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It was in the age of a great English queen that England first recognized the fact that her mission was on the ocean, and it was then that her enter- prising sons first sought adventures in the mysterious West. Spain and Portugal had won a colonial empire from which they drew great treasures, the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, the silks and spices of the East, long before England had gained a foothold in the New World. Sebastian Cabot, it is true, had sailed along the shores of the northern continent even before Columbus touched the mainland of South America. Frobisher had ventured, many years later, among the icebergs and rocks of the North, and Raleigh and Gilbert had attempted to found a settle- ment in countries where, in the poetic language of those days, it was thought '* men live after tho manner of the golden age." By the close of the reign of Elizabeth, however, England did not own a single colony in the Western Hemisphere ; but the brilliant successes of Drake and Hawkins in the Spanish seas stimulated the pride and enterprise of Englishmen, and from the moment the Armada was scattered by the winds of heaven, the maritime supremacy of Spain began to pass to the foe she at once feared and hated. Spain, Portugal, and Holland were soon left behind in the competition for maritime and colonial dominion, and the conflict was eventually fought out between France and England on the continent of America. Jacques Cartier had discovered at an early date* the great valley of the St. Lawrence, and gave F'rance her claim to a vast territory. Several attempts were made to found settlements, but none succeed-^d until the first part of the seventeenth century. Both England and France entered about the same time on a career of colonization in North America. Champlain was already encamped with his little band of settlers on the picturesque heights of Quebec f when the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the rock-bo- nd coast of New England. Then, for a century and a half, the * In 1535 ! he reached Ilochelaga, m.w Montreal, 2d October in that year. Charlevoix, //is- toire de la N'ouvellc Fmnce, i., 17-19. f Champlain arrives at Ouebec (Stadacone) on the 3d July, i6o3, and laid the foundations, of the picturesque town. Charlevoix, i., 188, CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 415 colonies of England and France struggled for the mastery. The sturdy independence of the English colonists, accustomed to think and act for '.hemselves, left as a rule to govern themselves in accordance with the free instincts of Englishmen, was in decided contrast with the subserviency of the French colonists, kept constantly in trammels by the king and his ministers, who were always opposed to the merest semblance of local self- government. Under the influence of the freedom they enjoyed, and the energy and enterprise peculiar to a commercial and maritime people, the English colonists, who inhabited a relatively narrow strip of territory from Maine to Carolina, soon outnumbered the population of the struggling community th.it dwelt on the banks of the St. Lawrence. In the history of the French Canadian there is much to interest us. His patient endurance, his fidelity to his country, his adventurous life in the wilderness of the West, afford themes for poetry, history, and romance. The struggles of Champlain, the adventures of La Salle in the valley of the Mississippi, the exploits of the courcurs dc bois and gentlemen adventurers on the river and among the forests, the efforts of Frontenac and other French governors to found a new France on the continent, have already found in Parkman an eloquent and faithful historian. France dreamed once of founding a mighty empire which would stretch from the island of Cape Breton, or He Royalc, through the valleys of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, and the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and of eventually having the supremacy ir North America ; but the genius of Pitt relieved the English colonists of the fears they entertained with reason when they saw a cordon of forts stretching from Louisbourg to the heights of Quebec, to Champlain, Niagara, and the forks of the Ohio. With the fall of Quebec and Montreal in 1759-60, France left the New World to England,* and of all her former possessions she now retains only some insignificant islands off the southern coast of Newfoundland, where her fishermen continue to prosecute the fisheries as centuries ago before a European had founded a scttlem.ent in Canada. The conflict with F" ranee had done much to restrain the spirit of self-assertion among the English colonists, and to keep them dependent on England ; but at the same time it had showed them their power, and taught them to have much more confidence in their own resources as a people. The capture of the formidable fortress of Louisbourg, one of the triumphs of Vauban's engineering skill, by the New England volunteers under Pepperrell, and the fleet under Shirley, was the principal incident in their history which showed the people their strength, and nerved them to * The Treaty of Paris, which closed the Seven Years' War, and gave up Canada forever to England, was signed on the loth of February, 1763. I'arkman's yJ/ow/ta/w and Wolfe, ii., 407, f<'^ 416 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA enter into what must have seemed to many a hopeless struggle with Eng- land. The fall of Quebec maybe considered the first step in the direction of the independence of the old English colonies. When the war of independence was over, Canada was only a sparsely settled country, in which the French Canadians were very largely in the ma- jority. In Nova Scotia. New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island there was a small English population, chiefly composed of United Empire Loyal- ists.'^^ A considerable number of the same class came over from the United States and settled in the Eastern Townships of French or Lower Canada, and in the province of Upper or Western Canada. During the war of independence the French Canadians resisted all attempts that were made to induce them to unite their fortunes with the revolted colonies. The British Government and Parliament had seen the necessity of conciliating the conquered people, and had passed, in 1774, what is known as the Quebec Act,t which gave additional guarantees to that nationality for the security of their property, and the preservation of their language, religion, and institutions. Owing in a great measure to this conciliatory policy, and to the efforts of the priests, who have always been firm friends of British rule, the French people of Lower Canada remained faithful to the King of Eng- land, and the history of those times records the death of the brave Mont- gomery and the defeat of his troops, deluded by the belief that Canada would be an easy conquest as soon as the invaders set foot within its limits.:}: With the settlement of Upper Canada by the Loyalists and the Eng- lish population that subsequently flowed into the country, it was thought advisable to establish two provinces, in which the French and English elements would be kept separate and distinct. § With the light that experience has given us in these later times it was a great mistake in the opinion of many statesmen to have isolated the races, and by hedging in the French at the very commencement of their history, to have prevented the gradual absorption of all nationalities into one great English-speaking people. Parliament formed a legislature for each province, and wished the people of Canada God speed in the new experiment of government on which they were entering. No doubt can exist as to the sincerity and good * In 17S4 there were in Upper Canada 10,000 U. E, Loyalists ; in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick, 20,000. In 1790, the population of Canada was 161,311, of whom 120,000 were French. —Census of Canada, 1S71. f Imperial Statute, 14 Geo. III., c. 83. X Montgomery made his attack on Quebec on the night of the 30th December, 1775. Gar- neau, iii. 5. g Constitutional Act, 1791, or 31 Geo. III., c. 31. