412 INFLUENCE OF THE MERCANTILE INTEREST. 



are themselves sometimes master of — are, on the whole, 

 more independent, and less liable to great vicissitudes 

 than themselves, they now look to farming as a pur- 

 suit to settle down in, are buying land, spending their 

 spring leisure In clearing it, and, when they have pre- 

 pared it for their families, in placing them permanently 

 upon it. Of this class of settlers are many of those 

 v/hose farms I saw on my excursion up the Eel River 

 to-day, and It is In this way that what has been called 

 the failure of the lumber-trade — which, at the shipping 

 ports, has made the merchants exclaim loudly against 

 the change of the timber-duties at home, and has even 

 put the cry of Annexation into the mouths of many^s 

 really leading to the most permanently beneficial results 

 for the colonies themselves. The steady settled farmer 

 is worth, to the future welfare and prosperity of the 

 colony, a dozen unsettled lumberers, who this season 

 may cut timber on the provincial rivers for the merchants 

 of St John or Quebec ; the next may be off to the Aroos- 

 took or the Penobscot, in the service of the merchants of 

 Bangor or Portland ; and the third may be found in 

 Georgia, toiling among the pine-barrens for the lumber- 

 merchants of Boston ; and who, If they remained in the 

 colony, would continue an unsteady and unthrifty race. 

 It Is not denied that the mercantile interest has hitherto 

 exercised, in some of the North American colonies, more 

 than a due share in the management of affairs, and that 

 past legislation has been biassed considerably by this 

 dominant Influence. It cannot be doubted that the same 

 Influence has also operated, through the press and 

 the hustings, in creating, or endeavouring to create, an 

 impression In the provincial mind as to the feelings of 

 people at home, and as to the purpose and ultimate 

 tendency of home legislation, which will not, I think, 

 be justified by further knowledge and experience. 



To show the natural capability of the new land these 



