the commerce, roads, and public works, all made TO LAST; the
respectability and character of the public journals; and the amount
of rational comfort and happiness which honest industry may earn:
were very great surprises. The steamboats on the lakes, in their
conveniences, cleanliness, and safety; in the gentlemanly character
and bearing of their captains; and in the politeness and perfect
comfort of their social regulations; are unsurpassed even by the
famous Scotch vessels, deservedly so much esteemed at home. The
inns are usually bad; because the custom of boarding at hotels is
not so general here as in the States, and the British officers, who
form a large portion of the society of every town, live chiefly at
the regimental messes: but in every other respect, the traveller
in Canada will find as good provision for his comfort as in any
place I know.
There is one American boat – the vessel which carried us on Lake
Champlain, from St. John’s to Whitehall – which I praise very
highly, but no more than it deserves, when I say that it is
superior even to that in which we went from Queenston to Toronto,
or to that in which we travelled from the latter place to Kingston,
or I have no doubt I may add to any other in the world. This
steamboat, which is called the Burlington, is a perfectly exquisite
achievement of neatness, elegance, and order. The decks are
drawing-rooms; the cabins are boudoirs, choicely furnished and
adorned with prints, pictures, and musical instruments; every nook
and corner in the vessel is a perfect curiosity of graceful comfort
and beautiful contrivance. Captain Sherman, her commander, to
whose ingenuity and excellent taste these results are solely
attributable, has bravely and worthily distinguished himself on
more than one trying occasion: not least among them, in having the
moral courage to carry British troops, at a time (during the
Canadian rebellion) when no other conveyance was open to them. He
and his vessel are held in universal respect, both by his own
countrymen and ours; and no man ever enjoyed the popular esteem,
who, in his sphere of action, won and wore it better than this
gentleman.
By means of this floating palace we were soon in the United States
again, and called that evening at Burlington; a pretty town, where
we lay an hour or so. We reached Whitehall, where we were to
disembark, at six next morning; and might have done so earlier, but
that these steamboats lie by for some hours in the night, in
consequence of the lake becoming very narrow at that part of the
journey, and difficult of navigation in the dark. Its width is so
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contracted at one point, indeed, that they are obliged to warp
round by means of a rope.
After breakfasting at Whitehall, we took the stage-coach for
Albany: a large and busy town, where we arrived between five and
six o’clock that afternoon; after a very hot day’s journey, for we
were now in the height of summer again. At seven we started for
New York on board a great North River steamboat, which was so
crowded with passengers that the upper deck was like the box lobby
of a theatre between the pieces, and the lower one like Tottenham
Court Road on a Saturday night. But we slept soundly,
notwithstanding, and soon after five o’clock next morning reached
New York.
Tarrying here, only that day and night, to recruit after our late
fatigues, we started off once more upon our last journey in
America. We had yet five days to spare before embarking for
England, and I had a great desire to see ‘the Shaker Village,’
which is peopled by a religious sect from whom it takes its name.
To this end, we went up the North River again, as far as the town
of Hudson, and there hired an extra to carry us to Lebanon, thirty
miles distant: and of course another and a different Lebanon from
that village where I slept on the night of the Prairie trip.
The country through which the road meandered, was rich and