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 417 wishes of the English statesmen of those days, but it cannot be said they always builded with wisdom. In the first place, they erected a structure of provincial government which was defective at its very foundation. There was an entire absence of institutions of local government in French Canada,* of that system which from the earliest period in the history of the old English colonics enabled them to manage their local affairs. May it not be said with truth that England herself has received no more valu- able heritage than that system of local self-governmeni which, cumbrous and defective as it may have become in the course of centuries, can be traced back to those free institutions in which lay the germs of English liberty and parliamentary government ? But in Canada there was no semblance of township or parish govern- ment, as in New England or even in Virginia. The people of Canada were called upon to manage the affairs of a state before they had learned those elements of government which necessarily existed in the management of the local affairs of every community, whether it were town, township, or village. It was, indeed, surprising that a people like the French Canadians, unaccustomed to Parliamentary institutions, or local self government in its most elementary form, should in the early stages of their legislative his- tory have shown so much discretion. As a matter of fact, they discharged their functions for a while with prudence and set to work to understand the principles on which their system of government rested. For some years the machinery of government worked fairly enough, and the public men of both provinces performed much useful legislation. The war of 181 2-1 5, in which Canada performed her part with credit, in a measure pre- vented any outbreak of political conflict, since all classes of people recog- nized the necessity of uniting at such a crisis to defend their homes and country. But, when peace was proclaimed and the legislatures were relieved from the pressure that the war had brought upon them, the politicians again got the upper hand. The machinery of government became clogged and political strife convulsed the country from one end to the other. An " irrepressible conflict " arose between the government and the gov- erned classes, especially in Lower Canada. The people v/ho, in the days of the French regime, were without influence and power, had learned, un- der their new system, defective as it was in essential respects, to get a very correct insight into the operation of representative government as under- stood in England. They found they were governed not by men responsible to the legisla- * See Lord Durham's Report, p. 35 ; Eourinot's Local Government in Canada j Johns Hopkins University Studies of Political Science. 4i8 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA turc and the people, but by governors and officials who controlled both the executive and legislative councils. If there had always been wise and patient governors at the head of affairs, or if the Imperial authorities could always have been made aware of the importance of the grievances laid before them, or had understood their exact character, the differences between the government and the majority of the people's representatives might have been arranged satisfactorily. But, unhappily, military gov- ernors like Sir James Craig only aggravated the dangers of the situation, and gave demagogues new opportunities for exciting the people. One cannot but feel that the Imperial government as a rule were sincerely de- sirous of meeting the wishes of the people in a reasonable and fair spirit, but, unfortunately for the country, they were too often ill-advised and ill- informed in those days of slow communication, and public discontent was allowed to seethe until it burst forth in a dangerous form. In all the provinces, but especially in Lower Canada, the people saw their representatives practically ignored by the governing body, their money expended without the authority of the Legislature, and the coun- try governed by irresponsible officials. A system which gave little or no weight to public opinion, as represented in the house elected by the people, was necessarily imperfect and unstable, and the natural result v/as a dead- lock between the legislative council controlled by the ofificial and governing class and the body elected by the people. The governors necessarily took the side of the men they had themselves appointed, and with whom they were acting. In the maritime provinces, in the course of time, the gov- ernors made an attempt to conciliate the popular element by bringing in men who had influence in the Assembly, but this was a matter entirely within their own discretion. The system of government was generally worked in direct contravention of the principle of responsibility to the majority in the popular house. Political agitators had abundant oppor- tunities of exciting popular passion. In Lower Canada, Papineau, an eloquent but impulsive man, having rather the qualities of an agitator than those of a statesman, led the majority of his compatriots. For years he contended for a legislative council elected by the people, for it is curi- ous to note that none of the men who were at the head of the popular party in Lower Canada ever recognized the fact, as did their contempo- raries in Upper Canada, that the difficulty would be best solved, not by electing an upper house, but by obtaining an executive which would only hold ofifice whilst supported by the majority of the representa<^ives in the people's house.* In Upper Canada, the radical section of the Liberal * Lord Durham's Report, p. 47. - - CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 419 party was led by Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie, who fought vigorously against what was generally known as the Family Compact, which occupied all the public offices and controlled the Government. In the two provinces, these two men at last precipitated a rebellion, in which blood was shed and much property destroyed,* but which never reached any very extensive propor- tions. In the maritime provinces, however, where the public grievances were of less magnitude, the people showed no sympathy with the rebel- lious elements of the upper provinces. The agitation for responsible gov- ernment in those colonies was led by Mr. Joseph Howe, who, in the course of his public-life, was always animated by truly loyal British feelings, and was never influenced by passion to step beyond the limits of legitimate constitutional agitation. Such was the political situation in Canada when Queen Victoria ascended the throne.f If we survey the general condition of things in those troublous times, the prospect was not encouraging. The total popu- lation of the two provinces did not exceed one million souls, of whom nearly one-half were French Canadians. Trade and commerce were quite paralyzed by the political discontent which had existed for years, and had already broken out into rebellion. The value of the whole trade of British North America— that is, of the imports and exports in the aggregate — was about twenty-five million dollars. The principal trade was in fish and lumber, for the export of which a considerable number of vessels was yearly built in the maritime provinces. Not more than four or five banks existed, and none of them had a large capital except the old Bank of Mon- treal, which has always been the most important monetary institution of this continent. The total revenue at this time could not have gone beyond seven hun- dred thousand dollars, and in more than one province the revenue was insufficient to meet the legitimate expenses required for public works and other necessary improvements. In Upper Canada the situation was ex- tremely serious. In consequence of the construction of public works, commenced in the infancy of the colony, a debt of five million dollars had been accumulated when the whole revenue did not reach three hundred thousand dollars, and was inadequate to pay the interest. A financial *The rebellion in Lower Canada broke out in 1837. Sir John Colborne was in chief com- mand of the forces, and soon quelled the rebellion. Garneau, iii. 341, et seq. In Upper Canada, Sir F. Bond Head was Lieutenant-Governor, and the attempt at rebellion broke out in December, 1837. See Lindsey's Life of W. Z. Mackenzie, vol. ii., c. 