This winter, however, of 1867-68 will be memorable for its severity. In Minnesota thirty-six degrees, and in Wisconsin thirty-one degrees below zero had been reached. [Sidenote: _A Snow-bound Party._] During the day that I was detained at the Niagara Suspension Bridge Hotel, I had the company of about a dozen other travellers, snow-bound like myself. The storm was too violent to admit of anyone going outside; there was, therefore, nothing for us to do, except to sit round the stove in front of the bar and talk away the time. Everybody contributed what he could to the general stock of amusement, by making or repeating jokes, or telling stories and adventures, the latter, probably, sometimes participating in the nature of the former. I was called upon to give a detailed account of my run to the Plains and Rocky Mountains. When every other subject was exhausted, politics of course came up. This, as is usual, led to loud denunciations of what is called ‘the corruption’ of all the departments of the Government. ‘But, Sir,’ said one of the party to me, in a determined and fierce voice, ‘the darndest corruption on this side creation is that of the British Government. You give your Cabinet ministers very little, but they all get rich. There are plenty of people who want their help. It was this that enabled Lord Palmerston, during his long official life, to become so enormously wealthy. We Americans keep ourselves well posted in these matters. We have to transact too much business with your public men not to know what we have to do.’ This was from the politician of the party. ‘Sir,’ said another to me, ‘no man can be blamed for travelling in this weather, because no one would stir in it unless he had a big occasion.’ The theory was plausible, but no one present acknowledged that he had himself been drawn away from home by ‘a big occasion.’ In the evening I went into the ladies’ drawing-room. I here found one English and two American ladies. They were all young, and all appeared to be on their wedding tour. One of the American ladies cried herself to sleep because her husband had left her that he might play at cards in the gentlemen’s drawing-room. The other took her husband’s absence for the same purpose very philosophically, consoling herself with a kind of dominoes she called ‘muggins.’ CHAPTER XX. EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT AT TORONTO—CANADIAN ARGUMENTS AGAINST COMMON SCHOOLS—A CANADIAN’S OPINION ON SECULAR SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND—HOW THE CANADIAN’S OBJECTIONS ARE MET IN THE UNITED STATES—UPPER CANADIANS NOT YET A PEOPLE—ADVANTAGES POSSESSED BY UPPER CANADA—SERVICE AT THE ROMANIST AND ANGLICAN CATHEDRALS—UNMANNERLY BEHAVIOUR PERMITTED ON CANADIAN RAILWAYS—BADNESS OF THEIR CARRIAGES—WHY CANADA IS NOT ‘THE LAND OF FREEDOM’—YANKEE SMARTNESS IN TRAIN-DRIVING—PICTURESQUENESS OF VERMONT—TRAVELLING ON AMERICAN RAILWAYS NOT FATIGUING. [Sidenote: _Educational Department at Toronto._]