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. Hand-bills, explaining the manner in which it can be raised to the best advantage, have been from time to time assiduously circulated amongst the farmers, and posted up at all the public houses: it has been a difficult matter, however, to put the French Canadians out of their old ways, so that, comparatively speaking, very little hemp has hitherto been grown in Canada.

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 exports from Canada consist of furs and pelts in immense quantities; of wheat, flour, flax-seed, pot-ash, 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 twelve thousand tons of shipping annually.

General Remarks, &c.-About five-sixths of the inhabitants of Lower Canada are of French extraction, the bulk of whom are peasants, living upon the lands of the seignors. Among the English inhabitants devoted to agriculture, but few, however, are to be found occupying land under seignors, notwithstanding that several of the seigniories have fallen into the hands of Englishmen; the great majority of them hold the lands which they cultivate by virtue of certificates from the governor. The seigniors, both French and English, live in a plain simple style; for although the seigniories in general are extensive, but few of them afford a very large income to the proprietors. The revenues of a seigniory arise from certain fines levied upon the vassals; and which it is to be hoped will in time be entirely abolished, as the vassal is sometimes compelled to pay fines, that in strict justice ought not to be demanded.

IN

OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER.

N the early part of this Work, a short outline of the American character was attempted; but, as the following outlines are original, and may not be uninteresting to the generality of readers, they are given without any other apology for the seeming repetition :

Notwithstanding the important differences of climate, habits of life, and religion, the character of the Americans throughout the Union present a feature of similitude countervailing all these. This feature is government. Politi. eal institutions have in other countries a feeble and secondary influence: the duties of a subject are, for the most part, passive; those of the American citizen are active, and perpetually acting; and as they operate equally on every member of society, their general controul over the whole community must, in most instances, exceed that of any partial habit or opinion.

The common qualities which may be said to be generated by this influence, are, intelligence, or a quick perception of utility, both general and individual; hence their attachment to freedom, and to every species of improvement, both public and private: energy, and perseverance in carrying their plans into effect; qualities in fact deducible from the former gravity of manner and deportment, because they are habitually occupied upon matters of deep interest: taciturnity, which is the offspring of thought. They appear deficient in imagination or the poetry of life, because all its realities are at their disposal. They seem to have little sympathy, because their social system does not compel them to suffer. Oppression engenders pity; disease and death require only resignation.

But besides these general features, which may be considered as common to the whole mass of American citizens; each grand division of the Union has its own peculiar characteristics. By grand divisions is meant, 1. The New England States; 2. The Central; 3. The Southern; and 4. The States to the west of the Alleghanies.

The following is an attempt to delineate the peculiar character of the inhabitants of each division.

Character of the inhabitants of New England.-The in

habitants of New England have been very aptly termed the Scotchmen of the United States; patient, industrious, frugal, enterprising, and intelligent. Intent upon gain, making it the master-spring of all their actions, it cannot be denied but that they are frequently knavish, mean, and avaricious. But the New Englanders should be seen at home to be correctly judged of; they then appear a sober, shrewd, and well-informed people, possessing a great degree of genuine native urbanity of manners. Fraught with a spirit of commercial enterprise, they are to be found in all parts of the mercantile world.

Calvinism, rigid, uncompromising Calvinism, is an hereditary feature in the character of the New Englanders, but it has lost a considerable portion of its rigidity with the present race. Yet in many parts of the country dancing is held to be an abomination, as well as many other social enjoyments. This appears to be a matter of regret, inasmuch as the natural severity of their character evidently requires rather to be tempered by innocent recreations, than stiffened by gloomy creeds, and the uncongenial doctrines of exclusive salvation.

