Read Ebook: Canada and the Canadians Vol. 1 by Bonnycastle Richard Henry Sir

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 576 lines and 62123 words, and 12 pages

Editor: Ludwig Dindorf

Produced by: Carolus Raeticus

PAUSANIAE

DESCRIPTIO GRAECIAE.

PARISIIS, EDITORE AMBROSIO FIRMIN DIDOT, INSTITUTI REGII FRANCIAE TYPOGRAPHO, VIA JACOB, 56.

? Index Nominum et Rerum ? Tabula Contentorum

PAUSANIAE DESCRIPTIONIS GRAECIAE ATTICA.

In ea continentis Graeciae parte, quae Cycladas insulas et AEgaeum mare spectat, Sunium prominet Atticae promontorium: in cujus ora portus, in vertice Suniadis Minervae templum est. Hinc porro navigantibus Laurium ubi olim argenti metalla Atheniensibus fuere, et parva ac deserta insula; Patrocli dicitur, quod Patroclus praefectus AEgyptiarum triremium, quas Ptolemaeus Lagi filius Atheniensibus auxilio misit, muro eam et vallo muniit, quum Antigonus Demetrii filius ipse cum exercitu agrum popularetur et maritimam partem classe obsessam teneret.

Urbem ingressis Antiopes Amazonis monumentum in conspectu est. Hanc Antiopen a Theseo e Pirithoo raptam ait Pindarus. Troezenius vero Hegias haec de ea scripsit: Herculem Themiscyran ad Thermodontem obsidione capere non potuisse, sed Antiopen Thesei amore captam oppidum tradidisse. Haec Hegias. Athenienses vero, quum ad urbem Amazones adventarent, a Molpadia sagitta confixam Antiopen memorant, Molpadiam a Theseo occisam; estque etiam Molpadiae apud Athenienses sepulcrum.

At Ceramicus urbis locus a Ceramo heroe, Bacchi et Ariadnes filio , nomen accepit: in quo quae prima ad dexteram se ostendit porticus, Regis dicitur: nam illic tribunal ejus est, qui annuum magistratum gerit, quod Regnum appellant. Circa ejus porticus tectum fictiles sunt aliquot statuae, Theseus Scironem in mare abjiciens, Aurora Cephalum rapiens. Est enim in fabulis, egregia specie juvenem Cephalum ab Aurora raptum, quod ejus amore capta esset: Cephali satu Phaethontem natum, quem templi aedituum fecerit: sic enim et ab aliis, et ab Hesiodo in eo, quod de mulieribus scripsit, carmine traditum est. Prope porticum eam Cononi ejusque filio Timotheo positae sunt statuae. Cypriorum etiam regi Evagorae, cujus suasu Artaxerxes Phoenissas triremes Cononi tradidit: quod sane tanquam civis Atheniensibus officium praestitit, quippe qui originis suae primordia ad Salamina, Teucrumque et Cinyrae filiam referebat. Ibidem Juppiter stat cognomento Eleutherius, et Imperator Adrianus, vir quum de aliis quibus imperabat gentibus, tum de Atheniensium urbe optime meritus. Porticus altera, quae a tergo hujus exstructa est, picturas habet: deos qui duodecim appellantur; et in extremo pariete Theseum, cumque eo una Democratiam et Populum. Ea sane pictura argumento est, Theseum aequabilem reipublicae administrationem Atheniensibus constituisse. Inolevit tamen et alias apud vulgus fama, Theseum summam rerum multitudini tradidisse: ex eo popularem administrationem ad id usque tempus mansisse, quo republica oppressa tyrannidem Pisistratus invaserit. Sunt vero etiam alii minus veri hominum sermones, eorum nempe, qui priscarum rerum ignari, quaecunque a pueris ex choris ac tragoediis acceperunt, vera esse existimant. Non defuerunt, qui memoriae prodiderint, ipsum etiam regnasse Theseum, et post Menesthei mortem regnum ad quartum usque posteritatis gradum in familia ejus permansisse. Quod si mihi de gentilitate esset historia instituta, etiam eos, qui a Melantho ad Clidicum usque AEsimidae filium, enumerassem. In eadem porticu est pictura navatam ab Atheniensibus in proelio ad Mantineam Lacedaemoniis, quibus auxilio venerant, operam praeferens. Belli autem ejus totius ordinem, Cadmeae oppressionem, Leuctricam Lacedaemoniorum cladem, Boeotiorum in Peloponnesum irruptionem, quae Lacedaemoniis Athenienses auxilia miserint, tum alii, tum Xenophon conscripsere. Picturae argumentum illud habet equestre proelium, in quo ex Atheniensibus Grylli Xenophontis filii, in Boeotio equitatu Thebani Epaminondae virtus enitet. Atque haec omnia pinxit Atheniensibus Euphranor. Idem in proxima aede Apollinem fecit, cognomine Patroum: pro foribus vero Apollinem unum Leochares, alterum Alexicacon cognomento fecisse Calamis dicitur. Deo cognomen narrant inde exstitisse, quod Peloponnesiaci belli temporibus omnia foedantem pestilentiam, e Delphico oraculo responso edito, is deus sedasset. Deorum etiam Matris, quam Phidias fecit, ibi sacellum est: et in proximo Quingentorum curia: sic enim appellantur, qui apud Athenienses per annum unum summae rei praesunt: qua quidem in curia et Apollinis sunt, et Jovis Bulaei simulacra, Pisiae arte perfecta; et Populus, Lysonis opus. Nam thesmothetas Caunius Protogenes pinxit, Olbiades vero Callippum, qui irruentibus in Graeciam Gallis ducem se Atheniensium praesidio ad Thermopylarum ingressum praebuit.

