Sketches on a tour through the northern and eastern states, the Canadas & Nova Scotia

“I learned… that there was a class of persons in Nova Scotia called the Blue Noses (so called from a kind of potato which thrives well here.) Whether this nick-name is an appropriate one or not, I did not become sufficiently acquainted with their habits to determine. This much however is true, that they are not in the habit of setting a very high value either on their own time or that of others.”

“In spite of the large extent of barren and rocky land in the south, and what is a more serious evil, those seven or eight months of frost and snow, which crowd the labors of the agriculturalist into so brief a season, the resources of the province are very great.”

“In this province the stranger may see that there is a political dissatisfaction among the inhabitants; however not to so great an extent as in the Canadas. In this province may be heard complaints against the British government, for their habitual disregard of the claims of native merit, as citizens native born, men too of the greatest talent and moral worth are excluded from the most important places of trust and honor; all posts of rank and profit being awarded to foreigners, or which is the same thing, to natives of the mother country, who they contend, have not their hearts in the country where they are but temporary soujourners, which by the way, is not so absurd an argument as is sometimes held forth in matters of less importance.”

Myers, J. C. Sketches On a Tour Through the Northern And Eastern States, the Canadas & Nova Scotia. Harrisonburg [Va.]: J.H. Wartmann and brothers, prs., 1849. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059481047