Satistics of Poetry.-A writer in the National Intelligencer entertains the readers of that Journal with treating poetry as other branches of productive industry are treated, statistically. Milton, he says, produced five hundred lines a year. He began to write at about seventeen, and lived to 67, thus composing during 50 years. His Paradise Lost is about ten thousand lines; the Paradise regained about two thousand; Samson Agonistes one thousand seven hundred, Comus one thousand three hundred, making in all, about twenty-one thousand lines. Dryden's regular poems, ncluding his translations, make about sixty thousand lines. He began almost in his childhood, and lived to be seventy-one, writing incessantly by contract. Averaged about two thousand lines a year. Pope began at twelve and died at fifty seven, producing in forty-five years about forty thousand lines, some eight thousand of which at most are original. His original poetry was at less than at the rate of two hundred lines a year. Gray, the next of our great bards, lived fifty-five years. He began to write about twenty, and left one thousand verses. Byron, beginning at twelve and ending at thirty-seven, produced about ten thousand more verses than in a long one, that mightiest and most inventive of all geniuses, Homer, in comparison with whom all other poets are almost nothing. He tripled the productions of Virgil and Tasso; he greatly exceeded the volume of Dante and Ariosto; and he doubled Milton, writing about twenty-five years less.

Libraries and Effects of Poets.-The books which Addison had gathered, were sold within tha last 44 years after the death of the essayist's only child, at a very advanced age in 1797. The poet Thompson's books and engravings, indeed the whole of his effects were sold in the year in which he died: his celler was better stored than his book-shelves, but his prints were of some importance and value. Shenstone's books were bought by Thomas Davies, with the pretty wife, commended by Churchill, in a well-known couplet. Pope left his library by will to Ralph Allen and Dr. Warburton. All the publications which gave rise to the Dunciad were in this collection, and Ruffhead advertised that they were freely at the service of any public library or museum. Strange to say, so liberal an offer was not accepted, though the British Museum was then in existence. To each publication he had written the name of the author, and scattered occasional remarks throughout. The household furniture and books of Goldsmith were sold by Good, at his great room in Fleet-street, on the 12th of July, 1774. Lot 29 was a common collection--" A pair of bellows, a brush, a footman, a copper tea-kettle. and a coal-skuttle." The most expensive piece of household furniture would appear to have been "Lot 15 --A very large dressing glass, mahogany frame," wherein Goldy must have often admired himself, dressed in his Tyrian bloom satin grain and garter blue breeches. But enough of poor Goldy. Dr. Johnson's books were sold by Christie. The Doctor had a ragged regiment for general use, for he tossed well-bound books about with savage carelessness, and com. plained when he borrowed a book from Stevens that it was too well bound. The library of Gibbon, who wrote Roman history in an acadia grove at Lausanne, must have formed, from all accounts a very different appearance from Johnson's rough calf collection. Gibbon was a dandy in his dress, and a dandy in his bindings. Edmund Burke's books have passed under the hammer of the auctioneer; and it is but the other day since the library of Horace Walpole was catalogued and sold by public auction. No English author ever left an estate behind him descending unincumbered with debt but the greatest of all authors, William Shakespeare. The after history of Abbotsford is a melancholy story.

The verses to which Niebuhr refers in Livy (1, 26) occurs in a legal formula, and here it might be thought that involuntary versification was out of the question. Yet it is not so; Law frequently disports in harmonious numbers. The officer of the court begins to swear the jury in a lively Trochaic Tetram. acat.

"You shall well and truly try and you shall judge between the parties;" and finishes his inquiry as to their decision in a still livelier Anapæstic. "That is your verdict, and so you say | all."-[Prospective Review.

