The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-23 00:00:00

" Those of Anglo-Sa:con race, who navigate the long
dlffer,.nt

burn ti:e Car:atlian boatmen who m
6atcaux. The former are general:), tali, L.atk
Fehlorn without an immense quid of tobacco in their
mouths; grave-tempered schemers, yet vulgar, and
seldom cheerful; grinning horribly,' when they ven-
ture an attempt to laugh.
" The Canadian boatman, or voyageur, is naturally
polite, and always cheerful; fond enough of money when
he once possesses it, although unacquainted with over-
reaching; and if he attempts to cheat, he knows not
how. lle sings, rmukes, and enjoys whatever comes in
way, thanking le bun Men, la Vierge, et les Saints,'
for everything.
" The voyageurs know every channel, rapid, rock, and
shoal, in the rivers they navigate; and, never pretend•
ing to question their leader, or bourgeois, fearlessly ex•
pose themselves to the greatest hardships, and the most
frightful dangers.
When singing their celebrated boat-songs, two
usually begin, two others respond, and then all join in
full chorus. These songs make them forget their labours,
and enliven their long and perilous vogages. Nothing
can be more imposing than a fleet of white canoes, and
the voyageurs all singing cheerily',' while padding over
the bosom of a lake, or along the sylvan shore of the
St. Lawrence or Ottawa. t
" The inhabitants of Normandy and Picardy,—from
which parts of France the ancestry of the Canadian
habitans chiefly emigrated,—are those whom the latter
resemble most in their morals, customs, and dwellings.
But the peasantry of Normally and Picardy have changed
many of their habits and customs, while the Canadians
have retained them.
" Crimes are very rare among the habitans. Honesty,
chastity, piety, and superstition,—the latter not more
common, however, than in Scotland an Ireland,—are
prominent in the Canadian character. Perhaps no
people on earth have enjoyed more happiness in their
circumstances, joined to so much virtue in their lives,
than the rural population of French origin in Canada,
until they were duped by political adventurers to join in
a rebellion against a Government, which, though it may
have frequently erred, had always considered the new
subjects of the British Crown as justly entitled to the
full paternal and equal protection of its administration."

the r.

That nothing but misgovernment of the grossest
possible description could have driven such a people
into rebellion must be obvious, and we think from
what we find relating to the causes of that unfortu-
nate rebellion, in a subsequent portion of this work,
that it may be fairly assumed that had Lord Stanley
never held the seals of the colonial empire of Great
Britain, there would never have been any rebellion
among the habitans of Lower Canada. In his second
book Mr. Macgregor gives us the history of the pro-
gress of Anglo-Saxon America, from the first attempt
on the part of Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize Vir-
ginia to the acknowledgment by George 111. of the
independence of the United States, and of the pro•
gress of the States themselves down to the period of
the settlement of the Oregon boundary, under the
presidency of Mr. Polk. In opposition to those who
represent the inhabitants of the United States as an
ignorant people, Mr. Macgregor observes that there is
more general knowledge diffused among the people of
the United States than in any kingdom in Europe,
although the number of those who devote their lives
to literature is, from circumstances inseparable from
the condition of a new country, less in proportion to
the whole people than in Europe. The fact is, there
is so much of other and more profitable employment,
that these pursuits are left to the sickly, the physi-
cally inactive, and the unenterprising. In this
instance, as in every other, the principles of political
economy hold true. It is cheaper to import litera-
ture than to manufacture it at home, and so long as
such shall be the case, no poor man will devote him-
self to literary pursuits in America. Mr. Macgregor
is of opinion that the Anglo •American race is des-
tined to become masters of the whole continent, from
Hudson's Bay to Terra del Fuego. He says—
" That which distinguishes the Anglo Americans
from most other people is their sleepless spirit of enter-
prise, which, grave people as they are, is often reckless,
though calculating, in its undertaking. To every part
of their own country, where any gain can be acquired,
and in their ships, to every part of the habitable globe,
do they resort. This character of them as a nation has,
however far it may be accompanied by some unamiable
defections, been the great cause of their prosperity, both
before and since the revolution; and, according to all
probability and experience, it will continue until their
gigantic territory has a superabundant population, or
until great individual wealth, and consequent luxury,
produce the usual effects caused by indolence, volup-
tuousness, and degeneracy. This ultimate possibility is
so very remote, as practically to preclude even the ideal
of finality. The Anglo-American will go forward in his
progress. 5
" The cool indifference, but calculating deteimination
with which he moves from the seaboard, or the old
states, to the back countries, where he can secure plenty
of land for his children to settle around him, is remark-
able. Nothing, however, is more common. A whole
colony sometimes depart together, and, on arriving at
the spot in the wilderness that answers their views, im-
mediately commence the operations of cutting down the
trees and erecting houses; and a town, with its streets,
end all the component parts of an American embryo
settlement, such as meeting-house, a blacksmith's forge,
saw mill, corn-mill, shops, and taverns, appear on;the banks
of a river or stream, where a forest occupied:the ground a
few months before.—(Seo the Geographical and Statisti-
cal chapters, vol. ii. of this work.) In this great fact is
involved the whole secret cause, the effect of which will
overwhelm the whole hemisphere, from Hudson Bay to
Terra del Fuego, with the domination of the English
language. This is no prophecy. It is a clear daylight
forecast of that not to be arrested progress which is the
inevitable destiny of America."
The events which are now occurring in Mexico,
and the character of the other races which are to be
found on the American continent, by whom, and by
whom alone, the progress of Anglo-American con-
quest would be likely to be opposed, almost incline us
to agree with Mr. Macgregor in opinion that the
inevitable destiny of America is to become at no
distant day the possession of the Anglo-Saxon race.
American want of refinement has always been a
favourite theme with the Trollopes (the word is a sug-
gestive and an expresive one) of our ultra-refined
society. On this subject Mr. Macgregor justly
remarks :