Quingentorum curiae proximus locus est, qui Tholus dicitur, ubi Prytanes rem divinam facere consueverunt: quo in loco non sane magna sunt aliquot ex argento signa. Paulo vero superius heroum eorum statuae positae sunt, a quibus recentiora nomina Atheniensium tribus acceperunt. Qui certe tribuum numerum auxerit, ut decem pro quattuor essent, novaque nomina pro priscis imposuerit, id sane ab Herodoto traditum est. Ex Eponymis autem unus est Hippothoon Neptuni filius ex Alope Cercyonis filia: alter Antiochus Heraclida, Herculi e Medea Phylantis filia genitus: tertius Ajax Telamonis filius: tum ex Atheniensibus Leo, quem filias ex oraculo pro salute publica devovisse ferunt. Habet et inter Eponymos locum suum Erechtheus, qui Eleusinios proelio vicit eorumque ducem Immaradum Eumolpi filium interfecit. Ad hos AEgeus, et Pandionis nothus filius OEneus, et ex Thesei liberis Acamas. Vidi etiam Cecropis statuas et Pandionis inter eos, a quibus tribuum sunt cognomina: sed quinam sint quibus honorem habeant, non dixerim. Regnavit enim et Cecrops major, quicum Actaei filia nupta fuit: et minor, Erechthei filius, Pandionis nepos, pronepos Erichthonii, a quo est in Euboeam colonia deducta. Regnavit etiam Pandion Erichthonii, et alter minoris Cecropis filius, qui cum filiis a Metionidis regno pulsus, quum ad Pylam Megarensium regem, cujus filiam in matrimonio habebat, confugisset, morbo confectus illic diem suum obiisse dicitur: estque ejus mari vicinum monumentum eo in loco Megarensis agri, qui Minervae AEthyiae scopulus est appellatus. At filii, rursus ejectis Metionidis, Megaris Athenas reversi sunt: ubi regnum maximus natu AEgeus obtinuit. Et Pandion quidem non satis aequo fato eduxit filias; neque filii, qui suas persequerentur injurias, ex illis relicti sunt: quamquam Thraciae regem, quo opes suas firmaret, sibi affinitate devinxerat. Sed fati vim effugere nulla possunt homines ratione. Nam quum Tereus, cui nuptum Progne data fuerat, Philomelae ejus sorori, contemptis Graecorum legibus, vitium intulisset et puellae insuper corpus ferro violasset, mulieres ad sceleris poenam expetendam provocavit. Pandionis vero et altera spectatu digna est in arce statua. Et hi quidem sunt prisci illi, a quibus Athenienses tribubus nomina indiderunt. Natu autem multo inferiores et alii sunt, Attalus scilicet Mysus, et Ptolemaeus AEgyptius, et penes quem aetate mea imperium erat, Adrianus, qui et deos unus omnium religiosissime colebat, et populorum ipsi subjectorum felicitati maxime consuluit. Is bellum omnino nullum, nisi invitus, suscepit. Hebraeorum duntaxat, qui supra Syros sunt, defectionem ultus est. Quae vero diis templa vel erexerit, vel donariis et operibus exornarit, quae item ultro Graecis urbibus, quaeque rogatus etiam barbaris dona dederit, Athenis in communi deorum omnium templo conscriptum est.

