■,%. ■,%. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT3) A .^ ^ I I.I 1.25 ^^ ilM |i!||2.2 m 11. Ui lit 1.4 III 2.0 1= !.6 .^ pm i'^ a' : , • n 32X ^^" ^■^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■■'^_ T K \ I' \ The Great .Dominion. AN ADDRESS *\) BY . Edward Jenkins, Esq, M,P., AGENT GENERAL FOR CANADA, 'i-^' TO THE Manchester Reform Club ^ > *■ DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, . 1875. ' ' . • ' ; H . i "> ■TTTTfi^TTT-TPT-YT" •^■'"'''.'T'-'V' ~ 'j^^y^Y^ THE GREAT DOMINION. When an Englishman sets his face westward from Queenstown or Londonderry he looks across the seas to- wards an appanage of the Crown of Great Britain, within 15.0,000 square miles ar large as the whole of Europe^- iu extent of territory surpassing the United States, ex- clusiye of Alaska, by more than 400,000 square miles. It is not enough to say that this is the greatest colony in tlie world. Consider properly its natural resources, its physical grandeur, the variety of both grandeur and re- sources, and the mind wearies in contemplating the possibilities of empire in a region so marvellously endowed. This country, lying between the latitude of Rome and the North Pole, is approached by the unrivalled water- gate of the St. Lawrence. On the left, to the south, keeping watch and ward over the enormons gulf, lie three thriving maritime colonies, constituting together probably the largest and most general shipowning com- munity in the world per head of the population. Let us stay for a few moments and glance at these three provinces — Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. They have the united area of 32,140,173 acres, or Hi.ore than 50,000 square miles, with a popu- lation of 767 415, the average being only 15^ persons per square mile. Of the 32,000,000 of acres it is stated that 25,500,000 are good settlement lands, of which New Brunswick has 14,000,000, Nova Scotia 10,000,000, and Prince Edward Island 1,500,000. The cereals, root, and fruit crops of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and the magnificent savannah lands of New Brunswick, are is i I J almost proverbiiil in North America. 20,000,000, of acres of these provinces are forest lands, and, making allowance for the large proportion of tliese which are of no value, there s^ill remain enormous quantities of lum- ber of the best quality. The value of the total exports of lumber from Nova Scotia and New Brunswicii in the fiscal year ending June, ]873, was $5,:i28,954. From St. John, N.B., alone, 347,181 tons of shipping were engaged in carrying its export of wood. If we turn to the register of shipping we shall find some astonishing items. Nova Scotia owns 430,000 tons. New Brunswick. 300,000 tons, Prince Edward Island 40,000 tons, total 770,000 tons, or about a ton of shipping to each head of the population. The St. John Daily Tu'egraph chal- lenges with just pride any one to find a country, province, tjtate, or community in the whole world, equal in popu- lation, and of whom not more than 3 00,000 liv<> in the cities or large towns, whose people own as much ship- ping as the maritime provinces. "If," says the Telegraphy *^'dl Canada owned shipping in the same proportion, we should have as lai:ge a mercantile marine as the United States. As it is even now we are not so far behind them in sea-going vessels, and we can point with pride to the fact that St. John, with its 2-50,000 tons of shipping, is the fourth town as regards shipping in the British Empire — only being surpassed by Liverpool, London, and Glas- gow — and owns more sea-going vessels than either New York or Philadelphia, a pretty good exhibit for 50,000 people." Or, take again the fisheries ; for the calendar year 1873 the fish product of the three maritime prov- inces reaches a total of $9,000,000. This product is nearly doubled by the United States fishing in English waters. In minerals the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are peculiarly rich, with the great advantage of proximity to the world's commerce. Coal, iron, gold, and stone already yield considerable returns. There is no doubt that both have iron of the very best quality in as favourable proximity to vast coal measures as it is in Great Britain. Nearly 1,000 miles of railway are already in operation, and 5 i5 more are in course of construction. } If you glance at the map you vvili observe that Nova Scotia constitutes a peninsula^ connected by the isthmus of Chignecto with the province of New Brunswick, and that, consecpiently, tlie connnunication of the river and gulf of tlie St. Lawrence with the Bay of Fundy and tlie Atlantic ])orts of the United States can only be establisiied either by going round Ca[>e Breton or by sailing through the Strait of Canso. It is intended to connect the gulf of the St. Lawrence with the Bay of Fundy by a caiial at Bale Verte, which will save between the upper parts of the St. Lawrence and N(;w York more than 500 miles of navigation, to Boston and Portland 400 miles, and to St. John at least 300 miles. Li the mouth of the ffulf lies Newfoundland, having advantages of position and containing within itself undeveloped sources of riches and national strength, wliich might well stay our inquiry for this whole evening, were we not bound to hasten on to vaster areas and more wonderful storehouses of nature. 1,200 niileh round, the whole coast swarming with fish, it has regions whollv unexplored of richlv wooded lands and fine alhivial s(jil. Mr. jMurray, the provincial geologist, has during the summer reported to his Government the discovery upon the Gander River of vast forests of valualjle timber, and of a country capable of supporting an agricultural poi>ulation of at least 100,000 people j and this is but an instahnent of future promise. Passing throuirh the Straits of Belle Lsle you enter upon inland waters stretching inwards for 2,200 miles. The distance to Lake Ontario is 700 miles, and a vessel of 4,000 tons can steam unobstructed to Montreal, a dis- tance little short of 600 miles from the entrance of the River St. Lawrence. On either side is an endless pano- rama of boldness and beauty, of wildness and cultivation,, from the highland mountains of Gas|)e to the smiling fields and (piaint villages of the Isle d'Orleans stretched out in a patciiwork of cultivation. This is the province of Quel>ec. And what a province! Let me group to-' gether a few facts about it. Its length between 700 and 1,000 miles, its breadth about 300. In area it occupies 193,355 square miles, or nearly 124,000,000 of acre8»_ '^^ 6 To this enormous territory there is at present only a • population of 1,191,500, or 6*10 persons per square mile. Yet, one of the oldest colonies in America, imbued with many of the characteristics of an old society, it is well worth statistical or historical research. Nearly one milHon French-speaking Roman Catiiolics here live, proud