Canada

CANADA

CANADA, geographically and politically, differs widely from the British colony known by that name prior to 1867. Before that date the country embraced under the name of Canada included a region about 1400 miles in length and from 200 to 400 miles in breadth, extending from the watershed west of Lake Superior eastward to Labrador. Alongside of it lay the independent British provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and beyond it to the north and the west the vast regions abandoned to the Hudson’s Bay Company But various causes combined to impress on Canadian statesmen the desirableness of uniting the colonies of British North America into one political confederation.

On the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 1763, its French colonists were guaranteed the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and equal civil and commercial privileges with British subjects. Further privileges were secured by “the Quebec Act” of 1774, whereby the old French laws, including the custom of Paris, the royal edicts, and those of the colonial intendants under the French regime, were declared binding in relation to all property and civil rights; while the criminal law was superseded by that of England with its trial by jury. The seignories, with their feudal rights and immunities, were also perpetuated; and thus, under the fostering protection of England, the colonial life of the France of Louis XV. and the regency survived in the “New France” of Canada, unaffected by the Revolution of 1792. But the whole French population at the date of the conquest did not exceed 65,000. From Great Britain, and still more from the older colonies, emigrants hastened to occupy the new territory to the north of the St Lawrence. On the declaration of independence by the revolted colonies in 1776, the loyalist refugees were welcomed by the Provincial Government, settled on land in Upper Canada, and aided with funds and farming implements; and these were followed by emigrants from Great Britain. But it was not till 1791 that the rule of a governor, aided solely by a council appointed by the Crown, was superseded by the grant of a constitution establishing the Government with an elective legislature. At the same time Upper Canada, with its purely British settlers, was made a separate province from the old French colony of Lower Canada. At this date the population of Lower Canada had increased to upwards of 130,000, and that of Upper Canada was about 50,000. According to the first strictly reliable census of 1811 it amounted to 77,000. But the increase of population of Lower Canada was in part due to the immigration of British settlers. In 1793 a Protestant bishop of Quebec was appointed by the home Government; and in 1804 a cathedral was erected for him at Quebec, on the site of the old Recollet church. Dr Jacob Mountain, the Anglican bishop, exerted himself in the cause of education. Parliament enacted the establishment of free schools throughout the parishes of Lower Canada, but to this the Roman Catholic clergy gave resolute opposition; and in various other ways a spirit of antagonism began to manifest itself between the French inhabitants and the British population.

The war of 1812 followed; and during the protracted struggle on the Canadian frontier till the signing of the treaty of Ghent in 1814, the French and British colonists were united in loyalty to England; but with the restoration of peace internal political difficulties revived. The legislative and executive councils were at open variance with the popular representative assemblies; and a new element of strife created antagonism between Upper and Lower Canada. The position of Quebec and Montreal gave to Lower Canada a control over the exports and imports of the country; financial misunderstandings arose between the two provinces respecting their rightful share of import duties; and a proposal, first made in 1822, for a legis ]ative union between Upper and Lower Canada, was at length carried out in 1841, accompanied by important concessions designed to confer on the majority of the representatives of the people that influence over the executive Government which constituted the essential element of responsible government in England. But while the British colonists were divided by the old English party lines, the French Lower Canadians, united by local interests, race, and religion, were able to hold the balance of power whenever the two British parties divided on points of sufficient importance to preclude a compromise. Thus while the advantages of soil and climate, the industry, and the consequent wealth of Upper Canada, enabled it to contribute an ever-increasing proportion of the revenue of the united provinces, it frequently received a very partial share in their distribution, and was liable to be outvoted on questions in which both local feeling and local interests were largely involved. This condition of things was turned to account in the party contests of the time with an ever-increasing irritation and sense of wrong on the part of the British colonists of Upper Canada, until a common feeling overrode party lines, and matters were brought practically to a deadlock.

This it was which led to the idea of a legislative union among the various British American colonies, while reserving to each the control of its own local government; and the common dangers to which they were exposed by results springing out of the great American civil war furnished additional motives to such a union. The leaders of different parties representing the various interests of the provinces, after mature deliberation, agreed to the principles of the proposed confederation, and the Imperial Government responded by giving it the requisite force of parliamentary authority. The Imperial Act, known as “the British North American Act, 1867,” provided for the voluntary union of the whole of British North America into one legislative confederation, under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Thus the older provinces have preceded, even by centuries, the Dominion within which they are now embraced, and have a separate history of their own. The Dominion thus constituted consists at present of the old provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, now designated respectively Ontario and Quebec, along with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia. To it also pertain the territories in the north-west still unsettled, with power to receive them into the confederacy when they acquire the requisite population and organization of provinces. Provision is also made in the Imperial Act for the admission of Newfoundland into the confederacy. It is further provided that the constitution of the Dominion shall be “similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom;” that the executive authority shall be vested in the sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and carried on in his name by a governor-general and privy council; and that the legislative power shall be exercised by a parliament consisting of an Upper House, or “Senate,” the members of which are nominated for life, by summons under the great seal of Canada, and a “House of Commons,” duly elected by the several constituencies of the various provinces in proportion to the relative population of each.

The Act of Confederation came into operation on the 1st of July 1867, at which date the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were united to the maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1870 the newly created province of Manitoba, in 1871 that of British Columbia, and in 1872 that of Prince Edward Island, were successively admitted into the confederation. A lieutenant-governor and council are to be appointed to administer the affairs of the north-west territories, not yet settled or organized into provinces; and thus the whole of British North America has been organized into a united political confederacy under the name of the Dominion of Canada.

Previous to the confederation of the provinces, Labrador E. of a line drawn due N. of Anse au Sablon, was independent of Lower Canada, and it still remains politically attached to Newfoundland. The tract of country known as Canada till 1867 extended from Labrador westward to the high land beyond Lake Superior, and from the St Lawrence Valley and the great lakes northward to the watershed between them and the Hudson Bay, and embraced an area of 331,220 square miles, lying between the parallels of 41° 7Γ and 50° N. lat., and the meridians of 57° 50' and 117° W. long. This extensive region, which constituted the most important colony of England, is now included in a Dominion which stretches across the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and embraces an area of about 3,500,000 square miles. The vast prairie lands of the great north-west, thus embraced within the Dominion, and out of which the province of Manitoba has been already formed, include the most fertile region of the whole continent. Already immigration is setting steadily in that direction; nor can it be doubted that what has remained till recently a desert, traversed annually by migratory herds of buffalo, and only available as a hunting ground for wild Indians and the trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is destined to become the seat of populous provinces, and to constitute one of the chief granaries of the world.

By the addition of the maritime British provinces, included originally within the Acadie of the old French régime, Canada has acquired an extensive line of sea-coast, indented with bays and harbours, offering the most admirable facilities for every branch of maritime enterprise; and to these will, no doubt, be added ere long the island of Newfoundland, with the command of fisheries unequalled in value either in the Old World or the New. The peninsula of Nova Scotia and the island of Newfoundland form the eastern barriers of British North America, closing the Gulf of St Lawrence, and commanding the Atlantic coast, with its ocean trade and its inexhaustible fisheries; while Vancouver Island, and the shores of the neighbouring mainland, stretch along the Pacific coast, with estuaries, inlets, and well-sheltered harbours, awaiting the development of the growing trade of the Pacific. There the rivers abound in salmon; the whale fisheries of the neighbouring ocean already yield valuable returns; and the cod, haddock, and other deep-sea fish invite the enterprise of the young province, and guarantee an inexhaustible source of future wealth.

The people by whom the maritime advantages of the eastern provinces have thus far been enjoyed are peculiarly fitted by origin and training to turn them to the best account. In the early years of the 16th century, when France was striving to outrival Spain in the occupation of the New World beyond the Atlantic, hardy adventurers of Basque, Breton, and Norman blood sailed from Dieppe, St Malo, Rochelle, and other French seaports, and divided among them the traffic in fish and furs of the Newfoundland banks and the Gulf and the River St Lawrence. The discovery of Canada, and, indeed, of the American continent, is justly assigned to John and Sebastian Cabot, who set out from Bristol under the auspices of Henry VII. of England in 1497, and landed on the coast of Labrador seventeen months before Columbus reached the American mainland. But England was slow to avail herself of the advantages of the discovery. In 1524 Verazzano, a Florentine navigator, sailing under the French flag, coasted the new found continent from Florida to Cape Breton, and the whole vaguely defined region was appropriated in the name of Francis I. as “La Nouvelle France.” Ten years later Jacques Cartier sailed from St Malo, explored the coasts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; and for a time the Norman and Breton adventurers enjoyed a monopoly of fish, peltries, and whatever else could reward those pioneers of civilization for their adventurous daring and enterprise.

By such hardy adventurers the maritime provinces were originally settled, before Britain awoke to the importance of the fisheries and other valuable resources of the New World. But she in her turn contributed an energetic body of colonists, including many of Scottish origin; and the war of independence led to a considerable influx of loyalist immigrants from the revolted colonies. War, both then and in 1812, had its usual effect in depressing native industry. But with the return of peace the British provinces entered on a prolonged course of prosperity, very partially affected by the political troubles of 1836-7, or even by the American civil war of 1862 and subsequent years. Half a century ago the population of the whole of British North America was less than 1,000,000; in 1872 that of the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, amounted to 3,485,761; and the population of the Dominion now exceeds 4,000,000 of souls.

So long as Canada was detached in government and all political relations from the maritime provinces, and embraced only Quebec and Ontario, with access to the ocean solely by the St Lawrence, which is closed for fully five months in the year, it constituted an inland province, subject to many restrictions, and was to a considerable extent dependent on reciprocal relations with the United States for its foreign trade.

