as little regard was paid to this object, in several parts of Great Britain. But when, in the course of the late war, agricultural produce was enhanced in value, a stimulus was imparted to the farmers to improve waste and neglected lands; and every barren speck of soil soon became the subject of various experiments, which were in most instances eminently successful. The tenants were not the only persons who were early gainers by the improved system of husbandry: Their landlords received accurate farming information, in rather a refined form, by means of "Agricultural Societies," which were instituted in almost every district throughout the kingdom. Adopting the mass of intelligence which had been communicated to the public by "the Board of Agriculture," that may be correctly denominated "the Parent Society," each of the branches proceeded to offer premiums for excellence in various departments; and, from the results of the competition which was thus excited, the landlords were generally instructed: in the art of increasing their rents, and augmenting their income. When, at the conclusion of the war, the stimulus subsided, or, rather, did not exist in the same degree, it would have been well for all the parties concerned if the rents had lowered in proportion to the reduced value of produce. One good effect, however, has been produced by this spirit of enterprise and exertion, which will not cease to operate in favour of the amelioration of the soil and the improvement of agriculture ; compara the value of land has been duly appreciated; and every particle of it, which, in years of tive cheapness, will more than repay the cost of tillage, is brought into cultivation. When the Canadian farmers shall, in a similar manner, find their interest concerned in a pro'vident tillage of their extensive possessions, they will abandon the practice of conveying their superfluous litter to the St. Lawrence, and will begin to husband their own and that of the inhabitants of the various towns on the river. No longer regarding it as a nuisance of which they cannot be too speedily rid, they will then suffer their manure to accumulate and become useful; and, not trusting to the common, but foolish, idea of “the perennial and unaided fruitfulness of all cleared lands,' they will apply it in aid of exhausted nature, and may then hope to extract as abundant produce from her bosom, as in the days when their grandsires first heaved the axe, and smoothed the rugged surface of the soil. Till interest and reflection shall thus combine, in vain may we look for any improvement in the system, where land is cheap, and the means as well as the desire of information exceedingly restricted. Orleans, which is very little elevated above the stream, gradually rises from the shores to its centre. Its woods are nearly all cut down. Scarcely a tree presents itself to the view. The fences are composed of rails of split wood, which have a tendency to impart to the whole island an impoverished and unpropitious appearance. It is about 48 miles in circumference; its length is twenty, and its greatest breadth six miles. At the lower extremity of the island, the river is about fifteen miles across; and the stream is, thence to the Western point, divided into two nearly equal channels; where a basin opens, which extends in every direction about six miles, and may be said to be bounded in one angle by the mouth of the river St. Charles, and in another by the shores of the St. Lawrence opposite the extremity of Cape Diamond. Within its safe and ample bosom may be seen riding at anchor an immense number of merchant-men, and minor trading vessels, from various quarters of the world; but "the forest of masts," which is a conspicuous object in all busy sea-ports, dwindles here into insignificance, in consequence of its contiguity to thicker and more towering woods. On entering this basin, a delightful combination of imposing scenery arrests the attention. On the left, the falls of the Montmorenci, the waters of which pour over a precipice Two Hundred and Ninety feet in height;-the rocks of Point Levi on the South shore, displaying signs of human industry down to the very banks;-and the elevated promontory opposite, on which the city of Quebec stands;-combined with the crowded trees on each side of the river, compose a grand scenic exhibition, from the contemplation of which the stranger turns aside with the utmost reluctance. In fact, the whole country, for nearly One Hundred and Fifty miles below Quebec, differs greatly in its features from that which presented its rugged visage at the entrance of the Gulf, and is calculated most powerfully to affect the mind of an observant traveller. Admiration is excited, not merely by the novelty of the entire landscape, which, however, varies much from any in Europe; but by the broad masses of some of its component parts. Lofty mountains, covered with impervious woods, whose summits bound the horizon,rapid and meandering rivers, which discharge their tributary streams into the St. Lawrence,- –innumerable islands, the nurseries of luxuriant trees, whose umbrageous foliage throws deep and lengthened shadows over the vast expanse of waters with, which they are surrounded, and numerous cataracts at several points in the distance, reflecting with effulgent brightness the rays of the sun, while they pour their foaming torrents upon projecting rocks, whence they rebound in light and airy spray, and when again collected rush downwards in an impetuous current, till they murmur at fresh interruptions, and hasten to gain the parent stream: These are some of the bolder and more uncommon features of the country, which offer themselves to the view of the spectator from the river. But there are others of a milder and more civilised cast, that give an air of liveliness and delightful variety to several parts of the scene; and designate them as more peculiarly the abodes of men, and the objects of human culture. The - churches with their tin-covered roofs and steeples, reflecting, at intervals of nine miles, light and splendour on every thing around them, the neat farm-houses which, for nearly fifty leagues, form a close and well-connected settlement,-the thick brush-wood on some points of the banks, and the beautiful diversity of the more minute parts of inanimate creation which fill up the interstices,exhibit altogether such an assemblage of every thing essential to constitute the picturesque and the romantic, that an attempt to convey any adequate idea of the whole, would only expose the insufficiency of human language and prove the absurdity of human vanity. · It was nearly six o'clock in the evening, when we anchored before the city of Quebec. As we sailed slowly up the basin, the cannon from the batteries, and the continued fire from the shipping in the port, all saluting their new Governor, who had anchored a few minutes before us,created such a general confusion, that it was some time before I recollected our voyage was concluded. When the smoke had disappeared, the city, hitherto partially concealed from our view, presented itself in sober majesty. The houses, most of which are covered with tin, rising tier above tier, in the form of an amphitheatre, -the impregnable walls and batteries, pointing their foe-defying guns down the river,the Martello towers, with their more aspiring neighbour a Telegraph,—and the lofty steeples, whose o'ertopping spires illuminate the very heavens with |