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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in ona 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, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis d des taux de r6duction diffirents. Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 A partir de I'angle sup^rieur geuche, de gauche d droite, et de ha.'jt jn bas, en prenant Ie notibre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ; i^MiiID)Ii^f11 IM/^TiOIM/^LiTT A GLANCE AT • THE PRESENT AND FUTURE. ^ gEING HN HDDRESS DEUYERED BY THE HON. .^JflMES YOUNG, OF GHLT, BEFORE THE MEM- BERS OF THE NHTIONHL CLUB OF TORONTO, ON THE EVEN- ING OF THE 21ST HPRIL, '91. Hs Publisl^ed -withj otl:\er Hddi'esses ii) booK foni\ by ti^e Natior\al Club. Ptln^l by B. 6. MoLmb, TnoBto. H I 1 i^ i f uv < ■.v-'.v v r.-t-s i . '-/" , '•'_'', \ Ij 4 ^'■- '""■.'■. ' ■■* -^'J , . - 'i f f t'5 'J' -'■''. ■ /■ . ', ' , ii -. --.------.- - v. s ■ 1" ■" ■ f M \ . ^ 1 hf- -,■ *« t V ■■ ,1 . Canadian l^ationafib. ■ A GLANCE AT THE PRESENT AND FUTURE. Mead before the National Club, Toronto, by Hon. James Young, late Treasurer of the Province of Ontario. ATRIOTISM is one of the noblest oi human impulses. It was described by the l>rilliant Bolingbroke as something founded on great prmciples which must be supported b)- great virtues. I don't know that my fellow Canadians are deficient m this noble quality. I would be sorry to think that that love of country which produced "The Patriot Tell the Bruce of Bannockburn," did not burn in their breasts, and that some great national emergency would not kindle it into flame. But in this advanced and somewhat vainglorious age, when we hear so much of other countries-not simply those grand old Empires of the past whose "ruined palaces and piles stupen- dous" are silently crumbling away; not simply the great nations of Europe with their immense commerce, gigantic armies and prodigious wealth ; but of those younger and rawer countries which have their history to make, I deem ii not unfitting to lake as the theme of a few remarks, our own land, or 'Canadian Na- tionality: a glance at the present and future." This is a familiar theme, and I may say at the outset that I hardly hope to be able to advance any- thing very new or startling. Nor do I propose to dis- cuss the Commercial condition of the country. The CANADIAN NATrONAMTY. 2» Dominion is udmittedly passing through a period of depression, both Financial and Cotnmercial, at the present time, hut as this has become more or less an active party (juestion, thrs is neither the time nor place to discuss it. Since Confederation we have had our party battles and political grievances. We have had Conservative and Reform governments. We have had years of Com-' mercial expansion and prosperity, and j'ears of con- traction and depression. But however real our political grievances and however depressed business may occa- sionally have been, it is impossible to glance over our territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific without real- izing thnt Canada has nevertheless steadily developed and strengthened since Confederation took place — not so fast, possibly, as many of us expected, but yet sufficiently fast to warrant us in looking with hopeful- ness and confidence to the future. In looking at the Dominion from this point of view, I account myself fortunate, as well as honored, in being invited to address your National Club. I am informed that your membership comprises gentlemen of very varying shades of political opinions, but all more or less attached to the grand idea of Canadian Nationality, and that, to use a common phrase, Canada is on this continent to stay. I am also glad to be informed, and I may need your indulgence in this- respect before I close, that it may be said of your Club as I'ennyson said of England — "A land where girt by friends or foes, A man may say the thing he v/ill." o .• 4 I CANADIAN NATIONALITY. Stretch a line ucross North Anurica from ocean to ocean, dipping as low as the 42nd parallel on ^ the Atlantic side, and rising to the 49th on the I'acilic slope, and you will have nearly divided the continent ill halves. Above that line you have over 3,519,000 square miles of territory. This immense area is 500,000 square miles larger than the whole United States with- out Alaska, and only 84,000 less with that ice-hound region added. It is forty times as large as Great Britain--indeed, to use the words of a boastful Cana- dian, we might dump the Mother Country into Lake Superior without seriously impeding navigation. It is a territory only 237,000 square miles less than the whole Continent of Europe which nature has bequeathed us to redeem from the wilderness state, and carve and fashion as our mental and physical energies dictate. In point of size, then, the Dominion is large enough to become the seat of several large nations, exceeded m territory only by Russia and the United States, and consequently the third largest country in the world. Among other writers, Mr. Wiman of New York, a few months ago pronounced, through the North Ameri- can Review, a glowing eulogy upon our natural re- sources. He spoke of our Climate, our inland Seas, our Forests, our Wheat fields, our Fisheries, and our Mmeral wealth, in terms calculated to make every Canadian proud of his country. But it is well to be- ware of too many superlatives, and it must be admitted that, from a territorial point of view, the Dominion has some serious drawbacks, as well as great advantages. CANADIAN NATIONALITY. 1. Its configuration is not desirable, being some- thing like the proverbial Irishman's blanket, too long at the top and too short Jit the bottom. 2. M \ny parts of it are mountains, rocky and sterile. 3. Much of it IF Mtuated too near the North Pole to yield sufficient crups to induce seUlement. On these various grounds we ought probably to deduct one-half from the total Tea of the Dominion. But after making this liberal reduction", we have ^till left 1,750,000 square miles of territory. This is larger than t:hirty-s:i c of the principal States of the neighbor- ing R.epublic, and larger than Britain, Germany,* France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Norway and Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Turkey in Europe, combined. It is not too much to describe this as a grand Na- tional heritage^ blessed with a healthful and invigorat- ing climate, and possessed of as rich, varied and in- exhaustible natural resources, with possibly one excep- tion, as any other country on the face of the globe. That this is not too rose-colored a v'ew, 1 might quote many distinguished foreign witnesses. Let us just take one — the testimony of an eminent man, one who pro- bably did more as the founder of the Republican party to strike the shackles from. American slaves than any of hi=. countrymen. I refer to William H. Seward. When Secretary in President Lincoln's administpation, Mr. Seward said: "Hitherto in common with most of my