present of twelve persons only, including the bishop of Quebec; that of
the church of Rome, however, consists of no less than one hundred and
twenty-six; viz. a bishop, who takes his title from Quebec, his
“coadjuteur élu,” who is bishop of Canathe, three vicars general, and
one hundred and sixteen curates and missionaries, all of whom are
resident in the lower province, except five curates and missionaries.
The number of the dissenting clergy, in both provinces, is considerably
smaller than that of the clergy of the church of England.
[Sidenote: PRESENTS AND SALARIES.]
The expences of the civil list in Lower Canada are estimated at £.20,000
sterling per annum, one half of which is defrayed by Great Britain, and
the remainder by the province, out of the duties paid on the importation
of certain articles. The expence of the civil list in Upper Canada is
considerably less; perhaps not so much as a fourth of that of the lower
province.
The military establishment in both provinces, together with the repairs
of fortifications, &c. are computed to cost Great Britain annually
£.100,000 sterling.
The presents distributed amongst the Indians, and the salaries paid to
the different officers in the Indian department, are estimated at
£.100,000 sterling more, annually.
Amongst the officers in the Indian department are, superintendants
general, deputy superintendants, inspectors general, deputy inspectors
general, secretaries, assistant secretaries, storekeepers, clerks,
agents, interpreters, issuers of provisions, surgeons, gunsmiths, &c.
&c. &c. most of whom, in the lower province, have now sinecure places,
as there are but few Indians in the country; but in the upper province
they have active service to perform. Of the policy of issuing presents
to such a large amount amongst the Indians, more will be said in the
afterpart of this work.
[Sidenote: IMPORT DUTIES.]
The following is a statement of some of the salaries paid to the
officers of government in Lower Canada.
£.
Governor general 2,000
Lieutenant governor 1,500
Executive counsellors, each 100
Attorney general 300
Solicitor general 200
Secretary and register to the province 400
Clerk of the court of appeals, with 120
firewood and stationary
Secretary to the governor 200
French secretary to the governor, and 200
translator to the council
Chief justice of Quebec, who is chief 1,200
justice of the province
Chief justice of Montreal 900
Chief justice of Three Rivers 300
Receiver general 400
Surveyor general of lands 300
Deputy, and allowance for an office 150
Surveyor of woods 200
Grand voyer of Quebec 100
Grand voyer of Montreal 100
Grand voyer of Three Rivers 60
Superintendant of provincial post houses 100
Clerk of the terraro of the king’s 90
domain
Clerk of the crown 100
Inspector of police at Quebec 100
Inspector of police at Montreal 100
Four missionaries to Indians, each 50
One missionary to Indians 45
Schoolmaster at Quebec 100
Schoolmaster at Montreal 50
Schoolmaster at Carlisle, Bay de 25
Chaleurs
Overseers, to prevent fires at Quebec, 60
and to sweep the chimneys of the
poor
Salary of the bishop of Quebec, who is 2,000
bishop of both provinces
The pensions, between January 1794 and January 1795, amounted to
£.1,782. 6_s._ 7_d._
* * * * *
A STATEMENT of the Articles subject to Duty on Importation into Canada,
and of the Duties payable thereon.
_s._
_d._
Brandy and other spirits, the . 3
manufacture of Great Britain, per
gallon
Rum and other spirits, imported from the . 6
colonies in the West Indies, per
gallon
Brandy and spirits of foreign 1 0
manufacture, imported from Great
Britain, per gallon
Additional duty on the same, per gallon . 3
Rum or spirits manufactured in the 1 0
United States, per gallon
Molasses and Syrups imported in British . 3
shipping, per gallon
Additional duty, per gallon . 3
Molasses or Syrups legally imported in . 6
other than British shipping, per
gallon
Additional duty, per gallon . 3
Madeira wine, per gallon . 6
Other wine . 3
N.B. Wine can be imported directly from Madeira, or from any of the
African islands, into Canada; but no European wine or brandy can be
imported, except through England.
Loaf or lump sugar, 1
per lb.