Machine for Sharpening and Setting Saws. ley, of Redding, Conn, has invented a beautiful and ve for sharpening and setting saws of every description. N is used in the operation, but by the simple working of a the saw is sharpened and set at the same time. This t cheap, and can sharpen five saws faster than any one ca any way at present in use for that purpose; and what is can, with a minute's instruction, sharpen the saw with t --[Scientific American.

ness.-

The Mora. Uses of Gas.-The moralist may engage his thoughts, for these silent burning lights are by preventing the crimes to which darkness offers a ter one who doubts this read the accounts of the state of th old times, when the link-boy was necessary to enable the his path through the dark streets, at the corners of which lurked for the approach of some passenger whom busine forced out. Such times were the golden ages of burgla as they pleased during the period of sunset and runrise least he should be knocked down and deliberately rol Cheapside, Fleet street or the Strand, even should he be o set? Nov this change in the social state has not arisen ations in police arrangements, but from the additional persons and property by a well lighted city. The men the burning of the gas-jets in a coal mine, little suspe portance which that very species of flame would exercise Perhapseven Mr. Murdoch, who first drew public atte gas in lighting towns, did not anticipate the importanc provement would so rapidly rise. In the year 1792 he e ometer for use on his own premises; ten years after the mingham poured out in thousands to witness his br at Soho, when peace was proclaimed; but in the year lights are familiar to all inhabitants in our second and Such is one aspect in which fire or flame may be view of light, and the creator of numberless aids to civilizatio don Magazine.

The Zodiac.-When, and how, and by whom is now exhibited in all our celestial maps, and all our was invented, no effort of learning has yet been able to gin is undoubtedly fabulous, connected with the whole thology of Greece, with the twelve labours of Hercules the Argonauts to Colchis, for the golden fleece: the ge Neptune and Pluto, their common parent Saturn, and th the whole system, in the allegorical impersonation of Here astronomy and astrology, idolatry and superstitio navigation, all march hand in hand, turning history int into falsehood; the cultivation of the earth, and the na into fraudulent imposture. By what magical incantati system could be imposed upon whole nations of men, ima, ly conceive. An imaginary belt is cast round the porti within which the solar system revolves.-This belt is partitions, each embracing thirty degrees of the spheri Within each of these partitions, clusters of stars, as the sky, are gathered as into one community: and over eac of an earthly animal is stamped, covering the whole cons ing no sort of resemblance to it. The very positions painted on the celestial atlas: names are given to all stars; and now at least three thousand years after this first palmed upon the credulity of mankind, we find it im and we cannot learn to recognize the bright stars of he the sun, without painting them to the mind's eye, on t ing ram, in the eye of a raging bull, on the foreheads o dren, and in the fantastic and incoherent imagery of anin of earth, air, fire and water, jumbled together, as if to universe into its primitive elemental chaos. Nor is thi conceivable confusion yet exhausted. When the wors insinuated itself into communion with the study of astr tion of the zodiac was extended over the whole firma the gods Jupiter, and even the inferior idols Olympus, the prerogative of placing favorite mortals to seats of hor and thus, not only Hercules and Perseus, but Adonis Daphne, and Niobe and her daughters, and multitudes meritorious, rose to be dignitaries in the skies, till not enice became a constellation, but the infamous Antinou ent magnitude. The printing press the, electrical app pump, may be better entitled to this symbol of im intrusion upon this already overcharged canvass, only a complication, and encumbers the study with supern and obstructions.-[Adams.

Editorial Notices, &c.

AL SCHOOL.-One hundred and twenty four names have been on the books as Students of the Normal Schoo Iduring the Winion, besides many applications rejected for want of qualifications andidates. This is the largest number yet admitted to the Norhool, at the commencement of any one Session.

