Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-03 00:00:00

CANA D 4.

ARRIVAL OF OF THE NORTH AMERICAN.

The Montreal Ocean Steamship Company's screw
steamer North. 'American, Captain. Grange, arrived
here last evening. She sailed' from Quebec on the
20thinst-, and brings upwards of 500 passengers,
100 of which were in cabin, including his Excellency
the Governor-General, Sir Edmund Head ; also, as
steerage passengers, about 418 men, women, and
children, belonging to the 16th and other regiments.
The steamer Clyde sailed for Glasgow in company
with the North American, and had about 20 cabin
and 50 steerage passengers.
We very much regret to learn that all efforts. to
remove the steamer Canadian from her perilous
position have proved unavailing, and although she
was got off the point on which she lay, she sank
in fifteen fathoms of water. The cause of this
disaster is worth inquiring into. " Every one,"
says the Montreal Transcript, " will allow that the
success, speed, and regularity of our ocean steam-
ships is intimately connected with the prosperity
of this city ; and yet twice has the Canadian been
run a:shore beethe ignorance. stupidity, or drunken-
ness of her pilots ! Her character, her owners,
her officers, seamen, and passengers, as well as
this new route from Europe to the great West has
been injured thereby. How is this? Can nothing
be done to prevent the recurrence of such catas
tropnea e
: Surely the Trinity House ought to
institute a strict -investigation into the habits,
kr""lledgn. and skill of. every. one of . the -Branch
Pilots E
1.. °' the Gulf and- River—and suspend or
easeier for ever those who are in fault. The Board
of Trade should take the matter up."
"Sir Edmund Head was presented with several
.dclreeses at Quebec juSt.previous to his embarks-
."'" on Board the North- American, to which he
replied with much feeling. 'We copy the following
reviw e
of his Excellency's administration of the ove
raiment of this province from the Toronto
n'ender :--
To-day his Etee7lency Sir Edmund Head, Governor-
for oeneral of British North America, leaves by special train
Quebec, en route for England. His Excellency, wh
Will. embark in the North American steamer from Quebec,
goes, we believe, by the Canadian Ocean Steam Line as a
/natter of deliberate preference. In the meantime, the
Tgovernment will be administered by General Eyre, com-
onder of the forces, who is not, however, expected in
Tronto for about a fortnight. The trip of Sir Edmund is
spoken of as a visit to England, but of what duration it is to
he has not been announced. Where so little is known of
the real facts—the object and nature of the visit, or its
Probable duration, it is almost inevitable that speculation
should be busy at work to supply the plaee of positive
tiltelligence. Some will have it that His Excellency is
Itl°ing for gool and all; but they do not tell us that he there is
his post or beetere-called. Be this as it may,
is a vague, misty notion in the public mind that Sir
nd Head'h'as'coMpleted the active term of his career
as %Yernor, and that he never will return. The facts
,b,,.he is discharging servents, and is to be accompaded
tJ,uls family are quite sufficient for many who are disposed
foa ue_ credulous on the subject. Sir Edmund Head has so-
dar kd the advantage of smooth sailing. There has been,
up.rbaleg t, be time he has been Governor-general, no violent
"lag of party feeling ; no general election, and no
8,,a01l crisis as connects itself with the change of executive
:ea?! or from one set of hands to another. He has seen
on'elag no parties who were foimerly arrayed against 4
tem"loother disseverance of old party ties wed the
eve e"al of absolete party landmarks. The elements which
prior vv'at to be in strife bad united iri friendly harmony
earoreoto., the arrival in the country of Sir Edmund Heal.
essential ustitution had so far become settled, in the great
called of executive responsibility, that he has not been •
of this'! °Pon to witness the adjustment of any controversy
, nature.. to stir n +L . There has been no rebellion losses question
f r,e,.P the old animosity of rival factions ; no destruction
itle,le buildings; no hasty flight of the Government
fo-rtra one city to another. It has been the peculiar good
plagued
Sir Edmund Head to be free from all these
his prod of aduiinistration, which dogged the footsteps of
tet,. eaecessor. He has been put to no -eat! a. ordinary-
e 4, but has merely been called upon to discnarge the
oast urine
romine duties of Provincial Administration. The
:sandard by which Sir Edmund has been tried, since his
ii,the siphon of the Government of Canada, is rather below
,O average than :Above it. But he has at east this conso-
,a,uoD, that if no unusual glory has crowned his career,
tne opportunity of acquiring it has not been present. And
'4l the whole, we think it fortunate that such has
aeon the. ease for without any disposition to depreciate
lalzygnalifieition which his Excellency may possess, it may •
‘,. doubted ll he be a man equal to great emergencies. In
the session of 1856 there was a minisielial crisis, and many
!tfatleied, at the'time, that they could observe a want of that
itenaan-like sagacity which carried Lord Elgin trium..
t'antlY through difficulties of a ten fold more serious
theure And, even now, time has not modified the opinions
, - more. generally held than expressed, that there was
