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 • • .• - • • 
 
 •• . . •: • : ••• ••• 
 
 The Late WILLIAM A. FOSTER, Q. C. 
 From a paintwg hy Wm. Cutts, P]sq., the property oj the Nationcd Club. 
 
CANADA FlRSn : 
 
 ^ ^^mov'xal 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 WILLIAM A. FOSTER, Q.C. 
 
 BY 
 
 GOLDWIH" SMITH, D.C.L 
 
 
 HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY. 
 
 1890. 
 
,33 
 ,f1 
 
 f 'Vi'^s 
 
 Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and tiinety, by HuNTER, ROSE & Company, at the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture. 
 
 f • • . t o • 
 
 • • . 
 
 BY 
 
 IlLNTKR, ROSE & CO., 
 TORONTO. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE, 
 
 HORTLY after the death of William A. Foster 
 the design was entertained of issuing, as a me- 
 morial of him, one or two of his literary pro- 
 ductions for distribution among a few friends, 
 xv^ jether with some extracts from the obituary 
 r -^ notices which had appeared in the Canadian Press. 
 Mr. Foster's'writings were on a variety of topics, though 
 dealing chiefly with the national movement, known as 
 " Canada First," of which, it may be said, he was himself 
 a part. In 1875, when the movement, from various causes, 
 began to wane, Mr. Foster devoted himself almost ex- 
 clusively to his profession and wrote hardly anything 
 for publication. Since then, some of those associated 
 with him in the Canada First organization desired that 
 its literature should be gathered and published; and, 
 after his death, the expression of this desire was renewed, 
 coupled with the wish to have some memorial of him 
 whom they had known and loved, and who had been so 
 largely identified with the patriotic movement. In res- 
 ponse to these requests, the little volume which now 
 appears has been published. In departing from the ori- 
 ginal, design, of issuing a volume only for a limited circle 
 of private readers, the apology must be the importunity^ 
 of friends. But the issue of the volume may not be amiss 
 if it tends to keep green the memory of one who was 
 
 2933G6 
 
IV PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 not unworthy the regaid and affection bestowed upon 
 him, and if it serve to perpetuate the feeling which in- 
 spired " Canada First," namely, ardent patriotism and 
 loyal devotion to the highest interests of the country. 
 
 The opportunity is here taken of recording a grateful 
 sense of the kindness of many friends, who have shown 
 an interest in the work and furthered its publication. 
 Among those to whom the writer is specially indebted 
 are Professor Gold win Smith, Mr. Henry J. Morgan, and 
 Mr. G. Mercer Adam. 
 
 To. Mr. Gold win Smith a special debt is due, for readi- 
 Iv complying with the request to enrich the volume with 
 an introduction. His characteristic kindness is greatly 
 appreciated. An honoured friend of Mr. Foster, he has 
 given to the publication a value which the reader will, 
 doubtless, highly esteem. 
 
 To the Directors of the National Club, and to Mr. Wm. 
 
 Outts, of the Ontario Society of Artists, hearty thanks 
 
 are tendered for permission to reproduce in this volume 
 
 the very excellent portrait painted by Mr. Cutts for the 
 
 Olub. 
 
 ' M. B. F. 
 
 Toronto, Oct., 1890. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ^%HE lono' train of mourners which on the Srd 
 of November, 188S, attended the body of Wil- 
 liam Alexander Foster to the tomb, was follow- 
 ing not only the funeral of a man of bright 
 ^^ intellect, high professional promise, winning char- 
 ^ acter, and many friends, but of one who had 
 represented an idea and been the animating spirit of a 
 movement. The idea, for the time at least, died with 
 him : the movement, if it did not end its march, halted 
 at his ffrave. It must be owned that even before his 
 death the light of the idea had been growing pale and 
 the pace of the movement had become slow. 
 
 The union of the North American Colonies by Con- 
 federation, the appeals of the authors of Confederation to 
 the patriotism and self-reliance of the people, the glorious 
 pictures which were then drawn of the greatness and re- 
 sources of the country, could not fail to awaken strong 
 emotions and kindle high hopes in the breasts of Cana- 
 dians, especially in those of the young. It happened also 
 that just then a generation of native Canadians, or men 
 who had immigrated in childhood, were growing up to 
 manhood and aspired to fill the high places of public life, 
 of the professions, and of commerce, theretofore held 
 
/<2 ^ J . , . INTEODUCTION. 
 
 ' » f ."* ^ t' < %♦ 5 .' r . ', ' • ' . .' 
 
 by men from the Old Country, wbo were at this time pas- 
 sing off the scene. The withdrawal of British troops 
 had also helped to bring socially to the front young na- 
 tives who had been thrown into the background by the 
 social ascendancy of the British officer. \V. A. Foster 
 had graduated in law at Toronto Universit}', had studied 
 in the office of Mr. (now Sir Adam,) Wilson, and had writ- 
 ten for the press, not only political and commercial, but 
 comic, for he had a kindly vein of humour. He had a 
 share, with Mr. Hugh Scott, in founding our great com- 
 mercial paper, The Monetary Times. Mr. Charles Lindsey, 
 than whom there could be no better judge, thought very 
 highly of his promise as a journalist. One of his com- 
 rades in journalism, was Adam Clarke Tyner, his obituary 
 article on whom is here reprinted. The fire of national 
 aspiration and patriotism burned in Foster. In 1866 
 he sent two papers on Confederation to the Westminster 
 Review. In the same 3^ear he paid a visit to England, 
 where, thanks to the friendship of Mr, W. F. Rae, the 
 writer, he conversed with Mr. Robert Lowe (now Lord 
 Sherbrooke), George Eliot, and the poet Browning. In 
 1871 he produced the memorable pamphlet "Canada 
 First," which leads the series of his productions in this 
 volume. Some things in that pamphlet, when we now 
 read it in cold blood, may seem to belong to the heyday 
 of Confederation and of youth. But its effect at the time 
 was great. It embodied a prevailing sentiment, gave 
 shape to a floating idea, and called into existence the 
 group of sympathizing spirits known by the collective 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 name of " Canada First." The aim of Canada First 
 was never very clearly defined. Some of the group, 
 borne on by the tide of the time, aspired more or less 
 consciously, more or less openly, to an independent 
 nationality. Others aspired to a nationality which they 
 deemed possible without independence, and desired only 
 to complete the measure of Canadian self-government, 
 make the interest of Canada paramount in our policy, and 
 fill all ofiices with men who, whether natives or not, were 
 thoroughly Canadian in spirit. Sonie, perhaps, as the 
 programme presently to be quoted indicates, had partly 
 in view commercial legislation on the line since designated 
 as the National Policy. To some probably Canada First 
 was rather a vague sentiment than a distinct opinion or 
 idea. All however united in striving to cultivate Cana 
 dian patriotism, to raise Canada above the rank of a mere 
 dependency, and to give her the first place in Canadian 
 hearts. 
 
 To attempt to give anything like a list of " Canada 
 First " men might be unsafe. The nominations for the 
 Council and Ofiicers of the Association, which in time 
 became its centre (January 6th, 1874), were Messrs. W. 
 H. Rowland, W. A. Foster, Wm. Canniff, M.D , Hugh 
 Scott, R W. Elliott, J. M. Trout, Jos. E. Macdougall, Wm. 
 Badenach, W. G. McWilliams, C. E. English, James Michie, 
 G. M. Eae, Nicol Kingsmill, Hugh Blain, Jos. A. Donovan, 
 W. B. McMurrich, J. K. Macdonald, T. C. Scoble, Kichard 
 Grahame, Fred. Fenton, G. W. Badgerow, C. W. R. Big- 
 gar, W. H. Eraser, J. G. Bidout, James E-. Roaf, Thomas 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Walmsley, W. E. Cornell, W. G. Mutton, C. W. Dedrick- 
 son, J. Crickmore, William Hessin, J. Ritchie, jr./R. G. 
 Trotter, A. S. Irving, A. Howell, R. H. Gray, and A. M. 
 Rosebrugh, M.D. In connection with these names should 
 certainly be mentioned, as having more or less sympa- 
 thized with the movement, Dr. Schultz, now Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Manitoba, the late Chief Justice Moss, Dr. 
 W. T. O'Reilly, late Inspector of Prisons and Asylums, Mr. 
 Henry James Morgan, of the Secretary of State Depart- 
 ment, Mr. Robert Grant Hali burton, the scientist and man 
 of letters, Mr. George R. Kingsmill, journalist, Mr. Charles 
 Mair, the poet, Mr. James H. Morris, Q.C., Mr. Frank 
 McKelcan, Q.C., Mr. James H. Coyne, and Mr. William 
 Norris. Perhaps the most prominent figure of the group, 
 Foster's temperament leading him usually to remain in the 
 background, was that of Mr. W. H. Howland, who may 
 be regarded as the chief founder both of the Canadian 
 National Association and the National Club. But as to 
 the whole number it must be repeated that they were 
 not members of an organized party in politics with de- 
 fined aims, but partakers in a general sentiment. We 
 cannot pretend to state the extent to which each of them 
 sympathised with the movement, or with any part or ob- 
 ject of it, at the time, much less to state the extent to 
 which they have retained such feelings since. The eyes 
 of all Canada First men were turned with hope to Mr. 
 Edward Blake, a native Canadian, whose star was then 
 rising in all its brightness above the political horizon, and 
 after Mr. Blake to Mr. Thomas Moss, who having gradu- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 ated with brilliant honours at Toronto University, was 
 rapidly mounting to eminence at the Bar. The circle 
 greatly cherished the memory of the martyred Thomas 
 D'Arcy McGee, as that of a Canadian patriot who had 
 conceived high hopes for the country, and given them 
 eloquent expression.* 
 
 Canada First did not ally itself to either of the politi- 
 cal parties. Its avowed aim was to put the country 
 above them both, as Foster's article, "Party versus Prin- 
 ciples," included among these remains, will show. When, 
 in the autumn of 1873, Mr. ^loss became a candidate for 
 the representation of West Toronto in the Dominion Par 
 liament, as he had the nomination of the Liberal party, 
 Canada First could not join his organization, but as he 
 was its man it gave him a hearty support and held a 
 meetinor in his favour. " In the outlving: Provinces," said 
 Foster at that meeting, " old party lines have been de- 
 stroyed and they care nothing for the questions which 
 have divided us in the older Provinces, but if the Can- 
 adian National party can give them a national senti- 
 ment, there will then be something of a bond of union 
 between them and us in the future." He repudiated 
 nativism, saying that what we wanted was that every 
 immigrant should become a Canadian as on the other 
 
 * It is right to say with regard to this and the preceding paragraph, 
 that the writer of this notice had not settled in Canada when the movement 
 commenced or when "Canada First" was published. Xor was he in the 
 country when the Canadian National Association was formed or when The 
 Nation newspaper was brought out. He therefore speaks, in part at least, 
 not from personal knowledge, but from the best information which he can 
 obtain. 
 
6 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 side of the line every ini migrant became an American. 
 He concluded by moving : " That it is the duty of all 
 Canadians, whether such by birth or adoption to recog- 
 nize the pressing necessity for the cultivation of a na- 
 tional sentiment which will unite the people of the 
 various Provinces more closely in the bonds of citizen- 
 ship, promote a mutual confidence whose common source 
 of affection will prompt acts of toleration and bonds of 
 respect, and prove the best safeguard of our Dominion 
 against absorption on the one hand or disunion on the 
 other. That an organization which will draw the line 
 between Canadians loyal to their soil and those who place 
 their citizenship in a subordinate or secondary position, 
 affords the surest means of cementing a confederation and 
 securing political action in the interests of the whole 
 Dominion." The Conservative Press called the meetino- 
 a Grit intrigue, and denounced all who were connected 
 with it. Mr. Moss was triumphantly elected, and the 
 hopes of Canada First rose. 
 
 In October, 1874, Mr. Edward Blake made his famous 
 Aurora speech which, somewhat enigmatic though it was, 
 all the world interpreted as the proclamation of a new 
 departure in the direction of Independence. That we 
 were " four millions of Britons who were not free" was 
 the ke3^note of this memorable deliverance, and those 
 words were everywhere- repeated though with widely dif- 
 ferent emotions. By Canada First the speech was hailed 
 wath delight. By the old leaders of the Liberal party, 
 whose Liberalism had ended with the attainment of re- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 sponsible government, it was received with consternation 
 and disgust, as an alarming outbreak of free thought in 
 the party camp. Their journal suspended the report of 
 the speech, while an editorial was being prepared to 
 neutralize its evil effect, and from that day never ceased 
 to denounce Canada First and to shoot arrows which 
 were well understood to be intended for Mr. Blake, though 
 they might be ostensibly levelled against some safer tar- 
 get. Mr. Blake, however, pursued his course, and under 
 his auspices The Liberal was set up at Toronto as an 
 independent rival of The Globe. Both the old political 
 parties frowned on Canada First, though it was only the 
 natural response to the appeals made by their leaders 
 to Canadian patriotism for the purpose of carrying Con- 
 federation. But the Old School Liberals, or to use their 
 familiar name, the Grits, and their organ were always its 
 bitterest enemies. It was their camp which it chiefly 
 menaced with mutin\% and their party strategy which it 
 most threatened to mar. This will explain some passages 
 in Foster's addresses. 
 
 In the same year (1874), the Canadian National Associ- 
 ation, comprising those who took the more active part in 
 the movement, was formed. The list of its prominent 
 members has already been given. It issued an address 
 to the people of Canada, which will be found among the 
 papers of this volume. The address is signed by Mr. Wm. 
 H. Rowland, as Chairman, and Mr. W. G. McWilliams, 
 as Secretary ; but it is believed Foster had a large share 
 in its composition. It is headed " Canada First." It 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vindicates the movement against the interpretations of 
 those who identify it with Annexation, Independence* 
 or Know-nothingism, and explains that the aim is broad 
 patriotism, with national unity and a full measure of self- 
 government. It denounces the narrow spirit of party 
 and the prostration of independent thought beneath the 
 chariot-wheels of mere dictators, that is, the dictator of 
 The Globe. 
 
 At a dinner given by the Hamilton Branch to the 
 Toronto Branch, Foster made a speech, the keynote of 
 which was that " the time had arrived for Canadians to 
 say that they had a country, and that the bearing of the 
 sentimental upon the actual might be more important than 
 was supposed." He went over at the same time the 
 several plani<s in the Canadian National Association 
 Platform : — 
 
 1. British Connection, Consolidation of the Empire — and 
 
 in the meantime a voice in treaties affecting Canada. 
 
 2. Closer trade relations with the British West India 
 
 Islands, with a view to ultimate political connection. 
 
 3. Income Franchise. 
 
 4. The Ballot, with the addition of compulsory voting. 
 
 5. A Scheme for the Representation of Minorities. 
 
 0. Encouragement of Immigration, and Free Homesteads 
 in the Public Domain. 
 
 7. The imposition of duties for Revenue, so adjusted as to 
 
 afford every possible encouragement to Native 
 Industry. 
 
 8. An Improved Militia System, under command of 
 
 trained Dominion Officers. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 9. No Property Qualifications in Members of the House 
 
 of Commons. 
 
 10. The Reorganization of the Senate. 
 
 11. Pure and Economic Administration of Public Affairs. 
 It was before the Canadian National Association that 
 
 Foster delivered, in 1875, the address here reprinted. In 
 that address he went beyond the first article of the plat- 
 form and avowed, though without breach of constitution- 
 al loyalty, the real aspirations of the more pronounced 
 and ardent members of the circle. " We no more advo- 
 cate Independence than we advocate the Day of Judg- 
 ment. There are those among us who think just as Mr. 
 Gladstone, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Brown, Sir Alexander Gait, Mr. 
 Blake and others, think, that the relations of Canada to 
 the Empire are proper subjects for discussion ; that some 
 day or other separation may or must come, and that now 
 is the time at least to begin to prepare for it. England 
 has been trying for years to make us stand upon our feet. 
 The troops have been withdrawn. We are allowed to 
 legislate as we please and there is great dislike of inter- 
 fering with our action. It would rather take us aback 
 if at some early day we were made to strike out for our- 
 selves without any preparation for the event. What 
 must come is either a Federation of the Empire or Inde- 
 pendence." Such avowals of course drew volleys of 
 vituperation from the regular party organs on both sides. 
 " Canada First" was denounced as " annexationism," 
 " Republicanism," " treason" and " Communism," the 
 orthodox Liberal organ as usual leading the chorus. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 *' Canada First" was no more annexationist than it was 
 Communist. Its leading idea was a nationality too 
 strong in its unity to be absorbed by the United States. 
 On the subject of the Fenian Raids and the questions con- 
 nected with them, Foster, as a journalist, had written in 
 an ardently patriotic strain. He wrote in an equally 
 ardent strain about Kiel's first rebellion in the North- 
 West and the murder of Thomas Scott. 
 
 The Nation, a weekly journal, was brought out in 
 1874, by a group of Canada First men, among whom 
 Foster probably was the most active. Mr. W. H. How- 
 and also took a leading part. Mr. Charles Lindsey lent 
 the young journal from the first the powerful aid of his 
 pen. So did Mr. W. J. Rattray, one of our best and most 
 thoughtful writers, and a great friend of Foster, who was 
 destined to a too short career.* Its aim was, in ac- 
 cordance with the title, to be thoroughly national and 
 independent of party, and of all interests opposed to the 
 broadest patriotism. It also sought to give the country a 
 literary paper, and one which should treat general ques- 
 tions in a more comprehensive way and more satisfac- 
 torily than they could be treated by the party press. 
 The Nation ran for two years, and considering the 
 limited character of the constituency to which such a 
 journal could appeal in a country like ours, with success. 
 Its circulation was larger in proportion to the area 
 than that of its prototype in the United States. At 
 the end of two years, its two principal writers were 
 
 * The writer of this notice contributed, but at a liter stage. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 obliged to leave it ; they could not be replaced and The 
 Nation was withdrawn. A constant fire had been kept 
 up against it by enemies, who in their eagerness to de- 
 stroy it and crush its contributors, broke through the 
 laws of Press warfare ; but few, it is believed, thought 
 that by its character and tone, it had disgraced Canada 
 First. 
 
 The National Club, founded at Toronto in 1874, was 
 another offspring of the movement in which Foster took 
 an active interest. Its name was an antithesis to those of 
 party clubs, and it was destined to unite under the same 
 roof all true Canadians and to afford them a place for 
 perfectly free intercourse and discussion, in a social way, 
 about the concerns and interests of their common 
 country. 
 
 In 1875, however, the movement received a heavy blow. 
 The man to whom it looked as its leader, Mr. Edward 
 Blake, joined the Liberal Ministry, the head of which was 
 Mr, Alexander Mackenzie, but the real master of which 
 was Mr. George Brown, the proprietor of The Globe, the 
 bitterest enemy of " Canada First." The Liberal was at 
 the same time withdrawn. From the consequences of 
 this catastrophe the central action of the movement did 
 not recover, though the sentiment survived elsewhere. 
 Mr. Moss soon afterwards quitted Parliament for the 
 Bench, of which he had become one of the greatest orna- 
 ments when he was snatched away by a too early death. 
 Foster devoted himself to his profession. He had made 
 for himself a happy home, by his marriage in 1877 with 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Margaret, the daughter of Ex-Mayor Bowes. He was 
 rising rapidly at the Bar and had been made a Q.C., when 
 overwork, in connection with the Central Bank Liqui- 
 dation, broke down his health and hurried him to the 
 grave. In years his life was short ; in interest and sig- 
 nificance it was long. 
 
 His bright and winning expression has been well pre- 
 served in the portrait of him by Mr. W. Cutts, a won- 
 derful work considering that it was executed from a 
 photograph after the death of the subject. 
 
 High aspiration followed by disinterested effort works 
 into and elevates the character of a nation as it works 
 into and elevates the character of a man. That is 
 the epitaph which must be written on the tomb of many 
 a generous movement. That is the epitaph which, if 
 there is no revival in store, will be written on the tomb 
 of Canada First. 
 
 A Voyage down the St. Lawrence in a Raft, which con- 
 cludes the series, shows Foster's literary gifts as well as 
 the geniality and mirthfulness, which made his company 
 always a delight and his departure a heavy loss to a large 
 
 circle of friends. 
 
 G. S. 
 
CANADA FIRST/ 
 
 HREE hundred and thirtv-seven years ao^o 
 g^ Jacques Cartier erected the cross at Gasp^, 
 and, amid the triumphal shout of his hardy- 
 mariners, flung to the breeze the Fleur-de-lis 
 of Old France. Since then what a land of adven- 
 ture and romance has this been ! We may have 
 no native ballad for the nursery, or home-born epic for 
 the study ; no tourney feats to rhapsodise over, or mock 
 heroics to emblazon on our escutcheon ; we may have no 
 prismatic fables to illumine and adorn the preface of our 
 existence, or curious myths to obscure and soften the sharp 
 outline of our early history ; yet woven into the tapestry 
 of our past, are whole volumes of touching poetry and great 
 tomes of glowing prose that rival fiction in eagerness of in- 
 cident, and in marvellous climax put fable to the blush. 
 We need not ransack foreign romance for valorous deeds, 
 nor are we compelled to go abroad for sad tales of priva- 
 tion and suffering. The most chivalrous we can match ; 
 the most tried we can parallel. Each stage of this coun- 
 try's progress recounts to us, in all the simplicity of un- 
 premeditated record, sacrifices endured, hardships encoun- 
 tered and brave deeds done, not amid the applause of an 
 interested and anxious world, nor yet amid the pomp 
 
 *Repriiited from a brochure, published at Toronto in the year 1871, en- 
 titled " Canada First ; or, Our New Nationality." An Address by W. A 
 Foster, Esq., Barrister at Laio. 
 
14 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 and pride of oft-recurring circumstance, but rather in 
 silent, ever-changing strait and myriad -formed danger, 
 when every faculty sprang into earnest, vigorous action, 
 and every sense grew sharp by reason of restless emer- 
 gency ; when civilization grappled with herculean sav- 
 agery, and man fought with nature ; and when, alas ! the 
 consciousness of duty done was the sole reward achieved, 
 or the solitary unnamed mound, chapleted by the winter's 
 snow, was the only monument won. Yet there are few 
 heroes in our Pantheon. Where every man does his 
 duty, heroes are not wanted and are not missed. 
 
 For years our frontier echoed to the roar of battle ; 
 the shrill scream of the Indian and the hoarse yell of the 
 white man mingling in death agony ; while along the 
 dim corridors of our forests the unpitying north wind 
 came laden with the half-stifled sighs of lonely, yet 
 patient women, and the shivering wail of starving chil- 
 dren. In the old times war raged almost continuously, 
 and every man was a soldier. First came the contests with 
 the Iroquois and the Harons, garnished with sad tales of 
 civilized atrocities and savage vengeance. If one's ap- 
 petite for horrors demands gratification, the needful 
 stimulant may be found in the details of the Massacre 
 of Lachine, when 1,400 Iroquois warriors swooped down 
 by night upon a slumbering village, and plied the torch 
 and tomahawk with all the relentlessness of savage hate, 
 showing mercy to neither age nor sex, and reserving 
 only for a sickening butchery those whoQi the inexorable 
 flame spared. Two hundred men, women and children 
 were burnt alive, and those who died under prolonged 
 tortures were not a few. Houses, crops, everything was 
 
CANADA FIRST. 15 
 
 I'educed to ashes, and woe held exultant sway amid deso- 
 lation and blood. Next came the wars between England 
 and France, with their mimic reproduction on this con- 
 tinent ; the ambitions, animosities and jealousies of Euro- 
 pean diplomacy bringing devastation and death into 
 Canadian homes ; and the swaying incidents of the Old 
 World finding their obsequious parallel, three thousand 
 miles across the sea, in the wilds of the New. In vain 
 the New Englander made desperate and persistent efforts- 
 to win Canada. In spite of repeated invasions, and in 
 the face of large odds, the flag of France kept proudly 
 afloat. A people varying in number from 25,000 in 1679, 
 to 70,000 in 1761, not only thwarted every attempt at 
 their subjugation by the much more densely populated 
 colonies to the south, but with a little stingily rendered 
 assistance from the parent country, held their own against 
 repeated attack by land and sea. Mournful is the history 
 of those days. There were no ambulance trains then, no 
 Christian charities to assuage the horrors of battle, and 
 little skill to alleviate its suflTerings. Mercy was a word 
 unknown, for the civilized had become apt pupils of the 
 savage. Need I rehearse in your ears the terrible punish- 
 ment inflicted on the simple-minded, inoffensive Acadians 
 who " dwelt in the love of God and of man," — " their 
 dwellings open as day and the hearts of the owners," — 
 when hundreds of families were torn apai-t, wife from 
 husband, child from parent, and 
 
 "the freighted vessels departed, 
 Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile, 
 Exile without an end, and without an example in story ; " 
 
 discharging their living cargoes at intervals along the 
 coast from Boston to Carolina, and flinging like outcasts 
 
16 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 among a people alien in race and language, those home- 
 less, houseless, broken-hearted wanderers. ! it was a 
 cruel act without palliation, an inhuman vengeance with- 
 out excuse ! * Who has not read of Evangeline, her heart 
 iQlled with inexpressible sweetness, pursuing through the 
 .slow-revolving years the phantom of her love, and losing 
 the celestial brightness of her girlhood in " the unsatis- 
 -fied longing, and the dull, deep pain and constant anguish 
 •of patience ; " or of Gabriel, " weary with waiting, un- 
 happy and restless, seeking in the western wilds, oblivion 
 of self and of sorrow ;" or of the dying Marguerite, of 
 whom the sweet-voiced Whittier has sung : 
 
 "Done was the work of her hands, she had eaten her bitter bread ; 
 The world of the alien people lay behind her, dim and dead, 
 But her soul went back to its child-time ; she saw the sun o'erflow 
 AVith gold the Basin of Minas, and set over Gaspereau ; 
 She saw the face of her mother, she heard the song she sang, 
 And far off, faintly, slowly, the bell for vespers rang. " 
 
 But pathetic incident must give place before the march 
 of historical event. It was not until wearied out by in- 
 cessant attack, deserted by parent land, and overborne 
 by superior numbers, that the French-Canadian laid 
 down his arms and exchanged his allegiance. In the 
 spring of 1758, 30,000 British combatants were ready to 
 march on Canada, not merely raw militiamen, but regu- 
 lar troops as well, led by officers trained on European 
 battle-fields, armed with artillery and siege requisites, 
 and supported by an active and daring fleet. The Can- 
 adians knew their danger and prepared to meet it. An 
 inquest of the inhabitants was held, and the male popu- 
 
 * Foster had not read Parkman, Adams, Archibald, and Kingsford. 
 
. CANADA FIRST. 17 
 
 lation of the colony between the ages of sixteen and sixty 
 was found to be but 15,000. Aid was implored from 
 France, but instead of munitions of war and recruits, the 
 devoted colonists were vouchsafed official despatches 
 recommending them to dispute every inch of territory, 
 foot to foot with the British and to sustain the honour of 
 the French arms to the utmost. " Not only would addi- 
 tional troops be a means of aggravating the evils of the 
 dearth which has too long afflicted the colony," — wrote 
 the French Minister — " but the chances are great that if 
 sent thither, they would be captured on their way to you 
 by the British." Though thus basely deserted ; though 
 exhausted by continual marching and incessant fighting ; 
 though their dwellings were falling to ruin and their 
 fields lay waste ; though their wives and children were 
 crying for bread ; the despised and forsaken French-Can- 
 adians neither flung aside their allegiance nor forgot their 
 honour, but plunged into the final struggle with a devo- 
 tion which excites our wonder and admiration. It was 
 of no avail. On the 13th September, 1759, Quebec was 
 taken. One year afterwards the French flag w^as hauled 
 down and Canada became part of the British Empire. 
 Great was the joy manifested in England over the con- 
 quest of Louis XIV's "acres of snow." Addresses were 
 presented to the king, congratulating him on this much- 
 coveted addition to the Imperial possessions ; a statue 
 in Westminster Abbey was accorded to Wolfe ; public 
 thanks were decreed to each of the chief officers who had 
 taken part in the Quebec expedition ; and it was ordered 
 that prayers of thanksgiving should be ofiered up to 
 Heaven throughout the wdiole empire. 
 B 
 
18 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 But change of rulers did not bring permanent peace to 
 the harassed colonists. Sixteen years after Wolfe took 
 Quebec, Canada again became the scene of war. The 
 American Revolution broke out, and Canada, with a popu- 
 lation of about 70,000 was called upon to meet the attack 
 of a people numbering 3,000,000. Every art of per- 
 suasion was tried in vain by the Kevolutionists to win 
 the Canadians to their side ; due provision was made in 
 the Federal Constitution for the admission of Canada 
 into the new confederacy, but without the anticipated 
 result. Then it was concluded that more severe measures 
 should be resorted to, in order to bring the refractory 
 and blind inhabitants ot this ice-clad region to a proper 
 sense of their interests, if not their duty. One enthu- 
 siastic American Colonel proposed to conquer and hold 
 the whole country with 2,000 men. Finally, Canada was 
 invaded by an army under General Schuyler, but, after 
 a futile effort to carry out his instructions to take Que- 
 bec, Montreal, and other places, the General withdrew. 
 
 At the close of the Revolutionary War, twent3^-five 
 thousand persons, exiles from the States, sought refuge in 
 Canada. When we call to mind that there was not a 
 tree cut from Ottawa to Kingston, a distance of 150 miles, 
 that Kingston was a village of a few huts, and that 
 around the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie all was a 
 dense wilderness, we can form some idea of the hardships 
 that fell to the lot of those who sacrificed everything but 
 honour, on the shrine of allegiance. Remember that the 
 fighting done during the revolutionary war was not mono- 
 polized by the regular troops of Great Britain ; there 
 were corps and regiments of American loyalists with 
 
CANADA FIRST. 19 
 
 familiar titles and designations. They liad their King's 
 Rangers and Queen's Rangers, the Prince of Wales' 
 American Volunteers, Georgia Loyalists, New Jersey 
 Volunteers, Loyal New Englanders, Maryland Loyalists, 
 Pennsylvania Loyalists, and so on, just as we have our 
 Queen's Own or the Prince of Wales' regiment. Yet, 
 when peace was made between Britain and the States, 
 those loyalists who had placed their lives and property 
 in peril were left to the tender mercies of the revolution- 
 ists, without any stipulation as to their protection, with- 
 out any security even for their lives. Lord Lough- 
 borough spoke truly when in his place in the House of 
 Lords he said : " In ancient or modern history there has 
 not been so shameful a desertion of men who have sacri- 
 ficed all to their duty, and to their reliance upon British 
 faith." Lord North spoke in like terms : " Never were 
 the honour, the principles, the policy of a nation so grossly 
 abused as in the desertion of those men, who are now 
 exposed to every punishment that vengeance and poverty 
 can inflict because they were not rebels." Exile was the 
 reward of those who had been forsaken by king and 
 country, and thus Canada became the home of those 
 whom we call the U.E. Loyalists. 
 
 Thirty years after the acknowledgment of A^merican 
 Independence came the war of 1812, with Canada once 
 more the battle-ground. An Act was passed by Con- 
 fess callinof 100,000 volunteers into active service, but 
 the Canadians were neither deceived by proclamations 
 nor dismayed by threats. A call to arms rang through- 
 out the country, echoing from lake to river, and piercing 
 the inmost recesses of the forest. How the eyes of the 
 
20 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 old refugee loyalists must have flashed as the rusty flint- 
 lock was taken from the rack above the fire-place, and 
 the recollection of by-gone hardships and persecution 
 came surging up from the past I How must the pulses of 
 the young men have throbbed as they grasped the trusty 
 rifle, and, amid the sudden silence of home preparation 
 for departure, pondered over the sad story of their parents' 
 exile. Now there was opportunity for redressing old 
 wrongs that clung to memory with fierce tenacity ! 
 There was no calculation of the chances of success ; no 
 reckoning over the probable consequences of failure. 
 All that they had forgotten was their desertion, in the 
 hour of peril, by king and country. There were but 
 280,000 people all told in Upper and Lower Canada, yet 
 the event justified their self-confidence. General Hull 
 with 2,500 men invaded Canada by way of Sandwich, 
 and then surrendered himself and his army prisoners of 
 war at Detroit. General Van Rensellaer appeared at 
 Queenston with 2,000 men, but only to surrender at 
 least 900 of them. General Smyth landed 3,000 men at 
 Fort Erie, but was at once driven back. General Pike 
 brought 2,500 men as far as Little York, where he and 
 200 of them were blown into the air by an explosion at 
 the Old Fort. General Winchester led 1,000 men to 
 Frenchtown, near Detroit, but their end was capture. 
 General Dear borne, with 3,000 men, was defeated at 
 Stony Creek. General Harrison, with 2,500 men, was 
 beaten at Fort Meigs. General Wilkinson, with 3,000 
 men, was utterly routed at Chrysler's Farm. General 
 Hampden set out with a grand army of 8,000 men to cap- 
 ture Montreal, but he suftered an ignominious defeat from 
 
CANADA FIRST. 21 
 
 a handful of Canadian militia under De Salabeny. 
 General McClure succeeded in taking Niagara, but 
 Hampden's defeat caused, him to retire. General Brown 
 crossed at Black Creek with 5,000 men, but after the ex- 
 perience at Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie, deemed it 
 prudent to withdraw. At no point along the frontier did 
 the invaders gain any important advantage, and when 
 the war ended, Canada had not lost one inch of terri- 
 tory. 
 
 These are merely historical facts, but it is just as well 
 to keep them at our fingers' end, for they are not un- 
 pleasant to reflect upon. Were we disposed to vaunt our- 
 selves, we might come down to more modern times, and 
 ask : Was there a display of timidity in the Trent aff^air? 
 Did Canadians hold back when the sanctity of our 
 common flag was violated ? Were reasons for neutrality 
 in the impending struggle searched out with eagerness ? 
 Or did our people sigh over their little hoards of money 
 — the fruit of years of hard work — or look with fainting 
 heart at the scarce-born evidences of substantial progress 
 that surrounded them ? Like the everlasting fire on the 
 altar, loyalty gave forth a steady light, its flame never 
 brighter or more pure than in the hour of national peril. 
 Think you, now, that Canada has no claim to rank with 
 those lands where adventure has had play and romance 
 has had a home, or that the heroic devotion which dis- 
 tinguished its inhabitants, of French and British origin, 
 is less worthy of a place in story than the most cherished 
 traditions of the Old World. 
 
 But our past is characterised by something more than 
 romantic attachment to a flag, or chivalrous devotion to 
 
22 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 an idea. Sentiment did not blunt the edge of industry, 
 nor suffering give excuse for idleness. Every breathing 
 spell of war gave the husbandman opportunity. The 
 sword and musket were exchanged for the plough and 
 sickle ; and a fruitful soil, feeling the warm glow of 
 peace, yielded a grateful return. The forest echoed the 
 rinof of the axe and the crash of timber. Amid the soli- 
 tariness of the backwoods the sturdv settler was hewino; 
 out a home for himself and his family, with hunger and 
 cold kept merely at arm's length. Between him and his 
 nearest neighbour, ndles of dark forest intervened. The 
 traveller or trader picked his way across tangled brush- 
 wood and fallen timber, or tramped wearily over a track- 
 less wilderness of snow, finding few finger-posts by the 
 road-side to point out the direction he wished to take. 
 All kinds of field-work were done by hand, for there were 
 very few oxen and still fewer horses. In 1789, the mails 
 xcft Upper Canada for England about twice a 3^ear, so 
 that epistolary effort was not much taxed. For years 
 the only road from Lower Canada was by the St. Law- 
 rence, the rapids being ascended by canoes and bateaux 
 in ten or twelve days, until the fiat- bottomed Durham 
 boats, steered with a ten-foot pole and pushed along by 
 two men on each side, came into use. We can read in the 
 York Gazette, of April 29th, 1815, that the Lieut.-Gover- 
 nor, Sir George Murray, Kt., arrived at York from Bur- 
 lington, in a birch canoe. But none of us need go far to 
 learn all about the hardships of the early settlers, for 
 witnesses are still among us who passed through the 
 ordeal. Now we can afford to look back with some 
 degree of complacency, for industry has produced abun- 
 
CANADA FIRST. 23 
 
 dant fruit, and we are reaping in joy a harvest sown in 
 tears and trouble. As farm after farm was rescued from 
 native wildness, schemes of internal improvement, first 
 viewed as shadowy impossibilities, grew into reality, 
 while the bounteous yield of a virgin soil sent new life 
 into every artery of trade. Land was gradually freed 
 from the tight-locking folds of rapacious hydras, and the 
 barnacles that fattened on the offices of state were torn 
 from the vitals of the country. What has been the 
 result ? In 1812, the population of Canada was 280,000 ; 
 to-day Canada has over four millions of people. In 1806, 
 the value of the exports from the whole of the Provinces 
 was $928,000 ; last year our exports were over seventy- 
 three millions, and our imports over seventy-four millions 
 of dollars. In 1815, the first steamboat was built on 
 Lake Ontario; to-day Canada is the third maritime 
 power in the world, with six million tons entered in- 
 wards, and Jive million tons entered outwards, engaged in 
 carrying on our trade. In 1851, Canada had but fifty- 
 five miles of railway ; to-day there are three thousand 
 miles in operation, several hundreds of miles under con- 
 struction, and a scheme on foot to build 2,500 miles more 
 that will present a route between England and Japan, 
 1,100 miles shorter than by New York and San Fran- 
 cisco, and give us a continuous line of four thousand 
 miles across the continent. We possess a system of canals 
 the most complete in the world, that cost us twenty 
 millions of dollars, — so complete indeed that President 
 Grant looks upon it as part of the St. Lawrence naviga- 
 tion. The aggregate of our banking capital is over thir- 
 ty-six millions of dollars, and the savings of our people 
 
24 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 represented by deposits in our monetary institutions, 
 amount to about sixty-four millions. 
 
 We have coal in Nova Scotia, on the Atlantic ; coal at 
 the Saskatchewan, in the heart of the continent ; and 
 coal at Vancouver's Island, on the Pacific. We have 
 mineral wealth as various as our needs, and, in extent, 
 boundless. We have, at our doors, exhaustless fisheries, 
 the richest in the world, furnishing an annual yield esti- 
 mated at twenty million dollars to the various countries 
 engaged in them, and giving us a nursery for adventur- 
 ous and hardy seamen. Our agricultural product is im- 
 mense, and capable of indefinite expansion ; and our 
 forests are the envy of the world. We have, or will have 
 shortly, 70,000 sailors, and now have at least 700,000 
 men between the ages of 20 and 60 available for defen- 
 sive purposes. As for territory, we have more than half 
 the continent, and elbow-room for a population of 
 40,000,000. Religious freedom exists here in its most 
 perfect form, and our elaborate system of common schools, 
 colleges and universities gives an equal opportunity to all 
 to achieve distinction. We have political institutions 
 combining the greatest freedom with the most perfect 
 restraint upon riot, recognizing the rights of the people 
 without begetting distrust or disrespect for lawful 
 authority : neither ignoring the poor nor bringing terror 
 to the rich ; giving voice to property without drowning 
 the tones of labour; allowing complete self-government 
 by means of a graduated jurisdiction and, through a well- 
 understood and easily-enforced system of responsibility, 
 admitting of reform without revolution, government 
 without despotism. Our Dominion Legislature will com- 
 
CANADA FIRST. 25 
 
 pare favourably with any deliberative body in the world. 
 Accident may have brought to the surface of poUtics a 
 good many who float by reason of the cork-like lightness 
 of their brains ; but, on the whole, our public men are as 
 able as those ot other countries. Our politicians have 
 certainly carried party strife to the extreme, but it is an 
 axiom that the smaller the pit, the more fiercely do the 
 rats fight. The world would be rather a stupid place if 
 all men thought and acted alike. The charms of novelty 
 and variety are too attractive, even to the idlest and 
 most listless, to render an unbroken harmony either 
 pleasant to the eye or grateful to the ear. Diversities of 
 temper, of understanding, of interest, are necessary to 
 stimulate our love of existence ; our impulses, offensive 
 and defensive, serving as a preservative from mental 
 paralysis, as a preventive as regards public langour and 
 impotence, and as a safeguard against the enervating 
 influences of a dreary, monotonous dulness. The old 
 Norse mythology, with its Thor hammers and Thor ham- 
 merings, appeals to us, — for we are a Northern people, — 
 as the true out-crop of human nature, more manly, more 
 real, than the weak marrow-bones superstition of an 
 effeminate South. For the purposes of attrition, the 
 bigoted dotard, the reckless empiric, and the shallow 
 babbler are useful in their way, as are also the wise, the 
 cautious, and the prudent. To produce the fine flour, we 
 must have a nether as well as an upper mill-stone. We 
 cannot construct politicians, nor manufacture political 
 parties impromptu, for there is always an inert mass, 
 incapable of sudden emotion, subject merely to that oscil- 
 lation which gives victory or defeat. One might as well 
 
26 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 try to form a political part}^ f'-om persons of a peculiar 
 physiognomy, as to fit men into sets of political principles. 
 They must come together naturally or not at all, for men 
 cannot be sized in principles, as if at company drill. Let 
 the worst come, however ; we know that political parties 
 have their beofinnino^ and their end. Babels are built 
 and confusion of tongues ensues. But when discussion 
 is pushed to the extreme, and enthusiasts and dema- 
 gogues have gone mad, the turning-point is reached, and 
 an union of those who have their senses left, marks the 
 beginnino' of a new era. When the time does come for a 
 renewal of strife, we spin around, in accordance with the 
 immutable laws by which the political world is regulated, 
 and we cannot, if we would, avoid the scrambling, jost- 
 ling, quarrelling and fighting, incident to the enjoyment 
 of free institutions in a free country. However, if there 
 be a common object in view, and that the welfare of the 
 country, it is best for us not to complain too much. 
 
