MONEY EXPENDED ON THEM. 375 



Below Montreal, the works in Lake St Peter cost 

 £75fi00, and the harbour of Montreal itself £131,000. 

 I do not include, of course, as executed by the province 

 the Rideau Canal, between the foot of Lake Erie and 

 the upper waters of the Ottawa, as this was executed 

 by the Home Government. It is a hundred and thirty 

 miles in length, has forty-seven locks, and cost £800,000. 

 Though intended chiefly as a military work, it will 

 prove of immense benefit to the future development of 

 the natural resources of the more northerly parts of 

 Upper Canada in the great basin of the Ottawa. 



Altogether, on the execution of canals and river- 

 improvements necessary to the direct navigation of the 

 St Lawrence from the upper lakes to the Atlantic, 

 upwards of £3,000,000 currency, or twelve millions of 

 dollars, have been expended by the Legislatures of 

 Upper and Lower Canada. This sum is not only large 

 absolutely or in itself, but it is especially so, compared 

 with the amount of revenue hitherto at the disposal of 

 the provincial Legislature of the Canadas. When we 

 consider, also, that the whole canal debt of the State of 

 New York is under seventeen millions of dollars, while 

 the Canadas have burdened themselves with a debt of 

 twelve millions, we shall be willing to allow that the 

 amount of energy displayed by the people north of 

 Lake Ontario and of the Thousand Isles is not less than 

 has been manifested even in the State of New York, 

 nor their faith less in the future growth and greatness 

 of their rising country. 



The result of all these improvements has been, that 

 more and more of the direct European traffic with the 

 great lakes has been making its way every year down 

 the St Lawrence, instead of by the Erie Canal — even 

 while that canal has been still able to overtake the 

 whole of the traffic. But now that it has become 

 evident that this canal, however it may be enlarged. 



