Ed. Rivers.

LETTER 117.

To the Earl of ----.

Silleri, April 8.

Nothing can be more true, my Lord, than that poverty is ever the
inseparable companion of indolence.

I see proofs of it every moment before me; with a soil fruitful
beyond all belief, the Canadians are poor on lands which are their own
property, and for which they pay only a trifling quit-rent to their
seigneurs.

This indolence appears in every thing: you scarce see the meanest
peasant walking; even riding on horseback appears to them a fatigue
insupportable; you see them lolling at ease, like their lazy lords, in
carrioles and calashes, according to the season; a boy to guide the
horse on a seat in the front of the carriage, too lazy even to take the
trouble of driving themselves, their hands in winter folded in an
immense muff, though perhaps their families are in want of bread to eat
at home.

The winter is passed in a mixture of festivity and inaction; dancing
and feasting in their gayer hours; in their graver smoking, and
drinking brandy, by the side of a warm stove: and when obliged to
cultivate the ground in spring to procure the means of subsistence, you
see them just turn the turf once lightly over, and, without manuring
the ground, or even breaking the clods of earth, throw in the seed in
the same careless manner, and leave the event to chance, without
troubling themselves further till it is fit to reap.

I must, however, observe, as some alleviation, that there is
something in the climate which strongly inclines both the body and
mind, but rather the latter, to indolence: the heat of the summer,
though pleasing, enervates the very soul, and gives a certain lassitude
unfavorable to industry; and the winter, at its extreme, binds up and
chills all the active faculties of the soul.

Add to this, that the general spirit of amusement, so universal here
in winter, and so necessary to prevent the ill effects of the season,
gives a habit of dissipation and pleasure, which makes labor doubly
irksome at its return.

Their religion, to which they are extremely bigoted, is another
great bar, as well to industry as population: their numerous festivals
inure them to idleness; their religious houses rob the state of many
subjects who might be highly useful at present, and at the same time
retard the increase of the colony.

Sloth and superstition equally counterwork providence, and render
the bounty of heaven of no effect.

I am su