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sum would purchase from private individuals, twice the number of acres in situations where land is one hundred per cent. more valuable than in the new townships.'

It is only a few weeks,' writes Mr. Talbot, since I saw one of the provincial surveyors sell to an English gentleman two thousand acres of land in a most desirable part of the country, for the sum of one thousand dollars-two hundred and twenty-five pounds.......I have already observed, that, since the great increase of fees, the waste lands of the crown settle very slowly. Those emigrants who, on leaving home, had resolved on settling in Upper Canada, when they arrive in York, and find it impossible to procure land without paying its full value, generally determine either to purchase from private individuals, or to rent cleared farins.

It is very impolitic, for those who can afford to pay for land, to pursue the latter course; but, in the case of poorer emigrants, I consider it much better to do so than to accept of a grant of fifty acres from the Government. To persons acquainted with America it would be unnecessary to say, that fifty acres are insufficient for the support of a moderate family. Allowing twenty acres for fuel, which would only be reserving a quantity sufficient for the same number of years, and dividing the remaining thirty into pasturage, meadow-land, and tillage, it might, if well managed, barely maintain a family. But a man who is in the possession of this small quantity of land, is in a situation little superior to that of the Irish peasant. Like him, he is compelled to toil hard all day, and to find at even-tide that he has earned what is hardly enough to prolong his existence,-a sort of prison-allowance, which prevents him from dying of hunger, while at the same time it removes him very far from repletion. Like him, he has no hopes of improving his circumstances, or of attaining to that independence for which he braved the dangers of the deep. His field is too contracted, and the means of extending it are not within his reach.' Vol. II. pp. 179, 180.

Mr. Talbot's remarks on the negligent system of administration, in respect to Canada, are acute and important. In fact, it is obviously absurd to leave a colony like Canada to its own resources, when a very slight extension of patronage would enable it to make rapid advances in prosperity. If it be intended to retain our North-American possessions, the greater the benefits we may be enabled to confer, the stronger will be the hold we shall secure on their affections; but neglect, selfish measures, or the sub-administration of interested and reckless men, will in time wear out the most devoted allegiance. If Mr. T.'s information be accurate, the system of government is defective and injurious, both root and branch. The magistracy is badly selected, ignorant, rapacious, and regardless of veracity. It appears, indeed, difficult to ascertain the principle of promotion, if the fact be, as stated, that the

most respectable individuals are passed by, while persons are appointed who would not add to the respectability of a gang of pig-jobbers.' The members of the executive government are charged with looking, not to the efficiency or integrity, but to the subserviency of their subalterns, and with exercising the most impolitic tyranny in the exaction of unhesitating acquiescence in the wisdom and morality of their measures. We must not omit to state, that these charges are the language of a man who is neither a radical nor a reformer; he is a very sufficient votary of the powers that be, and loses no opportunity of expressing his conviction of the decided superiority of Monarchies over Republics. The following statement has all the appearance of correctness and impartiality; and if it be accurate only in part, enough of weighty matter will be left to call for consideration and remedy.

When the notorious Gourlay made his first appearance in the Province, he gained so great an ascendancy over the minds of the inhabitants, as to induce almost every one to believe, that he had the interests of the country sincerely at heart. He suggested several plans of general improvement, and successfully endeavoured to persuade the people that they were labouring under insupportable grievances, many of which, I am sure, can only have existed in his own imagination. For the promotion of his schemes, he held meetings in different townships, and assured those persons by whom they were attended, that he had an extensive scale of emigration under contemplation, through which, if they would but favour his designs. by affording him whatever information he required, they might shortly expect to behold another "Land of Goshen" rise up in the midst of the Canadian wilds,

