222 



DUFFIELD, GEORGE. 



an officer or a contractor under the commis- 

 sioners." Reliable figures as to finance and 

 trade in the Dominion since its formation could 

 not be obtained up to a .recent date, the official 

 answer to a request for particulars being, J'The 

 accounts of the Dominion and of the Provinces, 

 for the first year of the Union, are not yet 

 ready for publication." It may be interesting, 

 however, to state that the ordinary revenue 

 of all the Provinces the year before confedera- 

 tion was $15,842,380; the ordinary expendi- 

 ture was $15,227,168. The imports for the 

 same year were $84,000,000, including about 

 $6,000,000 of coin and bullion; the exports, 

 $65,000,000, including $3,000,000 of specie. 



The united debt of the former Provinces of 

 Canada, and the Provinces of New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, at the time of the Union, 

 was not less than $90,000,000 $75,000,000 

 for the former, and $15,000,000 for the latter 

 to which will be added, almost immediately, 

 at least $28,000,000 for Intercolonial Railway, 

 fortifications, and purchase of northwest terri- 

 tory. This will be no small total for a popu- 

 lation of not more than four millions to grapple 

 with; and should the population not increase 

 more rapidly than at present, and a further 

 influx of British capital not take place, there 

 would be little justification for an early expen- 

 diture for enlarging canals, and an extension 

 of railways objects of lively interest at pres- 

 ent to a mercantile party in the Dominion. 



There are twenty-six chartered banks in the 

 four Provinces, viz., in Ontario, six ; Quebec, 

 eleven; New Brunswick, four; Nova Scotia, 

 five ; capital varying from $60,000 to $6,000,000. 

 The total authorized capital is $38,000,000, the 

 greater part of which is paid up. In March 

 last the oldest bank in Ontario was obliged to 

 suspend, and become amalgamated with the 

 Merchants' Bank, two-thirds of its capital stock 

 of $4,000,000 disappearing in the process. In 

 November the Commercial Bank of St. John's, 

 New Brunswick, failed, causing a severe finan- 

 cial crisis. A number of failures of wholesale 

 houses in Quebec has had a most prejudicial 

 effect on credit and business generally. A re- 

 cent report of one of the banks in Montreal, 

 referring to these failures, says : " Commercial 

 morality appears so singularly debased, that a 

 large portion of the community seem to con- 

 sider it not dishonorable to become bankrupt, 

 or even fraudulently bankrupt, as a means to 

 enrich themselves." This does not apply so 

 much to the west, where there has been a con- 

 tinued growth of prosperity, owing to a series 

 of abundant harvests. 



The political government of the Dominion 



C A nt | nnes the same as at ^ e Olltset > Sir Jonn 

 A. MacDonald the presiding genius. Lord 

 Monck has been replaced as Governor-General 

 by bir John Young, baronet, etc., a man of 

 high reputation as an administrator. 



DUFFIELD, Rev. GEOEOB, D. D., an Ameri- 

 can Presbyterian clergyman, scholar, and au- 

 thor, born in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pa., 



July 4, 1794 ; died in Detroit, Mich., June 26, 

 1868. He was of Revolutionary stock, his 

 grandfather having been a distinguished patriot 

 and chaplain of the First Congress of the Uni- 

 ted States. His father was a merchant, and 

 for nine years Comptroller-General of Pennsyl- 

 vania. He early developed a passion for learning, 

 and graduated with honor from the University 

 of Pennsylvania at the early age of sixteen. The 

 ensuing autumn he entered the Theological 

 Seminary in New York City, then under the 

 care of the celebrated Dr. John M. Mason, and 

 after a four years' course there was licensed in 

 April, 1815, by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. 

 In December of the same year he was called 

 to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church 

 in Carlisle, Pa., and soon after his settlement 

 there married a daughter of the celebrated 

 Divie Bethune. He remained in this pastorate 

 for nineteen years, and then accepted a call to 

 the Fifth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, 

 as successor to Rev. T. H. Skinner, D. D. Two 

 years later he was called to the Broadway 

 Tabernacle, New York, but remained there 

 but a single year, when he again removed in 

 October, 1838, to Detroit, Mich., and became 

 pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in that 

 city. Here he found his home, and remained 

 till the close of his ministry and life. He was 

 well adapted for puch a post, and for thirty 

 years he was a pillar of strength in all great 

 measures of reform and progress. Michigan 

 and the whole Northwest owe much to him 

 for his broad views, his untiring zeal, and his 

 hearty cooperation jn all movements for the 

 promotion of education, science, and philan- 

 thropy. Few men in our country were so fully 

 conversant with all departments of science, or 

 possessed so wide and liberal culture. He was 

 particularly well versed in all the branches of 

 physical science : astronomy, meteorology^, ge- 

 ology, mineralogy, geography, and chemistry, 

 and all the departments of natural philosophy, 

 were subjects of constant study and observation 

 with him, and he was the peer of the special 

 cultivators of each, in Ms thorough knowledge 

 of them. As a preacher he was able, eloquent, 

 logical, and often profound ; as a writer, the 

 master of a clear, vigorous, and brilliant style, 

 often original, and always interesting by the 

 wide range of illustration he could bring to 

 embellish his argument. Possessing a strong 

 will, extraordinary moral courage, and yet great 

 tenderness and gentleness, he exerted, perhaps, 

 a more powerful influence than any preacher in 

 the Northwest. In the late war, he was conspic- 

 uous for his patriotism, and seconded, with all 

 Ms eloquence and fervor, the efforts to increase 

 the number of our troops in the field, and the 

 measures adopted to provide for the sick and 

 wounded soldiers and their families. Notwith- 

 standing his age, he went repeatedly to the 

 "battle-field as a delegate of the Christian Com- 

 mission, and ministered to the wounded, aided 

 in burying the dead, and performed labors from 

 which many younger men would have shrunk. 



