ROAD POLICY.

The provision for roads in many of the townships of Upper Canada is excessive. The usual dimensions of the lots are a quarter of a mile in width and a mile and a quarter in length, containing two hundred acres; and in some townships, in order to give every lot frontage on a highway, road allowances sixty-six feet wide, running from front to rear, have been reserved every half-mile. The concessions (which are reserves of a similar width) divide each tier of lots so that they occur at intervals of every mile and a quarter; thus the lots may be halved, and each hundred acres, front and rear, will have a road allowance upon two sides of the property. In townships of unbroken, and dry land the roads become established upon those allowances; but in many cases, intervening obstacles force the road through private property, where it remains on sufferance until (from the permanent character of the obstacle) it is duly established by authority, when it is enlarged to the regulated width and the "statute labor" expended on it.

Before the union of the provinces, and the establishment of municipal institutions in 1841, considerable amounts were annually granted by the Legislature for roads and bridges. These were in fact almost the only public works prior to the era of canals and railways and public debt, and absorbed the greater part of the net revenues. This system still obtains in the lower colonies, and their main roads are unsurpassed, as a class, by those of any other government on this continent. Aid from the public chest was generally restricted to trunk lines and bridges beyond the means of local taxation or "statute labor;" but, by judicious "logrolling," as the barter of vote for vote between members is called, this aid became so widely distributed and the num ber of claimants so increased as to force the leaving of

road-making wholly in the hands of the localities, except in the case of new roads for settlement, or where large areas of public land remained unsold. The dissatisfaction created by the apportionment of the road moneys was one of the arguments in favor of municipal institutions which have since relieved parliament of applications on account of what may be called local roads. While there is little doubt that it was high time the old, rich, and populous districts should no longer abuse their greater political strength to secure for their own doors the lion's share of the road moneys, it is equally clear that, in being thrown upon their own resources, a load has been imposed upon many of the back counties which they are unable to bear. It may cost one county, by reason of numerous large rivers, deep ravines, swamps, &c., ten times as much to make its roads as it costs another more favorably situated; and the more broken the country the less good land and the fewer the inhabitants, so that the tenfold expenditure falls upon a population only one-tenth of that in the older front counties. Again, the back counties contribute so much to the wealth of the front ones, that the latter may with justice be asked to share a burden from which, by the natural formation of the district, the labors of their fathers, or from past government aid, they are comparatively exempt. Honestly administered, the system which prevails in the lower colonies, and which once existed here, is at least the most equitable; and it can only be decried by the confession that there is not public virtue enough to sustain it.

The proceeds from sales of the crown lands and the revenues derived from the valuable timber thereon, do not accrue to the municipalities in which these may be situated, and as there seems to be a natural claim upon this fund for roads in the same district, the provincial treasury which receives may with reasonableness be asked to give. This

principle has been recognized by the government of the United States, which, in organizing new states, made provision for roads out of the proceeds of the public lands sold in each state; and is acknowledged by us as respects what are called Colonization Roads.

STATEMENT

Showing the amount expended by the Legislature of Upper and Lower Canada, respectively, from 1791 to 1861, for Roads and Bridges; also, the amount expended since the Union by Municipalities and Road Companies, in the construction of Turnpike Roads:

Grand Total, Upper and Lower Canada,.... 2,563,242.65 8,271,178.19 10,834,420.84

• Graveled roads only, on nearly all of which tolls are collected.

The Plank, Gravel, and Macadam roads of Lower Canada were nearly all constructed by Parliamentary grants.

This road expenditure of $10,834,420.84 excludes those made by statute labor or commutation money; and all municipal outlay on common roads.

The colonization road expenditure in Upper Canada includes that from the Improvement Fund,-applicable to new townships.

TABLE

Of Plank, Gravel, and Macadam Roads constructed by municipalities and Joint Stock Companies in Upper Canada, since the Union.

NOTE.-Cost is estimated where not given, and known roads are inserted in cases where no

return was made.

WATER COMMUNICATIONS.

The physical geography of Canada, presents a marked contrast with respect to rivers and water communications, to that of the States of the Union. The Mississippi and its numerous tributaries are navigable, at some seasons of the year, from their mouths almost to their sources; but the St. Lawrence and its branches are beset, a little beyond tide-water, with rocky barriers to navigation which are repeated at varying distances-generally with lakes or long deep reaches intervening. The proportion of water navigable in both directions to that of rapids, chutes, and cataracts is, however, so great, that for purposes of transportation the St. Lawrence presented to the early explorer less obstacles than the Mississippi,-the upper waters of which were first reached through the great lakes, by Jolliette and Marquette in 1673, and by Hennepin in 1680. Between Quebec and Chicago-a fresh-water navigation of 1,450 miles, the total length of canal is only sixty-eight and a half miles: and in the proposed improvement of the Ottawa navigation, out of a total of four hundred miles between Montreal and Lake Huron the length of canal is only thirty miles, about one-third of which is upon the Island of Montreal itself. On this latter route, by which the Algonquins avoided the Iroquois, and which afterward became the highway of the voyageurs of the fur companies,-a few miles of portages constituted all the land carriage required between Montreal and the centre of the continent. In the later operations of the lumberman the long reaches of level road upon the ice of the Ottawa, and of its lakes and tributaries, have carried the supplies into the inmost recesses of the forest.

This terracelike profile of the northern rivers is not without its ameliorating influence upon the temperature during the two or three short periods of intense cold which occur