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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planchb^, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cWchi, il est filmd A partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 ♦ • 6 «^ 1^ ,'^ THE GREAT DOMIXION R; in This Edition is Intended for cirmhuion onlji In Tndia and the British Cohnies. flDacinitlau'g Colonial librai\\ TUE GREAT DOMINION STUDIES OF CANADA m GEORGE R. PARKIN, M.A. HON. LL.D. UKIV. NEW BRUNSWICK niTJI MAPS ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1895 No. 205. Richard Ci.ay axd Sons, Limited, LO.\UO.\ AND CfNGAY. fc 'p^9 PREFACE The great or part of the matter contained in the following ])ages ai)pearcd during the past year in a series of letters to the Times. Those letters were the result of a somewhat careful study, made in behalf of that journal during the autumn and winter of 1892-3 of many parts of the Dominion which I had not visited bef(n'e, as well as of other portions with which I had long been familiar. A later visit, made during the sunnner of 1894, has enjibled me to make many additions on ipiestions of interest, and in a few minor points to correct earlier impressions. It also gave me the opjjortunity of submitting my statements on various questions to the judgment of friends whose criticism derived special value from their full knowledge of particular localities. The form in w^hich the studies originally appeared necessarily involved the choice of a limited numbci* ot subjects and condensed treatment. It will therefore hv understood that no attemi)t is here made to treat ex- haustively the manifold conditions of a country which, like Canada, covers half a continent. The object kept steadily in view has been rather that the letters should, so far as they go, leave upon the mind of the reader a true impression. An endeavour has also been made to select those subjects upon whicli it seems most necessary that accurate information should be easily accessible, VI Preface !i and ii incjisui'ctl jndginciit liiniKd, l»uth within ihf dominion and without. ■ 'rh(! oi'dtT <»r tn-atniciit has \)vv\\ dcttiininrd l>y con- sidrrations otlin- tlian those of ^Tut^i-iqihiral continuity. Directly or indirectly the studi»'s will, I think, Ik; t'otmd to (ouch ni)on the most siuniticant conditions of Canadian lite, the most important! of the ])rublems whidi confront Canadians, and those external relations which liave the ureatest 'General interest. It has been a satisfaction to find that throughout Canada they have, in their original form, been very generally accepted as fair statements of the questions with which thev deal. As I have never hesitated to point out the drawbacks and linntations of the country as well as its advantages, this a))pi'oval seems to indicate that Canadians have reached a point where they are quite willing that the merits and defects of their country should be freely weighed together. The fact marks an important stage in the groAvth of a self-reliant feeling in a young connnunity. There are good grounds for believing that the diffusion among British peoi>le of trustworthy information ab(3ut the various parts of the empire, and concerning the place which each of the greater divisions, at least, is fitted to hold in the national system, will do much to keep the lines of further national develoi)ment in true directions. I can only hope that what is here written of the greatest of the colonies may in some slight degree serve this purpose. My best thanks are due to the proprietors of the Times for their readily granted permission to reproduce in another form material which first ai)))eared in their columns. G. R. P. LoMJO>', January, 1895. (M)NTEXTS lAl.K IN'TTKUiI'CTOTlV | CHAPTKIt I Tirr VORTIf-WT'SiT C) rHAlTKT; II THK SKVnEs iO!» IXDKX . « », • •*«••» 245 J\IAP8 A MAI' OF THK DOMINION OK CANADA, SHOWINO TIIK CANADIAN I'AriKic KATT.WAV To facf pmif \ (•NTAIUU AND (^IKBEC RAILWAY SYSTEM TDK MAUITIME niOVINTES RAILWAY SYSTEM . To /me 2^ny(- NO To face pafjf 1 y(J ? LL. VKdt IS4 209 245 tfi i:^ I7(> — VT ISO" IH) .lol'' >^ J30' _7^ no !00 _ -J.-.— 1)0' BO >jm;^ "^ / MO lf% .i,!* „f„rl^ / V^ . M' "S .■■3ktf' ■"^ \ \ I '»«, \, \ 111 "^"^ ''M 'nm. Sirf V'.',,^ '>„. J. -/"^^:£^^if^ ,&iAnj , e UnAfttyiffM m .'■^> / \ ^'.^ ^■,Q;(: '|5 ^■>^- /< ..-#7 ,. ■Wtfte'-^ W,; y< '> ff^^ n ^K }^ W':'ii Ai ''ATlf'LSS. fish'- r..'ii>uUiiwift<" ty I ^^^''otittan II V 1) s < / rt' -^ .■••^'^^ ''■^v '*"ii/y,H4, l<>i»r """,/. olh. ""vd / ./■ /{ .11 l.i// » K^' ..-^ ^ L* r-^a VyV .:^^ '% ""»'■*«„; 1 ,/,< i:l\,Ui:uu ^?Sr: ?«'l' ^ L l-.^-?.;!^ M^^. / IHO 'XY^'R] ^ \:-y ■" l.iiin;: West no iir (ircciiwich """<*„ jj .^■MM ''iC' r> /<^^^) >^ i<2 iiwf , X^..»i T'lJf-"'"'- '<:^, ■'A, '>■., "«,/,< r 3^; K** :^^ ''""/^T, I'l '/•; ••^'t Vt, . 4- m; '%',. "1/ tf, |M*Ste'' R:.#.,Sxf.-«^,^: . . 'w. ■•,'1)1 Sf'ort"' 4_ «(. ..... IL ,* ''"'api"i ^'' 11(1 lOO' Ldiicliiii. .Miii'iiulliiii &■ CV ;ki \ \ / y( ih \V -^'■■■'''""i.K' (>0 / / ■i..... ]f/njc/i/\f \ , %^j^l^i£-i^ ^ 4)^ h \ , I,.ir' X.*-* \ •K) A MAP OF \ IIIK DOMINION OK (AN ADA SHOWING THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. \ ' SC«U OF ENGLISH MILEb 100 50 lOU 200 3UU (10 1>. iniloii. MiK'iiiilliiii K- CV ' ..„L. ^■„..?.J. ... ' .'.^,.1 ' I i h- liW I^oi>4:West 120" of THE GREAT DOMINION ■:irj INTRODUCTORY Many of the problems connected with the present condition and future development of the Dominion of Canada have a profound interest for the people of the United Kingdom and of the empire at large. In these problems are involved matters deeply affecting maritime position, imperial defence and communications, food and coal sup])ly, trade relations, emigration, and mars that scions of [)L'cl urea, [•lobe, tlie ial coni- le rest of nnent it intimate 1 Canada tatesnien interests nistances 1 of the I vice has difficult hich give position. >pirations ■ growth ? coincide 'hese are off-hand. That thcv must be answered sooner or later invites or almost compels the carehil study of Canadian conditions. For gaining a due sense of jiroportion in such study some glance at the main geographical facts is a ncce.s«ary preliminary. If we follow its changes of direction the southern boundary of Canada stretches over fully 4,000 miles. Alono- this line we find that Southern Ontario has the latitude of Central Italy ; Nova Sc(jtia that of Northern Italy : Vancouver and Manito})a that of Central (Jermany. Those latitudes, moarallel range of conditions in passing from south to north. When we consider the country from east to west some remarkable features are to be observed. Old or Eastern Canada extends from the Atlantic to Lakes Hui'on and Superior. The fact which here most of all arrests attention is that even to the heart of the con- tinent Eastern Canada has a position essentially maritime. The Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy, with innumerable smaller inlets, penetrate the coast, and gi\e the Atlantic frontage a remarkable length of coast line. From the Gulf of St. Lawrence the river of the same name, at tirst a broad estuary of the sea, and later one of the largest of strean) carries ocean steamships to IVIontreal, and leads up, by wa}s made navigable, to the great inland fresh- water seas which almost encircle Ontario, and afterwards stretch westward to the confines of the prairies. Here, half way across the continent, the salt waters ossible lies to the west, while the great bulk (^f the actual popuUi- tion lies to the east of this line." ^ It is thus that one of the most cf this route steam is now employed. To the advantages derived from this unparalleled system of inland communication there is one limitation. For four or five winter months ice closes to navigation alike the lakes, the canals, the St. Lawrence, and the more remote streams. Fortunately the Maritime ^ Provinces give to the Dominion ports Avhich are open th(^ whole year lound. Tlie temporary cessation of free intercourse in winter acts as a check to commercial development in some directions, but it is far from being all loss. In the forest- covered jjarts of the country especially, it is balanced by great industrial conveniences. After the prairies, British Columbia with its moun- tains and the Pacific coast. The mountains, range behind range, ii^tretch over a ])readth of 500 or COO miles. They presented a serious geographical barrier to the political unification of Canada. The ob.'^tacle has been triumjjhantly overcome, and in reality joroved a useful test for the strength of the forces which made for unity. This vast mountain district lends itself but slightly to agricultural settlement, but it, too, as I shall have to show, will hold an important j^lace in the economic IN IRO. lutroductory (|t'\cl<»j»iiifii« (»r tln' Dominion. Tlu' Pjicitic tVoiita^c has iioj. tlu' |)r ice all the year round. They furnish Canada with an oi)en V f i. gate^vay to the commerce of the Pacific. Such, in broadest outline, are the geographical features Avhich must dominate the deyelopment of Canada; which will mainly influence the industries, the character, and the tendencies of its people. They open up a large field for study and speculation. It need scarcely be added that in regions so yast and various Nature is often seen in her most splendid and picturesque aspects. The trayeller who has penetrated the Selkirk and Rocky ranges of British Columbia: who has explored the magnificent surroundings of the National Park at Banff; who has crossed the thousand miles of North-Western prairie ; who has traversed the expanse of the great inland lakes; who has stood beside the Horseshoe Fall at Niagara and traced the coui'se of the mighty gorge below ; who lias sailed amid the Thousand Isles and through the swirling rapids of the St. Lawrence : who has looked down from the heights of the iMountain at IVlontreal; from the promontory on which stand the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa ; and from the lofty terrace of historic ! § I "■% ! ^ 8 The Great Dominion INTRO. Quebec, lias seen some of the most striking and impressive scenery of the world. Doubtless such surroundings may have a profound influence in mould- ing the character of a people. Canada is a country which certainly stirs the imagination of her children — which begets in them an intense lovt; of the soil. If the front which nature sometimes j)rescnts to them is severe, it is also noble and impressive. In the breadth of its spaces, the headlong rush of its floods, th(> majesty of its mountain heights and canon depths, and the striking contrasts of its seasons in their march through the fervid warmth of summer, the glory of autumnal colouring, and the dazzling splendour of a snow-covered land to the sudden burst of new and radiant life in spring — in all these, Canada has char- acteristics unique among the many lands under the Bi'itish flag. There are those who believe that it is a country peculiarly fitted to rear a people whose northern vigour will give them weight in the world, and will add strength and character to the nation of which they form a part. But it is with the practical facts of Canadian life, rather than its ideals, that we have now chiefly to deal. 4ii CHAITKU I THK NOHVH-WEST AMOxrj the CaiiiidiiUi pioiii.'ins which luiiv fnirlv J. t. ( bo regarded as of national interest , I am (hsposed to place foremost those connected with the growth and settlement of the vast provinces of the N<»rth-West. These provinces are sure, sooner or later, to be filled with a population of many millions of people, English- speaking, and for the most ])art of British l)lood. To emigrants from the Ignited Kingdom they now offer the most readily accessible areas in the Empire where homestead lands can still be easily acquired. They equally offer abundant lands to those foreign emigrants who are willing to add to the strength of the Empire by adopting British citizenship. The extent to which this process of assimilating energetic and useful material from other races is being carried on in Canada, as in the other colonies, may be strikingly shown by a single illustration. Within the last few years Manitoba and the North- West have absorbed nearly 10,000 of the industrious and intelligent inhabitants of Iceland, who have voluntarily become most useful, loyal, and lO The Crcdt Poinijiioii fHAP. .ii ir satisfactoiy l^iitish sii^jrcts. This mii^riilioii is still ^niino' uM, and it scctns nut unlikely tliat a ('Mnsidcialjlf pioport iciii of llu' |)ii]»nlati(»ii <»!' tliat inti'i'cstin*^' island will ultimately hi' Ifansfcrivd to Uritisji soil. increasing" pojndat ion in (lu'sc vacant ai'rodnction in diivctions which intimately concei-n Hiitisli consumei-s. It, is (»iily ei^dit or nine veais since railway communication was fullv (•stal>lished with the North-West, l)ut. already wheat, from ]\ranitol)a farms and cattle from Alherta ranches an^ findin(( their way to thc^ En^lisli market in in- creasinsf volume. Any one who studies existintr con- ditions, who sees how comparatively small is the area as yet occu]>ied, who observes the facility with ■which production may he increa-^ed, will, T think, be convinced that the (treat Lakes, the St. Lawrence, and C'anadi-an railway systems will soon be the channels for an immense outflow of food products directed towards Britain. The inevitable pressure of consumption upon production in the United States, hitherto the chief source of Bi'itish importation, gi\es peculiar interest to this ([uestion of Canadian food supply; the filling up, moreover, of these vast territories with an adequate pop\dati(^n is almost essential to the complete con- solidation of that remarkable, but as yet not fully appreciated, maritime position which is secuivd to thi^ Empire by the fact that the Dominion rests with com- manding outlook upon both the Atlantic and the Pacific, where these (.)ceans respectively furnish the shortest and easiest access from the American continent The Korth-Wcst I I to Eni'ojH' Hiid Asiii. .hist as tin.' middle and writfiu Stiitts luiid \t'\v Kiii;limd and tlir cast (<• tla- Pacitic Statos, so tilt' filling iiinit' tin- Noitli-Wtst u ill ((tniiilrtc tJK! cohosion between the Atlantic and the I'acitie |(i'<>\ inet's of Canada. Wishing' to form an ewtinmte of the ])roL;ress and |»l'o.s|»e('ts of the Nol'tll-West, of its food-jirodlicing eapaeit y, and of the eoiiditioiis of settlement. I elected to visit the countrv at a season not usiiallv considered favourable. Friends in England and Canada alike reproach<'d me for not platuiing to reach the prairies in time to see the wonderfid prospect afforded by the wide stretches of waving grain. Wwi we know that in all countries not only the promise of spring verdure and of .iimer growth, but also of cai'ly autumn ripening, may be blighted by rain ()r drought or frost, and so I pieferred to visit the North-West in the late autunni and early winter, when the farmer had got down to the bed rock of reality ; when his stacks had been threshed and the grain measured or sold ; when he was preparing to face the winter and was carrying on the operations necessary to make the work of the sj)ring most effective. If such a time for studying a country lacks some elements of the picturesque, it has interest ecpial to any other, and perhaps more of instruction. A new and strange sense of vastness grows upon the mind as one travels day after day over the prairies, with the distant sky-line as the chief object which fixes the eye. The impression is ditiferent from that produced ■■*i \l I 2 The Great Dominion ( IIAI'. bv wide spaco at sua, for tlu' iinaii'ination at once begins to fill np those ciiornious an-as with homes and busy inhabitants. At first sii>lit it seems only neoossary to pour out population over tlu.'se vast spaces in any direction. This is soon found to be a mistake. There are lands good, bad, and middling. Some districts are more subject to frost than others. There are areas where the soil is excellent, but where at some seasons water in sufficient abundance is wanting. There is alkali land in the far West, where ihe or 'at American desert pushes northwai'd a considerable offshont. One limited district there is Avhere. from s(»m(> peculiar configuration of the country, hail is an alimist annual infliction, and where, as in Dakota, the hail insurance companies build uj) a business. All this is in the midst of an extent of good fiirming land well nigh incalculable. In such circumstances the first, second, and thii'd duty of those who would settle the country is manifestly to reduce the busiuc >s of land selection as closely as may bo to an exact scu'uce. To alhtw any settler in the North-Wost to go upon land which is not the best available is a gross mistake. The railway companies and the (government are begiiming to I'ealize this too long neglected ti'uth. Lands are now carefully surveyed and their characteristics noted. Skilh^l pioneers are invited to precede ]»arties of emigrants and make careful choice. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company challenges investigations of its lands and gives free passes to those wh* wish U) examine them with a view to settlement. It sends out 1 The North-Wcst 13 oxjK'riL'iiced ar>viit.s t(j assist tlit' individual settlor in making a choice. All this is having a good ettect, and is correcting the mistakes <»{' earlier days. The trouble taken will he well repaid, for of all emigration ageiils the contented sottler is by far the best. It is from him that the North-West is now getting its best impulse. The steamship in whicli I crossed the Atlantic was carrying many emigrants, chiefly Scottish, t(j Manitoba and the Territories. It was satisfjictory to find that in most cases they were going on the reconnnendation of friends who had preceded them. Often in the Far West I met with men and women Avh(j Were saving their money to bring out relatives, or even, in some cases, going home to induce them to come out. Emigration etfected in this way is of the healthiest kind, and is the best recommendation that a countrv can have. While the rush of emigration has not been so great as the sanguine ho})es of the early settlers led them to antici}»ate, the progress made seems to the ordinary observer \ery great. It is, as I have already said, only eight or nine years since the main railway line across the continent was com})leted. A glance at a good railway map shows how rapidly branch lilies have l)een pushed for many hundred miles in various directions, as settlement justitied their construction. What the traveller seos in a journoy (»\er .some of theso branch lines furnishes the best proof of the progress of thi; country. From Winnipeg 1 went over the Southern Manitoba rtiad to Estevan, tiie point to which it was f H The Great Dominion CHAP. at that time completed, and thence back to rejoin the main line at Brandon, in all a distance of nearly 500 miles. At intervals of ten or twelve miles over nearly all this distance i)rosperoiis little towns are springing up, each e4iiii)ped with two, three, or four elevators to deal with the grain raised in the surrounding districts. Wheat was being shipped rapidly at the time, and these elevators were usually surrounded by teams waiting to deliver their loads. Huge stacks of straw, soon to be burned for want of any better use. showed where the grain had been threshed in the Holds where it was grown. In the latter part of October the deliveries of wheat at Fort William alone amounted to a tiiou>and carloads pi'r Aveek, and the railroads were finding it dithcult to deal Avith all that was offered. For LSIU the whole Xorth-Western i)roduetion was estimated at between twenty-two and twenty-three million bushels. A good deal was then injured or lost through the difficulty of (k'aling \vith an exceptionally heavy cro]) in the absence of a sufficient supply of lal)oui'. For 1892 the output was between fifteen and sixteen million bushels, but the average quality was much higher than in 1891, and the crop was generally saved in good condition. For 181).*i and 1894 the aggregate ])r change which is passing over the ctnintiy. Tlie peculiar conditions ot" cultivation on the prairies make it possible tl(»ugh breaks up a (juarter section (l(i() acres) during live s[)ring and summer months, and the whole I: I ■« J i6 T/ic Great Poi/iiiiion CHAP. expensL' per acre is less than three dollars ( i 2.s'. QxJ). The rapidity and cheapness of prepai'ation strike the observer foi-cibiy after he has watched the slow processes bv whicli farms are made in the forests of Eastern Canada or British C'olumbia, in New Zealand bush, among Tasmanian and Australian gum trees, or by re- claiming waste lands in England or Scotland. Mani- festly any considerable application of capital or a large inflow of farming po})ulation might, under such con- tlitions, increase the wheat output very rapidly. Farms carried on by companies on a large scale are still on their trial in the North- West. Some have i)roved unremunerative. One of those to which I have referred has begun to pay very satisfactory ilividends, and there is no ap})arent reason why it should be an exceptional case. Everything depends upon honesty and thorough- ness of management. The watchful eye of the small owner seems on the whole the most reliable means of stopping leakages, for which there are many oppor- tunities on a large estati', and which are fatal in a time of keen farming competition. On the other hand, great sa\ iuiJ's are often effected by a sufficient command of capital, in which the comjKiny has an tulvantage over the small farmer. Another point seems worth mentioning. One of the keenest observers of men in Canada tokl me that in his opinion there woukl always be one barrier to successful company farming in the West. " Able management," he said, "is a necessity, and a man competent to manage successfully a great farm will not continue to The North -West 17 work tor a salary in a country wliich oti'ors so many opportunities for private enterprise." My own ubserva tion leads me to tliink that the men are few and far between who are at once able enoiigli and reliable enough to fill such posts. Instances occur here and there through INFanitoba and the territories of men who have begun in the small way on a cjuartcr or half section, and with increasing prosperity and enlarged experience have gradually widened their operations till they were liirming on a gi'cat scale. But they were working entirely on their own behalf. Lord Brassey's experience appears to have led him to decide against the large farm as the ideal method of dealing with prairie lands. After personal examination of the question he has determined to break up his large block of country into small farms, giving every fiicility for purchase on easy terms, advancing to selected settlers at a low^ rate of interest money sufti- cient for buildings and outtit, and allowing payments to extend over several vears. Such is his fiiith in the country that he believes that this system, which seems to offer great advantages to the poor but enterprising settler, can be carried on without financial loss to him- self Whether by large proprietors or small, how^ever, the north-w^estern praii-ies have a capacity for rapid increase of production wdiich might speedily become very great under any exigency of demand. I pause here to guard against a ])ossible misappre- hension. It must not be thought that the rapid increase of wheat production in the North-West has hitherto c if i8 The Great Dominion CHAP. ^ , meant a correspondingly large surplus for export from Canada as a whole As the output of the newly opened western areas has increased, that of the eastern pro- vinces, where cereals are not produced without careful culture, has diminished. Quebec and all the maritime provinces make a heavy demand, for their own con- sumption, upon the surplus product of the West. Ontario, as the result of the drop in wheat prices, is gradually changing from a wheat-producing to a dairy- ing country. Thus, though Manitoba and the territories show a large increase of production, Canada's export as a whole does not enlarge with corresponding rapidity. Only a large addition to population in the West can make it do this. But given this inflow of population, and such a rise in price as makes wheat growing profit- able, and there is scarcely any limit to the possibility of production in the Dominion. The area of Manitoba and the territories of Assiniboia, Alberta and Saskat- chewan is 360,000 square miles, or 230,000,000 acres. It has been estimated, and, I think, not unfairly, that one-half of this is either good or workable wheat land. Yet of all this vast area little more than a million acres are now under actual cultivation for wheat. The extent of land which the small farmer can profit- ably hold and cultivate is a question of some interest. In travelliiig through Eastern Canada the impression constantly left upon the mind is that the average farmer clears up more land than is necessary and is wrestling with a larger area than he can properly till. If eastern experience be taken as a guide, then for the II The North- West 19 IS ill. le man of the West an ordinary quarter section, which con- tains 160 acres, is quite enough for a single holding, and this is the amount usually taken up. But it is maintained by some that for the most successful farming in t\e North- West it is necessary to work two sets of fields, and for this two quarter sections, or 320 acres, are required. Senator Perley, who for many yeai-s has madt; a close practical study of North-Western farming, stated to me the arguments for this course. The first object is to get abundant opportunity for sunnner fallowing, which, he holds, is better than fall ploughing, inasmuch as it not only clears the land of weeds, but rests it ; can be done when the farmer has more time, and from peculiar conditions about the retention of mois- ture ensures a better crop. Of this ideal fiirm of 320 acres, 200 acres should be arable, one-half being kept under crop, and the other half under summer fallow. The remaining 120 acres will suffice for pasturage and hay. Senator Perley believes that the 160 acre farm now commonly taken up will, as the country gets more settled, prove insufficient. Free pasturage on un- occupied land makes it apjocar enough now, but this condition will change rapidly. Even now the ordinary farmer is for from anxious that settlers should take up the blocks adjoining to himself, since, through exclusion from pasturage, he at once feels the pressure. The question is one that the intending settler should take into careful consideration, since a false start is not always easily remedied. c J. V i rnvrn^ 20 The Great Dominion CHAP. The North- Western farmer has his special difficulties to contend with. Here, as elsewhere, man learns by slow degrees to wrestle successfully with the problems of nature, and he does so l)y studying them and adapt- ing himself to new conditions. The key to successful farming in the North- West consists in knowing how to meet the dangei*s of frost. To this end the farmer must prepare during the autumn for the work of the spring. Abundance of fall ploughing is a necessity of the country. The moment the harvest is off the fields the plough is turned on, and it must be kept at work until stopped by the freezing of the ground. Then with the earliest April warmth seeding may begin at once. No- where does the fii'st fortnight of spring count for so much. Farmei's once thought it necessary, as in other climates, to wait till the frost was out of the ground to begin sowing. Now they sow when barely an inch or two of ground is thawed, sufficient to allow the seed to be covered. After that the lack of spring showers, very common in the West, makes no difference, for the frost as it thaws furnishes moisture to the roots, while the hot inland sun forces on growth with great rapidity. Thus the frost which threatens the wheat becomes also its salvation. It is under such conditions that the No. 1 hard Manitoba wheat, pronounced by experts to be the best in the world, is gi'own. Still, after all that the farmer can do, allowance must always be made in the North- West for a proportion of frozen wheat, though the quantity will decrease, as experience shows, with the cultivation of the country, i *t-' The Nortli-Wcst 21 the dminagt' of kinds, and the increase ot" skill in tann- ing. But the term "frozen wheat," which suggests to most minds the entire destruction of the crop as a mercantile commodity, means nothing like this to the North -Western farmer. Slighth frosted wheat is reduced for tiour-making purposes }vriiaps 30 per cent in value, what is called frozen wheat 50 per cent. Both are freely used by millei's to make a cheaper kind of flour. But many experiments have now proved that they are open to a much more prohtable use. It has been shown that frozen wheat, fed to pigs and cattle, is worth much more than when sold foi* milling purposes. The result of a series of tests made at the experimental farm at Brandon has been published. Fed to pigs the frozen wheat was found to realize 49 cents per bushel ; fed to fattening steers from 5(j to 08 cents in difl'erent trials. Other private and public tests give results somewhat similar. These prices are nearly double th(> market rate at which the wheat could be sold. In tacts like these lies one of the chief arguments for greater attention to mixed farming than has yet been given to it in the North-West. With pigs, cattle, and sheep around him the farmer could choose between selling his inferior wheat at a greatly reduced price, and turning it into pork, beef, butter, and other products, for which there are always good prices and a stead}' demand. In the production of pork, especially, it is claimed by gooti authorities that the opportunity is very great. Taking the relative value of pork and wheat during the last two or three years there is some reason to think that it would ■1 1 1 '..■ i'f'JS '■ § \. f J te ^^1 ^^ 23 The Great Dominion CHAP. have been more profitable if every bushel even of the very best wheat had been fed to pigs and cattle rather than exported. Thu wheat-fed pork of the North- West may yet compete with the maize-fed pork of Chicago. So, too, in the case of poultry. With its abundance of refuse grain and large areas of stubble, no country ought to produce turkeys and other fowl more abun- dantly and cheaply. At i)resent there is iniquestionably a great deal of waste. At Moosomin I went with a friend to study for the first time the construction and watch the operation of a grain elevator. The man in charge, in order to show us the working of the machinery, proceeded to get up steam, and to this end began shovelling into the furnace the screenings of the elevator. They consisted of inferior wheat mingled with the oily seeds of weeds, and he told us that this was almost the only fuel that he had used for two years. It made an excellent lire, but manifestly would also have made excellent food for cattle, pigs, or poultry, if properly prepared. At other places I found that the farmers were allowed to take back from the elevators, to feed their poultry, any quantity of the screenings they chose to remove, merely that it might be got rid of Large manufacturers in Yorkshire and Lancashire have told me that in these days of comi)etition their profits were often made from saving material which a generation ago was allowed to go to waste. The Manitoba farmer might take a leaf from their notebooks. The enormous (quantities of straw burned in the The North- West 23 fields ought also to have some economic value, consider- ing the uses to which it is applied in other countries. The abundance of easily obtained prairie hay now takes away its use as fodder, and, till mixed farming prevails, it canncjt even be used to enlarge the manure heap. But the North-Western favmei- takes to mixed farming slowly and reluctantly. Fur this there is at present mure than one reason. Labour is often scarce and expensive, and the attention to detail required in mixed farming is therefore rendered difficult. Fencing is necessary with a variety of stock, and fencing in some parts of the treeless prairie country is expensive. On the other hand, there is something of the temptation of gambling in wheat raising. With a guud season, large crops, and a favourable price, the profits from a few hundred acres of wheat land arc very large. As far as one could learn from rather extensive inquiry, the i)roduction varies all the way from fifteen to forty bushels jjer acre, according to the nature of the soil and season. The price, too, has varied in diti'erent years from 55l'. t< put on the North-Western farmer, drive him into making the most of farming opportunities outside of wheat-raising, a healthier condition of things will have been brought about in the country. The risk from frost, if faced with far-sighted energy, does not seem to me so great as the risk from drought in Australia — scarcely greater than the risk from a prolonged wet season in Great Britain. Hunce I believe that this vast country will gradually be tilled up with a prosperous farming population. The cold winter is not seriously dreaded by the people, and the other seasons give great climatic compensations. During the whole month of (j( t 'ber, while I was going westward over the prairies, there was not a drop of rain, while the perfect sunshine whicli prevailed week after week furnished a striking contrast to the reports of storm and wet and cold which came from England. As The North-Wcst I jouriU'yod eastward soniu weeks later Nviiiter was settling down on the land, and at Winnipeg the tlu-r- niometer had aheady been at 20 degrees below zero. JJiit there were the same bright sky and sunshine, and the clear cold seemed to give an added activity to people's steps and a buoyancy to their spirits. : ■ I :■;■ CHAPTER H THE NORTH-AVEST — continued :' St What has boon said in tlu; previous chapter about the North-West had reference chiefly to the comi^aratively treeless prairie country which has hitherto been the prin- cipal area of wheat culture. It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose that North-Western Canada con- sists exclusively of level prairie. Westward from Manitoba along tlie Qu'Appelle, northward on the Saskatchewan, and all along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains are vast regions of a })artly wooGed, partly grass-covered country, park-like in ap})earance, undulating for the most part, ami with striking varia- tions of scenery formed by the groujting of mountain, hill, lake, and river. Country of this kind will alwa\s have for many settlers attractions which they do not find in the abso- lutely level prairie — attractions for which no richness of oil or ease of culture can compensat<'. Parts of these regions, while admirably suited for ranching, are, without irrigation, less fitted for agriculture. This is true of considerable districts in the vicinity of Calgary, CHAP. II The N^ortk-West 27 where, however, the opportunities for irrigation are ex- cellent, and only await the application of capital and skill. Altogether the area of the semi-arid country where irrigation is occasionally necessary, or would give gi'eater security to agriculture year by year, has been estimated to extend between 300 and 400 miles east and west, and more than a hundred miles north and south. Large as this area seems it is a mere bagatelle in the vast spaces of the North- West, anil is, in reality, only a small spur of the corresponding area in the United States, wholly or partly arid ; an area which has been estimated to cover more than a million square miles. ►Settlers in this district have been rather slow to admit to themselves that their part of the country labours under any farming disability, or is liable to peculiar risks. But it is better to face facts, and there is much reason to think that the lands of this region will be among the very best and the most profitable to work when irriga- tion has been secured. This has been American expe- lieiice in California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and many other states where similar conditions prevail. (Jnc large district has alreadv been selected for settlement by immigrants from Utah, accustomed in that state to deal with similar difficulties. The land department <»f the Canadiiin Pacific Railway is jjreparing t(» irrigate from the Bow River a plateau of about 1,000,000 acres near Medicine Hat, and steps of a like kind are being taken by smaller companies. Between the years 1877 and 1891, according to an official slatemenl, 17,000,000 \ Sa 28 The Great Dominion CHAP. 