MONTREAL 
63 
sivS settlements on the British side of Lake 
Ontario,, at Niagara, at Toronto, at the Bay of 
Canti, and at Kingston, which contain nearly 
twenty thousand inhabitants ; and on the op¬ 
posite shore, the people of the states are push¬ 
ing forward their settlements with the utmost 
vigour. On Lake Erie, and along Detroit 
River also, the settlements are increasing with 
astonishing rapidity, both on the British and 
on the opposite side. 
The importance of the back country trade, 
and the trade to the lakes is in fact the back 
country trade, has already been demonstrated ; 
and it has been shewn, that every seaport 
town in the United States has increased in 
size in proportion to the quantum it enjoyed 
of this trade; and that those towns most con¬ 
veniently situated for carrying it on, were 
those that had the greatest share of it; as, 
therefore, the shores of the lake increase in 
population, and of course as the demand for 
European manufactures increases amongst the 
inhabitants, we may expect to see Montreal, 
which of all the seaports in North America 
is the most conveniently situated for supplying 
them with such manufactures, increase pro- 
portionably in size; and as the extent of back 
country it is connected with, by means of 
water, is as great, and also as fertile, as that 
with which any of the large towns of the 
