The Formation Of The Erie Canal Was One Of Those Grand Internal Improvements Frequently To Be Met With In That Country, And Which Have Contributed To Its General Prosperity In No Small Degree.

The projector of this vast undertaking, De Witt Clinton, is justly esteemed by American citizens, who regard him as a public benefactor, and his name ranks with the founders of their independence.

The canal runs, for a considerable distance before it reaches Buffalo, parallel with the lake, but separated from it by a sort of artificial sea-wall. As we merged into the vicinity of this magnificent inland sea, the sun was shining brightly, and gave it the appearance of molten silver. As far as the eye could reach, a wide expanse of water presented itself, and the distant shores of Canada gave beauty to the scene. At Black-rock we could distinguish the sites of the British fortifications, from which in the last war red-hot cannon-balls were ejected, to the dismay of the terrified Americans, and the destruction of many of their houses.

Buffalo is a flourishing city on the border of Lake Erie, and about twenty miles south of the Falls of Niagara. It is within the boundary of the state of New York, and has of late years greatly increased in extent, wealth, and population. The old town, quite an inconsiderable place, on the site of which the present city has risen, phoenix-like, was burnt to the ground during the late war, by some British officers, who made a sortie from the Canada shores; which circumstance, having been handed down from father to son, still rankles in the bosoms of many of the older inhabitants, who do not fail to state their belief that retributive justice will eventually be administered by the entire subjugation of Canada. During my rather prolonged stay in Buffalo, I had frequent opportunities of discovering that the most rancorous feelings exist on the subject; and in proof of this it may be remembered by the reader that the Canadian insurgents were assisted at the late insurrection by supplies of stores from this city. These were conveyed to Navy Island by the steamer _Caroline_, which was subsequently seized, and sent over the Falls of Niagara by the British troops, a number of the crew being cruelly massacred.

From inquiries made of parties well informed on the subject, both in Canada and the United States, I am convinced that the public act of Sir John Colborne, before quitting the governorship of the province, in 1835, viz., the allotment or appropriation of 346,252 acres of the soil, as a clergy reserve, and the institution of the fifty-seven rectories, was the chief predisposing cause of the insurrection. By this Act a certain portion of land in every township was set apart for the maintenance of "a Protestant clergy," under which ambiguous term, the clergy of the Church of England have always claimed the sole enjoyment of the funds arising from the sale of such portions of land.

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