Canada and the States Part 24

"Many of the public buildings of Montreal are excellent. The Bon Secours Market is a very fine building, and puts many of ours at home to shame. The Jesuits' College is large and sombre; and some of the convents and inst.i.tutions are well worth a visit, both as buildings and as inst.i.tutions of the place.

"In the country little progress appears; but you see no misery, and much comfort and joyfulness. Indeed, these French settlers seem happy upon their small properties, surrounded by their old customs, and in the enjoyment of the fetes and holidays which their religion allows.

They look upon the rush of improvement with calmness, though often with a sort of incredulity as to the agency by which it is brought about, and the righteousness of its existence. 'Mais, croyez-vous que le bon Dieu permettra tout cela?' said one of them on seeing a train move along, dragged by no visible horseflesh, and propelled without birds'

wings. They are quite a contrast to their American neighbours, who have often suggested that Lower Canada might go ahead if the French population were 'improved off the face of the earth.'

"The priests set a good example of taking matters enjoyably and peacefully: their country farm outside Montreal, at the foot of the mountain, for example. The house is situated so as to command a beautiful view of the basin of the St. Lawrence, which, on a fine day, shows its river gliding on with broad tranquil surface, peacefully towards the sea, and exhibits the gardens, woods, and orchards, which cover the country with a fertile and smiling landscape. The grounds are large and well planted; and the rude gaze of the mult.i.tude is shut out by a high wall, which extends half round the farm itself. Here the good fathers come for a few days at a time, and in turns, to recruit exhausted nature, and spend their hours in exercise and reading. Fine old fellows! we need not envy them; but rather hope that all men may some day have as many of the means of quiet and simple happiness to resort to.

"The short summer of Lower Canada causes great activity in business during the 'seasons.' The summer and autumn are therefore the times of business; the short interval between them the time for visits to the seaside, or to Saratoga, or the Caledonia Springs; while the winter, with its snow and ice and long endurance, brings round a continuous carnival of pleasant racket, and is really the season of society amongst all ranks of the people. I heard magnificent accounts of the b.a.l.l.s, parties, sleighings, and country frolics, which take place; also of the walking expeditions far out into the wilds, with snow shoes, tents to sleep in, and Indian attendants; and of the wild sport in hunting the moose-deer, and other tenants of the wood--during this winter season. Some of the English agents spend five business months in Canada, and all the rest of the year in England, going home in November and returning in April.

"The residences in the suburbs of Montreal are usually well built, large, and beautifully situated. We drove through the suburbs to Monklands, which is on the western side of the mountain, and commands a fine view of the country. This house, which is capacious and handsome, is now used as an hotel. It was the seat of the Governor-General, Lord Elgin; and the landlord showed us a point at the end of the now dilapidated, but some time beautiful, garden, from whence, he said, his lordship viewed afar off the burning of the Parliament Houses at Montreal a year or two back. Lord Elgin shut himself up in Monklands for about three months after this outrage, and the Parliament and court were removed to Toronto, which, until the turn comes round to some other place, has the exclusive honour of hearing the rather strong oratory of the Upper Province. The country about Monklands is very beautiful, and there are still abundant openings on the mountain sides for villas, similar to the very handsome and tasteful erections with which they are at present pretty thickly studded.

"Leaving Montreal one evening by steamer, I dropped down to Quebec. The St. Lawrence below Montreal is broad, deep, and, in some places, winding. The princ.i.p.al population of Lower Canada is on its immediate sh.o.r.es; and the numerous cottages and houses, with cultivated fields around them, would lead to a belief that the whole population of the country, so thickly appearing on the margin of the river, was greater than it is. The sail by daylight must be beautiful, and as the hours of day, which going and returning allowed, enabled me to see a great part of the distance, I only regretted that I could not see more of so n.o.ble a river, and of the industry and the people settled on its banks.

