Canada and the Canadians Volume Ii Part 14

Canada is a fine place for drunkards; it is their paradise--"Get drunk for a penny; clean straw for nothing" there. Think, my dear reader, of whiskey at tenpence a gallon--cheaper than water from the New River in London. Father Matthew, your principles are much wanted on this side of Great Britain.

Then, smoking to excess is another source of immense evil in the Backwoods. A man accustomed only to a cigar gets at last accustomed to the lowest and vilest of tobacco. I used to laugh at some of my friends in Seymour, when I saw them with a broken tobacco-pipe stuck in the ribbon of their straw hats. These were men who had paraded in their day the shady side of Pall Mall. They found a pipe a solace, and cigars were not to be had for love or money. "Why do you not put your pipe at least out of sight?" said I.

"It is the Seymour Arms' crest," responded my good-natured gentlemen farmers, "and we wear it accordingly."

Smoking all day, from the hour of rising, is, I actually believe, more injurious to the nerves than hard drinking. It paralyzes exertion. I never saw an Irish labourer, with his hod and his pipe, mounting a ladder, but I was sure to discover that he was an idler. I never had a groom that smoked much who took proper care of my horses; and I never knew a gentleman seriously addicted to smoking, who cared much for any thing beyond self. A Father Matthew pledge against the excessive use of tobacco would be of much more benefit among the labouring Irish than King James his Counterblast proved among the English.

The emigrant of education will naturally inquire, if, in case of war, he will be under the necessity of leaving his farm for the defence of the country.

The militia laws are now undergoing revision, in order to create an efficient force.

The militia of Western Canada are well composed, and have become a most formidable body of 80,000 men,[1] and are not to be cla.s.sed with rude and undisciplined ma.s.ses. In 1837, they rushed to the defence of their soil; and, so eager were they to attain a knowledge of the duties of a soldier, that, in the course of four months, many divisions were able to go through field-days with the regulars; and the embodied regiments, being clothed in scarlet, were always supposed by American visitors to be of the line.

There is a military spirit in this people, which only requires development and a good system of officer and sub-officer to make it s.h.i.+ne. Any attempt to create partizan officers must be repressed, and merit and stake in the country alone attended to.

The population of the British provinces cannot now be less than nearly two millions; and it only requires judgment to bring forward the Canadian French to insure their acting against an enemy daring to invade the country, as they so n.o.bly did in 1812. I subjoin the latest correct census, 1844, of the Franco-Canadian race, as it will now be interesting in a high degree to the reader in Europe.

[Footnote 1: Eastern and Western Canada comprise an able-bodied militia of 160,000.]

It is taken from a French Canadian journal of talent and resources, and agrees with the published authorities on this subject.

_Population of Lower Canada in 1831 and 1844._--The following table of the comparative population of Lower Canada at the periods above-mentioned first appeared in the _Canadien_.

1831. 1844.

Saguenay 8,385 13,445 Montmorency (1) 8,089 8,434 Quebec 36,173 45,676 Portneuf 13,656 15,922 Champlain 6,991 10,404 St. Maurice 16,909 20,594 Berthier 20,225 26,700 Leinster (2) 22,122 25,300 Terrebonne 16,623 20,646 Deux Montagnes 20,905 26,835 Outaouais 4,786 11,340 Montreal 43,773 64,306 Vaudreuil 13,111 16,616 Beauharnois 16,859 28,580 Huntingdon (3) 29,916 36,204 Rouville 18,115 20,098 Chambly 15,483 17,171 Vercheres 12,819 12,968 Richelieu 16,146 20,983 St. Hyacinthe 13,366 21,734 Shefford 5,087 9,996 Missisqoui 8,801 10,875 Stanstead 10,306 11,846 Sherbrooke 7,104 13,302 Drummond 3,566 9,374 Vamaska 9,495 11,645 Nicolet 12,509 16,280 Lothiniere 9,191 13,697 Megantic 2,283 6,730 Dorchester (4) 23,816 34,826 Bellecha.s.se 13,529 14,540 L'Islet 13,518 16,990 Kamouraska 14,557 17,465 Rimouski 10,061 17,577 Gaspe 5,003 7,458 Bonaventure 8,109 8,230 _______ _______ Total 511,919 678,590 In 1844 678,590 In 1831 511,919 _______ Augmentation in 13 years 166,671

The increase during the interval between the years cited is about 32-1/2 per cent. It would no doubt have been more considerable but for the cholera, which in 1832 and 1834 decimated the population. The troubles of 1837-8 likewise contributed to check any increase; as, at those periods, numbers emigrated from this province to the United States, and the usual immigration from Europe hither was also materially interfered with.

a.s.suming 1,500,000 as the present actual population of the Canadas, we shall examine the strength of British North America from published returns in 1845, or the best authorities.

CHIEF CITIES. POPULATION POPULATION, 1845. OF 1845.

Canada 1,500,000 {Montreal 60,000 {Quebec 30,000 {Kingston 12,000 {Toronto 20,000

New Brunswick 200,000 {Fredericton 6,000 {St. John 31,000

Nova Scotia,} 250,000 {Halifax 16,000 including} {Sydney ------ Cape Breton}

Newfoundland 100,000 St. John's 20,000

Prince Edward's} Island and the} 45,000 Charlotte Town ------ Magdalen Isles} --------- Total Population 2,095,000.

A serviceable militia of 80,000 young men may, therefore, without distressing the population, be easily raised in British North America, with a reserve sufficient to keep an army of 40,000 able-bodied soldiers in Canada always in the field; and, if necessary, 100,000 could be a.s.sembled at any point, for any given purpose.

