Art. II.-BRITISH AMERICA.

EXTENT OF BRITISH AMERICA.-PROGRESS OF LIBERAL PRINCIPLES.DESTINIES. UPPER AND LOWER CANADA. NEW BRUNSWICK.

NOVA SCOTIA.-NEWFOUNDLAND.-NEW-BRITAIN, ETC.

THE present paper comprises another of the series promised upon the various geographical divisions of the Western world; and the reader will find advantage in consulting them together in the volumes we have published and are now publishing.*

British America is in extent equal to about one-third of the whole continent, and is limited by the possessions of Russia on the 141° of longitude, and all other points by those of the United States. The islands of the Arctic sea, and along the Atlantic coast, are claimed as a part of the same empire; and the late treaty negotiations have settled the long agitated Maine and Oregon boundaries.

The northern regions of British America possess no agricultural capacities, but are locked up in frosts and perpetual snows. The fur trade can alone be prosecuted. To the south, the climate becomes genial and the soil fertile. Immense forests prevail here.

British America offers perfect relief, says Mr. Gesner, in his late work upon New-Brunswick, to the overflowing population of the mother-country, whose manufacturing districts and most productive counties have become so overloaded with the humble classes, that the least disturbance in the state of trade produces the greatest degree of misery and crime.

In the same connection Mr. Alison, in his work on Population, remarks-Nor is there any chance of this prodigious opening for labor in Australia and our North American colonies, being either diminished or lost to this country, except by the folly of internal legislation. The productive land in Canada and New-Holland, exceeds that of all Europe put together. It is so intersected by water through the great chain of the lakes, which flows through its centre, that hardly any part of it is fifty miles from inland navigation, and an immense tract lies on the shores of vast navigable rivers or stupendous inland seas. The climate, severe in Lower, is much more mild in Upper Canada; the vine, the apricot, peach and nectarine, ripen in the open air. The soil is so rich from the falling of leaves during many thousand winters, that it bears the finest wheat crops for three years, without manure. The invention of steam has facilitated indefinitely both the means of getting at this fertile district, and the market for its produce when cultivation has commenced. Nothing is wanted but hands to clear the vast tracts of wood-encumbered plains, and that is precisely what England possesses to superfluity.

In the preparation of this article, we are much indebted to the volumes of Mr. Simmonds' Colonial Magazine, published in London—a work which should be more extensively patronized in this country.

The possession of this immense country can in no other sense be considered important to Great Britain, than in offering a vent to her rapidly augmenting population. From its trade and commerce, in consequence of her systems of exclusion and restrictions, she has perhaps obtained less advantage than the continual outlay which has been every year required. One has not to be a deep observer, to mark at a glance the comparative progress of the regions on either side of the St. Lawrence, and there can be no other manner of accounting for it, than the spirit of liberty and attendant enterprise which exist upon the one hand. With equal liberality of laws and government, a very different state of things might early be predicated.

Nor are we to suppose the old colonial policy existing in its full force in British America. Many and marked improvements have been demanded and made since the independence of the American states. The contagion of free institutions is not easily arrested, and a careful study of the colonies now under consideration, will show that they have been gradually gaining power at the expense of the mother-country, and that the concessions made them from time to time, would have been considered treason to demand at the close of the last century.* The influence of the United States is felt all through the British colonies in their amelioration. This we regard the high, holy and peaceful mission of America. We ask no other conquests! Let our neighbors regulate their own affairs in the manner best suitable to them, so long as there shall be no interference with ours. If a "manifest destiny" decree all America to us, it is well to wait the falling of the ripe fruit without agency of ours. better policy would be-" hold, enough!"