" As to the manners of the Anglo-Americans, no one
can detail justly, by common remarks, their character-
istics. The materials are as heterogeneous as can be well
imagined, but, at the same time, greatly modified by
circumstances. In general, but especially in the New
England StatA, the men are graver, and, as respects
language and carriage, more precise than in Europe.
The Virginians have been compared to country squires
in England.
" The United States, being peopled at first by persons
who left these kingdoms when public manners were very
different from what they are now, and since that time,
annually, by the adventurous of all classes from other
parts of Europe, the inhabitants must retain much of the
original habits and education of their ancestors. Time '
alone will amalgamate these materials, and create a
standard which will eventually give a more marked tone
to public and private society. Bat in this progress, and
intercourse, the steam-engine, the press, steam naviga-
tion, the railroad, and general commerce, will be ad
vancing the civilization, and the assimilation, of all no,
tions. The country people of America are blunt, but
certainly civil, altnough often accused of rudeness. We
feel safe in considering them not so rude, and certainly
not so ignorant, as the peasantry of England, nor the
bourgeoisie of France. They are never obsequious, it is
true; and this arises from their being unusually inde-
pendent in their circumstances. They are, in short,
neither polite nor rude, but always civil,unless we assume
an authoritative tone: if we do, as some Englishmen
are accustomed to do, through habit, without meaning
any
assumption, the Anglo-Americans will certainly
neither comply with our requests, nor reply to us in
anything like gentleness of spirit
" The impertinent curiosity with which the people of
America are branded musttbe considered only applica-
ble to the remote settlements
" European traveller s forms. their opinion of society in
America, not from a knowledge of the great mass of the
people, but from the characteristics
ao
oftip
political adven-
towns, and of
steam-boat and railway travellers, a
turers and reckless speculators. No data
i,a, judgedo in
erroneous. The people of America must c:e nbe more
their dwellings; and it will then be evident t
so-termed genuine people of America, the majority_esPe
thee
dally in the northern states, and including new Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and New York consists of the agriculturaly
families, and the inhabitants of villages and small towns.
We have with careful impartiality examined the con
dition and character of this great class of the population,
as it exists chiefly in the non-slaveholding states, and
in the British North American colonies; and Mrs.
Grant's description long ago of Albany will still apply
to countless villages in America. Albany, it is true, is
now the busy centre of enterprising commerce. Steam-
boats, canals, and railroads, bring thither all kinds of
raw and manufactured commodities,—all sorts of specu-
lators,—all varieties of travellers. It is, indeed, no
longer Mrs. Grant's rural town, with a garden and trees
surrounding each of its neat white houses,—with its
family group in summer evenings, or clear moonlight,
seated beneath the shade of open portico, or spreading
tree,—with the family cow, fed in the common pasture,
returning home at eve, with its tinkling bell, along the
broad grassy street, to be milked at its owner's door,—
with inhabitants, not one of whom was very rich,—very
poor,—very knowing,—very ignorant,—very wise,—or
very polished. But still all these real blessings, this.rural
happiness, abound in the United States."
Mr. Macgregor, however, draws a distinction be-
tween the generality of the inhabitants of the settled
parts of the States and those of the newly settled
States in the west, north, and on the borders of
Canada :
" The traveller who would sketch American manners,
during a steamboat voyage down Mississippi to New
Orleans, will draw a very different picture, of the Anglo-
Americans, from that of the rural inhabitants, which we
have endeavoured to describe, Multitudes of German
and Irish, emigrants are added annually to the citizens,
and, even to an extraordinary degree, influence the elec-
tions, of the United States. Those, also, who navigate
the canals, rivers, and lakes, aro characterised by the
habits of their occupations; and inherent and local cir-
cumstances, cause a very marked difference between the
citizens of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Charleston, New Orleans, Pittsburg, Cincirmatti, Louis-
ville. St. Louis, Buffalo, and Detroit.
" In speaking of the rural population, we have alluded
to their characteristics north only, until we approached

