CANADA.

duties down to almost any point to which we will It is quite obvious, from the present aspect of mental change in our policy, and would probably, consent to go. But this proposal implies a fundathings, that Canada was designed to go with the if adopted, under the force of our reciprocity treaUnited States. This wonderful Hudson of ours ties, compel us to lower our duties on the products was certainly intended as the outlet of its foreign of other nations to the same rate. Nothing would trade, for it runs down into a mild latitude, while the St. Lawrence runs away to the frozen north, new system of revenue, a system of direct taxation. meet this emergency fully, but the adoption of a and seems to have been placed where it would be This would sweep off all difficulties about transits, most out of the way, in a territory good for little drawbacks, reciprocities and manufactures, and else. That men have arranged the matter in a give us and all the world the free use of the way which contradicts nature, is constantly pro-advantages which the Creator designed for us and ducing difficulty, as the same perverseness does in When we learn how to make the most a hundred other cases. Yet if we would agree to free trade―perfectly free-the political divisions At any rate, we shall not suppose that our own of our position, we shall perhaps adopt this plan. of the earth would not disturb its harmony. In interests can be promoted by refusing to deal that case, Canada might belong to Great Britain freely with our neighbors, as the geographical forever, and yet enjoy almost all the advantages works of the Creator evidently designed we of our Union. Its industry might then exert should. Journal of Commerce. itself as it pleased, and find its market through our own Hudson without interruption by us. The injury to Canada and ourselves has been pressed PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE ESCAPE OF W.

for all.

From Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.

L. MACKENZIE FROM TORONTO TO THE UNI-
TED STATES.

THE rash and ill-planned rebellion of Upper Canada was speedily checked by the discomfiture of the insurgents at Montgomery's Tavern, near Toronto, on the 7th December, 1837. Though Mackenzie, the chief leader of the insurrection, did not certainly display much of the warrior on that occasion, yet he showed considerable tact and presence of mind in his subsequent escape from his pursuers; and there is something in the successful escape of any one from imminent peril, the detail of which has a tendency to raise the individual into a sort of hero.

upon us until we have agreed to several measures for its modification. We have established the transit policy, by which foreign goods transported through our internal communications are entitled to a return of duties as if they had been exported by sea. But there are some important embarrassments yet remaining. One of these is set forth in a memorial which is about to be presented for the signature of our citizens, asking that wheat may be imported from Canada, and that having been manufactured by our mills, the duty on the wheat may be returned, on the exportation of the flour. This seems a very reasonable thing, and yet it cannot be done, as the law now stands. The case is the same as the refining of sugar or the distillation of molasses, both of which are allowed "in bond" as it is called, and the duty is returned on the exportation of the product of a manufacturing process. There can be no more difficulty in this matter of grinding wheat, than in the other things now constantly doing. The flour, since we are so large exporters, would interfere with our own flour none the more for this process, for in either case it would go to the same foreign market. The memorial to which we have referred sets forth that Canada, and almost exclusively Canada West, did last year export wheat and flour to the aggregate extent of more than a million barrels of flour; that we have mills, water power, capital, lake vessels, and facilities of various kinds, which would find valuable occupation in the business that would be created by the policy proposed, and that no evil could possibly arise to any interest. All this is exceedingly obvious, and our nation must be as blind to its own interest as it was in the days of protection, if it should refuse, under proper regu-eral others. Couriers were sent off in every direclations, to allow this new and profitable trade.

The first few volleys of the government militia cooled the ardor of the insurgents; the rifle balls fell thick amongst them; and a friend of Mackenzie's falling dead at his side, he deemed it necessary to quit the field, and warn his comrades to disperse. After an unsuccessful attempt to snatch his cloak from the hotel, he set off on foot, and after running a short distance met a friendly farmer, who readily gave him his horse, a trusty, sure-footed creature, which that day did him good service. On he rode, while volumes of smoke rolled after him, and behind was seen the vivid glare of the flames of the fated tavern and outhouses which had been the scene of the rencounter. He met several friends; one handed him an overcoat; and the general resolution was to make for the states by the head of Lake Ontario.