4. t Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne of England June 20, 1837. See J. McCarthy's History of Our Own Times, vol. i. , c. I. 420 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA crisis in the United States had led the banks to suspend specie payments, and aggravated the difficulties of the commercial situation in Canada. The banks of Lower Canada found it necessary to follow the example of similar institutions in the American republic, though those of the upper province, to their credit, successfully lided over the crisis, and materially lessened the weight of financial embarrassment. The total production of wheat was not beyond five million bushels, of which nearly four-fifths at that time was raised in French Canada. The French habitants carried on their agri- cultural operations with little energy or skill, and from their ignorance of the system of the rotation of crops and of the true principles of farming, were rapidly impoverishing the soil, so that in the course of a few years their wheat crop diminished, and its quality became much inferior. Their farms were on the banks of the St. Lawrence — deep, narrow strips — and their houses were crowded as near the river as possible, as affording the most satisfactory means of communication in early times between the settlements. The most noteworthy buildings were those belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, which then, as now, dominated the province. The system of land tenure in French Canada was not one calculated to stimu- late industry and develop the country. In early days the seigniorial tenure, established by Richelieu,* with the idea of founding a Canadian noblesse and encouraging settlement, had had some advantages. It was the feudal system modified to suit the circumstances of a new country. It made the seigneur and the habitant, ox censitaire, equally interested in the cultivation of the soil. The dues and obligations under which the censitaire held his land were in early times by no means onerous. The seigneur was obliged to cultivate and settle certain portions of his land at the risk of losing it within a fixed period, a penalty frequently enacted under the French rt^gime. He had to erect a mill for the grinding of grain raised in the dis- trict, a great convenience to the habitants in early times. But the system grew to be burdensome as the country became more populous. The seigniorial exactions were found more troublesome and the difficulties that arose in connection with the disposal of lands in the numerous seigniories gradually retarded settlement and enterprise in the province. In fact, the system under which lands were granted throughout Canada was not adapted to the encouragement of settlement. With the view, probably, of establishing a state church the Imperial government had granted large reserves f which were in the hands of the clergy of the Church of England, and much discontent had consequently arisen among * Parkman's Old Regime in Canada, p. 244. f By the Quebec Act, 1 774. See Christie, i., 122. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 421 of all other Protestant denominations. Large tracts had also been set apart for loyalists and military men in different parts of the province. The natural consequence of thi;. extravagance was, that some of the most valua- ble districts of Upper Canada were kept idle and profitless for many years. The little island of Prince Edward had been nearly all granted away by ballot* to a few landlords in a single day, and until recent times f its pro- gress was retarded by a land question which always created much discon- tent and prevented settlement. The means of communication in each province were very inferior in the absence of any liberal system of munici- pal institutions, and in consequence of the large districts owned by absen- tee proprietors or by the Church. If a road or bridge was required in Lower Canada, it was necessary to apply to the Legislature. Things were a little better in Upper Canada, where there was a system of local taxation which, imperfect as it was, enabled the people in a county to make minor improvements. Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, St. John and Toronto were the only towns of importance, and the population of the first, then as now the commercial metropolis of British North America, did not exceed forty thousand; while their aggregate population probably reached one hundred and twenty thousand souls. The streets of all of them were either ill- lighted, or left in darkness, and without pavements. The public buildings, as a rule, had no architectural pretensions. A few colleges and grammar schools had been established where the sons of the well-to-do classes could obtain an excellent classical and English education for those times. The religious communities of Lower Canada at an early period in the history of the country had established institutions where the youth of both sexes could receive certain educational advantages. But the state had not in any degree intervened successfully in the establishment of a system of popular education. The whole public expenditure for common and district schools in Upper Canada was a little above forty thousand dollars a year, and these schools were very inferior in every respect. The masters in many cases in this province — to which I refer especially, since now it stands above all others in the characte*- of its educational progress — were ill-paid, ill-edu- cated men who, having failed in other pursuits, resorted to teaching as their last hope. Many of them were illiterate citizens of the United States, who brought anti-British ideas into the country, and ta ight their pupils out of American text-books, in which, of course, prominence was given to * Campbell's History, p. 18. ■f-The land question was not finally settled until the union '.vith Canada in 1873. See Todd's Parliamentary Government in the Colonies, 352-4. <122 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA American history and institutions. In 1838-9 there were in all the public and private schools of British North America only some 92,000 young people out of a total population of one million four hundred and forty thousand souls, or about one in fifteen. The administration of justice in all the provinces, except in Lower Canada, was on the whole satisfactory for a new country, where the hi. 142. OUR PRESIDENTS AS HORSEMEN 493 ality bt as irles ter.f sell, licy, the self, heir the rial, new lich is of II be ' the caused his financial ruin. Ward took them, says Harrison, into the couii- try and sold them. At least, the General was never abie to get hold of them again. President Arthur had a number of good horses in his stables, and he seldom drove about Washington without a coachman in livery. During the latter part of his term, his doctors advised him to take horseback rides, and he did this for a time. When he left the White House his horses were sold, and his coach-horses brought two hundred and eighty dollars, and a bay horse only one hundred and forty-five dollars. A black mare, said to have been the fastest horse then in the District of Columbia, sold for as much as the other three horses combined, and her owner was of- fered five hundred dollars for his bargain shortly after the sale, but he de- clined to part with her. President Cleveland rides out in his carriage every afternoon. His coachman is the Albert Hawkins above spoken of, a tall, fine-looking colored man, who sits as straight as a post, and who is dressed in a livery the color of chamois-skin and trimmed with silver buttons. The President's coach- horses are seal brown in color. They have flowing manes and tails, and are about six or seven years of age. They are about sixteen hands high, weigh two thousand three hundred pounds, and were bred in Onondaga County, New York. The President's countr}^ home :s three mile.; fiom the White House, and the drive to it is one of the most beautiful about Washington. Nearly every afternoon the President and his wife drive out toward it, and at other times in the day you may often see Mrs. Cleve. land and her lady friends dashing along the country roads about Wash- ington. President Cleveland seldom rides on horseback, and his carriage drives have been practically the only exercise he has taken since he has been President of the United States. -tV^u^-^-A^^. (j*.XtJuA^ y CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA A SHORT HISTORICAL REVIEW IN TWO PARTS Part II England, in harmony with that Hberal policy toward her colonies, which was inaugurated in the first decade of the Victorian era, has gener- ously assisted in the mov^ement that has been steadily going on for many years in the direction of the unity and security, as well as of the social and political development, of the provinces of British North America.