Attali vero et Ptolemaei rerum gestarum memoriam quum vetustas magna ex parte abolevit, tum eorum negligentia interiit, qui, ut eam literis mandarent, cum illis vixere. Quamobrem mihi in mentem venit, et quas hi res gesserint, et quemadmodum ad eorum majores Mysorum et AEgyptiorum finitimarumque gentium imperium pervenerit, exponere. Ptolemaeum quidem Macedones Philippi esse Amyntae filii, verbo Lagi filium existimant: ejus enim matrem uterum ferentem a Philippo Lago uxorem datam ferunt. Hunc et alia in Asia praeclara facinora gessisse memorant: et Alexandro in Oxydracis periclitanti, prae cunctis regis amicis, auxilio fuisse. Eundem etiam, Alexandro mortuo, iis, qui ad Aridaeum Philippi filium regnum universum deferebant, restitisse, regnumque in plura imperia dividendi auctorem in primis exstitisse. Quo tempore ipse in AEgyptum profectus, Cleomenem, quem AEgypto praefecerat Alexander, quod Perdiccae studeret, sibi suspectum occidit: atque iis Macedonibus, quibus negotium datum erat, ut Alexandri cadaver AEgas reportarent, ut sibi illud traderent, persuasit, acceptumque Macedonico ritu Memphi condidit; nihilque omnino dubitans, bellum sibi Perdiccam illaturum, AEgyptum praesidiis firmavit. Perdiccas vero quo speciosiorem expeditioni causam praetexeret, secum adduxit Aridaeum Philippi filium, et Alexandrum puerum, Alexandro ex Rhoxane Oxyartae filia genitum: quum re tamen AEgypti regnum Ptolemaeo eripere conaretur. Verum ex AEgypto pulsus, amissa magna ex parte existimatione, quam in bellicis rebus consecutus fuerat, et jam ante in magnam apud Macedones invidiam adductus, a satellitibus suis interfectus est. Ptolemaeum vero Perdiccae caedes ad res gerendas excitavit: Syriam igitur statim et Phoenicen imperio suo adjecit: mox Seleucum Antiochi filium ab Antigono ejectum, ad se confugientem, in fidem recepit. Ad haec in Antigonum, armis se insolentiam ejus persecuturum professus, bellum movit. Cassandrum Antipatri filium et Lysimachum Thraciae imperantem ad societatem induxit, quum et Seleuci fugam commemoraret, et Antigoni opes cunctis formidolosas fore, si quid amplius crevissent, moneret. Interea Antigonus bellum utique apparabat, belli tamen fortunam tentare prius non est ausus, quam audita Cyrenaeorum defectione Ptolemaeum in Libyam movisse renuntiatum est; tunc enim et Syros et Phoenices primo impetu in potestatem suam redegit. Quibus quum Demetrium filium, illum quidem peradolescentem, verum summa virtute et spe juvenem, praefecisset, ipse in Hellespontum profectus est. Sed antequam eo perveniret, quum audisset a Ptolemaeo Demetrium proelio superatum, retro copias egit. Demetrius non prorsus tota provincia hosti cesserat; quin et AEgyptiorum non magnam utique manum insidiis oppresserat. Appropinquantem Antigonum Ptolemaeus non exspectandum ratus, in suum se regnum recepit. Hieme vero acta, Demetrius in Cyprum cum classe profectus, Menelaum primum Ptolemaei praefectum navali proelio, deinde Ptolemaeum ipsum propius accedentem vicit: mox in AEgyptum fugientem persecutus terra Antigonus, mari Demetrius urgebat. Ptolemaeus omni ex parte periculo circumventus, praesidio tamen ad Pelusium constituto, et triremibus e flumine in hostem deductis, ita restitit, ut suum sibi regnum facile tutatus sit. Antigonus quidem ex praesentium rerum difficultate occupandi AEgyptum spem omnem abjecerat: Demetrium tamen cum ingenti exercitu et navibus multis contra Rhodios misit, ut qui se redacta in potestatem suam insula opportuno adversus AEgyptios propugnaculo usurum speraret. Sed Rhodii quum ipsi per se bellica virtute et operibus ac machinis acriter obsistebant, tum illos Ptolemaeus omni ope copiisque suis juvabat. Antigonus igitur aeque Rhodiensi ac prius AEgyptiaca expeditione infeliciter tentata, non ita multo post contra Lysimachum, Cassandrum, et Seleucum acie dimicare ausus, magnam exercitus partem amisit: ac postea belli adversus Eumenem diuturnitate confectus e vita decessit. Ex omnibus autem, qui Antigonum oppugnarunt, regibus summa fuisse impietate Cassandrum judico: qui quum Antigoni opera Macedoniae regnum conservasset, non dubitavit viro optime de se merito bellum inferre. Antigono vero mortuo, Ptolemaeus Syriam et Cyprum iterum subegit, Pyrrhumque in Thesprotidem Epiri reduxit, et per Magam, Berenices, quam tunc in matrimonio habebat, filium, Cyrenen, quae a se desciverat, quinto post defectionem anno recepit. Quod si Ptolemaeus revera Philippo Amyntae filio genitus est, intemperantem usque ad insaniam in mulieres amorem a patre nimirum ei quasi haereditarium fuisse, facile credi potest. Quum enim Eurydicen Antipatri filiam uxorem duxisset, ex eaque liberos etiam suscepisset, Berenices nihilominus, quam Eurydicae comitem in AEgyptum Antipater miserat, amore captus, filios ex ea quoque genuit. Ex iis Ptolemaeum, non ex Antipatri filia, sed ex Berenice genitum, jam prope moriens sibi regni successorem declaravit, a quo Atheniensibus tribus una est.

