Indeed, In Walking Along The
Streets, There Is Nothing To Tell That One Is Not In England; And If
Anything Were Needed To Complete The Illusion, Those Sure Tokens Of
British Civilisation, A Jail And A Lunatic Asylum, Are Not Wanting.
Toronto possesses in a remarkable degree the appearances of stability and
progress.
No town on the Western Continent has progressed more rapidly;
certainly none more surely. I conversed with an old gentleman who
remembered its site when it was covered with a forest, when the smoke of
Indian wigwams ascended through the trees, and when wild fowl crowded the
waters of the harbour. The place then bore the name of Toronto - the Place
of Council. The name was changed by the first settlers to Little York, but
in 1814 its euphonious name of Toronto was again bestowed upon it. Its
population in 1801 was 336; it is now nearly 50,000.
Toronto is not the fungus growth, staring and wooden, of a temporary
necessity; it is the result of persevering industry, well-applied capital,
and healthy and progressive commercial prosperity. Various railroads are
in course of construction, which will make it the exporting market for the
increasing produce of the interior; and as the migratory Canadian
Legislature is now stationary at Toronto for four years, its future
progress will probably be more rapid than its past. Its wharfs are always
crowded with freight and passenger steamers, by which it communicates two
or three times a day with the great cities of the United States, and
Quebec and Montreal. It is the seat of Canadian learning, and, besides
excellent schools, possesses a university, and several theological and
general seminaries. The society is said to be highly superior. I give
willing testimony in favour of this assertion, from the little which I saw
of it, but an attack of ague prevented me from presenting my letters of
introduction. It is a very musical place, and at Toronto Jenny Lind gave
the only concerts with which she honoured Canada. A large number of the
inhabitants are Scotch, which may account for the admirable way in which
the Sabbath is observed.
If I was pleased to find that the streets, the stores, the accent, the
manners were English, I was rejoiced to see that from the highest to the
lowest the hearts of the people were English also. I was at Toronto when
the false despatch was received announcing the capture of Sebastopol and
of the Russian army. I was spending the evening at the house of a friend,
when a gentleman ran in to say that the church bells were ringing for a
great victory! It was but the work of a few minutes for us to jump into a
hack, and drive at full speed to the office of the Globe newspaper,
where the report was apparently confirmed. A great crowd in a state of
eager excitement besieged the doors, and presently a man mounted on a
lamp-post read the words, "Sebastopol is taken!
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