country- men, I suppose, I have thought Canada, or to speak more accurately British America, a mere strip lying CANADIAN NATIONALITY. north of the United States, easily detached from the parent State, but incapable of sustaining itself, and therefore ultimately, nay right soon, to be taken on by the Federal Union, without materially changing or affecting its own development, I have drooped this opinion as a national conceit. I see in British America stretching as it does across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and occupying a belt of the Temperate Zone, a region grand enough for the seat of a great Empire — in its Wheat fields in the west, its invaluable Fisheries and its Mineral wealth. I find its inhabitants vigorous, hardy, energetic and perfected by British Constitutional liberty. Southern Political Stars must set, though many times they rise again with diminished beauty, hut those which illumine the Pole remain for ever shiring, for ever increasing in splendor." This is a graceful compliment to come from an American statesman, and it should ever be remem- bered that our immense territory, although reaching north to the Pole, to which that kilted Scotchman is popularly supposed to be clinging, extends nearly as far south as the City of Rome in Europe, and lies within the .Zones which embrace all the great nations of that continent. These are facts, gentlemen, which I fear some of ■ our fellow countrymen have never yet fully reali- jd, and^'if any who have not be before me to-night, I call upon them to revise their estimate of their country, and to rise to the realization of the fact, that they V 6 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. ^ / rnay give u. loose rein to the imagination and yet not exhaust the possibilities of empire to this great Do- minion before another century closes./ Let us nov*^ in the second place consider for a little the progress which the Dominion has made in development. It is nearly 350 years since Jacques Cartier erected the cross — the symbol of Christianity — at Gaspd, and amidst the triumphal cheers of his hardy mariners, flung to the breeze the Fleur-de-lis of old France. But it is barely one hundred years since the actual settlement of Western Canada began, and to-day the population of the Dominion may be estimated at 5,175,000, which is about one-half more than the in- habitants of the United States when, through the wrong- headedness and obstinacy of George III., they asserted and achieved their independence. The Dominion is essentially an agricultural . coun- try, and the total value of all its farms, farm buildings, live stock and implements must now be exceedingly large. All the provinces have not yet statistical bureaus — which is much to be regretted — and so we cannot get complete returns on this interesting point. But some idea may be obtained from the fact that the value thereof in Ontario alone, as computed by our well-managed statistical bureau, is not less than $981,- •368,094. Our exports of agricultural products have reached the value of $51,000,000 in a single year, and Mr. Geo. Johns< i, the able and obliging head of the sta- tistical bui lu at Ottawa, has furnished me with ^ CANADIAN NATIONALITY calculation in which he estimates the value of the total production of Dominion farms at about $500,- 000,000 per annum. Other calculations are somewhat lesL than this, but considering that our older provinces are but partly developed, and our immense and luxuri- ant Northwest prairies scarcely developed at all, any of the calculations indicate how immense are our agricultural resources, and how largely production may '■ yet be expected to increase. I need not dwell at length on this occasion, how- . ever important, on our gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, and I must now -add, our nickel mines. These are dotted all over the continent, commencing on the sea- washed shores of Cape ^ireton, along the picturesque . banks of the St. Lawrence, around the ragged and jagged cliffs of Lake Superior, cropping out on the lovely Saskatchewan, and away towards the setting sun, over the Rocky and Cascade Mountains to Colunibia and Vancouver Island. Taking our nickel mines and ore ranges in the Sud- bury District alone, recent estimates of their wealth almost recall the story of Aladdin and other fabulous legends of our youth. If we accept the reports of the United States Naval experts recently sent from Wash- ington to the Sudbury District, there are no less than 650,000,000 tons of nickel ore in sight, and an ingeni- ous calculation has been made on this basis that, taking copper at 15 cents per lb. and nickel at 50 cents, and allowing 4 per cent, for the copper and 3 per cent, for the nickel in the ore, the former would amount to 8 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. $7,800,000,000 and the latter no less than $19,500,000,- 000. These enormous figures make the brain grow a Uttle dizzy, and I fear there must be something wrong with the basis. They are only of importance as testi- mony to our great mineral wealth in nickel and copper if it could only be freely developed and utilized. The reports of the Ontario Mining Commission and of the Dominion Geological Survey go to show that our mines generally are richer and more numerous tiian is comm.only supposed, and I may point out that two of them, coal and iron, and I should also now add nickel, are the essential factors of manufacturing great- ness, to which I hope to see Canada attain, for it is those nations which combine agricultural and manu- facturing industries which have made, and must con- tinue to make, the broadest and deepest mark on the world's history. There are three of our national resources which deserve particular attention, because in these we Uiay be said to excel all other countries — I refer to our forests, our fisheries and our shipping. The former arc unrivalled in extent and value. Besides supplying our own large home demand we have exported timber and lumber to the extent of $28,500,000 in a single year. About t>vo years ago the Crown Lands Depart- m.ent of Ontario laid before the Legislature a calcula- tion setting forth that there were still uncut on un- licensed and licensed timber limits of the province the immense amount of 60,540,000,000 feet, the mere Oovcrnmcnt fees or vhich were estimated to be worth C:ANA1>IAN NATIONAI.ITV. $136,000,000. When it is rcmcmljercd that the timber limits of Quebec probably e(|ual those of Ontario, and that New Brunswick, Nova Sco.ia and Columbia all possess similar resources, some idea may be had of the vastness and value of our Canadian forests, the con- servation of which has become one of the most im- portant questions which can engage the attention of our . legislators. The last year for which we have returns (1889) the value of the registered shipping of Canada was nearly $32,000,000, and there were upwards of 68,000 hardy seamen engaged in our fisheries, not counting the men, women and children employed on shore. The products of the fisheries exported and sold amourtt^d to $17,- 655,000, besides an estimated home consumption of $13,000,000. The British Columbia fisheries are rapidly increasing. The latest returns at hand show they had 28 canneries in operation in 1889, which packed over 20,000,000 I lb. tins of salmon. Besides this, their sealing vessels captured 33,570 seals, valued at $349,- 825. - -.;: ■ *.