Canada fur-trade. Trois Rivieres, situated between Quebec and Montreal, though a small place, is reckoned the third town of the province: it is noted for the resort of the savages engaged in the fur-trade. Newark, the capital of Upper Canada, is yet in its infancy.

Canada is a country which offers many advantages to settlers who are fond of a simple retired life, and have a taste for the beauties of nature; but its products are not sufficiently numerous or valuable to afford scope for extensive commercial speculations.

NEW BRUNSWICK and NOVA SCOTIA are two provinces including the country between the mouth and gulf of the river St. Lawrence, and the north-eastern territory of the United States. The climate here is rude and unpleasant; and near the sea fogs prevail during great part of the year. The soil is in general thin and steril, except on the banks of the rivers, which yield plenty of grass, flax, and hemp. A great part of the country is ergrown with forests, containing some trees of the pine tribe of extraordinary magnitude, fit for masts of the largest size. The rivers and coasts abound with fish, which, with timber, and the smaller wood called lumber, are the chief articles of export. Gypsum, or plaster of Paris, is found in Nova Scotia, and is becoming a profitable article of commerce. Frederick's Town, on the river St. John, is the capital of New Brunswick. The capital of Nova Scotia is Halifax, which contains about 15000 inhabitants, and is the most populous town of British America. It possesses a good harbour, in which ships of war are always stationed for the protection of the fisheries. It is a fortified place and a military post. The bay of Fundi, running up between the two provinces, is remarkable for the height of its tides, which rise from 45 to 60 feet.

CAPE BRETON is an island, separated by a narrow strait from Nova Scotia, but reckoned in the province of Lower Canada. It was settled by the French, who built upon it the fortified town of Louisburg, the importance of which was chiefly ow

ing to its being the key to the river St. Lawrence. The island abounds in lakes and forests, and offers few inducements to settle in it, except its proximity to the fisheries. A very extensive bed of coal has been discovered in it, at a small distance from the surface, of which little use has hitherto been made; but hereafter, when the wood of the continent shall have been wasted by the consumption of a full population, it may prove highly valuable.

An island to the west of Cape Breton, named St. John's, is attached to the government of Nova Scotia, and is tolerably well peopled.

NEWFOUNDLand. This large island appears as if it had been broken off from the coast of Labrador by the waters of the river St. Lawrence, which disembogue opposite to the strait separating it from that country. It is of a triangular figure, about 320 miles in length and breadth, and deeply indented by bays and inlets of the sea. It was discovered in 1496 by Sebastian Cabot, who sailed under the auspices of the king of England; but the rigour of the climate long deterred settlers from Europe, and it is now only regarded as a station for the great fishery off its coast. The interior country has scarcely been penetrated beyond thirty miles. As far as the island has been examined it appears hilly and woody, with many. ponds and morasses, and some dry barren tracts. On the south, the coast rises into lofty headlands. The climate is extremely disagreeable on account of the perpetual fogs and severe cold of winter. The principal towns are St. John's and Placentia ; but in the whole island not more than a thousand families reside throughout the year.

In the fishing season, which continues from May to September, the shores of Newfoundland are much resorted to as stations for the drying and curing of the fish caught on its banks. This celebrated fishing-ground is reckoned 400 miles in length and about 140 in breadth. The water upon it is from 22 to 50 fathoms in depth, whereas on the outside it is from 60 to 80. The place of the great banks is marked by a swell of the sea and a thick fog. The fish principally taken upon them is cod,

in immense and inexhaustible quantities. The English fishing-vessels are more than 500 in number; and the French, who in every treaty of peace have secured a right of fishing here, and curing their fish on some small islands allotted to them, have sometimes been equally numerous. The United States likewise enjoy the same privilege of fishing as they had before their separation from the parent country. The Newfoundland cod is exported in large quantities to the Roman catholic countries of Europe, where it supplies food for the fasts of the church.

The extensive country of LABRADOR, and the coasts of HUDSON'S BAY, can scarcely be reckoned as appropriated by European settlers, though they have been dignified by the name of New Britain. They are wild regions, in a state of nature, rendered incapable of culture by extreme cold, and properly left to the native hunters and fishers, who find in them an abundance of game. There are, however, some trading posts or factories belonging to the Hudson's Bay company, which was established in 1670 for the purposes of commerce and plantation. These are Albany-fort and Moose-fort, on James's bay, which is the southern extremity of Hudson's bay; Severnhouse, at the mouth of the river Severn; York-fort, on Nelson's river; and Churchill-fort on Churchill river, which is the most northerly of their posts. These are only houses inhabited by the servants of the company, who trade with the savages for furs, which are often brought from great distances within land.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE New World presents nothing equally interesting to the philosopher and statesman, as the spectacle of a vast territory, capable of almost unlimited increase, possessed by a people of European origin, and participating of all the light and knowledge of Europe, under a system of government more favourable to civil and religious liberty, and consequently to mental improvement, than, perhaps, the world has ever seen, and making a rapid progress in population, wealth, and political consequence.

The dominions of the United States extend in a line from north-east to south-west, between the 45th and 30th degrees of N. latitude. To the north they have Canada; to the east, the Atlantic ocean; to the south, the Spanish part of North America; to the west, the great wilderness still occupied by the natives, of which, by purchase or other means, the bounds are continually contracting; so that the Pacific ocean may be regarded as their ultimate limit on that side.

In consequence of the disputes between the American colonies and Great Britain relative to taxation, which broke out into open war in 1775, a congress of the several colonics made a public declaration of their independence in 1776, which was conceded by Britain at the peace in 1783. They then agreed upon a federal government, under the title of the United States of America, which was finally settled in 1788. It consists of a president, vice-president, senate, and house of representatives, all elective, and originally emanating from the great body of the people. Within its powers are comprehended all acts respecting the transactions of the United States with foreign countries, and also respecting their mutual intercourse and connection, political and commercial. In these points the federal gov

ernment, or congress, is sovereign and supreme; but the interior concerns of each particular state are left to be managed by its own legislature, which is, for the most part, organized upon similar principles with the general congress, consisting of a president, an upper and a lower house. This form of government was originally borrowed from the mother country, but is rendered more republican by giving much less power to the executive branch, and founding the whole upon popular election. The American constitution is the only complete model of a representative government that has ever existed; and there seems no reason to doubt of its stability and adequacy to every useful purpose. The system of laws is in general copied from that of England, with such improvements and alterations as experience has dictated. In some of the states, particularly in Pennsylvania, capital punishments have been restricted to a very few crimes, and the object of reforming criminals has been pursued with much humane and wise policy.*

It is a peculiarity in the American states, which has tended greatly to obviate many of the evils and dissensions of the governments in the old world, that there is no predominant religion; that is, there is no one exclusively maintained by the state, and conferring particular rights and privileges on its professors. In the middle and southern states religion is left wholly to the will and spontaneous exertions of individuals; in the northern states (Rhode Island excepted) a quota is required from all the inhabitants for the support of public worship; but it is left to every one's choice to what particular sect his payment shall be appropriated. This perfect freedom with respect to religious doctrine and worship has produced its natural effect of fostering a greater number of religious sects and persuasions in the territories of the United States than, probably, exists in any other country in the world; but this variety is not accompanied with the smallest tendency to the breach of peace and good order. The common bond of citizen is

* The criminal code of Pennsylvania does not appear to have produced al the salutary effects which were expected by its authors; and it is a lamentable fact that the same malefactors have repeatedly suffered the discipline of reform without success.