workshops of various kinds; close at hand are a garden and an orchard, also a farm of six hundred acres, near the river. Two miles further down the banks are grazing grounds for numerous herds of cattle; beyond these are water-mills for grinding corn and sawing timber, with sheds for curing fish. Outside the fort, the voyageurs and Indians have their houses. This little community, including native Indians, contains nearly seven hundred souls. The superior servants of the Company rule here with almost despotic authority.

How then is the question of the division of this territory to be settled? By the arrangement most considerate to the peculiar interests of both parties. Great Britain has given the exclusive right of hunting, and the fur trade of her subjects, to the Hudson's Bay Company; so far, she has made no use of the country except for the settlements necessary for the trade and support of the officers of this corporation; and to them the navigation of the Columbia for the purposes of traffic is evidently of the last importance. It is said that already the stock of wild animals in the southern portion of this country has very much diminished, from the vast numbers which have

been killed, and that therefore it is of much less value to them now than it was twenty years ago. Some of the harbours inside the Straits of Fuca are also essential to British interests, for the safety and convenience of the shipping trading in the Pacific.

The American Government seeks the acquisition of the Oregon territory in order to form new States of the Union. For this purpose the southern portion is the best adapted, being most fitted for agricultural and manufacturing purposes. Mr. Gallatin, who has been for many years employed by the United States' Government in this negociation, has lately published in America a series of letters stating his views on the subject. His proposition is that the boundary line should run from where the 49th parallel strikes the upper branch of the Columbia River, to the tide-water opposite the Straits of Fuca-about forty-eight degrees twenty minutes, thence through the centre of the channel to the Ocean.

This appears to me equitable, except that the free navigation of the Columbia is still withheld from England, though formerly offered as a part of other proposals. I sincerely hope that nothing

may induce the British Government to yield this point, so important to the future interests of her subjects; for, difficult as are its waters, and barren though the upper country which it drains may be, they are both vital to the fur-trade of a very considerable portion of the north-west. Besides, it would be unseemly to accept now, under the threatening messages of the American President, a settlement in which an essential point, always before insisted upon, should be abandoned. In the settlement of the north-eastern boundary, England conceded to them the free navigation of the St. John's River, a far more important one, at least at present, than the Columbia.

I consider that Mr. Gallatin's offer, with the free navigation of the Columbia added, would be a fair and equitable settlement for the interests and honour of both parties, being a little more than either side has ever yet offered.

Thus, in short; the boundary to be the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods, through the Rocky Mountains, to the upper branch of the Columbia River-from this point a line to be drawn to the tide-water opposite to the Straits of Fuca; the Straits to be for ever free to the ships

of both nations. All to the north and west of this line, together with the whole of Vancouver's Island, to be British; all to the south and east, American territory—and the navigation of the Columbia River, by its upper branch, to the Pacific, to be common to the people of both nations.*

* The treaty since concluded is as nearly as possible on these conditions.

CHAPTER VIII.

RELIGION EDUCATION-MANNERS.

THE first great point which we notice in the frame-work of American society, is, that it is without any provision for religion, as a State. Perhaps they consider their State so perfect that it has no necessity for connection with Christianity. In this respect they stand alone among the nations of the Christian world; England, France, and Russia may each be mistaken in their conviction of theirs being the only true Church; but they are all equally persuaded of the necessity of having some one or other to minister to the people: they, of course, choose that Church which they believe to be the true one, and assist it with their temporal influence.

In America, no means are allotted for any