■■': > The catch of seals is reported to have been still larger last summer, which proves how deeply Canada is interested in opposing the extraordinary contention that Behring Sea — which is hundreds of miles wide — ■-'''■ can in any sense be held to be a Mare Clausum. It is not likely such a new doctrine in International law can be maintained, but whilst courteously agreeing to ■any reasonable proposition of the United States for the preservation of tht' f?enls, it is most essential to the 10 CANADIAN NATIONAIITY. Dominion, and especially to British Columbia, that the just rights of our hardy seamen in those waters should be firmly maintained by Great Britain in the negotia- tions still pending at Washington.- I know few things of which we have more cause for congratulation than our Merchant Marine. For a Colony it is almost unexampled. Our fellow country- men in the Maritime Provinces own more shipping per capita, (jreat Britain not excepted, than any other people, and the sturdy blue-nose city of St. John, which looks out so defiantly towards the stormy shores of the Bay of P'undy, possesses and navigates more sea-going vessels than Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore. To her honor, be it said, she stands eighth as regards shipping among all the great cities of the British Em- pire, being surpassed but comparatively little by any except Liverpool, London and Glasgow. The Dominion takes a highly creditable position among marine powers in regard to registered sea-going tonnage. The statistical year-book of Canada places the principal countries as follows : Tons. Great Britain 7,123,754 Sweden and Norway 2,024,471 Germany 1,240,182 Canada i ,089,642 United States 1,021,595 Counting' in vessels engaged in the river and home trade the United States would be entitled to the second place, having 4,307,000 tons. But taking registered sea-going shipping alone, Canada stands before the CANADIAN NATIONAIJTY. ri \ V United States, Italy, France, the Netfierlands, Austria, Turkey and Spain- in short, has now the fourth, and will in all probability soon have the third largest ocean marine which breasts the billows of the deep. Our total shipping, taking both inland and sea-going, steadily increasing, year by year, but of the sea-borne trade of the Dominion in 1889, 48.75 per cent, was carried m British bottoms, 31.01 per cent, in foreign, and 26.24 per cent, in Canadian. These figures carry a lesson with them. lo 1856 United States vessels carried 75.02 per cent, of all the imports and exports of the Republic, and although their foreign trade had in the meantime moie than doubled, in 1888 they only carried 13.48 per cent. The rocks upon which the American Mercantile Marine was wrecked are now pretty clear to view, and the fact that in 1889 for the first time in many years more Canadian sea-going freight was carried in foreign than Canadian bottoms, should be a warning to our rulers to beware of the breakers which have nearly driven American shipping from the ocean. The development of the Dominion in canals, rail- ways, telegraphs, telephones and electricity, can without exaggeration be described as creditable. By means of the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals we have triumphed over the barriers of Nature, and united the sparkling waters of Erie and Ontario. We have spent $54,500,- 000 on our canal system, but much remains to be accomplished. For many years it has been my conviction, that it / 11 12 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. will only be when the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals have been so enlarged and deepened that large ocean vessels can be despatched from Duluth, Port Arthur and Chicago, and without breaking bulk proceed to Liverpool, Cilasgow and London, and indeed, to any of the ports of the world —when, in short, Canadian enterprise shall practically have made the great inland cities of America, ocean ports, that we may hope to realize the dream of William Hamilton Merritt and John Young, of Montreal : the great lakes and our majestic St. Lawrence whitened with sails, carrying on their bosom the boundless productions of Western America on their way to market. The latest returns show we possessed 17,489 miles of telephone and 62,000 of telegraph wire, the latter be.ig surpassed only by six of the larger nations. Thirty years ago there were scarcely any railways in what is now the Dominion. Their increase has been as follows : Miles in operation. In 1850 , 71 In i860 2,081 In 1870 2,497 In 1880 -.. 6,891 In 1889 12,628 In 1890 ^4,000 Our railway development has been nearly all since Confederation, and during the same period the paid- up capital invested therein has increased from $160,- 471,190 to the very handsome sum of $760,576,446. From 1875 to 1889, a period of fourteen years, the Canadian nationality. n animal earnings of our railways increased from $19,- 000,000 to $42,000,000. In the Canada Pacific and (kand Trunk we possess two of the largest railway systems in the world, and the construction of the main portions of the former from the Atlantic to the Pacific — the longest continu- ous railway in the world— -within the short space of five years, whilst it may have been expensive, was certainly a feat in engineering and railway building of a remark- able character. The first year after Confederation our total imports and exports amounted to $129,500,000. The highest point touched since then was in 1883, when our total commerce amounted to a little over $230,000,000, and it is not a little singular as showing how commerce expands and contracts in periods of ten years, that in the preceding decade the greatest expansion was in the corresponding year 1873, when the figures were $217,- 000,000. For the last fiscal year, ending 30th June, 1890, our total transactions were of the value of $218,607,390. This shows our foreign trade to be about $42 per capita of the population. The latest returns I have seen for the United States do not exceed $22. Our transactions with Great Britain and the United States were as follows : Britain. U. States. Imports from $43,390,241 #52,291,973 Exports to *■•.,.. 