PETER PIVOT'S LETTERS FROM NEW BRUNSWICK TO HIS FRIENDS AT THE DEPOT.

No. V.

I HAVE said that this letter should conclude my statistical details; and, in order to keep my promise, I must touch on the remaining branches of the subject very briefly.

The Provincial Government is modelled upon the British Constitution. The executive functions are vested in a Lieutenant-Governor, aided by a council of six members, appointed by the King. The Legislative Council is at present composed of fifteen members, nominated by the King, and chosen, as far as possible, so as to represent the different sections of the province. Of this body the Chief Justice is, ex officio, President.

The House of Assembly consists of thirty-two members, who pay themselves from the public funds at the rate of 17. currency a-day (exclusive of travelling expenses) during the period of the legislative session, which usually meets in January and closes in March. The income thus attached to popular representation operates very injuriously upon the composition of the third branch of the legislature, by bringing forward needy and unscrupulous candidates, who are prepared to go any length to gain a seat in it;-men who recommend themselves to their constituents by getting up grievances, and railing at abuses which do not exist, and by advocating measures, under the specious title of reform, which are slowly sapping the foundations of British rule in North America. From a small majority of this body have emanated the usual train of remonstrances, resolutions, and delegations, by which agitation works on this side of the Atlantic. They claim the disposal of all the crown-lands in the province-lands purchased by British treasure and by British blood,-and they promise in return to dole out salaries to the officers of government upon a scale corresponding with their republican ideas of cheap government.

But it would be both tedious and unprofitable to enlarge upon the measures, pretensions, and views of this party. In many respects it may be feared that they have already been but too successful in prosecuting their objects; but nothing short of an absolute control over the whole machinery of provincial administration, incompatible with the principles of our mixed constitution, will satisfy them. The assembly look far beyond the mere appropriation of his Majesty's casual and territorial revenues: settlement, emigration, and the staple trade of the country, must all be regulated by this omnipotent branch of the legislature; and there is no loyal or intelligent man in these provinces who does not with regret foresee that the preponderating weight which the Houses of Assembly are rapidly attaining in the local legislatures, must speedily lead to a total change in that form of government, which has always been considered as the best and firmest bond of union between Great Britain and her Transatlantic colonies.

The provincial revenue is raised almost exclusively by duties on imported goods: direct taxation-with the exception of moderate poorrates and statute-labour on the roads-is unknown; and it may with truth be affirmed, that no people in the world are subjected to fewer public burdens than those of British North America. In addition to the ordinary revenues of the province, there are his Majesty's casual

and territorial revenues arising from timber licenses, the sale of lands, the commutation of first rents, and other minor sources: these revenues which, under the management and control of the Crown, were so usefully employed in the payment of the civil list, and in promoting the settlement of the country, have lately been ceded to the House of Assembly, and it remains to be seen how far this last great concession to the demands of that body will silence their complaints, and advance the prosperity and happiness of their constituents. The gross amount of revenue at present collected from all sources does not fall far short of 100,000l. currency per annum.

The Supreme Court of Judicature, composed of a Chief Justice and three Puisne Judges, meets at Fredericton four times a-year: but, to the honour of the people, crimes of an aggravated character are of so extremely rare occurrence, that in no other court, perhaps, are the Judges so seldom called upon to perform the more painful duties of their office. In a country thinly settled, where labour is in great demand, wages high, land cheap, and provisions plentiful and moderate in price, there is little temptation to the commission of those offences against property which occur so frequently in larger cities and more densely peopled countries, even if the people were not-as they undoubtedly are-restrained from crime by the higher and nobler principles of religion and morality. But here my praise on this head must end; for in no region of the earth does litigation form a more prominent concern of life: nowhere are lawyers more numerous, or the peaceful man less secure from the toils and meshes of the law. For this various reasons may be assigned,-such as the conflicting claims and questions arising out of imperfectly defined boundaries; encroachments of the lumbering parties on private property, or on the Crown reserves; with the seizures and confiscations consequent upon a ruinous and artificial system of truck and credit, under which the unwary and imprudent settler is often tempted to embark largely in the lumber business, and to involve himself in difficulties which, sooner or later, must bring his goods and chattels to the hammer: add to these the law of escheats, faulty and disputed title-deeds, and the course of litigation is complete.