"When within five miles of Quebec, coming down the river, there commences a succession of wharfs, to which the timber, which forms so great a trade here, is floated down stream, and from which it is loaded into vessels for Europe and other parts of the world. The stock of timber balks floating in the basins about these wharfs and landings is now so great, that for three miles the margin of the river looks like one great raft. We pa.s.sed two immense rafts of timber, floating down the stream, to be stowed here, one of which was some 400 yards long, had eighteen sails set, and four wooden houses complete, erected upon it.

"Quebec is admirably placed as a fortified city, and also as a point for commerce. It stands on a high point of land opposite the Isle of Orleans, which here divides the St. Lawrence into two large streams.

The citadel overlooks the Bay of Quebec, the Isle of Orleans, and the high banks of the St. Lawrence. The view from it is most extensive, in whichever direction the eye wanders. Forty miles of the St. Lawrence are seen from it. The white wooden houses on the hill-sides, and the broad fields of yellow grain, set off the dark wood; and the river--its bay, fronting the point of land on which the city is placed, covered with sails and glistening in the sun--mellows the landscape most exquisitely. Quebec, as seen from the river, too, has a fine commanding aspect. The Citadel crowning the height does not give so great an appearance of extent or strength as it possesses. In reality, Gibraltar preeminent over all, it is one of the most impregnable strongholds in the world; and its underground works, I am told, are so extensive that 5,000 men may be garrisoned and hidden within the bowels of the earth beneath it. Visitors are not allowed to walk on the west ramparts; and on complaining of this to a distinguished military officer, I was a.s.sured that the workmen, who are still employed in the excavations below, are taken in blindfold--that the engineer officer alone knows the form and shape of the works in progress, and that the plan of the remainder is kept sealed up in the hands of the commandant, to be opened only in case of actual need. This is mystery with a vengeance, and but for the authority from whence I received the statement, I should doubt the fact--most decidedly.

"The lower town of Quebec stands upon the river bank, beneath the almost perpendicular face of rock, surmounted by the Citadel. It is old, and the houses are princ.i.p.ally of wood, and ultra-French in appearance. The streets are narrow and not over clean. To reach the upper town you drive up a very precipitous road, or walk up a long flight of timber steps, which shorten the steepest portion of the way.

The upper town is built on the acclivity and on the slopes of the hill- side, which slide down to the river St. Charles, to the north. The fire of 1845 improved the town, by clearing out miserable old wooden dwellings; and the buildings erected on the site are of good brick or stone. Since these fires, too, it has been forbidden to build houses of wood, within the walls; and the use of shingles for roofing has been prohibited. The roofs are mostly covered with tin, which shines and glares in the sun at mid-day, but reflects the morning light very pleasantly.

"The Protestant and Catholic Cathedrals are fine buildings, as are the new Catholic church outside the suburbs, the Catholic seminary, and many other edifices. But the narrow streets, steep ascents, and ancient buildings, take away all beauty from the town itself, delightful as is its situation, and beautiful as are the vistas and views from various parts of it.

"A pilgrimage to the Plains of Abraham, about a mile from the Citadel, which consist of the high tableland between the St. Lawrence and the St. Foix road and St. Charles river, was to me a traveller's duty.

"It was on the night of the 12th of September, 1759, that Wolfe, checked by the French, at Montmorenci, two months before, dropped down the St. Lawrence with his army in boats, and succeeded in landing at a little bend of the river, still half hidden by trees, where the high and precipitous sh.o.r.es are most accessible, though yet most difficult of ascent. The troops scaled the heights, meeting little opposition, formed into line across the plains, and waited the attack of the French, who had marched that morning from Beauport, near to which the battle of Montmorenci had been fought. The French came on gallantly, and the English stood their fire until they approached within forty yards, and then delivered theirs. The French wavered, and Wolfe charged at the head of his men, Montcalm heading his. A desperate fight took place, and Wolfe fell, struck by the third ball, just as the French line broke in confusion, and the English cheer of victory burst from his conquering army. Montcalm was mortally wounded immediately afterwards.

