06 DISAPPOINTMENT WITH CANADA. 



sobriety. The houses and fences were inferior to those of 

 any district yet seen, and instead of the youthfulness and 

 never-ceasing activity of the States, there seemed the listless 

 repose of doating age. The brute creation partook of the 

 change horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, being inferior to those 

 on the opposite side of the frontier. If such was the state of 

 things in Niagara district the paradise of Upper Canada 

 little could be expected from other parts of the province. My 

 friends, at first, seemed to regard my opinions as more the re 

 sult of prejudice than observation, but in a few 7 days after, they 

 drew a contrast less favourable to Canada than I had done. 

 No unprejudiced traveller can spend a few hours on either side 

 of the frontier line without remarking the difference of the two 

 countries, and as the people, soil, and climate, were originally 

 alike, the circumstances in which the inhabitants have been 

 placed must alone account for the dissimilarity. If govern 

 ments affect the state of countries, politicians would do well 

 to visit both sides of the river Niagara. 