L HOUSE ARCHITECTURE.-In the present number we conclude les and illustrations intended for this volume on School house ture. In the prospectus of the volume we expressed our intenfurnish at the rate of one illustration each month. We have ore than three times that number. The illustrations in the prember are from an excellent work, entitled The School and Master, by BISHOP POTTER, of Philadelphia, and the Rev. G. B. , of Boston.

tance of the SOUND EDUCATION OF EACH VOTER.-In he Rev. r's Lecture on the Importance of our Common Schools, deliverston, before the American Institute of Instruction, the flowing incidents are mentioned :

ne of the most momentous measures of our State and National ments have been decided by the votes of one or two individuals. decision of the Missouri question, two votes only enlaged the and rivited the curse of slavery upon our country. And it is, I susceptible of proof, that the war with England in 1812 would been waged, but for one vote given in a passion by an obscure al in Rhode Island. That vote affected the election of that one - of the United States Senate, to whose vote at an important ay be ascribed the subsequent decision of the Senate, to plunge try into the horrors and vast expenditure of that useless conflict."

LECTUAL LABOURERS." Zeno and Chrysisspus," says Seneca, eater things in their studies, than if they had led armies, borne or given laws, which indeed they did, not to one city alone, but ankind."

ESS OF THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE LONDON DISIRICT.of the Report of W. ELLIOT, Esq., District Superintendent, prethe Municipal Council last month.—“It is nearly four and a rs since I had the honour to be intrusted with the confidence of rict Council as Superintendent of the Common Schools of the I will not say that the improvements in those Schools which I ed to witness, have been realized. But I can say that I believe ress which the cause of popular instruction has made in this during that time, has yet been onward. It is true there are calities which at this moment seem to furnish a contradiction to rtion. But take the District at large, and it will be found that w schools have been established in the recently settled parts of uships where before there was none-many school houses of a scription have been erected-a better supply of books procured pon the whole, the character of the Teachers has been raised uneration increased. The cause of education then, I would prospered thus far in the District, that the means of instruction ntary branches is furnished to every parent who is disposed to self of the opportunity; a system of public instruction has been tablished, and a conviction of the high necessity of instructing h seems to have become more general among our population. nd this, there remains much to be done before we shall see our upon that thoroughly efficient footing which is desirable."

stics of French Literature.--It is calculated that from the ary, 1840, to the 1st August, 1849, there were issued from the France, 87,000 new works, volumes and pamphlets; 3,700 reancient literature, and French classic authors; and 4,000

translations from modern languages-one third of the latter from the English, the German and the Spanish coming next in numbers, and the Portuguese and Swedish languages having furnished the smallest contributions. Nine hundred dramatic authors are named of pieces produced on the stage, and afterwards published; 60 only of comedies and dramas not acted. Among the published works are 200 on Occult Sciences, Cabalism, Chiromancy, Necromancy, &c. and 75 volumes on heraldry and Genealogy. Social Science, Fourierism, Communism, and Socialism of all sects, count 20,000 works of all sizes; 6,000 Romances and Novels; and more than 800 works of Travel. According to a calculation, for which the authority of M. Didot's (the publisher) name is given, the paper employed in the printing of all these works would more than twice cover the surface of the 86 departments of France.—[Galig• Lani.

Families of Literary Men.-The Quarterly Review, ig discussing an objection to the Copyright bill of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, which was taken by Sir Edward Sugden, gives some very curious particulars about the progeny of literary men. "We are not," says the writer, "going to speculate about the causes of the fact, but a fact it is, that men distinguished for extraordinary intellectual power of any sort, rarely leave more than a very brief line of progeny behind them. Men of genius have scarcely ever done so; men of imaginative genius, we might say, almost never. With the one exception of the noble Surrey, we cannot at this moment point out a representative in the male line, even so far down as in the third generation, of any English poet; and we believe the case is the same in France. The blood of beings of that order can seldom be traced far down even in the female line. With the exception of Surrey and Spencer, we are not aware of any great English author of at all remote date, from whose body any living person claims to be descended. There is no other real English poet prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, and we believe no greater author of any sort, except Clarendon and Shaftsbury, of whose blood we have any inheritance amongst us. Chaucer's only son died childless: Shakspeare's line expired in his daughter's only daughter.

