Whenever the history of these settlements shall be more completely developed by research, and examined philosophically by men who are competent to the task, and unbiassed by preconceived opinions, or by religious bigotry or party zeal, there must be found lessons in moral science, beyond all the instructions of antiquity.

To one disposed to make an experiment of this kind, perhaps no "study" would afford instruction on a greater variety of points, than a comparison of the histories of New-England and Canada. What is the difference between these countries, and to what is it owing?

The territory, now called Canada, was first discovered in the year 1500, by Corte-Real, a Portuguese. Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, visited it in 1534, sailed up the St. Lawrence to where Montreal now stands in 1535, and there wintered. As no gold was found there, the country was slighted. Cartier and his associates, however, built a fort at Charlesbourg, near the site of Quebec, in 1540; but in consequence of his carrying off the king of the country, the colony was broken up in 1542, and remained desolate for more than 50 years. In 1598, la Roche received from Henry IV. a commission to conquer Canada with a colony of convicts, but after being left seven years on Isle Sable, he abandoned the enterprise. In 1603 a patent of the country between 40° and 46° N. was granted to De Monts, a calvinist, who undertook to plant a colony, and to propagate christianity among the natives. Under him Samuel Champlain built a few houses, and laid the foundation of Quebec, in 1608. In 1613 Madame de Guercheville, a zealous Roman Catholic lady, obtained De Monts' charter, and sent out two Jesuits to the infant colony, For many years, Canada suffered greatly, from the enmity of the Iroquois Indians, and the irregularity of its own government. It was conquered in 1629 by one Kerck, a Protestant refugee, in the service of England, but was restored in 1631 by the treaty of St. Germain, as hardly worth the keeping. This oversight of the English government, in admitting a colony of a hostile nation, under the control of Jesuits, to remain on the borders of all their own colonies, was the commencement of a long train of evils to our settlements. In 1659 Francis de Laval was sent out as bishop of Canada, and brought with him some monks of other orders besides the Jesuits. In 1663 the territory was taken out of the hands of the patentees, and made a royal government, then containing seven thousand inhabitants. In 1714, their number had increased to twenty thousand. Montreal was the head quarters of all that influence, by which, in former days,

the savages were so often excited to destroy the defenceless settlements of the English. The massacres in Maine, in Massachusetts, in New-York, and even down to Virginia, were almost always traced to the influence of some Jesuit or other emissary of popery, sent out from Canada.* The name of Father Rallé, his labors, and the cruelties he instigated or countenanced, occupy a prominent place in the history of our eastern colonies, during the early part of the last centu ry. A stop, however, was put to these enormities by the victory of Wolfe in 1759, by which the providence of God placed the whole province, with the adjacent territories, under the dominion of Great Britain. At this time the population was stated at seventy thousand.

In the settlement of Canada, the allotments of land were all made upon the feudal system. The territory is divided into seigniories, of various extent, and all the complications and rigors of the system were introduced into this province. The Romish priests contrived to get a very large portion of the lands into their possession. The whole island of Montreal belongs to the priests, besides many other seigniories. That part of which thy hold the fee, is leased to tenants, and where they have parted with the fee simple, they retain the right of seigniory. The income which the priests receive from their possessions is unknown. It is not the genius of prophecy to disclose such secrets. That the wealth of the priesthood is immensely great, however, is believed by all; how great is known by none. The very mystery with which so great a power is shrouded, by giving it an air of unknown vastness, ought to awaken alarm and produce inquiry. Probably nothing could give the hierarchy so much uneasiness, or weaken their dangerous and hurtful influence so much, as an act which should compel the full disclosure of their pecuniary concerns.

The treaty of peace, which secured to George II. the possession of the province, contained the very equitable stipulation, that the inhabitants should never be disturbed or molested, in the enjoyment of their civil rights, or the exercise of their religion. This provision at once perpetuated

* Charlevoix, the French historian of Canada, who visited the province in 1720, has thus described the opposite policy of the two nations, and accounted for the ascendency of French influence over the savages. "The English Americans," says he, "are averse to war, because they have a great deal to lose they take no care to manage the Indians, from a belief that they stand in no need of them. The French youth, for very different reasons, abominate the very thoughts of peace, and live well with the natives, whose esteem they easily gain in time of war, and their friendship at all times."

the feudal system, and confirmed to the priests their possessions and prerogatives. The jurisprudence of the dark ages has thus found its last retreat in the new world. The grand coutoumier and the ordonnances of St. Louis, now wholly superseded at Paris by the more enlightened legislation of modern times, are still expounded on the banks of the St. Lawrence. And according to the construction heretofore put upon the treaty, the British government are debarred from ever interposing to change these laws, so as to fit them for the new relations and circumstances growing out of modern improvement. They consider themselves equally debarred from any act which would disclose the abuses, or remedy the oppressions of an irresponsible priesthood, whose income and expenditure are unknown, and who feel no tie binding them to the interests of the flocks which they fleece.

