more than one string to his bow, long as it is, was also endeavoring to procure a situation as a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, or a professor in a college. In these attempts, he was not much more successful than in the other. Most of the persons to whom he addressed himself for advice and assistance, received his advances in a very discouraging style. He had brought, it seems, good recommendations from England; but several persons hinted to him, that high recommendations from England are a man's greatest detriment.' Others, again, and Dr. Milnor among the number, assured him that such testimony is indispensable,' and advised him to write home for more. This, in our opinion, is a much more plausible view of the matter than the other. Many persons, capable of giving correct information, candidly informed him that no man, whatever be his worth or acquirements, has much chance of obtaining either collegiate or clerical promotion in the United States, unless he have personal influence with a majority of the electors.' We must own that we do not well see how the case could be otherwise. Where places are conferred by election, it would seem that a candidate can only be successful by securing, in one way or another, a personal influence with a majority of the electors. He was repeatedly asked if he would accept a situation in Ohio, and as repeatedly declined such a place of exile. My habits had fitted me for other scenes, and required more domestic comforts than a wilderness can furnish. Besides, I was early made acquainted with the sort of people I was likely to find for associates in places remote from the frontier. As I perceived that persons of the same standing, even in New York, are not the most amiable or liberable, I feared their manners would not be improved by contiguity to forests, bears, and Indians.' This is rather an unkind cut at the reverend gentleman's clerical acquaintance in New York, whose courtesy and kindness he elsewhere acknowledges in very warm terms. We would respectfully hint to Mr. Fidler that liberable, though it may doubtless pass for very good English at the school of the Rev. James Tate, has not yet gained admission into the American vocabulary. We would also suggest to him that, in the opinion of many discreet persons, Ohio is somewhat less remote from the frontier than New York.

In the course of these inquiries the winter wore away, and our author, already discouraged by most of their results in regard to the probability of accomplishing his objects, finally met

with an English lady established at New York, who advised him to give the matter up, and return at once to England. This advice appears to have been decisive with him, and he accordingly made up his mind at once to leave this country. We may remark in general, that our author possesses a wonderful docility to counsels of any kind, and governs himself in most cases by the last he receives. At this period he met with another of his countrymen, who advised him, before he returned, to visit Boston, which he forthwith did. We shall advert presently to his account of his adventures upon this excursion. On his return from Boston to New York, he waited on the British Consul, to obtain his assistance in making the arrangements for his departure, when the Consul strenuously urged him to try his luck in Canada. To Canada accordingly he went,-coelum, si jusseris, ibit :—and by his account he found it in fact an earthly paradise. He had come out to the United States a thorough-going radical,' but his experiences at New York had already converted him into as thorough-going a Tory, or in the modern phrase, Conservative: and as he could find nothing but ignorance, selfishness, vice and misery in the Republic of the United States, he was quite prepared to see every thing couleur-de-rose among our monarchical neighbors.

On arriving in Canada, he accordingly forgets his fastidiousness about a residence remote from the frontier, among forests, bears, and Indians; and after rejecting the pulpits of Ohio, actually accepts a missionary station at a place called Thornhill, on Yonge Street, on a salary of fifty pounds a year, where he established himself with his wife and family. This little place was too aristocratic to admit of the residence of any such plebeian characters as bakers or butchers, and Mr. Fidler's lodgings being destitute of the accommodation of an oven, he was fain to subsist, as he best might, upon salted pork and unleavened bread. His lodgings were, in other respects, not of the most convenient description; the upper rooms were merely lathed, but not plastered, and consequently could be seen into from the outside.' Of furniture there was little or none to be had, and our worthy missionary would have been, to all appearance, obliged to rest his learned limbs upon the soft side of a deal board, had not the lady of the house where I remained all night on my first ramble up Yonge Street, accommodated us most obligingly with a good feather-bed, which she permitted us to use during our residence at Thornhill.' Such accommoda

tions, one would suppose, could hardly have been satisfactory to a family, which had just been luxuriating among the downbeds and flesh-pots of the boarding-houses of New York and London. Our author, however, in the ardor of his new-born loyalty, endeavors to put a good face upon the matter, and enlarges at considerable length upon the comforts of his residence, although he rather inconsistently lets out, in his account of a chance conversation with a neighbor, that we are quite ashamed to be found in such lodgings, and have been ill from vexation.'

His neighbor consoled him by the assurance that his lodgings, such as they were, were a palace compared with the apartment which I and my family occupy,' and the Rev. Mr. Fidler, had he been left to himself, would probably have preferred to

-bear the ills we have,

Than fly to others which we know not of,-

and remained for life the missionary of Yonge Street, near York in Upper Canada. In this case,the literary world would have lost the benefit of his Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners and Emigration in the United States. This severe dispensation was averted by the timely intervention of Mrs. Fidler, who seems to be a pretty important person in the establishment, the Rev. Isaac being, from his account of the matter, not much better than second dessus, or in the common phrase, second fiddle, in his own orchestra. Mrs. Fidler had been very impatient to enter the parsonage house, and had hastened him to take her from York into the country, even should the house not prove so convenient in all respects as she could wish.' But no sooner had they taken possession of their lodgings, than dissatisfaction evinced itself. She grew more and more averse every hour to continue, and her first impressions could never be effaced.' Mrs. F. felt uncomfortable, and so frequently and loudly complained, that I often participated in her feelings when I should have experienced the reverse.'

