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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