48,353.094 40,522,810 / Total 1^91.743.935 $92.814783 14 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. These returns prove that our external trade continues to be almost exckisivelv with (Ireat Britain and tlie United States, our transactions with other countries beuig comparatively trifling. l'\)r reasons already given, this is not the time nor place to discuss this question. But there are three points which I think will very generally be assented to ; ist, Our exportable produc- tions almost entirely depend on the British and American markets ; 2nd, It would profit Canada no- thing to improve either one of these markets if it en- tailed a corresponding injury of the other; and 3rd, That our true fiscal policy manifestly is, to Jiemove as many obstructions as possible out of the way of our trade with both nations, consistent with our National Independence and the reasonable conservation of our own Industries. It is much to be regretted that we have no Official records of the Domiriiori's inter-provincial trade. The bu-siness carried on between Ontario and Quebec, and between them and the Maritime and North -West Provinces, has grown steadily and is much larger than is generally supposed. For 188^ the Dominion Sta- tistical Bureau roughly estimated the total volume of Inter-provincial trade at $80,000,000, about fifty mil- lions being with the Maritime Provinces, and thirty with Manitoba, Columbia and the North-West Terri- tories. The following returns of Traffic on the Inter- colonial Railway for 1878 and 1889 go to show that trade with our Eastern Provinces continues to increase: — »- • .* CAN.XDIAI^ NA'nONAF.HY. 15 187H. I.S89. , > Flour, (barrels) ^11,11^ 927,014 Grain, (bushels) 33i.'7o 1,519,862 Lumber, (feet) 56.626.547 197-545.777 Live Stocli, (head) 46,498 77,66r Other Goods, (tons) 575.025 814,993 There are some difficulties in the way of ra[)id growth in the trade of the more distant provinces with the heart of the Dominion. These it would I)e neither wise nor just to deny. But they are probably not greater than those which confronted the American colonies a century ago, and if the above estimate of the extent of our inter-provin^ial trade be fairly near correct, it is already not far behind the value of our trade with either Great Britain or the United States. There is no ([uestion more vitally affecting the stability and success of the Dominion, than this inter- provincial trade. It is the weld which, in a lartije measure, must bind us together, and in view of its great importance, I feel confident you will join me in pressing upon the Dominion government to immedi- ately authorize the statistical bureau to adopt some regular system by which we can correctly ascertain its present extent, and mark its future growth from year to year. We have a considerable public debt which is rather rapidly increasing, the net amount of which on the 30th June, 1890, was $238,048,638. If you are like some of our fellow-countrymen in England of whom I have read, you may add this to the sum of our na- tional blessings, but I may add that I won't. The ^ i| in ■41 f lO CANADIAN NATIONAI.rrV. subject of debt is an important one for nations as for individuals, juid Dickens com[)rcsses the j)hiIoso[)hy of the matter into a nutshell where he makes the luckless Micawber say: Income ^4.19.6, expenditure ^'5, result misery; income ^5, expenditure X4-i9-^>> result hap- piness. Nothing could better illustrate the development which the Dominion has made than the statistics of our monetary and insurance institutions during the last twenty years. 'I'he following figures are chiefly for the years 1868-9 and 1889, and the increase in the j)rin- cipal items of the business of these institutions during the two decades has been as follows: • Bank deposits increased from v 32,808,103101136,293,978 Bank assets " " .... 77,872,25710 255,765,631 P. O. Saving Banks increased from. 1,588,848 to 23,011,422 Govt. & P. O. Savings Banks united 4,360,692 to 42,956,357 Loan Co. Assets .... 16,229,40710 109,430,158 Life Insurance Risks 35,680,082 to 231.963,702 Fire Insurance Risks 188,359,809 to CZ^,;;,.-iH,}y8 The people have on deposit in the chartered banks, loan companies, government and other savings banks, upwards of $207,446,000, being $40 per head of the whole population. It is possible that Canada might have progressed still faster than this, and it is true that our farming and even our manufacturing industries are suffering at present from somewhat serious depression, but the foregoing statistics clearly attest that not only have we no reason to despair of our country, but it would indeed be difiiicult to produce any other country i CANADIAN NATIONALITY. »7 which, when its population was only five millions, could point back for twenty years to a l)etter record of pro- gress and prosp* rity. This hasty glance at our material progress would be incomplete without some reference to the accumu- lated wealth of the Dominion, and the total annual value of all our productions. At Confederation a well-informed statistician esti- mated the realized wealth of British America, exclusive of railways, canals, public buildings, &c , at $1,136,- ooo,coo. Mughall, the eminent English authority, rates the wealth of (ireat Britain at $1,250, the United States at $790, and Canada at $650 per head. Cal- culated on this basis the gross value of our farms, buildings, ships, capital and other wealth, cannot to-day be less than $3,363,750,000. In regard to the annual value of our total produc- tions we have already had those of our farms estimated at $500,000,000. According to the census of 1881 the products of our manufactories and workshops dur- ing tne year were of the value of $309,676,000. The secretary of the Manufacturers' Association has since rated them at $500,000,000, and I have been advised they are now still more. This is, of course, the esti- mated value of the finished article, and the cost of the raw material would have to be deducted to ascer- tain the real vaUies produced by our manufacturing industries. But ^e have not yet counted the value of the annual products of our forest, our mines and our shipping and fisheries. Assuming that these would 'yy !i mmmm i8 CANA.DIAN NATIONALITY. »..1 ■»>* balance the value of the. jaw material used in manu- facturing, the value of our total annual production may be roughly estimated at $1,000,000,000. In view of the foregoing facts, gentlemen, I think it can be justly claimed that our people have not been standing with folded hands in regard to the develop- ment of the great resources of the Dominion, and that although our country is nt^t without some draw- backs, and may not have advanced so rapidly is some think it should and could have done, still after all its growth and progress have seldom been surpassed by other countries, and have served to raise Canada and Canadians to an honored place in the estimation of the nations, and excited a hopeful interest in the destiny which lies before us. In the third place let us glance briefly at our political and mental outfit and social condition. Our system of government may be described as a happy blending of the British and United States con- stitutions. We have the Federal system, which is ad- mirably adapted for large States -having diverse local interests. Personally, I would like to see a uniform Franchise, based on Manhood Suffrage and ''one man One vote," throughout the Dominion and all the