| +-------------+-------------+------------
| | 5,558 0 0 | 2,587 5 10 |L2,228 14 6

We have also been favoured with a return of the shipping, which,
during the season of 1845, has entered this port. The reports to the
Custom House embrace 388,788. This return includes the steamers
employed on the Bay and Lake, when carrying merchandize; but, as the
law requiring vessels to report only came into force several weeks
after the opening of the navigation, and as it has not in all
instances been obeyed, the return is not quite as full as it might
have been under other circumstances. As much as 15,000 or 20,000 tons
have in this way entered without reporting. The amount of tonnage for
1845, stated above, is likewise exclusive of all that engaged n trade
on the canal and river, and which is very nearly equal in amount.

The Provincial Revenue returns for 1845 are said to exceed those of
1844 by L55,000.

Kingston is, in fact, the key of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence and
the Rideau Canal being their outlets for commerce; but, unless
railroads are established between the Atlantic at Halifax and these
Lakes, the prosperity of this and many other inland towns will be
materially affected, as by the enlargement of the Rideau branches at
Grenville, &c. and the La Chine Canal to the required ship navigation
size, Kingston must no longer hope for the unshipment of bulky goods
and the forwarding trade on which she so mainly depends; a glance at
the forwarding business done by the Erie Canal to New York on the
American side, and that by the Welland, St. Lawrence, and Rideau on
the Canadian, being quite sufficient to prove that all the energies of
the Canadians are required to compete with their rivals. And for this
purpose I cite an extract from a circular put forth by the Free Trade
Association of Montreal, which contains a good deal of sound reasoning
on this subject, amidst, of course, much party feeling on the Free
Trade principle.

"We now proceed, in the development of our plan, to show the
incalculable advantages that will result to Canadian commerce and the
carrying trade, by removing all duties and restrictions from American
produce.

"First, we shall show the amount of produce collected annually on the
shores of our great island waters, and brought to this city for
distribution to the various markets of consumption; next, the vast
quantity that pas