 Formerly, the Provinces, whose destinies are now link- 
 ed, were disunited, knowing little, and caring less, about 
 each other. Instead of an interchange of commodities, 
 and of floating population, the current ran in a foreign 
 direction, and thousands of our young men were not only 
 lost to us, but went to the building up of our rivals — 
 yes rivals ! else what means this shutting us out with 
 higher tariffs, thwarting us by harsh legislation, abrogat- 
 ing reciprocity treaties, and obstructing our development? 
 But we were not always considered rivals. At one time 
 the prospect looked gloomy enough. Old Canada was a 
 dependency, with its best .portion shut in from the sea- 
 board for five months of the year ; separated from those 
 
CANADA FIRST. 27 
 
 of kindred sympathies, and acknowledging a like 
 allegiance, by an almost untraversable tract of country ; 
 gazing at the prosperity of a nation that held out every 
 inducement to unite with it ; without manufactures or 
 capital, yet witnessing a stream of British wealth pour- 
 ing into the lap of its overshadowing neighbour ; thinly 
 populated and outbid in attracting immigration. Times 
 have changed, however, and there is no reason why this 
 era should not be but the dawn of our prosperity. All 
 that has been done here has been accomplished in the 
 teeth of competition with a nation which calls itself, 
 and is generally accepted as, the most enterprising of all 
 nations ; which " beats all creation " in everything it 
 does, " steals the keys from snoring Destiny," and out- 
 runs time in its hurry to do it. We have been alternate- 
 ly flattered and threatened, 3- et neither wile nor threat 
 has mortofaojed our couutrv with dishonour, or caused us 
 to sacrifice our identity. So if we take pride in the 
 past there is soma excuse for us ; if we hope for the 
 future, we have, at least, some justification. Thanks to 
 Dr. Ryerson, our school children have now the means of 
 acquiring a knowledge of Canadian geography without 
 first searching through ever}^ State in the American 
 Union to find the country they live in, and can now 
 learn something of Canadian history without first pump- 
 ing dry the reservoir of Yankee buncombe. 
 
 Thus far, my object has been to indicate our advance- 
 ment as a country and as a people, but it may be well 
 to consider whether individual eff'ort has kept pace, in 
 individual results, with combined action and joint pro- 
 gress ; whether the unit has distinguished itself when 
 
28 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 isolated from the mass ; whether the mind has grown 
 inert by reason of" the need to supply mere bodily wants; 
 whether chopping and digging have blunted sensibilities, 
 and kept in the background the more refined ambitions 
 of the soul ; whether our soil is more fertile than our 
 brains ; whether scholarship and talent find in Canada a 
 congenial home. It may be bold for mere colonists, mere 
 backwoodsmen, to venture on dangerous comparisons ; 
 but let us hazard results. There are Canadian names 
 known to the world, outside our boundaries, on which 
 renown has fallen, and we are entitled, at least, to claim 
 whatever credit is our due. Thanks to the industry of 
 Mr. Morgan, we have not far to go for information. Sir 
 William Logan is one of the great geologists of the day ; 
 Sir Duncan Gibb is among the foremost in medical 
 science. In Art, distinction has been attained by Canad- 
 ians, one of whom flourished in Russia ; Gilbert S. 
 Newton became famous for colour, and was made a 
 Royal Academican in London ; Falardeau, a poor Quebec 
 boy, won celebrity in Italy. Among ourselves there are 
 names we delight to honour — Paul Kane, Plamondon, 
 Bourassa, Berthon, Hamel, and Legare — all gifted artists. 
 We claim Sir Samuel Cunard, the father of steam 
 navigation on the Atlantic ; Sir Hugh iVUan, the largest 
 ship-owner in the world ; and Sir Edward Belcher, the 
 first surveying officer of the day. Scholarship and pro- 
 found thought have not suffered from our practical 
 life. Archaeological lore finds a master-spirit in Dr. 
 McCaul, of our national University, who is pronounced 
 by the Saturday Review to be a better scholar than any 
 of the antiquaries who have taken to the elucidation of 
 
CANADA FIRST. 29 
 
 Britanno-Roman inscriptions. Dr. Wilson not only 
 casts new light upon the arch?eoloo-y and pre-historic 
 annals of Scotland, but dives into the ethnology and 
 antiquities of America, with a zeal and success which 
 evoke the admiration of those skilled in such subjects. 
 From the Ottawa region, Mr. Todd sends forth the most 
 useful and complete text-book that has ever appeared, 
 on the practical operation of the British Constitution. 
 John Foster Kirk, of New Brunswick, has, according to 
 the highest critics, entitled himself to take rank with 
 those accomplished historians, Prescott and Motley, by 
 the production of his history of Charles the Bold. We 
 can boast, too, of humourists, novelists, and tale-writers, 
 who have distinguished themselves. Judge Haliburton, 
 of Nova Scotia, has won fame through the sayings and 
 doings of Sam Slick. Besides him, we claim Major 
 Bichardson, the author of " Wacousta ;" Professor de 
 Mille, of New Brunswick, who wrote " The Dodge 
 Family ;" Mr. Jenkins, the author of " Ginx's Baby ;" 
 De Boucherville, Bourassa, and Lajoie, who have, in 
 their writings, evidenced all the sparkle and dash of the 
 true Frenchman ; Mrs. Fleming, of New Brunswick, 
 known to American literature as Cousin May Carleton ; 
 Rossana Leprohen ; Louisa Murray, who contributes to 
 Once a Week ; and Mrs. Moodie, who has given us a 
 vivid picture of old-time hardships, in her " Roughing it 
 in the Bush." Our historians are Garneau, Christie, 
 Murdock, MacMullen, Lindsey, and CannifF. In Charles 
 Heavysege, the author of " Saul," and " Jepthah's 
 Daughter," we have a dramatic poet of great imagination 
 and feeling, whose productions were received with con- 
 
30 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 siderable wonder by foreign critics. One of the great 
 Quarterlies, the North British, said : " This work is un- 
 doubtedly one of the most remarkable written out of 
 Great Britain." " This copy," the critic goes on to 
 remark, " was given to the writer of the present article 
 by Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whose recommendation 
 of this, to him and to us, unknown Canadian poet, our 
 readers, and English literature generally, are beholden 
 for their first introduction to a most curious work." 
 Charles Sangster chants, in no unworthy strains, the 
 beauties and sublimities of our great waters. Of him 
 Dr. 0. W. Holmes wrote, " His verse adds new interest 
 to the woods and streams amidst which he sings, and 
 embellishes the charms of the maidens he celebrates." 
 The soul-stirring lyrics of Alexander McLachlan combine 
 manly thought with apt and terse expression; and those 
 of us who have been fortunate enous^h to have familiar- 
 ized ourselves with them, need not a Sir Archibald 
 Alison to tell us that the author is one truly inspired 
 with the genius of poetry. Isidore Ascher has sung 
 tenderly and sweetly of household gods, in his " Voices 
 Irom the Hearth ;" and Charles Mair, the Canadian Keats, 
 tempts us with delicious melody away to the sunny hills 
 of his own " Dreamland." * However, we do not make 
 pretence to having achieved, as a people, great renown 
 in literature. " The Family Physician," and " Every 
 Man his own Lawyer," are still purchased with avidity, 
 while the poem or the essay lies on the bookseller's shelf, 
 accumulating dust and respectability ; though, in this 
 
 * Those who desire to acquaint themselves with the best efforts f»f our 
 sonpf writers will fiud the Rev. E. H. Dewart's collection very useful. 
 
CANADA FIRST. 31 
 
 particular, we are perhaps no worse off than our neigh- 
 bours. We have done well, everything considered, and 
 our cousins across the lines have little room to brag over 
 us, as there are not a dozen names in their literature 
 that can be placed in the front rank among the poets, 
 historians, and novelists of to-day. 
 
 In the annals of war, Canadians have achieved dis- 
 tinction for skill and valour. The old French times give 
 to us the names of D'Iberville, of Montreal, who was re- 
 puted the most skilful naval officer in the service of 
 France, and of DeLery, of Quebec, one of its first military 
 enofineers. Need we call the roll of those Canadians who 
 have done battle lor Britain ? Major-General Dunn 
 campaigned in Egypt, Italy and Spain ; Major-General 
 Beckwith fought at the Nile and at Waterloo ; Admiral 
 Sir Provo Wallis captured the Chesapeake ; Admiral 
 Watt figured in a hundred engagements ; Admiral Sir 
 George Westphal was wounded on board the Victory at 
 Trafalgar; Sir Thos. Wiltshire served in India and in the 
 Peninsular war; Captain McNab of Toronto, was on 
 Picton's staff* at Waterloo ; Sir Richard England led the 
 3rd division at Inkerman ; Sir Fen wick Williams won 
 fame at Kars, and Sir John Inglis at Lucknow ; Col. 
 Dunn, of Toronto, was selected, as the bravest of the im- 
 mortal Six Hundred, to receive the Victoria Cross ; Read 
 of Perth, though a surgeon, won the same reward of val- 
 our for daring feats in the Indian mutiny. Side by side 
 with the soldier of the motherland, the Canadian fought 
 with equal devotion, and fell with equal honour. The 
 hot sun of India looks down upon the graves of Monti- 
 zambert, Evans, Joly, Sewell, and 7aughan ; in the 
 
32 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 Crimea Parker fell with his face to the foe ; and on the 
 ramparts of the Redan died Welsford, with the bloom of 
 youth glowing on his cheek, and all a boy's enthusiasm 
 fresh at his heart. 
 
 We have still another record of competition and suc- 
 cess which is worthy of reference. The great British 
 Universities have not been left untried by Canadians. 
 Hincks, of Toronto, Redpath, of Montreal, Vidal, of Sar- 
 nia, proved that it is possible for our young men to 
 compete successfully with the best. At the Staff College, 
 at Sandhurst, Ridout, of Toronto, headed the list of can- 
 didates from all branches of the service. Robinson, of 
 Toronto, came out fourth, and Benson, of St. Catharines, 
 was the recipient of special honours for the high stand 
 he took. Even the great Public Schools of England have 
 not been essayed in vain. Not long ago Plumb, of 
 Niagara, was the head boy at Rugby. 
 
 But with so much reason for self-felicitation, we are 
 not apprehensive that vanity will obtain undue ascen- 
 dency in the national character — for some time at least. 
 Lest we should feel disposed to vaunt ourselves unduly, 
 it may be well to bear in mind that Canada has been 
 frequently spoken of with contempt. The normal Uld- 
 World idea respecting us and our country resolves itself 
 into huge pictures, in which frost and snow, falling 
 timber, snow shoes, furs, and wild Indians are the most 
 prominent, if not the only, objects of vision. Peculiar 
 notions are suggested by the word " Colony," so that 
 it requires no great dexterity in intonation to use it as 
 an efficient term of reproach. We know that when the 
 absence of a criminal was desired, he was transported to 
 
CANADA FIRST. 33 
 
 a colony ; when a political or religious zealot became ob- 
 noxious, he tied or was banished to a colony ; when a ne'- 
 er-do-weel" was to be got rid of, he was assisted to a 
 colony. Wild spirits sought it through love of adven- 
 ture ; persons of strong religious convictions braved its 
 unknown dangers through enthusiasm; and, when 
 resources grew narrow and bread scarce^ gnawing poverty 
 drove into the emigrant-ship many a true man and noble 
 woman, snapping heart-strings that would not be untied, 
 uprooting tender associations that seemed incapable of 
 disentanglement, and unveiling to the rude gaze of the 
 stranger all those sanctities of emotion whose shrine is 
 the innermost tabernacle of our being. The tremulous 
 farewells wafted from the ship's side, were but the pre- 
 lude to a new life of heroic purpose and resolute action. 
 We can scarcely wonder, therefore, that the word 'colony' 
 carries with it some awkward as well as sad significations. 
 The establishment of the colonies of Ancient Greece was 
 occasioned by necessity ; those of Rome by utility ; and 
 those of modern Europe by greed and ambition. The 
 American Colonies were looked upon as feeders to the 
 Mother Land, their resources beinsf reo^arded as so much 
 plunder for home enterprise, and their population as 
 legitimate prey for home avarice. In the old French 
 times Canada was farmed out to monopolists ; and even 
 when French Canadians here were fighting for their very 
 existence against large odds, Frenchmen in France were 
 writing disparagingly of them, as " a people who multi- 
 plied slowly in the woods, who associated with savages, 
 but who furnished no return to the royal exchequer, no 
 soldier to the royal host, no colonial merchandise to the 
 c 
 
34 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 home trader." Brave Canadian officers were slighted and 
 displaced to make room for the indigent yet supercilious 
 favourites of the home authorities ; and we read that the 
 appointment of the Marquis de Yaudreuil, as governor of 
 Montreal, was conceded with much hesitation, because his 
 countess was a native Canadian. Coming down to more 
 modern times, we can appease our hunger for criticism 
 and satisfy our thirst for notice, tothefullest extent, from 
 books of travel, as well as from the periodical press. Dr. 
 John Howison, a Scotch traveller, tells the world of a 
 people (meaning ourselves) " who are the untutored in- 
 corrigible beings that they were when, the ruffian rem- 
 nant of a disbanded regiment or outlawed refuse of some 
 European nation, they sought refuge in the wilds of 
 Upper Canada, aware that they would neither find the 
 means of sustenance, nor be countenanced in any civilized 
 country." Sir Charles Dilke, in his " Greater Britain,'* 
 pronounces Canadian loyalty to be mere hatred to the 
 United States, and sees no reason why the Mother Coun- 
 try should spend blood and treasure in protecting Cana- 
 dians against the consequences of their hate.* The Edin- 
 burgh Review describes us as " retainers who will neither 
 give nor accept notice to quit." The Fenian raids evoked 
 some plain language from a portion of the English press. 
 One journal, the Army and Navy Gazette, said : — " There 
 are upwards of 3,000,000 sturdy colonial Britons there, 
 all told, and they are so dreadfully afraid of the approach 
 of the raw, ragged Fenians that may succeed in forcing 
 the United States cordon, as to be incessantly calling on 
 the mother country for military aid. Every newspaper 
 
 * "Greater Britain," 4th Edition (1809), page 54. 
 
CANADA FIRST. 35 
 
 in the colony is filled with the same doleful appeal for 
 help. Canadians are calling lustily upon England to do 
 for them what, if they had any pluck or spirit, they ought 
 to do for themselves. They yield us no revenue, they 
 give no encouragement to our trade, and yet, in the 
 moment of assumed danger, they call out with almost 
 feminine nervousness for help." One lady traveller, 
 whose name is not vouchsafed to us, in the record of her 
 experience in Canada, speaks of our most respectable so- 
 ciety as being characterised by the manners of the kit- 
 chen, and the grotesque snobbery of the servants' hall. 
 *' Their ladies," says our waspish critic, " do not regard in- 
 civility as unladylike, and see little or no impropriety 
 in rudeness, oftentimes mistaking the former for haughti- 
 ness, and supposing the latter to be the perquisite of 
 good breeding." 
 
 Besides this direct method of toning our vanity, there 
 is a sort of compliment and method of patronage that 
 loses none of its sting by reason of indirectness. When 
 Dr. McCaul deciphers obscure inscriptions, great wonder 
 is expressed by foreign critics that so much sagacity and 
 knowledge should ripen here ; when Dr. Wilson writes 
 of Pre-historic Man, amazement takes possession of the 
 reviewer's breast ; when Todd defines the limits of the 
 royal prerogative and the theory and practice of parli- 
 amentary^ privilege, it is considered a remarkable circum- 
 stance that England should be indebted to a colonist for 
 such a work ; and even when a Canadian volunteer pro- 
 duces a book which is deemed worthy of translation into 
 French and German, certain of the military authorities 
 throw up their hands at such presumption, and point 
 their satire with epithets whose force is supposed to lie 
 
36 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 in certain equivocal associations connected with the word 
 " Colonv " and the desig^nation " Colonist." 
 
 A young country is peculiarly sensitive to outside 
 criticism. A very few words spoken in our favour, by a 
 stranger, give us pleasure; and a very few malicious 
 words, uttered to our detriment, irritate sorely. The fact 
 of being a dependent, though but in name, does not blunt 
 the edge of harshly-worded rebuke. Our cousins across 
 the lines, with all their self-esteem and resources, and 
 strength, smarted under the lash of a foreign press ; so 
 that Canadians, with fewer pretensions, might be excused 
 for displaying somewhat of a similar weakness. It was 
 easy to laugh at us when, with pardonable vanity, we ex- 
 amined English opinion for some word of encouragement, 
 some tribute to our lo3^alty, some recognition of our in- 
 dustry, some acknowledgment of our progress. The 
 circumstances in which the various Provinces were placed 
 as well as the recollection of what had been endured in 
 the preservation of our allegiance, naturally enough 
 prompted us to look to the Mother Land for some ap- 
 preciation of our steadiness of purpose. Little satisfac- 
 tion was derived, by us at least, from the dictatorial 
 utterances, and still less from the scoldings indulged in, 
 with " all the license of ink," that came to us across the 
 ocean. We find, also, some ground of complaint in that 
 disregard of the tie of kinship and the bond of common 
 allegiance, which leads so many British travellers and 
 writers to lavish their compliments on the United States 
 and their satire on Canada. Time and again compari- 
 sons have been made to our prejudice in respect of pro- 
 gress. Time and again have we been lectured on our 
 
CANADA FIRST. 37 
 
 bubbling and seething loyalty, and charged with an in- 
 clination to sponge on the Imperial exchecjuer. It is not 
 difficult to ridicule hearty expressions of attachment, nor 
 does it require great cleverness to fling ofl" the word '' lip- 
 loyalty." Those who so glibly utter the reproach forget 
 what it is that they are striking at. The citizen of the 
 United States has a flag of his own and a nationality of 
 his own — the Canadian has ever had to look abroad for 
 his. For years British policy isolated the Provinces, to 
 prevent their absorption in the neighbouring Republic, 
 and in so doing stunted the growth of a native national 
 sentiment. The exiles of the American Revolution car- 
 ried hither the recollection of injuries endured and losses 
 sustained, for a cause which they, fooUshly or wisely, 
 deemed worthy of the sacrifice. Many of them gave up 
 home, lands, kindred, and the associations of youth, and 
 exchanged comfort and ease for the dangers and hard- 
 ships of an inhospitable and unknown wilderness. When 
 Englishmen, therefore, undertake to cast reflections on a 
 loyalty that has so frequently proved itself a reality, 
 they should flrst consider how much is covered by the 
 boast. Now that we are prosperous and united, vigor- 
 ous and well-to-do ; and now that some of the traditions 
 of the past are gradually losing their hold on the imagi- 
 nation of a new veneration, that sentiment which so lonsf 
 found an outlet in declamation over the glories of the 
 Mother Land, will draw a more natural nourishment 
 from native sources. Critics should consider whether the 
 doling- out of so much o-ratitude for so much benefit re- 
 ceived will be more accf^ptable than the hereditary roman- 
 tic attachment which allowed no danger, no loss, no 
 
o8 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 neglect to sully its purity. Young as we are, we are too 
 old to be abused without retort ; weak as we may be, 
 we are too strong to be bullied with impunity. What 
 we demand from English writers is fair play ; and should 
 the hour of peril come, we may venture to ask from 
 England, without sinking our self-respect, a quantum of 
 assistance proportioned righth^ to the part we play in 
 attack or defence. No decorations lavishly distributed, 
 no baronetcies generously conferred, can or will answer 
 as a substitute for respect and kindness or a mutual inter- 
 chano^e of affection.* 
 
 As between the various Provinces comprising the 
 Dominion, we need some cement more bindino: than ffeo- 
 
 * The following extract from the Church Herald, the organ of the Church 
 of England in Canada, is worthy of serious consideration: — "Hereditary 
 honours may be suited to a country of hereditary estates. But Canada is 
 not a country of hereditary estates ; nor is there, amongst our people, the 
 slightest tendency to make it so. Consequently, if our leading men, instead 
 of beins; knighted, are made baronet?, there will be some risk of our having 
 baron'^ts sinking into the poorer classes of societ)% and trailing their 
 escutcheons in the dust. Even in England, in spite of primogeniture and 
 family settlements, there is a considerable number of pauper peers, whose 
 titled indigence often ftrces them to sponge on the public, or resort to the 
 still lower expedient of marrying money-bags. But in England the for- 
 tunes of the landed nobility and gentry are stability itself compared with 
 the perpetual fluctuations of Colonial wealth. No doubt, in creating 
 Colonial baronets care will always be taken to select men so rich as to hold 
 out a fair hope of their transmitting large properties to their descendants. 
 But this will tend to another evil, inasmuch as it will lead the public mind 
 to connect honour with wealth, instead of connecting it with personal merit ; 
 and, assuredly, the lesson that wealth is above merit is not exactly the one 
 which commercial Colonies need to learn. 
 
 "There is another consideration which somewhat alloys our satisfaction 
 in seeing an English baronetcy conferred on a Canadian, We regard with 
 jealousy on behalf of Canada anything which tends to make her leading 
 men look to another country, even though it be our mother country, for the 
 highest rewa'^ds of merit. If Canada is to be a nation, it is time that her 
 
CANADA FIRST. 39 
 
 graphical contact some bond more uniting than a shift- 
 less expediency ; some lodestar more potent than a mere 
 community of profit. Temporizing makeshifts may suit 
 a futureless peo])le. Unless we intend to be mere hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water until the end, we should 
 in right earnest set about strengthening the foundations 
 of our identity ; unless we are ready to become the 
 laughing-stock of the world, we had better not lose sight 
 of the awful possibility of sinking under self-imposed 
 burdens of territory. It is not by mimicking the formali- 
 ties of the Old World, or aping time-worn solemnities 
 which have ceased to be solemn, that dignity is to be 
 acquired, nor is it by pantomime or burlesque that the 
 
 sons should begin to look for the highest rewards of merit hei e. Hitherto, 
 the case of all the Colonies, in this respect, has been the same. None of 
 them have been regarded, either by merchants or politicians, as their 
 country, the ultimate sphere of their own efforts and aspirations, and the 
 future home of their children. The Colonial merchant has amassed wealth 
 in the hope of carrying it home to England, buying a great house in Lon- 
 don, mingling as a member of the great plutocracy in London Society, and 
 rolling in a carriage round Hyde Park. The politician, in the same man- 
 ner, has looked for his highest meed, not to the applause of the Colony, or 
 to the gratitude of future generations of colonists, but to the favour of 
 Downing Street, and has trimmed his course in the hope of receiving the 
 rewards which Downing Street has to bestow, and of ultimately going home 
 to enjoy them. While this continues it is impossible that we should hav^e 
 truly national statesmen or chiefs of commerce and industry thoroughly 
 identified with our interest?, present and future, and capable of the patri- 
 otic munificence which, it must be owned, nobly distinguishes the wealthy 
 men of the United States. Canadian men will seek to leave their names 
 in the British peerage, not in the statute book of Canada ; Canadian mer- 
 chants, instead of spending their wealth in the acquisition of the renown 
 which belongs to the founders and benefactors of great national institutions, 
 will hoard it as a means of founding a family, and they will transfer it and 
 themselves as ^peedily as possible to the on^y coimtry where a family can 
 be securely founder!. We prize as highly as it is possible to prize it, the con- 
 tinuance of an affectionate connection between Canada and the mother 
 
40 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 thews of our nationalitv are to be strengthened. Peri- 
 wigs and Gold-sticks have had their day, and it is not 
 well for us to attempt to set up the mummied idols of a 
 buried past as objects of worship, or graft on our simple 
 Canadian maple the gaudy outgrowth of a luxuriant tro- 
 pical vegetation. Here, every man is the son of his own 
 works, and we need no antique code of etiquette nor the 
 musty rules of the Heralds' office to tell us whom or what 
 to honour. 
 
 We know not what the future may have in store for us. 
 Let the event be what it may, it is our bounden duty to 
 prepare for it like sensible men conscious of obligation to 
 humanity. The problem of self-government is being 
 worked out anew with fresh data, and we must do our 
 
 country ; but the connection must be so regulated as not to preveut Canada 
 from becoming a nation. 
 
 "What we say with regard to the State in Canada, may be said with 
 regard to the Church also. We have sometimes heard complaints that the 
 meiits of Colonial clergymen are not recognized by promotion in the Eng- 
 lish Church ; but we cannot sympathize with these complaint?!, because it 
 appears to us that such promotion, however gratifying in some respects, 
 would confirm Colonial Churchmen in a misapprehension of their position. 
 Let the Church in Canada keep the most grateful recollection of her origin, 
 and cherish her spiritual connection with the Church of the mother country; 
 but she must remember that she is herself the Church, not of England, but 
 of Canada, and that she will have to draw her life from the soil in which 
 she is planted, and to adapt herself to the circumstances and exigencies of 
 her actual position. Our laity are apt to fancy that they are still members 
 of a Church established and endowed by the State, and to 'refuse to contri- 
 bute for the support of the clergy to anything like the extent which the 
 voluntary system requires. Perhaps the clergy, on their part, sometimes 
 do a little to keep up this illusion. Both clergy and laity, however, must 
 get rid of it, if the Church is to prosper in this country. The Canadian 
 laity have to support a Canadian clergy under the voluntarj^ system ; the 
 clergy have to gain the confidence of the Canadian laity under the same 
 system, and to found the Church on the free allegiance of the Canadian 
 people." 
 
CANADA FIRST. 41 
 
 part in the solution. There are asperities of race, of 
 creed, of interest to be allayed, and a composite people to 
 be rendered homogenous. Away down in Lunenburg\ 
 Nova Scotia, there is the old Teutonic stock, just as it 
 exists in the county of Waterloo in Ontario ; there are 
 the descendants of the Pennsylvania Dutchmen in Lin^ 
 coin, and of the New York Dutchmen around the Bay of 
 Quinte ; Highland Scotch clustering together in Prince 
 Edward Island and Cape Breton, just as they do in Glen- 
 garry or Bruce ; and the old Norman and Breton stocks 
 in the Province of Quebec. In the interior of the conti- 
 nent there are French and Scotch half-breeds, with their 
 Indian blood and Indian habits. Then again, acro-^s on 
 the Pacific coast there is a motley collection of English,. 
 Irish, Scotch and Canadian, with all their varied peculi- 
 arities. But the task of fusing and blending these vari- 
 ous elements is much less difficult than it seems. Swit-^ 
 zerland has carried its constitution safely through three 
 European revolutions, yet, of its two-and-a-half millions,, 
 one-and-two-thirds speak German, one-half million 
 French, and the remainder Italian and other tono^ueS. 
 No ; — the difficulty is not in the multitude of differences, 
 real or fancied, that exists, but rather in finding some 
 common basis of agreement strong enough to counteract 
 disintegrating tendencies. Where are we to look for such 
 a basis ? In a work, lately published, an Englishman 
 who paid us a visit, remarks that " to the Canadian it is 
 of small concern what you think of his country. He has 
 little of patriotic pride in it himself. Whatever pride of 
 country a Canadian has, its object, for the most part, is 
 outside of Canada." And the writer, from whom we are 
 
 I 
 
42 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 quoting, goes on to assert that " whatever may be alleged 
 to the contrary, the belief in the possibility of a separate 
 future for Canada is steadily lessening among Canad- 
 ians." Is this true? True or not, there is certainly some 
 ground to justify a casual visitor in such a conclusion. 
 We have too many among us who are ever ready to wor- 
 ship a foreign Baal, to the neglect of their own tutelary 
 gods. There are too many Cassandras in our midst ; too 
 many who whimper over our supposed weakness and 
 exaggerate others' supposed strength. But there are 
 those who do not despair of the State ; who are neither 
 weak-kneed nor faint of heart ; who know that strength 
 comes from within. There is a name I would fain ap- 
 proach with befitting reverence, for it casts athwart 
 memory the shadow of all those qualities that man ad- 
 mires in man. It tells of one in whom the generous 
 enthusiasm of youth was but mellowed by the experience 
 of cultured manhood ; of one who lavished the warm love 
 of an Irish heart on the land of his birth, yet gave a loyal 
 and true affection to the land of his adoption ; who strove 
 with all the power of genius to convert the stagnant pool 
 of politics into a stream of living water ; who dared to be 
 national in the face of provincial selfishness, and impar- 
 tially liberal in the teeth of sectarian strife ; who from 
 Halifax to Sandwich sowed broadcast the seeds of a 
 higher national life, and with persuasive eloquence drew 
 us closer together as a people, pointing out to each what 
 was good in the other, wreathing our sympathies and 
 blending our hoi)es ; — yes ! one who breathed into our 
 New Dominion the spirit of a proud self-reliance, and 
 first taught Canadians to respect themselves. Was it a 
 
CANADA FIRST. 43 
 
 wonder that a cry of agony rang throughout the land 
 when murder, foul and most unnatural, drank the life- 
 blood of Thomas D'Arcy McGee \ 
 
 There are times when the sluggish pulse is quickened 
 
 into activity ; when the heart throbs with sympathy the 
 
 most intense ; when all that is human within us asserts 
 
 unwonted supremacy. The sense of a loss shared in by 
 
 each, of a danger encountered by all, brings before us 
 
 with startling vividness how much we have in common. 
 
 Such a time it ivas when the flower of our youth went 
 
 forth to repel a wanton and unprovoked invasion.- 
 
 While tears sprang to the eyes of many fond fathers and 
 
 lovino- mothers, affection itself was strengthened by the 
 
 strain to which it became subject, and hallowed by the 
 
 shrine of its self-immolation. SiicJi a time it luas when 
 
 the lifeless bodies of those who fell in the conflict were 
 
 brought home. Though a load of grief pressed on every 
 
 heart, we felt proud that the post of danger had not been 
 
 left to strangers ; that bone of our bone and iiesh of our 
 
 flesh had been the first to meet the foe ; that our own^ 
 
 breasts had been bared to the storm. Such a tvme it was- 
 
 when the assassin's hand struck down the gifted, the 
 
 genial, the patriotic McGee. Our country reeled with 
 
 the blow. Such a time it luas when the news of the 
 
 butchery of young Scott at Fort Garry fell upon our ears, 
 
 thrilling every nerve, and crowding the hot blood into 
 
 our hearts. Humble though his position was — yet he 
 
 was a Canadian ; his mental gifts may have been few — 
 
 yet he died for us. " Spectet, inquit, patriam ; in con- 
 
 spectiv legutn libertatisque moriatur. Non tit hoc loco 
 
 Gavium non unum hominem, nescio quem, civem Mo- 
 
44 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 manum, sed communein lihertatis et civ'ttatis causam in 
 ilium cviiciatum et crucevii egidi." Let calumny do its 
 worst — it shall not be said that the great statesman with 
 brilliant talents and high place shall receive more abun- 
 dant honour in his death than the poor friendless 
 youth, who, away from kindred and home, cast all the 
 attractions of life behind, and marched to his fate with 
 a courage and devotion that fill us with awe. As we 
 plant the cypress on the tenantless grave of the one 
 unknown to fame save in his death, and wreathe with ini- 
 mortelles the headstone of an unpretending and almost 
 friendless Canadian ^^outh, we allow no inequality of 
 mental gifts, no difference in position, to separate in our 
 memory the orator and the statesman who dared to live 
 for his country, and the brave yeoman who dared to 
 die for it. Were he the most obscure in the land, were 
 ^e without a friend in the wide world, the cause he died 
 in was ours, and the consciousness of that sacrifice should 
 hiake every Canadian his friend. There are those among 
 us, God help them for cold-hearted sycophants! who dare 
 to talk glibly of indiscretion when men have sacrificed 
 the savings of a lifetime of toil, and mutter generalities 
 about rashness when men have staked their lives. We 
 have too little of that indiscretion and that rashness now- 
 a-days. When we have grown so wise as to do every- 
 thing by line and rule, and so discreet as to yield to the 
 demands of force, we shall have attained a degree of per- 
 fection incompatible with a free existence. The meanest 
 of all meanness is ingratitude, and there are degrees even 
 in that. The thankless wretch who flings back in our 
 tooth, alms, the measure of our ability, is a miracle of 
 
CANADA FIRST. 45 
 
 gratitude compared with him who seeks to blacken the 
 memory of one who died a martyr, or, with malignant 
 spite, to strip all of good from the sacrifice. We have 
 need to stand by each other, and we would have all know 
 that he who places us under national obligation shall not 
 go unrewarded ; that sufferings endured on our account 
 shall not be forgotten ; that the man who steps to the 
 front shall neither be deserted nor harshly judged by 
 those in the rear. We have been taunted with lack of 
 confidence in the future of our country ; let us not give 
 occasion for the imputation of want of heart. It is al- 
 leged that we are prone to exhibit a cowardly spirit ; let 
 us show that we can at least recognize and respect cour- 
 age. 
 
 We may, perhaps, lay ourselves open to the charge of 
 sentimentalism, but men die for sentiment and often- 
 times sacrifice everything for an idea. A piece of bunt- 
 ing is not of much worth, yet call it a flag and it may 
 cost scores of lives ; a song does not look very formidable, 
 yet it may quicken revolution and desolate an empire. 
 There is a national heart which can be stirred to its 
 depths ; a national ^imagination that can be aroused to 
 a fervent glow ; and when noble deeds are to be done, or 
 great triumphs of progress and reform to be achieved, 
 we appeal in vain to reason to lead the forlorn hope or 
 mount the imminent deadly breach; but at the first 
 trumpet-blast passion, enthusiasm, youth, step proudly to 
 the front, and press forward with resistless, eager pace. 
 The political machine must have a motive power ; where 
 shall we seek that power if not in the national character ? 
 A proper organization of those high qualities which form 
 
46 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 character commends itself, therefore, as the elementary 
 work of those with whom the education of the people 
 rests. " You have sent your young men to guard your 
 frontier," said D'Arcy McGee. " You want a principle to 
 guard your young men ; thus only can you guard your 
 frontier. When I can hear your 3^oung men say as proudly^ 
 OUT federation, or our country, or our kingdom, as the 
 young men of other countries do speaking of their own, I 
 shall then have less apprehension for the result of what- 
 ever trials the future may have in store for us." The 
 safety of Troy depended upon the possession of the Palla- 
 dium. Every people has its Palladium. Are we to be the 
 sole exception ? stumbling forward we know not where ! 
 groping for we know not what ! only too glad to live on 
 sufferance ! fully satisfied so long as we are permitted to 
 garner the weekly wage of toil ! Do Canadians lack in 
 love of country ? Search them out where you will — and 
 there is hardly a nook on the continent left un visited by 
 their adventurous steps — and you find that change of 
 scene has neither obliterated nor tarnished the memories 
 which ever cling to the land of one's birth. Should dan- 
 ger threaten, we know that the thoughts of many a wan- 
 derer would turn towards his Northern home, and we 
 know, too, that no intervening distance, no fetter of self- 
 interest, would keep from our side, in the hour of trial, 
 the loyal and true sons of our common country. 
 
 Let but our statesmen do their duty, with the con- 
 sciousness that all the elements which constitute great- 
 ness are now awaiting a closer combination : that all the 
 requirements of a higher national life are here available 
 for use ; that nations do not spring Minerva-like into ex- 
 
I' 
 
 CANADA FIRST. 47 
 
 istence ; that strength and weakness are relative terms, a 
 few not being necessarily weak because tliey are few, 
 nor a multitude necessarily strong because they are many; 
 that hesitating, doubting, fearing, whining over supposed or 
 even actual weakness, and conjuring up possible dangers, 
 is not the true way to strengthen the foundations of our 
 Dominion, or to give confidence in its continuance. Let 
 each of us have faith in the rest, and cultivate a broad 
 feeling of regard for mutual welfare, as being those who 
 are building up a fabric that is destined to endure. Thus 
 stimulated and thus strengthened by a common belief in 
 a glorious future, and with a common watchword to give 
 unity to thought and power to endeavour, we shall attain 
 the fruition of our cherished hopes, and give our beloved 
 country a proud position among the nations of the earth. 
 
CAKADA FIRST. 
 
 Address of the Canadian National Association to the 
 People of Canada. 
 
 Fellow Countrymen : 
 
 In addressing you thus early respecting a movement 
 which has been successfully inaugurated in Toronto to 
 promote the growth of a Canadian national sentiment 
 and to secure Canadian unity, we recognize the necess- 
 ity of freeing that movement from the effects of mis- 
 conception as well as of wanton misconstruction. We 
 had determined not to fetter the action or embarrass the 
 deliberations of our Party convention (in which all the 
 Provinces will be represented) by a premature declara- 
 tion or any statement other than such as might be con- 
 sidered needful to indicate our objects in a general way. 
 Our language must, therefore, be taken as expressive 
 merely of local and individual opinion for which our 
 friends outside of Toronto need not hold themselves re- 
 sponsible. As our motives have been impugned and sys- 
 tematic efforts are made to prejudice the i)ublic mind 
 against us by distortion of our views and misstatement 
 of our objects, we are forced for the sake of the movement 
 whose success we have at heart to appeal directly to you. 
 The misrepresentation to which we have alluded has, 
 naturally enough, prompted many who sympathize with 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 49 
 
 the movement, and others who, while not in thorough 
 accord, are willing to judge it fairly, to ask for further 
 evidence as to our honesty of purpose, and further infor- 
 mation as to our objects and pla,n of action. 
 
 Our motto, " Canada First," is said to admit of vari- 
 ous interpetations — fertile imaginations have almost 
 proved that. Some profess to see in it, Annexation ; 
 others. Independence ; others, Know-nothingism. The 
 meaning attached to it by us may be gathered from the 
 following expressions of opinion, which will serve to show 
 that the motto is not necessarily ambiguous an 1 has not 
 been misapprehended by all : — 
 
 "The germ of a national organization came to the surface daring 
 the recent election in the capital of Ontario, with the watchword 
 * Canada First,' which is simply a declaration of patriotism." — 
 Canadian Monthly and Natioyml Review. 
 
 " Now, why should not this principle of nationality be applied 
 in Canada ? There is more necessity for it here, at present, than 
 anywhere else we know of. It would unite the factions now tear- 
 ing themselves and the country to pieces, strengthen the weak 
 bonds which hold the Dominion together, elevate our statesman- 
 ship, give our young men something worth fighting for, and people 
 the country with a stream of immigration, now flowing into the 
 United States. It is said that encouraging this national spirit is 
 the surest way of hastening annexation to the United States, but 
 we say that nationality is the only sure preventive to annexation." 
 — Canadian Nationalist. 
 
 " Patriotism and loyalty are distinct, though they may at the 
 same time be agreeing sentiments. The one is devotion to one's 
 country ; the other devotion to one's sovereignty ; but there is no 
 need whatever for them to conflict with each other. The English- 
 man, while truly loyal to his Sovereign, gives his love of countrv 
 to England. The Scotchman and the Irishman while giving their 
 D 
 
50 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 full allegiance to their Queen, give the first place in their afiections 
 to Scotland and Ireland. Why should we in Canada be different ? 
 What reason exists why when Englishmen, Irishmen and Scotch- 
 men give their whole hearts to their respective countries, we in 
 Canada should not place our own land first, and so act and speak 
 as though we felt proud — as we have a right to be — of the name of 
 Canadian. We have a country in which any people might glory, 
 we have a future that is dazzling in its promise ; all we need is a 
 sentiment which shall break down all provincial and sectional dis- 
 tinctions, which shall make us feel not as Ontarions or Quebecers, 
 Nova Scotians or New Brunswickers, but as Canadians —proud of 
 our country as a whole." — Hamilton Times. 
 
 "And this is the feeling we want more of in our Dominion — a 
 feeling of Canadianism. Are we to be forever jabbering about our 
 respective merits as Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen, French 
 and Germans ; as Irish Catholic and Irish Orangeman ? We have 
 heard a great deal too much of this stuff talked. It is time that all 
 classes of our population, whether born here or elsewhere, what- 
 ever their creed or country, should consider themselves, above all, 
 Canadians. It is from this standpoint that we bid God-speed to 
 those who, in Toronto or elsewhere, are endeavouring to foster in 
 our midst a national Canadian spirit." — London Advertiser. 
 
 " You want a principle to guard your young men, and thus only 
 your frontier. When I can hear your young men say as proudly our 
 federation, or our country, or our kingdom, as the young men of 
 other countries do speaking of their own, I shall have less appre- 
 hension for the result of whatever trials the future may have in 
 store for us." — Thomas D'Arcy McGee. 
 
 " They who hoped for a great future for this country, and who 
 hoped to see its population largely increased, and knew that it had 
 in it all the elements of becoming a great country, thought it ne- 
 cessary, in order to weld it together, that not only should they 
 procure a teeming population, but that they should, most continn. 
 ously, deepen Ihe interest of those who are already here. Those who 
 had settled here should join together in the earnest effort to wipe 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 51 
 
 out provincial distinctions and internal dissensions. We must 
 possess these elements of union if this is to be the country which 
 we hope it is to he."— Hon. Ed. Blake, M.P. 
 
 "It is Canada before any party ; the country before any fac- 
 tion."— T/ios. Moss, M.P. 
 
 " There has been that in the history of Canada which rendered 
 it absolutely necessary that all patriotic men, no matter of what 
 creed or nationality, should band together for the purpose of check- 
 ing the spread of that political fanaticism which has injured us so 
 much in the past." — Hon. M. C. Cameron. 
 
 The signs of the times cannot be ignored, and whatever 
 the future may have in store for us as a people, it is our 
 duty to prepare for it like sensible men, conscious of the 
 power which lies in massed strength, knowing our obli- 
 gations and feeling their full weight, so much the more 
 by reason of self-imposed burdens of territory. 
 
 The Empire is quite equal to the duty of self- care ; its 
 interests will be best served by our doing, or trying to 
 do, the best possible for ourselves, and the whole be best 
 strengthened by giving strength to its weakest or sup- 
 posed weakest part. Free government is a matter of 
 compact, and, as such, involves reciprocal responsibilities 
 which result in "virtual agreements, even as between he 
 Imperial and Colonial Governments, respecting affairs 
 mutually affecting them." If the power of veto implies 
 mutual assent, and such agreements or assent admit of 
 prior discussion, surely it is not improper for each of the 
 contracting parties to urge its rights to its fullest extent 
 no matter what the compromise result may be. In fact 
 it is its duty so to do, and being such, when Canadian 
 interests are made the subject of stipulation, it is natural 
 
52 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 and proper for Canada to give its best endeavours to ad- 
 vance them and secure justice. In the internal affairs 
 there is no sufficient reason why the interests of Cana- 
 dians should not be regarded when the interests of Canada 
 are intertwined with them. For instance, in the manage- 
 ment of our militia, the ambition and spirit of our volun- 
 teers have been thwarted and well-nigh destroyed by a 
 pernicious system which prevails of sacrificing the volun- 
 teer to the army officer, no matter what the superiority of 
 qualification in the former over the latter may be.' The 
 consequence is seen in the rapid decay of our volunteer 
 regiments. 
 
