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length and through a difficult country, to unite the navigable waters of the Hudson river with those of lakes Erie and Ontario. This canal was for a generation the only outlet for the produce of the country round the great lakes; and during that period New York became not only the chief sea-1 port of the north eastern states of the union-a rank to which it is fairly entitled by its admirable geographical position-but the port of the western states and of Upper Canada-regions of which, as already remarked, the St. Lawrence is the natural outlet.* But about the time of the union of Lower and Upper Canada, which took place in 1841, when the British race and Briish enterprise had gained an ascendancy in the province, the Canadians began to exert themselves to make the most of their great natural advantages; and they have now completed, at a cost of two millions and a quarter sterling, a series of canals, which enable vessels of moderate size to go from the Atlantic past the Rapids and Falls into Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Michigan. The canals on this route are short and wide; a most material advantage, for a river is almost as far superior to a canal as a natural harbour or a natural fortress to an artificial one. The people of both Canada and the United States are already becoming aware of the superiority of the route from the lakes to the ocean by the St. Lawrence and its canals, over that by the Hudson and the Erie canal.t New York will not lose its trade; but we may fairly hope that our own cities of Montreal and Quebec will obtain a large and increasing share of the vast commerce of the prosperous and rising countries that surround the great lakes.

Since the canals of the St. Lawrence have been completed, the emigrant, on arriving at Quebec or Montreal, can walk on board the steamer which is to

take him to his destination in Upper Canada; and may thus go from Liverpool to some thriving little port on one of the lakes, and almost in sight of the primeval forest, without the necessity of once landing. The New York route offers no similar advantages for either passengers or goods; it is more expensive, and demands several changes of conveyance.

But the enterprise of the children of the men who made the Erie canal has shown itself, within the last few years, in the construction of a railway from New York over the Catskill mountains to Lake Erie; and this, being the shortest, though perhaps not the cheapest route, between the Atlantic and the lakes, may do much to preserve the trade of the country round the lakes to New York. In that part of the world, railways have a great advantage over rivers and canals as modes of conveyance, not only on account of greater speed, but because they are open every day of the year, while water communications are frozen up during the winter. The port of New York also has the advantage of being never closed by ice, while Quebec and Montreal are sealed up for several months of every year. It is therefore necessary, in order that the Canadian ports may compete with New York on equal terms, that railway communications should be formed which may keep the commerce of Canada open to the Atlantic throughout the winter.

Railways have made but little progress in Canada as yet. This cannot be caused by want of enterprise, when we know that the Canadians have made the finest line of canal communication in the world, at a cost of two millions and a quarter sterling. It is because of the existence of this unequalled navigation by river, lake, and canal, along which the settled parts of Canada lie, that the Canadians have as yet paid

* In the same way, the superior promptitude and energy of the free states to the slaveholding ones obtained for New York the trade of the Ohio valley, which would naturally have passed through Philadelphia or Baltimore; for a navigable communication from the Ohio to New York was completed before the year 1830 by a canal from the Ohio to Lake Erie, and thence by the Erie canal and the Hudson; while the canal that connects the Ohio with Chesapeake Bay, though proposed by Washington, was not opened till a year or two ago.

The route from the ocean to Lake Erie by the St. Lawrence is ten shillings per ton cheaper for goods than that by the Hudson and the Erie canal, besides a saving of time.

comparatively little attention to railways. But now that their great line of water communication is finished, they are beginning to rival their neighbours of the United States in the construction of railways as well as of canals. Lines have been projected, and in a few years will no doubt be completed, which are to afford an uninterrupted communication, some hundreds of miles in length, from Quebec to the farthest extremity of the fertile peninsula which lies between Lakes Erie and Huron; taking on its way the great city of Montreal, and the thriving ports of Kingston, Toronto, and Hamilton, on Lake Ontario. This line will probably be a paying one throughout its whole length, for it will pass through a country inhabited by an active and prosperous people; and, in consequence of the cheapness of land and timber, and the absence of parliamentary jobbing and lawyers' bills, railways are constructed in North America at a cost of which directors in this country,have no conception. £8,000 per mile is thought expensive, and we understand that the Utica and Syracuse railway was made for £3,600 per mile. Probably this is to be accounted for in part by the roughness of the workmanship.

This great Canadian railway will, no doubt, be of infinite service to the country, connecting all the most important towns with each other, and communicating at its south western extremity with the line that is to unite* New York with the Missisippi; but it will not attain the desirable object that we have mentioned, of establishing a communication between Canada and the Atlantic, which shall be open on the coldest day in winter. Meanwhile this is being effected-but through the territories of the United States. A railway has been recently completed between Montreal and Boston, and another is in progress between Montreal and Portland, in the State of Maine; while one from Quebec to Halifax, to run exclusively through British territory, has been much talked of, but not yet commenced.