At hic etiam Ptolemaeus Arsinoes uterinae pariter et germanae sororis amore victus, eam sibi matrimonio adjunxit: atque id non sane ex Macedonum, sed AEgyptiorum, quibus imperabat, lege fecit. Deinde fratrem Argaeum insidias sibi comparantem, ut fama est, interfecit. Idem etiam Alexandri cadaver e Memphi deportandum curavit. Alterum quoque fratrem, ex Eurydice natum, quum ab eo Cyprios ad defectionem sollicitari persensisset, de medio sustulit. At Magas, ejus ex eadem quidem matre frater, patre vero Philippo, Macedone illo quidem, sed ignobili et plebeio genitus, quum Cyrenaeis, quibus a Berenice matre praefectus fuerat, ut a Ptolemaeo deficerent, persuasisset, in AEgyptum cum exercitu movit. Ptolemaeus, quum aditus ex omni parte munisset, se ad Cyrenaeorum impetum sustinendum comparabat: sed ubi Magae in itinere de Marmaridarum defectione est allatum, Cyrenas agem retroagere coepit. Quo quum illum persequi Ptolemaeus conaretur, id ei fuit impedimento, quod, quum ad sustinendum Magae impetum et alios mercenarios milites, et Gallorum quattuor ferme millia conducta haberet, et eam manum comperisset de AEgypto occupanda consilia inire, eos in desertam insulam per Nilum deduxit: quo in loco ad unum omnes quum mutuis confossi vulneribus, tam fame enecti periere. Magas vero quum Apamen uxorem duxisset, Antiochi filiam, socero persuadet, ut violato foedere, quod ejus patri Seleuco cum Ptolemaeo ictum fuerat, in AEgyptum invadat. Quod quum Antiochus comparato exercuit moliretur, Ptolemaeus in omnes populos, quibus imperabat Antiochus, copias dimisit, quae imbecilliores excursionibus praedonum more ac populationibus infestos redderent, validiores acie adorirentur. Quod sane consilium omnem in AEgyptum Antiocho proficiscendi facultatem eripuit. Hic ille Ptolemaeus est, qui, ut ante exposui, auxiliarem classem Atheniensibus contra Antigonum et Macedonas misit: qua tamen non magnopere ad salutem Atheniensium profectum est. Huic filii ex Arsinoe, non sorore, sed ea, quae Lysimachi filia fuit, nati sunt. Nam soror, quam sibi matrimonio junxerat, antequam pareret, diem suum obiit: a qua Arsinoitis praefectura AEgypti cognomen accepit.

