It has been questioned, with considerable appearance of justice, whether the inhabitants of Canada were suffi prepared for such a full extension of the British constitution. The majority of the assembly in each pro vince, especially in the Lower, are always of French de scent ; and have thus the power of passing such regula tions, as may be most agreeable to their views ; while, at the same time, they arc in general very far from being properly qualified, by their degree of education, or ha bits of life, to discharge the office of legislators. The counties, though large, are so thinly inhabited, that they can very seldom furnish persons fitted to represent them. The few who might be competent to undertake the of fice, cannot easily leave their habitations and employ ments, without great detriment to their private interests. Hence it happens, that more than one half of the mem bers of assembly, at least in Lower Canada, is composed of merchants, shopkeepers, lawyers, Scc. residing in Quebec and Montreal. The Canadians themselves opposed, at first, the introduction of the present form of government ; and it was procured chiefly by the application of British resi• dents. But in order to have given the latter what they wished, the superiority in the government, as well as upon every principle, which renders a union desirable, there ought to have been only one house of assembly for both provinces.
For the more regular administration of justice, Lower Canada was, in 1794, divided into three districts : that of Trois Rivieres, in which there is only one judge ; that of Quebec, in which there is one chief justice, three puisne judges, and a solicitor general ; and that of Montreal, in which there is the same number as in Quebec, with an attorney general ; but both the solicitor and attorney ge neral are competent to attend the several courts through out the province ; and, unless prevented by unavoidable absence, the attorney general conducts all criminal suits in each of the districts. The upper provinceis consider ed as only one district ; and has one chief justice, with three puisne judges. The chief justices are always British.
There are about 60,000 militia in Canada, but they are neither well clothed nor trained. The English and the Canadians also are distributed into separate corps, while the latter are both officered by their own people and taught their exercise in French, so as to be utterly inca pable of acting in the same brigade iv ith British troops.
The revenues of Lower Canada, consist of the casual and territorial revenue of the crown prior to the conquest, which has been given up by his majesty in aid of the civil expcnces of the province. This arises from ledrcit de quinte les lolls et ventes, (duties paid upon the sale of property), rent paid for the king's posts on the Labrador coast, and for the forges of St Maurice. To these are to
be added certain permanent and moderate duties. (im posed either by acts of the British parliament prior to the constitutional act of the year 1791, or by these of the provincial on wine, spirits, tea, and a few other articles imported into Canada. The whole taken together, produce from 30,000/. to 35,000/. a year ; and nearly suffice for the ordinary expellees of the civil gov ernment, any'deficiencies being made good from the mi litary chest. Duties, to nearly the same amount, are also collected under temporary acts of the provincial legisla ture, and applied to particular purposes, such as the building of court houses, gaols, ke. The expenses of the Indian department of the two Canadas, including the salaries of the officers, and what is paid in England for goods sent out as presents to the Indians, (who are treat ed by the British government as military allies), amount, on an average, to about 25,000/. per annum; and are re gularly included in a vote of parliament, and defrayed out of the army extraordinaries. But the surplus expense of Great Britain in supporting Canada is well repaid by the consumption of her manufactures, the employment given to her seamen, the supplies afforded to her \Vest India islands, and the variety of useful productions which she imports from the colony.
The external appearance of Canada, like that of North America in general, is altogether of the majestic charac ter ; and inanimate nature is there exhibited on the grand est scale. Every thing is vast and sublime. Lakes, that can be compared only to seas ; rivers of immense and amazing velocity ; cataracts of inconceivable magnifi cence ; mountains and forests apparently interminable, are every where presented to the view, in continued suc cession and inexhaustible variety. In the districts of Upper Canada there are plains of great extent and beau ty ; but the general and ordinary prospect throughout the country is that of mountainous ridges, rising behind each other, stretching in all directions, and completely covered with wood ; so that the cultivated parts appear like a few islands scattered upon the surface of the ocean ; and are almost wholly lost to the view, except in the neighbour hood of the towns, where the scenery is rich and pleas ing, presenting a beautiful mixture of cottages and corn fields, of villages and country residences. On entering the St Lawrence, a continued forest appears down to the very brink of the water ; but the trees are there rather dwarfish and scraggy, more like brushwood than timber. On both sides, are mountains of immense height, which frequently terminate in acute pointed capes ; and from the bottom of these to the edge of the river lies a level tract of land gradually advancing to general cultivation.