of self-dependence, and the mechanical docility of military service, were moral obstacles stronger than any physical ones. The forest-trees they had to contend with were not more deeply rooted than the adverse habits and prejudices and infirmities they had brought with them.

According to the commissary, the number of those who commuted their pensions was about twelve hundred. Of these it is calculated that eight hundred reached Upper Canada: of these eight hundred, not more than four hundred and fifty are now living; and of these, some are begging through the townships, living on public charity: some are at Penetanguishine and the greater part of those located on their land have received from time to time rations of food, in order to avert "impending starvation." To bring them up from Quebec during the dreadful cholera season in 1832, was a heavy expense to the colony, and now they are likely to become a permanent burthen upon the colonial funds, there being no military funds to which they can be charged.

I make no reflection on the commuting the pensions of these poor men at four instead of seven years' purchase: many of the men I saw did not know what was meant by commuting their pension : they thought they merely gave up their pension for four years, and were then to receive it again; they knew nothing of Canada-had never heard of it— had a vague idea that a very fine offer was made, which it would be foolish to refuse. They were like children-which, indeed, disbanded soldiers and sailors usually are.

All that benevolence and prudence could suggest, was done for them by Sir John Colborne: he aided them largely from his own purse-himself a soldier and a brave one, as well as a good man-the wrongs and miseries of these poor soldiers wrung his very heart. The strongest remonstrances and solicitations to the heads of the government at home were sent over in their behalf; but there came a change of ministry; the thing once done, could not be un. done-redress was nobody's business-the mother country had got rid of a burthen, and it had fallen on Canada; and so the matter ended: that is, as far as it concerned the Treasury and the War-office; but the tragedy has not yet ended here. Sir Francis Head, who never can allude to the subject without emotion and indignation, told me, that when he was at Penetanguishine last year, the poor veterans attempted to get up a feeble cheer in his honour, but, in doing so, the half of them fell down. "It was too much for me too much,” added he, with the tears actually in his eyes. As for Sir John Colborne, the least allusion to the subject seemed to give him a twinge of pain.

From this sum of mischief and misery you may subtract a few instances where the men have done better; one of these I had occasion to mention.* I have heard of two others, and there may be more, but the general case is as I have stated it.

These were the men who fought our battles in Egypt, Spain, and France! and here is a new page

• Vol. i., p. 327.

for Alfred de Vigny's “Servitude et Grandeur Militaire!" But do you not think it includes another lesson? That this amount of suffering, and injury, and injustice, can be inflicted from the errors, ignorance, and remoteness of the home government, and that the responsibility apparently rests nowhere— and that nowhere lies redress-seems to me a very strange, a very lamentable state of things, and what ought not to be.*

Our voyageurs had spent the day in various excesses, and next morning were still half tipsy, lazy,

I give the following individual case, noted at the time in my diary:

66

Sept. 7, 1837.-Called on me Anthony M'Donell, invalided from the 47th, first battalion, to the 12th veteran battalion-located in the twelfth concession of the township of Emily; aged 69; twenty-one years in active service; commuted his pension of 147. a year for four years; never knew what commuting meant; received 267. in Ireland, and 137. odd shillings at Quebec; deducting the expense of his voyage, 131. remains due to him from government; does not know where to apply for it-has applied to the commissariat here in vain; has no friend; has a daughter aged nineteen, an idiot, and subject to epileptic fits. He brought his daughter with him; the unhappy girl is tall and handsome; the father dare not leave her for a moment; there is no lunatic asylum in Canada to receive her, only the jail, "and I'll die," said the father vehemently, "before she shall go there." He cannot sell his land, for present subsistence, because he cannot take out his deed-cannot take out his deed, because he cannot do the duty-work on his land required by law-cannot work, because he cannot leave his poor daughter: he had come to Toronto to beg a few articles of clothing

and out of spirits, except Le Duc; he was the only one I could persuade to sing, as we crossed Glouces

for her. The poor man cried very much, while the childish insensibility and good looks of the daughter were yet more deplorable.

Here is another case of a different kind :

Dr. Winder, a gentleman who has distinguished himself by writing cleverly in the newspapers here, on what is considered the right side of politics (i. e. the support of the British supre macy in the colony,) came out with an order from Lord Bathurst for 500 acres of land, having served in the army twenty years. He was told, on arriving, that his papers were irregular, and that he must have an order from the Commander.in-chief. What is

to be done?

Petition the Colonial-office." Will you forward my petition? "You must petition direct." The petition was sent-returned in some months as irregular, because not sent through the governor: the ministry changed-there was delay on delay, and at this time (1837) Dr. Winder has not received his grant of land.

Colonel Fitz Gibbon, a very preux chevalier of bravery and loyalty, who saved Toronto, on the fourth of December, by placing the pickets before M'Nab came up, is likely to be in. volved in a similar predicament. The House of Assembly, on meeting, voted him unanimousiy five thousand acres of the waste government lands, as an acknowledgment of his services. The grant waits for royal confirmation: it is to be hoped it will not wait long.

There is no sense of injustice that would shake the loyalty and principles of such a man as Colonel Fitz Gibbon : like the old Roman, "it were easier to turn the sun from its course, than him from the path of honour;" but all are not like him; and the ranks of the disaffected are perpetually recruited in Canada from the ranks of the injured. The commissary told me expressly, that some of these commuted pensioners, who were respectable men, had joined what he called the "Radical set," from a sense of ill treatment.

ter Bay from Penetanguishine to Coldwater. This bay abounds in sturgeon, which are caught and cured in large quantities by the neighbouring settlers; some weigh ninety and one hundred pounds.

At Matchadash (which signifies "bad and swampy place") we had nearly lost our way among the reeds.

There is a portage here of sixteen miles across the forest to the Narrows, at the head of Lake Simcoe. The canoe and baggage were laid on a cart, and drawn by oxen; the gentlemen walked, as I must also have done, if a Methodist preacher of the neighbourhood had not kindly brought his little wagon and driven me over the portage. We stopped about half-way at his log-hut in the wilderness, where I found his wife, a pretty, refined looking woman, and five or six lovely children, of all ages and sizes. They entertained me with their best, and particularly with delicious preserves, made of the wood-strawber. ries and raspberries, boiled with the maple sugar.

The country here (after leaving the low swamps) is very rich, and the settlers fast increasing. Dur. ing the last winter the bears had the audacity to carry off some heifers, to the great consternation of the new settlers, and the wolves did much mischief. I inquired about the Indian settlements at Coldwater and the Narrows; but the accounts were not encouraging. I had been told, as a proof of the ad. vancement of the Indians, that they had here saw. mills and grist-mills. I now learned that they had a saw-mill and a grist-mill built for them, which they never used themselves, but let out to the white set. tlers at a certain rate.