In a “Memorandum on the Commercial Relations, Past and Present, of the British North American Provinces with the United States,” submitted to the Government at Washington in April 1874, by Sir Edward Thornton and the Hon. George Brown, as joint plenipotentiaries of Her Britannic Majesty, it is shown that, in the interval from 1845, when a more liberal policy gave encouragement to intimate commercial relations between Canada and the United States, till 1853, the aggregate export and import trade between the two countries rose from $8,074,291 to $20,691,360; and at the same time a large amount of the import and export traffic between Great Britain and the provinces was carried in bond over the canals and railways of the United States. The Reciprocity Treaty was negotiated by the late Earl of Elgin, as governor-general of Canada, and signed on the 5th of June 1854; and it was abrogated in 1866. In the later years of its continuance the civil war in the United States gave a great advantage to Canada, so that in the last year of the treaty the exports to the States amounted to $54,714,383. Yet even then the balance of trade continued to be in favour of the United States; and under the operation of the treaty, New York, Portland, Boston, and other American seaports, were so largely used for the trade of the British provinces, that the transportation traffic sent to and brought from foreign countries, in bond, over the railways and canals, and in the ocean ships and steamers, of the United States, became an important element of revenue to their chief lines of transport The effect of all this, at a time when jealousies and heartburnings had arisen out of the American civil war, led American statesmen to over-estimate the value of such facilities to the British Provinces, and even to conceive that the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty, and the restriction of such facilities, would suffice to create a desire for annexation. Happily, experience has led to very different results. In the “Memorandum on Commercial Relations,” already referred to, it is remarked :—

“The industry of Canada had been largely directed to the supply of the American market with commodities for home consumption, as well as for foreign exportation, and the repeal in 1866 of the Reciprocity Treaty, under which so vast a trade had grown up, rendered imperatively necessary prompt measures to open new markets for the sale of Canadian produce. These measures were at once taken. Under the influence of the formal notice given by the United States in 1865, of their intention to terminate the treaty, federation of the provinces, then under discussion, was hurried on, and became a fait accompli within fifteen months after its repeal. The Intercolonial Railway was at once ιmdertaken, at a cost of over $20,000,000, at the national expense, to secure direct connection to and from the Atlantic ocean, at Halifax and St John, on Canadian soil. Commissioners were despatched to the British and other West India Islands, and to South American States, to promote the extension of direct trade between them and the Dominion. The enlargement of the canals, the improvement of the navigation of the lakes and river St Lawrence, the construction of the Bay Verte canal, to connect the waters of the Bay of Fundy and the St Lawrence, the subsidizing of ocean and river steamship lines, and the promotion of the great shipbuilding and fishery interests, all received a new and vigorous impetus.

“These measures were attended with remarkable success. Only seven fiscal years have passed since the repeal of the treaty, but already the loss inflicted by it has been more than made up, and exceUent outlets in new directions opened for Canadian commerce; with an increasing annual proportion of the vast carrying trade formerly done for the provinces by the railways, canals, and steamships of the Republic transferred to Canadian hands. The traffic between the United States and the Provinces at once fell, from an average during the three years before the repeal (according to American official statistics) of nearly $75,000,000 per annum, to an average of $57,000,000 per annum during the first three years following repeal;—the Act of Confederation, too, removed from the category of foreign commerce to that of home consumption the large interchanges of commodities between the several sections of the Dominion; and the aggregate foreign commerce of the provinces consequently fell in the first year after the repeal of the treaty to $139,202,615 from $160,409,455 in the previous year. As will be seen from the following statement, however, the trade of the Dominion speedily recovered from the blow, and the volume of its foreign commerce gradually increased until, in the seventh year from the repeal of the treaty, it reached the great sum (for a people of four millions) of $235,301,203,—being seventy-five millions higher than it had ever reached in any year of the treaty’s existence :— [table]

Thus the immediate effect of the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty was to draw the British provinces into closer union; while, as appears from official returns, the interchange of traffic, which from 1820 to 1866 had been largely in favour of the States, underwent so great a change from 1866 to 1873 as to show a balance against the United States, and in favour of Canada, in value $51,875,008. Wheat, flour, provisions, and other articles, which were formerly sold to New York and Boston houses, are now sent through Canadian channels, direct to the maritime provinces, to Newfoundland, the West Indies, South America, and to Great Britain; and Canada thus enters into competition with the United States in its own foreign markets. Mr E. H. Derby, special commissioner of the United States Treasury, makes this admission as to the effect of the treaty on a single port;—“The commerce of Boston affected by the Reciprocity Treaty exceeds $27,000,000 annually, namely,—imports from and exports to the maritime provinces, $6,000,000; outfits and returns in deep-sea fisheries, $11,000,000; imports of wool, grain, and animals across the frontier of Canada and entered there, with returns, at least $10,000,000.” With the union of the maritime provinces to those on the St Lawrence, Canada has passed from the condition of an inland colony, dependent on the good will or the interested aims of a foreign rival, to the position of the fifth maritime nation of the world. The fisheries more than all else have laid the foundation of the industrial progress of the eastern provinces; and in the men who now sail their fishing fleets Canada has acquired the elements of a powerful marine, which, in any national exigency, will be found to add no less to the defensive strength of the Dominion, than it now does to its commercial enterprise.

By right of seniority the province of Quebec claims the first place among the sister provinces of the Dominion, though Nova Scotia may dispute with her the claim of earliest settlement. Among the cities of the Dominion it is probable also that Montreal will retain the pre-eminence by reason of the unparalleled advantages of her geographical position for commercial purposes. In numbers, wealth, and productive industry, however, the foremost rank is at present due to the province of Ontario. Referring to separate articles for a detailed description of each province, we confine ourselves here to what concerns the Dominion as a whole.

Extent. — The Dominion of Canada extends from 45° N. lat. northward to the Hudson Bay, and reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In superficial extent it is nearly equal to the whole of Europe, and comprises an area of about 3,500,000 square miles. The larger moiety of this, including the territory formerly held by the Hudson’s Bay Company, is the property of the Dominion Government. Of this about 120,000 square miles consist of prairie lands with occasional scattered groves and belts of trees along the rivers, admirably adapted for agriculture. A larger tract, consisting chiefly of timbered land, but interspersed with prairies, and well fitted for settlement and farming operations, may be estimated to cover little short of 500,000 square miles. Beyond those two available regions of land, adapted, by soil and climate, for the growth of wheat and other grains, and the rearing of stock, there is a further belt of land, which, though lying in a colder zone, is timbered, clothed with good natural grasses, and as fit for the growth of barley and oats as are many of the less genial regions of Northern Europe which support a considerable agricultural population. This northern belt of timbered land is estimated at little less than 930,000 square miles. All this, as well as much more still uncleared within the various provinces, has to be settled and brought under cultivation; and out of the great prairie and forest lands of the north-west have yet to be fashioned the future provinces of the Dominion of Canada.

Population. — The population of the whole Dominion in 1871, exclusive of Indians beyond the limits of the provinces, was 3,485,761, but to this has since been added the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, and Prince Edward Island; thereby increasing the population to nearly 4,000,000. To this a large addition has since been made, both by natural increase and by immigration. The entire population of Canada in 1875 was estimated to amount to 4,000,000, exclusive of Indians, estimated at 85,000.

Indians. — In the older provinces of Canada the Indians have long since been gathered together into settlements, under the care of superintendents and other officers of the Indian department, and in some cases, with industrial schools and other organizations for accelerating their pro gress to an equality in all respects with the white settlers. Missions under the care of different Christian churches have also undertaken the work of religious training, and the supervision of their schools. Of the bands of Indians thus settled on their own reserves, accurate statistics are furnished in the annual reports of the Indian Department. But only a vague estimate can be formed of the actual numbers even of the Crees, Blackfeet, Sioux, and other wild tribes which wander in the vicinity of the Red River settlements, or are brought into trading relations with the factors of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The following estimate of the Indian tribes throughout the Dominion of Canada is based on the most recent information; and probably forms a fair approximation to their actual numbers :— [table]

Nationalities. — The nationalities of the population of Canada are in some respects peculiar. The first settlement made by Europeans, as has been already noted, was by the French navigator Jacques Quartier, or as he is now universally styled, Cartier, in 1535. He explored the coasts of Newfoundland, previously discovered by Cabot, and those of Nova Scotia and part of the Gulf of St Lawrence, and took possession of them in the name of Francis I. For two centuries aud a quarter thereafter Acadie and Canada were provinces of France; and when, in 1759, they passed to English rule, a French population of 65,000 souls changed their allegiance. Everything was then done, consistent with British honour, to make the change as easy as possible. They were secured in the undisturbed possession of their lands, and in the free exercise of their religion. All ecclesiastical property was respected, and the rights of the church so effectually guarded, that the only remnant of a state church in the Dominion is the Roman Catholic church in the province of Quebec, with its great wealth, its control of education, and its right to levy tithes and other church dues from its adherents. The French laws in like manner remained intact; except in so far as the new subjects of England welcomed the substitution of its criminal law, and trial by jury, for the arbitrary rule of intendants and other representatives of an absolute monarchy. By such means the language and customs of the French population of Canada have been perpetuated, and continue to exercise a marked influence on the character of the country as a whole; though the results of confederation are already tending to diminish this, and to limit the French element to the old province of Quebec. The Canadian population of French descent now numbers 1,082,940; and in the fresh stimulus given in recent years to immigration, strong inducements have been held out to the expatriated inhabitants of the former French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, to seek a home among the French Canadians of Quebec.

The other nationalities of the Dominion include in the returns of the last census 64,447 natives of the United States in the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, who may be assumed to comprise immigrants of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, with an undetermined foreign element. Besides those the Irish population of Canada now amounts to about 850,000, the English to upwards of 700,000, the Scotch to 550,000, the Germans and Dutch to upwards of 230,000, the mixed race of African descent to nearly 22,000; the Welsh to 7800; Swiss, 2962; Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders, 7000; Italians upwards of 1000; and Spaniards, 900. The abrupt emigration of the Icelanders from their remote Arctic home, consequent on recent volcanic disturbances, along with other causes, has led a number of them to seek a home in Canada. The Mennonites, a Russian sect holding opinions closely allied to the Quakers in reference to bearing arms, have left their homes in large bands, and many of them are settling in Manitoba, and other parts of Canada. Added to all those, have to be taken into account the miscellaneous elements of the new population of British Columbia,—Greek, Mexican, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Japanese; in addition to which the native Indian population constitutes an important element. The mixture of Indian and White blood has been considerable in the older provinces, and cannot fail to affect largely the population of Manitoba and the North West. Nevertheless in Canada, as in the United States, British race and British institutions alike predominate, and give a tone and character to the people, the influence of which increases after a few generations, as the foreign element is gradually absorbed into the prevailing stock.