of the privilege of British citizenship, while retaining their language, their Breton and Normandy patois and songs, their quaint and simple manners and habits of thought, f^ew people in England know what a tield of delightful and picturesque study is within ten days of them in British domain, and ensconced on the very borders of the blaring and novel civilization of America. Turning from the insufficient population to the capacities and attractions of this province, we shall be amazed that it has not developed more rapidly resources more various and splendid than tliose of any State of the American Union. Fisheries along the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and the Labrador coast, ample to support the whole fishing population of Norway and Sweden; timber limits untouched and unsurveyed, cover- ing 107,000,000 of acres; riverine valleys and stretches of plain in the latitudes of Liverpool, London, and Paris, their situation modifying those extremes of temperature which alarm the ignorant, but are viewed by the expert as beneficent climatic conditions, endowing this great province with advantages in health and wealth beyond those of any more southern areas. The most recent surveys of the vast stretches of country in the rear of the settled strips along the northern banks of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers indicate that there lie here undisturbed territories, with soil, climate, and capabilities of access and production, equal to anything yet occupied within the province. The extent of its mineral wealth is as yet only guessed at ; but it is known by survey and experience to be enormous. Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, plumbago, zinc, and other metals — here, within easy reach of English capital, under the protection of British Government, are fields far transcending in promise, security, and facility of access the distant foreign ) El Dorados which so of^-en (hjliide the adventurous speculator. Quebec has been too long shut out from English enterprise, and deserves more attention from the scientific man, the capitalist, and the emigrant. Its fisheries alone would, if properly worked, produce a great revenue. On the shores of the little island of Anticosti, which is 140 miles long, almost uninhabited, a schooner has been known to catch 1,100 barrels of herrings in one day. Codfish and halibut abound, and there is, on Sir William Logan's authority, an arable soil inferior to none on the continent. Here, within eight or nine days of England by steamer, lies this rich pendicle of Quebec, in the possession of some hundred persons, or one to every 200 square miles. On the mainland the vigour of the Provincial Government and of local capitalists is opening the way into new country, or improving communication in the old, by several important railways, one at least of w^hich promises to reduce considerably the distance between the maritime provinces and the Dominion. But returningto our original journey, we must hasten on. From Montreal the astonished visitor may take steamer up the St. Lawrence or the Ottawa, the latter leading him, should he choose to pursue his way by v/ater beyond the last steamboat wharf, towards the very limits of the prov- ince of Quebec, to the latitudes inhabited in Europe by immense populations, but, by an absurd perversity, deemed to be in America too '' northern " for ordinary human beings ; but yet, at all events, affording work enough for the lumberman and his axe for some genera- tions. Or, should the traveller prefer to follow the larger river, he can proceed to the heart of the province of Ontario — itself the very heart and life of the Dominion. The population of Quebec is 1,191,576, and of Ontario, 1,620,850. This province runs south-westerly along the bank of the St. Lawrence to the lake of its own name, stiU keeping a south-westerly direction along Lake Erie, then skirting northwards the great Lake Huron, with its huge embrasure, the Georgian Bay, and passing along the north of Lake Superior to a boundary, as yet unset- iled, lying between longitude 85 and 90 west. o 8 Let me try l)y a few statistics to give an idea of this ni!i,«;iiificent province. In length, from sonth-east to north-west, ahout 700 miles, and from north-east to sonth-west, about 500 miles ; its area, including the inward rivers and lai^es, but excluding the vast inland seas which bounie is un- doubtedly becoming one of the richest agricultural districts in North America. Tlie wheat which is raised here, paying a duty of ]s. a bushel, can be sold in the United States in preference to their native-grown wheat. In- dian corn comes to perfection ; the other cereals and root crops, as might be expected, are of a su]>erior charac- ter ; and such fruits as apples, plums, peaches, and grapes are not readily to be excelled. If you look over the surface of those great districts which have only witii- in a comparatively recent period been opened up for settlement, you will see that it is diversihed by lakes which in Europe would be considered enormous, by chains of smaller lakes^ and by numerous rivers which carry their fertilizing influence in every direction, and enable the inhabitants to comnmnicate by steam from lake to lake and river to river with the greatest facility. Here also, the capitalist may find ready to his hand the means of untold wealth. Iron, copper, lead, plumbago, manganese, silver, and gold are found in vario s parts. The mineral wealth of the northern shore of i ake Su- perior has often engaged the superlatives of touiists and geologists; but it is doubtful whether any of them have^ * bfon iibloto oxpn'ss an adciinatc estiiiiato ol tlie ricluicss of tlie r<'«,'ioii. We only know that ;it Silver Islet aiui in its irnniediati.' vicinity on the shore of tlie lake, there exist some of the rietiest veins of silver in the worM, and it cannot be doubted tliat as soon as the enerL'i<'s of pojju- lationand the 'enterprise of capitalists shall have been directed upon that region of treasure, tliere will be deveh^ped there alone tht! means of employment and sus- tenance for a mining population g.'eater than that of the whole of England. 