West angle of the Lake of the Woods; and thence due West to the River Missisippi. On the West and North West no limits are assigned; Canada therefore be said to extend itself over those may vast regions which spread towards the Northern and Pacific Oceans.

The Upper Province is now divided into eleven Districts, which are, the Eastern, Ottawais, Johnstown, Bathurst, Midland, Newcastle, Home, Gore, Niagara, London, and the Western. These Districts are sub-divided into twenty-five counties, which, with the towns of York, Kingston, and Niagara, send forty-five members to the Provincial Parliament.

As every man in the Canadas, from the age of sixteen to forty-five years, capable of bearing arms, is obliged to be enrolled in the Militia, there are already fifty-six well-organized regiments in Upper Canada alone. These regiments severally consist of between three and five hundred

exclusive of officers; so that the effective militia of the Province may amount to nearly 22,000,-an immense body of men, when it is considered that the whole white population does not exceed 150,000 souls.

There are at present only three naval stations in the whole Province, which are Kingston, Grand River Ouse, and Pentanguishine. At each of these

+"A line drawn due West from the Lake of the Woods, would not strike the Missisippi.”—BOUCHette.

ports, a captain, lieutenant, surgeon, and storekeeper, yet remain.

You seem to be desirous that I should attempt to give you some idea of the general aspect of the Canadas. I have occasionally touched on this subject in my former letters; but you appear to be of opinion, that, because I wrote under the influence of first impressions,-which, you think, cause us to be rather lavish of our praise or censure,—I spoke more favourably of some particular places than I should have done, if I had waited for an opportunity of giving, to my warm and hasty sketches, a cool and deliberate consideration. But, my dear Sir, although your remark may be correct in its general application, I can assure you, that it is by no means so with respect to my correspondence with you. I have endeavoured to describe things as I actually saw them, and not as they appeared to the eyes of my imagination, spectacled as the latter were with the magnifying lens furnished by a perusal of the productions of preceding writers. My opinions respecting the scenery of Lower Canada, now that I have thrice visited that Province, are the same as they were when I first beheld it after the tedium of a six weeks' voyage. Indeed, I am now more than ever convinced, that he who can view the picturesque scenery of the country from the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Quebec, with indifference, or describe it without ardour, must certainly betray a lamentable deficiency in some of VOL. I.

L

the finer sources of emotion. The mountains' frightful peaks,-the valleys' lonely caverns,--the forests' solitary retreats,-the cataracts' thundering roar, the cultivated farm, the comfortable cottage, and the silver-mantled church

Where prayers are penance, and each priest a God,— .

are the features which distinguish this part of Canada.

From Quebec to Montreal, and thence to Kingston, the traveller is still pleased, though in a slighter degree, with the less imposing, but more cultivated aspect of the country. Satiety is a stranger to his bosom, until he bids adieu to the St. Lawrence. Every part of the country, through which this delightful river deigns to pour its waters in a formidable torrent, or a placid stream, exhibits a cheering and well-diversified appearance. It is true, the hawthorn hedge, the holly-bush, and the ivymantled steeple, which are every where the ornaments of Britain's unexampled isles, are strangers to this otherwise delightful Province. No monuments of ancient glory or of ancient magnificence display their venerable heads, directing the imagination to a retrospect of days that have passed.— No "ruined palaces," the once splendid domiciles of monarchs who have mouldered into dust,-no antique towers, the castellated guardians of feudal independence, "cloud-capt" pyra

· no

mids, the sacred resting-place of sleeping majesty, -present their ponderous remains, to please the

antiquarian curiosity of age, or to foster the rising patriotism of youth. A few glittering steeples, whose resplendent spires never saw the sun of centuries pass over their youthful vanes, or an aged oak whose trunk has become weary of conveying annual nutriment to its decaying boughs, are the only objects in America calculated to awaken a sentiment of sadly-pleasing recollection concerning times that are gone for ever, or heroes that have measured out their span.

The ancient history of this continent is a chaos, enveloped in darkness and obscurity; from which scarcely a ray of light is emitted, to direct us in our search for proofs of any former period of advanced civilization. In some parts of South America, indeed, the Spaniards found monuments of the growing refinement of the Incas and their subjects; but none of them are fit to stand a comparison with the monuments which existed in the corresponding regions of the old world, on the shores of China and in the great Indian Archipelago. The case of the Mexicans scarcely forms an exception to the generally uncivilized condition of the Indian aborigines, of whom it may be said, in the language of Shakspeare,

Aye! in the catalogue ye go for MEN,

As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
All by the name of DOGS.

In fact, the New World is completely derelict of objects interesting to the virtuoso, in any branch

of his profession; † and cannot, in that respect, be better described than in the words of our admirable lyric bard:

No bright remembrance o'er the fancy plays;
No classic dream, no star of other days,
Has left that visionary glory here,

That relic of its light so soft and clear,

Which gilds and hallows e'en the rudest scene,

The humblest shed where genius once has been.

Upper Canada is a level country, and its general appearance is sombre and uninviting. From Kingston, as far as the Western extremity of the Province, one or two places excepted, you travel through a continued forest; the prospect is in consequence never extensive, but commonly confined within the limits of a single mile. But

TIME and INDUSTRY, the mighty two,
Which bring our wishes nearer to our view,

may very soon effect a considerable change,

+ Though this is actually the case, yet after all my veneration for antiquity, I heartily accord with the following just sentiment, expressed in the Preface to Professor Dwight's Travels:-" A forest, changed within a short period into fruitful fields, covered with houses, schools, and churches, and filled with inhabitants, possessing not only the necessaries and comforts, but also the conveniences of life, and devoted to the worship of Jehovah,— when seen only in prophetic vision, enraptured the mind even of Isaiah; and, when realized, can hardly fail to delight that of a spectator. At least, it may compensate the want of ancient castles, ruined abbeys, and fine pictures."