"On the spot where Wolfe fell, on the extreme right of his line, a plain unpretending pillar is placed, bearing the simple inscription,--

"'HERE DIED WOLFE, VICTORIOUS, SEPT. 13, 1759.'

Near the Citadel, and in the town, another monument has been erected, which bears the name of Wolfe on one side and that of Montcalm on the other.

"To see the country, I had a drive of twenty-five miles along the St.

Charles river, through the Indian village of Lorette, and back through the fine open district to the westward of the town. Our road was good for a few miles, but then became such a collection of deep pits and heaps of mud, that, but for a rude fence and wheel-marks, it would hardly have been distinguished from the fields. The course of the St.

Charles, however, at this point, is between precipitous and sometimes rocky banks, covered with trees and jungle: and in enjoyment of the scenery, the fresh pure air, cooled by the previous night's rain, and the sweet scents thrown out by the trees and wild-flowers, the slow progress of the vehicle and the b.u.mping of one's sides, were forgotten.

"Lorette was originally a colony of Christianized Huron Indians, to whom lands were granted by the French. The village is now princ.i.p.ally inhabited by whites and half-breeds, though there are some of the pure race left--the men wearing European dresses, the women adhering to the ancient costume. Their cottages are generally neat and clean. Andre Romain, the chief, resides in the centre of the village, a high pole denoting his residence and rank. I found him bending over his simple dinner of milk and coa.r.s.e bread. He was dressed in old, and somewhat ragged, garments. He seemed so extremely old, that I did not trouble him with more than a very short conversation, in French. He showed me a portrait of George IV., given to him, he said, from the hands of that monarch, and a coloured engraving of the installation of one of the royal princes as chief of the Hurons. The poor old man, broken down with extreme age, had still the remains of a commanding presence, which even his miserable dress, unshaven beard, and bleared and misty eye, could not altogether extinguish.

"This village gives an example of the fate of all the Indian tribes.

Here, once brought together to live after the manner of the whites, this tribe has been reduced in number, and finally all but absorbed; and in a few years not one of the unmixed race will remain, and the language of the tribe will be obliterated.

"At Lorette are the falls of the St. Charles, which are very interesting. After seeing them, I had some milk at the 'Billy b.u.t.ton,'

a public-house kept by a Yankee, who deals in the Indian ornaments made in the village, and shows the falls, and then drove round to Quebec, through a fine and richly-tilled district; and, in pa.s.sing, saw a hotly-contested heat run upon the course on the plains of Abraham--for it was Quebec races."

"TORONTO, "Sat.u.r.day, September 6th, 1851.

"Returning to Montreal, I spent Thursday in visiting various inst.i.tutions of that city, and drove out with Mr.---- to see the country residence of a friend of his, which is hidden in a sweet little glen, from whence, however, glimpses of the St. Lawrence river are obtained. This gentleman lives here in summer, and employs his leisure in the cultivation of the fruits and flowers, which a fine soil and a forcing climate produce in perfection. He complains of the destruction of the large trees in his vicinage, regretting that those who own the neighbouring woods should be impelled to bring down, first, the oldest and finest timber, and should be unable to preserve even so much of it as might ill.u.s.trate hereafter the magnificent proportions of the native forest wood. This is truly one of the sad features of advancing civilization. The fine old forests, like the native Indians, lose their n.o.blest chieftains, and, degenerating to a few dwarfed and scattered specimens, at last disappear and are forgotten.

