The Thames Steamer--Torrid Night--"The Lady that helped" and her
Stays--Port Stanley--Buffalo City--Its Commercial
Prosperity--Newspaper Advertisements--Hatred to England and
encouragement of Desertion--General Crispianus--Lake Erie in a
rage--Benjamin Lett--Auburn Penitentiary--Crime and Vice in the
Canadas--Independence of Servants--Penitentiaries unfit for juvenile
offenders--Inefficiency of the Police--Insolence of
Cabmen--Carters--English rule of the road reversed--Return to Toronto.
The heat at Amherstburgh was so desiccating, that I was glad to leave
even my urbane host, serjeant-major as he had been of a royal
regiment, and his crowded though clean and comfortable inn, for the
spacious deck of the splendid Canadian steamer Thames, Captain Van
Allan, on board of which was to be enjoyed the absolute luxury of a
spacious state-room upon deck. Alas for the roomy state-room! even in
its commodious berth, rest could not be enjoyed, for the night was a
torrid one; nothing in the Western Indies could beat it, only there
was no yellow fever, although plenty of yellow countenances presented
themselves on the shoulders of Americans from the South, and coloured
waiters; but that which actually at last put me in a fever was the
sight of the female attendant of the ladies' cabin, whose form was so
buckled up in stays of the most rigid order, that the heat,
American-bred as she was, appeared to have rendered her a Niobe, for
she was tall and as straight as a poplar-tree, and much of the colour
of its inner rind. Oh! the heat, the intolerable heat, on Lake Erie
that night! The worthy captain declared he had never experienced its
like, and that as for rest it was impracticable. If the lady's-maid,
or "the lady that helped" in the ladies' cabin, as she is called in
American boats, kept her stays on that night, Heaven help her! She
must have been in a greater state of despair than the man in armour
on Lord Mayor's day, who requires to go to bed after a warm bath, the
moment he takes his stays off.
But we steamed on, and the boilers themselves were not a whit hotter
than we were. How the stokers stood it is a marvel to this day. I
suffered dreadfully with the prickly heat, as if in the West Indies.
The Thames is the most splendid boat on Lake Erie, and that is saying
a good deal; for the Americans have so many, and several so much
larger than this Britisher, that it is a matter of surprise that she
should beat them all in convenience, build, and speed; and yet,
according to received opinion, the Yankee builders of vessels excel us
"by a long chalk," to use a Yankee figure of speech. It is so,
however, and is so acknowledged on both sides of the water, that the
Thames, Captain Van Allan, takes the shine out of them all.
We started from Amherstburgh, where she called on her way from
Detroit, and left Bullock's inn for the steamer which was close at
hand, at nine o'clock p.m., and got under steam and travelled all
night at a most rapid rate, nor stopped until eight a.m., the next
morning, at Port Stanley, formerly called Kettle Creek, a small
village with a fine parallel pier harbour, which, unlike Amherstburgh,
has thriven amazingly during the past seven years, before which I
recollect it to have consisted of about three or four houses. It is
now a thriving village; and, as it has a planked road reaching far
into the interior, is every day going ahead. The plank road leads to
London, twenty-six miles distant. The piers of this artificial harbour
are much too narrow, consequently it is dangerous to approach in
stormy weather; and, as Lake Erie is a very turbulent little ocean,
they must be modified some day or other, whenever the Board of Works
is rich enough.
We took in several passengers here, mostly Americans touring, and the
vessel was now full, for we had a large proportion of the same class
from Detroit. They were chiefly people from the hotter regions of the
States, and resembled each other remarkably; sallow, sharp-angled,
acute-looking physiognomies: the men tall and loosely jointed; the
women prematurely old, and not very handsome. They were quiet and
respectable in their manners and demeanour; in fact, too quiet,
contrasting strongly in this respect with the real, genuine Yankee.
We reached Buffalo at seven in the evening, after encountering a
thunderstorm, which appeared to be very severe towards the shores of
the American side of Lake Erie.
Such a mob as poured on board the vessel, after she had with much
difficulty threaded the inconvenient, narrow, muddy creek on which
Buffalo is located, I never beheld before: blacks and whites, browns
and yellows, cabmen and carters, porters and tavern-scouts,
pickpockets and free and enlightened citizens.
