The above return does not include the Port of St. Andrew's and its

The Legislature of the Province have recently offered a small tonnage bounty on fishing-vessels; but the whole sum granted for that object was too small to have any beneficial effect upon fishing industry, which will be observed to be on the decline.

CHAPTER IX.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

THE safety and prosperity of all the Provinces mainly depend on the policy pursued by the parent country, or the perfection of the Colonial system. The history of the North American Colonies is remarkable for sudden and ruinous depressions in trade, and for speedy revivals, according as the Acts of the British Parliament have been favourable or unfavourable to their commerce. Instead of bounties and prohibitions, protecting duties are now sufficient to encourage Colonial industry, which, with enterprise and frugality, is capable of extending the national power, civilisation, and happiness. Of late, the advantages of the Colonies have become more manifest, their resources better known and rendered more available. By the ingress of emigrants and the rapid increase of the native inhabitants, the population, although still very scanty, have begun to develop the physical advantages of the country, and, under a sound system of Colonial policy, will demonstrate the value of the Colonies to the great Empire.

The shipping between Great Britain and her Colonies in British America at present exceeds the aggregate foreign shipping of Great Britain with the whole of Europe. The population of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, in 1841, was about 1,300,000, and the immigration into those Colonies in 1842 was 54,123 souls. The united population may now be estimated at nearly 2,000,000. The total value of imports is equal to £4,000,000, and the exports upwards of £3,000,000.

Simmonds's Colonial Magazine, August 1845.

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In the vast trade between Great Britain and her Possessions abroad, New Brunswick holds a conspicuous position. The navigation of the Atlantic by steam, and the increased facilities of communication, have already effected a change favourable to the Colonies; and the happy results of the contemplated railway between Halifax and Quebec, extending through the centre of New Brunswick, can scarcely be too lightly estimated: yet, to render the prosperity of the Provinces permanent, and to make them a more powerful adjunct to the United Kingdom, their commerce must be protected, their fisheries kept free from the encroachments of foreigners, and their resources left unshackled by close monopolies. The interests of the people must also be united to their loyalty, which they are willing for ever to maintain. Thus will they form a wall of defence along the Arctic Continent that can never be thrown down, and a bond of union that cannot be broken; nor would the breadth of a thousand Atlantics ever alienate their affections from the laws and institutions of the land of their forefathers.

The commerce of the British Colonies was for a long time retarded by impolitic restrictions, and they were viewed as being only useful in the consumption of manufactured goods, and for certain natural productions, rather than for being a part of the Empire entitled to fair and equal advantages. Wiser views are now entertained, and relaxations in the restrictive principle have been mutually advantageous to the parent country and her Transatlantic Possessions. Permission to ship timber and fish to the Mediterranean and West Indies was followed by the Act of 1825, by which the Colonies obtained the privileges in regard to trade that were given to other parts of the kingdom.

For some years the Provinces enjoyed an exclusive trade with the West India Islands, and until the Americans withdrew certain prohibitions which had, until 1830, excluded them from British ports in that quarter. Since that period, their commodities, fish excepted, were allowed to be imported into those islands. This circumstance caused an immediate decline in the West India trade of the Colonies, which decreased in 1831 from 95,205 tons to 58,540 inwards, and from 95,196 to 75,896 outwards. The American tonnage rose at the same time from 5,366 to 48,845 tons. The trade is still continued; and were the fisheries free from foreign aggression, and improved by zeal and in

dustry, it would rapidly increase, fish and lumber being the chief exports from the Provinces.

The Continental System of France, up to 1806, and the American Non-intercourse Act of 1807, convinced the British Parliament that it was necessary to cherish enterprise and industry in the North American Colonies, in order to obtain those supplies which had been received from foreign Powers, and which were ever liable to be withheld, or supplied at an exorbitant rate. After the struggles of war and many attacks upon her commerce, Great Britain had experienced the danger of foreign dependence; the Colonial system was restored, and the trade of the Provinces immediately revived. The timber trade with the Northern Colonies took its rise from these causes, and has been continued with almost unabated vigour up to the present time, meeting with occasional checks from an over-supplied market, or the relaxations common to the commerce of all countries.

The home trade affords the best and surest markets for the staple productions of the Provinces, whose inhabitants consume British manufactured goods to a vast amount. The productions of one part of the Empire are now exchanged for those of another, and thereby the advantages are mutual. Any change in the present system would drive the Colonists to manufacture for themselves, and to withhold from the mother-country the necessary commodities now sent to her ports. The industry of the inhabitants of New Brunswick is therefore applied to agriculture, the fisheries, and lumbering. The valuable mines that have been discovered, have not yet been opened; nor is it probable that they will become objects of enterprise, until the exportable timber has been felled, and the capital necessary to work them has accumulated in the Province,-unless they should be taken up by persons in England.

The trade of the Province is with the United Kingdom, the British North American Colonies and West India Islands, South America, the whale-fishery of the Pacific Ocean, Africa, the United States, St. Domingo, Porto Rico, and Cuba. The exports are timber, deals, boards and planks, shingles, staves, masts and spars, poles, handspikes, oars, lathwood, trenails; dry, pickled, and smoked fish; oil, oysters, lime, grindstones, and furs.

Next to husbandry in importance is lumbering, in which occupation the Province employs annually about 8,000 men. Almost the whole surface of the country is covered by the forest, which is only interrupted by cultivation along the banks of some of the principal streams. The vast woods planted by the hand of Nature in the virgin soil supply to man a harvest where he has not sown, and afford him the means of procuring a subsistence before the earth is prepared to administer to his wants. Their beauty and grandeur at many places are beyond description, and the solemn stillness of the wilderness is calculated to strike the mind with awe and reverence. The lofty pine that has stood for ages, towering far above his indigenous associates, is leafless, except at the very summit. Although far superior in its dimensions, its trunk resembles the stately mainmast of a ship; yet it bends before the gale, and waves its umbrella-shaped head to the passing breeze. Many of these trees are eighteen feet in circumference at their bases, and taper gradually to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. In their fall, they crush down the smaller wood; and, by striking uneven ground, they are sometimes broken. The spruce, although lofty, is of smaller dimensions, and is recognised at any distance by his cone-shaped top and drooping branches. The foliage of the larch and hemlock is very beautiful. All these trees, with the fir and cedar, exceed in altitude the hard woods standing among them; their tops appear like an extra growth above the level of the forest.

In the wilderness regions, the unwieldy moose still roams at large, and herds of deer wander over the pathless mountains, suffering no alarm except from the prowling wolf or hungry bear. The gloom of the deep forest and its scenery is relieved by its sweet songsters, especially the yellow-winged sparrow, whose piping note is echoed among the hills. At night, in calm weather, every sound ceases, except the hoot-hoo of the owl, and the terrific howlings of droves of wolves,

In the winter of 1843, I presented a large white owl (Strix nyctea) to the lady of a military gentleman. It was duly caged, fed, and placed in the spacious hall of the mansion. During the first night of his confinement, he struck his wild notes, O ho, O ho. The gentleman, his family, and all the servants were soon alarmed, and called to quarters, under the supposition that daring robbers had entered some part of the house. As they paraded the hall ready