oueervable is his Excellency's course a want of that vigor-
°lts sagacity, and' calculating boldness, which cut at one
!ystroke the Gordian knot of political crisis. This, how-
er, is but matter of opinion; and if we are to judge by
Citvnee !Fault, we shall find ite it something which. goes far to
lcate the course of Sir Edmund in that crisis.
~„ saY that Sir Edmund Head has had no
memorial., enemaes.reettorshin, to contend -against during his
~ Would be uutrue. A report being set afloat
the
His Exe. Ilency, in a pubic speech, bad characterised
4% 9elqe n.alulation of Lower Canada as an " interne:
all the naturally found some to credit it; and in spite of
r',.!_ttlie denials that could be made, it must be owned that
this tXeelleney's popularity suffered from the rumour. To
,_°.lB day there are many French Canadians who, from this
‘dltus, cannot be brought to regard Sir Edmund-without
ejl'favour; who will neither be convinced that they are
f Wag, disabused of their prejudice, nor forget, if they
orgive the supposed slight to the origin and the race
Which' they'
own, and of which they are sensitively proud.
~0 sueb a length was 1
18ths unfortunate.antipathy carried,
teat during the seSsiou of 66, petitio►ns were.presented to
parliament for an address demanding the recall of the
Governor-General. 'Andes- the old prejudice still survives,
in the breasts of a section:, of the F'iench Canadians, it
follows that Sir Edmund Read could never be genet ally
Popular in Canada. Among the rest of the populetiOn,
eit!'a° act attributed to him has awakened any keen or lasting
tiPatli.Y. It is not to be denied that yon' find persons
send..s to make disparaging comparisons between the
Governor-General and his predecessor ; to contend
teatte a Statesman of high rank ought to be appointed to
:important an office; and that, independent of his rank
IsOne but a fist-rate man should ever be entrused with the
istinction. Were it now a question of appointing a new
Governor-General we should be disposed to agree with
this, standard of qualification. Not that a live
Lord Will necessarily make a better Governor than
4 Baronet ; but that all democratic as this com-
immity is sometimes stippozed to be, it rather pre-
That a lord to one who has not so high a positiou.
se:bat none but first-rate men, be their rank what it may,
ei,loild be appointed .to the post of Governor-General ot
rsitiah North America, the importance of the office is itself
41`02M.pient reason. It is true we expect in our governors
tonlye.tbneg of the neutrality which marks the eenstitutional
insist teiau ; nay,
we should, if necoseary, be Prepared to
Illion it; and a king log may some' be considered
asnooe
tinrci as anything else. But we do not admit that a
ho man would be so likely to keep within the
tieaenl dof constitutional neutrality as one of greater poli-
Aveued aeltY and grass of information. Such, we repeat,
orrice ,be our views of the kind of person on whom the
,oeoe ?f Governor-General Of British North America
et
. ;,'"' wise, bestowed, were it uow a question of appointing
,14ocessr. to Sir Edmund Head.
:La. action had been brought in Quebec, for
In 11g'eS against the Grand Trunk Company, at
oee' Instance of Charles- Heepe, Esq., an English r6:W9Paan, who claimed ttY have sustained injury,
ex-,EII ali, :ct damage, to thnamount of 1,9004, by the
coenfSion oe the Ferry Boat, belonging to this
The Cerny, at Longuenil,, on the 10th June lust.
fused. on.Pann had offered 2501., but this was re-
eed. The Jury gave a verdict for 125/. only.
The Hon. Etienne Paschal Taehe had been ap-
pointed Coneii,:issioer of Crown Lands for the
rrovince of Canada. 1,, ,
u accounts of, the crops
from the different • ''' '
sectione of the province are very
variable.
le. The wheat crop
in the townships of the
of Wentworth Rllll Halton is by no meane
promising or cheering. The grass crops look well.
opting crops are reported good. In th.e townships
Mose, Dunwich, Alborg' and Ekfrid, the wheat
Crop looks extremely well. In the township of
eleteait on the other hand, it is not expected
that the fall wheat will be au is
crop.
The spring crops in that townel4 look
Weil, and there is a great breadth of
gronee
Under wheat. In the township of Catadock,
Wre heat and all other descriptions of crops
there is
a lel,
far to. look cheering. In these townships
ore ground under crop than in any
former year.. m
ant. In the
The grass crop is exceedingly luxri-
township of Adelaide the fall whu
eat
has been severely injured by the severity of the

winter, but the spring crops generally promise well
In this township, and likewise in the township of
Metcalf, there has been a great scarcity of pout .oes,
oats, and pease tor seed, in consequence of which it
is feared much land has been allowed to remain
unoropped. In the township of Deleware . there
are good prospects of fair average crops of all kinds.
The fruit trees give good promise. In the town
ships of Macgillivary and S,ephens the fall wheat
looks positively bad. Many farmers have ploughed
up their fields, and put in spring wheat instead
The fall wheat in those townships will not average
more than half a yield. The spring crops look
well. The Galt Reporter speaks unfavourably of
the prospects of the crops in that neighbourhood.
The crops in the neighbourhood of Cayuga have im-
proved much is appearance within the last few days.