'Mi acres of land were put under ditch, and nearly 14,000 artesian wells sunk for irrigation purjjoses in the arid regions of the United States, Such a statement shows how little need there is to regard the partial aridity of the districts I have mentioned as a deterrent to agri- cultural enterprise, or as a permanent barrier to agri- cultural success. Still it has hampered early progress. Other parts seem suited alike for grazing and agri- culture. It is difficult to speak with anything short of enthusiasm of the appearance and apparent possibilities of one vast region which is now attracting much attention and to which a very considerable stream of settlers has already set in. The railway lately opened for a distance of about 200 miles from Calgary to Edmonton gives easy access to one part of this country; the line between Regina and Prince Albert to another. Between these points and both north and south of the Saskatchewan are areas which nature seems to have specially adapted for that mixed farming which I have mentioned as being the most reliable and satisliictory. There are numerous streams, large and small, of excellent water. The nutritious native grasses, once the only food of millions of buftalo, turn naturally into good hay as they stand, and, as in the purely ranching districts, give winter as well as summer food to horses, which are accustomed to pawing away the snow, and to cattle as well, when the snow is not deep on the ground. Abundant shelter for cattle is furnished bv the valleys and woodland blutt's, and the latter supply also m;iterial for fencing and fuel. Of other i '\x "m II T/ie North-West 29 1 abundant fuel I shall havo occasion to speak when considering the coal supplies of the Dominion. In a drive over a northern portion of this territory, from Edmonton to St. Albert, I wa.s struck with the .signs of prosperity which followed even the careless farming of the half-breeds who have for some time occupied this district. Wide fields of wheat stubble, herds of .sleek cattle in the fields, droves of fat pigs around the stacks of straw in the farmyards, flocks of poultry, all told of plenty to .support in comfort a people content to live chiefly < >n the produce of their own farms. I cannot but think that this whole range of country offei*s great and varied inducements to hardy settlers, and would yield a rich reward to those who brought industry and intelligence to the work of farming. It is sure to bo filled ultimately with a prosperous popula- tion, whether the process of settlement goes on slowly or rapidly. Of the extent of territory capable of successful settle- ment still further north, in the direction of thi; Peace River, no one as yet even attempts to form an estimate. There is alreadv abundant evidence to show that the deep northward bend of the isothermal lines which occurs as we approach the Rocky Mountains upsets entirely all calculations based on the idea that latitude alone determines climate. How far this fact enlarges the supposed scope of agricultural settlement in Canada is one of the interesting problems of the future. Our present concern, however, is with lands actually in the process of settlement. I it It ! \\ % M I .kit 30 The Great Doniinion CHAP. *"•' Turning from the farming to the grazing districts, we find that the ranching industry, in Alberta especially, has in a few years grown to large dimensions. It is carried on chiefly by the aid of Englisli c^apital and under English direction. At Calgary I found an inter- esting experiment being carried out with a view of reaching distant markets rapidly and effectually. Large numbers of cattle from the Cochrane Ranch were being killed in uhattoirs at Calgary, and the chilled beef was being sent to the cities of Eastern Canada in cars specially arranged fjr the purpose. The meat was received at Montreal and Ottawa in perfect C(mdition, competing successfully with the best that local markets could supply. It is claimed that, with improved trans- port arrangements, this is by far the best way in which to carry the products of th(3 ranches to English markets as well. Some ardent believers in the system think that the scheduling of Canadian cattle, by compelling the use of new methods, may prove to the Canadian farmer a blessing in disguise. In 1872 Canada had exported no meat, live or dead, to Great Britain. The numbers of live cattle sent had already risi'ii in 1891 beyond a hundred thousand annually, and yet this does not represent more than a fifth of what the British market absorbs. A special class of ships has be(?n designed to meet the wants of this great trade, which has become a considerable factor in the prosperity of several British ports as well as Canadian, and in the success of steamship and railway systems. Horses have not as yet been exported in large numbers to Britain, M mm i[ T/ic North-Wcst 31 but the stock on the ranclii's has incroased rapidly, and f ho wants of tlio Bi-itisli niaikct arc now being carefully studied. Lately an (wperinient has been niad(^ in transferring numbers of choice horses from the ranches to Ontario farms, whence, after being thoroughly broken, they are brought to England for sale. I'hat it only pays to bring to the English market horses of the best quality is a point now well understood. The ranching of the North-West, like its farming, has had its entire development within the last ten years. Experience has been painfully acquired : the ranchman has had many fluctuations of prosperity, and has felt his way slowly towards success. The best accessible information indicates that the industry is now estab- lished on a permanent and fairly satisfactory basis. Between Western ranches and Eastern farms it seems clear that Canada will more anrl more become a chief source of meat supply for the United Kingdom. The clear, cool climate of the Dominion has proved exceptioiiady ffivourable to the health of cattle, and the scheduling which has been enforced for some time rests upon evidence so doubtful that the order will probably soon be withdrawn. The Alberta ranches, however, do not depend entirely upon the British market or that of Eastern Canada. They contribute to the supply of the mining regions of the Rocky Mountains, and this promises to be an outlet of increasing importance. What has now been said shows to how great an extent the Canadian North-West depends upon its agricultural interests. Alike in the areas principally ]4l*^ i i ■' i t i; . i s 32 7Vie (rrcat Dominion CHAP. devoter] to wheat culture, in those where from the first mixed larming predominates, and in the ranching" districts, the present and prospecti\'t' prosperity of the couritry will consist in finding an adequate market foi- a large surplus of food products. This broad fact should be kept constantly in mind, since it cannot but exer- cise a decisive influence on the future policy of thc^ Dominion. I have as yet said nothing about the towns of the North-West. These must always furnish some index to the general prosperity of the country around them. Winnipeg, .as is well known, after springing up with wonderful rapidity in the first years of settlement, suflfei'fd a vi ''mt reaction as ihe result of over specu- lation in business, and especially in real estate. The truth i. tii;\t tlo inflow of farming population never matched the expectations of those who first went to IManitoba : the city increased in size beyond the necessities of the province, and so was compelled to wait some years for the latter to overtake it. Now the period of stagnation is post, and Winnipeg is making a steady and healthy growth. The constantly- increasing mileage of railway lines which centre at the city mai-k out for it an assured and large future. Not such a future, however, as Toronto or Montreal, for Winnipeg is without their immediate access to navigation, the key to great development, but still to stand at the gateway of the North- West, and to become its commercial, social and educational capital is no mean outlook. Brandon, too, is becoming a considerable II The North-West 3 railway centre; mucli building is going on, and the smaller town is anxions to secure fi-oni the railway companies the same advantages as a wholesale distri- buting point which Winnipeg now enjoys. From both Regina and Calgary railway systems extend north and south, and both have a prevailing air of substantial prosperity. I have before referred to the numerous small but flourishing towns wdiich spring up along every new line of railway. None of these depends upon manufactures ; all owe their existence to the increasing wealth of the surrounding agricultural country, and furnish the niost conclusive proof of its producing capacity. One remark about all North- Western towns should not be omitted. In Ihem life is as safe, property as secure, and the ordinary su- premacy of law as complete as in the old towns of Eastern Canada, or in the country towns and villacfes of England and Scotland. This advantage over the western towns of the United States the country owes in part to the greater slowness of growth which is so often complained of, and to the natural selection of papulation effected by a northern climate — partly, no doubt, to superiority of judicial and social institutions. It is no small thing that the Xorth-West can oft'ci- to every immigrant all the social security to which he has been accustomed in the oldest communities. A larger population is unquestionably the greatest need of the country. While, however, there is at present a strong popular demand for a vigorous immi- gration policy on the part of the Government, I have i. 34 The Great Dominion CHAP. ••••; found that this deniand is always qualified by the opinion that numbers should not bo purchased at the expense of quality. Should restraints be placed upon undesirable immigration by the United States, Canada will scarcely welcome what her neighbours refuse. But there are strong reasons for thinking that the North-West has now gained a stage of development and established for itself a name which will draw to it a steady and sufficient inflow of the most desirable population. What are the classes of settlers who succeed and seem best fitted for the North-West ? On the whole one is inclined to describe it as essentially a country for ihe poor man or the man with a moderate amount of means. Alberta, with its ranches, and some of the prairie districts, such as the Qu'Appelle Valley, with opportunities for farms on a large scale, furnish openings for the successful use of larger capital ; but men who themselves work the land are what the country chiefly requires, and to them it will prove most satisfactory. Among these the advantage certainly lies with immi- grants who have had some previous practical acquaint- ance with the farming conditions of the Canadian climate, or of a climate similar to it. They begin at once to make crops grow, which the unskilled immi- grant rarely does. Settlers from the Eastern Provinces or from the more Northern States easily adapt them- selves to the conditions of the country ; so on the whole does the Scottish labourer. The English and Irish farm hand has less flexibility for change, but he, •M 11 The North- West 35 too, succeeds by dint of pluck and industry. Among foreigners the Icelander easily takes the first place, in virtue of his sobriety, industry, and frugality. The Scandinavian does well, and the plodding (Jcrnian. The North-West will never be a congenial honi(> for the Italian and other Latin races.' These naturally gravitate towards th(! warm southern and middle por- tions of the United States or towards South America I heard very grave doubts expressed about the success of one or two colonies of Russian Jews. Tke ry striking, and 1 ho g(>noral statoniont is not disproved by many exceptions. Tlie labouring man coming from tho Eastern Provinces or from th(^ Old Country to the West, with scarcely a dollar of cai)ital will in a ftnv years bo a fairly prosperous and contc^ntcd settler, with a good farm and an increasing stock. The young Englishman, coming with the a})parent advan- tage of some ca])ital, and a (juai'terly or half-yearly remittance* from homo, at the end of the same time lias not got nearly so far — he has less land under cultivation, o^'teii he is in debt and mor(^ or l(>ss dis- contontcHl, execrating the country, and preventing a more suitable class of enn'gi'anls fr(»m coming to it. Wellington thought that Waterloo was won tm tho playing tields of Eton. '!l'he public-school life of the young Englishman develops qualities which make him a good soldiei' or sailor, but not a good fanner; it gives him tho spirit and dash of the lacei- for physical labour, not the patient foi'ce of the drauglit horse. And, after all, the farmer must be the* steadv drauijfht horse of the social system. Often it is not the stronoest tibre which is sent out from the bottoi- class of English homes, the market for all that is exci'llent being best at home. No greater mistake^ can be made by English ])arents than to think that a North- Western life may prove a corrective for i > ■ Mi II The Xorth \\\st 37 Ifiidfucics til (lissipiit ioii. The very opjmsitc result flows iiatniJilly tVoin the ahsonce of social rt'striiint. " I'cifoct devils to diink" was the desoriptioii i,nveii by an Ediuontoii hotel-kee|>er of two yoiinii" Kii^lisluncn who iia|)|H'iiod to be with hiiii at the inoiiieut, and with money to spend fuinished by a new icinittance. " lluni- punch all the niorninn', then brandy and soda till threi> or four, when tluyare paralysed and have to sleep some hours, then whiskev-toddy till bed -time." And he ottered to show them t'- ns in ids ])ar-rooni in any of these stages of inebriation. An extreme ease, no doubt, l)ut ])athetic enough to think of. A good deal of the htafing ai'ound hotels and bar-rooins in the North-West is done by young Englishmen, and the term '• remittance man" tt'iids to become an expression of conti-mpt. If the.se men nnist come out, let the extra ladies of the family come to exerei.se their bt'tter influenci' over them. They will be as well eniployed as in slumming or parish work at liome, and they will be giving what the North-West wants — something of England's best to leaven sociid life. One never meets in the West an Englishwoman who is not a centre (»f wholesome and refining influence. It would, indeed, be a boon to the country if the same were true of every son of an English gentleman who goes to it. There are mnnbers, of course, who, according to their lights, are trying to do their best. But pnblic-sch'^ o) lif(> in England creates a very strong desire to mingiu sport with work in after life, and often the prominence, on the whole, is given to sport. Conditions in the North- m ~\ \ ! Ipf' 38 The Ch'cat Dominion CHAP. West will iiol at j)r('si'nt julniit of thus mingling oiii}»l(>\ iiiciit. It is the persistent worker wlio succeeds there, 'rhc reinittanee which is intended to help too often tends to weaken. In the Nortii-West Mounted Police young Englishmen liave done well. The military disci|)line and the life on horseback in the open air draw- out their better (jualitii's. So with ranching and with work on sheep and cattle stations in other ])arts of the Empire. What I have said applies chiefly to farming. One has no compunction in pointing out instances of failure. It is well that j)arents should be warned of what their children must confront when they go abroad, and it is ecpially right that any unsatisfactory form of emigration to the North-West shoukl be checked. Perhaps, too, perfect frankness of discussion about the actual position of atiairs may do something to prevent misconceptions and to remedy mistakes. 'Vo another matter reference should be made in this connexion. The system of paying large premiums for tlu' instruction of youths in farming or ranching is utterly discredited among practical men in Canada. Occasionally the plan may work well, but it is open to grave abuses. Labour of all kinds has its cash value on Canadian farms. The best possible means by which a young man can test his suitability for the life and become competent is to hire out as a labourer with a Canadian farmer for a year or two, depending entirely upon his wages for his support. If he passes this test successfully he is lit for the life of the country. If the i? II The Norf/i-H'csf 39 work proves too severe, the experiment has not at least been an expensive one, and lie can select sonu' other (>utl»'t tor his energies. At tht; end of his period of service the money that would have been paid in premiums or thrown away in lightly-spent remit- tances will be sutiieient to give him a good start in a sphere for which he has been prepared by hani but necessary experience. There is a good deal to be said in favour of gaining this elementary experience in the older communities of the Eastern Provinces before he ftices the rougher life of the West. This must be determined by circumstances. The necessity for such a course diminishes as the country fills \\\). Arrange- ments can often be made through friends or emigration offices with substantial farmers to give employment to young men, at first for their board a!id later for wages, which increase with their earning ca|)iicity. The latter point is easily settled justly by the crivploijd holding himself free to find a better market for his labour, if he can. To send out young men with capital, but without experience and settled characters, is practically to invite the attentions of those who are always ready to plunder or lead astray the weak and unsophisticated. In addition to the settlers from the older provinces of the Dominion, and from England, Ireland, and Scot- land, there are being formed at some points in the North-West a curious variety of small colonies of different nationalities, mostly northern — Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Belgians, Bavarians, Alsatians, Icelanders, and many others. A small band of settlers comes at 40 The Great Dominion CHAP. first under some special impulse, and gradually attracts to itself recruits from the home centre. The numbers are sufficient to give a degree of cohesion to these small communities and some vitality to the languages they speak. A more complete intermixture with the prevail- ing English-speaking population would fjxcilitatc the work of assimilation. On the other hand, the emigrant finds himself at once among friends, and so does not feel so keenly the change from the old to the new land. It is difficult as yet to judge how for this method of settle- ment will extend. It can in any case only temporarily lengthen out the process of amalgamation. A new and highly interesting factor has lately appeared in the settlement of the North-West. The United States have become an important recruiting ground for immigrants. In the Eastern Provinces I had heard of a movement northward from the Western States towards the Alberta and Saskatchewan districts. On inquiry at the land office at Winnipeg I was shown long lists of receipts for first payments on lands in the Prince Albert districts made by farmers in Dakota, Nebraska, Washington, and even as far south as Kansas. These men had already moved into the country, or were preparing to do so in the coming spring. At Calgary a more striking proof of the reality of the movement was thrust upon me. In going northward to Edmonton I found my^- If spending a not very comfort- able, but highly inter - lUg, day in a train packed with emigrants, men, women, and children, most of whom were removing from a single district in the State of II The North- West 41 Washington to the banks of tlie Saskatchewan. I learned that the northward trains from Calgary for some time before had been crowded in a like way. In conversation with the immigrants it was easy to discover the explanation of this new and unexpected movement of population. " Land is getting to be land on this continent," one; of them remarked to me in Western idiom. The rush into a newly-opened district, such as that which took place at Oklahoma a few years ago, illustrates the extent to which land hunger is already felt in the United States. Guided by an instinct almost like that which directed the buffalo to the fertile feeding grounds of the Saskatchewan, the tide of popu- lation which filled up the older Western States and flowed on to the less fertile regions of Dakota, or to the mountain districts with their limited farming lands, seems now to have taken a bend northward. If the expectations of its pioneers are fulfilled, it seems probable that this movement will become very con- siderable during the next few years. My latest information shows that it w^as kept up through the spring and summer of the year which has just ended. These immigrants are of a class which the North- West most of all wants. Many are Canadians returning after trying their fortunes in the United States. Most seemed to be bringing with them money, horses, cattle, and household equipment. Best of all, they bring skill in pioneering work and accpuxintance with its conditions, in these points having an infinite superiority over the emigrant direct from Europe. It was striking to observe > , J >£ ^^ L ' 'Hi 42 The Great Dominion CHAP. the confidence and reliance upon their own resources with which these men, accompanied by their wives and children, faced the task of finding homes f(jr themselves north of the Saskatchewan in the months of October and November, when the long, severe winter was all before them. They were doing it in order to be ready for a good spring's work. Once more, in Southern Alberta I found that a group of Mormons — an offshoot from Salt Lake — had pur- chased to the south and east of Lethbridge more than 500,000 acres of land from the Alberta Coal an .liining Company. About 500 settlers have already entered this country, and preparations are being made for a continued influx from Utah, where land has become scarce. Other immigrants are freely accepted, as there is not, I believe, any wish to form a distinct Mormon colony. The capitalists who have undertaken this enterprise expect to repeat here the process of irriga- tion by which the Salt Lake Valley was changed from a semi-desert to a richly productive country. It is pro- posed to divert the waters of the St. Mary's river through a canal which will make a large area as well suited for agricultural as it now is for pastoral purposes. The North-West is thus being approached from various points, and by many classes of immigrants. A great rush of population, such as marked the settle- ment of some of the Western States, is neither to be expected nor desired. But everything now points to a steady and healthy growth, such as is required for the fuller consolidation of the Dominion. u d aJ fa \\\ fei C(J h(i eN or ni II TJie North-West 43 A study of North-Western Canada enables one to understand the main conditions of the livahy in pro- (hiction going on between the wheat grower at home and the wheat grower abroad. The North-Westeni farmer has first of all cheap land of his own, worked by machinery with singular ease, and with a store of natural fertility which is only exhausted after many years of continuous cropping. If he takes up a Government homestead his land costs him little more than the expense of survey. Even if he buys it from a railway or land company at three or four dollars an acre, it has not cost him in the first year, when ready for seed, more per acre than the yearly rent of wheat land in England. His invested capital is therefore very small. This is his first and great advantage. Against this must be put the fact that he is far from the market which the English farmer has almost at his door. It costs from JiO cents to 40 cents a bushel to carry wheat from many points in the West to Liverpool or London. While the wide, level stretches of prairie offer great facilities for the use of labour-saving agricultural machinery, still for any extra labour required there a high price must be paid. The English farmer, on the other hand, has cheap capital and cheap labour, and he lives in a country where all manufactured goods are cheap. In direct taxes he pays more, in indirect less than the Canadian. The contest is more nicely balanced than is generally supposed. Agricultural depression has been felt for some time in the new land as well as in the old. t '■ L! ^'' 44 The Great Dominion CHAP. ! Ii i! 11 \ V Inii ffli iff ' i L Superior energy r)r skill may incliin,' the advantage one way or the other, or the chance of the season. A hnvering of rents may give it to the Englishman ; a lowering of duties to the Canadian. The cheapen- ing of transportation both by land and sea will have much to do with the question in the future. When the exhaustion of his lands compels the farmer abroad to use fertilizers, the balance of advantage will again be shifted. The area of abundant wheat produc- tion has during the last forty years moved steadily westward in America from New York State through Ohio, Iowa, and Illinois to Kansas ; then northw^ard through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Dakota to the Canadian North-West, and there the European farmer will have his last keen competition with a rich virgin soil. As with wheat, so with cattle and horses. For the lease of his broad pastures in the grazing country, the ranchman pays but a trifling sum. During the whole summer his stock feeds upon grass of the most nutritious kind, raised without any expense for fertil- izers or culture. During the greater part of the winter it feeds upon hay cured where it stands in the fields, without any expense for being cut. But the ranchman, again, is distant from his market, and the fatigues and risks of long transportation for his cattle weigh heavily against him. Neither in wheat nor in cattle has there been much profit during the past two seasons for the man of the North-West. I doubt, however, whether agricultural depression or the failure II of crops The North-Wcst closely 45 ever presses Canadian as upon the English ftirmcr. The latter has his rent to pay whatever happens. The former reduces his expenses, and, owning his land and having little demand upon him for ready cash, tides over a crisis more easily. !i 1 ;: 11 ; ! ■ f' I:;!' i y \ \. v i: ■| .1 f: T r .i; JJ ip CHAPTER III THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY i i|; : 1 w , m ft ') 1 III i ' To pasH from study of the North-West to considera- tion of the remarkable railway enterprise by which it has been thrown open to the world is a natural transition. Never were the fortunes of a great country and a great commercial corporation so closely intertwined as in the case of the Canadian Dominion and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In all the Eastern Provinces the Canadian Pacific is either absorbing the smaller lines, or taking its place beside the greater ones as a keen competitor. In the vast un- developed North-West it has the field as yet practically to itself The 7,200 miles of line directly owned or worked by the company, the 1,800 miles controlled in- directly, alrefidy give it a first place among the railway systems of the world. This mileage of both kinds is rapidly increasing year by year and must continue to increase, in order to satisfy the wants oi a growing country. The line competes successfully with the greatest American systems, and is stretching out its arms to the or in- vay is to ing ;est ;he CH. III. The Canadian Pacific Raihvay 47 heart of the continent. For many hundred miles south of the national boundary its influence as a competitor is felt through the running connexions which it has formed. A new route completed during the past year, from Regina across the American boundary, gives it a very considerable advantage over any American line in dis- tance from the Pacific to Chicago, as it already had in the gradients by which the mountains are crossed. Already it has captured a large part of the tea trade between China, Japan, and the Eastern States, as well as Eastern Canada. It is the only system across the American continent which is under a single direction, a circumstance which gives it a great advantage over any existing line in the United States in dealing with through trafiic and special rates. The statement made by President Harrison in his last Message to Congress, that the Canadian Pacific is free from the restraints of the inter-State commerce law, is true so ftir as Canadian traffic is concerned, but quite incorrect if applied, as he apparently intended, to traffic caiTied on for the United States. The 30,000 tons of trans-Pacific freight, the $100,000,000 worth of goods which President Harrison mentioned as carried from point to point in the United States by Canadian Railways across Canadian territory, represent work gained in per- fectly legitimate competition and in more than ordinarily strict compliance with inter-State law. This, at least, is Sir William Van Home's assertion, made before a large gathering of business men of Boston, and I see no reason to doubt its accuracy. )A UA •m 48 The Great Dominion CHAP. ii|i With tho tormini of its main line on the Atlantic .and Paoific, and touching the groat lakes in its course across the continent, tho company is becoming deeply concerned in transportation by water as well as by land. It already runs one important line of steamships across the Pacinc to Japan and China, and another upon Lakes Superior and Huron. With the newly-opened line across tho Pacific to Australasia it works in close co- operation. The same course will no doubt be pursued with the contemplated fast line of steamships across the Atlantic to Britain, and it has even been proposed that this line should be worked under the immediate direction of the company, and as a part of its system. The greatest activity marks the enterprises of the company across the whole breadth of the continent. In the East connexion has been secured with the ports of Boston and Now York, to supplement that with Montreal, Quebec, St. John, and Halifax. In the prairie country new branches are being pushed forward, and wherever they go new towns are being built up under the auspices, one may rather say imder the im- mediate direction, of the company. The Rocky Mountains will probably soon be penetrated by a new line through the Crow's Nest Pass, by which the company hopes to rcvioli the new mining districts of British Columbia. Preparations are being made to double-track tho line betvv'oen Lakes Superior and Winnipeg, the most important route of wheat trans- portation. For the wooden trestle bridges occasionally used in the early days of construction bridges of stone Ill The Canadian Pacific Raihvay 49 and steel are being rapidly substituted, so that the line now compares favourably, in solidity of construction, with the best on the continent.^ In connexion with the settlement of the large areas of laud granted to it by the Government of the Dominion, a vigorous policy is being carried out. It is preparing to deal with the irrigation problem in the Calgary district. Mines of coal and mines of salt are being developed on the properties of the company. Whalebacks, those latest monstrosities of naval architecture, said to repi'esent a great economy in cost of ccjnstruction as well as iu running expenses as compared with ordinary vessels, are being built on Lake Superior for the transport of grain ; steamships and barges on Lake Huron. Vast ^ The bridging of .the St. Lawrence River for raihvay purposes furnishes one of the most remarkable ilhistrations witli wliioh I am acquainted of the progress made during the hvst thirty years in combining lessened cost in construction with complete solidity of work. The Victoria IJridge, by which the (hand Trunk crosses the St. Lawrence near Montreal, has always Ijcen looked upon as one of the greatest of those feats of construction upon which the engineering fame of Robert Stephenson rests. The cost of the Victoria Bridge \\as $6,300,000, without reckoning interest on the capital during the six years of construction. To serve precisely the same purpose a steel bridge has been built a few miles further up the stream for the Canadian Pacific Railway, under the direc- tion of its present chief engineer, P. A. Peterson, C K. Tiie cost of this bridge, begun in 188G and completed in 1887, was under $1,000,000. The Canadian Pacific Line from Smith's Falls to Sherbrooke, a distance of 225 miles, with the St. Lnirrence Bruhje at Lachine included, cost less than the Victoria Bridge alone. Such a contrast illustrates the extent to which the managers of the Grand Trunk are handicapped by capital expenditure. E I i K . i ■|il 1 i^ M 50 The Great Ponnuiou CHAP. ^'tN.. elevators have been constructed at essential points. A telef,n'aph system, wliieli already competes successfully with the long'-established Western Union and other companies, has been constructed across the whole breadth of Canada, and it has established a powerful Transatlantic cable connexion. Everywhere along its lines a standard of travelling comfort, higher perhaps than can be found elsewhere in America, has been in- augurated oy the com})any. Colonist cars with ex- cellent sleeping arrangements arc provided to carry emi- grants to the prairies with little of the discomfort once thought to be the necessary accompaniment of pioneer movement. Pullman and kitchen cars, equipped with every modern improvement, su})ply the wants of the rich. In the mountain country, at Quebec, and on the Pacific coast hotels have been built and splendidly equipped to meet the need of the increasing volume of tourist travel which is attracted by the magnificent scenery of British Columbia and the Lower St. Lawrence. Enterprises of a minor kind are entered upon freely whenever an opportunity presents itself of developing business for the road. All this represents an astonish- ing amount of energy and effort. From Halifax to Vancouver the " C.P.R.," as it is familiarly called, is a factor, and often a large flictor, in the affairs alike of the country village and of the great city — in the politics of the nnniicipality, the province, and the Dominion. While ready to sharply criticize and combat details of policy and administration Canadians are full of ad- / ',; ■'<(,' mg sh- to s a of :he :hc wis id- III The Canadian Pacific /xaihvav 51 miration for til t' CDinnam' an< I it s wor MS M \V hr.l( They ju'1\II(»\vI('(Il;(' that, il lias taken a K-adinif part in making' Canada hcttrr known in tlio world. 'V\w\ fri't'ly admit that the alnKst phenomenal success achieved by the comi)any during the last few years has con- tributed in no slight degree to raise the credit of thi' whole Dominion, hitherto not a little injuied by nu- ll raib The d successfi out that at its head is a man who combines an extra- ordinary knowledge of detail with ability to deal with the transportation problems of a continent, and that in an age of great railway men he easily takes liis jilace in the front rank. Thev agree that business merit is the only guai-antee of promotion in the company's service, and that as a conse(pience Canada has never before had so nnich business energy concentrated in a single corporation. But the existence of a corporation exercising such wides2)read influence and holding fi-anchises so im- portant must always in any country give occasion for grave questionings. Does it enjoy too wide a monopoly of the country's industry ? Will it or will it not use aright its vast powder ? Have the people any sufficient guarantee that its immense influence will not be exercised to the public detriment ? These are (piestions which are closely debated in Canada. It is safe to say that a corporation which has so wide a range of interest, and which is strenuously ])ushing its way further and further into almost every department of industrial E 2 1 i : ^1! 1^^ w 1' . ; I 5^ llic Great Dominion CHAP. '>»-m iiotivity in Ciiiiadn, iiuist Jilwavs live on iho defcnsivo, and always Im- |)r('])an'(l to ('()ni1)at liostile criticism and justify its existence l)y its works. I found a Irndcncy in some quai'tors in Canada to s])eak of" llu' railway as a graspinf^ monopoly, which socks to cm'ich itself at the public expense. Part of this talk is no doubt due to the play of party spirit; part may be credited to that eternal vigilance which is the ])rice paid foi' liberty. Ihit there is probably no (juestion which is likely to come up for discussion more often in Canada for years to come ; few about which accnrate information and a sober judgment are more to be desired. One ]»(>int is first to be noted. The people (»f Canada, after years of debate anr moiH'V \V(M(> ill liiucs l(tsl 1>('(';iiis(> work lliat lot- (he mcnii'sl (M'oiKniiy i(M|iiir('(l iiisijint. execu- tion h.'id to L;t> tliroiiuli lln> sl(»w prnccss of boitit]^ jnit. uj» t«» |Mil)lic tiMult>i- ill order (o ^uai'd a Minister of n.'iilwavs froM) stispifictn of jolthcrv. The president, and directors of a eonipaiiy aic hound l>v no such oonsi(KM'ations. Ai;ain, theie is no douht llial the lari;e i-ev(Mnn> of the "(MM\.," ah'eady aiiiountini; to more than t\vt>nty tnilhon dollars annually, has heen in no sn»all «K'i;ret> ei'ealed hy t he courai,M'ous hacking' up oi j)rivat(> industries and outside t'literpiises which idtiniatelv hrinij- tVeinht and trav<>l to the r«»ad. The railway has had to make husiness for itself No (iovornnu>nt under oui' system of paity politics wred way that the business eomjtany has d»>n«\ To ^\y^ so would lie to e\|)ose itself lo endless susj)icion. This view, 1 think, is fullv recomii/ed in Canada. and 1 couhl disc(»V(>r no reL;i'et that the ori,i;inal d(H'ision tU" the country, so ditfert-nl from that, ai'rived at in Australia, liad not Ihhmi to keep the i-ailway utuh-r public contro'. Still then> i-- .i dnvid, |>erhaps natural. that tlu' vast ^lowth ot' the .system may »uak<> it a menace to public inttMvsts. The sid)ject is worthy (»f careful consideration. In discussing' it the varyiuij^ conditions under which the railway iuie.\ions are made also witli American lines near Ijethhrid^*; jind near V^nncouver, and others will follow. It; has itself " carried the war int(» Al"ri<^a, " by l)uil(linLj a line from the nei^ddxnirhood of KeL(iria across the national houndaiy in the direction of Miinieapolis jind ('hicago. So vigonnisly, however, enetrat that I could, T am disposed to answer both of these questions in tlu' affirmative. In icgard to the fairness of jirestnt treatment, I was challenged to make the closest inquiry by Sir William Van Horno himself. Complaints, ot I m 56 The Great Dowinion CHAP. *•', course, are numerous, but they require careful sifting. The problems connected with through and local rates, or what is called the long and short haul, with rates for places where there is competition with water carriage and where there is not, for placets with a return traffic and those without any, are very complicated, and often lead to accusations of injustice which caimot be sustained on close examination. Brandon, for instance, feels aggrieved because it does not get the same westward rates as a wholesale distributing centre that Winnipeg does. But Brandim has, in proportion to distance, a distinct compensating advantage over Winnipeg in eastward rates for wheat, a far more vital question for the people of the surrounding country. One heard complaints because much more is charged for carrying a car load of goods from Toronto to Edmonton th.an from Toronto to the Pacific coast, a greater distance. A little in(].»iry elicited the fjict that in the one case there was no return freight, in the other there was, to say nothing of the fact that on the Pacific coast the railway is compelled to compete with ocean carriage. Rates in the moun- tain division were said to be excessively high in com- parison with those on the prairies. But was not the contrast in the cost of transportation far more striking before the railway existed at all :* A British Columbian mill-owner, whom I met in crossing the Atlantic, told me that he had always grund)led at the rates until he had crossed the mountains, and observed for himself the road over which the freight had to be ^'^'■%i \. - ^ Ill The Canadiau Pacific Railway 57 brought. The expense of n^aintaining the line through such a country must bo relatively enormous. Principal Grant, with whom I discussed the (piestion before going West, said to me, " The best test is to find out whether the introduction of the Northern PaciHe competition at Wiiuiipeg which followed the Manitoba agitation really resulted in a decisive lowering of rates." This seemed reasonable. I found that the rate; j)er hundredweight for carrying wheat from Winnipeg to Fort William had dropped from 24 cents to 21 cents, or less than 2 cents ])er bushel, certainly not a decisive reduction, and one which I was told by unpr(>judieed parties would probably have taken placid in any case as the consequence of a greater volume of exportation. A good understanding as to what was a paying rate seems to have been establisned at once and has been maintained between the two companies. In addition to this reduction I was told that merchants received nmch more attention from railwav ofticials now that they had an alternative route by which t(j carry on their traffic. These gains can scarcely be considered sufficient rt'turns for the subsidy of about a million dollars, by which Manitoba induced the Northern Pndency to attribute to it every ill from which the country might happen ti» sutfer. The people and the railway company now M ml % I . m m m 58 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP, ■••I appear to work together on the best of terms for the development of the country. Curiously enough it was the Canadian Pacific itself which really gained greatly by the destruction of its monopoly of communication with Manitoba. Its securities, depressed by the political agitation which disturbed the province and the Dominion, after the settlement of the question steadily rose in value. It m.ay be safely said that both the company and the public of Manitoba learned lessons from this great controversy which they are not likely to forget. It is easy, however, to understand the chief reason why railway rcit os, even when intrinsically reasonable, should appear oppressive to the North-Western farmer at the present time. With wheat at 45 or 50 cents a bushel he sees half or moie of its value absorbed in the cost of carriage to market. Under such circumstances the temptation to clamour for a reduction of freight rates is ver}' great. Yet he should reflect that it must cost as much to carry wheat to market which brings 50 cents a bushel as that which brings a dollar. I return to the important point that west of Winnipeg, over a vast extent of territory, the company still has a practical, though no longer a theoretical, monopoly of railway transport. Does any real danger lie behind the fact ? 