are instructed in reading and writing, and pay each a
dollar a month. One of the masters, superior to the rest
in point of knowledge, taught Latin; but he has left the
school, without being succeeded by another instructor of
the same learning.' 'At seven years of age,' writes the
son of a Loyalist family, 'I was one of those who patronized
Mrs Cranahan, who opened a Sylvan Seminary for the young
idea in Adolphustown; from thence, I went to Jonathan
Clark's, and then tried Thomas Morden, lastly William
Faulkiner, a relative of the Hagermans. You may suppose
that these graduations to Parnassus was [sic] carried
into effect, because a large amount of knowledge could
be obtained. Not so; for Dilworth's Spelling Book, and
the New Testament, were the only books possessed by these
academies.'

The lack of a clergy was even more marked. When Bishop
Mountain visited Upper Canada in 1794, he found only one
Lutheran chapel and two Presbyterian churches between
Montreal and Kingston. At Kingston he found 'a small but
decent church,' and about the Bay of Quinte there were
three or four log huts which were used by the Church of
England missionary in the neighbourhood. At Niagara there
was a clergyman, but no church; the services were held
in the Freemasons' Hall. This lack of a regularly-ordained
clergy was partly remedied by a number of itinerant
Methodist preachers or 'exhorters.' These men were
described by Bishop Mountain as 'a set of ignorant
enthusiasts, whose preaching is calculated only to perplex
the understanding, to corrupt the morals, to relax the
nerves of industry, and dissolve the bands of society.'
But they gained a very strong hold on the Loyalist
population; and for a long time they were familiar figures
upon the country roads.

For many years communications both in New Brunswick and
in Upper Canada were mainly by water. The roads between
the settlements were little more than forest paths. When
Colonel Simcoe went to Upper Canada he planned to build
a road running across the province from Montreal to the
river Thames, to be called Dundas Street. He was recalled,
however, before the road was completed; and the project
was allowed to fall through. In 1793 an act was passed
by the legislature of Upper Canada 'to regulate the laying
out, amending, and keeping in repair, the public highways
and roads.' This threw on the individual settler the
obligation of keeping the road across his lot in good
repair; but th