New Brunswick

“ As we wander among the old burying grounds of those founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick with hope deferred, of expectations never realised, of memories of misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a stubborn and unwise king. ”

“ The tale of the Loyalists; their loyalty to high ideals of national duty—to fulfil which they underwent untold losses, privations and sufferings when they abandoned their homes and their all, and sought new homes and commenced a new life in a northern wilderness—is a story that appeals wherever patriotism is an honor and self-sacrifice a virtue. In this Province of New-Brunswick, settled mainly by families torn and rent by the American revolution and whose descendants are reaping the reward of their sacrifice, it is of peculiar interest. ”

“ Beyond Woodstock and Newburgh Junction the journey along the St. John is diverted by characteristic New Brunswick scenery—steep hills running up to low mountain peaks, rough patches of trees with peaceful intervening pastures, the paraphernalia of lumbering and milling, logs hurtling through boisterous waters, brooks chattering down secretive glens, grey river rocks that serve as precarious pedestals for well-accoutred fishermen . . . In this country angling that is sport for well-dowered visitors is a vocation for men to the wilderness born. ”

“ Night has settled upon New Brunswick and upon ancient Greece before we reach the Kennebeckasis Bay, and we only see from the car windows dimly a pleasant and fertile country, and the peaceful homes of thrifty people. While we are running along the valley and coming under the shadow of the hill whereon St. John sits, with a regal outlook upon a most variegated coast and upon the rising and falling of the great tides of Fundy, we feel a twinge of conscience at the injustice the passing traveler must perforce do any land he hurries over and does not study. ”

“ In the course of its wanderings by earth and ocean it has become minus a foot, the loss of which is supplied by an unsmoothed block of pine, the two forming not an inapt illustration of their different countries. The polished oaken symbol of England receiving assistance in its hour of need from the rude but hardy pine emblem of New Brunswick. The room is cool and quiet; the young people being outside with a few who have lingered after the frolic. ”

“ As the creek goes onward to the river the intervale disappears, and the banks become grey and steep, crowned with the tall and slender stems of the spruce and cedar. New Brunswick is rich in minerals, and veins of coal and iron abound at this place; but many years must elapse ere mines are worked to any extent. A few are in operation at present; but while the pine waves the wealth of her green plumage to the lumber-man, or the new-cleared ground will yield its virgin crop to the farmer, the earth must keep her deeper treasures. ”

“ New Brunswick is partly settled by French Acadians from the adjoining province of Nova Scotia, but these, generally speaking, form a race by themselves, and mingle little with the others, still retaining the peculiarities of their nation, although long separated from it—they like gaiety and amusement more than work, and consequently are rather poorer than the other inhabitants ”

“ John, New Brunswick, is many things. It is the historic spot where that splendid figure in Canada's story, the great Champlain, and De Monts, came in the dim days of the West's beginning, to rear a new city in a new wild continent, and called it after the saint on whose day they first made their landing. ”

“ With this war spirit in our hearts, we sailed away into the British waters of the Bay of Fundy, but keeping all the morning so close to the New Brunswick shore that we could see there was nothing on it; that is, nothing that would make one wish to land. And yet the best part of going to sea is keeping close to the shore, however tame it may be, if the weather is pleasant. A pretty bay now and then, a rocky cove with scant foliage, a lighthouse, a rude cabin, a level land, monotonous and without noble forests,—this was New Brunswick as we coasted along it under the most favorable circumstances. ”

“ She has just finished, and placed it in her dairy, a little bark-lined recess adjoining the house—and now, on hospitable thoughts intent, she has caught up her pail and is gone for water—in this we are most luxurious in New Brunswick, never keeping any quantity in the house, but using it bright and sparkling as it gushes from the spring. While she is gone, we will take a pencilling of her dwelling. A beautiful specimen of still-life, in the shape of a baby six months old, reposes in its cradle—its eye-lids' long and silky fringes are lightly folded in sleep on its smooth round cheek. ”

“ New Brunswick received a city charter from the royal governor in 1730, and was chartered as a city by the state legislature in 1784. During the War of Independence, General Washington and his army entered New Brunswick on the 28th of November 1776, but on the approach of the enemy evacuated it, and from the 3rd of December 1776 to the 13th of April 1777 it was occupied by the British under Lord Howe. Cornelius Vanderbilt was for several years the proprietor of the Bellona Hotel of New Brunswick, now a tenement house. ”

“ New Bruns'wick, a province of the Dominion of Canada, is a square, bounded on the south by the Bay of Pundy and an isthmus connecting it with Nova Scotia; on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence; on the north by the Bay of Chaleurs and Quebec; and on the west by Maine in the United States. It has an area of 27,500 square miles, little less than that of either Scotland or Ireland, and more than twice the size of Belgium. The proportion of land cultivable is much higher in New Brunswick than in Scotland, and about as high
as in Ireland. ”

“ There are to be found growlers in every clime, and it is only such that will desert their fatherland and seek refuge under foreign skies. We have liberty, right, education, refinement and culture in our midst; we have a good government, noble reforms, and all advantages to make us good and happy. Then let us cherish every right and institution which makes our beloved New Brunswick the pride of its loyal people. ”

“ It is no small matter to give any thing like a full description of a new Country like New-Brunswick, where the Compiler has but few helps—where there are but few written documents to resort to, and where neither Animals, Minerals, or Plants, have been properly arranged ”

“ REMARKS. On the state of that part of ancient Nova-Scotia lying north of the Bay of Fundy, now in the Province of New-Brunswick, prior to the year 1754.
The French Government in defiance of former treaties continued to erect forts around the harbour of Saint John, and to send troops for the defence of this part of the country (considering it theirs) and to employ the natives to harass and murder the settlers in the district of Maine, thus for many years preventing the settlement of that part of the British dominions as far west as that district or province extended ”

