GOVERNMENT. 439 



petent to do so. But, as bearing upon the general comfort 

 and well-being of immigrants, I may remark that the 

 political institutions and government of the Dominion of 

 Canada is just the government and political institutions 

 of England, modified to suit a country in which population 

 is not only more thinly distributed, but individuals of 

 which are of a less helpless disposition than in the mother- 

 country. Thanks to their connection with England, 

 Canadians are saved the disreputable and demoralizing 

 periodical election of a president. They are free on the one 

 hand from the license that disgusts many in the neighbour- 

 ing republic ; and, on the other hand, from the rather 

 irksome paternal authority which an old country is com- 

 pelled to exercise over its numerous children who remain 

 at home. Each Canadian has so much elbow room that 

 he can practically go where he likes, and do what he likes, 

 without interfering with his neighbour. There is practi- 

 cally no such thing as trespass. Canadians have, perhaps, 

 mastered the theory of self-government more completely 

 than any other people. Municipal institutions, which in 

 an old country only exist in cities and towns, are uni- 

 versally applied through the Dominion. Every parish and 

 every township numbering three hundred souls is a local 

 municipality, for the management of its own local affairs, 

 making its own roads, bridges, &c., &c. Every man over 

 twenty-one years of age, who pays rates in this munici- 

 pality, has a vote; and the business is transacted by a 

 certain number of elected officers. 



But, indeed, no people in the world require less govern- 

 ing than the Canadians. Except in the cities, where, of 

 course, scamps collect, as they do in other parts of the 