The peculiar geographical position of Canada, in immediate proximity to the United States, places it in very different circumstances from Australia, New Zealand, and other British colonies, in reference to immigration. With thousands annually sailing to New York and other United States ports, yet destined for Canada, and many more selecting the route by Liverpool and Quebec to the Western States, it is only by the definite returns of the decennial census that the actual resιdts of immigration can be determined. The following tabular statements compiled from the official reports of the Minister oî Agriculture tor the Dominion, to whose department the charge of immigration is assigned, and from the returns of emigrant agents and other sources, will suffice to convey some accurate idea of the rapid increase of the population from this source. The first table shows, in column I., the total number of emigrants from Europe who landed in the St Lawrence during a period of eight consecutive years, from 1866 to 1873. Column II. shows the number of immigrants entering Canada at all points, in so far as they came under the cognizance of immigrant agents, or other Government officials, who were reported to have settled in the Dominion. Column III. shows the numbers who gave a preference to the route by the St Lawrence, and, arriving at Canadian ports, proceeded from thence direct to the United States. The increase in the number of immigrant settlers in Canada within the above period, it will be seen has been five-fold. In reference to the third column there is a compensating element in the fact that, not only many of the better class of emigrants who seek a home in Canada choose the route by New York, and so enter the provinces overland, but the Minister of Agriculture draws special attention to a feature in the returns, showing a direct emigration from the United States to Canada. This is liable to be affected largely by the conditions of trade and industrial progress in either country In 1873 the number of immigrants from the United States to Canada amounted to 8971 persons. [table]

The character of the above Canadian immigration as an addition to the industrial population of the Dominion maybe partially tested by the following classification of the occupations or trades of the heads of families and other adult males who landed at Quebec during the last-named four years. [table]

In the year 1872 the total number of emigrants who sailed from British ports, both to the Colonies and to foreign states, amounted to 295,213; but 26 per cent, of the whole were foreigners, availing themselves of the route through Great Britain to their final destinations.

Climate.— The variations of the Canadian climate are less than in many countries of much smaller extent. But throughout nearly its whole area, Canada is characterized by greater heat in summer and a much lower temperature in winter than in corresponding European latitudes. Its general character is level, though it includes the Rocky Mountains, with the picturesque and diversified region lying between them and the Pacific, and the Laurentian range, continued northward to the Arctic Ocean.

Besides the great lakes which find their outlet through the St Lawrence to the sea, there are thousands of lakes throughout Canada, many of them of large dimensions. Foremost among those is Lake Winnipeg. The two great branches of the Saskatchewan take their rise in the Rocky Mountains, and after uniting their streams, flow into this lake, which also receives the Assiniboin, the Red River, and other smaller rivers. The St Lawrence and the great lakes, of which it is the outlet, are estimated to contain 12,000 cubic miles of water; and the Niagara Falls, which constitute the main feature in the descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, are on a scale commensurate with this vast fresh water system of rivers and lakes. The River Niagara issues from Lake Erie in a broad, tranquil stream, varying in breadth from one to three miles, and continuing through a course of about 15 miles, with a fall of little more than a foot per mile. But on reaching the rapids, the descent is suddenly increased to about 80 feet in less than a mile, before the waters reach the grand leap of about 165 feet perpendicular over the great falls. The Horse-Shoe Fall, on the Canadian side is upwards of a third of a mile broad. Between this and the American Fall Goat Island intervenes; and then another volume of water, about 600 feet wide, plunges with like abruptness into the abyss below. The great breadth as compared with the height of the falls tends in some degree to mislead the eye in the first impression produced; and it is only by slow degrees that the mind is brought to an adequate estimate of the grandeur of the scene. Sir Charles Lyell thus describes the effect produced on his mind, at a first glance, and after prolonged study of all their remarkable features :—“We first came in sight of the Falls of Niagara when they were about three miles distant. The sun was shining full upon them—no building in view—nothing but the green wood, the falling waters, and the white foam. At that moment they appeared to me more beautiful than I expected, and less grand; but after several days, when I had enjoyed a nearer view of the two cataracts, had listened to their thundering sound, and gazed on them for hours from above and below, and had watched the river foaming over the rapids, then plunging headlong into the dark pool, and when I had explored the delightful island which divides the faUs, where the solitude of the ancient forest is still unbroken, I at last learned by degrees to comprehend the wonders of the scene, and to feel its full magnificence.” The river passes over the centre of the Horse-Shoe Fall in a solid column of water of 20 feet; and it is estimated that fifteen hundred millions of cubic feet pass over the falls every minute. This great water system of rivers and lakes affects the climate of the older provinces of Canada; and the other large rivers, with the numerous bodies of fresh water distributed over so large a portion of the whole surface of the Dominion, help to preserve an equable climate, and afford many facilities for local transport.

Reckoning Lake Erie and Lake Ontario with the Niagara River as parts of the St Lawrence, the river system trends in a N.E. direction throughout the whole course from Point Pelee, which is situated in 42° lat., to Tadousac, the earliest French trading port, at the mouth of the Saguenay, in 48° 2' lat. From this the coast still continues to trend northward till it merges in the inhospitable shores of Labrador, in a latitude which is still as far south as London at the Strait of Belle Isle. The degrees of latitude indeed, are a very partial guide to the character of the Canadian climate as compared with that of the British Isles; and any statement of the mean temperatures of the two is deceptive. The severity of the winter, as tested by the thermometer, leads to a very exaggerated impression of Canadian experiences. Owing to the dry, clear, bracing atmosphere which generally prevails, the sense of discomfort produced by the raw easterly winds and damp fogs of an English spring suggests an idea of cold, such as is rarely thought of in a Canadian winter. There are indeed, every winter, a few days of intense cold, as in the summer there are brief periods of equally intense heat, when the thermometer ascends, or descends, through a scale unknown in the more equable English climate. But throughout the greater part of the winter season in Canada the sky is bright and clear, and the weather thoroughly enjoyable. Open sleighs are in use by all. Sleighing parties of pleasure are arranged for the period of full moon, that they may return home over the snow, after an evening’s enjoyment at some appointed rendezvous; skating, snow-shoeing, and other outdoor exercises are in universal favour; and the sound of the sleigh-bells in the open thoroughfares adds to the exhilarating sense produced by the pure bracing atmosphere. Snow accordingly brings with it no such ideas of discomfort as are associated with it in England; while by the farmer it is hailed as altogether beneficial. In the province of Quebec .the snow begins to lie early in November; in Ontario it is fully a month later; and it differs correspondingly at various localities throughout the Dominion. But everywhere the appearance of the snow is hailed as seasonable and beneficial. It protects the wheat sown in autumn from the frost, affords facilities to∙the farmer for bringing his produce to market, aids the lumberer in collecting the fruits of his labour in the forest at suitable points for transport by water with the spring freshets, and so contributes alike to business and pleasure.

The following tables, carefully prepared from official reports transmitted to Professor Kingston, director of the Magnetic Observatory, Toronto, from the chief stations throughout the Dominion, supply reliable data for determining the temperature and climatic changes at the most important points throughout Canada and Newfoundland. In the column of first frost at Montreal, as shown in the last of the tables, the dates for the years 1872, 1873, and 1874 indicate the first fall of the thermometer to 32°, while the earlier dates mark the first hoar frost of the autumn.

Mean Temperature (in degrees Fahr.) for eoeh Month, and for the Year in the several Provinces, and for certain Stations in the Dominion of Canada. [table]

Averages of the Highest Temperatures in each Month and Year for various places in the Dominion of Canada from three or more years. [table]

Averages of the Lowest Temperature in each Month and Year for various places in the Dominion of Canada from three or more years. [table]

Monthly and Annual Rainfall in Inches for various places in the Dominion of Canada from three or more Years. [table]

Average Fall of Snow in the several Provinces of ths Dominion of Canada, with the number of Days’ Snow, and number of Days’ Rain. [table]

Dates of Certain Periodic Events at Toronto and Montreal. [table]

As will be seen from the previous tables, January and February are the coldest months of the year. Throughout the whole of Canada steady sleighing is reckoned upon during those months. In Quebec and in Manitoba a longer period of sleighing can be relied upon. In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and also on the Pacific coasts, the temperature is modified both in summer and winter according to vicinity to the sea. Abrupt changes of temperature occur both in summer and in winter. A period of great cold early in the month of January is so frequently followed by a complete change that its periodicity is reckoned upon under the name of the January thaw. Snow finally disappears in Quebec about the middle of April. In Ontario it is generally gone a month earlier. The table of average fall of snow given above shows its prevalence at various central points in each of the provinces of the Dominion, from October to the end of April.

Ploughing usually commences in Ontario about the middle of April, and in favourable seasons is prolonged into the month of December. But throughout the Domi nion, stretching as it does across the continent, and embracing an area nearly equal in size to Europe, the period varies with the locality, and is affected by the vicinity of the great lakes or other local influences. Cattle are turned out to graze in April, feeding in part upon the tender shoots of the spring forest growth, until the appearance of the young pasture with the disappearance of the snow. Before the end of July harvest begins; and with the rapidity of growth under the warm Canadian skies, the hay, grain, and root-crops follow in swift succession; the cleared land is brought again under the plough, and the autumn sowing of wheat is carried on till another abrupt change brings the season to a close. In this way the Canadian climate is marked by the striking contrast of two seasons—summer and winter,—bringing with them alternations of fruitful labour and of repose intermingled with profitable industry and pleasure. This characteristic prevails with slight variations throughout the greater part of the Dominion. Manitoba presents in this respect no marked diversity from Quebec or Ontario. Spring opens nearly at the same time from Red River to the Athabasca. Early in April the alders and willows of the Saskatchewan country are in bloom; the prairie anemone covers the southern exposures to the very verge of the retreating snow. May there brings with it more of the true summer heat than in the provinces on the St Lawrence. But the nights are cool, and throughout the period of greatest heats, the cool night breezes beget a welcome and refreshing change, accompanied with heavy dews. This protects the cereals from the effects of drought even in the driest seasons, and produces a rich growth of prairie grass, making the climate peculiarly favourable for the stock farmer. The Rev. Professor Bryce, of Winnipeg College, thus writes: “The juncture of the seasons is not very noticeable. Spring glides insensibly into summer, summer into fine autumn weather, which, during the equinox, breaks up in a series of heavy gales of wind accompanied by rain and snow. These are followed by that divine aftermath, the Indian summer, which attains its true glory only in the north-west. The haziness and dreamy fervour of this mysterious season have often been attributed to the prairie fires, which rage over half a continent in the fall, and evoke an enormous amount of heat and smoke.” His own observations incline him to accept this explanation. Winter begins with crisp clear weather, which grows increasingly cold and cloudy. The wind wheels to the north-east, and with it comes the snow, and the long steady winter of the Canadian year.

The character of the Manitoba winter is thus described by the same intelligent observer :—“The winters of the north-west, upon the whole, are agreeable, and singularly steady. The moccasin is dry and comfortable throughout, and no thaw, strictly speaking, takes place till spring, no matter how mild the weather may be. The snow, though shallow, wears well, and differs greatly from eastern snow. Its flake is dry and hard, and its gritty consistence resembles white slippery sand more than anything else. Generally speaking, the farther west the shallower the snow, and the rule obtains even into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. In south-western Ontario the winter is milder, no doubt, than at Red River; but the soil of the north-west beats the soil of Ontario out of comparison; and after all, who would care to exchange the crisp, sparkling, exhilarating winter of Manitoba for the rawness of Essex in south Ontario.”

