CANADA, sometimes called NEW FRANCE, or the Province of Quebec, is an extensive tract of country in North America ; and is the principal British possession in that quarter of the globe. The relative position of this colony to the United States, and its immense extent of territory; its growing commercial importance, and its ability to supply our West India islands, in the event of interruptions to their intercourse with the Americans; the circumstance of its being hitherto little known to the inhabitants of Great Britain, and of much useful in formation having been recently acquired respecting it ; all these considerations justly entitle it to a much larger space than it has hitherto occupied in works of this na ture. The name Canada, in its most extended sense, and especially according to the usage of the French geographers, has been applied to the whole of that immense district, which is comprehended between the 43d and 50th degrees of north latitude, which reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, in an inclined direction from north-east to south-west ; but, in its more confined acceptation as a British colony, it is computed to extend about 1300 geographical miles, between the 64th and 97th degrees of west longitude ; while its breadth, at a medium, is rated at 20u miles, though its greatest width, from Lake Eric on the south, or gat 43, to lat. 49, is about 360 miles. It is bounded on the cast by the G ulf or St Lawrence ; on the north, the west, and south-west, by the territories of different Indian na tions; and on the south and south-east by New York, New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia ; but, t xcept on the east, its precise limits arc no where well defined. Even on the side of the United States, its boundaries are not yet definitively fixed ; and hate been the subject of 11111(•11 discussion, from the era can halt:punch lice to the present day. According to the treaty of peace between the colonies and the mother country', upon the termination of the American war, the lint. or division was to run front the north-west angle Nota Scotia along those high lands which divide the tit ers that themselt es into the St Lawrence, from those that fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north head of the Connecticut river ; along the Illiddie of that river to the 45th degree of north lati tude; along the said latitude, due west, till it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraguay ; along the middle of that river, of Lake Ontario, of Lake Erie, of Lake Huron, of Lake Superior, of the Long Lake Os however, has no existence), and of the Lake of the Woods; thence, on a due west course, to the river Mississippi ; and along the middle of that river, till it intersect the northernmost part of the 31st degree of north latitude.
It is divided into two provinces, called Upper and I.ower Canada. The former, which is the western di vision, is situated on the north side of the great lakes, or sea of Canada; and is inhabited chiefly by English settlers. The latter is situated on the river St Lawrence, towards the east, and is peopled by a greater proportion of french inhabitants. The lower province is divided into twenty-one counties : Gasi.e, Cornwallis, Devon, Ilertford, Dorchester, Buckinghamshire, Richlieu, Bed ford, Surry, Kent, I lunting.dom, York, Montreal, Effing ham, Lcinster, Warwick, Saint Maurice, Hampshire, Quebec county, Northumberland, and Orleans; 17 of which send two representatives each to the Provincial Assembly; and the other lour, one each. It contains the following towns, besides a number of large and populous villages :—Quebec, the scat of government, situated on a lofty point or land, on the north-west side of the St Lawrence, nearly 400 miles from its mouth, very strong by nature, and completely fortified by art, contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and sends four repre sentatives to the Assembly :—Alontreal, 180 miles above Quebec, built on the east side of an island formed by the junction of the St Lawrence with the Utawas, the boundary between the two provinces, contains 6000 in habitants, and also sends four representatives : Trois Rivieres, or Three Rivers, nearly midway between Que bec and Montreal, formerly a place of great resort to the Indians, contains about 250 houses :—The Borough cf Henry, (so named in compliment to his Royal /lighness the of Clarence,) situated in the Seignio ry of Sorelle, on the south side of the St Lawrence, about 45 miles below Montreal, and which was origi nally laid out by the surveyor-general of the province, is principally inhabited by American loyalists and dis banded soldiers, who obtained small grants of land at the cud of the American war, the Seigniory having about that time been putchased by the crown, in the view of forming a military position at this place; contains up wards of 100 houses, a Protestant and a Romish church, a government-house (the only brick building of any magnitude in the province), and a military hospital: the inhabitants are chiefly employed in ship building.