Muscovado or clayed ½
sugar
Coffee, per lb. 2
Leaf tobacco, per 2
lb.
Playing cards, per 2
pack
Salt, the minot 4
N.B. The minot is a measure commonly used in Canada, which is to the
Winchester bushel, as 100 is to 108,765.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: SOIL AND MANUFACTURES.]
The imports into Canada consist of all the various articles which a
young country, that does not manufacture much for its own use, can be
supposed to stand in need of; such as earthen ware, hardware, and
household furniture, except of the coarser kinds; woollen and linen
cloths, haberdashery, hosiery, &c.; paper, stationary, leather and
manufactures of leather, groceries, wines, spirits, West Indian produce,
&c. &c.; cordage of every description, and even the coarser manufactures
of iron, are also imported.
The soil of the country is well adapted to the growth of hemp, and great
pains have been taken to introduce the culture of it. Handbills,
explaining the manner in which it can be raised to the best advantage,
have been assiduously circulated amongst the farmers, and posted up at
all the public houses. It is a difficult matter, however, to put the
French Canadians out of their old ways, so that very little hemp has
been raised in consequence of the pains that have been thus taken; and
it is not probable that much will be raised for a considerable time to
come.
Iron ore has been discovered in various parts of the country; but works
for the smelting and manufacturing of it have been erected at one place
only, in the neighbourhood of Trois Rivieres. These works were erected
by the king of France some time before the conquest: they are now the
property of the British government, and are rented out to the persons
who hold them at present. When the lease expires, which will be the case
about the year 1800, it is thought that no one will be found to carry on
the works, as the bank of ore, from whence they are supplied, is nearly
exhausted. The works consist of a forge and a foundry: iron stoves are
the principal articles manufactured in the latter; but they are not so
much esteemed as those from England.
Domestic manufactures are carried on in most parts of Canada, consisting
of linen and of coarse woollen cloths; but by far the greater part of
these articles used in the country is imported from Great Britain.
The experts from Canada consist of furs and pelts in immense quantities;
of wheat, flour, flax-seed, potash, timber, staves, and lumber of all
sorts; dried fish, oil, ginseng, and various medicinal drugs.
The trade between Canada and Great Britain employs, it is said, about
seven thousand tons of shipping annually.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
+LETTER + XXVI.
_Of the Soil and Productions of Lower Canada.—Observations on the
Manufacture of Sugar from the Maple-tree.—Of the Climate of Lower
Canada.—Amusements of People of all Descriptions during
Winter.—Carioles.—Manner of guarding against the Cold.—Great Hardiness
of the Horses.—State of the River St. Lawrence on the Dissolution of
Winter.—Rapid Progress of Vegetation during Spring.—Agreeableness of
the Summer and Autumn Seasons._
Quebec.
THE eastern part of Lower Canada, between Quebec and the Gulph of St.
Lawrence, is mountainous; between Quebec and the mouth of the Utawas
River also a few scattered mountains are to be met with; but higher up
the River St. Lawrence the face of the country is flat.
The soil, except where small tracts of stony and sandy land intervene,
consists principally of a loose dark coloured earth, and of the depth of
ten or twelve inches, below which there is a bed of cold clay. This
earth towards the surface is extremely fertile, of which there cannot be
a greater proof than that it continues to yield plentiful crops,
notwithstanding its being worked year after year by the French
Canadians, without ever being manured. It is only within a few years
back, indeed, that any of the Canadians have begun to manure their
lands, and many still continue, from father to son, to work the same
fields without intermission, and without ever putting any manure upon
them, yet the land is not exhausted, as it would be in the United States.
The manure principally made use of by those who are the best farmers is
marl, found in prodigious quantities in many places along the shores of
the River St. Lawrence.
The soil of Lower Canada is particularly suited to the growth of small
grain. Tobacco also thrives well in it; it is only raised, however, in
small quantities for private use, more than one half of what is used in
the country being imported. The Canadian tobacco is of a much milder
quality than that grown in Maryland and Virginia: the snuff made from it
is held in great estimation.
[Sidenote: VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.]
