PART V.

CANADA.

Area in acres Canada East, 128,659,684; Canada West, 31,745,535; total, 160,405,219 acres. Population in 1851, 1,842,265.

The province of Canada, one of the most extensive, populous, and wealthy offshoots of a colonizing nation, has been justly termed "the brightest jewel in the Crown of England." Though stretching in longitude from the centre of the continent to the shores of Labrador, and in latitude from the waters which flow into the northern ocean to the parallel of Pennsylvania, it derives its importance not so much from great area, diversity of climate, and productions, as from geographical and commercial position.

From tide-water upon the St. Lawrence to Lake Superior, this province adjoins, and even penetrates, so as to divide, one of the most commercial as well as important agricultural portions of the United States. The shortest land-route between the heart of New York and Michigan is through the peninsula of Canada West, which embraces one-half the coast of the most commercial body of fresh water on the globe.

The "diversity of production" ascribed to Canada may at first appear incorrect, inasmuch as the name is associated with the rigors of a northern climate. This mistaken idea originated in the fact that the eastern or historical portion of Canada is foremost in the mind-a part substituted for the whole; while the western or modern section of the province is known only to actual visitors. The romantic narratives of Jacques Carter and Champlain, the early trials and struggles of the Jesuit Fathers, and of Frontenac, De Sales, and others of the old noblesse of France, with the stirring incidents of the wars of the Algonquins and Iroquois, have, to the great majority of the people of the United States, been the chief medium of information respecting this, England's most important colony.

It is true that in Eastern Canada there are extremes of climate unknown in the northwestern States. But it will be found that the mean temperature varies but little in the two regions. The intense cold of the winter makes a highway to the operations of the lumberman over and upon every lake and stream, while the earth and the germs of vegetation are jealously guarded from the injurious effects of severe frost by a thick mantle of snow. The sudden transition from winter to summer, melting the accumulations of ice and snow in every mountain stream, converts them into navigable rivers, downward, for bearing, in the cheapest and most expeditious manner, the fruits of the lumberman's winter labor to its market on tide-water. The commencement of vegetation is delayed by the duration of the snow, but its maturity is reached about the same period as in the western country, because there

has been a smaller loss of caloric during the winter, less retardation from a lingering spring, and more rapid growth from the constant action of a strong and steady summer heat.

Whatever exceptions may be taken to the climate of Eastern Canada, it must be remembered that it embraces the greater portion of the whitepine-bearing zone of North America, the invaluable product of which can only be obtained by those conditions of climate, (the abundant ice and snow,) which have given it such imaginary terrors. There is scarcely one article or class of articles from any one country in the world which affords more outward freight, or employs more sea tonnage, than the products of the forests of British North America.

While these conditions of climate and production give necessarily a commercial and manufacturing character to the eastern province, the milder climate and more extensive plains of Western Canada afford a field for agriculture, horticulture, and pastoral pursuits unsurpassed in some respects by the most favored sections of the United States. The peninsula of Canada West, almost surrounded by many thousand square miles of unfrozen water, enjoys a climate as mild as that of Northern New York. The peach tree, unprotected, matures its fruit south and west of Ontario, while tobacco has been successfully cultivated for years on the peninsula between Lakes Erie and Huron. During the last two years, Western Canada has exported upwards of two millions of barrels of flour, and over three millions of bushels of wheat, and at the present moment the surplus stock on hand is greater than at any foriner period. There is probably no country where there is so much wheat grown, in proportion to the population and the area under cultivation, as in that part of Canada west of Kingston.

The commercial position of Canada West as a "portage" or "stepping-stone" between the manufacturing and commercial States on the Altantic and the agricultural and mineral ones of the northwest, is illustrated by the Welland canal, the Great Western, and the Ontario and Huron railways.

Among the prominent features of Canada, her military position is worthy of notice. She is the most northern power upon this continent; and in configuration upon the globe, she presents a triangular form, the apex of which torms the extreme southing, and penetrates the United States frontier; while the base is remote, and rests upon the icy regions of the north.

Flanked by the inhospitable coast of Labrador upon the east, and by the almost inaccessible territories of the Hudson's Bay Company on the west, she can only be attacked "in front;" when, retiring into more than Scythian fastnesses on the Ottawa and Saguenay, and keeping up communication with the strong fortress of Quebec, she can maintain prolonged and powerful resistance against foreign hostile invaders.