None of the other dramatists of that age left any progeny; nor Raleigh, nor Bacon, nor Cowley, nor Butler. The grand-daughter of Milton was the last of his blood. Newton, Locke, Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Hume, Gibbon, Cowper, Gray, Walpole, Cavendish (and we might greatly extend the list,) never married. Neither Bolingbroke, nor Addison, nor Warburton. nor Johnson, nor Burke transmitted their blood. M. Renouard's last argunsent against a perpetuity in literary property is that it would be founding another noblesse. Neither jealous aristocracy nor envious jacobinism need be under much alarm. When a human race has produced its bright consummate flower' in this kind, it seems commonly to be near its end."

Poor Goldsmith might have been mentioned in the above list. The theory is illustrated in our own day. The two greatest names in science and in literature, of our time, were Davy and Walter Scott. The first died childless. Sir Walter left four children, of whom three are dead; only one of whom (Mrs. Lockhart) leaving issue; and the fourth though living, and long married has no issue. These are curious

facts.

Popular Literature.-The whole subject of popular literature requires the deepest consideration. The press is pouring out every day: a tide of books, which distract the attention, weaken the judgemnt, corrupt the taste, and defy the criticism of the public by their very multitude. Every one, young or old, man or oman, fool or wise, thinks himself able to say something which may catch the public eye, to raise himself either money or notoriety. The whole world is become a great ›› school, where all the pupils have turned themselves into teachers; and the ravenous appetite of an idle people, always craving for some new excitement, or amusement, and ready to swallow the most unwholesome food, is daily stimulating the market. What should we say if a man had the power of volatilizing a grain of arsenic that its effluvium should spread over a whole country, entering into every house, and penetrating to the most vital parts of the body? And yet until it is shown that the human mind is good itself, and the source of good,-that it is not, what we know it to be, save only when purified by religion, corrupt itself and a corrupter of others; this power, which every man possesses and which so many exercise, of diffusing their thoughts over the world, and insinuating them into the heart of a nation, is, in reality, the power of spreading a pestilential miasma. [Edinburgh Review.

Toronto: Printed and published by Tнos. H. BENTLEY; and may be obtained from ScOBIE & BALFOUR, and A. GREEN, Toronto ; JOHN MCCOY, Montreal; P. SINCLAIR, Quebec; M. MACKENDRICK, Hamilton; J. IZARD, Woodstock; and D. M. Dewey, Arcade Hall, Rochester, N. Y.

VOL. II.

A LECTURE

ON

THE SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT OF CANADA; Being the Introductory Lecture of the Season, before the Mechanics' Institutes of Niagara and Toronto, delivered in Niagara on the 13th, and in Toronto on the 16th of October, 1849.

BY THE REV. DR. RYERSON.

I am to address you on "The Social Advancement of Canada ;"" —a subject little discussed and less understood,-yet one which involves all that is vital and hopeful in the interests of our country, and which is interwoven with the most anxious thoughts of the Statesman, the solicitudes of the Patriot, and the prayers of the Christian.

In the discussion of this subject, I assume the existence of Society and the possibility of its progress. By Society, I mean the union of individuals for certain purposes of common interest and enjoyment—a union prompted by the original impulses of man, and imposed by his necessities. The most comprehensive and imposing form under which such association amongst men exists, constitutes what is termed "civil society;" which is truly regarded as an "ordinance of God,” —originating in his goodness and dictated by his wisdom. Every such society involves certain mutual obligations on the part of its individual members, and that which defines those obligations, is called the constitution of the society-embracing the fundamental principles of the social compact, either expressly stated in written document-such as the Constitution of the United States; or deduced from historical events, solemn decisions, and uncontested usage-such as form the British Constitution. Every such society requires some agency to accomplish its objects. If one object of the society be to protect the person and property of each of its members, and if person or property be violated in any instance, all the members cannot turn out to apprehend and punish the culprit. Hence the necessity of certain officers of justice, invested with the authority and power of the whole society for such and kindred purposes of common safety and interest. Again, in order to determine with certainty who the guilty party is, in any such case, and to prevent the innocent from being mistaken for the guilty, as all the members of the compact cannot take part in the investigation, a convenient and adequate number of them are selected for that purpose. Such judges of facts amongst us are called jurors: and as their decisions in particular cases should be in harmony with principles and regulations impartially applicable to all cases of the same kind, certain persons, duly qualified, are selected and appointed as the authorized expounders and guardians of these general principles and regulations. These are denominated Judges. But these regulations should be stamped with the authority of the whole society, in order to be binding upon each of its members; and as they cannot all meet to consult and agree upon such regulations, certain of their number are appointed or delegated as Legislators for the whole. The results of their deliberations constitute the Statutes or Laws of a country, and are not usually confined to the mere protection of person and property, but extend to whatever may secure and advance the common welfare of society in its various industrial and social interests-embracing all that is comprehended in the department of Political Economy; of which Public education is an important and essential branch. Then, some