Culinary vegetables of every description come to the greatest perfection
in Canada, as well as most of the European fruits: the currants,
gooseberries, and raspberries are in particular very fine; the latter
are indigenous, and are found in profusion in the woods; the vine is
also indigenous, but the grapes which it produces in its uncultivated
state are very poor, sour, and but little larger than fine currants.
The variety of trees found in the forests of Canada is prodigious, and
it is supposed that many kinds are still unknown: beech trees, oaks,
elms, ashes, pines, sycamores, chesnuts, walnuts, of each of which
several different species are commonly met with; the sugar maple tree is
also found in almost every part of the country, a tree never seen but
upon good ground. There are two kinds of this very valuable tree in
Canada; the one called the swamp maple, from its being generally found
upon low lands; the other, the mountain or curled maple, from growing
upon high dry ground, and from the grain of the wood being very
beautifully variegated with little stripes and curls. The former yields
a much greater quantity of sap, in proportion to its size, than the
other, but this sap does not afford so much sugar as that of the curled
maple. A pound of sugar is frequently procured from two or three gallons
of the sap of the curled maple, whereas no more than the same quantity
can be had from six or seven gallons of that of the swamp.
The most approved method of getting the sap is by piercing a hole with
an auger in the side of the tree, of one inch or an inch and a half in
diameter, and two or three inches in depth, obliquely upwards; but the
most common mode of coming at it is by cutting a large gash in the tree
with an axe. In each case a small spout is fixed at the bottom of the
wound, and a vessel is placed underneath to receive the liquor as it
falls.
A maple tree of the diameter of twenty inches will commonly yield
sufficient sap for making five pounds of sugar each year, and instances
have been known of trees yielding nearly this quantity annually for a
series of thirty years. Trees that have been gashed and mangled with an
axe will not last by any means so long as those which have been
carefully pierced with an auger; the axe, however, is generally used,
because the sap distils much faster from the wound made by it than from
that made by an auger, and it is always an object with the farmer, to
have the sap brought home, and boiled down as speedily as possible, in
order that the making of sugar may not interfere with his other
agricultural pursuits. The season for tapping the trees is when the sap
begins to rise, at the commencement of spring, which is just the time
that the farmer is most busied in making preparations for sowing his
grain.
[Sidenote: MAPLE TREES.]
It is a very remarkable fact, that these trees, after having been tapped
for six or seven successive years, always yield more sap than they do on
being first wounded; this sap, however, is not so rich as that which the
trees distil for the first time; but from its coming in an increased
portion, as much sugar is generally procured from a single tree on the
fifth or sixth year of its being tapped as on the first.
The maple is the only sort of raw sugar made use of in the country parts
of Canada; it is very generally used also by the inhabitants of the
towns, whither it is brought for sale by the country people who attend
the markets, just the same as any other kind of country produce. The
most common form in which it is seen is in loaves or thick round cakes,
precisely as it comes out of the vessel where it is boiled down from the
sap. These cakes are of a very dark colour in general, and very hard; as
they are wanted they are scraped down with a knife, and when thus
reduced into powder, the sugar appears of a much lighter cast, and not
unlike West Indian muscovada or grained sugar. If the maple sugar be
carefully boiled with lime, whites of eggs, blood, or any of the other
articles usually employed for clarifying sugar, and properly granulated,
by the draining off of the molasses, it is by no means inferior, either
in point of strength, flavour, or appearance to the eye, to any West
Indian sugar whatsoever: simply boiled down into cakes with milk or
whites of eggs it is very agreeable to the taste.
The ingenious Dr. Nooth, of Quebec, who is at the head of the general
hospital in Canada, has made a variety of experiments upon the
manufacture of maple sugar; he has granulated, and also refined it, so
as to render it equal to the best lump sugar that is made in England. To
convince the Canadians also, who are as incredulous on some points as
they are credulous on others, that it was really maple sugar which they
saw thus refined, he has contrived to leave large lumps, exhibiting the
sugar in its different stages towards refinement, the lower part of the
lumps being left hard, similar to the common cakes, the middle part
granulated, and the upper part refined.
