In a letter to her friend Richard Bentley in Feb., 1859, Susanna Moodie wrote:
"The Commercial prosperity of the country is just now at a stand still. The rail roads do not pay. Numbers of people are out of employment, and half the stores are shut up. The Colony is bankrupt, and cannot take the benefit of the insolvent act. Money is not to be had, and no one can live upon credit. What has occasioned this state of things can only be guessed at. For my own part, I believe it originates in the general love of dishonest speculation, which pervades all the mercantile ranks. They have ruined themselves and others in trying to grow rich at the expense of the country. A general gloom pervades all ranks and the certainty[of] the seat of Government becoming fixed at Ottawa, has put Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, into the sulks. The decision of the Queen was so unexpected, so distasteful to the majority of the people, that the expressions of discontent almost amounted to treason, and the choice of Ottawa, was only carried in the house by a majority of five. A few years will make Ottawa worthy of the royal favor. In natural beauty it far surpasses all its more wealthy rivals, and can be made a noble place with very little trouble. The Queen showed much taste in picking it, and I have no doubt, that the difficulty of deciding between the three great rival cities was one main object in her decision."
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| Sad-Iron Collection ~ Reta Melick |
Mrs. Moodie wrote about pioneer life in Canada in Roughing it in the Bush, a "glowing narrative of personal incident and suffering. . ." ~ the publishers, McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1962.
