Sketches of Canadian life, lay and ecclesiastical : illustrative of Canada and the Canadian church

Preface

As the motives which have led to the publication of the following pages can possess no possible interest to the public, to parade them needlessly before its gaze would be little short of impertinence.

The portraiture of Canadian life which is here humbly attempted, has been thrown into the form of a narrative, because a book written in that style appeared to the author not only less irksome to write, and more easy to read, but also because he thought, that to trace the fortunes of an imaginary individual would afford an opportunity of describing more correctly the numerous minute details of a settler's experience than a work of higher pretensions and more important character.

With reference to the fidelity of the picture which is here presented, the author can truly affirm, that there is scarcely an incident or conversation occurring in the volume but had its counterpart in reality. Those incidents, however, have been so altered, as regards

IV

PREFACE.

persons, places, and periods, that their truthfulness and reality, he trusts, can give no offence, even could they be recognised, which, however, he thinks would be very difficult.

As far as the author’s observation has extended, it appears to him, that information suited to families of the higher grades of intending settlers, is more required than any other. While, therefore, he trusts that the following little work may be of some service to the class alluded to, in leading them to correct views of the actual state of the colony, he would only claim for the views stated in the various conversations, such a measure of consideration as may be due to the opinions of a very humble individual, who has, however, been for many years conversant with Canadian life.

In the much more extended interest in ecclesiastical affairs which happily characterises the present day, it was hoped that the sketches of the Canadian Church which are incorporated in the succeeding pages, will not prove uninteresting to many in England, whose bounty does so much towards sustaining it in its present efficiency.

Diocese of Toronto,

SKETCHED OF CANADIAN LIFE.

Chapter I

Mr. Vernon was an English gentleman of good connections and comfortable means : he had, however, a large family dependent on him ; and the difficulty of establishing his sons in life respectably, arising from the over-crowded state of almost every profession, often caused him a good deal of anxiety. His eldest son had taken holy orders, a second had determined to study for the bar, while a third was preparing to enrol himself among the disciples of Esculapius. Thus, as Mr. Vernon used to observe, the honourable professions of law, physic, and divinity, were about to find representatives, and he hoped worthy ones, among the members of his own family. Harry, his fourth son, was a fine lad, who had just finished his education at a large and well-known public school. He had now returned to his fathers house ; and the great problem to be solved was, how he should be employed, and to what object his energies should be directed. Somehow or other, this point was a long time in being settled. To business Harry had a decided distaste, and for none of the

B

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

learned professions had he anything like a strong predilection. If the truth must be told, there oftentimes floated before his imagination sundry visions of a red coat and military glory, but these thoughts he confined entirely to his own breast, as he was well aware that his parents had a most decided objection to the profession of arms; not because they considered it in any degree unlawful, or because they feared the danger and sufferings to which it might expose their child, but because they regarded it as peculiarly unfavourable to the development of the Christian character, and fraught with strong temptations to one who, remembering that he bore upon his forehead the holy sign of Him who was crucified, desired, with a true heart, to fight manfully under His banner. Besides all this, Harry was a lively, good-tempered, gentlemanly lad, and stalwart withal. He made up an eleven at cricket, drove out his mother and sisters, walked home with lady visitors at night, and above all, proved a zealous assistant to his father in the operations of the garden, of which Mr. Vernon was enthusiastically fond. This was a very pleasant sort of life ; and had it not been for the conviction that things could not long go on in this way, it would have been, on the whole, agreeable enough to all parties. As weeks and months flew on, however, and Harry found himself verging upon positive manhood, he began to feel that he was, in reality, a mere idler, living almost in vain, and, as far as the future was concerned, doing good neither for himself nor others. While in this state of mind, he met with some books which set forth, in lively colours, the advantages of emigrating to the colonies, and the

ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION.

