, lying about Baffin's Bay, Davis's and Hudson's Straits, and the Islands of the Arctic Ocean. These have no northern limit, and extending to the Atlantic eastward, include some part of Greenland, while to the south they are limited by

4. The British Provinces situate about the great lakes, and the river and gulf of St. Lawrence: these are Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and the island of Newfoundland. Their boundary on the south is continued from the mouth of Pigeon River, through the great lakes and river St. Lawrence to the lake of St. Francis, whence it is carried along the 45th parallel of N. L., and in a circuitous northern course by the rivers St. John and St. Croix, to Passamaquoddy, and the Bay of Fundy.

A glance at the map will show that, while the southern boundary, where it is not determined by the course of the waters, is purely arbitrary, and so each of these districts, the north eastern excepted, forms but a part of a natural district, the other part being in the