of Britain, and more attached to the country from which they receive their supplies than to the mother country. This is likely to be the case with Canada (and perhaps the West Indies too), and well deserves the serious consideration of government. The more supplies received from America,-the more encouragement that is given to that trade, the less dependence will Canada have on Britain, and the less inclined they will be, to resist any attempts the Americans may make to get possession of the country. The interests of the colonies, and of the mother country, are sometimes at variance, as in the present instance, and when that is the case, I would without hesitation, sacrifice the former to the latter, and frame treaties accordingly.

I should think that it would be much better that all mercantile regulations in treaties, should have a limited duration; the situation and circumstances of nations undergo great change, and it seems proper that the mercantile regulations in their treaties should be capable of receiving such changes as circumstances may shew to be necessary.

If experience demonstrates that treaties are founded on principles of justice and of reciprocal advantage, they can easily be continued from time to time; but if they should not be founded in justice, and are without reciprocity (such as the third article of the treaty of 1794), and yet be declared permanent, the good faith and honour of the nation aggrieved, may induce them to adhere to the treaty; but it will be with a bad grace, and create bad blood, they will be glad to embrace any opportunity of coming to a rupture, in order to bring about a new treaty. This would be avoided if there were a limitation to the operation of the oppressive articles; they would be endured with patience, until the time should arrive when a new arrangement could be inade.

Although the first ten articles of the American treaty are declared permanent, it does not follow, that, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, they are unchangeable: the act contains several articles, which, in their nature, were not permanent, hence it became necessary to use some appellation for those articles which had an

unlimited duration, and the term permanent was adopted, not probably meaning that they should never be touched, but merely to distinguish them from the others: they were to be permanent till changed by mutual consent.

Our North American colonists look homewards just now with all that anxiety which men naturally shew, when their best interests are under discussion; the Americans are able negociators, and their local knowledge of this country, and the great attention they pay to the most minute circumstances tending to their advantage in a commercial point of view, require on the part of our ministry, much circumspection, and all the aid they can get from men of commercial habits, who have studied the interests of the colonies on the spot, and whose inferences are drawn from the evidence of facts.

LETTER XV.

Quebec, 1807.

HAVING gone at some length into the political connection between Great Britain and America, as far as relates to our transatlantic possessions, permit me to resume the consideration of the productions and exports of Canada, to Britain and elsewhere.

It will be observed on examining the list of Canadian exports, that they already consist of almost every necessary of life; and, were the Canadians as active and industrious as their neighbours in the United States, the amount of exports would very rapidly and greatly increase; as it is, they will gradually increase as population in

creases.

Wheat is the most considerable article of exportation from Canada; upwards of one million bushels have been exported in

one year; not half that quantity however was exported on an average of five years ending in 1805.

Canada wheat is of an excellent quality: it is thought superior to the Baltic wheat, being harder, and yielding more flour in proportion to the quantity. The bushel usually weighs 60lbs. and upwards. It is what is called spring wheat; the seed is put into the ground in May, and the harvest is finished in the beginning of Sep

tember.

The farmers are very negligent in preventing the growth of weeds, so that the wheat when threshed is very foul; it is in general purchased from the farmers, by the country shopkeepers, who are usually corn dealers, and that too from necessity, as it is frequently the only way by which they can be reimbursed for the goods they have soli during the year. These shopkeepers, and corn dealers are applied to by the merchants in Quebec and Montreal when grain is wanted.

Wheat is sold by a French measure called a minot, which is to the Winchester bushel as 108,765 is to 100,000, being