A humourous explanation of the term Yankie, generally applied to the New Englanders, has been given by Knickerbocker, I. p. 178.-" The first settlers of New England," says he, "were the Puritans, and other sectaries, who, persecuted and buffeted at home, embarked for the wilderness of America, where they might enjoy unmolested the inestimable luxury of talking. No sooner did they land upon this loquacious soil, than as if they had caught the disease from the climate, they all lifted up their voices at once, and for the space of one whole year did keep up such a joyful clamour, that we are told, they frightened every bird and beast out of the neighbourhood, and so completely dumb-founded certain fish, which abound on their coast, that they have been called dumb-fish' ever since. The simple aborigines of the land for a while contemplated these strange folk in utter astonishment, but discovering that they wielded harmless, though noisy weapons, and were a lively, ingenious, good-humoured race of men, they became very friendly and sociable, and gave them the name of Yan-kies, which, in the Mais-Tcbsuaeg (or Mas sachusett) language signifies silent men;' a waggish appellation since shortened into the familiar epithet of Yankies, whcih they retain unto the present day." Nor have they retained a barren epithet, but are still eminent for the facility with which they engage in conversation,

General character of the people in the Central States.There is no portion of the Union which contains more enlightened individuals, more useful institutions, or a stronger spirit of literary and scientific improvement, than the cities of New York and Philadelphia; but there are several reasons which prevent the citizens of the Central States from acquiring a general character, as strongly marked as is that of the Eastern. They are composed of several heterogeneous bodies. The ancient Dutch race still exists, with many of its primitive habits, towards the centre of the state of New York; towards the north and west, its population consists chiefly of New Englanders. A large portion of Pennsylvania is inhabited by Germans, who are still unacquainted with the English language, and are consequently rather a social circle existing within the State, than a portion of the community amalgamating with it. The Quakers, too, are a body whose distinctive habits necessarily operate against the formation of a general character, because they are stronger than any general causes by which such a character is engendered. These circumstances are hardly, however, felt as disadvantages; in some respects, they are probably the contrary.

As citizens, the Dutch and Germans are peaceable and industrious, though not very enlightened; the New Englanders introduce the best qualities of their characters: the Quakers are intelligent and humane. Adventurers from all countries constitute the most unsound part of the population, and are likely to give a stranger an unfavourable opinion of the whole; in other respects, the Central States seem those in which foreigners will find the tone of manners, and spirit of society, most accommodating and easy.

Characteristic features of the Southern States' people.It is impossible to consider the character of the Southern States, without again adverting to the pernicious effects of slavery. Land cultivated by slaves requires a considerable capital, and will therefore be divided among a small number of proprietors. He who commands the sweat of others, will be little inclined to toil himself; the inclination will diminish with the necessity. Dissipation is the resource of the unoccupied, and ill-instructed. Whilst the political effects of slavery are pernicious to the citizen, its moral effects are still more fatal to the man: the whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions: the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Their children see this, and learn to imitate it, for man is an imitative animal: the parent storms, the child looks on,

catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs, gives loose to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his morals and manners undepraved by such circumstances.

The manners of the lower classes are consequently brutal and depraved. Those of the upper classes are frequently arrogant and assuming: unused to restraint or contradiction of any kind, they are necessarily quarrelsome; and in their quarrels, the native ferocity of their hearts breaks out. Duelling is not only in general vogue and fashion, but practised with circumstances of peculiar vindictiveness. The learned and mercantile professions have little direct interest in the slave system, and are therefore less infected by its contagion; but these are rare exceptions, stars in darkness, which shine, more sensibly to mark the deep shadows of the opposite extreme, where the contrast is strong, perpetual, and disgusting.

Delineation of the Western States' inhabitants.-The inhabitants of Kentucky are, or at least were (for in America the wheel of society turns so swiftly, that 20 years work the changes of a century) considered as the Irishmen of the United States: that is to say, a similar state of society had produced, in a certain degree, similar manners. The Kentuckians are disposed to conviviality and social intercourse; though their board is seldom spread by the graces, or their festivity restricted within the boundaries of temperance. They are in fact hospitable and open hearted, but boisterous, and addicted to those vulgar amusements so common in all countries, as long as man knew no pleasure more refined than the alternate excitement and dissipation of his animal spirits by feats of physical strength, and coarse debauchery. To a certain extent, therefore, there are points of similitude betwixt the Kentucky farmers and the Irish gentry, but there was always this point of distinction,-in Kentucky, leisure and abundance belong to every man who will work for them; in Ireland, they appertain only to the few for whom the many work.

But the Western States have of late years become manufacturing districts: towns have grown up rapidly, and the luxuries of social intercourse are scarcely less understood in Lexington than in New York; mauners must therefore have undergone a considerable change, and those peculiarities of character, which were once supposed to mark Kentuckians, must probably now be sought among the more recent inhabitants of Tenessee or Indiana.