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PREFACE
The author begs leave to state that
his object in writing this work is the same as that which prompted
him to make a selection from his notes respecting “ The Canadas in
1841” —a desire that the British public may become better acquainted
with an important British colony through the medium of a person
unconnected with the country described, and therefore unbiassed by
any local influences, politics, or prejudices, but one whose
military duties have stationed him there for a time.
It may be alleged, that the vast territory of Labrador, which is
included in the government of Newfoundland, ought also to have been
treated of. But this would have increased the dimensions of the work
too much, as another volume must, in that case, have been required;
such a volume, however, may possibly be produced at some future
period.
The present position of Newfoundland, where a new system of colonial
government is just at this moment an object of interest, and the
vast importance, to the mother country, of the island, assumed by
its geographical and political position, as the key of Canada, must
tend, it is conceived, further to develop the great interests to the
British nation of Canada and the North American colonies, or
Transatlantic Britain.
It may be added, that this description of the most ancient colony of
Great Britain is only the precursor of another — a more
comprehensive and a larger examination into the present position and
future prospects of Canada, which the author is about to put into a
form fitted to meet the public eye.
R. H. B.
St. John’s, Newfoundland, 26th April, 1842.
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