ency. The militia department labours under the difficulty which is felt by those who strive to prepare means of defence in a community which believes but little in the possibility of war, and which grudges money that does not directly bring in a corresponding return. The organisation of the force on paper is good, but for even a meagre efficiency much requires to be done. The talent, the military feeling, and the patriotism exist; but the sinews of war, and the belief which results in deeds, are in some measure wanting. Recently steps in the right direction have been taken. An able officer, General Selby Smyth, has been appointed to the command of the militia, and a military college for the education of officers is about to be established at Kingston; still the organisation for national defence is scarcely on a par with the steady increase of the country. The management of emigration matters has recently been more concentrated in the hands of the central government, and promises increased development. The difficulty connected with Government aid lies in the facility with which emigrants can pass over the border to the States, using Canada merely as a stepping-stone; but the present depression in the labour market in many of the cities and States of the Union, together with the advantageous offers which Western Canada presents, will draw the tide of emigration to the more fertile districts of the Dominion.

Here, perhaps, a few words in reference to the prospects of the emigrant may not be out of place, as many erroneous opinions are held in England on the subject. First, as to the class of emigrants most needed. Farm - labourers are in much request, but they must not come to Canada with the idea that work is to be less, or life at first any easier than at home. They

should be prepared, on arrival, to hire themselves out to farms, often to put up with hardships which may appear strange to them, and to be content if they can provide dwellings for themselves and family, with enough to eat and to wear, rough as all these necessaries may probably be. If a man work and save, which he can easily do, for the first year or two, and if he adapt himself to the country, he may take a bushfarm. His savings will enable him to live until his crops grow; and then, if he has chosen his land well, and if he is sober and healthy, the way to competence, and possibly to wealth and position, lies open before him-and the more numerous his family, the better he will prosper. Many a man who now stands in the foremost rank in Canada, has laboured, and laboured hard, at manual work. Gentlemen farmers are, as a rule, not the best class of emigrants; small farmers, with a capital, which they should put aside for investment after they have acquired a knowledge of the country, are more likely to succeed; and they will find a better return for their money in the settled districts of Canada than they can expect in England. These men should follow the pioneers of civilisation, as those who have cleared the forests move westwards, impelled by motives and habits which prevent them from welcoming the approach of a denser population: the farmer could then buy their roughly-cultivated farms; convert their log shanties into timber houses, their snake fences into palings, and their fields, disfigured with still-standing stumps, into smooth, well-tilled arable and meadow land. Mechanics are doubtless required; but the man to succeed should not only be good at his especial art, but should have a wider knowledge. As a natural result in a country where civilisa

tion has not yet clearly divided men into classes and trades, the mechanic is, as a rule, less skilful than his fellow in England in some particular Tekvη, but more ready to turn his hand to the various branches of his trade. The legal and medical professions are filled, and more than filled; but a clever man who would succeed in England, and has been trained under the more accurate discipline of English schools, will succeed perhaps more quickly in Canada than if he remained at home. The young cub, sent to make his way in the world without any especial training, but with the manners and prejudices of a gentleman, is even less required in Canada than in most countries; he drifts about, and often sinks below his proper level. Lads of sixteen or seventeen, who will enter the large wholesale establishments, who will take any work, whatever it may be, and who keep steady, have a good future before them. In fact, in Canada, as in other places, energy and talent will succeed; but labour of the hands bears at present a higher proportionate value than labour of the head.

Emigration is gradually moving westwards, although perhaps not quite so rapidly as was expected. Manitoba, which five years ago was a wild region, whose capital, "Fort Garry," was merely a Hudson Bay station, is now a well-constituted and comparatively fertile province, governed by a Lieut.-Governor and a house of representatives. Emigrants are arriving there from Ontario by the Dawson route, which, by means of road and steamer, connects Prince Arthur's landing, at the head of Lake Superior, with the Red River; and others are crossing over from the adjoining States of the Union to seek a home on its fertile prairie-lands. From

VOL. CXVIII.—NO. DCCXVII.