Postulat autem locus, ut etiam, quae ad Attalum pertinent, exponantur, quum et ipse ex eorum numero sit, a quibus Atticis tribubus cognomina indita sunt. Vir fuit Macedo, Docimus nomine, unus de Antigoni ducibus, qui se postea opesque suas omnes Lysimacho tradidit. Hic Philetaerum Paphlagonem eunuchum habuit: a quo quae gesta fuerint, usque dum defecisset a Lysimacho, et quemadmodum Seleucum in partes pertraxerit suas, inter ea inseram, quae de Lysimacho erunt commemoranda. Hic autem Attalus Attali quidem filius fuit, fratris Philetaeri; regno vero, quo Eumenes, cesserat, sui patruelis potitus est. Is omnium quae gessit, maximum illud fuit, quod Gallos in eam, quam etiam nunc tenent, terram a marid unattainable impossibility; nature has effectually barred against it. The only thing in the course of a life of more than half a century that has ever puzzled me about it is, that the Catholic clergy should, in so many parts of the world, have lent it a helping hand. The ministers of a creed essentially aristocratic, essentially the pillars of the divine right of kings, have they ever been in earnest about the matter? Perhaps not!

Look at the United States, see how each successive president is bowed down before the Moloch altar; he must worship the democratic Baal, if he desires to be elected, or re-elected. It is not the intellect, or the wealth of the Union that rules. Already they seriously canvass in the Empire State perfect equality in worldly substance, and the division of the lands into small portions, sufficient to afford the means of respectable existence to every citizen. It is, perhaps, fortunate that very few of the office-holders have much substance to spare under these circumstances; but, if the President, Vice-President, and the Secretaries of State, are to live upon an acre or two of land for the rest of their lives, Spartan broth will be indeed a rich diet to theirs.

When the sympathizers invaded Canada, in 1838-1839, the lands of the Canadians were thus parcelled out amongst them, as the reward of their extremely patriotic services, but in slices of one hundred, instead of one or two, acres.

But, notwithstanding all this ultra-democracy, there is at present a sufficient counterbalance in the sense of the people, to prevent any very serious consequences; and the Irish, from having had their religion trampled upon, and themselves despised, would be very likely to run counter to native feeling.

If any country in the whole civilized world exhibits the inequality of classes more forcibly than another, it is the country which has lately annexed Texas, and which aims at annexing all the New World.

There is a more marked line drawn between wealth and pretension on the one hand, poverty and impertinent assumption on the other, than in the dominions of the Czar. Birth, place, power, are all duly honoured, and that sometimes to a degree which would astonish a British nobleman, accustomed all his life to high society. I remember once travelling in a canal boat, the most abominable of all conveyances, resembling Noah's ark in more particulars than its shape, that I was accosted, in the Northern States too, and near the borders, where equality and liberty reign paramount, by a long slab-sided fellow-passenger, who, I thought, was going to ask me to pay his passage, his appearance was so shabby, with the following questions:

"Where are you from? are you a Livingstone?" I told him, for I like to converse with characters, that I was from Canada. "What's your name?" he asked. I satisfied him. He examined me from head to foot with attention, and, as he was an elderly man, I stood the gaze most valiantly. "Well," he said, "I thought you were a Livingstone; you have got small ears, and small feet and hands, and that, all the world over, is the sign of gentle blood."