'J'he English visitor who goes amongst the ];»eople of this province finds here tliat he is with brethn'ii au(i f'-iends. Though almost every nationality in Europe^ from Icehind t») Italy, has its represeutatives, the main- stays of the jtopulation ave thost; from the I*)ritisli Isljinds. Their physical vigour, their British ener!,^y,their loyalty to the Crown, their love for tlu^ country from which they have spruijg, the air of British society, with its manners and tone, which pervades the whole couimunity, makes one feel that here we have but a transfer to a larger area — under novel conditions, it is true — of a pi(!ce of Great Britain. We shall find tl«at amongst these peojde there are a particular freedom, a strength and activity of politic d thought and action, toned nevertiieless by a sound conservative coimnon sense essentially British, which distiuLniishes them markedly from th(^ir mercurial Republican neighbours on the other side of the river -ynd lakes which form the boundary between the two coun- tries. The populfitiou is already about 1,620,000, and, aflbrding as it now does a large tield for the absorption of labour, it promises within the next few years to increase in a ratio equal +o that of some of the most successful of the Western .States. Not many years ago the statesmen of Ontario appeared to be entirely igno- rant of the real extent of its resources. One or two even ventured to state pubhcly that all its cultivable land had been already surveyed and settled ; but as settle- ments were pushed further and further to the north, it was found that among the lakes and rivers, though here and there the spurs of thegreatl-aurentian chain interposed ,i^»snap»* «' 10 a dreary obstacle to settlement, there were valleys of great richness, and ureas of the best land for agricultural purposes. But within the last ten years the gradually advancing waves of population have broken further and further into the interior, and it has been found that Ontario has not yet more than half developed her resources. It is indeed a province of which any English- man may be proud. On eveiy side he sees in railways and roads, and thriving towns and a busy trade, the proofs of a growing State; and should he visit the borders of settlement and see how rapidly civilization is encroach • ing on the ancient, undisturjjed domain of the forest, he may be disposed to turn back contented, and say : ■^' At length I have reached the borders of Empire." But in sooth he has only made a stage. He is but one-third of the way across the great Dominion. At least 40 degrees of longitude intervene between him and the "Western Pacific coast. It is this intermediate terri- tory, o^ -'hich it is impossible in any condensed relation to give an adequate idea, which has been lianded over to the Dominion Government to govern, to develop, to populate, and to convert into ati empire larger and, I think I may truthfully say, more vigorous and power- ful than that of the United States. Starting from the boundaries of Ontario on our way across this tremendous territory, we come to a small square of it, wliich is a sort of midway station across the continent — the province of Manitoba. Compared with tiie province we have been^ considering this is like Lot's, city, tut a little one> coi - taining only some 9,177,600 acres, all lying south of the latitude of London. The great prairie of middle America stretches up into this province, affording to uh'^ agricul- turist fields of loam as rich as that of tiie Western States, but, from the position in which the province lies, in a climate which is superior. You may read in official pub- lications the evidence of experienced farmers, who assert that the wheat and the root crops of this region excel anything they have ever seen in the best-cultivated dis- tricts of England, or of any part of the A merican continent. Wheat weighing from 64 to 68 pounds to the bushel on ■' i ^ 11 land bearing 32, 36 and 40 bushels on acre ; potatoes and other roots of gigantic proportions ; the wheat testified by no less an authority than the Agricultaral Bureau at Washington to be of an extraordinary quality. Such are the facts now made familiar by the Government of Cannda in its emigration hterature. Stretching out a map of the intermediate tract from Red River to the Rocky Mountains you can observe for yourselves one or two remarkable facts. Look to the south of this territory in the United States and you vainly seek for those sources of fertility and climatic salubrity — frequent rivers and lakes. But here, almost from the head of Lake Superior, you track a gigantic system of lakes and rivers, with innumerable feeders and outlets, extending from 1,200 or 1,300 miles to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, from, the snow-capped peaks of which this amazing system originates. Captain Butler says that the forks of the Saskatchewan i little to the east of longitude 105 can, by the construction of a canal 100 miles in length, of an easy course, be brought into direct connection with the St. Lawrence, and allow of sending steamers to Quebec without breaking bulk. During the last summer a single steamer has navigated the Saskatchewan, proving that with little difficulty an internal navigation of over SOO miles can be opened through the North-v/est. The consenting testimony of the comparatively few witnesses to whom we can refer for an opinion ' f the capabilities of this region is that, however limitless the tracts of desert to north and south, a great valley, bright with the radiance of hfe, gloomed with no shadow of death, offers exhaustless welcome to millions of settlers. Speaking of the vast American desert to the west of the 95th parallel, which brings up short the ambitious progress of the United States, Captain Butler says : — '' How it came to pass in the world that to the north of that great region of sand and waste should spread out suddenly the ftiir country of the Saskatchewan, I must l3ave to the guess-work of other and more scientific waiters ; but the fact remains that alone from Texas to the subarctic forests the Saskat- 12 chewan valley lays its fair length for SOO miles in unmixed fertility." Hind, Arclibishop Tac}i<5, Butler, Palliser, and Selwyn, the reports of the exploring parties for the Pacific Rail- way, all confirm this fitct. Of the western curve of the fertile belt, especially that portion through the Blackfeet country (of most of which Butler in winter spoke so sliirhtintrlv), extendinc: for 300 miles alonij the eastern faces of the Rocky i\[ountains, with a varying breadth of from sixty to eichtv miles — one scientific and official observer speaks as " the fut\ire irarden of the Dominion," magnificent with regard to scen« ry, with soil of surpass- ing richness, and in respect of climate with an average temperature during the winter months lo deg. higher tlian that of the western portion of Ontario. Here, as yet uninhabited excejit by the roving Indian and the wild [inimals of the prairies and forest, are undoubtedly regions of cultivable land, and of a climate as salubrious for a hardy race as any in tiie world ; an area greater than that now inhabited by- 40,000,000 of American citizens. The tide of emiirratio!!, which has been bearinii* upon the centre of the American continent, and been rollinir westward in srreat waves, is now checked l)y tiie impassable borders of tlie great American desert. Who can doubt tliat it will diverire to the north, and bear its currents of life and civilization up the great valley of the Saskatchewan ? The last link in this long cliain of empire is British