In a military point of view, its position is weak and extremely vulnerable; yet, if judiciously fortified and competent works thrown up on the peninsulated beach in front, it might be capable of considerable resistance against an attack from the lake. It is very regularly laid out, with the streets running at right angles, and promises to become a very handsome town. The plot of ground marked out for it extends about a mile and a half along the harbour, but at present the number of houses does not greatly exceed four hundred and fifty, the greatest part of which are built of wood, but there are however many very excellent ones of brick and stone, and most of the numerous dwelling-houses annually added to the town are of the latter description. The public edifices are a government-house, the house of assembly for the provincial parliament, a church, a court-house, and a gaol, with numerous stores and buildings for the various purposes of government.

The new college stands immediately opposite the government-house, and comprises five neat brick buildings of two stories high. The centre building, appropriated exclusively to collegiate instruction, is eighty-two feet in length by eighty-five in depth, and surmounted by an elegant ornamental dome. The buildings forming its wings are respectively fortyfive feet square, and are dedicated to the use of the principals, professors, and masters of the college. The lieutenant-governor of the province is, by virtue of his office, the visitor; the principal is the Rev. J. H. Harris, D.D., late fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge; and vice-principal, the Rev. J. Phillips, D. D. of Queen's College, Cambridge. The avowed course of studies pursued comprises the "classics, mathematics, English composition, and history, writing and arithmetic, geography and French;" and it appears that pupils are not allowed to confine their attention to a part of the system laid down, to the exclusion of any of the subjects which it embraces. Such institutions are peculiarly interesting in a new country, and have long been among the desiderata of the province; they are, at the same time, a pledge that intellectual cultivation will go hand in hand with local improvements, and that whilst the industrious agriculturist and the enterprising trader are prosecuting their various meritorious pursuits and speculations, the youth of the colony will be receiving the benefits of collegiate education, the stepping-stone to

eminence in the learned professions, and an advantage no less valuable to the philosopher, the statesman, and the gentleman.

The new parliament-house, the emigrant's asylum, the law-society hall, the Scots kirk, and a baptist chapel are also conspicuous in the list of the recent improvements of the town, and are evidence of much public spirit and prosperity.

The garrison is situated to the westward of the town, at a mile distance. It consists of barracks for the troops usually stationed here; a residence for the commanding officer, now most frequently occupied by the lieutenant governor of the province; a battery and two block-houses, which together protect the entrance of the harbour. The space between the garrison and the town is wholly reserved for the use of government.

The harbour of York is nearly circular, and formed by a very narrow peninsula, stretching from the western extremity of the township of Scarborough, in an oblique direction, for about six miles, and terminating in a curved point nearly opposite the garrison; thus enclosing a beautiful basin about a mile and a half in diameter, capable of containing a great number of vessels, and at the entrance of which ships may lie with safety during the winter. The formation of the peninsula itself is extraordinary, being a narrow slip of land, in several places not more than sixty yards in breadth, but widening towards its extremity to nearly a mile: it is principally a bank of sand, slightly overgrown with grass; the widest part is very curiously intersected by many large ponds, that are the continual resort of great quantities of wild fowl; a few trees scattered upon it greatly increase the singularity of its appearance; it lies so low that the wide expanse of Lake Ontario is seen over it: the termination of the peninsula is called Gibraltar Point, where a block-house has been erected. A lighthouse, at the western extremity of the beach, has rendered the access to the harbour safely practicable by night. The eastern part of the harbour is bounded by an extensive marsh, through part of which the river Don runs before it discharges itself into the basin. No place in either province has made so rapid a progress as York. In the year 1793, the spot on which it stands presented only one solitary Indian wigwam; in the ensuing spring the ground for the future metropolis of Upper Canada was fixed upon, and the buildings commenced under the