under spousal cloth between them.' This spousal cloth, pallium, is explained by Furetière:

'Ce drap qu'on étend sur ceux qui se marient; d'où vient qu'on dit mettre les enfans sous le Poile, de la cérémonie qui se fait pour légitimer les enfans naturels par un subséquent mariage en les mettant sous ce Poile.'

The custom of the 'cair-cloth,' or 'the cloak,' is still retained for the same purpose among the common people in some districts of Scotland.

We have no room for more of these curious though often revolting cases. Mr. Riddell's book is rich in them, and, forming as it does a very valuable authority for the peerage and consistorial lawyer, deserves also to be carefully perused by every student of history and manners.

་

Though proceedings in an expensive judicature were necessarily for the most part had by people of some wealth, it would be easy to show that the upper classes had no monopoly of vice. The records of all the Church courts immediately after the Reformation furnish a loathsome picture of the dissoluteness of the lowest. For instance in articles presented against Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, in the General Assembly of 1570, he is charged, among other delicts, with leaving the flock destitute without shepherd, whereby not only ignorance is increased, but also most abundantly all vice and horrible crimes are there committed, as the number of six hundred persons convicted of incest, adultery, and fornication in Zetland beareth witness.' Far from contradicting that character of the morals of his remote islands, the Bishop's reply was limited to denying that he had abandoned absolutely the preaching of the word.

The effect of the Reformation upon the manners of the clergy, whether of the old faith or of the new, was of course signal and immediate. Of its influence upon the people-of the astounding inroad and wide spread of new superstitions-of the slow disappearance of the general immorality which we have faintly described—it is our design to treat in an early number.

ART.

ART. III.—I. Notes on North America-Agricultural, Economical, and Social. By James F. W. Johnston, M.A., F.R.S. 2 vols. post 8vo. Edinburgh. 1851.

2. Lettres sur l'Amérique. Par X. Marmier. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris. 1851.

3. Travels in America. A Lecture delivered by the Earl of Carlisle before the Leeds Mechanics' Institution and Literary Society. Tenth edition. 1851.

4. A Glimpse of the Great Western Republic. By Lieut.-Colonel Arthur Cunynghame, author of 'An Aide-de-camp's Recollections of Service in China.' 8vo. 1851.

ESIDES quoting freely from the concise practical volumes of Mr. Johnston, and availing ourselves, now and then, of those by the acute and observant, but diffuse and rather sentimental M. Marmier, as well as of Lord Carlisle's graphic Lecture, and the shrewd although rapid Glimpse of Colonel Cunynghame, we mean also on this occasion to make considerable use of the latest columns of the American press. Already, fresh as these title-pages are, such supplementary information is indispensable. Indeed, so extensive are the changes which the agency of man is continually effecting in the Western World, that there is little exaggeration in the statement made by one of our authors-that a book might be written every six months by the same traveller periodically revisiting the same scenes, and yet possess in a high degree the charm of novelty.'

Professor Johnston's expedition was not one of mere spontaneous curiosity. He was invited to deliver a course of lectures before the great meeting of the New York Agricultural Society at Syracuse. And in New Brunswick a more arduous task awaited his arrival; for, as soon as his acceptance of the New York call became known, he had been requested by the Governor and House of Assembly to examine that province, with the view of preparing a Report upon its agricultural capabilities. These missions he successfully accomplished, and afterwards visited our other North American provinces, as well as the Eastern and part of the Southern States of the Union, returning to this country, after an active six months' tour, in April 1850. We have now to thank him for a narrative of great and varied instruction. His views are calm, and remarkably unprejudiced; though a Liberal, his book shows but traces of the bigotry of partisanship.

One of the first subjects he enters upon-and he often recurs to it is the discontent prevailing in our American provinces, and the desire, openly expressed by many, for annexation to the

States

States-a topic which has now assumed the very gravest importance from the announced intention of Government to withdraw her Majesty's troops from the Canadas, and thus resign them to their own wishes and resources.* There has lately been such a confusion of political parties, and there always is such a variety of interests, both moral and material, in our Canadian provinces, that it is all but impossible to arrive at a correct conclusion as to their actual condition. At this moment we dare say very few of our readers can tell how it happened that a majority of Upper Canadian members, of British blood, and many of them British born, went with the French members in the case of the portentous Indemnity Bill. How came those who had been unanimous, not a few of them gallantly active, in opposing the rebellion, to be found voting with those who had all favoured, many of them participated in it? Mr. Johnston put this question to a friend of his one of these British members-and his explanation was to the following effect:-For a long series of years, Upper Canada was under the dominating rule of what was called the Family Compact, by which home-born Canadians and a certain number of high officials divided all posts and patronage among themselves, and did everything in their power to keep the Britishborn from participating in the sweets of place. The few British who gained access to the Assembly, therefore, were naturally driven into opposition, and, after the union of the Provinces, made common cause with the French Opposition to the Tory Government, till at length the numbers of the latter party exceeded those returned by the Family Compact. As a natural result the Tories were ousted, and the present mixed Government went in. In short, still fresh from the struggle, and embarrassed by their ill-assorted alliance with the French members, the British-born allowed party to triumph over principle, and voted for the Indemnity Bill. It may be very true that many of them 'never believed or intended that any one who had aided or promoted the rebellion should be compensated; but there must have been others not quite so shortsighted, and whose only excuse is their awkward position. Nevertheless, but for the incredible weakness of the Government at home, we should have had no serious fear. Under any circumstances that could well have been anticipated, we should have felt confidence that

