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to bind yet firmer the link which connects the British empire in Europe and in America.

London, December, 1834.

Since the preceding pages were written, the King in the Constitutional exercise of his prerogative (and which I trust may never be impaired) has changed his Ministers in conformity to what may be termed the voice of the property and intelligence of the Nation. I hope that we shall now have a more stable Government, and that the distant sections of the Empire will receive that prompt and anxious consideration to which they are so pre-eminently entitled; the Tories have ever been distinguished from the Whigs as influenced less by France than by national views-the latter have not unfortunately paid sufficient regard to our Colonies-the former have generally bestowed on them great and deserved solicitude, and they have not listened to the theories of doctrinaires who would make us dependent for a supply of food on foreign countries,―leave our mercantile marine at the mercy of the Baltic for its supplies-hand over British America to the grasping and ambitious Government of the United States-give our best colonies to envious and secretly hostile France, and passively allow the latter to drive us from our own shores.

I am neither Tory nor Whig,-I wish to see national principles acted on, without reference to party feelings, and to witness a co-operation of good men for the welfare of their country. If, however, partizanship must exist under a free constitution, it is doubtful whether Tories or Whigs will be long able to maintain the empire in peace abroad, or consolidated at home, without the most strenuous exertions for the welfare of the mass of our fellow subjects, and which will be materially promoted by the extension of our Colonial commerce. It is the imperative duty, therefore, of every citizen, who values the sacred right of property as the most beneficial result of liberty, to aid in upholding order in the Colonies and in the mother country, remembering always that the violation of the one is the inevitable prelude to the destruction of the other; for when law is neglected anarchy begins. Let me therefore hope that the numerous individuals, connected by mercantile and social interests with the Colonies, will give their strenuous aid to those Ministers only who, by their measures, evince the greatest desire to give stability and prosperity to our transmarine empire; and that as the Colonists are excluded by the Reform Bill from the indirect representation which they formerly possessed in the Imperial Senate, that, on the election of a new Parliament, Members will be chosen whose expansive views of national interests are directed across the vast ocean to each and every shore on which the British banner waves.

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For Montgomery Martin's History of the British Colonies Vol.i. Possessions in Nth America

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Published by John Mortimer 2, Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square, 1836.

Drawn & Engraved by J& C.Walker

HISTORY

OF THE

BRITISH COLONIES.

POSSESSIONS IN NORTH AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

LOWER CANADA.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND AREA-GENERAL HISTORY-PHYSICAL ASPECT-MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND LAKES-GEOLOGY-CLIMATE-POPULATION-TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS-ANIMAL, VEGETABLE AND MINERAL KINGDOMS-STAPLE PRODUCE-REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE-GENERAL COMMERCE-IMPORTS AND EXPORTS-MONETARY SYSTEM-FORM OF GOVERNMENT-SOCIAL STATE-RELIGION, EDUCATION AND THE PRESS-MILITARY DEFENCE-VALUE OF PROPERTY - PRESENT CONDITION AND

FUTURE PROSPECTS, &c.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.-The vast, fertile and important section of the British empire termed Canada,* is bounded on the E. by the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and a part of the Labrador coast, (which is separated by the Straits of Belleisle from the island of Newfoundland,)-on the N. by the Hudson Bay territories,—on the W. by the Pacific Ocean, and on the S. by the United States, by part of New Brunswick and by the unexplored territories of the Indians. The division line on the S. from the grand portage on Lake

* The term Canada is supposed to be derived from the Indian word Kanata, signifying a collection of huts, and which the early European discoverers mistook for the name of the country.

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2 BOUNDARIES AND DIVISIONS OF CANADA-UPPER AND LOwer.

Superior (vide general map), runs through the great lakes and down the St. Lawrence river to Lat. 45, and thence along that line to Connecticut river, from whence it follows the high lands which separate the waters running into the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic, till it reaches due N. of the St. Croix river, the boundary between the United States and New Brunswick.*

This extensive country was in 1791, by His Britannic Majesty's order in council, divided into two governments, (entitled Upper and Lower Canada) the boundary between the provinces commencing at Pointe au Baudet, on Lake St. Francis, about 55 miles above Montreal-running northerly to the Ottawa river-up that river to its source in Lake Temiscaming, and thence due N. to the Hudson's bay boundary ;† the territory of Lower Canada, or seaward portion, which I proceed to describe, being comprized within the 45th and 52nd of N. Lat., and the parallels of 57.50 to 80.6 of W. Long., embracing, so far as its boundaries will admit an estimation, an area of 205,863 square statute miles, including a

The question as to the boundary line between the United States and Canada will be clearly explained in the Appendix.

The words of the Order in Council are- to commence at a stone boundary on the N. bank of the lake of St. Francis at the Cove W. of Pointe au Baudet, in the limit between the township of Lancaster and the seigniory of New Longueuil running along the said limit in the direction of N. 34 W. to the westernmost angle of the said seigniory of New Longueuil; then along the N. W. boundary of the seigniory of Vaudreuil running N. 25 E. until it strikes the Ottawa river; to ascend the said river into the lake Temiscaming, and from the head of the said lake by a line drawn due N. until it strikes the boundary of Hudson's bay, including all the territory to the Westward and Southward of the said line to the utmost extent of the country commonly called or known by the name of Canada.' The want of clearness in the above delineation, added to the imperfectness of the map on which it was drawn, particularly as regarded the Westwardly angle of the seigniory of New Longueuil, and the S. W. angle of Vaudreuil, which are represented as coincident, when, according to the intelligent and patriotic Col. Bouchette, they are nine miles distant from each other-has naturally caused disputes as to the boundaries between Upper and Lower Canada.

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