Viewing Canada as a whole, it may be described as a broad belt of country lying diagonally along the frontier of the United States, from northeast to southwest, from Maine to Michigan, and between the 42d and 49th parallels of north latitude. The great river St. Lawrence presents itself conspicuously as a leading feature in its physical geography, traversing, in a northeasterly course, the grand valley which it drains in its mighty career to the ocean.

The very beautiful map of the basin of the St. Lawrence hereunto appended, and prepared expressly for this report, by Thomas C. Keefer, esq., a civil engineer of high standing and eminent abilities, attached to the Canadian Board of Works, may be relied upon for its accuracy. An attentive consideration of this new and excellent map is respectfully solicited. It presents many points of interest, exhibiting, as it does, at one view, the mighty St. Lawrence, the chain of "fresh-water Mediterraneans," of which it is the outlet, and which are indeed a geographical wonder, as also their position and relation to the States of the West, and the vast and fertile valley of the Mississippi, with the various outlets to the sea, of this valuable section of North America.

COMMERCE OF CANADA.

Before the close of the last century the commerce of Canada had reached a respectable position. The St. Lawrence was then the only outlet of Canada, and also of that portion of the United States lying upon and between Lakes Ontario and Champlain; and the port of Quebec received indifferently American and Canadian produce for exportation to the West Indies and British North American colonies.

Although Upper Canada then scarcely produced sufficient food to support her own immigration, the lower province was already a large exporter of wheat, and continued so until the ravages of the Hessian fly reduced her to her present position of an importer from the upper province.

Mr. Keefer, in his Prize Essay upon the Canals of Canada, says: "A wise and liberal policy was adopted with regard to our exports previous to 1822. The products of either bank of the St. Lawrence were indifferently exported to the sister colonies, as if of Canadian origin; and those markets received not only our own, but a large share of American breadstuffs and provisions. Our timber was not only admitted freely into the British markets, but excessive and almost prohibitory duties were imposed upon importations of this article from the Baltic, for the purpose of fostering Canadian trade and British shipping. The British market was closed, by prohibition, against our wheat until 1814, which was then only admitted when the price in England rose to about two dollars per bushel-a privilege in a great measure nugatory; but the West Indies and lower provinces gave a sufficient demand so long as the free export of American produce was permitted by this route. As carly as 1793, our exports of flour and wheat by the St. Lawrence were as high as 100,000 barrels, and rose in 1802 to 230,000 barrels. The Berlin and Milan decrees, and English orders in council thereon, of 1807; President Jefferson's embargo of 1808, with increased duties levied upon Baltic timber, gave an impulse to the trade of the St Lawrence, so that the tonnage arriving at Quebec in 1810 was more than ten times greater than in 1800. The war of 1812 and 1815 naturally checked a commerce so much dependent upon the Americans; and we therefore find but little increase of the tonnage arrived in 1820 over that of 1810. In 1822 the Canada Trade Acts of the imperial parliament, by imposing a duty upon Amer

ican agricultural produce entering the British American colonies and the West Indies, destroyed one-half of the export-trade of the St. Lawrence; and the simultaneous abundance of the English harvest forbade our exports thither.

"As a recompense for the damage done by the Trade Act of 1822, our flour and wheat, in 1825, were admitted into the United Kingdom at a fixed duty of five shillings sterling per quarter. The opening of the Erie and Champlain canals at this critical juncture gave a permanent direction to those American exports which had before sought Quebec, and an amount of injury was inflicted upon the St. Lawrence, which would not have been reached had the British action of 1825 preceded that of 1822. The accidental advantages resulting from the differences which arose between the United States and Britain, on the score of reciprocal navigation, (which differences led to the interdiction of the United States export trade to the West Indies, and reduced it from a value of $2,000,000, in 1826, to less than $2,000 in 1830,) restored for a time our ancient commerce. The trade of the St. Lawrence was also assisted by the readmission free in 1826 (after four years exclusion) of American timber and ashes for the British market, and by the reduction of the duty upon our flour for the West India market, and therefore rapidly recovered, and in 1830 far surpassed its position of 1820.

