" I never felt a confirmed old
bachelor till I heard that awful "Which way?"

The roads round about in all directions are admirable; not so if you
cross the river to the Falls of the Chaudiere; but the abomination of
abominations is the ferry-boat, and the facilities, or rather obstacles,
for entering and exiting. To any one who has seen the New York
ferry-boats, and all the conveniences connected with them, the contrast
is painfully humiliating. In the one case you drive on board as readily
as into a court-yard, and find plenty of room when you get there; in the
other, you have half a dozen men holding horses and carriages, screaming
in all directions, and more time is wasted in embarking than a Yankee
boat would employ to deposit you safely on the other side; and it would
puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to decide which is the more abominable, the
exit or the entry. Nevertheless, the traveller will find himself
compensated for all his troubles--especially if the horse and carriage
be a friend's--by the lovely drive which takes him to the Chaudiere
Falls, a trip I had the pleasure of making in company with a jolly party
of good fellows belonging to the 72nd Highlanders, then in garrison at
Quebec, and whose hospitalities during my stay I gratefully remember.

If, however, an Englishman feels humiliated in crossing the Quebec
ferry, he feels a compensating satisfaction upon entering the Quebec
Legislative Council Chamber, which in its aspect of cleanliness,
furniture, &c., has an appearance of refinement far superior to that at
Washington. As they were not sitting during my stay in Canada, I had no
opportunity of drawing any comparison on their different modes of
carrying on public business. I had heard so much during my absence from
England of the famous Rebellion Losses Bill, and all the obloquy which
had been heaped upon the Governor-General in consequence, that I was
very anxious to get some insight into the true state of the case,
although perhaps the justification of the Earl of Elgin's conduct by Sir
Robert Peel ought to have satisfied me.

I soon became convinced that in this, as in most similar cases, the
violence of party spirit had clouded truth; and the bitterness of
defeat, in minds thus prejudiced, had sought relief in the too-common
channels of violence and abuse. However much to be deplored, I fear that
the foregoing opinions will be found, on most occasions of political
excitement, to be true. The old par