avourite hobbyhorse style of ours, which causes
description to start up as recollections occur, accompanied the lumberer
on his voyage to that lumberer's Paradise, Quebec, whither he has
conducted his charge to The Coves, for the culler to cull, the marker to
mark, the skipper to ship, and the lumber-merchant to get the best
market he can for it, so we shall return for a short time to Lower
Canada, to talk a little about settlement there.

As I hinted before, Lower Canada is too much decried as a country to
re-commence the world in; but the Anglo-Saxon and Milesian populace are
nevertheless beginning to discover its value, and are very rapidly
increasing both in numbers and importance. The French Canadian yeoman,
or small farmer, has an alacrity at standing still; it is only _le
notaire_ and _le medecin_ that advance; so that, if emigration goes on
at the rate it has done since the rebellion, the old country folks will,
before fifty more years pass over, outnumber and outvote, by ten times,
Jean Baptiste, which is a pity, for a better soul than that merry
mixture of bonhomie and phlegm, the French Canadian is, the wide world's
surface does not produce. Visionary notions of _la gloire de la nation
Canadienne_, instilled into him by restless men, who panted for
distinction and cared not for distraction, misled the _bonnet rouge_
awhile: but he has superadded the thinking cap since; and, although he
may not readily forget the sad lesson he received, yet he has no more
idea of being annexed to the United States than I have of being Grand
Lama. In fact, I really believe that the merciful policy which has been
shown, and the wise measure of making Montreal the seat of government,
and thus practically demonstrating the advantage of the institutions of
England by daily lessons in the heart of their dear country, has done
more to recall the Canadians to a sense of the real value of the
connexion with Great Britain than all the protocols of diplomatists, or
all the powder that ever saltpetre generated, could have achieved.

Pursue a perfectly impartial course, as you ought and must do, towards
the Canadians, and show them that they are as much British citizens as
the people of Toronto are, and you may count upon their loyalty and
devotion without fear. They know they never can be an independent
nation; that folly has been dreamed out, and the fumes of the vision are
evaporating.

They now know and feel that annexation to the gr