Pro- vinces; but we have gone sufficiently near Universal Suffrage to give almost every man a voice in Dominion or Provincial affairs who deserves or cares for it. These Republican features we have grafted on to the care- fully matured principles of British Parliamentary Gov- ernment, and I know none under which the people CANADIAN NATIONALITY. T9 enjoy truer liberty or so directly control the actions of their representatives. There are many matters in which we may wisely learn from our American neighbors, but it may fairly be claimed that our Parliamentary system possesses some decided advantages over theirs. This opens to view a tempting field, but it would lead too far to do more than mention two or three salient points as illustrated in the United States elections last fall. In that exciting contest the RepubHcan party, which had just passed the McKinley bill, was overwhelmingly de- feated at the polls, chiefly on that issue. Their ma- jority in the late House of Representatives was 21; in the new house the Democrats number no less than 238 to their 87. The nation could scarcely have pro- nounced a more decided verdict against the McKinley bill and the Republican party, but, nevertheless, it remains a mere brute/n fulmen. The 51st Congress continued to legislate until the 4th March last, although most of the members of the House and many of the Senate had been defeated during the November previous. The President and Executive Government remain unchanged, although no longer representing the will of the people. When the 52nd Congress meets, the Executive and the Senate will be at political war with the House of Representa- tives, the former Republican and the latter Democratic, and even the McKinley bill, against which the nation so loudly protested, will most likely be kept on the statute book in defiance of the overwhelming vote of y the people against it. ^ 20 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. How different all this would be under our system of Responsible Government. Here we can also take an illustration. In 1878 the Liberal party of Canada was defeated at the polls. What almost immediately resulted? The Premier, Mr. Mackenzie, promptly ten- dered the resignation of himself and colleagues, and the Representative of the Crown as promptly called upon Sir John Macdonald as leader of the successiui party to form and administer the government, and thus within thirty days the will of the Canadian people as expressed at the polls became the policy of the country. If I were asked to point out the weakest feature of our parliamentary system, I should unhesitatingly answer — patronage. The size of the Dominion is vast. Many parts of it are as yet largely undeveloped and poor, and the people very naturally have — so to speak — a strong weakness to have their roads, railways and other improvements made at the public expense. Then there are few citizens so burdened with this world's goods as to be insensible to the attractions of a good fat office — always excepting, of course, our M.P's. and M.P.P's. Under these circumstances the large patronage in the hands of our Dominion and Local Governments, to speak mildly, is not a factor for good to the nation, and so far as the Federal Government is concerned, whether in the hands of Reformers or Conservatives, the patronage in connection with the civil service, railways, canals, public works. Dominion lands and other public undertakings, has become so immense as Canadian nationality. it to greatly influence all parliamentary elections, and, if unchecked, may become dangerous to the liberties of the people. There is a wide field here for parliamentary reform. We cannot longer afford to trifle with the admitted eils of the Spoils system, and the policy adopted in regard thereto by Victoria and other Australian colonies, is well deserving of our consideration. In that great sister colony they have stripped the government of all patronage in civil service and railway appointments, placing them under the absolute control of expert Commissioners and written examinations, and they like the system so well that they have recently created a special railway tribunal, and no new railway is to be aided by the government until it has been examined and approved by that body. I trust it need not be repeated, that although necessarily referring to questions more or less political, I do not intend to entrench upon party politics. Leaving aside party differences then, to the proper occasion, I have no hesitation in saying, that whilst possibly not without some serious mistakes, the people of Canada have worked out the system of Representa- tive government in a fairly successful manner. Our Governors-General, at least since Confedera- tion, have represented the Crown with dignity and due regard to constitutional law, and our Lieutenant-Gov- ernors, considering their previous party alliances, have done exceedingly well. The House of Commons has, upon the whole, re- / 1 I 5' I I ■■^^■". 'i2 CANAT3IAN >JATI01>JAT,tTY. fleeted no discredit upon the Dominion. Looked at from an intellectual point of view, with the exception of the Imperial House of Commons, it will compare favorably with any similar parliamentary body. Such men as the Hon. Edward Blake, vSir Charles Tupper, Hon. Alex. Mackenzie, Sir Leonard Tilley, now Lieu- tenant-Governor of New Brunswick, Sir A. Dorion, now Chief Justice of Quebec, and others I might mention, would have taken high rank as statesmen either in London or Washiiigton, and so long as its debates are enriched by the impassioned eloquence of a Laurier, the wit and aarcasm of a Macdonald, the powerful logic of a Cartwright, or the dignified and pleasing rhetoric of a Thompson, the people of Canada will have no cause to feel ashamed of the oratory of their highest representative body. Of our Senate, notwithstanding the presence of a number of distinguished men in it, what shall I say? Very few will be found to maintain that it has proved to be the influential and useful bodv that was antici- pated. Nor should this occasion surprise. It is a political anomaly. It is out of touch with the people. A body composed of life members, not a few of them octogenarians, and selected chiefly for political services, is not in harmony with our other institutions. Could there, indeed, be a greater anomaly in a country with democratic institutions, than that after the people have again and again refused to elect a man to represent them for five years, the Minister of the day, whoever he may chance to be, should have the power at his CANADIAN NATIONALITY. own mere will or caprice, to issue his mandate ''nd make the oft-rejected a legislator for life. The Senate at present practically represents nothing, not even a. class like the House of Lords, and the public naturally take a very languid interest in its proceedings. If it is ever to rise to the influence and usefuln ss which such an important body as the Senate should exercise, life membership must be abolished, and the various provincial