How the passengers got their baggage conveyed to their hotels, or
dwellings, is beyond my art to imagine. Insolent and daring, if these
be a pattern mob, Heaven defend us Britishers from democracy! for
freedom reigns at Buffalo in a pattern of the newest, which the
seldomer copied the better. But one must not judge the money-getting
citizens of this fine town by the scenes in the Wapping part of it;
for, if one did, it would necessarily be said that they were not an
enviable race.
Buffalo, a mere wooden village, burnt during the war of 1812, is now a
large and flourishing city, containing 30,000 inhabitants; and, if it
had a good harbour, would soon rival New York. To prove this, I beg
the reader to take the trouble to peruse the accompanying statement of
the present commerce of that city, from the Buffalo Commercial
Advertiser of January 10, 1846, by which it will be seen that in the
year 1845 the increase of vessels trading with it was enormous, and
that by the Welland Canal, or an American ship canal, round the Falls
of Niagara, they already contemplate a direct trade with Europe in
British bottoms.
"There has been a prodigious accession to the Lake marine during the
past season--no less than sixty vessels, whose aggregate tonnage is
over 13,000 tons, and at an outlay of 825,000 dollars. Had we not the
evidence before us, the assertion would stagger belief.
"More than usual pains were taken by us, during the past season, to
procure information on this head and others touching thereto, the
result of which we now present in our annual list of new vessels. This
season we have ventured beyond the immediate margin of Lake Erie, and
those other broad lakes beyond, to Lake Ontario, a knowledge of whose
marine is now deemed essential to a thorough understanding of our lake
matters.
NUMBER, TONNAGE, AND ESTIMATED COST OF NEW VESSELS
BUILT IN 1845, FROM THIS CITY WESTWARD TO CHICAGO.
Name. Class. Tons. Where built. Dollars.
Niagara steamer 1,075 Buffalo 95,000
Oregon ... 781 Newport, Michigan 55,000
Boston ... 775 Detroit 55,000
Superior ... 567 Perrysburg, O. 45,000
Troy ... 547 Maumee City, O. 40,000
London ... 456 Chippewa, C. W. 46,000
Helen Strong ... 253 Monroe, Michigan 22,000
John Owen ... 205 Truago, do. 20,000
Romeo ... 180 Detroit, do. 12,000
Enterprise ... 100 Green Bay, W. T. 8,000
Empire, 2nd steamer 100 Grand Rapids, Mic. 8,000
Algomah ... 100 St. Joseph River, do. 8,000
Pilot ... 80 Union City, do. 5,000
Princeton propeller 456 Perrysburg, O. 40,000
Oregon ... 313 Cleveland, O. 18,000
Phoenix ... 305 ditto 22,000
Detroit ... 290 Detroit, Michigan 15,000
Odd Fellow brig 225 Cleveland, O. 9,000
Enterprise ... 267 Grand Rapids, Mich. 8,000
Wing-and-wing schooner 228 Cleveland, O. 9,000
Magnolia ... 200 Charlestown, O. 2,000
Scotland ... 300 Perrysburg, O. 8,000
J. Y. Seammon ... 134 Chicago, Ill. 8,000
Napoleon ... 250 Sault Ste Marie 8,000
Freeman ... 190 Charleston, O. 7,500
Eagle ... 180 Sandusky, O. 7,000
Bonesteel ... 150 Milwaukie, W. T. 6,000
Sheppardson ... 130 ditto 5,000
Rockwell ... 120 ditto 5,000
E. Henderson ... 110 ditto 4,500
Rainbow ... 117 Sheboygan 4,000
C. Howard ... 103 Huron, O. 4,000
J. Irwin ... 101 Cleveland, O. 4,000
Avenger ... 78 Cottesville, Michigan 3,000
Flying Dutchman ... 74 Madison, O. 4,000
Cadet ... 72 Cleveland, O. 3,500
W. A. Adair ... 61 ditto 3,000
Elbe ... 57 ditto 3,000
Planet ... 24 ditto 3,000
Albany ... 148 Raised and re-rigged 2,503
Pilot ... 50 Milwaukie, W. T. 2,500
Mary Anne schooner 60 Milwaukie, W. T. 1,000
Marinda ... 60 Lexington, Michigan 3,000
Sparrow ... 50 Chora, ditto 2,500
Big B. ... 60 18 mile creek, 2,500
Hard Times ... 45 ditto 1,500
Friendship sloop 45 Sheboygan, W. T. 2,000
Buffalo ... 30 New Buffalo, Mich. 1,000
------ -------
Total, 48 vessels 10,207 659,000
"During the past season we stated that there was employed on the lakes
a marine equal to 80,000 tons; we have assurance now that even that
large estimate was below the reality. The latest returns to Congress,
in 1843, gave 60,000 tons; but, as those documents are always a year
or two behind the reality, and embrace dead as well as living vessels,
they are of very little consequence. The existing and employed tonnage
is what is most desired. The subjoined shows the number, class,
tonnage, and cost of vessels built on this and the other upper lakes
during the past five seasons. By adding the cost of annual repairs and
money expended in enlarging and re-modelling vessels, the sum would
reach 2,500,000 dollars. The total number of vessels built during
that period is 179.
