little tendency to lose their original character. The French Acadians form several small distinct settlements, have little intercourse with the other inhabitants, and do not intermix with them by marriage. They retain a corrupt French dialect, though many of the men understand English. They are moral in their habits, simple in their mode of life, cheerful in disposition, contented and happy. We are not able to ascertain their present numbers. Of the Indians there are about fifteen hundred persons, or three hundred and fifty families, consisting of the tribe of the Micmacs. They were formerly a ferocious race, but the French succeeded in conciliating their friendship, and induced them to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, of the ceremonial parts of which they became strict observers. They still live in a savage state, subsisting principally by hunting and fishing. They however manufacture baskets, buckets, and other articles of simple workmanship, which they barter with their venison and furs, for cloths, blankets, powder and shot, knives, and other articles of necessity in their way of living. They have no domestic animals but the dog, and all attempts to lead their attention to agriculture have been unsuccessful.

The peninsula of Nova Scotia is three hundred miles in length, and a hundred miles in its greatest breadth, and embraces a superficies of fifteen thousand six hundred square miles. Its shores are extremely irregular, and it is so intersected by bays and inlets, that navigable waters come within thirty miles of every part of the province. It is divided into ten counties, one of which consists of the island of Cape Breton. The counties are subdivided into townships, after the manner of the states of New England. It lies in about the latitude of the state of Maine, but being nearly surrounded by water, the climate is milder than that of Maine. The air is in general clear and pleasant, except in the neighborhood of Halifax, and some other parts of the Atlantic coast, which are subject to fogs. The earth is generally covered with snow from the last week in December to the first in March. The opening of the spring is often retarded by the quantity of ice, which floats along the coast, but when vegetation begins, it advances rapidly. The summer heat is moderate, and the autumns are remarkably pleasant. The soil is quite productive, particularly in the quarter bordering on the bay of Fundy, where

there are extensive tracts of alluvial land, which are extremely rich. There are also in all parts of the province, large tracts of interval land, on the borders of the rivers and brooks, which are very fertile. The upland varies materially in quality and value, but much of it, and often in extensive tracts, is of a good quality, and capable of being made very productive. Agriculture, however, has been until within a few years much neglected, but recently, in consequence of the exertions of a few persons, a very rapid improvement has been made in this branch of industry.

No country could be more thoroughly watered than Nova Scotia. It abounds in bays, rivers, and lakes. The bay of Fundy on its western border, and the small bays and streams which open into it are remarkable for their very high tides. These vary from twenty four to sixty or seventy feet. The principal rivers are the Shubenacadie, or river of Acadie, which rises near Halifax, and running in a northwesterly direction into the Mines Basin, nearly divides the province into two equal parts, and the Annapolis, which is navigable for large vessels to a distance of forty miles, and is bounded by rich and extensive meadows. The province is furnished with a great number of excellent harbors, as well as with abundant facilities for internal navigation. These latter are capable of being greatly improved by canals, for which two or three projects are in agitation, but none of them are in the progress of execution. An act, however, was passed by the provincial legislature in March last, authorising the incorporation of a company for making a canal by the river and lake of the Shubenacadie, to unite the waters of the Basin of Mines with the harbor of Halifax, and a sum of money was appropriated to enable the lieutenant governor to procure the surveys necessary for judging of the practicability of the project, and forming an estimate of the expense. Considerable grants are made annually for the construction of roads and bridges throughout the province, which are expended under the superintendence of commissioners appointed for the purpose by the lieutenant governor. At the last session. of the legislature, in addition to the customary grants, the sum of a thousand pounds was placed at the disposal of the lieutenant governor for the erection of stone bridges over the

brooks on the principal roads, in the place of those of wood, which go to decay.

