THE CLOCKMAKER. THE CLOCKMAKER.

This second series of the Nova Scotian satirist has been partly occasioned by the success of the first, partly by the desire to give the writer's opinion upon the state of affairs in Canada, and to throw out a few suggestions for the future government of the North American Colonies. The plan or framework of the satire is the same as before. At the end of winter, Mr. Slick and the writer meet, according to appointment made at the close of their former excursion, to commence a new one; in which the inci- dents and characters encountered in the way again supply the Clockmaker with matter for commentary, and reflection direct or digressive. The subjects are also similar to those in the former volume, but less local ; the United States, Canada, and England forming main features of the book ; whilst what is said of Nova Scotia has less relation to the mere manners of the Nova Seotians, than to the capabilities of the colony, its recommendations to emi- grants to America, and its national value. This larger purpose, by giving the author a more extended

field and bringing out higher qualities, has saved his work from the usual use-up character of continuations; although the novelty of subject, manner, and diction, which attracted in his former work, has lost part of its freshness. The author's ability, however, has

and the General are introduced, to whom he explains his work.

Its alle—go—ry. And a beautiful alle—go—ry it is, said he, and well calcu- lated to give foreigners a cornet notion of our young growl)' and great Republic. It is a tine conception that. it is worthy of %req. How true to life—how much it conveys—bow many chords it strikes. It addressee the heart —it's splendid. Hallo! says I to myself, what's all this? It made me look op at him. Thinks I to myself, you laid that soft sawder on pretty thick, any how. I won- der whether you are in rael right down airnest, or whether you are 'only arter a vote. Says he, Mr. Slick, it was on the subject of picture we called. Its • thing I'm enthusiastic upon myself; but my official duties leave me no time to fraternize with the brush. I've been actilly six weeks adoin' of a bunch of grapes on a chair, and it's not yet done. The department of paintin' in our Atheneum, in this riain' and flourishin' town of Slickville, is placed under the direction of the General and myself, and we purpose detailing you to Italy to purchase some originals for our gallery, at•ein' that you are a nature artist your- self, and have more practical experience than most of our citizens. There is a great aspiration among our free and enlightened youth for perfection, whether in the arts or sciences. Your expenses will be paid, and eight dollars a day while absent on this diplomacy. One thing, however, do pray remember— don't bring any picturs that will evoke a blush on female cheeks, or cause var. tue to stand afore 'eni with averted eyes or indignant looks. The statues im- ported last year we had to clothe, both male and female, from head to flint, for they actilly came stark naked, and were right down ondeceot. One of my factory ladies went into tits on seein"em, that lasted her a good hour ; she took Jupiter for a rael human, and said she thought she had got into a bathing. room among the men by mistake. tier narves received a heavy shock, poor critter ; she said she never would forget what she seed there the longest day she lived. So none o' your Potipliar's wives, or Susannah', or sleepia' Venus' ; such picturs are repugnant to the high tone u' mural (cella' in this

country.

The following facts are very singular, if true, and suggest matter for speculation. At all events, the subject is worth having further light thrown upon it. The bane of this country, Squire, and indeed of all Amerio;a, is hash). too much laud ; they run over more ground than they can cultivate, and crop the land so severely that they run it out. A very large portion of land in America has been run out by repeated grain crops; and when you add that to land natu- rally too poor to bear grain, or too broken for cultivation, you will find this great country in a fair way to be ruined. The State of Varmout has nuthin' like the exports it used to have; and'a plaguy sight of the young folks come down to Bo-ton to hire out as helps. The two Carolinas and Virginia are covered with place.) that have been given up as ruined, and many other States. We hav'n't the surplus of wheat and grain we treed to have in the U.-oiled States, and it never will be so plenty again. That's the reason you hear of folks clearite land, makin' a firm, and !whin' off again and gobs' further into the bush. They've exhausted it, and find it easier to clear new lands than to restore the old.

A great deal of Nova Scotia is run out ; and if it wat'n't for the lime, marsh- mud, sea-weed, salt.sand, and what nut, they've got here in such quantities, there'd be no cure for it. It takes good farmin' to keep an upland location in order, I tell you, and make it sustain itself. It takes more to fetch a farm too that's had the gizzard taken out of it, than it's worth. It actilly frightens me when I think your agriculture in Britain is progressin', and the land better tilled every day, while thousands upon thouliands of acres with us are turned into barrens. No traveller as I've seed has noticed this, and our folks are not aware of it themselves to the extent of the evil. Squire, you and I won't live to see it ; but if this awful robbin' of posterity goes on for another century as it has progressed for the last hundred years, we'll be a nation of paupers. Very little land in America, even of the best, will carry more than one crop of wheat

arter it's clear'd a'fore it wants manure ; and where it's clear'd so fast, where's the manure to come from ? it puzzles me, (and I won't turn my back on any man in the (mania' line ;) the Lord knows, for I don't ; but if there's a thing that scares me, it's this. • • • •

