English government, but no important information was obtained; and of late years we have all heard of the gallant, but hitherto unsuccessful attempts to discover the north-west passage, made under the royal authority.

The few settlements or factories round Hudson's Bay are at the mouths of rivers, and well fortified: they are Forts Churchill, York, Albany, and Moose; there are other smaller settlements in the interior, on the great rivers. After the French were driven from Canada, a rival company was established to trade with the Indians from Montreal, called the North West Company. They entered these regions by the great Canadian lakes, built numerous forts near those of their older rival, invading their chartered rights. For a great part of a century they were almost at open war; several collisions took place between their people, and in one of these twenty-three lives were lost. Lately the interests of these ancient rivals have been joined, to the great advantage of both; and they are now so powerful a body as to defy all chance of successful competition. To their establishments in the Oregon Territory is due the superior strength of the English power in those districts. Nearly all the Indian tribes are friendly and obedient to them,

and as ready to defend them in war, as to serve

them in peace.

The British possessions, lying to the north and west of Canada, contain three million, seven hundred thousand square miles of land a greater extent than the whole of the United States. Vast though it be, only a small part of this dominion can be inhabited by civilized man: from the remainder, the Desert and the Polar snows shut him out for ever. To the west, along the favoured shores of the Pacific, millions upon millions of the human race could find abundant sustenance.

CHAPTER XIV.

secure.

CONCLUSION.

UPON the possession of Quebec and Canada, depends that of the vast territory of Hudson's Bay. The Lower Provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Islands, will probably be the last strongholds of England's power in the West. Till her naval superiority is lost, they are It has lately been. proposed by many loyal and enterprizing men, to connect the whole of British America by a railroad; from Halifax to Quebec, thence, by Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, to Amherstburg and the Far West. The latter part of the extension is not so very important at present: for, beyond London, the scanty population cannot claim more convenient means of transit than the great lakes afford. But the line from Halifax to Quebec is absolutely essential to

the future possession of Canada. During the six months' winter, that colony would be thus kept open to the assistance of British troops; and, at no very distant time, perhaps, this may be a matter of importance. Any amount of force can be poured into the harbour of Halifax, and, in a couple of days they could man the ramparts of Quebec. With the few troops at present in Canada, a sudden winter irruption into the country by our republican neighbours, could only be met at a great disadvantage; before the opening navigation allowed fleets to ascend the St. Lawrence, infinite mischief might have been done, and the few gallant regiments crushed in disastrous defeat; but a great artery by which the vigour of England could flow with rapid throb into the frozen heart of Canada, would, in a military point of view, secure the 'Brightest jewel in the British Crown" from the

rude

grasp of its rapacious neighbour. In the spring of the year 1847, by canals and the St. Lawrence, the great lakes will be opened to the ocean fleets of England; thenceforth our sovereignty of their waters will be complete, and the war-steamers lying at Portsmouth or Woolwich can in a month open their thunders among the rocks of the Far West. Such is the importance of free communication in

winter and summer along the course of the St Lawrence, that upon it hinges the question whether Canada will stand or fall. But there are moral and commercial objects quite as valuable, to be gained by this great work. It will strengthen the intimacy between this splendid colony and the seat of government; the emigrant from home, and the produce from the west, will then pass through British waters and over British territories only, without enriching the coffers of a foreign State. The Americans, with their great mercantile astuteness, are making every effort to divert the trade of Canada into their channels, and to make us in every way dependent on them for our communications. The Drawback Bill, by which the Custom's Duties on foreign goods are refunded on their passing on into our provinces, has already been attended with great success in obtaining for them a portion of our carrying trade, especially during the winter, when our great highway of the St. Lawrence is closed.

A numerous population would soon spring up on the line of the railway, a great extent of fertile land be brought under cultivation; cheerful and prosperous settlements would replace the lonely forests on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, while to the hundred thousand people who already