deed a glorious country, and after passing, as I have done
within the last fortnight, from the citadel of Quebec to the Falls of
Niagara, rubbing shoulders the while with its free and perfectly
independent inhabitants, one begins to doubt whether it be possible to
acquire a sufficient knowledge of man or nature, or to obtain an
insight into the future of nations, without visiting America.

A portion of the speech to which he refers in the foregoing letter may be
here given, as a specimen of his occasional addresses, which were very
numerous; for though the main purposes of his life were such as 'wrote
themselves in action not in word,' he regarded his faculty of ready and
effective speaking as an engine which it was his duty to use, whenever
occasion arose, for the purpose of conciliating or instructing. In
proposing the toast of 'Prosperity to the Agricultural Association of
Upper Canada,' he said:--

[Sidenote: Speech at an agricultural meeting.]

Gentlemen, the question forces itself upon every reflecting mind, How
does it come to pass that the introduction of agriculture, and of the
arts of civilised life, into this and other parts of the American
continent has been followed by such astonishing results? It may be
said that these results are due to the qualities of the hardy and
enterprising race by which these regions have been settled, and the
answer is undoubtedly a true one: but it does not appear to me to
contain the whole truth; it does not appear to account for all the
phenomena. Why, gentlemen, our ancestors had hearts as brave and arms
as sturdy as our own; but it took them many years, aye, even
centuries, before they were enabled to convert the forests of the
Druids, and the wild fastnesses of the Highland chieftains, into the
green pastures of England and the waving cornfields of Scotland. How,
then, does it come to pass, that the labours of their descendants here
have been rewarded by a return so much more immediate and abundant? I
believe that the true solution of this problem is to be found in the
fact that here, for the first time, the appliances of an age, which
has been prolific beyond all preceding ages in valuable discoveries,
more particularly in chemistry and mechanics, have been brought to
bear, under circumstances peculiarly favourable, upon the
productiveness of a new country. When the nati