Steamers. Prop'rs. Sail. Tons. Dollars.
1845 13 4 32 10,207 659,000
1844 9 none 34 9,145 548,000
1843 6 4 23 4,830 336,000
1842 2 none 23 3,000 164,000
1841 1 none 28 3,530 173,000
-- ---- --- ------ ---------
Total 31 8 140 30,302 1,880,000
"The whole of the above vessels were built above the Falls, at places
between this port and Chicago, by capital drawn from the many sources
legitimately pertaining to the lake business, and designed as a
permanent investment. What has been done below Niagara, in the same
field, during the past season, may be seen in the subjoined list of
VESSELS BUILT ON LAKE ONTARIO, 1845.
Syracuse propeller 315 Oswego, N. Y.
H. Clay ... 300 Dexter, do.
Hampton brig 300 Pt. Peninsula, do.
T. Wyman ... 258 Oswego, do.
Algomah ... 335 Cape Vincent, do.
Wabash ... 314 Sack. Harbour, do.
Crispin ... 151 ditto
Liverpool ... 350 Garden Is., C.W.
Quebec brig 280 Long Island, do.
H. H. Sizer schooner 242 Pillar Point, N.Y.
Maid of the Mill ... 200 Oswego, do.
Milan ... 147 Pt. Peninsula, do.
H. Wheaton ... 200 Oswego, do.
Welland ... 220 ditto
Josephine ... 175 ditto
---
Total 15 vessels, 3,787 tons.
"To which must be added the schooner J. S. Weeks, rebuilt and enlarged
at Point Peninsula, at a heavy outlay; and also the schooner Georgiana
Jenia, at St. Catharine's, which was cut in two, and rebuilt. The
Josephine and Wyman are rebuilds, but so thoroughly as almost to fall
within the denomination of new craft. The Wyman is polacca-rigged, the
only one in service, we think. The Algomah is full rigged, and, like
the others, very strongly built. The Quebec and Liverpool are also
well ironed, and designed for Atlantic service, when the St. Lawrence
locks will admit of a free passage.
"There have been built on the lower lake other vessels than those
embraced in the above list, including some steamers; and, in order to
give our exchanges an opportunity to present the entire number and
amount of expense, we omit any estimate of the cost and general outlay
of the vessels named above. Applying our data, however, we make the
outlay 25,000 dollars each, for the two propellers, and 127,000
dollars for the fifteen sail vessels, being a total of 177,000
dollars.
"Of some sixty steamers now owned on the lake (Erie), there are
required for the several lines, when the consolidation exists, about
thirty boats. There are also used, at the same time, some ten more
small boats, between intermediate ports, for towing, &c., to which we
also add the London and four others, belonging to and owned in Canada.
There are also fourteen propellers, and ten more to be added on the
opening of navigation in the spring, with fifty brigs and two hundred
and seventy schooners, known to be in commission, giving the annexed
summary of lake tonnage:--
Tons. Dollars.
Steamers 60 21,500 1,500,000
Propellers 20 6,000 350,000
Brigs 50 11,000 }
Schooners 270 42,000 } 2,000,000
--- ------ ---------
Total 400 80,000 4,050,000
"In this we enumerate the seven Oswego propellers, and such sail craft
belonging to Lake Ontario only as we know participate in the business
of the upper lakes.
