The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

The British American Provinces.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times)
OTTAWA, Aug. 2.
Ottawa may or may not grow into a populous
city, in virtue of the greatness thrust upon it by a
late Canadian Administration and her Majesty Queen

Victoria, who several years ago selected it as the
political metropolis of the two Canadas. However
the future may decide in this respect, it admits of

less doubt, if its people had sufficient enterprise and
capital to turn the rapids and falls of the Ottawa to
proper account, that it might become the seat of a
prosperous and varied manufacturing industry. No
one, however unpractical his turn of mind may be,
can stand upon the Suspension Bridge over the
chasm formed by the big river, or, better still, upon
the ledge of rock under the saw-mill, and survey the
surging, seething masses of foam that dash down a
wall of broken and irregular rocks, varying from 15

to 25 feet in height, to the lower level which,with:the
exception of two slight runs or rapids, the Ottawa
occupies until its junction with the St. Lawrence at
Lachine, without coming to the conclusion that there

is water power enough within a space of 300 or 400
yards from the bridge on each side of the river to
turn the wheels of 1,000 factories. On one side is a
raging whirlpool, aptly named the " Chaudiere," in
which above a third of the descending waters are,
lost in the bowels of the earth, to reappear no more,
so far as human research has yet discovered. The
remainder surges and boils over a wide expanse of
rock, and forms not one, but apparently a hundred,
waterfalls of various degrees of power and beauty.
On the other side, farthest removed from the city,

towards the suburb of New Edinburgh, the waters
roll in a series of independent falls into a deep
crevice between two precipitous limestone walls,
and are lost in another fathomless pit, familiarly
known as the " Devil's Hole"—lost without turmoil
and commotion, as if the very centres of the earth
were open to receive them, and could contain
10,000 Ottawas without overflowing. The saw -
millers have taken advantage of this immense
" water privilege," and done their utmost to force
the utilitarian aspect of the river more prominently
into the landscape than the lover of nature would
approve. Fortunately, however, all the efforts of
man are powerless to destroy either Niagara or the
Ottawa, and the mills and factories remain as evi-
dence of his industry, without greatly affecting the
sublimity of the scene into which his enterprise has
thrust him. As yet the principal mills on the Ottawa
derive their uses from the lumber trade—of which
the city is, next to Quebec, the principal emporium
in Canada. The lumber establishments on the river
convey :to the markets of the United States and
Europe a large amount of the finest timber for
building purposes which America produces, and add,
perhaps, more than any other industry—except that
of the farm—to the wealth and resources of the
colony. The Ottawa drains an area of 80,000 square
miles, and from its source in the wilderness around
Grand Lake on the borders of the Hudson's Bay
territory runs a course, inclusive of the Lakes La
Quinze and Timiscamingue, through both of which
it flows, of nearly 1,000 miles. Beyond Ottawa
City the settlements extend for little more than 200
miles, and these settlements are but poor villages
and hamlets, the abodes of lumbermen and trappers,
and the small traders who administer to their wants
in the supply of dry goods, groceries, and the irre-
pressible drinks without a due (or undue) modicum
of which the European in America, whether he be
Celt or Anglo-Saxon, seems to find it impossible to
live. Ottawa is in fact the last city towards the
North Pole. All beyond are mere outposts of civi-
lisation, which may become cities in twenty or
thirty years or less ; but they are meanwhile
but a congeries of huts and shanties, with a
grocery, a church, andpossibly a printing-office,
whose proprietor looks forward to the day
when the little weekly journal which he prints,
edits, and publishes shall be transformed into a daily
paper, and wield all the political influence and catch
in his net all the advertisements of the district. There
arrives annually at Ottawa the produce of the forests
in the far interior along its banks and those of its
tributaries the Gatineau, the Rideau, and other
smaller streams, according to the published estimate
of Mr. Allan Gilmour, of Pollock, Gilmour, and Co.,
of Port Glasgow, an amount of red and white pine,
pine deals, and sawn lumber of the value of $3,144,166,
or upwards of £627,000 sterling. Thirteen million
cubic feet of white pine, 2,250,000 cubic feet of red
pine, 60,000,000 of superficial feet of sawn lumber,
and upwards of two millions and a quarter of pine
deals, make up the items which represent this value.
The total exports of lumber and' other productions
of the forest from the whole of Canada during the
seven years from 1857 to 1863 inclusive amounted
to $66,912,739, or an annual average of $9,558,962,
thus showing, according to Mr. Gilmour's calcula-
tion, that nearly a third of the whole trade passes
through the city of Ottawa. The importance of the
lumber trade becomes further apparent from a state-
ment in the returns of the Board of Trade and Navi-
gatip during the same years, which represents the
value of the exports of all other agricultural produce,
inclusive of potash and furs, both of which might
strictly be claimed as productions of the forest, to
have been but $53,474,211; an annual average of
$7,639,173; or an annual difference in favour of the
lumber trade of $1,919,789, or £400,000. The
people of Ottawa and the settlers up the river, so
largely interested in this traffic, look with some ap-
prehension to the non-renewal of the Reciprocity