 It has been alleged that we desire to create antagon- 
 ism between native born Canadians and Canadians by 
 adoption. The contrary is the fact. Our earnest desire 
 is to do away with all invidious distinctions of national- 
 ity, creed, locality or class, and to unite the people of the 
 Dominion, as Canadians, through affection for and pride 
 in Canada, their home. A serious impediment to our 
 progress towards unity has been, and, unfortunately, still 
 is, the hostility of ci'eed towards creed, nationality 
 towards nationality, class towards class, section towards 
 section, which faction for its own selfish temporary pur- 
 poses, provokes, and political sharpers systematically use. 
 That hostility puts deep cutting weapbns into the hands 
 of the unscrupulous, and, though it may seem but to affect 
 the unit, it has influenced the aggregate and tainted leg- 
 islation. 
 
 It has been contended by some that our organization is 
 but the advance-guard of Clear- Gritism ; by others that 
 it is the Conservative party under a new name. Notwith- 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 53 
 
 standing the certificates of character which some critics, 
 with all the gravity of fortune-tellers, will thrust upon 
 us in spite of protest, we form a new and distinct politi- 
 cal organization for promoting, by a joint endeavour, the 
 national interest upon a particular principle on which we 
 -are agreed. Owing to the relation Canada bears to the 
 mother land, as a self-governing country, and the recipro- 
 cal obligations and responsibilities "which that relation 
 creates and implies, we consider it essential to our present, 
 and still more so to our future, as a country, that the na- 
 tional heart be stirred, and the ennobling sentiments of 
 which home and country is the source, be utilized to in- 
 fuse into all the members of the Confederation the spirit 
 of unity, vigour, self-reliance, and self-respect, as well as 
 to give bent and impress to political action. 
 
 Principles should form the basis of party cohesion ; 
 not the memories of the past. A slavish clinging to the 
 skirts of despotic individuals, with whom self is the all- 
 in-all, should not be mistaken or substituted for manly 
 support. Party, as a legislative instrument, should not 
 be fastened to the chariot wheels of mere dictators, how- 
 ever able or troublesome, or made to serve as a yoke, 
 under which all freedom of thought, independence of 
 judgment and honesty of conviction must humbly and 
 submissively pass, else except the penalty of black letter 
 and ostracism. Public interests should not be subordi- 
 nated to merely local or sectarian demands ; nor power 
 attained and held at the expense of honour and rio-ht. A 
 spirit of calmness and judicial investigation should be 
 brought to bear upon the discussion of public measures 
 and the frauiing of laws, not that of subservient advocacy 
 or clogged opposition. Honourable rivalry and the can- 
 
54 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 did application of the rules of truth and justice should 
 displace that virulence, slander and uncharitableness 
 which characterize the bitter and ungenerous warfare of 
 the two leading political parties in the press, on the hust- 
 ings, and in Parliament. Such warfare has done much 
 to disgrace the name of Canada abroad, and contributed 
 greatly to the demoralization of our public men at home ; 
 has deterred from public life, or participation in politics, 
 many of our worthiest and best ; and has, by an inces- 
 sant interchange of calumny and vituperation, confused 
 the perceptions of the people, weakened their judgment, 
 and well-nigh destroyed all belief in the existence of poli- 
 tical morality. 
 
 Hence it is we arrive at the conclusion embodied in 
 the resolution passed at the first public meeting of our 
 party, 
 
 " That it is the duty of all Canadians whether such 
 by birth or adoption to recognize the pressing necessity 
 for the cultivation of a Canadian national sentiment 
 which will unite the people of the various provinces more 
 closely in the bonds of citizenship, promote a mutual 
 confidence, whose common source of affection will prompt 
 acts of toleration and words of respect, and prove the 
 best safeguard for our Dominion against absorption on 
 the one hand and disunion on the other." 
 
 The necessity for a new political party is manifest. 
 Old party lines are obliterated ; party nomenclature has 
 become so diluted as to be almost incomprehensible, or 
 at least incapable of intelligent explanation. The ins 
 and outs cannot be segregated under the old names of Re- 
 former and Conservative. Tory and Grit are merety 
 synonymous with cat and dog, and convey no notion 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 55 
 
 save that of difference in momentum. If so in Ontario 
 and Quebec, how much more so in the other provinces, 
 where a helpless but contented ignorance prevails regard- 
 ing the most cherished traditions of our dividing parties. 
 Seven years have elapsed since Confederation was accom- 
 plished, and to this day neither one nor other of our old 
 parties has established itself, as a party, in Nova Scotia, 
 New Brunswick, Manitoba, or British Columbia. Patron- 
 age and vituperation were equally inefficacious to give a 
 lasting foot-hold to either party, and tu-day only too 
 many of the parliamentary representatives of these prov- 
 inces, as well as of our own, think and act as mere dele- 
 gates, while the patriotic sentiment of the various 
 provinces is left to draw a miserable sustenance from 
 geographical contact and the preamble to tlie Confeder- 
 ation Act. 
 
 There is a very large number of persons in even 
 Ontario and Quebec who acknowledge no allegiance to 
 either of the old parties and find no political body with 
 which they can act in concert. There are also many who 
 act at present with one or the other but desire a change. 
 It appears to us, therefore, that there is a large field for 
 a new party, and in the present dismembered and un- 
 settled condition of those parties, which have hitherto 
 held sway, the present offers the most favourable oppor- 
 tunity for its establishment. Such a party, free from the 
 incubus of despotic repression and distasteful control, 
 unclogged with the weight of past misdeeds, based on 
 principles of a national character, capable of extension, 
 with equal facility into all parts of the Dominion, pre- 
 senting an intelligible guarantee for united action, avail- 
 ing itself of the experience and prudence of age and 
 
56 CANADA FIRST. 
 
 the energy and enthusiasm of youth, struggling honour- 
 ably for success, and recognizing success only in the 
 country's progress and the country's welfare — such a 
 party, we say is possible, and given a stringent law to 
 prevent bribery and corruption, vote by ballot to complete 
 the severance of old party ties, income franchise to bring 
 into play the energy, hopefulness, and self-devotion of 
 the young men of Canada, we assert that such a party 
 will be, and that its watchword, " Canada First," will, ere 
 long, echo from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Unless we 
 realize that, we shall have failed to accomplish our pur- 
 pose. But we have no thought of failure. If such w^ere 
 entertained it could not survive the rapid increase of our 
 organization, both here and elsewhere, the encouragement 
 received from all parts of the Dorainion, and the victory 
 which attended our first active interference, as a party^ 
 in an election contest. 
 
 There is every indication that a newspaper will be es- 
 tablished in Toronto in a short time, with such writing 
 talent at its service as no journal in the Dominion can 
 boast of; which, while it will not be the mere mouth- 
 piece of any party, will yet do the Canadian National 
 Party that justice which is denied it by any Toronto 
 journal. 
 
 A club, under the auspices of the party, is now being 
 founded in this city, which will combine the social, lit- 
 erary, and political elements, similar in plan to the English 
 Reform or Carlton Clubs. 
 
 W. H. HOWLAND, 
 
 Chairman, pro tern. 
 W. G. McWILLlAMS, 
 
 Secretary, pro tern 
 
ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 Delivered at Toronto, February, 1875. 
 
 ^f N the latter part of the year 1873 we met to 
 g give public expression to our political views. 
 This was not done rashly or without a careful 
 weighing of the consequences. We were 
 comparatively few in number, and the leading 
 journals made merry; we were not professional 
 politicians, and the wirepullers and ward-politicians 
 covered us with ridicule. We were persecuted by both 
 Scribes and Pharisees. Some members of one of the 
 old political factions pronounced us to be disguised Grits ; 
 by some of the other factions we were with equal con- 
 fidence and equal vehemence set down as rank Tories. 
 Each side showered epithets characteristic of its armour}^ 
 such epithets indeed as bear the same relation to the lan- 
 guage of courtesy as the rude stone tomahawk does to 
 the Damascened blade. The journalists and wire- 
 pullers of each side sought by an extravagant and dis- 
 torted statement of our objects to prejudice public opinion 
 against the movement, just as Demetrius the silversmith, 
 and those whose living depended on the worship of Diana^ 
 
58 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 excited commotion at Ephesus against the new doctrines 
 of St. Paul. They felt their craft to be in danger. There 
 were those among us who had acted with one of the old 
 political parties; there were those who had been closely 
 identified with the other ; and there were also those who 
 had theretofore taken no active part in politics. We 
 had found, on consultation, that we were tired of the 
 continual changes rung over extinct issues, and after a 
 little mutual concession, discovered that a common ground 
 existed on which all could unite. The conclusion arrived 
 at was embodied in the following resolution : — 
 
 "That it is the duty of all Canadians, whether such by 
 birth or adoption, to recognize the pressing necessity for 
 the cultivation of a Canadian national sentiment, which 
 will unite the people of the various Provinces more close- 
 ly in the bonds of citizenship, promote a mutual confi.- 
 dence, whose common source of aflfection will prompt 
 acts of toleration and words of respect, and prove the 
 best safeguard for our Dominion against absorption on 
 the one hand and disunion on the other." 
 
 The publishing of this was considered sufficient justifi- 
 cation for dubbing us sentimentalists. " Canada First " 
 was adopted as our motto (a self-assertive protest against 
 party), and, forthwith, it became, according to our oppo- 
 nents, a thing to be abhorred, and we were dragged into 
 unpleasant notoriety as know-nothings, annexationists, 
 independence men, and traitors. We pointed out that 
 the dividing lines between the old parties had been 
 obliterated, so far as either principle or practice was 
 concerned, that on the one side, antipathy to Mr. George 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 59 
 
 Brown and the Globe constituted the sum total of char- 
 acterizing principle, if such it can be called ; while, on 
 the other, a hatred of Sir John A. Macdonald, and an awe 
 of Mr. Brown, were the zenith and nadir of party thought; 
 that on the strength of such differences, people were ask- 
 ed and expected to surrender the fee simple of their 
 judgments to a daily newspaper, to mortgage their con- 
 sciences for the benefit of wire-pulled conventions, and 
 to sacrifice everything characteristic of national manhood 
 to the Moloch of Party. We showed that neither of the 
 parties, Grit or Tory, had obtained a foothold in the Pro- 
 vinces outside of Ontario and Quebec, and that the re- 
 presentatives of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Mani- 
 toba and British Columbia were forced to engage in 
 parliamentary contests which had no interest for them 
 save in speculation as to the probable vanquished, or in 
 nice calculations as to the bleeding power of the victor. 
 Their politics were, and perhaps still are, '' better terms." 
 The contract of Confederation was being opened afresh 
 every few days, and its scarcely cicatrized wounds plead- 
 ed piteously for rest. We were taunted, in reply, with 
 wishing to play at straddle-the-fence in politics — which 
 to the mind of the sycophantic partisan is a terrible 
 crime, and to the convention-monger an unpardonable 
 sin. It was all right for a Party to balance expediencies, 
 to make open questions, and even to veer about from 
 extreme to extreme, but for an individual to pause 
 and reflect, to take a dispassionate view of both sides 
 pri(jr to coming to a conclusion, to speak as his judg- 
 ment dictated, and to vote as his conscience approved, 
 was to become a pervert to that greatest heresy of 
 
60 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 orthodox party politics, otherwise called Independence, 
 We insisted that Party had become faction ; that wrang- 
 ling had taken the place of debate ; that the respectable 
 and thinking classes were ceasing to vote ; that the 
 difficulty of finding men of integrity and worth to accept 
 political positions had been intensified to an alarming 
 degree by party violence and individual despotism : that 
 personal abuse and recrimination had w^ell-nigh destroy- 
 ed the people's faith in their public men, and that even 
 the newspaper had become, by reason of its vituperative 
 vocabulary, a dangerous guest at the fireside. Party 
 strife had been carried to such lengths that no one of 
 sagacity placed the slightest reliance on a newspaper re- 
 port of a speech, or read leading articles for any other 
 purpose than that of keeping abreast of the fictions of 
 the period. This provoked from the 3Iail the contemp- 
 tuous retort, " beardless boys," and from the Globe the 
 equally withering phrase, " sucking politicians." We 
 were prepared for that method of attack, and made due 
 allowance for an exuberance of senile wit on the part of 
 those who gibbered behind the palings of Faction. Con- 
 scious that we could not be laughed out of existonce in 
 such innocent displays of humour, we directed our atten- 
 tion to the removal of the doubt and suspicion as to 
 our motives and objects, which misrepresentation had 
 begotten in the minds of many who, weary of party 
 strife, and dissatisfied with existing combinations, longed 
 for a change, and were willing to assist in bringing it 
 about. We were asked for a detailed statement of prin- 
 ciples. The reason for our being was apparent to all 
 save heated partizans. 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 61 
 
 But, it was asked, what practical good did we expect 
 to accomplish and how did we purpose to proceed ? These 
 inquiries resulted in an Address which our Association 
 issued and scattered broadcast over the country. In this 
 our platform was set forth in detail, and after the lapse 
 of fourteen months, I think none of us have reason to 
 feel ashamed of it. It included, as you rememljer, con- 
 solidation of the Empire, and in the meantime a voice 
 in the making of treaties affecting Canada; Income 
 Franchise ; the Ballot, with the addition of compulsory 
 voting ; a scheme for the representation of minorities ; the 
 reorganization of the Senate ; an improved Militia System 
 under the command of trained Dominion officers. The 
 enunciation of these as definite objects of united action 
 threw the leading journals into ecstasies of wrath. The 
 "sucking politicians" having gone through the sentimental 
 staofe had at length revealed themselves as hair-brained 
 theorists ! " Every one of these planks," exclaimed the 
 Globe, " is calculated to inspire sensible men with won- 
 der, if not with ridicule and contempt." " The innocent 
 work of bumptious lads w^ho have not cut their eye-teeth 
 in politics," cried the Mail. " Nothing but windy and 
 meaningless utterances," shouted a third journalist. Even 
 the Leader, catching the prevailing mania for strong 
 language, though but half awake, called out lustily "suck- 
 ing traitors," to the great consternation of many of Mrs. 
 Gamp's family. Disregarding the infirmities of its ner- 
 vous readers, it even went so far as to tell them abruptly 
 that " the real motives of the sect (!) are Anti-British 
 and Yankee," and that we were but "' a new fang for the 
 mouth of the Grit serpent through which to pour his 
 
62 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 venom into the bodies of his opponents." Fired by the 
 seeming universality of the chorus, Mr. M. C. Cameron 
 assured the public that " he was not prepared to retire in 
 favour of these young gentlemen," " but more likely to 
 prepare a dish of pap for these boys." He, of course, is 
 excusable. He always plays Rip Van Winkle well. The 
 last shot of this campaign of humour was fired by the 
 Glohe. It called our platform " piebald " and its details 
 " a bundle of incongruous planks." 
 
 The tactics which had dictated ridicule first, and whole- 
 sale condemnation afterwards, were found ineffectual 
 either to destroy our zeal, check the growth of our or- 
 ganization, or prevent investigation. So there was a 
 change of front. The minority question was taken up 
 and demolished in one article. The Senate reform was 
 pronounced absurd, and compulsory voting shared the 
 same fate ! This was done on the plan by which history, 
 geography and political economy are taught in one lesson 
 in quack schools. The public discussion which ensued, 
 shallow as it was, feeble and unscholarly though it was, 
 attracted attention, and it soon became confessed that the 
 National Party had given joui-nalists something to think 
 about, to read about, and to write about ; had placed be- 
 fore them questions which demanded some qualities of 
 mind other than those necessary to perfection in invec- 
 tive, and an acquaintance with books and political sys- 
 tems more extensive than that required for putting down 
 a ward politician, or reviewing a Parliamentary debate, 
 or the fence around the Front Street buildings, or even 
 defending the Ontario Government for the purchase of a 
 $5 chromo. It was noised about throughout the land that 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 63 
 
 subjects for political discussion had come to the surface 
 which were worthy of examination, and that these men, 
 possessing claims to education (I speak of those on the 
 roll of our Association), and holding not unworthy posi- 
 tions in their respective spheres, who, undeterred by the 
 scoffs of the ignorant or the sneers of the overwise, were 
 neither ashamed nor afraid to call themselves indepen- 
 dent in politics. 
 
 But times have changed somewhat, and as we look 
 back we can afford to be amused at the vain efforts of 
 our critics and the ineffectual labours of our opponents. 
 The name and motto of our organization have gone 
 through the length and breadth of Canada, and, here and 
 there, we can point to spots where both have taken firm 
 root and defy extirpation. The sentiment of Nationality 
 has revealed itself a living force, snapping the fetters of 
 Party ; giving voice and direction to aspirations which 
 hitherto struggled in vain for utterance ; placing in the 
 hands of the weak a powerful weapon of defence, and in 
 those of the strong an arm effective in attack ; utilizing 
 for the public good the enthusiasm of youth and the ex- 
 perience of age ; and, by supplying evidence cf its cohe- 
 sive qualities, bringing home to our public men in all 
 plainness the fact that the time has arrived for recogniz- 
 ing the existence of Canada as a country having a hold 
 upon the affections of its people, and that all the resources 
 which the magic words " home and country " place at 
 their disposal, might, and should be mined to better pur- 
 pose than that of forging self or playing the pander to 
 Party. It may be well for " practical politicians" to at- 
 tempt to moderate enthusiam by twitting us with senti- 
 
64 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 mentalism ; but they should remember that the germ of 
 all revolutions in polities is sentiment. That national 
 sentiment has commended itself to some of our leadinof 
 public men is pleasant to reflect upon, and that they now 
 dare to speak of it is satisfactory. Although the Glohe 
 told us that " it may tickle the ears of the groundlings 
 to cry that there is no principle so heart-stirring as 
 Nationality," Lord DufFerin did not hesitate to say 
 *' there is no feeling by which the Canadian people are 
 animated with which I sympathize more than in their 
 desire to build up their country into a distinct, prosperous 
 and respected nationality," and again, " I am happy to 
 see in every Province and locality I have visited, the time 
 has come for laying aside sectional distinctions, and for 
 combining one grand effort to create a nationality that 
 shall know no distinction from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 Ocean." Mr. Blake was equally outspoken and emphatic. 
 " The future of Canada, I believe, depends veiy largely 
 upon the cultivation of a national spirit. We must find 
 some common ground on which to unite, some common 
 aspiration to be shared, and I think it can be alone found 
 in the cultivation of that spirit." I might give many 
 more extracts to prove that a chord has been struck 
 which vibrates with a clear, distinct and delicious har- 
 mony. But to be convinced of that you need only read 
 the speeches now delivered by men of any pretension to 
 prominence among Canadians, and compare the references 
 to Canada's progress and Canada's future with the wails 
 of olden time when faith in our country's continued ex- 
 istence was kept as a secret too childish or too extrava- 
 gant for confession, ami aspirations towards nationality 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 65 
 
 too chimerical and quixotic to find a place in our litera- 
 ture. Were Thomas D' Arcy McGee alive to-day he would 
 find that the seeds wJiich he scattered broadcast through 
 the land and watered with his blood, have yielded a 
 rich harvest. 
 
 Our newspapers have taken shame to themselves for 
 outraging the public sense of fairness, and disregarding 
 the amenities and courtesies of honourable controversy. 
 The Globe has risen to explain, and the Mail has at- 
 tempted to clear its skirts. It is true each has cast the 
 blame upon the other ; but the very fact that excuse has 
 been deemed necessary, may be fairly claimed as a trib- 
 ute to the ameliorating influences of our movement. It 
 must not be fororotten that there was somethinof to be 
 said on behalf of the offending journals. They were 
 striving to rebuild party walls, not only without bricks, 
 but also without straw for the bricks. Principles were 
 not available for the creation of broad distinctions: hence 
 the only means of perpetuating Grit and Tory, as such, 
 was to fan the flame of personal animosity and frown 
 down philosophical speculation. But the newspapers, 
 with all their power, have had to give way, and are now 
 engaged in the laudable task of fortifying their minds 
 with facts relative to the much despised abstractions, 
 and furbishing up arguments for or against the much 
 ridiculed incongruities. 
 
 That journals have exercised and do still exercise 
 great influence over the people of this country is un- 
 questionable ; but growing intelligence not only demands 
 that appeals to evil passions be exchanged for appeals to 
 reason, that abuse give way before argument, but has 
 
 E 
 
66 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 already begotten a competition which is fraught with 
 great good. The fact that The Liberal can establish 
 itself alongside three daily newspa[)ers in a city of 60,- 
 000 people, demonstrates that there is a craving for a 
 new state of things in our periodical literature. If that 
 journal makes the mistake of supposing that mere organs 
 are wanted here, such mistake will prove fatal. Its suc- 
 cess will depend on the character for boldness and inde- 
 pendence it must earn. 
 
 In October last, Mr. Blake — one gifted with the power 
 of analysis beyond those of any of our public men, a 
 great lawyer and an accomplished speaker, a Saul among 
 our statesmen, a Samson among our politicians, an 
 Achilles among our debaters, and last, though not least, 
 a man in whose honour all believe, in whose integrity 
 none lack faith — spoke out his mind at Aurora, to the 
 consternation, as may be imagined, of his congregation of 
 convention-mongers, wirepullers and local politicians. 
 Horror took possession of their souls. Here was a man 
 daring to think for himself. What would the party say ? 
 Here was a man daring to utter heresy, " We must find 
 some common ground on which to unite, some common 
 aspiration to be shared, and I think it can be alone found 
 in the cultivation of a national spirit." In fact, in the 
 words of the Globe, tickling the ears of the groundlings ! 
 Here was a man daring to criticise the critics by explod- 
 incr the notion that the cultivation of that sentiment in- 
 
 o 
 
 volved the practical advocacy of Annexation ! Here was a 
 a man daring tosay "the time will come when that national 
 spirit will be truly felt amongst us, when we shall realize 
 that we are four millions of people who are not free. 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 67 
 
 when we shall be ready to take up that freedom and to 
 ask our share of national rights ! " Here was a man ad- 
 vocating a reconstruction of the Senate, compulsory vot- 
 ing, and a scheme for the representation of minorities 1 
 What would the Globe, the Alpha and Omega of the Grit 
 party, say to all that ? No wonder the nervous trembled 
 and held their breath. When these principles were 
 enunciated by us the Globe had said that they were cal- 
 culated to inspire sensible men with wonder, if not with 
 ridicule and contempt. What was then said of us all 
 know. However, the Globe attacked Mr. Blake with a 
 boomerang, doubtless because it was impolitic to deal 
 him direct blows. It shot at him around corners. Our- 
 selves and Mr. Goldwin Smith, who was absent from 
 Canada when our Association and the National Club 
 were formed, came in for a good share of its attentions. 
 But its tone was changed. It took off the mask of Momus. 
 The light and airy style was abandoned for the heavy 
 tragic, and the " innocent absurdity" of yesterday, yclept 
 the Canada First Party, became with it a formidable con- 
 spiracy, contemplating " action at once aggressive and 
 dangerous." 
 
 Et jam, prima novo spargebat lum,ine terras 
 Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cuhile. 
 
 During the session before last of the Ontario Legisla- 
 ture, the principle of compulsory voting was brought be- 
 fore that body, at the instance of Mr. Bethune, and dur- 
 ing the last session it came up for discussion. The 
 speech of Mr. Bethune, who, you will remember, has had 
 large experience in election matters, was one that com- 
 
68 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 manded universal approbation and convinced many who 
 had been skeptical. I am not called upon here to re- 
 capitulate his arguments, but when you tind such men as 
 Mr. Bethune, Mr. S. C. Wood, Mr. Deroche, and last, 
 though not least, our patronising Rip Van Winkle, Mr- 
 M. C. Cameron, giving in his adhesion to it, you may re- 
 call with complacency the explosion of laughter with 
 which it was greeted when we first ventured to assume 
 its advocacy as a practical reform. Had Mr. Bethune 
 pressed for a vote in the House, the principle of com- 
 pulsory voting would have been adopted then and there- 
 The converts to the principle, outside the House, may, 
 since the last elections, be numbered by thousands, and 
 we may now look forward to the early placing on the 
 Statute Book of Ontario of a law compelling voters to 
 fulfil their trust. In the Dominion Legislature, resolu- 
 tions affirming the principle were introduced last session 
 and will doubtless be acjain broug^ht forward durinor the 
 current one. 
 
 When we announced, as part of our programme, a 
 scheme for the representation of minorities, one leading 
 journal treated it with the loftiest scorn as being im- 
 practicable and useless, but when we recollected that the 
 proposition to give minorities an equal representation was 
 being advocated in France and Germany, in New South 
 Wales and Victoria, that a scheme having that object in 
 view was in actual operation in Denmark, in England, in 
 Illinois, and in Pennsylvania, we took courage. When 
 we read Mr. J. S. Mill's opinion that Hare's plan " has 
 the almost unparalleled merit of carrying out a great 
 principle of government in a manner approaching to 
 
 I 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 6§ 
 
 ideal perfection as regards the special object in view " 
 we grew bolder ; and when we looked into the political 
 statistics of our country, noted the peculiarities of our 
 position as regards creeds, commercial interests and 
 nationalities, we became convinced that a change in our 
 plan of representation was a palpable necessity. The 
 expediencies which obtain in our politics have been of 
 late years a fruitful source of demoralization to our repre- 
 sentatives. They have had to be all things to all men, 
 and offensive in word or act to none. Selected for avail- 
 ability, i.e., having done nothing that could be taken hold 
 of by opponents, or, on account of pure sycophancy, they 
 are plunged into an election contest with the advice ring- 
 ing in their ears, " Take care, don't commit yourself." Ic 
 their speeches they keep themselves tight hauled and 
 sail close to the wind. In fact, the model politician, ac- 
 cording to party, is a man as full of tricks as a fox, quick 
 in prevarication and schooled never to put his head so far 
 into a hole as not to be able to slip it out at a moment's 
 notice. Such an exemplar produces general slipperiness, 
 oiliness, and hypocrisy. Honest earnestness goes to the 
 wall and outspoken conviction ensures defeat. The rep- 
 resentation of minorities would, we think, check all that- 
 Take the case of the late alliance between the Catholics 
 and the Clear Grits. The Catholics wished for represen- 
 tation and some of the astute wirepullers among the 
 Grits arranged an alliance. If you support Mr. Crooks 
 we will support Mr. O'Donohoe, was said. Each doubted 
 the other, and the result was as migfht have been antici- 
 pated. Now, had the Catholics a system under which 
 they could have elected a man of their choice without 
 
70 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 going under obligations to others, and had candidates 
 been put forward for the Grits to vote for without the 
 incubus of an enforced alliance ? If the result would 
 not have answered expectations, it would at least have 
 prevented a deal of post mortem recrimination and dis- 
 like. I do not mean to say that it would be well to have 
 Catholic representatives or Protestant representatives 
 merely as such ; but if creed will not be content without 
 a representation in Parliament, let it elect its candidate 
 fairly if it can, without forcing a person to vote in 
 favour of a person he dislikes, or against those whom he 
 prefers. There is a variety of plans before us to select 
 from ; the Cumulative Vote, which entitles every elector 
 to a number of votes equal to the number of members to 
 be chosen, and gives him the right to cast all his votes 
 for one candidate or distribute them among the candi- 
 dates as he thinks fit. As if Toronto were one constituency, 
 returning three members (instead of, as it is, three con- 
 stituencies with three members), and each elector had 
 three votes. Under this cumulative plan he might give 
 three votes to one candidate, or one vote to each of the 
 three. This plan obtains in Illinois. The restricted 
 vote would with Toronto returning three members, limit 
 each elector to two votes, so that a minority of two-fifths 
 of the constituency would return one member. The 
 Hare plan is far more elaborate. It would throw the 
 whole country into one constituency, divided into a cer- 
 tain number of quotas, entitled to a representative. 
 As if the whole number of voters was 30,000, and the 
 number of members to be elected thirty, each thousand 
 voters would have a representative. Under it a voter in 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 71 
 
 Toronto could casb his vote for a candidate in Halifax or 
 Montreal, or any other place, and vice versa. Under Mr. 
 Hare's plan each candidate for the representation of any 
 constituency could send his name to an officer, called the 
 Registrar General, who would publish the names of all the 
 candidates. The mode of voting is that each ballot may 
 contain the names of more than one person as the elector 
 chooses. Each candidate has counted in his favour the 
 nuniher necessary to make up his quota, and the remain- 
 ing voting papers in which the name of such candidate 
 appears at the head of the list are appropriated to those 
 who are the voter's second choice. For instance, an 
 elector votes for A lirst, B second, G third, &c. In case 
 A has received more than enough votes to elect him, the 
 remainder is carried to the credit of B, who benefits by 
 that excess as well as by the direct votes in his favour. 
 The sum and substance of the plan is : A votes for B, 
 G, and D. If A has enough to elect him, B reaps the 
 overplus ; and if G, then D's turn comes. The advan- 
 tages gained from the method of voting under this plan 
 are claimed to be, that it protects the minority from the 
 tyranny of the majority, and minority and majority alike 
 from the tyranny of party chiefs ; permits the utmost 
 freedom of individual action ; gives every representative 
 a constituency who are unanimous in his support ; make> 
 it for the interest of every party to put forward its best 
 men, and makes it worth while for good men to come 
 forward as candidates, and affords intelliofence free choice. 
 Of all countries, Ganada and the United States stand 
 most in need of minority representation, owing to the 
 extent to which log-rolling, gerrymandering, canvassing, 
 
1± ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 and wirepulling are carried on, not to speak of the 
 vindictiveness of })arty spirit. Mr, Blake's views on the 
 subject were expressed as follows : — 
 
 " I believe we might effect immense improvements upon 
 the present system of popular representation. For my 
 own part, I have been for some time dissatified with our 
 present mode of popular representation, as furnishing no 
 fair indication of the opinions of the country. 1 do not 
 think a system under which a majority in one consti- 
 tuency elects a member, the minority being hopeless, 
 helpless, without any representation at all of its own, is a 
 good system. I have been collecting some statistics on 
 this subject, and it is extraordinary to what extent the 
 popular voice, as shown in the popular vote, differs from the 
 expression of that voice in the Legislature. In Nova Sco- 
 tia, in the year 1867, there was a bitterly-fought contest 
 on the question of Union or anti-Union. The result was 
 that only Mr. Tupper was returned from the whole Pro- 
 vince, and that by a very narrow majority, as a repre- 
 sentative of the Union sentiment. I have analyzed the 
 statistics of that election, and I find that the real strength 
 exhibited at the polls would have given, as nearly as I 
 can estimate, seven to the Union side instead of one, and 
 only twelve to the anti-Unionists instead of eighteen. 
 Take Nova Scotia again in 1 874. The returns gave nine- 
 teen to the Government, one Independent, and one Op- 
 position. The popular vote on that occasion would, as 
 nearly as I can judge, have given eight out of twenty-one 
 to that side instead of two, and but thirteen to the Gov- 
 ernment instead of nineteen. Our principle of govern- 
 ment is that the majority must decide. Upon what is it 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 73 
 
 founded ? Well, you cannot give a reason except this, 
 that it is necessary. It is the only way in which govern- 
 ment can be carried on at all. But if the minority must, 
 on this ground of necessity, bow to the voice of the ma- 
 jority, the majority is all the more bound to see that the 
 minority has its fair share of representation, its fair 
 weight in the councils of the country. The majority 
 must recollect that it may become the minority one day, 
 and that then it would like to have its fair share in those 
 councils, and such disparities as these are not likely to in- 
 duce a feeling of cheerful submission on the part of the 
 minority of Ontario, in the elections of 1867. I cannot, 
 of course, be precisely accurate in these matters, because 
 there were some acclamation returns, and there are other 
 difficulties in making an exact calculation — but there 
 were eighty-two members to be returned. The whole 
 popular vote would have resulted in a slight majority for 
 the Liberal party over the Government, but, discarding 
 fractions, the result would give forty-one members to each. 
 The Government, however, carried forty-nine seats to 
 thirty-three, and so the Liberal party did not obtain its 
 fair share in the government of the country. A turn of 
 408 votes would have taken seventeen seats from the 
 Government and given them to the Liberal party. In the 
 late election of 1874, the popular voice, although very 
 strongly in favour of the Government, was by no means 
 so decided as the returns showed. And besides this, 
 178 votes turned the other way would have changed 
 eight seats, making a difference of sixteen on a division. 
 Little more than double that number would have chanored 
 sixteen seats, or thirty-two on a division, and this in a 
 
74 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 Pi'ovince where over 200,0(30 votes would, if all the elec- 
 tions were contested, have been polled. I represent a 
 constituency in which many more votes were polled 
 against me than sufficed to return Mr. Dymond. Within 
 nine of 2,000 votes were polled against me. Can I say I 
 represent those people ? I do not. I do not represent 
 their views. They thought I was wrong, they wished 
 to defeat me, they wished to condone the Pacific Scan- 
 dal and to support the late Government. I am bound to 
 consider their individual wants, but I cannot say I repre- 
 sent their views. How are they represented ? Some will 
 say that people a long way off elected, say, Mr. Cameron, 
 of Card well, or Mr. Farrow, of North Huron, to represent 
 them. That is a peculiar mode of representation by which 
 the unrepresented minorities of adverse views in dif- 
 ferent constituencies are in effect told that they are to be 
 content because there are others in the like evil plight. 
 Look at home. Take, if you please, the old County of 
 York, including Toronto, Ontario, and Peel. You have 
 there nine districts, and you have nine members all on 
 one side, and not a single one on the other. The popular 
 vote gave you &ve and your adversaries four, and upon a 
 proper system of representation that would have been the 
 proportion of the members." 
 
 I prefer the Hare plan, and would like to have tried 
 the experiment of electing the Senate in accordance with 
 it. The question of reorganizing the Senate is one on 
 which all Reformers are now pretty much agreed, and Mr. 
 Mills, who has made the subject his own, stands manfully 
 to his annual resolution in the Dominion Leo^islature. 
 He advocates a Senate elected by the local Legislatures. 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 75 
 
 I do not object to that in default of anythinoj better. 
 But I consider that the Senate should be in part elective 
 and in part non-elective. The elective portion should be 
 selected upon Hare's plan, and the non-elective portion 
 made up of Lieut.-Governors, ex-Premiers, Judges of the 
 Superior Courts, who have completed their term of office, 
 &c. The non-elective part of the Senate would thus be 
 composed of life members of experience, character, aud 
 standing ; and the elective part would comprise a class 
 whose election under the Hare plan would be a guarantee 
 of titness and ability. We have too little culture and 
 worth in the country to squander it, and there is no good 
 reason why we should not have the means of rewarding, 
 or, not to speak of utilizing, the experience of such men 
 as the late Robert Baldwin, or Chief Justice Draper (I 
 use them as cases in point), for a lifetime spant in the 
 service of Canada, without resort to titles and decorations 
 unsuited to the genius of our people, and not much valued 
 where they are more in consonance with prevailing ideas. 
 It may be asked why we did not avail ourselves of the 
 late elections to put our principles to the test of the bal- 
 lot box. The chief reason is only too evident — the Act 
 giving an Income Franchise, by some curious contrivance, 
 did not come into force until it was too late, and many 
 farmers' sons are still without votes. Our strength, as 
 yet, lies among the young men. But we have taken a 
 hand in elections, and Toronto East and West bear wit- 
 ness to what "Canada First" can do. Mr. S,)ohn polled 
 a large vote in one of the Wentworths, and that without 
 assistance — without conventions or wirepullers. Had 
 Dr. Devlin not resigned, it is said he would have run well. 
 
76 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 However, we knew our time had not arrived for successful 
 encounter with the two old parties, with their organiza- 
 tions and advantages, and no object was to be gained by 
 bringing out candidates under the circumstances, for the 
 3ake of incurring defeat. 
 
 The elections of the Local Legislature were, for obvious 
 reasons, converted by the Government into a party strug- 
 gle, and when political discussion did not draw largely 
 from the Pacific Scandal and old-time corruptions, it 
 flamed up over little Mrs. Blank, the fence around the 
 Parliament Buildings, or the alleged prant s at the Model 
 Farm. The Opposition was very small — according to 
 the Government organs ridiculously small — so small, in- 
 deed, as to fall far below " the strong and healthy " 
 Opposition which is the delight of the advocates of party 
 when in the height of an argument upon the advantages 
 of party government. The Conservative, or, as some 
 say, the Tory Party, felt itself in the last ditch. Without 
 leaders in whom it could trust, its most prominent men 
 persons whom it despised ; its colours trailed through the 
 dust by those whose duty it was to have preserved them 
 Honoured and unsullied ; its war cries changed for ear- 
 piercing abuse, stolen from the back numbers of Clear 
 Orit newspapers, and adapted to the occasion ; so led and 
 so armed this once great political party waged an unequal, 
 hopeless guerilla warfare in its graveclothes. Its oppo- 
 nents, strong in numbers, conscious of swaying the influ- 
 ence of two governments, went to the polls with the con- 
 fl'^ence which being " in " gives as against those who are 
 " out." But though party could fight its way to the poll- 
 ing booth, the aperture in the ballot-box was rather small 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 77 
 
 for its forged proportions. And though Grit and Conser- 
 vative may claim this victory or that defeat as the result 
 of party coni3ict, one may safely aver that personal qual- 
 ifications and local influences, altogether apart from poli- 
 tics, had much to do with the result. 
 
 I think I have made it plain that our movement has 
 not been unattended with some good effects, and that we 
 have no reason to feel ashamed of the progress made by 
 the principles we coalesced upon. That movement was 
 at the outset, as has been well said by a recent le viewer, 
 " an intellectual movement." " It was," he goes on to 
 say, " the revolt of educated and thoughtful men against 
 the inanity, and worse than inanity, of what was offered 
 to them as political discussion. It was a direct pro- 
 duct, in some measure, of that higher culture which the 
 universities and colleges of our land are steadily pro- 
 motingr." It was not devised for the mere sake of aofita- 
 tion, and though we are appealed to by the Globe, in its 
 newest Tory role, to rest and be thankful for what is, 
 we feel that this, by reason of its youth and elasticity, 
 is the country for political experiment, and we know 
 that government being for the good of the governed, 
 it is our duty to the world at large, as well as to our- 
 selves, as feeling that the details of our system are 
 not perfect; as being of those to whom representative 
 institutions have been happily granted to carry on the 
 work of reform, to do our part in the solution of the pro- 
 blem of self-government, and be able to render a good 
 account of our trust. Can that be accomplished by 
 standing still when there is so much work to be done ? 
 by refusing to discuss principles, howsoever new, or by 
 
78 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 continuously ringing changes on past events, howsoever 
 old ? In local affairs we have a municipal system which 
 is robbing the people right and left by giving power to 
 rings and small groups of individuals to levy taxes with- 
 out end on the community. Officials are multiplying in 
 triplets. Faction has gripped the throat of our City 
 Councils, County Councils, and Local Legislature. These 
 and numerous other questions are calling lustily for re- 
 form. So far as we are concerned, however, we have re- 
 ceived every encouragement to further effort. " The 
 giants of party warfare," sa3^s a critic, " laughed to scorn 
 at first the striplings, as they deemed them, who stood 
 forth and challenged them to combat ; but more than one 
 well-directed pebble has smitten the forehead of the 
 boasters and given them cause at least for serious and 
 painful feeling." No later than a week or two ago, Mr. M. 
 C. Cameron, who had, as we have before seen, expressed 
 himself so scornfully of us, treated the Conservatives as- 
 sembled at dinner at Barrie, to the piece of information 
 that "Our party, though small, was composed of men of 
 culture and position." The fact is, we have achieved a 
 triumph over self-interested and hireling partizanship 
 second only to that won over ignorance and inertness. 
 That such triumph allowed the exercise of honourable 
 and fair means is not the bitterest ingredient in our cup 
 of rejoicing. 
 
 With such a past it is not unnatural to ask ourselves, 
 what of the future ? National sentiment is steadily 
 growing in Canada, but much remains to be done to carry 
 it beyond the boundaries of the cities and villages into 
 the farm house and the shanty. Much remains to be 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 79 
 
 done to convince the obtuse and the suspicious (owing to 
 the misrepresentation of which our motives have been the 
 subject) that when we say Canada First we don't mean 
 Canadians first. We are not such fools as to suppose 
 that a Canadian is better than anybody else, or is entit- 
 led as such to a preference over anybody else. We have 
 no lonofino- for a schedule of disabilities. But at the 
 same time many of us think a Canadian is no worse than 
 other people, and we would have all who have made 
 Canada their home, feel or try to feel that there is no dis- 
 grace attached to the name Canadian, and that to be 
 known as such, either here or abroad, involves no social 
 or political obstruction. The great lesson to be learned 
 after all is, as D'Arcy McGee taught, to learn to respect 
 ourselves, to have a modest but firm confidence in our 
 own strength, and an equally certain hope in our future. 
 Some say such expressions point to annexation. If we, 
 and most of us, happen to be sons of the soil, — are 
 annexationists, who are the loyal men ? Our idea has 
 always been that it is only by deepening faith in 
 Canada, our home and country, that we as a people can 
 hope to exist separate and distinct. De Tocqueville, in 
 his book on America, said the United States had no 
 neighbours. An English writer, a short time ago, stated 
 that " Whatever pride of country a Canadian has, its 
 object for the most part is outside of Canada, and the 
 belief in the possibility of a separate future for Canada is 
 steadily lessening among Canadians." I am sure that 
 this is untrue, but I am equally sure that there is some 
 ground to justify a casual visitor in such a statement. 
 We have transplanted from Ireland a feud which seems 
 
80 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 to have crossed the Atlantic only for the purpose of 
 securing greater freedom of action, without leaving be- 
 hind a shred of its malignity and bitterness, and thus are 
 forced among us causes of discord which dictate and defy 
 legislation, and, wedge-like, divide large sections of the 
 community into unreasoning antagonism. There is one 
 consolation, however, which Mr. N. F, Davin, in a letter 
 to the editor of a Catholic newspaper, has forcibly point- 
 ed out, namely, that, " at present both Irish Orangemen 
 and Irish Roman Catholics are practically placed outside 
 all positions of place and power," thanks to the faction 
 fights of Orange and Green. His conclusion is just as 
 ours has been, " in favour of the general comprehensive 
 policy of being Canadians first, and seeking honestly to 
 meet the problem of the present and the future, which 
 are presented by a people drawn from different countries, 
 and of different faiths in the process of becoming homo- 
 geneous." 
 