There has been something remarkable in the construction, which the British government has been accustomed to put upon. stipulations like this. So carefully have they guarded against allowing any thing, which might seem to violate their treaties, that they have commonly hindered, as much as possible, the voluntary efforts of private citizens to disseminate the gospel, or to promote general improvement among their po pish and pagan subjects; lest, by the light of truth and the progress of knowledge, any of them should profess himself "disturbed or molested," in the exercise of some ancient right, How long a struggle, for instance, had the friends of improvement to maintain, before the ingress of light into India could be freed from govermental obstructions; the plea still being, that the Bramins would feel so "disturbed and molested" in their ancient abuses, as to warrant them in stirring up a rebellion among the people. In Canada also, they have considered their hands as almost tied, in respect to any improvements in the civil condition of the people, or their moral or intellectual culture, lest some ancient prerogative should be trenched upon, or some sacred dust disturbed on the scarlet mantle of popery. The iron bondage of feudality, with the endless subtilties of scholastic exposition, and the consequent interminable uncertainty of land titles, the infallibility and irresponsibility of the priesthood, and the eternal ignorance of the common people, have been held as sacred things, which no modern improver may touch. Principles, and practices, and impositions, which the light of knowledge has banished from every other spot where the French or English could penetrate, are still cherished and perpetrated here. And what renders the case more hopeless is, that there is no tribunal to expound the treaty, and no parties whose consent can

relax its inconvenient restrictions. The treaty was not made with the people of the province, but with the king of France; and of course the free consent of a majority, or of the whole of the people, would be unavailing. Nor can the government of France remit the obligation, because, by the transfer, it has relinquished all interest in the province.

Here is a striking illustration of the absurdity to which principles, true in the abstract, may lead in their application, when pressed beyond the boundaries of common sense. The doctrine of "vested rights," and of a strict adherence to written "charters," is itself a most sacred principle, a bulwark of defence around the possessions and immunities of a people; a protector of the weak against the aggressions of the strong, a barrier against the encroachments of prerogative, and the rashness of popular frenzy. But in Canada, and not in Canada alone, a "vested right" has been claimed and exercised, of violating first principles, of shutting out the light of truth, of arresting the march of improvement, of chaining down the minds of a whole people to eternal vassalage. In other words, there is the absurdity of a vested right to do wrong. The consequence has been, that the Canadians remain precisely where they were in 1763, except so far as they have been subject to the universal law of deterioration by which every thing human declines, when not advancing in excellence, and except also, that the increasing light around them renders their darkness more dark by contrast. Professor Silliman remarks, "It is wonderful that sixty years subjection to a foreign power has not done more to weaken the French establishments in Canada. They not only remain, but seem in many cases to have gained vigor."

Since the conquest, the province has advanced in population and wealth. In 1815, Bouchette, the geographer, stated the inhabitants at 350,000, of whom 275,000 were supposed to be native Canadians, i. e. descendents from the original French population. A writer in the Quebec Gazette estimates the number at present to be 600,000, of whom 150,000, or one fourth, are supposed to be of a suitable age to attend school, while in fact it appears from accurate returns, that only 11,679 are actually attending any school or place of education. Making a most liberal allowance for the incompleteness of the returns, and for those who are educated at home, it is believed that there are five children in the province who do not learn to read, for one who does. Another fact shows that this estimate is not exaggerated. Of 87,000 signatures to a petition to the British parliament, 78,000 were made with the sign of the cross. And of those who write their names, many cannot write or read any thing else.

As the ingress of settlers from Britain and the United States has been very rapid of late, it is not probable that the Canadians now compose more than two thirds of the population of the province. For the spiritual guidance of the Canadian portion, there were, in 1815, the Roman catholic bishop of Quebec, and his coadjutor, styled bishop of Saldé, with about two hundred curates and missionaries. These are said by Bouchette to be employed, to a considerable extent, in the superintendence of education. How effectual their labors are in this department, may be judged from the facts just stated. The seminaries of Quebec and Montreal, and the College of Nicolet, are extensive establishments under their control; where, we presume, all who choose can have their children educated at a moderate charge, and taught in many things very well. But teaching the philosophy of Aristotle, and the theology of Thomas Aquinas, it is easily seen that their system of education, as a whole, does not correspond with modern improvements.

The Jesuits once had large possessions in the province. And as the decree of the pope, for abolishing that order, was not binding or valid under the British government, they were permitted to retain their estates, till the whole order became extinct by death, when the property reverted to the king by escheat.

A native of the province says, "I know of no place in the world, where popery has entrenched itself so strongly." Another says, "perhaps this is the quietest corner in the whole kingdom of the beast." The French Canadians are, in their general character, inoffensive, kind, and obliging, very ignorant and superstitious, believing all the dogmas, and attending to all the rites of the church, confiding, of course, that all is well, and that all will end well. Great as are the difficulties of introducing new things among ourselves, and slow as the progress of improvement may appear to some of our contemporaries, it is difficult for a citizen of the United States, to conceive of the tenacity with which our next door neighbors hold on to ancient abuses and inconveniences. Not many years ago, the country people refused to carry their provisions to market, because a law had been passed against the carioles, which so break up their winter's path. And we find the legislature just now appropriating two hundred pounds "for experiments for winter carriages to avoid the formation of cahots." It has been in the face of repeated and vehement remonstrances, that the legislature has proceeded to raise money by taxation, for the improvement of roads, and to cover up a portion of the mud in the vicinity of Quebec, by the