CANADA

Colonist, Issue 86, 17 August 1858, Page 4

CANADA

(Fromthe Special Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.) Toronto, February 6. This rising city has a population of 60,000, having increased 500.0 in _ twenty years, with a very large trade, chiefly carried on with New York via Oswego arid the Erie Ganal, instead of by the St. Lawrence, its natural outlet. The line of Canadian steamers and Grand Trunk Railroad are directing a part of the trade to the St. Lawrence and Portland. The citizens are anxious to have a ship canal via Lake.Simcoe to Lake Huron, which would shorten the route to the west by 400 miles, but as the Ottawa Canal would throw the whole of the western trade into the St. Lawrence, the latter is more popular among the Canadians. Parliament met yesterday. The members appear to be* intelligent gentlemen, about orier:b.alf of French prigini, j^lio.use that language in their orations—as well might the Milesian members address the assembled wisdom of the Imperial Parliament in Irish, or the Highlander in Gaelic, as the French Canadians here. The joint use of both languages prevents the amalgamation of the races, and is a check to the improvement of Lower Canada. The sooner the English language becomes that of all North America, the better for civilization. Two great'questions are now agitating the Canadas, representation by population, and the total, and nothing but the total* abolition of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly, The former will give ascendancy to English interests, and the latter will open up vast and fertile regions to colonization and trade. On these important subjects the .Opposition and Ministry agree. As the Hudson's Bay Company will have to be decided at home, the Colonial Seat of Government must see that justice be done irrespective of influence and family connections; The lease expiring next year, the Company can claim no tenant right, having not only made no improvements, but having prevented others from doing so; there, therefore, must be no compensation, no renewal, but the whole open to settlement, and the grant of King Charles 11. referred to the Privy Council. No

illegal or unjust prescription must screen them. The members are paid 2~55. per day during the session, with travelling expenses. In New Brunswick, Australia, and the other colonies, the same system prevails and works well, as also in the")Jnited States Why, then, should not the British members be paid as well as other officials ? A practical and useful classof men from the literary, farming, and commercial classfess would thus be brought into the house. The wealthy or aristocratic members could return the money to the Exchequer, or devote it to charitable purposes. Let them have a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. The elections being over, the Opposition, led by Mr. Brown, have a majority in Canada West; but the Ministry, backed by the French interests of the Lower Province, have a good working majority in both houses. The most influential body is the Orange, which, in the west, carry all the elections, and put in or put out Ministers. The Premier and most of the Cabinet being Orangemen, what will the Irisn Lord Chancellor, after his letter to Lord Londonderry, say to this ? Can the same body be proBritish in the colonies, or anti-British in Ireland ? Here they are the back-bone of British connection, and there excluded from the magistracy. The Premier of Canada is right, or Lord ohancellor.!Bl4^ v is wrongs Lord Palmerston will have to decide between them, by having the letter withdrawn, and leaving every gentleman the freedom of conscience to act as he thinks right. Coercion will not repress, but rather kindle the flame. - 220,000 acres of land were sold in the Upper Province, and 24,000 granted free to settlers in 1856, while 88,000 were sold in the Lower. The mining lands on the banks of Lake Superior are drawing attention, as by the ship canal the produce can be transported at small expense, say j £2 per ton, to Montreal, or £4 to Swansea. An exploring gsant for two years cost £20, the portions selected will be sold (not over 400 acres) at 6s. 3d. per acre, all royalty included. In 1856 the sales amounted to £5160. Under license to lumberers,----31,504 square miles. The stock of: wheat in hands of the Canadian farmers is estimated at from 600,000 to 800,000 quarters for export, most of which, as flour or wheat, on the opening of navigation, will be sent to New York. The educational system of Canada West is equal to that of New York and New England, and a model for Great Britain. Amount expended for common school purposes in 1855, £224,818; number of children attending 227,864—the boys to girls as 125 to 102; pupils at grammar schools, 12,410. There are 243 newspapers published in Canada, of which twenty are daily, there being only four daily in Ireland and two in Scotland. Toronto has a fine harbor (protected by a long peninsula), vvhich is now covered j over with ice as clear as crystal, over which ice-boats under canvas dash along at railroad speed, some close some staying, and others running before the wind. This ice has quite an animated appearance with the boats and number of skaters enjoying themselves. At eleven p.m. the skaters are playing by the moonlight. The largest street in the world is here, Yonge, which goes thirty miles in a direct line. Toronto has connection with Lake Huron by the Simcoe railroad, with Montreal and Quebec by the Grand Trunk which ends here, and with Niagara, New York, and Detroit by the Great Western. In summer, steamers ply to all the lakes, ports, and down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, through the lake of one 1000 islands, shooting the rapids of the river. The imports and exports for 1856 amounted to £1,800,000. Owing to the panic, real estate and building lots have.decreased here and in the western cities, so that with each they could be purchased from one-third to one-half the price of 1856. Speculation was too rife inland and lots in all the west; both Canadian and American merchants, farmers, parsons, lawyers, expected to get rich " per saltum;" but the bubble has burst, leaving numbers disappointed. Rents of houses were three times as high as in Quebec, and about half as much so as in Chicago, where the inflation was greatest, and and speculation general, parsons being bitten with it as much as mechanics.