Canada and the Canadians
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Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle >> Canada and the Canadians
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The feeling of old Daniel Boone and of Leather Stockings is a very
natural one to a half-educated or a wholly uneducated man, and no doubt
also many quiet and respectable people get harassed and tired of the
caucusing and canvassing for political power, which is incessantly going
on under the modern system of things in America, and take up their
household gods to seek out the land flowing with milk and honey beyond
the wilderness.
No person can imagine the constant turmoil of politics in the Northern
States. The writer already quoted says, that there is "one singular
proof of the general energy and capacity for business, which early
habits of self-dependence have produced;--almost every American
understands politics, takes a lively interest in them (though many
abstain under discouragement or disgust from taking a practical part),
and is familiar, not only with the affairs of his own township or
county, but with those of the State or of the Union; almost every man
reads about a dozen newspapers every day, and will talk to you for
hours, (_tant bien que mal_) if you will listen to him, about the tariff
and the Ashburton treaty."
And he continues by stating that this by no means interferes with his
private affairs; on the contrary, he appears to have time for both, and
can reconcile "the pursuits of a bustling politician and a steady man
of business. Such a union is rarely found in England, and never on, the
Continent."
But what is the result of such a union of versatile talent? Politics and
dollars absorb all the time which might be used to advantage for the
mental aggrandizement of the nation; and every petty pelting quidnunc
considers himself as able as the President and all his cabinet, and not
only plainly tells them so every hour, but forces them to act as _he_
wills, not as _wisdom_ wills. There is a Senate, it is true, where some
of this popular fervour gets a little cooling occasionally: but,
although there are doubtless many acute minds in power, and many great
men in public situations, yet the majority of the people of intellect
and of wealth in the United States keep aloof whilst this order of
things remains: for, from the penny-postman and the city scavenger to
the very President himself, the qualification for office is popular
subserviency.
Thus, when Mr. Polk thunders from the Capitol, it is most likely not
Mr. Polk's heart that utters such warlike notes of preparation, but Mr.
Polk would never be re-elected, if he did not do as his rulers bid him
do.
It may seem absurd enough, it is nevertheless true, that this political
furor is carried into the most obscure walks of life, and the Americans
themselves tell some good stories about it; while, at the same time,
they constantly din your ears with "the destinies of the Great
Republic," the absolute certainty of universal American dominion over
the New World, and the rapid decay and downfall of the Old, which does
not appear fitted to receive pure Democracy.[5]
[Footnote 5: One of the speakers against time, in a late debate on the
Oregon question, quoted those fine lines, about "The flag that braved a
thousand years the battle and the breeze," and said its glory was
departing before the Stars and Stripes, which were to occupy its place
in the event of war, from this time forth and for ever.]
They tell a good story of a political courtship in the "New York
Mercury," as decidedly one of the best things introduced in a late
political campaign:--
"Inasmuch," says the editor, "as all the States hereabouts have
concluded their labours in the presidential contest, we think we run no
risk of upsetting the constitution, or treading upon the most fastidious
toe in the universe, by affording our readers the same hearty laugh into
which we were betrayed.
"Jonathan walks in, takes a seat and looks at Sukey; Sukey rakes up the
fire, blows out the candle, and don't look at Jonathan. Jonathan hitches
and wriggles about in his chair, and Sukey sits perfectly still. At
length he musters courage and speaks--
"'Sewkey?'
"'Wall, Jon-nathan?'
"'I love you like pizan and sweetmeats?'
"'Dew tell.'
"'It's a fact and no mistake--wi--will--now--will you have me--Sew--ky?'
"'Jon--nathan Hig--gins, what am your politics?'
"'I'm for Polk, straight.'
"'Wall, sir, yew can walk straight to hum, cos I won't have nobody that
ain't for Clay! that's a fact.'
"'Three cheers for the Mill Boy of the Slashes!' sung out Jonathan.
"'That's your sort,' says Sukey. 'When shall we be married,
Jon--nathan?'
"'Soon's Clay's e--lect--ed.'
"'Ahem, ahem!'
"'What's the matter, Sukey?'
"'Sposing he ain't e--lect--ed?'