splendid opportunities they presented to the determined and energetic. One work in particular, in which, it is to be feared, that the author must have given way to the impulses of a rather vivid imagination, gave such a glowing account of the Canadian field-sports, and of the wild romance and adventures of the Backwoodsmans life, that Harry was fairly captivated. The subject of his emigration was broached, and at first received with a smile of incredulity. But when Mr. Vernon began to consider the advantages which were held out to the young and enterprizing by the resistless progress of a country possessed of a fertile soil, an agreeable climate, boundless resources, and whose onward march of improvement was but beginning, and when he compared them with the state of things around him, where every avenue which led to wealth or distinction was choked to excess, and when the applicants for situations, even of the most moderate emolument, were counted by hundreds, he doubted whether the feeling of affection which would have induced him to oppose his son^s project of seeking his fortune in the colonies, ought not to be sacrificed. As for Harry himself, though at times his warm heart sank within him at the idea of being separated by three or four thousand miles from all he loved, yet the bright and bounding hopes of youth were ever ready to shed their light over the darker shadows of the prospect, and dispel all his fears. He was sure that success must attend his efforts, and then perhaps his two younger brothers could join him as they grew up, and bring with them, even to the far distant woods, all the blessed feelings and fellowships of home. Already in imagination he saw the forest b 2 sinking beneath his vigorous efforts ; and with a heart exulting like that of a conqueror on some well-fought field, he stood, by anticipation, on the broad acres which his good axe had won. Or sometimes, when the vision changed he would luxuriate in the feeling of mild and unfettered freedom, which he was sure must be the result of plunging into the pathless woods “ where mortal foot had ne’er or rarely been.” Now, he was causing the sharp report of his rifle to ring among the primeval monarchs of the ancient woods. Or again, he was pushing his light canoe over the quiet waters of some woodland lake, whose surface was un defiled by such an unpoetic convenience as a steam-boat. As a huntsman Harry dreamt too of great distinction, bears , deer , wolves , turkeys , every thing in short that came in the way, all were to fall victims to his deadly aim. His rifle and fishing-tackle were to supply the larder, while the plough and sickle were to replenish the purse.

What a pity it is that imagination and reality are so exceedingly different. It would be as tedious as it is unnecessary to bring forward all the arguments, pro and con, which were adduced with reference to the proposed step of Harry’s emigration. It was, however, resolved that the project should be tried; and when things began thus to assume an air of reality, poor Mrs. Vernon and her daughters began to be in despair. It is a question that admits of some doubt, whether or not some small portion even of Harry’s valour did not begin to ooze away until it was stopped by the bustle and excitement of preparation. A new double-barrel had a great effect in raising his spirits, and a capital rifle quite hardened

FELLOW PASSENGERS.

O his heart. As for ammunition, it is doubtful whether if Harry had had his own way, the powder-mills at Hartford, or Walker and Company's shot manufactory at Chester, could have supplied his demand. Lead, in all its destructive forms, was in great request with him, and figured in all its varieties, from buck-shot down to sparrow-hail, amongst his very extensive preparations for dealing death and destruction among the aboriginal birds and beasts of the North American forests. We will not dwell upon the parting scenes, though they would afford us a good opportunity for indulging in the pathetic. It was, indeed, a very bitter parting, for Harry was tenderly loved by all his family, and he returned their affection with the utmost warmth and fervency of feeling. His passage out was very much like what passages used to be in a good vessel in those days, wrhen steam navigation across the Atlantic was regarded as a chimera. His fellow-passengers were, on the whole, pleasant and agreeable people, particularly a Mr. Lawrence, a medical man, who with his wife, and, considering his age, a most patriarchal number of little boys and girls, had resolved to seek for them in Canada that provision which he knew by experience was so difficult to procure in England. He was a quiet, pleasing, gentlemanly man, who had seen a good deal of the world, and whose mind, in addition to very considerable native powers, was highly cultivated. He was moreover unostentatiously, though decidedly, a religious man, and all his views were (what was by no means so common in those days among religious persons as it has now happily become) in strict accordance with the teachings of the Church, of which he was an humble-

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

minded and consistent member. Many a pleasant hour during the voyage did Harry spend in the society of this gentleman and his very agreeable family; nor was it pleasure only but profit also that he derived from this intercourse. The varied stores of information which Mr. Lawrence possessed always rendered his conversation interesting ; and the tone of deep and reverent piety which marked his character, and the earnestness with which he spoke of the necessity of conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of our high vocation and rich privileges as Christian men, made a deeper impression on Harry^s mind than he was himself aware of.

At length, after what was on the whole a favourable passage, the vessel arrived in port, and after a friendly good bye and mutual good wishes, most of the passengers separated, to pursue the course which they had marked out for themselves. Harry, at their warm solicitation, joined the Lawrences as a travelling companion, — an arrangement exceedingly agreeable to himself ; and after spending a few days in making the necessary preparations and seeing what was to be seen, they bent their steps towards what was then Upper Canada. On arriving at the capital of that Province which was then called York, but which now rejoices in the more euphonious title of Toronto, the first step which was taken was to procure comfortable quarters for Mrs. Lawrence and her children ; after which Mr. Lawrence, accompanied by Harry, set out upon an exploring expedition. The former had very wisely made up his mind to continue in the old settlements, and not to venture into the Backwoods. His intention was to purchase some landed property in a well-settled part