The Great Gustavus said that he would not desire a larger military force for defensive purposes than 40,000 men fit for actual service, to accomplish any military object, as such a force would always enable him to choose his positions. Two such armies of effective men could be easily maintained in the two Canadas, and concentrated rapidly and with certainty upon any given point, notwithstanding the extent of frontier; and the Canadians are much more essentially soldiers than the people of the United States, without any reference to valour or contempt of danger: whilst they would be fighting for everything dear to them, and the aggressors for mere extension of territory, and to accomplish the fixed object of destroying all monarchical inst.i.tutions.

I have already said that there is no sympathy of the Irish settlers in Canada with the native Americans, and the best proof of this is the public demonstrations upon St. Patrick's day at Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, where the two parties, Protestant and Catholic, exhibited no party emblems, no flags but loyal ones, and where the ancient enmity between the rival houses of Capulet and Montague, the Green and the Orange, appeared to have vanished before the approaching arrogant demands of a newly-erected Imperium.

Independence may exist to a great extent in Canada. Gourlay figured it, twenty years ago, by placing the word in capitals on the arch formed by the prismatic hues of the cloud-spray of Niagara. He could get no better ground than a fog-bank to hoist his flag upon, and the vision and the visionary have alike been swallowed up in oblivion.

Canada does not hate democracy so very totally and unequivocally as my excellent friend, Sir Francis Head, so tersely observed, but Canada repudiates annexation.

That a great portion of the population of this rapidly advancing colony feel a vast pride in imagining themselves about to become ranked among the nations of the world, I entertain not the shadow of a doubt; but that the physical and moral strength of Canada desire immediate separation from England, or annexation to the republic presided over by President Polk, is about as absurd a chimera as that of Gourlay and the spray of Niagara. The rainbow there, splendid as it is, owes its colours to the sun.

The ma.s.s in Canada is soundly British; and, having weighed the relative advantages and disadvantages of British principles and laws with those of the United States, the beam of the latter has mounted into the thin air of Mr. Gourlay's vision. The greatest absurdity at present discoverable is in the ideas of unfortunate individuals, who imagine themselves placed near the pivot desired by the philosopher, and that they possess the lever which is to move the solid globe to any position into which it may suit them to upheave it.

A poor man by origin, and with some talent, suddenly becomes the Sir Oracle of his village; and, because the Governor-General does not advance his _protege_ or connexions, or because he does not imagine that the welfare of the province hinges upon his support, turns sulky, and obtaining, by very easy means, a seat in the a.s.sembly, becomes all at once an ultra on the opposite side of the question.

In all new countries ambition gets the better of discretion, but fortunately soon finds its natural level: the violent ultra-tory, and the violent ultra-demagogue sink alike, after a few years of excitement, into the moth-eaten receptacle of newspaper renown, alike unheeded, and alike forgotten, by a newer and more enlightened generation, who find that, to the cost of the real interest of the people, the mouthing orator, the agitator, the exciter, is not the patriot.

Canada, although emphatically a new country, is rapidly becoming a most important one, and increasing with a vigour not contemplated in England. It is proved, by ample statistical details, that the United States is behind-hand, _ceteris paribus_, in the race.

The thirteen colonies declared their independence in 1783, now only sixty-three years, and amply within the memory of men. The following data for 1784 may be compared to 1836:--

1784.

Imports. Exports. Population. s.h.i.+pping Tons.

Nova Scotia } Cape Breton } St. John's } 75,000 3,500 32,000 12,000 Prince Edward's } Island } Canada 500,000 150,000 113,000 95,000 Newfoundland 80,000 70,000 20,000 20,000 -------- -------- ------- ------- Total 655,000 223,500 165,000 127,000

1836.

_Or just before the disturbances in Canada, and before the Union._

Imports. Exports. Population. s.h.i.+pping Tons.

Nova Scotia 1,245,000 935,000 150,000 374,000 Canada 2,580,000 1,321,750 1,200,000 348,000 Newfoundland 632,576 850,344 70,000 98,000 Cape Breton 80,000 90,000 35,000 70,000 Prince Edward's Island 46,000 90,000 32,000 23,800 New Brunswick 250,000 700,000 164,000 347,000 --------- ---------- --------- --------- Total 4,833,576 3,987,094 1,651,000 1,260,800

THE UNITED STATES.

Imports. Exports. Population. s.h.i.+pping Tons.

1784 4,250,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 500,000 1836 162,000,000 121,000,000 15,000,000 2,000,000

Thus the increase in s.h.i.+pping alone to the North American colonies, compared with the United States, was as _ten_ to _four_, and the increase of population as _ten_ to _three_.

In imports, the United States, compared with the colonies in that period, increased as 40 to 9, exports 120 to 19; but then the Americans had the whole world for customers, and the colonies Great Britain only, until very lately, and then, even in the West India trade, they could scarcely compete with their rivals; whereas the Americans started with four times the s.h.i.+pping, nearly double the population, six times the import, and four times the export trade, and the people of the republic had already occupied at least ten great commercial ports, whilst Quebec, Halifax, and St. John, were yet in infancy as mercantile _entrepots_.

Pa.s.sing over all but Western Canada, we shall examine the state of that province after the rebellion of 1839, when Lord Durham informed us that

The population was 513,000, Value of fixed and } }An increase of two a.s.sessed property } 5,043,253 }millions and a }quarter }in ten years.

Cultivated acres 1,738,500 Grist-mills 678 Saw-mills 933 Cattle 400,000

and yet Upper Canada was only a howling wilderness in 1784.