68 Our Colonies: [July, 



the coiinti-y cannot be restored to a sense of security and to quiet, but 

 when his Excellency the Earl of Dalhousie, shall have been recalled from 

 his government, and his administration changed ; when the jilaces of the 

 present Attorney General, James Stuart, Esq., and the present Solicitor 

 General, Charles Richard Ogden, Esq., shall be filled by other persons ; 

 and the representative body of the province be assembled, and placed in 

 a condition to proceed with all its privileges and just powers, for the 

 safety of the people." 



The remarks of the Committee upon this extraordinary (to say the 

 least of it) proceeding on the part of the government of Canada, are 

 milder than might have been expected — much milder than they would 

 probably have used, but for the necessity they were under to close their 

 report speedily, in order that it might be acted upon. They say, they 

 " have hitherto felt that they should best and most usefully discharge 

 their duty by stuchously abstaining from commenting upon the official 

 conduct of individuals : but it is impossible for them not to call the 

 serious and immediate attention of his majesty's government to these 

 allegations. They also feel bound to urge upon his majesty's govern- 

 ment, in the most especial manner, their opinion, that it is necessary, 

 that a strict and instant inquiry should take place into all the circum- 

 stances attending these prosecutions, with a view to giving such instruc- 

 tions upon them, as shall be consistent with justice and policy." 



Pour coinble de honheur, it seems, too, that the session of the legislature, 

 ill Upper Canada, has been abruptly broken up in consequence of 

 disputes between the local government, and the House of Assembly 

 tliere. 



Such is the present posture in which the popular and important 

 colony of the Canadas stands with regard to this country. The picture 

 is drawn, not, be it remembered, from the complaints of the petitioners, 

 but from the result of the inquiries of the Committee, founded upon 

 the serious and deliberate evidence of respectable and well-informed 

 persons, and arrived at after careful investigation. Can any one 

 contemplate, on the one hand, the value of those possessions to Great 

 Britam — a value which is daily increasing* — and, on the other, the pro- 



* A very amusing and readable (if not a very well-written) book has been recently pub- 

 lished by an intelligent person, Mr. IM'Taggart, called " Three Years in Canada," in 

 which the future importance of Canada is placed in a very striking point of view. Mr. 

 BI'Taggart is a civil engineer, and was employed in that capacity in the construction of 

 some of the public works carrying on in Canada, and particularly in the formation of the 

 canals. A^'^ith some of the enthusiasm which is natural to a man devoted to his profession, 

 but, at the same time, with a large portion of sound common-sense, he speaks of the prac- 

 ticability of effecting a communication by water between England and China, through that 

 part of the continent of America, which is yet in the possession of Great Britain. 



" This famous canal," he says, " will be finished in a few years, as far as the summit- 

 level. Steam-boats may go up from Quebec to Lake Superior, ere three years from this 

 time : from thence, with little trouble, tliey will pass through the notch of the rocky 

 mountains, and be locked do. vn the Columbia, to the Pacific Ocean. The route, however, 

 will be better to be kept off the American frontier, which is Columbia, and to go down 

 Cook's river, or the large Salmon river, at Nootka Sound. The town of Nootka is likely 

 yet to be as large as London, and ought to be laid out on an extensive plan, as the trade 

 between it and the Oriental world may become wondeifully great in a short time. Tlien, 

 when the steam-packet is established between Quebec and London, as it soon will be, we 

 may come and go between China and Britain in about two months. Tlie names of the 

 stages will be, London, Cove of Cork, the Azores, Newfoundland, Quebec, Montreal, 

 Kingston, I'ort Dalliousie, Port Maitland, Erie, Huron, Superior, Kocky Mountains, 

 Athabaska, Nootka, and Canton." — Three Years in Canada, ml, \,p. 1(5!). 