Russia considerable numbers of Muscovites, flying from prospective conscription, have arrived, and their ready adaptation to a severe climate, where fuel is scarce, has excited the admiration of those who have watched their first settlements. The care of their cattle precedes that given to themselves and their families, and the stables rise before the houses; whilst a preparation of manure and straw supplements the wood which in a prairie country is only found along the beds of the streams and rivers. To Manitoba many a well-to-do Ontario farmer is hastening, having sold his cleared bush-farm in the older province, and with the proceeds prepared to purchase land sufficient to maintain homesteads for his numerous children. Even beyond Manitoba civilisation is extending itself. Law and order have been enforced by the presence of the mounted police, of whom an expeditionary force of three hundred men under Lieut.-Col. French has marched to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, clearing out the illicit whisky - traders, who, having crossed the frontier, defy the laws of the United States, as well as those of Canada. The Indian chiefs appreciate this effort to protect them from a temptation which they are unable to resist, and respect the scarlet uniforms of King George's men, traditions of whom have long existed among the tribes.

So fearful had some of the Blackfeet chiefs become of the whiskytraders, that they had given orders to their young warriors to fire on them directly they appeared. Only a year ago a missionary approached the wigwams of a party of this tribe, and found himself surrounded by horsemen, who threatened him with menacing gestures; happily he displayed the English flag, when he was brought to the tent of the chief, who explained to him, that under

D

the belief that he was a whiskytrader, and knowing that utter ruin would result to his tribe if spirits were sold, he had given orders to his young men to prevent his approach. On the mistake being discovered he was hospitably received and entertained. The slaughter of the buffaloes to provide means of purchasing intoxicating drinks has recently been very great, although the Indians believe and avow that they themselves will disappear with the animals which provide them with food, with clothing, and with shelter.

To return from this digression to the settled provinces, whose present position it position it may not be uninteresting to glance at. First in wealth and in importance is Ontario, whose still undefined boundaries, depending on the interpretation of old French treaties drawn up in the time of Cardinal Richelieu, stretch beyond the head of Lake Superior, but whose real wealth and population occupy the peninsula formed by Lakes Huron, St Clair, Erie, and Ontario. In this fertile district, a new England with features greatly resembling those of the old country is rapidly rising in prosperity and importance. A fruitful soil, a genial climateespecially along the shores of Lake Erie, where the vine well repays the care bestowed upon its cultivation—and an energetic population calling England home, and imbuing with its loyal sentiments the German colonists, who, whilst retaining their affection for the Fatherland, respect and love the country of their adoption,-present conditions which all must recognise as favourable for the future wellbeing of the Dominion. No one can return from visiting the prosperous towns, with populations of from six to ten thousand, which are interspersed throughout Ontario,

without receiving without receiving a vivid impression of its wellbeing. Each town believes itself to excel its neighbour, and vies with it in works for the public benefit. The churches are numerous, and generally of much architectural beauty, the Gothic style being usually adopted by all denominations. The schools are plentiful in number, and good in regard to their system of education. The universal school rate is applicable to all but the Roman Catholics, who have been permitted by this sensible and matter-of-fact population to provide for their own schools, with the result that religious disputes have been avoided, and that gradually the sectional schools are giving place to the national establishments. There are no poorhouses; the hospitals, the lunatic asylums, and the establishments for the blind and deaf and dumb, are well supported, the jails only being small and nearly empty. The forests are giving place to fertile arable fields, and the second growth shown in the single trees or small groups that dot the fields give the earlier settlements the appearance of England. The earth yields salt and oil-the minerals, such as iron and copper, being mostly confined to the Laurentian range and the borders of Lakes Huron and Superior. Coal only is wanting-the extremities of the Dominion, on the banks of the Saskatchewan and in Nova Scotia, alone producing it.

A visitor to the yearly district agricultural shows would form a high opinion of the agricultural wealth of the country. The horses and cattle are excellent, and the fruits and vegetables cannot be excelled in the most favoured countries of Europe. In the towns, manufactories on a small scale are commencing; but the wealth of the country is, for the most part, com

prised in its agricultural products. Railways intersect the province in all directions, and are pushing forward branches northwards to the shore of Georgian Bay, in conjunction with the steamers which navigate the interior line of lakes. These beautiful sheets of water are little known beyond their immediate neighbourhoods; they extend in an almost unbroken chain from Georgian Bay to Rice Lake, which is only a few miles distant from, and is connected with, the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Along this route, in days gone by, the Hurons were accustomed to make incursions on the Irrequois, coming down in canoes from the borders of Lake Huron, coasting along Lake Ontario, and crossing it at its narrowest end near Kingston. Now the inhabitants of the larger cities seek relief from the heat of July and August on their wooded banks. Hotels are springing up in the forests round Lake Conchiching, St Joseph, and Muskow, and large parties of excursionists are in the habit of camping on the islands which dot their surfaces. This method of passing a summer holiday is prevalent both in the United States and in Canada, and the thousand islands on the St Lawrence are favourite resorts of pleasure-seekers from all parts of North America.