"_On the stocks._--The desire to invest farther capital in vessels is
seen in the number of new craft now on the stocks at various places
throughout the whole range of the lakes. At this early day, we hear of
the following to be rapidly pushed towards completion:
"At this port, a steamer of 750 tons, for Mr. Reed, the iron steamer
Dallas, of 370 tons, for government, and three propellers of large
size; at Chippewa, C. W., a large steamer; at Euclid, O., a brig of
290 tons; at Conneaut, O., a brig of 300 tons; at Cleveland, O., a
steamer of 700 tons, three propellers of 350 tons each, a brig of 280
tons, a schooner of 230 tons, and another of 70 tons, all to be out
early; at Charleston, O., a steamer of 800 tons, a propeller of 350
tons, and a schooner of 200 tons. An Oswego house has an interest in
the propeller: at Maumee City, O., two propellers of 350 tons each; at
Truago, Michigan, a large steamer of 225 feet keel, for Captain
Whitaker; at Detroit, a large steamer for Mr. Newbury, another for
Captain Gager, and a third, of the largest class, for Captain Randall;
at Palmer, Michigan, a propeller for Captain Easterbrooks; at Newport,
Michigan, a steamer for the Messrs. Wards, and the frame of another
but smaller boat, for the same firm, to run between Detroit and Port
Huron.
"At Goderich, C. W., or vicinity, a propeller; at Milwaukie, a barque
and brig, of large tonnage, 300 each. One of these vessels is nearly
planked up already, and will be down with a cargo of wheat as soon as
the straits are navigable; at Depere, W. T., a large-sized schooner,
and a yacht of 70 tons; at Chicago, a large brig, or schooner, for
Captain Parker, late of the Indiana; at St. Catherine's, C. W., a
brig; and at the mouth of the Genesee River a propeller, for a
Rochester company, making, in all, ten steamers, twelve propellers,
and twelve sail vessels--thirty-four in all."
Another American paper, in its remarks on the preceding article,
furnishes some additional information.
"The introduction of steam upon the lakes was gradual, yet
commensurate with our wants. From the building of the second boat, in
1822, to the launch of the Sheldon Thompson, at Huron, in 1830, six or
seven small steamers had only been put in commission, and for the
ensuing four years a press of business kept in advance of the
facilities. But the zeal and extended desire to invest capital in new
steamers was reached in 1837-8, when no less than thirty-three boats,
with an aggregate of 11,000 tons, were built at an outlay of 1,000,000
dollars. This period points to the maximum, and then came the
reaction. In 1840, only one steamer came off the stocks, and the same
prostration and dearth in this department continued for three years,
when it again received a new and fresh impulse, and now presents one
of the leading characteristics of investment in our inland trade. The
sum of 1,000,000 dollars has been diverted from other channels of
business to this branch within the past two years, in addition to a
very large outlay in sail vessels; and as the wants of commerce
develop, some marked changes may be observed. The small, or
medium-sized boats, into which the merchant farmer and foreign
immigrant were indiscriminately huddled, have given place to
capacious, swift, and stately vessels, in which are to be found a
concentration of all that is desirable in water conveyance. Such is
now the characteristic of steamboat building on the western lake.
"The following is the number and value of vessels owned and
exclusively engaged in the trade of Upper Canada in 1844:--
Dollars.
51 Steamers valued at 1,220,000
5 Propellers 46,000
80 Sail Vessels 114,000
---------
Total, 136 Vessels 1,380,000
Having employed thereon 3,000 men.
"The whole number of men employed between Buffalo and Chicago is
estimated at about 5,000. During the season of non-navigation, half of
these are employed upon farms in Ohio.
"Demonstrable evidence from many sources is at command to show the
progressive change and accumulative power of the lake trade. In 1827,
a steamer first visited Green Bay, for government purposes, and the
Black Hawk war in 1832 drew two boats to Chicago for the first time.
Now the trade of the latter place, in connexion with the business
growing out of the rapid settlement of Wisconsin, sustains a daily
line. A glance at the trade of Chicago for last year will illustrate
the change that has taken place there.
"The gross tonnage of the lakes above the Falls, in 1845, was 100
vessels and 80,000 tons. This spring it will be found to have
augmented from 5,000 to 10,000 tons.
