REVIEWS — THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN AMERICA. 133 



very flattering to the former. Hamilton commands a larger attention, 

 and is described in a more graphic manner than Toronto, perhaps for 

 the very reason that it was less like what a British traveller is accus- 

 tomed to at home. Such at least was manifestly the impression it pro- 

 duced in the present case : — 



" Hamilton is, I think, the most bustling place in Canada. It is a very juvenile 

 city, yet already has a population of twenty-five thousand people. The stores and 

 hotels are handsome, and the streets are brilliantly lighted "with gas. Hamilton has 

 a peculiarly unfinished appearance. Indications of progress meet one on every 

 side, — there are houses being built, and houses being pulled down to make room 

 for larger and more substantial ones, — streets are being extended, and new ones 

 are being staked out, and every external feature seems to be acquiring fresh and 

 rapid development. People hurry about as if their lives depended on their speed. 

 I guess,' and ' I calculate,' are frequently heard, together with ' Well posted up,' 

 and ' a long chalk ;' and locomotives and steamers whistle all day long. Hamil- 

 ton is a very Americanized place ; I heard of ' grievances, independence, and 

 annexation,' and altogether should have supposed it to be on the other side of the 

 boundary-line." 



Ancaster, Dundas, Niagara, and other places of greater or less note 

 in Upper Canada, are described with equal life and vivacity ; and 

 thereafter, Montreal, Quebec, and the habitants of Lower Canada, with 

 the like evidences of the hastily formed impressions of an intelligent 

 wayfarer. Clifton House, and the Canadian side of "The Falls," 

 come in for a description too minute to be always complimentary. Our 

 traveller " did the Falls " as thorovighly as any enterprising traveller 

 could who had formed the resolution of being able to say she had done 

 them ; winding all up by going to the Rock House, donning a dress, 

 which she pronounced on looking in the mirror, made her look " as 

 complete a tatterdemallion as one could see begging upon an Irish 

 highway," and thus attired she accomplished the feat of going behind 

 the Falls, and reaching Termination Rock. A duly attested certificate 



rewarded her heroism, testifying to the fact " That Miss has 



passed behind the Great Falling Sheet of Water to Termination Rock, 

 being 230 feet behind the Great Horse Shoe Fall." This appeared so 

 satisfactory a document to bear away from Niagara, that she was sub- 

 sequently tempted to produce it to an American fellow-traveller in the 

 cars, when he entirely upset her self-complacency, by pronouncing it 

 " a sell right entirely, an almighty all-fired big flam ! " 



An interesting chapter is devoted to a statement of the capabilities 

 and prospects of Canada, its climate, population, and attractions for 

 emigrants. The impression produced on the writer's mind appears to 

 have been altogether favourable ; and with her concluding remarks on, 