1 think not. It seems to me that self-interest adecpiately takes the place of com- petition, 'rile hlling up of the North-West with a, prosperous, producing populati(Hi is ihe one es.sential to the permanent prosperity of the Canadian Pacific. ni in The Canadian Pacific Rai/ivav 59 j< ;l The contented settler is, as I said before, the best iiii- niigration agents. It is he who draws after him from the old land a steadily-increasing stream of neighbours, friends, and relatives. On purely business principles, therefore, the railway company is bound to sec that, as far as possible, the settler is located on gctod soil : it is bound to be considerate afterwards in giving him access to markets at reasonable rates. It cannot afford to be on bad terms with settlers ; it cannot afford to incui- the hostility of fhe whole country. This seems to me the one effective and sufficient guarantee which the North-West has against the evils of railway monopoly. On the other hand, the country itself is a gainer, and is relieved of a heavy responsibiHty by the existence of a ])owerful company deeply interested in the si'tth'ment of the vacant lands, and putting forth every effort to that end. Tlu^ ( anadian Pacific is to-day the most efficient immigration agency at work in Canada. A large Federal expenditure on immigration is not pojudar in the Eastern Provinces, which, after taxing their rest)urces in opening up the West, now see their own population lessened by the attractions which the |>rairies offer to young men. It is therefore fortunate that a powerfid and pi-ogressive railway company, with inunense interests at st.ike, is at hand to take a vigorous lead in promoting the settle- ment of the country. The FederrJ (ioveinmmt might, in my opinion, advantageously give it more efficient and dinvt assistance than it has done. Kxciy M'u settler who goes into the West contributes, not merely ■I I f 60 TAc Great Dominion CHAP. to the revenues of tlie railway company, but to the revenues of the Dominion as well. As I have said before, the interests of the two arc siiif^ularly intertwined, Throughout the North-W(>st the conviction is forced upon one that the country has everything to gain from the enlarging prospei-ity <»f the Canadian Pacific ; that the Canadian Pacific has everything to gain from securing and maintaining the confidence of the people. What the living wag(^ for a railway may be is, of course, a (piestion which only experts can decide. It must be especially difficult to decide in the case of a railway like the Canadian Pacific, built in advance of settlement, and com])elled to work great lengths of line where local revenue cannot for years be expected to meet expenditure. But two or three points seem to me very clear. Should the railway carry at anything less than paying rates, the harm done to its resources ant" levying excessive rates, the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway boldly challenged a Government inquiry, claiming that it could be shown that the farmers of the North- West were in a better position, in icgard to the cost of reaching the world's markets with their wheat, than the farmers of the Western United States, of Russia, India, the Argentine Republic, or Austrahii. The CJovernment inquiiy thus asked for has been j^romised, and it might with advantage lead up to the adoption of some general policy for dealing with such questions. The clear and public definition of alleged grievances; the promj)t and e(pially public statement of the com- pany's point of view seems the only course sufficient for the circumstances, PVom the point at Fort William where the railway reaches the head of Lake Superior a new set of con- ditions prevails, since there it comes into competition with water carriage, always formidable to a railway. As a rule it is the water route which dictates the rate. This competition is increasing with the im])rovement of the canals. By using the American canal at Sault Sainte Marie vessels drawing 18 feet or 19 feet can now pass freely from the head of Lake Superior to the extremity of Lake Erie. The corresponding Canadian canal at Sault Sainte Marie has been pushed on with great energy, and is now ready for use. The canals from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and from Lake Ontario to Montreal arc being deepened, and before i^, li ,. ■'*i m \\\ v. 62 T/tc Great Poniiniofi CHAP. lliivo yonis tht-i'.' will l>r, nceordin^ to the ]>rosont (•alculiilioMs nt' iIk' Ciiiiuliiui (JovcriiiiU'nt, an oiu-n 14-tccl cjinal passatj^c tioni the head <>1' Lake Sii[K>rinr to tlu' point of (iccan shipment on the St. Ijawrence. Tlie anticipated eompletion of this canal system has given rise to an a^^ntation in some of the Western American towns tor the construi'tion ot" a ship canal from Bntfalo to New York, and the (piestion received marked attention in tlie last Presidential Message of Mr. Harrison. Bnt the point oii which I want to lay stress is that the cheap lake and canal transport will take away from the Canadian Pacilic during the period of 0})en navigation any monopoly of trade from Foit William eastward to the Atlantic. As a matter of fact, the company even now uses its boats on ]jake Su})erior and its eastward-bound cars to keep down freight rates from that point. Having to meet the competition of the Northern Pacific ft»r the wheat trathc of the West, its constant object is to make Fort William rather than Chicago or ])uluth the most advantageous point of shi})ment. This can only be tlone by kee})ing tlown eastward rates from Fort William as nearly as possible to the cost of carriage. West of Manitoba, again, any considerable increase of freight charges would make the shi})ment of wheat impossible ; thus the curious fact arises that this great transcontinental railway makes its profit on wheat carriage almost entirely within the four or live hundred miles between Fort W^illiam and Winnipeg, all further transportation being done at about cost price. I believe III th in of Oil th or ' ' •!' hi n 11 I pr^-"' ' III The Canadian Pacific Raihvay 63 thai this stjilciiK'iil, siiiniiliir as i(, may scciii, will l)t.ir invcsli^^al ion. J]('si(l('s the ('oiiijK'tition (»t'liik(' and oanal trafhc.that of tlic (.Jraiid Trunk and otlior lines Im'^mds as soon as Ontario is reached. Here no one (|nestions tiie fact that the Canadian Pacific, ])y superior activit}', has L;iven a decided stimulus to all railway work. It has probably made it impossibUi that the (Jrand Trunk can much longer be managed from England, so manifest are tho advantages of having tlu; diicctorate on the spot, and in a position to d.al raj>idly and elfec- tively with every difliculty, and to make the most of every opportunity. In (his ci^ntral division of the continent, too, is brought out most cleai'iy the necessity that any Canadian system should be of gieat size if it is to compete on C([ual terms with the vast organiza- tions of the United States. On the Anu-rican conti- nenti with its widespread coml^inations, weak luilways are (h-iven to the wall. Originally the Eastern terminus of the railway was at Montreal, but connexion has now^ been established with all the provinces immediately on the Atlantic coast : with the City of Quebec ; with New Brunswick, by a short line across the State of Maine, and V)y an alternative route entirely on British territory down the valley of the St, John ; with Halifax, through the running powders wdiich it has ac(piired over the Inter- colonial. Thus it is in touch with all the chief Atlantic ports of Canada both for summer and winter. J, ^ -' \t 64 The (ircat /\)niiiiion (MAI'. ^>, Tt. is tlic (Hjc ('liMiii wliicli liiiks the Doiiiiiiion to^a't-licr iVoin ocean lo occmii. Hut whil*' il. has coniu'xion willi llic rxtivine Kastcni j)()iis it lias not, in the Kast the sanu' con- ti\>l ot" connnuiiicalioii which it. enjoys in (he West. Jt may a|)p(>ar strange (hat a movement to ^ive it in the maritime j)rovinces a connnand ahnost as ahsohite has met with a good (le;il ofsnpjjort in parts of the country. The (juestion aiose in 1(S!)2, and became a subject lor vehement discussion. A |)i()|)osal was made that the Intercolonial Railway, tlu> Kastern division of the transcontinental system, which consists of about 1,100 miles of road, and has hitherto bi'en worked as a state railway, should bo handed over eiitiri'ly to the conti'ol of the C^inadian Pacific. This road was originally built as a part of the Confederation compact, with the object of nu)re closely unitini( the maritime provinccvs with old Canada. On the advice of the Imperial authorities, and lor military reasons, it was constructed along a route which was not the most direct, and which therefore involved unusual expense for maintenance. It was never expected to make a large return for the mont'y spent upon it, and rates liave bei'U designedly kept low to encourage inter- ])rovincial trade. Tw^o competing lines have since been built from the St. Lawrence to the sea coast, breaking into the connnand of traffic which the Intercolonial at first enjoyed, but also furnishing a remarkable illustra- tion of the growth of inter-provincial trade. Under IT rn ///<• CauivHan l\nific Raihvay 6s tl'.csc cinMiiiistanci's. A (U-ficit has lu'on iiuMirrcd in working' it. iimoimtin^r in soim' years to more tliaii CI ()(),()()(). Thrro mil hr little doubt that the political and social cohcsicjn bron^dit about between tlm provinces by the railway was cheaply purchased even at this rate. Still the deficit long proved a distinct element of friction in the machinery of gcjvernment, and it became the ground of much pai1y conflict. It was attributed by hostile critics to the inefficiency of (Jovernment management ; by friendly critics to restraints under which (Jovernment control necessarily acts, «>r to the inherent difficulties of operating a road originally con- structed for other than strictly business purposes. It should l)e said that skilled accountants have taken an entirely diti'ercnt view of the matter, and have claimed that the deficiency could be traced to the fact that, on the Intercolonial, sums spent in construction were charged to revenue which in other railways were charged to capital. But whatever its cause a resolute effort has been made of late to get rid of this deficit. The att(>mpt has .so far succeeded that in 1803 it was leduced to about £5,000, and revenue and expenditure were nearly balanced in 1894. There seems fair ground to hope that the improvement is permanent. It was. however, while the deficit still recurred annually that the proposal to which I have referred was made. It was suggested by the necessity that existed for undertaking another great entei*prise. Throughout Canada there is a strong desire for a fsist Transatlantic service equal to the best enjoyed by K ] % I 1 'If: 66 The Great Dominion CIIAl'. '] ipi|i| \\ \ American ports. Several largo and prosperous Canadian steamship companies are engaged in the St. Liiwrence trade, and there is a large Heet of ships, but none of the existing Canadian lines is fully up to the highest standard of modern reipiirements ; the best of them has not built a new ship for more than ten years. Yet the Canadian route is much the shortest across the Atlantic : its connexions with every part of the continent from Halifax, Quebec, and Montreal are now complete ; an adequate service would revolutionize jjostal communi- cation and promote the carriage of perishable products ; it would attract a Hood of British and American travel. The St. Liiwrence presents by far the most magnificent approach to the American continent, and for two or three days (jf the passage gives the (piiet of inland navigation in place of the open .sea. It is estimated, on apparently trustworthy calculations, that by this route a traveller could be landed or a letter delivered as far west as Chicago as soon as they can reach New York by existing lines. At present, in nine cases out of ten, time is saved by sending a letter from Britain to Canada by way of New York, and the longer route presents the same advantage to passengei*s. Con- siderations such as these have led the Canadian Government to offer a large subsidy for the encou- ragement of such a line. Various ofiers have been received, but up to 1892 none had been entirely satis- factory. Meanwhile, the Canadian Pacific, having completed its coimexions with the Pacific coast, Japan, China, and Australasia, finds that tho Transatlantic mi III T/w Canadian Pacific Raihuay 67 connexion is necessary to the perfection of its system. Already it makes a special business at all its offices of issuing tickets for the journey round the world — itself carrying i)assengei's in its own cars and boats from Halifax to Hong-Kong — no small section of the whole circumference. To .secure a full share of the tide of travel to and from the East and Austmlasia especially it nnist be able to guarantee close connexion with a fiixt- class steamboat .service acro.ss the Atlantic. This it is now unable to do. In 1892 the president informally proposed to start without subsidy an Atlantic steam- ship service up to the highest modern standard, on condition that the Intercolonial Railway be handed over to his company's control. In the possibilities which the company .saw of developing industries, tourist travel, and traffic in the maritime provinces, and thus making the Intercolonial a paying cimcern, and in the advantage which the Transatlantic connexion would be to the system as a whole, it found an offset to the great expenditure of caj>ital and probable initial deficiency of revenue in working a first-class steamship line. This proposition met with a good deal of favour in Ontario, where it was urged that the Dominion would .save at once the amount of the Intercolonial deficit and the steamship subsidy, in all nearly a million and a half dollai*s. Satisfaction was expressed by many also at the prospect of thus getting rid of the Govern- ment railway, which had so often proved a disturbing clement in Federal politics. The proposal, on the other V 2 ii •M ■'- 68 The Crvaf Doniinion < HAP. 1 Im it I'ff 711' ■ 1 1 ■ IL:S. Mm- Viand, provoked much o))|)osition in the niaritinio pro- vincos. where it was criticized as a violation of the Confederation agreement, and as giving the railway company, ah'eady inHnential enough, a hold on tlie Dominion from coast to coast which is not consistent with the security of puhlic interests. This dread of railway monopoly is natural, an(i }v«j it is just possible that it was exaggerated here, as I think it was in Manit(»ha. I nuist confess that after observing how much energetic management on the part of the company had done to stimulati* industries in the West, one would like to see the same energy trying to arouse the maritime provinces from a certain apathy and slowness of movement which has marked them during the past few years. The danger of abuse might have been guarded against, one would think, by provision for resumption with compensation, after a, nund>er of years, if the arrangement did not prov(^ s;»tisfactory. Opi)osition was too strong, howevei ; the scheme has been for the present abandoned, and I'ti'orts are being made to secure tlu' fast steamshi]) line by means of an iniiependent company. Still it is a noteworthy fact, in its bearing on the nuich disputed (piestion of the respective advantages of state owned and private railways, that Canadian opinion seemed for a moment to waver on the advisability of handing over as a frjc gift to a private company, a railway on which the country had spent nearly $60,000,000. There is no doubt that the railway company, from Ill The Cauadiau Pacific Raihvay 69 its oxtoiiHivt' (M)iini'xi<)ns, would \ya,\\\ been bettor ablu to iniikc th(» new line a ^reat success than any com- pany working in(le])en(lently of tlies(> connexions. WhiU^ the indications are hopeful, it remains to be proved whethei- any oihei- com|)any can be found to undertake the woik on the scale which the Canadian (iovernment requires and tin; circumstances render necessary The time is not fai' distant when the company will practically control 10,000 miles of railway on the American continent, and be in easy touch with all the n.ain centres of j)opuIati(^n. The advantage given by such a connexion foi- a steamship line offering the shortest possible voyage across the Atlantic is incal- culable. It would probably pay such a systeui to run the steamships at a loss. Meanwhile the Canadian Pacific has undertaken to give its hearty support to any company which under- takes to establish the fast Atlantic service. It may well do so, for until such a line is in operation, it can- not reap the full benefit of its splendid position on the American continent, and its connexion acnss the Pacific. Of the efficiency of the Canadian Pacific as a route to be used for naval and military })urposes there can be no (piestion. It has takiTi its place as carrying on regularly a portion of the trooping service of the Empire, by transferring men-of-war crews to and fro between the Atlantic and Pacific. The trains which carry them are equipped with " colonist " sleeping-cai-s, each .iccommodating about sixty men in comfort day 1 1 1 I 1i 70 The Great Doniiuion (HA I'. and night; \\ fii-st-class sloopor for ()ftiooi*s : a kitohcn- car in whicli cooking can be done for several hundred men, besidt"' trans|K>rt for baggage, provisions, &c. The inunense ])lant. of the company would give a power of limit iplying sucli trains in(K'finitely if the necessit y arose for the transfer of large boiHes of men. The use of this new loute has macK' it possible to reinforce a s(piadron at Vancouver from (ireat Britain in fourteen or fifteen davs, ;\nd th;» ('hinesi' s(|uadron in about twenty-five davs, a gre;tt contrnst to the long voyage round C'ajie Horn, or by way of the Suez C^anal. J had the opportunity of travelling for some lime with a detachment of sailors crossing from Vancouver to Halitiix. The enjoyment «)f the trij) by the sailois was manifest. The meals must> have been bett(>r than any to which they were accustomed on shipboard. 1'he travelling comforts provided for men and ofticcis apparently left nothing to b(» desired. Discipline, too, wjus admirably maintained, and .lack, after his six days' run over the Rockies, across the vast prairies, an should not be utilize the world of the new indepencfence which the Empire has acquireil of old routes of communication. w III y//c Cauadiini Pacijic Railway 7 1 I was told oil liii^h niijilaiv authir(' lias this additional resource. The eontingeiu'v of serious snow-blockade, onco dwelt U|ion by hostile <'ritics, may be dismissed to the realms of imagination. A |>rominent and responsible ortieial has stated that, from the o[>ening of the whole line in lS8(l-7 uj) td route of the Ignited Kingdom, Immediately behind Halifax and closely connected with it by rail are the Pictou and other Nova Scotian coal mines, which already turn out about a million tons of coal per annum. Further north is the island of Cape Breton. A century and a half ago^ long before steam came into use, the keen eye of French soldiers fixed upon Louisburg in Cape Breton as the point from which the road to the St. Lawrence could best be guarded and French connnercial interests maintained upon the mainland. The strong fortress is gone, but around the fine harbours of the island are numerous mines far more useful than was the fortress for the prosecution of commerce or, in case of emergency, for its defence. From these mines, again, are raised yearly about a million tons of coal of excellent quality for steaming and other purposes. The mouths of ihv pits are in some cases close to the shore, and as the mines are carried far out under the ocean a ship may be loading directly over the spot from which the coal is >^"|j IV Coal 75 obtained. Nature conUl scarcely have done more to Cfive an advantageous position. (Irejit activity lias been given to mining operations in Cape Breton by the formation in 1892-3 of a powerful syndicate of American and Canadian capitalists to work one of the largest and most important gi'oups of mines. The predominant influence in the company is American, and the action of the Nova Scotian provincial government in granting a ninety years' lease of thc^ coaling privileges to a body chiefly composed of foreigners was at fii*st subjected to a good deal of criticism from a national point of view. It now seems to be clear that the tran.saction had no political significance, and that the combination was made entirely as a commercial speculation. The application of abundant capital under the vigorous direction of the syndicate is an unmixed good, while the existence of other mines in the Sydney district uncontrolled by the new company will probably act a.s a permanent hindmnce to the creation of a dangerous monopoly- Large deposits of coal are also known to exist on the t-asteni side of the island, and the development of new mines here will in time enlarge the area of independent production. The lowering of the duty imposed on coal by the McKinley tariflf will to some extent influence the prospects of coal mining in N«jva Scotia and Cape Breton ; the entire abolition of the duty, which seems probable within the next few years, will aff"ect the industry profoundly. The consumption of coal in the m ■i 76 The Great Doiniuioii CHAP. m V, New England states alone amounts annually to about 11,000,000 tons, and free competition for this market must have the effect of greatly stimulating Canadian production. The coal measures of this eastern poi'tion of Cape Breton have been carefully explored, and their extent determined with considerable accuracy. It is some- what important to note that they stretch directly along the coast from the north side f)f Sytlney harbour south- ward in the direction of Louisburg for no less than twenty-five miles. From the shore they do not extend more than about four miles inland. The dip of the seams appears to indicate that they go nearly as far out under the sea, and in one case the galleries have already been carried out between one and two miles, while leases are taken to cover a distance of three miles sea- wawl. The coal is shipped at three tlifferent harbours along this coast line of twenty-five miles, and prepara- tions are being made for shipping it at a fourth. The peculiar position of the mines thus lying along a lengthened coast line would make their protection in time of war by land defences a difficult and very expen- sive undertaking. It would probably be effected more easily by ships c>f war stationed in the neighbourhood. Yet their defence would be a necessity if the maritime superiority which they give is to be maintained. At present the harbours in use are practically closed to navigation by ice, from thr beginning of the year till May. To secure a port for winter shipment a railroad is now (1894) being built to Louisburg, and the con^- J ^^ IV Coal // incrcial activity of the ancient town will soon 1)0 revived. Witli the exception <»f two or three weeks, when it is liable to some slight obstruction from /J 6> cW * ^'S' vw/ m V //. /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 QjL % C/j Q>- IP. <\ 11 lil I! I' i! !l ■ 80 The Great Dominion CHAP. nazal station of Esquimalt, the importance of which was well illustrated when I was there by the presence in the fine graving dock of a man of war, undergoing repairs after a serious mishap. Doubtless Esquimalt must be the main reliance for the safety of the fleet in the North Pacific, but some subsidiary protection seems imperative for the security of actual coaling ports like Nanaimo, if they are to be safe against sudden attack. Full and joint provision for this may only be possible when the motherland and the colonies have arrived at a clear understanding in regard to the distribution of national responsibility. The defence, however, ought certainly to be given, and it would be wiser to plan carefully and completely in time of peaco for what would of necessity have to be supplied hastil}/ under the pressure of any threat of war. Such a question would be fair matter for deliberation and decision at the colonial conferences of the future. A fact may here be mentioned which illustrates by contrast the singular advantage which the Empire possesses . om the connnand of abundant coal on the Pacific. The great American city of San Francisco, with its extensive shipping and railway connexions, draws its chief supplies of good coal from three British sources — Vancouver, New South Wales, and Great Britain itself Curiously enough the two distant points compete in furnishing this coal on practically equal terms with Vancouver, which is close at hand. Ships chartered to caiTy wheat from the Pacific coast to Europe from want of a return cargo use coal as ballast IV Coal in voyaging from England or AuHtialip., and are there- fore able to deliver it in San Francisco almost as cheaply as it is brought from Vancouver. During the year 1892 San Francisco took about 600,000 tons of Vancouver coal. The American steamship lines to China and Australia use it almost exclusively. It goes to the Sandwich Islands, to Mexico, and many other points on the Pacific, a circumstance which indicates how much Canada's stake on that ocean is increa.sing. Another suggestive fact should bo mentioned. The American cruisers employed in guarding the seal fisheries in the Behring Sea have taken the larger part of their coal supplies from Vancouver. The manager of the principal mining company at Nanaimo told me that he had thus, in a single year, sent 5,000 tons to the Behring Sea for the use of Ameiican ships. The British cruisers were at the same time using Welsh coal, to which the preference was given, not from any superiority in steaming qualities, but because it was a smokeless coal and cleaner. The Admiral stated that he could see American ships several miles further than they could see him. The advantage of such a coal in time of war is obvious, but in war time the only coal obtainable would probably be that near at hand. I shall have occasion, however, to speak of smokeless coal again. The Vancouver mines furnish the Canadian Pacific Company with fuel for their fast steamship service to China and Japan and for their railway service to the summit of the Rockies. Without these mines the Transcontinental Railway and its ocean connections — O iil 82 The Great Doininion CHAP. Mipj Hi j \ m ffi'i Iff i ill ' HH'i ¥. in other words, the new postal, commercial, and miliiaiy route to the East, would scarcely be an accomplished fact. In the West, then, as well as the East, on the Pacific as on the Atlantic, Canada's coal measures are so placed as to give the greatest possible advantage for external and internal communication; for the prosecution of commerce in times of peace, and for its defence in time of war. And surely vast coal measures lying behind defended or defensible ports must be of more permanent worth than mere coaling stations which have to draw all their supplies across wide seas. We may now consider how the coal supplies of the coast are supplemented by those of the interior. An important coal area has lately been opened up in the Rocky Mountain district. A few miles from Banff, and scarcely a hundred yards from the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, a mine of anthracite coal is being worked. Many outcrops of the same deposit are found north- ward and southward along the line of the Rockies in British Columbia. It represents, I believe, the only true anthracite coal which has yet been found, or, at any rate, worked, in America westward of Pennsylvania. It contains a larger amount of fixed carbon than the Pennsylvanian coal, burns rather more rapidly, and gives out a greater heat. On account of the peculiar excel- lence of the coal, the development of this mine has been watched with much interest. The chief difficulty has Arisen from the lack of a sufficient market within a reasonable distance. The coal is used exclusively by IV Coal 83 h- in ny lia. iel- en as a by the Canadian Pacific Railway in heating its cars as far eastward as Lake Superior. For domestic purposes it is sold as far eastward as Winnipeg, taking the place of Pennsylvanian coal brought up the Lakes, and west- ward as far as Vancouver. It would be much more ex- tensively used but for the fact that stoves and furnaces generally throughout the country are adapted to the use of soft bituminous coal, and the class of people willing to change their appliances and pay a higher price for a superior coal is limited. There has hitherto beer little sale for the refuse coal or slack, which, in the neighbourhood of large manufacturing centres in Eng- land or Pennsylvania, adds so much to the profits of the mine-owner. Use is now being found for it in working electrical machinery, and this field is enlarging in the West. At Canmore, only ten miles distant from the anthra- cite mine, the Rocky Mountain deposits furnish a coal of a different quality. The mines have not long been opened, and their extent has not yet been fully deter- mined, but the coal has been found to be almost smokeless, and has the further quality of coking well. Both these facts are of the utmost interest, as the one suggests the possibility of our ships of war in the Pacific being supplied near at hand with the smokeless coal at present obtained from Wales, while the silver mines now opening up in the Kootenay districts, as well as those on the other side of the national boundary, create a large dem{ind for coke to be used in smelting. An adequate supply of coke, indeed, is almost essential to a 2 ; S ? •'' S r- 84 TAe Great Dominion CHAi*. the fullest and most successful operation of the mining industries of British Columbia.^ Further south along the range of the Rockies, once more, at the Crow's Nest Pass, other outcrops of a re- markable thickness and good quality have been dis- covered. As there is at present no railway connection to this point, and as the country around is comparatively unsettled, there has been no inducement to work these deposits, which await the advance of civilization. But it is through the Crow's Nest Pass that an easier access to the Kootenay country will ultimately be sought, and the Canadian Pacific Railway is even now feeling its way in this direction, having made surveys with a view to the early construction of a line. Thus the coal mines of the Rocky Mountains promise to supply what is lacking in the quality of those of the Pacific coast and those of the prairies. They give completeness to the means of transcontinental carriage. With abundant coal on the Pacific coast, on the eastern * Since this paragraph was written I have had the opportunity of observing some further facts of importance in connection with coke production in Canada. Two years ago, at Nanaimo, Mr. Robins mentioned to me the probability that German methotis of treatment would be applied to overcome the lack of gootl coking coal in the Dominion. During the last year, in confirmation of this opinion, an extensive plant has been erected in connection with the iron works of New Glasgow in Nova Scotia, and the production of what appears to be excellent coke is being carried on with complete success. The operation consists in crushing the coal almost to powder, and then, before it is put into the retorts, washing out the earthy and other material which, as taken from the mine, diminish its coking qualities. The results seem to })e quite satisfactory. IV Coal 8s eem 3 be aval ■^1 ■ Mill K^A^l^'.' M ^ UL^I.AUI^' *V \^\ iiifii"^ 11^ ^ < ■ »/ s (0 //^ iv . _ BO' t > Til'*:'' ''"•//. ^•//. *J^, [Iff iilfl'JJt \ 'A. \r '^/&.. Un '' a'. J^"" 1 1 in inn' ,, l-^iii; ■ l',t,, . ^•'''^<«^' '><'.ivcj^I itonll I. t V'f ^pfee!2<^; '/'<; ...:, 'Hft.,^ '<■*„ A' Mi'^ *Bi ■w t^lei JTOz.-nikee k'""W c^' ^ [u E ® s^ I" ^"'''^ •'■ '^ iVi'z^^/r -7 .;» WwWk, ttavpu C Jl\ " S.Jo, Jmjpum Cn>derich\ '^r ('•Wriillo CS'rt. ^■':^^^'*'v"Sgfei ^'>5i^>' WISPS'^ i**/!^ ^cjiica^o l:;"y't^fii; MaciuJllHii & C? AofuftTi SiaTiftmik iM-rn' /-Idnh* i^r |,„|jj m^r^ ,,.'' M of Oreru-N^u-h . SCALE OF 100 '20O EN GUSH MILES 1 ' 1 I 1 CHAPTER V EASTERN CANADA Ontario and the Maritime Provinces I BEGAN these studies of Canada by consideration of the North-West, as presenting one of the most interest- ing and critical problems in the development of the Dominion. But it must constantly be remembered that, after all, the brains and pith nnd marrow of the country are still in the Eastern Provinces ; that these are still the centre of political force, of the country's progress, wealth, and culture, of those decisive charac- teristics which have given Canada its strong individu- ality, and will, for many years to come, chi( By mould its future ; that, in ftict, the North-West is but a yesterday's offshoot and creation of the sturdy life which has been steadily growing up for a long time in the East. It would therefore leave quite a wrong impression on readers in other parts of the Empire to lay the emphasis, in discussing Canada's affairs, on the West, to the exclusion of the East. A precisely opposite course would at the present moment be more just. The great ■'ij il".! ■ ! If' w I -:trili ^, yjijli d 41 * ^ 90 T/^e Great Dominion CHAP. possibilities of the prairie country have impressed the imagination of people at a distance, and have made it, during the last few years, rather unduly overshadow the older provinces of which I am now to sj^eak. As far as political and social power go these latter still con- stitute by far the greater part of Canada. Of eighty members of the Dominion Senate, seventy-two come from the east and but eight from the west of Lake Superior. In the House of Commons the proportion is 200 to fifteen, while of the Western representatives themselves, excluding those of British Columbia, a large majority were born and bred in the East. These figures will enable the reader to form in his own mind some fair balance of the relative present proportions and influence of the two sections of the country. Nor must it be thought that the developments of the future belong to the West alone. All the Eastern Provinces 8till have large unoccupied areas, while their resources are much more varied than those of the somewhat monotonous West. Eastern Canada is a country of seacoast, islands, peninsulas, great rivers, and lakes ; of splendid fisheries : of varied scenery and climate ; of coal, timber, iron, and gold ; precisely that combination of condition and resources which history has proved most ftxvourable to human progress. Of the provinces, Ontario is by far the greatest and wealthiest, at present containing well nigh one half the population of the whole Dominion, and with great pos- sibilities of future growth. Bounded by three great lakes, Ontario, Erie, and Huron, and by three great 1 Eastern Canada 91 rivers, the St. Lawrence, Detroit, and Ottawa, so that its position, though in the middle of the continent, is ahnost insular; equipped with a most complete railway system : having a climate which favours the growth in abundance of grapes, peaches, melons, maize and similar products in the south, and is singularly suited for wheat, barley, and all the hardier cereals further north ; with petroleum and salt areas in the west, timber areas on Lake Huron, mineral deposits of great variety and extent on Lake Superior, the province seems almost unique in situation and resources for production and commerce of all kinds. Its future must be very great indeed, and whatever may be the growth of the West, Ontario will assurf^dly remain for a long time the centre of political and commercial energy in the Dominion. At least, if there is any lack of prosperity and influence, it will lie in the people themselves, not in their stars. British capital, which is content with secure investment at moderate rates of interest, is finding much emj^loy- ment in Ontario, and, under judicious management, may safely do so in much larger volume than at present. It is not without some feeling of geographical surprise that one finds from a comparison* of areas that this single Canadian province of Ontario is as large as the whole of the six New England States, together with New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Nor will its growth be considered slow, if we remember that in 1776, when these States were populous enough to bear the main brunt of the revolutionary war, Ontario was T r "& ^Ife^ nr Mh r '■ ■n •I n .1' fi 'i« If (' 5l iiimkh ■5 92 T/^e Great Dominion CHAP. practically an unexplored wilderness ; while as late as 1835 the population, now nearly two millions and a half, numbered only three hundred thousand. When it is remembered also that this growth of little more than half a century has not been made on a prairie soil, but that every one of its 25,000,000 cleared acres has involved hewing down a heavily wooded forest, the progi-ess made seems surprising, and explains why the province has reared a hardy race of men. The truth is that the southern and western districts of Ontario — those which lie between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, and those which are enclosed by the lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron — have almost every- thing that could recommend them as a place in which to make a home — a fertile soil, variety of production, a plentiful water supply, and a salubrious climate. I doubt if any mainly agricultural area of equal size in the world gives evidence of more uniform prosperity among the mass of the people than do the older portions of Ontario. I base the comparison on observation of the country around Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, London, Woodstock, Ingersoll, St. Thomas, Guelph, Belleville and Kingston ; and any one who takes the trouble to visit these places and study the surrounding districts will, I think, ratify the judgment. Speaking generally, agricultural employment and products in Ontario are not unlike those of the United Kingdom ; a warmer summer and drier autumn giving, in comparison, advantages in ripening fruit and harvesting gi-ain ; a colder winter presenting drawbacks 1" Eastern Canada 93 in the feeding of stock and for outdoor farm work. But there are districts with characteristics worthy of special note. A visit to the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, for in- stance, upsets many preconceived ideas -ibout the Canadian climate and the range of Canadian produc- tion. It is the greatest fruit district of the Dominion. Cculd Louis the Fifteenth have seen it as it is to-day he would have understood that instead of the " few arpents of snow " which he thought, or affected to think, he was signing away when he ceded Canada to Britain, he was really handing over to English people one district, at least, which compared not unfavourably in soil and climate with the richest and sunniest parts of France. Grapes, peaches, melons, and tomatoes, which in England are ripened with difficulty when not under glass, are here raised in the greatest profusion in the open air. As a consequence the markets of all the principal towns of Eastern Canada are in the season supplied with fruit in extraordinary abundance, and at a price which makes it not merely a luxury of the rich, but a part of the ordinary diet of the poor. When large baskets of delicious peaches and very good grapes are sold, as is constantly the case in the, Toronto and Montreal markets, for between 40 and 60 cents (Is. 6rf. and 2s. 6f?.), these fruits are evidently within the reach even of the ordinary working man. The fruit growing industry of the Niagara district is already important, but a steadily widening market seems likely to give it a great expansion. Few parts of 94 The Great Dominion CHAP. ,ji-i i ': 'r ' A: t it.: lii,. ■S, Canada illustrate more fully the advantage which has come from the extension of the railway system of the Dominion. The prairies of the North-West produce little or no fruit, and are never likely to minister much to their own wants in this respect. Already many hundred tons of grapes, pears, tomatoes, &c., are shipped yearly from the country between Hamilton and Niagara to Winnipeg, whence it is dis- tributed as far west as the Rocky Mountains, The growth of Western population will steadily increase the importance of this market. Eastward a market is found as far as Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, the latter of which, though an excellent apple region, does not favour the growth of grapes and peaches. Special daily fruit trains are run regularly during the autumn to Toronto and Montreal, and fruit transport forms at this season an important item in the receipts of the Grand Trunk and other lines. The business must be a profitable one, since it bears the express rate of $200 per car-load which is charged between Hamilton and Winnipeg. One would think that with good appliances for cold storage, grapes and tomatoes, at least, could be cheaply and profitably placed upon the English market. • I had heard that hopes were entertained of the Peninsula becoming a large wine producing area. There are, of course, many difficulties involved in producing wines of the best quality to compete with those of Europe, and, in addition to this, I was told by one of the largest 1 i .f-f Eastern Canada 95 growers that it only paid to use the grapes for making wine when the price had fallen to what seemed a ridiculously low point ; I think below a cent per pound. Under these conditions the growing demand for the grapes as a fruit must, one would think, check for a long time any attempts at wine production on a large scale. Still a good deal of wine has already been made, and there are growers who take a much more hopeful view of the industry than that here stated. Their opinions may be based on a wider study of the facts than I could give to them. It is significant that a vigorous protest was made by the vine-growers of Ontario against the lately concluded French Treaty, providing for the freer introduction of light French wines. The protest was based on the rapid growth of vineyard culture, the ex- treme cheapness of production, and the hopes enter- tained of making the wine output a valuable adjunct of the general fruit business of the province. Besides the expanding home market for more perish- able fruits of which I have spoken, the export of apples from Ontario to Britain is very large. In favourable years it has amounted to four or five hundred thousand barrels and the quantity increases with improve facilities for transportation. • • The success of the apple trade has in many cases been much lessened by want of care in selecting and packing fruit, but the Fruit Growers' Association, which publishes a useful monthly magazine and holds regular meetings for the discussion of all subjects connected i" ' 1% iS ' ^ ■ 96 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP. Avith the business, is now making resolute efforts at im- provement in these particulars. A law has already been passed by the Dominion Parliament providing for the inspection of fruit. Unfortunately this inspection is voluntary only, and must be paid for by the dealer. The association aims at a general and compulsory in- spection and grading carried out at the expense of the Government. If the external appearance of the farms and farm- buildings furnishes a reliable indication of prosperity, the business of fruit-growing in the Niagara Peninsula is a profitable one. The opportunities seem equally good for orchards on a large or small scale. One which I visited near Grimsby contained about 100 acres, all in a high state of cultivation. Attention was about equally divided between peaches, pears, grapes, apples, plums, cherries, tomatoes and small fruit, such as currants, gooseberries and blackberries. For men experienced in fruit culture, and with some capital, this district of Canada offers very distinct opportunities. Orchard land already planted is, of course, expensive, but I was told that plenty of land, as good as that which now produces the best results, could be got at a reasonable price. But every one with whom I discussed the question laid stress upon the necessity for experience. It is not a business at which any casual beginner can succeed. In other districts of the province there are the best opportunities for mixed farming. Stock raising and dairying have of late years steadily taken the place of Eastern Canada 97 wheat growing, once the farmer's chief reliance. The policy which has dictated the change is a wise one, for the relative depreciation of price in the case of cattle and cattle products has been slight as coini)ared with that in cereals. It has been stated on good authority that throughout the period of agricultural depression, the exchange value of cheese and butter — that is, the amount of tea, sugar, manufactured goods, or other necessities which a given quantity of these i)roducts would purchase, has been as great as it ever was before. The farmer of Ontario is beginning to lind out that in producing wheat only he commits himself to the chances of competition not merely with the easily tilled expanses of the fertile prairie, but also with the poorly paid and poorly fed peasant of India, Russia, and South America. The higher form of product demands greater intelligence and expenditure of thought, but gives a larger and more reliable return. Ontario supplies much the larger proportion of the cheese and live cattle which the Dominion sends to England, and now , aims at increasing its output of butter, especially during the winter season, in alternation with the cheese making of the summer. Ontario is the province also which has benefited most largely by the protective policy ; manufactures of great importance have sprung up at many points. In agri- cultural implements, pianos and cabinet organs, sewing machines, carriages, furniture, and railway plant, the people of Ontario could now probably hold their own in H ui rp~ I!' W it^ i y I'i I r In. 98 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP. the markets of the world without protection. Large shipments of farming tools are now being made to Australia, the British manufacturer not yet having sufficiently learned the art, common to American and Canadian, of making tools which combine a maximum of strength with a minimum of weight, the special requirement of warm countries. The coarser forms (jf qptton manufacture have also advanced rapidly in Canada, but this centres chiefly in Montreal and the Lower Provinces, where the French population furnishes a cheap and steady supply of factory labour. The same is true of the sugar-refining industry, which has made immense strides under the national policy. Raw sugar is now admitted free of duty, and in this important poor man's luxury the Canadian is almost on a level with the British consumer, as he is on a higher level in respect of tea and coffee, which are untaxed. The " free breakfast table " has had much to do with recon- ciling the ftirmer and working man of Canada to a revenue system otherwise pressing heavily upon them. Among the cities of Ontario, Toronto, the capital, tends to become the literary and intellectual centre of the Dominion, and almost the rival of Montreal in com- mercial prestige. Its population is close upon 200,000. The largest and most influential daily newspapers of the Dominion are published here ; those of the larger city of Montreal being somewhat handicapped by appearing in the midst of a bi-lingual population. The state- supported University and the well-endowed collegiate institutions of several religious bodies adorn Toronto .