The commercial prosperity of New Brunswick is wholly dependent on the timber trade, and on the continuance of those protective duties under which it has attained its present flourishing condition: the capital invested in saw-mills and other branches of the trade is very large, and the transit of this staple product of the country gives employment to 300,000 tons of British shipping, of which about 80,000 tons belong to the merchants and shipowners of the province. Ship-building is also carried on extensively, and at St. John alone nine or ten large vessels, averaging 600 tons each, may be seen at the same moment on the stocks. Surely a trade of this magnitude and importance will not be lightly sacrificed to foreign interests, or to an interested party at home. It should never be forgotten that the northern powers may, as they have already done, combine against us, and that we may again see the ports of the Baltic shut against our ships. To what quarter are we then to look for our supplies of timber? Not to our American colonies, when those who have embarked their capital in the trade shall have been ruined by an alteration in those duties which now enable them to compete with the foreign market, and render Great Britain independent of the rest of the world in an article of the first importance to her as a maritime power.

The legislature has always evinced a most laudable anxiety for the promotion of education, and a very liberal portion of the public income is annually appropriated to this important object. Each parochial school is, by law, entitled to receive 201. per annum for the maintenance of a teacher, provided that an equal sum shall be subscribed, for the same purpose, by the parishioners: and it may thus be said that the blessings of education are brought within the reach of every cottage in the country. Grammar-schools are also established in different parts of the province, and at the head of the system of instruction stands the University of King's College, at Fredericton, founded under a royal charter, and sufficiently endowed to dispense its benefits, upon easy terms, to those classes which in older countries seldom look beyond the parish school. It must, however, be acknowledged that the advantages of this excellent institution are closed against a great majority of the people, who are Dissenters, and will not send their children to a college in close connexion with the Church of England, and whose professors are all clergymen of that Establishment; and it is certainly to be desired that its sphere of usefulness should be enlarged by such liberal modifications of its charter as would conciliate that large and influential body, and obtain their support, instead of their hostility, to an institution which, under such circumstances, might render great services to the country, by removing those prejudices which now induce conscientious sectarians to send their sons to complete their education in the States, where they are, at the same time, exposed to a course of political instruction that will scarcely tend to make them better citizens under a monarchical form of government.

The province forms an archdeaconry of the extensive diocese of Nova Scotia,

I cannot close this letter without saying a few words on emigration -a subject in which I am well aware you, in common with every true philanthropist, take a deep and lively interest. It is, indeed, a subject of vast importance,-not to these new countries only, but to the empire generally, and one which will always seriously engage the attention of a government desirous to promote conjointly the prosperity of its colonies, and the welfare of the parent state, whose redundant and increasing population urgently demand new openings for honest industry and labour.

Hitherto the measures of government in favour of emigration have been of too negative a character to place its advantages within the reach of the unemployed poor and working classes, whose relief should form the prominent feature of any regulations on the subject; and it may be feared that the late alienation of the Crown domains will operate as an insurmountable barrier to the adoption of any liberal arrangements for the future benefit of these objects of public sympathy and care. By the cession to the House of Assembly of his Majesty's casual and territorial revenues, the home government has virtually surrendered to the local legislature the management of the great national interests attached to colonization; the surplus funds accruing from land sales and timber licenses can no longer be applied by the metropolitan government in establishing and supporting a system of emigration, calculated at once to benefit the colony, and to relieve from the horrors of starvation the thousands who are known to exist in Ireland destitute of the commonest necessaries of life; and no colonial legisla

ture, however well disposed, can be expected to lay aside their own narrow views, and local interests, for the purpose of adoping a code of colonization founded on those broad principles of national utility, which can alone render its operations beneficial to the empire as a whole. It is, indeed, painful to reflect how much the interests of humanity may suffer from a measure which has delegated to a provincial Board the right of legislating for those vast possessions to which the poorest of the people might, under other circumstances, have looked for an escape from penury and want.

I shall, for the above reasons, confine my observations to such brief items of intelligence as may be useful to you in your communications with those who possess the means and inclination to seek a provision for their families in a country where numerous children are still considered as part of his wealth by the labourer and farmer.

The quantity of land available for settlement in New Brunswick I have already stated to be immense, and I will now add that its minimum price is 3s. 6d. currency per acre. The voyage out is shorter, easier, and much less expensive, than that to either of the Canadas; and the numerous timber-ships which are constantly arriving (almost entirely in ballast) at the commercial capital, St. John, afford the ready means of transport, while the interior water-communications materially facilitate the emigrant's inland journey to his ultimate destination.