Treaty with the United State&Slimdc77------,, denied,
as seems most likely, they will doubtless endeavour
to console themselves with the reflection that the
Americans, having but little lumber of their own
except in Maine, in which it is being rapidly ex-
hausted, must purchase the excellent lumber of
Canada, let it cost what it will, that a heavy duty
paid upon it will have to come ultimately out of the
pockets 'of the American consumer, and that, all
things considered, the Federal Government, by re-
fusing to renew the treaty, will punish the American
people far more severely than they will punish the
Canadians. In addition to this they may, perhaps,
remember that the United States are not the sole,
although they may be.the best, customers for Cana-
dian lumber; and that the present very consider-
able lumber trade of the province with Great Britain
is susceptible of indefinite increase ; and may pro-
bably be stimulated by the new and more cordial
relations which may grow up between the old coun-
try and the new if the scheme of Confederation be-
tween all the provinces be completed, and work half
as well commercially as it is expected to do politically
by those who have faith in it.
The ruthless destruction of the forests in the
United States, which has virtually compelled the
Americans to come to Canada for their timber,
ought to warn the Canadians of a danger that now
menaces the lumber trade. The forests of Canada,
stretching out, as they do, for hundreds and thou-
sands of miles byond the regions where agriculture
is profitable, or even possible, are popularly believed
to be inexhaustible. But, considering the accidents
to which the forest is liable, this popular belief,
where it leads to popular action, is pregnant with
danger. In dry hot summers the lucifer match of
a trapper or a lumberman dropped by accident,
or thrown carelessly upon a bunch of withered
grass, or a heap of last year's leaves, has often
kindled a conflagration which has consumed
hundreds of square miles of valuable timber. And
not only accidental fires, but those kindled by
settlers to burn down the forest patches which it.is
too laborious and too costly to clear by the axe,
make tremendous havoc with the northern forests.
If emigrants always settled upon land available for
agricultural purposes, the damage done to the forest
would be more than compensated by the agricultural
gain. But such is not always the case in Canada,
and the fires in the forest have been so numerous
and so disastrous both from accident and from the
rough and ready mode of clearing unprofitable land
by the torch, to discover whether it were profitable
or not that in November, 1859, the Crown Land
Department of the Canadian Government became
alarmed, and instituted an inquiry into the subject
by circular addressed to the principal merchants
engaged in the lumber trade, and to the leading
lumbermen and settlers in the wilderness. The re-
sult was an almost unanimous expression of opinion
that more valuable timber was annually destroyed
by fire than found its way as lumber to the markets
of the world, that not above one-half or one-third
of the number of these fires could be attributed to
accident ; and that all the rest were the direct result
of the incendiary method adopted by settlers to clear
their lots for the plough. It furthermore appeared
that the Canadian Government was itself greatly to
blame for disposing of large quantities of Crown
lands for the purposes of farming, which were no-
toriously unfit for agriculture ; that the settlers,
after they had burnt the timber, too often discovered
that their land was worthless, except for the propa-
gation of the pine ; and, at the earliest opportunity,
removed disgusted, after having done all the mischief
in their power, to more fertile regions—perhaps out
of Canada altogether into the United States.
In addition to these sources of evil, the lumber-
men, trusting entirely to the supposed inexhausti-
bility of the forests, never take the slightest pains
to grow new timber in the districts they have
despoiled. The consequence is that it every year
becomes necessary to explore new streams through
the wilderness, on the banks of which timber may
be found, and on the waters of which it may be
floated down to market ; that the lumber establish-
ments are thus pushed further and further from the
Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and the St. Lawrence, and
that the price of the commodity steadily advances.
One ancient lumberman, who had been, in the busi-
ness 40 years, and with whom I had a long conver-
sation on the subject on board the steamer from
Montreal to Quebec, expressed it as his decided
opinion that, at the present rate of clearing by the
legitimate'mode, and at the present rate of accidental
destruction by fire, the forests within 800 miles to
the north of the St. Lawrence would be entirely ex-
hausted within 20 years. Another lumberman
thought 30 years the utmost possible length of time
which the forests would " hold out " under the
present system. Mr. Gilmour, whose opinion on
the subject is entitled to more weight than that of
any other man in Canada, has recently issued a cir-
cular, entitled, " Matters for Consideration relating
to the Lumber Trade, and the Settlement of the
Country, and the Jurisdiction of the General and
Local Governments regarding the same, in the
event of the proposed Confederation of the Pro-
vinces being established." In this document, while
admitting the urgent necessity of opening up the
country to bona fide settlers, and of disposing of the
Crown lands in such a mode as to attract the agri-
cultural population of the British isles to Canada,
he condemns the practice, too prevalent, of clearing
for the mere sake of clearing, and of allowing far-
mers to be deceived into the purchase of timber
lands which under no circumstances of expenditure
of labour or capital, could be made anything but a
source of disappointment to an a,griculturat who
expected to live on the proceeds of his farm. Mr.
Gilmour states, as the result of his experience and
observation, that a very large portion of the public
lands of Canada which remain unsold in the pine
section are of this inferior quality. What seems to
be wanted is to get the lumberman into such regions,
and to keep the farmer out of them—not alone for
the sake of the farmer, but for the sake of the reve-
nue which the Government derives from the lumber
trade, and with a view to the proper development
of the real wealth of the country and the rescue of
thousands of square miles of forests from ruthless
destruction.

