102 EMIGRATION, OR 



unavoidably placed at the first settlement of the country ; 

 and like all other habits, not easily shaken off. 



The public prints at this period more than hinted that 

 Great Britain intended giving up this fine province to the 

 United States for an equivalent ; and although many persons 

 deemed the apparent inattention of the government to the 

 importance of Canada, a sanction to the rumour, it was too 

 absurd to be seriously thought of by any reflecting person. 

 During the late war, the noble stand made by the inhabi 

 tants, shewed the value they placed upon British laws and 

 protection, and proved that they do not want a separation, if 

 treated with justice and liberality ; they quickly fire, if any 

 attack is made on their freedom and privileges, but they are 

 as loyal as any county in England. At the commencement 

 of the late war, the province was invaded by the Americans in 

 great force, who had the choice of points of attack : they burnt 

 several places, and expected an easy conquest, from the un 

 prepared state of defence; yet with scarcely 1000 regular troops, 

 and undisciplined militia, drawn from a population of 50,000 

 men, (scarcely one to a square mile) they guarded a line of 500 

 miles, and eventually repelled their assailants. The conduct 

 of the Americans in that war has drawn the bonds of con 

 nexion closer to England, and the additional population, 

 cultivation, resources, commerce, and revenue of the coun 

 try, will become of such importance, as to render the pos 

 sessors of Canada virtually sovereigns of the sea ; therefore 

 to yield this province to &quot; the most restless and ambitious 

 nation on the globe,&quot; would be to enable them to become 

 conquerors of all our other possessions in America and the 

 West Indies, and render it unnecessary for them to sup 

 plicate a favour from any power in the world. 



There are ample proofs that the lakes and bodies of water 

 in these extensive countries, have covered a much larger 

 space than they now occupy ; for the mountain, as it is 

 generally called, which runs by Queenston to Ancaster (and 

 onward north-west) within a few miles of the south of the 

 head of Lake Ontario, approaching it at its extreme point, 

 js evidently an original bank of Ontario. The beds of gravel 

 and sand, in courses, the washed muddy clay, and indeed the 

 sub-soil in general, between the mountain and the present 

 boundary of the lake, as well as the off-sets and broken 

 fragments that tumble from the mountain sides, and the level 

 table land above, all coincide to prove the fact. How far this 