He was afterwards very civil; and, upon inquiring of the skipper of the boat who he was, I found that my friend was a man of large fortune, who lived somewhere near Utica, on an estate of his own.

This was before the sympathy troubles, and I can back it with another story or two to amuse the reader.

Some years ago, when it was the fashion in Canada for British officers always to travel in uniform, I went to Buffalo, the great city of Buffalo on lake Erie, in the Thames steamer, commanded by my good friend, Captain Van Allen, and the first British Canadian steamboat that ever entered that harbour. We went in gallantly, with the flag flying that "has braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze." I think the majority of the population must have lined the wharfs to see us come in. They rent the welkin with welcomes, and, among other demonstrations, cast up their caps, and cried with might and main--"Long live George the Third!"--Our gracious monarch had for years before bid this world good night, but that was nothing; the good folks of Buffalo had not perhaps quite forgotten that they were once, long before their city was a city, subjects of King George.

I and another officer in uniform were received with all honours, and escorted to the Eagle hotel, where we were treated sumptuously, and had to run the gauntlet of handshaking to great extent. A respectable gentleman, about forty, some seven years older than myself, stuck close to me all the while. I thought he admired the British undress uniform, but he only wanted to ask questions, and, after sundry answers, he inquired my name, which being courteously communicated, he said, "Well, I am glad, that's a fact, that I have seen you, for many is the whipping I have had for your book of Algebra." Now I never was capable of committing such an unheard-of enormity as being the cause of flagellation to any man by simple or quadratic equations; and it must have been the binomial theorem which had tickled his catastrophe, for it was my father's treatise which had penetrated into the new world of Buffalonian education.

It is a pity, is it not, gentle reader, that such feelings do not now exist?

Nevertheless, even now, the designation of a British officer is a passport in any part of the United States. The custom-house receives it with courtesy and good-will; society is gratified by attentions received from a British officer; and it is coupled with the feelings which the habits and conduct of a gentleman engender throughout Christendom.

On board a packet returning from England, we had several of the leading characters of the United States as passengers. A very silly and troublesome democrat, of the Loco-foco school, from Philadelphia, made himself conspicuous always after dinner, when we sat, according to English fashion, at a dessert, by his vituperations against monarchy and an exhibition of his excessive love for everything American. The gentlemen above alluded to, men who had travelled over Europe, whose education and manners made them that which a true gentleman is all over the world, were disgusted, and, to punish his impertinence, proposed that a weekly paper should be written by the cabin passengers, in which the occurrences of each day should be noted and commented upon, and that poetry, tales, and essays, should form part of its matter.

They agreed to discuss the relative points and bearings of monarchy and democracy; they to depute one of their number to be the champion of monarchy; and we to chuse the champion of democracy from amongst the English passengers.

Two drawings were fixed up at each end of the table after dinner; one, representing a crowned Plum-pudding; and the other, Liberty and Equality, by the well-known sign. The blustering animal was soon effectually silenced; a host of first-rate talent levelled a constant battery at his rude and uncultivated mind.

I shall never forget this voyage, and I hope the talent-gifted Canadian lawyer who threw down the gauntlet of Republicanism, and who has since risen to the highest honours of his profession which the Queen can bestow, has preserved copies of the Saturday's Gazette of The Mediator American Packet-ship.

The mention of this vessel puts me in mind of one more American anecdote, and I must tell it, for I have a good deal of dry work before me.

