From Quebec To Montreal There Are Two Modes Of Travel.
There are
the steamers up the St. Lawrence, which, as all the world know, is,
or at any rate hitherto has been, the high-road of the Canadas; and
there is the Grand Trunk Railway.
Passengers choosing the latter
go toward Portland as far as Richmond, and there join the main line
of the road, passing from Richmond on to Montreal. We learned
while at Quebec that it behooved us not to leave the colony till we
had seen the lake and mountains of Memphremagog; and, as we were
clearly neglecting our duty with regard to the Saguenay, we felt
bound to make such amends as lay in our power by deviating from our
way to the lake above named. In order to do this we were obliged
to choose the railway, and to go back beyond Richmond to the
station at Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke is a large village on the
confines of Canada, and, as it is on the railway, will no doubt
become a large town. It is very prettily situated on the meeting
of two rivers; it has three or four churches, and intends to
thrive. It possesses two newspapers, of the prosperity of which I
should be inclined to feel less assured. The annual subscription
to such a newspaper, published twice a week, is ten shillings. A
sale of a thousand copies is not considered bad. Such a sale would
produce 500 pounds a year; and this would, if entirely devoted to
that purpose, give a moderate income to a gentleman qualified to
conduct a newspaper. But the paper and printing must cost
something, and the capital invested should receive its proper
remuneration. And then - such at least is the general idea - the
getting together of news and the framing of intelligence is a
costly operation. I can only hope that all this is paid for by the
advertisements, for I must trust that the editors do not receive
less than the moderate sum above named. At Sherbrooke we are still
in Lower Canada. Indeed, as regards distance, we are when there
nearly as far removed from Upper Canada as at Quebec. But the race
of people here is very different. The French population had made
their way down into these townships before the English and American
war broke out, but had not done so in great numbers. The country
was then very unapproachable, being far to the south of the St.
Lawrence, and far also from-any great line of internal
communication toward the Atlantic. But, nevertheless, many
settlers made their way in here from the States - men who preferred
to live under British rule, and perhaps doubted the stability of
the new order of things. They or their children have remained here
since; and, as the whole country has been opened up by the railway,
many others have flocked in. Thus a better class of people than
the French hold possession of the larger farms, and are on the
whole doing well. I am told that many Americans are now coming
here, driven over the borders from Maine, New Hampshire, and
Vermont by fears of the war and the weight of taxation. I do not
think that fears of war or the paying of taxes drive many
individuals away from home. Men who would be so influenced have
not the amount of foresight which would induce them to avoid such
evils; or, at any rate, such fears would act slowly. Laborers,
however, will go where work is certain, where work is well paid,
and where the wages to be earned will give plenty in return. It
may be that work will become scarce in the States, as it has done
with those poor jewelers at Attleborough of whom we spoke, and that
food will become dear. If this be so, laborers from the States
will no doubt find their way into Canada.
From Sherbrooke we went with the mails on a pair-horse wagon to
Magog. Cross-country mails are not interesting to the generality
of readers, but I have a professional liking for them myself. I
have spent the best part of my life in looking after, and I hope in
improving, such mails; and I always endeavor to do a stroke of work
when I come across them. I learned on this occasion that the
conveyance of mails with a pair of horses, in Canada, costs little
more than half what is paid for the same work in England with one
horse, and something less than what is paid in Ireland, also for
one horse. But in Canada the average pace is only five miles an
hour. In Ireland it is seven, and the time is accurately kept,
which does not seem to be the case in Canada. In England the pace
is eight miles an hour. In Canada and in Ireland these conveyances
carry passengers; but in England they are prohibited from doing so.
In Canada the vehicles are much better got up than they are in
England, and the horses too look better. Taking Ireland as a
whole, they are more respectable in appearance there than in
England. From all which it appears that pace is the article that
costs the highest price, and that appearance does not go for much
in the bill. In Canada the roads are very bad in comparison with
the English or Irish roads; but, to make up for this, the price of
forage is very low.
I have said that the cross-mail conveyances in Canada did not seem
to be very closely bound as to time; but they are regulated by
clock-work in comparison with some of them in the United States.
"Are you going this morning?" I said to a mail-driver in Vermont.
"I thought you always started in the evening." "Wa'll, I guess I
do; but it rained some last night, so I jist stayed at home." I do
not know that I ever felt more shocked in my life, and I could
hardly keep my tongue off the man.
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