prove and preserve à country which, sooner or later, is sure to secede from Great Britain, and which, did it remain faithful to the mother country, could not be of real service to it for any length of time.

"These gentlemen further assert, in direct contradiction to General Simcoe's opinion, that the majority of new settlers in Upper Canada, who emigrate from the United States, and who are esteemed loyalists, would certainly assist those States, if they marched any troops into that country*. I am not qualified to form à correct judgment on these opinions, which are perhaps mere effusions of the displeasure of officers obliged to serve at so great a distance from Great Britain; yet they appear to me not altogether destitute of foundation. But however this may be, all the Canadians we have seen, whether inhabitants of the country or sailors, constantly expressed the utmost satisfaction on meeting with us Frenchmen of old France, and evinced a degree of respect and obligingness, to which we had long been unaccustomed. I cannot say much on the character of this people; all who came under my observation were full of spirit, active, gay, and merry.

"The royal navy is not very formidable in this place; six vessels compose the whole naval force, two of which are small gun-boats, which we saw at Niagara, and which are

Events proved this to be a mistake.—R. G.

"Whether the political opinions of the officers of the sixtieth regiment, alluded to by the Duke, be correctly stated, must be left to these gentlemen to explain. But the supposition that British officers, from a mere dislike to remote garrisons, should censure administration for not abandoning a colony which, in the author's opinion, is a bright jewel in the British crown'-' an important conquest,' and the Joss of which appears to him a public calamity,' is an effusion of Gallic petulance which should not pass unnoticed.—Translator."

I do not think petulence a:oved the author in the least degree. British officers in genera! 'o not relish Canada; but now-a-days full pay and Canada are to be preferred to half pay and England.-R. G.

stationed at York. Two small schooners of twelve guns, viz. the Onondago, in which we took our passage, and the Mohawk, which is just finished; a small yacht of eighty tons, mounting six guns, and lastly the Missasaga, of as many guns as the two schooners, which has lately been taken into dock to be repaired, form the rest of it. All these vessels are built of timber fresh cut down, and not seasoned, and for this reason last never longer than six or eight years. To preserve them even to this time requires a thorough repair; they must be heaved down and caulked, which costs at least from one thousand to one thousand two hundred guineas. The expence for building the largest of them amounts to four thousand guineas. This is an enormous price, and yet it is not so high as on Lake Erie, whither all sorts of naval stores must be sent from Kingston, and where the price of labour is still higher. The timbers of the Missasaga, which was built three years ago, are almost all rotten. It is so easy to make provision of ship-timber for many years to come, as this would require merely the felling of it, and that too at no great distance from the place where it is to be used, that it is difficult to account for this precaution not yet having been adopted. Two gun-boats, which are destined by Governor Simcoe to serve only in time of war, are at present on the stocks; but the carpenters who work at them are but eight in number. The extent of the dilapidations and embezzlements, committed at so great a distance from the mother-country, may be easily conceived. In the course of last winter a judicial inquiry into a charge of this nature was instituted at Kingston. The commissioner of the navy and the principal ship-wright, it was asserted, had clearly colluded against the King's interest; but interest and protection are as powerful in the New World as in the Old: for both the commissioner and ship-wright continue in their places. "Captain Bouchette commands the naval force on Lake Ontario, and is at the head of all the marine establish

ments, yet without the least power in money-matters. This gentleman possesses the confidence both of Lord Dorchester and Governor Simcoe; he is a Canadian by birth, but entered the British service when Canada fell into the power of England. While Arnold and Montgomery were besieging Quebec, Lord Dorchester, disguised as a Canadian, stole on board his ship into that city, on which occasion he displayed much activity, intrepidity, and courage. It is not at all a matter of surprise that Lord Dorchester should bear in mind this eminent service. By all accounts he is altogether incorruptible, and an officer who treats his inferiors with great mildness and justice.

"In regard to the pay of the royal marine force on Lake Ontario, a captain has ten shillings a day, a lieutenant six, and a second lieutenant three shillings and sixpence. The seamens' wages are eight dollars per month. The masters of merchantmen have twenty-five dollars, and the sailors from nine to ten dollars a month.

"Commodore Bouchette is among those, who most strenuously oppose the project of removing to York the central point of the force on the lake; but his family reside at Kingston, and his lands are situated near that place. Such reasons are frequently of sufficient weight to determine political opinions.

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The desertion among the troops is not so considerable from Kingston, as from the forts Oswego, St. John, Niagara, and Détroit; from all those posts, in short, which lie nearer to the United States. Yet it is pretty prevalent in all the garrisons of British America. We were told by the officers, that the first two or three years after the arrival of the regiment from Europe, no soldier deserts, but that envy and habit soon corrupt their mind. The discipline appears to me more severe in the British service than it ever was in our's; the men are treated with less attention and kindness.

On Wednesday the 22d of July arrived the long ex

pected answer from Lord Dorchester. It was of a nature to strike us with amazement--a solemn prohibition, drawn up in the usual form, against coming to Lower Canada. It was impossible to expect any thing of that kind. Mr. Hammond, the English minister to the United States, had invited us himself to visit Canada, and removed the difficulties which, from the report of other Englishmen, I apprehended on the part of the Governor-General, by assuring me that Lord Dorchester had requested him to take it for the future entirely upon himself to grant passports for Lower Canada, as he knew better than the Governor-General the travellers who came from the United States; and that the letters which he should give me would, without previously concerting with Lord Dorchester, secure me from all unpleasant incidents. I could not, therefore, entertain the least apprehension of a refusal, as I had not the smallest reason to suppose that Mr. Hammond, who had loaded me with civilities, would have deceived me on this subject.

"But his Excellency had been pleased to order his Secretary to send me an order of banishment, which he had not even taken the trouble to sign. They told me, by way of consolation, that his Excellency was rather weak of intellect, that he did not do any thing like himself, &c.; that some emigrated French priest might have played me this trick, by his influence over his Lordship's secretary or his mistress; and well may this be the case; for though, heaven be thanked! I have never injured any one, yet I find constantly people in my way, who endeavour to injure me. But be this as it may, a resolution must be taken, and the best of any is to laugh at the disappointment. May it be the only, or at least the most serious frustration of my hopes, which yet awaits me.

"On my arrival in Canada, my Grace was overwhelmed with honours, attended by officers, complimented and re

verenced wherever I made my appearance: and nowbanished from the same country like a miscreant!"

Ah! MONSIEUR; had you been a British subject, and a proud one: had you given two years of your life for the good of Canada, and the relief of the English poor: had you engaged the attention of the province from end to end: had you received thanks from many thousands: had you been deserted, betrayed, and insulted by your friends: had you been basely scandalized and imprisoned, merely on the oath of a perjured villain: had you been deprived of your most sacred birth-rightyour country's boast, and freedom's panoply: had you been at last mocked with a trial, as illegal as it was shameful: had you consented to such mockery, under the influence of bodily weakness and mental torture: had you been thus thrust out into banishment, like the worst of miscreants: where would you have found words to express your horror and disgust?