CANADA. 



laid to his charge, he bccomts idle, it is not till he 

 has obtained the object of his pursuit, what he con- 

 siders as a competency. The Frenchman, on the 

 contrary, with his troublesome and resiiess activity, 

 is led by enthusiasm, or some sudden fit, to under- 

 take a project, of which he has calculated neither 

 the expence nor the difficulties. More ingenious, 

 perhaps, he rallies the slowness of his German or 

 English rival, which he compares to that of an ox ; 

 but the German or the Englishman will answer with 

 his cool good sense, that the patience of the ox is 

 better adapted to the plough, than the fire of the 

 mettlesome racer. And in fact it often happens, 

 that the Frenchman, after having undone, corrected, 

 and altered what he had begun, and harassed his 

 mind with desires and fears, is at length disgusted, 

 and relinquishes the whole. The American settler, 

 slow and silent, does not rise very early; but when 

 he has once risen, he spends the whole of the day in an 

 uninterrupted series of useful labours. AtAreakfast, 

 he coldly gives orders to his wife, who receives them 

 with coldness and timidity, and obeys them without 

 contradiction. If the weather be fair, he goes out, 

 ploughs, fells trees, makes fences, or the like: if it 

 be wet, he takes an inventory of the contents of his 

 house, barn, and stables ; repairs the doors, windows, 

 or locks ; drives nails, makes chairs or tables; and is 

 constantly employed in rendering hit habitation se- 

 cure, convenient, and neat. With these dispositions, 

 sufficient to himself, he will sell his farm if an op- 

 portunity offer, and retire into the woods, thirty or 

 forty miles to form a new settlement. There he will 

 spend years in felling trees, making for himself first 

 a hut, then a stable, then a barn; clearing the ground 

 -and sowing it, &c. His wife, patient and serious as 

 himself, will second his endeavours on her part, and 

 they will remain sometimes six months without see- 

 ing the face of a stranger. But, at the expiration of 

 four or five years, they will have acquired an estate, 

 that ensures a subsistence to their family. The 

 French settler, on the contrary, rises early in the 

 morning, if it be only to talk of it. He consults 

 his wife on what he shall do, and listens to her ad- 

 vice. It would be a miracle if they were always of 

 the same opinion; the wife argues, opposes, dis- 

 putes ; the husband insists upon or yields the point, 

 is irritated, or disheartened. Sometimes his house is 

 irksome to him, and he takes his gun, goes a shoot- 

 Jng or a journey, or to chat with his neighbours. 

 At other times, he stays at home, and spends the 

 time in talking with good humour, or in quarelling 

 and scolding." " This alone is one of the most dis- 

 tinguishing and characteristic features of the two na- 

 tions; accordingly, the more I reflected on the sub- 

 ject, the more 1 am persuaded that the domestic si- 

 lence of the Americans is one of the most radical 

 causes of their industry, activity, and success in agri- 

 culture, commerce, and the arts; and the same ap- 

 plies to the English, Dutch, and other people of the 

 north, from whom they are descended. In silence 

 they concentrate their ideas, and have leisure to com- 

 bine them, and make accurate calculations of their 

 expences and returns. They acquire more clearness 

 in their thoughts, and consequently in their expres- 

 sions. Hence there is more decision in their conduct, 



C-rud*. 



both public and private, and it u more to the p-jint. 

 On the contrary, the Frenchman, with hit perpetual 

 domestic chattering, evaporates his ideas, submits 

 them to contradiction, excites around him the tattling 

 of women, backbiting, and quarrel* with his neigh- 

 bours ; and finds at length he has squandered away 

 his time, without any benefit to himself or his family." 

 " This moral and physical dissipation must have a 

 particular efficacy in rendering the mind superficial ; 

 for having several times questioned the frontier Ca- 

 nadians respecting the distances of times and placet, 

 or measures of magnitude or capacity, I have found 

 that, in general, they had no clear and precise ideas; 

 that they received sensations without reflecting on 

 them ; in short, that they knew not how to make any 

 calculation, that was ever so little complicated." 

 " But there is not a single American settler, who doet 

 not give with precision the number of miles, or hours, 

 and weights and measures, in feet or yards, pound* 

 or gallons ; and who does not very readily make a 

 calculation of several actual or contingent elements. 

 Now this kind of practical science has very impor- 

 tant and extensive consequences in all the operations 

 of life ; and it may surprise my reader to be inform- 

 ed, that it is much less common among tlie French, 

 even in Europe, than he would be disposed to ima- 

 gine." Volney's View nf the United Slates, p. 383, 



The cultivation of literature, of the arts and sciences Literature, 

 in Canada, has almost uniformly continued in the 

 lowest degree of degradation. It was the policy of 

 the French government to keep the people in a state 

 of ignorance ; the general levity and dissipation of 

 the colonists equally contributed -to the discourage- 

 ment of learning ; and the Jesuits alone possessed 

 any taste for the sciences, and any means of culti- 

 vating them. The progress of knowledge was not 

 greatly advanced by the conquest of the country by 

 the British. The first traders and settlers whom 

 this event introduced, were little qualified to com- 

 municate a taste for literary pursuits ; and an Alma- 

 nack continued for many years to be the only work 

 printed in the colony. Of late, however, the Ca- 

 nadians have evinced a greater inclination to favour 

 the productions of the press ; but still the whole ex- 

 tent of their exertions is limited to the publication 

 of four weekly newspapers, an almanack, and the 

 acts of the provincial assembly. Two of these pa- 

 pers, the Quebec and the Montreal Gazettes, are 

 published in English and -French, and contain the 

 proclamations and edicts of the governor, advertise- 

 ments of the sheriffs, &c. Other two, the Quebec 

 Mercury and the Canadian Courant, are published 

 in English, and resemble other periodical Avorks of 

 that description. Two others, indeed, entirely in 

 French, one called Le Cunudicn, a violent political 

 paper, and the other Lc Courier (/<. (frit'ltcc, rather 

 of a literary description, and chiefly intended to give 

 publicity to fugitive pieces, were produced for some 

 time, but are now no longer published. There are 

 two subscription librarit :> in Lower Can :da ; one of 

 which is kept in the building called the Bibhup's Pa- 

 lace at Quebec, and the other in one of the rooms 

 of the couit house at Montreal. Both of them con- 

 tain many useful and valuable works, which are year- 