* See Correspondence relating to the Civil List of Canada (Blue Book, April, 1851) pp. 9-13-Despatch from Lord Grey, dated March 14-in which he informs Lord Elgin that, in consequence of the pleasant state of our relations with the government at Washington, it is considered needless to maintain any British force in our Provinces, except the garrisons of two or three fortitied posts-probably only Quebec and Kingston!'

matters

matters would right themselves, and that the whole British party, whether home or provincial born, would ere long stand side by side again on all great questions. The Indemnity Bill was a most unhappy measure-if only from the discord and discontent it occasioned among the loyalists-so that many of the old Tories. have been heard loudest in the cries for annexation.' But time would probably have healed the mischief thus inflicted: and so far as this immediate irritation went, we should have been of good hope for the provinces.

It must be allowed, however, that the folly of the Home Government is not the only source of our apprehensions now. The local irritation has produced a brood of erroneous conceptions of sufficiently dangerous character, and which even with the wisest management it might have been difficult to clear away from the minds of the provincials. The most alarming of these is, that, beholding the rapid progress of certain portions of the States, they suppose there must be something in the constitution of the Union more favourable than their own to the development of a country's resources. That this is a total delusion, Mr. Johnston believes, and, we think, proves. When compared with the whole Union, our provinces exhibit an even more rapid rate of advance. It is only the north-western States and New York that outstrip the Canadas; but then these adjoin our territory-the sight of their progress is ever before the provincials-this partial superiority is thought to be universal, and the genuine British spirit of grumbling is freely indulged in. In fact, continues Mr. Johnston, the energy of the Canadians is as great and as well-directed as any of the States can show ; even as to canals, the former, in proportion to the population, will yield in no point to the latter. The true reason of the envied advance of New York and the north-western States is simply this :It is through them that the flood of emigration has been and is now pouring into the New World; and as long as this goes on, the men and money of Europe must cause them to distance all competitors. But let our provinces look forward-nay, let them even look keenly into the present, and they will discern that the balance is already quivering ere it turn in their favour. Can they not read the sure destiny of their St. Lawrence ? That mighty river is the natural outlet of the immense lake districts; and, as these are fast peopling, signs of future argosies are appearing on its waters. The Erie Canal is no longer adequate for the traffic streaming along it; and all the expense that the Americans ever can bestow upon it, will never make it keep pace with the wants of the inland States. Let, then, our fellow-subjects take heart, and be patient; for if their progress at present

be

be more moderate than their immediate neighbours', it is due to no fault of theirs or ours, but simply to a necessity of nature; and the more rapidly the north-western States advance, the more certainly will the tide of commerce and emigration soon pour its golden flood down the noble valley of the St. Lawrence. So argues the Durham Professor.

In manners and in sympathies a marked difference exists between our Provinces and the States; even between Upper Canada and Western New York, which are contiguous and in constant intercourse, this difference is quite apparent, and would no doubt, under any circumstances short of continued madness at headquarters, long continue. One feels,' says Mr. Johnston, the de trop the tendency to exaggerate-among the men of the one side, obtruding itself sometimes offensively, especially in the newer States of the Union, and among the newer people. An opposite tendency attracts constant notice along the Canadian borders. Both Mr. Johnston and M. Marmier-men as diverse in cast of thought as they are in the country of their birth and their career in life-unite in considering this diversity of temperament as the chief real source of the disaffection in our colonies. Let us hear the French traveller. He has looked at both sides of the picture-has examined both the Provinces and the States: on Lower Canada naturally he has bestowed peculiar care :—

'How is it,' says he, that this fine country is not more peopled? How is it that it does not attract those masses of emigrants who unceasingly direct their course to the United States, where already it is not so easy a matter to obtain employment or to purchase land? These are questions which I have often considered without being able fully to resolve them. Often enough have we all been told that no one understands the art of reclaiming land like the American. He is the father of the puffing system [père du puff]. It is by puff, presented under all forms-in newspapers, in books, on steel, spread throughout every region by agents, officious and official-that he has turned the heads of our brave peasants of Alsace, and of thousands of families in Germany; it is by puff that he induces them to quit their paternal parishes for the sake of traversing ocean to till the fields of a distant continent; it is by puff, the most active and the most deafening, that he is now peopling the plains of California, until he find some other speculation to trumpet forth by its flourishes. The Canadians as yet know nothing of this dazzling charlatanism. They have not learned to proclaim each morning in their journals, and to repeat incessantly to all comers, that theirs is the country without parallel, the asylum of liberty, the temple of fortune, the Eldorado so celebrated by the voyagers of old. On their part the Americans covet Canada, but they take good care not to sing its praises until it has passed into their hands. Whatever they may now say against it, however, we shall soon see opened from one point to another the lines of communi