SIMILARITY OF THE FRENCH AND IRISH. 23 



Scotchman-born long a settler in New Brunswick, and 

 who for twenty years had been a member of the Provin 

 cial Legislature. Political relations had connected him 

 with the Irish Eoman Catholics of the province, and he 

 was particularly blind to all their faults and failings 5 

 while to those of the unhappy French Acadians his 

 eyes were wonderfully open. A badly ploughed field, 

 as we journeyed along, or an untidy fence, or dirty door 

 ways, or long-legged pigs, uniformly indicated to him 

 that the proprietor was of French extraction ; and we 

 occasionally made ourselves merry at his mortification 

 on finding that those he had confidently pronounced to 

 be French proved to belong to his favourite Mickcys 

 as the Irish Koman Catholics are nicknamed in New 

 Brunswick. At last he confessed to his prejudice 

 against everything French, and he traced it back to the 

 early days he spent in Forfarshire, when the war with 

 France was at the hottest, and schoolboy patriotism 

 expended itself in devising most cunning and valorous 

 schemes for destroying the hated Buonaparte and his 

 bloodthirsty men. 



Portable thrashing-machines travel the country at this 

 season of the year, and are hired by the day to the 

 farmers. The machine is driven by the horses of the 

 person who hires, and is worked by the two owners who 

 accompany it. The county Agricultural Societies have 

 exerted themselves to introduce these machines, and 

 where labour is scarce they are very useful * though the 

 expense incurred by the farmer in hiring them still 

 makes the thrashing a comparatively costly operation. 



Mr Blackhall s stony land accompanied us for a short 

 distance from his farm, after which we passed through 

 excellent hardwood desirable land, till we reached the 

 Pocmouche ferry. The Pocmouche is a small stream, 

 which runs only a short course, but becomes of impor 

 tance from its emptying itself into a wide arm of the 