"We came away."
Verily, Monsieur De Tocqueville, you are in the right--democracy is an
inherent principle.
But the train is progressing, and we are passing Lundy's Lane, or, as
the Americans call it, "The Battle Ground," where a bloody fight between
Democracy and Monarchy took place some thirty years ago, and where
"The bones, unburied on the naked plain,"
still are picked up by the grubbers after curiosities, and the very
trees have the balls still sticking in them.
Here woman, that ministering angel in the hour of woe, performed a part
in the drama which is worth relating, as the source from which I had the
history is from the person who owed so much to her, and whose gallantry
was so conspicuous.
Colonel Fitzgibbon, then in the 49th regiment, having inadvertently got
into a position where his sword, peeping from under his great coat,
immediately pointed him out as a British officer, was seized by two
American soldiers, who had been drinking in the village public-house,
and would either have been made prisoner or killed had not Mrs. Defield
come to his rescue.
Mr. Fitzgibbon was a tall, powerful, muscular person, and his captors
were a rifleman and an infantry soldier, each armed with the rifle and
musket peculiar to their service. By a sudden effort, he seized the
rifle of one and the musket of the other, and turned their muzzles from
him; and so firm was his grasp, that, although unable to wrest the
weapon from either of them, they could not change the position.
The rifleman, retaining his hold of his rifle with one hand, drew Mr.
Fitzgibbon's sword with the other, and attempted to stab him in the
side. Whilst watching his uplifted arm, with the intent, if possible, of
receiving the thrust in his own arm, Mr. Fitzgibbon perceived the two
hands of a woman suddenly clasp the rifleman's wrist, and carry it
behind his back, when she and her sister wrenched the sword from him,
and ran and hid it in the cellar.
Mrs. Defield was the wife of the keeper of the tavern where this officer
happened to have arrived; an old man, named Johnson, then came forward,
and with his assistance Mr. Fitzgibbon took the two soldiers prisoners,
and carried them to the nearest guard, although at that moment an
American detachment of 150 men was within a hundred yards of the place,
hidden however from view by a few young pine-trees.
I am sure it will please the British reader to learn that the government
granted 400 acres of the best land in the Talbot settlement to Edward
Defield, for his wife's and sister-in-law's heroic conduct.
Yet, such is the influence of example upon unreflecting minds dwelling
on the frontiers of Upper Canada, that although in most instances the
settlers are in possession of farms originally free gifts from the
Crown, yet many of their sons were in arms against that Crown in 1837.
Among these misguided youths was a son of Defield's, who surrendered,
with the brigands commanded by Von Schultz, in the windmill, near
Prescott, in the winter of 1838. He had crossed over from Ogdensburgh,
and was condemned to a traitor's death.
From Colonel Fitzgibbon's statement to the executive, this lad, in
consideration of his mother's heroism, was pardoned. Mrs. Defield is
still living.
The three horses _en licorne_ trot us on, and we pass Lundy's Lane,
Bloody Run, a little streamlet, whose waters were once dyed with gore,
and so back to Niagara, where I shall take the liberty of saying a few
words concerning the Welland Canal.
The Welland Canal, the most important in a commercial point of view of
any on the American continent--until that of Tchuantessegue, in Mexico,
which I was once, in 1825, deputed to survey and cut, is formed, or that
other projected through San Juan de Nicaragua--was originally a mere
job, or, as it was called, a job at both ends and a failure in the
middle, until it passed into the hands of the local government. If there
has been any job since, it has not been made public, and it is now a
most efficient and well conducted work, through which a very great
portion of the western trade finds its way, in despite of that
magnificent vision of De Witt Clinton's, the Erie Canal; and when the
Welland is navigable for the schooners and steamers of the great lakes,
it will absorb the transit trade, as its mouth in Lake Erie is free from
ice several weeks sooner than the harbour of Buffalo.
