Thirdly. Animosities of race appear to be fast disappearing a great result in every point of view. French Canadians and English are learning to act together as a great united Canadian people, having the same object in viewthe honour and prosperity of their magnificent country. Fourthly. The French Canadians are loyal and contented, and are partaking, as I have taken occasion to show, in as great a degree as can yet be expected, in the onward movement of the active races around them. Fifthly. Authority, law, and order, have been strengthened by the public example of the harmonious working together of the two great powers of the State, the Legislative and the Executive. Sixthly. Attention is less distracted than formerly, from the great questions of public improvement,-railways, canals, roads, education, agriculture,―on all of which the public mind in Canada is now bent with great energy, little less, apparently, and judging from the public prints, than exists among ourselves.

All this tends to show that government and society in Canada are upon a solid basis No

other fact could have so much weight as this in encouraging persons, who may think of emigrating, to ally themselves and their fortunes with the destinies of that country, or in bringing commercial capital to its shores. As for the "annexation" movement of a few years ago, the mention of it now only excites a smile; and if universal rumour is to be trusted, those who, in a moment of temporary irritation, were most forward in it, are the last to wish to hear any allusion to the subject.. A newspaper which was set on foot to advocate those ideas, died away in a few months. The discussion provoked by it had the good effect of making only more clear to the understandings and feelings of the whole Canadian people the fact, that they were and would be of far greater importance, as a people, while connected with Great Britain, than they ever could be as one of the States of the Union; that they had already within themselves all the guarantees of law, order, and good government, and all the elements of material prosperity, with the important addition of the aid of British credit and British capital; and that they had good

reason to be proud of being part and parcel of this empire, and of a country which enjoys, beyond all other countries, the blessings arising from a temperate and rational freedom.*

One of the greatest aids that could be now

* Canada has, in point of fact, more freedom of action than is possessed by the individual States of the Union, and consequently more than she would have if she were one of them. An illustration of this is now before the public in those countries. All the States bordering on the great lakes are anxious for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, which Canada is ready to grant. The general Government of the United States has opposed obstacles to this, arising out of the imagined interests of some of the other States. To any such measure which Canada might think advantageous to her interest, the Imperial Government would not think of interposing the slightest obstacle.

Also, under any right estimate of happiness, Canada has the advantage, in a comparative immunity from the perpetual strife and intrigue of elections, and from the ostracism of wealth, talent, high principle, and wisdom to which Universal Suffrage is always more or less inclined.

Since the above was written, the General Election has taken place, and I cannot help thinking that many circumstances relating to it, which I see mentioned in the public papers, may be fairly taken as confirmatory of the soundness of the policy pursued in that country during the last few years. It is said that never was an election in Canada so free from violence; that "annexation" has been almost unheard of; and that the attacks were few upon the Union of the Provinces, the change in the seat of Government, and the Governor-General. It is much to be hoped that this may be regarded as the inauguration of a long period of moderation, peace, and mutual efforts for the common welfare.

given to the prosperity and dignity of these fine provinces would be an elevated and purified daily press. With a very few exceptions (and those not always and altogether such, according to my own limited observation), the press of Canada does injustice to the political, moral, social, and intellectual character of the people, and is not of a tone to qualify it to speak for a cultivated and intelligent society.* It rarely, as far as I could observe, attempts any calm and philosophical discussion of the topics of the highest moment to the future destiny of the colony, moral and social; but is rather occupied in stimulating, instead of striving to allay, the exasperations of party struggles, which are always apt to be most bitter among men only beginning

* The state of the press in Canada makes it necessary for me, to prevent any possible misrepresentation and imputations of motives, to say that I have not, nor ever had, nor ever expect to have, the slightest personal interest in Canada, or in anything that concerns it. The interest I have taken in it is of a purely public nature, and such as any Englishman may be allowed to take in a question of great public importance,—the material and moral progress of our colonies; and what I have thus essayed to write upon it has arisen, as I have before said, from the mere accident of my turning my steps in that direction, instead of another, during an autumn tour, without a previous acquaintance with half a dozen individuals in Canada.

to learn to act together on the great arena of public life, under a system of political freedom. An improvement in the tone of the press would, by degrees, educate the public taste above that which now only tends to lower it, and with it, to a certain extent, the estimation in which the colony must be held elsewhere.

It must be admitted that such writing as appears in some of the papers that are the present organs of party, would not be found in them unless it was in harmony with the tastes of a considerable number of subscribers; and the admission must lead to the inference that education has a great work before it in that colony.

Education in Upper Canada.-The manner in which the great question of elementary education has been dealt with in Upper Canada is eminently deserving of earnest and impartial consideration: not only from the effect it is likely to produce in Canada itself, but on account of its more general interest. In order to explain the provisions of the Act under which the system now in force has been established, I cannot do better than quote largely from an