The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-10 00:00:00

THE AXE AND THE PLOUGH IN
CANADA

Curious enough, Canada began to develope itself
simultaneously with Australia ; and thus, at this
moment, we have two colonies attracting emigrants
by large temptations. In the Pacific any number
of hard-working people can get abundant employ-
ment and good wages • beyond the Atlantic there
is also a demand for labour, and ample payment.
If Canada cannot promise to adventure " good
luck" and a speedy fortune, it is more readily ac-
oessible, and holds out an equal prospect of ultimate
success. Both places have their advantages : those
who can afford it should proceed to Victoria ; those
whose resources are more limited should go to the
United States, or to British North America. The
latter is now perhaps more preferable, because
wages are higher and the field not less large. Our
home wants create a market for agricultural pro-
duce in even the distant wilds, and a fruitful soil
and considerate regulations admit industry to
almost instant occupation and independence.
On a recent occasion we showed that Canada
was maturing more rapidly than even the United
States ; and a despatch from the Governor, the
Earl of Elgin, just published, discloses new views
still more encouraging. We now export to the
colony nearly 3,000,0001. worth of manufactures,
but this is merely an indication of a proximate
future. Railway operations are calling into exist-
ence new wants and new enterprises, creating new
markets, and filling men with bigger thoughts ;
while a region more than a miniature of the valley
of the Mississippi, now for the first time practically
presents itself. Lord Elgin, in a recent excursion,
visited the " gold diggings" of Canada, where he
found hundreds employed profitably by capitalists
in gold getting ; and subsequently he visited the
' valley of the Ottawa—" the district which is
probably doing more at the present time than
any other single section of the province to enable
Canada to enter the markets of the world as a
purchaser." " This important region," says
Lord Elgin, " takes the name by which it is de-
signated in popular parlance, from the mighty
stream which flows through it, and which, though
it be but a tributary of the St. Lawrence, is one of
the largest of the rivers that run uninterruptedly
from the source to the discharge within the domi-
nions of the Queen. It drains an area of about
80,000 square miles, and receives, at various points
in its course, the waters of streams, some of which
equal in magnitude the chief rivers of Great Bri-
tain." On the banks of the Ottawa and its tribu-
taries thousandf, are constantly employed, winter
and summer, in providing for the export timber
trade. The water is necessary to its conveyance
where it can be shipped for Grert Britain and the
United States. " From the nature of the business,"
says the despatch, " the lumbering trade falls neces-
sarily in a great measure into the hands of persons of
capital, who employ large bodies of men at points far
removed from markets, and who are therefore called
upon to make considerable advances in providing
food and necessaries for their labourers, as well as
in building slides and otherwise facilitating the pas-
sage of timber along the streams and rivers. Many
thousands of men are employed during the winter
in these remote forests, preparing the timber which
is transported during the summer in rafts, or, if
sawn, in boats to Quebec when destined for Eng-
land, and up the Richelieu River, when intended
for the United States." And Lord Elgin adds a
fact useful to temperance advocates :—" It is a
most interesting fact, both in a moral and hygienic
view, that for some years past intoxicating liquors
have been rigorously excluded from almost all the
shanties (as the dwellings of the lumbermen in
these distant regions are styled), and that, not-
withstanding the exposure of the men to cold during
the winter and wet in the spring, the result of the
experiment has been entirely satisfactory."
This no doubt is greatly owing to the abundance
of animal food, for, if not spirits, there must be
carbon in northern winters ; the Esquithaux has
no gin, but then he must have blubber.

Hitherto it has been contended that the " lumber
trade" was hurtful to Canada. Lord Elgin states
facts which demonstrate the contrary :--
" The bearing of the lumbering business on the set-
tlement of the country is a point well worthy of notice.
The farmer who undertakes to cultivate unreclaimed
land in new countries generally finds that not only does
every step of advance which he makes in the wilderness,
by removing him from the centres of trade and civilisa-
tion, enhance the cost of all he has to purchase, but that,
moreover, it diminishes the value of what he has to sell.
It is not so, however, with the farmer who follows in
the wake of the lumbermen. He finds, on the contrary,
in the wants of the latter a steady demand for all that
he produces, at a price not only equal to that procu
rable in the ordinary marts, but increased by the cost
of transport from them to the scene of the lumbering
operations. This circumstance, no doubt, powerfully
contributes to promote the settlement of those districts,
and attracts population to the sections of the country
which, in the absence of any such inducement, would
probably remain for long periods uninhabited."

The valley of the Ottawa is undoubtedly fertile,
and is supposed to be rich in minerals. Though it
is also the shortest road to the regions most desired
by the industrious aid the enterprising, " it is,"
says the despatch, " worthy of remark that the
route of the Ottawa, the Mattawa, Lake Nepissing,
and French River, is that by which Europeans first
penetrated the West. Along this route, Cham-
plain, in 1615, proceeded as far as Lake Nepissing,
and thence to the vast and tranquil inland sea to
which he gave the appropriate designation of La
Mer Douce. The Recollect father, Le Caron, bore
the gospel to the Huron tribes along the same tract,
and was followed soon after by those Jesuit mis-
sionaries whose endurance and sufferings constitute
the truly heroic portion of American annals. This
route has been for some
time past in a great mea-
sure abandoned for that of the St. Lawrence and
the lakes. The distance, however, from Montreal
to the Georgian Bay, immediately facing the en-
trance of Lake Michigan, is, via the Ottawa, about
400 miles, against upwards of 1,000 via the St.
Lawrence. From this point to the Sault St. Marie,
the highest of the three narrows (Sault St. Marie,
Detroit, and Niagara), at which the regions lying
on either side of the four great lakes, Superior,
Huron, Erie, and Ontario, approach each other, is
a distance about 150 miles. It is highly proba-
ble, therefore that, before
oremanyyears have elapsed,
this route will be again looked to as furnishing a
favourable line for railway, if not water communi-
cation with the fertile regions of the north-west."
During Lord Elgin's excursion royalty was re-
verenced in the person of the Viceroy : everywhere
he received addresses, and everywhere these ad-
dresses bore testimony to the prosperity of the
country and the contentment of the inhabitants.
" Reports," adds his lordship, " which reach me
from other parts of the province speak on this
point the same language. Canada has enjoyed
seasons of prosperity before ; but it is doubtful
whether any previous period in the history of the
colony can be cited at which there was so entire an
absence of those bitter, personal, and party animosi-
ties which divert attention from material interests,
and prevent co-operation for the public good."
If we have' neglected the colony, the, Yankees
have not. In 1851 they sent to Canada 35 ships,
20,062 tons • and in 1852 the ships were 73, the
tonnage 36,64 tons I—Liverpool Journal.