Meantime government rewards were offered for their apprehension-one thousand pounds for Mackenzie, and five hundred pounds per man for sev

tion with tidings to the like effect, and a gazette The proposed measure does not require the was circulated minutely describing those persons adoption of any radically new principle in the whose apprehension was especially desired. management of our affairs. The Canadians are Finding himself now closely pursued and removing earnestly to bring about a system of recip-peatedly fired at, Mackenzie left the high road with rocal low duties, and appear ready to bring their one friend, and made for Shepherd's Mills. "The

fleetest horsemen of the official party were so close of rifles, and the barking of dogs, near the place upon us," says he in his narrative," that I had where we were concealed, annoyed us not a little. only time to jump off my horse and ask the miller There was now but one chance of escape, surof the place whether a large body of men, then on rounded as we were-for the young man had rethe heights, were friends or foes, before our pur- fused to leave me-and that was to stein the stream suers were climbing up the steep ascent almost and cross the swollen creek. We accordingly beside me." He eluded them, and soon after stripped ourselves naked, and with the surface ice overtook Colonel Lout with about ninety of his beating against us, and holding our garments over friends. After taking some refreshment at a our heads, in a bitter cold December night, buffarmer's, the party separated, sixteen only accom- feted the current, and were soon up to our necks. panying Mackenzie. They were all on foot, many I hit my foot against a stone, let fall some of my unarmed. Mackenzie had no other arms than a clothes, which my companion caught, and cried single-barrelled pistol. They made for the Humber aloud with pain. The cold in that stream caused bridge through Vaughan, but found it strongly me the most cruel and intense sensation of pain I guarded. They then went up the river a long ever endured; but we got through, though with a way, got some supper at the house of a farmer, better chance for drowning; and the frozen sand on crossed the stream on a foot bridge, and by two the banks seemed warm to our feet when we once o'clock next morning reached the house of a friendly more trod on it. In an hour and a half we were settler, completely exhausted with cold and fatigue. under the hospitable roof of a kind farmer; and a Here blankets were hung over the windows to supply of dry flannels and food, and an hour's rest, avoid suspicion; food and beds were prepared; were kindly furnished us, while the sons and daughand while the government troops were keenly ter of our host kept a silent watch outside in the searching for them, the fugitives were sleeping cold, while I and my companion slept." They soundly. Next morning, those who had arms started again; travelled all night; and by four buried them; they agreed to separate, and make o'clock on Saturday morning they reached Welfor the frontier two and two together. A young lington Square by the middle road. "The farmlad of twenty was the companion of Mackenzie. ers' dogs began to bark loudly; the heavy tramp They set out together undisguised, and on foot, of a party of horsemen was heard behind us; we and met and conversed with several people, but retired a little way into the woods; I saw that the found none disposed to betray them. About three men were armed; entered the road again; and o'clock in the afternoon they reached Comfort's half an hour before twilight reached the door of an Mills, near Streetsville; there they were told that upright magistrate, which an English boy at once Colonel Chisholm, with three hundred men, were opened to us. I sent up my name; was requested divided into parties in search of them. Mr. Com- to walk up stairs, (in the dark,) and was told that fort, an American by birth, but a citizen of Canada, the house, barns, and every part of their premises, treated them kindly, and lent them his wagon, with had been twice searched for me that morning, and a young Irish driver. They drove through the that M'Nab's men from Hamilton were scouring village in broad daylight; "yet," says the fugi- the country in all directions in the hope of taking tive, "though known to everybody, we proceeded me. I asked if I had the least chance to pass a long way west before danger approached. At downward by the way of Burlington beach, but length, however, we were hotly pursued by a party was answered that both roads were guarded, and of mounted troops; our driver became alarmed, that Dr. Rolph was by that time safe in Lewiston." and with reason, and I took the reins, and pushed They immediately retired to a thicket behind the onwards at full speed over a rough, hard-frozen house, deeming it the safest place; and as the road without snow. Our pursuers, nevertheless, young man was chilled with cold and fatigue, it gained on us; and when near the Sixteen-Mile Creek, we ascertained that my countryman, Col. Chalmers, had a party guarding the bridge. The creek swells up at times into a rapid river—it was now swollen by the November rains. What was to be done? My companion and I jumped from the wagon, made towards the forest, asked a laborer the way to Esquesing, to put our pursuers off our track, and were soon in the thickest of the patch of woods near the deep ravine in which flows the creek numbered sixteen. Those in pursuit came up with our driver almost immediately after we left, and took him prisoner. The frequent reports