The old miserable wooden locks and bargeway have been converted into
splendid stone walls and a ship navigation; and, to give some idea of
the rising importance of the Welland Canal, I shall briefly state that
the tolls in 1832 amounted to L2,432, in 1841 had risen to L20,210, and
in 1843 to L25,573 3s. 10-1/4d.: and when the works are fairly finished,
which they nearly are, this will be trebled in the first year; for it
has been carefully calculated that the gross amount which would have
passed of tonnage of large sailing craft only on the lakes, in 1844, was
26,400 tons, out of which only 7,000 had before been able to use the
locks.
All the sailing vessels now, with the exception of three or four, can
pass freely; and three large steam propellers were built in 1844, whose
aggregate tonnage amounted to 1,900 tons; they have commenced their
regular trips as freight-vessels, for which they were constructed, and
have been followed by the almost incredible use of Ericson's propeller.
To show the British reader the importance of this work, connecting, as
it does, with the St. Lawrence and Rideau Canals, the Atlantic Ocean,
and Lakes Superior and Michigan, I shall, although contrary to a
determination made to give nothing in this work but the results of
personal inspection or observation, use the scissors and paste for once,
and thus place under view a table of all the articles which are carried
through this main artery of Canada, by which both import and export
trade may be viewed as in a mirror, and this too before the canal is
fairly finished.
WELLAND CANAL.
AMOUNT OF PROPERTY PASSED THROUGH, AND TOLLS COLLECTED. 1844.
Beef and pork barrels, 41,976-1/4
Flour do. 305,208-1/2
Ashes do. 3,412
Beer and cider do. 50
Salt do. 213,212
Whiskey do. 931
Plaster do. 2,068-1/2
Fruit and nuts do. 470
Butter and lard do. 4,639-1/2
Seeds do. 1,429-1/2
Tallow do. 1,182
Water-lime do. 1,662
Pitch and tar do. 75
Fish do. 1,758-1/2
Oatmeal do. 132
Beeswax do. 36
Empty do. 3,044
Oil barrels, 96
Soap do. 13
Vinegar do. 24
Molasses do. 1
Caledonia water do. 10
Saw logs No. 10,411
Boards feet, 7,493,574
Square timber cubic feet, 490,525
Half flatted do. do. 13,922
Round do. do. 20,879
Staves, pipe do. 630,602
Do. W. I. do. 1,197,916
Do. flour barrel do. 130,500
Shingles do. 330,400
Rails do. 12,318
Racked hoops do. 59,300
Wheat bushels, 2,122,592
Corn do. 73,328
Barley do. 930
Rye do. 142
Oats do. 5,653
Potatoes do. 7,311
Peas do. 138
Butter and lard kegs, 4,669
Merchandize tons, 11,318 16
Coal do. 1,689 7
Castings do. 211 6
Iron do. 1,748 10
Tobacco do. 140 7
Grindstones do. 151 14
Plaster do. 1,491 10
Hides do. 101 15
Bacon and Hams do. 307 0
Bran and shorts tons, 231 11
Water-lime do. 441 7
Rags do. 3 0
Hemp do. 500 11
Wool do. 15 9
Leather do. 9 17
Cheese do. 1 2
Marble do. 1 10
Stone cords, 738-1/2
Firewood do. 3,251
Tan bark do. 957
Cedar posts do. 69
Hoop timber do. 16
Knees do. 184
Small packages No. 459
Pumps do. 102
Passengers do. 3,261-1/2
Sleighs do. 2
Waggons do. 177
Pails do. 136
Horses do. 2
Ploughs do. 25
Thrashing-machines do. 18
Cotton bales, 25
Fruit-trees bundles, 268
Sand cubic yards, 10,778
Schooners No. 2,121
Propellers do. 484
Scows do. 1,671
Boats do. 4
Rafts do. 118
Tonnage 327,570
Amount collected L25,573 3s. 10-1/4d.
CHAPTER IX.
The Great Fresh-water Seas of Canada.
A sentimental journey in Canada is not like Sterne's, all about
corking-pins and _remises_, monks and Marias, nor is it likely, in this
utilitarian age, even if Sterne could be revived to write it, to be as
immortal; nevertheless, let us ramble.
The Welland Canal naturally leads one to reflect on the great sources of
power spread before the Canadian nation; for, although it will never,
never be _la nation Canadienne_, yet it will inevitably some day or
other be the Canadian nation, and its limits the Atlantic and the
Pacific Oceans.