* First, there was the reunion of the Canadas in 1841, when the French and English sections were given an equal representation in one legislature.f Then followed, between 1841 and 1849, the concession of responsible government in the fullest sense of the term, and the handing over to Can- ada the control of her public revenues and taxes, to be expended in accordance with the wishes of the majority in the popular house. At the same time came the repeal of the Navigation Laws, which had fettered colonial trade since the days of Cromwell. The post-oflfice was given up to the Canadian government, and in fact, all matters that could be fairly considered to appertain to their provincial and local interests were placed under their immediate legislative jurisdiction. The Canadian legislature, under the new impulse of a relatively unfettered action, went vigorously to work to lay the foundations of a municipal system as indis- pensable to the operations of local self-government. The troublesome land question, involved in the Seigniorial Tenure, was settled, after much agita- tion, on terms favorable to vested interests, while the clergy Reserves were also arranged so as no longer to favor one church at the expense of others, or to impede the progress o*" settlement and cultivation. The union of the Canadas lasted until 1867, \vhen it had outgrown its usefulness, and the provinces found it necessary to enter into a federation, which had been foreshadowed by Lord Durham and advocated by many eminent men even before his time. *3 and 4 Victoria, c. 35. Lord John Russell introduced the bill to reunite the Provinces in 1840. It was assented to on the 23d July, but did not come into effect until the following year. jThe Quebec Confere- e of the leading statesmen of British North America met on the loth of October, 1864. The T itish North America Act, creating the Dominion, was passed by the Imperial Parliament in March, 1867. The Union came into operation 1st July, 1867, by the Queen's Proclamation. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 495 |nies, mer- The results of the development of Canada since 1841 may be divided for the purposes of this review into the following phases : Territorial Expansion. Increase of Population and Wealth. Political Development. Social and Intellectual Progress. National Unity. From 1 841 to 1867 the provinces of British North America remained isolated from each other as distinct political entities, only united by the tie of a common allegiance to one sovereign. Their political organization was confined to the country extending from the head of Lake Superior to the countries watered by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. Of these provinces Ontario was the most populous and the richest in agricultural wealth, although it has not as great an area as the province of Quebec, where a more rigorous climate and large mountainous tracts — the hills of the Laurentides — have rendered the country less favorable for ex- tensive and productive farming operations. A very considerable portion of Ontario, even in those days, was a wilderness, and the principal culti- vated tract extended for a few miles from the St. Lawrence, and the most populous settlements lay between Ontario, Erie, and Huron. The Con- federation of 1867 brought four provinces into one territorial organization for general or Dominion purposes — Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick — and it was not until 1873 that little Frince Edward Island, the garden of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, united its political fortunes with those of the young Confederation.* Efforts were made to bring in Newfoundland, but purely selfish local considerations prevailed in that island over the national sentiment ; though the unwisdom of the course pursued by the islaiid politicians has become evident according as the fishery question vith the United States comes up from time to time, and it is now quite clear that this large colony, the Prima Vista of the North, the senti- nel at tne portals of Canada, must ere long fall into line with its sister colonies in North America. One of the most important results of confed- eration in its early days was the annexation by the Dominion of that vast tract of country which up to that time had been almost exclusively in the possession of the Indians and the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company — that region well described by General Butler as " the Lone Land," over whose trackless wastes French adventurers had been the first to pass — a * An Imperial Order in Council was ;jai3:>K.v,, declaring that after the 1st July, 1873, the island should form part of the Dominion. Can. Utat., 1873, p. ix. 49^ CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA region of prairies, watered by great rivers and lakes, over whose western limits tower the lofty, picturesque ranges of the Rockies.^ Next came into confederation the province of British Columbia,! which extends from the Rockies to the waters of the Pacific Ocean— a country with a genial climate, with rapid rivers teeming with fish, with treasures of coal and gold, with sublime scenery only rivaled by California. In the course of years a new province was formed in the North-west, watered by the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and territorial districts, as large as European states, arranged for purposes of government out of the vast region that now, with the sanction of the imperial authorities, has been brought under the jurisdiction of the Government of Canada. Within a period of twenty years Canada has stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and a terri- tory placed under her control very little inferior in extent to that of the great republic to the South, and containing within itself all the elements of a prosperous future. It is, unhappily, true that this result was not achieved until blood had been shed and much money expended in crush- ing the rebellious half-breeds led by the reckless Riel,:}: but apart from this sad feature of Canadian history this important acquisition of territory, the first step in the formation of an empire in the West, has been attained under circumstances highly advantageous to the Dominion. Canada now possesses an immense territory of varied resources : the maritime provinces, with their coal, fish, and shipping, together with a valuable, if limited, agri- cultural area, not yet fully developed ; the large province of Quebec, wich ranges of mountains on whose lower slopes, when denuded of their rich timber, may graze thousands of cattle and sheep, with valuable tracts of meadow lands, capable of raising the best cerealsj and already supporting some of the finest cattle of the continent ; the rich province of Ontario, which continues to be the chief agricultural section of the Dominion, and whose cities and towns are full of busy industries ; the vast North-west region, still in the very infancy of its development, destined to give the confederation several provinces outside of Manitoba, as large and pro- ductive as Minnesota, and to be the principal wheat-growing district of Canada; and, finally, the province of British Columbia, whose mountains are still rich with undeveloped treasures, and whose mild chmate invites a * The North-west v as transferred on certain conditions to Canada by an act passed by the Im- perial Parliament in July, 1868 ; 31 and 32 Vict., c. 105. f British Columbia was admitted by Imperial Order in Council in 1871. Can. Stat., 1872, p. Ixxxiv. X The first revolt of the half-breeds, or Metis, of Manitoba, was in 1869 ; the second in the spring of 1885 ; Riel was executed in the fall of 1885. