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house with all the perfection and self-possession of a finished matron. But let it not be supposed for a moment that I make anything like a charge of ignorance against these fair Canadians, who are really among the most attractive of Eve's daughters quite the contrary, they are all welleducated, to the extent which general society requires of them; beyond that, they have no object to gain, and any one of them who aspired, would be placed in an almost unenviable isolation. Great numbers of the young ladies, Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, are educated at the convents; the remainder generally, at day-schools in the principal towns. Home education is very rare, from the difficulty and expense of procuring suitable governesses. This time of tuition usually ends at sixteen years of age, soon after which period they enter the world, and their career of conquest

commences.

At Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere, there are good private classical and high schools, which afford fair opportunities of education for young gentlemen, at a very moderate expense; happily therefore, it is less the custom now than it was formerly, to send them for instruction to the

United States, where they were not likely to imbibe strong feelings of affection and respect for the mother country and the British Crown.

The lower classes of British birth and descent are, as a body, inferior in education to their neighbours in New England, but superior to the people of the southern and western States. One-fourth of their present number emigrated from the United Kingdom as adults, and were of a class which the spread of intelligence, now, I trust, rapidly progressing at home, had not at that time reached. Many of the British Canadians, too, were born in settlements then remote and thinly populated, though now perhaps thriving and crowded; and their early life was a constant toil and struggle for subsistence, leaving little leisure for education. The rising generation starts under brighter auspices.

The press in Canada is generally superior in respectability, if not in talent, to that of the United States. It cannot indeed be pronounced free from personalities, or from the wide license of party warfare, for I regret to say that of these some very discreditable instances have occurred; but they are exceptions, the general rule is honesty and propriety. Quebec and Montreal have each eight or ten newspapers; about half of them, and not

the better half, are in the French language; Kingston has five, and Toronto seven; and all the towns of any importance in Upper Canada have at least one each. Nearly every shade of political opinion is advocated in these publications, but since the rebellion none of them openly profess republican views, or encourage a more intimate union with the United States: during the present difficulties with that people, even the extreme radical prints have put forward many articles, warning the Americans that they are not to expect sympathy or co-operation from any party in Canada-that whatever disputes may be carried on about Provincial affairs among themselves, they do not desire any foreign interference. William Lyon Mackenzie, the former leader of the Toronto sedition, has since published a book on the subject of that and subsequent events, from which it appears that his American sympathies have undergone wonderful diminution.

Canada has as yet contributed very little or nothing to general literature, but the youth of the country and the abundant necessary occupations of the people, readily account for this deficiency. Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, can boast of very respectable libraries, scientific and literary institu

tions, and debating societies; the latter perhaps more important as affording an innocent and amusing pursuit, than from any great present practical utility. There is also a French-Canadian Scientific and Literary Institution at Quebec, lately founded, and promising well for the future.

I

say it with pleasure, that, within the last few years, the tone of the press, the prospects of literature, the means of instruction, and the desire of applying them, have received a great and salutary impulse of improvement throughout this magnificent province.

CHAPTER XIV.

MANNERS-POLITICS-DEFENCES.

IN Upper Canada, the better class of people have generally the same manners and customs as those who are engaged in similar pursuits and occupations in England. are retired officers of the

So large a proportion army and navy, governbrought up in the old

ment officials, and men country, who have settled and become landholders, that they give the tone to the remainder, and between them and their republican neighbours there is generally a marked difference in dress and manner. Among the lower classes, this distinction is by no means so evident; unfortunately, no small number of those dwelling on the borders readily adopt the ideas and manners of the Americans; indeed, many of them are refugees from the States. Those in the interior, however, retain in

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