■*ww5wS*« '■& ;,' ^ Eastern Canada 99 ISi with groups of fine buildings, and give it a consider- able learned society. The situation of the city immediately upon Lake Ontario mitigates the severity of inland summer heat. Boating clubs and yachting clubs around the harbour illustrate the tastes and amusements of the people, and explain the aquatic reputation of the place. By means of good steamboat connection across the lake, and of the electric railway, Niagara ha < been brought within the limit of a day's, pleasant outing. On summer after- noons and evenings the populace streams across in cheap ferryboats to the Island which fronts the harbour, to enjoy the fresh breezes of the lake. In default of the sea shore, fashionable Toronto escapes, for outdoor life in holiday time, to the charming Muskoka Lake district, a hundred miles to the north, the numerous islands of which are becoming dotted with the huts, cottages or villas of its summer visitors. Altogether Toronto has advantages which make it, among the cities of the Empire, a distinctly pleasant place in which to live. It has been ambitious, and like other ambitious communities has suffered in late years from over-speculation in real estate, and from building in advance of the actual wants of the population. But the lesson of moderation was quickly learned, and its prosperity has had no permanent check. In sentiment Toronto is intensely British. The foundation of the place by United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolution, and the pvt which it has taken in various crises of Canadian history since H 2 i ; 1 !j,i! I mi i ^K, a, , I, ■, ||||S| IE? ! i lOO 7yu' Great Dominion CHAP. that time, sufficiently account for the peculiar strength of this feeling. The remark iii)i)lies equally to much of Southern Ontario, \vhich owes its early settlement chiefly to the Loyalist migration. In the war of 1812 its borders formed the chief line of attack and defence. Along them are found the battle-fields on which aggres- sion was resisted, and security won for Canadian terri- tory. Noble tradition has thus been added to origimd sentiment to form a persistent and active force which still profoundly influences the whole connnunity. Hamilton, beautifully situated on a bay at the head of Lake Ontario, with London and Woodstock further inland, are other towns of the province which derive a very marked prosperity chiefly from being the centres of splendid agricultural districts. Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, has a history dating back to the early days of French occupation, and is now the seat of a flourishing University, and of the Military College of the Dominion. Ottawa, the political capital of the Dominion, is also in Ontario. When selected in 1858 to be the seat of government, it was a remote and unimportant lumber- ing village, chosen as a compromise between the rival claims of Montreal, Quebec and Toronto. Since that time it has grown rapidly and has now 50,000 inhabit- ants. Canadians are proud, and with some reason, of> the Parliament buildings. Favoured by a splendid site on a high bluff overlooking the Ottawa River and the Chaudiere Falls, their architectural effect is distinctly imposing. The buildings are a monument to the fbre- \^sm ' * .,' "' Juutcru Canada lOI sight of Sir Jolin Macdonalcl It was chieHy under liis guidance that, years before confederati< ii was an accompHshed fact, construction was l)eguu and con- tinued with resf>kite n^ference to the future *;reatness of the country. Ottawa continuc^s to be the centre of an extensive hinibering inchistry, and the saw-mills along the river, with the jmlp-iuills which utilise the refuse wood, are the main dependence of the labouring population. The outskirts of the city still indicate its recent origin, or perhaps the inability of municipal government to keep pace with the wants of a rapidly growing .. umunity. Possibly the perfection of the tram system which reaches out in all directions, driven, lighted, and in winter warmed with electricity obtained by utilising the Chaudiere Falls, makes attention to suburban streets a secondary question. Many think that the American plan of making the seat of the general government an area exclusively under federal control might have been adopted with advantage at Ottawa. Passing by the Province of Quebec for the present, as requiring individual treatment, I go on to the Maritime Provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island — where the population is practically ho- mogeneous with that of Ontario. One geographical fact makes the relation of these provinces to the Dominion and to the Empire of the utmost significance. They contain the only good ports on the eastern coast of Canada open to navigation in all seasons of the year. As a harbour Halifax ranks among the best in the hi :; I I i02 The Great Dominion CHAP. world, as a naval station among the most important in the Empire. The whole British navy could float, with room to spare, at the sj^lendid anchorage in Bedford Basin, The harbour is strongly fortified, the length and narrowness of the entrance channel making it singu- larly adapted to defence. When two or three more guns of the heaviest metal and most modern type have been placed in the casemates prepared for them, when a complete search-light system has been installed, and telegraphic and telephonic communication completed between the various forts and batteries, Halifax har- bour will be practically unassailable. Those whose professional opinion is entitled to great weight com- plain of an incredible hesitation on the part of the authorities in adding these final touches which are necessary to give full efifect to a position already so nearly impregnable. Halifax has direct . i-ble connec- tion with Bermuda, which stands only second to it in importance as a station for the North Atlantic Squadron. This Bermuda cable has been laid almost exclusively for strategic purposes, and under im- perial subsidy. It should be extended at once to the West Indies, not merely to establish connection with the remaining stations at St. Lucia and Kingston, but for commercial reasons in which Canada, the West Indian Islands, and the mother country are alike interested. Telegraphic communication with the islands is now carried on entirely through the United States, and at heavy rates. St. John, on the Bay of Fundy, stands next in im- ^"w V Easteiii Canada 103 portiince to Halifax. As a commercial port it has the advantage over the latter of saving two or three hundred miles of land carriage to the Western Provinces. The harbour has often been represented as difficult of access on account of fog, but reliable statistics seem to prove that there is no real ground for this opini(jn. 8t. John has an important commerce, and is likely to have more, but it is practically undefended. I know of no place of equal importance in any part of the empire which would in time of war be so entirely at the mercy of any one who chose to attack it. Halifax owes its defence to the imperial treasury ; that of St, John — and the opportunity for either torpedo or battery defence is excellent — might well be undertaken by the Dominion Government. There are several minor ports. It has already been pointed out that Louisburg in Cape Breton, long since flxllen into decay, could easily be transformed, if neces- sary, into a well-defended coaling station. The industrial position in the Maritime Provinces during the last fifteen or twenty years has been very peculiar. For a long* time the chief industries, those which occupied the great mass of the population, were lumbering, shipbuilding, and fishing. The finest pine timber has now become partially exhausted. Spruce timber, which at present constitutes the principal ex- port, grows on soil not very well suited for agriculture, reproduces itself rapidly if the forests are protected from fire, and will therefore remain a permanent in- dustry, though not one capable of maintaining a large 2 if !' i' . ■ ': . i -^ '»: I h : •Mv 104 77^ e Great Dominion CHAP, population. Besides, the timber trade is very uncer- tain, and subject to serious fluctuations from variation of snowfall and flood, as well as from ordinary commer- cial competition. The substitution of iron for wood in shipbuilding has had a disastrous effect upon several formerly prosperous conniiunities. Places like St. John and Yarmouth, which twenty-five years ago had more tonnage afloat in proportion to population than any places of equal size in the world, have seen the carrying trade which brought them wealth gradually slipping away without the chance of recoveiy, and in the effort to maintain an almost hopeless contest many large shipping firms have come to grief The fishing and agricultural industries have been seriously affected by American legislation ; in the case of agriculture chiefly from want of organisation among the people to meet new conditions. All these circumstances have weighed heavily against the provinces. The destruction by Are in 1877 of nearly the whole city of St. John, and the consequent ruin, though in many cases delayed a few years, of leading commercial Arms, made the situation worse. The city has shown remarkable elasticity in retrieving its losses, but the effects of such a blow long remain. The falling off of the West Indian trade left Halifax for a time without one of its chief means of support, but this is now again reviving. Once more, the opening of the prairies of the North-West has not only had the effect of carrying the tide of immigration almost entirely \' m Eastern Canada 105 westward past Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but has also drained away a proportion of the young and enterprising population. As a consequence the increase of population during the decade between 1881 and 1891 was very slight indeed. The facts which I have men- tioned are quite sufficient to account for severe depres- sion in any communities not having extraordinary energy. But there has been a lack, among the mass of the people, even of such energy and adaptability to changing conditions as might fairly have been expected. This is perfectly manifest to the observer who has the opportunity of making comparison with other commu- nities, but w^ould require too much space to discuss fully here. Partly a business fatalism, the offspring, I think, of long subjection to the incalculable chances of the lumber and fishing industries ; partly careless habits of ffxrm work induced by the same employments ; partly the hope constantly indulged of help from some god's hand thrust out from the political machine ; this, perhaps, embodies in the fewest possible words what one wishes to express. Surely nowhere in our wide British Empire, or in any other country, have so much talent, effort, and time been spent in trying to squeeze public and private prosperity out of politics as in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. The attempt has not succeeded ; the provinces by the sea, though with most varied resources, remain comparatively poor, while Ontario grows increasingly rich, and Montreal begins to add up its long lists of millionaires. A high average of comfort widely prevails, but there are few examples of 1 *ir I VI I II,' 111 f : '14: '*lv. 1 06 JVie Great Dominion CHAP. the great business success often achieved in other })arts of the Dominion. But it must not be thought that the poorer provinces are witliout their compensations for the present or their hopes for the future. I am not sure that both are not such as fairly to balance the situation. If these provinces have not the prestige of wealth, they ha^'*^ the severer and, as some may think, the higher glory of moral influence and intel- lectual power. One of the most remarkable facts connected with the growth of federated Canada has been the influence — quite disproportionate to popu- lation — of the public men of the Maritime Provinces in the Councils of the Dominion. Ontario owed to Scotland Sir John Macdonald, George Brown, Alexander Mackenzie, and Sir Alexander Gait. Montreal also has drawn its merchant princes and organizers of industry chiefly from Scotland and England. The smaller provinces have bred their own men, and they need not be ashamed of the type. No doubt it was Sir John Macdonald's mind, with its Imperial turn of thought, which first fully grasj3ed the idea of a United Canada as a part of a United Empire, but no one who knows the prejudices and problems he had to face believes that ho could ever have realized his dream without having had at his back the political fighting energy of Sir Charles Tupper and the remarkable financial prudence and ability of Sir Leonard Tilley, the one a son of Nova Scotia, the other of New Brunswick. When the veteran Premier died, the first and second I i(#i mm Eastern Canada 107 choice for a successor, after the temporary leadership of Sir John Abbott, was from among Maritime Province men. The late Premier of the Dominion, Sir John I'hompson, the Minister of Marine in his Cabinet, Sir Hibbert Tapper, and the scientific specialist, ])r. Dawson, who contributed so much by their services to secure a favourable issue for the Behring Sea award — work which was warmly recognized by the Imperial Government — are all Maritime Province men. Those who know most of the conduct of the Halifax Fisheries Commission in 1877, the first great national arbitration won by Great Britain, are aware that success was largely due to the presentation of the British case by the late Mr. S. R. Thompson, the brilliant New Bruns- wick advocate. The present able Finance Minister, Hon, George E. Foster, is from the same province, as was the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Dominion. This range of influence is not confined to politics and law. Very singular it is to observe how these com- paratively poor provinces, with their simple and some- times rigorous conditions of life, are furnishing brains to other parts of the continent. Sir William Dawson the distinguished scientist and head of M'Gill College, Montreal ; Principal Grant, of Queen's University, Kingston ; Dr. Rand, President of the new M'Master University at Toronto; Dr. Bourinot, of Ottawa, the keen analyst and exponent of Federal Government; Dr. Schurman, President of Cornell University, New «1H| m r>! ^ : r 1 08 T/ic Great Dominion CHAP. York; Professor Simon Newcomb, of the Washington Observatory, admittedly one of the foremost astro- nomers of the world; Archbishop O'Brien, the most conspicuous figure of the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Canada, are all from the same provinces. So are Charles Roberts and Bliss Carman, whose names as poets, well known in Canada and the United States, are also beginning to be known in England, and who, whatever estimate critics may ultimately put upon their work, are certainly genuine outgrowths of their native soil, and catch their inspirations from the con- ditions amid which they live. Professorships, editorial chairs, and the pulpits of all denominations, not only across the breadth of the Dominion from Quebec to Vancouver, but through the Eastern and Western States, are in a singularly large proportion supplied from the same source. Britain herself owes no small debt to these Maritime Provinces. They gave her General Fenwick Williams, the hero of Kars, whose name will always be associated with one of the most brilliant episodes in our country's military history, as well as Sir Prove Wallis, whose memory is still fresh in the minds of English people. Inglis of Lucknow was the son of a Nova Scotian Bishop. Stairs, Robinson, and Mackay, the three brilliant Canadian youths who have laid down their • fo** the Empire in Africa within the last two or <''!r Vi'^ars, were all from the Maritime Provinces. ►Si .;..' Cunard, whose wise and far-sighted plans laid the foundations of what has long been the most ■im Eastern Canada 109 perfect steamship service in the world, and gave Great Britain the foremost place, which she has always retained, in this great field of national enterprise, worked out these plans in his native city of Halifax. A whole range of modern humorous literature took its rise from the fertile brain of Haliburton, the wise and witty Nova Scotian Judge. His friend Joseph Howe, with extraordinary prescience, anticij)ated by forty years nearly all that statesmen and thinkers are now saying about the unity of the Empire, and advocated it with a warmth of eloquence and power of statement as yet absolutely unmatched. The more serious work of Haliburton, too, embodies some of the earliest and best discussions of the same question, and the writings of these two men make it clear that in the remote province of Nova Scotia there existed half a century ago a foresight in national affairs not then found in the central councils of the Empire. This is a long list, but it is worth going over. It is not at all clear that in the longer judgments of history the people of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island will be thought to have sufficient reason for envying the material prosperity of Ontario and the millionaires of Montreal. But to me the business possibilities of these pro- vinces in the future, given well-directed energy, enterprise, and thought, seem in the highest degree promising. Fisheiies, coal mines, forests, gold-bearing- quartz reefs, iron, gypsum, and lime deposits are all large and fairly remunerative fields of industr}'. , pi f iijj'. ' i w t ■ i '1 1 '- ■A-l :t 1 ■^v. no Tke Great Domini on CHAP. A good deal still remains to be done to improve the profits of the fisheries, by studying the requirements of the best markets. The methods of curing fish are often inferior — the result, probably, of much trade with tlie negi'o popula- tion of the West Indies and other tropical countries, among whom the standard of quality is low. Coal mines already do well, and will do better as the market widens. Iron presents greater difficulties. The iron ores of Nova Scotia are excellent in quality and unlimited in quantity. At New Glasgow, the chief centre of manufacture, they are in immediate proximity to coal and limestone, so that all the natural condi- tions seem most fiivourable. As iron is one of the highly protected industries of the Dominion, one studied the growth of the manufacture here with special interest. There is a considerable output of pig iron, and large steel works. The most striking energy and skill have been shown in the organization of the industry, but still there is lacking something to complete success. One finds that the cheap water transport across the Atlantic, which hits the farmer in England so hard, ecpially hits the iron master in Canada, since iron can be conveyed from Glasgow to Montreal tor a mere fraction of what it costs to carry it by rail from New Glasgow to the Upper Provinces ; this cancels at once fully half the advantage derived from the pro- tective tariff of ten dollars a ton. Water trans- port is available at New Glasgow also, but special n. Eastern Canada 1 1 1 circumstances make carriage by rail necessary in most cases. Iron, again, is a material which parti*^ ulnrly requires a wide market for the cheapest pfrduction. The special machinery used is expensive, and almost as much is required to give a small finished output as a large one in any given line. Hence small orders are not filled with much profit. The conclusion I formed was that though iron manu- facture in Canada is not a failure, it is not yet a brilliant success. An immense production of iron and steel at cheap rates has been the result of protection in the United States, but that end has not yet been attained in the Dominion. , There was a prevalent opinion in the early days of Confederation that the Maritime Provinces were to become in manufacturing to the rest of Canada what New England has been to the West of the United States. That expectation has not been realized, and may be still remote. But there are other opportunities. The farming resources of these provinces have only as yet been tapped. Let the earnestness and common effort so long turned upon party politics be bent more fully upon agricultural improvement ; let something better be substituted for the present careless, rough-and-ready methods of farming and marketing; let cheese and butter factories be established everywhere at intervals of a few miles, as in Ontario, over which the provinces have the greatest possible advantage in pasturage ; let a thoroughly organized means of rapid transit with cold *'M •1 a.' i , I'' t 112 The Great Dominion CHAP. storage be provided to England ; let rigid inspection and grading of all products before shijjping — apples, hay, butter, cheese, fish, poultry, eggs, &c. — be pro- vided, and the people of the IMaritinie Provinces will awake to tind out that they hold an almost unequalled position with relation to external markets. B., ^ter trade conditions are evidently soon coming with the United States. The Provinces will then stand practically mid- way between, and in easy sea communication with, the two richest purchasing comnmnities of the world — one actually free to their products, and the other on the way to become so -communities which v. ill be com- peting for their products, and are ready to pay the highest price for everything which is of the \'ery best. It has been said that the Maritime Provinces have special advantages over those of the St. Lawrence in pasturage, This is in large part due to the greater dampness of the climate caused by the vicinity of the sea and the mists borne in from the Gulf Stream, but partly to other conditions. The rushing tides of the ujjper part of the Bay of Fundy carry in their waters a fine detritus with curiously fertilizing properties. For a considerable distance inland along the rivers which How into the Bay from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, there have been formed by the deposit of this material large areas of marsh land of well nigh inexhaustible fertility. I'he broad marshes of Tantramar, Grand Pre, and other fiimilar districts produce to-day the same luxuriant Eastern Canada •>3 crops of liJiy that thoy did when tlicy wcio dykt'd, and so rescued from the sea a century and a lialf ago l)y the early Acadian s(,'ttlors. ]\Ieanwliile tliey have received no fertilization save that which has come from an occasional overflow of the tide and a new deposit of the marsh mud. Scarcely inft.'rior to these marshes are the intervalle lands found along the large rivers of New Brunswick. Prince Edward Island, again, has a soil of great natural fertility, while for agricultural purposes the island possesses a unique advantage in immense deposits of " mussel mud " — the decayed organic remains of various kinds of shell fish — which, in ihe course of centuries, has accumulated to a great depth in the bays and river mouths of the C(mst, Raised by dredging through the ice during the winter months and applied to the soil, this proves a most valuable fertilizer, and adds greatly to the productive capacity of the island. As a fruit-growing country Nova Scotia stands only second to Ontario. The orchards of the Annapolis and Cornwallis valleys are famed flir and wide, and the export of apples to both Britain and the United States has already grown to large proportions. In the interests of this industry a school of horticulture has been opened at Wolfville, under the auspices of the Nova Scotia government. For emigrants with a moderate amount of capital, willing to acquire some skill in horticulture, and aiming at a life of modest independence amid pleasant surroundings, I know of few places throughout the empire which would seem TH- 114 7V/i' (ircat Poniiniou f IIAl'. 1 S'v more {ittmctivc! than those |>icture.squc; orchard dis- tricts of Nova Scotia. Of tho ]\Iaritim(' 1^'ovincos generally it may be said that the climatic conditions are singularly favourable. Nearness to the sea mitigates alike the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The tide of toin'ist travel is now turning this way, and thc> Gidf of St. Lawrence and Bay of Fuudy, with their cool breezes and beauti- ful scenery, })romise to become one of the chief summer resorts of dwellers in the heated inland regions of America. Although manufactures have increased nuich in the Dominion, agriculture is still, and will be, the main- stay of general prosperity in Eastern as well as Western Canada, in Ontario as well as in the Maritime Provinces. It still offers a sufficient opening for emi- grants, but under \ery different circumstances from those of the West. The attraction of the prairies, the facility with which farms are created there, have dur- ing late years diverted emigration from the wooded Eastern Provinces. But a wooded farm has its very distinct advantages, although involving more pre- liminai'Y labour. Plenty of timbe^ for building and fencing, abundance of fuel clos ut hand, occupation during the winter season, shelter f;;om the extreme severity of winter — all these are weighty considerations in fixing a home. Hardy working men, especially those accustomed to the use of an axe, or willing to acquire it, not afraid of a fourteen or fifteen hours day during the summer, balanced by the hope of greater Eastcni Canada "5 T bo I \ leisure in the winter, .still have, in :ny opinion, «an excellent opportunity to make comfortable homes for themselves and provide a healthy life for their ftimilies by takinfj up the unsettled woodland districts of Eastern Canada, where ungranted lands of excellent quality can still be obtained on easy terms. Railways have been so extensively built in all the provinces that nowhere will the; settlei' be far removed from ready access to markets and civilization, and the severe pri- vations and the isolation of the early pioneers of the country need not be undergone. Such things are largely a matter of personal incli- nation, but I must confess, after much observation of the two sides of Canadian life, that the East would have for me the greater attraction. The nearness of the sea, the varied scenery and range of industry, the easier access to the best educational advantages, or to European and American markets and social centres, weigh heavily against what is the supreme advantage of the West — facility in the immediate creation of a farm. To emigrants who may prefer to undertake to make a farm in the same way that all those of Eastern Canada have hitherto been made — that is, from forest land — there are still many opportunities. In Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island most of the better land has already been taken up by settlers. In the northern part of New Brunswick, however, between and along the rivers Restigouche, Tobique and Miramichi, there are tracts containing some millions 1 2 hr. ':k, ii6 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP. of acres almost entirely unsettled and only partially explored, but known to contain large blocks of fertile land. As the good soil alternates with much of an inferior quality only suited for timber growth, great care should be used by the innnigrant in getting com- petent and reliable advice before selecting a spot for his farm. It is to be feared that carelessness on the part of government in allowing people to settle on inferior soils has in the past done something to diminish that contentment which induces further immigration. In the northern part of Ontario, again, there is another large area of still ungranted forest land which recent explorations have shown to be as well adapted for settlement as much of that which now constitutes the best farming lands of the province. One hesitates about advising the old country emigrant to face this forest life. It is true that thousands have succeeded under like conditions before. But his ignor- ance of backwood arts handicaps him heavily, and it takes some time to acquire the easy use of the axe — the one implement upon which he must constantly depend. On the whole it is better that the pioneer work of . iich districts should be left to native settlers, while new comers should settle on fiirms partly cleared. Besides the labouring man who looks forward to making a home by dint of sheer work. Eastern Canada offers very distinct opportunities to other clashes of British people. First among these may be placed what I ^ji^ri ; Eastern Canada 117 i "1 are known in England as tenant-farmers; men who would bring some capital, together with skill for agricultural work, to their new homes. A fair degree of flexibility in adapting themselves to new conditions of climate and farm management would seem to me all that is necessary to insure for such men reasonable and perhaps very considerable success, better on the whole than what is now easily gained in Great Britain. For settlers of this class the condition of things in the older provinces makes the present a fiivourable time for migration. Land values have decreased of late in Canada as in England, and it is easy to buy farms partly improved and with buildings on them at a reasonable rate. 1 also think that people with a fixed income of from £200 to £400 a year, with simple habits and a liking for country life, and with families to bring uj), would make their money go further and improve the j^rospects of their children by buying small and manageable places in many districts of the older parts of Canada. Near all th( smaller ' provincial towns, Windsui*, Amherst, Fredericton, Kingston, L(^ndon, Woodstock, and a dozen others which might be mentioned, the}' would find many of the advantages of pleasant society, cheap education, and comfortable living to an extent which their money will not counnand in the crowded old country, and which they cannot obtain for years to come in the thinly-settled West. The fact that there are partly improved farms to be bought chea[)ly in the East is no indication that these 1 ii8 The Great Dominion CHAP. "i its ^%^^ farms are useless or cannot be made profitable. Every- body who knows America knows that the pioneer spirit sometimes runs through whole classes of society like a fever; it induces peoj^le to give up what is good on the mere hope of finding what is better ; it leads them k) despise the solid advantages of settled society for the uncertain chances of new regions. I remember in a visit to the American West, twenty-live years ago, hearing a Wisconsin farmer saying with all seriousness that he would not exchange a thousand acres of Western farm land for a whole township in the Easteiui States, which were his old home. The sentiment was not peculiar ; the whole Western atmosphere was full of it at the time. Yet the ordinary observer could see that it was clearly a mania ; the choice of advantages was in reality very nicely balanced. A wave of like feeling has been passing over Eastern Canada during the last ten years — in the Maritime Provinces .stinudatcd by the circumstances to which I have before i-eferred : the men who go to the West may (jr may not find the success they look for ; those who take their places, if men of moderate desires, may congratulate themselves on reaping solid advantage from the adventurous spirit of their ])redecessors. To men with moderate ca])ital, wishing to avail themselves of such opportunities as I have described, a word of counsel may be given. English experience does not furnish any reliable guide for bu}'ing land and stock in Canada, and emigrants of the class I speak of nuist take this into consideration. Two suggestions *:% y Eastern Canada 119 for new-comers from Britain occur to me. One is the sharpening of their own wdts a bit, before making their purchases. If a man with some capital who wants to settle in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Ontario, is in a position to engage himself quietly as a labourer for a year or so on a farm, keep his eyes open, and thus, while gaining experience, get a true idea of land and stock values in Canada, he would be in an excellent position to deal on fair terms ; at any rate, he should spend some time in careful examination of the country before purchasing. A second method of more general application may be suggested, and I think it deserves careful consideration. The governments of the older provinces profess to be anxious to draw out settlers of the type I have referred to — tenant-farmers and others with a small capital. Let them appoint perfectl}' com- l^etent men in the various districts, to whom new- comers could be officially referred for sound advice on tarm values, or even for arbitration if necessary. If the services of thoroughly reliable men could be secured this would give an assurance of lair treatment to thd' inexperienced, which does not now exist, and which is greatly required. As I have said in treating of the West, the contented settler is the best of all emigration agents, and I believe that this method of guarding against discontent is reasonable and practicable. Something must still be said of the remarkable maritime position of Eastern Canada, and of what has been done to improve it. I have previously spoken of the great expenditure made by Canadians to get in ^^~'" 'V 120 T//C Great Domini on CHAP. railway touch with their vast Western heritage. But railways are far from representing the full measure of their efforts in this direction. The canal system and the means taken to create it deserve study. No » country in the world has such a marvellous system of natural inland navigation as Canada. After one has fairly entered Canadian waters at the Straits of Belleisle, there are still 2,259 miles of navigation to the head of Lake Superior, a distance slightly greater than the sea voyage from Liverpool to Belleisle, But at several places this line is broken by shallows, falls, or rapids, and to overcome these has been a work of no slight difficult}'. It is not so many years since a large seagoing steamship could not ascend the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Montreal. The dredging of a channel through Lake St. Peter has changed all this, and so given Montreal her true position as the Liverpool of Canada. This very considerable undertaking has also made it possible for ironclads to ascend the river to the same port — a fact which I have not hitherto seen noted as a new element in the defensixe conditions of the Empire. In all it has boon necessary to construct over seventy miles of caual, the rapids of the St. Lawrence, the peninsula through which the ri\er Niagara flows, and the Sault Ste. Marie offering the chief points of obstruction. The (iOO feet which represent the difference of level between the tidewater on the St. Lawrence and Lake Sui)erior are overcome by no fewer than lifty-three locks. Canada has already spent upon 1 1 '» 'fl Eastern Canada 121 her canals nearly $()0,000,000 ; their completion to an average depth of fourteen feet, so as to accommodate seagoing vessels, is now being pushed forward with much energy. A convention of business men, from Western Canada and the United States, has considered at Toronto the question of deepening them to twenty- one feet, and has passed resolutions urging the advis- ability of such a course. Montreal is naturally not enthusiastic about a project which would make Toronto and other points on the great Lakes ports for ocean- going vessels, and a scheme of such magnitude will take a good while to mature. That this canal system will in any case gradually become the outlet for an enormous ^traffic cannot be questioned. It is already very considerable. Nearly 1,000,000 tons of freight were moved in 1893 on the Welland Canal, between Lakes Erie and Ontario ; as much more on the canals of the St. Lawrence ; and 050,000 tons on those of the Ottawa. Although I had previously studied the figures, I nuist confess that the proportions which the commerce of the inland lakes of America lias already assumed came to me, on actual examination, as a surprise. It is at the Sault Ste. Marie canal, the point of connection between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, that the volume of this traffic makes the most vivid impression u})on the imagination. The single lock in operation there on the American side, when I visited the place, holds three or four large \essels or barges at a time. The shi]) in which we were to cross Lake Superior, t)ne of the tine \essels of the Canadian I ft!:: ■I I l! t n«^ 111 122 The Great Dominion CHAP. Pacific line, came to the foot of the canal, which is only about a mile long, at noon on Sunday. But, though the lock was filled and emptied as rapidly as possible all the rest of the afternoon, it was night before our turn came to enter, so great was the pressure of shipping. The work goes on by night as well as by day, and throughout the seven days of the week. The canal is open only about 220 days during the year, but during the last two seasons the shipping passing through it has exceeded by one or two million tons that which goes through the Suez Canal. After making allowance i'-i the fact that the voyages are much shorter than those made by vessels using the Suez Canal, and iiie cargoes less valuable, enough remains to make this picture of water-borne commerce at the heart of the continent a very remarkable one. But its development, hitherto chiefly American, and on the south side of the lake, has only begun. Prepara- tions on a large scale are being made for the vast expansion which is sure to come. On the American side a second and larger lock is being constructt.'d, while on the northern side of the tails, a mile away, the Canadian Government has constructed a third, mor^e capacious than either of the American ones, at an expense of between $8,000,000 and $4,000,000. I think that this lock is the largest in the world. It is 900 feet long, 00 feet wide, and 20 feet 3 inches deep- Now that it is completed there is a clear Canadian waterway for ships from Fort William to the Atlantic. American shipping already uses Canadian canals to the \^& ir V Eastern Canada 123 extent of about 600,000 tons per annum. This canal system furnishes a striking proof of the prevailing east- ward and westward trend of the trade. It is an equally striking proof of the community of trade interest between the East and the West. The large expenditure already made by the East to improve these waterways can only be fully compensated for by Eastern ports be- coming the outlet towards Europe of Western products, the distributing points from which the West will receive its imports. Further east, at the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a remarkable enterprise, which it seems most natural to mention in connection with the canal system of Canada, and which is practically a part of it, has been brought almost to completion. In order to avoid the somewhat dangerous coast of Nova Scotia, and to save from 500 to 700 miles of navigation, a a ship railway is being constructed, instead of the canal long thought of, across the Isthnuis of Chig- necto, to connect the navigation of the St. Lawrence with that of the Bay of Fundy. About $4,000,000 liave now been spent iip'on this work, and to complete it an expenditure of about $1,500,000 more is retpiired. When the works were nearing comi:)letion the opera- tions were suspended as a result of the linancial difficulties arising out of the Baring failure and the condition of affairs in Argentina, where the contractoj" for the railway was involved in very heavy engage- ments. But it is impossible to believe that so im- portant an undertaking will be left untinished after ^ , ) ■ 124 The Gi'cat Dominion CHAP. so large an expenditure has already been incurred, and there is reason to believe that the work will soon be resumed. The inception and execution of the project furnish a remarkable example of courage in supporting a novel enterprise on the part of the Canadian Go\ernment, and of persevering energy on the part of the Canadian engineer, Mr. H. G. C. Ketchum, its projector. The idea of transporting laden ships over seventeen miles of railway from sea to sea was at first met with ridicule and incredulity. But Mr. Ketchum, by dint of hard argument, secured for his plans in succession the support and endorse- ment of the local communities, of the leading provincial jtjurnals, of the boards of trade in the neighbouring towns, and finally of the Dominion Parliament, which, after full discussion, voted a subsidy of something over 8170,000 per annum for twenty years in support of the undertaking. Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, the distinguished English engineers, are now associated with him in responsibility for the satisflictory construc- tion of the woi'k. Finally, financiers and contractors Were found to undertake its execution, and, though the latter have been temporarily embarrassed by a financial crisis almost without precedent, there is little doubt that the work will yet be completed. Without being able to bring to the subject the knowledge or judgment of an expert, I personally believe that the undertaking, backed as it is by the Dominion subsidy, will succeed, and will do much to develop the great re- sources in coal, timber, building stone, fish, and agri- Eastern Canada 25 \ cultural product' of the Gulf districts especially, t'oi* which better trade relations with the States will open up a very large market in New England, while the Bay of Fundy jiorts will be put in easy touch with the West. But of this commercial aspect of the question it is for financiers and traders to judge. They have before them all the data by which the Dominicm Parliament and other representative bodies were origin- ally convinced of the merits of the undertaking. It would seem that the railway might also be of great service, in case of necessity, for coast defence, through the facility it would give of transferring gun- boats of moderate tonnage or torpedo-boats from one side of the isthmus to the other. I had an opportunity of looking over a portion of the line. The greater jmrt of the roadway, the heavy stone work, and the ex- cavations for the terminal docks are completed — in all, about three-fourths of the work, the wdiole presenting a remarkable example of solid construction, apparently quite equal to the heavy work the line will have to do. It will be a striking foct if the completion and successful operation of .this Canadian undertaking prove definitely the advantage, as its promoters claim it will do, of railway transportation for laden ships, since it cannot but profoundly affect opinion in regard to other even more important points of commercial transit I have dwelt upon these matters somewdiat in detail, because I wish to show wath what quiet but persistent energy and foresight Eastern Canada is supplementing I '':• I' , ''■ 126 The Great Do)ninion CHAP. V its great natuml advantages, and laying broadly the basis of eonimcreial expansion. When it is remem- bered that the Dominion, in addition to her vast oxpenditure on railways and canals for inland develop- ment, is also heavily subsidizing steamship routes to Japan and China, to the West Indies and to Australia, and that she is entering into engagements to support still more energetically a Transatlantic service of the hrst class, and a new Imperial cable system across the Pacific, I think a sufficient answer is given to Mr. Goldwin Smith when he claims that provincial feeling still dominates the public life of the Dominion. '1* ' CHAl^TER VI EASTERN CANADA. — Coiltinncil Quchci The French Canadiun question is tlie crux of politics in the Dominion. It does not present so many difficulties or arouse such bitter animosities as does the Irish question in Britain ; it is not so impracticable as the race and colour questions which are clouding the national horizon in the United States ; it does not even seem to me so perplexing as the questions which the contact of a temperate and tropical climate, and therefore of strong and weak races, is beginning to produce in Australia, but still it is difficult, and for a good while to come )vill test the temper, the tact, and the patriotism of the Canadian people, whether French or English. In some of its aspects, however, there has been of late a tendency to exaggerate the magnitude of the question. People in England were so accustomed less than a generation ago to think of Canada as a country chiefly inhabited by Frenchmen, they were so con- if 128 The Great Dominion CHAP. ■%s srioiis of the tact lliat (he presence ofji Fi'ijueh eleiiicnt, (loiniiuited all (|uestions of Caimdian policy, that the impression has scarcely yet died away. It is 'sveli, therefore, to form an accurate idea of the place which Quebec and the French Canadian hold and ai'e likely to hold in the Dominion. At the time of confederation in 18G7, Quebec was one province among four; it is now, through the in- troduction of new provinces, but one among seven. But the work (jf carving out new provinces has only begun. Its representation in the Dominion House of Commons was fixed permanently at sixty-five, the proportion of this number to the population of the province being taken as a basis from which all other provincial representation should be calculated at each decennial census. These sixty-five representatives sat at first in a House of 181 members ; under the automatic rule of expansion they now form part of a House of 215 members. Of these sixty-five mem- bers seventeen are at the present time English- sjDcaking, and may be taken as fairly representative of the English population of the province. The strictly French vote of Quebec in the Federal Parliament may therefore be placed at about forty-eight. Out of the whole population of the Dominion, which was 4,833,237 in 1891, 1,404,974 were French-speaking ; of these 1,186,340 were in the Province of Quebec. These proportions, it will be seen, are weighty, but not dominant. So much for the present. In forecasting the future VI Eastern Canada T29 }ure one or two main points must bo kept in view. The Hrst iH that the French population of Canada is not reinforced from without. France, with her declining population, now .sends very few emigrants abroad, and she sends them least of all to Quebec. In the whole province of Quebec there were found in 1891 only 2,883 persons who were born in France, and this number must have represented the migration for an entire generation. On the other hand, the French Canadian has him- self become an emigrant from his native country. In an article in the Forum , Louis Frechette, the French Canadian writer, estimates the number of his compatriots in the United States it between eleven and twelve hundred thousand. This estimate appears to be much exaggerated, but the number is certainly very great. An American estimnte places the numbers in the six New England States alone at something over 300,000. One qualifying feature of this exodus to New England is, however, to be noted. Numbers of the people do not go to remain. The Commissioner for the census of 1891 pointed out to me at Ottawa the remarkable fact that in the returns Quebec was often given as the birthplace of the elder children of a large French family, the United States as the birth- place of a succeeding group, to be followed again by others born in Quebec. The migration, therefore, is in part temporary, and the present inclination of the habitant is to gravitate back to his native soil. K . M'^ 130 The Great Dominion CHAP. i w ^^ This exodus is almost exclusively confined to the poorer and less educated population of the province ; for the able, educated, and ambitious French Canadian the best field is still found at home among his own people and under the Canadian system, where he has a far better opportunity to win political, professional, or literary success. In the United States he could only succeed by using the English language and becoming entirely Americanized ; in Canada he can succeed even while remaining a Frenchman ; a moderate adaptation to English ideas opens freely to him all the avenues to power. But, whatever qualification we give to it, a migra- tion which has already advanced so far must profoundly .effect the future of the French race in Canada, unless some change of industrial circumstances or of race feeling — and neither is impossible — should result in a refluent wave of movement on a corresponding scale. The tendency of the French Canadian both in Canada and the United States to drift into the cities and to become a factory operative, instead of the hardy and adventurous pioneer of Western civilization, such as he once was, is another element in the question ; it is almost as significant as ^he change which has made France cease to be a co) • izing power in the true sense of the expression. Had the whole tide of migration from Quebec been directed to the newly opened West instead of to New England the results must have been very considerable. Again, it has connuonly been supposed that the I \'^? ■ VI Eastern Canada 131 ) natural increase amongst the French Canadians is far beyond that in the English provinces. Certainly the contrast between the large families commonly found among the devout, moral, and conservative French of Canada, and the strictly limited families which are the rule in France is striking enough, and furnishes a singular problem for the student of social or national evolution. There are apparently few things which give to the habitant of Quebec such unalloyed satisfaction as to see himself surrounded by a numerous offspring, what- ever the degree of comfort in which he may be able to maintain them. In this feeling he has, curiously enough, public support. Three or four years ago the government of the province, reverting to the policy of the French Kings in the early days of Canadian colonization, instituted a system of premiums on large families, by offering to give a grant of a hundred acres of land to all heads of families who had twelve or more children. This grant has already been made in nearly 2,000 cases, and appli- cations are said to be still flowing in. Families of twenty children are common; families of twenty-five or more are not unknown. But in sjiitc of special facts like these the last Canadian census proved that the advantage in the natural rate of increase of Quebec over the other provinces was comparatively slight — in the case of Ontario it amounted to scarcely more than 1 per cent. A higher death-rate, possibly arising from lower K 2 '■'■ r h' H u. I 132 TAe Great Dominion CHAP. conditions of life, in part neutralizes the higher birth- rate. There is a still more important point to keep in mind. While Quebec is not reinforced from without, all the rest of Canada is being strengthened by a steady stream of people who, even when they come from the German, Scandinavian, and Latin countries of Europe, hasten to learn the English languagre, and within a generation or two become thorou^ ly Anglicised. In a previous chapter I have referred to a movement of pioneers from some districts of the United States towards the North-west of Canada. This migration alone, under the j^ressure of land hunger in the Western States, might easily grow to proportions v/hich would add to the English speaking pojiulation of the North- West as nuich as is subtracted from that of Quebec by the exodus to New England. It is a significant circumstance that at the last census Ontario had 405,000 inhabitants returned as born in other countries and theref. h !'^.v trolled by a feeling precisely opposite to that which influences every other race which has settled in America. He prefers, on the whole, not to learn English. To the Anglo-Saxon the theory that religion needs supjwrt of this kind seems absurd ; the French pastor, whose personal hold might be weakened by the change, gauges his people by a different standard. Though a French speech may still frequently be heard in the Dominion Parliament, French members who aspire to really influence the house and country almost invariably speak in English, and it is a note- worthy fact that the most conspicuous orators of Parlia- ment have been English-speaking Frenchmen. Mr. Laurier and Mr. Chaplean are masters of polished English speech, and few men secure a better hearing from English audiences. In perfect enunciation and clearness of English diction Sir Adolphc Caron might give lessons to the majority of his English fellow- members. While the industrial position of the habitant would be greatly improved by a knowledge of English, as is the political position of his leaders, no one would wish to see him give up entirely the tongue which has for him such a wealth of association. Rather is it ' • regretted that more of the people of the Engli ro- vinces do not make themselves familiar with i , iich. Such a knowledge, especiall) among public men, would create a very real bond of sympathy which does not now exist. i'# ■^.xjL.viri.'c-.-n^ VI Eastern Canada •43 Occasionally one hears regrets exi^ressed in Canada that the French language was ever given any official status in the Fedora! Parliament. The objections to its oni]>loynient are manifest, but superficial. The argu- ment on which its permissive use rests is funda- mental. Sir Henry de Villiers, when pointing out, during the Colonial Conference, to a French Canadian audience at Quebec, that he could not speak French because tho language of his French ancestors had been crushed out under the Dutch rule at the Cape, added that a man or a i^eople " can be all the more loyal when they are able to express their loyalty in their own language." Such a remark as this embodies the pith of the whole matter. It is the glory of British government in Canada that it has cheerfully accepted the inconveniences arising from the use of mixed languages that it may give un- mixed liberty to the French people of Quebec. Quebec gives to Canada an industrious, patient, and moral body of peasants, fishermen, and operatives in its lower classes ; in its upper classes brilliant speakers and writers, jurists of distinguished ability, and a clergy which in its superior ranks has weight and administra- tive capacity. But the men who have individual weight and the qualities which win social distinction are singu- larly few in number compared with the whole population. This may be traced in part to the fact that after 1759 the seig7icurs and nohlcsse, with their traditions of culture and education, forsook Quebec and returned to France ; it is probably still more due to the limitations placed on indi- fM 144 The Great Doviinion CHAP. v I 6 *1 'S, vidual development by a rigid ecclesiastical system. One cannot but think that with more liberal views of educa- ticm, a policy which encouraged tree intercourse with the other provinces, a faith in their religion too robust to fear contact with the outside world, the mass of the people would show a more jDrogressive spirit ; the movement from the bottom to the top of the social scale would be as active as in the English provinces, and tlie whole moral weight of the community would be increased. Not that Quebec has too much influence in the Dominion, but that she has too little of the weight which comes from culture, widespread intelligence, and progressive energy is, or ought to be, the anxiety of English Canadians. That French taste, courtesy, polish, social influence, should make the same impression in America that it has in Europe might well be a dream and inspiration for the French Canadian. One has no hesitation in discussing frankly this question of race inertia in Quebec. The most clear- sighted men of th-i province admit and deplore it. Doubtless it has been due in part to unavoidable circumstances. Cut off from easy contact with the higher standards of France, and not 3'et in sympathy with those of British people, the difficulty of maintain- ing social and intellectual activity over a thinly settled country during a large part of this cen+ury can easily be undei*stood. But a supreme effort should be made to change these conditions. Something like an attitude of helplessness in face of the immobility of the habit- ¥ ^ ni VI Eastern Canada 145 dablc the )athy itain- ttled asily made itudc habit- ant seemed to me to prevail among able and earnest Frenchmen who were thinking much on the question. A most intelligent priest spoke to me of one form which this immobility took. " A young man in our French villages," he said, " has little encouragement to work his way up to that social distinction of which you speak. If he begins to acquire the culture and adopt the habits of refined society, there is a disjoosition to look upon him askance, as one who is willing to forsake his own people and their ways for alien forms of life and thought." Such a feeling as this, if correctly stated, must be a great barrier to progress. It does not represent the aspiring spirit of the France from which the hahifant sprang, nor that of the Britain with which he is now associated. Whether the future of the French Canadian is to be a growing or diminishing one seems to me to be hang- ing just now more than ever before in doubtful balance, and he himself holds the scales, or, to be more precise, a few of his leaders do so. There are many signs of encouragement, and others of an opposite kind. " If you want to find loyalty, come to Quebec," I have heard said over and over aoain bv Frencli Canadians, representative men of different classes and of unques- tioned sincerity. I am convinced that the majority of the people of Quebec could honestly re-echo the sentiment. But another note is sometimes heard in the press and on the platform, and it is not easy to measure the real force behind it. One thing may be I IP ',1 n ■ I h 1 1 146 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP. said definitely. If the ideas and jDolicy -which Mr. Mercier represented have much vogue or prevail, there are troublous times ahead. The larger hope of Quebec lies in the unconditional acceptance of her Canadian destiny. In any attempt to pursue an individual course without reference to the sentiment of the whole Dominion the French Canadian will make shipwreck of his fortunes. If a gospel of moderation and liberality must be preached to some classes of French Canadians, one of patience and generous consideration must equally be preached to certain sections of their English- speaking fellow-citizens. The average Frenchman of Canada can no more be calm than the Frenchman of France: under excitement he is apt to lose his head, and to say far more than he means. The stolid Saxon rarely says as much as he means, and makes little allowance for a contrary temperament. This latter he must learn to do. There is no sufficient reason why the Orangeman of Ontario should treat so seriously as he does every sign of temporary effervescence in Quebec. Perhaps he too has a strain of Celtic blood. If so, then the mass of reasonable Canadian opinion must restrain the excesses of both alike. The English provinces can afford to be calm under all conditions. They have only to be studiously just, to employ all fair means for diminishing friction, and then rest upon their natural weight of influence. Their real political danger lies not in Quebec and the Frenchman, but in the recklessness of party -J * IBI!ll ft u'w CHAP. VI Eastern Canada M7 ch Mr. 1, there Quebec inadian ividual 3 whole p wreck list be US, one equally Inglish- man of ichman ose his e stolid makes This fficient i treat iporary ^ strain >onable .f both G calm iiously [•iction, uence. c and party conflict, which has more than once tempted their poli- ticians to sacrifice principle in order to win the French vote. The French vote, on the other hand, has seemed at times open to be won rather by the particular con- cession it had in view than by a reasoned and honest policy. Mutual respect between the races cannot spring from such relations. Yet for mutual respect there is abundant ground. The Frenchman may well reflect how just and considerate, on the whole, has been the dominant Briton. The Englishman should equally think how loyal, on the whole, has been the French Canadian under peculiar circumstances. If there cannot be in Canada the same mingling of blood which followed the Norman Conquest of England, and made the characteristics of both races the common heritage of all their descendants in England to-day, there can at least be hearty recognition of the better qualities in each, mutual toleration of constitutional differences, common and sympathetic effort for the general good. The Acadians of the .>»iritime provinces number about 100,000. Many circumstances have conspired to make this interesting people far from homogeneous with the hahitans of Quebec, and more in touch with the English among whom they live. Not long since, in one of the maritime provinces, an Acadian French- man was for the first time raised to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. In political life he had filled with great credit important administrative posts, L 2 M I lii. :! ^K 148 T/te Great Dominion CHAP. and had won a high reputation among English as well as French constituents for integrity of characttT, honesty of purpose, and painstaking care in the management of public affairs. The Acadians are now an extremely contented people — almost too contented, some think, with their comparatively humble lot ; and one of the greatest merits of the new judge is the energy with which he has always pointed out to his com- patriots that under the constitution of the country in which they live all positions are freely open to them, provided they take the trouble to place themselves on an intellectual equality with their English fellow- citizens and competitors. His example might with advantage be followed throughout French Canada. Under a reckless and ..orrupt system of expenditure the local finances of Quebec, during Mr. Mercier's regime, became greatly embarrassed, but they are now carefully managed, and are slowly gaining strength, while, as a member of the confederation, the province enjoys its full share in the high financial position achieved by the Dominion at large. Not much can be said about the opportunities offered by Quebec to emigrants from the United Kingdom. It should be pointed out that in all the old provinces of the Dominion the ungranted and unsettled crown lands are under the control, not of the Dominion Parliament, as in the North- West, but of the Provincial Legislatures, the policy of which is directed by local considerations. Quebec has still large unoccupied areas, but the prevailing inclination i. VI Eastern Canada 149 seems to be to fill them with a native French-speaking population rather than from outside. Of late years a very vigorous effort has been made by a colonization and repatriation society, working under clerical supervision, but with the aid of the provincial government, to colonize new districts with young men taken from the older settlements, or others drawn back to the soil from the factories of the United States. The period of depression through which the latter country lately passed has greatly favoured this movement, and the number of those returning to take up home- steads in new districts has been large. South of the St. Lawrence, in what are known as the Eastern townships, a very flourishing English popula- tion has long been established in a good agricultural country. Sherbrooke is the principal town of this portion of the province, and is a centre of manufactur- ing as well as agricultural industry. Mines of asbestos give employment to a large body of workmen. There are also marble quarries and deposits of copper. A college and a public school on the English model near by at Lennoxville give exceptional opportunities for education. This is one of the districts to which the attention of settlers with some capital, wishing to obtain partly improved farms, within reach of English and American, as well as Canadian markets, can be with some con- fidence directed. In fisheries and timber the resources of the province are very great, and the habitant is singularly expert 11 If; ,« 'V •50 The Great Dominion CHAP. both as fisherman and lumberman. He is, however, a bad farmer — the worst in Canada — partly, perhaps, because he tries to combine farming with fishing and lumbering, but chiefly from ignorance. In travelling through the purely French portions of the province, one is everywhere struck by the manifest exhaustion of the soil from lack of intelligent cultivation, both in the past and at present ; by the inferiority of the stock to that in the other provinces; and by the apparent content of the people with primitive and long obsolete methods and implements of agriculture. Steps are now being taken by the Church as well as by the civil authorities to remedy this state of things. The bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have issued a pastoral letter calling the special attention of their flocks to the importance of improved methods of farm- ing. I was told of cur4s among the Acadian French who had taken ujDon themselves the management of co-operative dairy works in their parishes, and who seized the opportunity offered by the Sunday sermon to address a homily on agriculture to their parishioners. The success of their eftbrts would do more than almost anything else to raise the standard of comfort among the people. For a I'ace like the French Canadians, with their willingness to listen to clerical direction, it is a matter of the utmost importance that their clergy are awake to considerations of this kind. A most intelligent priest of a large parish on the Ottawa, with whom I (discussed the question in crossing the Atlantic, spoke with enthusiasm of the advantage which his Y\ v.. I VI Eastern Canada 151 parishioners had derived from having settled near them a colony of careful and successful Scottish farmers, whose methods were a constant object lesson to the neighbourhood. A Trajjpist brotherhood near Oka, on the Ottawa, devotes itself to agriculture, with a view to teaching improved systems to the people. It receives the sons of farmers for instruction, and is said, by the mere force of example, to have raised the whole standard t)f farming in its vicinity. The Quebec Government has sent agents to study Danish methods of dairying) and the province is now making rapid progress in the production of cheese. Montreal is the greatest city of Quebec and of the Dominion. If the St. Lawrence were not fruzen in winter, it would be the commercial rival of New York, and probably one of the greatest cities of the world. Even as it xS Montreal's future nuist be very great, standing as the city does at the meeting-place of ocean navigation and of an astonishing inland water system, at a point where immense combinations of railways tend more and more to focus themselves. The Canadian Pacitic, controlling about nine thousand miles of rail- wav in the United States and Canada, the Grand Trunk, controlling four or five thousand more, both have their chief offices and termini here. So have the great inland and ocean navigation companies. The city is in close railway connexion with St. John and Halifax, Portland, Boston, and New York, all of which it uses as convenience determines for winter ports. Every considerable expansion of Canada's exporting 152 The Great Dominion CHAP. ;> it r •m and importing capacity must mean extending business for Montreal. The completion of the canal system seems likely to bring it a share of the export business of the Western States as well. It is the chief point for Canadian wheat, timber, cattle, pork, cheese, butter, and fruit export ; it is the greatest wholesale distribut- ing centre for manufactured goods. Not very far from one half of the whole import and export trade of the Dominion passes through Montreal. The largest busi- ness firms of the Dominion, the most powerful banking houses, the greatest organizers of industry, of the carrying trade, of railway construction, are here. Among the monetary institutions of the world, very few stand higher than the Bank of Montreal. The finer streets of the city indicate clearly that it is the home of merchant princes, and the centre of much realized wealth. A vast amount of business capacity, chiefiy imported from Scotland and England, has gone to build up Montreal, deepen its harbour, open the way to the sea, establish steamship lines, create industries, and organize railway connexion with all parts of the continent. Montreal is also the meeting-place of the two nationalities of Eastern Canada. The two sides of the city are in striking contrast, yet each is the industrial complement of the other ; one the home of capital and business energy, the other of a crowded population distinguished by patient and, on the whole, contented industry. English Montreal complains that, as compared with ri VI Eastern Canada 153 Toronto, it is handicapped by French inertia, and that it has to pay heavy penalties in the shape of taxation for being connected with a province and a munici- pality where vast acciunulations of Church property are free from civic burdens, where the French vote prevails, and French politicians are sometimes extrava- gant at the expense of their richer neighbours. It freely utilizes the French voter, however, as a work- man, and grows wealthy in the process. An excellent workman ho is too — not over-strenuous, but intelligent. " A born carpenter " was the phrase by which a large employer of labour described him. Industry in Mon- treal has enjoyed a singular immunity from disastrous strikes, and the fact should be remembered to the credit of the artisan class. An organised effort t(j improve municipal government gives promise of good results. Montreal refines sugar, spins cotton, and manufac- tures tobacco on a large scale. In these and minor industries, as well as in its great export and import trade, its railway and steamboat lines, its tinancinl institutions, and, above all, its geographical position, the city has the foundations of a prosperity more solid and enduring, in the opinion of good judges, than that of any city of its size on the American continent. The prosperity of Montreal has to some extent been secured at the exjiense of the ancient capitiU, Quebec, where shipping has decreased since the deepening of the St. Lawrence, where the timber trade has tall en ^S4 The Great Douiiniou CHAR !i tx I Vi **lv. off, and from which the vigorous English business element seems t(j have in part withdrawn. Of this last point a proof appears to be given in the fact that English members are now but rarely elected to the municipal council. With an abundance <3f cheap labour, fn* its French population numbers nearly (jO,000, and a sitiuition well adapted for commerce, it is a little difficult to see why the city does not become more of an industrial centre than it is. It manufactures boots and shoes, but not even these to an extent connnen- surate with its available working population, which ought to make it the Lowell or Birmingham of Canada. The bridging of the St. Lawrence near the city, which has been contemplated and is believed to be (piite practicable to modern engineering, has been thought of as a means to renew the commercial im- l)ortance of the place. It is claimed, too, that as the export of wheat from the St. Lawrence increases, through the development of the North- West and the completion of the canal system, the climatic advan- tages offered by Quebt^c as a point of storage, and in other ways as a point of shipment, may revive its fortunes. Much more is to be hoped for, I think, from the in- troduction of capital to give employment to the cheap labour of the j)lace. But no industrial change can take away from the historic interest of a spot which was for so long one »)$;<* VI Eastern Canada ^y:> of the pivots of the world's history, or from the pictur- esque grandeur of the massive fortress as it towers over the ancient city. More and more the St. Lawrence becomes one of the greatest routes of American and Canadian tourist travel, and Quebec is the central feature of enduring interest. A splendid hotel has hitely been completed on the terrace beneath the Citadel, to meet this increasing volume of travel. From its windows the traveller looks out upon one of the noblest prospects that his e\'e is ever likely to meet — the broad St. Lawrence, stretching away in gleaming brightness between the blue hills which rise on either side ; the Island of Orleans, where Wolfe's armv was encamped through man\- weary weeks of waiting ; the cliffs of Levis opposite, from which his batteries rained shot ujion the Citadel ; the Beauport shore, where the bulk of the French army lay watching his movements ; the Citadel itself, which was the prize in this great game of war. Outside the walls is the simple and noble monument erected by England on the spot where her hero fell. Inside the walls is another on which French and British Canadians have united to link together the memory of Montcalm and Wolfe. In its wealth of picturesque association Quebec is by far the most interesting city on the American continent. So long as the memory of great deeds moves the human heart, it will continue to be a place of pilgrimage. ^ -w ' 156 T/ic Gnat Dofuiiiion CHAP. VI But as one studies the French Canadian province he becomes convinced that what it most needs is some great awakening of the people to the splendid opportunities which lie before them if they would but throw themselves more heartily into the tide of Canadian progress. ••^s. Ilj. \ I;h. . . mtk ?.,mihn Shrjyt.r L yruy' hltul' THK MAKlTI>n': PUOVIM KS KAIL SCAL liOiMl<»n Mucmil N'CKS UAIIAr.VY SYSTl'M \ H. '..iivnili' {Ml in: \ rai u^^SV 1^'' 1^^^^ O/v 'S^ A< w>; .',:', V'4: )Mit 's^ r^-^ K'iiihiion /'.' /r Siiruh' ;v>\7^/ ^j'^-" Deei ■ '^V.lViU>Wl'^'.""'7*"''^" /•M'M'Y' '•_ •/in (■/1/<' //("'I ^lin'iu^ I- £yiu-ii y • ^' tri'lfl'''' \ •^''^^.^T ^7v *v >/ J>l),\virn ' (* iowH'! Miii-lin V .#■' thiiiil'' f Wuv C/iV/- / /i/j.v/ }'! hit- at hi". '"'"Iluit I'* Bav of Isliiiul^ w/i>I« iV" rFoiH^ ifl B. rr7. vs 3j a, / Is* <■ Low n an h'ti i^.. liH j^ti 'trtit I f vi lAVywJ mt ffwi .v^ Tnit> Voun Svl^stcr^ -^5* ici' ^ lixivn, •J. '. © / CMni]mUc^ '^ vz hinttf Met Siitity 1^' ,1.1 luisi r! S* mi^ ,^% <^^ U^ti'jmvJj .wt^>^ JV\v7 i.t/<4 tr Itt'odniiin I .inituTtit I tft'B'. a'hj/'v ; . 4, \L^J-H:,^' /^'^<' '""" i.tilV ^ n. .in. VWu'CUtiii, ■»TI ■^iiffiyiii^ J|(i>;i>l/I if^ SCK KDWARI) 1 ( 'hctu bnuiivHii t i^j./tTS '^ 1 Ivast m h'.-ii ii/i/.' (Lvv ./ — «- .^.ffn*v.*r 'mil utiihii zo,f , li CLiiuff iiit.tlif V.Hf. 'iir 'it Piriln \Pikotti ^^ f/: T'l V*} 'diti'ii'i \""i. I. •V'/t/ i.w .-■••■ V(v rf.' I SlMiin' <:<' r»H»/ 4fi itii'hoit '-';* ''<• Sfti ^ 1 -.tJifSJOf V :*>/< ^> V /••■■•••••■..•■•••■■../••■■ / ^^ ^yui ^.'% "•u, ^'U. ^Sabie I. cj Nova, t'cvtiu (iO .-.r; Lofidoii ' Mariiiillaii X- ('" / imiUii iiu/. I. ■ /^ t«^«y Ajfti/ ■ i^ '1 1 if r ! 1 ' ilKi i! f^".. I CHAPTER VII RRTTTSH COLUMRTA To learn the price Canada was ready to pay foi* conff deration and for a pathway from ocean to ocean, the traveller must climb by rail vip from the prairies at (Calgary through the gorges of the Rocky Moimtains to tht summit of the Kicking Horse Pass, and then sweep down through the defiles and valleys of the o])posi[i' slope, across the Selkirk and Coast ranges, and past the canons of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, till he has reached the Pacific. He must study the line of railway in winter, when, as he looks up, at a hundi'ed points avalanches of snow are seen ready to descend u}>on it from lofty peaks ; he must visit it in spring, when, looking down, he sees the tremendous tonvnts that roar beneath swollen from the melting snows ; ho must observe with what elaborate care these dangers have been successfully overcome ; he must feel th(; aansation of gliding by day and night over bi'idges which stretch like immense slend jr spiders far over the tups of lofty pines; he must ride undt^r miles of sheds built with strength sufficient to resist the avalanche WL61M f is8 The Great Doviimon CHAP. '\. rush of snow; he must look down almost from the carriage windows into the depths of the Albert canon ; he must be whirled, ascending and descending, aroimd the curves of the Great Loop ; he must look out for two or three days continuously on the marvellous succession of mountain peak and range and gorge and embattled cliff guarding the long narrow valleys, all of which go to make up the impressive and magnificent scenery of the greater part of British Columbia. When he has wondered at the courage of the engineers who faced such a task of railway construction, and the energy of the contractors who transported the material and fed the armies of labourers by whom the work was done, and when he has studied the organized watchful- ness which has kept this line day and night for several years practically free from danger or serious obstruc- tion, he has yet other even more striking conditions connected with its construction to consider. Ontario, the base from which the task was approached on the side of Eastern Canada, is 1,600 miles away. The first 400 miles of road round the north side of Lake Superior had to be cut through a wilderness of rough granitic country, uninhabited, and well-nigh unin- habitable, save for the mining populations, which draw supplies from outside. Then followed 1,200 miles of prairie, all of which was also uninhabited, or very thinly inhabited, until the railway opened the way for settlers. All this had to be travei'sed before the foot of the mountains was reached, where the rjally serious work began. And for what purpose was this . CHAI'. VII British Columbia 159 mighty barrier of the Rockies and Selkirks, 600 miles wide, to be crossed ? Not to unite two great communities striving fur closer intercourse, as was the case when the 40,000,000 people of the Eastern and Western States, already advanced far beyond the Mississippi, made the first American line across a narrower range of mountains to get in touch with San Francisco and the large population of the Pacific States, which was also pressing up to the base of the Rockiep. In Eastern Canada there were only 4,000,000 people ; in British Columbia there were less than 50,000 white people — the popula- tion of a small English manufacturing town — and few of these on the mainland, when the railroad was under- taken. It was to complete and round off a national conception; to prepare the way for commercial and political advantages as yet far remote, and by many deemed imaginary, that the work was faced. British Columbia, insignificant in population, was significant enough in position and in some of its resources. It fronted on the Pacific ; it had splendid harbours and abundant coal ; it supplied a new base of sea power and commercial influence ; it suggested a new and short pathway to the Orient and Australasia. The statesmen at Ottawa who in 1867 began to look over the Rockies to continents beyond the Pacific were not wanting in imagination ; many claimed that their in^.agination outran their reason ; but in the rapid course of events their dreams have already been more than justified. They were, perhaps, building even better than they ■i: p f«l * ft, i ',]lj ' i W' fi; ! ' ! M Wi 1 60 T/w Great Dominion CHAP. knew. When Japanese and Australian mail and trade routes are already accomplished facts, when Pacific cable schemes are being discussed, and when the docks and fortifications of Esquimalt are being completed jointly by Britain and Canada, we can see clearly that they were supplying the missing joints and fastening the rivets of empire. While they were doing this they were also giving political consolidation to the older provinces of Canada. Common aspii'ations and a great conunon task, with the stirring of enthusiasm which followed on the sudden widening of the Canadian horizon, did more than anything else to draw those provinces out of their own narrow circles and give them the sense of a larger citizenship. So, though British Columbia made no great addition to the population of Canada, its absorption into the Dominion some years after confederation, and the pledge of a transcontinental railway which was the condition of that absorption, marked a great turning- point in Canadian history. It also added new and interesting features to the already manifold conditions of Canadian life. It gave the Dominion a new climate, or, one might rather say, a variety of new climates, for between the summit of the Rockies and the shore of the Pacific there are gradations of temperature and climatic effect for both sunnner and winter as marked as between Norway and northern Italy. It gave a Pacific sea- board many hundreds of miles in length, as rich in the wealth of the ocean as that of the Atlantic, and iKilitI '^: CHAP. VII British Columbia i6i wonderfully picturesque in its mingling of gulf, inlet, sound, and fiord. It opened up new and diversified Helds for (3nterprise. I have shown how much the problems of the North- West difier from those in Eastern Canada; those of British Columbia have an individuality quite as marked, and distinct from both of the others. This might be inferred from the nature of the countrv. British Columbians are somewhat inclined to object to the phrase " a sea of mountains " by which their province has been described, probably thinking it likely to deter those in search (jf new homes. Yet the phrase ex- presses accurately the chief inq)ression left upon the mind of a visitor, and it furnishes the best starting- point from which to discuss the capabilities and limitations of the province. British Columbia is not, and can never be in any large way, an agricultural country. The people will have reason to congratulate themselves when the production of food fully matches the c(jiisumption. This IS not the casi' now, though it ought to become su in respect of many products within a few years. On the coast and islands, along the streams and in mountain valleys, there are considerable patches of good alluvial soil. A moist and warm climate makes it most productive. There are other areas less fertile, but well fitted for i)asturage. In man\' cases they require n-rigation, but fV)r this the numerous unfailing moimtain streams give abundant opportunity. North- Ward, as the mountains sink down towards the Peace W. l62 The Great Dominion CHAP. I i '*!'vj River, there is said to bo a wide extent of pastoral land, but this is still inaccessible, and ranching is now confined to more southern valleys. Here is obviously a new set of conditions. In writing of the North-West I described it as especially a country for the poor man ; one might have added, a country which gave even the unskilled labourer a chance. Something very n«*arly the opposite of this must be said of British Columbia. No province of Canada so little admits of indiscriminate immigration. The good farming land is limited in (quantity, and, com})ared with that in other provinces, expensive'. The vast deep-sea fisheries of the coast, on account of their distance from markets, can only be developed by degrees, or else by some great organization of collecting and distributing agencies involving the use of much capital. The plans for such an organization have been devised and submitted to the Legislature, in connexion with a scheme for settling Scotch fishermen along the coast, but the practicability of the scheme has yet to be established. The salmon fisheries and tinning establishments of the rivers require comparatively little labour, and even then employment is intermittent. Mines can only be worked with capital, and capital which does not demand a very quick return. The same is true of timber industries, and in this case, even if abundant capital were forthcoming, the difficulty of access to adequate markets hinders the full and rapid development of enterprise in dealing with a bulky material of commerce. In short, the capacity of f VII British Coliinihia i<^3 British Columbia to receive immigrants is strictly dependent upon the previous inHux of capital, which, courageously and yet intelligently applied to the de- veloi)ment of the resources of the country, will gradu- ally draw in its train the skilled and general labour required for its operations. Labourers should not go to the province on the men' chance of finding enii)l()y- nient, as they may without excessive risk go to s(jnie parts of Canada. If this is clearly understood, much (lisapj)ointmcnt will be avoided. But for men with ca])ital, energy, and common-sense in business: men not afraid to risk something in the hope of large gains : men who can afford to wait, study the country, and watch for opportunities, the openings are varied and most promising. In the depths of these great mountain ranges are vast stores of mineral wealth. The gold mines of the Fraser and Carriboo districts, the silver and c(>pper mines of the Kootenay, the coal of Canmore, Anthracite, and the Crow's Xest, are only suggestions, but striking ones, of what lies behind. Fiftv million dollars' W(»rth of gold was taken in a few years after the first dis- covery from the rich Frn.ser and Carriboo alluvial deposits. The almost insuperable obstacles to the transport of heavy machinery to these districts are being gradually overcome, so that hydraulic operations and quartz-crushing are now being substituted for the old placer mining. Geological opinion points to places close at hand as the sources of the alluvial gold, and there are known to be large areas of auriferous gravels. M 2 ^fip 164 The Great Dominion CHAP. I i '%. The first returns from two jjroperties near Quesnelle Forks, in the Carriboo district, wliore livdranlic machinery has lor the first time been aj)plied, are most satist'aetorv, and probably mark the begimiing of a new era in British Columbian gold mining. The richness of the silver dei)osits of the Kootenay districts has been fully established by the discoveries of the last two }'ears. Making due allowance for the usual exaggerati(jns of ])rospectors and conij)any j>ro- moters, it seems clear that the district will idtimately prove to be one of the most important areas of silver production on the continent. Still its development will probably be for some time slow. The i)resent difficulty of access, the heavy import dut}' on lead and on silver ores entering the United States, which furnish the nearest smelting furnaces, and the de- l)reciation of silver iluring the past two years have all contributed to delay operations. So has the exagger- ated price at which silver claims are held by men or small companies not able to work them. '^Phe Canadian Pacific Railway appears to be feeling its way past ]A)rt ]\I'Leod towards the Crow's Nest Pass as a means (jf access to the Kootenay countiy. Great deposits (jf coal are also found in this jjass, some of which mako good coke, so that the means of transportation and the material for smelting may soon be within easy reach. The New American '^raritf also jirovides for a lowering of the duties on silver ores, so that on the whole the prospects: of the district are encouraging. American nmch more than British capital is at • -d \ii IE vri British Cohmibia '65 present soizin^' th<^ o|fporfnniti«'H (»ff<'ro<| by tlio Kootonay silvcj- (|<'))osits. The tiuth is tlmt imwli I'xpcricnco in Nevada and Montana has mad*' the Anieriean an expei't, beyond all others, in silv<'r, and in the methods of d«>alin^ with it. Besides, he i^ocs to new fields of enterprise not merely to itiV(\st his money, but to look i)ersonally after his investments, as the P>ritisb ea))italist seldom does. One pecnliai'ity of the industry .should be mentioned. Veins of silver ore are .sinoularly uneertain and vaiiablo. I fonivl an agreement of o})inion that they can ])e most suece.ssfuUy dealt with by large eompanies taking up numbers of claims, and so able to balance successes and disappointments over considerable areas. This is the prevailing American systeni, and it should be adopted by British capitalists if they seek a footing here. The resources of the mountainous interior are sup- plemented by those of the coast. The seal fisheries, in spite of restrictions, are still of considerable value. More than 70,000 skins wi>re taken in 181).S. The abundance offish in the rivers and in the coast waters is probably without parallel in the world. The export of tinned salmon alone amounts annually to nearly three million dollars. Of the whole output, the markets of the United Kingdom absorb about five sixths; the rest goes to Eastern Canada and Australia. The Fraser River is the centre of the .salmon-packing industry, and this stream also abounds in sturgeon, which have lately become an article of commerce. t A, %. ■^>^Z>%^ "^^ w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I IIM lllllli IIIIIM |22 11 12.