President Polk--they say his name is an abbreviation of Pollok--can no
more dive into "the course of time" than that poet could do, and it is
about as vain for him to predict that the American bald eagle shall claw
all the fish on the continent of the New World, as it is to fancy that
the time is never to come when the Canadian races, Norman-Saxon as they
are, shall not assert some claim to the spoils.
Canada is now happier under the dominion of Victoria than she could
possibly be under that of the people of the States, and she knows and
feels it. The natural resources of Canada are enormous, and developing
themselves every day; and it needs neither Lyell, nor the yet unheard-of
geologists of Canada to predict that the day is not far distant when her
iron mines, her lead ores, her copper, and perhaps her silver, will come
into the market.[6]
[Footnote 6: Since I penned this, a company is forming to work valuable
argentiferous copper-mines lately discovered on Lake Superior. The
Americans are actually working rich mines of silver, copper, &c.]
I see, in a paper lying before me, that Colonel Prince, a person who has
already flourished before the public as an enterprising English farming
gentleman, who combines the long robe with the red coat, has, with a
worthy patriotism, obtained a very large grant of lands from the
government to explore the shore of Lake Superior, in order to find
whether the Yankees are to have all the copper to themselves; and that,
in searching a little to the eastward of St. Mary's Rapids, a very
valuable deposit has been discovered, which has stimulated other
adventurers, who have found another mine nearer the outlet of the lake
and still more valuable, the copper of which, lying near the surface,
yields somewhere about seventy-five per cent.[7]
[Footnote 7: A recent number of "The Scientific American," published in
New York, contains the following:--Some of the British officers in
Canada have lately made an important discovery of some of the richest
copper-mines in the world. This discovery has created great excitement.
Some of the officers, _en route_ to England, are now in the city, and
will carry with them some specimens of the ore, and among them one piece
weighing 2,200 lbs. The ore is very rich, yielding, as we learn,
seventy-two per cent. of pure copper. Some of the copper was taken from
the bed of a river, and some broken off from a cliff on the banks. The
latter is six feet long, four broad, and six inches thick.]
We know that rich iron mines exist, and are steadily worked in Lower
Canada; we know that a vast deposit of iron, one of the finest in the
world, has lately been discovered on the Ottawa, a river in the township
of M'Nab; and we know that nothing prevents the Marmora and Madoc iron
from being used but the finishing of the Trent navigation. Lead abounds
on the Sananoqui river, and at Clinton, in the Niagara district; whilst
plumbago, now so useful, is abundant throughout the line, where the
primary and secondary rocks intersect each other. Mr. Logan, employed by
the government, _ex cathedra_, says there is no coal in Canada; but
still it appears that in the Ottawa country it is very possible it may
be found, and that, if it is not, Cape Breton and the Gaspe lands will
furnish it in abundance; and, as Canada may now fairly be said to be all
the North American territory, embraced between the Pacific somewhere
about the Columbia river, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, for a political
union exists between all these provinces, if an acknowledged one does
not, coal will yet be plentiful in Canada.
Canada, thus limited, is now, _de facto_, ay, and _de jure_, British
North America; and a fair field and a fertile one it is, peopled by a
race neither to be frightened nor coaxed out of its birthright.
The advantages of Canada are enormous, much greater, in fact, than they
are usually thought to be at home.
The ports of St. John's and of Halifax, without mentioning fifty others,
are open all the year round to steamers and sea-going vessels; and when
railroads can at all seasons bring their cargoes into Canada proper,
then shall we live six months more than during the present torpidity of
our long winters. John Bull, transported to interior Canada, is very
like a Canadian black bear: he sleeps six months, and growls during the
remaining six for his food.
Then, in summer, there is the St. Lawrence covered with ships of all
nations, the canals carrying their burthens to the far West and the
great mediterraneans of fresh water, opening a country of unknown
resources and extent.
These great seas of Canada have often engaged my thoughts. Tideless,
they flow ever onward, to keep up the level of the vast Atlantic, and in
themselves are oceans. How is it that the moon, that enormous
blister-plaster, does not raise them? Simply because there is some
little error in the very accurate computations which give all the
regulations of tidal waters to lunar influences.
