a great degree, the characteristics of the country whence they or their fathers have emigrated.

With the exception of the Richelieu district, the peasantry of Lower Canada, both of English and French origin, are more pleasing, civil, and attractive in their demeanour, than those of the Upper Province. The people of St. John's, and other places, from the Richelieu River west to the St. Lawrence, are singularly unprepossessing; they have all the grossness and insolence of the worst class of the Americans, without their energy and spirit; besides, they are generally very much disaffected to the British Crown. They are a mixed race of British, French, and Americans, and this union is by no means happy in its results. To the traveller coming into Canada from the United States by that route, these people appear in most unfavourable contrast with their neighbours; their farms badly cultivated, their houses poor and dirty, and the race of men mean-looking and discontented.

While at St. John's, I made many efforts to find out the causes of their stagnation and ill feeling, but it was vain. They acknowledged that they had no taxes, that land was cheap, that Montreal was an excellent market for their pro

duce, that no laws pressed upon them peculiarly or vexatiously. One man, indeed, said that, not being able to elect their Governor was a very great grievance, and, on that account, they could not consider themselves a free people. I suggested to him that this grievance, great as it was, need not have prevented him from mending his fence, through which, while we were speaking, half-adozen cattle had entered his field, and were performing Polkas on his young wheat. The fact is, that these turbulent mixed breeds are an indolent and worthless set of people, willing to attribute their unprosperous condition to English laws, rather than to their own demerits.

At one time the misuse of ardent spirits, with all its melancholy and disastrous consequences, was very general in Upper Canada; it cannot be said that the evil is cured, but it is, certainly, much mitigated, and the consumption, proportionately to the population, has been diminishing for some years past. At one time, settlements were given to a number of disbanded soldiers, with a small commuted allowance for their pensions; this scheme proved eminently unsuccessful: when so many of these veterans were in the same neighbourhood, their old idle, and, in some cases, dissipated habits,

were not likely to be at once abandoned, and the dram-shop became the only prosperous place; their farms were carelessly and unskilfully cleared and tilled, their little capital soon wasted; and, in a very short time, the great majority of them had sold out their land for next to nothing, and were wandering about as beggars, thoroughly demoralized and discontented.

Old soldiers have generally been found to make very indifferent settlers, particularly when congregated; but there are many pleasing exceptions, of worthy, loyal, and prosperous men.

The manner of servants to their masters, and of the lower classes generally to their superiors, is much the same as in England; tradespeople, too, hold a like relative position. Your bootmaker does not consider that it adds to his importance or real independence to sit down in your room with his hat on, and whistle and spit while he takes your measure, as his republican brother in the United States would probably do. I once made a small purchase from a man in a shop at Baltimore, who was smoking a cigar, chewing tobacco, and eating a peach at the same time: with so many pleasing and interesting occupations, he, of course, had not much leisure to spare for civilities to his customer.

With the exception of a few of the lowest class, the Canadians are quite free from those very disagreeable habits which are so unpleasantly general among the Americans. Chewing tobacco is not the fashion, and they reserve their saliva for other purposes than those of a projectile nature. Their manners, customs, and dress, are those of England, not of America; and in this there is a bond of union and sympathy, of which all astute politicians acknowledge the strength and value.

We may divide the political opinions of the people of Canada, as now represented in their Provincial Parliament, into four principal sections: first, the Upper Canada Conservatives, who had been formerly altogether dominant in their own province, and went by the name of the Family Compact. Secondly, the Upper Canada Reformers, under the old system virtually excluded from office. Thirdly, the French-Canadians, the principals in the late troubles, strongly opposed to the union, which has weakened their power. Fourthly, the Lower-Canadian English, now become more influential in the United Parliament. It would be difficult to point out any one of these parties free from the love of place and patronage, or from a factious spirit; the anxiety for government employ

ments is very great, and considerable sacrifices of prejudice are sometimes made to obtain or keep them. The struggle for place is even keener than at home, and, in proportion to the smallness of the object, and of the field in which it is to be won, there is less of dignity in the pursuit.

The Legislature consists of two houses, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative Assembly. The members of the first are appointed for life by the Crown, but have themselves the power of resigning; they are chosen from among those of the inhabitants of the country the most conspicuous for character, intelligence, and wealth, and are now by no means limited to any particular party. They are thirty-four in number at present, eighteen being resident in Upper, and fourteen in Lower Canada; ten members constitute a house, for the despatch of business; their functions in the state correspond very nearly with those of the House of Lords in England, but the Bishops are not included among the members.

The Legislative Assembly consists of eightyfour members, half from each province; they are elected by the people. A freehold of forty shillings yearly value, or the payment of ten pounds rent annually, is the qualification for voters, which, in