It Is
A Remarkable Fact, That Hardly A Lot Of Land Containing Two Hundred
Acres, In British America, Can Be Found Without An Abundant Supply
Of Water At All Seasons Of The Year; And A Very Small Proportion
Of The Land Itself Is Naturally Unfit For Cultivation.
To crown
the whole, where can a country be pointed out which possesses such
an extent of internal navigation?
A chain of river navigation and
navigable inland seas, which, with the canals recently constructed,
gives to the countries bordering on them all the advantages of an
extended sea-coast, with a greatly diminished risk of loss from
shipwreck!
Little did the modern discoverers of America dream, when they called
this country "Canada," from the exclamation of one of the exploring
party, "Aca nada," - "there is nothing here," as the story goes, that
Canada would far outstrip those lands of gold and silver, in which
their imaginations revelled, in that real wealth of which gold
and silver are but the portable representatives. The interminable
forests - that most gloomy and forbidding feature in its scenery to
the European stranger, should have been regarded as the most certain
proof of its fertility.
The severity of the climate, and the incessant toil of clearing the
land to enable the first settlers to procure the mere necessaries of
life, have formed in its present inhabitants an indomitable energy
of character, which, whatever may be their faults, must be regarded
as a distinguishing attribute of the Canadians, in common with our
neighbours of the United States. When we consider the progress of
the Northern races of mankind, it cannot be denied, that while the
struggles of the hardy races of the North with their severe climate,
and their forests, have gradually endowed them with an unconquerable
energy of character, which has enabled them to become the masters of
the world; the inhabitants of more favoured climates, where the
earth almost spontaneously yields all the necessaries of life, have
remained comparatively feeble and inactive, or have sunk into sloth
and luxury. It is unnecessary to quote any other instances in proof
of this obvious fact, than the progress of Great Britain and the
United States of America, which have conquered as much by their
industry as by their swords.
Our neighbours of the United States are in the habit of attributing
their wonderful progress in improvements of all kinds to their
republican institutions. This is no doubt quite natural in a people
who have done so much for themselves in so short a time; but when
we consider the subject in all its bearings, it may be more truly
asserted that, with any form of government not absolutely despotic,
the progress of North America, peopled by a civilised and energetic
race, with every motive to industry and enterprise in the nature of
the country itself, must necessarily have been rapid. An unbounded
extent of fertile soil, with an increasing population, were
circumstances which of themselves were sufficient to create a
strong desire for the improvement of internal communications; as,
without common roads, rail-roads, or canals, the interior of the
country would have been unfit to be inhabited by any but absolute
barbarians. All the first settlers of America wanted was to be left
to themselves.
When we compare the progress of Great Britain with that of North
America, the contrast is sufficiently striking to attract our
attention. While the progress of the former has been the work of
ages, North America has sprung into wealth and power almost within
a period which we can remember. But the colonists of North America
should recollect, when they indulge in such comparisons, that their
British ancestors took many centuries to civilise themselves, before
they could send free and intelligent settlers to America. The
necessity for improvements in the internal communications is vastly
more urgent in a widely extended continent than in an island, no
part of which is far removed from the sea-coast; and patriotism,
as well as self-interest, would readily suggest such improvements
to the minds of a people who inherited the knowledge of their
ancestors, and were besides stimulated to extraordinary exertions by
their recently-acquired independence. As the political existence of
the United States commenced at a period when civilisation had made
great progress in the mother-country, their subsequent improvement
would, for various reasons, be much more rapid than that of the
country from which they originally emigrated. To show the influence
of external circumstances on the characters of men, let us just
suppose two individuals, equal in knowledge and natural capacity,
to be placed, the one on an improved farm in England, with the
necessary capital and farm-stock, and the other in the wilds of
America, with no capital but his labour, and the implements required
to clear the land for his future farm. In which of these individuals
might we reasonably expect to find the most energy, ingenuity, and
general intelligence on subjects connected with their immediate
interests? No one who has lived for a few years in the United States
or Canada can hesitate for a reply.
The farmer in the more improved country generally follows the beaten
track, the example of his ancestors, or the successful one of his
more intelligent contemporaries; he is rarely compelled to draw upon
his individual mental resources. Not so with the colonist. He treads
in tracks but little known; he has to struggle with difficulties on
all sides. Nature looks sternly on him, and in order to preserve
his own existence, he must conquer Nature, as it were, by his
perseverance and ingenuity. Each fresh conquest tends to increase
his vigour and intelligence, until he becomes a new man, with
faculties of mind which, but for his severe lessons in the school
of adversity, might have lain for ever dormant.
While America presents the most forbidden aspect to the new settler,
it at the same time offers the richest rewards to stimulate his
industry. On the one hand, there is want and misery; on the other,
abundance and prosperity.
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