1. Histoire du Canada, depuis sa Découverte jusqu'à 2. Canals of Canada, their Prospects and Influ ence. A Prize Essay. By THOMAS C. KEEFER, 3. Proceedings at the Ceremony of laying the Chief Corner Stone of the Normal and Model Schools and III. DANA'S GEOLOGY OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 301 The United States Exploring Expedition. Geology. By JAMES D. DANA, Geologist of the Expedition. IV. SCOTTISH QUEENS AND ENGLISH PRINCESSES. . 330 Lives of the Queens of Scotland, and English Princesses connected with the Regal Succession of VI. DE QUINCEY'S WRITINGS. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, and Suspiria de Profundis: Biographical Essays: Miscellaneous Essays: The Cæsars: Life and Manners: Literary Reminiscences. By THOMAS DE QUINCEY. VII. THE FUTURE OF LABOR The Past, Present, and Future of the Republic. 1. The Claims of Labor. An Essay on the Duties of the Employers to the Employed. The Second Edition. To which is added, An Essay on the Means of Improving the Health and Increasing the Comfort of the Laboring Classes. 2. The Habitations of the Industrial Classes; their 3. The Dwellings of the Laboring Classes, their 4. The Laborer's Friend. July, 1851. No. 5. The Philosophy of Ragged Schools. IX. QUINCY'S HISTORY OF BOSTON. 1. A Municipal History of the Town and City of Boston during two Centuries, from September 17, 1630, to September 17, 1830. By JOSIAH QUINCY. 2. Sketches of Boston Past and Present, and of some few Places in its Vicinity. X. CRITICAL NOTICES. 1. Continuation of Bancroft's History NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED 425 445 464 490 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CLV. APRIL 1852. ART. I.—1. Histoire du Canada, depuis sa Découverte jusqu'à nos Jours. Par F. X. GARNEAU. Quebec : 1846. 2 vols. 2. Canals of Canada: their Prospects and Influence. A Prize Essay. By THOMAS C. KEEFER, Civil Engineer. Toronto: 1850. 3. Proceedings at the Ceremony of laying the Chief Corner Stone of the Normal and Model Schools and Education Offices, at Toronto, July, 1851, by the EARL OF ELGIN, Governor-General of Canada. BOUNDING on our northern frontier, from the northeast corner of Maine to an uncertain distance beyond Lake Superior, and extending northward into a dense wilderness, lies a country whose history has often been intimately connected with our own, and which now, from its recent elastic bound in the career of prosperity, is again forcing itself on our attention. More than three hundred years ago, James Cartier, departing from St. Malo, in France, crossed the Atlantic and ascended the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga, an Indian village on the island of Montreal. From the top of a mountain, which he named Mount Royal, he looked down on a beautiful country, and while surveying it and the broad river approaching him from the southwest, the natives by his side told him that, in its course, long before reaching them, it ran through three great lakes; that, beyond these, was a sea of fresh water, to which they knew no bounds; and that, over the mountains, was another great river, which ran to the southwest through a country free from snow and ice. Then and thus, for the first time, came to Christian ears information of the existence of the great Lakes and of the river Mississippi. More than seventy years afterwards twelve years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth-Champlain, the lieutenant of De Monts, laid the foundation of Quebec, and discovered the lake to which his name has been given. To establish a trade in furs with the natives was the chief object of De Monts and his early successors; no colonists were sent over, or came over, to cultivate the earth; a few Recollets, mendicant monks of the order of St. Francis, came and built a convent; and a pious governor, in 1665, anxious only to convert the Indians. from their worship of idols, sent over, at his own expense, five Jesuits charged to perform that duty. Afterwards, more Jesuits were sent, the Recollets were excluded, for a time, from the settlement, and the exercise of any mode of religious worship but the Roman Catholic was strictly prohibited. This infant colony, in a remote wilderness, received especial favor from the pious and charitable of the mother country. In 1635, the college of Quebec, sometimes called the Jesuits' college, was founded by René de Rohaut, and received subsequently large endowments from the government, and also from the Jesuits, to which order its founder belonged.. A few years afterwards, the Hôtel Dieu, a hospital for the sick poor of both sexes, was founded by the Duchess d'Aiguillon; and the Ursuline convent, by Madame de la Pettrie, a widow, who, though rich and young, left her beautiful country, and devoted her fortune and life to the education of the females of the colony. Trade with the natives, the conversion of the Indians, and the exclusion of all religions but one, being the chief objects of those who shaped, in its infancy, the destiny of the colony, it received from them, it is evident, none of the elements of progress. In 1663, fifty-five years after the arrival of the first settlers, the number of inhabitants did not exceed three thousand. The feudal system being, at this period, in full force in Europe, the public land was granted in Canada, to be held on the same tenure as in some parts of France. Tracts of all sizes, from one square mile to a hundred or more, were given by the king to faithful servants or to favorites, the gift conferring nobility and certain privileges and immunities, as well on the first possessor of the seigniory or lordship, as on those to whom it should be transmitted by inheritance, or assigned by sale or gift. On the death of the seignior or lord, one half of the land, with the title and privileges, descended to the eldest son; and he also took an equal share, with the other children, in the other half. When a seigniory was sold, the king was entitled to one fifth of the price; but one third of the fifth was relinquished in case of prompt payment. The seignior was bound on application to concede lands on certain terms to emigrants. The tracts conceded usually contained about one hundred acres, were subject to a rent of a few cents per acre, and to the performance of certain feudal duties and services. The tenant could sell the land to be held by the same tenure; but one twelfth part of the price belonged to the lord. On the tenant's death, the children inherited equal shares, all encumbered with the same rent and feudal obligations. This mode of distributing lands to emigrants was found, at a later period, to be unfavorable to the prosperity of the colony; and since the conquest by Great Britain, when any portion of the public domain has been granted, a clear title has been given to the purchaser From that time to this, public opinion has become more and more hostile to these feudal tenures, and it cannot be long before they will cease to exist. The labors of the Jesuit missionaries to convert the Indians, the perils they encountered, the hardships they endured, their unfaltering self-devotion to their vow of obedience, and to their convictions of duty, form a sublime and affecting spectacle. With a breviary suspended from the neck, and a cross, the emblem of their faith, in the hand; often alone, sometimes in pairs, seldom with any assistants or protectors, they abandoned comfortable homes, and, venturing into the wilderness far from the abodes of civilized man, lived in huts, with only savages for companions. As early as 1634, two Jesuits established themselves on the shores of Lake Huron. In 1641, others advanced as far as the falls of St. Mary. In |