 It has also been charged against us that we are advo- 
 cates of the dismemberment of the Empire. Curiously 
 enough, complaints on this score have come chiefly from 
 the organs of the political parties that uttered no moan 
 when Sir Alexander Gait, Mr. Huntington, Mr. Holton, 
 and others preached immediate Independence. The fact is 
 we no more advocate independence than we advocate the 
 day of judgment. There are tliose among us who think 
 just as Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Brown, 
 Sir Alexander Gait, Mr. Blake and others think, that the 
 relations of Canada to the Empire are proper subjects for 
 discussion ; that some day or other separation may or 
 must come, and that now is the time to at least begin to 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 81 
 
 prepare for it. England has been trying for years to 
 make ns stand upon our feet. The troops have been 
 withdrawn. We are allowed to legislate as we please, 
 and there is OTeat dislike to interfere with our action. It 
 would rather take us aback if at some early day we 
 were made to strike out for ourselves without any pre- 
 paration for the event. What must come is either a 
 Federation of the Empire or Independence. I think I 
 cannot do better than quote to you the language of Mr. 
 Blake : 
 
 " Matters cannot drift much longer as they have drift- 
 ed hitherto. The Treaty of Washington produced a very 
 profound impression throughout this country. It pro- 
 duced a feeling that at no distant period the people of 
 Canada would desire that they should have some greater 
 share of control than they now have in the management 
 of^foreign affairs ; that our Government should not pre- 
 sent the anomaly which it now presents — a Government 
 the freest, perhaps the most democratic, in the world with 
 reference to local and domestic affairs, in which you rule 
 yourselves as fully as any people in the world, while in 
 your foreign affairs, your relations with other countries, 
 whether peaceful or warlike, commercial or financial, or 
 otherwise, you have no more voice than the people of 
 Japan. This, however, is a state of things of which you 
 have no right to complain, because so long as you do not 
 choose to undertake the responsibilities and burdens 
 which attach to some share of control in these affairs, you 
 cannot fully claim the rights and privileges of free-born 
 Britons in such matters. But how long is this talk in 
 the new^spapers and elsewhere, this talk which I find in 
 F 
 
82 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 very high places, of the desirabiUty, ay, of the necessity 
 of fostering a national spirit among the people of Canada 
 to be mere talk ? It is impossible to foster a national 
 spirit unless you have national interests to attend to, or 
 among people who do not choose to undertake the re- 
 sponsibilities and to devote themselves to the duties to 
 which national attributes belong. It is for us to deter- 
 mine — not now, not this year, not perhaps during this 
 Parliamentary term, but, yet, at no distant day — what 
 our line shall be. For my part, I believe that while it 
 was not unnatural, not unreasonable, pending that pro- 
 cess of development which has been going on in our new 
 and sparsely-settled country, that we should have been 
 quite willing — we so few in numbers, so busied in our 
 local concerns, so engaged in subduing the earth and 
 settling up the country — to leave the cares and privileges 
 to which I have referred in the hands of the parent 
 State ; the time will come when that national spirit 
 which has been spoken of will be truly felt among us, 
 when we shall realize that we are four millions of Bri- 
 tons luho are not free, when we shall be ready to take 
 up that freedom and to ask what the late Prime Minister 
 of England assured us we should not be denied — our 
 share of national risfhts." 
 
 So that after all the hysterics into which the super- 
 heated loyalists were thrown, we think that their frantic 
 outcries over the safety of the Empire were but " windy 
 suspirations of forced breath." We think that tlie Em- 
 pire is quite strong enough to take care of itself, and that 
 what English statesmen desire us to do is to strengthen 
 ourselves in every possible way. They would be better 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 83 
 
 pleased by our exhibiting signs of vigour and life than if 
 we were to send reams of platitudes to the foot of the 
 throne, or wake the echoes with mouthing loyalty. 
 D'Arcy McGee well said, " When I can hear our young- 
 men say as proudly our federation, or our country, or 
 oiiT kingdom, as the young men of other countries do 
 speaking of their own, I shall then have less apprehen- 
 sion for the result of whatever trials the future may have 
 in store for us." There is a loyalty in which we lack, 
 and that is loyalty to ourselves. No wonder. From the 
 top to the bottom of our majority system of government 
 there is so little independence of mind and real ireedom 
 of discussion on the part of public men and journalists 
 as to make one feel a degree of shame. Opinion halts 
 timidly and cowers at its own shadow. We stand great- 
 ly in need of statesmen with backbone — men who will 
 take positions and not fear to tell us so — men who will 
 think for themselves, judge for themselves, and act in 
 accordance with their own conviction, neither driven 
 into the rut of casuistry by concealed enmity, nor into 
 devious ways by open defiance. For taking an open and 
 manly stand, Mr. Goldwin Smith (partly on our account 
 and partly on his own) has been made a target for alJ the 
 arrows left in the quivers of partisan journalists. How- 
 ever, they must needs furnish themselves with a fresh 
 supply, as I fancy the target has had the best of it. 
 Notwithstanding all that has been said of Mr. Brown, I 
 am forced to respect him for his manliness, and it is but 
 justice to him to confess that when he forms an opinion 
 he is not afraid to let it be known. If he does force its 
 adoption upon others, whether they consider it right or 
 
84 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 wrong, I don't blame him for the force so much as I de- 
 spise the others for their weakness. This weakness and 
 timidity converts every great question into an " open 
 question," and every serious difficulty into a juggle. It 
 is the cause of ingenious whereases in resolutions and of 
 long preambles, which pave the way intricately and slyly 
 to compromise results. The Riel amnesty case illustrates 
 my meaning. The idea of one faction feeling bound b}' 
 the action of another, or of one government being com- 
 mitted to a course because its predecessor had made a 
 move which it condemned, draws too largely upon the 
 credulity of those who know what faction is in this 
 country, to obtain implicit credence. That idea is only 
 equalled by the romance in which the melodramatic 
 patriotism of M. Riel and his friends was shrouded, when 
 credit was given to that very commonplace and coward- 
 ly hero for tendering his sword in defence of Manitoba 
 against the Fenians. Why, if there is any person whom 
 an Irish Catholic dislikes thoroughly it is a French 
 Catholic, and vice versa, for evidence of which ask any 
 Irish Catholic who has resided in Montreal or Quebec- 
 If Riel had any reason for the action he took at the time 
 of the raid, it was care for his own safety and that of his 
 half-breed companions. But it is not difficult to invent 
 excuses. They are as indigenous in politics as the thistle 
 is in our fields, and the barn-yards of Grit and Tory are 
 bursting with them. While on the Riel subject I may 
 be pardoned for saying that in my opinion the murder 
 of Scott and the amnesty granted to those guilty of 
 putting him to death will stand forever as foul blots on 
 our national escutcheon. Had Scott been killed in 
 
CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 85 
 
 action, or in hot blood, or for any reason that would af- 
 ford the slightest defence on revolutionary or any imag- 
 inable ground, other than the gratification of a mere 
 thirst for blood, I would not have a word to say against 
 an amnesty when so many have been induced to petition 
 for it. But as I think that the murder was atrocious in 
 design and intensely cruel in execution, and was wholly 
 objectless, I feel that its perpetrator is one who, out of 
 regard for our common humanity, if nothing else, should 
 be excluded from the pale of society, and diiven to seek 
 among savages that mercy he denied to Scott in his hour 
 of agony. With me that murder involves no question of 
 creed or race. It is simply a question whether or not 
 any one shall be allowed to outrage all the instincts of 
 humanity with impunity, and butcher his way to prefer- 
 ment. In all the catalogue of crimes, if there be one 
 which should ostracise its perpetrator from civilization, 
 I think the cold-blooded mangling of Thomas Scott was 
 it. A.nd thouo^h no one but myself be found to speak up 
 for one unknown to fame save his death, I do not fear to 
 take my stand on his tenantless grave, and in the name of 
 all that is human, plead for the memory of a friendless 
 Canadian youth, whose only crime was devotion to his 
 Queen and country. Let those who will have their hero 
 in Riel ; my poor hero was at least brave and manly. 
 However, politicians think otherwise, so it is idle to 
 waste words in protest now. But I do not believe they 
 do so think, else why the attempt to throw the respon- 
 sibility of dealing with the matter upon England ? 
 There was odium to be incurred, so, as usual, our states- 
 inen sought to have that odium fall upon the authorities 
 
86 ADDRESS TO THE CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 there. It is significant that the organs which are loud- 
 est against Independence have no word of reprobation 
 for a system which seeks to weaken the tie between 
 Canada and England by making the English Government 
 responsible for everything that is likely to beget dissatis- 
 faction here. Sir John Macdonald did it and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie follows suit. Lord Carnarvon seems to have ap- 
 preciated this, and in a quiet way, which glows with 
 satire, pooh-poohs the pleas of the Government and tells 
 them they had better do on ^this side of the Atlantic 
 whatever has to be done. It is well it should be so. 
 We want responsibility to be within reach ; if it cannot 
 be grasped it is useless. Given this responsibility and 
 we can employ the rest. The people are sound at heart, 
 and a Pacific Scandal, or any other scandal, will be sum- 
 marily treated. When a matter of great importance is 
 brought home to the minds of the people the withes of 
 party become as tow. This is our encouragement and 
 the source of our hope. And though it may take time 
 to develop individuality, to remove the incubus that 
 forces those possessed of most intelligence to conformity 
 with those who possess the least, to close the spaces in 
 which selfishness and sordid motives work, to produce 
 insensibility to purchased bluster and hireling sycophan- 
 cy — in fine, to give reason fair-play and honest}^ breath- 
 ing room, yet it is pleasant to be able to feel that the 
 end is capable of attainment, and that in such attain- 
 ment, even in part, the harvest will be for the benefit of 
 the many, not merely the few, and that in a higher 
 type of government, administered on broad, national 
 principles, the permanence of our Dominion will be 
 doubly assured. 
 
PARTY VERSUS PRINCIPLE, 
 
 The Daily Telegraph {Toronto), Aug. 24-th, 1867. 
 
 '^ '-jj'y^T may now be regarded as quite a natural 
 
 M thing for an uncertain number of people to 
 
 )/ give their wits leave of absence during the 
 
 g heat and excitement of an election contest. 
 
 ..^ We expect it just as we look for hydrophobia 
 4^ in the dog-days. A lucid interval too protracted 
 would play sad havoc with brains, or the substitute 
 therefor, and cause some heads to fly off like the corks 
 of soda water or ginger-beer bottles. The benefi- 
 cent provisions of our Constitution, however, furnish 
 opportunities to all so disposed of giving reason a holi- 
 day, and it is hardly necessary to say that such are duly 
 improved. Neighbours, long credited with sanity, become 
 suddenly transformed into raving Bacchantes or dancing 
 Dervishes ; acquaintances of a genial disposition and 
 quiet nature are seized with a mania for war-paint and 
 feathers ; friends, at a given signal, fly at each other's 
 throats and exchange epithets of the most unsavoury 
 character. The demented ones form separate circles, 
 and those of a like mania join hands. Day and night 
 are rendered hideous by their howling. The most un- 
 tuneful of choruses assail the heavens, while harsh jang- 
 
88 PARTY versus principle. 
 
 ling jars on the public ear. In vain does the quiet-lov- 
 ing householder vociferate from his window ; in vain his 
 cry for the police. The guardian of the public peace 
 answers that the howls are but the expression of public 
 opinion, and the discordant medleys an indication of a 
 healthy party spirit. Every election time witnesses a 
 recurrence of these party antics. But we are glad to say 
 that there are many whose sense of propriety revolts at 
 the Saturnalia of purchased inebriety and fury, who do 
 not relish the lang;uage which party puts in the mouths 
 of its thoughtless dupes, yet have too much at stake to 
 be indifferent, and too much patriotism to allow mere 
 noise and glib falsehood to control the destinies of our 
 common country. To the latter class we now appeal. 
 Let the wild man and the sycophant have their fling ; let 
 them draw tight the lines of party, ay, so tight as to 
 squeeze out every particle of common sense ; let them 
 think no thoughts but those that are injected into them, 
 or speak no words but those furnished cut and dried by 
 the one or two who rule them ; let them moan and groan, 
 bellow and cheer as they are ordered ; in fine, let them 
 give up all the privileges of reasoning beings. There are 
 honest, thoughtful men, poor as well as rich, who will not 
 bow the knee to the Baal of party ; who have sense 
 enough to do their own thinking and manliness e'tiough 
 to act on their own convictions of right and wrong, who, 
 though they may arrive at false conclusions, never do 
 so blindly or wilfully ; who do not set party before 
 principle, or place the judgment which God has given 
 them in subjection to the whim, passion, or pique of their 
 fellow-man. To such we would address our words. This 
 
PARTY versus phinciple. 89 
 
 party-cry which has been raised is both hollow and 
 hypocritical. Party has been the curse of Canada. It 
 has placed in the hands of one or two men whips which 
 they have not hesitated to use to the scarification of the 
 country. It stayed our progress ; it made us the laugh- 
 ing stock of our neighbours ; it ruined our credit abroad, 
 and destroyed our faith in ourselves ; it demoralized our 
 statesmen and corrupted our people ; it wasted valuable 
 time in idle discussions about general principles, when we 
 should have devoted all our energies to developing our 
 resources ; and it finally brought our government to a 
 standstill. Why was the scheme of Confederation accept- 
 ed with such unanimity ? Was it not because it afforded 
 a prospect of relief from that sickening political squab- 
 bling which party spirit had carried to the greatest extreme 
 and opened up a new arena in which statesmanship 
 might win prizes worth contending for ? All our repre- 
 sentatives united in supporting it. George Brown and 
 Sir John Macdonald rivalled each other in prognosticat- 
 ing the best results in this respect. 
 
 A government is in power which embraces the ablest 
 men of both the old parties. In declared opposition to it 
 are Mr. Howe and the disunionists of Nova Scotia, the 
 Rouges of Quebec, and Mr. Brown and Mr. O'Donohoe, 
 Mr. Halley and Mr. Edgar of Ontario. Mr. Howe opposes 
 it because it brought about Confederation, the Rouges be- 
 cause they wished to get into power ; Mr. Brown because 
 he deserted his colleagues and has all the hatred of a 
 deserter ; Mr. O'Donohoe because he w^ants to be made 
 manager where he is now a mere copyist and clerk ; ^Ir. 
 Halley because he was not bought off"; and Mr. Edgar 
 
90 PARTY versus principle. 
 
 because Mr. Brown tells him to do so. The arcjuments 
 supplied by the Glohe to the Ontario Opposition are that 
 coalitions are bad, and some members of the government 
 objectionable. Mr. John Macdonald ( who was termed a 
 born fool bv Mr. Brow^n ) says that he abhors coalitions 
 but none save a fool would have the effrontery to assert 
 that coalitions are unjustifiable under all circumstances 
 and bad in themselves. Great English statesmen, such 
 as Lords Sidmouth, Grenville, Aberdeen, Palmerston, Sir 
 Wm. Molesworth, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and 
 Sidney Herbert were members of coalition governments. 
 Mr. Lincoln did not hesitate to take into his cabinet 
 members of the Democratic party. In our own country 
 such men as the late Mr. Baldwin have frequently ex- 
 pressed an opinion favourable to coalitions where great 
 objects were to be attained. When opposition is offered 
 to the Government merely because it is a coalition, then 
 we say the opposition is hypocrital, more especially so in 
 the case of Mr. Brown, who was a member of it himself. 
 The argument that it is desirable to restore party lines 
 has been disposed of Mr. Brown is estopped by his own 
 words from urging it, and our experience as a country is 
 directly opposed to it. If Mr. Brown wishes to have a 
 party, and there are persons willing to tie themselves to 
 his coat-tails, he is at liberty to make one. But he must 
 not be allowed to steal the livery of Reform for the pur- 
 pose of concealing the wolfish forms of those who accept 
 his yoke. Mr. Brown ratted. He stole away from the 
 Reform pai-ty and then tried to coax them after him. But 
 his efforts have been unsuccessful. If there is such a 
 thing as a Reform party, Mr. Howland, Mr. Macdougall, 
 
PARTY versus principle. 91 
 
 and Mr. J. S. Macdonald are its leaders. They stuck to 
 the ship. 
 
 We attach very little importance to the stories retailed 
 in the Globe from day to day about the transactions of a 
 former time. The very same articles were all published 
 by Mr. Brown before he asked Sir John Macdonald to 
 form a coalition and obtained permission to enter a 
 cabinet along with Cartier, Gait, and other corruptionists, 
 swindlers and thieves. No one would be surprised if 
 Mr. Brown tried the same game again under some 
 delusive plea. 
 
 The coalition have not yet announced their policy, so 
 there is nothing to oppose. The only issue we see before 
 the electors is whether the Confederation scheme shall be 
 consummated, or Mr. Howe, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Lanctot 
 be allowed to delay it. The machinery of Confederation 
 must be made to work, and none so fit to set it sfoinor as 
 the engineers under whose superintendence it was devis- 
 ed. Is Mr. Howe a man to be trusted with the work ? 
 He went to England and denounced us as a disloyal and 
 mercenary, factious and poverty-stricken people. He 
 sneered at our efforts to lift ourselves from obscurity, 
 abused our public men, and held us up to the deri.-^ion of 
 the mother country. He satirized our backwoods man- 
 ners, and cast mean reflections upon the refinment of our 
 wives and daughters. Though a colonist himself, he out- 
 raged every instinct of humanity in an endeavour to gain 
 pre-eminence through the belittling of his kindred, his 
 countrymen, his home, Is he the colleague whom Mr. 
 Brown wishes to have ? Is he the man we of this pro- 
 vince desire as our ruler ? 
 
92 PARTY versus principle. 
 
 And now, when in spite of discouragements, in spite of 
 obstacles seemingly insuperable, in spite of internal self- 
 ishness and external menace, we have got so far in the 
 Cfood work of union, we are asked to halt, to fight the old 
 battles over again, to disregard the wants of the country, 
 to overlook practical legislation, and commence a sense- 
 less wrangling over party politics. In the past we have 
 had too much politics; in the future we want more work. 
 Talk may be good, but work is better. Let the elector 
 who is trying to see clearly what his duty is, ponder 
 over what we have said, and we are convinced that un- 
 less he is a mere party hack, he will come to the conclus- 
 ion that country should be placed before party, that good 
 measures for developing our agricultural, manufacturing, 
 and mineral resources are to be preferred to all the 
 speeches of disappointed politicians, and that the future 
 of our country demands united and energetic action at 
 this juncture of aftairs. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY.* 
 
 1^^- HE probable fate of the British North Ameri- 
 ^^ can colonies has, for many years, afforded 
 
 wide scope for speculation. Both in this 
 country and in America the chances have 
 ^ been weighed as passing events offer themselves 
 for analysis. It has been regarded from various 
 points of view ; the result being, conclusions as widely 
 different as such topics of discussion usually lead to. 
 Argument resting on a speculative basis is always un- 
 steady, and kaleidoscopic glances at the present 3neld 
 very unsatisfactory data Irom which to decipher the 
 future. Hence it is that America and American affairs 
 have so frequently belied prophecy. The conjectures 
 evoked by the dealings between England and her North 
 American colonies have in many instances proved erron- 
 eous, and we are not now so liable to be led astray by 
 the oracular utterances of nervousness and timidity. 
 We were assured that Canada was incapable of self-con- 
 trol, but we find that political strife carried to the ex- 
 treme has not been able to weaken the springs of gov- 
 ernment, or to disregard the promptings of patriotism. 
 Petty recriminations and jealousies, which formerly found 
 vent in the Colonial Office, have been smothered where 
 theirorigin could be soonest detected and their object most 
 
 * From the Westminster Review, April, I860. 
 
94 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 easily frustrated. The consequence of transferring re- 
 sponsibility from the shoulders of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment to those of the colonists themselves, is that the 
 shafts of temper no longer spend their force on an im- 
 perial target, while a spirit of loyalty and affection has 
 taken the place of an ungracious allegiance. It has also 
 been asserted that the democratic tendencies of these 
 American colonies would have the effect of weakening if 
 not terminating the relations between them and the 
 mother country ; that the grant of freedom from imperi- 
 al dictation naturally handed over to republicanism the 
 keys of a British stronghold. Neither has this proved 
 true, although the anticipation harmonizes well with the 
 expressed wishes of the United States. So long ago as 
 1775, when delegates from the American States assem- 
 bled in convention at Philadelphia to agree upon the 
 terms of an union, they evidently accepted as a foregone 
 conclusion the immediate entrance of Canada, at least, 
 into the federal compact, for Section XI. of their Art- 
 icles of Agreement provided that '' Canada, acceding to 
 the confederation and joining in the measures of the 
 United States, shall be admitted into and be entitled to 
 the advantages of the Union." Every inducement to re- 
 volt was held out to all the British provinces ; but 
 neither open temptation nor secret intrigue was suthcient- 
 ly powerful to allure them from their allegiance. Lower 
 Canada was appealed to in terms that recognized its pe- 
 culiar position as regards race, language, religion and 
 laws, and included a guarantee for their security and 
 permanence. But the French inhabitants, besides having 
 the recollection of past wrongs to prompt a rejection, 
 were moved by a deep-rooted antipathy to republican- 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 95 
 
 ism to meet with disdain overtures thus insidiously 
 made to them. In after years the employment of force 
 had as little effect in changing the determination of these 
 stubborn colonists to remain a portion of the empire : 
 and the several provinces not onl}^ fought nobly against 
 the common enemy, but even sent assistance to the more 
 sorely pressed. Notwithstanding this, it has been an 
 article of political faith with American statesmen and 
 politicians that the " manifest destiny " of their republic 
 would, in its own good time, lead to the absorption of 
 some, if not all, of the adjacent British provinces. To 
 embrace these is their traditionary policy, having in its 
 list of founders and supporters such names as Washing- 
 ton, Franklin, Monroe, and Seward. Mr. Seward's views 
 pointed to a peaceable rather than a forcible annexation ; 
 and both in England and in British America the idea has 
 been entertained that Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova 
 Scotia, but more especially the first-named, must sooner 
 or later cast in their lot with the powerful nation at their 
 side, impelled by sheer force of political attraction. Nor 
 is this theory incapable of support, though formerly the 
 reasons in its favour were much more numerous than they 
 now are. A glance at the position occupied by Canada 
 a few years ago will be found to justify in some degree 
 the Montreal annexation movement of 1849. It was a 
 dependency shut in from the seaboard for five months of 
 the year, at an enormous distance from the imperial me- 
 tropolis ; separated from those of kindred sympathies, 
 and acknowledging a like allegiance, b}'' an almost un- 
 traversable tract of country ; exposed to attack at every 
 point along a frontier of a thousand miles ; gazing at the 
 
96 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 prosperity of a nation which held out every inducement 
 to unite with it ; without manufactures, coal or capital, 
 yet witnessing a stream of British wealth pouring into 
 the lap of its rival ; thinly populated, and outbid in at- 
 tracting emigration ; with the hope of union between it- 
 self and the other British colonies uncertain, aithouofh 
 having all the elements of }jrosperity ready to be com- 
 bined, but suffering them, from various causes, to lie un- 
 improved and unprofitable. Taking every circumstance 
 into consideration, it cannot be denied that the prospects 
 of a long continued existence of such a dependency as a 
 separate and distinct political organism were dim and 
 dubious. The maritime provinces had not such influences 
 to contend against ; but the temptations brought to bear 
 upon Canada, and her successful resistance to them, na- 
 turally beget surprise at the nature of the causes to which 
 she owed her preservation from a loss of identity in the 
 nation at her side. It is unnecessary, however, for pre- 
 sent purposes to do more than notice the fact, as it serves 
 to show the bent of her inclination. Changed times have 
 suggested new fields for debate, and prophecy has been 
 driven to seek out new channels. A rapid advance in 
 material prosperity has brought with it considerations 
 left out in previous forecasts ; while, on the other hand, 
 the American Republic presents to its admirers fewer 
 attractions than formerly. The effect is seen in the al- 
 most total obliteration of annexation sentiment in the 
 colonies, and in the strength and encouragement afforded 
 to those in England who looked forward to the establish- 
 ment of a British nationality in America that would not 
 only rival the great republic, but would prove a faithful 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 97 
 
 ally to the mother land. When we yielded to these col- 
 onies the right of self-government, we gave up the right 
 to dictate, whether we reserved the privilege of guiding 
 or not. This abandonment of control carried with it, 
 said some, the last link in the chain that bound our 
 British American colonies to the empire ; but this hasty 
 assertion has been thus far falsified. Confident in their 
 capacity for self-government, we committed their for- 
 tunes to their own keeping, as a faithful guardian un- 
 burdens himself of his trust on the attainment of major- 
 ity by his ward. Had we conceived that this transfer 
 involved a mere change of masters, we should have hesi- 
 tated to sacrifice our interests to those of a foreign 
 power. But faith in their future was no less strong 
 with our statesmen than it was in the colonists them- 
 selves. That self-reliance, that innate vigor, which de- 
 fies misfortune and begets self-confidence, is a character- 
 istic of our race, and, when g^rafted in other lands, repro- 
 duces its inherent qualities with the characteristics of 
 the parent stock. We had confidence in our kindred and 
 in the virtue of our institutions ; and a colonial policy 
 based upon this has proved successful, and in its success 
 its wisdom. A complex relationship has been begotten, 
 but the machinery has worked tolerably well. The evi- 
 dences of stability exhibited by these self-governed col- 
 onies, the variety of resources at their command, and the 
 vast progress they have made in utilizing the advantages 
 placed by nature within their reach, have not been lost 
 ■sight of by that school of politicians which regards the 
 relations between us and the states dependent but in 
 name as presenting some unsatisfactory features. Nor 
 
 G 
 
98 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 has the change in circumstances been passed over heed- 
 lessly by the colonists themselves. They, too, have begun 
 to reflect on the chances of the future. Everlastinsr 
 youth is denied to nations as well as to individuals, and 
 impulses from within combine with influences from with- 
 out to urge a consideration of the best means for ensur- 
 ing a lusty manhood. It is with no little pride, there- 
 fore, that we see them enter upon the discussion of a 
 subject of such vital importance as a confederation 
 among themselves with calmness and deliberation indicat- 
 ing a knowledge of the responsibility devolving upon 
 them, and a determination to probe to the bottom the 
 secret of national greatness. It is a complete vindication 
 of our modern policy in permitting them to think and act 
 for themselves. It is of importance, therefore, to know 
 what they propose to do, the basis of the contemplated 
 changes, and their effect. To arrive at a proper under- 
 standing, it is necessary to go back a little in their 
 history. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the scheme of confedera- 
 tion is the offspring of fear. Its origin can be traced 
 much further back than the civil war in the United 
 States, however much a shock so terrible may have con- 
 tributed to its maturity ; nor can colonial emancipators, 
 should their anticipations be realized, lay claim to its in- 
 ception, however entitled to the credit of supplying a 
 reason for its adoption. 
 
 It is stated that as early as 1810 a union of all the 
 British American provinces was suggested by one of the 
 colonists, Mr. Uniacke, of Nova Scotia, and at various 
 times afterwards the attention of the imperial authorities 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 99 
 
 was directed to the subject by leading colonial politicians. 
 Chief- Justice Sewell, of Quebec, in 1814 laid before the 
 late Duke of Kent a comprehensive plan, which met with 
 the approval of His Royal Highness. In 1827, re- 
 solutions were introduced into the Legislative Assembly 
 of Upper Canada, directed more especially to a union of 
 the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada ; but 
 proposing, as an alternative, "what would be more politic, 
 wise, and generally advantageous, — viz., a union of the 
 whole four provinces of North America under a vice- 
 royalty, with a facsimile of that great and glorious 
 fabric — the best monument of human wisdom — the 
 British Constitution." 
 
 Lord Durham, in his report on the affairs of British 
 North America (1839), discusses the subject at consider- 
 able length, anticipating nearly all the arguments that 
 can now be uro^ed in its favour. In 1854, resolutions 
 were brought forward in the Nova Scotia Legislature 
 which indicated a strong desire to promote a closer con- 
 nexion of the different provinces ; and in 1857 the 
 subject was pressed upon Mr. Labouchere, then Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies, by delegates from that pro- 
 vince ; but he felt disposed to leave it to the colonists 
 themselves to take action in the matter. In 1858, the 
 Canadian Government announced as part of their policy 
 that the expediency of a federal union of the British 
 North- American provinces would be anxiously consider- 
 ed, and that communications would be entered into with 
 the other provinces and the Imperial Government to 
 secure adhesion to the project. In accordance with this 
 announcement, delegates were sent from Canada, and the 
 
100 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 sanction of the Imperial Government was asked to the 
 scheme ; but the hesitation exhibited by the other 
 provinces rendered the effort thus made fruitless. In 
 1861, the government of Nova Scotia made the next 
 move, and in 1863 both Houses of the Nova Scotia 
 Legislature passed unanimously resolutions authorizing 
 the appointment of delegates to confer upon that subject 
 with delegates from the other maritime provinces. 
 Similar resolutions were adopted in the Parliaments of 
 New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. A meeting: 
 of delegates was accordingly called to sit at Charlotte 
 Town, Prince Edward Island, in September of 1864. 
 
 Meanwhile, events in Canada were rapidly tending to 
 render some change in its political condition an absolute 
 necessit}^ One government after another was forced to 
 confess itself unable to control Parliament ; and resigna- 
 tion followed resicrnation, and election succeeded 
 election, with no other effect than to increase the em- 
 barrassment. The result was that sectional majorities, 
 firmly united, impeded legislation, and assailed each 
 other with every weapon that strong sectional differences 
 place at the disposal of political factions. Lower Canad- 
 ian representatives united to resist the demands of their 
 compeers from the Upper Province, and Upper Canadian 
 members were as resolute in enforcing what they con- 
 sidered to be just claims. In fact, Upper and Lower 
 Canada were arrayed against each other, each determin- 
 ed not to yield an inch of ground. This state of things, 
 it was evident, could not long continue without leading 
 to very serious results. The nature of the questions on 
 wbich the two were divided admitted of no immediate 
 
THE CANADIAN C0NFEDE.5iAX;Y: J()]! 
 
 satisfactory compromise, considering the relative position 
 of the disputants. Upper Canadian members alleged 
 that the population of their section of the province ex- 
 ceeded that of the other by 400,000 ; and as each had an 
 equality of representation, the result was the practical 
 disenfranchisement of these 400,000. It was also con- 
 tended that the proportion of taxation raised by the 
 respective sections showed a large excess in favour of 
 Upper Canada, as that portion paid two-thirds of the 
 taxation of the country, while the relative expenditure 
 exhibited a gross injustice. In answer to this, Lower 
 Canadians contended that, at the time of the union of 
 the provinces, their section had a majority of 175,000 ; 
 and it was not till 1850 that the scale was turned against 
 them, by reason of a large immigration ; and that they 
 (comparatively rich) had borne the heavier part of the 
 burden of a debt contracted by the Upper Province, 
 which, at the time, was staggering under the load ; that 
 any increase in the representation in Parliament would 
 naturally place them (being a minorit}^) at the mercy of 
 a people dissimilar in race, character, religion, language, 
 and laws. This quarrel culminated on the floor of Parlia- 
 ment, as we have already mentioned, in arraying sections 
 against each other ; the one bold in pressing for increased 
 representation, and the other defiant in resisting it. The 
 union effected between the provinces of Upper and 
 Lower Canada in 1840 was, after all, but a nominal one ; 
 each section preserved its identity, and the line between 
 them remained in all its distinctness. The government 
 has been administered by a ministry made up of an equal 
 number from both sections, with, in most instances, a 
 
102 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 distinct staff of crown officers. It was, of course, to be 
 expected that local politicians would keep alive sectional 
 prejudices with such material as they had to work upon. 
 Each half of the provincial cabinet has been expected to 
 command the support of a majority from the section it 
 represented, so that a ministry having a majority of the 
 "whole Houses of Parliament would be compelled to dis- 
 ■band by reason of not having a majority within a 
 (majority. This policy could have but one effect, and it 
 may be seen that the secret of frequent political crises 
 lies, therefore, on the surface of Canadian politics. No 
 government could be expected to stand out for any great 
 length of time against a vigilant opposition, with so 
 many conflicting interests to appease as the circumstances 
 ■and extent of the country created. Party spirit loses 
 none of its violence by reason of the smallness of 
 the community in which it is developed ; and in 
 its choice of weapons misses no advantage through 
 courtesy. The check given to public business brought 
 both political parties to their senses; and returning 
 reason suggested the necessity for a remedy by which 
 responsible government would be saved from degenerat- 
 ing into a series of faction fights. It was apparent that 
 constitutional difficulties lay at the bottom of this sec- 
 tional strife. Both parties accepted the omen ; the 
 political leaders avowed their willingness to throw aside 
 party ties and even personal feeling; and a coalition 
 was formed pledged to co-operate in searching out a 
 practical remedy for the evils which had become intoler- 
 able. The result is embodied in the following memoran- 
 dum, which expressed the policy of the coalition govern- 
 ment : — 
 
 ^'ii 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 103 
 
 " The Government are prepared to pledge themselves to bring in 
 a measure, next session, for the purpose of removing existing diffi- 
 culties, by introducing the federal principle into Canada coupled 
 with such provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the 
 North- West Territory to be incorporated with the same system of 
 government ; and the Government will seek, by sending represen- 
 tatives to the Lower Provinces and to England, to secure the assent 
 of those interests that are beyond the control of our Legislature, 
 to be united under a general Legislature based upon the federal 
 system. "■'^ 
 
 This coalition of parties being accepted as a guarantee 
 for the cessation of that species of political contention 
 which had proved a source of constant annoyance and 
 irritation, met with the unanimous approbation of both 
 Houses of Parliament, and gave satisfaction to the people 
 and press of the country ; while the policy announced 
 afforded a gleam of hope to those who had begun to des- 
 pair of an adjustment of difficulties hitherto seemingly 
 incapable of settlement. After the prorogation of tfie 
 Canadian Parliament, an invitation was extended by the 
 Chamber of Commerce of St. John, New Brunswick, to 
 the members of the Canadian Legislature, to pay a visit 
 to the Maritime Provinces. This was accepted by a large 
 number of Canadians, and the principal citizens of New 
 Brunswick and Nova Scotia gave a hearty welcome to 
 their fellow colonists. Their fraternal meetings went far 
 to pave the way for an union, as public attention was at 
 once turned towards che mutual advantage to be gained 
 by a closer connexion. Such an incident may, at first 
 glance, seem of little importance ; but when we consider 
 
 * Statement by Hon. J. A. Macdonald in Canadian House of Assembly, 
 June 21, 1864. 
 
104 THE CANADIAN CONFEDEllACY. 
 
 that up to this time public opinion had not kept pace 
 with the dreams of the colonial statesmen (although in- 
 dividuals in all the provinces had agreed on what ought 
 to be done rather than on what could be done), we are 
 inclined to give it due weight. Shortly afterwards, the 
 convention appointed to consider the subject of an union 
 of the Maritime Provinces, met at Charlottetown, Prince 
 Edward Island ; and members of the Canadian Govern- 
 ment attended and proposed to merge in the higher plan 
 of a confederation of all the provinces, — that of a legis- 
 lative union among the Maritime Provinces. The subject 
 was discussed, and such progress made that it was thought 
 desirable by the Conference that the subject should be 
 resumed in an official manner under the authority of the 
 governments of the several provinces.* The Governor- 
 General of Canada communicated to the Secretary of State 
 for the Colonies the suggestions of the Conference, stat- 
 ing in his despatch that ** the desire for a closer union 
 amonojst the colonies than has hitherto existed appears to 
 be generally felt both in Canada and the Lower Pro- 
 vinces ; " and further, " it appears to me that the mode 
 of proceeding suggested is the only one in which the 
 views entertained by the leading politicians of the British 
 North American colonies on this important subject can 
 be brought intelligibly and in a practical form before 
 your attention." In reply, Mr. Cardwell merely expressed 
 his approval of the course taken in the matter. Official 
 delegates were appointed to represent each province, with 
 the exception of Newfoundland. That province, however, 
 
 * Report of Committee of Executive Council of Canada, Sept. 23, 1864, 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 105- 
 
 was represented by some of its leading statesmen. The 
 Conference met at Quebec, and formally entered upon the 
 discussion of the subject. 
 
 From the foregoing it will be observed that the idea of 
 a possible federation has never been extinct in any of the 
 provinces, although it has taken Rip Van Winkle slum- 
 bers. Until lately it had not been made a party question 
 nor had its discussion enlisted any large number of per- 
 sons. Now, however, it has assumed the proportions of a 
 public question, and invites inquiry into its merits or de- 
 merits. Before reviewing the conclusions arrived at by 
 the Conference, it may be as well to take a rapid survey 
 of the country embraced by the confederation scheme, so 
 that we may be enabled to judge of its probable success. 
 
 Public attention has but seldom been directed to the 
 capabilities and resources of the British American provin- 
 ces as a whole ; even among the colonists themselves has 
 this been the case, and to such a degree that their know- 
 ledge of each other, not to mention the little importance 
 they attach to their united value, has been as slight as 
 our acquaintance with them has been superficial. They 
 have had a strange impression of each other, and until 
 lately, when they began to take stock, the general public 
 had no idea that the provinces would unitedly possess all 
 the elements necessary to constitute a powerful nation. 
 No inducements were offered to render the acquisition of 
 correct information of any practical service ; so that while 
 individuals regarded as visionaries bestowed time and 
 labour in laying a basis for their schemes of future action,, 
 the mass of the communities paid little attention to their 
 facts, and gave themselves no trouble about their theories 
 
106 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 Each province has been so taken up with its own needs 
 and the working out of its own projects, that greater 
 interests have been kept in the background. But events 
 have forced them to take thought for the future as well 
 as to provide for the necessities of the present, and in set- 
 ting out they naturally compare themselves with others. 
 The British possessions on the American continent 
 embrace a territory nearly equal to that of the United 
 States. It is difficult to give with accuracy the area 
 under British rule, as that portion of the continent is 
 but partially surveyed, and boundaries are not yet clearly 
 defined, but an estimate sufficient for practical purposes 
 has been formed. The latest calculation has this result : 
 
 Square miles. 
 
 Canada 331,282 
 
 Newfoundland 40,200 
 
 New Brunswick 27,105 
 
 Nova Scotia 18,660 
 
 Prince Edward Island 2,131 
 
 419,378 
 
 If we add to this the probable area of the remainder — 
 say, British Columbia 213,500, Vancouver Island 1(5,000, 
 and the Hudson Bay Territory 1,570,500, — the sum total 
 will show 2,218,641 square miles against 2,963,666, which 
 is the area of the great American Republic given in the 
 Eeport for 1853 of the American Topographical Bureau. 
 A very large portion of this immense tract of country 
 on both sides of the line is of course incapable of culti- 
 vation, but the proportion really valuable even for agri- 
 cultural purposes is very great. Confining ourselves to 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFKDERACY. 
 
 107 
 
 the North-American provinces likely to be included in 
 the proposed confederation at once, we find, according 
 to the statement of the Hon. George Brown, made at 
 Halifax on Sept. 12, 1864, and alleged to be based upon 
 the statistics of 1861, that the amount of land held by 
 private individuals in the various provinces, with the 
 number of acres under cultivation, stand respectively as 
 follows — 
 
 
 Held. 
 
 Cultivated. 
 
 Upper Canada . . . 
 
 17,708,232 
 
 6,051,619 
 
 Lower Canada 
 
 13,680,000 
 
 4,804,235 
 
 Nova Scotia . . . . 
 
 5,748,893 
 
 1,028,032 
 
 New Brunswick . . . 
 
 6,636,329 
 
 835,108 
 
 Newfoundland . . . 
 
 100,000 
 
 41,108 
 
 Prince Edward Island . 
 
 1,365,400 
 
 368,127 
 
 
 45,238,854 
 
 13,128,229 
 
 Without referring to the agricultural produce of the 
 provinces, which Qiay be always looked to as the basis 
 of their prosperity, and which now yields about 150,- 
 000,000 dollars annually, we shall now glance at other 
 features which, though less important at present, yet 
 afford for consideration an inviting aspect. Besides a 
 fertile soil and magnificent forests, the provinces possess 
 inexhaustible mineral resources, such as are accessories 
 to civilization, and material attractions to enterprise and 
 skill. In Nova Scotia, gold, iron, coal, and copper are 
 found in abundance. The quantity of coal at present 
 raised is half a million of tons per annum. Four years 
 acfo ofold was discovered, and now 151 mines are beinof 
 worked, yielding in the way of revenues and royalties 
 20,000 dollars annually. New Brunswick, in common 
 
108 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 with Nova Scotia, has gold, iron, and extensive coal de- 
 posits, extending over seven millions of acres. New- 
 foundland has a coal formation of 1000 to 1500 feet in 
 thickness; but it has not been worked, owing to other 
 more profitable employments absorbing the attention of 
 the inhabitants. As Canada has no coal, though abund- 
 ance of iron ore and copper, it will be seen what an im- 
 portant bearing the possibility of obtaining supplies from 
 the Lower Provinces may have in other years. Gold has 
 been found in Canada, but thus far the yield is insignifi- 
 cant. Throughout the mineral regions of Canada, forest 
 trees exist in sufficient abundance to render the absence 
 of coal for smelting purposes less felt than it otherwise 
 would be. But the time will come when, wood being no 
 longer at the disposal of the miner, coal will have to be 
 resorted to. The profusion of iron ore in Canada, await- 
 ing the magic touch of the capitalist to add to the 
 country's riches, is wonderful ; and the copper mines in 
 both the Upper and Lower Provinces have already given 
 such evidences of productiveness as to justify the ex- 
 pressed opinion as to their national value. 
 
 Apart from these agricultural and mineral resources, 
 there exists a guarantee for solid prosperity in the ex- 
 haustless fisheries that lie at the very threshold of the 
 proposed Confederacy. Their value cannot be over-esti- 
 mated, and the many times they have been the subject 
 of diplomatic contest shows that their importance has 
 been in some degree appreciated. For several centuries 
 the governments of various countries have reerarded 
 them with envious eye. France has ever shown herself 
 eager to push her interests in this quarter, and placing 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 109 
 
 a proper estimate on their commercial and political im- 
 portance, has lavished large sums on what she regarded 
 as an investment producing an adequate money return 
 as well as a nursery for her seamen.* It was a maxim 
 with the French Government that the North-American 
 fisheries were of more national value in reofard to navi- 
 gation and power than the gold mines of Mexico could 
 have been if the latter were possessed by France. The 
 number of men now employed by her in these fishing 
 stations is about 11,500, and for years large bounties 
 have been paid to encourage her seamen to engage in the 
 occupation of fishing. The return from the French 
 fisheries cannot be less than 3,000,000 dollars a year. 
 On January 14, 1857, the French Government obtained 
 from England certain concessions relative to fishery 
 rights on the coast of Newfoundland, but the alarm cre- 
 ated in the Maritime Provinces by what they looked 
 upon as inflicting injury upon their interests, and the 
 refusal of Newfoundland to accede to the terms of the 
 treaty prevented it from taking effect. Nor are the 
 United States wanting in appreciation of the benefits to 
 be derived from a prosecution of this branch of trade. 
 President Pierce, in his Message to Congress (Dec. 18G2), 
 in alluding to the Reciprocity Treaty, said : " The treaty 
 between the United States and Great Britain of 5th 
 June, 1854, which went into effective operation in 1855, 
 put an end to causes of irritation between the two 
 countries by securing to the United States the right of 
 fishing on the coast of the British North- American Pro- 
 
 * See the Report by M. Ancet for 1851, and that by M. Coste for 18G1. 
 