"Mr.---- told us much of the happy and comfortable lives of the farmers and settlers hereabouts. All have land; food in abundance, including sugar from their own maple-bush; cattle; horses; light spring waggons, which serve as family coaches when not required for the week-day's work; good homely furniture and clothing: in short, an abundance of all the essentials of existence, and even wealth--but they possess little money. In many cases, and now that agricultural improvement has become a necessity, this want of money is found to be a great evil. The ordinary sized farms, of 100 acres of good land, all in cultivation, are worth from 500_l_., to 1,000_l_.; and very often an expenditure of 200_l_. or 300_l_. in improvements would double their value. The legal rate of interest here is 6 per cent.; and as high a rate as 7 or 8 per cent could be got for small loans on mortgages for these purposes were the money to be had. The banks, however, do not, as a rule, lend money on mortgage, and the monied men of the country have usually lands of their own requiring the same sort of development. Foreign capital is therefore looked to; and doubtless it will ultimately be procured in abundance, the security being undeniable, and the rate of interest so high.

"Mr.---- does not consider the long winter any impediment to farming, but rather the contrary, as the sudden burst of spring, and the rapid growths of summer, make up for it; while in a country like this, where roads are so scanty, many of the farmers' operations are performed more easily during the snow and hard frosts which prevail.

"Leaving Montreal, by a short railroad of nine miles in length, constructed to avoid the rapids of a bend of the St. Lawrence, I came to Lachine. Here are the head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the house of Sir George Simpson, the Governor; and hence, annually, towards the end of April, proceed the 'maitre-canots,' or large canoes, of the company, manned by its officers and hardy 'voyageurs,' up the waters of the Ottawa to Lake Nip.i.s.sing, and down the Riviere des Francais into Lake Huron.

"At Lachine I took the 'Champion,' a fine new steamer, built and equipped at Montreal, and worked up the St. Lawrence, along Lake Ontario, to Toronto, a journey of 450 miles, and occupying about forty hours in the performance.

"The navigation of the St. Lawrence is impeded by several large 'rapids,' formed by the action of the suddenly descending current upon sunken rocks deep below the surface of the water. On the upward voyage these are impa.s.sable for merchandize vessels; and, though the large steamers struggle through many of them, there are others which no force can cope with. To remedy these impediments, several fine ca.n.a.ls, equal to any similar works in the world, have been constructed. The first of these, the Beauharnois Ca.n.a.l, connects, by a cut eleven miles long, the broad embayment called 'Lake St. Louis,' above Montreal, with the similar reach called 'Lake St. Francis;' and in the narrow pa.s.sage between these unruffled waters are the princ.i.p.al rapids--the 'Coteau du Lac,' the 'Cedars,' and the 'Cascades.' The pa.s.sage through this 'sixteen miles' declivity of boiling waters' is exciting. The large steamers rush down with the rapidity of the wind, through waves lashed into foam--sweeping close past the rocks and islets in the stream, and only kept in safety in their course by the united exertions of six or seven 'voyageurs,' and a pilot, at the wheel.

"The upper sh.o.r.es of the St. Lawrence are populous and well cultivated.

In stopping to take in our supply of wood, which we had to do several times during the day and night, usually at quiet secluded nooks along sh.o.r.e, or on some little island, I had many opportunities of seeing the comfort of the people, and the progress of the country. The houses, usually of wood, painted white, or of some showy colour, and having verandas covered with climbers, looked both commodious and gay. It might be mistake, but I fancied that improvement was more perceptible when, pa.s.sing the point where line 45 degrees 'strikes' the river, we came into the American territory. I was particularly struck with one farm near Warrington, over which I had half-an-hour's walk, upon the best fields of which were still protruding the heavy stumps of the forest trees, cut down ten or twenty years ago. The owner told us he had 160 acres, which he bought, partly cleared, seventeen years ago, for ten dollars an acre. He had, a year ago, refused twenty dollars an acre for it, intending to make it worth fifty; and during his occupation he had brought up a large family in comfort and independence upon it, and saved money. The crop of oats he was now clearing was a poor one, he said,--only forty-five bushels per acre.

