he legislature at the next session of parliament,
to incorporate a company for the purpose of connecting the Lakes Erie
and Ontario, by a canal capable of carrying boats of from twenty to
forty tons burthen, by the following route:--To commence at Chippewa,
ten miles above the mouth of that creek, on the farm of John Brown,
from thence to the head of the middle branch of the twelve mile creek,
at G. Vanderbarrack's, from thence to John Decoes, passing over to the
west branch of the twelve mile creek, on the farm of Adam Brown, and
continuing along the said stream to Lake Ontario. From the Chippewa to
Grand River, either from the forks of the Chippewa, through the marsh,
or from Oswego, whichever may prove most advantageous,--and for the
erection of machinery for hydraulic purposes, on the entire route.

There was a beginning by men whose names are familiar to the Canadians.
These were some of the pioneers of improvement, and some of them yet
living have to combat the vulgar or interested reproach of being
possessed with ideas of utopian schemes. But it is time to turn again
to the baser things of Lower Canada. Lord Dalhousie, who had paid a
visit to Nova Scotia, immediately after the prorogation of the
parliament of Lower Canada, returned to Quebec in August. In October he
established a new official Gazette. The commission of King's Printer
given to Mr. Samuel Neilson, in 1812, was revoked, and Dr. John
Charlton Fisher, who had been the editor of the _Albion_,
published in New York, was commissioned as the printer in Canada, to
the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Dr. Fisher was a man of
gentlemanlike exterior, of good address, of superior educational
acquirements, of fair mental capacity, and, in a word, a gentleman and
a scholar. He was an Englishman, and passionately loyal. But he was no
match in shrewdness for Mr. Neilson, who was now more bitterly opposed
to the government than ever. Dr. Fisher was, however, beyond any
question, better suited for the management of a court journal than Mr.
Neilson could have been. Mr. Neilson was a colonist and deeply imbued
with that spirit of independence which is natural to the resident of a
country far removed from the extremes of majesty and misery. Dr. Fisher
had been the resident of a town in England, an officer of the English
militia, and having had long to live on smiles, he smiled again to
live. He was a courtier.

There was a considerable immigration both in 1822 and 1823.