110 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 vinces with advantages equal to those enjoyed by British 
 subjects. Besides the signal benefits of this treaty to a 
 large class of our citizens in a pursuit connected in no 
 inconsiderable degree with our national prosperity and 
 strength, it has had a favourable effect, &c." The 
 amount expended in bounties now averages 300,000 dol- 
 lars annually, and the return is estimated at about eight 
 and a half millions of dollars. The advantage of posi- 
 tion enjoyed by the Maritime Provinces naturally at- 
 tracts capital and enterprise from other pursuits to profit 
 by an employment so lucrative as that placed by nature 
 within their very grasp. They see with chagrin the 
 treasures of the deep snatched from before their eyes, 
 and going to the enrichment of foreigners, while the 
 apathy of their fellow-colonists living inland prevents a 
 just share being appropriated by those who should profit 
 most by them. Without a system of bounties (except 
 as regards Canada) the value of fish, fish-oil, and seal- 
 skins exported from these provinces (independently of 
 what was consumed in domestic use) is thus given — 
 
 Nova Scotia 
 
 12,335,104 
 
 New Brunswick (1862) 
 
 303,487 
 
 Nevvfoundland (1862) . 
 
 3,760,010 
 
 Prince Edward Island* 
 
 
 Canada (1862) . 
 
 703,8% 
 
 We have not the returns necessary to found an accur- 
 ate statement of the aggregate value of these fisheries, 
 
 *We regret to be unable to obtain in time for publication in this article 
 the statement of the value of fish, etc., exported from Prince Edward 
 Island. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. Ill 
 
 but competent authorities have suggested 20,000,000 
 dollars as falling short of the actual yield. 
 
 Possessing 5,000 miles of sea-coast, the British North 
 American provinces when consolidated into one power 
 would possess not only all the materials necessary for 
 constructing and equipping ships of war, but also bands 
 of skilful and hardy seamen wherewith to man a power- 
 ful fleet. Already their united commercial marine shows 
 an amount of tonnage that would entitle a Confederacy 
 such as is proposed to take high rank as a maritime 
 power. The following table shows the tonnage required 
 for the accommodation of trade : — 
 
 Inwards. Outwards. Total. 
 Nova Scotia (1863) .... 712,939.. 719,915. J ,432,954 
 
 New Brunswick 659,258.. 727,722. .1,386,980 
 
 Prince Edward Island (1861) . 79,580.. 87,518.. 167,098 
 
 Newfoundland (1861) . . . . 696,763.. 695,582. .1,392,345 
 Canada(1863) 4,580,010. .4,460,327. .9,040,337 
 
 6,728,550 6,691,064 13,419,614 
 
 The tonnage employed by Canada on the inland lakes is 
 stated to be 6,907,000 tons,but this includes many coasting 
 vessels, between whose arrival and departure a very short 
 interval elapses, so that a very great deduction must be 
 made to express correctly the actual tonnage. But the 
 sea-going tonnage of Canada amounts to 2,133,000 tons. 
 The opportunities for commerce are such as to indicate 
 the natural increase of the colonial marine. The facili- 
 ties for ship-building turn the attention of a large num- 
 ber not only to the supply of the home demand, but also 
 to competition in foreign markets for the sale of vessels. 
 
112 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 In 1832 the tonnage of vessels built in British America 
 amounted to only 33,776 tons ; in 1863 the number of 
 vessels built was 64<5, with a capacity of 219,763 tons,* 
 and representing an export value of 9,000,000 dollars. 
 The number of sailors and fishermen of these colonies, 
 .as shown by the last census returns, is 69,256. 
 
 The total population of the united colonies cannot be 
 said to indicate great strength, considering the vast 
 region over which it is spread; it must, however, be 
 regarded as a respectable nucleus of a nationality which 
 the varied resources of the country will in time fill up 
 and extend by attracting immigration. In live years 
 Nova Scotia has doubled her population, while Canada 
 has increased from 1,147,349 in 1842 to 2,507,657 in 1861 ; 
 Upper Canada presenting the most rapid increase, as in 
 1842 her population numbered 486,055, and in 1861, 
 1,896,091. The population of the six provinces is rep- 
 resented by the census of 1861 to be thus distributed : — 
 Upper Canada, 1,396,091; Lower Canada, 1,111,566; 
 Nova Scotia, 330,857; New Brunswick, 252,047; New- 
 foundland (1863), 124,288; Prince Edward Island, 
 80,857 : total, 3,295,706. Adding to this the increase 
 from every source since J 861, and the numbers necessar- 
 ily omitted, the whole population may be assumed to be 
 nearly 4,000,000 of souls. If we place this aggregate in 
 comparison with the population of European countries 
 ranking as substantial powers — for instance, Portugal, 
 3.570,000; Holland, 3,500,000; Denmark, 2,480,000; 
 Greece, 1,150,000 — we are enabled to form a pretty fair 
 
 *Speech of Finance Minister of Canada, February 7th, 18G5. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 113 
 
 idea of the position a British confederacy raay ere long 
 hold among the nations of the earth. The following 
 tabulated statement shows the fighting material available 
 for defensive purposes : — 
 
 Upper Canada, from . 
 
 Lower Canada, from 
 
 Nova Scotia, from . , 
 New Brunswick, from . 
 
 Newfoundland, from . . 
 Prince Edward Island, from 
 
 Total males from 
 
 20 to 30 . 
 
 . 128,740 
 
 
 30 to 40 . 
 
 . 84,178 
 
 
 40 to 50 . 
 
 59,660 
 
 
 50 to 60 . 
 
 36,377- 
 
 -308,955 
 
 20 to 30 . 
 
 . 93,302 
 
 
 30 to 40 . 
 
 59,507 
 
 
 40 to 50 . 
 
 42,628 
 
 
 50 to 60 . 
 
 30,129- 
 
 -225,620 
 
 20 to 60 . 
 
 - 
 
 - 67,367 
 
 21 to 40 . 
 
 33,574 
 
 
 40 to 50 . 
 
 10,739 
 
 
 50 to 60 . 
 
 7,312- 
 
 - 51,625 
 
 20 to 60 . 
 
 - 
 
 - 25,532 
 
 20 to 45 . 
 
 11,144 
 
 
 45 to 60 . , 
 
 3,675- 
 
 - 14,819 
 
 20 to 60 . 
 
 693,918 
 
 The ebb and flow of the tide of population in a new 
 country such as America presents curious results. While 
 the population is being augmented from without, local- 
 ities and sections of country suffer from the constant 
 drain made upon them by the attractions of older or rpore 
 inviting parts of the continent. The young Canadian or 
 Nova Scotian, seduced by the prospects of an enlarged 
 scope for ambition or the hope of acquiring a fortune 
 more rapidly than he could do at home, deserts his native 
 land to push his way into the adjoining States or the ex- 
 
 H 
 
114 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 treme west of the continent. Even the French Cana- 
 dians, noted for their attachment to their native soil, be- 
 come restive, and are found bold enough to seek new 
 homes among a people whom they have been taught to 
 regard as hostile to all they hold sacred. The number of 
 British colonists now residing in the United States is 
 very great. It is said that there are 20,000 Canadians 
 alone in the Federal army. What has contributed to this 
 self- expatriation has undoubtedly been the want of inter- 
 course between colonies which offer every inducement to 
 industry. Instead of an interchange of floating popula- 
 tion, the current has gone in a foreign direction, and 
 thousands of young men have not only been lost to the 
 colonies, but have gone to the building up of their rivals. 
 As districts now scarcely rescued from native wildness 
 become more closely settled, and intervening tracts that 
 serve as so many barriers to communication are pierced 
 by advancing civilization, communities now almost 
 strangers to each other will feel the uniting influences of 
 trade, and present to the colonial youth a greater diver- 
 sity of pursuits than the limited means and distracted 
 energies of each province have been able to open up. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disadvantages incident to divided 
 \)unsels and sectional legislation, the provinces have ad- 
 *^anced very rapidly in material wealth. Small markets 
 have stunted their manufactures, but their great staples 
 have enabled them to grasp and retain a fast hold on in- 
 ternational trade. Their exports and imports already 
 exceed those of the United States in 1821. The returns 
 of 1863 are presented in one view in the following 
 table : — 
 
 I 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDEKACY. 115 
 
 Imports. Exports. Total. 
 
 Canada .... $45,964,493 
 New Brunswick . . 7,764,824 
 Nova Scotia . . . 10,201,391 
 Prince Edward Island 1,428,028 
 Newfoundland . . 5,242,720 
 
 $41,831,532 .. 187,796,025 
 
 8,964,784 .. 16,729,608 
 
 8,420,968 .. 18,622,359 
 
 1,627,540 .. 3,055,568 
 
 6,002,312 .. 11,245,032 
 
 $70,601,456 $66,847,136 $137,448,592 
 
 While this trade in the aggregate is large, the part of it 
 strictly intercolonial bears but a small proportion to that 
 carried on with foreign countries. In 1863 the total im- 
 ports by the St. Lawrence from the British North Amer- 
 ican colonies to Canada amounted to $568,806, and the 
 exports of Canada to the other colonies to $992,738. 
 This low state of intercolonial trade is attributable to the 
 hostile tariffs put in force by each province, amounting 
 in effect to the exclusion of each other's products. Free 
 trade between them will no doubt remedy the evil to a 
 great extent. In the three years preceding the Recipro- 
 city Treaty, the exports of the United States to these 
 provinces were $48,216,518, and the imports $22,588,577. 
 During the ten years in which the treaty has been in 
 operation, from 1854 to 1863, the expansion has been 
 unexampled, showing an aggregate of exports to the 
 value of $256,350,931, and of imports to the value of 
 $200,399,786.* It is very natural for the colonists to 
 argue that if reciprocity between them and the United 
 States lent such an impetus to trade, reciprocity between 
 all the provinces would likewise cause an increase in 
 
 * Senator Sumner— Speech on the Reciprocity Treaty in Congress, Jan. 
 11, 1865. 
 
116 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 their trade with each other. A large proportion of the 
 goods which the maritime provinces now buy in the 
 States could be supplied by Canada, and the competition 
 would not be with the productions of Great Britain, but 
 with those of the States.* The imports of all kinds of 
 agricultural produce in New Brunswick amounted in one 
 year to $2,060,702, of which Canada supplied only $177,- 
 328. Most of the flour is of Canada growth and manu- 
 facture, and instead of its being procured from Portland 
 in the United States it could be laid down at the head of 
 the St. John River in New Brunswick as cheaply as it is 
 carried to Portland. The New Brunswick Comptroller 
 of Customs, in his report for 1863, says : " If New Bruns- 
 wick were connected with Montreal and Quebec by direct 
 railway communication through British territory, our 
 imports from the States would decrease immediately, as 
 much of our flour and other supplies could come direct 
 from Canada." The same might be said of the other 
 provinces. The subject of intercolonial reciprocity has 
 been considered by the colonists, and various schemes 
 have been suggested to change a state of things which all 
 looked upon as anomalous, but which, being beset with 
 difficulties, offered little prospect of a satisfactory or im- 
 mediate improvement. In 1862 the Legislature of Nova 
 Scotia passed resolutions empowering the Government to 
 negotiate with the neighbouring provinces for an inter- 
 change of articles duty free. The Finance Minister of 
 Canada gave his attention to the proposition, and re- 
 
 * Eeport of Canadian Finance Minister on Intercolonial Reciprocity, 
 
 18G2. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 117 
 
 ported to his colleagues the result of his examination. 
 He said : — 
 
 *' If a complete customs union could be formed between the pro- 
 vinces under which they could interchange, without restriction, all 
 goods the produce and manufacture of whatever country, it would 
 have a beneficial effect . But as, to carry such a union conveniently 
 into effect, greater uniformity in the tariffs of the colonies must be 
 secured, which would be almost impracticable under their present 
 condition, the undersigned contents himself with recommending 
 that, in answer to the despatch of the Nova Scotia Government, a 
 proposil be made for the reciprocal free admission of all articles the 
 growth, produce, and manufacture of Nova Scotia and any other 
 province becoming a party to the agreement that may be founded 
 on this proposal." 
 
 The delegates from the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick, who met to consider the subject, 
 came to the conclusion that the free interchano^e of goods 
 and uniformity of tariff were indispensable consequences 
 of the construction of the intercolonial railway, and that 
 the diminution of the revenues of the respective pro- 
 vinces, from various causes, did not warrant the adoption 
 of measures to carry the principle into effect. 
 
 The necessity for a line of railway between Canada and 
 the Lower Provinces has been apparent for years past, 
 and the project has occupied the attention of the imperial 
 as well as the colonial authorities. The trade of Canada 
 is dependent, in a great degree, upon the temper and feel- 
 ings of the United States. For five months in the year 
 exit by the St. Lawrence is completely cut off, and dur- 
 ing this period Portland is the Canadian seaport. Should 
 the Portland section of the Grand Trunk Railway be 
 closed at any time, all communication with Europe must 
 
118 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 be carried on by the overland route to Halifax, and 
 'Canada would be forced to resort to the old system of 
 importation by way of the St. Lawrence during the season 
 of open navigation. The repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty 
 ^nd the abolition of the bonding system will compel 
 Canada to find other outlets than those now available, 
 and will force her to seek relief from a virtual blockade 
 by connecting herself with the other colonies. For de- 
 fensive purposes the road may also be of advantage, in 
 enabling masses of troops to pass rapidly from province 
 to province. However, as matters now stand, it is the 
 only possible way of forestalling the consequences of com- 
 plete isolation. The importance of the undertaking has 
 never been questioned. 
 
 Lord Durham, in the report to which we have already 
 referred, said — " The completion of any satisfactory com- 
 munication between Halifax and Quebec would in fact 
 produce relations between those provinces that would 
 render a general union absolutely necessary." In 1843 
 the Imperial Government caused a survey to be made 
 with reference to a military road, and in 1848 Major 
 Robinson and Captain Henderson reported as to the fit- 
 ness for rail purposes of the proposed route. In a cor- 
 respondence between Lord Elgin and Earl Grey in 1848, 
 the former insisted strongly on the advantages likely to 
 accrue from the construction of the line ; among others, 
 that it would " tend to unite the provinces to one another 
 and to the mother country, and to inspire them with that 
 consciousness of their own strength and of the value of 
 the connexion with Great Britain, which is their best 
 security against aggression." The Legislatures of Canada, 
 
THE CANADIAN' CONFEDERACY. 119 
 
 New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia passed acts for the 
 promotion of the undertaking. In 1851, Lord Derby, in 
 the House of Lords, expressed himself in favour of the 
 construction of the line; and in 1852 Sir John Pakington, 
 in a despatch to Lord Elgin, gave expression to the views 
 of the Imperial Government, declaring their intention to 
 fulfil the just expectations held out by their predecessors* 
 In a despatch from the Duke of Newcastle, dated April 
 12, 1862, a proposal was made, couched in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 " Anxious, however, to promote aa far as they can the import- 
 ant object of completing the great line of railway communication 
 on British ground between the Atlantic and the westernmost parts 
 of Canada, and to assist the provinces in a scheme which would so 
 materially promote their interests, her Majesty's Government are 
 willing to offer to the Provincial Governments an imperial guaran- 
 tee of interest towards enabling them to raise by public loan, if 
 they should desire it, at a moderate rate, the requisite funds for 
 constructing the railway. . . . The nature and extent of such 
 guarantee must be determined by the particulars of any scheme 
 which the Provincial Governments may be disposed to found on 
 the present proposal, and on the kind of security they would 
 offer." 
 
 In September, 1862, delegates duly appointed by the 
 provinces met at Quebec to consider the proposal, and a 
 memorandum of agreement was drawn up. Owing to a 
 subsequent dissatisfaction with some of the conditions 
 precedent proposed by the Imperial Government, the 
 effort proved abortive. The objections to the construc- 
 tion of the line have been the probable immediate loss 
 connected with it as a commercial speculation, owing to 
 the insufficiency of paying freights, the difficulty of keep- 
 
120 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 ing it in running order in winter, and its uselessness for 
 military purposes, owing to its proximity to the frontier. 
 In its favour the argument rests on a national, military, 
 and commercial basis ; that it furnishes the surest means 
 of bringing about a confederation, that it will enable 
 troops to be moved rapidly across British territory, and 
 facilitate the concentration of masses of men, and that it 
 will counterbalance to a certain extent the pressure of 
 the United States on Canada by affording another 
 method by which the foreign mails can be carried, and 
 access to the seaboard obtained for Canadian products and 
 manufactures ; besides effecting a saving of time in the 
 transmission of European and American correspondence. 
 The length of railway to be built is estimated at 350 
 miles ;* this, however, may be under the mark. When 
 this line is constructed there will be a complete railway 
 connection from Halifax on the Atlantic to the shores of 
 Lake Huron, 
 
 Thus far the energies of the different provinces have 
 been directed to schemes of internal improvement, pro- 
 moting facility of internal communication, and every 
 effort has been put forth to secure the vast trade of the 
 West, whose natural channel is the St. Lawrence. Costly 
 though the struggle has proved, yet it is not fruitless. 
 Every mile of railway has paid for itself tenfold in open- 
 ing up the country and increasing the value of property, 
 and the magnificent canal system has overcome the 
 natural obstacles by which navigation was impeded and 
 commerce forced into other and foreiofn channels. The 
 
 * Despatch of Duke of Newcastle, April 12th, 1862. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 121 
 
 benefits conferred will not be confined to one province, 
 but must be shared with all to a greater or less extent, 
 from their very nature. To sustain and extend the pub- 
 lic works already in existence, and to call others into 
 being that will act as feeders to them, can only be done 
 efiiciently, where the aim is a common prosperity, by 
 unity of action and a clubbing of resources It will be 
 found that the Canadian Confederacy will set out 
 with a respectable income. Its financial standing may 
 be judged of from the following statement of liabilities, 
 revenue, and expenditures : — 
 
 1863. Dabt. Receipts. Payments. 
 
 Canada 167,263,995. .J$l 4,382,508. .$14,909,182 
 
 New Brunswick 5,778,000.. 894,836.. 884,613 
 
 Nova Scotia (about) 5,000,000. . 1,185,629. . 1,072,274 
 
 Newfoundland 946,000 . . 480,000 . . 479,420 
 
 Prince Edward Island. . . . 240,673. . 197,384. . 171,718 
 
 $79,228,668 $17,140,357 117,517,207 
 
 Summing up the resources of the provinces about to 
 assume the attitude of a distinct power, we find that they 
 possess every element that enters into the formation ot 
 a nationality which will, if properly guided, stand the 
 test of time. 
 
 We are thus enabled to see at a glance the magnitude 
 of the interests to be dealt with by the delegates ap- 
 pointed to the Quebec Conference, and we can imagine 
 the difficulties that presented themselves at every step 
 in their negotiations, while striving to reconcile the pre- 
 judices of localities hitherto having complete control 
 over their own afi'airs. The necessity for securing differ- 
 
122 the"canadian confedekacy. 
 
 HI 
 
 ent races againsfmutual aggression, and protecting reli- 
 gious views from an intolerance already busy in sowing 
 seeds of discord, involved problems not easy of solution. 
 Had there been any inclination to trifle with the main 
 object of their meeting, or a disposition to throve 
 obstacles in the way of its attainment, the result of the 
 convention would have extinguished all hope of a British 
 American confederation for years to come, as well as 
 suggested grave doubts as to the future peace and welfare 
 of colonies so situated as the British North-American 
 colonies are. But great responsibilities outweighed nar- 
 row-minded views, and mutual concession enabled the 
 delegates to lay down a substantial basis for a consoli- 
 dated government. The scheme is outlined with prudent 
 forethought, and in detail evinces the care of practical 
 statesmanship. As a whole^it is acceptable, taking it for 
 granted that it is the best that could be arrived at. Its 
 authors tell us that they were anxious to follow, as far as 
 circumstances would permit, fhe model of the British 
 Constitution. How far circumstances controlled their 
 desires, an examination of the prominent features of the 
 resolutions embodying their conclusions will show. The 
 principle of federation, which forms the basis of the whole 
 scheme, presents the widest departure from the model 
 they were professedly anxious to follow. The Con- 
 federacy is not, at first at least, to assume the character 
 of an independent government. The executive authority, 
 the shape and title of which are undefined, is to be vested 
 in the Queen. We are thus to have a confederation of 
 colonies, with the Queen at their head. Whether its 
 chief executive officer is to be known as Governor-Generah 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 123 
 
 or is to have the title and rank of Viceroy, are points 
 apparently reserved for the determination of Parliament. 
 All that the representatives of the several provinces 
 undertook to determine was that the chief executive 
 officer should be nominated by the Crown. It is of the 
 very highest importance to the provinces that this office 
 should be made one worthy the ambition of a statesman. 
 The governors of Canada have necessarily, for the most 
 part, been men of little or no mark at home. It would 
 be very difficult to induce a rising statesman to abandon 
 the prospects which a successful career in the House of 
 Commons opens to him for any attractions that the 
 Governor-Generalship of Canada, as heretofore constituted, 
 has had to offer. At the time of the union of the two 
 Canadas, Lord Sydenham debated in his own mind 
 whether he should make the salary of the governor six or 
 eight thousand pounds sterling, but the former sum was 
 determined upon. In the near neighbourhood of the 
 American Republic, where the chief executive officer is 
 confined to a salary of 25,000 dollars per annum, it may 
 easily be conceived that many of the colonists regarded 
 the salary of their Governor- General as very extravagant ; 
 and even as late as 1849, the Legislative Assembly of 
 Canada, in a spasmodic tit of economy, expressed the 
 opinion that a saving in this item ought then to have 
 been effected. As a natural consequence of this rate of 
 remuneration, excessive as it may have seemed to a 
 portion of the colonists, Canada has found it necessary to 
 be content with, on the whole, an inferior order of men 
 for governors. The two most striking exceptions have 
 been those of Lord Sydenham and Lord Elgin. Nor is 
 
124 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 this the worst. It has happened more than once that the 
 poverty rather than the will of the person selected for 
 this post has induced him to accept the appointment ; 
 and the necessity for nursing the dilapidated fortunes of 
 those functionaries has sometimes gone far to bring the 
 representative of the Crown into discredit with the people. 
 It is apparently to be left to our Parliament to lix the 
 salary of the executive head of the confederation, and it is 
 essential that, without being extravagant, it should be 
 such as will attract men with some pretension to states- 
 manship. 
 
 The complexity inherent in all federations will be in- 
 creased by the fact of this federation being one of colonies. 
 Above their government, and vested with supreme 
 sovereignty, is the authority of Parliament and the Queen ; 
 below that will be the lieutenant-governors of the pro- 
 vinces, deriving their appointment and receiving their pay 
 from the federal executive. Under this tertiary authority, 
 in Canada at least, there prevails an elaborate and an ex- 
 pensive, because extravagant, gradation of municipalities, 
 beorinninp; with the villaofes and endinfj with the aofarep-a- 
 
 O O O CD OO O 
 
 tion of townships which form the municipality. A system 
 of government so intricate, combining the imperial, the 
 federative, the local, and the municipal elements, will, 
 from its very nature, be exceedingly complex, and must 
 be something like proportionately expensive. But there is 
 no choice in the matter. Federation forms the only 
 possible principle upon which British America can now 
 be united. Lower Canada — of which a large majority of 
 the population is of French extraction — being sensitively 
 tenacious of its national distinctions, with the peculiar 
 
 \ 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 125 
 
 customs and rights growing out of them, could not, from 
 its dread of absorption, be induced to assent to any closer 
 form of union. Whether some of the other provinces 
 might not hav*e refused to surrender the privileges of 
 local legislation may also be a question ; for even now 
 objections are made by the opponents of federation that 
 the scheme exacts too great a surrender of local rights. 
 
 The relations between the Government and the chief 
 executive officer of the confederacy will apparently differ 
 in no respect from those which are at present subsisting 
 between the Colonial Office and the government of any 
 colony having representative institutions. The colonists 
 advance with excessive timidity to whatever has the ap- 
 pearance of ultimate independence, and they seem to be 
 wholly unconscious that they are framing a confederation 
 which is to form a stepping-stone to this final end. It is 
 not that four millions ot people might not desire inde- 
 pendence, if circumstances assured them of being able to 
 maintain it. But the thoughtful colonist, aroused by the 
 gigantic war which is going on in the neighbouring re- 
 public, finds it necessary to look carefully to his position 
 on the American continent. The overshadowing pre- 
 dominance of a single state is the question which that 
 war appears to him to be about to decide ; for if the 
 North can succeed in binding once more the broken 
 fragments of the old Union, he fears an attempt to apply 
 to the whole of Northern America the modern and ex- 
 aggerated reading of the Monroe doctrine. For British 
 America there is, therefore, no absolute independence. 
 She must lean somewhere for support, and her inclina- 
 tions, if not her interests, lead her to prefer a species of 
 
126 THE CANADIAN CONFEDEKACY. 
 
 dependence upon the mother country, which shall be 
 something more, though perhaps not much more, than a 
 national alliance. 
 
 An ardent partisan of the perfect federative principle 
 might find in the proposed constitution reason to object 
 that it is not being dealt fairly by ; that under the guise 
 of federation there lurks a manifest desire and persistent 
 determination to establish a form of government that 
 will in eflTect partake of nearly all the characteristics of a 
 legislative union. The theory of the United States' 
 constitution is, that the general government can exercise 
 such powers only as are specially delegated to it by the 
 separate states. The Quebec convention has attempted 
 to reverse this principle by investing the confederate 
 legislature with powers over " all matters of a general 
 character not specially and exclusively reserved for the 
 local pfovernments and legislatures." Thus the residuum 
 of unappropriated powers, whatever it may be, goes to 
 strengthen the influence of the central government. Of 
 the same character is the right of the federal government 
 to appoint the local governors during pleasure. Nor will 
 the circumstance of these functionaries being irremovable 
 for five years, except for cause, be much, if any, check 
 upon the centralizing tendency ; for it is not to be sup- 
 posed that the federal government would want the 
 ingenuity to have a decent pretext for the removal of an 
 obnoxious governor. In addition to this, the general 
 government is to have a veto on the acts of the local 
 governments. It is impossible to mistake the direction 
 in which these provisions point, and they are calculated 
 to raise the question whether there exists the most per- 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 127 
 
 feet conformity and good faith between the semblance 
 and essence of the yielding to local interests in the 
 name of federation. Any attempt of this nature at 
 overreaching would be very likely, by creating dissatis- 
 faction, to recoil upon the masked advocates of centraliza- 
 tion, who, in the initiatory stages, doubtless flattered 
 themselves that they were stealing a march on the 
 opposing principle. 
 
 The two Federative Chambers are to be respectively 
 called the Les^islative Council and the House of Commons. 
 In the formation of the Legislative Council is another 
 and perhaps more excusable compromise of the federal 
 principle. It is a peculiarity of the United States' con- 
 stitution that every State, great or small, is equally rep- 
 resented in the Senate. In this way the federative 
 equality of all the States is maintained. The six 
 provinces which are at first to form the British American 
 Confederation are to be represented in the Legislative 
 Council, not in their individual characters but in three 
 several groups, of which the Canadas are to form one 
 each, and the Maritime Provinces, exclusive of New- 
 foundland, a third. It may be perfectly just that neither 
 Newfoundland nor Prince Edward Island should be 
 allowed to stand on an equal footing with the great 
 province of Upper Canada in the Legislative Council, 
 but the disallowance of this right, nevertheless, negatives 
 the idea of that equality which seems to belong to a per- 
 fect form of federation. 
 
 Twenty-four is the common number by which these 
 three divisions are to be represented in the Legislative 
 Council. A subdivision has been made for the Maritime 
 
128 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 Provinces, under which Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
 are each to have ten councillors, and Prince Edward 
 Island four. Newfoundland, which was not officially 
 represented at the Convention, is to be allowed to enter 
 the union with four members. The scheme embraces 
 prospectively the entrance into the union of the North- 
 west territory, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island, 
 just as the articles of confederation of the thirteen 
 colonies made provision for the admission of Canada into 
 the United States league. These distant colonies are 
 not parties to the scheme, and it is only stipulated that 
 they may be admitted in the future on such conditions 
 as the Colonial Parliament may prescribe and the 
 Imperial Parliament sanction. Practical men could 
 hardly talk seriously about an extension, at the present 
 time, of the proposed union from Newfoundland to 
 Vancouver. Between Canada and British Columbia an 
 unsettled wilderness, across which runs the great wall of 
 the Rocky Mountains, intervenes. Without something 
 like continuous settlements, and, at any rate, without 
 other facilities for travel than those which at present 
 €xist, so extended an union is out of the question. The 
 promises of colonization made in the name of the Hudson 
 Bay Company when it changed its proprietary, seems to 
 have been already recalled. Add to this the disputed 
 ownership of territory between the Company and 
 Canada ; the acknowledged want of means on the part of 
 the proposed Confederacy to open up this country to 
 civilization, and the hesitation of England to jnove in 
 the matter, and it will be impossible to fix any probable 
 time at which the extension of the new confederation of 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 129 
 
 British America to the Pacific will be practicable. 
 Another obstacle may be created by such action on the 
 part of a much-neglected colony known as the Red River 
 Settlement as will result in its annexation to the United 
 States. Much discontent exists among the settlers there 
 as to their present relations with their sister colonies 
 and the empire ; and their proximity to the American 
 border, with its pushing and hardy settlers, should obtain 
 from them that consideration which the future, if not 
 the present, renders advisable. 
 
 The mode of appointing the legislative councils sug- 
 gested some difficulties. Of the five existing colonies 
 three had adhered to the principle of Crown nomination ; 
 the other two, Canada and Prince Edward Island, had 
 resorted to the principle of popular election. The 
 delegates decided not to sanction the election by a pop- 
 ular vote of both Houses of the Confederate Legislature, 
 though some among them advocated the carrying the 
 elective principle to this extreme. It was thought that 
 if both chambers were made elective, it would be impos- 
 sible long to restrain the Legislative Council to those 
 limits within which it has hitherto been confined ; that 
 it would demand the right to alter money bills ; and 
 that as its popular credentials would be just as strong as 
 those of the other house, the demand could not long be 
 resisted. Besides, it was feared that some of the over- 
 grown electoral divisions would claim a representation 
 more nearly in accordance with their population, and 
 that as the principle of representation according to 
 population was to be made the basis of the House of 
 Commons, it might be impossible to check an encroach- 
 1 
 
180 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 merit which would destroy every semblance of federal 
 equality in the Legislative Council. Some strange con- 
 ditions have been attached to the selection by the Crown 
 of legislative councillors. Far from leaving the Crown 
 unfettered in its choice, the delegates thought it essential 
 to prevent the appointment of any one of immature 
 years to the dignified post of senator, and they decided 
 that no one under thirty years of age should be capable 
 of receiving this mark of distinction. To the qualifica- 
 tion of age they thought tit to add one of property, 
 which was placed at $4,000 over all incumbrances, in 
 real estate. An exception, however, was made in the 
 case of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, where 
 the property might be either real or personal. Another 
 restriction on the part of the Crown, is the limiting 
 of the number of the councillors to eighty-two. The 
 reason for determining upon a fixed number was, that it 
 would ensure to each province a certain proportional 
 representation, which would be otherwise impossible. 
 Mr. Cardwell, in a despatch to the Governor-General of 
 Canada, has objected to this fixity of numbers, on the 
 ground that it may bring the legislative machinery to a 
 stand-still. There is no indication, however, that the 
 local legislatures, in adopting the scheme, will comply 
 with his suggestions to alter the provision. The Legis- 
 lative Council is to be composed, in the first instance, of 
 persons selected from the existing local councils— a mode 
 of selection possibly intended to influence those bodies 
 in their action on the proposed scheme. Even the elected 
 councillors, in the provinces where the elective principle 
 has been adopted, will for the most part be well enough 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 131 
 
 contented with a change which relieves them from the 
 cost and trouble of elections and the direct supervision 
 of constituents. Strangely enough, every one of the 
 twenty-four councillors for Lower Canada is to be held to 
 represent a particular electoral division, in which he 
 must either reside himself or possess the property form- 
 ing his qualification. This anomalous provision was 
 introduced for the purpose of ensuring the English 
 minority in that province a fair proportion of representa- 
 tives in this chamber. The introduction of anything 
 like an aristocratic element into the Legislative Council 
 will be out of the question. In framing the Constitu- 
 tional Act of 1791 for Canada, Pitt proposed to establish 
 an hereditary chamber ; but though the provision con- 
 tinued in force till within a few years, it was never 
 acted on in a single instance. A French traveller remark- 
 ed long ago that the atmosphere of America seemed 
 charged with democratic ideas of liberty. Their influence 
 is not confined to the great American republic, and any 
 attempt to improvise an aristocratic order must prove 
 abortive. 
 
 It is one of the disadvantages under which a new 
 country lies that has not a sufficient number of men of 
 leisure, education, and property to fill the various 
 legislative and executive positions. The quality of the 
 Council is likely to be somewhat better for being 
 selected by the Crown in the manner proposed, than it 
 would be if elected under a suff'rage so low as prevails at 
 present. A trial of the two plans in Canada goes to 
 show this, though perhaps not in any very striking 
 degree. There is a contrast in the manners and habits 
 
132 THE CANADIAN CONFtDERACY. 
 
 of the two chambers in Canada. The Assembly is fre- 
 quently violent and hasty ; the Legislative Council is 
 calm, dignified, but as a rule exceedingly facile, passing 
 in an hour a measure over which the other House would 
 wrangle for a month. The dignified indolence and quiet 
 haste of the Legislative Council are due to the remnant 
 of the non-elective membership, which, in spite of every 
 new popular accession, has always sufficed to fix the 
 character of the chamber. These qualities, perhaps, in 
 some modified degree, will be transmitted by the pro- 
 posed succession to the Legislative Council of the new 
 confederation. 
 
 The Confederate House of Commons is to be based on 
 the sole element of population, as determined every 
 decade by the official census. A readjustment of the 
 representation will take place every ten years, but no 
 reduction is to be made in the number of members 
 returned by any section till its population shall have de- 
 creased five per cent, relatively to the whole population 
 of the union. The word section, as here used, is of 
 obscure and uncertain meaning, and is capable of various 
 interpretations. If a constituency be meant, or any 
 number of constituencies, or a province, it would be 
 better to say so. To Lower Canada are to be per- 
 manently assigned 65 members, and each successive 
 readjustment is to be made up upon this standard. In 
 the first instance, it is proposed that the House of Com- 
 mons shall contain 194 members, of whom Upper Canada 
 is to send 82, Lower Canada 65, Nova Scotia 19, New 
 Brunswick 15, Newfoundland 8, and Prince Edward 
 Island 5. The number may at any time hereafter be in- 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 133 
 
 creased by the general legislature. The term for which 
 the House is to be elected is five years — subject, of 
 course, to be dissolved sooner if necessary. This is a 
 longer term by one year than that for which any of the 
 local legislatures are now elected. The extension of the 
 parliamentary term will offer men who have neither time 
 nor money to throw away in frequent elections in widely- 
 spread constituencies, stronger inducements to enter 
 public life than formerly. All laws relating to the 
 qualification or disqualification of members, or of voters, 
 now in force in the various provinces, are to remain un- 
 disturbed till the general legislature can supersede them 
 by the adoption of some uniform plan. 
 
 A federative system necessarily involves something in 
 the shape of a written constitution. It is required to 
 define many of the powers which are respectively to be 
 vested in the general and in the local legislatures; and 
 to do this with such precision as to prevent any doubts 
 afterwards arising is one of the main difficulties in the 
 formation of such a constitution. Thirty -seven subjects 
 of legislation are expressly named in connection with the 
 general legislature, and eighteen only in connection with 
 the local legislatures. The enumeration does not profess 
 to be complete in either case, and a general clause is 
 added comprehending all other subjects of a general or 
 private nature, as the case may be. In some cases, in- 
 cluding fisheries, agriculture, and immigration, a concur- 
 rent power of legislation is given. But it is evident that 
 the power of the general government in respect of immi- 
 gration will be very much restricted. The best way to 
 attract immigrants is to offer them free grants of land. 
 
134 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 By the terms of union the several provinces will retain 
 the public lands ; so that, with the exception of the 
 Crown Lands of Newfoundland, which it is proposed to 
 purchase at a figure disproportionate to their value, the 
 general government will have no land to grant. It seems 
 to have been regarded as impossible to make any arrange- 
 ment by which the public lands of the various provinces 
 should become vested in the general government ; but 
 surely this ought not to have been a more difficult 
 achievement than the adjustment of so many public 
 debts of different relative amounts. Whether any effort 
 was made to place the public lands under the general 
 government does not appear, but it seems to have been 
 accepted as impossible from the outset. 
 
 The idea of numerical representation was adopted from 
 the practice of the North American republic, as also that 
 of decennial readjustment. The former found favour 
 with Lord Durham when the union of the two Canadas 
 was proposed; but the Imperial Government shrank 
 from the possible consequences of then giving power to 
 the French-Canadian majority. It is easy now to say 
 that a blunder was committed ; but it is very doubtful 
 whether those who thus contend would, if the problem 
 of 1 840 had to be decided anew, have the boldness to 
 carry that opinion into practice. The history of the agi- 
 tation for numerical representation in Canada shows that 
 it has all along been treated as a question of immediate 
 interest rather than of principle. The Upper Canadians 
 who strove for its adoption did not do so on the ground 
 of its abstract merits, for they were unanimous in repu- 
 diating it so long as its operation would have told against 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 135 
 
 them. This was brought to the test by a motion made 
 by the Hon. L. J. Papineau, in 1849, for basing the rep- 
 resentation exclusively on population. At that time 
 Lower Canada had, or was supposed to have, the advan- 
 tage in point of" population, and every Upper Canadian 
 voted against the motion. It was not till after the cen- 
 sus of 1851 showed that the numerical balance was 
 slightly in their favour, with a constant tendency to in- 
 crease, that the demand for " representation according to 
 population" began to be active in Upper Canada. It 
 was advocated as a means of giving a local predominance 
 to Upper Canada in the Legislative Assembly, to which 
 her superior and increasing numbers seemed to give her 
 some sort of title. But the circumstances under which 
 the principle is now woven into the confederation scheme 
 may, and probably will, deprive it of any such effect. 
 The predominance of numbers under the proposed union 
 will be against Upper Canada if she should excite the 
 jealousy of Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces, 
 as they may unite together and turn against her that 
 ver}^ weapon which she has regarded as the best means 
 of her own defence, if not of aggression also. The sys- 
 tem of grouping is well calculated to impress the Mari- 
 time Provinces with an idea of an identity of interest, 
 and may possess within it the germ of future sectional 
 strife. The deprivation of federal equality may in this 
 way be productive of more mischief than it would had 
 the provinces been permitted naturally to develop their 
 federal individuality. 
 
 We have thought it necessary to comment on those 
 features only of the scheme of union which possess general 
 
136 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 interest ; there remain minor points which are merely 
 local in their nature, but which have undoubtedly occa- 
 sioned to the delegates some trouble in their elucidation. 
 It is yet to be decided whether the scheme in its fulness 
 shall be put into operation. There was much boldness 
 and much danger in the resolution taken by some of the 
 governments to carry the measure without any direct re- 
 ference to the people — this kind of union, though often 
 mooted, being, in a parliamentary sense, new. In Can- 
 ada the Government felt strong enough to carry the 
 measure without making any direct appeal to the con- 
 stituencies, as the favour with which it had been received 
 by all political parties and the absence of a strong oppo- 
 sition rendered it unnecessary. In New Brunswick the 
 Government was not so sure of its ground, and a general 
 election seemed to afford the best chance of success. Un- 
 happily, the result of a general election has been the re- 
 turn of members avowedly hostile to confederation. A 
 general election is avoided in Nova Scotia, and though 
 the scheme of confederation is not a government measure, 
 it is introduced into the Legislature under the paternity 
 of their official delegates, who are thought to have suffi- 
 cient authority with their own parties to ensure its adop- 
 tion. Newfoundland, it is supposed, will accord her 
 sanction to the measure, but in Prince Edward Island 
 there is a likelihood of considerable opposition. The ob- 
 jections urged to the federative movement in the various 
 colonies are for the most part of a sectional character. 
 But there are others of more importance. It is contend- 
 ed that the inherent weakness of federations, as shown 
 both in Europe and America in ancient and modern 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 137 
 
 times, gives little hope of the long-continued existence of 
 such an one as is now contemplated. But it must be 
 considered that this federation will not be one of sover- 
 eign and independent States. The general Groverment as 
 well as the local Legislatures will derive their authority 
 not from a league or compact, but from the great foun- 
 tain-head of power, the Imperial Parliament ; and the 
 chief executive control will be such as to counteract decen- 
 tralizing tendencies. It is also feared that confederation 
 will hasten the time when the colonies shall be separated 
 from the mother country. Any action of this nature must 
 proceed from the colonies themselves, as it is neither the in- 
 terest nor desire of England to terminate prematurely a 
 connexion, at least at present, to the welfare of an import- 
 ant portion of the empire. The growth of a lusty power 
 on their border may perhaps lead the United States to re- 
 gard it with greater jealousy than they would disunited 
 provinces ; hence it is said that there is danger to be ap- 
 prehended on this score. Granting this to be the case, 
 no one can fail to see that the individual and isolated 
 colonies are prizes, which, if not as tempting, would at 
 least be more easily acquired by the United States 
 than a compact Confederacy. It is not pretended that 
 the Confederation, with its widely-extended frontier, at 
 many points difficult or incapable of defence, can at once 
 stand alone. What England should do for them, and 
 what the colonies ought to do in their own defence, are 
 questions much debated. The ideas of the colonists are 
 not very ambitious on the point of military expenditure, 
 for they set out with the notion that a million of 
 dollars a year is all they can afford. This sum will 
 
138 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERACY. 
 
 doubtless expand with their resources, or under the pres- 
 sure of necessity. At present the colonists are firm in 
 their determination to preserve their connexion with the 
 mother country, and it is scarcely probable that the 
 United States will drag into their Union an unwilling 
 population on their northern boundary. They would be 
 virtually placing their Republic between two fires. As 
 it is, they will have trouble enough with the Southern 
 States for a long time to come. Although there are 
 many obstacles in the way to the formation of the pro- 
 posed Confederacy, yet when, as in the present case, 
 these are clearly perceived and calmly weighed, they 
 cease to be hindrances which need excite apprehension. 
 With the men of education, intellect, experience and 
 position among the colonists nearly unanimous in support 
 of the proposed scheme, with the Home Government 
 cordially assenting to it, and prepared heartil}^ to co-op- 
 erate in giving it the force of law, with Parliament almost 
 pledged beforehand to regard it with especial favour, there 
 is no rashness in concluding that the establishment of a 
 great British nower on the American continent has 
 ceased to be the glorious vision]of a remote future, and 
 will soon be numbered among the most splendid achieve- 
 ments of the present generation. 
 
THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 AND THE 
 
 EECIPROCITY TREATY. 
 
 a^,V-.G 
 
 K^/!^W^K HATEVER differences of opinion there may 
 rUlmife ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ advantages resulting from the 
 I'Tjf^^S) <^onnexion between England and her North 
 ^^§fi^M American provinces, and as to which side 
 i^}^ ~' receives the greater share, it will be generally 
 H'T admitted that there are disadvantages likewise at- 
 tending it, and that the provinces, while participat- 
 ino" in the former, are not at all exempt from the latter : 
 beside being in hourly expectation of adding to their 
 experience on the less favourable side of the account. 
 As part of the empire, the provinces have their peculiar 
 trials. The Fenian conspiracy, which has made itself 
 felt in Ireland, has caused considerable uneasiness to 
 them. Whatever the real intentions of those money-lov- 
 ing patriots may be, they have not hesitated to declare 
 at public meetings throughout the United States that 
 they purpose to conquer Canada, if not the other pro- 
 vinces too, and make it the base of operations against 
 England ; to seize on its shipping, and send forth from 
 
 * From The Wtstniinster Review, October, 1866. 
 
140 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 its ports privateers to prey on English commerce. Their 
 numerical strength must be very great ; undoubtedly 
 they have funds at their disposal ; and the object they 
 are presumed to have in view enlists many sympathizers 
 among all classes in the States. Officers holding com- 
 missions from the United States government are active 
 members of the organization, and many native Americans 
 in high official position contribute to its resources with- 
 out concealment. But British Americans have troubles 
 to contend with other than those arising from threatened 
 Fenian attacks. The treaty of commerce which has regu- 
 lated trade between the United States and the provinces 
 for ten years past has terminated, pursuant to notice given 
 by the former, and a new era in colonial history has been 
 entered upon. Since this treaty, known as the Recipro- 
 city Treaty, took effect, the trade between the two coun- 
 tries increased threefold ; so that if it can be shown that 
 such increase was occasioned by the treaty and is de- 
 pendent upon it, it becomes a serious question to the 
 colonists as well as to the empire, what shall be the con- 
 sequence of forcing a trade amounting to $68,000,000 into 
 new channels ; and that, too, independently of the politi- 
 cal troubles that may arise over fishery rights placed in 
 abeyance rather than settled by the arrangement then 
 entered into. 
 
 For some time before the existence of the treaty, the 
 trade of the provinces was steadily growing in impor- 
 tance, though clogged with all the drawbacks incident to 
 the infancy of a country having no capital, little popula- 
 tion, and the most primitive means of communication. 
 The sturdy backwoodsman was hewing out a home for 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 141 
 
 himself and his family, with cold and hunger held merely 
 at arm's length. Between him and his nearest neighbour 
 miles of deep forest intervened. The traveller or trader 
 picked his way across tangled brushwood and fallen tim- 
 ber, and found few finger-posts by the road side to point 
 out the direction in which he wished to go. The poli- 
 tician had his attention fully taken up with providing 
 for the wants of the hour ; in investigating and settling 
 local disputes. The foundations of government were 
 being laid. Those political contests, which have so hap- 
 pily ended in the full enjoyment of constitutional liberty 
 and executive responsibility, were then at their height. 
 But as farm after farm was rescued from the woods, and 
 municipal institutions took shape, the consideration of 
 local matters widened into deliberation for the general 
 welfare. Schemes of internal improvement, formerly 
 viewed as shadowy impossibilities, grew into realities, 
 while bounteous harvests sent new life through every 
 artery of trade. Scarcely had the impulse been felt, 
 when English policy, impelled by Free Trade principles, 
 well-nigh swept away every hope that had been inspired 
 by glimpses of a dawning prosperity. The withdrawal 
 of that artificial protection which had been accorded by 
 the Imperial Parliament to the colonial trade forced these 
 provinces into the family of nations. Canada felt the 
 shock the most, but, imbued with a spirit of self-reliance, 
 at once looked about for means whereby she might 
 strengthen her crippled commerce. England had discrimi- 
 nated in favour of colonial breadstufFs and lumber, and 
 the provinces had imposed differential duties in the inter- 
 est of the mother country. The commercial policy of 
 
142 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 both had thus been in harmony. The repeal of the corn 
 laws threw open to the United States a market in which 
 the colonies had been hitherto favoured, and left the 
 Canadians to struggle with a rival abroad which at home 
 used every means to prevent their trade getting any 
 headway. Canada possessed canals, but the commerce 
 which they had been built to facilitate died on its hands, 
 and the navigation laws then prevented foreign vessels 
 from using them. The subsequent repeal of the naviga- 
 tion laws gave another advantage to the States which 
 they have never reciprocated. The United States ship- 
 owners were admitted to share the coasting^ trade of the 
 empire, and the provinces saw, not without chagrin, 
 American vessels both on the sea-coast and on their lakes 
 enjoying benefits for which nothing was granted to Brit- 
 ish subjects in return. Notwithstanding the heavy duties 
 imposed on Canadian products, a considerable trade ex- 
 isted between the two countries, defying every effort to 
 retard it altogether. Canadian wheat, being to a certain 
 extent a necessity to the States, found its way there even 
 under a high tariff. During the eight years prior to 1855, 
 the year the treaty went into operation, the whole British 
 American trade with them amounted to $138,000,000. 
 The geographical position of the provinces, lying as they 
 do along the northern boundary of the republic, and, 
 wedge-like, dividing the north-western states from New 
 England and the sea, naturally suggested the mutual ad- 
 vantage of closer commercial relations than had existed, 
 and the idea of reciprocity in trade met the approval of 
 prominent men on both sides of the territorial line. Though 
 heavily burdened, a nucleus had formed which needed 
 
AND THE RECIPKOCITY TREATY. 143 
 
 but a slight stimulus to develop itself. In the then crisis 
 of affairs, Canada looked to this source for relief from the 
 difficulties it found itself so suddenly plunged into, and 
 accordingly made advances to the United States govern- 
 ment, but a proposition for the mutual admission of cer- 
 tain named articles was considered by Congress as too 
 limited. The desire was, that the other provinces should 
 be embraced in any arrangement that might be made ; 
 that the interest of the great north-west should be con- 
 sidered as regards the navigation of the St. La.wrence ; 
 and more particularly that the Atlantic seaboard should 
 be appeased by concessions in respect to the fisheries. 
 Ultimately all matters in difference were satisfactorily 
 arranged, and the Reciprocity Treaty passed into effect 
 in March, 1855. 
 
 The expressed object of the treaty was to avoid further 
 misunderstanding in regard to the extent of the right of 
 fishing on the coasts of North America, and to regulate 
 the commerce and navigation between the British Ameri- 
 can provinces and the United States in such a manner as 
 to render the same reciprocally beneficial and satisfactory. 
 By Article I. it is provided — 
 
 " That in addition to the liberty secured to the United States 
 fishermen by the convention of October 20th, 1818, of taking, cur- 
 ing, and drying fish on certain coasts of the British North A merican 
 colonies therein defined, the inhabitants of the United States shall 
 have, in common with the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, the 
 liberty to take fish of every kind except shellfish on the sea-coasts 
 and shores and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of Canada, New 
 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and of the several 
 islands adjacent thereto, without being restricted to any distance 
 from the shore ; with permission to land upon the coasts and shores 
 
144 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 of those colonies and the islands thereof, and also upon the Magda- 
 lene Islands, for the pnrpose of drying their nets and curing their 
 
 fish." 
 
 Article 11. extended to British subjects the same rights 
 of fishing on the eastern coasts and shores of the United 
 States north of the 86th parallel of north latitude. This 
 privilege has been of no benefit to the provinces, having 
 been rarely used. In Article III. certain articles are 
 enumerated, the growth and produce of the British 
 colonies and of the United States, which are admitted 
 free of duty, viz. : grain, flour, animals, meats, cotton, 
 wool, seeds, vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, eggs, hides, 
 furs, skins, stone, marble, slate, butter, cheese, tallow, 
 lard, horns, manures, ores of metals, coal, pitch, tar, 
 turpentine, ashes, timber, lumber, firewood, plants, shrubs, 
 trees, pelts, wool, fish-oil, rice, broom-corn, bark, gypsum, 
 burr or grindstones, dyestuflfs, flax, hemp, tow, tobacco 
 unmanufactured, and rags. Article IV. allowed the right 
 to United States citizens to navigate the St. Lawrence 
 and the canals in Canada. A similar right as to the 
 naviofation of Lake Michigan was secured to British sub- 
 jects. It was further agreed " that no export or other 
 duty shall be levied on lumber or timber of any kind cut 
 on that portion of the American territory in the State of 
 Maine, watered by the river St. John and its tributaries, 
 and floated down that river to the sea, when the same is 
 shipped to the United States from the province of New 
 Brunswick." 
 
 The extensive market unclosed by this treaty turned 
 the tide of colonial trade to the United States, and the 
 relievinof eflfect was instantaneous. Since then the flow 
 
AND THE KECIPROC[TY TREATY. 145 
 
 has been steady, increasing in volume year after year. 
 The total trade under the treaty for the ten years of its 
 continuance is estimated at $307,800,922, made up of 
 exports to the United States of $174,865,727, and of im- 
 ports $132,941,195. It may be taken for granted that 
 the profits of this interchange were not monopolized by 
 the provinces, as every year has brought with it an in- 
 creased trade, and while they exported for the most part 
 products of the soil, the States sent them manufactures 
 and foreign goods mainly. The Western States suffer to 
 a greater extent than even Western Canada, from their 
 distance from the seaboard. The producing capacity of 
 their vast territory is far in advance of the means of 
 transportation. The canals and railroads of the inter- 
 mediate states are totally inadequate to relieve the burst- 
 ing granaries of an area which is widening year by year. 
 The West needs additional outlets for its products, and 
 the most natural highway by which foreign markets 
 may be reached at the cheapest rate of transport is 
 through the St. Lawrence. Prior to the introduction of 
 railways, Canada saw the necessity for improving the 
 navigation of that river for its own purposes, and, at a 
 great expense, completed a system of canals amongst the 
 most magnificent in the world. By the treaty, the right 
 to use these canals was granted to American vessels, and 
 the Western grain depots, Chicago, Milwaukee, and 
 Detroit, were permitted to enter into direct trade with 
 Europe. While the West had its rights thus enlarged, 
 the special interests of the North-Eastern States were 
 partakers also of liberal concessions. By the convention 
 of 1818, the United States government had renounced 
 J 
 
146 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 the liberty to take, dry, or cure fish, on or within three 
 marine leagues of an}^ of the coasts, bays, creeks or 
 harbours of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
 Prince Edward Island, and certain districts of Newfound- 
 land and Labrador. The colonists construed this to 
 mean three marine leagues measured from headland to 
 headland, not from the coast line, and were supported in 
 this construction by the British Government. The 
 United States fishermen contended, however, for the 
 right to fish in any of the many bays which indent the 
 shores, so long as they kept three leagues from the 
 shore. Drawing the line from headland to headland de- 
 prived them of a share in the most profitable fisheries. 
 It was not always that this imaginary sea line was 
 respected by the adventurous mariners who frequented 
 these waters and the many detentions and confiscations 
 which resulted were productive of much bad feeling. 
 Armed cruisers, both imperial and colonial, kept a strict 
 look-out for delinquents, and the colonial authorities 
 were not tardy in the infliction of penalties for trespass 
 upon their rights. Had this state of things continued 
 much longer, it would undoubtedly have led to serious 
 international complications. But the treaty swept away 
 all disabilities, and the fishing vessels of Maine and 
 Massachusetts again swarmed in British waters and pur- 
 sued their calling undisturbed. The value of fish taken 
 by them in the fisheries of the Gulf and in Canadian 
 waters increased from $280,800 in 1854, to $1,265,700 in 
 1856. Their mackerel fishery increased from 250 vessels 
 manned by 2750 men, and securing a catch worth $850,- 
 000 in the two years prior to the treaty, to 600 vessels, 
 
AND THE RECIPKOCITY TREATY. 147 
 
 employing 9,000 men and securing $4,567,500 within the 
 two years subsequent. The Maritime Provinces were not 
 well pleased to see their monopoly of a lucrative employ- 
 ment taken away, and very naturally grumbled at being 
 forced to compete with daring and energetic intruders 
 who had previously taken their chances outside their 
 preserves ; the more so, as the United States fishermen 
 were backed up by bounties to the extent of four dollars 
 per ton, while those of the provinces had no such assist- 
 ance. Although the treaty was not applicable to the 
 fisheries of Upper Ca,nada, the vessels and fishermen of 
 the United States were admitted to the waters and 
 shores of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior ; 
 and in 1865 took $157,504 worth of fish therefrom, while 
 not a sinofle Canadian vessel entered United States 
 waters for the purpose of fishing, as the Canadian lake 
 fisheries are by far the best. In looking back at the 
 general results of the treaty, it will be seen, therefore, 
 that it caused a vast expansion of a mutually profitable 
 trade ; it opened to the Eastern States a field for employ- 
 ment exhaustless in riches and unlimited in extent ; it 
 granted the privilege of using six canals which Canadian 
 industry had been taxed to build ; and brought into 
 closer commercial relations two peoples, though living 
 side by side, yet up to the time of the arrangement, 
 knowing little of, and caring less for, each other. While it 
 is acknowledged that the relief it brouo^ht with it was 
 opportune and suited to the circumstances, it is not by 
 any means admitted that the prosperity of the provinces 
 will be seriously affected by its abrogation. At the time 
 it went intD operation, colonial trade was embarrassed 
 
148 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 but with the recovery from a temporary disturbance 
 came a new era. The Crimean war enhanced greatly the 
 prices of Canadian products, and thus contributed to the 
 readjustment of business. The subsequent building of 
 railways involved an expenditure within Canada alone of 
 $120,000,000, so that more than one cause brought 
 about the reaction, and more than one cause tended to its 
 continuance. Before determining, therefore, that the 
 commercial future of British America is at the mercy of 
 the legislation of the United States, it would be well to 
 compare the present with the past as regards the 
 internal, as well as the external advancement of these 
 colonies. 
 
 In 1851 Canada had no railways in operation ; the ten 
 years between 1850 and 1860 witnessed the construction 
 of 2093 miles ; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have 
 built over 300 miles also. Five years ago there were 
 only two coal mines being worked in Nova Scotia ; now 
 there are thirty. In 1850, only 95,000 tons of coal were 
 raised; in 1865, the jdeld increased to 653,854 tons. 
 The gold product of 1865 was twenty-five per cent over 
 that of preceding years, the amount taken out in that 
 year being equal to $460,000; the imports have risen 
 from $8,448,042 in 1862, to $U,381,662 in 1865 ; while 
 there were exported $7,000,000 worth of her own pro- 
 ductions — more in proportion than Canada ever sent out 
 in one year. And this enterprising province now has 
 3,898 vessels of a registered worth of $13,347,500 engaged 
 in trade. The revenue of New Brunswick in 1850 was 
 $416,348; but in 1860 it had doubled. In one year 
 $17^,000 had been expended in building roads. The 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 149 
 
 other provinces have advanced materially, every year ex- 
 hibiting an increase of exports and imports. Newfound- 
 land with its 130,000 people, of whom 30,000 are hardy 
 sailors employed in the fisheries, has a revenue higher in 
 proportion to the population than any of the British 
 North American provinces. 
 
 To make the contrast plainer it will be better to take 
 the testimony of two witnesses who cannot be charged 
 with bias. Lord Durham in his report to the British 
 Government on the state of the British North American 
 provinces, said — 
 
 *'By describing one side of the frontier and reversing the pic- 
 ture, the other would be described. On the American side all is 
 activity and bustle. * -^^ -^ But it is not in the difference be- 
 tween the large towns on ihe two sides that we shall find the best 
 evidences of our inferiority. That painful but most undeniable 
 truth is most manifest in the country districts through which the 
 line of national separation passes for a distance of a thousand miles. 
 There, on the side of both the Canadas and also of New Bruns- 
 wick and Nova Scotia, a widely scattered population, poor and ap- 
 parently unenterprising, though hardy and industrious, separated 
 from each other by tracts of intervening forests, without towns or 
 markets, almost without roads, living in mean houses, drawing 
 little more than a rude subsistence from ill- cultivated land, and 
 seemingly incapable of improving their condition, present the most 
 instructive contrast to their enterprising and thrifty neighbours on 
 the American side." 
 
 Keeping this fact in view, let us contemplate the 
 change, as related in Mr. Derby's Report on the Recipro- 
 city Treaty made to the Secretary of the United States 
 Treasury, that has occurred since. 
 
 *'From 1851 to 1861 the population of Canada has increased 
 more rapidly than the population of the Union. * -^ -i*- * The 
 
150 THE CANADIAN CONFEDEEATION 
 
 rate of increase in all the provinces was nearly equal to that of the 
 Union. * "^ "^ In the fifteen years from 1851 to 1865, the 
 whole exports and imports of Canada rose from $35,000,000 to 
 |87, 000,000. Her revenue rose also from $3,500,000 to $10,500- 
 000. Between 1851 and 1865, her improved land increased from 
 7,307,050 acres to 10,855,844, or 49 per cent.: the value of the 
 same from $263,516,000 to $466,675,780. The wheat crop, which 
 exceeds that of Illinois and each of our States, rose from 15,756,- 
 493 bushels to 27,274,779, or 78 per cent. The oat crop, larger 
 than that of New York, the leading State of our Union, rose from 
 20,369,247 bushels to 38,772,170, or 9] per cent. During the same 
 period the value of the lumber rose from an average of $7 to $10 
 per M.; and in the interval between 1851 and 1863, her exports of 
 lumber rose from $5,085,628, of which but 23 per cent, reached 
 the United States, to a total of $12,264,178. * * * * From 
 1851 to 1861 she has increased her miles of railway from twelve to 
 nineteen hundred miles ; she has increased her wheat and oat 
 crops, her wool, the value of her forests and wealth, more than we 
 have, although she is naturally inferior in climate, soil and posi- 
 tion." 
 
 But while the unwearying industry and praiseworthy 
 self-reliance of the British provinces have borne fruit in 
 a prosperity wonderful, compared even with the world's 
 wonder, that of the United States, they have awakened 
 " envy — the vice of republics." Those struggling and 
 much-despised colonists have emerged from their 
 mountains of snow and masses of ice ; from being objects 
 of pity have attained to the lofty position ot rivals. 
 Canada has been striving fairly to make her canals and 
 railways attract the trade of the West. In so doing she 
 has undermined the monopoly enjoyed by the canalling 
 and forwarding interests of Buffalo and New York, and 
 from this source came the first complaint against the 
 Recii)rocity Treaty. The outcry was that Canada was 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 151 
 
 making " fruitless but persistent efforts to direct the 
 trade of the Western States from the natural channels it 
 had already formed." The aggrieved interests were power- 
 ful and active. The advocates of protection duties seized 
 the opportunity to swell the chorus that the Spates had 
 the worst of the bargain, until at length the combination 
 of forces has succeeded in bringing to an end an agree- 
 ment which has done so much for commerce, and substi- 
 tuted therefor a system of duties based on the exploded 
 fallacies of protection. No complaint was urged against 
 the Maritime Provinces ; Canada has been the alleged 
 transgressor. But the charges against Canada were 
 coupled with objections which, according to the pro- 
 tectionist theories, proved the impolicy of reciprocity. 
 Prior to the treaty, the exports from the States to Canada 
 exceeded the imports thence, but in I860 this was re- 
 versed, and since that time the balance of trade has been 
 against the States. The exports to that province fell 
 from $20,883,241 in 1856, to $12,842,596 in 1862, though 
 they again rose in 1864 to $19,589,055. This decline in 
 exports is attributed to several causes. It is alleged that 
 heavy duties were imposed by Canada upon many of the 
 articles the States had to sell ; that discriminating tolls 
 and duties were laid upon their merchants and forwarders ; 
 that the method of levying duties on merchandize of 
 foreign origin has been for the avowed purpose of check- 
 ing the trade of New York and Boston ; and that the 
 whole policy of Canada is avowedly restrictive and ad- 
 verse to the interests of the United States. On the other 
 hand the Canadians allege that the increase of these 
 duties was not for the purpose of discriminating against 
 
152 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 the States, but was imposed by financial necessities, as 
 British manufacturers were subjected to the same burdens ; 
 that if they have raised their tariff, they have not reached 
 anything like the height of the United States tariff, which 
 latter has mounted fully twenty -five per cent, over that of 
 1854 ; that the method of levying duties on foreign mer- 
 chandize is precisely similar to that of the United States as 
 regards goods generally ; and that the policy of Canada 
 has been liberal and calculated rather to attract than to 
 force trade. The progress of the discussion has brought 
 out three classes of opponents to the treaty in the States. 
 Those whose interests were directly injured by it, and who 
 contend that Canada has violated its spirit ; those who look- 
 ed upon it in the light of apolitical failure, separating more 
 widely rather than bringing together the two countries, 
 and who urge that its continuance is necessary to the ex- 
 istence of the provinces, at the same time viewing its 
 abrogation as a sort of chastisement for the colonial 
 aversion to annexation ; and those, generally, who advo- 
 cate a system of high protective duties. With faint hope 
 of overcoming such an union of opposing forces, but 
 anxious to give evidence of their desire to establish inter- 
 national trade on a satisfactory basis, the provinces sent 
 Commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the con- 
 tinuance of the Treaty. In connexion with Sir Frederick 
 Bruce, the British Minister, the Commissioners laid the 
 subject of their mission before the United States Govern- 
 ment. Mr. McGulloch, the able Secretary of the Treasury, 
 without any inclination to interfere with the freedom of 
 trade, felt called upon to consider first the requirements 
 of the revenue, but it was intimated that while a con- 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 153 
 
 tinuance of the treaty was out of the question, some ar- 
 rangement might be made by legislation that would prove 
 equitable. The Commissioners appeared before the Con- 
 gressional Committee of Ways and Means, and after a 
 lengthy discussion found that the demands of the Com- 
 mittee were so extravagant, according to provincial ideas, 
 that it would be useless to negotiate further. While 
 acknowledging the advantage of the treaty, the Com- 
 missioners would not admit its necessity to the provinces ; 
 and regarding the subordination of colonial legislation, 
 in the matter of excise duties, to that of the United 
 States, as too great a sacrifice for a very uncertain 
 benefit, returned home to announce the failure of their 
 mission. The firm stand taken in resistance to dicta- 
 torial arrogance, was fully approved of by the people of 
 the provinces, and with an unanimity which must have 
 astonished those in the United States who fancied they 
 had got their neighbours " on the hip." From Lake 
 Huron to the Atlantic, the result was accepted with calm- 
 ness, if not with satisfaction, and the local press went 
 earnestly to work to prepare the merchant, the farmer, 
 and the mechanic for a new order of things. The wisdom 
 of confederation became apparent to those who before 
 had looked upon that scheme with coldness ; and the pro- 
 vinces now feel they are no longer isolated settlements, 
 but vigorous communities having interests in common 
 which make the prosperity of one the prosperity of all. 
 They know more of each other now, and the instincts of 
 a common nationality urge them to provide against a 
 common danger. Times have changed since they appear- 
 ed first at Washington to solicit reciprocity in trade. 
 
154 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 Then they were weak and poor ; now they are vigorous 
 and well to do. Then they were insignificant and spirit- 
 less ; now they feel that their country has a splendid 
 destiny, and they are ready to lay a bold hand on the 
 commerce of more than one continent. 
 
 But let us look more closely at the principal branches 
 of the colonial tiade likely to be aflfected by the infliction 
 of vexatious duties on the part of the United States. 
 At the time the treaty was made the United States tariff 
 on the articles mentioned in the treaty was on animals, 
 butter, pork, fish, eggs, pelts, wheat, flour, barley, oats, 
 rye and corn, vegetables, fruits, lumber and timber, 20 
 per cent. ; wool, clover and coal, 30 per cent. Subse- 
 quently the rates were raised on coal, tobacco and wool. 
 The Committee on Ways and Means, on the expiration 
 of the treaty, proposed to increase che duties as follows : 
 salmon, $2; mackerel, $1; herrings, 50 cents; all other 
 pickel fish, $1 per barrel ; coal, 50 cents per ton ; timber, 
 one-half cent per cubic foot, to $2 per 1,000 feet, according 
 to variety ; lumber, one-quarter cent per cubic foot to $2 
 per 100 feet, according to variety ; animals, 20 per cent. ; 
 barley, 10 cents per bushel ; beef, 1 cent per pound ; corn, 
 10 cents per bushel ; wheat, 20 cents per bushel, &;c. 
 But the House of Representatives rejected the report of 
 the Committee on the ground that the proposed increase 
 was not high enough to afford protection to home indus- 
 try. With this object, therefore, a scale of duties was in- 
 sisted upon, which satisfied the advocates of " protective 
 policy ; " — Lumber, three-quarter cent per cubic foot to 
 S3 per 1,000 feet; stone, 35 per cent.; animals, 80 per 
 cent. ; barley, 25 cents per bushel ; w^ool, 10 to 25 cents 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 155 
 
 per pound, &c. ; but the latest advices are to the effect 
 that no Act has yet been passed on the subject. The 
 staples of the provinces are grain, breadstuffs, lumber, 
 wool, coal and fish. As to the grain trade, Canada will 
 be a loser. The treaty gave to her a home market, in 
 which no large risks were run, and in which money was 
 turned over very rapidly. But this branch of trade has 
 curious features. In 1863 Canada imported from the 
 States 5,338,095 bushels of wheat, and exported thither 
 only 3,850,000 bushels, while its export to foreign coun- 
 tries was 8,909,304 bushels. A great deal of the wheat 
 imported was exported as flour. Now, the Maritime 
 Provinces in 1863 imported from the States 3,612,232 
 bushels, nearly the amount sent by Canada to the States. 
 Nova Scotia alone, in 1865, received 2,520,819 dollars 
 worth of flour from the States for home consumption ; 
 so that if an intercolonial trade, hitherto neglected, can 
 be built up, the loss of the United States market will be 
 to a great extent repaired. Canada has the advantage, 
 likewise, of having her flour 800 miles nearer to the low- 
 er ports than the United States, if the latter relied on 
 the Western product. It is expected that a great deal of 
 Canadian wheat will find its way across the lines, as its 
 superior quality makes it acceptable to the wealthier 
 classes. It should be considered that, owing to the rav- 
 ages of the midge and the weevil, the Canadian farmer 
 has been compelled to depend less on his wheat crop, and 
 repeated losses have driven him to devote more atten- 
 tion to the breeding of cattle and the raising of the more 
 hardy cereals, such as barley. Of barley and rye Canada 
 sold to the States $4,500,000 worth in one year, and im- 
 
156 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 ported from thence $900,000 worth, while Indian corn 
 was imported to the value of about a million. The Can- 
 adian barley is far superior to that produced in the 
 States, and it remains to be seen whether a duty of 25 
 cents per bushel will keep it out, as it costs about 40 
 cents a bushel to transport it from the Mississippi to 
 Buffalo, the point of competition. It is probable that 
 the additional tax will be paid by the brewers of New 
 York and Philadelphia. As a set-off to any loss in the 
 grain trade, there will be the profit accruing to Canada 
 from becoming its own carrier. Instead of sending 
 wheat and flour to New York and to Portland, to be dis- 
 tributed thence to Europe and the lower provinces, it 
 will go in Canadian bottoms by the St. Lawrence route. 
 The lumber trade possesses within itself the guarantee 
 of continuance. The principal export is to Great Britain. 
 In 1865 Canada exported products of the forest to the 
 value of $14,283,207, of which $8,996,355 went to Great 
 Britain, and $5,008,746 to the United States. Nova Scotia 
 in 1^62 exported $611,725, and New Brunswick $2,810,- 
 188, the latter province sending most of her lumber to for- 
 eign parts. The exhaustion of the supply of lumber in the 
 States must render them in time dependent on the yield 
 of the Canadian forests. It is estimated that there is, in 
 this province alone, 287,000 square miles of pine forest 
 and valuable wood on which to draw. The Western 
 States, with their wide treeless prairies, cannot much 
 longer have their wants supplied by the lumber of Michi- 
 gan, nor can the Middle and Eastern States remain at 
 the mercy of the Maine lumbermen, and must, despite of 
 a high duty, purchase where the article is to be got. The 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 157 
 
 manufacture of wool in the United States consumed 
 152,000,000 of pounds in 1804, nearly half of which was 
 imported. Of the amount imported in 1865, Canada 
 supplied $1,351,722 worth. In 1860, $15,000,000 of 
 worsteds were imported by the States, principally from 
 England. The Canadian wool has been found equal to 
 the best English lustre wool, and far superior to any that 
 can be produced in the States. So they must purchase 
 somewhere, as the home supply is w^hoUy inadequate to 
 the demand, both in respect to quantity and quality. The 
 wool going in free under the treaty has been of great 
 assistance to their manufacturers, and its partial exclu- 
 sion, if it can be excluded at all, will force the Canadians 
 to manufacture and send woollen goods into the States. 
 The Canadian woollen manufacturers are rapidly increas- 
 ing, and New York merchants found it profitable last 
 year to import woollens from Montreal, and that, too, after 
 paying high duties, and sutfering from exchange being 
 against them. The Nova Scotians know that their 
 bituminous coal can be laid down in the Atlantic cities 
 at a price much lower than it can be brought from the 
 United States coal districts, and a duty of $2 a ton will 
 not exclude what can stand a $3 dut3^ The gas works 
 and factories of the Eastern States require this descrip- 
 tion of coal to heat their furnaces, so that an additional 
 tax will only render their manufacturers less able to com- 
 pete with those of foreigners, without being prohibitory, 
 and will bring into the harbours of Nova Scotia the At- 
 lantic steamers that have been wont to coal at Boston and 
 New York. The duties imposed on fish cannot injure 
 the Maritime Provinces to a o-reat extent. The exclusion 
 
158 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 of United States fishermen from a valuable fishing ground ^ 
 will go fa-r to reconcile them to the loss of the treaty, as 
 they can find a ready sale in foreign countries for all the 
 fish they can catch. They rely upon the enterprise of 
 their own people to extend sales in the direction of the 
 West Indies, Mexico, and South America. Last year Nova 
 Scotia exported to foreign countries over $3,000,000 
 worth of fish ; and the trade of New Brunswick with the 
 United States in this article is now nearly equalled by 
 its trade with the West Indies. Newfoundland has its 
 greatest source of wealth in the fisheries, but its total ex- 
 ports to the States amounted only to $238,iJ45, while ifc 
 imported thence $1,728,985 worth of articles, which could 
 nearly all be advantageously supplied from Canada. To 
 counteract the policy of the United States, the provinces 
 have sent out commissioners to the West Indies and to 
 Brazil, seekins: to substitute new markets for that from 
 which it seems to be determined to exclude them ; and so 
 far the prospects are encouraging. 
 
 In addition to this, they contemplate a readjustment 
 of their tariffs so as to make their country the cheapest 
 to live in, and the most attractive to foreign labour and 
 foreign capital. No retaliatory measures are threatened. - 
 The disposition is to throw off" every shackle that fet- 
 tered trade. It is thought, therefore, and with good rea- 
 son, that the disturbance of colonial trade will be but 
 temporary. Even taking it for granted that a high pro- 
 tective tariff* will be efficacious in sealing up the United 
 States against the staples of the provinces, the colonists 
 can look confidently to the establishment of an intercolo- 
 nial trade, and a direct foreign trade, which shall make 
 
AND THE RECIPEOCITY TREATY. 159 
 
 up for all that they have lost, and relieve them from the 
 embarrassments of a supposed dependency.* 
 
 The political consequences of the abrogation of the Re- 
 ciprocity Treaty are worthy of serious consideration. No 
 doubt the adoption of the treaty by the United States 
 was owing in a great degree to their expectation that a 
 reciprocal interchange of products would cause such a 
 mingling of interests as to lead the British provinces to 
 regard their prosperity as inextricably bound up with the 
 fate of the great Republic. It is now seen that the de- 
 sired effect has not been produced. On the contrary, the 
 two countries are as distinct as ever, and we are not sur- 
 prised to read in what may be considered a State paper, 
 a paragraph devoted to the question, " Can the provinces 
 be coerced into annexation ? " Mr. Derby is certainly 
 plain-spoken. " There are," he remarks, " gentlemen of 
 intelligence, and possibly some statesmen, who think it 
 will be politic to allow the treaty to expire without any 
 efforts or arrangements for renewal, who predict that in 
 such case the provinces will range themselves under our 
 banner, and seek admission into the Union." Canada, 
 with its 1,000 miles of frontier, would be a valuable ac- 
 quisition to them now, when they are attempting to wall 
 themselves in by the imposition of protective duties. 
 Canada and the lower provinces may become the distri- 
 
 * The Maritime Provinces will take Canadian flour, and will send in re- 
 turn coal and fish, without needing the United States merchants to act 
 as middlemen. Instead of sending provincial lumber, grain and fish to 
 New York, to be thence exported by United States shippers to Brazil, 
 Cuba the West Indies, Hayti, Australia, Peru, and Africa, the colon- 
 ist will henceforth have a greater share of the profits of the products of 
 his own country. 
 
160 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 buting depot for foreign goods over the whole Continent, 
 If Canada went into the Union, the other provinces, and 
 the vast Red River territory, could not long resist the 
 pressure. And were Britain to lose her foot-hold in Ame- 
 rica, a non-intercourse policy, such as that advocated in 
 the United States Senate by Senator Chandler, extend- 
 ing from the Rio Grande to Labrador, would carry with 
 it serious consequences to British commerce. 
 
 It would seem that England's course in this juncture is 
 marked out plainly enough. It is well to follow the ad- 
 vice of that school of political economists who would 
 place her vast commerce — her very life blood — at the 
 mercy of foreign nations ? Who would sacrifice the ad- 
 vantages gained by a lavish expenditure of blood and 
 treasure on the altar of speculative theory ? Who would 
 rely for freedom from attack on national amiability rather 
 than on national strength ? Jurists have worked out a 
 code of international law, but their maxims, though ad- 
 mitted to be true and right, are not always acted on. So 
 colonial emancipators may lay down general principle.- , 
 and issue economic promises to pay, but their principles 
 are too general to beget implicit confidence in their pro- 
 phesied effects, and their promises are without guarantee. 
 It surely is not politic for England to alienate her friends 
 on the North American continent by leaving them to 
 drift about at the mercy of chance. It is admitted on 
 both sides of the Atlantic that the existing relations be- 
 tween the mother country and those American dependen- 
 cies must sooner or later undergo some change. When 
 that change shall take place, or what shall be its nature, 
 are questions yet to be decided. The decision may rest 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 161 
 
 with the parties immediately interested ; perhaps it may 
 be taken out of their hands. The tie so provocative of 
 wrath on the part of Colonial emancipators has lost the 
 character of a Gordian knot. Its intricacy and firmness 
 are no longer a challenge to ingenuity. No oracle need 
 be consulted as to the secret of its undoing, as all that is 
 required is to destroy the mutual affection which keeps 
 the line " taut," and there will be plenty of willing hands 
 to cast off the shore ends. The writer does not propose 
 to deal with those who advocate an immediate and total 
 separation as being for the best interests of both parties, 
 and have sufficient faith in their own logic to render them 
 easy as to the consequences. However disinclined to ad- 
 mit the soundness of their arguments, we must accord 
 them that respect which earnestness based on honesty of 
 purpose demands. But, on the other hand, there are 
 those who go half-way with both sides in this discussion, 
 not professedly or for any great length of time, but open- 
 ly enough and sufficiently long to earn the cordial dislike 
 of all really in earnest. This Ishmaelitish class has its 
 representatives in the press and in Parliament. Their 
 ability is indisputable ; their influence not to be despised. 
 Their seeming impartiality in the distribution of favours, 
 and their sprightly readiness to break a lance with all 
 comers, renders their specious logic and plausible state- 
 ments all the more insidious and fraught with all the 
 greater danger to those who adopt opinions second-hand 
 on subjects not sufficiently interesting to induce personal 
 investigation. What British Americans want is simply 
 fair play. They have no desire to appear every other day 
 at the bar of public opinion to answer charges that are 
 K 
 
162 ^ THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 without foundation, and at the same time do not wish 
 that judgment should be taken against them by default. 
 The majority of them view the existing connexion as 
 mutually beneficial and worthy of preservation. They 
 have a dislike to absorption in the American Republic ; 
 and the circumstances in which they are placed, as well 
 as the recollection of what they have endured to pre- 
 serve their allegiance, naturally prompt them to look 
 across the ocean for some recognition of their steadiness 
 of purpose. They find very little satisfaction in the 
 dictatorial utterances, and still less in the scoldings that 
 come from this side of the water. It is not unfair for 
 them to ask that those who assume to lead public opin- 
 ion in the mother country should avoid misstating facts, 
 whether intentionally or through ignorance, and guard 
 against becoming uncharitable when they should be quiet. 
 Lack of correct information can no longer be pleaded as 
 an excuse for departure from truth, as the means of sup- 
 plying it are available. Such books as that of Mr. Russell, 
 the Times' correspondent, on " Canada, its Defences, Con- 
 dition, and Resources," are well calculated to dispel those 
 illusions which have led so manv Eno^lishmen to lavish 
 their compliments on the United States and their satire 
 on the British American provinces. Comparisons have 
 been made to the prejudice of these colonies, and forci- 
 ble lectures are still read to them on their want of 
 energy, their mercenary spirit, their hysterical lip-loyalty, 
 and their inclination to sponge on the imperial exchequer ; 
 the weak places in their armour are gloated over and 
 pointed out to the world ; and ready writers exercise 
 themselves wonderfully to prove that the provinces are 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 163 
 
 wholly incapable of defence. It is not difficult to ridi- 
 cule hearty expressions of attachment, nor does it re- 
 quire great cleverness to fling off the words lip-loyalty. 
 Those who so glibly utter the reproach forget what it 
 is thev are strikino; at. The citizen of the United States 
 has a flag cf his own, and a nationality of his own, 
 but the provincialist has ever had to look abroad for 
 his. British policy isolated the colonies to prevent their 
 absorption in the Republic, and in so doing stunted the 
 growth of a native national sentiment. The American 
 revolution drove into the Royal provinces those who had 
 wished to preserve their allegiance to Britain, and the 
 exiles carried with them the recollection of injuries sus- 
 tained and losses endured for a cause which they, foolish- 
 ly or wisely, deemed worthy of the sacrifice. They gave 
 up houses, lands, kindred, and the associations of youth, 
 and exchanged comfort and ease for the dangers and 
 hardships of an inhospitable wilderness. The chivalrous 
 sense of honour which rendered them exiles was imparted 
 to their children. Loyalty to Britain became to them a 
 synonym for connexion with the mother-land and non- 
 adherence to the Republic. When Englishmen, therefore, 
 undertake to cast reflection on a loyalty that has so fre- 
 quently proved itself a reality, they should first consider 
 what the British American means when he makes boast 
 of his " loyalty." Now that British America has become 
 prosperous and united, and the traditions of the past are 
 gradually losing their hold on the imaginations of a new 
 generation, that sentiment which so long found an outlet 
 in declamation over the glories of the mother-land, will 
 draw a more natural nourishment from native sources. 
 
164 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 It remains to be seen what shall take its place, and 
 whether the doling out of so much gratitude for so much 
 benefit received will be more acceptable to English cri- 
 tics than the hereditary romantic attachment which allow- 
 ed no danger, no loss, no neglect to sully its purity. 
 Notwithstanding the assertion that Canada is incapable 
 of defence, the very same persons who give it currency 
 are among the first to charge the colonists with an un- 
 willingness to sink in fortifications the money they need 
 to open up roads and deepen their canals. Although the 
 provinces have more men in training in proportion to 
 their population than England, and that too in a country 
 where the duty of a volunteer partakes little of the na- 
 ture of play, they are sneered at for not preparing to 
 defend themselves. What is the fact ? Military schools 
 have been established in the provinces under the super- 
 intendence of officers of the regular army, and last fall 
 Colonel McDougall inspected in camp, at Montreal, 2,000 
 graduates who formed, according to his acknowledg- 
 ment, as fine battalions, both in respect to physique and 
 drill, as he, with all his experience, had ever seen. 
 Throughout all the provinces the volunteers are regular- 
 ly drilled by sergeants of the regular army in the pay of 
 the colonists. But it may be asked, Can the fighting 
 material be furnished ? It is not necessary to call the 
 roll of British Americans who have done battle for Bri- 
 tain in all parts of the world, to point to Williams of Kars, 
 or Inglis of Lueknow, or young Dunn, who bore oft' the 
 Victoria Cross from the bravest of the immortal " six 
 hundred," or young Reade, who, though a surgeon, won 
 the same token of heroism at Delhi, or the many others 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 165 
 
 who have died under the Red Cross, Look back to the 
 time when Maine called out her militia to settle the 
 boundary question by force, and New Brunswick and 
 Nova Scotia sprang to arms with but a regiment or two 
 of British troops to assist them in rolling back the tide 
 of invasion. In 1812, did any of the provinces quail ? 
 or did those 1,000 raw French-Canadian militia under 
 De Salaberry, when they defeated 7,000 United States 
 infantry at Chateauguay, show themselves deficient in 
 bravery ? At the time of the Trent affair, was there a 
 display of timidity ? At two o'clock in the morning of 
 the eighth of March, 1866, a call was made by telegraph 
 from the Canadian capital for 10,000 men to line the 
 frontier, as an attack by American Fenians was appre- 
 hended ; b}^ night that number of thoroughly-equipped 
 and well-drilled volunteers were at their respective head- 
 quarters. Stores and factories were emptied and farm 
 houses deserted, and Canada, from Sarnia to Quebec, wore 
 the appearance of a vast military encampment. Were 
 double the number required, they could have been had on 
 the same notice. And this is the Canada that has been so 
 often scolded for not F^howing, according to the notions of 
 British writers and British speakers, a willingness to de- 
 fend itself ! 
 