"Arrived at Ogdensburgh, on the American side of the river, I spent some time, while waiting the arrival of the train bearing Boston and other eastern pa.s.sengers, in going through the extensive and commodious depot of the Northern Railway. The works are not quite completed. They will cover an area of some forty acres, and comprise warehouses for the stowage of corn and other produce, a fine pa.s.senger shed, and large engine-houses and sheds for cars. The quant.i.ty of corn and flour stored here in the fall is very large. Last year it was 80,000 barrels.

Unfortunately, however, for the railways, the rate for conveyance of these staples is brought down by the compet.i.tion of the steamers to a very low point; the charge from Toronto to Montreal being but one shilling per barrel of 218 lbs., or a farthing per ton per mile.

"Opposite Ogdensburgh is the village of Prescott, remarkable as the scene of a deadly conflict during the rebellion, the traces of which it still exhibits, in dismantled houses, and a windmill in ruins.

"On the evening of this day we entered a part of the river, called, from the unceasing abundance of islets which gem its surface, the 'Lake of the Thousand Isles.' These islets, above fifteen hundred in number, vary in size from tiny things, little bigger than an upturned boat, to areas of many hundred acres. They are a succession of rocky excrescences, mostly covered with wood, which grows, or overhangs, down to the water's edge. Some of them are cultivated, but the ma.s.s are just as nature left them, when--their broken and jutting strata having settled into bearings far down below the stream, on the morrow of some vast convulsion and upheaving of nature--the forest era was at last established. How long a time elapsed before the action of the weather had produced, from the hard face of the stone itself, soil enough for the lichen and the moss, or for these, in their turns, to become the receptacle of the seeds of forest trees, blown from some distant region--is a problem. In threading these islands, sometimes our vessel pa.s.sed through tortuous pa.s.sages apparently blocked up at the end, and within a few yards of land, but by a sudden turn emerged into fine large basins, and so wound and twined its way along. As the sun declined, every island made a full, clear reflection in the gla.s.sy surface of the water; and the boughs and branches, the flowers by the water's edge, the very marks upon the rocks, were repeated upside down, as if in a perfect mirror. The whole scene bore an air of such complete seclusion, that our noisy pa.s.sage through it appeared like a rude intrusion into some fairy realm, before time uninvaded by mortal visits. The birds were disturbed from amongst the trees, and the wild ducks and other water-fowl skimmed away, scared at the splashing of our paddles and the panting of our engine.

"At sunset we stopped to take in wood at Gannanoque, a village sweetly placed on a swelling hillock above the river. Here I entered some of the houses, and found considerable comfort, plenty of dirt, and a good many pigs, who seemed on the best possible terms with the children. An Irishwoman, standing at her door, her eldest son in her arms, a fine bright-eyed urchin, told me, in return for my compliments on the healthy appearance of the child, that she 'had been afther bathing him; for sure he had made himself dirty with playing with the pig.'

"The full moon had risen high when we left the last of the isles behind us; and late at night we emerged from the St. Lawrence, and arrived at Kingston, the tin roofs of which shone brightly in the moonlight.

"Kingston is an important town, and is the port of the Rideau Ca.n.a.l, which connects Bytown and the Ottawa with Lake Ontario. A walk through the streets by moonlight enabled us to see the market-house, a stone building, considered to be the finest in Upper Canada.

"Keeping along the north sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario, we stopped at several thriving little ports, and arrived in Toronto early on the afternoon of Sat.u.r.day.

"Toronto is the chief city of Upper Canada, and is evidently a highly prosperous place. It has a thoroughly Anglo-Saxon cast about it, and looks new and bright. The streets are long and wide, the houses generally of brick, high and regular; and everywhere is the appearance of vigorous trade and rapid extension. The houses of the richer cla.s.ses are fully equal to those in the suburbs of Montreal; while no old dilapidated dwellings, like those which appear in that city, are here visible. There are many fine public buildings--St. Lawrence Hall, the Banks, the Parliament House, and many others. The grounds of King's College are well worth a visit. Toronto is at present the seat of Government, and the Governor-General resides here.

