English sentiments and habits in the Colony Honours emanating from the Crown Question of the Representation of Canada in the Imperial Parliament, or at the seat of Government (G.) Extract from a Speech of the Hon. Francis Hincks, Inspector-General (Chancellor of the Exchequer), on the Financial Condition of the Province, delivered before the Legis- NOTES ON PUBLIC SUBJECTS, &c. &c. PUBLIC SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. AN explanation, and indeed almost an apology, is due from any one who presumes to offer to the public any observations upon countries which he has visited for the first time, after so brief a sojourn as mine has been in those which afford the subjects of the following pages. I can with sincerity say that when I commenced a short tour last autumn through a portion of the United States and Canada, I had no intention of writing a book. I hoped, indeed, to bring home with me some useful ideas on matters to which my time has been for some years chiefly directed-the education, and the general condition, of the working population. I thought also that, instead of tracing again the beaten tracks of Europe, where at present little B is visible but the ruins of political liberty, there would be more pleasure and satisfaction, as well as more intellectual profit, in taking a glance, however hasty, at the great people of our own race and kindred who are now rapidly filling a Continent, and also at those more immediately and closely allied to us, our fellow-subjects in Canada. But even a hasty glance at those great and magnificent countries opens so many wide fields of thought, and fills the mind with reflections upon so many subjects of the deepest interest to us in England, that it is impossible to be in the midst of those subjects without being carried imperceptibly into as full and complete an investigation of them as time and opportunity permit. The introductions I took with me, and the acquaintances, and, I trust, lasting friendships, which it was my good fortune to make in both those countries, placed me at once at the fountain-head of much valuable information on various public questions, and therefore enabled me to make the best use of a short period of observation. Accordingly, instead of the recreation I went to seek on the |