 It has been said that the provinces are mercenary and 
 disposed to shirk taxation, but it is evident that the im- 
 position of high taxes would be a deadly blow to their 
 future prospects. They wish not only to retain their 
 own population, but to be able to offer inducements to 
 emigrants ; and now that the United States have been 
 compelled to submit to an oppressive load, there is hope 
 
166 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 that the tide of emigration will turn in favour of the 
 provinces. Their best defence, after all, is population. 
 With an increase in the number of inhabitants will arise 
 an increase of wants, and capital will follow in the train. 
 The Republicans are determined, if they cannot totally 
 exclude British manufactures, to make British capital in- 
 vested in the States pay a share of their war debt. 
 Massachusetts has imposed a tax of four per cent, upon 
 the receipts for premiums of all foreign insurance com- 
 panies doing business in that State. The State of New 
 York passed an Act whereby her foreign bondholders 
 would be compelled to take their interest in United 
 States currency when one dollar in gold was worth two 
 dollars and a half in currency. The Supreme Court of 
 this State has lately decided, under the Legal Tender 
 Act, that a promise to pay in gold or silver dollars is ful- 
 filled by a payment in " greenbacks " without the dis- 
 count. British capital has been lavished on the United 
 States. It has built their railways and canals, and sus- 
 tained their different State Governments ; while, strange 
 to say, American capital has sought investment in the 
 British provinces. The collieries of Nova Scotia, the 
 gold mines of Nova Scotia and Canada, the copper mines 
 of Canada, Upper and Lower, and the Upper Canadian 
 oil wells are all for the most part in operation through 
 capital invested in them by citizens of the United States. 
 It is the best policy, therefore, for Canada to keep down 
 taxation, and Canadian statesmen are wise in their gen- 
 eration in paying little heed to those who would urge 
 them into spending their strength for nought. 
 
 But the cavils and scoffs, though based on fallacies, of 
 those who have taken on themselves to lecture the prov- 
 
AND THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 167 
 
 inces for alleged shortcomings, are productive of injuri- 
 ous consequences. A young country is particularly 
 sensitive to outside criticism, and the fact of being a de- 
 pendent, although but in name, does not blunt the edge 
 of harshly-worded rebuke. Even the United States 
 smarted under the attacks of a foreign press, so that the 
 British American may be excused if he displays some- 
 what of a similar weakness. It is easy to laugh at him 
 when with pardonable vanity he examines English opin- 
 ion for some word of encouragement, some tribute to his 
 industry and his endurance. The boy who leaves the 
 home of his childhood in search of fortune looks forward 
 with eagerness to the day when he can return laden 
 with the fruits of his labour ; and, when he has secured 
 the reward of industry, exhibits it nowhere with so 
 much pride as at the old homestead. The emigrant in 
 the backwoods feels a strange pleasure in writing 
 " home," as he continues through life to call the land of 
 his birth, the history of his struggles and his success. It 
 may be a mere sentiment, utterly ridiculous in the eyes 
 of the philosophic economist, but it is human nature. It 
 is not difficult, therefore, to imagine the feelings of the 
 British American as he thinks of his precarious position 
 in the American continent ; of the power of the Repub- 
 lic that well nigh overshadows his country with its 
 greatness ; of the strong inducements held out to ambi- 
 tion across the lines ; of the mingling of interests that 
 makes him a participator in the misfortunes of his repub- 
 lican neighbours, if not an equal sharer in their prosper- 
 ity ; and then reads in the columns of acknowledged 
 organs of public opinion what they say in England of 
 
168 THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION. 
 
 himself and his home. Far away from the motherland^ 
 three thousand miles across the sea and a thousand miles 
 inland, the Canadian tries to sift from the metropolitan 
 press the real sentiments of the English people ; and, with- 
 in sight of the Stars and Stripes, peruses British journals 
 and British reviews (not those of the United States) in 
 which threats, ridicule, unfair comparisons, and even con- 
 temptuous disdain mark the passages that bear on his case. 
 He may well ask, What is the object of such a mode of at- 
 tack ? Were British America convinced that Britain de- 
 sired an immediate separation, objection from abroad 
 would be silenced, however impolitic the step might be 
 considered. But British America wants time. It is not 
 ready to stand alone, as that system of colonial rule 
 which divided the provinces and discouraged intercom- 
 munication, has produced eftects which cannot be got 
 over at once. Besides, the locking in of Canada from 
 the sea by Lord Ashburton, which, according to Mr. 
 Russell, " weakened Canada at its weakest point, and 
 conferred most signal advantages on the only enemy it 
 had to fear," and further, " bit into the substance of the 
 provinces, and at the same time cut the vein of com- 
 munication with the sea for five long winter months," 
 must, for some time at least, prove a tremendous disad- 
 vantage. But it is quite possible that a premature dis- 
 solution of the connexion may be forced on, and it is 
 within the bounds of probability that the separation may 
 be associated with bitter feelings ; that wounded ])ride 
 and rejected affection may smother the recollections of 
 former benefits and sympathy. No British American 
 wishes that it should be so ; surely no patriotic English- 
 man desires it. 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWEE.VCE ON 
 A RiFT;^ 
 
 HOLIDAY cruise on a timber raft does not, 
 at the mere mention of it, suo-aest first 
 thoughts of a very favourable character. It 
 would not probably move the " old salt " to 
 enthusiasm, or rouse the spirit of dilletanti 
 J'^ yachtsmen. But a little reflection by a staid lands- 
 man not given to nautical exploit save in the mildest 
 forms ; not gifted with a levelness of head sufficient to 
 warrant the climbing of masts, or physical control 
 adequate to the exigencies of a rolling sea ; will convince 
 him, at least, that there are some peculiar features, some 
 characteristic attractions connected with such a mode of 
 seeking diversion, which recommend it as worthy of 
 consideration. Travel by raft has no tourists, no guide- 
 books, no flaming advertisements to laud, or even to in- 
 dicate the advantages it possesses over the usual modes of 
 transit ; so it must of necessity look for patronage to 
 those who are fond of meditation, are not in a hurry, 
 and are content with occasional spells of excitement. The 
 ordinary summer tourist, who does the St. Lawrence and 
 other fashionable routes in a steamboat, and fancies that 
 
 * From the Canadian Monthly, October, 1874. 
 
170 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 the chief end of man has been attained, the cup of 
 pleasure has been drained to the dregs, and enjoyment 
 penetrated to the kernel, will welcome with gratitude 
 the information that there is a world of novelty yet un- 
 conquered, and a means of slacking a thirst for sensation 
 yet untapped. But this ordinary tourist must not give 
 way to extravagant ecstasy at the announcement ; the 
 charms of raft travel are for the few, not the many ; and, 
 as has been hinted, the capacity to discover and appre- 
 ciate them is limited by conditions of an onerous char- 
 acter. However, there are palpable advantages in favour 
 of the raft tourist over those enjoyed homeopathically by 
 the steamboat passenger. Fashion does not sit enthroned 
 on a raft ; its behests are there ignored, and the needs 
 of the occasion alone control. Hence little luggage 
 is required, and the freedom from encumbrance which 
 this secures signifies lightness of heart, the natural 
 consequence of exemption from the importunities of 
 zealous hotel-porters, and energetic hackmen, as well as 
 a total immunity from the agony which accompanies the 
 crashing and smashing of one's best and perhaps only 
 trunk. The raftsman on his voyage does not have his 
 temper tried by the impertinence of waiters, which, apart 
 from its moral worth, is a boom only appreciable to its 
 full extent by the steamboat passenger desirous of culti- 
 vating a relish for his victuals. He is not compelled to 
 arjpease his appetite at the expense of his manners by 
 being compelled to fight his way to his meals under 
 penalty of languishing in semi-starvation until the third 
 table is rung up. He is not driven to decide between 
 dyspepsia-producing beefsteak and a variety of dry 
 
DOWN TBE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 171 
 
 delicacies which give the table of a steamboat a unique, 
 a too familiar, a never-to-be-forgotten appearance ; or to 
 strain the axis of his inind in the endeavour to decide 
 fairly between the merits of the tea and the coffee, or to 
 arrive at a definite conclusion respecting their similarities 
 and differences. He is not moved to bitter envy by 
 witnessing nice distinctions drawn between those who 
 shall get state-rooms and those whose fate it is to be ac- 
 commodated with spaces under the piano or on the din- 
 ing table ; nor is his bachelorhood, if so it be, put to open 
 shame by a curt negation of its claims to attention until 
 everybody else is told off". He is not kept awake at night 
 by the giggling of girls, nor put to sleep in the day-time 
 by their incessant chatter. No ! the raftsman is his own 
 waiter. He takes his meals when prompted to eat by a 
 natural hunger which does not come and go at the sound 
 of the dinner-bell ; his place at table is anywhere and 
 everywhere he chooses to sit; his diet is simpje,— pork, 
 hard-tack, bread, potatoes, tea undisguised by chalk- 
 milk and untoned by sanded sugar, and game, sometimes 
 such as the hen-houses along the shore deliver into his 
 piratical grip ; his vsleeping apartment is a shanty of pine 
 boards specially built for airiness, and capable of coming 
 down at a moment's notice ; his bed, consisting of two 
 military blankets and a valise pillow, is always ready 
 made ; his tub is the river, ever at hand ; his " constitu- 
 tional " is on wood pavement, ever free from dust. He 
 has abundant leisure to view the scenery ; he can read, 
 write, talk and walk, or sleep, just as he pleases, and in 
 fine, is as nearly his own master as he can well be. The 
 sense of complete freedom expands his chest, and no un- 
 
172 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 trammelled son of the desert can experience more com- 
 plete buoyancy of spirit than does the shaggy unkept 
 tourist who drinks in the fresh morning air as he 
 saunters up and down a 100-foot log in the middle of the 
 river, or, extended at full length, basks in the sunshine 
 listening to the plash of the waves as they gently lave 
 the sides of his raft. So that a comparison between the 
 two modes of travel shows advantages on the side of the 
 seemingly less enjoyable, which in their gesthetic, dietetic, 
 social and moral character, go to mellow the hard feeling 
 incident to first thought on the subject of raft naviga- 
 tion. Were it desirable to depress the scale too much in 
 favour of the raftsman's view, it would be open to his 
 sympathizers to throw in the continuous opportunity for 
 fishing which the steady movement of the raft furnishes, 
 — but some unoccupied ground must be left to the 
 imao^ination. 
 
 The raft is quite safe so long as its constitutent logs 
 keep together. Should it resolve itself, or be resolved 
 into its elements in deep water, danger is to be appre- 
 hended, for every one cannot walk on, or even keep 
 astride of, a log in the water. Blondin and Blondinists 
 could perhaps ; but unaccustomed raftsmen find it rather 
 slippery work. Any one who is perfect at paddling a 
 tub could hold his own on a log; but the tendency to 
 roll is a source of such danger to the isolated squatter 
 on square timber, as to justify a casual observer in mis- 
 trusting its efficiency as a life-preserver. Walking on a 
 detached log means not a succession of steady steps, but 
 a movement akin to what one understands by St. Vitus' 
 dance. The raft proper is composed of what are techni- 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 173 
 
 cally called drams, each of which is a complete raft in 
 itself ; in fact a raft is a number of drams chained or 
 roped together. The timber intended to be rafted down 
 to Quebec is taken from the booms, say in Toronto bay, 
 and built up in drams. Huge sticks of pine, ash, elm, or 
 oak, are laid side by side to the width of about fifty-two 
 feet, and to the length of about two hundred and fifty 
 feet, with a space of two feet between the ends of the 
 logs, so as to give them room to play in a rough sea ; 
 these are bound to traverses, or cross-pieces, laid every 
 three feet, by withes of young ironwood, oak or hickory 
 trees rendered pliable by a twisting machine. The bot- 
 tom being thus laid, it is loaded in tiers until the dram 
 draws from three-and-a-half to six feet of water, accord- 
 ing to the quantity or weight of timber. A shanty is 
 built of pine boards on the middle of the dram, and the 
 dram thus honoured is called the Cabin Dram ; the cook's 
 house adjoins the shanty, and in it are stored barrels of 
 pork, biscuit and bread. Around the bow, stern and 
 sides of the dram, rullocks are constructed at an eleva 
 tion of three feet, and oars thirty-six feet long and about 
 fifty pounds weight are provided. It takes fifteen men 
 a month to build one of these drams. For ffoino: throuofh 
 the canals, the drams are built about twenty -four by one- 
 hundred and twenty, and in a less secure manner than 
 those intended to take the chances of the rapids. It is 
 said to be as cheap to take a raft through the canals as 
 down the river, and the more valuable timber, such as 
 oak and pine, goes by the former route, as the risk of 
 loss is of course much diminished. One wonders why 
 all the timber does not go through the canals, when the 
 
174 DOWN THE ST. LAWKENCE ON A EAFT. 
 
 dangers of the rapids are taken into consideration, and 
 it is remembered that no insurance companies extend 
 their gegis over the timber man. If a dram sticks on a 
 shoal, or is run on the beach, it takes a deal of pulling 
 and hauling to get it off again, the cost oftentimes being 
 from two to five hundred dollars. When everything is 
 ready, the drams are lashed together, two and two, and a 
 tugboat steams ofi* with them down Lake Ontario, and 
 thence along the river St. Lawrence to Prescott. 
 
 The distance between Toronto and Kingston was 
 accomplished in eighty-five hours, and the captain of the 
 Edsall felicitated himself on the speed and strength of 
 his tug, but expressed regret when he recollected that his 
 vessel was paid according to the time occupied, that is, 
 about $200 a day. Eighty-five hours between Toronto 
 and Kingston ( one-hundred-and-sixty-five miles), is a 
 ^ood lon<r time to an " amateur casual," on a raft thouorh 
 to a timber man it represents a short raft passage 
 between the points named. Three days of sunshine, 
 three days of gossip with the men, three days devoid of 
 stirrino^ incident, save a sligfht blow which set the 
 timber creaking in a manner sufficiently startling to give 
 a good idea of what a storm could do if it only chose. To 
 a timber raft badly put together, a storm on the lake 
 means "scatteration" in its most destructive sense, and a 
 log hunt for a month afterwards. But our parallelogram 
 went quietly and smoothly onward. The men slept and 
 ate, and ate and slept during the day, and sat up all 
 niirht tellins: stories, sinofinof sonfjs and dancinof. All 
 nationalities were represented, but the French and Eng- 
 lish-speaking Canadians especially vied with each other 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 175 
 
 in tales of adventure and the recital of personal 
 experience. There was Antoine, who had laid the axe to 
 the roots of great trees in Western Canada and in Michi- 
 gan, and was now on his way to his domicile of nativity. 
 His had been a life of hard labour, speckled with oases 
 of romance, and seemed nothing loath to pass it in 
 panoramic review for the entertainment of his fellows ; 
 but his forte was, like a true sentimentalist, music. He 
 sang, with an air of resolution, the songs of French 
 Canada, and when incited to melody showed a wonder- 
 ful skill in giving his voice the tremolo much affected by 
 popular singers, thus realizing Charles Lamb's descrip- 
 tion of the piping of the gentle giantess. " The shake 
 which most singers reserve for the close or cadence, by 
 some unaccountable flexibility or tremulousness of pipe 
 she carrieth quite thro' the composition, so that her time 
 to a common air keeps double motion — like the earth 
 running the primary circuit of the tune, and still revolv- 
 ing on its own axis." His favourite air, and indeed that 
 of all, was the canoe refrain. En roulant ma 'houle, the 
 chorus of which was rendered with great spirit, its 
 accompaniment being a violent working of the arms, in- 
 tended to represent paddling. The words of this song 
 extend over thirteen verses, so a few will suffice as 
 specimens : — 
 
 Derrier' chez nous, ya-t-un etang, 
 
 Eq roulant ma boule (chorus), 
 Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, 
 Ea roulant ma boule roulant {chorus) 
 
 En roulant ma boule. 
 
176 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 Trois beaux canards a'en vont baignant 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Le fils du roi s'en va chassant, 
 Roiili, roulant, ma boule roulant, 
 
 En roulant, etc. 
 
 Le fils du roi s'en va chassant 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Avec son grand fusil d'argent, 
 Eouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, 
 
 En roulant, etc. 
 
 Then there was Pierre, who was making his yearly 
 pilgrimage to his home, or rather his wife's home — for 
 poor Pierre had been blessed with a shrew, and like the 
 simple-minded fellow he is, took to the woods every fall, 
 worked hard all winter chopping, and about midsummer 
 found himself again rafting towards the consumer of 
 his wages. His matrimonial felicity was not perfect, as 
 a week under the roof of his little white-washed cottage 
 seemed to render him equal to another year's absence, 
 another year's endurance of cold and shanty hardship, 
 another year's experience on pork diet. Hugh, the cook, 
 had his budget of songs of the "Mother Darling" class, 
 as well as of the dramatic, which were made to tell by 
 the addition of fanciful bits of clog dances, while his 
 border tales were of the most incredible kind, fearful 
 robberies of fowl, and dreadful legends as to the eating 
 capacity of the winter shanty men. The foreman of the 
 raft was a mine of statistics, and full of interesting 
 details as to the lumber trade, which he prefaced with a 
 characteristic song, descriptive of the raftsman's life — 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAF P. 177 
 
 Voici I'hiver arrive ; 
 
 Les rivieres sont geldes ; 
 
 C'est le temps d'aller au bois 
 
 Manger du lard et des pois. 
 Dans les chantiers nous hivernerons I 
 Dans les chantiers nous hivernerons ! 
 
 Pauv' voyageur que t'as d'la misere ! 
 Souvent tu couches par terre, 
 A la pluie, au mauvais temps 
 A la rigeur de tons les temps. 
 
 Quand tu arrive a Quebec, 
 Souvent tu fais un gros bee 
 Tu vas trouver ton bourgeois. 
 Qu'est Ik, assis au comptoi'. 
 
 Je voudrais etre paye 
 
 Pour le temps que j'ai donne. 
 Quand 1' bourgeois est en banq'route, 
 II t' renvoi manger des crofttes. 
 
 Qaand tu retourn' chez ton pere, 
 Aussi pour revoir ta mere ; 
 Le bonhomme est k la porte, 
 La bonne femme fait la gargotte. 
 
 Ah ! bonjour done, mon cher enfant ! 
 
 Nous apport'-tu ben d'F argent 1 
 
 Que r diable emport' les chantiers ! 
 
 Jamais d' ma vie j'y r'tournerai ! 
 
 In his less musical moments the foreman becomes 
 communicative, and is nothing loath to tell respecting 
 his operations in the woods, his hauling the logs to 
 water, his draining lakes to gorge the shallow streams 
 and rivers down which they float the logs, and to give, 
 
 L 
 
178 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 with dates and items, all the minor details which go to 
 make up his business life. His information is varied, 
 and he appreciates at its true value the great forest. 
 From him we learn such facts as the following : Canada 
 possesses almost every variety of ornamental wood, and 
 at great International Exhibitions displays not less than 
 sixty-four varieties of timber. The great variety of 
 kinds, and the abundance in quantity of our forest 
 woods, is the reason that the greater number of them 
 have no intrinsic value here. Oak, pine, walnut, maple, 
 elm, tamarack, and cedar, are our chief exports. Last 
 year the total exported produce of our forests reached 
 $28, .586,816 in value, the largest quantity being of white 
 pine. Next in value come Agricultural Products, and 
 after them Animals and their produce. At the late 
 lumberers' convention at Ottawa, Mr. Little stated that 
 the forests of the United States and Canada, taken 
 together, will not afford a supply of white pine for more 
 than twelve or fifteen years at the utmost, at the present 
 rate of consumption. Such a statement carries with it a 
 significance which those who look into the future would 
 do well to ponder over. The exhaustion of Canadian 
 forests means the loss of our chief source of export. But 
 the rapid consumption going on signifies to the lumber- 
 man that every year his work will be further and further 
 back from civilization, and that his hardships, if not his 
 wages, will steadily increase. 
 
 The hours went very slowly in doing Lake Ontario's, 
 180 miles, but the leisure thus afforded to familiarize 
 oneself with the men, and to admire the sticks of timber, 
 the excellencies of which were repeatedly pointed out 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 179 
 
 was, as may bs seen, somewhat improved. Once through 
 the lake and past Kingston, it might be supposed that 
 the scenery of the Thousand Islands would dispel the 
 langour which had at times manifested itself in all. 
 Though willing to answer when questioned, the rafts- 
 man, like the Indian, is never garrulous. Gazing at the 
 waves as they ripple by with sunshine pillowed on their 
 tiny crests, or lazily watching the shore where the doz- 
 ing hills nodded a seeming recognition with their cloud 
 night-caps, he yielded him to the soporific spirit of the 
 scene, and became silent, dreamy, and sometimes even 
 sleepy. Nepenthe has been found. Even the Thousand 
 Islands, with their luxuriantly tinted foliage, their over- 
 hanging branches, and dainty bowers, their myriad 
 forms of substance and shadow, their winding passages, 
 their delightful change of landscape, their seventy miles 
 of lingering sweetness — all, all failed to dispel torpor or 
 awaken into activity the ratiocinative faculties. We 
 gazed and enjoyed and gazed and dozed. The solitude, 
 the stillness, the exquisite beauty of the scene, the 
 balminess of the atmosphere, intoxicated like sweet 
 incense, and stole away all sense of life ; dreamland with 
 its figments and pigments was ours, and for many a mo- 
 ment, a set of beings happy and contented as ever roam- 
 ed the Elysian fields, were the somnambulists of our 
 raft. Our sleep was not dull, heavy, abject uncon- 
 sciousness, but rather delicate, soft, quiescence — rest to 
 the body, holiday to the mind. The griefs and dis- 
 appointments of the past clothed themselves in wedding 
 garments and danced like dervishes vis-d-vis to the joy- 
 ous possibilities of the future. In truth, the Thousand 
 
180 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 Islands were to us the Thousand-and-one Nights of 
 oriental fiction. But this somniferous delirium was too 
 painfully delicious to last, and, like everything mundane, 
 came to an end. At Prescott we were restored to the 
 consciousness of life's realities by the departure of the 
 steam tug, and beneath the shadow of the famous old 
 wind-mill which had witnessed some of the pranks of 
 '37, the drams shook off the coils that had so long united 
 them, and each made ready to do for itself in its down- 
 ward course. Pilots came on board, huge oars were 
 shipped, men were hired in quantities, fifteen or sixteen 
 to a dram, and after a few strokes from the long oars, 
 which looked amazingly like monstrous antennce, our 
 raft was in the current moving along with a speed 
 startling in its contrast to the former creeping motion. 
 The rapids now began to be referred to with respect, and 
 even the current, as it swept our parallelogram around 
 islands, through narrow channels, shaving shoals and 
 rocks that looked uninvitingly near, became a subject of 
 conciliatory compliment. Steady work at the oars had 
 taken the place of indolence, and the men shout to each 
 other in French, Indian and English ; brisk repartee and 
 stentorian laughter indicate rising spirits ; and the timid 
 tourist, partaking of the general excitement, leaps from 
 log to log for the purpose of reassuring himself as to 
 their adhesive qualities, and recalls the lines of Sangster : 
 
 " All peacefully gliding, 
 
 The waters dividing, 
 The indolent bateau moved slowly along. 
 
 The rowers light-hearted, 
 
 From sorrow long parted, 
 Beguiled the dull moments with laughter and song. 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 181 
 
 * Hurrah for the rapid ! that merrily, merrily 
 Gambols and leaps in its tortuous way ; 
 Soon we will enter it, cheerily, cheerily, 
 Pleased with its freshness and wet with its spray.' 
 
 '' More swiftly careering, 
 The wild rapid nearing. 
 They dash down the stream like a terrified steed ; 
 The surges delight them, 
 No terrors af right them. 
 Their voices keep pace with the quickening speed : 
 ' Hurrah for the rapid ! that merrily, merrily 
 Shivers its arrows against us in play ; 
 Now we have entered it, cheerily, cheerily. 
 Our spirits as light as its feathery spray.' 
 
 " Fast downward they're dashing, 
 Each fearless eye flashing, 
 Though danger awaits them on every side ; 
 Yon rock — see it foaming — 
 They strike — they are drowning ! 
 But downward they speed with the merciless tide : 
 No voice cheers the rapid, that angrily, angrily 
 Shivers their bark in its maddening play, 
 Gaily they battled it — heedlessly, recklessly, 
 Mingling their lives with its treacherous spray ! " 
 
 The river has a glazed appearance ; its very oiliness indi- 
 cates something wrong under the surface ; the revolving 
 eddies in their corkscrew movements predicate trouble 
 ahead ; and the accelerated speed of the raft forewarns 
 one of danger that lurks not far in the distance. We are 
 beginning to go down hill very swiftly. No wonder. 
 From Lake Erie to Montreal, 367 miles, the descent is 
 564 feet. Vessels coming up through the seven canals 
 constructed to avoid these St. Lawrence rapids ascend 
 
182 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A EAFT. 
 
 116 miles of river in actual horizontal distance, overcom- 
 ing a fall of 225 feet above the level of the tide water, 
 and this in a river said to discharge 4,800,000 tons of 
 fresh water annually into the ocean. So there is good 
 reason for our raft making good time onwards — it is 
 going down the first pair of stairs. But the white caps 
 of the Galops have little temper for us as we plough 
 through, for the tumble of this rapid is less fierce than 
 we, in our innocent excitement, anticipated. Not a stick 
 is displaced, and confidence in the buoyancy and strength 
 of our platform rises several degrees. Grown bolder by 
 slight experience, we express loudly our desire to encoun- 
 ter the famous Long Sault, the most magnificent of all the 
 rapids, and whose dangers were, in the olden time, es- 
 pecially dreaded. Says Mr. Boulton, in his topographical 
 description of Upper Canada (1824) : " Boats may pass 
 near shore, but where misfortune has driven either a 
 boat or a raft into the very strong part of the current, 
 it hath seldom happened that a life has been saved. 
 A melancholy instance of the danger of this occurred in 
 the late French war, when several boats and their crews 
 were entirely lost." But enquiries of an historical nature 
 were cut short abruptly, after reaching smooth water 
 again, by the appearance of a canoe which angled towards 
 the raft for a while, and finally succeeded in coming 
 alongside. Its passengers were two Indians, a white- 
 haired old gentleman, evidently papa, and a fair-faced 
 girl, evidently papa's daughter. The transfer of this new 
 and unexpected freight to the cabin-dram was a work of 
 short duration, and thence an explanation of the angelic 
 visit was soon promulgated, to the effect that daughter 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWEENCE ON A RAFT. 183 
 
 had long cherished an " intense, eager, and insatiable 
 longing " to " shoot the rapids," and that papa had in- 
 sured his life, and given reluctant consent on one condi- 
 tion, viz. : that he should accompany her. She carried a 
 dainty satchel containing wine- biscuits for nibbling pur- 
 poses, and papa, like a sensible man, displayed anxiety 
 respecting the movements of substantial hampers, which 
 the keen-scented cook followed about with radiant coun- 
 tenance. The new arrivals occasioned much excitement. 
 The Indians at the oars betrayed no sign, save that their 
 black eyes flashed for an instant. The French grimaced 
 at each other. The English slapped their knees violently 
 but said nothing. The surprise was too much for vocal 
 expression. Never had such a thing been dreamed of in 
 raftmen's annals as the shooting of the Long Sault by a 
 young lady. She was not very strong looking, but she 
 had delicate features, long wavy hair which fluttered 
 gaily in the breeze, a ^petite figure, and eyes full of 
 sunshine and sweetness. It seemed to grow on us that 
 she was neither merry nor giddy ; her demeanour rather 
 bespoke characteristics such as thoughtfulness and kind- 
 ness. When she seated herself on a coil of hawser, and 
 quietly took to her " tatting," to the discomfiture of some 
 on board who would have been glad to furnish her with 
 full statistics relative to the dimensions of the canals, and 
 to point out to her the peculiar excellencies of the various 
 sticks of timber, the oarsmen looked very knowing and 
 sarcastic. Some persons transferred their valuable infor- 
 mation and services to papa, who showed his appreciation 
 of several hours' run of learned conversation by breaking 
 out in the middle of a table of condensed mathematics. 
 
184 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 with an allusion to his hampers. The allusion was caught 
 up with alacrity, and a motion toward the victuals had a 
 seconder in everybody not engaged at the oars. The con- 
 trast between hard-tack and sponge-cake is great ! The 
 gulf between fat pork and chicken is vast ! A land appe- 
 tite and a water appetite are totally different things ! 
 Aqua vitce and aqua fortis have nothing in common. 
 The little lady was somewhat sly, for no sooner were po- 
 tations ended than she demanded a song. Each looked 
 at the other; one had a cold ; another had left his miisic 
 at home ; but silence was cut short by the irrepressible 
 Antoine, who looked tenderly at the maiden, then fero- 
 ciously at his companions, and sang out to a delicious 
 
 minor air : 
 
 Isabeau se prono^ne 
 Du long de son jardin, 
 Du long de son jardin. 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, 
 Du long de son jardin ; 
 Sur le bord de I'eau, 
 Sur le bord du vaisseau. 
 
 Elle fit une rencontre 
 De trente matelots, 
 De trente matelots. 
 
 Sur le bord de Tile, etc. 
 
 Le plus jeune des trente 
 11 se mit k chanter, etc, 
 
 — La chanson que tu chantes 
 Je voudrais la savoir, etc. 
 
 — Embarque dans ma barque, 
 Je te la chanterai, etc. 
 
 Quand elle fut dans la barque, 
 Elle se mit a pleurer, etc. 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 185 
 
 — Qii'avez-vous done la belle, 
 Qu'avez-vou3 a pleurer ? etc. 
 
 Je pleure mon anneau d'or 
 Dans I'eau il est tomte, etc. 
 
 Ne pleurez point la belle, 
 Je vous le plongerai, etc. 
 
 De la troisieme plonge, 
 Le galant s'est noye, 
 Le galant s'est noye. 
 
 Sur le borde de I'ile, 
 Le galant s'est noye 
 
 Sur le bord de I'eau, 
 Sur le bord du vaisseau. 
 
 This melancholy story was quickly ousted from mem- 
 ory by other and more lively airs, so that the impromptu 
 pic-nic was a great success. The liltle lady looked pleas- 
 ed, and laughed right merrily when her experiments on 
 hard-tack resulted in a vain endeavour to indent it with 
 her pearly molars and incisors. An offer to file her teeth 
 to the requisite sharpness was declined with a profusion 
 of thanks which abashed the offerer as completely as if 
 he had been smothered in rosebuds. Further enjoyment 
 of the festive occasion is cut short by the announcement 
 that the rapids are near. The pilots take their position, 
 and in a few moments the drams, one after another, spring- 
 forward with fearful velocity, and plunge violently into 
 the breakers of the Lcng Sault. The waves leap to the 
 encounter as if they would dash themselves over the rest- 
 less timber, but exhausted by their own fierceness, tumble 
 headlong in masses of white foam. The dram stops, a 
 convulsive throb gives motion seemingly to every fibre of 
 
186 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 the timber — but it is for an instant. The pilot shouts ; 
 the men strike their oars deep in the water, and the dram, 
 like an expert surf-diver that it is, takes a header through 
 the loftiest breaker ; the bow oarsmen drop on their 
 knees and cling to the traverses. For a few seconds they 
 are lost to sight in tempests of spray, while an undulat- 
 ing spasm seizes the dram and runs through its entire 
 length, causing every portion in turn to heave and toss 
 like a wounded serpent, and straining every withe to its 
 utmost tension. But the stoppage is momentary. Again 
 the ail-powerful current clutches the dram, and, rendered 
 more fierce by impediment, drags us onward, down nar- 
 row passages between rocks, over precipices of water, past 
 threatening shoals, cutting the crest from pyramids of 
 surge, and riding victor- like upon clouds of sparkling 
 spray until, wearied with triumph, we lose all conscious- 
 ness of the hydra-headed dangers lurking on every side, 
 and give fancy and imagination free rein to revel in the 
 sights of grandeur and beauty which flit before our eyes 
 like an enchanted panorama. 
 
 It is hard to say who of the non-raftsmen exhibited the 
 most equal courage during the passage, but, though she 
 had sat by herself in the middle of the dram, had looked 
 very pale, trembling very much, and let slip a few tears 
 when the last white cap was left astern, the little lady 
 was pronounced by unanimous vote to be a true rafts- 
 man ; and several sun-burnt, big-shouldered fellows car- 
 ried a large stick of timber near to where she sat (which 
 they shortly brought back again), to secure the opportu- 
 nity of whispering to her, " You are a trump, miss." At 
 any rate when she again asked for a song, big Barreau, 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 1S7 
 
 who had slain his thousands of trees, and rafted innumer- 
 able drams down the rapids, for the first time volunteered 
 a song. He commenced : 
 
 " Nous avons saute le Long Sault, 
 Nous I'avons saut^ tout d'un morceau. 
 
 Ah ! que I'hiver est long ! 
 Dans les chantiers nous hivernerons, 
 Dans les chantiers nous hivernerons !" 
 
 but fell back, blushing violently, after racking his mem- 
 ory in vain for the words of the second verse. 
 
 When the drams were moored in safety at Smart's Bay 
 (opposite Cornwall), that Friday night, an oar was laid 
 between the dram and the shore as a sort of "gang-plank.'* 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that those who wished to 
 go ashore dry had to do some nice feats of balancing. 
 The little lady and her papa were taking leave of us. 
 Papa performed on that oar like an elephant on a tiofht 
 rope, and would in all probability have got wet had he 
 not beat a hasty retreat. At these demonstrations of 
 papa's the little lady laughed very undutifully and de- 
 clared her intention of " going first." The words were 
 scarcely uttered before there was a splash heard, and the 
 little lady was carried ashore, like a child, in the brawny 
 arms of a six-foot raftsman who found no difficulty in 
 walking through four feet of water, even with her as a 
 load. She doubtless was a little startled, but the gallant 
 fellow meant well, and his act was a farewell tribute to 
 her pluck. 
 
 Before eleven o'clock next morning the drams were 
 lashed together; then set out for Coteau with a steam- 
 tugat their head. The procession moved solemnly throuo-h 
 
188 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 Lake St. Francis, the monotony being broken only by 
 passing steamboats, propellers or grain barges, whose 
 passengers eyed us with an interest which was flattering. 
 Perhaps some of them regarded us as on our way to de- 
 struction, and shed pitying tears. We certainly grieved 
 for their captivity, though we too were " cribbed, cabined 
 and confined." It is not pleasant sometimes to be an ob- 
 ject of interest ; but on a raft one learns to endure with 
 patience even a stare through a field-glass. When we 
 were glared at by lady passengers on the steamboats, 
 even the most sunburnt of us showed a heightened colour. 
 By this time constant exposure had blackened some com- 
 plexions, and given to others a scarlet hue whose brilli- 
 ancy almost answered the purpose of flint and steel at 
 night. Bardolph's nose was not a circumstance to noses 
 on board. More than one person might have had applied 
 to him, with appropriateness, Falstaff's apostrophe to his 
 famous swash-buckler: "Thou art the Knight of the Burn- 
 ing Lamp." But as all were more or less sun-painted — com- 
 plexion veils being out of the question — there was little 
 comparison of hues. Like ladies at a ball or an opera, we 
 by common consent tabooed the subject. At seven in the 
 evening our destination was reached, and, as the French 
 raftsmen whose assistance was required for the next 
 rapids would not run them on Sunday, we spent that day 
 in the village. At five next morning we found the raft 
 fairly alive with men. There were ten drams, and each 
 dram took about seventeen additional hands and a pilot 
 to work through, at a cost of about $2.50 per man, and 
 $6.00 to the pilot. According as the drams were unfast- 
 ened they moved off, the big sweeps making not unpleas- 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 189 
 
 ant music as they struck the water in steady unison. 
 The bell of the village church rang out a parting blessing. 
 The men crossed themselves and knelt for a few moments 
 to pray for a safe journey ; and the women and children 
 on shore waived adieux to their fathers, husbands, broth- 
 ers, and lovers — for certainly it seemed that we had 
 carried away the entire male population of the pleasantly 
 situated but exceedingly quiet village. The Coteau and 
 the Cedars (about nine miles apart) were taken at the 
 rate of twelve miles an hour, with the loss of a few sticks 
 of timber, which were driven out of the bottom of the 
 dram as it bounded over a huge boulder, and plunged its 
 bow too deep into the water. One unlucky dram im- 
 mediately behind us, had entered the rapid sideways, and 
 being caught in an eddy, whirled and twirled its huge 
 length around until its helpless gyrations almost dizzied 
 those who watched it. Tired with its plaything, the 
 current at last shot it high and dry on shore at a safe 
 but puzzling spot, where its crew had to work at the un- 
 satisfactory task of re-rafting. Five miles further on, the 
 Cascades were encountered, with the well-known Split 
 Rock guarding the entrance like a granite Cerberus. The 
 dangers of the rapids are lost sight of by a tourist on a 
 steamboat ; to appreciate them one must, as it were, 
 mingle in the fray, feel on his cheek the foam cast up by 
 the seethino: waters around him, have his ears filled with 
 their din, and his eyes startled by the rock apparitions 
 which emerge and disappear in an instant, like porpoises 
 at play. The He des Cascades lies a short distance from 
 the Pointe des Cascades and, with two or three other 
 smaller islands, breaks the current of the river at its en- 
 
190 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 trance into Lake St. Louis. Here the drams shoot into 
 the whirl of waters produced by a sudden declivity in 
 the river, whose bed is obstructed by rocks in some 
 places, and scooped into cavities in others. The bow 
 oarsmen receive the first shower-bath with resolution, 
 but on the approach of a dense mass of upreared water, 
 rush to the middle of the dram to avoid the onset. Too 
 late ! they are knocked down like ten-pins, and left 
 (luckily for them) sprawling in all directions on the 
 sticks of timber, to which they cling with the tenacity 
 of barnacles. Though rocking like a cradle our good 
 ship rises and plunges forward with desperate energy 
 and equal strength, and gains headway again in the cur- 
 rent. A feeling of awe comes over one, gazing thus upon 
 the contest. The descending waters are precipitated 
 with great velocity between the islands, repelled with 
 seemingly an equal force by the rocks and hollows under- 
 neath, then thrown up in spherical figures high above the 
 surface, and driven back once more upon the current. 
 Through this tempest the pilot guides his unwieldy 
 charge, skimming shoals which seemingly block all en- 
 trance, and, by a skilful and swift turn, grazing reefs 
 which are apparently unavoidable at our headlong speed. 
 Once more we are through in safety, and in Lake St. 
 Louis have a little leisure tothink of absent friends. Soon 
 they come along one after another, but "not the six 
 hundred ;" instead of nine, only seven put in an appear- 
 ance, and we hear with selfish complacency that one is 
 aground and the other " absent without leave," no one 
 knows why. But as the rule is every one for himself, we 
 proceed on our way towards Nun's Island, having first 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 191 
 
 disembarked the Coteau oarsmen. A steam-tug awaited 
 our arrival at the foot of the rapids and took us in tow. 
 While going through the lake we learned that the Beau- 
 harnois canal, 11 J miles long, built to avoid these three 
 rapids, has a rise of lockage of 82| feet. Six o'clock in 
 the evening found us at anchor near Chateauguay. 
 
 The last rapid was to be run on the morrow, and, the 
 night being before us, a little relaxation was indulged in. 
 Visitors from the shore came aboard in canoes, and we 
 were soon on speaking terms with the civilized descend- 
 ants of the Caughnawaga Indians. Theirs was not a 
 visit of ceremony ; they meant business. The Lachine 
 could not be run without their assistance. The foreman 
 of the raft gave audience to the most Indian-looking of 
 the visitors, and after a brief pow-wow, we learned that 
 a selection of pilots and oarsmen had been made. Each 
 pilot has his gang of men who accompany him on every 
 voyage down, and by arrangement with him their ser- 
 vices are secured. The wages given are S2J per man, $8 
 or $10 apiece to the pilot and sub-pilots. These wages 
 are earned only when the drams are moored in safety at 
 Montreal ; when a dram is wrecked no one gets paid ; 
 when put on a shoal, the crew work away until it is 
 taken off, no matter how many days, and receive no fur- 
 ther pay than if the usual time were consumed. So "no 
 success, no pay " is the rule of the river adopted to secure 
 due precaution and skill in pilotage. There is no hig- 
 gling over wages. Custom has laid down a tariff, and 
 none expect more or will take less than the usual fees. 
 In a very short time, therefore, everything is arranged, 
 and the Indians depart as silently as they came, with 
 
192 DOWN THE ST. L.\ WHENCE ON A RAFT. 
 
 strict orders to be on board at three o'clock next morn- 
 ing. The raftsmen huddle together in the shanties, the 
 fires are stirred up, and cards, dancing, jokes, stories, and 
 songs find their place in the programme of the night. 
 The tourists are told that the most dangerous rapid, the 
 Lachine, has yet to be run, and are plied with tales of 
 hair-breadth escapes from drowning; of drams that had 
 broken from their mooring at night in a gale, and had 
 shot the rapids without pilotage ; of drams that had struck 
 rocks in such a manner as to cause the sticks of timber 
 to bounce up high in the air ; of drams that had 
 been sucked into eddies and had bathed their crews in 
 six or seven feet of water ; of drams that had gone to 
 pieces, and whose unleashed logs had jammed and pounded 
 every one on board into unrecognizable pulp — in fact all 
 the rafting horrors of years are renewed for the especial 
 benefit of the laymen whose fortune it is to be present 
 at the night's recital. But no terror was equal to the 
 ridicule which would have been ours had we gone ashore 
 on the eve of the event which was to cap the climax of 
 the voyage ; or to the contempt which would have ren- 
 dered our names immortallj^ luminous in raftsman's story 
 had we yielded to the promptings of an unbiassed discre- 
 tion ; so, looking as cheerful as possible, we stowed away 
 a more than liberal allowance of hard-tack, potatoes and 
 tea, and contributed a fair share of the heroic to the 
 night's entertainment. Martyrs to rashness, we could 
 not help endeavouring to recall the particulars of our 
 life policies, so spent a moment or two in wondering 
 whether the suicide clause applied to rapids. But the 
 1st Clown in Hamlet, act V., sc. 1, reassured us : " If the 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 198 
 
 man go to this water and drown himself, it is will-he, 
 nill-he, he goes ; mark you that ? but if the water come 
 to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself : Argal, 
 he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his 
 own life." This train of thought was consoling, and to 
 the surprise of many, one of us without invitation or 
 pressure announced himself as a volunteer songster. His 
 song was " The night before Larry was stretched." It 
 was too lugubrious, so another broke in with — 
 
 '' Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, 
 
 Mironton, mironton, mirontaine ; 
 Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, 
 Ne salt quand reviendra." 
 
