Our friends who went up to sleep did not like their Quarters so much as to remain long in them for they joined us before breakfast. The meal over, and there being time to spare, we made an expedition to see the town. It is the capital of Upper Canada and contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants. The site is low and without natural beauty, but the place looks tolerably thriving.

I have been somewhat at a loss to know what was the cause of the generally grumbling tone I have met with among the common people in Upper Canada. They admit they do well and yet are dissatisfied. Can it be, the proximity of the United States? Yet to many of them, the States as they call us present no agreeable idea. They pine for home which most of them have been but a few years from. England is a pleasant country if the poor could live there. The necessity which drives them away is hard, but they are compensated here with plenty, and there is a prospect for their children of something better than the Poorhouse.

The buildings in Toronto are for the most part of a meaner description then those in the towns of similar size with us, but they do not look neglected. It takes a great while to collect capital, most especially in towns of the interior, but there is evidence the process is here begun. There is little or no navigation visible on this Lake which somewhat surprises me and may still further account for slowness of progress. The Government House is here and some very good private Houses. We left at ten o’clock and passed the day upon the Lake, a fine sheet of water without a sail. The banks are low and generally not striking.

In the afternoon, we stopped at a little place whose name our boat bears, the Cobourg, a neat spot enough with the same general appearance with Toronto excepting the superior advantage in situation. There is a large building here, a Seminary of some sect, which makes quite an imposing show. The use of tin upon the roofs of buildings which is general in Canada has a pretty effect in the distance. After a walk of about fifteen minutes we returned and kept our course in the boat all night.

The day was fine and the water smooth which is quite an unusual occurrence in Lake Ontario. Our accommodations on board of this boat have been very superior. Indeed I do not know that I ever before enjoyed Steamboat navigation. I think I can now conceive of a very pleasant trip in a thing of this kind. The Captain is prodigiously attentive.

Upon rising this morning we found ourselves within a few miles of the harbour of Kingston, where we arrived before breakfast, and the Captain politely volunteered to stop while we should be able to exam-34ine the Fortifications. I did not feel very well, having suffered a little from the limestone water of the Country, but I determined to walk with the rest. Kingston is the British Naval Depot for the Lake and is also defended by a fortification commanding the foot of the Lake upon which the British Government have been and are now expending considerable sums. The Officer who was there was exceedingly civil and showed us every thing that could be shown in the present unfinished condition of the works. The redoubt as the Officer called it is not large but it is very strong and very thoroughly built. I suppose it would require a thousand men. But it seems hardly probable that the relations between the Countries will ever be such as to require all this arming. Canada will contend with England sooner than the United States are likely to.

We returned to the boat and set out on our progress down what I should be apt to consider the head of the St. Lawrence, although it is more commonly included in the Lake — I mean the passage of the thousand Islands. It unfortunately came on to rain so that we were deprived of an opportunity to see these by sunlight. But there is something more charming in the idea than in the reality. The imagination loves to picture them all as cultivated and the residence of persons living for pleasure, while the waters between them were alive with boats and vessels changing to all appearance as fast as the Islands themselves. Instead of this the Solitude is complete. The Islands which are said in number to exceed thirteen hundred are with very few exceptions barren and rocky and not fit for habitation. They are overgrown with wood, principally pines, and birch and present little that is striking in their formation. The stream is hardly vexed by a vessel so that the effect is loneliness. There is notwithstanding great beauty in the combinations which are constantly making anew and in the vistas which are perpetually occurring here and there as you pass along.

All day was consumed in this manner, and as we went on the river grew narrower and we had an opportunity of contrasting the appearance of the English and American side. I thought that the farms of the former were the best looking, but the inhabited places very far inferior. The largest place we passed was called Brockville where we stopped, and we reached our point of destination, Prescott, the termination of the deep water navigation at about five o’clock. Opposite to Prescott is the flourishing town of Ogdensburg in New York, which as we had some hours to spare we determined upon visiting. The distance is something over a mile which is passed in a Steamferry boat. Ogdensburg is a very neat, pretty place and has after being for some years 35stationary lately taken a start in consequence of the projecting spirit which is so rife among us. There is water power here which they propose to make very extensive use of. We rambled about until sunset when it became time to take advantage of the last trip of the ferryboat.

I have tried to account in my own mind for the striking difference which is certainly visible between the two banks of this river. On one, there is activity and an appearance of prosperity which is not so clear on the other. Our Institutions no doubt produce the effect but how? Is it by leaving every thing open to private enterprize. I imagine so, for Canada has fewer taxes than we have and is more cheaply supplied with the necessaries of life. It must be the want of that sort of popular energy which our Institutions foster even to excess.

We returned by invitation of the Captain Colcleugh, a Scotchman who has been here only five years, to the Cobourg where he gave us tea and refused to accept any compensation for it, after which he saw us safely transferred to the Dolphin Steamer which at two in the morning was to go on down the River. We regretted much our old Boat, in which we had so much enjoyed ourselves, and the more because the new one did not promise well. I laid down without undressing in my berth and soon went to sleep.