60 ONTARIO. 



bushes around the buildings have been left as much as 

 possible as nature fashioned them. There are no terraces, 

 no statues, no tawdry railings, or ornaments on the river 

 side. Where nature is so grand these would be quite out of 

 place. The House of Commons grows out of the spruce-clad 

 rock, emblematic of a great and powerful country growing 

 out of the pine forest and the prairie. The view from the 

 library of the House of Commons is magnificent ; on one 

 hand the Ottawa river, foaming through countless little 

 wooded islands, dashing itself over the falls ; on the other 

 a fine reach of the river presents itself to the eye. All 

 around, as far as the eye can reach, and this is a long way 

 in the clear climate, is the great forest in its glory of 

 colour and form. 



Ottawa city is at present in the condition of an un- 

 finished house. Stone, bricks, and wood lie about in piles. 

 Private houses, banks, churches, &c., are springing up 

 here and there, not in a desultory way, but with an 

 ulterior plan. Ottawa is not a cardboard city ; there are 

 no shanties, no shoddy. Everything is solid, substantial, 

 and handsome, giving promise of a great future. Much 

 civilization is centred here. There is indeed a peculiar 

 charm in these Canadian cities, which combine the advan- 

 tages of civilization with the charm of a wild country. 

 Ottawa has some resemblance to the country-seat of a rich 

 English nobleman, whose house is hospitably filled with 

 pleasant people, while his park stretches far around him 

 in the midst of a quiet rural landscape. But there is one 

 great difference between the two. In an old country, side 

 by side with immense wealth and excess of luxury, squalid 

 poverty and extreme want are always to be seen. It is a 