"In 1845, the whole number of arrivals at the port of Buffalo was
1,700. Last season, 1,320 entries were made at Chicago. The entries
at the port of Buffalo for 1845 were--
Steamers 42 tons 18,000 Arriv. 1,000 Ag. ton. 385,167
Propellers 9 2,550 ... 76 ... 23,477
Brigs 46 10,000 ... } ...
Schooners 211 40,000 ... } 1,625 ... 50,818
--- ------ -------
Total 308 70,550 611,235
"From a valuable table given by the "Commercial Advertiser," we learn
that the _available_ steam marine of the lakes is 60 steamers, and a
tonnage of 30,000 tons. This is irrespective of 20 propellers."
If the spirit of trade _locates_ any where on this earth of ours, it
does so specially at Buffalo, where dollars and cents, cents and
dollars, occupy almost every thought of almost every mind. It is very
amusing to look at the advertisements in a Buffalo paper. I shall give
two or three as specimens.
Another Lot of those worsted dress goods, at one
dollar a pattern, received this morning.
A. Wattles.
French Corded Skirts. Another lot of those French
corded skirts just received, and for sale at
J. G. Latimer's, 216, Main Street.
Crash, Crash. Pure linen crash, slightly damaged,
at half price at
Wattles' Cheap Store.
What kind of goods do you want? Ladies and
gentlemen can find every kind of goods they may
wish, in the dry goods line, at Garbutt's, plain or
fanciful, any kind of dress you are in want of.
Call at the Big Window, 204, Main Street.
Running off again. After Friday next, I shall
commence running off my beautiful stock of Paris
muslins and Balzorines, at great reduction.
N. B. Palmer, 194, Main Street.
History of Oregon, by George Wilkes, 25 cents.
T. S. Hawkes.
Gaiter Pants made to order, No. 11, Pearl Street.
E. W. Smith.
Voice of the People. Need not force them down.
Sugar-coated Indian vegetable pills.
G. B. Smith.
Illustrations of the most ridiculous kinds show that newspaper
advertisements must be very cheap indeed, for everything literally,
from a washing-tub to a steamboat, is advertised daily for sale at
Buffalo.
Buffalo is a sample city of the lake frontier of the United States,
better than Rochester, a more manufacturing mill-power place; a
specimen of what enterprise, energy, and paper money credit can do: a
specimen of the border population, where hatred to England reigns
supreme among the lower classes, and where a residence of six months
would quite cure any English ultra-radical destructive of good
education; an ultra-radical destructive of no education, or half
educated, would, however, be vastly improved.
I had a soldier with me, and he asked leave to go on shore, which I
freely granted, convinced, from what I knew of him, that he was proof
against Buffalonian eloquence. He had scarcely stepped out of the
vessel, on the wharf, in plain clothes, before he was hailed by a
deserter, who was doing duty as a porter to some shopkeeper, and told
of the delights of liberty and independence; but the porter had left
the regiment for a little false estimate of the words _meum_ and
_tuum_, and therefore the old soldier declined turning from the
carrying of Brown Bess[1] to being a beast of burden. He was then
assailed by a sergeant, who had been obliged to desert for misconduct
in a pecuniary point of view, and shown into a little grog-shop on
the quay, that he was keeping; but appearances were here not very
flattering either: in short, the deserter is not at a premium in the
United States, for he is always suspected. Strange to say, these men
are occasionally enlisted in the regular American army; a proof of
which was witnessed last winter at Sackett's Harbour, where some of
our officers from Kingston saw a man who had been received, and who
had deceived all the American officers, except the surgeon. This
gentleman, suspecting he was not a free and enlightened citizen,
although he assumed the drawl and guess, suddenly said to him,
"Attention!" upon which the deserter immediately dropped his hands
straight, and stood, confessed, a soldier.
[Footnote 1: Brown Bess, a musket--_vide Infantry Dictionary._]
It would appear that in peace-time deserters should not be received
into the ranks of a friendly power. Even in war, they are received by
European nations with difficulty and distrust; for a man who once
voluntarily breaks his oath and casts off his allegiance is very
likely to be a double traitor.
The deserters from the regiments stationed in Canada frequently apply
to be received back, but it is a rule to refuse them; and very
properly so.