Barlow, one of the mathematical master-spirits of the age, was bold
enough once to doubt this vast power of suction on the part of the ruler
of the night; and there were certain wiseacres who, as in the case of
Galileo, thought it very religiously dangerous indeed, to attempt to
interfere with her privileges.
But, in fact, the phenomenon of the tides is just as easy of explanation
by the motion of the earth as it is by the moon's presumed drinking
propensities, and, as she is a lady, let us hope she has been belied.
The motion of the earth would not affect such narrow bodies of water as
the Canadian lakes, but the moon's power of attraction would, if it
existed to the extent supposed, be under the necessity of doing it,
unless she prefers salt to fresh liquors.
One may venture, now-a-days, to express such a doubt, particularly as
Madam Moon is a Pagan deity.
The great lakes are, however, very extraordinary in their way. Let us
recollect what I have seen and thought of them.
We will commence with Lake Superior, which is 400 miles in length, 100
miles wide, and 900 feet deep, where it has been sounded. It contains
32,000 square miles of water, and it is 628 feet above the level of the
sea.
Lake Michigan is 220 miles long, 60 miles wide, and 1,000 deep, as far
as it has been sounded; contains 22,400 square miles, and is 584 feet
above tide-water; but it is, in fact, only a large bay of Lake Huron,
the grand lake, which is 240 miles long, without it averaging 86 miles
in width, also averaging 1,000 feet deep, as far as soundings have been
tried, contains 20,400 square miles, and is also about 584 feet above
the tidal waters.
Off Saginaw Bay, in this lake, leads have been sunk 1,800 feet, or 1,200
feet below the level of the Atlantic, without finding bottom.
Green Bay, an arm of Michigan, is in itself 106 miles long, 20 miles
wide, and contains 2,000 square miles.
Lake St. Clair, 6 feet above Lake Erie, follows Lake Huron; but it is a
mere enlargement of the St. Lawrence, of immense size, however, and
shallow: it is 20 miles long, 14 wide, 20 feet deep, and contains 360
square miles.
Then comes Lake Erie, the Stormy Lake, which is 240 miles long, 40 miles
wide, 408 feet in its deepest part, and contains 9,600 square miles.
Lake Erie is 565 feet above tide-water. Its average depth is 85 feet
only.
Lake Ontario, the Beautiful Lake, is 180 miles long, 45 miles wide, 500
feet average depth, where sounded successfully, but said to be
fathomless in some places, and contains 6,300 square miles. It is 232
feet above the tide of the St. Lawrence.
The Canadian lakes have been computed to contain 1,700 cubic miles of
water, or more than half the fresh water on the globe, covering a space
of about 93,000 square miles. They extend from west to east over nearly
15 degrees and a half of longitude, with a difference of latitude of
about eight and a half degrees, draining a country of not less surface
than 400,000 square miles.
The greatest difference is observable between the waters of all these
lakes, arising from soil, depth, and shores. Ontario is pure and blue,
Erie pure and green, the southern part of Michigan nothing particular.
The northern part of Michigan and all Huron are clear, transparent, and
full of carbonic gas, so that its water sparkles. But the extraordinary
transparency of the waters of all these lakes is very surprising. Those
of Huron transmit the rays of light to a great depth, and consequently,
having no preponderating solid matters in suspension, an equalization of
heat occurs. Dr. Drake ascertained that, at the surface in summer, and
at two hundred feet below it, the temperature of the water was 56 deg..
One of the most curious things on the shallow parts of Huron is to sail
or row over the submarine or sublacune mountains, and to feel giddy from
fancy, for it is like being in a balloon, so pure and tintless is the
water. It is, like Dolland's best telescopes, achromatic.
The lakes are subject in the latter portion of summer to a phenomenon,
which long puzzled the settlers; their surface near the shores of bays
and inlets are covered by a bright yellow dust, which passed until
lately for sulphur, but is now known to be the farina of the pine
forests. The atmosphere is so impregnated with it at these seasons,
that water-barrels, and vessels holding water in the open air, are
covered with a thick scum of bright yellow powder.
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