[Sidenote: MAPLE TREES.]
Dr. Nooth has calculated, that the sale of the molasses alone would be
fully adequate to the expence of refining the maple sugar, if a
manufactory for that purpose were established. Some attempts have been
made to establish one of the kind at Quebec, but they have never
succeeded, as the persons by whom they were made were adventurers that
had not sufficient capitals for such an undertaking. It ought not,
however, to be concluded from this, that a manufactory of the sort would
not succeed if conducted by judicious persons that had ample funds for
the business; on the contrary, it is highly probable that it would
answer.
There is great reason also to suppose, that a manufactory for making the
sugar from the beginning, as well as for refining it, might be
established with advantage.
Several acres together are often met with in Canada, entirely covered
with maple trees alone; but the trees are most usually found growing
mixed with others, in the proportion of from thirty to fifty maple trees
to every acre. Thousands and thousands of acres might be procured,
within a very short distance of the River St. Lawrence, for less than
one shilling an acre, on each of which thirty maple trees would be
found; but supposing that only twenty-five trees were found on each
acre, then on a track of five thousand acres, supposing each tree to
produce five pounds of sugar, 5,580 cwt. 2 qrs. 12 lbs. of sugar might
be made annually.
The maple tree attains a growth sufficient for yielding five pounds of
sugar annually in the space of twenty years; as the oaks and other kinds
of trees, therefore, were cut away for different purposes, maples might
be planted in their room, which would be ready to be tapped by the time
that the old maple trees failed. Moreover, if these trees were planted
out in rows regularly, the trouble of collecting the sap from them would
be much less than if they stood widely scattered, as they do in their
natural state, and of course the expence of making the sugar would be
considerably lessened. Added to this, if young maples were constantly
set out in place of the other trees, as they were cut down, the estate,
at the end of twenty years, would yield ten times as much sugar as it
did originally.
[Sidenote: MAPLE SUGAR.]
It has been asserted, that the difficulty of maintaining horses and men
in the woods at the season of the year proper for making the sugar would
be so great, as to render every plan for the manufactory of the sugar on
an extensive scale abortive. This might be very true, perhaps, in the
United States, where the subject has been principally discussed, and
where it is that this objection has been made; but it would not hold
good in Canada. Many tracks, containing five thousand acres each, of
sugar maple land, might be procured in various parts of the country, no
part of any of which would be more than six English miles distant from a
populous village. The whole labour of boiling in each year would be over
in the space of six weeks; the trouble therefore of carrying food during
that period, for the men and horses that were wanting for the
manufactory, from a village into the woods, would be trifling, and a few
huts might be built for their accommodation in the woods at a small
expence.
The great labour requisite for conveying the sap from the trees, that
grow so far apart, to the boiling house, has been adduced as another
objection to the establishment of an extensive sugar manufactory in the
woods.
The sap, as I have before observed, is collected by private families, by
setting a vessel, into which it drops, under each tree, and from thence
carried by hand to the place where it is to be boiled. If a regular
manufactory, however, were established, the sap might be conveyed to the
boiling house with far less labour; small wooden troughs might be placed
under the wounds in each trees, by which means the sap might easily be
conveyed to the distance of twenty yards, if it were thought necessary,
into reservoirs. Three or four of these reservoirs might be placed on an
acre, and avenues opened through the woods, so as to admit carts with
proper vessels to pass from one to the other, in order to convey the sap
to the boiling houses. Mere sheds would answer for boiling houses, and
these might be erected at various different places on the estate, in
order to save the trouble of carrying the sap a great way.
The expence of cutting down a few trees, so as to clear an avenue for a
cart, would not be much; neither would that of making the spouts, and
common tubs for reservoirs, be great in a country abounding with wood;
the quantity of labour saved by such means would, however, be very
considerable.