“ These persons do not feel that interest in the improvement of the place, that those do whose interests are identified with the country. Having, therefore, no local attachment to the soil, it is no wonder that they should extend their views no farther than present convenience. Such persons, then, who are to be found in all the ports of the Province add nothing to the wealth of the country, but rather act as drains to it. A few seats have, however, lately been begun on the Marsh near the City, which will soon make an alteration in the appearance of the Suburbs. ”

“ The last class that I shall notice are the people of Colour, or Negroes.—These are found in considerable numbers in different parts of the Province. In some parts a number of families are settled together as farmers; but they do not make good settlers, being of a volatile disposition, much addicted to dissipation; they are impatient of labour, and in general fitter for performing menial offices about houses as domestics, than the more important, but laborious duties of farmers.—In their persons, the inhabitants of New-Brunswick are well made, tall and athletic. ”

“ New Brunswick is extensively engaged in manufacturing hosiery, wall paper, rubber boots and shoes, bicycle tires, chemicals, fruit jars, boilers, cigars, foundry products, knitting needles, sash and blinds, shoes, etc. Under a charter of 1863, the government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, a unicameral council, and in administrative boards. The boards of library trustees and of health are appointed by the mayor; the board of water commissioners is elected by the council; the board of education is chosen by popular vote. ”

“ There are no disorders peculiar to the climate. The air throughout most part of the year is very pure and the inhabitants in general enjoy a good share of health. Whether the observations that have been made of the Americans sooner decaying than Europeans will apply to the inhabitants of New-Brunswick cannot yet be ascertained; as the Province has not been long enough settled ”

“ Fredericton, a town of about 9000 inhabitants, on the St. John river, by which it has a daily communication with the city of St. John, 90 miles distant, by steamer, is the capital and seat of government. New Brunswick has considerable mineral wealth; coal and iron are abundant, and the climate is less foggy than that of Nova Scotia; but these great natural advantages are suffered to lie nearly dormant. The colonists are very hardy and extremely loyal ”

“ It is from these immense forests that New Brunswick now draws its principal wealth. The timber trade, [4] which has hitherto almost wholly engaged the attention of settlers, is of great importance, and employs a vast number of people, whose manner of living, owing to the nature of the business they follow, is altogether different from that of the inhabitants who are occupied in agricultural pursuits. ”

“ Throughout New Brunswick there is much excellent land, suited for different purposes. Like Nova Scotia, the province has its salt marshes and dyked lands on the Bay of Fundy, and its “intervales” along the rivers, both famous for their enormous crops of hay. It has, too, districts as well adapted, it is said, for the culture of apples, as the Annapolis valley itself. In fact it, also, is a mixed farming region, where grains of all kinds will grow; where one man pins his faith to dairying; another urges the profits to be made from sheep or poultry or pigs ”

“ The poor-farm of the original township of North Brunswick was situate within the limits of what remained of the township of North Brunswick, after the setting off of the townships of East Brunswick and New Brunswick as aforesaid. ”

“ For the man who spends the greater part of his time alone in the forest, as free as the beasts that range it without controul, his wants but simple and those supplied from day to day by his own exertions, acquires totally different habits of acting and thinking, from the great mass of the people in crowded cities, who finding themselves pressed on all sides, and depending on others from day to day for precarious support, are confirmed in habits of dependence.
Hence the inhabitants of this Province are men who possess much native freedom in their manners. ”

“ Snow did come, and Leonidas, arrayed in his best "go-to-meeting style," geared up his sleigh, and what with bear skins and bells, fancying himself and appurtenances enough to charm the heart of any maid or matron in the back woods, set off to spark Grace Marley. "Sparking," the term used in New Brunswick for courtship, now that the old fashion of "bundling" is gone out, occupies much of the attention (as, indeed, where does it not?) of young folks. ”

“ Up the River Saint John the country appeared better, and a few cultivated spots were found occupied by old settlers. At St. Ann's, where Fredericton was afterwards built, a few scattered huts of French were found; the country all around being a continued wilderness—uninhabited and untrodden, except by the savage and wild animals; and scarcely had these firm friends of their country began to construct their cabins, when they were surprised by the rigors of an untried climate: their habitations being enveloped in snow before they were tenantable. ”

“ Besides the College of New-Brunswick incorporated by charter, there are Grammar Schools established in several counties which are liberally supported. By the bounty of the Legislature, twenty pounds per annum is allowed to be drawn out of the Province Treasury for every Parish where a School-House is provided, and the sum of thirty pounds raised by the inhabitants, to enable them to employ good and sufficient teachers, and this bounty extends to three schools in each Parish. ”

“ He is an ardent Liberal, believing that the cause of the people is best advanced by the principles of his party. New Brunswick has been in the main a Liberal province ever since the period, forty years ago, when the family compact was broken up by men like the late Governor Lemuel A. Wilmot, and Liberal doctrines triumphed. There is a larger proportion of Liberal members from New Brunswick at present sitting in the House of Commons at Ottawa than from any of the other maritime provinces excepting Prince Edward Island. ”

“ Though no great development of agriculture is possible, a quiet, equable prosperity is attained by hundreds of farmers. Much crown land still remains unoccupied, and is sold by the provincial government on easy terms to bona fide settlers.
Forests.—Its great forests, through which flow numerous rivers with excellent harbours at or near their mouths, have long made New Brunswick a centre of lumbering. This industry has affected the whole development of the province, and the wilder and more unsettled life of its woodsmen contrasts with that of the farmer of Ontario or of the west. ”