Yes, too much land is the ruin of us all this side o' the water. Afore I went to England, I used to think that the unequal divisions of property there and

the system of landlord and tenant was a curse to the country ; and that there

was more dignity and freedom to the individual and more benefit to the nation fur every roan to own the land he cultivated, as with us. But I've changed my mind; I see its the cause of the high state of cultivation in England, and the prosperity of its agriculture. If the great men had the land in their own hands there, every now awl then an improvident one would skin the soil and

been ripened by the confidence of success. He not only displays as touch humour and power of keen satire, with shrewdness in perceiving and knack in touching off the weak points of men, but shows a more extensive knowledge of life and politics on the American continent than he did before ; and, occasionally, rising with his theme, exhibits powers approaching pathos or eloquence, of which there was formerly scarce a trace. The topics embraced throughout the colloquies are very various.

.1 As regards America, the Slavery question, the Voluntary system, the powers and expenses of Government, the characters of public men, — and the general state of mind and feeling in the States, are handled. In Canada, the respective political parties are brought into notice. England affords means for a sensible comparison between the institutions of Britain and America, though with a thorou eddy Toryfied leaning in favour of those of the former. The Nova Scotians receive various hints as to internal reforms, mare espe- cially of their own manners; and the colony itself furnishes a fruitful theme for suggestion and speculation.

Respecting Slavery in America, the author takes this rational view—that the point now is, not what is abstractedly right or wrong, but, seeing that the present generation are cursed with the evil, how or by what means are they to get rid of it. Ile illustrates its details with a levity which some may object to, as sporting with too grave a matter; but others may approve, as showing that nature adapts us to the state we are born to, and that it is sudden misfortune, not condition, which in the mass pre- vents enjoy meat. The inflated eloquence of the Americans—the alleged coarseness of their feelings, but their pretence to delicacy— and their affected love for the fine arts, which they neither under- stand nor relish—are struck at unsparingly ; especially in an ac- count of Mr. Slick's excursion to Italy to buy some pictures for the Athenaeum at Slickville. The following extract is from this story. The Clockmaker is engaged in gilding a clock-case, on which he has just painted an allegory, when the Governor of the place

run it uut ; lain' let to others, he Chn't do it himself. and he takes plaguy gond vie by his lease his tenant shan't do it neither. Well tht n, there he is, with his capital to make great improvements, substantial repairs, mud so on, and thiege lire pushed up to perfection.

One of the persons introduced is a broken-down gentleman, an emigrant, addicted to drinking, bankrupt in means, friends, and hope, who follows the despised vocation of schoolmaster. The sketch is very slight,but fearful in its reality. The following diatribe is delivered by him when more than half drunk, at a little public-house; and contains much character, and some truth, we suspect, although exaggerated.

And so you say this is a nice location, do yoa ? Yes, it is a nice location in- deed for a gentlemen, this; a location for pride and poverty, for ignorance and assumption, for folly and vice. Curse the locution ! 1 say ; there's no locatiou like old England. This is a poor man's country, Sir ; but not a rich man's, or a gentlemau's. There's !AM' this side of the water, Sir, approachin' to the class of gentry. They have neither the feelings, the sentiments, nor the breeding. They know nothing about it. What little they have here, Sir, are secontbliand airs copied from poor models that necessity forces out here. It is the farce of high life below stairs, Sir, played in a poor theatre to a provincial audience. Peor as I am, humble as I am, and degraded as I am—for I am now rill three—I have seen better days, nod was not always the bouseless wanderer you now see rue. I know what I am talking about. There is nothing beyond respectable mediocrity here; there never can be, there is no material for it, there is nothing to support it. Some fresh water, any dear ; that horrid water is hot enough to scald one's throat. The worst of a colony is, Sir, there is no field Mr ambition, no room fen talents, no reward for distinguished exertions. It is a rich country for a poor man, and a poor country for a rich one. There is no permanent impel class of so- ciety here, or anywhere ebe in America. There are rich men, learned teen, agreeable men, liberal men, and good men, but very few gentlemen. The breed ain't pure; it is not kept long enough distinct to refine, to obtain the distinc- tive marks, to become generic. Dry work, this talking ; your health, gentle. men. A good fellow that Dulhanty suppose we drink his health ? he always keeps good brandy ; there's not a headache in a gallon of it. What was I talking about ? Oh ! I have it—the location as those drawling Yankees call it. Yes, instead of importing horses here from England to im- prove the breed, they should import gentlemen; they want the true breed. they want blood. Yes, said the Clockmaker, (whom I had never known to remain silent so long before,) I guess. Yea, d—n you, said the stranger, what do you know about it ? you know as much about a gentleman as a eat does of music. If you interrupt me again, I'll knock your two eyes into one, you clock-making, pumpkin-headed, peddling, cheatue Yankee vagabond. The sickly waxwork imitation of gentility here, the faded artificial flower of fashion, the vulgar pretension, the contemptible struggle for precedence, make one tool: across the Atlantic with a longing after the freshness of nature, for life and its realities. All North America is a poor country with a poor ciimate. I would not give Ireland for the whole of it. This Nova Scotia is the be-t part of it, and has the greatest resousees : but still there is no field in a colony for a man of talent and education. Little ponds never hold big fish; there is nothing but pollywogs, tadpoles, and minninis in them. Look at them as they swim through the shal- low water of the margius of their little muddy pool, following some small fellow an inch lung, the leader of the shoal, that thinks himself a whale; and if you do not despise their pretensions, you will at least he compelled to laugh at their absurdities. Go to every Legislature this site of the waiter from Congress to Halifax, and hear the stuff that is talked ; go to every press, and see the stuff that is pointed ; go to the people, and see the stuff that is uttered or swallowed ; and then tell lire this is a location for any thing above mediocrity. What keeps you here, then? said 1th. Slick, if it is such an everlastit,' miserable country as you lay it out to be. tell you, Sir, said he,—and he drained off the whole of the brandy, as if to prepare for the effort,—I will tell you what keeps me; and he placed his hands on his knees, and looking the Clued:maker steadily in the face until every muscle worked with emotion—I'll tell you, Sir, it you must know-- my mistUrtune. The effort and the brandy overpowered him : he fell from his chair ; and we removed him to a bed, loosened his cravat, and left him to his repose.