It is incredible what pains are taken on the frontier, by the loafing
population from the States, to persuade the young soldiers to desert;
and that, too, without any adequate prospect of benefit, but merely
out of hatred, intense hatred, to England; for they soon leave the
unfortunate men, who usually are plied with liquor, to their fate,
when once in the land of liberty; and this fate is almost invariably a
very miserable one.
The soldier I had with me told me that, while we were at the Falls, a
man made up to him at the hotel, for he was then in uniform, being on
the British side, and introduced himself as a general, saying that he
was surprised he could remain in such a service, and volunteered to
place him in their army, which he laughed at, and told him he
preferred Queen Victoria's. This man he described to me as a
gentleman, in his dress and manner; but, if he was a general, he was
certainly a militia one, for the regular generals are not very plenty;
and, from what I have heard of them, are above such meanness.
We had a military general, who is, I believe, a shoemaker of Buffalo
or of New York, at Kingston last winter, who gave out that he had
crossed over the ice to see if it was true that fortifications were
actually in progress at Kingston. He met a keen young gentleman, who
was determined to have a little fun with General Crispianus, who was
attired in a fine furred, frogged, winter coat, and pointed Astracan
cap, with a heavy tassel of silk.
"So you are at work here, I guess?"
"Yes," said the young gentleman, "we are."
"Well, I do hope you will be prepared in Kanaday, for though we don't
approve some of our president's notions, we shall sustain him to a
man; and, as soon as ever war is declared, we shall pour two or three
hundred thousand men into your country and annex it."
"Oh, is that all!" replied the youth; "I advise you then, general, to
take care of yourself, for we expect sixty thousand regulars from
England."
"I didn't hear that before," said General Crispianus; and no doubt he
returned to his last somewhat discomfited. _Ne sutor ultra crepidam._
Before his departure, however, he went to see a newly invented
pile-driver, which was at work, and, after looking at the _monkey_ for
some time, which was raised and lowered by two horses, and drove the
piles very quickly, with enormous power, he said to his friend
suddenly, "Waal, I swar, that does act sassy."
So much for General Crispianus.
We passed the night aboard of the Thames, preferring her spacious
accommodations to those of the hotels in such a hot season, when the
rain poured in torrents; but sleep was out of the question, for the
climate of Sierra Leone could scarcely be more insufferable than the
atmosphere then and there.
The rain cleared away in the morning, and a prospect of Lake Erie in
a rage presented itself; so we could not quit the miserable apology
for a harbour which Buffalo Creek affords, crowded, narrow, and nasty,
until half past nine, and then, with great difficulty, on board the
Emerald, a small Canadian steamboat, worked out amidst a string or
maze of all sorts of merchant-craft.
Lake Erie presented an appearance exactly like the shallow sea, green
and foamy, and very angry; and, in passing the shoals at the entrance
of the Niagara river, it rolled the boat so that there was some
danger; and one old lady vowed that she would never quit the United
States any more.
A nice comfortable-looking Massachusetts farmer, the very type of a
Buckinghamshire grazier of the year 1800, who was her husband, took a
fancy to me because I was endeavouring to assure his old dame that she
was not in real danger, and told me various stories, for he was very
loquacious.
Among other things, he said it was very disgraceful to the
Buffalonians to allow such a miscreant as Benjamin Lett, whom we saw
on the wharf, be at large, as he boasted of having blown up Brock's
monument, and of shooting Captain Ussher in cool blood at his own door
in the night, long after all the disturbances of the insurrection were
over. Lett seemed to glory in his villanies, and was a
disgusting-looking loafer, for whose punishment the laws of the United
States have proved either too lenient or totally inadequate. This
fellow escaped when heavily ironed by jumping out of a rail car on his
way to the Auburn Penitentiary, and no doubt has many admirers.
The good farmer told me that he had been to see Auburn, and that there
was a little boy confined there for setting fire to a barn. He was
only eleven years of age, and had been hired for half a dollar by a
ruffian to do the deed.
But Auburn (what a misnomer for a penitentiary establishment, enough
to make poor Goldsmith shiver in his shroud!) is not the only
penitentiary in America where children expiate crime. Kingston in
Canada can show several examples, among others, three brothers; and it
appears to me that a better system is required in both countries. A
house of correction for such juvenile offenders would surely be better
than to mix them in labour with the hardened villains of a
penitentiary. It is, in fact, punishing thought before it has time to
discriminate, and the consequence is that these children return youths
to the same place, and when they again leave it as youths, they return
as men, for their minds are then callous.