legislatures, or the people of the provinces themselves, given some voice in the selection of its members. Our educational system is one of our mo.st potent mental forces. We spent nearly $8,500,000 on public schools last year, and employed an army of 21,120 teachers, who taught considerably over 1,000,000 pupils. At our High Schools, Collegiate Institutes, and at To- ronto, Trinity, McGill, Queen's, and our other Universi- ties, an education can be obtained second only to that of Oxford or Cambridge, and so long as our public schools are conducted so efficiently as at present, and our higher seats of learning are presided over by such men as Sir Daniel Wilson, Sir William Dawson, and the Rev. Dr. Grant, names famous in science and literature in Europe as well as America, the mental outfit of the youth of Canada ought not to be deficient as com- pared with other larids. Besides our learned Professors and Teachers, the number of our educated classes is by no means incon- siderable. The Judges who preside in our courts with much dignity, the Doctors who look after our bodies. / 24 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. ! I and the i^uwytrs wlio manage our estates, are gener- ally well educated, as a general rule they are better educated and trained, so far as my observation goes, than the same classes in the United States. The pulpit and the press are also strong mental and moral forces. There are now at least 829 news- papers and other periodicals jiublished in the Domin- ion, the editors, reporters, regular contributors and occasional correspondents of which number many thou- sands, without counting those mysterious personages described by Mark Twain as the " fighting editor." Marked progress has been made of late years in the ability, enterprise and independence with which not only our city dailies, but the country journals of Canada, are conducted. Besides Bishops, Moderators, Presidents, &c., we have nearly 10,500 Clergymen engaged in the sacred office. It would be invidious to parti jularize among so many able and devoted men, but it may be truly said, there are not a few in all the denominations who would do honor to the church of any land as they do honor to the church of Canada, and that under their ministrations there is reason to hope that all professing Christians Avill be drawn closer and closer together, so that amidst the agnosticism and material- ism of the age, Canada may hold aloft a pure Chris- tianity and make itself conspicuous for that righteous- ness which exalteth a nation. Mr. Goldwin Smith has described Canada as "rough. CANADIAN NATIONALITY. ,raw and lemocratic.'"" This picture is not untrue, though possibly painted in too sombre colors. Our country is still rough and there is much still left for. human industry to do. Few other lands, however, excel it in scenic berfuty. Mount Stephen and Sir Donald e(]ual -^ in grandeur the snow-clad peaks of Switzerland, the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa are not surpassed by the Rhine or the Danube, and our Western prairies are as fertile as the plains of Southern England. Time is needed to clothe our landscapes with beauty and historic associations, but in the well settled sections of Ontario or any of the sister provinces, there is much in the scenery to give delight, either in the s}>ring time with its buds and blossoms, the mellow autumn with its fruits and flowers and golden grain, or still later when the breath of October has rendered our magnificent forests gorgeous in scarlet and brown and gold. I. In reference to this point, it is due to Mr. Smith to give the following letter : — "The Grange," Toronto, April 21st, 1891. My Dear Mr. Young, — You say in your address on Canadian Nationality, if the Globe reports you rightly, that I have described Canada as " rough, raw and democratic." This is an old but not a true story. . It had its origin, I believe, in a malicious distortion of some words in the editorial of a paper of which, though a writer, I was not the editor. Be- lieve me, I have never written or penned a disrespectful or an unkind word of my adopted country. I am, dear Mr. Young, very truly yours, Go.upwijN, Smith^ \ ■^ n I ir w i k i. 26 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. We are doubtless deficient in culture. Compara- tively speaking, how few Canadian books have we? How few authors known to the confraternity of Belles Lettres throughout the world ? How few devotees of science or art ? Compared with England, with Ger- many or France, we are uncultured in these respects. Time is needed for our development. But valuable as culture is, we can justly make a boast of far higher importance, that not in England, not in Germany, not in France, not even in the United States, are the toil- ing millions of humanity freer, wealthier or happier, than are the masses of our Canadian people. The Dominion is yet but a young country, and we have in a great measure to make our history and our great men. It must be confessed we cannot boast of such eminent Statesmen, Poets, Philosophers and Sol- diers, as have shed lustre on the British name for centuries past. But, gentlemen, we have no reason to be ashamed of the eminent men that British America has turned out. In the walks of science we can point to . Sir William Logan, Sir William Dawson, Dr. Gesner of Nova Scotia, and Billings the paleontologist. In literature and the profession of arms, may be mentioned Judge Haliburton, the famous Sam Slick. Garneau the historian, General Inglis the hero of Luck- now, who was born in Halifax, Sir Fenwick Williams, the heroic defender of Kars, and Lieut.-Col. Dunn, a native of Toronto, who received in Hyde Park, from the hands of Her Majesty herself, the Victoria Cross, CANADIAN NATIONALITY. 27 for being among the bravest of the brave of the *' im- mortal six hundred " who charged at Balaclava. Our intellectual progress is attested by the rapid increase of our living prose writers. Here the name / of (ioldwin Smith looms up, but he is too cosmopoli- tan, I fear, for us to claim. W. I). T.eSuer of Ottawa, Miss Louisa Murray of Stamford, Prof. William Clark of Trinity University, Toronto, John Reade of Mon- treal and (leorge Stewart of Quebec, are conspicuous among our numerous excellent writers of the day, and I may now add Sarah Jeannette Duncan, whose " Social Departure " and " An American Giri in Lon- don," have won for her a first instalment of fame. We have our poets, too, and what is better, real ones. Charles Sangster is probably the most distinc- tively Canadiiin, but he is rivalled in other respects by Prof. Charles Roberts of New Brunswick, Miss Agnes Machar of Kingston, Archibald Lampman of Ottawa, and Louis Honore Frechette o^ Quebec, who received for his poetic genius the Crown of the French Academy. Paul Kane, Homer Watson, L. R. O'Brien, Geo. A. Reid and numerous other painters are doing much for Canadian Art, and may I not appropriately close this hurried effort to show that the intellectual pro- gress