five lesser judges, who go circuit through the State. The salaries
of these lesser judges do not exceed from 250 pounds to 300 pounds
a year; but they are, I believe, allowed to practice as lawyers in
any counties except those in which they sit as judges--being
guided, in this respect, by the same law as that which regulates
the work of assistant barristers in Ireland. The assistant
barristers in Ireland are attached to the counties as judges at
Quarter Sessions, but they practice, or may practice, as advocates
in all counties except that to which they are so attached. The
judges in New Hampshire are appointed by the Governor, with the
assistance of his Council. No judge in New Hampshire can hold his
seat after he has reached seventy years of age.

So much at the present moment with reference to the government of
New Hampshire.



CHAPTER IV.

LOWER CANADA.


The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to Montreal,
which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, though it
never has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is to be so
as regards authority, government, and official name. In such
matters, authority and government often say one thing while
commerce says another; but commerce always has the best of it and
wins the game, whatever government may decree. Albany, in this
way, is the capital of the State of New York, as authorized by the
State government; but New York has made herself the capital of
America, and will remain so. So also Montreal has made herself the
capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk Railway runs from Portland to
Montreal; but there is a branch from Richmond, a township within
the limits of Canada, to Quebec; so that travelers to Quebec, as we
were, are not obliged to reach that place via Montreal.

Quebec is the present seat of Canadian government, its turn for
that honor having come round some two years ago; but it is about to
be deserted in favor of Ottawa, a town which is, in fact, still to
be built on the river of that name. The public edifices are,
however, in a state of forwardness; and if all goes well, the
Governor, the two Councils, and the House of Representatives will
be there before two years are over, whether there be any town to
receive them or no. Who can think of Ottawa without bidding his
brothers to row, and reminding them that the stream runs fast, that
the rapids are near and the daylight past? I asked, as a matter of
course, whether Quebec was much disgusted at the proposed change,
and I was told that the feeling was not now very strong. Had it
been determined to make Montreal the permanent seat of government,
Quebec and Toronto would both have been up in arms.

I must confess that, in going from the States into Canada, an
Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer
country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into
one that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into a
land which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the
change to gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead
of speaking as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he
is able to fall back to his national habits and national
expressions. He no longer feels that he is admitted on sufferance,
or that he must be careful to respect laws which he does not quite
understand. This feeling was naturally strong in an Englishman in
passing from the States into Canada at the time of my visit.
English policy, at that moment, was violently abused by Americans,
and was upheld as violently in Canada. But nevertheless, with all
this, I could not enter Canada without seeing, and hearing, and
feeling that there was less of enterprise around me there than in
the States, less of general movement, and less of commercial
success. To say why this is so would require a long and very
difficult discussion, and one which I am not prepared to hold. It
may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of dependence be
ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, cannot hold its
own against countries which are in all respects their own masters.
Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern States of
America would have risen in commerce as they have risen, had they
still remained attached to England as colonies. If this be so,
that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired has been the
cause of their success. It does not follow as a consequence that
the Canadas, fighting their battle alone in the world, could do as
the States have done. Climate, or size, or geographical position
might stand in their way. But I fear that it does follow, if not
as a logical conclusion, at least as a natural result, that they
never will do so well unless some day they shall so fight their
battle. It may be argued that Canada has in fact the power of
self-governance; that she rules herself and makes her own laws as
England does; that the Sovereign of England has but a veto on those
laws, and stands in regard to Canada exactly as she does in regard
to England. This is so, I believe, by the letter of the
Constitution, but is not so in reality, and cannot in truth be so
in any colony even of Great Britain. In England the political
power of the Crown is nothing. The Crown has no such power, and
now-a-days makes no attempt at having any. But the political power
of the Crown as it is felt in Canada is everything. The Crown has
no such power in England, because it must change its ministers
whenever called upon to do so by the House of Commons. But the
Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the Crown's Prime Minister
as regards the colonies, and he is changed not as any colonial
House of Assembly may wish, but in accordance with the will of the


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