The penitentiary system in Canada is undergoing a strict trial.
It will surprise my readers to state that, in an agricultural country,
where the manners of the people are still very primitive, where
education is still backward, and civilization slowly advancing, out of
a population of about 1,200,000, scattered widely in the woods, there
should be so large a proportion as twenty women, and five hundred men,
in the Kingston Penitentiary; for, as education and civilization
advance, and large towns grow up, new wants arise, and evil
communication corrupts good manners, so that the proportion of great
crimes between an old and a new country is much in favour always of
the latter.
Recent discoveries of the police in Montreal have shown that _hells_
of the most atrocious character, and one in imitation of Crockford's,
as far as its inferior means would go, have been found out.
At Kingston a most wretched establishment of the same nature has
recently been broken up, and at Toronto great incentives to vice in
the very young exist.
Clerks in banks have gambled away the property of their employers in
these places to the amount of several thousands, and, the frontier of
the United States being so near, they have fled as soon as discovery
was apprehended, but, owing to the international arrangements for the
arrest of such criminals, have hitherto been detected, and consigned
to the laws of their offended country.
The spirit of insubordination, which so forcibly operates in
uneducated minds, where the constant example of the excess of freedom
in the neighbouring States is ever present, has much changed the
aspect of society in all the large towns and villages of Western
Canada. There is no longer that honest independence of the working and
labouring classes which existed fifteen years ago; but impudent
assumption has forced its way very generally, and among servants more
particularly. If they are not permitted to make the kitchen a
rendezvous for their friends, to go out whenever they like, and in
fact to be masters and mistresses of the habitation, they immediately,
and without warning, leave, and no laws exist to prevent the growing
evil: the consequence is that household economy is every where
deranged, and a _place_, as it is called, is only good where high life
below stairs is freely permitted.
The servants too are chiefly Irish, who have neither means nor
inclination for settling in the forest, and consequently there is
little or no competition, while they are so well known to each other,
and so banded in a sort of Carbonari system, that it is extremely
difficult to replace bad ones, even by worse.
The women servants are the worst. I saw an instance lately however of
a precocious young villain of twelve, who was footboy in a gentleman's
family, and his young sister, not fourteen, under-housemaid. His
mother, a widow in infirm health, recently imported from Dublin, had
brought up her children well, as far as reading and writing went, but
had indulged them too much, and beat them so much, that they neither
loved nor feared her. The little boy, only twelve, got into bad
company, and ran away from his place, where he was well fed, well
clothed, and kindly treated, and took his livery with him. He was
brought back, after being partially frost-bitten, by his uncle, and
received again from mistaken kindness. A cook of bad habits and worse
temper got hold of him, and, after staying a short time, he again
deserted with all the clothes and things he could carry. A young lady
in the family had previously told him that her father would one day
take him to the penitentiary to show him what bad boys came to. "That
is the very place I want to get into," said the young ruffian, "for I
hear there is fine fun there; I will steal something by and by, and
then they will send me there."
Accordingly, he did steal, and took French leave one fine morning with
Madam Cookey, having previously strangled the young lady's favourite
cat, just about to kitten, and having the night before he absconded
told the young lady he had made a famous nest for pussy to kitten in,
and that if she went to the cellar in the morning, she would find the
cat on her nest.
The young lady thought nothing of what he said at the moment, but,
after finding when the family got up that the cook and boy were off,
she went to look at her kittens, found the cat strangled, frozen, and
placed on the nest. A day or two afterwards, the little sister
decamped with three suits of dresses. Now what use would there be in
putting such a boy or such a girl at so tender an age, and with such
principles, into a penitentiary?
Penitentiaries are not proper receptacles for infant villains. The
very contagion of working with murderers, coiners, horse-stealers, and
scoundrels of the deepest dye is enough alone to confirm their habits
and inclinations; and I am not aware of any instance of an infant boy
or girl coming out of the Kingston Penitentiary subdued or improved.
They are more marked characters when they again join their former
friends; for they seldom avoid their former haunts and those whose
example first led them astray, but plunge again and again deeper into
crime.