ARRIVAL IN CANADA.

of the country, where as his sons grew up they might have an opportunity of employing themselves profitably in agriculture, if so disposed, and where he could find an opening for the services of his professional skill. Openings of this description were by no means rare in those days, and ere long, Mr. Lawrence was settled perfectly to his satisfaction in the immediate neighbourhood of the thriving village of Wilton, whose situation upon one of the great lakes, and whose unlimited water-power, arising from a strong and rapid stream which flowed past it, gave no uncertain promise of its future importance. As land, even in the neighbourhoods such as this, was, in those days, to be purchased at a moderate price, Mr. Lawrence strongly advised Harry to purchase a partially cleared farm in his vicinity, but such a step was not at all in accordance with Harry’s ideas. He had not travelled nearly 4000 miles by sea and land to be guilty of such a prosaic proceeding as to settle on a cleared farm, and take to ploughing and sowing, as if he had been in the oldest country in Europe. Were all his day dreams of the ancient woods to end in a “ sugar bush,” and a clump of firewood ? Were all his views of a picturesque hut, formed of “logs and piled-up wood,” (as that authentic Canadian authority L. E. L. has it,) to find their realisations in a large red frame house filled with nothing but windows, and a still larger and, if possible, still redder frame barn ? If such were to be the case, he might adopt the mode of the country, and “ trade” his powder for Polish wheat, and barter his buck-shot for barley. Then, indeed, the most profitable way in which he could use his double-barrel would be in purchasing barrels in which to pickle pork ; and, as

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

for his rifle, he thought he would keep it as an heirloom, as it was likely to he quite as useless as heir-looms are in general. Besides all this, Harry agreed that the advice of Mr. Lawrence was quite as contrary to reason as it was to romance ; he discoursed eloquently and learnedly upon the atrocious system of farming generally pursued by the older settlers, — that they took twenty crops of wheat off the same in twenty successive years, — that rather than be at the trouble of carrying the manure to their fields, they allowed it to accumulate round their barns until they were forced to erect new ones, in order to avoid it ; — in short, that the cleared farms were impoverished and worn out beyond recovery, and that the wisest plan was to go back to the new country, and, waging war against the primeval forest, gain from its dominion the new and virgin soil on which it grew.

One day, when Harry was engaged in one of the public offices, in looking over some maps of those new townships towards which the authorities were directing the tide of emigration, he observed an elderly man of gentlemanly bearing similarly employed. Harry asked one of the clerks for the diagram of the township of Xlchester.

“Will you allow me to offer it to you,” said the gentleman just mentioned ; “ I have been looking over it for a few moments, but it is now quite at your service.”

This was said in a frank and very pleasing manner ; and on Harry's declining to deprive him of the map until he was quite done with it, he said —

“Well, if you have no objection, we can look over it together ; and as within the last month or two I have

ROMANCE OF LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS.

become a resident there, I can perhaps afford you some information connected with the township which you might not easily obtain from any but an inhabitant.” This offer was of course accepted, and a long conversation ensued, in which all Harry’s favourite views were abundantly confirmed. Captain Stanhope (for as such he introduced himself) spoke in raptures of the Backwoods — of the folly of remaining in the older settlements— of the surpassing beauty of the smaller lakes in the interior — of the fishing and shooting that was to be met with there — of the certainty of the resources of the country lying to the rear being ultimately developed, and that at no distant day by means of canals connecting those lakes to which he alluded, and which were so bountifully scattered through the district where he had pitched his tent — he spoke of “ the language of the woods,” the voice of nature heard among their solitudes, and syllabled by the falling of a leaf, or the flutter of a startled bird, or the stroke of the manycoloured woodpecker : — “ I am quite unable adequately to describe it to you,” he concluded ; “ the best way is to come and judge for yourself; but before we part I must mention one distinction, of which we are rather proud, and which none of the older settlements can boast, and that is, that Ilchester is equally innocent of bull frogs and Yankees.”

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

Chapter II

Harry returned to Wilton with his mind quite made up that there could he no place in which to settle so suitable for him as Ilchester. He added Captain Stanhope's arguments to his own, and fairly “floored" Mr. Lawrence, who himself, to tell the truth, had some slight hankering after the Backwoods, a feeling at that time very general. He was forced to admit the truth of some of Harry's arguments. He could not deny that, even to the uninitiated, the system of agriculture pursued by the old settlers was vicious in the extreme.