But the frosts of spring and autumn, not those of winter, are what the Canadian farmer learns to regard with any dread; and this is still more true in reference to the Canadian fruitgrower. But in this respect the north-west climate is exceptional in its character. Frosts are common there in the nights of September; but the fact has been noted by many independent observers, that frost which would injure grain in many other countries, appears to be innocuous on the Red River and the Saskatchewan. Various reasons have been assigned—such as the dryness of the atmosphere, the heat-retaining character of the soil, and the sudden change of temperature that enables vigorous plants to bear an atmosphere at 20° better than at 35° when the latent heat of the earth and the plants has been given off. But whatever be the true cause the fact appears to be well attested. The chief lesson which experience has taught the farmer is to sow his wheat early in the spring, so that the ear shall be past the milky stage before the frost comes.

The climate and other conditions to the west of the Rocky Mountains are necessarily marked by much greater local variations owing to the broken character of the country, with its ravines and deep narrow valleys. Stock raising has hitherto largely occupied the attention of the farmers on the Pacific slope, where the farms are called “ranches,” after the fashion of the stock farmers of California and New Mexico. The ground produces both cereals and vegetables where irrigation is resorted to, as in the plains and valleys of those states. But the rich natural grass which abounds furnishes nearly all that is needed for the profitable raising of stock; and until a large female immigration restores in some adequate degree the natural proportion of the sexes, the rough life of the “ranch,” with its “corral,” or cattle pen, will be preferred to the more settled industry of the agriculturist.

The capacity of the different provinces for profitable industry, and the character of their native productions, will be found set forth in detail in the separate articles on each province. It is vain to attempt any detailed account of the soil and other local specialties of half a continent. The Geological Survey, carried out under the able direction of the late Sir W. E. Logan and his successor Mr A. R. C. Selwyn, has largely contributed to an accurate knowledge of the agricultural capabilities, as well as the mineral resources of the country. Vast areas consist chiefly of loam, with a substratum of gravel, overlaid throughout extensive tracts of forest by a rich vegetable mould, the accumulation of ages. The prairie lands are not less available; and they are now being surveyed and explored, alike for the requirements of the settler and for economic and scientific results.

The Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada embody in this way a readily accessible guide to the resources of the country, and the suitability of its various districts and provinces for settlement. Entire districts of many square miles in extent prove to be composed of alluvial deposits from 30 to 40 feet deep, of soil in places so rich as to bear good crops of wheat for successive years without manure. Others of nearly equal value are found resting on red sandstone, trap, serpentine, limestone, and other strata most favourable for agriculture. There are also, as along some of the rivers, for miles in succession, soils too rich for wheat, others of a good sandy loam, suitable to and requiring the usual English rotations. In many parts, on the other hand, there exist considerable tracts of poor, thin, and stony soils. The Reports of the Geological Survey, in presenting an account of the geological distribution of the various strata, and their agricultural capabilities, will prove of great value to the immigrant, as well as to others interested in the lands of Canada.

The soil and climate of Canada are such that the country produces a much greater variety of grains and fruits than is usually grown in Great Britain or Ireland. Besides wheat, barley, oats, rye, pease, turnips, potatoes, hemp, flax, hops, and the other ordinary agricultural products of England, which are all raised in abundance, Canada grows tobacco, rice, maize or Indian corn, and fruits of warmer climes than the British Islands. The full and steady heat of the summer matures with surprising rapidity the most valuable productions, while the long period of repose of the Canadian winter is not only amply atoned for by the rapid and luxuriant vegetation of the summer, but, no doubt, contributes to such results.

Fruits and Vegetables. — The fruits of Canada embrace all that are familiar to the English gardener, with others which the summer there is not warm enough to bring to maturity. The finest melons are grown in abundance in the open ground. In favourable seasons peaches are plentiful in the Niagara peninsula, and in the south-western portions of Ontario, along the shores of Lake Erie and the Detroit River. The vine is cultivated largely in open gardens. The Isabella, the Delaware, Clinton, and other varieties of grapes attain to perfect size and excellent flavour in the open air; and the manufacture of native wines is now successfully prosecuted to a considerable extent.

Wild fruits abound in great variety throughout many Canadian districts. The wild vine (Vitis vulpina) is abundant everywhere, twining its tendrils around the trunks and over the branches of the forest trees, and yielding clusters of small grapes, inviting to cultivation. Among the other wild fruits may be mentioned plums, cherries, raspberries, brambles or blackberries, strawberries, whortleberries, blueberries, gooseberries, black and red currants, juniper berries, cranberries, hickory and hazel nuts, and walnuts. The raspberries ripen in such abundance that enormous quantities are annually preserved and sold both in the Provinces and the United States. The blueberry is also extensively sold; and the wild strawberry furnishes an agreeable dessert in many parts of the eastern provinces throughout the latter part of July and August.

Apples and pears are now largely cultivated. The island of Montreal has long been famous for its fruits; and the annual produce of the orchards of Ontario is exported to the States and to Europe. Vegetables for the table are also successfully cultivated in greater varieties than in England, and in such quantities that they are largely exported. The tomato flourishes and yields an abundant crop. Cauliflower, vegetable marrow, squash, French beans, pease, lettuce, spinach, celery, asparagus, rhubarb, and all the more common vegetables are grown in abundance in the older provinces. The climate of Manitoba, notwithstanding its exceptionally low temperature from December to March, gives promise of equally satisfactory results. Professor Bryce, after noting such examples of agricultural produce as that of one old settler who obtained 420 bushels of wheat from 11 acres, and another who by garden culture produced the enormous yield of 134 bushels per acre of oats, thus proceeds: “These are given both as proof of the capabilities of the country, and of the advantage of careful culture. The ordinary table vegetables are surprising in their growth, and reach a prodigious size. The writer has seen nothing in his previous experience equalling the vegetable production of the province; and the late lieutenant-governor, Hon. Mr Archibald, after testing the matter in his own garden, gave the same as his experience.”

The exports of fruit and vegetables, the growth and produce of the five eastern provinces of Canada, for the year 1874, included fruit to the value of $128,904, and vegetables to the value of $332,068. But while this produce of the finer fruits and vegetables for the table shows exports to the value of $460,972 in a single year, and thus bears evidence to the character of the soil and climate, it conveys a very imperfect idea of the actual produce of Canadian orchards. Apples especially are in constant use at the table. Throughout the southern portion of Ontario thousands of acres are planted with fruit-trees, yielding valuable crops of the finest quality, and forming an ever-increasing source of wealth to the farmer.

Flowers. — The flora of Canada naturally comes in order along with its agriculture and garden produce; but to deal with the subject effectually would require a botanical treatise on the whole flora of North America. There is the rich flora of the forest, which disappears with the clearing of the land for purposes of agriculture, and is even replaced in part by an immigrant flora, brought in with the hay and grass seeds of the European settler. Again, there is the brilliant flora of the prairies, which, in the full season of summer bloom, are resplendent with blue, scarlet, and ye 1 1ow petals. The Rocky Mountains, and the rugged slopes of the Pacific province, have also their characteristic flora; while the shallows of the lakes and rivers abound with beautiful aquatic plants, foremost among which is the Nymphaea odorata, the magnificent sweet-scented white water-lily, which converts many a broad lagoon into a beautiful floating garden.

It will better accord with the practical aim of this article, to note that the honey-bee flourishes in all the provinces of Canada; and, as will be seen by the following table showing the produce of a single year, is cultivated with profitable success in the four older provinces :— [table]

Forests. — The forests of Canada abound in fine timber, adapted to almost every variety of useful or ornamental work, and furnishing one main element of wealth to the province. Foremost in point of utility are the white and red pine, annually expörted in large quantities to the United States and to Europe. Three-fourths of the square and flatted timber produced in the Ottawa region in 1873 was of white pine. Cedar, red pine, and railway-ties chiefly made of tamarac, were the others which were produced in largest quantities. Pine trees of 100 feet high are not uncommon; and instances are not rare of trees greatly exceeding that height.

The pine prepared for exportation is made into squared timber, measuring from 60 to 70 feet in length; or into waney timber (as it is called when only partially squared or flatted), averaging generally the same lengths though sometimes running to 100, or even 120 feet. For the native market the unsquared log is cut into convenient lengths of from 12 to 15 feet for the saw-mill. The white oak, besides being made into squared timber not greatly inferior in dimensions to the white pine, serves also largely to supply staves both for the English and the West Indian markets. The number of pieces of squared and flatted timber produced in the Ottawa district alone in 1873 was 303,268, and the number of unsquared logs for the same year amounted to 2,024,980. The elm, beech, ash, maple, walnut, cedar, birch, and tamarac are all valuable products of the Canadian forests. The black walnut and the birds’-eye and curled maples are now in special demand in England for cabinet and fancy work. The sugar maple is also of value for the sap which it yields during early spring, from which excellent sugar is made in ever-increasing quantities. The yield of maple sugar produced in the four older provinces in 1871 amounted to 17,276,000 lb. A maple grove, as it is called, is accordingly regarded as a valuable feature on a Canadian farm.

The value of the immense forests of Canada is becoming more apparent every year. The year 1874 was one of reduced exports and imports, as compared with any previous year since the confederation of the provinces. Nevertheless the total produce of the forest exported during that year, apart from what was required for use within the Dominion, amounted in value to $26,817,715. Of this timber to the value of $14,928,403 was exported to Great Britain; the United States received to the value of $9,654,890; South America to the value of $920,309; the British West Indies to the value of $602,487; and the remainder went to the Spanish, French, and Dutch West Indies, to France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and Holland, and to regions and colonies beyond the Pacific. Australia took to the value of $60,081; China, $38,024; British and Dutch Guiana, $23,452; and Honolulu, the Azores, South Africa, and other countries, in lesser proportions. In addition to all this, the forest produce required for home consumption during the same period cannot be estimated at a less value than $3,000,000.

