A NORTH AMERICAN BUSH FIRE.

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in a vertical direction, at some distance northwest of Newcastle, and the sky was absolutely blackened by this huge cloud; but a light northerly breeze springing up, it gradually distended and then dispersed in a variety of shapeless mists. About an hour after, innumerable large spires of smoke, issuing from different parts of the woods, and illuminated by flames, mounted to the sky. The river, tortured into violence by the hurricane, formed with rage, and flung its boiling spray upon the land. The thunder pealed along the vault of heaven: the lightning appeared to rend the firmament. For a moment all was still. A deep, awful silence reigned over everything. All nature appeared to be hushed, when suddenly a lengthened and sullen roar came booming through the forest, driving a thousand massive and devouring flames before it. Then Newcastle, and Douglastown, and the whole northern side of the river, extending from Bartibog to the Naashwaap, a distance of more than a hundred miles in length, became enveloped in an immense sheet of flame that spread over nearly six thousand square miles. That the stranger may form a faint idea of desolation and misery which no pen can describe, he must picture to himself a large and rapid river, thickly settled for a hundred miles or more, with four thriving towns, two on each side of it, and then reflect that these towns and settlements were all composed of wooden houses, stores, stables, and barns, and that the barns and stables were filled with crops, and that the arrival of the fall importations had stocked the warehouses and stores with spirits, powder, and a variety of combustible articles,

as well as with the necessary supplies for the approaching winter. He must then remember that the settlement formed a long narrow stripe, about a quarter of a mile wide, lying between the river and almost interminable forests, stretching along the very edge of its precincts and all around it, and he will have some idea of the extent, features, and general circumstances of country which, in the course of a few hours, was suddenly enveloped in fire. A more ghastly picture of human misery cannot well be imagined. Nothing broke upon the ear but the accents of distress. The eye saw nothing but ruin and desolation and death. Newcastle, yesterday a flourishing town containing nearly a thousand inhabitants, was now a heap of smoking ruins, and Douglastown was reduced to the same miserable condition. Of two hundred and sixty houses and storehouses in the former, but twelve remained. Of seventy in the latter, only six were left. The confusion on board a hundred and fifty large vessels, then lying in the Miramichi and exposed to imminent danger, was terrible; some burnt to the water's edge, others burning, and the remainder occasionally on fire. Dispersed groups of half-naked, half-famished, and homeless creatures, all more or less injured in their persons-many lamenting the loss of property, children or relations-were wandering through the country. Upwards of five hundred human beings perished. Domestic animals of all kinds lay dead and dying in different parts of the country. Thousands of wild beasts, too, had been destroyed in the woods. Property to the extent of nearly a quarter of a million was wasted."1

1 Martin, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.

PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.

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Not far from the scene of that terrible conflagration, in the Gulf of St Lawrence and between New Brunswick and Cape Breton, is Prince Edward's Island, which, for a brief period, was also part of the colony of Nova Scotia. It had been little used by the French until the conquest of Acadie by Great Britain, when many settlers crossed the narrow strait. In 1758, however, it also fell into the hands of the English, and its inhabitants, like their brethren on the mainland, were expelled. In 1763 it was incorporated with Nova Scotia; but in 1770 it was made a separate province in fulfilment of a curious plan of colonization. It was parcelled out in sixty-seven townships, and these were distributed by lottery among the creditors of the English Government, each of whom was bound to lodge a settler in every lot of two hundred acres that fell to him. The experiment was not at first very successful, but gradually the shares in the island passed from the original speculators to men who knew how to use the rich soil and unusually healthy climate of the island. In 1802 it contained 20,651 inhabitants, of whom about half were Scotch, and a quarter French. In 1821 the population was 24,600; in 1841 it was 47,034; and in 1861 it was 80,857.

CHAPTER IX.

CANADA.

THE HISTORY OF CANADA UNDER BRITISH RULE-THE FIRST AMERICAN WAR-INTERNAL TROUBLES-THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CANADIANS-THE SECOND AMERICAN WAR-FRESH DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES THE REBELLIONS OF 1837 AND 1838-LORD DURHAM'S SERVICES TO THE COLONY-ITS LATER HISTORY— THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION. [1760-1867.]

HE surrender of Canada to Great Britain, in 1760, did not bring peace to the colony. Its French inhabitants, about 60,000 in number, with some 8000 converted Indians among them, were allowed to remain; but they were suddenly called upon to submit themselves to English law, as interpreted and perverted by a few regimental officers, and a few traders from Britain and the older colonies. The latter did not then number more than 500, and their efforts to lay violent hands on all the richest portions of the colony, and their harsh treatment of the earlier residents, strengthened the ill-feeling natural in a conquered race. The first step towards the removal of this was made in the "Quebec Bill" of 1774, which confirmed the possessions of the French occupants, and preserved to them their civil rights and customs, on condition of their taking an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, which was framed so as to be no more distasteful to them than could be helped.

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

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Fresh troubles, however, were in store, both for them and for the English settlers among them. Discontent at the policy shown towards them by the Home Government had long prevailed in the minds of the English colonists south of the St Lawrence, and the threatened rupture between them and the mother country, deferred in order that their common force might be exerted against the encroachments of the Canadians, received fresh strength from the new jealousies that sprang up in the course of the Canadian war. No sooner was that war over than the indignant colonists began to claim better treatment from the British Government. The unwise answers given to those reasonable claims led to bolder assertions on the part of the colonists, which were met by more foolish replies from home. Thus the great American War of Independence was brought about, blood being first shed at the Battle of Lexington in 1775, which ended in England's loss of her richest colonies, and their establishment as the United. States of America.

The Canadians were asked by the first Congress of the States to join in the revolution, or, at any rate, to be neutral during the war. But the sometime French on the north of the St Lawrence had no sympathy with the sometime English on the south. They welcomed the crowd of loyalists, as they were called, who, crossing the river, came to continue their allegiance to the British Crown in Quebec and Montreal; and prompt measures were taken to renew the defences of the border, and to support the mother-country in her efforts to suppress the revolution. Old Canadians, who had done battle