ed into vigorous action by a
necessity for continual exertion, combined with an entire
liberty of thought which calls into play every resource of the
physical and intellectual man. The sturdy and intelligent race
that treads the virgin soil of Canada, can surely claim
equality, at the very least, with the denizens of older Europe;
cramped as they are for want of room, and enervated by an
ultra-civilization that wrongs nature, and has almost taken the
sceptre from her hand to put it into that of art. The British
colonist enjoys a peculiar exemption from those prejudices,
which, for so many ages, have retarded progress, and are
successively being overcome by the convictions of a more
enlightened era. There is a voice in the woods and mountains of
a great solitude that elevates the soul and fortifies it with
courage in the time of need. The great torrents and inland seas
of that noble country have schooled the generation, nurtured by
their side, into a strong conception of freedom, and the right
to be justly dealt with, at the hands of those with whom it is
connected by the double alliance of kindred predilection. A
pernicious, temporizing policy has of late caused such wounds
as may not be healed up very easily, we fear. The upright
colonist has seen an unprincipled faction permitted to ride
triumphant over those whose intentions are honest, and whose
loyalty is proven. Let us hope, that ere long something of the
chivalrous generosity of other days will pervade the councils
of the state, and rouse the stalwart spirit of the Briton to
scourge this ignominy from the land; if encouragement be due at
all, it surely is to those true-hearted provincials who are
avowedly proud of the great people from whence they derive
their character, their language, and their laws--and who are as
able, as they are willing, to preserve unto their beloved
Sovereign the colony their sires won."

This is tolerably good rhetoric, but it is not likely to have much
effect when the strong argument and imposing eloquence of statesmen have
failed to arrest attention. We see notices of another political novel
referring to Canada, which deals more directly, if with less talent,
with the disabilities and wishes of the people. It is entitled, _The
Footsteps of Montcalm_, and its hero, descended from a f