power is necessary to execute the decisions and the enactments of the people through the cannot be done by the people en masse ; and executive officers to give effect to the various la people cannot all meet to choose these officers must be some selected appointing power t officers should be subordinate and responsibl stands forth as the personification of the nat and order. This supreme executive power King, President, or Governor, acccording to ci fact of this power being absolute or limited b elective, chiefly determines the different forms government. But it should be observed, that, ture of things, government is merely the inst the end for which society exists; Society be Government the agent. It is true, that in pa unhappy countries still, government has bee and society as the means, the people existing government, and not government for the sake the light of modern civilization has largely co state of things,—has taught rulers their rela the people their rights and privil ges.

Now, when I speak of the advancement of gress in what appertains to the nature and ob and when I speak of the "Social Advancemen advancement in whatever is involved in the n Canadian institutions ;—I mean progress in C or, to use the words of the illustrious French man, GUIZOT,-"The progress of society, th duals; the amelioration of the social system, the mind and faculties of man; the exterior c larged, quickened, improved; the intellectual guished by energy, brilliancy, and grandeur."

What then is involved in the Social Adva and by what means may it be effected? Wh conditions of its existence, and how may the of its life be promoted ? The brief answers v confines me to give to these momentous several particulars, each of which I must rath discuss.

I. The first is, the Healthful state of our Interests. It is true that the life of a country of an individual, does "not consist in the abu possessed." The wealthiest kingdoms of anti most degraded; while some of the poorest w and the most free. Neither does social adva gentleness of climate, fertility of soil, or natu merce. The fertile plains of charming Italy abode of squalidness and social debasement, w tion has grown up and flourished on the cold deluged Netherlands, and amidst the rugged h hyperborean Scotland. We see semi-barba more genial Styrian Alps of Austria, while it away in the colder Helvetian Alps of Switze side of the Atlantic, we see the mass of the p chattels and brutes in the orange and fig-be

December, 1849.

ile I admit all this, I think that the healthful state of the terests of a country-whatever thy may be-is an esSition of its social advancement. I do not mean that be the state of every City and Town, and interet in a Camerce and trade, and their natural attendants, comealth, forsake old and select new abodes and channels of defiance of the prescriptive rights of long possession te control. There is scarcely a country in Europe, or a Imerica, in which new enterprises and new facilities of ition, by canals, railroads, &c., have not caused the deI cities and towns, and given birth to new and flourishing as we often observe the failure of one kind of grain on le others exceed an average crop; so may one interest bo depressed, while others are prosperous. It may also it does to us this year, that the abundant crops in uce the demand for our productions there, and the short United States open to us an American market, of which ars cannot take the best advantage in consequence of a Had the present season witnessed abundant, instead ps in the United States, and short, instead of abundant nada, the present feeling of disadvantage and loss would eben experienced amongst us. The special bounties of upon the labours of our husbandry, have proved the ocmuch of our local discontent.