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 M . . 6" _ ► <^ w% /} 'a d>^ w V >^ '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 1^ >M L^, C'^- w. C/j \\ o^ .<^ 1 66 The Great Domini on \ m ii.i ^^. CHAP. iijilibnt and black cod arc found in tlic greatest abundance off the Island of Vancouver, but the development of a large fishery is hindered l)y the difficulty of access to adequate markets. The splendid pine of the province is in demand all round the Pacific. It goes to San Francisco, to South America, to China, to Japan, and to Australia. In the last named country I have seen it used in large quantities at the silver mines of Broken Hill, 800 miles from the coast, in the heart of the desert, the cost of long ocean anrofi table exchange of products. The Douglas pine \?. also exported to the Eastern States, where for many purposes it is preferred to Southern pine, to Cape Colony, and to England. A cargo has (piite recently been sent to Egypt. I believe that it can be obtained of greater lengths, squaring to a larger size, than any other wood of equal quality. Cedar also is abundant, and of astonishing size. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of shingles, which on account of their excellence; find their way far across the contin^'Ut, Three hundred feet is not an un- I VII British Cohtmbia T67 oominon height for both pines and eedars. The ginii of the trunks is proportionate. A friend at Vancouve.', the manager of a large saw mill, mentioned to me the number of kegs of powder he had used within a year in blowing away the sides of heavy timber in order to reduce the size sufficiently to allow it to pass through his large gangs of saws. I hinted at the boldness of Western exaggeration, but a visit to his mill was at once arranged, and I saw enough to prove that his statement had a reasonable Imsis of fact upon which to rest. There is still a great extent of unexhausted timber- land. One of the largest operators told inc that with a widened market and more capital his firm could, from the land it had actually under lease, as easily turn out 100,000,000 feet of timber as the 80,000,000 feet which represented its present annual output. Considering the rapid exhaustion of fn'est going on in the United States, the value of the best timber on th(i American Continent must increase rapidly, and the present limitation of output in British Columbia is perhaps not entirely a subject for regret. Nowhere in the world can more impressi\'e forest scenery be met with than along this Pacific coast of the Dominion. Even where the heavier timl)er has been cut out, the thickly growing i)ine-tre('s which remain, with their clean trunks, straight and lofty as palm-trees, and crowned by dark-green foliage, form a striking picture, which remains long in the memory. Often the heaviest gi'owth is found Ut :•*;'■ »•: .': r^\ 1 68 T//r Great Dominion CHAP. on soil of romparatively ])oor quality, siiggostina;- thai, the nonrishnicnti of tlicst' forest giants is rlorivod .is ninch froni tho atniosphoro as from tho oarth. Tho fact also suggests the pxplo]er by mineral and other discoveries. ])rearv as much of this vast northern region is, how- ever, severe as are the conditions of life which its moi-e remote parts offer, the extent to which its products <»f one kind have long ministered to the comfort and lu\ur\ of mankind is very striking. It su})plies furs in larger numbers, of finer quality and of givater xalue than any other part of the world. For more than two centuries the fur trade has been vigorously prosecuted, and still the supply, save in the case of two or three varieties of animals, shows no signs of exhaustion. The furs are, in X I'-' '' ! ;> IV 178 The Great Doiuinion CHAP. tho first instance, brought almost exclusively to the London market. The permanence of the supply, as well as the number and proportion of the furs obtained, may be illustrated by taking the statistics of the annual sales, of which full returns are published, of the Hudson's Bay Company, at intervals of ton years during the last hali' century. The ten year period has been selected at random from the whole series, but except in one or two cases it represents a fair average of the annual product. — 1853 1863 1,545 1873 1883 1,510 1893 Badger . . 1,754 2,705 2,518 Bear . . . 7,484 7,571 8,172 11,188 11,775 Beaver . . 55,450 114,149 149,163 109,462 56,508 Ermine . . 2,002 1,178 4,012 5,112 9,120 Fisher . . 5,8(51 6,053 3,639 , 4,640 4,828 Fox, Blue . 46 29 90 37 51 Fox, Cioss . 2,307 1,946 2,315 1,762 2,073 Fox, Kitt . 2,563 5,542 6,930 491 299 Fox, Red . 6,869 6,402 8,339 5,869 11,964 Fox, Silver . 847 588 694 506 615 Fox, White 3,966 3,365 7,325 5,886 4,708 Lynx . . . 5,361 4,448 5,123 7,599 8,659 Marten . . 73,055 79,979 66,841 62,711 100,257 Mink . . . 25,152 43,961 44,740 47,508 58,171 Musquash . 493,952 357,060 767,896 1,069,183 806,103 Musk Ox 368 888 Otter, Land 8,991 13,331 11,263 11,992 8,671 Otter, Sea . 214 106 99 1- 8 Porpoise . . 5 176 323 Rabbit . . 54,858 39,510 10,064 17,830 50,281 Raccoon . . 1,695 3,883 3,636 841 194 .Seal, Fur . 403 2,073 652 404 Seal, Hair . 1,425 16,933 9,862 3,888 1,366 Skunk . . 1,619 1,969 1,759 7,178 9,214 Swan . . . 1,016 877 338 222 28 Wolf . . . 8,508 3,932 6,413 2,121 1,577 Wolverine . 1,302 1,426 2,095 1,883 1,017 )i^''J CHAP. vin Northern Canada 179 Experts in the trade will easily recognize from this enumeration how much the world depends for its finest and n^ost expensive fur products u])on Northern Canada. But the figures given by no means represent the whole output of the country. The Hudson's Bay Company has now no monopoly of the trade, and large quantities of furs reach the market through other channels. The estimate given by the Senate Committee in their report of 1888 places the whole annual Canadian pro- ducticm at more than four million skins, the proportions of the various kinds not differing much from what appears in the statistics of the Hudson's Bay Company. It can scarcely bc> said that the furs of Siberia comi)ete with those of the Dominion. As a matter of tact the Russian supply is not equal to the home demand. Quantities of the finest furs obtained in Canada and brought to London are sold in Germany, and especially at Leipsic, whence they find their way to the Novgorod fair, and other large centres of Russian trade. Northern Canada has therefore been i-ightly called " the last great fur preserve of the world." This character it is likely to retain. The buffalo, whosi^ hide was once an important article of commerce, has disap- peared before the advance of civilization. The limits over which the beaver is found have steadily narrowed, and this animal, too, can apparently only be saved from {extinction by the reservation of areas where it can multiply undisturbed for fixed periods, and by linu'ta- N 2 ,K :v !'l I 80 The Great Dominion CHAP. tioiis |)ut upon the c-itcli. With tlicsc exceptions, tlierc seems to 1)e no reas(ni wliy the furs of Northern Canada may not remain a permanent element in the in(histry and commerce of the cc^untry. Very picturesque and romantic is tlie aspect whicli this cliief industry ot the fiir north lias g-iven to Canadian life. The long, lonely winter on the borders of the Arctic Circle ; the shrewd and fearless Scotch factor, devoted to the intei-ests of his em})loyers, and cut off for years from friends and civilized society in his remote fort or post, with perhaps a mail once or twice in the year : the hardy coyagvurs, carrying the bales of furs over one or two thousand miles of rai)id river and rough portage to reach the point of shipment, and then retracing their weary course with loads t)f sujjplies for another year; the trapper, pursuing his solitary and dangerous work by night or day in the depths of the forest and along the frozen northern streams ; all these have lent themselves naturally to the pages of romance and adventure. It may be doubted if any service ever produced a more hardy, courageous, and resourceful class of men than did that of the Hudson's Bay Company in thc^ wide-spread domains over which it so loncf held sway. From the days of the Cavaliers and Prince Rupert, who was i\\i\ first Governor of the company, to the present time seems a long bit of history ; but during all that period the Hudson's Bay Company has been a vigorous and progressive commer- cial body, and an important agency in maintaining the good will and peaceful attitude of the native Indian CHAP. VIII Northern Canada i8i there Jinada rlust.j'y tribes which arc scattered over the remote parts of the Doniiiii(3n. The i)resent Governor is Sir Donald Smith, and it s understood that among the many honours of a successful life he values as much as any the fact that he has worked his way to the head (jf the historic company in whose service his career began. Until 1808 the Hudson's Bay Comjjany's Charter gave it almost absolute contnjl over not merely the more Northern regions of Canada, but over what we now know of the Xorth-West. In that year it handed over its territorial rights and governing powers to the 13ominion. But it is still a powerful organization with far-reaching intiuence. Besides maintaining its distant posts and transport system for the fur trade, it carries on an innneiise business throughout the newly settled parts of the North- West, iiaving established shops for the sale of goods at almost every important centre of population from Fort William to Victoria. By the terms on which it surrendered its territory to the Dominion it became entitled to one-twentieth of all the land laid off for settlement in the Fertile Belt. Three million live hundred thousand acres have thus already been assigned to it, and as iiuieh more will probably Ijdl to its share, so that the company is now deeply interested in the sale and settlement of land. The changed conditions of the country ha\e also introduced new features into the fur trading operations of the company. There is still a great extent of territory over which the old methods of transport by canoe and portage obtain. But much of the goods once sent m- 182 T/ic Great Doniinion CHAr. to the reiuote north by way of York Factory and Moose Factory on Hudson T^ay are now despatched by rail from Montreal to Winnipeg, Avhich is the chief distributing centre for the northern districts. A steaniei' plies on the Saskatchewan in the sunnner for the transport of goods and furs, and another on Lake Winnii)eg. On the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers three steamers are emi)loyed for the delivery of outfits and for bringing back the furs which have been ccjllected. There arc thus at present fully two thousand miles of steam navigation where the paddle and pole of the vojjagciu' were once the only dependence. There is still the regular annual despatch from England of ships to Fort Churchill and Moose Factory, and the return cargo consists not only of furs, but also of the oil and salted salmon which have been collected at the various posts of the com^jany along the Labrador coast. It will thus be seen that the Hudson's Bay Company continues to hold a most important relation to the industry and development of Northern Canada. There remains for mention one 2)roblem connected with Hudson's Bay itself, the solution of which may pro- foundly affect the future of some parts of the Dominion. Many jtractical men believe firml}' in the possibilit}' of successfully establishing a route by way of Hudson's Bay for the transport to Europe of the products of the North-West. The practicability and safety of the navigation for four if not fi\e months of the year for vessels partiall}' prepared to deal with ice, seems to fev VIII Northern Canada 183 be fairly well established. Among others, Admiral Murkham confidently holds this ojnnion. The Hudson's Bay Company sends ships annually to its ports on the Bay, and in its long history has only lost two of these ships. It is known that at various times since the Bay was discovered between 700 and 800 vessels have successfully navigated its waters. These included English and French war ships as well as trading and exploring vessels. Fort Churchill furnishes an excellent harbour, though it is the only one on the western coast of the Bay, for the largest sea-going ships. Five or six hundred miles of railway would put Fort Churchill in close connection with existing lines of communication which extend over the great wheat and cattle region of the North-West. Such a line would be expected to tap the products of the Western States as well. Trans- port by a route so much shorter than those now used by Montreal and New York would mean a saving in time and expense so considerable as to distinctly modify the conditions of farming in the western regions of Canada. This saving has been estimated at £8 per head for cattle and five shillings per quarter for wheat. Though the difficulties are considerable, the inducements to the establishment of such a line are therefore great. The cpiestion of construction will probably be decided by the extent to which production in the North-West presses upon the means of transportation. That agani will depend in part on the completeness of the water- carriage established from the head of Lake Superior to the sea. I 5 \ tl CHAPTER IX I TRADE RELATIONS AND TRADE POLICY e. s. What may be called the national interest of Great Britain in Canada as an integral part of the Empire is out of all proportion to her immediate trade interest. Although Canadians take of British goods about three times as nuich per head as do their neighbours in the United States, still Canada at present furnishes only about 3 i^er cent, of the whole volume of British im- ports ; the jDcrcentage which she takes of British ex- ports is little, if any, greater. Canadi.^.n exports to Britain are certain to increase greatly, especially in the matter of food supply : imports from Britain will also increase with the growth of popuhition and wealth, or still more from a change of trade policy. Hut even a large increase would furnish no measure of Canada's significance to the Empire. What has been said in previous chapters about her naval stations, her coal sup})ly, her facilities for communication acn^ss the American continent, her essential relation to the mari- time ])osition of the Emjiire, seems to makc^ the national relationship of the Dominion, entirely apart from trade, CH. IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 185 a matter of vital concern to British people. It is this tact, more than the actual volume of her commerce, which justifies in England and throughout the Empire careful study of her trade interests and trade inclina- tions. Are they such as are likely to modify her national relationship, as is often asserted i Has the idea of annexation to the United States taken any stronghold on the Canadian mind, or are there decisive trade reasons why it should do so in the future i As to the prevailing state of feeling at |)reseiit, taking the country as a whole, there can be no reasonable doubt. It may be questioned whether there is in Canada to-day, from Atlantic to Pacific, any political passion so strong as opposition to absorption into the United States. It is practically accurate t(j say that no avowed annexationist could be elected to the Dominion Parliament. If an v believer in annexation gets a seat there, it is by concealing his views. Mr. Uoldwin Smith, who has 2)laced liimself open I}' at the head of a society formed to bring about annexation, or, as he terms it, continental union, has (pioted in a letter to the American press the name — apparently the only one he could discover — of Mr. Solomon White, then member of the Ontario Local Legislature i'or a border constituency, but since defeated, as a Parlia- mentary advocate of the idea. 1 had the op[»ortunity of discussing the subject rather thoroughly with Mr. White, and certainly, if annexation has ni"«'ss purpose of inducing farmers in the neighbourhood to lear animals best suited for the houic market, as the same company and others have ah-eady led Irish and Danish farmers to do, to their immense advantage. The United States have till lately been the best market for such hoi-ses as Canada had to s(OI. A blow was struck at this trade by the impositino witli bnttci". Thero arc no better butter- prodncing disti-iets in the world than the marsh and intervale lands of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but the introduction of factories capable of turning out a first- class article of even quality, points essential to a com- mand of the best English markets, has only begun, and means of transportation have not been perfected. It is a distinct rebuke to Canadian enterprise to find that New Zealand and the Australian colonies, which have to send their products 12,000 miles, and across the tropics, are taking the lead in this important pj^rticular, simply by superior skill and completeness . Licts will t indus- nish the success- no w put ade con- inust bo mcouver st of the c; Ocean, nd othei- ars faced moval of ket and thbridgc the last 11 b)' the imilar to 3 market d, under .nierican )und its :ems no at come judging ill prob- ket was ' make a IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 195 change from the four-rowed barley commonly grown and bought for American breweries to the two-rowed variety which brewers prefer in England. The export to Britain has increased under this change, but the Canadian farmer has not yet learned to exercise the care re^quired to match the sensitiveness of the English buyer to the least variations of colour and grading. Eggs, shut out by the McKinley tarift', have been diverted with singular rapidity to Britain — more than 40,000,000 having been sent over in 1892, and nearly 50,000,000 in 1893. The trade has proved profitable, but still, for so perishable a commodity, the advantage of a near market, at least as an alternative, is manifest. The United States duty on eggs has now been reduced nearly one half The interests of the large fishing industr}- are divitled. Tinned salmon and lobsters, of which there is a large export, go almost exclusively to Britain, salted fish to the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and South America, fresh fi^sh to the States. If now we add spring lambs and chickens, \ egetables, and other minor farm and mineral products, some t(X) bulky for distant exchange, some too perishable for long carriage — chiefly such as the maritime provinces furnish to New England towns — we have pretty well exhausted the lines of [)roduction on which Canada must look to the United States for the best market. This group, then, comprises barley (for the im- mediate present only), coal, fresh hsh, and minor farm products, to which should be added, 1 Uiiuk. timber m u -1 ™^' Ii.-i ' %: it .' i;: Ml:. % K r! mi 196 T/ie Great Dominion CHAP ill some forms, and some varieties of iron ore peculiar to Canada. But in regard to most of these products Canada holds on the American continent a natural superiority which is beginning to assert itself. San Francisco, as I have pointed out, depends on British sources for all its good coal. New England factories want Nova Scotia coal, and the towns of Northern Montana require that of Lethbridge, because it is the cheapest and the best accessible. The brewing in- terest of the States is united in pressing for the removal of the duty on Canadian barley, which has long been considered the best on the continent. The extraordinary prices at times paid for Ontario timber limits by American operators prove the comparative ex- haustion of American forests. For fresh fish the great American cities depend more and more upon the northern Canadian waters. The conclusion seems to be irresistible that for the main lines of Canadian export the British market is infinitely the more important. In several of the other cases 1 have enumerated, where the near market is advantageous, the American peoj^le have already in their own interests been induced to o2)eii their country more freely to Canadian products. Only a feeling of trade animosity such as was displayed in the last Message of President Hamson can prevent them from doing this still further. To any policy dictated by this feeling Canadians will undoubtedly reply in the future as in the past, by either finding new markets tor what they have to sell, If '1 \i CHAP peculiar products natural f. San British factories Northern t is the ving in- for the ich has It. The > timber itive ex- he great lorthern lor the larket is le other irket is eady in n their Only a ayed in prevent madians past, by 3 to sell, IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 197 or by turning their attention to production of other kinds. The unlooked-for result upon Canadian com- merce of the operation of the McKinley tariff proves that even this prospect need not bo discouraging. The returns for 1892 indicate that the trade of Canada for that year was the largest in her history up t() that time, and that while there was a decline in the case of the United States, chiefly owing to the exclusion of barley and eggs, there was a large increase with every other important country with which the Douiinion deals, and especially with Great Britain. Compared with 1891, the exports to Great Britain ro.<^e from $49,280,328 to $(34,900,549; those to tlio United States dropped from $41,138,625 to $33,830,690. This change is very remarkable and significant. A vigorous effort to open up a larger trade with the West Indies has met with fair success, and exchange with Australia has increased rapidly with the introduction of bettor steam communication across the Pacific. In what I have said there has been no intention to question the great vahie to Canada of the freest trade relations attainable with the United States. My object has been to show that they are not absolutely essential to her prosperity ; that, in fact, Canada holds upon the American continent a fairly independent trade position, which, if properly made use of, is quite sufficient to give security to her political status. Both countries have much to gain from increased interchange of products, but to suppose that the greater commercially dominates the smaller is an utter mistake. It is a remarkable a*i I •!■■.. ..'M 11 1-^ II ^\. :|| tM 198 yy/r Great Dominwu v\\\\\ fact that in the midst of almost universal depression— a depression which has particularly affected the United States — tlie increase of Canadian trade referred to as taking place in 1892 was maintained in 1893. These truths need to ho impressed upon Canadians themselves. In some parts of the country one heard statements made, by otherwise intelligent men, which indicated that party politics were too absorbing to permit study of the bare arithmetical facts of trade and commerce. The Liberal party has exaggerated the importance of the United States market, and has shown a readiness to make excessive sacrifices to obtain it. The Conservative party, or rather a section of it, has staked too much upon the hope of |)reforential trade with Great Britain instead of depending upon the innate advantages and opportunities of Canada itself To make the most of those last much yet remains to be done. The lack of close study of the British market and of a resolution to i>ut upon it only the best products in the best condition has been referred to. An improved freight service across the Atlantic should be provided. Sir William Van Horno has pointed out to the Toronto Board of Trade on a public occasion that the use of modern ships, with the best coal-^.tving appliances, would mean, by reduction of freight charges alone, an addition of 10 per cent, to the present value of a large volume of Canadian exports. Most important of all, perhaps, is t rv i'^^'on. These three things — great care in L. ir ).;. (I'd meeting the demands of the British mai s, ,)roved means of transportation, and sucli f'HAP. IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 199 to as lowering of rliities as will reduce the cost of .agi'icultural production to the lowest possible point and encourage exchange with the mother country — will do more for Canada than she can ever hope to gain from preferential treatment by Great Britain. The latter is distant and doubtful, the others practicable and o])en to immediate adoption. On the ((uestion of tariffs, something more must bo said. With the ('xp(ii't tradc^ (jf Canada in many lines tui-ning so decisively towards the United Kingdom, English people will naturally study with interest the prospects of an equivalent return trade, and ask whether Canada shows any inclination to relax her pro- tective system either towards Britain or towards the world. The prolonged political conflict over trade policy has not yet ceased, and one hears widely varying expressions of opinion based sometimes on party feeling, sometimes on genuine conviction. The Dominion, like the United States, is manifestly in the midst of a transition period. Some conclusions, however, seem to me clear. It may be said with confidence that protection has now reached its highest point in Canada. It would probably never have got the hold it has, save for the example and neighbourhood of the United States. The example was to some extent misleading. Protection always had a better chance of success, temporary or permanent, in the United States than in Canada, because the former country had naturally a greater variety of production within itself, and also because it ■t' ! !<'! % \. 200 T/ir Great Doiniiuon CHAP. started upon its protective career with a population large enough to give an immense area of internal free trade. Yet I cannot think that the adoption of a pi-o- tective system by Canada was at the time a mistake, oi- lias been without good results. It was entered upon under peculiar circumstances. The North -West had just been acquired ; its opening up seemed a national necessity ; a pledge had been given to connect by rail the Pacific coast with the Atlantic. The oldei- provinces shrank from a task so vast, which involved raising revenues beyond precedent. It is safe to say that without the hope held out by the protective policy of an increased manufacturing population at home, and a wider exclusive market in the West, the work would never have been undertaken or carried rapidly on to successful completion. Again, the neighbouring re- public had just denounced a mutually beneficial reci- procity treaty, and adopted a fiscal system which, in its operation, exposed the incipient industries of a weaker country like Canada to the greatest dangers. Monopolist manufacturers at home might be bad, many a free trader reasoned, but their work was, at least, done within the country. To be at the mercy of highly pro- tected manuftxcturers in another land, where rings and trusts held almost unbounded sway, had about it no redeeming feature. Once more, the large revenues which it was necessary to raise could not be obtained by direct taxation, to which the habits and prejudices of the people had long been utterly opposed. What the public men of the day had to consider, in n • A ' CHAl'. )ulation al free a )»•()- tako, or (I upon st had lational by rail oklei- tivolvefl to say e policy ne, and : would y on to ing re- xl reci- 1, in its weaker I, many it, done ly pro- gs and it no venues [led by ices of \qy, in IX TTiidc Relations and Trade Policy 201 (tarrying out their daring but, as events have proved, their well-judged plans, was how to extract from the taxpayers a very large revenue in the form that seenvd least objectionabl(\ A tariff at once high and inciaent- ally protective was the method adopted. Ifwe gait all that may be urged as to the fallacies of the protective idea, still, politicians no more than doctors can be greatly blamed for giving a sugar coating to an unpleasant medicine. As it was, the stimulus of the national policy, as the system was called, whether artificial or otherwise, carried the country through a period of great strain and effort — a period, too, in which it acquired a self-reliance never known before. Conditions have now greatly ch- -{ed. Several circumstances combine to make a mui'c or less decisive change of policy not only advisable but possible of adoption. The limit of large capital expenditure undertaken for necessary works has now been almost reached. The essential railway systems are practically completed. The same will soon be true of the canals. Industries for which temporary protec- tion was deemed necessary have now had a good start, and may fairly be asked to begin to stand alone. The general expansion of trade gives buoyancy to the revenue, and the Government had in 1890, 1891, and 1893 a large surplus to deal with, and a small one in 1892, though sugar had just been made entirely free. There seems to me to be a consensus of opinion throughout the North-West, in the agricultural com- munities of the East, and among men of independent .ii' 202 77/ c Great /^vin'nion CHAR thought overywlicre, that the first ol)jcct of Canadian statesmanship should now be to make the Dominion a cheap country to live in. A large inflow of })opulation to the unsettled areas, the greatest good of the greatest number in all parts, seem to depend on this. Even manufoctures which have made great strides \mdor the impulse of protection now feel a still greater need (.' the wide market which <^nly a large and prosperous agricultural population can supply. The extreme depression in the price of agricultural produce has led farmers to consider m<^re closely than they over did before the jorice of the manufactured goods they buy and in some provinces there has been mucli organiz- ation to give political effect to their views. Greater freedom of trade, then, is gradually coming in response to a strong popular demand. It might have won in the last general election against all the strength of Sir John Macdonald and a powerful Government, had not a small section of the Liberal jDarty allowed its advocacy to be mixed up with suspicions of their fidelity to national connexion — suspicions which can in no wise attach to the party as a whole. That election, and still more the bye-elections which followed, killed the idea of commercial union with the United States as then suggested, which involved discrimination against the motherland. With the idea of commercial union has since completely vanished any inclination which here and there may have been harboured towards political union. In 1892 some remnants of this feeling could yet be discovered; in 1894 it was gone. The un- CHAl'. laclian lion a la t ion cat est E\on I'l' the 'C'fl (,,' X'l'ons treme IS led iv (lid y b^^• ganiz- i\ Trade Rc/atious and Ti-adc Policy 203 paralleled wave of business depression which swept over the United States during the interval ; the spectacle of Coxeyite armies of the unemployed niovin*^' on Washington; of Atlantic stoamhoats and Canadian i-ailway trains crowded with emigrants returning from the United States; of industry paralyzed by strikes which divided authority made it difficult to repress — all made Canadians more conscious than thev had even- V)een before y){ the serious social and political problems which their neighbours have to confront. Tlu; fact that Canada's industrial condition was meanwhile scarcely affected emphasized the advantages of her independent position on the continent. Now that the struggle against commercial union is over, a broader and truer conception of improved and freer trade relations is growing up. The Conservative leaders are not, I think, unwilling to recognize this new tendency of the public mind. Any on(3 who studies Canada from coast to coast will be convinced that in doing so they will be serving tln'ir own interests. The Government, however, secure in a large majority, can, until the approach of a general election, suit its own convenience in dealing with the question. In the Session of Parliament for 1803 the growing feeling in favour of a reduction of protective duties was staved off by the promise of a searching inquiry into the working of the national policy in all parts of the Dominion, an inquiry which has since been carried out by the Finance Minister and his assistants. This inquiry led to a revision of the tariff, and veiy considerable reductions, ) , H'v it : Jij If 0\, II 204 T/ic Grcal Doii/inion CHAl'. tliough not Ro lar^o or so niimcroua as had boon expected. The process of reduction is likely to go fiirtlior. The Conservative ])arty seems resulv(>(l to cling to its traditional policy of protection in the case of special industries, while proposing from time to timo a considerable advance in tariff reform as circum- stances maki' this ])ossiblo. The Liberal party claims that it is the truer representati\'e of unshackled trade. The tendency is the same in both political jmrties. Thei'o v.'ill b(^ difficulties to overcome. Large revenues must still be raised; vested interests will make themselves considered. The manufacturing centres of the East will make their influence felt as well as agricultural interests West and East. 8ome industries will make a strong plea for continued sup- port. Still there are numberless directions in which fetters can be removed from trade, and the tendencies are manifestly in that direction. As changes arc^ made there will be a strong desire to make it favour trade with the motherland. It is claimed that this is done by the recent revision. Any allusion to such freer trade made in popular assemblies is sure to draw out enthusiastic applause. Mr. d'Aliou M'Carthy, the most prominent private member of the Conserva- tive party, has openly declared himself in favour of a. direct and unconditional reduction of duties on English goods. This is not sentiment, but business. A return cargo makes cheap freights. A country which hopes to cover the North Atlantic with ships carrying its UmM _W|^^^ CHAl'. IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 205 [I boon to go V('(I ((> 10 case to tiim- •irciiin- claiins lat'klcd )olitic.'il its will cturing- CO felt 801110 k1 su})- whicli (loncies ' made r trade s done I freer draw ^^arth}^, iserva- r of a, Inglisli return hopes ng its ]>ro(hK'tM to England catniot, if it is wisi-, wish to see those ships return in ballast. Then; are one or two things wliii-h it seems well to point out to the British manufacturer who looks on the Canadian as his rival. Th(! impression left upon my mind l)y the study of Canadian manufacturing devclop- mmt in relation to British trade is this. In new eountrii's like Canada, under a protective system, and even without it, there will be a tendency to develop all the rougher forms (jf manutiicture locall}'. The cheap- ness of the article 2)ro(luced, the small margin of profit, the eost of carrying material, all contribute to make this natural. I believe that coarse cottons or woollens, for instance, can be juoduced in Eastern Canada to-day and i)laced upon the market as cheaply as those from Manchester or Yorkshire. The policy of the English manufacturer, under such conditions, is mani- fest. He must make uj) his mind to turn more and inore — and he might as well do it without grumbling — from the lower to the higher forms of manufacture. With his abundant capital, with greater attention to technical education among his workpeople, with the fuller command that he has of mechanical and artistic skill, he can easily do this. In this field he will find a constantly enlarging market in proportion as both manufactures and agriculture increase the })rosperity and buying capacity of the new communities. Let me give a practical illustration of what I mean. I have observed a large cotton mill started in one of the ^ :p$ 206 77/^' Great Dominion CHAK maritime provinces of the Dominion, giving employ- ment to many hundreds of hands. Cheaj) hind, chea}) building material, low taxes, easy water carriage' for the raw cotton, adundance of cheap fuel from the \vast(^ wood of saw mills, and excellent facilities for railway distribution make it possible for this mill, even with a greater outlay f(-)r wag'es, to compete successfully in gra}' and other coarse cottons with those of England. In this particular line of goods, therefijre, the Manchestei- trade is checked. But, if the Manchester manufacturer could observe how each year the shops at which these prosperous Canadian artisans deal become more and more -packed with the finer goods which they require, he might learn two lessons — first, that it is stupid to try to force his «jld wares on a market where he is handicapped ; and, secondly, that with a little adnptability the new condition of things might be turned to his own great advantage. All observation of colonial markets convinces one that the English manu- facturer has as much reason to study the changing wants of the colonists in manufactured goods as the colonist has to study the needs of the home consumer in the matter of food supply. At Woodstock, Ontario, 1 glanced hurriedly, under the conduct of the proprietor, through the largest high- class "dry gvjjds"' (drapery, millinery, &c.) establish- ment in the town. Seventy or eighty per cent, of all the goods sold were of British production, he told me. " But," he added, as we passed througli a room devoted CHAP. IX Trade Relations and Trade Policy 207 employ- d, cheap .' for the e waste railway with a in gra}- nd. Ill ichester iacturer h these )re and require, upid to lere he a little ight be ation of nianii- langing as the n.siiniei- under t high- ablish- . of all id nie. evoted almost exclusively to ladies' mantles, " all these are from Germany." " Why Germany i " I asked. " More taste, better material, better work for the same amount of money than can be got in England.