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 497 considerable industrious population to cultivate its slopes and plateaus, and till its deep-sea pastures. The population which inhabits this vast territory is confined chiefly to the countries by the great lakes, the St. Lawrence, and the Atlantic Oct^an. A considerable number of people has within a few years flowed into the North-west, where the province of Manitoba is exhibiting all the signs of a prosperous agricultural country, and its capital, Winnipeg, has grown up in the course of sixteen years into a city of some twenty thousand souls. The population of the whole Dominion may now be estimated at nearly five millions of souls, and has increased about five times since 1837. Of this population one million and a quarter are the descendants of the seventy or sixty-five thousand people who were probably )''ang in the French province at the time of the conquest (1759-60). The remainder of the population is made up of English, Scotch, and Irish. The immigration of late years has been small compared with that which has come into the United States, and consequently at present the natnral-born population amounts to about 85.90 per cent, of the whole.* The people of Canada have already won for themselves a large amount of wealth from the riches of the land, forest, and seas. The total value of the imports is now about one hundred and ten million dollars, and of exports, ninety million dollars, or an aggregate of two hundred million dollars a year, an increase of one hundred and seventy-five million dollars within half a century. Of this large trade at least forty million dollars represent the products of the farms. The province of Ontario now raises over twenty-seven million bushels of wheat alone, or an increase of over twenty-six millions since 1837. The people have deposited in government savings banks, leaving out of the calculation the ordinary monetary institutions of the country, about one hundred and eight million dollars, made up of about one hundred thousand deposits, belonging to mechanics, farmers, and peo- ple of limited means. For years the only industries of importance were the building of ships, the cutting of timber, and a few ill-supported manu- factures of iron, and various hard and soft wares. Now there are upward of one hundred and seventy million dollars invested in manufactures, chiefly of cotton and woolen goods, of which the coarser fabrics com- pete successfully with English goods in the Canadian market, t.-'^n crowd- ing out certain classes entirely. Some fourteen lines of ocean sttnmers run annually to the port of Montreal, which now has a population of one hundred and eighty thousand souls. Toronto comes next in population, about one hundred and twenty thousand ; whilst the other cities, like Hali' * Statistical Abstract and Record, Canadian Government, p. 60. Vol. XVII.-No. 6.-34 498 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA fax, St. John, Quebec, Ottawa, Hamilton, and London, range from sixty thou- sand to thirty thousand. The aggregate of the population of the cities and towns with over five thousand population amounts to some seven hundred and fifty thousand souls, or two-thirds of the total population of Canada in 1840. The total revenue of the Dominion, apart from the local and pro- vincial revenues, is about seventy-eight million dollars a year, raised mainly from customs and excise duties, which are high, owing to the national or protective policy, although much lower than those on similar goods in the United States. If the expenditures of Canada of late years have been very large, they have been caused by the rapid development of the country, and by the necessity of providing rapid means of intercommunication for trade and population in a country extending between *-wo oceans. Canals, light-houses, the acquisition and opening up of the North-west, and gov- ernment buildings, have absorbed at least one hundred and fifty-eight million dollars since 1867, and it is not remarkable, under these circum- stances, that a gross debt has been accumulated within half a century of two hundred and sixty-four million dollars, against which must be set valuable assets in the shape of buildings and public works necessary to the progress of a new country. The public buildings, churches, and uni- versities display within a quarter of a century a g'"eat improvement in archi- tectural beauty, whilst the homes of the people show, both in the interior and exterior, decided evidences of comfort, convenience, and culture. In- stead of the fourteen miles of railway which existed in 1837, there are now about eleven thousand miles in actual operation, affording facilities for trade and commerce not exceeded by any country in the world. One of these railways, the Canadian Pacific, which reaches from Quebec to Vancouver, on the Pacific Ocean, is the most remarkable illustration of railway enterprise evei- shown by any country, certainly without a parallel for rapidity of construction even in the United States, with all its wealth, population, and commercial energy. These railways represent an investment of nearly seven hundred million dollars, in the shape of capital stock, municipal and government bonuses. These are some of the most remarkable evidences of material development which Canada has exhibited within fifty years. All those who wish to pursue the subject further need only refer to the blue books to see that the fisheries, the timber trade, and the agri- cultural products of Canada have all increased at the same ratio, notwith- standing commercial crises, bad harvests, and depression produced in cer- tain branches of industry by the policy pursued toward the Dominion in connection with the fisheries. When we consider that the United States has received the great bulk of immigration for half a century, and that it CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 499 ■■a is only quite recently that a deep interest has been taken in the develop- ment of the Dominion by the people of Europe, it is remarkable that in every branch of trade and industry so steady a progress has been made during the reign. In a new country like Caimda one cannot look for the high culture and intellectual standard of the old communities of Europe. But there is even now in Canada an intellectual activity which, if it has not yet produced a distinct literature, has assumed a practical and useful form, and must, sooner or later, with the increase of wealth and leisure, take a higher range, and display something of the beauty and grace of literary productions of world-wide interest and fame. The mental outfit of the people compares favorably with that of older countries. The universities of Canada. McGill in Montreal, Laval in Quebec, Queen's in Kingston, Dalhousie in Halifax, and University College, in Toronto, stand deservedly high in the opinion of men of learning in the Old World and the United States, whilst the grammar and common school system, especially of Ontario, is creditable to the keen sagacity and public spirit of the people, who are not behind their cousins in New England in this particular. We have already seen the low condition of education fifty years ago — only one in fifteen at school ; but now there are nearly one million of pupils in the educational institutions of the country — or one in five ; at a cost to the people of upward of ten million dollars, contributed for the most part by the taxpayers of the dif- ferent municipalities in connection with which the educational system is worked out. In Ontario the class of school-houses is exceptionally good and the apparatus excellent, and the extent to which the people tax them- selves may be ascertained from the fact that the legislature only con- tributes annually some two hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars out of the total expenditure of about four million dollars. In French Canada there is an essentially literary activity which has produced poets and historians, whose works have naturally attracted not a little attention in France, where the people are still deeply interested in the material and intellectual development of their old colony. The names of Garneau, Ferland, Frechette, and Suite especially are recognized in France, though they will be unfamiliar to most Englishmen, and even to Americans, who are yet quite ignorant of the high attainments of French Canadians, of whom Lord Durham wrote, in 1839, " they are a people with- out a history and without a literature"* — a statement well disproved in these later times by the works of Parkman, and by the triumphs of men like Frechette in Paris itself. The intellectual work of the English-speak- * Report, p. 95. 