OPINION OF A FREE CHURCH MINISTER. 3 



Nineteen miles from Dalhousie, we stopped to refresh 

 ourselves and rest our horses. The settlers thus far are 

 mostly from Arran ; and here I met with a Free Church 

 minister from the same island, who had been in the 

 province for a couple of years, and occasionally preached 

 in Gaelic. Most of the Scotch settlers, he informed me, 

 had joined the Free Church. They had already one 

 church twelve or fifteen miles on this side of Dalhousie, 

 and are about to build another in the town itself, where 

 there is already one belonging to the Scottish Establish 

 ment. He was the only person I had hitherto met with 

 who, though he did not speak distinctly out, showed, by 

 his manner and conversation, that he was dissatisfied 

 with the country perhaps it might be with his situa 

 tion in it. He acknowledged that the climate was very 

 healthy, and that all the settlers were prospering, but 

 that he would not encourage any persons to come out 

 and settle here. His chief grievances were, that the 

 winter was very cold, and that the farmers could get 

 no money for their grain and other produce from the 

 merchants. 



It is possible that the .peculiarities of his situation, or 

 his recent arrival in the country, may make this gentle 

 man think more of these two difficulties than they 

 deserve. His profession may expose him more to the cold 

 in winter, or he may feel it more, from being already 

 beyond the middle of life when he arrived, and having 

 less of the bodily exercise which the farmer is obliged 

 to take. And as he has to depend on his farming 

 friends, I suppose, mainly for his support, he may suffer 

 more than others from the system of barter, which is 

 almost a necessity in a new country like this, and must, 

 for a long time, be the chief mode of conducting busi 

 ness between the cultivator and the importer. The 

 farmer gives his grain to the country-merchant, and gets 

 tea, sugar, cloth, and leather in return. The latter 