*' He left the impression on my mind that the Canadian mantle trade now centres chiefly in Berlin. That is something for the English manufacturer to consider and remedy if he can. It w^as but a passing observation, but close inquiry might discover many such cases, and close inquiry is what the manufacturer is bound to make in these davs. There are, of course, difficulties in the way of giving preference to British trade. It has hitherttj been supposed that under existing treaties Germany and Belgium can claim the advantage of any reduction made to rritain. Whether this be true or not, the anxietv of Canada that these treaties should not be renewed indicates the tendency of her i)oliey. On all sides the business outlook for Canada seems most encouraging. She has in actual tact a rapidly increasing trade with Britain. She has the h(jpe of better trade relations with the United States. She is earefully cultivating minor but useful lines of ex- change with the far East, Australasia, the West Indies, and South America. Her credit stands higher thon that of any t)ther great colony of the Empire. She has prudently ceased to be a great Ixirrower, but foi" her three per cent, loans thrice the amount for which she asks has been offered. Her equipment for internal If l>' ' 208 The Great Dominion CHAP. IX development is excellent, and she has abundant room to receive the population which has been her greatest lack. The mass of the people are industrious, and her producing power is steadily increasing. Finally there is the fact which I have tried to prove — that her industries and the inclinations of her people alike point to close commercial and political consolidation with the nation of which she forms a i)art. 1 r Iff" CHAPTER X LABOUR, EDUCATION, AND POLITICAL TEXDEXCTES From what has aU-eady been said it will be easily inferred that Canada is not a " paradise " for the working man, nor for anybody else who looks for an easy time or for great results with little effort. In other words, it is not a land of illusions. Any visitor, who is able to make comparisons with other countries will be struck as ho travels through the rural districts, and especially through those of the older provinces, by the large proportion of comfortable-looking homes which he sees. If he has an opportunity to study them closely he will find that the comfort is very reai and substantial, but he will also find that they are homes which have in almost all cases been won by steady, unflinchmg industry. For success, an emigrant to the Dominion must therefore have something in him, whether on the prairie or woodland. " Is Canada a good enough country for a working man to go to ? " one is often asked in great British centres of population. " Is the working man good enough to go to such a country as ^r^sr PP H- 1 h, :|',,' ;^i;(;l tl 2IO 77/^ Great Dominion CHAP. Canada ? " is often a more pertinent inquiry. Has he the necessary backbone, the capacity to adapt himself to new circumstances^ such an appreciation of the benefits of a healthy life, physical and moral, that he is ready to sacrifice other things to obtain it ? Are cheap music-halls, and cheap beer at every street corner, and a loaf ready baked for a wife untrained to domestic cares, more to him than fresh air, and plenty of space, and conditions of life which, if rough, are at any rate wholesome, and have in them the promise of health, independence, and improved social opportunities for his children ? Fifty years ago the British emigrant was almost always welcomed abroad, for he was usually a son of the soil, accustomed to a simple life, hard work, and long hours. But the emigrant who is the ^Droduct of half a century of the artificial life of great towns, fresh from the atmosphere of trade unions, strikes, and social agitations, is looked at rather askance in Canada. The popular thought crystallizes itself into the advice which colonial agents give concerning the best classes to emigrate — fiirmers with a little capital, agricultural labourers, country girls to be trained for domestic service. For these there is always plenty of room and occupation. The reports which occasionally cross the Atlantic of an unemployed class in Canada must never be looked at in the same light as the question of the unemployed in England, or even in Australia. They only mean that people have drifted thither who are unfitted for CHAP. X Labour and Political Tendencies 21 I Has he himself of the , that he t ? Are y street ained to d plenty h, are at omise of rtunities almost I son of 3rk, and oduct of ■ towns, kes, and Canada, e advice i classes cultural omestic )f room [antic of I looked nployed y mean bted for Canadian life. If any man is out of work it is because he cannot or will not adapt himself to the abundant work there is to do. Artisans who can or will only do one kind of work run a good deal of risk in going to a country where versatility, a willingness and capacity to turn the hand to anything, is often the key to success. For men with plenty of backbone there are the best of opportunities in Canada ; for men without . it the country is not to be recommended. " There is plenty of work and plenty to eat in this country," were the words in which an Aberdeen woman at Dunmore, after speaking of hard times in the old home, and hard work followed by prosperity in the new, summed up to me her view of Canada. The i-emark has a very general application. But it should be said that the hard work is of a kind which does not depress. The climate appears to lend itself singularly to the necessity for vigorous effort. Lady Cathcart's agent told me that he asked one of the crofter emigrants, whom he had found persistently shiftless and careless at home, how he managed without additional iielp to keep everything neat and tidy on his Manitoba farm. " One never seems to get tired in this air,"' was the reply. No doubt the sens(> of personal ownership and independent effort was a co-operating influence, but the difference between the moist, enervating at- mosphere of the Hebrides and the electric air of the North- West would account for a good deal. The farm labourer of the Southern or Eastern English counties seems a heavy, awkward fellow when compared witli p 2 liii ,212 The Great Dojuiniou CHAP. the wiry, active, and versatile backwoodsman of Eastern Canada. Climate doubtless has something to do with this also, for the step of the same labourer seems to quicken and his eye to brighten when he has been foi' a time on Canadian soil. Curiously enough, although strenuous work is thus the distinctive note of Canadian life, one may yet travel for months through the country without hearing the subject of labour discontent specially referred to. Labour problems as they are known in England and Australia, for instance, do not fill any large place in people's thoughts, The reasons for this contrast are not hard to discover. In the first place. +he country is not crowded. Canada's prime charac.eribtic is the abundance of land which is easily accessible and which gives a ftxir and speedy return to individual labour with a compara- tively slight expenditure of capital. There is no desert interior, as in Australia, to limit the range of settle- ment, and the people are free to spread over the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The pre- vailing occupations are agricultural, and as a rule each fiirmer owns the land he works. A man who is hurrying to get through with his fall ploughing before the frost comes on, or to make the most of the first fortnight's seeding in spring, or is trying to get the greatest possible amount of his own work squeezed into the short summer, or the autumn which presses so closely upon it, has not much leisure to think over the eight hour^>' question, or to spend time on labour agitations. CHAP. ' Eastern • do with seems to been foi' is thus may yet hearing erred to. and and place in brast are I. dance of 'es a Itxir :ompara- [10 desert )f settle - he whole rhe pre- side each hurrying the frost )rtnight's greatest into the closely ihe eight agitations. Labour and Political Tendencies 213 Not how many hours he ought to work, but how much work he can put through in a day, is the paramount question. This applies to the warmer seasons. In the lumber woods and on the farms in winter labour has a natural limitation in the shortness of the northern day. There is then much time for recreation ur self- improvement. When a man is his own master and retains the profits of his industry, the labour problem takes on new aspects for him. Fortunately for Canada the majority of workers are their own masters. The natural conditions of the Dominion thus appear to relegate serious labour problems to a very remote future. In the next place, the winter climate squeezes out for a part of the year the '^ tramp " and " swagger " class — the incorrigible loafer who takes no pains to provide a roof for himself, and who poses as unemployed while really unwilling to work. For nine months of the year, in most parts of Australia, a man of this type can sleep without discomfort under the o})en sky ; there are nearly nine montlis in Canada when some provision for shelter is a necessity. The ad\-an- tages of a mild climate are doubtless man\-, and one is more conscious of the luxury of easy living in Australia ; a climate like that of Canada, severe for lengthened l)eriods even while it is exhilarating, has merits which, though less obvious, are far-reaching in their intiuence on national character. It drives men back on home life and on work ; it teaches foresight ; it cures or kills the shiftless and improvident ; history shows that m ^ m [ \ ■■ 1 1 it: il w 1: t\. .-J*>- to be continuous, and to extend to other countries as well as to the United States. It is fostered bv the educa- tional advantages everywhere within reach. On educa- tion almost every province of the Dominion spends sums exceedingly large when compared with the whole amount of revenue. The free school is everywhere, and the system extends in most of the provinces from the elementary grades up through the secondary schools to the door of the university. But the free school in Canada is not like the free school of Eng- land — practically a gift from the rich who make no use of it to the poor who do. The Canadian free CllAl'. n chiefly he moral s siiperi- claiss of THIS and ges are •sitioii of s clerks, rl forms ; sors, and tive em- ad other elligence e or the jrywhere his kind. ■0, likely 1 tries as e educa- ti ediica- sjjends le whole [•y where, ;es from icondary bhe free of Eng- lake no iaii free Labour and Political Tendencies 2 1 7 school is paid for by all classes and is used by all : is, in fact, a method of social co-operation for obtain- ing the best educational results with the least waste (jf force. Excellent results are obtained and great public spirit is shown in the maintenance of good sclux^ls, consider- ing that in fixing expenditure unich is left to be decided by public sentiment in (nich province and each school district. Government does not, as in Australia, maintain schools ; it gives assistance on a scale graduated to the amount of local effort, and exercises a general superintendence. On tht.' whole, the plan is probably the most efficient for a connnon school system, and in Canada it works well. It nmst be said that the not uncouniion mistake is made of spending money more liberally on machinery than ui)on men. But educational appliances are very good. In the country towns the schoolhouses are almost invari- ably among the finest public buildings, the class rooms are large, the sanitary arrangements of the best. In most f the cities the grading and organization of the schools are \'ery complete, their danger perhaps lying in that excess of organization which tends to make teaching mechanical. In rural districts the ^•illage school forms no small part of the social system. In the Far West, as new areas are surveyed for settlement, provision is from the first made for education by setting aside certain sections of land in each township for school purposes. In newly opened districts, of course, the difficulty for the first generation of settlers lies in the o I %. it.: ( : J ill 218 7 Vie Great Don in ion CHAl'. sparseness of poi)uliition, but wherever a few chikheu can be got together the means are provided for establisliing a school. All towns of any size have good secondaiT schools. '^Phere is, therefore, no good reason why every Canadian child should not receive a fair education, or, if he has ability and perseverance, a really good one. The long winter lends itself to mental imjjrovenient. The lull in farm work leaves the child- ren of the family comparatively free, and it is at this season that the country schools are full. The transi- tion from the best country schools to the university is not difficult, and for poor students is often bridged over by a })eriod of teaching in the counnon schools com- bined with stud}'. The scale of college expense is more on the level of what obtains in Scottish than in Euglish universities, though it has risen during the last few \ears. University education is making rapid strides, partly l)y means of i)ublic funds, but nnich mure by private benefactions. The readiness shown by wealth to support higher educational work is one of the most satisfactory features of Canadian life at the present time. When Sir William Dawson delivered his fare- well address as Principal of M'Gill College not long since, he was able to say that the gifts of the citizens of Montreal to that University during the previous four years alone had amounted to no less than a million and a half dollars. There have been very recent proofs that this stream of munificence has not been exhausted. Mr. John Henry Molson continues from time to time '.Irk. ( HAP Labour and Political Tendencies 219 children iclod for •ive good I I'eason e a fail" , a really mental le child- at this transi- -Tsity is !'ed o vei- ls coni- icnse is sh than during \, partly private ilth to e must present is fai'e- )t long dtizens us four 3n and fs that lusted. ) time to add to the extremely generous support which has connected the name of his family with McGill from the earliest stages of its growth. The museum and library, presented before his death and endowed for permanent maintenance by the late Peter Kcd- path, form a noble monument to a largo-hearted .d patriotic liberality. Altogether Mr. Kedpath"s gifts must have amounted to more than half a million dollars. The claim that the engineering and i)hysics departments of M'Gill are the most perfectly ecpiii.ped in the world seems justified to any one who has in- spected the tine Iniildings in which they are installed. Both are the gift of another generous citizen of Montreal— Mr. \V. C. Macdonald, who has spent upon them nearly a million dollars. The medical sehcol has -:rown into importance, and retains numbers of students ho once flocked to Edinburgh and to the colleges of the United States. This school especially has received very large support from Sir Donald Smith. The same benefactor has provided for the higher education of women in connection with the University by a splendid and separate endowment, and he is still carefully maturing plans to make the work of this department as perfect as possil)le. The standard of teaching and examination is the same as that for men, though the provisions for instruction are distinct. Montreal may well be proud of the public spirit which prevails among its merchant princes. Altogether the university has now sevent}--four professors and lecturers, with 220 The Great Dominion CHAI'. \:l h f well nigh a thousand students in general or special subjects. Toronto University presents a different set of con- ditions. It dei)ends chiefly for supi)ort upon the provincial revenues c»t' Ontario, of whose altogether admirable school system it forms the crown. The fact that the college has this State aid seems, however, to have operated against large private benefactions. In comparing these two greatest iniiversities in the Dominion it is interesting to note that the one which has de])ended chiefly upon private generosity within a single city has a more liberal endowment even than that which is supported by a wealthy province noted for its interest in education. Although the State has done so nuich for Toronto University, still some of its friends, and among them, I believe, members of the Faculty, hold the opinion that its position would be strengthened if it relied entirely upon voluntary sup- port. It is not easy to decide upon the truth of this view, though the tiicts I have mentioned give it some justification. Indications are not wanting in other parts of Canada that wliile the common and inter- mediate.' schools can safely depend for adequate suppoi't upon the tax-paying ])ublic, the higlier learning in new countries as well as old nnist look for assist- ance to the enlightened liberali* f the wealthy few. Often religious sentiment furni. .es the motive now as in earlier centuries. The Presbyterian, Church of l']ngl!inc has a long and not undistinguished history. A number of classical colleges scattered throughout the i)rovince are, for the most part, affiliated with Laval. In the Maritime provinces smallei' colleges, some dependent on public and some on private and denomina- tional support, do exceednigly good work, though the course of study is necessarily more limited. These institutions grew u^) under the impulse ol a very genuine ardour for higher education at a tune when the provinces were isolated, when communication was ditKcult, and when, therefore, each small community im. »( I::' O OO 77/r Great Doniinion CHAP. had to provide for its own wants. They have proved liow much there is to be said for the work of the small college, with the better opportunity which it gives for attention to the development of the individual student, since thoy have, I think, turned out more men who have achieved distinction in jjublic and intellectual life throughout the Dominion than the larger and more richlv endowed universities. But with the increased facility uf access to large centres the struggle for existence among these small colleges becomes more keen everv day, and the necessity for some general reorganization of educational force among them is manifest. As things are, their ablest professors and students are apt to be drawn away to wider spheres, or, if not, they suffer from loyalty to local interests. There is abundance of excellent material and sufficient endowment of higher education in the Maritime pro- vinces to maintain an effective university. Oxford and Cambridge prove that it is possible to combine the advantages of the college which takes charge of a limited number of students with the opportunities of a great university. The jjroblem before educational statesmanship in the Maritime provinces, of harmonizing local and denominational interests and prejudices, pre- sents difficulties, but should not be insoluble. Throughout Canada there is nn increasing tendency for students to take a post-graduate course of study in British or Continental Universities. It is a tendency which deserves encouragement, for the greatest obstacle to the attainment of the highest educational results in ;|i,|» CHAP. 3 proved he small ^ives foi' student, lien who tual life id more icreased ?gle for 's more general hem is )rs and spheres, terests. ifficient lie pro- )rd and lie the e of a ■ties of fitional mizing- s, pre- idency idy in idency ►stacle Its in X Labour and Political Tendencies 223 Canada, as in other young countries, is the haste to rush into professional and business life without allowing time for thorough mental training. Besides, contact with great and ancient centres of learning is the best of all correc- tives for provincialism in thought and literary effort. At Kingston the Dominion Government has estab- lished and maintains at considerable expense a college which gives a sound military training, and it is a note- worthy fact that in the few years since it was established nearly a hundred of its graduates have taken active service in the imperial army. It has been stated on the highest authority that in training and attainments they compare favourably with those turned out by the military colleges at home. The Imperial Government assigns each year, without further examination, a small number of commissions to students who have distinguished themselves at the college. The link in military employment thus being gradually formed between the Dominion and the Empire seems of some significance and of mutual advantage. Canada secures the benefit of a large field for the train- ing of its military students ; the imperial arm}' has a widened area from which to draAV material. I have dwelt at length upon the educational question, partly to show that intellectual has kept pace with material development, and partly to explain why it is that, beyond most of the other colonies of the Empire, the need of Canada is for hand-workers rather than head-workers. Of the latter the country produces within itself more than it can employ. The avenues to ij 1 1 % '( 224 T/n' Great Dominion CHAP. professional success are everywhere crowded by home born and, except for very special work, home-trained men. As I have shown, tliey go abroad in considerable numbers, for work they cannot find at liome. Canada must, I think, reconcile itself to this exodus, which is the outcome of natural conditions. It is not without its compensation in extending influence. Still, there arc many who maintain that the tendency of things in Canada is to give literary education beyond the needs of the country ; that, while the professions are over- crowded, farms and the more practical avocations of life become neglected. It is therefoi'o interesting to note another exceedingly practical direction which educational effort is taking. As I have said, the countr}^ is and will continue to be mainly agricultural. It is beginning to bo recognized that in an age of extreme competition the farmer, like others, can only succeed by adopting the best and most scientific methods. A beginning, at least, is now being made in bringing scientific training and the results of scientific research within his reach. This work takes two different forms. At Guelph the Dntario Government has established an Agricultural College, with an efficient staff of professors. A large farm is attached to the college, so that provision is made for practical as well as theoretic instruction in farming during the three years' course for which the plan of study is arranged. The institution has been in operation for more than twenty }'ears, and improve- ments have steadily been made, so that now the fixcilities '^ CHAP. X Labour and Political Tendencies 22 by home le-traincd isiderablo Canada which is t without till, there things in he needs re over- ations of eedingly i taking, ic to be :'ognized nor, like nd most w being 3sults of ?lph the cultural A large ision is tion in ich the s been iprove- -cilities afforded to the students of becoming familiar with all kinds of farm work seem to a visitor very com- plete. In addition to the ordinary work of field and garden, of laboratory and lecture room, a great variety of experi- ments in culture, the results of which are made public from time to time, are being carried on under the eyes of the students. Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry of the leading breeds and varieties are reared, to illustrate the teaching of the college, and to give practice in methods of treatment. Class-rooms into which animals of all kinds can be freely introduced strike the observer as a novel part of college equipment, but among the most useful. Particular attention is paid to the department of dairying, and the lecture-rooms are furnished with all the best appliances for testing milk, for separating cream, and for butter and cheese making. A special short winter course, for dairy teaching exclusively, has been established, and has met with much success. Its classes are open to women as well as to men. The college has steadily grown in public favour, and has now no lack of students. AH are expected to take a part in the farm work, and that this may be done the more cheerfully, and on equitable terms, arrange- ments are made by which students pay in part by their labour for their education. While the majority are Canadians, a good many have come in past years from the United Kingdom, and one asked with a good deal of interest how this system of combined tield labour C| ' ■ ■ li^i' Ji"^ ili 1-1 ' 1. i1 f ! 226 Z'y^d' Great Doviiuion CHAP. and education worked in the case of young Englishmen. The report was not altogether what one would wisli. The type of young man from the United Kingdom whom his parents are most anxious to get settled on a Canadian farm does not easily take \\\\ the roh of a field labourer, but rather expects to find an agricul- tural college something like an English public school. The alternation of study and physical labour is natur- ally not so pleasant as that of study and i)lay. To the Canadian farmer's son the former is something like the normal experience of life, and so for him the college puts no special strain on prejudices and habits. A course at Guelph should serve admirably as an intro- duction for a young Englishman to a fiirming life in Canada, but if he cannot fiice the labouring conditions there it is a pretty reliable proof that he is not fitted for the life to which he looks forward. As the college can only receive a limited number of regular students, various means are taken to widen the sphere of its influence throughout the agricultural community. Farmers' excursions are arranged, to visit the college and inspect the practical work of the farm. Addresses on agricultural subjects are given, and the methods pursued and experiments carried on are explained to groups of the visitors by the heads of the various departments. No less than 9000 persons are reported as having thus visited the farm during the single month of June 1893. Again, at certain seasons of the year members of the college staff attend the meetings of farmers' institutes, to give lectures and CHAP. glishinen. iild wish. Kingdom tied on a role of a L agricul- ic school, is natur- To the like the e college ibits. A an intro- g life in onditions not fitted imber of iden the 'icultural iged, to k of the ■e given, irried on heads of persons iring the seasons :end the ires and Labour and Political Tendencies 227 take part in the discussions. These institutes are voluntarily established by the farmers in most of the counties of Ontario, and have a marked influence in stimulating thought on farming questions and intro- ducing improved methods of work. They are encour- aged by a small grant from the provincial revenues. The college also sends out competent men with travelling dairies to go into every part of the province, and thus brings instruction on an industry which has become of the utmost importance in Ontario almost to the farmer's door. It is found that young men attend the college in order to qualify themselves for undertaking the management of cheese and butter factories, so that the diffusion of the best methods through the instrumentality of the college thus becomes very general. The result of such work is best shown in the wonderful strides made in the cheese production of Ontario, and the exceptional position which Canadian cheese has gained in English markets during the last ten years. While Ontario has thus taken the lead in founding a college for farmers, the Dominion Government is carrying out on a larger scale another scheme with somewhat similar objects. For the last six years a large sum of money has been annually spent in organ- izing and maintaining a number of experimental farms at widely separated points across the continent. The Central Farm, from which the rest are directed, is in the vicinity of Ottawa. Of the other four, one is at Nappan,.in Nova Scotia; another in Brandon, in Q 2 ■ ' ^ 228 The Great Dominion CHAP IMi Manitoba ; the third at Indian Head, in the Qu'Appellf district ; and the fourth at Agassiz, in British Cohimbia. Climate and conditions extremely dift'erent, and repre- sentative of the characteristic areas of the country, are thus embraced in the operations of the farms. The establishment of these experimental centres by Government may perhaps best be described as an endowment of agricultural research. Where a country has so much staked on the prosperity of its farming classes as has Canada, money could not be better spent, and it was satisfactory to be told that no sums were more cheerfully voted by Parliament than the grants required for this purpose. No visitor to Ottawa should miss the opportunity of seeing the work that is going on at the central farm near that city, under the direction of Professor Saunders and his able corps of assistants. Experiments and investigations of the most varied kinds are being made in agriculture, horticulture, and arboriculture, under the direction of a specialist in each. A system of exchange has been established with foreign countries, and the adaptability to the Canadian climate of plants and seeds thus obtained, especially from northern lati- tudes, is carefully tested. Farmers are encouraged to correspond with the heads of the various depart- ments, and submit to them their special diffi- culties. Any farmer is free to forward seeds to the Central Farm, where arrangements are made for testing and giving private reports upon their vitality. The chemical department receives samples of soils, natural CHAP. 'Appellf olumbia. d repre- itry, are itres by i as an country farming er spent, us were 3 grants unity of :al farm launders nts and ig made rider the xchange and the mts and rn lati- ouraged depart- 1 diffi- i to the ' testing y. The natural X Labour and Political Tendencies 229 manures, &c., analyzes them, and gives advice about their treatment or use. In the botanical and entomo- logical department plant diseases, noxious weeds, and injurious insects are carefully studied ; communications are received concerning them ; private advice is given or public bulletins are issued about the best methods of dealing with them. Numerous experiments in cross fertilizing are con- stantly carried on, and new varieties of promise thus procured are widely distributed among farmers for further trial. In 1893 more than 20,000 samples of choice varieties of cereals in three-pound packages were distributed gratis to all applicants. Great quantities of tree seeds, with seedling forest trees and cuttings, have also been distributed, and especially in the North-West, with a view to encourage tree-growing on the prairies. Most of the problems which confront the farmer in dealing with cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry are being studied, and the very full and accurate reports of the heads of departments on their various experiments in rearing and fattening stock, or combating disease, are scattered broadcast throughout the farming com- munity. The Agriculturist of the the Central Farm, Mr. J. W. Robertson, is also Dairy Commissioner for the Dominion, and it is not too much to say that, by his energy and enthusiasm, he has begun to organize the dairying industry in the 3Iaritime provinces on a new basis. At the branch farms special attention is given to iir 230 The Great Dominion CHAP. f\m\ 111 *1'v those agricultural problems which most particularly affect the particular localities. On the two prairie stations the testing of varieties of trees suited for the prairies, and of cereals adapted to the short northern summer, receives special attention. In British Columbia hundreds of varieties of fruit are being tested, and the same department rereives special care in Nova Scotia. At all the experimental centres the country people of the neighbourhood are encouraged to visit the farms, and every facility is given them to observe the methods pursued and the progress of experiments. At Ottawa one found that large picnics to the farm, varied during the day by lectures from the specialists on the staff, had become a favourite farmers' outing. Educational effort such as I have described cannot but assist the farmer in economizing force and making the most of his opportunities. Its value, however, lies not merely in the improvement of agriculture, but in the interest added to the farmer's life by giving it a scientific and intellectual side. To make form life attractive should surely be one of the aims of an age perplexed by the problems which have arisen out of an overgrown city population. The steps being taken in Canada to attain this end seem practical and emin- ently noteworthy. We may now turn to another line of inquiry. The spirit and tendencies of political life in the greatest colony of the Empire must always be interest- ing to British people. That interest will necessarily li^|i CHAP. rticularly prairie d for the northern !^olinnbia ted, and in Nova y people isit the orve the sriments. he farm, >ecialists iting. 1 cannot making lowever, ure, but giving it arm life an age out of y taken i emin- in the iterest- essari ly Labour and Political Tendencies 231 increase and become more practical as time goes on. Unobtrusively and almost unconsciously, through the sheer weight of her concern in national affairs, Canada's influence is making itself felt in imperial councils. Some time since, in private conversation, Lord Rosebcry remarked that no change had more struck him in English political life during the last ten years than the new status which Canadians had obtained in this country, and the ready way in which Canadian advice was accepted in matters of great imperial importance by statesmen of all parties. The change is only natural. The Dominion includes nearly forty per cent, of the land area of the Empire. Its ports, harbour defences, and coal supplies must always constitute considerable elements in determining the maritime strength of British people on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America. It lies midway between Europe and Asia, and is in easy touch with both. It is in close international relation with tlie other half of the American continent. Its population of five milions is double that of the United States when they became independent, and greater than that of the England of Elizabeth's time. Whether its voice, now that of a united people, not of detached colonies, is heard in imperial questions by courtesy as at present, or by representation on deflned principle as will probably come in time, should the unity of the Empire be main- tained, such a State must necessarily have increasing weight in national and international discussions. It is manifestly of the utmost importance to the Empire f '.. ;l'i * '1 HI :i \. 232 77/r Great Dominion CHAP. that public opinion in the Dominion, sitiiatod as it is, should bc! sober, reasonable, and conscious of its responsibilities ; that political evolution should })roceed on sound and healthy lines. So fiir, Canadian states- manship has justified the greater attention paid to it on large questions of imperial policy. Results such as those achieved at the Halifax and Behring Sea arbi- trations are the best proofs of this. Both were the out- come of a firm stand taken by Canada in regard U) what she thought her rights; both were conducted mainly on Canadian advice ; and in each case an impartial tribunal maintained the Canadian as against the American contention. In many ways Canada holds a curious middle position in political thought between Great Britain and the United States. At first sight it might appear that the impact of so immense a community as the United States would entirely dominate Canadian lines of growth in politics and social life, and determine their ten- dencies. But this is very far from being the case. Canada has retained a very distinct individuality of its own. This is true of the greater and English-speaking part, as well as of that French Canada which might be expected to retain its peculiarities of thought and institution. The circumstances under which the lead- ing provinces of Canada were founded, about the time of, or shortly after, the American Revolution, created a line of demarcation between the two countries which never has been, and probably never will be, entirely obliterated. The feelings with which the United II ': m CHAP. Labour and Political Tendencies 233 as it is, H of its '. proceed n states- aid to it such as Jea arbi- tho out- L^gard to )nducted case an against middle tain and oar that United 'growth 3ir ten- le case, y of its oeaking ight be it and e lead- le time jated a which sntireiy United Empire Loyalists came to Canada between 1770 and 1783 were not such as favoured the adoption of the political and social ideals of the States from which they had been driven out. American action in the war of 1812 deepened the line of separa- tion. While the United States cherish the recollec- tion of Lexington and Bunker's Hill, Yorktown and Saratoga, as memorials of a struggle against what they thought was oppression, Canada finds the record of her heroic period in spots like Queenstown Heights, Lundy's Lane, Chateauguay, and other places where stern and successful resistance was made to high-handed American aggression. The circumstances in the one case are as much calculated to inspire patriotic feelings as in the other. Temporary difficulties, such as those which occurred at the time of the Trent affair, in the Fenian invasion of 1866, in the various boundary' disputes, and the policy of commercial isolation which has prevailed of late years, have constantly tended to turn Canada in directions of its own, and given it the stamp of individuality. That stamp it will certainly retain. But, while living its own life, the Dominion grows more cordial with its great neighbour as the latter it ai lis to respect it. At the point which they have now reached, the business of Canada and the United States is to live on friendly terms with each other, and there is little to prevent ther from doing so, given common honesty of dealing and respect for each other's rights. The great ii ■■» i i^f y.'