The respectable connections of Gourlay in the province, convinced the people of his sincerity; and his own distinguished talents were thought sufficiently adequate to the accomplishment of his benevolent designs. Possessing little acquaintance with such characters, and having but an imperfect knowledge of mankind in general, they looked upon him as a real philanthropist and as the disinterested advocate of their invaded rights. He was the constant theme of their discourse; every mouth was filled with his praises, and he occupied a large share in the affections of every man's heart. In short, he was idolized by the Canadians, as much as ever Bonaparte was by the French. When I arrived in the country in 1818, he was abiding his trial at the Brockville Assizes for a libel on the Government. On hearing of his conduct in the province, I was fully satisfied that he had plans in view of a more important nature than any he was willing to develop to the people of Canada. I recognized in him a link of that radical chain, with which in England the democrats were endeavouring at that time to fetter the honourable exertions of a ministry, whose wise and patriotic measures have conferred greater lustre on the British name, than ever had been before acquired in the field or in the senate. Whenever I had an opportunity, I represented

Gourlay as the man whom, I thought, I had discovered him to be; but every person with whom I conversed on the subject, rejected my insinuations with disdain, and would hear nothing against this "great public benefactor." He was in truth, the idol of the people; and I do not doubt, that any imputation upon the character of our blessed Saviour would have been much more favourably received, by several of them, than the slightest objection to that political madman. The consequence of this universal infatuation was, that many of the most respectable persons in the province cultivated an intimate acquaintance with Gourlay; in which, I am convinced, they were not under the influence of any disloyal or disaffected views. When, therefore, he was banished from the country, in a very unconstitutional manner, his acquaintance, most of whom were officers in the militia and justices of the peace, were to a man deprived of their commissions, for the simple crime of having associated with Mr. Gourlay. All these men, as it is generally allowed, were, before this event, as faithful subjects of his Majesty as any in the country, and had given ample proof of their loyalty in the recent combat with the United States. This, however, is a character which, I venture to predict, they will not continue to maintain. Oppressive treatment will alienate even the affections of a child from its parent; and the arbitrary measures of a government professing to be free, especially when such measures are directed against innocent and unoffending individuals, must infallibly weaken the loyalty of a spirited and independent subject. If another war were to break out between Great Britain and the United States, I greatly fear that these discarded officers, with many thousands of the people in Upper Canada, would warmly resent the indignity which they have suffered, by" shewing a pair of fair heels" to the British Government, and enlisting under the banner of the hostile power. Among other very unpopular acts of the present Lieutenant Governor, this is one which is the most revolting to the Canadians.’

pp. 416-419.

After all, however necessary military commanders may be to the defence and warlike preparations of a province, they are not the men to whom its civil administration should be cominitted. They are accustomed so exclusively to habits of peremptory command, they are so jealous of interference with their authority, and they view every thing in so technical a light, that they are, in a great number of instances, at least, utterly unfit for all command except in the field or in a fortress. In the machinery of war they may be expert, and as individuals they may be amiable and respectable, but when they intrude on the civilian's office, they betray their breeding.

To Lieut. Morgan's little volume is lightly and pleasantly written, but beyond this, we cannot say much in its behalf. It is too brief for specific information. The decorations of the volume-two small views of Quebec and the falls of la Chaudiereare good specimens of lithography on a small scale; they beat Mr. Talbot's miserable frontispieces hollow.

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It is rather singular that both these gentlemen should hallucinate egregiously in the matter of local and individual names. Lieut. M. gives us l'Arcadia and l'Arcadie for Acadia or l'Acadie-the Nemisses, for the Nemesis-the Diamede for the Diomede. Mr. Talbot has Anticosta for Anticosti, and commemorates a Duchess d'Anguillion, sister of Cardinal Richelieu,' lady of whom we cannot recollect to have heard. There was, indeed, a niece of the Cardinal, who became Dutchess d'Aiguillon in 1631, and we presume that this must be the benevolent person to whom Mr. T. alludes as the foundress of the Hotel Dieu at Quebec.

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Art. VI. Sermons. By the Rev. Robert Gordon, D.D. Minister of Hope Park Chapel, St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 478. Price 10s. 6d. Edinburgh, 1825.