"This city, and its people, present many points of favourable contrast with the older cities and population of Lower Canada. The soil and climate may perhaps be more favourable, and the vicinity of American energy may have some effect; but the secret of the greater growth of this province may be traced to its settlement by American Loyalists in 1783. These men, driven away from their country by their adherence to the British Crown, here found a refuge and new home. The whole land along the St. Lawrence, above the French settlements, was formed into townships, and farms were allotted to these, the 'United Empire Loyalists,' who thus became the fathers of Upper Canada. The population of Upper Canada was not more than 210,000 in 1830, now it is nearly 1,000,000. Much of the land in the Province is equal to any in the world; and nature seems to have given every aid to the formation of a great country. All that is wanting would seem to be that independence, which, with all its reputed vices, would appear to be the condition of Anglo-Saxon progress. Canada has been hitherto the resort of British settlers only, while the United States have become a home for all the world."

What precedes was written nearly thirty-six years ago. I need not apologise for its crudeness, for I only represent, in plain words, the impressions of the time. And I think I have troubled the reader quite enough about my "first visit to America, and the reason for it." I may say, however, that my trip induced many other visits to the growing countries of North America. I was, to some extent, a pioneer traveller to the other side of the Atlantic.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_The Reciprocity Treaty with the United States._

After asking various questions in the House of Commons, to which I received unsatisfactory replies, I brought the subject of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States before the House of Commons late one night in February, 1865. My observations, as reported in "Hansard," were:--

"That the hour was too late to permit more than a speech in outline as to the Reciprocity Treaty and the Bonding Acts. Under the latter, articles chargeable with duty could be sent through United States territory and Canada in bond, and as Canada was for the present, and would be until the completion of railway communication to Halifax on the Atlantic, cut off from access to the ocean for five winter months of the year, the Bonding Acts enabled her commerce with the outside world to pa.s.s unimpeded. The Northwestern States received in return corresponding facilities of access through Canada. The Reciprocity Treaty included three essential provisions--the rights of fishery on a sh.o.r.e line of 1,500 miles, the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, and the free interchange of productions between the British Provinces and the United States. (The beneficent theory of the treaty was to make two countries, politically distinct, commercially one, and to induce the two peoples, otherwise opposed, to live in co-operation and in peace.) The provision as to the fisheries had settled for the time difficult questions leading, in past days, and over and over again, to dispute, collision, and sometimes the imminence of war. The free navigation of the St. Lawrence and of Lake Michigan had removed jealousies and fostered the idea of common interests in the great waterways to the ocean, while the results of trade had been so happy that a total annual interchange of commodities of a value of nearly 10,000,000_l. a year in amount between the British Provinces and the United States now existed. They were now threatened with the termination of this treaty at the end of twelve months, and no hope appeared to be held out, so far, of an amicable revision and extension of its benefits. The consequences to commerce were evident, and at first would be most serious. Trade at last, no doubt, would take other channels, and the British Provinces, trading between each other and with the Mother Country, and reducing their duties to a low rate, might at the end be largely benefited at the price of a present loss; but that was merely the money view, and such a gain would be dearly purchased at the cost of humanity and civilization if it broke up the commercial and social union heretofore existing. He held that peace and progress and the future good relations between Great Britain and the United States, on which peace and progress were largely based, would suffer by such an isolation, and he would look with distrust upon a prosperity which was not still shared between the people on each side of the border. He had travelled much on both sides of the British lines, and it was cheering to see there how thoroughly one the two peoples had become, socially and commercially. They traded together, went into partnership together, visited together. A Canadian or New Brunswicker would often have a farm on each side of the, practically imaginary, boundary line; and a citizen of the United States often lived on his own and traded or manufactured on the other side of the border. In fact, the border jealousies which had caused such bitterness and danger even in our own country had in this generation all but disappeared in this case, under the operation of high-minded and far-sighted legislation. Considering, therefore, the magnitude of the commercial interests, the grave questions of navigation, ocean rights, and free communication, he must express the most anxious, surprise to learn that Her Majesty's Government had allowed the matter to drift into its present position.