When then, it is considered, that private families, who have to carry
the sap by hand from each tree to their own houses, and often at a
considerable distance from the woods, in order to boil it, can, with all
this labour, afford to sell sugar, equally good with that which comes
from the West Indies, at a much lower price than what the latter is sold
at; when it is considered also, that by going to the small expence, on
the first year, of making a few wooden spouts and tubs, a very great
portion of labour would be saved, and of course the profits on the sale
of the sugar would be far greater; there is good foundation for
thinking, that if a manufactory were established on such a plan as I
have hinted at, it would answer extremely well, and that maple sugar
would in a short time become a principal article of foreign commerce in
Canada.
[Sidenote: AIR AND CLIMATE.]
The sap of the maple tree is not only useful in yielding sugar; most
excellent vinegar may likewise be made from it. In company with several
gentlemen I tasted vinegar made from it by Dr. Nooth, allowed by every
one present to be much superior to the best French white wine vinegar;
for at the same time that it possessed equal acidity, it had a more
delicious flavour.
Good table beer may likewise be made from the sap, which many would
mistake for malt liquor.
If distilled, the sap affords a very fine spirit.
The air of Lower Canada is extremely pure, and the climate is deemed
uncommonly salubrious, except only in the western parts of the province,
high up the River St. Lawrence, where, as is the case in almost every
part of the United States south of New England, between the ocean and
the mountains, the inhabitants suffer to a great degree from
intermittent fevers. From Montreal downwards, the climate resembles very
much that of the states of New England; the people live to a good old
age, and intermittents are quite unknown. This great difference in the
healthiness of the two parts of the province must be attributed to the
different aspects of the country; to the east, Lower Canada, like New
England, is mountainous, but to the west it is an extended flat.
The extremes of heat and cold in Canada are amazing; in the months of
July and August the thermometer, according to Fahrenheit, is often known
to rise to 96°, yet a winter scarcely passes over but even the mercury
itself freezes. Those very sudden transitions, however, from heat to
cold, so common in the United States, and so very injurious to the
constitution, are unknown in Canada; the seasons also are much more
regular.
The snow generally begins to fall in November; but sometimes it comes
down as early as the latter end of October. This is the most
disagreeable part of the whole year; the air is then cold and raw, and
the sky dark and gloomy; two days seldom pass over together without a
fall either of snow or sleet. By the end of the first or second week,
however, in December, the clouds are generally dissolved, the frost sets
in, the sky assumes a bright and azure hue, and for weeks together it
continues the same, without being obscured by a single cloud.
[Sidenote: WINTER AMUSEMENTS.]
The greatest degree of cold which they experience in Canada, is in the
month of January, when for a few days it is sometimes so intense, that
it is impossible for a human being to remain out of doors for any
considerable time, without evident danger of being frost bitten. These
very cold days, however, do not come altogether, but intervene generally
at some little distance from each other; and between them, in the depth
of winter, the air is sometimes so warm that people in exercise, in the
middle of the day, feel disposed to lay aside the thick fur cloaks
usually worn out of doors.
Those who have ever passed a winter in Canada, have by no means that
dread of its severity, which some would have who have never experienced
a greater degree of cold than what is commonly felt in Great Britain;
and as for the Canadians themselves, they prefer the winter to every
other season; indeed I never met with a Canadian, rich or poor, male or
female, but what was of that opinion; nor ought this to excite our
surprise, when it is considered that they pass the winter so very
differently from what we do. If a Canadian were doomed to spend but six
weeks only in the country parts of England, when the ground was covered
with snow, I dare venture to say that he would be as heartily tired of
the sameness which then pervaded the face of nature, and as desirous of
beholding a green field once more, as any one of us.
Winter in Canada is the season of general amusement. The clear frosty
weather no sooner commences, than all thoughts about business are laid
aside, and every one devotes himself to pleasure. The inhabitants meet
in convivial parties at each other’s houses, and pass the day with
music, dancing, card-playing, and every social entertainment that can
beguile the time. At Montreal, in particular, such a constant and
friendly intercourse is kept up amongst the inhabitants, that, as I have
often heard it mentioned, it appears then as if the town were inhabited
but by one large family.
[Sidenote: WINTER TRAVELLING.]