To return to graver subjects. The local government of the province of Ontario is entirely in the hands of the tax-payers, who elect Reeves-" an old name revived"for the management of the smaller districts or townships: these and their deputies compose the county councils, a member of whom is frequently sent as the representative of the county to the local parliament which assembles at Toronto. Purely local matters are in the hands of the Reeves; more extended works require the sanction of the

county councils; whilst affairs in which the interest of the province is involved are considered in the provincial parliament. In the assessment of the township a double motive influences the assessors and the tax-payers: of course the latter are anxious not to be assessed too high; but, on the other hand, their anxiety for the credit of their own neighbourhood leads them not to underrate its wealth. As has been already remarked, this wealth is chiefly agricultural; but on the tributaries of the Ottawa, and on those of the inland lakes, the lumber or timber trade is carried on with great vigour serving the double purpose of procuring timber and of gradually opening up the back districts to civilisation. As winter approaches, vast stores of provisions and gangs of men will be seen travelling in sleighs along the roads which lead northwards from Ottawa and from other large cities, proceeding to the shanties hundreds of miles up the great tributaries of the St Lawrence, where the men will pass the winter in felling and squaring the red and white pines, which, when the freshet or spring arrives, will be floated down the streams, formed into cribs on the smaller rivers, piloted with difficulty, and not a little danger, down the frequent rapids, and made into rafts to be navigated slowly down to Quebec. Sometimes two years elapse before the trees felled on the upper waters of the Ottawa reach their destination; the lumberers returning home during the summer months, excepting those who cultivate the farms formed for the purpose of furnishing fodder for the numerous horses and cattle required for the work. The men are highly paid, and the work, although hard, is popular: the provisions supplied are plentiful and good in quality, but no liquor stronger than tea is allowed. There

are few pleasanter sights than on a calm evening on the Ottawa to watch the numerous rafts floating down from below the Chaudiere Falls, or from the rapids of the Gatineau, and to hear the old French voyageurs' songs of the men returning homewards from their winter toil.

To leave Ontario without a passing glance at its capital, Toronto, would never be forgiven by 'those who are engaged in advancing the prosperity of the most energetic of the provinces of the Dominion. Comprising the seat of the local government, the law courts, and the university, as well as being the centre of provincial commerce, Toronto is rapidly increasing in wealth and general prosperity, whilst the tone of its society is more literary, and perhaps more genial, than that of cities wholly given to the production of wealth. As the population is entirely English, the community is not, as in Montreal and Quebec, separated into two languages and religions, but is united and active in thought and deed, although possibly a little too much inclined to consider Ontario as Canada, and to view questions in a light not acceptable to the other provinces. For instance, the new party, the offspring of the generous ideas of young and energetic men, termed the Canada first party, although professing much that all wellwishers of Canada would desire -viz., an increased national feeling, and a desire to show that the country has advanced beyond the stage of youth and pupilage-is yet inclined to forget the small numbers of the population, and the only recent and scarcely completed ties that bind together the several provinces of the Dominion. In fact, they measure the strength of Canada by that of its most prosperous community.

This energy and activity, which might lead a young nation to extremes, is balanced by the qualities which have made the province of Quebec the seat of a contented and happy population. There the colonists from old France, mostly from Brittany and Normandy, still preserve many of the customs, habits of thought, and manners of France before the Revolution. The seignorial rights have only recently disappeared, but many of the old families still live on the lands granted to them by the kings of France; whilst the clergy exercise a preponderating, but, on the whole, beneficial influence over the people. The villages bordering the St Lawrence present a not incorrect picture of their interior organisation. The clean comfortable cottages adorned with bright colouring, the small fields cultivated in a primitive manner, and the absence of modern agricultural improvements, the frequent sound of music, and, above all, the large well-built churches and convents, their metal roofs shining like silver in the bright sun or clear moonlight, are evidences of a welldoing but not wealthy population, who worship God after the manner of their forefathers, and respect the clergy, who, represented by the curé, regulate the affairs of each small community. But even here the effect of modern ideas shows itself; the young men frequently seek occupation during winter in the United States, and there, freed from the restraining influence of the clergy, and like children exposed to the temptations incident to a free-thinking population, too often lapse into infidelity, bringing back with increased wealth opinions at variance with the religious tone of their parents. The Canadian Church has hitherto been singularly free from the excesses of Ultramontanism, and the elder clergy are said to