of spiting a town because there has been a row in it seems to me to be preposterous.  The row was not the work of those who have made Montreal rich and respectable.  Montreal is more centrical than Ottawa—­nay, it is as nearly centrical as any town can be.  It is easier to get to Montreal from Toronto than to Ottawa; and if from Toronto, then from all that distant portion of Upper Canada back of Toronto.  To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much easier of access than Ottawa.  But having said so much in favor of Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Montreal, the best possible selection has been made.

When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to work to prepare for the new migration.  In 1859 the Parliament was removed to Quebec, with the understanding that it should remain there till the new buildings should be completed.  These buildings were absolutely commenced in April, 1860, and it was, and I believe still is, expected that they will be completed in 1863.  I am now writing in the winter of 1861; and, as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are suspended.  But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part of October—­on the first of October—­ whereas they might have been continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of November.  We reached Ottawa on the third of October, and more than a thousand men had then been just dismissed.  All the money in hand had been expended, and the government—­so it was said—­could give no more money till Parliament should meet again.  This was most unfortunate.  In the first place the suspension was against the contract as made with the contractors for the building; in the next place there was the delay; and then, worst of all, the question again became agitated whether the colonial legislature were really in earnest with reference to Ottawa.  Many men of mark in the colony were still anxious—­I believe are still anxious—­to put an end to the Ottawa scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance of success.  And very many men who are not of mark are thus united, and a feeling of doubt on the subject has been created.  Two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds have already been spent on these buildings, and I have no doubt myself that they will be duly completed and duly used.

We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of the River Ottawa.  We passed St. Ann’s, but no one at St. Ann’s seemed to know anything of the brothers who were to rest there on their weary oars.  At Maxwellstown I could hear nothing of Annie Laurie or of her trysting-place on the braes; and the turnpike man at Tara could tell me nothing of the site of the hall, and had never even heard of the harp.  When I go down South, I shall expect to find that the negro melodies have not yet reached “Old Virginie.”  This boat conveyance from Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished in convenience, for it is allied too closely with railway