180 AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURAL LAWS WHICH 



have continued at the same rate ? if so, it would have driven the 

 river out of its bed — and many an unfortunate dweller on its banks 

 out of their beds also. There is every reason to fear that the growth 

 is more rapid after it can be measured by feet than while it is confined 

 to inches ; and then the question comes, could such a state of things 

 continue for another day ? or is there, either in the intensity of the 

 frost or in the volume of icy moss produced by it, an antidote to the 

 evils threatened by them ? An all wise and merciful Power prevents 

 our rivers from becoming solid masses of ice by the apparently para- 

 doxical law, that in winter the bottom waters shall not rise to the 

 surface to be cooled, although in summer the great lakes thus temper 

 the intense heat ; and may there not be the same beneficent and self- 

 regulating provision by which intense frost — which is but the result 

 of magnetic activity — produces its own antidote ? If there is not, 

 the day may possibly come when the St. Lawrence will, for a time, 

 take the direct railway route from Lachine to Montreal, a valley it 

 once occupied, but whether as a winter channel or otherwise geolo- 

 gists must decide. 



AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURAL LAWS WHICH REGU- 

 LATE THE INTERCHANGE OF COMMODITIES BE- 

 TWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS, AND THE 

 EFFECTS OF INTERFERENCE WITH THEM. 



BY REV. WILLIAM HINCKS, F.L.S., ETC. 



R&ad before the Canadian Institute, March 29th, 1862. 



The subject I have undertaken to discuss this evening, is some- 

 what too extensive for the time I can presume to occupy, and is one 

 upon which I cannot pretend to throw any new light ; but it is one of 

 great and general interest, any doubts and difficulties relating to 

 which may certainly be settled by reasonable inquiry ; and having a 

 strong conviction myself, which is not, I may safely say, a mere ac- 

 ceptance of the authority of others, however high in public estima- 



