highway robbery,
until last year; but instances of both occurred near Toronto, and the
former twice at Kingston. The only use to such a class that a war
could be of would be to employ them; but it is to be predicted, if
peace exists much longer, that the civil and criminal jurisprudence of
towns and cities bordering on the great lakes must undergo very great
revision, and a suitable police be employed in them.

Nothing can, by any possibility, be more eminently absurd than the
police of Kingston as at present constituted. These men are dressed
like officers in the army; and, instead of being in the streets to
prevent accident or crime, are employed, as they say, hard at work,
detecting the latter. How they do now and then, at intervals few and
far between, succeed in detecting an unhappy loafer is a mystery to
everybody, for they are usually observed on the steps of the Town
Hall, or carrying home provisions from the market, with a fine dog
following them, or else jaunting about in cabs or sleighs.

London is said to have suffered much by the policemen finding their
way down the area steps of houses, and amusing themselves in cupboard
courtships with the lady-cooks, housemaids, and scullions; but I
verily believe Kingston has not arrived at that perfection of a
domestic police, for most of the men are middle-aged and married.

The cabmen and carters of Kingston, it is said, elect the Aldermen and
Common Council. Whether this be true or false, I cannot pretend to
say, but it is very certain that a more insolent, ungoverned race than
the cabmen do not exist anywhere. The best position of the best
promenade is occupied by these fellows; and no respectable female or
timid man dares to pass them without receiving coarse insult; and, if
complaint is made, they mark the complainant; and, if they keep a
sleigh or carriage, make a point of running races near them, and
cracking heavy whips to frighten their horses. One of these ruffians
frightened a gentleman's horse last winter, and threw him, his wife,
and daughter on the pavement, in consequence of the animal running
away, and overturning the vehicle they were in. They know all the
grooms and servants, and act according as they like or dislike them,
caring very little what their masters hear or see. The carters are
somewhat better, as there are decent men among them; but many of that
body care very little about the laws of the road, which, by the by,
are different here fro