The trade of Nova Scotia is perhaps not so extensive as might be expected, from the remarkable local advantages which it possesses for this pursuit. The regulations under which it is placed by the British government are more liberal than they have formerly been, and afford a wide field for profitable enterprise. There are still restrictions of which the colonists complain, and which the mother country may perhaps hereafter remove. By an act of parliament passed on the 24th of June 1822, it was made lawful to import into the port of Halifax, and other ports enumerated in the British American colonies, from any part of North or South America, or the West Indies, certain articles enumerated, including most of the varieties of produce of the soil and forests, either in British ships, or in ships of the country of which the articles imported are the produce. By another act of the same date, it is made lawful to import into Halifax, in British ships, from any port in Europe or Africa, a variety of articles enumerated, including wine, brandy, fruits, flour, grain, oil, &c. and also to export to those countries any articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of the colony, or which have been legally imported. Since the date of these acts, the people of Nova Scotia, in addition to the West India trade, the fisheries, the trade with the other colonies, and that with Great Britain, carry on a trade with the United States, in their own vessels and in those of the United States, and also in their own vessels a trade with the ports in the Mediterranean, and other parts of Europe and Africa. The duties paid on foreign imports are low. On fruits, brandy, and most other articles imported from Europe, the duty is seven and a half per cent on the cost; on Madeira wine, £7 7s. the tun of 252 gallons, and on French wines £10 10s. the tun, in addition to the seven and a half per cent; on flour and grain from the continent of Europe, the duty is twelve per cent on the cost. These duties are much lower than are paid on the importation of like articles in the United States. According to a statement which has been published, of the amount of dutiable goods imported into Nova Scotia in the year 1823, there were imported 21,517 gallons of brandy and gin, 484,989 gallons of rum, 25,277 gallons of wine, 243,957 gallons of

molasses, 14,907 cwt. of sugar, 44,396 lbs. of coffee, and goods paying a duty of three and three quarters per cent and five per cent, of the value of £217,014, all of which paid a duty of £38,385 9s. 8d. The imports into the province from the West Indies in the same year, employed 186 vessels of 16,410 tons, with 954 men. The exports to the West Indies, employed 197 vessels, of 18,038 tons, and 1057 men. The imports from the United States, consisting principally of flour, meal, and corn, were made in 62 vessels, and the exports to the United States, consisting of fish, gypsum, coal, and other articles, were made in 62 vessels. The vessels employed in the coasting trade between Nova Scotia and the neighboring American colonies are from one to two hundred.

The provincial legislature consists of three branches, the governor or lieutenant governor, the council, and the assembly. The governor, who is appointed by the crown of Great Britain, is the captain general and commander in chief; he commissions all officers of the militia, appoints the judges of the courts of common law, justices of the peace, and other officers, and possesses the power of pardoning offences, except in cases of murder and high treason; he presides solely in the high court of chancery, and exercises within his jurisdiction the powers of the lord high chancellor of Great Britain; he is ordinary, and has the power of granting probate of wills, and administration, and with the council sits as a court of error. The council consists of twelve members, who are appointed by the governor. They act as a council of state, as judges in the court of error, and also as a part of the legislature, in which latter capacity they sit as the upper house, distinct from the governor. The house of assembly consists of forty one members. The county of Halifax chooses four members, and the other counties two each. The town of Halifax also chooses two members, and there are seventeen towns which choose one each. The qualifications for a voter, or a representative, are a yearly income of forty shillings from real estate, or a house and the land on which it stands in fee simple, or a hundred acres of land, five of which are under cultivation. The legislature has the power of making local laws, not repugnant to the laws of England. The king, however, reserves the right of disannulling any law within three years after its publication.

There is a university, called King's college, situated at Windsor, which is regarded as the parent of all the literary institutions in Nova Scotia. Its charter was granted in 1802. It has at present four professorships, viz. of divinity and Hebrew; of the moral sciences and metaphysics; of mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy; and of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Other professorships are to be established as soon as the revenues of the college will render it practicable. There are four lay scholarships, of twenty pounds sterling a year, which may be held for four years, and twelve divinity scholarships, of thirty pounds sterling, which may be held seven years. There are at present about thirty resident students. The college edifice consists of five large wooden buildings, three stories high, all under one roof. Subordinate to the university, and in its immediate vicinity, is the collegiate school. The principal of this school is eminently qualified for his station, and the school has acquired a high reputation, and has a large number of students. It has a building of freestone, erected at an expense of five thousand pounds, which affords apartments for the head master, his family and ushers, and forty boarders. At this school are twelve divinity scholarships, of thirty pounds each, which may be held for seven years, or until matriculation at the college.

There are two or three other useful public schools, which are under the direction of trustees. In the year 1811 a law was passed to establish a grammar school in each county, in which Latin and Greek, mathematics, English grammar, and other studies should be pursued, to be under the direction of trustees appointed by the governor, and the masters to be paid out of the provincial treasury. In the same year another law was passed, called the school act, providing, that in any settlement consisting of thirty families, if the majority of inhabitants shall vote a sum not less than fifty pounds for a school, to be assessed in the manner of poor rates, they shall receive from the provincial treasury the further sum of twenty five pounds. These laws have suffered some modification, and we are not able to ascertain how far they are now carried into effect. Considerable sums, however, we know are appropriated from the public treasury for the support of schools. Among the appropriations by the legislature at their last session, we observe a grant of a hundred and twenty pounds to VOL. XIX.-NO. 44. 20