It was quite true that they did take twenty consecutive crops of wheat off the same ground, while they allowed the manure to accumulate round their barns so as almost to render them useless. It was quite true that by these, and kindred measures, they did so impoverish their farms that their crops became seriously deteriorated, and supposing the land to be worn out, the proprietors were willing to sell them at a low rate, and betake themselves once more to “the Bush." These were positive and palpable evils, though they were really much exaggerated; but at that time they had not been shown to be so, by what is now so frequently to be met with, we mean instances of old country farmers taking these very farms which were said to be utterly impoverished from injudicious and incessant cropping,

THE OLD SETTLEMENTS, OR THE BACKWOODS? 11

and so restoring them in a few years as not only to be able to pay their rent, but perhaps before the expiration of their short lease, to have accumulated a sufficient amount of money to purchase the farm entirely. Examples of this kind however were seldom or ever met with in those days ; and the idea of exhaustion was so inseparably connected with a cleared farm, that Mr. Lawrence was almost a convert to the opinion that, in Harry’s circumstances, young, ardent, full of health and hope as he was, the best plan he could adopt was to become a Backwoodsman, a plan on which it was evident he had himself most fully set his heart.

“ Ah ! well, Harry,” said Mr. Lawrence, with a smile, “ I should be half inclined to admit that you seem to have the best of the argument, were it not that in owning you to be in the right I must necessarily acknowledge myself to be wrong in purchasing property here.”

“ If you were not going to follow out your profession, but meant to devote your attention solely to farming, I should certainly consider you in error,” said Harry. “ But in the Backwoods people can have no time to be ill ; and if they have, the population, I suppose, will not be dense enough for some years to render it a very desirable field for a medical man ? ”

“ There is an objection which weighs with me even more than that,” replied Mr. Lawrence ; “ and that is, the education of my children. The elder ones are at a most important age ; and to plunge into the woods at present would be in a certain degree to separate them from the advantages of education and society when they most require them; but if I were situated

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

as you are, Harry, I most candidly acknowledge that I should be thoroughly tempted to take the step which you advocate.”

“ To be sure,” said Harry, warmly. “ Why, if I go and buy a worn-out farm from some of these old halfyankee quakers, the fellow would pocket my money, and, betaking himself to ‘the Bnsh,’ as he calls it, would purchase three times the quantity of land, and in a few years would have a farm equal in extent to the one he sold, besides ‘ locations ’ for all the boys. Then, to think of the difference of soil — he would be cultivating land which has been increasing in richness since the flood; while I should be toiling and ploughing and fallowing and manuring and cracking my brains over ‘ Loudon’s Agriculture/ in order to find out some other mode of making the exhausted fields yield half the crop which he could get for merely scratching the ground over with a wooden harrow. No, no ! the thing is absurd,” continued Harry, who began to get more and more energetic upon the subject. “ No ! I ’ll allow him to keep his worn-out acres, and I ’ll become lord of the virgin soil.”

“Why, Harry, you are getting somewhat magnificent ; there appears to me, however, to be much truth in what you say ; and much as we should like you to be near us, I should be truly sorry to persuade you to do anything that would be for your disadvantage. As a settler in the Backwoods, you will no doubt at first have some hardship to encounter, but I have little doubt that it is a step which must ultimately prove profitable, and its difficulties will be lightened by many pleasures peculiar to itself.”

SPIRITUAL DESTITUTION IN THE BACKWOODS. 13

“ Unquestionably,” replied Harry. “ Think of the charm which novelty possesses, and the delight of seeing a place grow up under your own hand, and under the influence of your own taste, — nature does so much that one might often make a paradise with little trouble out of what is a wilderness, if they can only get there before those Goths, who seem to have a natural antipathy to a tree, and whose summum bonum seems to be to have a clear farm, and to live in the kitchen of an immense red, yellow, or white frame house, sufficiently ugly to throw a man of ordinary taste into fits.”

Mr. Lawrence smiled at the vivacity of his young friend, but his quiet smile was replaced by a grave and serious expression, as he replied —

“With reference to yourself, Harry, my dear boy, there is but one objection to the plan which comes with any force to my mind, and it is one which has done more to decide me against attempting to settle in the woods, perhaps, than either of those which have been alluded to. It applies of course to me, as the head of a family, much more strongly than it can to you ; but still, as Christian men, we must remember that we have souls as well as bodies, and in our anxiety to provide for the prosperity of the latter, we must not forget the interests of the former, which are so inestimably more important. Now, it appears to me, that whatever may be our situation in life, we ought to consider well what influence such a step as this is likely to have upon our spiritual well-being.”