- 1 V 234 T/ie G^'cat Dominion CHAP. boundary questions have been settled, with the excep- tion of that in Alaska, and here the necessary surveys are now being carried harmoniously forward. Other points of dispute ha\ e been cleared away. Mr. Goldwin Smith always assumes that Canada's presence as a part of the British Empire on the American continent is a standing irritation to the United States. Possibly it is to a baser element in the United States, but that is not a thing to which a free people should pander. It is much more likely that Canada, in the middle ground that it occupies, will prove to be the solvent which will unite in sympathy and on honourable terms the two great nations with which she is allied in race and language. Certainly it is in dealing with Canadian questions that these nations have made the greatest advance in the matter of national arbitration. In framing her system Canada took many hints from the United States. In the practical work of government the United States might well take many lessons from Canada. In maintaining a high respect for the law and the judicial office, in the management of native races, in organizing a non-i)olitical Civil Service, in the unification of marriage laws, to mention a few special points, the greater success of the smaller and younger federation has been marked, and is generally admitted. Doubtless much has yet to be done for the complete purification of public life in Canada, but in this too no impartial observer can doubt that the smaller State has the better record. The profesoional politician has no such large and accepted place as in the United CHAP. the excep- vy surveys •d. Other r. Goldwin ' as a part inent is a 5sibly it is hat is not er. It is le ground snt which :erms the race and Canadian greatest :ion. In from the vernment ons from the law )f native ;e, in the w special younger idmitted. complete this too ier State cian has United Labour and Political Tendencies 235 States, and the severest critic of Canadian politics has admitted that the people as a whole are sound. The strongest Government that the Dominion ever knew was swept from power merely on a suspicion that public trusts were being loosely dealt with. A strong belief in the public mind that the late Sir John Thompson was a man bent on ruling the country honestly, constituted one of the chief elements in his political strength. The same is true of Mr. Laurier, the Liberal leader. On the other hand, by applying the federal principle of government on a great scale while keeping the system in harmony with British institutions, Canada must not be thought of as becoming Americanized, but as making a most important addition to the political experience of the Empire. There is no sufficient ground for doubting the success of the experiment. Friction there has been, but nothing that for a moment can be compared with what the United States had to deal with in the earlier years of the Union ; nothing that has not yielded to judicious treatment. Friction there will doubtless still be, but the principle of union has now passed through the critical stage, and no single province would be allowed to violate the federal compact. The success of federalism in the Dominion and the increased weight it has given to Canadi cannot but have far-reaching results upon other })arts of the Empire. It will forward the idea of unity in Australia and South Africa, and point the way to its successful ^w 1 1 If a i ^'^ 236 Z)^^ Great Dominion CHAP. adoption. It may suggest the lines of further political development for the Empire. It is not unlikely to have considerable effect even upon political ideas in the United States. The Dominion is now illustrating on the American continent the admitted fact that the popular 'vill under the British system works much more rapidly and effectively in a democracy which is not a republic than in one that is. But while this first British application of the federal idea has been a distinct success, there have been many lessons to learn. There is ground for the opinion that since confederation Canada has been over-governed The weak point of the system in this respect has mani- festly been in the provincial Legislatures. Confederation transferred to the Federal Parliament very extensive powers previously exercised by the pro- vinces, and particularly powers which influince vital constitutional change. In this the Canadian system goes far beyond the example of the United States. While the importance of the local Legislatures was thus lessened, the machinery of government was left much as before, in deference to provincial feeling, which at first resisted any loss of prestige, even when it was artificial. This machinery has proved too complicated and expen- sive, especially in the smaller provinces. Practical communities soon adapt themselves to new conditions, and all the English-speaking provinces except Nova Scotia, where some resistance is still offered, have abolished their Upper Chambers. When the power to make grave c(jnstitutional amendment has been removed ri. CHAP. Labour and Political Tendencies 237 er political inlikely to l1 ideas in llustrating t that the nuch more i is not a }he federal een many inion that ■governed, has mani- 'arliament J the pro- 3nce vital n system d States, was thus eft much ch at first artificial, id expen- s to new es except red, have power to removed from the sphere of legislation, and whert the work to be done is mainly administrative, the check furnished by an Upper House is no longer needed. This is the explanation of the change which has taken place in the direction of a single Chamber for provincial Legislatures. There would be the strongest objection to doing away with the Upper House in the Federal Parliament, though there the nominated Chamber has never been a strong force in politics — perhaps not so strong as the framers of the Constitution expected or intended. The tendency will be to strengthen rather than to abolish it. It is likely that still further means will be found to reduce the complexity of the governing machinery in the smaller provinces. The most practicable reform seems to be the legislative union of the maritime pro- vinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. A regular system of government by Ministries based on party lines tends to become absurd when applied to such small constituencies, and ends by personal considerations and mere wire-pulling taking the place of any thing that can be dignified by the name of policy. Until some substitute has been found for government by party the best remedy for the pettiness of provincial politics seems to lie in widening the constituency as far as possible. There seems to be no good reason why a single Governor, Legislature and Civil Service should not serve for the Maritime provinces. Their popula- tion, when united, would not be equal to that of Ontario. M • ^\ h. U M^ 238 T/ic Great Dominion CHAP. The interests which have grown up around the small capitals are now the chief obstacles to this useful change, which will probably come in time. On some general questions of political tendency the Dominion presents striking contrasts to Australia. The centralization of government which j^revails in most of the colonies of Australia, and which apparently tends to increase on lines of State interference, would not, in the present state of public opinion, meet with much sympathy in Canada. I doubt if in any country there is so complete a devolution of the powers and responsibilities of government upon the right shoulders, all the way up through the s hool district, the parish, the county or city municipality, and the province to the Federal Government, as in most of the English- speaking provinces of the D'^niinion. The rural municipality, conterminous with the county, has espe- cially been organized with marked success. In this Ontario led the way ; the example has been closely followed in New Brunswick and other provinces. It is almost universally found that the men selected represent the most solid and reliable portions of the ftxrming and trading community ; they need no guidance of an upper and specially educated class as in the English county council ; they form simple but dignified consultative bodies ; their county administration is usually marked by economy and care. The range of political training, from the district school committee to the Dominion Parliament, is thus rendered very complete. If Canadians are ever badly governed it is their own fault, certainly CHAP. the small his useful idency the Australia, revails in pparently ice, would neet with y countrv >wers and Moulders, c parish, )vince to English- lio rural las espe- In this 1 closely ?s. It is epresent ling and m upper county 5ultative marked I'ainino-, ominion nadiana ertainly X Labour and Political Tendencies 239 n(jt that of the completely free and representative system under which their local affairs are managed. Public opinion in Canada, again, has gone entirely against the State control of railways which has found favour in Australia. Railway enterprise has been lavishly subsidized, the greater part of the federal and provincial debts having been incurred in this way ; but the people have deliberately prefen'cd to hand over the assisted railways to private control. There is a deep sense of the danger to constitutional government in unnecessarily burdening the legislative powers with complicated administration, with the control of vast expenditure, and with the exercise of extensive patron- age. It is also believed that a community derives great advantages, through the increased self-reliance of the individual, from holding out the fullest induce ments and giving the widest possible scope to private energy. The Intercolonial system, embracing about 1,100 miles of railway, is the only line now under public control. It was built and is maintained as a part of the confederation compact, but its State management is very widely regarded as a necessary evil. Whether Australian or Canadian tendencies in the particulars I have mentioned represent the more healthy and useful forms of political development would form an interesting study, and about it, no doubt, opinions would greatly differ. They illustrate the wide range of political experience furnished by a large Empire. Statesmen who wish to strengthen the political tie betvreen Canada and the motherland need not think i ''/ p' n hI' . iM 240 7^/ic Great Dominion CHAP. fW of doing so by other than very practical methods. When Lord Canington returned from Australia, he suggested, if I am not mistaken, that such an end might there be attained by the extension to colonists of K.C.B., G.C.B., or some such titular distinctions, in addition to the ordinary K.C.M.G. of colonial knighthood. I doubt if he is right about Australia ; I am quite sure that new links of connexion must take more practical forms so far as Canada is concerned. Some regard the con- ferring of a peerage and a baronetcy or two upon well-known Canadians as a move in the right direction, arguing that the highest honours of the Empire should be open to all British subjects. But there is absolutely no sympathy with the establishment of an hereditary nobility or aristocracy on Canadian soil. I think I am right in saying that the objection to it is marked. Curiously enough, this is not connected with any theoreti- cal objection to a House of Lords at the centre of the Empire, where a Chamber, in part at least hereditary, is considered more congruous with the existing order of things. There is little popular dislike, however, to the conferring or acceptance of ordinary imperial honours, provided the subjects be worthy. On the whole the knighthoods given in Canada have, with a few exceptions, been conferred on those whom Canadians themselves would select for honour, and are practically ratifications of popular opinion. In many cases the honour has been declined. There is one kind of life peerage, practical and useful, and carrying with it profound meaning, which could, CHAP. s. When suggested, ght there )f K.C.B., Idition to I doubt sure that ical ibrnis i the coii- iwo upon direction, re should bsolutely ereditary ink I am marked, theoreti- e of the reditary, ig order bowever, imperial On the th a few madians actically ises the I useful, I could, Labour and Political Tendencies 241 when the time is ripe, be bestowed with telling effect in Canada. A great Canadian lawyer raised to the peerage for life, and sitting on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, would form a real and practical bond, honourable to the colony and useful to the Empire. It need not be doubted that Canada will be prepared to furnish men of adecpuite calibre when thev are needed. To say nothing of English Canada, more than one Chief Justice of Quebec, whose general legal ability and special knowledge of French law would be a dis- tinct addition to the judicial resources of the House of Lords, would have filled the position with dignitv and success. Such an appointment would profoundly affect French imagination. The name of Sir John Thompson was, before his lamented death, sometimes mentioned in connection with such an appointment, and it was one for which he was admirably qualified. It is quite possible that in other directions life peerages might be made representative of great Canadian in- terests, and so act as genuine bonds of union. Admis- sion to the Privy Council, especially if connected with actual consultative functions, would probably prove a popular and practical link oi closer connexion and a useful direction for political development. That the official representative from time to time in London of five millions of British people, who control the destinies of half a continent, should o' olficio be of the Privy Council of the Empire seems like the dictate of political common-sense. The establishment of such a precedent would be accepted in the Dominion as a decisive recog- K 242 The Gi'cat Doviinion CHAP. f \\ t W ^V il we w m I I '* i % ^i nition of the growing importance attached to Canadian opinion. One often hears regrets expressed in England that the growth of the Dominion has not been more rapid. It is true that Canada has grown slowly when compared with the sudden expansion of the Western States, or with Australia during the period of its greatest pros- perity. Unthinking people attribute this exclusively to the more rigorous climate and the hard conditions of life, but the reasons are really various. The circum- stances of Australian growth after the discovery of gold in 1851, and also when the colonies were spending large sums of borrowed money in assisted emigration, were essentially abnormal. During the period, again, when the American West filled up most rapidly, wheat was bringing an exceptionally high j)rice. It was the farmer's golden age. Now he has fallen on his age of iron. Never in the memory of man has wheat been so low as since the opening of the wheat areas of the North- West. In European countries, moreover, the class from which the best emigrants were chiefly drawn has now been much reduced in numbers through the depression of agriculture, the introduction of farming machinery, and the transfer of the people to an artisan life in towns. These and many other like considera- tions must be kept in mind. But it is a very superficial view to regard the slow growth of the Dominion as a disadvantage to the country. There are many compensations, and the gain has probably been greater than the loss. Law and CHAP. ) Caiiatliaii rland that iiore rapid. compared States, or Ltest pros- 'xclusively :iditions of le circuni- !ry of gold spending migration, od, again, lly, wheat b was the lis age of -t been so as of the over, the fly drawn ough the farming -n artisan onsidera- the slow ) to the the gain Law and 1 xbour and Political Tendencies 243 social order have always maintained their supromacy. The native Canadian and the British elements have never been swamped by an alien population untrained to citizenship. There has been no unnatural inflation, to be followed by a corresponding depression, no revolt of labour, no excessive concentration of population, with the evils which follow in its train. The best friends of Canada are perhaps those who are far-sighted enough to prefer that her growth should still not be too rapid for her powers of healthy assimila- tion. It is impossible to sympathize with the feverish haste shown in the Western States to reproduce within a single generation in a new country the social con- ditions of crowded Europe, to reckon national progress by numbers rather than by (piality and soundness of organization. It may fairly be claimed for Canada that in her somewhat slow development political training and social organization have kept pace with material growth. All these are fitting her to take a place of increasing influence in the Empire to which she belongs. That it is her highest interest and the prevailing wish of her people to maintain connexion with that Empire is one of the conclusions to which my study of the country has led me. That she cannot be separated from the Empire without results incalculably hazardous to the maintenance of the national position of British people is another. «r ^1 hI|' '' i 1' 1 ■ mi: \ '4? . INDEX ■ti . INDEX Aberdeen, Lord, estate in British Columbia, KM) Acadinns, 1.37, 147, 148 Agassiz, experimental farm at, 228 Agriculture, 19-25, et seq. Agricultural College, 224-7 Alaska, 234 Alberta, 30, 31, 34 Alkali land, 12 Annexation, objection to, 185 ; sometimes discussed, 180 ; any feeling in favour of, now gone, 202, 203 Apples, export of, from Ontario, 95 ; from Nova Scotia, 113 ; to Britain and United States, 189 ; bad packing of, 95, 192 Athabasca River, 5, 176, 182 Australia, British Columbian timber used in, 166 ; trade with, 197, 207 ; Canadian ten- dencies contrasted with those of, 238, 239 ; growth of, 242 Banff, 7 Barley, markets for, 194, 195 Barren grounds, 177 Beaver, 178, 179 Bedford Basin, 102 Behring Sea, 81 ; arbitration, 232 Bermuda, cable connection witli Halifax, 102 Boundary, southern of Canada, 3 ; Alaska, 234 Bourinot, Dr., 107 Brandon, 14 ; railway rates at, 56 ; experimental farm at, 227 Brassey, Lord, colonisation estate, 15 ; decides to encourage small farms, 17 ; experience in pro- moting colonisation, 35 British Columbia, 6, 157-172 ; not agricultural, 161, 162; mineral wealth, 163-5 ; fisheries of, 162, 5 ; timber of, 166-167 ; coal of, 78-84 ; fruit and hops, 168 Brown, (ieorge, 106 Buffalo, 179 Butter, 97, 192 Caloarv, 26, 30, 33, 40 - Canadian Pacific Railway, 46-72 ; mileage of, 46 ; advantage over other trans-continental lines, 47 ; steamship connections of, 48, 66-7 ; bridges of, 49 ; en- courages many enterprises, 49, 50 ; early difficulties of, 53 ; monopoly of transportation in North-West, 55-61 ; position of in Eastern Canada, 61-4 ; proposal to hand over Inter- colonial Railway to, 64-68 ; use of as naval and military route, 69-71 Canal system, 120 ; expenditure upon, 121 ; freight carried by, 121 ; Sault Ste. Marie, 121, 122 Cape Breton, 74-6 Carman, Bliss, 108 Caron, Sir Adolphe, 142 i- ;. 'm m m 248 Index (^artier, Sir Oeorgr, 1 34 Cattle trade, 30, 31, 188 Chateauguay, 233 Cheese, largest exports from Ontario and (Quebec, 97, 191 ; sent to Unite;)^ «, 227-2;^ necessity foi', witli sunurier scale, 10, 17 ; 1 7 ,* best acre- ; from forest ; partly im (1 to, 1 9;") I Canada, 109- 'olunibia, 105 53 !, E., 107 Article in 28; in Mani- fest, 139; ill 2aleins not ))rominent, 212-215 Labra MctJill College, 219 Mackenzie, Alexander, 100 Mackenzie River, 5, 170, 182 Manitol)a, com])arative latitude of, 3, 9, 24 Manufactuies, in Ontario, 97, 98 ; of iron, 110; of cotton and woollen, 205, 200 Maritime Provinces, 101 ; indus- trial })osition of, 103, 104 ; in- fluence in Dominion affairs of. 10() ; agricultural prospects, 111, 112 ; climate of, 114; im- proved farms in tlie, 1 18, 119 ; legislative union of, 237 McCarthv, Mr. d'Alton, 204 McCill College, 218. 219 M iKinlev tariff, 195-197 Mercicr,'Mr. 135, 148 Militiuy College, 223 Mixed farming, aigumcnts for, 21 ; objection of \ortii- Western farmer to, 23 Molson, Mr. J. H., gifts to McCill College, 218 Montreal, 151-153; public sjHiit of its wcaltliy men, 219 Mormon enteiprise in Soutliern Alberta, 42 Muskoka. 99 Musk Ox. 177 XANvrMo, 79, 80, Si Na])[)an, experimental farm at. 227 Navigation, iidand, 4, 5 •. limita- tion to, Nelson River, 5 New Hiunswitk. marsh and inter vale lands of, I 12, 113: roal in, 78 ; business (•(mditions of, 105, 10() ; forest land of, I 15, 1 Hi Newcomb, Prf)fessor Simon, 108 New Olasgow, 1 10 Niagara Peninsula, 93 90 Nickel, 193 >i t 250 hidcx r Nortli-West, relation to rest of Canada, 5 ; general conni(lera- tion of, 9-4"> Nova Scotia, coal in, 74-78 ; as jmrt of Maritime Provinces, 101-119; fruit growing in, 113; iron ores of, 110; best forest lands taken up, 115 O'Brien, Archbishop, 108 Ontario, 90-101 ; forest land of, 116; agricultural college of, 224-226 Ottawa, 100, 101 Pacifk^ Coast, 6 ; length of coast line, 7 Pacilio Ocean, Canadian steam- ship lines on, 1 72 Peace River, T), 29 Perley, Senator, opinion tin North- Westein farming, 19 Petersen, P. A., C.E., 49 (note) Petroleum, in Ontario, 91 ; in Northern Canada, 176 Pork, wheat fed, 21, 22 ; surplus sent to United Kingdom, 188 Poultry, trade with the United Kingdom, 190 Prairies, impi'ession of vastness from, 11 ; variety of land on, 12 ; cultivation of, 15 ; undu- lating and partly wooded, 26 Premium system, 38, WKi Prince All)ert, 28 Prince Edward Island. 113 Privy Ccmncil, 24, 241 Protection, 199-204 Qu'Appkllk, 34 Ouebec, 127-156; j)opulation and representatiim of, in parliament, 128 ; small emigration to, from France, 129 ; exodus from, 129; repatriation and settle- ment, 149 Quebec, city of, 153-155 Queenstowii Heights, 233 Ranciiin«!, 30. 31, 44 Rand, Dr. T. H., 107 Red path, Mr. Peter, gifts to McGill College, 219 Red River, 4 Regina, 28, 33 Roberts, Charles, 108 Robertson, Mr. J. VV., Dairy Commissioner for Dominion, 229 Rosebery, Lord, 231 Rupert, Prince, first Governor of Hudson's Bay Company, 180 San Fkanoisco obtains coal from British sources, 80, 81, 196 Saunders, Prof., 228 Saskatchewan, River, fanning lands along the, 28, 41, 42 Sault Ste. Marie, 61, 121 Scenery, magnificence of Canadian, ^" / Schultz, (Governor, opinion on mixed farming, 24 Schunnan, Dr., 107 Security of life and property in North- West, 33 Sherbrooke, 149 Silvei' in British Columbia, 164, 165, 193 Smith, Mr. t;oldwin, 126, 185, 234 Smith, Sir Donald, (Jovernor ot Hudson's Bav Companv, 181 ; gifts to M«;(iin College,'219 St. Albert, 29 St. John, 102; harbour of, and its defence, 103 ; decay of shipping, 104 ; great Hre at, 104 Stephenson, Robert, 49 (note) Straw, Imrning of, 14, 22 Sudbury, nickel mines at, 193 Sydney, coal mines at, 76 Taoiik, Archbishop. 135 Tachc, Sir Etienne. 134 Tariff, 199 202 ; etlect of McKin- lev, 197 I f v Index 25' :er, gifts to 19 '8 W., Dairy Dominion, Governor of pany, ISO ns coal from 81, 190 !i", fanning , 41, 42 121 )f Canadian, ojiinion on 3roperty in mbia, 164, 12f5, 185, overnor of any, 181 ; ?e, 219 of, and its 'shipping, ►4 (note) »2 t, 193 (i f McKin- Thompson, Mr. 8. R, 107 Thompson, Sir John, 107, 235, 241 Tilley, Sir Leonard, 106 Timber of British Columl)ia, 166, 167 ; of Northern Canada, 175 ; trade, 189 Toronto, 98 ; British sentiment of, 99 ; journalistic and literary centre of Dominion, 98 ; uni- versity of, 220 Trade, relations and policy, 183 - 208; cattle, 188; apple, 189; timl)er, 189; poultry, 190; witli (Jr- iiiitain and United States, 197 ; greater freedom of, •J(»2 Trappists at Oka, 151 Tupper, Sir Cha.U<. 106 Tupper, Sir Hilii.eri, 107 CsrTKD Empiic Loyalists, 99, 100 United St t-.s, rade relations with, 18«i ; afety valve for labour trouble , 214, 215 ; mi- gration to, 129, 130, 215, 216 Universitiei^ : McOill, 218, 219 Toronto, 220 ; Qiuens, 221 gifts t(N 221 ; Lival, 221 single university needed in Maritime F'rovinces. 222 Vantouver, comparative latitude of, 3 ; lai'ge tind)er of, 167 ; growth and position of, 171, 172 Vancouver Island, coal of, 79 Van Home, Sir \Vm., 47, 51, 'm, 198 Victoria, 169, 170 Victoria Biidge, 49 (note) Viliiers, Sir Henry de, 143 Voxjatjfurx, 180 Wellin'otox mines, 79 West India, telegraphic cjunec- tiou with, 102 ; trade with, 197 Whalebacks, 49 Wheat, output of, 14 ; increase in production of, 17, 18 ; possi- bility of increase, 18 ; prepara- tion of land for, 15 ; frosted and frozen, 21 ; cost of cariy- ing, 43, 57 ; rivalry l)et\\een Canadian and British faiiiier in l)ro I --i vwm r ■ i ■ i {^ ■; I- I By the Same Author. 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SCOTSMAN. — "The story [For God and Gold] is told with excellent force and freshness. _ The various threads cr lines of interest, that of character, that of adventure, th.nt of religious effort and belief, are all so deftly interwoven that it is hard to say to which the story owes its greatest charm." 24. CRAIK.— Miss Tommy: a Mediaeval Romance. By Mrs. Craik. By Julian Corbett, author of 31- 38. 5- 6. 7. 8. 46. 59- 64. 65. 76. 89. 99- III. 122. 129. 139- 144. 147. 158. 161. 181. 203. a Tale of Modem Lidia. By I vol. CRAIK.— Miss Tommy: a Mediaeval Romance. With Illustrations by Fkeueric Noel Paton. 1 vol. King Arthur : Not a Love Story, i vol. About Money, and other Things, i vol. CRAWFORD. - Mr. Isaacs: Marion Crawford, i vol. Dr. Claudius : a True Story. A Roman Singer, i vol. A Tale of a Lonely Parish, i vol. Saracinesca. i vol. Zoroaster, i vol. Marzio's Crucifix, i vol. - Paul Patoff. I vol. With the Immortals, i vol. - — Greifenstein. i vol. — — Sant' Ilario. i vol. — - A Cigarette-Maker's Romance, i vol. Khaled. i vol. The Witch of Piague. i vol. The Three Fates, i vol. Children of the King, i vol. — - Don Orsino. i vol. Pietro Ghisleri. i vol. Marion Darche. i vol, Katharine Lauderdale, i vol. The Ralstons. i vol. F. knows with great parts of his books." Iventurc, in which SPECTATOR .—" '^'lih the solitary exception of Mrs. OHphant, we have no living novelist more distinguished for variety of theme and range of imaginative outlook than Mr. Marion Crawford." 1 80. CROCKETT.-The Raiders. By S. R. Crockett, i vol. DAILY C/IJ'ON/CLE.—" Mr. Crockett writes exceedingly well— crisply, vividly, and above all readably. His Scotch is delightful and frei|uent, though somewhat capriciously distributed parenthetic translations smooth the thistly path for the Southron. He has a keen sense of humorous character." 56. CUNNINGHAM. -The Cceruleans : a Vacation Idyll. By Sir II. S. Cunningham. 1 vol. 106. The Heriots. i vol. 112. Wheat and Tares, i vol. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V / O ;♦ ^/ ,/ &?- t^^ y 1.0 I.I 1.25 IM 112.5 IIIIU iilM [ 2.2 2.0 1.8 U i 1.6 P^. and playful humour, Peter Ibbetson is unique, and is likely to remain so." 141. DUSAND.— Helen Treveryan. By Sir Mortimer Durand, K.C.I.E. I vol. SCOT-iMAN.—" The story is bright and interesting. It has an air of freshness and reality. . . . Indian life and scenery and Anglo-Indian types are described with lifelike sincerity, and with a convincing air of first-hand knowledge. . . . The whole is interest- ing and thoroughly readable." EMERSON.— The Conduct of Life. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. English Traits, i vol. [i vol. FALCONER.— Cecilia de Noel. By Lanoe Falconer, author of " Mademoiselle Ixe." i vol. QUEEN. — "There is sufficient thought wrapt up in this one little volume to set forth and furnish a dozen average volumes, and yet a less tiresome book was never written. It has to be read at a sitting, for there is no place where one can leave off, and almost every page bristles with good things — sayings that are too good to be cast away into the limbo of last year's novels." 10. FARRAR.— Seekers after God : the Lives of Seneca, Epictetns, and Marcus Aurelius. By the Venerable F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., Archdeacon of Westminster. Illustrated. 1 vol. 11. FORBES.— Souvenirs of Some Continents. By Archibald Forbes, LL.D. I vol. 130. Ban'acks, Bivouacs, and Battles. . i vol. TIMES, — " Mr. Forbes writes vividly, his experience of war is extensive and varied, and he possesses a rare capacity for making military matters attractive, intelligible, and instructive to non-military readers." 160. FORBES - MITGHELL.—Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny, 1857-8-9. Including the Relief, Siege, and Capture of Lucknow, and the Campaigns in Rohilcund and Oude. By William Forbes -Mitchell, late Sergeant, 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, i vol. SPECTA TOR.—" One of the very best soldiers' books ever written." TIMES. — "A striking and original contribution to the most thrilling chapter of our modern history. . . . His narrative is vivid and full of strange and romantic incidents." DAILY CHRONICLE.— "Th\s is one of the most readable books of the season." 75- FOTHERGILL.— The Lasses of Leverhouse : A Story. By Jessib I* OTHP'RC* 1 1 I T vol 183. FRANCiS.-The 'Story of Dan. By M. E. Francis, i vol. 78. Fraternity : a Romance, i vol. 33- GRAHAM.— Neaera: a Tale of Ancient Rome. By J. W.Graham, ivol. 12. HAMERTON.— Human Intercourse. By P. G. IIamerton. ivol. 92. French and English : a Comparison, i vol. 9- lOI. 131- lance, the style of Jl — that the vohimes lerly description of ]it play of w't and JSSEN. Author- :ens, author of Sir C. DiLKK a defensive policy Irting from a view of Inor peace to be an Id paramount ends Ihe exposition given Ihe defensive policy a good deal of the lifelike." Iaurier. I vol. unfettered fancy, of likely to remain so." JKAND, K.C.I. E. air of freshness and iscribed with lifelike 'he whole is interest- ALDo Emerson. [i vol. :ONER, author of e volume to set forth as never written. It jff, and almost every away into the limbo ., Epictetus, and R.S., Archdeacon of HiBALD Forbes, xtensive and varied, ive, intelligible, and Grreat Mutiny, and the Campaigns late Sergeant, 93rd ten." liing chapter of our jmantic incidents." 3ks of the season." )ry. By Jessib I vol. .Graham, ivol. ERTON. I vol. 96. HAMEETON.-The Intellectual Life, i vol. WESTMINSTER REVIEW.—'' His pages sparkle with many turns of expressions, not a few well-told anecdotes, and many observations - nich are the fruit of^ attentive study and wise reflection, on the complicated phenomet:-; of human life, as well as of un- conscious nature." HAEDY.— The Mayor of Casterbridge. By i'homas Hardy, i vol. The Woodlanders. i vol. Wessex Tales : Strange, Lively, and Oommonplace. i vol. Tess of the D'Urbervilles. i vol. Desperate Eemedies. i vol. A Pair of Blue Eyes, i vol. Far from the Madding Crowd, i vol. — The Eetum of the Native, i vol. The Trumpet Major, i vol. A Group of Noble Dames, i vol. " — Life's Little L'onies. i vol. The Hand of Ethelberi,a. i vol. A Laodicean, i vol. Two on a Tower, i vol. T'/J/^'J)".— "There is hardly a novelist, dead or living, who so skilfully harmonises the poetry of moral life with its penury. Just as Millet could in the figure of a solitary peasant toiling on a plain convey a world of pathetic meaning, so Mr. Hardy with his yeomen and villagers. Their occupations in his hands wear a pathetic dignity, which not even the encomiums of a Ruskin could heighten." 61, 62. Harmonia. By the Author of " Estelle Russell." 2 vols. 28. HAEEISON.— A Northern Lily: Five Years of an Uneventful Life. By Joanna Harrison. 1 vol. 23. HAEEISON.— The Choice of Books, and other Literary Pieces. By Frederic Harrison, i vol. HAETE.— A Millionaire of Eough-and-Eeady : Devil's Ford. By Bret Harte. i vol. The Crusade of "The Excelsior." i vol. The Argonauts of North Liberty, i vol. Cressy. i vol. 100. The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh, and other Stories, i vol. 136. A First Family of Tasajara. i vol, SPEAKER.— '[lyi&hfi^twQxV of Mr. Bret Harte stands entirely alone . . . marked on every page by distinction and quality. . . . Strength and delicacy, spirit and tender- ness, go together in his best work. ' 202. HOLEO YD.— Seething Days. By Caroline C. Holroyd. i vol. STANDARD. — "Great pains have evidently been bestowed on the language, and the attempt to reproduce something of the dignity of Elizabethan English has been very successful. " 1S4. HOPE;— The Prisoner of Zenda. By Anthony Hope, i vol. 41- HUGHES.— Tom Brown's Schooldays. By an Old Boy. i vol. DAILY NEWS. — "The most famous boys'^book in the language." 57, 58. Ismay's Children. By the Author of " Ilogan, M.P." 2 vols. 14- JAMES.— Tales of Three Cities. By Henry James, i vol. 109. The Tragic Muse, i vol. 148. The Lesson of the Master, i vol. 149' The Eoal Thing, etc. i vol. SA TURD AY REVIEW.—"' He has the power of seeing with the artistic percep- tion of the few, and of writing about what he has seen, so that the many can understand and feel with him." WORLD. — " His touch is so light, and his humour, while shrewd and keen, so free from bitterness." 123. JENNINGS.-The Philadelphian. By L. J. Jennings, i vol. 13- KEAEY.— Oldbury. By Annie Keary. i vol. SPECTA TOR. — " In our opinion there have not been many novels published better worth reading. The literary workmanship is excellent." 125. KEENE.— Sketches in Indian Ink. By H. G. Keene. i vol. 55- 72. 79. ■>'<:■: I By Charles Kingsley. With a With a [J'Ji. 165. KINGSLEY.-Westwaid Ho ! Portrait. 1 vol. 166. Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet, '^^n Autobiography. New Preface. 1 vol. 167. Hypatia : or, New Toes with an Old Pace, i vol. 168. Hereward the Wake, "Last of the English.'' i vol. 169. Two Years Ago. i vol. 170. Yeast: a Problem, i vol. NOTTINGHAM DAILY GUARDIAN.— " Better or more wholesome fiction it would be difficult to find." 68. LAFAEGUE.— The New Judgment of Paris: a Novel. By Phitip Lafargue. I vol. 30. LAWLESS.— Hurrish; a Study, By the Hon. Emii.y Lawless, author of a '' Millionaire's Cousin," etc. 1 vol. 87. LEVY. — Reuben Sachs. By Amy Levy, author of " The Romance of a Shop," etc. i vol. 153- LYSAGHT.— The Marplot. By S. R. Lysaght. i vol. 108. LYTTON.— The Ring of Amasis. By Lord Lytton. i vol. CAMBRIDGE CHRONICLE.— "This clever and unique romance . . . astoiyin which incidents of mystery and wonder are employed for the il'i stration of a psychologi- cal problem. As a story of loveless marriage, and stern, biiter revenge, TAe Tling of Amasis is clever and original, the plot sufficieniiy involved and intricate, the writing vigorous yet refined." 34. MADOC. — Margaret Jermine. By Fayr Madoc, author of "The Stt -y ofMelicent." i vol. [Malet. i vc. 25. MALET.— Mrs. Lorimer : a Sketch in Black and White. By Lucas STANDARD. — " This is an exceedingly pretty stoiy. ... A book to make one happy and to do one good." 66. MARTINEAU.— Biographical Sketches. By Harriet Martineau. 1 vol. 80. MINTO.— The Mediation of Ralph Hardelot. By Wm. Minto, author of "The Crack of Doom." i vol. 15. MITFORD.— Tales of Old Japan. By A. B. Mitford. Illustrated by Japanese Artists. 1 vol. NOTES AND QUERIES.— "By far the most striking, instructive, and authentic book upon Japan and the Japanese which has ever been laid before the English reader." 44. MORLEY.— Critical Miscellanies. By John Morley. i vol. 120. Studies in Literature, i vol. 21. MURRAY.— Aunt Rachel, By D. Christie Murray, i vol. 81. The Weaker Vessel, i vol. 91. Schwartz, i vol. 104. John Vale's Guardian, i vol. SPECTATOR. — "Mr. Christie Murray has more power and genius for the delinea- tion of English rustic life than any half-dozen of our surviving novelists put together." SATURDAY REFIEIV.—" Few modern novelists can tell a story of English country life better than Mr. D. Christie Murray." 121. MURRAY and HERMAN. — He Pell among Thieves. By D. Christie Murray and Henry Herman, i vol. 53. 54- New Antigone : a Romance. 2 vols. 60. NOEL.— Hithersea Mere. By Lady Augusta Noel, i vol. 29. NORRIS.— My Priend Jim. By W. E. Norris. i vol. 70. Chris. I vol. TIMES. — "Abounding in quiet strokes of humour and touches of human nature." SPECTA TOR.—" Mr. Norris is an exceedingly clever writer." 16. OLIPHANT.— A Country Gentleman. By Mrs. Oliphant. i vol. 17, 18, 19. The Literary History of England in the end of tho Eighteenth and beginning of the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. 27. EfiBe Ogilvie. i vol. 37- A House Divided against Itself, i vol. 43- A Beleaguered City, i voL 63. The Second Son. i vol. ty. With a jhy. With a II. lesome fict ion It By Phit IP IWLESS, author Romance of )1. I vol. ... a stoiy in 1 of a psychologi- )ge, The Hing of icate, the writing of "The Stc-y [Malet. I voi. te. By Lucas ook to make one T Marti NEAU. , MiNTO, author RD. Illustrated tive, and authentic e English reader." I vol. .Y. I vol. [lius for the delinea- :s put together." \ story of English ieves. By D. I vol. d1. human nature." HANT. I vol. the end of the vols. 71. OLIPHANT.— Joyce, i vol. 90. Neighbours on the Green, i vol. 115. Kirsteen. i vol. 133. The Kailway Man and His Children, i vol. 138. The Carriage of Elinor, i vol. 146. The Heir Presumptive and the Heir Apparent, i vol. 162. Lady William, i vol. ACADEMY. — "At her best she is, with one or two exceptions, the best of living English novelists." 143- PAEKIN.— Imperial Federation. By G. R. Parkin, i vol. TIMES. — "A very valuable repertory of topics applicable to the argument, and a powerful plea at once persuasive and suggestive for the further development of British unity. The volume is at once a significant proof of the strength of the movement, and a valuable contribution to its argumentative support." 140. PAERY.— The Story of Dick. By Major Gambier Parry, i vol. GUARDIAN. — " Is quite one of the happiest stories of children that has appeared for some time. . . . There is nothing forced or stilted about the little born soldier ; it is all genuine, natural, spontaneous. . . . The little soldier Dick stands out clearly for the hero he is. The episode of the soldier found drowned, to whom the children accord the denied right of Christian burial, has very real pathos." 201. PRICE.— In the Lion's Mouth. By Eleanor C. Price, i vol, SCOTSMAN. — "A stirring story of the period, told with a good deal of realism and vigour." 67. Realmah. By the Author of " Friends in Council." i vol. 152. RHOADES.— John Trevennick. By W. C. Rhoades. i vol. 154- RITCHIE.— Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Browning. By Mrs. Ritchie, i vol. 200. Chapters from some Memoirs. 1 vol. MANCHESTER GUARD 'AN.—" It is impossible even to catalogue a tithe of the pleasant things here." 98. RUSSELL.— Marooned. By W. Clark Russell, i vol. 1 37* A Strange Elopement, i vol. TIMES. — "Mr. Clark Russell is one of those writers who have set themselves to revive the British sea story in all its glorious excitement. Mr. Russell has made a con- siderable reputation in this line. His plots are well conceived, and that of Marooned is no exception to this rule." 118. SEELEY.— The Expansion of England. By J. R. Seeley. i vol. 36. SHORTHOUSE.— Sir Percival : A Story of the Past and of the Preaent. By J. H. Shorthouse. i vol. 69. A Teacher of the Violin, and other Tales, i vol. 82. The Countess Eve. 1 vol. 132- Blanche, Lady Palaise. i vol. ANTI-JACOBIN. — " Powerful, striking, and fascinating romances." 20. ST. JOHNSTON. — Camping among Cannibals. By Alfred St. Johnston, i vol. 110. A South Sea Lover, i vol. WORLD.— " In these days of so-called ' realism' in literature, a realism which only tries to reproduce everything that had best be ignored of the ugliness of daily life, and general existence, it is like a breath of the fresh salt air of the sea to come across such a book as Mr. Alfred St. Johnston's A South Sea Lover. The many readers who re- member with pleasure his Camping aiuong Cannthah, a record of travels among the islands of Samoa, Fiji, and the Friendly Group, will be delighted to find that the author has placed his romance amongst the scenes he knows and loves so well." 159. STEEL.— Miss Stuart's Legacy. By Mrs. Steel._ i vol. 176. The Flower of Porgiveness, and other Stories, i vol. ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE.—" In her descriptions of life, English and native, in the Punjab, we have for once a picture of the real India. Only one who knows the people well could give so life-like a glimpse of a nautch or a native wedding." US- THEODOLI— Under Pressure. By Marchesa THEonoLi, i vol. GLASGOiy HERALD. — " It is a singularly fresh and well-written novel. Avery distinct air of reality pervades the entire book." 8 182. This Troublesome World. By the Authors of "The Medicine Lady." i vol. 126. Tim. (By a New Author.) I vol. 179. TREVELYAN.— Cawnpore. By Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Bart, i vol. 47- VELEY.— A Garden of Memories: Mrs. Austin: Lizzie's Bargain, By Margaret Veley. i vol. A THEN/^UM, — " Her style is excellent, and all her stories are interesting." 134- VICTOE.— Mariam, or Twenty-one Days. By H. Victor, i vol. SPECTA TOR. — " The whole is a singularly vivid picture of Oriental life, and the characters of the story have a rare vivacity and colour about them." 102. WALLACE.— Darwinism. By Alfred Russel Wallace, i vol. 117- The Malay Archipelago, i vol. SA TURDA Y REVIEW.—'' The least scientific mind could not fail to be fascinated." IT- WARD.— Kobert Elsmere. By Mrs. Humphry Ward, i vol. 84- Miss Bretherton. i vol. 135- The History of David Grieve, i vol. 174- Marcella. i vol. SATl/RDAy REV/ElF.—"ReadeT!iyf[n find thoughts which stimulate and pas- sages which burn . , . they will find a fearless grappling wit'u the things that are, treated as on'y a woman, high-minded and sincere, can treat these things." ISO. WEST.-A Bom Player. By Mary West, i vol. 52. WESTBURY.— Frederick Hazzleden. By Hugh Westbury. i vol. 95- WESTCOTT.— The Gospel of the Resurrection: Thoughts on its Relation to Reason and History. By Dr. Westcott, Bishop of Durham, i vol. 171' WILLIAMS.— Leaves of a Life. Being the Reminiscences of Montagu Williams, Q.C. With a Portrait, i vol. 172. Later Leaves. Being Further Reminiscences, i vol. 173. Round London. Down East and Up West. I vol. DAIL V NEIVS. — " Mr. Williams writes with freedom both of the living and of the dead. . . . The style is terse, simple, and eminently suitable to the subject." 199. WOODS.— The "^igabonds. By Margaret L. Woods, i vol. BRITISH WEEKL Y. — " There are books one reads from a library, there are books one purchases. Both men and women ought to buy The Vagabonds. The plot is simple but most effective, and the style is admirable." 103. WORTHEY.— The New Continent. By Mrs. Worthey. 22. YONGE.— Chantry House. By Charlotte m. Yonge. 35- A Modem Telemachus. i vol. 42. The Dove in the Eagle's Nest, 1 vol. 83. Beechcroft at Rockstone. i vol. 97- A Reputed Changeling, i vol. 113. More bywords, i vol. 119. Two Penniless Princesses, i vol. 128. That Stick, i vol. , 1 55- Grisly Grisell. i vol. 204. A Long Vacation, i vol. GUARD/AJvr—" K^a.d^r& will find in these stories all the gracefulness, right feehng, and delicate perception which they have been long accustomed to look for in Miss Yonge 's writings." 156. YONGE and COLERIDGE.-Strolling Players, By C. M. Yongb ' and £. R. Coleridge, i vol. (OTHER VOLUMES TO FOLLOW.) To be obtained of all Booksellers in India and the British Colonies, and at Railway Bookstalls. MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON. *>, * Complete catalogues of our publications will be sent post free on 1 vol. I vol. application. 20.f.95. djcine Lady.'' I vol. .YAN, Bart. I vol. : Lizzie's Bargain. ire interesting." Victor, i vol. ■ Oriental life, and the II /"ALLACE. I vol. lot fail to be fascinated." /^ARD. I vol. hich stimulate and pas- : things that are, treated 1. Westbury. I vol. : Thoughts on its ihop of Durham, i vol. Reminiscences of . I vol. I vol. I of the living and of the the subject." Woods, i vol. a library, there are books onds. The plot is simple )RTHEY. I vol. yONGE. I vol. gracefulness, right feeling, omed to look for in Miss I J. By C. M. YONGB W.) 'iiish Colonies, and ONDON. he sent post free on 20. 1.95'