It is the same with beating a child to excess; spare the rod and spoil
the child, says the Jewish lawgiver; but where slavery does not exist,
the rod is not to be used to that extent, and it does not improve even
slaves. No; as in the army and in the navy, it hardens culprits, and
very seldom indeed acts upon their consciences.
Border population is usually of a low character, and I cannot think
it can be worse anywhere than where the maritime, or rather
_laculine_, if such a word is admissible, preponderates, and where
that race are unemployed for at least five months of the Boreal
winters of Canada. It is only a wonder that serious crime is so
infrequent. Burglary was almost unknown, as well as highway robbery,
until last year; but instances of both occurred near Toronto, and the
former twice at Kingston. The only use to such a class that a war
could be of would be to employ them; but it is to be predicted, if
peace exists much longer, that the civil and criminal jurisprudence of
towns and cities bordering on the great lakes must undergo very great
revision, and a suitable police be employed in them.
Nothing can, by any possibility, be more eminently absurd than the
police of Kingston as at present constituted. These men are dressed
like officers in the army; and, instead of being in the streets to
prevent accident or crime, are employed, as they say, hard at work,
detecting the latter. How they do now and then, at intervals few and
far between, succeed in detecting an unhappy loafer is a mystery to
everybody, for they are usually observed on the steps of the Town
Hall, or carrying home provisions from the market, with a fine dog
following them, or else jaunting about in cabs or sleighs.
London is said to have suffered much by the policemen finding their
way down the area steps of houses, and amusing themselves in cupboard
courtships with the lady-cooks, housemaids, and scullions; but I
verily believe Kingston has not arrived at that perfection of a
domestic police, for most of the men are middle-aged and married.
The cabmen and carters of Kingston, it is said, elect the Aldermen and
Common Council. Whether this be true or false, I cannot pretend to
say, but it is very certain that a more insolent, ungoverned race than
the cabmen do not exist anywhere. The best position of the best
promenade is occupied by these fellows; and no respectable female or
timid man dares to pass them without receiving coarse insult; and, if
complaint is made, they mark the complainant; and, if they keep a
sleigh or carriage, make a point of running races near them, and
cracking heavy whips to frighten their horses. One of these ruffians
frightened a gentleman's horse last winter, and threw him, his wife,
and daughter on the pavement, in consequence of the animal running
away, and overturning the vehicle they were in. They know all the
grooms and servants, and act according as they like or dislike them,
caring very little what their masters hear or see. The carters are
somewhat better, as there are decent men among them; but many of that
body care very little about the laws of the road, which, by the by,
are different here from those at home.
If you go left you go right,
If you go right, you go wrong,
is reversed in Canada, the right side of the road being always the
driving side in both provinces; thus, if you go right, you do not go
wrong; although such a manifest advantage in ethics, it will appear
that right is not always right in Canada, but that cabmen's right and
carters' right confer degrees in the Corporation College, which ensure
a large share of wrong to the public.
But they are going to change all this, and bring in an Act of
Parliament to alter the constitution of the fathers of the city of
Regiopolis, who, it appears, have not hitherto rendered any account of
their stewardship.
I shall not now enter into any further recapitulation of the journey
from the Falls of Niagara to Toronto, or from Toronto to Kingston,
save to say that some very intelligent citizens of the United States
from Philadelphia were my companions on board the splendid British
mail-packet, City of Toronto. The ex-Mayor of Philadelphia and his two
amiable daughters were of the party, and I much question whether we
could have had a more pleasant voyage than that which terminated on
the seventeenth day of July. I omitted to observe, that voyage from
Buffalo to Toronto was performed in eight hours and a quarter, as
follows: Buffalo to Chippewa, by Emerald steamer, one hour and a half;
Chippewa, by horse-car railway, to Queenston, one hour and a quarter;
Queenston, by Transit steamer, to Toronto, four hours and a half,
including all stoppages and detentions, among which was that of
upwards of an hour at Queenston, waiting for the boat. The distance is
about seventy miles; and the actual rate of going, for none of the
conveyances are very rapid ones, is about ten miles an hour.
Kingston is one hundred and eighty-nine miles from Toronto by land,
and one hundred and eighty by water; and the journey is performed in
the mail-packets, which stop at several places occasionally, in
eighteen hours, or about ten miles an hour, with detention for taking
in wood, the speed averaging eleven.