There was, however, one agreeable circumstance about their situation, which served for a time as an off-set to all its inconveniences, and which throws much light upon the character of an interesting portion of the population of Upper Canada. The only thing during our Canadian residence,' says our author, with which Mrs. F. seemed to be amused, was the frequent visits which the cows and sheep of our landlady

made into the forests and pastures of other people, and which her neighbors' cows and sheep made into hers.' The interest felt by Mrs. F. in this reciprocated intercourse of cattle,' seems to have extended itself to the worthy missionary, who takes the occasion to discuss at some length the question, whether gregarious animals have any instinct which induces them to reciprocate the visits of other cattle.' Without committing himself fully upon this subject, he has evidently a strong leaning to the affirmative, and of this he is certain, that the cattle and sheep of others were as frequently on our landlady's grounds, as hers were in those of others.' We beg the reader to remark, not merely the importance of the fact here announced, but the elegance of the language in which it is communicated. cattle and sheep of others were as frequently on our landlady's grounds, as hers were in those of others.' It is clearly not in vain that our author had made himself familiar with the 'euphonic changes of the Sanscrit.' A merely English ear would hardly have hit upon so rich and felicitous a cadence. The case of Mr. Fidler's landlady was not in this respect a singular one. This did not happen peculiarly to one person, but was a common occurrence to all farmers in the country.' With farmers in town, it would seem that the case was different.

• The

This reciprocated intercourse of cattle' brings to Mr. Fidler's mind an important incident that happened to us on our first commencement of house-keeping,' and which seems to show that the practice in question is not confined to the sheep and cows of Canada, but prevails among some other kinds of animals. The lady, who had occupied the same dwelling antecedent to ourselves, had left a cat on the premises, which must have been famished during the nine months the house was empty, unless it had found a hospitable welcome among its kindred of the neighborhood. The moment it perceived the house to be retenanted, it returned, and such numbers of cats followed it into our kitchen and pantry, that nothing eatable could be left open for a moment without being discovered by them and carried off. It is most probable, that this congregation of cats on the premises was nothing more nor less than the repayment of friendship.' The 'reciprocated intercourse' among the members of the feline tribe, which is here alluded to by the excellent missionary, has been a subject of frequent remark with other writers, the exchange of civilities among these animals not being always conducted with the perfect discretion and VOL. XXXVII.—NO. 81.

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tranquillity, which probably marked that of the cows and sheep of Upper Canada. Whether the congregation of cats on the premises of Mr. and Mrs. Fidler, soon after their first commencement of house-keeping, was, as our author supposes, a 'repayment of friendship,' or had its origin in a warmer sentiment, is a point which future naturalists may perhaps consider as somewhat doubtful. Before leaving this subject, we would respectfully submit it to the consideration of the Rev. Mr. Fidler, whether, if it should be fully made out that gregarious animals have an instinct which induces them to reciprocate the visits of other cattle,' there is not reason to expect that a certain British clergyman, 'for a short time missionary of Thornhill on Yonge street, near York, Upper Canada,' may see, one of these fine mornings, some of the broad honest faces of this portion of the population of Upper Canada looking in at the door of his own parlor. That he is bête enough to merit this distinction will hardly, we imagine, be called in question by any one, who has had opportunity to peruse the work before us.

The interchange of civilities among the cattle of Upper Canada, however amiable in itself, and amusing to the ladies of the missionaries, who happen to be located there, is, in our author's opinion, on the whole, of evil tendency,—at least, in the case of milch cows. On this subject, he lays down the following proposition. When milch cows stray from home, it must be injurious to themselves as well as to their masters.' The necessity of this result is proved in a very satisfactory way. Not only do they give less milk, but also their udders, from too long distension, are liable to inflame.' Having thus argumentatively made out his point, our author proceeds to illustrate it by an anecdote, which has to be sure rather a remote bearing on the question, but which is too interesting in itself to be omitted, and which seems to show that the experiences of the father of the Rev. Mr Fidler, in Natural History, are not less rich and instructive, than those of his son. My father,' says the worthy missionary, had a cow which could draw her own milk. She was no doubt delighted with the flavor of it, for she practised the sucking of herself every day. She grew quite plump, and was a subject of wonder, at the small quantity of milk she yielded, and at her sleek appearance. She was detected one day in the very act, after which a wood collar was suspended round her neck, which prevented her continuing it. She afterwards gave more milk, but de