Columbia, on the western coast, combining in itself almost all tlie advantages possessed by the most favoured northern countries of Europe, with a concentration and variety of wealth and solidity of promise which, could it. onh' be reached by population, would make of it alone a mighty nation. AVe sltall see directly that British Col- umbia has, in its situation, climatic advantages rivalling those of Great Britain. A great stream running from the tropics impinges upon its coast and disseminates its salubrious influences over an extent of country nuudi greater than that of the British Isles. The facts related about this wonderful region, whether as regards its. 13 jigviciiltural capacity or its mineral riches, are almost incredible. It is said that in its forests are trees of six, ten or even twenty-seven to thirty feet in diameter, some of them ranging from ] 50 to ;300 feet in lengtli without knots or branches. Tiie total area is 350, UOO square miles, of vvhicli tlie wheat area south of lat. o-5 deg. N. is 96,000,000 acres. $22,000,000 of gold have been extracted from its gold mines, which can scarcely be said to have beer, as yet fairly explored. Its coal tields, in which are found veins unexampled in size and quality, will j)robably before long be the chief source of supply for Pacific navigation. Tlie result of recent explorations of these coal tields gives these surprising facts. The productive area may be safely considered to be at least 300 square miles. Following the rule applied to coal fields in Soutii Wales, the Union Mine at Cromot alone would yield 16,000,000 tons per s(piare mile, and. the Bayneg Sound Mine 7,860,000 tons per square mile. The uotal thickness, it is stated, of the coal measures in the Nanaimo coal fields may be safely estimated at 2,500 feet. It will be seen at once how important this, place — so fortunately situated, so richly endowed by Nature^ — is likely to become. The Canadian Pacific Railway will place New Westminster some 500 miles nearer London than San Francisco. The railv/ay will run upon a, lower and more level grade. The greater part of it will pass, as we have seen, not like the Union Pacific Railway through a desert, but through a country capable of bearing a vast population. No harbours like those of British Columbia can be found on the Pacific coast, and when communications are established and trade is developed between the Pacific shores of the Dominion and China, Japan, and even Australia, who can doubt the important part which British Columbia is destined to play in the history of the British Empire. Thus we have surveyed from end to end this domain, which we love to look upon as but a vast suburb of Great Britain. I have shown that from Newfoundland to the north of Lake Superior there is yet room for an enor- mous additiiiual population, and that soil remains untilled, I W III J '? 14 promising industries are neglected, and mines of wealth ie unregarded alike by the capitalist and the labourer. lu Great Britain the movements which are going on in society around us need cause us less anxiety when we see such an outlet for ill-paid or discontented labourers, such a field for superabundant capital. If) for instance, the w^ages of labourers in some of the agricultural districts prove that two men are looking after one man's work, it is not enough that economists should tell us that it would be possible by financial and economic reforms — which it would take probably a century to effect — to mitigate the unhappy lot of a struggling population ; or if, looking at the disputes which have taken place during the last two years in the coal and iron trades, we see from the fact that, while for so great a length of time large bodies of men ceased to be productive, nevertheless prices are fail- !T>g and wi'^es are decreased, it is a mathematical de- monstration that in that market also ther,e exists at this moment a surplus of labour. Is this surplus to continue to introduce its disturbing elements into the social crucible, or is it to be turned into the wider and more elastic moulds which British colonies afibrd "? Or. again, it is not improbable that amongst the results of the great move- ment in the agricultural districts, one of the most impor- tant will be that the small farmers will find it impossible to hold their ground. They have some capital, they have energy, they have knowledge and experience, and many of them have families, to aid them. For such people as these, driven from the land in which they and their fathers for generations, perhaps, have settled, what better alternative can be offered than large farms of rich land at moderate prices, in a Dominion governed by British laws, without the restraint and obstructions of vested interests and social prejudices, amongst neighbours and friends who are at once biothers and compatriots. This is the nearest colony to Great Britain ; this is the colony in which the climate is best suited to the vigorous and active energies of the natives of Great Britain. This is the country which, lying alongside of one great nation, in which there is a daily increasing demand for its agricul- ? 15 tural products, and within so easy reach of the other great nation to which it is akin, is the most ready field for British emigration. With laws like our own, under the same Sovereign, with a people who in race are our brethren and in characteristics our compeers, is it a foolish fancy to look forward to the time wh^n this shall be the greatest suburb to the metropolitan centre of the British Empire ? Let us now take a comprehensive glance at the Dominion in regard to some of its general charac- teristics. Tht; superficial area of Canada, including New- foundland, is over 3,500,000 square miles, or about 150,- 000 square miles less than the whole of Europe, in the latitude of the greater part of which it lies. The whole of the United States, including Alaska, is only 3,390,000 square miles, or 13 0,000 less than Canada; and, as we have repeatedly to recognize, Canada hais a larger territory fit for population than the United States. In a few sentences I may disabuse your minds of errone- ous ideas regarding the Canadian climate, which are very prevalent. For the production of cereals the climate of the greater part of Canada is superior to that of the United States, and is equal to tliat of the best grain-growing countries of Europe. Over the latter it has the advantage of higher summer temperature, and more summer rain — this is the secret of its superiority over the Repubhc. The western half of the United States om the 100th meridian is desert — scorched by similar hot summer winds to those which, commencing on tlie West Coast of Africa, blow across the vast eastern continent, creating a band of death and desolation. ''It is questionable whether there is an acre of what a Canadian or English farmer would call good land for wheat and