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and kept up against it, as well as against that grow- ing in all our American colonies. It is, however, a well-known fact, that vessels built in this island, from fifteen to twenty years ago, are still substantial and tight: this circumstance alone should be sufficient to remove the most inveterate prejudice.

When we View the position of Prince Edward Island, in regard to the countries bordering on the Gulf of St Lawrence, the excellence of its harbours for fishing stations, and take into account that the whole of its surface may, with little exception, be considered fertile and easily-cultivated soil, it does not certainly require the spirit of prophecy to per- ' ceive, that unless political arrangements may inter- fere with its prosperity, it will at no very remote period, or as soon as its population increases to about one hundred thousand inhabitants, become a valuable agricultural as well as commercial country. But before the trade of the island can either flourish or maintain a regular or respectable character, several alterations and improvements must take place. A system ruinous to the cultivators of the soil, and injurious to the credit of the merchants and shop- keepers, grew out of circumstances which might have been, during the early settlement of the colony, in many instances necessary, and perhaps benevolent. This at first was no more than giving credit for a few indispensable articles to emigrants. During the war, it became a systematic business to sell rum, tobacco, tea, and various articles, on credit to the farmer, at enormous advances, which for some years swallowed