MR. JOHNSTONE'S "WINTER AND SUMMER EXCURSIONS IN CANADA."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " STECTLTOR.']
Sin,—In the Spectator of October 13th, you refer to Mr. C. L. Johnstone's book, "Winter and Summer Excursions in Canada," as laying a "part of the British public" under a debt of gratitude. Your judgment as to the merits of a book ought to be final, and the book may be as valuable as you say; but if its value depends in any large measure upon the accuracy of its statements, and if the items of information you select for approving notice represent fairly the general trustworthiness of the book, then, speaking from a somewhat wide observation, and after over thirty years' experience of Canada, I have to say that the debt of gratitude referred to need not stagger the British public, or any section of it. The items of information which you consider of such value to those anxiously inquiring as to the future of their sons are entirely misleading, and in some cases entirely false.
To begin with, the Indian population of Canada is less than 125,000, and of Half-breeds there are not 10,000 more, so that the total Indian and 11a7f-breed population of the Dominion is under 135,000, and not, as your authority puts it, 3,000,000. How he came to make his mistake I cannot hope to say ; one feels that a mistake so very great must not be his at all, but must be laid on the shoulders of a proof-reader or some other convenient impersonality.—I am, Sir, &c., [We have been compelled to shorten this letter, but have given the principal correction that affects the short notice which we gave of Mr. Johnstone's book.—En. Spectator.]
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