Statistical Account of Upper Canada. y 



owing to the price and hard labour of breaking. Indeed, 

 the cuhure of hemp would have been probably disused en- 

 tirely, but for a ropework established at Amherstburgh by 

 Mr. Gilkison in conjunction with a Mr. Mills, where the 

 farmers, on allowmg a certain deduction of price for the 

 additional labour requisite to fit their hemp for use, have 

 lately found a steady and regular market. To obviate the 

 laborious process of the hand-break and scotching, Mr. 

 Gilkison has procured the model of a flax-mill, from which 

 he intends to erect, on a large scale, a mill for breaking and 

 cleaning hemp at Amherstburgh. The price of cordage at 

 the ropework, which can only yet be regarded as an expe- 

 riment, is still high, about five guineas per cwt. ; but this 

 is as much owing to the price of tar as to the hemp or la- 

 bour, for tar from the United States costs about three pounds 

 sterling per barrel. In time, however, if the experiment 

 succeed, tar will be made from the pines of the country, 

 and the necessity of importation obviated. 



Miscellaneous Considerations.— Th&xt are no historical facts 

 more valuable than those which relate to the formation of 

 communities, and the origin of nations ; nor, perhaps, are 

 the narratives of conquerors more interesting than the plain 

 tales of those who, by the virtue of their designs alone, have 

 improved the condition of mankind. The merits of William 

 Penn have long been justly venerated ; and the high moral 

 character of the Pennsylvanians even at this day, in the United 

 States, is the fairest monument that wisdom and enterprise 

 can hope to obtain. The earl of Selkirk's exertions to pro- 

 vide for " a gallant and hardy race of men*," whom a co- 

 ercive change of manners and the abolition of antient cus- 

 toms had deprived of their homes and hereditary importance, 

 will also be commemorated with respect, when the derision 

 with which they have been treated is forgotten, and the op- 

 position which distorted his original design is remembered 

 only to be contemned. His lordship's lands in Upper Ca- 

 nada were granted, like the other townships, on condition 



• Lord Chatham's description of the Highlanders. 



A 4 that 



