the
progressional resemblance between that country which is now the United
States and our own; in the second chapter the reader obtains only a
glance, as it were, at the American war of independence, when he is
carried again into Canada and made acquainted with the many
difficulties in spite of which Upper and Lower Canada continued to
advance in wealth and civilisation; in the third chapter a history of
the war between England and the United States is given with
considerable minuteness; and the fourth chapter brings the reader up
to the termination of that extraordinary period of mis-government,
subsequent to the American war, which continued until the Rebellion,
and has not even yet been altogether got rid of. There are without
doubt, errors, exceptions, and omissions enough to be found--an island
may have been inadvertently placed in a wrong lake, a date or figure
may be incorrect, words may have been misprinted, and, in some parts,
the sense a little interfered with--but I have set down nothing in
malice, having had a strict regard for truth. I have creamed Gourlay,
Christie, Murray, Alison, Wells, and Henry, and taken whatever I
deemed essential from a history of the United States, without a title
page, and from Jared Sparks and other authors; but for the history of
Lower Canada my chief reliance has been upon the valuable volumes,
compiled with so much care, by Mr. Christie, and I have put the
essence of his sixth volume of revelations in its fitting place.

For valuable assistance in the way of information, I am indebted to
Mr. Christie personally, to the Honble. Henry Black, to the Librarians
of the Legislative Assembly--the Reverend Dr. Adamson and Dr.
Winder--and to Daniel Wilkie, Esquire, one of the teachers of the High
School of Quebec.

C. ROGER.

Quebec, 31st December, 1855.

THE RISE
OF
CANADA
FROM
BARBARISM TO CIVILISATION.

CHAPTER I.

There have been many attempts to discover a northwest passage to the
East Indies or China. Some of these attempts have been disastrous, but
none fruitless. They have all led to other discoveries of scarcely
inferior importance, and so recently as within the past twelve months
the discovery of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans has
been made. It was in the attempt to find a new passage from Europe to
Asia that this country was discovered. In one of these exploring
expeditions, England, four centuries ago, employed John Cabot. This