fact of our relations to Great Britain, or to any foreign eing such as to deprive any class of our population of the legitimate advantages of their industry and enterprisė,ly in other respects bestowed upon them-argues an I state of our country's material interests. Such a state produces social discontent, which is most unfavorable to necment. The mind of an individual, of a family, or of s not in a state favorable to improvement, intellectual, ocial, when agitated with the consciousness of labouring sonable disadvantage, and being unfairly cramped in its With a view to our social advancement, then, our combe placed in a position in regard to its material interests give us nothing to envy in the condition of any other Cor do I doubt but British and Canadian statesmanship i>m will soon attain this object.

is a remedy which has been proposed for a partial and diss-Ivantage, except a retrograde movement in the work lynnrement a movement warmed into life by the fires ncendiarism, and nourished by a class of feelings and ch are inimical to the social advancement of any country. I look into the commercial history of any country for the years, without finding that one or more of its material ave been injuriously affected by the policy of other nat was the remedy ever proposed of abolishing home and of seeking annexation to foreign ones, in order to rice of wheat and reduce the price of sugar? In all the Canadian farmer has had an advantage in the English r his American neighbour of several shillings a quarter at. But did the American forget his institutions and lity, his allegiance and his patriotism, and forthwith xation to Canada in order to obtain, not every third or , but every year, from twenty to forty cents additional bushel for his wheat? Nay, as highly as Americans dollars and cents, I doubt but the most mercenary of d have blushed at so unworthy a thought. And could all the United States have been found to put forth such on, it would have been repelled by the universal indignacountrymen. The domestic interests of the Southern rn States have long clashed on the subject of protection de-the very subject which is urged as the ground of our present civil relations and government. States produce and export to Europe, Cotton and Rice and and have depended upon importations for nearly all their manufacture, and are therefore interested in free trade. ern States, to a large extent, are manufacturers, and are terested in protection. That protection is granted them ional Congress, to the extent of from fifteen to forty per

The

cent. Do the Southern States then claim a dissolution of the federal union, and demand independence, in order to buy in the cheapest, as well as sell in the dearest market? No, slave-holders as they are, and each of the several States concernel, being, on an average, larger than Canada, yet national patriotism with them is stronger than sectional selfi haess, and the integrity of the Union is maintained inviolate by an almost unanimous loyalty. It is true, that alternate party wailings have often been heard there, as here, of commerce destroyed, manufactures crushed, and agriculture impoverished; yet no vo ce has ventured there to pronounce the word SEPARATION; and the country in the aggregate there, as here, has continued to advance with giant strides in the amount of both its domestic productions and foreign importations.

It is an indication of mental weakness, and a means of increasing it, to abandon one's pursuit, or relation, or position, as soon as he encounters a difficulty, or meets with an offence, or is disappointed in an indulgence. We hope nothing of the boy who relinquishes his Latin Grammar when he gets entangled in the third declension of nouns; or of the religionist, who, on the first offence, or hope of gain, separates from one communion and annexes himself to another; or of the farmer, who would abandon his farm on the occurrence of the first drought; or of the patriot, who would desert his country on the first public emergency. Fickleness in a country, as well as in an individual, is the parent of littleness, and is the enemy of advancement of any kind. The social evil of such unsettledness is greatly enhanced, when it is not the impulse of a constitutional duty, resisting some unconstitutional Stamp Act, or maintaining some inherent right; but when it is the offspring of party passion, of individual speculation, of theoretical conjecture. In such a whirlpool there is no onward curre it. Social restlessness is not social advancement; and in such circumstances, dismemberment is not improvement, nor is revolution progress. Social amelioration should not be looked for in the dissolution of social bonds; nor shoull a tried foundation be exchanged for the "baseless fabric of a vision."