* Maple sugar. The season of manufacturing it is consi-
dered a period of pleasure rather than of fatigue, although it
is attended with considerable labour. About 2,000,0001b5.
used to be manufactured in the province by the Canadians.
t The charivari is a noisy assemblage of people, who pro-
ceed after bed-time to the house of a newly-married couple,
whenever there is a flagrant inconsistency in the match, such
as a young girl marrying an old man for his money, or vice
versa. Some come on horseback, some blow horns, some
beat drums and tin kettles; the English in the towns also
join the charivari; others ring bells, shout, and swing rattles,
continuing the charivari from night to night, until they re-
ceive a stipulated sum from the unhappy pair, for some cha-
ritable purpose.
t " The white canoe of the North American Indians, is
beautifully constructed, by sewing the rind of a huge white-
birch tree over a slender frame work. On the water, this
fragile vessel floats gracefully; and the long voyages of the
Canadian fur traders, and those of Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
to the Artic Sea, and across the continent to the Pacific,
were made in them. They are so light, as to be easily car-
ried over land, by two men, from one river, or lake, to an-
other."

§ " It is not a little remarkable how thinking, educated
statesmen, even those who are the apostles of legitimate ab-
solute monarchy, entertain similar opinions as to the progress
of mankind.

" Prince Metternich, in speaking confidentially to a Ger.
man diplomatist, of the bleiben wir beim alten (hold fast to
the old) class, on the subject of arresting the progress of en-
lightened ideas, said, Le temps avance, au milieu des °rages,
vouloir arreter son impetuosite serait un vain effort.'t
" The famous expression of the Abbe de Pradt, is equally
true,-' Le genre huinain est en marche, rien lie le fera retro-
grader;' literally, Mankind is on the advance or march,
nothing can make this march retrograde.'
* " The Times advance in the midst of storms; to attempt
arresting its impetuosity would be a vain effort.' By the
Times Prince Metternich personified the lIU3IAN MIND in its
intellectual progress."

A PROPOSED PLAN fir the EQUILLZATION
of the POOR RATES throughout the VARIOUS
PARISHES of the UNITED KINGDOM of
GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND,PROVID-
ING for the AB.PLITION.of the LAW of SET-
TLEMENT, RENDERhYG thereby the RE-
MOVAL of PAUPERS UNNECESSARY. By
S. L. Hutchinson.

That great evils are inflicted both upon the desti-
tute poor and upon the rate-payers, by the existing
Law of Settlement cannot be denied. The pauper is
separated from all his friends .'and connexions, and
forced into the workhouse of a distant union, where
he is unknowing and unknown, or he is shuttlecocked
from union to union at the caprice of the relieving
officers, and lawyers, for which the rate-payers have to
pay some thousands per annum in litigation, in conse-
quence of the existence of this law. The great ques-
tion, however, is, how are we to avoid these evils
without inflicting others of greater magnitude. The
plan proposed by Mr. Hutchinson is, to levy a rate of
ls. 6d. in the pound on all property real and personal
in England and Wales (and he calculates that by a
reassessment, 5,250,0001. annually would be raised
from real property alone, a sum more than
sufficient to support and maintain the poor
of England and Wales), which would raise
more than sufficient for the relief of all the poor in
the districts where they become chargeable, and to
leave the management of this relief fund in the
hands of district officers appointed in the various
localities. This latter part of the plan would, we
fear, lead to a vast deal of local jobbing, but such is
the horror which Mr. Hutchinson has, in common
with the Commissioners of Sewers, of the bugbear
centralization, that he would run the risk of jobbing
rather than trust a Government official with the ad-
ministration of the fund. Whatever may be thought
of the plan, there can be but one opinion of the value
of the work. It is a work of immense labour, of
great accuracy ; the statistical details are most valu-
able, containing as they do a vast quantity of inte-
resting information on the statistics of pauperism,
not to be found in any other publication. It is a
work to be studied by every philanthropist, statist,
and statesman.