of the Dominion keeps step with its material development, by simply quoting our honor roll of de- P'-^rted Statesmen? This embraces MacKenzie, Papineau, Chief Justice Robinson, Draper, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks, and may I not now inscribe high up on this Roll of Honor, ,28 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. u' Si. with everybody's consent, now that they have passed over to the silent majority, four iUustrious names : — Joseph Howe, Luther Hamilton Holton, George Etienne Cartier, George Brown ? We have now, gentlemen, glanced at the resources of the Dominion, the pi ogress we have made in de- veloping them, and our political and mental outfit. Let me now draw my remarks toward a conclusion with a brief reference to the question now constantly pressing to the front — What is to be the future of Canada? And here, permit me to say, we begin to tread upon delicate ground, and I have no desire, as I am sure you have not, to come under the point of he poet's sneer — •' Fools rush in, Where angels fear to tread." I think it will be generally admitted, Mr. President, that our poHtical horizon, both internal and external, is at present somewhat uncertain. The old political landmarks are disappearing. Young men are coming to the front. The thrill of new political forces is being felt. Several new questions with important and somewhat disturbing tendencies, have arisen, and never before felt so strongly, that whatever may be our political opinions, whether Conservative or Liberal, we should all realize that above and beyond all political parties we are Canadians, men whose country has reached the verge of National manhood, and whose highest intelligence and patriotism are needed to solve the great political problems incident to our position. ', CANADIAN NATIONAl.lTY. 29 Some of these cjuestions, as already mentioned, cannot properly he discussed here, but as the future of Canada is happily not yet a party (juestion, I avail myself of the opportunity to maVc a few observations in regard to it. I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that I speak only for myself, and entertain great respect for the opinions of gentlemen who differ from me. But for my part, I certainly consider it would have been better for Canada if the wide-spread discussion now going on of Imperial Federation, Poli- tical Union, and Canadian Nationality could have" been postponed until a later period in our history. 1. Because such discussions have a disturbing effect upon the Dominion. It is not a ([uarter of a century yet since the foundations of the Confederation were laid, and the present and most pressing duty of Cana- dians is, how we can best make Confederation a per- manent success and bind our scattered races and pro- vinces into one homogeneous people and country. 2. Because I have seen nothing advanced at Feder- ation meetings, either in England or Canada, to prove that, so long as we remain part of the Empire, we can ever have any better relations than those which have so long and so happily existed between Canada and the Mother Country. I s-hall not say much as regards Annexation to the United States. Both our great political parties are happily opposed to Political Union, and 1 hope— nay I feel confident— there are very few Canadians, especially those who are native born, who seriously entertain / » 30 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. I / that idea. With all its blemishes, the record of the British Monarchy is a grand one. Against Philip of Spain and his Armada, against Louis XIV. at Blen- heim and Ramilies, and at the great battle of Water- loo, when the power of Napoleon was finally shivered to atoms — it can justly claim to have, almost single- handed, thrice saved the liberties of the world. The world owes more to it to-day than to any other power: civil liberty, representative government, religious tolera- tion, its purest literature and its freest commerce. Whilst, therefore, we may cherish the most kindly feelings towards our United States cousins, whilst we may admire the great Republic and wish it God-speed in its grand career, I have mistaken my fellow-coun- trymen if they are not too proud of the races from which we have sprung, too hopeful of a great future for Canadian Nationality, to ever s riously think of separation from Great Britain to join any other nation. Active exertions are now being made by a number of highly respected gentlemen in England and Canada to promote Imperial Federation. Whatever else this may mean, it involves the idea that Great Britain is to be the centre of a gra' 1, world-wide Confederation, governed in general matters by one parliament, bound together in peace or war, and all the outlying States and Provinces more or less controlled by the central power. There vs admittedly something dazzling in the idea of a grand Imperial Parliament to which repre- sentatives would journey from every part of the globe but it is to be feared it is as impracticable as it is dazzling. fc'. ■■r" CANADIAN NATIONALITY. 31 I The interests of India, Australia and of Canada are by no means identical. Those of Clreat Firitain often materially differ from those of her colonies, and any serious efforts to combine them in one great legis- lative body, instead of binding the Mother Country and the colonies into one indissoluble Imperial Em- pire, would, in my humble judgment, be more likely to bring out antagonisms and rend them asunder. I would have to trespass too much on your time to discuss this question at length. I shall therefore confine myself to one or two objections which I regard as fatal to it from a Canadian point of view. 1. Imperial Federation could only be made a reality by giving the Federal Parliament, which would natur- ally meet in London, control over all such general questions as Peace and War, the Tariff and Taxation, and Ships and Fisheries. The Fiscal policies of Great Britain and of Canada are diametrically opposed. They have Free Trade, we have Protection. But even if this were otherwise, I have no idea that the people of Canada would ever consent to hand over to any but their own chosen representatives, not to speak of a legislative body meeting four thousand miles away, in which they would have but little voice, the absolute control over our Canadian commerce. 