cultivable grasses between the Mississippi and Pacific slope." Now, grain and grasses ripen best in a summer of 60 to 70 degrees. The summers of a vast region across the centre of the Dominion are in this fertile range, with a summer rain- fall shown by tables to be ample. Tlie summers of such States as Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, whither too many English farmers and labourers have gone, are 10 degrees to 15 degrees higher than those of the best grain and grass ^' ^t Ml t ,f 1(J districts, and JO degrees too liigh for wheat, barley, «fcc., -and the cultivable grasses. Facts are confirrnutive of these theories. ''The three decennial censuses of Canada show that she produces more abundant and surer crops of cereals, grains, grasses, and roots, and of better quality, than any of the States of the Republic." The Canadian census of 1851 showed that even then Canada produced one-sixth as much wheat as all tlie thirty-one States and four Territories, Iialf as nmch peas, over one-seventh as much oats, one-quarter as much barley, and nearly one- eighth as much hay. In ISGO and 1861 she had one- sixth in wheat, between a quarter and one-fifth in oats, in barley one-third, and in peas nearly equal to 34 States and Territories. Consider the positions of Canada and the United States relatively to Europe, and you will readily understand this. The parts of Europe north of latitude 45 degrees embrace the British Islands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Plungary, Switzerland, Lombardy, part of Sardinia, and most of France and Russia. The chief grain and grazing portions of Europe are in the higher parts of the temper- ate "^one, and so they will be on the American continent. The whole of the United States east of the lakes, except Maine, is south of 45 degrees. The enormous water system of Canada tends to improve its climate for agricul- ture, and the shores of British Columbia are made tem- perate by a warm ocean current, resembling the Gulf Stream. It is stated that there are in the Dominion 1,500 lakes and rivers. In its extreme breadth from ocean to ocean, from the 49th parallel of north latitude, it stretches for 3,006 geographical miles. In its greatest depth it is 2,150 geographical miles. The basin of the St. Lavvrence and its estuary comprises an area of about 530,003 square miles. The great lakes cover about 130,000 square miles of this vast cistern. Passing up beyond this. Lake Winni- peg is 500 miles in length, and through it and its sister lakes, the Manitoba and the Winnipegosis, we communi- cate with the Saskatchewan, which runs for 900 miles from the Rocky Mountains. The Dominion is surrounded 17 by more than 11,000 miles of sea-coast. Of course, a vast portion of this, towards the Arctic region, is not only uninhabitable, but cannot be reached for fishing pur- poses. Still there are left along the coasts of Labrador, in the Gulf of tlie St. Lawrence, in Hudson's Bay, and on the Pacific coast inconceivable quantities of market- able fish. But these supplies are not confined to the sea-coast; the great lakes of the interior, and the still great, though lesser waters of Ontario and the Korth-west territories, abound with fish, w^iich is a favo :e food with the inhabitants. The fisheries of the Domini n pro- duced, in 1870, $6,577,392; in 1S71, $9,570,110. In financial position Canada occupies a very proud and healthy elevation. Her debt does notexceed $120,000,000, or, taking the population at 4,000,000, about ^6 3s. 3d. sterling per head. Few of the colonies can exhibit such a balance-sheet, and none such resources. More than half of this debt is represented by public works, canals, har- bours, lighthouses, river improvements, railways, «&c., and over $40,000,000 by railway and provincial securi- ties. In four years — namely, from 1869 to 1873^ — the trade of the Dominion leaped up from $128,000,000 to $217,304,516, an increase of nearly 89 J milhons. The total value of the exports from the Dominion for the fiscal year ending June, 1873, was $90,610,573, and of the im- ports $126,586,523. The banking statistics of Canada show a steady growth, combined with a strength of posi- tion her Republican neighbours might well envy. The f)anic of 1873-4 in the United States affected Canada ifctle. Her banks stood firm, and it will be shown by the statistics of 1874 how superior her people were to their neighbours in caution and resource. The paid-up capital in Canadian banks for the year 1872-3 amounted to $55,102,959; circulation, $29,516,046. From June, 1870, the banking capital rose from $29,- 801,000 to $55,102,000 in 1873. In one year, 1872-3, the capital rose from $44,741,000 to $55,102,000, an increase of 22*08 per cent. The joint circulation of Government and banks for 1872-3 was 33 to 40 million dollars per month. B 1^ 18 The circuLitioii and (l(?posits of Ontario and Quebec for 1S64 and 1)574 were : — 1864. 1874. Increase. Circulation - $9,748,000 $33,188,000 340 per cent. Deposits - 24,575,000 70,090,000 310 per cent. Nothing perhaps more signally illustrates the different characteristics of Canada and tlie Republic than their municipal, provincial, and Dominion atlairs of finance. Instead of reckless and corrupt public expenditure, or wild, immoral, and private speculation, even the worst days of Canadian political finance have shown no such wholesale rottenness as seems to have entered into the very veins of Republican administration and society ; her pri- vate monetary adventures have been generally free from the mad indifference to consequences which sometimes appears to possess that mercurial people, and from time to time involve so many of them in disastrous ruin — a ruin which their temperament enables them to face with equanimity. I do not wish to institute a comparison with other colonies, but I venture to say before a company of Man- chester merchants that for safe investment there is no field now o[>en to British capital superior to Canada. There have been, it is true, some slight indications of a speculative epidemic in railways and in town lands — a natural impulse, no doubt, from the marvellous develop- ment of the new Confiederation. But it will not find congenial soil. The people as a rule are cautious and steady : their modes of business are more British than Yankee. It ought to be known that money can be safely invested to [)ay from 7 to 10 per cent, on mortgage of town or agricultural lands, with most ample margin, in Ontario and Quebec; that judicious investments at superior rates of interest can constantly be made in the securities of railways (managed and financed on the spot and not by able boards, of ignoramuses in London), in steamboat companies, and in municipjd and financial debentures of good security. Among the mines of Nova Scotia, Que- bec, and Luke Superior, it must be that before long I , 19 English capitalists will fiill upon fortunes