Nor is there wanting evidence, that the foundation of our material interests is a tried one, and requires not to be lail anew in order that we may advance with our social superstructure. I will adduce one witness, and an unexceptionable one. Last year the Reverend Dr. DIXON, as Representative of the Wesleyan Conference in England, made an official tour in the United States and Canada. He is a man of powerful intellect-an extensive reader, a profound thinker, and long distinguished as a careful observer of the progress of society, both at home and abroad. But long before he reached Canada he had adopted the theory that Cana la was destined to be absorbed by the United States, and all his partialities and opinions partook of the character of his theory. Yet he was too shrewd and candid an observer not to see and state facts as he found them, however they might affect his theory. in the account which he has written of his American travels, I find two important statements,—the one referring to the District of Niagara, the other to the City of Toronto,—the one involving a testimony to Canadian agriculture, the other a testimony to Canadian com nerce, and somthing more. After having given the most philosophical and sublime description of the Falls of Niagara that I ever read, Dr. DIXON observes, in reference to his journey through a part of the Niagara District:-"This journey afforded me an opportunity of julging of the progress of agriculture in Western Canada; and I an compelled to say, that I saw no farming in th United States equal to that of this part of the country." Now, without in the Least disparaging the state of agriculture in the Niigara District, I think we may safely say, that Dr. Dix N could have found equal · specimens of its progress in more than one-half the Districts of Upper Canada. Then in reference to Toronto, Dr. DIXON remarks:

"Toronto is beautifully situated on Lake Ontario; the country is level, but free from swamp, and perfectly drv; the city is new, but there are many excellent buildings; and King Street is about the finest in America: the shops of this street are not stores, but finished and decorated in the English style, and, in appearance, would be no disgrace to Regent Street, if placed by its side."t

* Tour through part of the United States and Canada, page 127. ↑ Ibid, page 131.

December,

FOR

CANAD A.

Now, Toronto is but one of the many growing Cities and Towns of Upper Canada. Drooping, decaying commerce will not build "about the finest street in America," nor adorn it with shops comparable with those of the Regent Street of the British metropolis-the greatest of the great imperial cities of Europe. If the agriculture of young Canada advantageously compares with that of the older United States; and if the new commercial City of Toronto (whose population has quintupled during the last twenty years,) shrinks not from comparison with older cities on either side of the Atlantic, have we more reason to be proud, or to be ashamed to rejoice, or to lament-to build upon the past, or to uproot it-to proceed in the career of advancement, or to commence the career of revolution?

I insist strongly on this point, not only upon the grounds of allegiance and civil obligation, but as involving what is essential to be settled in order to the social advancement of Canada. No community, civil or religious, can advance while the fundamental principles and relations on which it is founded, are in a chaotic state. But I do injustice to our common country in imagining for a moment that its institutions and relations are unsettled. A renewed attempt is indeed making to unsettle them; but though more specious and cautious than that of 1837, I doubt not but it will share the same result. The sincere and disinterested who, without reflection, may have countenanced it as a novel and dazzling theory, will, on calm consideration, shrink back from its lawless disaffection and its disorganizing revolution, and return to the old paths and the good way of fearing God, honoring the King, and meddling not with them that are given to change.*

I desire also to observe, that in maintaining our own civil institutions and relations as the basis of our social progress, those of our American neighbours may be courteously and sincerely respected. To blacken their character as the enemies of liberty, and to assail their institutions as unfriendly to civilization, is not, in my opinion,

* Previously to meditating the subject of this lecture, the Author had intended to observe a studied silence, and, as far as possible, cultivate a feeling of indifference in regard to the external relations of Canada-striving to concentrate his thoughts and exertions upon the educational improvement of the country, without regard to local parties, forms of government or foreign relations; but a careful analysis of the fundamental principles and essential elements of our social advancement, so deeply impressed him with the degenerate feelings and tendencies involved in the project of with. drawing our plighted faith from a power whose prolific expenditures upon us (whatever may have been the errors of some of its acts) have excited the astonishment of Americans themselves, as I have often heard them express; and then not proposing to place the dignity of supremacy upon Canada itself by the erection of a Canadian Republic, (in which there would at least be self-respect and a diguified ambition) but proposing to transfer that broken faith to another power which does not even profess any particular regard for Canada, and which looks on with silent indifference, if not sovereign contempt. Indeed the very idea of Canada selling her birthright for a mess of pottage at Washington, cannot fail to excite the unmingled contempt of every intelligent and thoughtful American, as it must produce a conscious. ness of meanness in the mind of any Canadian who indulges it, and must deflower whatever feelings it ensnares.