The telegraphic wires have just transmitted from
Quebec to this remote city the fact that the Cana-
dian Government, which summoned the Legislature
in extra session to deliberate upon the grand scheme
of Confederation, which has found favour with
Downing-street, has just decided, after a few days'
talk upon minor matters, and no small amount of
ministerial and personal recrimination, to adjourn
until the spring of 1866 the discussion of all the
questions involved, except the purchase of the north-
western territory. Whatever may be the case else-
where, this embryo capital takes the matter very
quietly, is not at all surprised, not at all offended,
and, it may be said, does not appear to be at all
concerned. If Confederation be pushed, well and
good; if Confederation be adjourned sine die, well
and good. Such is the prevalent temper of the
public mind. Perhaps, if it should turn out that
the Canadian Legislature are resolved to purchase
the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company to the
North-Western regions for a million sterling by a
Canadian loan guaranteed by Great Britain, the
interest to be paid by the Canadian people, the
prevalent apathy may give place to a warmer feel-
ing. To touch an Englishman's pocket was once
thought to be peculiarly dangerous. But if one
may judge the Canadians by the same test it is still
more perilous to touch theirs on any pretence what-
ever, and more especially with reference to the pro-
ject of Confederation. If England desires us to
confederate " let England pay the cost." The
statesmen of Canada do not argue in this manner ;
but it requires no lengthened stay in the country
for any one to convince himself that such is the
feeling of the great mass of the Canadians, both
French and English, who ever give themselves the
trouble to think upon the subject.

"They have resented it as the bitterest injury that the
right of their belonging together was assailed upon the
part of Denmark. They have battled for that right with
the sword and in speech. They have felt confidence when
the German great Powers entered the lists in its support.
In all their grief over many disappointed hopes they have
at the same time gratefully acknowledged the fact of their
reunion by a common administration since the commence-
ment of this year. But for that very reason they also feel
it now as the most grievous attack upon their rights that
this bond is again dissolved, and the more bitterly that
this could have been done by German hands, and to an
oven greater extent than formerly under Danish rule.
"Illustrious Federal Diet ! The separation of the
Duchies again brought about the Gastein Convention
has not only filled the hearts of the Schleswig-Ilolsteiners
with deep impression, but also with heavy care. This
measure is a proof that the Duchies are treated as if they
were devoid of rights. It has, therefore, more vividly than
ever aroused the apprehension that the two great German.
Powers, now actually in possession of the Duchies, might
undertake a final settlement of their affairs without their
co-operation. So far as possible under existing circum-
stances, the inhabitants of the Duchies have repeatedly and
unequivocally declared that they are ready to make such
concessions to Prussia as should be demanded in the in-
terests of Germany.
" They would have proved that they are herein tho-
roughly in earnest had they been able to express them-
selves through representatives selected from their midst. But
the Schlesirig-Holsteiners nevertheless hold firm in all
fidelity to their country's right, and, which is the same
thing, to the right of their legitimate sovereign, which has
also been recognised as clear and binding by the two great
German Powers at the London conference. They are not
of not opinion that, in political affairs, supposed advis-
ability, or even force, ought to take precedence of right.
They would therefore be unable to admit that rights only
appertaining to a conqueror should be deduced from a war
waged for their liberation. They would, upon the con-
trary, regard every definitive settlement of the affairs of
the country, attempted to bo made without the assent of
the representatives, as not existing by right, but imposed
by compulsion.
" The undersigned members have considered it their
duty to give expression to what at present moves the
hearts of the Schleswig-Holstein population by a majority
bordering on unanimity. They entertain the firm con-
viction that this is done when they protest in the name of
the Country against the separation of the Duchies of
Schleswig and Holstein as contrary to the right of the
land ; when they decisively demand that the country
by its representation be heard upon its affairs, and
thereby declare that they will regard every arrangement
concluded without the co-operation of the representatives
as non-existent in right ; and when they once more
solemnly and loudly proclabn that they only recognise
Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein as their legally
entitled sovereign.
" Referring to what has been said, the undersigned most
respectfully propose that the Federal Diet should use its
efforts to cause our country's right to be recognised with-
out further delay.
"Done at Kiel, Sept. 6, 1865."
(Thirty-one signatures follow.)
THE GASTEIN CONVENTION.