Canada is becoming every year more important as an agricultural country. It is exporting not only grain but also cattle to the English market; and when the rich prairie lands of the North West are brought under cultivation its agricultural produce will probably rank foremost in value of that of any nation in the world. But at present the produce of the Canadian forests exceeds in value any other yield of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Dominion. The total value of the exports of Canada for 1874 amounted to $73,926,748; and of this $26,817,715 was the produce of its forests. The importance of this branch of native industry cannot therefore be overlooked. The Governments of the different provinces grant licences to those engaged in the timber trade to cut timber over vast tracts of land, under the name of “timber limits.” These are in most cases remote from the settlements; and much ability and foresight are required to make adequate provision for the large bodieá of men, horses, and oxen, to be employed in cutting down and preparing the timber for the market, and transporting it to suitable points for rafting. Much capital is accordingly embarked in the trade. Hay and other requisites have to be accumulated at suitable stations. Large gangs of lumberers follow at the proper season. Lumber shanties are constructed capable of accommodating from 25 to 50 men. The structure is made of logs hewn on the spot, and forms a square or oblong edifice surrounded on three sides with the baulks, or sleeping-berths, of the men, while the fourth side is occupied by the dresser or working-table and other requisites of the cook. The centre is open to the sky, and underneath this only opening for light or air a huge wood fire is kept constantly replenished. Over it stretches the crane on which the cook hangs his pot; and thus the fire answers the double purpose of warming and ventilating the dormitory and cooking the food of its inmates. The shanty-cook is an important member of the little community. Salt pork and beef, pease-soup, wheaten bread and tea, with potatoes, white beans, and onions, are the staple of the lumber-shanty fare. As a rule, intoxicating liquors are absolutely excluded; and thus provisioned the foreman selects the proper trees, and lumbering operations proceed throughout the winter. Many thousands of men are busy through the whole winter felling the trees, cutting them into logs, or hewing them into squared timber, and transporting them over the snow to suitable points for floating them down the rivers to the mills, or directly to the place of export. As the rivers are in many places interrupted by falls of a character unfitted to the safe passage of timber over them, large sums are expended in constructing timber-slides; and on some of the main channels, as on the Ottawa, the construction and maintenance of the chief timber-slides are undertaken by the Government.

It is erroneously supposed by many, who are unfamiliar with the character of the Canadian forest, that the work of the lumberer results in the clearing of the land. Only the finest full-grown trees are selected for the lumberer’s axe, and it is calculated that the same district may be gone over by the lumberer every twelve or fifteen years. Hence if the destructive fires which from time to time do such immense injury can be guarded against, and the operations of the lumberer are carried on with due care, under proper oversight, there is no reason why the forests of Canada should not remain a permanent source of national wealth.

In the new clearings in the vicinity of lumbering districts, the farmer finds a ready demand for all his produce, and employment for himself, his horses, and his oxen during the leisure of winter. In this way the lumbering business helps to promote the settlement of new districts, and attracts a population to localities which otherwise might long remain a wilderness. In tree-grant districts, aS in the Muskoka region on the Georgian Bay, where new settlers are engaged in their first hard struggle to transform the wilderness into fruitful farms, the earliest savings of the farmer are frequently expended on a yoke of oxen; and thus provided, his services are welcomed by the lumberers, and he can find profitable employment throughout the winter. On the breaking up of the frost in spring the produce of the winter’s lumbering is floated down the rivers. There, at suitable points on every available rapid or waterfall, large mills are erected for sawing up the logs, chiefly for the English and American markets. The squared timber for the foreign markets is put together in cribs and run down the rivers to suitable points, where they are formed into great rafts, and so floated down the lakes and rivers, as on the River St Lawrence to Quebec. There they are finally broken up, and shipped for their foreign destinations.

Few among the many sights which meet the eye of a voyager on the St Lawrence are more striking than one of those floating villages, consisting often of 150,000 cubic feet of timber, bound together into one great raft, with its shanties, its blazing fires, securely kindled on an earthen hearth, and its banners streaming in gala fashion, as it glides along. Much skill is required in piloting these rafts down the great rivers. The cribs floated from the far inland timber limits are collected into what are called drams; each dram has its own gang or division of the raft’s crew, and so many drams form a raft. But at every considerable rapid the raft is again broken up into its component parts, and the cribs taken down separately, to be again put together on reaching smooth water. Thus united, the raft moves onward with the current, aided at times by sail and oar, until it is safely secured within the booms of the great timber merchants in the coves above Quebec.

Animals. — Looking to the native fauna of Canada in an economic point of view, it is abundantly evident that the animal life of its seas and rivers is one of its great and inexhaustible sources of wealth. Alike on the sea-coasts, in the estuaries, and throughout its great inland lakes and rivers, the most valuable fish abound; and on the Labrador coasts and those of Newfoundland the seal fisheries are another annual source of wealth. The sturgeon is caught in Canadian waters, frequently weighing from 80 to 100 lb, the finest salmon abound both in the eastern rivers emptying into the Gulf of St Lawrence, and in those of British Columbia; lake trout is caught in large quantities weighing from 10 to 40 lb; and the smaller rivers and lakes teem with beautiful speckled trout, frequently weighing from 4 to 6 lb. The white fish and maskinonge are esteemed far their delicacy and richness of flavour; and the returns of the fisheries, as given in the separate accounts of the various provinces, show the relative abundance of cod, haddock, mackerel, herring, salmon, halibut, white fish, and other produce of the Canadian fisheries.

The returns of the last census show that in 1871 Canada produced 82,844 quintals of cod and haddock, and 685,272 barrels of fish of various sorts, besides 678,894 gallons of fish oil; and the total value of the produce of the fisheries exported during the fiscal year 1874 was $5,292,368. The quantities here stated are exclusive of the valuable fisheries of Newfoundland, which employ large fleets, and yield a corresponding return from cod, salmon, herring, mackerel, and other fish, from the oil of the whale and cod, and from seal-skins.

Neither British Columbia nor Manitoba has yet been brought within the provisions of the Fisheries Act; and the total yield of their fisheries can only be approximately estimated. Valuable oyster beds exist on the Pacific coasts of the Dominion. The salmon fishery promises, if rightly protected and regulated, to prove a valuable branch of industry. During the year 1873, 195 tons of salmon were canned for export; and 4000 barrels were salted. In the great lakes and rivers of Manitoba the white fish are no less abundant; and they constitute an important source of supply of food in certain seasons of the year throughout the whole North West. The total value of the yield of the fisheries of the Dominion for the year 1874 was estimated at not less than $11,000,000.

Canada has been esteemed from its earliest discovery for its valuable fur-bearing animals, and was prized chiefly on this account so long as it remained a dependency of France. In 1670 Charles II. granted the charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, whereby they acquired the exclusive right of trading with the Indians in the vast regions vaguely recognized as surrounding the great inlet from which the company took its name. In 1783 a rival company was established under the name of the North-West Company, which claimed that, as the Royal Charter of their rivals had not been confirmed by Parliament, all British subjects were free to engage in the fur trade of the NorthWest The results of the jealousies and hostilities of the two companies played an important part in the early history of Canada, and in the first attempts at settlement on the Red River, which paved the way for the rise of the new province of Manitoba. After many bitter contentions, and after impeding each other’s operations for years, the rival companies at length effected a junction in 1821; and the fur trade has since been successfully prosecuted under their joint action, till the acquisition by Canada of the northwest territory as a necessary step towards the prosecution of the plans of confederation, and the formation of new provinces throughout British America.

There still remains, however, not only a vast extent of unoccupied territory in which for many years to come the hunter and the trapper will find undisturbed sway, but the regions around the Hudson’s Bay, and stretching westward to Alaska and northward to the pole, must ever remain a shelter for fur-bearing animals, and a resort of the hunter. All the furs collected for the great fur company are shipped to London :—in part from their factories of York Fort and Moose River, on the Hudson’s Bay, which are visited by a ship from England every year, and in part from Montreal and Columbia River.

In the vicinity of Canadian clearings deer are still found in abundance, and venison is plentiful during winter in all the markets of Canada. But wherever the deer abound wolves are sure to follow; and wherever they occur sheep-farming is impossible, and their depredations on the farmer’s stock make them an object of special dislike. In order to encourage their extermination a premium is paid by Government for the head or scalp of each wolf produced to a local magistrate, and it is not uncommon in new districts for the settler to pay his taxes in wolf scalps. By this means they rapidly disappear from the neighbourhood of the settlements. The bear is another mischievous native of the Canadian forests. The winter furs both of the bear and the wolf are prized for robes; and their value furnishes an additional stimulus to the extirpation of both wherever the country is settled. Beyond the settlements, in the remote recesses of the uncleared forest, the beaver still abounds. Foxes of diverse kinds (silver, grey, red, and black), racoons, otters, fitches, martins, and minks are no less abundant. The musk rat is to be met with on all the Canadian rivers; and the red, black and grey squirrels sport everywhere in the forest, and at times even invade the clearings and make free with the farmers’ crops. In the more remote regions, now also being invaded by settlers, vast herds of buffalo are met with; and beyond them are the moose, the wapiti, the reindeer, the white Arctic fox and the polar bear, whose haunts are safe from the invasion of the settler, however rapidly the Dominion may extend, and carve out new provinces in the great wilderness of the North-West.

The total value of the furs exported from Canada in 1871 was $1,633,501. This is distinct from hides and other products of the farm. In the abstract of the value of goods, the growth, produce, and manufacture of Canada, exported from the Dominion during the fiscal year 1874, animals and their products are classed under one head, showing a total value of $14,679,169. This includes a classification of farm and dairy produce along with the products of the chase, the chief items of which may be stated as follows, the same being exclusive of all home consumption :— [table]

Cultivated Land and, Agricultural Products. — Canada is pre-eminently a country of yeoman farmers. The land is held in possession and tilled by the settler on his own account; and with every addition to the numbers of its industrious population fresh acres are recovered from the wilderness, and added to the productive resources and the wealth of the Dominion. The number of persons occupying land within the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario according to the census of 1871 was in all 367,862. Of these there were 324,160 owners, 39,583 tenants, and only 2119 farm labourers or servants. Those facts alone suffice to illustrate the striking contrast between the condition of Canada and most of the countries of Europe. By patient industry and frugality it is in the power of every Canadian to become owner of a house, and proprietor of whatever amount of land he can turn to profitable account; while the character of the population resulting from this condition of things checks the accumulation of extensive landed estates in the hands of single proprietors. The majority of the farms are small, tilled by the proprietor with his own hands, with the help of his sons and occasional hired labour in the busy season of harvesting. But capital is also successfully applied to farming, and beautiful large stock farms are now entering into rivalry with those of the United States and even of England. The following table shows the extent of holdings, and the subdivision of land :— [table]

The greater number of occupiers and owners of hold ings of ten acres and under are to be found in Quebec and the Acadian séttlements of the maritime provinces, where a continual subdivision goes on among families under the influence of old custom and the operation of the French law of inheritance. In Quebec the old French seigniories established and perpetuated a large class of landed proprietors with their tenant farmers; and notwithstanding the abolition of the seigniorial tenures in 1854, their influence still survives, so that the number of holders of land above 200 acres is greater in Quebec than in any of the other provinces. The climate and other attractions of Upper Canada tend to secure to it the largest share of immigration; and the rapidly increasing quantity of cultivated land in the province of Ontario is at once an evidence and a guarantee of the substantial progress of the country. In 1842 the population of Upper Canada numbered 486,055, with 1,927,816 acres of land under cultivation. In 1852 the population had increased to 952,004, and the land under cultivation to 3,697,724 acres. According to the census of 1871 the total population of Ontario, as it is now called, numbered 1,620,851, with 16,161,676 acres of land in process of improvement.

