The Monthly Review

THE

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MONTHLY REVIEW.

SEPTEMBER, 1838.

ART. I.

1.-Six Years in the Bush; or Extracts from the Journal of a Settler in Upper Canada. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1838. 2.-A Trip to Texas; comprising a Journey of Eight Thousand Miles, By A. A. PARKer, Esq. London: Kennett. 1838.

3.-The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville. Second Series. London: Bentley. 1838.

PERSONS who desire to acquire some correct hints regarding two very distant and differently conditioned colonies in the vast regions of America, or to have shrewd and clever sketches of some of the most characteristic manners and opinions which distinguish the citizens of the United States of the same continent, will do well to make themselves acquainted with the three works at the head of this article. They are in certain respects companionable, and yet their style, matter, and topics are so diversified and distinct as to offer an amusing as well as a valuable variety. To each of them separately and seriatim we now address ourselves, without seeking to point out any other congruity or connexion than has already and very generally been done.

"Six Years in the Bush," viz. 1832-1838, is a small volume by one of a class that do not often try their fortunes as adventurous colonists and in new countries. The Settler in question, in short, is a son of Oxford, who, having been educated with the view of following one of the learned professions, took it into his head that his small capital in the shape of money, but large one, we must say, in point of judgment, caution, and resolution, might be turned to good account in the wilds of Upper Canada, or rather, that he would examine for himself, before fixing on a place of settlement, the part now mentioned having been chosen after certain journeyings in the United States and other regions of America.

Having at last set himself down in a wilderness, it was not long before the signs of active and civilised life sprang up around him. While a village gradually grew into being, he himself became a magistrate, a storekeeper, a proprietor of saw-mills; and the interest and value of the Journal consists in the matter-of fact, but VOL. III. (1838.) no. I.

lively, manner in which he traces all this progress, and in the evidences of his own capacity to make the most of and to be contented in his situation.

To us the most striking and important view which can be taken of our Settler's Canadian history is obtained by regarding him not merely as a man of a sound and clear judgment naturally, and of a good; physical constitution, but a fan with a well-stored and cultivated mind even in the higher walks of literature; one, in short, whose habits are intellectual and tasteful. A person destitute of these latter species of wealth, and incapable of self-occupation as well as destitute of self-reliance, is not likely to succeed so completely in banishing ennui when shut out from the world of intelligence and business, to overcome the immediate evils of his condition by a process of calculation as to the future, or to perceive the beauty, so to speak, subsisting in a comparison of the origin of society and its full and flourishing development.

But we must not forget to mention, when drawing a parallel between our settler of education and intellectual breeding, and the ordinary herd of emigrants, that his home-station and opportunities afforded him certain advantages which may be said to have been distinct from his personal merits after being located in Canada. He had, for example, letters of introduction to the Governor, at whose table he was entertained; nay, this functionary assisted him by his advice in regard to a place of settlement, and what is more, a short time after he had set himself down in the backwoods, certain Government improvements in the vicinity of his location greatly increased the value of his purchase, and rapidly hastened its growth to consideration.

Our author, however, is still entitled to great credit for his success and his spirit as well as sources of enjoyment, not to speak of the useful and entertaining book which he has written. Let us first of all see how justly he appreciates the advantages of a superior education even as regards an emigrant to the back settlements of Upper Canada, or any other Bush in a wilderness. He says,

I once thought, when the resolution to emigrate was first formed, how useless had been the large expenditure on my education, since I was to forego its advantages, and pass my life among those who would neither know or appreciate its worth; but I have found it far otherwise, and would say to all of my own station in life, whom circumstances or a truant disposition good' may hereafter lead into the Bush, think no sort of knowledge unprofitable or unsuited to your plan of life, but store your mind with sound wholesome literature, and you will find within you a fountain as grateful as the well-spring to the parched traveller in the desert." "

A man with our Settler's attainments, and of his modes of thinking and feeling, can readily adapt himself, so long as health of body is enjoyed, to almost any circumstances. Accordingly, speak

ing of a period when he was obliged to make a trip to Peterborough, to lay in fresh stores, he informs us, that,

"The voyage was altogether miserable; and in addition, I had the vexation to discover that my new boat was good for nothing: on returning, however, it was a great satisfaction to find my mansion finished, and ready for occupation. It consisted of one apartment, fourteen feet by twelve feet in the clear, and contained, in the way of furniture, a camp bedstead, a chest of drawers, and a well-filled book-case; it had also the somewhat unusual luxury of a chimney, pegs for the suspension of guns and fishing implements, and shelves for my scanty kitchen utensils: a hole in the planks served to admit light, and air found free entrance through numberless cracks and crevices; such as it was, however, it served my purpose well; and when the evening closed, I used to light my lamp and sit down to my books with a great feeling of comfort. Several of the classics, which on their shelves at Oxford were rather looked at than into, were now treated with the attention they deserve; and in the solitude of the Bush, it was no light pleasure to reperuse scenes and passages every one of which was pregnant with some cherished association of school or college."

It must require a considerable exercise of patience, of foresight, and of practical knowledge, to get rationally and usefully through a summer day in Upper Canada. But our man of Oxford had a system for such a season, and proved himself equal to the demands.

"July 10. The weather was now oppressively hot in the middle of the day; but the evenings and mornings were cool and pleasant. I chiefly occupied myself at this time in the garden, in which I sowed the seeds of cucumber, melon, lettuce, parsley, endive, mustard, and turnip. I also planted some potatoes for seed next year, and picked out cabbages and brocoli. My days were passed in the following manner: I rose early and worked in the garden until breakfast, then read for a couple of hours; afterwards chopped firewood in the shade until three o'clock, when I dined, and resumed my studies for an hour; the next two hours were passed with the woodmen in overlooking their work; and at six o'clock I took tea, and afterwards floated about the lake in my canoe, with or without a gun, until nine or ten o'clock, when I retired to bed and slept most soundly. My health was very good, my spirits even, and I was well satisfied with my condition.'

We have reason to believe that the account, by no means extremely flattering, which our author gives of a new settler's farming prospects in Canada, is a generally just one. He tells us, that,

"With a capital producing from sixty to a hundred pounds a year, independent of the farm, a gentleman of education and active business-like habits may live very comfortably, and attain to rank and consideration in the colony, which circumstances might preclude him from reaching at home; but with much less than this he will find it hard to get over the first difficulties, and will probably have many years of laborious uphill work to

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