500 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA ing people has been chiefly in the direction of scientific, constitutional, and historical literature, in which departments they have shown an amount of knowledge and research which has won for many of them laurels outside of their own country. In the infancy of the United States, works like the Federalist, with its wealth of constitutional and historical lore, naturally emanated from the brains of publicists and statesmen. In laying the foun- dation of a great nation, the learning and wisdom of the best intellects were evoked ; and it has been so, in a measure, in Canada, where the work- ing out of a system of government adapted to the necessities of countries with distinct interests and nationalities has developed a class of statesmen and writers with broad national views, and a large breadth of knowledge. The works of writers like Mr. Todd, and the speeches of statesmen like Mr. Joseph Howe, are noteworthy ; the former for their constitutional erudition, which make them useful to the student in every part of the empire ; the latter for their eloquent and patriotic passages, and that national fervor which should animate the thoughts of all those engaged in building up a new nation. On all occasions when men have risen beyond the passion and narrowness of party, the debates of the legislature have been dis- tinguished by a keenness of argument and by a grace of oratory — espe- cially in the case of some French Canadians — which would be creditable to the Senate of the United States in its palmy days. In science, the names of Sir WilMaiii Dawson and Dr. Thomas Sterry Hunt are well known in the parent state, and wherever science has its votaries and followers. The names of English Canadian poets will not be recognized to any great ex- tent abroad, and yet there are several who have produced poems well worthy of a more general reputation, and who, under the inspiration of a wider field of culture and of that encouragement too much lacking in this prosaic Canada of ours, might have won a respectable place among their famous contemporaries. In romance, nothing remarkable has been done, while Sam Slick, the Clockinaker, is still the only noteworthy evidence we have of the existence of humor among our practical people, and his ''wise saws," we remembered, were uttered fully half a century ago. Yet, on the whole, if great works are wanting nowadays, the intellectual movement is in the right direction, and according as the intellectual soil of Canada becomes enriched with the progress of culture, we may eventually look for a more generous fruition. The example of the United States, which has produced Foe, Longfellow, Irving, Hawthorne, Howells, Farkman, Lowell, Cable, and many others famous as poets, historians, and novelists, should encourage us to hope that in the later stages of its development the Canadian people, composed of two distinct nationalities, will prove that they inherit those CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 501 % • ,i i i if literary instincts which naturally belong to the races from which they have sprung. The political system under which the provinces are now governed is eminently adapted to the circumstances of the whole country. Self- government exists in the full sense of the term. At the base of the polit- ical structure lie those municipal institutions which, for completeness, are not excelled in any other country. It is in the enterprising province of Ontario that the system has attained its greatest development. Every vil- lage, township, town, city, and county has its council, composed cf reeves or mayors, and councilors or aldermen elected by the people, and having jurisdiction over all matters of local taxation and local improvement, in accordance with statutory enactments. Under the operation of these little local parliaments — the modern form taken by the folkmote of old English times — every community, regularly organized under the law, is able to build its roads and bridges, light the streets, effect sanitary arrange- ments, and even initiate bonuses for the encouragement of lines of railway. The machinery of these municipalities is made to assist in raising the necessary support of public schools. Free libraries are provided for in every municipality, whenever the people choose, as in the enterprising city of Toronto and in the great midland capital of Birmingham, to tax themselves for the support of these necessary institutions. In the other provinces the system is less symmetrical than in Ontario, but even in the French section, and in the maritime provinces, where these institutions have been more recently adopted, the people have it within their power to manage all those minor local affairs which are necessary for the comfort, security, and convenience of the local divisions into which each province is divided for such purposes. Then we go up higher, to the provincial organizations governed by a lieutenant-governor, nominated and remov- able by the government of the Dominion, and advised by a council respon- sible to the people's representatives; with a legislature still composed, in the majority of the provinces, of two houses — a council appointed by the crown, except in Prince Edward Island, where it is elective; and an assem- bly chosen by the people, on a very liberal franchise. The fundamental law, known as the British North America Act, which v;as passed by the Imperial Parliament in 1867, gives jurisdiction to the provincial govern- ments over education, provincial works, hospitals, asylums, and jails, administration of justice (except in criminal matters), municipal, and all other purely local affairs. In the territories not yet constituted into prov- inces there is provided a more simple machinery, in the shape of a council partly elective and partly nominated by the crown, which has the power 502 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 'l i S i of passing, within certain defined limits, such ordinances as are necessary for the yood government and security of the sparsely settled countries under its jurisdiction.* In accordance with a law recently passed, tuese territories are now, for the first time, represented in the Dominion Parlia- ment—another step in the direction of the more perfect organization and development of the North-west territories. These representatives have all the rights and privileges of members of the organized provinces, and are not the mere territorial delegates of the United States Congress. The central or general government of the Dominion is administered by a gov- ernor-general, with the assistance of a privy council, a parliament, com- posed of a senate appointed by the crown, and a house of commons elected under an electoral franchise — practically on the very threshold of universal suffrage. This government has jurisdiction over trade and com- merce, post-ofifice, militia and defense, navigation and shipping, fisheries, railways and public works, of a Dominion character, and all other matters of general or national import. The appointment of a governor-general by the crown, the power of disallowing bills which may interfere with im- perial obligations, and the right which Canadians still enjoy of appealing to the judicial committee of the privy council, from the subordinate courts of the provinces, including the supreme court of Canada ;f the obliga- tion which rests upon England to assist the colony in the time of danger, by all the power of her aimy and fleet, together with the fact that all treaties with foreign powers must be necessarily negotiated through the imperial authorities, will be considered as the most patent evidences of Canada being still a dependency of the empire. Even the restraint im- posed upon Canada with respect to any matters involving negotiations with foreign powers, has been modified to a great degree by the fact that England has always acknowledged, for over thirty years, that Canada should be not only consulted in every particular, but actually represented in all negotiations that may be carried on with foreign powers, affecting her commercial or territorial interests.