likely ever to recur. There are other causes of bankruptcy which arise out of the nature of the country, and might have operated in aid of the preceding temporary causes. Perhaps, the long continuance of the winter lessens their power of doing business to the extent they would be able to do, were the navigation of the St. Lawrence open all the year. During six months of the year, from November till May, no business is done except by those engaged in the dry goods line, who continue to supply the wants of the shopkeepers; but these are not great, for the country people have laid in their winter stock before the navigation closes. An important cause of bankruptcy, I should suppose, has been the want of capital to begin with, aided sometimes by their not being acquainted with the laws and customs of the people, and aided also by the bad custom which has got into general use of giving long credits to the country shopkeepers. Credit is easily procured in England by the foreign merchant, but it is not procured for nothing. Interest is charged after a certain time, and runs on during winter as well as during summer. If long credits are given here to the shopkeepers, and even when monies are due, if payments are not punctually made, remittances must fail. Interest accumulates in England; and in Canada considerable expences of housekeeping, &c. are unavoidably incurred. If the profits do not meet these, or if the merchant has the misfortune to make bad debts, the consequence is evident, bankruptcy must ensue, As the mercantile men in this country draw their resources from Britain, their real situation is not known except in Britain. They are often in Canada imagined. to be men of fortune, when they are in fact on the verge of bankruptcy. By and by their drafts come back dishonored, and the bubble bursts; then fortunate is he who has had least to do with them To shew the encreased production and trade of Canada, there is added in the appendix a statement of the exports and imports of ast year, 1808.-It forms a curious illustration of the efficiency of a brisk market, and high prices, LETTER XVI, Quebec, 1807. CANADA, and the other British colonies in North America, have of late acquired an additional degree of importance to the mother country, from the existing differences with the United States; and assuredly neither our WestIndia planters, nor our timber merchants, can trust to the States for supplies, as confidently as they have done 'heretofore; they must look elsewhere, and to no quarter so naturally as to our own colonies. The obvious question for our consideration is, can our West India planters, our timber merchants, and our dockyards, get the necessary supplies from our North American colonies? or, to what extent can they be supplied? with The West Indies require to be supplied Barrel or pickled fish, Salmon, herrings of different spe cies, mackarel, and oil. Lumber, viz. squared timber, scant ling, planks, and boards; shingles, clapboards, oak staves, and hoops. Biscuit and flour; Indian corn and meal; pork, beef, butter, cheese, potatoes, and onions. Live stock, horses, oxen, hogs, sheep, and poultry. Our timber merchants, and dockyards, require lumber of all sorts;-masts, yards, squared oak timber, plank, staves, pinetimber, deals, hemp, &c. Upon reference to the list of exports from Canada, it will appear that a supply of the whole of the preceding articles can be procured, but probably not to the extent necessary, except fish, which certainly can be got in any quantity in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, if not in Canada, and in the Gulf and river St. Lawrence. The fisheries of our American colonies have had little or no direct encouragement from our government, though frequent representations have been made on the subject, It has been recommended to government to grant bounties, and to withhold from the Americans a share in the carrying to the West Indies, fish, lumber, &c. the produce of our colonies. It is a cir 2 cumstance well known, that great part of the fish which the Americans carry to the West Indies, is caught and cured in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and sold to the merchants of Boston, who, from a variety of causes, can carry them to the West Indies, cheaper than our own colonists can, The American government have taken great pains to encourage this fish trade, by giving bounties, which operate strongly against the colonists: so much so, that they are in a great measure driven out of the trade.This they say was not the case formerly, because, for nine years, viz. from 1785 to 1794, while American ships were excluded from the West Indies, they were so well provided with articles of the first necessity, that vessels from the northern colonies were frequently unable to find sale for their cargoesin our own islands, and were obliged to go to the foreign islands for a market.— Codfish at that time generally sold for less than five dollars. per quintal, which proves its abundance, and consequently that the allowing the Americans to import fish in American ships was not a measure of necessity. It seems to be decidedly the opinion of the best informed people here, |