00 sterling, by a tax on
goods, wares, and merchandize, to be applied, as a voluntary gift to
His Majesty, from the province, to enable the King the more effectually
to prosecute the war. This was proposed by Mr. Attorney-General, Mr.
Young, and Mr. Grant, and as far as the House was concerned, the
measure was found practicable. But General Prescott, the Governor,
having been informed of the matter, did not think it expedient to
encourage a scheme which Lord Elgin would have jumped at.

In 1805, the whole revenue of the province was only L37,000, yet, it
appears that Sir Robert Milnes, the Governor, did not think that he
could sufficiently entertain to gain a due consideration from the
principal persons in the province, on L4,000 a year. He sent a whining
letter to Lord Hobart on the subject, begging for an increase of
salary. L5,000 was not a sufficient sum to keep up the hospitality of
Government House. It would hardly support the summer residence at
Spencer Wood. He had said nothing about so delicate a matter, while the
war lasted, though he had expended L1,000 a year out of his own private
income. And he would rather resign than sacrifice the comforts and
waste the means of his family.

Canada, now, continued steadily to advance, both politically and
commercially. Neither her political advancement nor the extent of her
commerce was great, but both were yearly becoming greater. During the
summer of 1806, one hundred and ninety-one vessels, 33,474 tons of
shipping, entered at Quebec. Coasters were in full and active
employment, and shipbuilding was to some considerable extent carried
on. The military of the garrison were still antiquated. The army made
no perceptible progress, soldiers still plastered their hair, or if
they had none, their heads, with a thick white mortar, which they laid
on with a brush, afterwards raked, like a garden bed, with an iron
comb; and then fastening on their heads a piece of wood, as large as
the palm of the hand, and shaped like the bottom of an artichoke, they
made a _cadogan_, which they filled with the same white mortar, and
raked in the same manner, as the rest of the head dress.[11] The army
wore cocked hats, knee breeches and gaiters. The _habitants_, or
peasantry, had retrograded, and Volney found that, in general, they had
no clear and precise ideas: that they received sensations without
reflecting on them; and that they could not make any calculation that
was ever so little co