UNEASINESS IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 41 



It was natural, therefore, that all parties should feel 

 uneasy at such a state of things — a falling off in the reve- 

 nue of nearly one-third — and I was not surprised to hear 

 charges of the gravest nature occasionally made against 

 the competency, and even the honesty, of the existing 

 provincial Government ; or the Canadian grumblings 

 re-echoed, that connection with England, after all, was 

 the main source of colonial sufferings. It is human 

 nature, and especially the nature of political parties, to 

 ascribe to neglect or unskilfulness on the part of man 

 what physical or moral laws render it impossible to 

 prevent. 



I shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the exten- 

 sive diminution of the wheat crops in North America ; 

 but I may here merely mention, in connection with the 

 other causes of colonial depression, that the united fail- 

 ures, for a succession of years, of the wheat and potato 

 crops were further just causes of disquietude to the pro- 

 vincial population. It must have alarmed those who 

 were not themselves possessed of agricultural skill, or 

 who had not had an opportunity of looking at the whole 

 province with an agricultural eye, to learn from the 

 published returns that, in 1847, wheat and flour, to the 

 amount of about 240,000 bushels, were imported into 

 New Brunswick, and that the estimated value of all the 

 bread stuifs imported during that year was £280,000 

 currency. 



Beckoning all the grain imported at the average high 

 price of 40s. a quarter, this sum would imply, that at 

 least 140,000 quarters of grain, or their equivalent in 

 flour, were imported in 1847 — a quantity sufficient to feed 

 at least one-half of the whole population of the province. 

 It was natural, therefore, to say— if the lumber- trade 

 fail, and we can raise at home only enough of food to 

 support one-half of our population, where are the means 

 to be obtained by which the other half is to be kept 