that will realize Dr. Johnson's aphorism of the '' potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice." This, then, in the boldest outline, is the Dominion of confederate colonies, upon the political constitution and the natural and commercial resources of which I was asked to-night to give a disquisition. It is clear enough from the time it has taken to draft this mere outline, that to perform the task in any adequate degree was simply impossible. No single camera can take in the view ; no single canvas would contain the picture. You nmst be content with but a few side glimpses of its national life. One of the comn. 7i\est errors amomr the i^rnorant classes in Great Britain is to confound Canada with the United States. That error has been assiduously cultivated by the agents of American railway and land companies, and has seriously injured the colony with the emigrating population. It is almost as frequent an error of better- cultivated people to confound Canadians with Yankees, and to conceive that there is little in the politics, the social life, the tone and manner of the Canadian people, distinctive from those of the United States. If in some unfortunate instances of Canadian travellers and Canadian newspapers there may appear to be just grounds for this confusion, it is nevertheless, as regards Canada, a serious blunder. With many of the characteristics of a new community, developing its strength witli a rapidity and freedom unobstructed by old rules, habits, customs, and privileges, the Canadian Government and people are, nevertheless, markedly different from the (iovernment and people of the United States. In t)ie one you have universal suffrage, in the otlier property qualification ; in the one institutions purely democratic, in the other ample popular freedom without the libertinism of a Republican Government; in the one you have a society bent upon the reduction of every individual to one level, in the other a judicious, without a bigoted and tyrannical, recognition of the diversities of human ability and position j; in the one you have a quaint commingling of habits and manners, half continental, half English, in the other you 20 have moro of the sodateness nnd perhaps more of tlie rougli but sohd capacity of tlie British cliaracter; in the one you have the rehition of tlie executive to the country constantly involving political difficulty and danger, in the other order is established on a footing as secure as the throne of Great Britain. The difference is remarkable. You notice it as soon as you have passed the line. It runs through all society, and it modifies every relation of life. Another remarkable feature of these new communities is the freedom and elasticity of their politics, their legis- lation, and even their administration. To begin with tlie latter, it would probably strike an English official aghast to visit Ottawa and view the Ministry and officials in harness. There is red-tape in Canada, as there is I suppose in every official community, but they manage to run very little of it off the reel. The office of the Premier is protected from the public by a small ante-room, where the messengers intercept visitors of every class and station, who come on the smallest occasions for a personal inter- view. If it is a matter which can be settled by a few words to another Minister he wnll put on his hat and accompany his visitor to that Minister's room. Notes or memoranda save many despatches, and instead of posting acres of correspondence about the public buildings the Minister will make a call or send a message. But this accessibihty and freedom, according to my observation, is essentially different from that of the United States. It is not based on the '^ I'm-as-good-as-you " and '' you're- my-servant" principle, which draws out of American society that best and stillest fibre of all society, the recognition of relative rights ; but it is tlie curtness, the facility of business men, who always in their bluntest moments strive to make it understood that they rest upon the amenities of life. When you get a Canadian imbued with the Yankee notions of equality you get what Artemus Watd would term the ^'cussedest of cusses ;" but, thank God, such creatures are the exception in Canadian experience. 21 pol What I have callt'd " the freedom and elasticity of itics and legislation " has been evinced a hundred times in the expenence of the Canadian provinces. Could I to-night review tiie history of constitutional refonns, of educational, ecclesiastical, or social measures in the maritime provinces and in Quebec with their Catholic population, in Ontario with its many elements of fiery political disturbance, it would, with all its untoward incidents, be an astonisiiing, and to us who live in Eng- land an almost incredible, tale of mutual forbearance for tlie general interest. Take an instance in which religious or merely class passions are little, if at all, involved — the reform of local Government. In England this has been a task Herculean, at which man of power after man of power has tried his strength and either wholly failed or produced but puny remedies. Boundaries of municipalities, bounds of con- stituencies, bounds of counties, of parishes, and unions, and then of local Government districts, and boards of health, there they lie, each of them defended by a garrison ; and who dare try to readjust them ? But here before me is a masterly-drawn Act of 515 sections, passed in one session of the Ontario Legislature, and intituled, *' The Municipal Institutions Act," which collects, codifies, and amends the laws regulating the municipal Govern- ment in all its branches for that province. It is preceded, with unique judgment, by a synopsis and analytical index in thirty-two closely-printed pages. In the Act is set forth the law regulating tlie model municipal constitu- tion of Ontario, with its grades of counties or united counties, townships, cities, towns, and villages. Repre- sentative councils in each case manage the affairs of their special jurisdiction. In the counties the council consists of the reeves or deputy reeves of those townships and villages within the county which have not withdrawn, from county jurisdiction, as they may by certain for- malities. Cities have mayors and aldermen, towns mayors and councillors, with a reeve and deputy reeve in certain cases. A village or township council consists of a reeve and four councillors, with additions in certain cases. 