246 COMPARISON WITH CANADIAN CITIES. 



£1,000,000 to the capital of the new States; while the 

 increased consumption of imported articles, by the added 

 population, augments the Federal revenue which is 

 derived from the duties levied upon imports. 



It is Europe, not America, therefore, that is the cause 

 of the rapid growth of the United States — European 

 capital, European hands, and European energy. If all 

 the native-born Americans — not being the sons or grand- 

 sons of Europeans — were to sit down and fold their 

 hands, and go to sleep, the progress of the country would 

 scarcely be a whit less rapid, so long as peace between 

 America and Europe is maintained. 



It is thoughtless in travellers to contrast the towns of 

 Buffalo and Eochester and Oswego, on the New York 

 side of the lakes, with Colburn, at the mouth of the 

 Welland Canal, on the Canadian side of Lake Erie — or 

 with Toronto and Kingston, on the opposite coasts of 

 Lake Ontario ; and to draw comparisons unfavourable to 

 Canadian energy and enterprise, from the relative pros- 

 perity of these several places. There is quite as much 

 energy in the blood of Upper Canada as there is in the 

 British and German blood of western New York. But 

 the local position of these towns of Upper Canada, and 

 the condition of the inner country, forbids their becom- 

 ing, for many years, equal in size or in wealth to the 

 towns I have named. Suppose Colburn, like Buffalo — 

 being at the end of canal navigation — had as large and 

 growing a population behind it, and as extensive and 

 valuable western territories before it, and that the high- 

 way from Europe lay through it instead of through 

 Buffalo, then Colburn would have rivalled or exceeded 

 Buffalo, even at this early period of their several histories. 

 But this slow town of Colburn, as many have thought 

 and called it, has nevertheless a great future before it. 

 The natural outlet of this western region is by the St 

 Lawrence. The Erie Canal is already unable to accom- 