Besides the grand staple of the cereal grains, the Canadian farmer derives large returns from his crops of hay, clover, and grass seeds, carrots, mangel wurzel, beans, hops, flax, hemp, and tobacco. In 1852 Upper Canada produced 764,476 lb of tobacco, the greater portion of which was grown along the western shores of Lake Erie, and on the peninsula between that and Lake St Clair, where the soil and climate specially favoured its growth. At the same date Lower Canada produced 488,652 ĭb; but in 1871 the returns for the province of Quebec alone amounted to 1,195,345 lb of tobacco. Hops are cultivated with still greater success; and flax and hemp are additional sources of profit to the farmer. The value of the hops, flax, and flax seed exported during the year 1874 amounted to $ 161,9 08. The following tabular statement of the values of some of the chief agricultural products exported during the year 1874, apart from the amounts retained by Canada for home consumption, will suffice to illustrate the increasing value of this important branch of native industry:— [table]

The total value of the grain and other agricultural produce of Canada exported during the year 1874, apart from the produce for home consumption, was $19,590,142, of which Great Britain received to the amount of $9,867,047, the United States $8,680,997, and the remainder was distributed as shown here :— [table]

But a false estimate of the actual agricultural resources of Canada is apt to be produced by testing them by its exports. Canada is a country of yeoman farmers tilling their own lands and living in abundance on the produce. The requirements for the table of the farm labourer are on a scale consistent with the resources of the country. The home consumption is accordingly great as compared with the number of the population; and it is therefore impossible to estimate, even approximately, the total annual value of all kinds of produce resulting from agricultural labour within the Dominion.

Minerals. — The mineral resources of Canada have as yet been very partially developed. Quebec and Ontario are devoid of coal, though both have access by convenient transport to rich coal-fields in adjoining provinces or states; but the maritime provinces, Manitoba, the northwest territories, and British Columbia are all rich in coal. Other valuable mineral resources are still turned only to the most partial account; but as the work of the Geological Survey proceeds, new fields are opening up for enterprise every year. The rich silver ores of Lake Superior have already yielded wonderfully valuable results to the miners; and the neighbouring districts are now being carefully surveyed. Extensive tracts of gold-bearing quartz are also reported, and Mr Bell, who took the charge of the Geological Survey on Lake Superior in 1872, states that within the basin of the Neepigon, which extends to about 170 miles in length by 80 in breadth, the upper copper-bearing series obtains the greatest development. Distinct belts of rock extend from thence along the line of the lake coasts by Thunder Bay to Font du Lac; and in one of those, styled the Lake Shebandowan band, the gold-bearing rock is found. Gold-bearing veins are also reported to occur at Cross Lake on the Red River route; and far beyond the province of Manitoba, a rich copper region has long been known on the Mackenzie River.

As railways are extended, and the great project of a Canadian line from the St Lawrence to the Pacific is gradually made an accomplished fact, the resources of the regions traversed by it will be fully disclosed and turned to account. The vicinity of the great coal-fields of Pennsylvania and Michigan to Lake Erie and Lake Huron, must always give them an advantage in any competition for the supply of Ontario with fuel. But the development of the railway system of the Dominion cannot fail to render its own mineral resources available to a much larger extent, not only for home consumption but for exportation. The Intercolonial Railway has opened up an extensive country to the coal miners of Nova Scotia; and the like results will follow both in the north-west and in British Columbia, when the great coal-fields of those regions are traversed by roads and railways, and their fertile prairies and rich alluvial valleys are settled by an industrious population. At present Canada both exports and imports coal, though the imports as yet greatly exceed the exports. The total produce of the mines of Canada, including coal, exported during the fiscal year 1874 amounted in value to $3,977,216. The following tabular statement shows the present resources of the Dominion, and its dependence on external sources for its supply of coal :—

Canadian Export and Import of Coal for 1874. [table]

Trade of Canada. — The abstract of the value of the growth, produce, and manufactures of Canada, as shown by its exports, is classed in the official returns under six principal heads, viz., the mines, the fisheries, the forest, animals and their produce, agricultural products, and manufactures. The results show, by a comparison with the earlier statistics of the country, the rapid progress it has made in a single generation.

The trade of Canada at a period not very distant was confined chiefly to the exportation of furs, seal-oil, and timber, little exceeding £100,000 annually. Prior to the year 1759, when the country, with its population of 65,000 inhabitants, was transferred from the Government of France to that of England, the amount of its annual exports was £115,415. The principal trade was furs, in pursuit of which the great forests were traversed by bands of resolute adventurers. A few ships were occasionally built. Agriculture was neglected, if not actually despised.

Upon the acquisition of the country, however, by England, the cultivation of the soil attracted the attention of the settlers, and the germs of a trade sprung up which has now grown to be one of real magnitude and importance. In 1769 the exports in furs, oil, fish, &c., amounted to £355,000, and the imports in British manufactured goods and West India produce, reached £273,400. This trade employed seventy vessels; about twelve vessels were at the same period engaged in the fisheries of the St Lawrence, and about six were sent to the West Indies,

In 1799 and the three following years we find comparatively large exportation of grain taking place. In 1802, 1,010,000 bushels of wheat, 38,000 barrels of flour, and 32,000 cwts. of biscuit were sent abroad. The number of vessels at this period engaged in the trade of the colony was 211, the aggregate burden of which amounted to 36,000 tons. In 1809 the first steamboat appeared in the harbour of Quebec.

In 1809, 1810, and 1812, the trade of Canada, benefiting by increased duties levied upon Baltic timber imported into Britain, seems to have been comparatively active. In the first of these years 440 vessels, having an aggregate tonnage of 87,825 tons, arrived at Quebec.. In 1810 as many as 635 vessels arrived in the St Lawrence, with an aggregate tonnage of 138,057 tons; and in the same year 26 vessels, having a tonnage of 5836 tons, were built in the province. In 1812, 532 vessels, with a tonnage of 116.687 tons, cleared at the port, 37 of which had been built at Quebec.

The war which commenced in 1812 between the United States and Britain severely checked the commerce of the St Lawrence, which was greatly dependent upon the Americans. And, notwithstanding that Britain slightly relieved the import duties on wheat in favour of Canada in 1814, we find that the trade of the colony from 1810 to 1820 remained almost stationary. The aggregate tonnage which arrived at Quebec in 1820 (a more prosperous year, if shipping be taken as the criterion, than any of the proceeding ten) amounted only to 9697 tons over that of 1810. In 1810, 26 vessels had been built in the colony, and only 7 were built in 1820.

According to the old system of colonial monopoly, the St Lawrence was rigidly closed against the entrance of foreign vessels, nor was any Canadian vessel allowed to enter a foreign port. The prosperity of the colony during this period of its infancy was believed not to have been materially checked by these restrictions, as the mother country at all times afforded an outlet for its surplus produce. After the United States had achieved their independence, their vessels were excluded from the ports of the British colonies; and Canada, as a reward for its loyalty, received the exclusive privilege of supplying the West India Islands with timber and provisions.

In this manner, as the trade of Canada had been confined and shackled for the supposed benefit of the mother country, so now she was rewarded with compensating privileges to the direct injury of the sister colonies of the West Indies. The United States ports were the natural resorts of the West Indies for timber and provisions, their distance from these being about one-half less than the ports of the St Lawrence. But the additional freight, which on such bulky articles constitutes a great proportion of the expense, was not Only enhanced by this circuitous route, but the West Indies had to pay besides for transshipment upon what was supplied by the United States to Canada for the West Indian market. The West India planters were thus laid under contribution for the support of the Canadian shippers and farmers.

These regulations were, however, so far relaxed in favour of the West Indies in 1822, that the wheat and lumber of the United States were allowed to be imported directly on payment of certain duties; but at the same time duties were imposed upon agricultural produce entering the British American colonies as well as the West Indies.

The immediate result of this measure, so far as it affected Canada, was that one-half of the export trade of the St Lawrence was at once destroyed. The simultaneous abundance of the English harvest, together with the restrictions then in force upon the importation of grain into Britain, even from her own colonies, forbade any exports thither, and thus seriously aggravated the depression of Canadian commerce, and afforded another illustration of the ruinous policy of bolstering up one class by privileges and exemptions, and shackling another by restrictions and duties.

In 1825 Britain admitted Canadian flour and wheat into her ports at a fixed duty of 5s. sterling per quarter. Meanwhile a fresh trouble had already arisen to try the vexed fortunes of Canada. Previous to 1822, American exports had to a considerable extent sought the route of the St Lawrence, as if they had been of Canadian origin, contributing very materially, of course, to the benefit of the trade of the colony. But the opening of the Erie and Champlain canals in the United States, in 1825, drew off into a different channel those American exports which had formerly sought the Atlantic by way of Quebec, and the trade of the St Lawrence was thus seriously injured.

In 1826, however, the prospects again appeared to be brightening. The Americans were allowed, after four years of exclusion, to export timber and ashes for the British market into panada free of duty. The duty upon Canadian flour for the West India market was also reduced.

The trade of the colony likewise profited by the disputes between Britain and the United States, which led to the interdiction of the American export trade to the West Indies. This was reduced from £500,000 in 1826 to less than £500 in 1830. While the results were such to the United States, we find the trade of the St Lawrence in 1830 not only fairly recovered from the effects of the Imperial Acts of 1822, but far surpassing its position at any former period. The arrivals at Quebec in 1830 were 967 vessels, having a tonnage of 238,153 tons.

In 1831 the trade of the colony was still further favoured by the action of the Home Government. The forest and agricultural products of the United States were admitted into Canada free of duty, and could be exported by the StLawrence, as Canadian produce, to all countries except the United Kingdom. A differential duty was also at the same time imposed upon foreign timber entering the West Indian and South American possessions, greatly to the benefit of the colony, which also profited by the scarcity of food existing in Britain at this time. The arrivals at Quebec during this favoured and prosperous year, were 1016 vessels, with a tonnage of 261,218 tons; and the exports of flour and wheat by the St Lawrence were about 400,000 barrels, chiefly to Britain.

