108 IMPRUDENCE CREATES DISCONTENT. 



The gentleman to whom I was indebted for conduct 

 ing me the first twenty miles on my journey to-day, 

 illustrated to me another source of the discontent of his 

 own neighbourhood : &quot; Most of us have burned our 

 fingers in lumbering. We have each our own small 

 mill, on our own small creek, and saw the lumber \ve cut 

 upon our own farms. On the faith of this trade we 

 have lived dashingly, spent our money, and even con 

 tracted debt, instead of laying by in good times. And 

 now, when times are bad, we blame the law-makers 

 instead of our own imprudence. I have suffered in this 

 way ; and though I am not ruined, yet if I had stuck to 

 my farm alone, I should have been better off to-day.&quot; 

 But it is so always, and in every country. The relative 

 loudness of popular complaints is by no means a crite 

 rion of the intensity of the popular grievances. 



I left my landlord Colquhoun in Hopewell early this 

 morning, to cross Albert County in a north-westerly 

 direction. Four miles of poor grey-sandstone soils 

 brought me to the village of Hillsborough, which stands 

 on the rising ground above the right bank of the Petit- 

 codiac, and has extensive flats of dyked marsh below it, 

 which are valued at 7 to 15 an acre. Up this river 

 for thirty miles, rich marsh-lands of greater or less 

 width occur; and these, with a border of fertile red 

 upland, give a succession of farms of very superior 

 quality. 



The Acadian French first occupied this rich tract of 

 country, and on the peninsula between the Petitcodiac 

 and the Memramcook Rivers they still hold much 

 land, and are said to be an improving body of people. 

 Many of them are leaseholders upon the De Barre 

 property, an old grant of the times of the French. I 

 heard much in praise of the wise energy and of the lessons 

 in improvement given them by their old priest, who had 

 recently died. There are few races of men among 