*In "The Tribune," New York, September, 1847, is a long narrative by Mackenzie of his escape. The present paper contains the substance of his narrative, condensed and much modified, all the political allusions and digressions with which it is interspersed being omitted, and only the most interesting parts of the personal adventures given in a connected form.

was deemed best for him to separate from Mackenzie, as, not being known, he would be safe from apprehension. He did so, and reached the frontier, but was laid up for four months afterwards by indisposition. "At dawn of day," continues Mackenzie, "it began to snow and show footmarks. A pease-rick, which the pigs had undermined all round, stood on a high knoll, and I chose it for a hiding-place. For ten or twelve days I had slept, when I could get any sleep, in my clothes; and my limbs had swelled so that I had to leave my boots and wear a pair of slippers. My feet were wet, I was very weary, and the cold and drift annoyed me much. Breakfast I had had none; and in due time Colonel M'Dowall, the highsheriff, and his posse, stood before me. House, barns, cellars, and garret were searched, and I the while quietly looking on. The colonel was afterwards second in command to Sir Allan M'Nab

street.

me,

666

666 No; but to Mr. M'Intyre the magistrate!' "Here we came to a full stop. He was stout and burly, I small and slight made. I soon found that he had not dreamt of me as a rebel; his leading idea was, that I had a habit of borrowing other men's horses without their express leave-in other words, that I was a horse thief. Horses had been stolen, and he only did his duty by carrying a doubtful case before the nearest justice. This was a real puzzle. Should I tell Waters who I was it was ten to one but he would seize me for the