2. Nor do I think our people would ever consent to become directly entangled in Old World quarrels, and directly concerned in wars which may any day set the armed hosts of Europe at each other's throats like wolves. - 1 1 32 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. r ( i;;' So far as I am concerned, there is a more funda- mental objection. As a native Canadian, whose first duty is to Canada, I am not prepared to go back to something Hke Dov. ning Street rule, or to give up one single one of those cherished rights of self-government which our forefathers so long and so earnestly struggled to obtain. But it has been urged of late that to promote Im- perial Federation the Mother Country might admit the food and other products of her colonies free, whilst taxing those of other countries. This is one of the most chimerical of ideas. Probably not less than three-fourths of the food supply of Britain is imported from abroad, and to suppose that she would tax the food of her 38,000,000 of people for the benefit of her colonies, not to speak of going back to the old * corn laws, under which her manufactories became silent and hundreds of her operatives actually starved to death, is to suppose something hardly within the bounds of possibility. Why, within a few decades a ministerial crisis \^as caused in London by a proposition to put a farthing tax on each box of matches, and not only Mr. Cilad- stone, Mr. Goschen and nearly all the leading states- men and great organs of public opmion in England repudiate the proposition, but Lord Salisbury has him- self pointedly intimated, that to re-enact the corn laws and tax the food of the people might result in some- thing akin to^ revolution. My firm belief is, that the connection which at CANADIAN NATIONALITY. 33 \ present exists between Great Britain and Canada is the strongest and best which will ever bind them to- gether. The strongest Unk in the chain is National y sentiment, but the sentiment of a free people is a tre- mendous force where Nationality is concerned, and but for our peculiar position on this continent, and the agitating questions which have arisen as to our future, there is rto reason why the existing relations between Canada and the Mother Country might not have long and happily contmued. But gentlemen, these questions, I fear, will not down. They are, so to speak, in the air. Their dis- cussion is not a cause but an effect. Slow to recog- nize it as we may be, the Dominion has reached National adolescence. We are like a young man who realizes that it is impracticable for him to remain much. longer under the parental roof, and who is be- coming anxious and perplexed as to his future. We would fain linger still around the old Homestead, but, dropping metaphor, our powerful neighbor the United States has adopted towards us a commercial policy— a policy possibly not unnatural--but evidently designed to influence our political future, and it has become my firm conviction, that the day is not far distant when Canada will be forced to declare for National Independence in friendly alliance with Great Britam, or guaranteed by both Great Britain and the United States, 1. we would avoid drifting ingloriously towards the vortex of political absorption. Mr. Blake has patriotically sounded a loud and 1 F .1 \ 34 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. if- •r ! warning note on this point. It should be heard as a bugle call to duty by all Canadians from Cape Breton to Vancouver, who cherish hopes of Canadian Nation- ality. There is some danger, I admit, in the agitation of Mr. Goldwin Smith and other advocates of absorp- tion, but I do not fear our fellow-countrymen's decision. I believe the vast majority of them are unalterably opposed to Political Union, and are fully persuaded that it would be a stain forever on the Canadian name, if with a country so vast, with such immense natural resources, possessing at once the agricultural element, the manufacturing element and the maritime element — indeed all the elements of a great nation — we were too craven or too selfish to work out the grand national destiny tempting ".'s onwards. Might it not in that case be said of us as a people, what Sir Walter Scott said of the man who had no love for his native land. " The wretch, concentrated all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown. And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored and unsung." I will only add in conclusion, gentlemen, that when the day does come tho.t our present connection with Great Britain can no longer be satisfactorily main- tained — as come some day it inevitably must — and circumstances may force it faster than we desire or imagine, I would be untrue to my own feeHngs, I would be false to my highest aspirations as a Cana- dian to "the manor born," if I did not assert my I i CANADIAN NATIONALITY. 35 imfaultering belief, that on that selfsame day a new nation and nationality will be born, and Canada take its place peacefully and gracefully among the nations of America. ' LIEUT.-COL. DENISON EXPLAINS. ' A hearty vote of thanks was moved by Mr. E. E. Sheppard to the Hon. Mr. Young for his inspiring lecture, in the seconding of which Lieut.-Col. George T. Denison said: — I have much pleasure in second- ing the vote of thanks to our distinguished lecturer . for his most able address. I am sure every mem- ber of this Club sympathizes with the patriotic Cana- dian tone, with the appreciation of the brilliant pos- sibilities of our country which runs through the whole lecture. There is one point, however, in which, while our ideas run in a similar groove,- many of us feel that they should be carried out on a dif- ferent line from that which Mr. Young has indicated. We all feel that Canada cannot always be a colony or dependency, she must some day be independent nom- inally as well as practically, for we are practically in- dependent to-day, and I think that most Canadians feel that real independence, absolute independence, can better be obtained within the Empire, than outside of it, and this, by a scheme of Imperial Federation, but not such a scheme as Mr. Young has built up and objected to, for as a prominent member of the Im- perial P^ederation League, I may say that this outline is not that of our league. When we consider our present position we find 36 CANADIAN NATIONALITY. U . that we are independent and self-governing in every particular, except that of foreign relations, which we have hitherto left to be managed by the senior mem- ber of the firm, and even in this we are consulted and have our say, for only the other day we heard Lord Salisbury tell the United States Government that no treaty could be made until "Canada is heard from." If this is not independence it is practically very near to it. Still, as a Canadian, I see no reason why all this should not be as a matter of right and by ar- rangement, and not as a question of courtesy or favor. I see no reason why a scheme of Imperial Federation can not be devised by which we would be as inde- pendent within the Empire as England or Ireland or Scotland are to-day, and then as independent portions of an Empire containing over 11,000,000 square miles of territory, some 360,000,000 of people, half the ton- nage of the world, with the most powerful navy and all the best coaling stations, we would enjoy a security such as no other independent nation could possess, and infinitely greater than if our country stood alone. This future would be in accord with our sentiment, and our tradition, and with our allegiance to our Sovereign, our duty to our flag, and to the memory of our fathers. I have great pleasure in seconding the vote of thanks.