CHAPTER XIX.

TEMPORAL PROSPERITY OF CANADA-PAST AND PRESENT STATE CONTRASTED-PATRICK DOOLAN-IMPORTANCE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PROVINCES-REMARKS ON ROMANISM-POWER OF THE PRIESTS, &c.

THE prosperity and affluence of Canada West have become proverbial. For some years back the agricultural products have been immense. The yield of wheat has surpassed that of the Western Prairies themselves; but notwithstanding that, the growers have realized high remunerating prices. The farmers have become comparatively rich, and are enabled, by their increased means, not only to extend their operations, but also to prosecute them upon the most approved principles. In Canada West, agriculture is steadily advancing to the dignity of a science; and those who are engaged in it, bid fair to occupy a very high and influential position among the yeomanry of this continent.

A great many in the commercial and trading departments have acquired a competency, and not a few have become opulent. In short, this favoured section of the Province is rapidly increasing in intelligence and in wealth. The growth, too, as far

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as we can judge, is healthy, and likely to continue. It is not a progress resulting from unnatural stimulation, or hot-bed excitement. It is natural-substantial, and unless some unforeseen calamity shall fall upon us, or unless, like Jeshurun of old, we wax fat, and forget God, it will be enduring. The country possesses all the elements of a great nation; and the steamboats, railroads, canals, and other public works, either finished or in progress, are its first fruits, and also the pledges of its future greatness.

We admit that the discussion of these merely secular topics devolves upon others. Wesleyan ministers can know but little about them. They are in the keeping of agricultural societies-boards of directors-chambers of commerce, &c., and are duly honoured by the notice they receive in "the prices current," "the rise and fall of stocks,"" official returns and state papers."

But notwithstanding these admissions, we feel the expanding and ennobling influence of this truly Catholic sentiment, "homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto." We are men-men living in Canada, and everything relating to it, interests us. We are therefore rejoiced to see "the electric telegraph" in operation, and to know that we have suspension bridges, and hundreds of miles of railways and canals; and that we are likely to have more of

these facilities for rapid travelling and rapid communication. It delights us to witness a marked improvement in steam navigation, and in the means of internal communication. The progress of education, and the consequent refinement of manners and public morals, are events, too, upon which we look with great satisfaction.

Besides all these, we have a rich and fertile soil, a healthy climate, noble rivers, magnificent lakes, inexhaustible stores of minerals, and boundless forests. Yes, Canada possesses all these, and we rejoice and give thanks to Almighty God for them; but this, in a special sense," is our rejoicing." The vine which the Lord brought out of Egypt is thriving, and the dew of heaven is falling on Gideon's fleece. During the past year, the religious denomination to which the writer belongs, has been, in Upper Canada, abundantly favoured with the grace and blessing of God. The sword of the son of Joash has been mighty in the wars of our Israel. The hosts of Midian and Amalek have been smitten and vanquished; and the shouts of praise and triumph have been frequently heard in our encampment.

Indeed, everything in Upper Canada is at present in a state very different from what it used to be. Religion, law, literature, politics, commerce and the social condition of the people are vastly improved,

and improving. These things are so apparent to every one, that they speak for themselves. They are, in fact, their own evidences-evidences so clear and so convincing, that they require no corroboration from others. What little allusion, therefore, I shall make to Canadian antecedents, shall be made simply for the sake of contrast, and that we may more clearly discern the goodness and loving-kindness of the Lord.

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We should never lose sight of the past; it should always be present with us; furnishing matter for our recollections, and supplying motives for perseveA due consideration of the past cannot fail to be of great advantage to a state. It tends to preserve the knowledge gained by experience; and that knowledge, owing to the way in which it is acquired, is sure to be employed for practical purposes. This renders the history of a state or nation a sort of beacon, which if followed, will become both a guide and an instructor.

The language of the inspired prophet, though addressed to a church, is not altogether inapplicable to a nation, and although it was uttered nearly three thousand years ago, it speaks with considerable force to us, and sets before us many valuable suggestions. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord; look to the rock

whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."

A writer in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture in Canada, thus relates his early experience, and gives us his reminiscences, in an article, entitled" Upper Canada Sixty years ago.

"I am myself one of the eldest born of this country, after its settlement by the loyalists. I well remember the time when, as Bishop Berkley observes, a man might be the owner of 10,000 acres of land in America, and want the sufficient means to buy himself a breakfast! One half the land on the Bay of Quinte, the garden of Canada, could, within my remembrance, have been purchased for £5; a 200 acre lot, and many a one, has been sold, for a half Joe! All this cannot be a matter of wonder, when I tell you that a great scarcity of provisions prevailed for two or three years consecutively, in consequence of the failure of the crops. What brought on the famine or "scarce year," (about 1790, if I am not mistaken,) was the almost entire destruction of the deer by the wolves, for two consecutive years. The snow lay upon the ground from December until April, at the depth of four to five feet. In the month of February of the last of these years, a near relation of mine, sent all the way to Albany, in the State of New York, a distance of more than 200 miles, for four bushels of Indian corn! And this was brought all that distance by two men on snow shoes! It took them about eight weeks to accomplish this journey, and during this time about one-third of the quantity was necessarily consumed by the men. The residue of this precious cargo-pounded up in a mortar made of maple stump, with the winter green berry and mucilaginous roots, latterly boiled with a little milk-constituted the principal food for