opposite Navy Island, and when I lived in William I took breakfast very much at my leisure; saw Some years ago he called on me, and we my horse watered and fed with oats in the sheaf; had a hearty laugh over his ineffectual exertions and then asked Mr. Waters to be so kind as put to catch a rebel in 1837. When the coast seemed me in the way to the mountain road; which he clear, my terrified host, a wealthy Canadian, came consented to do, but evidently with much relucup the hill as if to find his pigs, brought me two tance. After we had travelled about a quarter of bottles of hot water for my feet, a bottle of tea, a mile in the woods, he turned round at a right and several slices of bread and butter; told me angle, and said that that was the way. that the neighborhood was literally harassed with "Not to the road?' said I. bodies of armed men in search of and advised that I should leave that place at dark, but where to go he could not tell me. After I left his premises, he was arrested; but had powerful friends, gave bail, and the matter ended there. When night set in, I knocked at the next farmer's door; they were strong government men, and as the house had been searched often for me already, they refused to see me; but their boy conducted me by a by-path to Mr. King's, the next farm. Here I had supper; rested for an hour; and then walked with my host to my early residence, Dundas Vil-heavy reward. If I went before the justice, he lage, at the head of Lake Ontario. We saw a would doubtless know and detain me. I asked small party of armed men on the road, near the Mr. Waters to explain. He said that I had come mills of an Englishman; but they did not perceive in great haste to his house on a December Sunday us. We went to the dwelling of an old friend, to morning; that it was on no public road, with my whom I stated that I thought I should now make clothes torn, my face badly scratched, and my horse a more speedy, yet equally sure progress on horse- all in a foam; that I had refused to say who I was back. He risked at once, and that too most wil- or where I came from; had paid him a dollar for lingly, his horse. Mr. King returned home, and a very humble breakfast, been in no haste to leave, I entered the village alone in the night, and was and was riding one of the finest horses in Canada hailed by some person, who speedily passed on. -making, at the same time, for the frontier by I wanted to take a friend with me, but durst not the most unfrequented paths; and that many horses go to wake him up. There was a guard on duty had been recently borrowed. My manner, he adat the hotel, and I had to cross the creek close by mitted, did not indicate anything wrong; but why a house which I had built in the public square. did I studiously conceal my name and business? I then made for the mountain country above Ham- There was some truth in all this. My bonnet ilton, and in the way called upon some old Dutch rouge, my torn homespun, sorry slippers, weary friends, who told me that all the passes were gait, and unshaven beard, were assuredly not much guarded. Near Ancaster I got a fresh horse from in keeping with the charger I was riding; and I an old friend, and pursued my journey; but com- had unfortunately given no reply whatever to seving upon a house well lighted up, and where a eral of his and his good wife's home questions. guard was evidently posted, I turned aside, and My chance to be tried and condemned in the hall tried to find my way through the Bissbrook and where I had often sat in judgment on others was Glassford woods. For several weary hours did I seemingly now very near, but I did not quite detoil through the primeval forest, leading my horse, spair. To escape from Waters in that dense and unable to get out or find a path. The bark- forest was entirely hopeless; to blow out his ing of a dog brought me, when near daylight, to a brains while he was acting quite conscientiously, solitary cottage; and its inhabitant-a negro- while his five pretty children at home waited pointed out to me the Twenty-Mile Creek where his early return, could have easily been done it was fordable. Before I had ridden a mile, I as far as opportunity went, for he was unsuscame to a small hamlet, which I had not known picious of anything of the kind, and my pistol before; entered a house, and oh my surprise-was now loaded, and sure to fire. But I could was instantly called by name! At the inn, I did not do it. So I held a parley with my detainer, not at all like the manner of him who addressed touched on various subjects, and at last found, to me, though I now know that all was well intended. my great surprise and real delight, that though Quite carelessly to appearance, I remounted my averse to the object of the revolt, he spoke of myhorse, and rode off very leisurely, but turned the self in terms of good-will. His next neighbor had first angle, and then gallopped on, turned again, lived near me in 1823 at Queenstown, and had and gallopped still faster. At some ten miles' spoken so well of myself and family to him, as to distance, a farm, newly cleared, and situated in a have interested him, though he had never met me by-place, seemed a safer haven. I entered the before. I am an old magistrate,' said I, 'but at house, called for breakfast, and found in the owner present in a situation of some difficulty. If I ca a stout Hibernian farmer, an Orangeman from the satisfy you as to who I am, and why I am here, north of Ireland, with a wife and five fine children. I would you desire to gain the price of any man's

can

blood?" He seemed to shudder at the very idea | officer, opposite Black Rock, and his troop of of such a thing. I then, before revealing myself, mounted dragoons, were so close upon us, riding made him take a solemn oath of secrecy. When up by the bank of the river, that had I not then he had ascertained my name, which I showed him observed their approach, they would have caught on my watch, seals, and pocket-book, he expressed me at breakfast. Nine men out of ten, in such an real sorrow on account of the dangerous situation emergency, would have hesitated to assist me, and in which I stood, and pledged himself to keep to escape by land was at that time evidently impossilence for twenty-four hours, directed me how to sible. My host lost not a moment; his boat was get into the main road, and feelingly urged me to hauled across the road, and launched in the stream accept his personal guidance to the frontier. He with all possible speed; and he, I, and my guide kept his word; but when I was fairly out of dan- were scarcely afloat in it, and out a little way beger, he told the whole story to his neighbors, low the bank, when the officer with his troop of which caused his apprehension, though he was horse were parading in front of the house. How afterwards released." we escaped here is to me almost a miracle. I had resided long in the district, and was known by everybody: a boat was in the river against official orders; it was near the shore, and the carbines of the military could have compelled us to return, or have killed us if disobedient. The commanding officer did not see us, that was evident; he turned round at the moment to talk to the lady of the house and her daughters, who were standing in the parterie in front of the house full of anxiety on our account; but of the troop, not a few must have seen the movement; and yet we were allowed to steer for the head of Grand Island with all the expedition in our power without interruption; nor was there a whisper said about the matter for many months thereafter. In an hour we were safe on the American shore, and that night I slept in tranquillity and safety."