A

British America embraces a territory equal in extent to two-thirds of the whole of Europe. It is divided into the provinces of Canada, (Lower and Upper,) New-Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and New-Britain,-the latter a cold and barren country, between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific, thinly inhabited by Esquimaux and other savages.t

The following table shows the area in square miles and population of each, so far as has been specifically ascertained:

*A well-informed writer, in the last number of the North American Review, July, 1848, shows in strong colors the progress of liberalism in the British colonies. The descendants of the tories of our revolution who removed to these points, demand yet more than did the whigs of that period, whom they stigmatised as rebels and traitors. Some of the ablest men in the British colonies are of this class. "What do we see," asks the Review," after the lapse of nine years? The popular will having wholly wrested away the prerogative, now breaks up cabinets and displaces the highest functionaries, without check, accountability or control. We see, too, a minister of the Crown conce. ding, in express terms, that such a power seems to be a necessary part of representative institutions in a certain state of their progress! If a single whig of 1776, in his loftiest mood, even so much as dreamed of obtaining a concession like this, we have yet to be informed of it."

↑ Labrador, Cape Breton, Prince Edward's Island, Anticosti, may be considered em braced.

Sebastian Cabot is said to have first discovered Canada in 1497. The French prepared a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1508, and in 1525 took possession of the country in the name of the king of France. Quebec, the first settlement, was not founded till 1608; after which period the colonists were much annoyed by the native Indian tribes. A friendly compact, however, was ultimately made, and they became auxiliaries against the British. In 1759, Quebec was taken by the British forces under Gen. Wolfe, and the whole territory ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Paris, 1763. The seignorial rights, the various holdings and tenures under them, and the endowments of the Catholic Church, were left undisturbed; and all the estates, including the unappropriated lands in the provinces, held at the period by the French king, became vested in the British crown. Here began British rule and colonization north of the great American lakes.

We shall notice the provinces separately in the order named in the table.

LOWER CANADA.-More than two-thirds of the population are of French origin, speak the French language, and profess the Roman Catholic religion. The chief settlements are in the valley of the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, a distance of one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles. The following statement exhibits the quantity of lands surveyed, value, &c.:

Acres.

664,080

.87.000

..7,496,000

3,847,629

.1.684,233

.3,907,000

16,934.862 . 107,856,000

Income from the Territorial Fund in 1843, was *$136,000; in 1844, $25,900; due for the sale of Crown lands, $269,600.

Of the surveyed lands, 3,907,000 acres are unappropriated; from which $592,293 in government scrip, at the valuation of $1 per acre, must be deducted:

3,314,707 acres, valued by Surveyor General at 60 cents,. 8,500,000 unsurveyed, in rear of townships..“.60..“. 6,000,000 north-east part of dist. of Quebec...“.75..". 750,000 south-east sect. of St. Francis, &c...100..“.

Land Fund.....

Which, if invested at 5 per cent. will yield.............

. $2,071,690 .5,312,500

4,500,000

..750.000

$12.634,190

631,709

*The sterling has been turned into federal money, waiving fractions, as more satis factory to our readers.

This revenue is charged with about $150,000 to common schools, and $20,000 annuity to the Indian tribes.

From an official report in 1845, we collect the following:

Houses inhabited, 106,803; vacant, 4,041; now being built, 1,613;-112,487.

Heads of families, 121,441, of whom 76,032 are proprietors of real estate; 37,113 non-proprietors, and 8,296 having votes in towns, &c.

Total resident population, 687,175: of which there are natives of England, 11,886; Ireland, 44,012; Scotland, 13,341; Canada, of French origin, 518,565; Canada, of British origin, 85,075; continental Europe, or otherwise, 2,353; United States, 11,943; aliens not naturalised, 1,505; total, males over 15 years of age, 186,548; females, 188,954; under 15, males, 158,447; females, 157,344. Of those under age, there are 2,111 males married, and 6,705 females married; being a total of 8,816 married minors.

Deaf and dumb persons, 725, of which 447 are males, and 278 females; blind, 523: males, 273; females, 250; idiots, 950: males, 478; females, 472; lunatics, 308: males, 156; females, 152;-total, 2,506.