The demand for labour is very considerable, and the rate of wages high: artificers earn from 4s. to 7s. a-day, and even the common labourer may average from 2s. 6d. to 3s. a-day; at times, indeed, the supply of common labour is so limited that a man may gain 6s. or 7s. a-day, during the busy season, at the seaports. It would be, however, dangerous to draw conclusions from data which are so obviously liable to Auctuation, and I shall best, perhaps, correct any erroneous impressions which the above statement might convey, by adding that I do not believe that the country can at present annually absorb, beneficially, more than about six thousand of the handicraft and labouring classes. To those, on the other hand, who are in possession of a small capital, the province presents an ample field for settlement; and, provided they are industrious, and can command a certain supply of labour within their own families, there need be no fear for the result. But it cannot be too frankly stated, that this is no country for the gentleman farmer, who, unable to put his hand to the plough, must put it so often in his pocket, that he will speedily arrive at the conviction that there is nothing either pleasant or profitable in a residence upon a wilderness estate. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but I can by no means recommend any of our half-pay brethren, who can in any way make the ends meet at home, to seek to better their condition in the wild woods of America, however low the terms upon which property may be obtained: for if land be cheap, labour is proportionably high: an acre cannot be cleared (leaving the stumps in the ground) for less than 4., and I have known few settlers of this class who have succeeded in establishing for themselves a comfortable home in the wilderness. Until the price of labour, therefore, is reduced, let no deluded half-pay subaltern be tempted to come here for the sake of a free grant, with the obligations of residence and improvement attached to it!

THE KAFFIR WAR.

No. VII.

AFTER the death of the chief the troops halted for half an hour, and the late event naturally became the subject of conversation amongst the officers, and the cause of various surmises with respect to the line of conduct Colonel Smith was likely to adopt; indeed, it appeared to most of us, that having lost our guide, the only alternative left was to retrace our steps to his Excellency's camp, and apprize him of the untoward, though unavoidable, event. But Colonel Smith showed himself to be of a different opinion, as he determined on pushing on through the mountainous passes, thinking that we might yet have time to overtake the cattle: the boldness of this determination can only be fully estimated by those officers who were present. In the heart of an enemy's country, intersected with mountains and rocky ravines, without guides, and with but three days' provision, this small body of troops advanced, not knowing the numbers which might at any moment rush down upon them, and totally ignorant of the nature of the country to which the cattle track might lead; but hazardous as the attempt was, the result proved that the officer in command was worthy of the school in which he had been brought up. As it is more than probable, that had he commenced a retreat after the death of the chief, the whole of the natives of that part of the country would have fallen on him, and endeavoured to obstruct his march towards the Kye, and particularly the passage over that river, which, in the most favourable season, is no easy task, and although, ultimately, they might, or rather would, have been beaten off, yet it never could have been effected without considerable loss.

At about two P.M., moving off, we pursued our course along the ridges of the mountains, as far as was practicable, until five P.M., when we arrived in sight of the Bashee-a large and beautiful river, and a most welcome sight to many of us, who, tired with the continual chase of a phantom, fondly hoped that this river would put an end to our labour; but, alas! no such happy destiny was in store for us, as with the view of the river, we also caught sight of cattle feeding on the opposite mountains, and immediately commenced the pursuit of them. The distance from the commencement of the descent on the one side, until you reach the opposite bank, is fully as far as that of the Kye river (being above eight miles); the path, which was only a cattle tract, led down a steep mountain studded with mimosa, and after crossing the river, which at this place was above 300 yards wide, we found that the only means of ascent was through a rocky gap, admitting but one man at a time. Halting the infantry at a kraal overhanging the river, the mounted men continued the pursuit of the enemy, and about nine P.M. returned, having captured above 3000 head of cattle, and inflicted some loss on the Kaffirs; and this they effected after having been marching more than twenty-one hours, with the exception of a halt of two hours in the morning.

Deeming it probable that there might yet be some cattle remaining, Colonel Smith (of whom we may well say "nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum") resumed his march at two A.M. (13th), leaving Lieut. Ross, Cape Mounted Rifles, with a sufficient number of men to