No doubt there are great difficulties in the way, both physical and political; for the middle of the line must pass through a country not yet settled; and the concurrence of four parties is neces

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We see no danger in such a proceeding. The repudiation of their just debts, which brought so much disgrace on the American States, was caused in the same way as the insolvency of many smaller speculators. They "began to build and were not able to finish." Their debts were incurred for the purpose of making canals and railways; they "went ahead" too fast, like the English during the railway mania of 1845, and after a time came to a stand still for want of funds, while the projected works were incomplete, and consequently unproductive; and then they were unwilling, perhaps in some cases unable, to pay the interest on money that had been sunk without bringing them any return. It shows either great remissness in the United States' federal authorities, or a great deficiency in their federal constitution, that Congress did not make advances of money to the defaulting States, and so enable them to complete their works and resume payment. But in the case of such an arrangement between the Imperial Government and the Colonial Legislatures as that of which we speak, there could be no danger of the railway remaining unfinished for want of funds, as the colonies would be backed by the unlimited credit of Great Britain.

This railway, from Halifax to Quebec, would have probably been commenced before now, but for the difficulty of bringing the different colonies and the Colonial Office to agree on the line to be chosen. The late Government promised the imperial guarantee for the loan to be raised by the colonies for the purpose, and it is not likely that the Earl of Derby, who expressed his deep interest in our North American colonies

*We are not certain that we should not already say unites.

some years ago in the House of Commons, will be less willing to do them a service than were his predecessors.

"But why should the colonies make a railway that would not pay a company?" We will answer this question by another. Does a railway benefit no one but the shareholders of the company? Several of the Irish counties are now securing to themselves the advantage of railway communication with the seaports, by guaranteeing a certain low rate of dividend to the companies, which the counties are to pay if the traffic on the lines will not; and Government advances a part of the necessary funds. Exactly the same is to be done in the case of the Halifax and Quebec railway. The Imperial Government will advance the money, and if the railway cannot pay the interest on the cost of construction, the colonies will. It is impossible to doubt that the line will ultimately pay, when the country through which it passes becomes peopled by an industrious population; and even if it should throw a burden on the colonies for some years at first, we are not to conclude that they must be losers in the end. There is not a turnpike in the whole county of Down; the expense of keeping the roads in order is paid out of the rates, but the county is an immense gainer, not a loser, by that expenditure.

But we think that the line will pay the Colonial Governments that are to make it, though it might not pay in the hands of a company; because a value much greater than that sunk in the railway will be eventually transferred to the public lands through which the railway is to pass. In this way, railway lines through very thinly inhabited regions may be made to pay; and we believe that the United States Congress, acting on this principle, has in some cases made grants of land along projected railways to the companies, in order to stimulate railway enterprise in the West.

But the benefits which the Halifax and Quebec railway will confer on our American empire are not to be measured by its traffic returns. Its construction will be the first step to a closer union of all the North American provinces. At present, the settled parts of New Brunswick and of Canada are separated by the wide tract of uncleared

country through which the railway is to run. In summer, they have an easy communication by the St. Lawrence; but, in winter, the only tolerable way between them lies through the United States. The making of the railway will change all this, and will afford a direct, easy, and rapid communication, open winter and summer, between Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

When this great line of communication has been opened, it will be time for the statesmen of Britain and of the colonies to effect an object which we be lieve that all the most enlightened colonists regard as highly desirablethe political union of all the American colonies under the British crown. As they are inhabited by the same race of men, and separated by no physical barriers, such a union will be right and natural as soon as the existing impediments to easy communication between them have been overcome by the making of the railway. At present, the colonists, following the example of their republican neighbours, talk of a confederation of the different colonies; but we think that the annexation of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Canada would be greatly preferable-involving, of course, the union of their legislatures. When the union of the British settlement of Upper Canada with the French colony of Lower Canada has been so thoroughly successful, there must be much less difficulty in the union of purely British colonies with one another; for British blood, laws, language, and character, now preponderate in every one of our American possessions.

The federal system of the United States has worked well; and there is no doubt that in so extensive a country, marked by such wide local diversities, it is right and necessary to leave a large share of power in the hands of the State Legislatures. But they have reserved too much power to themselves, giving too little to the national legislature; and the evil effects of this arrangement may be perceived in the comparative barbarism of the newer States not being controlled by the civilization of the older ones. Had the improvement of the internal communications of the country been in the hands of Congress instead of the State Legislatures, the repudiation of their debts would never

have brought dishonour on the American name. We are no friends to extreme centralization; but we are of opinion that free local government may be sufficiently provided for in our American colonies by an efficient system of city and county municipalities, acting under one united Parliament of British America.

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There are facilities for this close political union of our present colonies, which did not exist in the case of the United States. The means of communication have been immensly improved since the federal constitution of the Union was agreed on. Besides, every one of the thirteen original States had its own sea coast, and was able to carry on trade for itself; while great part of the trade of Canada is destined, as soon as the railway is made from Halifax to Quebec, to flow through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, creating a reciprocity of interests which will have a strong tendency to unite these different provinces.