Between 1831 and 1836 we find a complete reversal of the order of trade between the colony and the mother country. The crops in England during that period being unusually abundant, and a scarcity of bread-stuffs existing in the United States, wheat was, in 1833, shipped from Britain to Quebec. A supply also came from Archangel. These imports from Europe to the St Lawrence amounted in 1835 and 1836 to about 800,000 bushels. The relaxation by the mother country of her protective policy in 1842 was viewed with alarm by the colonists as fraught with disastrous consequences to their interests. Up to 1842 Baltic timber had paid an English import duty of 55s. per load, while Canadian timber entered England upon payment of 10s. per load. The duty on foreign timber was now reduced to 30s. and Canadian to Is. per load. At the same time the free importation of United States flour into the colony was stopped, and the West Indies were allowed, on the payment of a duty of 2s. per barrel, to import their flour direct from the Americans.

These serious blows to the trade of the St Lawrence fell upon the colony at the period of a commercial crisis, and were therefore felt more severely. The number of vessels that entered the St Lawrence in 1842, from the sea, was 377 less than during the previous year.

In 1843, Canada was allowed to import American wheat under a comparatively nominal duty, and to export it through the St Lawrence as native produce to the British market. This measure, which may be viewed as having been the first indirect blow at the English corn-laws, amounted to a virtual premium of about 6s. sterling per quarter upon American exports to Britain through the St Lawrence. The British ports were thus at once in a great measure thrown open to all the great wheat-growing countries of North America. Canadian exports were rapidly swelled in consequence; and in 1846 half a million of barrels, and as many bushels of wheat and flour, were shipped by the St Lawrence. The timber trade of the colony, which was also seriously threatened in 1842 by the large reduction of the duty on Baltic timber imported into England, witnessed likewise in 1845 and 1846, not merely a revival, but a very material increase. The number of vessels that entered the St Lawrence rose to 1699 during each of these years, with an aggregate burden of over 620,000 tons,—this being a much larger amount of shipping than had ever in any previous year Λfered the St Lawrence.

The history of Canadian trade enters upon a new stage from 1846, when the commercial policy of England at length relaxed the old restrictive navigation laws in reference to her colonial possessions. One of the most practical evidences of its beneficial influence on Canadian trade is shown in the increase of its traffic with the United States, at the very time that its trade relations with the mother country were being annually augmented in a corresponding ratio. From 1821 to 1832, the aggregate annual traffic between the United States and Canada averaged no more than $3,257,153. From 1833 to 1845 the average increased, with the growing population, industry, and wealth of both countries, to $6,313,780 per annum. But under the influence of the more liberal policy inaugurated by Great Britain in 1846, the traffic rose between that year and 1853 so rapidly that its annual average amounted to $14,230,763.

But the concessions made by the mother country in favour of the timber and corn trade of Canada were still only partial. The exportation of colonial produce from the St Lawrence could Only be carried on in British vessels; and thus there grew up a class of vessels specially appropriated to this trade, which made only two voyages in the year to Quebec or Montreal; and these having a monopoly of the whole exports of the St Lawrence at privileged rates, the colony was virtually subjected to a heavy tax both on its exports and imports. Tea, coffee, sugar, and all the manufactured articles still required to be obtained from abroad were thus only obtainable through English ships; and hence the Canadian merchant was greatly restricted in the choice of the best and cheapest market. In return, however, the colonists had certain privileges accorded to them, foremost amongst which were those already referred to in connection with the import of wheat from the United States, and its export from the St Lawrence as native produce,—the Canadian merchants having an advantage thereby over their competitors in New York and other American ports.

The abolition of the British corn laws deprived Canada of the privileges thus accorded to her in the export of bread-stuffs, and seemed to threaten the trade of the St Lawrence with grievous discouragement at the very time when the transactions of the colony with the United States were in a great measure interdicted by a hostile tariff. The changed and more enlightened views, however, which entered into imperial legislation materially assisted the growing energies and intelligence of the colonists. The Imperial Government formally abandoned in 1847 all control over the customs of the colony, which immediately set itself to the task of regulating its own trade. One of the first measures of the colonial legislature was to abolish in a great degree the differential and prohibitory duties on colonial imports along the United States frontier; and the Americans upon the other side of the St Lawrence were by this measure placed, as 1 regards matters of trade, upon an equal footing with England. The beneficial effects of this measure showed itself at once in increased commercial activity and prosperity over the whole of Canada.

On the 1st of January 1850, England completed her free trade measures by relieving the colonies from the injurious effects of the British navigation laws. The value of the more enlightened views which thus entered into both imperial and colonial legislation has since been most satisfactorily tested in the growing wealth and prosperity which have attended the progress of the colony. The same year is memorable for other events affeoting Canadian progress. It was in 1850 that gold was first discovered in British Columbia, and coal at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island; and so the steps were accelerated which led to the organization of the first province of the Dominion on the Pacific. The same year was marked by the organization of the opposition to ecclesiastical endowments, as well as to other exclusive rights and privileges, which resulted in 1854 in the final settlement of the vexed questions of the clergy reserves and seigniorial tenures in Upper and Lower Canada. The Grand Trunk Railway, which had been commenced in 1847, was now hastening to completion. Nova Scotia had already its first railway; the important local line connecting the Georgian Bay with Toronto, was developing the resources of Upper Canada; and in the same year, 1854, the Great Western Railway was commenced. By this line Toronto is not only placed in direct communication with Detroit, Chicago, and the whole Western United States; but by the extension of the line from Hamilton to the vicinity of the Niagara Falls, and the construction there of a suspension bridge, on a grand scale, for railway as well as ordinary traffic, the Great Western Railway of Canada has become an important link in the main lines of transit from Boston and New York to the Western States. Since then the building of railways and the development of railway traffic have been energetically prosecuted. The Intercolonial Railway has been completed, as a material bond of union between the older provinces of Canada and the maritime provinces, and a route through Canadian territory, at all seasons, to the seaboard. This has been followed by the more comprehensive scheme of a Canadian Pacific Railway, the surveys for which have been already made; and its first links are now in process of execution. The actual mileage of the railways within the Dominion completed, up to the close of 1874, extended to 4022 miles. The following tabular view of the railway traffic returns for the two previous years will suffice to illustrate their influence on the rapid growth of Canada in recent years :— [table]

During the same period telegraphic lines of communication have been no less energetically prosecuted. At the end of 1874 the Montreal Telegraph Company had 23,267 miles of wire, and 1288 different offices; and to both additions are being rapidly made. The Dominion Telegraph Company, more recently organized, with its* head-office in Toronto, had at the same date 6000 miles of wire, connecting 300 different offices; and the British Columbia Telegraph, which was assumed by the Dominion Government, at the admission of British Columbia into the confederation, had already placed the head office at Victoria in communication with twenty-one offices, the remotest of which was then distant 557 miles.

No less important is the banking system of the Dominion. From the banking returns published in the Canada Gazette it appears that the banking capital has more than doubled since 1870, and this by a steadily progressive increase. The tables are imperfect, owing to some of the banks having omitted to make the requisite returns; so that, while the following tabular statement illustrates the progressive rate of increase, it falls short of the full amount :—

Banking Capital of Canada. [table]

Besides the Post-Office Savings Banks, established on the same principle as those in Great Britain, there are local and other savings banks, building and other societies,— and the admission of every new province adds to the number of such societies,—in all of which large amounts are deposited at interest, without accessible returns. The building societies advance funds for the erection of churches, halls, and other public buildings, as well as for private dwelling-houses; and the majority of the residents in cities and towns are proprietors of the houses which they occupy. The following tabular statement affords an illustrative view of the accumulating fruits of industry within the Dominion.

Bank Deposits. [table]

Summary. — The evidence of the prosperity, and growing wealth of Canada may be completed in a tabular view of its exports and imports for two successive years, as derived from the latest official returns. The immediate result of confederation was a rapid progress in many ways. New railways were projected and brought into operation; new lines of steamships were established; fresh avenues of native and foreign trade were diligently sought out; and a succession of prosperous years was marked by a steady commercial expansion which attained its maximum in 1873. Since that date various causes, and especially the difficulties created by an unredeemable paper currency in the neighbouring United States, have tended to bring about a reaction; but it is a mere temporary ebb of the advancing tide, in which the commercial world at large has shared.

The following is a reproduction σf a condensed comparative statement of the Commissioner of Customs, as given in the trade and navigation tables for 1874; to which are added from more recent unpublished returns, those of the year 1875, showing the influence of a period of reaction and great depression, alike on the exports and imports of the country. [table]

The apparent annual increase shown in the above table, is modified by the following elements, which must be taken into account. The first three years represent the business only of the first four provinces of the Dominion. Manitoba was received into the confederacy in 1871; and the statistics of that year include six months’ returns from the new province, amounting to $254,063 total imports, $286,337 entered for consumption, and $15,723'22 duty collected. In 1872 the exports of Manitoba were valuer at $85,541, the imports at $942,247, and entered for consumption, $1,020,172, on which $46,839'90 duty was collected. In the same year the returns for British Columbia appear as follows :—exports,$1,912,107; imports, $1,790,352; entered for consumption, $1,767,068; duty collected, $342,400'48. In 1874 the returns of Prince Edward Island give the following additional elements to swell the aggregate amount :—exports $722,129; imports, $1,908,522; entered for consumption, $1,913,696; duty collected $219,458'07. Deducting those sumsand values from the years named, there remains abundant evidence of a steady and rapid increase in the commerce of the four older provinces up to the year 1874, when the depression prevailing in the United States, in part due to reaction resulting from the effects of the southern war, began to be felt in Canada as well as in other countries. The great expansion which has taken place in the commerce of Canada since 1867, and the influence of the reaction of 1874, are shown in the following consecutive statement of the joint value of exports and imports for the years from 1868 to 1875 inclusive :—

Exnσrts and Imports. [table]

The relative wealth and progress of the different provinces of the Dominion will be illustrated by the following comparative table, showing the last year of nearly unchecked progress, and the first of reaction. It shows the value of the goods exported from, and entered for consumption in the Dominion, during the years ending the 30th June 1874 and 1875 [table]

Administration of Just) ce.— So long as Canada consisted of the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, even when united for legislative purposes they retained their diverse laws and distinct judicial systems, while the Privy Council of Great Britain constituted the final court of appeal for both. In the province of Quebec the old French law, which was introduced under Louis XIV., is still the basis of the law of property. There the tenure of property remained strictly feudal, until the settlement of the claims of the seigniories by the Act of 1854 brought the old system to an end. But before that was effected new townships had been surveyed, and land disposed of to settlers to be held in free and common soccage. The commercial law is regulated partly by the old French code, but modified by the English customs, and by later Canadian legislation. The criminal laws of England, and the right of trial by jury, were introduced by 14th Geo. Ill c. 83. Since then all additions to the criminal law, or modifications of the statutes, have depended on the Acts of the colonial legislature. The religion, laws, language, and customs of the French population were all guaranteed to them at the time of the cession of Canada to England; and the rights and privileges pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church, among a population regarding its creed as their national religion, help to perpetuate essential differences, by maintaining what is still practically an established if not a state church.