^ From thts brief historical sum- mary of the leading features of the political organization of Canada it will be seen how remarkable has been the expansion of the liberties of the people since 1837, when they exercised no control over the Executive, * In the session of 1886, by 49 Vict., c. 24. f A Supreme Court of Canada was established in 1875 by 38 Vict., c. 11. Lord Durham, in his Report, recommended the establishment of such a court, p. loi. X For instance, in the Reciprocity Treaty between the United Slates and the B. N. A. Trovinces, Lord Elgin, (iovernor-General, with Mr. Hincks, then Prime Minister, conducted the negotiations on behalf of Canada at Washington. — Dent's Canada, ii., 284. In the Washington Treaty of 1S71, Canada was represented by Sir John A. Macdonald. Ibid., p. 511. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 503 5sary |tries tiiese when England imposed restrictions on their trade, and tlie officials of Downing Street were practically the governing powers. One of the most encouraging results of this political system has been not merely the material development of the country, but the creation of that national sentiment which must lie at the basis of any political structure, if it is to withstand the storm of passion and faction which from time to time will beat against its walls. The government of an immense country like Canada is surrounded with many difficulties which an Englishman or American, not thoroughly conversant with its history and condition, can hardly realize. The great extent of territory and the diverse interests of the populations that inhabit it from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores, require that there should be much wisdom and patience used in the exercise of the large responsibility which these circumstances throw upon the government. If we look at the map, we see lying on the Atlantic seaboard three prov- inces whose industries arc chiefly maritime, and whose propinquity to the United States naturally gives great importance to the commercial arrange- ment that may exist with that country. These provinces are separated by many hundreds of miles from the populous, prolific province of Ontario, and all commercial intercourse must be by means of a circuitous railroad, or by the long and expensive navigation of the St. Lawrence. To encourage provincial trade under these circumstances, and make the people see that their true interests should not lie in dependence on the United States, or on any single country, but upon opening up new avenues of commerce, whenever practicable, has been the natural policy of the government ever since 1867. The result has been, on the whole, moderately successful, con- sidering that the fight has been not merely against geographical obstacles, but also against the antagonism exhibited by American politicians, who have steadily been working to disturb the commercial relations between Canada and the United States, with the view of obtaining access tc the great fish- eries which surround the maritime provinces, on terms the most favorable possible to themselves. The firmness with which the government has ad- hered to the rights it possesses in the fisheries, and the liberality with which it has promoted maritime interests by the construction of rail- ways and other public works necessary to the maritime developm_nt of the country, have succeeded in restraining, to a considerable degree, the clamor that has been raised against the operation of the Union. The situation has still its difficulties ; a cry for secession is heard ever and anon in some quarter in Nova Scotia ; but there is every reason to believe that the national sentiment is largely predominant, and that the great mass of the people clearly see that by strengthening the confederation they are assur- 504 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA ing their true happiness and prosperity in the end, and that to weaken or destroy it by the withdrawal of any sinj^le province would mean the de- struction of British interests on the continent and the annexation of Canada eventually to the United States. Then, leaving,' that branch of the subject, if we look at the distinct national elements that exist throughout Canada, we have further evidence of the difficulties with which a government has to contend in striving to secure the unity and security of this widely ex- tended confederation. When the Canadian provinces were united, in 1840, the I'rcnch Canadians were restive, and uncertain of their future. The Act of Union v-'as considered by many of them as an attempt to make them subservient to British influences.* The elimination of their language from legislative records was to them a great grievance, because it was, in their opinion, clear evidence of the spirit which lay at the basis of the Union. As a matter of fact, however, the Union Act was a measure which from the very outset gave Lower Canada a political superiority in the government of the whole country. The representation of the two provinces was equal in the Assembly, but the greater unity that distinguished the French Cana- dians in all mat'.ers that might affect their political power or their provin- cial interests, naturally enabled them to dominate the English parties, divided among themselves on so many political issues. The French lan- guage was soon restored to its old place, and step by step all the principles that the popular party of Lower Canada had been fighting for previous to 1840 were granted — even an elective legislative council — under the new regime. The consequence was that French Canada eventually recognized its power, and its people forgot their old grievances, and were ready to sustain the Union into which they had entered with doubt and apprehen- sion. It was the English-speaking people of the West that now raised a clamor against " French domination," when the representation granted in 1840 did not do justice to the increase of population in Upper Canada, where, since that year, the progress had been more rapid than in the French section. The consequence was that the two provinces, united in law, were practically divided on the floor of Parliament, and government at last be- came almost impossible from the division of parties and the controlling influence of French Canada, always determined to yield nothing to the cry from the Upper Province that would destroy the equality of representation. The solution of these difficulties, arising, it will be seen, from national an- tagonism, was found in a federal union, under which Lower Canada obtained supreme control over the provincial matters in which she has an immediate *See address of M. Lafontaine (Turcotte, Canada sous V Union, i., 60), in which he showed the injustice of the Act of Union. CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 505 or dc- lada lect, [ida, 'has cx- Ho, Act interest, and at the ^ame time has been able to exercise great influence in national affairs by means of her largo representation in the Dominion Par- liament. The results of tihe political changes which have occurred since the days of Lord Durham have been very different from what he hoped would be the case when he wrote his famous Report, throughout which I'lere is a strong desire to diminish French Canadian influence and gradually absorb the nationality in the English-speaking people. In Lord Durham's opinion, "the first and steady purpose of thelkitish Government should be to establish an English population, with English laws and language, in this province, and to trust its government to none but a decidedly English legislature." * As a matter of fact, Lord Durham entirely underrated the national instincts of the F'rench Canadian population and the tenacity with which they cling to their national life. Le Canadicn, a newspaper established in French Canadian interests in the early days of this century, struck the key-note of F'rench Canadian inspiration when it adopted as its motto "■Notre languc, notre foi, ct nos insti- tutions" Under the favorable conditions of the federal system Quebec has become essentially a French Canadian province, in which the English are actually in a very small minority, though it is one distinguished as always by its great intelligence and superior enterprise. In the province of Ontario the French race has recently controlled