The proportion of deaf and dumb in Canada to the whole population is as one to about 957, a greater proportion than prevails throughout all Europe, (1 in 1,537,) and the United States, (1 in 2,000,) or the whole world, (1 in 1,556,) and is only exceeded by the solitary cases of Switzerland and Baden, where the proportion is respectively 1 in 503 and 559.

In the whole province there are only 261 persons of color: 140 males, and 121 females.

The Church of Rome has 571,714 of the population within its pale, leaving a fragment for the other fourteen religious sects, the principal of which, in numbers, are the Church of England, 43,274; Scotland, 26,725; Methodist, 15,853; Presbyterian generally, 5,231; Baptist, 4,067.

Occupations are thus stated: Male farm servants, 5,967; other male servants, 5,390; female servants, 11,510; engaged in trade and commerce, 3,739; paupers, 463.

Of the soil, the occupied acres are 7,540,450, of which 3,083,949 are under cultivation, and 4,456,400 not under cultivation.

The produce of the year 1843 was :-Wheat, 914,909 bushels; barley, 1,221,710; rye, 310,458; oats, 6,688,933; peas, 1,428,303; Indian corn, 143,947; buckwheat, 375,744; potatoes, 9,914,639.Total, 21,365,913 Winchester bushels.

There are 1,629 educational establishments, including 63 colleges, academies and convents. In all, 56,578 pupils are taught; 31,432 males, and 25,146 females.

The shipping of Quebec, in 1844, consisted of 509 vessels, with a tonnage of 45,351, manned by 2,590 men; that of Montreal at 60 vessels, tonnage 10,097, and 556 men.

Of manufactories, there are 417 grist mills, with 849 run of stones; oat-meal, 111; barley, 48; saw, 895; oil, 30; fulling, 155;

carding, 165; thrashing, 451; paper, 7; iron-works, 79; trip-hammers, 18; nail factories, 7; distilleries, 37; brewing, 29; tanneries, 325; pot and pearl asheries, 423; all other manufactories, 136.-Total 3,333.

The rate of wages of common laborers, for corporation work, is 60 cents per day, and for canal, 75. Mechanics and artisans usually receive in Montreal-masons from $1,25 to $1,75 per day; plasterers, $1,50 to $2; bricklayers, $1,62; painters, $1,62; carpenters $1,25 to $1,62.

The Montreal Transcript, encouraging foreign labor to try its fortunes in Canada, says:

"Our opinion is, that the condition of every industrious mechanic and laborer must be improved by emigration to this colony. There is more elbow-room here-a wider field for energy and exertion. There is above all, more to hope for. No man need sit down in gloomy despair, toiling on from day to day, and week to week, without the slightest prospect of ameliorating his condition. There is none of that horrible uncertaintythat wavering between starvation and the dread of the workhouse which depresses hundreds of thousands of human beings at home. To the honest, the sober and industrious, the present is more pleasing and the future more bright."

The project of a railroad from the Canada line to Portland, Me., 124 miles, has been introduced, upon estimates of $2,500,000; but the success of enterprises of this kind, in so cold a climate, is much doubted. Mr. Hall says of Canada :

"I find that falls of snow are frequent in that region-that the quantity of snow on the ground in the winter season varies from two to three feet in depth, but very seldom equals three feet. The snows are light and dry, unaccompanied by rain or sleet moisture. It is the damp, heavy snows, sleet, and frozen rains, which create so much difficulty, and constitute so serious an obstacle to the operations of a railroad. A light, dry snow, of any depth that is known to fall in any one storm, is easily removed by the snow-plough now in use. On the seaboard, and farther south, the snow and sleet in their season are occasionally serious obstacles; but the further you go north, and the further you recede from the seaboard, the drier and lighter the snow, and the less the difficulty in removing it from the track."

TRADE OF QUEBEC AND MONTREAL.

Without extending general remarks, we close our statistics of Lower Canada, by a glance at its productions and commerce. The following is a table of the exports by sea, of wheat, flour, oats, and peas, from Montreal and Quebec, for nine years:—

During the year 1846, 30 vessels, with a tonnage of 19,761, were

built at Quebec.