"In 1831 there was a return to the policy which existed previous to 1822. United States products of the forests and agriculture were admitted into Canada free, and could be exported thence as Canadian produce to all countries, except the United Kingdom; and an additional advantage was conferred by the imposition of a differential duty, in our favor, upon foreign lumber entering the West Indian and South American possessions. Our exports of flour and wheat by sea in that year were about 400,000 bushels-chiefly to Britain, where a scarcity then existed, and for the first time exceeding the flour export of 1802. This amount, in consequence of a demand nearer home, and the ravages of the fly in Lower Canada, was not again exceeded until 1844. Between 1832 and 1839 a scarcity and great demand for breadstuffs arose in the United States, and the crops in England being unusually abundant between 1831 and 1836, the order of things in the St. Lawrence was reversed, so that in 1833 wheat was shipped from Britain to Quebec. A farther supply came also from Archangel. These imports in 1835 and 1836 amounted to about 800,000 bushels. A similar demand in 1829 had turned our exportation of breadstuffs inland to a very large amount; yet, notwithstanding these fluctuations of our exports, the shipping and commerce of the St. Lawrence rapidly increased in importance and value, with no continued relapse, down to the year 1842. The revulsion in 1842 was general, being one of those periodical crises which affect commerce, but was aggravated in Canada by a repetition of the measures of 1822, not confined this time to the provision-trade only, but attacking the great staple of Quebec-timber. The duties on Baltic timber, in Britain, were reduced, the free impor tation of American flour was stopped by the imposition of a duty thereon, and our trade with the West Indies annihilated by the reduction of the duty upon American flour brought into those islands. By

imposing a duty of two shillings sterling per barrel upon American flour imported into Canada, and reducing it in the West Indies from five to two shillings, an improvement equal to five shillings sterling per barrel was made in the new position of American flour exported from the Mississippi, Baltimore, and New York. The value of our trade with the West Indies in 1830 (during the exclusion of the Americans) amounted to $906,000; and in 1846, it was $4,000.

"Our export to the lower provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, &c.) was at its highest point in 1836, since which time it has fluctuated, but never reached its position of that year. It will be remembered that at that time the Americans were importing breadstuffs, and could not, therefore, compete with Quebec in the supply of these provinces. The act of 1842 was nearly as destructive to our trade with the gulf provinces as with the West Indies; but since the opening of our canals, there is a marked increase in this trade. In 1841 (before the passing of the Gladstone Act) our export trade with the lower provinces was worth $456,000 annually, which amount fell off to $204,000 in 1844. In 1845 the enlarged Welland and Beauharnois canals were opened, and since that period it has gradually recovered, so that, since the opening of the enlarged Lachine canal, it has exceeded its position of 1841, and is now increasing every year. As the interruption of our trade with the West Indies by the Canada Trade Act in 1822 was followed in 1825 by the permanent admission of our breadstuffs into the British market, and by the concessions in 1826, so its second interruption, or rather destruction, in 1842, was succeeded in 1843 by the important privilege of exporting American wheat, received, under a comparatively nominal duty, as Canadian, without proof of origin, in the British market. This measure was a virtual premium of about six shillings sterling per quarter upon American exports to Britain. through the St. Lawrence; but, inasmuch as it was an indirect blow at the English Corn Laws, it contained-like a bombshell-the elements of its own destruction. This very partial measure rapidly swelled our exports of flour and wheat, so that in 1846 over half a million of barrels, and as many bushels, of these two staples were shipped from Canada by sea.

"The injury threatened to the timber-trade of the St. Lawrence by the Act of 1842 was averted by the subsequent railway demand in England, so that our exports of this article have been greater since that period than before.

"In 1846 steps were taken in the British legislature which led to the withdrawal of that preference which the St. Lawrence had so fitfully enjoyed as the route for American exports to England; and the new system came into full operation in 1849. The intermediate demand, resulting from the failure of the potato crop, has thrown much uncertainty upon the final tendency of this important change in our relations with the mother country; and, as a necessary consequence, the ancient system of ships, colonies, and commerce' has fallen to the ground. In 1847 the control of our customs was abandoned by the imperial legislature, and the last and most important measure, which has relieved us from the baneful effects of the British navigation laws, came into operation on the 1st of January, 1850."