Our hero now gained the open country, recrossed the Twenty-Mile Creek, and at length reëntered the mountain path a little below where a military guard was then stationed. While in sight of this guard, he moved on very slowly. The country people were going to church, and he made as if going there too. As soon as he was out of sight, however, he used his spurs to some advantage. It appears that two men whom he had spoken to in the road gave the alarm to an armed party, who immediately gave pursuit. "I perceived them," says he, "when a third of a mile off. I thought it safer to endeavor to put my pursuers off the track, and on a false scent, than to keep on ahead of them; so I turned short towards St. Catherine's when I got to Smithville, and seemed to take that road down hill full speed. Instead of doing so, however, I turned a corner, put up my horse very quickly in the stable of a friendly Canadian, entered his house, he being at church, beheld my pursuers stop to interrogate a woman who had seen me pass, and then ride furiously onward by the St. Catherine's road. I then went quietly to bed, and rested for some four hours; had a comfortable supper with the family, and what clothes I required. A trusty companion was also ready to mount his horse, and accompany me the last forty miles to Buffalo. We accordingly started about eight o'clock on Sunday night, and keeping clear of the armed guards, we got safe into Crowland before daylight. We awoke a friend here, turned our horses into his pasture, and he immediately accompanied us to the Niagara river on foot. On inquiry, it was found that all the boats on the river, except those at the ferries, which were well guarded, had been seized and taken care of by the officers of government. A gentleman, however, who lived opposite the head of Grand Island, was believed to have kept one of his boats locked up beside his carriages. This gentleman was applied to; and though no favorer of the late movement, and at considerable risk, immediately consented to give his boat. As well as I can now remember," continues the narrator, "it was about nine on Monday morning when I reached this gentleman's house; an excellent breakfast was prepared, and I was fatigued and hungry. But there was a military patrol on the river, and before sitting down to a repast, I thought it safe to step out and see if the coast was clear. Well for me it was that I did so! The custom-house aging 170 packs each, each pack containing 12

PINS.-A dozen years since, all the pins used in this country were imported. Now, none are imported, except a few German pins for the supply of the German population of Pennsylvania. This wonderful change has been produced by a concurrence of circumstances the most prominent of which was the invention, by Mr. Samuel Slocum, now of Providence, of a pin-making machine far superior to any then in use in England. This led to the establishment of a pin-manufactory at Poughkeepsie by Messrs. Slocum, Jillson & Co., which, contrary to general expectation, was entirely successful, and soon distanced foreign competition. Thus things went on, until the passage of the tariff of 1842, which, by increasing the duty on foreign pins, encouraged other parties in this country to engage in the business. Foreseeing this, the above mentioned company-which was succeeded by the Am. Pin Company—at once reduced their prices 20 per cent., and have since reduced them 10 jer cent. more. Of all the pin companies which have been established or attempted in the United States, only three are known to exist at present, viz., the Am. Pin Company, (which has works both at Poughkeepsie and at Waterbury, Conn.,) the Howe Company, at Derby, Conn., and Messrs. Pelton, Fairchild & Co., of Poughkeepsie.

The quantity of pins turned out by these establishments, especially the two first, is enormous. The statistics of one of them, we have ascertained, are about as follows:-Per week, 70 cases, aver