the election of more than one county which heretofore had been English in its representation. The very " National Policy, "f under which an artificial stimulus has been given to manufactures, has created industries in which the French Canadians can find continual employment, instead of migrating to the mills of Holyoke and Lowell. At the same rate of progress, and under an equally favor- able condition of things, five millions of French-speaking people will inhabit the Dominion in a couple of decades. In the nature of things they must always exercise a powerful influence on the future destiny of the young'confederation. It is, therefore, all-important to understand their actual sentiment with respect to the Union. At times, when they believe their nationality is in danger, or an injustice has been done to one of their race, they become aggressive, but, happily for the peace and unity of the country, the conservative instincts of the leading classes ultimately prevail over the passion and impulsiveness of the masses. When reason and common-sense obtain the mastery, all classes can hardly fail to see that the institutions which they value so highly can only * Report, p. 92. fThe Protective System, or " National Policy," as its friends prefer to call it, was adopted in 1879 by Sir John A. Macdonald's government, which is still in power. 50U CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA bn preserved by such a system of government as they now possess under the protecting influence of the imperial state, and were they to-morrow to find themselves in the ranks of the United States, their position would, in all probability, become eventually like that of their compatriots in Louisi- ana—interesting from the point of view of the antiquarian and the student of human life, b 't insignificant from a political or national aspect. At times, when the French Canadians press their national prejudices to extremes, a spirit of antagonism is at once evoked between them and the English classes, but the unfortunate state of things that existed before 1837 no longer shows itself with its original intensity, and whatever jealousies and rival- ries break out now and then above the surface are sooner or later carried away by the current of sound public opinion, anxious for the harmony of all classes and creeds, and only solicitous for the safe working of the Union. A certain rivalry will always exist between the two nationalities, but as long as moderate and conciliatory counsels prevail, it will be, let us hope, the rivalry of peoples animated by the same patriotic impulses, and engaged in the same great work of building up a new nation on this continent. At all events, a great deal has been gained since 1837, in the direction of creat- ing a friendly and harmonious feeling between the distinct races, who, at one time in their history, seemed on the point of engaging in an internecine conflict like that which convulsetl the North and South for years. In the preceding view it has been the object of the writer to refer only to those salient features of the development of Canada which stand out in remarkable contrast with the state of things in 1837, and to point out how much reason Canadians have for congratulating themselves on the events of a reign in which they have laid the foundations of their happiness and pre ^perity as one of the great communities which make up the empire. It is not within the scope of this paper to point out the shadows that may obscure the panorama as it unfolds itself to us. It would be strange if, in the government of a country like Canada, many mistakes have not been made, or if there were not many difficulties in store for the youthful con- federation. Mr. Goldwin Smith, from time to time, has been disposed to perform the par: of the Greek chorus to the gloomy predictions of the enemies and lukewarm friends of the confederation, but Canadians will hardly allow themselves to be influenced by purely pessimistic utterances in the face of the difficulties that they have hitherto so successfully encoun- tered, and of the courage and hopes that animate them for the future. For .1 century pnd a half the French Canadians fought and bled for their country, they had to face famine and savages, war with the British, and, what was worse, the neglect and indifference of the parent state at the most CANADA. DURLNG THE VICTORIAN ERA 507 critical periods of their history ; but since the conquest they have built up a large community by the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and even the superior energy and enterprise of the English Canadians have not prevented them from creating a province which is essentially French Canadian, and affords many evidences of prosperity, due to the hardihood of the race that inhabits it. A century and more has passed since the Eng- lish-speaking people sought their fortunes in the West or on the shores of the Atlantic. For years many of these hardy pioneers led toilsome lives — lives of solitude, among the great forests that then overshadowed the whole country ; but year by year the darkness of the woods was bright- ened by bursts of sunlight, as the ax opened up new centres of settle- ment and echoed the progress of the advance guards of civilization. Years of hardship and struggle ensued, and political difficulties followed, to add to individual trials, but the people were courageous and industrious, and soon surmounted the obstacles of early times. The material development went hand in hand with the political progress of the country. The mag- nificent heritage which the people of Canada now own is the result of un- remitting toil and never-failing patience, and, summing up the achieve- ments of the past, they may well look forward with hopefulness to the future, for of them may it be truly said, " Men the workers, ever reaping somethiii};" new ; That which they have clone but earnest of the things that they will do." What is to be the next great step in the political career of Canada is a question which frequently occurs to imperial as well as colonial statesmen. One thing is quite certain, that the movement is toward the placing of the relations between the parent state and its great dependency on a basis which will strengthen the empire and at the same vime give Canada even a higher position in the councils of the imperial state. The federation of the empire, in the full sense of the term, may be considered by some prac- tical politicians as a mere political phantasm, never likely to come out in a tangible form from the clouds where it is now concealed ; and yet who can doubt that out of the grand conception which first originated in the brain of Franklin and Otis* statesmen may yet evolve .some .scheme that will render the empire secure from the dangers which arise from continuous isolation, and from the growth of peculiar and distinct interests, that nat- urally result from the geographical situation of communities so widely separated from each other throughout the world ? Looking at the history of this colonial dependency for fifty years, one can see in its political deveU * See Hosmer's Life of Samuel Acinvis (American Statesmen Scries), chap. v. 9 5o8 CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA opment — in all the changes that have characterized its career — there runs "an increasing purpose." The statesmen of England and her colonies have, perhaps, builded better than they knew. The destiny " that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will " has been carrying the empire in a direction beyond the ken and conception of probably the most sanguine and practical minds. Do not the measures of union and confederation to which I have referred, those projects of colonial conferences and imperial institutes, that are now occupying the attention of princes, statesmen, and writers, prove that the thoughts of men are indeed widened throughout England and her dependencies "by the process of the suns," and that the powerful current of human thought and progress which is everywhere making itself felt is carrying forward the empire, not into an unknown sea of doubt and peril, where it may split into many fragments, but into a haven where it may rest in the tranquil waters of peace and security ? Ottawa, Canada. 63 uns nies ipes in a nine n to erial and tiout the here 1 sea ito a /