The person of any capital and intelligence who isabout toemigrate, had better read the book himself; not implicitly believing all the author says in favour of Nova Scotia—for we should not on such a matter rate him as a perfectly trustworthy mind—but weighing his statements, and comparing them with those respecting other colo- nies. The favourable points we may indicate here. The colony is the nearest part of America to Europe; the climate is more healthy

than that of the States, and as good as that of Canada. The country is well intersected by rivers in every direction, and well provided with natural manure. Much of the land is fertile; the native woods valuable and in plenty ; the minerals, especially coal and slate, in large quantities; the taxation next to nothing. The colony is almost an island ; the coast well indented, with far more and thr better ports in its limited circuit than the United States possess in their whole length ; and accessible at all seasons, never being frozen ; whilst the rivers and surrounding sea teem with fish. It only wants attention, immigration, and steam navi- gation, to become a most valuable dependence of the Crown, and eventually a powerful country. Here is the suggestion on steam to Halifax.

The distance, as I make it, from Bristol to New York Lighthouse, is three thousand and thirty-seven miles ; from Bristol to Halifax Lighthouse is two

thousand four hundred and seventy-nine; from Halifax Light to New York Light is five hundred and twenty-two miles—in all, three thousand and one miles; five hundred and fifty-eight miles shorter than New York line, and even going to New York, thirty-six miles shatter to stop to Halifax than go to New

To k direct. I fix on Bristol 'cause it's a better port for the purpose than Liverpool, and the new railroad will be gist the dandy for you. But them

great, fat, purter-drinkin' crittura of Bristol have been asuorin' fast asleep for

half a century, and only gist got one eye open now. I'm most afterd they will turn over, end take the second nap, and if they do they're done fur—that's a

fact. Now you take the chart and work it yourself, squire, for I'm no great

hand at navigation. I've been a whaling voyage, and a few other sea-trips, and I kuow a little about it, but not much; and yet, if I aint pretty conaider-

ably near the mark, I'll give them leave to guess that knows better—that's all. Get your Legislatur' to persuade Government to contract with the Great Western folks to carry the mail, and drop it in their way to New York ; for you

got as much and as good coal to Nova Scotia as England has ; and the steam- boats would have to carry a supply for five hundred and fifty miles less, and could take in a stock at Halifax fur the return voyage to Europe.

The manner of this writer's Canadian remarks is more than his matter, which may be put into small compass. He attributes the insurrection to the arts of the French Canadian leaders and the ignorance of the people ; and thinks the outbreak a fortunate thing, as the former are got rid of. To prevent its recurrence, he ad. vises the establishment of English laws, and the compulsory use of the English language in the courts. He recommends a firm but liberal government for the future, Which should alike disre- gard the clatnours of the Republicans for change and of the offi- cial Tories for increased power, places, and pay, and rest upon the majority of the people, which he says is sound. He indicates dissatisfaction with the ignorance of the Colonial Office, the frequent change in its head, and the consequent vacillation of measures; and suggests a permanent Colonial Board in this country, whose members should be colonists, since no others can understand colo- nial wants and wishes. If a premature independence should be established in the Colonies, he predicts their incorporation with the United States.