204 
settlements. His Lordship brought his colony 
‘from the Highlands and isles of Scotland ; and by 
the convenience of the tenures under which he 
gave them lands, and by persevering industry on 
their part, these people have arrived at more 
comfort and happiness than they ever experienced 
before. The soil in this district is excellent ; the 
inhabitants are all in easy circumstances, and 
their number has encreased from 800 to nearly 
3,000. 
CarE BreTOoN contains 500,000 culti- 
vable acres. The population -does not 
amount to more than 17, or 18,000, chiefly 
depending on the fisheries. Mr. M’G. 
thinks the colony neglected. It is capable 
of supporting perhaps 300,000.—To Great 
Britain its possession is of the greatest im- 
portance. 
The nayal power of the French began to decline 
from the time they were driven out of the 
fisheries ; and the Americans of the United States 
would consider Cape Breton a boon more valuable 
to them as a nation than any of our West India 
islands would be. Did they but once obtain it as 
a fishing station, their navy would ina few years, 
I fear, have sufficient physical strength to cope 
with any power in Europe, not even excepting 
England. Let not the British nation, therefore, 
lose sight of this colony. 
The extent of cultivable ground in Nova 
Sco7ta is at least five millions, and a large 
proportion is still in the hands of govern- 
ment. The population amounts to about 
120 or 130,000. “* Slavery,” says the au- 
thor, “ does not exist in Nova Scotia; but 
there are 1,500 frée negroes assembled here 
from the West Indies and United States, 
and some natives.’’ very facility has been 
afforded to these people by the government, 
at a settlement laid out for them a few miles 
from Halifax, but they are still in a state of 
miserable poverty—the cause perplexes the 
writer. Lord Dalhousie’s exertions in this 
colony are highly extolled—he is represent- 
ed as governing here to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the colony—unlucky as he has been 
in Canada. Halifax is a very smart place. 
“¢ The state of society,’’ says the writer, “is 
highly respectable, and contains more well- 
dressed and respectable looking persons 
than any town of its size in England. The 
officers of the army and navy mix with the 
merchants and gentlemen of the learned 
professions, and ¢hws the first class of so- 
ciety is doubtless more refined than might 
otherwise be expected. The style of living, 
the hours of entertainment, aid the fashions, 
are the same as in England. Dress is fudly 
as much attended to as in London; and 
many of the fashionable sprigs, who ex- 
hibit themselves in the streets of Halifax, 
might, even in Bond Street, be said to have 
arrived at the ne plus ultra of dandyism.” 
* The population of New Brunswicx is 
at least 80,000. The crown holds between 
two and three millions of acres, and grants 
to settlers, in common soccage, reserving a 
quit rent of two shillings per hundred acres. 
Dhe fire of Miramichi, in 1825, is repre- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Fes. 
sented as the most dreadful conflagration 
that ever occurred. It spread over a hun- 
dred miles of country. 
It appears that the woods had been, on both 
sides of the N.W. branch of the St. John’s, par- 
tially on fire for some time, but not to an alarming 
extent, till the 7th of October, when it came on to 
blow furiously from the N.W., and the inhabitants 
on the banks of the river were suddenly alarmed 
by a tremendous roaring in the woods, resembling 
the incessant rolling of thunder; while at the 
same time, the atmosphere became thickly darken- 
ed withsmoke. ‘They had scarcely time to ascer- 
tain the cause of this phenomenon before all the 
surrounding woods appeared in one yast blaze, 
the flames ascending more than a hundred feet 
above the tops of the loftiest trees, and the fire, 
like a gulf in flames, rolling forward with in- 
conceivable celerity. In less than an hour Doug- 
lastown and Newcastle were enyeloped in one 
vast blaze, and many of the wretched inhabitants, 
unable to escape, perished in the midst of this 
terrible fire. Numbers were lost in lumbering 
parties. 
NEWFOUNDLAND, though first disco- 
vered, is the least known. A Mr. Cor- 
mack, of St. John’s, has done what no other 
European ever attempted, crossed the island 
—‘*a most arduous and perilous undertak- 
ing, when one considers,”’ says Mr. M’G., 
“the rugged and broken configuration of the 
country.’’ Bad as the climate may be, Mr. 
MG. thinks it calumniated. There is not 
so much ice as on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
nor so much fog as at Cape Breton. No- 
where do the inhabitants enjoy better health. 
The population amounts to about 90,000, 
with some few natives, a few families of 
Micmacs, Mountaineers, and Boethics (Red 
Indians). The country, on the whole, re- 
sembles very much the Western Highlands 
of Scotland, and will produce whatever will 
grow on them. The fisheries the author 
longs to monopolize. ‘The Americans em- 
ploy 1,800 or 2,000 schooners, of GO to 120 
tons, manned with 3,000 (that is, at the 
most, one man and a halfeach). “ Nothing,” 
says he, “could be more unwise than to 
allow either the French or Americans to 
enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence—it is a Me- 
diterranean, bounded by our colonies, and 
those powers had neither right nor pretence 
to its shores or its fisheries.”’ 
Generally, the writer considers these colo- 
nies as of far higher importance than the 
West India islands—especially with re- 
ference to emigration.— 
The svil, climate, and productions, adopt them 
for the support of as great a population as any 
country on earth; and in this respect are in- 
finitely more valuable than any of our other pos- 
sessions. New Holland and Van Dieman’s Land 
may be considered an exception ; but the distance 
of these countries from England will be for ever — 
an important objection to them. 
\ First Steps to Astronomy and Geo- 
graphy ; 1828.— That elementary books 
multiply is no evil, but a positive advan- 
tage—except in the eyes of those who 