Crossing the Atlantic once in an American vessel, we met another American ship, of the same size, and passed very close. Our captain displayed the stars and stripes in true ship-shape cordial greeting. Brother Jonathan took no notice of this sea civility, and passed on; upon which the skipper, after taking a long look at him with his spy-glass, broke out in a passion, "What!" said he, "you won't show your b--d bunting, your old stripy rag? Now, I guess, if he had been a Britisher, instead of a d--d Yankee, he would not have been ashamed of his flag; he would have acted like a gentleman. Phew!" and he whistled, and then chewed his cigar viciously, quite unconscious that I was enjoying the scene.

But, if it be possible that one peculiar portion of the old countrymen are more disliked or despised than another in any country under the sun, connected by such ties as the United States are with Britain, there can be no doubt that the condition of the Jews under King John, as far as hatred and unexpressed contumelious feeling goes, was preferable to the feeling which native Americans, of the ultra Loco-foco or ultra-federal breed, entertain towards the labouring Catholic Irish, and would, if they could with safety, vent upon them in dreadful visitation. They would exterminate them, if they dared.

To account for such a feeling, it must be observed that a large portion of these ignorant and misguided men have brought much of this animosity upon themselves; for, continuing in the New World that barbarous tendency to demolish all systems and all laws opposed to their limited notions of right and wrong, and, whilst their senseless feuds among themselves harass society, they eagerly seek occasions for that restless political excitement to which they are accustomed in their own unhappy and regretted country.

A body of these hewers of wood and drawers of water, who, when not excited, are the most innocent and harmless people in the world--easily led, but never to be driven--get employed on a canal or great public work; and, no sooner do they settle down upon wages which must appear like a dream to them, than some old feud between Cork and Connaught, some ancient quarrel of the Capulets and Montagues of low life, is recollected, or a chant of the Boyne water is heard, and to it they go pell-mell, cracking one another's heads and disturbing a peaceful neighbourhood with their insane broils.

Or, should a devil, in the shape of an adviser, appear among them, and persuade these excitable folks that they may obtain higher wages by forcing their own terms, bludgeons and bullets are resorted to, in order to compel compliance, and incendiarism and murder follow, until a military force is called out to quell the riots.

The scenes of this kind in Canada, where vast sums are annually expended on the public works, have been frightful; and such has been the terror which these lawless hordes have inspired, that timid people have quitted their properties and fled out of the reach of the moral pestilence; nay, it has been carried so far, that a Scotch regiment has been marked on account of its having been accidentally on duty in putting down a canal riot; and, wherever its station has afterwards been cast, the vengeance of these people has followed it.

At Montreal, the elections have been disgraced by bodies of these canallers having been employed to intimidate and overawe voters; and, were it not that a large military force is always at hand there, no election could be made of a member, whose seat would be the unbiassed and free choice of his constituents.

It is, however, very fortunate for Canada that these canallers are not usually inclined to settle, but wander about from work to work, and generally, in the end, go to the United States. The Irish who settle are fortunately a different people; and, as they go chiefly into the backwoods, lead a peaceful and industrious life.

But it is, nevertheless, very amusing, and affords much insight into the workings of frail human nature to observe the conduct of that portion of the Irish emigrants who find that they have neither the means of obtaining land, nor of quitting some large town at which they may arrive. Their first notion then is to go out to service, which they had left Ireland to avoid altogether. The father usually becomes a day-labourer, the sons farm-servants or household servants in the towns, the daughters cooks, nursery-maids, &c.

When they come to the mistress of a family to hire, they generally sit down on the nearest chair to the door in the room, and assume a manner of perfect familiarity, assuring the lady of the house that they never expected to go out to service in America, but that some family misfortune has rendered such a step necessary. The lady then, of course, asks them what branch of household service they can undertake; to which the invariable reply is, anything--cook or housemaid, child's-maid or housekeeper, and that indeed they lived in better places at home than they expect to get in America, such as Lord So-and-so's, or Squire So-and-so's.