22 This vast system is worked out with tiie greatest sim- plicity uud «aso. It is elastic and facile in its movement. Provision is made for tiie continual changes in population, for the occupation of new territory, the addition of fresh nuinicipalities, anportunity and strength to that party — never a very large one, but occa,xOnally a very active one — which was in favor of annexation to the United States. Independence then was of course a dream. But when it w^as suggested that Canada should be left to its fate by the Government and the Empire of wdiich she was one of the brightest jewels, men's minds turned by general consent to the question whether nothing could be done to unite her into a nation capable of supporting itself should it be obliged to become independent, or, in the hoped-for continuity of its relations to the British Empire,, able to insist upon and maintain those relations on a more equitable basis. For ten years, from 1854 to 1864, here and there men of some eminence in the ^'arious provinces propounded ideas of confederation, but their speeches led to no practical results. The solution was brought about by a dead-lock in the Legislature of Canada, which then 25 embraced the existing provinces of Ontario and Quebec. I might have cited this great confederate scheme as one of the instances of the flexibihty of Canadian pohtics. So soon as it was seen that union was a necessity, all things gave way to it. It was settled by a convention in six months, and after considerable discussions, both at home and in the colony, the Act passed the Imperial Legislature in 18G7. The ease with which this important measure has been accomplished, especially considering the differ- ent mterests and various populations, the diverse races and religions, whose status was intimately involved, w^ould seem to show that after all, if public opinion throughc it the empire were once to begin to turn in that direction, the diversities of position, the differences of Government, the varieties of social life, might really all be adjusted in har- mony with a system of Imperial Government for Imperial purposes, and of local Govenim^^nt for each locality. The action of this great measure was immediately to give a national impulse and stabihty to the Canadian provinces, which now find themselves bound together by fiscal, postal, railway and canal, and military arrangements. The people are beginning to acquire that national sentiment which alone can enable them to put their country in the position to treat upon an equality with Great Britain as a member of the Brirish Empire. This is a necessary precedent to Imperial federation if ever it is to be accom- plished. Speaking to Manchester economists I ought to draw your attention to one point which, in discussing the fiscal policy of the confederation, appears frequently to be overlooked. It must be remembered that in Canada, being a new country, with all the latent resources of which I have to-night spoken, revenue is not only neces- sary for Government, but is also essential for develop- ment. Such a reverme it is averred can only, over so sparsely-settled a country, be levied by indirect taxation. Hence it is important to note that the taxation of Canada ; is not for protection, but for revenue. Taxes are equally imposed on British and on foreign manufactures, and this was the policy which, after the adoption of free trade in this countiy, was dictated by Earl Grey to the colonies. In December, 1S4G, he thus wrote to Lord Elgin : — 26 '^ The same relief from the burden of differential duties the 8th c. 94, lias enabled their respective Legis- w'hich has been granted to the British consumer, and 9th Vict., latures to be extended to the British Colonies, by em powering them to repeal the differential duties in favour of British produce imposed in the' e colonies by fonner Imperial Acts." " So far as [this] I can have no doubt that the Colonial Legislatures will gladly ava^'l themselves of the power " thus conferred. The policy of protiection, abandoned at the instance of Great Britain, is discarded by the opinion of the majority of the Canadian people. Undoubtedly there are both active and able agitators for protection, actual or incidental, but in face of the position, of the necessities of the Government; and of the difficulties of raising a revenue in another way, it is idle for English Chambers of Commerce and eminent newspaper scribes to accuse the Canadian people either of hostihty or in- difference to the British connection. No doubt there are instances of incidental protection, and these probably the leaders and adherents of the present Government of Can- ada will endeavour gradually to remove, because their policy isessentially a liberal policy, based uponarecogni- tion of established principles of economy and of economic administration in the State, howeveriinpertectly they may, in the present situation ofaflairs, be able to embody these principles in their policy. But, nevertheless, it is clear that the incidental protection I speal^ of is not sufficient to exclude British trade. In 1871-72 the trade with Great Britain co./tituted $87,500,000 or 47-17 per cent, of the whole trade of Canada. Including the trade with other British provinces, the trade exceeded half the whole of the Canadian trade of the year. If you ask whether there is not in Canada a party of manufacturers who are in favour of protection, I am bound to admit that there is ; but no one would think of comparing the mere streaks of protective pohcy in the Canadian political strata with the vast protective conglomerate of the other side of the border. Probably the rapid rush into these colonies of a population interested in selling agricultural products in -the dearest market, and buying its requirements in the -«BC 27 cheapest, will be the best antidote to protective heresies, the most fortunate circumstance tor British trade. Happily, tlie severe views of one school of financial reformers and economic enthusi .sts about the policy of emigration are being gradually discredited by the mere force of circumstances. Another very marked result of confederation has been to develop the loyalty of the Canadians into a much more general, practical, and genuine feeling. While no British buldier occupies the citadel of Quebec, or the garrisons of St. John, or Kingston, or Toronto, there is a Canadian militia which can be enrolled up to the number of 700,000 fighting men, w'liich is animated by the military b^)\nt, and inspired by a loyalty f deep and true as that of any Imperial soldier. Harsh and ungenerous as were the terms by which this policy w^as carried out under Lord Granville, and accompanied by words as unkind and impolitic as the acts, we may perhaps be grateful that it has led to consequences no more disastrous than the development of anindependent military power colleagued with Great Britain to the noith of the great Republic. As for maritime ascendency, Canada will be able to pat upon the ocean as fine and as numerous a body of fight- ing sailors as the Republic itself. But we may safely regard war with the United States as a bogey invented to frigiiten British politicians. Tlie Canadians therefore at this moment are not exactly in the position which it was said they once occupied, of mere foster-children hanging