s of government until the return of His Excellency
Francis Gore, who had been absent in England during the war, on the
25th of September, 1815.

CHAPTER IV.

It was in the character of Administrator-in-Chief that
Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond assumed the government of Lower
Canada, on the 5th of April, 1816. The army bills were called in and
honorably redeemed in cash, at the army bill office, in Quebec, and as
if to show how beneficial the war had been to the country, first one
new steamer arrived at Quebec, and then another from the already
flourishing city of Montreal. The _Malshane_, built by Mr. John Molson,
of Montreal, at that port, appeared at Quebec on the opening of the
navigation, and was speedily followed by an opposition steamer built by
an association of merchants in Montreal, and named:--The _Car of
Commerce_. The inhabitants of Canada were, at this time, under 400,000
in number. About seven-eighths were of French descent, and the other
eighth was composed of English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, Americans, and
their descendants. Of the latter, the Scotch were the most numerous,
and in their hands nearly the whole external trade of the country was
placed. The French Canadians were chiefly agriculturists, but they had
also a large share in the retail and internal trade. There was, at this
period, no manufactories of note in the province. The manufacture of
leather, hats, and paper, had been introduced, and _etoffe du pays_,
manufactured by the farmers, constituted the garb of the Canadians
generally. There were two iron works in the vicinity of Three Rivers.
There was nothing more. It is said, not without reason, that one of the
first improvements in any country should be the making of roads, and
the speedy making of roads, both in Upper and Lower Canada, was one of
the good effects of the war. Already there was a road from Point Levi
across the portage of Temiscouata, from thence to the forks of the
Madawaska, from thence to the Great Falls, from thence to Fredericton,
in New Brunswick, from thence to St. Johns, on the Bay of Fundy, and
from thence to Halifax, which was 618 miles long; there was a road from
Quebec to Montreal, 180 miles in length, from thence to the
Coteau-du-Lac, 225 miles, from thence to Cornwall, 226 miles, from
thence to Matilda, 301 miles, from thence to Augusta, 335 miles, from
thence to Kingston, 385 miles, from thence to York, 525 miles, from
thence to Fort Erie, 560