So with the farm-servants, they can all do everything; and an Irish gentleman told me that he lately hired a young man, an emigrant, to plough for him; and, on asking him if he understood ploughing, the good-natured Paddy answered, offhand, "Ploughing, is it? I'm the boy for ploughing."--"Very well, I'm glad of it," said the gentleman, "for you are a fine, likely young fellow, so I shall hire you." He hired him accordingly at high wages--ten dollars a month and provisions and lodging found. The first day he was to work, my friend told him to go and yoke the oxen. Paddy stared with all his eyes, but said nothing, and went away. He staid some time, and then returned with a pair of oxen, which he was driving before him. "Here's the oxen, master!"--"Where are the yokes, Paddy?"--"The yokes! by the powers, is that what they call beef in Canady?" Poor Paddy had been a weaver all his live-long days.

The Irish are almost exclusively the servants in most parts of the northern states and throughout Canada, excepting the French Canadians, and very attached, faithful servants they frequently are; but notions of liberty and equality get possession of their phrenological developments, and they are almost always on the move to better their condition, which rarely happens as they desire.

The Emigrant and his Prospects.

Those who really wish Canada well desire it to become a second Britain, and not a mere second Texas. Those who wish it evil, and these comprise the restless, unprovided race of politicians under whose incessant agitation Canada has so long groaned, desire its Texian annexation to the already overgrown States in its vicinity.

That it may become a second Britain and hold the balance of power on the continent of America is my prayer, and the prayer too of one who entertains no enmity towards the people of the United States, but who admires their unceasing exertions in behalf of their country, who would admire their institutions, based as they are upon those of England, if the grand design of Washington had been carried out, and perfect freedom of thought and of action had been secured to the people, instead of a slavish awe of the mob, an absolute dread of the uneducated masses, a sovereign contempt of the opinion of the world in accomplishing any design for the aggrandizement of the Union, the most despotic and degrading oppression of all who presume to hold religious opinions at variance with those of the masses, and the chained bondsman in a land of liberty!

To guard the respectable settler, who has a character at stake, and a family with some little capital to lay out to better advantage than he can at home, against the grievous and often fatal errors which have been propagated for sinister motives by needy adventurers who have written about Canada, or who are or have been agents for the sake only of the remuneration which it brings, caring but little for the misery they have entailed, I have undertaken to continue an account of this fine province, where nothing is provided by Nature except fertile soil and a healthy climate; the rest she leaves to unremitting labour and to the exercise of judgment by the settler.

As I have already inferred, this work will contain nothing vituperative of the United States, of that people who are the grandchildren of Britannia, and whose well-being is so essential to the peace and security of Christendom.

I shall endeavour to render it as plain and unpretending as possible, and shall not confine myself to studied rules or endeavours to make a book, taking up my subject as suits my own leisure, which is not very ample, and resuming or interrupting it at pleasure or convenience.

It will be necessary to enter more at large than in my preceding volumes into the resources of Canada, and, for this end, Geology and other scientific subjects must be introduced; but, as I dislike exceedingly that heavy and gaudy veil of learning, that embroidered science, with which modern taste conceals those secrets of Nature which have been so partially unfolded, I shall not have frequent recourse to absurd Greek derivations, which are very commonly borrowed for the occasion from technical dictionaries, or lent by a classical friend; but, whenever they must occur, the dictionary shall explain them, for I really think it beneath the dignity of the lights of modern Geology to talk as they do about the Placoids and the Ganoids, as the first created fishlike beings, and of the Ctenoids and the Cycloids as the more recent finners. It always puts me in mind of Shakespeare's magniloquence concerning "the Anthropophagi and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, of antres vast and deserts idle," when he exhibited his learning in language which no one, however, can imitate, and which he makes the lady seriously incline and listen to, simply because she did not understand a word that was said. So it is with the overdone and continual changing of terms that now constantly occurs; insomuch that the terms of plain science, instead of being simplified and brought within the reach of ordinary capacities, is made as uncouth and as unintelligible as possible, and totally beyond the reach of those who have no collegiate education to boast of, and no good technical dictionary at hand to refer to.

The present age is most prone to this false estimate of learning and to public scientific display. If science, true science, yields to it, learning will very soon vanish from the face of the earth again, and nothing but monkish lore and the dark ages return.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet