276 
Civil and Military Establishments 
sonable mode of punishment, and well adapted to the im- 
provement of a country ; but lest my readers might think this 
idea rather too refined for a Candian, I must at the same time 
inform him, that it always makes part of the punishment to 
carry the earth and rubbish back to the spot from which 
they were taken, and replace them in their original form. 
For more trivial offences the soldiers are curtailed of their pay 
and allowances. 
Distrust and jealousy, the constant attendants of arbitrary 
power, pervade the whole of the military system. The com- 
manders and other officers of the forces are never allowed to 
correspond, or even to see each other, except when the pub- 
lic exigency requires them to be brought together; and it is 
the policy of the king to encourage them to watch and act 
as spies upon each other, to prevent combination among them- 
selves or any intercourse with the Europeans. The last ob- 
ject seems indeed sufficiently guarded against by the continued 
chain of posts and watches established around the whole out- 
skirts of his dominions. Every inhabitant of the borders is a 
sentinel ; and, as many of them have their habitations placed 
on the tops of trees which overlook the whole country, it is 
altogether impossible to elude so many obstacles, and get ei- 
ther out of the country, or into it, by stealth or against their 
consent. Even in the interior of the Candian dominions the 
same jealous precautions are observed, and no one is permitted 
to pass from one district to another without first being exa- 
mined and producing his passport. This passport consists of a 
piece of clay stamped with a seal or impression denoting the 
profession of the bearer: the passport for a military man re- 
presents a soldier with a pike or gun on his shoulder j that 
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