people can make fortunes," said the sheriff; for such
was the office Mr Norman held in his county. "I grant that it is not
the country in which fortunes will come of themselves; but, putting the
lower province out of the question, I should like to know how the owners
of the nice estates and pretty villas scattered so thickly throughout
the upper province became possessed of them. How has Toronto sprung up
into a first-rate city? How have Hamilton, London, and twenty other
towns risen in a few years into importance? How is it that thousands of
comfortable farms are found in all directions? Look at our canals--at
the thousands of vessels which navigate our lakes and rivers; at our
saw-mills, and grist-mills, and manufactories of all sorts; at the tens
of thousands of acres of corn land; at our pastures; at our oxen and
kine; at our flocks of sheep; at our horses; at our public and private
buildings; at our churches; our colleges; our schools; our hospitals;
our prisons; at all the conveniences of a highly civilised community
which we possess, and then let me ask to whom do all these things
belong? To the inhabitants of the province. Who are they? Men mostly
who began life in it; some few whose fathers lived in it; but very few
indeed whose grandfathers were born here. Of these, the capital of the
greater number, when they began this career, might have been counted by
shillings;--did I say shillings? I would rather say strong hearts and
hands, without coin at all; some few might have reckoned by pounds,
fewer by hundreds, and very few indeed, if any, by thousands. Then how
did they become possessed of all this wealth? Why they made all this
wealth, they created all these advantages, by their labour, their
intelligence, and perseverance. They are theirs--to enjoy--to benefit
by. It is said in England, `We do not find rich Canadians come back and
settle at home, as so many Australians do.' Granted; Canada, I say, is
essentially the country to reside in. People who have made fortunes
here do not go away, for the best of reasons; because here they have all
the requirements of civilisation, all the advantages which the
Australians go to England to obtain. I say too that numbers do make
very handsome fortunes--though I grant, as I before observed, that
fortunes don't come of themselves; but, which is better, no one who is
persevering, industrious, and intelligent, fails to become independent,
and to start his chil