IN LOWER CANADA, WITH THE AUTHOR'S RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SOIL, AND ASPECT; THE MORALS, HABITS, OF THAT COUNTRY. BY JOSEPH SANSOM, Esq. MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AUTHOR OF &c. Most National Habitudes are the Result of unobserved Causes and Necessities. GRAY. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND Co. BRIDE-COURT, BRIDGE-STREET; AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. WE have hitherto had no accounts of Canada written by American travellers. We have only seen our next neighbours, through the magnifying glasses of superficial observers; who inverted the telescope, when they contemplated Independent America; and we have accordingly no information, upon which we can rely, of the sentiments of the people, or the comparative situation and future prospects of that country. We know not whether the French, in Canada, are to be dreaded as enemies, or be conciliated as friends. The Author of the following work, when it was put to press (after having been hastily written, from penciled memorandums, during a fortnight's stay at Ballstown and Saratoga) had no idea of any thing more than a simple narrative of a journey, during which some interesting circumstances had unexpectedly occurred; and the title, printed on the first page, is accordingly "A Trip to Canada." But the composition insensibly assuming a more historical and scientific form, in going through the press, amidst the libraries of New York, it was decided in a literary circle, at Dr. Hosack's, that the scope of the work demanded a more elaborate designation: and the title has been accordingly varied to that of "Travels in Lower Canada, historical and descriptive;" the discrepancy of which, with the style and matter of a Book of Travels, may possibly be ex |