 This was too suggestive; but the unexpected display 
 of temerity, as may be supposed, raised the tone of the 
 meeting, and a refrain, thrilling, though scarcely intellig- 
 ible, followed : — 
 
 *' C'etait un vieux sauvage, 
 Tout noir, tout barbouille, 
 Quick' ka ! 
 
 Avec sa vieille couverte, 
 Et son sac k tabac, 
 Quick' ka ! 
 
 Ah ! ah ! tenaouich' tenaga 
 Tenaouich' tenaga, ouick' ka ! " 
 
 The neighbourhood being full of legend, it was to be 
 expected that a little prompting would draw out some 
 story-teller. An attempt was only too successful. Jean 
 Baptiste (it is as thick here as Jones or Brown elsewhere) 
 remembered, at great length, that his grandfather had 
 rescued from the Lachine a young Indian warrior and an 
 
 M 
 
194 DOWN THE ST. LAWEENCE ON A KAFT. 
 
 Indian maid, the course of whose love had been as ob- 
 structed as the channel through the rapid. The lovers 
 had walked into the river, one frosty morning, hand in 
 hand, intending to drown in each others' arms, but the 
 aforesaid grandfather being lynx-eyed and an early riser, 
 discovered them before they had got far into the stream, 
 and brought them out by raising his gun to his shoulder, 
 and threatening to riddle them with buck-shot. They re- 
 turned sadly to the shore. The warrior shot himself next 
 day, but the maiden, grieved to the heart at his folly, 
 lived on for many years which she improved by becom- 
 ing an expert hand at a raft oar, and earning large wages 
 in the rapid. The romance has never been done into 
 verse, so ballad writers may, with impunity, make use of 
 the melancholy particulars. What confirms one's belief 
 in the truthfulness of the story is the fact that a few 
 years ago, when men were scarce hereabouts, women's 
 rights so far as work was concerned being recognized, 
 squaws were hired to assist at the oars, two of them 
 being considered equal to one man. The love story had 
 the effect of turning the channel of song from the heroic 
 to the sentimental, and the young man Henri trolled out 
 
 lustily: 
 
 " Vive la Canadienne, 
 
 Vole, mon coeur vole, 
 Vive la Canadienne, 
 
 Et ses jolis yeux doux, 
 Et ses jolis yeux doux, tous doux, 
 
 Et ses jolis yeux doux. 
 
 *' Nous la menons anx noces, 
 
 Vole, mon coeur vole, 
 Nous la menons aux noces, 
 
 Dans tous ses beaux atours." 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 195 
 
 This was too much for the cook, who declared that if 
 the entertainment was to last all night, supper might be 
 indulged in with recklessness. His remarks were loudly 
 cheered, and by way of response he brought in supper in 
 his arms, that is to saj^, he dived into the hard-tack bar- 
 rel, and cast upon the table large supplies of biscuit rigid 
 enough to make any teeth, save those of a raftsman, 
 water. False teeth would never serve a useful purpose 
 on a raft. But hard-tack goes very fairly, if well-soaked, 
 and the eater has in its favour the prejudice acquired by 
 long abstinence from anything else. It economises time 
 also, which is of some importance on board a raft, as it 
 obviates the conventional objection to a person going 
 about with his meals in his pocket. By way of dessert 
 the cook treated us to some raspberries and raw onions, 
 which he had received from a squaw the day before, in 
 exchange for grease. After this prosaic interruption ot 
 the feast of reason, which had characterized the night, it 
 was deemed best for all to go to sleep. Ten minutes 
 after the advice had been given all hands were snoring. 
 At three in the morning the Indians came on board, ac- 
 cording to orders, and by six everything had been got 
 ready, and the drams cleared for the run. Twentj^-six 
 men rowed on each. The sun was shining out gloriously ; 
 not a breath of wind stirred the surface of the river. The 
 oars swung in their holders with a uniform thud. The 
 men pulled, of course, standing up, and as they were on 
 the lowest tier or bottom of the dram, they moved con- 
 stantly in five or six inches of water. However, damp 
 feet are not a cause of anxiety to a raftsman. Between 
 Lachine and Caughnawaga the breadth of the St. Law- 
 
196 DOWN THE ST. LAWKENCE ON A EAFT. 
 
 rence narrows to about half a mile. A.s we pass the 
 churches on either shore, the men drop on their knees 
 and say their prayers — some for a moment or two, others 
 for a longer time. There is little or no noise save the 
 splash of oars, and there is much less profanity than is 
 usually heard. " Don't swear till we get through the 
 Lachine," says one rebukingly to an irate companion. 
 The roar of the rapid is now heard. The pace is getting 
 faster and faster every instant. The drams stretch out 
 in line of battle, and the pilot's voice is more frequently 
 heard shouting his orders : " En haut," meaning row 
 away at the bow ; " a derriere," at the stern. Now, the 
 bow oars are alone at work; now, the men at the stern 
 make their oars bend with a will ; now all, at bow, stern 
 and sides, pull with their utmost strength. Everything 
 depends on how and where we enter the rapids, and as 
 the pilot mops his brow with his red handkerchief, we 
 know that the time has come for all his presence of mind, 
 all his skill. A few feet to the wrong side may suffice to 
 cause him the loss of his pay, and ourselves the loss of 
 our lives. From Caughnawaga to the low^er extremity 
 of the rapid, a distance of nearly four miles, there is a 
 gradual shelving descent of the rocky bed of the river. 
 The stream in ])assing down acquires an irresistible im- 
 petus, and towards the lower part runs with a velocity of 
 eighteen miles an hour, until it is separated by some 
 islands below into several channels. Into this ravine we 
 glide with tremendous rapid it}', and take the first pitch 
 like a cork, all hands seeking a dry spot in the middle of 
 the dram, until a heavy wave strikes and passes over. 
 Straight onward the dram speeds, the men giving their 
 
DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A RAFT. 197 
 
 whole strength to their oars to keep it in the proper 
 course. Now a corner is to be turned, and the violence 
 of the waters is such that the men in the bow can with 
 difficulty retain their places. There is a very Babel of 
 voices. The pilot, notwithstanding his Indian blood, 
 springs to and fro on the timber, and shouts excitedly to 
 the men in a mixture of Indian and French, and the 
 sturdy fellows yell encouragement to each other, with 
 savage appreciation of the danger. Wave after wave 
 gathers itself in a mass and tumbles on us as if seeking 
 to conquer by sheer weight of water ; wave after wave 
 dashes itself to fragments against our sturdy side. The 
 shanty leaps into the air ; over goes the stove ; down 
 come the stove-pipes ; the withes can almost be heard 
 to shriek with the agony of extreme tension, and the 
 sticks of timber move restlessly in their faithful clutch. 
 The excitement culminates in a roar of triumph, as the 
 drams swing round the point of danger and cleave the 
 waves with a hissing sound which tells how fearful is the 
 speed. The men again leap to their oars. In a moment 
 or two we have passed through a stretch of comparative 
 calm ; shot over a rocky ledge on the crests of billows so 
 much engaged in smashing each other as to be careless of 
 the use to which they were put by us ; and gone head- 
 long down the third pitch. The dram emerges splutter- 
 ing, and shakes its high sides like a Newfoundland dog. 
 The men are again at their posts, dripping but joyful, and 
 the pilot stands quietly mopping huge patches of perspir- 
 ation from his face. " A pretty rough passage, pilot," one 
 ventures to observe. " The best I have had, Sir ; you 
 brought luck with you." The Victoria Bridge was now 
 
198 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE ON A EAFT. 
 
 in sight, and after passing underneath one of its spans, 
 we were, about two o'clock, brought to anchor near Mon- 
 treal. Some of the drams which came out of the rapid 
 too far to the south, found themselves carried by the cur- 
 rent on shoals, where they were forced to lie until towed 
 off by steamboats. A good many sticks of timber were 
 floating about, which men in canoes rescued and delivered 
 up on payment of fifty cents a stick for salvage. These 
 men are called " Le gang quarante," or the Forty Thieves, 
 as their honesty in returning lost timber is question- 
 able. Next day the raft started for Quebec in charge of 
 a steam-tug. As the three days' voyage down was some- 
 what monotonous, and as the reader is by this time fami- 
 liar with, if not tired of, life on a raft, it will suffice to 
 add that for generosity, profanity, recklessness, industry, 
 kindness, courage, endurance and simple mindedness, 
 mingled in an olla podrida of manhood, no class will com- 
 pare with the stalwart, swarthy fellows who annually 
 take our timber to the sea. 
 
THE LATE ADAM CLAEKE TY.XER 
 
 [Mr. Foster in the Daily Telegraph.] 
 
 E have a duty to perform, as well to the dead 
 as to the living, and we halt, even amid 
 the excitement and agitation of a crisis of 
 affairs, to lay our chaplet on the bier of one 
 who, gifted beyond his fellows, won an envi- 
 able place in public esteem. The announcement 
 made yesterday that Adam Clarke Tyner had 
 yielded up his young life brought a pang to many a heart 
 and, though the event was not unexpected, the shock was 
 none the less painful. We scarcely know how to dis- 
 charge our duty aright. His name, wherever spoken, 
 carries with it its own eulogy, for none knew him who 
 did not yield a willing homage to his ability, none en- 
 joyed his friendship who did not cherish it as a boon, 
 precious and pure. 
 
 No panegyric of ours can add to the memory of our 
 departed friend and associate. But his genial presence, 
 his flashing wit, his goodness of heart, his lavish gene- 
 rosity, his tenderness, his modesty, all come back to us 
 with a vividness of recollection that shows only too clearly 
 the magnitude of our loss, and makes us painfully consci- 
 ous how strong was his hold on our affection. The feli- 
 cities of his life renew themselves in all their exquisite 
 
200 THE LATE ADAM CLARKE TTNER. 
 
 minuteness, and we hesitate to give voice to the many 
 thoughts that seek expression in the language of friend- 
 ship. Few were so gifted as he who has passed from our 
 midst, few had a brighter future, and none bore well-won 
 honours with more meekness. Pretence was foreign to 
 his nature ; his heart was too large for meanness. Many 
 of our readers will recollect his reading of the "May 
 Queen," and as they pay the last sad tribute to departed 
 worth, they can easily recall his pathetic tones, telling of 
 one who had gone — 
 
 ** Where the wicked cease from troubling. 
 And the weary are at rest." 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 TRIBUTES CALLED FORTH BY ME. FOSTER'S 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 THE LATE WILLIAM ALEXANDER FOSTER, Q.C 
 
 BY MR. G. MERCER ADAM, TORONTO. 
 [From The Week, Nov. 8th, 1888.] 
 
 HERE are few heroes in our Pantheon," is an 
 observation made by the subject of this brief 
 sketch, in his ringing, national address on 
 " Canada First," delivered now almost twenty 
 L's ago. " Where every man does his duty," 
 adds Mr. Foster, " heroes are not wanted and are 
 not missed." At the grave of one who eminently though 
 unostentatiously did his duty, and who in doing it so well 
 sadly shortened his active, useful life, these wise, sane 
 words, if recalled at all, must have come home with im- 
 pressive force to the hearts of all who knew him who 
 uttered them. The age is too commonplace and the pur- 
 suits of the time are too unromantic for heroes. Yet if we 
 cannot call him a hero who honestly and earnestly does 
 his duty and lives a true, honourable and unselfish life, 
 
202 THE LATE WILLIAM ALEXANDER FOSTER, Q.C. 
 
 the few, at least, to whom such a one is known feel how 
 allied well-performed duty is to heroism, and how great is 
 the wrench when they have to part with one whose brief 
 life was distinguished by those qualities. The memory 
 preserved in the public heart of the best that ever lived, 
 we know, is comparatively short ; but short as it is, it can- 
 not with truth be said that a good and useful life counts 
 for little, or that, by its contemporaries at least, such a life 
 will not be missed. After one is gone, the perspective of 
 the passing years is often cruel to individual memory. 
 That the memory of Mr. Foster, with the recollection of 
 his fine professional career and high personal qualities, 
 will be kept longer green than is the meed of thousands, 
 we do not say. But this we say, that before the influence 
 and impress of his character have faded, and before regard 
 for him as a friend has died out from the hearts of those 
 who knew and loved him. Time will have taken hence most 
 of those who were his contemporaries. 
 
 It would be foolish to claim for Mr. Foster a position 
 far above the average of his fellows. As a professional 
 man he had many and uncommon gifts. He was shrewd 
 and clear-sighted in counsel and apt and skilful in the 
 management of cases in court. He was moreover, an in- 
 defatigable, though not always a ready, worker. He was 
 painstaking in all that he undertook, straightforward in 
 his dealings, courteous to all with whom he came in con- 
 tact, and possessed a largeness of soul and a geniality of 
 disposition that endeared him to thousands. That he spared 
 himself in nothing, his devotion to business, and the 
 strain he suffered himself to endure before his weakened 
 frame and shattered nervous system broke under the load, 
 sufficiently attest. 
 
THE LATK WILLIAM ALEXANDER FOSTER, Q.C. 203 
 
 It was in his early days, however, and as an aspirant 
 for literary and political, rather than for legal and foren- 
 sic fame, that the writer of this knew him best. When 
 we first met, he had graduated at his Alma Mater, and, 
 like many of his young associates, not a few of whom, 
 alas ! have preceded him to the tomb, he had qualified 
 himself to follow law as a profession. Notwithstanding 
 this fact we found him much drawn to literature, for the 
 pursuit of which he had marked gifts, and, like some of 
 his colleg econtemporaries, had a strong mental bias. Pol- 
 itically, the times were favourable for a young man of 
 ardent temperament as well as of acknowledged ability 
 .to make his mark in literature. Compelled to seek a way 
 out of the party deadlock of the time, the country had 
 iust committed itself to the experiment of Confederation. 
 A new and higher national life opened before the people. 
 Many of the political leaders were journalistic athletes, 
 and some of them at least — like Cartier, Howe and Mc- 
 Gee — were in sympathy with literature. Under the in- 
 infiuence of these — especially of the ill-fated McGee — 
 literary enterprise, for a time at any rate, felt the glow of 
 national inspiration and the quickening of a new birth. 
 Of those to feel the eff'ect of the new awakening, young 
 Foster, as the most fervent, was the first. Besides his 
 overflowing patriotism, he had added to his natural gifts 
 facility in literary composition^ and had already publish- 
 ed an article in the London Westminster on " Canadian 
 Nationality." This he followed by his lecture on " Canada 
 First," an eloquent and inspiring resumd of Canadian 
 achievement. Others catching his enthusiasm, " Canada 
 First" soon became a rallying cry to the youth of the bud- 
 
204 THE LATE WILLIAM ALEXANDER FOSTER, Q.C. 
 
 ding nation, and the next step was the organization of a 
 party with the rousing watchword on its banners. Space 
 here forbids us from following the fortunes of this nation- 
 alist party. Its vicissitudes, however, are well known ; 
 and though it accomplished little in practical politics — 
 partly because of journalistic and party jealousy, and part- 
 ly because the people had had enough of the political ail- 
 ments of the time — it awakened youthful desire for intel- 
 lectual freedom and for an increased measure of political 
 independence. In this good work it was fortunate in 
 winning the advocacy of an able and brilliant pen, till 
 then new to the country, which, heedless of abuse and ob- 
 loquy, was trenchantly wielded in the cause which the 
 young patriots had at heart. With amazing public in- 
 gratitude and inconsistency this writer, forgetful of what 
 he has all along done for the best interests of Canada, is 
 to-day called disloyal, and accused of burrowing beneath 
 the feet of the nation. The trouble with this charge is 
 that the nation is still but a colony and has never yet got 
 upon its feet. Not the least of the valuable results of the 
 " Canada First " movement were the founding and the 
 maintenance for a while, of The Nation and The Gana- 
 dian Monthly, and the erection in Toronto of the Nation- 
 al Club. 
 
 But the movement into which Mr. Foster and his friends 
 enthusiastically threw themselves was, as we know, 
 short-lived. Canadian patriotism was fatally handicapped 
 by Party, and Party neither looked then, nor does it look 
 now, to higher ends than its own ignoble interests. Since 
 that period, the fibre of Canadian nationality has, we fear 
 relaxed instead of hardened, and the aspirations born of 
 
THE LATE WILLIAM ALEXANDER FOSTER, Q.C. 205 
 
 the time have, in the main, vanished into thin air. For 
 this Mr. Foster was in no way responsible, for, with the 
 ardour and persistence of youth, he clung to the move- 
 ment until he and his allies were accused of tilting at 
 windmills and of ''dreaming dreams." Though loth to accept 
 discomfiture, Mr. Foster could not fail, however, to realize 
 facts, and he now turned aside to take up his profession* 
 In law he found, if not the pursuit on which his heart was 
 set, that which pecuniarily was more to his interest. With 
 the exception of occasional contributions to journalism, 
 literature he now and forever forsook. In this, from a 
 worldly point of view, he no doubt did wisely ; though 
 had he followed letters as a means of livelihood and prac- 
 tised it where it is recognized and rewarded as a profes- 
 sion, he would have won, we feel sure, both fortune and 
 fame. To these allurements, and to everything earthly, 
 his eyes and ears, alas ! are now dull. The familiar figure 
 of our friend is to us now but a memory. It is a memory, 
 however, that we would fain cherish, for, as with all who 
 knew his worth, we esteemed him and gave him our 
 heart. At his grave, where his remains were paid the 
 honours due to a beloved friend, his fellow-townsmen took 
 leave not only of a good citizen but of a true patriot. 
 
206 MR. Foster's career reviewed. 
 
 MR. FOSTER'S CAREER REVIEWED. 
 
 BY MR. HENRY J. MORGAN, OTTAWA. 
 
 [From the Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 6th, 1888.] 
 
 Another professional man has fallen a victim to over- 
 work, in the person of the eminent barrister whose name 
 heads this article, and whose sudden death towards the 
 close of last week, before he had reached his 49th year, 
 has occasioned more than ordinary regret throughout the 
 Province. As solicitor to the liquidators in the settle- 
 ment of the affairs of the unfortunate Central Bank, the 
 late Mr. Foster had for some considerable time devoted 
 himself with extraordinary zeal and uncommon ability 
 to the disentangling of the financial labyrinth before him. 
 It was truly a herculean task, the performance of which 
 taxed the physical and mental energies of the lamented 
 gentleman to the very utmost. It is stated that he gave 
 not only his days but his nights also to the exacting and 
 fatiguing labour, taking no rest or recreation, — all this 
 continuing day after day and month after month for up- 
 wards of a year. No one of ordinary fibre could long 
 endure so severe a strain, and, as could easily have been 
 foreseen, Mr. Foster s physical powers at length gave way. 
 But he still continued at his post, and it was only when 
 overborne by disease — the result of a cold contracted in 
 the execution of his duties — that he resigned into other 
 hands the task he had hoped himself to achieve. Rarely 
 have we been called upon to chronicle a display of devo- 
 tion so entirely unselfish at the shrine of duty. The sud- 
 
MR. FOSTER'S CAREER REVIEWED. 207 
 
 den and untimely removal of one of Mr. Foster's promi- 
 nence and usefulness, both as a professional man and a 
 private citizen, and the causes which have contributed 
 to that unfortunate event, inculcate a lesson w4iich our 
 professional and public men would do well to ponder and 
 take to heart. There is too much work and too little 
 play in this restless and pushing generation. The late 
 Mr. Foster, in addition to a distinguished place at the 
 Bar, had won a high position as a literary man. While 
 yet a student at the University of Toronto (of whose 
 Senate he in after years became a member), he, together 
 with the late Thomas Moss, subsequently Chief Justice 
 of Ontario, W. J. Rattray, author of the Scot in Canada, 
 and others, contributed largely to a humorous weekly 
 called the Grumbler, published in Toronto by Erastus 
 Wiman, the now famous capitalist of New York. At a 
 later period he was a contributor to the editorial columns 
 of the Toronto Leader, the Hamilton Spectator and the 
 Toronto Telegraph. He was also for a considerable 
 period chief editor of the Monetary Times. When the 
 project for a Confederation of the B. N. A. Provinces 
 came before the people, Mr. Foster wrote an exceedingly 
 able paper on the subject for the Westminster Review, 
 and subsequently, contributed a second article on " Con- 
 federation and Reciprocity " to the same periodical. In 
 both articles he warmly supported the scheme of union, 
 as submitted to Parliament by Sir John Macdonald. He 
 also favoured a renewal of the old Reciprocity Treaty, 
 negotiated by Lord Elgin. Other contributions from his 
 pen on Canadian affairs appeared in the London Spec- 
 tator, the London Athen^um and the London Times, 
 and for some years he was the Canadian correspondent 
 
208 MR. Foster's career reviewed. 
 
 of the latter paper. If we mistake not, he also wrote 
 occasionally for The Nation and the Canadian Month- 
 ly. His contributions to periodical and newspaper 
 literature covered a wide range of subjects, chiefly, how- 
 ever, relatino- to domestic politics and questions of Im- 
 perial Colonial policy. Like Thomas D'Arcy McGee and 
 other great minds, he was a sincere believer in the future 
 destiny of Canada as a distinct nationality, and lost no 
 opportunity of preaching this doctrine in season and out 
 of season. This belief — it might almost be called a religion 
 with him — found notable and eloquent utterance in his 
 well-known essay entitled " Canada First ; or, a New 
 Nationality," which was published in pamphlet form 
 shortly after the Red River insurrection of 1869, a work 
 much admired by the young Ontarians of the day for its 
 lofty tone and patriotic sentiment. The publication of 
 this essay led to the formation of what was known as the 
 " Canada First " party, of which Mr. Foster was the 
 acknowledged leader, and among whose members were 
 many young Canadians who have since attained distinc- 
 tion in their walks of life, William H. Rowland, late 
 Mayor of Toronto ; George T. Denison, now Police Magis- 
 trate of Toronto ; Joseph Easton Macdougall, now Judge 
 of York ; Charles Mair, the author of " Tecumseh ; " John 
 Schultz, now Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba ; Robert 
 Grant Haliburton, the scientist and litterateur ; Fred- 
 erick C. Denison, C.M.G., now M. P. for West Toronto ; 
 William B. McMurrich, late Mayor of Toronto ; James H. 
 Morris, Q. C, and Hugh Scott, insurance agent, being of 
 the number. The party controlled one or two organs of 
 public opinion and erected a club house — the National — 
 which became the rallying-place of " Canada First" ad- 
 
MR. Foster's career reviewed. 209 
 
 herents and disciples living in and visiting the Ontario 
 capital. " Canada First," however, ceased to exist, as a 
 separate organization, with the birth of the National 
 Policy in 1 878 — a policy which, as our readers all know, 
 became the main plank in the political platform of the 
 party of Union and Progress (now the Liberal Conserva- 
 tive party), under the leadership of Sir John Macdonald 
 and which policy carried the Conservatives to victory at 
 the polls on the 17th of September of the year above 
 mentioned. From that time Mr. Foster devoted himself 
 almost exclusively to his law business, and some years 
 since obtained a silk gown from the present Government 
 in recognition of his legal talent. Had he been spared 
 to his country a few years longer, we think there cannot 
 be any doubt of his succeeding to higher rewards in a 
 profession of which he was for many years so distin- 
 guished an ornament. It must, despite his untimely 
 demise, be a great consolation to Mr. Foster's family 
 and friends to reflect that he died nobly in the discharge 
 of duty. Many of the world's greatest workers and best 
 men have thus died in harness, and have even wished 
 that it might be so. " Much better to die doing," was a 
 favourite saying with Charles Dickens. Mr. Foster was 
 emphatically a man of the militant type, in the best sense 
 of that qualification, a soldier of what he conceived to be 
 the Risrht. It is rarelv indeed that we can look back on 
 a record so symmetrical in all its relations — so flawless 
 and unimpeachable. " Well done good and faithful ser- 
 vant," will, we feel sure, be the sentence uttered to this 
 valiant soldier of duty by the great Captain and Lord of 
 Hosts when He shall call the rolls at the Last Day. 
 
210 IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM A. FOSTER. 
 
 IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM A. FOSTER 
 
 By Mr. Charles Mair, Prince Albert, N.W.T. 
 
 [From The Week, February 1st, 1889.] 
 
 And he is gone, who led the few 
 
 Forecasters of a nation fair ; 
 That gentle spirit, strong and true, 
 
 As ever breathed Canadian air! 
 
 Forever fled ! the kindly face, 
 
 The eager look, the lambent eye, 
 Still haunted by a boyish grace — 
 
 Can these from recollection fly 1 
 
 The counsel sound, the judgment clear, 
 
 The mild thought brooding over all, 
 The ready smile, the ready tear — 
 
 Can these from recollection fall ? 
 
 Ah ! well do I remember still 
 
 The sultry day whose sun had set ; 
 The hostel near the tower-crowned hill,* 
 
 The parlour dim where first we met ; 
 
 The quickened hope, the joy div^ine. 
 
 On that pale eve of loftier times, t 
 When, with his friendly hand in mine. 
 
 He praised my poor Canadian rhymes ; 
 
 And sung the old Canadian songs, § 
 
 And played the old Canadian airs. 
 Then turned his smile on fancied wrongs, 
 
 And laughed away a youth's despairs ; 
 
 * Parliaiinent Hill, + Confederation. + Mr. Foster was fond of French- 
 Canadian song ; its vivacity and plaintiveness equally touched him. 
 
IN MEMORV OF WILLIAM A. FOSTER. 211 
 
 And said : " Throw sickly thoughts aside — 
 
 Let's build on native iields our fame ; 
 Nor seek to blend our patriot pride 
 
 With alien worth, or alien shame ! 
 
 " Nor trust the falterers who despond — 
 
 The doubting spirits which divine 
 No stable future save beyond 
 
 Their long, imaginary line ! 
 
 " But mark, by fate's strong finger traced 
 
 Our country's rise ; see time unfold, 
 In our own land, a nation based 
 
 On manly deeds, not lust for gold. 
 
 " Its bourne, the home of generous life, 
 
 Of ample freedom, slowly won. 
 Of modest maid and faithful wife. 
 
 Of simple love 'twixt sire and son. 
 
 " Nor lessened would the duty be 
 
 To rally, then, around the throne ; 
 A filial nation, strong and free — 
 
 Great Britain's child to manhood grown ! 
 
 " But lift the curtain which deceives, 
 
 The veil that intercepts the sight, 
 The drapery dependence weaves 
 
 To screen us from the nobler light. 
 
 " First feel throughout the throbbing land 
 
 A nation's pulse, a nation's pride ; 
 The independent life — then stand 
 
 Erect, unbound, at Britain's side ! " 
 
 And many a year has fled and now 
 
 The tongue which voiced the thought is stilled ; 
 
 The veil yet hangs o'er many a brow, 
 The glorious dream is unfulfilled. 
 
212 TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 
 
 Yet ocean unto ocean cries ! 
 
 For us their mighty tides go forth. 
 We front the sun, behind us lies 
 
 The mystery of the unconquered North ! 
 
 And ardent Aspiration peers 
 
 Beyond the clouds, beyond the night, 
 
 Beyond the faltering, paltering years. 
 And there beholds the breaking light ! 
 
 For though the thoughtful mind has passed 
 From mortal ken, the generous hand — 
 
 The seed they sowed has sprung at last, 
 And grows and blossoms through the land. 
 
 And time will realise the dream. 
 
 The light yet spread o'er land and wave ; 
 
 And Honour, in that hour supreme, 
 
 Will hang his wreath o'er Foster's grave. 
 
 TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 
 
 The Mail (Nov. 2, 1888). 
 
 It will be learned with profound regret that Mr. W. 
 A. Foster, the widely known lawyer, is dead. * * * 
 
 Early in life he manifested a fancy for literary pur- 
 suits, and the gifts which promised for him an entirely 
 successful career There is little doubt that had he 
 adopted literature exclusively he would have made as 
 high a reputation for himself as he enjoyed in the legal 
 profession. * * * 
 
TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 218 
 
 Those who knew Mr. Foster personally, and were 
 therefore acquainted with his many good qualities and 
 virtues, will feel sincerely sorry to hear of his death. 
 Those who knew him only by reputation will recognize 
 the fact that an exceedingly able man had passed away. 
 He was entirely devoted to his profession, and followed 
 it with even too great an ardour. The interests of his 
 clients were ever sacred to him, and his duties to men 
 were always fully and faithfully performed. 
 
 The Mail (Nov. 5th, 1888). 
 
 Around a newly excavated grave in the Necropolis 
 there gathered on Saturday a sorrowful circle of 
 Toronto's most worthy citizens, to commit to their last rest- 
 ing-place the mortal remains of one who was almost uni- 
 versally loved and respected. As the sound of falling 
 sand indicated that Wm. A. Foster was being entombed 
 in the bosom of Mother Earth, many eyes wet with tears 
 told how hard had been the severance of mutual ties of 
 friendship. The funeral of the late Mr. Foster was espe- 
 cially solemn and impressive. To many he had been 
 endeared by his amiable and unpretentious life. To 
 others his self-sacrificing devotion to duty had been a 
 source of respect and admiration. To all with whom he 
 came in contact he was a friend. Among those who 
 attended the last services were leading jurists of Ontario, 
 distinguished members of the bar, clergymen of several 
 denominations, and business men of high standing. The 
 gathering was alike a tribute of respect for the deceased 
 and an expression of sympathy for the bereaved family 
 
214 TRIBUTES FROM THE TOI ONTO PRFSS. 
 
 The time appointed for the iuneral was three o'clock. 
 As the hour approached, the friends of the deceased, 
 began to assemble to pay the last tribute of respect to 
 his memory. The house could not contain them, and one 
 by one, after a last look at the calm features of the de- 
 ceased, they gathered in groups outside on the lawn and 
 discussed the deceased's merits and extolled his virtues. 
 Upon no other occasion could such a gathering of men, 
 leaders on the bench, at the bar, in literature, art, reli- 
 gion and science in this Dominion be brought together, 
 an expressive tribute to the sterling qualities of him 
 who lay so cold and still in an inner room. * * * * 
 
 The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Cover- 
 dale Watson, pastor of the Central Methodist Church, 
 assisted by the Rev. Drs. Dewart, Johnston, and Potts. 
 
 The pall-bearers were all intimate friends of the de- 
 ceased, some of them associates in the Canada First 
 movement. They were : The Hon. Mr. Justice Osier, 
 the Hon. Mr. Justice Falconbridge, Mr. Wm. H. Howland, 
 Lieut.-Col. Geo. T. Denison, Mr. C. W. Bunting, Mr. 
 Hugh Scott, Mr. Charles Moss, Q.C., and Mr. John Ross 
 Robertson. 
 
 The Globe (Nov. 2nd, 1888). 
 
 In his profession, Mr. Foster has long been regarded 
 as one of the most painstaking members of the Bar. He 
 was always thorough in preparing his case, taking home 
 his work and sitting up till long after midnight prepar- 
 ing his brief. In giving his opinion on any technical 
 point, he devoted such earnest thought to the subiect as 
 
TPJBUTES FIIOM THE TORONTO PRESS. 215 
 
 to secure from his brethren their entire confidence in his 
 decision. * * * 
 
 Mr. Foster was one of the brightest of the band of 
 clever and enthusia;^tic young men who conducted the 
 "Canada First" agitation between fifteen and twenty 
 years ago. * * * 
 
 In the early days of his legal career, Mr. Foster 
 gave considerable attention to newspaper and magazuie 
 writing, and in this department showed marked pro- 
 ficiency. * * * 
 
 The Empire (Nov. 3, 1888). 
 
 The news of the death of W. A. Foster, Q. C, was the 
 chief topic of conversation yesterday in all circles, and 
 never was more genuine regard expressed than was to be 
 heard on every hand. At Osgoode Hall, and in the law- 
 yers' ofiices especially, the great abilities and the many 
 good qualities of the deceased were the theme. * * * 
 Sorrow was depicted on the countenances of Judge Mc- 
 Dougall and the lawyers who attended the Count} Court 
 yesterday. They mourned the sudden taking off of their 
 worthy friend, W. A. Foster, Q. C, who died on Thursday 
 night. Judge McDougall spoke feelingly of the loss 
 which the profession had sustained in the death of Mr. 
 Foster, who had been a prominent and respected mem- 
 ber of the Bar, and a man who stood high in the estima- 
 tion of all who knew him. 
 
 The World (Nov. 2nd, 1888). 
 
 During the whole course of his legal practice he was 
 noted for his devotion to his profession, and to the in- 
 
216 TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 
 
 terests of his clients. At the time of his death he was one 
 of the most prominent counsel at the Ontario Bar. 
 
 While yet a student he developed a fine literary taste. 
 * * * He was the author of the article entitled 
 " Canada First," which gave that name a prominence and 
 influence lasting up to the present time. The deceased 
 gentleman was one of the founders and sole editor of the 
 Monetary Times during its early days. He might, had 
 he attended to it exclusively, have achieved as great a 
 success in literature as in law. * * * jj^^^ 
 
 genial disposition and great talents endeared him to all 
 who knew him either in his professional or social 
 capacity. * # * 
 
 He had a wonderful grasp of the facts of each case, and 
 in the course of his duties he subjected witnesses to some 
 of the keenest cross-examinations which have taken place 
 in Osgoode Hall. In his longer addresses to the court, 
 whether in stating the case of the bank or analysing and 
 replying to the speeches of counsel on the other side, he 
 occasionally rose to flights of forensic eloquence. But he 
 was a straight and fair hitter, and no blows were dealt 
 " below the belt." On the eve of the long vacation, Mas ■ 
 ter Hodgins paid a high tribute to the zeal, ability and 
 fair mindedness of the deceased counsel. The other counsel, 
 whose name is legion, applauded this sentiment and per- 
 sonally paid deserved encomiums to Mr. Foster. * * 
 In his lamented death the legal fraternity of Toronto is 
 bereft of one who was universally liked for his sterling 
 qualities of head and heart, who was a true friend, a genial 
 companion, and who sought to elevate his profession and 
 his numerous co-workers. 
 
TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 217 
 
 The World (Nov. 5, 1888). 
 
 Seldom of recent years has any citizen had such an 
 honored funeral as that of Mr. W. A. Foster, Q.C., on 
 Saturday afternoon. Universally respected by the citi- 
 zens generally, beloved by those who lament his sterling 
 worth, a man with " troops of friends " and never an 
 enem}^ all classes of society were present to pay their 
 tribute to his memory. The Bench, the Bar, the legal 
 societies, the ministers of all denominations. City Fathers, 
 distinguished professors, and a legion of friends and 
 neighbours took their last fond look of the well-known 
 features so calm in death. 
 
 Toronto Daily News (Nov. 2, 1888). 
 
 It is with deep regret that The News chronicles the 
 death of Mr. W. A. Foster, Q.C., as worthy a man and as 
 able a lawyer as it has been its good fortune to know. 
 Clever in bis profession, high in the esteem of those who 
 knew him, and loved and respected by all who were 
 acquainted with the high qualities of his mind, he leaves 
 a gap in professional and social ranks which will not 
 easily be filled. Perhaps the most amiable trait of his 
 generous character was his loyalty to Canada and things 
 Canadian, which was a principle with him, striven for, 
 warmly advocated and deeply revered. But being of a 
 retiring disposition, and indifi'erent to the honours or at- 
 tractions of being in the lead, he held himself aloof from 
 the wrangle of party politics, and only ventured into 
 
218 TPJBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 
 
 them when they bore upon the subject which he had 
 deeply at heart, Canadian nationality. * * * 
 
 The Telegram (Nov. 2, 1888). 
 
 "A GOOD CANADIAN GONE." 
 
 The untimely death of W. A. Foster, Q.C., is a loss to 
 the country, the city, and above all, to his bereaved friends 
 and family. 
 
 To his country, because he loved it. He was a Cana- 
 dian. With the eye of a patriot, he was among the first 
 to see the rock ahead of this Dominion. His voice and 
 pen warned his countrymen against those enemies of 
 national life — the strife of parties and the bitterness 
 between provinces that are still corroding the soul of 
 Canada. 
 
 Toronto loses in him one who was emphatically a good 
 citizen. A retiring disposition and the demands of his 
 profession kept Mr. Foster from prominently identifying 
 himself with movements calculated to advance its mater- 
 ial interests. In their success he ever had the keenest 
 interest, and many workers for the good of his native 
 city found in him a friend. 
 
 But the sorrow falls most heavily upon the hearts of 
 those who knew him best. To the many he was known 
 as an honest, able, fearless lawyer. To the few he was 
 the friend whose friendship changed not with the 3'ears. 
 They mourn for the modest, genial, kindly man who has 
 so soon gone home. And sympathy for the household in 
 mourning speaks in the sorrow of all who knew William 
 A. Foster. 
 
TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 219 
 
 The Christian Ouardian (Nov. Tth, 1888). 
 
 The sudden death of W. A. Foster, Q.C, the well-known 
 barrister and literary writer of this city, caused deep 
 sorrow to a wide circle of strongly attached friends. * * 
 
 Mr. Foster was a man of remarkable gifts as a writer 
 and thinker. Had not his time been occupied with 
 professional work he might have won distinction in 
 literature. He was an amiable friend, and an affection- 
 ate husband and father. He leaves a sorrowing wife 
 and two children to mourn his unexpected death. His 
 funeral was largely attended by the clergy, and the bench 
 and bar of the city. Mrs. Foster and the bereaved family 
 have our deep sympathy in their great sorrow. 
 
 Monetary Times (Nov. 2, 188S). 
 
 A valuable life ended last night, when William A. Fos- 
 ter, Q.C, LL.B., passed away, valuable not only for 
 what he had done, but for the possibilities of good work 
 which lay before him. He was a true Canadian, a 
 charming writer, a very able law3^cr, and it is sad in 
 many respects that he has been taken away in the very 
 prime of his usefulness, for he was only 48 years of age. 
 Years ago, with Thomas Moss, Wm. Rattray, A. C. Tyner, 
 who are all dead, and a group of others who are still 
 living, Mr. Foster did much to promote the growth of a 
 distinctly Canadian feeling. His eloquent pamphlet, 
 " Canada First," betrays a glow of patriotism, a pride of 
 race, which could scarcely be believed to exist by those 
 who later only knew the quiet, laborious lawyer. The 
 deceased gentleman held for some years the important 
 position of Canadian correspondent of the London Times, 
 
220 TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 
 
 and filled it well. He was one of the founders of The 
 Monetary Times, and was its first editor. Recognizing 
 as he did the necessity for a journal that would, while 
 avoiding the acridness and bias of ordinary political 
 writing, devote honest criticism to commercial and poli- 
 tical affairs, he established an independence of tone which 
 it has been the aim of his successors to maintain. 
 
 Toronto Saturday Night (Nov. 10, 1888). 
 
 It was fitting that flowers should have covered the 
 grave of that kindly gentleman and able lawyer, W. A. 
 Foster. Beneath his easy and careless exterior were the 
 impulses of a poet, the merriment of a humorist, the 
 warmth of a generous and hospitable friend. Loyal alil^e 
 to his clients and companions, no one spoke ill of him, 
 and he never spoke ill of others. Malice and jealousy 
 had no part in his noble nature, and all of us who knew 
 him are saddened by the thought that we will see him no 
 more. As a citizen, he was honest and patriotic ; as a 
 lawyer, he was always great and growing in fame ; as a 
 husband, he well deserved the love that will not forget 
 him ; as a son, his devotion had an exalted beauty, which 
 perhaps best marks the tenderness and pui'ity of his 
 nature. As a litterateur he would have achieved emi- 
 nence, and when he turned his attention to law Canadian 
 letters suffered a lasting loss. The sorrowing friends who 
 followed him to his grave brought flowers which softened 
 by their loveliness the awfulness of death, and their per- 
 fume was a fitting emblem of the sweet memory — which 
 will live, at least, as long as this generation lasts — of the 
 lovable man we shall meet in office and street no more. 
 
TRIBUTES FROM THE TORONTO PRESS. 221 
 
 Canadian Methodist Magazine (December, 1888). 
 
 It is with the profoundest feelings of personal loss that 
 we record the death of our early companion and life-long 
 friend, the late W. A. Foster, Q C. By his death his pro- 
 fession loses a distinguished ornament and society a use- 
 ful member ; but to those who enjoyed his personal 
 friendship the loss is one which cannot be expressed in 
 words. He not only commanded their admiration for his 
 intellectual abilities, but he was also endeared by his 
 amiable qualities. We may not allow the public utter- 
 ance of our personal sorrow, which is of too tender and 
 sacred a character for record here. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 > ♦ • 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prefatory Note iii 
 
 Introduction, by Mr. Goldwin Smith 1 
 
 Canada First : An Address 13 
 
 Address of the Canadian National Association 48 
 
 Address to the Canadian National Association 57 
 
 Party versus Principle. [Daily Telegraph] 87 
 
 The Canadian Confederacy. [ Westminster Review] 93 
 
 The Canadian Confederation and the Reciprocity Treaty. [ West- 
 minster Review] 139 
 
 Down the St. Lawrence on a Raft. {Canadian Monthly] 169 
 
 The Late Adam Clarke Tyner. [Daily Telegraph, Oct. 25th, 1867] 199 
 
 In Memoriam : Tributes called forth by Mr. Foster's death : 
 
 Mr. G. Mercer Adam, in The Week 201 
 
 Mr. Henry J. Morgan, in the Ottawa Citizen 206 
 
 Mr. Charles Mair's Poem, in The Week . 210 
 
 The Mail 212 
 
 The Globe 214 
 
 The Empire 215 
 
 The World : 216 
 
 The Daily News 217 
 
 Evening Telegram 218 
 
 Christian Guardian 219 
 
 Monetary Times 219 
 
 Saturday Night 220 
 
 Methodist Magazine 221 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
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