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before, by the Governor General. It will be a handsome, spacious
edifice, approached by a long avenue, which is already planted and
made available as a public walk. The town is well adapted for
wholesome exercise at all seasons, for the footways in the
thoroughfares which lie beyond the principal street, are planked
like floors, and kept in very good and clean repair.
It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should
have run high in this place, and led to most discreditable and
disgraceful results. It is not long since guns were discharged
from a window in this town at the successful candidates in an
election, and the coachman of one of them was actually shot in the
body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on
the same occasion; and from the very window whence he received his
death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the
commission of his crime, but from its consequences), was displayed
again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the
Governor General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the
colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so
employed: I need not say that flag was orange.
The time of leaving Toronto for Kingston is noon. By eight o’clock
next morning, the traveller is at the end of his journey, which is
performed by steamboat upon Lake Ontario, calling at Port Hope and
Coburg, the latter a cheerful, thriving little town. Vast
quantities of flour form the chief item in the freight of these
vessels. We had no fewer than one thousand and eighty barrels on
board, between Coburg and Kingston.
The latter place, which is now the seat of government in Canada, is
a very poor town, rendered still poorer in the appearance of its
market-place by the ravages of a recent fire. Indeed, it may be
said of Kingston, that one half of it appears to be burnt down, and
the other half not to be built up. The Government House is neither
elegant nor commodious, yet it is almost the only house of any
importance in the neighbourhood.
There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed, and
excellently regulated, in every respect. The men were employed as
shoemakers, ropemakers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and
stonecutters; and in building a new prison, which was pretty far
advanced towards completion. The female prisoners were occupied in
needlework. Among them was a beautiful girl of twenty, who had
been there nearly three years. She acted as bearer of secret
despatches for the self-styled Patriots on Navy Island, during the
Canadian Insurrection: sometimes dressing as a girl, and carrying
them in her stays; sometimes attiring herself as a boy, and
secreting them in the lining of her hat. In the latter character
she always rode as a boy would, which was nothing to her, for she
could govern any horse that any man could ride, and could drive
four-in-hand with the best whip in those parts. Setting forth on
one of her patriotic missions, she appropriated to herself the
first horse she could lay her hands on; and this offence had
brought her where I saw her. She had quite a lovely face, though,
as the reader may suppose from this sketch of her history, there
was a lurking devil in her bright eye, which looked out pretty
sharply from between her prison bars.
There is a bomb-proof fort here of great strength, which occupies a
bold position, and is capable, doubtless, of doing good service;
though the town is much too close upon the frontier to be long
held, I should imagine, for its present purpose in troubled times.
There is also a small navy-yard, where a couple of Government
steamboats were building, and getting on vigorously.
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We left Kingston for Montreal on the tenth of May, at half-past
nine in the morning, and proceeded in a steamboat down the St.
Lawrence river. The beauty of this noble stream at almost any
point, but especially in the commencement of this journey when it