It would be easy to show how gross are the errors, and fallacious the expectations, (beyond the hopes of individual speculation) held forth on this subject; but that would be foreign to the object of these remarks. Modern Europe presents no instance of the annexation of a province to a large power without loss and degeneracy to the annexed; though it furnishes several examples of independent governments less in population and territorial extent than Canada, more prosperous, intellectually and materially in proportion, than extensive Empires, Kingdoms and Republics. We cannot believe that Providence ever designed that the proceeds of any part of the commerce of our magnificent rivers, lakes and forests should be sent to Washington; nor that if Canada ever cease to be an integral part of the British Empire, it is destined to be a State of the American Republic.

We make these remarks with feelings of respect, friendship and admiration toward the people of the Northern and Eastern United States second to those of no man not an American citizen; and everything noble in their intellectual and moral example we shall (as we have hitherto done) commend to Canadian notice and imitation. But it is not necessary to the friendship, or interest or happiness of either of two neighbouring farmers, that one of them an ex himself to the other. The individual independence of each is perfectly cos stent with, and perhaps the best means of promeing, the mutual friendship, happiness and interests of both.

the true, much less the christian, way of stre institutions, or of promoting the social advanc country. May we not believe that their institut are adapted to their habits and circumstances habits and circumstances? May we not adm patriotism and energy, and rejoice in their pr not deprecate the calamity of revolution amor among ourselves? I cannot but think, that our hearts to the laws and institutions of our c cial feelings will be rather improved than imp endeavouring to excite hostile feelings toward ren, we cherish toward them the generous se= of the eloquent MACAULAY, when he said, (re of the United States) "It is scarcely possible of sensibility and imagination should look v national pride on the vigorous and splendid yo whose veins are filled with our blood, whose with our literature, and on whom is entailed th our civilization, our freedom, and our glory."

II. I remark, that a second condition essen vancement of Canada relates to the System of ministrative Government. For the sake of bre one head two subjects, each of which, from relative importance, deserves an extended co more so, as I am not aware that either of them sed among us in their relation to the progress

It has pleased the Almighty Creator to There is not a single object or being in nature the control of "the ordinances of heaven;" a of these "ordinances" or laws which gives har in all the movements of the heavenly bodies, tractions, and repulsions which mysteriously their minutest particles. But man is constitu ject of moral, as well as of physical laws; th him with peculiar obligations and responsibili harmony with these laws that his happiness a "Of law, (says the venerable HOOKER) there knowledged, than that her seat is the bosom harmony of the world; all things in heaven a age, the very least as feeling her care, and the exempted from her power; both angels and what condition soever, though each in differe yet all with uniform consent admiring her as peace and joy."

The Nineteenth Psalm vividly portrays th law of God is adapted to exert upon the chara man. But among other ordinances of Divine of Civil Government-designed every where t God for good" to its subjects, and therefore to ence upon their social condition;-its authorit proclaimed in the Sacred Scriptures, but its fo human choice and arrangement. Now, what call free or constitutional government, is a go contradistinction to a despotism, which is a g dual will. Our's is a government of Law; = with us is not a mere personal affection, thoug prodigies of noble chivalry and heroism in though, thank God, we have strong reason to towards the person of our virtuous and noble with us is a homage to law-a homage to the ernment under which it is our privilege to liv claims of our country upon our affection and Magistrate is the official representative of th claims our respect and reverence; and true lo

66

The place its honour for the holde But what is the end of law, and wist i legislation, demanded for the social advancer The Roman Blackstone, JUSTINIAN, reduced law to three general principles:-"Live ho render to every man his due." "Of the Cret because they were established with a view to

* Miscellaneous Writings -Review of Southey's