upon the breasts of their mother country ; but they are men capable of maintaining their own position and of asserting their own rights, and it would be well for both the Government and people of Great Britain to recognize that fact. In this situation their loyaltj to the Empire is all the more trustworthy as it is the more remarkable and magnanimous. I think I may safely say that there is growing up an opinion in Canada in favour of permanent union with the British Empire on very equitable terms. I could, were there time, allude to the remarkable utter- ances of Mr. Blake, one of the most distinguished of •Canadian statesmen, who has distinctly and deliberately 28 thrown himself into tlie fore-front of tlie mo»'eraeiit ira favour of an Imperial Confederation. This, I know, is viewed by some persons, and voiy eminent persons, in Canada, as well as by a numerous and influential class of the community, as a chimera — so was n^form, so wa» free trade, so was the abolition of the slave trade. But when it is considered that it must be either Imperial con- federation or Imperial disintegration, it may be asked whether the man who considers that the probabihties of the permanency of an Empire based upon pohtic con- cessions and just recognitions of mutual rights and obli- gations is less visionary than one who entertains the]:»ros- pects of a dissociation of the elements of an Empire so strong, so universal, so knit together by ties of kindred, of government, of interest, and of national glory I It is- true that tliere have recently been imputations freely case upon the loyalty of the members of the existing Government in Canada, by a notorious pumpkin-squeezer in the Tory press.- Their treatment of the question of Reciprocity and of the Pacific Railway has been pointed to as indicative of their desire to bring about annexation with the United States. It is not my business to defend or attack the policy of this or that Canadian Government, but upon a question of fact and of probability I may with- out impropriety make a statement. To my mind no more gross or wanton falsehood could be first of all asserted and then wilfully maintained. There can only be one opinion on the part of anvbody who has taken the trouble to look into the financial position of the Dominion at the time the present Govermnent came into power, and at those engagements into which the previous Government had entered with British Columbia — viz., that to carry out those engagements in their integrity would have been a stupid and idle waste of the resources of the Dominion. It would more than have doubled the debt of Canada ; it would have taxed her resources — resources better devoted to the development of population and wealth — to the utmost ; it would have created a vast and costly Govern- ment patronage, and a constant financial derangement which must always have been perilous to good and econo- mic and honest govenmient. Great as must have been the niortitication of Imperial and Caufidian statesmen to find that a solemn compact entered into by a Government •could not be carried out with jnsticeto 3,o00,000 people, whilst it involved an injustice to some few thousands on tlie distant shores of the Pacific, — I venture to say that 110 impartial Canadian politician or financier, and no sensible Enghsh critic, economist, or statesman, will look upon the conduct of the present Canadian Government in regard to this matter as dictated by anytiiingbatsound .and necessary pohey. As to the libel tliat their object was disloyal, the practical action of the Canadian Ministry, and especially of the Premier, who is the Minister of Public Works, in pushing forward communications by "telegraph and by railway, and in opening the speediest route by water to the Rocky Mountains, proves that their desire is only to hasten that increase of population which will enable Canada to hold her own in agriculture, conmierce, and manufactures with the rival Republic. The Recijirocity Treaty I do not propo.se to discuss to-night, since it appears by a telegram that it is practi- •cally dead ; but it is a very curious comment on charges of disloyalty and annexation that the proposals of the Oovernment should have beei view^ed by the Protection- ists of the United States with so much disfavour as to render it impossible to carry the Treaty ! Mr. Mackenzie, the Premier of Canada, has very frankly and clearly expressed his views of the future of Canada. In a speech to the Dominion Board of Trade at Ottawa, in February, 1874, he said : — "I need not inform Mr. M'Laren and the other Annerican delegates present, for they must, I am sure, be all conscious of it, that it is an •established fact that there are to be two nationalities on this Contin- ent. ... It will be our policy, our ambition, to open up the country and settle our vast territories, which, we hope, will attract ^ large share of the immigration that is at present flowing into the United States from the old settled countries of Europe. . . . Our friends fi'om the Western States who are present may depend upon it that no effort will be wanting on our part which energy and money can secure, to have the higliway of the St, Lawrence made all that our commercial men can desire, at a comparatively early dav. And ■when that highway is completed, instead of there being any talk about our joining the nationality to the South, perhaps a slice of thatnation- ;ality may wish to join us." 30 We have this evening been taking, as it were, a Pisgah view of this great land of promise. Spies have been sent out and have from time to time returned with stories of giant difficulties in the way of settlement, but the best evidences are the facts of progress which have to-night been laid before you. This review must have convinced you of the importance to us of tliis vast colony as a field for the population which our economy has as yet devised no scheme to enable us adequately and comfortably to support — as a field for the employment of our super- abundant capital, which surveys the world from China to Peru in search of opportunities of gain — as a field for the best and noblest expansion of the British race, and wealth, and power. It is no extreme thing to say tiiat the time may come when the Canadian people will tal^e their share in bearing the burdens of empire. When one looks out over the continent of Europe and sees the un- easiness which is prevailing amongst the nations — the huge armaments and military levies w^iich threaten to convert half the population into unproductive bandits, looking for opportunities of violence — we cannot but feel, amidst cur anxieties for the future of Enaland, that a time may come when we shall congratulate ourselves that, in facing vast international disturbances on this side of the water, we have at our back the assured loyalt} and the infinite resources of our Great Canadian Empire.. '.Uan,||ll. »..!l>