By the constitution of the Dominion, as embodied in the British North American Act of 1867, the criminal law, with the establishment, maintenance, and management of penitentiaries; all laws relating to bankruptcy and solvency, marriage and divorce, naturalization, aliens, Indians, and Indian reserves; and generally, all subjects not expressly assigned to the provincial legislatures, pertain to the Dominion parliament. The judges in all the provinces are appointed by the general Government; and the pardoning power is vested in the governor-general per sβ, whilst his authority in all other respects is exercised under the advice of his privy council, or ministers for the time being. The powers entrusted to the local legislatures include generally all strictly local legislation not affecting in any way the rights of other provinces. The judges by whom the laws are administered must in the case of Quebec be selected from the bar of that province; and the judges of the superior courts in all the provinces hold office during good behaviour, and are removable by the governor-general on address of both houses of Parliament.

The rights and privileges of each province being thus secured by its own parliament and courts of law, the provisions of the Act of Confederation have been completed by the establishment of a Supreme Court and Court of Exchequer at Ottawa, consisting of a chief justice and five other judges, two of whom, including the chief justice, have been selected from the bench of Ontario, two from the bench and bar of Quebec, and one each from the bench or bar of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The court thus constituted is the supreme and final court of appeal, from all the courts of law in the various provinces,—with this exception that, while no appeal lies from the Supreme Court at Ottawa to the Privy Council, litigants have still the right of choice between the two as their final court of appeal.

Education. — Almost from the first organization of Upper Canada as a separate province, steps were taken for providing means for the establishment of efficient schools and colleges. So early as 1797 a grant of 500,000 acres of the unoccupied lands of the province was set apart for the purpose of establishing and endowing a university and four royal foundation grammar schools. Of this one half was appropriated as a university endowment, and one-fourth of the remainder was granted to Upper Canada College, which assumed in Canada the functions of the great public schools of England, and still continues to hold its place at the head of the grammar or high schools of the province.

In the earlier years of Upper Canada, the “Clergy Reserves,” set apart originally for the support of a “Protestant” clergy, were appropriated exclusively by the ministers of the Church of England. Upper Canada became an archdeaconry of the diocese of Quebec; and the venerable Archdeacon Strachan, whose first labours in Canada had been as master of the Cornwall Grammar School, became the leader both in ecclesiastical and educational matters, and ultimately a privy councillor, member of the legislative council, and bishop of the diocese of Toronto. He was a man of great energy and decision of character; and under his guidance the lands set apart for the endowment of a provincial university were appropriated to the purpose, and a royal charter was granted by George IV. establishing at Toronto, or York, as it was then called, “one college, with the style and privileges of an university, for the education and instruction of youth and students in arts and faculties,” under the name of King’s College. The bishop of the diocese became, ex officio, visitor; and when at length the college was organized, it had its divinity faculty, and its professor of divinity, along with its daily religious services according to the use of the Church of England. The special denominational character thus given to the provincial university excited opposition, and led to the establishment of Queen’s College, at Kingston, under the control of the Church of Scotland, and of Victoria College, Cobourg, under the Wesleyan Methodist Church. To those have since been added Albert College, Belleville, under the management of the Episcopal Methodist Church; and Ottawa College, and Regiopolis CoHege, Kingston, in connection with the Church of Rome. All of those possess university powers, either by Royal Charter, or by Acts of the provincial legislature. By subsequent enactments the constitution of King’s College has been greatly modified. Its divinity faculty has been abolished, all denominational restrictions have been removed, and its functions divided between a university proper, modelled after the university of London, with a senate, on which devolves the fixing of the requirements for degrees, the appointment of examiners, and all other university work, as distinct from teaching. The latter is under the conduct and regulation of the professors, who constitute the council, of University College, and undertake all the duties of preparing the under-graduates for the university examinations in arts and science. Other colleges and schools, both in the faculty of arts and in those of law and medicine, are affiliated to the university, and part of the funds at the command of the senate is appropriated for scholarships, to be competed for at the examinations in the different faculties. On the passing of the Act of 1853, by which the divinity faculty and professorship were abolished, a royal charter was obtained for the establishment of Trinity College, in connection with the Church of England, with all the powers of a university

The system of public instruction for Ontario has hitherto been carried out under the direction of a permanent officer, styled the Chief Superintendent of Education, with the advice of the Council of Public Instruction, originally nominated by the Crown, but latterly including representatives of the universities, of the school inspectors, and the masters of high and public schools. But by a recent Act of the Ontario Legislature, the functions of the Council of Public Instruction have been transferred to a committee of the executive council; and the functions and duties of the chief superintendent are vested in one of its members, to be designated the Minister of Education. The introduction of the representative element into the Council of Public Instruction was immediately followed by a conflict between that body and the officers of the department in reference to various proposed modifications; and the changes now introduced aim at bringing the administration of the system of education more directly under the control of the people through their representatives.

There are two normal schools for the training of teachers, one at Toronto, and one at Ottawa; and it is proposed to establish others at Kingston and London. The high schools are divided into (1) collegiate institutes and (2) high schools for teaching classical and English subjects, and (3) high schools, in which instruction may be limited chiefly to English subjects. Of those there were 108 in all, including 8 collegiate institutes, in 1875, with an attendance of 8437 pupils.

The primary schools for junior pupils are styled public schools. The school population, including those between 5 and 16 years of age, was returned in 1874 as numbering 504,869. At the same date there were 4732 schools in full operation, with an attendance of 460,984 pupils. In all the above schools every feature of a denominational character is excluded. The collegiate institutes and high schools are under the control of trustees appointed by the county municipalities, and their maintenance depends on their share of the legislative grant and endowments, supplemented by the annual assessments of the city and county municipalities. The public schools are in like manner supported by legislative grants, and by assessments levied on the requisition of the school trustees in each school section. The essential feature of the whole system is that the people, directly or through their representatives, have the entire control of the schools, including the selection of the teachers, the fixing of their salaries, and the management of the school funds.

The one exceptional feature is the Roman Catholic separate schools. Any Roman Catholic can require his school-tax to be paid for the maintenance of the separate schools of his own church; and with this fund, supplemented from other sources, there were, in 1875, 170 separate schools in Ontario, with an average attendance of 11,123 pupils, or of 22,073 on the school rolls. According to the proportion of the Roman Catholic population, this is less than a third of their children of school age. A large proportion of the remainder attend the public schools. Masters of high schools are required to be graduates of universities, and to have had previous experience in teaching. Teachers of public schools must hold a normal school or other recognized certificate of qualification.

The principal features of the system of education thus brought into efficient operation have been modelled on those of the states of New York and Massachusetts, and on the normal schools of the Irish National Board of Education. The systems of the other Canadian provinces, with the exception of Quebec, have been framed on this model. In the last-named province, where the great mass of the people are Roman Catholics, the education is in the hands of the clergy, and is avowedly carried on in connection with the Church of Rome. But dissentient or Protestant schools are recognized as a part of the public school system; and the permanency of this state of things is guaranteed by a clause in the Act of Confederation, which excludes it from the interference of the general legislature.

General Remarks. — The position which Canada now occupies as a Dominion formed by a confederation of self-governing provinces, united under a central Government, with its own governor-general, cabinet ministers, senate, parliament, and supreme courts of law,—yet nevertheless remaining an integral part of the British Empire, and acknowledging the sovereignty of its Queen,—is unique in the history of nations, and strikingly illustrates the adaptability of British institutions to the novel requirements of a free people. The peculiar circumstances resulting from the union of a colony formed under the fostering restraints of French ecclesiastical and civil rule with one of purely English origin, and settled in part by loyalist emigrants from the United States, begot difficulties which were more and more felt as the mother country removed from Canada one after another of the restrictions on self-government. It will form an interesting chapter in the history of Britain in relation to her colonies, to note the freedom with which, when those of British North America had, as it were, attained their majority, they were left to frame a scheme of confederation suited to their circumstances; and when, after free deliberation, it had been matured to the satisfaction of those most directly interested in the results, the Imperial Government received it at their hands, and the British Parliament gave it the force of law. At the very period when this novel experiment in the history of colonization had been carried out to completion, and was open to the test of experience, the vice-regal duties were entrusted to the earl of Dufferin as governor-general of Canada. In the exercise of his duties he has visited many portions of the Dominion; and towards the close of an extensive tour in the summer of 1874, he thus gave expression to the results of his observations :—“Everywhere I have learnt that the people are satisfied,—satisfied with their own individual prospects, and with the prospects of their country; satisfied with their Government, and the institutions under which they prosper; satisfied to be the subjects of the Queen; satisfied to be members of the British Empire. Indeed, I cannot help thinking that, quite apart from the advantage to myself, my early journeys through the provinces will have been of public benefit, as exemplifying with what spontaneous, unconcerted unanimity of language, the entire Dominion has declared.its faith in itself, in its destiny, in its connection with the mother country, and in the well-ordered freedom of a constitutional monarchy. It is this very combination of sentiments, which appears to me so wholesome and satisfactory. Words cannot express what pride I feel as an Englishman in the loyalty of Canada to England. Nevertheless I should be the first to deplore this feeling, if it rendered Canada disloyal to herself,—if it either dwarfed or smothered Canadian patriotism, or generated a sickly spirit of dependence. Such, however, is far from being the case. The legislation of the Parliament of Canada, the attitude of its statesmen, the language of its press, sufficiently show how firmly and intelligently its people are prepared to accept and apply the almost unlimited legislative faculties with which it has been endowed; while the daily growing disposition to extinguish sectional jealousies, and to ignore an obsolete provincialism, proves how strongly the young heart of the confederated commonwealth has begun to throb with the consciousness of its national existence. At this moment not a shilling of British money finds its way to Canada; the interference of the Home Government with the domestic affairs of the Dominion has ceased; while the imperial relations between the two countries are regulated by a spirit of such mutual deference, forbearance, and moderation, as reflects the greatest credit upon the statesmen of both. Yet so far from this gift of autonomy having brought about any divergence of aim or aspiration on eit.inside, every reader of our annals must be aware that the sentiments of Canada towards Great Britain are infinitely more friendly now than in those early days when the political intercourse of the two countries was disturbed and complicated by an excessive and untoward tutelage; that never was Canada more united than at present in sympathy of purpose, and unity of interest with the mother country, more at one with her in social habits and tone of thought, more proud of her claim to share in the heritage of England’s past, more ready to accept whatever obligations may be imposed upon her by her partnership in the future fortunes of the empire.” (d. w.)