Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to
the hours of the river steamers and
Railways, we might have saved
time and have avoided Prescott; but this was out of the question.
Had I asked the exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the
quickest route, an accurate reply would not have been more out of
the question. I was much struck, at Prescott - and, indeed, all
through Canada, though more in the upper than in the lower
province - by the sturdy roughness, some would call it insolence, of
those of the lower classes of the people with whom I was brought
into contact. If the words "lower classes" give offense to any
reader, I beg to apologize - to apologize, and to assert that I am
one of the last of men to apply such a term in a sense of reproach
to those who earn their bread by the labor of their hands. But it
is hard to find terms which will be understood; and that term,
whether it give offense or no, will be understood. Of course such
a complaint as that I now make is very common as made against the
States. (Men in the States, with horned hands and fustian coats,
are very often most unnecessarily insolent in asserting their
independence. What I now mean to say is that precisely the same
fault is to be found in Canada. I know well what the men mean when
they offend in this manner.
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