31 



benefits of no ordinary kind upon the country 

 through which it flows, benefits that would be 

 increased to a value almost inestimable, upon 

 judicious means being adopted by the admi- 

 nistration of the mother country to secure to 

 Canada all, or even some, of the great ad- 

 vantages that its natural resources will ensure 

 to it. Its real consequence to the general 

 interests of the empire will never be questioned, 

 when it is viewed as the outlet by which pro- 

 duce, the property of British subjects, and of 

 vital importance to the state, can be exported 

 in British shipping to the mother country, and 

 render her independent of political chances^ 

 by which continental confederacy might again 

 attempt to exclude her from the ports of 

 Europe. That these advantages are not ideal^, 

 a comparison of exports from the colony for 

 the last ten years will abundantly prove ; and 

 although they have been neglected or over- 

 looked during a long and eventful period of 

 almost universal war, there remain hopes that, 

 with the return of peace, the views of states- 

 men will be turned towards the arts of industry 

 and commerce, and that this subject will be 



distance of about 660 miles, the river is wholly within the 

 British dominions; but, from the latter place, the boundary 

 between the Canadas and the United States is considered to 

 pass along the middle of it and the lakes. 