“ Certainly that is a subject which I have never thought of considering,” replied Harry. “ And really I do not see how it can be very intimately involved in

SKETCHES OE CANADIAN LIFE.

it. The glorious temple which God's own hand has raised in those hitherto almost undisturbed solitudes must almost dispose the mind to solemn reflection. The devotions we offer up among the Gothic arches and the dim and verdant tracery of that cathedral which the forest forms, cannot be unacceptable to God"

“ That may be very fine, Harry, and it may in certain circumstances be true, but we must remember that God has appointed certain means in his Church through which He has promised to convey His grace to our souls, if we see them aright. Now, to cut ourselves off, as those must almost inevitably do who go to “the Bush,” from the public ministration of God's sacraments, the reading of His holy word, and the teachings of His duly authorized ministers, is a step which no rightly thinking Christian would take without the strongest reasons. If, without those potent reasons, he voluntarily separates himself from these means of grace, which have been appointed by God himself, he runs (as it seems to me) a very great danger of dwarfing, if not destroying, his soul.”

“I am certainly no theologian,” said Harry; “but that appears a startling opinion, and if generally adopted would militate sadly against emigration to the Backwoods. It has always seemed to me that religion is purely a spiritual concern between God and our own soul ; and though it is highly proper and desirable to have the outward observances of the Church, yet I should hardly have been inclined to have looked upon them as so vitally important. Do you really think, sir,” he added, seriously, “that a man could not love and

ABSENCE OF THE MINISTRATION OF THE CHURCH. 15

serve God and lead a Christian life apart from the outward ordinances of religion ? "

“I am far from asserting anything of the kind/' Mr. Lawrence replied. “ Where a man has strong and weighty reasons for taking such a step as that of which we are now talking, he may well hope that if he seeks it God will give him grace according to his need, without the intervention of those outward means which perhaps his peculiar circumstances justified him in forsaking; and that there are a multitude of circumstances that will justify in so doing is undeniable, for as population must precede Christianity, (at least it almost always does so now-a-days,) it is evident that the pioneers in the first settlement of a country will almost always be destitute of the ministrations of the Church."

“ And you think that men in such a situation can hardly hope to serve God aright in consequence of this destitution ?"

“1 have just said that I hold no such opinion. I am far from supposing that they cannot serve God under such circumstances; but I think there is the most imminent danger that they will not do so. He who knew what is in man, and what was needful for his benefit, instituted these outward means for conveying His spiritual blessings to our souls, and by appointing them, and commanding us to use them, and by providing for their continuance to the end of time. He has afforded us the most conclusive of all arguments to prove that they are necessary to our souls' well-being, while the spiritual condition of those very persons of whom we have just been speaking, — the pioneers of a new country who are cut off from the

SKETCHES OF CANADIAN LIFE.

ordinances of God^s Church, presents the most striking evidence of the same truth. They are, generally speaking, proverbial for their lawlessness and recklessness, fearing neither God, nor man, and often despising all law, both human and divine. What I say is, that a Christian man, and more especially a Christian parent, ought to hesitate, nay, he ought to make great sacrifices, if necessary, rather than expose himself or his family to danger such as this.”

“ Why,” said Harry, looking rather blank, “ do you mean to say that all the people who are now going to Ilchester and the neighbouring townships, are going to turn out such a set of heathens as this.”

“By no means,” replied Mr. Lawrence. “I only affirm that all separation from the outward ordinances of religion is fraught with danger to our spiritual interests, and when that separation is voluntary, I think the danger becomes imminent. We ought, therefore, most seriously to consider whether in running into this danger the reasons which induce us to do so are such as will justify us in the sight of God, and warrant us in the hope that He will preserve us from it. As regards the people who are now going into back townships, the circumstances in which most of them are placed do justify them in encountering this danger, for they cannot, with the means at their disposal, hope to obtain adequate provision for themselves and their families, unless they betake themselves to € the Bush/ The danger also is further lessened by their having just come from a country where they enjoyed the teachings of God’s ministers and the sacraments of His holy Church. They cannot but feel the want of

DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT IN NEW SETTLEMENTS. 17

these privileges an unspeakable loss, and under the influence of this feeling they will doubtless make a general effort to secure for themselves and their families those outward ordinances of the faith which are generally necessary to our growth in grace, and thus will their temporary deprivation ultimately prove a blessing, inasmuch as it will be the means of enlarging and extending the borders of the Church of God.”