THE Author of this volume, we have understood, is one of

the most impressive and powerful pulpit-orators of the present day in the Church of Scotland; and these sermons bear the stamp of no ordinary mind. They display a vigour and originality of thought which it is truly refreshing to meet with in printed sermons, and are at the same time boldly explicit in the enunciation of every part of the Gospel system. The time, we rejoice to think, has gone by, when Blair's Sermons were esteemed the ne plus ultra of excellence, the model of pulpit eloquence. Perhaps, we are in some danger of a contrary extreme in the present day. The topics of many of Blair's Sermons are admirable, were they but apostolically handled. The morality of the Gospel does not stand less in need of powerful illustration, than the doctrines on which it is built; and the most useful preacher is the one who, following the Christian professor into all the relations of life, plies him at every step with the high and peculiar motives of his heavenly calling, bringing every article of his creed to bear upon his practice. There is an intellectual pleasure derived from perusing or listening to the philosophical or eloquent exposition of truths, repulsive in themselves, by an accomplished advocate, which no doubt contributes to crowd the pews of our churches and chapels in which the doctrines preached are decidedly evangelical. But practical preaching, by which we mean apostolic preaching, will be relished only by the spiritual

man.

The volume before us contains two and twenty sermons on the following subjects. I. The Ungodliness of the Heart. II. The Ungodliness of worldly Pursuits. III. The Tendency

of Moral Evil to perpetuate itself. IV. God Manifest in the Flesb. V. The Reward of the Redeemer's Sufferings. VI. The unsatisfying Nature of Worldly Enjoyments. VII. Danger of Delaying to seek the Lord. 'VIII. The Nature and Necessity of Repentance. IX. God's Ways not Man's Ways. X. Necessity of Repentance. XI. Means of Regeneration. XII. Peace of Mind necessary to cheerful Obedience. XIII. and XIV. Effects of Faith exemplified in the Character of Gideon. XV. The humblest Believer an Instrument of Good. XVI. Free Grace illustrated in the History of Naaman. XVII. and XVIII. Daniel's Prayer. XIX. God knoweth the Heart. XX. Iniquity in the Heart a Hinderance to Prayer. XXI. Our Salvation wrought out with Fear and Trembling. XXII. God working in us a Motive to Perseverance.

We have been the most struck with both the subject and the composition of the third sermon, founded on Kings xiv. 16.“ And he shall give up Israel, because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.” After illustrating the nature and consequences of the sin of Jeroboam, so repeatedly and pointedly referred to in the sacred history as that in which the fatał defection of the ten tribes from the worship and favour of Jehovah originated, Dr. Gordon thus proceeds to apply his general principle,—the tendency of moral evil to perpetuate, or rather, to propagate itself.

• I doubt not, it will readily occur, that the principle by which the sin of Jeroboam was thus perpetuated, is in reality a principle of our apostate nature, that must ever be in active operation, and that the subject of these remarks, therefore, admits of a very obvious, as well as a very extended application. There were, it is true, many peculiar circumstances in his case, which served to render his sin more fagrant, and its consequences more palpable, than it is possible they can be with a great proportion of mankind; and in these respects, therefore, no parallel can be drawn between his character and that of any individual in ordinary circumstances. The place which he occupied was one of power and extended influence; the practice which he introduced, from the moment that it was acquiesced in, became a national delinquency, involving thousands in its guilt; the covenant that was thereby violated was a covenant, on the stability of which depended the very existence of Israel as a nation; and the judgements with which their sin was visited were temporal judgements, and therefore open to the inspection of the world." But, after excluding or making allowance for all these peculiarities, enough still remains to exemplify the natural tendency of moral evil to extend and perpetuate its debasing influence, and enough to suggest to the sinner many a serious and alarming reflection. Though it might be utterly impossible for us to trace the guilt of any individual through all its remote consequences-though we might not be warranted directly to charge him

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