There is yet another reason for the union of the legislatures of all the colonies. Canada contains at least as many inhabitants as all the others together, and its superiority in this respect will go on increasing, in consequence of its vast extent; so that if there is to be a mere federation, after the model of the United States, either each province will have an equal vote, which arrangement would give just offence to the greatest-Canada; or votes will be distributed in proportion to population, and the smaller provinces will be outvoted and reduced to insignificance.* It was partly to obviate this class of difficulties that Virginia, and other States that possessed great tracts of unsettled land, ceded them to the Federal Government, which has subsequently constituted many new States in those territories; for, had all the States retained the boundaries specified in their colonial charters, their extent, and eventually their number of inhabitants,

would have been so different as to endanger the equilibrium of the Union. Such a course, however, cannot be imitated in our colonies. The union of the Canadas was effected for the purpose of swamping the French Canadians; aud for that purpose the boundaries of Canada must be retained at their present

extent.

There is, however, another part of the system of the United States which our colonies will do well to imitate. We refer to the centralised administration of the national lands. These lands were ceded to Congress by the various States within whose boundaries they were situated; and, the business-like and efficient system of survey and sale, practised by the federal authorities, reflects the highest honour on the Government, and has the happiest effect in facilitating colonization.An intending settler has only to point out on the map in the local land-office the piece of land that he wishes to purchase, pay his dollar an acre, and walk away with the title-deed in his pocket. We believe that the Canadian system of managing the public lands is equally good; but it must afford a guarantee for the best administration, if all the public lands of the colonies are put under the future Parliament of British America.

We have seen the opinion advanced, that, as the wild lands of the colonies belong to the British nation, the British Government ought to derive a revenue from their sale. We believe this notion to be based on a misconception, very natural to an inhabitant of a thickly peopled country like ours, with respect to the value of land in a new country. Land is worth little or nothing until man has done something to make it valuable. Farms in the United States sell for little more than the value of the buildings and other improvements upon them, sometimes for less. It is not likely that any great improvement can be made in ́

*The federal Constitution of the United States is a compromise between these two principles-Congress consisting of a Senate containing two members for each State, and a House of Representatives, where the States are represented in proportion to their population.

Called by the Americans the "Land-office System."

See "The Past, Present, and Future," by Mr. Carey, an American writer, who is first-rate authority for facts concerning his own country, though he falls into strange errors about others. The work ought to be called "The Natural History of Colonization.”

the American management of the public lands; and the annual revenue derived by Congress from that source is but trifling when compared with the proceeds of the import duties. Indeed, we have serious doubts whether the sale of wild lands is a justifiable source of revenue at all. It is a tax on coloni, zation; and surely the man who adds to the resources of his country by cutting a farm out of the forest, or fencing a field off the prairie, ought not to be taxed for doing so. The price charged for wild land ought to be no more than will pay the expenses of survey and sale.

vinces, we do not mean that the Imperial Legislature ought to force any arrangement whatever on them. Our Parliament ought to give them the fullest powers to unite with each other on what terms they please, trusting to their own good sense to frame a constitution that will best promote political harmony and vigour. The constitution of British America waits, in order to come into existence, not on the success of a revolution, but on the completion of a railway; and will be formed, not by a Congress of justly discontented insurgents, but by a peacefully and legally appointed assembly, acting under the authority of the sovereign of Great Britain.

In what has been said about the union of all the North American pro[We will resume our consideration of this subject next month.]

THE LATE WILLIAM THOMPSON, ESQ.

SELDOM has the death of a private individual occasioned such a wide-spread feeling of regret as was evidenced on the recent removal of the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, whose decease, after a short illness, took place in London, on the 17th of February, 1852. A brief sketch of his career may prove instructive to many and interesting to all.

He was born on the 2d November, 1805, in Belfast, where he was also educated. The distinctive feature in his character, namely, his love for natural history, was fostered in his boyhood by solitary rambles amid the hills and valleys surrounding Belfast, among which he often wandered in quest of true information from those many natural objects which attracted him with irresistible charms.

From his youth, indeed, he evinced the liveliest pleasure in the works of creation, and to their investigation the energies of an acute and highly cultivated mind were devoted throughout his whole life with unvarying perseverance, unmixed with the remotest prospect of personal aggrandizement. His zest for these studies was so keen that every branch of natural history met with a share of his regard, and nothing was passed by unheeded that came within the sphere of his observation. In the departments of both botany

and zoology he laboured successfully, but in the latter found the widest range for the exercise of his powers. His researches in its various branches proceeded for more than five and twenty years with ardour and success. Ornithology, however, always claimed the first place, and ever remained his favourite and most cherished pursuit. Though Ireland was the chief domain of his labours, his observant eye gathered information from every country he happened to visit. In the summer and autumn of 1826 he made a tour throughout the Continent; and his poetic fancy, whilst it dwelt with delight on every classic spot, never failed to draw new pleasure from those varied external beauties, with the full appreciation of which Nature rewards only her true enthusiast. Italy, Switzerland, France and Holland, were visited in the year mentioned. On his return, his native country again engaged attention. He established correspondents in most parts of Ireland, and all interesting facts coming under their notice, relating to natural history, were regularly communicated to him.

Uninterruptedly did this laborious work progress; and, of course, as observations were gradually corroborated by time, his notes became more voluminous and more valuable. Well did he attend to the motto of " Nulla dies,

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