He was told that no effort whatever had been made to preserve the treaty as it was, or as it might be amended, by negociations at Washington. His honorable friend, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, had said, in answer to a question he had put in that House last May, that no negociations were pending as to the Reciprocity Treaty, and that Government had no official information upon the subject of the Bonding Acts. He was bound to take that answer as a correct statement; and he then asked, Was it possible that her Majesty's Government could remain inactive when a trade of 10,000,000_l_ a year and the issues of future peace or disturbance were in the balance? Were the proposed notice to terminate the treaty any matter of suddenness or by way of surprise, he might comprehend it; but for above three years the subject had been agitated and discussed in Congress, in Canada, and in all the Chambers of Commerce in the North-west. It had been notorious to everybody that one party desired isolation from the British Provinces and another desired the operations of the treaty to be extended. It was, therefore, a question to be discussed in advance of the present entanglement; and, as Canada had no treaty-making power, the responsibility rested with the Government at home. This was a question so serious from every point of view that the House would have to take it up as soon as the n.o.ble lord at the head of the Government laid upon the table the notice which he had told them would be given on the 15th March next. Then would be the time to discuss it fully and in all its bearings. His object now was to prepare for that discussion by obtaining all the facts. The papers laid before the House last week did not go back far enough. It appeared that in the autumn of 1861 the New York Chamber of Commerce memorialized Congress for a revision of the treaty, and a committee reported upon it in February, 1862. That report he had here. It did not advocate notice; no, it advocated adherence to the principles of free exchange, and it proposed that commissioners should negociate an extension of the treaty. In March, 1864, Mr. Ward reported resolutions appointing commissioners for that purpose, and ultimately the discussion was postponed to December, 1864. During all this time surely communications of some kind pa.s.sed to or from this country; and it was self-apparent that the treaty might have been revised and extended before recent causes of irritation had appeared. Those causes had led to much bitter feeling, and it might now be too late to restore the principle of the treaty and of the Bonding Acts in all their integrity. He now moved for all papers subsequent to December, 1861, with a view to further discussion hereafter. He would call attention to a very singular letter, given at pages 70 and 77 in the papers printed last week. That letter had been intercepted by General Augur, and was stated by Mr.

Seward to be undoubtedly genuine. He would ask whether any explanation of that letter had been offered by his Excellency the American Minister, Mr. Adams? And, if so, why that explanation had not been printed? The letter was from a Confederate agent residing in Canada, apparently to Mr. Seddon, the Confederate Secretary for War. It must have been written at the end of October last year. It stated that the writer had made an arrangement with parties 'powerful and influential with the Government of the United States' to deliver supplies of meat in exchange for cotton, 'at any port Mr. Secretary Seddon may designate on the east side of the Mississippi,' or on 'the west side,' and after this delivery it was said that 'the way was perfectly clear to deliver anywhere within General Butler's department.' He adds, that he has made another contract with another Federal American citizen, 'by which supplies of meat will be furnished at Mobile by written permission of the President of the United States to the free pa.s.sage of the blockading fleet at that port.' His contract, he says, is for 5,000,000 lbs. of meat in exchange for 5,000,000 lbs. of cotton. Now, if this were true, it opened up a very large question. Merchants in England who had run the blockade had been most properly censured for the practice.

Their having done so was naturally matter of diplomatic complaint; but here were the seal and the signature of the President of the United States himself made use of to send supplies to the enemy on the one hand, and to give cotton to the manufacturers of the Northern States on the other. He thought that letter ought not to have been printed without some comment. If explanations had been given by Mr. Adams and were not printed, the omission was a slight; and he thought a good understanding with the United States, desired so sincerely by, he hoped, the House at large, would not be promoted by its publication."